We've arrived

We've arrived in Vermont!!!

We left home on Thursday after Dan had worked a half-day and made our way towards Cleveland, OH. We made a brief stop in Chicago at Trader Joe's to pick up a few items including these really delicious treats called Almond in the Coconut. They are like Almond Joy candy bars only the almond is chopped up. I have yet to share them with the kids. :-) And Dan snuck some chocolate-covered cashews into the cart too. After stopping there we drove a few miles to the Lands End Inlet to look for some clothes and a new swimming suit for Ellie. Unfortunately they didn't have the swimming suit we were looking for, but she did get a khaki skirt and a new pair of shoes for really cheap. And Natalie got this adorable sweater that I'm hoping she doesn't grow out of before fall.

After our stop there we continued towards Ohio. I had packed supper to eat in the van so we didn't have to stop to eat. After supper we surprised the kids with some Johnathon Park CDs that we had bought at the homeschool conference in April. We had put them on Dan's iPod and brought the sound dock along so we plugged that in and that kept them entertained for quite awhile. They are loving those CDs and keep asking when they can listen to more.

Due to losing an hour from the time change and stopping in Chicago, we didn't get to the hotel in Cleveland until almost 2am. Thankfully the kids were already sleeping so we just moved them into the beds at the hotel and tucked ourselves into bed. The next morning we quickly packed up our stuff and headed to Vermont.

Before we left home, I found a Panera in Erie, PA so we stopped there for bagels for breakfast. I had packed lunch for the day, but thought that fresh bagels sounded good for breakfast. We continued on our trip and had hoped to arrive at the resort around 6 or 6:30. Unfortunately, we didn't arrive that early. First of all, the road that we were traveling on in upstate New York was closed. However, the roads in upstate New York are few and far between so we had to turn around, get on the interstate and go south (the wrong direction!!). As we were getting off the interstate this cement truck pretty much ran through the intersection and Dan missed the turn onto the road and ended up getting back on the interstate--again going south. Doesn't sound like such a big deal, right? Well, at this particular exit, you could only go straight to get back on the interstate or turn left to turn onto the road we wanted to be on but couldn't due to the cement truck. So we were back on the interstate. However, there aren't very many exits in that section of New York so we had to travel quite aways to get off the interstate.

As a side note, I don't like how New York labels their interstate exits. They don't label them with mile markers. For example, one exit is 41. The next exit is 42 even if it is 20 miles away. So it is difficult to tell how far it is from one exit to another.

Back to our trouble with the roads. Aside from there being very few roads in upstate New York, there are even fewer points where you can cross from New York to Vermont because the border is mostly one long lake. Thankfully we had the GPS along otherwise I'm not sure we would have ever crossed the lake and we'd still be wandering around.

After we finally made it into Vermont, the driving was still slow since the roads are very windy. It was definitely a beautiful drive, just slow. As we got close to the resort, we continued to follow the GPS and drove down this road that I never would have chosen in the first place. It definitely wasn't a major road. More like a dirt road. But it was gorgeous and got us where we needed to be. I'm just not sure that we'll be taking that road again. :-)

When I had planned our menu for vacation, I was thinking that we'd be at the resort in time for supper. However, due to our detours, it was apparent that we wouldn't be arriving in time. Thankfully I had leftovers from supper Thursday and lunch Friday and we ate in the van.

Finally we arrived. We unpacked, tucked the kids in, and went to bed ourselves. Thankfully the beds here are comfortable.

Saturday morning we went out for breakfast at 158 Main in Jeffersonville. It was delicious and Ellie was particularly excited that they used real Vermont maple syrup. If you know her, you know that she despises pancake syrup. The restaurant also states that it is a bakery and I had been hoping that we would be able to pick up some muffins for breakfast for today and a loaf of bread for sandwiches. However, they don't have muffins or any pastries and the bread left a little to be desired. I had the maple wheat bread with my breakfast and wasn't too impressed. It almost tasted like they left the salt out of it. Kara's cinnamon raisin toast, however, was good.

After breakfast we stopped by a maple syrup sugar house and learned a little about making maple syrup. This was a small scale business that we just happened to drive by and stopped. We did not, however, buy anything there although I am considering going back and buying some maple cream.

After our brief stop, we went to a nearby small-scale grocery store to get our supplies for the week. Then we went back to the condo and unloaded. We had planned on just kind of chilling out and recovering from driving, but the weather was absolutely gorgeous so we decided to do a little hiking. Just down the road from where we are staying is some great hiking. We stopped by an information center and got some ideas on where we should hike.

