Kaake Family Blog

I always used walmart type plastic bags from grocery shopping. However, I try to use reusable bags for the most part now which meant I had no waste basket liners. I finally got up the nerve to try to throw something together and am pleased with the results. I can't wait to get more fabric that will match the other bathrooms. Yeah! The coolest part is, this is washable and biodegrades!

I was frustrated that my daughter's 4th grade science book did not cover anatomy this year. She learned some different things about it in the years past but I feel this age/grade has much more understanding. So, here's some links I've found useful. We drew her body on a large piece of paper and will soon be adding organs to it. I have a feeling this is going to take a month to really hit hard on the point of it - but I'm ok with that:) Below are the links I found to be most helpful as well as a list of books I have on hand here at home that are going to prove to be helpful. Here's the Proof! It Couldn't Just Happen by Lawrence Richards Christian Liberty Nature Reader #5 Easy Science Activity Journals by Scholastic God's Creation Series - God's Wonderful Works - The Creation in Six Days by Eric D. Bristley and Edward J. Shewan Uncover The Human Body by Luann Colombo http://www.proteacher.org/c/461_Human_Body_Systems.html http://www.innerbody.co...

Please make sure to check back here periodically for more pictures and information. If you click on the pictures, you will be able to see a much larger and defined picture for identification. The Praying Mantis This gentleman was found just outside our back door. We quickly got a jar to figure out whether "it" was a girl or boy. From reading online we think it is a boy because it did not have a large abdomen. Can you see in the picture how he was looking at the camera? I took this picture at the neighbors house. My daughter wasn't sure whether or not it was a butterfly or a moth. Here's a link that will help you determine what this little creature is. http://insects.about.com/od/learningaboutinsects/a/butterflyormoth.htm Here is an update from one of our fellow homeschoolers, Madeline age 11 1/2 "It is a, "Painted Lady" from the large subfamily of butterflies known as brushfoots (Nymphalinae). A Painted Lady has a white crescent at ...

Jan Brett has a lovely selection of coloring pages and other activities for children online. In fact there are to date over 4,000 of them. Today I'm currently speaking of the drawing video tutorials she has up online. These can be found here . This is such a lovely resource for any family. Especially for those with children who love to draw.

Just last night, prince Jon found a very lovely and rare bottle of barn red craft paint. With wonder, excitement and maybe a little fear of the unknown, he opened up the bottle oh so carefully. 'What is that funny stuff inside?' thought the little prince. He started to slowly pour it over the lovely school desk his mother had just months previously repainted for him and his sister. It puddled very neatly onto the desk from the little bit he poured out. 'I'll try some more' he thought, and so he proceeded to dump the entire lovely bottle of red paint on the desk. To his joy and excitement it not only stayed put on the desk, it decided to creap it's way down onto the cream colored, already spotted (from stains) carpet. He was overjoyed - until.....his mother turned around. The Queen was not happy about the little prince's discovery. She quickly picked up the paint covered little prince and quickly proceeded to wash him off. While the prince was ...

I had been introduced to this site quite awhile ago. However, I'm ashamed to admit we had never vhttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifisited it, even with the links coming in my inbox. Today we went on the website and learned about the center of gravity. I know this is definately going to be one of those sites that we visit very frequently. I am not the greatest at science, but this was something very easy to understand and learn. Yeah for Robert Krampf and all his hard work. You can visit his site here .

Ok so fall doesn't officially start for several more days but I just can't help myself. Fall is by far my favorite season of the year. What goes better with fall than apples? The kids were just loving up the apples we recently purchased. Now I'm getting the fever to go to an apple orchard. I don't think our homeschool group can plan this field trip fast enough for me. lol. My charge to you today is make sure to get those kiddo's outside. Charlotte Mason always said, whatever the weather, get the children outside every day. You would not believe how much more smoothly your day will be if they simply have some time to frolic and explore God's creation - on their own.

So since today is my birthday I thought I'd share all the freebies you can get with it. Here are some locations where signing up can get you some yummy goodies. Cold Stone - get a free ice cream creation. Tropical Smoothie - free smoothie of choice. Zhenders Restarant - free chicken dinner and free ornament at Bronners. Logans - free nut butter fludge slide. Prime Outlest in Birch Run - started a promotion this month with a $20 gift card! Moes - 1 free burrito Macaroni Grill - free piece of chocolate cake I'm sure there are many other places that do things like this. If you are aware of any, leave me a comment and I'll add it to the list. TO get these items you must sign up for the newsletter on their online site. Enjoy!

