Kid-bits

Last year for Christmas (as in, a year ago), the girls asked for checkers (I assume they saw it on some TV show, but I never bothered to track down where they heard of checkers) & my aunt obliged & got them Princess checkers. They played it with Daddy a few times (I must confess I'd never learned to play checkers). Then it sat for awhile. And off & on this winter, I've played with one or the other of them when they really beg. It's rather impractical, when there are 3 of us at home most of the time, to have a game that only allows 2 players. And while it was easy enough to figure out the basics of the game, I don't enjoy it. Anyway . . . yesterday dh got home just as I was dealing w/ A totally melting down because she had lost checkers (actually she gave up before the game was over, but she wasn't paying attention & if I've said THREE times "are you sure you want to move there" and you still move there, I AM going to jump your queen that you set so nicely in front of me), and looking forward (not) to playing a game w/ L next. So, when dh got home I pawned the "playing checkers w/ L" off on him. He hadn't played w/ either of them in awhile, and L's the better checkers player, she does get the basic strategies of the game pretty well, so he was surprised at how well she did, and he did let her win. He's created a monster. She now wants to play checkers (with Daddy, woo-hoo!) all the time! The first thing I heard this morning when I came downstairs was that "Me & Daddy are going to play checkers tonight!" They actually played a game this afternoon (while Ashlyn helped me shred papers), and now they're playing another game (while Ashlyn takes a bath).

Tonight when I was running A's bath I noticed her reaching for TP instead of a cloth wipe when she got off the potty (the details of the cloth wipes are a save money . . . post I keep meaning to write) and I asked why she didn't use a wipe. Her answer cracked me up "they're too hard to spot." A couple weeks ago I'd moved them from sitting on the side of the tub or the edge of the counter or wherever they happened to get stuck, to a nice little basket on the back of the toilet. But she insisted that "we're facing this way, we can't see them" So now the basket's sitting on the floor right under the TP roll LOL. But her terminology totally cracked me up "they're too hard to spot" hee hee, it still makes me giggle.

The girls' 5th birthday is exactly a month away, and just to make sure she's ahead of the game, L told me tonight that for her SIXTH birthday she's going to have a big cake! (5th birthday is an Armadillo cake for A & a Flamingo cake for L, with the caveat that if Miss Angie (our wonderful cake-baking friend) can't get the flamingo cake to come out right we'll just have plain pink cupcakes with pink icing).

While in her bath just now, A asked me "how do sea otters & seals sleep in the water" ummm . . . I don't know dear (DO they sleep in the water, or just near it?) . . . she then decided that they find a nice rock & rest their HEAD on it & let their bodies float in the water, and she's demonstrating, using the edge of the tub as her "rock", hasn't quite figured out how to keep from sliding on down into the water, but she's working on it.

Reveling in Small Victories . . .

One of the things I took away from Biblical Parenting was to always assume positive motive, and not focus on assigning blame. So when something gets spilled, instead of assuming the child wasn't being careful or whatever, or even assuming who spilled it, just address what needs to happen. It doesn't matter WHY the milk spilled, now that it's spilled, it needs to be cleaned up (the book puts this all much more eloquently than I am LOL). So, over the last however long since I read the book, I've tried to do that (which isn't to say I don't sometimes forget & yell "I've told you a thousand times, don't throw balls in the house! Now look what you've done!"). When the kids spill food, I remind them "go get a wipe from under the sink & clean it up" (I keep the cloths that we use instead of paper towels in a bin under the kitchen sink, primarily because that puts them where the girls can easily reach them). And, it's paying off. Tonight after supper we were eating milkshakes and A spilled some. She started to call me, then stopped herself, went got a cloth, and cleaned it up. Yup, that's so much nicer than fighting over whether she should have been more careful to start with, and ending up with everyone grouchy & grudgingly cleaning it up.

Brief Update

I think I've alluded to the fact that we might be moving soon &/or that money is tight, but now that it's abit more official (though still confusing), dh is officially looking for a new job. In the meantime we're figuring out how frugal we can really be, and living in the limbo of not being sure where we'll end up living or where dh will be working or what.

I've been very thankful for the fact that I tend to stock up when food's on sale, but not always keep good track & USE what I've stocked up on (since December we've been eating mostly out of the freezer & pantry, and there's still plenty of food both places). This whole experience has made me determined that when this is all over, I will re-stock the freezer & pantry (but in a more organized way so that we actually use & rotate what I stock up on, instead of finding freezer burned beyond recognition items in the bottom of the deep freeze).

Those "ecological" changes I've made over the last couple years, reducing or eliminating most personal care products, cleaning products, and paper products (paper towels, napkins, etc), have been a true blessing now, in helping to keep our spending at a bare minimum.

I've also been thankful that I'd purchased most of what we needed to complete these last few units of the current curriculum BEFORE all of this happened. We've been able to continue with the curriculum w/o having to skip much of anything due to not having any extra money to spend on art supplies or books or . . . anything.

And since I promised brevity, I'll leave it at that :) DH has lots of resumes sent out, and is continuing to send out more. When we first talked about moving A was having at least one melt-down a day about not wanting to move (but we can't take our POTTY with us, when we move!!!), but she's settled down, and only having one or two melt-downs a week now (even this week when sickness has both kids melting down over every little thing). God send me almost daily reminders (in the form of the kids' SS lesson, verses in my daily Bible reading, blog posts from other bloggers, etc) that He is in control & all we have to do is keep trusting him.

Witnessing . . .

For the last few months, whenever we go to the farm to get milk L has wanted to "tell the cows about Jesus". The stalls where they keep the calves are near where I pick up the milk so ever since we started getting milk there, the girls have gone to visit the calves while I load the milk. I'm not sure what started the whole "tell them about Jesus" thing, but it's been going on for awhile. BUT it's been awhile since she's been able to see the calves (we only go to get milk every other week, my friend Kim & I alternate going up, and we ended up having bad weather the last couple times we've been up there). So as we got close to the farm today, L suddenly realized "I can tell the cows about Jesus this time!" AND bonus, she had her Bible in her toy bag. The conversation then went something like this:

L: I can show the calves my Bible! . . . I'm not sure they understand what I say, but that's ok.
A: You need to talk like this, instead "moo, moo, moo . . . moo, moo"
L: (in a "don't you know anything" tone) I don't speak cow!

When we were leaving the farm, L assured me that the cows had liked seeing her Bible.

