New Workbox System!!!

I saw the *perfect* set of Sterlite drawers for our workboxes. It's what I wish they'd had when I first went shopping for some. Once I saw them, I knew I had to have them, so I went ahead and replaced what I had with these new ones and then used the other drawer sets to reorganize snacks and drinks in my dining room. Anyway, each set of drawers was $20 at Big Lots, and I got 4 of them. Each set has 7 drawers (3 deep and 4 shallow), and it's all one piece. So they are just the same size as what I had before, except that the smaller sets I had sitting on top weren't as wide. Now all of my teacher's manuals lay flat in the shallow drawers, and I don't have to worry about anybody knocking the smaller sets off the top. The photo at right shows the new setup. Also, Hayden kept losing the post-it notes with the assignments on them that told what pages to read of each book, so I laminated index cards and used Vis-a-Vis wet erase markers to write the assignments on them, and then I taped them inside the drawers so he can see what they say through the drawers and won't need to remove them. We use a 4-day schedule, so I put the whole week's assignments on the card (M-T-W-TH) so I only have to change them on the weekends.

So I really think it looks great, and it's very functional. Now I don't need the return baskets on top. Since each set has 7 drawers instead of 6, each one has an extra drawer on top, so each kid has one as a return drawer for finished work I need to grade, and one as a handy supply drawer for scissors, glue, extra pencils, ruler, etc. I love that it's all contained.

So if you have any comments about it, please share! I would love some feedback.

Incidentally, Big Lots is having a teacher appreciation day next Saturday, August 1st, and I could have gotten an extra 10% off and saved $8, but the kids are having their birthday party that day, and I was afraid I wouldn't ever make it up there since the party often drags on all day (we usually have about 25-30 people in the house!). So I just went ahead and bought them while I had time to get them set up.

I've also been cleaning out the kids' board games. I have been disgusted at how much space they take up, not to mention how they are always losing/misplacing pieces to them, and I find them all over the place. So I had an idea...I went and bought the Hefty One-Zip Jumbo 2.5 gallon storage bags from Target, and I took all the games out of their boxes and put them instead in one of those bags. I cut out the name of the game, any instructions, and the contents list and dropped them into the bag with the game. I organized any small pieces into snack or sandwich sized bags and dropped those in the bigger bag with the game board, as well. I was able to fit nearly all of them in one big storage tub underneath the kids' pool table. I want to make space for them in one of the toy armoires and get rid of the storage tub altogether. I literally filled up both my trash can and my recycle can already! Good thing I'll have trash pickup before the party.

So I'm busy making lists and starting to decorate for their birthday party on Saturday. I called around today and found a cake decorating store that had a handful of cupcake pics with the Italian flag on them. Turns out they were looking to get rid of them and said they's sell me all they have (more than 24) for a grand total of 60 cents! Way cool. I'm waiting for Holden to get up from his nap so we can run and get them. I'd like to find a centerpiece, but I'm not having any luck except for online, and it's too late to get things shipped in time now.

The party is going to be an Italian Cook-Off theme. The kids are all going to get their own white aprons to decorate with fabric markers and take home as party favors. They will be making their own personal pizzas using Boboli crusts. For the grownups, I'm making a full spread of Italian fare, including Bruschetta Stuffed Chicken Breasts, Italian Garden Salad, Fettuccini Alfredo, Spaghetti and Meatballs, sliced Italian bread topped with mild Italian sausage, peppers and onions, and mozzarella baked on it, a fresh fruit tray, snacks, and an Italian Chocolate Cream Cake as the birthday cake. It's supposed to be a large 3-layer cake, but I'm going to bake it as a 1/2 sheet cake instead. I figured for serving so many people, that will be easier to slice up. I'm also doing strawberry cupcakes for Haylee with green and red sugar sprinkled on white frosting and the flag pics on top.

This is going to be such a busy week. I started braiding red, green, and white streamers today and taping them to the corners of the room, meeting at my ceiling fan in the middle. I will probably wait until later in the week to blow up the balloons and hang them. I got great Italian folk music from the library that I'm going to have playing in the background, too. I wanted to find affordable chef hats for the kids to keep, too, but I haven't had any luck.

Well, I've gotta run...I hear thunder, and the Bounce Around is still out in the yard!

