This Thing We Call Life

Summer Is...(4th)

2008-08-26T19:59:00.015-04:00

Sorry to have missed a few days of blogging that I promised to you all. The last few days have proved to be a little busier and exhausting than usual. I will try to stay back to continue sharing photo's of our summer fun!

So, on with...Summer Is...

The perfect time for a baptism! Especially when the baptism happens in the local pond.

"We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life." (Romans 6:4)

Probably about a year ago now Erik and I started to frequent the Baptist church right in our home town. We had been searching for a church (using the excuse that our children needed some sort of religious education and the community would be nice where we plan to homeschool). Little did I know the change this church would have on our lives!

Erik and I both became involved in the church. Both attending Men's and Ladies bible studies (Erik much more dedicated than I...but I always seem to forget...sorry Brenda...). Erik helping with the building project and I started working on the Crisis Pregnancy Ministry that was just starting in the church. We became great friends with many of the members. Many of the families homeschool & have little ones the same age as ours.

Both Erik and I had been saved. Erik much quicker than I to come to the realization.

And we decided about a month ago that we would like to be baptized.

“He reached down from on high and took hold of me; he drew me out of deep waters.” (Psalm 18:16)

What a perfect day we had. Beautiful weather, an amazing service given by a friend of the church from Africa (who became Aiden's playmate at the picnic after), many friends and family joined us at the pond for the baptism and a fabulous picnic after the baptism at Bob and Debbie's home. (oh...and Everyone seems to have pictures of me getting dunked but not Erik!)

Bennett wanted to follow Pastor Bob out into the water but decided to wait for us...then cried when Bob picked him up after and he realized he was all wet...wasn't to thrilled with Mama being wet either.

We are very blessed to have found this church family. What a joy it has been getting to know these wonderfully amazing people and have them touch our lives in so many meaningful ways.

And what a joy it is to see our children loving them as much as we do. And to see that love returned!

What an amazing day!

God bless!!

The Second American Revolution

2008-08-26T19:57:00.000-04:00

Summer Is...(3rd)

2008-08-23T06:00:00.000-04:00

Spending the day at the beach.

We went to Portland to meet my parents for the day about a week ago. These are a few pictures from our trip there. This was after Bennett fell on his stomach in the water.

The four of us!

The four of us in Bar Harbour. We went out to Bar Harbour while my sister was up visiting for a week in July. What a lovely day! Even though it was a little foggy and our breaks almost set on fire coming down Cadillac mountain! LOL.

Bennett checking out the boats.

Aiden just loves the water. This is Licolnville beach. We stopped about 2 months ago during a day trip down Rt. 1.

Bennett...always so contemplative.

Playing on the rocks with the boys.

Summer Is...(2nd)

2008-08-22T16:08:00.010-04:00

Summer is...GARDENING!!

We decided this year we were going to put in permanent raised beds. Below is how our garden has come along since the beginning of this season.

We started with logs we cut out of our 10 acres of wood lot.

Added some composted manure.

A few teepees for the beans & peas.

And then added the vegi's. Let's see...this year we grew Spinach, Lettuce, Bush Beans, Pole Beans, Dry Beans, Tomatoes, Brocolli, Brussel Sprouts (accident...), Kale, Zucchini, Snow Peas, Yellow Summer Squash, Peppers, Cucumbers, Swish Chard, Basil & parsley.

Everything is growing really well. We didn't get much spinach before it bolted but we did have tons of lettuce. And the basil...it grew like crazy. Lot's of pesto making going on!

Picking beans with Gram. I've put up at least 20 pints of bush beans in the freezer (and given away a bunch more. I finally pulled the bush beans the other day as they had really dropped in production and put in some carrots.

Check out the pole beans behind us. That was less than a month ago.

And now look at them. Grew up the poles and are headed back down again. They are going to go to seed soon because there are a ton up top that I cannot even reach. Next year we will not do the poles so high!

And I threw some radom sunflowers into the garden also. We plan to dry them all and use the to supplement feed to our chickens through the winter.

And we are already planning for next year. We need to add beds for Corn, Potatoes, Garlic & many more tomatoes. We also might try some things like eggplant and turnips and rutabega's. We will see how ambisous we are this fall.

We've also been talking about building a hoop house to overwinter our chickens in going forward. Give them a lot more floor space and it will be warmer for them. Plus they can scratch up the ground and get it ready for spring. As soon as they go out on grass in the spring we can start things like tomatoes, peppers & eggplants in the hoophouse. We will see if that gets done also. So much to do, so little time!

How's your garden been growing this summer?

Summer Is... (1st)

2008-08-21T11:57:00.008-04:00

Having lunch out in their "clubhouse."
They just LOVE playing in their "clubhouse!" We used some old logs to make them a table and Erik cut chairs out of logs also. We also cut some logs real thin into plates. Once Erik gets a vice he plans to also make some cups and bowls.

Sunflower Houses!!

Our friend, Mary Ann, gave the boys two of the Sharon Lovejoy books. Roots, Shoots, Buckets & Boots and Sunflower Houses. After reading them through we decided to make a sunflower house. We never did get the morning glories in either but it is really starting to look lovely! And the boys are loving it!

Friends came to visit and got to play in a slightly larger sunflower house.

Now it is much much taller than all of us. I will make sure to post photo's once the sunflowers bloom. That will be a sight!

Aiden enjoying his sunflower house.

Stop in tomorrow for lot's of gardening photo's!

Hugs!

I know...Where have I been!

2008-08-20T14:41:00.002-04:00

Lately, everyone is wondering where have I been. I didn't plan to take a blogging break...but it kind of happened that way. One thing led to another and now...I am feeling stressed and behind. My mom is up this week so it is helping me to catch up on a lot that needs to be done.

I have so much to share as there has been TONS of goings on this summer but it would take me ages. I've been inspired by a few other blogs that have done photo posts about what summer is. I think I am going to do that here for the next few days to catch up and then I will post every few days to keep sharing the goings on as our summer winds down and we get into the busy fall season and prepare for winter. UGH!! Can't believe we are thinking about winter already. The summer went by way to fast.

I hope your summer has been going well!

My 100th Post...sort of

2008-07-07T12:15:00.006-04:00

I know...I've been MIA for a few weeks now. Spring is a crazy time for us here on our small farm. I decided to take a blogging break to focus on getting the garden in and some of the other outdoor things that need to be done. With it being light so late we could work outside late into the day and I wasn't much up to blogging after a long day working hard in the sun. I will still be posting sporadically on here as there is much to do still. Plus Erik is on vacation from July 14th until August! We wont be doing much traveling but hope to do a day trip or two to the beach and have tons to get accomplished around the house!

On to my 100th post...why sort of...because I realized just now that my last post was technically my 100th post!! I knew it was coming up but hadn't been paying to much attention. Without further ado here are 100 things about me!

I am a wife to Erik
my best friend
we dated in highschool
and had a not so nice break up
then got back together during college
the rest is history...as they say
and a mom to 2 boys
Aiden
& Bennett
I LOVE boys
but we would love to have a little girl
we plan to have at least one more child
and maybe even 2
or MORE (teehee)
I am a homemaker
I LOVE being at home
I'm not a nature homemaker
but am learning slowly but surely
I'm a pretty decent cook
and baker
but no so good in the cleaning
and organizing departments
Trying harder here
We live on a small farm
in a small town in central Maine
We currently have 40+ chickens
about 25 of those will be for eating
in about a week
we have 11 turkeys
(also for eating in about 2 months)
2 horses
(not for eating...LOL)
1 dog
& 3 cats
My favorite past times are horseback riding
and reading books
those of course come after spending time with my family
that's why lately I don't seem to do much of either of those
My horses are both Mustangs
Wild caught in Neveda when young
I didn't adopt them though
I bought them from someone who did
And I love them dearly!
As do my 2 boys
I would love to do more farming
We have 15 acres
(and are trying to buy about 10 more)
I'd like to have a Dairy cow
Raise sheep
and goats
along with the chickens
I want to be a grass farmer!
We have a good size garden
I am new to gardening
But actually seem to look like I know what I am doing finally!
Our garden is doing well this year
I love to hang laundry on the line
It is a very relaxing activity
I have been a waitress
a tutor
a cashier
a pizza maker
an operations supervisor
and a call center rep
in past employment lives
I hope to NEVER have to work again
I was very ambitous in my previous employment
but I was happy to leave
And now just want to be a homemaker
helper to my husband
and mother to my children
I plan to homeschool my children
I love the ideas behind the unschooling lifestyle
And plan to unschool my kids
am still working on becoming a more peaceful parent though
we don't spank
but am not as "peaceful" in my parenting style as I would like to be
Like everything else a work in progress
I thoroughly believe in attachment parenting!
We coslept
breast fed beyond a year
allowed both boys to self wean
(a little earlier than I would have liked them to!)
baby wear
Both boys were born naturally
and Bennett was born at home
I am hopeful that I will never have to birth in a hospital again!
I used to be a musician
(OK...it was highschool!)
I played the flute
and percusian instruments
I am hoping to learn to play piano
(I sort of know how but want to be able to play with both hands and work the feet pedals)
I LOVE music
And hope my children will enjoy playing instruments also
I am trying to be more frugal
I am blessed with some of the most amazing friends
That are helping me in my walk as a new Christian
I am thankful for my many blessings every day.
GOD IS SO GOOD!

This is so cool!

2008-06-06T12:34:00.002-04:00

For those of you who don't know I am a horsewoman. I have two horses of my own, both Mustangs and I can't imagine life without horses in it.

This video just blew me away. I like to think I have a pretty good relationship with my horses but nothing like this.

Lorenzo : the Flying French Man...
Uploaded by alatebo

And check out this one also.

http://wms17.streamhoster.com/westfall/128do.wmv

Pretty cool!

Please let me know what you think!

Wordless Wednesday

2008-06-04T06:00:00.000-04:00

My friend's 5 yr old daughter holding a dragonfly!

For more wordless Wednesday posts check out 5minutesformom.com.

Tackle It Tuesday - Using up all the turkey!

2008-06-03T06:00:00.000-04:00

It's been a VERY busy week here. I've got a few other things to share but we will save those for other posts. This week my major tackle was the 26 lb turkey. I mentioned in my Menu Planning Monday post that we cooked one of the last few turkeys that we raised from last year. 26 lbs is a little much for one meal for my little family so I needed to do something with it all. And I also needed to make some stock from the bones. I used the recipe from Nourishing Traditions

Here are the bones and vegi's in the crockpot. I let this cook for about 12 hrs.

And got this!

I then took out the bones and put the vegi's and meat back in and simmered it on the stove for another few hrs to reduce it.

Right now it is sitting the the fridge so that I can pull the fat off the top and then can it.

On top of that I had about 20 lbs of leftover meat. I cubed it all and put it all in quart size canning jars. I now have 8 quarts of turkey meat in the freezer and we've already used it for about 3-4 meals.

I will be glad once the broth is canned & in the freezer and I can put this tackle behind me! And only one more turkey left in the freezer.

Share your tackles 5 Minutes for Mom.

Menu Planning Monday

2008-06-01T21:58:00.001-04:00

Last week I promised to take more pictures of what we are eating and guess what...I forgot again. We did make the whole Turkey. It came out beautiful! And I forgot to take a picture of it. Ugh! I will keep trying to remember that. We have TONS of leftovers though. I forgot how big those last two birds were. The one we ended up cooking was 26 lbs!!! Turkey will definitely be on the menu in the coming week.

I did remember to take pictures of a few things for you but I plan to share those in other posts this week so check back in later.

This is a pretty low key week for us but Erik is working nights all week so I am thinking about getting my kids an early snack and trying to have our main meal at around 2-3pm after Erik gets up for the night. We will see.

We are also planning to try this donut recipe (but I think I might try to bake them instead of frying them) and this cookie recipe (I will use all whole grain flour...maybe spelt instead of the white flour). I've been promising to bake cookies with the boys for a while now and it hasn't happened.

On to the menu.

Monday - Fried Rice (with Turkey and vegi's). I love the recipe from Passionate Homemaker.

Tuesday - Asparagus Quiche. I love the crust recipe from Nourishing Traditions so will probably do that again. Lots of vegi's, lots of cheese and maybe some breakfast sausage instead of bacon this time. YUM!

Wednesday - Sloppy Joe's (I will probably double...maybe even triple this batch so I can put some in the freezer). We have homemade buns to eat them on and will have some sort of vegi on the side with it.

Thursday - Breakfast for Dinner

Friday - Pizza on the Grill

Saturday - Rice jumble (promise to take a picture this time!)

Sunday - Goat Roast (trying yet again...I forgot to take it out to defrost yesterday so didn't get to have it today!)

What's on your menu this week? Share with us over at OrgJunkie.com!

A Nature Walk

2008-06-01T20:08:00.013-04:00

We went out for a nature hike the other day, the boys and I. It was so much fun. We didn't go far. Just down around the summer grazing field for the horses. Since the horses haven't been out in it yet Aiden was having fun hiding in the grass.

And Bennett thought it was fun to find him and bang him on the head.

We stopped and said hello to Babe & Reno. They look so nice & shiny!

Aiden asked to take some pictures. I didn't see these till I pulled everything onto my laptop but they came out quite good! He loves to take pictures. I really need to get him & Bennett their very own digital cameras.

Isn't this one neat. Not sure how he did it but it was just too cool to not share.

And a few of the flowers we saw while on our hike.

Any idea what these might be? I thought they might be a low bush blueberry. This is very close up but the leaves were similar to those of blueberries. We will see I guess.

Aiden helping his "Baby Broder" as he likes to say. Bennett went chasing after him to hold his hand and then Aiden helped him up the small incline from the yard back onto our driveway.

And then they held hands all the way back down to the house. It was just too cute!

What an enjoyable time we had! Hanging out and playing down in the field. Didn't see any wildlife other than tons of Dragonflies! We do love the dragonflies though.

Blessings!

Sunday Garden Tour

2008-06-01T00:09:00.002-04:00

This is my first time doing the Sunday garden tour. I thought I would start you all off with lots of pictures of what I have going on around our property. Just to give you a brief history we live on about 15 acres in rural Maine and are slowly moving our way into homesteading. Trying to live as sustainably as we can.
This is my oldest...Aiden. Isn't he just the cutest. This is one of the random gardens we have hanging around our property. The people who were here before us planted TONS of perennials so that has helped our gardens. We've put some things in but most if from them.

To start off I need help. Any idea what this is? I have it all over one of my small garden beds and I have no idea what it is.

Or this for that matter. I LOVE the color of it though. It is just so pretty but I would love to plant more.

To start you off here is one of my favorites! The bearded Iris'. I LOVE them. Especially the color of them. I am hoping to get more. I have a few people we will be getting cuttings from this year of a number of perennials and hope to get more iris'.

Next is my lilac bush. I really LOVE lilacs and wish I had more bushes. I see so many lovely lilac bushes and we have this one little one.

Oh and I finally have some lupine's coming back consistently! Erik mowed down some of them a few years ago and I've been trying to reestablish them since. These are all purple, and I just bought some seeds for red lupines. I really hope I can get those going!

This is the small garden next to our garage. There are hosta's, peonies & day lilies.

Some seedlings coming up in my new kitchen herb garden.

This is a rose bush that I planted in my kitchen herb garden. I had thought it was dead. After I planted it, the leaves all turned brown. And just yesterday I noticed the green leaves popping out under the dead leaves. I'm so excited now.

And our lovely rhubarb!

And a one of our peonies. My other favorite flower!

Some sedum.

And lastly...our bee balm.

Stop by A Wrung Sponge for more Garden Tours! And stop back in next Sunday to see what's popping up in my garden!

Blessing!

Frugal Friday - Erik's New Motorcycle

2008-05-30T06:00:00.001-04:00

With the price of gas going up and up we have been trying to think of ways to help us save on gas. About 2 months ago Erik had the opportunity to buy a used motorcycle from a friend of his that was upgrading. He has always wanted a motorcycle. His friend wanted very little money for the bike and it was in great running condition.

With the much better MPG on the motorcycle it will save us quite a bit on gas with him traveling about 50-60 miles round trip to work every day. It also means that I will be able to use his car for around town use (i.e. grocery store, library, etc.) instead of my van (MPG in the van is about 20 vrs 30+ in Erik's Escort). We can still use the van for trips that we take Abbey with us (hard to squeeze 4 people and a 50 lb lab in an Escort).

And best of all Erik gets to enjoy owning his first motorcycle! I can't wait for him to take me for a ride.

For more Frugal Friday tips check out Biblical Womanhood.

Wordless Wednesday

2008-05-28T06:00:00.002-04:00

Bennett & Aiden at our first outing to the ice cream stand. Summer is coming!!

More Wordless Wednesday Posts.

Blessings!

Works for Me Wednesday - How to get books free & cheap

2008-05-28T06:00:00.000-04:00

Last week I talked about how my family uses the library pretty regularly to satisfy our book addiction. There are MANY times that I will take a book out of the library though and will just LOVE it so much that I need to own a copy of it. A perfect example of a book that I just had to own was Nourishing Traditions. This amazing book has so much information I renewed it the maximum number of times and had still not been able to read through the whole thing (it is a cook book but in the margins of the book she includes TONS of great information about nutrition).

