Children Grow, Children Explore, Children Learn

Bringing Back Flashbacks

2012-01-26T03:32:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, I began to have a lot of flashbacks to when my children were younger. You know that wonderful age of 5 years old. How is it that I so conveniently forgot about that magical age. You know the age when it seems all the house rules have grown feet and walked out the door. The little mouths that just forget what they are saying. Oh and the strong willed personalities that suddenly decide it will be their way or no way.

This was the picture in our house yesterday morning. Selena kept thinking that grandma couldn’t see her and insisted that jumping on the couch was way too much fun. Finally I one grandma got pretty tired of it and grounded her to the floor. I think you can tell by the picture she didn’t really enjoy that very well.

Yet, the other side of this age of 5 that I totally forgot was how cuddly they suddenly become. I forgot how this seemed like the last year that either of my older children would crawl up in my lap and sit for so long and just cuddle. Or how anytime they got scrapes they would want to sit in my lap and have their tears wiped away. Yes, this is one side of Selena that I am loving, all though she does need to understand that we can not cuddle all day long. This grandma does have things to do, and does not do well just sitting on the couch all day long with a heavy 5 year old sitting on her legs which suddenly goes to sleep under the weight.

This is also the age where the thought of going to spend the weekend away from home sounds so great for us as parents, but can twist the nerves of a child. On this morning Selena woke up and asked what she was going to do at Kelly’s over the weekend. I explained she was going to go play with some girls. I guess Selena got confused and thought I was suddenly talking about our friend Kelly who lives in Mississippi and has two girls. She began to weep, “I don’t want to go so far from (insert our address) my state!” Finally I was able to get it through to her that we were not sending her to Mississippi, that she would only be the next town over from us. Of course that brought all the questions of where we would be. For as much as I wanted to just say “AWAY!”, I calmly explained that we were only going to be away for one night.

With so much emotion in one day from my sweet little 5 year old, made me remember back so fondly to all the hair pulling, fun, and pure joyful times I had when my children were just 5. This phase will soon pass, and we will get on with a normal (well, if there is such a thing as total normalcy with children) life again. For now though I will laugh my way through all the funny times, cherish all the extra cuddling, and stay consistent on the tiny things called rules.

WARNING: I may not be blogging as much during this time, my focus truly is needed more on Selena, playing, loving, and training her through this very difficult stage of wanting to grow up, but on the other hand not really knowing if she should.

Sunshine

2012-01-24T04:48:00.000-08:00

Actually Monday was a very nice day. It is hard to believe that just a day ago these buildings were covered with so much snow, now all that is perched upon the roof tops is the black and white mouser that lives on our property. I think inside he was kind of laughing at Pal, because of course Pal couldn’t find him up there.

We watched as he basked in the sun. Even the horses finally made it out of their warm stalls to find grass that once had been covered by snow. They seemed to be feeling their oats, and were even kicking about. We never tire of watching all their antics.

The school busses were again running, and the sounds of children made its way up to our house from the elementary school. It was even nice enough that we were able to get out and go for a little walk. The air was still chilly but the sunshine just warmed the soul.

When we returned home Selena played with her play dough for sometime. Then retreated to her bedroom to play with her Nintendo. We’ve been working on having her play more in her room instead of dragging all her toys out into the living room. It has been a hard adjustment for her, since our little house there truly was not enough room for her to play in her bedroom, so she always played in the living room. I find it so funny how she can play so independent until we ask that she play in her room, then all that independence goes right out the door.

I must admit it was peaceful while she played in her room, outside of a few laughs and chuckles I would hear as she recorded her voice on her Nintendo. I actually felt like I could just kick back and relax, something that doesn’t happen much around here. It felt pretty good to just kick my feet up and do nothing. Is that possible, no not really I decided that the kitchen needed to be cleaned, and the meat pulled out for dinner. Oh but the bliss of a quiet house was such a blessing.

We do have our days and the stages come and go with Selena, but it is days like today when I truly feel like the wonderful age of 5 will be settling in soon. Tomorrow might be a totally different story, but for this afternoon it was total bliss.

Balance Science

2012-01-22T04:34:00.000-08:00

Selena came out of her room yesterday after noon with all these hangers. She called them her wind chimes. We talked about balancing, and I showed her several different ways of balancing them. She played with them trying to do many of the same things I did. Pretty soon she disappeared back to her bedroom only to reappear with this.

She was so proud of how many hangers she actually got hanging from the one. Of course as you can see they are all hanging off one side, so not quite a balance act. I guess you know that now our next step is getting all these back into the closet and off the bedroom floor. No, there were no clothes on them, thankfully she didn’t go that far.

We are happy to report that we are no longer snowed in. Our landlord came out and plowed and just in time for the rains to hit, boy that would have been a mess. Over half our snow has melted, and the flooding has began. Thankfully we are on a hill and do not need to worry about flooding.

We did have some excitement though Friday, when Papa looked out only to discover two of the three horses here were out. I was able to get ahold of the landlord who was able to come out and get them back in the pasture. It seems that when their son was out playing in the snow with the 4 wheelers, he did not get the gate latched. This posed the question “What do I do if they get out and I can’t get ahold of the landlord?” Easily answered, park my car sideways between the two lower fences so they can’t get to the street, and let them just roam until I can finally get ahold of the landlords. Hopefully this will be the last time they decide to take a little walk though.

The Homeschool Mother’s Journal # 3

2012-01-20T04:48:00.000-08:00

In my life this week…

While many times I am found to stay at home a lot, there is something about NOT being able to go anywhere that just makes a person very stir crazy. I truly enjoyed the snow when it first arrived, though I knew in the back of mind that it was going to be nothing but trouble by the time it was over. Sure enough we have been snowed and now iced in since Tuesday.

We have had a friend staying with us since the hill she lives on is even worse then ours. The idea was that she would bring the vanpool van here and her and Papa would be able to get out and pick the others out and get to work. That hasn’t worked out just as we planned. The roads are not in bad condition, not great but pretty good, it is our driveway with over a foot of snow and now a good 1/2 inch layer of ice on top. We do see it beginning to thaw, so hopefully by tomorrow we can punch our way out.

With this week, it has been an emotional rollercoaster, as I sat waiting to hear news on my niece who just found out she has breast cancer. There are still a few more tests she has to endure before we will know the complete picture, but so far they feel confident that she found it early. She is also having gallbladder problems, so until they remove the gallbladder and see what the mass is there we will continue to be on pins and needles.

In our homeschool this week…

We haven’t done a thing as far as school goes this week. I truly wanted Selena to enjoy the snow. With being shut in, and extra company schooling just was not in the forefront.

My favorite thing this week was…

I have to say my favorite thing this week truly was watching Selena having fun in the snow.

I’m grateful for…

Right now with the weather we are having I am truly grateful for a warm dry home.

I’m praying for…

My niece, healing, strength, and wisdom for the doctors as they piece all this together and set a treatment plan in place.

A photo, video, link, or quote to share…

I thought this so beautiful the way the ice formed such a unified string as if someone had hung clear Christmas decoration on this bush.

Snowed In!

2012-01-19T04:31:00.000-08:00

Yes, we are snowed in today. We could probably get out if we really needed to, but getting back in might be quite the challenge. We woke this morning to discover the following.

And if this wasn’t enough to find all this snow, the winds were blowing as well. The following was taken just as a gust of wind kicked up.

Now at almost 11:00 a.m. it is still snowing and blowing. The snow is adding up and drifting.

To give you a little better idea of how much snow we have, which I know some will laugh at since they can see much more snow then this, but believe me for around here we are breaking records. Pal can hardly get through the snow.

Again this shows how much the snow is blowing and drifting. This was taken early in the morning. Now, Pal won’t even attempt to go out in the snow, and stays on the porch, under my car, or under the shrubs where there is little snow.

I loved comparing this snow to the first snow we got on Monday.

This is the same shrubs right off our porch. I don’t think I need to tell you which one is from Monday and which one was taken yesterday.

Enough With The Snow

2012-01-18T04:31:00.000-08:00

As we are bracing for more snow, Selena and I got out and went to town today while we could still get out of our driveway, well, more like get back in our driveway. Going down is nothing, slide all the way down! Coming back up now that is the fun part! We got many supplies to ensure we could survive whatever the next couple storms throw at us.

Leah, I would most graciously send all this snow over to your side of the mountains. You can have it all, if only I could figure out a way to do so.

Phyllis, I know you are feeling a tad bit envious of our snow, believe me if I could share I would. Even if I could package it up and send it to you for one of your lovely State study packages, but I believe by the time it gets to you it would probably be a melted mess.

Ticia, you made a good point about children getting tired of snow too. Although right now it seems as though Selena is still praising the snow gods, or is it snow devils? Us adults however are trying to figure out how we can hook up all the generators in the area and create the largest radiated heat source we can to dry all these storm systems out before they get here.

The hard reality of all of this is that while the snow is so beautiful, and we have had a lot of fun playing in it. We all know once the thaw begins and the snows turn to rains, we will be dealing with the dreaded flooding.

In the meantime we are trying to have a light heart and spirit and take it however it comes. I leave you with what is probably my two most favorite pictures of the wintery blast we have had.

Snow Day Part 2

2012-01-17T04:42:00.000-08:00

After Selena and Papa ate their breakfast and their clothing dried out, the three of them headed back out for some more snowy fun. It was fun to watch Papa and Selena having so much fun.

They walked all over the yard to see how deep the snow was in different areas. Selena told me when she came in she loved the snow but she didn’t like how her feet kept sinking down in it. She hoped Papa would find her a board to stand on, then her feet wouldn’t sink.

Pal had a blast with them, even though some parts of the walk he was dragging his belly the entire way. When they came back in Pal actually had a snowball attached to his tag on his collar that was about the size of a golf ball. By the time I could reach to grab my camera Papa had already cleared the snowball off his collar.

After coming in and having lunch and giving time for their clothes to dry out yet again, with assistance from my dryer. Papa invited Selena to go for a nice walk up the road with him. As I watched them return up the driveway, I let Pal out so he could meet them at the end of the driveway.

By this time the neighbor boy was out building a snowman so Selena made a bee line over to help him with that project.

He had fun playing with her for a while, having snowball fights, and just generally letting Selena have a blast. After he went in, Selena, Papa and another neighbor laughed, and made snowballs. Selena brought one up to the window and asked me for a bowl to put her snow ball in. You know I did just that. I no more got it sat down and she came with another one. The two put together looked just like a mini snowman. Pretty soon she came with another one that almost looked like the shape of a dog. While they were outside, I went to work decorating the snowballs she brought in. While I was doing this the neighbor fellow they were visiting with, was making a miniature snowman using toothpicks for its arms. When Selena brought that to show me, I had a huge surprise for her.

I guess you know that Selena was pretty pleased with her surprise and added the little snowman the neighbor had made for her. By this time though, Selena announced she had enough snow, well until tomorrow when we are expected to have more snow. We still have a couple more storms heading our way. They only predicted 1 inch for Sunday, we had 5 inches. They are predicting 4 more inches on Tuesday. We may just be snowed in before it is over.

Snow Day

2012-01-16T04:42:00.000-08:00

We woke up Sunday morning to almost 5 inches of snow. I had been up for a good part of the night and enjoyed the peacefulness of watching it fall. Not that I wouldn’t have rather been asleep, but once I woke and discovered it snowing I was not able to go back to sleep. Selena cracked me up when she first woke up and looked out the window, “SNOW!” I asked her how it got there? She said, “Probably from the snowflakes!”

Pal was the first one to venture out into the snow. He was really enjoying himself out there. It was fun to watch him. In the meantime inside the house Papa was getting ready to go out and clear the snow off the vehicles, so I hurried up and got Selena ready to go out too.

Both her and Papa were out for about an hour and a half before I called them in for a hot bowl of cream of wheat. Of course you know once all the toes and fingers were warmed back up it was time for more outside fun.

Enjoy some of the random pictures of all the joy and beauty that we found as we enjoyed our snow. Wonder how much more we will get, they certainly did not predict this amount in the first round of the storm.

I am sure we will be back out enjoying more of this winter wonderland. Papa and Selena tried to build a snowman but the snow was too dry to pack very well for that, boy I don’t know that I have ever seen such dry fluffy snow here. It is sure beautiful though!

Math

2012-01-15T04:29:00.000-08:00

Selena has been working very hard in her math. She has been making some huge leaps in her abilities. Remember we started this year using her math buddies and story problems for her to begin to learn the simple math. She has now moved beyond her math buddies to doing a little more formal math.

Yesterday, while Selena was taking her bath I set up our math for some review.

She was thrilled when she got out of the tub to discover this set up and could hardly wait to go right to work. I didn’t have to explain very much to her of how it works and she was able to work totally independently.

She would first find the rod that corresponded to the top number in the problem, then locate the one that corresponded to the second number. After she clicked them together then she was able to solve the problem.

Selena wanted to take the last picture of her work. You can get the idea how she was able to solve all her math equations all by herself.

With her writing coming along, who knows she could start writing her numbers as well, then she can log all her answers on paper.

Water Fun Indoors

2012-01-14T04:42:00.000-08:00

It has been so cold here that we have hardly been able to get out and really enjoy any outside time. Even with the sun out the wind chill factor has left us freezing. I decided to bring some water fun indoors.

We sat out to see if we could make our own boat. We first examined Selena’s bath time boat to get some ideas of what might make it float. Now doesn’t that just look exciting to sit and watch that green boat float? I stepped it up a bit by placing some rocks in the boat and Selena had to try to guess if the boat would sink or float from the weight.

After this fun, I then made Selena think of something we had in our home that we could mold into a boat shape and make it float. I thought for sure she was going to ask for clay, but she surprised me and asked for foil. I went and got the foil and gave her a piece. She had to mold it into a boat and make it float.

This was her basic design. Now came the challenge would it float when rocks were put in side it?

Oh No! It tilted too far to one side, and started taking in water. Selena examined her boat and decided maybe it was too heavy on that one side. (I love the look of concentration on her face in the above picture) I gave her a small piece of foil and she molded it along the one side to make it heavier on that side too. Well, now we had to try it out again. Would it float, hold the weight of the rocks, and not sink?

She had to make a few adjustments along the way, flatten out the bottom more, and make sure all the seams were tightly closed, but yes, she finally ended up with a boat that floated even with the weight of more rocks then we had put in her tub toy.

Then she decided it was bath time, since I wouldn’t let her just sit there at the table and play for hours with the boat. We did have a lot of fun figuring this out and now Selena is looking forward to summer so she can try to make many more of these in her pool.

The Homeschool Mother’s Journal #2

2012-01-13T04:25:00.000-08:00

In my life this week…

This has been one of those weeks where I went from being disliked to being a meanie by one certain 5 year old who just knows that now that she is 5 all of our house rules have walked out the door. As I reflect back on some of her outbursts I have to laugh, it is so bittersweet when they grow up. As the week is winding down though and with many days of thinking we were down to the final privilege that could possibly be taken away, she is finally beginning to earn some of them back.

Along with that is a new discovery that suddenly my sweet husband has decided to form the habit of leaving the newspaper laying just where ever he gets finished reading it. I am a little bit in a state of shock over this, believe me you would be too if you knew my husband, he does have these tendencies of being a little OCD at times, so for this to become an issue has me a little baffled and confused.

This just has been a week in particular if I wasn’t arguing with Selena, picking up after my husband, I found myself on the phone for 2 hours with our cell phone company. On Christmas I grabbed my phone only to discover the front display was scrambled, no problem it was covered under warranty so I was told. They sent me a new phone, and I sent the old one back. I received an email stating there was damage to my old phone so the warranty would not cover it. They finally sent me a picture where it looked like they had randomly plastered a red arrow on a spot on the scrambled screen stating this is where it is damaged. The argument continued, finally it came down to they couldn’t prove I damaged the phone, and I couldn’t prove the phone wasn’t damaged so we reached an agreement to upgrade my phone for 30.00, thus erasing the 100.00 they wanted me to pay for the damaged phone. Looking back on this now as I type it, it seems very hilarious, that they loose the 100.00 that they wanted to charge me, and I get an upgrade for as little as 30.00, I think I kind of won on that one.

In our homeschool this week…

Selena learned how to play dominos then jumped right in and learned how to play Mexican Train dominos. I was so proud of how easily she learned the games, and how with such ease she was able to begin to relate to the number of dots on the dominos, and could quickly identify that she needed a 4 or 5 or 6. Math is moving right along!

She also decided to start writing this week. I could tell it was bugging her that many of the other children in AWANA and Sunday school could write their names on their work. Selena has been able to write her name for sometime but lacked the confidence to do it on a regular basis or in front of others. She worked real hard this week though and not only did she write her name but many of her sight words.

Helpful homeschooling tips or advice to share…

Don’t fret if your child is not doing the same things as their peers, all children learn or are ready to learn new skills at their own pace and in their own timing.

My favorite thing this week was…

Having Selena tell me she didn’t like me anymore and that she was going to run away from me. She ran and grabbed an old coat put it on, asked me to zip it up for her, which I obliged, then she retreated to her bedroom for about 5 minutes, to come out and announce, “I am done running away from you now.”

A photo, video, link, or quote to share…

Selena so proud of her progress.

One very cold frosty morning.

WHAT? Me at the Groomers?

