Awana This Week

It's been awhile since I've posted an Awana update.   Last week we were on Thanksgiving break and since we follow the public school schedule that meant no Awana.  It was weird to not have something to do on a Wednesday.  And by Friday I was missing my Awana boys.  I can't go too long without my 4th grade boy fix!

Have I introduced you to Shannon?  He started coming at the end of last year having NEVER HEARD THE NAME OF JESUS!!!    So you can imagine that he's a little bit special to me.  He's been eager from the start and a quick study.  Super smart and one of the better behaved, he's a joy in my class.  He's also one of the best about keeping up with his book and shirt.

This week we prayed mostly about grades.  I guess with the year almost 1/2 over, kids are getting tired and ready for a break. I really can't believe we are almost at the end of this semester!

We talked about some of the harder words in the Verses and whose responsibility it is to make sure you have your shirt on Wednesday.  Most of the kids were studying the books of the Bible.

With over 90 people this week, Awana continues to be jam-packed and busy and full of fun!

Look What I Made!

Shampoo!  

If you've read my RA blog lately, you'll understand why.  For whatever reason all of a sudden my medicine or something is making my hair fall out.  Being off my med for 3 weeks did nothing but put my wrist in a brace.  Soooo, I needed another idea.  Any idea.  

And this is where I landed.  I figure I have nothing to lose, since I'm losing it anyway.   So I googled an all-natural recipe and  filled my Azure Standard cart. 

 A few basic ingredients....

1/2 C. water
1/4 C. liquid castile soap
2 tsp avocado oil
1/8 tsp peppermint oil and tea tree oil
1 tsp vegetable glycerin
10-15 drops lavender oil

I poured out one of my mom's cokes (funny, no?) and filled the bottle and shook it up.
I am soooo proud of it and I haven't even used it yet.

I'm not so thrilled with the smell.  Peppermint and lavender are kinda weird, but I wanted to follow the instructions the first time.

As I was making this, I was thinking that if I read this blog a few years ago I would've scoffed at the idea of making an all-natural shampoo when I can buy perfectly fine shampoo for less than a dollar.  Life has sure changed.  And I wonder if many ppl really make a vegan/natural/free-ish move unless they are forced by health issues.

I remember the first time I went to a health food store and wondered why the ppl just didn't look right.  And now I figure they didn't grow up with a dream of working at Squash Blossom, but probably had some wicked auto-immune disease they were desperately trying to control and learned a lot in the process.  Maybe??  I still don't understand why it smells so weird.

Next on the list.....deodorant and green stuff.   And  YOGA.  Yes, I know.  Yoga will solidify my crunchy status forever but I read that it can really help with RA symptoms....can it be?

So help a girl out here.  Do you know of any good yoga videos that don't have a lot of new age meditation? Is all Yoga considered Hinduism?  Can you just benefit from the exercise without all the "emptying your mind" business?  Or is there a such thing as Christian yoga?  Or is it dabbling on the dark side?  The arguments I've read about it seem flighty and stupid.  Thoughts??

Maybe I should stick to shampoo...

Inspired!

I've been reading a new book....

This family did a one year experiment to eat only food they could obtain in their own county.  Not country, but county.   There were very few exceptions....flour and oil, a few spices, and each family member chose one luxury item they could still get elsewhere.

It's super informative on the dangers of GMOs, the difference between seeds, and the benefits of eating local, organic foods both to our bodies and our soil.  Good read.

Apparently it's just what I needed to pry me out of my cooking rut.  I spent our vacation making lots of food and dirtying up stacks of dishes.  It felt good to actually be depositing something homemade into my freezer and seeing pretty glass jars of food cooling from the canner.  This week I hope to do more.

My friend at church gave us some strawberry plants.  While the weather stays warm I'm going to have Farmer Boy plant those and get them mulched for the winter.  He also gave us 4 big sacks of greens from his garden.  Lots of green smoothies and salads for us this week!   He just has a normal sized backyard but is a seasoned gardener and makes very good use of his space.

Yesterday my guys started our compost pile and worked to clean out some more of the garden.  And GUESS WHAT?!  We staked out where the chickens are going to go!!  Now we just need some fencing materials.  But since I'm not so faithful at going outside when it's cold, I'm thinking the chickens need to wait til spring.

The honey man from the farmer's market is going to work with us in February to get our bee hives started.  He said by May we should have our own honey.  Imagine!!

I LOVE living out here.

Goodbye Vacation

Wow this vacation week has flown by!  It's already the weekend and it seems like it barely started.
We had a lot of Daddy time, a lot of hanging at G'ma's b/c our dryer is broken and her's isn't time, a lot of church family, a lot of Meg time, and some a lot of sleeping in.

