Birbitt Thinks

Monday, Monday

2012-01-16T09:30:00.000-07:00

*Sigh* It is Monday, and do you know what that means? It means the start of yet another homeschool week, the end of another week at college, one day before MOPS, three days before my discussion answers are due for college, and it means that we stayed up far too late last night and no one is cooperative this morning! I do not like Mondays, but it has not always been that way, I used to look forward to a Monday morning for it was the promise of new things to come that week. However as an adult I have found that Monday brings nothing new any longer, it only brings the start of a predictable routine and generally much resistance from the rest of the family. Perhaps one day I will be able to convince them that Monday is really Tuesday, thus skipping the Monday troubles altogether.

For now however, Monday is predictable. Today is no exception, the children are balking at every request and dawdling in their completion of just about everything except perhaps breakfast, I am tired from not enough sleep, and the littlest one is cranky for no other reason than it is Monday. This Monday is the same as all the others, except that today we have clouds and chilly weather, which for Arizona is rare. Today seems like a good day for doing a whole lot of nothing, but somethings must get done and so those things will be put on the list and everything else will wait.

Birbitt thinks there should be no such day as Monday, can we make a petition to rename Monday?

BookSneeze review

2012-01-13T19:19:00.001-07:00

I recently had the opportunity to read and review Has God Spoken Proof of the Bible's Divine Inspiration by Hank Hanegraaff and I am so glad I did! This book was great, and a very intense read. It took me quite a while to get through this one, not because I didn't like it or didn't want to read it, but because it was so intense that I could only read a few pages at a time. I wanted to let every word sink in, and have time to stew around before continuing. This was the first time I found myself underlining and taking notes in a book I picked up for pleasure reading. This book was divided into 4 sections and each section had a unique approach to proving Biblical truths, and each section chose a different manner in which to prove the truth. The four sections were Manuscript C-O-P-I-E-S, which focused on the copyists and the available manuscripts to prove the author's stance. The second section is Archaeologist's S-P-A-D-E, which focuses on artifacts and archaeological evidence. Thirdly is Prophetic S-T-A-R-S which focuses on the fulfillment of Biblical prophecy. Lastly but certainly not least is Scriptural L-I-G-H-T-S which focuses on the rules, art, and science of scriptural interpretation.

As a Christian it is often easy to simply state our beliefs as fact, however if we are to be taken seriously by the opposing side then we must be able to offer proof to back up our stance. This book gives quite a bit of that. Reading Has God Spoken was quite a spiritual experience for me, I mean I've always known the Bible was true, but it was quite moving to see proof in front of me. One part that I found particularly interested is when Mr. Hanegraaff suggested that the absence of the original Biblical manuscripts was indeed proof of it's divine inspiration, his reasoning I'll leave you to find out for yourself because I would hate to spoil your enjoyment of this great book! This book is certainly going to be a keeper on my shelf, and with shelf space at a premium in my home this is the highest form of a compliment.

In exchange for my review I was provided a free copy of the book from BookSneeze. I was not required to give a positive review, and all opinions in this review are strictly my own.

Saying goodbye to 2011

2011-12-28T18:40:00.003-07:00

2011 has been kind to us in many ways, and in some ways not so kind. I just want to focus on the good things that happened this year, and so I'm going to post them in no particular order:

1. Twiggles has decided that having a babysitter isn't such a bad thing and that it's ok for Mama to leave him occasionally to have time alone with daddy.
2. Hubby and I went on our first date in over 3 years without any children. We attended his company Christmas Party.
3. We have taken charge of our health with Young Living Essential Oils, and doing so eliminated my son's need for his harmful asthma medications.
4. We have been trying to eat much better than we used to, and it's working slowly.
5. I have finally begun making friends in the same city as I through my local MOPS group.
6. I enrolled in college, to get a degree that I'll actually use this time.
7. I finished my first college course in 10 years with a 99.28% - the only points I lost were for grammar usage, mostly the forgetting of commas.
8. I found a great ladies Bible Study to participate in, which makes me very happy :)
9. My oldest regained his confidence in reading, and loves it again.
10. I celebrated my 9th wedding anniversary.
11. My baby found a friend :)
12. Hubby and I found friends that are actually in our stage of life (married with children)
13. Our children are becoming young gentlemen.
14. I have learned to listen more to God and less to me.
15. Our winter has thus far been extremely mild and I've not had to turn on the heater yet.

Oh I'm sure there are more but those are the ones I can think of just now. :) So how was your 2011?

Christmas

2011-12-24T09:14:00.001-07:00

I love Christmas, I love the lights, the beautiful decorations, the Christmas music,the cookies, the family gathering, the giving, the snow and cold (well, before moving to the desert that is), but most of all I love that Christmas is a celebration! A celebration of the birth of a tiny baby oh, so many years ago! Now I know that Christmas is not the Christ child's actual birth date, but it is the day on which his birth is celebrated and that is just fine with me! I had planned for so many things this year for Christmas, and as plans often do most of them just did not happen. I am sad that so many of the great activities didn't happen, I am sad that our outside decorations never made it up, I am sad that we do not have a large selection of cookies to munch, but most of all I am sad that these things are making me sad.

See, I know, and my children know that Christmas is not about any of these things, they know that the most important thing at Christmas is to remember that God sent his son, as a tiny baby boy, to save the world from their sins! Yet it bothers me that the worldly activities of Christmas have not been completed. Why? Why am I bothered that we neglected certain things? Why am I bothered that instead of these worldly activities I spent time with my children making crafts that we were able to hang in the house, that instead of baking and decorating we chose to snuggle up on the sofa and read Christmas stories each day? I guess I am bothered because I remember my Christmases as a child and I want my children to experience those. Yet I know that I have grown since then, and that what we did do this year was enjoyable for them and that tomorrow morning they will be spoiled just as they always are, that tomorrow morning they will have presents under the tree (which is decorated), that tomorrow morning they will spend hours tearing off paper, oohing and ahhing, and playing with the toys, books, and games that are wrapped and hidden in my closet. Tomorrow morning they will be having so much fun they'll forget to eat breakfast and will be munching cookies on the way to Grandpa and Grandma's house where they will open yet more presents, and play with yet more toys, and eventually sit down to enjoy a wonderful meal with those that love them most!

I feel better already! Just writing this out, and listening to God as I do has made me realize that we really did keep the spirit of Christmas in our hearts, we just chose to do it differently this year, and that's ok.

How did your family spend the days leading up to Christmas? Do tell!

A New Chapter or Perhaps a Continuation of an Old One?

2011-10-29T15:43:00.003-07:00

I have news, I have enrolled in online college classes and will be spending the next 4-6 years working towards the completion of a Bachelor's Degree, and possibly a Master's as well. There is a wide range of time to complete these classes because it may be possible for me to double up on some classes, or I may have to spend my time working through one 5 week course at a time. I am hoping that I will double up on enough classes to complete both degree programs in no more than 5 years, however I am prepared to spend the full 6 doing my classes if I must.

I have several ideas of how I want to put this education to work for me, and the best part is that based on my degree program, and my plan I will be helping to provide for my family financially without having to sacrifice the things that are important to me. I suspect that some of the discussion questions that are assigned each week will likely spark some interesting blog posts, and I am quite excited to get started.

I will be spending the first couple of weeks in an orientation course, and then I will take two introductory courses, and then I get to work on my general education requirements. Some of my courses I am quite looking forward to, as they sound quite fascinating, and I hope that they are just as interesting as I think they will be.

I am quite confident that I will do quite well in my classes. I plan to work on my classes mostly in the evening after my husband gets home from work, and potentially when he is sleeping and I am sitting up trying to sleep. I will sneak my course readings in while my older boys are working on their homeschooling, which can provide me with a great tool for keeping them focuses. I have set up an area in my bedroom where I can have quiet and space to spread out my work and complete assignments, and I have the full support of my husband, who says he will take the children to the park during his days off if I need some quiet time to get a difficult assignment completed.

I am a bit nervous about writing papers though, as the school requires all my work to be in APA format, and I have never before used that format. Thanks to the great expanse of the internet I was able to find lots of information about it, and I am confident that I am teachable and can learn this at least well enough to submit high quality assignments. My school also provides many resources for me, so I believe I have all the information I need, it's just a matter of applying it correctly. I did discover in a quick English Assessment that I really need to brush up on my punctuation skills as I do not put commas in the proper places, and forget semi colons (honestly I don't have the foggiest idea what a semi colon is for other than making smiley faces).

I put this here, because I do best on accomplishing something when I write it out, and tell others...so I am telling all of blogger land! Thank You for listening to me ramble about it.

Milk Maid

2011-09-20T21:03:00.003-07:00

We have been buying soy milk as of late, because my husband does not do well with dairy and all of our boys seem to have a bit of eczema, which is most often caused by dairy. Well, let me tell you that soy milk is expensive around here it's a bargain if we find soy milk for less than 3.00 a half gallon. After much research online, I discovered that soy milk can be made at home and that is was fairly simple. So I've made it a few times at this point and I thought I'd blog about the process and show some pictures so you can see how easy it is as well!

Step 1 is to purchase all your ingredients. I am using: dried, organic soy beans, brown rice syrup, homemade vanilla extract, and water (I buy filtered water at a water store).

You will also need clean GLASS containers! I can not stress enough that you need to use glass, plastic is too difficult to clean and sanitize, so please, please, please use glass! I am actually using some beautiful glass bottles that once contained an organic lemonade. The jars are simply beautiful and because they are glass with a metal lid they are super easy to clean and I even boiled them to sanitize!

Step 2 is to soak your soy beans. The basic recipe calls for 1/2 cup of dry soy beans soaked in water for 12-24 hours. I personally found that soaking them longer yielded more milk! Here are some before and after photos of the soaked soybeans. Also I find that changing the water at least twice during the soaking offers better flavor to the milk.

Step 3: Take your soaked beans and add them to your blender or food processor with 2 cups of water (my food processor is small, and so I had to do this in two batches). Turn your processor on and blend it for 2 minutes, scraping your bowl down once halfway through.

This mixture will be frothy, foamy, and a bit chunky. Though your chunks need to be VERY small!

Up until now I have been showing measurements for just one recipe, however I actually made 4 times the basic recipe to avoid making milk daily. So from now on I will give you the single recipe measurements, but what you see in pictures will be much larger than your actual results.

Step 4: Place your soy and water puree, along with an additional cup of water into a pot a bit larger than you think you need, as it will foam up! For a regular recipe you could probably get away with a 2 quart saucepan, I am using a large stock pot because again I am making 4 TIMES the basic recipe! So your soy is in a large pot and you now need to bring it to a boil over medium-high heat.

As you can see there will be quite a bit of foam on top of your milk. It is a good idea at this point to have a cup of cold water on hand in case the foam gets out of control, if you don't need it you can add it to the pot after it comes to a full boil. Be sure to add this water into your pot once it comes to a boil if you didn't need it to control foam.

Step 5: Once your mixture comes to a full boil, back the heat down to medium - medium low and allow it to simmer for 20 minutes. Set your timer because this is crucial, 20 minutes. Stirring occasionally to prevent the Okara from sticking. During this time a thin layer of film may form, do not stir that into your milk, just skim it off!

Step 6: Pour your simmered milk into a cheese cloth (or towel) lined strainer/colander over a container large enough to hold your finished milk. Allow this to drain and cool for 20 minutes (or more if it's still too hot).

Step 7: Pull up your corners and squeeze out the rest of your milk. I switched to another pot at this point just so you could see how much milk I got out of the squeezing process.

See how much extra milk was still in that puree?

Step 8: Sweeten and flavor your milk if desired, I am using 1 Tablespoon of brown rice syrup, and 1 teaspoon of home made vanilla extract. Then pour your milk into your GLASS containers.

And now you can refrigerate your freshly made, preservative free soy milk and enjoy as you please. It will stay fresh in your refrigerator for 3 days, I wouldn't try and keep it much beyond that because remember it is a fresh product and there are no preservatives!

My finished milk. Isn't it pretty? My family loves this fresh milk, and to us all it tastes so much better than the store bought containers of milk. Oh, and the even better part? When I figured it all out, to make 3 liters of milk it only costs me $1.74! That is a savings of nearly half the cost of store bought containers that also contain refined sugar, preservatives and sometimes even artificial flavors!

OK! So for those of you who prefer a simple recipe I'm going to post that below so that you don't have to filter through my step by step photo tutorial.

Homemade soy milk:

1/2 cup dry organic soybeans
4 cups of water
1 Tablespoon brown rice syrup, honey, or any sweetener of your choice (you can also omit this if you like)
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract (again optional)

Soak your soybeans for 12 -24 hours, the longer you soak them the more milk you will get! Remember to change the water twice during the soaking process!

After soaking your beans drain them and put them in your blender or food processor along with 2 cups of water and whip it around for 2 minutes. Scrape your container down halfway through the pureeing.

Put this mixture in a large pot with another cup of water. Turn it on medium high heat and bring it to a boil. If it threatens to boil over add a cup of cold water to stop this, if it doesn't try to boil over add the cup of water after it comes to a boil.

Reduce the heat to medium - medium low and simmer for 20 minutes.

Set a colander/strainer over a medium pot or stainless steel bowl and line the colander with cheese cloth, or a clean cotton dish towel. Pour the simmered mixture over this and allow it to drain and cool for at least 20 minutes or until it is cool enough to handle.

Bring up the corners of the towel and squeeze any excess milk from the Okara (that's the ground soybean that is left after milk making, and it is edible and full of protein!) and then sweeten and flavor your milk if desired. Pour your milk into clean glass containers and refrigerate for up to 3 days!

Birbitt thinks that making soy milk is fun, and nutritious! What more could a mama want for her children?

Book Review

2011-09-10T23:00:00.000-07:00

This book review is for God's Love Letters to You by Dr. Larry Crabb.

This is a 40 day devotional and each day offers the reader a Bible passage, short devotional (in this case written in the form of a letter from God), reflection questions and then a prayer. Each day is based on a single book of the Bible, and the letter is basically a summary of what God would have us to learn from that book, then the reflection questions ask us to think about our lives and how we can relate the devotion to our lives.

Personally I did not like this book as much as I had hoped I would. That is not to say I didn't like it and I didn't learn from it, I just wasn't as impressed as I hoped to be. I think the problem for me is that my idea of a devotional differs from most people. I prefer my devotional to be more like a mini-Sunday School lesson, something that is instructional, yet though provoking, and something that will keep me thinking the rest of the day. This particular devotional was more emotional, in that the reflection was often more about feelings, and emotions than actual actions. Overall I found it to be a bit watery, and it wasn't a book I would use for devotions because it didn't provoke the thought I look for in a devotion. I found myself reading the whole book in just a couple of hours so that I could finish and move on to another devotional. I did enjoy reading it, just not as a devotional.

As I said though, I look for something different in a devotional, I like my devotionals to leave me feeling spiritually fed and thinking about the reading throughout my day, this one just didn't do that for me. However, I know that many people prefer a more emotional experience in their devotions and for those people I think this would be a great book!

Obligatory Disclaimer: I was provided a free copy of this book from BookSneeze in exchange for my honest review of the book. I was not told what to write, nor was I told I had to write a favorable review. The opinions in this review are strictly my own, and my only compensation was the free copy of the book.

New twist on an old favorite

2011-07-21T11:32:00.004-07:00

I do not normally post recipes, but this one is so simple, and anyone whom I've served it to just loves it, so maybe you all will enjoy it as well.

