F'Arbys Sandwiches

About two years ago, our base got an Arby's restaurant.  Now, my husband absolutely loves Arby's, but when the two littles moved from kids meals to actual meals, well, let's just say my bank account doesn't love Arby's.  Five sandwiches, fries, and drinks will typically run us about 50 dollars, which is a large portion of my grocery budget.

So, I decided it was time to make my own roast beef and cheddar sandwiches in my own home for a fraction of the cost. 

Most of these ingredients are most likely things you already have in your cupboard already. And since this is a crockpot recipe, it takes less than 10 minutes to prep it - it would take more time to drive to your local fast food joint and go through the drive-through and you know whats in it. 

Here's what you're going to need for 6 sandwiches.

2 packages of roast beef (roughly 2 lbs)

1 envelope of onion soup mix

1/2 cup brown sugar (packed)

1 onion (chopped)

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

1/2 cup of water

Salt and pepper to taste (I use very little since the meat and onion soup already has high sodium content)

This can't get any easier ;)  Just put the roast beef in the bottom of the crockpot (I actually used my pressure cooker on the slow-cooker function), dump all the ingredients on top of it and cook it on low for 5 hours.  

What's a roast beef sandwich without a nice sauce with a kick to go on top of it??  Well, that's easy to whip up as well..  and again, you probably have most of these ingredients in your cupboard right now. 

1/2 cup of Ketchup

5 Tablespoons of water 

1 Tablespoon of Apple Cider Vinegar

4-5 drops of  hot sauce (Tabasco or similar)

1/4 teaspoon of Garlic Powder

1/4 teaspoon of Onion Powder

1/4 teaspoon Salt (I use kosher)

2 tablespoons of Brown Sugar

Place all the ingredients in a small saucepan and heat over low heat for roughly 10-20 minutes, stirring frequently, allowing sugar to melt and ingredients to blend well. 

This makes roughly 10 ounces of sauce.  Pour into a glass airtight jar and cool in the fridge. Store in fridge up to 2 weeks :) 

After 5 hours of smelling the goodness coming from your crockpot, it's time to eat :)  I like to toast my buns to avoid the sandwich from getting "wet" from the meat.  Then pile your meat and onions on your bun, drizzle with some of the sauce you made earlier, spread a bit of warmed cheese sauce on the top bun (I admit, I bought a jar) and enjoy with a side of chips, fries, a salad or fresh fruit. 

I hope you enjoy this F'Arby's recipe and that it will save you time and money.

Thin Stix Creativity Pack (A Homeschool Crew Review)

My kids were extremely ecstatic when the FedEx van pulled up and dropped off the Thin Stix Creativity Pack, the newest offering from the Kwik Stix family from The Pencil Grip, Inc. These have been a huge hit in our house and anytime they get a new set, they are pretty excited.

Thin Stix are paint sticks made with the same solid tempera paint found in the Kwik Stix, only the Thin Stix are thin and taller and they provide a smaller top for smoother control on projects. Thin Stix requires no water or paint brushes to use. Using the same design as Kwik Stix, kids simply draw or color with them much as they would with a marker.  The paint itself is creamy and the paint glides on smoothly and then dry to the touch in about 90 seconds.  The stick themselves work similar to a glue stick-  as more paint is needed the student simply twists the bottom to expose more of the paint stick.  The paint itself is a semi-solid, also similar to a glue stick and provide full coverage to the project they are being used on.   And the best part is that there is little to no mess at all.  What little cleanup that may be needed is easy with simple soap and water.

For this review, we received the 24 color Thin Stix Creativity Pack.  This pack contains 12 classic colors as well as 6 neon colors and 6 metallic colors. 

How We Used Them

It's no secret that Ashleigh really enjoys using both the Thin Stix and Kwik Stix paint sticks on just about anything.  Her creative juices have very little limits when she gets her hands on a set of Kwik Stix. However, recently Alyssa has also discovered that she also enjoys using the paint sticks for her own projects. So when our Thin Stix Creativity Pack arrived, both girls insisted that it was theirs. 

Originally, Ashleigh claimed them as hers. 

Until her big sister came into the room to find out what Fed Ex had bought. 

However, we have all been able to share equally and work on various projects with our newly acquired Creativity Pack. 

In the past, the girls have used the paint sticks for a variety of projects, such as painting rocks, creating colorful pictures, decorating on wood, ect.  However, this time around, I decided I wanted to try my hand with the Thin Stix myself.

