I cannot believe it is Friday already! I had blog posts for each day this week, but time just got away from me. I am sure you can't possibly relate . Anyway, we are headed out today for a two week vacation visiting relatives in Indiana and Ohio. The trip promises to be fun, although I am sure I will be missing my husband.
Hope you are all having a great Friday!
If I find time later today, I will add a show and tell Friday and share pictures of our Gluten Free pizza...
Jonathan was taking pictures of the hair cut for me, and decided to take pictures of my flowers while he was at it. This is just one pot, probably the best looking of the bunch. I have discovered though, that I water my flowers much more diligently when half the pots have vegetables in them -- I actually want those veggies to be edible! I also updated my Mother's Day post about planting the flowers -- adding tons of pictures. So, you can see the finished product here, and then go back and see lots of pics of the kids planting the pots.
We were so thrilled to go to Ohio a couple weeks ago and meet my new niece and nephew. Here is the only picture I got of the whole week! Lots of cousins, with my sister.
Jun. 20, 2008 - Show and Tell Friday -- Planting A Tree
My Cub Scout Plants A Tree
We are just getting started on the Cub Scout journey. Jonathan officially became a wolf on June 1st; but he participated with his new den for a few activities in May. Here are some pictures of the Arbor Day event. The den planted a tree outside the local public school. Three of the den members are homeschooled, the others all attend this school.
Just a quick note that I am at the homeschool convention in Virginia; having a wonderful mini-vacation with my husband. I will be back to blogging in a few days.
Yep! You guessed it: Our first Spring picnic in Virginia! We joined several other homeschool families (and lots of preschoolers too!) at a local gem of a park about 30 minutes to the South, with a nice play area and a stream and open fields. We spent the day meeting new folks ( we didn't know many people in the group we were joining), playing with new friends, (Clara especially enjoyed her time with another girl her age...), eating, and poking sticks in the stream. I am hoping to find some rain boots so we can walk in the stream when we go back. I was told yesterday by a reliable source that the stream has leeches, so I wasn't too keen on letting the kids in with that knowledge. If you enjoyed my Show and Tell post; check out the other posts at Canada Girl's Blog.
We had a wonderful celebration of Christ's resurrection this Sunday, beginning with our Last Suppr Celebration, and culminating in a celebration feast of Barbeque Ribs, Corn on the Cob, Corn Pones, Salad, Potatoes and Carrots after an excellent Sunday celebration at our church. Here is our newest family photo:
And here are a few more photos for grandparents, aunts and uncles to enjoy:
This Weekend's Big Family Project
Remember how last weekend, we painted the sunroom? Well, this weekend we painted our kitchen and dining area. It is on the same paint strip as the dark brown we used on the sunroom; and it is actually darker then it looks in this picture. Now all we have to do is get Blinds for this set of windows and those in the sunroom. I am thinking about getting blinds like these. I like the 2" slats, but we cannot afford the real wood version. That window is 60" across! What do you think? This weekend, my oldest daughter got to help paint instead of helping babysit! She was very diligent and did a great job. We are so glad to have children who are such a big help!
Mar. 14, 2008 - Celebrating Life - This is my Party Post!
Celebrating Life!
Welcome to My Blog! This is my Party Post! I decided to jump in at the last minute after a terribly busy week. I am Amy B, also known as ltjewel. I am a stay-at-home Mama to four; and we have had two birthdays this week! So, we really have been partying here.
What is a party? That has been my pondering for the past few days. I have been having the Great Birthday Party Debate. To host a "friends" party for my son's seventh birthday or not? I could not, and have not decided. On the one hand, he loves attending the birthday parties of his friends. He has a lot of fun picking out a gift for them, attending the party, and coming home with a loot bag. On the other hand, I want a celebration focused on the person and the family, not on the gifts and gets. How to balance the two? What exactly is a party?