We celebrated Thanksgiving, did some shopping, put up the Christmas tree, worked in the yard, worked in the kitchen, and even celebrated a birthday!

Look who turned seven!

 

I finished a book, canned pepper jelly, canned green tomatoes, and cleaned my closet.

Can't we just stay on vacation?  Pleeeeeease?

Tomorrow is my get-my-act-together-to-prepare-for-church-and-school day.  I have a new crockpot recipe to try for after church.  But since we are having a Thanksgiving leftovers lunch after church then I'm going to try it out on the family for dinner.

I also have a lot of school to organize and plan for next week.  But guess what?  I have 3 new cabinets to store our current school stuff in!  No more milk crates stacked on the laundry room floor thank you very much.  And I found the 3 hole punch!  Ok, well actually Meg found it because it was AT HER HOUSE!!  After turning my house upside down and offering a reward for the blasted thing, it was at Meg's the whole time.  Now I can return the church's 3 hole punch that Ms. Linda has probably been looking for everywhere.
(Don't tell her I had it.)

My New Favorite

Vacation

A couple of weeks ago Honey casually mentioned that he took the week off.  You did!?  Great. 

And that was the end of it.  

But now that it's here....GRRRREAT!!!  

LOVE me some vacation time.  That was a good idea. 

2 days into it and I am NOT missing that annoying alarm.  In fact, everyone's been staying up late and sleeping in.  Ahhhh, vacation....

I had a bunch of peppers from Josh's garden to deal with.  With some inspiration from Atwoods, I decided to can some pepper jelly.   Some of us thought it was too hot, I thought it was too sweet,  some thought it was a wrong flavor combination, none of us thought it was great.  Oh well, moving on to green tomatoes tomorrow.  

Settlers of Catan!  My kids are gaming like crazy.  Monopoly, Clue, Battleship, you name it.  I love board games but don't always have the time to play.  I've been wanting to play Settlers of Catan since we moved. I lost, but that's ok.

Take a guess.  Give up?

It's a swimming pool for the doll house people made out of popsicle sticks.  

And these!  Cinnamon rolls all ready for my Birdy's birthday tomorrow.

Coming up....
Birthday!
Setting up Christmas tree
Thanksgiving
Spending some time with Eldest

Ahhhh Vacation!!

Learning To Crochet

Lane is such a great teacher.  Someday she's going to be a great homeschool momma!

Look how she holds her mouth when she's concentrating!

I hope to have some more pretty crocheted potholders out of the deal...

Update On Eldest

People are often asking me how Meg is doing and how we are getting along without her.

Well she is awesome. 

Loving her home, her husband, busy with school, and learning to balance it all.

I'm so grateful that she is not far away.  We are blessed to see her 2-3/wk  and her siblings get to enjoy sleepovers at her house.   This week she went shoe box shopping with us and we hung at her house last night after TKD.  She and Ethan are great hosts! 

So here is a cute note I found that she wrote when she was 5.  My momma heart melts!  I love my girly!!

Scavenger Hunt

I wanted to do something fun in the afternoon.  I looked on my Pinterest boards but either didn't have the supplies or the energy to dig them all out.  I really REALLY wanted a Thanksgiving craft but couldn't even pull together a cute coloring sheet.  Obviously crafting wasn't in the picture at all. 

So instead I put together a scavenger hunt.   (thank you Pinterest)

Something shiny

Something straight

Something round

Something beautiful

Something that makes you smile

2 kinds of leaves

Something orange

......etc.....

No Walmart sacks to be found, I gave them small paper bags and shooed them outside to find their treasures.   Everything must be found outside and only in our own yard.

Here's the things that make them smile....

A homemade dagger from the deck box.  Can you tell this girl has brothers?

A candy bar found in the grass obviously from our party the other night.

A green tomato from Farmer Boy's garden.  Of course that would make him smile.

Pine needles?  Because they are really green but they look blue.

A purple flower.

This was great fun with lots of unique finds, giggles, and good exercise.

I think this would be fun to do with each season changing up the things to find and maybe going to the park or nature center.

I Am Thankful For...

....November tomatoes in Farmer Boy's garden. 

Of Cakes And Enthusiasm

Here it is Monday again and I haven't blogged in 7 whole days!  Where have I been?
I'm turning into an occasional blogger instead of a run-my-mouth-about-everything-that-pops-into-my-head blogger.   But maybe I'm giving my reader(s) a break from too much of me...are you thankful?

Honestly I am STILL having trouble keeping up with life.  Even 3 weeks post crazy move and wedding I'm lucky to feed my family one respectable meal a day.   We just NOW as of Saturday got our last box unpacked.  And that was just b/c we were having a party and people were coming over.  We should seriously do that more often so my house will be cleaner.   Don't even ask me about my closet.  And who knows where our Wii and 3 hole punch is.   The 3 hole punch I use EVERY DAY....gone.

