Butterfly Cupcakes

I know...it's only been forever since I last posted.  But I'm not here to talk about that.  Birthday cupcakes!  I was tickled to death with these!  We decided to take the birthday cake eating to the park and so I figured cupcakes would work best.  The chosen subject was butterflies.

I saw this idea and LOVED it!   And totally forgot to take into account the heat and the fact that these would start melting the second we walked out the front door with them.  Not to mention, driving in our air conditioning-less vehicle.

At any rate, these are perfect for having in an air conditioned house in Florida in May.  I drew out the shape of the wings, melted some wilton candy melts in plastic zip-loc bags with a little hole cut in the corner (about 10-12 seconds at a time, taking it out and mashing them around in between, until they're good and melted) , put wax paper over the pattern and went to work. I did the outline in the dark chocolate and then filled it in with pink.  I followed that by tapping the tray on the table so the holds would be filled in.  To do the swirls, you really have to do one wing at a time (unless, of course, I did this outside where it would stay melted!!!).  Before the candy hardened, I'd take the time of a sharp knife and pull a little swirl from the brown.  These are my stacks of wings.  40 something of them.  Yes.  It was time consuming.

On another piece of wax paper I just did a bunch of squiggly lines for the body and then did a little V for the antennae.

Putting them ON the cupcake was...interesting.  My cupcakes often come out rather tall in the middle and the wings really just wanted to slide down the cupcake hill.  As fun as that might be, I was having none of it.    I sliced the dome off of the cupcakes so they were fairly flat.  I iced them and I put an upside down chocolate chip on either side of the middle for the wings to rest on. (I guess a picture of that would have been helpful...oh well).  And then added the body and the antenna.

Learning with the Little Ones

I'll get back to the "why I homeschool" thing sooner or later, but right now I want to share some stuff I've been doing recently with my 4yo girl and almost 3yo girl.

I'm not one of those that is in a great hurry to have my little people reading from the encyclopedia before they turn 3 (though they do flip through it to look at pictures), and I'm not sitting there with flash cards trying to teach them words, letters or even colors the second they can focus their little eye balls. I don't parade the 18 month old out for friends and grandparents to show them how they know this or that 4 years before anyone else and can repeat ABC's, etc. Gag. Just live and enjoy and they learn plenty, you know?

But, I wanted something to do with the girls to make them feel included in the whole school thing and something that they could fiddle with at the table while I teach. They love hands on stuff and they ARE rather sponge-like when it comes to learning, so I've been making a few hands on things for my 4yo to do to reinforce some things she already knows or add to soem things she's already been accumulating in that little brain. And the 2yo...she, of course, just wants to be a part.

Brown Bear, Brown Bear by Eric Carle is a favorite, read 1000 times, bed-time book for the little ladies. I found a template for some counting cards made from that book. The girls LOVE them! We count the pictures on each card and they work on putting them in order. The younger one doesn't much care what order they're in as long as no one else is touching them. Sweet, isn't it? Hm. It's also good for her to learn color names. They're all red in her opinion.

http://www.1plus1plus1equals1.com/BrowBearBrownBear.html .

Something the 4yo particularly enjoys is our file folder game. It was supposed to be an

Even/Odd game for the older boys, but due to the fact that it would have the same numbers in the same place every time (and there are far more than 24 odd/even numbers, right?), I decided to just use blank hermit crabs and use a wet-erase marker so I could switch numbers. THEN I figured I could use it for the 4yo to identify numbers. THEN I figured I could also use it to help teach lower case letters. My kids always know the upper case letters and their sounds while still getting mixed up on which lower case letter goes to which upper case letter/sound. So, on one side are her numbers. I call out a number and she covers it. And on the other side are her letters where I give her a sound and she covers the letter that goes with the sound. And I can change it up once she gets those down. Or, I can use it for the even/odd practice that it was supposed to be for!

Both of these little things only take a few minutes but it seems to be enough to satisfy their desire for school work!

Why I Homeschool (part 2)

I had written this all out back in June but I was unable to fit EVERYTHING I wrote into one post and didn't have the time to cut it up just so. At any rate...here's the next part of why we homeschool! :)

Still on the note of God being opposed by the schools: The curriculum is written by people who want God to be removed from our minds. Look to two very significant places. The National Education Association has a huge impact on laws that relate to our schools. They are far from a “Christian” group and they are far from concerned about parents rights or, of course, the spiritual well being of our children. They want our children to be introduced to a variety of lifestyles, they want parents to butt out, they have a plan for our children and the future of our country and they have the numbers to act. The NEA is actively AGAINST homeschooling. They want children schooled THEIR way, period. They feel that THEY are the children’s champion and that schools/government should be trusted for their good intentions over that of parents!!! They imply that homeschooled children must be protected from their children, they need to be better monitored to be sure no neglect or abuse is taking place. It’s insane! Their power over the schools (and thus, families) in our nation is no small thing. They have an impact on the curriculum, on the things that children are taught, etc. A powerful force. And none of their values line up with God’s.

Next is that California is the largest buyer of school curriculum. As you might know, California is also one of the most liberal, least family friendly/God friendly states (looking at legislation). What that means is that publishers make their school curriculum with their largest customer (Cal) in mind. Anywhere that morals can be skewed…they are. No more acting like a nuclear family is normal. No reference to America’s very abundant God-fearing American history. These books are then used in ALL the schools in America. American public school students do not realize what America was built on…UNLESS, of course, a spin can be put on it to make people look like religious fanatics who killed and slaughtered and abused others in the name of God. THAT, you might see. Regardless of how sweet your child’s teacher is, it’s unlikely that she will properly fill in the blanks left by the publishers or that she will recognize subtle omissions and sometimes distortions of truth. No, God is NOT honored in our public schools. I could no more send them there than I could send them to a Muslim school or a Satanist school.

