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This is nothing special, well to you anyway. I'm not a scrapbook type, or a baby book writer, or even a picture printer. I'm terrible at recording memories. This blog is my attempt at holding on to some of my life as a Christian, a wife, and a homeschooling Mom of 5. I am a country girl that lived in a big city for 14 years, and moved to the Deep South for quiet, quaint, small town living.

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Oh Ginnie....

Here is a little glimpse of life with Virginia.
And yes, this was a surprise photo we found on our camera when I was uploading the latest pictures.
She isn't exactly lady like.  
At least we were doing school at the table and not eating... 

Tell me that makes it better?

School is exciting for about 4.7 seconds for Ginnie.  She has to be strapped in to her booster seat while I teach the other two.  

Oh, don't get me wrong- she loves school.  
She just wants to teach it.  
And cut things..... anything.  

Each table game or project I give her, allows me just enough time to instruct the kids in their work and replace Ginnie's distraction educational game for another millisecond of educating the big kids.  
If I miss the swap out time frame, we are all picking up pieces on the floor.

All this trouble because it isn't on her terms.  
Troy loves to remind me that this gene comes from me.
Whatever.


What happens if I don't strap that little angel down where I know she is safe and busy?

Well, she is still busy.... just not so safe.

Bad news

I think one of our 4 precious angels broke our camera.  I *think* it is broken, but I'm pretty sure Ginnie did it.  I have some posts to write on pictures already downloaded (uploaded?  I always get confused), but I'm not sure what the blog will look like in a week or so.  Ahhhh, life.  :)

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Farewell mugs

If you know me, you know I love Polish pottery.  I have a small collection that I enjoy daily.  I use those pieces all the time with baking, serving, just showing off.....  

Well, I've decided that using my mugs just isn't working for me these days.  
Not just my Polish pottery, but any mug we own.  
I just can't find time to drink a whole cup of anything before it gets cold.  
Imagine that.

I've resorted to desperate measures.  
It isn't pretty.  
It surely isn't Polish.... 
or pottery.  
But it keeps my coffee warm for me to drink at least one whole cup before it gets room temp.  
The sacrifices we make to have small children.  
This ranks up there with the minivan in necessary ugly awkwardness.

Monday, October 25, 2010

Pumpkin Overload?

Muffins, pasta, coffee..... it is feeling like Fall.  We have tried a pumpkin pasta recipe (yum!), a homemade pumpkin spiced late recipe (extra yum!), and an old stand by favorite- pumpkin muffins!

This is an old weight watchers recipe that someone told me a long time ago (not in weight watchers though) and I love it!  Just any baking box mix and a can of pumpkin (I used half a 15 oz can per box).  I have tried lots of different mixes and flavors. and I love them all.  I have used pumpkin pie cans and regular pumpkin puree.  It all works, it just depends on if you want the added spices in your particular combo.
It took just a few mins to mix up chocolate chocolate chip muffin mix with pumpkin to make a tray of regular sized muffins and a tray of mini muffins.  Then I did the same thing with a yellow cake mix and added mini chocolate chips.  We had lots of muffins! 

Sunday, October 24, 2010

He is writing!

George has been diligent with his school work.  He has been practicing his letters over and over.  I am a little ashamed to say that I haven't been working with him as much as Livia (her workload is much bigger).  He is very content to sit quietly and work in his workbooks.  I NEVER would have thought this possible a couple of years ago.  So, when he asked me how to spell a word, as Livia does, I just assumed he was copying her.  He was actually writing his first word!  (One that isn't his name and he didn't copy the letters from me writing it first)  Go George!  

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Is this a sign I should be worrying?

I'm not sure what to think.  I'm beginning to wonder if I should worry.  Not like Ginnie doesn't make me worry about everything else.  She climbs anything, is fearless with strangers, and thinks she can do everything.  But this is more about self image.  Remember the future Facebook pic she took of herself?  

Now this.


Makeup??  


Oh dear.





PS.  I'm not really worried about her self image.  She is Two.


