We Got a New Ice Cream Maker!

Having food allergies sucks. Marley is allergic to wheat and chicken eggs (and shrimp, but that doesn't effect her ice cream eating) and most good ice cream contains eggs. When I say good ice cream, I mean the stuff that has few ingredients. NOT the stuff with high fructose corn syrup and "natural" flavorings.

Of course, I jumped at the chance to test out the Ariete-DeLonghi stainless steel ice cream maker. Just like good ice cream has few ingredients, the ice cream maker has few parts. There is the jumbo freezer part, an ice cream bucket, a paddle to churn, the lid with an opening to pour, a spatula to scrape out the ice cream, and a measuring cup to pour the mixture into the bucket. I actually found it much easier to put my mixture into a large 4 cup measuring cup for easy pouring.

You can place your mixture into the ice cream maker either hot or cold. When I made gelato, I cooked the fruit down and I just could not wait for it to cool before I got started. It churned for the full hour and was nearly perfect. I scooped it out of the bucket and placed it in a container that I froze for about 20 minutes. After that, it was perfect. I also tried making ice cream from cold ingredients. It froze much faster. In fact, the paddle stopped churning after 45 minutes! I had to let it thaw a bit before I added our gluten free chocolate sandwich cookies.

I seriously have no idea how we have gone so long without an ice cream maker in our lives and I can't wait to share some of our recipes with you!

I did receive the ice cream maker at a promotional discount in exchange for testing and my honest review.

4 Ways to Keep Your Cool While Homeschooling

Whether you are a school-at-home family or an unschooling family, having your kids at home with you ALL THE TIME can get to be a bit overwhelming. Here are some tips I've found to be helpful and keep us going, even when we lack motivation.

1. HAVE a schedule. We have a hybrid schooling, where we attend a "homeschool connect" that is part of the public school system. The classes have set times and days and those are a part of our schedule. Your schedule could be as simple as, we all come together around lunch time and eat together and then read or draw for 45 minutes after lunch. It could be as complex as including wake-up times, breakfast, chores, school time, and so on.

2. AVOID over scheduling. We have a packed schedule this year, and unfortunately that has meant that Marley has had to learn that we can't do everything and choose what is most important to her. She has had to let go of a few of her other extracurricular activities in order to focus on music, which is her passion right now.

3. KEEP a family calendar. Whether you keep a physical calendar, or a digital one (we keep a family iCalendar via phone and iPad), it's important to see your commitments laid out and NOT rely on your memory. I particularly like the iCalendar because we can have a shared family calendar for activities I need to take her to, we can invite extended family members to certain events, and we can have our own personal calendars that all mesh together for our viewing and organizing pleasure.

4. BE flexible. Sometimes, there is a really awesome event happening, but attending would make you miss a lesson or other regular commitment. Sometimes, the whole family is having an off day and really needs to sit around eating popcorn and binging on Netflix. Both of these things are okay. One of the reasons we homeschool is to have the freedom to do what you want to do when you want to do it!

Do you have any tips that help you keep on keepin' on as a homeschool family? Share them in the comments!

Elephants All Around

We attended a baby shower for my cousin yesterday. Okay, technically, she's my cousin's wife but I don't like all that hullabaloo, so we will just call her my cousin. They are having a baby boy (no name yet) and the idea was floated around to buy the baby books instead of cards. Cards are so expensive and they get read and recycled. For the same price you can find a children's book and write on the cover. I thought that was brilliant, and so did everyone else, so this baby boy has a fresh new library to start him out.

Marley attended sewing camp at the beginning of the summer and after it was over, she and my mom decided to make flannel blankets for the baby. They turned out sew well (excuse the pun, I couldn't resist). She used soft grey elephant fabric on one side and grey and white chevron on the other. She bound it with a decorative stitch! We also picked up the book If Animals Kissed Goodnight by Ann Whitford Paul and a super soft organic elephant rattle. The whole package turned out just darling.