Works for Me Wednesday: French Press

I'm an occasional coffee drinker. I go in spurts where I drink it more often, but in general, it's a once in awhile treat. DH drinks it even more rarely than I do. So I had an ongoing frustration with my drip coffee maker. On the one hand, if I tucked it away in a cupboard (or the basement shelving, since my kitchen cupboards tend to not have room for the "once in awhile appliances") then even if I wanted coffee, I tended to not want to have to mess w/ getting the coffee maker out (yes, I'm lazy). On the other hand, it annoyed me to have something I used only occasionally taking up space on my counter.

So last year I noticed that someone who orders co-op items through me, had ordered a French Press. I liked that it's all glass & metal (not plastic), and that it's compact. I did abit more research & decided to try one. I LOVE it!!! Since I generally only make one cup of coffee at a time anyway, I got a small french press. it doesn't take up any more room than a mug, in my cupboard. I did find that it works better w/ a more course grind of coffee, so I have a small coffee grinder as well (& buy whole coffee beans), but even so, both the grinder & the french press fit easily in my "tea & coffee cupboard", they're easy to pull out when I want coffee, and they're out of my way the rest of the time. And, the coffee is YUMMY!!!

And that's what works for me.

Save Money, Save Your Health, Save the Earth

Considering that I'm still battling this cold, and while A assures me she isn't sick, she's still coughing & sniffling, this post, on another blog I read, came at an especially relevant time. So I thought I'd be lazy & just pass it along. In a nutshell, it lists all kinds of "ailments" that honey & cinnamon can cure. So, you can save money, by not buying medicine or paying for doctor visits, you can save your health by getting over your cold, flu, lowering cholesterol, or whatever w/o resorting to chemical "cures", and you can save the earth by not putting all those chemical medications into our water supply AND I'd venture to guess that the jar of honey & jar of cinnamon you buy end up being less packaging than whatever medications you normally take (I buy local raw honey in quart mason jars, so once the honey's gone, I just wash the jar out & use it to store dry beans, rice, etc. and cinnamon in bulk from a wholesaler (so a lb of it comes in a sealed bag, then I transfer it to glass jars, like the re-use).

Homeschooling wrap-up, continued . . .

I realized last night, that I'd forgotten to mention the Bob books in my homeschool wrap-up for last week.

You might remember that awhile back L was very gung-ho to learn to read & one of the things we did was start working through the Bob books. She was trying hard, and doing well, but it was slow going, the concept of actually recognizing a word she'd seen before instead of sounding it out every. single. time. was beyond her. When she stopped asking to read the Bob books, I let it drop. One night last night she wanted to read a Bob book for her bedtime story, but insisted on reading a "pink one" (which was the level we'd left off at last time around) I was leary, after so much time away from them, that picking up in the middle of the box would be even more frustrating than last time around, but she was insistent, so we tried it. Wow! apparently even without actually focused work on reading, she's been improving. Now, they DO watch "Word World" most days, "Between the Lions" sporadically and "Super Why" sporadically, so they're getting some "reading instruction" that way. And one of the things I found in decluttering was some reading/phonics dry erase books and they've been using those some (though I'd say A uses them more than L does). Anyway, by whatever means, she has gotten better at recognizing repeat words, and sounding out those she doesn't know. She breezed through 2 of the "pink books" that night without a problem. She hasn't asked to do it again, so we're not pushing it, but she's definitely moving forward with reading, for whenever she chooses to keep moving forward.

Hee hee

I was talking to dh about something & mentioned "when A was taking a nap". A stopped her play (our family room is currently a pet store, as far as I can tell A is the owner & L is her helper . . . ) and asked "when did I take a nap?" I pointed to the sofa & said "you laid right over there and slept for like an hour this afternoon" she got this slightly confused, kind of sheepish look on her face & said "I did?"

Too funny to realize she took a nice long nap & didn't even realize it. She woke up when I turned the TV back on, so I guess since she fell asleep watching tv & woke up watching tv, she somehow didn't notice that she fell asleep watching Super Why and woke up watching Maggie & the Ferocious Beast.

Incidentally, the fact that she fell asleep watching tv & slept for that long is an indication that she's not feeling good, I can't tell you the last time either kid has fallen asleep watching tv, or taken a nap w/o serious manipulation on my part (normally involving soothing music, strict instructions to NOT TALK AT ALL, and a long car ride).

Homeschool wrap-up for this past week

Still running behind. . .

Last week seemed to conspire against finding time for art, between meeting friends for lunch on Monday, spending Tuesday with Daddy, L being sick on Wed, and Kinder Konzert on Thurs . . .

We listened to Carnival of the Animals over the course of the whole week (a few "animals" each day), and wrapped up the week with the girls each choosing an instrument & making animal sounds with it (A used a drum to sound like an elephant walking & L used the flute to sound like a bird singing).

We also went to the Kinder Konzert on Thursday, which nicely wrapped up our unit on Sound.

Kindermusik was cancelled because of the predicted ice storm.

So I guess that was about it for last week.

We're going to spend this week tying up the final threads of the sound unit, and then we'll start a new unit next week.

Making Popcorn

I think I've mentioned before that awhile back I switched from microwave popcorn to making it the old fashioned way on the stove (saves money, saves the planet (less trash), and healthier (the stuff they put in microwave popcorn isn't exactly natural LOL) & this winter it's been a frequent snack (what can I say, it's yummy, pretty healthy (all I put on it is a little sea salt), and super cheap). . .

Anyway . . . the point of this post, this morning L put some random toys (duplos I think) in one of the toy kettles, put the lid on, and proceeded to "make popcorn", explaining to me the whole time what she was doing, that she had to keep it moving on the stove so it wouldn't burn, and had to keep the lid on so the popcorn didn't go everywhere . . . it was cute, and definite proof that she's been paying attention to how I make it LOL.

Menu Plan Monday

I think I overheard A reminding dh this morning that "we're having mushroom soup for supper". I assume this was decided upon last night after dh sent me to bed (he seemed to think the fact that I was asleep on the sofa was indication that he should deal w/ kids' bedtime & I should actually sleep in a bed), so I'm going to go with it . . .

So . . .

Monday: Mushroom soup for dh & the kids (while I enjoy some of the yummy potato noodle soup that my mommy brought be yesterday)

Tuesday: Rice & Beans

Wednesday: Crustless Quiche

Thursday: Lentils & Rice Tacos (we didn't make them last week, we'll try again this week)

Friday: We'll be at a birthday party

Click here to see lots of other menus for this week.

