Tasty Tuesday – Taco Soup

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This week’s Tasty Tuesday at our house was a pot of Taco Soup.

To make this tasty treat, I used the following ingredients:

1 lb ground beef (precooked)

1 packet of taco seasoning mix

1 packet Hidden Valley Ranch dry mix

1 can of whole kernel corn

1 can of kidney beans

1 can of Rotel (tomatoes and green chilis)

After I browned the grond beef, I added the taco seasoning mix and let it simmer for about 10 mins. Then I added the Ranch seasoning mix, corn, kidney beans, and Rotel. I do not usually add extra water, and I let this come to a boil. Then I cet the heat back to simmer and allow the seasonings a chance to flavor the soup.

I serve this with corn chips, shredded cheddar, and sour cream!! YUM!!! Sometimes I also bake a pan of cornbread to go along with this. It is an easy one-pot meal. I got this recipe from a dear friend. And it is usually an inexpensive meal to fix.

Have a blessed day! Tami

Settling back into our schedule……

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Monday is not always my favorite day of the week. It always involves settling back into our daily routine after a day of rest on Sunday. Today was not too bad though. The younger boys had dentist appointments this morning, so I sat down with all of the boys last night to do our math lessons. Monday is always the day we start a new lesson, and with two of the boys using Math U See, we have to work in time for the DVD lesson. After getting math out of the way, it was very easy to go to the dentist early this morning, and then we had time for our out loud reading time when we got back home. We are reading Thomas Edison: Young Inventor, and it has been such a great book for us to read together. It is fun to read about some of young Edison’s experiments, and it is especially funny to the boys when an experiment goes awry.

Have a blessed day! Tami

Back from the bookfair………

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I am back from the WNC Bookfair. What a great group of vendors and speakers were there! I enjoyed meeting and talking to all the homeschoolers who visited my booth. It is always a joy for me to talk to homeschoolers face to face. I enjoy the connections I am able to form through the internet, but it is hard to beat a good face-to-face talk. I was also privileged to meet Zan Tyler for the first time. I heard rave reviews about her seminars from the participants.

Now, I will be unpacking books tomorrow and gearing up for a Christian Event in Charlotte, NC next month. I will have free tickets to give away for this event, so keep an eye on my blog for more info!

Have a blessed day! Tami

Hello, from the WNC Bookfair!

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Hello,

I am writing tonight from the WNC Bookfair in Black Mountain, NC. We had the opening night/sneak peak at the bookfair tonight. And it was fun meeting more homeschoolers and also talking to those who I have met before. There are lots of great vendors here, too. I am one of them, but there are others who have some really neat materials, too.

It’s not too late to come! If you live in western NC or eastern TN, come on over!!!

Have a blessed day! Tami

Leaving for a bookfair

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Just a quick note that I am off to a bookfair today. If you live in western NC or eastern TN, this would be within driving distance for you. There are two well-known speakers for this confernce, Michael Farris and Zan Tyler. So if you want to escape the rainy, cold weather and warm up to some great homeschool seminars and vendor booths, come join us.

Have a blessed day! Tami

WFMW: Cough/Flu tip

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This week’s Works for Me Wednesday post came about due to necessity. We have had the flu in our household, and I coughed and coughed and coughed at night. And do you want to know what worked for me to quiet my cough?

I put Vick’s Vapor Rub on the bottom of my feet at night and put my softest socks on over it. And I went to sleep, and I did not cough once ALL night long!!!!

I heard this once, and I thought it was CRAZY.

Now, I am not a medical professional, so please do not take this as advice from a medical professional. This is just a “mom tip” that someone shared with me. If you have a persistant cough, it is a good idea to seek medical attention, especially if it has been lingering.

Have a blessed day! Tami

Are homeschool marriages in trouble?

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When you first started your journey into homeschooling, did you notice that you had some obstacles put into your path? I know that we did. And after a time, we settled into a pattern of homeschooling. And the little things kept popping up to derail us. One thing that we had going for us was a strong marriage, and that is still true today. But it takes a lot of work to keep a marriage strong.

Some friends of mine have seen the need in the homeschool community for a marriage encounter week-end specifically for homeschool parents. It is their desire to give you the tools needed to keep your marriage strong, because if you don’t have a strong marriage, you don’t have a strong homeschool.

I am also doing a 30-day challenge to further strengthen my marriage. You can read my daily posts at my other blog.

Have a blessed day! Tami

One Room Schoolhouse—my thoughts

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The ladies at The Homeschool Blog Awards are hosting this week’s Carnival of Homeschooling, and they have a theme about a one-room schoolhouse. It just so happens that the boys and I are doing a read-aloud book this week based on the life of Thomas Edison. He did not have a good experience in a one-room schoolhouse situation, and he ended up being homeschooled by his mother. I compared this to poor experiences that we had with our local public school. We left public school behind us, and we created our own one-room schoolhouse.

Today, I am teaching my children who range in age from 17 years to 18 months. And we have our lessons together each morning. I can see the benefits of homeschooling this week. We have homeschooled since 2001, and my 4th-born son on down to the baby have no idea what life was like around here before we homeschooled. They have always been a part of our lesson time.

I see the fruit of this when my 7-year-old tells me that he already knows a new concept that I am teaching him. He was there when I was teaching it to an older sibling. Around here we call that “the trickle down effect.” What I have taught to the older children has trickled down to the younger ones. It does make my job easier, but at the same time, I have to sometimes bring in different books for my younger ones, because they remember so much of what I have already taught them.

I am also exposing my younger children to higher levels of reading and math by teaching everyone together. My young ones can sit and listen to me read chapter books or go over math concept, and they get very absorbed in this. It is always a joy to hear them ask questions based on something I read to them during the read aloud time. And I love to hear that they already know a math fact that I am introducing to them.

I have also noticed that my younger children score higher on end of grade tests, because I am covering a broad range of topics with them alongside their basic reading, writing, and arithmetic.

In closing, I am so glad that God brought us along the path of learning alongside our children. What a privilege it is to enjoy learning more about the beauty in the world around us as a family.

Have a blessed day! Tami