We recently decided to decorate our car for the Trunk or Treat event at our Chapel.  This year's decorations were to be Disney themed, and so we opted to decorate our car as the Hunchback of Notre Dame.  After using sidewalk chalk to decorate two poster boards to look like brick walls, I realized that you really don't have Notre Dame Cathedral without stained glass.   But I knew I wanted something that could be opaque but transparent enough to be seen through, especially with a light source behind it.  

That's when I saw the Thin Stix just sitting there from Ashleigh's latest picture. I didn't know if it would work, but I thought maybe I could use the Thin Stix on a piece of parchment paper to give the effect that I wanted to achieve.  I will be honest, I did not know if this would work or not, as parchment paper has a waxy feel to it and markers and paint tend not to adhere well to it. But, if it did not work, nothing lost but a piece of parchment paper, right?


To my absolute surprise, the paint sticks not only adhered to the parchment paper but dried quickly without smudging or feeling wet to the touch.  Even rubbing/touching the parchment after painting it, the paint stayed put and did not smudge off. And so, I had the perfect stained glass window for my display. 

The "stained glass' made a great addition to our display and I was thrilled that it tuned out exactly as I had envisioned (even if I'm not much of an artist).

Alyssa has enjoyed using the Thin Stix with her adult coloring book pages.  She has especially enjoyed the metallic colors that are included with the Creativity pack and likes to use them to create a sparkly sheen to her pictures.  This effect isn't visible in the photograph of her artwork, but it looks really nice in person.  The smaller surface of the Thin Sticks allows for more precision in smaller areas, such as the headband.

Here's a beter image that shows the metallic properties of the Thin Stix.  

Ashleigh likes using the paint sticks to create original pictures, such as the picture of the zinnia flower below.

However, Ashleigh's favorite thing to do with Kwik Stix is to paint rocks.  The Thin Stix Creativity Pack is no different.  Thin Stix paint sticks adhere nicely to the porous rocky surfaces producing long-lasting bright colors that are relatively mess free.  Ashleigh has been using both Kwik Stix and Thin Stix to decorate the various rocks that she has hidden all over the base for other children to find and all who report finding them always comment how bright they are.

In the past two years of using Kwik Stix products in our household, we have only found one surface that they did not do well with: plaster of Paris.  Beyond that, we have used these on so many different projects with excellent results time and time again.  The fact that they dry quickly along with the fact they are mess free (and can be wiped away with soap and water easily) makes them a staple in our household, especially over spillable plastic containers of tempera paint.  We have enjoyed these so much that they were my top recommendation for Christmas gifts for under $25.

For more information about the Thin Stix Creativity Pack as well as the other Kwik Stix tempera paint sticks, visit their website.  You can also find more information at the following social media sites:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thepencilgrip/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/thepencilgrip @thepencilgrip

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/thepencilgrip/

AWANA Thursday

It's Thursday so that means it's time for Awana.  We had last week off due to the Harvest Festival.

Alyssa's Sparks are learning the story of Hannah, who is found in 1 Samuel Chapter 1.  Hannah was the mother of Samuel who was originally barren but then God blessed her with a son. She then dedicated that child to God and he grew to become the Prophet who eventually anointed both King Saul and King David.

Ashleigh has been working on two sections out of her Evidence of Grace book.

Section 2.1 is about the Books of History where she the first 17 books of the Bible, Genesis to Esther, are the earliest history recordings of mankind and that they describe God's promises to the nation of Israel.  She also learned that most of the people in the Bible were from the nation of Israel, both in the Old Testament and the New Testament. These books show us that the Israelites were reminded over and over of the promise God originally made to Abraham. We also discussed how the Bible shows us how God was working in the lives of people thousands of years ago as well as in our own lives today.

For her memory work for this section, she had to memorize Genesis 12: 1-2

Now the Lord said to Abram, " Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. 

And I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing."    Genesis 12: 1-2

Section 2.2 was about the Books of Wisdom.  We discussed that there are five books of wisdom in the middle of the Old Testament that reminds us who God is, how to worship God and help us to make decisions and choices based on what God would want us to make.  

We talked about how the book of Job teaches us how God used the problems in Job's life to teach him (and us) about himself and how we should think of him.  

Moving on to the Psalms we talked about how the writer used these songs as a form of worship, a way to encourage others to know who God is, as well as a way in which to cry out to the Lord during pain.  

With Proverbs, we learned that King Solomon was the wisest man who ever lived and that he wrote and collected his wisdom (as well as wisdom he learned from others) in short saying to help us make wise choices in our own lives. 