There they are taught that tolerance is the greatest virtue but that you should NOT tolerate anyone who thinks there is ONE way to do things or that there is ONE definite truth. Christian adults who have been raised up in these schools pride themselves on their tolerance of other religions because they believe that it’s better to be tolerant than to tell others they are going to hell and have them realize their danger!

Left and right in God’s Word we see that God wants us to BE CAREFUL that we do not forget Him. Be careful that we are not lured into worshipping the false gods they worship (which, in our culture may not be an idol, but many ideas encourage in public schools that are far from God’s ways), not to yoke ourselves with those who do not love and serve God lest our affections be redirected to the things those peers love. We are reminded to keep His words and His actions before us ALL the time, giving honor to Him in all things. The very way God directs us to rmember Him is the opposite of what the powers that be want to occur in school. And they go to great lengths to make sure that it would be very difficult to keep God constantly in the forfront of their minds.

The whole situation of Christians sending their children to school makes me think of Malachi 1:6, “A son honoureth his father, and a servant his master” if then I be a father, where is mine honour” and if I be a master, where is my fear? Saith the Lord of hosts unto you, O priests, that despise my name. And ye say, Where in have we despised thy name? Ye offer polluted bread upon mine altar; and ye say, The table of the Lord is contemptible.”

We do not offer our children to the schools in honor of God because it is there He is decidedly NOT honored. This is nothing like Hannah sending Samuel to serve under and learn from Eli (which was not a normal thing, anyway, and should not be treated as such). We do not send them believing that it is a show of gratitude to God nor do we expect great spiritual benefit to it. It is in no way doing our best to train up a godly seed which He seeks (Mal. 2:15). We’re sending them hoping that not TOO much damage will be done or that we can, hopefully counter the damage in the little time we have during the evenings after we accomplish the homework and other stuff that the schools demand of our family time.

Some people argue that the presence of Christian children in schools will have a big impact. Well…Christians were in schools for a long time and it’s just become worse. At one time, the majority of people had Christian values. This is no longer true and this did not start happening because Christians weren’t involved. This has happened because the schools are turning Christian kids into very WEAK Christian kids, with little conviction and even less understanding. The Christians have less and less impact on the world around us because they are so weakened by their spiritually unhealthy upbringing.

When it comes to our children, the Bible emphasizes how the fathers and grandfathers are to teach things to their children/grandchildren. It does not speak of the government or teachers or friends training their children on a daily basis. The New Testament talks of making disciples. How did Jesus do that? By having the disciples live with Him, go about doing things with Him. He didn't just have them a couple hours that they should have been doing homework in the evenings and weekends. The school format just doesn't appear as a God ordained norm in scriptures.

Why do we homeschool (part 1)

I'm asked this every once in a great while. Not often, mind you, but usually from people who are wanting to do it themselves but just can't decide. I'm never prepared...and even if I was, I never have enough time to explain. So, here...for anyone who wants to know:

1. My first reason is because I believe it’s what God wants from us, as Christian parents. To start with, in Duet. 6 God says, “Hear, O Israel: The lord our God is one Lord” And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates….Then beware lest thou forget the Lord, which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage…Ye shall not go after other gods, of the gods of the people which are round about you…”

This is just a starting place but it’s a big starting place. When you read those verses, it’s clear that the WAY God wants His people to instruct their children in His ways is NOT something accomplished by a little something in the morning and a little something in the evening. Look! His commands, His Word, His ways should be lived CONSTANTLY and taught continuously as is indicated by “when we walk by the way…liest down…risest up”. We can’t have a stretch of 6 hours a day, 5 days a week where teaching about God and the Bible is expressly prohibited…and your children KNOW that their God-loving parents are sending them to a place where they are not for God! And if it is not for Him then it is AGAINST Him, right? That clearly would NOT fall into the meaning of this passage. Look, too, at how His words are to be placed in our awareness: "for a sign on thine hand, frontlets between thine eyes…write them on the posts of thy house,” etc. Did He literally mean that’s where you put it? Put it there and then go on with life as usual? For our purposes, He’s saying that He wants us to be continually in mind of His words. Now, it certainly helps to have God's Words written everywhere, but for our children, it needs to be coming out of the mouth of their parents all day so that THEY, in turn, learn how it is a part of our all day, every day. This cannot happen in a school setting. And I’ll say that even in my experience at a Christian school, that did not happen.

But, you know, also from this passage I see that God is putting this responsibility on parents. Let me try and make a little analogy here. If I go on vacation and leave my pet with you, asking that you take care of it for the week, and you decided that you didn’t want to do it and so you sent my pet to someone else’s house for the week, would I not be a little…taken aback to say the least, when I returned? Or, perhaps if I left a dear friend my house key and asked her to check on my house every day while I was gone, but instead she gave it to someone that I decidedly did NOT ask to tend my house, would I be tickled about that? Not only someone I didn’t ask, but someone who’s life’s purpose is to oppose me?

Perhaps you do not see public schools in this light (opposing God). You, perhaps, do not see that they oppose God, or that, at least, not in YOUR public school. If that is indeed the case, let me point out a few things. First, you know that they MAY NOT (as in, do not have the permission to) teach about Jesus Christ. Many Christians don’t seem overly bothered by that but it is alarming and offensive. Imagine if your children were taught that they cannot discuss their parents or any moral teachings that come from their parents. If YOU were banned from the school, would you feel comfortable sending your child there? If so, you hold your relationship with your child far more lightly than you ought!

