Old Fashioned Gingerbread

With the holidays coming up I thought I'd share my late momma-in-law's gingerbread recipe.

Old Fashioned Gingerbread

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup shortening

1 cup molasses

2 cups flour

1/2 tsp soda

1 1/2 tsp ginger

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 cup buttermilk

Nuts and raisins (to taste)

Mix first 3 ingredients until creamy.

Mix in dry ingredients; then the milk.

Stir in nuts and raisins.

Bake in large, greased and floured loaf pan for about 1 hour at 350 degrees.

Freebies- Homeschool/Homemaking/Holidays

Freebies, freebies and more freebies!

The Erskines, over at Homeschool Freebie of the Day, have extended the availability of all their freebies they've offered over the last two weeks. You can get them all through the end of next week! And anyone can use the resources the Erskines offer, not just homeschoolers. Some of their offerings have been cookbooks, classic books and old radio shows. And they're all free!

Do you need some organizing and planning help for the holidays?
Check out The Debt Diva for free downloads of a "Frugal and Festive Holiday Guide", budget planner, menu planner, holiday grocery list, shopping plan and gift tracker.
Thanks Clarky!

Joyous Home is on day nine of their 12 Days Of Freebies giveaway and today's download is "Christmas Cards from Home".
Don't forget, you can get this today only.

Do you like to quilt? Need a new quilt pattern?
Head over to Michael Miller Fabrics for oodles of free quilt patterns, I counted at least 40!

More free quilt patterns and other sewing projects, including aprons, handbags and a cute little bear, can be found at Windham Fabrics. Some great gift ideas here.

And finally, for the woodworker in your family, Free Woodworking Plans has a page full of links to free plans for wooden toys, wagons, doll cradles, games and many more.

Winter Is Here

Brrrrrrr, it's cold here in the Pawpaw Holler this morning...18 degrees.
And our water froze.
Now I get to use all the buckets and jugs of water that are sitting in my bathtub!
Hopefully it will warm up later and I won't have to use the blow dryer to thaw the pipes out.

It's kind of funny, all summer we've had a water shortage and our spring finally started running good again, just before the first freeze. Now we have plenty of water but if it gets too cold we have to leave a faucet running, or the pipes, and sometimes the whole tank, will freeze and if we run the faucet more than a trickle, the tank doesn't fill up fast enough and we run it dry.

Aaaaghhh!

So, I just keep my jugs and buckets full.
At least the 1000 gallon tank isn't frozen solid...yet. :)

Free Notebooking Pages

I find freebies all over the web and now I have some for you,

three sets of notebooking/journaling pages.

The first two files are a 6 page set of The Pilgrims notebooking pages, they are both the same design, except the second set is wide ruled.

The third file is a 4 page set of nature journaling/notebooking pages, wide rule with a fall leaf design.

ThePilgrims NBPages.pdf ThePilgrims NBPagesWide.pdf

NatureLeaves NBPagesWide.pdf

These are for free for your personal use only.

If you like these or have suggestions, please leave a comment or e-mail me.

Thank you and enjoy. :)

Homemaking Freebies

It's time to cook!

Homeschool Freebie of the Day has a free holiday cookbook for us today, "Classic Thanksgiving Recipes: Over 200 Traditional Thanksgiving Dishes". This is in PDF format and available today only.
Note: Check back with them later today, they're supposed to post another freebie.

Joyous Home is in the middle of their 12 days of freebies and today's download is "Let's Make Old Fashioned Candy". This is also in PDF format and available today only.

Family Education has a free Holiday Cookie Book, in PDF format, full of simple and tasty cookie recipes.


Do you like to knit?
Knitting Daily has a free download, "A Little Something Special", five different knitting patterns for ornaments and a gift bag.


And for gardeners:
You can still get "Holiday Gifts & Decorating Ideas from the Crafter's Garden", by Mo Gilmer of Weekend Gardening on the DIY Network.

Last of Autumn

Good Morning!

My children and I went on a hike last week and

I thought I'd share some pictures we took.

Here are the last of the Fall colors.

That's Rich Mountain in the center.

A Peek at Townsend

These are either huckleberry or blueberry leaves.

Baby Oak Trees

Maple Leaf

A Young Pawpaw Tree

A Sunrise from Last Week

More Thanksgiving Freebies

Good morning!

Here are some more Thanksgiving freebies.

For some great classic stories about Thanksgiving, head over to Happy Hearts at Home. Alexandra has compiled an extensive list of free stories that are in the Public Domain.