These items are not only safe but cheap! Gotta love that. They also work incredibly well. These two items are baking soda and white distilled vinegar. Kitchen: 1. Plugged Drains - Pour 1/2 cup baking soda down drain followed by 1/2 cup vinegar. If the clog is very bad, skim off floaties that come to the surface and repeat. After it won't bubble anymore, give it one or two good plunges and it should be free. 2. Mix 1/4 cup baking soda in a sink full of water to wash fruits and veggies. 3. Put out a grease fire with baking soda. 4. Deodorize fridge and freezer by putting a box of baking soda in each one. 5. Add to presoaked beans to make them more digestible. 6. Dissolve 2T. baking soda in a bit of water placed in a microwave safe bowl. Put in microwave and heat till boiling. You should easily be able to clean out stuck on food on the microwave. 7. Place 1 cup vinegar on the bottom shelf of your dishwasher. Wash on the hottest, longest cycle. This will help clean your ...

Clove trees are native to the Spice Islands but now can also be found in other parts of the eastern world. You can information about the Spice Islands here. If you happen to be a homeschooler, I have also come across a unit study for the Spice Islands which can be found here. Last but not least, here is a guide I found online that tells about how long a spice will last in your cupboard. Cloves have been dated back to at least the year 207 B.C. in China where it is said that the emperor required visitors to chew on cloves to freshen their breath. In 1552, an explorer named Ferdinand Megallan was the first to bring cloves back to his home in Spain which were highly coveted for their medicinal properties. That sure was a long time for the rest of the world to wait to use this wonderful spice. The active ingredient in cloves is eugenol which is a very effective painkiller. It also acts to kill bacteria, fungis and virus’s. The eugenol in this plant gives the cloves amazing antiseptic ...

Once we started homeschooling, I really started looking at things differently. We ended up purchasing a Moody Bible VHS on bees which is incredibly fascinating. Here it talked about how there is nothing in the world engineered so well as the bees hive. How the worker bees act as a heater in the winter by doing various things and in the summer act as an air conditioner. Everyone knows their job and does it very effectively. God gave them exactly what they needed in order to survive. Ok I’m getting a little off subject. Let’s proceed onto the benefits of honey. First of all, all honey is not created equal. The honey you find in your local grocery store is more than likely not a good supply of honey. What you want to look for is locally grown honey which is very easy to find once you know where to look. It has wonderful nutritional value and is not watered down or sugar added. We get raw honey as we feel this gives the most benefits in it’s very natural state. Honey acts as an antib...

I had heard of people using this in the past - Folk Remedies is what they were called. It was touted to heal/cure all kinds of ailments from A - Z and then some. I’ll have to admit I am one of the worlds biggest skeptics on things like this. I will try it and if it works, great and if not then I let the world know. lol! I picked up a bottle of Bragg Apple Cider Vinegar from my local health food store. It is very low expense considering I only use 1 Tablespoon per day. I had taken a drink of 8 oz warm water, 1 tablespoon of raw honey and 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar (ACV) for almost 2 weeks. In that time here’s what I found. - My appetite actually decreased . On top of that which I don’t know if it has any baring on this or not but I didn’t crave junk foods. I can actually see acv being a part of this because it kills yeast and yeast is what makes us crave sweets and breads. - My skin first broke out but that was because all the toxins were coming out. I think another week...

If we could give every individual the right amount of nourishment and exercise, not too little, and not too much, we would have found the safest way to health. by the Father of Medicine, Hippocrates Come on in and take a peek into our medicine cabinet. We used to have cough medicines of all kinds, pain relievers galore, pms pills, throat sprays and more. What we have come to find out is they don’t actually work (most of the time that is). Here is a list of wonderful remedies and cures we keep on hand at all times if possible. Colds: Hylands Sniffles and Sneezes homeopathic remedy - we use this for kids and adults alike. Vitamin D Vitamin C Diarrhea: White Oak Bark from Nature’s Sunshine to slow down the bowels. Priobiotic Eleven from Nature’s Sunshine to repopulate the gut with good bacteria. Ear Infections: Ear candles made by my dear friend which can be found for sale here. Garlic/Mullein oil which we apply to the ear after we use the candles. Female Issues: E...