A Party is... A Celebration of Life! Whatever we are living, whatever we are experiencing right now; can be celebrated in party form. A party doesn't need gifts, food, or decorations -- a party needs people ready to celebrate! Sometimes a party is small, celebrating an intimate family event like when your child loses her first tooth and you have a little celebration. Sometimes, a party is huge -- like graduation. But always, a party is about LIFE.
That idea makes me think of this from God's Word: John 1:1-4
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men." We are starting our Celebration of Christ's Life this week as we get ready for Easter and start our Beyond The Tomb study. It seems we really are in party mode over here!
While you are here, be sure to sign up for my Blog Party Giveaway! Leave a comment on at least *two* posts and mention the Ultimate Blog Party, and you will be entered automatically! I will be drawing a name on March 18th. I will be giving away something really cool -- Five PaperbackSwap credits by gift certificate! You will have to join PSB for free to use your credits, but you can use them and get five free books! You can read all about PaperbackSwap here.
I hope you will check out my new Meme about Mothering! I would love to have some people join me. I want to encourage us Moms to really LOVE what we do. Sometimes life as a Mom gets really, really discouraging. Especially on Mondays. So what better time for a pick-me-up?
I thought I would share a few pictures from our Birthday celebration last night. My oldest son turned seven years old. He started out the day by picking breakfast -- race car waffles by Eggo. He also picked lunch, Bacon sandwhiches, and supper -- eating out at Famous Dave's. We don't always eat out on birthdays, but Thursday night is our normal eating out night, so we let him choose. He got out of all chores for the day, didn't have to do school, and got to use the It's Your Special Day plate all day. Finally, we wrapped up our celebration with presents and a Jet Fighter cake on Star Wars plates. I believe it was a good day. Happy Birthday precious boy!
Did you notice I left off the d??? I didn't notice, not a single member of my family present at the party noticed, but my sister sure did notice when she saw my blog. Got a good laugh out of that one!!!
I just had to share. I am up late, and my sister with her husband and her new family should be arriving home any minute now! They are bringing home two beautiful children from Columbia. We are so Thankful they are coming home and safe!
The first thing I saw when I opened my e-mail in-box on Saturday morning was an e-mail from Homeschool Blogger, directing me to a new comment. Please believe that comment came as a complete shock! My first thought after seeing my name as Blogger of the Week was "Oh Boy, I better put up new posts every single day... I need to go add something to my blog right now!" Then reality struck. I already had plans for this weekend. Big Plans. Family Plans. My blog was going to have to wait.
Here is what we spent Saturday morning doing:
First thing in the morning, my oldest son started asking if he could go downstairs and start helping Daddy. I finally caved at 7:22 a.m. What was I thinking? By the time I got downstairs with all the rest of the children, J had already been helping for almost two hours. He was an amazing helper; why in the world did I ever put him off? I was still remembering the time he "helped" when he was only four years old. Of course, all our younger ones had to get in on the action this time too; but their help was very limited in time and scope. My oldest daughter helped too; just not by painting. She spent a great deal of time "occupying" the two youngest by building Thomas Train tracks and castles. So my oldest daughter learned quite a bit about "babysitting" while within earshot of Mom, and my oldest son learned quite a bit about painting - a skill I am sure his wife will appreciate some day. I call that a successful homeschool family day!
Here is the finished product:
We are so excited to welcome the arrival of a new niece and a new nephew into our family! They are being united with their adoptive parents (my sister and brother-in-law) on Tuesday of this week; and coming to the United States in 4-5 weeks. Wow! What a blessing and answer to prayer. We all tripped over to my sister's house in another state this past weekend to host a family "adoption" shower; which was a lot of fun. Another sister lives in the same area and let my family invade her home all week. We are a pretty big and loud crew; and she was very gracious! Yet another sister, the oldest, spent the weekend building a reading loft for the new arrivals; which was gorgeous. My older children made several animal print pillows for the loft; as the room is a jungle theme. I should be back to regular blogging now!
