Loverbee's Homeschool Survival Guide

Crazy times, people. Crazy times. Working from home. Schooling from home. Trying to keep everyone healthy. There's a lot on our plates.

Some of my delivery dependent homeschool supplies for this year.

As I've begun prepping our homeschool year I've found myself relying on Amazon a whole lot more than I'm used to. I've also been thinking about some of the things I've learned from others that have helped me stay sane and productive as a homeschooling mama. I know many of you may be doing school differently this year with more (or all) schooling taking place at home. I thought I'd jot down some of the tips and tricks I've accumulated over the years that have proven most helpful to me and my kiddos.

Blueberry Lemonade Popsicles

We're still settling into our new home even though it's been a year since we moved. New community, new climate... . It takes a while, and I'm all about giving myself and my family all the time and space we need to adjust. Blogging, I'm afraid, has taken a back seat to the scramblings of every day life in our new place. That said, I just had to carve out a few moments to practice taking blog photos in our new home (I am way rusty) and bring you our favorite summer popsicle.

These Blueberry Lemonade Popsicles are the perfect summer treat!

These Blueberry Lemonade Popsicles are everything you want in a summer treat. Fresh blueberries - tart and sweet. Juicy fresh lemon adding just the perfect amount of pucker. Goodness, my mouth is watering already. Let's get started.

Summer Reading Fun

If your family is anything like mine, keeping the kiddos interested in reading over the summer can be tricky. My littles have a lot of self-motivation when it comes to legos and art, and even looking through books, but not when it comes to actually reading them.

Libraries have great summer reading programs that we've enjoyed in the past, but I wanted to up the ante for my guys this year. I downloaded a simple reading chart and made a prize list with prizes that I think will keep them interested, excited, and driven throughout the whole summer. I hope. Fingers crossed.

Here's a simple summer reading chart I downloaded for free from Busy Momma Media. I like how colorful it is and how many slots there are for books. You also get to insert how many books you will require for what particular prize(s). My guys will need to read 5 books to pick a prize from a prize list I've formulated just for them. Again, I'm hoping for motivation to last the whole summer.

What's for Dinner? Sheet Pan Brats & Potatoes

As promised, here is one of our family's favorite sheet pan dinners - Sheet Pan Brats & Potatoes. It's the perfect excuse for enjoying a batch of our Homemade Sauerkraut. Even though grilling season is coming up, having a good sheet pan dinner recipe up your sleeve is a really good thing. You're gonna love this one.

We just gotta have Homemade Sauerkraut with our Sheet Pan Brats & Potatoes.

You can customize this recipe to suit the sausages and veg you prefer. We're partial to good ol' fashion bratwurst, golden potatoes, and white or yellow onions.

Homemade Sauerkraut

Sauerkraut is one of our favorite condiments. We've been making our own for a few years now and love everything about the homemade process. The prepping and massaging. The waiting and watching. And, of course, enjoying the delicious final product.

Homemade Sauerkraut is one of our favorite condiments!

Homemade sauerkraut is a simple process. It takes a little bit of elbow grease at the beginning and then a month's worth of patience to get the best result for both health and flavor.

Chocolate Squash Banana Snack Cake

'Tis the season to indulge in summer squash. I'm a big fan of all squashes and summer squash lends itself so wonderfully to baked goods. Not to mention the bonus of the hidden veggie element in a sweet treat I give to my little ones. Sneaky mommy.

One of my favorite recipes is this Chocolate Squash Banana Snack Cake. Snack cake. Don't you just love those two words together? In my mind, that translates into "eat-any-time-without-feeling-guilty" cake. Ha!

Chocolate Squash Banana Snack Cake to make you feel better about eating cake in the middle of the day.

This yummy and easy cake utilizes any type of summer squash you have on hand.

Honey, Walnut, and Fig Granola Bars

I am TOTALLY in love with these Honey, Walnut, and Fig Granola Bars. Can't get enough of 'em. They're nutty and figgy and packed with good-for-ya ingredients. They're great with milk for the kiddos and great with coffee for da mamas and da papas. 😉 They are snack heaven in my book.

I have to admit, these Honey, Walnut, and Fig Granola Bars are a little addicting.

The trick to these yummy (and slightly addicting) snackies is toasting the nuts and oats. It makes for fabulous texture and amazing flavor. I also love that I can get my anti-nut eater to eat them. I process the walnuts so they blend in perfectly with the oats and he's none the wiser. Tricky mommy. 😉

Toasted Almond Bark

I have to admit, I am way behind on all things holiday. Until this week, putting up our Christmas tree was as far as I had gotten. Now that we're on break from our regular homeschooling routine, I'm huff'n to catch up. Enter, our favorite Christmas candy - Toasted Almond Bark.

This Christmas treat is a clear sign for our household that the holidays have arrived, and it's super easy to put together. Tons (and I mean tons) of toasted almonds get gently pressed into swirled dark and white chocolate. It still amazes me how something so simple and easy to make can be so gosh darn delicious!

Easy Sour Cream Crumble Pie

Easy pie is the best kinda pie. All of the amazing homemade flavor with very little of the homemade work? Now we're talk'n.

This apple version of my Easy Sour Cream Crumble Pie gets drizzled with salted caramel. Yum!

This Easy Sour Cream Crumble Pie can take on all kinds of glorious forms depending on your favorite fruit filling, spices, and drizzles.

Chocolaty Chocolate Dairy Free Ice Cream

Well, it's been a while, hasn't it? Did you miss me? I sure missed you. Lots going on in the Loverbee household this summer - new job, big move, diet overhaul, homeschool overhaul. More on these fabulous resets at a later date. But before our busy summer ends, I want to share one more ice scream recipe with y'all. This creamy treat is dairy free, intensely chocolaty, and a big favorite in our house.

