the art of being mama

Croup, Crochet & Titus 2

2012-03-02T14:12:00.000-06:00

Things have been quiet here on the blog over the past week....but only because things have been busy at home. I have so much in my heart to say...so many posts written in my head....but very little time to write, right now. So I'm giving you the condensed version today. :)

~ frosty, snowy sparkles in the golden sunshine....an early-morning surprise ~

{psalm 57}

"Be exalted, O God, above the heavens; let Your glory be over all the earth...
My heart is steadfast, O God; my heart is steadfast; I will sing and make music...
Awake, my soul! Awake, harp and lyre!

I will awaken the dawn.

~ morning tea and a few minutes of sketching...my next page of Jesus Tree ornaments is almost ready for posting ~

We all came down with the flu last week....especially poor little Peanut, who had it worst of all. He woke up early in the morning with just about the worst case of croup we've seen, yet. I heard the first few coughs right away and was able to calm him....no tears or crying. Thankfully, we had such crisp, cold morning air....a few hours of alternating between a steamy bathroom and the cool outdoors got him through the worst of it. I try to use home and herbal remedies whenever possible, but this is one sickness which makes me so. very. thankful. for modern medicine. By the next day, Peanut - and therefore, the rest of us! - were all breathing much easier.

~ still having fun watching & taking pics of our feathery friends ~

~ D-Week is under way....hopefully I'll be posting more about that, soon! ~

I'm ever-thankful for this hard-working husband of mine, who sacrifices so much to provide for us. And yet, after his long days, he still comes home with a big smile - and ready to pour his heart into his family.

Rose finished her scarf! This little girl is crocheting circles around me. I had to hurry up and finish mine, too - before she gets too far ahead for me to catch up ;) She's moved on to her next project already - a pretty turquoise hat. After the long scarf-project she's pretty excited at how quickly this one is coming together!

There's only two projects left to go.....and then we'll be picking up our knitting needles next. Truth to tell, if it weren't for Rose's enthusiasm, this Mama would never have been brave enough to try either of these skills! BUT. I am hooked. :)

I made the decision to put my own crafty projects and ideas on the back-burner for awhile....to make time to pursue Rose's interests with her, instead. And in so doing, I've found that my own horizons have been expanded. Maybe it's because of the treasured moments, spent with my daughter, that these skills are suddenly so special to me.

I started re-reading a book/bible study from my younger days. It was ten years ago, this very month, when I read Elizabeth George's book, Woman After God's Own Heart for the first time! The study booklet still has all of my old answers in it....it's interesting, to say the least, to look back and see what I was struggling with and thinking about, at the time. It's nothing short of beautiful, to realize how much the wisdom and teachings from these pages have shaped my life - and my home and family - over the years. And yet, here I am, ten years later... embracing a new season of motherhood ... already having learned so much... and still having so much still to learn. And all over again, the words in this book are full of help and hope to me.

I'll leave you with a quote from Elizabeth, something I've been pondering these past couple weeks....regarding the women of Titus 2:4 and Proverbs 31. You may have noticed I faintly slipped the Titus verse into my header-graphic. It's just there as a little reminder to myself, about what the true "art" of a Mama really is....and what I want to always remember to pursue above all else. :)

"Prov 31 : She watches over the ways of her household... I learned that, as it is used here, "to watch," means "to hedge about" as with thorns, much like a mother bird or animal might do to protect her young. The verb expresses the active guarding, protecting, saving, and attending to something precious. This kind of watching involves observation and preservation. A woman who watches over the ways of her household is a woman who watches over her precious home....I am on assignment from God to watch over my home and the people in it." {page 144}

Have a blessed weekend!

A Children's Easter Bible Study :: Update & Printables

2012-02-24T12:50:00.000-06:00

Last year, I put together this little Bible study of the life of Jesus, for my family to use during the weeks leading up to Easter. We enjoyed it very much, and it's something I'd like to continue with my children through the years! An Easter tradition.

It's a very simple study, inspired by the lovely "Jesus Tree" devotions you can find online or put together from a kit. Each day we read one story from Jesus' life - walking with Him, hearing His words and learning from Him. Right on up through the events of His final week on earth....His death, and His resurrection - while at the same time, we are observing these events in our own lives, on Good Friday and Easter Sunday. (I explained more about the study in my original post!)

This year, I've made a few changes in the readings, tailoring them to fit my family....and so it is just different enough, that I hesitate anymore to call this study a true "Jesus Tree." But it is very close.

The main difference is in the number of readings. Instead of beginning the study on Ash Wednesday (since my family doesn't observe that day), I've chosen to start the readings on the "Sixth Sunday" before Easter (also the First Sunday in Lent). I've updated the reading-list to reflect this change, and I think this new one should be much easier to follow (last years' list was a bit complicated!).

The new ornaments are hand-drawn....and have been prayerfully created with the hope that they might inspire my children's hearts and minds, as we ponder together the beautiful life of our Savior. I hope they might be a blessing to you, too :)

For the actual tree, last year we made a simple paper banner using kraft-type paper and pretty wrapping paper. Then we glued our ornaments onto the tree as we read through the stories. It worked out very well...and we may end up making another paper tree as we go along this year! But since we still have our twig-tree assembled from our Christmas Countdown Tree (and our Thankful Tree before that...), we're going to get started using this instead:

An old pickle jar, a few twigs from the backyard, a scrap of white cloth for the bow, and our collection of pinecones (some were collected from outside, and some came from old Christmas decor - the ones with the white "snow" on them). I love the simplicity of these twig-arrangements, but I'm not sure if it will be big enough for forty ornaments in the end. Which is why we may end up switching to a paper tree. :)

Here are the links to the new reading list and the first three pages of printable ornaments. I'm still preparing the final ornaments, and will be posting them over the course of the next week or two. Which is almost a promise.... Of course, in the event that something major should come up which prevents me from posting in time, I can promise that last year's printables will still work with the new list. The old pictures just won't match the new ones in style. :)

I'll also be adding a new button in my sidebar or a tab, sometime soon, to make it easier for you to find everything.

Click here for the Reading List.

Ornaments for Days 1-6
.................................

Ornaments for Days 7-12
...................................

Ornaments for Days 13-18
.....................................

Enjoy and have a blessed Lent and Easter season!

Linking up:
Women Living Well
Raising Homemakers
Growing Home
Time Warp Wife

A little backyard bird count

2012-02-23T18:27:00.000-06:00

We filled our feeders and waited.....

and waited....

At first it seemed we wouldn't have any birds to count this year. For three days, there wasn't a feather to be seen.

But on the very last day, our faithful little friends were back to visit!

And very kindly let us count them.

And take a few pictures. :)

Even with my two littlest bird-watchers nearby, who haven't quite mastered the art of whispering just yet. And one enthusiastic Peanut, who can't help but clap and cheer whenever he sees a "tweet!" on the feeder by the window. :)

They weren't many, but they were our favorites. Four chickadees. A pair of cardinals. Six goldfinches.

And even a surprise guest we rarely get to see around our house....

... one nuthatch.

We also unofficially heard a few robins chirping off in the distance. They weren't seen, so they couldn't be counted. But we're counting them for our own little nature observations - I can't remember the last time I heard robins here in February! Spring must be coming soon...

This was our first year to participate in the Great Backyard Bird Count. And let me tell you, it was wonderful to take a small part in a study like this! And not just for this nature-loving Mama, but for my scientific General right on down through my littlest as well.

If you've never visited their website, you should pop over and take a peek as the tallies come in! You can even search by your zip code to see what's been counted so far.

We're marking our calendars for 2013!

Preparing for Easter ~ Our Jesus Tree

2012-02-21T14:37:00.000-06:00

Outside my window, everything is cold and white as fluffy snowflakes slowly settle on the ground. It sure doesn't look like Spring is in any hurry to arrive, yet I know it's only a matter of a few weeks before things will begin to look green and colorful again!

Which means that Easter will be here before long, too.

This Sunday marks the first Sunday of Lent, my favorite season of the Christian year. In the same way that Advent comes before Christmas, as a season to prepare our hearts for the birth of our Savior....so also, the season of Lent prepares our hearts and minds for the celebration of Easter. Which is, to my way of thinking, the most special and beautiful of all the holidays!

(I wrote a little more about Lent and what it means to our family in this post last year....if you're curious!)

So, beginning this Sunday, my family will be keeping the season with a few simple activities to help focus our hearts and minds on Jesus, and on the beautiful sacrifice He was, for us, at Calvary.

And, of course, I'll be sharing them here in case anyone else might be looking for some ideas, too :)

The first - and my favorite - Lenten activity is the Jesus Tree Bible Study, which we began using last year. If you remember our Jesse Tree from Advent, this devotion is very much along the same lines! During each day of Lent, we read a story from the book of John - studying Jesus' life and ministry on earth. And then an ornament is hung on our "Jesus Tree" symbolizing each story.

There are many beautiful kits you can buy to make a Jesus Tree, but last year I ended up putting together (at the last minute!) some very simple pictures for my children to color (using the free coloring pages you can find online). That worked out pretty well, so we will continue using our homemade version again this year. I have also been working on drawing a new set of ornaments, which I was hoping to have ready by now to share with you.....but they are still a work-in-progress :) If I can get them printer-ready before the weekend, I will post them.

My printables from last year are posted here.

Does your family observe Lent, or have any other ways of preparing for Easter? I'd love to hear what you have planned!

Blessings,

Pretty, Happy, Funny, Real ~ Valentine's Day

2012-02-15T21:33:00.000-06:00

Capturing the context of contentment in daily life.

~ pretty ~

...twelve beautiful roses from my Valentine, my one true love, my sweet and thoughtful husband!...

~ happy ~

A ~~not-so-healthy~~ fun surprise Valentine lunch for my children - which made them pretty happy! On the menu...heart-shaped pbj's, yogurt mixed with raspberry preserves & sprinkles on top, carrots in heart-shaped muffin cups (the sides are pinched into a heart ;), and hot-dog hearts (I saw the idea for those here.)

A special treat of cranberry-apple juice with cute heart-straws, a fun Valentine gift from Aunty Karen that my kids have really been enjoying! (Thank you!!)

And sweet pink cupcakes for dessert :)

~ funny ~

Once again, my silly Peanut stole the show with his antics at the table! We usually don't allow him to carry on this way during mealtimes (really!)....but then again, he doesn't often get to sit right at the table, in reach of all the food! He was having so much fun amusing his siblings and his Mama that I decided to snap a few pictures instead...and besides, it was a special Valentines lunch :)

So what does a silly Peanut do with a napkin? (Remember, he doesn't usually get to have one of these!) Well, first he examines its texture by seeing if it will tear....and then he blows his nose, of course! Notice, too, all the hotdogs on his plate - he quietly helped himself while the rest of us had our eyes closed during the prayer & I think he would've taken the whole platter if I'd let him!

Carrots dipped in raspberry-yogurt delight...yum?!

~ real ~

A compassionate big brother cheered up a sad Little Monkey, later on in the day (when LM was a little over-tired from too much sugar and a missed nap!) by sharing his cookie. This fast-growing boy of mine sure knows how to melt his Mama's heart!

To read more posts of contentment - or to write one of your own! - be sure to visit Like Mother Like Daughter.

Valentine's Mailboxes

2012-02-15T14:18:00.000-06:00

This Friday, our homeschool group is having a Valentine's party - something that both my children and I are looking forward to very much! Yesterday afternoon I counted up the rsvp's, to let all of our Mama's know how many cards their children will need to prepare...and so far, we're expecting 46 kids at the party! It's pretty exciting to see our little group growing so - we first began (last year) with four families (including mine) and sixteen children, altogether. It's been wonderful to meet so many homeschooling families - both for my kiddos and for this Mama :)

I saw these sweet homemade Valentine's boxes over at Shower of Roses...and thought this would be a neat little craft to do with my children before Friday's party (each child needs to bring a mailbox or something to collect their cards). I just love how they are made from simple things we all have on hand - just cereal boxes and decorative paper! And they were easy to put together; older kids could probably even do them on their own.

Jessica has created a lovely tutorial for these, so if you're interested in making these boxes - be sure to visit her blog to see her instructions! Her mailboxes turned out beautifully, and are sturdy enough use again year after year.

We didn't have any mod podge or hot glue on hand, so ours are a little different (and not so sturdy.... they'll probably only last for this year)...and I also made our box flaps a little differently, too. Since a few Mama's have asked about how we made them, here's a few pics of our variation on the craft.

~ Materials ~

A cereal box, some decorative paper, glue & scissors....and anything else you might like to embellish your mailbox. I ended up having my children pick out some scrapbook paper for each of their mailboxes (just a note here - the thinner paper was much easier to work with than the card-stock weight variety!). But I was also thinking that wrapping paper would work great too. Or (especially for my boys) maybe to use newsprint, and then glue on some red hearts cut out of construction paper....very cute!

~ Preparing the Box ~

First I cut off all of the top flaps. Then I cut off the the back of the box (the side facing up, in the picture), about halfway down. At that point the box looked like it was just missing half of one side. Next I cut across the short-sides (at the same point, about halfway down the box), leaving them attached to the remaining side. Lastly, I cut squares into the top corners so when you fold it all over, it will form a lid. (I am not explaining this very well, LOL! It really is much simpler than I'm making it sound....)

Fold the top of the flap over like this.... and when you stand your box up you'll see how it all makes a lid. :)

We just used tape to hold the corners together...

On my first box, I forgot to leave the side flaps in place (I cut them off altogether) and it ended up making a flap that looks like this (below). Very simple, and still cute. See, you can't go wrong! ;)

Once the boxes were ready, we just trimmed and glued the paper to the sides. I used a LOT of glue (Elmer's), almost like decoupaging, especially around the edges and corners of the paper. (I added a thick layer of glue all around the edges & over the top of the paper, to seal the edges down.)

