Helping Hands

There is a reason that I named this school ‘Helping Hands’; many reasons actually. The first reason being that my mother used to say, "Many hands make light work."

But the most important reason is: 

Everyone can use a helping hand from time to time.   Parents need help, children need help, and teachers need help too.  Sometimes it can be very difficult to see when you need help. Harder still to admit it when you do realize the need.  I am certainly guilty of being slow to ask for help and slower still to admit when I needed help and should have asked for it.

       It wasn’t until recently that I have come to see that help is something I can receive as well as give to others.  I’m so happy I named this school Helping Hands.  I would like to take this moment to say a brief “Thank you” to two amazing people who have helped me in far too many ways to list.  It's important to me that all the Helping Hands' families know the magic makers behind the scenes.

Thank you Jill Lepow, for sharing with me your financial brilliance and for being so organized!  And thank you for your continued help with balancing the school budget and keeping me on task! I am in awe of your talents and know that I still have so much more to learn from you. Most of all, thank you for having confidence in me and believing in my dream.  You suggesting I start my own school way back when, was just what I needed and at just the right time.  I didn't know then the "how" or "when" but having you believe in me made everything I was struggling with manageable.   Thank you Jill~

And Thank You Victoria Marshall, for renting to me this absolutely beautiful house!  You were right when you said, “it was meant to be a school”.  It most certainly was and is!  You and Andrew will forever hold a place in my heart and I will always keep looking for your wings because I believe you are angels here on earth. Victoria's dedication to quality education and the devotion she has to her family and her friend's families is so very beautiful.  I've never known another person who gave so much to so many.  Thank you Victoria for sharing your ideas and supporting me in mine. The MANY clever suggestions Victoria has made, and I have begun to put into practice, are ones that all the families will appreciate. Not just these wonderful families who presently make up our school but the many to follow in the years to come. Thank you Victoria~

 

Without Jill and Victoria’s help this school would have never happened and I will forever be grateful to them both.  Thank you both so very much!   

To ALL the Helping Hands Family School parents and grandparents and aunts and uncles, caregivers and children...for your time and energy, your support and generosity, your love and understanding...

I am so appreciative of EVERYONE OF YOU and grateful you are in my life!  

Many hands DO make light work~  my mom was right!
PEACE
~Jennifer

 

Makin' Ugly Pie

If you've been itchin' for some Ugly Pie, today is your lucky day! Here's Ol' Bear's recipe, handed down from bear to bear for generations.
Ugly Crust:
2 & 1/2 cups flour
1 cup shortening (we used butter)
1/2 teaspoon salt
6 to 8 tablespoons icy cold water

Ugly Filling
6 cups peeled, sliced Granny Smith apples (we used apples given to us by Madeline's family from their apple tree)
1/4 cup molasses
1 teaspoon lemon juice

In a large bowl, toss apple slices with lemon juice. Then mix in molasses until apples are completely coated with ugly brown goo. Set aside.
5 tablespoons flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 cup white sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar

In a medium-sized bowl, mix the dry ingredients listed above. Add to the ugly apple mixture until everything is nice 'n' moist.
3/4 cup red raisins or cran-raisins
1/4 walnuts chopped fine (we left out the nuts)

Toss raisins and walnuts into apple mixture. Make sure all ingredients are well coated. Place into pie crust. Your pie should look fairly ugly by now.
Top with second pie crust and sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon mixture. Cover pie with an aluminum-foil tent to prevent over browning. Bake at 400 degrees for 40 minutes. Remove foil and bake another 20 minutes.
When your pie is done, you will have the most delicious, most beautiful UGLY PIE you ever did see!
Enjoy~

No Cook Kool-Aid Play Doh Recipe:

No Cook Kool-Aid Play Doh Recipe:

1 Packet Sugar-Free Red Kool-Aid Mix

1 Cup of Flour

1/2 Cup of Salt

(for the apples we added a dash of  

Cinnamon, Nutmeg, and Allspice)

3 Teaspoons of Vegetable Oil

1 Cup Boiling Water

Mix dry ingredients;

then stir in oil and boiling water,

keep stirring for a minute or two --

once it cools down a bit 

pull it out of the bowl

and knead into a ball. 

Store in an air tight container.

Happy Play-doh-ing!

 

This was really quick and super easy but personally I'm not a big fan of the Kool-Aid smell so I don't know if I will make it again. Also I chose strawberry Kool-Aid so it turned out more of a pink color than true red.  If I did make it again I think I would choose cherry.  

 

Goodbye Beautiful Butterflies

Gifted to us by nature and the Kulbe family, two monarch caterpillars came to Helping Hands. Three weeks later two beautiful butterflies emerged from their chrysalis and take flight. This warm early autumn weather is here for this very reason. The children loved watching the whole metamorphosis process! Thank you to the Kulbe family for sharing your discovery with all of us. Thank you to Emmet for supplying the milkweed to keep the caterpillars fed & happy and thank you to Miss Jenn for taking these beautiful photos :)  Goodbye beautiful butterflies~

Autumn Arrives