Love to Read

I've always loved reading, hopefully that is trickling down to my kiddos. Here they are, 'reading' chapter books. Honey had to have one, also, but of course looked up to say 'cheese!'

I hope this translates to lots of actual reading once they can read the words and not just the pictures! :)
So I haven't been that happy with how 'school' is going for us--Princess gets frustrated if things are too hard, and I think she's not quite ready for what we're doing. Then there is Speedy, who REALLY wants to be involved, but completely on his own terms. I mean, I want it to be fun, not frustrating, so I'm researching online to see if I can find some free resources that are literature-based (where the activities are kind of based on a book of the week or something). I'll keep you posted. Or maybe I just need to set aside the same undivided time just to play games, do puzzles, art, sing songs and read. More relaxed. But I always feel like somewhat of a failure if I quit something in the middle. Which is silly--if it's not working for us, it's not working.

On a completely random note, I finally finished up two batches of apple jelly. Sure-Jell makes it pretty easy, but it was still kind of intimidating to try.

A Mouse in the House?

These pictures are in reverse order, to increase the suspense...

First--the evidence:

Next, the little culprit in action:

This is actually the first picture I took--when Honey saw the camera, she stopped what she was doing and said, "CHEEEESE!"

So yes, she's still chewing on EVERYTHING. Sometimes in the store I'll let her hold things to distract her for awhile--till she starts to gnaw on boxes of jell-o. That's also why I found baby carrots with bites out of them in a new package. Yes, through the plastic!

On an encouraging note, I did see her actually putting crayon to paper and scribbling, instead of crayon to mouth and chewing. Unfortunately, it was Princess's paper, and she doesn't like babies scribbling on her stuff. :) This from the girl who colored in pen on my dining room table this evening. Grr.

But later she gave us the laugh of the week--she and Speedy were filling up their watering cans in the fish pond, Hubby had just pulled in the drive after practice, then whoops! Princess leaned too far forward and went face first into the fish pond. She got so scared by it that she was shaking. But Hubby and I were trying not to laugh. :)

Doubt can be good?

There have been several things over the last year or so that have really caused me to doubt what I knew about God and how He works. It's been frustrating, but has caused my faith to be strengthened as God proves Himself faithful again and again, even if I don't understand all the circumstances. I don't feel like many of my questions have been answered--except realizing that God is God, He is who He says He is, and mostly, we can't understand Him. I came across a quote today that really made me think:

If faith never encounters doubt, if truth never struggles with error, if
good never battles with evil, how can faith know its own power? In my own
pilgrimage, if I have to choose between a faith that has stared doubt in the
eye and made it blink, or a naive faith that has never known the firing
line of doubt, I will choose the former every time.--Gary Parker

Hope it makes you think, too.

School's in Session!

I wanted to share a pic of our (already messy) school room downstairs! The kids are loving it. So far, we've had school in the mornings, while Honey plays down there with us. Princess is a model student, but Speedy must be frustrated by things above his head, or just plain grumpy, because he hasn't been too cooperative.

For more on what we're doing for school, go here.

Speedy has a grunt he uses to communicate when he's grumpy. So we hear it at least once a day. :) Princess thought we should call him Snort because of this, but he just grunted even louder and got mad.

In the kitchen

I don't know if it's the time of year, or 2nd trimester nesting, or just feeling better after my sinus/ear infection, but we've been spending a lot of time in the kitchen! Here are my three little helpers, ready to help roll out pie crust. First there was one, then two, then the littlest one carried a chair over to stand on as well. Cute, but where am I supposed to stand?? Here was our finished cherry pie--there wasn't quite enough dough for a top and bottom crust, and I didn't feel like making more, so I used a play-do cutter to make these shapes. Not blue-ribbon worthy, but I thought it worked out pretty well!
We've also made apricot jam (with apricot pulp ready to go from my Grandma); salsa; and today tackled crabapple jelly. I've never made it before, thankfully the crabapples were the biggest I've ever seen, so it wasn't too bad. I didn't have any cheesecloth to squeeze the juice from, so used an old clean T-shirt cut into a square. Then for the first time, I tried a hot water bath to seal the jars so I wouldn't have to put them all in the freezer...and it worked! Yeah! Now I have a 5-gallon bucket of apples and some pears to mess with...