You also know that they do not teach creation as a fact. They often teach the theory of evolution (which has still not been proven, people) as a fact OR teach it without saying it’s a theory and then blow it out of the water as impossible (as should be done). No one teaches creation science in schools, showing how things might have gotten the way they are by using Biblical accounts. And evolution is loaded in their science books…”millions of years ago”, “Jurassic period” (indicating millions of years ago)…it’s dropped here and there all the time even when it’s not directly talking about evolution. And NO one says “Okay, kids, when they say millions of years ago, we know that this person is coming from the evolution view point…what we believe probably happened in this situation is that during the flood…” Nope, they don’t get a bit of that. What’s a kid to think about the relevance of God when they get pure trash thrown at them, often in very subtle ways, that Mom and Dad aren’t there to help pick through. And you know…Mom and Dad shouldn’t HAVE to pick through trash…their kids should be with them getting the wholesome goodness of a God centered worldview.

More on this subject coming soon (hopefully).

Winter Treats

It doesn't get REAL cold around these parts, but it's chilly today so this evening, for supper, we're having soup. I'm not a big soup person but THIS soup is fantastic. A tad spicey but everyone 6 and up loves it. I got the recipe from my mom who got it from...someone else. :)

Chicken Tortilla Soup

4 chicken breasts, boiled

6+ cups chicken broth (I just use what I boiled the chicken in)

14 oz. can of Rotel tomatoes (you know...the chopper tomatoes with green chilies in them)

14 oz creamed corn

1 1/2 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp garlic

1 tsp salt

1 1/4 tsp pepper

1/2 cup diced onion

Simmer all of the above.

1/4 cup cornstarch disolved in 1/2 cup water.

Add to soup and simmer.

6 slices of American cheese (um...I don't think this makes a real big difference)

1 lb velveeta cheese

When you're done, throw some tortillas in a pan with some butter to brown them a bit and then tear them in pieces and put them in your bowl of soup! Delicious!!

Another yummy thing we made today is "haystacks!" They're pretty quick and easy...a nice little treat to take to a Christmas party (which we're going to tomorrow)! And your kids will think you're amazing! Well, mine do anyway. My Grandma used to make all sorts of treats for us when we would visit and this was one of them.

We got some chow mein noodles, (should have gotten peanuts to go in as well, but forgot) and a bag of butterscotch morsels. We melted the butterscotch in a glass bowl in the microwave and then stirred in the noodles until they were well coated. I dont' have measurements...you just pour them in and stir until they're covered and it looks like you don't have enough to cover too many more. I got a bag of chow mein noodles at Wal-Mart and had at least half the bag left over from the one bag of butterscotch morsels. Then you make little piles of them on a cookie sheet and let them cool. And that's it!! My picture turned out a little odd...they should be the color of the ones on the right.

Blog? What blog?

I was doing pretty well blogging for a very short while and then the bottom dropped out!! Wonder if I can get this wagon train a movin' again.

Tonight I'm again pondering on how much I love my Ergo baby carrier. That's one thing I would definitely recommend to any new mom. It's worth it's weight in gold to me. You can start using it early on and use it...well, for a long time. I still carry Ella in it (2 years old). I didn't think Jacob would like it because he's not big on being snuggled chest to chest but he was happy as a lark in it this evening. Happier, I think, than in the Maya Wrap sling. He likes the sling, but it's not the instant soother that it seemed to be for my other babies. But he was quite happy in this. Fell asleep in it...slept while I vacuumed, swept, washed dishes. It's a little difficult to do all that with him on the FRONT but he's a bit small for me to manage getting him on my back in it so you do what you have to do. Though I might see if I can figure out a safe way to get him back there because if that works for him, it would be great. He has reflux something crazy and really likes being upright so that probably plays a part in why he was so content.

He's a little small yet, to have his legs sticking out both sides, so I just rolled him up in a blanket and tucked him in with his feet under him.

Other things of interest: I made an army tank birthday cake for Nate on Monday.

It's not great but my little boys think it was awesome and loved helping me with it so...I guess it was great in all the important categories. I used black licorice for the tracks on the tank...EEEWWW! I think they're nasty and smell yucky to boot. But..no one minded that either.

What a Happy Day!

I had my first doctor's appointment for this pregnancy today and they did the usual "anatomy" sonogram. We got to see baby number 7 and little boy number 5!!! Yep, a boy!

While most of the boys were rooting for another girl ("Why would we want another boy?! We have 4 boys but we only have two girls!" was the comment one made), I have to say that I was REALLY wanting another boy. You see, after you start your mothering years with boy after boy after boy...a feast of baby boys really, and then you have a few girls and your little boys are getting tall and gangly and they aren't small and chubby anymore, you start getting nostalgic. My days of baby boys are a faint, sweet memory that I wish you could relive. I miss the little chuncky guys who pick up the tiniest bugs in the back yard, the little guys who dip their foreheads in mudpuddles, the little guys who don't care about "pretty" but just do the things little boys do. While I love little girls, I MISS my baby boys!!! And I'm SOOOO excited that we've got another little guy coming to join us!! Yea!! And the boys have decided they're glad they're going to have another baby brother!

About "Inadequate" Mothers

I recently heard one lady (with 3 children, expecting their 4th and last child according to her) report that another woman with a larger family (by 3 or 4 children) had said she wasn’t able to spend time with each of her children each day. The mother with fewer children said that “You are a bad mother if you can say that.” She went on to say it was weird that the lady wanted more children and she said “Why would you want more when you don’t have the time to spend with the ones you’ve created already?” Let me just briefly point out the fallacy implied in her comment “You’ve created”. The Bible says that GOD is the creator of life. We cannot create, nor can we accidentally allow a life that God didn’t PURPOSEFULLY create. But that issue is not what I want to address in this post.

