Monday, March 30, 2009

Menu

Mon: Spelt Pizza (adult: pesto, artichoke, eggplant and smelly cheese; kid: pepperoni)

Tue: Ratatouille

Wed: Salad

Thurs: Cous Cous Soup

Fri: Veggie curry

Sat: Tilapia!

Salad goes with most of those.
Lunches we kind of "snack": cashews or other nuts, salad, nutcrackers, fruit, veggies (carrots are Bugs and my fav) pnut butter, kefir or choc rice milk popcicles, pickles, yogurt. smoothies. Now I just need to shop!

Saturday, March 28, 2009

Art into School




This was the project that we did for what ended up the theme of "long" for Unplug Your Kids
It took about 2 hours for us to complete this project, a "long time". But what started out as a fun art project, that I wasn't so sure about, ended up being many different lessons in one. These are those small plastic beads that help with small motor skills and I had Bug counting how many beads we needed and what colors, it was nice. He made it educational, I didn't push it. He has been putting numbers into anything, shows an interest in measuring this with the tape measure, which we also did for the "long" theme. He really enjoyed this project and there are many other 3-D animals in the kit we got to work on this next week! Two for the price of one! I love seeing what Bug learns with every day living!

My first knit in the round

Yesterday I finally got the nerve up to found out how to knit in the round...Youtube is great! This was my very first project and I am very pleased with the outcome. Pickle has a new hat!



Monday, March 23, 2009

Things I want to try with Bug

I am looking for new, fun, interesting and educational things to do for "homeschool" here is my list of things I would like to get into our lives in the near future: This list was created so I have all this info in one place, but you can enjoy these things as well! What fun!

Counting to 20
Writing the Alphabet upper and lower case
More Simple math adding
More phonics
 


More will be added here, this is just the beginning!

Feel the need



I haven't posted in a while, so I thought, why not? We had a great week and weekend. We went to the St. Patty's parade. I'm not a big fan of this holiday, how it became a drinking holiday, I don't know. They don't even celebrate it in Ireland, so it makes no difference to me. I guess we should just learn about Ireland and focus that is where my family comes from. It was still fun to find green clothes, well, orange, since we are protestant, so Bug wore green, Pickle wore orange and we got lots of beads from the parade. I guess legally they really can't throw candy, they did throw some, so we got a little of that too. Bug shared his candy with all that evening at dinner. We also got to go to a farm this last week, which was really nice. Bug got to hold a baby chick, "so soft".  We enjoyed the company, the chickens and the beautiful weather. Went to the library to pick up a few things. 
Had a Saturday of fun with our Awana kids. They had some "Olympic games" that both of our teams got 3rd, out of 4. It was our first year and it was a stressful experience for me leading up to the event, our church wasn't organized (not my fault this time!). I wasn't in charge of that, so I shouldn't have stressed. Now I know for next time.
Sunday was nice, weather was great, Pickle is teething and a little fussy, so I did break out the Tylenol, poor guy. We went to good friends house for the afternoon and had lunch and great conversation. The men played Star Wars with kids in the backyard, it was fun to watch and hear! All in all really nice week. Today is rainy and Love took my car to work, his car didn't want to start, but that is o.k. we need a day in and I thought we might try some crafts at home! I will be looking those up today and menu planning.

Monday, March 16, 2009

Zoo Times

Friday was fun! We ventured to the Omaha zoo with my cousin and his family, they have two boys as well! The boys all loved it. Pickle fell asleep in the moby while the other three boys ran ahead of everyone and tried to race to the end of the zoo! Lots of fun, lots of energy and deemed a good time for all. This photograph was taken by my four year old, Bug. He like to take pictures. The zoo has a new butterfly building, nice. I let him run loose with my camera, which he loves. He takes nice photos! He is taking after Daddy! Loves to take pics of everything and anything including his hands and feet as well as self portraits! Lots of fun living life through a four year olds eyes. I learn so much and I'm glad and blessed to have this special time to spend with my young children.

