New creative challenges

With one of my kiddos immersed in Polynesian dance classes and performing, as well as having lived on Maui and appreciating the beautiful culture, I decided to give a new venture a whirl ... and I am hooked. 

The lime green lei with honu (sea turtle) kukui nuts was my first attempt and I am thrilled with the result.  It will be given to a silent auction for a sea turtle charity that is near and dear to my heart.

This gorgeous lavender sparkle lei (I promise the sparkles are there - they are difficult to see) with hibiscus flower kukui nuts is the only other lei I've made thusfar, but I have plenty of supplies to make lots more.  I'm not artistically blessed, so it's nice to find something I feel I can do well and have an enjoyable time in the process.

Procrastinating lesson planning

It's June 25th!  How did that happen?  I should be lesson planning, but we all know what generally happens to the best of intentions. 

Instead, I tried my hand at being creative ... not an area in which I have been blessed.  I wasn't going for anything fancy, just simple and to the point.  I think I succeeded.

Ocean Discovery Center in Ft. Pierce

One of my goals this year is to get back on the field trip bandwagon.  I have fallen off of it the last couple of years as my oldest has approached and completed a year of homeschool high school.  I don't want to sound as though I'm depriving my children of educational opportunities.  I'm not.  But we do have a specific set of places we tend to enjoy experiencing over and over and over.  Enter the "staycation" that was my sneaky way of attempting to ease us all back in to exploring places we've never been.

How we've never managed to make it to the Ocean Discovery Center in Ft. Pierce is beyond me.  We had such a wonderful time I actually forgot to take photos and remembered as we were leaving to run back inside and snap the one lone shot above.

Even though the center is on the smallish side, there were plenty of displays and activities to keep my crew occupied for about an hour and a half on the day we visited ... a touch tank, skeletons to observe (two dolphins, a manatee, and a sea otter), interactive exhibits with touch screens and fun questions, a short film in the theater, a microscope complete with drawers full of Florida shells and such, tanks full of tilapia and apple snails being raised on the outer porch area and more. 

Admission to the center is free.

Gluten-free ice cream sandwich ... a little piece of Heaven

As part of our recent "staycation," we stopped by The Fat Donkey in Cocoa Beach to check out their gluten-free ice cream sandwich. 

Oh. My. Goodness.

I was told the cookies (chocolate chip sprinkled with large pieces of coconut shavings/flakes) are made in-house.  Piled in between two of these delights (each larger than my entire hand) was a thick layer of gluten-free vanilla bean ice cream.  YUM-O-RAMA!  It took three of us to eat the entire thing, but we did it!!!

My teen boy ... a picky eater who does not have to eat gluten-free and despises most gf baked goods ... loved the cookies so much that I bought individual cookies to bring home.  That's saying something!

Oh. My. Goodness.

Sometimes you just have to indulge ... and it was all gluten-free!

Rum Jerk Shrimp Kabobs with Coconut Grit Cake and Fried Plantains

Chocolate Seduction Cake

Earthworm Dissection - Apologia Biology

Note to self: Wear a mask next time ... the smell is pretty bad.

Monday Musings

The weather outside is... warm, warm, warm.  We may have to close the windows and turn the a/c on again.

I am reading... DragonLight by Donita K. Paul.  I'm finding even though I love this series I am being slow about reading this particular book.  I think it's because I know it's the last in the series and I am not in a hurry for the magic to end.

I am thankful for... our furry children (pets).

In the kitchen... I am trying to regain my love for baking.  Going gluten-free really knocked the wind out of my sails in that respect.  Yesterday I made the German Apple Pancakes recipe at Civilized Caveman.  I subbed almond flour for the coconut flour and used a stoneware muffin pan because I don't have ramekins.  Mine turned out darker than the photo on the site - I mean apples sauteed in honey, nutmeg, and cinnamon are not going to be light in color - and they cooked way faster than the time given, but all was fine.  As far as taste, they were just okay in mine and my spouse's opinion, my youngest refused to even give them a try, and my teenager said they were nasty (his exact word).  I doubt I'll make them again as it was too time consuming, in my opinion, for something we all just didn't go crazy about.

A pet peeve... drivers who don't use their blinkers.  I really hate this.

I've been working on... cleaning and decluttering, decluttering and cleaning.  I really want to get everything out of my house that we just don't need.

I'm looking forward to... three days off homeschool for Thanksgiving break next week.

A favorite thing of mine... is silence.  Peaceful silence.  No tv, no music, no noise from outside other than birds chirping, squirrels chittering, and tree limbs and palm fronds blowing in the breeze. 

I'm delighted by...having found a drawing book my teen isn't complaining about reading.  There will be a future post about our adventures in "Drawing 1" this year.

A thought... I really wish my children got along with one another better.  The arguing, fussing, name calling, picking at one another, etc. breaks my heart.  I'm an only child though, so I've never been in their shoes.

A goal... is to try the 30 day plank challenge I've seen floating around online.  I injured my deltoid muscle a few weeks ago - my second taekwon-do injury - but I believe it's healed well enough now for me to give this a go.

An inspirational quote... Always laugh when you can.  It is cheap medicine. ~Lord Byron

A photo... 

 Taken in the rookery at Gatorland