But this week I have a head start thanks to friends and family.

My kids helped Mr. T cater a church luncheon and came home with leftovers.   Lunch?  Yes!
He also sent home some incredible cake that is amazing.  I plan to text him later and beg for that recipe. Is it weird that I stayed awake last night thinking of what I was going to re-name it?  Because it'll never be *my* cake until I name it something different.  Here's the crazy cake naming process....

~I could name it after Amanda's baby b/c if I still lived in CO I would definitely make this for her when her baby comes.

~I could name it after Mr. T.  Or come up with something cute from the letters in his name.  No, that's stupid.

~Maybe the kids will have a good idea.  I should make it for tea time and ask them.  I hope they don't eat it all.

~I'll make it for Thanksgiving and come up with a name from that.   Maybe my standard IBC cake b/c I know they will all love it and will shun the pumpkin pie.

~Naming cakes is hard.  Maybe that's why we don't have any more kids.  Because if I can't even name a cake, I would be sure to name my kid something ridiculous.

Hmmm...maybe once a week blogging isn't such a bad thing you're thinking?

Moving on.

My mothers are coming today and bringing deer meat and chili!  Dinner? Yes!
Meg's coming too and we're going shoe box shopping together.

Wanna hear what we're doing for Thanksgiving?  My church family is having a big meal and inviting the community.  I'm so excited!!  I hope it's huge with lots of our Awana families.  How I wish BigBoy were still around!  I would give him cake...and let him help me name it.

And Christmas?  I have some ideas.  Just thinking.  I know I want to sponsor one of Jeff's kids in Haiti,
shop the Compassion catalog, and buy some Ugandan jewelry.  

So the other day I was telling my man how I much I loved him and how we should stay married forever...just for fun.  And he added that if we did that we could move to Africa when the kids are grown and do mission work.   I tell you, he is FULL of good ideas!!

My pastor has been preaching on enthusiasm and persistence.   And its one of those months in church when you sit there and wonder why he doesn't just look directly at you the whole time and say your name to get it over with.  I didn't even realize I was missing that.  I knew something was off.  But it turns out persistence and enthusiasm is what I've been missing at home and in my ministry.   God is good to point that out.  And I'm grateful for a pastor that speaks the truth.  

Ok, I'm done.   But I'll leave you with this....
"For You are a gracious and merciful God"  Neh 9:31

I've been thinking on that Verse for 2 weeks now and pondering the grace and mercy of our Lord.  And when the day isn't going the way I think it should, when I'm not moving as well as I'd like, and when nothing seems fair (rolling my eyes) then I've been going back to this truth.  That I deserve nothing but death and eternal torment but b/c of the great mercy and grace of Jesus, I hold the promise of eternal life and a tangible relationship with the God of the universe!   Yes, for You are a gracious and merciful God.

Mopeless Monday

First Monday of November!  The leaves are beautiful, the weather is cool, and my backyard is PERFECT!
We had a great weekend and now I'm looking forward to a new week.

But first...
Smiles from last week...

~light sticks!  My kids came home with a bunch of them from church.  That night when it was pitch dark, I camped out in my little boys' room and watched them battle light sticks.  And yell, and bounce off the walls, and laugh hysterically.  I love how they love each other.

~Last week we checked out the local park.  It totally made up for the lack of library.  Lots of open space, great play equipment for big kids and littles, and very clean.  We took a lunch and spent the afternoon enjoying the new fun.

~LittleMan took a huge nap yesterday and slept through church.  I stayed home with him.  When he finally woke up, I made us some popcorn and cake and we vegged out in front of AFV.  Just the two of us.

What I'm Looking Forward To This Week...

~Voting!  Lane and I are getting it done this afternoon

~A new spelling and history program to work on with my kiddos.

~Youthy cookout at our house Saturday night!  That means I have a lot to do between now and then!

Thank you Amanda, for hosting Mopeless Mondays

Cake In A Mug

Here is my favorite special treat recipe I like to make when I find myself at home with just one other somebody.

Tonight everyone went to basketball/church and left me with a sleeping beauty.

Perfect time to make a cake, right?

Here's what you need....

3TB each almond flour and cocoa powder.
2 TB honey
1 tsp vanilla
1 egg
1 dash each cinnamon and salt

Mix everything together and pour into a greased microwave safe mug.  Microwave for about 1 1/2 minutes.


 Although its very nice to work with, almond flour is super pricey. Save yourself some money and just throw some almonds in your blender until they are very very fine.  Technically this is called almond meal and it works just fine in most recipes that call for almond flour.  If you have some tiny chunks that's ok.

Swipes

I have been working to assign new jurisdictions in our house.  

This house has a lot of bathrooms (yes!) so I've had to spend some time giving those some attention. 

