As I lay awake this morning my mind wandered to things my mother has always said.  Occasionally I will whip one of these nuggets out and my sons will say, "Nanny said that didn't she?"  So I would like to share some of them with you.  Feel free to use them.

Here are some of the sayings of Jacqueline E. Shank, mother of four, grandmother of 13.

"Anything that happens after midnight is either illegal or immoral."

If we began a sentence with "Well..."  she would say, "Well's a hole in the ground."

If we began a sentence with "So..." she would say, "Sew a button on ice cream."

"To each his own said the lady as she kissed the cow!"

When we fell or got a cut or bruise she would say, "It'll be better before your married."

"Truer things are said in jest!"

"If you sew on Sunday you'll rip the stitches out with your nose!"

"The road to hell is paved with good intentions."

Do you have any "Nanny-isms" from your famly?

Today was Halloween.  My boys begin talking about their costumes in the Summer.  They have always loved to dress-up in costumes.  For many years we had a costume box and our youngest, T-bone, was someone different every day.  I used to say that I knew who he was by who he called me.  If he called me, "Wois" (Lois Lane) then he was Superman.  If he called me, "Vicki" (Vicki Vale) then he was Batman.  "Mary Jane" meant he was spider man and "Jessie" meant he was Buzz Lightyear.  One year we were visiting my sister's church.  Our T-bone stayed in the nursery during the worship service.  Partly through the service, one of the nursery workers found me and said, "Your son, Buzz Lightyear, needs his diaper changed.  He won't let anyone do it."  He also would only let the nursery workers call him Buzz!

Halloween is not my favorite day of the year.  I understand the aversion many Christians have to this holiday.  Our boys have read all of the tracts against Halloween and they understand its origins.  We know that God knows our hearts and for our boys, it's purely about dressing up in fun costumes...oh...and eatting candy, lots and lots of candy.  

Today, I took a cue from Pillbury.com and made a few special treats in honor of the day for our lunch and supper.  It made the day a little more fun than your average Friday and the boys enjoyed it.

For lunch we had coffin sandwiches and carrot fingers:

For supper, we had mummy hotdogs and tomato soup with bats in it:

Our oldest son, Big Mac, took the left over cheese pieces from the bats that floated in our soup and made this very creative scene:

We finished the evening trick or treating in a small town a few minutes from our country home.  We can cover the entire town in about 30 minutes and several families from our church live there.  It was a warm evening and many of the people were sitting outside on their porches to greet the trick or treaters.

When it comes to candy, I've borrowed my parenting philosophy from my sister.  I let them eat it until it's gone.  The first night the boys hit the candy pretty hard, but they quickly lose interest and I will throw away what's left in a few days.  No one is ever the wiser.

So now, my guys are in the bathtub after another day's adventure.  This time, they're treating themselves to a few treats while they soak.  Soon they're off to bed to gear up for another adventure tomorrow.  Happy Halloween!

As I think of things, I'm going to blog about some things I can't live without.  Some of these things will be home related, some home school related.  This first one works in both places.  It is my label maker and I love it!

I actually asked for a label maker a few Christmases ago.  It was given to me by my husband, The Big Dog, and our two boys, Big Mac and T-Bone.  I use it around the house in many ways.  I use it to label files in my filing cabinet.  I used it recently to make tabs for my new organizer.  I received an empty organizer and I made my own calendar inserts as well as other sections that fit my life.  A purchased organizer would never have fit my life, but this one does.  Once I had all the papers into my new organizer, I needed to make dividers so that I could easily find the sections.  I used some old file folders and cut them so that they would be staggered dividers in my book.  Then I printed the titles for each divider using my label maker and pasted them to the dividers.  It is neat and, excuse the pun, organized!

I used my label maker to mark the boys' drawers.  One says, "Underwear", one "Socks", etc...  And we, Big Dog and I have labels on the plastic bins that hold our unmentionables in our closets, too.  I have labels on the boxes and crates that house our craft supplies. 

We have even used our label-maker to make labels for our timeline books!  When we studied history a few years ago, the boys were too little for a lot of writing, so I would print a label and let them stick it in the correct year spaces.

I love my label maker.  We use it at least once a week around this house.  Although I could probably print labels on the PC or hand-write some stickers, my label maker is portable and neat.  The printed labels make everythiing look orderly, even when, sometimes, things are DEFINITELY not orderly!

Here endenth my first installment of "Things I Can't Live Without."

Saturday was a cool Autumn day and we were at one of the boys' last flag-football games for this season.  The man who was the referee for this game was our assistant coach last year.  During the game, he leaned over to us on the sidelines and said, "How old are your boys now?"  We told him that they were 10 and 11.  He said, "My baby's down there on the sidelines today. She's 21."  We all commented about how quicly time passes.

I can't believe that my first born will be 12 in two weeks.  I'm sure I gave birth to him yesterday.  In quiet-panicked moments I think, "Did I treasure it enough?  Have I savored his childhood?"  He's growing so quickly and, now, I can look him in the eye without stooping.

Later that same day, we were shopping in a grocery store.  One light  bulb in the boys' room needed to be replaced and the boys were anxious to replace it with a flourescent bulb.  We have never used these in our house.  The boys have watched the many commercials and news spots about "going green" and they wanted to begin using flourescents in our home.  So, we began to read the packaging and pick our lightbulb.  The bulb we picked had a large endorsement written on the front.  It said, "Guaranteed to work for Nine years!"  Our oldest, Big Mac, picked up the package and said, "When this dies I'll be..."  As he was figuring out the age, a large number 20 flashed in my brain and tears sprung into my eyes.  Right in the middle of the grocery store, I grabbed my boy in a big bear-hug.  He would be 20 when I had to replace that lightbulb.  20 is a man.  20 is not the beautiful dark-eyed, pleasant, loving boy standing before me, although I am confident that he will be all those things and more as a man. 

