Eight in the Kitchen

My wonderful husband gave me a break so that I could relax and try to get rid of a headache. Meanwhile, J. started making egg kisses with all six kids in the kitchen. He was very patient! I usually try to have one or two kids help me in the kitchen at a time. On occasion I will have them all help, but I have to be in a really patient mood.

After a while, I joined them all in the kitchen and helped them finish the egg kisses. Every time I turned around I was tripping on someone. J. had to help me stay calm.

The Kids Like Their Presents

They like them so much that they kept disappearing upstairs today to play with their Barbies and other toys. Our upstairs phone/intercom needs a new battery and they ignore me when I holler. So, in order to get them to do their chores today, I had to have them all take a potty break and then I locked* them downstairs with me. It's amazing how much can get done when we work together.

*The door that leads to our upstairs has a keyed lock on one side and a turn button on the other side. The kids used to lock each other upstairs so we had to turn the handles so that the turn button is on the stair side and the keyhole is on the other side. That way, if the door gets locked, the kids can unlock it if they are on the stair side. DH and I usually have our keys somewhere downstairs. I just kept mine in my pocket this afternoon.

Rolling Out The Dough

This evening, Baby Bear came marching through the house. He was holding each end of the boys' rocking horse handle (wooden dowel with rounded ends) and pretending to roll the "pin" back and forth. All the while he was singing, "Holling out da dough! Holling out da dough!". My little chef in training. : )

Crazy Picture Problems

I tried putting a picture in my header, but the image didn't always show as it was intended. I fiddled with it and finally found out that there is an ongoing problem related to Blogher that is causing the problems. I'll try again later to see if they have the issues worked out.

Less is More

We had a great Christmas. As we were headed home from my parents' house Christmas Eve, Kitty commented, "Mom, Grandma didn't get us as much this year, but you know, it was kinda nice." My heart swelled with pride.

My husband is wonderful.

J. surprised me by drawing a bath for me last night. He added some special body soak, played some soothing instrumental music, and only disturbed me when I had fallen asleep and snored long enough to make my throat sore. The kids were all asleep. I wasn't disturbed even once by a whining child. I think I slept better last night than I have in a long, long time (or at least since J. went on second shift).

Thank you J. I love you!

I am truly disappointed.

The kids and I have been comparing and contrasting books and the movies based on those books. Two major series we have or are going through are Laura Ingalls Wilder's LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE series and Janette Oke's LOVE COMES SOFTLY series .

The LITTLE HOUSE shows sort of mix everything from the books all together and then add to it. There are enough things that are different that we are able to have some really great discussions. This is especially true because we are still reading through the books. I read the books as a child. I also read the books to the kids several years ago, but they forgot about them or were too young to remember. Baby Bear was a new born baby. The older girls do remember some.

The LOVE COMES SOFTLY movie series is a major disappointment. The first movie was pretty close to the book with some changes such as Missie's age being wrong. The rest of the movies are way off. It's like the person or people who wrote the movie script never read the books for themselves. Perhaps it was like the game "telephone". One person read the book and told someone else about it. That person told another person and so on and so forth until the story was so distorted that it's a wonder they got anything at all right. One daughter asked permission to stop watching one of the movies this afternoon. We tried to watch it as if we had never read the books, but we just couldn't do it.

For those who know me, you probably can understand where my disappointment stems from. I was such a big Janette Oke fan as a teen that I named my pet dwarf hamsters Etta and Okee.

Why oh why didn't they consult me before writing the movie scripts?

I wasn't even a bit melodramatic. Was I?

Did You Know . . .

that I have silly girls?

The four girls had choir practice this morning. They all did really well following directions and listening to their leaders. Then, when practice was almost over, I noticed Birdie* (who was in the front row) reach into her pocket, pull something out, and start messing with it. (Birdie is like I was and always has something in her pockets.) I notice that her hand is going back to her pocket, so I bide my time and watch to see if she will put whatever it is away. The children's directors don't seem to notice that she isn't standing with her arms down to her sides like she is supposed to. She did put it away, but then she took it right back out, took the cap off (at this point I realize she had a Chapstick), applied it to her lips, recapped it, and put it back in her pocket. I was not close enough to her to actually see what she had but I was able to interpret her actions. I couldn't for the life of me figure out where she got the Chapstick from. Then, as I watched her repeat the process, I realized she didn't have a Chapstick. She was only pretending she had a Chapstick. I motioned for her to put it away and put her arms to her sides and she grinned at me and complied.

When the kids were dismissed from practice, the girls came over to where I was. Birdie came over and I said, "You know, you're not supposed to put on your Chapstick on during choir practice." Birdie giggled. I then put some of my lip balm (which was warm in my pocket) on each girl's lips. I figured they must need it if Birdie was pretending to use some.

*I named Birdie with her permission.

