It's been a while.

It's been so long since I've posted that I don't know where to start. I think I'll just leave it at that. Perhaps, I'll be able to collect my thoughts later.

Potluck time at Green Thumb Mama's

I have to get off here and let Jon have the computer, so I'm making this brief. A recipe I threw together the other day has been featured in the Potluck at Green Thumb Mama's Recipe Box!. Green Thumb Mama added a recipe of her own that compliments mine. If you're curious, head on over. Thanks, Green Thumb Mama.

Have a great night!

StoryBlox

Have you ever checked out StoryBlox? If not, I highly recommend you do. StoryBlox sells handmade educational toys. Yes, this is a shameless plug for my sister's company. No, she didn't know I was going to do this.

StoryBlox just announced a 25% off Grand Opening Sale at their Art Fire shop .

Change of Plans

Change of lunch plans, that is.

Today, we were going to have LaChoy beef chow mein over rice for lunch. Those plans changed when I started to stir the vegetables into the beef and sauce and found this:


Yes, that is a piece of blue plastic stuck (cooked into?) that piece of beef. Two sets of chow mein and $6.80 were wasted. I already had the rice cooked, so I improvised. I cooked some onion, mixed vegetables, and broccoli in a little oil. Then I added about 3/4 c. of peanut butter, some curry powder, garlic powder, and a little water. We ate that served over the rice. The kids and I liked it, but Jon was indifferent. He did eat it though. He's such a good sport!

I couldn't get in contact with La Choy today, but I was able to send a product complaint to Con Agra Foods.

Has anyone else had something like this happen? I'm sure there are a lot of interesting stories out there. In fact, that is not the first time we have had a problem with a La Choy product. We once had a bottle of sauce that had about an inch of sediment stuck on the bottom of the bottle. We thought we would just shake it and mix it back in but it was STUCK. We received a check for replacing the item from the company. Hopefully, they will be as kind this time.



Update: I got an e-mail from Con Agra Foods on Monday. They are sending me two coupons for free replacement of the Beef chow mein.

Update II: We received the coupons in the mail several days ago.

We Would Make Lousy Drunks!

Did I catch your attention with that title?

While we were at the store last weekend, Jon picked up a corkscrew that was marked down at Wal-mart. He discovered as he was taking it out of the bag at home that the screw part was broken.

Thursday, while the older five children and I were at Homeschool P.E., Jon and Little Bear took the corkscrew back to Wal-mart. That afternoon, we went back out to run our errands and Jon bought a sturdier corkscrew and a bottle stopper. Thursday night, as we were fixing supper, Jon opened our bottle of wine. We were being silly, smelled the cork, and both made faces. Gross! We weren't even sure if we could get past the smell. Jon poured some, and we both took a sip. It tasted just as bad as it smelled. Jon dumped the wine he had poured down the sink. Jon informed me that he didn't mind if I wanted to cook with the wine. I guess I'll get to put the wine recipe book (that we won years ago) to the test. LOL

Kids, you have nothing to worry about!

Aren't They Sweet!

Jon had to work Saturday, so Jon and the kids fixed a candle light dinner for two for Jon and me to enjoy Friday night. The kids ate separately, served us, and watched CHITTY CHITTY BANG BANG. I was sent out of the house to spend some alone/errand time while they prepared for the dinner.

Jon went all out this year. He got me flowers*, the movie FIREPROOF, the book THE LOVE DARE, and a Fireproof t-shirt for me and one for himself. He also gave me my birthday present, a comparative study Bible, early. He even got a bottle of wine to try with dinner, but we haven't opened it, yet. You see, we don't normally drink alcohol and Jon forgot we that we don't have a corkscrew.

After dinner, the kids finished watching their movie while we started to watch FIREPROOF. When the kids' movie was finished, we put them to bed and then went back to our movie. Overall, it was a wonderful evening. Thanks Jon and kids!