Growing up where I did Polish and Polish inspired foods were very common, and we ate a lot of them. To this day I still love many of those same dishes, and one such favorite is stuffed cabbage. I love stuffed cabbage, though I must admit as a child I thought it left much to be desired! Now if you've never made stuffed cabbage before you probably don't know that it's a very long process, and you are going to burn your fingers, and frankly it's a real pain in the hind end.

Living in the Southwest, there just isn't anywhere to purchase these treasures of my childhood so if I want them I have to make them! I personally refuse to make stuffed cabbage simply because I don't have the time to dedicate to boiling, and stuffing, and rolling, and baking just to get one meal on the table. What I do have however, is a crock pot, about 20 minutes, and all the same ingredients (or reasonable facsimiles thereof). So for anyone interested, here is the recipe. For anyone trying to stay away from prepackaged foods try this as a substitution for the canned soup, though your results will be less sweet than my own. I am not sure what to call this recipe, so it currently has no name, feel free to suggest one in the comments. :) I have also included my prices so you can see how inexpensive this meal really is, your prices may be higher or lower depending on region.

Ingredients:
1 3-4lb head of green cabbage (.39 per pound, total 1.32 for 3.39lbs)
1 - 1 1/2 pounds of lean ground beef, or any other lean ground meat (1.99)
1 egg (.08)
1/2 of a large red onion diced fine (.15)
1/2 - 1 cup of uncooked white rice (.33)
1 12 ounce can of tomato paste (.78)
2 cans of condensed tomato soup (1.84 for Campbell's brand)
Salt and Pepper
Garlic powder
1 - 1 1/2 cans of water

Total cost: $6.49 and this will feed my family of 5 for dinner with enough leftover for lunch later in the week!! I may spend slightly more if I serve it with salad and bread, though most of the time we just eat the cabbage and meatballs.

In a bowl mix the ground beef, egg, onion, rice, salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Form into 1 inch meatballs.

Remove the core from the cabbage, then slice the cabbage into 1 inch by 2 inch pieces

In a bowl combine the soup, tomato paste, and enough water to thin the mixture to somewhere between the consistency of whole milk and heavy cream.

Then in your crock pot put a thin layer of the sauce, followed by cabbage, then some meatballs, then sauce, cabbage, meatballs, continue until you have use all of the sauce, cabbage and meatballs. Turn on your crockpot (I use the high setting, though your crockpot may be better than mine and low will be just fine) and cook for 6-8 hours.

Basically this tastes exactly like the stuffed cabbage I ate growing up, just without the added hassle of boiling cabbage and trying to stuff the steaming hot leaves.

I hope you enjoy this one. It makes a great meal on a hot day because I don't have to use my stove or oven.

Book Review

2011-06-16T14:05:00.003-07:00

Have you ever had one of those days, you know those days where it seems nothing is going your way, those days where it seems God is just too busy tending to others to be concerned about your problems? I know I have had plenty of days where it seems it would just be easier to go back to bed rather than face what the world has for me that day.

That is where this book comes in! Voices of the Faithful with Beth Moore, compiled by Kim P. Davis is an amazing devotional. You could easily read it as it was designed, one page per day as a morning devotional to give you inspiration and strength to get out of bed and get on with your day. Many days though I found myself so wrapped up in the stories that are told in that one little page that I just couldn't put it down, I didn't want to stop reading it. So here I am only 6 months into the year and finished with the book.

Each and every page is filled with a story from someone doing things for God in places where doing things for God gets one in hot water, stories of salvation, of service, stories of purpose designed to lift us up, give us a reason to go on, and sometimes make us feel just a little foolish for worrying about our own minor (in the grand scheme of things) troubles when others are dying simply because they believe in our creator, our Heavenly Father, our Lord of lords and King of kings. As I read these pages, so many things jumped out at me, things that to me seem so everyday like reading my Bible, but those in these stories are risking the safety of their families simply by owning a Bible. It makes me thankful to live where I do, and to have the freedom to believe as I choose, without fear that my home will be burned down while we sleep, or that my children will be beaten simply for praying.

Voices of the Faithful is one of those books that makes you thankful for what you have and happy for where you are, and at the same time it makes you sad to think that others don't have the freedom you have, and sometimes it even makes you feel just a bit guilty for wanting so much, when you are already so very very blessed.

I very much enjoyed the stories of hope, healing, and courage and think that you will too. This is a great book to put in the car and pull out to read a page or two while you are waiting for you children at school, day camp, or kids club, or even to toss in the diaper bag and sneak in a page or two at the checkout line, or while waiting in the doctors office. I enjoyed reading it while sitting on the patio having my morning coffee or tea, while the children had breakfast or did their morning chores.

The Fine Print: I am required by the FTC to inform you that I did receive in exchange for my honest review a free copy of Voices of the Faithful from BookSneeze. If you'd like to get your own free books to review please check out www.booksneeze.com, or just click the link in my sidebar. The opinions in this review are my own, and I was only given the free copy of the book, no other compensation was provided or offered.

Says who?

2011-05-19T14:28:00.002-07:00

I know, I know, what a childish sounding title. Reminds me of grade school, but really it is a fitting title for the story I am going to tell.

First I'd like to say that there are many sayings that are commonplace that just don't fully make sense. I mean I KNOW what they are trying to tell me, but if you look at them most literally they don't always make complete sense. For example I know you have all heard "When life gives you lemons make lemonade" well, to be completely honest you can't make lemonade without sugar and water...so if all life has given you is lemons then the best you can hope for is lemon juice.

Now more to the point of my story is this gem "It's just like riding a bike..." well I'm afraid that I must call baloney on this one! You see I decided that I was going to purchase a bike since it has become too expensive around here to own and drive a car. Gas prices are far too high, insurance costs have gone up in this state, and when you add in the costs of maintenance, registration, emissions inspection, and vehicle taxes it's all just too much for our family. So hubby and I each got a bike, and we figured we could do our shopping that way, and since we have excellent public transportation we can use that as well. It's all so much cheaper!

So I took the bus out to a neighboring city to purchase a used bike being sold by a recent college graduate who was planning on going home and had no way to take her bike with her. I picked up the bike, put it on the rack on the front of the bus and took the bus back to just a mile from my home. The plan was to ride the bike back home, but of course that didn't work out. I got on the bike pedaled maybe a few inches and fell off the curb of the sidewalk. Of course the curbs at the bus stops are about 6-8 inches high for easier boarding of the busses, but those extra inches did me no favors. The bike went first and then I followed landing back on the bike and causing immediate pain to my rather large rump! It would seem that I have forgotten how to ride a bike...

Now I am hurting, but I don't have any serious injuries. Once I heal I will have to get back on that thing and see if I can't figure it out. Meanwhile I am laying on my side as much as possible, and standing and walking as little as possible and avoiding sitting at all costs because to sit makes my rear end hurt worse.

I hope I don't find myself disproving anymore old sayings anytime in the near future.

This was not in the plan.

2011-04-25T10:02:00.002-07:00

Saturday did not go as planned for this family!

My normal Saturday routine is to get up at 5am and head over to our pickup location for our Bountiful Baskets, a produce co-op we participate in more on this later, volunteer my time packing baskets, get my own basket and head home. Then I put it away once home, and lay on the sofa and rest for an hour or so until the children wake up. Once they wake it's breakfast, a trip to the grocery store to get our necessities, lunch, a nap for Twiggles, playtime for me and the big boys, some outside play after nap, and then dinner.

This week however was not what I had planned! I got up at my usual 5am, drove over to bountiful baskets did my volunteer time, and loaded my basket into the car. This was more exhausting than usual since I'd been sick the three days prior. As I was pulling into our parking lot I heard a rather strange noise, and upon parking and looking about I discovered that the car had a flat tire, and my donut is without air. This means no car until Hubby's day off so he can get a new tire from the tire place. This also meant that I had no way to the grocery store to get some of our necessities, this week including the ingredients for our Sunday dinner. Oh, and my power box was flashing which mean that I had very little electricity left for the house, in this case I had only $1.36 remaining until the power would shut off, so getting power on the card was a priority!

Thankfully I did manage to get a neighbor to take me for power and some groceries, I did not get all the groceries I intended because the power kiosk is inside one of our more expensive stores so I settled for getting the Must Have Now groceries like milk, eggs, bread, and the food for Sunday. I was sad to have missed Sunday service, but without a car it is just not possible.

Oh, and of course on Sunday as I was trying to check my email, I discovered that the laptop battery was dead, and the charger was not working. Of course my warranty expired 3 days before which meant I was on my own with this one. Sunday being Easter I found Best Buy to be closed, and the only charger I was able to find was in a local Radio Shack at a price far higher than I would have paid to best buy, but since everything is on my laptop I had to get it, or the children would have no school schedules, and be missing many of their worksheets.

I have been telling hubby since the first time our computer malfunctioned and needed repair that I would like to get rid of it, and get a different one, now he too wants a different one, of a different brand as we find the customer service for this one to be severely lacking, and the computer seems to have a great many issues.

So all in all we had a good Sunday together as a family but the rest of the weekend just did not go as it was supposed to. I am looking forward to a better week this week.

March is gone

2011-04-10T09:44:00.002-07:00

and so is some more clutter! I succeeded in removing over 31 items from my home this past month. I am enjoying the new found space that I am getting by clearing out the old. Some items are finding their way to closets and storage areas, but many items are getting tossed out or donated. I realize that some of the items on my list for March have also appeared on previous lists, however, this is because I have been finding items that were not put away previously and therefore needed to be gone through after I thought I finished an area, also it is due to the fact that my baby especially grows like a weed and so I'm getting rid of this clothes almost weekly.

March Decluttering list:
1. Big kid toys (this was a HUGE trash bag full)
2. A cabinet previously used for storing baby toys (his toys are now in the room with the big kids stuff)
3. A Toy organizer with book rack on top
4. Another Bag of Baby toys (he almost never plays with baby toys anymore, he prefers matchbox cars)
5. My own clothes that don't fit or haven't been worn in a long time
6. some old towels that we don't need
7. Last year's school books (I was saving them for the baby, but he's so far behind the big kids that I'll likely change my mind by then)
8. Young early readers that the big boys don't use anymore
9. The smaller rat cage that once held two rats, but now we have a larger cage because we have more rats
10. plastic kid dishes
11. plastic baby spoons and forks
12. 2 pairs of outgrown baby shoes
13. a shopping bag of dvd's that we don't watch
14. baby clothes - a shopping bag full
15. a book shelf that just doesn't fit our space well - it has rounded corners and only one side is solid it's just odd
16. a magazine holder that only serves to fill up with junk
17. pool floaties that aren't needed because the big kids can swim and the baby has a floatie suit
18. pool toys that never get used
19. cookbooks - I had a serious cookbook addiction, but now I just use the internet so out go the cookbooks, though I kept a few important ones :)
20 - plastic food storage containers - we seriously had enough for three families....
21. small plastic cups

OK so that's the list. 31+ items out of our space. The sad thing is that even after doing this for 3 full months our home is still full to bursting! I really, really hope that by the end of the year it at least looks like I made a dent in our clutter :(

Family Pets

2011-03-20T10:08:00.003-07:00

Most families that I know have at least one pet of some kind. This is true in our family as well. We have two cats, a black long hair we call Ebony, and a White and Orange short hair tabby mix we call Keeper.

However, my favorite of our pets are technically the boys' pets, but I think I play with them more than they do! We have rats! Yup, furry bodied, naked tailed rats. Up until yesterday we had two of them, girls that the boys called Ana and Kylie (I have no idea where the names come from, I just ask and they name). Yesterday though we did something that I think is FANTASTIC! We found a ferret cage for a great price, and I had been looking to get a larger cage for the girls simply because I think animals should have as much space as possible to call home. So, at the pet store I was purchasing a glass water bottle for them (they have chewed through 3 plastic ones in the past month), some fresh bedding, some pelleted food because all that was left in their mix was seeds, and a few chew toys (Rat teeth never stop growing and so they much chew them down or they will cause problems).

Well, those of you who know me KNOW that I almost never walk out of a store with only the items I intended to purchase, so while there we bought another little rat. The boys call her Hannah, and she is still a little nervous around people, but I'm sure my tempting treats offered each morning will earn her trust in no time at all. So here we were with a HUGE cage and only 3 little ratties in them. I was browsing online and found a family who was moving and looking for a new home for their two little ratties, I read on and found that they were females, so I contacted the family and "Yes, we do still have them, and we really need to find them a new home". I got the address (less than a mile from our home) and off we went. We arrived and the girls were just too cute not to take home, so into our shoebox they went and we headed home.

We now have 5 little girls in our cage, and two more will be arriving soon, as we are rescuing them from being snake food. Now don't get me wrong snakes have to eat too, but these two are just too cute to be snake food, and since the snake doesn't really care what the food looks like I think these two would be better served as pets. :)

I thought I would post a few pictures of our girls and their new palace, oh and in case anyone is wondering our Cats are terrible hunters and are actually afraid of the rats. ;) When the rats are on the floor playing the cats are high up on the furniture or they are hiding in my room. If a rat happens to get near enough a cat to sniff the cat screams and runs, literally screams and runs.

Here is the cage itself, 4 feet high! The three ratties you can see in the picture are Ana, Kylie, and Princess.

This is Hannah (the little black face in the corner), she's still very shy and likes to stay in the corner whenever possible. There is also a bit of Kylie in this picture.

This one is Kylie in the front and little Gayle in the back corner.

They all love this giant cage, and they all get along great. When I went in this morning with nutrigrain bar they were all at the front of the cage whiskers a twitchin' waiting for the treats they knew were coming, well, all except for Hannah who perked up a bit in her corner, but refused to come out. I gave her a piece in the corner which she happily took and ate. Princess kept trying to convince me she didn't get any and needed more, when actually what she was doing was taking the piece and running it to the back of the cage in the opposite corner from Hannah and burrying it, they are rodents after all and as such they will hoard food.

Sickness, Insomnia, and a touch of...

2011-03-17T03:44:00.002-07:00

The past week in our home has been a week of sickness. It began when B got a cough, just a cough, so I figure no big deal, we'll handle it, in our own "strange" way. Well he got better almost overnight, so I thought we were in the clear. I was wrong, by Friday S was down for the count, he was miserable the poor guy spent all of Friday laying around the house (wherever the people were) and dozing in and out. Saturday Twiggles began to show signs of illness, so again treat in our own little way. Sunday he was MISERABLE! and the whole house knew it, he made sure of it. He spent all of Sunday sleeping on and off, eating almost nothing (the sum total of his food intake for the day is less than what he normally eats in one snack) and drinking only slightly more than he ate. Monday he began to drink much more, and eat a little more, and he was more active.

This whole time I'm filling the members of this household with orange juice as fast as I can, and spraying EVERYTHING with Tea Tree Oil and water (Tea Tree Oil is a natural antibacterial, antifungal, antiviral, pretty much anti anything you don't want in your house) as much as possible to prevent the spread of sickness. Now come Tuesday everyone is back to normal, I thought, then Wednesday I come down sick, my head is in one place, my body in another, and I am just not right. I slept on and off Wednesday, while my dearest hubby cared for the children and tended to the house (oh how I love that man!). Here it is now Thursday morning at 4am and what am I doing?

I am on the computer of course because I now can not sleep thanks to the several naps I took Wednesday. I am on the computer blogging and searching. What am I searching for you ask? I am searching for books, yup books. Big suprise right? A homeschooler who is searching for books, that just never happens right? (note the sarcasm) Well I am not searching for just any books, I am searching for the books of my childhood, books that I enjoyed so much I want to share with my children, and you know what they are *gasp* educational! I was and still am an avid reader as a child, devouring any book placed in front of me. I always had a love of all things mystery when it came to fiction books, but then I also loved non-fiction as well, mostly science and space. So I am sitting up late into the night or early into the morning, depending on your perspective, searching for books from my childhood book shelf. If only I had the forsight to have kept those books, but as I got older I donated the outgrown, or unwanted books to local charities so that other children would have books to read and now I must search to find the best loved books once again to share with my children.

