Fraction Formulas

Published by Mary September 2nd, 2010 in Home Schooling. 0 Comments

Ever wonder which fraction problems need inverted and multiplied, or which ones call for finding the least common denominator before you can do anything else? Keeping track of the procedures used for adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing these fractions can be tricky for grade schoolers (and their parents!). Here’s some help!

But first a plug! We love our Professor B Math! It’s a contextual way to learn all aspects of math from a practical viewpoint in the least amount of time possible, and at your own pace. In spite of being a straight A student, I never learned math this way in grade school…and consequently, I feel like it’s finally making sense to me these past few years of teaching Professor B’s methods to my children.

So my daughter is learning ALLLL about fractions and we got the coolest fraction “tips” in today’s lesson.

Here you go for the next time your child is stumped as to which procedure to use for which fractional operation…

Know the code:

f=fraction, MN=mixed number, LCD=least common denominator

When the first formula says “f+f = LCD then add” it’s a short hand way of saying: “fraction plus fraction equals finding the least common denominator, then adding the fractions”…

Okay…for the formulas:

  • f+f=LCD then add
  • f-f=LCD then subtract
  • fxf=reduce (if possible), then multiply across
  • f (divided by) f=invert and multiply
  • MN+MN=LCD then add
  • MN-MN=LCD then subtract
  • MNxMN=set up fraction, then multiply fraction
  • MN (divided by) MN=set up fraction then divide by fraction

If you drill your children on these formulas, and keep a “cheat sheet” taped to the inside of their mathbooks, eventually they won’t have to think very hard about which formula applies to their various fraction pursuits!

Gotta love it!

Professor B says whatever you do, if you learn your fractions backwards and forwards algebra will be a lot less intimidating!

Hope this helps some harried mom out there with her child’s homework!

It’s not too late to decide to homeschool…

Published by Mary August 28th, 2010 in Home Schooling. 3 Comments

I saw this in the Miami Herald, and had to post a link. It makes a mommy want to cry…

We’re starting classes Monday–beginning our 8th official year of homeschooling. I’m working on our kick-off, the annual treasure hunt clues that will lead my girls to their new curriculum and literature books for 2010-11. How thankful I am, for these ‘thousands of hours’ with my sweet kids! I shudder to think of all we might have lost if not for homeschooling!

For instance, homeschooling is the perfect healing ground for family relationships. It’s a *must-adapt-and-get-along* atmosphere. If you were to pull your children out of public school today, would all the cats hit the fan? If so, it reveals the sad state of the relationships and habits  in and of the family.  Siblings can get along and even more, be best friends.  Children can love and respect their parents and genuinely seek to further God’s glory along with the family unit.  I might even go a step further and say that the Biblical model for educating our families looks a lot like homeschooling!

Maybe homeschooling is an option for you?

Favorite Healthy Toothpastes

Published by Mary August 20th, 2010 in Health. 0 Comments

Quick post on this subject…because I do believe oral health is directly related to overall general health.  Bacteria in the mouth, can lead to infections in the body.

When shopping for hygiene products, there are three COMMON ingredients we avoid where possible:

  • Sodium Lauryl Sulfate–this is a main ingredient in most commercial shampoos, cosmetics, and toothpastes. In toothpastes, it’s been shown to cause a higher incidence of canker sores and that’s minor. Do your research!
  • Propylene Glycol–found in automatic brake and hydraulic fluid, industrial antifreeze, paint, degreasers, wallpaper strippers and more… can cause liver dysfunction and kidney problems and more!
  • Fluoride–according to the Clinical Toxicology of Commercial Products, fluoride is more poisonous than lead, and just slightly less poisonous than arsenic. It is a cumulative poison that accumulates in bone over time. After hearing about young children dying from accidentally swallowing their fluoride treatments in the dentist’s chair, we request no fluoride at our appointments.I won’t even comment about it being in our water supply!