Time passes to quickly.  This weekend we celebrated our 16th anniversary.  I don't know how 16 years pass so quickly.  My mother turned 75 in September and she often comments on how quickly her life has passed.

So this week, my focus will be on focusing.  I want to be in the moment.  I want to focus on today and enjoy my boys before the flourescent bulb has to be replaced.

Greetings from the Howard Johnson's in Williamsburg Virginia!  That's right.  We got away!  We are taking in historic Williamsburg during the homeschool days.  Williamsburg is one of my favorite places.  When we found out that we could get two-day tickets for a fraction of what they normally cost, we found an inexpensive hotel (with a swimming pool, of course) and made our plans.

Our plans for the long term including saving money.  We did not buy anything "extra" for several weeks in order to prepare for this trip.  I made several pieces for the county fair that won ribbons.  I saved the prize check to pay for our tickets.  I also saved all my babysitting checks for the last 4 weeks of the summer.  I didn't even cash them.  I took the checks and put them into envelopes marked for specifics aspects of the trip.  I had an envelope for gas, an envelope for food (more to follow on that), an envelope for the hotel, an envelope for the tickets into Williamsburg, and envelopes for spending money.  We give the boys an allowance, which we have not allowed them to spend for a month.  This way, they are not asking us for money.  They came to Virginia with packed wallets!  I filled my envelopes keeping track each week of what was put into the envelope.  I wrote on the outside of the envelope the amount needed and how much was in the envelope.  When I had all the money I needed for that envelope, I circled the title.

And now to the food:  We are eatting out twice while in Williamsburg from Friday to Saturday.  I packed cold lunches and plenty of snacks for the room as well as cold//quickie breakfast items. On Thursday I toasted a bagel for each of us and heated up several sausage patties.  Then I scrambled some eggs with onions in them.  I put half the bagel on a square of heavy duty foil and layered the eggs, sausage, and a slice of cheese, and topped it with the other half of the bagel.  I wrapped each bagel-wich individually in foil and put them into the refrigerator.   When we awoke early Friday morning I heated up the oven and threw our foil-wrapped breakfast into the oven.  When we were ready to leave about a half an hour later, I wrapped the bagel-wiches in two tea-towels and we hit the road.  A little over an hour later, we had a warm, toasty, and delicious breakfast on the road.

Another way I prepared, other than the usual packing, was to pack two briefcases.  Several years ago we bought the boys each an old-fashioned briefcase at a thrift-store.  These are the hard cases that men used to carry.  They are great for car trips because they can't be over-stuffed like a backpack.  Because of that, they slide under the car seats with ease.  The hard-back of the cases make great lap desks while travelling.  Into each of the boys briefcases I put a copy of the directions from home to Williamsburg.  I printed these on mapquest.  I also put several pencils, an eraser and a pencil sharpener.  My boys love to draw, so into the briefcases went both of their sketchbooks.  I also found a few treasures from the bookshelves that I don't even think the boys knew we had.  I found a paper airplane book, that went into one briefcase with some extra paper for folding.  I put a joke book in one briefcase.  I put a "how to do magic" book in one and a "101 card games" book into another.  Each boys had a deck of cards in their cases.  I put a stop watch into one and a mini-tape recorder into another.  Then I called to the boys and had them each pick a book to read to put into their cases.  I had one final surprise.  One thing I always like to do before a trip is pick up a magazine.  I love to have some simple reading for a vacation.  So, I took the boys to the market and let them each pick a magazine.  They weren't allowed to look at the magazine until the trip and it went right into the briefcase.  So their cases were stored the night before and the boys had tons of activities to keep them busy for the almost-six-hour trip from home to Williamsburg, VA.

I wanted to make our packed-meals a little more special than just the lunch-meat sandwich variety.  Here's what I did.  Before we left on Friday morning, I put a package of hotdogs on the indoor grill and started some water boiling.  I cooked the hotdogs on the grill.  When the hotdogs were done and the water was boiling, I put the dogs into a wide thermos and poured the water over them.  I put enough water into the thermos so that it came close to the top and tightened the lid.  When we arrived at our hotel, we had still-warm hotdogs for our lunch.  I also picked up some friend chicken at the market before leaving and cooked a meatloaf.  I sliced the meatloaf and tomorrow we will have meatloaf sandwiches for lunch.  For supper tonight we had cold chicken (one of my favorite treats), hard boiled eggs, chees cubes, celery and carrot sticks.

Breakfast is not nearly as creative as I just pulled out some muffins I had stored in the freezer, som sweet quick-breads, and pop tarts, but they'll do the trick!

And so our adventure begins!  Actually at the time of this writing we are already half finished with our mini-vacation.  But we are doing it without breaking the bank or the budget AND we're feeling treated in the process.

On the one weekday that I cook, the boys love it when I make Popovers.  I had never heard of popovers until I visited Northern Minnesota with my husband.  He was raised there.  On one visit, a friend of my mother-in-law gave me a church cookbook.  I have used that cookbook until the pages are falling out of the book!  If there's a fire in this house, we're saving THAT cookbook!

Popovers are a supper roll, of sorts.  They are very airy almost like a cream puff, but savory, not sweet.  If you do not own a popover pan you can bake these individual custard cups.  I was blessed enough to find a 6-popover pan in a thrift store a few months ago.  And we use it regularly. 

The recipe is quite simple, but you mus follow the directions exactly.  This recipe comes from the "Women's Fellowship of Union Congregational Church Hackensack, MN" cookbook, 1989 second edition.  There are two popover recipes here, but I used "Failproof Popovers" by Barbara Allen.  Enjoy!

