Chicken Quesadillas

These are my all time favorite Mexican food! I love how easy they are to make and how quickly they are gobbled up by my family. When I make these, I use the smaller flour tortillas, so I'll get more quesadillas.

Chicken Quesadillas

1 pack chicken breast tenderloins~ cut into small pieces
1 onion chopped
1/2 bell pepper chopped
2 Tblsp ground cumin
salt and pepper
up to 1/2 cup salsa
1 cup shredded mexican cheese
1 pack of flour tortillas
oil

In a hot skillet add about 2 tablespoons of oil. Add chicken, onions and bell peppers. Fry until chicken is no longer pink. Add cumin, salt and pepper. Make sure chicken is in small pieces at this time.  Slowly add salsa. You may not need all of the half cup. Mix salsa and chicken well. Continue cooking over medium heat. If the meat mixture seems dry add a little more salsa. You don’t want a super juicy mixture, or it will run out of the shell. When you have the mixture ready add the cheese. This will melt down, continue stirring. Turn off heat.

At this time, you will need another skillet or griddle. I use a cast iron griddle for this next step. Over a medium heat, heat about a tablespoon of oil. Place a tortilla on the griddle and heat. Flip and continue heating. Add about  a 1/3 cup of the chicken mixture on half of the tortilla. Fold over, continue heating. Flip the quesadilla over and continue heating.

Living with Migraines Series {Part 2}

I noticed several of my friends mentioning they have been suffering from migraines lately. Thankfully, I have not had one since July but I completely understand what they are going through.

Living With Migraines Part 2

Since I have not had a migraine in a while which is a surprise for me, I thought I would share what I have used in the past to ease the pain or to prevent them.  Sadly, the list is long and scary! It took me many years, to finally move closer to natural healing. Even now, there are times when I have to take something stronger.

The list starts from when I was first prescribed medicine and ends with the last prescription I was prescribed.

•  Fiorcet
•  Fiorcet with Codeine 
•  Naproxen
•  Inderal 
•  Toradol 
•  Darvocet 
•  Demerol shots 
•  DHE nasal spray 
•  Imitrex
•  Imitrex shots

I told you it was long and SCARY! Sadly, I used all of those different medicines within a 12 year period. When I was under the care of a neurologist while working to find a treatment that would work, he advised two things for me to try. The first thing he told me was to make sure I was not propping my head up on the arm of the sofa while watching TV or reading.  With the way the neck is being "misplaced" it brings stress to the area. During a migraine, the neck and spine need to be aligned correctly to help ease the stress that is going on. Lying flat is the best position while trying to recover. The second thing I was advised, drink lemonade at the onset and during a migraine.  It was not until I started making fresh lemonade that I started seeing a difference. Yeah, I was once a Country Time drinker!

 I still do not prop my head up in an odd position to watch TV and/or read. I sleep with a super soft goose down pillow to help with keeping my spine aligned.  If I have a migraine, I will sleep without it.

In the last year of taking the Imitrex shots, a lady I taught school with recommended a homeopathic spay for me to try. It was similar to MigraSpray and I bought it at Walmart; it was a green bottle with a yellow label. I can't find anything about it on the internet now, so there's no telling what it was or if it is still around.

Once I started using the forgettable name of spray, I also used aspirin to help alleviate the pain. Another friend explained why the aspirin helped ~ the blood vessels in area of the migraine were constricting and the aspirin helped the blood flow through the vessels. Aspirin doesn't always work, but it has helped with the pain in the past. Since aspirin can harm your stomach lining and other organs, it's definitely something I don't use very often.

In the last year, I have been reading up on herbal treatments for migraines. I have not used any so far, but I am planning on giving herbs a try within the next month or so. I will keep you updated on how that works for me.

If you missed the first part you can read Living With Migraines. I’ve also shared about Feverfew Tea for Migraines.

My Homeschool Planner

I was sharing with a friend about not buying yearly home school planners; I create my own in a three ring binder. I'm not one who lives according to a daily planner; I'm a go with the flow kind of girl. For me a planner is something I'd rather not spend money on since I end up not liking the planner or I don't use half of what they have to offer. When I first started out on this journey, I did buy a teacher’s lesson plan book and grade book for the first couple of years, I even bought a home school planner and returned it.

I know many people buy planners and like them. But I like having the option of creating my own to meet my personal needs. Being able to change my planner pages around if needed during the year is a must. I like being able to reprint my quarterly grade sheet if I totally mess something up. I love my yearly calendar sheet that I revamped to my liking after I download it from Calendar Labs. Having all of my home education forms, notes and school work at my fingertips without the extra fluff is something I REALLY love. If something ever happened to me, my husband and son would have everything they need in one notebook.

I’m a simple kind of gal when it comes to my binder. I don’t print off beautiful images for dividers, although I probably should to help keep my motivation up when I hit one of those days. But really, I don’t see the need to waste the ink on something like an image that I’ll flip over and never see. 