Trying Something New

Shew! This had been a busy month that has just simply flown by! Our school schedule has been pretty cumbersome these last 3 weeks, so we haven't had time for much else. All the Sonlight forums say that Core 5 has the heaviest workload of all the cores, even for high school, and that the first 2 weeks of it are the heaviest of all. Many people have posted that they take a full 2 weeks to do EACH of the first 2 weeks. But we have managed to trudge our way through at full steam ahead without stretching it out at all. I'm happy to say we are finishing up week 3 now, so hopefully the pace will slow a bit for us now! We're starting to get the hang of the World Book Encyclopedia on DVD-ROM and how to use it for our Eastern Hemisphere Explorer research.




Now I'm taking the plunge and venturing out to try something totally new. We've been using Silver Burdett English for years and have been loving it. I purchased textbook/workbook sets up through 8th grade several years ago and have had them in the cabinet just waiting to be used each year. I love it's straight-forward approach to teaching grammar and the way it eases kids into writing. Hayden has really needed that. But now I'm finding that he's getting very lazy with it, rushing through all the worksheets because each one focuses on one specific grammar rule. He's not really paying attention to what he's actually doing, and that has been bugging me like crazy this year. Then I stumbled onto something on the Saxon Homeschool website. I found out they've just released (May 20th, 2009) a new Saxon Grammar & Writing program for grades 5, 6, 7, and 8. I saw it about a month ago, but there weren't any samples posted yet, and I sure wasn't going to drop that kind of money without seeing the contents first. Then Thursday night, I saw there were rather lengthy 25-page samples for each grade posted on their website. I took a long look at it and was very impressed.



It has the same incremental, spiral-learning approach as Saxon Math, and that was just what I was hoping for! The "mixed practice" that Saxon Math has works wonderfully for Hayden. It helps him retain what he has learned in previous lessons by bringing forth a spattering of questions from across those lessons, and it forces him to pay attention to what he's doing because every question references something completely different. That makes him have to think about what the question is asking. I think that's just what he needs for grammar, too. In looking through the sample, it looks like it is exactly that, and each question on the mixed practice references the lesson number in parentheses that the question came from so he can look back to refresh his memory if he gets stuck.



Hayden does Saxon Math totally independently now, and I'm hoping he will be able to do the grammar program the same way. I'm very excited about it! I talked to Steve about it, and he said it sounded like a good plan, so I went ahead and ordered it. It retails for $75 from Saxon's website plus $10 shipping. But then I did an internet search and found it at http://www.homeschoolingsupply.com/ for $55 + $11 shipping, and I will have it in about a week. There are 112 lessons in it, and that works out to about 3 per week for the whole school year, so we'll have to catch up on about the first 12 lessons once it comes. I think we can do it, though. The homeschool set includes the student textbook, student workbook, and teacher's packet. The textbook covers grammar concepts, the workbook covers writing, and the teacher's packet has the answer key and forms for tracking student progress.

So wish us luck! Hayden has always loved Saxon Math and Saxon Phonics, so I'm hoping he'll really take to this since the format will be so familiar and comfortable for him.

I'm headed out shortly to pick up this month's Angel Food order. They've started sending out neat invitations to order that include photos of all of the food items in the basic box. I have to admit the advertising is very appealing and really helps you visualize what's included so you can figure up in your head if it's a good value for your family or not.

Target Finds

I saw a couple of posts about Target getting teacher helps in the Dollar Spot, so I decided to go check it out today. I found lots of goodies!

• Leveled reader books (got level 2 books on Whales, Dolphins, & Sharks and Animals of Africa…they say grades 1-3, but my daughter who is not yet 5 could read them…they also had level 3, which say grades 2-4)


• 100-piece jigsaw puzzle of North America called Coast to Coast


• A Math Bingo game (says for 2-8 players, ages 5+)…includes 42 cards on addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, 70 bingo chips, and 8 bingo cards)


• They had tons of SmartMats. These are 2-sided dry erase placemats. They covered all kinds of topics. I got one of the United States. It shows states and capitals on one side, and is unlabeled on the other side. I plan to let Hayden keep this in the van to mark off the states when he sees out of state plates. He’s been making a list inside the cover of his puzzle book that he keeps in the van, but I thought it would be more fun to mark it on the map so he can see how far they’ve traveled. We have a lot of military here, and it’s also a popular tourism area, so we see lots of out-of-state plates on a daily basis. I also got one that says “class schedule” on it, but it has analog clocks without hands and blank digital clocks printed on it. I know when teaching time with Saxon Math, I have to draw a lot of these on the chalkboard for practice, so I’ll just use this mat instead!


