I have been chosen!!  I am so excited!!  I have been chosen to participate in reviews for Homeschool Mosiacs!!  I love this website!!  Check out the link to the right and make sure that you check back often to see what is new.  So blessed to be on the adventure!

Christmas Traditions

Christmas traditions are what we remember from when we were young.   We start our Christmas traditions with getting a live tree. We go the weekend after Thanksgiving or the first weekend in December and get a live tree.  We did purchase an artificial tree just in case we can't get a real one (like this year..it has rained so much this year or the Pro has been on call that we haven't been able to get one.  So we decided to put up the artificial one just so we weren't rushed, or putting up a tree for just a week or two.)  We like to get the tree early and then keep it until later in Jan, just so we feel like we are using the tree that we cut.
  Once we have the tree up and decorations in place it is time for the picture!  This year we went easy and used the pictures that our church took for the new directory.  They were kind enough to offer us an option to have one of the pictures turned into cards.  That seemed like a no brainer, right? Well I do have to say that I like the pictures better that I have taken in the past. I am not saying that I take that great of pictures, it is just that I think they look more natural. It is easier though for me to have the picture taken professional. Thank goodness for digital cameras is what I say every year that I try to do it myself.  I take about 200 pictures to get that one to send out.  It is not always the best either.  I figure that it gives everyone something to talk about.  Just kidding.  I do really take a lot of pictures though.
  We have usually gotten our shopping done. I have found that when you know what you want and you have 4 to buy for it is so much easier to do online shopping.  Most places allow free shipping when you spend 50-75 dollars.  This is not a hard thing to accomplish with our brood.  I don't mind taking my children with me to go shopping, it is just hard to do when you are buying for them.  As a matter of fact I have almost always taken them with me even to the grocery store. It has never been a problem.  Now they are a great help even!
  Next comes the cookie baking and gingerbread house making.  My kids just love to make that gingerbread house.  I am not so much a fan of the mess that is created, but I love to watch the kids make it and decide how to do it.  This year the house actually was 4 smaller houses so that each one could decorate their own.   I thought they would like that better.  As it turns out they liked working on one together better. 
  My favorite thing at Christmas is going to midnight services.  On Christmas Eve we put the little ones to bed at 7pm.  I have had a few people tell me that their kids wouldn't go to bed that early.  I think that if they know they are getting up they will just because mine do.  We told the kids the first year that they had to lay down for a few hours because they were going to be up all night.  Then we wake them up at about 10.  They get dressed and we head to downtown Cincinnati. now this is about an hour drive from our house. We get to talk in the car with each other and enjoy the lights we see along the way. After our midnight service we enjoy some decorations on the way home too.  The Pro usually goes a different way than to get downtown.  When the children return to bed it is between 3 and 4 in the morning.  They do sleep in a bit on Christmas morning but not alot.  We put baby Jesus in our manger and sing Happy Birthday between 8 and 9am.  Once we open presents and get a bite to eat we head over to spend the rest of the day with family.

Wishing you all many memories and tradition this Christmas Season.  Praying for safe travels for everyone!

Blessings from the Clubb Farm

Knowledge Box Central

Here at the Clubbhouse we are studying science through Apologia.  The oldest caddie is studying Exploring Creation with Physical Science.  Our three younger caddies are in the book Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology.  Well, I just had to share what I found!  I was checking out one of my favorite sites for homeschooling, Homeschool Mosiacs.  It is a newer site to us in the fact that it hasn't been there since we started homeschooling.  Thru them I found Knowledge Box Central.  This website has several different subjects like Bible, Home Ec and Geography.  I was checking it out and I found out that they have some science activities that go along with the Apologia Science that we are doing!  I was estatic. I wish that the caddies were as excited as I.  I downloaded the bones of the body!  These flash cards made learning the skeletal system so much easier!  Once we learned most of the bones we made a games out of them.  Matching the part names with the pictures like memory and then we pinned the parts together like a pin the tail on the donkey game.  We didn't use a blind fold though since they had to go in different places.
  They also have lap book sets that go with each book.  We are going to be using this to supplement our studies.  Check out the site at http://www.knowledgeboxcentral.com/


      Blessings from the Clubbhouse!

Sweet Tea

I love to drink tea!  I however am not really a sweet drinker.  I guess I am grateful that I don't live in the south!  Nothing against the drink, it is just not my cup of tea!.  I like my tea black as you would say.  I don't even put lemon in my tea.  I however was going to make some sweet tea for our church dinner as it is a favorite of a lot of people.  I found this recipe for Southern Sweet Tea and thought that someone from the south should be able to make a good sweet tea.
So I got out my tea bags and my pot.  I measured out the water, the sugar and the counted the tea bags.  I followed the recipe and then tasted my creation.  Yep, it was sweet! I can say that 10 cups of sugar should do it, right?

  See for yourself what you think of the recipe!!

     Southern Sweet Tea

• 6 regular tea bags
• 1/8 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 cups boiling water
• 1 1/2-2 cups sugar
• 6 cups cold water

Directions:

1. In a large glass measuring cup, place the tea bags and add the baking soda.
2. Pour the boiling water over the tea bags.
3. Cover and steep for 15 minutes.
4. Take out the tea bags and do not squeeze them.
5. Pour the tea mixture into a 2-quart pitcher; add the sugar.
6. Stir until the sugar is dissolved.
7. Add in the cold water.
8.  
   Let cool; chill in the refrigerator and serve over ice

   Try it out and let me know what you think!

Enjoy from the Clubbfarm!