2012-01-12T04:18:00.000-08:00

The other night I was just absolutely exhausted, Selena hadn’t slept well the night before and was up at 5:30 a.m. By 6:30 I had already changed into my pajamas and was curled up on the loveseat just begging for time to fly by so I could put Selena to bed. Selena was still going pretty hard. She grabbed a comb and announced she wanted to play groomer. My first thought was she wanted to groom Pal, my thoughts were poor Pal, you have to endure yet another night of fun or torture what ever you want to call it. No, Selena informed me that I was the one to be groomed. Even when I protested and told her I do not go to the groomers she insisted this was the game we would play. I told her I wasn’t moving, so she went around the loveseat and began.

Pretty quick she was calling to Papa to take pictures. I really didn’t want my picture taken at this point, with no makeup, in my pajamas and really tired, but Selena informed me “This will be a blog post about You and I.”

Now this wasn’t good enough and she insisted I lay on my back so she could wash my hair. Then the grooming really began. I still insisted I don’t go to the groomers. She pretended to wash my hair, cut my hair, then style my hair. Ready for my final style?

But wait she wasn’t finished yet. Now it was Papa’s turn!

She continued this game with Pal coming next, then all sorts of different imaginary animals including a cat. Papa just played right along with her. I disappeared from the room, well, I went in and got Selena’s pajamas, and bed ready for her to go to bed. I still insisted I don’t go to the groomers!

My Quiz

2012-01-11T03:55:00.000-08:00

Selena and I have been studying quite a bit about many different animals here lately. Today since I didn’t feel much like teaching, I asked Selena to pick one of the animals we have been learning about and give me a quiz or test. She picked the crocodiles.

My Quiz administered by Selena

Where do crocodiles lay their eggs? and Why?
What other reptile lays their eggs along side the crocodiles eggs?
What animals are threats to the crocodiles eggs?
What determines if an crocodiles will be a boy or a girl?
How does the baby crocodiles let the mommy know they have hatched so she can dig them up?
What does she do with them after they have hatched?
What does she do with the other babies who have hatched in the nest?
What is one animal that will attack an crocodiles?

As you can see her questions were pretty deep. Did she know all the answers? You bet she did! Did I know all the answers? Let’s just say she gave me a lot of check marks for right answers. Are you curious to know the answers? Well, here they are:

Crocodiles lay their eggs in holes or piles of leaves, their eggs are always buried for protection and warmth while they incubate.
The soft shell turtle is one reptile who will lay their eggs in the same nest as the crocodiles eggs, because they know they will be safe there.
A lot of animals and reptiles are threats to the eggs, such as lizards, and beavers.
Since crocodiles have no chromosome that determines the sex, the temperature during incubation determines the sex. If the nest is very warm above 90 degrees Fahrenheit, the babies will be male. If the nest is lower then that the babies will be female.
From the time the first baby crocodiles hatches he/she starts chirping, this does two things, tells the others it is time to hatch, as well as to let mom know to come and dig them up.
After she has dug up her babies, she carries them in her mouth pouch to the water where she guards them until they are ready to be on their own.
She also carries the baby turtles in her mouth to the water as well.
The one animal that is not afraid to attack an crocodiles and who is a huge threat to crocodiles is the hippopotamus.

I love it when Selena gives me these quizzes, it really shows me that she enjoyed our study, that she paid attention, and that she retained all that we have learned.

My Dearest Selena

2012-01-10T04:18:00.000-08:00

Now that you have turned 5 it does not mean that all the rules that we have had in place since forever does not just get up and walk out the door. Now that you are 5 we would hope that you would have these rules all memorized and they would be like second nature to you. Wait a minute you do have them memorized, in fact you were the one who told me what these rules were so I could write them down on paper and hang them in a place where you can read them everyday. I guess then that means you are actively making the choice to not follow them.

Selena, Mama and Papa have these rules for many reasons:

To keep our home running in some sort of a mannerly order
To train you to be a fine young lady someday who respects not just your property but the property of others.
For your own safety, We would not like to see you fall from a piece of our furniture and get hurt really bad.
All homes have rules, many very similar to the list above. Your home is really no different then any other little girl or boy’s home.

At times I think you think we are just being mean, but honey just the opposite we love and care about you so much that we do our best to enforce the rules. We care about the type of person you will grow into, and the person you are today. We care about the little things like your manners, respect for yourself and others, and of course your safety. It is our hope that you will try to remember these rules, (wait you have them memorized) anyway that you will follow these rules throughout the day. We know you are not perfect, though we also know that these rules are not that difficult either.

Love

Mama!

A Quiet Weekend

2012-01-09T04:10:00.000-08:00

We spent a quiet weekend just being together. For Selena quiet can come in many forms. She chose several activities to entertain herself and us with. One such thing that she had so much fun with was her sight words. She went through them with me many times, but we made a rule that not only did she have to say the word but use it correctly in a sentence. I was very proud when she was able to distinguish between words similar in pronunciation but with different meanings, of course the most common example would be no and know.

She rediscovered the box of small books that she first began to read out of. She went for the harder of these books and easily read several of them to us. A few of them had pictures in place of some of the words. We got a kick out of her when she read the pictures meaning in the front of the book, but would skip over them through the book. I asked her why she was doing that and she simply told me, “I don’t read pictures, I read words.” She still at times just amazes us with her reading ability, to be able to put the sounds together and read words that we didn’t even know she knew, such as porridge.

I also set out this weekend to expand on our Domino playing and start teaching Selena how to play Mexican Train. She did very well, of course we still need to work with her on the strategy process. She hung right in there through all the games we played, even when we played two games in a row, upon her request.

I won the first two games, but Selena with a little assistance from Papa won me fair and square the third game.

Papa kind of forgot the rules and we ended up with two Trains going, but that is OK, It truly was just fun to see how quickly Selena was picking up on how to interpret the number on the domino based upon it’s color. She actually would stop and even count the dots just to make sure she was correct.

Look at how her dominos spanned across the table, down and back across past the beginning point. She laid her last domino just before I was able to play my last one. I tried to get a victory smile from her but beings this was the second game by the time we finished it she was ready to head off to find something else to do. She was very proud of herself though for winning. I know we are going to enjoy many more games of dominoes in the near future.

The Homeschool Mother’s Journal # 1

2012-01-06T04:42:00.000-08:00

In my life this week…

There is always so much this time of year, I always am looking for more energy at every turn. The New Year has always started in more of a whirl wind for me. Between New Years itself, the wind down from Christmas and all the many birthdays that follow I always find my self very busy.

I enjoyed watching as Papa and Selena drove off the other day so that Selena could pick out my birthday card and flower. Sometimes it is those little moments when I truly realize how much she is growing up. She brought me home a beautiful red rose, and the most precious card that she picked out all by herself.

I’ve also been busy planning Papa and my get away at the end of the month. That is right we are going to have a weekend to ourselves. Upon reflection we both realized we have not had a get-a-way without Selena since she was a baby, I think we are due for another. It can’t come at a better time, right after my birthday, then considering Papa will be gone the week of Valentines Day for a business trip. That just doesn’t seem fair to me at all that he has to be gone on Valentines Day, not at all fair.

In our homeschool this week…

We really have not officially started back in any formal schooling yet. We have been doing a lot of playing, and informal learning and are having way too much fun. We have finalized our ideas for more of a formal curriculum for next Fall, since truly that will be the official beginning to Selena’s homeschool adventure. Not that what we have been doing all along hasn’t been homeschooling but this marks the year that she would be starting real Kindergarten if she were to go to public or private school.

Places we’re going and people we’re seeing…

As I mentioned Papa and I are getting ready for our weekend away. That has pretty much consumed my thoughts for right now. However, we are trying to plan some lunches and play dates with a few friends from AWANA and the Homeschool group.

My favorite thing this week was…

Watching Selena leave with her Papa to return with a huge smile on her face, a red rose in one hand and a birthday card in the other.

I’m grateful for…

All the new friends that have been brought into my life at a time when I truly seemed to need them.

I’m praying for…

My Nephew, who was diagnosed in October with Crohn’s Disease after emergency surgery when they thought his appendix had ruptured. He had a set back on the 3rd of January, requiring a second surgery as they had missed some of the damaged intestine the first time around. I am praying for a speedy recovery.

A photo, video, link, or quote to share…

K-5 Learning Review

2012-01-05T04:13:00.000-08:00

I was contacted by K5 Learning and asked if we would like a 6 week trial of their online learning center in return for a review. I have visited many of the online learning centers and all have had features I have liked and features I haven’t liked so much. This was the first one though that I truly enjoyed and I know Selena did too.

K5 Learning covers Reading and Math for grades K through grade 5. I was very impressed with the simplicity of the site, it wasn’t over stimulating with things that distracted Selena from getting right to work and practicing all the skills. Though the characters and materials definitely held her attention.

Upon my free account being set up we went right to work to take their assessment tests. I enjoyed the fact that while the tests were long, the child did have the option to take a break and come back where they left off. I feel this is a must for any site that is offering assessment testing. After all life happens or for some to sit through an entire assessment test is really hard. The fact that the results of the assessment tests were pretty right on target with where I see Selena’s skills was a huge plus for me as well.

After taking the assessment tests then you can request grade changes as needed for each subject. I liked that option because not every child is on the same level in both math and reading. In the parents control area you are able to go through the assignments and assign more work in any area that you feel your child needs more help on. When they log in as a student there is a folder that holds the assignments that you have assigned.

The order in which the child works is very precise and in my opinion on target with any curriculum that you might be working with. For example in Selena’s math since she is on the lower end of the spectrum, she started with basic counting, then moved from there quickly to practice other skills needed before beginning actual simple addition. This also gave me the opportunity to see some of the areas we needed to work on, and the areas that we could skim over or skip all together. Did I feel Selena learned anything from the math area? She most certainly did.

The reading has a series of areas for phonics work to sight words as well as building the reading ability of the fluent reader. Since reading is one of Selena’s favorite things to do, of course she spent most of her time there. Though I will have to say as she learned more in the math area she began to equal her time out in both areas.

I really liked the fact that I could get progress reports on a daily basis. These reports would tell me the sections she had finished as well as the ones she was working on. This would help me in assessing the types of assignments I wanted to assign for her.

There is a 14 day free trial. After that you do have the option to continue the program for $25.00 a month or $199.00 per year. They also offer discounts for multi children families.

There is also one more option if you are a blogger you can request the opportunity to review their site with a 6 week trial. After that trial and a review is written you then qualify for their referral program, this basically means that if someone signs up and lists you as the referral you earn $25.00, now isn’t that a wonderful way of paying for your child’s membership? I sure think so.

I highly recommend K5 Learning as a supplement to any curriculum you may be using. Jump on over and give it a try for yourself, remember if you should choose to purchase a member ship mention that you were referred by me, I know Selena would be thrilled and so would I. You can find their site here.

I was offered a one time free trial of K5 Learning for my review. I was not compensated in anyway. The opinion above is my honest opinion.

On Turning 50

2012-01-03T03:06:00.000-08:00

As I reflect on what it means to me to turn the big 5 0, I am filled with so many blessings and so much joy. I had to chuckle the other night when my daughter said she was dreading turning 30. I will be honest for some reason for me turning 26 was harder then any other birthday. I don’t know why 26 seemed like such a huge thing to me. At 26 I already had a 5 year old and a 3 year old, was living on a 23 acre farm and was over all happy with my life at that time. I do believe for me though for some reason 26 marked the end of youthfulness, that sounds so hilarious now that I look back on it but that is just how I felt at the time.

Wow at 26 I had a 5 year old, now I am turning 50 and still have a 5 year old, well not still but again anyways. I never in my wildest dreams thought when I turned 50 I would still be raising children. I had my children early so that when I reached this age I would have plenty of energy to enjoy my life with my husband. Since life always doesn’t turn out the way we want it to, I must say I can’t imaging turning 50 without a child in tow.

I truly do not feel 50, if one can say your suppose to feel a certain way at any age. My circle of friends are younger then myself by 15 to 20 years. I guess it works that way due to having a 5 year old, one tends to be friends with the parents of their children’s friends. That isn’t bad though, as I love them all and enjoy their company.

I will spend my birthday at church running around with 16 little cubbies! With that in mind Papa and Selena went out yesterday and bought me a rose and a birthday card. Later in the month a friend has offered to keep Selena and Papa has made reservations for us to go spend the night at one of the near by casinos. While we are not huge gamblers, we do enjoy playing a few slots, I know we will enjoy a wonderful dinner, and not to say a night just to ourselves.

I am looking forward to what the next year holds for me, as well as to what the next several years will hold for us as a family. I do know that this will mark the year that my life will meet a lot of changes, changes in homeschooling, co-ops, extra activities, all the things I look forward to embracing to make sure that Selena gets all she needs out of her homeschool years. Now I ask daily what would I be doing if I didn’t have a 5 year old in this stage in my life? I don’t think I would enjoy life any better then I do now.

New Years Day Crab Cakes

2012-01-02T04:10:00.000-08:00

This year I decided we would finish up our crab by making crab cakes. I looked at many recipes here on the Internet and finally decided I would just have to make my own.

I used two whole Dungeness Crabs that I removed from the shell. I am guessing there was about a pound to a pound and a half of crab meat.

In a mixing bowl I softened 8 ounces cream cheese. I added 1/2 cup of very fine bread crumbs, that I had rolled out with my rolling pin. Added 1/4 cup each of green pepper, green onion, and celery (these had been sautéed then set aside to cool. I added a teaspoon of black pepper and a couple drops of Tabasco sauce. At this point you can taste the mixture and add more pepper, Tabasco sauce, or maybe even a little bit of lemon depending on your taste.Then with a spoon I added my crab meat, mixing it in all together. Then just form your patties.

I used peanut oil, since it can be used at higher heat then most oils. You can use any type of oil you want, just remember to keep it hot so that the crab cakes do not absorb the oil. Before I fried them I sprinkled them with some more finely chopped bread crumbs. (a little hint croutons work really well for the bread crumbs)

Fry them until they are golden brown on both sides. Serve them with tarter sauce, or cocktail sauce. We ate ours plain with french fries on the side.

What did the family think? Well, let’s just say Papa ate two, Selena ate a half of one and I ate a whole one.

First Post of 2012

2012-01-01T04:27:00.000-08:00

As I thought the past week about what my first post of 2012 would be about, I kept thinking back to when I gave Selena her very first Interview. She was 3 yrs. 2 mo. you can read that interview here. I know I have done others with her since this one, but I really wanted to compare her answers with her first one. Selena is now 5 years old. The answers the first time around are in black the answers to them now are in red.

What is your name: Selena Selena

When is your birthday: Birthday Present For Me? December 14th

How old are you: Three Five

Who is your Mama: You are Mama Debbie

What does your Mama do: Play Lots of housework

Who is your Daddy: Grandpa Papa um Michael

What does your Daddy do: Clicks it? Goes to work

What is your favorite color: Yellow Pink

What is your favorite song: EEII EEII O (Old McDonald Had A Farm) Pajama Rama Bounce

What do you want to do when your grow up: Be a Doctor.Be a Woman just like Mama

Where do you want to live when you grow up: Live Here.A home.

What is your favorite food: Macaroni and Cheese Spaghetti.

What is your least favorite food: Carrots Peas

What is your favorite animal: Cow Dog.

What do Mama and Daddy do after you go to bed: Go back to bed Watch TV together, sometimes sports.

What does Daddy say: Moo (this is where I started loosing her attention a bit) Goodnight

What does Mama say: Meow Goodnight

Who does our family love the most: Grandma Selena

Where do we go to church: On Sunday Presbyterian Church

Why do we go to church: Sunday School To learn about God and Jesus

What is your favorite movie: Kipper Beauty and the Beast

What is your favorite Ice Cream Flavor: Ice Cream cone Vanilla

Where do you like to eat: Table At the table

Who is your favorite person: Family Mama

Who is your best friend: Trinity Trinity

What is your favorite book? Elmo Go Dog Go

What is your favorite thing to do: The Clock Game (Chutes & Ladders) Swing on my Swings.

Selena wishing you all a Happy New Year after admiring our New Years Eve dinner. Though unlike years past Selena decided crab isn’t one of her favorite foods to eat. She did however enjoy learning as much about them as she could, asking many questions like, how do they catch crab? Then many more about how I was cleaning them.

Happy New Year!

Oh What Fun

2011-12-31T08:32:00.000-08:00

I know by now you all know that Selena got a Nintendo DSi XL for Christmas.

Today her and I went shopping for games. She got to pick them out all by herself. She picked out two games, “Hello Kitty” and “Pinkalicious.” Her favorite out of the two and I have to say the one I like the best is Pinkalicious.

At first glance I figured it would be a silly little game, which is truly what I thought Hello Kitty is. Really though it is a lot more. It actually is a complete story. There is a lot of reading, and building the story as you go along. Before even starting the game your little girl picks her character, and has to read the introduction to the story that she is going to help build. It appears that there is a new little girl who has moved into the neighborhood and she has no friends. Pinkalicious decides to fix this by throwing a special party for this new girl, to introduce her to all the other children. Of course she has to get permission from her mom. Then the excitement begins as your child begins to build the story from picking out everything from the invitations, the different food, and the decorations.
I have enjoyed what little Selena has played on this to hear her read the story she is creating as she is creating it. It will probably take her forever to finish it since she goes back and changes food selections, decorations or whatever else there might be at the moment that doesn’t seem right to her. Just the fact that she is having to use her reading skills though all the way through the game has made it worth the purchase. I let Selena wind down by playing just some of the fun games with Pinkalicious. I turned to find her blowing on her Nintendo DS, I could see a balloon on the screen, but could not quite figure out what she was doing. I finally got my hands on the game after Selena went to bed, and found that game, sure enough it asked her to blow into the microphone to blow up the balloons. The fact that she was able to read microphone truly was worth the find.
If you have a young girl with a Nintendo DS and who happens to l like Pinkalicious as much as Selena has always enjoyed the books, she would probably enjoy this game as well. I also think as a parent you will appreciate the fact that your child is building upon her reading skills as she plays this game.
I am also interested in knowing what some of your kid’s favorite games are, that is if they have a Nintendo DS.

