Thursday Concludes, Finally....

I can't wait until Mike is home - how did I ever survive a deployment? I'm hopeless, hopeless, hopeless.

I made tacos by request for dinner. While making dinner, I was appalled to discover that our fruit tray is looking very depleted. I put this out every mealtime....but there was nothing in it. I sent kids out to the garage fridge for grapes, cantaloupe, nectarines - anything. This is all that is left. It's a good thing that tomorrow is produce day because I don't think we'd make it without an emergency run to the store. I then checked the Produce rack (er bakers rack) and this is all that is left.....

I think I'll make muffins tomorrow afternoon.

We finished dinner and while the kids cleaned their rooms, I decided to go ahead and make the breakfast sausage I had started earlier in the day. Of COURSE, this led to me emptying all my little spice jars in the cupboard into the big tupperware containers on my counter. I've tried for about a year to find a nice place to put these big tupperware things and I don't have a spot. If they are going to be on the counter, I don't need the cute little jars in the cupboard. The spices IN the tupperware smell much fresher than the spices in the jar....I did get the sausage done. Yes, I do buy the spices in bulk because I don't feel so bad then when I throw a handful at a time into my cooking. ::snort::

Then we played Bible Charades. What a HOOT! Nolan guessed one that Arielle was acting as "Jesus at the Last Potato". ::snort:: We ARE working on those OT Bible Stories.

Then we vacuumed. I wonder how long this will seem like a treat????I haven't set up tables for produce yet - but I'll do that tomorrow....I'm going to go to bed and keep reading the new page turner I've discovered. ::snort::

RECIPE NEEDED - Sour Cream Chicken Enchiladas

Tomorrow night is our PWOC (Protestant Women of the Chapel - do I still need to type that out or are y'all used to it by now???) Project Night.

I always pick up the dinner entree and then we each bring munchies to share. Last night we sat around and discussed what to bring. Something besides Chick Fil A wraps and Pizza. A couple of ideas were liked - breakfast burritoes and sour cream chicken enchiladas. I know where to order the breakfast burritoes and I'm calling a local Mexican restaurant to see what they would charge for a pan of enchiladas....but I've been thinking those sound like something I'd like to make - anyone have a TRIED recipe that they enjoy for this? I can do a google search but I want to know that someone REAL likes them before I go to the trouble of making them. Photos would be nice too. ::snort::

Cookbook Giveaway

OK I have enough to send some to all three who posted below...if you'd like to email me your address, I'll get them out. You can email my personal email address if you know it or not2many9@yahoo.com which is my email in case any of you are stalkers. ::snort::

Jamin has posted Unkosstika Part II on his blog for those of you who would like to read it. He informs me that the conclusion (to be posted in the future) will be shorter. I've not read Part 2 yet - but Part 1 left me eager to read Part 2.....Jamin is the master of suspensful cliff hangers. LOL

Mysteries Solved....

Nolan has been earning a ticket every time he finishes his chores at the same time or before the other children. I told him when he earned 30 tickets, we would all go to Dairy Queen. The deal was the other children could NOT slow down to assist him in finishing before them. ::snort:: Nolan reached 30 tickets yesterday. I tried to get him to wait for Mike to be home, but he simply couldn't wait. We rushed through school and headed to DQ.

Nolan's accomplishment was appreciated by all!

Mystery #1 - What does Mike do with the younger ones while I'm writing lesson plans?
We pulled up and Stacia began saying "Daddy, Daddy, ice cream". Disney Dad is so busted. ::snort:: Mystery solved.

Mystery #2 - WHERE is Zander picking up things like "Welllll...dang it, not again" when Stacia's shoes are left behind?
We do not talk like this. I was driving and said "Zander say Shoot or something not dang it..." at which point he did and I decided that didn't sound any better. This afternoon, I heard Hank the Cow dog playing in their bedroom and that rascally Hank does let loose with some inventive dialogue which Zander must "improve" on....I need to listen closer. Hank also explains some of the new attitude we've been seeing. Zander has been obsessing over Hank the Cow dog since our last camping trip.

Mystery #3 - WHY was my bed wet and cold when I climbed in last night?
You don't want to know. It was on Mike's side of the bed and since he's not home, I decided to investigate this a.m. and stay on my side of the bed. ::snort::

Mystery #4 - Why does a woman who insisted she didn't NEED a small camera and cheerfully lugged a DSLR around, suddenly not want to take the DSLR anywhere now that she's tried the smaller camera?

Sheer cussedness maybe? I don't know but I noted that the Cannon SD1000 has come down to around $200 now....and so I will have the $ to replace it saved several months sooner. LOL

Mystery #5 - What do you call an OMOMY (Older Mom of many young siblings) when she goes out in public?
At DQ Stacia primped and preened and managed to have every male over the age of 3 wrapped around her finger in 10 seconds flat. We aren't sure HOW she learned this - but wow - she's good. It has to have something to do with having 5 brothers. The kids were GOOD. Several seasoned citizens were unashamedly flirting with her. As we left a gentlemen with a million dollar smile said, "Maam, y'all got yourself a herd!" He was hilarious. We both had a good ole fashioned southern belly-laugh and we walked out smiling. I loaded the herd up back at the van so that I could get a photo of them. This sort of comment used to make me IRATE in MT - when I had 6 children and was 33 - I think I've matured. By laughing at his comment, I made his day. He made my day by being totally in love with my little ones...and it was o.k. He meant no offense. I cringe when I think of how many folks may have been trying to bless me with their comments in the past and I took offense.

The part of my herd that I had in tow today
Mystery #6 - Why is blogger so infernally frustrating????? Strange spaces, disappearing posts, not allowing pictures to be uploaded, fancy numeric/alphabraic codes so you don't know really WHAT the problem is? (no it isn't a word but I like the sound of it).

