My Love!!

I just adore my husband. I am so very thankful for him and the man he is. I feel like I say this all the time, but it's so true. He is always doing stuff like this, so how can I not talk of his praise constantly?

I opened my Household Planner. I see this. "Your my favorite person" and on the far side, "I love you!" How can one not get to cleaning with a smile on their face after this?? The orange post-it note was from months back. I keep his notes. They make me smile. He makes me smile. I love you, Adam!!!!!

Until next time,
Reb

Lemon Tartlets

I'll be brief today. Go here: With a Grateful Prayer and a Thankful Heart and make these Lemon Tartlets. They're only 90 calories. Easy recipe and perfect lemon flavor.

Until next time,

Reb

Herbed Tomato-Chive Tarts

I have never made a tart. I am scared of them. I don't really know why. I think it's the dough. But thanks to some of my cooking buddies, I am feeling a little braver than a few months ago. So, I am challenging myself and diving deep into tart land. The first one up is from the Back In The Day Bakery cookbook. You need to get this book. It's got some of the best recipes I've ever made and it's adorable.

When most think of a tart they think sweet. Or at least I do. So, I wanted to really do something that was different from my thinking. As I looked through my cookbooks this recipe was the first one that caught my eye. It sounds delicious and super easy.

So far, it's been a breeze. It's in the oven baking now so I'll update you on the delicious part later.

It's a cornmeal crust. I have never made anything with cornmeal. Ever. Is that weird?

Now, I know that the crust is ugly. I could have rolled it out and made it prettier, but it's going to covered up soon so why?

I thought this was so pretty. For the filling; tomatoes and chives.

Heavy cream with egg yolks, fresh thyme and pepper. Again, part of the filling.

While the dough is baking I'm waiting to fill the dough with the rest of the yummy-ness....

Ready for the oven. Bake at 325* for 40 minutes. It's topped with fresh nutmeg.

I am sooooo hungry!

Ok, so drizzle with oil & vinegar. Wait 5-10 minutes for it to cool....

So pretty and it smells amazing!!!

Delicious!! Seriously scrumptious!! 

Scared of tarts? Who me? Never!

This will be made again and again. Next up is a Rustic Peach-Blueberry Tart from this same book.

Until next time,

Reb

Glitter Germs

That very loud scream you heard this morning was me. I am so sorry.

Imagine this: Kaitlyn and I are doing our morning routines together...we're getting dressed, brushing our teeth & hair, making our beds, she goes to put her laundry in the washer and I swished & swiped. I leave the bathroom and return a minute later to witness Kait elbow deep in the toilet. Yup- ELBOW DEEP! Her head and hair just about to follow suit. I panicked. All I could get out before I even knew it was an extremely loud, "KAIT!!!!!!! NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!" I terrified her. She started crying. No sobbing, "Why did you do that? You scared me." Now granted, I just cleaned it, but it's the dern toilet for cryin' out loud!!! I immediately sprung into action, well, more like panic mode. I took her clothes off, wiped the water off her hands and started to wash her hands. I told her to never touch the toilet again. I don't know why I didn't think to tell her before. Must have slipped my mind that yes, a 3 year old will play with the toilet at least a few times before they realize how gross it is.

So, after me freaking out and telling her we don't touch the inside of the toilet, how nasty that is, and making sure she did NOT drink any of the water .... gag....blua....I calmed down and we finished our morning routine.

A few minutes after being downstairs and eating breakfast, I realized I didn't explain WHY we don't touch the inside of the toilet and toilet water. It made me think that all I did was probably confuse her. So, I asked her if she knew why mommy yelled at her this morning about not touching the toilet. She said, "Yes, b/c I'll get into trouble." Aw. My baby girl. That made me feel horrible. I explained to her that that was not why. I explained I wanted her to be healthy and clean. I went on to explain that the water is not safe to play with (although isn't it clean water after each flush. Does that even matter?) You get the point. She looked at me and said she was sorry. Felt even worse. Then I had an idea!!