PPS.  She used a Sharpie.  Sigh.

Sunday, October 17, 2010

Silly Sentence Maker

We try to break up the bookwork here and there with supplemented material.  I love using hooked on phonics at this age.  That program has a lot to offer, and some super awesome sales if you are willing to stalk a little.  

This was the first time we opened the Silly Sentence Maker.  It was funny to see how each kid put theirs together.


Since Liv can read, she chose the words she wanted, either to be silly or serious.  She was very proud of her creations.  (That is her serious face, by the way)

George, on the other hand just chose random words and matched them by color for us to read to him.  This was just fun.  We could not stop giggling at his crazy sentences.

Oh course I was laughing too hard to remember to take a picture of one of his many Silly Sentences.
Sigh. 
Here is one of Liv's serious sentences.  
Well, as serious as it could get in the wild game of silly sentence maker.

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Good Times

That's my sissy and her fiance Justin.  I won't call him a sissy.  He's a manly man.  Works out doors.  Hardcore.  We like him.  I'm all about hardcore.  I gave birth naturally, if you remember.  
I love bringing that up.
Carlie likes to make time for family.  I like family time, but I'm a slacker when it comes to planning.  She is good like that.  And she will come to us- bonus!  I'll gladly cook if they do the traveling.  So we had dinner and some chillin time around the little fire pit.  It was lovely.  
 
Even Ginnie decided to sit still for 8 seconds.  A record for her. 
We roasted and chilled.  I like that combo if there has to be any chilling happening.  I'm not a cool weather type of person.  Gooey marshmallow yumminess takes the edge off.
Look at Justin.  He is shielding his goo covered face.  I'm sure it was goo covered.  I don't have a picture to prove it, because I was trying to un-stick my hands from my own goo covered face, but I'm sure it was a mess.  Sure of it.
We are trying to raise up the kids to think roasting is fun and they will want to make us perfectly-light brown-but-completely-gooey inside mallows.  
Ginnie is on to us.  Not a fan of the roast.  
She is more of an immediate gratification kid of girl anyway.  She will grab a handful of cold marshmallows and run to the swings.
George has a little more patience.  
He likes his mallow medium rare, just toasted, but still cold on the inside.
Liv is learning the art.  
She was in a cowgirl mood too.  
How did I just notice this?  
Where was my brain that night.
I do remember George with his hat.  And I can't forget Ginnie's toboggan.  
Carlie kept calling her Bebe's kid.  
Well, if you know where we live......
But the best part of the night was introducing a couple of amateurs to gourmet s'mores.  
We are just trying to spice up their soon-to-be wedded life.  

Hello S'MOREOS!  

Peanut butter s'moreos to be exact.  Justin is addicted to pb.  At least it is a cheap addiction. 
Don't judge.
Yes, I'm sure you figured it out already.  It is a pb oreo with a toasted mallow inside.  
Some kids in our church's youth group, years ago, did this and I wasn't super impressed 
(except for the name- genius, yet understated).
UNTIL I had one with the pb Oreo.  
Oh my heaven.
That special kind of chocolate cookie that is only from Oreo.
A perfectly toasted marshmallow.
The pb cream.
Sandwiched in another classic cookie.
I kept admiring it.  Like it was art.
It was yummy art.

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Classical Cursive

I love the idea of learning cursive before print.  
I just do.
With the exception of enrolling my kids in the nearest Classical school, I don't know how to teach this way.  I learned print first.  (I know I could research this more online and find some tutorials, or even buy curriculum for early cursive, but I just haven't.)

Well, we are doing attempting both.

Liv is familiarizing herself with the cursive letters, but she is much more proficient with print.

I figure this will work for us.



Rather pretty, I think.

Monday, October 11, 2010

Sir George

Most days, my kids are super shy.  So I love it when they get into character.   
Liv will do this sort of thing even less.  
It's just not her style.  
Unless the role is a puppy or kitty.
But mention a knight or a cowboy and George is all about getting in costume.
Love it!

