Easy Banana Muffins

Easy Banana Muffins

Wet Ingredients

Mix Together:

3-4 Large Bananas mashed

1/2 Cup of sugar

1 Egg

1/3 Cup of melted butter (let butter cool a bit or it will cook your egg if you pour it in hot)

Dry Ingredients

Mix Together:

1.5 Cups of all purpose flour (I use King Arthur unbleached all purpose white flour)

1 tsp of baking soda

1 tsp of baking powder

Combine dry ingredients with wet ingredients and scoop into greased muffin tin or use muffin tin liners.

Bake at 350 for 20 minutes.

My boys are not big muffin fans but they love these muffins.

Enjoy!

Happy Homesteading and Hunting,

Jenn

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A Home Management How-To Course: A Guide to Daily Success

I have this dear, dear friend who I met on Instagram awhile ago. I have been a fan of her blog for awhile, but when she started doing Periscope and live videos on Facebook, I knew she was my kind of people.

Stacy from Humorous Homemaking has launched a new Home Management Course this week and so far so good! Yesterday, I learned about establishing a realistic routine. Not some pie in the sky, unrealistic, pull my hair out routine but a realistic one for this stage of my life.

Today, I am tackling day 2 and it's about laundry....Oh my, we know that is a never-ending thing, don't we?

There are videos, outlines, and of course, Stacy's great sense of humor and her way of making you feel like you can do this thang! She even has sections directed to those who work outside the home.

I know firsthand how hard it is to stay on track with managing a home. I have been a stay-at-home homeschooling mom for over 12 years now. I also have a bad habit of setting unrealistic expectations that make me fail miserably, therefore, reverting into my all or nothing mode. If I can't do it "right" I won't do it at all. Can I get a witness? Last month I had to pay my first late fee on a bill EVER and I'm 40. Listen folks, it's not because we didn't have the money, it's because I am unorganized in the office area of home managing and need some help. I knew when Stacy opened this course I was going to be all over it.

She will have this course open for only two weeks right now so she can concentrate on the people who pick the second option of the course and will receive special emails and over $60 in freebies!

So, what are you waiting for? Let's do this together and get going on a routine that is reasonable and lasting.

Happy Homesteading, Hunting, and Home Managing!

Jenn

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Homestead Blog Hop #80

Homestead Blog Hop will take place every Wednesday featuring real food recipes, natural health remedies, DIY, crafts, Gardening Tips, and more...

Welcome to the Homestead Blog Hop!

Now on to the hop...Homestead Blog Hop will take place every Wednesday and is for all things homesteading: real food recipes, farm animals, crafts, DIY, how-to's, gardening, anything from-scratch, natural home/health, self-sufficiency, self-reliance, natural remedies, essential oils, & more! Basically anything related to homesteading.

Meet and Follow Your Hosts!

Bonnie - The Not So Modern Housewife (Facebook/Pinterest/Twitter/G+) Gregg - The Rural Economist (Facebook/Pinterest/Twitter/G+/Instagram) Jenn - Little House on the 100 Farm (Facebook/Pinterest/Twitter/Instagram) Jennifer - Homesteading on Grace (Facebook/Pinterest/G+) Katey - Mama Kautz (Facebook/Pinterest/Twitter) Kelly - Simple Life Mom (Facebook/Pinterest/Twitter/G+)

Featured Posts from the Last Homestead Blog Hop

Fresh Blackberry Leaf Tea - Featured on the Homestead Blog Hop

Each week we will choose three posts to feature. Each post will be shared on all social media platforms by all of the hosts! Here are the features from Last Week's Hop:

1. Fresh Blackberry Leaf Tea from Thyme to Embrace Herbs

Mother's Day Gardening Gifts - Featured on the Homestead Blog Hop

2. Mother's Day Gardening Gifts from The Freckled Rose

Storing Goat Milk - Featured on the Homestead Blog Hop

3. Storing Goat Milk from Oak Hill Homestead

Congrats! Feel free to grab the featured on button for your post.

Just right click and 'save image as...'

Homestead Blog Hop every Wednesday featuring real food recipes, natural health remedies, DIY, crafts, Gardening Tips, and more...

