Mother's Day Diamonds... Lots of Diamonds!

I hate to brag.... but.... 

I got diamonds for Mother's Day this year!  

"Dime"-mond Joy!!  Oh how these diamonds bring me JOY!  This is way better than any diamond!  

I asked my husband where he got the idea... and it was actually his idea.  I am impressed.  Not only did he come up with this idea he had the children each make me a card... so... I got a lot of diamonds.  

Note:  For those that are skeptics about having a lot of children.... The more children you have the more diamonds you get.

"The most precious jewels you will ever wear around your neck are the arms of your children." --Unknown Author

Learning to Do the Sashay

And no, I am not talking about dancing.  That is what the name of this yarn and these scarves reminds me of, though.  I have seen so many of these scarves and was thinking about buying my girls some, but I wanted to save money.  I decided to learn "to do the sashay".  I am going to use some pics that are not mine, because it is easier than taking my own pics for this post.  For using my borrowed images if you click on the pic it will take you to a person's etsy shop that is selling them.  I don't know the person I just chose pics that I liked, but if you want to buy one check out the seller and let her know you heard about it here.  

 

Etsy link (not me) for this scarf.

I think she uses the crochet method which is why I chose this pic.  It makes a looser lighter scarf and I think this is great for children, teens,... and anyone that lives in Texas.  ;)  Seriously, I love the look of the fuller ones, but they are a little bulky around the neck to be wearing in a warm, humid climate.  The crochet ones are by far the easiest to make and you can learn pretty easy watching a youtube video or going on the Red Heart yarn website.  The ones we are making we pick up 10 loops with the crochet hook and pull the 11th loop through those 10 loops.  We do this until we have a scarf the length we like.  I think you can get 3 or 4 scarves using that method.  Keep in mind I make some pretty short to fit pre-teens.

There are also some that look much fuller and they are very pretty.  They are made using a knitting method and are very pretty, but use a whole skein of yarn or possibly more.  I played around with those a bit and found that for the fullness I wanted that I only needed to pick up 4 loops on my knitting needle and and knit in (totally wrong terminology, but I am not an experienced knitter).  You can watch a video online, but I could not understand it that way personally.  Thankfully, my cousin came over and showed me.  And she blessed me with some supplies, too.  

Anyway, if you are intimidated by how fancy these scarves look, don't be.  All the work is mostly done for you because it is all about the yarn.  This is a simple project and makes a great gift.  You can turn one out in less than an hour, also.  So, I think it might be a good time to "learn to do the sashay".  Cha-cha-cha!!!

'Tis the Season to.... Reevaluate Your Plans

'Tis the season to run craZy... fa la la la la...la la la la!  

'Tis also the season to reevaluate whatever plan one thought might be doable this season.

I had planned on having my kids all do their schooling this week, but I made a decision last night to stop that part of the madness so we can get a little "Christmas spirit" going on around here.  I have to admit all the Christmas festivities that used to get me in the spirit now seem to zap the spirit right out of me.  There is just so much to juggle ...and so much to forget.  I seriously forgot a baby shower Sunday afternoon that was very important to me.  I fully intended to attend it.  I even picked up a portion of the gift on Thursday while we were out attending a Christmas musical production and I picked up the second portion of the gift during a late night run to pick up photos on Friday night.  By Saturday it was all still on my mind.  By Sunday it had totally left my brain.  I was tired and still had a full day ahead and after church I came in, layed down on my couch, and totally forgot I had somewhere to be.  Totally.  

This really bothers me because I know I am going way too much and there is too much going on if I can not remember something like this.  This baby will be my lifelong friend's newest nephew.  His father is the baby we took care of played with in our pre-teen years and was our own personal real life doll.  I had every intention of celebrating this long awaited little one.  The parents have been married for several years before deciding they were ready to start this chapter of their lives.  This for me was something I wanted to be a part of.

Alas, exhaustion took my brain away.  ;)   We have actually been "stepping on toes" with many of the activities we have been declining.  I have declined a lot lately to try to save sanity, but there is only so much you can cut back on.  I am not even going to go through my past week... or the week before, but I will say that by Wednesday I was tired enough to stay home from church while everyone else went.  