Failproof Popovers

1 c. milk

1 c. flour

2 eggs

1/2 tsp. salt

Put all ingredients in a bowl, stir until blended.  Disregard lumps!  Pour into 6 cold, well-greased custard cups.  Place in cold oven.  Set oven at 450 degrees and time for 30 minutes.  Don't peek!  Serve immediately.

Well, today is Wednesday and that means oatmeal.  I have really simplified breakfast in the past few months.  For a few years, I have been cooking a hot breakfast almost every day of the week.  Although we all enjoyed it, it wasn't good for our weight or for my grocery budget.  It gets expensive when you're going through 36 eggs and 4 pound of butter every 2 weeks!  So, I came up with a more simplified plan.  On Monday's I cook, sometimes French toast, or omelets.  We also love popovers for breakfast.  They are easy and inexpensive to make.  The rest of the week days go like this:

Tuesday:  Toast

Wednesday: Oatmeal

Thursday: Yogurt (and granola if we have it)

Friday:  Cold Cereal

Today was oatmeal day and I made the most delicious oatmeal that tasted just like a peanut butter cookie.  I'm going to try and give you the recipe, but I did a lot of dumping, so you may have to play with the measurements to get the taste you like.

Peanutbutter cookie oatmeal

1 C. old-fashioned oatmeal (I actually use 7-grain cereal)

2 C. skim milk (you can use whatever kind of milk your family enjoys, we're skim people)

1/2 C. white sugar (I know I know...it's bad for me, but in this recipe it gets the taste I want)

1/3 C. peanutbutter

1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

In a med. saucepan, heat milk and oatmeal on med-high heat.  Add sugar and peanutbutter before the oatmeal begins to boil.  Stir continually until it gets to a consistancy you like.  I like it thick so I keep it on the heat and I stir it continually for at least 5 min.  I also like the oats really soft, so going this bit of extra time helps in that process too.  Remove from heat and stir in vanilla.

This was just delicious and tasted just like traditional peanutbutter cookies with oatmeal in them.

Enjoy!

We were having a relaxing Saturday morning.  We had just finished breakfast, when I noticed that one of the hummingbird feeders we keep outside our "screamin" porch (the boys named our screened-in porch many years ago) was cloudy.  So I asked my husband, Big Dog, if he would go out and get them so that we could rinse and re-stock the feeders.

When he went outside there were a few birds hovering near Big Dog.  He took the feeder off the shepherd's hook and stood perfectly still holding the feeder.  I couldn't believe my eyes as I stood watching from the window at the kitchen sink.  A hummingbird came to the feeder suspended from my husband's finger!!  The amazement on Big Dog's face was remarkable.

He came into the house yelling "Did you SEE that?!?"  We quickly rinsed the feeders and replentished them with new nectar.  I grabbed the camera and snuck onto the screamin' porch while Big Dog stood outside the porch holding the feeders.  Below are the pictures.  They're not great but you can see the hummingbird at the feeder if you look closely.  This was truly amazing!

And here's a tip to keep your feeder's well stocked.  Yesterday, we rinsed and filled the feeders and then I immediately made more nectar and placed it into the regrigerator so that I'm ready for the next time I need to fill the feeders.  The birds like fresh nectar every few days, so I keep the refrigerator stocked.  The nectar is just 1 C. of sugar to 4 C. water.  I boil it a few minutes to dissolve, then let it cool.  Then I pour it into a plastic sealable container and let it chill in the refrigerator until I'm ready to refill.  I don't color it with red food coloring because now that they know where it is, the coloring isn't necessary.  One feeder is red, so that also eliminates the need.

We stumbled upon archery quite by accident.  My husband is an avid hunter.  He has rifle hunted for deer for as long as I've known him, but a few years ago he started to become interested in archery hunting.  He found a used bow and began shooting at a local indoor archery club to learn how to shoot well.   One Saturday morning, I was off running errands and the Big Dog decided to go over to the archery club to shoot his bow.  He took our two boys and they headed for "the club."  When they arrived, there were 20 or more children of varying ages taking archery instruction.  The instructor called to our boys to pick up a bow and give it a try.  That was the beginning of our first season of archery instruction.

Since that Saturday morning, our boys have taken archery instruction every Saturday from 9:00 AM to 11:00 AM in January, February, and March for the past three years.  Our oldest son, Big Mac, received his first bow for his 10th birthday and has shot two state competitions with it as well as numerous local competitions.  Our youngest son does not love it as much as his brother, but he is a good archer and we're hoping to pique his interest with a bow of his own this summer.

On Sunday, our archery season ended with the state indoor archery competition.  My husband and oldest son competed in this two-day archery tournament with nearly 500 other shooters of all ages.   The first day was quite a challenge for us as Big Mac had been sick all week with the flu.  He was still not feeling well as he stepped to the line to fire his first arrow.  After shooting the first few rounds, he came to me, put his head on my shoulder and said, "I want to go home."  We encouraged him to continue shooting and rest between rounds.  It warmed my heart to see he and his daddy walk back from the target holding hands.  Even at 11 years old, he's not too old to hold his daddy's hand.  Big Mac learned a lesson in perseverance that day and his brother, T-Bone, learned about the power of prayer as he prayed for his brother to be encouraged and uplifted.

On Sunday, he was feeling better and finishing each round was not as much of a struggle.  When we got to the arena Sunday morning, Big Mac checked the scores from yesterday.  Even after feeling ill and not shooting his level-best, he had finished the day in first place for his age group and shooting level.  At his age, the group is called Cadet.  The Cadet shooters are aged 11 and under, so this is Big Mac's last year in this group.  The shooters are broken down into two classes.  Class A cadets shoot lower numbers than class AA.  After shooting last year, Big Mac was placed in the AA class of cadets.  So, on Sunday morning, he was leading the pack of aged 11 and under shooters in the better class.  This did not help him focus on his shots, which is another lesson learned from archery:  focus, focus, focus.

