Snow Day

Well, it finally happened...in March... It snowed! Yay! The girls have been praying for snow for awhile now and were thankful to finally see some night before last! The snow continued through the evening accumulating to about 3 inches or so at our house - hooray! As a home educator, it's hard to justify a total "snow day", but we did start our school day a little later so the children could get out and play in the snow before it all melted away. (Without proper snow gear, you don't last too long out there - about the time the snow melted through my tennis shoes, I was ready to call it a day!) We had a nice hot breakfast afterward and then commenced our regular routine with periodic snowman breaks to see if our little snowman was still in the back yard. A small pile of snow remained today - amazingly there was still some snow on the ground 24 hours after the initial snowfall - now that's something in our neck of the woods!

I know some folks in other parts of the country are probably a bit tired of snow and ready for Spring, like the folks over at Peakmore Academy, but for us, this was a big treat and now, I agree and am ready for Spring whenever it decides to arrive! (of course last night the weather report said snow again this Friday - we'll see - THAT would REALLY be something to have snow 2 times in one week!). I have to confess, I've never lived anywhere that snow fell and then stayed around for a long time, weeks, etc. and I would like to experience it at least once :) But, as long as we live in Texas, I don't see that happening!

Here are a few pics from early on - later I'll add some more from the day after when the children got to get out and play (the camera is in DH's work zone right now so I can't get the rest of the pics just yet!).


Here we have Mr. Baby and CKB - Mr. Baby is telling CKB all about the weird white stuff he sees falling on Daddy.


And here we have Mr. Baby and CKB showing me how the weird white stuff just sits on top of one's hair - Mr. Baby got a big boy haircut awhile back and his hair refuses to lie down on top producing a mischievous spikey appearance at the crown of his hair - perfect for fluffy snow to sit on don't you think?


Here you see the snow starting to accumulate a little on a piece of plywood that was lying by the fence...from a project last summer...we really should put that away....anyway, they all look to be having a lot of fun! Of COURSE this would be the day that all of Miss E's jeans were in the wash....ahem....oh well, it didn't deter her one bit!



The backyard decor shows some accumulation now as well...a good gauge throughout of how much was falling.... (Mom, THAT'S the jungle gym we got awhile back that I keep forgetting to send you pictures of :) )




Later in the evening as the snow is still falling, you can see we have quite a bit piling up!


Ah yes, the picture is blurry - just a little sidenote, FALLING SNOWFLAKES and AUTOFOCUS do NOT mix! :) Learned that it's best to change over to Manual Focus :)



Hmm, that is why this one is blurry too - sigh - but it's just a pic of the birdfeeder, so I'm not too concerned :)



And our sad little tree looks better w/snow on it than it does with leaves!



More to come when I get the other pics transferred onto the pc....stay tuned!

Announcing a New Blog!

I'd like to invite you to visit a new blog that was recently started by my husband.

The blog is called "Biblical Computing" and deals with Applying Biblical Principles in the Internet Age.

http://biblicalcomputing.blogspot.com/

I hope you will enjoy it as much as I have. I highly recommend starting with the Inaugural post and proceeding from there.

-cab

Mr. E's Birthday Fun!

Mr. E had a wonderful birthday. He started off the day opening up a card from his grandparents and a present from them as well - Rock'em Sock'em Robots! He thinks this is a pretty cool present and has been asking everyone to battle it out with him ever since!



Later in the day we celebrated with blueberry cake and blueberry ice cream, per Mr. E's request. He walked into the kitchen, saw his cake and exclaimed "Mama, you did it just how I wanted!" - Never mind that *I* didn't think it worked out as well as I'd envisioned, in Mr. E's eyes, the cake was perfection. That's all that mattered. The cake was perfect (and yummy too, I might add).




After cake and ice cream, Mr. E opened a few more goodies and was a very happy "Thomasey" boy. He's getting so big!


Oh yes, and did you know you can get just about anything from Crate & Barrel these days?

Who knew?! ;)

Happy Birthday to Mr. E!