Thursday morning I had organized a group to attend a Christmas production at noon about an hour away.  Originally, we were told the date was the previous week, so this now conflicted with and appointment I had scheduled which I had to reschedule later in the day.  So, I got up that morning and drug my kids out the door by 9:30 a.m., made the one hour drive to that town, did a little shopping for an hour in an attempt to find my daughter a warm coat (which is proving to be more difficult that one would expect), arrived at the theater, parked, had a little quick lunch picnic on the lawn, organize my attendees, viewed our showing, took a quick pic (coming soon on another blog post), shuttled my four oldest children off with a friend to take back to another friend's house in our town, and loaded me and my little one in the car for another 2 hour drive to some appointments.  Taking the two year old with me was necessary because my friend could not fit all my kids and her two in her car.  I have got to tell you what I delight it is to stop on the side of a freeway for potty breaks for a potty training little one.  And when I thought I would make a quick stop for gas at a drive thru gas station that little one announced she needed to poop which she was unwillingly to do on her potty in my van (probably a good thing... but I was wanting to hurry), so we had to go in the convenience store, have a potty adventure (because kids love restrooms) and piddle around a bit before getting back on that road.  We proceeded on to our two appointments and headed back home sometime after dark, stopped at a yummy little Mexican restaurant for a dinner for TWO (amazingly weird for me) and got back on the road, Sienna fell asleep around 8:00 p.m., I made phone calls (because it is so weird to be in a quiet car alone), and I arrived home at 9:00 p.m. just in time to say goodnight to my other kiddos.  

I was too tired on Friday and could seriously have cared less what my kids were doing as far as school, so we took the day off... from everything... including a family birthday party out of town that night.  It would have had us getting home at 11:00 p.m..  

Saturday came and it was a back-to-back busy day from the start which is why we did not do the party the night before.  We were out the door by 8:30 a.m. for the kids to sing with our homeschool choir in a nearby town at the county Angel Tree event for less fortunate families.  We were there until almost noon and then, headed back to our town for our annual Christmas festival.  We wandered around there for a couple of hours and Cody took the little ones back to the house.  The two older girls and I walked home and stopped in at my neighbor's Open House Christmas party for an hour.  We came home to find everyone feeling quite happy to be home and we all sat around enjoying that... for about 30 minutes before we had to pile back in the car to head to another Open House type Christmas party for our church youth workers.  We hung out there for about an hour and a half and headed home.  Again, we came in the house, got settled in, glued our rear ends to the couches and almost skipped the rest of the evenings events..... BUT we pulled ourselves up off the couches and headed out, AGAIN to attend the lighted Christmas parade.  I confess we did skip driving across town to participate in our own church ministry activity (serving hot choc and cider and handing out Bibles), but we were tired and we stuck to our normal tradition that we have done for as long as I can remember.  We walked the two blocks from our house to the parade and went to the church by our house that ministers in a similar way.  We were partakers and we were blessed.  We were blessed to have lunch and dinner provided for us on this day.  

Sunday came with the same promise of fullness.  This is the day our Children's Ministry has spent the season preparing for.  This is the day that requires all those Christmas songs they were singing back in September.  ;)  Not only did we have our regular church morning activities and had to be out the door by 9:30 a.m. we were picking up a homeless family to take to church.  Of course, this was a blessing to do.  I confess I do not always think ahead when I am tired.  In church I found myself realizing that I should have planned to provide this family a good lunch after church.  Fortunately, there is an amazing couple at our church that has been wanting to take us out to eat for over a year and they ask us ALL to lunch at a local restaurant.  What a blessing that was to me knowing I should have thought to plan.  My nine year old had to stay at the church the entire day for rehearsals, so she missed out on this and I felt sad for her that she was working away and we were eating out.  Anyway, we all went to eat and then we took the family back to the motel room that is being provided for them temporarily.  Getting a table for 14 in a busy restaurant took quite a while, so we left there about 2:00 p.m..  We headed home, chilled for about an hour, and then, my seven year old son had to be taken to the church for his portion of rehearsals for the play (fortunately my husband ran this errand alone).  We stayed home until about 5:15 p.m. before kicking ourselves back into action.  We loaded up, Cody dropped me at the church to do hair-do duty, he ran to pick up the homeless family so they could attend, and met us back at the church in time for the play at 6:00 p.m..  After the play was over we all went for some fast food and took the little family back to their room for the night and we headed home.  Time to fall into bed!!!  Yipppeeee!!! 

And that brings us to today... no real plan here, but I can say this we need some REST.  Everyone is loafing about aimlessly... yes, aimlessly with little direction.  We had breakfast very late (like brunch time) and at 1:30 p.m. we have yet to have lunch.  That is next on the agenda... really... I promise...  I am lacking in motivation.  So, now it is time to get moving a bit, again.  The new plan is to spread some Christmas cheer around here... do some crafty things, make junky Christmas crafts, make some homemade gifts,do some little kid schooling, and skip the bigger kids schooling stuff and let them help me do the little kids' stuff with them.  

