New Schedules…

We switched our day around today. It worked…but we had no time for going anywhere to play…..I’ll have to keep playing. We went out and did the field trip first…then some hands on things – all while Stacia was up and busy. After lunch we did couch school and I helped Arielle and Nolan with their independent work, while Stacia napped. It worked – but I much prefer school in the a.m. and playing in the afternoon.

Poor Stacia has a NASTY diaper rash. I let her run around outside “au naturale” today much to the chagrin of Zander. I was hoping the sun would help.

I made 2 quarts of BBQ sauce today. We used some to pour over the meat loaf tonight but I still have quite enough for Jamin to use for pizza and for every day use.

Bible study was tonight. Two of our members couldn’t make it but we had a good time. I have enjoyed thinking about what it means to have an advocate this week. What a redeemer we have!

Musings (OK I can't get the new family photo to upload....LOL)

I can remember clearly a day 17 years ago. I was living in the Thurston area of Springfield, OR. I had Bre (4) and Krista (2). I was pregnant and tired and decided to take the two girls to Bob’s for lunch. It was a fun lunch. The girls were behaving and Bre began to really CONVERSE with me. She began to talk about things she’d like to do when she grew up, asked me questions about what I thought and what I felt (Krista stuck French fries in her ear and up her nose)….and I caught a glimpse of the promise of the future. I clearly thought, “This is a lot of work right now, but some day these girls are going to be so FUN and be my very best friends”.

I realized while they were home that that day has arrived. They LIKE to spend time with me. I heard each of them tell folks that they missed long talks with me and that I was fun to be around. They still value my thoughts; even while they actively form their own thoughts on so many new issues. One of them told me I was a great mentor to her. Another told me she REALLY wanted to know what I thought about some issues. They are fun. We enjoy each other. They are some of my very best friends now.

I was thinking these thoughts and feeling a bit lonely this afternoon. I decided to make myself a cuppa tea. I sat down and drank and stared and contemplated….and Arielle came in and asked if she could sit with me. She’s not a real tea drinker. She DOES enjoy a nice cuppa milk. I had my favorite tea cup (which Krista had used at our last tea as it is also her favorite cup)….Arielle chose the tea cup that Bre had brought me all the way from Boston. In this way I felt the memory of the girls in our party. We had a great talk. We talked about my grams, my best friend when I was growing up, what she’s been thinking about, how she feels with the big girls gone, how she feels with Dad gone…and somewhere during our tea party, I had that clear glimpse into the promise of the future again. I’m so blessed to have 4 daughters and 5 sons…yep…it’s a lot of work right now….but what a full life I’m living and will live. I LIKE the adults these children are becoming.

Silhouettes

A common pasttime in the late 19th/early 20th Century was to make and display silhouettes. In a day when photographs weren't common, people would make locket size silhouettes, framed silhouettes for their walls, and even kept scrapbooks of their loved ones varying silhouettes.

We tried our hand at making some today. We're going to send ours to Kuwait. I think they turned out pretty cute. (Argh!!!! The photos won't load! I have no clue why it does this sometimes....I'll try again later.)

First Field Trip of the Year - Snuggle Factory

Our school day began with a field trip. We're beginning our study on the 20th Century. I LOVE this time period as my Grams was born then. I can picture her life as a girl in the midst of all the inventions etc that we are studying about. One fun thing we learned last week was that Theodore Roosevelt, the President, was a big hunter. However, he refused to shoot a bear cub on one of his hunts. An energizing young man and his wife made a stuffed bear based on the cartoon in the media, named it "Teddy's Bear" and sent it to the whitehouse. The rest is history!!!

For years I've heard some of you talk about the "Build a Bear" shops around the nation. We've never been near one. Truth be known I HATE malls - but here our mall is just the right size...there may have been a Build a Bear in Anchorage. {G} A few months ago, a shop called "Snuggle Factory" opened in our small mall. In talking with the owner, I discovered her dh is retired military. They brought their factory to town as a sort of "small town Build a Bear". When we read about the Teddy Bear's origin, I immediately thought of taking the kids to the Sunggle Factory to see how a bear is made.

First we picked the shells of the animals the kids wanted to make. Photo won't load.

Stacia loved playing with the flat bears best of all...again anything can be a teether.

Here we learn how eyes are put on stuffed animals in general.