The Bat

Here is a picture of the bat that terrorizes our home.

"Mommy, hotch me dance!"

The kids are watching GEORGE BALANCHINE'S THE NUTCRACKER on TV. Baby Bear came up to me a little while ago and said, "Mommy, hotch me dance!". He then proceeded to show me his version of ballet. I wish you could have seen him, it was so cute!

We missed getting to carol.

The older two girls and I were supposed to go caroling with a group of girls from church yesterday. J.'s mom was going to watch the other kids. We didn't get to go because all three of us were running low grade fevers. One girl was off balance too, so we pushed fluids and called off. I would have hated to pass on some illness to a person in the elderly home, but we sure were disappointed.
One girl had even slipped the thermometer out of her underarm to make it read lower. She didn't think I would notice. There was something odd about her temperature dropping so rapidly so I caught on right away. J. and I constantly amaze her, she can rarely get away with anything. We must have been pretty sneaky when we were kids.

Oops! I realized that I had named names w/o permission. I have since taken out the names.

Please accept my apologies girls.

Christmas Symbols

This is an image of our tree. J. asked the children if they could tell what certain symbols remind us of. Each child got at least one turn to answer.

We use: a tree - to represent the cross that Jesus died on
an evergreen tree - God's love for us is eternal
white lights - the purity of Jesus and Jesus is the Light of the World
the star topper - the star that guided the wise men
the color red - Jesus' blood and love for us
gold - Jesus is the King of Kings and Prince of Peace




cross - Jesus died on the cross for our sins

heart - the heart is the seat of our emotions and "God so loved the world . . ." John 3:16
angels - the angels who appeared to Mary, Joseph, and the shepherds.

After we talked about these items, Jon talked about how we add other ornaments that mean something to us and remind us that God is interested in our lives (or something like that). He also made sure to mention that we choose to decorate our tree with these colors and others choose other colors, it's just a matter of preference. So if you use colored lights, don't worry our children won't be appalled or shocked. :)

My Babies are Growing Up and Other Tidbits

My Baby Bear turned three Sunday. He had asked for a marching band uniform for his birthday and Christmas, but we substituted a Bengals uniform and he was delighted.




Baby Bear asked my mom to make a Tigger cake for his party.



He asked me to make a Pooh Bear cake for the day of his birthday.


The darker spots on the legs were where the icing was getting too warm and I put off changing it. The eyebrows are yellow because BB wanted them to be "my color" ( read BB's favorite color). This was my first attempt at a shaped cake. Thanks mom for loaning me the pan and tips and making the icing for me. You saved me a lot of time.

Hmm . . . I guess I could have flipped the cake pictures.


___________________________________________________________________

Baby Bear's birthday served as a reminder that my youngest daughter Monkey will be eight next month and my oldest Froggie will be thirteen next month. Tears are coming to my eyes as I type this. Is the fourth week of the month soon? I need my nursery duty baby fix.


___________________________________________________________________

We did some Christmas decorating yesterday. We now have our manger scene cut-out and spotlight in our yard (I'll see about posting a picture later. My mil gave us the cut-out as a gift last year.) We have some of our smaller decorations displayed. Our tree is up and a curtain set that I got to keep the drafts from our back room out coordinates with the colors on our tree. Kitty Kat and the other kids worked together to put the tree together. Jon just had to help put the top section on. Jon and I put on the lights and ribbon garland. Jon then put a few special ornaments on the tree and then took the time to explain the symbolism of our tree to the children. I'll do a new post of the symbols.

Karaoke

J. pulled out his karaoke machine today. We all had a blast singing together. Each of us took a turn singing a solo and /or duet and we all sung a lot of the songs together. Yes, Mom, that is what was going on in the background when we talked on the phone earlier.

Brr. . . It's getting cold.

J. and I started putting plastic over the windows yesterday. We still have a lot of areas to cover to get rid of all the drafts. We're going to have to get more house wrap. We were able to cover the windows in our back porch room with enough left to cover two more windows. We still have eighteen windows in the upstairs to cover. If we cover the rest of the downstairs windows that is an additional twelve windows. Yikes, we have a lot of windows! We should save a lot on energy costs and be warmer if we get them all covered. They are nowhere near airtight.

"I falled."

Baby Bear was asleep when we came home from an appointment this evening. I laid him on our love seat without taking off his coat, gloves, and shoes because I wanted him to stay asleep. He had missed his nap earlier. While I was reading to the other children, all of a sudden, Baby Bear slipped off the love seat. He lifted up his head and said, "I falled". Monkey was the closest to him, so she comforted him and he fell back to sleep beside her. I'm not even sure he was actually awake. It didn't even bother him when we all laughed at his statement.

I.A.H.