Listen to some beautiful hymns at Music for Thanksgiving.

Listen to more Thanksgiving music and sound effects at ILoveWaves.com Thanksgiving page.

And here are a couple of classic comedies from old-time radio to download.

Abbott and Costello "A Formal Thanksgiving"

Burns and Allen "Landing of the Indians at Plymouth"

Lincoln's Gettysburg Address

Good Morning!

Today is the 145th anniversary of President Lincoln's Gettysburg Address.

Here are some free resources to learn more about this historic speech.

Lessons:

Absolute English has a short lesson on the Gettysburg Address for grades 9-12.

Drafting the Gettysburg Address, from Education World is another short lesson, for grades 6-12.

Audios:
Homeschool Freebie of the Day issued a challenge to their young readers to memorize the Gettysburg Address. Here are some of the entries.

At FreeAudio.org, you can download and listen to recordings of the Gettysburg Address, the Emancipation Proclamation, Lincoln's second Inaugural Address and Lincoln's Thanksgiving Proclamation of 1863.

Neat website:

Gettysburg National Military Park's Civil War Page For Kids

Free Learning Resource- Biography/Book Contest/Audios/Lapbook

Here are some new homeschooling freebies for this week.

Download a biography about Good King Wenceslas from Knowledge Quest Maps. This sample biography is from their book, "What Really Happened During the Middle Ages", a collection of historical biographies for 8-14 year olds.
You might also like to visit their blog and enter the contest to win a free hard copy of "What Really Happened During the Middle Ages".

Homeschool Radio Shows has two audio programs for us this week, a Thanksgiving episode of "The Answer Man", and "Baby Snooks Thanksgiving". These are both episodes of two great old-time radio shows and will be available all week.

Attention Lapbookers!
CurrClick's new free product for this week is "The Girl in the Rag Coat Lapbook" by Hands of a Child, for grades K-3. Available all week, pdf format.

Free Classic E-books- Early American History

Here are four classic books about early American History.

Homeschool Freebie of the Day has another classic e-book download for us today.
Originally published in 1910, "Mary of Plymouth: A Story of the Pilgrim Settlement" by James Otis, is a story about the pilgrims and Plymouth Colony as told by a young pilgrim girl.
Available today only.

"The Founding of New England" by American writer and historian James Truslow Adams, was originally published in 1921 and won a Pulitzer Prize for History.

"Historic Deeds of Danger and Daring" by Herbert G. Smith, B. J. Fernie and R. S. Blair, tells the stories of Henry Hudson, Myles Standish, Daniel Boone and many more. This was originally published in 1906.

"The Women Who Came in the Mayflower" by Annie Russell Marble, is a memorial to the pilgrim women of Plymouth Colony and reveals glimpses of the communal life during 1621-1623.
This book was originally published in 1920.

A Beautiful Sunrise This Morning

I thought I'd share the beautiful sunrise we had this morning.

These were taken just before 7:30am.

Freebies-Bible Stories/Homemaking/Thanksgiving/Christmas/

New freebies for today.

First, from Homeschool Freebie of the Day, chapters from their upcoming book "Bible Battles", by Lettice Bell and Jessica Erskine. This exciting and faithfully told book re-tells the stories of great battles and wars described in the Old Testament and brings them to life for your children.
Also includes an interactive tool for scripture study.
Chapter sampler is in PDF format, available today only.
They are having a big “Publication Celebration” for this great new book on Thursday, November 20, with a slew of extra resources and goodies you won’t want to lose out on.
And don't forget, today is the deadline for your Gettysburg Address submissions, have them in by midnight tonight!

Next, from Joyous Home, a Thanksgiving and Christmas day celebration of free homemaking projects, twelve days of freebies! Downloads include sewing projects, holiday dinners, bread making, and much more. This started Friday and the downloads are available for one day only, so there are nine days left. Today's free download goes up at 11:30am.

The new free product from CurrClick is "Lines of Time for 'Twas the Night Before Thanksgiving". This is a fun, reading comprehension resource for the children's reader "'Twas the Night Before Thanksgiving". PDF format, reader not included. Expires this week.
CurrClick has also added several new products to their freebie page, available anytime.

