Choate Bed and Breakfast (and Lunch, and Supper)

We have been so blessed during the last few days to enjoy lots of company!

Miss Elizabeth came back to Dallas for a few days and visited us before she heads out to Africa. We felt so special!

Nahna and Papa spent Mother's Day weekend with us. What a treat!

Mr. Jeremiah celebrated his birthday with us last night.

Happy Spiritual Birthday, Sarah!

Saturday, we celebrated Sarah's 3rd Spiritual Birthday by having a crew of boys and girls over. The theme was "Taste and See That the Lord is Good", so we had lots of food and lots of verses about food and drinks.

"Pleasant words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones." Proverbs 16:24

"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled." Matthew 5:6

"How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!" Psalm 119:103

"They feast on the abundance of your house; you give them drink from your river of delights." Psalm 36:8

"As the deer pants for streams of water, so my sould pants for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. " Psalm 42:1, 2a

"The ordinances of the Lord ...are sweeter than honey, than honey from the comb." Psalm 19: 9b-10

In the Choate kitchen 2

Here is the recipe for "Crookies" from "Queen of the Castle" by Lynn Bowen Walker:

On baking sheet spread out:
1 sleeve of Saltine crackers
In small saucepan over medium-low heat, melt:
1 stick butter
1 cup brown sugar
Once the mixture is gooey, pour evenly over crackers. Bake at 350 degrees for five minutes, until bubbly. Remove from oven, and sprinkle on top:
2 cups chocolate chips
As the chocolate melts, spread it with back of a spoon. Pop into the refrigerator until set, then cut apart the candy.

Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive

Since we don't have mail service on Saturdays, we took our non-perishable food to the post office this afternoon for the "Stamp Out Hunger" food drive. Olivia and I had fun picking out food while Sarah and Benjamin were in piano lessons yesterday. You still have one more day to shop!

Beautiful Day

"This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it." Psalm 118:24

The day was too beautiful to be inside for school!

In the Choate kitchen

Yesterday afternoon, we all seemed to end up in the kitchen cooking (one of our favorite things to do), so I thought I'd share what the kids mixed up. I should tell you that Sarah wouldn't let me near her while she baked, every bit of the cooking was her own.

Sarah: Lemon-Syrup Loaf Cake from "How to be a Domestic Goddess: Baking and the Art of Comfort Cooking" by Nigella Lawson

for the cake:
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1 cup plus 1 TBSP self-rising cake flour
1/2 cup plus 1 TBSP sugar
pinch of salt
2 large eggs
4 TBSP milk
zest of 1 lemon
9x5-inch loaf pan, buttered and lined with wax paper

for the syrup:
juice of 1 1/2 lemons (about 4 TBSP)
1/2 cup confectioners' sugar

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F, and butter and line your loaf pan well with parchment or wax paper. Make sure the lining comes an inch or so up the sides of the pan for easier unmolding later.

Cream together the butter and sugar, and add the eggs and lemon zest, beating them in well. Add the flour and salt, folding in gently but thoroughly, and then the milk. Spoon into the prepared loaf pan and put in the oven. While the cake is baking, get on with the syrup: put the lemon juice and sugar into a small saucepan and heat gently so that the sugar dissolves.

Bake the cake for 45 minutes, or until golden, risen in the middle (though it will sink a little on cooling), and an inserted cake tester comes out clean. As soon as the cake is out of the oven, puncture the top of the loaf all over with the cake tester or suitable implement. Pour over the syrup, trying to let the middle absorb it as well as the sides, then leave it to soak up the rest. Don't try to take the cake out of the pan until it is competely cold, as it will be sodden with syrup and might crumble.

Serves 8-10

Got to jet off to piano lessons, so I'll post the recipes that Olivia and Benjamin mixed up later.

No Socks Day!

Today is officially "No Socks Day", of course every day is unofficially no socks day at our house. And to give you a little time to prepare, Saturday is the National Letter Carriers Food Drive. So head to the grocery store this afternoon and stock up on canned goods to give your letter carrier on Saturday!

