Donut making Sunday

We made these today....I'll let the pictures do the talking.

Mmmmmm... glazed.

Shake, shake the bag filled with cinnamon sugar and donuts - a perfect job for a child.

Abbey says, "Want one?". She ate her weight in donut holes. That used to be my favorite part too. Mmmmmm....

Sunday cooking is so much fun!

~Lisa

Time to sew?

I sold my business, Full Circle Baby, today and its bittersweet. So good on many levels and exciting for the new owners yet somehow I want to eat ice cream and chocolate. Oh, and I want to sew. I had no idea when I started my natural baby product business how far it would go and grow and now here we are entering a new stage and letting it go.

Could it be I'm trading one "baby" for another "baby"? One more precious, cute and cuddly? I do hope so and that freeing myself up a little bit leads to some sewing time around here. So many ideas and always so little time - but maybe now there will be time to sew.

Stay tuned.

~Lisa

A New Year - New Schedule

It's time to get back into the swing of things around our homeschool now that the holidays are over. Our "daily schedule" needed some revamping - by "schedule" I really do mean a loosely followed schedule, but we try to make sure we get to everything each day (Mon - Thurs). Fridays are fun, stay in our pjs, watch a movie day for now, unless we get behind, then we'll have to step it up!

Here's a glimpse at my homeschooling mornings: (Mel - 8th grade, Grace and Jessica - 4th grade, and Allie is just starting more Kindergarten work).

7-8am - older girls up, dressed, beds made, brush teeth, morning chores, eat breakfast (most of the time they skip breakfast and wait until later to eat something)

8-9am - Mel (GUM/Vocab/Composition - they alternate days), Grace & Jess (Spelling/Vocab)
By this time, we're trying to get my sleeping beauty, Allie, up for the day. She's always famished and eats breakfast with Abigail at this time.

9-9:15am - Mel, Grace and Jess (Handwriting/Copy Work)

9:30-10:30 - Math for all older girls (each gets time with Mom)

10:00 - Allie does her handwriting practice for 10 min.

10:15-10:30 - SNACKS (very important!)

10:30-10:45 - Mel or I work with Allie (Read Alouds or Phonics)

10:30-11:00 - Grace and Jess (GUM)

11:00 - noon - Mel (History), Grace and Jess (Literature), Allie (Math - 15 min)

Noon - LUNCH

12:30-1:30pm - Mel (Science), Grace and Jess (Science or History) and Allie/Abbey (Quiet Play)

Melissa finishes up Literature at night when she prefers to do her nightly reading.

See! I really could be done with school work by 1:30 each day...... Like I said, it is a loosely followed schedule - some days we do finish on time, other days - well, life gets in the way and I need to have the flexibility to let things go, give a hug or kiss a boo-boo, or enjoy some fresh Texas air. It's all a learning experience anyway - for all of us.

Pizza for dinner!

~Lisa

A Year in Words

I took the blog over to typepad this year - http://www.fullcirclemother.typepad.com, but I'm coming back over to this space. I just don't see a reason to pay for a blogging space right now. I love this space to write out my ideas, inspirations and to keep track of the places I enjoy visiting as well.

Taking some time at this year end to clear out the cobwebs, start fresh and keep the happiness flowing in our lives. So much happened to wear me down this past Fall and I miss my Dad dearly. I wouldn't have traded the time I spent at his bedside for anything. I'm ready now for the new year to ring in and I can't wait until we welcome our new baby this Spring. I'm closing my store up for now as well to try and keep myself focused on my family. After five years, it's my baby as well and I can't bear to sell it to someone else, so closing is the answer. Who knows what the future holds for Full Circle Baby, but I'll always be a full circle mother - because of my children and what I have learned being their mother.

See you soon - next year! :)

~Lisa

Movie Night

As a little girl, we would come home from church on Sunday and watch "old" movies. You know the ones - classic movies. I loved these movies while most of them starred Shirley Temple and seeing a little girl dance and sing like that was amazing to me. Besides, she was so cute! 

I've recently revived my interest in classic movies and we are having such fun watching them The girls are either entertained by the "old" times or bored and walk away. What they like to watch most though are episodes of "Gilligan's Island" and "The Brady Bunch"! Netflix is keeping us in continuous supply of these fun (sometimes corny) episodes. I do like how the girls are getting a glipse of the past by watching these shows. They think some of it is really funny  - "really, they used to say "groovy" Mom?" or "look at their clothes!"

