Amy

Grandma’s Whoopie Pies

February 28, 2017 by Amy 2 Comments

I hear it’s long been a debate between Pennsylvania and Maine bakers as to who first created the whoopie pie. My great-aunt even joined the fun and always told the story of one of her ancestors naming the treat at their family store; in my hometown they’re usually considered an Amish thing, but that doesn’t stop the rest of us from making – and loving – them.

They’re my absolute favorite baked treat, and I have many fond memories of them. My mom used to bake large quantities of them, wrap them individually in waxed paper, and hide them around the house and in the freezer. While she was at work, my dad and I would seek them out and enjoy them. I even remember some emerging from the freezer and then dancing impatiently beside the woodstove, watching them as they sat on the brick barrier beside the stove, waiting for them to thaw just enough for us to nibble and gnaw on them.

My great-aunt seemed to bring them to every family get-together and often served them to visitors, too, and Aunt Mary was an excellent baker. My great-grandmother, though she made them more rarely (at least by the time I came along) could bake absolutely anything, and when she offered you a whoopie pie, you happily sat down and enjoyed it with a glass of fresh milk – and maybe angled for an extra one.

I love having some of their recipes, and since we recently lost Aunt Mary and my kids never got to meet Grandma, it feels a bit like introducing them to my Big Helper and Little Man when we make their recipes together.

Yesterday we tackled Grandma’s amazing whoopie pies. It was hard not to be impatient as they danced around in excitement and flour flew, but in record time we had a finished batch of whoopie pies, ready for ~~sharing~~ consumption.

Making whoopie pies is a bit more work than traditional cookies, as you have to making icing, too, (and I hate making icing) but they’re worth it. Since the kids (and a visiting aunt) made the process happen speedily yesterday, I definitely see whoopie pies appearing – and probably disappearing – in my kitchen more often from now on.

Want to make Grandma’s Whoopie Pies? Try her recipe here:

For the cookies:
1 c. Crisco
2 c. sugar
2 t. baking soda
1 t. baking powder
4 c. flour
1/2 t. salt
1 c. cocoa powder
1 c. sour milk
1 c. hot water

For the icing:
2/3 c. Crisco
5 T. milk
1 t. vanilla
pinch of salt
3 c. powdered sugar

Directions for the cookies:
Cream the Crisco and sugar until fluffy.
Mix the rest of the dry ingredients together.
Mix the dry ingredients alternately with the sour milk and the hot water.
Bake the cookies at 350 for about 8 minutes on a greased cookie sheet.
When the cookies are completely cool, ice the flat side and place a cookie of the same size and shape on top, flat sides together.
Store in an airtight container or wrap well in waxed paper.

For the icing:
Combine all ingredients and mix until fluffy.

What are your favorite treats?

Book Club, Boys’ Edition: Gary Paulsen’s “Lawn Boy”

February 24, 2017 by Amy Leave a Comment

Last month the boys read Gary Paulsen’s Lawn Boy for book club. Maybe this seems like a strange choice for January, because it’s really about just what it sounds: a boy who creates a summer job mowing for lawns, but for our purposes, the winter weather suited us just fine.

In the book, the main character stumbles into a super successful lawn care service. One of his customers turns out to be a stock broker, who invests his payment for the boy, and he has the golden touch: soon the boy is rolling in money, more than he knows how to manage, and hilarity ensues. It’s unrealistic, sure; but Paulsen does a fantastic job explaining some basic concepts in really fun ways.

After discussing the book, we headed to the kitchen for a stock market analogy. Money and numbers aren’t my thing, so I like when we can add visuals to the mix. Each boy brought a soda, and we compared a large, empty pitcher to the company that I had been building. Now ready to go public, I was ready for investors, and so the boys took turns pouring some soda into my pitcher. After I had stirred it and worked it, I was ready to pay out to my investors, who then got some of the contents as dividends. We worked the analogy a bit more through conversation, and the boys really got into it. They seemed to understand how the basic process worked, and so the research began.

