artwork

Girl's Art Displays

what I learned this week

This past week has been one of those draining weeks.  It seemed like bad news came from every direction.
First, my friend, Tish, which by the way is doing amazing; her pacemaker was literally coming out of her skin, staph infection and now recovering at home less than a week later.
Second, gym/church friend's brother-in-law killed in a motorcycle wreck.
Thirdly, friend of a friend, chokes on her dinner at a restaurant, begins to seize and has been on life support for over a week.  Seizures every 20 minutes for over 10 days straight.  Mom to 3 young children, younger than me; family says their goodbyes and takes her off life support, 48 hours later she is still breathing on her own, but in a coma, i.e. you can pray for this one.
Fourthly, very good college friend's son, who is now missionary in South Africa, (3 months older than R2) is found in the bottom of a pool.  He is on life support in an African hospital fighting for his life, Andrew, yeah you should be praying for this one too.
And hopefully lastly, a very upsetting situation for a friend that Ben and I have been made aware of.  Cannot share any more on the topic.
All that to say, God put most of the people on my heart in the past 2-4 weeks multiple times.  Their names would come up or I would think about them, randomly and I mean randomly; did I act on any of those thoughts?  Nope.  I know I cannot carry everyone's burdens, but I know there are lonely, hurting and sick all around me and I have to slow down sometimes to just reach out to someone.  Lord, teach me to love one another and really love them.  To get out of my 4walls and stop hiding behind the fact I am "just too busy".  Lord, please touch those that are hurting and even fighting for their lives and turn these situations for good.
So, what I learned, when God puts someone on your heart, you should probably act on it.

update on Tish

Tish cane through her surgery beautifully.  Thank you so much for any prayers.

homeschool presentation day

The girls participated in our homeschool group's presentation day this week.  There were kids reciting poetry, playing the piano, reciting memory verses, a movie created with legos, and songs.  The girls recited Ephesians 6:10-18 with a few of the friends from Keepers.  They also had displays of science, art, and other projects before and after.  The girls chose their Pysanka projects and the pencil drawings of Carl Fredericksen they did at Disney World for their displays.  Both girls got a lot of praise for their artwork.  They are already making plans for what they want to present next year.  R2 discovered ginger snaps.

another prayer request

This morning, one of my seniors will be going into have her pacemaker replaced.  She has been battling cancer for the past few months with chemotherapy.  Last week, she was declared to be in remission and now it has been discovered the chemo has caused an infection around the pacemaker.  It is a very risky surgery and she is very worried.  Her name is Tish.
I also could use prayers for some fun pregnancy issues.  I have been having very bad back pains for the past couple of weeks.  I found my back brace and I am sporting it this week with some relief.  I also have developed carpal tunnel, which causes my hands to fall asleep multiple times during the night.  I have braces, but they are worse than having my hands fall asleep.  And to top it off, I have an umbilical hernia.  I am so grateful my issues are minor, but it is really hard being Mama to 3, especially a 16 month old when you are tired and can't bend over to cuddle.

garden boxes update

Daddy, Daddy, quite contrary, how does your garden grow?

This is an updated pic of our garden boxes.  The tall plants are two tomatoes (starting to blossom), middle row is green beans and cucumbers; the green beans curly q's are taller than me, and the large leaves are zucchini and squash.
This weekend we added spinach (there is one more box which also contains bell peppers, snap peas and more tomatoes).
Yes, we are going to be that couple who show up to your house with home-grown veggies in hand.

little boy's haircut

I have no ideas how those ladies do it, he did not still for one second, was swatting at her hand, burying his face in my chest, and crying most of the time, oh and eating animal crackers.  But he came out with a mostly even haircut (she even used clippers and scissors).
First haircut - SnipIts, April 23rd, 16 months old

Tater Fun

Yes, that's a Spud Trooper Mr. Potato Head, would you expect anything less?

one last Noah craft

When we unpacked our IKEA shelf, we had tons of Styrofoam and wrapping paper at our creative disposal.  I came up with these rainbows to make out of pipe cleaners and a small section of the foam.  Word to the wise though, don't use cut Styrofoam on the day after you vacuum your classroom.

