Some links for Tuesday...

Sew Mama Sew is doing a month of Christmas projects. Definitely get over there and get some ideas, and while you are at it, comment and enter to win a prize.

Andrew Kern has written a great post on When and How to Teach Grammar. I love it when people write what I think, because I can't write so well. I especially love these quotes from the article:

"We must not think about grammar as an academic study. Life is not for school; school is for life. We should always teach grammar for the simple reason that we always do teach grammar."

"If you are speaking to another person, you are helping form the pattern of that person’s thinking. You are contributing to his vocabulary (maybe that’s more obvious), and you are also contributing to the structure of his thought.

If you constantly speak to your two or three year old child in one and two word sentences, that is how your child will tend to think. And that’s more or less OK with a one year old, less so with a two year old, and horrible with a three year old."

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Where do I begin?

I have confessed before that I really struggle with being a good housekeeper. I have needed to train myself through the years and constantly backslide in my standards for cleanliness.

There are “seasons” in my life when I have made good progress in this area and have maintained my home in a sufficient manner. There have even been a couple of “seasons” when I was manager of my home enough that my children were on the ball – doing a lot of the housekeeping along side of me.

THIS is not one of those “seasons”!

I have really let the ball drop as far as the children’s chores and my own.

I certainly have many legitimate (in my own eyes!) reasons to have spent my time elsewhere- things that were higher on the priority list, that have taken much time and physical as well as emotional energy. But that is more often the case than not, isn’t it?

I’ve let my housekeeping lapse. We’ve been keeping up on the laundry- mostly, and making our meals- though we have made far too many convenience meals, and our academic lessons have continued-until we took a break. So, even our necessary tasks have been suffering. This is surely not the way to be faithful in my God-given tasks in life!

I have learned over the years that this phenomenon - gradually letting everything slide until it is all screaming for attention has often preceded a change in direction for my housekeeping. Something that was working before isn’t, anymore. It is time to change my routines, or methods or look at some training that hasn’t happened (in myself, or my children).

So, we are taking a mini vacation from schoolwork so that I can pray and plan and work. It’s time to overhaul our routines and assess what training is lacking in the kids, or what has lapsed that must be taken up again.

We are spending time deep cleaning rooms and getting back to our daily chore charts. The kids have a little more free time and I’m spending time on paperwork – long range lesson planning, book lists to take to the annual home educator’s convention and slogging through old files, etc.

There’s so much to do like the above mentioned that there is no way that we are going to get it all done in the planned two weeks I’ve taken off (we are in the second week now!) So, one of my tasks is to find a way to fit those big maintenance jobs into our regular routine. This has always been a challenge for me!

Question: How do you manage to keep all your plates in the air and make sure things like deep cleaning, culling your files, mending, organizing and do ahead type things (i.e. gifts, meals, planning for special occasions) get done?

Tobias' Baby Shower...Gifts & Cake

This is the little layette set I made for little Tobias...the appliqued onesie and the shoes are my favorite.

Here's the cake I made...I ended up being rushed toward the end...so I wasn't thrilled with it. but it definitely was yummy!

Quilt Show pictures...

I'm sorry that it's taken me so long to get these up. I didn't take enough pictures this time because my memory card was not in my camera, much to my dismay. Here are the ones I captured, though:
This first one was my favorite from the black and white challenge. Isn't it great?
This strippy quilt goes in my file of quilts I actually would consider doing.Looking at this one, I'm not sure why I took the picture...perhaps it was one that Shayna wanted me to snap.This quilt is using the traditional "Flying Geese" pattern in a unique way. I really, really like it!
Applique over "Grandmother's Fan" I love the use of the dark fabric, it really makes the vintage '30s colors "pop".Another view.

An amazing Celtic Applique quilt.

A traditional Baltimore Album appliqued quilt. I love the pineapples square!
Appliqued Fleur de lis.Isn't this one beautiful? I'm thinking that this is my favorite of the show.
Hat boxes! And they are on the traditional "attic windows" blocks. What a great way to use some of your favorite large sized patterns. This one is for Laura Lee.

Blocks! I took this one to study because I really need to work on my color theory and shading. Isn't it lively?
Another example of Celtic Applique. I am really fascinated with this technique, but not enough to do all of that work!
I love a sampler quilt! This one is applique, very traditional.This one was taken at a vendor's booth at the request of Janette. The gold and black would be a great combination for her living room project. This block pattern is called Sage Buds (according to my quilt block encyclopedia). I like quilts that combine two different blocks.

Well, there you have it, my quilt pictures. I hope you enjoyed them.

Overheard at the Quilt show...

"The oxy-products are great for new organic stains, but Biz is best for old organic stains." Overheard at the vintage linens booth. So, there you have it!

Check out the Mother Letter Project. I’ve only read a couple of the letters but they are good…and I like the idea very much.

I learned about it in a convoluted way, (like so many things in the blog world!). Amy’s Humble Musings linked to the letter written by Ann at A Holy Experience…I thought that that letter was excellent and saw the link to the Mother Letter Project. So get a cup of coffee or tea and read one (but only while the kids are otherwise occupied). Merry Christmas, Moms!

Black Bottom Muffins

Black Bottom Muffins

for the delightful Amy Jo...

1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
¾ cups sugar
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
½ tsp. baking soda
¼ tsp. salt
2/3 cup buttermilk
¼ cup vegetable oil
¼ cup butter, melted & cooled
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 tsp. vanilla
1/3 cup semisweet chocolate chips, chopped
(I use mini & skip the chopping)

Topping:
1 8oz. pkg. cream cheese, softened
¼ cup sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/8 tsp. almond extract

1.Preheat oven to 375° F. Grease twelve muffin cups.
2. In a large bowl, stir together flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda & salt.
3. In another bowl, stir together buttermilk, oil, butter, egg & vanilla until blended.
4. Make a well in the center of dry ingredients; add buttermilk mixture and stir JUST TO COMBINE. Stir in chips. DON’T OVER STIR BATTER!
5. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups.
6. In a medium bowl, stir together cream cheese, sugar, egg & almond extract until well blended. Spoon mixture over chocolate batter in muffin cups.
7. Bake 20 to 25 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted into center of one muffin comes out clean.
8. Remove muffin tin or tins to wire rack. Cool 4 minutes before removing muffins from cups; finish cool on a rack.
9. Serve warm or cool completely and store in an airtight container in refrigerator. Let muffins reach room temperature before serving.
These muffins freeze well. Makes 12 muffins.

Bitty Booties

I made these Bitty Booties for Moya Mommy's baby shower. I found them fun to make, and really like how they turned out. Take a look at the flicker photos of all of the possibilities.

The Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival

I tend to love the traditional quilts, but this one was my absolute favorite! I wish you could see all of the embroidery stitches on it. This is definitely a happy quilt!

More Later!