School is out and Plan B is in session because we have another busy week coming up.  Tonight is basketball practice for two of my kids (2 hours), Tuesday is singing with our homeschool choir at two nursing homes and having a Christmas party.  Wednesday my seven year old son has a serious dental appointment where they will be drugging him out pretty hard.  That night we have a Happy Birthday Jesus party at the church for the littler ones and a Youth group party for the older ones.  I think the rest of the week is open, but I am probably just being hopeful. 

Affording the Holiday: Fall Festival Time

Well, this is not going to be about the controversy of Halloween.  So, I will get that out of the way.  We do not celebrate the creepy stuff and we don't encourage it.  We do still take our kids trick-or-treating usually in a nearby small neighborhood because we enjoy the dress up aspect and we use it as a time to discuss avoiding the evils of this world and how many people get caught up in participating in evil things (scary costumes, scary decorations, haunted houses, etc.).  I always ask my kids this question.... "If it doesn't honor God then, who does it honor?"  I let them think about it and they always know the answer.  Many will say we are participating in evil just by going trick-or-treating, but I think it is what you make it.  I personally would have given it up a few years back, but my husband does not share the same conviction.  For now we go. 

So, on to the topic.  And this may be a series (if I can remember as the year goes by... hahaha!).  When having a larger family how do you afford the holidays throughout the year?  How do you afford all the stuff for the Halloween/Fall Festival season?  As we have added to our family we have had to change how we handle Fall Festivals and such.  We used to attend everything there was going on.  Now, we avoid the high cost ones.  That includes elimating the very Fall Festival that my husband helps put on each year.  Every year the elementary school he works at does a Fall Festival as a fundraiser for their PTO group.  In turn they purchase something big with the money for the school like playground equipment or a computer lab, etc..  It's a good cause, but at $15 a wrist band to play carnival games plus food on site that all kids want it can add up quick.  I am not about to spend $75 at the school festival.  When we had one or two kids I could get away with spending about $20 and it was not a big deal.  

So, now we do the local free stuff.  And I don't go looking for extra events like I used to.  For the last few years we have attended our church Fall Festival on a Wednesday night and gone trick-or-treating on Halloween night.  We also usually attend a nearby church festival but last year my kids came home with a bunch of creepy stuff from there, so we skipped that this year.  We will also be attending a Costume Party on Saturday.  

We also ate 50 cent corn dogs from Sonic with fries for a quick on the go dinner... topped off with way too much candy and soda, of course.  This is not a night for being healthy!  

You may look at all the costumes and wonder how on earth we can buy all those costumes and call it frugal.  Well, I am glad you asked!  I don't think I spent over $10 on the whole lot.  

• First of all, Savannah is the Renaissance Princess and I had that costume.  It is an adult medium that I wore several years back.  It has five safety pins in it to bring it down to a girls size 14.  I had scrap fabric and quickly made her headband for free.  Total cost:  $0
• Sierra is a butterfly.  Most of the costumes you see here are from a local children's resale shop that is going out of business.  The prices are already low like 5.99-7.99 and take off 75% and you are down to $1-$1.50 per costume!!  The thing is you don't always get all the pieces when you buy resale, so then the details have to be added.  This one was missing wings.  We headed over to Goodwill and got wings for 49 cents which I took home and tore all apart since they were pink and rather old.  I basically bought them for the wire structure.  I wrapped the wire in orange satin ribbon (I would have splurged on a can of spray paint had I realized this need to be done, but I was not packing five kids back in the car to go to Wal-Mart.  No way!) and... oops!  I forgot... I also bought a yellow Princess skirt at Goodwill for 99 cents for the fabric.  I cut it up and used the fine tulle to wrap and glue, and wrap and glue, and wrap and glue on the wing structure.  It was time consuming, so this was my biggest "investment" on all these costumes, but she was so happy with her wings so it was worth it.
• Caden is the White Ninja which is a G.I. Joe Storm Shadow costume that we got in NEW packaging at the same resale shop.  When we got home we realized it was missing the white mask.  Yippee.... :(   ... but I had white t-shirt fabric that was perfect for making one and it took just a few minutes.  He kind of panicked when I put it on his head to size it and acted like he could not breath in a most dramatic way, but we talked, he got over it, and we moved on.  That thing has been on his face for the last three days.  Seriously, I have overly dramatic children.  
• Sahara wanted to be a Princess... as every little girl her age does.  And she would have been content with anything as long as it looked "pretty".  The resale shop had this little Thumbelina costume which I am sure was missing a lot of pieces, but she did not care.  Again, we went to Goodwill and picked up wings for 49 cents and it was done.  This was the easiest costume.  She is the most craZy child sometimes, but she is the easiest to shop for because she is content with what she gets... as long as she gets something.  If she does not get something then, she is all drama about how she never gets anything... which is sooo not true.  
• Sienna is the little fishy.  The pictures do not do this costume justice.  It is so sparkly and cute.  She, of course, would rather be naked!  This was also from the resale shop.  I think I got it for about 75 cents.  It has the cutest little fine popping up off the back and and legging that have tulle fins down the back.  So stinkin' cute!  
• I also picked up an afro wig and black straight hair girl wig just for fun at the resale shop because they were under $1 each and brand new in the packages.  We hit the jackpot there!!!