Care to share some of your favorite books?

A recipe

2011-03-16T09:42:00.002-07:00

As I was browsing the grocery ads for deals the other day my wonderful hubby noticed that salmon was on sale, for a very good price, and he specifically requested that I prepare some salmon for supper because of the sale. Now I personally do not care for salmon as I almost always find it to be too fishy, weird I know, usually I limit my personal salmon intake to salmon cakes which are always lovely.

The other day as I was wandering the grocery isles trying to decide how to prepare this most icky of fish in a way that everyone would enjoy, it came to me! I though of a way to prepare the fish that I may enjoy it! I picked up the Salmon fillets (on sale), a gallon of Orange Juice (on sale), a package of dill (not on sale), and a package of organic baby lettuces (on sale).

I took it all home, and put the orange juice in a deep skillet with some of the dill (about 3 large sprigs of dill and a quart and a half of OJ), brought it to a simmer and then placed in the salmon. When the salmon was just beginning to flake I removed it from the pan to a glass dish (always glass with fish, as it won't hold the smell), and covered with plastic to refrigerate until cold. While that was chilling, I simmered the orange juice and dill down by a little more than half, and added some butter for creaminess (maybe 4 tablespoons?). This too I allowed to cool, though not refrigerated, just room temp.

When we were ready for supper all I did was put some greens on a plate, top with a little salmon, and drizzle with the sauce. It was delicious! Everyone loved it, the boys asked for seconds, my hubby took it to work the next day for lunch, and I, even I enjoyed that meal! So go ahead and try it for yourself, just be sure to use the freshest fish you can possibly find.

Decluttering February

2011-03-06T14:38:00.002-07:00

This month has been a month of chaos and because of that I didn't quite reach my goal of 28 items. I will list the items I did manage to get out of the house and hopefully one of these months I'll get a few extra items out to make up for my February failures.

February's List:
1. 3 bags of hotel soaps/shampoos and the like. (My dad brings them to me and I usually donate them to homeless shelters or send them to soldiers, these bags had been in the bathroom for a couple of months) Can I count this at 3 items?
2 or 4. Mismatched sheets, sheets with tears, and sheets that don't fit our beds. I was saving these for crafting, but since I've not used them in over a year, out they go!
3 or 5. Christmas Decorations that have been on the patio since we took them down, obviously since I never put them away I don't want or need them.
4 or 6. Baby shoes that Twiggles has outgrown, him and his big feet...
5 or 7. More kid clothes that are too small for my children.
6 or 8. Excess craft supplies, basically things that were given to me or came in a kit I got on sale and I have no intention of ever using (example being some halloween theme scrapbooking items that came in a bag I got on sale for only 5.00)
7 or 9. Kid size cups and plates that my big boys no longer use and Logan has no use for either.
8 or 10. Cloth diapers, yes I had more cloth diapers to get rid of and I did, sent them off to a mama who can use them!
9 or 11. underbed shoe storage thingy, used to hold the boys' shoes but since they never put them away there I got rid of it and found a new solution to their shoe troubles.
10 or 12. Pot holder/placemat gift set thing, that was given to us and we have no use for.
11 or 13. Some baby toys that no longer get used, yes again.
12 or 14. Some random stuff that has been in boxes or bags for ages and I have no more use for.

So there you have it...I am 14 or 16 items short of my goal depending on how you count. I missed the mark here and it's upsetting, but I will do better for March!

No!

2011-02-27T18:08:00.002-07:00

A word that has been giving me much trouble as of late, for many reasons.

My 20 month old baby has begun telling me no, no, NO! when asked to do something, or asked to come to me. This is something that I knew was coming of course because it's only a normal part of childhood development for him to want to assert his independence and take control, though I will not give in and allow chaos to reign because that will not help anyone. I was simply hoping that it would be a little longer before we'd enter this stage of his development.

It is also a word I find myself using much more as of late in my own home, and I don't like it. So in an effort to use "no" less, I have begun placing stipulations on things that I would previously say "no" too. Instead of telling my 6 year old "no" he may not paint, I have begun telling him that he may paint ONLY if he cleans up ALL of the mess he makes doing so. This meant that he and he alone was responsible for setting up the paint supplies, and he alone was responsible for washing brushes, containers, tables, floor, walls, etc. after painting. It also meant that when he made a dribble on the newly cleaned carpets he had to get the peroxide and brush and clean it up. This has made our home a more peaceful place, unless of course I am on the phone...

No, is also a word I fear. I have been asking the Lord lately to please provide us with more living space, and a larger, more reliable vehicle. I have been on my knees begging for it actually, and while I have not yet heard an answer from God, I am fearing that he will tell me no, I may not have what I am asking for. I would like a larger apartment or rental home, as there is currently 5 of us living in a 968 square foot, 2 bedroom apartment. A larger space would really be great as we are packed in as tightly as can be, and there is little room for play when the weather is not cooperating, and our apartment manager seems to not like children and so she fusses constantly when children are outside playing. I have also been asking God for a mini van, as our current car is 18 years old, wearing out quickly, and only just barely holds our family. A mini van would be such a blessing to us so that when we go out places we have a little space to spare, and can easily take the family, our "gear", and maybe even a friend or two along with us. My fear however, is that even though these requests seem reasonable to me, God will find them to be in excess and tell me that I may not have them. I will not of course buy a new vehicle or move to a new home without his blessing, because that would put us in far worse shape than we are now, but for me it would be heart-breaking to be told no. I can't explain why I fear He will tell me no, and I can't explain why it would upset me so much to be told no, but never the less I fear it. I know that I serve a loving God who would wish his child to be unhappy needlessly, but I also know that sometimes we don't understand God's plan right away, or even ever in some cases, but that His plan is perfect.

So dear friends if you would please pray with me that I will get over my fear of the word No, that I will survive my child's toddler-hood, and that "no" will become less necessary in my home.

Muffin Tin Monday

2011-02-21T11:25:00.007-07:00

Today is Monday and that means another Muffin Tin Meal today's menu includes:

Peanut butter on pretzel crackers, pear slices, mozzarella cheese, spring greens and ranch dressing, carrot "noodles", and pickles. We didn't have a real theme for today, just a collection of some of their favorite foods. Once again I served the big boys in muffin tins, with plain white liners, and Twiggles had his meal on a plate with muffin cups. Today everyone ate it all!

Here they all are about to enjoy their muffin tin lunch! Twiggles even said "teeeseeee" (For those of you who don't speak Twiggle-ese that's Cheese) which made me smile because the child so rarely speaks.

Birbitt thinks Muffin Tin Meals are a WIN! Maybe someday my children will make muffin tin meals for their own children. :)

Muffin Tin Monday

2011-02-13T12:29:00.006-07:00

Today I decided to try something new, to give our routine lunches a little face lift if you will, I decided to join Muffin Tin Monday. Since today is Valentine's Day I decided to go with a Red and White theme. Our menu today is:

Pepperoni Bites, Baby Bell Cheese, Cherry Tomatoes, Red Pepper Strips, Strawberries, and Raspberry Jello. I also included a small cup of Ranch Dressing for dip, and CranApple juice served in a red cup! I used Valentine Heart muffin cups, and for Twiggles I opted to just place the muffin cups onto a plate as it seemed the most practical idea for a little one such as him :)

Above are the pictures of our Red and White lunch. They were a hit with everyone! The big boys ate all their food and requested more, Twiggles ate his jello, a tomato, the cheese, a bite of pepperoni, and all the strawberries. He did not like the pepper strips, and he didn't care for the cranapple juice either.

I have been informed by the older boys that they would like all their meals served in muffin tins...I told them they'll have to settle for Monday's lunch! :)

Decluttering Month 1

2011-01-31T20:13:00.002-07:00

Earlier this month, I shared with you my New Year's Resolution and this is my update post to tell you how I did for the Month of January. I am happy to report that I succeeded in eliminated 31 items from my home, and reducing my clutter. Here is the list of items that I removed from our home:
1. an old purse, that I never use but for some reason insisted on keeping
2. an old wallet that does not fit in my new purse
3. an old camera that eats batteries for breakfast, lunch, and dinner
4. a broken camera that I kept with the intention of fixing, but seeming as I've not done it yet I'm going to go out on a limb and say I won't be doing it.
5. a large bag of baby toys that Twiggles has long outgrown and never plays with
6. half of our rather extensive duplo block collection (I had enough blocks for 4 or 5 children)
7. a leap frog toy table that was replaced by a newer model for Christmas
8. guess who board game (we had two of the same game)
9. a bag of baby clothes that twiggles has outgrown
10. a tin box that came with a bath set and I kept it because it was pretty, but I've not used it in over a year!
11. a cookbook - I have too many cookbooks, so I'm trying to eliminate those one by one
12. a spare computer keyboard
13. an old remote
14. diaper bag
15. a little play kitchen (very small and twiggles doesn't like it)
16. two boxes of magnetic numbers and letters that I was going to save for Twiggles, but really I can get him more when he's ready for them
17. a broken utility knife
18. a large set of markers that was missing a few colors
19. a bag of fish gravel
20. an owl music box
21. contents of the medicine cabinet (things that are partially used, unlikely to be used again, samples that we always seem to collect)
22. the water cooler (it broke and I figured I wasn't likely to go and have it repaired)
23. water jugs for the water cooler (5 of them)
24. the large dry erase board that has hung on my dining room wall for over a year and I've used maybe 3 times
25. the fish tank
26. the toaster
27. and old comforter that was in need of repair
28. a baby blanket
29. coffee mugs
30. old water bottles with missing tops
31. the old partially completed workbooks that I was "saving" for Twiggles

So that's the list for January, some items were thrown in the garbage, some were given away on freecycle, and others were taken to Goodwill and donated. The point is that they are gone from my home, never again to return, and hopefully by the end of the year the house will look like we have decluttered at least a little bit. :)

Your turn friends, tell how you've done this month. Did you reach your goal, if not don't worry there's still plenty of time to declutter your home. We'll count January as a practice month ;)

What makes a mother smile?

2011-01-29T09:28:00.002-07:00

I don't know about you but for me the things that made me smile before I became a mother are much less important to me now that I have three handsome little boys. I also find that things that never before would matter to me now make me smile.

Things that used to make me smile? A pretty new dress, a houseplant that has outgrown it's pot and needs to be moved, a blanket freshly dried on the clothesline (actually that one still makes me smile), a nice clean house, a meal freshly prepared and pretty on the plate, time spent working on a craft of choice, and of course many other things.

Things that make me smile now? A new baby (any new baby), smiles on the faces of my children, dinner being made on time and children who will eat it, the realization that my children do hear what I say, a little time to myself, and compliments from others on my children.

That last one is what I want to write about today. I am not a vain or prideful person, but when I take my children out to eat at a restaurant and am complimented on their behavior it makes me smile. It makes me smile because I know that as a mother I am doing my job of teaching my children the proper way to behave, it makes me smile because I know that as a child of God my children and I are having a good testimony for the Lord, it makes me smile because I know that I do not have one of THOSE children (you all know what I mean), and it makes me smile because I know that my children have heard me all these years of telling them what is ok and what isn't.

We were all tired Thursday after a hard week of apartment prep and such, and we decided to have a meal out at a local family owned restaurant (my favorite kind). Being that it is still technically winter (though I would hardly call 70 degrees winter) it means that our snowbirds are still here (snowbirds are those who live up north during the summer, and here during the winter, they flee from the snow) which means that almost every restaurant would be filled with snowbirds (of whom nearly all are older folks) and that when Hubby and I entered with our 3 boys eyes would roll at the thought of "noisy children" while they are trying to eat.

We all sat at the table, quietly looked at the menus and decided on our meals. We talked quietly while we waited for our food, and when it came we prayed and then we ate quietly. As the boys were waiting for their sherbet for dessert a couple nearby got up to leave and as they did the woman came over to tell me " You have a beautiful family, and your boys are so well behaved. It was a pleasure to eat dinner with your family nearby!" That brought tears to my eyes, and I thanked her and told her how much that meant to me. The boys finished their sherbet, and as they did another group sitting just next to us got up to leave and two of the ladies leaned over to tell me " We agree with everything the other lady said, your boys are absolute treasures, and you've taught them well." I again thanked them and again had tears in my eyes. Nothing in this world means more to me than my family, and being told that I've done a good job raising my children, that is just a joy for me! I love knowing that my family is welcome in public, and that I can enjoy a meal in public without spending the whole time fussing at my boys. At the same time though it makes me a little sad, because people wouldn't comment on how good my boys are if well behaved children in public was the "norm", if one saw a child every day behave in public it would never be noticed, but that is not what most people see in restaurants and stores, and so when a family sits at the table and behaves it is noticed and it makes me just a little sad for others, but it also makes me smile for myself and my family.

Maybe next time I will have the pleasure of sitting in a restaurant near one of you my bloggy friends and as we chat and laugh our children can quietly talk over sherbet.

New Found Struggles

2011-01-11T14:02:00.002-07:00

As I said in a previous post we are taking the final part of our school year to work on weak areas for the children. This had brought out some interesting struggles.

My husband brought to my attention that he himself is dyslexic (I had never noticed because it is not a severe case and he hides it well), and that while we were listening to B (our almost 8 year old) read we realized that his reading is getting worse and not better. He's starting to forget (or just not use) some of the phonics he's previously learned. This led me to do a little research on Dyslexia, and in doing so found that B has many (read nearly all) of the signs of both Dyslexia and Dysgraphia.

I am not one who likes to label a child and so I will not take him in to have him tested for it, nor will I ever tell him he has it or bring it to the attention of others who may work with him. Labels tend to follow children for the rest of their lives and I don't think that's helpful. So our new plan is to go back to the beginning and reteach phonics, SLOWLY and REPETITIVELY, until we are certain that he's got it. I have to remember to be PATIENT with him, and I have set aside a time 2-3 times a week to sit alone with him and work on his phonics, meanwhile I will simply remind him of the phonics rules and guide him through his lessons.

In a way it is a bit of a relief to know that there is a reason for all of his struggles, and while this isn't exactly a cure all, it is at least a step toward progress. I am relieved in a way because this means that I didn't make a mistake in my teaching (though I probably still did), and now that I have an idea of what's going on I can work toward fixing it.

I had noticed many of the signs of dyslexia in him very early, but the signs I noticed early on are also just common mistakes children make (such as reversing b and d, or E and 3, or p and q). Now that he is older and nearly 8 years old still making the same mistakes and then some I think it's time to take action. So without labeling him, I am simply going back and reteaching and hopefully he'll improve. If he does not make improvement by the fall then I will consider taking him in for further testing, I hope it won't come to that. I think that with some patience and steady work we can get him over this hump.

He may struggle with reading always, but if I don't do what I can to help him I don't feel I'm being a good teacher. I'm ok if he's never a speed reader, I'm fine with the idea that he may never enjoy reading and writing, but I am also confident that with love, patience, time and review that he can improve in those areas so that school isn't such a painstaking process for him.

Ending the clutter

2011-01-06T09:47:00.002-07:00

Let me start by saying my apartment is cluttered, it is full of stuff, full to bursting! Now I know that some clutter is to be expected because there are 5 of us living in a smallish 2 bedroom apartment, however my goal this year, my resolution if you will is to be rid of some of the clutter!