It sounds, from the comment of the mother of three, as if any woman who would voice feelings of inadequacy is a bad mother (afterall, she's admitting to being inadequate!) and worse if she feels inadequate AND would desire more children! I’ve been feeling incredibly overwhelmed and inadequate (patience wise) lately. I can’t say that I feel like I’m a horrible mother, though. Not as good as I would like and not as good as I could and not as good as I ought to be. But still, a good mother who loves and takes care of and raises her children the way the Lord leads as well as I can, given my flawed human nature. Lord, save me from sharing any of my feelings of inadequacy with such an uncompassionate, judgmental woman!!

Of course, it leads you to wonder, can you avoid being a bad mother?! Doesn't ANY mother find herself in the position of seeing things she should have done differently? Things she did wrong!? Or are there really mothers who know they have always done the best thing for their child in every situation? Something to think about, anyway.

But is this woman right? Is that mother a bad mother on the basis of not spending time with each child on a daily basis?

I have 9 siblings (one born after I got married so he almost doesn’t count in my part of what I’m about to say). Did mom spend personal, one-on-one time with each one of us every single day of our life at home? No. The majority of our personal time we did get was for school work (which, I imagine, added up to far more than the average amount the kids from public school with a working mom and 1 sibling gets). I’m sure there were times when we were in the kitchen helping to do things or, doing laundry or gardening with her or…who knows what else when no one was in there for a few moments, but there was very little “time with each child every day” in the one on one, specific way the lady’s statement implies.

I ask, IS personal time with Mom every day or even most days something we needed to have?! If so, why? Is there a Biblical reason that we needed special one on one time? Let’s not go into psycho ideas that counselors have conjured up out of nowhere with no real background to them, but give me a real, honest to goodness, known for thousands of years kind of reason that time with a parent and siblings just doesn’t count as time with your parent.

My mom was with the whole lot of us all the time. We were with her ALL day, she was with us ALL day. Anytime we wanted to go talk to mom, she was there and it wasn’t as if we had to submit a request in writing, squeeze our talk in between appointments or wait until she got home from work or we got home from school. But, at the same time, she didn’t have time set aside for each person every day. If we wanted/needed to talk, we found her and did so. But our bonus was/is, we have siblings we could talk to as well. We had our CHOICE of siblings to talk to!! I know that these days I might call my mother but then again, I might call and talk to one of my sisters (children #5, 6, 8 and 9). A number of my siblings have best friends in other siblings and they’re the ones to whom they tell all those things that you might not really say much to Mom or Dad about. While Mom and Dad are certainly nice to talk to, my siblings are definitely indispensable! Thank goodness my parents didn’t cut our family off at 2 or 3 or 4 children so they could personally give us all a specific amount of time or have money to give us certain lessons of some sort! Good grief! What robbery that would have been! If there were only 4 kids in my family, NONE of my sisters would have been born and OH, what I would be missing in my life right now!! Ugh!! What a horrid thought! I love and value my first three siblings, but we would all be lacking greatly if we didn’t have the other 6!! It happens that all but maybe my oldest brother wants to have a large family of their own. I can see in my friends what you get with smaller families and I have to say that I wouldn’t trade what I got…changing diapers, babysitting for no money, doing chores that friends seldom did and all that…wouldn’t trade it for what they got. In my opinion, my friends in smaller families didn’t get a single thing better…they just got less. They may not know they’re missing anything, but if I try and imagine life in a family of four, all I can imagine is the things I would have missed. We all feel incredibly blessed and we really value growing up in a crowd, so to speak. Enough to want to bless our children in the same way. I know many children in small families who grow up kinda lonely. It’s harder to find that in larger families.

I think the blessing of many siblings for the REST OF OUR LIVES, far out weighs any benefit of special time with mom on a daily basis while we’re growing up. But again, I still don’t see the need or even the benefit of having special time alone as opposed to time with mom AND siblings. Time with parents is important…yes, but all by yourself, not so important. Did Jesus spend special time with each of His disciples every day? No?! You mean, He didn’t set aside a 20 minute block to pour himself into each individual every day? No? Well why not? Maybe because it’s not needed or necessary in order to pass on the things God wants us to pass on. It’s not necessary in order for a person to feel significant, needed, valued, loved. Indeed, I have to say I feel like the world needs me more because my many siblings are in it. I feel like I have greater opportunities to be a good (or bad) influence because I have 8 younger siblings. I feel blessed because when I have a baby, my MOM doesn’t have to come stay with my kids but my sisters (far more energy and less aches and pains) CAN! Oh, I cannot tell you the THOUSANDS of blessings that come from a large family!! Yes, one so large that Mom might often feel like she just can’t handle it. But it’s not all about Mom really, is it?

I think often a MOM (including me at this point in my life) is a lot harder on herself than her kids are. I think non-understanding neighbors and friends can also be a lot more critical “for the sake of the children”, than the children are. I know that, certainly right now, I go to bed at least 4 of 7 nights, thinking about my short comings and how I did NOT do what I feel I should have that day. I imagine the mom quoted was feeling pretty bad, feeling like she wasn’t doing all she should and while she loves her children and would delight in another wonderful blessing, she feels that she cannot do enough. I believe this is deception initiated by Satan with the very purpose of discouraging Christians from doing something effective. The fewer children born in to Christian families the better and what better way than to actually make the parents think they’re doing the best by NOT having more. It’s so easy, in this culture where 1 or 2 children families are the model “family” and expectations of parents are based on this model. But this is NOT God’s model and the expectations that spring from this lack of fruitfulness are not God’s expectations.

When moms think they don’t have enough time for their large family or feel like they just aren’t doing enough, we need to remember that GOD knows what He’s doing when He gives you the children He gives. We forget, our children and what we do are not ALL ABOUT US and being just perfect. And if we're not perfect in our parenting, it's very arrogant of us to think that it would be better if our children weren't here. We make ourselves out to be far too important when we start thinking like that. We and our children are a part of some bigger picture God is working on and God still works through the weaknesses of His children. Yes, it’s true…God uses OUR weaknesses in the lives of our children and in everything else we touch. We just need to be open to Him. Ahhh. That's a refreshing thought to an overwhelmed, inadequate mommy.