And you may wonder what I would have done if I had not hit this bargain sale..... Well, I would have found another bargain.  I always do.  Sometimes we splurge and spend more, but I always find some great bargains.  And that is how it is done.  
 

A Real Mother's Day (Belated)

I love Mother's Day.  Not because it is a day to feel special about myself.  I love it because for me it is a time to reflect on me being a mother.  And yes, I love reflecting about all my kids' births and various milestones over the years, but that is not what I am talking about here.  I think it is an important time to reflect on what you are doing right or wrong as a mother.  I know I take it for granted so often that my kids are perfect.... perfect just the way they are.  And no, I do not mean they are really "perfect" as in they do no wrong, etc..  I mean that they are perfect even in what we think is sometimes a weakness.  God can use what we view as our child's weakness even when we don't think it is possible.  Oh how I want to TRULY get this concept.  I know it... but I don't always live it.  So often we get hung up on some little things our children do unsatisfactory that we forget that God can use even those things.

• My oldest daughter is slow as molasses on a cold Winter's day.  I mean she never gets in a hurry to do anything.  She dawdles along and makes a 10 minute animal feeding session take an hour.  She stops repeatedly during her school time to chatter instead of staying focused and just whizzing through it.  But God does not see that as a weakness.  She is so laid back and carefree.  There is a blessing in that.  And she does not get stressed about time frames like many of us do. 
• My second daughter is a little momma, but not always in a good way.  Sometimes she jumps in front of me to try to tell her siblings what to do.  She can sometimes overwhelm the baby by insisting on helping when sometimes the baby just wants to figure things out on her own.  There is a blessing in it, though.  She is go-getter.  I joke that she is going to rule the country one day.  She has always been the one that knows where things are that we all have lost.  ;) 
• My son... well, he is just loud and all boy!  Sometimes I have a hard time with it.  I want quiet.  I want him to sit still.  But he is a thinker.  I see rambuctious and God may see determination, hardworking, full of energy, capable. 
• Sahara... well, this one is our full time fussy child and she knows only one volume... loud!  And she is this tiny little shy thing that no one would ever suspect it from... until she is away from a crowd.  We may not see the blessing in her behaviour all the time, but I know God does and in due time we will see it, as well.
• Sienna is too young, but she has started fussing at us when she does not get what she wants.  I can already see she will be very determined.  God can use that in ways that we may not understand right now.

You see... it is not about us!  We may see imperfections... or weaknesses.  God sees POWER!!

“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”
II Corinthians 12:9

And I want to encourage you to truly to take your role as a mother seriously.  Our most important task is to give them God.  Give them church.  Give them scripture.  Fill their heads with these things rather than things of this world. 

So, what did I want for Mother's Day?  Not to get a thing!... But rather to give to them.  I have always wanted Mother's Day to be about being a mother.  I hear so many mothers that want to get a Spa Day to herself for Mother's Day (and I am not saying that is wrong), but it makes me sad.  If I wanted a Spa Day (which I don't) I would want to share that with my child.  That's just me.... I want to be WITH my kids on Mother's Day.  I want to be a MOTHER on MOTHER'S Day!!!  I want them sitting beside me on the pew in church!  I want to have lunch with them and do something to make them happy.  I want to make them pancakes or something else special.  I want to give them the GIFT of being mothered. 

Actually, I am going to go on to say that we did part of Mother's Day early.  The kids had no idea what we were doing and were asking a million questions about where we were going.  Finally, I had to tell them that we were taking them to get me a Mother's Day gift.  I thought that would hush them for awhile, but they continued trying to guess where we where going.  I did not tell them until we walk in the establishment what we were up to.  We took them to paint pottery.  They were ecstatic!  I told them I wanted them to paint a large platter for me.  I also told them that each of them could make their very own special plate (and I painted Sienna's).  While we were doing this we had them paint a platter for each of the grandmothers.  You see... for me it is about doing something with them.  I want to be their mother... and one that makes memories with them.  And on the actual day of Mother's Day all I truly want is to sit beside them on the pew in church and know that I am doing the MOST IMPORTANT part of mothering.  I want to give them God!  I want them to look back one day and say that I always made sure that they were in church on Mother's Day because it is my belief that God gave them to me and in my own way I want to be there "giving them back TO God" every Mother's Day that I am alive.  

