The Historic Kelley Farm

This was fun! Agent H is nearly six years old on this visit to the Oliver H. Kelley farm (Note: it's actually Jan 2010 and I'm catching up on my 2009 posts!) He spent the most time in the garden helping to transplant the seedlings and deliver shingles to shade the tiny plants. Ebug and I spent a lot of time pumping water at the well and just running off his three year old excitement. LE was just along for the ride and enjoyed the scenery.























































EH produced some beautiful photography from the trip, these are some of my favorites.

What's for dessert Mama?

I felt like we were eating way too many sweets and the question just got annoying. Especially when Ebug would ask after breakfast! So we established "dessert days". Sundays. Wednesdays. Fridays.

After lunch the boys get to pick something out of their candy bags - which are usually plenty full from candy received on holidays. Or an organic lollipop from Yummy Earth. On a non-dessert day I let the boys choose from a small organic breath mint (usually Newman's Own) or a piece of dental gum from Spry.

After dinner it varies on what's in the house. What I like about this is that I've actually used the opportunity to make a few fun desserts. My favorite would be the mini cherry pies.









Now here's the part where I have to say that when the boys' backs are turned or they've gone to bed, it's very hard not to sneak something sweet on a non-dessert day. I try to grab some dates, gum, or tea with honey but am not often successful. Now that I've posted this, maybe I'll be better?!

Scheduling my nights

The days it seem, fly by and at times I don't feel like I have anything to show for it. My hobbies aren't getting any attention, books aren't being read, and I'm staying up late doing who knows what. In an effort to claim back the "lost" hours I have assigned myself activities for the evening times once the boys are all tucked in for the night. It sounds so rigid and really it's not, just a guideline to help myself. Here's what it currently looks like:

Sunday: Relax or get ready for the week
Monday: Budget night (EH and I meet and update the database, pay bills, talk money. It's sooo romantic!)
Tuesday: Go to bed EARLY night and read a little - I'm not very good at this one
Wednesday: Quilt (I'm going to finish your quilt mom!) or stitch clips for the Etsy shop
Thursday: Free night, probably spent reading blogs and catching up on E-mail
Friday: Watch a movie
Saturday: Finish watching the Bringing Up Boys videos by Dobson

Hopefully in the next few months I'll have completed some goals that have been collecting dust.

Homeschool Co-op Graduation

Our first year of homeschool co-op has come to an end. I'm grateful for the new friends we've made and the experiences we had. Honestly, I can't imagine life without them.












LE Babe and I with our fellow nursery friends.












Ebug and his preschool class.













Agent H and his Kindergarten class.

Two wills

"If we forget that there are two [wills] and dwell only on the sovereign will of God, we will abdicate our responsibility and lapse into the fatalism of Islam, which leaves all to the inscrutable and unknowable. If, on the other hand we forget the sovereignty of God we see ourselves as independent, we will arrogate to ourselves all responsibility and leave God out of it - in other words, we make ourselves God. In both cases we fail to do His will, and the result is the forfeiting of our joy and freedom."
-Discipline, The Glad Surrender by Elisabeth Elliot

I'll be mulling on this for the next month.

LE Babe @ 9 months

Hey sweet babe! I can't believe you're waving "bu-bye" already.

You're pulling yourself up onto everything, the bath tub being your favorite. My favorite is me. When I'm busy at the stove I can hear you making little baby babbling noises as you make your way toward me and stop to grab onto my legs, pull yourself up and chat with me. All the while drooly drool is dripping and you have a very happy, proud smile on your face.

You've also learned to splash in the bath tub which has been a great test of control for Ebug because he is not allowed to splash back with as much abandon as you are.

Another of your favorite places to hang out is at the patio window while your big brothers are out playing, you laugh and bounce as you kneel at the window. You're especially pleased when one of them stops to wave at you from the other side of the window.

You are a delight to me and I'm so grateful for the gift of YOU!

