Happy Birthday!

Nothing says Happy Birthday like a candle in a big bowl of apple sauce! I love you Keith! I am thankful for another year with you.

quack

Be the duck. The duck is me. I am the duck. It all rolls right off the duck.

Please pass the twizlers

Yesterday Keith presented a sermon out of Ecclesiastes. He shared how wealth and things of this world never satisfy and leave one with a sense of futility. Many were uplifted.

As a birthday gift to Keith, per his request, I got my hair cut. She took a ton off but it doesn't look much shorter. It took almost 1 hour and 45 minutes. Next time you see me, unless I haven't washed my hair, I will look exactly the same as you remember :-) My mom and I met Nanette at Sew Elegant, the woman who sewed my wedding gown and was doing our alterations for my brother's wedding. After that we went out for dinner. There are no words to describe our evening. The food was huge portions of tastelessness. Good thing we had each other's company to spice things up. We laughed so hard at my mother foibles over the years. That is a lot of laughing.

I hope you all are enjoying this gorgeous fall weather!

This and that

Yesterday was co-op day. The children loved it and I loved getting my teaching mo-jo going.

The other are very talented and I hope I can learn from them. Oh yes, I hope my kids learn too.

The bon fire at Uncle Frank's was very nice, beautiful weather and lots of smiling faces.

Tonight Nanette and I had a work night at Helen Deen's aka my mom's (where is my favorite font, strikethrough!) .My mom put on quite a spread for us. :-) We got the necklaces and hair clips done for the wedding. They are gorgeous. I want one. When I can find a camera, I will post a picture. Until then, my loyal readers will have to use their imagination to picture their boutique-y loveliness.

I hope you all have a wonderfully restful day tomorrow.

g'night!

Today we pushed and got our schoolwork done early. I ran some errands and prepped for co-op tomorrow. I will be helping with a science class and a Spanish class and teaching a physics class (don't worry, it is for 2nd and 3rd grade), an intro to Latin (for Kers) and a character/service project (with academics tied in topically) All the classes I am teaching are half the year. I am very excited about the classes the children are taking. I am also taking my 4 year old niece Julianna.

Lunches are packed, books and supplies are in the back packs, clothing is laid out and directions are printed from google.

Good night Friends!

Roger that

We had our last hurrah in the pool today. After school was completed we hit the water for a bit. Then we came in and watched the Nest version of Pocahontas while I prepared for the first day of our co-op. I love the name Pocahontas now that I know it was my Nana from Tennesse's handle when she manned the CB. I remember the old hulking black CB unit lit up on the dining room table ready for action. When Keith and I were traveling to the Cape and back last week I was driving our van with the children following him driving his mom's van with his mom. We had walkie talkies that worked until I took a gatorade from Gilli, not knowing the top was off, and splashed it everywhere, including my walkie talkie. To make a short story long, my CB name was Pocahontas (or Pokie as Keith called me). I felt like Roscoe P Coltrain using that thing.

We had a great message tonight at church about finishing our course with joy. I feel refreshed.

Apple-anche!

We had a good day today! After the bulk of our school was done we went apple picking at a local painter's house. She and her husband have acre upon acre of organically cared for fruit trees, ponds, it is lovely. They bought it a long time ago when land prices were low. The children were very helpful which is a huge encouragement to me.I titled the post apple-anche because many of the low branches were picked out and we had to shake down dome of the higher ones. We finished school work when we got home.

The few ideas I shared a few days ago are making a huge difference. Another thing I have been doing is making the child who is doing school a cup of herbal tea. I also light a candle on the table. I am finding it helps to encourage stillness and maturity.

New Ideas for School

As I was praying for ideas and solutions God answered my prayer. I am trying a few new things for our school. School is taking way too long. One of the benefits of homeschooling is free time for the children to play outside and explore their interests. I have found that one on one (or one on three) tutoring goes much quicker than in a traditional classroom. There are benefits to both models of education but I prefer home education. So, I do not want to be working on our school work at 6 pm.

