Hold the Rotten Tomatoes...

(I started this post a couple of days ago, and now is when I finished it.)

Hi. *head hung low* I know I haven't been around much lately. It just feels like I have nothing to give right now. I'm a mush ball at the end of my day, which has been ending very late by the way. As my beloved and I were getting ready for bed a couple of nights ago, I told him, " I think I'm going to give up the blog." As it was coming out of my mouth I couldn't help but laugh. If I were to go back to the beginning of my blog and look at the weeks surrounding Britney's evaluations, I have a post that mentions giving up the blog, or cutting back to a couple of times a week, etc. I should learn by now that it is a phase I go through of feeling completely overwhelmed after she gets a new set of therapy activities.
So for now I will continue with Sew Crafty Friday and shoot for at least one or two other days during the week. There are so many things I would like to share..... Once I get into the swing of it all I will try to go back to my blogging schedule.
I'm off to go bathe our cat. It looks like she might be taking her final trip to the vet soon. She might have a tumor in her mouth, which is now deformed, and she has stopped eating. She is full of saliva. ;0(

Mappin' It Out Monday

Below was a somewhat scattered list that I sent to Heavenly Homemakers this morning of what needed to get done in my home today. I didn't list the afternoon and evening chores. I really didn't mean to neglect the blog today. Look at the last to do of my morning chore list. You see, it was there waiting for me to do it. *sigh*

MORNING CHORE LIST
put away dishes
wash dishes
wipe down ledge
clear off counters
wipe down counters
wipe down dining room
put load of the day to wash
put load of the day to dry
fold load of the day
put away load of the day
put down rugs in children's bathroom
sweep up dog food in master bathroom
put up blog post


Britney's Therapy Activities
occlude left ear
auditory digit spans
visual digit spans
deep pressure
finger isometrics
fusion & pursuits
spin
new practice reader
clothes pin races
auditory digit spans
visual digit spans
phonics review
copy work w/ grip
auditory digit spans
cross crawl
sprints w/ weights
echo reading
auditory digit spans
Math-U-See
narration
play catch on trampoline
auditory digit spans
visual digit spans
deep pressure
finger isometrics
cross creep
auditory digit spans
sprints w/ weights
log rolls
spectrum math
narration
auditory digit spans
cross lizard
math process review
auditory digit spans
memory work
memory work
book on tape
book on tape
Brit reads aloud
Samonas
pinhole glasses
pinhole glasses

Kayla's School
Bible
Math
Copy work
Health
Lapbook

Today was Britney's first day of new activities. It was a doozie. One of the things on her list is to learn one phonics rule a day. You see, academically that is one thing Britney excels at, is reading. She read about 2 grade levels above where she should be. However, it is all by sight. She doesn't know how to read using phonics yet. She reads beautifully. I have no complaints. I was told when she got a 6 on her auditory digit spans we could start phonics. She is teetering between 5 and 6 right now. Maybe I should just pull out what I used for Kayla and see how it works out for her. Anyone in love with their phonics program?

Just in case you want to know what an auditory digit span is, I simply say a sequence of numbers, letters, syllables, etc, slowly, at the rate of about one digit every 2 seconds. For instance, I say "3, 8, 5, 9, 1". Britney would then have to repeat it back to me in the same order. The sequence was of 5 digits. So if she could repeat it back to me, she would have an auditory digit span of 5. I do it 8 times a day with her for a duration of 2 minutes each.

"Up until the age of 6, the auditory digit span usually correlates with the age of the child: a one year old can do 1 digit, 2 year old 2 digits, 3 year old 3..... up until the 6 year old. A child must have an auditory digit span of 6 or better to really take off with phonics. A child with low auditory processing, trying to learn to read using phonics, will sound out the first part of the word, sound out the last part of the word and guess at the middle."

I got the above paragraph from here , just in case you wanted to read up more on it. I can't vouch for the site, as I just used a search engine, and they described what an auditory digit span was pretty good. ;0)

So my goal for this week is to get Britney started on some phonics. I'm still trying to up my water intake. How pathetic am I with my water. ;0(

Oh, we're also having a family meeting tomorrow on prompt, cheerful obedience. We're still working on that as well. That might be an ongoing thing, and then I can just add a different character quality on the side. ;0)

Sew Crafty Friday

I mentioned yesterday that I have been cleaning and decluttering in order to get ready for Britney's new set of activities, which I will start with her on Monday. As I was going through my closet, I found these. I'm not sure if any of you remember, but I started to make afghans for Kayla and Britney. Britney is getting the granny square afghan, and Kayla was getting the striped one. I was busy this week, so I only got that top color, blue mint I think it's called, on the striped one done



This is what it is supposed to look like when it's done, the afghan pictured on the right.

