Dairy-Free Cauliflower Casserole

 

Geography lessons and food just seem to go hand in hand around here.  I think it’s because we are always on the lookout for allergy-free recipes to try that don’t begin with a can of something or a box of something else.

We’ve found through the years that other countries are famous for cooking with real ingredients.  :-)

 

Russia @WonderMaps

 

Today, I’m sending you to my daughter’s geography blog, Culture on the Earth, for a dairy-free, egg-free, nut-free excursion to Russia and her easy to make, safe to eat …

Dairy-Free Cauliflower Recipe

If you need a basic cream sauce recipe sans the cream, here’s the one I taught my children to make:

Basic Dairy-Free Cream Sauce

Homeschool Tip:

If you like the map above and *wonder* where I got it, just pop over to Bright Ideas Press and see their very flexible, very adaptable, very customizable, very user-friendly printable map collection :

REALITY CHECK:  Our official homeschool geography study is complete, but I imagine world cuisine tasting will never end!  Especially since I’m studying up for our Geography Missions adventure in children’s church!  :-)

Dream Night at the Zoo

 

When a nightmare begins, we never know how the dream will end.  But some nightmares have twists and turns, and the end is way better than the beginning.

When my daughter was offered a Dreams Come True trip a few years ago, it hit our hearts hard.  She’s that ill?  It’s that bad?  It felt like a death sentence.  But it became a life giver.

Dream Night at the Zoo @SuzBroadhurst

And the life they gave kept giving, as we were introduced to Starlight, and through Starlight, we were invited the last few years to Dream Night at the Zoo.

Dream Night at the Zoo @SuzBroadhurst

This is Winter’s last year with Starlight. She’s an official adult now.  It’s time to grow up … at least a little.

Dream Night at the Zoo @SuzBroadhurst

Dream Night at the Zoo was started at a zoo in the Netherlands.

Dream Night at the Zoo @SuzBroadhurst

A time for families of medically challenged children to enjoy an evening at the zoo together without the crowds of the general public.

Dream Night at the Zoo @SuzBroadhurst

At our local zoo, the evening is free and the families are invited to feed the giraffes …

.Dream Night at the Zoo @SuzBroadhurst

 

Visit with animals both stuffed and not …

 

Dream Night at the Zoo @SuzBroadhurst

Ride the carousel for free …

Dream Night at the Zoo @SuzBroadhurst

And as always, pet and brush the goats …

Dream Night at the Zoo @SuzBroadhurst

This year, being Winter’s last Dream Night – and healthiest! – offered me, the mama, a time for reflection …

Dream Night at the Zoo @SuzBroadhurst

And a time to watch the sunset on the safari of childhood.

Dream Night at the Zoo @SuzBroadhurst

Many thanks to Starlight, Dreams Come True, and the Jacksonville Zoo for making our last Dream Night at the Zoo so very memorable.

REALITY CHECKDreams Come True is always on the lookout for groups who would like to sponsor dreams for children with life-threatening medical challenges.  The beauty of this organization is they don’t toss you to the side when your child’s dream is fulfilled.  They walk with you, love you, and cheer for your whole family along the way!

God Knows When Homeschoolers Retire

Every Days are for Homeschooling

I worried about homeschool retirement.  What will I do when the kids no longer need me to do all the things a parent-teacher does?

Yet when I probed my heart, the bigger questions, the scarier questions were:

Will God know where I am when I don’t know where the kids are?  Will He still be actively involved in my life even though I’m not homeschooling?

 

And the Scariest Questions of All

Will He still care about me and have something for me to do?  Or was my life designed solely to raise children and now that I’m done, I’m … done?

I shouldn’t have worried.  But I did.  And I’m thankful I did.

I’m thankful because He taught me I could talk to Him about my worries.  And I’m glad I started talking to Him early in the worrying process.

 

God started answering my fears before Big Fear had a time to set in.

 

Here’s What He’s Done So Far …

 

  • On the morning of the last day of homeschool co-op, an opportunity to teach children’s church came up.

 

  • Two days after my daughter’s official graduation …

Graduation Homeschool Style

two of my sisters  – the very two that were at the beginning of our homeschool days and at the end of our homeschool days – met spontaneously at a natural food store as we stopped by on the spur of the moment to get dairy-free milk powder for smoothies.   I grabbed the one sister dragging her to meet the other sister, ecstatically declaring,  “You have to meet my other sister!”  Did I mention one lives in Arizona and the other in Florida?  :-)

 

  • Just a few minutes ago, within moments of posting on Facebook  that I had just completed my daughter’s transcript and I am on my official one-year sabbatical, the phone rang:  “May I come by in 5 minutes and drop off a few bags of yarn for you?”  Yarn?  Yes, please!  And thank you!

 

And More …

      And that doesn’t even include the conversations and ideas sparked* by the cane I used this week to get around, as we showed off Florida’s attractions to my sister and great-niece!

Sister and Great-Niece @SuzBroadhurst

 

Homeschoolers: Share Your Retirement Fears with God Now

Ask Him to plan your steps.  Ask now.  And He will make a way later.

And know that God will still know who you are after the diploma is signed and the transcript is printed.  He knows where you are and who you are.

A beautiful side effect of raising your children to find their gifts, their talents, their joys, and their weaknesses, is that we mamas get to find the same things about ourselves along the way!  Just in time for homeschool retirement!

Enjoy the now and look forward to the future! 

God is in it all, if you invite Him to be!

* More info coming soon!  Be sure to sign up for email updates!  Look just under my photo and bio blurb at the top of the page for a little box, From My Home to Yours.

Homeschool High School Graduation Girl-Style

Her mesage has always been …

Baby Winter: Tell the I Love Them @SuzBroadhurst

 

When life got tough, she got on her knees and got tougher.

Go Get 'Em! @SuzBroadhurst

Whether her baby doll needed wheels …

Winter and Baby Carriage

or she did …

Winter and her Wheels

Whether she was playing hymns …

Winter Plays at Ronald McDonald House

 

or snazzin’ and jazzin’  …

Jazzy @SuzBroadhurst

 

 

She’s always shown Spirit!

Winter: Senior Picture @SuzBroadhurst

 

Class of 2013

School of the Culina Mensa

So very proud of who you are and what you’ve done,

my precious daughter!

REALITY CHECK:  Graduation is a gift, like a memorial stone of old, reminding us to look back on all that God has done.  And boy, has He been busy!