In Ecclesiastes, Ashleigh learned that later in life, King Solomon made many mistakes and didn't always take his own advice to make good choices.  He wrote Ecclesiastes as a way to remind people to fear God and to keep his commands. 

Finally, we learned that the Song of Solomon helps us to learn what love between a husband and a wife should look like. 

For this section, Ash had to memorize Proverbs 1:7

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.  -- Proverbs 1:7


In addition to the two verses, Ashleigh has also been working on memorizing the books of the Bible.  She is currently memorizing the books in the Old Testament and will be reciting the first 20 books tonight. 

Genesis   Exodus  Leviticus  Numbers    Deuteronomy  Joshua     Judges   Ruth   
 1 Samuel    2 Samuel   1 Kings   2 Kings  1 Chronicles  2 Chronicles  Ezra  Nehemiah  Esther  Job  Psalms   Proverbs  Ecclesiastes   Song of Solomon

Ashleigh also earned her first element for the year for completing 4 sections of her book.  She should also receive her first Silver Star next week. 

This coming week, Ashleigh will be working on memorizing Deuteronomy 18:18-19 and possibly 1 Corinthians 15:3-4 (depending on how quickly she memorizes the first verse) and we will be discussing the Books of Prophecy and the Gospels. 

The Magic Stories (A Homeschool Crew Review)

These last few weeks, Ashleigh has been working her way through reading The Magic Stories from Allsaid & Dunn, LLC, publishers of The Reading Game and authors of the Wordly Wise series.

The Magic Stories is a series of six stories with activities designed to be used as a supplemental reading program for 2nd-3rd grade reading levels.  Each story exposing readers to 40 different "Naughty Words" (words that tend to be confusing such as although, brought and caught) that are used within the story.  Printable Cards of each word along with each word used within a sentence is available to print out and can be used to help children to recognize and pronounce the word when they come across it while reading the story. 

The Six Stories are:

• The Magic Hole – Ping Ho finds a bag with a magic hole which changes her family’s life.
• The Magic Ax – Tom learns the value of hard work
• The Magic Joke – An unhappy king and a Princess, war and laughing
• The Magic Hotdog – Alfred can’t stop eating hot dogs
• The Magic Boots – Patty was accidentally given goblin boots
• The Magic Box – A Rumpelstiltskin story

Each of the stories are downloadable PDF files that can be printed out either each page on  8.5"x11" or double sided and assembled for a smaller booklet.  The stories are also optimized for use on an Ipad or computer screens.  Stories are roughly 20 pages each with black line illustrations that children can also color and personalize, making the story their own. Additional worksheets are also available that include activities such as reading comprehension questions, writing exercises, reading proficiency and word assessment to gauge how well your child can recognize the naughty words both before and after the story. 

How We Used It

I decided to initially use this with Ashleigh, who is my reader.    Ash and I would spend a bit of time each night reading from one of the books that I printed out for her.  

For each book, we also printed out the flash cards.  Ashleigh would go through each of the "Naughty Words" and if she had a bit of trouble with one of the words, we would be able to focus on that particular word before she got to the stories to help her become familiar with it.  She actually knew most of the words already and did not struggle with them before we began with the stories. 

Ashleigh really liked the stories.  Her favorite was the very first story, The Magic Hole. These stories are very well written and are very imaginative while teaching a moral.  

We did find that the stories were a bit too long for Ash to read in one sitting. We ended up breaking each story up over two or three days.  We simply would come to a stopping point and pick up where we left off the next night. This allowed for us to actually discuss the story more in depth as well as allow Ashleigh to work on predicting what would happen later in the story. 

Since we were doing this as part of her nightly independent reading, even though I was having her read aloud, I did not have her fill out the worksheets. However, we did sit down with them and have her orally answer the questions.  The worksheets covered a variety of language arts topics, such as recognizing read vs imaginary or using their imagination to describe a scenario given.

We have really enjoyed these stories and I'm looking forward to using them with Garrett in the near future.

For more information about The Magic Stories, visit their website. You can also find them on the following social media platforms:

• Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/TheReadingGame/ 
• Twitter:  https://twitter.com/TheReadingGame2   
• Pinterest: https://au.pinterest.com/TheReadingGame/   
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVfPcsCZ7zyM7kjiD5Qjn5g   

Wordless Wednesday

Halloween is always a huge deal here on base and we try to decorate the house for everyone's enjoyment.