My children have plethora of toy/play paraphernalia. It seems their father wants to buy them a toy every pay day. Holidays & Birthdays are insane with gifts. I do appreciate his generosity but let's face it the kids are rotten. Not only that, but it is also difficult for them to clean their rooms with the abundance of toys. I have purged and purged, bought totes and added shelves all in the name of organization and cleanliness. However, last pay day he brought home an ever so welcome educational toy for each of them. Now I'm not going to lie and claim that it is my children's deepest desire to acquire educational toys but they really liked these.

The Garden Girlz Rose Bud Cottage

This is a little cottage that comes with a little girl, ladder, bed, couch, mail box, a couple packets of seeds and sponges. It is pretty self explanatory. You soak the seeds and sponges for 12 hours before planting them in the plastic cottage. We planted her seeds Sunday and they've gotten this big already. I don't know how long they'll last.


Test Tube Alien
This guy is pretty cool. He starts out an egg in a test tube. You add water to the test tube and the egg fizzes away to reveal the alien. You feed him and keep him in just the right amount of water, regulate just the right amount of sunlight and darkness and he grows. He has sensors built in and is suppose to relay information to your computer once you register at it's site. I am hoping the site will have some explanation as to why the egg fizzes away, how it grows, and how the sensors work/get power. We haven't registered there yet, but so far it's a big winner around here.

Close Up of Collage

Emily has been feeling a bit neglected school wise lately. I believe her exact words were, "When you do school with Bubba you don't have time to do school with me." (I'm pretty sure she was using the word Bubba as a curse word in this instance.) This statment, if not a little rude, also rang slightly true. So, feeling only a little guilty I looked around for a project to do with her, so she would no longer feel like her education was being ignored. I came across this cute lapbook A Hungry Caterpillar at the Homeschool estore that is based on Eric Carle's The Very Hungry Caterpillar. She has always loved this book so it was right up her alley. This lapbook was pretty easy and covered multiple subjects. It included a collage, a poem, counting, days of the week, colors, life cycle of a butterfly, opposites and healthy foods vs. junk foods. We finished it in one sitting. It was fun and affordable at only $7.00 but priceless in the aspect that it made Emily feel special that I sat down and did this with her.



Front Cover



The Inside

I've been thinking about kindness a lot lately. In the handful of different types of leadership positions I've been in I've come into many situations where I was just shocked that people think it is OK to talk to or treat other people the way they do. However, not being mean is not enough (though it certainly helps). Being kind is more than that. It is taking a moment to think about someone else. Have you ever watched someone after they are tossed a smile or compliment? They light up, if you are blessed you may even get to watch them passed the infectious joy on to someone else. Along this same line I recently read the short devotional Give Life With Your Words by Jon Walker. I love his devotionals because they are short, to the point and nearly every single one of them cause me to think and self evaluate.

This particular devotional brought to mind a lady from my church, let's just call her Mrs. V. Mrs. V lights up a room when she enters it. Sometimes I could just swear that she honestly is emitting a soft glow! This is clearly the Holy Spirit just shining in her. If I was going to pattern myself to be like any living woman I would want to be like Mrs. V. I'm careful not to put her up on too high of a pedestal but I do admire and love her dearly.

Besides singing her praises I bring up Mrs. V because of this funny habit she has of gushing over people and complimenting them. She can think of something kind to say about anyone! I've come to think that she can't control herself, that kindness just gushes out of her without her control. For instance once she came knocking on my door unexpected on one of those days when the house is a mess and you haven't bothered to bathe or get out of your PJ's. Picture greasy hair, stained t-shirt with holes in it, and baggy boxer style sleeping shorts.... I kid you not when I opened the door the woman's face lit up, she smiled, hugged me then looked me up and down and declared, "I love your slippers!" Needless to say, I've come to take her compliments with a grain of salt.

I am a cynical type of person. I don't take compliments well...to be honest I usually feel like your pulling my leg. However, I've come to the conclusion that it doesn't matter if you believe it is sincere, it stills feels good when someone takes that tiny little effort to make you feel special. Which brought me to the realization that just as I'm not good at taking compliments I'm not good at giving them either. Even though I'm generally a loving person I can be thoughtless. I simply don't think. I may think you look nice today but never think to voice it. I may be impressed with your skills but never think to say it. I get caught up in my own life and forget what a long way a smile could go to someone feeling out of place. I feel the strain of the responsibility of my children's education to the point that while pointing out their errors I sometimes forget to praise their achievements. Children don't understand your worried that you are failing them, they only know that you are telling them they are wrong. Do you remember to praise them when they are right? Ouch. I don't always remember that.

While feeling the conviction from the devotional I read it dawned on me that sometimes when I remember to praise my son for good work soon afterwards he'll spontaneously bounce on me with a hug and declare, "I love you, Mom!" All from just a little scrap of attention from me. At first I didn't know whether to feel bad that he seems that so desperate for my approval or to use it as an example of how easy it is to give joy to others and how wonderful the rewards can be from doing so. I've decided to apply it both ways. That "Wow that looks great Brandon!" takes so little effort and his undying affection means the world to me.