wordless wednesday - throwing rocks

date night with Uncle Troy and Lindsay

Over the Easter holidays, Troy and Lindsay surprised the girls with a special date night to Disney on Ice in San Antonio.  It was the Dare to Dream show with all of the princesses.  Poor Troy.  The girls loved it and are still talking about it.  Thank you Troy and Lindsay.  My princesses loved it and love you.

first purchase

Over the Christmas holidays, Landry found a horse for her American Doll at Target.  It was almost $40 and since she had just received a treasure trove of gifts and toys, it was a no-go for another toy.  We told her she could start saving her money for it and that she did.  She has saved every penny she has found, every dollar from the tooth fairy, all of her allowance from her chores for the past 3 1/2 months until this past week.  For date night, she chose to go to Target (the horse was on sale for $35) and purchased her Our Generation Horse.  I am so incredibly proud of her diligence, I wish it hadn't been on a toy, but she is 6 1/2 so what can I say.  I cannot remember saving my money like that until I was in junior high (for a 10-speed bike).  I think we maybe onto something though b/c she has been so responsible with all of the pieces (of course it came with 25 accessories).

weekend project #5

Now that the school year is winding down (even though we will still continue schoolwork over the summer) we have been working on making the classroom more cozy, functional, classroom-like...  Ben assembled this bookshelf for me and I have been busy classifying books,  organizing school supplies and age-appropriate manipulatives for each of the 3 kids.   My desk was full of things I wanted the kids to have access to, but b/c of lack of space it was impossible.  We found a cargo table that our neighbor left behind that we were using for R2 to play on and display daily items, but it was a mess.  My only disappointment with this project is that we did not do this sooner.
I still have a few more organizational things I want to work on, but I am happy with it for now.  I want to wait for our new curriculum and see how I will organize our day before I spend any more on tubs, shoe boxes etc.  I also need to make labels for the classroom side of the books.  I turned them around so the labels were visible from the living room side (top left pic is taken from front door).  It looked better than seeing mismatched books from my front door.  Next step is to teach R2 to separate his items back into his bins, he is by far the messiest of the 3.
The shelf really made the class area become a classroom and the first thing you see when you enter the front door is not the over-sized maps, but the room-divider/bookshelf.  And yes, we really do have that many books, and this is after 2 rounds of purging.

time at the creek

Easter Sunday

I am sure by now anyone who reads my blog knows Tim Tebow was at our church on Easter Sunday.  We decided me at 5 months preggo, R2 at 16 months old, 2 girlie girls, and 30,000 people trying to load 110 buses at the same time as nap time probably would not make us the best parents on the planet.

We instead spent the night at Ben's parents and the girls stayed with my parents.  We had brisket after church service and other yummy sides including Ben's fave potato salad.  The girls and Adom hunted Easter eggs, but the cascaranas were the highlight for the year (I think b/c everyone is too broke to put money in eggs).  Afterwards we went to the creek to catch tadpoles, minnows and throw rocks in the water.  Unfortunately, we had to spend the evening driving home.

Easter with Family

We did our yearly trek to my Dad's side of the family for the Saturday-before-Easter festivities.  BBQ, egghunts for kids and grown-ups, cascaranas, and no one was afraid of the Easter bunny this year (at least not one of my kids!).
Of course no family gathering is complete without a little drama.  My 77 year old grandma fell and ended up in the ER.  She had a gash in her forehead, busted up knee and elbow and strained neck.  She is fine, but enjoying a little extra TLC from her kids is the best medicine.

weekend project #4

Ben made this table for the back porch.  I want Adirondack chairs for Mother's Day, but now that I have a one-of-a-kind table I may go something smaller and more rustic.
We found it when we were picking up the pallets for my herb planters.  It has really cool military-style number stamps in it.
It did cost a trip to the easy care clinic, so it was not completely free.  Ben's electric screw driver slipped and pierced right beside his thumbnail.  Eighteen hours later it was still bleeding, so he had to get silver nitrate on it (which hurt worse than the injury) and a tetanus shot.

