Menu Plan Monday

Once again, it's Monday and time for this week's menu.

Sunday- Steak and Spinach Pinwheels

Monday- Oven-Baked Chicken Parmesan

Tuesday- BBQ Beef

Wednesday- Hamburger & Noodles

Thursday- Baked Chicken

Friday- Noodle Dish

Saturday- Tacos

Steak & Spinach Pinwheels

1 lb. very thinly sliced round steak

1 pkg. frozen spinach

8 oz. shredded parmesan cheese (should not be from can)

salt & pepper to taste

Thaw and drain well the spinach. I like to squeeze it in order to make sure that all the moisture is out of it. Take one slice of beef and spread a thin layer of spinach over it. Top with cheese and sprinkle with salt & pepper. Repeat with remaining ingredients. Roll up beef slices and secure rolls with toothpicks. Cut through rolls into slices, forming pinwheel shapes. Each roll should yield about three pinwheels. Bake at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes, or until beef cooks through. Serve.

* I find that parmesan cheese adds a really nice tang to the beef and spinach. I've also used mozzarella when I'm short on Parmesan and had good results.

(Thanks to my friend Lori, for this recipe.)

** The notes above are from Lori, but these are my notes: I only made these once, but I used mozzarella and it worked fine. We don't like "real" parmesan...only the can stuff. lol LMK if you try this and how you like it.

Have a yummy week!!

Homeschool Promotion

On May 7, our homeschool group held a Promotion Ceremony. The kids in kindergarten, 5th and 8th grades got diplomas, because they were promoting to the next grade grouping (like "into elementary", "into middle school", and "into high school"). All the other kids got certificates of completion. It was a very nice evening.

Some of the kids did talents like piano, recitations, etc. Indy recited 3 Bible verses and he did great. I was so proud of him. :-)

Here are some pictures of the ceremony....

This is Indy receiving his certificate of completion, from our homeschool support group president.
Indy sits and checks out his certificate. He's so impressed!! :-)

Ashton receiving her middle school diploma from Ms. Sandy, who's been our girl scout leader and friend for many years....since Ashton was in pre-K actually! My how time flies.

The "graduates" showing off their awards.
It was a very nice ceremony and afterwards, we had cake and punch and the kids got to run around Ms. Sandy's yard and play...which they always love doing. Congrats, kids!!

Springtime, continued...

This is an update on the Springtime post I put up a few weeks ago....

Remember I wrote about the bird who was tormenting my cat a few weeks ago? Well, this is a follow-up on that. I was hanging laundry and heard that same bird fussing at me, in the back yard. I couldn't figure out why since the nest was out front and not near me at all. Well, I finally figured it out. One of the baby birds had gotten out of the nest and was hopping around and trying to fly...apparently heading toward the back yard. So, of course I had to go find the baby and photograph it. Here is the baby bird in a tree.

He saw me and wasn't quite sure what to do next. It was funny. By this time the mommy was getting a little too close to me and I didn't want to completely freak out the baby, so I went away and got a shot of the nest.

Here's the nest waaaay up high in our pine tree. It looked like a pretty good nest. And, even with all our rain and wind lately, the nest is still up there. Oh, and unfortunately, one other baby bird fell out of the nest and died in our front yard. It was sad. But, at least this one made it. Maybe more, I don't know. We didn't see how many were in there to start with.

And, by now, there are no baby birds or mommys around anymore. I kinda miss them.

Mother's Day, Part 2

These are pictures from Mother's Day, that I didn't get on my last Mother's Day post.




Here's me and my kids.

And, this is Nicky and his mom. And, yes, she's as funny as she seems!
And, these are flowers that Indy bought me for Mother's Day. Actually, the children's division at church were selling flowers for a camp fundraiser and Indy saw it. He came running upstairs to where we were sitting and asked me for $8. I said no and he looked disappointed and told me he wanted to buy me flowers. I relented and gave him the $8 and he bought me these flowers. It was so sweet and he was so proud! :-)
The day before Mother's Day, our church sponsored an interdenominational Procession of Healing, which was also held in several other cities around the country. There was a symbolic funeral service for aborted babies, along with a couple of testimonies of how God healed these women of their guilt over their abortions. Sadly, they also had a baby casket and a guy played Amazing Grace on bagpipes. Afterwards, we had a driving procession of 13 miles, past 2 abortion clinics. The police apparently wouldn't help us with a motor patrol, so we were on our own. It may sound kinda morbid, but it was a silent protest against abortion and it was very touching. There is a website done by the organizers of the Procession of Healing. Check it out, if you want. I hope next time more people will participate and it will be even bigger.

Ok, so I think that's it for Mother's Day for this year. Whew! Took long enough, right?? lol

Recently Overheard...

In the car this morning.....

Indy (to Ashton): I'm going to make a restaurant. And you're going to be the cooker.

Ashton: Ok

Levi: And, I'm going to be the eater!! (Said with arms upraised and an aire of victory. lol)

In other Funny News....

While at the convention, I bought each of my children this t-shirt with different colors:

In case you don't get it, the classic argument against homeschooling is that the kids don't get the socialization needed to grow them into "proper" adults (as opposed to say their peer group at school). However, the truth is that homeschoolers socialize waaaay too much, and not just with their own age group. They are out in the community interacting with people from every age group, thus, I believe, making a better socialized child than those who are mostly exposed to their own peer group. (No offense to those of you with kids in school, as this is just my belief. And, hey, I was in school my whole life, too. )

Happenings

Big Mac has been making himself right at home at our house. Nicky does really like him, even if he complains about him! lol Mac thinks he's a lap dog. At 17 months old, he's still just a big baby and he really does act like it!

Here is a tank Indy made one day. It's obviously made of an old cereal box and some legos and some pens for the flag staffs and a pencil for the gun. Since we really don't have room to keep such a great project around, we decided to just take a picture of it so he could remember it. He did have fun making it though. He always makes these kinds of tanks and such of old boxes, milk jugs, and just about anything else he can find. He's very inventive and sometimes surprises me.

The Dentist, Part 2

I know this is old, but I'm trying to catch up on all my missed posts and this is the first.

This is Levi at his first dentist visit. Well, not his first, but his first big visit where they put a crown on one of his teeth. He did very well. Of course, I think I bribed him with ice cream! lol But, seriously, he did do great since he had to sit still for over an hour.

Unfortunately, he's got at least 3 more visits to go! Argh! Hopefully by the end of the summer we'll be good to go with the dentist and have no more appointments until next year!