For our first hike we went on a trail that led to Sterling Pond--the highest lake in Vermont. It seemed like a steep and rocky climb even though it only rose 900 feet. The hike took us about an hour and a half and even Natalie walked the whole way--without complaining!!! She kept asking if she was such a big girl and a good hiker. Of course I told her she was.

















After the first hike we had a snack and drove a few miles down the road for a shorter hike to Bingham Falls.

**Insert picture of Bingham Falls here.***

Yep. You'll just have to imagine what the falls look like. When we got to the end of the trail we found three large dogs barking constantly and several young men (probably in their early 20s) jumping into the water in their underwear. So yeah. I didn't take any pictures. And we quickly turned around and hiked back to the van.



We drove back to the condo and I made chicken pot pie for supper. It was a new recipe that I found in a Moosewood Restaurant cookbook that I got from the library on the recommendation from a friend. The recipe was definitely a hit and we are having the leftovers for supper tonight. The recipe says that it feeds 6 people, but as the kids said, it must be 6 people who haven't eaten for days!! I'll have to post the recipe later.

After supper we went down to the Ben & Jerry's ice cream shop that is on the grounds here and got dessert.

This morning for breakfast I made blueberry coffee cake since I hadn't picked up muffins for breakfast. I had planned on this for another day but had already planned on making a double batch so that there would be leftovers so moving it to today's breakfast wouldn't leave us without a plan for breakfast on another day. (Did that sentence totally confuse you?) The original recipe is called Strawberry Cheesecake Muffins but seeing as how I forgot to buy strawberries to mix into the batter (it doesn't call for it but that is what I usually do), I decided to make the recipe into a coffeecake and mix in a bunch of blueberries that I had picked up at Trader Joe's. And I didn't really feel like making muffins so I doubled the recipe, added a bunch of blueberries and put it in a large glass pan (it is a bit bigger than a 9x13). Then I mixed the cream cheese, sugar and some strawberry jam and dropped it by teaspoonfuls over the top. It was delicious, and I think I'll be making it again. And we'll be having the leftovers for breakfast tomorrow morning since we didn't even eat half of it.

After breakfast we had a great time of family worship. Then the kids went exploring outside in the trees right behind our condo. They've been having a great time and wishing we had a small forest behind our house at home.

Well, that's about it for today. Tomorrow we are going on some factory tours--a great day for it since it is supposed to rain all day tomorrow.

Garden planting

Now that we are finally past the frost danger here in the tundra of Minnesota, Ellie and Kara planted the garden. They had planned quite awhile ago what they were going to plant so this past weekend we went to buy the seeds and the plants. The previous weekend after the girls had pulled the weeds from the garden, Dan turned over the dirt so that they would have an easier time planting. The I hoed the rows for them, and they planted. Ellie planted flowers, a lettuce mix and pickling cucumbers. Kara planted flowers, carrots and sugar-snap peas. I (or Dan) still have to build fences for the cukes and the peas but I figure we still have a little time to get that done since they aren't even out of the ground yet.

I took the first pic of Kara and then she took the camera and took 200 pictures!! So the rest are from her.









I realize that this photo isn't quite in focus but I love the look on Natalie's face in the background.



And yes, these next 2 pics also aren't in focus but the progression of them and Darin's face make me laugh every time I look at them.











Our bucket of weeds:



Natalie helping cut down the dead stuff from last year:

Smelly science

For the last couple of weeks we've been doing science lessons on smell. The first week we did a sniff test where I blindfolded the kids and they had to see if they could figure out what was in each bowl based on what they smelled.

The first test was to see if they could differentiate between a lemon and a lime. It was a bit difficult for Darin since he wasn't sure what a lime smelled like in the first place. The results were 50-50. They learned about the olfactory bulb (which looks like a carrot) and the olfactory nerve.

The second test was to see if they could tell the difference between a carrot and a sweet potato. That one also proved to be quite difficult.

We also tried soaking potato slices in V8 and grape juice to see if we could fool ourselves, but that one didn't work too well. The potato didn't absorb much of the V8 flavor and although it did absorb some of the grape flavor, it still wasn't convincingly grape.

This week we took some flowers, mashed them up in water, strained them and then smelled the leftover water. Ellie used a lily for hers and wanted to keep it for perfume so she put a lid on it. The next day it smelled gross!! It smelled like water from a vase that had been setting around for a very long time. Needless to say she was quite disappointed.