Like I mentioned before I have a very limited income to spend on books. My first step when I find a book that I want to own is to check out . I have received and mailed out over 100 books during the last year or so that I have been part of paperback swap. I've been able to get lovely titles that make great gifts for just the cost of shipping for the books I've sent our. I have literally saved HUNDREDS of dollars.

If I look on and I don't find the title I am looking for my next stop is Half.com. If I need to pay for a book this is the first place I always check. I've been able to get brand new books for as little as $.75 plus shipping (about $3). As an example the paper back version of Nourishing Traditions was about $25 to buy brand new. I was able to purchase it for about $15 from Half.com.

I also love Amazon.com for their used books. If I can't find something at Half.com my next step it to check at Amazon.com. If I cannot find a book used then I think really hard on whether I really want to have it in my library or not.

Some other tips. Carry around a wish list of books & subjects so that when you stop in at Thrift stores or yard sales you know what you are looking for. I am currently looking for more bible stories to have on hand to read to my kids and I was able to buy two beautiful pop up hard cover bible story books for $.10 each at a yard sale this weekend! Keep in mind if it is not a title you would need to refer to daily wait to see if you can find it elsewhere first.

It's also getting to be the season for book sales at libraries. This is a GREAT way to get titles you are looking for very inexpensively.

, Amazon.com and Half.com all work for me!! Take a look at Rocks in My Dryer for more Works for me Wednesday tips!

Blessings!

T-Ball

2008-05-27T10:05:00.007-04:00

Aiden started T-ball on Friday up at the village ball field. He isn't going to be 4 yrs old until July but we figured we would give it a try anyway.

Aiden had a blast! But we think we will hold off until next year to try to go again.

He really just wanted to be wandering around doing his own thing. When they wanted him to go catch he wanted to bat. When they wanted him to throw he wanted to bat! He kept saying he needed to do "his biggest hit EVER!"

Erik spent most of the time chasing him around trying to redirect him back to paying attention to the coaches and waiting for his turn.

Bennett was happy to play with the helmet! Silly boy!

I think he is still a little too young to be able to really pay attention and play with the other kids. I'm certainly not going to be able to chase Aiden & Bennett on the days Erik is working. We might try again this week and see how it goes. But they were both too cute!

Kitchen Tip Tuesday - Using Cast Iron & Stainless

2008-05-27T06:00:00.011-04:00

I think most everyone has heard about the dangers of nonstick coatings on pans. I had a beautiful set of nonstick pans that I bought shortly after we were married. After hearing and reading about the dangers I slowly started to replace my pots & pans with cast iron and stainless steel. It takes some getting used to but I wouldn't trade them for nonstick anyday...even if they came up with a safe way to make them.

I wanted to share a few photo's of the pans that I use the most now. This first one is my absolute favorite. It NEVER leaves the stove except for a quick scrub if it gets really dirty. We use this for eggs, french toast, pancakes, cooking meat, etc. It was the first cast iron pan I bought and I only paid a little more than $10 for it. It's from Walmart. Check it out here. The great thing about Lodge pans is that they are preseasoned, which makes them much easier to ise. You can read more about seasoning cast iron here.

This is the other cast iron pan I use extensively. This is an oldie but goodie. It was given to me by a friend of the family and it had been with her family for some time. Not sure quite how old it is but it still works great. That's the thing about cast iron...it can survive for generations! Great to pass on to family, not only your actual pans but how to cook with them and your favorite recipes using them.

One of the great features of cast iron is that they don't take a lot to clean. I do not use soap on my cast iron pans because that can take off the seasoning (which is what gives you the nonstick surface for cooking things like eggs). I take a scrapper and scrap off anything stuck onto the pan under hot water. I also LOVE these stainless steel scrubbies. They also work very well with my stainless steel pots and pans.

This is a few of the pans from my stainless steel set, which was actually given to me by my mom. They are not anything overly fancy but they work fabulously! The set also came with a stainless teakettle and some stainless utensils. I do have a few deep cast iron pots and a cast iron dutch oven but they are SO heavy that I only use them if needed.

And this last one is probably my favorite from all of my stainless. It is about the size of a wok and is excellent for cooking one dish meals. I just LOVE it...not quite as much as my cast iron but it is definitely a close second. I just need to find a lid for it now and it would be so much more versitile and would probably creep past my cast iron frying pan.

I wanted to link to some information about why using pots and pans with a nonstick coating is not the best idea. Below are links to a few articles I have found. Mainly when you heat nonstick pans over a certain temperature they start to off gas toxic fumes. You can easily reach these temperatures just from preheating your pan. If you do use nonstick pans please make sure to use them over ONLY low to low/medium heat. Anything higher can release those gases into the air you breath.

Environmental Working Groups page about Teflon, PFOA & Scotchguard.

WiseGeek Article about the risks of using Teflon.

There is a lot more info out there about the dangers. Check it out for yourself! And please check out TammysRecipes.com for more Kitchen Tips!

Blessings!

Tackle It Tuesday - The Garden!

2008-05-27T06:00:00.000-04:00

The office and the clothes are coming. I got more things organized and into the closet in the office and all of Bennett's clothes sorted and put into his bureau.

Our major tackle this past week though was our garden. We were finally able to borrow a tiller and get things tilled up. Erik finished cutting trees to edge our raised beds and we moved a bunch of horse manure from our barn to the beds and dug it into the top soil. It now looks like this!

I said to Erik, "Wow...it actually looks like we know what we are doing!" LOL. We are getting there. Seeds are all in and I will pick up my seedlings from one of the local farms down the road in a few weeks. I do still need to pick up seeds for carrots and peas (not sure how I forgot those) but everything else is in.

Our next tackle...wood for fireplace this winter, compost bins, painting the house, replacing windows, reside back and side of the house, finish work in basement, refence pasture...it just never ends!! We will work on something from the above list (along with the continued work on the office and the clothes).

To check out other tackles take a look at 5minutesformom.com.

Blessings!

Menu Planning Monday

2008-05-26T06:00:00.001-04:00

Another week of menu plans and yet again I really didn't stick with my plan from last week! I've got to get better about this. I did have an excuse. The whole Turkey we were planning for about 1/2 of the weeks meals ended up taking a VERY long time to defrost (still going actually..I'm going to brine it tomorrow night and hope that thaws it out the rest of the way). We have 2 25+ lb turkeys left from our turkeys last year that we are trying to use up so that our freezers are empty when this years birds go to slaughter. That is now planned for Tuesdays dinner and we will be doing leftovers for the week most likely.

And we have a new recipe we are trying out tomorrow! They are called Blender Pancakes and I first heard about the recipe at Passionate Homemaking but also signed up for Sue Greggs newsletter and recieved it in her newsletter as well. Here is a shot of the rice and kefir in the blender. It is sitting on my stove waiting to be finished off and cooked tomorrow! Can't wait to try them!
I am continuing to soak my grains and add more whole grains into our diet. We've been using a lot of rice...a excellent and very frugal filler for meals.

And I promise to try to take more pictures of things. I made my rice gumble as I like to call it tonight and it looked so lovely in the pan but I forgot to take a picture to share!

On to the menu!

Monday - we are having friends over for a little cookout so on the menu is burgers (a mix of ground beef & goat) and probably some zucchini on the grill. I have a lovely watermelon for desert and they are planning to bring a salad (either green or potato). I purchased some buns but started soaking some flour tonight to make a loaf of bread and also to make some buns also. We will see how that goes! Here is a shot of the flour soaking on the stove.

Tuesday - Roast Turkey. I made a ton of applesauce this last week and put to much water in with one batch so I strained a little off and am thinking I will use that apple water to brine my turkey! Not sure how that will work but why not...right. LOL...I will keep you posted on how that turns out. I am planning on doing some potatoes and maybe some squash or brocolli (trying to use up some vegi's still in the freezer from last year also).

Wednesday - I have a meeting tonight at church and will need to leave as soon as Erik walks in the door so I will probably do something easy like pasta. Will definitely use some of the leftover turkey whatever I do.

Thursday - Turkey & Rice. I will be using a recipe that came from Laura at Heavenly Homemakers ebook, What to do With the Chicken in Your Kitchen.

Friday - Spending the day in Belfast, ME. They have an excellent farmers market. We will see what I get there for produce! The market has been open for a few weeks but this will be the first time I have been able to head down for it! Dinner will probably be Pizza on the Grill. It is supposed to be a lovely day so I definitely want to grill.

Saturday - We will be having dinner at a friends so no need to prepare anything. We haven't agreed upon what I am bringing to contribute yet.

Sunday - Goat Roast. I am finally going to committ to using one of the goat roasts that we have in our freezer! I've found a few recipes that I will look over to try (depending on what I have in the pantry to use). This is a great one for Southwest Leg of Goat. Great Goats also has a few great recipes. And here at meat goats they have a great downloadable cookbook with recipes for Goat.

Like I mentioned I will try to take more pictures of our meals as I prepare them and will keep you posted on how things turn out. Have a great week!

Frugal Fridays - Cutting Hair

2008-05-23T07:44:00.002-04:00

I think I have already mentioned that things are going to get a little more tight in our budget starting in September so we've been looking at ways that we can cut things out of our budget. One of the smaller things in our budget that really adds up over the year is getting hair cuts. Because Erik is in the military he needs to have his hair cut pretty regularly (usually every 4 weeks). And then the boys are usually every 6-8 weeks. At a cost of $10 each per cut even if we estimate on the low end that is around $240 a year and could be as much as $300-$360!

So, I purchased this Wahl Clipper set:

But I didn't pay for it with cash. I am a member of MyPoints and I used my points to purchase an Amazon gift card that covered the cost of this. So...I got the clippers for free and I will probably save at least $200-300 per year.

I clipped the boys hair yesterday. Here are a few before and after photo's:

First Bennett before...
And after! His was a little easier than Aiden. Bennett has very fine hair that all grows straight. Aiden however has thicker hair with all kinds of cowlicks!

Not too bad for my first try!

And they are shirtless because the wouldn't keep on the bib to keep the hair off and both were so itchy!

And here's Aiden before...

And after!

I am pretty proud of my hair cutting skills! As tough as Aiden's was...it came out pretty good!

My frugal friday tip for you...first join mypoints to earn lots of free points! And then go and get yourself a set of clippers (especially if you have boys) and cut their hair yourself!

Check out more frugal friday tips over at BiblicalWomanhood.com!

Works for Me Wednesday - Going to the Library

2008-05-21T11:50:00.003-04:00

Going to the library regularly is truly something that works for me. Reading all of these amazing blogs I have discovered a huge amount of recommended titles. I LOVE books. Did I say Love...LOVE, LOVE, LOVE. My husband calls me a book addicted. And I love to read them even more than I love having them. However, we are on a limited income so I cannot just go out and buy every book I want to read. This is where the library comes in!

We usually go to the library once a week or every other week. Not only do I LOVE to go but so do my boys. They also love books. Love to flip through them and love to have them read to them. They really enjoy going to the library with me to pick out a few books just for them to take out.

When someone recommends a title that I think I will enjoy I check to see if any of the local libraries might have it. I really like the whole read before you buy idea. That way I get an idea if I will REALLY like it or not. If the local libraries don't have it I check with other libraries to see if I can get it through interlibrary loan. This is usually the case.

Most of the time if I really enjoy a book I can just occassionally take it out here & there or jot ideas down from the book. Other times though...I absolutely must have a copy to refer to as often as I might need to (i.e. Nourishing Traditions). There are a number of different ways that I get my books as cheaply (of free) as I possibly can. Check back with me for next weeks Works for Me Wednesday to find out how!

And for other ideas of what is working for others make sure to stop by Rocks in My Dryer and maybe even share an idea or two of your own!

Tackle it Tuesday

2008-05-20T08:55:00.010-04:00

Last week didn't go quite as planned for my tackle. The weather was so beautiful all week we just wanted to play outside ALL the time. I did get a few things done outside that needed doing though.

The garden is almost in. Erik borrowed our neighbors tiller and we got the garden tilled. We laid out almost all the logs for the borders for our raised beds. We will finish this up on Erik's days off this coming weekend.

For this week I am going to keep working on the clothing situation as we are supposed to be getting rain in the afternoons this week.

And here are the other two tackles I need to work on.

First...

I need to do something with all these apples!

I made my first purchase (thanks to our friends from church) from Crown O' Maine. They are a cooperative that provides all Maine grown items (mostly organic) to their members. This is the last batch of apples until the fall. We recently ran out of applesauce so I plan to make more and am not sure what else just yet.

And then...there is my office. This is no excuse because it was bad before this but I had two events this past weekend totalling about 17-18 hrs on my feet. I was a little tired so when I got home I pretty much dumped eveything on the floor in my office. I don't have anything scheduled for a while so I need to get things staightened up.
And Erik put these lovely shelves in the clothest so that I have more room to store things. I also now have a second file cabinet. Not to mention my new laser all in one machine that I haven't even taken the time to hook up yet.

And the floor...that's all of my filing right there...needs to move to the filing cabinet.

And all the books need to move back onto the book case.

Lot's of tackles this week (probably wont all get finished but I will keep plugging away at it!

Stop in next week to find out what I've finished and what else I need to tackle.

Blessings!

Tiny Talk Tuesday

2008-05-20T07:49:00.005-04:00

I have two really cute things that Aiden said this last week!

First...I was not witness to this one. My parents were up and were sitting outside with Erik and the boys. Aiden came over and told them he was going to tell them a story about a boy named Bennett who didn't listen. He preceded to go on about how Bennett didn't listen to Mommy & Daddy and he ran out into the road and was squished as flat as a pancake. I'm not sure where he has heard this before because I don't believe we have ever told him a car could squish him as flat as a pancake but who knows! The really funny part though was after he told the story Aiden says, "I don't like kid pancakes!" LOL!! And what does my father say, "They are crunchy." I'm am going second hand on this because I was not there so I might be off by a bit. Too funny.

Yesterday Erik and I had to go to the local hospital to get some blood work done that we've been putting off (just general health, cholestoral, CBC, etc.). They were still doing my paperwork when they called Erik in for his blood draw so he took Aiden in with him. He thought the whole thing was pretty interesting. Aiden is going to need to go for blood work later this week so I mentioned this too him when he came out and asked if he would like to go in an watch while they took my blood. He was all excited to go. While we were in the lab I was talking with him about giving blood and again talked about him giving some blood later this week. He looks up at me and says, "But Momma, I don't want anyone stealing ANY of my blood."

Bennett continues on his talking spree. He NEVER stops talking. We can understand probably half now. He hasn't said anything really funny this week though.

Stop back next week to see what other funny things my kids are saying!

And don't forget to stop by Not Before 7 to share about your kids or to read some other funny things.

Menu Planning Monday

2008-05-19T20:46:00.003-04:00

I apologize! I completely forgot to post this yesterday! Please forgive me!

I wanted to start off this week with a few links. Unfortunately, I did not make a note of the blog I found them on so if you have these up please share with us in the comments!

The 10 Best Foods Your Not Eating

8 Foods You Should Eat Every Day

These are both short slide shows about different foods that are excellent for your health. I've been focusing a lot on more healthful eating. We've started soaking our grains. I am cooking a lot more from scratch. We've started to purchase raw milk. There are a ton of EXCELLENT blogs out there to help you get started with more healthy menus and cooking. Here are a few of my favorites:

Stephanie over at Keeper of the Home

Laura at Heavenly Homemakers

Kimi at The Nourishing Gourmet

Lindsay at Passionate Homemaker

These are my hands down favorite blogs in general and for cooking. They run great informative series and are just an inspiration for a young family like ours and to a mom that is somewhat new to homemaking. Definitely check them out!

For new recipes last week we tried out the Cheesy Beef & Rice recipe from Heavenly Homemakers & it was a huge hit with everyone but my 4 yr old. Right now he is not eating much of anything so that is not a surprise. He wont even eat Pizza anymore, which he used to LOVE. Hubby has asked me to make it again and often!

I didn't remember to get the turkey out of the freezer so we didn't have the Roast Turkey as planned. Let me run and do that now so that we can have it sometime this week.

We also never got to the Spud Special Soup from Keeper of the Home. We might try to do that again sometime this week as a lunch meal maybe. We did do the Arroz con Pollo while my parents were up visiting. I tried to use my big cast iron dutch oven on the stove top to cook it but that didn't work so well. The rice in the middle cooked really fast and the rice on the outside didn't cook at all. I am thinking I will use precooked rice in this from now on so that I only have to wait for the chicken to finish cooking. And I finally made the Asparagus Quiche for breakfast Sunday morning. It was absolutely delicious!!

This is going to be a pretty basic week and I'd like to cook from my pantry. Erik is going to be taking a pretty significant pay cut come September so we really need to cut back on our grocery spending budget. This is going to be VERY hard because this is the time of year I love to go to the farmers market and buy all kinds of lovely produce! We are planning to get our garden in this weekend so we will hopefully have a few things growing soon. We are starting from scratch this year because we had planned to move last year so didn't do a garden. And we let the whole thing grow over

Monday - Was pizza on the grill

Tuesday - I have a meeting & Erik is working so I will have Emma (our baby sitter) heat up leftover pizza or make grilled cheese for the boys.