I intend to accomplish this with a bit of help from mother's wisdom. I intend to go through the rooms of the house one by one and if I have not used it in the past 6 months, and it has no sentimental value, it will go in a box and into our storage shed, if I do not go out there to get it in 6 months, then off to the trash it will go! Another source of help for me in my goal is this: I intend to remove 30 items from our home each and every month for the entire year!

The rules are simple by the last day of each month I must remove 30 items from my home that I would not usually throw away. The items can not be things like empty milk jugs that are trash anyway but rather they must be actual items that are just taking up space and that aren't necessarily trash, the items can be donated, thrown away, given away, or sold, but the must leave this house by the end of the month!

So far for January I have gone through Twiggles' toys and found two bags of toys he no longer needs or uses, a table toy that is no longer used, and a few outfits that have been outgrown. That's 4! I also have an old camera that has not been used in months, that's 5. An old wallet, that is to large for my new purse, my old purse that no longer suits my needs, that's 7! A game from the big boys that they no longer play makes 8, and a broken camera that I've been saving in hopes of fixing it makes 9.

I know that I still have a way to go yet this month, but if I only find one item a day that's still 30 items by the end of the month (except February, but I don't think it'll be a problem). I am hoping that I'll get so into cleaning up and removing clutter that more than 30 items will go out, but 30 is the goal.

So friends will you please pray for me, that I can see my stuff through the Lord's eyes and realize that it is just stuff and get some of it out of this house? Also, if anyone would care to join me in releasing the clutter feel free to join in and play along. Each month I will post with the progress I am making in removing clutter, and if you care to play along you can post in the comment section or even link to your own blog post where you've done the same.

Birbitt is ready to make 2011 the year of Less Clutter!

First day back.

2011-01-03T16:40:00.002-07:00

Today was our first day back to school after a month long Christmas break. I had been doing a lot of thinking over the break of what I was going to do with them to get them motivated to finish the year strong. I had decided to put our Science and History curricula up and away to be used next year or the year after, and to simply use Netflix and our local library to learn subjects that interest them. I decided that we would spend the remaining few months studying hard on our weak areas, so that by the end of our school year (March for us) our weak areas will at least be close to or at our goals.

For us focusing on weak areas means that we will finish out our Math book (not a weak area but we are too close to finished to give up now) in about 2 weeks and then drop math down to a couple of times a week just to keep ideas fresh. We will continue with a daily spelling test from our Sequential Spelling, we will get at least 5 lessons of grammar done each week including at least one writing assignment, and we will spend at least 30 minutes a day practicing our reading skills.

Math is not a weakness for my children, and I had planned to just keep going with math, but after much thought and prayer I feel that it is in their best interest to drop math down to a couple times a week. We will finish our math books because there are only 12 lessons left, and then I have a few books of random math activities we will pick from a couple days a week so they don't forget the skills they have learned this year.

Spelling is still a very weak area for them both, though I'm not going to up their spelling lessons we will just continue on as we have been until we reach the end of the book and then I will re-evaluate our spelling program and see if it really is what they need at this time. If there is no improvement in their spelling we will just have to figure out another plan for them.

Grammar has been a weak area from the very beginning, I think this is in part because we have jumped around so much in curricula trying to find one that both teaches what they need to know, and teaches it in a way they can learn it. I think we have finally found a winner because they enjoy Grammar now and they are learning, so hopefully those gaps and struggles will ease off because they are finally on a steady track with one curricula.

Reading is only a weak area for my oldest child, and I know without a doubt that with time, patience, and practice he will get better. I came across an old public school reading textbook, the kind with just a collection of short stories, poems, and excerpts from books and for now we are using that to boost his confidence in reading, and then we will probably move into Rod and Staff Reading for a couple of years. Once I have them both working well in both reading skill and comprehension I will drop reading curriculum and just give them good literature, to hopefully instill a love of reading and a love for the learning that comes from reading. My goal right now is to keep it light, keep it positive, and keep it (fairly) simple because I don't want them to hate reading. A child who reads for pleasure is a child that never stops learning, even if the child only ever reads fiction there is always something to be learned from a book!

These are my plans, for now...and today it all went well! They took a Latin test, to see how much they maintained over the break, and since I am satisfied with the results we will begin level 2 on Wednesday. We completed all planned subjects today, Math, Latin, Spelling, Grammar, and Reading in only 2 hours! I was impressed with their retention over the long break, and while I did find a few areas we need to go over again, I am overall satisfied with their progress and we are ready to tackle our weaker subjects for a few months and finish out STRONG!

Double duty

2010-12-30T10:47:00.003-07:00

As I posted earlier, I decided that this year I was going to do a bunch of handmade gifts this year for Christmas. We did not solely make gifts, but I did considerably reduce the number of "Made in China" tags that were going to be brought into our home. Part of my motivation for this was to be frugal, and part was to avoid the endless clutter that always happens at Christmas.

I will be posting some of the gifts that I made here, and this is the first of those posts. I have been having difficulty lately in teaching my young boys the need for modesty when getting out of the bath. They like to get out of the tub, dry off in the towel, leave the towel on the floor, and then come out and ask me questions before going to their room and putting on their PJ's. Now I realize that as a parent I can continually tell them not to do that, and I can explain why, and I can even apply a consequence if they disobey, however I don't think in this case a consequence is needed. Instead I asked myself what tools I could give them to help them to remember.

So to both fulfill that need as well as my need to reduce waste, and clutter I decided that I would make them each a bath robe. Now because they are so close in age I aim to keep gifts similar or identical wherever possible. So I purchased red flannel and cream bias tape for both robes. I used a scrap piece of the flannel to try my hand at machine embroidery, which I failed at doing. So to distinguish one from the other I used the remains of some gold puff paint that was leftover from a previous project. Here are the results, and they are a hit with the children. They keep them hung up on the bathroom door so they are always convenient when they get out of the bath.

What do you think? Both functional and fun? These were a bit tricky in spots, but the came out well I think.

Time well spent

2010-12-28T20:43:00.006-07:00

Long after this year is gone, after my children are grown and have families of their own, long after our home is empty and far too quiet I hope my children will remember the times like this. The times when all the housework was moved aside, and all my time was devoted to enjoying their childhood.

This Christmas my children were given a rather large Knex set, a 675 piece, battery operated roller coaster set to be exact. The day after Christmas, after Twiggles was put to bed for the night the big boys and I sat down and spent 3 hours assembling the roller coaster, we finished just after daddy got home from work. Once it was assembled it was of course time to turn it on and see if it ran, it took us three test runs to get it to run all the way through, but once we did it ran smoothly and without fail.

The boys were thrilled to see it run, and they were so pleased with all the hard work. It is official, my little boys are growing up! I can remember times when it was difficult to get them to sit still for 15 minutes let alone 3 whole hours, and now they happily sit still working hard to decode the directions and get those pieces snapped in just so.

I treasure these moments with my children, because I know that all too soon they will be gone and my handsome little boys will be big, busy teenagers, and before I know it they will be men with wives and children of their own. I hope there will still be time for Mom even when they are grown boys, but before all of that I know that there is still time to make plenty more memories with my children. I only wish I could keep them small forever, I love to watch the innocent joy in their faces, and I don't ever want that look to fade.

I just wanted to say

2010-12-22T22:00:00.002-07:00

Merry Christmas to all my blog buddies! I want you all to know how special you are to me, and that I look forward to catching up with all of you after the Christmas rush is over. I am currently rushing to finish last minute details, get cookies ready for Hubby to take to work (which is a pain because of all the rules and stipulations placed on them), and trying ever so unsuccessfully to hide myself away until Christmas is over because this time of year I really start to not enjoy people very much.

So to all of you lovely people whom I treasure, even at Christmas, I say Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Advent week 3

2010-12-18T12:32:00.008-07:00

We are still working through our advent chain a day at a time, each day reading from the Bible and doing a craft or activity related to the reading.

Day 11: We talked about Jesus being presented with his name in the Temple, and so I gave each child a page with Jesus printed on it and they were set to work decorating his name in any way they'd like. Each child chose what they wanted to use for decorating and got right to work.

Day 12: We talked about the wise men using the star to find baby Jesus and after we decorated patterned star ornaments to hang on the tree.

Day 13: We made cookie gifts to give to others, sorry I don't have pictures of them. We baked a few simple Christmas cookies and put them in little tins from the dollar store, with red and green napkins. Each of my big boys took cookies to their Cub Scout den leaders, and Biga Boy gave cookies to the other boys in his den as well.

Day 14: The boys decorated some large sheets of paper to make their own wrapping paper. We will use this paper later.

Day 15: The boys used the wrapping paper that they made to "wrap" the gift they bought for daddy.

Day 16: The boys made Christmas cards for some of our family, they will give them the cards on Christmas day when we go to my Daddy's for Christmas dinner. I forgot to photograph these, I'll have to get the pictures later and add them, if I can manage to remember.

Day 17: They added some glitter decorations to their Christmas Stockings, making them uniquely their own.

Day 18: We did marble painting on paper Christmas trees. The marble painting makes a very unique design and it was quite fun.

Day 19: We had planned to make Styrofoam Christmas Ornaments, but I discovered I didn't have the supplies, so we will make these later. I'll visit the craft store later this week and pick up the materials.

Day 20: Make Christmas Cookies to share, we've been doing lots of that lately, and oddly I've not been able to remember to take pictures of the cookies before we've given them away. So you'll just have to trust me that we've been making them! :)

Sorry this update is so long, life got a little crazy and I forgot to make the update. I hope you are enjoying our pictures and activities as much as we are! After Christmas I will post a final update with our last 5 days of activities, give you something to look forward to.

I finally put up the tree.

2010-12-17T07:41:00.004-07:00

This year with Twiggles being so little and considerably more curious than either of my other two children ever were at this age Hubby and I decided that we would put up our tree the week before Christmas to both save our sanity and protect Mr. Curiosity. So we pulled out all the Christmas decorations the week after Thanksgiving and we decorated the house in places Twiggles couldn't reach (which for being only 2.5 feet tall is most of the house). I had suspected that our several year old artificial, pre-lit tree was broken but couldn't be sure until I removed it from the storage closet. It was in fact broken.

So, Hubby and I began the tree debate...another skimpy, wimpy looking artificial, as unless you are willing as I am not to spend well over 150.00 on a tree they all look pitiful, or should we purchase for the first time ever a real cut Christmas tree? Well, we debated the merits of both, the real tree smelling so fragrant, having such full branches, being even more sturdy because of the wide base of the stand. The artificial being cheaper as it's reusable, not being able to do nearly as much damage should it be pulled or knocked over by the aforementioned Twiggles, oh and a fake tree being much easier to clean up after as well. In the end my frugal side won out and we decided to purchase an artificial tree.

Yesterday I went with a neighbor friend (whom I just recently met) to search out a tree, I saw a tree that was similiar to what I had previously (6 foot tall, slender, skimpy, and wimpy, with a weak base) for 67.00 and I was not impressed, nor was I willing to pay that much for so little. At the next store we visited, which I love their deals usually, I found a lovely tree with more round branches, and fuller, less wimpy, 6.5 feet tall, and flocked tips (which was different than our usual tree) however when I got to the counter to pay for it I discovered that it was not in fact included in the sale that was advertised in the same department as the tree, and being frugal I was not willing to pay 80.00 for a tree! Off we went to another store, where I was disappointed to see the trees looking so cheap, and yup you guessed it wimpy, I didn't even bother checking prices.

In desperation I called my husband and asked him if a real tree would be OK this year as I could not find a fake one that I liked. He said a real one would be fine if I wasn't able to find an artificial. Well, before I gave up I thought I would go and check out one of the newer local Goodwill stores. When we got inside I saw only one tree and it was probably 9 or 10 feet tall and would NEVER fit inside my little apartment. Then my friend suggested we check the back of the store near housewares. We did in fact find a few trees there, the first one to catch my eye was a nice little tree, it was about 6 foot, a little on the skinny side, but it did have very full branches and it was pre-lit, I checked the price tag 39.99 a very reasonable price for a tree.

Then, from the corner of my eye I caught a glimpse of a bigger tree and I had to go and look. It was splendid, it was 6.5 feet tall, the branches were very full and "fluffy" looking, the tree looked like a real tree, it was round, and tree shaped, and the branches covered the center "stem" oh it was perfect in every way, then I looked inside the tree and discovered that it was not of the new cheap hinged style where you just shake it all loose, but rather it was individual branched that must be slid into place one by one! I caught my breath this tree was so beautiful, and I had to have it. I checked the price tag, only 39.99, the same price as the pre-lit skinny tree, this was going to be my tree, so I asked my friend to wait right there by the tree while I go and get an employee "don't let anyone take my tree" I begged her. I went to the front and had someone paged, he came and put my name on the tree, it was mine! Now all I needed to do was pay for it and then get some lights to put on it and take it home to be decorated!

I paid for my tree, picked it up in the back and then headed off to another store to find lights (Goodwill only had clear lights and I prefer colored lights), I found lights and they were on sale, but I wasn't sure how many I would need. I picked up 4 boxes of 100 count multi lights and headed home with my beautiful tree!

Just like in my home growing up the boys and I put the tree together, placing each color coded branch in it's respective slot, all the way to the top when Hubby put the top of the tree on. Then I lit the strands of lights to test them and be sure the twinkler bulbs were working (yup, I also must have twinkle lights) and he would wind them around the tree. After working only the second strand on the tree Hubby says "we're gonna need more lights, Jess" so off to the store I go. I purchased 4 more boxes of 100 count multi lights and back home I went.

All in all it took 700 itty, bitty, multi-colored, twinkling bulbs of joy to light up our New To Us Christmas tree. After lights of course comes decorations, and boy does our tree have that! I am still not convinced that there are enough decorations on the tree, as I really love a well decorated tree, but there are lots of shiny glass balls, sparkling snowflakes, shimmering drums, bright tin stars, swirly candy canes, lovey plaid shapes, and some other assorted decorations on the tree. I am currently trying to decide if it needs more ornaments, or nice red bows on it's tips, or if it needs "Angel's Hair" (which Hubby has threatened to dispose of the tree if I put on that Dreadful Stuff as he calls it).

So without further adieu I present to you the Birbitt Family Christmas Tree, lovingly decorated by Birbitt, Hubby, Pumpkin Noodle, Bigga Boy, and Twiggles!

Winter Surprise!

2010-12-10T13:37:00.004-07:00

While we were out trying to get some good pictures of our Christmas decorations I looked over beside me and what did I find?

I couldn't believe that I actually caught a picture of it sitting still! I have never before seen one sit still! Now tell me, where else but Arizona can you see a hummingbird in December! Living in the desert definitely has it's advantages. I love being able to see my most favorite bird in all the world year-round.

Advent Update

2010-12-10T09:38:00.006-07:00

As promised here is an update on our Advent chain journey. So far this has been a great adventure for the family. Even little baby L gets in on it sometimes, when it's not too difficult, but most days we do our crafting at his nap time, or after he's gone to bed for the night.

Day 5 we created a "Making Straight Paths booklet" to symbolize our sinful ways, walking our own path, then inside a straight road to symbolize our following Jesus, a heart for his love, and a cross for our salvation through his death. The Picture shows both books, one is closed and one is open.

Day 6 was supposed to be Writing the family Christmas Letter, but we don't do that (mostly because I rarely remember to send out more than a few Christmas cards), so instead we used a foam craft kit and made photo ornaments. S chose to create himself in a snowglobe, and B chose a Christmas Tree.

Day 7 was a candle craft (Jesus is the light!), well I have a problem with giving my 6 and 7 year old children candles (can we say fire hazard?) so I purchased a couple of LED tealights that are battery powered and we put those inside a baby food jar (empty of course) and wrapped it in tissue paper. It makes a beautiful light next to our nativity set!