So in light of the above, it’s been important to me to find healthy alternatives to what is typically available at Wal-mart. Wal-mart does carry Tom’s of Maine brand toothpaste, which is a “natural” toothpaste with no fluoride…but it does contain propylene glycol.

We’ve found that our favorite commercial toothpaste is JASON Cosmetics brand Powersmile toothpaste, available through the Frontier co-op site and some health food stores. Vanilla Mint is the BEST tasting toothpaste I’ve had in all my 35 years. It’s amazing, for the whole family. This toothpaste boasts the following:

  • Certified organic ingredients
  • Natural flavor
  • Exclusive natural whiteners
  • Bacteria-blaster promotes healthy gums
  • Long lasting breath freshener
  • No fluoride
  • No saccharin
  • No preservatives
  • No artificial colors or flavors
  • No animal by-products
  • No animal testing
  • no lauryl sulfates
  • No propylene glycol

Sounds perfect, huh. It’s the good stuff.

Make your own. :O) Now there’s a fresh idea!

However much we like and recommend JASON brand toothpastes…recently, we’ve been using plain ole baking soda to clean our pearly whites. It’s cheap, easy, and on hand. Wet the toothbrush, add a little baking soda (Bob’s Red Mill brand–aluminum free!), a single drop of wintergreen or peppermint essential oil (more than a drop will make your mouth burn!) and wow, your teeth look and feel like you’ve just been to the dentist for a cleaning. We’re hooked.

There are some great recipes online for homemade “tooth soaps”, kept in soap dispensers, which sound like a great way to contain the mess and squirt out however much you need w/o sharing germs.

So there you go, a few alternatives to name-brand toothpastes and all their potentially toxic ingredients!

More than you wanted to know? ;O)

Homemade Pizza Sauce

Published by Mary August 19th, 2010 in Canning and Cooking and Food. 1 Comment

Here is my friend’s famous pizza sauce recipe, as per yesterday’s  request by “fellow midwesterner”!

First of all, to make pizza sauce, we start with tomato sauce.

Tomato Sauce (taken from the Ball Blue Book of Preserving)

  • 45 lbs of tomatoes (paste tomatoes thicken up the best)
  • bottled lemon juice

Wash tomatoes; drain. Remove core and blossom. Cut into quarters; simmer 20 minutes in a large sauce pot, stirring occasionally. Puree tomatoes in a food processor or food mill.  Strain puree to remove seeds and peels.  Cook pulp in a large, uncovered sauce pot over med-high heat until sauce thickens, stirring to prevent sticking. Reduce volume by one-half. Add 1 TB bottled lemon juice to each pint jar, 2 TB to each quart jar. Ladle hot sauce into hot jars, leaving 1/2 inch headspace. Adjust two-piece caps. Process pints 35 minutes, quarts 40 minutes, in a boiling water canner.

Okay. Once you have your tomato sauce, you can use it to make pizza sauce for the freezer! That recipe follows, but first:

***Be sure to read this paragraph!***

Notice that this pizza sauce recipe can be made with either store-bought tomato sauce plus tomato paste, or home-canned tomato sauce. If you use home-canned, make sure your home-canned sauce is thick by using paste tomatoes, and/or lengthening the time you cook your tomatoes before canning. The longer they cook, the thicker it gets, but your volume is also reduced.  So the following recipe assumes you will use store-bought sauce and tomato paste. If you use home-canned, thicker sauce, then you can eliminate buying tomato paste from the grocery store and use approx. 41 oz of home-canned sauce. If your home-canned sauce is not very thick, you may add the 12 oz can of tomato paste to it to thicken it, and keep to the 29 oz of tomato sauce. Hopefully that was clearer than mud.