My oldest two daughters were just initiated into I.A.H. (I Am His) last night. I.A.H. is a Bible club for middle schoolers. They had to attend five meetings during a set time period and memorize four bylaws, The Beatitudes, and Mathew 5:11-12 to be eligible. Last year I messed up and they didn't get to enough meetings. There wasn't a class for me on Sunday nights and I thought I.A.H. met on Wednesday nights. We were faithfully at every Wed. night church event. Then when it was almost time for the initiation, I found out from my niece that I.A.H. was on Sunday nights. I guess I could have found something to do on Sun. nights. Oh, well. The girls got to be honorary members last year. This year they are full members. Kitty was hoping this year to have a leadership position in the group, but since she isn't a two year member she is ineligible.

Who are you?

I posted some things on FreeCycle yesterday. Today, I had two people who were supposed to come get items. The first item was picked up successfully. Then, as I was waiting for a lady I had dealt with before to come pick up some infant toys, a lady I didn't know came. She said her friend, Kimberly had e-mailed me and they looked up my address and came. Even though I had received a lot of e-mails, I did not receive one from anyone named Kimberly. I also don't have my address listed with Yahoo! or FreeCycle. I guess they must have looked my name up in the phone book. The only person I had contacted about the toys was the the lady I was expecting. I allowed the stranger to take a couple toys and made sure I held back one that had been requested by the lady I knew. The lady who was supposed to come pulled up just as the other lady was leaving.


I don't get it. Why would a person show up to pick something up that was not reserved for them. But most of all, how did the lady get my address?

Mice

Our house is old (built in 1871). Every time it rains for several days straight or starts to get cold the mice seek shelter in our house. I have been trapping mice for about the last week or two. Whichever child is nearby when I find a trapped mouse usually studies it's appearance with me. Today, Birdie was with me when I found one.

Birdie: "Is it a girl or boy?"

Me: "I think it's a girl."

Birdie: "But it's not wearing it's bow on it's head."

Me: "No, it's not wearing a bow."

Aren't kids funny!

Black Friday

There was a popular game that I wanted to get two of, one for home and one for a nephew. I won't mention the name in case someone looks over my shoulder. So I was at Wal-mart at a quarter to five Friday morning.

I went to the game aisle and there were none there. I asked an associate who told me that if it was an advertised sale it would be in such and such area on the other side of the store. So, I went to the other side of the store and joined the vultures, err I mean other customers.

At five the employees cut the black plastic off the pallets of product and guess what? The game I was after was no where to be found. I went back to the toy department and asked another associate who said it should be where I just looked. I said it wasn't. She asked another associate. The other associate said it was where I had already looked. The aforementioned associated said it's over there.

I went back over "there". There was one pallet that had two different games on it and I asked the associate by the pallet if she knew where "the game" was. She said it wasn't over there and she didn't know where it was.

I decided it was a lost cause and went to pay for my mousetraps (that's another post). While in line, I noticed that the lady two people in front of me had "the game". That was the first one I had seen all morning. (Yes, I was looking into other peoples carts etc. to see if they had the game.) I asked the lady where she got it and she said it was on the back wall of the toy department and that there were a lot of them.

I went to the back of the toy department and they weren't on the back wall. I asked an associate who was restocking the games if he knew where it was. He did not. However, a customer walking by said it was "right over there at the back and there are only six left". I was at the back wall still.

I walked over to the sporting goods section where she had pointed and nothing. I decided to check the next walkway forward. There, not ten feet from where the second associate in the third paragraph above had been standing, was an endcap full of the game. The top shelf only had about six games on it, but the other two-three shelves had probably between thirty-fifty of the games on each.

I grabbed two and then went to check out. Success in less than an hour.

By the way, shouldn't the associates know where things are? If it were me I would make sure I walked through the store before the sale to get an idea at the least. If it weren't for the kind customers, I wouldn't have gotten the games. The kids and I went to Wal-mart later that evening to get some household items and all of "the games" were gone.

I'm thankful for . . .

. . . God sending Jesus to take my punishment for sin. His mercy and grace are wonderful gifts I
could never earn.

. . . living in a country where I can worship God as I choose.

. . . my family.

. . . my friends.

. . . my children being healthy enough to fight (each other, going to sleep, etc.) though life would
sure be easier if they didn't fight.

I'll have to close this for now and post again later. My children are fighting sleep and I need to go sing to them.

Two Things I Am Thankful For

1. The bat is out of our house (at least out of the living quarters).

2. It has been raining here for a while now. The center (?) of the
storm just finished going over us. That is good because a skunk
sprayed our van Thursday and the smell is awful. I'm hoping the
rain will wash away at least some of the scent.

I have many other things I am grateful for. I will post about some
of those later.