Today is Mr. E's birthday - 4 years old - wow, where does the time go?! I can remember this day very clearly 4 years ago - CKB was working 2.5 hours away at that time and after I called him to let him know he needed to come home, he headed out immediately. By the time I got my bag packed (ahem, yes, it still needed to be done at that time), the girls ready to go and drove to the hospital (amidst construction on a bridge we had to cross) CKB arrived only 5 mn. after we did :) That was in the morning. That night, around 11 p.m., Mr. E was born - our first sweet little boy! I never knew how sweet a little boy could be - I pray he always retains some of that sweetness.

Now, for a trip down memory lane....

our newborn babe...so sweet!



3 months - Aggie in training ;)



6 months...our little man



1 year - our bluebonnet baby



2 year - Mr. Personality


3 year - getting so big already! Isn't he handsome? :)



4 years - to be continued....

Happy Anniversary!

Today is CKB and my 8th anniversary!

Happy Anniversary honey!!!

Love,
me :)

Blog Note

Just a note - occasionally I get a little blog crazy and post more than once on a single day - so, in the interest of your not missing one exciting little word, please be sure to always scroll down and make sure you've seen all the posts! I wouldn't want any of you to miss anything...especially since there's a fun little contest like thing that is getting pushed down b/c I just had to do that movie post!

So...after you read, just keep scrolling, scrolling, scrolling, what do we do? we scroooooolllllll....

Movie Monday

I doubt I'll stick to only talking about movies on Mondays, but it just seemed like an appropriate title for THIS particular Monday.

Over the weekend we saw Samantha: An American Girl Holiday and CKB, the girls and I really liked it. It wasn't really Mr. E's thing I guess - he decided to play JumpStart Advantage instead :) (yes, sis, we found it at Target the other day and bought K and 1st - might have to get 2nd and 3rd for Miss E though so she might have a challenge!)


Anyway! We all enjoyed it - I've seen it and/or heard most of it about 4 times now and it's probably time to send it back to Blockbuster! In months past, we also have seen Felicity and Molly and while I would say Molly was my least favorite of the three, and Felicity and Samantha were about equal, the girls like all 3 "the same" :)

I would highly recommend checking them out!

In other movie news - we finally got the My Friends Tigger and Pooh Super Sleuth Christmas Movie (it's been on our Blockbuster Online list for ages...since before Christmas!)


I didn't care for it too much, but the children all watched it...and seemed to like it. That one didn't stay around long enough for 4 viewings. Aside from the fact that I don't care much for the new character, Darby, I mean, what was wrong with Christopher Robin anyway?? I just didn't think it was the greatest movie. You be the judge for yourself though :)

Well, that's about it for movies we've seen recently...more children's movies than anything...but I guess we have to get a few for them now and then, right? ;)

Pay it Forward

Well, I ran across this and thought it might be fun - here's the deal:

I was reading through some blogs today and saw this fun idea. It's called "Pay it Forward: Arts & Crafts Edition." It's pretty simple & easy to participate.

The rules are:

• Anyone with a blog can join.


• The first three people to leave a comment on this post will receive a handmade gift from me. Make sure you leave your email so I can contact you for your mailing address.


• I will send your gift within 365 days.


• In return, you have to pay it forward by making the same promise on your blog.
  

If you want to play, just be one of the first 3 people to comment, and go post the challenge on your own blog. Then sometime this year, a fun, handmade gift from me will appear in your mailbox.

I can't say what it'll be just yet, but hopefully you'll like it!

I'm not much into "trendy" stuff, I just thought this would be a fun thing to do!

Hail amongst other things!

This morning CKB and I awoke to the sound of something hitting the roof of the house. We got up to look and sure enough it was hail! Most of the hail stones were about marble sized, but a few were a tad larger. Went back to bed, but alas, there wasn't time to get back to sleep as Mr. Baby took his cue from the thunder and hail and started to sing his morning song :) Before going in to get him, I took a quick peek out the front door to see if our van still had windshields - yes, thankfully, both vans are intact, just a couple of little paint specks missing on the hood, but it could've been like that before for all I know.