Homemade Pizza Sauce

  • 1 can (29 oz) tomato sauce
  • 1 can (12 oz) tomato paste
  • 1 TB Italian seasoning
  • 1 TB dried oregano
  • 1-2 tsp fennel seed, crushed (optional–fennel seed has a unique taste, we don’t like it much)
  • 1 tsp onion powder
  • 1 tsp garlic powder
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • sugar to taste (start tasting at 1-2 tsp)

We also add a little marjoram, basil, thyme–all of these taste good in Italian dishes. Play around with the spices that your family appreciates, and leave out the ones they don’t.  You may also leave the sugar out. We think it plays down the tangy-ness of the sauce.

In a saucepan, over medium heat, combine tomato sauce and paste. Add remaining ingredients; mix well. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 1 hour, stirring occasionally. Cool. Pour into freezer containers, leaving 1/2 inch headspace. Freeze for up to 12 months.

This recipe also may be canned following the Ball’s Blue Book of Preserving directions for “seasoned tomato sauce” which says to add 1 TB bottled lemon juice to each pint jar, 2 TB bottled lemon juice to each quart jar. Ladle hot sauce into hot jars, leaving 1/2 inch headspace. Adjust two-piece caps. Process pints 35 minutes, quarts 40 minutes in a boiling water canner.

This super yummy pizza sauce is extremely good with the following recipes:

Homemade Pizza Pockets

Homemade Pizza Dough

Where is God in this Mess?

Published by Mary August 17th, 2010 in Life and Parenting. 0 Comments

Q: My family is going through a ‘bankrupt time’ physically and financially. Everything I used to think assured about our future—my children’s future—is now uncertain. My older teens are making choices that are taking them away from the church. I know this is just another pothole in life’s road, but I’m stuck, and every way out seems to take too much out of me. Where is God in this mess?

A: He’s there. You are not alone. This is a story I am hearing more and more as I talk to people. I’ve been through aspects of it myself. True, you are going through many challenges at once. True, you’ve had the breath knocked out of you. But even at the bottom, there’s light if you look up.

For the rest of this article, take a virtual trip over to Word Explain’s Parenting Q&A website!

Homemade Deodorant

Published by Mary July 29th, 2010 in Health. 4 Comments

OK, so this post is all about battling B.O.  Not only that, but battling it in a safe and reliable way with aluminum-free ingredients. Finally, you can feel good about what you and your family put on your pits. :O)

Why aluminum-free? Well, store-bought deodorants contain aluminum or aluminum compounds, which are said by the “experts” to increase the risk of Alzheimer’s and certain kinds of cancer. I don’t know about you, but my children are approaching the age of deodorant usage…and for them to have zero-exposure to toxic metals sounds good to me!

I love being able to pronounce the ingredients of the things I put in and on my body, don’t you? That’s just one more *plus* to this deodorant recipe.

Homemade Aluminum-free Deodorantfingertip spray bottle

  • Bob’s Red Mill Aluminum-free Baking soda (most baking soda brands are processed w/aluminum, so go with Bob’s!)
  • Witch Hazel (available at your local supermarket…same section as alcohol and hydrogen peroxide)
  • fingertip-spray bottle (for witch hazel)
  • plastic storage bottle w/a flip top lid (for baking soda storage)
  • essential oil of choice (coconut or rosemary…)

Fill the mini-spray bottle with witch hazel, and if desired, add a drop or two of your favorite essential oil. Likewise, fill the other flip-top container with baking soda. To use, simply spray the witch hazel on  your armpit, then dump a bit of baking soda in your hand and cup it to your pit…patting it around. It’s not as messy as it sounds, and I’m so happy to report that it’s the BEST protection I’ve ever had from B.O.  My friend who got me started w/this recipe told me that prior to trying this recipe, she also had searched for a good coverage deodorant but always ended up smelling like B.O. and whatever scent the deodorant happened to be.

I’ve been using this recipe with totally happy results for several days now!

One last tip  for sensitive skin, try one part witch hazel, one part aloe vera gel, and one part water.

While we’re on the topic of homemade deodorants, I want to point you to another recipe that sounds good…this one we haven’t tried yet, but came highly recommended by another friend of mine. She says it’s totally replaced store-bought deodorant for her family…teenage son and all! This one is more of a roll-on, and calls for coconut oil, arrowroot powder and baking soda.