Sunday, October 10, 2010

What a Day.

It is getting a little chilly.  I am now feeling like turning on the oven once in a while. 
I didn't realize how much I missed baking bread.
My first loaf turned out amazing.

My second batch...well.  Not so much.  I had a few complications.

The 4 loaves below are really my 3rd batch, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

The 2nd batch I put in a "safe" place for the first rise and forgot about it.  I decided to make a pie too and preheated the oven (you know, my "safe" place) to bake a pie crust.  I ended up baking my barely risen dough in the shape of a bowl.  It was edible, but not like any kind of bread I would want to serve (or photograph).
So.... then I worked up a 3rd batch to redeem myself.  Somehow, when I pulled the towel off the dough after the 2nd rise, the towel stuck to one loaf.  It got mangled.  What else do you do for bread that looked like it got smashed in a car accident?  Ummm, you paint some green food coloring on it, give it eyes and a tongue and hope this kids love their special SNAKE bread!
Except they thought it was a seahorse.  Tip your head to the right.  See?  I wish I saw that before I made it a snake, or it would have been a better seahorse.  You know, a curly tail and all.

Good bread, bad bread, seahorsey snake bread, and chocolate cream pie makes for the start of Fall baking.  Not so bad.

Thursday, October 7, 2010

So we lost a couple....

Our Frog Life Cycle lesson is not starting off super awesome.  Two [edit- now FOUR!] of our little guys died.  Apparently the mortality rate is very high, and even more so when they grow legs.  Well, we have  3 now.  Our seven dwarf names don't make much sense anymore.  Not like we could tell who was who anyway.

But we are still learning!

We made a Frog Life Cycle poster but copying out of a Children's Encyclopedia (thanks Carolyn!).

We are learning responsibility by trying to keep alive take care of animals.
We are learning that animals sometimes just die.
We are learning to take turns feeding the pollywogs.
We are learning to stop climbing on everything because when you put your weight on the desk it makes the shelf shake and the aquarium wobble and the poor little guys go nutso in their underwater earthquake scenario!

Well, I'm hoping we are learning most of those lessons.

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Boy time

There is nothing like a simple IKEA shelf assembly to teach the skill of following directions and how things fit together.
Troy really put some teaching skills into this.  He spent 30 mins on what would have been a 10 min project because he was coaching George through the instructions.  I never realized how great this could be.  There are no words, just pictures and numbers- perfect for George!
 The little man counted, followed the order of steps, screwed, hypothesized about what would happen next.  He had no idea he was learning so much!  He was just happy to build with Daddy.
 In the end, we got a shelf with 6 pull out drawers that were to go on the wall next to the girls' bunk beds.  Thanks to this whacked out house, studs weren't where they were supposed to be, plaster and slats aren't fun to deal with, the shelf didn't make it up.  

Maybe Troy will want to teach George the wonders of filling holes with plaster next!

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Baby Dedication. 2 for 1

Don't make fun.  It was pretty sweet to do two dedications at once.  Out of town family only had to make the dive once, we didn't have to get all dolled up in different outfits (of course) and commit to 2 Saturdays.  See?  Genius.
This day we dedicated Virginia and Margaret to the Lord and promised to raise them up as children of God.  Troy read a letter to each of the girls, with out Children's Pastor near by.  We really like him.  I can't tell if he likes us back or just thinks we are crazy and we get the sympathy love.
Ciacie, Uncle Justin and Grammy

Aunt Marcy, Mike, and Katie (and hiding is Stephanie!  Found you!)
Dad was the photographer.  He was able to catch the slide show with the girls' pics.
Liv is thrilled.
Church did a lovely job.  I missed most of the service because Virginia was not into it.  We chased each other in the hallway for an hour.  

The foyer was decorated with piggy banks to represent the investment the church will put into our children, just as we invest in them daily.  The Pastors even started the fund with some moolah in each bank.  

Oh, and there were cupcakes.  That might be all Virginia remembers.  That is why I blog.