I loved how the original boxes at Shower of Roses had cute bows and ribbon decorations, so I gave it a try with the Elmer's glue (instead of hot glue). It worked fine for the ribbon, but I think I will have to use hot-glue (or try Tacky glue) for the bows, since they keep popping off :)

The flap on Peanut's box didn't want to stay closed on its own, so I sewed a button onto the front to hold the flap down. Rose let us borrow a piece of her yarn to make the loop (thank you!). I attached the yarn underneath the flap with tape, then covered it all with paper.

~ Our Finished Boxes ~

...for Little Monkey and Rose...

...for General and Peanut...

Now we just need to get busy making some more Valentine cards, lol! ;)

I have many sweet pics to post from our Valentine's Day, and also from our little party this morning with all of the cousins....hopefully I'll be able to post them soon!

In the meantime, have a beautiful Wednesday!

Blessings,

Valentine's Day Book Basket

2012-02-13T10:12:00.001-06:00

Things are going to be busy this week, as we're getting ready to celebrate Valentine's Day with three parties this year! Tomorrow we'll have a love-ly :) day at home, celebrating as a family....then on Wednesday, we invited the cousins over for a fun little party. Except for General and Rose, all of the children are pre-school aged and younger - and they're just getting old enough to plan fun little get-togethers like this! It's always so cute to watch them.....and with five energetic little boys between the ages of 20 months & barely 4 years, it's always a hoot! Lastly, on Friday, our homeschool group will be having our first-ever Valentine's Party (very exciting!), which I'll be planning the snacks and crafts for. :0) So things will be busy, yes....but a lot of fun, too!

One thing I really want to do this year, is to work on building up our little library of picture books - especially to go along with celebrating the holidays. Right now, we don't have any books at all for Valentine's Day....and since I still have some Amazon gift cards to put to good use...over the weekend I did a little research and ordered a few titles. (I absolutely LOVE Amazon Prime....the free 2-day shipping has come in handy WAY more often than I care to admit, lol!) Thankfully, three of the four books I liked were available to ship right away - and are due to arrive tomorrow! (The fourth will be here on Wednesday.) I think my kiddos are going be surprised and excited to have a package show up just for them on Valentine's Day ;)

Here's what I ordered....I haven't read them before, but they were highly recommended - and they all look great from the reviews I read.

And now I'm off to get started on some cleaning and Valentine's baking....I'm hoping (if all goes well!) to be back later with a few of our crafts and ideas for the week. In the meantime, I've pinned them (and lots more, lol!) on my Valentine's Day board - if you're looking for any last minute ideas :)

Have a Love-ly morning!

Celebrating St. Valentine's Day ~ A True Love Story

2012-02-13T08:50:00.001-06:00

I just love learning the history behind holidays! I find it amazingly beautiful to discover that so many of the "special days" we see on our calendars are actually celebrations that began in the early days of the Church. Celebrations that were designed to honor Christ - either directly (as with Christmas and Easter) or indirectly, through the well-lived lives of faithful Christians.

Did you know Valentine's Day is one such holiday? I sure didn't, until last year when I began to read up on its history a little bit. Here's what I found....

This little holiday might be one of the most ancient of Christian feast days! It was first established, by the Church, in the year 496. In those times, the Roman government was severely persecuting Christians, forbidding them to practice their Faith, and many, many were martyred. Valentinus must have been a popular name back then, because there were several early Christian martyrs by that name....and February 14 was the day chosen to remember their courage and faithfulness!

According to Wikipedia...

Historical facts

Numerous early Christian martyrs were named Valentine.^[5] The Valentines honored on February 14 are Valentine of Rome (Valentinus presb. m. Romae) and Valentine of Terni (Valentinus ep. Interamnensis m. Romae).^[6] Valentine of Rome^[7] was a priest in Rome who was martyred about AD 269 and was buried on the Via Flaminia. His relics are at the Church of Saint Praxed in Rome,^[8] and at Whitefriar Street Carmelite Church in Dublin, Ireland.

Valentine of Terni^[9] became bishop of Interamna (modern Terni) about AD 197 and is said to have been martyred during the persecution under Emperor Aurelian. He is also buried on the Via Flaminia, but in a different location than Valentine of Rome. His relics are at the Basilica of Saint Valentine in Terni (Basilica di San Valentino).^[10]

The Catholic Encyclopedia also speaks of a third saint named Valentine who was mentioned in early martyrologies under date of February 14. He was martyred in Africa with a number of companions, but nothing more is known about him.^[11]

No romantic elements are present in the original early medieval biographies of either of these martyrs.

A couple other interesting articles ::

St. Valentine's Day - A Celebration of Heroic Love
"St. Valentine" by Catholic Online

Unfortunately, very few details have been preserved about the lives of the real Valentines - except for their unwavering faithfulness to Jesus and their fellow Christians, even to the point of death.

But really, isn't that THE ultimate story of true love?

"Greater love hath no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends." (John 15 : 13)

"Hereby perceive we the love of God, because He laid down His life for us : and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren." (1 John 3 : 16)

It is Jesus' own story of love, being re-told through the lives of men whose footsteps fully followed in His own.

"Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you."
(Matthew 5 : 10 - 12)

This year, Valentine's Day has an extra-special meaning for me and my family...as we remember, first of all, God's endlessly merciful Love for us... And the overflowing Love He has graciously placed into each of our hearts - so that we can truly have and show Love for each other... And His amazing gift of Love that brings life and beauty into my marriage and my family.

But this year, we will remember, too, the living, passionate Love of so many faithful believers who have gone before us, whose very lives (and deaths!) testify - and are a witness - to the saving Truth of the Gospel of Jesus. They gave up everything out of Love for Him! May we be inspired to live our lives in light of their example to us....giving up all for Jesus' sake - and loving Him with all our hearts, minds and souls - as He so dearly deserves!

Have a Love-ly Monday! :)

Alphabet Time :: C is for Cats, Cupcakes and Creation

2012-02-10T11:41:00.003-06:00

We have finally Completed our unit study of the letter "C," and I'm chuckling to myself a little bit this morning as I realize we spent almost three weeks on this letter! So I am officially NOT going to refer to these little units as our "letter of the week" as I did in the beginning :) I think at this rate, we will be working on these units well into next school year....but we're enjoying ~~doing all the activities I can possibly find~~ taking things slowly! And since Little Monkey is still 3, we have plenty of preschool time ahead of us, yet :)

For all my readers who have been following along, a lot of the material in this post is the same projects and crafts I've been posting about recently. I think it will be helpful to have all of my notes and activities in one place, for future reference....and so I've decided to keep up with these long posts! Hope you don't mind! ;)

We had a lot of fun with the letter C.....here's what we did:

.:: Language Arts ::.

~ Letter C Books ~

:: other "C" book ideas ::

Kitten's First Full Moon
The Little Auto (cars)
Cat in the Hat
The Hungry Catapillar
Calico & the Wonder Horse
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom
The Tailor of Gloucester (cats)

~ Letter Study ~

C tracing worksheet from First-School Preschool Activites
C coloring page from Homeschool Creations

(thank you!!)

I was excited to find this playdough-letter printable over at Homeschool Creations. It worked out perfectly for LM's lesson, and I'll definitely be including these in the rest of our units!

.:: Bible ::.

C is for Creation!

Several years ago, I made creation books with General and Rose (when they were in 2nd grade and pre-K!), and it turned out to be one of my favorite keepsakes from their early schooldays. So I thought this would be the perfect time to make one for Little Monkey, too!

We used an old file-folder as the base for each of the pages...and I tied the book together using a thick piece of twine and some beads for decoration.

~ Day 1 ~

~ Day 2 ~

I had LM use watercolors to paint his sky, then he glued on a few paper clouds after it dried.

~ Day 3 ~

For the sky, we used some finger-painted paper leftover from LM's alligator craft. The land is made from a paper grocery-bag, which I had LM crinkle up before gluing.

~ Day 4 ~

LM loved making this page! Especially the rays for the sun - he insisted on gluing down each piece and then wanted to trim the sides all by himself :) We used a piece of foil to make the moon.

~ Day 5 ~

Originally, I planned on using old magazines to have LM cut out pictures of birds for this page....but we had the hardest time finding any bird-pics at all! Poor LM was getting a little worried about being able to finish his page, until finally I realized it would be very simple to just copy and cut out a few pages from our bird field guide. I chose some of our local species - and the lesson turned out to be a nice little nature study, too :)

~ Day 6 ~

~ Day 7 ~

This is my favorite page :) I asked LM what should be in our picture of God resting....and he had some very specific ideas! LM thought we should make a special bedroom, just for Him....complete with a bed, a Bear With Ribbons (LM's name for his teddy-bear), a dresser for His clothes (lol!), and a clock. And His bed would really need a big pillow and a big blanket. So we made a special bedroom just for God :)

.:: C is for Cats ::.

Coloring page from First-School Preschool Activities and Crafts

We made a Calico Cat Paper Craft - another cute magnet for my fridge :) I posted instructions for this craft here.

After reading If You Give a Cat a Cupcake, I thought it would be fun to make some Cat Cupcakes of our own! I pinned the idea for these adorable cupcakes a few weeks ago, and have been searching everywhere for large nonpareil candies to use for the cheeks ever since. We ended up using a box of Mini Snowcaps instead, which still turned out pretty cute, I think :) We had so much fun making these!! (And eating them, lol!...)

.:: Letter C Recipes ::.

Cut-out Cookies in the shape of Cars, Cats and the Letter C! (I posted more pics here.)

Little Monkey also made a treat of Chocolate-Dipped Cherry Candies (I posted about these here), yum!

.:: Letter C Workbox Activity ::.

During this unit, I put together our first workbox - a simple Counting and number-recognition activity. (Posted here, including instructions). It turned out to be very helpful and a lot of fun to use, for both Little Monkey and me :) I'm hoping to include more workbox activities as we move along through these units.

.:: Other C-Week Fun ::.

Castles!

This Castle set was a gift to LM for Christmas this year - and it has quickly become the new favorite toy for just about everyone (including Daddy and General!). I put it away for a couple weeks (I try to rotate our sets of toys, so everything isn't out at the same time) and all the kiddos were excited when I brought it out again, in time for this unit!

:: A few other ideas on the list, that we didn't have time for ::
(We'll save these for next time around!)

Cowboys
Crazy 8's
Hi Ho Cherry-O

We'll be taking a short break from Alphabet Time, since we have lots going on next week for Valentine's Day. But I quite a few ideas lined up for our letter D....and I really can't wait to get started! If I have time over weekend, I'm hoping to add these to my Preschool Pinboard.

Have a great weekend!

Linking Up!

Calico Cat Paper Craft

2012-02-10T10:47:00.000-06:00

For our Alphabet Time "C" Week craft, we made a paper Calico Cat....a cute craft with lots of cutting and gluing practice for Little Monkey!

I found the original idea over at this blog.

Here's what we did:

First, I cut out a rectangular piece of heavier-weight paper, about 5x7." Cardstock or cardboard would work well....I had an old file-folder on hand, so I just used that.

Next I had Little Monkey start cutting out little pieces of patterned paper (I helped him finish :). We mostly used scrapbook-paper scraps leftover from other projects...but wrapping paper, plain construction paper, or even real fabric scraps are other ideas.

Then he randomly glued paper pieces all over the rectangle-base, overlapping them a little bit.

I drew a template of the cat-shape, and traced it onto the back of his base-paper (for my records - as well as for anyone who might not want to free-hand a cat shape! - I made a copy of my template which you can print out here.)

Then he cut out the cat...

Finally, we added some eyes...(we used googley eyes, but black paper circles would have worked well, too!).....and a stick-on magnet to the back.

So now I have an alligator and a cat magnet for my fridge...I think I may end up with quite a collection of cute fridge decor by the time we're finished with these preschool units!

Preschool Workbox :: Counting Activity

2012-02-07T07:18:00.000-06:00

Last summer, as I was looking for preschool ideas on the web (blogs, mostly :), I came across the idea for using workboxes as a way to organize your preschool/early-ed's schoolwork. (This is not a new idea, I know! Just new to me :0) I love how this system is designed to help young students be a little more independent during the schoolday... and hopefully keep them busy with educational or creative activities while Mom is busy with older siblings.

Ever since, I've been collecting ideas to set up some workboxes for Little Monkey - and even Peanut (who is just now growing into the stage where he can do something like that...). BUT I always seem to run out of time, and just haven't gotten around to putting them together. So, I've decided to try to include one workbox with each of our Alphabet units (since I'm planning and gathering materials for our lessons, anyway!) and slowly start building up a preschool workbox collection in this way.

This week, since we are finishing up our "C" unit, our first workbox is a simple Counting activity. I've seen this one in many different places (blogs and other workbox websites)...but most recently, I found it in a very helpful book that I want to mention here, in case anyone else might be looking for toddler/preschool activities - Slow and Steady, Get Me Ready by June Oberlander. I am pretty sure this book has been referenced by Ruth Beechick (but don't quote me, lol! ;) ...at least, it reminds me a lot of her style of teaching. It's a wonderful resource of activities to do with your preschoolers, beginning at birth through age five. I know I'll be gleaning many ideas for our preschool (and workboxes) from this source!

.:: Counting Activity & Number Recognition Workbox ::.

Materials Needed
egg carton or muffin tin
paper
contact paper (optional)
counters (beans, beads, buttons, etc.)

Cut circles of construction paper to fit the bottom of a muffin tin (or egg carton, if you're using one). Label each paper with the numbers 1 through 12. These can be covered in contact paper (or laminated) for durability.

(Just one little note, here....you can see in the pic that I put little decorative dots on my numbers. My intention was just to make them cute & fun for LM, but it completely confused him! He wanted to count the dots on each number to determine how many beads should go in the cup...and I ended up making new number cards altogether. So I recommend using plain writing for this activity :0)

We used wooden beads for our counters, although buttons or dried beans would work great, too!

The object is to have your child place as many counters in each cup as needed, to match the number. This week, LM and I will continue doing this activity together, until I know he understands it all well enough to work alone.

I wasn't sure if he would like this or not, but he ended up working on it for quite awhile and really seems to enjoy it!

