Things To Do In Arkansas- Digging For Diamonds

Where can you find a diamond and keep it? Arkansas! Crater of Diamonds State Park in southwest Arkansas is the only diamond producing site in the world where you can search for diamonds and keep what you find!

My family took a trip down there a few years back and even though we didn't find anything, we still had lots of fun. The kiddos loved digging and playing in the dirt. We went in the Spring and I would suggest that time of year (or Fall) simply because the area that you will be spending the day is just a wide open space with very few, if any, shade trees. You will be searching over the eroded surface of an ancient volcanic crater that over 100 million years ago brought the diamonds to the surface. All in all about 37 acres! This is definitley a one of a kind experience.

 Recently, there has been several diamonds found. Over 30 diamonds were found during the month of October, some noteworthy! Some of the finds during this month include two 9 pt diamonds and a 4 pt. You can find a list of the lastest recorded finds here http://www.craterofdiamondsstatepark.com/digging-for-diamonds/recent.aspx. Don't worry if you don't have the tools, you can rent or buy them on site at the store!

Aside from the diamond mine, the park also offers camping, a water park, trails, a wildlife observation blind, interpretive programs and fishing opportunities are located nearby.

So, if you are looking for a unique vacation, this may be it!

Things To Do In Arkansas- The Arkansas Frontier Pumpkin Patch/Living History Farm

If you are looking for a pumpkin patch in Arkansas that is fun, unique and educational, I have the perfect place for you! Arkansas Frontier is not just your ordinary pumpkin patch. They offer all the traditional activities you have come to love and expect plus they offer a living history farm.

Arkansas Frontier has plenty of activities sure to please the whole family. What little boy (and girls, too) wouldn't love spending the day digging for dinosaurs/dinosaur eggs? All little princesses love to wear gem stones-she can find her very own at The Gem Mine. Possible finds include fools gold, garnets and rubies or maybe an emerald. And, all the treasures you find are yours to keep!

Perhaps you have always wanted to take a trip back in time. Stop by and see the covered wagon that early American pioneers used to travel (pictures are allowed). Take a tour of the old fashioned school house, complete with the inkwell desks. Explore what early frontier life was like at The Pioneer Homestead- grind corn into cornmeal, cut firewood or milk a cow.

Ever wonder what life was like for the Native Americans? Take a stroll through the Indian Village. Arrowheads and spearheads have been found in this region where many different Native American tribes lived and hunted.

The whole family is sure to enjoy a walk through The Enchanted Forest. Here you can enjoy all things nature AND see some of your favorite childhood storybook characters along the way such as Little Red Riding Hood, Goldilocks, and Hansel and Gretel, just to name a few.

After you have had all that fun, you can enjoy the traditional hayride, get up close with the farm animals, which include some that are not so common (like a lama), compete at the duck races, pick a pumpkin, and let the younger kiddos enjoy the train ride. Then end your day with a picnic in one of the areas they have set up!

Arkansas Frontier is located in Quitman, Arkansas at 1625 Wesley Chapel Road. It is the perfect outing for families, youth church groups, homeschool groups and school field trips. Very reasonable pricing packages are available. Call them at (501)589-3122 or visit their website at http://arkansasfrontier.com/ to learn more. It's more than just a pumpkin patch and a great value!

Homemade Paint How To

Who doesn't love saving money on things that you can do yourself? I especially love when it's something that my family uses a lot of! There are several DIY paint recipes out there, but this is the one I use most often. My daughter is turning into quite the little artist and she uses this up in no time. For storage, we use ketchup bottles but you can use whatever you have handy.

Ingredients-

1 cup salt

1 cup flour

1 cup water

Food coloring

Directions-

Mix all ingredients together, add your choice of color. Store in bottle. This recipe is for one bottle of paint. To make more, just repeat the process. Enjoy!

Pizza Soup

A friend shared this recipe awhile back. It was something new and different to me and sounded good. It has now become a favorite of mine and I make it often. It is a hearty, comfort soup that is a change from the ordinary.