An Unwanted House Guest

My husband woke me up last night with these words, "Sorry to wake you up, but I have a problem." My foggy brain automatically began to imagine all kinds of worst case scenarios. I asked what the problem was and he told me that the bat was back, flying around our house and Midnight (You remember, the bread thief.) was trying to catch it. I don't think the bat has rabies, but you never know and our dogs are due for their rabies boosters. We shut the dogs in our bedroom and managed to trap the bat in our enclosed back porch. The children found the bat this morning and I got a picture. I was going to post the picture, but Blogger is having issues with images.

Taming the Wild

The kids were absolutely wild today. We went to my parents' house for supper and my mom even noticed how rambunctious they were. By the time we left to come home, they were calmer. I had a very easy time getting them all to sleep.

Thank you, Mom and Dad! The evening at your house was just what the kids and I needed.

Getting six children out the door in less than fifteen minutes . . . ?

It's doable!

So, here's the story:

Sunday afternoon is normally a time for naps in my house. Today was no exception. DH had to leave for work before the Bengals game was over. After he left I read from LITTLE HOUSE IN THE BIG WOODS by Laura Ingalls Wilder to the children during the commercial breaks. I turned off the T.V. and finished the chapter we were on when the game ended. I then declared mandatory nap time. (Yes, there were a few groans.) We were all snuggled up under sleeping bags and quilts. We fell asleep while it was still light out. I woke up with a start when it was dark out. I glanced at the clock, saw that it was 5:45 pm and jumped up calling to everyone to wake up. Evening church 6:00 pm and it takes us about fifteen minutes to get there. I was able to get everyone up ready and out the door in under fifteen minutes. As we were driving past the downtown churches, the bells tolled the 6 o'clock hour. We were late, but we made it to church. I had enough adrenaline in my system to wake me up and get us there safely.

Update and School Stuff

Thursday I was in the kitchen fixing dinner when Birdie came in and told me that there were two or three police cars outside with their lights flashing. She said that they were going this way and that way and gestured with her hands. Huh? then she said that there were other cars and they had wrecked. The rest of the family was in the living room, so I went there and asked DH if there had been a wreck. He hadn't even notice the police cars. Just then, there was a knock on our door and DH answered it. I went back to fixing dinner until the kids came rushing in exclaiming that Daddy was in the backyard with the police looking around with flashlights. The officers said they had stopped a suspect beside our house (we're on a corner) and before they had turned the corner they had lost sight of the suspect for a time. They weren't sure if the suspect had a gun or not and were concerned that a gun may have been tossed over our privacy fence. This wouldn't be too far fetched. We once found a lady's purse someone had tossed over our fence. We haven't come across any guns. Hopefully, we never will. In the meantime, we have to be careful about the kids being in the back yard.

___________________________________________________________________


We started a Thanksgiving lapbook and I just had to share the cover idea I came up with. We are using a "Learn 'N Folder" unit from Live and Learn Press. We liked the front page of the download, but I wanted to make it personal. There was a box that said it was a Live 'N Learn Folder from Live and Learn Press. I scanned a recent family portrait, resized it, and printed it out. Then I glued the portrait behind the box and cut around the margins of the front page graphics. I then glued this to the front of our folder. I was going to post a picture of the front cover, but for some reason the picture won't download. I'll try to post pictures when we finish the lapbook.

The Police Searched Our Back Yard

There was a bit of excitement here this evening. Several police vehicles stopped a suspect beside our property. Birdie noticed the vehicles first and then we had a knock at our door. DH went with the officer to search our back yard for a possible gun. They did not find one. Now DH and I need to search during daylight hours before we can let our children go into our back yard. I will update on this later.

Naps All Around

Our whole family has been tired lately. We just never seem to be rested. Today, the kids and I have seen the beginning of the solution (I hope.).

I was reading LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE to the kids when DH had to leave for work. Baby Bear and Puppy Dog were in desperate need of naps, so I had them sitting on my lap and beside me respectively. The girls were curled up nearby. Everyone was covered with blankets and quilts. We were definitely cozy. Baby Bear and I think Puppy Dog fell asleep while I was reading. I became super drowsy and could barely keep my eyes open, so I passed the book to Kitty Kat and asked her to read the next chapter.

While Kitty Kat was reading, I was dozing in and out. While dozing I gave the occasional necessary directions to "please listen to your sister," "let her have some space too," "If you don't settle down, you will lose your spot on the couch," etc. You get the idea. A mom's job is continual. I sent Birdie to my bed. Kitty finished the chapter, and I announced (read mumbled) that no one was to get up or get crazy. Everyone was to take a nap. After some minor attitude, I got everyone to curl up. Monkey was the final hold out and she finally gave in to the nap after I got her to stay under her blanket.

I woke around six and had to unbury myself. In the process of moving the boys I woke them. I fixed drinks for the kids, and then prepared supper. Then I woke up the girls. I want them to sleep tonight!