At any rate, should we somehow experience a world-wide shortage of hygiene products, you now have a recipe or two to save the day!

Brownies and other Ooey-Gooey Delights

Published by Mary July 19th, 2010 in Cooking and Food. 8 Comments

Hard to be overly health conscious when these treats are in the house! My oldest first baked these brownies on May 17, 2009, to assuage the trauma caused me by the “vicious possum attack of ‘09″…remember my sad tale,“Hard Life Knocks on the Farm”?

Anyhow…this brownie recipe has been asked for by three friends now, so I better get on the ball and post it here. Am also sharing my oldest’s recipe for “Ooey-Gooeys”…a no bake treat she first made with her Aunt Kimmy. Special memories!

Chocolate Chunk Pecan Brownies

  • 1 cup butter (okay, you can use margarine but it will turn to plastic in your liver…I’m just sayin’…)
  • 2 cups sugar
  • 2 tsp vanilla
  • 4 eggs, slightly beaten
  • 1 cup all purpose flour
  • 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 8 oz. semi-sweet chocolate, coarsely chopped (chocolate chips work)
  • 1 cup chopped pecans

Heat oven to 350*F. Grease 13×9 inch pan. In medium saucepan over low heat, melt butter. Add sugar, vanilla and eggs; blend well. Stir in flour, cocoa and salt; mix well. Add chocolate and pecans. Pour into greased pan.

Bake at 350*F for 30-40 minutes or until set. Cool completely. Cut into bars

Yield: 36 bars

Ooey-Gooeys (we always double this recipe!)

  • 12 TB crushed graham crackers
  • 4 TB honey
  • 8 TB peanut butter (we use sunbutter)

Mix all ingredients in a small bowl. Shape into golf-ball sized lumps. You should be able to make a dozen. Spoon onto baking pan lined with waxed paper. Chill in refrigerator for 30 minutes. Goes great with a glass of milk!

Orange Smoothies

Published by Mary July 3rd, 2010 in Cooking and Food. 4 Comments

Have to share this cold, frothy recipe here…it is delicious, especially on a hot summer afternoon. And we’ve had a lot of those lately. In the past week we’ve picked buckets and buckets of blackberries and apricots, wheelbarrows of onions and cabbages, weeded the gardens, carried gallons and gallons of water to the newest garden that has no hydrant…here’s hoping we can coax our melons and sweet potatoes to hang in there…

Orange Refresher (serves 4)

  • 1 cup nonfat plain yogurt (I used vanilla yogurt)
  • 1 cup water
  • 6 oz can frozen orange juice concentrate, unsweetened
  • 1/3 cup honey
  • 1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
  • 8-10 ice cubes

Blend in a blender until smooth! Did you know that the citric acid in orange juice enhances calcium absorption from the yogurt or from milk? Mm-hm.

You could also add in various ingredients for extra nutrients, like raw egg, 1-2 TB protein powder, 1/4-3 TB brewer’s yeast (B vitamins), 1 tsp.-1 TB flaxseed oil or olive oil (to assist in absorption of vits. A, D, E, K).

This recipe is from Sue Gregg’s Breakfasts cookbook.

Lastly, if you’ve had access to blackberries lately…you’ve got to try this scrumptious recipe for Blackberry Pie Bars from Joy the Baker’s site. Let me just say…the lemon zest rubbed sugar crust was incredible! This recipe is for my blackberry friend, TR!

Dealing With Interruptions

Published by Mary June 21st, 2010 in Parenting and Writing. 2 Comments

Check out my June article, Dealing With Interruptions, at Parenting Q&A, hot off the press! ;O)

Here’s the question:

I’m a stay-at-home mom, but I also freelance three days a week. Balancing parenting with my writing career is more difficult than I thought it would be. We do need the extra income, and we feel strongly that we’re to be the ones raising our three children. However, I’m verging on burn-out over here and can’t get a break for all the interruptions.