Mother's Day GIFT

It's not about what they have done for you today, but about what you have done as a Mother for them. Happy Mother's Day! Show your children you love them today. Maybe it is in the way you make their favorite breakfast or pour their milk in their cereal. A tender hug or pat on the hand goes a long way. Show them that motherhood is a GIFT. And it is the greatest GIFT to serve them.

Easter Pic 2012

I can't say this is the best Easter pic we have ever taken, but they are all there and that is what matters the most.  Savannah (11), Sienna (1), Sierra (8), Sahara (3), & Caden (5)

I took the older two girls shopping for dresses with all the little ones in tow on our dentist day.  Whoa!  That was crazy!  But we came up with two dresses and we all agreed we could live with these dresses and end the shopping spree.  Let's just say that Caden and Sahara spell t-r-o-u-b-l-e and they were very restless after being gone all day.  I normally will not choose a sleeveless spaghetti strap dress, but these were very well fitted around the arms and chest area and were ankle length.  I think they still fit the "modest" category for us and with the Texas heat, so I decided they did not have to wear a shrug.  I was excited to realize when I got home that Sahara had a hand-me-down dress of Sierra's that coordinated and Sienna had a new dress that she got for her birthday that also coordinated.  On another outing I was able to find a lime shirt for Caden to wear with pants he had.  The two older girls were already in need of Spring/Summer shoes to wear with dresses and we made a late night run and found a solution to that issue.  Yeah!  All had outfits without a huge ordeal or huge expense. 

 And I just want to share this pic of Sienna on her first Easter egg hunt.  She basically crawled to her egg because she was too excited to walk.  She had to get out of that Easter dress that was making it hard for her to crawl, so she is wearing some comfy play clothes that she can get messy in. I just love the look of deep thought on her face here.  She actually did eat some boiled egg, which was a huge surprise to me since she absolutely will not eat scrambled eggs. 

 And here are some of our beautiful peeled hard boiled eggs.  I just love to see how much of dye transfers onto the actual inside egg.  So pretty!

And Savannah is being very silly like she is going to take a bite out of the butter.  And we don't usually have such pretty butter, but this was one of our purchases from our dairy farm field trip.  Look close at the beautiful flower.  I just love that! 

I was actually sick on Easter this year, but did not realize it until after church.  I was very weak and feverish, so I did not quite accomplish my plans for our Easter day celebrations.  That's okay, though.  I got to spend it with my little family.

Toilet Paper Pumpkins for Fall -- Picture Tutorial

I have been seeing a lot of these cute little pumpkins around the web, but they have been made with fabric.  I wanted this to be more of a kid craft and with less expensive materials.  My first thought was to use tissue paper, but I was not able to locate any close by, so I looked for another option and found a orange party napkins. 

Supplies Needed:

20 count pack of orange party napkins in dinner size (available at Dollar General for $1; you will use 2 napkins per pumpkin)

Glue stick

2 Plastic Grocery Sacks per pumpkin

1 small roll of toilet paper per pumpkin

Construction Paper in the color of your choice for leaves & stem

Scissors

I missed taking one picture and that was the first step... (sigh)... Anyway, the first step is to open up two of the napkins and lie them on top of each other as pictured.  Lift TOP napkin back and apply glue using your glue stick to the top side of the BOTTOM napkin... just a small amount around the edge. Fold your TOP napkin back into place and that is where we start in the pic above.

{keep your eyes open or you might not get this step... ha!}

 Straighten out two plastic grocery sacks and lay them in an "+" on the center of the napkin.  Place a roll of toilet paper in the center. 

Wrap the ends of the top plastic grocery bag over the toilet paper and stuff the ends into the center.... do the same with the bottom grocery bag.

And stick your finger in the hole just for good measure.  Not really.... but you do want to make sure the bags are stuffed in as they will barely reach (and that is the reason you use small toilet paper rolls).

I am not gonna lie to you.  This is the step that got a few, "I can't do this!" comments out of my perfectionist child.  I just had to calm her down and tell her there is no wrong way here.  Start in one spot and start tucking the napkin in the top hole of the toilet paper until you get all the way around.

Again, stick your fingers in the hole to make sure it is all stuffed in.

One last time to make sure it is in there... and you can stick a tiny piece of tape in there if you have a wild piece.

I handed out all my kids a piece of brown construction paper about 2 inches wide.  I told them to crumple it up.  GASP!!!  They thought that was crazy.  You want your stem to look like a stem, though. 

So, you crumple it up and then uncrumple (you may have some tears... now worries)  and roll it up and there you have your stem. 

Stick your stem in your pumpkin hole. Again, you can add a little tape, if you want to.

