French Toast

Wondering what to do with that stale bread?  Make French toast!!  :)  This past week we were given some delightful looking cranberry bread which had gotten a little stale (it was day-old) -- SOOOO I sliced it up and made delicious French toast!

I don't really use a recipe, I just mix up two eggs with some milk until it looks kind of light yellow (maybe like 1 1/2 cup?) then I add a tsp or so of vanilla and a couple of teaspoons of cinnamon.  

Soak the bread in the liquid until it is saturated, then fry up and eat with butter and maple syrup!!

YUMMMMMMM!! :) 

Beauty

Girls in Science, Engineering, and Math -- what's with those role models? A little rant...

I have always been science and math-minded.  I encourage girls to love science and math--and to look into science/engineering/math related careers.  On several occasions I have had opportunities to take my daughters and some of their friends to different events which encourage girls to enter STEM careers...or other careers which have been male-dominated historically.  

So here's my issue:  at these events, so many of the exhibitors and/or speakers are often kind of mannish in their way of dress and styling.  Seriously.  

The point of these events is that girls can do this!  But the unstated message is that they have to be kind of less-feminine?  

I really don't agree with that and I know that not all who are in those careers are less-feminine.  I was privileged to go to an annual conference of Society of Women Engineers last year and got to see an entire conference center full of women, mostly in fancy dresses for an evening awards banquet.  That was definitely in contrast to an event I took my daughter and 3 other girls to this week--one which was intended to show girls that they can in fact enter careers which they might not otherwise have looked into (b/c often they are tagged as men's careers)--but most of the exhibitors were very masculine in their dress and styles.  

I understand that this is some people's personal style.  Okay. HOWEVER--if we want all girls to feel that these careers are open to them as well, perhaps we ought to illustrate the spectrum--so that those girls who are "girly" or frilly or whatever--do not feel excluded either. 

Maybe I'm looking too deeply at this, but I do know that there are females in engineering/science/math who do actually like to wear cute dresses, makeup, fancy hairdos, etc. and are still killer scientists/engineers/mathematicians, etc.

And I'd like my frilly and sparkly-loving girls to know this.

Linking up with TOS Homeschool Review Crew blog

Apple pie!!

Tis the season for apple pie!  Something about fall and the abundance of apples make it the perfect time to whip up some apple pie!

Want to hear my quick and easy recipe?

Here we go!

First get (or make!) a pie crust (just the bottom)

A bunch of apples (like 10 per pie--or more if you have/need) -- I like to mix different varieties for great flavor!

Peel the apples and slice into thinnish slices (1/4" thick or so).

Put these slices into a large bowl and sprinkle on 1 tsp of lemon juice.  Add 2 Tbsp flour,1 Tbsp of cinnamon, and   1/2 c of sugar and mix up so that the slices are kind of coated.

Put the apple slices into the pie crust.

Mix up 1 cup flour, 1/2 c brown sugar, and 1/2 c butter (cut in) -- cut these in until it resembles coarse crumbs.  Put this crumbly stuff on top of the apples.

Pop into the oven and bake at 375 for about 1 hour until when you stick a knife into it, there is no crunchy feel.

Cool a little and eat!!  Oh, and listen to this great song "Apple Pie" by our favorite Roy Hurd! :)

.

The apples getting coated with lemon juice, flour, sugar, and cinnamon

Put the slices in the piecrust

Mix together the topping ingredients (butter, brown sugar, and flour)
I don't always use the food processor for this--you can do it with a bowl and 2 knives or whatever!

Put the topping on and place in oven (you may need to put a drip pan underneath)

 

Bake for about an hour and then check with knife to make sure the apples are all softened

Let it cool for awhile (honestly I think it tastes better mostly cool--plus it gives
it time to thicken up a little)

Eat and enjoy!! :) 

Books of the Bible At-a-Glance -- my REVIEW

Have you ever been reading a book of the Bible or even looking up a reference in a certain book and wondered what time frame that book was written in? Or maybe even who wrote it? This most recent product that I got to try out is a really neat reference called Books of the Bible At-a-Glance by a company called Teach Sunday School.


This product is a pdf download that has an entire page to outline/introduce each of the sixty-six books of the Bible--and it goes beyond that and gives the owner/reader tons of great ideas of how to use this resource!

So what is on these pages?  Each book of the Bible has its own one-page summary/info/introduction.  Some of the things on the page are the book's "place" in its respective testament, who the author is, what date it was written, a visual of where it falls in the Bible, some "claims to fame", famous stories included, most famous verses, and important points about the verse.

I realize that some Bibles contain some of this information in their introductory materials, but these pages are easy to look through, especially when you are accustomed to their layout.

I printed out one of these for my husband to go along with the book that he is currently reading (Jeremiah) and he thought it was a good reference.

I thought that it would be neat to print them in a half-size to slide into my Bible, but that was too small for my eyes :) :) haha!! (Though it was readable by my kids) -- I guess I'll stick with the regular whole page size!

Although the publisher is called "Teach Sunday School," these summary pages have great use for homeschools too!  They are a great tool for learning about when the books of the Bible were written, as well as different little bits of information that you may not otherwise have known!  (For example, did you know that Jeremiah was about twenty years old when he began to prophesy?  or that Jonah was vomited by the great fish up probably somewhere west of Jerusalem?)  