Day 8 we read about Mary and we made a little nativity craft, sorry no pictures of this one as it was edible. We put peanut butter on a slice of bread and used pretzel sticks to make a "house" shape on the bread, then we put marshmallows and raisins for the people.

Day 9 was about the Shepherds learning of Jesus' birth so our craft was a lamb. For this one we Painted their hands black and put the print on paper, then they used their fingers to paint white paint over the black to make the body of the sheep. All three of them did this one, though little L needed quite a bit of help. L's is on Orange, S's is on Yellow, and B's is on green. :) I love them!

Today is Day 10 of our chain and we will be making a candy cane, from either peppermint scented paint or peppermint scented clay, I've not decided yet. However this one will be done later after the baby goes to bed.

I hope you enjoy our Advent Adventures and don't forget to check out Hubbard's Cupboard for the complete Advent Chain we are using!

Remember that even though we don't Celebrate Christmas on the actual day of Jesus' birth, and that some of the traditions are pagan in origin, the real reason for the season of Christmas is to Celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

"He came from Heaven to Earth to show the way, from the Earth to the cross my debt to pay, from the cross to the grave, from the grave to the sky, Lord I lift your name on HIGH!"

A Christmas Cookie Favorite

2010-12-07T23:09:00.002-07:00

This is a cookie recipe that I just LOVE, and it's so simple and quick to make. They are lower in fat than most cookie recipes because they include no butter, and yet the cookie doesn't stick to the pan. My children love them, my hubby loves them, I love them, and I don't feel guilty serving them up for breakfast. I will reproduce the recipe here for you if you'd like to try them. They are a soft cookie, not chewy, just soft, and are best eaten within a day or two of making because they get sticky after that.

Fruit Cocktail Cookies

1 can (2 cups) of fruit cocktail in SYRUP (this is important), drained but RESERVE the syrup
1/2 Cup Brown Sugar
1/4 Cup Granulated Sugar
1 egg
2 Cups flour
1/2 tsp. Baking Powder
1/2 tsp. Baking Soda
1/2 tsp Cinnamon
1/4 tsp. Ground Cloves
1/2 Cup Chopped Walnuts (optional, but very nice for a little texture contrast)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F

Cream the Sugars, and egg together until the mixture lightens in color.
Add the fruit cocktail (I like to halve the grapes) and mix well
Then in a ziploc bag mix the dry ingredients together
Alternate adding the dry mix, and the reserved syrup until all combined
Stir in walnuts

Drop by teaspoons onto an ungreased cookie sheet and bake for 10 - 12 minutes until golden in color.

I hope you enjoy this cookie recipe from my past as much as I enjoy it in the present. Really if you are a parent who doesn't mind sweets for breakfast ( I don't on occasion) this is a fairly healthy start, it's got fruit, nuts (protein), and considering that it makes 36 or so cookies, not a whole lot of sugar.

You could also add raisins, marachino cherries, different nuts, or dried cranberries. I like these cookies with pecans as well if you can get them for a reasonable price, but I don't recommend almonds, the flavor doesn't quite work.

Memories of Christmases past...

2010-12-05T18:20:00.004-07:00

I have so many Christmas memories as a child, so very, very, many, far more memories than one blog can possibly hold. I have memories of decorating the trees, yes trees, we had two every year. I remember that each year tree decorating was done on the Friday after Thanksgiving because Daddy would be home, often working a double shift on Thanksgiving, he would always have Friday off. So Friday morning Mommy would get up and make breakfast for us all, and then Daddy would bring out the Christmas Tapes (yes you read correctly I said Tapes, as in cassette tapes), out would come the containers full of decorations, and the organized chaos would begin.

First Mommy and Daddy would unravel each strand of lights and plug them in to check every bulb, while I was busily separating decorations according to the room they would be put up in. Then Daddy alone would put each and every strand of lights up on the tree, and then while Daddy had another cup of coffee Mommy and I would put ornaments on the bottom 2/3 of the tree. Daddy would then put up the smallest ornaments on the top of the tree and add the star. Then we would all put the angel hair on the tree, and I would put the Skirt around the bottom.

After, while I was tacking up my stockings, and carefully unwrapping our fitz and floyd reindeer candle holders to place on the table Mommy and Daddy would put up the other indoor decorations that were high up and needed a ladder.

This was Black Friday for us every.single.year. That is what I remember, and I cherish those memories so very much. I can only hope that someday my children will look back on our Christmas traditions with as much fondness, and joy as I do my own Christmas memories.

I thought I would share a few pictures with you all, I hope the quality is ok, these were scanned into my computer from hard copies, because I was born before digital imaging existed, yes I know that is a scary thought, but none the less it's true.

This one is Christmas 1985 - I was 3 and this picture was the next to last Christmas we celebrated in this house. It was small, had very little space, and was directly across the street from a cemetery.

This one is from 1988 - I was 6 and this was our second Christmas in the larger house. The house needed a lot of fixing up, and over the years it changed greatly, but we loved this house.

These two are both from 1989 - I was 7, and this is one of the few pictures we ever took of the second tree. The first picture is the living room, before we removed the sliding glass doors, and added insulation, hence the kerosene heater to keep us toasty warm.

The second picture is 'den' where the main entrance of the house is, and the reflection next to the tree is not a mirror, it is a window a very large and drafty window. This room was my bedroom for a time while Daddy remodeled my own bedroom and I can tell you I was thankful to get my room back, this one was drafty, and unpleasant until it was remodeled. Also I really disliked the hard floor, as there was no padding under that terribly ugly carpet. It was however prettier than the wood flooring in the rest of the house, that had all been painted a very unsavory shade of brown. :(

This picture is from 1991 - I was 9, and this is the only picture I could find of me actually opening the presents (that was mostly kept on VHS), notice my Daddy's system for opening presents. I always had a blanket to sit on, because the floor was cold, and there was always a trash bag next to me for putting my wrappings in. Mommy always sat in her chair and handed out the gifts, Daddy was usually on the sofa, except here he was taking the picture, and Christmas music was always playing in the background.

You'll notice that the tree looks very similar from year to year, but it was always a beautiful tree, and it always sat in the same corner of the living room. You'll notice in the back of the tree in 1991 that there is a table with a train set, that train set was Daddy's project each year and each year it got more and more detailed, one year he even added a skating pond that looked just like real ice. The memories I can remember, I could fill all of blogland with all my memories, but I just wanted to share a few with you all.

Our memories are ours forever, no one can ever take them away from us, and most of mine fill me with joy. I hope you too have joyful memories of childhood traditions, and the beauty that always seemed to fill your homes from year to year.

Happy Remembering blogland...

A Book Review

2010-12-05T11:09:00.002-07:00

It's no secret that I love music, I mean I really, really, LOVE music. Some of my favorite songs are hymns, I just love the sound of them, and the words are so honest and uplifting. I also LOVE to read, as I'm sure you all know. So you can imagine my joy when I was offered the opportunity to review a book all about hymns, hymns for Christmas, hymns for Easter, and Hymns for everyday!
Ok, so without further ado let me tell you a bit about Then Sings My Soul by Robert J. Morgan. The cover is so beautiful, it just begs to be opened up and read. I especially love the Treble Clef on the front cover. The book is printed on nice thick paper, with a jagged, torn edge look.

The content is wonderful! Each two page spread has the music for the hymn on one page, and a write up of the story behind the song on the second page. It's a real eye opener! There is so much more to my old favorite hymns than I ever would have thought. So many of these songs were written during times of trial, tragedy, hardship, or loss for the authors, and they turned their troubles into something beautiful to be treasured for years and years to come! I opened the book late in the evening with the intent of just browsing through it to see what was in store for me when I began reading it the next day. I ended up staying up into the wee hours of the morning reading half the book in one sitting, I just could not put it down! I was enjoying each and every story behind the hymns, even hymns I myself had never heard before had such fascinating tales to tell, and I just could not resist reading "just one more page". When I did finally put it down I went to bed dreaming of what I would find in the pages the next day. The book is roughly 300 pages and I read the entire book in just two sittings! There was just no putting it down. I found this book to be even more engaging than many of the suspense and mystery novels I enjoy. The best part is that unlike the mystery novels, I was learning something about songs, but even more than that I was learning that sometimes my problems aren't so big after all, and that if these people could be joyful during their hardships, then I could certainly put a smile on my face even in the hard times. This book was both educational, and uplifting, and it is for sure going up on my shelf to be read again! That is the highest compliment a book can get in this house, to be made a part of the permanent collection.

Disclaimer - I was provided a free copy of this book from BookSneeze in exchange for my review on the product.

We decided to try something new this year

2010-12-05T08:47:00.007-07:00

Normally, each Christmas season is filled with a little Christmas baking, lots of Christmas reading, and lots of Christmas Crafts. In the past I have always just picked up lots of books at the local library as well as from our own home library, and as for the crafts well let's just say Google is my best friend. :)

This year a cyber-friend posted some great Christmas links on a favorite Homeschooling forum of mine. I visited the links and found one that really stood out from the others, what I found among the long list of Christmas links was a real treasure. The link was for a treasury of Christmas activities, crafts, readings, and the best part was the it was all centered around the real reason for the Christmas season - The birth of Jesus! So hubby and I fast got to work rewriting the bible verses given to match our KJV Bibles ( I just LOVE the language and poetry of the KJV), and then we printed the pages, cut them apart, glued them into some colored construction paper, and assembled them as a paper chain all per the directions.

Now each day the children pull one link from the chain, I read the Scripture quote on the page, Daddy reads the Bible passage (On days when there is no Bible passage but rather a story I will read the story and Daddy will read the Scripture Quote), and then we all sit down as a family to make the craft or do the activity.

Day 1 of our Advent chain our activity was to set up our Nativity set, which we did of course, but then we also decided to go one step farther and paint a Nativity Scene on our windows for all to see!

Day 2 we made lovely paper angels with tissue paper wings. The boys particularly enjoyed using the glitter!

My purple angel got cut off the photo a bit, but I'm sure you'll forgive me, as I was taking the image blindly because my camera was stepped on and broken (that's a whole 'nother post). Hubby made the orange angel, S made the red one, and B made the blue one, L opted out of the angel making but that large puddle of paint beneath the angels is his creation.

Day 3 we made a second angel craft, this time we made hand and footprint angels, of which I don't have photos, but trust me they are adorable! What a keepsake those are because they are a part of my precious children.

Day 4 (yesterday) we created Whisper Tubes to help us celebrate the joy of the season.

I apologize for the blurriness of the last picture, again because of the broken camera we were taking pictures with one of our MP3 Players and obviously the quality is considerably lower. Again L decided that he would not participate in this activity but rest assured that we are including the dear boy as much as he will willingly allow. While we all were doing this activity he decided that he would try and eat a couple pom pom's, a perfectly acceptable food group for a 17 month old!

Today we have not yet done our advent activity of the day, but I will update you if not daily then at least once a week with what we have read and done for our Advent Chain. I have to say they boys are enjoying their crafts, I am enjoying the crafts, and we all look forward to the scripture reading each day. I think this is the best advent project yet! I suppose after the holidays I'll have to get to work writing my own advent chain for next year with all new crafts and activities, or maybe we'll just do the same one and simply make different crafts, who knows?

Time for

2010-11-29T10:49:00.002-07:00

Christmas Cookies! Yes my friends it is that time of year, the time of year that I longling wish for a bigger kitchen with more space to store the delicious little morsels that I've been making since I was about 7 years old (probably earlier but I don't remember those early years much).

Long before I had a family of my own, back before I had children of my own, before my parents separated and divorced, back when my little world was perfect Mother and I would begin our Christmas baking the day after Thanksgiving. We spend Thanksgiving with friends because Daddy was always working, but we would leave supper just in time to drive to Daddy's work and watch him light up his Christmas tree! Then Black Friday when all the world was shopping, Mommy and I would put on our aprons, tie them up tight, drag out all the bins and containers and tins that would hold our supplies and our creations, pull out the pans and racks and bowls and spoons, rifle the cabinets to find all the sprinkes, and piping tips, and decorations, fill the sink with hot soapy water for washing, and clear the giant kitchen table to begin our holiday baking.

We would pull out the recipe file and remove every cookie recipe we had and sort them into 3 piles: cookies that bake at 350, cookies that bake at 375, and cookies that bake at 400. This was important because each day the cookies we made would all bake at the same temperature! Black Friday was never a school day so that meant that we would have time for at least 3 batches of cookies (usually 4 or 5), beginning with Friday Mommy and I would make at least one batch of cookies every.single.day!

Living in Pennsylvania had it's advantages, being so cold that time of year meant that we could package our cookies neatly in those large popcorn tins and store them in the garage because the cold air would keep the cookies fresh and delicious as the day they came out of the oven. It also kept them neat and orderly for packaging into smaller tins and baskets to give to teachers, friends, neighbors, and others who so kindly serve us throughout the year (bank tellers, our mailman, our garbage man).

Each year my boys and I make some cookies, no where near the quantity Mommy and I did, but we do bake. I do not make the same quantity of cookies as my mother for several reasons but the number one reason is lack of space. I do not have storage space for 10-20 large popcorn tins full of cookies, and I do not have the space to lay out my ingredients and such the way I am used to doing it.

You see, I learned my baking procedures from my Mother and this is how we do it:
Step 1: Read your recipe(s) and make a list of all ingredients you will need
Step 2: Check your cabinets for the ingredients and make a list of all ingredients you will need to buy
Step 3: Shop for ingredients, buying in large bulk quantities wherever possible because we will use it all!
Step 4: Choose which recipe(s) will be made today
Step 5: Lay each ingredient (in it's jar, box, bag, or can) neatly along the back side of the Kitchen Table (This often meant two rows depending on the cookie)
Step 6: Follow the recipe to make first batch of cookies
Step 7: While the first cookies are baking wash dishes from the first cookies
Step 8: Take cookies from the oven and transfer to racks to cool
Step 9: Repeat steps 6 - 8 as many times as you have recipes to make for the day
Step 10: Clean up and put everything away

Living in an apartment does not afford much space and so because I am unable to lay out my ingredients as I was taught from just a little girl I feel stressed and frazzled when I bake because my organization is not there. We do bake, but I tend to stick to the simpler recipes that require few ingredients and that I can get done in a short period of time, spending hours baking in the kitchen is just not an option because of lack of space. I can certainly tell you that the very first year we spend in a home large enough to allow me to bake as I was taught will be a year we all gain 20 pounds eating all the goodies I'm sure to go crazy making!

Mother and I made so many cookies that often we were eating them well into February or March, some of the cookies we made I'd never seen before or since, but they were all delicious! Somehow we never really got pictures while we had everything out baking, but I will dig a bit and see if I can't find a few pictures of the chaos that was holiday baking. I do have all the old photo albums so I'll go through and see if I can't find a few good shots to share (provided my computer will cooperate with my scanner because the photos are of course back in the age of *gasp* 35mm FILM *oh the horror of it all*)

Birbitt thinks that the best part of the Christmas season is sharing the Joy of Christ and the family memories and traditions that make the holidays special for each person in a different way! Won't you all share some of your favorite holiday traditions (you can share here or on your own blog, I'll find it!)

I talked them into it!

2010-11-13T16:16:00.008-07:00

After much begging and pleading with my oldest boys I have talked them into allowing me to share two of their drawings. They went through the numerous drawings that they created both yesterday and today and each chose the two they consider to be their best. So I will now share them with you! I am hoping that the images are large enough for you to see clearly, or that they are clickable so you can make them larger. I am not the resident techie in this house! Enjoy the drawings!

Wonderful Weather For...

