How to Have a Cozy Christmas Homeschool Day

 Whew! What a mouthful of a title! I wanted to extend my 'Cozy Home' series to Christmas, as it's the most wonderful time of the year! So get out your blankets, snuggle under the Christmas tree, bring out your homeschool materials and get ready to have a cozy homeschool day!

Do School by the Christmas Tree

We often do math in the living room, as Little Man watches the Math-U-See dvd, and I am excited for math manipulatives by the tree! Any subject can become cozy and Christmas-y by bringing it to the Christmas tree.  Be ready for some distracted kiddos, mesmerized by ornaments they made when they were two, or wondering why they can see their reflections in the shiny ball ornaments, but that can also be a great time to walk down memory lane. I have ornaments from when my husband and I got married, when each of the kids were born, etc, and it's a great time to tell of the significance of each one. Homeschool isn't just about curriculum and problems to solve, it's about taking your kids on a journey of learning through all aspects of life!

Drink Hot Chocolate 

Last year we would occasionally add a 'hot chocolate day' to make the mundane homeschool day special. Little Man still remembers those days and talks about how fun they were. I like to add candy canes to mix the chocolate and mini marshmallows on top. This is a great activity to add to a read aloud or something you do as a family. This leads me to my next tip:

Add Christmas time learning to your Morning Basket

A few months ago I talked about our Morning Basket time. This is a time everyone comes and learns together. It can include music, Bible, read alouds, the possibilities are endless! During the Christmas season I like to include a Christmas hymn, Scripture reading and memorization from both the prophetic Old Testament verses about Jesus, and the Christmas story from Matthew and Luke. There are great resources for coloring sheets, workbooks and activities that kids can work on while they listen to Scripture. 

Bake Christmas Cookies Together!

I'm pretty sure I mentioned this in my fall cozy time post, but this time I'll share some of my favorite cookies to make with the kids! I have found that making the dough beforehand and getting it all chilled and set out, plus already having the icing made up makes for a much smoother time with the kids. I used to include them in every step, but I found that by the time it was time to cut out the cookies and decorate them, they were tired and grouchy. Here are my favorite recipes, plus my favorite cut outs!

My Favorite Gingerbread Cookies

My Favorite Sugar Cookies

Icing:

1/2 stick of butter softened
Powdered Sugar
Milk
Vanilla

I do everything by consistency. I blend the

butter and powdered sugar together and add just a table spoon of milk at a time until the consistency  is right. I add vanilla for flavor and whatever color I want to add. There are royal icing recipes on Pinterest, but I haven't found one I really like. 

I hope you get inspired to add a little sparkle and Christmas time joy to your homeschool day. So many of these 'ideas' might seem like no-brainers, but sometimes we get so much into the mundane that we forget to make things special (Myself included!). 

5 Cozy Fall Crockpot Recipes

As a busy mom of 3 I am always on the lookout for good crock-pot meals. When it comes to trying out seasonal favorites Pinterest is my normal go to place to find new and exciting recipes. Unfortunately, when you type 'fall crock-pot meals' what comes up is soup. My husband dislikes soup, so this makes 99.9% of the recipes out of the question for our family. What do I cook in the crock-pot for our no-soup family? 

Today I am sharing 2 crock-pot recipes of my own, and 3 more recipes that are tried and true favorites from Pinterest. If you are stumped on what to cook for dinner (or breakfast for dinner) then I hope this will offer some inspiration! 

Apple Butter

This is a great recipe to do with your kids! It's both a recipe with just a few ingredients, and quick to put together, which is perfect for young helpers. We bought these knives for Little Man, so he could learn about cutting up fruits and veggies. 

I also want to add that I added Pumpkin Pie spice, instead of each individual spice you'll find on most recipes. I did this to lesson the amount of ingredients. I think they also make an apple pie spice mix, but this is what I had on hand and it turned out perfect! Here is the recipe:

8 medium sized apples 
1 cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons Pumpkin Pie Spice
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon vanilla

Chop up apples, skin and all and place into crockpot. Add the rest of the ingredients and turn the crockpot on low. Cook on low for 8 hrs, blend in a blender and add it back to the crockpot to cook for about 30/45 more minutes. Add to jars.  

If you wanted to start this first thing in the morning you can have one of my favorite easy dinners: breakfast for supper. Fry up some bacon, maybe whip up a couple of eggs and slather this delicious warm apple butter on biscuits, toast, waffles, pancakes, whatever!