The Homeschool Mother’s Journal #27

2011-12-30T04:34:00.000-08:00

In my life this week…

What else can I say, I have felt pretty tired after Christmas. Now that it is all packed up and put away I am so ready for the New Year. I’ve been enjoying my family, though Papa had to go back to work, his long weekends have been enjoyable. I also have enjoyed catching up with my siblings this past week. I even took time out to relax and watch a movie, a just for me movie, you know one of those romance/comedy movies.

In our homeschool this week…

We’ve been playing with math pretty much this week. Selena has her 0.1,and 2 addition facts down, so we’ve been jumping ahead and looking at 3 and 4’s. We’ve been examining easy ways to calculate these without using our math buddies, she is learning to count on either using the number line or sometimes her fingers. No, it doesn’t bother me for her to use her fingers nor toes if it calls for that, as it does show me that she is beginning to truly understand what it means to count forward and what addition really means.

My favorite thing this week was…

I have to say watching Selena play with all her new Christmas toys has been fun. I also enjoyed the way she went out and thanked our landlord for the gift she gave her. It has also been fun looking at all the different pictures she has taken and the way she has designed them with her new Nintedo DSi as well as watching her expression as she discovered how to record her own voice and play it back.

Things I’m working on…

Getting ready to turn the big 50. Yes, you read that right. It doesn’t bother me though, it is just funny to think it has come so quickly, I sure do not feel that old. I guess that is a good thing.

I’m reading…

Selena and I continue to read through Luke. I have been trying to figure out how we will choose the next book in the Bible to read though when we finish Luke. Maybe I will write the Books out on little pieces of paper and we can just draw them out of a hat, so to say, I don’t know, any ideas?

I’m cooking…

Believe it or not, I am tired of cooking from all the holiday cooking. We are just making simple things for right now. I need a break!

I’m grateful for…

All my family and friends.

I’m praying for…

The next year to bring all of you much happiness.

A photo, video, link, or quote to share…

I can’t get enough of those rosy cheeks and all the excitement as Selena unwrapped all her presents.

Preparing For 2012

2011-12-29T04:01:00.000-08:00

As I reflect back on 2011 I can’t help but see all the changes that have taken place in Selena. She has lost so much of the baby look, and is growing like a weed. I believe she jumped two sizes in clothing this year. She has matured in many ways, though at times I felt we were back sliding in behaviors then moving forward.

While she has always been independent I have watched as this independence has moved from “I can do this” to “I can make wiser choices about what I do.” She carefully chooses her clothes to wear for the day, and undresses and dresses herself. She has mastered most buttons, snaps, zippers, and is still working on tying. She bathes herself with little assistance, shampoos her own hair, including rinsing and conditioner. Sometimes I still need to help assure she gets all the soap rinsed out.

Academically, I have watched her reading and understanding explode. She is really interested in math and how equations work. She has gained more of an interest in writing, but is lacking the self confidence to proceed on. I expect that to change this next year.

One more thing I have noticed is that instead of depending so much on us to help her make right choices, she is working harder on making choices herself. She reminds herself throughout the day that she has to make better choices over time management, (that one cracks me up) behavioral issues, as well as the type of activities that she will participate in.

I don’t know what the next year will truly hold for us, but I am looking forward to holding on and going for the ride. I know there will be more changes take place with more maturity and exploration of our world.

Flute

2011-12-28T04:20:00.000-08:00

We were sitting at the dining room table this morning. I was writing some after Christmas letters as Selena played with her easel. Pretty soon she kept talking about her flute. I had to stop what I was doing to see what she was talking about.

She had taken all her chalk out of her box and lined them up by size. She told me this was her tuning flute. I asked her if she knew what it was used for and she simply answered to help you get the pitch.

Christmas Continues

2011-12-27T04:19:00.000-08:00

We woke up to a quiet morning yesterday. Selena played a bit on her Nintendo, well I should say quite a bit since I crawled back under the blankets on the couch and drifted in and out of sleep. Finally I shook myself awake and fixed breakfast.

Around noon there was a knock at our door, our landlord brought a Christmas present to Selena. At first Selena just sat there looking at the wrapped box in her lap almost as if she didn’t know what to do with it. I don’t know if she thought she had to wait until next year or if she just truly was that surprised that she had another gift. Finally I persuaded her to open it. She found a Princess Barbie. It wasn’t long before she ran and grabbed her other Barbies so she could introduce them all, so they could be friends, you know.

We spent the day playing with all of her new toys, she drew a bit on her new easel which is a chalk board on one side and a white board on the other. It is also just perfect to sit on our table for many uses in play and learning. We played with her new dominoes, chess set, and cooked a lot of different food in her kitchen. She then remembered her new pajamas and had to try them on. Boy I could have bought a size larger, oh well she will get some wear out of them this winter.

While it was a lot more quiet here today, and fun to watch Selena enjoy her new toys, I must admit this grandma is quiet worn out. I enjoyed just sitting around being half lazy.

Christmas Day

2011-12-26T04:24:00.000-08:00

Selena woke up to find this on Christmas morning. She was pretty excited and a wee bit overwhelmed. She didn’t know where to begin. I ended up giving her a little assistance by removing the cover to her brand new kitchen.

I told her about a week ago when she was making all sorts of lists of her wants for Santa, if she would sign one of the lists with “Love Selena” that Santa might just bring her something very special. She agreed and though her efforts came out “LOOE SELENA” I saved the list and fastened it to a very special gift.

I do believe this was the highlight of her Christmas presents. Your probably wondering what it is.

There you can see it a little bit better there. She got a Nintendo DS XI. She has played with it almost all day and absolutely loves it. Though we have all had a turn with it.

We had our friend here which truly made Christmas seem so much warmer, not that Selena doesn’t do that herself, it was just nice to have a little more family here. She brought Selena a couple of very nice presents. Selena was very excited over this.

She has so much food now for her kitchen. She will be able to cook just about anything. She received some very nice presents, and I am sure we will have an opportunity as time goes by to share some of the rest of our favorites.

For Christmas eve, I made Quiche. Kelly brought over the last Pirates of the Caribbean movie. As we sat and watched that the excitement really began to over take Selena. It was very hard to get her to go to bed. In fact in the middle of trying to get things set up when we thought she was asleep, who appeared but Selena. She was not going to go back to sleep for nobody until we were all done and she climbed in bed with Papa and myself and fell asleep between us. Thanks to Kelly who kept her in her bedroom while the little elves finished their job.

For Christmas dinner we had ham, scalloped potatoes, salad, corn, and dinner rolls. We had so many yummy cookies, and fudge that there was no need for desert. We had a very nice Christmas. Very exciting for Selena and for all of us.

What did Papa and I get? Papa got a full set of screw drivers and I got an electric can opener. The perfect gifts, and the perfect day!

A Special Christmas

2011-12-23T04:12:00.000-08:00

Every year I have often thought about Selena’s other grandparents. Often wondered if she would ever hear from them. At times there were just unanswered questions about the entire situation. I sent pictures after Selena was born, they had our address, knew where we lived, and even had our phone number, but it just never seemed that she ever heard from them. Over the years I refused to give up, just not knowing how to truly open the door. I knew it had to be through her Dad that this would happen.

This year out of the clear blue, he asked me if I would send his parents a Christmas card. For me it was hard not knowing how they would perceive a card that was definitely a generic family card from all of us, though it had her picture on it. I questioned her Dad, and he assured me that they would think of it as a Christmas card from grandparents to grandparents. I guess I never thought of it that way.

Anyway I sent the card, never really said anything to Selena as I didn’t want her to be confused, or disappointed yet again, or maybe it was me who didn’t want to be disappointed yet again for trying to reach out to be met with a closed door. Anyway it doesn’t matter.

The other day Selena and I walked down to the mail box and we found a Christmas card from her other grandparents. It is a very nice card addressed to all of us. They thanked us for the picture and sent Selena a special note of love. I explained to Selena who the card was from, she was still not sure and had a hard time understanding she had another set of Grandparents. That would be a hard concept for a 5 year old who had never known anyone but the grandparents she lives with, who has only seen her parents a couple of times and really doesn’t even remember those visits.

I decided to call her Dad and let him know that Selena got the card and that she was happy with it. He asked me to call his parents and let them know. I wasn’t sure about this at first, and didn’t tell him I would or that I wouldn’t. After we hung up I thought about the situation while I finished preparing my roast for the oven. I could resist no more. I picked up the phone and called. Her grandmother picked up the phone and was thrilled when I told her who I was.

We talked for a bit, then I tried to get Selena to say hi, but at first Selena shied away. We talked some more, when Selena finally came in and asked to say Merry Christmas. I handed her the phone and the two of them talked. It was sweet to hear Selena wish her a Merry Christmas, and to so softly and a bit confused say “I love you too.” You could tell that Selena just truly didn’t know if she should say that to this person she didn’t know or not.

Afterwards, Selena and I talked I again explained that this was her Grandmother, her Dad’s mom. She looked a little confused, so I explained it a little further. She suddenly got a huge smile on her face and announced, “I have other grandparents out there, I don’t know them, but would love to meet them some day.”

At this point I am thrilled that Dad finally stepped out in faith and opened the door. I am so grateful that they were willing to come through the door for Selena, and I hope that we can move forward and Selena can build some type of relationship with them.

Christmas Break

2011-12-21T04:42:00.000-08:00

We are going to take a break from blogging from now through Christmas. It’s time to focus all our energy on the Christmas preparations, and enjoy all the family time we have together through this special time of the year.

We look forward to sharing our Christmas with a very dear friend. To open our door and home to her just seems to be making Christmas that much more special. Now it wouldn’t be fair to her at all to come into our home and having my sitting here on the computer entertaining all of you.

I know we will have a very special Christmas edition sharing all the joy with you soon after Christmas.

Merry Christmas!

Blogging Friends

2011-12-20T04:08:00.000-08:00

After a long day in Olympia, Selena and I came home to find a package on our door step. Natalie and her daughter, Anna from Mouse Grows Mouse Learns, was very gracious and sent Selena some Christmas presents.

Selena was so excited to find a brand new shirt, which as you can see in the picture fit her so nicely. She was thrilled with the Change Color Markers as well as the Playmobile. She had to try on the new shirt, try the markers, then make her way to the playmobile, which is a Polar Explorer. She has had him wearing his snow shoes, his skis, pulling his sled, using his flashlight, binoculars, drinking from his thermos, sleeping in his sleeping bag, and just about everything one can think of.

She truly enjoyed discovering this package especially since she was so sad over getting two shots at the doctor. We sure look forward to someday meeting Natalie and Anna in person.

Making Memories

2011-12-19T04:55:00.000-08:00

I think for a child turning 5 is one of the most memorable times there is. They come into turning 5 with so much realization of the world around them. School, rather it is homeschool or public school is so much more of a reality. Selena was very anxious to turn 5 and still refuses to let us forget that she is now 5 years old.

In an attempt to savor this time just a little bit more with her, I left the birthday decorations up until she finally said we could take them down. We then made a little something that she can save to remember her special day with.

Using one of her pink paper plates from her birthday party and the confetti that we had spread out on the table along with some white glue, we made her own number 5.

She first had to pick through the confetti and separate all the balloons from the cakes and Happy Birthdays. After she got three different piles we got started. Using the smaller balloon confetti she made a 5 with the white glue, then poured the confetti over it. She then decided to use one Happy Birthday confetti along the bottom and some of the cake confetti around the entire plate. She hasn’t decided yet where she is going to hang this, or if we will just save it. I do know she had a lot of fun making it and is very proud of her birthday memory.

Reading The Bible with Selena

2011-12-18T04:35:00.000-08:00

We’ve started a new bedtime routine with Selena. We are having so much fun reading through the book of Luke together. I only read small portions to her. I am using her Zonderkidz NIV Bible.

While this is not the exact one we have it is basically the same just a little different picture on the front. I really like this Bible for the fact that Selena is able to follow along so easily. Also it is broke up with each section titled as to the subject.

Click on the picture to get a better view.

It has been fun to read short little sections with her. We begin by a quick recap of what we read the night before. Selena never ceases to amaze me with how much clarity that she can recall the section we read the night before, down to such detail. I always push her understanding with a few questions, most of the time she can answer my questions, if not then we go back and briefly reread the section before moving on.

We have made it up to where Jesus was baptized, and yes, Selena announced that He was baptized by John the Baptist, (remember she is really hooked on John the Baptist). Tonight we read about how Jesus was tempted by Satan for 40 days in the desert. Suddenly Selena recalled the fall of man, so we compared what happened to Adam and Eve to Jesus. She quickly caught on that man and woman could not stop themselves from the Serpent’s temptation, but Jesus could turn away from Satan, no matter what he tempted Him with.

I love the way she is able to identify any and all the verses she has learned for AWANA, through our reading. Sometimes her understanding just surpasses me. It might take us a long time but my plan is to read the entire Bible with Selena.

New Crafty Fun

2011-12-17T04:37:00.000-08:00

I am always keeping my eyes peeled for inexpensive crafting supplies. A while back I noticed a friend of mine who has her own Etsy shop had these chipboard shapes in her shop. She had 5 bags of them for $2.00 each. I couldn’t resist anymore, so I purchased them. I can truly imagine so many opportunities with all these pieces.

She enclosed a few extra pieces, among which was some chipboard shaped houses. What perfect timing with Christmas right around the corner, I knew Selena and I would be making our own Gingerbread houses for the Christmas tree.

Using the two houses pictured above, glitter glue and buttons we went to work. Selena picked the smaller house to work on since it had more space for gluing. We went right to work, and had so much fun, laughing and giggling while we created our little ornaments.

I think you can guess Selena’s house! Once they are dried I will find some ribbon and we will find the right places to add them to our tree.

OK, let me tell you a little bit about this Etsy shop where I found these. Yourwishcake’s little shop is the cutest shop. Should you be looking for notecards, earrings, necklaces, wallets, and now new to her shop is baby headbands, then this is a place you definitely want to check out. Each item is made, packaged, and shipped with love. She is on break right now through the rest of the year, to spend a wonderful Christmas with her husband and first baby girl. She has the most adorable family, and I am honored to have watched her grow up, become a fine young lady who has embraced life, not been afraid to take chances, marry, and now become a mom. Oh, and should I add she was homeschooled!

The Homeschool Mother’s Journal #26

2011-12-16T04:11:00.000-08:00

In my life this week…

I started out this week with a sinus infection. Then to top that off I had an allergic reaction to the antibiotic that the Dr. gave me. With a new antibiotic now I believe I am on the mend.

Reflecting back, was something that heavy on my heart this week, as we prepared to celebrate Selena’s birthday. Where oh where did the last 5 years go? It was a lot of fun decorating and getting ready for her small birthday party with her help this year.

Now I feel I can totally fix my focus on Christmas.

In our homeschool this week…

Between not feeling well, and birthday planning we didn’t do any schooling.

Helpful homeschooling tips or advice to share…

Sometimes we just need to keep it simple. It is so easy to get caught up in so much planning, and logging progress, we loose the true reason we homeschool. Stop take a breath, and simplify.

Places we’re going and people we’re seeing…

We are going to have a good friend over to spend Christmas with us. I am looking forward to having her join our family.

My favorite thing this week was…

When I asked Selena if she felt any different now that she is 5. The way she felt her head, body, arms and legs then announced, “No I do not feel any different then I did when I was 4,” was probably the best moment. Otherwise I would have to say just celebrating her 5th birthday was the BEST.

I’m grateful for…

I truly am grateful for the opportunity to work on Molly’s Home Team. I look forward to bringing you reviews of small appliances and household products.

A photo, video, link, or quote to share…

Oh For Birthday Parties

2011-12-15T04:41:00.000-08:00

Selena and I got busy yesterday, she wanted lots of birthday decorations. I unfortunately had an allergic reaction to a medication and was not able to go out and get everything I wanted to get. Selena and I decided we could be creative and decorate a lot without going to the store.

Of course we had a Happy Birthday Banner, now that is a must especially for a 5 year old, don’t you know. Well then she wanted some streamers.

I had pastel ribbon, so we curled every last bit of the ribbon and gently attached it to the light over the dining room table. Selena just had to have the green bow attached as well.

Now come on what would a birthday be without a balloon? When Papa picked up the cake of course he picked up a Birthday balloon. I quickly covered the table with a pink table cloth and spread out some birthday confetti. At this point Selena was beside herself waiting for all her friends to arrive.

We had one very happy birthday girl. After everyone left, and we were tucking her into bed, I asked her “How does it feel to be 5?” She answered, “It feels great!” I then asked, “Do you feel any different?” Selena quickly felt her head, body, arms and legs and informed me, “NO I feel just like I did when I was 4.” I assured her that throughout this year of being 5 she would have many changes in her life.

