This weekend, we decided to do a small, overnight vacation to the Tennessee Renaissance Festival. My husband had rewards points, so we stayed the night in a hotel. It was VERY crowded, because of Memorial Day Weekend. We still enjoyed all the things there. There are somethings we did like better at the GA Festival (like the Jousting, Chess, etc). One thing that we found GREAT, was that there is a man that owns the property there, that built his own dream home, a REAL castle! He had just put on the copper roof, the day before!



Here is the kitchen, in the castle:


This is the floor in the kitchen:


This is the ACTUAL sword from Richard the Lionheart. This man is the 4th owner in 800 years. Pretty cool, huh?


Here are the boys with a knight, dressed up:


A picture from the back of the castle:


A picture from the jousting tournament:


Here is our youngest as King Arthur:


Southern Belle

Hello All!
I have been busy with a few projects here and there. This one involves my husband's cousin, who just had a 9 lb 5 oz little girl. Her husband is a semi-pro football player and was in AZ at the time of the birth. I had gotten her a little something before but wanted to make something more personal. I was able to get the toile 60% off at my Hancock fabrics, going out of business sale! I WANTED brown and pink, but they didn't have it :o( We will be going to see her this afternoon (Lord Willing) and bringing this to her:

I made this Diaper Bag. It has more structure than this. I had just taken everything out.:


Here is the inside with pockets:


Here are the accessories I Made a diaper/wipe carrier, and a Wallet for Mommy, since this will be her purse for a long while!


Let me know what you think!
Southern Belle

This is for my mom:

Here is the picture of Uncle Joe's highchair. For those of you who don't "get it", this highchair is an heirloom that was my Uncle Joe's when he was a baby. Uncle Joe and Aunt Reva didn't have any children (My dad was like a child to them and our second son is named after him). Aunt Reva died 4 months after my Mammaw died unexpectedly. Her baby sister, had lots of pictures, belongings and this highchair. Since we were the only family members that kept in contact, she called us to come to TN and get it, so we did (My dad and I),and we did some Genealogy while we were at it, too.

Joe Cline Culberson
1903-1982

New Enteprenuer's on the Horizon:

Our boys are ALWAYS thinking of ways to start their own businesses. I am so proud of their thinking this way and out of the box! Not only that, as a homeschool mother, it is OUR job to make sure we are leading them in the right direction. It would be wonderful if our boys were able to do this as a foundation, for NOT being dependent on Corporate America. Not only that to have something to fall back on when they become husbands, fathers, and leaders of their home!

Anyway-Open for business is Leia's Kitchen and All Natural Dog Treats. Our boys have researched, experimented and created their OWN recipe's for 100% Natural dog Treats. We have a GREAT taste tester and she LOVES them, lol. Even their daddy, loves the Peanut butter ones! These use the freshest, most natural and best products out there! We even grind our own flour each time for the recipes! We are going to start at flea markets in the areas and get the word out with our blog! I hope this will inspire you guys to look for the little enteprenuer's in your children! It doesn't have to be that expensive either. We set up FREE blogs, got dog print fabric at 50% off at our Hancock's going out of business, etc. This is their second job. They also like to mow grass and wash people's cars (Before the water ban was inflicted).

Enjoy and Happy Shopping!

This is for a childhood friend that is looking to set up her own blog. She is moving from Nashville, TN (she has been there her whole life), to Pittsburgh, PA. We are looking forward to this to keep up with them.:

Okay go to www.blogger.com
Click on Create your own blog now

And go from there. It will walk you through. Good luck and let me know if you have any questions!

Another FABULOUS Crockpot Recipe!

TACO SOUP
2 cans or jars of spaghetti sauce (your choice)
1 lbs of ground meat (we use turkey. If you have it I have used 2 lbs)
1 can of kidney beans
1 can of white northern beans
1-2 cans (or 1 bag frozen) mixed vegetables
1 pkg or 1/3 c of Taco Sng (I buy the lg container of it at Sams)
1 large bag of scoops or dips chips

I combine this much like chili. We serve it with scoops/dips chips. We put shredded cheese and sour cream on top of ours. You can either put it in a crockpot for dinner OR you can make it in about 10-15 minutes, once heated.

Enjoy!

On my favorite Yahoo Homeschool Mom's groups, we have been discussing favorite recipes, menu planning and crockpot cooking. So I thought I would start posting on here some of OUR favorite recipes for those friends to share.

Cheesy Chicken Tortillas (You COULD eliminate the chicken and change chicken soup to make this a vegetarian)(Mexican Lasagna)

4 cups diced, cooked chicken
1 c sour cream
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 can refried beans
1 jar salsa
12 tortillas (we like homemade whole wheat tortillas that I make with my tortilla maker), cut in 1/4 or 1/2
1 cup cheese

Mix together sour cream, soups, refried beans and salsa in a bowl. Grease crockpot with olive oil. Layer (like lasanga) tortillas, mix and chicken. Layer all the way to the top and cook in crockpot for 4-5 hours. Right before serving, sprinkle top with cheese. I will serve with a salad. ENJOY!!