We sat down with research sheets I created as part of the Stock Market Challenge project, and each boy chose a publicly traded company and evaluated it’s basic info to see if it was a company in which he’d like to invest. I have each kid a virtual $100, and they all checked stock prices, business headlines, and the like to make their choices.

By the time book club was over, each boy had done company research and ‘purchased’ his stock. He’d filled out a purchase sheet that helped him make his money decisions and went home with a graph so that he could plot his purchases’ share value over the following month.

When the boys returned, 5 of the 6 had followed through on this project. They were surprisingly excited to see how their stock prices compared to the purchase price, and while they knew their individual earnings, they couldn’t wait to see how their friends did.

In the end, one company tanked dismally; a few boys actually lost money, and a few earned, though very little. Their findings followed traditional market patterns, however, as if they were to continue to follow their shares, they would have made a much more significant profit over time.

After lots of math, one boy was finally crowned the “Stock Market Master,” and he excitedly took home the free drink coupon that our local Sheetz store had donated as a prize. I hear he thoroughly enjoyed his frozen lemonade after baseball practice that night. Thanks, Sheetz!

Lawn Boy is a really funny book with some great educational lessons buried inside. It’s definitely worth a read and venturing out, perhaps beyond your comfort zone, into the world of share prices and the stock market.

What are your kids reading right now?

If you’d like to do a similar stock market simulation, you can find all of the materials we used for this project here.

Encouraging Hearts & Home Blog Hop – February 22, 2017

February 22, 2017 by Amy Leave a Comment

Saturday was a big day in our family. My Big Helper and I headed out for a fun, girly day, and she got her ears pierced! We enjoyed picking out new earrings together, and she’s anxiously awaiting the day when she can take out her simple studs and start wearing her cute new ones. She’s growing up SO fast!

Exciting news! The weekly blog hop formerly known as Hearts for Home has been updated with a new name and logo! While we’re still dedicated to sharing encouraging and inspiring ideas for your home and family, there are a few new features. Isn’t the new logo beautiful?

That’s not the only new feature; the most clicked post each week will be entered to win a monthly prize package! So share your favorite posts and link up your own to increase your chances of winning these great prizes.

Tweet: Find encouragement for your heart and home at A Nest in the Rocks. This week’s blog hop is live! https://ctt.ec/epe5O+

All of this excitement is one reason I’m excited that …

A Nest in the Rocks is now one of the co-hosts for the weekly Encouraging Hearts and Home Blog link-up, which means that every Thursday you’ll find lots of great tips, recipes, and other family-friendly ideas listed throughout this post. If you’re a blogger, we’d love to have you link up your posts and join us. You can find information about the other co-hosts of this hop here.

The most clicked post from last week was Chronicles of Narnia Literature Unit Study Resources.

Some of my favorite posts from last week were:

– Little House in the Big Woods Literature Study

–DIY Hot Chocolate Recipe

–What to Read Wednesday: Space Books for Kids – Lea

If your post is listed above, please grab one of our ‘Featured Blogger’ buttons! Congratulations, and thanks for writing such inspiring posts.

Please share your family friendly posts with us!

The most clicked posts of each week will be entered to win a Monthly Giveaway!

So, be sure to 1) include your email when you link up and 2) share the link to Encouraging Hearts and Home via social media with your readers, fans and followers!

By linking up you agree that if your blog post is selected to be featured on any of our hosts’ blogs that we can use an image from your post with a link back to your post.

Monthly giveaway winners must be 18 yrs.+ and live in the USA. Winners will be given 48 hours to respond to winning email. Mailing and/or email address will be required to receive giveaway packages. You may only win 1 time in every 6 month period.

An InLinkz Link-up

The most clicked posts of each week will be entered to win a Monthly Giveaway! So, be sure to 1) include your email when you link up and 2) share the link to Encouraging Hearts and Home via social media with your readers, fans and followers!

By linking up you agree that if your blog post is selected to be featured on any of our hosts’ blogs that we can use an image from your post with a link back to your post.