Here's the cover page for the notebook.~

We lived between the Sapphire and Bitterroot Mountain ranges in Montana; hence the name of our school.

If you'd like a copy of these plans, leave me a comment and I will get them sent out as quick as I can.

The Beginning of Frog's Lilypad

My friend Karen has challenged all her readers to write about how our blog names came about, along with when we started blogging. So here's how Frog's Lilypad was named...

To start this, I have to explain about the name Frog.  My husband had an uncle who gave family members a nickname. The last time we saw him before he passed away, he gave Jamie his nickname. While my husband and his uncle were talking, his uncle said I must really have to hop around to keep up with them both. So, I was given the nickname Frog.  I'm honored to have this nickname, from what I understand I am the only in-law to be dubbed with a special name.

While we lived in western Montana, I googled a particular singing group and a link to a blog came up. When I clicked on it, I was first introduced to a sweet friend. After reading pages from her blog and some of her friends' blogs, and searching other blogs, I began to toy with the idea of starting a blog. When my husband came home from work one evening, I explained to him what a blog was and some of the things that I had been reading. Of course, he was not too interested at that time.

After a couple of weeks of reading, I decided I could start a blog. I mean, how hard could it be? Well, the hardest thing for me to do was come up with a name for my blog. After kicking around names for several hours, I decided to wait until my husband was back home. That evening, I told him that I wanted to start a blog and could not decide on a name. I wanted something catchy, not something dull; something that was me. After a few minutes, my husband came up with Frog's Lilypad.

In January 2008, Frog's Lilypad started. Over the years, there have been changes in appearance and locations. I really liked being over on Wordpress, but I did not like the random advertisements they posted. Sadly, some of those ads did not pertain to anything I wrote about, so I came back to Blogger. Blogger really is more user-friendly! It's kind of funny that a challenge like this, made me realize I've been blogging for almost 5 years.

So now you know how Frog's Lilypad got its name. If you didn't click on Karen's name above, you should click HERE and see some of the wonderful primitives she makes.

A Peek Into Our Day

We have finished our third week of school. It's a little hard to believe three weeks are already up, but they are.   Since I have the freedom to choose how and when I educate my son, I don't normally stick with a "schedule". We do follow a routine and since there's only two of us here, that routine is not written in stone.

Before you even begin reading about how our days goes... I admit, I am not like everyone else.

Last school year, I changed our school time around and it has worked for us. We are both Night Owls and sleeping in in the mornings makes our day go smoothly. Once my husband leaves for work, I usually go back to sleep for an hour or two.  Then our morning clean up begins. Yep, we clean before school starts, because I don't want  it staring me in the face every time I look up. Crazy, I know! If everything is completed early enough, I check my email, blog, etc. Our school day starts after lunch and finishes up around four. Since my husband doesn't get home until late, this works perfectly with not rushing to get supper cooked.

As for our actual school work, I don't follow a schedule. Usually, whatever book is picked up; we work on it. I do have a tentative schedule that shows an amount of time that we like to spend on each subject. This is in my planner for just in case days.

Our evenings are opened for free time. Jamie uses the computer to play some of his favorite games. I read, sew, knit or catch up on 24 on Netflix.

Our First Field Trip of the Year

Last weekend our family visited the Etowah Indian Mounds and the New Enchota Historic Site.  I thought these two places would be perfect to visit to gather needed information for the Native American notebook, Jamie will be working on this year.

When I was in high school, we visited the Indian mounds. I'm not sure why we visited and I honestly can't remember anything other than walking beside the river. The trip must have been taken before my love of history days. Truthfully, between the two sites we visited this weekend, it was not my favorite.


The New Enchota Historic Site was a great learning place. It was definitely my favorite place to visit. In the collage below, the book is the New Testament that was printed in the Cherokee language at the print shop at New Enchota. The one original building in the left is of the mission house. Over the years, there had been some damage and remodeling done to it. But it is now as it was during the 1800's other than the indoor staircase. The two cabins (beside each other)are similar to what would have been found at that time.

A lot people in this area profess to have Cherokee blood running through them. While some only have stories backing up this claim, there are many with legal documentation.  After visiting New Enchota, I learned there were many intermarried families who lived on the Cherokee land at one time. So, many of the undocumented stories are possible.  I also learned that on this historical site began The Trail of Tears.  Reading how the people were snatched from their homes, jobs, families and safety was disheartening.  Innocent people were taken and put in a "holding camp" until all the details of the removal were in place.

There was one plaque in the museum that told a tiny bit of what happened. The placement on the plaque is in an odd place, and I could not get a good picture of the whole thing but this is what it said-

"When the soldiers came to our house my father wanted to fight, but my mother told him that the soldiers would kill him if he did and we surrendered without a fight. They drove us out of our house to join other prisoners in a stockade. After they took us away, my mother begged them to let her go back and get some bedding.  So they let her go back and she brought what bedding and a few cooking utensils she could carry and had to leave behind all of our other household possessions." ~ Rebecca Neugin, 1932

I did a little research on this Rebecca Neugin and found THIS wonderful page of history.