2010-11-12T19:08:00.002-07:00

A trip to the zoo! We woke up this morning all in a good mood and with the boys have plenty of energy to spare. I decided that instead of staying home and doing a few lessons and playing outside that we'd pack some snacks and head off to the zoo after an early lunch. I forgot the camera but no matter we have a membership so we'll go back again soon.

Our zoo just recently got Koalas! Because they are new there is a zoo volunteer/employee at the exhibit to answer questions and such about the animals. Our Koala's won't be staying on exhibit permanently as our desert climate is too hot for them, so we will have them until the end of March. We learned quite a bit about them, for starters Koala's are not a fierce animal, they are also not social animals. There weren't many people there and so the lady took quite a bit of time talking to the boys about the Koalas, answering all their questions, and even telling them some things they didn't think to ask. As we were leaving the exhibit she commented to me about how attentive the boys were and what school did they attend? When I said we homeschool she said "Oh, that must be it then, I've been talking to school groups all week and none of them listen like your boys! You must be so proud of them!" I thanked her for her nice comments and off we went.

Even little baby L was intently watching the animals. He even skipped his nap in favor of watching the animals and enjoying the excitement. The only time I heard a single peep out of L was when we rode the Carousel. He really did not like that at all, so we'll not be trying it again for a while!

We really had a lovely afternoon, as once the school groups cleared out around 1:30 we had the zoo practicaly to ourselves! There are few people there on a weekday once school groups leave, and it's nice to be able to get so up close and personal with the animals. We enjoyed the lions as they laid in the sun (usually in the summer they hide in the shade, out of the heat), we watched as the otters played in the pool and begged a nearby guest for popcorn (the animals are not supposed to be fed, but the occasional treat sometimes sneaks in), we laughed as baboons chased each other around and ate bark from the branches in their exhibit, we talked about how fast a cheetah can run, and why they have the color they do, we smiled as the elephants ate grass and the boys discussed how they never knew what elephants ate until they saw them today.

When we got to the children's petting area I thought for sure L would be scared of the larger goats, but he didn't utter a single peep, he just walked away when the larger nubian goats came near, but he would happily walk up to one of the smaller pygmy goats and pet it. He wasn't afraid of the sheep, but he had no interest in petting them. I briefly debated paying for the boys to have a camel ride, and then decided that we'd save it for another day when hubby was with us in case little L wasn't too keen on getting up on that large animal!

What a lovely afternoon we had, and the best part was that all the way home they were telling me all about what new facts and bits they learned today, and how they couldn't wait to get home and write and draw about their day! The very moment we got home they went straight to their school crates in search of colored pencils and sketchbooks where they drew the most lovely pictures of cheetahs and meerkats and lions, koalas and baboons and pelicans, monkeys and zebras, and giraffes each one just as detailed as the last and there were even a few sentences written! I would have loved to share some of the artwork but my shy little artists have requested that I not show anyone!

I think we learned more today that we have all week, and surprisingly I'm OK with that! I know that today they learned something so much more important that how to write proper sentences, or why rocks are the colors they are, or any of the other things we had on today's agenda. Today they learned that they are valuable to their mama, and that there is always time for fun, and that playtime is just as important as learning time, and I think that those are important lessons indeed!

Birbitt thinks that every child should have a day to just play and be a child, they grow up far to quickly and before we know it the children that used to enjoy days at the zoo with mom are now adults taking their own children to the zoo. I only know that because it doesn't seem all that long ago that my own mother and daddy were taking me to the zoo to see the animals.

We're halfway there.

2010-11-05T12:39:00.003-07:00

I have been hard at work for more than a month now, busily sewing up some gifts for the children for Christmas. There are few things that they really want, and by want I mean want enough to ask me for them more than just when they see them in a store or on a tv commercial, and so this year I decided to do something a little different. I decided that instead of just buying all their gifts, I would use up some of the fabric I've been hoarding in my closet, and some of the discount coupons I have for Joann's and I would MAKE some gifts.

Well first up were two fire engine red robes for my big boys, which came out quite well, other than the names I wrote with puff paint (it's been so long since I've used puff paint, and I can not embroider for beans).

Next, I used several bits of leftover fabrics to create 3 pairs of PJ style pants for baby L. I may make him some more from his old receiving blankets as well, because they'd be perfect for house days with a simple t-shirt.

I also made two pairs of PJ pants for my big boys made from some quilters fabrics I had purchased for only 2.00 a yard. One pair made from a green frog print, and one pair made from a blue and orange fish print. They are loose and comfortable and I can't wait to see their little faces when they get them.

I also made two big throw pillows from some old fleece lying around and some fiberfill from the back of my closet. I'm going to make a few more pillows, and after Christmas I'm going to teach the boys how to sew pillows. I am hoping to have 6-10 pillows on each of their beds so they can nestle snugly in a nest of pillows for reading time, this I am sure will make silent reading time much more enjoyable!

After that, I thought "wouldn't it be neat if I could make some simple shirts to go with the pants?" It would be great, except I don't own a pattern for shirts and the internet has been less than helpful. I was able to find a shirt in the baby's size that I took apart to make a pattern for his shirts, so that will work out just fine. Unfortunately, the big boys don't have a shirt I can take apart.

I have a small quilt nearly finished for the baby as well, I just need to put a binding on it. It was a simple quilt make with small squares cut from many of his old receiving blankets, sewn together, and then a simple flannel backing. I left out any quilt batting because it doesn't get very cold here and I wanted him to be able to use the blanket all year long. It is soft because the fabrics are well loved and have been washed many times, and it is colorful because of all the different prints I used to make it, and best of all it's full of love because it's made by mom!

I still have some more PJ pants to sew, and some shirts, and a couple more pillows, but this is shaping up to be a lovely Christmas for my boys, full of handmade gifts that are fun as well as useful.

I think I just may do this every year, it feels good to give my children something made by my own hand instead of something made from plastic that they'll likely break or loose or forget about.

The Pack Wins

2010-11-01T22:48:00.003-07:00

Those three words sum up the entirety of my feelings tonight as I sit on the sofa trying to recover from the evening. Have you ever sat in a room with 100+ young boys from 1st grade up to 5/6th grade? If you wish to exit with your nerves and sanity intact I do not recommend it.

So now to explain. I have three boys, two of them fall in the age range mentioned above, one does not. My two eldest boys have recently joined Cub Scouts, a good activity for boys! Normally the boys break into groups based on age, meeting in their respective dens. I have a Tiger cub scout, who being only 6 must per BSA guidelines have a parent present with him at all times. I also have a Wolf cub scout, who being 7 is perfectly OK to be on his own most of the time. I also have a 16 month old who thinks the world is for his touching and tasting pleasure! (This is important to remember) Tonight was the first full PACK meeting I had to attend, this means that instead of having a flag ceremony and then breaking off into smaller more manageable groups we are all in one room, and each den is called one at a time to present their awards and achievements. Yeah, this also means that all the scouts need to sit QUIETLY, and fairly STILL. Hmmmm. I see a problem already, the meeting itself is about 1.5 hours long! So my oldest B is sitting with his Wolves and the leaders and I am on the other side of the room sitting with my Tiger S and of course my Taste Tester Extraordinaire L.

So, both boys joined about 2 months into the year, and as a result had quite a bit of catching up to do. I am happy to report they managed to do just that! So first up at the meeting is the flag ceremony, and those of us not presenting the flags are supposed to be quiet, well it seems my little L did not get that message, he squawked and squealed through that part. Then we are supposed to recite the pledge of allegiance and cub scout promise, of course L is quiet for that. Then we are quiet again as the meeting is opened up in prayer, once again L didn't get that memo!

Next up the awards! Tigers first, and all is well, except that L thinks he should be up on stage with his big brother so off he runs, with mommy chasing behind him. Wolves next, and this time L has decided that he's going to climb through the chair beside us and try and sit with the man behind us, whom I have never seen before but L is quite fascinated with him. He was happy to oblige and so there is my 16 month old on the lap of a man I've never met. Now the man had to get up after wolves because he has a bear cub scout and they are next. B and S did great through the meeting...other than S not wanting to sit still that long. L on the other hand really, really wanted to run that isle, and no amount of bribing with tasty treats and cold drinks was going to change that. Nope, he wanted that isle so finally I gave up and let him have it, except he really didn't want to run the isle, he just wanted the little TINY piece of something or other that was left on the carpet! YUCK! Now we are supposed to be quiet during awards, except when they finish one den we may clap and cheer, well L wants to clap and cheer during the quiet times, so he does!

Finally the awards are over, and we can get up. The big boys get up and go get their snacks, I go outside to find B running playing ball with the other boys, he's fine. So I go and check on S, well his den is in charge of the canned food drive, so he and the other three member of his den are trying to push carts full of cans (carts big enough to hold all four boys and their den leader in mind you) across the grounds to the food pantry at the church! They don't want our help though, because they are tigers and tigers can do it all by themselves! So we just follow watching to be sure they don't hit anyone or anything.

Come back to the main meeting area and B is still playing ball, fine...except why is his neckerchief hanging that way? "B, where is your slide?" I ask "I lost it" he replies. UGH! "Well find it please" I ask. "Good luck on that one" is the reply from the scout master beside me. "My son looses at least 4 a year, I suggest you just make a new one from a rubber band and a matchbox car." Please can someone explain to me why you would make a product for a BOY scout that is so slippery and poorly designed that it falls off every time the BOY scout runs?

We did find the slide by the way, and I will be scratching my head to find a way to keep that thing where it belongs when it belongs there.

Ok, that's the end of my chaotic evening and now we can all come home and rest right? Wrong, S lost two beads from his awards so he's not happy....well, good luck finding two small round beads in the dark, especially when he has no idea where he lost them. I'll have to talk to his den leader and find out if we can get replacements. You know I love my boys, and I love that they enjoy cub scouts, but I don't think I can do this pack thing once a month! I think I need a babysitter, yup a good, reliable, sweet, honest babysitter. 2 hours, once a month, on Monday nights. Any takers?

Birbitt thinks that she needs to sleep, and maybe wake tomorrow ready for more boy chaos!

Rethinking my plans

2010-10-23T13:16:00.002-07:00

It seems that the longer I homeschool, the more my theories change. I suppose this is probably something most homeschoolers go through as they realize that homeschooling really is different than a brick and mortar school. Lately I have been spending much time pondering WHY we do things the way that we do, and if it's necessary to continue doing them that way.

I have been struggling with B lately in his reading, or should I say he's been struggling with me. He does not like to read, he does not want to read, and yet I continue to push him to read and read, and read some more. This does not seem to be the best approach, and I got to thinking that if someone was pushing me to do something I did not like and did not want to do how would I feel? The answer is that I would enjoy that activity even less, so if I feel that way how must my boy feel?

This got me to thinking about all of our school stuff in general. We are in the midst of change, and for once I am not worried. I am not worried that their education will be interrupted because I know there is plenty of time. I am not worried about making the right choices, because I know that I need to trust my instincts. I am not worried that I am doing the wrong thing, becasue I am at peace with my decisions. I am not worried that my children will not learn what they need to learn, because who am I to decide what THEY need to learn right now at this moment. I am not worried about taking a few days off to reorganize and regroup, because I know my boys are yet young and a few days will not matter in the scope of years of education. I am not worried of what others will think, because I have learned that it's not about others it is about my sons and their education.

We are taking a break from our regularly scheduled curriculum and spending more time at the Library, more time at the park, more time reading TO them instead of them reading to themselves, more time learning through play, more time outside, more time enjoying one another, more time DOING things. We are spending less time at the table, less time fussing over who didn't do what, less time writing, less time doing workbooks, less time worrying about worksheets, less time testing, less time watching and reading others doing.

I am spending more time reading good books to my boys, and I'm not worried about if they read or not. I'm giving them time to enjoy the things they enjoy, and learning through it. I am letting them take the lead in their education, and I'm just facilitating it. If they need to go to the library I will take them, if they need to go to the park to play, I will take them. If they need some craft supplies and a little direction I will give it, if they need someone to read to them, I will be that person. We are going to spend time learning this way and see what happens. I have comitted to this through the new year, after that Hubby and I will sit down and see where they are, what they've learned, and if it is worth continuing.

I am confident that this is the right choice for us at this time, and already I can feel the peace of our home returning. I am excited to see where this new journey will lead us, and I am excited to see what my children will learn, and how much happier they will be, and maybe just maybe the 'problems' that I see now will not be problems anymore.

Birbitt thinks that sometimes a break from the usual is just what the doctor ordered. I am breathing a sigh of relief, and I am certain that the boys are feeling the same way.

Tag! I'm it!

2010-10-18T22:14:00.003-07:00

I feel loved today, as I have been tagged in the blog world! Thank you Ganeida! Now I will try and play along as best I can seeing as how I have few readers, but here goes:

1.What is the one moment in your life you would love to live over again & why?
The one moment in my life I'd love to live over and over again, well this is going to sound quite generic but the moment would have to be when I met my husband for the first time face to face. Yes I know that was a typical answer but it really meant so much more to me than you could imagine, and he is after all, my best friend here on earth.

2. Which historical figure would you like to meet & what is the one thing you'd really like to ask them? [yes, I know I'm sorta cheating. lol]
Historical figure huh? Well, I guess I'd most like to meet the Apostle Paul and ask him how he found the strength and courage to do all he did even through adversity. Though I suspect I already know some of the answer I'd really like to hear it 'straight from the horses mouth' so to speak.

3. What is your Heart's Desire?
My Heart's Desire is simple, I want to see my children to grow both physically and spiritually and become responsible, respectable young men who love and serve the Lord.

4. What is your most irrational fear ~ & are you game to share it here?
My most irrational fear? Well, I suppose all fear could be called irrational in some way or another but I have two fears that can stop me in my tracks. One is spiders, even tiny ones, I am terrified and can not bring myself to get close enough to step on them with my shoe even, I run the other way and send my hubby in to get it. The other is thunderstorms, this I suppose is more irrational than spiders because it is my most crippling of fears. I can not drive in a thunderstorm, I can not think straight during one, and when one stirs up I can be found cowering under my dining room table with a pillow and a blanket pulled up over me.

5.Cat person or Dog lover?
Both! I love animals in general. I love cats because of their strong independence, and because if a cat greets you when you arrive home it is usually because the cat in genuinely happy to see you, where as when a dog greets you it is usually because you will now let him out to relieve himself. I love dogs because they are fiercely loyal (one could learn something from a dog) and genuinely aim to please their 'master' (again one could learn something here).

6. If you could be a tree what would you be & why?
I think I would like to be a Maple Tree because they are big and strong on the outside providing shade from the heat of the sun, and yet they are soft and sweet on the inside giving sweet sap for food.

7. When you meet Jesus what is the one thing you really, really want to say to Him?
Assuming I am even able to speak when I meet my Lord and Savior the one thing I would most like to say would be "Thank You" for loving me enough to die for me, and loving me despite my flaws and sins. Though thank you is not nearly enough for all he's done for me, and continues to do for me it is the one thing I'd most like to say.

And now as per the rules I must 'tag' 7 other people. Seeming as how I don't know 7 other people who blog I'm going to bend the rules a little and simple post 7 questions that you may answer if you so desire.

1. What one talent do you not have, that you very much wish you did?

2. What is the one thing people do that bothers you most?

3. Where is the one place you'd like most to visit before you leave this earth behind, and what about that place most draws you to it?

4. What flaw do you most dislike in yourself?

5. What career did you most want as a child, and if you are not doing that now, what changed your mind?

6. Why do you blog, what purpose to you hope to achieve by blogging?

7. What one modern invention would you mind giving up the most, and why did you choose that one?

Ok, so that's it for the questions let's see some of your answers! If you decide to play along would you please be so kind as to leave a comment letting me know you've accepted my 'challenge' as it were?

