Posted in Talking About the Family
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We had a birthday go by while I was away from Bloggerland. Betcha can't guess who. Here's a clue.
I know he looks very mysterious in his disguise. You probably don't recognize him at all. Did you guess Mr. Potato Head? You'd be wrong if you did. It's ds who is now 6 and very happy to receive nothing but Legos for his birthday.
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My 4yo dd hurt her fingers this morning when we were about to leave to bring a family friend home from a sleepover with our oldest dd. The whole family was going to go because dh was going to help this friend's dad with some building on their "solar palace." So when the 4yo couldn't compose herself enough to go, I suggested the two of us just stay home. This unexpected one-on-one time was just what we both needed. After some good amount of comforting time we decided to color together. That really ended up as me coloring and dd telling me what colors to use. She made good choices. After that dd had a snack of frozen blueberries we had picked a few weeks ago and an apple while I made blueberry muffins and apple cinnamon bread. We cleaned up and immediately went to playing with her very own Legos until the rest of the family came home. We had a delightful time together and it reminded me that I need to be making more time for each of my children individually. I feel like I didn't see my oldest dd much today because when she was home, she was reading or outside with her siblings or I was napping. (Yes I did manage to get a nap in today I'm sure I don't give dh enough time with each of the children either. We are all always so happy to spend time together as a family, that when the opportunities come we don't break off to have alone time with each other. Dear Lord, thank you for opening my eyes. Please help me to be a good steward of the time You give me with your children. Amen.
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We followed this with playing with her press and dress dolls. If you've never heard of these, they are similar to paper dolls except they are stiff and made with fabric and velcro to hold the fabric outfits on. I think I'll post a seperate entry about those wonderful toys.... Anyway we played Little House with these dolls and taught them their ABC's and 123's at play school. 
) I think I will make some time for her next. She is surely in need as she is now 12 and I can see so much changing in her life very quickly. I must make one-on-one time a regular event!!!!! Posted in Talking About the Family
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The planning was done, the weather was perfect, the vans were packed. On Thursday, our family, joined by two others left for our annual camping trip at Otter River State Park. We were a little worried about the weather, we had heard that there was a good chance we would see some rain on both Thursday and Friday so we prepared by bringing several LARGE tarps. But in the end, we only had a couple showers. The days were warm and sunny and the nights were cool, perfect camping weather in my humble opinion. Once the tents were up we got right into prepping the food. We have learned that good food really enhances our enjoyment of the camping.
The site we chose is right alongside the river. Although it moves along pretty quickly, the depth is perfect for children to play all day, and boy do they! Here we are racing our cucumber canoes down the river.
On Friday afternoon we headed down to Beaman Pond for some swimming and relay racing.
We came straight back to camp to get ready for our showers and while we were at the showers, we heard about some serious showers headed our way! Oh! I forgot to mention, the ice cream truck came by before we took our showers.
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No rules about who could join the race so we had the 3yo right up to the adults. Well ok, one adult, but it really was fun for all of us.
We chased our boats down the river over and over again and some kids went back and made modifications to see if they could get the cucumbers to float better without taking on water.
My sister had called from her home, only about a half hour drive from where we were camping and told us they were having torrential rains, thunder and lightening and flood watches were in effect. Our dh's and one mom stayed behind at the campsite to batten down the hatches while Paula and I supervised the children at the Bee Movie that the campground was showing at their pavillion. When we got back it was raining but all the tarps were up and tight, and dinner was being served. Oh you gotta love it when everything comes together and everyone works together. Nothing but good stuff!
Don'tcha just love that ice cream face. Oh yeah, we needed those showers.Posted in Talking About the Family
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My sister, my friend.
She is strong in the Lord and a mighty spiritual mentor.
Sharer of our mother.
Fun to go places with. Happy Birthday Dear Sister!!!! |
Posted in Talking About the Family
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Have you ever noticed how as people age they start showing an interest in birds? Retired couples everywhere are hanging birdhouses and filling birdfeeders. I've never really been interested in birds before. Never liked the surprise droppings falling from the sky. I spent a lot of time at the beach growing up and on occassion a nice elderly person would bring down a loaf of stale bread to feed the seagulls. Oh I'm sure their intentions were good, spending time with a little kid feeding the birds seems so nice. But let me tell you, those seagulls can become quite bold and before you know it they are fighting over the bread scraps and dive bombing the child, who is only trying to be nice. YIKES! I think I must be getting old. The last time I went to the beach I got a good feeling as I gazed upon the seagulls and listened to their unmistakable call. Last month I asked my parents to give me their window bird feeder that they no longer used. DH mounted it in the window but we have yet to witness any birds eating from it. And just this week DH built two new bird houses. Friday he hung the two of them plus another in different areas of the yard. Yesterday, a pair of wrens moved in and we, as a family sat on the back deck and watched them build their nest.
