What are some of your favorite websites?
*Geography games*
http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/web_games.htm
For some odd reason, we had to choose the a Mac version to make it run - but my kids LOVE reviewing geography on this website. It has teaching and testing - for many levels of expertise - and is FREE. We used this a lot for Memory Master review last year.

*Typer Shark* -
http://www.popcap.com/games/free/typershark
This includes the plain boring exercises that you need in the beginning, along with fun challenges. There can be multiple profiles, so the kids can try to catch up with mom - or the other way around. This is 100% more fun than Mavis typing.
- I don't think it is free anymore, but you can try it before purchasing. The limited online version may be free, but we found the offline version worth purchasing.

DLTK Kids - Printable crafts for Kids
http://www.dltk-kids.com/
Free online coloring pages, crafts, customized cards, more and more and more. I used to search by supplies that I had at home. Toilet paper roll critters were lots of fun at one birthday party. Alphabet coloring pages are found here as well.

This is a test post by Mikki Bates. I hope to help a little more in the future. Let us know any great online tools your family has found.

Mikki

Meal Exchange - Feb 6!

Here's what's cookin' in the kitchens of Kane and Magness, ready for your table........Cyndi is bringing Salisbury Meatballs and Rice; Darla is bringing Cheesy Chilada Bake, both from our new fave book called Fix, Freeze, Feast. If you are daunted by this meal exchange idea, get on Amazon and order that book!

If anyone is interested, I could bring a breakfast to exchange: Strawberry, Banana, Orange Smoothies (frozen and ready to blend) and Homemade Granola. I don't have to exchange for a breakfast; I could exchange for this for a dinner. If anyone is interested, let me know!

Love this exchange - it's exciting! (pathetic, eh?)

I have just completed an entirely too long BLOG about homeschooling and it is very complementary to CC too!! So, I don't blame you if you don't want to read it, but for anyone who is interested in the details of how this family decided to homeschool...you may enjoy it.

Dana and her boys ! !

Meal Exchange Jan 23

I hereby declare that I'm going to bring a meal, a "mock" Chicken Pot Pie from Darla's favorite book called Fix, Freeze, Feast. Haven't tried it yet, but everything in there is great, so I'm hopeful that it will be great. Hope we have lots of exchangers this week!

Is Anyone out there?

Does anyone ever look at our BLOG??

I am missing everyone. Or is it just any other adult companionship that I am missing because I have been shut up in the house for 2 days and I'm afraid tomorrow will be 3. I usually get a good friend fix (and a hearty laugh) on Wednesdays when I meet Linda S. at the Library????

So, for anyone interested I got a few (too few) pictures at CC on Friday and they are posted as part of a web gallery that you can get to from my blog. I have set it up so you can download the pictures if you want.
There is a link to my blog on the right hand side of this page. "no empty chairs"

Enjoy!!

Soon I will be writing up a big-ol post all about CC!! I'll let you know when I do.

Dana

Easy Chicken Bake

Tomorrow I will be bringing 2 Easy chicken bake casseroles.

1 pkg. Stove Top, prepared as directed
2 lbs. chicken breasts cooked and cut up
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 bag of mixed veggies thawed

if thawed, cook at 400 degrees for 30 min. The recipe doesn't say this, but as soon as I get it out of the oven I am going to sprinkle cheese over it. Puts a little zing in it and the kids seem to like it better.

Bring me something to eat, will ya?

Meal Exchange - Jan 16!

Okay, who's ready to get more efficient with their meal planning? Remember that New Year's resolution?! As long as you're cooking one pan of something fabulous, you might as well double it and exchange it. Voila - you've suddenly saved yourself an evening of cooking and clean-up time! Let me declare my intentions for this week: I will at least bring a pan of lasagna, possibly a sausage bread, if I get really energetic.

BTW, Darla found a great book on this topic called Fix, Freeze, Feast - check out the reviews on Amazon; it does look like a gold mine. Darla tells me that she's read tons of books on the topic, and this is the best, and she's tried some of the recipes, and they're great. She found it at the library, in case you want to check it out before you buy it.

Get cookin', comrades!

Lincoln on Thanksgiving

It is the duty of nations as well as of men to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God; to confess their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon; and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures
and proven by all history, that those nations are blessed whose God is the LORD.
We know that by His divine law, nations, like individuals, are subjected to punishments and chastisements in this world. May we not justly fear that the awful calamity of civil war which now desolates the land may be a punishment inflicted upon us for our presumptuous sins, to the needful end of our national reformation as a whole people?

We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven; we have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity; we have grown in numbers, wealth and power as no other nation has ever grown.

But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to, feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us.

It has seemed to me fit and proper that God should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged, as with one heart and one voice, by the whole American people. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November as a day of Thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens.

Soup Exchange!!

Hello all;

I think it a wonderful idea that we do a soup exchange this Friday. #1 soup is easy to make and freeze. You can make it and put it into a gallon ziplock bag and they will freeze flat, taking up less room.
#2 with it being the week before thanksgiving, I would love not to cook at all until sometime Wed.
So, Darla and I (Dana) are interested, if anyone else is, please bring a soup or 2 or 3 that we can swap!!
Mine will be corn chowder, I am going to try and bring 3.
questions? email me.

Thanks
Dana

Quick and Dirty recipes

What are the quick standbys you rely on to get a meal on the table? Our family's easy favorite is called "Gayla's Soup," named after the friend who gave it to me, so I'll rename it for your guys:

Cyndi's Soup

1 lb ground beef, browned

2 cans minestrone (the larger ready-to-serve, not condensed, kinds such as Progresso or Campbells)

1 can Ranch Style beans (it's a brand, in case you've never heard of such a thing....I'd never heard of them until I moved to Osage County as a young bride)

1 can Rotel tomatoes (my kids like the mild version)

1 can water

Combine and cook all afternoon or all day in crock pot, or you can cook in a dutch oven for 2-3 hours at 325 degrees.

Serve with cornbread and a salad - voila, it's dinner! (or skip the salad - heck, there are a few vegetables in the soup and Rotel.) For larger families, you might need to double it. With my high school son, this barely feeds the six of us.

Post your family favorites in the comments section!