Hopefully, our nap time was just what we needed. I think we all feel better.

Ads on my blog

Recently, I signed up for an ad thing for my blog. I'm not allowed to click on the ads from my blog or promote them. There is supposed to be some way for me to preview ads before they are posted. The first couple ads that came up had to have my approval first. I noticed two new ads today that were not sent to me for approval. I am doing this on sort of a trial basis, so please bear with me. I'm not entirely responsible for the content. It is supposed to reflect what I have posted about. I'm not sure about one of the ads so please be careful. I have not been able to preview today's ads.

Just to see what happens, I am going to mention used cars.

DH and the Pita Bread

I mentioned to DH that TMBMT asked if I would make pita bread for her. His response was, "That was homemade?" I said yes and asked if he liked it. He said it was good, but could I please make it bigger next time. The recipe made sixteen small pitas. DH and I decided together that the next time I would make sixteen small ones for the kids and eight larger ones for us. After eating the leftover pitas tonight, I think I will make eight small pitas for the kids and four large pitas for us. The leftover pitas were hard to split and a little tough.

TMBMT, I'll try to make fresh pitas for you sometime. I'm not sure how well they would freeze.

No more store bought pita's for me!

The homemade pita bread was a success. It was easy, so easy that I could even have the kids make it. I would have to man the oven. I'm not comfortable with the thought of children and a 500 degree oven.

The kids are still feeling irritable. The aforementioned daughter is still fighting a fever. None of the children were ready for our regular curriculum today so we did some odds and ends.

I had told the kids that we would be writing letters sometime in the near future. They all decided to start today. We're out of stamps, so they won't go out until this weekend. Froggie will make hers into an e-mail (She already has it handwritten.). Kitty Kat has her second draft done, but she printed the letter the second time around. I'm making her rewrite it in cursive. Puppy Dog keeps drawing pictures and then folding them into really small squares. I'm going to have him sit down tomorrow and write another letter and then help him fold it to fit in an envelope. The other three haven't finished their letters, yet.

I received a link to a printable Highlights picture search today, so I printed enough copies for everyone. The kids really enjoyed getting to do the search.

Several of the children were doing math on their own. Puppy Dog was doing Lego math today. It's been a while since we have done that. I think he may have gotten the idea on his own.

Baby Bear was so funny today. He took his shoes and socks off and I made him put them back on. He came to show me that he had them on and they were on the wrong feet. He argued with me about them being on the wrong feet while grinning from ear to ear. He does that when he is being silly. I told him that his left shoe was on his right foot and his right shoe was on his left foot. He crossed his legs and then said, "No they're not!". I said, "Well, when you cross your legs they're on the right sides, but they're still on the wrong feet." He giggled and then said, "This is my right foot" (points to his left foot), "and this is my left foot" (points to his right foot). He was grinning from ear to ear. I realized that he probably does know his right from his left. He did the same thing several times throughout the day and he always pointed to the opposite side; which of course had the shoe that corresponded to the side he said. I don't consciously teach the kids things like right and left. I just use the terms in everyday life as I am doing stuff with them and in directions I give them. Hmm . . . maybe that is consciously teaching them. Anyway, I wasn't really expecting Baby Bear to understand, yet. After all, he's not even three. That's one of the things I love about homeschooling. I get to see when things click into place, and I see the results of the younger kids observing adults and the older kids.

We are back into Wisdom Words for the year. We're doing the Kindergarten sounds practice (like speech therapy) for Birdie, Puppy Dog, and Baby Bear. We were doing the exercises as a family the other night and Kitty Kat got grumpy. When she was asked what was wrong, she said she thought some of school was babyish. I had to remind her that the speech therapy was not for her but for those who needed it and that we did it as a family to make it more fun for the younger ones. She seemed alright with it after that.

Sick Children and Pita Pockets

I can always tell when my kids are getting sick. That is, if I read the big neon flashing sign. For some reason I don't always realize what is going on at first. The kids usually don't realize what is going on either. They get short tempered, fussy, uncooperative, and overly sensitive. Several of the kids showed these signs this week, and Jon and I were actually monitoring them this time. Today, one child proclaimed she wasn't feeling well and ended up having a 100 degree temperature. I gave her some medicine and she seemed to feel better after a while. However, I kept everyone home from church to rest. The kiddos also got treated to an early bedtime.

I was going to pick up pita pockets for tomorrow's BBQ pork after church this evening. Needless to say, I did not get to the store. I once found a recipe for homemade pita pockets. I might just try to make them myself. If I do, I'll post about the experience.

Yummy Hands

My little Birdie should really enjoy washing her hands now.

A while back (read months and months ago), I bought some strawberry scented bubble bath. Not long after the purchase, our bathtub started to have trouble draining. We no longer use the tub upstairs, because the pipes are old, and we are still in the middle of our downstairs bathroom renovation. The upstairs will have to wait.

