Just Me - A new development

Psalm 127:3 
Lo, children [are] an heritage of the LORD: [and] the fruit of the womb [is his] reward.



So when do you say, "We're really done."  My hubby and I have gone back and forth, forth and back about whether or not to have another child.

Welp, decision made, baby on the way. 

I am currently 12 weeks and feeling every bit the 'expecting' mother.  Sick, tormenting itchiness (one of the those extras that only a few women encounter), tired, and more.  At the same time, we are happy and awaiting the gender revealing in about 2 more months.  Also, we are wondering just how we will care for three children instead of just the two.  They certainly are a handful.  I mean, just last night Inky stepped on a metal piece of a branch of our Christmas tree as we were putting it together.  This morning Inky tried to get up from the floor and somehow spinned around and landed squarly on her chin - huge chin bruise.  Again I say, a handfull.  With one dedicated room for school, there are no more bedrooms to put the baby in.  Sigh.  No problem though, because the Lord will help us to make all those decisions when the baby comes.  Good sigh. 

I've already gained 15 lbs.  Bad sigh.  I generally gain about 60 lbs with my children (I did with each of my girls).  I remember telling myself, "NOT AGAIN!", when I was expecting my second child, but alas, the 60 lbs came on just the same.  The trend is following suit this time too.  It's not that I just make the excuse that I'm pregnant, hey let me eat my food, yours, and the pantry full just because I can.  There are two kinds of sick when you get preggy.  One is "I'm so sick that I can't eat."  The other is, "I'm so sick that I HAVE to eat."  Hard to understand for those that can't eat, very so true for those that are in my boat rowing through oceans of french fries and spagetti.  I told my husband the other day, "I'm just so tired of eating."  Eat healthier?  I've tried that.  I dutifully cut up carrots and had low fat cottage cheese within easy reach in the refrigerator.  Did it work?  No.  I ate that, and then had to follow up with the fattening stuff to stretch out the relief from the hunger/sick/pukey feeling.  Somehow, fattening stuff = longer periods without sickness.  Go figure.  No pun intended.

Well, see you in about 45 lbs!
Thanks for reading!

Homeschooling Adventure - Extra Curricular - Baking with Jane

Titus 2:4 "That they may teach the young women..."

Jane is a household name in our church.  That said name belongs to a sweet, meek, quiet woman who bakes like nobody's business.  She has made so many wedding, birthday, special events cakes I couldn't even count.  Everyone loves her cakes.  They are masterpieces. 

Jane made a birthday cake for Iggy out of a Cinderella Barbie doll.  The dress was, well, perfect.  Iggy could not believe it was a cake.  She masterfully swirled and tucked the dress with ribbons and fabric made out of fondant.  It was beautiful!  We told Jane how Iggy responded to her cake, and Jane graciously offered to teach Iggy how to decorate a princess cake for home economics.  Wow!  Cool!  I signed up for it immediately. 

Jane came with her cake partially prepared and let Iggy decorate.  Oh, and Inky too.  : )
Here's our day Baking with Jane!

 

Jane showing Iggy the baking mold for the dress.

 



 

Iggy rolling out the fondant.

 

Iggy using shapes to cut out flowers.

 



 

 

Jane showed Iggy that if she put icing on the back of the fondant, it would stick to the cake.

 

Jane cutting the fondant ribbons.



 

 

 

Iggy trimming the dress with icing.

 

 

Jane made a second cake for Iggy's Pappy's birthday that Iggy and Inky got to decorate.

Iggy is squeezing out a clown.

 

 

Inky's addition.

 

 

And the cakes are dressed!  Success!

 

 

I'm so thankful for this opportunity for Iggy.  Jane took so much time in baking the cakes and bringing the materials for the girls to use in decorating the cakes.  Iggy loves baking.  She pretends all the time.  She didn't have to pretend on this day.  Jane brought her the real thing.  What an experience!  Thanks Jane!!!!!

 

I hope to add some photos of Jane's actual Cinderella cake that she made for Iggy's birthday party so you can see her talent for yourself.  Also, not only does she work with fondant, but she uses icing to make the most life-like flowers you will ever see!  Sometimes you have to get down really close to see if the flowers are real or not!

 

Thanks for reading! : )

 

Here are the added photos of Jane's actual Cinderella Cake

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Homeschooling Adventure: Extra Curricular - Cooking

Titus 2:4 "That they may teach the young women..."