Happy Birthday Selena

2011-12-14T04:38:00.000-08:00

It’s been one more very fun packed year with you. You’ve grown so much this year, changing so much. I still remember when the picture above was taken, sometimes I wish we could just go back in time and I could pick my cuddly little girl up and just hug her, just one more time.

I love how each year of your life brought on a new adventure, but one thing that never changed was your love for music, song, and dance. You definitely take after your grandma’s side of the family with all these fine qualities. I could spend hours singing and dancing or watching you dance around and listen to all the sweet songs you know or make up.

You have always been so curious, sometimes your curiosity does get you into a bit of trouble, but most of the time your curiosity leads to so much fun in learning and exploring. You have always had such a great desire to learn everything about everything in your world and I have had fun trying to teach you about everything.

Your fun and ongoing imagination has never ceased to entertain us. Sometimes we roll in laughter over your antics, while at times we wonder where you get all that energy from. It doesn’t matter I would not want to change anything or do anything to take this part of you away. Your imagination will take you far, especially as we watch as your imagination takes on the form of everything you are learning around you.

Your love for the world around you gives to such huge discoveries while outside. You have a passion for nature, and the outdoors. You are never too busy learning to just stop and take in all that you see in the world around you. From a weed, a snake, to the waves in the ocean, your intensity about the world around you just calms your spirit.

While change has been difficult for you it didn’t take long before you fell in love with your new home. I have had to laugh when you have gotten in trouble for little things and you have begged to go back to our little house, like that would make things different. You’ve come a long ways in excepting the fact that this is your new home and your new world, and I know that you will enjoy many years growing and learning here.

On this day you turn 5, that’s right 5 years old. I don’t know where the past 5 years went, but I do know I have many fond memories of each and every one of them. I look forward to what this next year holds in store for us. You are changing before my very eyes, getting taller, brighter, but one thing that never changes is your passion for life. I pray that you never lose that passion for life, as it truly will take you along way.

Love you very much Selena and wishing you the happiest birthday ever.

Love,

Grandma & Grandpa!

Pineapple Cookies

2011-12-13T04:38:00.000-08:00

Another favorite Christmas cookie is my mom’s pineapple cookies. These are soft, not too sweet with a great flavor of pineapple. We always found these on our cookie plates as well. Some of the others treats on our Christmas plates from mom would be fudge, peanut butter fudge, peanut butter cookies, no bake oatmeal cookies, oatmeal raisin cookies, and snowballs. I have a batch of fudge setting up now and outside of maybe a batch of banana cookies and maybe some peppermint swirl cookies, I will be pretty well finished with my baking. Yes, I am going to give you the recipe for these delicious cookies below.

Pineapple Cookies

1/2 cup shortening
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
1 cup crushed pineapple (1 small can undrained)
1 tsp vanilla
2 1/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp soda
1/2 tsp salt

Cream sugar and shortening. Add egg and beat well. Add pineapple and vanilla mix. Add flour, baking powder, soda and salt. Drop by teaspoon on cookie sheet bake at 375 degrees for 10 minutes.

Enjoy!

Luella’s Perfect Chocolate Cookies

2011-12-12T07:27:00.000-08:00

I finally started my Christmas baking. Now if you like soft chocolate chip cookies, that will not harden when they cool or even if they happen to last a day or two in the cookie jar, then you will love my mom’s perfect recipe. She use to make each of us kids, that’s right 5 of us at least three to five dozen of these a piece at Christmas time, along with many other goodies. She would start baking very early and bag them up and freeze them until she was ready to make up our Christmas plates, these cookies were just as soft upon Christmas Eve as they were the day she took them out of the oven.

2 1/4 cup flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 cup butter softened
1/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 small box instant vanilla pudding
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs
12 0z chocolate chip
1 cup chopped nuts (optional)

Combine first three ingredients in a small bowl. Beat butter sugars, pudding and vanilla in a mixing bowl, add one egg at a time, mixing until well blended. Slowly add flour, baking soda and salt, mix until well blended. Stir in chocolate chips and nuts.
Bake in a 375 degrees oven for 8 1/2 minutes.
Enjoy!

Christmas Crafting

2011-12-11T04:10:00.000-08:00

Selena has been enjoying many Christmas crafts this year. I still am wanting to do some more gingerbread men and snowflakes with her, I know we will fit them in before Christmas is over.

Papa has been getting some Christmas craft kits from a co-worker. the first kit I thought would be so cute, it was a snowman riding on a sled. Since it is made out of foam, Papa never thought not to wad it up and throw it in the bottom of his lunch box, so all we ended up with was a snowman.

My only dislike with this project outside of not being able to get the sled put together, (why would they think a child would be patient enough to wait for glue to dry while having to hold the runners on the sled) was the fact I couldn’t get any decent pictures since all the details are either very small or very light colored.

Selena had a lot of fun helping me put this little elf together. Again it was just a foam project, but unlike the snowman, it didn’t call for glue, all the foam pieces had sticky on the back of them. Selena was easily able to construct this one with a little help with the legs and arms. I would love to find more kits like this one.

It’s For The Birds

2011-12-10T04:30:00.000-08:00

Suddenly Selena and I looked out to find our lower field almost black with birds.

A car drove by and they proceeded along the fence line.

Cautiously they returned back to their feasting in the field again.

Then suddenly something startled them and off they went in a cloud of flapping wings.

Now let me post this so Selena can go back to the picture on my computer and try to count them all. All I have to say is good luck Selena!

The Homeschool Mother’s Journal #25

2011-12-09T04:01:00.000-08:00

In my life this week…

This week seemed like it just went by way too fast. I have been catching up with friends and family. I always enjoy this time of year, being busy getting Christmas cards and packages in the mail, and receiving Christmas cards. This is what I consider to be my quiet week, the week before everything begins to get super busy. Selena’s birthday kicks it all off next week, then it is time to really focus on making sure everything is ready for Christmas.

I’ve had fun with Selena this week, rather it be through play or learning it’s been nice to have an excuse to just stay home as much as possible. We have yet to really have the rains we normally see, instead it has been very cold, freezing at night. In fact Tuesday evening it was even cold enough to try to snow, I think if we would have had just a little bit more moisture we probably would have received snow.

This is also a week that I tend to reflect on my family. This year I realized that this week marks the fact that my Dad passed away 29 years ago. It doesn’t seem like it has been that long ago, but it has. All the fond memories of my Dad have been embraced with joy in my heart.

In our homeschool this week…

Selena has decided that now she wants to get back to a routine of homeschooling again. She begged to get back to geography and her State work. We did a lot of math and are continuing to read our way through the book of Luke in the Bible. She has been working hard in her AWANA handbooks and actually said 6 new verses this week. I am proud of that accomplishment since this has been all independent work on her part, and she is now memorizing them without the assistance of her Cubbie CD’s.

Places we’re going and people we’re seeing…

With Selena’s birthday coming up we will be entertaining friends. I always look forward to having our friends get together especially this time year.

I also kick off the season with a Women’s Christmas Party at the church. I am looking forward to going, now I just need to get out and find my ornament for the gift exchange and a gift to be given to the Women’s Shelter in our area.

My favorite thing this week was…

Listening as Selena retells the parts of the Bible that we are reading.

I’m cooking…

We will be kicking off our season baking this year with Chocolate Chip cookies and Pineapple cookies. We may make fudge, homemade bread, oh I just don’t know at this point what all we will make.

I’m grateful for…

Friends and family.

I’m praying for…

Those less fortunate then ourselves.

A photo, video, link, or quote to share…

Thankful Thursday

2011-12-08T04:14:00.000-08:00

Thankful Thursday is hosted by Brenda at Garden of Learning. There is also a Thankful Thursday at Three Thinking Mothers. As I pondered over this meme my heart was very touched by all the friends that I have made here. So many times when you move to a new area you can almost feel like an outsider, an alien, and it can become very difficult to discover where you truly fit in. At times it can seem terribly lonely.

This week though I have been very blessed to see just how many friends I have made here in the last 8 years. I have never needed to be the popular one, but I as anybody do have that basic need of wanting others in my life, friendships. Not just for what they can fill my life with but for what I can bring into their lives. I prayed with a friend who is healing from surgery, prayed for a friend facing illness, listed to a mom feeling overwhelmed in her homeschool, and reached out to a friend who has removed herself from a rough relationship, only to uncover the realization of being alone for the holidays.

These friends, I know would do the same things for me. I am thankful to have these fine ladies in my life, a husband who understands my innermost need to have friends in my life, and a home that I can welcome each and everyone of these women into.

Our Christmas may include one extra family member, which I wouldn’t have it any other way. I am truly thankful for the friends that God has brought into my life, to what each one brings to my table, for all of them make my life more complete. I pray that I am able to in someway make them feel the very same way, because to me that is what true friendship is all about.

Math Fun and Problem Solving

2011-12-07T03:10:00.000-08:00

Selena and I decided to play a game yesterday. We started out with just the two of us and some buttons. I gave her an even number of buttons and she divided them up between the two of us. I then gave her an odd number of buttons and then when we had one button left she had to figure out how we could solve this problem. Her idea was to add another person. She grabbed a little doll to represent Papa.

It wasn’t very long before she realized that this wasn’t working out very well either. I again asked her how we might solve this problem. Her idea was to add another person. She ran off to her bedroom and came out with yet another little person to add to our game.

Let’s just say she was a wee bit surprised when this happened.

She suddenly realized if she added one more person everyone would have the same number of buttons.

I had so much fun just watching her experiment, and try new ideas to make this work out. The only rule I had was she could not add more buttons or take any away from her pile. She had to figure out how she could divide them evenly among the people.

Ready, Set, Go

2011-12-06T10:07:00.001-08:00

It looks like Selena is ready to get back to her studies. It was nice to take a break from having to plan activities, but it is even nice to have her asking for school work to do. This morning she suddenly wanted to do her math. For some odd reason we couldn’t find our normal Sam and Jan, which is strange as they were sitting on the same counter this entire time and I remember them there when we started decorating for Christmas. Now they are gone. That didn’t stop us though we just found new ones to take their place. Selena went right to work reviewing the math facts that we had worked on before she suddenly decided she wanted to take a break form school.

I think it is a little ironic that she has such a desire to get back to school, when most will be taking time off for Christmas. Oh well, who am I to deny her educational wants.

Our Christmas Corners

2011-12-05T07:34:00.000-08:00

First let me show you the picture of our tree top. As I mentioned this tree top is old, at least 20 years old. Believe it or not I forgot I even had her. I had used my mom’s angel from the time she lived with us, packed this one away and didn’t find her until we moved into this house. My mom wanted Selena’s mom to have her angel tree top, so I did send it to her. This one then came out this year. Selena is in love with this angel, though she did tell me today she wanted to make a star to go on top of the tree, an idea she got from a Christmas movie she watched.

I loved Leah’s comment yesterday on my post. Yes, I am surprised she still works as well. Every light still lit up, the ones under her dress as well as the one she holds in her hand. Her wings still move just as elegantly as they did when we first bought her.

This was the first Christmas corner that Selena and I decorated. We strung lights in the large dining room window, and using a table that was in Selena’s room we brought out our snowmen, Santa Clause, two pretty candles that were my mom’s, and an old fashioned caroler that was made for Selena’s mom 20 years ago by one of her uncles. They all face looking out the window, and though at night it is hard to make them out from the street, during the day they are beautiful to see. If I do this again next year I will do it differently so that even at night they can be seen from the road.

We used the top of my China hutch to put all of our small Santa collection. Now if only Selena would leave the antique piggy bank alone I would be really happy. I suppose due to the fact that Santa is driving a old time car, truly intrigues her. We are working on the fact that the car needs to stay parked.

Of course my fireplace mantle became home for all our stuffed Christmas pretties. Though many times I can’t find the Christmas cow, since Selena is in love with him.

My Nativity set found it’s place on top of the piano. Along with a small string of lights that just fit along the bottom of the mirror. The center light in this string is white which shines directly over the top of the nativity set.

With this large window in the kitchen I decided to use a string of white lights with the red garland. Selena and I decorated the snowflakes and the gingerbread men with glitter glue. I wish I would have taken pictures of them before we hung them up. I am sure we will be making more of these, since I picked them up at Target for a dollar a package, each package contained 10 of each. Selena truly had a lot of fun decorating the gingerbread men. She didn’t know I had done this until she woke up yesterday morning. She was one very excited girl to discover this window all decorated.
There you go, a tour of all our Christmas corners. The only left is for me to go get some hangers to hang our stockings on the fireplace mantle with.
Christmas has officially arrived in our home! Music and all!

Our Christmas Tree

2011-12-04T04:07:00.000-08:00

We got up yesterday morning and decided to head out to get our tree. All bundled up we got to the Christmas Tree Farm. As usual the first one I found was perfect, but you know we had to walk around and look at many more, only to turn around and come back to the first one we found. Why did I forget my camera this year?

Once we got it home and in the house Selena had a blast helping me decorate it.

She was a lot more selective this year as to where she hung the decorations. It really was fun having her help this year. I look forward to having her help me every year.

Then came the fun part was presenting Selena with her new ornament. I tried to get various pictures of it, and finally decided just laying it on the table worked the best.

It looks like one large teardrop pearl for the body with silver wings to make it an angel. Then it has another silver circle below that says “You’re an Angel” with a crystal hanging off that. Let’s just say Selena loved it.

Another new, yet very old ornament to find its place on my tree this year is the tree topper. That angel was purchased when my children were very young. When plugged in she not only lights up but the wings move back and forth, the arm holding a single white light moves in and out from her body. Tomorrow I will try to get some pictures of her to share, she truly is absolutely beautiful even after all these years.

North Dakota

2011-12-03T04:18:00.000-08:00

After such a long break from her State work, Selena suddenly woke up yesterday morning and informed me she wanted to do some State work. I asked her which State she wanted to work on. She informed me, “North Dakota.” She pointed to it with ease on the map, not my nice wall State map which is rolled up in a closet, but on a blank map in her book.

I wasn’t quite prepared but we jumped right into the activity.

As you can see Selena is not much interested in coloring any more and would have been happier if I would have colored for her. She did choose color the State Orange due to the orange on the flag. After we got all our facts from the computer, she quickly went to work cutting them out and pasting them on her page for her scrap book.

It was fun to do another State with Selena today.

The Homeschool Mother’s Journal # 24

2011-12-02T04:19:00.000-08:00

In my life this week…

With Thanksgiving behind us I have been able to truly place my focus on Selena’s birthday as well as Christmas. Selena helped me to decorate one of our large picture windows with lights and Christmas decorations. We also pulled out the Nativity set and put it up with lights on top of the piano.

I even got out and finished the last of the Christmas shopping, and am just waiting on one more package to come in. Our Christmas cards are done and will go out in the mail tomorrow.

I have so been enjoying reading the book of Luke to Selena, We read just a little bit nightly, after we recap what we read the night before. Selena has been great at recalling so many details. At the rate we are going we might be at the Christmas story by Christmas Eve…just kidding there, we are going a bit faster then that.

In our homeschool this week…

I feel we are slowly getting back into the swing of a little more schooling. We did so much there for a while with schooling in the kitchen, and so much fun learning, that I didn’t sweat anything else. I probably won’t push too much with Christmas coming up, and right now I feel that Selena might just take this year, play, learn, and savor the age of 5 until next Fall. That is never to say that Learning still will not be a major joy for Selena.

My favorite thing this week was…

When Selena asked me to read to her more about the guy. I had to think of who she was talking about, then it dawned on me she was talking about John the Baptist. I also enjoyed answering so many of her questions about baptism.

I’m reading…

The Bible and Stepping Heavenward.

I’m praying for…

My dear friend who ended up back in the hospital with fluid on her lungs after having triple bypass surgery.

A photo, video, link, or quote to share…

You will have to click on the picture to see it better. I have loved watching this puddle disappear for all the birds bathing in it every morning.

Baptism/Sin Discussion

2011-12-01T04:28:00.000-08:00

Selena has been asking a lot of questions about baptism lately. She asks all the time when she can be baptized. While part of me feels she is getting very close to this time, I also know that there is still a lot of preparation on her part to do. She doesn’t quite understand this and reminds me daily that “We are all sinners” Romans 3:23 and “While we were sinners Christ died for us” Romans 5:8.

I asked her what she thinks happens during baptism. She just knows she would be dunked under water. To dig a little deeper we read the story about John the Baptist. We discussed what it meant for him to pave the way for Christ, and then focused on the Baptism of Jesus.

We then took our lesson into the kitchen. I took out three eggs, one was to represent Selena, one represented me, and the third was a mystery. I asked Selena to imagine that the egg represented her. The shell was her body, the skin, or flesh. That was pretty easy for her to understand.

Now is where we stretched our imagination, and looked at the egg whites as being all the goodness we have in us, and the yellow as being our sin. I asked Selena what she knew about sin, and she listed off several ways that she can sin. I also broke the yoke open and mixed it around a bit with the good stuff to show her how sin can soon take over if we don’t do something about it. I asked Selena what we can do about our sin. She quickly answered with ask God for forgiveness. I then asked her what God does at that point, besides forgives us. She was a little confused, so I proceeded to separate the egg.

Selena quickly noticed that God works on us very hard, and separates the sin from the good. I then asked her what she thinks God does with the good. She remembered one thing she had heard, “God makes us white as snow.” I told her that too takes a lot of work. God has to work on our good part, and we have to let him work on us. I then did something that totally surprised Selena, I took the egg mixture where I demonstrated how sin can begin to take over, and removed some of the good part from there leaving the sin left in the bowl. Selena thought that was neat, that God can still find good through the bad and still work on us.