First of all I must say I'm incredibly pleased with the seeds companies I went with this year. I purchased heirloom organic seeds which in my opinion is the only way to go. Anyway, the main thing I'm harvesting currently is basil, tomatoes, chives and my other herbs. Oh yes, and Matt's banana peppers which I have no idea what to do with. lol. Below in the pix you will see our squash which we have vining up on a cage. This is working very well. Despite the weight of the squash, the stem is holding it well. The pix you see is not at all the biggest. My tomatoes are finally ripening. That is my fault due to very, very late planting. Lastly what I'd like to draw your attention to is the bee. Yes there are still bees in my garden and he's currently pollinating! How cool is that. I have two female flowers that I hope he pollinated yesturday since it was their pollination day. We'll see how he's doing soon. If the bulb at the base of the flow...

I had my first green smoothie today with my son and it was quite palatable. You can find more information out about my green smoothie at this link. It's so hard to get the amount of greens we should be having. This is the easy and painless way to do it in my opinion. I hope to do this every day for 14 days at least and see if I have any results.

“You must get into the habit of looking intensely at words, and assuring yourself of their meaning...you might read all the books in the British Museum (if you could live long enough) and remain utterly “illiterate,” un-educated person; but if you read ten pages of a good book...you are forever more in some measure an educated person.” by John Ruskin (1819-1900) As a child, my grandmother instilled a love for reading within me. She was and is still such a saintly woman. We always knew we were of importance to her. Strolling down memory lane, here is what I remember of my dear Grandma Good. Grandma would always make us our favorite breakfast as soon as we awoke in the morning. Even if it was a package of Ramen Noodles. I personally picked ham, onion and cheese omelets and boy were they good. We would make sawdust “cakes” with mud frosting and use some of our grandmother’s happy violets for the decorations. Grandma always had on hand extra clothes for us to wear if we forgot ...

I realized I had worked so much more with Allysha by the time she was two than what I am with Jon. So....I decided to start getting very serious about making time for his school every day too. In the picture below it shows what his sister, Allysha, and I have been making for him. We cut out two of each letter from felt. We then matched them together and quickly whip-stitched around them. Yes you can tell it's quickly. lol. We figured since we already had the felt and thread at home it'd be essentially free to make verses going out and getting something from the store. We have watched a few youtube videos with the alphabet including a youtube movie entitled Chicka, Chicka, Boom, Boom, which is taken from a book. Very cute! We'll also be using letter of the week for some of our teaching. I will soon have lesson plans up on homeschool.mandikaake.com for teaching basic letter recognition. Within just a couple times of showing him the felt letter A, he is already able to recogni...

So while this is by no means perfect, this is my first felted creation. I made it in about 1/2 hour - 45 minutes for my little Lyshie. For the children's together gift (for Christmas), I plan to make them a felted nativity. Just the cave, Mary, Joseph and Jesus this year - then more things to add each year. I supposed when I'm done with that I'll have to make an ark. I know that's a bit more ambitious. lol. Anyway, it's such a fun thing to do - although if you plan on taking up this hobby, make sure not to prick your finger. The needles for this are barbed and will not come out so easily. Eek!

With the bee problem this year some of us have to resort to pollinating our crops by ourselves. It's very easy, just a little time consuming. For my squash I got a new painting brush - just a small one - and first got pollen from the male plant, then rubbed the brush on the female plant. If you don't know how to tell the difference in a female and male plant of a squash, here are some pictures. Above is the male flower. Here is the female flower. Notice the difference? href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAtdhiXwwd3Tz8FMv5noU1AZ43YRr0OFwHfxYgcPvkvqt3b-5hCVGiQ5dmFVdgH9E4B99QqvhXiKyfDdY7e-Bw1p07_76o0wtJUAKBTy6JjkUWoh-83NYTtVO5Ck_ieaqsiIfhkxwE-UI/s1600-h/IMG_1375.jpg"> Here is an easy way to tell if the flower is female. It has a little bulb at the base of the flower. Now that you know what to look for, happy pollinating:)

I just went out in the garden today to harvest some basil. How lovely! I came in with more than I was expecting. I decided to make pesto and freeze it as well as some basil flavored vinegar. It was such a delight. Now, who wants to come and clean up my kitchen? lol! I also have some tomatoes right on the verge of being ready as you can see above. Can anyone guess what the blue flowers are from? It's flax - apparantly good for the soil:) I unfortunately only had one plant survive due to either a rodent, a neighbors dog or my children. Who knows. Back to the basil, when I made the pesto I didn't add the parm. cheese because I read it might not freeze well. I'll just add it in later. I put a generous tablespoon each in a small ziplock bag. I then will put all the little bags into a larger freezer bag and pop them in the freezer. I usually don't use more than a tablespoon at a time so this will be perfect. Below are the recipes if you're intereste...

