: Life is hard. God is good. We need each other.
Does your family sit around the dinner table and talk about what you’ve read or heard throughout the day? Just us? We frequently find ourselves discussing something that came across one of our social media feeds that day, whether a news bit or something funny.
Here’s what I’ve been reading:
What do you need for your homeschool room?
Before you can answer that question, you really need to ask: Do you need a dedicated homeschool room?
The best thing about homeschooling is that every family can do what works for them. We usually think curriculum when we talk about this, but it applies to every part of how we ‘do’ homeschool. And that includes where we homeschool.
I admire people who put up summer produce by the bushel, stocking their pantry shelves with row upon row of the good stuff. I’ve tried that. My dad does pickles and relish each summer, and I’ve helped out. One time I did get a giant box of tomatoes and canned spaghetti sauce myself. It was delicious and wonderful, but it was an awful lot of work and mess for the amount I got.
I wouldn’t rule out doing a mega canning session again but it’s not really my style.
Here’s my style: I take out my canning pot mid-August and leave it in my kitchen until mid-October. I can two or three or six jars of excess produce as I have it. It’s the same with freezing. As I have extra peppers or corn or whatever, I fill Ziploc bags and stash them in the freezer.
Teaching kids to pray doesn’t have to be formal instruction. Tangible ways to integrate prayer into our lives and raise kids who pray.
When I was in college, I was part of a youth ministry team. We taught classes, led activities, and were tasked with mentoring the young people in our community. Part of the training we received in mentoring encouraged us to spend time with the teens outside of class. Real discipling happens in the day to day. The “Hey, I’m going to the mall, would you like to join me?” and, “Let’s cook dinner together” moments.
That’s when real parenting happens too, you know.
After all, parenting is–at its heart– discipleship. God tells us what parenting our kids should look like in Deuteronomy 6 when He says,
Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.
-Deuteronomy 6:4-9
Family meetings, lectures, classes, going to church… all of those are good and beneficial things. But that’s not where our kids learn how to really follow God’s commandments…how to serve… how to pray.
This easy caramel sauce is perfect to whip up for a spontaneous ice cream sundae or dipping slices of apples. No candy thermometer needed.
I think love is caramel. Sweet and fragrant; always welcome. It is the gentle golden colour of a setting harvest sun; the warmth of a squeezed embrace; the easy melting of two souls into one and a taste that lingers even when everything else has melted away. Once tasted it is never forgotten. – Author Jenny Colgan
I have made ‘real’ caramel before. You start with white sugar and burn it just enough to get caramel-y but not enough to scorch. Delicious indeed, but time consuming. And frankly, stress that I don’t need in my life.
If you, like me, occasionally need to whip up a quick caramel sauce…this is for you!
This easy hot fudge sauce comes together in just a couple of minutes with just three ingredients. It will definitely satisfy your chocolate cravings!
So I didn’t actually time it, but can’t take more than 2 minutes to make this Hot Fudge Sauce. Maybe 3.
I wrote yesterday about the ice cream floats we made for our Titanic Girls Movie Night. Since I had gotten the ice cream at Costco, we had leftovers, of course. So I did what any nicest-mom-in-the-world would do…I made sundae toppings!
We’ll just go ahead and make this whole week’s posts about ice cream. What do you think of that? Tomorrow I’ll tell you how to make the world’s easiest caramel sauce.
Monday was our first day back to school, so let’s end summer with a bang. (And by bang I mean ice cream).