So, our day began amidst some Saturday morning cartoons (Tigger and Pooh, Mickey Mouse Club and Little Einsteins to name a few). After breakfast it was time to check on the sea monkeys...ah yes, the sea monkeys....well, if you recall from my earlier post, the first batch wasn't doing so well and CKB got a second tank w/new supplies inside - fast forward a day or so from then and all of a sudden tank #1 had not 1, but about 5 sea monkeys in it - Hmmm. So, tank #2 is off to a swimming start - ha ha - and now has quite a few little monkeys floating about. Then came Valentine's Day - CKB brought home flowers for each of the girls and gorgeous roses for me - what a great Daddy and husband :) Since boys don't usually get flowers....you guessed it, Mr. E is now the proud owner of his own sea monkey tank - keeping up? That makes 3. After tank #3 was prepared and all set w/the water purifier, CKB brought out a little surprise for Miss A - her own tank as well (no sense waiting 'til her birthday in April when sea monkey fever has already hit the rest of the household - a hot pink tank, no less - and we got it all set up (on the same schedule as Mr. E's) - whew - added the egg/food mixture last night and if you're still keeping up, we now have 4 sea monkey tanks and they ALL have sea monkeys in them...at the moment.

Here's the pink one in the package - and no, we will not be putting sea monkeys in the locket for Miss A to wear - how weird is that anyway?




Good thing these little sea monkey tanks aren't very pricey - now, hopefully these "pets" will be a lot less trouble than our first pet experience a few years ago when we decided to get 2 pet mice for the girls - after one of them bit CKB during a cage cleaning (and one of the 2 original mice died shortly after coming home) - we decided mice just weren't the best pets for us and gave them to some mice-friendly folks who already had a big cage w/a few other mice and were wanting more. So, if these sea monkeys survive and the children do a good job keeping up w/their feeding schedules, maybe, just maybe, we'll get a kitten in a few years - maybe :)

Aren't the little sea monkeys cute?
Well, sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but sea monkeys do NOT look like the cute little cartoons - instead, look here for a nice closeup of what they really look like....eek!

On to other topics - the girls have discovered the fun of the Spirograph ...

and yesterday spent quite a while creating pictures with it and the stencil that came with it. I've had the box sitting on the shelf since before Christmas when I picked it up at Dollar General, but never got it out and showed them how to use it. I figured it was high time! They really like it and it reminds me of the one my sister (and I? can't remember whose it was, but anyway) had when we were kids. By the by, feel free to visit my sister at her new blog now, if you like. Tell her I sent you!



What else...can you tell it's naptime for the wee ones and quiet times for the older children?
Ah...I want to introduce you to one of my new friends, her name is Marie Callender. You don't know her yet? Well, let me tell you, this gal sure can cook! And freeze, and box it up...and well, you get the point. In the interest of my sanity and making sure I eat something decent at lunch when I'm tired of PB&J, I've taken to picking up frozen meals for lunch - through trial and error (first TRYing the cheapest ones, then finding out I didn't care much for the rubbery chicken in some and tiny portions in others), I've found 2 brands that have consistently been winners in my book -
1st - Marie Callender's - the chicken is wonderful and actually tastes like chicken, not a rubbery little cube of who knows what - the alfredo sauce is GOOD, creamy, and wonderful. The 2 varieties I've had so far are: Fettucine with Chicken and Broccoli (pictured below) and (today) Grilled Chicken Alfredo Bake - yummmy. Now, the only bad thing I have to say about Marie is that her meals are a tad high on the lunchtime calorie chart for my liking - what, watching calories? - doesn't hurt to know what you're putting into your body! The 2 I've had were about 600 or so calories. But, they were YUMMY :)


Now, the second brand surprised me - I picked up some of these and didn't realize at first what they really were - they said "Smart Ones" and I really didn't care what they said, but what was inside the red box :) I tend to look for things w/alfredo/chicken/broccoli/fettucine/any pasta really in the title. Turns out these are Weight Watchers - who knew - and are pretty tasty. Again, the chicken tastes like real chicken - imagine that - here are a few I've tried so far that were definitely meals I'd purchase again:
Chicken Enchiladas Suiza (pictured)
Creamy Rigatoni w/Chicken & Broccoli
Fettucini Alfredo
Lasagna Florentine (pretty good, but would probably do better in the oven, rather than microwaving)

These run you about 400 calories - much better and still pretty tasty. Try some, you might like them!