So tell me, what have you done lately? You could share anything that you have sewed, knitted, crocheted, scrapbooked, etc. We like to see it all!! Just leave your blog linked up in the Mr. Linky below. Leave a quick one sentence blurb on your blog leading people back here. The only reason I ask you to link back here is so that others may possibly be able to join. The more the merrier. If you don't have a blog, or are making it as a gift for someone, just email me your pictures, and I will post them here. Happy Crafting!!

My Seasoned Garden Readers

I was out in the yard looking for lizards with the boys when I spotted something in the garden.

Can someone who has grown broccoli, please, please, please, tell me this is broccoli growing. Since I planted them last year I have been staring at this plant waiting for something to happen. I'm not sure if it was the heat or not, but nothing ever happened. Sure enough we had a tiny bit of cold weather, and now this. So is it? Is it broccoli?

Here is a close up, just in case you needed a better look. You can also click to enlarge.

Well, now that I have you visiting at my garden, this is my pepper plant from last year. Do I just let it continue to grow? Will more peppers grow, or do I need to yank it out and plant a new pepper plant? It's looking kind of lanky and pathetic. Do you think it will fill out?

On a good note, our parsley is growing pretty good. YAY for herbs. They seem to be the easiest to grow.
Thank you so much for any light you can shed on this newbie gardener. This technically should have been posted on Tuesday, huh? ;0)

Life

Imagine that, LIFE got in the way of blogging. The nerve!!

Britney had her eval, and I've been fooling around with her activities, which total 3 hours and 47 minutes. That doesn't count all the in between time transitioning from one activity to the next. If it only takes one minute to transition to the next activity, that's one hour alone. It sometimes take a few minutes of transitioning from one activity to the next, as one activity might require going outside with little weights on her ankles. So I'm trying to put them in a order that will minimize that transitional time. We will be starting those activities on Monday, so I'm also trying to get the house as decluttered as possible, in order to minimize cleaning time. Little attentions often make such a huge difference.

I have a good amount of questions to answer from you lovely ladies. Some questions are on the house, lapbooking, etc. I'm hoping to get back on the blogging routine I put together next week. I'm hoping to be back in a little while with some answered questions and a somewhat spiritual post that involved my beloved getting scammed. ;0)

Mappin' It Out Monday

Thanks for all the suggestions on names. Thank you, Roberta, who even took the time out to look in the thesaurus for me. You ladies are the best. My beloved's friend came over today because he needed help with a business plan. Since we don't have wireless, I unplugged the DSL from my PC to give it to him for his laptop. My beloved has one of those wireless plug in card things for his laptop, so it all worked out. It left me without internet for a nice chunk of the day, but that's okay. I was busy enough as it was. ;0)



Britney has to go to get evaluated again for a new set of activities for her therapy soon. It got me thinking about a few things. If she gets evaluated every 4 months, maybe I should evaluate all the children every four months and see what or where they need help. It doesn't necessarily have to only be academically, it could be spiritually as well. Anyway, as I was doing some of those evaluations today, I noticed that Kayla doesn't form some of her letters correctly. I think in the long run it is hurting her, as it slows her writing down. I wanted to share some websites I found that, I hope, might be of interest to some of you. I found some animated letters. It shows you how to form the letters, like in which order the parts of the letter should be written. You just have to click on each letter, and it takes you to the animated part. I also included a link to some blank dotted lines. The last link is a website that allows you to type up whatever you want, it comes out in dotted letters, and then you can print it up. How neat is that? I can definitely use that for the younger three when they are ready for it. Even for the lapbooks, you can type up headings, etc. for them to trace. I included both cursive and manuscript.

