Joyful Mother

A Wonderful Weekend

I've had a really full and wonderful birthday weekend. Friday was just busy, busy, busy! It was the last day of Friday school and my friend and I took our class of four to the local Indian Mound for a little field trip. I think they would need a ton of cardboard boxes to pack up all those arrowheads! The kids found it pretty fascinating but I think their favorite was climbing all 71 stairs (again, yes, I counted) to the top of the mound. Basically it was a big hill - but it was big and they loved it! Afterwards we let them play at the park by the River and then took them to McDonald's for lunch. They had a blast!

That afternoon I took a little nap and was awakened by little voices urging me to come see what Daddy had brought me. I got up and found 3 huge beautiful ferns! Dick put them up on the side porch Saturday morning. We had Olive Garden for dinner and came home to enjoy ice cream and cake. A little funny - I told the boys to remember their manners, just as the waiter was bringing our salad and bread sticks. Jonathan sat up straight and put his hands in his lap...and snorted like a pig!& It cracked our waiter up!

Dick spent the day Saturday painting our bedroom. He ran out of paint before he finished but got one coat on everything and 2 coats on one wall - so I can see it is going to be beautiful! The boys helped some which is always fun for them and takes a little longer to do things for Dad! Ashley came over after lunch and we enjoyed a afternoon of playing with her new dog and getting some sun. She brought me a beautiful hanging basket of flowers that she had picked out and potted. I put them on the deck but by the end of the day we decided they would look good by my ferns!

Enjoy the pictures - I have a ton more on my Flickr page.

My Present

If you didn't know by now, Friday is my Birthday!! Yes, I will be 42. My hubby asked me a while back what I wanted and I told him I would like our bedroom painted. (No, I didn't ask for penny stocks) We have been in our house for almost a year now and haven't done any painting. Currently, our bedroom is a plumish color (click the pic for a larger view).

It's just not my style. Now, to go with our new chocolate bedding it is going to be this color - Restrained Gold (click the pic to see a larger size):

He started spackling the walls last night - I will post pictures as the project progresses! Yay!! Happy Birthday to me!!

Flashback Post: February 7, 2006

Last week William was sitting on the couch and Jonathan was laying across his lap, being the "baby". William rocked him and even sang to him and it was so cute. After a few minutes, William dumped him in the floor, looked over the edge of the couch and said, "You okay, baby?" I about hurt myself laughing. Jonathan said, "I okay". It was a scream!!

Recently I told Jonathan to do something - I don't remember what, something like "Take your shoes and put them in your room". Jonathan said to me, "No thank you - maybe later." Sometimes it is, "when I get older".

Last week William was sitting on the couch and Jonathan was laying across his lap, being the "baby". William rocked him and even sang to him and it was so cute. After a few minutes, William dumped him in the floor, looked over the edge of the couch and said, "You okay, baby?" I about hurt myself laughing. Jonathan said, "I okay". It was a scream!!

Recently I told Jonathan to do something - I don't remember what, something like "Take your shoes and put them in your room". Jonathan said to me, "No thank you - maybe later." Sometimes it is, "when I get older".

For Stephanie <3

Asian Rice Salad

5 cups (loosely packed) chopped fresh spinach
3 green onions, chopped
2 cups cooked brown rice
1 can sliced water chestnuts (I am going to chop them next time)
1 (11 oz) can mandarin organges
2 Tablespoons soy sauce
½ cup fat free (or regular) dijon dressing
avocado chunks

Mix the soy sauce and dijon dressing together and add to the other ingredients. Stir in avocodo last. Chill one hour and enjoy. The spinach wilts a little in leftovers but still very good!

Learning Fun

I am so proud of our Jonathan!  He is finishing up Kindergarten and has done so well.  I love watching how they progress in their writing from the beginning of Kindergarten to the end.  Jonathan has picked up a real love for numbers and math.  Months ago he started asking us what different (single digit) numbers added up to be.  I thought this was pretty cool especially because his Kindergarten curriculum really only covers recognizing and writing numbers 1-20 and counting.  He has been memorizing these addition facts and about a month ago started asking about multiplication.  So now, if you ask him a multiplication question, he may just know the answer and if he doesn't, chances are, he will memorize that one, too!  I taught him his 11's on Saturday.  I get really geeked about it!

Yesterday was library day and while we picked up our usual number of readers, we also spent time in the juvenile non-fiction section.  They love these books just as much.  I found a book about coins (link below) that I thought both boys would like.  It's a great book and it teaches and reviews what I have been teaching them while at the same time being fun.  I read it to them yesterday afternoon and Jonathan just brought it to me saying, "if I had two quarters and you gave me a dime, that would be sixty cents!"  That's my boy!!

The Coin Counting Book by Rozanne Lanczak Williams Read more about this book...

