Category Archives: pinterest

Snow–We Had Snow Saturday

Posted on October 31, 2016 | Leave a comment

Okay, so it was 50+ degrees and lovely outside, but we still had snow.

Our church hosted their second trunk or treat this year. Last year we were overwhelmed at the response and everyone was out of candy 20 minutes into the deal. This year, I decided to be prepared. I started buying large bags of candy 6 weeks ahead of time. We went through 12 of those bags over the two hours of the event. We were left with just 2 bags.

Last year we did a Noah’s Ark, jungle, animal theme. This year, we did a winter wonderland, candy, Olaf, pizza theme.

Olaf was made of 1 beanbag wrapped in a piece of white curtain, one layer was stuffed with quilting fluff, and the top was freehand drawn by my husband on posterboard. Our falling snow was made up of hand cut snowflakes stapled to thick yarn. The lollipops were built and painted by my husband and wrapped in colored cellophane. The pizzas (don’t ask, I don’t know) were made out of construction paper. The girls were live snowflakes–draped in white curtain panels with posterboard snowflakes on their front and back.

My hubby and girls were the creative forces behind this project. I am so proud of their work and their great attitudes. I am not creative, but I have lots of craft supplies, so I provided those.

We had a great time passing out candy to 1000+ people!!

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Posted in church, pinterest

From Our House to Yours

Posted on February 14, 2014 | 4 comments

Okay, my pictures are kind of out of order. Ah well.

Here’s how we made them:

First, we went to a friend’s house on Wednesday where she made them with the kids.

Second, we came come and did our own version today.

Third, I cut strips of paper 12 inches long by about an inch and a half thick. My scrapbooking paper cutter wasn’t long enough, so I cut those babies by hand.

Fourth, we folded them in half, back/ugly side showing.

Fifth, put a small piece of double sided tape in the fold. Squeeze it so the paper sticks well.

Sixth, fold them into a heart, so the pretty side now shows as the heart.

Seventh, put a piece of double sided tape on the inside of the point of the heart.

Eighth, staple them into a circle.

Ninth, staple curling ribbon so it can be hung.

Tenth, Give them away to spread Valentine’s Day cheer.

Eleventh, tell all of you Happy Valentine’s Day from our house to yours.

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Posted in holidays, pinterest, Valentine's Day

Trees are Growing Again

Posted on November 19, 2013 | Leave a comment

A couple of weeks ago we had an issue with an inappropriate response from one child to another. A moment to make a mother proud. Or not. I decided right then and there we needed to start studying the Fruits of the Spirit.

I began looking for activities and opened our Bible to Galatians 5:22-23: But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

First we made fruit baskets with each of the labeled fruits. Today we went a step further and put fruit right on the trees.

Patrice was working on her own project and managed to cut off Abraham Lincolns’ head. You can’t win them all, all the time.

We drew trees with markers on some watercolor paper I had, then added each of the fruits of the Spirit and finally glued on buttons.

We also listened to songs about the fruit while we worked. And I am praying for fruit…

(Original inspiration was from this post, I just thought it needed some kid friendly explanation)

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Posted in Bible, pinterest

Great Day with Some Groveling Here Y’all

Posted on November 10, 2013 | 1 comment

Today, meaning Saturday, since it is now actually Sunday, was a great day. Well for me and the girls. Hubby is being knocked for a loop with a cold, but he holds his own with those. So, back to those of us who are healthy.

Thanks to my ongoing issues with insomnia, case in point, I am typing this at 3 am, my day started very early yesterday. By 5:30 I was sewing for Sue. She has been begging me for a neck pillow. She drives me crazy every time she sees them at the store. I keep explaining I have everything to make them, I just haven’t done it yet. Well I remedied that situation. I made hers completely and cut out the other two.

Then I headed off to donate blood. Even that went well. Next, was a couple pleasant errands (read, craft store). Finally, I made my way home where hubby had scrubbed and bleached the kitchen and bathroom. How can you go wrong with any of that?