Animated Cursive Uppercase

Animated Cursive Lowercase

Practice Sheets

Animated Uppercase Manuscript

Animated Lowercase Manuscript

Create Your Own

So this week I will take a good, hard look at each child and write down their strengths and weaknesses both academically and spiritually. I remember listening to a tape on parenting that used a gardening analogy when it came to the childrens' character traits. They said we need to pull the weeds out on the negative character traits, and plant the opposite character quality in its place. So if my child is prideful, yank it out, and plant seeds of humility in its place. Sounds good to me!!

So although this might sound like something that I should have posted on Wed., when I post about the children, it is my goal for this week. I already see some areas, school wise, that I might have dropped some stitches on. It's time to backtrack a bit and pick those stitches up. I'm actually a little scared to look at the final list for each child. I'm scared of the work that lies ahead for us. I know with the Lord's help all will be okay. I'm hoping my beloved will be so bold as to evaluate me. He's normally too nice about it. I wouldn't mind some honest, heart wrenching criticism on my helpmeet, mothering, and homemaking skills....or lack thereof. Does anyone else do this, or something similar?

Another Sew Crafty Participant

Hi again. These pictures are from Amy. Amy's blog is private, therefore she can't link up. She said these are pictures of her purse made out of old jeans. She is actually the daughter of Winters Edge Home

She did a great job!! What a great way to recycle.

Sew Crafty Friday

EDITED TO ADD: I added a picture from Mrs. T.



This is from Mrs. T. I didn't link to her blog, just in case someone forgets and leaves her a comment over there. She is making these quilts for her children. It's a surprise. She doesn't want them to accidentally see it, so I am posting it for her here. If you want to leave her a comment, just leave it in my comments section. Hopefully she will check there for them. She is making 3 of them. The description below is from her

"This is made out of 3 different flannel plaids with white flannel filler. It's the first time I've ever attempted such a project, and think this isn't too bad for the first try. In the photo, the quilt is folded in half. It's a throw size quilt, plenty large enough to stay warm with. I used white flannel for the filler in the squares because that was what I had on hand. For the next two, I'm using a sort of oatmeal colored flannel and think I will like that even better."




Another week, another craft to share. ;0) Before you continue to read, please grab your shades. I don't believe I have ever shared this before. My daughter picked this yarn. It's a little loud. ;0) How could I resist, she just loved all the colors. It's a little bag.

You close it by putting the looped side through a small opening on the other side.

You loop it right through. It really is a small little bag. As you can tell, it wasn't a very crafty week. ;0)

Here is a link to the bag pattern. She has lots of free patterns at her main site . I hope you enjoy it as much as I did the first time I found it.

I have my post from yesterday, I hope you don't mind if I send it today. It was on my list of to do's, and I never got around to publishing it yesterday. ;0(

So tell me, what have you done lately? You could share anything that you have sewed, knitted, crocheted, scrapbooked, etc. We like to see it all!! Just leave your blog linked up in the Mr. Linky below. Write leave a quick one sentence blurb on your blog leading people back here. The only reason I ask you to link back here is so that others may possibly be able to join. The more the merrier. If you don't have a blog, or are making it as a gift for someone, just email me your pictures, and I will post them here. Happy Crafting!!

Robin Lapbook

As punishment for disobeying....

cutting our lawn with scissors. Hmm...good for the environment too. I'm kidding, I'm kidding. You'll see below why the boys were cutting some grass.

Here is Micah's robin lapbook. I only shared one, as they are pretty much identical, aside from their coloring and pasting. You can click the photos to enlarge.

This is what it looks like when you open the two side flaps.

And the extension. There are some empty spots on the side. We are waiting to go visit a spot that my beloved said he knows there are lots of robins. We need to ride our bike there, though, so we're shooting for Sunday.

We did some new vocabulary words that were used in the book.

Here are some examples of what robins eat.

This is why the boys were cutting some grass. ;0)

The grass has since dried up a bit.

This was one of my favorites, as well as theirs. They had lots of fun measuring, and learning about inches.

I just threaded it through the cardstock and knotted it on the back.

I might try to do this with any animal lapbook we do.

This is a picture of a robin with all the labels. Look at those dirty little hands. I told you, he is constantly digging and looking for bugs.

This was fun as well, as it led into discussions on different states and countries. The colored areas are where robins live.

We also had fun trying to imitate the different calls of a robin. We even found a website that allows you to listen to the different calls. It has a chart for you to print up and check off as you hear the robin make those calls. I'm hoping to take one with us when we go on Sunday.