Monthly giveaway winners must be 18 yrs.+. Winners not living in the USA will win a digital prize package, while USA winners will be shipped their prize via the USPS. Winners will be given 48 hours to respond to winning email. Mailing and/or email address will be required to receive giveaway packages. You may only win 1 time in every 6 month period.

New! Stock Market Challenge Project

February 22, 2017 by Amy Leave a Comment

My Little Man is totally fascinated with the stock market lately.

He’s done chores to earn the money to purchase his very own stock, and he’s picked his favorite companies (that have stock he can afford).

Because he’s so very interested in this, however, I’ve been looking for ways to help him understand how it all works – and the potential gains and losses inherent with purchasing stock.

That’s why we read Gary Paulsen’s Lawn Boy – and why I wrote this project.

The book does a great job of explaining the basic function of the stock market, although it’s an extreme example. It’s super fun, though, but we wanted to try our hand at it, too.

That’s where this project comes in. You can use it as a simple project or as a competitive challenge between different students or groups. Included are research guides, hyperlinks for safe research, printables to guide your students through the math, and a graph to track your stock for the duration of the challenge. There’s even a certificate for the winner.

This challenge will keep your students excited about their investments and will help them understand the basic workings of the stock market.

You can find more about this challenge here.

What are your kids into lately?

A Roarin’ ’20s Book Club: “Isabel Feeney, Star Reporter”

February 17, 2017 by Amy Leave a Comment

Some books just scream out for a special event, and that’s exactly what happened when I read Isabel Feeney, Star Reporter. I knew it would make a fantastic book club pick – not only because it offers myriads of possibilities for a special event, but because Fantaskey did an amazing job writing a book that highlights the danger and turmoil of the 1920s while keeping it kid-friendly and fun.

Yes. It’s about murder and mayhem, but it’s kid friendly and fun.

Yes, those things are complete opposites. No, the danger and depth of the topic is not downplayed, and no, I don’t know how she did it, either. She’s that good of a writer.

So what’s Isabel Feeney, Star Reporter all about? Check it out:

It’s 1920s Chicago—the guns-and-gangster era of Al Capone—and it’s unusual for a girl to be selling the Tribune on the street corner. But ten-year-old Isabel Feeney is unusual . . . unusually obsessed with being a news reporter. She can’t believe her luck when she stumbles into a real-life murder scene and her hero, the famous journalist Maude Collier. The story of how Isabel fights to defend the honor of her accused friend and latches on to the murder case makes for a winning middle grade mystery.

With the 1920s as our theme for the evening and murder and mayhem the idea, I set out to create an unforgettable book club experience, and, as soon as My Big Helper started to read the book, she joined in the fun.

The girls arrived mid-afternoon with lots of gear in tow, prepared for an all-night book club event (because it just seemed wrong to talk about Isabel’s adventures in broad daylight when so many of them occurred at night). They immediately changed into dresses and strands of pearls, then were made over by local high school students did their hair and make-up in perfect ’20s style. With old showtunes playing in the background, they giggled and styled their way through updo’s and mascara until they rivaled Maude Collier for fashion flair.

Then, with glass goblets of Kool-Aid clutched tightly in their hands (because Kool-Aid was invented in the 1920s, didn’t you know?), we talked about the book, focusing on the plot, the fate of Isabel, the role of friendship throughout the story, and how the girls felt about the events of the era. All the while, they munched on the snacks researched as time-period friendly by My Big Helper: salted nuts, carrots and celery, and cheese.

Next, the girls broke into teams for a rousing game of Pictionary. I prepared the materials ahead, with all of the items to be drawn chosen from the book and written on slips of paper. I tucked these into a Mason jar, and, armed, with white boards and markers. the girls tried to draw each one.

They really got into this game. They played for a long time, until they had drawn out every slip of paper, sometimes asking me for more information about the buildings or terms from the story. Some laughed until they fell over, and the competition of the game fell by the wayside as they giggled their way through drawing things like ‘crutches’ and ‘the Chicago-Tribune Tower.’