We used green construction paper (one sheet did all five of our pumpkins) to make leaves and curlies. I cut out the leaves for my little ones and I cut our all our curlies. To make the curlies you cute little strips about 1/8" wide and lightly run the back of your scissors down them... very lightly... several times... and you may have to shape them a little... or you may know a better way. 

Attach leaves and curlies with a little tape as you tuck it in the hole with your stem. 

Your done!  Put them on your toilet or dining room table.  They look really cute and pretty classy for a kid craft.  Sierra added a jack-o-lantern face to hers using crayon.  I was thinking of doing this and we may still do it.  I was going to cute out peices of black construction paper eyes, noses, and mouths and simply attach them with a glue stick. 

I just want to add a couple notes: 

My little helper is my three year old, Sahara.

Also, at the end of the Fall season when you take down your decorations this little project is very recycleable.  ;)  Obviously, the main thing is toilet tissue and we all know what to do with that.  The shopping bags can be used for garbage, etc..  Hey, you could use that really big orange napkin to clean up a mess.  And if you want to be really frugal you can save that toilet paper tube for another craft.  The only thing that HAS TO go to waste are the construction paper leaves and stem (unless you can find another use for those as well). 

Summer is....

Everyone is talking about Summer.  School is out for public schoolers and many homeschoolers.  Everyone is talking about plans... plans for vacations... plans for their schooling during Summer and in the Fall.  It seems there is so much to think about.  For us Summer is....

Going to be a time of slowing down a bit in some areas.  Our regular school plan will change.

My husband will be off work after next Tuesday, since he is a public school teacher. 

We are not planning a vacation this year; however, you never know when that might change.

My brother, his wife, and their daughter are moving bake to Texas this Summer.

I might rip out all the carpet in this house (my big fantasy).  The problem with this little fantasy is that there is only plywood underneath and since we want to try to pay off our mortgage within one year we don't want to spend money on flooring.  So, we have to decide if we can hold off until the mortgage is paid off or if we can find a cheap or temporary flooring solution.  I despise carpeted floors.  Upstairs we have some painted floors, but it looks "right" because it is a board floor.  If I had a faux flooring solution for plywood that would look nice I could live with that for a year.  That would allow us freedom to be messy with our artsy craftsy time.  After the mortgage is all gone bye-bye we could change if we wanted to hardwood floors. 

We will do some special schooling...  I am planning to use "Consider God's Creation" (Science) some.  I would also like to do some art curriculum that we have not been faithful to complete (or really even begin).  We will continue to keep math "fresh" for Sierra and read a lot.  Savannah will actually finish up her Grade 4 math and possibly begin her Grade 5 math.  She does not know it yet, but I have decided to detour that plan a bit, though.  I am awaiting the arrival of the first book in the Life of Fred series.  This Summer I am going to let her try that.  I originally thought it was just a supplemental thing for math, but have recently learned it can be a complete math curriculum.  I also hear that the kids who put up a fight to do math actually beg to do this... It's worth a try!  Sewing is top on the list to do with my older ones.  There should be no excuse to not have time since my hubby will be off and there are no scheduled vacations. 

And if it will ever rain I would love to focus some more on growing veggies!

Oh yeah.... we HAVE to build a chicken coop.

And we will be selling seven baby bunnies. 

And I would like to have some lazy days like this little momma (Sahara) and her babies.

I Like My Blog Again !

A while back I made some changes to my blog design and I have not like it since then!  Blah!  It was messed up for awhile and I just did not want to commit the time needed to fix it.  I decided to just change it and let it be plain even though I did not really like that change much either... but it was better than it being messed up.  Finally, I have a picture I am happy with and I like my blog again!  The faces of my children are just what it needed.  This picture was taken Easter morning before we headed off to church.  It was a special day for our family not only because of Easter, but because it was the first time our whole family has attended church since Sienna's birth. 

Lobster and Maps Discussion and ... Skeletons

Today, while the rest of the homeschool world is making Christmas crafts we made lobsters!  You can follow this link to find some super cute directions for egg carton lobsters.  We studied Maine in our Adventures (My Father's World curriculum).  As I am not one to stick to the "plan" I added this cute lobster craft.  You are supposed to use PAPER egg cartons, but I had the styrofoam ones.  I just went outside and spray painted them red.  Within 10 minutes or less they were dry. 

Also, we discussed directions on the map.  The curriculum says to have the child(ren) find the state that is farthest east on the map.  The problem is that my kids know which way is north at our house, but they had the idea that on the map north changed depending on where the map was at.  Confused me a bit.... so, I thought this would be a good time to try to correct their misunderstanding.  It was quite funny, though.  Great teaching/learning opportunity! 