Finished Activity:

For now, I am storing all of the workbox's materials in a labeled ziplock bag. As our collection grows, I'm planning to keep all of the bags stored in an out-of-reach place, and only bring out the chosen activities for each day. We'll see how it goes! ;)

Blessings,

Easy Valentine's Treat :: Chocolate-Dipped Cherries

2012-02-06T09:23:00.000-06:00

This simple recipe is easy for little hands to make, from start-to-finish! Little Monkey made a batch of these for his Alphabet "C" Week...and now we can't wait for Valentines' Day, to make a few more!

There's only two ingredients needed:

We used the candied cherries to match our "c" week theme (which were delicious!)...but I think we'll use fresh fruit for Valentine's Day, especially strawberries yum!

Step one :: Melt the chocolate in the microwave and stir until smooth.

(Very easy.)

Step two :: Dip your fruit.

(Also very easy!)

Step 3 :: Place on a cookie sheet lined with waxed paper, then put it all in the fridge (or freezer) to set the chocolate. (If frozen, just let them thaw for ten minutes or so before serving.)

And that's it!

Hope you are all having a lovely start to your weeks! We have a lot going on over here this morning, but I'm hoping to be back again later with some pics and notes from our "C" week....and maybe an upcycled-no-sew-scarf post I've been working on for awhile. :)

Meanwhile I'm off to make a dent in a mountain of laundry that taken over my house....

Have a Blessed Monday!

Pretty, Happy, Funny, Real :: Baking Cookies

2012-02-02T07:55:00.002-06:00

~ capturing the context of contentment in everyday life ~

This week we've been working on our preschool unit study of the letter "C".... and for our kitchen project, we made Cutout Cookies, using Cookie Cutters in the shape of a Car, Cat and of course the letter "C." :)

{pretty}

A pretty pan of cookies, ready to go in the oven....all cut out and sprinkled by two sets of very cute, very little hands!

{happy}

I don't think there are many things that can make two little boys any happier than baking yummy cookies!

Peanut hadn't gone down for his nap, yet, when we started baking. So of course he wanted to help out, too....oh, the joy! He heard me say to Little Monkey, "Okay, and NOW it's time to make some cookies...." and he had already climbed up onto the counter before I even brought the supplies out. You can see the little smile on his face....before we began, he waited (on the counter, lol!) so patiently - I wish I had been able to capture his excitement with my camera, it was so sweet!

Normally I wait until Peanut is napping before working on any projects with the older three, because I figure he's still too small to help out....BUT. He surprised me in the way that he was able to handle the cookie cutters and even plop the cookies onto the sheet. And, the amount of JOY written all over this little guy's face, as he helped out with the cookies, melted this Mama's heart!

Two sets of very happy little hands.

{funny}

A flour-covered Peanut got some laughs out of his siblings by holding the cookie cutter in his teeth like a doggie (LM is off to the side making barking noises....) The older two were telling him to "drop it" (yes, like they say to Duke....lol...) and of course, Peanut wouldn't let go. :)

{real}

By the time we were done, we had made a real mess! :-) (It's too hard to tell from this picture - I should've taken one of my floor!!) We also all had a really good time and made some really special memories. :)

To read more moments of contentment - or to share your own! - visit Like Mother Like Daughter ::

Blessings,

Crochet Update :: A Mother-Daughter Yarn Along

2012-02-01T10:06:00.000-06:00

A few weeks ago I posted about Rose's new Crochet Tutorial DVD....that we've both been enjoying very much ;) After Rose completed her potholder project, we both learned the next stitch in the process (double-crochet) and have been having a lot of fun working on some pretty scarves. Both are about three-quarters of the way finished...and I'm really hoping for some cold winter-y weather so we can try them out soon!

I bought this pretty blue-and-green yarn for Rose, not realizing its texture would be difficult to work with....so she has graciously let me use it for my scarf. ;) I had a hard time working with it, too....I'm pretty sure our hooks must be too small for this variety. SO, I found only large hook we had in the house (which is really thick!) and decided to just experiment and see how it all turned out! As you can see, it's making a very loose/chunky design...but I like it. I'm thinking it will make a nice scarf/shawl, very snuggly and warm.

I haven't had very much time for books lately, so my reading this week has been very practical. I'm still working through The Imitation of Christ, which is quickly becoming one of my all-time favorites....and I will probably end up keeping this one on my nightstand permanently! Also, I've been re-reading Larry Burkett's Complete Financial Guide for Young Couples. My hubby & I attended one of Burkett's seminars (at my church) before we were married - newly engaged! It's always been a tremendous help to us, as far as finances are concerned....and I've never found anyone that can explain the process of keeping a cash-budget system quite like Burkett does. Not exactly fun reading, but good never-the-less. :)

Rose is excited to be joining in the fun today, too! She's been working so hard on her sweet little scarf, and it's been wonderful to watch her learn and grow in confidence as we work through these projects. The yarn is a rich raspberry-pink and olive green, which of course looks like a ball of random colors in an 8-year-old's eyes. So you can imagine her delight every time a new stripe shows up in the scarf! ("Mom, look - another stripe!!") I can't tell you how much joy this Mama has had, working through our first little projects together.....and we're making a long list of more things to try. :)

Excited to be linking up for the first time with Ginny over at Small Things!

Blessings,

Ham in a Pot

2012-02-01T08:29:00.003-06:00

This week I'm experimenting to see how many meals I can make out of one ten-pound ham. My growing family has definitely turned a new corner in the amount of food we consume! I find myself needing to double all of my usual recipes, all of a sudden.....and with very few leftovers to show for it! So I'm testing out the good-old time-worn strategy of buying large cuts of meat when they're on sale....and stretching them through the week as well as I can.

So far, so good ;)

My entire family is very excited about this....even little Peanut, who absolutely refuses to say most words (especially Mama.....his affectionate name for me is "Bop" which is what he also calls his bottle, lol!), will very enthusiastically say "aaahhhmmm" when he knows there's some cooking!

He just about gave a standing ovation in his highchair on Monday night, when we sat down for dinner and there was "aaaahhhhmmm" on the table - yes, standing and clapping and cheering! Makes a Mama very happy, for sure!

But I am digressing :)

Did you know you can prepare a ham in a pot on top of the stove??

This was news to me! (I've always just roasted them.)

A few weeks back, my wonderful Mom and Dad came for a visit....bringing a shank of ham and other yummy fixin's for dinner! I watched as my Mom placed the ham into my stockpot, added some veggies and herbs, and then let it simmer away while we spent the afternoon sipping tea and catching up. I can't tell you how amazing my house smelled....like a restaurant, a really good restaurant. Really...I had no idea a simmering ham could smell so yummy!

When it was time for dinner, she pulled it out of the pot and sliced it up - it was soft as butter. And it tasted buttery, too (A wondering Hubby asked on Monday, when I served this again, "how much butter" was in the recipe...and was surprised to hear me say, none at all! :)

BEST of all, after the leftovers were put away, I already had a whole stockpot full of delicious broth, ready-to-go, for making soup another night of the week.

Next time you have a ham to cook, consider giving this method a try! I don't think I'll ever roast another one, ever again.

~ Ham in a Pot ~

(click here for a printable copy)

1 (8-10 lb.) ham
enough water to cover the ham
2 tsp thyme
3 bay leaves
8 whole cloves
1 cup chopped carrots
1 cup chopped onion
2 stalks celery and leaves, chopped

1. Put it all in a very big pot and let it simmer for at least 3 hours.
(If you buy a large ham like I did, you may need to cut it a bit, to fit your pot. Mine had a large bone, so I used a serrated bread knife to slice through it near the tip where the bone is thinner, and it only took a minute...)
2. Enjoy the wonderful aroma.
3. Remove the ham from the pot, and let stand 5-10 minutes, covered loosely with foil. Slice the meat, serving with a little broth spooned over the top for extra juiciness.
4. That's it!

If you like gravy, strain out some broth & simmer it in a small saucepan with a few tablespoons of flour whisked in, until it thickens. Maybe add some salt, if it needs it.

Be sure to save your broth in the fridge or freezer for another meal!

I'll be posting a few more ham recipes as I use up our leftovers this week...on the menu tonight is soup that isn't of the split-pea variety. Stay tuned, I'll let you know how it turns out! :)

Have a blessed Wednesday!

~ Linking Up ~
Women Living Well
Raising Homemakers
Growing Home
Titus2Tuesdays

B is for Bears, Blueberries and Baby Moses

2012-01-30T14:26:00.000-06:00

After a long break over the holidays, we finally finished up Little Monkey's preschool unit study for the Letter B! I hesitate to call it our "letter of the week" as I did in the beginning, last fall - since we ended up spending nearly three weeks on this letter! But it really worked out well, because LM is very much into Bears right now. :) There are so many wonderful books, crafts and ideas to read and to do...and we both enjoyed taking a little extra time to do many more projects than we normally would, to follow his interest! Here's a few pics and highlights from our unit...

.:: Literature ::.

A few other B-Week book ideas:

Jesse Bear, What Will You Wear? (and other books in the series)
Brown Bear, Brown Bear
Polar Bear, Polar Bear
Winnie the Pooh and Some Bees

.:: Bible Lesson - Baby Moses ::.

For our Bible lessons, I've been reading to LM out of our children's Bibles...we have several different copies, and he enjoys hearing the same story as it's told in each books' own words and pictures. But my absolute favorite one to read (to all of my children!) is The Children's Illustrated Bible by Selina Hastings (pictured above). The book is written at an early-to-mid-elementarty level, but the illustrations are so beautifully done that it keeps Little Monkey's attention very well. (Especially if we've already read the story a few times at his own level.) Also, it includes many little extra maps, facts and photographs in the margins as they relate to the story - which Rose and General love. It's one of my favorite read-alouds for the whole family!

.:: Baby Moses Craft ::.

When I found this adorable idea for a Baby Moses craft, I just knew we would have to give it a try! It really ended up being simple to put together....and it made a sweet little toy that sure kept my kiddos busy for quite some time!

For our version, you just need half of a walnut shell (scooped and cleaned out), a small square of scrap cloth and a clothespin. My husband very kindly sawed the tip of the clothespin, and Little Monkey helped sand the bottom edge smooth. I added a little face in permanent marker....and that's it. A baby in a basket!

We used a few bowls filled with water to see if the walnut-baskets would float...and sure enough, if we were very careful not to let it tip or roll, it worked!

Rose made one using an almond (still in its shell) for her "baby." That worked out pretty well, too, but the weight of the nut made it difficult for her basket to float :)

.:: B is for Bears ::.

Ever since Little Monkey was a small baby, he's been very attached to his special stuffed Bear....I like to call it his Velveteen Bear, it has been repaired so many times! So I thought it would be very appropriate to study Bears for the letter B.....he seemed to think so, too :)

:: from Eric Carle's Animals Animals ::

:: Little Monkey's notebook page about bears ::

.:: Paper Bear Craft - Finger-Puppet ::.

I'm including quite a few paper-crafts with our unit studies, to make sure Little Monkey gets plenty of practice with his cutting and gluing. This paper puppet was simple for him to make, and turned out to be pretty cute - as well as fun to play with :) I posted more about it here (instructions).

.:: Bear-Claw Cookies ::.

The original recipe for these fun cookies calls for peanuts and white chocolate kisses to make the claws and paw-pads. But with such a Busy week of homeschooling, I completely ran out of time to shop for the right ingredients...and so I improvised quite a bit on these, using what I had on hand in my cupboard. Instead of brownie mix, I just made a batch of regular chocolate-chip cookie dough, minus the chocolate. :) Then we used pecans for the claws, and chocolate chips for the paw-pads. They didn't turn out quite as cute as the originals, but they sure were delicious! (And they made all of my kiddos smile...so that is a success in my book :)

.:: B-Week Craft - Button Box ::.

After we read the story of Corduroy (who is a Bear :), I thought it would be a nice project for Little Monkey to make something with buttons. I had one craft box leftover from a past project in my supply closet, and since Box starts with the letter B, after all... He had had a lot of fun making his very own "Button Box" for his small treasures.

I opted for crayons instead of paint just to keep things simple...

...and we used good old Elmer's to glue the buttons on top, which has held up very well! (No buttons have popped off yet...)

.:: B-Week Recipe - Blueberry Crisp ::.

What B week would be complete without blueberries? After reading Blueberries From Sal, we made some blueberry crisp, served it over ice cream and topped it with whipped cream, yum! This was a very easy treat for LM to put together....he could almost do it all by himself! (I posted the recipe here.)

.:: Other B-Week Fun :: Counting Bears ::.

I was excited to find a huge container of these counters at a garage sale this past summer. I kept them all tucked away, saving them for our B week...and as you can imagine, they were a hit with both Little Monkey and Peanut!

.:: A "Bear Snores On" Teaparty ::.

(You can read my post about this here.)

.:: "B" Week Bingo! ::.

I made this printable game with my little boys in mind - using shapes, colors and numbers. Not surprisingly, my older kiddos had a lot of fun with it, too - I guess it doesn't really matter what's on the gameboard! ;) I posted about it (including links to the printable) here.

This week Little Monkey is going to be busy finishing up his Letter C unit..... Meanwhile, General and Rose are working their way through the book of Exodus, studying the culture/history of Mesopotamia, and learning all about Israel, God's chosen people.....hopefully I'll be able to catch a few minutes to post pics about it all, soon! :)

Blessings!

Linking up at Homeschool Creations

Bear Craft :: Paper Finger-Puppet

2012-01-30T09:24:00.000-06:00

Finishing up my B-Week posts!

For each of our preschool letter-units, I am planning to include at least one paper craft that goes with our theme - to give Little Monkey plenty of practice with cutting and gluing. Since we've been all about Bears over here for the past few weeks, I was excited to find this cute & simple Bear Finger Puppet craft.

I can't find my bookmark to the site where I found this craft (I'll update as soon as I do!!). In the meantime, here's what we did:

On a folded piece of brown construction paper, I traced around LM's hand, with his pinky & thumb sticking out to the side to make the bear's front paws.

Little Monkey cut out both sides of the paper at once.

Then we glued the pieces together, around the edge (Next time I think we'll use glue instead of a gluestick...it will stick better!).