Bloggy Giveaway

There are some Bloggy Giveaways going on this week, just in time for my birthday!! I am most interested in the one going on at Five J's - she is giving away a blog banner (or a post banner or a sidebar banner). Yes, I know, I've made my own banners for years BUT I *really* like hers! :) Visit her site by clicking the badge below!

A Mending At The Edge Blog Tour

The Change and Cherish Series is a group of 3 books written by author Jane Kirkpatrick.

A Mending at the Edge (Change and Cherish Historical Series #3) by Jane Kirkpatrick Read more about this book...

A Clearing in the Wild

Spirited young Emma Wagner chafes at the constraints of her 1850s religious community, which values conformity over independent thought, especially in women. Skeptical of the colony’s growing emphasis on preparing for “the last days,” Emma clashes with their increasingly autocratic leader—and faces the unexpected consequences of pursuing independence.

A Tendering in the Storm

This lyrical novel, based on an historical figure of the 1800s, follows the spirited and intelligent Emma Giesy, who achieves her goal of separating her family from the repressive religious community in which she grew up. But unexpected and dire consequences leave her family—and her faith—struggling to survive.

A Mending at the Edge

This richly textured novel, the third in the acclaimed Change and Cherish series, follows the historical figure of Emma Wagner Giesy, who chafes under the restrictions of her 1860s religious colony. When her bid to belong in her unique way unravels her most precious relationships, she seeks new ways to stitch meaning into her life. 

Free Chore Charts

If you have need of free printable chore charts, you will want to check out this site.  They have tons of chore charts so there is sure to be one that fits your needs. Coming up very soon - in about a month, they will be adding a feature where you can upload chore charts you have designed to share with others!  Yay for charts!!

Fun In The Sun

I have one more link to share before finishing up my blog assignments - this one is for capresso - it's a type of coffee maker (espresso, etc.). That sounds so good to me right now. I would love a sweet coffee drink with a little whipped cream on top. Of course my favorite drink would be the frozen coffees - like an icee or something like that. Yum! I could have had one if we went to Books A Million after lunch but we stayed talking to our friends for so long that we wanted to get home for some sun in the fun. I had to add one more layer to my tan-to-be!

It Is A Beautiful Day!!

What are you guys doing today? I have enjoyed being outside so much. I laid out in the sun for about 20 minutes (on each side) and enjoyed a wonderful breeze. Our deck is quite a fun place! The boys have a toy "box" there as well as a mini trampoline. It is great for exercise and burning off a little excess energy! We had a great church service and then went out to lunch. When we got there, we found 8 of our church friends there and there was just enough room to include us - we had a BLAST!! Just when I wonder if I truly have any IRL friends, something like that happens!!

Herb Garden

I have some big plans for my yard this summer. While I would like to do something with the driveway edge and add some outdoor lighting, I know I will have to make a master list and take my plans one at a time. I'm not sure if my garden plans will stay the same as originally planned - it will depend on if I am able to borrow a tiller or find someone to plow our garden I do know that regardless, we will have tomatoes!! Also, I am thinking about adding a little herb garden out front. I believe whoever built our house probably planned to have a carport. The carport is there but no one ever made the drive go up to it. So it is really a big porch. In front of that porch is where I am going to plant some herbs. I can't wait!

A Very Special Watch

The fun thing about getting paid for blogging links is that sometimes you blog about things you had never heard about.  For example: Patek Aquanaut.  What do you think it is?  Something to do with water?  That was my guess.  I was wrong - this is a type of watch - a very special watch, and if you have a thousand or two bucks around - pardon me, make that eighteen thousand bucks or so - drop by and window shop.  If you are like me, you'd be curious to see what a watch, that costs that much, looks like!

Restrained Gold

So, Friday is my birthday. What do you think I am getting? Jewelry? discount furniture? Electronics? Nope! When my hubby asked what I wanted for my birthday I told him I wanted our bedroom painted and he said "no problem!" That's the great thing about being married to a painter - no hesitating! He is going to paint it a gold color to go with the chocolate colored bedding we bought a few months ago. The name of the paint is "Restrained Gold" - doesn't that sound great? I will be sharing pictures!

Are You Surprised?

I am now keeping a separate homeschooling blog. You can visit here: Homeschooling Adventures.

I added a Twitter widget in my sidebar on this blog (well, the other one too). Do you Twitter? I like being able to write in a couple of sentences what I am doing because sometimes it is hard to fill a whole blog post with what you are doing, although you might need magnifying glasses to see the type in the sidebar. I can fill in my twitter form and it is updated on my school blog, this blog and facebook status - pretty cool.

Do Hard Things

Do Hard Things: A Teenage Rebellion Against Low Expectations by Alex Harris, Brett Harris Read more about this book...