• A small 8-pocket pocket chart called a Classroom Card Scheduler. I haven’t really decided how I could use this yet, short of using it to rearrange things in order (alphabetical order, numerical order, etc.). If anybody has any suggestions, I’d love to hear them! It has grommets at the top so you could hang it on the wall if you wanted to.


• They had TONS of workbooks of all kinds from PK-3rd grade. I only bought a Science one. It says grades 2-3, and it’s called Science Projects & Experiments. It had some cool-looking experiment instructions in it that you could do with household things. The pages are perforated for easy removal, so I thought these would make great “fun” items for the workboxes.


• Primary colored pom-poms and pipe cleaners for my craft supply box. They also had a bag with various sizes of googly eyes.

There were plenty more things that I did NOT get because I didn’t need them, like flash cards, rubber stamps with encouraging things on them (nice job, A+, etc.). They also had some neat non-school-related items. One in particular I just have to share is the telescoping metal marshmallow sticks with wooden handles! I bought one for each of us to take on vacation with us to the cabin in the mountains this fall. They will also be great to use in the fireplace at home next winter. I usually just use disposable wooden skewers, but I usually still need a glove or oven mitt to keep from burning my hand since they aren’t that long. These telescoping rods extend really far! The kids were thrilled!

That’s about it. It was definitely worth stopping in there.

Interesting stuff

I finally located my camera that has been misplaced! I uploaded an updated photo of our workbox system in last week's post about my workbox adaptations. I wanted to show you the completed system with the schedule charts above it and the clock-in/clock-out pockets on the wall. I also added a clock there so they would have a better awareness of how long it was taking them to move through their boxes. You can see that I color-coded everything blue for Hayden and pink for Haylee.

I came across a really cool website to practice spelling and vocabulary. It's called Spelling City. You can enter your own spelling words there, and it will turn teach them, turn them into online or printable games and puzzles, and even administer an oral spelling test for you and grade it on the spot! It's so awesome. Most sites like this that I've seen before have a limited word bank to choose from, so they generally only work for younger kids. But on this site, it seems you can add any word you have. I input Hayden's 7th grade spelling words from Houghton Mifflin Spelling & Vocabulary, and it recognized and annunciated every one correctly, and even gave them in the context of a sentence! I also like how you aren't stuck with one person's voice. It changes with each word given. There's nothing worse than being stuck with one annoying voice and not being able to change it. On this site, it automatically cycles through a number of different voices.

We're supposed to be off school this week, but we're still dabbling a bit in our workboxes to stay a little ahead of schedule in case something fun comes up! We like going to the free movie festival each week, so having some work done ahead of time ensures that we won't get behind because we're going to the movies!

I'm gonna go out in a few minutes and get our tickets for the Tides game on Friday night. It's our family tradition to go every year to one of the 4th of July celebration games that have fireworks afterwards. It's neat to be sitting so close to the fireworks, since they set them off from a boat just behind Harbor Park.

Workbox details

I just wanted to post some details on our adaptations of the workbox system.

First of all, as you can see in the photo here, I use Sterlite drawers instead of open boxes. This is much neater and tidier and keeps my toddler out of the contents.

Second, I don't use the schedule strip as described in Sue Patrick's book. Instead, I use a laminated chart on the wall above the boxes that has all the numbers written on it in squares. Each square has velcro on it.

Third, instead of taking the numbered tags from the schedule strip and placing them on the boxes as they are completed, I put the numbers on the boxes when I fill them. Then, as the kids finish each box, they remove the tag and place it on the corresponding spot on the numbered chart on the wall. So they know the boxes they have left are the ones with number tags on them, and I can glance at the chart on the wall at any point during the day and see how close they are to finishing by how many tags are still missing from the chart.

This setup has worked very well for us for the last couple of months. For the most part, the kids have had a better attitude and lots of enthusiasm to start and finish their work earlier rather than later. Occasionally, though, Hayden (with ADHD) still reverts to his old habits of only half-doing an assignment and trying to pass it off as finished, or wasting time when he should be doing his work. Admittedly, today was the worst day yet since we started the system. But today was NOT a typical day as far as our routine goes. Today was the first day of the Regal Free Family Film Festival, so we went to the movies in the morning and started school in the afternoon. In addition, he had flag football practice this evening. So it was anything but a typical day. In addition, with the limited hours for school, Haylee was NOT doing school, as she was already two days ahead of schedule, and I knew there wouldn't be enough time for me to work with both of them. So he was a bit distracted by her, as she kept playing around him and talking to him and adding to his distraction. This is one of the benefits of the workbox system we've seen...they both can be busy with school at the same time, so there's less opportunity for distraction. Having that not be the case, like today, shows why that is SO important to the flow of our school day.