I have been shampoo free for almost a month (a few days shy). My first response "ew gross!". However, the more I thought about it, the more it makes sense. We condition our hair to need to replenish it's oil with frequent washings. I had already gotten my hair to the point where I only needed to shampoo 2 days per week to keep the oils down. Any other time I was in the shower I would just rinse well to loosen any dirt. Well, this is just one step above that. Check out the links below. This is for all - yes all hair types. It's not only better for your health but super cheap! http://babyslime.livejournal.com/174054.html#gel http://www.naturemoms.com/no-shampoo-alternative.html Update: This is now October 2018.  I just came across this post and so remember doing this.  I went to a salon and they said the build-up on my hair was terrible as well as on my scalp.  My hair also went pretty limp.  But this wasn't a total bust.  I try to go 2-3 days wit...

The kids and I picked up Matthew from a friends home after the retreat. We went to a nice dinner at Ruby Tuesday then went to Meijer to find something I had been watching to go on sale even further. It had the last time I was there but I didn't get it. Well, it was gone and I was really bummed. Matt told me that it's ok and that something better would come along. Fast forward 20 minutes later. I decided to go to Goodwill to see if I could find any linens, wool sweaters to recycle or anything else fun. Not quite 2 weeks ago I found the most beautiful picture with an old, antique frame. It was only 24.99 but I still didn't want to spend that on it. I had gotten my items to purchase and while in line looked across the other side of the room and there it was! I had looked earlier but it wasn't in the same place it was before. Since I knew I couldn't reach it and it was closing time, I asked the cashier if someone could see if it had a purple tag since purple ...

Well, it didn't start out that way. It's still my vegetable/fruit garden wtih herbs mixed in. I'm hoping it can totally be herbs next year and have another garden the size I have now for fruits and veggies. Last night was so incredibly fun. I went to a freecyclers house and got some lemon mint, spearmint and oregano plants. I just got those planted and they look so happy in their new home. I now have the following herbs growing. Rosemary Basil Thyme Oregano Lemon Peppermint Spearmint and Chives if you consider them an herb. lol. It's coming along and I'm so excited.

Here are just a couple I have. If anyone else has some I'd love to hear them. We're not taking video games.... Ideas: Photo Scavenger Hunt - I will of course be with the kids but it gets my oldest thinking. Puppet Shadows Flower Pressing Nature Journals Identification - we'll be taking our field guides:) Identifying constellations - I've actually never done this before. I'm very excited! Drawing messages in the sand and taking pix. Rock and shell collecting. We'll also be doing all the "normal" stuff like playing at the beach, etc...

Today was the first day of our garage sale and as you can imagine we have been so busy for the past week. Last night especially. We were working away and getting ready to walk in the house when I spotted this beauty on our boxwood bush. I was thrilled and went to get my daughter as well as my camera. Matt, Lyshie and I stood watching this beautiful creature for a few minutes. How many times are we in such a rush that we miss God's beauty all around us. Take the time to "smell the flowers".

I wish I had more time to perfect my photography skills. That will however come later on in life. For now here's a few I've recently taken. Thankfully my brother has given me a few pointers I hope to run with time permitting.

I realized I had worked so much more with Allysha by the time she was two than what I am with Jon. So....I decided to start getting very serious about making time for his school every day too. In the picture below it shows what his sister, Allysha, and I have been making for him. We cut out two of each letter from felt. We then matched them together and quickly whip-stitched around them. Yes you can tell it's quickly. lol. We figured since we already had the felt and thread at home it'd be essentially free to make verses going out and getting something from the store. We have watched a few youtube videos with the alphabet including a youtube movie entitled Chicka, Chicka, Boom, Boom, which is taken from a book. Very cute! We'll also be using letter of the week for some of our teaching. I will soon have lesson plans up on homeschool.mandikaake.com for teaching basic letter recognition. Within just a couple times of showing him the felt letter A, he is already abl...

My mother-in-law recently got married and said there were several things she wouldn't be able to take with her. We had already decided Matt was going to build a hutch just like hers for our kitchen - someday. Well, my mil asked us if we'd like to have it. We offered to pay but she thought the idea of that was ridiculous. I ended up getting the hutch of my dreams this past weekend and we were actually able to transport it in our van. Here are some pix. A gorgeous tuscan pix my mom gave me to use will go over the small table by the hutch. Talk about perfect! We desperately needed the room since we actually lost cupboard space when we moved into this house. This has helped tremendously. Thanks Shannon! Oh yes and by the way, the rest of my teapots/pitchers are sitting at the church waiting to find their new home;)