Back to the handwashing thing . . . I found the upstairs soap dispenser empty and I knew I would forget to bring up another pump the next time I went up. I remembered the bubble bath and decided to give it a try. I filled the dispenser most of the way with bubble bath and then finished filling it with water. I gave it a little shake and it was good to go. Now, when we wash our hands upstairs, they smell like Strawberry Shortcake afterwards. Birdie loves Strawberry Shortcake.

I'm not sure how my husband will feel about the strawberry scented soap. I may keep up the practice though. The bubble bath (generic) costs a lot less than the pump refills.

Are we having Thanksgiving early?

That is the question my children asked me Friday when I served them a big turkey dinner. We had turkey, candied sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, giblet gravy, stuffing, green bean casserole, homemade rolls, and iced tea. Our turkey was twenty pounds, so we have lots of good leftovers. We have had four meals out of it and haven't even started the dark meat yet. We still have some white meat left. I plan on making some casseroles and soups out of the dark meat. I will probably freeze some to use later. Tomorrow, I plan to make stock from the carcass. I think I'll stock up on turkey while they are priced right during the holidays. That way, we can have many cheap meals. I will have to be careful when choosing the birds though, a twenty pound turkey barely fits in my biggest roaster.

A freezer and A Cabinet Done and A Refrigerator to Go

Kitty Kat helped me defrost our freezer today. She helped unload it, use a blow dryer on it to speed the process, dump out buckets of ice and water, and then reload it. The whole thing went much smoother with her help. I really enjoyed working with her.
Monkey also helped dump a bucket of water and ice. She also took the items we needed to toss out to the trash. If I remember correctly she even had a smile on her face. ;)
The other kids (perhaps not Froggie) dropped by from time to time to check out the progress.

Puppy Dog and Baby Bear helped take everything out of a corner cabinet in our kitchen for me. The cabinet is very deep and I can't reach the back of it. The little kids enjoyed helping because it meant they could climb into the cabinet.
Monkey wiped out the cabinet after the boys cleared it out.
I then inventoried everything and then organized it in the cabinet.

Now, I just need to clean out the refrigerator and I'll be ready for a big restocking trip to the store.

Froggie did help empty the dishwasher today. Monkey then refilled it and I checked it added a few more items and ran it.

Birdie did put away her videos. She fussed the whole time, but she did do it. She needs a Strawberry Shortcake fix. We haven't watched her videos in while. Perhaps, I could let her watch one tomorrow.

Menus

I have tried to follow a menu in the past, but I always get sidetracked. Well, it's time to try again. I have a cute menu calendar for November that I plan to actually make use of. If I succeed, then I'll have a ready answer when the kiddos whine, "We're hungry, what can we have to eat?". :) I still have to work out the details, but I do know that Friday will be turkey day. Of course that depends on whether or not our twenty pound turkey thaws in time.

The Answer to the Riddle

I have grown tired of coming up with clues so here is the answer to the riddle. It was rainy and the leaves were falling the day that we were in the van and I came up with the riddle. Some leaves had fallen on the wet van and stuck fast. The leaves only came off (reluctantly) when I used the windshield wipers. None of the leaves blew off on their own. The wind wouldn't even blow them off. The leaves that were left on only came off after they had dried completely.

Fall Festival

My mom came and watched the kids' swim lessons Saturday. She then took us out to lunch and stuck around to help me with the kids at our church's Family Fall Festival. Thanks Mom!

The kids dressed up for the festival. I didn't have their animal costumes completely ready, so Froggie went as Dorothy and Baby Bear went as a lumberjack. I took a couple pictures with my camera phone. I haven't figured out how to transfer the pictures to our computer yet. I will post them when I do.

It was cold and a little rainy Saturday. They had a petting zoo and pony ride that stayed outside, but the inflatables, games, and "Trunk or Treat" were inside. The inflatables and games were in the gym and those who were going to have decorated car trunks decorated tables in the hallway instead.

On another topic:

My kids love to do their math this year. Those who have workbooks come at me with them at very inopportune times. Two of the kids have to be closely supervised or they fill in every answer in the workbook wrong and we have to erase everything. One does really well on her own (when she likes the assignment). The last one with a workbook would work through the whole workbook in one sitting (with very few mistakes) if I let him. I already have him in an advanced curriculum and I don't want him to run out of work or end up overwhelmed. One child does her work on the computer. She would sit at the computer all day if I let her.

I typed all that as an intro to this: all the kids with workbooks pulled them out this afternoon. Then when I had them put them away after a page or two they got upset. We got home from evening church and shopping tonight and they tried to pull them out again. I thought I got Sunday off from school! lol

Clue: The sticking power is not permanent.

Kat and Dogs

"When does water act like glue?"