Sunday was a long day with the first arrow being shot at 12:00 Noon and the archers coming off the line at 3:30 PM.  They each shot 60 arrows and scored them accordingly.  We packed up the equipment and waited for results.  I know that I could never be one of those stage mothers pushing their child to attain greatness.  Just waiting to see how Big Mac and his daddy finished in their respective classes was excruciating!  Finally, shortly after 5:00 PM the results were announced and medals awarded.  Our Big Mac won the first-place gold medal for cadet shooters in class AA.  He won his division by 10 points.  The next boy behind him won second place by 1 point, so the competition was quite close at his level.  To our surprise, Daddy Big Dog won 3rd place in the men's class A shooters.  So, Daddy has a bronze medal and Big Mac a gold.

And so another season of indoor competition archery is over and we are quite pleased with the results.  Recently I have taken up shooting and find it terribly relaxing.  Next year, our youngest might be able to shoot competition and his brother will move from a Cadet to a Junior.  Who knows?  Maybe there will be four of us on that line shooting a state competition next year!

Even though I have been blogging for years on this particular blog, I realized that I've never introduced you to my family.  Now, most people will advise that children should not use their Christian names on the internet, so I will be introducing you to my clan using their nicknames.  And so, without further ado...here's my family!

First and foremost, you must meet the Big Dog.  This is my husband.  

In this picture he's napping with our 1-year-old kitten, "M."  We got M right around my 40th birthday.  He was part of a litter from a neighboring farm.  His name is M because the fur above his eyes makes an M.  Daddy is named Big Dog because he is 6'3" tall.  (I am 5'2", so there's quite a disparity of inches between us.)  Big Dog loves to hunt and sho0t his bow.  He's a great fisherman but gets frustrated fishing in Pennsylvania because the fish are not as abundant as they were in Northern Minnesota where he was born and lived until the age of 20.  He also loves to read, which I love about him.

Second, please meet my first born, Big Mac.

He is is father's son.  I always say that I would not miss my husband if he were gone because I've got a carbon copy of my husband in Big Mac!  He is a champion archer (literally, he won the state archery competition for youth aged 11 and under this year), avid reader of Geronimo Stilton, and all-around good guy.

Third, is our T-Bone.  He is another of his father's sons.  He is an ardent laugher, animal-lover, and video game expert.  He has installed all of our computer software since he was 4 years old.  If it were up to T-bone, this house would be filled with animals, both the live and the stuffed-toy variety.

And now you've met them.  When I speak of Big Dog, Big Mac, and T-Bone, you will be able to put a face to a name as well as having this brief glimpse into their personalities.

And, I guess, there's me.  I love my family and thoroughly enjoy homeschooling.   You'll find me most nights knitting or crocheting but I also love a good book.  I play piano and am currently the worship leader in our small country church.

We live in a little green cottage in Central Pennsylvania that we call Galleon's Lap.  One day I will list the passage from Winnie The Pooh that led us to name our house "Galleon's Lap."  We call our little homeschool "Galleon's Lap Academy."

So, that's us!  We'd love to meet you.   Please leave a comment and introduce yourself!

OK, I'm a little late in posting.  And actually I haven't posted ina while, so this is LONG overdue.  I wanted to share with you our Valentine's Day celebration.

In our house, Valentine's Day is a family celebration, not just a romantic celebration for my husband and I.  So, just like at Christmas time, we work together to create a family celebration.  For our lessons on Thursday, February 14, 2008 the boys made a pineapple upside down cake, their daddy's favorite.  They also made homemade cards for me and and for their dad.  They wrote lovely sentiments in the cards and decorated them especially for each of us.

By evening, our Valentine's table was set with the best dishes and linens.  There were presents at each place, most of them homemade, along with our homemade cards. 

The surprises I had for everyone were:

-handmade/crocheted stuffed animals for each of the boys.

-a gift card for each of the boys to Blockbuster so that they can rent a game or movie.

-homemade cards.

-a coupon book.  The book had coupons such as "good for one day off of chores"; "you pick what we have for supper", "good for one night to sleep in the living room"; etc...

I was gratified to see that the boys were more excited about the handmade gifts than the gift card.  Their stuffed animals were immediately named and given personalities as they altered their voices to represent the voice of the animal.  And they were so excited to receive and use their coupon books!  My oldest, Big Mac, said he would like a coupon book for "Easter, April Fools, Memorial Day,...Mommy, what other holidays are there?"  My heart was swelling as they exclaimed over these homemade gifts.

At my husband's place we put a pair of new "Crocs."  He has an old pair of slippers that he wears to take the dogs outside at night.  These slippers are true to their name and he has slipped on the ice coming back into the house many evenings.  SO, he thought a pair of the rubber "crocs" would work better for him.  The boys and I took a quick trip into the city to get this special Valentine's day parcel just for Daddy.  We were all excited to share our secret with him.   I also gave him a coupon book--for Daddy's eyes only.

Our supper was very special.  I made stuffed loin of venison wrapped in bacon, fettucine alfraedo, and snow peas with crescent rolls.  But most special was dessert.  The boys knew about Daddy's pineapple upside down cake because they helped to make it.  What they didn't know was that I made each of them a special dessert as well. For my oldest I made an apple pie, for my youngest a blueberry pie.  Their eyes were huge as I set an entire dessert in front of them at the end of our meal and told them that it was just for them.

