Head over to Crayola’s site to download FREE Disney Coloring pages!
At last check they had:
Fairies, Mickey Mouse, Pirates of the Caribbean, Cars, Toy Story & Princesses!
Here’s the site!
http://www.crayola.com/free-coloring-pages/disney/
Happy Coloring!
This was meant to be a post a few weeks ago, but when it went live there was not photo and Liz actually caught it. However, when I went looking for the photo couldn’t find it! It was on the other laptop. Sigh. Here it is…finally. We have five children taking piano, and one child who has dropped out. Sniff, sniff.
For once my Monday Motivation is not about cleaning or working, but about showing hospitality and sharing our experience making maple syrup. This week on one of the homeschool yahoo groups someone posted about a maple syrup event that was a great children’s activity especially for homeschoolers, however, it was with a cost. I know how much homeschoolers watch their budgets, after all I am one! So without too much thought I posted inviting interested families to our house for a FREE homeschool activity to see what we have done to make our own maple syrup this year. After I hit send, I was like, “Oh-oh, what have I done?” I wasn’t expecting much response and about four families responded. Therefore, we’ll be getting ready for our guests this week, as I thought hot chocolate and homemade cookies were in order to go along with the children learning about where maple syrup comes from and how it is made.
The catch is we got snow and it is colder so the sap may not be running this week, but we’ll wait and see. Someone said it was going to hit the 50’s by mid-week, which will be perfect and muddy. It should be fun to meet new people and share what the Lord has blessed us with here with our maple trees and space.
This week’s motivation is to share our home and maple syrup adventure with other homeschooling families. Hopefully blessing them by helping them save money on an outing and to show them if we can do it so can they!
The Rest of Our Maple Syrup Story
Obviously we are not done tapping our trees or collecting sap, nevertheless, I thought it was time to show the rest of our maple syrup adventure or what we have recorded so far. We’ve had a few mishaps and bumps in the road and may not get as much sap as we had hoped. 🙁 You see, we have had wind blow our bags off, we have had them fall off due to being too heavy and we have had certain family members dump our maple syrup down the drain thinking it was water in the pot! Yeah, that’s what I said. This happened two different times by two different people and I am like, “Can’t you ask first? We are making syrup!?” Talk about aggravating, to say the least. Both individuals were apologetic and felt bad, but accidents happen…..still, just ask!
Our Tapping Adventure Continues
Drilling.
The younger ones wanted to try too.
The tap is in. We were not very happy about the sap dripping out below the tap, but that was rectified once we got the drill boring the right way!
The bags were put on the little metal hangers and set on the taps.
The day we put them up the sap was running fast. This is what we got within the first couple of hours.
Then by late afternoon, look what we had!
We improvised when we ran out of metal hangers and use a milk jug and wire.
This pot was full of sap and you have to boil it down to almost nothing.
Then we filtered the sap to get dirt and any other unwanted particles out of the syrup.
Baby wanted in on the action too.
Not a lot of syrup and by the time we had bottle it (sorry no picture of that!) we only got a quart out of 3-4 bags of sap. It wasn’t as thick as we would have liked, so it should have been boiled more. We know that for the next batch we do, as we are living and learning as we go along.
“God’s love graces each creature, the great and the small,
and it soars to the sky like His redwoods so tall.”
This is a beautiful heartfelt book for your children is written by Jennifer Dewing and Illustrated by Maria Carluccio. It is available at “I See Me! Inc. Personalized Children’s Books“.
“God Loves You” won multiple awards in 2010, including Mom’s Choice Award and Creative Child Magazine’s “Preferred Choice” Award.
There is a great deal of personalization in this book. You are able to include the following information, child’s first, middle & last name, gender, dedication, sender, the month, day and year!
The book flows along paths of different illustrations, including the ocean, thru the wood, springtime, etc.
Follow this link for a tour of the book – “God Loves You!”
This is a great gift for Easter, baptisms, births, or just because.
My Review:
This book is full of love and inspiration for you and your child. This is going to be the “go to” present for when friends and relatives have new babies. The personalization in this book is extensive, no more writing in the front cover for me. I’ve read “God Loves You” for my daughter the past few nights. She loves the illustrations and I love the message coming from the book.
**”I See Me!, Inc.” did mention to please place your order before March 23rd if you’d like it for Easter.**
Faith and Family Reviews received the following product in exchange for writing a review. While we consider it a privilege to receive free products to review, our reviews are our honest opinion and thoughts of the product.
Turn your water into soda with SodaStream! This a great concept, and it is very healthy for the environment!
So, how does it work? Glad you asked. If you purchase a SodaStream online, it will be delivered with a caution of hazardous material papers. It’s the Carbon Dioxide used to Carbonate the soda. Assembly is required, however it is very easy. Then end up looking something like this….
Next, you will need to take your reusable carbonating bottle, and fill it with water to the fill line (basically the the entire bottle). Put the cap on and put it in the fridge to chill (cold water holds a better carbonation). Once your bottle of water is chilled, take the cap off and tilt the bottle slightly and screw into the SodaStream system.
Pick out your flavor and read the back of the bottle. Check for the number of “buzzes”, most flavors require 3 “buzzes”. However, the cola required 5 “buzzes”. So, make your appropriate “buzzes” and remove your now carbonated water bottle. It will hiss like opening a soda. Then, according to the directions on the back of the bottle. Fill a cap full of soda and pour it into your carbonated water. My recommendation is to do it over the sink, less messy if you miss the bottle. Put the cap back on the bottle and shake slightly to mix.
