Hodge Podge

I have been taking a little break from so many computer things. I can see the blessing in the computer and also the curse if it all gets out of balance. Anyway, we have been very busy around here with school and the holidays.

Now to be honest, I'm not a great player and really wasn't when I was a child. I could read all day to my children and teach them things. I can get them involved in working and cooking with me. Right now I'm working on playing with my children or should I say enjoy playing with them. I've always enjoyed playing games like Chutes and Ladders, I guess because I felt like it was teaching them something. I've never really enjoyed doll house or playing trains.

We've been playing with balls in our basement and I've really enjoyed this. We toss them, bounce them, throw them in baskets, try to dribble them. Today we are going to go outside and try our hand at kick ball. Best of all, I'm enjoying playing with my children.

Thankful Thursday

Today I am thanking the Lord for my salvation. I was born again on March 13, 1991. I can remember hearing preaching and people talking about how long they've been saved and it would seem like such a long time. Now when I say I've been saved for 17 years, I'm like wow! The Lord is so good to me and I'm rejoicing today in His love and mercy for me. To see what others are thankful for head over to Sting My Heart.

Worldless Wednesday-God's Creation

Tightwad Tuesday-Freezing Bananas

This is my first time joining Tightwad Tuesday. My tip is to buy your banans when they're discounted. I've gotten bananas for 5 cents a pound before. At first I was peeling them and putting them in freezer bags. This is a great idea if you want to use them in a smoothie.

Since it's winter though I use bananas much more in baking. Just throw the whole banana peel and all in a freezer bag, then you can thaw them on the counter when you want to use them to bake. They look disgusting, but they just slide right out of the peel once it's opened. We use them a ton to make banana chocolate chip muffins and banana bread.

When you have a banana that's overly ripe, just throw it into your bag with frozen bananas. No waste at all. This way you won't have to buy bananas for baking and wait for them to ripen up. You can bake with bananas on the spur of the moment.

Happy Anniversary!

Happy Anniversary, Dad and Mom!!My parents were married 29 years ago today. This is a great feat in the times that we live in. It probably shouldn't be that way, but it is. Mom and Dad you have come through many challenges and I hope you realize those challenges have made you who you both are today.

I just want you to know that I appreciate all you're done for me as my parents, and most importantly all you've done for me as my friends. You're always there when I need you and you're a wonderful granny and grampy to John and Gracie. My prayer is that you'll have another blessed 29 years. Stay strong, love each other in the good and bad times, and stay close to the Lord.

I LOVE YOU BOTH!!!

What Type of Mother Hen are You?

What type of Mother Hen Are You?
by Montessorimom.com: Educational Resource

The answer totally shocked me. Anyone who knows me would probably be shocked too. I am so black and white, but I also know in ways I'm an odd ball in the society we live in. I just think this is hilarious. Why don't you check out what type of mother hen you are?

Dinner Celebration for Owl Moon

Tonight we celebrated the end of our first book that we rowed. The title is Owl Moon. Our recipes came from Becky Jane’s FIAR Cookbook. We're cooking up chili and corn bread muffins. John and Gracie both love to help me in the kitchen and I know that it's good for them. Maybe I'll eventually work myself out of a job.

I actually let Gracie pour the buttermilk into the measuring cup. This made me a little nervous, but she did an excellent job. I think my reading the book, "Mommy, Teach Me" really helped me take the plunge on letting her do it. I'll talk about that book more in another post.

John really does an excellent job in the kitchen. My mom is the one who started him cooking and helping her out what seems like ages ago. She says she did the same thing when I was little, but I don't remember it at all. Sorry, Mom. Sometimes it's discouraging thinking about all the things we do as mothers and they'll never be remembered, but we have to remember the bond we create will last forever.

I definitely gave John and Gracie a talk on how dangerous the grater could be, but they did such a good job. Plus they had fun grating a little for themselves to snack on. We talked a lot about measuring like we always do when we cook. I showed them how to level off the dry ingredients. We also had lots of exposure to fractions too with 1/4 cup and 1/2 tsp. etc. This is real Math in action.
Check out these eggs. They're green. John and Gracie get a real kick out of them and I love the fact that they're fresh eggs from chickens that are allowed to roam around free. John can crack the egg and put it in the bowl, but poor Gracie only cracks it. She doesn't like to get her hands dirty, another thing my mom says is like me when I was little. She said I use to cry when I'd get dirty. Thankfully, Gracie is not that bad.

Here's the results of all our labor. It's terrible to say that I've never made homemade corn muffins before. I've always used the ones out of Jiffy box. They weren't hard to make at all. They weren't sweet like the ones from the box though, but everyone sure ate them up.

Here is Gracie with her muffin.John with his yummy chili. Now I know the pictures with the children drinking I'm going to take some flack for from some family members, but this was a special occasion. Yes, the children are drinking Root Beer Floats. Now for those of you who don't know me personally, my children have never drank pop before (except for the time Aunt Nene snuck John some when he was really small). Anyway, I digress. John really liked it, but poor Gracie kept saying that it was hot.


Gracie drank some, but didn't like the pop at all, so I just removed the ice cream and she ate that. It made this momma happy that she didn't like it :) The cup Gracie is drinking out of was mine when I was little. I do remember it, Mom. It's a Kool-Aid man cup. Does anyone remember those? My poor children don't even know what Kool-Aid is.
Everything was really good tonight and I feel really good about making special memories with my children. Even if they don't remember it, I will.

