Finished Closet

Our closet project is complete. Yeah!! Her whole room has such a great feel to it now. Since she has no door on it, it really changed the way the room looks! But the best part was that we had a lot of fun doing it together. We make a great team!

I was a little nervous about taking all that shelving apart. Or rather remembering how to put it all back together again! LOL But we did it with no problems at all. And now it just looks so nice!

We used some old ceiling paint as primer and then did two coats of the lite lime green color on the inside. In an attempt to make something like a garden trellis we used some old dark green paint for the trim and then stencilled little flowers and butterflies all around it. Pretty artsy for me, huh? LOL
It was a lot of fun to work on together and Pillar loves the way it turned out! So glad we/I finally got it done!

A Fresh Start

Proverbs 31:27 (New International Version)

27 She watches over the affairs of her household
and does not eat the bread of idleness.

I know I've been missing from bloggy world for a few weeks, but the Lord's been dealing with me. And I've been letting Him!! So I've thrown myself whole heartedly into what the Lord has called me to and done it with all my heart. I've made many changes in my own heart first, and then in the live's of my children. I must lead by example, I don't want to be a hypocrite.

Our school year started two weeks ago and it's been awesome!! We're using some new curriculum this year. Some that was given to me or found for just pennies. It's been fun! Rosebud is using Total Language Plus for language arts this year. We slowly read through a book dissecting it bit by bit. In addition to the necessary LA there are also fun activities, simple geography and character lessons added to it. She's LOVING these. Most are very simple both in time and money. Right now she's reading Pipi Longstocking. We've baked Swedish Christmas cookies, gone to the zoo, made and flipped pancakes REAL high, and attempted 43 somersaults in a row just to name a few~ LOL However, after just 7 she determined that this particular activity must have been meant for younger children. lol Hence the painful pic below.

We're using Mystery of History for the second year and loving it. When I put the time in to find the right books and movies at the library to go along with it, it really adds a new dimension to it. And when I plan ahead and prepare for the suggested activities, it's amazing all that they retain. So I have been diligent to do all of the above~and not regretting it for a moment!
Bowling with the family.

I have a question for you all. How do you determine how many books to have your children read? Mine have textbook reading/studying, assigned reading which might be for history or science, and then fun reading. They all enjoy reading too. I'm pretty selective about what they're allowed to read and am always on the lookout for a good book recommendation. But if they had their way it would be fun reading every day and I'm trying to get more non fiction, biographies or even historical fiction included in there. But I don't want them to lose their enjoyment of it either. Any help would be greatly appreciated!!

I've also been tackling little odd jobs around the house that are WAY overdue! We've made trips to consignment stores, goodwill, and friends house's to de-clutter. Yeah! Such a good feeling every time I do it. And the funny thing is when I start to de-clutter, then the next thing I know the girls are doing the same without any prompting by me!

One of the bigger projects has been to finish painting Pillar's closet. We painted her room a few years ago. Yep, you heard me right.....a couple years ago. But never painted her closet. I guess we didn't have enough paint to do what we wanted and then just never got around to finishing it at all. Well that what we're doing this week. Together, just the two of us. And we're having so much fun!! The two of us in a pretty small space has not gone without accident as you see here! LOL

We're not quite done yet. We put on the second coat of color today and we'll do the detail and stenciling tomorrow. I think it's going to look great when we finish!

Miracle, Rosebud and I are using Apologia's Human Body this year and trying their new notebooking journals too. In years past we've used a lapbook from Live and Learn Press. I thought we needed a change so we're using these and learning so much! The experiments are really helpful too! We've had so many medical issues in our family that this study is very relevant and the girls are eating it up! This is a jello mold of a cell. We used candy for the different parts. I wish I could tell you it tasted good, but alas....it was nasty! lol

Sorry about all the mixed up pics. I don't know how they all got out of order. Weird!

I wish we would have thought to take a video of what we saw here. The mother giraffe nursed her baby and just hugged and nuzzled him. It was the sweetest thing I've ever seen at the zoo. By the time the baby had finished nursing and the mama had stopped cuddling him, there was a HUGE crowd watching. What a beautiful sight!

Thank you for all your kind encouraging words. I appreciate them all!! Have a wonderful day tomorrow and enjoy the Sabbath with your family.

PS. Please don't forget to answer my question. Thank you!!

The Nina and Pinta ~ Up Close!

We had the opportunity to see the most historically accurate replica of the Columbus ships ever built. The Nina and Pinta tour together as a sailing museum. They just happened to be docked just over an hour away from us so we just HAD to check them out! I must say we thought they were pretty cool. We were blessed with beautiful weather too! The breeze blowing through our hair made us feel like we were out in the open waters. Fun!!

The men/crew of the ship would sleep on hammocks tied between the masts.....WAY.....up there!

Hmmmmmm.......I wonder what's.....down.....there??????

Aghhhhhhhhhhhhh! Gotcha!!! LOL

Aye aye sailors!

On the way back to the van we found this cool amphitheatre. My little monkeys down there putting on a show.

Silly silly silly!!!

Aren't they cute??

After we were done "playing" we drove another hour and went to our favorite little Amish store called Weavers. It's been an annual tradition for years now to go every summer. They have wonderful old hymns playing in the background and they carry all kinds of fun food at great prices! Just a few of our favorites are little alphabet pretzels as well as alphabet pasta, mini marshmallows for our hot chocolate this winter, baking chips in every imaginable flavor, bulk flours, everything I need for baking bread that I can NEVER find in the stores, and the coolest candies ever! The girls always get to pick out a bag of new fun candy. A tradition we hope to continue for many years to come!

It was a fun day! And to finish the day off we stopped at Sports Authority to look at swim apparel and gear for the girls. And guess what?? God gave us such favor!! An associate in the store gave us two different coupons to use on our purchases. And then we found out at the checkout that the items we selected were really clearanced out but not marked properly! Wahoooo! So we walked out with just about everything we needed for just a fraction of the price. Thank you Lord!!! I love it when He directs our steps to be at the right place at the right time.

God Bless YOU!

Dinner's in the Freezer....and Breakfast Too!!

I am a HUGE fan of cooking and freezing meals in advance!! It's a way that I can feed my family healthy, economical meals that taste great and do not require hours of work. Another benefit is that I have wonderful homemade meals at a moments notice for blessing friends and neighbors as well! Especially now that the girls are older and able to help in the kitchen, we can really get a lot done in one afternoon. Yeah!!

Monday morning we went to WalMart and bought everything on our shopping list but the fresh fruit and produce totalling about $150. Then that afternoon we made the following meals:

Chili - 4
Sloppy Joe Casserole - 4
Chicken-Broccoli Bake - 3
Greg's BBQ - 2

(I did have a pic of it all, but it disappeared from the camera somewhere between here and there. Bummer.)

This morning we went to Aldi's and bought a bunch of fresh fruit and veggies. We also stopped off at Goodwill and found some much needed jeans/pants for this Fall/Winter for the girls. They were having a 1.49 Yellow tag sale. Wahooo!

Then we came home and made the following meals:

Chicken Curry - 3
Beef and Bean Burritos - 48 burritos divided into 6 meals
PB&J Breakfast Cookies - 48 cookies divided into 6 meals
Farmer's Breakfast Casserole - 2
Strawberry Smoothies - 6
Fresh blueberries (frozen) - 1 Bag
Although we're all tired from the boiling, chopping, cutting, stirring, slicing, mixing, labeling and freezing.....it's a wonderful feeling to have a full freezer of yummy homemade meals!!

Hope you're enjoying your summer!