Soccer

This month Darin participated in the city youth soccer league. They started a kindergarten program last year as previously soccer was first offered in first grade. For the kindergarten program they just meet for 4 Tuesdays for 45 minutes each. For the first half of the time they learn a few skills and during the second half they split the group in half and play a game. He had a blast! It was a great energy outlet for him and he would really get into playing. During the first game he even scored 2 goals! It was fun to watch him get so excited about the game. He even learned his teammates names and would cheer them on. It was so cute.

Here are some pics Dan took of him in action.

Our weekend getaway

We recently got back from a weekend getaway to Duluth sans kids. We started doing this every May several years ago when Dan started working in public accounting. Until this year, I've always called it my "Get reacquainted with my husband" getaway. But since Dan got a new job last November, he's been working regular hours and not traveling (which, by the way, has been wonderful!!) so we didn't really need to get reacquainted. But who is going to give up a weekend getaway with her husband? Not me!

So Wednesday after Dan was done with work we drove to Dan's parents house and spent the night there. Thursday morning after the younger two went to school with his parents (they are both teachers and Dan's mom teaches kindergarten), we gave the older two directions for what and when they should do and off we went.

We arrived in Duluth around 1pm and headed straight for Grandma's Saloon in Canal Park. That is always where we eat first. They have the best hand-battered onion rings anywhere. After that we drove up to the cabin where we normally stay. For supper we drove back into Duluth and went to Pizza Luce for supper. We had the Margherita Pizza and then stopped at Amazing Grace Bakery for dessert (a layered raspberry almond cake) and sandwiches for the next day's lunch (they have the best sandwiches!!).

Here is Dan, quite satisfied after our dessert. :-)



Normally on the Friday that we are up there we go hiking on the Superior Hiking Trail. Well, not this year. This year the temps that Friday were only in the 40s and the wind was horrible. Friday morning the sound of the waves crashing on the rocks actually woke us up!

Here is the sunrise that morning. I've got to admit--the colors in the pic are a bit more vivid than it was in real life. But it was still beautiful and I like watching the sun come up over the lake.



After taking the above pic, we went back to bed for awhile since we knew we wouldn't be going hiking. After we woke up again, we went out for breakfast at The Vanilla Bean in Two Harbors. They have really, really good omelets. Below is Dan's omelet--spinach and Gouda cheese. Mmmmmmm. And they are quite big and filling. This year he just ordered the large size omelet and I got a caramel roll. We split both things but if we'd have just split his omelet, then they charge a split plate fee about the price of the caramel roll.




After breakfast we went back to the cabin. I pulled up a chair by the fire and Dan sat a little further away on the couch. He doesn't like the heat like I do. Then we both pulled out books to read. Ahhhhhhhh (deep sigh of satisfaction). I so love to read and rarely have time to do it at home so it was really nice to be able to just sit by the fire and read a book (or two or three). Even Dan read a whole book while we were gone!!!



Here is a pic of the whitecaps on the lake. Now I know that it is nothing like the ocean, but it was really, really windy. Definitely not good hiking conditions.




Don't worry. We spent plenty of time talking too. On Saturday we read some more and then reviewed our goals from last year (which we hadn't actually looked at since we made them the year before). We actually accomplished quite a few of them despite not having looked at them quarterly which was our goal. We carried over some goals from last year and added some new goals for this year.

On Sunday it was finally not windy and slightly warmer so that I could sit outside a little bit in the sun. It was glorious!



After we packed up we stopped for brunch at Pizza Luce. We'd not eaten their breakfast before but the menu looked delicious and we were not disappointed. Dan had a portabello omelet and I had the blackberry & banana pancakes with real whipped cream and banana pecan maple syrup. It was so good. I was a bit skeptical of trying the pancakes since the last time I ordered pancakes at a restaurant they weren't that great. In fact, Darin even said to me at the time that my pancakes were better. But here I was greatly relieved when I took the first bite and let them melt in my mouth.



After brunch we head back to the Twin Cities to meet Dan's parents in order to pick up the kids. We heard all about how great their weekend was and after Natalie threw a monstrous fit (she was quite tired since she hadn't napped for the previous few days), she fell asleep. Definitely more of an angel when she's sleeping. :-)



Now we are back home and back to the stuff of life. But we've already made our reservations for next year!

Couponing

Seeing how it has been a few days since I blogged and I am at a loss for a topic, I figured I'd write a little about couponing.