After a short break, they moved to the kitchen for dinner. Again, my Big Helper had planned the menu after researching popular foods of the era, and while this meal wasn’t something eaten by Isabel in the story, we think she would have enjoyed it. The fancy dinner she planned required similar decoration, and so, with the incredible help of good friends, the girls ate under black and gold streamers, with gold lame curtains in the doorways, foil confetti on the tables, candles everywhere, and jazz playing softly in the background. We served baked ham, mashed potatoes, green beans, Jell-O salad, and bread with peach butter. The giggles continued as the girls pretended to be Maude’s counterparts but couldn’t look at each other without bursting out into laughter. Dinner wasn’t over quickly, but it was a most enjoyable meal.

Afterwards the girls got down to business. With full tummies and the fall of night, it was time to be like Isabel and solve a murder mystery. After so much time researching, planning, and prepping, my brain was exhausted by this point – and so I purchased a for-kids mystery online. The girls broke into two teams and scoured fact sheets to find clues. They answered questions, made charts, and came up empty – so they shared their information, and, as they talked it out, they solved the mystery.

That success deserved a treat, so we served dessert next – ice cream sundaes with warm chocolate sauce and chocolate sprinkles – because, you guessed it, they were popular in the 1920s! Having a kid who loves research is a beautiful thing. The giggling continued as they downed the ice cream and moved to the living room, where they settled in to watch the original Cheaper by the Dozen.

After a much-too-short night, we served bacon, eggs, and toast for breakfast. We cleaned up quickly, because Isabel author Beth Fantaskey was available to Skype! This was a real treat. I love when authors not only choose to write quality books for kids, but they’re also willing to invest some time in connecting in a real-world way with them. The girls were nervous heading into this experience, but they had prepped questions in advance and were eager to ask them. The time delay caused by the technology threw them for a loop at times, but they persevered and asked every question. They wanted to know about writing history, story experience, personal experiences, and more. The best part – to me – was when Fantaskey shared that there might be another Isabel story in the future. As Isabel is smart, brave, and has big dreams for the future, I’d like to see another story featuring her.

Our last activity was to attempt the Charleston. While Isabel only got a glimpse into a speakeasy and didn’t live the glitzy life of the ’20s, she knew it existed and wanted parts of it for herself. Armed with a YouTube tutorial and more giggles, the girls attempted to nail the steps while understanding the gist of the whole thing. Nobody got very far, but it was fun!

Isabel Feeney, Star Reporter is the perfect book for someone teaching about American life in the 1920s. It made a great book club pick and introduction to our history unit of that time. Because Fantaskey sets the scene so well, I wrote a unit study to accompany this book. My Big Helper worked her way through that as she read Isabel, and she was well prepared for both book club and our historical studies. If you’d like more information about this unit study, can find it in my Teachers Pay Teachers store here. There’s much to be learned from this book, but it’s great fun, too, and includes many deep questions about culture, gender roles, and friendship. It’s suitable for tweens, but I can see people much older reading and falling in love with Isabel. Give it a try!

What are your kids reading right now?

Check out these resources to get your Isabel Feeney party started!

Encouraging Hearts & Home Blog Hop – February 15, 2017

February 15, 2017 by Amy Leave a Comment

If you look outside, you’ll see that spring is on the way – even though it’s only mid-February! The temps are soaring (it was 77 here on Sunday!), the trees are blooming three weeks ahead of schedule, the daffodils are blooming (and looking beautiful in a vase on my kitchen table), and … the bees are busy. My Big Helper found that, with these high temperatures, her bees are zooming through their winter stores, so she fed them pollen patties this weekend. We’re seeing them everywhere, too, as they excitedly gather pollen and look for food in this spring-like weather.

Tweet: Find encouragement for your heart and home at A Nest in the Rocks. This week’s blog hop is live! https://ctt.ec/epe5O+

All of this excitement is one reason I’m excited that …

The most clicked post from last week was Homeschool Hack: Unit Studies.

Some of my favorite posts from last week were:

– Syncopated Mama: Passport to Fun – China

– Running Belt DIY

–Sausage Cheese Dip

If your post is listed above, please grab one of our ‘Featured Blogger’ buttons! Congratulations, and thanks for writing such inspiring posts.