The animal report that is supposed to go in this pocket was a little more detailed, but I figured I could put the calls in there instead. I'm sure there are no lapbook police out there waiting for me.

Here we have the size of a robin egg, and the development of a bird embryo.

Lots of gluing with this, but they enjoyed seeing how it developed.

TA DA!! then it hatches.

It was nice doing something else aside from fish or lizards. ;0) I think that's the only way I can them to do a lapbook on something else, if we base it on a book. It's also a little faster.

I guess I will hold on to my post from yesterday. The internet was giving me problems, but it is now fixed. I can always just post it next Tuesday. It wasn't terribly exciting, as it was on coupons. Maybe I can try it out on Sunday, and have a more informative post.

URGH!!

Having internet problems. Should be up and running somewhere between 10:00 and 1:00.

I Need a Snappy Name for Monday's!!

My day continued to stay two steps ahead of me today. ;0) Roberta, if only my kitchen sink looked at clean as my floor, huh?

Happy Week!! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend. Last week was an experience. I'm including in there up through the weekend.(now that I think about it, today included, lol) We made it by with..... a loose tooth(I have to take Micah to the dentist tomorrow to see if it needs to be pulled, as he banged it. Thankfully it's a baby tooth), a bald spot on the back of the head(cut by the child),
a spider (unbeknownst to me)brought into the house as a pet, and finding a fish in the bathtub(the fish even had water to swim in). Wow, now that I think about it, it ALL involved the same child. Hmm....

How was your week?

After writing the above paragraph, I'm thinking I need to stay focused on the character quality from last week, which was obedience. What do you think? (I wrote this last night, and after the day I had today, we will definitely continue on with obedience as the character trait of the week) ;0) I don't know what has gotten into Micah lately, but I find he's being kind of sneaky. The weird kind of thing is that ALL the sneakiness is animal related. This child, eat, breathes, sleeps, talks animals all day long. We're vegetarian, but you know what I mean. He has animals on his mind all day long no matter what he is doing. He spots them everywhere. We visited a church a couple of Sabbaths ago, and he caught two lizards as we walked down the walkway to the church, and then found an ant once we got inside. Like I said, I found a fish in my bathtub this weekend. My beloved took all the children outside with him to walk the dogs. When he was done he said, "okay, everyone inside." Micah was the first one to come inside. Instantly my beloved knew something wasn't right, as Micah is normally the last one in, as he dawdles all the way to the door, with his eyes darting everywhere to catch a glimpse of a gecko, toad, or lizard. My beloved said, "Micah, stop. Do you have something in your hands?" Sure enough, he had some orange bug. (it was pretty cool looking, if I might add) He doesn't want to hurt them, he just wants to hold them and look at them, etc. You would think we deprive him of outside or nature time? He has no interest in our cats or dogs, it's the insects and reptiles that fascinate him. However, the fascination is causing him to disobey. He knows he is not supposed to take the worms out the worm bin. Today he was playing with two worms in his closet. He also tried catching one of his fish and putting him into a container to get a better look at him. The charcoal from the filter all over his bedroom floor was a nice giveaway. Anyway, you get the point. So for now, we will continue to focus on disobedience. I will say that by the end of the day(he's in bed already) he came up to me and asked, "Mom, can I look at the worms in the worm bin. I was going to go do it, but then I remembered, and I didn't want to be sneaky. I thought I would ask you instead." I of course said yes, as my heart melted. I am such a pushover. I figured it was a reward for not being sneaky, and asking beforehand. Is that wrong? Hopefully next week we can move on to the next character quality.

As far as some sort of learning , the boys are working on a lapbook based on this book:


It's by the same company as the robin one we did last week. I'm hoping to share their robin lapbook later on in the week. These little books are so nice. The pictures are very clear. The wording is simple, yet it has a glossary section with some harder words that we can use for the lapbook. It has a map section showing where the animals lives, and a picture of the animal, with labels all around. I will show more on that when I share pictures of the lapbook.

I didn't realize how much prep work there is to make Britney's lapbook a reality with the Little House books. I'm still thinking about this one. I actually felt like stopping even before I started, and maybe doing an Esther or Ruth lapbook with her instead. I don't know. I wanted to do something simple with her first, just to wet her appetite.