DH got out a camera and a couple pairs of binoculars for us to take a real close up look without disturbing them. Even though they are right in our backyard, we were trying to see their exact coloring, they are such tiny little birds. At first we thought maybe sparrows but after I got the Bird Fandex out, we were able to identify them as wrens based on their coloring, uplifted tail, beak and bubbly music. I also pulled out my copy of Birds at Home by Marguerite Henry, a beautifully illustrated book written with warmth and humor. Sadly it does not include a color illustration of the house wren but we did learn that the male wren will fly north, ahead of the female, and build little nests everywhere in hopes that his dear wife will like one of them. But she does not like ANY of his nests! And she can't sing like her husband. "She just sputters about everything. Not a single nest pleases her. 'Tsk, tsk! What rubbish!' she seems to say..." (That would explain the uninhabited cup shaped nest we found in the petunia plant out front.) Finally, "she chooses a nest, tosses out all of her mate's twigs, and builds to suit herself."
Since I am not even close to retirement age, I am going to have to assume that the subject of birds must be a homeschooler thing too. But now what will I do when I grow old? |
Posted in Talking About the Family
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We just got back from our week and a half away in West Virginia, my dh's home state. Visiting family is always a joyous experience but the highlight of this trip was a camping trip on the banks of the New River. Even in the rain we had fun.
Mommaw and Poppaw took us all on an adventure to see the breathtaking views of the New River region.
DS and DD just liked the trains I think. Every time we heard a train coming they had to see it and this was often because the train runs right along the river so while camping we saw MANY trains go by.
I'm not sure if you can tell but ds is missing 4 teeth in that picture. They all came out within the last three weeks! He's saving up for a Lego set. At Hawk's Nest, we saw many hawks flying about while we ate lunch. The neatest part was that we ate lunch in the lodge at the top of the mountain and the hawks were flying below us between the mountains. That was really cool, we usually only get to see their underbellies. We didn't get any good shots of them through the windows of the restaurant but we did later see a couple cute deer and dh was able to snap this picture of a mother and her fawn.
We saw a LOT of deer on this trip - both dead and alive. One of the dead ones had antlers which is a new site for me because although we see live deer families a few times a year in or near our yard, they never have antlers. And the ones I saw in WV while driving about didn't have antlers either. Poppaw put some coins in the view finders for the kids while we were climbing around. They loved that. After lunch we took a tram ride down the mountain to the jetboat tour.
The guide brought us as far as he could safely take us to get a closer look at the famous New River Bridge. This is the second highest vehicular bridge in the world - was the highest until 2004 - and is featured on the new West Virginia quarter. I was much happier under it than if I'd had to go over it. I took the following picture of the family to prove we all made it back alive from the scarey tram ride.
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On our way back to the campground we stopped to see these beautiful water falls. This is just tucked away off the road, you could easily pass it by without even noticing.
This last one is the family on a great BIG rock that had beautiful water markings on it. Too bad you can't see them in the picture but it did make a pretty neat family photo anyway, right there in front of the lowest part of the falls.
Posted in Talking About the Family
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 She is certainly precious and I think I'll let her be my baby forever. We celebrated with her best buddies and family over pizza and cake Friday night. Her actual birthday yesterday was a quiet one but we made sure she felt special anyway amidst our gardening all day. In the afternoon we played with her new crafts and games she had gotten for her birthday. Then we let the kids stay up late and had a campfire last night. They loved it, our first fire of the year. We popped popcorn and sat around the fire just enjoying the night air and gazing at the moon. |
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DH is reading a couple books he picked up at homeschool convention. Mainly I think he is reading Know Why You Believe by Paul E. Little but he hasn't mentioned much about it. I'll have to remember to ask him how it is. My dd 11yo was reading Moby Dick. All on her own, I didn't assign it. She got about 3/4 of the way through and she has given up. Doesn't want to finish. I was so hoping she would. But alas I will not make her and I finally asked her to remove it from her list of books she is currently reading on her Shelfari. But now her shelf stands empty. It's not because she is not reading anything at all. It's because she doesn't get onto her shelfari often enough to list the books she is actually reading and she goes through them too fast. I think I will ask her to pick our her next 5 books and post them onto her shelfari as current reading list and then go update Shelfari with a new five when she finishes those five. DS5yo is doing well with his reading but he is not up to chapter books yet so I can't really say what he is reading per se but he has been taking his turn reading the Bible each morning with us. I just love to hear him read God's word and be eager to do so too!!! He also gets in a couple easy reader type books per week but I'd really like to make sure he is reading at least one book a day. I just haven't been sitting down with him enough. To all the kids, I am reading 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne. The lengthy descriptions can be tough at times even for me so I have allowed the children to color while I read to them as long as they are drawing "the story." We have seen some pretty interesting sea monsters from the first few chapters. When we left off, they were about to go "hunting" underwater with Captain Nemo. I wonder what kinds of pictures my kids will draw based on that chapter? I am reading Ginger Plowman's Don't Make Me Count To Three. It's taking me a while to go through it to be honest. Not that the reading isn't good, it's just that I rarely sit down to read for my own enjoyment anymore. Do blogs count? |
New goal!Posted in Talking About the Family
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At dinner tonight we discussed how close we are to ending our school year. ONly 3 weeks left! I have mixed feelings. Thrilled to have some days of relaxation and play, I always loved having the summer off when I went to PS and missed it in the "real world." But I am also a little sad. There is still so much I want to do with the kids this year. I'm still coming up with ideas and wanting to plan out our lessons. I wish the time didn't pass so quickly. The kids are so excited though so I don't dare try to prolong it.