Our favorite Chocolaty Chocolate Dairy Free Ice Cream!

We make this Chocolaty Chocolate Dairy Free Ice Cream all summer long - all year long, really.

Earl Grey Ice Cream with Lemon Curd Swirl

Anybody else sad about the weather getting warmer? Only me? I know, I know, most people love it. Summer fun in the sun and all that jazz. As for me, I've been busy pretending it's not really happening and enjoying one of my favorite cold weather drinks in ice cream form - Earl Grey Ice Cream with Lemon Curd Swirl.

Tea anyone? Earl Grey Ice Cream with Lemon Curd Swirl, that is.

This creamy tea infused frozen treat is swirled with a touch of sweet and tangy lemon curd. Perfect for any summer tea party or for that tea lover in your life.

Loaded Coffee Ice Cream

If you don't have an ice cream maker yet, get one! I know, how bossy of me. Trust me on this one, though. You're not gonna regret it. See my Amazon pick below for the simple and affordable machine I use. Plus, this ice cream is worth every cent. You'll be glad you invested.

Chunks of sugar cone and swirls of hot fudge and caramel send this Loaded Coffee Ice Cream over the top.

This Loaded Coffee Ice Cream is Matthew's all time favorite. Loaded with sugar cone pieces this simple, but lovely, coffee flavored ice cream is a real winner. Oh, yeah. I forgot to mention the swirls of hot fudge and caramel. Silly me. This ice cream is a coffee lovers dream! Think jamoca almond fudge - but better!

Caramel Chai Ice Cream

Last summer I was obsessed with popsicles. (You may have noticed. Hee, hee.) The summer before that I was all about homemade ice cream. I thought I'd share some of our family's favorite creations with y'all since summertime is just around the corner. First on the docket is this fabulous Caramel Chai Ice Cream.

Ribbons of caramel get swirled into this perfectly chai spiced easy ice cream. You're gonna love it! If you have yet to purchase an ice cream maker, I highly recommend it. Making homemade ice cream is so fun and so yummy. I have a simple inexpensive machine. See my Amazon picks below to see the one I own. It does a bang up job!!

Rice Cakes 6 Ways

I know what you're thinking. Rice cakes? Really? Isn't that like soooooooooo 1980's? This blast from the past has come to be one of our favorite family snacking options. As I've been exploring the world of gluten free snacking for me and the fam, we've tried a variety of spreads and toppings to turn these gloriously blank canvases into primo snacks.

Expand your snacking horizons with our favorite rice cake spreads and toppings.

Here are a few of our favorite rice cake snacking options:

Victoria Sandwich Whoopie Pies

Anyone else addicted to all things The Great British Baking Show? I've been dying to make Mary Berry's Victoria sandwich cake and decided to turn it into a whoopie pie, 'cause, well, you know how I am. 😉

Fancy something fancy? Try these gorgeous Victoria Sandwich Whoopie Pies.

I used a cake mix to bake up the cakes. I also subbed in my favorite vanilla frosting for the usual buttercream or whipped cream.

Birthday Cake Ice Cream Sandwiches

Cake and ice cream. What's a birthday without cake and ice cream, right? Okay, okay. Some of us could totally do without the ice cream. Others of us could replace the whole shebang with a big ol' fat pie. But I digress.

Birthday Cake Ice Cream Sandwiches take cake and ice cream to a whole new level!

These Birthday Cake Ice Cream Sandwiches are the whole package. The flavor of vanilla cake speckled with sprinkles, beautifully swirly ice cream sandwiched in the middle, and no utensils or plates required. They're also wonderfully fun and spectacularly celebratory. Oh, and they're super easy to make. That's a win, win, and triple win in my book!

M & M Granola Bars

My 6 year old is a little mister picky pants (don't tell him I said that). I completely understand where he's coming from though, because I was the same way when I was little. I confess that I indulge his pickiness a little - okay, maybe a lot. But I get it. I used to gag on foods I totally love now. So there must be hope for him too.

These M & M Granola Bars hit just the right note with my picky eater.

As I'm trying to keep things more natural around these here parts I've been experimenting with homemade granola bars. Finding one that Ezra will accept is the challenging part. I often make a peanut butter version that he will only sometimes eat claiming he only likes peanut butter in peanut butter and jelly sandwiches (sigh).

Homemade Chocolate Fondant

I just happen to be one of those people that likes fondant. I know not everybody is with me on that one, but this Homemade Chocolate Fondant is particularly yummy. It's also fairly easy to make and so fun to use. I whipped up a batch to make dinosaur footprints to decorate goodies for my 6 year old dinosaur lover.

Dinosaur footprint decorations made out of Homemade Chocolate Fondant

Aren't they just adorable?

Blackberry Granola Mini Breakfast Pies

These Blackberry Granola Mini Breakfast Pies are simply adorable. I made them for Nora's second birthday and she absolutely loves them. They're semi-healthy and perfect for any special breakfast or brunch.

So, like I said, these puppies are semi-healthy. Since I was making them for my baby girl I used pure maple syrup in the blackberry filling and in the granola topping to keep things natural and lower in sugar. Feel free to add more sweetener to the filling. Just mix and taste adding in more maple syrup until it's as sweet as you like.

Grain Free Granola

So I've been making a grain free version of my favorite granola recipe that I just had to share with y'all. We were playing around with the idea of going grain free for a while last year. While we didn't make the switch, we did fall in love with this mostly nut version of our favorite granola.

Try this grain free version of our favorite granola recipe!

This version is lower carb, higher protein, and we are in total nut heaven over here. The hubster eats this granola almost every day over plain whole milk yogurt. How he can eat the same thing every morning is beyond me, but at least it's a delicious and healthy meal.