Monday, August 18, 2014

Grandma's Lasagna Re-Mix!





you will need...

9x9 Pan
Tin Foil
1/2 a box - lasagna noodles (uncooked)
1/2 a pack of pepperoni 
1/2 a pack of mozzarella shredded cheese (1 cup)
1/2 a container of cottage cheese about 4 oz
 (I hate cottage cheese but I love it in this!)
(give it a try!)
1 can of spaghetti sauce
1/2 cup of banana peppers
1 lb cooked ground beef

How you cook it...
Pre heat your oven to 350

In a pan cook hamburger meat, drain, and return to pan
add in spaghetti sauce
layer....
in a lined pan soon in a small about of meat mixture
3 noodles broke in half
more sauce
2 oz of cottage cheese
(take a spoon and spread c.c)
1/2 of your pepperoni
3 more noodles broken in half
meat mixture
the rest of your cottage cheese
(take a spoon and spread c.c)
the rest of your pepperoni
1/2 of your banana peppers
3 more noodles broken
the rest of your meat sauce
the rest of your banana peppers
top with moz cheese

cover the pan with tin foil

bake at 350 for 1 hour and 20 minutes 
(check to see if your noodles are done)

Enjoy!

This is a little remix of my grandma's lasagna 
My husband LOVES ricotta but I do not I think the taste is a little strong
and it over powers the lasagna
I like the cottage cheese instead... My grandma told me she had but cottage
cheese in her lasagna and I was a little surprised because I've never liked the stuff
but the taste in the lasagna is perfect... not to strong at all .. you can 
taste all the flavors in the lasagna
I added the pepperoni and banana peppers (my husbands favs!)

If you bake your noodles instead of boiling them
the lasagna will stay together
I hate when noodles go sliding everywhere!






Sunday, August 10, 2014

Dry Erase Marker Hack


I dunno where I first seen this but I love it! 

We had a eraser but we kept loosing it so this is a lifesaver!

What you will need:
Dry Erase Markers (found mine at the dollar tree) $1
Pom Poms from the craft section (dollar tree) $1
Hot Glue Gun & Glue Sticks

White Board HomeSchool Hack


I've been wanting our white board more accessible for awhile now
I like to sit with the girls at the homeschool table and teach

so...

white board + paint easel 

=


When I first started homeschooling I wanted our classroom to look like a real school room
now after homeschooling for awhile I realize that the best thing about having a 
homeschool room is comfort! Seriously I want to be comfortable while I teach! 
I also want the girls to be comfortable while they learn!
I think this is going to work out wonderfully! 

HomeSchool Table Makeover

 Our HomeSchool table has a new look!
The girls wanted to give our table a new look

What we used:
1 roll of chevron duct tape 
1/2 roll of groovy duct tape
1/2 roll of owl duct tape

Cost: $6.00 
or if you get 3 rolls like us $9.00
and you will have some to spare to make some other
duct tape things


A closer look!


easy to wipe clean
makes a ugly table cute
easy
cheap 

First Day Back To HomeSchool



Back when my girls went to public school we always had special things we would do to prepare for back to school time and special 1st day of school traditions.

Last year back to school time was BanaBana's 1st full complete year of home-school and 
Lil Miss Diva was still going to public school so we had a mixture of things going on at our house.

I am happy to say that this will be our 1st
Full year with both of the girls at home!
I'm so excited!! I know this will be a great year!

If you are new to the blog I started homeschooling BanaBana half way through
 1st grade and Lil Miss Diva half way through 4th grade.

So how are we getting ready for 3rd & 5th grade you may ask?

1. Home-School Room Clean Up
Major changes with the school room this year.
 We moved the school room upstairs..
It was A LOT of work but we finally have it put back together.
Moving or Not this room needed to be organized
for the upcoming school year.

2. Shopping
The girls and I picked up a few new things for the school room.
The girls always enjoy decorating in there!

The girls also picked up some things like new notebooks
(the cute overpriced ones... they never want the 50 cent ones that are on sale)
Pencils, Dry Erase Markers etc
Cute Crayon Pouches
and cute new lunchboxes for Home-School Enrichment Days

Getting a few new things really get the girls excited for the new school year!

3. Back To School Clothes? Oh yes!
Even though the girls aren't going to a public school that doesn't mean
I should miss out on some really good sales on clothes and shoes.
They love shopping !

4. First Day Outfit
The girls have always had a back to school special outfit...
taking time to pick their favorite outfit from our shopping trip
I wasn't about to leave this tradition!
We have decided to dress up for the 1st day of enrichment.

Last year I just let BanaBana dress up for the fun of it and that was ok too!


5. Picture Time!
I love those back to school snapshots !
Here are some from last year...

 This tradition will defiantly carry on!

Tradition Re-Mix


6. Hot Breakfast will become special breakfast
Those public school years .. It was so hard to get them fed and packed up 
ready to get to school I was lucky to make them a hot breakfast on the 1st day.
This year I plan on making them their favorite breakfast dishes on the 1st day since we have time to spare!

7. Special Packed Lunch will become special lunch together 
with their favorite lunch
dishes 
& best of all we get to eat together!


New Traditions...