Next, we cut circles in various sizes to make a white face, black nose, brown ears, white tummy and paws....and glued them down.

Black circles would work well for eyes, too....but since we had some googley-eyes left over from our Alligator craft, we used those instead.

Very cute! I thought about gluing both sides of the bear onto a thick craft-stick/popsicle-stick, to make a sturdier puppet....but I must say - once the glue was completely dry, I was surprised at how well the little bear lasted, even through lots of rough preschool-play! :)

Blessings!

Preschool Bingo {printable}

2012-01-23T15:20:00.000-06:00

Last week, I put together a preschool-level Bingo game for Little Monkey - something a unit study of the letter "B" just wouldn't be complete without! :) He's been working on his colors and shapes for quite awhile, but is still in need of some practice with number-recognition. So I thought this would Be a fun way to sneak it into our lessons and our theme for the week.

The game cards were easy to create in Word, using a table....which I then saved as a PDF on Scribd, in case anyone else might like to use it, too. :) There are eight gameboards altogether, with a sheet of little cards to clip and use for choosing/calling out the plays.

We happened to have some Bingo chips on hand already, although I wasn't sure if we'd be able to find them, at first! Some other marker-ideas are coins, squares of construction paper, cheerios (Rose's suggestion!), dried beans, legos (General's suggestion)....

Peanut is still too little to participate in boardgames....but he managed to work his way into the middle of what was going on, anyway!

There were more than a few game boards mowed over by his tractor. :)

Here is the printable...you should be able to scroll on the image to see the entire document, or just use the toolbar to download (and then print from your computer.) Blessings!

Preschool Bingo

.:: Linking up ::.
Teach Me Tuesdays
and
Homeschool Creations

A "Bear Snores On" Teaparty

2012-01-21T15:38:00.000-06:00

We finished up our little unit study of the letter "B" yesterday! One of my our favorite picture books is Bear Snores On, which of course we included in our "bear" theme this week. It's a sweet story about little animals that sneak into a sleeping bear's cave, to find shelter from a snowstorm...and end up having a real party with some popcorn, black tea, "honey nuts," and stew.

Since we ended up having a little extra time yesterday morning, after leaving the house very early and racing through the grocery store, to get home in time before a snowstorm hit our area....I decided, at the last minute, to put together a little "Bear Snores On" tea party as a fun way to wrap up our week.

General and Rose took turns reading the story to Little Monkey and Peanut (to keep them busy!) while I set the table. The snacks for this tea were very simple....just a bowl of nuts and some popcorn.

I did make peach herbal (non-caffeinated!) tea instead of black....but I don't think anyone noticed the difference. :)

I also included some marshmallows for a cute polar-bear craft that I found here. I planned on doing this craft with LM earlier in the week, but ran out of time. They turned out to be perfect for the tea party, though, and even my older two had fun with them!

We used chocolate chips for the eyes, and half of a small marshmallow for the nose.

This was Peanut's first time to sit at the table in a booster....and have a real cup of his own! He had so much fun stirring....and adding more cream to his cup, from his bottle...lol! After a few minutes of stirring/sipping nicely, he decided to try pouring his tea onto his plate of popcorn. I almost got a picture of that one (wish I did!)....it was pretty funny how surprised he looked, when he found out that popcorn tastes better when it isn't soggy. :)

(Above, right: Fresh plate of popcorn, and no more cup :)

The snow was just beginning to come down in thick blankets as we finished our little party...making it the perfect morning for a "Bear Snores On" Tea!

Have a Beautiful Weekend!

{Pretty, Happy, Funny, Real} Friday Favorites

2012-01-20T15:41:00.001-06:00

~ Capturing the context of contentment in everyday life ~

...a few favorite moments from my week...

{Pretty}

Yesterday was my birthday! I had a lovely day relaxing at home with my family...exactly what this Mama loves to do the most! :) My wonderful hubby ordered pizza so I wouldn't need to cook.....and then after dinner my kiddos 'surprised' me with a cake they decorated all by themselves. I didn't realize I was turning 98 this year!! I must've lost count of the years somewhere along the way, lol!

{Happy}

My dear friend Jacki came for a visit on Tuesday with her two adorable little guys. It was so good to catch up again! The kids all had a blast playing together, too, although at times we couldn't hear each other talking over the raucous! ;) I think they were playing "train" when I took this pic...I'm surprised it didn't turn out blurry because they were moving so fast!

{Funny}

Peanut, just like Little Monkey before him, has recently taken a liking to any-and-all of Rose's toys. On this day, he was very serious about riding on her American Girl pony...even holding the reins and trying to scoot the horse across the floor!

{Real}

Another sight I've been seeing a lot, lately - Peanut snuggling up with General...this time over General's breakfast. Peanut had already finished his, but was more than happy to eat half of his brother's too! I never get tired of watching these two together....even though there is a significant gap in their ages (almost 10 years) there is so much tenderness between them. Melts a Mama's heart every time!

....................................................................

To read more moments of contentment, be sure to visit Like Mother Like Daughter!

Blessings!

Keeping Time :: Using the Weekly Pages

2012-01-18T08:48:00.000-06:00

Good Morning, everyone! Brrr...it's a cold one today! A few minutes ago I opened my back door to let Duke out, and I can still feel the chill. :) BUT...I have my fuzzy slippers and a warm cup of tea with me as I sit down to type, and of course a toasty warm house. Maybe I'll grab a blanket, too!

Well, it's been a few weeks since I've written about my homemade planner, so I thought I'd catch up on these posts a bit. If this is your first time visiting here, Welcome! I'm glad you stopped by! Click on the "Keeping Time" button just above this paragraph, and it will link you to the other posts (and printables) in this series.

I've had a few questions about how the weekly lists and pages work together, so today I will do my best to explain what I had in mind when I drew them up, and exactly how I use them. Keep in mind that I am in NO way an expert or a teacher on time management or planning...the truth is, I am fairly disorganized, and I struggle to keep up with planning and managing things as I should! Part of the reason why I decided to make these printables and the homemade binder, is because having the personalized pages/pretty tabs and papers helps motivate me to sit down and make my plans. :)

This little system is something I came up with over time, after reading a few books on the subject...in an effort to improve in this area of personal challenge. It's what makes sense to me, in my own little way of planning our life. I hope it might work for you, too - or maybe get you thinking about what does work for you! Feel free to ask questions in the comments section if there's anything you're still wondering about ;)

It's really all pretty simple!

.:: Step One :: The Four Weekly Lists...To-Do, Errands, Grocery, Library ::.

These are meant to be used as running lists - meaning that they carry over from week to week. When I sit down to plan, I start by looking over these lists from last week, crossing off everything that was accomplished, and transferring anything left undone to this week's new list. This helps me remember things from week to week....and it also keeps all my notes in one place, rather than scattered all over the house on random bits of paper. :0)

.:: Step Two :: The Daily Pages...(Monday-Thursday and Friday-Sunday) ::.

Once the new lists for the week are written out...it's time to move on to step two - organizing these tasks into a schedule. This step requires the daily pages (Monday - Thursday, and Friday - Sunday) and it's the part that I like to spend the majority of my planning-time on. I start at the top of my To-Do List and work through each item, deciding when I should do it....then writing it in the To-Do section on the appropriate day of the week. Same thing with the Errands list.

The trick here, is that I always end up with WAY more items on these lists than I actually have time to do! So this step is very helpful in figuring out WHAT I will try to accomplish.....and what I'll need to put on the back burner for another week (or just cross of the list altogether!).

Obviously, the hours-section of each day is for scheduling out the day's events....another very helpful thing for me. Even on the days when we don't have anywhere to go, I still like to write in when we will do the key things in our school lessons....mealtimes, snacks....when I need to start dinner, do some cleaning. It's just helps keep our days on track!

I would love to make a set schedule/routine so I didn't have to schedule each day out like this, but in our home things are very different from day to day, especially if we have places to go! So, this is what I do instead.

.:: Step Three :: Meal Plans ::.

I love this part! You can see on each day, I've included a box for all three meals, plus snacks....this was a simple-but-wonderful tip I picked up from my good friend Amanda, and which has made a huge difference in my meal-preparedness! It helps so much to have something in mind for every meal, even if it's just peanut butter & jellies! This way I can plan for nutrition and variety, maybe try some new things....and have all the ingredients ready. :) I finish filling out the Grocery list at this point, too.

And that's it!

Pretty simple, right? The planning-part really is! .....The complicated part is making it all happen ;) But I'll wrap up this post with one little thing I've noticed over time.

This is just a "system" which is, by nature, completely theoretical! Just like all time-managment systems. Meaning that these plans are what we aim for...try to do.... BUT. We all know nothing ever works out in real life exactly as we plan. Including the planning itself. And especially the working out of the planned plan.

I have found, however...over time...it seems that just my efforts in making the planning-sessions happen (however imperfectly!)....as well as the very imperfect execution of the plan....are enough to keep a home, a family, and an organizationally-challenged Mama (Me!) moving in a better direction. ;)

And now it's time for me to go find my planner and get this day going!

Have a Blessed Wednesday!

.:: Linking up at ::.
Women Living Well
Raising Homemakers
Growing Home
Titus2Tuesdays

Wordless Wednesday :: A Few More Snow Pics

2012-01-18T05:17:00.000-06:00

.:: Peanut "sees" the snow for the first time ::.
(he was still a baby last time it snowed!)

.:: and his first handful of snow...he wasn't quite sure what to think of it! ::.

A Preschool Update & Blueberry Crisp

2012-01-16T20:02:00.000-06:00

This week in school, things are going to be busy as we're getting all of our unit studies back up-and-running. In the beginning of the school year, I started putting together little preschool units for Little Monkey, themed around one letter each week. We finished letter "A" and started working on letter "B"..... but with so much going on during the fall soccer season, lots of field trips and outings while the weather was still nice, and then the holidays coming up right afterward...I decided to put those units on the back burner until after the New Year. Everything just takes so much time to plan, lol!

Sure enough, Little Monkey has been asking to do more of his "special school," so I pulled out my folder of notes again, over the weekend, and planned out a few more letters units for him. Honestly, I'm so glad I did, because preschool really is one of my absolute-favorite parts of homeschooling!

So we are re-visiting the letter "B" this week. There are so many wonderful books and activities for this letter, I had a hard time choosing which ones to do with Little Monkey, last time around! This way, I guess we'll get to do a few more of them. ;)

Today we read Blueberries from Sal and made some Blueberry Crisp, yum. The recipe turned out to be simple enough for Little Monkey to do (almost!) all by himself, and it turned out delicious!

Blueberry Crisp
(from my Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook)

Ingredients:

5 cups fresh or frozen blueberries
2 to 4 tablespoons sugar
1/2 cup oats
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup flour
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 cup butter

First, you put your fruit into a two-quart baking dish. Our berries were frozen, so we warmed them up for 45 seconds in the microwave...and they were completely thawed by the time they went into the oven.

Next you add your sugar on top of the berries...and stir....then set aside for later.

In a mixing bowl, add your oats, brown sugar, flour and cinnamon...

...and stir some more....

Then cut in the butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. I wasn't sure if Little Monkey would be able to work the pastry cutter, but he loved this part!

Sprinkle your mixture over your berries...

...and then it's ready to bake! 375-F for 30-35 min (40 if you used frozen berries).

It was delicious all by itself, but we served it warm over some ice cream with a little whipped cream on top, to make it a special "B" week treat. Tomorrow we're reading Going on a Bear Hunt, and making a paper Bear hand puppet....I Believe it's going to Be lots of fun! I'm hoping to post pics all of our B week activities, all in one post at the end of the week (like I did for A week)....if all goes as planned! :)

Have a Beautiful Day!

Crochet Update

2012-01-16T12:16:00.003-06:00

For Christmas, we gave Rose the Handicrafts Made Simple : Crochet DVD from Simply Charlotte Mason along with some new yarn and a new hook, since she's been asking for a long time to learn how to crochet.

And I have to say, this Mama was pretty excited about the gift, as well, since we'd be working through the lessons together! ;) I learned how to crochet as a girl, but it never really "stuck" with me....and now I'm looking forward learning this skill all over again, too.

Rose and I have been so happy with this tutorial! The instructor, a young lady who I think is home schooled herself, does such a nice job of explaining everything so simply and clearly. We sped through the first few lessons pretty quickly, since we were both already familiar with the basic stitches...and last week, Rose completed her first project - a large potholder made from the single-crochet stitch.

I did help her with some of the rows...although you sure can't tell the difference between her stitches and mine at all!

Next lesson, we'll learn the double-crochet stitch and make a scarf. We both can't wait!

.:: Linked-Up at Raising Homemakers ::.

Let It Snow...

2012-01-13T08:33:00.004-06:00

...let it snow, let it snow!

Oh, the weather outside was frightful....

...but that didn't stop us from enjoying our first "real" snowfall of the year!

We were so glad that Daddy was able to join us, since he was having an unusually light day at work, while they're at a lull for a few days in his area of the project they are currently working on...AND there weren't many calls to take, even with all of the snow...

So, Little Monkey had a very special day, getting all suited up in his Carhartts and "big worker boots" {just like Daddy's}....

...and he was off to spend the afternoon being Daddy's big helper for the first time - AND {most importantly!} getting to ride up in the big work-truck.

The kiddos know that very first snowy day of the year means NO school....so the rest of us went outside to have a little fun! (Well, everyone except Peanut...who really needed to take his nap...he'll have his chance to explore outside later today, instead!)

General and Rose wasted no time getting busy launching snowballs, making snow angels and...whitewashing each other's faces...

I really would've liked to get more photos of them, but what with all of the running and the chasing and the snow flying, I couldn't get any non-blurry shots. Besides, things were getting a little too wild for a Mama with a camera!

So...I had a little fun of my own finding some wintery things around the yard to shoot (with the camera, of course!)...

I really do love all the seasons...especially how each one has its own sort of beauty. Of course, snow in winter is a dramatically beautiful thing all in itself.

But I love how if you look around at the tiny little things left over from the seasons before...

Things that don't clamor for any attention at all...they certainly aren't showy or colorful!