I haven't posted new pics lately because I can't seem to find my camera, lol. You know how that goes. Hayden has been swiping it and taking miscellaneous pictures lately, as evidenced by the strange photos of the floor and Haylee making funny faces when I go to offload my photos to the computer, ROFL. I've even seen photos of store shelves and cars passing by outside my van while I'm driving. That can only be Hayden! Mind you, I bought him his own camera this spring for Easter...a nice VTech Kidzoom camera...but I had to take it away because they were drawn to it like a magnet during school hours, and I guess I forgot to give it back, so he's been playing with mine. :)

Another tip on workboxes, this time related to actually filling them each night. A lot of people say it takes them a big chunk of time to fill them up at night. I found myself having to stay up late after the kids were in bed to do it uninterrupted. But by 10 PM, I'm tired and falling asleep myself after I nurse the baby, so that was hard for me. I've found a better way that makes more efficient use of my time. Now, as each child finishes a box, I go ahead and refill it with the items for the next day. So as soon as they move that number tag to their chart on the wall, I drop in the box what needs to be in it for the next day. Most of their textbooks and related items stay in the boxes anyway, so it's just a matter of adding in any worksheets or supplies for experiments and the like that needs to be done for the next day. But by updating them as we go along, I don't need that huge chunk of time at the end of the night to get the boxes ready for the next day. I mentioned before that I have the whole school year scheduled out and all of their worksheets sorted into daily page protectors before we ever start our new school year. All that prep BEFORE the school year begins is a worthwhile investment of time, also. I use Sue's workbox schedule (just a blank table with the numbers of the boxes and columns for each school day of the week) to type out the contents that need to go in each box for the week for each child, and I make that on Friday nights for the following week. So I only have to stay up one night a week to take care of that. I take the time to flip through their lesson plans for science and math and all the other subjects and itemize all the supplies that need to be in the boxes for each day's assignments. So refilling the boxes as we go along is simple because I just glance at that schedule and grab those items that change each day and drop them into the box as we move on to the next one.

As others have stated, the time it takes to keep the workboxes filled is more than balanced out by the amount of time that is SAVED during the actual school day by having everything ready and waiting and organized. Not having to stop to go get supplies for an assignment, and not having a child wait for the next assignment because you're still busy with the other child are both HUGE time-savers, and more importantly, it keeps the momentum going for the KIDS themselves. The fewer opportunities for them to get sidetracked, the better.

Yesterday, as a "fun" box for Haylee, we made a shrinky dink shape. We'd never done one before...that was pretty neat! Hayden says he wants to make one, too, and he wants to watch it shrink up in the toaster oven. So I guess we'll be seeing a return of Shrinky Dinks to the workboxes one day soon! I had picked up the little kit, new and unopened, at the thrift store for a mere 45 cents, and it came with a little satin headband you could glue the shapes to for decoration. They are too cute. I thought it was cool how it comes out so thick, almost like glass, when it goes in so paper thin. I guess they'd look pretty cute as scrapbook embellishments, too. I'll have to remember that.

Another recent craft find at the thrift store was a new, unopened kit for making stained glass bottles. It has little miniature bottles in it, and the paints for making them look like stained glass. I thought Haylee would enjoy making that, and maybe even Hayden. He likes painting stuff. It was also only 45 cents and came with 4 bottles in the kit. I love finding unusual, cheap crafts like that to put into the boxes for fun.

Our workload for school is definitely full this year. Hayden is not getting fun boxes right now because he has 12 real assignments. Haylee is having 10 real assignments and 2 fun boxes each day. I'm hoping things will lighten up for Hayden at some point, but I've heard that Core 5 is the heaviest workload of all the Sonlight cores. Plus, we do so many supplemental things, particularly this year. I don't know. I think I need to work in some fun things for him, if not in the boxes, then at least in the middle of the school day just to break things up, like 15 minutes playing on the Didj, or 15 minutes playing on the Wii, or 15 minutes playing outside. I don't know if that would work in a positive way with him or not. It might get him off track so that he has a hard time getting focused again, but on the other hand, it might be just enough of a break to get him rejuvenated to keep going and get his work done. I might have to experiment with it a bit. As of late, though, he's being rather lazy about his work. I really had to babysit him through his assignments today because he was too lazy to read the directions to understand what he was supposed to do. I always have to be prepared to change things up with him to stay one step ahead of him.