I haven't a clue but I really wish someone would teach me how to host my own blogging site...or is there a Christian blogging site out there with cool templates, "easy" use like blogger ::snort:: that I could use?

Monday -


Hmmm....while much of the world took a day off - we did not! LOL


We did school. Jamin and Jared got back into the school routine.


We had speech therapy.


I baked cookies (used the last of the frozen cookie dough).


The truck driver from Shop Natural had called and wanted me to meet him at 3:30 instead of 5:30. THEN he didn't show up until nearly 4:00. Our order had been $1300 and by the time all the out of stocks were removed it was only $700. I don't think their out of stocks are getting any better yet. ::snort:: I've got a catalog from Azure Standards and I'm thinking if Shop Natural eventually goes to "mail order", I will go with Azure because the out of stocks do not seem to be getting better...but as long as I can hold on with Shop Natural - I will. I enjoy the truck delivery. It's cheaper than paying for postage for these heavy items. The truck driver said that they'd discontinued the Amarillo route but that our route was one of the highest ordering routes and they were trying to keep it going. We shall see.


Stacia fell asleep on the couch while I was passing out group orders. I sure PRAY she stays asleep. If she wakes up now, I'll be up until 2 or 3 a.m.


Mike is away from home again this week. I need to try to get to bed at decent hours instead of reading until the wee a.m. hours....It's been quite the month for disrupting my routines so far. ::snort:: Ah well, can't go to sleep until Jamin is off work tonight.

We made Egyptian lamps and "pots" today....and alphabet letters

Nolan finds out that clay is tough to work

School Daze!

I don't typically start our young ones on "real school" until they are 6. We've simply learned over the years (18) that they do wonderful with lots of hands on math and science, listening to great books and then hitting formal academics a bit later. Studies have been done, in fact, that show that students who do a lot of hand on science in their early years- nature studies, experiments - (vs. lots of phonics) are the better readers by the end of their elementary years. We've see that our children can wait and begin phonics when they are six (unless they ask to learn to read earlier) and by the end of 2nd grade they've caught up and excelled in their phonics programs. We learned this AFTER starting our first two on phonics when they were FOUR. LOL All are good readers....the one who learned to "read" at 4 - isn't the voracious reader that the one who learned to read at 10 is. I often wonder if all the tears over phonics at such a young age left a lasting taste. I pray not. LOL BTW - I know that many families have found the exact opposite - they are really into structured academics from an early age - go for it. God has made such a diverse universe - I doubt he expects us all to educate the same way, or dress the same way, or attend the same church. ::snort:: BUT since this is my blog - I'm sharing my thoughts. LOL

It became apparent that Zander wanted to do school this year (he's 5). I've had him doing our hands on TOG stuff, our science units, and listening to SOME of our TOG readers/history etc. He isn't interested in learning letter NAMES at all but wants to READ - so we began the 100 easy lesson book last night. Last night, because THAT is when he said, "Can you teach me to read?"

I've also been using the Learning Posters that Jen created to go along with the Brightly Beaming Curriculum (free, online, pre-school). Hey - Jen are there more posters in the works? LOL Both of these are great resources. I use the program LOOSELY....because I believe early childhood is for FUN and not formal school..... ::snort:: I quickly realized that Zander was not interested in learning letters of the alphabet. Why did I let him quit? Because he IS interested in learning to read. I've become fairly confident in following the children's interests in 18 years of homeschooling. I KNEW from reading Ruth Beechick that really SOUNDS are what are needed to learn to read. I went to find the little books I had bought over 15 years ago and now they are sold as ONE book. . . The Three R's . These are inexpensive and have enough ideas and tips to actually TEACH a child to read and write and do beginning math. A caveat - in one of her later books Ruth teaches some math that is very confusing to me and not what I wanted to do....but these little books were helpful and built confidence.

ANYWAY, I've been using the learning posters to review shapes and colors and to focus on one theme a week. For instance the first week I got a ton of books on cows from the library and made sure he knew the word calves. The last couple of weeks we've focused on Jungles and vines. I'm having a blast finding great new children's books at the library - and some old favorites.

**Animalia** and **Jungle Drums** by Graeme Base

What makes these books special are the artwork! I love it. Bright, bold, vivid, detailed...the story lines really aren't spectacular in these books - but they did help us discuss jungles, vines, and we loved looking at the photos. I immediately googled to find artwork to HANG in my home from this book. I loved THIS one:

It sells for only $550.00 - I took a photo of the pages in the books....two lions at the library surrounded by great books. LOL If the photo turned out I'll post it - I guess because we LOVED these illustrations so much and found such great things to look for hidden in the photos that I'd like to show them to you all.

**The Baby BeeBee Bird* by Diane Redfield Massie. This is a book I found at the library that I THOUGHT would go along with our "letter B" or our Jungle theme...it did NEITHER - but it is a WONDERFUL book. Deja, it's now a favorite. I've read it a couple of time today and Zander laughs and laughs. It's contagious. This book is worth finding at your library...I think it may even find its way into our home this Christmas. The story line is darling; I especially liked the conclusion: "Nighttime is really best for sleeping...especially for very little birds." I think the kids found this so humours because I've often worn the very same expressions on the faces of the whimsical animals in this book. Now, if I can move them from hysterical laughter to embrace the concept.....I may get some sleep. Though, SLEEP IS FOR WIMPS!

Just thought I'd share - now off to make Egyptian lamps. YES - we have moved on. I am in Ur etc now....but THEY are stuck on Egyptian crafts. What can I say? I love homeschooling!