It's fun to celebrate these special days as a family.  I'm sure in 10 years the boys will not be as excited to spend their Valentine's night with Mommy and Daddy, so I'm trying very hard to savor these celebrations while they are young and enthusiastic.

I wrote a few months ago about our new puppy, Favor.  He has been a part of our family now since October 6, 2007 and I truly do not know how we have lived without him.  He is such a joy.  He's very loving, very mischievous, and very sweet.  He hates to be left for any amount of time and when you return he cries for several minutes just so you know that he was really lonely.

He loves a load of dirty dishes in the dishwasher.  He has even been known to hop onto the open dishwasher door in order to gain easier access to licking the dirty dishes.  But today, we saw him do something he's never done.

Since it is Christmas-time we are doing lots of extra baking.  Because of this we run the dishwasher a few times a day.  Today, I opened the dishwasher as soon as it was finished because I needed to unload it and re-load it with more dirty dishes.  As I did, Favor jumped up onto the open dishwasher door.  Of course, the dishwasher was very warm.  To him it must have been quite comfortable.  He took no time at all laying down on the dishwasher door and falling asleep.  I do apologize for the quality of these pictures.  I took them quickly with my cell phone, so they are blurry.  But I'm sure you will get the idea.

Sweet dreams little guy!

In a previous blog, I wrote to you about how we cleaned our basement one section at a time and now it is a beautiful wide-open space with lots of storage.  When I wrote that blog, I wrote that I would tell you another time why we had to clean the basement.

It all started in the middle of the night several weeks ago.   My husband was tired and went to bed early.  Within an hour of our early retiring, our dog, Rosie, started to play.  She would run up and down the hallway outside our bedroom and knock into the closed basement door while playing.  It was so noisy that it awoke my husband.  Because he was so sleepy, he was also short-tempered.  He yelled at Rosie and commanded her to lay down.  Rosie obeyed for a few minutes giving us just enough time fall back to sleep before she began to play again.  After a few hours of this, my husband did what every person does after many trials, he got whiny.  He rolled over to me and said, "OH, I don't know what to do!!!"  So I patted him on his hip and said, "It's ok, honey.  I'll take care of it."  I slipped out of bed, not bothering to put on my glasses, and stepped into our hallway to corral our errant dog.  What I was met with was something fuzzy, laying on the floor with a long tail.  The tail had no fuzz or fur.  It was skin.  Since I wasn't wearing my glasses, all I saw was fuzz and a skin-tail.  I turned on my heel, ran into our bedroom, lept onto the bed and shouted, "There is a RAT in the hall!"

Now, I have a history of being afraid of mice.  Our cats bring mice to us quite often since we live very rurally, and I always have the same reaction, "Get that away from me!"  I have no problem with bugs and spiders, but rodents and snakes are a HUGE problem.  My husband knows of my history with rodents, so after I yelled that there was a rat in our hallway, he assumed it was a little mouse brought in by the cats.  He sighed, loudly...quite loudly...a little over-dramatic if I must say so myself.  Anyway, he sighed and said, "I'll take care of it."

He DID put on his glasses and stepped into the hallway.  He immediately turned back into the bedroom and closed the door.   Then he announced, "It's a 'possum."  For the past few hours, our dog had been playing with an opossum outside our bedroom door!!!  Well, my first thought was, "We have to move.  We'll wake the boys, pack a few things and go live with my mother.  I'm not living with a 'possum."

This was not my husband's first thought, however.  He began to get dressed and put his shoes on his feet.  He was going possum hunting.  When he returned to our hallway, the opossum was no longer there.  He returned to inform me of the possum's location and I informed him that if he did not find and erradicate the possum, he would NOT be returning to our bed!  So again, there was a long, loud sigh and he returned to the hallway.  He found the possum hiding behind our toilet.  The possum was wet from where our dog was playing with it. 

Todd slipped a pair of welding gloves that we keep near the fireplace onto his hands and returned to the bathroom to deal with this possum.  He managed to slide the possum into my mop-bucket and hold it down with a plunger.  Now, picture this, my husband is 6 foot-3 inches tall, weighing 300 pounds.  He's a hunter and outdoorsman, so think rugged.  He was wearing a pair of shorts, a t-shirt, and...welder's gloves.  He walked out into our yard and thought, "Now what?"  It was well-past midnight, so it was very dark outside.  He was afraid that if he simply sat the bucket on the ground he would not know for sure that the opossum would be released from his prison.  So he walked to the back of our yard and threw the bucket as far away as possible while running for our door!

And so, crisis averted, we returned to our bedroom and a shortened night of sleep.  Why did that require us to clean the basement you ask?  ...just wait.

A few days later we were having a murphy's law day.  You know Murphy's Law:  Everything that can go wrong WILL go wrong.  Earlier in the day, my husband called his brother to wish him a happy birthday and got some distressing news.  Then we were moving our boys into the bedroom on the second floor.  I was boxing up toys that we no longer needed to give to good will.  As I was carrying a box down the steps, my foot landed on a lacrosse stick.  I fell down the stairs and my right foot landed at my head!  As I was sliding down the steps, my husband tried to stop my fall by grabbing the box and, instead, pushed it into my face.  I was seeing stars and my ankle was throbbing, so I was shuffled off to our bed.  While laying with my foot elevated, Todd took a call from yet another family member to learn of more distressing family news.  By early evening, we were reeling from the problems this day had presented.  We decided that our best solution would be to go to bed early.  We were only in bed a few minutes when I heard a noise at the basement steps.  I got up, thinking it was one of our cats looking for a bed-time snack, and opened the cellar door.  When I turned on the light, I saw an opossum nearly three-quarters up our steps.  He looked at me, turned around and began descending the basement steps.  Well, I'm a mother of two boys.  I have dealt with many scary situations.  I'm a confident woman who is fully in control of all her faculties...I began screaming, "Possum!  Possum!"  in a high pitch at the top of my lungs!