A Confession

2010-10-01T10:09:00.002-07:00

I confess, I am not a great housekeeper. If there is an excuse to be found for not cleaning up I will find it. I have not done a very good job of keeping things orderly as of late, and I have also held onto things far too long.

This past 'weekend' (which for us is Tuesday - Thursday, the days my husband is home from work) the hubby and I decided that since our baby has decided he prefers to sleep in the room with his brothers than with us that we would clean up and clean out our bedroom and our living room. Our bedroom had become cluttered with endless amounts of laundry (clean and dirty), and things that had been displaced from their intended spaces for whatever reason, of course it also had the baby's crib until last week. Our living room had become cluttered with Cabinets and Drawers that were purchased in an attempt to declutter our space, ironic isn't it?

So we tackled our bedroom first, removing from it all things that we did not have an immediate need for or that were not important to be saved. Total we removed 2 trash bags full of stuff...shamefully I admit that at least half of it was papers and other trash that were shoved under our bed. Once we removed all that didn't need to be there we rearranged what was left to produce a more functional space. There is now enough space in my bedroom for the bean bags I've been wanting to get for the boys to do their reading in my room away from the noise of the rest of the house. My bedroom is clean, neat, and organized (though my standards are not as strict as some).

Once space was cleared in our bedroom, I was able to remove all homeschooling books and supplies from the living room and put them on a wall of my bedroom (where I originally wanted them to begin with), and that being done, My living room now has much more space for the baby to play. I prefer to keep the baby playing in the living room because it it central to the house and therefore always supervised, because we all know that 15 month olds are not to be trusted. After arranging things I discovered that I really did not have adequate storage for the baby's toys, so a quick trip to the local Goodwill yielded me a perfect cabinet for only 1.00 (SCORE!). His toys are now contained, the living room is now decluttered, and I now feel like I can breathe in my own home.

I confess I am not a housekeeper, and I tend to 'collect' things simply because I *think* they may be useful someday. These are qualities I need to work on, and with the help of constant reminding (hence this blog post), fervent prayer (my own and otherwise), and the desire to have a liveable space for my children I will get better, I have to else my children grow to be like me, and we wouldn't want that now would we *wink*?

Thank you blog readers for allowing me to share my mess with you.

All in time

2010-09-26T10:38:00.002-07:00

I am not a good swimmer at all. I can swim enough to stay afloat in a pool, I can even swim in a lake if I must. I am confident that I could swim enough to stay safe should I accidentally fall into some deep water and I'm not weighted down or tangled up. That being said, the reason for my swimming deficiency is because I grew up with a fear of water, one that was only overcome because of a desire to graduate High School. You see in my high school one semester of swimming was required to graduate, so I took the non-swimmers course and learned enough to get me by.

Now, because of my experiences as a child I took a very different approach to teaching my children to swim. I kept their swimming experiences positive allowing them whatever floaties, suits, and vests that they felt they needed in order to be confident and feel safe. My oldest boy has done well over the years, he's always been a bit of a fish and loves the water. He has always been the one that jumps right in as soon as swimming season hits, and he's always been the more daring one when it comes to jumping into the water, going under water, and trying to swim without floats. My middle boy however, was always the child that took a full month to decide it was safe to come off the second step and into the water, he has always required that we give him a life vest to wear in the water to keep him from drowning. He was the child that I thought would never learn to swim.

As it turns out, this summer they both learned to swim on their own time, at their own pace, and without floaties. It is quite an accomplishment for them, and they are very glad to have learned. They now swim both under and above the water, and at the rate they are going will be better swimmers than their mama in no time at all! I know that some don't like floaties for children, but for us allowing them to use the floaties until they were confident in their abilities was the best choice.

I am one happy mama, I have two swimmers now, who love the water and never had to overcome a fear of it just to graduate high school!

What was that again?

2010-09-18T19:33:00.007-07:00

Today I had the pleasure of visiting a local attraction The Boyce Thompson Arboretum which of itself is simply beautiful. To walk among God's Creations and see the variety and the purpose for each plant is just amazing to me. The whole point of the trip today was to attend a tour offered by a friend of ours all about the Plants of the Bible.

Because of the similarities in climate, many of the plants that are mentioned in the Bible grow well here in Arizona. I was fascinated by the many plants we saw today, and I enjoyed learning some intresting facts about these plants. For example did you know that a date palm tree can produce 24 Tons of dates in it's lifetime? This makes for a very profitable orchard if you have a few date palms within it.

Another very interesting fact I learned during our 2 hour walk was that there is no such thing as a Gopher tree...from which the ark was built, and so scholars began trying to decide where Gopher wood came from. I suppose I always thought that when the Bible said Gopher Wood, I just took it as exactly that. Now there is some disagreement as to where exactly the Gopher Wood comes from, and there is no way to know here on earth who is correct but there are two possible sources that we discussed today, one seems to me highly unlikely. Now the first of the two possible sources is an Oleander, this to me seems highly unlikely because an oleander is a bush like plant, though it can grow quite tall, with very thin whiplike branches. Oleander looks like this:

As you can see the branch of this plant does not look like much to build a large boat from. The second possible source, which seems more likely to me, and again this is nothing that can be proven but meerly an educated guess based on available information. The second possiblity is Mediterranean Cypress, now this tree is very tall, fairly large around and would likely make the perfect planks for building an Ark. The Cyprus looks like this:

As you can see this particular tree is very tall, with a big round trunk. If I had to choose between the two I'd certainly choose the cypress tree!

The Gopher wood is believed to come from the fact that in translating from the original Greek text, there was no English word for the Greek word Kupar so the word Gopher was used. Gopher however actually refers to the process used to get the wood, a process of lamination involving shaving thin piece of the tree and then gluing them back together (think modern plywood). Now this Mediterranean Cypress is very common in the Mediterranean area, it is a very hard, sturdy wood, and was commonly used for boat making by the Cretans and Greeks. This seems a much more likely canditate for the Ark to me.

Again this is all opinion, as no person alive today can say for sure what Noah used to build the Ark. I simply wanted to share a little bit of trivia with you that I found interesting. I hope to take this tour again soon and learn even more!

Mummy's boys

2010-08-31T18:50:00.005-07:00

Today's lesson was just too cute not to share! We are using Mystery of History this year and I must say it's quite a bit of fun, today however was both fun and adorable. Our study was on Ancient Egypt and this was the result...

These are Mummy's Mummies! The most fun part to them was tearing themselves out of the toilet paper wrappings. I just love when history is fun!

Summer Days

2010-08-31T08:45:00.013-07:00

Well, the heat is finally beginning to wind down here and so we are able to play outside some. Yesterday I took the boys to play in the grass, forgetting that Little One has never been in grass before. Oh, the fun they had! The big boys made hideouts in the bushes, and Little One well, he just ran in circles and tried to eat rocks. I thought I'd share a few photos of the fun, as they came
out better than I expected.

I especially love the one where the baby is running down the hill, it almost kinda reminds me of Little House on the Prairie in the opening where the children are running through the field, only our field is freshly mowed. It's nice that we have some grass to play in where we live, as most everything is usually either sand or pea gravel. They had so much fun, and today after lessons we have planned to go swimming. Hopefully I'll remember the camera~

Birbit thinks there is just something so peaceful in watching children play!

Can I keep him?

2010-08-25T23:03:00.009-07:00

Little that is. Yes it's true my sweet, loving, snuggle bug has turned 6 today. I wish I could keep him little forever, ok maybe not forever but I'm certainly not ready for him to grow up just yet! This is my very emotional child, he's sweet and loving, fierce when defending his brothers, the first to hug you when you are sad, always comforting, caring, clingy, VERY clingy, but he's also the first one to make friends, fearless when it comes to meeting people, literal in everything, and frankly having him around makes me sure God knew what he was doing giving me boys because if having a teenage girl is anything like having my 6 year old around I am certain I would not survive it!

As it was his birthday he got to choose what we did today, what we ate for supper, and pretty much be in charge of the whole day. First thing this morning he requested a bagel with cream cheese for breakfast (which I knew last night so I was prepared), then he said he wanted to go swimming...however me being the more practical person that I am suggested that we either go to the zoo and see animals and play in the water, or go to the splash pad at what USED to be Tempe Town Lake (click the link if you want to know why it used to be the lake). He chose the zoo, not surprising if you know him at all. So we packed up some water (couple of gallons), sippy cups for the baby, changes of clothing, diapers, wipes, sunscreen, and snacks and off we went!

We saw few animals today because it's still too hot for most of them to 'play' outside. However they were well pleased with the few we saw and mostly we went to enjoy Yakulla Caverns, which is a water play area with two slides, 15 or so water squirting ground spouts, a waterfall, and a cave area to explore and splash in the small puddles. They played, they splashes, they slid, they ran, they hid, and then my birthday boy fell and konked his head! He is fine, but he was none too happy with the rubber playground surface with which his head made contact. We spend about 2.5 hours at the zoo today, and then we came home for what I had thought would be a rest.

Nope, he had other ideas, he wanted to play the wii! So the older boys played wii while baby slept and I went to pick up his cake and prep for his supper. He decided that he just wanted a small cake this year and so we got him a small, but very colorful 1/8 sheet cake. For his supper he requested hot dogs, burgers (which he insisted daddy put on the grill), chips, and pickles. So we had supper and then he wanted to go swimming!

We got all dressed for the pool, put on more sunscreen (this is Arizona after all), loaded the stroller, and headed to the pool. We get to the pool only to discover that it is closed, and there is no sign of explaination so the reason will remain a mystery. He was disappointed, though he tried not to show it, the disappointment could be read across his face. I felt badly, but there was nothing I could do.

So what did we do, we had cake! And presents! Then it was off to the tub and into jammies for a date with their beds. As I write this I have three sleeping children, and two grown folks who very much wish to be sleeping!

Here are a couple photos because I love to show off my boys, and well what's a blog post with no pictures?

Yes, that is ketchup all over my oldest boy's shirt, I never once claimed they weren't messy eaters!

Birbitt is too tired to think tonight, so for this once you'll have to forgive me. :)

Family Fun Days

2010-07-23T10:53:00.002-07:00

Life has been so busy the past few weeks, as it is summer and it seems the demands on my time increase with the heat. This past week or two I have been feeling the "blahs" and so I decided that I would not make any comittments for this week that didn't directly involve Church, my children, or my husband. It has been so nice to just relax and enjoy everyone again. We have gotten our school work done S-L-O-W-L-Y without the need to rush off somewhere, and we've spent time as a family.

Thursday we took the children swimming, and since it was an overcast day I didn't feel the need to put up the sunshade on the baby's boat. He loved it, every minute of it. The joy in his face as he threw his head sideways into the pool getting his hair wet and splashing water in his face, the shrill screams of delight as he threw his little toys into the pool and waited for them to "magically" return to his hand. The baby enjoys the water, and I am thankful for that because many babies just don't like it, and here in Arizona the pool is a necessity if we are to get any outdoor exercise from June - August (yes I am a wuss and dislike the excessive heat).

My older boys have both just recently learned to swimm, mostly because I have a very "odd" point of view when it comes to teaching a child to swim. I never learned to swim until High School and as a result I decided that I would never push my children to learn to swim if they weren't fully comfortable with it. My boys are now little fishes, the put on their goggles and nose clips and off they go, Hubby and I left to keep eyes on them and be sure they come up for air every now and again.

We enjoy swimming in the early afternoon, as very few other people use the pool at that time so we generally have it pretty much to ourselves and I don't have to worry about the boys splashing people or worry that someone else is doing something that could hurt the boys.

I am forever grateful for days like these where we can just relax and be a family enjoying the company of one another, and making memories with our children that will last forever.

Birbitt thinks memories can be made even during the most everyday events, playing in the pool to beat the summer heat, making a meal, or just being together. Memories don't have to cost a penny, and they last a lifetime. Go out and make some memories today!

Worth Saving?

2010-07-17T15:41:00.003-07:00

I was working at our church today, helping to clean out rooms so the painters can paint, and helping to organize other rooms. Well, as we (myself and the lady whom I was helping) moved to the next room we discovered a pile of probably 5 or 6 hundred books! We had no idea what to do with them so my work buddy made a few calls and was finally told that the books were "trash". When she told me we'd be carting them out to the dumpster I nearly cried, see to me books are precious and even though some may be old and outdated to me there is nothing more relaxing (worldly thing that is) that picking up a book and getting lost in it's pages. Yes I can even get lost in a non fiction book, I get lost in my learning and it's soothing to the soul.

After speaking with her for a bit we decided to go through the books and each take what we could or would use, save some for the new library that our christian school and college will be building, and the rest were loaded up in my trunk and her trunk to be carted off and donated. I took my load to a local christian thrift store that I thought would be best suited to rehoming hundreds of Christian books, Bible Study books, Bible commentaries, Concordances, and other Christian reference type materials.

I sorted through the books and brought about 30 titles home with me, some by great preachers such as Dr. Jack Hyles, and Dr. Michael Sproul, some books are signed by their authors, some I wasn't really sure if I'd read but the titles sparked my interest and I couldn't pass them up. I even picked up an old church hymnal because I love to sing the hymns and many times I forget the words to some of my old favorites simply because I don't sing them often enough.

At the end of the day I am pleased that this stack of treasure was saved from the landfill. I understand the need to weed out books to make room for the new, but to me throwing away any book that is still readable just tears me up (no pun intended). Later in the afternoon my work partner confessed that she was glad we decided to donate them because she too loves books, and concindentally she left with more books than I.

As I sit here typing this I just thought how the state of these books reminds me of the state of our souls. Some people saw those books as junk to be discarded, but others like me saw them as precious treasure to be saved and given a new life with a new home. Much like us, you see even though many don't see us Christians as much more than another annoyance to be dealt with God saw value in us and he sent his only son to die on the cross to save us, give us a new life in Christ, and a new home in Heaven. God thought we were worth saving, and he did. Perhaps we should remember this lesson the next time we are annoyed with the unfriendly checkout clerk, or the loud person in the library, or that driver that just turned out in front of you causing you to slam on your brakes suddenly.

Birbitt thinks that, even though you or I may not see the value in a particular person or thing, someone somewhere believes that person or thing to be precious and worth saving. Just something to think about as we go through our busy lives, and maybe it will help us all, me included, to be just a little less annoyed with the disruptions that come. I am thankful that God saw value in me, and thought I was worth saving, because of Jesus' sacrifice on the cross I can live knowing there is something better for me when I am called home!

I think that in some way my ordinary day of working at the church helped me to see a shortcoming in my own life, and now I have something else to work on, something of eternal value. Thank you Lord for using a day of cleaning, and emptying to help me see an area of weakness, and give me the strength and determination that I will need to overcome this.

Growing Boys

2010-05-14T19:19:00.003-07:00

I have learned in my years of parenting my sons that boys are different from girls, but not just in the obvious ways. I knew the moment the doctor told me I was having a boy for the first time that life would be very diffrent for me. Boys like dirt, and mess, and cars, and action figures, I thought I was prepared for this I mean I grew up on a farm and I liked playing in the dirt, and making messes, I liked playing with matchbox cars as a child and I have always enjoyed working on cars. I am not a "girly" girl but I have my girlie moments and I have always enjoyed dresses, skirts, and pretty clothes.