Ingredients-

4 zucchini

16 oz Italian Sausage

14 oz pizza sauce

4 c water and 4 beef cubes

28 oz can Italian diced tomatoes

1 tsp Italian seasoning

1/2 of 5 oz bag pepperoni ( I love pepperoni, so I use the whole bag)

Medium onion

8 oz can mushrooms

Directions-

First, cook sausage and drain. Chop zucchini and onion. Add all ingredients together in a large pot and let simmer for about 30 minutes. Enjoy!

Easy Peasy Homeschool Curriculum

Several of the homeschool support groups I am a member of are buzzing about Easy Peasy Homeschool. Awesome resource so I thought I'd pass it along so that others can enjoy it as well. A Christian homeschool mom of 6 put all of her children's assignments online from preschool through high school, has made it available to everyone and it's FREE! The grade levels and courses all include 180 days of assignments/lessons. I probably should also say that this is a Christian curriculum, in case that is a concern for some of you.

I have looked over the site and have not decided whether I will try and use this as a stand alone complete curriculum or if I will just supplement here and there using it. I love the fact that Bible lessons are included and will probably use that feature on a daily basis. The grade levels and individual courses are easy to find on the side bar, so it is fairly easy to navigate. All lessons are done online and are intended to be college prep, so for me that is another plus!

I wish this would have been available when I first started homeschooling 6 years ago! This is an awesome find, especially for new families that have no idea where to start or what to do. The mere fact that it took hours upon hours of time and hard work for this mom to put this together and then offer it to everyone FREE is a blessing. This is also great for families that are on a tight budget but still want to homeschool, families that are struggling with health problems, families where both parents have to work outside the home or if you are like me, just need a break from all the planning that goes on in our environment. I encourage you to take a look at the Easy Peasy website and see what it has to offer!

There is also a Facebook group here~://www.facebook.com/EasyPeasyAllInOneHomeschool as well as a blog you can follow. Happy Homeschooling!

Baking Soda Volcano Science Project

Lately, my kiddos have been showing interest in science experiments. Being summer, we have lots of extra time on our hands, so what better way to spend it? We are going to be trying out quite a few over the next month or so. The first one they chose was the classic baking soda (erupting) volcano. You can pretty much find the instructions via the internet easily. There are hundreds of them and many different ways to do it. We chose to try a  2 liter soda bottle, also added food coloring to our water (which is optional) and the kids also wanted to paint their volcanoes before trying the experiment. The experiment turned out well, but I think they were looking for a little more "wow" than they got! Below is a list of what is needed for the experiment we chose, but as previously stated-you can find hundreds of results via your search engine.

~What you will need~ 

• 6 cups flour
• 2 cups salt
• 4 tablespoons cooking oil
• warm water
• plastic soda bottle
• dishwashing detergent
• food coloring
• vinegar
• baking dish or other pan
• 2 T baking soda

~Instructions~

1. First make the 'cone' of the baking soda volcano. Mix 6 cups flour, 2 cups salt, 4 tablespoons cooking oil, and 2 cups of water. ( we ended up having to add a little more water)
2. Stand the soda bottle in the baking pan and mold the dough around it into a volcano shape. Don't cover the hole with dough or drop dough into it. (we plugged the hole with a paper towel on our bottle until the dough part was finished)
3. Fill the bottle most of the way full with warm water and a bit of red food color (you can actually use any color you like)
4. Add 6 drops of detergent to the bottle contents. The detergent helps trap the bubbles produced by the reaction so you get better lava.
5. Add 2 tablespoons baking soda to the liquid.






6. Slowly pour vinegar into the bottle. Watch it erupt!

Sand Pudding Recipe

Kristie at http://savingdollarsandsense.com/ has the perfect summer birthday recipe posted! It looks super easy and I love how it is served in a sand bucket! How creative is that?! I have posted the recipe below along with her link where you can find many more super easy recipes. Happy Summer!