Today was beautiful, even though we spent most of the day in doors. Pickle slept more today, I think he's going through a growth spurt. We have decided to try a garden this year and this is the week to set it up. I also started a wheat bread dough and made a loaf this evening, smells great! Tomorrow will be running around day and out of the house day. Parade to see, if we get there, art supplies to locate for our block printing "class" we will be taking next Tuesday, and trying to get our things together for our Square Foot Garden. I hope all goes well, we are new to this, so if it doesn't go well, we can live with it. My love bought our tickets to visit our family in Oregon in May! We are both so excited. Bug's 5th birthday will be while we are out there and we hope to visit the ocean, this will be both of the boys' first time. How fun! I get to meet more of our family (some family of mine that Love hasn't met as well as Love's family that I still haven't met). I love traveling, so I am very excited. I have been eating pretty good the last couple of days, but I haven't worked out for a week. I did walk for five hours or so at the zoo on Friday. I hope to do something active this week, outside as well as in. My life is in a great direction and I'm so glad to have Love in my life to share it!

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Night with sleep!

So the last few nights I feel like I have been getting sleep. Pickle slept through Tuesday night, all the way through! Went to bed at 10 and woke up at 7:30ish! What?! Yep, that's right. You know last night wasn't the same, but still, it was nice. He didn't get up until 4:30, which he has been doing for a while. He only gets up once a night, we are blessed! 

Pickle started rolling over, just a few times, but yesterday with Daddy he rolled over while he was getting his diaper changed, the first for Daddy's eyes. 

What a crazy night at Awana.(Love and I had a stupid fight yesterday and then I went to Awana, still a little upset.) I have come to love my kids at church, very much. We have split the boys from the girls for most of the night with the 3-5th graders. It's really been nice. But for the last month or so the girls have been giving each other bad looks, calling each other names and some small threats have been going off. I have been disturbed by this and decided to confront all of them about it. It was a good thing, after some of the girls came to me to let me know the behind the scenes at home and that spills over into live outside! Man, my problems about who cleans what at home and what chores go to who really pale in comparison to the problems I hear from our girls at church. Most come from broken homes, one lives with Grandma and recently watched her uncle (that was living with them) get taken away in handcuffs. Her parents divorce is recently been final and her mom is re-marrying some guy. Another girl just found out that her parents are getting a divorce after so 10 years of being married. It breaks my heart to see the girls go through this. Our society has just decided that when things get hard, we can just call it quits. I don't believe that. I believe that you can marry anyone, you are going to have your ups and downs, but when you are down, it's that the person you want to share your inner most thoughts to? I think that marriage is sacred and today, to most people, they think they can just split when things aren't going their way. It hurts. I have a hard time looking at these situations. I know, some may say, well, you have been married before and now you have only been married for just over a year. I do know that. My life has changed so much in the last 5 years that it makes my head spin. But I have come away with knowledge. I have always thought that God taught me so much through my experiences. I know that I could marry anyone, as long as they are willing to work on the marriage with me. That was the problem in my first marriage. I wasn't important enough to fight for, and I have accepted that (not that it was easy). But this time, God truly blessed me with my life partner, my soul mate, my best friend. How wonderful! Being obedient has really been the way to go! It is really easy being married to someone who shares the same spirit, the same goals, the same values and the same dreams. 

Back to what I was saying, some of my girls have a hard time at school and some of these girls have a little violence that has been accepted into who they are. we have been taking about when we don't like someone, what should we do? "Walk away, keep your distance and pray for them". Something that also surprises me is that most of my girls go to church, have been to church, are saved themselves. Most of them have some knowing about church, the Bible, God. But they haven't been taught the basics. We have some girls learning the books of the Bible and I have found out that they don't know how to look up verses in the Bible. So for the last three weeks we have been looking up scripture. If they don't get that at home, we have to teach them. I want to give these girls the tools they need. Reading the Bible has been on my mind for weeks now, how do I get the girls to know how important it is to read and memorize for the future. One day they will look back and now that God was guiding them into the lives He designed for them. i don't care if they remember me. I want them to have good memories of church, not being bullied while they were there. My whole thing about being in Children;s ministry (not my calling, really) is that I don't want someone telling them about God being in a box, that God has many sizes and shapes, colors, smells. I want them to know when you read and study your Bible, it's OK to highlight or underline it! Live can have so many more colors and smells for us to enjoy if we just let God work and let ourselves get out of the way.  

