Order In Chaos

Bakin’ Boys

The boys wanted to do some baking.

I was booted out of the kitchen.

A fascinating endeavour ensued:

They actually got many of the ingredients they needed:

Of course, they cleaned up afterward. Because all good chefs clean up after themselves 😉 .

Testing for doneness:

Yum!

Giant remembered the baking powder but chose to use oil as his liquid, resulting in a rather pie-crusty type cake. Ettin used milk as the liquid but forgot the baking powder, resulting in a rather chewy cake. (I was allowed to turn on the oven, and I reminded them they needed some more liquid when their floury/eggy masses weren’t coming together.)

FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL!!!

Summer school was fun—lots of swimming, playing outside, gardening, and so forth.

Now, it’s time to get serious.

Mommy has schedules! And plans! and lessons!

I woke up this morning almost as excited as I would have been if it had been my OWN first day of school for the new school year…I LOVE LEARNING!!!

First things first, our Gospel lesson. I’m dissecting one primary lesson per week into smaller bites for our  Gospel lesson time. The boys were very attentive:

Okay, I had a cool pen. They were distracted by the cool pen. We had to examine the cool pen thoroughly before we could move on with any of the learning I’d planned:

However, by the time they were done checking out the pen, Galoot had broke through the baby barrier and joined us on the table for our Calendar time (we learned about seasons, months, dates, and weather all at once. It may have been a little much.):

Giant filled in the temperature of the day:

Then the sneaky kid started reading the words from our alphabet book:

After our Calendar time, it was Independent Play. Giant made paper airplanes:

And I started cleaning the kitchen. However, I was shortly joined by boys wishing to bake. At first I said no (too much mess, lack of control, I had other plans, etc). But I have a goal to become more patient with my boys in the kitchen. So, they baked. I cleaned and lent advice. It went amazingly well!:

They even did their dishes too, of course!

While waiting for the cakes to bake (to celebrate back to school of course!) the boys played with trains:

…and looked very cute. Dang I love my boys!:

Cakes baked and cooled. The boys had a finger-liking good time icing it with strawberry icing (they love pink!):

After lunch, we, along with Daddy, took turns saying things we were excited to learn about (Giant-fixing cars, Ettin-eating cake 😉  ) and added candies to the boys’ side of the cake:

Of course Galoot got some too!

We read stories before naps. Giant reads me one first and then I read him one:

After little boys were napping, we looked at history:

And then Giant really wanted to look at maps. But first, in order to get the laptop working, a quick lesson in laptop battery care (Giant switched the batteries for me):

…and we found different continents and countries for a while:

After Ettin woke up, they boys played with playmobile:

And quickly became knights themselves. Giant needed a knight flag (“niT FLAeG”)

…and so did Ettin (lots of “o”s):

—I think it’s terribly cute that they did not ask for swords, but flags. Oh, and Giant needed to save a sad Grandma—she missed her grandkids, you see. He brought them to her 🙂  We’ll see how long this peaceful knighthood lasts before things get a bit more violent!

English Muffins!

I made English Muffins! And they worked!!!

I’ve tried making English muffins before. The dough was a soft bready/biscuity dough that you rolled and cut circles out of, then let rise, then cooked on a griddle. Which made for flat, non-impressive biscuits.

Well, recently while boongoogling for how to can bananas, I came across a great English Muffin recipe on The Prudent Homemaker‘s blog.

The batter was much more pancakey in nature, with LOTS of bubbles.

Notes: I set the “griddle” (frying pans) to “4” (higher and they burned). No grease, just cornmeal. I didn’t stir down the batter bubbles—I was worried I’d pop the magic that was in my batter bowl 😉 . I think it made 24 muffins (the count became hazy as many ended up in tummies before I was finished cooking). I also think this would lend itself wonderfully to being made with a sour-dough starter!

English muffins in various states of being:

Egg McMuffin?

And my favourite, toasted English muffin with butter and jam:

Sooooo yum!

Thursday, Friday, Playdays!

Thursday we dropped daddy off to work near our cousins. Which meant we got to play with cousins all day!!!

We even had an impromptu sleepover (so the moms and dads could play games at night). Which left us speeding home early in the morning for the last day of swimming lessons:

Made it! Just in time for the boys to jump off the diving board:

Yes, even Ettin! (with some help 😉  )

Phew!

We celebrated the end of swimming and some great progress Daddy had made on Enchanting with a treat at DQ.

Garden Lunch

What’s for lunch?

Well, what’s in the Garden?!

Zucchini, carrots, onions, corn, and spinach.

Chopped, sauteed, and stirred into a pie:

Yum! Now, if I could only grow my own eggs, cheese, butter and flour too…