Decluttering Challenge Check-In

How'd you do last week? Here's what I got rid of last week:

• bag of decor items - freecycled
• 2 bags of my clothes - freecycled
• motorcycle riding toy (not working) - freecycled
• 2 bags x-mas stuff - freecycled
• 2 bags dh's clothes - freecycled
• bag of rags - freecycled
• firetruck, etc toys - freecycled
• bath toys - freecycled
• doll toys - freecycled
• cd player - freecycle
• Bouncy Seat - freecycled
• Learning Tower - sold

Playing catch-up

After mercifully avoiding all the flu bugs floating around this year, we finally got our turn. L had a stomach bug earlier last week, then woke up again Sabbath morning saying her tummy hurt. She never threw up, so I'm not sure what was up with her tummy, but she DID sleep most of the day Sabbath & had a fever at least part of the day, so she certainly wasn't feeling good. Once we determined that she wasn't going to SS & she chose Daddy to stay home with her, she curled up on Daddy's lap on the sofa & I'm not sure either one of them got up the rest of the day. Then yesterday morning I woke up w/ a sore throat, fever, and just generally feeling ick. A sounded congested, and has had a fever off & on, but has been playing like normal. So . . . yesterday was pretty much a lost day for me. I dozed on the sofa all morning & then my plan was to send the kids off w/ Mama & Papa to go to the maple syrup making demonstration but alas, L refused to go w/o Mommy, and A really wanted to go (so just skipping it & letting the kids play w/ Mama & Papa here while I slept, wasn't a good option either). So I finally took some ibuprofin to bring the fever down & went along. It worked out ok, I slept on the way down, which gave the ibuprofin time to do it's job, so I was feeling semi-human by the time we got there. And the weather was great. Papa took pictures, so I'll have to get them from him at some point.

Today's still a lazy day, but I'm at least feeling enough better to sit & play on the computer instead of just sleeping :) And of course, when I got up to make myself some grits for breakfast I discovered that there aren't any dish fairies in this house, so when Mommy stops doing dishes, we end up with no clean dishes (& no clear surfaces in the kitchen), so I've had to at least drag myself off the sofa enough to unload & load the dishwasher, and do some laundry (the laundry fairies seem to be on vacation as well).

So . . . now that I'm back on the computer, I'm off to catch up on the decluttering & menu posts that I normally do on Sunday, and Monday morning.

Blowing bubbles . . .

Mama & Papa included some gum in the girls' valentine gifts. Today I was chewing some of it & blew a bubble with it. A was bound & determined that if Mommy could blow a bubble, so could she. After many attempts (we won't talk about how much carpet fuzz must be in that poor piece of gum LOL) she was successful & Daddy took a video of it using his cell phone.

Kinder Konzert

We finally made it to a Kinder Konzert. We'd planned to go last month, at the beginning of our sound unit, but the snow kept us home, so we went today instead (near the END of our sound unit). As a plus, the girls have been learning about different instruments the last few weeks in Kindermusik, so were probably more aware of what it meant to hear a percussion trio than they would have been w/ last month's brass trio (or whatever it was, if memory serves it was suppose to be brass, I don't remember how many people it was though).

L wasn't happy on the way up (the girls were busy playing when I said it was time to go, even w/ reminders, on days when they're deeply engrossed in some imaginary scenario they don't like to be pulled away from it) and told me she was sure it would be boring. I told her that this was just something for them & if they didn't like it we certainly never had to come to another one. DURING the concert, A seemed more into it, but as we were leaving, I asked what they thought & L said "I want to come back every time they have one of these concerts!" A wasn't so sure about coming back, but somehow in her mind, since I asked if they want to come back "next month" and their birthday is "next month" she seemed to think that the 2 were mutually exclusive, so I assume once the time actually comes & she realizes that it doesn't interfere w/ her birthday she'll be ok w/ going.

The highlight today was getting to hear a revolutionary war march :) A week or two or ago on Ruff Ruffian (or whatever the PBS show that a "dog" hosts is called) one of the challenges involved Paul Revere's ride & the "redcoats", the girls wanted to know who the redcoats were, and were generally rather confused by it all so last time we were at the library I got one of the "youngest" books I could find about the American Revolution & we read it yesterday, so it was fresh in their minds. They were very excited to tell Mama & Papa (at lunch today) that "we heard music like GEORGE WASHINGTON!" which was rather confusing to my parents until I interpreted LOL.

After lunch we stopped by Miss Kim's house to pick up our milk (that she got for us yesterday) & ended up staying the rest of the day. The kids were all playing happily together, so we stayed. By the time we got home the kids ate, and pretty much fell right into bed LOL.

Daddy & Daughter Day

Yesterday was Daddy & Daughter Day at our house. I'm not sure how it all came about (it evolved during talk time one night last week), but dh took off work yesterday & spent all day with the girls. They made pancakes for breakfast and played some games with Daddy (Mommy, you can't play this time, it's a special day for just Daddy & us!) and then they took off for the day. They went duck pin bowling (love it! A has declared it her favorite part of the day). Then they went to McDonalds for ice cream and to play in the play area for awhile. And THEN they headed up to dh's friends' house to see the horses. A told me that "at first we were a little shy, but then we had fun" they got to see the horses, climb all around on the hay in the barn, meet Bev's birds and then apparently chatted the evening away with Miss Bev. She gave A a little armadillo toy that she had, so of course A is over the moon about that, she told me this morning, when she showed it to me, that "this is a 9 banded armadillo" & dh said last night she was wowing Bev & Ralph with her knowledge of Armadillo trivia. And somewhere along the line, Miss Bev told the girls the entire story of Charlotte's Web. I found a video of Charlotte's Web when I was cleaning, so I'm thinking the girls will enjoy that as a birthday present especially now that they know the story LOL.

When I asked L what her favorite part of yesterday was she said "EVERYTHING" but when she first woke up this morning & I asked her what she did yesterday she immediately said "climbed in the hay!"

DH mentioned last night (after I commented that L hadn't eaten much breakfast) that L hadn't eaten much all day (except the ice cream & the donut he got them on the way home when they said they were hungry), so when she was still sleeping at 8:30 this morning I figured she must not be feeling quite up to par. She woke up around 9:00, sat up, and immediately needed to throw up (but managed to wait for me to grab a bowl & stick it in front of her). She's all cuddled up on the sofa now with her pillow & a blanket and her babies . . . I made her some tea and she drank at least some of it, and last time I walked by & felt her forhead she felt like she had a fever (she didn't when she got up this morning), so guess it's a good thing we'd planned a quiet stay at home day today. Now fingers crossed that she's feeling better (& A doesn't catch it) so we can go to Kinder Konzert tomorrow.

