The Walnut Acre Daily - Quick and Easy Pizza Crust, Free Kindle Downloads and More

Words to Live By

Psalm 34:18

The Lord is close to the brokenhearted

and saves those who are crushed in spirit.

Homeschool Fun

Michael and Lauren watched The Story of John the Baptist to go along with our Jesse Tree Readings. They also watched the Letter H Song, Children's Basic Addition, Adding for Children, and Add 'Em Up. They weren't interested in doing any worksheets or coloring pages today and I didn't push the issue. We did take time to review the -ag word family though.

I didn't give Austin and Amanda any assignments today because I decided to go ahead and start our Christmas break.

Books We Enjoyed Today

I read the first four books with Michael and Lauren and the last book is the one I'm reading for myself.

In the Kitchen

For breakfast this morning we had Spiced Sweet Potato Bread, applesauce, and yogurt.

Amanda made pizza for lunch using the Homemade Biscuit Mix in the crust. This is a nice quick crust for a simple pizza with the kids or any other time you're in a hurry. 

Quick and Easy Pizza Crust

1 1/2 cups biscuit mix

1/3 cup very hot water

1 tsp. garlic powder

1/2 teaspoon oregano

1/2 tsp rosemary

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. Grease a 12-14 inch pizza pan.

In a bowl combine the biscuit mix, hot water, garlic powder, oregano and rosemary. Mix to form a soft dough. 

Press the dough into the pizza pan and top with your favorite sauce and toppings. 

Bake approximately 15 - 20 minutes.

Enjoy!

CJ needed cookies for school tomorrow and we had an hour and 15 minutes to bake cookies and do homework from the time he got home from school until time to leave from church. So I decided to have him try some simple sugar cookies made from biscuit mix. They were so easy and quick to make so I thought I'd share the link to the recipe - No Roll Sugar Cookies.

Around the House

I did the morning cleanup in the kitchen (dishes, sweep, etc.) and then dusted and vacuumed two bedrooms and the hallways and stairs.

Austin did the morning cleanup in the living room, playroom and upstairs bathroom and cleaned up the kitchen after lunch. He also did the dusting in the livingroom. 

Amanda did the morning cleanup in the mudroom and downstairs bathroom and worked on the laundry. 

Outdoor Fun

Austin went outside with the little ones for about an hour this morning . . .

. . . and Amanda went outside with them for about 45 minutes this afternoon.

We Are Going

Austin loves antiques and coins and has been wanting to go to the Antique Mall for awhile now. I had told him I would try to take him last Saturday but then it didn't work. Today was a fairly quiet day so after we took Lauren to preschool I took him to the Antique Mall to look around. We didn't stay very long because I had to take Michael along and he was getting restless, but Austin really enjoyed the time he did have and bought and old coin and an old belt buckle. He also started thinking about what would be involved with opening a booth of his own there someday.

This evening we had church as usual on Wednesday evening. After dinner some went Christmas caroling while others stayed at the church for normal Wednesday evening classes. My family all stayed at the church except for Austin who wanted to go Christmas caroling. After classes and caroling cookies and hot chocolate were served for all who wanted to stay.

Today's Quote

To escape criticism - do nothing, say nothing, be nothing. ~ Elbert Hubbard

Daily Deals

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The Simple Woman's Daybook - Tuesday February 21, 2012

For Today

Outside my window . . . snow. We finally got snow Sunday, nearly a foot of it. But it's not going to be around long because temperatures are going to be in the 60s the next two days.

I am thinking . . . about what a fun and busy long weekend we had. Snow on Sunday and taking the kids to Skatetown Monday evening were a couple of the highlights.

I am thankful . . . for all the fun we have together.

In the kitchen . . . I made a batch of sugar cookies from a mix this morning . . . 





 and made bacon cheddar bagel thins for lunch.

For dinner this evening I made Oven Scrambled Bacon and Eggs and a huge batch of pancakes. My goal was to have pancakes left to put in the freezer for later and I had this stack left. I'm really working on cooking double when I cook so that I'll have a stocked freezer for those busy days when it's hard for me to spend a lot of time in the kitchen.

I am wearing . . . green and white shirt and green pants.

I am creating . . . I was able to work on the braided rug for about 45 minutes today.

I am going . . . I didn't have to go anywhere today which was wonderful.

I am reading . . . With Austin and Amanda Heaven is for Real by Todd Burpo. I'm also reading When Bad Christians Happen to Good People: Where We Have Failed Each Other and How to Reverse the Damage by Dave Burchett.