While we were walking to the mission house, we crossed over the creek that leads down to a pond. We paused for a moment and saw a snake. Once he saw us, he quickly took cover under a rock.(Actually, the poor thing was hiding from the rocks someone was throwing at him.)

I love mushrooms/toadstools out in areas where we visit. My husband knows my love for them and always seems to catch a perfect photo.

My All Time Favorite Student

I have enjoyed getting to know other families who educate their children at home through the Not Back to School Blog Hop these last few weeks.  This week is all about the students.

I remember the day I was going to have a baby; it's still so fresh in my mind. I began praying I would have a son, I did not want anything to do with a girl; I only wanted a boy.  I wanted to have the opportunity to train him to be the right kind of Christian man. The Lord answered my prayers when he gave me Jamie. I can only pray the Lord will use me in training this young man.


I can't believe Jamie is a seventh grader! It's a little hard for me to believe how fast time has flown by, but it's even harder to believe that it is flying by at this very moment.

Jamie has always been a rough and tumble boy. He is no different now that he is older.  He has a passion for bull riding and steer wrestling. He really doesn't care for having his picture taken, so I didn't even ask. The larger picture below is from last year. It is one of his birthday photos, my husband took. He has changed so much since this was taken. I am so blessed to be Jamie's mom!

How I Use Spelling Power

For several years I listened to a friend talk about Spelling Power and what a wonderful program it is. During those years I looked at the program and could not get passed the price tag. If you're anything like me, every penny counts when trying to stay within a home education budget. Each time I saw the jaw dropping price for just a spelling book, I shuddered. Then came a wave of sickness when I thought about spending money on magnetic tiles, activity cards and level notebooks to complete the program.

The post contains affialiate links.

Several months ago, I came across a used third edition of Spelling Power, so I bought it. After doing a little research on the internet, I came to the conclusion that I really did not need any of the tiles, cards or notebooks. If we get to a point and need tiles, I can make them and since the book has a list of activities included, I can use those and any from our list of all time favorites. As for the notebooks, I have my loose leaf paper stash that I've collected over the years.

I have read many reviews that talk about how difficult it is to learn how to use the program. Once you get passed all the reading on how to use it and start the teaching process, it's all downhill from there. Well, I have to agree! There is a lot of information in the book, and I honestly feel it is too much.  If you buy a newer edition book you should find it has the quick start guide. This is what I used to help me in finding the way to use this program.

Spelling Power is a 15 minute a day program. It really is, and it shouldn't take any longer to use.

The first step is Placement testing ~ You will want to use the Form A (beginning of the year) survey test. This is a list of 50 words that will be given until at least 6 words are missed or none at all. Then you will score the test according to a scoring scale. You will then move on to the placement test that is suggested when you scored the survey test.

For example: When I scored my son's survey test, I was directed to placement test F.

On the placement test, you will give all the words no matter how many are missed, if any. On this test, it will tell you which level of words to start.

For example:  When I scored my son's placement test F, we were directed to Flow Words List G (spelling lists). I will explain what I did for this list in just a moment.

There are also prescriptive tests that are designed to help in determining specifics that your child may need. I did not use any of these, because my son has a strong phonics background.

My son is naturally a good speller. He does have a little problem with the way he hears certain sounds and this is due to his former speech problems. When I gave him the survey and placement tests, I did not help in emphasizing the sounds that he has a problem with. I did this so I could see the lower placement for him. This is why we were directed to the Flow Words List F.

I started with list G just to make sure I was not going to be starting a list that is too difficult. We have been working on this list for two weeks, and Jamie has only missed 3 spelling words due to true spelling errors. He has missed several words due to his speech and hearing. Because of this, I will be moving to a higher group of words in the list for another week. If we continue to experience this, then we will begin List H. 

Step two is daily spelling lists and studying~  I have my son take out a clean sheet of paper each day. Each day I set the timer for 5 minutes. Within the 5 minutes, I dictate the words while he writes and spells out loud. As long as he does not miss any words, we keep going on the group of words until the five minutes are up or we run out of words for that group. For any words missed, they are quickly corrected during this time and we move on.

Once the five minutes are up,  Jamie correctly writes the words on the back of the paper. He will then work on the "10 Step Study Process". I do not use the forms that come in the book, since we use clean paper everyday. We also use this time to review past words in a game.  I make a note of the missed words for the following day and they are added to the top of the group that will be used the next day.

So far, we are really liking Spelling Power. I love the idea of not studying words you already know and the "no filler" that is not included in this program. The year is just starting out, so I'll be updating throughout our first year of using Spelling Power.

You can find my Spelling Power worksheet over here.