So, for now, this is what I've been doing for lunch and it is nice to not even have to think about lunch too much - just go grab something from the freezer, microwave it and eat with the children instead of taking forever preparing something. For now, this works.


Making things work....now, that's another post for another time!

Encourage them!

This morning I needed to run to the grocery store, a.k.a. Wal-mart, so seeing as CKB works from the house I was able to do so w/o taking all of the children this time. I took the boys with me and while I was gone the girls did their schoolwork, checking off each item on their list (and apparently Miss E took it upon herself to fill my shoes and stand at the dry erase board "teaching" Miss A her Tapestry for the day - oh how I wish I had a video of it! CKB witnessed a tad of it when he came to see who'd rang the doorbell - anyway, next time I have to make a store run I might leave the video camera on - sigh - I'm sure it was a sweet scene w/the girls. So, the boys and I got back around lunchtime and after we finished lunch the girls excitedly brought me some drawings they'd done while I was gone.

"Which do you like best?" Miss A asked as she held up 2 and Miss E held up 1
Sigh.
What does a mother say in such an instance?
I told them I liked them all, but my favorites were the one Miss E had one and one of the 2 that Miss A had done.
They then told me that they were going to "be rich!"
What?
"Yes, we're going to open a little shop when we grow up to sell drawings!" - Miss A states in a VERY ANIMATED voice
"Sounds good!" I say

Hmm.
During their "quiet time" I still can see their excited little faces and think "well, why not?!" so I decide to put their drawings up for auction and see what happens. Now, nothing may come of it, but if it does, great. I asked the girls to title their masterpieces of the day and then put them up as a pair of original art on ebay. Miss E titled hers "The Countryside" and Miss A's is "Snowtime to Play" - so adorable, so sweet, so precious. I wish you could have seen their faces. Oh, the innocence of youth - if only we could hold onto it a little longer.

Well, all this to say that I highly recommend encouraging your children. Now, I have not told the girls about the ebay auction and I won't unless something comes of it, ie, someone does purchase their drawings. Regardless, I feel it extremely important that we, as parents, believe in our children, encourage their endeavors and support them all the way. Whether this be in the form of helping them with a lemonade stand, going with them to sell items for their schools if they're in public schools, freezing at a Girl Scout cookie stand, etc. These precious gifts are just that, precious and today it really struck me that I needed to really encourage them more in everything they do and strive to do!

Reminds me of Ruthie in "One Big Happy" as she endeavors to sell her artwork (although I'm not quite ready for them to sit out on the curb by themselves!)




Stay tuned for information about the book Miss E has been planning for a long time :) She is quite the little poetess!

Do you shelter your children?

Do you shelter your children? I hope so! God gave these wonderful blessings to us to watch over, protect and train up in the way that they should go. The following article hit my inbox today and I felt it worth sharing.

CAB



Can You Shelter a Child TOO Much?
By Gena Suarez

Do you "shelter" your children?

We're finding that's a bad word in some circles. Something is creeping into the church (and even the homeschooling community), and it isn't biblical. It is an "anti-sheltering campaign" of sorts, and it's full of holes. Think about it. What does it mean to shelter? Protect. Defend. Guard. Preserve. Watch over. Shield. Safeguard. Hmmmm, so far so good, right? Sure, until "pop psychology" comes in and tells us we should allow our children to taste a little of the world in order to understand it or pray for it - that we should not "over-shelter" them. Nonsense.

What's the opposite of shelter? Expose. Endanger. We parents are called to be like our Father in Heaven. He is the greatest "Shelterer" there ever was, and it is us He shelters - or watches over; protecting us, preserving us, shielding us. Praise Him for this! Glory to God who knows how to parent (shelter) us perfectly. May we as parents follow this model - His model. Let's continue to shelter (love) our children as He loves us. Dismiss the garbage that crawls in; don't buy it. We're promised there will be false teachers, liars in the church (and there are many). I want to keep my eyes focused on Christ, come what may.

Parents: Keep sheltering them. You are bringing them up in the love and admonition of the Lord, not in the latest "homeschool philosophy." God's word trumps any speaker! It dwarfs any author! May you be blessed as you continue to walk in obedience of His word.

Lord, thank you for sheltering me. Please never stop. "Over-shelter" if You will (if there is such a thing). Fine with me!

