Meal Planning Worksheet (free Printable)

Check this out!Meal Planning Worksheet (free Printable)

Cherish The Time We Have

I LOVE this song. I just heard it on another blog and it is so precious!! Check it out and check your priorities. It definitely made me check mine!

Bisquick has gone GLUTEN FREE!

Bisquick has made my day and created a gluten free version!! It is smaller of course and on the pricey side, but I am SO thankful to have something easy to use. I don't have to buy 4-5 expensive flours and hope I get the right blend for my food to taste decent. This makes lots of things and is so easy. It calls for milk and eggs in a lot of the recipes, but just use your normal substitution and it will turn out wonderful! I have used egg replacer for the eggs with great success and rice dream for the milk. Here is a yummy looking Apple Pie recipe that I am dying to try this week!

Apple Pie Recipe

My Little Food Allergy Guy

I have learned so much since I had my son. He had this awful rash all over his face and body and I could not figure it out. Finally, I realized through research and the help of a knowledgeable mama from the Le Leche League, that it was food related. Once I did an elimination diet and removed all the top allergens from my diet (since I breastfeed), his body cleared. He also started having normal bowl movements which before where just water. Thank God that I figured this out at 4 months and not any later!

He is quite the little man and I love having a son. I knew that when I chose the name beingmadenew for my boutique clothing business and my email address that I was in a process of change....but never did I grasp the extent of this change. Everything from food, family size, jobs to faith. Crazy life, but a good one.

At first the diet was miserable. I was depressed. I couldn't eat anything I loved...which is what they say about allergies. "What ever you think you could not possibly live without is usually what you are allergic to". Weird. So I tried baking, which I LOVE to do and everything was gross, I bought products that were ridiculously expensive, only to throw the box away after one disappointing bite. But, that was then and now I am well adjusted. It took a few months of wallowing in my new state before I realized this was going to be my life for at least awhile if not forever, so I better learn how to live with it and enjoy it.

I have found tons of great recipes, blogs and products and will feature them when I have time!! There is help, it can be done and eating can be enjoyable again!

Sweet Blessings

I have begun reading Pocketful of Pine Cones by Karen Andreola. It is a fabulous book of a homeschooling mother's diary as she begins homeschooling them for the first year and is using Charlotte Mason's ideas. It is wrote as a fictional story set in the depression times and is focused mostly on Nature Study. It has been a wonderful blessing to me as I was struggling with how to begin nature study and implement it into our school day. It seemed overwhelming how to keep the notebook and go about it in my own mind, but this book gives such an simple approach that is not only a releif to me, but also a joy to see embraced.

We did our first nature walk just around our apartments and found a little bird to draw. We came inside after drawing it, and looked it up online to see what type it was. We were delighted to see that it was a Black-Capped Chicadee. We got to hear a clip of its song and practice it. Then I had her dictate to me about the Chicadee and what she had observed and learned from our research. Then once I had it written out with correct spelling and punctuation. I had her copy it into her notebook. We cut out the drawing at pasted it inside on the adjacent page and we were done! It was a wonderful time. This week we are drawing baby geese that we saw at the park over the weekend. Can't wait to research them together and see what she comes up with for her journal entry.

I am so thankful for the book and being able to have a simple and sweet way to learn together.

Spring Party

Our Spring party was so much fun!! We painted flower pots and planted veggies and flowers. The kids got really creative with their pots and they all turned out so great! We played Spring bingo and got goodies, had yummy fruit skewers for snack and did a toy exchange. The kids had a blast!!

Our Day at Rutledge Wilson Farm

Several homeschool families got together for a great day at the farm. We attended a great class on how chickens mature from eggs to hens and how calves grow into milk making machines! It was really fun and us mommas learned a thing or two as well.