rainbow math

I love to find new projects for the girls and I am so grateful for pinterest.  It has really jazzed up our school year for fun projects.  This was part of our Noah unit.  The girls each had a blank rainbow, strips of red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple paper, a dice, gluestick and scissors.  We used our qwirkle tiles which are the colors of the rainbow.
The girls took turns drawing a tile out of the bag and then rolling the dice.  They would cut the # of squares out of the colored paper they had drawn and glue those squares onto their rainbows.  LE said this was her fave project we had done all year.  I am on the  lookout for more.  I love it when they are both engaged, learning, and enjoying each other.

gardening badge phase 1

We have discovered over the past 2 weeks, the gardening badge for keepers is going to be our most time consuming badge.   Weekend project #3, included these boxes that Daddy built for us.  After some research and talking to gardening friends, Daddy also found these to help insure this year's garden produces a crop.
The girl's part so far has been to plan what we plant.  LE's list includes carrots, snow peas, grapes, and cucumbers.
Bella's list includes apples, grapes, cucumbers and carrots.
Our first box (Mommy's box) has 4 types of tomatoes, bell peppers and jalapenos (for Daddy's salsa).  The girl's box includes peas, green beans, cucumbers, zucchini and squash.  Our herb garden is doing great.  I used oregano, basil and thyme to make our Mediterranean pizzas.

Mediterranean Pizza

This pizza makes a certain husband very happy.  

INGREDIENTS
1 can (13.8 oz) Pillsbury® refrigerated classic pizza crust
2 1/2 tablespoons Crisco® 100% Extra Virgin Olive Oil or Pure Olive Oil
1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes, coarsely chopped
1/2 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves
12 slices soppressata (dry-cured salami)
6  Roma tomatoes, cut lengthwise into 1/4 slices
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon chopped fresh oregano leaves
3/4 cup shredded Asiago cheese (3 oz)
1 cup grape tomatoes, halved
1/2 cup pitted kalamata olives, halved
1 cup crumbled feta cheese (4 oz)
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
2 teaspoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil leaves

DIRECTIONS
1. Heat oven to 425°F. Spray large cookie sheet with Crisco® Original No-Stick Cooking Spray. Unroll pizza crust dough on cookie sheet; press dough into 14x10-inch rectangle and flute edges.
2. Brush 1 tablespoon of the oil over dough. Press sun-dried tomatoes into dough. Sprinkle with thyme. Bake 7 to 10 minutes or until dough is light golden brown. Reduce oven temperature to 375°F.
3. On partially baked crust, layer ingredients in following order: soppressata (gently press into dough), sliced tomatoes, salt, oregano, Asiago cheese, grape tomatoes, olives, feta cheese and pepper. In small bowl, mix remaining 1 1/2 tablespoons oil and lemon juice; spoon over tart.
4. Bake at 375°F 10 to 12 minutes longer or until thoroughly heated. Sprinkle with basil. Cut into squares.

Resurrection Eggs

This past weekend, Mimi, Ryan, Aunt Rissa and the girls came to see spend some time with us.  The girls made Resurrection Easter eggs to tell the Easter story.
To make you need one dozen plastic eggs.  Inside each egg you place these items.  I have also included scripture reference so you can retell the story.
1. palm leaf (we used a regular green leaf) John 12:13
2. coins Matthew 26:14-15
3. Communion cup  Luke 22:17-18
4. Rope (twine) Matthew 27:1-2
5. Soap Matthew 27:24-26
6. Red fabric Matthew 27:28-30
7. Cross John 19:17
8. Nails John 19:18
9. Rocks Matthew 27:50, 51 and 54
10. White cloth Matthew 27: 58-59
11. Stone Matthew 27:5-66
12 empty Matthew 28:6

I hope you have a blessed Easter with your family.

Read's first artwork

Of course the sweet boy chose outside chalk as his medium, so I can't put it in his baby book.  Thank goodness for digital pics and blogs.
Happy 16th Months Brother!!