A Cookie Cutter Diva's Life

We've had a fun last two days getting into the holiday spirit!

Yesterday we took the 3 older kids to see Arthur's Christmas after dropping the youngest at the babysitters. They loved it and it was a pretty cute movie! I even cried at the end! I know, I'm such a sap!


later that night we took off for our yearly tradition to visit the Blora Festival of Lights and stop in between for hot cocoa and a cookie! Their lights here are huge and so much fun! Between driving slowly through the lights and stopping to see santa and get our treat in between looking at lights at Santa's Shop it turned into a 3hr event!


The kids love it every year but I think this year Santa spent a little to much time in the sun because he was really tan this year! haha

Today for the fun part of our day we learned about the chinese moon festival and made Moon Cakes! Mmmm they were ever so yummy!!




On the 8th full moon of the lunar year comes the Moon Festival. On this night, the moon is at its brightest. Friends and family gather together to enjoy the moonlight and of course eat mooncakes!
This Festival is the equivalent of Thanksgiving Day and its origins go back to ancient times, when people would get together on the 15th day of the 8th moon (around September or October in our Calendar) on a day of thanksgiving for a good rice harvest. This is the time when crops and fruits are at their best and the weather is pleasant.

In ancient China, emperors would make offerings and sacrifices to the sun in spring and to the moon in autumn.

An so it is also known as the Mid-Autumn Festival. Autumn in the Chinese Calendar falls on the seventh, eighth and ninth lunar months.

Nowadays, families get together with friends to celebrate and enjoy the moon and the savory Mooncakes.

In celebrations around the world, there are the usual Dragon Parades, Lion Dances, and festivities of the season. Take a look at this Mid-Autumn Festival celebration in San Francisco,


Here's what real moon cakes look like




Er, yours likely will look more like these as ours did unless you are a better artist lol




Ingredients:

1/4 cup sugar

2 egg yolks

1/2 cup salted butter

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup strawberry (or your favorite) jam (traditionally red bean paste is used so if you want a more authentic version, you can use a can of red bean paste instead of the jam).

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Combine the butter, sugar and 1 egg yolk and stir.

Mix in the flour.

Form the dough into one large ball and wrap it in plastic wrap.

Refrigerate dough for half an hour.

Unwrap the chilled dough and form small balls in the palms of your hand.

Make a hole with your thumb in the center of each mooncake and fill with about half a teaspoon of jam.

Brush each cake with the other beaten egg yolk and place on a cookie sheet. (We didn't have a brush to do this, so skipped the brushing step)

Bake for about 20 minutes or just until the outside edges are slightly brown.






We also studied about winter and made some fun winter painting outs of snow!

Foam shaving cream
White glue
Construction paper
Small plastic bowls
Paintbrush or Q-tips
Toothpicks, twigs, or craft sticks, if desired



We also made some paper snow flakes!


Some of our math fun was season today and Christmas themed pictures as well as writing letters to Santa!



Aidan's letter read..

Dear Santa,
I want an ipod touch. I want a iphone more. More cologne and gingle bells. I want a bird. I want a four wheeler. A country guitar or an electric guitar and a picture of rudolph.



Keagan's letter read..

Dear Santa,
I wanta monkey and a foobal and a light saber. I want to be like you and a reely little motor cycle and a i podd touch and a remote controle car. I want a monkey stuffed animal and a picture of rudolph. And a toy elf and toy phone and a hug from santa and to see you. I love santa.


Brooklyn's letter read..

Santa,
I want a ds and a monster high and a repunsel doll and dora kitchen and dora with her dogs and operation game.

Aidan finished up reading about edible flowers and sunflowers today! He was really amused with the different uses for so many flowers.

He made a sunflower out of popcorn today as part of his craft project blended in with his science lesson.


he also finished up on his history lesson reading about Greece and the Spartans! He made his own shield to defend himself in war after he finished his lesson out of card board!


He however is not to pleased with the fact they killed off their weak babies or left them out to die and could be adopted as slaves. In fact I'm pretty sure he's traumatized by it haha jk

Keagan continued on reading about Daniel Boone today and more about the Arctic Ocean, Tundra, Grasslands and more! He had some fun with making his own ocean and watching the different waves! We used a tub of water, food coloring and a blow dryer (supervised lol) to watch the different waves!

Don't let this name fool you as it means nothing like it sounds, in fact it was a The Booger Ceremony was held when warriors wanted to ridicule (make fun of) enemies. During this ceremony, Cherokee men who were going to battle would wear the Booger masks they had made.
Almost all Cherokee ceremonies were held at the council house, which is near the center of the village. One of the most important Cherokee ceremonies is the Green Corn ceremony. Ceremonies like the Green Corn last about three weeks!