On the flip side sometimes it is more than being thoughtless or forgetting to pass out well deserved praises. Sometimes people are just flat out cruel to each other. Words are painful weapons that can cut and scar a soul. Obviously, I can't do anything about people being cruel and thoughtless in their actions to one another. It is particularly painful at times to watch Christians do this to each other or run people away from God's house with their judgmental attitudes and tearing people down. I can't control others actions, but I can be more aware of my own. I can remember to encourage a sister who is stumbling, accept people where they are for who they are, build up others that feel torn down, criticize less, forgive with all my heart, smile more, laugh louder, share my joy, have more empathy, chose my words carefully when tempted to be unkind and most of all love my fellow man because God loves them and He would have me love them also. It just takes a moment to think of others and that moment could carry someone through a whole day.

Friday was our home-school support group's Valentines Day Party at a local bowling alley. This was the kid's and I first trip to a bowling alley and we discovered bowling for real was a lot different from the Wii. We had a blast. There was a turn out of about fourty with parents, kids and all. The kids were pretty well behaved but... you know one mother just had to bring her husband... and you know what it is like trying to get them to act right in public.

My friend Lady Hawk has given me and Award! I'm very touched. I enjoy blogging, although I admit to sometimes feeling a little "less than" when I read some of my friends' informative and entertaining blogs. So, I am just happy someone enjoys the way I share a little bit of me through my humble blog.




By accepting this Excellent Blog Award, you have to award it to at least 10 more people whose blogs you find Excellent Award worthy. Thank you out there for having such great blogs and being such great friends! You deserve this! Feel free to award people who have already been awarded…

Let's there are a lot of great blogs out there. Here a few of my favorites in no particular order.


Just Call Me Jamin!
Our Homeschool and Other Such Happenings
Big Momma
2nd Cup of Coffee
A Family Runs Through It
Because I Said So
This Ain't New York
Rocks In My Dryer
Simply A Musing Blog
Shoe Princess
A Happy Life

And here I was worried I wouldn't be able to come up with 10! Now, other than posting this, how do I pass this on? Garsh, I guess I have got to go and tell all these folks how great I think their blogs are, huh? Let's see it only took say... 10 days to get around to acknowledging I had been given an award....so... if I take ten days per person to let them know they've won the award... I should be through by mid to late May?

Then again you didn't know I was gone did you?

My run of the mill blah home-school/housewife life, that makes my friends and family, that are not homeschooling housewives, bored to tears when I start talking has been pretty busy lately.

First, I decided to merge my homeschooling online support forum with another area homeschooling group that has more events than my group tended to plan. This has been awesome because if I may say so myself my forum is W-O-N-D-E-R-F-U-L. What a blessing to get to share it with more people! The ladies there are truly quality people, each one is completely different from the other. So, when you go there with a problem you can get advice from so many unique perspectives! Plus, they make you laugh. Laughter IS the best medicine when you are sitting hip deep in laundry, your son has wandered away from his math work to play video games and your six year has climbed the fridge and eating a giant chocolate bar for breakfast.... Just kidding my house never looks like that! LOL (if your not looking)So, in combination of what I have been advertising as an unparalleled support forum we now have another leader who can juggle events schedules like you wouldn't believe! May I take a moment to be as humble to say that I think the marriage of our two groups could just possibly be the perfect home-school family group ever? Long story short, it is great but the actual merge process was a bit more work (pleasant work, no complaining) than I took a moment to think about. So, I've been juggling that while trying my darnedest to keep the house looking like a home instead of a zoo (which I'm told by many is a useless cause with all our animals)and at the same time attempting to actually educate my children. Can I do it? Yes, many families are juggling way more than that. I've just never been that entertaining of a juggler. Which is why I'm so totally syked about having someone to do the schedule juggling for me now!

Then just about the time I thought I had a handle on the merge and was ready to really throw the books at the kids (not literally, well may be...) my oldest daughter called on her way to the ER. Turns out she has a very painful fairly large ovarian cyst that they seriously thought about removing by surgery. So, off to Sugar Land we go. We got there Tuesday, Cec came home on Wednesday, the kids and I stayed, Heather came home on Wednesday night, and we stayed to take care of her while Aaron worked. There really wasn't anything I could do for her but keep track of when she could take her meds and fetch her drinks. Once her husband came home there was a flurry of requests for his care (much more desired than MY care apparently, LOL), meds, drinks, food, running of bathwater, rubbing her back, aid in walking, etc.... Young married couples are so cute to watch. Cecil came back to Sugar Land on Saturday and we all spent one more night. We came home last night.

This week I'd like to say we are finally really going to hit the books....however, tomorrow is our first group meeting as a newly improved merged home-school group and I promised I'd be there to explain what I offer through my forum and how to use it for those not very computer savvy. (Thursday our group is going to a nursing home to pass out V-day cards, but I doubt we make that.) Then Friday is our bowling alley Valentines party. Saturday is American Girl Book Club at the library, and Sunday is church then a birthday party. To top it all off after we got home last night Emily was complaining her neck hurt (pointing to her throat) and she was running a low grade temp. Did I mention that roughly half the people I know have had Pneumonia or the Flu (some have had both) within the last two months or so?