My beloved and I feel like we are having a hard time with family worship. It seems like it's either too simple for Kayla, or if not, it's too hard for the boys and Brit. Does anyone here use a family Bible lesson that suits both older and younger children? I have both versions of the Family Bible Lessons that we are using. One is for younger children, and one is for older children. I can't seem to mesh the two. Does anyone have any suggestions?


I'm still not doing too good with drinking my eight cups of water ;0( Hopefully this week will be better. I know I have some comments and questions to respond to. My goal is to make sure any questions are answered during the week, or the weekend at the latest, before I start a new week.

I need a snappy name for Mondays. Any suggestions?? Monday is my weekly goals post.

This....

pretty much sums up my day.

It was spilled by none other than......ME!! That's how you know you are having a rough one, when YOU are the one causing the issues. ;0) I wrote up my post last night, but I thought of some things that I want to add to it. As soon as things get settled down a bit, I will publish it. I hope you are all having a better day.

Sew Crafty Friday

Hi there. Another week already!! Well, this is what I was going to share last week. We still don't have them set up in the shop, but since I don't have anything else to share, here it goes. lol ;0) The girls and I decided to try and sell some lapbooking folds. We've only done one kind so far, which is the library pocket type fold. Our goal is to try and make some coordinating ones. When creating a lapbook, that is the most tedious part, is getting all the folds and pockets together. I find it easier when I cut and prefold everything for the boys' lapbooks. When it's time to work on their lapbooks, it's easier to have a baggie full of different folds for them to choose from. That's how this idea started.

These are the only ones we have so far. They won't be sold like this, but just for the pictures, I tried to match them a bit.






After looking at all those pictures, I realized they all look a little girlie. lol I guess we need to make up some boyish ones. Not terribly exciting, but something crafty nonetheless. ;0)

So tell me, what have you done lately? You could share anything that you have sewed, knitted, crocheted, scrapbooked, etc. We like to see it all!! Just leave your blog linked up in the Mr. Linky below. Write leave a quick one sentence blurb on your blog leading people back here. The only reason I ask you to link back here is so that others may possibly be able to join. The more the merrier. If you don't have a blog, or are making it as a gift for someone, just email me your pictures, and I will post them here. Happy Crafting!!

Help/Question

I sat down to write my post for tomorrow, and I'm stuck. I don't know what day to make tomorrow. So far I have:
Monday-my plans or goals for the current week
Tuesday-homemaking or anything Proverbs 31 related
Wednesday-anything child related
Thursday-??
Friday-Sew Crafty Friday

Help!! Any ideas? What should I blog about on Thursdays? Please give me some suggestions.

Outside Time

Okay, Wednesday's will be child related. Anything that I do with the children, as far as school, lapbooks, etc. will be posted on Wednesdays. I really need to come up with some better names for my days.

Earlier in the week the children and I went on a nature walk. We decided to stop for a bit and try to find something that we could draw or sketch.

This was the only piece of nature we could find. Everything is so perfectly manicured in this park that there are no rocks to unturn and discover critters, nuthin'. We finally settled on this tree. Our goal is to identify the tree. ;0) Remember, our family worship this week is on the first sin. The nature aspect of this lesson is on trees, being that it has to do with Eve and the serpent, etc.

Elijah(3) cheated. ;0) He asked me for a leaf. I was so excited, thinking he wanted to see how it looked up close, so that he could draw it better. Look at what I found him doing. I do give him an "A" for creativity. lol

Just as we were about to leave, we found one little critter.


Micah was quick to pick it up so we could observe all the legs. It's so nice to have a boy to do all the picking up of bugs.

Does anyone else closely or loosely follow any ofCharlotte Mason's methods? I have recently been reading some of her teachings, and have been enjoying it. I have been wanting to implement some of her ideas, as far as nature goes. I also want to start having the children study some pictures(art), do some narrations, etc. I just don't know where or how to start. It seems a little overwhelming with everything else we do. I want it to be fun, and I know it could be. I'm looking for a starting point. If you do implement any of Ms. Mason's methods in your daily homeschooling routine, how or where did you start?

Homemade Paper Pots

I figured Tuesdays could be my homemaking day. When I say homemaking, I pretty much think of anything under Proverbs 31. I think gardening and being frugal can fall under that, don't you? I picture the Proverbs 31 woman growing her own food and being frugal about it. ;0) I'm not saying I'm there yet, but I want to try, try, and try some more.