Please share your family friendly posts with us!

The most clicked posts of each week will be entered to win a Monthly Giveaway!

So, be sure to 1) include your email when you link up and 2) share the link to Encouraging Hearts and Home via social media with your readers, fans and followers!

By linking up you agree that if your blog post is selected to be featured on any of our hosts’ blogs that we can use an image from your post with a link back to your post.

An InLinkz Link-up

Please share your family friendly posts with us!

By linking up you agree that if your blog post is selected to be featured on any of our hosts’ blogs that we can use an image from your post with a link back to your post.

“Still Life” by Dani Pettrey

February 13, 2017 by Amy Leave a Comment

Dani Pettrey’s latest is out, and it’s a winner ….

Blacklisted in the photography business over a controversial shot, Avery Tate answered an ad for a crime scene photographer. She expected to be laughed at, but crime scene analyst Parker Mitchell hired her outright–and changed her life. But six months ago, when her feelings for Parker became too strong, she left his employ to sort out her heart.

Now, for the first time, Avery is facing the world that rejected her to attend the gallery opening of a photography exhibit and support her best friend, who modeled for the show. But the only image of her friend is a chilling photo of her posing as if dead–and the photographer insists he didn’t take the shot. Worse, her friend can’t be found. She immediately calls Parker for help. As Avery, Parker, and his friends in law enforcement dig into the mystery, they find themselves face-to-face with a relentless and deadly threat.

Pettrey’s latest work in the Chesapeake Valor series is an action-packed winner! If you enjoy romantic stories that keep you on the edge of your seat, then Still Life is most definitely for you. Between the danger that Avery faces as she tries to find her friend, the romantic tension between her and Parker, and morbid photos that keep popping up of dead beauties, you won’t be able to put Still Life down.

Avery is a fascinating main character to me. With her rough background and gritty determination to overcome it, Avery’s journey to healing and love is a page-turner. With Parker’s fun Irish accent, who wouldn’t be enthralled?

I enjoyed the ties Pettrey created between Avery’s past and her present, between the art world and the real one. As my daughter and I enjoy playing with our cameras and trying to get the ‘perfect’ shot – though only of things like flowers and butterflies – reading about real photographers and their work was a fascinating angle of the story.

Pettrey excels at building suspense, and part of that is the way that she adds suspects to the list and then sorts through them. She keeps you guessing for much of the story while she drips details into your brain. I was a good two-thirds of the way through the story before I had even a hope of pinpointing who the killer was, and even then I wasn’t sure I was right. I love when an author can keep me guessing ’til the end!

If you’re a fan of Christian suspense fiction, hurry and get your hands on a copy of Still Life. You won’t regret it.

I received a free copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

Field Work Friday: Route 11 Potato Chips

February 10, 2017 by Amy Leave a Comment

Sometimes it’s possible to stumble onto great educational experiences without really trying, and that’s what happened when we stopped in at the Route 11 Potato Chip Factory.

The Route 11 Potato Chip Company started out on its namesake road, but it has since moved to a newer, bigger location just off Interstate 81 in Mount Jackson, Virginia. The warehouse is the home to the entire company: offices, gift shop, and factory itself.

Route 11 welcomes visitors, but what makes the site really unique are the windows built into the walls of the gift shop. From that vantage point, you can look into nearly every part of the factory and see how the chips are made. On the day that we stopped in, the kind woman at the counter came out and explained the process to us. We learned about how the potatoes are purchased from individual farmers across the Eastern seaboard and how they’re turned into yummy potato chips.

The process is fascinating, and by moving from window to window you can see almost everything (the potatoes are washed and peeled in a separate room). By moving to a second-floor balcony, you can see into the seasoning room, where we watched two workers salting a batch of lightly-salted chips and turning them by hand.

The machinery that fries, flips, drains, and bags the chips were was fun to watch. Conveyor belts move the chips throughout the factory in batches, and although they start with 100 pounds of potatoes, 75 pounds of water cooks out!