Wednesday - Breakfast for Dinner (Omelets)

Thursday - Rice jumble (Rice, ground beef or goat, onions, peppers, garlic, tomato sauce and maybe a little cheese)

Friday - Roast Turkey and I think I will make these Spinach Mashed Potatoes with it.

Saturday - Turkey quesadillas

Sunday - Turkey Soup

Monday - Cookout

Make sure you head over to Orgjunkie.com for more menu ideas or to share your ideas.

Blessings!

What I Know NOW About Motherhood...

2008-05-16T16:03:00.001-04:00

*This post will be staying at the top of my blog until 5/16. For other posts please scroll down the page. Thank you!

**Update: You have until Monday morning to get your post to me if you are interested. They have extended the deadline for all currently registered hostesses. So get yours posted asap!

I've decided to take part in the "What I Know Now..." blog bash going on over at Notes From My Nest. Great blog. I would definitely suggest checking it out! So...what is the "What I Know Now..." blog bash all about. Well...it is about sharing wisdom between mom's. What you need to do is share a quick post about something you didn't know before you were a mom...that you know now. Easy Peasy right.

Now I need a favor. I have volunteered to be a table hostess. I need at least 5 of you mom's out there that blog (and if you don't yet you should totally get started!) to share a post about what you didn't know before you were a mom that you know now. And there are PRIZES for doing this. Check out Notes From My Nest to get a sneak peak at a few of the prizes. What I need you to do is post a comment here with the link of your post about "What I Know NOW..." and I will share the posts of everyone at my "table." And if you get this to me by May 2nd you get 2 entries into the drawing for free prizes! Wow!!

Now...onto my own "What I Know Now..."

There are so many things I didn't know before I was a mom, it's hard to limit it. I didn't know how much I would love them. I mean I knew I'd love them but you just can't imagine before they lay that little baby in your arms that you really will be willing to lay your life down without a moments hesitation.

I didn't know I would be such a non-traditional parent. By that I mean I nursed my babies well into their second year (and would have gone longer if they hadn't weaned themselves), coslept (and still do), baby wear, non-vax, no-cir, home birthed, plan to homeschool, etc. We have definitely been blazing a new trail within our family and our community with some of our practices.

I also never knew I'd go from being a career minded feminist to a happy stay at home mom! I cannot imagine anyone taking care of my kids full time except ME.

Those are the major things. There are so many more! We each have our own so please share with me yours!

Blessings!

Tiny Talk Tuesday

2008-05-13T09:15:00.002-04:00

Time for another Tiny Talk Tuesday! I don't have much for this week. I am actually going to share something that Bennett has been doing for a while but I completely forgot about last week. He did it again the other day so it reminded me to share.

I am not quite sure where he got this from but he started a few weeks ago coming up to us, grabbing one of our hands and say "Nice to meet you Mama." And he will do it over and over and over again. It is just too cute.

Aiden is spending a lot of time reenacting some of the shows he likes to watch. Especially the Backyardigan's. He loves to play cowboys & pirates and is always saying things like "partner" or "captain." He will occassionally refer to all of us as Captain (i.e. Captain mama, Captain Bennett, etc). Too funny!

Share some of the funny things your kids are saying over at Not Before 7.

Tackle it Tuesday

2008-05-13T09:10:00.010-04:00

I've decided to start participating in the Tackle it Tuesday meme over at 5 Minutes for Mom. I am hoping this will get me motivated to get through a lot of things that need to get done around here. Today's tackle (or this week really) will be clothes. Not just laundry...although that will definitely be part of it. We have a ton of clothing just lying around the house that hasn't been put away in forever. Away it needs to go!!

Below are a few photo's of areas that need attention due to out of control clothing!

First is my wardrobe. It's a mess. Not to mention I have a bunch of shirts with stains that need to be tossed.
More clothing that just needs to be sorted and put a way.

Laundry needing sorting and putting away in our bedroom.

And the mountain of clothing in the boys bedroom that needs dealing with. We just got a BIG bag of clothing for Aiden from a friend. Most of it is long sleeve and pants so it needs to be put away for fall and winter.

And here are the totes with the 2T summer stuff for Bennett and 3 & 4T summer stuff for Aiden. Need to empty out their drawers of winter stuff and put this stuff in. Plus there is 18 month + stuff in this pile that needs to be sorted into keep (for next child or to hand down) and get rid of.

And last but not least I have laundry on the line that needs to be folded, sorted and put away, I have a load of laundry that needs to be hung, Diapers that need to get into the washer and another 1-2 loads of laundry in clothing hampers to get to the bathroom. Busy laundry day today!

I'd better get busy! It is already after 10am. I've been baking these yummy breakfast cookies(recipe courtesy of Heavenly Homemakers) this morning and the house needs to be straighten up a little. And can't forget to get out all the needed ingredients for dinner tonight!

I will post after pictures next Tuesday so check back then! And please share what you plan to tackle this week over at 5 Minutes for Mom! Enjoy this fabulous spring weather!

Blessings!

Menu Planning Monday

2008-05-12T20:26:00.003-04:00

I slacked on the menu again last week. We didn't make quite a few of the recipes in the plan, including the breakfast cookie recipe or the Mother's Day Muffin's from Heavenly Homemakers. I am hoping to try both of these again. At least the breakfast cookies. I am also going to try to write out my menu plan and hang it in the kitchen so I can actually see it more often.

A few of the things from last week will be carried over to this week. This is also a slightly crazy week as I have a booth scheduled from 9am-9pm on Friday and a Doctor's appointment on Wednesday night. So those will be easy nights. Maybe something in the crockpot...

Tuesday - Cheesy Beef & Rice thanks to Heavenly Homemakers. Try again from last week.

Wednesday - Pasta and sauce

Thursday - Roast a Whole Turkey still in the freezer from last season.

Friday - The Spud Special Soup thanks to Keeper of the Home

Saturday - Arroz Con Pollo with leftover Turkey instead of chicken.

Sunday - Pizza on the Grill

Have a great week everyone! Pray that I can keep to my plan better this week!!

Urban Homesteading

2008-05-09T08:11:00.002-04:00

I was reading some old posts over on Stephanie's blog at Keeper of the Home and came across this one which included a link to this video.

What an amazing, inspirational video. If this family can grow 6000 lbs of produce on only 1/5 of an acre I can only dream about what we can do with 15!!! I am so excited to get my garden going again! We already put in our new strawberry bed and the asparagus just started to peek through in the last few days. Yum...asparagus quiche...that's what I want to make first!

And here is an excellent book about growing on small acerage. I definitely want to get a copy of this!

And one of my favorite things about where we are is that we can have chickens. I definitely think that raising our own food, whether vegetable or animal, is much more frugal in the long run than buying it from others. I have not actually figured out what my cost per a dozen eggs is to raise my chickens but when organic eggs are between $4-5 a dozen I must be doing OK. Plus I know my chickens are getting all kinds of things that those chickens probably are not like lots of green grass and sunshine!

Our chickens also help us with reducing our waste. Chickens are omnivores so they will eat pretty much anything. They get all of out leftovers. The only things we need to put into our compost are peels (and even some of those they will eat). All of the scraps of meat & dairy that they recommend you not put in compost we feed to our chickens. And they LOVE it. Whenever we head out that way they all come running to see what goodies we have today.

Where we live we do have problems with foxes, fishers & skunks (yes skunks! I never knew skunks like to kill chickens!) so we use some electric net fencing to keep our girls safe. We just rotate their pasture around the hen house every few weeks. We do also keep a rooster now as we have heard that fertilized eggs are great for you also (and I am hopeful one of my hens will go broody one of these days! And maybe get a few baby chicks).

I found this video from the same people that talks about raising chickens in the City! You can do it too!

There are tons more video's and websites out there about raising chickens in a small space and as long as your city ordances allow why the heck not!! Here are a few great websites to get you started.

The City Chicken

Mad City Chickens

An Article in The City Farmer about raising chickens in the city.

And here are a couple of books you could check out also!

Does anyone else out there raise chickens? Would you consider it? Do you have a garden? More Frugal Friday tips!

Blessings!

Menu Planning Monday...I Know on Tuesday Again!

2008-05-06T08:54:00.003-04:00

OK...I am running a little late again this week. The last two days (or should I say nights) have been tough and I have been VERY unmotivated. And let's just say that my new habit forming has not been going quite as planned.

On Sunday night Aiden woke up throwing up. After stripping him and his bed, getting him cleaned up and dressed and putting him into our bed he proceeded to throw up in our bed. Again with the clothes and bed stripping. Thankfully at this point he seemed to be done and went off to sleep. I finally got myself into bed and doesn't Bennett wake up screaming. Not sure why, bad dream I guess but I was up with him for a while longer also.

And then last night Bennett didn't go to bed until almost 9pm and then woke up again a number of times and was then up both mornings by 5:30am. Needless to say I am feeling a little tired.

Done with the pitty party now! On to Menu Planning.

We were able to stick a little closer to our menu this last week. We didn't do the goat roast because I never got around to taking it out of the freezer. The quiche was amazing. I used the Yogurt Dough recipe from Nourishing Traditions. We put in tomatoes, spinach, onions & a little bacon I had in the freeze. Oh how yummy it was! I also made up a HUGE batch of pancakes from a Nourishing Traditions recipe and have some scones and biscuits soaking right now to make.

I just started picking up a few Raw Milk products in the last few weeks also. The farm (Great Hopes Farm in Brooks, ME) is not far from us but I didn't want to have to go out there ever week so I did some research and found out you can freeze milk. I bought enough for two weeks and have frozen a little more than half. I actually got some cream from them so I am hoping to make something yummy for a treat later this week. Maybe some rice pudding or a custard. I will try to remember to post more about the benefits of raw milk later this week or next week.

And our chickens are laying like crazy so we are trying to remember to do lots of meals with eggs. We made egg salad last week, which was delicious (I'm even starting to develop a taste for it) and I plan to make some more hard boiled eggs this week for my boys to eat as snacks. They LOVE eggs.

I really cleaned out my cabinets this week and made a list of everything in them to try to do some pantry meals. I have a few cans of beans that I would like to use up as I am ordering some dried beans from a local grown cooperative. We are going to try to do the same thing with our two freezers also. Go through and make a list of what is left. Feed to the chickens anything freeze burned and start using up everything else. This will also help us to conserve energy as we wont have to open the freezer to see what is in there and we will just cross things off as we use them. Now when that will get done...who knows. Hopefully this week though.

I also have tons of turkey and chicken carcasses left over from processing our birds last year that I would like to turn into stocks before the weather gets really warm so I am hoping to work on that this week also. I also know we have a bit of broccoli left in the freeze and Erik LOVES cream of broccoli soup. Stephanie over at Keeper of the Home shares a recipe that I think I will try for lunch one of the days.

And did I mention that I accidentally ordered a HUGE bag of quick rolled oats (when I meant to get whole rolled oats) from my coop about 2 months ago. I found this excellent breakfast cookie recipe at Heavenly Homemakers that I think I am going to try to use some of them up. They make a terribly mushy oatmeal so I would really love to use them up and then buy some local grown whole rolled oats!

OK...so now onto my menu.

Tuesday - Pasta, Sauce & Sausages (Erik is working an overnight so I try to make easy things for the boys & I when he will not be home. He will probably take some leftover quiche for his dinner)

Wednesday - Baked cheesy pasta (Erik asked me to make a macaroni & cheese this week. I will cook up some pasta with a little homemade cheese sauce and throw in some vegi's we have in the freezer and maybe some chicken or turkey from the freezer also. And then breadcrumbs and a little Parmesan on top and bake it. YUM!)

Thursday - The Spud Special Soup thanks to Keeper of the Home.

Friday - We are having another family from church over and the weather is supposed to be lovely so we will probably do burgers and vegi's on the grill.

Saturday - Cheesy Beef & Rice thanks to Heavenly Homemakers. I'm thinking I will make up two or three of these to pop some in the freezer. I will also add some more vegi's to it like peppers, maybe spinach, etc. to make it more of a one dish meal.

Sunday - It is mother's day and Erik is working! I will probably let him pick something up for us on his way home for dinner (and some chocolate and maybe a movie for after the kiddo's go to bed. ) And I want to try these Mother's Day Muffin's from Heavenly Homemaker. Yummy!

Share what's on your menu and for more menu ideas check out Org Junkie!

Tiny Talk Tuesday

2008-05-06T08:00:00.001-04:00

This is a new carnival that I recently stumbled on. I decided to join because my kids are always saying the funniest things so this gives me a great way to record it.

The first one I want to share is from my almost 4 yr old, Aiden. We have quite a few new babies being born to friends of ours and have started to discuss when we want to think about another child. Erik's best friend, Joe & wife Elena had just had their baby. We asked Aiden if he would like to have another baby in our house.

Aiden: "Yeah, I want to have Auntie Elena's baby."

Me: "Well, we can't exactly have that baby Aiden."

LOL!! To funny!

And Bennett, he is just starting to talk really well. He is going to be two in June. They grow to fast. Some of my favorite things that he says:

"Wait, wait mumma" whenever you walk away from him

"See me" when he wants to be picked up

"Sorry mumma" if he bumps into you, does something that makes you say ouch or if someone else does. He is always saying sorry.

"Piece, Piece, break a piece off daddy." Bennett LOVES Erik's Bagels with butter & cream cheese on them but we don't really want to make a whole one for him. Whenever Erik sits down with a bagel he always starts saying "piece, piece, break a piece off."

"I wuv you mumma." "hugs." "kisses." He is a little lover! He loves to give hugs and kisses and is always wrapping his arms around us and saying "I wuv you." Too cute!

And on Friday...something too cute. He was running in circles around the yard and was singing, "racing day, racing day." Too funny!

OK...so a lot more here for Bennett than Aiden. But they are always saying such cute things when they are learning to talk. LOL!

Share with us the cute & funny things your kids are say over at Not for Seven.

Your Picture Could be Worth $1000!

2008-05-02T19:46:00.004-04:00

Over at 5minutesformom.com they are hosting a bloggy photo contest that could win someone a $1000 American Express gift card! That would be absolutely amazing for us right now so I am definitely in.

I did have a very hard time picking out a photo that tells a story about what motherhood means to me. I have so many pictures that could work but I think this one is probably the best.

Why do you ask...well because I think this picture demonstrates those moments when you just need to let your kids live. My practical side was telling me that I should really take that hammer away from them...before someone gets bashed in the head. But my gut was telling me that they were just fine. They were taking turns hitting the nail with the hammer and doing quite an impressive job at it. As parents, we are just here as a guide. We are hear to help them as they need us on this journey that is THEIR life. I think as parents we often lose sight that it is their life even when they are little and we are just a tour guide providing them with support, love and guidance. As a mom I try to instill a natural sense of curiosity and an attitude that "I can do anything." And we try to let our kids do as much as they want (safely of course).

So, what does motherhood mean to me? It means being there, as much as I can and finding love in every moment of every day.

Now I will ask you, what does motherhood mean to you? Share with me either in the comments or on your own blog and if you can share a photo and post your like at 5minutesformom.com to try to win that $1000 visa GC.

Blessings!

30 Days to a New Habit

2008-05-02T15:50:00.004-04:00

Toblerone over at Simple Mom has asked us to join her in forming new habits. I just LOVE this idea. She is trying to make it a habit to go to bed earlier. I REALLY like this idea. For a short time at the beginning of the year I had made it a goal to be to bed by 9pm and up by 5am. This helped me to get up before my boys and gave me time to be on my own to center myself. It gave me a ton more patience and understanding with my children. However, life got in the way and that ended a few weeks after I started.

But now that I have some support from a few bloggy friends I am going to get at it again!

New Habit for May: Bed by 9pm and up by 5am.

If you are feeling like you could use some new habits please join in on the challenge! Leave me a comment or head over to Simple Mom to join in on the fun!

Blessings!

And the Winner is!

2008-04-28T21:09:00.003-04:00

I decided to use a random number generator this time from Random.org. Here are the numbers from Random:

Here are your random numbers:

36
25

Timestamp: 2008-04-28 15:12:11 UTC

#25 is Tammy over at Three Different Directions. She had asked for The Usborne Internet Linked Library of Science Animal World. Congrats Tammy!

And #36 is Genevieve P over at St. Juliana Sisterhood. She did not specify a particular title so she will be getting the In The Castle picture book. Congrats to you also Genevieve!

Does not look like I was as lucky with winning as I was last time around. So far I haven't won anything! Oh well. There is always next time right!

Congrats again ladies and thank you to everyone for all the amazing give a ways! This was so much fun!

Menu Planning Monday

2008-04-28T20:37:00.003-04:00

Lasts weeks menu definitely did not go as planned. I decided to not write out my menu plans and to just check in on my blog for that days menu in the morning. Didn't work out so well for me. So...now I know I need to write these things down and put them in a prominent place. We also had a few things going on in the evenings that I forgot about, which made meal time a little more difficult to deal with.

