Basic Pancake Recipe
(Makes 6 4” pancakes)

½ Tablespoon lemon juice (1 ½ Teaspoons)
½ Cup rice milk
½ Cup flour
½ Tablespoon sugar (1 ½ Teaspoons)
¾ Teaspoon baking powder
1/8 Teaspoon baking soda (or use one Dash)
1/8 Teaspoon salt (or use one Dash)
1 beaten egg
1 Tablespoon cooking oil
½ Teaspoon pure vanilla extract

In measuring cup put lemon juice and fill with rice milk to make ½ cup. Set aside for 5 minutes to “sour”. Combine all dry ingredients making a hole in center. Combine milk mixture, egg and cooking oil. DO NOT STIR! Pour into dry ingredients and mix only until moist. Add vanilla extract. Mix only until color is gone. Cook over medium heated cast iron skillet. Use a little cooking oil to grease skillet. ENJOY!

These are good plain but also good with blueberries or other fruit.

Next step will be to try almond milk in place of rice milk AND to attempt cinnamon rolls!

Too Precious To Forget! - Second Time Around

Farmer in the Deli

by Dacia Grace

The farmer's in the deli

He's eating peanut jelly

Hi-ho the merri-o,

The farmer's in the deli.

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"Mommy, what is a funny bone and why do they call it funny? It is not very funny when I whack it (the funny bone) on the counter."

Homeschool Preparations Underway

I can't believe that we are already underway on our homeschool preparations! It seems like only yesterday that we were bringing our angel home from the hospital! Wow, how the time has flown!


The Lord so graciously provided this wonderful desk for us through our church family.




We were also given a very large map of the United States. Dacia Grace immediately had it on the floor and was laying down to inspect it. She really enjoys her maps!

Pointing out where Ma-Ma and Ye-Ye live.

Searching for Canada.

A map Mommy! A real map!

It's Official!

Yes, the Hom family has grown by one!

Without further ado, here is a picture of our latest addition.

Tiaberry is 3/4 shih tzu and 1/4 pekingese.
Tiaberry is 100% Chinese which is a very appropriate dog for us.

Shih tzu and Pekingese dogs were bred as guard dogs for the Imperial City.

Tiaberry spends much of her time guarding the Fanno Lodge!

We are very happy to have Tiaberry!

Too Precious To Forget!

Last night was a beautiful night for a walk with my dear daughter Dacia Grace and our dog, Tiaberry. The sky was a beautiful blue and the moon was just a sliver with the outline of the rest of the moon showing. The contrails in the sky were just dreamy. (Sorry no pictures.....just a word picture for you!) The temperature was beautiful.....not too cool not too warm....perfect short sleeve and skirt weather......

Dacia Grace pointing to the moon, "Is that God's finger, Mommy? Doesn't it look like He's drawing in the sky" as she points to the contrails.

Mommy responds, "It certainly is beautiful. Is that what it looks like to you?"

Dacia Grace in hushed wonder, "It DOES Mommy. His finger just for ME!"

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Today as I was taking a few minutes to read.

"Mommy, what are you reading?"

"A book about God."

"What's it called?"

"The Pursuit of God"

"Oh, it's about God. Would you please read it to me, Mommy?"

"It's a little hard to understand."

"That's okay. It's about God. Just 'plain it to me. I want to read about God!"

How precious! What a wonderful reminder to continually teach Dacia Grace about the love and grace Jesus has for each of us. Yes, I did read it to her.

"My soul followeth hard after thee:
thy right hand upholdeth me. Psalm 63:8"

After a brief explanation she began dancing and singing, "I am dancing and He is holding me up along with the WHOLE PLANET and Tia!" This is what she sang as she went off to take a nap!

AHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Fire Safety Unit Quiz

Mommy: Dacia Grace, what does it mean when the smoke detector goes off in the house?

Dacia Grace with innocent smile: Mommy is burning something in the kitchen.

Mommy thinks and then poses the question another way as any good homeschooling mom would do: Well what should you do when you hear the smoke detector go off in the house?

Dacia Grace approaching the wall where the smoke detector hangs: Stand under it like this with a towel and wave it until the smoke detector goes off....oh and say a few words that you don't like me to say.

Yeah.....Good teaching Mommy! I think you may win the Mother of the Year Award yet!

Card Making 101

Course Description: Learn how to make 6 quick and easy postcards for your beloved aunties using stickers on hand. The more stickers the merrier the card!

Course Objective: Have fun and bless aunties with surprise postcards.

Course Expenditures: Standard USPS first class postage applies.

Results are PRICELESS MEMORIES!

Magic Eraser Freebie

I learned about this offer from another blog that I have on Reader. I have found quite a few good deals here including a year's subscription FREE to Woman's Day, Business Week and Prevention.

Since I really think that the Magic Eraser is such a great product I just had to pass on the information on how to receive two FREE erasers in the mail. There is absolutely no strings attached. The Magic Eraser has been used at my house to clean crayon off of walls and floors, permanent marker off of dry erase boards and many other things.

Without further ado, just click on the link and fill in your shipping information. Wait a few weeks. Enjoy two new FREE Magic Erasers! :)

Note: I do not know how long this offer will be good so act quickly!

Cookie Monster

I was hungry for some Soft Ginger Cookies like my grandmother used to make me. Unfortunately I did not have a lot of time so I searched the pantry and found a box of Betty Crocker's Gingerbread mix. Looking on the side panel rewarded me with a modified recipe and we were in business. As might be expected they did not taste the same as what I remembered but they did hit the spot. Here are some pictures of Dacia Grace enjoying the process. She is the cutest little Cookie Monster in town!

My Gold Medal Olympian Wife
Taken by Arthur

Cold Contemplation

Solitary Contemplation

Run!!


Kalaloch Lodge is a quaint facility the houses the gift shop, the main desk, several rooms and the only restaurant around. It overlooks the cove there and is often fogged in due to weather. Hanging from the eaves are many glass fishing lures that greatly intrigued me. I just had to try my hand at some "art photography".

Kalaloch Campground

In September of 2008 we went on a camping trip to Olympic National Park in Washington. She LOVED camping and being outdoors as you can tell from the big smiles here. She is looking forward to camping season again this year and has some camping plans of her own which include lots of books and staying up "all night reading in the tent!"

Welcome!

Morning time!

Breakfast Time

Olympic Size Joy


Beach Bum Beauty

Practicing Biking in the Campground

In early November, Aunt Sandy, Uncle Howard and Samantha sent Dacia Grace an early birthday present....a subscription to the Disney Princess magazine. I wrapped it up so that she would understand that the magazine was a present and then let her open it. What fun! She was so excited and is so excited every time one arrives at our home. There is always a center poster included that she can take out and hang in her room. There are also learning activities that she will do over and over again. She really enjoys this present!

It's been too long!

I am embarrassed by how long it has been since I updated our blog. Please forgive me! Over the course of the next few days I am going to try to do quite a bit of updating with pictures that have been languishing in my computer. I have had every intention of posting them but have not. Bad! Bad! Bad!

One of the reasons that I am doing this is because I need to keep my fingers in my photos since our camera broke on our last vacation. I do not have even one noteworthy picture to share with you. I may just for kicks post the a couple of the ones that I do have and see if you can guess what the subject is....hahahahah!