We put the egg white or good part in the mixer and turned it on. We talked about how God works on us all the time. Selena watched wit much anticipation.

She quickly announced that all of God’s work makes us white as snow. This brought us around to what happens after God finally makes us white as snow. To demonstrate that once God starts his work in us, nothing can steal our salvation from us. I took the fluffy egg whites and poured water in them.

Selena quickly announced that nothing but nothing can change the work that God does in us. She was very excited to know that God is truly working in her, and that one day she will be white as snow, just as he promises.

Selena

2011-11-30T04:07:00.000-08:00

Ok now something doesn’t look quite right with my Christmas stuffies. Can you see which one doesn’t quite belong?

Are you able to see the one that doesn’t belong? Let me give you a hint, the one that doesn’t belong isn’t wearing anything that would represent Christmas. You might have seen him many times before and by now probably know his name to be Hoppy.

Why is he sitting with the rest of my Christmas stuffies? Well, you see Selena thought she would fool me, that I wouldn’t notice him there, or that I wouldn’t notice the one that is missing. She swapped hoppy for this one.

Poor Hoppy his best friend just traded him for someone new. Now what will he do?

A Child’s Perspective

2011-11-29T04:11:00.000-08:00

After making the active choice that I truly wanted to Seek God this year through the Advent, I asked Selena what it meant to Seek God.

Selena’s first response was that to Seek God means to try to find Him. I expanded upon this and asked how can we find Him? Again her answer rang like music in my ear, “We listen to Him.” I asked her, does God talk to you? She responded, “Yes, he says a lot of good things to me.” I then asked, “Is this like prayer?” She looked at me and with such a sweet smile upon her face answered, “Grandma it is the best prayer there is.”

I asked Selena to give me one more example if she could about how we can seek God. She ran and grabbed her Bible and explained to me, “This is the Bible, it is God’s word. He gave it to us so we could know Him.” All I could think was wow that is deep for a 4 year old. Yet, she is so right on in her thinking. She then faded off to her little play world singing “Silent Night.”

Her two main points were to 1. Talk to God and 2. To read God’s Word.

We do read together as a family and we pray as a family. We encourage reading and praying throughout the day. During this Lent season I feel very encouraged to start a few new traditions.

Selena and I made a prayer jar. This is a jar that we can jot down the things we want to pray for. It can be prayer requests or praises, what ever is laid upon our heart. We don’t have to read them as a family, but we can certainly pray for all the prayers as a family that is placed in the jar every morning and every night.

Then one more point that Selena made 3. We can listen for God to talk to us. We will wait for Him to answer our prayers.

Seeking Him Advent 2011

2011-11-28T04:44:00.000-08:00

When I received the invite to join in on this special Bible study, hosted by A House Upon The Rock and Day By Day In Our World, I couldn’t resist. I quickly downloaded the study guide and then found the book Stepping Heavenward this morning on Amazon. It truly sounded like something that I would enjoy. I read this book years ago, and as I revisited it today the familiarity of the words brought back the same feelings and drew the same pictures that I remember having when I read it before.

During this season we get so caught up with all the shopping, decorating, baking, and the lists for gifts, Christmas cards, that we can sometimes forget the real reason for the season. I have been looking for away to really change things up a bit in our home through the Advent season, and make it more meaningful for my family, but I realized in order to do this, I have to get in tuned myself to the entire Season of Advent. I had to prepare my heart, and my mind in order to bring the Advent to life in my home.

I have two choices, I can get lost in the Worldly view of Christmas or I can seek after the true meaning of Christmas. I can get caught up in the competition of buying the best presents, sending out the perfect Christmas cards, having the best Christmas decorations. Though I choose to seek Him first, to open my heart and listen to the call He has on my life, to find total contentment in who He made me to be.

I am seeking Christ.

Yet Another Storm

2011-11-27T04:47:00.000-08:00

With another storm headed our way, we spent the day making sure everything was still anchored down from the last two wind storms. The buckets in the barn used to catch the water from where the roof is leaking were totally full. We are still seeing the damage from the last two storms that have yet to be cleaned up. One entire large sign ripped from it’s stand in the ground. An awning covering a travel trailer just about ripped out of the ground. Someone’s trampoline that is laying almost as flat as a pancake in their front yard.

We were lucky and didn’t sustain any damage except a tipped over bucket and Selena’s basketball hoop that I had laid down on its side got whipped around a bit. It is now resting on our porch and the swing set has been stripped of the swings.

Now that we are on a well for our water, I have stocked up on the bottled water, and have spare water on hand for other uses. Papa has gone out and checked all the gutters and drain spouts to assure they are still in place, free of leaves and clutter, and ready for the next round. We’ve cleaned up as many of the wet leaves that blew in from neighboring trees.

Now we sit in wait to see what this next storm will have in store for us. Selena is learning that there is so much more work to be done here then in our little house. She has stayed in and stayed warm, helped fold the laundry, bring me empty jugs to be filled with water, and watched Papa from the window.

Pal enjoyed a romp with Emma the horse. He doesn’t bother her much but for one reason or another today decided she looked like a playmate. Little does he know this horse is way too big for him. Emma usually just ignores him, but today she was a little frisky and got to jumping and kicking as Pal barked and ran around.

All is quiet now as I type this, the calm before the storm. I have used some of this time to get my Christmas cards ready to go in the mail. Watched to see what our High School Football team would do in the State playoffs, (they lost by one point) and plan a craft for AWANA on Tuesday night.

With all this done now it is just time to cuddle up with a hot cup of hot chocolate and stay warm and dry. I am ready to ride out another wet and windy storm.

Black Friday Stories

2011-11-26T04:10:00.000-08:00

I no longer leave the comforts of my home to run out on Black Friday, if I can’t get it online or before Thanksgiving I probably will not be getting it. I thought I would share some of the funny moments of years past participating in Black Friday.

I remember the year Care Bears were the big toy. Every little girl and even adult alike wanted a Care Bear. My daughter was no different. As ran in a store with my Father-in- Law in hopes to snag one for her we realized that the isle where they had been were empty but for one lonely one sitting there. Two women were literally arguing and battling it out as to who would get this one last Care Bear. My Father-in-Law walked past them, giving them a funny look, grabbed the Care Bear and we left the isle. All the while the two women were still screaming at each other. I often wonder how long they stood there fighting, screaming, yelling and shouting before they realized the last Care Bear was gone.

My sister use to ravish through the ads like a mad woman planning out everything she wanted. She would then give all of us one item to go after. It was our job to get out early stand in the lines, no matter the weather and attempt to get the item for her. I insisted I was not going to go do this for her or for anyone else. While they all disbursed on their way to get the item my sister just couldn’t live without. I rested throughout the day. The following day I looked at the one item left on the table that my sister wanted so bad, a blender. My sister and her children came home with only a few things, complaining that they had not made it to the stores early enough to get what they wanted.I gave it a week, and went out after all the mad mobs had left, bought the blender took it home, wrapped it up and gave it to her for Christmas.

This year I noticed that I had made a list of items I wanted for Christmas the first of the month, I even listed the prices. Last weekend my husband wanted me to show him once again the specific items I wanted that was on my list….guess what the prices had been raised. Now on Black Friday as I look through the adds and online, I discover the items I wanted are back down to the original price that I first found them at. Now that is no savings to me. That is not to say that one can’t find some excellent deals right now.

If I can’t stay to home and relax, do a little online shopping, stay warm and out of the crowds and traffic, then Black Friday will just have to pass me by.

The Homeschool Mother’s Journal # 23

2011-11-25T04:00:00.000-08:00

In my life this week…

The focus this week was on Thanksgiving. Between storms we finished shopping for our dinner, baked cookies and pies, and counted our blessings. I have to admit I was quite tired this week, considering we had two nights in a row of horrible wind storms. The second night we were having wind gusts of 70 mph, lost our power a couple of times through the night, and listened to the wind and rain pound the windows on the house.

By Thursday though I had mustered my energy to prepare a great meal for the family, Turkey and all the trimmings. As soon as our tummies were full and the mess cleaned up I was online hitting all the early Black Friday online goodies. Purchased a few things including a beautiful set of serving dishes that I found for $4.00. Yes, I couldn’t resist in buying something for me. I thought we were done shopping for Selena, but heck I am not going to pass up a good sale.

Now I am ready to start decorating the home for Christmas.

In our homeschool this week…

We took the week off, not that there wasn’t still learning going on. Selena continued to work on her AWANA verses and actually had 4 new verses that she had memorized. We spent most of the week reflecting on everything we have to be thankful for and thinking of those less fortunate then ourselves and what we might do to give them some joy. Selena chose to donate to the food bank. I let her go through our pantry and pick out some food that she wanted to donate. She chose two boxes of cereal, and some canned goods.

I am inspired by…

Selena and all the things she is truly Thankful for. Sometimes the way her mind works just takes me by surprise. I truly loved it when she announced that she is Thankful for everyone, as everyone is so special in their own way.

My favorite thing this week was…

Enjoying a great Thanksgiving dinner with Papa and Selena.

I’m reading…

I’ve actually been going through some of my old journals and reading things that I have wrote through the years.

I’m cooking…

Of course I cooked the entire Thanksgiving dinner. At this point I am not sure that I will need to cook much, we have enough left overs to last us a week. Of course we won’t eat all of them so I will be doing some freezing.

I’m grateful for…

My Family! Do I need to say more? This time of year always brings around fond memories and is a time when more memories are made.

I’m praying for…

A dear friend who continues to heal from her surgery.

A photo, video, link, or quote to share…

One frozen morning.

The sky between storms.

Happy Thanksgiving

2011-11-22T20:52:00.001-08:00

This week has been something else here weather wise. We woke up one morning to find this.

Then we went to rain and winds. One night the winds were gusting to 50 mph. We are now under flood warning and flood watch and as I type this the winds are gusting yet again at at least 30 mph.

I will take the rest of the week off with Thanksgiving here and will return again soon blogging about all our great adventures.

My prayer is that everyone has a safe Happy Thanksgiving! I also pray that those who are traveling have very SAFE travels both to their destinations and again back home. My prayers also extend to those who are less fortunate, those who may not have enough money for Thanksgiving dinners, or even housing in all this wet, cold, windy weather, or whatever weather you may be experiencing in your area, that they find warm safe shelter.

I am very thankful for all the wonderful people who take the time to donate to the food banks, to the volunteers and churches who take the time to prepare Thanksgiving dinners, and meals year around for those in need. I also am Thankful to all the volunteers who run and operate all the different shelters for these families who so dearly need shelter this time of year. Sometimes it is easy to be judgmental and think that these people have created their own situation, chose to be homeless, when the reality may just be that with the economy, lack of jobs, broken homes, and many other unseen factors have placed them in these conditions. If you haven’t thought about it donate to your local food bank, a little can go along ways in helping those in need.

Selena’s Dentist Appointment

2011-11-22T03:00:00.000-08:00

Yesterday Selena had her 6 month dental check-up. I was so proud of her she actually allowed them to clean and polish, well, at least the top teeth. That is a huge step for her. She is holding her report card from the Dentist in the picture above. She has no cavities and outside of a couple of areas she needs to work a little harder on when brushing her hygiene care was great. To all of our surprise she has already cut her 6 year old molars. That explains all the extra hand in mouth and everything else she gets her hands on. I never expected she was cutting molars yet. I am very proud of the job she has done taking care of her teeth, as well as how brave she was at the Dentist.

I am so thankful for all the men and women who choose to specialize in the care of children’s medicine and dental. It is so nice to know that when I take Selena to the Doctor or to the Dentist she is going to be treated with a level of respect that she deserves as a child.

Saturday and Good Friends

2011-11-21T04:12:00.000-08:00

I had plans to do a lot around here at home while I had Papa at home to help on Saturday. Friday night though my dear friend Jean, called and asked me to go to the Mall in Olympia with her. She just had bypass surgery the first of October and this is the first time she has been out. Her daughter Tammy decided to join us. It was such a blessing not only to get a break away myself and be in such great company, but also to see Jean go to town and to actually walk almost the entire length of the Mall after all she has been through. She truly is an inspiration considering in the last two years she has gone through a stroke, knee surgery, a heart attack, eye surgery, and now this triple bypass surgery. It seems like nothing but nothing keeps her down even at the tender age of 80 years young.

When I got home Papa was already fixing Selena her dinner. I am so thankful that he understands my need to get out and his willingness to jump right in and take my place while I am not here. I don’t ask to get away very often, so it is always so special when I do, that he never complains or asks me not to go.

After Selena ate her dinner suddenly I heard the piano. Now we have tried to deter her from playing on the piano, since this one belongs to our landlord. I couldn’t resist though letting her just play for a while, since she wasn’t pounding on the keys.

I just love her posture while sitting at the piano, the way she tries so hard to make her fingers work on the keys, and the look of concentration on her face while she tries to read the music. I have a feeling that come next year we will look for a piano teacher and get her some lessons.

You might be wondering what happened to our piano from our other house, simply put the estimate we were given to have it worked on was way more then we felt the piano was worth. For the amount they wanted we could easily go and buy her a very nice key board. The fact that this piano was to stay in the house, and I didn’t need two pianos, we allowed our landlord to do what he wanted to do with the other piano. I am not sure if he found someone to buy it, put it in storage or what he did with it.

Saturday was a very good day, spending time with such good friends, coming home to find things in order, knowing that Papa and Selena had some quality time together, then to finish my day off watching as Selena once again showed just how passionate she is for music. To think she has so many options, from the piano, a flute and a clarinet, I wonder if she will choose just one, or be like her mother and absorb all the musical instruments and learn as much as she can about them all. Yes, her mother does have an ear for music and while everyone told us she would never learn to play a musical instrument due to her learning disability, she surpassed all their expectations and learned to play several instruments. Too bad she didn’t keep up with her passion.

I am truly thankful for good friends, and my family who fill my heart with so much joy and love.

Quick Science/Hail

2011-11-20T06:43:00.000-08:00

On Thursday night just before it was bedtime we heard the hail outside. I first lifted Selena up so she could see how my car was turning white. She placed her ear against the window and said she could hear it. I decided, we just can’t let this opportunity go by. Of course it was dark, so she was truly using all her senses here as we went out on the back porch. I first had her stick her hand out so she could feel the hail hit her hand. All she could say was, “I feel it Grandma, I feel it.” I asked her what it felt like, but she was at a loss for words. I stepped out and grabbed a handful off my car and we came back in the house. I grabbed a plate out of the cupboard quickly and placed the hail on it, sitting it down on the table I told Selena go have fun.

It was very well formed hail, so she got to really explore the texture, the small round balls of ice, and I believe she even tasted it. She played with it for a long time until she finally announced it turned into water. I asked her what do we call that when something solid like this turns into water? She answered, “It melted.” I then went deeper, and asked, “What else do we know melts and turns into water, and what did this remind you of?” She thought about it for a minute and announced, “Ice cubes from our freezer.”

After it had melted totally she carried the plate ever so carefully and poured the water in the sink. Now she is hoping that this hail will bring snow in the morning.

I am very Thankful for all that mother nature gives us to explore, enjoy, and sometimes even dislike. No matter what mother nature is one awesome force worth exploring.

What A Thursday

2011-11-19T04:23:00.000-08:00

For some odd reason Selena was up through out the night Wednesday night. I think the storm we had probably kept her awake even though she said it didn’t. I guess some night I will have to go in and see how the winds sound in her bedroom. I am wondering if she doesn’t get more noise, since the stairs to the attic are in her room. Anyway we didn’t get much sleep.

We took our baths this morning. I had just been in and checked on Selena, while she was taking her bath. I ran out and threw some laundry in the dryer, came back in and went back in to check on Selena. Guess what I found, she had a 1/2 inch of water on the bathroom floor. It was slowly creeping to the half way point of the bathroom floor. You can see in the below picture the bathmat shows the line to which the water stopped.

The water surrounded the toilet and was making it’s way around the sink cabinet. I don’t know what she did other then maybe thinking she was washing her hair and pouring water over head only to miss and poured the water out of the tub. I never heard any extra splashing, so I am guessing that was what happened. While I had to mop up that water, I thought this would be a great time to deep clean the bathroom as well. I still have some shelves on one wall to get in and clean. This weekend that can be a project that Papa can help me with.

It took me two days to get all the way through my kitchen. While I adore our Landlord, he isn’t the best when it comes to cleaning a place up before renting it. Some might say “Men” for you, I don’t know if that is it, or if he is just so busy he doesn’t think about all the hidden areas that should be cleaned. Anyway I finally made my way through the entire kitchen. Only one window that needs the mini blinds taken down and cleaned, then the valence can be rehung.

Believe me my kitchen is huge, and while it took me two days to make my way through it, I am sure thrilled with the cleanliness, it almost looks like a whole new kitchen, all fresh and calling out to Thanksgiving dinner to be cooked and served.

Now that is two rooms done, with 5 more rooms to do. While at times I think of how much work goes into the major cleaning of a big house, it is all worth it. I will say one thing I sure find a large home easier to keep clean then I do a small house.

Notice my Kitchen Aide Mixer….Do you know I haven’t used this in 7 years? That is right this was just one more piece of kitchen that was in storage as I had no place for it in my other house. I have already showed Papa this item I would love for Christmas just for my mixer and all the tools I have that go with it.