Kids are kids, so there were whinings, time outs and moments of, well, just moments.

But the good outweighed ALL of the that.

Caitlyn and I made her a stress ball (sand in a balloon) and a birdseed wreath. She made a birdseed feeder as well.

And the leaves are still hanging out and BEAUTIFUL.

I even got a couple short naps. Yes, a couple. Donating blood drained me a bit. Bwhahaha.

The girls and I ended the day making banana bread. As a side note, I can’t find my recipe so used one with buttermilk in it. I’m not sold. Does anybody have just a straight, no bourbon, recipe they’d like to share?

Pinally, Patrice, Caitlyn and Sue went to bed VERY easily tonight. Patrice even put herself to bed.

I should feel fantabulous about this day. And I do, when I look at the pieces, but when I look at the whole, I feel a desperate need for affirmation as a mother. Why is that?

I have questions. Am I doing too much with/for my kids? Am I letting them use electronics too much? Am I pushing them too hard to clean their room? Do I compliment them too much/not enough? Should I be worried that Caitlyn wants a stress ball? Am I doing this right?

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Posted in Caitlyn, parenting, Patrice, pinterest, Sue

Growing a Tree

Posted on October 29, 2013 | Leave a comment

We started growing a tree today.

In the Living Room.

It’s our thankful tree. Each day we are going to write things on leaves for which we are thankful.

Next step is to write our thanks on them and put them on the tree every day until Thanksgiving.

I have much to be thankful for, but here is one I shared on Facebook and want to elaborate on here.

Today is one year since I unexpectedly became a stay-at-home mom when my job, for all intents and purposes, was eliminated. It was a welcome, albeit challenging, transition.

I didn’t know what to do with myself. And due to car issues, I was not only stay-at-home, I was ALWAYS stay-at-home.

Suddenly I was Patrices’ whole world. I changed the diapers, I decided how much tv she watched and what she ate. THAT PART? WAS AWESOME.

Slowly, all of it was awesome. A lot of the anxiety I had dealt with since Patrice was born, was gone or reduced. Life was so uncertain, but so much easier to bear.

It’s been a good year. Now am I not only home, but so our the girls as we have taken on homeschooling.

And it is beautiful, and for this I am so very thankful.

I think I should go add the first leaf.

The tree trunk is free hand, but the leaves are from a template at Live Craft Eat and can be found here.

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Posted in holidays, Homeschool, pinterest, Thanksgiving, Unit Study

Going Kapluie

Posted on October 18, 2013 | 2 comments

Thursday is often bit of a different day for us. We have homeschool co-op in the afternoon. It changes up our schedule for the day. And yesterday was another shake-up. There was no co-op.

So we had Science PALOOZA.

In the morning we made exploding, er fizzing, candy corn foam dough.

We did the fizzing in the area Stuie used to spend his nights when the bladder was failing. Some of the yellow leaked out of our experiment box and the girls kept yelling, “Stuie’s back.” Trust me, the vinegar, baking soda, shaving cream and cornstarch was much more pleasant to clean up than his presents.

You need to check out this fizzing foam.

Then it was on to phase two of the volcano.

Turns out the photographer got bored and only took this picture. We tried two different recipes for our paste. The first one involved boiling and was goop. It was not what I remembered using in school. So I tried again. Turns out, you just need two parts water to one part flour. Dip the strips in and pile them on the form. The form is currently drying, with the help of a fan. The goal is to paint it today and go KAPLUIE sometime this weekend.

Here’s your chance to vote. Should we use a baking soda and vinegar mix or 6% peroxide and yeast mix? What do you think will give us the biggest KAPLUIE???