8 .Growth Chart
I plan on marking their height for the 1st day of school and the last day of school

9. Journal Time
Last year BanaBana did this but Lil Miss Diva didn't get to
It will go a little something like this...
On the first day of school...
My Fav part of the day was...

10. Special Craft or Activity 
Bana Bana really enjoyed this last year and I know Lil Miss Diva will too

11. Ice Cream & Library
Not sure if this will be on the first day but defiantly the first week of school


12. Count Down
This was something new we have decided to do this year.
The girls enjoyed our countdown to beach week so much we 
decided to do a count down to back to school too! 




Looking forward to getting this school year started!











Friday, August 8, 2014

Summer Vacay is almost over...

Summer Vacay is soon coming to an end.

We've had a great summer!
So sad to see it coming to an end!

The girls enjoying the beach at the OBX

BanaBana enjoying the zoo


Lil Diva enjoying picking berries 

Smores with cousins


Bike riding with cousins

Thankful God has gave us this time for some much needed rest to prepare for the upcoming fall & winter.
“My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” Exodus 33:14 


Wednesday, August 6, 2014

New

Time for a change!

New look for my blog!

New name!

New school year coming up!

Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Keena's Famous Lasagna

My sisters best friend makes some really good Lasagna ... here is her recipe




1 pound of ground beef, lasagna noodles,
1 jar of spaghetti sauce, 
1 and 1/2 cups of cottage cheese,
1 1/2 cups of shredded mozzarella cheese, 
2 TBS of grated Parmesan cheese, 
and make as follows:




Brown ground beef and drain, spoon 1 cup of sauce in bottom of a 4 quart crock pot.


Mix remaining sauce with beef. Place 2 uncooked lasagna noodles on sauce in crock pot. Spread 1/3 meat mixture on top of noodles. Spread 3/4 cups of cottage cheese over meat. Sprinkle 1/2 cup of mozzarella cheese over cottage cheese.

 

Add another layer of uncooked noodles, 1/3 meat mixture, the remaining cottage cheese, and 1/2 cup of mozzarella cheese. Place another layer of uncooked noodles, meat mixture, and mozzarella cheese.


Sprinkle Parmesan cheese over top and cook on low for about 4 hours, but no longer because noodles will be tough! Enjoy!


Wednesday, April 16, 2014

President George Washington

Lets learn about 
President George Washington  


photo from https://www.crayola.com



Videos

History.com video

scholastic cartoon about George Washinton

Liberty Kids Episode about G.W part 1
Liberty Kids Episode about G.W part 2


Online Resources

George Washington Fact Card

Crayola Coloring Sheet




add some fun into homeschool PE



\
Let me just say that I hated PE when I was younger but I have to say that my children have much more fun in PE than I did!

Ways to spice up PE ....

1. As I've mentioned in another post Yoga
there are a lot of yoga videos free on youtube


2. Bike Riding

3. Going for a walk around your neighborhood
or walking the dog!

4.  Just Dance (Great for winter)


5. sports

(Bana Bana being Catcher )



6. go for a hike
7. Go for a swim

8. Run




There are so many possiblies to spice up boring PE!




How to keep calm and stay on task during the homeschool day!



I haven't blogged in awhile.
 Life has been busy



Some days aren't easy. I suppose if homeschooling was super easy everyone would do it. Most days are great. We have fun. We explore. We try new things. Some days are stressful. Some days with my girls they just don't want to do their work or they are too hyper to do their work.

I have read some articles about "What to do during a hard school day" when nothing is soaking in and you want to call it quits

. Most things I've read say stop for the day and start fresh tomorrow ... but what if you have two hard days in a row? We can't just drop everything and not do school work.

So what to do if you are having a hard day... or a hard couple of days?

Things that have worked for us...

Yoga

I googled and found this great youtube channel for kids. Here is the link .
The girls love the videos and they are fun to watch.
Afterwards they feel much calmer and ready to do some work.



Prayer is also a good way to *keep calm* during and the school day. I have found that days we have forgotten to start the day with a prayer are more stressful than days when we have prayed.



I pray...

 Dear Heavenly Father.. 
Let us have a peaceful home-school day..
Let us absorb the knowledge that we hear, read, or see...
Let us not fight or bicker ....
Let us do well ...
Let us remember what we have learned...
Let us stay on task and finish in a timely manor..
Let us not stress and keep calm...
Help us be positive...
Protect us in our home and watch over us
and our family and friends.
In Christs name we pray.
Amen



Music ...

one thing I have found that works with my lil Diva as well as Bana Bana is
listening to music. We find a quiet place and turn on some native american music
or some Celtic music and just take a moment to relax.


Read your 
Bible ... it seema like the right verse can just center you and enlighten you







Sunday, January 19, 2014

Chicken pizza no crust low calorie dinner


Pizza Chicken!

I used...
3 strips per adult 1 strip per child
1 tablespoon of ragu per chicken strip
pizza shredded cheese
3 pieces of pepperoni per chicken strip

How..
In a pan lay your strips down
top with ragu
pep
& cheese
Bake 350 for 45 minutes






Total Calories are actually a little less than this.. I used less than 1/4 cup of ragu & I used less than 1/4 of cheese so Total Calories were probably more like 465 calories 
(based on 3 strips each)

PHOTO FROM MY FITNESS PAL!!