We might just have to hang those lobsters on the tree....  Hey!  They are red!  I am thinking that they will look very cute alongside our skeletons on the tree.  Well..... I guess I will have to explain that, also.  ;)  A couple weeks ago we started studying Colossians 1:18 for one of our memory verses ("And he is the head of the body, the church...") and the study extends to science and the body some.  I thought it would be great to do a skeleton craft that I saw here and label it with some "members" of the "church" (the people in our immediate family and extended family, church leaders and teachers, etc.... click on the pic to enlarge to see labeling). 

Is It Already APRIL !!!?

Crazy how time flies! On a lighter note I did not mention April Fool's Day the day prior or the day of around here until calendar time. For some reason April Fool's Day is not written in on their calendars. Being that it was a new month I told them it was now July and we were celebrating Independence day this weekend. I was so excited that it was Summer and my birthday would this month, also. Seriously, I was going really "out there" ... ridiculously so... and they still believed every bit of it until... I said, "April Fool's!" The rest of the day was all about silly tricks.... there's a bee in your hair... a worm (which turned out to be no joke).... and lots of others all day long. Tricks are so fun! But really... It is April. We will be celebrating Easter this weekend. It is Spring. And my birthday is not this month. Hope you all enjoyed April Fool's Day!

School Memories Christmas Ornaments

I am just brainstorming here! As I was taking the ornaments off my tree I was looking at a little handpainted ceramic ice skate ornament I made the year Savannah first ice skated. Then, there's the ornament of a pregnant lady and spouse for the year Sierra was in my belly and there are little blue handblown glass booties for the year Caden arrived.... many moments are captured on our tree. It just got me thinking that throughout the year while we make all these school projects how interesting it would be to if we created some of these projects in the form of ornaments... and I am taking about the traditional Christmas ones. Imagine a tiny baby doll decorated as an indian when you study about indians in your schooling. As the years go by of decorating the family Christmas tree each year you will see that little indian doll and remember when you studied the indians with your children. Of course, it would be difficult to do this with every project and I am not sure you want that many ornaments, but maybe it would be a nice thing for some of them. Bringing something back from a field trip that could be added to your ornaments is another great idea. A photo in a frame or a special glass ball that is decorated (painted, collaged, etc.). I am trying so hard this year to think of ways to pre-plan for the next Christmas... like gift buying throughout the year... making gifts that the kids can give to each other or us or the grandparents, etc. I used to do that sort of thing, but as each child has added to the family it is harder to pre-plan anything. LOL!!! Anyway, just wanted to share a crafty idea for a Merry Christmas in 2010 and the years to come!

Let It Snow!

"Oh, the weather outside is frightful,

but the snow is so delightful..."

We were in Houston when it began to snow and Houston is just not the place you want to be if you have to be on the freeways with the possibility of "black ice" (icy roads). With careful consideration we decide to head home much sooner than planned. We drove through the snow, then out of the snow, and then the snow came to us about ten minutes before we got home.

In the spirit of posting about holiday traditions and to go along with my Frugal Series I thought I would post a recent picture of our home. And this is an extremely rare site to see our home with snow falling! Yippee!! Being that our home was built in approximately 1905 I have always wanted to hang simple green wreaths from the windows with red ribbons, so last year I added these to our holiday decor. The top window is missing it's wreath, but it is waiting patiently inside the window [sigh]. Don't you love those little details that get forgotten?! :) If you look close you can see our tree glowing in the back window. We have a traditional GREEN tree with white lights and it is decorated with an assortment of holiday ornaments. Every year my mother buys the kids a special ornament and we hang the breakables on the upper limbs and the nonbreakables on the lower limbs. I also usually buy the kids an ornament or get a family ornament when we have a new addition, but I have done neither this year... and I may not. That is okay because my mother is doing that tradition, too. I don't think the kids will mind if I take the easy road this year. ;) Each year my husband and I (or just me) get the tree up and check the lights (when I feel like venting I will give that topic it's own post... ahem), then the kids help put the ornaments on. If it is cold we have a fire going, possibly have some hot chocolate and/or roast marshmallows in the fireplace... this can vary year to year... we just take it as it comes and do what we feel we can manage. Another fabulously tacky thing I started last year was add SILVER TINSEL all over our tree. My husband was less than excited until he saw the lights come on and the whole tree looked as if it had twinkle lights on it. Now if I can get my hands on that tacky angel hair... hmmm... do you remember that stuff? It makes the lights "glow" and is beautiful with multi-colored lights. Ahhhh... the memories. We did some weird things with our tree as a kid. Back to the topic at hand and maybe I will post about our tree as a child later. I have quite a bit of Christmas decor now, but I put less of it out as time goes by. I tend to favor the more simple things now like green garlands over the interior windows and wreaths throughout the house... faux holly on the lights (another frugal thing we did was replace our candleabra lights with flourescent a few years back... so tacky, but frugal... we say they look like "running lights" on a boat.. it took awhile, but you get used to the strange look... I think..) Hmmmm... funny how doing this post and reflecting on our traditions in our home has made me want to get the rest up.... THANKS TARA & ROSSIE (and others). I needed that! I need to go get all my garlands put up... I have lots! Our icicle lights are not up either... the lights are my favorite thing!!