Over-protect, over-defend, over-guard me; please do! I'll take it all, Lord. Keep me tight to Your side. I'm safe in that place. There, I can breathe and thrive. It's where I live.

For thou hast been a shelter for me, and a strong tower from the enemy. - Psalms 61:3

Action point: Do you need to repent to someone today for looking down on (judging) them? Have you been a thorn in another parent's side over this issue? Who have you scolded or cryptically "spoken to" about their "overbearance" in regards to their own children? It might be time to humbly pick up the phone or shoot off an email.

Parents who strongly shelter their children are to be praised, not made to feel inadequate or odd. That's the world lying to us, there. And this world is not our home. - Paul & Gena

Sincerely,
Paul and Gena Suarez
Publishers, Owners
www.thehomeschoolmagazine.com

They're ALIVE!

Well, they were....are...sort of.

What, you may ask?

Why, sea monkeys, of course!


Miss E got a little sea monkey kit for Christmas from Mr. E and we followed the instructions last week and ended up with 5, maybe 6 little sea monkeys. After their first tiny feeding, a few days later we have 1 sea monkey. Hmmmm...ok. The packages inside the little tank seemed damp from the get-go so we think that is probably the problem - the poor little sea monkeys probably died an untimely death before we even brought the package home.

So...tonight we picked up another package at the store and we're giving it a second go. The lone sea monkey continues alone in tank #1 and now tank #2 is in the water purification stage. We'll see what happens....in a few days.

What's wrong with this picture?

I recently received a catalog and this item caught my attention - now......this ranks up there w/the vinyl enclosures that come with some strollers these days - Who would think putting their child in a bag and covering their head is a good idea?!?

Pasta anyone? Easy Creamy Pasta Sauce

Tried a new recipe tonight after my original plan for dinner fizzled - what on earth did they do in the "old days" before the Internet existed? I flipped open the laptop, googled "easy creamy pasta sauce" and VOILA! (and it was mmmm, mmm, gooood!)

Try it, you might like it ;)

(I poured it over some ziti (rigate, per the box) noodles and it was YUMMMMY!)

FAST CREAMY PASTA SAUCE

4 tablespoons butter 3 cloves garlic, pressed 1/3 c. grated Parmesan cheese 3/4 c. heavy cream 1/2 tsp. dried basil In a small saucepan, melt butter in oil. Add garlic, cheese, and basil, stirring to blend over medium-low heat. Stir in cream. Makes about 1 cup of sauce that can be tossed on your favorite pasta. For a variation, try adding a can of chicken noodle soup along with your cooked pasta when sauce is done. Heat and serve.

One thing I noticed is that it never said how much oil to use, I just added about 1/4 cup maybe? (I didn't measure it :) )

Also, no cloves of garlic on hand so I used the minced garlic in a jar and put about 3 tsp. or was it tblsp. - hmmm - perhaps "season to taste" would be a good guide :) I like garlic so I probably put a good bit!

I don't know about that last instruction regarding a "variation" - that doesn't sound so great to me, but hey, you might like it!

Happy cooking!

Ramblings on a Wednesday afternoon

Talked to my mom today and found out they had some pretty intense storms in their area of TN last night - tornado activity not too far away from them destroyed part of the mall I used to go to as a child - scary stuff! Praise God that my parents and brother and his family next door were all safe. All my years growing up in TN we would get thunderstorms w/tornado warnings, watches and so on, but never any actual tornadoes - then after I moved away there now have been 2 (at least) times that they actually touched down in/near my parents' home. I've told CKB we used to see those warnings flash across the screen at night and didn't pay them much mind...at least I don't remember thinking too much about them, but then I was a child and w/o a care in the world :)

We've been reading in Genesis again for our Tapestry readings and today we read again about Lot and Lot's wife - the children's eyes were big when we read about Lot's wife being turned to a pillar of salt. They remembered that detail very clearly from the last time we read that passage. Lot's house being compassed about by the wicked men of Sodom also made a big impression. We'll move on to talk about Isaac more later today when we pick up with a little more of our readings - reading Genesis 11-50 in a week is a lot for our "lower/upper grammar" aged bunch!