As a few side notes, we caught up on our science reading while working on our projects and will be doing some reading about volcanoes as we prepare for KAPLUIE. Also, I am new to this, but here is my attempt to explain a co-op. It is a group of homeschooling parents that work together to provide additional classes for the kids. We go each Thursday for three hours. There are a few sessions each year, but for this time around I chose a class on Johnny Appleseed for Caitlyn and Sue, puppet making for Caitlyn, Inside/Outside games for Sue (focuses on Christian attitudes when winning or losing a game), Geography for Caitlyn and National Parks for Sue. Patrice is in preschool all three hours. I volunteer in the first hour (Johnny Appleseed) and third hour (preschool). It gives the girls a chance to interact with peers, continue to use and learn classroom/group etiquette and for me to interact with other homeschoolers. There is a woman there that has been homeschooling her kids since day one. Her oldest is working on her Ph.D, another is at Harvard, two are at Wheaton and the last is getting ready to graduate high school. That encourages this mama a ton that it is possible to raise educated, well rounded kids…and possible to teach them how to read and write!!!

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Posted in fall, Homeschool, kidlets, pinterest

The Many Facets of the Day…

Posted on October 15, 2013 | 1 comment

I realized this weekend Caitlyn was not being challenged enough by our homeschool curriculum. The reading and vocabulary get her, but there is very little copy work and the math is well, Easy Peasy!

So, I set about making some changes during my lesson planning Sunday. I found some of what I needed, got great feedback from friends and teachers…and got overwhelmed. And realized I needed to restart one of my meds I decided I should go off because of the stomach issues.

Monday I woke up hopeful. And then the girls joined me at 7 am. They were wired and I realized the day was going to be a little more challenging than I had hoped.

We started with a great Christopher Columbus unit. I have to say I just found out it is hip to bash Columbus. And while I’m aware he had shortcomings, that wasn’t the focus I was going for. So, I tried to make it truthful and age appropriate.

Then we moved on to several other items. And I mean it when I say several. I realized I might have overshot the planning when I told Caitlyn I was going to glue her butt to the stool.

It was not a stellar day. I finally called it after lunch. I ate breakfast at 11 am and finally showered at 1 pm…

Patrice fell asleep after several trips to her room for LOVELY 3 year old behavior. The moment I knew I was WINNING at parenthood? I heard her yelling from her room, “I only like daddy. I don’t like mommy.” FYI, the day before, I was her best friend. Guess I can’t derive my value from what a three year old thinks of me.

I knew that nap was going to bite me in the rear, but after the day she had, I was not waking her up!!! No way, no how.

Of course, in her life, that means if she sleeps during the day, she doesn’t sleep at night. So, do you take the fussing more or pay later when she is a little night owl?

I have to say I ran away. I had to run two errands. Hubby had the girls out back, so I got in the car and drove away. I texted him from the end of the street that I ran away and joined the circus, dinner was waiting in the oven.

And I enjoyed my errands. I came home, she was awake, and I was rejuvenated. Time to do pinterest crafts, right?

Hubby cut the hole in the pumpkin, Caitlyn helped him get the vase in there, Sue and I arranged the flowers (with lots of help from daddy!)

And then on to preparing the wire form for our Candy Cane Volcano.

Then everybody, except Patrice and I went to bed. It was after all, bedtime.

But my buddy was wide awake. We rocked and chatted. Then I said I had to go mop the floor, with hopes she’d settle down.

No such luck.

She wanted to help. And truth be told, it turns out she is a pretty good mopper. But the end fell off my dollar store mop. We kept putting it back on, but gave up. I didn’t realize how sharp it was without that stupid piece of plastic. And there was an area I had to scrub on the floor. She still wanted to help. She grabbed the end of the mop. I kept scrubbing, and hit her in the chin. And cut it open.

She cried, I cried and what sucks more? This picture is of her this morning, so her lovely cut will be immortalized in pictures forever (I’d reschedule but it is a groupon that expires Thursday…wait, maybe we could do it Thursday, you know, since we homeschool. Does anyone think her chin would look better by then????).

She says her chin hurts a little bit…my heart hurts a lot.