Small things you might not even notice, if you were just walking by...

But if you stop and look closely at the textures, the forms, even the faded colors...

They are humble. But beautiful!

It's been a fun-but-busy week with school, snow, a lovely visit with grandparents, and life happening....and therefore things have been quiet here on the blog. BUT I have quite a few posts in my drafts folder, almost ready to go...so there is much to come, very soon! Hope you all have a great weekend!!

Blessings,

A January Daybook

2012-01-09T08:44:00.000-06:00

.:: for Monday, January 9 ::.

Outside my window... it's a beautiful sunrise, with big, puffy stripes of lilac, rose, aqua and golden cream...and glimmery frost, everywhere. Today is supposed to be another incredibly warm day (for Chicago!) near 50 degrees...we will definitely be spending some time outside enjoying it, while it lasts!

I am thinking... about ways to simplify our life and home...what to pare down, or cut out altogether...what activities are important to us. Making our life small and manageable, so that there is a margin of time and energy in our days. For clarity, simplicity...and room for the important things a Mama just can't plan or schedule. Room for joy, time for love...less stress and more peace.

I am thankful... To finally be feeling better, in time for school to get rolling again! Still coughing a bit, but my sinuses are not throbbing this morning, so that's a good sign. I am really hoping to get through this one without having to use antibiotics... So, specifically, I am thankful today for things like garlic, honey, echinacea and ginger tea...things that are both healing and yummy :)

In the kitchen... Now that the holidays are over, I am anxious to get back on track with cooking and eating healthfully! But I confess I've been feeling a bit overwhelmed by the amount of information "out there" on how to go about it. So many different theories...it's hard to figure out which is "the right" one for us. So for now, I'm just going back to what I already know to do, and what has worked well for my family in the past. (It's also what makes them happy!) Meat, veggies, fruit. Potatoes, rice, occasional pasta. Lots of chicken soup. Limited sugar. Whole foods. Cooked in the good old Italian way. And, for now, good old white Italian bread...since I now know, beyond a doubt, that using whole wheat was definitely causing problems for both Little Monkey and myself.

I am wearing... Jeans, my new comfy-fuzzy slippers (one of my favorite Christmas gifts, from my niece...thanks, Lynette!), long-sleeved turquoise tshirt, and a fringy-scarf that a good friend of mine made from an up-cycled t-shirt (very cute!)

I am creating... I know the season of Lent is still many weeks away, but I pulled out our Jesus Tree over the weekend to get a head-start on updating my printables. Last year, I put together a quick collection of ornaments for my kids to color, using clipart that I found online. It worked out very well, but this year I'm hoping to surprise them with a set of hand-drawn ornaments. (Especially since we've been working on our sketching and drawing in the past few months!) It isn't taking as long to make the sketches as I thought it would, so if all goes well, and they are finished in time, I'll post the new printables. We'll see how it goes! ;)

I am going... to stay at home sweet home, getting our school-week off to a good start. Hoping to make a quick trip to the grocery store after dinner tonight, while Hubby is home with the kiddos.

From our Schoolroom... This semester I've decided to pare down our curricula a bit (we've been using Tapestry of Grace) to make things a little more manageable during our school weeks. We've been enjoying the unit studies that we've completed so far, but it has taken me a lot longer to get into a good routine with this curric than I thought it would. So I'm making my own planning sheets to work off of each week, and only choosing a few books for each child to read, one project, one writing assignment, etc. I think this should help our days flow a little smoother! I'm also thinking this will free up a little more time to work on the extra things I've been anxious to do with my kids this year - especially our art and nature journaling, learning practical skills, and some crafting. Little Monkey has been asking about his "Alphabet School" so I am working on putting more of those units together for him, too.

I am reading... Still working my way through Imitation of Christ (Thomas a'Kempis)...but other than that I've decided to close up any extra books for awhile! Spend some time just practicing the good things I've learned so far...

Mama culture... I'm taking small steps in the next few months, toward getting back into good habits of eating healthfully and exercising. I know from past experience that a little goes a long way in both areas, so I don't need to feel overwhelmed or try to do anything drastic. Right now I'm still deciding whether I'll go back to my good old, tried-and-true The Firm workout dvd's (this one is my current favorite), or try out the TTapp system... I've heard great things about TTapp, but The Firm only takes about 35 minutes and I know it works very well for me. We'll see!

I am looking forward to... cleaning out my daily planner and getting everything freshened up for the New Year! I usually like to spend some time doing this over our Christmas break, but between my sinus infection, Peanuts' teething and cold, and everything else going on, I just didn't have the energy to think about it. So today I'll be printing out enough weekly pages to last for a few months, as well as getting rid of my old goals/plans from last year and making fresh new lists and planning sheets in my tabs.

Around the house... I really need to declutter and organize, a project I started in the fall, but decided to save the majority of it for after the holidays. I figure winter is the perfect time to tackle indoors projects, so I'm going to take my time, work on one small area at a time, starting with the worst closets...until it's all done. I was able to finish up my kitchen before Thanksgiving...and already it has made such a difference in our general upkeep/daily cleaning, just having that one room all neat and organized. I'm excited to get to work on the rest of the house!

A favorite quote for today... you may have noticed this one over in my sidebar, from Mother Teresa... "We can do no great things, only small things with great love."

One of our favorite things and a peek into my day...

We found this set of wooden swords and shields over at Vision Forum, as a Christmas gift for Little Monkey and Peanut...but all of my kiddos have been enjoying them, playing knights-and-dragons-and princess, nonstop since Christmas. I'm pretty excited about it, because the next several units in our history will be covering the Greeks, Romans and medieval times....love mixing creative play with our studies!

To read more Daybooks - or to join the fun and write your own! - visit Peggy over at Simple Woman's Daybook.

Have a blessed Monday!

a few favorites from 2011

2012-01-05T09:22:00.003-06:00

Happy New Year!

Well, it sure feels good to be back in my writing chair, this morning! We had a fun New Year's Eve, celebrating at our house with some close friends and all of our kiddos (the grown-ups were seriously outnumbered!)....and although we had a great time, it has taken ~~us all~~ me a few days to get things back on track again :)

Poor Peanut rang in the New Year with two brand-new molars that were in a hurry to join us....he was not a happy baby! Four sleepless nights turned into a nasty cold with a sore throat for Peanut and a sinus infection for me. So to say the least, we have been taking things easy, so far, in 2012!

But, you know, there is always a silver lining to be found in everything. Or, at least, I think so! Consoling a sad, teething toddler at three a.m. is definitely not fun, BUT.....on the flip side, it does give a Mama plenty of time to think about things.

Things like how thankful I am for this little life of mine. My sweet family. My wonderful husband. A happy home.

For parents and family on both sides who are caring and supportive, and who we love so dearly!

For being surrounded with good friends who are on similar life-paths of loving Jesus, loving our families... and even having the homeschooling life in common.

For the many lovely friends I've met in this bloggy world who equally been a source of encouragement and support to me in my walk as a homeschooling Mama. I am so thankful for each one of you!

For the blessing of this season of having a baby to hold and comfort...even if some of those moments happen at at three a.m! I am a blessed Mama, indeed.

I had plenty of time to make some plans, too.

Not really resolutions...I think I'm getting tired of making those...they don't motivate me anymore. This year, I'm just re-focusing my goals and the things I already know I need to do here at home, and in our homeschool.

Along with a few things that I want to do...

And maybe a few new ideas, too. Now that energizes me!

I did choose a word for 2012, however. Small.

Okay, two words, but the second one ... Fun... really is just more of a reminder to myself to take the time to stop and smell my little roses. Enjoy these precious days. Play with my kiddos. Treasure up the memories. Fun explains what this looks like, but Love is really what's hiding beneath that word.

AND...I had plenty of time to think about this little blog, too. It's hard for me to believe it, but this week marks my first official blogoversary, at this address. I blogged for awhile before moving over here to ArtMama, but in those days I felt that I was mostly still just testing the virtual water.

So, I have lots to talk about, as you can see! But for today, I need to spend some time finishing my cleaning...and the laundry. There's also a paper monster that took up residence on top of my desk... I should probably do something about that, too ;)

I thought I'd say a quick farewell to 2011 with a few of my favorite photos from the year. Favorite pics, favorite moments, favorite little things we did. Just a few. There's not enough time to post them all....and really, that would make for one ridiculously long post :)

Wishing you and your family a blessed 2012! May your hearts and homes be filled with the love, grace and beauty of Christ's presence.

Blessings,

Pondering

2011-12-29T20:20:00.000-06:00

We sang this familiar old Christmas carol in church a few weeks ago. I'd heard this song so many times before, but I never truly "listened" to the words of all the verses. Until that Sunday....it misted me up a bit & now I'm still pondering these beautiful words...

What child is this, who laid to rest
On Mary's lap is sleeping?
Whom angels greet with anthems sweet,
While shepherds' watch are keeping?

This, this is Christ the King,
Whom shepherds guard and angels sing.
Haste! Haste to bring him laude,
The Babe, the son of Mary.

Why lies He in such mean estate,
Where ox and ass are feeding?
Good Christians fear, for sinners here
The silent Word is pleading.

Nails, spear shall pierce Him through,
The cross he borne, for me and you.
Hail! Hail, the Word made flesh,
The Babe, the son of Mary.

So bring Him incense, gold and myrrh,
Come peasant, king to own Him.
The king of kings, salvation brings,
Let loving hearts enthrone Him!

Raise, raise a song on high,
The virgin sings her lullaby!
Joy, joy for Christ is born,
The Babe, the son of Mary.

Some Songs for the Season

2011-12-28T14:17:00.000-06:00

I have our favorite new Christmas CD playing today, and we're enjoying it so much I thought I'd share it with you! Mosaic visited our church one Sunday in December to perform the worship, during services...

And we're all loving their sweet sound! Its a very creative blend of modern folksy/bluegrass/jazz....on that particular Sunday they had a banjo, fiddle and a concertina, besides the guitars and piano. I love that it is so interesting, and yet quiet....complex, but sweet...artistic yet worshipful.

If you pop over to their website, you can hear their songs... my top favorites are Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus and O Come O Come Emmanuel, with What Child Is This? and Silent Night a close second and third. :) The arrangements are so beautiful. Rose just commented that the girls' voices sound like angels singing, and I think I'd have to agree! I highly recommend this album!

Christmas Cookies

2011-12-28T13:42:00.000-06:00

In the hustle and bustle of getting everything ready for Christmas last week, I started to write up this post about baking cookies....and didn't have time to finish! But since we really begin celebrating Christmas on the 25th - and continue on for the twelve days after! - I thought I'd save some of my posts for this week, while we're enjoying the Christmas "season."

:: My Little Bakers ::
(Peanut was too busy napping to help out this time)

I found a couple last minute, super-easy, kiddo-friendly recipes for my sweeties to put together.

AND they are no-bake recipes. So we could taste them as we went...so far, so good!

Yum!

Turtle Candy (a Christmas surprise for Dad from General)

This couldn't be easier! First we toasted pecan halves in the oven for 5 minutes, then arranged them on some waxed paper like this ::

Next, General melted a bag of caramel candies in the microwave, then drizzled a spoonful over each cluster.

Last step - chocolate chips melted up in the microwave & drizzled over the caramel. Then into the fridge to set. And that's it!

These turned out delicious, and being so easy for General to make by himself I think we'll keep this recipe in "The Book" for next year. Although, the caramel candy did end up being very chewy....so I think we may still experiment with other varieties of caramel next time!

Peanut Butter Pretzel Cookies

These were a HIT with everyone! We finished eating them up by the end of Christmas Day....and are planning to make another batch tonight or tomorrow, for New Year's Eve. I am not usually a big fan of peanut butter, but I have to say - these might be my favorite new cookie!

I found the recipe at What Megan's Making (cute blog!).

:: Ingredients ::

1 cup peanut butter
2 Tbsp. butter
1/2 cup powdered sugar
Pretzels
1 bag semi-sweet chocolate chips

We mixed the first three ingredients together in the blender. I did add quite a bit of extra powdered sugar (as recommended in the original recipe) until the mixture was stiff enough to roll...

Rose and Little Monkey rolled the peanut butter mixture into small balls & placed them on waxed paper....

There was lots of finger-lickin!

I did keep this particular batch just for us at home ;)

Then we sandwiched each one between two pretzels, and dipped one side of each cookie into melted chocolate (which Rose was able to melt by herself, using the microwave).

Then into the freezer they went, to set up extra-fast....and we discovered we like them even better frozen - it makes them just a little crunchy. Yum!

On the Fourth Day of Christmas...

2011-12-28T09:50:00.001-06:00

We're still enjoying the Christmas season this week!

It's a little hard to believe that today is Wednesday, already...we sure did have a busy Christmas weekend, with three days of celebrating (the final big party was on Monday)...

....followed by a lot of cleaning yesterday...

But the Christmas music is on, our tree is aglow...and we are settling in for a cozy day at home. And some more cleaning. At least, I can see my floors and counters, today, so that is already a great improvement ;)

We're thankful we were able to make it to all our families' parties this year, without any flus or colds....it was so nice to spend Christmas with all of our family! Poor Rose did end up with a stuffy nose and an earache on Monday night, but at least we were able to stay for some of the caroling - and especially to take part in our annual rendition of The Twelve Days of Christmas. (Thank you, Uncle Bill, for supplying the Tylenol on such short notice!!)

Peanut and Little Monkey had missed their naps...and Peanut in particular was exceptionally grumpy by Monday night... so we did end up having to leave before the singing was over. And before the polka's began.

But NEXT year. The little boys won't be so little. I will come armed with Tylenol for unexpected earaches. And we will be prepared for a late party! So...unless someone is sick....we will be staying till the last polka has been danced!

I guess I should probably write a little backstory for any dear, non-family readers who may be wondering what I am talking about!

I have a very musical family. For as long as I can remember....actually, I think for as long as anyone in my family can remember....there has always been music at Christmas. We sing all the carols together....and The Twelve Days is a particular favorite family tradition. Everyone must choose a "day" with a partner (or a group, since we have about 45 people singing, all together) and we sing it in parts.