*One of our cats, Lily, is being quite obstinate about getting up on our table and nibbling on the flower blossoms. I had to put her in her carrier for a while last night. I let her out later and when I got up this morning one of the blossoms she had been chewing on was completely gone. So which flowers does she nibble on? Roses? No. Daisies? No. Mums? No. She nibbles on the lilies! I think we named her well.

A Little of This And a Bit of That

First, Lucille at Who's Going to Tell You? wants to know if she should keep blogging. She says she will continue if she gets fifty comments. She did not specify that the comments had to be from fifty different people, but wouldn't it be neat if she did get comments from fifty different people? I've started her off with ten comments. I'm just ornery that way. LOL So, everyone head on over to Lucille's place. I'll wait. I need to change around the loads of laundry anyway.



Second, I don't think I mentioned before that Jon, Kitty Kat, and Monkey are in a Christmas play the Stage Right drama group at our church is putting on. The play is (if I have it right) "Scrooge Revisited". Jon got the lead part of Scrooge. The girls are extras in a scene or two and are the great-great- great...granddaughters of Scrooge in a modern day scene. The girls had their lines memorized for their audition. Jon, on the other hand, has a total of ninety-nine lines to have memorized. He is finding that it is a lot harder to memorize lines now than it was when he had less responsibilities.



Third, things have been crazy around here.

The two aforementioned girls had to be at church every day but Friday a couple weeks ago. Sunday: we had morning and evening services and activities. Monday: the girls and I had Sunflower Scouts. Tuesday: Jon, Kitty Kat, and Monkey had play practice. Wednesday: Baby Bear had his Wed. night class; Puppy Dog, Monkey, and Birdie had children's choir; Kitty Kat and Froggie had small group; Jon had Men's Fraternity; and I had Teacher Training. Thursday: we had homeschool P.E. Saturday: our church had their Fall Festival and Trunk and Treat.


This past week was all mixed up.

A week ago Saturday, Birdie was playing ghost in a sleeping bag after I warned the kids to put the bags away before someone got hurt. Birdie tripped and chipped four of her teeth.

A week ago Monday, I dropped the other kids off at Mom's and took Kaycie to the dentist. Jon met us at Mom and Dad's and we ate supper with them before the girls and I had to run off to Sunflower Scouts.


Last Tuesday was election day so we tried to focus on the elections. The kids and I went over to Jon's Mom's place and picked up her pop cans (to recycle) and ran her vacuum. We took all our cans to the recycle center and then picked up lunch. We ate lunch at Jon's workplace. It was a nice day so the kids and I played games (i.e. Mommy Says instead of Simon Says) on the lawn while we waited for Jon to get off work. When Jon got off work, we went together in the van to go vote. The kids did great! They only got riled up when one of the poll workers started encouraging them. The workers were bored and enjoyed the lively chatter of the children. After we voted, we went shopping and then picked up Jon's car. The evening was spent watching the voting results, watching an online video about how the voting process works, etc.


Wednesday Birdie had an appointment at the E.N.T. doctor. Monkey, Kitty Kat, and Froggie stayed in the reception area and read. The boys went back to the examination room with Birdie and me. They all behaved well at the doctor's office.


Thursday the kids had their homeschool P.E. class and I got a chance to talk with some of the other homeschool moms from our church. We also had to run some errands.


Friday the kids and I (my mom came too) went to watch Jon at a forklift rodeo. As the day's events ended, Jon was in first place in the masters division. Jon's supervisor invited the children and I to go eat with them afterwards at Lone Star.


Saturday was the final day of the rodeo. We went again hoping that Jon would stay in the top six. During the final half hour, he was knocked down to seventh (I think) place. Needless to say, he was very disappointed. Jon stayed for the catered award ceremony while my mom, dad, the children, and I went to Frisch's. We then went back to our MESSY :. ( house for pumpkin pie that my mom had brought.

We also were getting back into our early rising routine this past week and dealing with the time change. Our pets are still messed up over the time change.

The children were really trying my patience this last week or so. They have been fighting and arguing, talking back, grumbling, complaining, deliberately disobeying, and making messes without cleaning them up. Between our busy week and trying to fit in school we didn't have much time to keep up the house. When we were working on the house, it was like we would take one or two steps forward and at least five steps back. I'm still trying to find the optimistic side of things.