It's Extra Curricular Activities time again.  I've already posted about Iggy's Art and Japanese class sessions, so here is another one of the subjects that falls into this category.  Cooking!  I guess some call it home economics.  Either way, Iggy loves it.  She asks about helping out in the kitchen all the time.  Unfortunately, I can't always allow it because sometimes it involves using a knife or heat.  She's often very disappointed when she can't pitch in to help.  It's always a good thing when I announce that we will be learning to cook.  Our first class was all about making cookies.  I talked about washing our hands and using measuring cups.  Here's how it went.

 

We begin with an apron and a hearty thumbs up.

 



Here are our ingredients.

 

Watching them bake.  Mmmmm.

 

I think they are about done.

 



 

She's not to keen on the beaters.  She doesn't like the noise it makes and how it sometimes whirls a blob of cookie dough across the counter or at you.  Ha, ha.  Well, thanks for stopping by! See ya! : )

 

 

Extra Curricular - Cooking

 

Well, it's another Extra Curricular/Cooking day, but this time it's not about cooking necessarily.  We are learning about washing our vegetables (cleaning our food) before we eat them.  We were having potatoes that night sooooo, why not incorporate that into a lesson? 

 

I put the potatoes in a bowl of water and let them get their hands wet.  They washed and washed and loved every moment of it.  Go figure.  They saw how the water got dirty and how I had to put fresh water back in the bowl for them to wash them again.  We had those potatoes for supper so they got to see the result of the labor of their own hands.  It was a simple lesson, but effective and fun.  : )

 

 

 

 

 

 

Homeschooling Adventure: And Sometimes We Just Chill

"The Lord is my shepherd..."

This is such a comfort to me.

The school room is our daily bell ringin', ridged (well sorta) scheduled setting.   Sometimes, we just hang out in the room.  Not sure why.  We just end up there playing games with the kids, looking at books with them, or just talking about this and that.  I'd say it's because this is where my desk is located and I take care of business while the kids play with dad.  Then after I'm done documenting the last 'actual work done' for the day or preparing for the next day, I generally plop in the floor and join them.

Does anyone else do this too??? (hang out in your school room)

 

Daddy playing the new apple tree game that Mammie and Iggy made during their art class.

 

 

I think it's Iggy 2, Daddy 1

 

 

Another school day, after school! : )

 

Sift my Thrift: Ladies Meeting

Psalm 51:7

Purge me with hyssop , and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

Our church has a Ladies Meeting every so often and generally one lady of the church will volunteer to take on the challenge of getting a meeting together.  This means to find a location, to get a devotion together, and then to figure out a food or dessert plan.  While we are together, the ladies take care of the business matters as well.  Most of the time, women will just say to bring something - pot luck, but on a small scale.  I can't believe it, but I volunteered.  I decided to host it at my house which meant, clean, Clean, CLEAN!  I told the ladies to bring something sweet.  I went ahead and had some sweets ready as well as a few, salty this and thats.  It was a bigger chore than I expected.  Wow, what a day!  When night came and all the ladies said their farewells, I was one big heap of tired!

I wish I had the mind to have taken photos of my display, but, alas I was too busy to think.  So, I just took a few after photos.  Some of the things were dismantled so I just took separate photos and hopefully you can put it all together in your head.  My theme was Laundy.  My speaker had prepared a "laundry themed devotion" that went right along with it.  She had an online devotion prepared, but in the middle of the night while she was trying to fall asleep, the Lord gave her her very own message, or His very own message which was still "Laundry themed."  I was really glad that He did.  Devotions are so much more meaningful when the Lord steps in and teaches heart messages. 

Here are some photos:

I used my ironing board as the display 'table'.

 

 

Some old fashioned clothes pins in a candle stick glass.  Homemade laundry soap in a jar with a scoop.  This is a bar of soap that my cousin made and gave to me.  I thought it went well with the theme.

 

 

I made these mini cupcakes out of a box mix and used a cake decorating tool to ice them with tub icing.  I also ended up making box brownies, and finger sandwiches, coffee, tea, and had some dip for chips.  Others brought fruit and more sweets. 

 

 

The flower at the bottom is actually an accessory shirt pin.  The little flowers were homemade by my mother in law.  They are called yo-yos.  I was supposed to sew them onto a pillowcase dress that she made for Iggy, but I just hadn't got to it yet.  : )

 

 

This sign was hanging on the right side of the white skirt by twine.  Just some fabric with a piece of paper with "Laundry" printed on it.  I scalloped the edges with craft scissors.  I got the frame at a yard sale this summer.

 

 

These photos were hanging on the left side by some twine as well.  Iggy was the model.  I tried to make the photos appear to be 40's 50's ish by adjusting the brightness and color.  Have you ever made any of these laundry faces before? 