Well, instead of buying peat pellets like we did last year, I figured I would try to make my own. Ideally I would make these out of newspaper. Recycle pick up in my community is on Wednesdays. Since we don't buy the newspaper, I don't have any on hand. Hopefully on Wednesday I can do some browsing ;0) and pick some up. Just to give you an example of how to do it, I used a sheet of printer paper, which is 8.5x11.



Take your paper and fold it in half the long way.


Fold it the long way again.
You can take any round object, a cup, toilet paper tube, etc. I used a napkin ring, as that was what I had right next to me. You then wrap the folded paper around the tube. Make sure you place the tube so that you have paper under the tube.

Roll, and keep rolling.

When you get to the end of the paper, start tucking in the paper that was under the tube. Just go around and tuck it all in.

You then slide the tube out, and it should look like this.

You then start pushing the part that was tucked in, down. It's best if you do this on a hard, flat surface.

You can then put the tube back in, so that you can push it down really good. It helps to form the shape a little better.

When you are done, this is how it looks on the inside.

And this is how it looks on the outside. TA-DA!! You have your own little seed starter.

All that is left to do is fill it with your soil mixture, and put your seed inside. Once the seeds start to sprout, and you are ready to plant them into your garden, you can plant the entire little paper pot. The newspaper will then be compost. ;0)

Note on SCF

Wow, I didn't realize how many of you participated in Sew Crafty Friday last week. YAY!! I will make my rounds tonight once the children are in bed to see your craftiness. ;0) My beloved has a friend coming over who needs help with his quarterly something or other, so I will have some extra time. Thank you all for participating. You all make it so enjoyable.

Our Goals/Desires for the Week.

I need to think of a better name.

Empty chorepacks. Do you know what empty chorepacks on the kitchen ledge mean? It means we are off to a good start.

We started our new schedule today. Thankfully everyone was more on board than last week, including the dog. I haven’t figured out the rest of the week, as far as what I will blog on each day, but I figured on Mondays I would blog about the upcoming week. I will share what goals I have for the week, and what we are focusing on, character wise, school wise, etc. My goal is to type up my blog post the night before, like that I can just publish it nice and early the following day. Today’s post was tardy, as I didn’t get a chance to do it until a little while a go.

For our morning worship we studied about the first sin. Naturally, the character quality we are honing in on this week is obedience. Boy, do we need this. Children and parents alike. ;0) Not only do the children need to learn how to obey better, but my beloved and I need to learn how to obey the Lord better. So whatever we shared with the children, as far as how to obey, it served my beloved and I just as well. Some of the obedience traits we are practicing this week are only saying things one time. We said the only time we will repeat ourselves is if the child did not hear us. We should not have to keep saying, “It’s time to put the blocks away. Did you guys put the blocks away? Guys, I see some blocks on the floor.” ;~) Another thing which I have realized that I do a little too much of, is that I allow things to become negotiable. No more negotiating. We’re praying to instill obedience that is done cheerfully from the heart, and not done out of “I’m only doing this because I have to, or else…” Does that make sense? We will reinforce the character quality of the week during our morning worship. During our evening worship we will go around and discuss how we all did. Where we need more help and prayer on, etc.

It does feel good to be have some sort of routine again. It seems like everything runs so much smoother. The house looks better with everyone doing their assigned job, instead of me doing it all, or asking someone, please do this, or that.
Sorry for the grainy pictures, I was in a rush.

Britney's job is to wipe the table down after breakfast.




The boys each have their own little sweeper thing and dustpan. Their job is to pick up any food that almost always drops on the floor while we're eating. So they go under and sweep up the crumbs.
Kayla helps me in the kitchen. As you can see, it needs it. My beloved is actually the one who makes our breakfast. This is new for us. Did I mention how much I am really liking this schedule?! lol The reason he makes our breakfast is so that I can get a jumpstart on Britney's therapy. It is a HUGE help. As you can see the waffle irons on the counter, he made pecan oat waffles. Oh, did you see Kayla's hair. We're donating it to Locks of Love as well. I cut it last week. I promise it's straight. I think her head is a little crooked in the picture.....I hope.