A Day for Musicians

For Music lovers everywhere! On this date:

In 1824: Beethoven's Ninth Symphony premiered in Vienna, Austria - sing along with the last movement

In 1833: My favorite composer, Johannes Brahms, was born in Hamburg, Germany

In 1840: Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky was born in Vatkinsk, Russia

The CD player will be busy today!

Field Trip: Dallas Museum of Art

Today, we took a field trip to the Dallas Museum of Art. The kids always look forward to riding the trolley to and from the museum. The trolley we rode first was absolutely beautiful! It had stained glass and burgundy velvet seats.

The kids enjoyed the scenery as we rode to the DMA.

Even Katherine!

We've been studying J.M.W. Turner, and the DMA hosted a special exhibit of his works. It was amazing. We each got a little hand held "tour guide", and Olivia took this trip very seriously. She listened intently to each lecture, and wouldn't leave the room until she had read about each picture. Unfortunately, we couldn't take pictures in that exhibit hall.

These chairs are made from corrugated cardboard, and they feel like corduroy.

Sarah is coloring on a table with lots of different textures.

Benjamin and Aaron build a castle out of cardboard boxes.

Katherine helps out, too.

One of our favorite exhibits was a sculpture you could actually touch. Each column consisted of a different "every day" material. This one was made of different colors of thread slightly overlapping. The column was delicate and beautiful.

On the way back to the van, the trolley ride didn't disappoint. Katherine was still fascinated.

Benjamin made a new friend in the trolley conductor!

Oklahoma City Race Day 2

Last pics of OKC - I promise! Our friend shared these pictures of the race day since I had my hands full. Thanks quilt-n-mama!

Happy Spiritual Birthday, Benjamin!

On May 6, 2007, at an AWANA program at church, Benjamin gave his heart to Jesus. So we celebrated our boy this weekend with a neighborhood ice cream social. This is about half of the group that showed up:

I'm headed out the door in just a few minutes to attend this year's AWANA program. It is my prayer that tonight more boys and girl will follow in Benjamin's footsteps.

It's official - Katherine is now crawling! No longer does she scoot and lunge, she has control over all four limbs. Now I have to keep my floors clean!

After I got out of school a few weeks ago, I reevaluated our school days and our routines to be more intentional about being a good steward of my time and energy. What I found embarrassed me! I wasn't doing a good job at teaching character traits to my children on a regular basis. So beginning with obedience (because after Mama had been in school for a while, the kids needed a reminder), we now have a fun character lesson first thing every morning in school. The kids look forward to it and complain if we have to skip our "obedience lesson". Thankfully, their obedience has improved dramatically! Since I'm not very creative, I've enlisted a couple of books to help me get started: "For Instrucation in Righteousness" by Pam Forster and "The Children's Worker's Encyclopedia of Bible-Teaching Ideas" (one for Old Testament and one for New Testament).

Yesterday, we read in Deut. 8:1-10 about God's offer of blessings to the Children of Israel if they would obey. The "punchline" of this object lesson is:

God gives us special rules and directions because he love us. Just like the Teacher in our game, God can see the whole picture, so he knows what's best for us. God wants to give us blessings we can sink our teeth into! When we listen to God and obey his commands, we'll get to "taste" his blessings! (p. 53 - The Children's Worker's Encyclopedia of Bible-Teaching Ideas: Old Testament)

The kids took turns being the taster, the teacher, and the twister. Here's how it looked:

Not exactly what I had in mind, but I think the kids got the point.

Happy May Day!

In case you didn't know, my Sarah's love language is gifts. Yesterday, she spent her own money to buy flowers for all of our neighbors to celebrate May Day. She's had this idea in her head for a long time! Posterboard and markers added up to beautiful cones for the flowers, and by 7:05 this morning each door was decorated with a bouquet of flowers by my sneaky girl.

Just had to include this sweet picture of Katherine and her belly after filling up this morning. Yes, I did kiss all over that sweet girl!