The kids ran the "stuffing machine".

Each bear has a "wish" burried in it. The kids took the star, held it over their hearts, made a wish, kissed the star, and put it in the bear. I cried. {g}

It was fun. I suggested to her that a fun thing to do would be homeschool field trips (or school field trips). I told her she could read the little Legend of the Teddy Bear book, show how a bear is made, and then let those who want to make a bear. She liked the idea. She said she'd give us a discount if I arranged a homeschool field trip. Maybe....

P.S. Arielle and Nolan trade off playing with Stacia and Zander so that I can work independently with each of them. Stacia showed up dressed in one of Arielle’s “costumes”. We bought this years ago from Yvonne when she was doing the box specials. Stacia was hamming in up – but this is the only picture that we got. She seems to be saying, “My, but it’s hard to be a socialite”.


I forgot to mention below that I was up at 3 a.m. because of Zander “going straight to bed” last night. LOL He filled up the last few tickets on his chart today and earned Play Station time. Earlier in the week he had glued a ticket on the last slot and tried to convince me it should work. Poor kid was so tired that this is the sight that greeted me when I peeked from the kitchen. {best photo won't load} Notice what he's doing in his sleep.
I also forgot to say that Jamin heard back from the Christians Writer’s Guild. Now he is trying to decide if he wants to edit his book alone and try to shop it around to publishers, or if he wants to work through their program. They recommend that he begins the Squire program. They would pair him with an established Christian Author who would mentor him. He would have 10 assignments a year to finish. He would email work to the mentor and the mentor would respond back. This group is founded by Jerry Jenkins and they put on writer’s conferences etc. They have a big one coming up in February in Colorado Springs. They were very encouraging about the dream being possible with some mentoring and hard work….He sort of wanted to do the TOG writing and work on polishing his book…but he does see the benefit of having a mentor work on his writing with him. Before you faint from sticker shock….with the discounted price it is only $49 a month….and last time we did piano lessons over 4 years ago it was $60 a month. In other words his dream is to WRITE, to be an author….if I would pay $60 a month for piano lessons or $30 a month for football (which we did) then why not writing lessons? If anyone has personal experience with the guild we’d love to hear what you thought. I’m wondering if I should let him out of the TOG writing if he goes this route….but then the TOG writing integrates the facts he’s learning from so many sources…..I wish I'd known of this place myself about 20 years ago. LOL At this point in my life, I don't think that I could find time to write more than the blog. I have kicked around the idea of writing all my grams' stories up....it would be cool for the family to have it down...but I don't remember them all. Waaa....

Secret of Productivity!

It’s amazing how productive you can be if you wake up at 3 a.m. and go to bed at midnight! :::snort:::

School went well today. I was thrilled that we seemed to have figured out the secret of schooling with two roving toddlers….UNTIL the police called. It seems that Stacia dialed 911. She used the phone that doesn’t work. THEN when they called I tried to answer on that phone and it “doesn’t work” so he was worried that something really was up at our house. We’ll fine tune the plan tomorrow.

I’d appreciate any tips on helping a boy hold a pencil. YES – he’s my 4th boy to school but he’s 7 and I’m sure the others were holding the pencil by now. I’ve tried everything I know. It’s torture for him to write – but he’s going to have to write this year sometime.

Josiah went to work for 4 hours today. We planned HIS meal choice for dinner. He got called back in. LOL He had Chicken Divan at 10:30 p.m. Debbie, I’ll post the recipe tomorrow or the next day.

After school Arielle and I broke away to mail packages to Mike and the girls. Then we zipped to the grocery store to get everything we need for this week’s menu. I was blessed that whole chickens were on sale at HEB for $.49 a lb. AND I found some wonderful tasting organic Ritz like crackers! It was a good day. :::snort::::

I came home and assembled Divan, boiled 4 chickens, made Grams’ Italian Salad Dressing, Balsamic Vinaigrette, and Catalina, made halibut salad and chicken salad….I felt very productive.

I even :::drum roll::: remembered to pay the bills! I also got to talk to Mom and Dad tonight.

It really is late – so that’s enough for tonight.

Gram's Hawaiian chicken

Debbie - I see that you are looking for Gram's recipe. You can click on the recipe link at the end of this entry (I'll label it recipe) and then scroll down to find it...or go to May 31 or maybe 13 May 2006.

De'Etta