As far as school goes, the boys started a lapbook based on this book today. This book has great pictures on Robins, from the eggs to the hatching and fledglings, etc. I don't know if anyone has ever done one, but we'll be making a mini lapbook. Being that it's a small book, and it's based on only one bird, I figured I would only stretch it out for this week. I am sure we can get some Bible, science and a good amount of subjects in with this book. The best part is that it's all fun. They won't even know they are learning. lol I will be sure to share the finished product of the lapbook.

My beloved started working from home today. I have been calling him a nomad, as he has been going to the library, or to his friend's office, etc. He finally figured he would give home a try. lol It is hard because he has to make a lot of calls. We have been scared that the dogs will bark or the children might make too much noise, etc. Our bedroom is off of the kitchen, which is too close to the hub bub of activity throughout the day. The quietest room is the boys room, as it is the furthest. ;0) So his morning commute consisted of rolling our computer chair down the hallway to the boys' room. lol He even put on his slacks and dress shoes. He thought it would help him get in a "work" frame of mind.

In his defense he had a lunch appointment later on in the day. ;0) This is what we are calling his ghetto office. lol We are looking into what the job covers and reimburses before we make a purchase for a real desk. He says the tablecloth has to go. lol You can't see it here, but I even hung up a white board for him. It does feel good having him so close by. I'm also happy that we can teach the children how to be a little quieter indoors, and leave the noise for when we go outside. ;0)

Not terribly exciting, but just to recap.

We're working on obedience for all of us.

The boys are working on a Robin lapbook.

Britney, aside from her therapy, is working on a Little House in the Big Woods (Laura Ingals) lapbook

Kayla is making one based on her health studies.

For a personal goal, I am attempting to drink 8 cups of water per day. That reminds me, I'm only up to number 2. Off to fill up a cup.

Guess Not!!/Blog Plans

*FOR SEW CRAFTY FRIDAY, SCROLL DOWN*

Okay, I guess I don't have anything to share for today. *blush, blush* Imagine that, the host of SCF doesn't have anything crafty done. Oh, the horror. lol ;0)What I was going to share was something the girls and I are working on to put in the shop . We spoke about it, and we rather wait until we actually have something to show, instead of one example of one thing. It's kind of exciting, as it has to do with lapbooks.


The other thing I was thinking about, as far as the blog goes, is categorizing my days. It seems like the only consistent day I have been blogging is Fridays, because I know what I'm blogging about...something crafty. So I was thinking of making Monday let's say child related, Tuesday, house related, etc. I haven't figured out what day will be what yet. I guess I can do that over the weekend. Does anyone else organize their blog like this? Do you think it will make it too predictable and boring?


Oh, wait. I wanted to ask you your opinion on something. Looking at the green dress in the center. Does it look too June Cleaverish? Like too prissy and perfect?

Sew Crafty Friday

Uh-oh. I don't have anything really to share. Oh, wait, maybe I do. I will be back in a bit with a picture. lol ;0)

So tell me, what have you done lately? You could share anything
that you have sewed, knitted, crocheted, scrapbooked, etc. We like to see it
all!! Just leave your blog linked up in the Mr. Linky below. Just leave a quick
one sentence blurb on your blog leading people back here. The only reason I ask
you to link back here is so that others may possibly be able to join. The more
the merrier. If you don't have a blog, or are making it as a gift for someone,
just email me your pictures, and I will post them here. Happy Crafting!!

Brrr.....

This is what happens when the low of the day is in the low 50's. My children...well none of us knew what to do with ourselves. lol

Here is Elijah with an old windbreaker that is two sizes too small.

We all bundled up with socks and hats. The hat my beloved has on is the first hat I ever crocheted. I forgot about it, I might try my hand at another one.

Once the heater was turned on and the house warmed up off came the sweaters and pants. I will say I felt a little claustrophobic with a long sleeved sweater on. lol ;0) I felt like I had a straight jacket on.

Not being able to go outside and play caused this scene in our family room. Those are scuba shoes he has on.

I felt the need to make something for lunch that required the need to turn the oven on. This was my first time trying my hand at this recipe. It was called potato herb patties, or something like that. ;0) They were very tastey. I just boiled some potatoes. While they were boiling I sauteed some onions and a whole bunch of herbs. Then I added them together and whisked them together for a bit.

I put them in a bowl to cool off...