Shoe laces

I'm done buying kids shoes at Target. The last 4 or 5 pairs have started to fall apart within a couple weeks if not days of wear. Instead we hit up the local Once Upon A Child in hopes of a decent used pair of tennies for Agent H. We found 'em! The only catch is that they are laced shoes. He has a pretty good idea of how to tie a knot as he has to tie the garbage bag closed when he takes the trash out. However, we haven't practiced bows yet. How fun that I picked this up at a garage sale last weekend. I originally thought it would be a nice lacing tool for Ebug to play with while we are doing school (I think I got a solid 10 minutes of quiet play out of him!) It's Doug and Melissa and it was only a buck! Yee Haw!

AWANA '09

Agent H completed his first year as an AWANA Spark!

Crawling & climbing

LE Babe is on the move crawling and climbing. Lego creations and other toy treasures that we thought were safe up on the ottomans or bench are now within his reach. He especially likes to pull himself up against the edge of the tub while big brothers are bathing. The floor is in need of near constant sweeping with his big brother's droppings and LE Babe's ability to find stray apple seeds, raisins, crumbs, etc. His forehead bares the proof of a few tumbles he's taken. He has also learned the fine art of shriek screaming and thinks dinner time is a nice time to practice it. Our ears are ringing . . .

The days are so full right now as we are working double time to wrap up our K curriculum in the next 6 weeks. It's hard to imagine that Agent H will be promoted from Kindergarten at homeschool co-op this Friday. I know it's just K but this time last year all I anticipated for this year was survival and it's been so much better than that.

May Day

Happy May Day













Flowers carefully colored and delivered to a neighbor by Agent H.

Placing an order

Me: "Ebug, do NOT ask for a snack again."

I was a little frustrating with the repeated request.

Ebug: "I'm not asking, I'm placing an order."

Happy 35th

Happy 35th to the man of our family! I look forward to "knowing" glances across the table from you for many more years to come.

I over heard Agent H telling his friend how old you were "Well my dad is 42 . . . I think . . ." At least he picked the perfect number right!?

My love & respect belong to you.

LE Babe @ 8 months

- He's up and rocking on all fours, even a few forward crawls
- Two teeth have popped through on the bottom
- No more gooey eyes from blocked tear ducts
- Starting to munch on little bits of bread, animal crackers, etc
- Goes crazy when Papa comes home from work
- Hasn't slept through the night in 2 months
- Can make his brothers feel like a million bucks with one of his smiles
- Has survived separation from me for 3 church services now
- They say he looks like Agent H




















Who could resist that smile and those beautiful blues? Just like his Papa!

Lego extraction

Today I extracted a Lego from Ebug's nose. Yep, same kid who recently swallowed the penny. The photo here shows the after effects of jumping off a couch and landing his face (mouth) against a coffee table. Please no broken bones, please no broken bones, please . . .

Easter Day

Our egg hunt










Ebug has this "happy dance" that just cracks us up!
















Agent H on the hunt.

Spring cleaning observation

Spring cleaning is in full swing - that is until the air goes out of my balloon. My balloon is pretty full though because of some new cleaning products I just purchased (more about those in another post).

Back to the reason for my post. As I have been scrubbing the walls on our main level I realized that the walls where time-outs are given are noticeably . . . Disgusting! Dried on nose goo and boogers mark the walls.

A friendly warning: The next time you're over, you might want to ask before you lean.

Penny "pinching"

Please pardon the title, I couldn't resist. Yes, I can quit searching for Ebug's swallowed penny. We discovered it today and much to my (and I'm sure his) relief, it showed up quite uneventfully.

Was fooled! (I'm writing like I'm facebooking!)

So I went to pour some Honey O's cereal yesterday and lo and behold out came Cinnamon Puffins instead! I think our five year old has been up to some April Fool's tricks. Sneaky, very sneaky.

Ornaments to stitch

Aren't these ornaments simply sweet? Ooh my fingers are itching to stitch. Now if only I could get my cracked, bleeding fingers to heal up so I could stitch. (I do have a new cream I'm going to start using on them, fingers crossed!)