Although, just to convey the right picture, here...when I say we all sing together in parts. I don't mean Trapp family-style (Sound of Music). (Although we do have many cousins with lovely voices!) We're more silly than serious. Like when the uncles sing "thhheven thhhwans of thhhwimming" with a litthhhp, just to be funny! I'm not really sure why....that's just the way it's always been sung!

And the polkas are part of my family's Slovak/Polish heritage :) Everyone knows how to dance the polkas!

It's just a lot of fun!

Almost everyone plays an instrument, too...

I think our instrument-count this year was up in the teens? Grandpa (my Dad) always plays the accordion...and then there was a clarinet, two flutes I think?, two or three trumpets?, a keyboard, the piano, the bells/tambourine (I think that should count!), pretty sure we had a trombone, at least one saxophone, a violin (new this year!), was there an oboe?? Next year, General will have his own trumpet to add to the band and I'll be bringing my flute once again. (I haven't participated in the past few years because I've been busy with babies!)

And can you believe I forgot to bring my camera!

Dear Aunty Karen and Justin:

We were sorry that Peanut missed opening his gift at the party!!! He found the package as soon as he woke up on Tuesday morning and was VERY excited to open it....and he loved it! Thank you!!

I snapped a few pics of him enjoying his gifts....thought I'd post them for you to see :) The little dinosaur hat & gloves are adorable! - just what he needed, too. (I think he still had some cookie smudges on his face...no time to edit that out, ah well!)

Wishing everyone a relaxing and blessed Christmas season (we still have eight days to go, if you're counting!)

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-25T12:52:00.000-06:00

Wishing you a Blessed Christmas from our family to yours!

Rejoice, Rejoice, Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel!

Raise, raise a song on high,
The virgin sings her lullaby.

Joy, joy for Christ is born,
The Babe, the Son of Mary.

O Come let us adore Him,
Christ the Lord!

(words from O Come O Come Emmanuel, What Child Is This? and O Come All Ye Faithful)

Putting up the Tree!

2011-12-21T20:50:00.003-06:00

Three days to go and we have lots to do! Merry Preparing!

Kris Kringles

2011-12-19T21:06:00.003-06:00

A simple Advent activity...thought I'd share it with you, in case you might be looking for a little something to do at the last minute. It's one of my favorites, especially during this last week before Christmas, when my kiddos are all getting .. very .. excited about Christmas coming! Here's how it goes.

Everyone's name goes into a jar...even Peanut's (no one is too little to take part!).

Then everyone chooses a paper. (Little ones always need some help from Mom or Dad!)

Throughout this week as we get everything ready for Christmas, we each have to find secret ways of serving or giving kindness to our special person. At least one little surprise each day. Could be any little thing...but the trick is to make sure your person doesn't know who it's from.

Then on Christmas morning, everyone tries to guess who their "Kris Kringle" is...and waits to see if their secret favors were figured out by their person. My kiddos always look forward to guessing time!

I love this little game, because it helps keep the children's focus off of the presents and the candy (at least, a little bit!) and helps keep everyone's attitude joyful and thoughtful. It also teaches them to love.

"Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed You or thirsty and give You drink? When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You?..."

"...Assuredly, I say unto you, inasmuch as you did it to the least of my bretheren, you did it unto Me." Matthew 25:37-40

They're learning that each kindness offered to their brother or sister (or Mom or Dad) is like offering it right to Jesus.

Of course, a clever Mama can figure out who everybody picked ;) It's better if I know...this way I can offer little nudges when needed.

... the Kris Kringle list so far ...

a cup of coffee served to an unsuspecting Daddy

one cookie given up at snack time to a hungry little brother

a letter painstakingly typed & printed out (so their handwriting won't be recognized) telling "someone" they'll be prayed for each day this week (right now it's hiding under their pillow, waiting to be found...)

two stories read

and

a big sister quietly crocheting on Mom's bed to keep a weepy little brother company while he has his quiet time.

Little hearts prepare to receive their King. :)

A Mama's heart gathers treasure to store up and ponder.

Blessings!

Gift Ideas :: Girls

2011-12-16T14:58:00.000-06:00

I just love shopping online! Every night after the kiddos are all snug in their beds, it is so nice to put on my slippers, sit down with a cup of tea or a warm latte and shop from the quiet of my chair. No hustle or bustle. No questions from curious kiddos. Just me and Amazon. (And a few other sites...)

I'm excited about some of the things I found for Rose this year and thought I'd share them with you in case you are looking for any last-minute ideas! (Shhhh...don't tell!)

(I'm not an affiliate for any company...I'm just sharing some things I really like!)

Rose has been very interested in learning to crochet since this past summer, when I bought a little instruction book for her birthday. The book has been very helpful, but when I heard from a good friend about this DVD over at Simply Charlotte Mason, I just knew it would be the perfect thing for her! (Thank you, Amanda!)

If you pop over to their website, there is a 2 minute clip you can watch from the DVD to see what it's like. The instructor is a very sweet teenage homeschooler who gives a nice presentation, easy to understand. I'll be watching the DVD with Rose so we can learn together...and I confess I am just as excited as I think she'll be!

Some pretty yarn and a hook in a new size completes this gift.

Besides Amazon, another favorite source for finding toys for my kiddos is Vision Forum. If you have never visited their catalog store...it is well worth a visit! Rose loves their doll collection...her "Liberty" doll is the same size as her American Girl doll, so all of the outfits she's collected can be worn by both dolls. I especially like the Vision Forum dolls because each one is a real historical Christian woman, complete with a character-building biography for Rose read.

Earlier this fall, before she was thinking about Christmas ;) I had Rose pick out her favorite dress-and-book set. I don't think she remembers that conversation...hopefully she will be surprised! Here's what she picked:

I'm thinking this will be a fun book for a Mama and her not-so-little girl to read together. :)

Hoping to post some boys' ideas soon!

Blessings,

Late fall nature walk

2011-12-16T11:01:00.003-06:00

This time of year, we have to look a little harder for it....but there is still beauty to be found outside, around the yard.

Like hidden treasure.

{ ice on the sandbox }

It certainly won't catch your eye! Everything has faded into quiet shades of gray and brown and green. But those can be beautiful, too. And if you look really close, there is texture...

{ echinacea in December :: finch food! }

...and sparkle...

{ a touch of frost }

...and a promise of more color to come. In time.

{ daisy seeds ... more finch food } :)

We had our first little bit of a snowfall, a couple weeks ago!

Of course snow is all very new to Peanut...but to my surprise, Little Monkey didn't remember it from last year, either.

Oh, the questions!

Mom, WHY is my deck all white? ("my" deck, lol!)

I don't WIKE my deck wiff all that stuff on there!

How did it get there?

Will it go away?

I want to touch it!

{ morning sunlight on freshly-fallen snowflakes }

We had a lot of fun that morning! :)

The Liebster Award

2011-12-15T09:37:00.000-06:00

I was so surprised - and delighted! - earlier this week, to receive the Liebster Award from Chareen at Every Bed of Roses. She is a seasoned Mama and homeschooler who clearly has a heart for encouraging and equipping! Her blog is filled with inspiring ideas and helpful tips - I've been blessed by my time there, and I hope you will take a minute to visit her, too!

Thank you for your kindness, Chareen. This was truly a blessing! :)

And I must say, this has been a fun way to meet some lovely new bloggers, too! The Liebster Award is for small (200-followers-or-less) blogs that can be described as sweet, beloved, kind or favorite. In order to accept the award, the honored blogger must write a post to thank the giver, with a link back to their blog...and then pass on the encouragement to five more bloggers.

What fun!

So here are my five choices. I hope you will join me in encouraging them today!

Each in their own way, these bloggers have been a blessing and encouragement to me in my journey as a homeschooling Mama. I am so happy today to return a little bit of that joy! Kind, beloved, sweet and favorite are all very appropriate words to describe these lovely blogs...

Joy at Artful Homemaking :: her gentle, sweet words and ideas for creative living and homeschooling are always a source of inspiration for me.

Carissa at Stella's Apron Strings :: she paints a beautiful picture of gracious homemaking and mothering with lovely photos and her warm spirit.

Amanda at Homegrown and Beeyoutiful :: I am always refreshed by her gentle way of encouraging Mamas to love their families and find beauty in simple things.

Lisa at Olive Plants All Around My Table :: a seasoned homeschooling Mama whose wisdom and encouragement I greatly appreciate.

And my new favorite crafting blog, which I just found this past week while looking for a tutorial on crocheted roses...

Lauren at Daisy Cottage Designs is a Christian Mama who keeps an ETSY shop, and generously posts some very nice tutorials for her items, which are just about the cutest crocheted things I've seen!

Wishing you all a bright and joy-filled Thursday!

Many Blessings,

Homemade Binder Tabs {free printables}

2011-12-13T09:49:00.001-06:00

The month of December sure is flying by! With so much to think about and plan during the seasons of Advent and Christmas, every December I have to remind myself that the New Year is coming up quickly, too! I've been thinking ahead a little bit in the past few weeks about my goals and resolutions for 2012...no major decisions just yet ;) but I am looking forward to that sense of renewal and the "fresh start" that always comes with the beginning of another year.

"Behold, I make all things new..." Rev. 21 : 5

"Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." 2 Cor. 5:17

One of my favorite things to do during the week between Christmas and New Year's eve, is to clean out my daily planning notebook. It's the perfect time to take out all the old calendar pages, remove my old notes and lists that accumulate in each of the tab sections, reevaluate all my old goals and ideas from the year before. Time to make room for new things!

It's also a good time to freshen up the binder itself. Maybe add some fresh paper with a new pattern or colors to the cover. Replace any worn out tab-dividers. Add a few new categories, or rename/regroup the ones I already have into something that makes more sense for my work right now.

If you are new to this post-series, I've been sharing the printables I made for my personal time-keeper. It's a little project that I've been working on for a couple years, and thought might be helpful to you, too. They are all very homemade...and free! I made a button in my sidebar (and below) which will link you to all of the posts in the series (and all of the printables).

For today...here are the patterns I use to make my homemade (and much lovelier than store-bought) (in my humble opinion, lol!)...tabbed dividers. There are five tabs in the set, although I'm using six in my binder right now. When I need more than five tabs, I just start the set over again...using the top tab for #6, next tab down for #7 and so on. The patterns are made to fit a standard 5x7, 3-ring binder.

Tab #1 Tab #2 Tab #3

Tab #4 Tab #5

To make the tabs, you'll just need to print and cut out one of each pattern. Then trace onto heavy-weight paper, such as card-stock or the thicker type of scrapbooking paper. The double-sided variety is especially fun - pretty on both sides :)

Punch your holes and write your categories....and now you have your very own, unique binder tabs. Lovely!

Coming soon in my Homemade Binder series :: All About the Weekly Pages

Blessings,

:: linking up at ::
Growing Home
Far Above Rubies
Women Living Well
Raising Homemakers

Some Gingerbread Fun

2011-12-09T09:16:00.001-06:00

Even though there was quite a bit of coughing and sniffling earlier this week, my kiddos were still able to find a little energy for decorating a gingerbread house. It sure was nice to see them smiling again!

I had hoped to make our own gingerbread from scratch...but since we're running a little short on time these days, I bought a kit from the grocery store instead. I was a little worried about giving them all the frosting and candy, since I'd rather they not eat the sugar (especially while they're sick)...but they decided on their own not to eat any & save everything to show Daddy when he got home later.

This was the first year that they didn't need my help at all! General found the instructions and took charge of the project (very much in the way a General would do, lol!), and Rose diplomatically made many suggestions as to how they should arrange things, to make it look the prettiest. Little Monkey was just very happy to do anything they said!

It was so much fun to just stand back and watch them all figure everything out together (and take lots of pics!). BUT....it also made me realize how much my (older) babies have grown! A wonderful and sentimental Mama-moment all at the same time. Mostly wonderful ;)

We all agreed it worked out much better, anyway, to have Mom taking pictures while the house was being built, instead of waiting until afterward. We don't have any pics from years past, because our Dog has always managed to eat the house first, lol! General and Rose even considered offering the house to him as soon as we were done, since this seems to be our little tradition. BUT we figured we'd rather save it for Daddy to see. :)

Christmas Book Basket & Binder Tabs Update

2011-12-08T19:30:00.000-06:00

We've been having a very busy - but mostly fun! - week, moving along with our Advent activites, doing a little Christmas decorating, some much needed cleaning (not so fun, lol!) and ~~trying to keep up with~~ squeezing in our school lessons, too.

Poor Peanut came down with the croup (which turned into a cold) over the weekend, and we've all been passing that around this week (the other not so fun part)...so needless to say, I haven't been able to post - or comment - or read - as much as I would like to!

And I do have so much to tell. I'm hoping I'll have a few quiet moments soon to put all my pics and thoughts together.

Just a little update :: the next post in my Home Management Binder series is in the works. I've almost finished making the patterns for my homemade tab dividers...there are just a few unexpected glitches that came up in the design, that I need to tweak. I'll be posting them soon, along with instructions and tips for using the weekly pages. Stay tuned! :0)

In the meantime, I thought I'd share some wonderful books with you (a little peek into our Christmas book basket!), in case anyone is looking for Christmas reading ideas. This year I was able to order several of our favorite picture books from Amazon with a gift card I'd been saving for this purpose. We've borrowed most of these from the library in years past, but I'm excited to start collecting a little library of my our own. :)

{A disclaimer-disclaimer...I am not an Amazon affiliate, because Illinois' current laws won't allow it. I'm using Amazon's pics & links here to make it easy for you to browse the books, because I love it when bloggers do that for me!}

This book is new to me this year. A close friend of mine read it to the children at our homeschool group's Christmas party last Friday, and we all loved it! I never knew the history behind the candy cane before; this is a very neat book! (Thanks, Tammy!)

Another new book for us....I've seen recommendations and read great reviews, although I haven't read it myself, yet. It appears to be out of print, but there are many used copies available on Amazon (for a penny - love that!), so I'm still waiting for this one to arrive.