The gift shop area includes a sampling table, where you can try many of Route 11‘s unique flavors. My Little Man loved that part the best! My Big Helper spent her time in conversation with our tour guide and admiring the t-shirts, jewelry, and other items on display in the shop.

Route 11 employs sustainable business practices, and this was especially interesting to us after touring TS Designs last week. They, too, recycle their frying oil. We were particularly excited about the picked-out chips, though. After frying, the chips are sent along a conveyor belt, where a worker inspects the quality of them all. If chips are found that are slightly under- or over-cooked, they’re tossed into a bucket. A nearly farmer comes by at the end of the day and collects those chips, and feeds them to his cows. I never knew that cows like potato chips!

If you’re ever driving through that section of Virginia, stop in and check out Route 11.

If Route 11 isn’t available in your area, you can try them out here:

Encouraging Hearts & Home Blog Hop – February 7, 2017

February 9, 2017 by Amy Leave a Comment

We’re having a super busy week here. The kids are busily working on their unit studies while we prep for a very special book club event tomorrow. I can’t wait to tell you all about it!

Tweet: Find encouragement for your heart and home at A Nest in the Rocks. This week’s blog hop is live! https://ctt.ec/epe5O+

All of this excitement is one reason I’m excited that …

The most clicked post from last week was 11 Fun Valentine Activities for Kids (WTRW).

Some of my favorite posts from last week were:

– Restaurant-Style Chipotle Salsa

– Raglan Zippy Pattern Release

–Romantic Dinners for Valentine’s Day

If your post is listed above, please grab one of our ‘Featured Blogger’ buttons! Congratulations, and thanks for writing such inspiring posts.

Please share your family friendly posts with us!

The most clicked posts of each week will be entered to win a Monthly Giveaway!

So, be sure to 1) include your email when you link up and 2) share the link to Encouraging Hearts and Home via social media with your readers, fans and followers!

By linking up you agree that if your blog post is selected to be featured on any of our hosts’ blogs that we can use an image from your post with a link back to your post.

An InLinkz Link-up

By linking up you agree that if your blog post is selected to be featured on any of our hosts’ blogs that we can use an image from your post with a link back to your post.

“Conspiracy of Silence” by Ronie Kendig

February 6, 2017 by Amy Leave a Comment

Four years after a tragic mission decimated his career and his team, Cole “Tox” Russell is persona non grata to the United States. And that’s fine–he just wants to be left alone. But when a dormant, centuries-old disease is unleashed, Tox is lured back into action.

Partnered with FBI agent Kasey Cortes, Tox has to pull together a team to begin a globe-spanning search for answers–and a cure. As their quest leads them from continent to continent, it slowly becomes clear they’re not just fighting a plague–but battling against an ancient secret society whose true goals remain hidden.

With time running out and opposition growing on every side, the key to everything may rest in an antique codex, the Crown of Jerusalem–but will Tox and his team be able to trust each other enough to break this century-spanning conspiracy of silence?

Conspiracy of Silence is the fastest paced thriller I’ve read in years! I couldn’t put it down. It’s a winner on so many levels – the growth and redemption of Tox, the Biblical artifact mystery, and the team that travels the world trying to save it.

I love that mix. The combination of military action, good-versus-evil, and Biblical artifacts coming to light is exciting. It’s like reading a paper version of the best kind of action-adventure movie, and if you’re a lover of books, what could be better?

The depth of character to Tox is exhilarating. He’s a military man through-and-through, but the faith, regrets, and love interests add multiple facets to his character that make him a wonderful leading man. You can’t help but cheer for him on all levels even when things are going his way.

There is a prequel novella to this story. It’s short but maintains the same high-octane level as this book. It’s not necessary to read that story before this one, but it will help you to understand the attitudes of the characters in the early chapters.

This is the first Kendig book I’ve read, but it won’t be the last. I loved this story. If you’re a fan of Joel C. Rosenberg or other realistic action-adventure stories, you’ll definitely want to read Conspiracy of Silence.

I received a free copy of Conspiracy of Silence. All opinions expressed here are my own.