I added this pattern (and her book!) to my Kaboodle list. EH's birthday is coming up next month so I'm going see if there is any camera gear under a few grand listed on his wish list. Okay so I'm kidding, that is so not in our Dave Ramsey budget but it will be fun to check out what he's been adding lately.

His one cent

Moments after the boys had been tucked in bed for the night Ebug opened their door declaring "Emergency, emergency!" He swallowed a penny. He was fine, just sad to have lost it and a little worked up over it. Agent H trailed in to ask what the problem was and being the sensitive big brother that he is started to tear up at the thought that it was one of HIS pennies. Ebug wants to know how it's going to get out, so I explained in as much of a "no big deal" voice as possible. Instead, he suggested I become a baby and go inside his tummy to get it out. Hmm . . . that stems from a conversation we had this week about how he thinks he has a baby in his tummy. Yah well, lots of fluids and fiber and we hope to have success in a couple of days.

Lovely Easter Printables

There are some lovely Easter printables over at Matha Stewart. I think I see some chicks and bunnies paper chains in my future.

Tea for me

She sat with ladies and drank tea from a delicate tea cup.

Today.

Me.

It was bliss.

Tot Activities

Ebug and I have been having tons of fun doing ACTIVITIES! together. (Hearing him wrap his little 3 year old tongue around the word "activities" is enough fun in itself for me.

These are my FAVORITE activity books ever!! First Steps Workbooks by Kumon. We have the Let's Sticker and Paste book. The pages are filled with cute critters that you progressively peel and stick, and snip and glue. One of the best parts is that they are super easy to pick up at Target!

I love sticker books! However they are thoroughly confusing for a tyke to figure out what goes where and the fight to keep those pages open is impossible. I cut the pages out of our newest book. I know, gasp! and horror! It completely goes against my grain to mutilate a book of any kind. But I'm telling you it was wonderful. I filed them into a plastic expanding file folder and now they await our next stickering adventure.

Finally I've been gleaning a few ideas from my favorite tot blog ever! 1+1+1=1. I'm going to wait until I take the time to take pictures though so you can see the fun first-hand. :) By the way 1+1+1=1 has started a new blog called Totally Tots. Crafting, faith, healthy eating inspiration and more goodies!

The Tooth Fairy is In

First one tooth, and now another. A note, some glimmer spray, a couple coins and Agent H is caught up in the magic of growing up.

Feeling chatty

Agent H was feeling chatty as we visited with our pastor after the sermon tonight. He discussed being the big brother and all that that entails and just as we were about to leave, he thought he'd throw this in for conversation:

"You know, my brother here (thumbing to Ebug) gets a treat whenever he goes BM on the toilet."

I think it took a moment to sink in that he did indeed just discuss potty training with the pastor. Ebug then felt the need to follow that up with an invitation to our weekly pizza/movie night. I guess we'll need to work on what is and isn't polite conversation.

** As a side note: Ebug has now successfully earned 2 of the previously mentioned treats!**

Facepainting

I love this KLUTZ facepainting book.












Agent H as a tiger















Ebug as a superhero

Use the Force

While attempting to discuss the budget with EH I was forced to endure this instead. I wish I could use "The Force" on the budget.

Salad + guac = bliss

I know it's weird but I am not usually a salad dressing fan. Then I heard about using guacamole dolloped on top. Looooove it! However, I'm the only guac eater in the house so I don't usually bother making it. Then a friend introduced me to Wholly Guacamomle. It's a packaged guac that you would find at the grocery store. It's also organic, freezable, and a good price at my Costco!

I Pray

"I pray because I
can't help myself

I pray because I'm
helpless, I'm broken

I pray because the need
flows out of me all the time,
waking and sleeping.

It doesn't change God
it changes me."

C.S. Lewis

Lent Observation Week 1

We have a basket filled with 40 different activities that will encourage ways for us to observe Lent - as suggested in the book that I posted about a few days ago. Here are some of the things we've been doing.

