So long ago

It has been so long since I posted anything here. For my birthday in September, Chris got me an iphone. Since then, I hardly ever get on my computer. Everything is on my phone. So here is an update on my family.

Grant is almost 8. It is hard to believe he will be 8 in August. He finished 2nd grade this year and really came a long way in his reading. Reading went from his least favorite subject to his most favorite subject. He is playing baseball again this summer. He plays right field. His batting is really improving this year. Grant also loves swimming. Every time we go to the pool, he has a new trick to show me.

Katie Beth is 6. She is my little mommy. She likes to try and take care of everybody! She finished Kindergarten this year and is really doing well in all of her subjects. She can sound short vowel words out and some long vowel words. She took ballet for the first time this year. She loved it. She is our performer. She loves to go swimming too, but it is more for the social contact. Every time we go, she makes a new friend. She may not know or remember their name, but they are her friend.

Seth is 27 months. He is our comedian. He loves to make everyone laugh. He does everything he can to keep up with brother and sister. Everyday his talking is improving. The cutest thing he says is "I didit!" He is so proud when he can figure something out and do it himself. We have been working on reducing the amount of time he sucks on a Bobby (pacifier), but we have not eliminated it. That is our next step. In fact I am going to cut the tips off of them this afternoon. We have also been slowly working on the potty. He was trying to go on the potty, but now he just sits on it. I'm not pushing real hard, but we are getting used to it.

That is what we have been up to lately in our house.

One of Those Days

It has been one of those days at my house. I had such high hopes for today, but I fell flat on my face. I got the kids to bed on time last night. I laid out all of their school work, and I had all of the dishes done last night before I went to bed. Then I could not sleep. Then Katie Beth ended up in our bed. And that was the beginning of it all.

I had a day of Seth getting into make-up, marathon laundry, trying to get the kids to work, and trying to get the house cleaned up.

At the end of the day, I am minus a tube of lipstick and an eyeshadow compact. The kids finished all of their schoolwork. I did not get their read aloud read to them. Almost all of the laundry is washed and folded. The kids did not eat processed food for lunch or dinner. And the house is still a wreck!

I managed to not drink a coke in all of the chaos today. I was about to break down and have one, but I sat down to fold my mountain of laundry and I watched Dr. Oz. He talked about getting rid of sugar and syrups to lose weight. So I never fixed that coke. But I had already eaten a Reeses and I lost count of how many graham crackers I had.

New Year's Resolutions Part 2

My third resolution is to keep a strict budget. Neither Chris or I are accountant minded, therefore at the end of the month we say, "Where did our money go?" So Chris has made out a strict budget and we are going to stick to it.

As part of this we are going to save at least $400 each month. In order to do this I am going to have more meals planned, so there is no stopping on your way home to pick up dinner. This also goes with eating better. We are also switching our cable to Dish network. I am also going to open an Etsy store. I have been making beaded crosses that I am going to sell in the store along with any other crafty thing I come up with. I love to be crafty and this will give me a way to make some money on my crafts.

I have not figured out exactly how I am going to accomplish my last resolution. It is to spend more time with God. I am not a morning person, so getting up before the kids to have a quiet time is really hard. Also as soon as I get up early, Seth gets up. So I have to figure out a better time of the day to accomplish this.

This morning it hit me that I have to put all of this into action now. This is January 2nd and that means it is time to start acting on these. We have some PW Apple Cake in an Iron Skillet leftover from lunch at Chris's parents house. I started to have that for breakfast and then I remembered that now is the time to start cutting out the sugar. If I eat one bite of sugar in the morning I will crave it all day. I also woke up with a sinus headache. I want a coke so bad. It would knock this headache out, but no cokes for me today.

Well here is the recipe for the Apple cake for anyone that wants it. http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2009/09/apple-cake-in-an-iron-skillet/

Curly Girl

All of my life I have had straight hair. I mean straight as a board, nothing can curl it hair. If I use hot rollers or a curling iron, it will be straight again before I can get out the door. Back in the 80's, when perms where the thing to do, I would have to get my hair fried to get it to curl. It was bad.

When I found out I was pregnant with a girl in my second pregnancy, I selfishly prayed for her to have curly hair. I prayed for more important things for her too, but I did not want her to have the curse of flat hair. (Now I know some think curly hair is a curse too. I have a friend who has very curly hair and would love to trade me for my very straight hair.) When she was born, she had a full head of black hair. As she got older it got lighter and curlier.

When it got to the point it was very curly, I realized one problem. I had no idea how to take care of curly hair. It is so different from straight hair. My hair is soft and hardly ever gets tangled. Her hair is so coarse and get tangled when you just look at it. She also has a tender scalp, so when we comb it out we have tears and cries of pain and I get very impatient.

I have tried so many things to make it easier to brush out her hair. My hairdresser told me not to use the products that say they will get tangles out. She says they are very acidic. What has worked best for us is during her bath I comb out her hair while there is conditioner in it.