 

 

 

 

Everything on my display was just things we had around the house.  I just tweaked/combined them a bit.  Affordable solution to decorating, Marsha style.  Ha, ha.  Actually, I did a lot of this kind of thing for my wedding.  It was an Asian inspired wedding, so I used a lot of things from my mother's home. 

 

 I didn't get to hear all of what our speaker talked about (I was in the other room typing up some laundry tips and trying to listen at the same time), but I did catch one part.  She said something like this, "Isn't it amazing that we have the hardest time getting the 'red' stain out of our clothes, but Jesus can take His red blood and wash us whiter than snow."  It's truely amazing that the Lord, the God of all life would see fit to give us, a flawed people, an opportunity to live with Him, to be with Him by sacrificing His own Son and His Son willing to do that freely.  That just amazes me. 

  Thanks for sifting my thrift!

Sift my Thrift: A Bouquet from the Discardables

Psalms 103:15 As for man, his days are as grass: as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth

When it comes to landscaping, I'm no competition.  In fact, I really don't care much how our yard looks, as my main focus is on decorating the inside of the house.  My husband on the other hand does care about the yard and landscaping.  He's always thinking about how he can make the yard better, just like I'm always thinking of how I can do this or that to the inside. 
 
Yesterday, he decided it was time to re-do part of our front landscaping, which meant ripping out some of what was there.  Somehow we ended up with some wild flowers growing right smack dab in the middle of our landscaping among all the weeds that were beginning to take over.  My husbands plan was to just rip them out and discard them.  It was a shame since the wild flowers were in full bloom, so I picked and put in a jar of water the loveliest of the bunch.  Here's the result!
 

 

The color combination is so pretty!

Maybe you can identify the flower?  I have no idea.

 

 



 

 

 

I wonder if this bud will bloom?

 

 

 

Just a little 'show and tell' from me.  Hey, and they were free!

Thanks for sifting my thrift.

 

Oh, and hi moms!

 

   

Homeschooling Adventure: Buy! Sell!

Proverbs 31:16
"She considereth a field, and buyeth it..."

I want to teach Iggy the value in money and how to evaluate the worth of it versus the worth of what can be bought with it.  I want her to learn to spend wisely, to consider her purchase, to be less impulsive when it comes to spending.  I understand that 'loving' money can be a bad thing, so I don't want her to be obsessed with it, just thoughtful about how she uses it. 

So, about the title.  No, we're not talking stock market.  I'm actually discussing our little store, our 7/11, our very own piggly wiggly that resides in my closet.  I began a system to try and keep Iggy on her toes when it comes to being on time for class.  I also, want to teach her about buying and using money.  So she is able to earn these 'Bean Tickets' (little northern beans with a black dot marked on them).  She gets one per day that she is on time.  That's it.

Today marks the very first day that Iggy spent her Bean Tickets and bought something.  Ok, so I caved in on her third day and let her pick something out without having to spend her tickets, But that was IT.  No more melty mom after that.  She MUST earn her treasures in her efforts at being on time for class (if I can keep those puppy dog eyes from drawing me in again).  As a side note, she didn't ask for something free.  I just saw how she kept eyeing the buckets of treats, and felt that 'proud of her for not asking/wish I could just give her a break' sorta feelings and then gave her a 'begining of the year' freebie. 

No, but seriously, she must now earn them and has.  She saved up 10 Bean Tickets so she could get the biggest 'thing'.  It was a mesh bag filled with plastic food, and mini tableware.  Well, and also a piece of candy that I attached to it a couple of days before she was going to buy it.  Okay, okay, melty mom had a weak moment, BUT she did wait and wait for it.  She passed up the 3 Bean Ticket bucket that had some candy and things and kept saving her beans.  She also passed up the 5 Bean Ticket bucket that had better candy and better things in it and kept on saving her beans.  She had her sites set on the 10 Bean Ticket prize!  The dollar Tree is wonderful by the way.  So now she is beanless, but so liking her new digs.  That is, her new cooking things digs, if I can call it that.  One happy girl = one happy mom.

   

The now empty Bean Ticket Container after she cashed in all 10 of her Tickets.

Inky gets to earn them too, though I do all the 'getting her ready for class' duties for her and have to remind her like a 1,000 times to be in her seat before the bell rings.

I'm proud of her for being able to resist the immediate satisfaction of 'candy now' in order to get something that she really wanted later by saving her 'money'.

Time to start earning more Bean Tickets.

Thanks for stopping by.  Do you have a Bean Ticket system of your own?  I'd love to hear about it!