This last year the three boys were going in three different directions with their subjects. It wore me down an this year that isn't going to happen. So it is time to condense. We all did agree we wanted to do the Middle Ages. So here is what we have SO FAR....

History/Literature: Truthquest History Middle Ages (for K-12)

Language Arts: IEW has put out NEW LA books by TIME PERIOD! I was thrilled with this and even more thrilled to see that they have one for Medieval history!! It covers writing, structure, grammar and vocabulary AND I can do it with ALL THREE BOYS! We are still reading the Christian McGuffey Readers (they have comprehension and spelling words in there too)

Science: Apologia General (for the 8yo, we will pattern his science after his older two. So when they hit fossils, so will he, etc)

Math: MUS Pre-Algebra for the older two, and still working through foundations with the little one. We will see where he is at after that. We also have these fabulous living math books that I spoke about in my previous post.

Latin: Still doing Latin's not so tough. The older two boys are also doing Vocabulary from the Classical Roots using both Greek and Latin roots.

Bible: Not sure yet but the oldest one is looking for one he can do independently. He is looking at a few to choose from.

Life Skills: The boys are working on two different businesses as Enteprenuers. They are reading LOTS of books on the subject and we are building those. I am also going to try to connect our oldest two with a master craftsman/woodworker that I know from our old church and do some sort of co-op. The only problem is that he is all the way across town, so I might look for someone closer.

If I Figure out more, I will post it here. We are still praying about some other things. But here is most of it.

Have a good one

A Living Math Funny....

This last week for the first time, our oldest two took the "required" Stanford Achievement Tests. They are required every three years here (they weren't required where we moved from in AL). We prepared as much as we could and we used Mary Hood's booklet on how to prepare for test taking. Some surprising things. One thing is that there is NO reading comprehension anymore!! They have Listening things. Another words, the teacher reads aloud the story and then the kids have to answer questions about the story (basically to me it sounds like what we do with our Charlotte Mason Narration! Every time I read aloud, I make them tell me back in their own words what I had read). I knew they would have advanced questions on there to test them "above" level, but my oldest is in the 7th grade. When I asked him about his math, here is how the conversation went:

ME: Honey, how was your math?
him: it was okay. I need a little more time and they gave it to me.
me: were there any ones that were difficult or surprised you?
him: Yes, ma'am. They had a question on there using the Pythagoran theorem.
me: Ummm...I didn't even do that until I was in the 10th grade and did Geometry. Were you okay with it?
him: YES MA'AM. Remember we got a book called "What's your Angle, Pythagoras" from the library, and since I had read the book, I knew exactly what to do!
Me: Shocked...Oh okay...???

Then while in the local School Box store I was looking around. (We are doing Middle Ages this year). While in there I found a series of books, with the following names:

Sir Cumference, and the Isle of Immeter
Sir Cumference and the First Round Table
Sir Cumference and the Dragon Pi
Sir Cumference and the Great Knight of Angleland
Sir Cumference and the Sword and the Cone

These are ALL living math books and are set in the Middle Ages with the Knight Sir Cumference. While at my Georgia Homeschool conference this last weekend, I found the whole series (our pathetic library doesn't have them) AND the Pythagoras one. We are SO looking forward to these books and highly recommend them!

I will post later where we are going with school next year...

Dinner Last Night
Was interesting. First of all we were without power for 3 HOURS! Don't know what happened but our medium sized city was in a blackout! Made the news anyway! That is what my MIL says. We didn't have power til almost 6.

Anyway, we like to watch re-runs of the Duggar family on the Discovery Channel. They are a homeschooling family of almost 19 (same mom and same dad!). Their favorite recipe that they brag about is now our favorite. So, another words, I can't take credit for it. BUT I will tell you that the boys wanted it again tonight and that is HUGE. Eventhough it is not anywhere close to the Curves book, it is YUMMY and I worked with my ds, 13 as he put it together! This would make a FABULOUS church dinner or meal! Enjoy. So without further Adu, here is:

TATER TOT CASSEROLE
2 lb ground turkey cooked, seasoned, drained
3 2lb bags tater tots
2 cans cream of mushroom
2 cans evaporated milk
2 cans cream of chicken
Brown meat & place in large cass. dish.
Cover with tater tots. Mix soup & milk together.
Pour over top. Bake at 350 for 1 Hour.
Makes 2- 9”X13” pans

Well, for all of my homeschooling buddies, do you have TONS of books like I do. The LAST thing my dh wants to hear is we need more bookshelves! Well, thanks to my dear friend over at , she told me how she cataloged her books. I have been doing the same thing. If you click on this link, it will take you up to a FREE library catalog (up to 250 FREE books, or $25 lifetime). That way you can see what you have and keep track of it.

Enjoy!