Works for Me Wednesday: Watering plants

My kids love to help water plants, but indoor plants, and little kids who are abit sloppy in their pouring, and light colored carpet . . . not always a good mix. I'm not sure if I read about this somewhere or just stumbled upon it, but we use ice cubes to water smaller indoor plants. I started doing it w/ my aloe vera plant (that shouldn't be watered very often in the winter anyway), if I was getting ice for something else & dropped an ice cube I'd toss it in the aloe vera plant instead just throwing it in the sink, now we use ice cubes whenever the girls want to help me water plants. And it's especially convenient for my hanging spider plant, I'm not so good at getting water into a plant above my head w/o spilling, and it's a pain to have to take it down off the hook to water it, so now I just grab a couple ice cubes & stand on one of the kids' chairs & slip them in.

And that's what works for me! To check out what works for lots of other people, pop on over to Rocks in My Dryer.

Menu Plan Monday

This week is turning out to be a week of not so much cooking (woo-hoo!) LOL. Today we're meeting some friends at the outlets for the afternoon and then, since we're meeting friends for lunch, we'll be meeting my parents (& dh if he can pull away from work) for supper while we're nearby. And then tomorrow has been declared Daddy & Daughter day! I'm not sure how it came about, but during their nightly talk time a few nights ago they somehow cooked up that Daddy is taking tomorrow off & will be spending all day with the girls, they're making pancakes together for breakfast, playing games together, and then he's taking them out to do other fun stuff (he has more planned than *I* would want to pack into one day, we'll see how it goes LOL) the rest of the day, including taking them out for supper, so I'll just eat leftovers or a sandwich or something since I'll be alone :) So . . .

Monday - eat out
Tuesday - leftovers/sandwich
Wednesday - Mac & Cheese (that we were SUPPOSED to have for Valentine's Day last week, but circumstances conspired against us LOL)
Thursday - Lentil & Rice Tacos (this is a new recipe for us, dh in general isn't a fan of lentils, we'll see what he thinks of this one)
Friday - Pizza

To see other menus, go here.

Kid-bits

The girls were playing that A was L's cat & L was reading A a story. A kept being "cat-like" (crawling around, meowing, etc) and L kept telling her to sit still and listen to the story. Finally A said "L, I'm not much for listening" it SO made me laugh both because of the wording she used, somehow it seemed so "grown-up" coming out of her mouth, and also because that not listening thing is SO TRUE for her!!! (just a few minutes before that, dh had been leaving for work & he said goodbye to her about 3 times & she never heard him & then finally the SECOND time I said "A, Daddy's leaving now" she finally heard me & told him goodbye (not that she has to tell him goodbye, but if we hadn't made sure she realized he was leaving I would have dealt w/ a meltdown later (when she realized he was gone) because she'd have been upset that she didn't get to tell him goodbye).

Some pictures from the Tea Party we went to last Monday are here (& I've got a few more that I need to post).

Some pictures from Kindermusik a couple weeks ago, of the kids (including A) trying to play brass instruments are here (all the kids got to try each instrument).

Zoo trip

Sabbath afternoon my parents & I took the girls to the Zoo. We've discovered that, especially with a FONZ membership, wintertime is a great time to go to the zoo. It's not crowded, it's not too hot, and alot of the animals are actually out. And with the FONZ membership parking is free so no need to "get your money's worth" so it doesn't matter that some animals aren't out.

We got to see the seals & sea lions, feeding the beavers, the otters . . . then we got to the Bird House. We poked our head in the bird house last summer & the girls weren't interested, but this time they LOVED it!! Doesn't hurt that the first thing we saw (outside) was the flamingos & there were a LOT and they were noisy & L LOVED it since flamingos are her favorite bird. Then we went into an exhibit (outside) where you're right in with the birds & the birds in there were SO tame, we got pictures of a peacock, pea hen, and pheasant. Then we went into the bird house & enjoyed seeing the birds inside as well.

The girls were starting to burn out by the time we left the bird house, but we still peaked at the sloth bear, cheetahs, elephants, and of course the armadillos and naked mole rats.

Homeschool wrap-up for this week

Just realized I hadn't done this yet.

Last week we focused on practicing the Glockenspiel (almost) every day. Miss L sent home some cards w/ music notes to read (the 2 that they've learned so far) so the girls practiced playing those every day. Near the end of the week I strung together all of both of their cards & they had fun playing such a long "song" :)

I also pulled out one of the poetry books for this unit and we used dragon puppets to act out the title poem. The girls had fun with that.

And we FINALLY pulled out the watercolor pencils and did the first lesson using them. We're learning together, the colors didn't blend as much as I was expecting them too, but the girls had fun drawing, and then seeing what they did when we added the water.

Go Fish is the current favorite game, so we played a LOT of games of Go Fish this week.

Decluttering challenge Check-in

Anyone still playing along? Here's what I got rid of this week, and it would have been alot more if I hadn't had so many freecycling no-shows! I think the weather (snow one day, ice the next . . .) was at least partially to blame, but not sure that explains the (VERY ANNOYING) people who replied saying they wanted something and then NEVER REPLIED to me when I said they could have it GRRRRRRRR . . .

• dresser - gave back to my parents
• several rolls of wrapping paper - gave to mom
• Orion wrap - sold
• bag of plastic plates & such - gave to mom
• grass seed spreader cart thingy - gave to dad
• inflatable chair - gave to mom
• 3 bags of gift bags & tissue paper - gave to mom
• Toy bin shelf thingy - gave to Kim
• bag of hair stuff - freecycled
• bag of soap - freecycled
• bag of stuff from the bathroom cupboards - freecycled
• boppy - freecycled
• 3 bags of baby stuff - freecycled

Fruits & Vegetables, They Do the Body Good

This was forwarded to me & I found it so fascinating that I had to share it here:

A Coincidence????

A sliced Carrot looks like the human eye. The pupil, iris and radiating lines look just like the human eye...and science shows that carrots greatly enhance blood flow to and function of the eyes.


A Tomato has four chambers and is red. The heart is red and has four chambers. All of the research shows tomatoes are indeed pure heart and blood food.


Grapes hang in a cluster that has the shape of the heart. Each grape looks like a blood cell and all of the research today shows that gra pes are also profound heart and blood vitalizing food.