Happy first day of summer, everyone!

Yummy Superfoods: Spotlight on Cacao Nibs!

Published by Mary June 13th, 2010 in Cooking and Food and Health. 0 Comments

If you haven’t discovered the Live Superfoods website yet, today is *your* day! What is a “Superfood”? It’s a nutrient-dense food that ramps up your health at the cell level like you can’t believe.

Superfoods range from powders to actual foods. Be sure to check out the big variety of superfood powders at Live Superfoods–our favorite so far is Mesquite with its amazing claims for diabetics. Plus, it happens to be delicious sprinkled on yogurt, or added to smoothies and hot drinks!  Camu Camu powder is said to be highly effective against depression, containing between 30 and 60 times as much vitamin C as an orange!

Goji berries, bee pollen and wheat grasses are some other superfoods our family has tried and fallen in love with. And this is just the tip of the superfood iceberg. Today, I want to tell you about raw cacao nibs!

Raw Cacao Nibs

Chocolate is made from cacao beans…need I say more? But unlike processed chocolate, raw cacao nibs (broken up cacao beans) are rich in nutrients, and full of health benefits. You won’t believe all the ways they are good for you, so go to the link below and read up!

A snippet from the Live Superfoods website on Raw Cacao Nibs:

Cacao has more antioxidant flavonoids than any food tested so far, including blueberries, red wine, and black and green teas. In fact, it has up to four times the quantity of antioxidants found in green tea!

Cacao is LOADED with magnesium and just might be the number one source of magnesium of any food. Could this be why women crave chocolate before or during their menstrual period? Magnesium balances brain chemistry, builds strong bones, and is associated with creating more happiness. Magnesium is the most deficient major mineral on the Standard American Diet (SAD) – over 80% of Americans are chronically deficient in magnesium.

But what do you do with Raw Cacao Nibs?

We love our nibs mixed in with a little raw honey and coconut butter, and goji berries if we have them. You won’t find a healthier, more palate pleasing, melt in your mouth treat to replace that candy bar fix.  Sometimes we mix it up and freeze it in candy molds, and then just pop them out of the molds, bag them up and store them in the freezer.

(I think I’m going to go pull one out for a snack this minute!)

Here’s another fab recipe. I first tried Agave at the homeschool convention this spring. WOW. Delicious stuff, with the same consistency as honey, but more expensive!

Raw Almond Butter Cups from Everyday Raw by Matthew Kenney

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup almond butter
  • 1.5 cups agave (divided)
  • 2 cups coconut oil (divided)
  • 1/2 tablespoon sea salt
  • 1 cup cacao nibs
  • parchment paper
  • a baking sheet with sides

Directions:

  1. In a medium bowl, mix the almond butter, 1/2 cup of agave, 1/2 cup of coconut oil and sea salt. Set aside until ready to use (not in refrigerator).
  2. In a blender, blend cacao nibs, 1 cup agave, 1.5 cups coconut oil until smooth.
  3. Spread 1/2 of the cacao mixture from Step 2 onto a parchment lined baking sheet with “walls” to create a thin layer. Place in freezer for 15 minutes or until it firms up.
  4. Remove from freezer and spread almond butter mixture from Step 1 over the hardened cacao mixture.
  5. Spread remaining cacao mixture over the top of the spread almond mixture and put the pan back into the freezer until its firm.
  6. Remove from freezer and turn out the mixture from the pan onto the cutting board. Remove parchment paper and cut up the firmed up mixture into small piece. Voila! Almond butter cups!
  7. Be sure to store these in the fridge or freezer.

Yield: about 1.5 quarts.

For my previous post on nut butters, including Almond Butter, go here!

Last but not least…I’m able to order our raw cacao nibs from Frontier through our local co-op. My coffee grinder handily spins some of them into a powder so my oldest daughter (braces) can enjoy them, too.  We’re totally devoted fans!

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