Wednesday: We cleaned the patio window (the Israelites cleaned to prepare for Passover)
Thursday: Find something purple and talk about the royalty of Christ
Friday: EH washed our feet and we washed his (as Jesus washed the feet of his disciples)
Saturday: Talked about Jesus being the Lamb of God and glued cotton balls to paper plates to make little lambs
Sunday: Practiced the Easter greeting "Jesus is Risen!" "Risen Indeed!" (Actually I guess you're not supposed to observe on Sunday but I forgot . . . opps!)

After each activity the boys go color in a piece of fruit on their Lenten Tree posters, also from the book. This has been such a meaningful way for us anticipate the coming of Easter.

I'm on my way over to LapbookLessons looking for material to do an Easter themed lapbook. I'm loving the paper version of the Resurrection Eggs that I saw and can't wait for us to pull out our own eggs to go along with this.

Note: I just found out that the Lent book is posted as free over at the author's website.

Hand Wash, Car Wash

In an effort to defeat the onslaught of cold and flu germs we invented the one, the only, HAND WASH CAR WASH! There is a member of our family (pictured) who is tired of washing his hands. Yes those would be socks dangling from his head . . . he does a wonderful puppy impression.

Operation instructions: insert one hand into each end of the car wash (box), the cleaner (Burt's Bees hand sanitizer) is sprayed in through one of the "windows" and the washee rubs and scrubs. Sparkling clean or at least . . . cleaner and there were no tears to be had.

Me and LE

The books say it's too early for separation anxiety. I have a husband, two sets of grandparents, and multiple nursery workers who think otherwise.

Observing Lent

In the past I've seen blogs that talk about observing Lent with their family. I've been interested but not sure how to start or what to do even. Over at homeschoolfreebie.com they are offering a free e-book on celebrating Lent with your family - it's available for free today only. I'm off to go print out my book.

By the way today is Ash Wednesday, just in case you're as date clueless as I usually am.

3 more inches

This morning we woke up to about 3 more inches of snow. I pointed it out to Agent H this morning and he actually groaned and in all sincerity and with a disappointed face said "I was hoping we wouldn't get anymore." He's been asking for weeks now when summer will be here.

First tooth lost

We thought it was too early, I guess not! Agent H has lost his first tooth (soon followed by his second). The tooth fairy left a glittery note and two whole dollars under his pillow.

Deep thoughts from a 5 & 3 year old

Agent H has been on a deep thought roll:

"Even though the tree can't reach heaven, it can reach God cause He's everywhere." So true!

Here he is playing Legos and building a base for the good guys to be stationed out of, "Let's build a scanner at the entrance of the hide out. It will look at their hearts to tell if they are good or bad." I can think of a few folks I'd like to have walk through that scanner - did I just type that?

And my dear Ebug. After noticing a magnet on the fridge with a picture of a superwoman on it said "It's you mom!" I wish.

Snapshot of the Moment

I was in the closet about to scan for something to wear today. I leaned back out of the closet to see where everyone was at. Ebug is half laying/half sitting on the toilet potty training, LE Babe is strapped into his bouncy pulling up his pant legs and happy screeching, and Agent H is sitting on my bed building with Legos.

With LE Babe teething there has been very little sleep these days and I find myself singing to myself "This is the day the Lord has made and I will be glad in it" with the purpose to remind myself to do just that. Everyone is now screaming for MOOOOOOMMM! so my quick moment of gratitude and reflection on life is done for now. Life is happening.

LE Babe @ 6 months

In honor of his six month birth celebration, LE Babe rolled over twice from his back to his tummy. Such an accomplishment! He had been teetering on the edge (and maybe even made it once?) for a couple of weeks now but now he seems to be comfortable with his new trick and enjoying it.

Science Museum

Thanks to G&G we took a trip to the Children's Museum.











Agent H played postal worker.












Ebug was WET playing with the water.











I wasn't sure we'd ever get out of the "ball room".











LE Babe saw the sights while strapped to me.

2009 Aspirations

Okay here's the list for this year . . . a little late but it really helped me last year to put this in print.

- Sew a baby sling (the sooner the better!)
- Read a biography
- Learn how to bake english muffins and tortillas
- Knit something (a woolie?)
- Complete our will
- Relisten to the Dave Ramsey series
- Finish quilting 2 quilts
- Potty train one kid (this means you Ebug!)
- Do something that makes me feel like a individual and not a mom (not that I don't love that but ya' know . . .)