My boys, ages 10 and 9, and my husband rushed to my aid.  Actually, I think that my boys found this all to be a great adventure.  They donned clothes and protective gear.  The welding gloves were again worn, as well as various hats and helmets, a lacrosse stick (the dreaded one that cause my fall earlier that day), a softball bat and the plunger that Mr. Possum had nibbled during his flight in my mop bucket in the back yard.

Todd and the boys searched the basement for quite some time and could not find the possum.  They also could not find an escape or entrance route.  This is where the impetous for cleaning the basement came.  Over the next week, we moved every object in the basement.  We swept the floor, threw away many-many garbage bags full of junk, and placed all remaining objects on shelves or in plastic containers.  Our basement has never looked so clean and organized in the nine years in which we've lived here.

We never found the possum.  We did figure out that the critter was climbing our steps to eat the cat's food.  We have a kitty door in the door that goes from our hallway into the basement steps.  Up until the possum incident we fed the cats by placing their pan of food at the top of the basement steps each evening.  The cats would then go through the basement kitty door to eat.  Their litter box is also located at the bottom of the basement steps, so they use the kitty-door quite often.  The possum got into our hall to play with our dog, Rosie, but using the kitty door.  Each evening the possum had supper after we fed our cats!  When I discovered him climbing the steps, he was trying to get to his supper! 

We have not seen Mr. Possum since that fateful evening, but our basement is still a wide-open cement playground!  And all it took was one...maybe two...little possums!

It was cold and rainy.  As a matter of fact, it was unseasonably cold for the end of September in Central Pennsylvania.  The rain was that kind of rain that gets into your bones and makes you cold from the inside out to every extremity.  And yet this day blessed us unlike any other in a long time.

But I have to rewind two months to tell you this story.  I was sitting at the kitchen table with the boys in the middle of the day and our phone rang.  The man on the other end said, "This is a voice from your past."  It was the man who had organized a softball team for which my husband had played over ten years ago.  When my husband and I began dating he played on three softball teams.  We didn't really date, we went to softball games.  The families affiliated with these teams became as close to us as our own family.  We spent weekends at tournaments and evenings at games with these people.  I sat on the baseline with the other ladies as we cheered our men to victory time and time again.  Then, because we were young and stupid, we walked away from those people.  We did it for a good reason, we were starting a family.  I had quit my job to prepare for motherhood and my husband took a part time job to make up for the financial loss.  Softball didn't fit into our life.  But we didn't keep in touch with those friends who had become so dear.  And then, more than ten years later, I got a call from the man who organized the last softball team for which my husband played.

I think there's a line from a movie that goes, "We're getting the band back together!"  Well that's what happened for us except the line was, "We're getting the team back together!"  The plan was to reunite many of the men who played together 10 years ago and play in a local tournament.  Most of us now had children who weren't in existence when they were a team, so our numbers would grow as part of this reunion team.

And so, we fast forward to the end of September.  When we arrived at the ball park there were hugs and smiles all around.  Everyone commented on how much our boys look like their dad.  Many were interested in why we chose to homeschool the boys and what the state required of us.  They were genuine and curious about our lives, as we were with them.  Old jokes were resurrected and we laughed until our faces ached.  As I mentioned in the opening paragraph, it was cold and rainy, but no one minded.  We were together with old friends, really old family.  And we were so blessed by it.

The team did really well, even though they were the old men in the tournament.  They won the opening bracket (winning 3 out of 4 games) before becoming tired and loosing in the single-elimination portion of the tournament.  But no one was upset at loosing.  It wasn't about softball, it was about being together.

That evening, at home, we sat with our boys over our supper and my husband prayed the blessing.  Tears welled in his eyes (and mine) as he thanked God for those men.  Men we had forgotten that we loved.  We thanked God for blessing us so immensely by allowing us to reunite with these dear families.  The blessing we received by being with those old friends and by the efforts of the coach at finding and reuiniting everyone will stay with us for a long-long time.

I have been trying not to explode over the disaster area that is my sons' room.  As a matter of fact, my oldest son bought a sign for their door that says, "Disaster Area."  Their messy room can set me off like a rocket, screaming into orbit.  I get very frustrated over the mess of toys and collectibles in their little bedroom.  But I am trying not to be that crazy mom.  One way I've done this is to discuss it with my husband.  He's always so calm and listens so well.  Just talking about my frustrations with this dear patient man relieves so much stress in my life.

As a result of our conversations, Todd, my husband, was the one who came up with dividing the boys' room into quadrants and making a map of their room with each quadrant marked.  (http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/LoriLynn/165996/)

Last night, he came up with another room solution by designing a game for the boys to play all day today.  He told them that every hour, on the hour, they must go to their room and pick up one large item, one medium-sized item, and one small item.  When they did this, they wrote their items down on a log sheet that he made for them.  Prior to all of this "picking-up", Todd had picked one item as the prize item.  Whoever listed the prize item on their sheet as an item that they put away won a prize.  Of course, there was also a runner-up prize so that both boys felt rewarded.

So, ever hour, my little timer rang and the boys ran to their room.  They would emerge muttering their list under their breath and head for the lined sheets of paper on the table.  Each boy wrote down their three items dilligently each hour asking me, "How do you spell shield?"  and "How do you spell sword?"

At the end of the day, daddy returned from work with a slip of paper folded in his pocket.  Both boys are always happy to see Daddy walk in the door in the evening, but tonight they were positively animated.  They quickly unfolded the paper to find what was the mystery item that would earn one boy a reward.  As it turned out, our youngest son won the $2 prize because he picked up the black shield with the golden lion on it.