Trouble

I have this little short person in my house who really likes to get into things.
This is where all interesting things collect. The top shelf there is everything that this particular little person should NOT have. It's where all those things she gets and should not have gotten get placed because I'm in the middle of teaching/cooking/doing something or other on the computer or whatever. This is also where school books and lesson plans collect sometimes, where recipes and notes about next years curriculum turn into snow drift-like piles of paper, where homeless CD's collect, where soda bottles are seldom found but were there today because some little person (hmmm, who could that be) was carrying it around the living room while I was looking at Sonlight curriculum.


So, this place is, of course, the one spot that attracts her. Afterall, most of these things were things that she found interesting elsewhere and have been deposited here. It's like a treasure desk! A marker and notebook in her hand, she's giving the rest of it a once over to see what she might want to make off with. I think she's planning on making a list so she's prepared next time she gets this opportunity.

Fabulous Food!

I have a couple recipes to share with you guys today. Two we tried out this week and both were a big hit.

Garlic Lovers Chicken (actually, it didn’t have that much garlic- you could certainly add more)

½ c dry bread crumbs (I made these by cutting 2 slices of bread into strips and broiling them on both sides and then crumbling)
1/3 c. parm cheese
2 table spoons minced fresh parsley (I used dried…maybe a tsp or so)
½ tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper

Put all these in a bag or Tupperware dish to toss your chicken in

¼ cup milk
6 boneless skinless chicken breasts
¼ cup of butter or margarine, melted
2 cloves garlic minced
2 tablespoons lemon juice
paprika (I forgot this…oops!)

Dip chicken in milk, shake in crumb mixture. Place in greased baking dish.
Combine butter, garlic and lemon juice; drizzle over chicken. Sprinkle with paprika. I also sprinkled a little extra garlic powder on the ckn.
Baked uncovered at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes or until juices run clear. Mmmmm, mmmm! All the adults and kids loved it.


Next it ranch dressing similar to Outback Steakhouse' ranch. Not exactly but close and YUMMY!!

Outback-like (but not precisely) ranch dressing

1 table spoon Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing (the little package of powder, and it’s the dressing NOT the dip)
1 C. mayo
½ cup milk
¼ tsp black pepper
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
1/8 tsp garlic powder

Let chill for one hour (you MUST do at least this for the flavor to take effect)

And everyone loved this, too.

Potty Training Adventures

This little lady who is in the process of training is one interesting little person. She's stubborn and cute and hard headed and sweet, independent and helpful, resistant to commands...

Well, without going into great detail, I will say that this morning she had an accident in her undies, DIDN'T tell me about it and went on to "clean up" everything on her own. Her attempts to take care of everything on her own was a situation that was a first, after potty training 4 others. Usually they have NO desire to take care of it (and really, does ANYONE want to?!). Of course, clean up carried out by the inept is... Well, I'm sure any mother reading this knows how that sort of thing goes. It was one of those things where it takes a little while to solve the whole mystery as to what exactly happened but as the clues unfolded I didn't know if I should laugh or cry, praise her or admonish her! What can you do but a little of both followed by a sigh and a shake of the head?!

I just want to know...is EVERYTHING with girls going to be more work?

Potty training - one of the ironies of life

There are so many of these with children. You're so excited that they're talking and then you get so tired of them constantly asking "Why?" when you have no clue why or "When?" when you haven't even planned on a when and just pretty much talking nonstop.

Well, I got my fill of another one of these this morning. First, let me just say that I'm a very laid back potty trainer. Usually I put training pants on a little tot one morning, tell them whats expected, put them on the toilet a few times and when they don't successfully make it several times that morning and I go back to diapers. A couple months later, I do the same thing. Sooner or later, it just works and they take it and run with it with very little effort on my part. And by golly, I like it that way. Because what I did this morning was ridiculous.

The little princess is getting pretty close to three and while I've done the training pants thing several times and I've put her on the toilet many times, she's NEVER used the toilet. Ever. This is unusual for us. I've not had one to NEVER use the toilet by this age. Course, I've not had one this stubborn either but that's another line of thought entirely. So, this morning I was thinking that, by golly, I'm at least going to get her using the toilet so she can get an idea, at least, of this potty training thing. So I made some lemonade (we only drink water around here so even watered down 50%, it's a big hit) and filled her up. Sippy cup full after sippy cup, she guzzled quite a few.

I figured we'd hang out in my bedroom this morning...I'd fold clothes, the boys could sit at the chest at the base of my bed and do school work and we'd be right there by the bathroom to do the potty training. And the first hour or so, that worked out okay except she wasn't going to the bathroom! I was starting to despair. I pulled the big bag of M & M's out of the cabinet to display the promised treat. It's probably 1/3 of a 5lb bag that a "friend" of mine had given me several months ago. I don't know how friendly that is to dump that much candy on a person with 6 kids but, I'm sure she meant the best. (Her time is coming.)