A couple recipes

I'm finally getting around to posting my favorite homemade play-do recipe! I think it's so much easier to clean up than the boughten stuff. It's a fun color and smell, too! Halving this recipe makes enough for my 2 older kiddos to play with.

Kool-Aid Play-do

2-1/2 c flour
1 c salt
2 pkg unsweetened kool-aid
3 tsp veg. oil
2 c water

1. Mix dry ingredients in large bowl.
2. In saucepan, bring water to boil. Turn off heat and add oil.
3. Pour oil and water mixture into bowl of dry ingredients. Blend and knead until well mixed. (It will be hot!)

We usually keep ours in a margarine tub in the fridge for months.

Homemade Baby Wipes
Cut a roll of paper towels in half to make 2 short rolls. (I like Bounty select-a-size)
For a container, I use a round wipes container that the cheap wipes come in--I've had it for 4 years, I think!

2 c water
1-1/2 tsp rubbing alcohol
1 Tbsp baby shampoo
2 Tbsp baby oil

Mix together in container; remove center tube from paper towels; put lid on and turn upside down for a few minutes to get an even soak.

You can tweak the amounts of ingredients, depending on how wet, soapy, etc. you prefer your wipes.

GET-YA MOVIN’ GRANOLA

4 c old-fashioned oatmeal (or quick oats)
1 c wheat germ
1 c coconut (I make it without this)
½ c Canola oil
½ c brown sugar (or honey)
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp almond extract
1 c almonds, or nuts of choice
1 c dried fruit if desired

Mix everything together except nuts and fruit. Spread on cookie sheets or pans. Bake at 200 degrees for 2-3 hours. Add nuts and fruit at the last part of the baking time. Cool and store in an air tight container.

There. Can you tell what all I've made in the last two days? :) Also, if you've never heard about teaching your baby/toddler signs to communicate instead of screaming and grunting, here's a good link with more details. About the most we've gotten to with any of our kids are 'milk' and 'more,' but even those help immensely!

Shenanigans of the day around here--during nap time, Speedy was wanting to hide behind hubby's low closet bar. Usually fine. But today I later found that he had taken ALL the hanging clothes off and put them in a huge mound on the floor. I can't believe that this kids who complains about being 'too tired' or 'not big enough' to do things, could empty an entire closet rod. Even later, I heard he and Princess jumping on our bed. I went in, and they had their shirts off, all the pillows and covers on the floor, and the laundry baskets blocking the door.

And the non-stop questions...like about the snake the dog killed in the flower bed WEEKS ago. Speedy: Where did it go?
Me: It shriveled up in the sun.
Speedy: And then it died?
Me: No, it was dead before it shriveled up.
Speedy: And then where did it go?
Me: It turned back to dirt.
Princess: Does everything turn back to dirt when it dies?
Me: Pretty much.
Princess: Eww, I don't want to be dirt when I die.
Me (sigh): The part that matters will be in heaven; it's only the part that doesn't matter any more that will be dirt.
Princess: Oh. So, like, snakes and panthers and people and bears and everything turn back to dirt?
Me: Yes, I think so.

Finally getting better

Yeah, Monday could get worse, as my head continued to feel like it was going to explode and that I was going around in an underwater fog. Whew. Had my OB check-up yesterday, and got an antibiotic, and now, Wednesday night, finally starting to feel better. And Speedy also had 2 kernels of wheat flushed out of his left ear at the doctor yesterday. Yeah, it's been in there over a month, since wheat harvest, and we never would have known unless the Tickle Monster (Uncle C) did a peek in everyone's ear with his otoscope last week. :)

With my sister moving out, a room in the basement opened up. I couldn't decide, but finally opted to use it as our 'school room.' (for home-preschooling Speedy and Princess). They've been very excited about this, and every day Princess has asked me if we can do school, or if we're starting school that day. I'm still trying to get the room organized, but what really held me up was the pain in my head this week. Hopefully next week we'll really figure out our routine and get going. I'm not sure how it will work--Honey will be very distracting if we do it while she's awake; but on the other hand, I've been needing my naps while all three lie down to rest. To help me focus, I'm going to loosely follow the 4-year old curriculum from Hubbard's Cupboard. This is a great, FREE, Christian resource, if you haven't checked it out yet!

I had forgotten how much fun it is to stay up late watching the great athletes in the Olympics. Did you see the USA men's swimming relay and their great comeback? It was awesome! :)