While we're doing school updates - Miss E is progressing well through her math-u-see Beta book (good thing I ordered Gamma to have on hand for when she finishes Beta!) - Miss A continues to progress through Alpha at a good pace and Mr. E is chugging through the Primer and doing fantastically - he's got the hang of skip counting and is doing great w/the addition facts he's worked through thus far. Everyone's doing well w/their handwriting and we plan to start an actual grammar curriculum very soon. We're working on some other things as well and as always they really enjoy any craft time!

Tomorrow night the girls will be helping make unleaven bread again - this is also part of our Tapestry work for this week (and it doesn't hurt that they all like to eat it!)

In movie news, we came across a movie recently and decided to give it a go - the movie is called "Caddie Woodlawn" - The exciting adventures of an 11-year-old tomboy growing up in the Wisconsin frontier of the 1860s. Based on the children's book.

The movie stars Emily Schulman who you may know from the "Christy" series or various appearances in TV as a child actor - namely a show called "Small Wonder" or some such where she played the child next door to a family w/a robot girl - I vaguely recall seeing this at least once. Anyway, Caddie Woodlawn turned out to be a nice little movie (the children liked it too) - we recommend it! Now, to get the book and see if it'd be ok for our little bookworms!

Birthday Fun

Well, we had a very nice day yesterday - Miss E requested pancakes for breakfast (no problem!) - for lunch she wanted an apple w/peanut butter and some pretzel goldfish (ok) - and for dinner she asked if we could have lasagna (sure thing!) - then the cake and ice cream as requested were strawberry (she decided a tiny bit of frosting would be ok after I gave her a little taste - can't decorate w/o *some* frosting!).

After our yummy treat, Miss E opened some presents and then was off to play!

Happy 7th Birthday to our little Miss!

Happy Birthday Miss E!

Today is our first little ones' birthday - she is 7 years old! Where does the time go?! Seems such a short time since we brought our first blessing home from the hospital. She was such a good baby and continues to be a wonderful blessing in our lives. Take a moment to see how she's changed through the years...ah...memories.....

Miss E at 3 mos. (happened to have this one scanned in)




1 year picture is in a box somewhere, sigh, we didn't have a digital camera at that point so I don't have it "handy" (it was the last picture we had taken by a studio as well, all the photographers ever did was make her cry, so around her 2 year bday, CKB bought me a digital camera and from here on out, we only frequented our Family Photo Studio where I took the pics - ahem - so we'll skip ahead....)


2 years old


3 years old



4 years old (this is not the actual shot we used for her 4 year pic, but I can't seem to find it right now! One of these days I'll get my files organized better!)



5 years old



6 years old



7 year picture is pending time and availability of subject ;) I'll be sure to post it when we find time to take it! (hopefully this will be sometime before she turns 8!)

Now, it's time for me to bake her cake - she has requested a strawberry cake w/NO FROSTING - imagine that! :) We'll see how it turns out...stay tuned :)

Well, January is almost over....

and there's much to tell, like, where on earth have we been lately!

But, that'll have to wait 'til later. For now, let's just say we've been busy traveling :)

Today is the last day for Miss A to wear the splint! Tomorrow she can be free of it and we'll see how she does. Lord willing, all is healed and she will go about her business w/o favoring the arm that was broken.

Tomorrow is Miss E's birthday! My how time does fly. I can hardly believe my first little one is about to be a big 7 year old! Sigh. More on that tomorrow (if I can find the time!)

Just a recap for those new to the blog - the children are referred to on the blog in order of age as:

Miss E
Miss A
Mr. E
and
Mr. Baby (although he's becoming quite the little man and soon we won't be able to get away w/that any more!)

Please don't refer to them by their names on comments b/c I'll have to delete the comment :)

Thanks for your understanding!

Ok, so today is a very blustery day and we're so thankful to have a nice warm house to stay inside! We had a nice fire last night and CKB and I watched the "Bourne Ultimatum" - very good! If you haven't seen this series of 3 movies, we highly recommend you do so!


That's it for now, too much to do around here!!!

Jeans update

Well, as I suspected, but hoped wouldn't happen, most of the decorations started to come off after a wash or two - figures - so, what did I do? Sewed them on like a good mama :) Ah well, that's what we get for trying to be "fancy" - ha ha.