1. Instead of our usual big breakfast and family devotions during breakfast I bought 50 yogurts. Each child can have his breakfast when he/she gets up. We will do our family devotions at lunch.

2. I set up lunch trays with Play dough for Ollie and Abby while I work with Christian and Gillianne. I only put out a few of the play dough toys. The downstairs is gated before school so the special activity doesn't lose it's luster by 6am. I made a pile and will read some of the readalouds to everyone. We will have a snack at a set time.

3. I bought a case of English muffins to have English muffin pizzas for lunch. Not the healthiest but easy for now. I also planned easy dinners for the next few weeks.

4. I clipped Sophie's chair to the school table so she can sit with us and doesn't get into the play dough.

The main gist of it is that everyone needs to be downstairs when school is in session. My friends Nanette came up with the concept and God helped me to flesh it out. These changes may seem minor but I hope they contribute to having a better flow to our days.

Overheard

Ollie to a shirtless Keith: "Dad, whoa, under your elbow (armpit) you have hair. You have an elbow beard"

Reason 101 to Attend Grace Bible Church (Free Medical Care)

We had a banner weekend a few weeks ago. Saturday was the Ladies Seminar. Author June Kimmel came and shared her heart with us. It was a blessing to spend time with friends and glean from Mrs. Kimmel.

Sunday Oliver received free medical care from his Sunday School teacher Mrs Smith. Hugs and Prayers are included. I also have received much free medical care including bi-daily phone calls during pregnancy where I divulged much more information than anyone wants to/should know.

Shrimp Etoufee

Ingredients:

1 pound crawfish tails or shrimp (I used shrimp!)
1 onion chopped
1 bell pepper chopped
2 stalks celery (chopped fine)
2 tbsp butter or canola oil
1 can cream of mushroom soup (reduced calorie)
1 can cream of celery soup (reduced calorie)
1 can Rotel tomatoes original or spicy
2 cans water
1/2 cup parsley
1/2 cup green onions (onion tops)
4 tbsp catsup (large dollop)
1 pod of garlic optional
black pepper - to taste

Directions:

In medium saucepan over medium heat, saute onion, bell pepper, celery and garlic (optional) until onions have wilted. Add the Rotel tomatoes and stir until tomatoes are heated.

Add the cans of cream of mushroom and cream of celery. Stir and then add enough water to dilute the mixture to form a thick gravy. Remember, your crawfish or shrimp will give off water in the final steps of the cooking. Lower the heat and cook until mixture is heated, stirring as needed to prevent scorching. Add black pepper if desired. Note that the soup provides enough salt for this dish. Easy on the salt if you do decide to use it.

Rinse the crawfish in a colander to remove the crawfish fat that they were packed in. Drain well. Add crawfish to the mixture along with the parsley and green onions. Cook no more than 10 minutes. In the last couple of minutes of cooking, add a large dollop of catsup mainly for coloring but does give a nice taste to your dish. Serve over rice.

Craft Night

Abby and Ollie also made Make It and Bake it.

Christian made a WW2 plane. Gilli made a make it and bake it butterfly.

I am sorry I haven't been posting too much lately. We have been busy with school and friends and I haven't had anything amusing to say. I feel like if I post projects I am bragging. Please know I am using this blog as a scrapbook of our life and notes from books I am reading, sermons I want to remember, inspiring quotes and projects I want to work on. I am thankful for my friends who read and enjoy.

Since Sunday isn't too restful getting 5 children ready for church, coming home and eating, resting a bit then heading back, I am trying to rest Friday evening also. Tonight we did crafts.

How excited am I?

http://ruthrawls.wordpress.com/2009/09/04/the-traveling-quilt/

I cannot breathe :-)

Charming Vinyl Sign Giveaway

I need to redo my front entry. I would like to

touch up the paint on the door and woodwork

buy a new welcome mat

prune tree new the road

possibly paint rails and pot in oil rubbed bronze

apply one of these signs

I am not sure if I want to do Welcome or our house #.

I will post pictures when I figure why it will only post the URL, not the actual picture.

Oh Keith............. ;-)