Ebug turned 3!

Happy birthday my Ebug! At 3 years old you are a lovey dovey handful. Your emotions are close to the surface and your will is strong. You want to be independant but love to receive comfort and snuggle. "Allll by myyyyself" are words you frequently speak. You somehow trill and roll your words so that they sound musical. You run into our arms and declare "Oh thank you!" in response to a seemingly simple gesture of love. You call me Dora and I call you Boots. You stuff all things precious to you in the knit cap Grandma made and put it on your head to keep them safe. You want to jump as high, run as fast and I think you might be louder than your big brother. You love to cook, help, take care of LE and dare I admit to unknown audiences that you LOVE movies?!

To borrow the line "I'll love you forever, I'll like you for always, As long as I'm living my baby you'll be."

44th President and a US Puzzle

We're playing around the TV today, watching the inaugural happenings. In honor of the day I pulled out a new puzzle I had been saving for school. It's Doug and Melissa's sound puzzle of the United States. As you lay a piece down on the board it will say the state's name and capital. It's getting a lot of action.

Agent H, who doesn't like change very much, is tearful about President George W.Bush leaving office. I kinda want to cry myself.

Easy healthy food

I think I've mentioned before that I love my Supermom's Simple Guide to Healthier Eating for Beginners and Beyond book (long enough title for ya'?). The author also offers a class along the same theme. I signed up and I'm currently in the middle of the 10 week class. My goal for the class was to find ways to eat healthier . . . cheaper. It's also been motivational in that there are things I know I should be doing but I'm not. I just saw that the class is on sale over here (80% off!) for the next few days. The author has an easy don't stress-out about eating healthy approach. It's very doable. Oh, she has a video about the class on her blog if you want to find out more.

Boys defined

"Nature's answer to that false belief that there is no such thing as perpetual motion."
-Author unknown

Facebook

I'm really enjoying it!

Kaboodle

This year EH and I were racking our brains to come up with things we wanted to get each other for Christmas. EH sent me a nice E-mail list and I started one. However, those lists always seem to get lost. So our solution: Kaboodle, an online wish list registry accessible to anyone. Rather than just creating lists for EH and I it kind of exploded and now each member of the family has a wish list. Even our homeschool. The neat part about this is that you can pick things from anywhere on the web and link it up with Kaboodle. Let me know if you make one!

Homemade Christmas 2008

Christmas is usually my excuse to indulge in my love for making homemade goodies. This year I didn't manage as much as I had hoped but the chance to let a few creative juices flow felt oh so good!

For my new sweet niece - a set of felt envelopes with button closures. Laminated cards with "Happy Birthday", "Love you!", etc. can be passed around to the family or kept in their little case. Auntie P don't look too close in case one of these ends up as a birthday gift for G Love.

And here is an assortment of note packets I made for the homeschool co-op teachers.

Here are last year's homemade goodies.

What they hear

I was explaining to Ebug that I needed to be on the phone to call for a substitute for my nursery duty for homeschool co-op tomorrow. We are quite germ infested. Anyway, as I said the word "substitute" what do you think Ebug heard? SubstiTOOT. TOOT! TOOT! And so it went on and on and giggles manifested!

I'm so smart

Since this past summer Agent H has been asking "Mom, what's 100 plus 100?" "What's 5 plus 10 plus 100 plus 30?" And so on. For the first time in my life I've felt pretty math smart. I know it's easy math but the look of shear amazement on his face was great for my ego!

Now he's coming to me saying "Three plus 5 is 8 mom!" and he's figuring out different ways to add numbers to equal 10. He even said to me "Maybe that's God's special gift for me, Math!?!"

That would be great and the sooner we explore this gift the better cause I need help on the checkbook ASAP!

When learning to read

It is said that when a child is learning to read he should receive lots of verbal praise from an adult. May I add that a happy baby does wonders as well. Agent H lit up each time LE babe squealed and smiled at his reading accomplishments.