I am truly thankful for the ability to take care of our home. The ability to keep it clean, and the grace and peace that I get from doing so. We can all grumble and mumble about having to do housework, though if we remember it truly is a special gift just to have a home to clean, a home to keep us warm, and a family to share this home with, it can definitely make the job seem a little easier to get in and just do. To me there is nothing better then the freshness of a totally clean home.

The Homeschool Mother’s Journal #22

2011-11-18T03:46:00.000-08:00

In my life this week…

This week began with some of the coldest weather we have had in a long time. I didn’t even want to leave the warmth of my home since it was so cold outside. With that being said, I decided it was time to start the Autumn deep cleaning in our home. This is a task that I know needs to be done, could put it off as long as I possibly can, but I know just how good I feel when it is all finished, that in itself gives me the incentive to get in and get it done. It is going slower then I would like, but hey this is a large house, there is a lot more to clean. To think I use to be able to get all the deep cleaning done in a couple of days in our little house, well, it took me two days just to get through my entire kitchen. I still have 6 more rooms to do. The laundry room can wait until Spring, since it is a room off my back porch with no heat source.

This week also brought on a new stress, of discovering that some not so good people are casing the property up here for things they can steal. Believe me there is plenty of pricey items that the landlord has up here that one with the wrong intentions would love to get. We finally put the puzzle together as to who it is, when one came to our door asking permission to help himself to the scrap metal in the field. The owner and I have been working closely to prevent if not catch these people. They do not know who they are dealing with when it comes to our owner, let’s just say there is a huge connection with the local police department and leave it at that.

In our homeschool this week…

While I have been so busy cleaning, Selena has been free to play and learn at her leisure. The only constructive learning that we have expected was continuing to work on her AWANA verses and reading. To think my little one is now reading her verses from her own Bible is wonderful.

I am inspired by…

A dear friend of mine, who after having so many health related issues including a triple bypass surgery, she just never gives up.

My favorite thing this week was…

Watching how well Selena could keep herself so entertained while I was so busy. Also knowing that she is so happy with our decision to visit this new church and how happy she is to have 4 other children from AWANA in her Sunday school class.

Things I’m working on…

Truly getting my place ready for the Winter ahead of us and the holidays.

I’m cooking…

We’ve, Selena and I have been taking time to do a lot of baking, even in the chaos of cleaning. We are gearing up for that wonderful Thanksgiving dinner that will be cooked in our kitchen again this year.

I’m grateful for…

Good health, to think a few years ago there would have been no way I could have kept up with the duties that I have in this home. Sometimes this is something we take for granted until we face something like cancer, that zaps everything out of us. Believe me from here on out I will never take my health for granted again, just knowing that I now have the energy to do so much and truly care for my home and my family is such a blessing.

I’m praying for…

Everyone to have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

A photo, video, link, or quote to share…

Review Opportunity For All Bloggers

2011-11-17T17:08:00.001-08:00

K5 Learning has an online reading and math program for kindergarten to grade 5 students. I've been given a 6 week free trial to test and write a review of their program. If you are a blogger, you may want to check out their open invitation to write an online learning review of their program.

My Review to Come Soon!

Reading

2011-11-17T04:17:00.000-08:00

Even with two handbooks Selena is just surpassing all expectations in her AWANA work. To slow her down just a little bit we have been making her look up the verses in the Bible, and read them from there.

She still stumbles a bit with finding some of the books but once in the book she is quickly able to find the verse. She of course has to make sure the verse in the Bible says the same as it does in the handbook.

I came up with this idea last Sunday when we came home from church and Selena had to show me what they learned in Sunday school. I then helped her find what we learned in service. She read the words from the Bible so well, it truly surprised both of us.

While at times Selena tries to make us believe she isn’t able to read certain books, we know she can. I love how her reading is just exploding this year. Now if only she would start writing.

I am truly thankful that Selena has such a desire to learn.

Gratitude Challenge

2011-11-16T06:47:00.000-08:00

Today November 16, 2011, as I drove home from town this evening and passed the fire station, I realized how thankful I am for all the fine men and women who sacrifice it all to protect us. From the Police, State Patrol, Sheriff, and Firefighters, they are out on the front line in our towns and cities every day making our world a safer place to live. Thank you to all who serve so faithfully.

More Yummy Cookies

2011-11-16T04:10:00.000-08:00

Before starting back into the deep cleaning, I thought a batch of cookies were needed to set the mood. I had pulled out some of my banana the night before, and had looked through many recipes for banana cookies. Some called for allspice, some for ginger, some called for baking soda and no baking powder, while others called for baking powder and no baking soda. I finally decided since we loved the pumpkin cookies so well I would just go with that recipe and substitute the pumpkin for the banana. You can find that recipe here.

I was not in the least disappointed in how they turned out. To be honest this recipe was just perfect for these delicious cookies. From all the other recipes I found I was afraid that with the different spices we might loose the true flavor of the banana. This recipe was perfect. You walk by my cookie tin and you can just smell the most wonderful aroma of banana. It makes you stop and just want to grab one right there on the spot.

Selena thought they were pretty yummy too!

Then with these all baked, and the mess cleaned up, I was off to wash mini blinds. Fun, oh so much fun but a task that truly needed to be done.

Cleaning Day Maybe?

2011-11-15T04:02:00.000-08:00

Today I spent the day cleaning. I decided it was time to wash all the sheers and valences in the kitchen and living room. Of course you know this meant some extra deep cleaning to be done. I busied myself and Selena would pop in long enough to hold the step stool, watch me sweep the floors then mop them. In the meantime though she pretty much kept herself busy. You would hardly even know she was here at times. Now though I have one more room that truly needs some TLC before bedtime.

You just have love it when you are busy deep cleaning one section of the house and in another section is being lived in with pure joy.

I am thankful for the fact that I am able to provide Selena with everything she truly needs to be a happy self entertaining child.

AWANA Sunday/Gratitude Challenge

2011-11-14T04:36:00.000-08:00

One of the nice things about living in a small town is the fact that throughout the community friends are not far away. From the time that we moved here we reached out and became friends with many people. This has proven to be a very valuable resource for us as we raise Selena. Through these friends we are able to easily find all the activities that we desire for Selena to be involved with.

With yesterday being AWANA Sunday, we chose to go to the church where Selena goes to AWANA. Makes sense since at our little church she is the only one in AWANA. This church holds a lot of fond memories for us, from the friends we have met in this church to the fact that Selena was dedicated in this church as a baby.

Selena dressed in her vest and was thrilled to discover a Sunday School class with many of her friends from Cubbies. She had a lot of fun in Sunday School and was able to tell me all about the bible lesson. It felt good for Papa and I to sit in on the Adult Sunday School class, without knowing there were other pressing things robbing our attention. It’s been a long time since I myself have sat in on an Adult Sunday School class.

They had all the AWANA children do something special through the beginning of the service, and also they sponsored the coffee hour after church. Selena enjoyed greeting all the people and handing out bulletins before church. After the singing she chose to join many of her friends and the younger children to go watch a movie instead of sitting through service. It was nice to see how comfortable she was at the church, normally Selena is not one to leave our sides or stray too far from where we are. Not that she is shy by any point but she has always had a little problem with attachment issues.

I haven’t said too much, but there have been issues at our little church, and an underline of tension. We had decided that we needed to take a break and visit somewhere else for a while. The tensions were beginning to penetrate within our home and in all that we tried to do. With a desire to breath life into what appears to be a dead church, trying to get activities that will help grow the church, only to have ideas fall on deaf ears, or all one’s work be cancelled by someone who will not step up with any reason why these things needed to be cancelled. We grew tired, we watched families come to never come back, families try to just leave. I took my position serious, poured love and attention to what I heard many wanted to see, only to end up with nothing. It is bittersweet, but all I know right now is that 2 hours today I felt all this tension GONE. At this point we know we will be visiting at this church and am unsure what will be down the road. Will we return to the church we have considered our home church? At this point that is undecided.

I am thankful for one of the joys of small town life, the fact that friends come from all areas within the small community. They are always there, no matter the season of life you might be going through. With love and tenderness, they are always happy to have you join them in fellowship.

Turkey Craft

2011-11-13T04:39:00.000-08:00

This is Selena’s turkey. She had to color it yellow so it is hard to see. I went out and found some of the dry leaves that had blown in on our porch. Using Selena’s fist, with her thumb sticking out we drew around her hand. She colored it first, Like I said she just had to have a yellow turkey, and as you notice she wouldn’t give him legs.

She then glued the leaves on for the tail feathers. Using clear contact paper we sealed it to make Selena’s Thanksgiving placemat. She wouldn’t wait for the leaves to dry before starting this part, so you can see our efforts to keep wrinkles out didn’t work real well. That’s OK, as I figure this is a good way for her to learn that each step in a project truly needs to be followed.

I do believe she is pretty proud of her project. She continues to say, “I love my hand turkey!”

Gratitude Challenge

2011-11-13T03:59:00.000-08:00

Today November 13, 2011 I am grateful for wonderful landlords/friends. Sometimes it isn’t easy to find great landlords when one is renting. I feel very fortunate that 7 years ago when we moved here we ended up renting from this family. They have so many times gone out of their way to see that our homes have been in well repair and comfortable. I am truly thankful that while some landlords are only concerned with the rent they receive from their property, that our landlords (brother and sister) truly desire for their tenants to be happy in their homes.

Pumpkin Cookies

2011-11-12T04:40:00.000-08:00

Last night I decided to finally get in and bake some pumpkin cookies. This was a new recipe I found, and I must admit they were really good. Soft, not too sweet, truly my type of cookie. They reminded me of a good spice cookie with the flavor of pumpkin.

Pumpkin Cookies

2 1/2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 cup pumpkin

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Cream butter and sugar in large mixing bowl. Mix in pumpkin, egg and vanilla until smooth. Gradually add dry ingredients. Batter will be very light and fluffy.

Drop by teaspoon onto cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes.

Allow to cool.

Drizzle with glaze:

2 cups sifted powder sugar, 1 tablespoon melted butter, 3 tablespoon milk, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract.

My family truly enjoyed these, but my family isn’t that hard to satisfy when it comes to cookies. I am the picky one when it comes to sweets, so I will say they were very delicious.

Gratitude Challenge

2011-11-12T03:52:00.000-08:00

Today on November 12, 2011, I am grateful for the ability to serve, comfort, and assist dear friends. How many times in our lives do we know of a friend who might be ill, under the weather, just home from the hospital, or struggling with problems. We talk to them on the phone, but to truly take the time and go, in person, talk with them, assist them with a house hold chore, take in a meal, run an errand for them, just truly be there with all our focus, love, and prayers on them. So many times we go through our days and while we know our friends are hurting, or sick, we tell them we will pray for them, but we are so busy that is as far as it goes. Try reaching out, truly reaching out in person. They get something, and you come away feeling truly blessed just for being there for them. I am thankful for the ability to serve my friends.

The Homeschool Mother’s Journal #21

2011-11-11T04:58:00.000-08:00

In my life this week…

This has been a difficult week. We’ve had some tough decisions to make and they have been bittersweet. On the other hand once the tough decision was made and God gave us a direction we truly felt much relief. We are looking forward to some new beginnings, and are praying for a smooth transition and a lot less stress going into the holiday season.

In our homeschool this week…

With everything we were dealing with, Selena’s main concern in school was her Awana work. I was very proud of her for working so independent on the work at hand. We had a lot of fun, playing, and teasing each other in the evenings. It is always so nice when things are not quite in sync to just know we can put down the books, and can resume as things come back together.

Helpful homeschooling tips or advice to share…

Remember our children sense and feel our stress as well as we do. Take time to allow them to breath too. If that means a day or two of no school and a little more play or rest, take advantage of it. They deserve to tackle their learning in a light environment too.

I am inspired by…

My husband, who during this difficult time was able to step up, show much grace in dealing with the situation, and who could step out there on my behalf to identify the problem, and establish the change. I know if left on my own, I would not have been able to have shown as much grace as he was.

Places we’re going and people we’re seeing…

We will be visiting a new church this weekend. Well, it isn’t so much a new church, one that we have many friends in. It is also the same church Selena goes to Awana at. We feel it will be a good chance for her to continue to form these friendships that she has been discovering.

My favorite thing this week was…

Seeing the Joy in Selena’s face and eyes as she received her awards in Awana.

I’m reading…

I have really been staying in the Bible this week.

I’m cooking…

Today I hope to try a new pumpkin cookie recipe. I will share it with all of you, especially if it turns out as good as it sounds.

I’m grateful for…

All of you! I was so surprised to discover that I had been nominated at the Homeschool Blog Awards. It is truly just an honor to be nominated. While I know there are so many great blogs out there, and my chances of winning are slim, just being nominated has truly meant the world to me.

I’m praying for…

Continuing to pray for a dear friend. She is really going through a rough time, facing Hodgkin’s.

A photo, video, link, or quote to share…

Pajama night at Awana, and showing off her newly earned patches! Selena, Grandma is proud of you, very proud!

Gratitude Challenge

2011-11-11T03:53:00.000-08:00

Today November 11, 2011 I am grateful for all the fine men and women who have served our country. For those who have so freely sacrificed so much for our freedom. They deserve to be thanked not only today but every day. Have you taken time to thank a Veteran today?

Awana/Gratitude Challenge

2011-11-10T04:02:00.000-08:00

Last night was pajama night at Awana. Selena worked very hard all week as she had missed the week before due to illness. She had memorized 6 verses, and had to recite 18 (many the same) review verses. She would have earned 3 awards, but since we hadn’t done the official handbook work, I didn’t sign off on two of the sections. She was ever so thrilled when at the end of the evening she was handed her awards.

It is hard to see but she did earn the large Jumper patch for her second handbook, and her first lamb patch from her first handbook. I was very proud of her, that was a lot of work on her part.

I had to go into this evening with a chuckle though, because of the time change as we were eating dinner it was getting darker and darker outside. Selena insisted in fact she broke down in tears just positive that we were late for Awana, and that she was missing out on story time and game time. Poor thing, no matter how we tried to explain this to her and showed her the time on the clock, she just couldn’t get over the fact that since it was dark she was missing Awana.

When we got home Selena had quite a fit. They had made large pictures of themselves. She was so proud of her art work, that she couldn’t wait to get home and show Papa. Then she wanted it displayed over her mirror in the bedroom before she would go to bed.

Today on November 10, 2011 I truly am very happy for a wonderful Awana group. Though it is hard work, chasing 16 3 and 4 year olds around, I have to say I assist the best team ever when it comes to working together and providing a safe and fun environment for these children. The director is excellent, and is truly a blessing to suggest having Selena work out of two handbooks, and to take her time to take Selena to do her verses out of the second one. I am truly thankful that we found this group.

You & Your Blog/Gratitude Challenge

2011-11-09T03:12:00.000-08:00

I found this new meme at Homegrown Learners, the idea came from Finding Joy, the idea is to take a picture of the things you are passionate about. Of course you know I am passionate about many things, but to take pictures of all of that would be a never ending job. Since we bloggers are all passionate about our blogs, the idea is to take a picture of you and your blog. Now how could I resist having Selena take a few pictures of me with the one thing that I do everyday. Is that passion or what?

When I started my blog I had no direction, then suddenly I was introduced to an entire world of blogging mom’s, homeschoolers, and friends. I have had those times when blogging has seemed more like a job then the joy that I want out of it. It is at those times I have to step away or just rethink about what I am blogging about. This brings me right to a post I had scheduled for later in the week, but have chose to share it with this.

Today on November 9, 2011 I am so thankful for this little face, after all she is the inspiration for my blog.

I am sure my readers have noticed that the content on my blog has been changing here lately, why? See that precious picture of my dearest Selena, well as her reading ability has advanced, and as she approaches a new time in her life, she is becoming more aware of what I am blogging. She sits at my side for the most part and reads everything I type.

Of late she has asked me such questions as:

Do you have to write that?
Do you have to post that picture?
Will you write about this?
Will you take pictures of this and post them?

You see my blog is becoming a collaborate piece of work between a granddaughter and her grandmother. She doesn’t want certain things wrote about, or certain pictures shared. Out of respect for her I have had to put a lot of thought into my blog. I want Selena to know that I respect her the way that I want her to respect me.

While I truly desire my blog to be about our adventures in homeschooling as much as I desire to support, and encourage others who are homeschooling, I am taking more time to consider what I post. Will you still get updates on what we are doing, of course you will, but they will be Selena approved. Will you still get to see pictures of Selena as we go through this process, of course you will, but they will be Selena approved.

On the days that Selena doesn’t want information about her posted you can expect to see more about the life of her grandmother. I will share tips about saving time and money or things that have been successful for me. I will also share my feelings, desires, as well as give encouragement. I am not sure how this will change the feel of my blog, but I believe from the day that I started blogging about our homeschool adventures I knew this day would come when Selena would be a larger part of my blog.

Winter will be difficult at times, especially since I am not much of a winter person, but we do have the holidays upon us which I will be sharing with all of you. I am making a lot of plans for all the new possibilities since we now have so much more room and property to work with come Spring and Summer.

I just ask that you hang in there with us while we move from this format which use to be Grandma driven to a format of working as a team, a new Granddaughter and Grandmother driven blog. It is going to be a ride, but one that I am embracing and truly looking forward to. I know it will be a lot of fun for both of us, and hope that it will be everything that I hope it to be for you my followers.

I am truly thankful for this new adventure with Selena as my co-author, so to speak. For this time to arrive, is such a blessing, as it truly is a reflection of the beautiful, bright, and sensitive little girl that I love ever so dearly.