I suggested the park or some other type of outing. LOL They all wanted junk food. But not the same kind so I'm not sure what we'll end up doing. Maybe a crazy ice cream sundae bar with donuts. Yes, donuts are good in a sundae. Warm up a glazed donut sometime and pile ice cream, bananas, caramel, whipped topping and crunched up toffee on top and see if I'm not right. he he he But how to get the popcorn in there? I just don't think we can do this all on one day and probably we *shouldn't* or we might go into some sort of sugar shock. Maybe we should have a celebratory week? |
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I thought I'd share a few cheerful photos from our visit to West Virginia. Visiting dh's family is always a pleasure. Here is DH and his dear Mommy. I think this one came out fabulous, it's one of my favorites.
This one is my oldest dd with her aunt - Mommaw's sister.
Poppaw holding his favorite grandson.
We just love to spend time on the front porch and the weather wa sperfect while we were there. A nice break from the cold, raw, dreariness we left in Massachusetts. But when we came home the weather turned nice just in time and we've had glorious 80 degree days since.
DH's brother was there too and it was so nice to see him. It has been too long. Here are the little ones playing in the yard with their little friend Taco.
I wish I had a better one of the youngest but she is never looking at the camera.
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A few weeks ago we got the call that dh's grandfather was not doing well. As you might guess, the calls continued to come with more dire news. We packed up the family and started on the long drive to West Virginia in hopes of visiting with Grandpa one last time before his final journey. I am so thankful we all went together as a family. Dh considered going by himself but we decided there was nothing keeping us from all going. My dc got to see their great grandfather in his home the day before he died. It was such a natural way for all to say goodbye. And dh was able to be right there beside his family when they all needed to be together. We spent a week and were able to attend all the functions and surround ourselves with family. This family was blessed by such a man who was honest, hardworking and always ready with a story of his youth. He fought for his beloved country during WWII and gave of himself freely to any one in need. For a dear grandfather who will never be forgotten and always be loved, thank you.
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The book shelf fun has been caught by my own dd. She has been updating her shelfari and I've put up a shelf on my sidebar so grandparents and anyone interested can check out what she is reading at any given moment. |
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On March 19, 2007 my cousin Ashley was rushed to the hospital. By midnight she had no brain activity and was tested again on the 20th before being pronounced dead. She died of bacterial meningitis. She had no idea that she had it and seemed perfectly healthy. She'd gone to work that morning never knowing how her day would end in tragedy. While I am no longer in denial, it's still so hard to believe. Ashley was 23 years old. I am so saddened and grieved by the whole thing. You never really expect anything like this coming to your own family. I know everybody says that, but when it does happen to you, you can't help but wonder if it's all real. It doesn't seem real.
Here she is in Colorado when she went to visit my sister Jo (above left). And with my sister Debbie during that same visit (above right). Ashley spent one Christmas with us when times were tough for her. Here she is with my sister, Debbie and I a few Christmases ago (bottom right). She was full of smiles, a beautiful girl. We will remember and miss her always. |
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Here I was trying to capture the huge snow flakes. They were as light and fluffy as downy feathers falling from the heavens.