Then ENJOY! Pictured is Cranberry/Raspberry flavor.
Flavors and Machines
There are 7 different machines to choose from and on the SodaStream site there’s a tool to help you choose which machine fits you best.
You’ll also need to replace the carbonator at some point (not sure yet how long it will last and I didn’t see in the directions or online how long they last, sorry.) SodaStream does suggest to keep an extra around for when yours runs out.
There’s a flavor for everyone! Choose from over 50 flavors in regular, diet, energy, sparkling naturals, sparkling teas, and MyWater Essence flavors.
Each 16.9 ounce of syrup adds up to about 33 – 12 ounces cans of soda! Let’s do some math. If you purchase a 16.9 ounce bottle of Cola from SodaStream which last look was $4.99 and that bottle produces 33 “cans” of soda. That’s a little over $.15 a “can” of SodaStream soda! Sounds like a great deal for me.
My Review –
I’m in love with the SodaStream! It’s fun and healthy for my whole family. Easy to assemble. Granted the machines can get pricey, but the cost of soda makes up for it in my book. My family and I reviewed 3 different kinds of sodas and 1 tea.
Cola – It’s good, it has a “diet” soda taste to it. I hope I’m explaining that okay. Don’t expect it to taste like the big brand colas in the store. We will be buying that one again.
Cranberry / Raspberry – My daughter wanted the “Pink” soda, so this was our next flavor. We all really enjoyed it. It was refreshing and not overwhelming of either flavor. Yet another on our next shopping list.
Green Tea with Pomegranate Peach – My husband’s next choice. I know you all want an honest opinion. Not my favorite flavor, I think the peach made it really sweet and the pomegranate was overwhelming. Just my opinion, again.
Root Beer – When I first tasted it, I instantly thought Sarsaparilla! We had a special treat the other night of SodaStream Root Beer and vanilla ice cream. It was a hit, and will continue having SodaStream Root Beer Floats as a treat! Definitely on the next shopping list!
The initial start up will cost a little bit, but once you get going. I think you’ll make up the cost from buying those big name sodas.
Faith and Family Reviews received the following product in exchange for writing a review. While we consider it a privilege to receive free products to review, our reviews are our honest opinion and thoughts of the product.
I loved all your responses to our Wordless Wednesday post! I got a lot of chuckles! The tree hugging really was about measuring the tree, but it was for tapping the trees for sap. We need to measure the diameter of the tree to determine how many taps we can put in each of our five maple trees because we are making maple syrup! Today’s fun with food post will be all about our fun tapping trees and making our very own chemical free maple syrup! (I know there is really no food shown, but it’s all about making our own and being self-sufficient in providing our family’s food from our land – rented land in this case.)
Our handy little reference booklet.
Maple syrup supplies.
Photo from Anderson’s website.
Yes, we can measure with the measuring tape upside down, we are talented that way! 😉
Drilling tap holes.
Tapping trees was a family event.
Two of our maple trees are in the backyard, the other three are in the front.
Stay tuned for more of our journey into the world of making maple syrup in our own backyard!
Farm Rich is always there for moms, with wholesome, easy –to-prepare snacks sure to please the entire family.
Farm Rich has a multitude of easy snacking products for the whole family. Their arsenal includes:
If you are looking for a good snack alternative just go to the www.farmrich.com website and use their product finder to find Farm Rich snacks at a store near you!
Our Review:
We tried the Cheese Sticks and the Mushrooms…both were very tasty! My children LOVED the cheese sticks. One thing I like is that the bag has a nice Ziploc feature and therefore is able to be resealed…. which makes for a very convenient alternative when you only want to prepare a few snacks and not the entire bag.
My family enjoyed the Farm Rich products and we will buy them again in the future!
The only thing I do have to say is that we used the product finder tool and one of the stores that they told me had the product…did not carry the product when I went to the store. I am not sure if this was just because they do not carry the product or if they just have not gotten the product in yet…but I did end up finding the product at Wal-Mart so that was good!
All in all, the Farm Rich products were tasty and convenient! We will certainly try more options in the future…the children are looking forward to trying the French Toast sticks!
Faith and Family Reviews received the following product in exchange for writing a review. While we consider it a privilege to receive free products to review, our reviews are our honest opinion and thoughts of the product.
Did you know that 75% of all American adults have periodontal disease and do not even know it?
Did you know that there are billions of germs in our mouth, more than there are people on the earth? That’s a lot isn’t it?
Did you know that a third of the people in the US do not eat their favorite food or smile because of dental problems?
Did you know that 50% of American children will have a cavity between the ages of 5 and 9?
Did you know that 51 million hours of school are missed each year due to dental issues?
Pretty sobering, eh?
We have been struggling with a couple of our children’s oral care habits. No matter what we say nothing seems to get through to them, until recently one of my older daughters was explaining in detail what happened to teeth when the dirt, sugar and germs broke down the tooth. That particular child said, “Really?” Then took off to brush his teeth. A break through? Maybe, but I have my doubts so that is why we are participating in LISTERINE® and REACH® Healthy Habits for a Lifetime Oral Care Challenge!
Faith and Family Reviews received the following product in exchange for writing and participating in the Healthy Habits for a Lifetime Oral Care Challenge. We are being compensated by Johnson & Johnson and TheMotherhood. While we consider it a privilege to receive free products to review and compensation, our reviews are our honest opinion and thoughts of the product.
