Feast of Tabernacles 2016

Howdy, friends! I was going to post some pictures from Sukkot, but we have over 200 photos and over 20 videos (which I still need to upload), so it'll be easier to just share the >>>link to the album<<<. Enjoy!

Here are a few of my favorites though.....

 Jacob made it to the center, a.k.a. "King", in 9 Square!

 We had to put the rain fly / tophat on....quite amusing.

 Joe broke his arm just 3 days before we left, so we got the cast during camp.

 The girls rode around on this golf cart a lot with their friends.

Alex was amazingly patient when teaching chess to some of the children and teens!

 It's nice to only have a few dishes to wash!

 My chocolate cake mix turned into brownies (on purpose, lol) turned out great!

 It was hard to get them all together at once, but this was some of our neighbors. Awesome people! We're going to visit their congregation soon in Tulsa!

 Some other awesome people we met! This is Joey and Krys and their beautiful children.

From the sunglasses on head, left to right.....Annie, Jason, Mark and Reanee. Fun and loving people!

 Jessica is getting so big! She looks 12 here! Okay, maybe not *that* old.

 Jacob turns 12 in 3 more days, and he is now taller than his 14yo sister! He's trying to hide from the camera here.

 

 Jack's favorite color is yellow. :)

 Jonathan actually joined in a dance! 

 And posed for a picture! 

We didn't get many pictures of Jayla because we didn't see her much, so this one and the golf cart are about the only ones. Here she is playing a Minute to Win It type game. lol

I just wanted to post another pic of Joe. This one was actually before camp, right after he broke his arm but before he got his orange cast on. I love his smile! He doesn't look like he's in pain at all, does he? lol

That's all for pictures, but please click on the link above and take a look at all of them! I'll write more about Sukkot later and share the videos. It was a very blessed time.

Color blind screening online for free!

 I have suspected that my 4yo is color blind and have been meaning to research it, but of course never think about it at the right time. Last night I was watching a show that mentioned color blindness, so I paused it and looked it up immediately.

I had no idea that 8% of males are color blind. That seems like a lot, 2 out of every 25 males!!! Females, on the other hand, are the ones who carry the gene, but only .4% of the female population is actually color blind, which is about 1 out of 250. Then there are different types and varying degrees of color blindness. Whew! It's been interesting reading up on it and testing all my kids just for fun. :)

Everyone passed with flying colors (pun intended), but I have to say, my 4yo was a challenge. In the end, it was easy to see that he does see colors, but for whatever reason he just cannot seem to remember the names of each color for more than 2 seconds! And come to find out, shapes are the same way. He is a bright child, but he just doesn't seem to be getting these down! It just doesn't interest him right now.

On the other hand though, he immediately and correctly labelled ANIMALS, and is quite knowledgeable of the animal world for a 4yo. In fact, there was one that was a picture of some type of canine....I would have just said "dog", but he said it was a fox.....and it does look kinda like a fox! That little booger can see colors just fine!

I know this is GOOD news! Now I just need to focus more on colors and shapes when playing and reading books. I'm not worried, I know he'll eventually get them (most average or above average intelligence people do, right?), and he's not going to go to school since we homeschool, so whatever. But at least I know a little more about his strengths and weaknesses from these simple pictures.

Maybe we should play just a little more LeapFrog shows and a little less Wild Kratts. Nah. Whatever.  This is a perfect example of how we ALL learn things that we are either interested in or anything that becomes necessary. Colors and shapes have not become necessary to him yet, but he is highly interested in animals and knows a lot about them. He'll pick up colors and shapes (among other things) whether I work extra with him or not. He just prefers books, toys, clothing or ANYTHING with animals on it rather than having a favorite color or shape, and that is totally fine with me! He is such a sweet, happy, bright child, and I love him just the way he is! :)

Taking a time-out from Wild Kratts for a picture!

If you suspect your child may be color blind, there are some free online screening tests that can be done. It is important to note that everyone's monitors could be different, so these would not be accurate enough to diagnose OR rule it out. I'll still be taking my kiddos to the eye doctor soon, and I suggest you do that as well. Here is one very useful web site, especially if your child is familiar with numbers. The Ishihara testing is nearly 100 years old now and is the most widely used. This web site  has a few shapes in the images instead of numbers, including one of a ship. For pictures of animals, I just searched for different things, and most of them came from this web site. Perfect! I love the images that this dad created for his young son!

There are other types of tests as well, I just liked these as they are pretty common and seem to be accurate and an easy way to test. Enjoy your research!

Gluten-free, grain-free cheese sticks!

I made up this recipe and may tweak it some more, but I love it so far. These were really, really yummy!

Warning if you follow this recipe......I don't always measure things exactly, so this is just close to what I did. Make any adjustments you feel necessary. And note, if you use too much Parmesan cheese it will be too salty!

1 cup almond flour

1/2 cup flaxseed meal/flour

2 tsp (or less) Parmesan cheese

1 tsp parsley flakes

1/4 tsp salt

Be sure to freeze your cheese sticks at least several hours in advance. We used cheddar cheese, but I'm sure mozzarella would be great too.

Mix all of these ingredients together in one dish and put some scrambled eggs in another dish. Dip the cheese sticks in eggs, then flour mixture, then eggs a second time, then flour mixture a second time. Fry in oil of your choice (I used coconut oil) for about 5 minutes or so. Let cool and enjoy! YUM!

These would be so great with marinara sauce, but I haven't found a recipe I like yet. If you have a good one, please put it in the comments!