Posted in Talking About the Family
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The Valentine houses have been eaten and/or thrown out. Time for Easter crafts! Today I took all the hearts off our windows and walls and front door and made some plans for our new decorations. I like to use the kids' homemade decorations the most because they are so personal. They L To replace the hearts on the windows I have decided to let the kids watercolor paint some white egg shapes. I'm not sure what I'll have them cut the egg shapes from. Coffee filters would be best so they can drip colors onto the filter and let the paint spread and they would be nice and thin. Hanging in the window with the sun shining through would be very pretty! Tomorrow I plan on having them paint a wooden cross I picked up a while back at a craft store. I also have some jewels for them to glue on. I'm not sure where I'll have them hang it. Maybe they can come up with a nice well-viewed place so we can always be reminded of Jesus. Lastly, which also happens to be the first thing I did with them, we prepared our baskets today. They planted grass seed at the bottoms of their baskets. Very cool! Here's where I got the idea. They placed them all in a sunny window with a spray bottle nearby so they can water the grass all by themselves and on Easter they will have their basket filled with real grass! I'll try to post pics once things are moving along and we have something to photograph. |
VE being able to decorate for me and the projects change every year so there is always something new.Posted in Talking About the Family
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I had planned on using the vanilla sugar wafer cookies as discussed in a previous post but my dc have been sick the last few days and I have been housebound. So no grocery store, no wafer cookies... It worked out well though using graham crackers thanks to my dear friend who showed me this fabulous recipe for frosting cement
We're planning to spend tomorrow night at my parent's house. My mom's birthday is coming up and she is turning the big 60 this year! Anyway so no real Valentine plans although I did make cards for my dh and kids.
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The house on the right was made by my 3yo. She is so adorable but the poor house was never completely decorated due to the fact that she kept eating the candy. She'd dip a piece in frosting then stick it to the house then immediately take it back off and eat it. 
This one my 11yo dd did. As you can see by all the smiley faces, she is a happy child.Posted in Talking About the Family
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It doesn't seem the right time of year but I'm making two. We had 7 winter squash in the garage still and they were trying to go bad on me so I had to cook them up. I baked all of them yesterday, we ate one with dinner and I was planning to can the rest today. I couldn't help myself though and I made a little custard up last night. When dd tasted it she asked me to make pie with it. Well if you knew how picky my kids were about food, you'd understand how excited I was that my own dd liked this squash custard. mmmmm.....I wish I had some whipping cream around. |
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I was going to take some pictures of the finished product but it got eaten up too fast. Wow, that was a delicious potroast. My sister ate over and with six of us, every bit of that roast, the carrots, mashed potatoes and baguette were demolished! I really think the success of it was the cut of meat so I'm going to try my friend's recipe next. Hers has tomatoes and taco seasoning on it. Very interesting. Might be too much *flavor* for the kids but I'm going to try. |
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It is a beautiful, quiet, snowy day in New England.
Our weatherboy tells us it is 35 degrees outside and we have about 7 inches of snow. A perfect day for domestic pursuits. After perusing The Pioneer Woman Cooks for recipes last week, I decided to try my hand at potroast again. I've never been very good at it and I have yet to taste one I like. Now I have the Pioneer woman, Ree's recipe and a dear friend has also lent me her recipe. For today I decided to go with the first since I have all the ingredients for that and I am housebound. I found a nice thick chuck roast with the bones still in it on sale! I am so thrilled to have these bones. I cut them out of the roast for later use and prepared the roast just as directed on Ree's website excepting only that I am cooking mine in the crockpot. Here's a picture of it midway.
Now with the bone, I added filtered water, celery, onion, garlic, carrots and purple basil. It is now simmering on the stove and will soon become a lovely, nourishing beef stock. Nothing goes better with potroast than fresh baked bread so insert dd's homeschool lesson here. She's studying French this year and she also happens to be studying Europe in geography so I decided today would be a perfect day for her to learn how to make French baguettes. Doesn't that dough looks marvelous? She just took it out and shaped it and we are waiting for the last rise before baking. The house smells so warm and homey. I can't wait for dinner! |
Do you see those sprigs of fresh thyme? My friend Paula gave me a lovely little thyme plant for Christmas. I was so pleased to be able to have fresh thyme in the middle of winter and have to admit a very wholesome feeling came over me while I was snipping off those sprigs.
It is so practical to have homemade stock in the freezer. I've already got a turkey stock made up. I will make a chicken stock next week and I'll be set for the season.
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Before Christmas my ds asked if we could make a gingerbread house. With all the cookies my dd was making I knew we would not get to this task but I wanted to share this memory with him. A friend of mine suggested doing a valentine gingerbread house with him. But there is good news! DD made a little house out of wafer cookies at church today in her Sunday school class. |
Hurray, we are going to make our valentine houses using this same method! I just 