Here's a few "classic movies" I've enjoyed watching recently:

Pygmalion - Professor Huggins and flower girl turned duchess, Eiza Doolittle. He really loves her doesn't he?

Pillow Talk - Stars Doris Day and Rock Hudson. She falls in love with him but doesn't know he's the one who is really driving her bonkers. Catchy tune - loved it! 

Houseboat - Ah- Cary Grant and Sophia Loren. She ends up as his nanny and they fall in love.  Hey mister. Who me? Yes, you mister. (you've got to watch it to understand - I could watch this one over and over)

People Will Talk  - Another Cary Grant movie. Very interesting. Unwed mother, doctor ethics, love, suicide, even talk of how grocery stores are starting to smell like a drug store. All from a movie that came out in 1951. 

Young at Heart - Ol' blue eyes - Frank Sinatra and Doris Day. Who will she end up with? Great beach scenes, sisterly love & jealousy, true love.  

We always need a snack to go with our movies and one of our favorites is popcorn. Not just any popcorn. We learned this from a friend and it has become an easy go to snack for movie watching. We pop some popcorn in coconut oil (old fashioned way - on the stove), then toss it with some melted butter and salt. Yummy! You could also mix some coconut oil and butter together to put on microwave popcorn.

Happy watching!

~Lisa

So long gone

Poor, poor neglected blog. Life has taken me away from you for so long. 

We've been busy finishing up our school work and having fun playing too! The girls and I are ready for a break from the day to day school work but we had lots to finish up before moving forward. Boxes from K12 are arriving daily loaded with our new school materials for next year already! I'm not ready! Well, I'm a little ready or they wouldn't have been ordered and here right? So the planning part is done, but the implementing part won't start until the Fall. Until then, I think the boxes can just gather a little dust in my closet. My oldest daughter was so excited for her new box to arrive that she already has it unpacked and put away. I remember those days... 

Otherwise, we've just been busy living here and traveling some too. It's really hot already and Summer doesn't officially arrive until later this month. Swimming is essential now and we are finding ways to stay cool. 

I've been busy sewing too since my new best friend arrived - we'll just call her Elna. The Weekend Sewing book by Heather Ross has so many fun projects and I'm working my way through them. This is the smocked sundress from the book that I made for my four year old. 

She loves it and wears it almost every day - except for when I steal it away from her to wash it. I think I know what else I'm making her for her birthday next month...hum. 

Happy weekend!

~Lisa

Kuchen with Aunt Elizabeth

For as long as I can remember, I have been searching for a recipe for Kuchen (pronounced "cookin" or "cuca" in my family). Not only was it the most delicious pastry from my childhood, but it came from the sweetest lady, my Great-Great Aunt Elizabeth, who I also called Memom. This wonderful lady could cook up anything without a recipe, donuts, noodle soup and various German dishes - comfort food at it's best. Memom was like a Grandma to me and I will always remember her kind, easy personality and gentle soul. She smiled with her eyes, loved with all her heart and taught with the patience of a saint. 

Memom would often visit us and come into the kitchen, cook up a cherry kuchen and fill the house with her warmth. She passed away when I was 12 years old and was the first person I was close to that died. Her spirit lives on though through the cross stitch pictures she left behind that grace my home, the impressions she made on me as a young girl and her name lives on in one of my daughters. I can still feel her spirit when I cook something she would have cooked while in the kitchen. That is probably why I have always wanted to find the recipe she used to make kuchen. 

Here's Memom playfully holding me as a baby. 

I was delighted to find a couple recipes for kuchen in the new bread book I bought recently. One used a yeast dough and the other did not - I went with the non-yeast recipe first. Here is my attempt at kuchen this weekend. I used the fruit I had on hand, peaches and cherries and I have to say there were many similarities, but this still was not the recipe my Memom used. This recipe had a crust to it, which hers did not, making me wonder if she used the yeast dough. Don't worry - I'll try that one next! But this one did have a custard top and her recipe definitely had that. While it was cooking. a very similar aroma, filled the house and it smelled so good! I knew I was on the right track! Memom used lots more cherries in her kuchen so next time I will have to make sure we have at least a couple cans of cherries on hand (I use the ones canned in fruit juice). This one was very yummy though and Jeff thought the crust was his favorite part. 

Lots of sewing going on here as well - a few things for mama (yay! I rarely sew for me) and some for others (Mother's Day gifts) as well!

~Lisa