Hope your week is filled with moments of joy, as we prepare our homes and hearts for the 'arrivial' of our Savior this Advent season!

Blessings,

:: linking up at ::
Women Living Well
Raising Homemakers
Growing Home
Far Above Rubies

Celebrating Advent :: Our Jesse Tree

2011-12-03T17:00:00.000-06:00

Another favorite Advent activity in our family is the Jesse Tree, a little tradition that takes me back to my childhood days.

When Mom brought out the Jesse Tree, it meant that Advent had finally arrived, and Christmas was coming soon! Hanging from little pegs on the back door, our Jesse Tree was a banner made from green silky fabric. It had bright red stitching and matching red fringe trim on the bottom. The tree itself was made of green felt, decorated with rickrack and sequins, and glued to the banner.

I can remember helping make the ornaments...I think I must've been about Rose's age. We cut shapes out of felt for the ornaments, and sequinned, glittered and beaded them into exquisite works of art (in my eyes!).

Each day, we read a little story from Scripture and a devotion, then pinned an ornament on the tree. As a little girl, these readings were very special and truly did make the message of Christmas vividly real for me.

And now as a grown Mama, it's very special for me to watch my children delight in it all!

I've had a few requests for the patterns and instructions for making our Jesse Tree, so even though we are already one week into the Advent season, I decided to post them anyway.

The patterns are actually my Mom's drawings, the same ones we used when I was a girl! She has graciously agreed to let me post them here for you to use :) (Thanks, Mom!)

Days 1-8 Days 9-16

Days 17-23 Days 24-25

The shapes can be traced and cut out of felt, then decorated with glitter, sequins, beads. OR, they can be simply cut out and decorated as paper ornaments.

(I had hopes of preparing these images before advent began, but I only had time to quickly scan them & post them as-is. There is quite a bit of shadowing and stray markings...but they should still work well as patterns, or for coloring in & decorating!)

There are many different ways of putting the tree together. One idea is to hang your ornaments (with ribbon) on a little miniature Christmas tree (the table-top kind). Or you could put them on your family's Christmas tree.

You could also make your own tree using twigs from your backyard in a vase or jar. We used this idea for our Thankful Tree this past Thanksgiving & loved how it turned out!

Another quick and easy option is to cut a Christmas tree out of wrapping paper or construction paper and tape your (paper) ornaments there.

Here are our daily Scripture readings. (Click here to download.)

Wishing you and your family an Advent season full of beautiful memories!

Christmas Countdown Tree {free printables}

2011-11-30T06:26:00.001-06:00

I decided to try something a little different for our Advent calendar this year. Since my family is already using a Jesse Tree for our daily Advent Bible readings, I wanted to find something that would be fun yet meaningful for my children to do.

So I decided to make a homemade countdown "calendar" tree that would include all the little things I'd like to as a family before Christmas.

And I thought I would share it all with you, too. :)

Here's how it works.

Each day, the kiddos will open one tag and read an activity I've written for them to do. These include many little things like "read a Christmas book," "draw some Christmas cards," and other small things that are simple to do. I also included a few crafts that I want to do with them, as well as our usual family traditions like putting up the Christmas tree, setting up the Nativity, and baking cookies.

I designed the tags to be very easy to print and assemble. If you would like to make a Countdown Tree of your own, here are the printables and a quick tutorial for putting it all together.

:: part one ~ prepare your tags ::

Start by making a list of the things you'll write in your tags. Here are some ideas I came up with, based on my family's traditions; I'm sure you will have many more of your own to fill up the days!

read a Christmas book (I used this activity for seven of my tags)

color/draw homemade Christmas cards

pick our Kris Kringles

make homemade Christmas gifts

make an ornament for the Christmas tree

decorate gingerbread houses

make homemade name tags for gifts

make peanut butter/pinecone birdfeeders

put up the Christmas tree

decorate the Christmas tree

set up the Nativity

hang up stockings

bake Christmas cookies

bring cookies and cards to neighbors, friends, family

fill a bag with toys to donate

bring food, toy, & clothing donations to local charity

wrap Christmas gifts

some other, easy ideas...

watch a favorite Christmas movie as a family

have a special snack

have a Christmas tea party/snack (or hot chocolate!)

Here are the printable tags. Please let me know if you have any trouble printing them out!

Trim the tags apart on the black cut-lines.

Then fold the four corners over on the red lines.

Write your note on the inside, under the flaps.

Seal the tag with a dab of glue, a sticker, or a piece of clear tape (what I used).

Punch a hole in the corner of each tag. Tie with ribbon, raffia (pictured on our tree, above), thread, or string (twine is pictured below).

:: part two ~ assemble your tree ::

This is really very simple. For our tree, I had my kids gather some twigs that fell off the trees in our yard. I arranged them in a glass vase, using pinecones and fake cranberries as a filler. (They were leftovers from old potpurri and other decorations I am no longer using).

Other containers that would work very well are old jars (large), crocks, planters, etc. A few other filler ideas could include rocks from outside (we used that for our Thanksgiving Tree), raffia, greenery, old ornaments, coffee beans.

I used a strip of white fabric from my scrap pile to make the ribbon, although I think the raffia would be very cute there, too.

Hang your tags on the tree....and you are all set!

Wishing you and your family a Blessed Advent!

:: linking up at ::
Women Living Well
Raising Homemakers
Growing Home
Far Above Rubies

Celebrating Advent :: Our Wreath

2011-11-29T09:39:00.001-06:00

This week is the first week of Advent, the season of waiting and preparing to celebrate the birth of Jesus on Christmas Day. One of my favorite traditions - and decorations - is the Advent wreath, something we've used for a couple years, now. Our old wreath was looking pretty worn out, so this year I put together a new one. Here's how it turned out:

I love all of the symbolism behind each element of the wreath, and it was a lot of fun to figure out how to put it all together. The round shape of the wreath symbolizes God's mercy (which never ends), and the evergreens symbolize the hope of renewal and everlasting life, brought to us through Jesus. I was thrilled to find inexpensive advent wreaths at Michael's with the candle cups built right into the greenery; then I added four snowy pinecone picks to dress it up. Since I had a store coupon for 40% off...in total, I was pleased that the whole wreath cost about $12.

The candles have a lot of meaning behind them, too. Their warm light during these darker winter days is a reminder to us that Jesus is the light of the world. Four of them are used to represent each of the four centuries that the Israelites had to wait between the last prophecy about Jesus until His first coming, His birth. And they're also a beautiful reminder to us Christians now, that we are in a "second advent" - awaiting His second and final coming!

I really, really wanted to find the traditional colors of purple and pink for our candles this year...but I waited too long to order them online...and I didn't have time to stop at a Christian bookstore to pick some up. The symbolism there is of repentance (purple) and joy (pink)...reminding us to prepare our hearts to receive our King. Wonderful!

Instead, I did find these sparkly red ones on sale at Michael's (can you tell I love that store?), which I think turned out lovely, too. Next year I will remember to start sooner!

White bows symbolize Jesus' purity, His sinless life. In place of ribbon, I used some scraps of white sailcloth leftover from past craft projects, which I cut into strips for the bows. The white candle in the center is called the Christ candle, and is white to represent Him, too. We'll wait until Christmas morning to light that one :)

On Sunday night, we gathered the kids for eggnog and cookies while Daddy read the Advent devotion and Scripture reading. Little Monkey was too little last year to remember the wreath, and it was so fun to watch both him and Peanut get excited when General lit the candle. We talked about the real meaning of Christmas and laughed quite a lot, and then it was bedtime. Our Advent season is off to a good start, although I think next Sunday, I'll be sure to make a snack that is a little less sugary and crumbly! ;)

Home Management Binder :: Calendar Tab (new printable + tips)

2011-11-24T07:29:00.001-06:00

Here is the new printable calendar for my homemade organizer; this time I have started each week with Sunday. I also adjusted the margins in this page a little bit so there's more space between the binder's rings and the line where you write in the month. Hope it's helpful!

(click here to download or print)

This little project has been a lot of fun to put together! But as I mentioned before, I am still learning about pdf's, using Scribd, and such....so please let me know of any errors or if anything isn't printing out properly ;)

....................................................................................

:: a few tips on how I make the most out of my calendar section ::

I keep a full year of calendar pages in my binder all at once. This helps me remember long-term planning items such as ~

our schedule of school days (constantly changing, depending on how we're progressing through our curric)

homeschool group events

field trips

holidays

trips, birthdays, other family events

It really makes such a difference when I am diligent about keeping all of my family's events updated on one calendar, that I can keep with me all the time. This way I don't forget what's been scheduled, or accidentally double-book events in the same day (so embarrassing!). And I can plan ahead to prepare for things the way I'd like to.

I only write the name of an event and it's starting time on the actual calendar. Then I flip the page over to the blank back-side and write down any specific details I need to coordinate - such what dish of food I need to bring, if I need to line up a babysitter, or anything else I need to remember. Writing it all down right away - as the activity is being planned - means I won't forget! Later on, I add any new details right into the original note so it is all in one place for me (the babysitter's name and phone number, for example). I like to cut a few extra blank papers in half and punch holes in them (just like the calendar pages) so I have an extra page between each month for these notes.

At the beginning of each month, I move the old month's calendar & notes to the back of my binder's 'Calendar' tab so the new month is on top. I keep my old calenders for awhile, because I refer back to them often....and end up cleaning them out when my binder gets too full.

I'm almost finished with the template for making a set of tabs out of decorative paper (so much prettier than the store-bought kind!). I'm hoping to post those next week, along with instructions and tips for using the weekly pages, so be sure to check back soon!

Blessings,

linking up:

Happy Thanksgiving!

2011-11-23T15:50:00.001-06:00

Oh give thanks to the LORD,

call upon His name;

Make known His deeds among the peoples.

Sing to Him, sing praises to Him;

Speak of all His wonders.

Remember His wonders which He has done,

His marvels and the judgments

uttered by His mouth.

~ Psalm 105 : 1-2, 5 ~

1863 Thanksgiving Proclamation

"The year that is drawing towards its close has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequalled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence have not arrested the plough, the shuttle, or the ship; the axe had enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battlefield; and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom.

"No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and voice by the whole AMerican People. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our benefiecient Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and belssings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to his tender care all thouse who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union."

~ Abraham Lincoln

May God bless you and your family this Thanksgiving, as we remember His abundant mercies and blessings!

Chocolate Chip Cookies, Times Two {Whole Wheat or Gluten Free}

2011-11-21T11:41:00.001-06:00

We've been having a lot of fun in the kitchen over the past couple weeks! Now that everything is in order and organized (a post is coming soon about that!), I've been able to roll up my sleeves and get to work testing some new recipes for this year's Christmas baking.

For several years, I've been taking small steps toward cooking and baking more healthfully, using whole, unrefined and raw foods. Also, we've recently had some issues come up in our family with food allergies/intolerances. So, I've been ~~having some fun~~ spending some time on converting our favorite Christmas recipes to accommodate these things. ;)

Yesterday we baked these cookies for a homeschool potluck meeting, and they were a hit with all of my kiddos (and Hubby, too - the ultimate test!)...I think we will make them our official Chocolate Chip Cookie for this Christmas season. I love this recipe because it uses coconut oil or melted butter....and it all mixes up in one bowl. No mixer needed = easy cleanup and easy for the kids to do!

Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookies

(printable recipe is here)

1 cup coconut oil or melted butter
1 1/2 cups cane sugar or sucanat
2 eggs
1 tsp. molasses (omit if using sucanat)
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. vanilla
2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350F. Mix oil (or melted butter) and sugar (sucanat). Add eggs & stir well. Mix in molasses, baking soda and vanilla. Stir in the flour until combined. Fold in the chocolate chips. Drop by teaspoonfull onto cookie sheets. Bake for 12-14 minutes. (I found that they hold together nicely if you let them cool on the cookie sheets a few minutes before removing to a rack.)

....................................................................

And here is our gluten-free version. I just used the flours that I have on hand right now....I think they worked out pretty well!

Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Cookies

(printable recipe is here)

1 cup coconut oil or melted butter
1 1/4 cup cane sugar or sucanat
2 eggs
2 tsp. molasses
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. vanilla
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1 1/2 cups brown rice flour
3/4 cups potato flour
1/2 cup tapioca flour
1/4 cup almond meal
1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350F. Mix melted butter and sugar (sucanat). Add eggs and stir well. Add molasses, salt, baking soda, vanilla and cinnamon. Stir in the flours and almond meal until combined. Fold in chocolate chips. Drop by small teasponfulls onto cookie sheets. Bake for 12-14 minutes. Let cool on cookie sheet, then remove to a rack.

Blessings,

Math Lesson

2011-11-18T05:58:00.001-06:00

(Actually, more of a Mama lesson.)

Lately, Peanut has taken to hanging out with his Big Brother during lesson time.

He's just happy to quietly sit on General's lap. No talking or playing necessary.

I offered to take Peanut elsewhere so General could concentrate on his math lesson, but he said "No, Mom...he's happy sitting with me. Let him stay, I'll be okay."

I think that translates from boy-speak to mean, "I'm happy he's sitting with me."

A sweet moment in so many ways.

But a special reminder, too.

My family has our share of daily challenges. Little spats and squabbles. Messes, laundry, diapers and dishes. Sometimes I get discouraged. Some days I feel overwhelmed.

Sometimes it's hard to see it, but -

In the middle of it all, beautiful things are happening, too.

Things like this tenderness I see in my older ones for the little ones. Or the closeness and friendship I see between all of my kiddos, when the squabbles are worked through. ;)

I am gratefully reminded of something that many have said to me during the hard days:

"The sacrifices and labor and work
of staying at home
teaching our children

are more than worthwhile

when compared to the rewards they bring."

This is a moment I am treasuring up to ponder.

Have a joy-filled weekend!