You know about Glitter Germs right? It was how I taught the boys about why it's important to not just rinse your hands while washing but to use soap and water. And secretly, I hope that doing this activity would help erase any scarring I had just built into her about the toilet. Sigh....

So here's what you need to teach Glitter Germs:

Glitter. Kait chose purple. Her favorite color.

Lotion of your choice. (This is my favorite lotion!!!)

I sat Kait down and told her I wanted to show her WHY she should leave the commode alone. I gave her a tiny bit of lotion.

Look at that sweet face.

We poured some glitter aka "germs" on her hands. She wiped her hands on a paper towel. The germs didn't come off. I told her to shake her hands. Nope. Still full of germs. Then I had her rince her hands with water only.

The germs didn't come off with the water either!!!!!!!!

We tried to wash the germs off again, but added soap. We sung A-B-C-D-E-F-G....the whole alphabet. Then wiped off her hands with a paper towel.

Ta-da!!! Germs are gone!!! 

She loved this. Thank goodness. I hope this will replace the memory of my face this morning....

Sigh....

Until next time,
Reb

This is MY Kind of Diamond!

As an organizing junkie- I AM IN HEAVEN!

I have been looking for a filing cabinet forever. Really. FOREVER! I've looked on Craigslist, garage sales, our county community board, our neighborhood community page...etc. I've had no luck. When I did find something that was doable, it cost WAY too much for the shape it was in. If a filing cabinet isn't taken care of it will become a rust bucket. So, for the last few years I have had to make do with large plastic bins. They're ok but they are not easy to get to and especially not for filing papers I need all the time. I have drawers in my teacher's desk but that's not enough space. 12 years of homeschooling adds up! Well, anyway...I have this amazing husband. He's always looking out for me and doing so much for me. I am spoiled. He has looked for a filing cabinet for me. He's had no luck either. "It can't be that hard", you're thinking, right? It really has been hard to find one for the right price.

Guess what he brought home today?! ........

A brand new filing cabinet!!!!!!!!! No rust bucket here!

He got it on sale for a great price. It's just beautiful. I know, I know. It's a filing cabinet, it's not beautiful. But if you could see some of the cabinets I have looked over in the last few years, you would say, "That's beautiful!" I mean, look at it!!

I cannot wait to use my label maker!

So this post is not about me telling you about a filing cabinet. Oh no. I have so much more I want to share with you.

I knew there would come a day when I would finally get a cabinet. So, I have searched and searched for websites that would help me organize my filing cabinet. I need to get as much stuff in this as possible. So, this post is to share with you all those websites I have found so that in case you need to organize files, cabinets, paperwork, school papers etc., this could be a HUGE help to you. I know it would be for me.

So, here we go:

First one up is from A Bowl Full of Lemons This is a gem. She goes through and tells you what you can throw away and what you should keep.

This is a video on filing. Good info. on how to set up a filing system.

This is a website that goes through 25 documents you need before you die.

For a quick way to organize a filing cabinet: WikiHow gives a quick 4 step system.

I love the House of Grace blog. It's a dream for the organizing freak I am. She has a great post on filing cabinets. She elaborates on how to keep it organized. She has a post about files here, too. She switched over to a new photo thingy whatever, so some of her pictures are not showing up, but the info is still there. If you need a photo, just check back. She said she's trying to fix it.

This is a wealth of information from Home Organizing Ideas!!!!

This Simple Dollar is for organizing the financial papers.

Simple Organized Living talks about categories and sub-categories.

Ok! So, that's all I have. I hope it helps you so that you don't have to search all over the web for ideas on how to get your filing started.

Oh label maker, here I come!!!!

Until next time,

Reb

Polar Bears Are Everywhere!

Do you see that?!! We have polar bears all around us!

Uh-, sorry, totally engrossed in anything polar bears right now...shifting gears ...

Kaitlyn loves animals. What 3 year old doesn't, right? Our school usually has a lesson on some type of animal everyday. This week is no different as we go to the Arctic and learn everything we can about polar bears.