And I formed a pattie.
The pattie was then rolled in some bread crumbs, and into the oven they went.
We were so hungry and excited to eat them that I forgot to take a picture of how they turned out. Sorry. Trust me, they were good.

p.s. I will be trying something new with the blog next week, starting on Monday. We'll see how it goes.

My Start in the New Year

I hope everyone had a great New Year.

Today was the start of everything new in our home. My beloved was really starting his new job. He worked a few days during the last couple of weeks, but because of the holidays, he had more days off than on. ;0) We were all starting a new schedule today. New lessons with Kayla, new schedule for Britney's activities, and the boys were going to start new lapbooks.

My goal was to get up early and have my personal worship before doing anything else. Our little dog, Daphne, seems to have some sort of stomach thing going on, as she has been pooping(read diarrhea) in our bathroom in the middle of the night. I'm not sure if she is rebelling because she smells our neighbor's dog on us(we are dogsitting) or what, but it's horrible. She just poops and walks a little, poops and walks a little, and well....you get the idea. You end up with about 20 little gifts on the bathroom floor. We figured out that if we tie her up during the night she won't do it while on the leash. Between Kayla and my beloved, they have picking it up and cleaning up after her. I have tried, but I start gagging.
So this morning we woke up nice and early. It was still pitch black out. I went to get out of bed and realized that the collar that should have been around Daphne's neck was laying on the floor. She must have slipped out of it in the middle of the night. My beloved was just about to walk into the bathroom when I yelled, "wait, stop." Sure enough, when he turned the light on,it looked like someone put a firecracker on one poop and it just exploded. My beloved got ready to walk the dogs. He asked me if I could pick it up. I said yes, but that I wanted to take 15 minutes to connect with the Lord first. I grabbed my Bible and walked towards the family room. Just as I put my Bible down and got ready to pray, I heard Elijah calling me. No way!! It's too early for them to be awake. At that point I started having a pity party. "Lord, all I wanted to do was spend time with you this morning. Why are you allowing this to happen?" After checking(cuddling) on the boys and giving them their chorepacks, I walked back down the hallway only to realize that the "aroma" was spreading to the rest of the house. I had to pick up the poop. I felt the Lord telling me, "there are other ways to connect with Me." I grabbed the CD player from the kitchen counter and plugged in our bedroom. I turned the volume way up and hit play. Recently the Cadet Sisters visited our church for a concert, and I purchased their CD. I grabbed the toilet paper to start the joy of picking up poop. Oh, the smell!! I continued plugging along. 20 minutes later I was still there cleaning when Micah walked in to ask me something. Hmmm...he still had his pj's on. Take your pajamas off is number 2 in his chorepack. It's right after pray. There's no way he has been praying for the last 20 minutes. I came out of the room only to find this. They were sticking some foam animals onto a paper. Micah was making a card for his little friend, Matthew from his Sabbath school class. Oh, look at the guilt on Elijah's face. He fills his cheeks with air when he doesn't know what to do with himself. His accomplice was smart enough to take off running to start his chorepack. As you can see, it was still dark out.

As I walked back in my bedroom I saw the time. I am supposed to start doing therapy with Britney at 6:30. It was already 6:00. I felt the Lord telling me, "don't worry about it, just sing." The next song to play was track number 7. Yes, I had been there that long. The song was Oh, I Want To Know You More . The first line of that song is "Just the time I feel, that I've been caught in the mire of self." "Oh, Lord, please forgive me." I could feel my eyes welling up. I continued to clean poop for another 15 minutes. We were soon approaching 6:30. Oh, our schedule, I should be starting therapy with Britney now. Okay, I have to hurry. I wiped an area of the floor, and in my rush, I tried shooting the toilet paper in the toilet bowl. Where do you think it landed? Right on the seat. Great, now I have to disinfect and wipe the entire seat down. "Don't rush and just sing," the Lord impressed on me. Okay, I'm singing, I'm singing. Another 15 minutes went by of cleaning, and it was going to be the last flush of the toilet. What do you think happened? But of course!! The water started to rise. And rise. And rise. For the next 25 minutes while singing out loud I cleaned and wiped and disinfected my bathroom. As I was finishing I felt the Lord tell me, "look, and you didn't even gag once." I did connect with Him by the way, just differently than what I am used to..