A Walnut looks like a little brain, a left and right hemisphere, upper cerebrums and lower cerebellums. Even the wrinkles or folds are on the nut just like the neo-cortex. We now know that walnuts help develop over 3 dozen neuron-transmitters fo r brain function.


Kidney Beans actually heal and help maintain kidney function and yes, they look exactly like the human kidneys.


Celery, Bok Choy, Rhubarb and more look just like bones. These foods specifically target bone strength. Bones are 23% sodium and these foods are 23% sodium. If you don't have enough sodium in your diet the body pulls it from the bones, making them weak. These foods replenish the skeletal needs of the body.


Eggplant, Avocadoes and Pears target the health and function of the womb and cervix of the female - they look just like these organs. Today's research shows that when a woman eats 1 avocado a week, it balances hormones, sheds unwanted birth weight and prevents cervical cancers. And how profound is this? .... It takes exactly 9 months to grow an avocado from blossom to ripened fruit. There are over 14,000 photolytic chemical constituents of nutrition in each one of these foods (modern science has only studied and named about 141 of them).


Sweet Potatoes look like the pancreas and actually balance the glycemic index of diabetics.


Olives assist the health and function of the ovaries.




Onions look like body cells. Today's research shows that onions help clear waste materials from all of the body cells They even produce tears which wash the epithelial layers of the eyes.



"The news isn't that fruits and vegetables are good for you, it's that they are so good for you, they can save your life." David Bjerklie, TIME Magazine, Oct. 2003 _

Our Own Tea Party

Since the girls had so much fun at the tea party on Monday, we decided to have our own tea party for "just us" today. I pulled out the tea pot that a friend gave me when I was in college (& I'm not sure I ever used) and some of the teacups that were my grandmother's, gave them all a GOOD washing, brewed some fairytale tea and we were set :) The girls decided that tea parties require hats, they're each wearing one, though the one doesn't show up in the picture.

One of the suggestions in A Mom After God's Own Heart that I've been wanting to implement is reading some verses from Proverbs to our children every day. But I also feel that the chronological Bible stories we're currently using for our morning devotions during circle time are valuable so don't want to switch that up. And our circle time runs as long as their attention span, so adding things to it is frustrating to them. So, I read them a few verses of Proverbs while they were still drinking their tea. I suggested that we do this little ritual every day (tea, and read the Bible) and they liked the idea, though they asked about days like Christmas, and "our special day with Daddy next week" (I'm not sure how it came about but during their talk time with Daddy last night they somehow got him to agree to take off work next Tues and spend the whole day with them, just the 3 of them. The plans as they know them at this point are that they'll make pancakes and play games (Daddy has additional plans up his sleeve). So we agreed that on days like that we would read the Bible, but not have tea.

And now a little quiz for those who think they can tell the girls apart. Since they're both wearing pink today (so the normal "color coding" doesn't apply), who's who?

Also, not related to this post, but while I'm thinking about it, I uploaded the pictures from our trip to DC a couple weeks ago, you can see them here.

Kid-bits

Odds and ends I keep meaning to share about my kids:

L commented the other day (when she came to tell me they (girls & daddy) had breakfast ready while I was still doing my morning devotional) "reading the Bible is much more fun than being on that boring old computer, right mom?" here's hoping she still feels that way in a few years LOL.

A few days ago I commented to A that she hasn't been coming into our room in the night as often recently (she tends to have bad dreams & comes & crawls in bed with us & goes right back to sleep). She told me "I've been trying to remember that God and Jesus are with me everywhere" Awwwww . . .

I know there was more, but now I don't remember . . . oh well.

Love

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. I Corinthians 14:4-7

I've been thinking about this verse alot recently, and thought Valentines day was an appropriate day to post about it. It seems to me that while lots of people have this text read at their weddings, too often we forget to LIVE it once we're married. It's not easy. It's too easy to take out our frustrations on those closest to us, and too often that's our spouse. It's too easy to focus on "me", instead of "what can I do for you?".

My challenge to you is this, read the above text, really READ it! Think about it! Pray on it! And then make the changes you need to make (with God's help) in your life & marriage to make your marriage reflect the love of I Cor. 13.

Works for Me Wednesday: Onion Smell

They sell all kinds of handy dandy little gadgets for getting onion smell off your hands, but guess what I finally figured out, those "gadgets" are generally just hunks of stainless steel. Well, my whole sink is stainless steel, and most of my pots & pans, and my knives and . . . so why buy a hunk of metal when my kitchen's full of it? I decided to try something. After I've been cutting onions, I wash my hands, and then I rub them across the side of the sink, presto, onion smell is gone! Someday when my kids are older we'll have to delve into WHY stainless steel makes onion smell disappear, but for now, I'm just glad I don't have to walk around with onion-y hands OR spend money (& store) a gadget to get the smell gone. It works for me!

This week's wfmw is being guest hosted here.

Save Money, Save Your Health, Save the Earth

I missed last week, but I'm ba-ack . . .

Today's tip is . . . menu plan! Seriously, it's SO helpful!! I have a handy dandy planner that has a place for writing in my dinner menus (and the magnetic calendar on my fridge, I adapt to have room for all meals, though I rarely follow it to the letter for Breakfast, lunch or snacks, if I'm feeling uninspired I can always look there for ideas LOL), but it's not necessary, there are plenty of online printable menu forms if you want a form (I'm still trying to decide if I'll get another Mom Agenda for next year (mine runs July to July, so I have a few months to decide LOL) or make my own planner out of all the printables I've found online) or obviously you can just jot it down on your calendar or planner that you're currently using (or a slip of paper & stick it to the fridge, whatever system works for you).

But here's the thing. You take a few minutes each weekend to plan out your meals for the week and then you save money, time, your healthy & the earth!

Before you plan your menu, take a couple minutes to see what you have in the fridge, freezer & pantry, especially things that need to be used soon. Then check the grocery sale sheets for any great loss leaders that you can use in this week's menus.

Then plan your menus, make your grocery list. Now you won't have to run to the store multiple times for things you forgot. You can also, over time start to get a feel for things you use often & then you can stock up on basics when they're on sale.

Whatever format you use for menu planning, make sure you have your calendar nearby, that way you can notice that on Tuesday you won't be home from playgroup until late afternoon & plan something quick & easy that night (or a crockpot meal that you can throw in the morning before). I also plan leftovers sometimes. Most often, anytime I plan rice for supper, I make sure I make enough rice to make fried rice for lunch the next day, the girls LOVE it, and it's easier to make w/ cold rice anyway (& it's cheap, healthy & easy LOL).