Managing My Home :: Homemade Organizer {Tutorial & Free Printables}

2011-11-16T06:04:00.001-06:00

I recently noticed that there are two different words often used to describe a Mama's role in her home...'Homemaker' and 'Home Manager.' I never thought much of it until recently, when I had something of an aha moment. Each word has a slightly different meaning, and both are very necessary to my role in my home. 'Homemaker' seems to best describe the aspect of my work that cleans, decorates, nests, and makes our home feel, well, homey....and 'home manager' best describes the aspect that keeps my family's schedules rolling along, plans life and doesn't forget that there's a homeschool group meeting in two weeks for which I'll need to bake some cookies, and bring a list of other things!

I love homemaking...nesting, decorating, crafting, nurturing my family. Those are all things that I love to think about and do. But home managing is a bit of a different story...I definitely need to work harder at this aspect of my work! It doesn't come naturally to me, and therefore it's an area I'm always searching out ways of improving and learning how to do it better.

Which brings me to my story about organizers. Many years ago as an overwhelmed, newer Mama, I checked out a book from the library about home management. To my surprise, it ended up being mostly about how to manage your time using a daily planner. I wish I could remember the title or author, because it was so inspiring - and for me, life changing! I immediately ran out to the office supply store to buy one.....and was disappointed to see how expensive they were, and also that most of them were designed with working ladies in mind. Even the few planners geared for Mamas were meant for school-bound families (not homeschoolers) and just didn't have provision for the things I needed to plan.

SO, I began to experiment with making my own planners, soon discovering it was much more fun to use something homemade! Something tailored to all my little quirks, as well as the rhythms of my family. I've been making my own planners for several years now, and they've worked out so well for me that thought I'd share it all with you. Of course, your quirks and family rhythms are probably going to be different than mine. But if you've never used a planner before (or found one that worked for you!), then perhaps this will be enough to get you started on your way to creating your own unique system.

Please keep in mind that when I say "homemade".... I really do mean homemade. The printables that I'm sharing here are definitely not intended to look professional! But as I said, my intention is to encourage and bless, so if these might be of help to you, then "may God receive the greater glory." :)

.:: Here's what you will need ::.

one 3-ring binder (5x8)

set of tabbed page dividers
~ OR~
thick scrapbooking paper/decorative cardstock for making your own tabbed dividers (pictured)

printer paper
pack of 8x5 notebook pages

three-hole punch

optional :: plastic zip-pouch for keeping pens, sticky notes, etc.

Step 1 ~ Set up your Binder :: This is the easy step (and the most fun, I think!). My favorite binders are the plain white variety with clear plastic pockets on the covers. This way I can customize it with my favorite colors and designs using decorative papers. Most of the time, I use a sheets of scrabooking paper that I buy when it goes on sale....but other things that could work (and would be truly unique) are wrapping paper, pretty gift bags if they aren't too thick (cut them to fit the binder), or make a collage out of miscellaneous things like postcards, birthday cards, lace, ribbon, etc. (it just can't be too thick).

Step 2 ~ Set up your Tabs :: Pretty self-explanatory if you are using a store-bought set. I made my own using stiff (cardstock weight) paper by tracing an old set of tabs and cutting them out. If you don't have tabs to trace, I am working on a printable patttern for these. Hopefully they'll be ready for posting in the next week or so.

Step 3 ~ Label your Tabs :: This will depend on the things you need to plan for your family. My labels (currently) are Calendar, Weekly Pages, Master Schedules, Monthly To-Do List, Projects, Meal Plans and Blog. To determine what labels I really needed to include in my binder, I tried to think of what things are written on all of the miscellaneous papers I had been leaving all over the house! These are the things I spend my time planning, and those papers need a home. I decided not to include homeschooling in this binder (I keep a separate notebook for those plans!), but that might certainly be another label to consider.

Step 4 ~ Set up your Calendars ::

Here is the printable for my calendar pages.

I like to print out a year's worth of calendars & fill in the months and dates all at once, because then everything is ready for me at-a-glance right when I need it. Another option would be just to print out a few at a time, to save space in your binder. I place all of these under my Calendar tab with the current month on top.

You might notice that each calendar's week begins with Monday....that, there, is one of my little quirks. I really just like to look at my weeks in that order. Sundays are non-essential to me in terms of planning my daily work, because I try not to do any work on them! So I placed them last as a little reminder to myself of keeping them clear (except for fun things...). BUT, I am working on another printable with the traditional week set-up placing Sundays first, so if you prefer that...stay tuned. (**note: I posted the traditional calendar here.)

Step 5 ~ Set up your Weekly Pages ::

Here is the printable for Monday through Thursday.

And the printable for Friday through Sunday.

I like to print out six weeks of these to keep in the binder at one time, along with the following pages that I use to write all of my weekly lists. So each week has eight pages altogether: Monday/Tuesday, Wednesday/Thursday, Friday/Saturday, Sunday, To-Do This Week, Errands, Library, and Grocery. I put a line down the middle of each page to make them easy to cut out (I always end up cutting things crooked otherwise!). I keep these filed under Weekly Pages, with the current week on top.

Just a little note for you.... If your week's lists are different than mine, it would be very easy to make your own. You could use Word to type up your own list titles...or maybe just use some lined notebook paper with handwritten headings in the top margin (what I used to do).

Printable is here...

Printable is here.

And now you are ready to get started organizing your plans! Check back again soon, as I will be posting the printables mentioned above over the next few weeks or so....along with more thoughts and ideas about how I am making the different areas of this system to work for me, plus a peek inside each of my tabs.

Have a Blessed Wednesday!

Linking up:

Celebrating Thanksgiving :: Our Thankful Tree

2011-11-15T08:25:00.001-06:00

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays to celebrate with my family. I love its simplicity, both in its message and in the way it's still celebrated today. There is no fanfare (in the way our culture has added it to so many other holidays!)...it is still just a simple day spent with our loved ones, giving thanks together for the many blessings we have been given.

I'm pretty sure it's one of my children's favorites, too! They begin counting the days as soon as the calendar flips over to November, and General starts calculating how many servings of mashed potatoes he thinks he'll be able to polish off this year!

Over the weekend, I brought out our little collection of Thanksgiving books and began the conversation with my children about what the true meaning is for this holiday. Always a good reminder for them and for me! It has been especially fun this year, though, because Little Monkey is just old enough to begin to understand the story. It is a sweet blessing, indeed, to see my older children teaching the little ones the things I taught them not so very long ago!

I have seen the idea for a Thankful Tree in several places over the past few years, and have always thought it would be a nice little project to do with my kids. Inspired by Joy over at Artful Homemaking, we decided to finally give it a try this year. It was so much fun!

We collected several leaves in different shapes from our yard, and then used crayons to make leaf-rubbings on plain white paper. We wrote a few things we are thankful for on the back of each cut-out leaf. LM needed a little help understanding the idea, but once he got it, he had a very specific list - trains, books and chairs. And crayons.

Some other items listed - God, the Bible, food, family, beds, friends and cows. (Cows give us milk and ice cream!)

We used an old pickle jar for the tree's container, some rocks from the yard as a filler, and a few sticks to make the actual tree. A very simple afternoon project for a simple holiday....and something I think we will all look forward to doing again next year!

Restoring Order in my Home

2011-11-10T11:55:00.001-06:00

"The younger women (should) be...busy at home." Titus 2:5

Springtime is usually the season that gets me thinking about cleaning and decluttering my home, but I must confess. My closets and cupboards have been long-neglected. Too long! Over the past few years, my days have blissfully been filled with babies and toddlers (and not so much with organizing!).... and so my home's hidden places are in need of a little TLC.

There's something about having "a place for everything and everything in its place" that brings rest to the heart. When things are in order, I feel much calmer and more peaceful. Not to mention how much easier it is to go about our daily tasks when we know where everything is that we need.

For me, a peaceful heart equals contentment to be in my home. Where my heart needs to be.

"I desire that the younger women...guide the house."
1 Timothy 5:14 (KJV)

There's also a simplicity of mind that exists when a home's clutter is removed, and only the essentials are left. We really don't buy new things very often, but it doesn't take long for what I like to call "RBG" (Random Bits of Garbage) to collect in our drawers, on shelves, in closets. The stuff that "might be useful" someday and that we hate to throw away, but really doesn't serve a purpose for very long (if ever). We also love garage sale-ing....and I end up with miscellaneous odds-and-ends that just didn't fit into our home the way one of us thought it would.

And for me, an uncluttered house equals an uncluttered mind.

SO. Before the holidays arrive with all of the lovely decorations, fun projects, and new gifts and things to find places for...I'll be doing a little "fall cleaning," room by room, to restore order and peace to our place. I figure this is a good season for making donations of toys, clothing or other items to charities or families in need. Something I am looking forward to doing together with my children as a little pre-holiday project.

I'll update in a few days on our progress...if this is something you are doing before the holidays, too - leave a comment and/or your link and we'll all encourage each other! :)

Blessings,

Simmering Spices

2011-11-07T12:20:00.003-06:00

Here's a simple little way to bring some coziness into your home on a chilly day...make a pot of "simmering spices."

Put a small pot of water on the stove and bring it to a simmer...then toss in a handful of your favorite spices. In no time at all, your house will be filled with a gentle, warm aroma. No chemicals or artificial smells. Just yummyness.

Throughout the day I watch the water level in my pot, adding more as it simmers down. I also turn off the flame when I leave the kitchen; but as long as the spices and water stay warm, it continues to scent the air. A small crock-pot would probably work really well, too.

Some ingredients to try...cinnamon (ground or in sticks), cloves (whole or ground), nutmeg, allspice, grated citrus peels, chopped apples or other fruit, coconut cooking oil, true extracts (not artificial)...there are so many possibilities and combinations!

Cloves and lemons are two of my favorites, because their oils have antiseptic and cleansing properties. Besides smelling wonderful, they help purify the air. Something I especially like when my family is passing around a cold or the flu.

This is also a great way to use up any spices from the back of your cupboard that might be too old to use for cooking :)

Have a cozy Monday!

linking up at

Quiet Moment

2011-11-04T15:58:00.000-05:00

"Jesus, help me to simplify my life by learning what you want me to be - and becoming that person."

~ St. Therese of Lisieux

Cold Morning Comfort

2011-11-03T11:36:00.000-05:00

It is beginning to look like a 'real' fall day in Chicago, today....dark gray skies, light steady rain, howling wind!

It's a good morning to turn on all the lights...find our slippers...and settle in for a warm day at home.

I finally clipped the last set of rosebuds that have been ruggedly hanging in there through several frosty mornings and a few windy days. I think their time has come.

Oatmeal was for breakfast...something comforting on a cold dreary morning like this one!

Its warm, buttery goodness brings me right back to my childhood days. Mom always served this with the promise that "it will warm you up and stick to your ribs." She was right! And now that's what I say to my own kiddos as I give them their bowls.

Some yummy ways to spice it up :: chopped apples, blueberries, raisins, other dried fruits, cinnamon, nutmeg, honey, brown sugar, maple syrup, a little milk or cream

A little thought to warm the heart, too...

Preserve me, O God, I take refuge in you.

I say to You, Lord: "You are my God.

My happiness lies in You alone."

O Lord, it is You who are my portion and cup,

it is You Yourself who are my prize.

The lot marked out for me is my delight,

welcome indeed is the heritage that falls to me!

I will bless You, Lord, You give me counsel,

and even at night You direct my heart.

I keep You, Lord, ever in my sight;

since You are at my right hand, I shall stand firm.

~ taken from Psalm 16 ~

Have a warm and blessed Thursday!

Almost-Wordless Wednesday

2011-11-02T10:03:00.000-05:00

{beautiful fall sky}

{live-forevers in bloom}

{the day that Peanut found the cereal box}

{he had no idea our school lessons completely stopped and we were all watching him instead, lol!}

{Oops, Caught!}

Celebrating All Hallow's Eve

2011-11-01T15:28:00.001-05:00

Every family has their own unique way of approaching Halloween. Whether or not to celebrate it....what activities to do on that day....what our response to it should be as Christians. While we have always chosen to take part in this holiday, our intention has always been to bring "light" into what is otherwise a dark day. This year, we decided to try something a little different - and it worked out so well that I think a new tradition has begun in our family!

First, a few things I've been reading about... Since the 800's (or thereabouts, don't quote me!) Halloween has been observed by Christians as "All Hallow's Eve," or the 'eve' before the Feast of All Saints (back then it was called the Feast of "All Hallows"). All Saint's Day is the holiday when the Church remembers the Saints who are now in Heaven. It was intentionally placed on November 1st to try to redeem that particular time of the year, because pagans were celebrating their own festival of "the dead." It was a way for Christians to bring more Light into what was a dark world.

So, this year, we decided not to celebrate Halloween, but instead "All Hallow's Eve" as a way to bring a little Light into our corner of things! General and Rose each chose a Christian from history to read about, and then we made costumes to represent their person. I ended up re-using some cute costumes leftover from past years for Little Monkey and Peanut...although next year, I think I will have the little ones pick out a Bible character for their costume.

General, true to his nickname, chose Sergeant York, a Christian soldier from World War 1. (Actually, we counted this as his 4th year of being a soldier, lol!) This was a very easy project to pull together, since we already had everything he needed. Two years ago, I bought the book Sergeant York and the Great War as a Christmas gift for General, but ended up saving it for when he was older because of its higher reading level. So this was the perfect time to finally bring it out for him to read! For fun, we also watched the classic movie Sergeant York, since we had it on-hand (another Christmas gift).

Rose chose to be Gladys Aylward, a missionary to China - also from World War 1, after our family recently watched the classic movie, Inn of the 6th Happiness (about Gladys' life). I found a biography written at Rose's reading level, which she loved - No Mountain Too High, from the Trailblazers series. Her costume was a bit more of a challenge, since we didn't have any Chinese dresses on hand! But I did find a fairly easy tutorial for making a Kimono, thanks to google...and we had quite a bit of extra fabric that I picked up at garage sales over the summer, so I was able to sew one together at the last minute.

We were so excited to see both sides of our family for "All Hallow's Eve" this year! Sunday night we visited with my parents and siblings at my sister's house, which was so much fun...and yesterday, we visited with Hubby's side and had a blast while trick-or-treating with all of the little cousins. I think we now have enough candy in our house to last us through Christmas!