Guidelines for this Get-Together:

Click on the “Add your Link” Button below and add a great image of your project or recipe. Make sure you link to the page of your family friendly post – not the main page of your blog!
Try to visit at least a few other blogs at the party. Be sure to leave a comment to let them know you stopped by!
Please link back to this post somehow (a text link is ok). This is one thing we look for when choosing who to feature. We will share on multiple social media if you are featured!

Let the Party Begin!

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A Review of Writers in Residence Volume 1 by Apologia

Writers in Residence from Apologia Educational Ministries is a writing focused program with language arts included that is very thorough and really gets your child to think about what and how he wants to write. We have been through many writing programs over the years trying to find the perfect one for a child who does not necessarily like to write and this one is really a great program to use.

How this curriculum works is that it is divided up into different steps for the child to work through. It has them engage in different exercises by remembering and writing down certain things like "When I Was Young I Remember..." where they write down as many things as they can remember about a certain childhood memory. It takes them through all the steps of coming up with an idea to write about, listing out things about that idea, and then forming that into a writing piece. It has all the phases that a writer would go through before turning in their final copy including revising, editing, and spelling that the parents help with.

The curriculum comes with a large student book and a smaller teacher's manual and is reasonably priced at $89. I love that the book is designed for students to use independently because my son is getting to the point where he needs to be doing that more and he really wants to be independent from his mother standing over his shoulder telling him what to do all the time. The book is filled with stories from real Christian authors who tell a little about themselves and how they became writers. I think this is one of my favorite parts of this curriculum. My son loves to read real stories about real Christian people using their talents and making a difference in the world. He was quite proud of the first revision of a story he brought me to read and I enjoyed seeing that the curriculum helped him to put his thoughts in order and form a pretty good first story. It's also neat to go through the book and read his memories and the things that he took away from certain events in our lives that have happened in the past. This curriculum is really awesome at helping them pull thoughts out of their minds and putting them onto paper properly.

Overall, this is a solid and very thorough writing program and I am excited to carry it into next year and finish volume one in the series. If you have any questions please leave a comment below and I will get back with your. Thank you!

Apologia: Writers in Residence Review

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Homestead Blog Hop #79

Welcome to the Homestead Blog Hop!

Meet and Follow Your Hosts!

Featured Posts from the Last Homestead Blog Hop

Each week we will choose three posts to feature. Each post will be shared on all social media platforms by all of the hosts! Here are the features from Last Week's Hop:

5 Ways We've Saved Money This Week - Featured on the Homestead Blog Hop

1. 5 Ways We've Saved Money This Week from Medium Sized Family

Helpful Herbs: Saffron - Featured on the Homestead Blog Hop

2. Helpful Herbs: Saffron from Hostile Valley Farm

Off-site gardening: Factors to consider before starting roots away from home - Featured on the Homestead Blog Hop

3. Off-site gardening: Factors to consider before starting roots away from home from Backyard Farming

Congrats! Feel free to grab the featured on button for your post.

Just right click and 'save image as...'

Guidelines for this Get-Together:

Click on the “Add your Link” Button below and add a great image of your project or recipe. Make sure you link to the page of your family friendly post – not the main page of your blog!
Try to visit at least a few other blogs at the party. Be sure to leave a comment to let them know you stopped by!
Please link back to this post somehow (a text link is ok). This is one thing we look for when choosing who to feature. We will share on multiple social media if you are featured!

Let the Party Begin!

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A Review of Homeschool Copywork's Lifetime Membership

I recently was given the chance to review the Lifetime Membership from Homeschool Copywork. Homeschool Copywork is a way for your child to practice their writing skills without just using a boring old piece of paper. My son hates to write, but if you give him a picture to color and distract him by reading him a book, he will sit there for a long time working on it.

If you're familiar with the classical/Charlotte Mason approach to homeschooling then this curriculum is something you will want to look in to. If you are a notebooking family and like your children to do notebook pages you will find lots of these kinds of resources with Homeschool Copywork. Homeschool Copywork works with all ages of students from early elementary on up to high school.

For our review we picked to do the Character Building Copywork. My son is eleven and is at the age where character building is something that we need to be working on as he faces lots of upcoming changes in the next few years as he becomes a young man.

Here are a couple of pages of the copy work and coloring that my son did.

I love that scripture is included in so many of the topics that are available through Homeschool Copywork. Honestly, it could benefit me to do some copying of scripture and work on memorizing more of it. Even adults like to color and make pretty things.