When you have a plan, and all the ingredients on hand, it's easier to actually cook dinner instead of grabbing fast food on the way home from soccer practice or ordering a pizza.

Homemade meals are healthier (and the more "from scratch" you cook, the healthier it is), cheaper, and better for the earth (less trash, no driving to pick it up (or having the pizza guy drive to your house).

Valentine Tea Party

The girls' Kindermusik teacher hosted a Valentines Tea Party yesterday for the kids from both Kindermusik classes. A couple days earlier there was an episode of Ruff Ruffian where the kids were learning about a "formal tea" which kind of freaked L out, she wasn't sure she wanted to go because she couldn't be "that fancy". I assured her that Miss L wouldn't mind if she didn't use the right fork LOL.

Once we got there, it took a little bit for the girls to warm up to the "Kindermusik games" that we did first, but once they got into it, they participated better than they generally do in Kindermusik, even w/ the other moms there as an "audience".

L wasn't too excited that I held a friend's baby a bunch of the time, she kept saying "you're OUR Mommy, give that baby back to HIS mommy" but she got over it LOL.

The tea party itself, the girls were amazed at the idea of using real tea in "toy" teacups. But thought it was great fun that they could pour their own tea.

One of L's other worries, before the party, was that she only likes "Polar Bear Tea" (actually the kids' cold care tea that I get, it has a polar bear on the box)and what if Miss L didn't have Polar Bear tea. So I assured her that we'd bring some Polar Bear tea along just in case, but suggested that she at least TRY the tea Miss L had first. She was still unsure about that until Miss L brought out the pomegranate tea. The girls LOVE pomegranate, so their eyes lit up at the idea of pomegranate tea. Combine that with the serve yourself pink sugar, that was pretty much impossible to NOT have equal parts sugar & tea (given the size of the sugar spoon vs. the size of the kid size tea cups) and they decided tea is a very good thing :)

Anyway, the girls had great fun, and are still talking about the REAL tea party they got to go to.

Prayer Journals

If you've been reading my blog from the beginning (&/or are bored enough to browse through my "books I've read" section on the sidebar), you may have noticed that prayer is a topic I've been reading abit about. Reading the books I've read, and various other odds & ends online has helped me reshape my thinking about some aspects of my prayer life, and improving my prayer life has improved other relationships as well.

So, when I went through all the giveaways a few weeks ago, the 3 or 4 giveaways for prayer journals caught my eye, and I've been thinking more about the idea of prayer journals ever since, did some reading around online, didn't find as much as I expected to. And then today I came across another giveaway for a prayer journal here.

How about you. Do you use a prayer journal? If so, how do you use it? To record complete prayers, or just to list prayer requests? Or something in between? What works for you?

This Week's Menu

This week is kind of up-in-the-air because dh has said he'll be taking some time off to do stuff around here, but he said that last week and it didn't happen so . . . it makes it more fun to plan when I don't know what's happening :)

But here's the tentative plan for this week:

Monday: Southwest Roll-ups (we finally tried these one night last week & the girls LOVED them and dh agreed they were fine to add to the rotation. So while it's still easy (I have refried beans in the pantry & tortillas in the freezer, both things I'll make from scratch once I use up what I already have) I'll go ahead & make it again) and corn (and leftover green beans for dh, since he doesn't like corn)

Tuesday: Rice & Beans

Wednesday: Broccoli Stir-fry

Thursday: Macaroni & Cheese (shh . . . don't tell dh, this is my valentines gift to him LOL) and a vegetable, probably green beans, dh likes them & we have a bunch in the freezer.

Friday: We'll try for that potato soup mix again, last week the girls had been wanting pancakes all week (& pancakes are a special Daddy/daughter thing here) and since he ended up working they didn't get to make them, so we had pancakes for supper on Friday.

Check out other menu plans here.

Decluttering Challenge Check-In

How'd you do this week? I still got rid of tons of stuff this past week. Here's what I got rid of:

• Craft stuff - gave to SS
• Box of shoe boxes - gave to adventurers
• 2 silverware drawer organizer things - freecycled
• white "fencing" that was SIL's - freecycled
• Bag of old sheets & such - freecycled
• Cat window perch - freecycled
• Bag of odds & ends - gave to K
• Stroller - gave to K
• 2 bags of cloth diapering stuff - gave to K
• Bag of board books, etc - put in birthday box at SS
• Box of ceramic easter eggs - gave to A
• A bunch of boxes of Kleenex - gave to mom
• 2 bags of paper plates, cups, napkins - gave to mom
• 2 or 3 bags of bows, gift bags, etc - gave to mom
• SIL's ironing board - freecycled
• 2 bags of packing peanuts - freecycled
• Bag of toys - freecycled

This Week's wrap-up

Another quiet week. I'm spending as much time as possible getting stuff decluttered & packed away & out of here when possible. And the girls have been happy to do their own thing, so we've been going with it. I've told them that when they're ready to do art again, they can clean up all the paper scraps under their table, so we'll see if it happens next week LOL.

So this past week we pretty much did circle time, we finished the Read and Learn Bible this week and started right back around at the beginning.

I also, in my cleaning, found some new puzzles and a write & wipe-off phonics book that they girls have been enjoying. I already mentioned the marbles that they've had great fun with this week.

Last night the second Daddy walked through the door L pounced on him and reminded him that he'd promised to teach them to play marbles. So he did. A spent a few minutes, got frustrated that she wasn't good at it, and moved on to other things, mainly torturing her sister until I suggested we read a book, she went off in search of Blueberry Shoe one of her favorites from the last unit. She also has decided that we need to plant a "blueberry shoe" though she decided that we could just plant a blueberry plant in a pot, so that's something I need to look into and see if that's at all practical. Or maybe we'll see if we can talk Grandpa into adding a blueberry bush to his garden instead LOL (the only time I ever went blueberry picking they were more TREES than plants, so growing one in a pot doesn't seem practical to me).

Yesterday was the last class for the first semester of Kindermusik. As Miss L was passing out the final stickers for their folders, L turned to me & said "will you PLEASE sign us up again!" They hadn't processed through that the "next session" would be starting right away, so they were excited to hear that we'll still be going to Kindermusik next week.

Not sure what was up, but this morning in Sabbath School the girls were super talkative. A was the first to volunteer to act out what her favorite animal is, not surprisingly, she curled up in a ball on the floor, and L had no problem guessing that she was an armadillo. L crawling around and saying "oink oink" was easier for others to guess as well. They sang along during the singing time, and chose songs as well (though at that point there were only about 3 other kids, which I think helped alot, less overwhelming than when there are 20 or 30 kids). And had fun questions (the lesson was about the animals going into the ark) like, how'd the Penguins get to the ark from the South Pole? And how'd they stay cold enough while in the ark?

