This Week

We have been studying the Great Depression for the past few weeks, but doing a little more hands on as we studied it last year and they seem to have remembered a lot. But, since our history book covered it again this year we read a lot of historical fiction and articles and even looked at a lot of photography from the depression this time around. We have been making some depression era recipes this week and it was interesting. The first thing they made was a potato recipe - diced potatoes and onions cooked in a skillet and then when they are soft you add a sliced up hotdog. All the kids said they liked it a lot. I even asked them if I made it for dinner would they be happy and they all said yes - except Sarah. 

They then made dandelion salad. We watched a video of a 94 year old woman telling how her family ate dandelions during the depression and how they fixed it to make it rather tasty. The kids went out and picked the dandelions and then washed them well, then soaked them for a little while. Then they added lemon juice, oil and salt and ate it as their salad. This one was not as much a hit as the potato recipe but several of the kids ate quite a lot. Bethany said it was a disappointment to her, but it was not terrible. 

Today they made biscuit bread. This was a favorite. You basically mix up a biscuit recipe, then mold it into a mound,  put it in a hot cast iron skillet and cook it then flip it over and cook the other side. They really liked this and it was so easy to make. Tess made it alone in just a few minutes. I don't have pictures of it, but it looked really good. They ate every bite of it and said they would like to make it again. I think we will try a few more recipes before we end this study as they are really having fun doing it. 

Yesterday we hung our new bird feeder and we already have birds and squirrels eating at it. It is kind of fun to look out and watch them. I think we will put up a few more this next week. 

It has been a nice week with beautiful weather and we are starting to feel like warm weather is here to stay. We are going to plant our garden either this weekend or the beginning of next week. Our only problem right now is how do we keep all the deer out of our garden. Last year they literally ate everything we planted. So, we have to come up with a solution or there is not much point in planting at all. 

The Ice Cream Truck

The kids had a really fun surprise on Tuesday. My daughter, Megan, rented an ice cream truck to come to our house and the kids could get anything they wanted. They were so excited. They definitely think big sisters are great! Megan does tend to do a lot of stuff like this for her siblings, and it is so nice for them. They had a great time and it was really a lot of fun - especially since we never ever have an ice cream truck in our neighborhood.  I think it is obvious from the pictures the kids had a blast. 

What We Are Reading

We have been reading quite a bit lately and some of the books the girls really liked a lot. I will mention a few of them here, but since we have read so much I will probably leave a few out. We read Clues In The Woods by Peggy Parish and this was a short easy read that the kids did enjoy. It was pretty good and a quick read. The McNellis children try to solve the mystery of missing food and a missing sweater. They think they have an answer to who is taking the food they leave out when they read about some missing children in the area. It was a quick light read and the kids did enjoy it. 

We also read The Secret Island by Enid Blyton and the kids really liked this one. I think it was liked so much because it was about some children that ran away from their mean aunt and uncle and went to live on an island together. Reading about children on islands alone tends to always interest my kids and this one was no exception. We read another book about children on an island and that was Baby Island by Carol Brink. Mary and Jean are stranded on a desert island with four babies. Mary is very motherly and takes it upon herself to make sure the babies are well taken care of while they try to make a house of their own to stay in. They meet a man and a monkey and get into a few adventures. The kids liked this book more than The Secret Island and that is probably because of the babies and the grumpy man they meet. They said this book had more excitement in it. 

We read A Letter to Mrs. Roosevelt by C. Coco De Young. This took place during the depression and is about Margo and her family and her best friend  Rosa. I really liked this book and most of the kids did - though Bethany said it was just ok. She usually loves any book we read so I was surprised. 

Dot For Short by Frieda Friedman was a nice family story about a typical American family with Dot as the timid girl with little self confidence. She ends up saving the day for her family and gaining the confidence she thought she would never have. The kids seemed to enjoy this book but didn't beg for it the way they do some books we read. 

Then we read Treasures Of The Snow by Patricia St. John. The girls absolutely loved this book. It is one of our favorites from the past few months. It was a beautiful story. Annette lives with a terrible hatred of Lucien because he caused the accident that made her little brother crippled. She refuses to forgive him no matter what. We could hardly put this book down and every single one of the girls said they loved it. I loved it. It is such a wonderful story about forgiveness. 

We have really enjoyed our reading time lately and on some of the past rainy days we have read and read. The girls love to have snacks as I read and they have had a lot to choose from as a close friend and their Sunday school teacher both sent them so much candy and other snacks. There is not much my kids love more than a good snack and a good book together.