I am looking forward to . . . a special activity with Amanda this weekend.

We are learning . . . At circle time this morning we read  The Beginning from The Beginner's Bible. We enjoyed the following videos from Youtube - The Creation Story, Phonics Song, The Big Numbers Song, and When the Snow Falls. We also played a game of Bible Memory Match.

At storytime this afternoon we read Don't Forget The Oatmeal!  and a few pages from Bible for Little Hearts (Little Blessings).


This afternoon Michael began working with a Hooked on Phonics set we were given Sunday. He was excited to begin. We reviewed the sounds for each letter several times. We then went on to Starfall and reviewed the -at and -an word families and watched How the Alphabet Got It's Order. At this point he was starting to get tired so we did a quick review of the number line before we quit for the afternoon.

This week Austin is doing the Time section of Math Live. Amanda is doing the Displaying Data section of Math Live. Both Austin and Amanda watched Measuring Temperature (4:50) and Different Temperature Scales (1:40) in NeoK12 Physical Science: Heat and Temperature. They also watched The Fed and Money Creation (7:25) and Inflation (11:25) in NeoK12 Social Studies:Banking

Around the house . . . Doug, Michael and CJ are asleep. Amanda is in her room. Austin is here in the living room with me using his laptop and watching Austin & Ally on the Disney Channel. The dishwasher is running and the house is mostly picked up.

I am pondering . . . Learning on the Less Traveled Road.

A favorite quote for today . . . Man's mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains it's original dimensions. ~ Oliver Wendell Holmes

One of my favorite things . . . White Noise Generator. I use this at night after the little ones go to bed to block out the noise of the tv and whatever else might be going on. I can feel myself relax when I put my headphones on and turn this on. I call it going to my happy place.

A few plans for the rest of the week . . . lots of cooking and baking.

A peek into my day . . . I don't have a picture to share here today. Besides what I've already written we all did some cleaning, Amanda and Austin took care of the animals, I did a couple loads of laundry, and Doug ran a few errands after work. CJ had a good day at school. Michael had a few ups and downs, I'm still not sure the Adderall is going to work for him. It's seems to make him cry a lot more than usual. But he had a really good evening and went to sleep easily. All in all it has been a busy but good day.

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The Funny Story Behind Today's Valentine Cookies

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Don't these Valentine's Day cookies look yummy?

I thought so too, but let me tell you a story about these cookies.

I thought the kids would enjoy a fun Valentine addition to their lunch and I know Amanda often enjoys baking with the younger kids, so I asked her to help them make some Valentine cookies this morning. Since I was going to a meeting this morning and someone else was coming in to be with the kids I showed her yesterday where the Sugar Cookie mix was and told her to simply follow the instructions on the package. I left this morning before she was really all the way awake, so I told her if she had any questions she could text me. On the way to the meeting I reached for my phone and realized I had left it at home on the charger. I felt bad, but since there were two adults in charge back at home, I wasn't too worried about it.

When I came home I was happy to see that the cookies had been baked. Amanda made the comment that they were a pain to make which I thought was a little strange since it was mix you simply add water to. But I was still thinking about the meeting and really didn't think too much about her comment . . . until I tasted the cookies. These did not taste like any sugar cookies I had ever tasted before. They really didn't taste like any kind of cookies I had ever eaten. And the texture was strange. But it was the first time I had bought this particular mix so I thought maybe it was just a strange tasting mix. I went to look at the mix package and realized it was still full. But . . . the Cream of Wheat package beside it was suspiciously low in contents. I knew what had happened, but I was having a bit of a hard time believing it.

"Did you follow the directions on this package?" I asked her, showing her the Cream of Wheat. She replied "Yes." "You mean you cooked it like the directions say and then put spoonfuls on the cookie sheet and baked them?" "Yes" she answered again, looking a little puzzled. I had to laugh then. "What does this package say?" I asked her, holding it up. That's when she realized what she had done and her eyes got big.

Of course, she made sure I realize that the Cream of Wheat

 and the Sugar Cookie Mix

 were right next to each other and the look very similar. She simply grabbed what she thought was cookie mix and without paying any attention to the label, followed the instructions. Although I'm pretty sure there were no baking instructions. I guess she decided 350 was a safe bet and she would just take them out of the oven when she thought they looked ready.

We had a good laugh. Thankfully she found it funny too and we laughed together. But it's going to take her awhile to live down the Valentine Cream of Wheat cookies.