Here a couple classic books to download:
"Old Christmas: From the Sketch Book of Washington Irving" by Washington Irving and Randolph Caldecott, originally published in 1876

"Christmas Entertainments: Containing Fancy Drills, Acrostics, Motion Songs, Tableaux, Short Plays, Recitations in Costume, for Children of Five to Fifteen Years" by Alice Maude Kellogg, published in 1918

And finally, some holiday audios:
A reading of "The New-England Boy's Song About Thanksgiving Day", a poem by Lydia Maria Child

"A Christmas Carol - 1931- Dicken Radio Plays", old-time radio

"Abbott & Costello Christmas Program", old-time radio show

Counting Blessings

Abby really dislikes being sick (doesn't everyone) and usually complains the whole time. I try to teach my children to count their blessings, even through life's difficulties.
Well, it must be sinking in a little bit. She's had a little cold this weekend and I didn't hear any complaining.
To top it off, this is what she said when Daniel pulled his boots off this evening:

"One good thing about my nose being clogged is I don't have to smell any stinky feet."

That's one way of looking at it! :)

Win A Stand Mixer, Immersion Blender, Or Food Processor

Hey all you homemakers and cooks out there!
I just found out about a great contest over at My Wooden Spoon.

From now until November 23, enter to win your choice of a Kitchenaid Immersion Blender, a Cuisinart Food Processor, or a Kitchenaid Stand Mixer! Four ways to enter, two ways to enter everyday.

Wow!
Which one would you like to have? I like the mixer. :)

Don't forget, contest ends November 23.

Who Covereth The Heaven

Who covereth the heaven with clouds, who prepareth rain for the earth, who maketh grass to grow upon the mountains.

Psalm 147:8

Events and Activities in Townsend This Week

Daily

Great Smoky Mountains Heritage Center
Open from 10am to 5pm, Tuesday through Saturday and 1pm to 5pm on Sunday.
Admission:
Adults (18-59) $6
Seniors (60+) $4
Children (6-17) $4
Under 6 Free
Admission Free with Membership

For more information please see their website or call (865)-448-0044.
Go here for information on school field trips.

Cades Cove Heritage Tours
Offers guided tours of Cades Cove, in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, that showcase the history and resources of the area. Tours generally run 2-3 hours.

Tour Schedule:
Tuesday-Saturday
8:30 am (subject to change)
1:30 pm

Sunday
1:30 pm

Ticket prices:
Adult: $13.00
Senior (60+): $10.00
Child (6-17): $8.00
Under 6: FREE

Ticket Price for Members of the GSMHC:
Adult: $11.00
Senior (60+): $8.00
Child (6-17): $7.00
Under 6: FREE

Combination Ticket: Tour and Entrance to Heritage Center
Adult: $15.00
Senior (60+): $12.00
Child (6-17): $10.00
Under 6: FREE

For more information please see their website or call (865) 488-8838.
Please note: They recommend booking in advance as the busses usually book up a day or more ahead of time.


Sunday November 16

Townsend Visitor Center
Art & Jewelry Exhibit by Maxine Falls
Open 9am-6pm. Event is free. For more information call 865-448-6134 or 800-525-6834.


Monday November 17

Townsend Visitor's Center
Assorted Crafts by Joyce Jarman
Open 9am-6pm. Event is free. For more information call 865-448-6134 or 800-525-6834.


Tuesday November 18

Townsend Visitor Center
Assorted Crafts by Joyce Jarman
Open 9am-6pm. Event is free. For more information call 865-448-6134 or 800-525-6834.


Wednesday November 19

Townsend Visitor Center
Open 9am-6pm. For more information call 865-448-6134 or 800-525-6834.

Mary E. Tippitt Memorial Library
Join Roy and Susie Ferguson with their service dog Schatzie at the after-school program on Wednesday, from 3:15pm to 4:15pm.
Please call the library at 865-448-1441 to pre-register your children no later than Tuesday. Children in grades Pre-K through 5th are welcome and this is a free program.
The Mary E. Tippitt Memorial Library is located at 120 Tiger Drive in Townsend.


Thursday November 20

Townsend Visitor Center
Art Exhibit by Fred Weiser
Open 9am-6pm. Event is free. For more information call 865-448-6134 or 800-525-6834.


Friday November 21

Townsend Visitor Center
Art Exhibit by Fred Weiser
Open 9am-6pm. Event is free. For more information call 865-448-6134 or 800-525-6834.


Saturday November 22

Townsend Visitor Center
Art Exhibit by Fred Weiser
Open 9am-6pm. Event is free. For more information call 865-448-6134 or 800-525-6834.


Sunday November 23

Townsend Visitor Center
Art Exhibit by Fred Weiser
Open 9am-6pm. Event is free. For more information call 865-448-6134 or 800-525-6834.