This is our polar bear habitat we made. I got the idea from a GREAT website called Play At Home Mom. She has such great ideas that are super easy. And they're a lot of fun. I used cotton balls as our snow instead of fake snow b/c 1. I didn't have fake snow on hand and 2. we are learning about creation and today was day 2. God created the sky on day two. We made clouds with cotton balls. So, since I had those on hand I let Kait rip them apart and decorate her polar bear habitat with the "snow". She loves it. She's been playing with this for 30 min. uninterruped. She did add an elephant and a cow. I didn't have the heart to tell her that you'd NEVER see them in the Arctic. ;-) She's loving it and learning, so why mess with that?

She has camoflauged the polar bear.

And of course, you have to eat some ice and snow like a polar bear would!

I wonder how long she'll play with this?

This is discovery learning at its best! Tomorrow's lesson on polar bears....swimming like a polar bear! Er, well, our 100+ temps may not be exactly what you'd feel in the Arctic, but acting like a polar bear is cool so who cares! ;-)

Until next time,
Reb

Back in The Saddle

I started blogging in 2001. I kept up with it until we decided to move to Georgia in the fall of 2005. Moving was emotional. It was hard and it was time consuming. The blogging world was lost on me. I didn't have the time to blog. After all, I was too emotional and trying to keep it all together so our kids would adjust. I left the blog alone for about a year.

After about a year of trying to figure out how to adjust to GA, I had a lightbulb moment. I realized I was making this transition harder than it had to be. Instead of being moppy, I could still feel connected by writing about our days, school field trips, post pictures of the kids and still "talk" to everyone we left behind with, yup, you guessed it....my blog.

So, in 2006 I started Texas Peaches. (It did change names a few times ;-) At that time, we only had one Georgia Peach- my husband. I got back into blogging and felt connected again. I LOVED being able to share our days and hearing from our friends and family. It was almost as if nothing really changed. I would post about a KONOS day with pictures and I would hear form all our homeschooling friends on how they had just finished up the unit, or asked how an experiment went, or commented about how the kids had already looked "bigger" since leaving Texas. I looked forward to blogging everyday (or as much as I could).

I did well with Texas Peaches. Then my husband and I decided to have our third child. Well, you know how that goes. My intentions we solid. I did blog about the pregnancy, doctor appointments, our joy in finally having the girl (We prayed for her for 6 years. Some of YOU prayed for her. I'm still so humbled by your prayers.) We moved to a new house when I was 8 months pregnant and she came January 1, of 2009- our second GA Peach!

Again, the blog world was lost on me. I dabbled a few times here and there but it was a force. Who wants to blog out of a forceful feeling of guilt. Not me. So, my last entry was 2010. Plus, I was blogging about nothing. Just ramblings really. I would always think about getting back to it. The first few years of a new baby take a toll on a family. Our boys were 14 and 10. My oldest was starting high school and our second son was starting middle school. It was a lot to keep up with. They loved and adored her (still do). So, it wasn't that we were trying to see where everyone fit in, we just had to get use to having a baby again!

Fast forward to today. She's 3.5. The boys are 16.5 and 13. One is a senior. One is in 8th and our girl is doing preschool. They are growing up so fast and there is nothing I, or the husband, can do about it. I find myself wanting to teach them so many more things than I plan. I can never plan enough. We have changed so much. *I* have changed immensely! So, I feel like a blog is what we need to chronical our lives here in Georgia. Basically, the move was the perfect thing we needed in our life. (I'll elaborate more on why this move was the best thing for our family).

So, I'm back in the saddle again. I do have to say, I was inspired by my friend Sandra (who's NOT Texan, but may as well be) to get back to my blog. She is writing a blog to her daughter. It's so very lovely. I hope she never stops b/c even if I take another break from blogging, I'll always check in on her blog. You should check it out here.

This blog will be about the same things it was orginally created for.... our school days, field trips, pictures of my kids (here's the first picture for ya), cooking,  our lives, my faith, my husband, and now that Pinterest is a huge addiction, anything and everything about that lil' jewel of a site.

Until next time,
Reb