...all this, and their room doesn't look too bad, either!

It's Sunday morning and we have just spent the first night in our very own beds in over seven days.  We returned from our trip to the beach in southern North Carolina yesterday.  All week I thought about blogging, but when there was "down time" I didn't have the gumption to get out my husbands laptop and add to my blog.  So my blog got a vacation as well as I!

We took our trip with my sister and her family.  I am very close to my neices and nephew, so I loved having them all to myself for an entire week.  The oldest two are away at college, with Hunter (my nephew) studying abroad this fall.  So time with them is precious.  We had lots of fun on the beach, in the water, playing mini-golf and just hanging out.  Time goes by so quickly and it's hard to believe that these two were just children yesterday!

BUT I digress, I wanted to pass along some tips I discovered while travelling this week.  Here they are:

1.  When you pack, remember you have to UN-pack too.  Now that we're home, I feel as though it will take DAYS to get my house back in order!

2.  Found treasures are the best souvenir's.  I'm in the posession of a lovely box of shells, a fallen bird's nest, a cat tail (the plant, not the animal), a pinecone, and some great rocks.

3.  Use a boredom box.  When things were winding down around our beach house in the late afternoon and evening my boys needed something to do.  The first two days it was frustrating because those of us over 18 just wanted to relax.  The three under 12, my sons and my neice, wanted something to DO.  I took a quick trip to the local Wal*Mart and spent about $10 on some little things to play or create.  VOILA a Boredom Box!  I put these little items into an old shoe box and put it on the coffe table.  The children were entertained during the down times for the rest of the week.  Our box contained: grooved popsicle sticks used to build boxes and other items, pipe cleaners, markers, sketch paper, two little handheld games ($1 each), playing cards, and dice.

4.  Get creative.  Another thing we did to keep the children entertained was make some games.  I put 12-15 white seashells into a box with one black seashell.  In this two-player game each player is allowed to take 1, 2 or 3 pieces on his turn.  The person who ends up with the black seashell is the looser.  This idea was taken from a game played on PBS's Cyber Chase.  I had also read in an old Family Fun Magazine about taking playing cards and cutting slits into the cards so that they could be used to make a house of cards by sliding cards into the slits.  We did this with a cheap box of cards purchased at the grocery store.  The boys and my husband made a couple ring toss games with the popsicle sticks and the pipe cleaners.

5.  Keep learning.  My neices and I loved collecting shells on the beach.  We were curious about what we were gathering, so I picked up a little book at the grocery store about the shells in the area.  We had a lot of fun sorting and identifying these shells, Baby's Ears are my favorites.  Try to find a picture of these.  They're adorable.

6.  Egg cartons make great sorting boxes.  I came home with a loaded egg carton full of shells, my neices had three between the two of them.  Later I'll write about the other items I've sorted and stored in egg cartons.

I think those are the best tips from the trip.  It was a wonderful time.  Although I'm glad to be home, I miss waking to the sound of the waves hitting the shore.  There is nothing like the sound of the ocean for me.  God's awesome power and His organization are so evident to me just by watching the ocean!  My roller coaster ride this week was on the back of those terrific waves.  I love to be out past the breakers jumping over the waves and having them place me soundly on the ground after lifting me high in the air.  There's no man-made ride quite so thrilling.

Enjoy the ride!

What a busy weekend we just finished!  We had so many events and activities over this Memorial Day weekend that as I reflect, it really represented a lifestyle of learning.  That's what I want for our little family.  I want the children, and Daddy and I, to be constantly learning and not even know it.  It's my heart's desire for us to be bonded together in learning and worshipping and serving.  Today, the Lord showed me that that is just what occurred this weekend.

On Saturday, we went "Yard Saling."  This is a favorite activity at the Lydell house during the Summer months.  We all jump into the car with water bottles loaded and tour Perry County, PA looking for people who have displayed the treasures for sale on their front lawns.  In some areas of the country these are called Tag Sales, but here in PA we call them Yard Sales.

This time we approached our Yard Saling with the boys a little differently.  We gave them each $5 and said, when it's spent, you're finished!  They had to budget and really decide if something was important to buy.  Walker T., our youngest, bought many little things with his money.  It was a math lesson at each stop and he would list what he spent and add the total and then subtract that from the $5 he was given originally to get a balance.  McLane, our oldest, waited for just the right purchase and he got a large lego set for $5.  He was thrilled and has been building new lego sets all weekend.  His lesson was in really waiting for something worth purchasing.  He passed by several yard sales before finding exactly what he wanted.

After our adventures in yard saling, we went to the little town of Eshcol, PA for their Memorial Day parade on Saturday afternoon.  The boys marched in the parade, as all children are encouraged to do, and were given a wreath to place on a veteran's grave at one of the two cemetary's that serve as the beginning and end of the parade.  Todd, my loving husband, ate his weight in homemade ham and bean soup and the boys got candy from the firetrucks and ambulances in the parade.  It's a wonderful life lesson for the boys to acknowledge the service of our veteran's in such a way.  I love this parade, it is a truly Norman Rockwell-type bit of Americana.  I feel as though we are stepping back in time to a period in which I wish we really lived.

Saturday night, the youth of our church went bowling.  The boys bowled on the "bumper lanes" and had a terrific time.  I saw bowling as Physical Education and am now wondering if we should fit bowling into our schedule a little more regularly.  Maybe we could find a few homeschool families and bowl during the day on a regular basis!