We really didn't do much from the menu other than the cheese pasta. And that was quite yummy! We all loved it. I took rice pasta, a little homemade cheese sauce, a can of salmon and a little brocolli still in the freeze from last season and TADA! It was perfect. Everyone devoured it...except Aiden...but he doesn't eat anything!

And we also did the Arroz Con Pollo over at from mommy's kitchen. That was tonight. It was absolutely fabulous! Definitely something to add to our favorite recipe list.

And I am thinking we will try to make some of these cookies because they had surplus chocolate chips with the last coop order so I took them. Tomorrow is going to be a rainy day so a good day to make cookies with the boys.

On to our menu:

Tueday
B - Smoothies & Muffins
L - Egg Salad (Chicken Salad for me as I don't like Egg Salad)
D - Hamburgers

Wednesday
B - Eggs & Toast
L - Grilled Cheese
D - Grilled Steak, Corn & Potatoes

Thursday
B - French Toast
L - PB&J
D - Goat Roast, Brocolli & Rice

Friday
B - Oatmeal
L - Egg Salad
D - Quiche (that we didn't do last week)

Saturday
B - Eggs & Toast
L - Grilled Cheese
D - Pizza

Sunday
B - Oatmeal
L - Plate of Stuff
D - Leftovers

Not much new this week. We have a crazy week ahead so we are going to keep things a little easy.

Have a great week!!

Bloggy Giveaway Carnival is Here!!

2008-04-27T23:01:00.000-04:00

It is finally time again for the Bloggy Giveaway Carnival. I am SO EXCITED! There are already over 400 give a ways posted so definitely head over to bloggygiveaways.com and sign up for tons! I won some awesome prizes last time so it is well worth it.

This time I am giving away two differnt titles to two different winners. I will use a random number generator (depending on the number of entries) to pick a winner. The first title is The Usborne Internet Linked Library of Science Animal World. It retails for $9.95. The second title is the Usborne Picture Book In the Castle.

OK...so here is what you need to do:
1. Leave a comment on this post with your absolute favorite book is and why (I'm looking for new reading material...not that I need more books but I am always looking for a good new read).
2. Please also let me know which of the two titles you would like to win or if it does not matter.
3. Make sure you leave your blog name (with a place where I can find your email address). If you don't have a blog, just leave an email address where I can reach you.
4. The contest will end on April 27th (Sunday) at 12:00midnight (EST). I will announce the winner on Monday.
5. The contest is open to US residents only. I will contact you regarding shipping next week. Books will ship via media mail.
6. If you would like to earn extra entries please set up a wish list on my website, enter to win the $50 drawing, contact me about hosting an eshow or send me an email asking for more info about the Usborne Opportunity (it is an amazing one!), or blog about this give a way on your blog. Please post an extra comment for each of these things...and I will be checking!

I am ALWAYS look to grow my team so if you are looking for a way to stay home with the kids, need a little extra money or just looking for something different I want to talk to you! Usborne has the most amazing opportunity out there (in my opinion!).

Good luck!!

Not Christmas...BUT

2008-04-27T16:00:00.000-04:00

Home

2008-04-25T07:54:00.001-04:00

My House

My house is where laughter lives;

where lovers tears have dropped;

where life, in passing by one day,

looked in and smiled and stopped.

--Lanier Ward Pratt

I happened upon the blog Dandelion Dayz during the Bloggy Give a Way carnival and loved this little poem. She asked on her blog what makes you feel at home. So, here are a few things that make me feel at home. Please share your's also!

First and Foremost my family!
My bed...I LOVE my bed.
Snuggling in my bed with my family (whether my hubby, my kids, or everyone all at once).
Something yummy cooking in the oven.
Cooking in my kitchen.
Sitting anywhere in our house or yard reading a book.
Just sitting and watching my kids play.
A kiss from my hubby.
A kiss from my kids.
Abbey bouncing up and down in front of the door as we come in.

Those are a few of my things. What are your's???

In Celebration of Earth Day

2008-04-22T16:49:00.013-04:00

So...I am way behind on this one. Earth day was last Tuesday after all. But I still wanted to share. We have really been trying to reduce, reuse & recycle more these last few years. Not only to help the planet but also to keep our home as healthy for our family as possible. So...here are some of the things we have done:

#1 - We hang our clothes on a clothes line as much as we possibly can! Not only does this save energy, it saves money.

#2 - I forgot to take a picture of this one but we use cloth diapers for our littlest one...and hang them to drive!

#3 - We compost! Pretty pitiful compost heap huh. We are going to be doing some work on it this summer...hopefully! We will see.

#4 - We farm. We raise chicken's for meat and eggs and turkey's for meat also. We also have a garden...which I do not have a picture of either...not this time of year.

#5 - We use all organic and natural products for cleaning.

#6 - We use the cold cycle for all our washing.

# 7 - We are doing a bunch of improvements to our home to cut the cost to heat it. New siding, new insulation,etc.

#8 - We use programable thermastat and keep it set to 60 degrees during the day and 50 degrees overnight.

#9 - We try to purchase as many organic products we can. This is from the sheets on our bed.

#10 - We recycle! Our town doesn't recycle much but Erik is starting to take misc. paper to work with him and we are going to try to recycle other things in Bangor regularly. We also donate a lot of things instead of throwing it away and use freecycle as well.

#11 - We buy in bulk. We are part of a food buying coop and are able to reduce packaging by buying in bulk. It also reduces our food costs!

#12 - Again, we buy as much as we can...including our food...organic. We also buy as much as we can locally. Cuts down on the use of fuels to trasport the items when you buy local. The local organic farm that I buy from sells most of her produce cheaper than conventional products at the store sell for.

There it all is. I know there is more...oh...like breastfeeding. And I am sure I will remember more later. So...let me know what you do to stay green.

Menu Planning Monday

2008-04-19T09:14:00.004-04:00

I've been a little out of the loop lately! Things have been very busy and with the weather FINALLY warm and lovely we have spent every waking minute outside. So...blogging took the back burner for a bit here. But I am trying to get back on track. I have been slacking with my menu planning also and that has resulted in many last minute not so healthy or frugal dinners. Back to menu planning.

I recently was able to borrow Nourishing Traditions from the library and I have to say it is AMAZING! Lots of great ideas. I've already started to soak our flours before baking and have made her oatmeal and Erik LOVED it so it will definitely be a weekly baking item. The boys enjoyed it also...Aiden with a little more sweetener than I would like (but at least he likes organic maple syrup instead of sugar!). After keeping the oatmeal in the fridge and eating it up for about 4-5 days I added a little Raw cream and a few eggs and made fried mush. Erik really enjoyed it with a little jelly spread on and rolled them up. I am not a big fan of the texture of oatmeal but I am trying to eat a little when I make it for the boys. We have started to get Raw milk from a local farm so I am hoping to try to make some things like Yogurt, Cheese, and maybe do something like Kefir (I will need to order some grains).

I am also hoping to be able to get a copy of the Maker's Diet. This was a recommended title by Stephanie over at Keeper of the Home. I just LOVE her blog.

So...without further ado here is this weeks menu:

Monday - Oatmeal & Fruit for breakfast, PB&J for lunch & for dinner Rice Pasta, Tomato Sauce with some vegi's thrown in and maybe a little spice sausage.

Tuesday - Eggs & fruit for breakfast, Tuna fish for lunch & a quiche for dinner (with lots of vegi's from the freezer - brocolli, spinach and probably some onion and a little sausage. No recipe here I just wing it.) and I am going to try a great press in crust that I picked up from Nourishing Traditions.

Wednesday - Smoothies & Muffin (my Muffin recipe comes from Passionate Homemaker. I made about 3 dozen of them last Friday and they are so yummy!) for breakfast, Grilled Cheese (and maybe soup if I get a minute to make some) for lunch and Steak on the grill for dinner (with some potatoes and corn). (We maybe having dinner with friends so might be scratching this days menu...we will see.)

Thursday - Eggs & Fruit, Plate of Stuff and Arroz Con Pollo from From Mommy's Kitchen (and I subscribed to her blog because I loved all the recipes she had posted!). I am SO excited to try this recipe!

Friday - Oatmeal & Fruit, PB & J and Pizza Night! With a salad probably. Here is a great Pizza Dough recipe also from the Passionate Homemaker...another of my favorite blogs! I have not tried it yet but plan to this week.

Saturday - Yogurt & Muffin, Grilled Cheese & Cheesey pasta with some brocolli (and other vegi's) and some canned Salmon that I have thrown in there.

Sunday - Eggs & Fruit, Plate of Stuff and Hamburgers on the Grill (could be ground beef, turkey or goat as I have all in the freezer right now) with Corn and some rice.

There is so much going on this week in the bloggy world so watch for more posts soon. It is time for the Bloggy Giveaway Carnival again!! YAHOO!! I can see many late nights this week entering drawings. And don't forget tomorrow is Earth day. What are your plans??

Blessings!

All the New Babies

2008-04-04T13:43:00.012-04:00

I've been meaning to get on to share all of the news about all of the new babies join the world this last month or two. There has definitely been something in the water let me tell you!!

First on the list is Miss (yes finally a little girl around here!!) Mia Suzannah born Thursday March 27th at 1:37pm (after 30+ hrs of labor for mama...you can read more about her birth here). She was 7 lbs 5.2 oz and was 20 3/4 inches long.

Mia is the first child of Erik best friend Joe & his wife Elena. Erik and Joe have been best friends since kindergarten and we are so excited and happy for them. Check out this absolutely perfect picture of the new family.

And I had to include this shot of Elena and Mia. Aren't they both just so beautiful! We are so excited to welcome our new little Niece!

On to Mr. Mason, born March 18th, the little brother to our God Son Nelson. Isn't this just the perfect picture of the proud big brother! I unfortunately do not have his particulars because Rob left them on the answering machine! And silly me didn't write them down. So...Marge & Rob if you read this please share in the comments.

And last but certainly not least is Mr. Morgan! The third child to one of my very best friends, Laura. Morgan was born at home on February 21st at 11:13pm. He weighed 6lbs 4 oz and was 20 inches long.

And here is the cutest picture of all three of Laura's kids!

Not sure what was in the water back in April/May of last year but babies are just popping out everywhere!!

I also wanted to share this article I read over at Mothering.com. It is call Off Her Back and is really a great article about the mother's rights during child birth. So many women don't realize YOU ARE THE BOSS when it comes to your labor.

Blessings!

New Blog Template

2008-04-04T10:57:00.003-04:00

Hi Everyone,

I spent a few minutes this morning updating my blog template. I have been hoping to get a new look...something a little more springish! And I really wanted a 3 column design and I finally found a FREE (that's right...this template was FREE!) template from Split Decisionz. Thanks Amy!! Loving the new look. Now it's time for you all to let me know what you think of the new look.

Blessings!

EARTH HOUR - Join Please!

2008-03-29T09:04:00.002-04:00

Take a minute to watch this video!

I learned about this in my Ideal Bite newsletter. On March 29 starting at 8 PM YOUR time, turn off your lights for on hour. Originating in Sydney, Australia last year, it has now gone global. Last year, it had the effect of taking 48,000 cars off the road for an hour. Since this year's event is global, savings will be even bigger. Even landmarks such as the Golden Gate Bridge, Sears Tower, and the Sydney Opera House will dim during Earth Hour. If just 10,000 people turn off 10 lights tomorrow evening for just one hour, the amount of CO2 created by an average apartment in a whole year will be averted. That's a lot! So join the millions of people world wide and switch it all off for one hour. Check out their website! Earth Hour.

Healthy Snack Carnival

2008-03-25T16:32:00.007-04:00

Stephanie over at Keeper of the Home is hosting a healthy snack carnival. I don't have many healthy snacks that we bake but I can share what we do for snacks. OK...so not a picture of a very healthy snack at right but they were homemade and made with WW flour so a LOT healthier than what you would buy at the store!

So...for snacks we do the following:

Fruit - Huge for us. My boys LOVE apples, bananas, oranges (prefer clementines), kiwi's, grapes (if I can find organic), pineapple, etc. I usually buy at least 4-5 different kinds of fruit every week.

Veggi's - right now just for Bennett. He eats everything! Aiden is a picky almost 4 yr right now.

Cheese - Right now we do mozarella cheese sticks and cubed cheese. I am currently reading Nourishing Traditions and am planning to start trying to buy raw dairy products again so we will probably do sliced raw cheese.

Crackers - we have been buy TLC crackers but I have collected a few recipes that look excellent so I plan to start making our own crackers.

Pretzels - Aiden LOVES to make pretzels.

Toast or Bread & Butter - another favorite. I love the toast fingers Stephanie mentions in her post. I think my kids might like it. Although Aiden is big into having a big piece of toast. He doesn't want us to cut anything anymore.

Raisins - and other dried fruit. Raisins not as much since we saw an article about how raisins and grapes (even just 1-2) can be toxic to dogs and my kids LOVE to feed Abeey.

That is all I can think of for right now.

Make sure to share your healthy snacks over at Keeper of the Home!

Tipster Tuesday

2008-03-25T12:58:00.002-04:00

I have been wanted to join in on Kitchen Tip Tuesday's for a while now. I love all the tips I have gained from everyone over the last few weeks. So...my tip for this week. BUY IN BULK and buy a freezer.

We are a member of a local food cooperative. We just LOVE it. I can purchase almost everything we need in bulk from our food coop and it is usually a ton cheaper than buying the same items in the store. We also buy all organic products and by buying these items in bulk I can usually get these items for the same price I would buy that same item but non-organic at the store. I bake a lot of our own food so I buy the following items in bulk:

Flour (usually WW Bread & Pastry)
Rolled Oats (I make oatmeal, granola, etc.)
Sunflower Butter
Oils (Olive, Canola, Sun & Safflower)
All of our bathroom products (toothpaste, shampoo, etc.)
Cleaning products (dish soap, liquid, cleaners, etc....although trying to learn to make some of these myself to make it even cheaper)
BAKING SODA!!! (I use this for everything from diapers to dishes and just got an AWESOME dish washer tip from Passionate Homemaker this week!)

There are a ton of other things I buy in bulk also. Check around in your area to see if you can find a food coop or start one of your own. You don't need to buy much to be able to buy at these wholesale prices.

And a freezer is a must for saving money also. I have a wonderful organic farm down the road a bit and at their little farm stand they sell their produce for cheaper than you can buy traditional produce at the store. Things that I can't seem to grow that well like peppers, onions, carrots. I also go to a pick your own strawberry & blueberry farm in the summer & fall. With my freezer I am able to store all of this lovely produce through the winter and still have blueberry muffins & pancakes and strawberry smoothies all winter long. It is also a lot cheaper as I can purchase a quart of organic wild Maine blueberries for only $1.50 and you can't even get a pint of traditional berries at the store that cheaply! We also raise our own Turkey's & Chickens and buy Beef & Goat meat from friends that raise them naturally (not organic certified but they are grass fed and are not give any hormones, etc.).

We also LOVE bananas. We use them in everything! And they always put the ones that are starting to get soft on sale at the grocery store...usually for at least 1/2 off, if not more. So, I buy these up and when I get home I peel them and throw them in the freezer. Once they are frozen solid I seal them in seal & save bags. We use them in smoothies, muffins, bread, etc.

And lastly I am trying to do more baking 1-2 days per week and freezing items so it is easier to prepare meals. A large freeze makes this all so much easier. I hardly buy anything at the grocery store any more!

I have gained TONS of great ideas from all the other ladies that share their tips so I thought I would share some of my favorite tips I have gained over the last few weeks of browsing.

I love this idea to make play dough for your kids so they can "cook" while you are cooking also. Homemade play dough in pretty jars also makes a great gift for the children in your life and is SO easy to make. I just ordered a pound of cream of tartar from my food coop to make lots of play dough with!

Making a recipe binder is definitely something I am going to work on. Right now I
have cards and paper everywhere with recipes on them.

And I also definitely need to make a kitchen spring cleaning list!

These Make Ahead Burritos sound yummy!

And simplifying is my favorite word lately. We are cutting down majorly to try and simplify our lives so this great list of ways to simplify in your kitchen is definitely a great starting point for me!

And what a great idea for storing muffins in your freezer!!

I am in the midst of kitchen organizing and I LOVE this idea for storing measuring spoons and I think I will use the idea for my measuring cups also (I asked for new stainless steel measuring cups & spoons for my birthday).

And this is something I definitely need to do to declutter my own kitchen! I have way to many kitchen gadgets!

I have absolutely got to try these pizza pockets! They look so yummy and are a very easy make ahead and freeze type meal. And you could cook enough for the family in the toaster oven making it a great warm weather, don't want to heat up the stove type recipe. You could even make them on a grill I bet! Can't wait to try!

Great recipe for Taco seasoning!

And what a great tip for using up the leftover bread, flour & eggs used for making breaded chicken. Sounds yummy!

Lots of great ideas out there. Thanks to everyone posting their tips. They have come in very handy or hopefully will soon!

Video about Vaccines Causing Autism

2008-03-25T09:09:00.004-04:00

Just wanted to share this video that Mothering Magazine posted to their website. Interesting pictorial view of the vaccine debate.