Homeschool Copywork has three different levels of membership. They have a free membership that includes free resources. The one year full membership gives you full access to everything on the Homeschool Copywork website for a full year. The Lifetime Membership is what I was able to review and it gives you membership for a lifetime including all free resources and any bonuses that are added to the website.

The website covers all kinds of topics like the human body, Bible passages, science, holidays, composers, artists, famous documents and more. Your child will have the opportunity to practice writing along with grammar, spelling, and proper punctuation just by doing this curriculum on a daily basis. This is all printable material and can be used at your convenience throughout your homeschooling year.

Here are some titles to a few other subjects they offer for copy work.

We are very impressed with Homeschool Copywork and will continue to use it for our notebooking pages throughout the rest of our schooling. I recently discovered notebooking last year and this curriculum goes right along with that. I hope this helps you with any questions you may have on how Homeschool Copywork works and how it is perfect solution for a Charlotte Mason/Classical approach to homeschooling at a very affordable price.

Please comment below if you have any questions and I will be happy to answer them.

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Homestead Blog Hop #78

Welcome to the Homestead Blog Hop!

Meet and Follow Your Hosts!

Featured Posts from the Last Homestead Blog Hop

12 Questions Before Your Chickens Arrive - Featured on the Homestead Blog Hop

Each week we will choose three posts to feature. Each post will be shared on all social media platforms by all of the hosts! Here are the features from Last Week's Hop:

1. 12 Questions Before Chickens Arrive from Hostile Valley Living

Establishing a Garden Plot: Building Up the Beds - Featured on the Homestead Blog Hop

2. Establishing a Garden Plot: Building up the Beds from Growing Wild Roots

Making Soap with Goat Milk: Cold Process - Featured on the Homestead Blog Hop

3. Making Soap with Goat Milk: Cold Process from Oak Hill Homestead

Congrats! Feel free to grab the featured on button for your post.

Just right click and 'save image as...'

Guidelines for this Get-Together:

Click on the “Add your Link” Button below and add a great image of your project or recipe. Make sure you link to the page of your family friendly post – not the main page of your blog!
Try to visit at least a few other blogs at the party. Be sure to leave a comment to let them know you stopped by!
Please link back to this post somehow (a text link is ok). This is one thing we look for when choosing who to feature. We will share on multiple social media if you are featured!

Let the Party Begin!

KEEP READING

A Review of Times Tales from the Trigger Memory Co.

Recently, I had the chance to review the digital version of Times Tales by The Trigger Memory Co. The digital download comes with everything you need to complete the lessons including printable PDF files. Trigger Memory Co. also gives you the option on their website to purchase a physical copy of the product at a slightly higher price if you would rather have a physical copy of the program. Time Tales is a program designed to help children memorize their upper times tables in a very short amount of time. The program tells the child a story and links numbers with the characters in the story.

I was anxious to see if this program would work with my son since we have had a hard time memorizing the upper times tables in the past. He was able to sit and watch the story and follow along with it well. Although, at almost twelve, I think it seemed a bit silly to him at times. He was able to explain the story and how the numbered characters worked together back to me, but when it came to the part where there was a time limit on his answers after the story, he did not do well. He has never been a child that can have a timer on him to perform. It causes him anxiety and it has since he was little. I made him go through with it anyway, but overall this program did not work for us. They want to you wait a week between the two programs and the second time around was no different than the first for him.

I think it's a really great program, and I believe it would work wonderful for a child that does not have anxiety when it comes to being timed for things. I am hoping that he will grow out of this someday, and I thought maybe he had, but that is not the case.

The PDF files came with printable flashcards and I plan to continue to use them to help him memorize his times tables better over the summer. I felt like he was able to take his multiplication test, that was provided in the PDF files, quicker than I have seen him do them before, so I think the story still sank in but it was the timed quiz after the story that didn't work for him.

I would not hesitate to try this program if your child is younger than almost twelve and just starting to memorize their times tables. If they don't have anxiety over being timed for their answers, it could be a great resource for you. It's one of those things where you have to know what would work with your child and what wouldn't. The actual product is not to blame for my son not liking it. Like I stated earlier, I think it could be an awesome resource for another child and to me, it makes perfect since how it would work to help with time tables memorization.