Sand Pudding Recipe

 

1 pkg. Vanilla Wafers

• 2 Oreos
• 8 oz. Cream Cheese
• ¼ C Butter
• ⅔ C powdered sugar
• 2 small pkgs. French Vanilla pudding mix
• 2¾ C Milk
• 12 oz. Cool Whip

Instructions

1. Add Vanilla Wafers and 2 Oreos to your food processor and crush until they resemble sand.
2. In a small bowl, cream together softened 8 oz cream cheese, butter, and powdered sugar.
3. In another larger bowl, mix pudding with milk.
4. Add Pudding mixture to the cream cheese mixture.
5. Fold in all of the Cool Whip.
6. Layer into bucket in this order: sand, pudding, sand, pudding, etc.

Notes

Allow to chill in fridge at least one hour before serving.

 

You can click http://savingdollarsandsense.com/sand-pudding-recipe/ to see pictures of the actual recipe, including the sand bucket! Cutest idea ever!

Firefly Research

It's summertime again and time for night time fun with fireflies, aka lightning bugs. Did you know that there are several different types of the firelfy? Do you know that they are actually beetles that have two pairs of wings? Do you also know that they seem to be disappearing from our landscape? The Museum Of Science is teaming up with other researchers to track the firefly and they need your help. Simply go to https://legacy.mos.org/fireflywatch/ and register your habitat. You can log in as much as you like to see what others are reporting in their habitat and report your own habitat activity. There is a list of things to look for while you are observing the insects such as- how many flashes, whether insect was flying or perched, how many did you observe, temperature and etc. You can find all this information and more on the website. This is a great fun, family activity and science lesson!
This will be our second year and we love it! Be part of important research and have fun at the same time!

Friday Freebie

I came across an offer for a FREE baby carrier valued at $48 and wanted to share with all the moms out there. You do have to pay shipping fee, though. The carrier is a sling style and comes in lots of cute patterns. You can use the promo code "family2013" more than once but you will need to open up a new browser each time. Feel free to pass this deal on. When you get to the website link below, just click shop now. Happy shopping!
http://www.sevenslings.com/

Uganda Pen Pals

A few months ago, a friend had posted via Facebook about a pen pal project that was available through Fitness For Africa. After doing a bit of research, I sent in an application to have my children approved and matched. It was a very easy process and we were matched within a week. The reason for the application is to match your child with a child that has the same interests. Pictures of the children are also exchanged during the application process to make it more personal for the kids. Letters are exchanged once a month via email with the opportunity to Skype once a year. Although, we missed out on the Skype session this year, both of my kids have enjoyed exchanging letters with their new friends! While this is fun way for the kids to develop possible lifelong friendships, it has an educational perspective, as well. That's a win-win!

 A pen pal project for women is also available. There is an application process required for this as well as a 10 dollar monthly donation to help sponsor a literacy class for women of the community. I have not looked into this as much as I would like, but I believe that you are sent an email address to the individual you are matched with and exchange letters in that manner. I am planning to send in my application for this project soon!

If this sounds like something you or your kids would be interested in, you can visit their website @ https://fitnessforafrica.org/ to learn more. There will be a pull down menu, you then click on the project you are interested in. The applications are also available on their website to download.

Mother's Day at Memphis Zoo

We took a 3 hour road trip to the Memphis Zoo with 3 "to do's" at the top of the kids' list- seeing the panda bears, feeding the giraffes and interacting with the stingrays at Stingray Bay. I think we could have skipped every other exhibit but these three and they would have been ok with it. These three things ended being my top 3!

There are currently only four US zoos that exhibit pandas. Atlanta, Memphis, San Diego and The National Zoo in Washington D.C. The panda bears were near the front entrance so it was one of our first stops. They are a favorite animal of ours and we were excited to get to see them in person. They sat carefree chewing away on bamboo shoots and didn't seem to mind posing for pictures. Cutest things ever! We went on to see grizzly bears, elk, meerkats, swans, snow leopards, penguins, and even a red panda. Somewhere around 2800 animals call the Memphis Zoo home.

We loved every minute of feeding the giraffes and they were so friendly! We didn't have a huge wait even though the line was long. They allow several people on deck at a time. There is a 5 dollar fee, though, for the lettuce. Their tongues are long and rough and they don't mind slurping the lettuce right out of your hands. We were having so much fun though, that we didn't even mind the slobber . The kids were disappointed when they realized after 60 seconds, the giraffes had already eaten all the lettuce they had. I'm pretty sure they would have bought all available lettuce if we had allowed it.