I could see some really fun ways to use these with a Sunday School class or maybe an Awana group or something.  You could print a few copies of them (all) out and have the kids do a scavenger hunt through them, looking for similarities or themes--or even just for similar time periods or authors or so many different things (sometimes a little competition helps!)

The color scheme is easy on the eyes while being attractive, the text is written clearly and is easy to understand.  I kind of wish that there had been a few maps thrown in, but that's just my style.  It's a pdf download and you are allowed to unlimited printings for one family or for one church!  It's priced very reasonably, especially considering the volume of use you can get from it!  Imagine using it with someone not familiar with the books of the Bible--what a great resource to give some clarity and definition! Or to just refresh your own memory on a book you might not be overly familiar with!  There are many uses of this resource!

Once again, it is called Books of the Bible At-a-Glance -- check it out!

To read more reviews about this same product, please click the link below:

Forensic Faith For Kids -- my REVIEW

1 Peter 3:15 says, "But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect."  As believers in Christ, we ought to be willing and ready to explain why we believe in Christ and the Bible.  This is not just for adults, but youth who are believers ought to have this confident reasoning ability to share what they believe and why they believe it. 

The dictionary will define apologetics as, "reasoned arguments or writings in justification of something, typically a theory or religious doctrine."  Sometimes we understand/believe things but have difficulty explaining why.  This book that I had the opportunity to read for review, Forensic Faith for Kids by David C Cook and Case Makers Academy, is written to help kids reason out and share the details of their faith to others.







The book is a story about two different investigations -- one is a few kids trying to solve the mystery of the "appeared out of nowhere" dog and the other is a few kids trying to share their beliefs in Christ as God with some doubting friends.  They are mentored by a detective, who is teaching them forensic-type skills to solve their mysteries.  He gives them tips and then sends them out to investigate.  He teaches them skills and "tools" and gives them great talks and rules. Here's one for example:  RULES ABOUT EVIDENCE: 1.  Just because someone writes something in a book, it doesn't mean it's true.  2.  Everything has the potential to be evidence.  3. The more cumulative the case, the more reasonable the conclusion.

The book is written in a voice that makes it sound like the reader is there, involved with the story.  The characters in the book are children who are doing the learning and investigating, as well as the (adult) detective.  

There were a lot of points made in this book that I really appreciated.  I want to share a few of them:
                           ***Unreasonable faith  -- "inspite of" evidence
                                 Blind faith -- "without" any evidence
                                 Forensic faith -- "because of" the evidence


                          ***Even though you might use evidence to figure out if something is true, you're still going to have some questions that are difficult, if not impossible, to answer


                         ***Don't be afraid when unbelievers make claims you can't answer; Christianity is true. It can survive the toughest questions.  When someone...says something    untrue about Christianity and you're not sure how to respond, just say, "That's                           interesting, let me do some research and I"ll get back to you."


Along with the book, there is a video series that moves chapter by chapter through the whole book.  It's found at Case Makers Academy and it is a real detective (the author) speaking about the exciting finds in the chapter.

Also on that same site there are three different printable pages for each chapter, one is a parents' guide, one is a training activity sheet (kind of a fun activity page relating to the chapter), and one is an academy notebook sheet (a fill-in-the-blank style note-taking page).

My 14-year old daughter and I read this book and watched the videos.  My daughter thought that the book was a little "young" for her and I agree.  I think that the way this book is written is for a much younger than 14 yrs old audience, though the topics and concepts were perfectly suited to even older teens.  Personally I didn't care for the writing style ("Daniel says..." "...replies Jason") to me it kind of sounds like someone narrating/reading a comic book aloud, or is reminiscent of those choose your own adventure books I read as a preteen in the '80's (though this book is not like them in format--you do not choose your own paths).  However, the book was not written for me, it was written for younger kids :) I did like the content.

I think that this book, Forensic Faith for Kids, uysed alongside the videos and worksheets on Case Makers Academy would make a wonderful study for a group of young kids (preteens?) -- something like a Sunday School class or a Bible study.  It's good content that will be reinforced through the use of the videos and the worksheets.

To read more reviews of this book, please click on the link below! :)

Finding the square root of an "easy" number

Quick refresher if you forgot how to do this!

To find the square root of a number, just find out the factors (like make a factor tree--my favorite method!).

When there are two of the same number, you can cross them out and take one out from under the square root sign.

FOR EXAMPLE:

Since you figured out that there is one set of two fives, you may take one five out from under the square root sign and leave the remaining one under it

Giving you the answer that the square root of 125 is 

If you determine that in your number you can take two or more sets of numbers out from under the square root sign, you simply multiply those numbers together:

So from the example above, when figuring out the square root of 392, you would come up with 7 times two outside of the root sign, giving you 14, and then the 2 remains under the root sign, leaving you with 14 √2 

2–

Similarly, to take the third root, you would just notice what there are 3 instances of, which in this case is 5's.  Since there are 3 fives, the third root of 125 would be 5 (with nothing left over, so nothing under the radical sign)

Not bad, huh?