This funky action shot is Savannah and Sierra building a snowman by the side of the freeway.... sad little snowman, but the kids were thrilled. I convinced my husband to stop and let the kids play awhile just in case we did not get any snow at home. I sat in the van mostly with Sahara while Cody froze outside with the other three kiddos... LOL!

At home we got out our snow wear and this is Caden making a snow angel. I love how they look so cute stuffed in their snowbibs and coats. We are Texans at heart, but hit the road to Colorado every chance we get (hence the snow wear). I would love to live in the valley in Colorado... maybe one day we might.

Pre-Packaged Ornament Kit Fun

All too often I think that sometimes we forget that it is OKAY to take the easy road sometimes. We don't have to whittle the wood to make homemade ornaments with our kids. And sometimes it is even better to just do it rather than worry about doing it well.... and you won't hear that from me often. I am a perfectionist and it is my worst personality trait. :)

I found this little kit at Michael's for $1 (each kit makes 3, so I used 2 kits). Notice we gave our angels haircuts to make a boy for Caden and left Daddy's bald. We have one angel for each member of our family and I wrote their name and year on the back. Super cute. I did use a glue gun, so this one required a bit of assistance.
These little wooden plaque ornaments are the most fun for the kids, because they do it all without assistance. Well, technically Caden did some scribble on his and Momma colored the rest for him. This was purchased at Michael's for $1 a kit (each kit comes with four wooden plaques with pre-attached string, four markers, two glitter glue tubes... we used 2 kits). Notice the little jingle bell snowman? We did that kit, too. I had to do most of this one because it was small and required hot glue... not a good choice for little kids, but would be great for teens. Kit makes 3.

All those for $5 and I didn't have to pre-cut foam and gather jingle bells, string, or whittle the wood! Love it!

Pics from yesterday...

Firecraker #1 and Firecrcker #2 baking rolls... trying on their bandana skirts... Miss Modesty wanted hers ankle length. I hope she will always be so modest ;) When I get all the outfits done, I'll post that. The girls helped sew theirs, so it has been a slow project to get completed!

Little Firecracker shining her RAZOR teeth.... Those chompers are cute, but the worst thing ever for nursing.... I am daily consider if we can go on... They are all different and she is not biting me, but has always had a tight latch-on. Yowweeeeee!

Ready to eat... Simple fixings... I told the girls they could have made this meal all by themselves.... I have to learn to LET them!

Boy Firecracker is just too beautiful for words.... look at those fluffy cheeks, full lips, and long eyelashes.... Dreamy!! I tell everyone he is the "Man of My Dreams"! He is gonna have one lucky wife with all his handsomeness! (..coming from a partial momma)

Little Firecracker can Patty-Cake! Yeah, we still think she is pure genius... even with all her delays... At 11 months she still can't crawl or sit herself up.... well, she did sit up a couple times without realizing it, but it is just easier to whine and one of us do it for her... so, spoiled rotten... She scoots around in circles on her booty.

My "twin" firecrackers were born years apart... one male and one female, but they look so much alike. They are wrestling in the bounce house.

These two were enjoying the balls, but Sahara was scared to be alone. She only smiled if her Sissy was near. Safety in numbers, ya know.

Savannah liked the bowling, but Brother Firecracker was busy destroying any chance she had to bowl... He was kicking them down... That's one way to do it!

I do exist... here's a pic to prove it! A rare moment when I am in a photo. Sierra stuck some "bunny ears" on Sahara! Cute moment!

Savannah was excited about the bounce house! She asked me why her mouth is opened in this pic.... I told her she as very excited, obviously.

Wow! Another pic I am in! What's going on! Daddy stepped behind the camera for a change for a group shot... Yippppppeeee!

Taking a short ride down the rode to set off some fireworks.... Sahara had already had her fill, but she was hanging in there a little longer! Caden was anxious to see where we were going.

"I love these type of pics... They are watching Daddy light the fireworks, while I observe my "little doorsteps"... .they grow up too fast.... and check out my little guys bronze body!

I must tell you we all feel like we are "hung over" today... and no, we only had tea and Kool-Aid... We are just tired... exhausted really, but it was a fun night!

HAVE A BLESSED DAY!!!