L also let the teacher know in no uncertain terms (but not in a nasty way, just in a firm way LOL) that she could tie her OWN bow for her craft! And then when she was having trouble, she informed me that she needed scissors because it was too long and SHE would cut it off at the right length. She did, and then quickly tied the bow, so I guess she knew what she was talking about LOL.

Another fun giveaway (or several)

When I was a baby, my mom ruined me for life! I was sitting on her lap while she ate Baskin Robbins ice cream and she let me have a bite, fully expecting me to be a normal child & make a face at the cold, but nope, I ate that bite & opened my mouth up for more. And I've been addicted to ice cream ever since, I blame mom! :)

And now, Momsational is holding a drawing for free Baskin Robbins ice cream, yummmm!

And that's not all. Mom's View is giving away all kinds of fun stuff right now. You can enter to win Think blocks (we need more toys like a hole in the head, but these look like they'd be a great educational tool, so they don't count right?). Or if you have kids who love games as much as mine do, what could be better than winning a Haba Little Garden Pegging Game? And finally, I've loved the concept of Pedipeds for years, but there's that whole money thing, now there's a chance to win a pair for free, check them out here!

Sassyfrazz is giving away a custom designed tu-tu.

Book Review: A Mom After God's Own Heart

A friend loaned me A Mom After God's Own Heart by Elizabeth George and I finished it last night. Interestingly, THIS is the book that I liked the way it approached praying for our children, much more so than The Power of a Praying Parent. The chapter in this book on praying for our children did a good job of simply outlining the things we should be praying for our children about, including simple short scripture prayers. Someday I'll get my own copy of the book just so I can refer back to things I know I won't remember. I took lots of notes as well, scripture is used throughout. And she really emphasizes the importance of MY relationship with God being the key to building my kids' relationships with God. She also emphasizes the importance of including God in the day to day of life. Some things are such a part of my own upbringing that it kind of surprised me that ALL Christians don't do this (since one would assume that a woman reading this book would be a Christian). Things like, having Bible stories to read to the kids, I still have Bible stories that my parents read to me! And have added plenty of others since having kids. But it's all good advice.

There were a couple things I disagreed with, her husband at one points compares being a good parent to being a drill sergeant, it probably won't surprise anyone that I disagree with that. And in the same chapter the author touches briefly on one of the "spare the rod" verses, in a way that implies, it's referring to corporal punishment, which I disagree with (both corporal punishment AND that the verses that refer to a rod in conjunction with child rearing were, in any way, encouraging corporal punishment, the actual words refer to either a king's sceptor or a shepherd's rod, neither of which was used to hit the subjects/sheep, but rather to teach, guide and protect).

She also advocates making sure your children are signed up for every. single. program your church offers, which I feel can be counter productive. For one thing, I strongly feel that having too many "activities" isn't healthy for kids (or adults, for that matter). One of the things I'm very conscious of, as a homeschool mom, is the danger of signing kids up for every class that comes along, we set limits on how many classes/activities the girls can be involved in, and I feel that applies to "religious" activities as well. Additionally, just because a program is endorsed by, or run by a church, doesn't mean it's a program that will be a good "match" for your child. Some kids LOVE Pathfinders, others can't stand it. I don't see any benefit (spiritual or otherwise) in force a kid to stay in Pathfinders if they're not enjoying it. I also witnessed plenty of non-Christian behaviors from Christian kids at church-run functions when I was growing up, and was ridiculed more than once for being "too religious" by those same kids. Just because it claims to be religious doesn't mean everyone there is there because they love God.

But overall, I truly enjoyed this book, it's easy to read, full of scripture, and reminders to make God first in our lives in a practical way.

It's the simple things . . .

In my decluttering, I came across a bag of marbles that I'd gotten somewhere along the line but never gave to the girls (I've found lots of other things that I got but never gave to them too, I'm thinking we won't be doing any shopping for birthdays this year LOL). Anyway . . . back to the marbles. I put them in a small box & set them on the shelf in their room to see when they discovered them. They discovered them pretty quickly & have had more fun with those silly marbles in the past day than you could possibly imagine. The marbles get carried everywhere, they dump them out and pick them up (after dire warnings from mean Mommy that if I step on them, they become MINE) . . . I think L has thanked me 50 times for getting the marbles for them . . . I'm always so amused at how much kids LOVE simple toys :)

If I were on Magic School Bus

This will only be meaningful to those who have watched or read Magic School Bus (videos & books), but for my own amusement, I'll record this . . .

During one of our frequent discussions about the fact that A does NOT want to move, and generally dislikes change of all kind, she told me "If I was on Magic School Bus, I think I'd be Arnold" (Arnold is by far the most "not risk taker" of the Magic School Bus kids). Not be left out, L had to tell me which character SHE was most like . . . she decided she's most like Dorothy Ann (DA) because "she always has lots of books and I LOVE books!" (the love of reading is, incidentally, also L's stated reason for Belle/Beauty & the Beast being her favorite Disney Princess).

Glory of the Future

The CD we were listening to in the car today included the Battle Hymn of the Republic (which, incidentally, seems like an odd song to include in a "Children's Bible Songs" CD but whatever . . . ) A was singing along, despite not really knowing the song, and I realized that for the chorus, instead of singing "Glory, Glory, Hallelujah" she was singing "Glory, Glory of the Future" I think I like her version :)

Giveaways are fun!

As I mentioned at the time, last week was a huge Bloggy Giveaway Carnival (basically a TON (like over 800) blogs had giveaways going where you left a comment for a chance to win whatever they were giving away) and then most of them held the drawings over the weekend. I wasted way too much time last week checking out all (most) of the fun giveaways, and signing up for the ones that were things I could use. And I actually won a couple!!!

I won the calendar holder that Tyna at Begley Blessings gaveaway. I'm so excited maybe if I have an actual place to hang a calendar I'll remember to change it every month, hee hee.