I've decided that Little Man is now big enough to take over the everyday wiping of the boys' bathroom.  He was soooo excited to be counted responsible enough for this! 

I made a new batch of swipes.  It's been awhile since I've made these but its time. They make daily clean up a breeze and cheaper than the ones you buy at the store. 

Start with a lidded container that can hold 1/2 a roll of paper towels.  Buy something cute or recycle what you already have. 

Get good quality paper towels for this.  Bounty is fine but Viva is fantastic.  Cut the roll in 1/2,  Or ask your man to do it.  Or better yet, buy a bunch of them and ask him to do them all with his saw then you won't have to ask again for a long time.  

Mix up a solution of 1 1/2 C water and 1/2 C of whatever kind of cleaner you like.  Since this is for Little Man, I used vinegar.  Completely safe and gets the job done.   Simple Green is also good, or Pine Sol, or whatever you use. 

Pour the solution over the paper towels and let sit a few minutes.  The cardboard tube will soften and pull out.  Then you can pull the swipes from the center. 

So here's my guy hard at work.  He uses one to wipe the sink and counter everyday.  But if its not dirty enough, then he uses it to wipe the outside of the potty, or the baseboards, or the floor around the potty until it's super dirty.  

These are also nice to have in the cabinet for a super quick clean up when you're having unexpected company! 

Apparently We Are Library Snobs

When we were moving to CO the university my husband worked for generously allowed our family  to spend the summer in a dorm so we could be together.   It was a great chance for us to get introduced to the city where we were to live, house hunt, and meet some new friends. 

One of the first things I did was look up the library.  Where was it?  How do you get a library card?  When is story time? 

Within the first week of moving in we made our first visit.  OOOOhhhhhh and AHHHHHH!!!
So nice. 
It was big. It had everything!  It had self check out and a whole room for you to pick up the books they were holding for you.  There was a used book store (Be still my heart.) and stacks of free magazines.  The story time lady was pretty good. 
It was love at first sight. 

After officially moving for good Eldest and I made a visit back to our hometown.  I needed to use the internet and we went to the library.  I had forgotten how sweet and homey it was.   Perfectly adequate and very hospitable. 

Now we've been in our new house for about 3 weeks and finally made our first visit to the library.  I had asked around and heard many positive things.  I found out when story time started and we planned the whole day around it.  

Story time was filled with 2 and 3 year olds that didn't listen to their mommas and pulled all the videos off the bottom shelf.  The story time lady was mediocre at best and was dressed up like a vampire.  After sitting under Ms. Turner my kids have understandably high standards for story time and good children's literature.  They were not impressed. 

I took a walk around and toured the place hoping for at least a reasonable selection in my genre.  No.  The building is spacious alright, but not many books. 

I asked about getting a library card.  No.  I didn't bring the proper paperwork. 

It was big. It was new. But it was NOT what we had in mind.

I'm wondering how I can justify a trip to town every Monday to see our Ms. Turner. 

Ramblings Of Recently

Life has slowed down this week and I am EXTREMELY grateful.
I am feeling the freedom to just love on my family, homeschool my kids, and do the work in front of me.   The perfect weather is just that....perfect (!) for jumping on the trampoline, working in the garden, and walking the new neighborhood.

~For years now, we start most every morning with a "morning meeting".   We talk about our plans for the day, our menu, school, upcoming events, I read my Bible, we pray and talk about anything and everything before the school day begins.   This week I talked about everything from genetically modified foods, Halloween, why the history book was missing, and where the cakes went that we won on the cake walk.  Oh yes, it's good to be back in the swing of things!

~We got a new refrigerator.  We needed one.  I HATED the old one since the freezer exploded and I had to unplug it and completely clean out the thing.  Twice.  So when the lady that bought our house liked it, I was happy to leave it.

The newbie is nifty.  Our favorite part is this fancy thing on the front where you can program how much water will fill your cup.  Leave your cup and walk away and see how many dishes you can do before it gets to the 8 oz mark.  Or...you can just stand there and watch it, whatever you choose.

But it's hilarious now to hear my littles ones ask for "3 ounces of water since you're up".  Or my father-in-law to say he needs 4 ounces of water before he leaves.  (He's good at playing along.)

~What is the deal with public school fund raising?  ALL the time?  

~I have a short memory.  That's why I only make Four Minute Brownie Pie once a year.  Apparently it takes me that long to forget that the four minute part is a lie.  Four Minute Brownie Pie took me four minutes.  Plus forty one more.  I would share that recipe with you, but I don't want to be the one to promote a lie.  Besides you could make a whole dinner in that time!!

~Speaking of dinner, what do you feed your kids when you forgot that people need to eat dinner?  At our house, Raisin Bran.  And that makes me the rock star mom.