A few moments after seeing the very big bag of candy she decided she needed to go potty. And she DID!!! Oh, what excitement and celebrating there was! After the whole "now you pull your undies back on and you move the step stool (made by my father-in-law for potty training my first) over here and wash your hands and then you dry your hands...and get candy... and then you turn the bathroom light off", we called Dad to tell him so he could stop to celebrate with us (hee hee! It's kinda funny to think of interrupting someone for that). She was so pleased and so was I. Very nice. So, I went back to teaching the boys. And after I got two sentences out of my mouth, she came back and said "I need to go potty!" That really wasn't very long at all but at this point we want to keep the the excitement, don't we?! So I jumped up and said "Okay, let's go!!" So I got up and helped her through the whole sequence (minus calling daddy) and then went back to teaching. And not 2 minutes later.... And two minutes after that, and two minutes after that and then she walked out of the room and walked back in to use the bathroom AGAIN in far less than two minutes. It was INSANE!! For the next hour and 15 minutes the insanity of constantly (and I am NOT exaggerating that there was not a break of more than 3 minutes and often it was shorter) going to the bathroom and ACTUALLY using it went on while I struggled to accomplish anything else. And I greatly struggled to not just totally lose my patience and slap a diaper back on her!! Even my 9 year old, after about 15 minutes into the ordeal, laughed and said "You thought she was never going to use the potty but now I bet you're really tired of it." Ah, yes, a diaper was looking *real* good after 30 minutes of that.

I say, kudos to the people who do the concentrated "potty training in one day" thing, but based on my small, one and a half hour experience, I am absolutely not equipped with whatever personal traits needed to deal with that! Whew!

Reviving? And K'nex!

Could energy be coming back? Oh, I hope so. The first trimester of the last few pregnancies have been a bit tough when it comes to having the energy or the desire to do much of anything. I think I'm doing good to keep up with laundry, keep kids fed and do school work. I've not really felt up to even doing that much (though you do what you have to) so anything past that really hasn't happened. However, this morning I laid in bed for a little bit with great thoughts for what I would accomplish today. Not that I will accomplish all that I was thinking about, or even half, but the fact that I was thinking about it could be a sign that the sluggishness is about to leave! Oh, and is my house ready for that!



Well, today I was going to share something that I think is great for kids to play with. K'nex. While they come with instructions for building a number of different things, it's the things they think of on their own that I like to see. It's really cute to see what they come up with.

It seems to me that creativity needs to be encouraged in children or they become very dependent on other things (games, sports, organized actitivies) to keep them entertained, to keep their minds engaged, to keep themselves busy. Hmmm. I wonder if a childhood lacking in practicing creativity is why so many women struggle with how they "don't use their minds" when they stay at home. They never learned how to engage their minds without direction from someone or something else. Hmm. A thought.

ANYWAY!! The really neat thing about K'nex is that there are so many creative possibilities! Many more than with Legos. Now, we enjoy Legos around here too, but with K'nex, you have all sorts of different things that link together and can move and all sorts of good stuff. Hours of good creative fun in these things!

The Importance of Being Homemakers

So many times, as some of us stay at home moms go about our lives, we run into the opinion that women who stay at home, who spend much of their time on taking care of babies and children, changing hundreds of diapers, teaching their children at home, trying to make their home lovely and their food good, and just generally trying to be good, successful and efficient in their work are simply wasting their time and that they’re doing nothing for the world. What we do is nothing with any purpose or significance is what too many, even those within the Church believe. We often feel like we are alone, like we are making little impact, like the difference we’re making is no more than a footprint on the beach that will be washed away with the next tide.

This is so far from the truth!! Satan would LOVE for us to think that our duties in the home are insignificant. God, however, wants us to know that our work in the home is an important part of the Christian community. Titus 2:3-5 says “Older women likewise are to be reverent in their behavior, not malicious gossips nor enslaved to much wine, teaching what is good, so that they may encourage the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be sensible, pure, workers at home, kind, being subject to their own husbands, so that the word of God will not be dishonored.” We aren’t all older women but we are older than SOMEONE and here is a description of the things we are to be learning and practicing in our lives.

As people miss God’s purpose and God’s design in the small building blocks of life, more people abandon doing exactly what God wants us to be doing. It’s these little things that lay the foundation for the godly success our children’s generation and it’s these things that hold our own generation together. When we act as if the only significant life is a life focused primarily on vocal political activism or spent in a vocation of missions or spent on relief work to those in dire need or whatever someone other than God deems worthy, we are demeaning what GOD has put in place as the foundation for greater things. God has shown us what He desires for us to do. It’s what He has commanded and it’s through these little things of working at home, loving our husbands, children, etc, that we are taking part in building a structure God has planned.

A majority of us here spend most of our time caring for children, teaching them, puzzling over how to better teach them, praying that God will guide us in training them so that they will be equipped to be future leaders in our nation, praying that God will help us figure out how to deal with the strong willed attitude in one of our children, making schedules for dentist appointments, we cook 21 meals a week, we are in charge of the nutrition of our family, we are in charge of keeping our children clothed, in charge of filling these young minds with things that God desires their minds to be full of. We’re responsible for loving our husbands which includes feeding them like we love them, keeping their home like we love them, caring for their children and keeping ourselves like we love and care that our husbands should be able to enjoy and benefit from his family. The list goes on and on and some people would belittle many of these things, acting as if most of them could be done given only 10 seconds or 10 minutes a day and you should be able to do these things in your leftover time from a “significant” job.

The things we are concerned with are incredibly varied and some seem more important than others but remember, they ALL come together to build a structure designed by God and each little part is of great significance. Sometimes we think that the LITTLE things we do don’t really matter. We might think that our attitude about changing diapers and training children isn’t really a big deal but when you imagine all the ways God could possibly use that, you begin to realize that God can and does use every little thing we do to inspire others, to pass on good things to our children, to make others feel the love of Christ. We may not think our cooking or attitude towards cooking matters but our family is impacted when they see how we approach caring for them and they are impacted when they see the effort we put into it and they are impacted when they have a pleasant and enjoyable experience at the table with their family.

Don’t allow yourself to believe that what you’re doing is unimportant. God says that your efforts in these things has an impact on whether or not God’s word is dishonored!!

Our Baby Announcement

Back when we first started adding to our family I didn't do anything especially interesting to "announce" the pregnancies. Largely because I'd never heard of it being done before. But, too, with your first few, people are excited and/or suprised and have a delightful reaction that you have lots of fun with when all you do is TELL them!!