Maybe it was because the iron-ons were old, years old, and maybe they wouldn't have stayed on even if I had just bought them - either way, they're ON now and they darest not come off again!

So, let that be a lesson to you! Don't try to be fancy ;)
(unless, of course, you want to spend a few evenings sewing on do-dads after the children go to bed!)

The cast cometh off!

Well, today was the big day. Cast removal day! Miss A has been counting down the days on a calendar in her room and today was the big day! This afternoon, she and I went off to the Dr. office where her cast was removed, new x-rays were taken and the Dr. said she was healing nicely - new bone was growing where the fracture was and she did not need another cast. Yay! She will wear the splint for a couple of weeks and at the end of two more weeks, if all seems well, she will be able to stop wearing it and resume all manner of horseplay, ha ha!

Aside from her arm being a bit stiff from being bent for 2.5 weeks, she seems to be doing great and enjoyed a nice cold Frosty on the way home :)

Way to go, Miss A!

In light of recent events....

We naturally found this article extremely disturbing....

click on link below:
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=59566


Lord, help us.

Miss Fancy Pants x 2

Well, on our Thanksgiving trip we experienced our first hole in the knee of some jeans w/the children. Miss E was jumping on the trampoline at our host's home and when she got down, she had a hole in the knee of her jeans - hmm, it just happened, I hadn't noticed them being threadbare or anything....of course, with all the laundry around here, who has time to inspect knees of jeans?

Anyway, so we commenced preparations to patch said knee. The split went all the way across the knee area so a 'traditional' patch like the ones my Mom used to use just didn't seem like it would be big enough. Aha, how about a square of fabric - special fabric that Miss E picked out by herself...a trip to Hobby Lobby later and we had a quarter or maybe an eighth, I don't remember, of cute fabric that she chose. About this time, I noticed that Miss E's jeans were looking a tad too snug for my liking and we purchased one pair in the next size to see if she was ready for them. Yes, of course she was. So, all of her jeans immediately went to Miss A, who incidentally was ready for them as well, and Miss E got a couple more pairs of the larger size.

Now, that knee that needed to be patched belonged to Miss A now. Sigh. Did she want to use the same fabric? No, of course not :) Thankfully I had some fabric on hand that was perfect for her. So commenced my journey into jean patching...and decorating.

I dragged out my sewing machine from the box it was still sitting in (and has been in for the past 1.5 years - it was temporarily lost for a year in the garage between the past couple of moves, but relocated in the most recent) and commenced searching for thread and such. In the process, I ran across some cute decorative iron-ons I had purchased somewhere along the way a few years ago and thought it might be fun to put those on another pair of jeans - you just iron them on, right?

Well, the iron-ons went quickly and looked pretty cute - here are a pair I did for each of the girls:




Then a few more iron-ons - I think we might run out of jeans before we run out of decorations:



Then, the knee still needed to be patched so I cut out a square of "Princess" fabric for Miss A and sewed it on later in the evening. The next day I found more iron-ons, one of which had a "PRINCESS" iron-on included so I added that to the other leg and then upon closer inspection saw that the other knee was wearing pretty thin, so I might as well go ahead and patch it now - save time, right? Ha ha.

And, what of that original fabric purchased for Miss E's jeans (when they were still her jeans?) - well, can't let that go to waste, so we decorated another pair of Miss E's new jeans:



Fast forward a couple of days - Miss E wore the horse/cowboy jeans and they go through the wash. Yep, you guessed it - the iron-ons came partially off. Argh. What was I doing last night? Sewing them on so they would stay. (hence the black thread dangling aside the jeans in the pic above) So much for simple and easy :) But, they're still pretty cute so I guess it's worth it :)

Oh, I forgot to mention - the jeans w/the fabric squares on them - aside from that first princess patch that I actually sewed on by hand all the way around in tiny tiny stitches....I bought some "stitch witchery" and used it to "iron on" the patches and surrounding ribbon - those haven't gone through the wash yet - I'm holding my breath, well, not literally, but I sure hope they hold up better than the little iron-ons did! I'll keep you posted ;)

If you've got bananas (that are very ripe), you make...

