1st & 2nd Grade

H has been reciting the books of the Bible. He and E have been enjoying the movie The Amazing Book which has a song about all the books of the Bible. So he's been trying out words like Nehemiah and Ecclesiastes. The other day he said to me "Mom, what books are there two of? [meaning 1st & 2nd Kings, Samuel, etc] Oh ya' 1st and 2nd grade!"

Princess Games

As a child my earliest memory of playing princess is with my three oldest brothers. It consisted of them making me a lovely crown out of a thin willow branch and parking me on my throne under the willow tree - then somehow my loyal subjects would desert me to their own games . . . .

Next comes the play acting years. My youngest brother and I (and various neighbors, friends) spent hours creating imaginative plays with knights and princesses to perform for the neighborhood. Can you believe our neighbors willingly bought tickets from us and took time out of their Sunday afternoons to come watch our performances!?

Now it comes to today. I'm surrounded by the most handsomest of knights (no offense to my dashing brothers), who slay the enemy with their olive shooters (don't ask), prepare feasts of mashed potato cake, and go on quests to bring me jewels of cardboard blocks. Despite the fond memories, this is the best of the princess years. Now, come August will we have another knight joining the family or could we possibly be welcoming another willow princess?

What happened to the . . .

What happened to the ___? E chewed it up.
What happened to the ___? E broke it.
What happened to the ___? E tore it.
What happened to the ___? E drew on it.
What happened to the ___? E . . . you get the picture.

An all together different and endearing 2nd child.

Good bye nuk?

Our dear little E is very attached to his nuk. He is just over two years old and we feel that it is about time to let it go. We hope that with the nuk gone he will be able to sleep better as he wakes in the night, crying, if he can't find it. The nuk is already only available at sleeping times. We will go about this gradually, first the nuk will be "all gone" at naptime. Then if after some time all goes well, it will be "all gone" at night time too.

When we did this with H (in anticipation of a baby joining the family and me not wanting to keep straight two sets of nuks) we tried to convince him to give up his bag of nuks to the baby squirrels out at Ga and Gwampa's (an idea I found online). That so did not work. The above approach did work. So here it goes again. Different kid though and you never know what will happen.

Today was his first nukless nap. He had a little bit of a difficult time settling down but it wasn't too long till all was quiet. Sleep well little bug.

Words of the day by H

After using the facilities I heard H (my four year old) quoting:

"If it's yellow, let it mellow. If it's brown send it down."

Thank you to my junior high teacher (Mrs. K) for that bit of advise that has stuck with me through the years. MTT are you done laughing yet?

Horn Tooting

Last month I was contacted by the owner of a lovely online baby shop who was interested in my embroidered hair clips. Wholehearted shreking and freaking (in my head!) commenced! Today, the clips are live on her website, The Baby Boutique!

I already have a list of things that I'm hoping to pick up from her place. Have you seen these belly huggers? And this baby sling looks beautiful and simple enough for me to figure out. Go check out her lovely shop!

I can't find it.

We're working on H's memory verse for AWANA tonight. It's been about 5 minutes since we talked about it so I just asked him to repeat his verse. He screwed up his face and after some thought replied "I hid it [in my heart] so well I can't find it. "

Book It!

This brings back good memories of me and my youngest brother hitting up the "Hut" with our parents for our free pizza. I won't go into the really creepy clothes and hairstyles that accompany the memory. Gotta love the 80s for what they did to family pictures.

Anyway I just came across this lead over at Little Fun; Little Learning that Book It! is accepting registration for 2008-09 homeschoolers - even Kindergartners! So dear H is officially signed up for his first round with Book It!. Yeehaw!

Moo me

"Moo me pleeease."
spoken frequently by little E.

Translation: Excuse me please.

Dead dogs

H just asked if hot dogs are made of dead dogs. . . which brought on E's "hot dog! hot dog! hot dog!" chant and happy dance. "No, ours are made of turkey" was my reply. He said "Oh dead turkeys then. Okay." I'm glad that my vegetarian friend who has a big heart for animals doesn't have a computer to read this.

He gives

My dear EH is off shooting his first wedding as the lead and only photographer. I'm thrilled for him and can't wait to hear how it went. God is good the way he has gifted my man with so many talents and ways to bring home the bacon, beef or turkey of course since reading Maker's Diet :). I have lost count of the numerous things that EH has done to provide for us: Mac work and repair, handyman services, audio at weddings & concerts, photography, take down at major theater productions, web design and the list goes on. The Lord always provides. I have to say we have noticed that as we give, the Lord gives back so much more. He is faithful.

EH is working on a fun project right now. He is taking a picture every day and journaling it here. The pictures are frequently from around our home so you'll get a different perspective on every day life here. One never knows when he or she is going to be the subject of a shoot. Leave a comment on a photo by clicking on it. I love you handsome!