That is the riddle, and the next clue will be at the end of this post.

_______________________________________________________

This is Midnight, a.k.a. "The Bread Thief".

Center: Kitty Kat
Left: Maggie
Right: Midnight
Kat had me take this picture so she could send
a picture of herself with her pets to her pen pals.

_________________________________________________________


Today's clue: Autumn leaves are falling.

Tonight's Clue

I about forgot to leave a clue.

Here it is: We could see an example while traveling in our van.

ugh!

That's how I feel tonight.

I'm going to bed.

Good night.

Laundry Soap and a Rowdy House

I was almost out of laundry soap, so I made a double batch this time. We go through it so quickly. I'm happy we're not paying for the commercial stuff anymore. If I'm running low, then I just whip up a batch.

Our house is so loud today that we should all be wearing ear plugs. None of the kids can find their inside voices (not even Monkey). To top it all off, I am having trouble understanding what the kids are saying because my ears feel like they have cotton in them. I've been fighting off allergies or a sinus infection for a while now. When the kids do talk quieter (while looking at the floor or somewhere other than in my general direction) I can't hear what they are saying. They get upset and clam up when I ask them to repeat themselves. It's too damp and yucky for us to be outside. A couple of the kids are fighting colds also. If it's possible, I think the dogs are worse than the kids. They don't want to be outside for long but they keep wanting my attention. Maggie keeps coming up and putting her cold nose on me to get my attention (lifting my arm with her head so I will pet her). Midnight keeps coming up and bathing my arm with her tongue -- Yech! One of these days we will cure Midnight of her constant licking. She has gotten better. Baby steps, baby steps . . .


Good try TMBMT. That answer would work but is not the answer I was looking for.

Today's clue: No human need be involved.

I Made a Deal With Kitty Kat Tonight . . .

. . . but, I just realized that I can't write about that on my blog. I didn't ask her first. I made a promise to my children that I would do my best to only type posts about them that wouldn't invade their privacy or comfort level. I aim to keep that promise.

Wow, it's been raining a lot here. It started yesterday afternoon or evening and it is still raining.
The kids and I discussed this riddle: "When does water act like glue?" Think you can figure it out? I'll add clues one at a time until someone posts the answer to our homemade riddle.

An apology

I have to apologize to my sister, TMBMT. Sorry sis! I should have warned you.

I invited my sister to come to Bible Study with me. Normally, that would not be a problem. However, my Bible study group is using the book, EVERY WOMAN'S BATTLE. Now, if it had been a Wednesday evening instead of a Sunday evening, then we would be studying the minor prophets (college lecture style). I think T. would be able to handle that better.

Once again, I apologize sis. I love you!

Biscuits

We needed a bread item or something else that would be filling to go with our lunch today. Since we were all hungry and the rest of our lunch was ready, I decided on drop biscuits. Up to this point, I have stayed away from biscuits for the most part. Dh is a little picky when it comes to biscuits (he likes the restaurant kind). Anyway, the drop biscuits were so quick and easy that I'll probably start making them on a regular basis. The kids couldn't get enough of them. It was a good thing I made a double batch.

I might make them with cinnamon and sugar for breakfast sometime.

Baby Bear says...

I asked Baby Bear what I should write about tonight. This is how our conversation went:

Me: "What should I write about tonight?"

BB: "About Gawd."

Me: "About God?"

BB: "Yeah."

Me: "What should I write about God?"

BB: "About we're going to Him."

Me: "We're going to Him?"

BB: "And fishy and animal crackers."

Me: "Are you going to eat fishy and animal crackers?"

BB: "Yeah, in my c'ass."

BB then ran off to play with Daddy.

I got to go shopping alone!

The last couple times I took my kids shopping with me, they couldn't handle themselves very well. So, I told them that I wouldn't take them with me to do our weekly shopping for a while.
I never got to the store to shop last week (good thing I had stocked up the week before). Last week when Jon was available, I was miserable with allergies or a cold or something and just didn't want to go anywhere. I digress. Anyway, Jon watched the kids today, so I could go shopping alone. Baby Bear cried when I left, but was asleep when I got home. I had to carry the groceries in by myself, but I didn't mind because Jon was playing a game with the kids who weren't napping.
I did just drop the groceries and instruct them that they were putting them away. A couple minutes after I brought the last of the groceries in, the girls had them put away. Yea, girls!

Thanks Jon!

Thanks girls!

If the kids aren't asleep soon, then "they" will be coming to take me away.

He he ha ha . . .

