My New Erector Set

My uncle had an Meccano Erector Set when he was little, and some years ago he gave it to me. But it turned out the motor wouldn't work, some pieces were missing, and most of the plastic pieces were broken, so that I couldn't make hardly anything out of the instruction book, which was getting torn up anyway. So I bought a new Erector Set from Meccano last week, and two days ago it came. It has 605 pieces, including a 6V motor with a neat put-together battery container, a battery-powered screwdriver with two attachments (batteries not included on either of these), several gears, some belts, two hand tools, and other cool things. It also has instructions on how to make fifty models, including the best models from the other Erector Sets, and twelve new models. Well, not exactly. It has specific instructions on how to make twenty models, but then for the other thirty it just shows pictures of the completed thing. That will be a challenge! I am working on the first model right now, and I will post a picture of it (maybe even a video to show how it works) when I'm finished. The whole thing costs $80, but I am sure it will be worth it!

Matthew

2009 First Annual Bible Bee

Saturday, September 12, 2009. Today is the nationwide First Annual local Bible Bee, and we are participating! We have worked a long time for this occasion. FEAST (Family Educators Alliance of South Texas) is hosting the San Antonio local area.

First we are tested, and an hour to finish 220 questions. 200 of those are regular questions given to us to study worth one point, and the remaining twenty are unknown Bonus questions worth five points. I think I got almost all of the Bonus questions right, but I know that I did not get all of the regular questions because I did not finish the test!

Next we are orally tested, and this is harder. During the first round I answered all of the Bible Knowledge questions, and I think I got them right. But then there came the Bible Memory Questions, and I missed all but one of them. I don't know what my score was, but Courtney did better than me by far! Courtney will tell you all about that.

Matthew

Birthday Cake

I have had a birthday this past week, and we made a special no-bake cake for my teaparty. Here is the recipe.

Strawberry Shortcake
Batter:
24 ounces finely minced dates
3/4 cup coconut oil
3 tbsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. salt
8 cups almond flour *
3 cups strawberries
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 tbsp. beet juice
Frosting:
2 cups soaked cashews ( cashews soaked in water overnight)
2 cups coconut milk **
1/2 cup agave nectar
1 tbsp. vanilla extract
1/8 tsp. salt
2 tbsp. lecithin
1 cup coconut oil

Add to a mixer bowl the date paste, coconut oil, vanilla extract, and salt. Mix at low speed and then higher until you have a very creamy and smooth consistency. Add all other ingredients and mix until it is in a soft consistency and is light to the touch. For the frosting, put all the ingredients in the blender except the coconut oil and the lecithin. Blend until smooth and creamy. Stop blending and add the coconut oil and lecithin. Keep blending until all the ingredients are well mixed. Put half of the cake mixture into a nine'' spring form pan and put half of the frosting over that. Layer 1 1/2 cups chopped strawberries on top of the frosting. Put into the freezer until hard. Spread the rest of the cake batter in the pan, and return to freezer until ready to frost.

I hope that if you make this cake you will enjoy it!

* You make almond milk by 1 cup soaked almonds to 3 cups water and a dash of honey in the blender. You strain the almond milk through a mesh strainer, and can keep the almond pulp.

** Coconut milk is just young coconut's milk and meat blended together.

VBS 2009

We are in charge of the Vacation Bible School songs this year at our church for the third time in a row. We are using "Son Harvest County Fair: Growing the Fruit of the Spirit" distributed by Gospel Light copyright 2003. Our scripture is Galatians 5: 22-23. We are so excited that we are starting to learn the songs even though it is 3 months from now. As I write, the songs are playing on our CD player right now! We are doing two intro songs, then songs about some of the fruit of the Spirit - love, peace, patience, kindness and joy. We will finish it off by doing the first song again, because it is one of the few songs that is a good beginning and ending song for a program! I guess that is all, it is just some news.

Matthew

Vacations I take and have taken

I have been to a lot of vacations in my life. Here are a lot of them:
Texas vacations:

• Dallas
• Canyon Lake
• Conroe
• Port Aransas
• Corpus Christi
• and others

Other state vacations:

• Louisiana
• North Carolina
• Colorado
• New Mexico
• Oklahoma
• Georgia
• Arkansas
• and others

Actually, we are going on a trip to New Mexico in two weeks. We are driving, so it will take a day to get there. I'm excited about tubing. But the only reason Daddy is taking us there is so he can ski. He loves to ski! My brother thinks the only thing wrong is no mini golf. He loves playing mini golf! But I think that there is nothing wrong with any vacation!

My Little Brother Is Learning Quick!

My little brother, Philip, is learning to read! The site we use is here: Starfall Site It introduces different reading at appropriate places. In ABCs, the child learns the letters & their primary sounds, the short sound songs (based on popular nursery and folk songs), the Letter Song (based on the alphabet song but has sounds as well - so takes a bit longer), and the letters in sign language. In Learn To Read, there are skill-building games, entertaining stories, and either movies or introductions to diagraphs (/sh/, /wh/, /th/ and /ch/). Philip is on lesson 8. The next level is It's Fun to Read! which has introduction to spelling in it. The last level is I'm Reading! and he might be reading more than you think!

I am teaching him also with simple homemade books; a sample book is Max the Cat. The book reads: (page 1) Max the Cat (page 2) Max is a cat. (page 3) Max sat on a bag of tan sod. (page 4) An ant ran to the sod. (page 5) A rat ran to the sod. (page 6) A man ran to the sod. (page 7) Bad cat! (page 8) Max will not sit on sod. Glad cat! The End

The catch is that in the pictures, on page 4 there is a hole in the bag, and the sod comes out. I put the ant and the rat in to build tension, and on the last page I put a bandage over the hole in the bag and a sign, "DO NOT SIT" just to be funny. He likes these books.

Matthew

Stitches and Pins

I have got a new sewing book. I only knew how to hand sew until I got this book. It is called "Stitches and Pins". It has step by step instructions on machine sewing fourteen projects and learning special techniques for machine sewing. I have already made a pillowcase and a book cover. In the next Stitches and Pins issue, I will send pictures of me with the pillowcase, book cover, and the tote bag I am almost finished with! And maybe a laundry bag too! After that I am going to make a potholder, a baby quilt and a apron. After that a blanket, another potholder and a skirt. Then a vest, a purse and shorts. Then there is only a nightgown to make! I am exited because the other projects were very fun! I hope you enjoyed reading this.



Courtney