Well, here's to hoping things go more smoothly tomorrow as we get back to a normal routine again. I was trying to steal away to my computer frequently today to start planning their big birthday bash in August. Hayden and Haylee's birthdays are only 12 days apart, so we have one huge party every year and really go all out with a theme. We're doing an Italian Bistro party this year. I always make authentic dishes to go with the theme, and I love to make things from scratch and try new recipes. I think I'm going to make homemade Calzones this year, and let the kids make their own individual pizzas as an activity. For side dishes, I was thinking fettuccini alfredo, spaghetti and meatballs, Italian bread or maybe homemade bruschetta (I just learned how to make that in a cooking class), salad, fruit tray, veggie tray, and for the cake, I found a great-looking recipe on AllRecipes for a Chocolate Italian Cream Cake.

I'm also trying to find some affordable plain white aprons that the kids can decorate themselves while their pizzas are cooking, and then they can take them home as party favors. I'm having a hard time finding youth sized ones rather than kid-sized ones, which are made more for the preschool set. Most of their friends are even bigger than they are, so I definitely need the youth size. If anyone has any suggestions, please leave a comment on my blog. Thanks.

Saturday Busy-ness

Today is Saturday, and yet Haylee insisted on doing school! She did, too...a whole day's worth. She's a day ahead of schedule over Hayden now, but they both were already 1 day ahead. We're supposed to start our new school year on Monday, but Hayden has done the 1st day and Haylee has done the 1st and 2nd day already. Gotta love that enthusiasm! That is one of the things I love best about the workboxes...each school assignment is always ready to go, so they can work ahead if they want to. This will be especially beneficial for Haylee since she tends to want to work on school even on the weekend. I like it when she is ahead of schedule, because it takes a little bit of the pressure off me during the week and gives me more focused time to spend with Hayden so we can finish up earlier in the day.

I spent about an hour outside in the backyard weeding my gardens. It's June 20th, and I have yet to put my plants out! I think I've missed the boat. I only have two starter plants...1 tomato and 1 pepper. The rest will have to start from seed. We'll see. I'm going to plant anyway, probably tomorrow. Both square foot gardens were overgrown with weeds, but one wasn't so bad because I'd weeded once already this spring. The other one had weeds about as tall as my waist! But it takes about half an hour each to weed them, even when they are that bad, because the soil is so moist and soft and loose that I can do all the weeding with just my hands, roots and all. Gotta love that. I'd never garden any other way. If you haven't tried square foot gardening, you should really give it a shot. I used landscaping timbers above the ground, laid weedblock in the bottom, and filled it with an organic soil mixture you mix yourself as outlined in the book. I did it years and years ago, and it's been so easy to maintain. I keep it organic by planting a border of marigolds in the squares along the perimeter. It creates a natural pest barrier because of their strong odor. I never have troubles with bugs eating my plants now.

I also have a Granny Smith apple tree in my yard. I'm hoping the ants don't attack the tree this year, 'cause it seems especially covered in fruit this year. They make a fabulous apple pie around early August. I might have to break down and have Steve put Seven Dust on it to keep the fruit from getting spoiled by the ants. We have a big problem with Carpenter ants here, as well as the regular ants. We even had a bout with fire-ants in our sandbox 2 summers ago! We had to abandon the sandbox last year because we were afraid the kids would get attacked again. They crawled all up in Hayden's shirt that summer and were stinging him. He was hysterical, running around the yard undressing and trying to get them off!

I am so glad to have the garden ready for planting tomorrow. I have just been so busy that I haven't gotten around to it. Isn't that always the way?

I took Suzie, our oldest dog, up to Petsmart for a flea bath. She was scratching like crazy. Now she's clean and fresh, but peeing/pooping all over the house. This is why she is an outside dog, but I have to keep her inside for 2 days until it's okay to apply the BioSpot flea preventative to her. Steve is treating the yard with flea killer right now. So by the time she goes back out tomorrow night, she should be well protected from re-infestation.