I never used to use many coupons because I figured I'd just buy generic brands and it would be cheaper. And the generic brands that I've used in the past have worked just fine. However, Dan and the kids went to my brother-in-law and sister-in-law's house late December (I stayed home cuz I was working) and she told Dan all about the coupons she uses to get things for really cheap or free. She gave Dan a crash course in couponing and he came home and told me all about it. So I did some internet research and talked to Mandy about her strategies. She had taken a free (I think) course at her local library about couponing and shared what she had learned there.

One of the tricks to making coupons work for you is to pair the manufacturer coupon with a sale. Most items have a twelve week price cycle so the best time to use the coupon is when the item is at the bottom of the price cycle. Also, sometimes stores will have their own coupons and you can pair the store coupon with the manufacturer coupon.

There are several places to get coupons--Sunday inserts, online printables, ebay, coupon clipping sites. Sometimes grocery stores will also have manufacturer coupon booklets or sheets near the items that are being promoted. Once Dan found a coupon booklet at HyVee that resulted in really cheap Yoplait yogurt and free frozen veggies. He grabbed several booklets for me. :-)

Anyway, ever since I've started couponing I've actually been able to stay within my grocery budget! Dan is obviously very excited about this. Now don't get me wrong, it's not like I was going crazy with my grocery spending, but with trying to put balanced meals on the table and not using coupons, I usually went over budget by around $25-$50. Now I have no problems staying in my budget, I'm buying name brand food items and I'm stocking up. For example, I now have lots and lots of cereal and my price point for buying cereal has dropped considerably. I used to think that paying $2 for a box was a good deal. Now I generally don't buy cereal unless I can pay less than $1. And I probably won't be buying cereal for awhile since I have quite a stockpile.

Another thing we've stocked up on recently is the Nabisco Snack packs--Teddy grahams, mini oreos, nutter butters, etc. Target had them priced for $1.52 and they had a coupon for $1 off. Well, Target finally got smart and raised the price to $2. So I guess my Snack pack buying days are over. However Target currently has a coupon out for $1 off apples so we've been buying apples quite cheaply (I usually buy 3 at a time and then they only cost around $0.35-$0.50 total).

The best deal I ever got was free and almost-free meat. Once Cub had one pound packages of ground pork on sale for $1 and there were $1 off coupons. I bought 40 coupons online for around $4 so I got 40 pounds of ground pork for $4. Also, Target at one point had $2 off coupons for their Sutton & Dodge steaks. Well, for two weeks they had either the chuck steaks or the sirloin steaks on sale for $2/pound so I bought several packages that were around a pound each, used the coupon and paid only pennies for each package. All this meat came in handy when I did a big once-a-month cooking session a few weeks ago.

Couponing has turned out to be not as much work as I initially thought it was going to be and I'm enjoying it. It is kind of like a game to see how much I can save.

Our new art curriculum

While at the homeschool conference this spring, I attended a workshop entitled "Why art is essential to your child's education." Dan and I weren't really sure which workshop we wanted to go to during that time slot as none of them we felt very strongly about, so we picked two that piqued our interest. Dan wasn't interested in the art topic so he went to one on physical education at home. I chose the art one. I knew that this workshop was sponsored by a vendor, but I still wanted to hear what she had to say. I know that art is important but often gets pushed aside, so I wanted a little encouragement. I certainly hadn't planned on buying a new curriculum. I didn't really figure I needed one since I had one at home, and I really like art. It was one of my favorite subjects in high school.

At the beginning of the workshop, the speaker gave the history of the art curriculum called Atelier Art . It was begun by an art teacher who was passionate about teaching art to kids in schools whose art programs had been cut. Kids would come either before or after school to learn art. This video-based program is now used by public schools in at least 3 states and has been reconfigured for homeschool use. The lessons are 12-20 minutes long although an art session actually takes around an hour since I usually pause the video so the kids can finish whatever step they are on before moving to the next step.

During the talk the speaker also gave personal testimony to the use of art in helping kids in other areas of their schoolwork. She has two children--one who is gifted and one who is dyslexic and has a couple of learning disabilities. Art made her gifted child actually slow down (not academically--he just is gifted and does everything quickly) and think about things a bit differently. Art helped her dyslexic child learn how to read and improved her math scores.

One of the great tactics that the speaker used was letting us try an art lesson. She gave us each a sheet of paper and a pencil and made us do a lesson. It was great! So we bought it.

Darin and Natalie learned about the use of line on their first lesson. They drew turtles. Here are their pictures--the first is Darin's picture, the second is Natalie's.





Ellie and Kara's second lesson was on color. Ellie's balloon is on the left, Kara's is on the right.