Well, as time goes on and you have more, YOU are very excited but sometimes the reactions you get are not quite like the first one or two. I don't exactly get why this is because the announcement still means an amazingly precious and wonderful person, just as amazing and wonderful as your first and second born. But, whatever. So, I started spending more time planning the announcements and really soaking up all the pleasure I can from this amazing news. I may not get the MOST excited and certainly not the most surprised reactions (though some of our family members and friends did have WONDERFUL reactions!) but I get to spend the time coming up with the announcements just thinking and enjoying my news on my own.

For this little one, I decided to make a banner. I saw Valentines banners on a blog just before we found out we were expecting so I thought it would be really fun to make a banner announcing our little one.

This is made of scrap booking paper and ribbons. I wish I'd gotten a better picture to share but I JUST finished this before getting together with my in-laws and was in quite a rush.

Creative Cook

Last month was a busy month. We found out we are expecting and so I spent much creative energy on announcing that, we visited family and had a miscarriage scare (which was apparently just that, a scare). All of that kinda kept me from spending too much time sharing here.

Well, here's one thing that was just SOOOO cute that I have to share.

One day I was making some Alice Spring's Chicken (as in, Outback Steak House). It was delicious and if I can find the recipe card (I can't right now) I'll share it. I was frying the bacon to go on the chicken and my little cook wanted to help with it. I told him that he couldn't because the bacon would pop grease in his face. He said, "Hmmmm." And left. I went on with my business only to turn around a few minutes later and see that he was back, helping with the bacon in some home made protective gear:

This is a Narnia knight's helmet with sunglasses.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE the front row seat I have to these amazing little people God made!! Awesome!

Home Made Baby Wipes

If you're a baby wipe user, this is a great money saver. When I first started having babies, the bathroom we used was really too tiny to change diapers in or even to store diapers in so using a washcloth when changing diapers was really not a very convenient thing to do. So we used wipes and sometime about 7 years ago I started making my own.

Here's what you need.

-Bounty paper towels. Don't go cheap or they won't work well.

-2 cups water

-Baby wash/shampoo

-tea tree oil (optional)

-Rubbermaid container

Cut the paper towels in half. You can use a large sharp knife or an electric knife if you have one. I was given a used one several years ago and it does make it a bit easier. You'll use half of the roll now and the other half will be ready for your next round of wipes.

Next you mix two cups of water with about 2 or 3 tablespoons of baby wash. I just give a couple good squirts and stir it in with a spoon. You can either put this in the rubbermaid container and drop the paper towels in after (which will take a while to soak in) or pour it over the tops of the paper towels. If you pour it over the top, the cardboard tube will get soaked quicker and you can pull it out sooner (if you're in a rush to use your wipes).

Once you've pulled the cardboard tube out, start pulling the wipes from the center. Notice my lid. You don't have to do this at all, but my lid started out with a LITTLE x in the top for pulling the wipes out (exacto knife). As it's been used for years and years, constantly, with usually 2 babies in diapers the whole time, it's gotten a LOT of use and the original little X split all the way to the edges. Which is not a big deal...the wipes still stay wet. You don't, of course, have to cut your top at all. You can just leave the top whole and take it off when you use it. The choice is, of course, yours.

And, ta-da! Here are home made wipes! For me, with 2 in diapers and using wipes only for diaper changes, we usually go through half a roll a week, more or less, so a 12 pack of bounty paper towels which were a bit under $7 last time I bought them, will last about half a year. In the course of a week, they don't get the mildew smell. If you use yours more slowly, you might want to use a few drops of tea tree oil to keep them fresh (I never have). I don't know how long it actually takes for them to start smelling a bit stale.

Last note. I've looked for the round rubbermaid containers like the one I use and I haven't been able to find any for the past few years. Some of my friends who have started making wipes more recently use a square rubbermaid container that's just a bit taller than the half roll of wipes. It'll have a #6 on the bottom. Here's the size (this is my flour container).

Are children just an "illustration"?

I’ve been doing a Beth Moore Bible study lately, the one on Psalms. This past weeks lesson contained a quote, the implications of which I found to be offensive. I don’t always agree with her conclusions but usually I find that I disagree on minor points. This, however was a bit different.

This past week we were studying Psalm 127 and 128. I was amazed at how actual, physical children were brushed over but more than that, I was taken aback that she would share the following quote as if it even made a very clear or beneficial point! It almost seemed as if the quote was added to make sure no one might leave with the impression that God could have meant for us to think this was REALLY about our physical children.

The quote is by Eugene Peterson and is referring to Psalm 128’s reference to a wife being a fruitful vine and the children being like olive shoots around the table. He says:


“The illustration is, as we would expect, conditioned by Hebrew culture, in which the standard signs of happiness were a wife who had many children and children who gathered and grew around the table: fruitful vine and olive shoots. This illustration is just that, an example that we need not reproduce exactly in order to experience blessing. (We, for instance, don’t try to have as many children as possible – or try to get them to stay home for all their lives!) But the meaning is still with us: Blessing has inherent in it the power to increase.”


Oh, the problems I have with this quote!! The first is his reference to “Hebrew culture”, as if to say it is only their culture that happened to value children. It is important to realize that the HEBREW culture is the one that was formed and influenced by God like not other culture we know. Their value of children came because children are literally gifts given by God and they accepted that as fact. God made that clear and they believed Him and their attitude reflected it. That attitude should be part of ANY culture that knows and believes God. It’s not a cultural thing, it’s one of our Creator’s things.