Finding Our Home

2011-11-09T02:07:00.000-08:00

I kind of left all of you with a cliff hanger, in my post here. I told you how we come to move to Montesano, and that it took us 6 weeks to finally settle into a house. After a few asked that I share that part of the story, I decide to do just that.
In October of 2004 we found out that we would be moving over here. We were given two weeks to pack up all our belongings and make the big move across state. My first idea was for me to stay in Spokane, where I could have a chance to go through everything, sell what we didn’t need to pack over here. I figured I could put everything in storage and move in with my brother while I took care of these things.
Knowing that it wouldn’t be long before the snow would fall my husband was against that idea. He feared if I didn’t come with him we would end up waiting possibly until Spring before we could get all our things here. We packed everything up and put it in a big truck, his car in tow and I driving mine made the long trek across State. We put all our belongings in storage. I kept out what I figured I would need to stay in a Motel until we found a house. I prepared to cook in the Motel to save money, so with my crock pot, grill, and what dishes I felt we would need we settled into the only Motel here in town. Let me tell you, I was glad I did come with him, we got here and it was one rain storm after another. I had never seen so much rain and wind in my life. At this point I truly began to think my husband had just brought me to the land of no return.
We drove all over the town about every day, watched the adds in the paper, and even spoke with a real estate agent only to discover that homes in this area at that time were very hard to find. Great! We quickly discovered that there truly were no rentals except a few dumps that I wouldn’t have even moved a dog into.
Four weeks went by and we were still in the Motel. I awoke one morning very sick. I had never been that sick before, I felt like something was just ripping my guts out. Figuring it was a severe case of the flu, I waited a couple of days before seeking medical attention. Upon my visit to the doctor, I was immediately taken to the hospital for an emergency appendectomy. I spent almost a week in the hospital before being released. A very dear friend, basically the first person we met when we moved here opened her home to us while I recovered. Once I was able to get around better back to the Motel we went.
Three days later my husband came home and told me of a small house for rent nearby. We called and went right out to see it. While it was very small, cute, but old, we figured that we had little choice but to sign a lease. I still was not able to lift anything, so we moved into the house not knowing when we would get our belongings moved in. Not only that but the house had no appliances, we had to buy a stove, refrigerator, washer and dryer. Finally two weeks later we were told about a local ministry who for a donation would provide us with the man power to move our belongings in the house.
As everything came into that tiny house I just didn’t know what to do, it was very clear that not everything would fit in our tiny house. Then the last piece of furniture to be unloaded off the truck, my brand new couch that I had purchased just 6 months before we knew we would be moving would not come through any of the doors. We had to put it in the garage. We ended up having to sell it.
In 2006 we found out that we were going to have Selena joining our family. Boy if that wasn’t an exciting time, but now we had to make room for all the baby gear. We ended up moving more of our belongings out to the garage. The day she was born we had a horrible storm come through that topped out a huge tree and sent the top flying straight through the roof of the garage right into my laundry room. Thankfully our landlord brought out a truck and a crew of men who helped my husband move all our stuff from the garage into the truck so it wouldn’t get ruined from all the rain. We did lose some things, but the loss was minor to what it could have been.
We looked for the next 4 years for a larger house, but they either wanted an arm and a leg for them, or they were so dumpy. We thought about buying a home, but when the market crashed we lost a lot, and couldn’t afford to buy.
We were so thrilled the day our landlord told us about this home. We were even more excited when we got to see truly how nice it was and that he was willing to let us move in with no extra money. We didn’t even have to pay a new security deposit, just would have to pay $50.00 more a month. We are very happy, and while we had to go through so much to get where we finally are, we never gave up knowing that God had everything in control.
There you have it our story of why it took us so long to settle into a home when we first moved here.

Gratitude Challenge

2011-11-08T04:20:00.000-08:00

Today November 6, 2011 I am so thankful for the opportunity to catch up with one of my favorite nephews. We may live miles away but when we connect and talk it is just like we were kids again laughing, joking, truly being best friends.

A Child’ Imagination

2011-11-08T04:03:00.001-08:00

Today November 8, 2011 I am thankful for the imagination of a child. Who else can create a sandwich out of her favorite hoppy and an egg carton and enjoy eating it too?

All because Papa was teasing her trying to trade her an egg carton for her hoppy. She agreed at first only to discover she had the short end of the deal. She quickly tried to get Papa to exchange the two again and upon him telling her no she quickly stole hoppy away. Then Papa came up with the idea of putting hoppy inside the egg carton. Next thing we knew Selena’s imagination took off, from putting her sandwich in an imaginary refrigerator, to then pulling it back out to eat it.

I am so thankful for the imagination of a child which always seems so endless and sees no boundaries in her creativity.

Family, Holidays, Opinions.

2011-11-08T04:03:00.000-08:00

The topic at Three Thinking Mother’s this week is Holiday Traditions, and what do you do when your family doesn’t agree with your choice to homeschool. I guess I am pretty fortunate in this area as most of my family do not question my decision. We usually spend the holidays with my Uncle and his family, though they have never homeschooled, they support our decision 100%. I suppose one reason for this is that they have raised their children in the school district, not truly thinking they could homeschool. They have had issues with the school districts, as well as seen the affect of the wrong peer pressure on their children. The over all feeling with many in my family is that the schools are failing our children these days.

This is not to say there are not some in my family who oppose our decision, and at times yes, they do give me reasons for opposing it. Mostly it is about socialization. I truly take these oppositions with a grain of salt and move forward, I seldom even attempt to rationalize, or uphold our decision, I guess basically I just agree to disagree with them.

I truly feel lucky in this sense that I do not have to listen to family members ideas, attitudes and continuous questions concerning our decision. I know there are those in the family who do not understand the whole homeschool issue, they probably do oppose our decision, however, they never say much. If there was one thing that I think all of us who were raised by the generation of my parents, we were all taught that some times it is better to just keep our opinions to ourselves, unless we see the situation being harmful. We were taught to embrace our differences, and no matter what to be as supportive as possible, and always be available for support should the time arise we are needed.

I would say leave it out of the holidays as much as possible. Approach any remarks with grace, and suggest that this is a subject to be discussed at another time, do not let it rule the holiday spirit. I feel any family member would agree that the holiday table really does not need to be the battleground for the differences of opinions.

Our Weekend/Gratitude Challenge

2011-11-07T04:39:00.000-08:00

We had a pretty quiet and relaxing weekend. We haven’t used our felt board in a couple of years now, so I thought Selena would have fun just playing around with the letters and enjoy something that seemed rather new. She played for hours with it, attempted to spell many words. Suddenly she came running into the living room with the A and announced, “This is the bad news.” I asked her what the verse from Awana said about that and she recited, “All have sinned.” She ran back to the table to come back in with the C. She announced, “This is the good news.” Again I asked what verse it represented, she proudly recited, “While we were sinners, Christ died for us.” She then returned to the table to set up this little display to explain it all to Papa.

Selena and I did break away a bit on Sunday afternoon for a little shopping. We wanted to put together a care package for our daughter and grandson. We picked out two cute outfits for Jr. got him some spoons, tooth brushes, (since he is getting a mouth full of teeth) and his first sippy cup. We came home we went through the Christmas ornaments and I found all the ornaments that we had bought for Kristi from the day she was born, then a few I seldom use along with some decorations and a couple of Christmas stockings. That was one of Kristi’s concern was if she got a Christmas tree what would she do for decorations. She has no idea all this is coming, Merry Early Christmas!

Selena had some of her own money to spend. While we in no way gamble in this home, Selena made the mistake of telling Papa that she bet him that St Louis would win the World Series. Papa being a Texas fan, took her up on the bet and set the anti at $10.00. I guess you know when the World Series was over we had one very happy little girl running around in her way too small pajamas the neighbor gave her doing a victory dance.

I asked her one question,”What are you going to spend your money on?” She simply answered a wallet to keep my money in. She picked out her wallet and a matching purse today, not realizing by the time she paid for them she no longer had any money left to put in her wallet. We quickly took care of that when we got home, not the same amount but a little money for her wallet.

I am thankful for quiet relaxed time with my family.

A Few of My Kitchen Tips

2011-11-06T03:49:00.000-08:00

I have had a few leave comments about my freezing bananas, they all have wanted more information. I thought I would share a few things that was shared with me by wonderful friends through the years. I have found these tips to be of great value, not only do they assure some tasty goodies in our home, but they actually have saved money through the year.

I know we have all been there when we buy bananas and they sit on the counter until they are turning brown, no one is going to eat them, so we either do one of two things, make a loaf of banana bread or some other banana treat, or we throw them away. How would you like the convenience of being able to make your favorite banana recipe any time you want without having to wait for your bananas to become overly ripe? If your home is anything like mine most of the time all the bananas get eaten before I even have a chance to use them for delicious treats.
Our local grocery store, and most grocery stores become over whelmed with all the over ripened bananas. Ours will bag them in brown grocery sacks, usually close to 5 pounds per bag and price them at .99 per bag. Wow if that isn’t a good enough reason to buy these ripened bananas I don’t know what is. I always pick up at least one if not two of these bags and bring them home.
After I peal all the bananas, I drag out my trusty blender. I just break up each banana and toss them in my blender, turn it on and smash them down. After this, I go to all my favorite recipes and then package all the mushy bananas according to how much the recipes call for. For instance my recipe for banana bread calls for one cup of mashed banana, so I will measure out one cup increments and seal them up in small freezer bags. I then lay them flat in my freezer for future use.
Any time I decide a tasty loaf of banana bread sounds good, I just go to my freezer and pull out a bag of frozen banana. Let it thaw, then I am ready to get to work baking my bread. I have even found out that by doing this, come Christmas it is easy to make loaves of banana bread for Christmas presents for neighbors, friends, and family.

Another little trick that I have learned is how to freeze my onions. Again this is something that was shared with me by a dear friend many years ago. I try to look for a good sale on onions, I prefer a sweet onion, but any type will work. I clean my onions, and pull the skin off them. I then cut them up into quarters. This time though I use my food processor with the grater blade. I run my onion through that just like you would cheese. After all my onions have been grated up, I package them in small sandwich bags and fasten them closed with twist ties. I usually put about 2 to 3 tablespoons in each little bag. I then put all these small bags into a large freezer bag and seal it shut. I toss this bag into the freezer. Should a recipe call for chopped onion, I pull out as many little bags as I need, while they are still frozen, I use my butcher knife and chop them up, throw the onion in my dish and cook as directed. Sure the onion will seem not as crisp as if it were fresh, but I bet there isn’t a one of you who haven’t bought an onion for a recipe, used what you needed and weeks later discovered the remaining onion in the back of your fridge turning black. By freezing my onions in this manner, assures that I use the entire onion. I never go to make a recipe to only discover I do not have an onion. As we all know less waste means saved money, and I love the convenience of always having chopped onion on hand.
I will try to share more of my kitchen tips with you as I go along. I hope you all enjoy these two tips.

Gratitude Challenge

2011-11-05T05:52:00.000-07:00

Today November 5, 2011 I am feeling very thankful for friendships. Even after 30 years, I have some of the most wonderful friends from High School still in my life. Though we may now live separated by miles the communication still continues. I have been blessed with many friendships, but I do believe that these friends that at one time we seemed to share everything, and now are still a constant in my life is a true blessing.

Molly’s Home Team/Oster Osterizer Blender

2011-11-05T04:12:00.000-07:00

The number one tool I use the most for all my freezing adventures is, well of course my freezer but also my blender with exception to a few things I need my food processor for. I own the Oster Osterizer 12 Speed Blender. I have owned this Blender for about 10 years now and by far out of all the blenders I have ever owned this one has been my favorite. It has been used for everything from crushing ice, milk shakes, baby formula, and purifying foods.

The base is very light weight and can easily be moved for storage off the counter top, especially in those small kitchens where counter space is limited. Each button is nicely labeled for ease of reading. It also has two speeds High and Low which can be used in any of the settings. I love the pulse button which allows me to turn on and off the blender by just holding the button down, then releasing it for those tougher jobs that need a little more assistance getting the food to the blades.

The 5 cup scratch free glass jar is very sturdy. It is the heaviest part of the blender. I love the ease of the rubber lid that does not require any special lock to keep it in place during blending. I also like the fact that there is no fancy locking mechanism to hold the glass jar in place, just place the jar on the base and you are ready to go. The blades are made of heavy steal, which withstands even the heaviest jobs of even crushing ice. With it being an all metal drive system, it truly is very sturdy, not like many blenders that have plastic parts that snap off over time. I believe the fact that I have had mine for 10 years is a testimony in itself to how sturdy it is, and mine gets a lot of use.

Clean up is so easy, I usually fill mine with 3 cups of hot water and a drop or two of dish soap. I turn mine on in the Clean mode which truly cleans the glass jar with ease. Keeping this in mind of course depending on how often one uses their blending there is always the maintenance of deep cleaning all parts.

There are only 5 parts that can easily be taken apart for those deep cleaning times. Each part comes apart with much ease and goes back together as easy as they come apart. This part can take place in a matter of 5 minutes time. There are no complicated parts, and is easily broke down and put back together by hand, no tools required. Just remember the blades are very sharp. A huge plus is that Oster offers replacement parts for all their blenders.

One of our favorite treats which is so easy to make is our own Orange Sherbet. I use 4 ice cubes per serving, 2 single orange popsicles, or one full one per serving. 2 tablespoons of frozen Cool Whip and just enough milk to blend it all together.

Crush your ice.

Remove the popsicle from the stick and add it to the crushed ice, with the Dream Whip.

Here is the one thing I love, is that I can remove either the lid or the clear handle to the lid and poor in just enough milk to make this creamy. I usually just remove the lid unless I am making something that might splash.

Then Enjoy!

Now to show you just how easy clean up is. After we have enjoyed our treat, I take the glass jar and just add my hot water and soap.

Turn it on and let it go to work, the water will become very sudsy and even clean the lid as well.

I then just dump the sudsy water in the sink, rinse the glass jar and rinse the lid and dry both.

Now it is clean and ready for next recipe.

I love using my Oster blender. The ease of assembly to clean up leaves me a lot of time to explore, and create new recipes for milk shakes, smoothies, and believe it or not I have even used it in the making of pancakes and crepes. I use this appliance a lot. I couldn’t imagine not having this blender in my kitchen.

Just some of the most recent things I have used my blender for are in preserving food for the winter. When we cooked off our pumpkin I used my blender to purify it in preparation for baking pies and freezing the rest. I also used my blender for mashing up my bananas for freezing.

It was just so easy to take my pumpkin from this form:

To this form, in a matter of about 20 minutes. Now I had a lot of pumpkin, when you consider I ended up with about 15 cups of purified pumpkin in the end.

One of my dislikes about the blender is it does at times take that extra hand to push the foods down to get it into the blades. Many times using the Pulse setting will get the job done but if not with the easy access and ability to remove the lid, and the use of a spatula, does the job.

If you are looking for a blender, I highly recommend the Oster blenders. They are manufactured with high quality, and for ease of use.

You can purchase the 12 Speed Oster Osterizer blender direct from Oster for 32.99. They offer many kitchen appliances, from food processors, to toasters.

You can contact Oster through their website.

This is a review of an appliance I have in my home. I was not paid by Oster or any other business for my opinion.

The Homeschool Mother’s Journal #20

2011-11-04T06:10:00.000-07:00

In my life this week…

I’ve remained very busy around the house this week. Outside of a couple of days with a sick child, I’ve been busy preparing and freezing ripe bananas, making a few more pots of homemade soup to freeze. I have even been planning a pantry next year, though Papa isn’t aware of my idea, though I do have the plans sketched out on paper and will propose it to him this weekend. This will mean he has to part with an old desk that he has had since I met him, but truly the desk is never used. I am hoping that he will see how much more functional we can make this tiny room, and agree to begin this project with me so it is ready by next Autumn.

In our homeschool this week…

Selena continues to work pretty independent these days in areas such as reading, bible skills, verse memorization and increasing her spelling abilities. It’s always fun to have her join me in the kitchen and to just watch her play with her Legos or her baby doll. I printed off the books of the Bible for her onto strips of paper, she easily lays them out on the floor in order, well the Old Testament that is. She is beginning to understand that the Old Testament was written before Jesus was born, and the New Testament was written after His birth. Next week we should start the New Testament books, then she will be ready to learn how to look up her Bible verses.

I am inspired by…

God’s greatness in my life this week. Bringing unexpected women in my life who have encouraged me through some tough spots. As well as opening my heart to minister to another woman as she goes through a rough spot in her life.

Things I’m working on…

Right now stocking our freezers with as much food for the Winter months has taken up so much of my time. Now I would just love to be canning as well. Next year this will happen for sure. We’ve also been doing a lot of Christmas shopping, most of our shopping is already done.

I’m reading…

I’ve been spending a lot of extra time in the Bible this week.

I’m cooking…

Soups to freeze for Winter meals. Nothing like a wonderful pot of homemade soup on those cold Wintery days.

I’m praying for…

Two dear friends right now. One is a man from church who appeared to have a stroke the first of the week, now they have determined that it is an aneurysm. Also a friend who has had a tumor removed from a gland in her neck, we are now awaiting the lab reports.

A photo, video, link, or quote to share…

The pure joy on Selena’s face as she explores the properties of her Green Slime.