As she has gotten older her hair has become more straight. We have let it grow out long and there is just a wave to her hair now, but it still tangles so easily. And we still have so many problems combing it out.

The other night I was reading Smockity Frocks. She had a link back to an old post she had done about a book called Curly Girl and how she took care of her hair. I found it so interesting that I read all she had on it. So now we are going to try the Curly Girl way. Last night I did not use shampoo on her hair. We just rinsed it and then put conditioner on it. I then combed it with my fingers and then we did a quick rinse. I did not want to rinse out all of the conditioner, but just a little.

This morning her hair is curlier. She is complaining that it is too fluffy and will not go behind her ears, but I do think it is curlier and looks better. We will see what this does and if it makes it easier to take care of her hair. The only problem is that she got make-up for Christmas from her Aunt Sandra and she put glitter make-up in her hair. Just rinsing it in water did not get the make-up out of her hair. I wonder how long it will take to get that glitter out?

Here is the link to Smockity Frocks: http://www.smockityfrocks.com/2007/03/curly-girl.html

Out of the Mouths of Babes

We spend Christmas Eve with Chris's family. We usually eat dinner that always includes beef tenderloin, then go to church for Christmas Eve services, and then go back to Chris's parents house to open presents.

This year when we went to leave for church, Grant wanted to ride with Chris's brother and their son Jackson. So we took their daughter Caroline in our car with Katie Beth and Seth. When we got to church Caroline said, "I know why we are going to church. We are going to church to celebrate Jesus's birthday." Katie Beth answered with,"Are we going to get cake?" I had to tell her, "No there would be no cake."

What I Have Been Doing

For the past week I have been cleaning out bedrooms. I started in my daughter's room. I have been wanting to paint her room, but it was so messy that you could not walk through it. We spent one day cleaning out and organizing all of her stuff. That night when I was giving kisses and hugs, my son asked if we were going to do his room the next day. I think he was a little jealous. He usually has the cleaner room of the two.

So, the next day we spent on his room. I thought his room would be easier, but it was actually harder. He had a bunch of little things that were very hard to classify. When it was done, he was glad.

After I had finished their rooms, my room was the messiest in the house. I tried all week to work on mine, but I had one big problem. The baby. His crib is in our room. I work the best while he is asleep. Finally on Saturday the kids had a birthday party to go to. I put Seth done for his nap in the pack and play in the living room and my wonderful husband took the other two kids to the birthday party and I had uninterrupted cleaning time. I was really embarrassed by how much dog hair was on my carpet and my comforter. I had taken my comforter off of my bed to take to the dry cleaners, but my dogs had decided that it made a good bed. One of our dogs is a Chow/Golden retriever mix and she sheds so bad in the summer. After all of my cleaning I finally took my comforter to the dry cleaners today.

In other news. I finally got all of my curriculum ordered. Today Grant's reading books came in and I am really excited about them. I have switched him to Sonlight for reading, but had to order them off of ebay. It took a lot of patience for me to wait until I found all of the books together and at a price I could afford, but I think this reading will be better for him. Last year we did Abeka reading. I love Abeka, but I think he was bored with it. When I started checking books out of the library for him to read, he started reading better. I think he will do better with reading real books instead of readers.

So, my plan for curriculum this year is ABeka for phonics, language, math, and spelling. Getty Dubay for handwriting. Math- U- See for Katie Beth's math. 100 Easy Lessons for Katie Beth's reading. Sonlight reading 2 for Grant's reading. Sonlight Core K for history. Some lapbooks and experiments in a bag for science.

I am still working on putting together our Bible. Last year I used a devotion book that Grant had and their memory verses from Awanas. This year I bought a book called Polite Moments. It is more of a character training book. I think I am going to focus on a "trait" a week and find verses to go with that "trait". I will write about how this goes when I start putting it together more.

In other other news. Our upstairs air conditioner is out again. This is the third time this summer. I am trying to be thankful in all things. I am trying to look to the positive. I put Seth to bed in his pack and play and I am going to go upstairs and clean bathrooms. I usually put this off for fear of waking him. Since he is not asleep up there, I know I will not wake him.

Off to clean bathrooms!

Science Swap

I am terrible about planning science experiments. When I do get around to planning them, I then realize that I do not have all the supplies, then I forget to put the supplies on my grocery list and I never buy them. So I was really excited when one of the mom's in our homeschool group put together a science swap this summer. At the homeschool conference I went to, I bought several science experiments in a bag from a company called Holy Cow Science, but if I participated in this I could get even more science experiments already planned.

To participate in the Science Swap, you had to plan a science experiment in a bag. You were to put all the supplies you would need to perform the experiment in a gallon Ziploc bag with the directions for the experiment and make enough for everyone in the swap to have one.

Eight families participated, so we made up eight bags of an experiment called bobbing raisins. We all met at a park and the mom that coordinated the swap had eight bags setting out and we put one of our experiments in each bag.

My kids were pretty excited to have some experiments to do and I was really excited to have experiments that I did not have to plan or gather the supplies for.

