Blueberry Buckle

Cake:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup sugar (or less)
1/4 cup butter, softened
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
3 cups fresh blueberries



Topping:
1/3 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup walnuts (optional)

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour 8 x 11 baking pan (sometimes I do two 8x8pans)
In medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder and salt; set aside. In large bowl, beat sugar and butter until fluffy. Add eggs; beat well. Add try ingredients and milk to sugar mixture, beating well after each. Spread batter into pan; top with blueberries.
Topping
In medium bowl, combine flour, brown sugar and cinnamon. Using pastry blender or fork, cut into 1/4 cup butter until mixture is crumbly. (Stir in nuts.) Sprinkle of batter.
Bake at 350 for 55 to 65 minute or until cake is deep golden brown. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pan. Serve warm with ice cream if desired.
Great for freezing!!!

ENJOY

School Starts

School has started at the Steiger household. We had our annual 'treasure hunt' on Sunday and the boys have been asking, for sometime, when will we start school. We are starting 3 weeks earlier then public schools here in NH but I like to have some flexibiliy. I know some of you ask what we will be using this year so here we go.

I am mainly using Sonlight as I have done in previous years. We all love reading and this curriculum fits us. The curriculum includes

Bible

(I love 'God our Provider' by Sing the WORD)

History/Geography

I am big on Geography and I love that Sonlight combines everything together. We often read with a map in front of us and look each time a geographic location is mentioned. The boys are very knowledgeable about our world and I am happy about it. However, this year we also got 'Geography songs'. I do like all the songs however I did find a 'few' errors when it comes to Europe. Nothing big but being from Europe I am a little touchy about this subject.

Read Alouds

Language Arts

Spelling/Phonics

(Explode the Code)

Handwriting

(a reason for handwriting)

Readers

Vocabulary Development

Creative Expression

Science

Math

(Math U See)

Typing Instructor for Kids

As you can see we have a busy year ahead of us. By the way Sam did his first standardized test in May (after we came back from Ethiopia) and past with flying colours. I will try to post our daily school routine later on.

Sonlight's Top Ten Goals... (#2)

To create a learner's heart, enthusiasm and excitement for learning, a desire to discover.
What good does it do to fill children's minds with all manner of information if they never learn how to learn, or if they never acquire a heartfelt desire for education?
We want our kids to grow up with the same attitude and conviction Solomon had: "[Wisdom] is more profitable than silver and yields better returns than gold. She is more precious than rubies; nothing you desire can compare with her" (Proverbs 3:13-15).
When students want to learn, nothing will stop them from achieving their goal. But if educating our children is solely our goal for our children, we have to wonder: will they continue to educate themselves after "school" is done?
Consider the standard "social studies" approach to culture. Instead of having students learn first about things with which they are already familiar ("our community"), Sonlight takes almost exactly the opposite tack. We begin by exposing students to what is different and unfamiliar.
That way, you and your students enjoy the surprise factor, the delight factor, the ability to see, hear and experience things they wouldn't expect. That's part of the adventure of education.
Now, after they have become familiar with the unfamiliar, having created a "contrastive edge" against which their own culture can be compared: now we reintroduce students to their own culture. Now they can see it in a bigger light.
Besides our desire to create the contrastive edge and to instill enthusiasm and interest, we focus on the unfamiliar and "foreign" because we want . . .

Sunday Reflections

Great and marvelous are your deeds, Lord God Almighty. Just and true are your ways, King of the ages. Who will not fear you, O Lord, and bring glory to your name? For you alone are holy. All nations will come and worship before you, for your righteous acts have been revealed.

Revelation 15:3-4

Wii play, do you?

Thanks to 'Babi' (Lenka's mom) we joined the Wii family. I still cannot believe I said yes to this as I had concerns about adding a game system to the kids leisure activities. However, I am glad I did. We planned on possibly getting one for Christmas anyway. There are many rules in our house and this game system just added many more but the boys room and basement have been clean ever since we introduced them to Wii. Hopefully this new motivation will last a while. Here is Sam playing baseball. It is the boys favorite game and they are getting good at it (I on the other hand suck at this game).
Nate is doing good as well (by the way he picked his hair do on his mii figurine).

Fii (Fil) and Emma ready to bat. After the kids go to sleep both Fil and I have big tennis matches. My arm hurt for a few days ( I am getting pretty good at tennis). So how many of you are part of wii family?

Canning, Baking, Cooking ...

I spent the whole day in the kitchen canning, baking and cooking. We went blueberry picking again and picked 12 pounds of berries. We also stopped to pick some raspberries so I was busy making blueberry and raspberry jam. I also made more blueberry buckles and to answer some of your questions yes I do freeze them. They come in very handy when I need dessert and I am running out of time. I will have to admit that this one did not make it to the freezer but into our bellies.

I also make our own tomato sauce. I know our kids are spoiled. The truth is they will not eat tomato sauce from a grocery store so each summer I have to make sure I have plenty for the entire year. It is very messy but we all love it. I freeze mine and as you can see my freezer is starting to fill up.
I still have few more jams to go and a lot more tomato sauce but it will be rewarding in the winter.

Weekend in Maine

We spent last few days in Maine. It was a fun trip for our family and we got to meet many new families and friends (and some old ones as well), Tonya is one of the new friends we first met last November at SCC concert. Since then I have been following their journey to their daughter in China. We have stayed in contact ever since and offered that we would visit and help her with an AWAA adoption meeting since she is an AWAA associate (we also needed an excuse to head up the Maine coast as we like so much). It was a very special reunion for both of our families.

We were also glad to see our old friend from Ethiopia. We met Selam at the TH (transitional home) and her parents contacted us. We knew she was going to live in Maine and told her we would see her again in the summer. You can only imagine how glad we were to see her again. She did remember us and our Jordan. It was a sweet reunion.
Jordan wasn't so sure about Selam but she did play with her in the girls room while both Fil and I shared about our adoption journey. We got to meet another family who are curently waiting for siblings from Ethiopia. We cannot wait to follow their jorney and one day meet their family again.

It amazes me how many friends we met through our adoption journey. Here are new friends from the opposite sides of the world (China and Ethiopia) and living in United States.
Jordan and Selam playing together.
On the way up we made a few stops on the way. Here we are at Cabela's (this was a stop for the boys) .
We also stopped at one of the little towns on the Maine coast. They all look so cozy and inviting with all their little shops and summer activities.
Nate was so worried about his little sister Emma that she would fall in to the falls. He held her hand the whole time making sure she was ok (what a big brother).

I love the view from the park.
Here are the kids being silly after I told them I was done taking pictures.
And enjoying some free time at the park.

Emma was busy trying to keep up with the boys.
And so was Jo. She enjoyed her freedom. She has become a faster crawler in last few days.

Thank you Tonya for inviting us to your beautiful home. We had a great time and we are already looking forward to seeing you again.

Sunday Reflections

Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens; let thy glory be above all the earth.

Psalms 57:5