This morning before he left for work, Jon told me I really needed to enforce a mandatory nap time "right now". He gave them all a talking to as well. The kids were already at each others throats before 6:30 am this morning! The kids have been watching preschool programs this morning ever since breakfast was over. They're not allowed to mess around or the T.V goes off. The girls won't take a nap anymore, so this down time is about as close as we'll get to naps. I was hoping the boys would fall asleep, but they're not. They are close though. We might just have to start our school day with story time. We've really got to get the kids back into a better routine.

This post is getting pretty long, so I'll end it here. I'll have another post up soon with yesterday's creative writing assignments.

Maybe that explains it!

There is a post at Happy to be @ Home that says that there is a saying that moms lose 25% of their sanity for each child they have. If each 25% is deducted from the already lowered percent of sanity then I am left with only 17.8% of the sanity I had before motherhood. If each 25% is taken from the original 100%, then I am left 50% in the hole when it comes to sanity.

There is an upside! Being insane means I can be more creative! After all, I'm sure not every child gets to eat leftover meatloaf pizza.

Speaking of pizza, Jon thought his workplace was providing lunch today so he didn't take a lunch. He'll be coming in the door HUNGRY. I plan to make a chicken bar-b-que pizza for us to eat when he gets home. I better go get it started!

Have a great day!

Pardon My Mess

I decided that our blog needs a new look. There's no telling when I'll get done tweaking it.

A Mouse Tale

Once upon a time not so long ago, in a land not so far away, there lived a teenage girl who loved playing fast pitch softball. It's important that we understand a few things about this girl. She always tried to do as her coach said (This made her VERY unpopular with some of the younger players.), she was not a girly-girl (more of a tomboy), and she tried to avoid conflicts.

One day as this girl and her teammates were going from the batting cages to the gym, they encountered a body lying on the steps leading up to the entry by the gym. One of the teammates pointed it out and another teammate screeched, "Ooh! What is it?!". The girl whom this tale is about replied in an incredulous, matter of fact way, "It's a mouse." After all, if it bothered the teammate that much, then she could just walk around it. Right? For some reason this bothered the screeching teammate (who I might add was popular) and she took it upon herself to get back at the girl for bothering her.

The teammates began whispering "mouse" under their breath any time they passed the girl. The girl, peace-keeper that she was, tried to ignore her teammates. It was annoying and she was somewhat hurt, but she kept it to herself. Soon, the teammates got braver and began calling out "mouse" any time it was the girl's turn in a drill and when the girl was up to bat. This practice carried on to the point that even the coach, who didn't know the origin, called the girl "Mouse". It then carried over to the games. Soon everyone, including the girl's family, called her "Mouse".

Now you know the true story about how a teenage girl came to be known as Mouse.

Please, Pray For Ed and P./Locks of Love

My mom called me this morning and informed me that my dad's coworker Ed has lung cancer and the granddaughter of one of her (Mom's) friends was diagnosed with Leukemia. I don't have permission to post her name so I'll just refer to her as P. From what I understand, P. had been fighting a low grade fever on and off for a couple months. Recently, her legs began to give her some trouble and last night her family was informed that she has Leukemia. P. is seven years old and I know that her family would really appreciate any prayers for her and her family.



Thinking about P. and the long hard road she probably has ahead of her reminded me of Locks of Love. Locks of Love uses donated ponytails to make hair pieces for children under eighteen who have hair loss due to medical conditions. Some hair salons will donate their time to cut and style hair, and send in the ponytails to LOL. My older three girls and I (Monkey has had her hair cut by a sister a couple times) have donated our hair every couple years for the last 5+ years. This year is an off year for us, since our hair is not yet long enough to donate. I encourage everyone who is able to consider donating their hair to this worthwhile cause. If you want more information or need to find a salon that will donate to LOL, you can follow the link above.

Thanks everyone!

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.

The Bat

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

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?

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.

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.