Yes Ma'ma, No Ma'ma

I have had a hard time teaching my children to say Yes Ma'ma, No Ma'ma, Yes Sir, No Sir. I have corrected them and corrected them and they still do not seem to get it. I was really getting tired of correcting them and not seeing them get it.

Then one day I was reading one of my favorite blogs, http://www.smockityfrocks.com/. She had a post about using a jar of marbles to give your kids an incentive to do things. I pulled out a jar and a bag of marbles and we started.

Every time they said Yes Ma'ma, No Ma'ma, Yes Sir, No Sir they got to put a marble in the jar. When the jar was full they got to go to Marble Slab for Ice Cream. They filled that jar up pretty quick.

So, the second time around, I made it harder. This time I could take marbles out. I told them if they talked ugly to each other, if they did not obey all the way, right away, or any other thing that I thought was ugly, they would lose a marble. It took them longer to fill it up this time, but it sure is a good motivator.

Yesterday they filled it up and we let them choose their treat. They choose Snow Cones. So last night we loaded up in the car for a trip to the Snow Cone stand. They really enjoyed their snow cones. I just wish I had taken a picture of them with the snow cone juice all over their faces.

This morning I emptied the jar to start over and they already have 4 marbles.

Arkansas Baseball and The Bible

What does Arkansas Baseball and The Bible have in common? Nothing except that I wanted to do both last night.

I have been doing my Bible reading at night after the kids are in bed and when their Daddy is home to help if they have any problems. Last night Arkansas was playing in an elimination game at the College World Series. It looked like they were going to lose and then they tied it up in the 9th inning. It then went on until they finally won in the 13th inning. It was about 11 o'clock then. We had let the kids stay up to watch and they both had fallen asleep.

I am hoping to get caught up this afternoon when Seth naps. We do have a busy day though.
This morning we are going to a Science swap. Then we have swim lessons this afternoon and tonight Katie Beth has a tee ball game and I am going to hear Michelle Duggar speak. I am so excited to go hear her.

I will try to write about what I learn from her later.

God gives Strength

Yesterday our Bible lesson was about God giving us strength to do the hard things in life. The verse it was based on was Philippians 4:13 I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

When it was time to cook dinner, I had planned on grilling some chicken. The kids were in the backyard riding their bikes. When I went out to start the grill it was cold outside. They were out in shorts and t-shirts. I told them it was cold. When I went back to put the chicken on, the kids told me that God was giving them strength to stay out in the cold. I just laughed. Even if they did not fully understand the lesson, at least they were listening.

Camping

We went camping this weekend in a cabin! It was a lot of fun. Several families that we are friends with went. It was at MarVal. I had never been there before, but they have camp site and cabins. Several families have campers and they brought those. One family camped in a tent, but with a baby I think the cabin was the best way to go for us.

MarVal was a really neat campground. It was a private campground with a big playground in the middle. They also have a swimming pool and a miniature golf course. For fall they had a hayride. On the hayride you got to plant your magic pumpkin seed and then come back and pick your pumpkin. After you picked your pumpkin you then get to paint it. My kids thought that was great. They do not get to paint very often. While we were waiting to go on the hayride we got two icees to share. Can you tell what color the kids icees were?

Saturday night they go Trick or Treating to all the camp sites. My kids were excited to go Trick or Treating early. Number 1 kept running ahead. He was so excited to get candy. He even left his friend behind.

They also have these tricycles that are very low to the ground and have hand brakes and steering. Number 1 son loved those. Princesses legs were not quite long enough for them.

On Sunday morning we had a mini church service. One of the older boys played his guitar while we sang and then one of the dads gave a short devotional.

It was a great time. My kids did not want to leave!

Russell (Chris's brother) dog sat and house sat for us. I think our dogs probably want us to go out of town more often. Russell fed them a steak!

Busy Days

It has been very busy around here. We started school this week and so far both kids are excited about their new school work. Princess loves getting to do her own schoolwork and Number 1's work is just a review right now. His work is so easy for him that I am having him do more than one page in his books.

We also had a garage sale this weekend. We got rid of quite a bit of stuff, but we still have quite a bit more to go. My Mother in Law said she is going to have a sale later this month. She told us to box everything up and put it in her sale. I am thinking about just taking it to Goodwill. Some of this stuff has been around for three sales now.

This next week is the kids consignment sale in our city. I have been busy getting clothes ready to sell there. I also will have a busy week this next week with that. If you volunteer to work at it, then you get to shop first. So I will be working Tuesday night and then shopping on Wednesday. I love to buy my kids clothes there. I can buy all of their clothes for the season and get name brand clothes for a lot less.

We also have a field trip with our homeschool group on Tuesday. We are going to visit a canning plant. They can pickled watermelon rinds. I have never had a pickled watermelon rind. It is not something I think I want to try. I have been told that they give away the fruit part of the watermelon for free. My kids will be trying to load up the car with watermelon. I will try and get some pictures of that!