With over 10 million hits to their website, TheRebelution.com, Alex and Brett Harris are leading the charge in a growing movement of Christian young people who are rebelling against the low expectations of their culture by choosing to “do hard things” for the glory of God.

Written when they were 18 years old, Do Hard Things is the Harris twins’ revolutionary message in its purest and most compelling form, giving readers a tangible glimpse of what is possible for teens who actively resist cultural lies that limit their potential. Combating the idea of adolescence as a vacation from responsibility, the authors weave together biblical insights, history, and modern examples to redefine the teen years as the launching pad of life and map a clear trajectory for long-term fulfillment and eternal impact.

Written by teens for teens, Do Hard Things is packed with humorous personal anecdotes, practical examples, and stories of real-life rebelutionaries in action. This rallying cry from the heart of revolution already in progress challenges the next generation to lay claim to a brighter future, starting today.

Alex and Brett Harris founded TheRebelution.com in August 2005 and today at age 19 are the most popular Christian teen writers on the Web. The twins are frequent contributors to Focus on the Family’s Boundless webzine, serve as the main speakers for the Rebelution Tour conferences, and have been featured in WORLD magazine, Breakaway, The Old Schoolhouse, and the New York Daily News. Sons of homeschool pioneer Gregg Harris and younger brothers of best-selling author Joshua Harris (I Kissed Dating Goodbye), Alex and Brett live near Portland, Oregon.

Yummy Soup

This is one of my favorite soups - we had it last night for dinner. It is vegetarian but if you had to you could add whatever you wanted. I was out of green chilies so I left out the diced tomatoes and added a can of Rotel (mild). It was absolutely wonderful and I will make it that way again!! I didn't add cheese but I'm sure that would only add to the taste.

Chili’s Southwestern Vegetable Soup

3 cans vegetable broth
1 can pinto beans
1 can black beans
1 14.5-ounce can diced tomatoes, with juice
1 C canned, frozen or fresh yellow corn kernals
1 4-ounce can diced green chilies
½ C diced onion, Spanish if available
1 C tomato sauce
6 corn tortillas, chopped in small pieces
1½ teaspoons chili powder
dash garlic powder

Garnish:
1 cup grated non-fat soy cheddar and/or soy jack cheese blended
1 cup crumbled baked corn tortilla chips

Combine all the soup ingredients and chopped corn tortillas in a large saucepan or soup pot over high heat. Bring soup to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 45 minutes to 1 hour, or until the soup has thickened and tortilla pieces have mostly dissolved. If salt-free broth is used, add salt to taste near the end of cooking.

To serve, ladle about 1½ cups into a bowl. Sprinkle a heaping tablespoon of the grated cheddar/jack cheese blend over the top of the soup, and then a heaping tablespoon of crumbled corn tortilla chips over the cheese.

Plug And Play

As much as I like my computer, there is nothing that makes me want to throw it out the window than having a problem with it that I can not figure out.  Our SkyAngel satellite subscription has gone from dish to programming through high speed Internet.  I spent almost 3 hours on the phone yesterday trying to get it hooked up.  Finally the tech and I both gave up.  I turned off the TV and walked away and when I turned it on later it worked...except now the cable didn't.  Now this was no big deal to me but I knew that at  7am this morning my 5 year old was going to want his PBS and Curious George.

This afternoon before his favorite Cyberchase, I switched 2 cable cords and cable worked but of course then SkyAngel didn't.  I switched them back and NOTHING worked, not even my LAPTOP!  I  have had it!  I disconnected the router and cable modem and brought it back into the other room.  After much work, my laptop is working again.  When my hubby comes home I'll have to explain that one.  I don't know what I'll do but this I know:  I can't take this kind of stress.  Think I'll ever bring a playstation 3 into the mix? It was supposed to be easy - just plug and play.  Yeah, right.

Shopping and Comparing

When shopping online, I usually stick with the stores I know. How do you go about finding more places to shop and how they compare with other stores? I'm glad you asked that question - I found a great site this morning that I will share with you called ShopWiki.com. The best part about this site is that they compare items at different stores regardless of whether or not that store is advertising with them. There are different categories to choose from and I normally go to the Home and Garden section.

I did a search for my 4GB iPod nano and found that you could find them anywhere from $113.99 to $197.99 - that's quite a price difference! I can see where this site could be very helpful! There's a big bookstore online that has every book you could ever want but obviously they don't always have the lowest price. I've had my eye on this book, The China Study, for some time. Do I want to pay $24.95 for it or $12.95? Check out this great site, I think you will find it very helpful!

New Discovery

For a long time I used w.Bloggar to publish my posts to my blogs and then I found ScribeFire (a Firefox extension). I really like ScribeFire and have used it for over a year. I found something different yesterday called Windows Live Writer, which is definitely new to me but may have been around for awhile - I don't know.