Gratitude Challenge

2011-11-04T04:47:00.000-07:00

Today on November 4, 2011 I am very thankful for my family. My husband, who works so hard to provide for us, but mostly he is so supportive in our homeschool venture, and to my needs. He truly completes me.

This picture seems like it was taken only yesterday, though it was taken on our Wedding day 13 years ago.

My daughter, who has always been the joy of my life from the time she was born. Though we have watched her go through some very difficult times in her life and times when she has made some poor choices, she is still my first born and very dear to my heart.

Her family, including our grandson, Jr.

My son, who has been independent from day one, yet always remained a little bit of a mommy’s boy. I am so proud of all that he has accomplished in his young years. He has turned in one fine young man.

My son, Selena and myself a year ago.

Then there is our sweet little Selena. Her curiosity for life, love of learning, and her constant desire to imitate me brings such happiness and excitement to my life.

Selena enjoying her new world.

Of course there are my three brothers, that I love dearly. They have always been a huge part of my life and always will be. My sister, though she is no longer with me, was a great foundation for me in my younger years. Then of course my Mom and Dad who worked so hard all their adult lives to provide a warm home and all that we needed.

My list could go on, but I will just say that with 14 Aunts and Uncles, truly provided many cousins. Then of course there are my Grandparents who I love and miss dearly as well.

Gratitude Challenge

2011-11-03T04:27:00.000-07:00

Today on November 3, 2011 I am so thankful for where God has brought me. Seven years ago when my husband once again came to me with the idea of moving to where he considered to be his home, I felt no hesitation like before. Living all my life in Spokane had it’s good memories and not so good memories, but I believe after both my parents had passed away, I felt free, I felt like I could finally start living for me. I had put my life on hold so many times just to be there to tend to my parents needs, to be at their side in sickness, and in death. I even put my life on hold when my sister died. I was ready for a change.

When Papa first came home and asked me what I thought of living in Montesano, I have to admit I had to ask where in the world is Montesano. I agreed to come and see the place he had chosen for us to live. We pulled out of Spokane very early on a Friday morning, payday morning. To our surprise though his paycheck had not been direct deposited into our account. He wanted to go home, but I knew his heart and said we would push on. I knew with all my heart there must have been a computer problem, and that our trip over would work out and be very fruitful. By the time we hit the West side of the Mountains, his check was finally in our account and we both sighed so much relief.

We settled into our hotel in Olympia, and Papa hurried to get ready for his job interview. Since he was transferring with the same company it was an easy interview and so there wasn’t a lot of stress felt going into this. I have to say though as the time went on, one hour, then two I began to wonder what in the world was going on. Did he get lost trying to find his way back to the hotel? When he finally arrived with a huge smile on his face he announced he was now employed in Montesano. I still had no idea where Montesano was. I insisted that he had to take me to this town where we were suppose to call home.

The drive to Montesano, seemed so long, well 45 miles later we finally seen the sign that said Welcome to Montesano. My first reaction was, “Oh brother where have you brought me?” I knew we were not far from the Ocean, and to be honest never in my wildest dreams did I ever think I would live near the Ocean. I do have to admit the beauty all around us didn’t hurt in Papa selling me on this new home. Now to find a home. That is such a long story in itself that I will just skip over that. Two weeks to move didn’t give much time to find a house. Our move was all based on our faith that God was taking us where He truly wanted us to be and with that a home would be easily found. Should I say 6 weeks later we finally moved into our first house.

Seven years later, I still love this place. I love all the nature around us. I have met some very special friends, and have learned to except the weather for what it is. It wasn’t always easy, but when I looked hard enough and leaned on my faith I knew this is where God wanted my family to be. Contentment didn’t come easy, but after taking vacation back to Spokane, that contentment fell right into place, I realized there was no way I wanted to ever move back to the other side of the State.

I leave you now with some pictures of what we get to enjoy daily.

God truly has brought me to what I consider to be the most beautiful place in the world, the place where all my senses are filled daily with the beauty of the all the splendid things He created. I am so Thankful for my home.

Come on over to Garden of Learning and share what you are thankful for.

2011 Gratitude Challenge

2011-11-02T10:49:00.001-07:00

Today, November 2, 2011, I am thankful for the gentle peace that only comes from God. For two weeks I have been filled with many unpleasant emotions. I woke this morning to a very quiet house, and from within that quietness God spoke to me.

These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world ---John 16:33

As these words reminded me that my problems may have been that of the world, I have the opportunity of peace by taking them to Him, and through Him peace will be poured upon me. Thank you Jesus!

Another thing I was very thankful for today, Selena has been sick with a cold and then a touch of flu. As she laid for two days not herself at all, and running a slight fever, we prayed for healing. Just as I thought a visit to the doctor would be needed, she awoke this morning bouncing back to herself, no fever, appetite back and yes pushing the limits of our house rules, now that must mean she is feeling better.

Stop over by Garden of Learning and share what you are thankful for.

Green Slime Day 2

2011-11-02T04:12:00.000-07:00

We pulled down the green slime yesterday. We discovered it had dried and was not as slimy.

Selena quickly discovered that if she poked her finger into it she could leave an indent, but that indent quickly filled back in with the slime. This was telling her that there was still some liquid or gooey properties. She suggested that we put a little bit in the microwave. I asked her what she thought would happen and she thought it would melt.

The picture on the left is before we put it in the microwave. The one on the right is after we had it in the microwave for 10 seconds. It did indeed start to liquefy a little but not what Selena expected. We added this back into the bowl and I suggested adding a little water.

At this point the more Selena worked with it the more it started becoming gooey again. She thought it was cool the way she could pick it up as a solid piece and it would quickly become gooey and drip back into the bowl.

Actually the bottom bowl shows this a little better, I just couldn’t catch Selena with a glob in her hand. You can obviously see that it has somewhat of a solid form, but is quickly almost like melting into a liquid form, only to turn solid again. I do think we might do more with this when Papa gets home. If we discover anything new expect a Green Slime #3 post.

I have to say I kept chuckling to myself throughout this experiment. My nephew found his mom’s turkey gravy to be disgusting. He always said it was just a bowl of gooey slime….why? Well, simply put she would just take the turkey drippings and add cornstarch to thicken it up. By the next day it was just a gooey glob. I hope he takes the time to read this post.

2011 Gratitude Challenge

2011-11-01T20:33:00.001-07:00

Today November 1, 2011 I am the most grateful for God’s all knowing. At a point where I truly was feeling at a lost, two not just one, but two very unexpected women from my church family called. They inspired me, talked with me, listened to me, and prayed with me. I am so grateful that even when I don’t know that I need to be ministered to, God does know and he sends those who can minister to me the best.

Head on over to Garden of Learning and join in on the 2011 Gratitude Challenge.

Green Slime

2011-11-01T04:06:00.000-07:00

After watching an episode of Sid The Science Kid yesterday where they made Slime and discussed the different properties of it, I thought it would be a fun evening event for Selena to do. Now they called for 1 cup corn starch to 1 cup water and paint. We found out that less water was better. I would start with 1 cup of corn starch and slowly add water with the paint until you get the texture your looking for. Don’t be like me who mixed it like they did on the show then ended up using a lot more corn starch.

The more Selena worked it the more slimy it got. She was truly having a blast with this. She continuously said “It is hard and gooey.” Really her description truly described it perfectly. As it settled in the bowl it would be really hard, but once you pulled it out of the bowl it turned gooey and took more of a liquid form.

Papa and I even had to get in on the fun. I get such a kick out of Papa, he acted just like a little kid who had never seen or played with slime before. We had a lot of fun with this. I think Papa thought I had lost my mind, for fear this stuff would not clean up. I kept assuring him that all it was was cornstarch and yes while it had a little paint in it, the more water I added to it the more liquefied it would become making for an easy clean up. He truly did not buy that until it came time to clean up. I am so glad that we waited until he was home so he could experience this experiment too.

I am linking this up at Adventures in Mommydum.

Inspiring Thankfulness in Others

2011-10-31T04:45:00.000-07:00

Thankfulness is becoming the big topic this time of year, especially with Thanksgiving just around the corner. Three Thinking Mothers once again has that way of just jumping through the seasons with their upcoming thoughts.

So many times I feel that the words, “I am thankful for…” seem to only ring this time of the year. While we can all think of many things we are thankful for at Thanksgiving and we inspire our children to think of the things they are thankful for as they create Thanksgiving crafts, how about the rest of the year? How about in our daily lives, even when the day has been so hectic we feel that we are pulling our hair out at every turn, do you stop and think of at least one thing your thankful for?

I suppose I was fortunate when growing up that my mom always drilled into me to look for the good things in everything. When things just didn’t seem to be going my way or when I was just not having a good day, my mom would pipe up and make me look for the bright side, something good, something to be thankful for. Through the years I have developed this practice and have discovered how blessed, calm, and bright my day can become just by stopping in the middle of havoc and taking a deep breath and looking for something good.

My husband on the other hand can take the smallest event and turn it in to the greatest disaster ever. I find myself often having to point out the bright side for him. As an example, he was going to loan his van to a friend to make their camping trip easier. The night before they were to pick up the van, he went out to clean it up a bit. When he went to start it, yes, that’s right it wouldn’t start. He immediately began to feel like it was the end of the world, he was so disappointed in having to call his friend and tell them the van needed a new battery. I quickly jumped and before he called asked him to look on the bright side. He was so disappointed that he couldn’t think of anything good, he was letting his friends down, we would be spending so much money for a new battery, the list could go on. I finally spoke up and asked him one question, “What if this wouldn’t have happened now, and your friends got the van clear out in the backwoods, to only discover it wouldn’t start to get it home? How much would it have cost to tow it home on top of everything else?” Pondering this question my husband was finally able to realize that there was a bright side, no that did not make the van start, he still had to call and disappoint his friends, we still had to buy a new battery, but he could see the timing of this could have prevented his friends from being stranded out in the middle of no where.

I know when I was going through my lowest point in my life, when I was battling with my cancer, many times people just didn’t know what to say, or how to approach me. I could feel that they thought I was living in nothing but sadness and doom. This truly was not the case. I looked into my situation and looked for the bright side. I had so many things to be thankful for going through that:

We had discovered it very early
I had a great team of doctors and a great support system
I had my husband and Selena at my side
I didn’t get as sick as some do
This was drawing me closer to God

The list went on and on, the point being that if we do look hard enough we can find things to be thankful for, brightness in the gloom. It isn’t always easy and sometimes we do have to work hard to find the light, but yes, no matter what it is there.

Many times I find myself talking with friends who are just struggling with issues in their lives. They just seem like it is the end of the world, they just can’t seem to get their mind off the problems of the time. I have many times used the same words to them as I use in my own life, and as I used to help my husband see the bright side. I have watched how these simple words have changed the mood of my friends, family and even myself.

There is always something we can be thankful for, sometimes we just have to look a little harder, but I think the one thing that I love the most is the simple phrase my mom left me with, “Look for the bright side of any situation.” I know for me this is the easiest way to find something to be thankful for.

How do you promote thankfulness in others? Come on over to Three Thinking Mothers and share your inspiring words of encouragement.

Selena’s Big Day

2011-10-30T04:58:00.000-07:00

On Friday Selena was pretty excited, she was going to her first ever party with the homeschool group. We had a good turn out with about 60 in attendance. On Thursday Selena and I spent the afternoon baking the treat that she would take to share with everyone.

Using a very basic sugar cookie recipe we made red, yellow and orange Autumn leaves. I just happened to remember I had the Autumn cookie bin that we put them in.

Once at the party Selena found another little girl that was about her age. They seemed like they were joined at the hip from the very get go. I didn’t think to get permission to share pictures on my blog, so I am sorry that I can’t show some of the cute things Selena and her did together. They ate together, had their faces painted to look like twin kitty cats, bounced in the bouncy house, played games, did arts and crafts, and never left each other’s side.

Selena was so surprised to see her Awana leader there. She ran up and told her “Miss N. I love you!” She then asked her to paint her face for her.

She really made a pretty little kitty especially dressed all in black with just the splash of pink. The most important part is that Selena got to meet new friends as well as I got to meet new moms. Selena had so much fun she didn’t want the party to end or to come home. I can see where this year is off to a great start for Selena. Between Awana and the homeschool group I believe it is going to be Selena’s year to find herself, friends, and really have a lot of fun!

Pumpkin Pies

2011-10-29T04:45:00.000-07:00

Of course you know after we finished playing with our pumpkin and I cooked it off we had to make pies. If you missed how I processing my pumpkin you can find it here. I love the whole process of going from this:

To this:

Before I go any further let me say I have a lot of pumpkin left over that will be froze in pre-measured packages for more pies and other yummy treats.

My Recipe for Homemade Pumpkin Pie:

1 1/2 Cups sugar
1 tsp salt
2 tsp. ground cinnamon

1 tsp ginger

1/2 tsp ground cloves

4 large eggs

4 cups pumpkin

2 cans evaporated milk

2 uncooked 9 inch pie crusts

Mixsugar, salt, cinnamon, ginger and cloves in small bowl. Beat eggs in a large bowl. Stir in pumpkin and sugar-spice mixture. Gradually stir in evaporated milk. Pour into pie shells.

Bake at 425 for 15 minutes. Reduce heat and bake at 350 for 40 – 50 minutes until knife inserted in center comes out clean.

My favorite part is always having extra for some pumpkin custard. Now we are ready for whip cream and to enjoy our delicious pie for desert.

Pie crust recipe for 2 nine inch single crust pies or 1 double crust pie

1 cup plus 2 Tablespoon shortening

2 cup all purpose flour

1 tsp salt

4 to 6 tablespoon cold water

Cut in shortening into flour and salt until small crumbs are size of small peas. Sprinkle in water, 1 Tablespoon at a time tossing with fork until all flour is moistened and pastry almost cleans side of bowl.

Gather pastry into two equal balls, roll out on slightly floured board. Line pie tins.

It wasn’t long after my pies cooled that they had to take their place in the highest part of my kitchen.

I bet you can all guess why they ended up here. I discovered after dinner that I had a little mouse in my kitchen. This little mouse wasn’t very sneaky and sure left her little marks all over my pie. Yes, I did catch that little mouse, surprised her actually. The funny part though was when my pies disappeared, that poor little mouse seriously looked in every cupboard, the oven, the dishwasher, and the refrigerator, just trying to locate the pies.

Just look at that little smirk on my mouse’s face. Now if you can’t laugh over that face I don’t know what you can laugh about.

The Homeschool Mother’s Journal #19

2011-10-28T04:13:00.000-07:00

In my life this week…

This truly has been one of the busiest, most blessed week that I have had in a long time. I have done so much baking and cooking. I have a lot of yummy homemade soups in my freezer for those days that life is busy and I just need to fix something fast. I also ended up with enough pumpkin from our one pumpkin for 6 pies and 3 batches of cookies, which are in my freezer too. I never realized how much I missed having all my kitchen gadgets and large kitchen pots, and bowls, well you know all those essentials in one place. No wonder I could never get in the mood before to do much everything that was kitchen was in storage. I truly have been feeling very content and happy to be settling into all this homemaking.

In our homeschool this week…

Selena continues to learn more all the time. She has finally learned how to read fractions from helping me in the kitchen. It is so fun to be able to ask her for a certain cup and she is able to locate it with such ease. She has even learned the difference between a teaspoon and a tablespoon. Her ability to read recipes and follow the directions continues to expand. She is becoming quite fluent in instructing me on how to make certain recipes with such ease, right down to the temperature of the oven, and how long to set the timer.

Places we’re going and people we’re seeing…

Today is Selena’s first Harvest Party with the homeschool group. She is pretty excited and so proud of the cookies she helped me to bake.

My favorite thing this week was…

Watching Selena clean our pumpkin one seed at a time.

Things I’m working on…

Right now I am just working on some final organization and fine tuning the look and feel of my kitchen.

I’m reading…

I am still slowly reading and working my way through The Mission of Motherhood by Sally Clarkson. Truly there is so much to think about, reflect upon, and dig into God’s word in this book.

I’m cooking…

I think I covered this in my first paragraph. I have enjoyed making so many homemade foods.

I’m grateful for…

My dearest friends who see me through so much, thick and thin and that I truly am able to be there for them.

I’m praying for…

To feel totally at peace with a situation in our Church.

A photo, video, link, or quote to share…

I just love the look on Selena’s face when she got caught playing little mouse trying to eat my pumpkin pies. She did get a few nibbles, along with a long hunt when I hid them from her.

Selena’s Pumpkin Part 2

2011-10-27T04:00:00.000-07:00

After we were all finished, well on Selena’s terms of being finished I cut up and finished cleaning the pumpkin. After getting the first half in to boil, I prepared Selena’s seeds for roasting. I used this recipe from Almost Unschoolers.

While my pumpkin was in my large pot.

The pumpkin seeds were roasting in the oven. When the seeds were done I took them out, and to our surprised Selena loved them. She did share some with Papa.

After my pumpkin cooked I placed it in bowls to cool. Once that was done I began the work of removing the rind and ran it through my blender. This is the yield of pumpkin I got.

From this to

I guess it looks like there will be a part three because my pumpkin was larger then I thought, so by the time I finished all of this I decided I would have to bake another day. Be looking for my pumpkin pie and cookies that Selena has requested. Selena had fun with this entire process except she didn’t like the blender and complained it was too loud. She did however ask at the end what had happened to her pumpkin, thinking it was gone. I chuckled as I showed her, where her pumpkin went, she giggled and said, “That is the funniest looking pumpkin I’ve ever seen.”