I also find it interesting that he thinks it’s just an illustration. Perhaps Biblical talk of a husband having but one wife is also just an illustration, and not something we’re meant to reproduce and hold to. And talk of working diligently that we find so often in Proverbs is just an illustration, not something God really expected to see His people put into practice. And, hey, while we’re at it, let’s just call everything an illustration and read the Bible according to our culturally accepted views, rather than seeing our culture through the clear view of God’s Word! (Tongue in cheek here, folks.) Where does this man get the idea that this picture is not truly God’s heart for His people and that this is just figurative? Does he get it from God’s Word? Or does he get it by trying to adjust the Bible to what is culturally acceptable?

The part of this passage that is illustration is the reference to the wife being like a fruitful vine and the children to olive plants. What we’re supposed to picture is the wife like (illustration) a lush, green vine that not only gives fruit but is beautiful and happily growing and producing in the home. This is how a woman is to be in her home. Literally. Not a thin, feeble, fruitless vine, but lush and green. People should see the wife and see that she is bountiful in her element. The children are illustrated by olive plants. Olive plants were very valuable. It was a good thing to have them and to have them growing tall and strong, to one day bear a valuable fruit. With that illustration we are shown that actual, literal children are valuable and mean good things for the future of God’s people.

It’s obvious to me that he really misses a really big point. Children ARE the primary blessing you find in Biblical references to blessing but Mr. Peterson says, basically, you need not have children to experience blessing. Well, yes, God does bless in other ways but in THIS passage children are THE blessing. If you do not accept God’s blessings (children) you WILL miss out on this particular blessing, and likely many more blessings that come as part of the child blessing. Without multiplying with children, you are greatly limiting the ways God can bless you in other areas. Had God not blessed Abraham’s line with children (even in the midst of the unfortunate circumstances of slavery), they would not have been able to take the Promised Land. What blessings might we not be able to take because we’ve refused the first blessing of fruitfulness in the area of children?

Finally, I found absolutely misguided, this part of his quote: “We, for instance, don’t try to have as many children as possible – or try to get them to stay home for all their lives!”

God is the God of conception and apart from His divine intention and plan, no child is conceived. What we, in our culture don’t do is accept God’s gifts! We resist and in many ways make it clear to God that we have no desire to take as many blessings as He would like to give us! If God did not want us to have these gifts from Him, He would not give them as much as we “try”. In the same way, God doesn’t give when He doesn’t have a special purpose and plan for all involved. This quote assumes that God is not intimately involved in each conception, an idea that is refuted by a number of Old Testament scriptures. But, Mr. Peterson might argue that those are just “illustrations” as well. Yes, I suppose if you don’t want to believe something, just tell yourself it’s an illustration and you no longer feel like you have to take it as if God actually meant what was written.

Born to Mother

I recently had a friend tell me she used to wonder how people with large families did it and then she met me. Now, she said, she understands. (Needless to say, at this point I was REALLY wondering what she thought she'd learned!) She said that I am a born mother, that she can tell that mothering is my special calling and she felt that she (with three children) did not have the same thing.

I have a different perspective. I was not a "born mother." I know people who have always wanted to have children and I know people who just love babies. I was neither. I was never drawn to be around children and didn't grow up desiring children in any numbers. People who are like that are, in my mind, "born mothers." They just naturally like the mothering stuff. I'll tell you right now, I had a night last night that wasn't really all that bad relatively speaking. One of my little ones was up a few times in the course of about 2 hours crying about her leg hurting. It was nothing compared to what some people have with newborns and really, I can't say that if I told people they'd have that much sympathy but I was ready to go nuts! My husband saw that I had ZERO patience and sent me to bed! My lack of giftedness at nighttime parenting (my gift has been God allowing me to find ways to NOT be awake for any amount of time at night) is one huge sign to me that I'm not a "born mother".

I do believe my friend is right in one sense. Mothering is my calling. But it's also the calling of any woman to whom God gives a child. The key is that I have "embraced" that calling, to steal a phrase from Nancy Campbell of the Above Rubies ministry.

That's the reason some might perceive a difference. It's all about perspective and actively deciding to alter your attitude to enjoy what God has most obviously planned for your life. Too often we just do what we have to do, enjoy the nice moments and complain about the difficult ones. We often fail to see the bigger picture of what we're doing and wonder why WE have to be stuck with these small and annoying things. We look at others doing what we think are more significant tasks or perhaps more enjoyable things and we wish that our lives could be like that.

When I look at my children, I see potential. Potential that God wants us (my husband and I) to help equip and direct! This is the future of our family, of our society, of His Kingdom. What I do with these children, every little thing could be of greatest significance!! It could be of little significance but I don't know! I don't know what enormous plans God could have for these children but I know that I'm a part of those plans and some of those plans rest heavily on what I do or don't do with my children. As you catch that vision and just imagine the ways God COULD use your children in the future, you start finding more purpose and significance in what you're doing. As you start to see that you have an impact on your children that you couldn't have on anyone else in the world, you start to see the value of this relationship! The longer you think along those lines, the more you get caught up in the bigger picture where, before, you focused on piles of laundry, dishes, messes, arguements and runny noses but now, you can get lost in thought about the view of that big picture while you're doing the little things that go into that big picture.

Isn't it exciting to be a part of something God is doing?! No, I wasn't born thinking how awesome it would be to mother. I didn't even start thinking it was awesome until I was two children into it but now I can say that there's NO job as awesome, significant and blessed than this!

Mudpies and Mary Janes

I'm not big on just browsing through people's blogs but from time to time my searches for something takes me to a blog that is a jewel. Mudpies and Mary Janes seems to be just that sort of thing. Check them out at http://mudpiesandmaryjanes.blogspot.com

This blog apparently has give aways ALL the time! And for people who love to win free things, that's definitely a plus. But for me, what really draws me in is the ideas that are sparked from the things they give away. About a week ago I was inspired by their Emmie Cakes Giveaway! I'll have a picture of the resulte of my inspiration before too long!