I also wanted to share this. Someone said to me the other day that we shouldn't need to worry because they have phased thimerosal out of vaccines anyway. While thimerosal is being phased out it has not been completely removed. To quote the FDA website:

In this regard, all vaccines routinely recommended for children 6 years of age or younger and marketed in the U.S. contain no thimerosal or only trace amounts (1 microgram or less mercury per dose), with the exception of inactivated influenza vaccine, which was first recommended by the Advisory Committee on immunization Practices in 2004 for routine use in children 6 to 23 months of age.

Also, something else to think about is new vaccines being made will not have thimerosal but a lot of states stockpile vaccines, so make sure to ask your Doctor for a mercury free vaccine and if they don't have any ask them to order it for you. Here is a link to a list of vaccines that do still contain thimerosal.

You can also take a look at the ingredients in the vaccines given at this website.

And here is an interesting timeline provided by Mother Jones online.

We need to take our children's health in our own hands. Until they can prove that these vaccinations are definitely safe I will continue to not vaccinate my children.

Scary Day Thursday

2008-03-23T15:12:00.003-04:00

Thursday actually started off great! We had a few of the families from church with little ones over to play. We had a lot of fun! My meringue's were a flop...so no pictures. I had never made them before so didn't realize that you definitely need parchment paper. Oh well. We live & learn.

After everyone left we were all just hanging out and relaxing, including our dog, Abbey. After about an hour she woke up and tried to stand u. She couldn't and started flaying all around. She finally fell to the floor and had a seizure. We rushed her quickly to the vet and were told she has a seizure disorder and need to keep her on medication for the rest of her life.

It was a pretty scary thing but we are a little concerned about her medication. We take a pretty natural approach to things like this so we are looking for some alternatives to the drug they want us to keep her on. If anyone has had any experience with that we would love some input.

We are actually going to take her in to see our chiropractor in a few weeks and I plan to call our holistic vet on Monday. So, we will see what they all say. But if you have any advice please share.

Happy Easter!

Food Matters

2008-03-23T15:05:00.002-04:00

This looks like it will be excellent! Check out the trailer. I'm going to watch it when it is released and go to foodmatters.tv to sign up to be notified when it is released.

Menu Planning Monday...on Tuesday

2008-03-18T08:15:00.005-04:00

Sorry! It was a long day yesterday and I ended up not getting on to put up my menu. So...I am going to be trying out the monthly menu planning to try to reduce the number of shopping trips I need to make...but seeing as it is mid-March I am going to start with a 2 week plan and then do a month plan for April. So...no Menu Plan from me next week...but we are trying out a few new recipes so I will post on Monday how those went. So...without further ado her is the menu.

Monday - WAS a boiled dinner. I forgot the cabbage but we had corned beef with carrots & potatoes. We don't cook beef roasts often because you can't really get them organic around here but it was yummy!

Tuesday - Porkchops & applesauce (I have a few jars of sauce left from fall canning so I figured might as well get them used up) with vegi's (probably corn to please my hubby)

Wednesday - Fried Rice, recipe thanks to Passionate Homemaker. We will use the leftover pork in it also.

Thursday - Homemade Pizza (lots of onion & spinach...and maybe a little sausage for hubby :) for Erik & I...just Cheese for the boys)

We are also having some of the moms and little ones from church over to celebrate SPRING so I will be baking some yummy looking strawberry merguine cookies. I found the recipe online but didn't keep the link. I will try to remember to post the recipe and pics once I bake them. We will also be doing some crafts. I will try to post photos of all later this week.

Friday - My BIRTHDAY!! I'm not sharing how old though. LOL. Hot Cross Buns for Breakfast and Rice Jumble for dinner. (Dinner needs to be quick and easy as we are attending a Last Supper performance at our church and then I will hopefully be going out with a friend to celebrate both our birthdays with some bowling or something).

Saturday - My parents are up but only until early Sunday so we are going to do a Roast for lunch on Saturday with them. Erik & I are going out Saturday night so dinner will be something easy for my parents.

Sunday - Erik & I are going to leave the boys with my Mom & Dad and go to Sunrise services at the church. I haven't figured out breakfast yet. I am thinking either a quiche or baked french toast. Maybe both!! Then we will have a Turkey for dinner.

Monday - Rice & Bean Burritos, recipe thanks to Keeper of the Home. Between her and Passionate Homemaker I don't need any cookbooks!!

Tuesday - Turkey Quesadillas (using up leftover turkey from Sunday)

Wednesday - Hamburgers (we haven't had them in FOREVER...will make hubby so happy!)

Thursday - Homemade Pizza

Friday - Fried Rice

Saturday - Turkey Soup

Sunday - Leftovers (we will be at a church potluck that afternoon/early evening so need something simple)

I am also going to try to squeeze in a baking day sometime soon. Maybe on Friday afternoon. I'd really like to try soaking my grains that Lindsay talks about at Passionate Homemakers.

I will keep you all posted on how this goes!

Enjoy!

The Baby Borrowers

2008-03-15T08:50:00.003-04:00

I could not believe this when I saw it. Are we seriously going to give real live babies to teenagers in the hopes of keeping them from getting pregnant???

Please take a minute to visit the Official Show Site on NBC's website. Please also take a moment to read the letter that Jan Hunt of the Natural Child Project has written to NBC.

It is one thing to have them care for older children, who you can explain the reason behind why they are going but to put infants and toddlers who only understand they have been taken away from their parents...there is something wrong there. To quote Jan's letter to NBC:

Babies do not have the mental capacity to anticipate the return of a mother who has gone; they cannot use imagination or project into the future. Research consistently shows that babies separated from their mothers have skyrocketing cortisol levels. This is neurotoxic, damaging brain tissue in the prefrontal lobe areas that regulate emotion, leading to a lifetime vulnerability. When cortisol is produced due to emotional stress, the next stressful experience creates an even larger surge of cortisol. By the time a stressed child reaches adulthood, he is likely to overreact to all stressful situations, making it harder to cope with life's challenges. For all hese reasons, babies and young children should be kept as stress-free as possible, to protect their future psychological and physical health.

This is the wrong thing to do for these children. Reality TV is getting worse and worse every day with the risks they are taking with peoples lives. Sad...

So...my fellow bloggers. If you agree that this is detrimental to children please blog about this show and share your outrage that the treatment of our children has come to this...all for the sake of entertainment!

Pictures of our prizes!

2008-03-11T18:10:00.011-04:00

I wanted to share a few pics of the prizes we have recently won. Here are the boys using there new Klean Canteens. Check out this post to find out more about our prizes!
We were able to purchase these with the $100 gift card to Amazon.com that we wont during the Bloggy Carnival give a way from Pediscribe. Thanks again Karen!!

Here is a picture of Aiden in his new B Kindwear won over at Blog in my Eye from Elaine. Thanks Elaine!!

And last but not least my favorite (well...the only one that was really for me!!) is my new Mommy Necklace from Little Piddles. I LOVE IT!!

I am so loving all of these give a ways online and I hope to win many more.

Sorry for the missing Menu Planning Monday. I decided to take this week off as Hubby needed to take the laptop to work to catch us up on our account balancing. Haven't really been able to get online so I am just sticking with tried and true faves this week. Pasta, Pizza, Quesidillas, etc, etc. I promise I'll be back with my menu next week!

Mommy Tags Give a way!

2008-03-10T09:46:00.003-04:00

There is an amazing give a way going on right now over at An Island Life. She is giving away a $300 gift certificate to Mommy Tags. You are going to absolutely love these tags! They are so cute. I've got my fingers crossed so that I can get a braclet...and with $300 you can even get someone...or a few someones a gift on top of something for yourself. Check it out and I'll be back later with Menu Planning Monday!

What a Great Quote!

2008-03-08T20:52:00.003-05:00

"To me, unschooling does not necessarily mean there is no plan, it just means that God is the architect of that plan, not me. I trust in Him to guide their steps. The children are the builders and the inhabitants of what they construct, and I just supply the tools and the equipment." –Laura

And I forgot to write down her full name and her blog link! Ugh! I did some searching but can't seem to locate them. But I just had to share it!

Vaccines Cause Autism or Do they...

2008-03-08T12:12:00.006-05:00

As many of you know we are a non-vaxing family. We did a lot of research on this and had a number of reasons for making that choice. One of the main reason was the demonstrated lack of safety of the vaccines vrs the probability of our children contracting one of the illnesses protected by vaccination. This past week a number of articles have come out making me feel a little better about the choices I made. Check them out.

The first article titled U.S. Government Concedes Vaccines Cause Autism available at Newsmax.com. Here is a quote from this article:
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the federal agency that oversees the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), recently conceded the first vaccine-autism case.
This concession shows the dishonesty of the continual media spin coming from ublic health officials and others who maintain there is no evidence that Thimerosal, or any other part of any vaccine, has ever caused autism or, for that matter, has armed anyone in any way.
The facts are that the Vaccine Compensation Act has already compensated over 2,000 individuals who proved that they were harmed by vaccines, resulting in ettlements of nearly two billion dollars.
Additionally, hundreds of peer-reviewed scientific/medical articles from some the orld’s best universities have long implicated Thimerosal in vaccines as a causal actor in neurodevelopmental disorders including autism.
Furthermore, in 2003, the U.S. House of Representatives’ Government Reform ommittee, after a 3.5-year investigation, concluded that Thimerosal caused the autism epidemic and that the FDA and health authorities were guilty of “institutional malfeasance” in covering it up.
Here is another spin on this same situation. This one from the CNN website. Titled Case renews debate on vaccine-autism link this article is a little more reserved about the findings in the case. Here is a quote from this article:

Government health officials have conceded that childhood vaccines worsened a rare, underlying disorder that ultimately led to autism-like symptoms in a Georgia girl, and that she should be paid from a federal vaccine-injury fund.

Thousands of families are seeking compensation for disabilities they attribute to vaccines and a preservative.

Medical and legal experts say the narrow wording and circumstances probably ake the case an exception -- not a precedent for thousands of other pending claims.

I guess we will have to wait and see what kind of outcome this brings to vaccine safety research.

Menu Planning Monday

2008-03-03T16:39:00.004-05:00

Well...I'm going to be a little easier on myself this week. I had planned to try a few new recipes & barely stuck to my menu at all (honestly I think only 2 maybe 3 of the days...ugh!). For this week I think a few tried and true recipes are going to be best for us. We are having lots of visitors this week and I have a meeting Thursday night so we will probably do Pizza night again on Thursday. I also didn't get a chance to try the baked oatmeal (but will probably do that on one of Erik's days off as he LOVES oatmeal) or the crackers.

So, for this week I plan to also start a plan for breakfast. Just certain days for certain foods and will repeat the same every week. I am also going to try to do more of my baking monthly. I've been doing a lot of reading about the monthly baking plan at Passionate Homemaking. I also like her ideas about soaking grains. I am going to try to get a copy of Nourishing Traditions, which she mentioned a few times. I'm going to try to read a little more on that and maybe try it out. Might pick up some Kefir when shopping tomorrow just to see how it works.

I also like the idea of planning a consistent breakfast because we are trying to establish more rhythm at home and this will give the kids a way to distinguish the days. I am thinking I will even make up a little chart to designate the days and what is for breakfast...although my drawing abilities are not the greatest!

Without further ado, here is the plan for breakfast:

Monday - Egg meal (eggs & toast, egg sandwich, scrambled eggs, etc.)
Tuesday - Pancakes
Wednesday - Oatmeal
Thursday- Smoothie, Muffin
Friday - Special breakfast (french toast, quiche, waffles, etc.)
Saturday - Yogurt & Granola
Sunday - Egg meal

I am also thinking about a plan for lunch although we really have a lot less options as my kids will only eat so much. My thoughts for lunch:

Monday - Yogurt & Granola, Fruit
Tuesday - PB&J (homemade bread and sunflower seed butter)
Wednesday - Grilled Cheese, Fruit
Thursday - Plate of stuff
Friday- PB&J, Fruit
Saturday - Grilled Cheese, Fruit
Sunday - Plate of Stuff

And lastly here is the dinner plan:

Tuesday - Sloppy Joes
Wednesday - Going to retry doing the Shepards Pie that definitely isn't being done tonight!
Thursday - Homemade pizza
Friday - Beef Ribs in the slow cooker, mashed potatoes & corn
Saturday - Rice Jumble (rice with peppers & onions, a little sausage & some pasta sauce)
Sunday - Leftovers
Monday - Quesadillas

Last week I did make the pot roast and it was excellent! I even had seconds. I'm thinking about subscribing to Pioneer Women's blog to keep up with recipes! Also a hit were the meatballs. We substituted cottage cheese for Ricotta and they were still Fab!

Have a great week and make sure to check out more menus at Org Junkie's blog!

Unschooling

2008-03-02T20:25:00.003-05:00

Unschooling is the method of homeschooling that I plan to use with our kids...well...really it is what we use right now. Life learning. No curricula, no workbooks, no tests, etc. And it is also a way of life that we strive to achieve as well.

There is an awesome blog carival going on at An Unschooling Life called Unschooling Voices where different blogs post a question about Unschooling and others answer the question on their blogs and post a link on the host blog. I found this really amazing blog Learning Though Living that really has some amazing posts on it. Needless to say I've subscribed and can't wait to read more. She has a great quote from John Holt that I also wanted to share.

“It is as true now as it was then that no matter what tests show, very little of what is taught in school is learned, very little of what is learned is remembered, and very little of what is remembered is used. The things we learn, remember, and use are the things we seek out or meet in the daily, serious, nonschool parts of our lives.”~John Holt~ How Children Fail

I think if we as parents concern ourselves with living our lives as role models for our children and include them in our activities when they want to be included we would serve them a lot better than by having rules and enforcing with punishments, especially when we are not following the rules ourselves.

Something to think about...

The Man Song

2008-03-02T20:19:00.001-05:00

This is just too funny! Even Erik laughed! Had to share.

Menu Planning Monday

2008-02-25T13:14:00.003-05:00

Time for another Menu Planning Monday! I am really enjoying doing this and it really keeps me on track during the week.

So, I am going to be working at changing our diets a little. For those of you who do not know Bennett had eczema when he was just a little thing (4-5 months old). He was still solely nursing so we decided to keep him nursing for a few more months and try to take things in & out of my diet to see what might be causing it. After a few weeks of trying 1-2 things and having his eczema get worse & worse I decided to just go cold turkey on everything that might be affecting him. So...instead of telling you what I couldn't eat...how bought what I could. Rice, Fruits (except citrus), Vegi's, Turkey & Chicken. Yeah...it was a fun 2-3 months let me tell you.

Now...the plus side of this was I did lose ALL (plus some) of the weight gained during my pregnancy.

Long story short, the eczema cleared up, I added everything back and nothing seems to be bothering Bennett now. Weird! But since adding everything back I have also added back about 10 lbs! My naturopath also mentioned that if I wanted to stay on that diet permanently (adding back Eggs) that would be fine with her. While I do not plan to go back on the diet completely I do thing we would all be much healthier if we tried to cut out as much diary & wheat products as we can.

With that said for snacks I am going to make sure to have lots of fresh fruits and vegi's on hand. I also plan to start picking up rice crackers again (excellent with a little sunflower butter). We will stop getting pretzels and try to cut out loaves of bread (we've been going through at least 2 loaves a week plus all the bagels & english muffins, etc...it is crazy how much bread we eat). We have also been drinking WAY too much juice instead of water. No more juice for us!

I pulled out two cookbooks this morning that I plan on trying to pull our recipes from.

I've also been scanning the blogs of others that have already posted their menu's looking for more healthy recipes. Wish us luck!

Tuesday - Pasta & Meatballs

Wednesday - Pioneer Women's Pot Roast (hat tip to Sarah at Sarah's Musings for this recipe...LOVE IT!!)

Thursday - Pizza night (WW Pizza crust with lots of vegi's)

Friday - Flank Steak Sandwichs and Tomato Soup (Thanks to Simple Mom for the Soup idea!)

Saturday - Breakfast for Dinner (I'm thinking a Quiche - This one from Broad Horizons sounds yummy, and it's crustless!!)

Sunday - Baked Potato Soup (Thanks to Margaret's Musings for the recipe idea)

Monday - Shepard's Pie (Thanks to Passionate Homemaking for the recipe)

And I definitely want to try this Baked Oatmeal dish (hat tip to A Day in The Life for the recipe)for breakfast one of the mornings this week. It sounds fab!

I am also going to try out these crackers posted at The Nourishing Gourmet. They sound great and I have to agree...store bought crackers are so expensive but my kids love them! She also recommends a book, Nourishing Traditions that I think I will try to get a copy from at the library to check out. Might be worth getting.

For all of our recipes I do lots of substitutions. I usually substitute any milk called for with Rice Milk. I also substitute vegi broth for a meat broth. I also substitute sweetners and use honey or maple syrup for sugar and I usually 1/2 the sweetner called for. A friend of mine also suggested substituting tofu for cheese in baked recipes like Quiche. I think I might try it.

I WON, I WON (I forgot to post)!

2008-02-25T11:55:00.007-05:00

It was just brought to my attention that I totally forgot to post the blog I wrote about the giveaways that I won during the carnival that Rocks in My Dryer put on back during the last week of January/1st week of February.

