Shell Island

On the shuttle over.




Cold water!



Discovering a lost mayan village!

A helping hand up.

Sisters.

Jessica's hideout. There was a passage way beneath the rocks.

Back where we caught the shuttle.

My jumping bean.

More pictures here.

Happy Birthday Aunt Lou

from Tyler, Jessica, Adam and Jasmine.



She is the oldest child.


Jerry, Lou, Ty and Jasmine

March Recipes

Jessica made a yummy pineapple chicken dish.
Pineapple Chicken
3 chicken breast skinned, boned and halved ½ c. sugar ¼ tsp ginger
½ c. plain flower 2 T. cornstarch
1 tsp salt ¾ c. cider vinegar
¼ tsp pepper 1 T soy sauce
Oil 1 chicken bouillon cube
1 can sliced pineapple 1 lg. green pepper sliced

Mix flour salt and pepper. Coat chicken breasts with seasoned flour and brown in oil. Placed in greased, shallow roasting pan. Pour juice from pineapple and add water equal to 1 ¼ cups. Add sugar, cornstarch, vinegar, soy sauce, ginger and bouillon. Stir. Boil stirring 2 minutes. Pour over chicken. Bake 45 minutes at 350. Add layers of pineapple and green pepper strips on top. Bake 15 minutes more. Serve with rice. Serves 6.



Tyler made an easy recipe but there was a lot of peeling and chopping.

Before cooking.


This recipe calls for a plain meat patty but I would add some ketchup, egg and rice or oatmeal and make it into a mini meatloaf. You can add to or delete vegetables.

Hobo Dinner
1 ½ -2 lb lean ground beef 2 yellow squash sliced
2 -3 lg. potatoes peeled and thinly sliced 4 carrots sliced
2 lg. onion thinly sliced salt and pepper to taste

Form ground beef into six patties. Place each on a square of aluminum foil. Place vegetables on top of each patty. Add salt and pepper. Wrap foil tightly around each patty. Place on baking sheet. Bake at 375F for 1 hr to 1 hr 15 min.



Jasmine made an awesome meatloaf.

It was easier to mix literally by hand.



We are learning to clean up as we go BUT the cook does not have to do his/her supper job that night.


Jasmine’s Mini Meatloaves
3 lbs ground beef ¾ cup ketchup
½ med onion chopped 2T light brown sugar
1 cup old fashion oatmeal salt and pepper
4 lg eggs beaten

Topping:
1 cup light brown sugar 1 cup ketchup
2 tsp yellow mustard

Mix ground beef, onion, oatmeal, eggs, ketchup, brown sugar, salt and pepper. Make into six mini loaves. Place in 10x13 dish. Mix topping and pour coat mini loaves. Bake at 350F for one hour.


Adam made sloppy joes from a recipe in the church cook book. We did not like it well enough to add it to our recipes. We decided we like Manwich much better!

Typical Afternoon

Jasmine gets home at 2:00 and we do homework before the others get home. We start working on spelling on Monday since it is so difficult. This weeks' words: how - round - dishes - blue - argue - diver - enjoy - overpay - afternoon - vacation - early - learn (What grade were you in when you learned to spell vacation or argue??)
Sentences - Braden found four spiders in the corner of the dark barn. The soil there was moist and cool.
If you notice that my kids seem to always wear the same colors, that's because there is somewhat of a dress code here. Pants must be blue or beige (includes neat jeans) held up with a belt, and a plain collared shirt (K-5-5th don't have to have a collar)in one of the three school colors.


We used 1/2 cup applesauce in place of 1/2 cup oil.


Mixing

OUR OVEN IS FINALLY FIXED! (We've been without it since early Nov)

Adding

Drinking

Reading


We decided to make some green frosting for St. Patrick's Day.

That led to experimenting with colors.




The high school kids are home at 3:00.
Cupcakes are ready. They are still warm so the frosting is melting.


Frosting face. (Jasmine had a cleft lip and palate so she has bone grafting and many years of braces ahead)

When everyone gets home it's time to start jobs. Jessica walks the dogs three days a week, Tyler three and Adam one.



Tyler vacuums


Adam tidies up the bathroom. He cleans it before school since he doesn't leave until much later than the others. Then it just needs a touch up after school. Adam doesn't get home until 4:00 so we have an hour between each group coming home.

It's off to ballet.