Anybody else playing along?
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All Around the Internet Friday
December 5, 2008 By 1 Comment
Starting off with the best pictures I saw this week! Winter Trees – These are so beautiful that it almost makes me miss snow. Almost.
Here’s a great article about Good Blog Design by the inimitable Melanie Nelson. Which, by the way, are you a member of BlogHer? Well you should be! And here’s an article that I want to read: 40 Ways to Deliver Killer Blog Content. Ooh and look… Confessionizer – go post something anonymously. I did.
With two kids and homeschool park days looming almost weekly since the weather cooled down, I’m always looking for a new sandwich idea and there’s a ton of them!
And a ton of cookie recipes from one of my favorite food bloggers on the planet.
50 Incorrect Pronunciations that Make You Look Dumb. One of my personal pet peeves is on there. It’s “realtor” (hint: realtor has two syllables, not three)
Ok, and how come no one ever told me about this? The Theban Mapping Project. I’m a closet Egyptologist and my husband is fully aware that someday I’m going to leave him to go explore tombs with my secret boyfriend Dr. Zahi Hawass.
Look at these beautiful wolves…
And have you entered Jacki’s give away? You could win a necklace made by… well, me!
Have a great weekend y’all!
It is OK to use my photos or content provided a link back and proper crediting is given
Excellence in Writing
December 3, 2008 By Leave a Comment
Ready for another glowing review? Ready for me to wax rhapsodic about a writing program that has my children looking forward to writing time? Wait, let me repeat that: My children are looking forward to writing. No eye rolling, no “aw man”, none of that. Do I have your attention now? Let’s travel back a little.
About a year ago, there was a conversation that took place on one of the local homeschool mailing lists that I belong to. People were discussing the difficulty that they were facing in getting their children involved in writing. Everyone had the same complaints, basically that they just couldn’t get their kids interested in facing a blank page and writing something. One of the moms, a lovely woman named Kathleen, who happens to bear more than a passing resemblance to Jennifer Aniston, chimed in that she’d been using a writing curriculum and her son had improved his writing in leaps and bounds since they’d started with this program. So yeah, now her son is writing like nobody’s business and she looks like a former Friends’ cast member. Life just isn’t fair, is it? But I digress. I sent her an email asking about it and she was so helpful, giving me the link to the website and going into great detail about why she loved the program and how involved she’s become with it. It’s called “Excellence in Writing: Student Writing Intensive” and it’s a DVD seminar of sorts. I took Kathleen’s advice and ordered the Student Writing Intensive as well as the teaching seminar. It wasn’t cheap, but I figured if it gets these kids writing, it’ll be worth it.
When we received the curriculum, I was surprised at how nicely it was put together. The binders for the children as well as the teacher’s binder were chock full of material and I couldn’t wait to get started. Unfortunately, life got in the way, as it’s wont to do and we put the program aside. We recently pulled it back out and got started. The seminar is great. It’s not dry at all and the gentleman who delivers it, Andrew Pudewa, is so much fun! He has us all chuckling through much of the lesson. It’s such a different method for teaching writing, but it’s so simple and straight-forward. We’re completely enjoying it and I’m very thankful to have found it.
If, like I was, you’re struggling with your little writer and are looking for a way out, Excellence in Writing just might be the answer to your prayers.
It is OK to use my photos or content provided a link back and proper crediting is given
The One Where Christine Makes a New Friend
December 2, 2008 By 2 Comments
You know that guy that I’m married to? Yeah him. Well, he’s the business manager at a car dealership – and he called me last night to tell me that he had just contracted a very nice couple and that the wife was a writer who had a blog. He told me that they had a conversation about writing and blogging and he gave her one of my “calling cards“. She sent me an email with links to her sites and I hurried on over to That’s Fit which has great information on a subject that’s really relevant to me right now. She’s a contributing writer there and I’m so glad to have that resource! Then I hopped on over to her personal blog and found out that not only is she a delightful person, she’s also a breast cancer survivor with incredible strength and a real gift for telling the story of her journey. Check out this post on Thanksgiving and giving thanks. Took my breath away. Go on over and say hi to Jacki – you’ll be glad you did!
I love meeting new people, don’t you?
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Super Easy Tuna Packet with Veggies and Rice
December 1, 2008 By 1 Comment
In an effort to get more of those Omega 3s into our diet and more fat and processed stuff out, I came up with this super easy meal tonight. I don’t have a picture because it was dark by the time it was out of the oven and the lighting in my kitchen does not make for photogenic tuna. Just trust me, it was beautiful.
4 Tuna steaks
2 Yellow squash julienned
2 Zucchini julienned
1 Yellow Pepper julienned
1 Orange Pepper julienned
1 Red Onion Sliced thin
Sesame Oil
Soy Sauce
Rice
Put up a pot of rice and cook according to instructions. Preheat oven to 450.
Take four large sheets of aluminum foil and place 1/4 of the vegetables on each piece of foil. Place one tuna steak on top of each pile of vegetables, drizzle with sesame oil and soy sauce and wrap foil tightly around each bundle. Cook for 15-20 minutes, remove from oven and carefully open the packets (the steam is very hot and just waiting to burn you, really be careful). Plate rice and put the contents of each packet on top of the rice.
This was fresh and delicious – the vegetables really are perfect, nice and cooked, yet still a little al dente. I used Jasmati rice, but I think next time I’ll use a brown rice – I think the nuttiness will be a perfect complement. I may mince a little garlic and ginger and add it to the packet next time as well. Super healthy and super delicious.
My daughter has decided that she’s not eating any meat this week, so I just made her a packet with the vegetables and served it over the rice. Everyone cleaned their plate.
It is OK to use my photos or content provided a link back and proper crediting is given
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