Granola recipe

I tried a new granola recipe. This one's from my Breakfast for Busy Moms by Marilyn Moll and it's a keeper! I wasn't so sure about the peanut butter and molassas but it reminds me of a kind of granola from Costco that my SIL shared with me once. So very delicious! It's good dry but is a whole new goodness in milk.

10 c Old Fashioned Oats
1 1/4 c honey
1/2 c molasses
3/4 -1 c peanut butter
1 Tbsp cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp salt
3 tsp vanilla
3 c raw chopped nuts
2 c raw sunflower seeds, optional
1 c sesame seeds, optional
*1-2 c shredded coconut, optional
* raisins and other dried fruits if desired

*Dried fruits and coconut should be combined with the toasted granola after it cools down.

Preheat the oven to 300. In a large mixing bowl, combine the oats, seeds, and nuts. Mix well.

In a saucepan, combine the honey, peanut butter, molasses, salt, cinnamon, and vanilla. Heat until all ingredients are combined. Pour the "syrup" over the dry ingredients and mix well, using hands to mix thoroughly.

Spread the mixture onto several 13x9 baking pans or jelly roll pans. Stir occasionally while baking for 30 minutes. Bake longer for a crunchier texture. When the granola has cooled add dried fruits. Store cooled granola in tightly sealed canister or canning jars.

Joined Facebook & A Date

I joined Facebook last night. I was really excited at the prospect of reconnecting with some old friends. Now I just feel lost and confused about how it all works. I had to come back here to blogland where I feel a little more solid footing.

By the way, I just got back from a date. My folks surprised us with baby-sitting all three kiddos tonight so we caught dinner and a movie. Valkyrie - intense movie! We came home to a clean kitchen, folded laundry, and egg nog pie. I know, we've got it good!

Knock knock

Ebug: "Knock knock Mama"
Me: "Who's there?"
Ebug: "Olive"
Me: "Olive who?"
Ebug" Ah love you!"

Man I love that kid!

2008 in Review

I know you're all dying to know how I did on my aspirations for this year. Okay so I guess I just want to see (in print) how I did. :)

* Read a book outloud with EH (Sadly not accomplished BUT we did listen to a couple of the CDs from All Creatures Great and Small while on a trip this last Spring - Thanks to my oldest brother for borrowing them to us!)

* Open on Etsy shop (Done! Although poorly managed over the last 6-9 months!)

* Continue praying through the Power of a Praying Parent/Wife (Done!)

* Give up toilet paper and give washable reusables a try (Um, not done. I wanted to maintain my friendship with certain people who threatened severing ties if we did this. I shall mention no names, you KNOW who you are!)

* Set up a school area in the family room for Kindergarten (Done!)

* Get my eyebrows done (Done! - thanks to Julie - who doesn't read this but thanks just the same!)

Fireplace & floor

Look what happened in the last week! A fireplace mantle and a lovely wood floor. Many heartfelt thanks to my father, FIL, and EH for their very hard labors and late nights. It was so nice to have it done in time for hosting Christmas!






















Please excuse the five year old stuffing his mouth with muffin - you can kinda see the floor there. I love it, love it, love it!

Picts are up

I posted a couple of picts of our Thanksgiving lapbooks. They aren't close ups but they'll give you the idea of what we did. Just peek at the original post here to see them.

Welcome to the family

This month (the 17th) we were thrilled to have my youngest brother and his fiancé tie the marital knot. On the 20th we feasted on a beautiful 3-tiered red velvet wedding cake and celebrated their promises to one another. Can I just say how much I adore having SILs! Auntie S is no exception!

Balancing Act

We took a few days off prior to Christmas so we still have a few things I wanted to finish up before the new year. Math is mostly the subject we need to catch up on. Yesterday I dug out the supplies and we tried our hands at building a balance scale I found instructions for at Miss Mary's Preschool Ideas. It worked pretty well although I underestimated the amount of time it would take to cut the wire hanger with the wire cutter. Agent H had a great time guessing how many pennies or building blocks, etc. it would take to equal the amount of a bar of soap.