There is roughly the last two weeks in review of my hum drum boring home-schooling housewife life.

PS I almost forgot to mention that some time before the trip to Houston and after the merge that I spent a day ripping out a wall in the tub, removed the old faucet system, installed a new faucet system, re-sheet rocked the hole and reinstall the plastic bath tub liner?

You know nothing is too big or too small in the life of a housewife.

I am behind.

I am behind in the house work.

I am behind with the kid's school work.

I am behind on my Home School Forums' maintenance.

So, dear dear Blogger do not feel left all alone. You are in good company, left behind with all the other things I have yet to do.

Must be that time of year. My great cut has all grown out (and looking BAD) and I've noticed serveral others in blog land are also seeking their next great hairstyle. I've been looking around online for the last few days for my new dream hair do. I need a hairstyle with the ease that a boring housewife needs that distinctly does not look like a boring housewife-do. These all look very simular to my last do but I did really like it. The only problem I really had with it is you need to go back and have it maintenanced and I usually only make it to a salon once may twice a year......Oh, well it never hurts to dream.

OK so I got this speeding ticket and it really gets under my skin. First of all, I admit that sometimes I speed on purpose being a chronically late individual. If you are speeding "on purpose" then you have made a conscious decision to take the risks involved. However, this particular time I really didn't even realize I was speeding. I don't know why that makes a difference to me...but some how it does...

Second of all, speeding is breaking the law. I've taught my children that breaking the law is the equivalent of sinning. You obey God's law, you obey your country's law (unless it breaks God's law). So here are my sweet children sitting in the car terrified because Mommy has broken the law all the way around! LOL Poor warped little guys! Actually only my more Dudley Do-Right son was too terribly upset. Emily was pretty excited that the trooper smiled and waved at her.

Third and the thing that really sticks in my craw, getting a ticket is a truly STUPID way to throw money away. Tickets are expensive and run your insurance up. I mean I'm one of those folks who needs a tangible object to show for my money. That money could have bought any number of solid real touchable items with long term benefit items!!!! I could really rant about this. But... I guess what's done is done. I can kiss what ever nice tangible object that could of been good bye and pay my ticket.

One thing the ticket did buy is a paranoid about her speed driver. I mean I just can't just go around throwing money out the window like that! So, the next time your driving down one of those rural country roads in Texas where every one but every one always drives 5 to 10 over the speed limit (and we all know there really are stretches of road like that)and you get stuck behind some idiot going EXACTLY the speed limit...that'll be me. Please just do me a favor and extend ALL of your fingers upward when you pass me and wave .... and have pity on a greedy woman that wants "things" for her husband's hard earned cash!

Forget Miss Victoria and her secrets! Keep the Plastic Surgeons away from me! I don't need you and your shape shifting ways because I have a 6 year old daughter! If you are wondering what miracle I've discovered that actually makes giving birth give you a better figure let me clarify with the following.

I believe in attachment parenting. I didn't know what I was doing had a fancy name until long after I was already doing it but sure felt smart when I realized what I was doing had a nifty title! Any way this basically means my kids are always up my hinney.;-)

I truly eat, sleep, and bathe with my daughter. (BTW I did stop bathing with my son at a much much younger age.) Obviously there are certain things that children are bound to notice sooner or later when you bathe with them. Sooo, when my dd starting noticing my breast I was very honest with her. I calmly explained they are called breast (not boobies or anything else) and that God designed them to feed babies. Needless to say the idea of mom carrying milk around on her body and babies actually being able to eat there A-M-A-Z-E-D her! We had lengthy conversations about how God created a lot of animals that feed their babies the same way, how no milk is there when there is not a baby to drink it, etc. So, FINALLY I think her curiosity has been fed and she'll move on when this happens:

We are in the bath the other day and my dd looks up and says, "Mommy I think you have milk in there." (Pointing at my breast) So, thinking... oh, great here we go again I tell her, "No, Emily. Mommy doesn't have a baby to feed. So there is no milk in there." Here is the part that is bound to make any woman feel better about her body.... "Well if they don't have any milk, how come their hanging down like that?"..trying not to let my pride get the best of me I replied, "Emily they just grow like that." So, my sweet precious daughter who has always but always been Momma's little helper says to me, "OH here Momma, I'll help!" and reaches up to push both my breast up into a... let's say... slightly higher position on my body! She then looks down at my tummy and proceeds to use one hand to push my gut in!!!!!! Then she looks at me and says, "Sorry Mommy I don't have enough hands!" OH MY LORD IN HEAVEN TAKE ME NOW!!!!! I didn't know whether to die or die laughing!!!

On top of this story this same wonderful child didn't like the realistic mii character I had made for myself on the wii. So, she made a new character for me that we all now affectionally call Skinny Mom that is simply beautiful. I'm not sure if this how she truly sees me or if that is just what she wishes I look like, but just for pride's sake I'm sticking with the former.