I know this post is long and kind of a tangent, but it has been on my heart and mind and it needed out. Maybe someone needed to read this, I don't know. Maybe I'm just needing a cleanse of my heart. Thank you for taking the time and reading this, or just skimming it. It's not for everyone, but the ones close to me know how I feel, and sometimes this is just my diary. I feel safe here and I can share my heart. Please pray for the girls that I have a influence on and I have a heavy burden for them, I have a hand in the molding and pray I can be a good guide for them to look at in my life.

Monday, March 9, 2009

Meal plan

My bff and I making Spelt Pizza Last Saturday Night! Pickle is enjoying the Moby!











Or Menu Monday, is what some people call it.

Breakfasts: Pink smoothies/frozen waffles, cereal

Monday: Dinner; Salad/pink smoothie
Tuesday:Lunch; Salad or green smoothie and grilled cheese
        Dinner; Ratatouille
Wednesday: Lunch; Mexi Egg wrap
                       Dinner; Crepes and salad
Thursday: Lunch; Salad/ green smoothie
                   Dinner; Cous Cous Soup
Friday: Lunch; left over soup
              Dinner; Going out for pizza!
Saturday: Lunch; fend for yourself
                  Dinner; Quiche

I have some bread to make, I made my first loaf yesterday and it was great! I'm so excited! Can't wait to make more! I have been convicted about eating my green smoothies, I have been craving too many sweets, kick that feeling out. And I need to workout, I have a sinus infection, the second one in a month, so I need to get my body moving to get it out, get a massage or acupuncture done and exercise, that is my solution! I downloaded more pics that I will post here. I printed some pics of the boys and sent them off to family a far. I picked up the house some, still needs more attention, but getting there. Pickle is teething, so drool has become the norm and fun gas that you would think came out of a grown person, man can he fart! 
Back to the sinus infection, I have been reading my Alternative Medicines book for school, and think that I have chronic sinusitis. We are going to see if we can have to dog out of the house for a couple weeks to see if that might be a factor in my sinus issues. 
We got together with our really good friends over this last weekend, which was great. They guys mudded the addition to their home and us ladies made spelt pizza, which i have come to love. Then we went over worship music for Sundays set that we were all a part of. It was nice and relaxing. Sunday we went back and my Mom made lunch for all of us and we played Apples to Apples. Good times! 
We also enjoyed going to our first official "Park Day" with the local unschooler/homeschoolers group that we have come to enjoy being a recent addition. We have met up with them at a couple of events this winter, so "Park Day" is other events when the weather isn't fun for the park. I'm very grateful to this group of wonderful and supportive women. I look forward to more of the weekly meet-ups! 
Tomorrow we are going over to another friends house, without the kids, to have craft night of our very own. I believe Love and I will be doing some knitting and our friends will either be knitting or doing some macrame, it will be nice. I am looking forward to having more creative thing in our house to share with out children and so that the t.v. isn't on as much. Bug did ask to learn how to knit, we have tried once and he lost interest within the first 5 minutes, we will try again later.

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Early morning

It is early, thought I would blog since it has been a while again. Bug got to spend time with is biological Dad the last couple of days, very emotional for everyone. We are now recovering and going to get back to normal. 

I made a great dinner of Cous Cous Soup and apple/brie with a reduced balsamic vinegar sandwich on nice toasted bread! I really love cooking, when I have the time. I made our menu for this week, got groceries and went thrift shopping yesterday with a friend that I haven't seen for a couple months now. Nice time catching up. 

I have been back on pink smoothies, but still am trying to get back to green ones too. I haven't gotten back into working out again since I was sick over Valentine's weekend. Oh well. I have been keeping busy and reading, need to sign up with my new CSA for this year! I'm really excited and need to plan out our garden, Bug wants to help! Love has been taking a theology course at our church (I took this a year or so ago), it's good and keeps you reading the Bible and memorizing scripture, which is always a good thing. I might pick up my book and go through it again while he is taking it! 

We have also started knitting, Love has made two scarves and I have made a scarf and a pair of fingerless gloves that Bug decided were for him! I want to learn how knit socks and Love wants to learn to make a hat, which I would like as well. Oh what a fun hobby for us to do together and make stuff for each other! I guess we need to learn how to knit in the round! That will be fun. Bug has decided he wants to learn to knit as well, it's not going well for him right now with that, but I will try if he wants to keep on!

I have been reading blogs and enjoying my friends in conversation lately. I hope tomorrow is more of the same, I mean today!