On to Stingray Bay! I'm not sure how many zoos offer the experience of touching and interacting with the stingrays but for us, it was an awesome experience. Tickets to this exhibit are an extra 3 dollars but we were not disappointed. Its not everyday that you get to interact with stingrays! Once inside, there was a huge "touch" tank full of stingrays and a few sharks. There is no time limit so we were allowed to stay as long as we wanted. Stingrays were swimming all around the tank and would come right up to us. There was one stingray who was a little feisty and would almost give a scare every time he pounced by.

The kids are animal lovers and avid Animal Planet watchers. Meerkat Manor is one of their favorite shows. They had the opportunity to see a few of these guys along with bush babies, they are another favorite on their animal list. A black panther gave us a show with his "screams." A gorilla sat big and tall staring at us out of the corner of his eye every few seconds. We watched as a river otter ate his lunch and as a grizzly bear stretched himself out on a rock for a nap in the warm sun. The Memphis Zoo did not disappoint! We will definitely be going back!
 

 

 

 

Saved By Grace Through Faith

Two weeks ago this Sunday, Seth accepted Jesus as his Savior. This past Sunday, he took the walk down the aisle at church and was baptized shortly thereafter. Baptism is a ceremony in which one enters the church family. More than that, it is a way of showing that you have been washed free of sin by the death and rising from the dead of Jesus.

 My heart is full of joy for him.

Both of my kiddos have now accepted Jesus as their Savior. Maddi was Seth's age when she was saved and baptized a few years back. I am thankful that God has let me borrow them for awhile and hope that He is proud of how I am doing. I make mistakes, but I try my best everyday to send them back on the path to Him!

A+ Tutor Soft Math Program

I recently recieved a free trial for the math program offered by A+ Tutor soft. It is a multi-sensory, interactive, full year curriculum for grades K-6. I loved it, my kids loved it, and it kept them focused on the task at hand. Right now they are offering a one month free trial, free placement tests and significant discounts with purchase of full curriculum, so hurry over to http://www.aplustutorsoft.com and take a look! If you decide you would like to purchase after you review the site or finish your trial, use coupon code SARKMAMA for 20% off your purchase. Please feel free to pass the coupon code on to your friends!

Meatball Meatloaves

Love this meatloaf recipe! Love it even more that my kiddos ask for seconds instead of snarling their noses!

Ingredients

• 4 slices good-quality white bread or sliced peasant bread, torn
• 1 cup whole milk
• 1 1/2 pounds ground beef, pork and veal mix
• 1 egg
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 cup finely chopped flat-leaf parsley
• 1/2 to 2/3 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano, a couple generous handfuls
• Extra-virgin olive oil, for liberal drizzling, plus 2 tablespoons
• 2 cubanelle peppers, chopped
• 1 red onion, chopped
• 3 tablespoons tomato paste
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 2 cups beef stock
• 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

Directions

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

In a large bowl, add the bread and the milk and let soak for a few minutes then wring out the moisture. In another large mixing bowl add the meat and the soaked bread. Add the egg, salt and pepper, to taste, the garlic, parsley, cheese and a drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil. Mix to combine and form into 4 mini oval loaves, about 2-inches thick.

Arrange the loaves on a medium nonstick baking sheet and drizzle the tops with a little extra-virgin olive oil. Roast in oven for 20 minutes.

While meat is roasting, put a medium skillet or sauce pot on the stove over medium heat, and add 2 tablespoons olive oil. Add the peppers and the onions, season with salt and pepper, to taste, and saute for 10 minutes. Stir in the tomato paste, cook for 1 minute, then sprinkle in the flour and stir for 1 minute more. Whisk in the stock and Worcestershire, and season again with salt and pepper, to taste. Reduce the heat and let simmer until ready to serve.

Remove the meatloaves from the oven to a serving platter and serve with lots of chunky pepper and onion gravy on top.

Here is the link to the recipe if you need it:: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/rachael-ray/meatball-meatloaves-recipe/index.html













http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/rachael-ray/meatball-meatloaves-recipe/index.html