One other event that affected our weekend is the purchase of a new vehicle.  We learned in the past week that Todd's truck's transmission is on it's last legs.  We are now "car shopping."  We've decided to get a larger vehicle for the family, hopefully a van, and Todd will take the little Mercury Tracer that we've been driving as his work vehicle.  On Sunday, we drove all over two counties to every used car dealer we could find.  We continued our trek on Monday.  The boys learned about mileage, and BIG numbers.  They looked at vehicles with us and compared pros and cons about each potential vehicle.  They learned about reading the car sticker signs and finding the best vehicle for the money we have available.  And they learned patience!  For they had to endure a lot of stopping and walking around the used car lots, plus a lot of driving.

After all the car shopping, we treated the entire family to several hours at the local pool.  The water was a little chilly, but especially refreshing when you spent a little time in the 85 degree sun-shiny day.  The boys swam for two and a half hours.  They only exited the pool long enough to say, "Mommy, watch this!"  They really exercised their seven and nine-year-old bodies.

Last night, after a light supper of chicken salad pitas, everyone was ready for a rest. The boys took a one-hour bath, and watched Sesamee Street in our bed, while munching popcorn.  I can't think of a more relaxing end to a busy, but educational weekend.

I hope your Memorial Day was just as special.  And if you a veteran or current member of our nation's armed services, THANK YOU.

We were just finishing breakfast today when it happened.  We heard the slight rumble first.  I turned in my chair and said, "They're here!"  Suddenly there was screaming and squealing!  The excavation man was driving a large Caterpillar backhoe down our driveway and into the yard.  My two little boys who are 7 and 9 were beside themselves.  They were hugging and jumping up and down and cheering.  It was a very intense moment for them.

A few minutes later, the man walked back down the driveway and drove a smaller front loader toward the house.  With this he began pushing all the stones into a great big pile in the driveway.  My guys were smashed against the back door peering at this beast as it moved piles of stone.

Then came the costumes.  I'm not sure what provoked it, but the boys felt the need to dress as soldiers.  They dug into their dress-up supply and came out with their rifles, camoflauge and helmets.  I looked into our little 4 foot by 4 foot mudroom and saw they had positioned one of the kitchen chairs at the door.  They were set for the day.

What is it about boys and large vehicles?  Especially large vehicles with buckets and shovels on them?  This little adventure in landscaping has brought such joy to two little seven and nine-year-old hearts.  I am bursting with joy myself!

Of course, those piles of stone and dirt in the yard are magnetic.  McLane is just DYING to get on top of the largest stone pile.  I can see that it is very very difficult to resist this temptation.  Maybe we'll have a little Phys. Ed. session later playing king of the hill.

I called my husband and said, "I think formal learning may be done for the day!"  There's no way to get them back at the table when such adventure is happening in the yard.  And there's the bottom line for guys, it's adventure.  They love it.  They crave it.  They need it.  Whether it's playing on a softball team, like Daddy does, so that they can have the adventure of competition.  Or it might be hiking in an unknown path, where there could be adventure at every turn.  They need it.  I don't understand it, when I just need some quiet in my day, or some thread with which to crochet.  I don't need adventure.  But they do.  These little balls of manhood with which God has entrusted me need adventure.  If I don't allow them to have it, they will find it elsewhere.  I want them to find it here, where there is safety and security on which to fall.  I want them to be able to come home from their adventures and tell their Dad and me all about it.  And even though I don't love or crave it, I want to be part of some of their adventures.  I don't want to miss a single one, whether it's just in the telling, or if I actually have to take part.  I want to experience their adventures with them and always be able to measure them against what God's plan for their life, and His plan for their spiritual growth is.

He has set adventure in the hearts of my little men.  I am grateful for it, even if I don't understand it.  I know it all has to do with the plans He's made for their fantastic lives.  Now there's a real adventure, watching my little guys grow up and fulfill all that God has planned for them.

Tonight was a pamper-night.  Do you ever get one of those?  It doesn't happen often, and, actually, I'm glad it doesn't.  If I had a night off, like tonight, more than every few weeks or once a month, I would be a spoiled-unappreciative little girl.

On Tuesdays, my darling, Todd, shoots in an archery league.  Every week the boys beg Daddy to "go along."  Since it's a little past their bed time, they haven't been allowed to go to the archery range more than once this Winter.  Tonight, though, Daddy announced that as long as all "homework" was completed and the guinea pig cage was cleaned, the boys could ride along with Daddy.  I'm convinced that the main reason they like to go is because it gets them home much past their bedtime.  But time alone with Daddy doesn't hurt.

And what did I do as soon as they exited the driveway?  I FILLED THE BATHTUB!  I crawled into a hot bubble-bath with my caffein-free diet-pepsi and The Old Schoolhouse Winter edition.  After a good 30-minute soak, including a facial mask, I hopped out of the tub, and gave myself a lovely pedicure.  When Todd called after about two hours to tell me that he and the boys were headed home, I felt revived and incredibly relaxed.

I hope everyone gets these little jewels of refreshment every now and then.  It's especially nice when your time alone can be in your own home.  I love getting out with girlfriends or the occasional shopping-time by myself, but it's a special treat to be in your house with no respnsibilites for a few precious moments to yourself.

There was a time just a few years ago when I wasn't sure what I would do if I had time to myself, but now, I've got a list!  I realized that I was so consumed with life that I was losing my own interests.  So these little spurts of time have given back to me what I nearly lost.  Now, when I have an evening or afternoon to myself, ideas of how to fill that time flow out of me richly.  There are movies to be watched (give me a romantic comedy any day of the week), books and magazines to read (go TOS), baths to take, crochet and knit patterns to begin, blogs to read (and write), and web sites to explore, and that just names a few things I can do when faced with time on my own.

So, make your list.  Don't lose site of your interests and curiousities.  And send the children off with Daddy, just for an hour or two...