We recently had a snow day; and what fun it was! This was Caleb's first time to actually play in the snow, so of course I took pictures. It is also the first time in years that I was actually the one to go outside with the kids! Daddy was in California, and I can actually breathe well enough to take them all outside in the cold. Grandma waited inside and welcomed Caleb back in after just 15 minutes as it was really too cold for him to be out in it very long... Afterward we all enjoyed hot chocolate.
Jan. 23, 2008 - Birth Control and the Quiver Full lifestyle...
I saw this information on Lisa's Blog; and found it so important that I asked permission to quote it here. The first time I found information regarding the pill causing involuntary abortion was reading the book A Mom Just Like You by Vickie Farris. Reading that chapter was what convinced my husband also that we have no business using the pill. I said, "I've been reading this book; and you have got to read this chapter where she talks about birth control." He said, "What's the bottom line?" and I said, " I think we're in trouble!" I highly recommend that book for further reading. It has lots of other great chapters too!
"It's amazing that even Planned Parenthood (the leader in providing abortion counseling AND abortions) admits ON THEIR website that "the pill" can prevent a fertilized egg (meaning a BABY - if you believe life begins after conception) from being able to implant in the uterine lining!
Our day is winding down; my husband is backing up our computers while I surf blog land. I have strict instructions not to shut down my computer. We had a wonderful happy day, starting with the reading of Lift the Flap Nativity, followed by the opening of presents. Then, we waited for the ham to finish baking; and ate around 2 p.m. (Ham, baked Emeril style minus the Whiskey, Chi-Chi's Corn Cake, Green Bean casserole, Mashed Potatoes, Baked Cinammon Apples, and Ice Cream for dessert.) All Gluten and Dairy free! I guess I should clarify that my little girl had Blackberry/Acai Berry Sorbet from Haagen-Daas instead of Ice Cream; which most definitely was not dairy free! My oldest boy chose sorbet over ice cream as well. My favorite part of the day was getting down on the floor to play with Jonathan and his new bionicles; then Caleb and his new bath toys, and then reading to Anna from her new book. Clara (my oldest) was busy listening to her new IPOD and reading her new Elsie books, but we did chat for a bit; and she was very helpful when we needed it. My husband did tons of dishes and laundry, and at 4 p.m. we trooped outside in the cold with our two littlest ones to clean the car out/ change the oil for our big trip to Indiana in 2 days. We are going to try and drive it straight through (12 hours). I really just dropped by my blog to wish you all a
We have been very blessed this year to be involved in the Right At Home Soccer league. The unique thing about this league is that we only meet on Fridays, from 1:50-4:00 p.m. All ages from 5 and up can play; and each age group practices for the first hour and scrimmages for the second hour. We have a couple games with other homeschool leagues; and then we are done. So, don't have to drive to three different fields on opposite sides of the county three days per week for practice, and another day per week for games. My children learned quite a bit, had fun, made friends with homeschoolers; all in a (mostly) non-competitive environment. The league was Christian, however I have been involved in church leagues before where people were less then "Christ-like" in there attitudes. Not so with Right At Home Soccer! We had a female organizer, and a male "head coach" who did a prayer for everyone, and then a devotion and teaching time for older children (ages 8 and up) at the beginning of every practice. It is possible for you to organize such a league near you!
We just got a new (to us) Suburban after three weeks without a vehicle large enough to carry us all at once! We are pretty excited about finding an affordable used Suburban (2001) and look forward to becoming better acquainted with it today. We did take it for a drive last night and celebrate at TGI Fridays. Here are some pictures.