So far I really like it. It has some cool plug-ins you can install like word count and photo effects. There's an Amazon plug-in that inserts book details from their site. For example, I just bought this book:

Curly Girl by Lorraine Massey, Deborah Chiel Read more about this book...

It's not terribly complicated to set up - you don't need anything like used cisco, just download and enter your blog information. You have the ability to manage multiple blogs, add categories, save as draft, publish your post later - all the things you can do at your blog's webpage. Give it a try!

For more WFMW tips, visit Shannon.

Wordless Wednesday

Works For Me Wednesday: Gmail and Remember The Milk

I came across this fabulous tip just today.  I am a big fan of Gmail and love the space they offer and the ease of being able to use it anywhere - I also like Google documents and calendar that is integrated with Gmail.  The article I read today mused how Gmail hasn't created a to do list and how useful that would be.

I agree, I thought, as I kept reading.  As it turns out, a Firefox extension has been created that combines Gmail with your Remember The Milk to-do list and I must say, it rocks!  Of course you'll need Firefox (everyone needs Firefox!) and a free account over at Remember The Milk - click here to get all the details as well as some awesome screen shots.

Head over to Shannon's for more WFMW tips.  BTW, if you haven't heard, E-mealz now also offers veggie meal plans - they're great!

Here Comes The Sun

I can't tell you how happy I am to see the sunshine! We had almost a full week of rain and clouds last week and I need some sunshine in my life! We are expecting highs in the mid 70's all week! I plan to spend some time each day outside - it is my goal to get a bit of a tan this year - just enough that I don't look so pasty white (the kind of white that mortgage lenders get by sitting in an office all day). I've scaled down my plans for a garden this summer. This year I am going to start with something more manageable. If I can grow some tomatoes I will be very happy!

101 Elephant Jokes

I have been collecting some credits on Paper Back Swap by swapping some of my books and I was so tickled to come across this book: 101 Elephant Jokes! It has special childhood memories for me. When I was a youngster I had this book and I loved telling jokes from it but I think I may have told too many because one day it came up missing! Can you imagine!? I'm not sure what my mom did with it but it was gone forever! I requested this book a couple of days ago on PBS and have been holding my breath for a couple of days hoping that it would get sent. I saw today that it is en route from Georgia.

This book was published in 1964 and is no longer in print. I saw on Amazon that someone was trying to sell their copy for $200 and I am getting mine for the cost of postage! I told my mom that I was getting it and her response was that she was hoping that I was getting it for the boys (you know the whole 'paying for your raising thing'). Yeah I am going to teach them to the boys - it will be an improvement on the made up on the spot jokes they have been telling! LOL! I may even let them practice on Mom! BWAHAHAHA! Now all I need are some promotional pens!

How do you get down from an elephant?
You don't! You get down from a duck!

All Vacuum Cleaners Are NOT Created Equally!

Just saying!

Last night we spent some of our tax return on some needed items and a vacuum cleaner was number one on my list. After we had the carpet put in, I bought a fairly cheap vacuum - it was only around $60. Apparently, new carpet can wreak havoc on a new vacuum and it was constantly stopping up - to the point that we couldn't repair it anymore.

We bought the Eureka vacuum below and it was about $128. I put it together this morning and fired it up and - oh my! I'm in love! Besides the fact that it is my favorite lime green color - it sucks! I mean it has good suction!! My carpet looks awesome and I may even vacuum more often. Oh and it has some neat gizmo's on it too like a really cool duster. So there you have it - it beats buying a cat tree any day of the week!

Summer Plans

I love it that Spring is here and Summer is well on its way! I have big plans for this Summer! I've never been much for the heat but I am going to try not to miss out on the things I usually avoid because it is too hot! This year I finally have room so I am going to plant a garden - yes, my first one. No, I don't have any idea what I am doing (yet) but I am having fun working on it.

Another thing I am doing is getting my feet ready for flip flop weather - that means a glob of vaseline on my feet at night covered with socks. It seems the older I get, the more things I am putting on my body. Lotion for dry skin, vaseline for my feet - can acne treatment be far behind? Actually it is something I might have to consider! I never had problems with it in my youth but now? Yep, a little!

We're finishing up the school year and already looking ahead to the next. Curriculum costs go up just a little every year but thankfully, so far, I'm able to reuse it the next year. We're not planning on officially doing school through the summer but I do intend to provide review quite a bit so we don't forget anything over our summer break. The boys are also going to participate in the library's summer reading program.

So that's what's happening in our neck of the woods.

How Deep

We sang this Sunday night at church. Or, at least, I should say I tried to sing it. I couldn't get through one full verse without getting choked up.

Why should I gain from His reward?
I cannot give an answer
But this I know with all my heart
His wounds have paid my ransom