Hot Chocolate, Math and Peanut Butter Cookies

What on earth does math have to do with baking cookies?

In our house....everything.

Thursday's math lesson was a lesson in doubling fractions - sorta. Momma had to get some baking done and well, who is best to assist with this feat than the 3 little guppies?

Today's entry is about cookies. Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip to be exact. OH Beloved, I can honestly say that I have never in my recently gluten free life experienced cookies like these. All this time my favorite was a simple flour less peanut butter cookie recipe, but that has all changed--well, sort of. Mary Frances' hubby, John of Gluten Free Cooking School, has taken these cookies to a whole new level!

Feast your eyes on these -- don't they look simply amazing?!?! And the best part of it all is that they are gluten free, dairy free and can also be made egg free - wooot!

and these

3 1/2 dozen of deliciousness! (I doubled the recipe and used a tablespoon to measure *winks*)

After baking all the cookies, we decided that they absolutely MUST be partnered with Hot Chocolate for our midmorning Math break ;) We studied fractions while baking and then continued with our regular math lesson from Miquon

See the happy smiles.

And after the first bite delight!

The Taste Testers give them 3 smiles!

Hot Chocolate and cookies

First follow Mary Frances' Recipe for John's Peanut Butter cookies - You won't regret it! We had many hands to assist in measuring, doubling the amounts and finding the ingredients.

Second, Cool cookies while working on math and momma makes the hot chocolate.

1/2 c. sugar

1/4c. baking cocoa

dash of sea salt

1/3 c. warm water

Bring these ingredients to boil, reduce heat and add:

4c. Milk - we used goat milk today, but have used soy and rice milks as well.

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon

Third, Stir well, do not boil. Serve when hot with Mary Frances' cookies and SMILE WITH DELIGHT!

Foot Fetish and Copywork

Today, husband needed to leave work early to go to the shoe dr. We have struggled to find the right insoles and shoes for his feet. Since he is a diabetic we need to be very careful as to what shoes he wears. He needs shoes that will protect his tootsies yet not cause any seam issues and wear funny. So, we began using a wonderful podiatrist and a shoe dr. LOL.
Daddy got a brand new pair of nice black oxford Ambulator Shoes with 3 new pair of insoles. We are so excited! The only drawback is that his job requires steel toed boots, the pro is that the new insoles he has also fit his boots - Praise the Lord!
Since his appointment was before lunch, the children were overly excited to see Daddy for lunch and were busy sharing their copywork with him. Poor daddy, trying to understand the scribblings of 4 year olds -LOL! I must admit, though, in the last few weeks these little 4 yr old scribblings are actually taking shape and resemble very well the letters I have written in the books for them to copy. With each of my children , I have started them writing copywork from stories I wrote about them. It keeps them interested enough to repeat it and makes a very cool keepsake...All in the Charlotte Mason gentle way of teaching. Ahhh, that woman is wonderful.
This is how we have begun to learn to write in our home. Each child has their very own Manuscript Tablet. You know, the ones with the lines made for printing with the dotted middle? On the first line I begin the story. "Once upon a time there was a (skip line and print on the 3rd line) little boy named Elijah James Fisher." The children begin to giggle at this point. I then turn the book over to them to COPY what I wrote on the lines directly below my words. It is an absolute blessing to watch them and now to see the difference simply by reading back in the story. Once the book is finished we move onto copying from Psalms or other tidbits from other whole living books, like the real Winnie the Pooh books. "House At Pooh Corner" was a favorite of Collin's. He enjoyed copying from that wonderful author A.A. Milne. Another bonus to copywork time is that mommy is able to update her recipe blog, the healthyfishies website, the business blog and of course share our day with you here.

Smile... these are among the simple joys in life.