Wow!!! What a great carnival! I can't wait for the next one. I had over 100 entries myself and I didn't put up my giveaway until midweek! Pretty good. I will definitely partake in that again.

I entered at least 100 of the giveaways offered and I won two of them!

The first was a $100 gift card from Amazon.com at PediaScribe! OMG...can you just see me dancing around the room. I plan to get some stainless steel sippy's for the boys and maybe a few books for me. Thanks to Karen over at PediaScribe for picking me! Check out her blog. It is pretty cool!

Update: I already did order my items from Amazon and got the following:

2 Klean Kanteen Stainless Steel Sippy's.

I also ordered The Keeper. This will hopefully cut back on our grocery bills slightly and will also save on trash. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle is my motto!! I have a few friends who use the Keeper or the Diva Cup and really like them, so I decided to give them a go! Check both The Keeper and The Diva Cup out.

And lastly I was able to order two titles I have been wanting to pick up.

Both excellent titles that I cannot wait to sit down and read.

I also won a cool t-shirt from bkindwear.com. This giveaway was from Elaine at Blog in My Eye.

This is the t-shirt that I picked for Aiden. It is just too cute!! I'll be sure to post a picture of him in it as soon as it arrives!

Thank you to everyone who posted a giveaway. I had so much fun browsing all the sites and even subscribed to a few (10-12) dozen blogs. As if my inbox is not already full enough! Make sure if you didn't check out the Carnival this time you check it out next time...I think in March or April.

I WON, I WON!!

2008-02-24T15:18:00.008-05:00

My blogging career has been pretty short lived so far. I've only been hanging out with all the other momma's on the blogosphere for a few months now but I have to say there are some AMAZING give a ways. I've got a few subscriptions to some excellent blogs (like 5 Minutes for Mom...one of my favorites!!) that keep you posted on the give a ways going on.

I entered one of the give a ways on a blog called Little Piddles last week and I WON!! Her give a way was for one of her necklaces. I picked out the Classical Mommy Necklace.

Isn't it LOVELY! I am so excited! I can't to get it. Jennifer is also offering a special right now. 15% off all orders until March 31 if you use the coupon code MOMMYNECKLACE during checkout. I get a one disc necklace for winning so I needed a second dish for my second son so I will definitely be taking advantage of the coupon!

Thanks Jennifer for a great give a way!!

Two New Handmade Items

2008-02-23T16:59:00.005-05:00

So, here are a few projects that I've been working on that I finally finished! The first picture is a cape that I made for our Godson, Nelson. He just turned 4. He and his Mom & Dad (our friends Marge & Rob) came up to visit this past Monday so we gave him his birthday presents. We were all sick for his birthday party. I was so excited by how much he liked it and am hoping he is still enjoying it as much. I was pleased by how it came out, especially seeing as I cut it out free hand. It is some material that I picked up on sale at Joanne's on sale after halloween and I backed it with a black felt so that it is reversable. I was going to put velcro or a button at the neck but the tabs came out a little longer than I planned so it is able to be tied. Worked out well!

Now, this I am just LOVING!! I saw this idea on a few other blogs. Here is one at Jendi's Journal. And here is another at Alexi Hangbags. When I saw this idea for the first time I couldn't believe I had never thought of that! Then I started searching online and found tons of ideas. I just cut the legs off and sewed up the bottom. It took me a little while to decide how to do the strap. I looked around for something premade that I could use and then saw an idea online about cutting 3 narrow strips from the legs of the jeans and braiding them. I decided that would probably be the easiest and the cheapest! And it worked beatifully. I didn't even hem them so that they would fray and add to the character a little. You can see the strap a little better in the below photo.
I picked up the piece of material that I strung through the belt loops at Walmart in the $1/yard stuff. I only bought a yard & this is only about an 8th of it.

So, if anyone wants me to make one or help them make one of their own let me know. Or if you are planning on throwing out some old jeans put them aside for me and I'll make a handbag out of them for someone else!

I still need to put some sort of closure on it so it doesn't hang open making me easy pickings for some pick pocket. But other than that I plan to put it to use right away!

Frugal Fridays

2008-02-22T08:47:00.003-05:00

I've been trying to take part in some the different meme's at the different blogs. I LOVE reading this one available at Biblical Womanhood. I've gotten some really great ideas for frugal ideas. Check out this weeks Frugal Friday here. And now for my frugal tip:

I'm sure that this is something someone has mentioned before but one of my favorite Frugal things to do is use the MyPoints system. All you have to do is sign up for an account, fill out a few survey's and then you will start getting email (usually 2-3 a day). The emails provide a link to click on and for each one you will usually get at least 5 points. There are lots of ways to earn more points also. I have earned over 30K points in the last few years and with your points you can purchase gift cards. It is usually under 2K points to get a $10-15 gift card. I've gotten gift cards to places like Target, Old Navy, Barnes & Nobles, Amazon, etc. I usually save up my points and then buy gift cards to use to buy Christmas presents for people or for my kids.

If you don't have a Mypoints account yet please sign up today! It's awesome!

Have fun earning tons of points!

Menu Planning Monday

2008-02-19T09:01:00.005-05:00

Well...I'm late for another Menu Planning Monday over at Org Junkie's blog. So, here is our menu for this week:

Tuesday - Pasta & Sausages

Wednesday - Homemade Pizza

Thursday - Meatloaf, Cauliflower & Mashed Potatoes

Friday - Grilled Flank Steak Sandwiches with Cheese, Onions & Peppers (and maybe some kettle chips on the side)

Saturday - Breakfast for Dinner

Sunday - Leftovers

Monday - Soup (we have a few in the freezer...minestrone, chili & turkey/vegi soup...so we will plan on one of those with some fresh homemade bread I think).

So...there is our week. Breakfast is pretty consistently eggs & toast as we have laying hens. We occassionally throw in Strawberry & Banana smoothies (just frozen strawberries and banana's in the blender...& I just bought a vegetarian protien powder to put in them). I am also planning on making some granola and maybe even granola bars this week.

Lunch is usually what we call a "Plate of stuff." This usually includes just about anything...nitrate free sandwich meats, cheese, kettle chips, pretzels, fruit (apples, kiwi's, grapes, pinapple...whatever we buy that week), raisins, carrot sticks, sun butter, etc. All piled high on a plate for everyone to munch on. This is especially great for warmer weather when the kids want to stay out but are starting to get hungry.

Have a great week everyone!

My Live Signature

2008-02-17T20:21:00.004-05:00

I found this really cool website that will design the code for a basic signature for free. It's pretty cool! Check them out here! How do you like my new signature? Let me know.

My Office

2008-02-16T14:01:00.006-05:00

So they are are having this really cool give away at myfax.com. I heard about it on this awesome blog I've been reading occassionally, Org Junkie. She also does the Menu Planning Monday's.

So...If your office is picked as the messiest office you can win $10K!! Does it get better than that! Not when you have an office that looks like mine. Could I use that to finally organize my office? Definitely! But don't take my word for it. Check it out for yourself. You have to send in a picture or video to be considered so here is the video I took. Someday I will post after pictures of my office. Someday...if I win $10K.

http://s137.photobucket.com/albums/q232/heatherdow/?action=view¤t=100_2369.flv

Let me know what you think!

Valentine's Day

2008-02-16T12:05:00.008-05:00

A few Valentine's day photo's to share. We had quite a fun day! We made heart shaped fried eggs for breakfast. The boys thought they were so cool!

Then we went over to visit our friend's Sherry & Karyn and their kids over at Sherry's house. Sherry had sugar cookies and her kids had valentine cards for everyone! The boys had a blast and didn't want to leave.

Then for dinner we made heart shaped pizza's. One of the only things I know the boys will definitely eat. They are so funny!

And for desert we had heart shaped chocolate chip cookies! Yum!

Menu Planning Monday

2008-02-12T09:39:00.003-05:00

I've been browsing the menu planning Monday links on Org. Junkie's blog for a few weeks now. I'm running a little late as we've been sick but I really wanted to partake this week. We so need to menu plan. We've been trying to cut our budget and have really cut out everything we can. We have also cut a ton out of our grocery bills so I am hoping by menu planning we can cut back even more to give us a little extra leeway in our budget.

A few things that we do to cut back on our grocery bill:

1. We belong to a local food coop. So we buy in bulk, which cuts our costs WAY down.
2. Garden (not now! But we save our produce by freezing or canning).
3. Raise our own poultry (turkeys & chickens and hopefully some Ducks and maybe a few pigs this year).
4. We also buy a lot of produce that we don't grown and save that (i.e. I have a hard time growning carrots and she sells her carrots for only $20 for 25 lbs).

This all really helps to cut down our grocery bill quite a bit.

There is a great article over at Heart of Wisdom about why you should meal plan. It was a great article! So...do you menu plan. If so let me know and feel free to blog about it and share your link over at Org Junkie's blog.

Here's our menu:

Tuesday - Sausage & Spaghetti Pie (recipe found here but I plan to make some substitutions cottage cheese for ricotta, WW spaghetti, onions and peppers tossed in also, etc.)
Wednesday - Turkey Soup (using up the TON of leftover turkey breast from Monday night) and a nice homemade crusty bread.
Thursday - Valentine's Day!! Heart shaped pizza's (we usually put onions & spinach on our pizza's...and sometime sausage) and maybe some home made ice cream sandwich cookies for desert.
Friday - Turkey Fajita's (using up that Turkey breast again)
Saturday - Breakfast for dinner! Probably pancakes or maybe waffles! (I usually add pureed carrots or squash to any pancakes or waffles I make for added vegi's)
Sunday - Leftovers
Monday - Meatloaf, Baked Potatoes and Corn

Nothing all that interesting. We have laying hens so breakfast is usually eggs & wheat toast (or they can have yogurt and occassionally pancakes). We are planning to make some granola and muffins to have on hand for snacks along with cut carrots, apples, bananas and pretzels. We also just do a "plate of stuff" (a mismosh of stuff on a plate for them to pick and choose from) for lunch most days with an occassional PB&J or grilled cheese thrown in.

I'm off to grocery shop in just a bit so even though I was supposed to have this done yesterday at least it is done BEFORE the grocery shopping trip! :)

Have a great day!

And the Winner is!

2008-02-04T20:48:00.001-05:00

Carrie from Mommy Brain picked the book Knights IL Discovery Book. Congrats Carrie! I ended up with 111 comments on my blog. Not bad for a first time and I even won a few give a ways myself! It was so much fun! Thanks everyone for the comments. Please make sure to set up your own wish list so that you have a chance to win every month. http://www.usborneofmaine.com/

I'll definitely be back for the next give a way so keep watching!

Congrats again Carrie!!

Bloggy Giveaway Carnival

2008-01-30T10:08:00.001-05:00

I just found this AWESOME blog. And she does a quarterly giveaway carnival. This is too cool!! I could spend hours looking at all of these blogs! They are all so cool. I've decided to participate for the first time and going forward! So, make sure you go back and check out all the others on there after you pick a book from my website.

OK...so here is what you need to do:

1. Go to http://www.usborneofmaine.com/ and pick out any one title, $10 or under.

2. Leave a comment on my blog with the title you would like to win.

3. Make sure you leave your blog name (with a place where I can find your email address). If you don't have a blog, just leave an email address where I can reach you.

4. The contest will end on Feb. 3, 2008 (Sunday) at 12:00midnight (EST). I will announce the winner on Monday.

5. The contest is open to US residents only. I will contact you regarding shipping next week.

While browsing my website please make sure to enter the drawing for $50 in free books. I also do a monthly drawing for a free title for everyone who creates a wishlist. So, make sure to create a wish list if you want a chance at winning titles each month. (I pick one title from one wish list each month) And if you would like to host an e-show or learn more about becoming part of my Usborne Team please let me know!

Good luck!!

Home Made Items

2008-01-25T14:41:00.002-05:00

I just wanted to post a few pictures of some things I've made for Bennett recently. They are nothing amazing but are just too cute.
The hat and mittens are from wool sweaters I have been able to purchase VERY cheaply at thrift type stores. The hat was actually a collar of a turtle neck sweater that was cashmere. The gloves are from the sleeve (and the rest of the body of the sweater I used to make gloves for Gram for christmas). The are super soft and I just love them. They look so cute on Bennett. As you can see the gloves are not perfect. I cut them by eye and then sewed them so nothing to intricate but they work!

The are wool longies (as they call them in the cloth diaper world). They are sleeves from a wool sweater I got at a thrift store also (for about $1). I threw them into a hot water wash and felted them up and then cut off the sleeves and sewed them into pants for Bennett. Look at how cute he is in them!!

I have not sewed a waistband into them yet and am not sure if I will. Now I just need some fitted diapers to go underneath and I wont need a cover when he wears these! I have over a dozen sweaters that I've collected that I need to make into something so I plan to make more of these along with some soakers. I need to make hat and mittens for Aiden also and some socks for Erik.

A little blurry but the only photo I have of him in the hat. He is just too cute!!

Finsihing up Shingling

2008-01-25T14:37:00.002-05:00

Daddy and Aiden hanging out on the scaffolding.

Aiden took this picture of Erik while he was working on the siding. We are almost there with the second side of the house. The rest will get done in the spring/summer.

Right now Erik is going gang busters in the basement. Soon we will have the ceiling up and will need to work on a hearth for the fire place and then we will just need to lay the floor. Oh...before the floor will come paint. And after the floor will be trim. It is going to be SO nice. I will try to remember to take a few inprogress pictures.

Playing in the Snow

2008-01-25T14:30:00.001-05:00

Just a few photo's I wanted to share of us all playing in the snow. Aiden LOVES being out in the snow. He is enjoying making snow angels. No pictures of that yet. And we have not been able to make a snowman yet either. Snow just hasn't been good for that! Enjoy the pictures!
How do you like Aiden's snow fort??

Helping Daddy bring in the fire wood.

Aiden just loves to slid on his belly!

And did we mention how much Abbey LOVES snow. She mopes around the house all day until we go outside. She loves it. Erik put her out yesterday and then forgot she was out there until he saw he running in circles out in the deep snow in front of the house. She is too funny!

Sliding on our little homemade hill. Perfect for little boys.

Helping daddy build a little igloo.

A Cold Winter Day

2008-01-25T14:26:00.001-05:00

Aiden was "so cold" one morning so ran in and jumped under the covers in the living room while I made breakfast. He just looked so cute so I ran in and snapped a picture.

Free Hug Campaign

2008-01-09T16:26:00.000-05:00

I just had to share this.

Check out his website at http://www.freehugscampaign.org/

What a great idea. Sending hugs to all of my friends today!

"One, Two..." Teaching Through Love Insterad of Fear by Pam Leo

2008-01-06T09:46:00.001-05:00

I read a really amazing article today. There was this really great statement about counting when disciplining our kids...but it is the same for any threating type of discipline.

Counting at a child communicates, "I am bigger and more powerful than you and you 'd better do as I say or I'm going to (in some way) hurt you." When a big kid says to a smaller one, "Do what I say or I'm going to hurt you," we call it bullying. When an adult communicates the same thing to a child by counting, we call it discipline. When we treat children in ways that take away their dignity we teach them how to take away other's dignity. If we want kids to stop bullying, we have to stop bullying kids. The power of fear is easy and quick but short-lived. The power of love requires more work and takes longer but children never outgrow its influence. Children count on us to teach them the way, so let's stop counting at them.

What a great way to explain it. I'm not perfect. I use threats on occassion also...but I am trying to change that and this definitely helped me see why I want to do that.

Here is a link to the entire article:

http://www.naturalchild.org/guest/pam_leo2.html

Pledge to BUY HANDMADE!

2008-01-03T09:56:00.001-05:00

I took the pledge...will you!

The only gifts we will be giving in 2008 will be handmade by Erik & I (or we will buy handmade from local crafters).

BUY HADNMADE IN 2008!

Christmas Pictures

2007-12-24T22:32:00.000-05:00

I was going to wait until tomorrow to post this but LOVED so much how it came out that I just couldn't wait. So...I wasn'tsupposed to be in the photo's...just Aiden & Bennett...but Bennett wasn't really interested in doing it on his own so I helped. We tried to keep me out of the photo's but when he started grabbing & ripping the letters I had to keep them further away. Aren't they just the cutest!

And Abbey had a matching shirt also. PJ's for the boys and Abbey came from Hannah Anderson's clearance sale last winter. Bennett & Aiden are wearing the same size as that was the only size they had left once these went on clearance. They are too cute those. Abbey was not thrilled by hers but she looked OH so cute.

And the boys just love her & she loves them. What a good little girl!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Tree Decorating & Visiting Santa

2007-12-24T21:22:00.000-05:00

The base hosted a Christmas party yesterday afternoon. It was really nice actually! They gave out lots of little door prizes. Aiden got his very own flashlight and some playdough that I will probably replace with some homemade stuff (this stuff was made in china and while it is certfied non-toxic...I don't like to take that chance as playdough often goes in the mouth). We also got a few ornaments with the Maineiacs Logo on them...which are really cool! And Santa came!

This is the only photo we have of either of the boys even near Santa. We have two polaroids also but those were not much better. Aiden just didn't want to stop moving for a second to say hi to Santa and well...Bennett had your typical 18 month old child reaction. He cried! And sat there saying "No,No,No" the whole time. As you can tell from the Paci in his mouth he was VERY tired.