Oct. 11, 2007 - Amy's Life Without Gluten or Dairy
Amy's Life Without Gluten or Dairy
Okay, so being dairy/gluten free is really hard. After I heard from so many saying that dairy was a big cause of excess mucous and learning problems -- I decided Anna and I needed to go dairy free as well. The first day for removing dairy; I went to Whole Foods on the way home from a friend's house and did all my gluten free/ dairy free shopping; and then got frustrated and bought a pizza to take home! The next day; I accidentally cooked in butter; and gave Anna chocolate milk at supper without even thinking about it. The third day; we ate some chocolate. The fourth day I used a gluten free pancake mix -- which was wonderful. (Pamela's) Except it had dairy. Sunday we did pretty good and I made Gluten Free pumpkin cookies that were AMAZING; my big kids didn't even care that they were gluten free! Last night we went to Wendys and Anna threw a fit at first; but consented to eat a baked potato and even thought that was cool. Then she was upset about not getting chocolate milk. But I held to my guns. Then I realized that the butter substitute had a small amount of milk product. Today, we did good. I got Anna chocolate rice milk last night; and an expensive butter substitute so I wont make that mistake again. I found some fabulous (and expensive) chocolate cookies that are dairy free and gluten free (Pamela's Products if you wanted to know) which will satisfy my sweet tooth. I had already found several sweet things that Anna likes; but nothing I could stomach until today. I found some rice chips that actually tasted decent and the children all helped me polish off the whole bag this afternoon. It was a small, expensive bag lol.
The gluten free flour recipe a friend gave me is superb; hence the pumpkin cookies.
My friend also suggested that we just avoid sandwiches and cheese rather then trying to find a replacement for sandwich bread and cheese. Good advice! I haven't found any gluten free breads that are also dairy free; so homemade it will have to be. I plan to try the foccacia bread recipe she gave me tonight. I did try to find a veggie based sprinkle (parmesan replacement) today (for pasta); but I couldn't find one that was cassein free. So mostly we are avoiding sandwiches and pasta except for those the big kids will eat on tortillas; cause then Anna and I can eat corn tortillas.
Also, she suggested that for now; instead of concentrating on what we can't have and trying to mimic that (alfredo pasta is Anna's favorite for instance) just concentrating on dishes we already like which are gluten free and dairy free. This has been really helpful; but difficult as the largest part of our favorite meals include cheese, or pasta/bread or both.
But we're doing okay. Mom is here now; and that is helpful. She keeps us on track; and helps me remember things like chocolate and butter!
As far as whether or not it is helping; I am trying to give it a fair shot. My trachea is getting dramatically worse now at a more rapid rate. So, it is awfully hard to tell. I do think the mucous is lessening; but it is far from gone. I'm just trying to make sure I give this a fair shot before I give up; I don't want to always be left wondering if I gave it enough time.
After reading a book a friend loaned me about Sensory issues; I am fairly certain that *all* of Anna's issues are related to Sensory issues and not food allergies. But again, I am trying to give it a fair shot and make sure that she doesn't need dietary restrictions.
So if you made it this far; how long do you think is a fair shot?
I figured out how to change font sizes, etc. within the body of my blog. I did it by reading about the FAQ's and seeing that MAC users need to use Firefox. I didn't even know there was a toolbar. How very fun!!!
I also finally figured out how to put a picture of myself on my blog. I just took one with my ISite camera (built in on every new MAC), opened it in IPhoto, edited the coloring and removed the mark on my nose from the glasses I was wearing, exported it and changed the size appropriately and wahlah, a photo of myself in the size required. Now, I just have to take another photo when it is not 11:30 p.m., when my hair is fixed and make-up on, contacts in, etc.
Now if only I could figure out how to make the text of my Bible verse bigger. Hmmm.
The bottom line is; We try not to insist on parent-led learning or gravitate toward child-led learning. We try instead to focus on God-led learning and ask for His input and perspective on every aspect of our home school. That way, when others fuss about what Dan and I are doing and make me second guess our decisions -- I can go back to our decision process and find God's fingerprints, reminding me that this is His way.
. Anyway, we are headed out today for a two week vacation visiting relatives in Indiana and Ohio. The trip promises to be fun, although I am sure I will be missing my husband.
Three of the den members are homeschooled, the others all attend this school.
This weekend, my oldest daughter got to help paint instead of helping babysit! She was very diligent and did a great job. We are so glad to have children who are such a big help! 
Anticipation!
Arrival...
Excitement!
Ready To Go...
Boredom?