Banana cake, of course...and banana pudding....and if you have time, banana bread....and...well, I didn't have time for that last one so the last few bananas went by the wayside, but this past week we "mislaid" some bananas and then, ahem, found them in a very spotty and ripe state - so much for quiet time for me this past Thursday - it was BAKING TIME! and COOKING TIME and....still quiet time :) Just, I was cooking and baking instead of crocheting, reading, cleaning, washing dishes, doing laundry...you get the picture. So, voila! We had banana pudding for dessert Thursday and banana cake for dessert Friday, Saturday and tonight we finished it off. And what did we have with it? Homemade vanilla bean ice cream, yum yum. We bought some vanilla beans not too long ago and have been wanting to make vanilla bean and the time had come to do so! I must say it was good, but not as good as Bluebell. Oh well, you can't win on them all!

Here's our cake - sorry, no pics of the pudding, it was devoured in one sitting, nor the ice cream, just plain 'ol forgot to take a pic - too busy eating it ;)

Movie Time

We recently saw a preview for this movie, "The Ultimate Gift" and thought it looked interesting. Then, we heard from my Dad that my sister had recommended it to him. I added it to our movie list and we received it the other day. Last night we watched it. It was a wonderful movie - I highly recommended it and suggest you keep the tissue box nearby.

About the movie:
Jason thought his inheritance was going to be the gift of money and lots of it. Was he ever in for a big surprise. Based on the best-selling book "The Ultimate Gift" by Jim Stovall, the story sends trust fund baby Jason Stevens on an improbable journey of discovery, having to answer the ultimate question: "What is the relationship between wealth and happiness?"

Ok, and on a lighter note - are you a "Lord of the Rings" fan? :) Have children? No? Well, that's ok too, you'll enjoy this just as much as they will, but for different reasons (if you're a fan!) -

We watched "Lord of the Beans" this past week and while the children thought it was fun, CKB and I laughed out loud quite a few times - this is a great movie for everyone especially if the parents are fans of the original. Go and rent it, NOW! Even if you don't have children!

Update on Miss A and her fracture

Well, Monday we went to the orthopedic doctor and found out that Miss A needed a cast. After she won another round of Uno (cheered on by her Dr.), we went to casting down the hall where she picked her color and casting commenced. I have to admit that it was an interesting experience - I've never had a cast so I didn't know what to expect...plaster perhaps...but no, first there was a mesh type "sock" that covered her arm, then some super soft gauze cottony stuff was rolled onto her arm all the way up. Next came the super bright pink "cast" material which came on a roll - go figure - the man doing the casting got the pink roll wet and commenced wrapping up her arm. After one roll that encased the entire area of her arm that was being cast (a "long arm" cast) - he asked "Is she pretty spirited?" I chuckled and replied, yes, not to mention that she has a 20 mo. old little brother at home who is constantly trying to bang his toy hammer on anything and anyONE in his way" :) He replied "I'll make it a little stronger then" :) So, roll #2 came out and her arm was wrapped again. Arm placed back in the sling and off we went - it hardened up pretty quickly and I don't think Mr. Baby can hurt it...I don't think...

Even though her favorite color has been purple for a long time, she chose HOT PINK :)

Here she is - ta-da!



Ah yes, notice her shirt? :) The man doing the casting (no idea what his technical title would be) was a longhorn - ha ha ha - oh well :) Gig 'em Aggies!

After we got home and had dinner, I was honored to be the first one to sign her cast.


She requested Daddy be second



Then her big sister, Miss E


and brother, Mr. E with a little help from Daddy since Mr. E tends to write his name VERY LARGE at times :)




and even baby brother got in the act





Here is the finished product after Mama and Daddy had signed - we'll not show the final result since it shows everyone's names.


So, now we wait. I printed up a January calendar and posted it on the wall beside Miss A's bed for her to mark off the days until the cast comes off - 3 weeks from the date she broke her arm. Sigh. So far it hasn't seemed to phase her a bit :) NOW, to just get through the next few weeks without it getting wet at all - sigh - that should be fun!

Homeschool Humor

This is too funny - enjoy!

http://www.doublesharpevideo.com/HomeSchool2/Homeschool2.html