Other than that the party was enjoyed by them both.

And here is the only tree decorating photo we have. Aiden is just too busy. He put 1-2 ornaments on the tree and then went on to something else. So...not many pics of the decorating process as Erik and I were doing it all. LOL.

And here is a picture of the tree all decorated with the presents under it waiting for the boys to wake in the morning.

Our Christmas Tree Excursion

2007-12-24T21:08:00.000-05:00

Here are a few photo's of us getting our tree this year. We for some strange reason decided to wait until AFTER the storm that dropped an additiona 12-18 inches on top of the almost 2 ft of snow we already had. So...only Erik and Abbey trudged through the snow to find our tree. Aiden has become entralled with picture taking. Every time the camera comes out he has to take a few pictures. This first photo was taken by Aiden. Not bad!

Here's Erik cutting down the selected tree. Next year we are hoping to start buying a living tree and planting it on our property. We are thinking about setting this one up in the yard and putting bird food, etc on it so that it gets used all winter before we put it in the compost pile (or we may also use to make fire starters).

Here are the boys and Abbey heading out of the tree lot.

And here is Aiden helping Erik drag the tree down to the barn to have it bagged and paid for!

And last but not least here are the Dow boys being silly as always!

Then we got to go inside and enjoy cider and donuts! What a way to end the day.

More Snow Pictures

2007-12-13T17:55:00.001-05:00

Just wanted to share a few photo's out in the snow the other day. I realized as I was editing these that I didn't get ANY of Aiden. He was being so camera shy that day. Silly! Bennett was so gosh darn cute though. Just wanted to ride on the snowblower with daddy! Unfortunately the plow truck is not working right now so we have to snow blow everything! Takes a while. And we have another storm on the way for Sunday. Yahoo!

Here's Bennett & Daddy snowblowing around the chickens pen. You can see Abbey off in the distance there. She is absolutely LOVING the snow.

And lastly, I realized when I was out taking pictures that I haven't taken any pictures of the house since the roof was finished! It is all done. And we love it. I can't wait till all the siding is finshed & stained. It is going to look so nice!

Erik just found out about a very low interest loan (around 1-3%) that you can qualify for if your income is lower to make energy efficiency improvements on your home (i.e. windows & insulation) so we are hoping that we might qualify and be able to do some of the more major things that this home needs done. Keep your fingers crossed for us.

HUGS!

Second Sunday in Advent

2007-12-13T17:47:00.001-05:00

Just a few shots of Aiden lighting the candles for the second Sunday in advent. What a great job he did! Just needed a little help lining up the candles.

We had to move the wreath because we have been painting our gifts for people so we put it on a little side table for the time being. We also had to do it earlier because Erik had to work. He is off the next two Sunday so we will do it after dark again so we can start with the lights out. Aiden LOVED that the first week.

This has really been so much fun for him!

My Hope for the Future

2007-12-12T22:30:00.001-05:00

I read this article and was hopeful...maybe this will be the way of our future. I try to be optimystic. Check it out and be the change you wish to see in the world!

http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2007/12/3/105930/430

BPA Everywhere

2007-12-09T09:25:00.001-05:00

I've been trying to be more aware of what products I use that contain BPA (Bisphenol-A), which is an endocrine-disrupting hormone that is contained in so many things we use daily. Do a search...it is kind of scary. But the most scary one I have found that I want to share with all of you parents out there (and those of you expecting) is that it is found in tons of baby products, including bottles, sippy cups, pacifiers & breast pumps. Take a look at this article for more info and links to lots of great information.

http://zrecs.blogspot.com/2007/11/z-report-bisphenol-in-baby-bottles-and.html

Thankfully we didn't use bottles with our boys...but we did use sippy cups and pacifiers. I also used a Medela Breast Pump so we were safe there also. We have been trying to replace most of our sippy cups but still have a few left and I will be trashing those after reading this and am hoping to find a substitute for pacifiers...as Bennett is definitely not ready to give it up yet.

BPA is also in the lining of almost all canned foods out there along with a lot of other sources. Another great reason to BUY LOCAL or at least buy items that are in glass and not cans. You can look online...there are a few organic companies that do not have BPA in the linings but not even many organics do. Makes it tough.

And for those of you interested in doing more to green your life check out this great yahoo group.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/goinggreenfamily/

Most of the people on this group are new to going green and are looking for ideas so lots of ideas being bounced around if you are looking for new ways yourself.

Going Green

2007-12-08T10:51:00.002-05:00

OK...so we've already started to go green on a lot of things. But there are somany out there that have not. Just wanted to share a few things I've found recently that will hopefully convince lots of you that are not to go green now. Whether global warming is true or not reducing consumption (and in turn reducing waste) is important to the future of our planet. I mean check out this article about the floating island of TRASH that is TWICE THE SIZE OF TEXAS floating in the pacific. I really thought the person who told me about it was kidding and then I started searching online. They are not kidding...it is really there.

http://archives.seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/texis.cgi/web/vortex/display?slug=pacificpflotsam23&date=20060421&query=plastic+flotsam

We can change things though!

Check out this great video and website. It is 20 mins long but worth watching.

http://storyofstuff.com/

Talks about how the consumer system as it is can not last and things we need to do to change.

There are so many little changes we can make in our lives. Start with grocery shopping...something as little as bringing your own bags with you. Lots of stores even pay you to do it. But don't go out and buy new bags. Look around...you probably have TONS of bags at home that you don't use that could be used for groceries. Or pick some up at a thrift store. And that is the next easy step to take...stop buying everything new. Shop at thrift stores, goodwill, salvation army, flea markets, and want ads for used items that you might need. They will be just as good, cheaper and wont have to reuse the resources needed to create the new product. And the last easy step I will recommend is recycling. Every town recycles at least cans, glass, some plastics and newspaper. So, recycle what you can! Reduce, reuse, recycle!!

And if you want more ideas let me know.

First Major Snow

2007-12-08T10:39:00.001-05:00

Just wanted to share a few pictures from our first major snow storm. It started on Monday December 3rd and snowed all day Monday & Tuesday stopped for a while on Wednesday & then snowed again Wednesday night for a bit and then last night pretty heavy again for a few hours (got maybe another inch or so). In total we have close to 18-24 inches I would say. There is a LOT of snow on the ground. The unfortunate thing is it is not sticky at all and Aiden is desperate to make a snowman!

And here is a picture of our flock of Turkey's! This is an apple tree down at the bottom of the paddock that they congregate under daily. Lots of apples buried under the snow. Check out the few that are up in the tree!

St. Nicholas Day

2007-12-08T10:26:00.000-05:00

We celebrated St. Nicholas Day on December 6th. The boys put out one of their shoes (they actually decided that they wanted to use their snow boots! LOL!) with the hope that St. Nick would leave them a small treat. I had wanted to put a little piece of chocolate that was wrapped in a santa wrapper but I forgot to get them. But we did have these really cute toys that we had bought for Christmas that we thought would be fun for them. Here is a link with more about St. Nicholas http://www.stnicholascenter.org/
The toy with the red tag on it is called a hooey stick. It's kind of funny and Aiden just LOVES it. We also got little wooden whistles for the boys and they both are enjoying those as well.

Bennett had to finish his banana before he could play with his toys!

And here is Aiden working his hooey stick. You can see his mouth and can tell he is saying hooey. It was so fun to do with the kids and even though there were only a few small gifts they were thrilled!

Advent

2007-12-08T10:03:00.000-05:00

I've been using a lot of Waldorf inspired ideas with the boys recently. I just LOVE how they focus on nature and the reduce, reuse & recycle philosophy. One of the things they find important is celebrating different festivals and having strong family traditions. One of the traditions we decided to start this year was to celebrate Advent. We created this cute advent calendar using wrapping paper and string. Aiden gets to take off one per day and it had an activity that we will do that day. It might have a gift to go along with it (i.e we will give them their ornament on the day we decorate the tree,etc.) Aiden is loving it...although we haven't stuck with the activity of the day every day. Example yesterday was supposed to be a cookie baking day & we never got around to doing it because the errands we needed to run took longer than planned. We will keep at it. I also saw this Excellent idea on another blog to wrap up a Christmas/Winter title for each day of Advent and open one to read every day. LOVE IT!! And you can wrap old books but throw a few new titles in to the mix also. We are going to try this next year.

We are also doing the Advent calendar that Erik's mother gave us for the boys. I found a really cool book at the library that has one part of a story to be read every night of Advent. It's called the Advent Storybook, by Antonie Schneider. Aiden opens the window for the calendar for that day and then we read the corresponding part of the story. We then usually pick one other Christmas/Winter title to read before bed also.

We are also doing the Advent wreath. It looks so lovely on the kitchen table! As you will notice in the pictures I am short a candle. They only had 2 purple candles so I need to go pick up another purple candle today. If you want to learn more about Advent and the meaning behind the wreath and candle colors, etc. take a look at this website. http://www.cptryon.org/prayer/adx/adwreath.html

And here is Aiden lighting the first candle on December 2nd. You cannot tell from this photo (cause Erik used the flash) but we turned all the lights out in the dining room and I lit the candle for Aiden in the living room and we walked into a totally dark room and lit the candle on the table. We then said the following verse:

Winter is dark, yet each tiny spark, brightens the way, to Christmas Day.

Shine little light, and show us the way, to the bright light of Christmas Day.

It was really very lovely and the boys both enjoyed it.

We have many other plans to celebrate during the holiday season. It is a great way to really enjoy the meaning of the season instead of just focusing on the gift giving of Christmas day. We plan to adopt a family/child up here in the area so that will be part of our advent calendar activity and we also plan to make lots of hand made gifts for people so that will be in there as well. Stay tuned for future posts so that we can share our goings on!

Snowman Cupcakes

2007-12-08T09:59:00.000-05:00

We were at the grocery store the other day and on the day old rack they had the most adorable snowman cupcakes. I wish I had thought to snap a shot of them before we ate them. Here are a few pictures of Bennett eating his. Don't you love how he has decided to put his face down to take bites instead of using his fork! LOL!!

Uncle Tim's Birthday Present

2007-12-08T09:54:00.000-05:00

Uncle Tim ordered something called Tents & Tunnels for the boys for their birthdays back in July. Well, I guess it was really popular because it only came in just before Thanksgiving. So, we were able to pick it up while we were down for Thanksgiving. I set it up for the boys when we got home and they LOVED it. Had so much fun climbing through the tunnels. It didn't stay up for long as it takes up the ENTIRE living room. We are going to need to rotate out a few toys upstairs I think & possibly put it up up there. Here are a few pictures.

Too Funny!

2007-11-25T09:04:00.000-05:00

For those of you who don't know we plan to homeschool and have received numerous silly comments from people when we share this. I can't say I've ever heard any of these but they are just too funny I had to post.

Check it out here:

http://journals.aol.com/hestiahomeschool/HomeschoolingJournal/entries/2005/06/03/hilarious-stupid-comments-made-to-homeschoolers/4099

Here are a few of my favorites:

"Won't they miss out on learning a lot of important stuff? I mean, how will they ever learn to stand in line?"

My neighbor was picking my brain about getting the public school to challenge her first grader. She was concerned because my first grader was already reading while her son of the same age was just learning thesounds of letters. Nonetheless she challenged my home schooling saying my son would still miss out. "It's important for him socially too. He needs to be offered drugs so he can turn them down."

When my husband told his mother that we were going to home school, she replied, "What makes Rose Mary think she has the right to teach my grandchildren?" Mike: It's in the same clause of the Constitution which gives grandmas the right to feed cookies and candy to the grandkids an hour before being sent home for dinner.

"Every kid has to get beat up a few times in public school or they won't be able to cope in the real world."

A friend said, "I could NEVER home school my children. I can't imagine spending that much time with them." She is a public schoolteacher.

Do people really listen to the things they say sometimes. LOL!!

It's been a while!

2007-11-18T22:32:00.000-05:00

So...it's been a while. There are a ton of pictures that I haven't been able to get on to share yet so I am just going to do so all in one post. The end of October and early November have been so busy. I've done 4 book fairs and 2 booth events and still have 3 more book fairs and 2 home parties in the next 3 weeks. UGH! So, between prep and putting in orders...plus all the daily stuff like playing with my boys has kept me from blogging. But I am back...at least for tonight. :-)

So to start off we have Bennett, our little apple theif. He loves to take the apples we have picked from our trees, take a few bites and then throw them to Abbey...who is an apple addict. Go figure. Never seen a dog eat so many apples. Plus they are fun to chase and we have so many apple trees that they are convenient to throw when there are no balls around. This is what I had left in the garage after all the picking we did from the trees on our property. It's lovely. We don't really do anything to our trees yet we always have a bountiful harvest of apples. With already about 30 jars of sauce in the cubboard and 4 more boxes still to deal with we definitely have plenty!

Next is our little man playing in the dryer. I know not so safe but Bennett had followed Erik into the bathroom and as soon as he emptied the dryer Bennett climbed in so he had to run and grab the camera. I was off at one of my Usborne events and he wanted me to see how funny Bennett was being! So, not too bad right! :-)

And I just want to say here...Thank goodness for Autosave on Blogger. I just accidentally deleted this whole thing and it saved most of what I had typed already. I was starting to panic there!

The weekend before Halloween we went on a Halloween train ride down in Unity. It was the boys first time on a train. They had so much fun. They got to dress up and everything...which was good because I forgot the camera on Halloween! So here are a few shots from the train ride.

Mr. Bennett...the cutest little pumpkin EVER!

And here is Aiden...our little Pirate!

These next few pictures are from last week. It had gotten down below freezing during the night so there was a frost on the ground and the sun doesn't hit the front of the house much this time of year so it was still pretty frosty. Erik had been putting away all the summer toys and lawn chairs, etc. and decided he might as well bring down the sleds. Aiden brought this around front and I thought to tie a rope to it and pull them around. THEY LOVED IT! I only pulled for a short while and then passed it off to daddy to do the hard work. :-)

Big brother had to help pull Bennett around. And Abbey didn't want to be left out either. She chased along after everyone. Good exercise for all involved.

Aiden gets his turn!
We are currently in the process of having our roof redone. We had a little leaking last winter and our roof is just shy of 20 yrs old so we figured now was the time to do it. Here is a shot of Tim (our roofer) working on the front side (everything else is done, including the breezeway) and Mr. Bennett tramping on the pieces of roofing! It is going to look so nice once it is finished! And especially once the shingling is done to. For those of you who don't know we had this terrible log siding on originally (still on the back and side that you cannot see in this picture. Those sides are scheduled to be finished next summer.). We are loving the shingles so far and are looking forward to the roof being done. We also just found out about a very low interest loan (around 1%) that you can get to improve the energy efficiency of your home in ME. It includes an energy audit and everything so we are going to look into that after the first of the year as we would like to reinsulate with a spray foam insulation and we also want to redo our windows and doors with ones that are more energy efficient. We will keep you all posted on how that goes!

And last but certainly not least here is Abbey loving on Bennett. You can't really see if but Bennett had ahold of both of her ears in this photo and she is just licking away at his face and as you can imagine...he is laughing hyterically!

So...sorry it took so long but here you go. I will try to stay more up to date in the future.

I may not be back until after the holiday as I have a bunch of orders that need to get in for Usborne and a ton of cooking and baking to do for Thanksgiving! We are headed to MA for Wed-Fri. So...in case I am not on again...Happy Thanksgiving everyone! We all have so much to be thankful for!

Homeschooling

2007-10-31T07:52:00.000-04:00

As I am sure many of you already know we are planning to homeschool our kids. So many people have very strong feelings about that decision. There are a few things that others have used as concerns when we mention we plan to homeschool. A big one is socialization...how will they learn to socialize with others if they don't go to school. There is a great article in this months Home Educator's Family Times about how absurd that concern is. I've pasted a few exerpts below and have posted the link to the entire article at the end.

Having been a 'reader' for almost 2 years, I found the phonics and reading lessons to be incredibly boring. Luckily the girl behind me felt the same way, and when we were done with our silly little worksheets, we would chat back and forth. I’ve never known two 6 yr. olds who could maintain a quiet conversation, so naturally a ruler-carrying nun interrupted us with a few strong raps on our desk. We were both asked to stay in at recess, and sit quietly in our desks for the entire 25 minutes, because "We are not here to socialize, young ladies."

And I LOVE these examples of how common school practices would look in real life:

You’re applying for a job and in an unconventional hiring practice, you are made to line up with other applicants, and wait patiently while representatives from two competing companies take their pick from the lineup.

You’re taking your parents out for an anniversary dinner. After you find a table, a waiter tells you that seniors have a separate dining room, lest they ?corrupt? the younger members of society.

You go to the grocery store only to find that since you are 32 years old you must shop at the store for 32 year olds. It’s 8 miles away and they don’t sell meat because the manager is a vegetarian, but your birthday is coming up and soon you’ll be able to shop at the store for 33 yr. olds.

A very good point about bully's in school.