May I have this dance?

There I was standing at the counter, putting away the P&J from our heart shaped sandwiches and Jello when along came a handsome fella (no matter that he stands about 3 feet tall). He reached for my hand and requested "Dance?" How could I resist his charm? We danced 'till another fella (about 4 feet this time) cut in and we danced some more. True there was no music - but it played in our hearts.

Quiet Weekend

A big hug to Ga and Gwampa for hosting a cousin's weekend. For a weary momma the quiet and rest was bliss to my soul. Our weekend consisted of date night for EH and I (Redbox and pizza of course!), hours of stitching hair clips while favorite movies played in the background (Sense and Sensibility, Shadowlands, Ever After), a little reading (Hood by Stephen Lawhead), and a Sunday afternoon nap.

To top it off I just called my juror hotline and found out that I'm not being called to service tomorrow. I'm hoping that the next two weeks are filled with many such notices. I know, I know . . . where's my patriotic spirit?.

The doc said . . .

Looking good! Our little E managed to stay in the 85-90% range for his growth again. Measuring up to 3 ft, 1/4 in and weighing in at 30 1/2 pounds. It's funny 'cause lately he's taken to referring to himself as the "baby". I've tried to divert that to "little boy" so as not to cause any confusion when the next wee one arrives. He seems to like that description too and repeats "Boooy, booooy, boooy" as he points to himself.

As I was settling in to sleep the night before the appointment I lamented to EH that I would have to once again review our no vaccination policy with another doctor. In the morning I prayed about it and on the way to the appointment I can say that I felt no anxiety about it. The first thing our nurse said to us was "Here's your vaccination WAIVER form" and that was it, the new doc said absolutely nothing. No pressure, no having to defend ourselves once again. Relief!

So they say to measure your kids at age 2 and multiply it by 2 to see how tall they will ultimately be: looks like our little E could be over 6 feet. Way to grow little guy!

Good morning

The aroma of fresh baked blueberry streusel muffins still lingers in the house, EH's schedule allowed him to stay home for an extra two hours this morning, I sold my first pair of hair clips on Etsy, and the babe and I decided the muffin was a good thing so I haven't had to resist the urge to "toss" my muffin. All in one morning. I was about to say "It's been a good morning" but I think I need to go separate (again) a couple of fighting hooligans posing as my children so "It's been a fairly good morning."

Goodies

Just want to say THANKS to the generous bloggers that I won things from in the Great Bloggy Giveaway. After winning nothing last fall I was thrilled to win not just one but three things!

As I was posting about Oh Amanda winning the felt clips that I was giving away, she was writing to notify me that I had won her give away. Cool! So I get to go and pick out a picture for our nursery from this beautiful Etsy shop. This is one of those times I wish we weren't waiting to find out what the gender of the baby is going to be. I might just get a girly print then put it up in the laundry room if the boy streak continues.

Next up I won a $15 Amazon gift card from Mommy Gets Paid that serves to let folks know about how to get tons of free stuff. I already signed up for a free post-it note sample because well, I'm a paper junkie!

And finally I was super excited to win a David and Goliath interactive DVD from Wisdoms Way of Learning. She runs a store, NestFamily.com. I really like the biographical/historical movies that they sell here - really wonderful family friendly movies run by a home schooling mom.

And the winner is . . .

Oh amanda! Congratulations! I plan to put your clips in the mail this week - pending this morning sickness subsides long enough to complete the simple task. :)

I know this is ridiculous but when you give something to some stranger there's part of you (or me) that hopes you might actually like (at least a little bit) this stranger. I kept hoping my random number wasn't going to be one of those people who post a slightly raunchy picture next to their name. Oh forgive me - I have to get over my hair clips being my babies! I have three real babies already that really take up as much emotional strength as I feel I have. Well I loved her and she's got a fun blog over at her place and can I say I got excited to see an actual photo of Governor Huckabee at a March for Life rally on her blog. No commitment from me yet - there's just a leaning in his general direction.

So farewell to my hair clips I bid thee a happy new home. To everyone who puffed my head up with all your lovely compliments, I thank you!

Bloggy Giveaway

Here it is . . . in honor of my husband and I opening our Etsy shop I am giving away a lovely pair of embroidered felt hair clips made by yours truly. Feel free to check out my fella's fabulous photography or my handmades in our shop. Here's a pic of the flower bud hair clips.



All you have to do is leave a comment - one comment only please. Would you please be sure that you also leave an email or blog so that I can contact the winner? Thx! I'll probably be figuring out one of those internet random number generators to pick the winner. I plan to announce the winner sometime before Monday, February 4th. I can only ship within the US. Thank you! Oh, there's over 800 more give aways over here at Bloggy Giveaways!

Enjoy!