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Posted in Homeschool, Patrice, pinterest

There Are The Elite

Posted on September 23, 2013 | Leave a comment

There are those we see as the REAL bloggers, the REAL moms, the REAL homeschoolers. I am not one of those. I am not the elite, but I am pretty proud of myself right now.

Saturday we went apple picking. While we were riding the wagon, Caitlyn leaned over and asked if we could study the digestive system and learn why her tummy rumbles. Absolutely, so I set out to find ways to make it relevant and understandable.

First I headed to youtube and found some videos to intro the thought. I started with a fun Winnie the Pooh video singing about the rumbly in his tumbly, here’s a pin for it, then used a quick intro from the Arizona Science Center. We then headed to Wonderopolis for an overview of why the stomach growls.

But what kind of homeschooler would I be if there wasn’t a hands-on experiment? For that, I headed to Teachers Pay Teachers and found a messy, but fun hands-on.

I dyed noodles black last night with this recipe, again from Pinterest. It was as messy as you might imagine. I don’t know how to use black food coloring without making a mess of myself.

I bought some bananas and drug out my blender. And we were off.

First we needed to eat our food, so we broke the banana in pieces put it in the blender.

Supplies are one banana, a section of silk stocking or nylon. Has to be open at both ends, bowl and noodles dyed black. I started with the blender, but with just one banana, it was not very effective, so I ended up just mashing it myself.

We broke it into pieces to represent biting up the food.

Smash it up to represent chewing.

Put a couple black noodles in the section of nylon. Hold it closed, put in some banana. Mash it up and wring out fluids in the nylon to show the action of the intestine, then push it out the bottom, you know, show the “end product”.

We then referred back to our homeschool curriculum, Easy Peasy, to add our intestines to our bodies.

And of course, since the blender was out, we had to have smoothies.

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Posted in digestive system, hands-on learning, Homeschool, pinterest, science

On the Upside Again

Posted on July 24, 2013 | 2 comments

I’m on the upside. Since I last wrote, the doc added a medication and it seems to have done the trick.

We are back to the fun.

We did two Pinterest projects today. We blew up a bar of ivory soap.

Then we did ice watercolor painting.

And then we ended the day with my mama’s Johnny Marzetti.

I loved today. I would take 1000 more of them!

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Posted in Caitlyn, Patrice, pinterest, Sue

It’s Getting Real Here Folks

Posted on June 24, 2013 | 4 comments

I have packed on a lot of pounds.

I could list off so many excuses. And I will concede to one. Some of the psychiatric medications I was on caused hunger. I didn’t believe it was the meds, but I recently went off depakote and was shocked at how much my appetite immediately decreased. I dropped 3 lbs.

I have a lot more of than that to lose. Like 15 times that.

Ugh.

I hate how I look. I hate how I feel in this body. It preys on my mind. I feel horrible about myself.

And as I mentioned to a friend and my hubby, the worst part of feeling fat and ugly as a parent is the guilt over how you are teaching your children to eat, so now you feel fat, ugly and guilty.

So far my girls are all very healthy and strong, but if my eating is making me fat, what will it eventually do to them? I can’t face doing that to them.

The time to change is now.

I have successfully lost weight on weight watchers twice. The second time I added a lot of exercise and it was phenomenal.

So I got back on the treadmill yesterday and today. Now on to the food. The best part of weight watchers is the fact that fruits and veggies are not restricted and there is a huge proliferation of recipes to be had.

Here we go.

I have started a pinterest board with recipes that look good, I am exercising and using the fooducate application on my phone to try and make good choices.

This is my before…

Please pray, wish good luck to us as we undertake this overhaul. It will truly be a big change, especially for my picky eaters–Sue and Patrice. I know they won’t like it, but I have battled my weight since fifth grade and I just can’t set them up to do the same. I have to be strong and smart for my girls.

(They weren’t that in to getting their picture taken. Sigh)

Now off to more menu planning and cleaning this house…anybody want to come over and help with that cleaning part so I can continue to obsess over eating choices??? Anyone…at all???

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Posted in exercising, kidlets, pinterest, weight loss