People often use the bully as an example of why it’s so important to let kids ?socialize? at school. If that’s so important, then the bully needs to go to JAIL after a few months, because self-respecting society simply doesn’t put up with that, nor should my 6 yr. old. Sure, there are crappy people in the world, but the world does a much better job of taking care of these things. A bullying brat in the first grade will still be a bullying brat in the 6th grade. He will still be picking on the same kids year after year after year, unless he moves to a new town. How long would the average adult put up with a bully? Personally, as an adult, I have only come across one grown up bully. I choose not to be around this miserable woman. So do many other people. THAT is real life. If she were a coworker, I would find a different job. If she worked at a business I patronized - not only would I refrain from doing business with that company, I would write a letter to the bully, her manager, the owner and the main office. A kid in a classroom has no way to emotionally protect themselves against such a person. I would never expect my kids to put up with bad treatment from a bully in the name of ?toughening them up.? For what? So they can be submissive wimps when they grow up too? So they can ?ignore? their miserable bosses and abusive spouses? In real life, if an employer discovered that an employee was harassing the other staff members, that employee could be fired (pending the 90 day evaluation) or relocated. In real life, if you are so dreadfully harassed by a coworker you can seek legal recourse independently. In a classroom, the teacher and other children are often powerless.

The idea of learning acceptable social skills in a school is as absurd to me as learning nutrition from a grocery store.

To read the entire article...
http://www.homeeducator.com/FamilyTimes/Newsletter/feature5.html

"Yes, Yes, I Know She Is Quite Smart, But I Want to Know How Her Soul Is Developing"

2007-10-27T20:55:00.000-04:00

Just wanted to share what I thought was an amazing article. And I love the title...we all worry so much about how smart our kids are...but how bout their soul. Are they happy, enjoying learning. Not so much I think.
Let children be children
Is your 5-year-old stressed out because so much is expected?

by Penelope H. Bevan

I was watching one of my second-grade girls try unsuccessfully to tie her shoes the other day, and I thought, "This is a person who is supposed to be learning plural possessives?" I think not.
We've just finished test time again in the schools of California. The mad frenzy of testing infects everyone from second grade through high school. Because of the rigors and threats of No Child Left Behind, schools are desperate to increase their scores. As the requirements become more stringent, we have completely lost sight of the children taking these tests.
For 30 years as a teacher of primary kids, I have operated on the Any Fool Can See principle. And any fool can see that the spread between what is developmentally appropriate for 7- and 8-year-old children and what is demanded of them on these tests is widening. A lot of what used to be in the first-grade curriculum is now taught in kindergarten. Is your 5-year-old stressed out? Perhaps this is why.
Primary-grade children have only the most tenuous grasp on how the world works. Having been alive only seven or eight years, they have not figured out that in California there is a definite wet and dry season. They live in high expectation that it will snow in the Bay Area in the winter. They reasonably conclude, based on their limited experience with words, that a thesaurus must be a dinosaur. When asked to name some of the planets after he heard the word Earth, one of my boys confidently replied, "Mars, Saturn, Mercury, Jupiter and Canada!" to which a girl replied, "No, no, no, you gotta go way far outer than that."
Research has shown that it takes approximately 24 repetitions of a new concept to imprint on a young brain. The aforementioned plural possessives come up twice in the curriculum, yet they are supposed to know it when they see it. This is folly.
Currently, 2 1/2 uninterrupted hours are supposed to be devoted to language arts and reading every morning. I ask you, what adult could sustain an interest in one subject for that long? Yet the two reading series adopted by the state for elementary education require that much time be devoted to reading in the expectation that the scores will shoot up eventually. Show me a 7-year-old who has that kind of concentration. Show me a 64-year-old teacher who has it. Not I.
The result of this has been a decline in math scores at our school, because the emphasis is on getting them to read and there isn't enough time to fit in a proper curriculum. Early math education should rely heavily on messing about with concrete materials of measurements, mass, volume and length, and discovering basic principles through play.
There is no time for this. The teaching of art is all but a subversive activity. Teachers whisper, "I taught art today!" as if they would be reported to the Reading Police for stealing time from the reading curriculum, which is what they did.
It is also First Communion time in second grade. Yes, I teach in a public school, but First Communion happens in second grade, and it is a big deal, the subject of much discussion in the classroom. The children are excited.
A few months back one of my girls exclaimed, "Jeez, I have a lot to do after school today, Teacher. I gotta do my homework, go to baseball practice and get baptized." I laughed to myself at the priorities of this little to-do list, so symbolic of the life of one second-grader. But there was a much larger issue here. What is happening to their souls? You may ask, what business it is of the schools what is happening to the souls of these little children?
I will tell you. Any fool can see that those setting the standards for testing of primary-grade children haven't been around any actual children in a long time. The difference between what one can reasonably expect an 8-year-old to know and what is merely a party trick grows exponentially on these state tests.
Meanwhile, children who know they are bright and can read well are proved wrong time and again because of the structure of these tests. Teachers spend inordinate amounts of time trying to teach the children to be careful of the quirky tricks of the tests when they should be simply teaching how to get on in the world.
Twenty years ago, I had a conference with a parent, a Sikh, whose child was brilliant. I was prepared to show him all her academic work, but he brushed it aside and said, "Yes, yes, I know she is quite smart, but I want to know how her soul is developing."
The present emphasis on testing and test scores is sucking the soul out of the primary school experience for both teachers and children. So much time is spent on testing and measuring reading speed that the children are losing the joy that comes but once in their lifetime, the happy messiness of paint, clay, Tinkertoys and jumping rope, the quiet discovery of a shiny new book of interest to them, the wonders of a magnifying glass. The teachers around them, under constant pressure to raise those test scores, radiate urgency and pressure. Their smiles are grim. They are not enjoying their jobs.
Our children need parents and teachers who, like Hamlet, know a hawk from a hand saw, who know foolishness when they see it and are strong enough to defend these small souls from the onslaught of escalating developmentally inappropriate claptrap. The great unspoken secret of primary school is that a lot of what is going on is arrant nonsense, and it's getting worse. Any fool can see.
(end of article)
Jun 17, 2007 at 11:16 PM in Education News & Issues Permalink
Technorati Tags: NCLB

Aiden's Horse Show

2007-10-14T11:13:00.000-04:00

So, I just almost wrote how Aiden was in his first horse show yesterday...but it is not his first. He was in his first horse show when he was a little older than Bennett is now. I was still pregnant so he was less than two years old! Wow...how time flies.

Aiden had such a blast yesterday! He rode Annie...one of Kris' horses over at Stepping Stone in Carmel. What a good little girl Annie was. I didn't want to trailer over a horse and then have Aiden decide he didn't really want to ride. So we borrowed a horse!

Aiden enjoyed his show. What a big boy he was helping us catch Annie in the field, leading her into her stall, brushing her, carrying her tack and then leading her around. He wasn't too into it when it was time to untack, brush and put her back outside so I had to take care of all that but that's OK. I enjoyed every minute of it.

These first pictures are of Aiden in the halter class, where you just lead the horse around and the horse is judge by confirmation, etc. They just gave all three of the little ones in the class a blue ribbon. Here is Aiden collecting his blue ribbon! Annie wasn't quite ready to leave and Aiden wasn't waiting...it was too funny.

Here is Aiden with his blue ribbon from Halter class on the saddle. He was such a good rider! He gets to ride here & there when we are out doing barn chores, etc. (probably more than me lately!) but not a ton. He was sitting nice and tall, keeping his feet in his stirrups. One of the girls even told him how to post during the trot so he was standing up and sitting down in his stirrups for the rest of the time in saddle. It was too funny! But we didn't even have to hold onto him at all.

We asked Andy (one of Kris' granddaughter's) to lead Annie during the lead line class. You have to trot so I wanted to make sure I could grab him if he started to slip. But he did GREAT! He was laughing the whole time. And he also kept singing this cute little song. Not sure where he got it from.

"Riding the reins, Riding the reins, Lets GO! Riding the reins, YAHOO!"

Over and over and over and over. He had everyone in stiches!

And Bennett...well he enjoyed the whole thing from the back pack as you can see. One of the best $15 I ever spent let me tell you! He actually almost fell out of it. He fell asleep part way through the morning and started to slough down. Next thing I know I reached up to check where he was and his whole little bum is hanging out the leg hole. Had to have someone help me get him out as I was afraid he would fall out as I took it off. My crazy boys!

All in all it was a very fun, while utterly exhuasting day. Kris' also let me set up a display of my books and I sold a few and got a few people who were interested in having a party. So, we also stayed ALL day. Ugh...When I told Aiden we had to go home he got really upset and told me he was going to stay at Kris' forever. And Kris would probably love to have him too! LOL.

Sevens

2007-10-04T19:57:00.000-04:00

We lost a great horse today. Sevens first came into my life about 9-10 yrs ago. I was helping out as a trail guide at a farm in NH. They got a bunch of their horses off of a tractor trailer truck coming from god knows where. The truck would pull into the yard, full of a ton of horses and we would walk & trot them up and down the drive way. The owners would say keep or not. Some stayed some went back onto the tractor trailer to I don't want to know where.

Sevens stayed. Then my friend Denise decided to buy him. I remember my first ride on him. Sevens certainly wasn't a small horse. Probably about 16-ish hands. And Denise and I went out on the two horses she was thinking of buying from the farm that came off that tractor trailer. I was on Sevens, she was on a smaller bay...I can't remember his name. We galloped through the woods on these very over grown windy trail. I just stuck close to his neck and hung on. He soared over those trails. He was an amazing trail horse.

Sevens came back to me almost 5 yrs ago now. He was older (the vet guesses mid-late 30's) and starting to get a little arthritic but he was still a great trail horse and full of energy. But as the years moved on he became more arthritic and harder to keep weight on. He got a pretty bad cold part way through winter & just couldn't get rid of it. His nose was still running into the summer. The last few years we've been able to turn him out on green grass during the summer and get him nice and fat going into the winter but this year he actually lost some weight.

Erik and I have been thinking about putting Sevens down for the last 2 yrs. We are so afraid that he will go down hill fast and end up suffering. With his condition this summer we decided that we just couldn't put it off any longer. One of the hardest things I've ever had to do. It was especially hard because he had started to grow in his winter coat...so he was actually looking pretty good. That's one of the not so fun parts of horse ownership. You can't always wait until they are obviously sick to let them go. There is a great poem that I just love.

I'm not sure how the first 30-ish years of his life went but he was always a kidn thoughtful horse with us. Even today when I went out to catch him in the field for his last visit with the vet he just turned his nose to me and nuzzled into me a little, hoping for a little snack I am sure. Always the quiet, kind, patient old gentleman.

Horse's Prayer

I'm only a horse, dear Master, but my heart is warm and true,
And I'm ready to work my hardest, for the pleasure of pleasing you.
Good corn and hay and water are all that I wish to ask,
And a warm dry bed to rest on when I've finished my daily task.
Don't strike me in needless anger if I'm slow to understand,
But encourage my drooping spirits with a gentle voice and hand.
Finally, O my master, when my health and strength are gone -
When I'm getting old and feeble and my long life's work is done -
Don't sell me to cruel owners to be slaved to my latest breath,
But grant me the untold blessing of a quick and painless death;
That, as you have always found me a patient and loyal friend,
The years of my faithful service may be crowned by a peaceful end.
I plead in the name of the Savior,
Who cares when the sparrows fall,
Who was born in a lowly stable and knows and loves us all!

- (Author Unknown)

Rest in peace my friend. I know you will enjoy enless green pastures with fresh mowed grass, the way you liked them best.

My Little Pirate

2007-10-03T16:24:00.000-04:00

Aiden has been a total pirate addict lately. It is too funny. I am not quite sure what brought it on but it is here. So, I just recently earned $100 in free books from Usborne (one of the many perks of selling their books is getting some for free...plus my commission!). We bought just about every pirate book that I thought Aiden would like from our catalog. And they are too cool! The see inside the pirate ship with lift the flaps, pirate jigsaw book and the Pirate things to make & do are favorites. We have plans to make all kinds of things from the Pirate Things to Make & Do book in preparation for halloween. :)

Well, we stopped into Walmart on Monday to pick up some poster board and of course all the halloween isle are right up front and low & behold what is on the very end of one of those isle for a Pirate loving 3 yr old to see as we walk by...a pirate hat and kit with the patch and hook. And when he brought it over and I saw that it was only $4...how could I say no. When we got home he wanted to wear everything so I put the eye patch on (which didn't stay on for long) and he was walking around say, "Arrrr I'm pirate Aiden." It was the cutest thing in the world!! He even did it for Erik when he came home from work.

What an imagination this little boy has. He is just so much fun!!

http://www.pushedbirth.com/

2007-10-03T11:21:00.001-04:00

You have to check out this website. Great information about birthing and other issues surround babies, midwives, breasfeeding, etc. It is excellent!

Common Ground Fair

2007-10-02T22:20:00.000-04:00

Now that I have rested and recovered from the Common Ground Fair I figured I'd jump on to share a few quick photo's.

These are just a few shots of the children's area this year. We had some great happenings and all in all the weekend went well. The nail banging as always was very popular. Kids and hammers...you would think more people would have gotten hurt but we only had a few mishaps between hammers and fingers or hands. It is amazing that when you let a young child play with a toollike that...they really do use it appropriately.
One of our new crafts this year were newspaper hats. They were amazing. Thanks Mary Ann and girls. They came up with this idea. We also had lots of donations of material and yarn which the kids used their creative genius and made some most amazing hats. I was very impressed and also saddened that I was not able to take a moment to make one myself.

Friday & Sunday we also did pinwheels for peace. That was also a huge hit and we even put the pinwheels around the children's area as decoration.

The last crafty thing that we did was we received a donation of brown bags from the Hannaford in Belfast. We asked the kids to decorate the bags and leave them and we would return them to Hannaford and they would use them to bag groceries. How cool was that! And the management at Hannaford was so excited when they got them back! They all wanted to look through and check out the bags.

All in all it was a great time. We had some great performers and some ...well not my favorites. And fave painting. Wow...what lines we had at times.

The boys enjoyed it. unfortunately no pictures of them at the fair. I never seemed to have much time when they were there. No coordinator for me next year. I will volunteer but I want to enjoy the fair with my family!

Lots of Things to Write Today

2007-09-17T21:39:00.000-04:00

And the most exciting one is...

BENNETT IS WALKING!!!

He just all of a sudden took off the last few days. It's only been since about Thursday or Friday that he took his first steps and today...he's been walking everywhere. He did the most walking this evening before bed. He was in our bedroom and he walked from in the bedroom down the hallway into the boys room to me. It was probably about 20-30 steps! It's amazing how he's just taken off like that.

Uncle Keith is up visiting until late Wednesday. He went for a walk with Bennett this afternoon. Aiden & Bennett had lots of fun playing with Uncle Keith today. The boys certainly kept him on his toes all day! And two more full days to go!!

In other exciting news we finally relocated our chicken house. We use electric net fencing so we wanted to be able to rotate the chicken pasture to 4 different locations but with the house right up against the tree line it made it tough to rotate. So we moved the house out into the open. Erik thought it would a great idea to hook the house up to the truck and drag it (don't we LOVE our F250!!). I wasn't so sure this idea would work...but oh did it. Check out these photo's.

I don't always share this but sometimes my husband can be a most brilliant man. After a few seconds of concern the house started to drag along beautifully and it didn't even dig up the yard! We did lose one of the center support beams under the floor so the floor is a little squishy when you go inside.

But as long as we don't do jumping jacks inside the house it should be fine. It is in a fabulous spot right in front of the garden so after we harvest all out vegi's (when we actually plant them next year) we can let the chickens in to clean up and do some tilling for us. They are already doing a great job turning our compost pile for us!

And last but certainly not least Erik finished shingling the front of the breezeway! We also started on the land scaping we had wanted to get done before the winter. Still have some work to do there but at least it is started. We are hoping the roof will be done in the next month or so then Erik can finish shingling the breezeway side of the house and we will save the other 2 sides for next summer. Once he finished the back of the breezeway (should only take him 2-3 days) we can focus a little in the basement and maybe get started on staining the front side of the house.

Oh! And I almost forgot. Here is a photo of the fruits of my (& my mom's) labor this weekend. 23 jars of canned tomatoes and 14 jars of apple sauce (and I still have a huge pot off apples to still be put through the food mill...but I am thinking of turning those into apple butter). I am hoping to get another 10-15 lbs of tomatoes to can up a bunch of salsa and there are still TONS of apples on our trees and they are just PERFECT right now. I haven't sweetened any of our sauce and I still plan to make apple butter, jelly, juice and can some sliced apples for pies and crisps through the winter. Then it is on to tomatoe & broccoli soups (and maybe more). Our house has been smelling amazing this last week!

So, all in all it has been quite a busy week for us with still more business to come!

Oh and the Common Ground Fair is this weekend. For those of you not familiar check out http://www.mofga.org/. I am one of the coordinators for the children's area so will be there all weekend. Aiden is going to have SO much fun this year I am sure. We will have a houseful for the fair this weekend. Erik's mom is coming and Heidi & Jack. Mary Ann & Justine are also helping out as co-coordinators so they and Janelle may be staying a night also.

Have I mentioned yet how much I LOVE this time of year!

HUGS!