The Green Corn ceremony is held whenever the crops are ripe. It was called the Green Corn because the corn was not green. At this ceremony, there was a great feast with many good foods prepared by the women of the village. One thing the women made was a special cornbread.

with that being said I'm pretty sure I just started some trouble in my house because my 2nd son just found it ever so fascinating to be called the "booger ceremony" and is on a mission to make his own "booger ceremony" and just won't let this go lol I thought we were never going to make it through the lesson for him cracking up so hard over it! Must be what little cherokee he has in him haha

So as we continue reading about the indians and pioneers he found this overly fascinating but had a lot of fun making a covered wagon to play with as one of the crafts that tied into his lesson yesterday.

We had a colorful wagon as I only had an orange shoe box haha

This has become one of my favorite songs over the last week. Every time I listen to it, I get chills and I love the beginning with what she has to say. I feel like this so much lately that just when hope faded away it came back.. that God is there forever and will always been there. That I have fought for way to long to get to where I once was. I still struggle in so many ways in my path and my life with personal things going on but I'm fighting every day more and more and giving my heart to God and hoping each day he will take a hold of it more and more and will lead me.. show me he's there forever and the path to go and that things are okay and that even in the worst moments they all serve a purpose to be where I am, what I have become, what I need to be. To not let them get the best of me like I tend to let them do at times.


I feel myself getting so down sometimes over things in the past, things I have no control of that are current or seem to keep creeping up in my life hurting me, hurting the ones I love, making me feel worthless or like I'm being slowly destroyed.

It used to be a thing of my past when I was angry I would blare something like slipknot or seether.. something I could scream too.. something that might have very depressing lyrics in all reality. I've started listening to air one lately on the radio in the car and I've come to love so many songs on there that are a lot of alternative rock I love so much but with positive words, uplifting spiritual context that can make me feel better in a positive way. Not scream in an angry way to get it out when I'm screaming the lyrics to a song playing loud but sing to him, give it to him, praise him and just cry to him to help and lead me. Music has always been a big part of my life. Every song has a meaning to me.

I'm not perfect. No human is. But I could be so much better then what I am. So much better for myself. For my kids. For my family and I will continue to strive for that. I will continue to push on the days I'm tired or running late to set an example for my kids and get to church, praise God, hear his word and start my day with a great start. If only I could rush myself there every morning to start my day the same wonderful way I start every Sunday!

Last week we ended our week studying pioneers and made log cabins as part of our history projects! The boys had a lot of fun with this till my overly sensory sensitive child Keagan had a fit over the glue being on him.. but for the most part he loved it lol

We also finished up studying on habitats, forest, and deserts! A lot of really fun games tied into the lesson plans this week that the kids loved!



Friday was my daughters 2nd birthday! We had her party last Sunday but she is officially 2yrs old now!


Then on Saturday my oldest turned 9yrs old. So heart breaking to me! It's a bitter sweet moment to see him growing and becoming this little man already! He just acts so mature in so many ways already like he's a little teen but still obviously very childish too thankfully lol




He had his birthday party at a local gymnastics gym here that has this large foam pit you can play in, a bounce house, trampolines, lots of fun stuff to do! The kids had a blast!

He also got a large birthday cookie cake since the weird child of mine does not like to eat cake! It was something neat and different to do though!




He's been begging to get his own nintendo ds for about 2yrs now and we have yet to give in because we just didn't think he needed one and I'm not to fond of video games myself. I gave in with the Wii a few years back because it was something more family oriented we could all play and something active rather than just sitting. I didn't want to get him a ds and him just have his head stuck in it all the time like you will see some kids. We finally gave in and got him a used one from a friend of ours since he's really been begging the last few months and shown a lot of responsibility with the wii to not go over board. He was so stoked over this! I think it won best present from the parents in a long time lol

Well today was our first day back to homeschooling and over all went really well for having to get back into a new routine and doing it on top of running chidcare too!

I think the hardest part was the fact that my 2yr old think she's cute enough to climb up on the table and try to write on everyone else's work lol

We did some studying on nature and birds today and the kids of course were most interested in the birds that had mohawks like them haha
One of our projects assigned was to make a nature journal out of sticks outside, rubberbands and paper! The kids really liked this and thought it was super neat!


we also did some studying about dinosaurs today as well. Of course they are two different grades but with science and history they seem to get a lot out of learning them together and just over lapping them.


Played a few new games as part of our match assignment today and got to see what areas Aidan is really needing help on more but surprisingly some of the things complained about on him he wasn't doing bad at all on. I think a little more focus and one on one attention with him and he will be fine.

Of course that was just part of our day today. We had more of a low key today as we got started and back into our routine with everything.

I'm really pleased with lesson pathways so far though and really love that everything is just laid out for me and ready to go! Can't wait to go for our 2nd day back to homeschooling tomorrow!