I'll take pictures but the process to get pictures online is still clumsy so I'm not sure if they'll make it anytime soon.

Agent H's loose tooth

About a month ago Agent H commented on how his tooth felt loose. I gave it a wiggle and I wasn't so sure. Yesterday we gave it a wiggle and it definitely has some jiggle. His first loose tooth!

As he is the oldest kid I feel like we're breaking new parental ground. How do we make this special? We never played the Santa game and the same will be for the Tooth Fairy. BUT I want to do some under-the-pillow fun. Obviously this is going to involve some serious internet research! J/K :) Any suggestions?

(By the way, we do our best to tell our kids not to spoil the Santa surprise for other kids - but I never know what they will say!)

Resistance is Futile

Okay so I'm not referring to an alien species but I am talking about Facebook. My resolve to not join is weakening. I'm telling you if I get sucked in I'm not going alone, just warning you EH.

Me time

Little LE has been toting along with me to my stamp club nights. He's done great though it hasn't really been a time for me to let down and enjoy some crafting as I had hoped. Monday EH gave me a huge gift as he agreed to manage all three little fellas for the night so I could go out alone. The whole drive over to Kari's I kept looking over my shoulder to check on a baby that wasn't there. My shoulders relaxed . . . my face relaxed (well as much as I could driving on slippery/snowy roads) it was wonderful. Thank you EH for giving me some time to relax.

Unveiled

Around this time of the year I usually pull out my copy of Unafraid, Francine River's version of what being the Mother of Jesus could have been like (click here for my post about it last year). This year I'm going to back up in Jesus' lineage and read again about Tamar in the book Unveiled. Tamar's husband dies and she has to marry her brother-in-law, then he dies and she has to marry another brother-in-law, then . . . I'm not going to spoil the ending, unless you remember how it ends from the Bible. Gesh! I'm glad I wasn't a woman in those days!

Movies to love

These are my current favorite DVDs.











Persuasion is a Jane Austin story (almost surpassing my love for Pride & Prejudice), Sweet Land I bought with out even seeing it because two people who have my style nailed said I would love it (and I did!). The middle one there, Pilates for Dummies, maybe not so much my favorite but I look at it often enough with good intensions and that's about it.

Painting

We've been painting! Not myself so much even though I love to do it. EH and his dad have been hard at work trying to finish off our basement levels. Our family room and EH's office has been painted with my laundry room possibly to follow soon. I'm crossing my fingers that we might even get the mantle for the fireplace stained and varnished and the flooring installed in our family room before Christmas. I'm having difficulty deciding on the flooring. I plan to use the space for homeschool (including crafts with the kids) so I want an easily cleanable floor. I also like the idea of a greener/healthier/reknewable flooring so I'm seriously considering cork. I so wish I could just have some HGTV design team come and help make these decisions! Thank you to my neighbors, family, and friends who have been kind enough to listen to me blather on about the options and even offer input!




Don't you just want to reach out and tickle Ebug's belly? I guess I need to buy him some T-shirts that actually fit.

Honey Soup

The boys clamored for hot honey water before bed tonight. I don't usually indulge cause generally it means a midnight potty run that Agent H is sure to wake me up for. But tonight, the boys were fresh out of the tub and looking so irresistibly snugly and sweet that I in gave in. As we said our good night prayers it took me a moment to realize what it was that Ebug was thanking Jesus for . . . "honey soup".

Trying to Twitter

Does anyone know how this Twitter thing works? I signed up to do it but I really have no idea how to "do" it. How do I find the folks I want to follow? I suppose I could just check out the "Help" section but it so nice to have first hand info. Thanks!

Childhood friend

My childhood bosom friend (and still a dear friend) MT has been diagnosed with Lupus. She writes about it in her journal. Please forgive me if I've been out-of-sorts, I've been feeling a bit kitty-wampus over this and really haven't trusted myself to talk about it. She and her husband have two little darlings and she's been suffering from debilitating headaches. I'm sure she would be grateful for your prayers.