Angel, on the other hand, has been staying in the house ever since she had her spa treatment in May. She is so good in the house and can wait all day long and just go out to the bathroom once a day. She mainly lays around and sleeps all day! She's pretty tolerant of Holden messing with her, too, even though she is getting older, too. Suzie is 15 now, and Angel is 11. That's so hard to believe!

I baked a batch of Amish friendship bread today. I just had a slice...yum! We love that stuff. I keep the extra batches in the freezer and take them out when I'm ready to bake the loaves. Then when I get down to the last batch, I take it through the whole 10-day process to expand it into 4 more batches. You can make the starter yourself if you don't have the benefit of getting one from a friend. Then you can just follow the recipe after that. It will keep going indefinitely. I got my original batch from a friend in April 2008. I shipped it all over the place, even to Michigan to my mother-in-law, and she sent it all over her state to her friends, too. You can do all kinds of variations on the baking recipe, as well. The recipe I use is a little different from that, but very similar...no raisins or nuts, though.

Holden didn't get a nap at his usual time since Steve and I were both outside working on the yard. After he shared some friendship bread with me, he apparently climbed up on the couch, pulled down the blanket off the back of the sofa, and went to sleep right there in the corner of the couch sitting up. What a cutie! If I can find my camera, I'll snap a photo and post it later. He's such a sweetie-pie. :)

Fun with Brain Quest

I continued cleaning out the schoolroom today. I think I'm basically finished now. I just have to carry the stack of storage bins full of books out to the shed now. I really got things organized in there. I went out and bought some more storage drawers. This time, I got one to hold all of the toddler's snacks! He had them on a little table in the corner of the room, and I was forever picking up the canisters off the floor as he'd dig through to get what he wanted. I should buy stock in Gerber for as much of the Graduates as we buy! lol. Anyway, now it's in a set of clear drawers, so it's all contained and orderly and organized. We should be in good shape to start our new school year next week.

During the cleanout, I ran across a set of BrainQuest cards that were age appropriate for Haylee. I started playing it with her, and Hayden came and joined us. They ended up playing it game-show style with me as the hostess. Hayden grabbed a couple of nearby tubs of Play-Doh to use as buzzers when they were prepared to answer. It was cracking me up. They had such fun. They went through one whole side of the deck! Hayden said it was really fun and that he would like a set for his grade level. So we made a quick trip over to the thrift store to find some more. I found a 7th grade deck for a mere 99 cents, so I grabbed that and will put it up for him to use in a couple of years. I'll have to keep my eye out for a 5th grade set.

I'm steadily making my way through the downstairs, cleaning out and organizing things as I go. I'm so glad I had this week off to work on it, although I must admit that the kids and I have been out and about most every day doing something or other. Tomorrow, I'm taking them to Water Country for a couple of hours and then to Busch Gardens for the rest of the day. I know we're gonna be so tired after a day in the sun and the long drive home! But it will be fun. It will be a great last hoorah before getting back to the business of school.

Saturday, I have to pick up our Angel Food order. If you've never heard of it or given it a try, you should really check it out. Some months are better than others. I don't do it every month, but I do it a few times a year. Anybody can participate. There are no income requirements or anything...it's open to all. You can view the next month's menu and decide if the $30 box of food is a good value for your family or not. Everything is always of good quality, though. I've been happy to see that they keep adding new pickup locations. They are slowly getting closer and closer to home. Last year, I had to drive to a neighboring city, but 3 have been added to our city this year alone. It makes it more worthwhile when I don't have to spend a lot in gas to get there.

I have been meaning to bake a batch of Amish Friendship Bread since Saturday, but I've been too busy, so the bag of goop is still sitting on my counter, about ready to explode! I had hoped to get to it today, but I have run out of time once again. I guess Friday will be the magic day. It's always so yummy, and it doesn't stick around here very long! We all love it. I put the extra batches from splitting it up in the freezer. Then I just thaw one when I want to bake it until I get to the last batch, and then I take it through the 10-day process again to multiply the batches. I've been working this batch since a friend shared it with me in April of 2008. I even shipped some to my MIL in Michigan, and she spread it all over the state. They are addicted now, too! It's the moistest, most delicious cake-like loaf you've ever eaten. My kids love the crusty cinnamon sugar coating on the outside. We all fight over who gets to eat the end slices!

Well, I must be getting everybody ready for bed so we can get out of here early enough to make the drive.