And I won a pair of babylegs from Teri at My Brand Name Baby. Despite their name, babylegs fit up through age 10. they're essentially leg warmers, first invented as a way to keep babies' legs warm when they're in a sling (since somehow putting a baby in a sling WILL pull their pant legs up and leave their poor little legs hanging out, since my girls were babies in pre-babylegs days, they got the not nearly as stylish solution of boys tube socks pulled up to their thighs LOL), but there are lots of other uses as well. One of my favorite uses is to keep with me in the spring & fall when the girls are starting to wear their skirts & dresses without tights or leggings, that way if the day ends up chillier than anticipated they can easily pull on a pair of babylegs to keep their legs warm. Teri has another giveaway going now for some adorable personalized alphabet prints to hang on your kids' wall, if you want to check it out.

And finally Nise from Thus Far the Lord Has Helped Me was giving away some valentines goodies and I won the stuffed toys & chocolate covered pretzels (guess which part I'm looking forward to more LOL).

And just to keep the fun going, The Apronista is giving away a cute Valentines apron here.

Menu Plan Monday

DH is going to be home some during the day, so our lunches & dinners might get scrambled abit, but here's the current plan for our menus this week:

Monday - Southwest roll-ups (new recipe I'm trying), corn
Tuesday - Black Beans & Rice
Wednesday - Choplets & green beans
Thursday - crustless quiche
Friday - Potato Soup (another chance to use up the mix, since we didn't make it last week)

To check out lots of other menus for this week, pop over to Organizing Junkie.

Prayer Request

This was posted on a yahoo group I'm on and I wanted to pass it on. Last weekend (the 26th or 27th) a 20 yr old young man from the Walla Walla, Washington area slid on the ice and was in a serious accident. They still don't know if he will live, and if so, how much damage is permanent. His family has set up a website to update on his progress. Please pray for this young man and his family.

Homeschool wrap-up for this week

We didn't do much this past week. And I'm really not sure why, girls were busy playing, I was busy decluttering . . . they were happy without "school" so we went with it LOL. We did remember to practice with the glockenspiel mallets and they thoroughly memorized the rhyme for it. They now are very convinced that they must go through the entire rhyme before playing the glockenspiel EACH time, and have done their best to teach everyone else the rhyme as well LOL.

Friday morning's ice thawed enough that we could still have our Kindermusik class, and we got to bring our glockenspiels home, so they were very excited about that. They're also learning the A note (to add to high C).

When talking about the President coins (my dad has been teaching the girls the Presidents, in order, using the new President metal dollars as they come out), A decided she wants to go see how money is made. Since we were already planning to go to Sesame Place (near Philly) a few times this summer (we bought season passes last summer that are good throughout 2008) it should be easy enough to include a trip to the Mint in one of the trips, especially since mom & dad are retiring so we won't have to try to fit it in around their work schedule.

We took advantage of the GORGEOUS weather on Sabbath (amazingly different from the freezing rain of Friday, we were plenty warm in sweatshirts, and the girls, with all their running around, eventually were too warm in sweatshirts & were just wearing their l-sleeve shirts) to visit some of the memorials in DC. A few weeks ago when we visited my cousin to meet her new baby, we read a Clifford book she had that was about Clifford visiting DC, and in that book, it talked about the dog statue at the FDR memorial, so we went to that one, which I'd never been to. Winter isn't the ideal time to visit it, since there are a bunch of fountains that are all drained for the winter, but the girls were appropriately excited upon finding the dog statue (which I hadn't told them we were seeing, on the off chance that the Clifford book was wrong and there wasn't actually a dog statue LOL). We got several pictures of the girls posing with various statues throughout the memorial. They also had great fun climbing on some big stone blocks. We also had a couple brief conversations about "poor people" since the memorial includes statues of men waiting at the unemployment lines and such.

Then we walked around the reflecting pool (which lived up to it's name beautifully and was reflecting the Washington Monument perfectly, the girls were excited to see the "flection" of it, L noticed it w/o us pointing it out) to the Jefferson Memorial. I figured they'd find it more interesting than Lincoln, since Jefferson is a president that they "know" from Papa's drilling of the first 4 presidents. The video playing in the visitor center raised lots of questions about war, which reminds me, I need to see if the library has any good preschool level books on the revolutionary war &/or the first few presidents. Anyone have any good recommendations?

Last night & again tonight Daddy's been playing Sim city and the girls have been helping them. I'm sure there's some educational value there somewhere, if we look hard enough, but since it's not a game I've ever played, I don't know what LOL. If nothing else, it's "quality time" with Daddy LOL.

A actually chose Monopoly when we played games today. I was surprised since she generally complains when L chooses it, and only plays w/ L & me about half the time. And somehow something "clicked" with her and she was doing much better at counting out money, we get added practice with math since they try to keep at least one of each denomination of bill, so even if they HAVE a $5, they don't want to give it up, so would rather figure out & use a $1 & a $4 to pay their rent. Tonight she figured out on her own that she could pay $6 rent by giving me 2 $1's and 2 $2's, which I thought was rather impressive LOL.

A quick note on this unit of homeschool, the handwork is supposed to be making a variety of gourd instruments. I got the book out of the library & I think it would be a fun project, for the girls & their Papa, once he's retired. So, we're holding off on that for right now and will re-visit the idea once Papa's retired and has some time (and we'll also make sure that either we, or Grandpa grow the necessary types of gourds this summer so we don't have to buy the gourds to build the instruments LOL). So, we're mostly enjoying the books and art pojects from this unit (since nature focuses primarily on creating a Sanctuary garden, which is, again, something I'd like to do eventually, but not when the ground is frozen & not at a house that we're getting serious about selling, so that portion is also being "deferred" until sometime in the future.

Decluttering Challenge Check-In

How'd you do this week? Here's what I got out of my house:

• bag of misc stuff (that I'm too lazy to catgorize) - gave to Kim
• potty chair - gave to Kim
• bag of baby clothes -gave to Kim
• bag of cloth diapers - gave to Kim
• Bag of clothes & art stuff - gave to V
• 2 bags men's clothes - freecycled
• Bag of misc throw pillows & such - freecycled
• 2 bags decorative odds & ends - freecycled
• 2 bag women's clothes - freecycled
• play kitchen - gave to mom
• laundry basket full of disposable cups - gave to mom
• Chip & Dip server - gave to mom
• Tupperware - gave to mom
• Box of wrapping paper - gave to mom

Picture Archive

I decided it would be nice if people wanted to see pictures, if they were all compiled in one place so here we go:

A's Camera

L's Camera

5th Birthday

March pictures

Valentine's Tea

February Pictures

January Pictures

Christmas Pictures

November & December pictures

Florida Trip

Grandma's 90th Birthday

Visiting Grandma & Grandpa Hess

September & October Pictures

Sesame Place

Pre-blog pictures