I didn't get much sleep last night. I think the kids got too much sleep. They have been bouncing off the walls all day. We went to dh's workplace to run an errand for him. I let the kids get out of the van to play while we waited on him to come out. Baby Bear took his football with him so we played with that. We went to Wal-mart to pick up some items for dh. I figured that since they had run around a lot, they would be calm. Nope. We went in for three items. The kids kept picking on each other. We went through the line and I couldn't watch the items as the cashier scanned them. I was too busy telling the kids that they were not getting candy and to keep their hands to themselves. We were about to leave the store when two dds had to use the restroom. While the rest of us were waiting, we noticed that someone had removed a plush toy from its box. I notified an employee who seemed to be in charge of the shift. She didn't even go look to see what I was talking about. We got back to dh's workplace and discovered that I was overcharged for one of the items. We went back to Wal-mart, double checked the display, and then claimed our refund.

By the time we got home I was too tired to cook. We had an interesting supper:

• saltine crackers with apple butter
• graham crackers with apple butter
• whole wheat bread with apple butter
• baby carrots
• a slice of cheese
• water.

I just passed the items out as I prepared it.

Next came our bedtime routine and time for bed. Now, I'm just waiting for them to fall asleep.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

We think we found all the music. Dh may have to reenter some album covers though. Thank you TMBMT for being ready to help.

Poof! It's gone! It's all gone!

Well, some of it can be found.

What is it? It is my husband's music that was on our computer. I'm not talking about a few uploaded CDs either. No, most of my husband's >600 CDs and many hours worth of music purchased and downloaded online were on our computer. The music files in the program dh uses were all wiped out today. How? Your guess is as good as mine. Where did the files go? Again, your guess is as good as mine.

This is what we do know:

One dd was given permission to listen to Jump 5 and Zoe Girl on the computer. Everything was fine and several of the kiddos were dancing around and singing when I went to wake up my dh so he could get ready for work. After a little while I quit hearing the music, but I figured the albums were done playing. I come back from waking dh and another dd was sitting in Daddy's computer chair (a big No-no when permission has not been granted). The afore mentioned dd was standing beside the chair. When I walked up, they asked me how to get out of the movies file (I didn't even realize there was a movies file in the program since we don't have any movies downloaded.) and back to the music file. Said dd then reaches over her sister clicks the mouse and says, "Oh, that's how you do it!" She then clicked play and nothing happened. I shooed her sister out of the chair and sat down to investigate. As I'm failing at finding the album the girls were looking for, dh walked up and said why isn't my music on there. Huh! He was right. All the music was gone! Of course, neither daughter knows what was done to delete all those files. Needless to say, our household once again has the rule that no child is allowed on the computer without very close supervision.

The good news is that dh's old media player still has a lot of his music in it's files, he thinks he can download the music on his ipod back onto the computer, and he has a back-up disc or two that we can put back on the computer. We're still not sure how we can retrieve any of the albums he bought and downloaded online. No joke, there was probably about a full week's worth of downloading (we have dial-up). He also had over three days worth of CDs downloaded.

Only disbelief registered with both of us at first. I guess I'll get to learn more about our computer while I try to retrieve his music!

I think I found dh's music in our recycle bin!

The memories didn't get thrown away.

When I was about nine years old, my grandmother took me with her to visit an elderly friend. Her friend thought I was cute or something. She gave this pretty little dish/container. It was a delicate piece similar to pottery or china. It stood on three small curved "legs" and had a three dimensional violet on its lid. The lid must have been dropped before, because the violet had been glued back on. When I was young, I kept the dish in the box that my grandmother's friend had placed it in for safe keeping. Anytime I wanted to admire it's beauty or remember the visit I would take it out of the box. I was always very careful to replace it. I didn't want to break it.

After I got married, I pulled the dish out of its box and set it out for everyone to see. After my grandmother died, the dish became even more special to me.

For approximately twenty-three years I have kept that little dish safe. I'm a little sad to say that the little dish now resides in the trash. Baby Bear (who was in desperate need of his nap) knocked the dish off the buffet it was on and the bowl part of the dish broke. The lid also went into the trash. After all, what good is a lid without it's dish?

Poor little Baby Bear went right down for his nap after that. I think he was too upset about breaking the dish to argue.

I gave Baby Bear a big smile and asked him if he had a good nap when he woke up. He grinned and said he did. Nothing more was said about the dish.

I will no longer glance at that pretty little dish and remember my visit with Grandma. However, I can still visit the memory from time to time. No one can take that from me.

Welcome to My Blog!

Thanks for visiting my blog.

My name is Brandi. I started this blog for many reasons. I plan to use this blog to share my thoughts, my family's adventures, and much more.

I have a wonderful husband who works really hard so that I can stay home with our children.

Our children have animal nicknames, so I will refer to the kids by their animal names. I have four daughters: Froggie is 12, Kitty Kat is 11, Birdie is 9, and Monkey is 7. My two sons are Puppy Dog who is 5 and Baby Bear who is 2. I may post some pictures of the kids dressed in costumes that mimic their nicknames at a later date.