At first it was easy adjusting to parenting boys, when they were young it was as simple as shopping in the "boy" isles for toys, and buying boy clothes. As they have gotten older however I have learned that there are some considerable differences between boys and girls. For one thing boys just aren't capable of sitting still as long as girls can, I can remember as a child sitting in my room quietly playing with my baby dolls, or barbies (when I was a girl they were much more modest), or even just reading a book. My boys however are hard pressed to sit still for a mere 20 minutes while listening to a story or watching a video. The older my boys get the more diffrences I notice, the energy level for me though is the biggest challenge. Simply taking them to the park for an hour to run out the wiggles just won't do! So I have been forced to actively seek an outlet for them because I can no longer manage their energy alone.

After locating(and rejecting) every sport team, gym class, and organized physical activity in a 15 mile radius of our home I had just about given up on ever finding anything that would a)fit in our schedule, b)provide a POSITIVE outlet for my children, c)not give me a panic attack thinking about all the potential injuries they could get during the activity, and d)not give daddy a panic attack thinking of the expense, until a friend invited the boys to his daughter's birthday party.

She has been enrolled in martial arts training for some time and had her birthday party at the school she attends classes at. Well, my boys were there and had a GREAT time! The instructor was so very patient and he didn't just teach them to punch and kick, he also taught them to have self-control and he did it in a positive way. I left with mixed feelings of the whole thing, on one hand I was happy they enjoyed it and that it wasn't just about punching and kicking each other, but on the other hand I was disappointed that this school was so far away from our home. It was a good 35 minute drive and having to make that drive 4 times a week was not feasable (2 classes per week times 2 children).

I came home and began searching for martial arts training in the areas around our home and I found one less than 5 miles from our home! I called them up and they set us up with a free trial lesson (to gauge their abilities) and a HUGE discount on the enrollment. Now I present to you my future black belts in the art of Songham Taekwondo.

They have gone to several classes at this point and they are doing well, obviously they are just starting but they are learning and this particular school incorperates their behaviour at home into the class and if they do well they are rewarded with a star for their Victory Patch, if they do poorly at home they must stay after and speak with their instructor. I am told that if they try hard and come to class regularly they will advance to orange belt by July, and possibly have their yellow belt by September. After that their advancement will depend much more on their focus, practice, and ability to memorize and replicate moves.

Birbitt thinks that this will be a good thing for the boys, and hopefully me as well.

The Car

2010-04-30T11:58:00.003-07:00

I believe it's Murphy's Law that says "anything that can go wrong, will" well it's especially true when dealing with 14 year old cars. Hubby took our 1996 Pontiac to the mechanic yesterday to have an oil and coolant leak repaired. We were given a cost estimate and told that if the car was there by 8 am it would be ready by 2pm. I'm sure you know where this is going...

First the car wasn't ready at 2, and then at 3 we get a call that the car needs another part and so the cost goes up and we are told that the car should be ready by closing time at 6pm. Nope, wasn't ready at 6.

This meant that I had to miss little Boy's baby signs class (and this week was one he would surely enjoy), I was unable to go to the grocery store last night as well, so dinner plans had to be changed. This morning I was supposed to take little Boy to the pediatrician which also had to be cancelled. I am thankful that hubby was able to get a ride to work with co-workers otherwise it would have been a very LONG bus ride to get somewhere that only takes about 20 minutes by car.

Hubby is now at work and I get another call from the mechanic, and you guessed it another part is now needed, this one even more expensive than the last one. Thankfully there is money in the bank to cover it, but I don't think we can afford any more additions to the original estimate. Mr. Mechanic tells me the car should be done by 5pm and ready for pick up today, I guess we'll see what happens there.

At this point I'm just hoping to get the car back in time for Church Sunday, and that it will be driveable! This is one reason I much prefer to do my own mechanical work, but without having the proper tools, and a safe place to work on it I have to settle for paying an arm and a leg for someone else to do the work. When I fianlly get my dream home it will have a garage large enough for working on my vehicles, and I will have the tools to do it!

Birbitt thinks that Mr. Murphy should have kept his law to himself!

Changes are all around!

2010-04-26T18:34:00.002-07:00

Things have not gone according to plan lately, and it seemed that nothing was going just right around here. There have been some issues with my oldest and his school this year, making me question if I really made the right choice to send him out to school this year. As the year went on things just got worse, Hubby and I have tried time after time to work things out with the teacher and finally hubby just decided enough was enough and it was time to take him out of school.

Well, it seems the school wasn't the only part of our church having "issues", the same time we pulled our boy from school we also made the difficult decision to leave the church. It was hard to walk away from our church, as we had many emotional ties there, as well as several friends. For the most part I've maintained contact with the friends, but sometimes part of me really wants to go back there it's the emotional side of me of course because the logical side of me says "your family needs more than they have to offer, and your family needs to be nurtured with the word of God" and eventually I come to my senses and realize that it's all for the best and that we are following God's will for our lives.

As we were debating if we should leave the church or not I was speaking with a very wise friend of mine, someone I would trust with my innermost thoughts and feelings, and she said to me "Sometimes when we are too comfortable in a place the Lord will have to make things uncomfortable to get our attention and to get us to do as he is directing". Thank you, good friend I needed that kick in the pants! As we began the church search I was getting discouraged that we would never find a church! It seemed everywhere we went the people were wonderful, but there weren't many children's programs and being a young family with young children that's something that is important for our children's spiritual growth.

Out of the blue this week someone from the old church came by to visit, and she invited us to go to church with her at a church she was going to try out. Hubby and I talked about it and decided to go on Wednesday night, and then we'd go again on Sunday with our friend. I enjoyed that Wednesday night service and the children even had a class to go to, we all left the service feeling like we had really been in God's House and that we had just spent the evening with believers! Sunday morning I attended with the children, while hubby was at work. The children had their Sunday School classes, and Junior Church classes while I attended a Couples class for Sunday School and went to the main service where Children were welcomed if they didn't wish to attend the Children's service. Again I left feeling comforted and blessed by the Word.

We are still much in prayer about this, but I feel that the Lord may be calling us to this church, we'll give it a few more weeks before we decide and maybe visit another church or three...but I and the Children are hoping to be called to this church as it seems to be just what we need.

Along with the change of churches I am still dealing with the change of being back to homeschooling my son. I ordered curriculum that I felt would best address the needs of my family and so far (after looking through to books and fleshing out some basic plans for the year) it seems that it will work nicely.

we are still trying to adjust to having a now mobile baby, and I am still finding areas that need to be "baby-proofed", and I am wishing there was a way to keep the baby from mouthing dog food and playing in the water bowl! Oh well, if that's the worst thing that ever goes in his mouth I guess I'm doing pretty good he is a boy after all.

Change is almost always a scary thing because it takes us from our comfort zone, and for now I can honestly say I'm a bit unnerved at the whole process. I have faith however that my Lord will not lead me astray and that at the end of the road our family will be better off than ever before!

Birbitt thinks that while change is unsettling, and somtimes a bit frightening, these changes will work out for the better, and we'll be thankful for them. Lord be with us, and lead us as we walk the tightrope of change, and the Glory and Praise be yours and yours alone!

New Beginnings

2010-03-22T13:03:00.003-07:00

Yesterday began a new week. A week that I will never forget, and one that hopefully my eldest son will never forget either. Yesterday was the first day of our church Revival, we have brought in a great evangelist to preach for us and hopefully bring New life into our church. Many of us, myself included, have begun to get too comfortable with the way things are and we all need to change that, we need to have a heart for our Lord and our church, we need revival in our church and we need it now.

There's more to this story than just revival though, along with the beginning of our revival last night was also a baptismal service, so after our evangelist spoke we saw four young men baptized (no we do not exclude the ladies it just worked out that we only had young men this time), my eldest son being one of them. While the baptism takes less than a minute it's significance is far greater than that. We believe in baptism by full immersion and it is an outward symbol of an inward change, it is the picture of the death, burial, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Here is a little video I took of his baptism (I hope this works, I've never done video before):

Birbitt thinks it is a wonderful day to watch a child surrender fully to the Lord.

The week that never ends!

2010-03-12T11:26:00.003-07:00

This was one very crazy week. Sunday I already posted about so we'll fast forward to Monday. All this week I've been going through the house gathering up things we no longer need, want, or use to donate to our High Schoolers yard sale to help raise money for them to go and tour West Coast Bible College, of course this is in addition to all the other things I've done this week.

Monday's are my housekeeping days, these are the days I vacuum all the carpets (living room is done daily because of the baby), clean the windows, scrub my bathroom, and sweep and mop the wood floors. This Monday it was hard to do much of anything because it was raining and COLD, and I was just not feeling myself, hubby who was home from work did some of the work for me and I did the rest so we managed to get it all done.

Tuesday's are the baby's playgroup and my shopping and errand days. This particular Tuesday had quite a few errands: I had to stop at the Transit center and pick up hubby's bus passes for the week, get soap and shampoo for the boys and the baby, pick up a few necessities at the dollar store, put gas in the car, get oil for the car, stop at the ATM and get cash to pay for field trip, and go to the Electric Company and get some electricity for the week (our is prepaid so I have to be sure to keep credits on the meter at all times). So Tuesday I got the baby up and dressed and fed, left the house buckled him into his car seat and wouldn't you know before I even start the car he decided to poo in his diaper, so up the steps back into the house we go to change the diaper. Then we are on our way to playgroup which begins at noon. He enjoyed his playgroup though mommy had a bit of a freak out moment because there was a spider on the floor and I don't do spiders. I can tolerate just about anything else just not a spider! The leader of playgroup killed the spider and cleaned the spot on the floor and we resumed playing. The baby was quite unfazed by it all, it was only I who wasn't taking it well because one thing I know about spiders is that if there's one, there's more and I really wanted to leave before I found the more. I managed to get all my errands done on Tuesday after playgroup except for the grocery shopping (which I normally don't do on Tuesday anyway). This meant that Wednesday morning the children had no milk for their cereal and so I made them eggs and toast for breakfast at 6:00am, I am not a morning person by nature so this is a significant fact as I am not usually functional prior to 9:00am.

Wednesday I did all my grocery shopping, unloaded it and put it away before I picked up my eldest from school. When I picked him up the teacher reminded me that I still needed to make his costume for his program in two weeks. After dinner was done and the children got on the Church bus for the Wednesday night kid's clubs Hubby and I ran to the thrift stores looking for the pieces I would need to make my son into a Town Crier. Armed with an image I printed from Google we set out to find all the pieces. I managed to find an acceptable hat that I could bend to recreate the tricorn, and I found a red shirt to become the red coat of a town crier, I even found fabric that would be perfect to create a ruffled collar for him. I was at the end of it all still missing: a handbell, feathers for the hat, black ribbon for trim on the jacket, gold buttons for the jacket, and gold puff paint for the border of the tricorn, as well as black boots or shoes with a gold buckle (I still can't find that).

Thursday, I spent the morning at fabric stores and craft stores searching out the black 1" wide ribbon that I would need, gold buttons, puff paint, a handbell, and feathers. I finally settled on a childrens feather boa to glue to the hat, a bell that I would glue popsicle sticks to in order to make a handbell, and I did find gold buttons and puff paint. The ribbon proved to be quite a challenge as there is no such thing as 1" wide black ribbon, 7/8" was as close as I could come and while it might seem trivial it really does need that extra 1/8" but I will just have to make do. I made his hat during the baby's nap, did some laundry, and pinned all the ribbon to his jacket. Next week I will finish the sewing and add the decoration.

Today is Friday and I planned to do nothing today as I am quite tired and worn out from all the errands during the week, and hubby has worked overtime all this week except for Monday when he was off, and Wednesday. The baby however had other ideas he decided that today would be the day he'd discover his mobility and go from one end of the room to the other getting into all sorts of things I didn't even think about until he started getting into them. So now as I type he is settled on playing the cat like a drum and she doesn't care because she's basking in the sunlight pouring in through our sliding glass doors in my bedroom. So I get to spend next week going room by room and rearranging things to make them baby proof (yes I should have already done this but I've been busy which is no excuse I know), either that or I must get a baby fence, and I still must get a couple of baby gates to keep the little one out of danger areas like the kitchen.

What a week! I'm so glad my baby is finally crawling (as will be his development specialist), but did he have to choose this week to do it? Birbitt thinks that even though this week has been a busy one I'll look back on it all and remember it as a time when my children were still innocent, and I will miss these days when they are grown up so I will take the time to enjoy them while I can, and remember that it only lasts for a season and then it's gone.

Preparing for Revival

2010-03-09T09:43:00.002-07:00

It's the time of year for revival, each year in March we have our church revival, and each year we bring in an evangelist or guest preacher. This year is special to me for several reasons:

First the evangelist preaching this year is Kent York, and aside from being a fantastic preacher, very charismatic, and quite funny as well, he is also very special to us as a family. See it was during his preaching two years ago that my Hubby decided that we as a family would join our church and we walked the isle during one of his invitations and requested membership, we were accepted fully and gladly as the congregation had been praying for us to become members for weeks prior, God used Bro. York to bring us to membership.

Now two years later my Hubby and I are very active within our church, singing in the choir, teaching junior church, I assist in the nursery, and we are always willing to help where help is needed. For several weeks now the choir has been preparing hearts through our choice of songs to sing, we've done some real soul stirring songs and have more planned! Our congregation has been much in prayer in preparation for revival, asking God to bring us members and to help us reach the lost.

The second reason this year is so special to me is because while we have all been so deep in prayer some things have been happening in our own family and I'm just now seeing some fruit of the seeds we've sown. See for about the last 8 months my 6yo son has been asking me to get baptized, now I knew that he had never asked Hubby or I to show him God's plan of salvation and I knew that no one else had told Hubby or I that he asked them, so we just kept talking about salvation and how baptism was the outward sign of our inward changes. Just after Christmas break he placed a prayer request slip in the basket at school for Jesus to come into his heart, but still he didn't ask anyone to show him the Bible way. Finally this past Sunday my 6yo little boy got up during invitation and walked down the isle (daddy just behind him) and asked pastor if he could be baptized. A dear lady from our church took him by the hand and in the quietness of another room showed him the Bible way to heaven and my little boy said his own prayer asking Jesus to come in his heart and save him. Now two weeks from this past Sunday on March 21st my little boy will be baptized into our church on the very same Sunday that our revival begins with Bro. Kent York preaching!

I know the Lord is going to do great things this year in our church, and the Lord is already doing great things in our family. God is using Bro. York in an extraordinary way, and it's such a blessing to see him reach our family in so many ways! I can't wait to see what will be done once revival actually begins, as many great things have already begun during the "preparation" phase of revival.

So you see, Kent York is a very special man, and even now two years later Hubby and I can still remember his preaching and his jokes, and I just can't wait to see what messages he'll bring to us this year and how he'll get us all stirred up!

Birbitt thinks that someday in Heaven there will be CROWDS of people lined up to meet Kent York and thank him for his service to the Lord because he followed the Lord's calling and became an Evangelist and because of that so many people's lives have been changed. It reminds me of a song I know "Thank You for Giving to the Lord". May the Lord bless Kent York and all whom he has touched.

We have...

2010-01-08T08:47:00.003-07:00

A tooth! Yup you read correctly everyone, the baby has officially cut his first tooth. You can't see it unless you are really looking but it has broken through. I'm happy that it's finally through, but a little sad to see him growing up. I feel like all I need to do is blink and my baby will be all grown up. Time is passing by so quickly, he's already 6 and a half months old and to be honest I wish I could turn back time and go back and enjoy the first 6 months some more (not that I didn't enjoy them the first time around). Little one is already up to 17.6 lbs (7.98 kg for my metric friends), and he is 27.5 inches long! He's a long little bugger, and he'll eat anything you offer him.

He isn't crawling yet but he will turn himself in circles to move from side to side, or he'll pull the blanket to move a toy closer. May not be mobile just yet but he sure is an inventive little guy!

Some pictures for your enjoyment (don't mind the mama feet :):