I love supper recipes that I can put together at lunch time and this next recipe is a perfect recipe for that! My husband loves a chunkier chili (again, we aren't a soup family) so you'll see beans and a good amount of meat. You can adjust this to fit your family's preference!

Chili

1 lb of ground beef
1/2 a medium onion, diced
1 can of beans (pinto, kidney, black beans, etc.), drained
1 28 oz can of petite diced tomatoes in tomato juice
Chili seasoning mix (I make my own by combining about a teaspoon of each (garlic powder, chili powder, creole seasoning, paprika)
Salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup (or more if you like thinner chili) Chicken stock

Brown ground beef and onion in a pan. Add 1/2 of seasoning to meat as it cooks. Add it and the rest of the ingredients to the crockpot and cook on low for 4 hrs. 

Other Crockpot recipes we love on Pinterest:

Healthy Crock Pot Pulled Pork This is absolutely delicious! My kids loved this and no one noticed that I used sugar free BBQ sauce (Sweet Baby Ray's all the way). 

Red Beans and Rice  This is one of my favorite cold day favorites. It will 

Crockpot Caesar Chicken  This is an anytime favorite that can be served with a quick veggie. 

5 Ways to Have a Cozy Home for Fall

 

When I say 'cozy home' what do you think of? Warm blankets? Candles? The other day it was one of those crisp cold days (okay, cold in the south, which is where the temps are in the 50s!) where I honestly just wanted to curl up in a ball on the couch with a good book and a cup of coffee or tea. I'm a mom, so that didn't happen. Actually, all this staying at home all the time can be a big downer on your mood. However, even spending so much time with your crew, and in your home, you can get that cozy home feel, I promise! If you are a mom and yearning for that cozy home feel, here are some ways you can help make your home feel cozier!

Do a quick clean of the house

Set a timer for 15 minutes per room. You'll be surprised what you'll be able to accomplish in such a short amount of time, and for me personally, it helps me to be less anxious. A cluttered house can lead to a cluttered mind! Nothing says cozy more than a freshly cleaned house-it's almost like I can actually breathe and rest once it's clean. For those with young kiddos-you may have to lower expectations. Toys will get back out, spills will happen, handprints will reappear, but having things tidied as much as possible, and wiped down will certainly be a step in the right direction! 

Light a candle

I am not sponsored by Bath and Body Works at all, but if you get the Pumpkin Pecan Waffles, or Blueberry Pumpkin Waffles (notice a theme here?! haha) you can't go wrong! I love the smell of baking, and both the scent and the ambiance put me in a cozy mood. So stop what you are doing (yes! I give you permission to stop reading my post for a few minutes) go do a quick tidy and light a candle and see if doesn't help your mood!

Listen to some encouraging music

We really like our home Google Device. Listening to positive Christian music helps me get those chores done with a better attitude. Pouring out my thanks to God helps me appreciate the home given to me. I also feel like this helps calm the chaos that my house feels like 24/7! 

Read a Good Book with your Children

So you no longer have the luxury of curling around a good book and a cozy blanket on a cold rainy day, but bringing your children around you on the couch with the same snuggly blankets can be just as refreshing. My favorite Read alouds are the Little House books, Chronicles of Narnia, Ann of Green Gables, and Little Britches series (reader discretion advised-it contains some language. Mom can easily read around it though!). What are your favorite books to read together as a family?

Bake Cookies together!

Maybe this should be done first, since it makes such a big mess, but there is just something about freshly baked cookies on a wet, cold day. We recently made homemade chocolate cookies from scratch. I decided to do a merge of Magnolia's and a family recipe. The secret to good cookies is vanilla! Some don't include this, and also, less butter. Try 1 stick instead of 2 and the texture is so much better. Here is how we made ours (I didn't have baking soda, so I used baking powder and they turned out fine!)

Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 stick of butter
3/4 cup white sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 egg
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 1/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 package of chocolate chips (I used a whole 2 cup package and it was super chocolaty and we had chocolate chips that simply didn't stick to the dough)

Preheat oven to 375F. Mix butter, sugars, egg, and vanilla, then add flour, baking soda and salt. Mix together-should make a pretty thick dough. Add chocolate chips. Make balls (not sure of size...they kept their shape pretty well!) and slightly push them down on the tray. Bake for 9 minutes. Should make about 30 cookies