Our Read Aloud

We love to read books here, and personally I think it's hard to find really good wholesome books for my dear children. I know this is going to sound like bragging, but by the time John was 8 months he would sit for atleast an hour and listen to me read. Gracie by the time she was 8 months would sit for an hour and a half.

I don't mean it as a brag at all, but as a way to encourage you to read aloud to your children. It is so important. I can remember John being six weeks old and reading him books. Amos would come home from work and I'd say I felt like I was going to lose my mind reading, talking, and singing to this baby. I really was just missing adult interaction, but I wouldn't trade those days for the world now. Why? My children love to read as a result. This was so important to me. I've heard adults say they don't read the Bible because they don't like to read. I didn't want that for my children.

Right now our longer read aloud is "Winter with the Moodys". John and Gracie love these books. This one is the third in a series although they can be read individually. If you're looking for some good, wholesome books then these are it.

The family in the books is the Moody family. They are a homeschooling family with 4 children, Max, Mitch, Molly, and Maddie. The parents are Jim and Emily. You'll learn about some of their adventures in starting their own businesses, making each other presents, and witnessing to people. You'll also get to join in on their family devotions.

John and Gracie pretend that they're the Moody family all the time. They want me to join in too. There's nothing in these books you wouldn't want your dear children to hear. It's a win-win situation. You read to your children and they learn great values.

Wordless Wednesday-A Fun Daddy

Our Trip to Kentucky

This past weekend we were able to take a trip to Kentucky to see Amos' grandparents. We had a really good time. Happy Papaw always has lots of stories to tell and Grandma Betty is a really good cook. Before we left, we didn't know if we were going to be able to make the trip or not and John said he really wanted to go because Grandma Betty was such a good cook, and that she is. The children would say, "Happy Papaw, tell us another story about.." These are memories to always cherish.

Gracie with Grandma Betty's Doll. They both are doll lovers.

Are you wondering why we call him Happy Papaw? Well, he is a happy fellow, but here's the real story. Amos says when they were growing up that his mom use to call her dad Pappy, but they thought she was saying Happy, so the name stuck.

We were also able to go see our dear friends the Rowe's. They have a very beautiful place. They made us feel so welcome. John and Gracie enjoyed playing with Mrs. Rowe's toys and she let them take the toys in the picture below home. Plus she fed them cookies like only a grandma would. Next time we hope to spend more time at their house.

From the Rowe's house we headed to the Kentucky Horse Park. Amos has been several times, but the children and I have never been. The Lord really blessed us with a beautiful day. Gracie is such a horse lover and instinctively gallops around the house like a horse. She had fallen asleep on the drive to the horse park, but woke up very quickly when she found out where we were.

Gracie rocking on the horse with daddy by her side.

John loves fountains and he had to see this one twice.

This is the first horse we stumbled upon and he seemed very interested in eating. We didn't have anything for him to eat, but we all really wanted to pet him. The other horses in this corral were not interested in us petting them, so we stuck it out with this one.

The horse eventually tried to take a bite of John's coat.

Gracie is as happy as a pig in slop.

The happy little girl.

The little man

My three best friends

To be honest there were not a lot of horses in their stalls, and I was a little disappointed, but I did not say anything. The children were so excited and happy with everything they saw. I could have ruined this by talking about how I was disappointed. I kept this to myself and we all had a great time. It's a good lesson to remember that if "Mama aint happy then aint nobody happy".

I do hope to go back when they have horse shows and you can ride the horses. Gracie would love this.

Our Zoo Trip

The weather here was so beautiful today. When Gracie got up I told her how nice it was outside and she asked if we could go to the zoo. My answer was yes. We were going to try and go last week, but the weather man missed the mark. So today was the day.

Gracie loves elephants and today we learned that elephants wear sunscreen to protect their sensitive skin. Their sunscreen is the dirt that they throw up on their backs. All three of the elephants we saw today had "sunscreen" on and we got to see one applying his "sunscreen".

This bird was outside and not caged in at all. When we approached him he was preening himself. He then whistled at us. That was really cool, so I started talking to him calling him pretty bird and the like. Then he said hello to us. John and Gracie both loved this, for that matter, so did I.

Here are the two sweeties. We saw all kinds of statues today which was great. In Owl Moon (the FIAR book we're rowing) it talks about the trees being like statues. I think this really cemented the idea in the children's heads.

We also got to see the owl which I'll post pictures of later when I post what we're doing with Owl Moon. I'm so glad I've been able to figure out how to post these pictures.

Making Your Home a Haven

Today we are joining Crystal over at Biblical Womanhood in her Making Your Home a Haven Challenge. We are going to take a different approach to this today. We have some beautiful weather today, so we're heading out. We won't mess up the house when we're not here. Seriously, sometimes I think your home is a lot happier when you can get out on just do something fun together. Since we have gorgeous weather and we're rowing Owl Moon from Five in a Row we are so excited to be seeing an owl in person today. We'll also enjoy the sun on our faces and the wind in our hair. We're making our home a haven by having the inhabitants enjoy a fun day together. If you're blessed with wonderful weather take your children out and enjoy it. Tomorrow when the weather is nasty (like it's suppose to be here) then you can work on that pile of papers.

A Fun Idea

We are back from our short trip to Kentucky. I'm hoping to post some pictures on this blog from our trip, that is if I can figure out how to do it. Anyway, I thought I would post a fun idea that I sometimes do with my children. I don't know where I got this idea, but it is not original with me. The winter has been long, so sometimes when it's not nice enough to go outside then we do outside things inside. One of these is blowing bubbles. When the children are in the bathtub for their baths we will all blow bubbles in the tub. It's so much fun. So the next time your littles are in the tub don't forget the bubbles.