A much overdue gift of gratitude!

Here's a few shots of a project in progress. This was a gift for my cousin who planned a lovely getaway for us last fall. The first attempt didn't turn out the way I hoped or wanted it to, so it was reworked into something else. This is the second try. First an 8x10 canvas was painted with acrylic paints. Then I started playing around with how to lay it out.

The shells, stones, and sand were collected on the beach where the picture was taken.


The Scrabble tiles were in my stash and were perfect, as Scrabble was a part of the weekend.

Acrylic gel medium was used to attach the sand and pictures, and a heavier duty adhesive was used for the rocks and shells.

Completed project:

A little painting done by B.

Field trip

There have been too many educational activities to check out to get to many academics around here. Last week, a house my brother is remodeling (completely reconstructing?) was lifted up off of it's old foundation and moved to the back of the lot, so we stopped to watch that for a while.The men who were moving it, had dug under it, built the wood cribbings, placed these beams under it and jacked it up off the old foundation. Then they placed it on the "skates". Can you see the wheels on them in the picture below? If not, it will be more noticeable in the video at the end.After pulling it back as far as possible, they build more cribbing. There was a lot of measuring and leveling involved in this step.

They pulled the house with a Bobcat.Here is a short video of them moving it a few inches.

Inherited

A few nights ago, I was chopping a large quantity of chicken late in the evening, and decided I had to sit down to do so, after standing in the kitchen for several hours making dinner and cleaning it up and some other things as well. Sitting down gave me a new perspective on this old scale. So I dragged my weary carcass back out of the chair and went for the camera. Isn't it cool? It was my grandma H's. I have no idea how old it is. From time to time, I consider replacing it with a newer, more accurate one. But this one works fine, and a new one would never have such charm.

A day

This was one of those days.

When a back-talker back-talks to me about back-talking.

A two soft drink kind of day (which I have been doing better about lately, and going most days without one at all).

It ended with me heading out to the porch for a few minutes of fresh air and quiet at the end of dinner...but everyone followed me.

And then went back in to get something and came back out. Several times.

Until a loud CRASH can be heard through the door. "So long" recycled vase. (I KNEW that was going to happen when I put it there. It's a high traffic area and my children have no bodily awareness.) "Hello" to another clean-up project for mom.

Much of today's drag can be contributed to poor child training and lack of organization on my part. Which is something I should be working on and praying about a planning for right now, but am on the computer. And if you could see my kitchen... So I'm going to go now.

But I wanted to pass along this inspiring blog I happened upon today called We are THAT Family. The past few weeks posts are about her recent trip to Kenya with Compassion and they are convicting and thought provoking. If you keep going back prior to that, there are some more really good things, too. I'm really curious about the book Do Hard Things after reading what she wrote about it here. It sounds like one we might need to get and read to our 10 and 8 yo kids now. For her description of kids' laziness and entitlement mentality, is part of the problem around here. And we just started up a reward system to try and generate a more positive way of motivating them (but maybe it wasn't such a good idea?).

In a spring mood!

It snowed several more inches again today. As a matter of fact, it sounds like the snowplow is in the 'hood right now. Perhaps the abundance of snow we've had this year has been the primary factor in my strong desire to make it seem a little "springy" inside our home. The daffodils and other bulbs (bulb flowers are my absolute favorite - calla lilys, tulips, hyacinths, crocus - they're all wonderful) are still buried under a few feet or more of snow.

Decorating is not my forte, partly due to my frugality and extreme practicality. But I have just felt the need for something fresh and light. The kids and I picked these silk flowers up (half off, of course!) this week.They found a home in a recycled container that had originally held those reeds that sit in scented oil and infuse the air. And harking back to the post about taking pictures and telling the story of things that are important to you... I have unfortunately lost track of the origins of the doily in the pictures above, which ultimately, is not a big deal. It seems like we received a few from Geoff's family (or perhaps mine?) that might have been made by a family member, and I also have some that I purchased the summer we spent in Albania many years ago (for mere pennies from this sweet woman who had made them) and they have unfortunately gotten all mixed up and things I never thought I'd forget, I have.

On a more serious note, the sermon this morning was on John 19 and the death of Jesus. We also learned of the sudden, unexpected death of a young mom acquaintance this morning, and it has been on my mind all day. We do not know when God has planned for us to go, and it has been a wake up call to me to live with a more eternal mindset. If it was my turn to go "home", what would I want to have said, done, etc., with and for my husband, children, parents, extended family, and friends. Thinking of the possibility of death is a good reminder to really live. My heart has been heavy as well, thinking of the three young children and the husband, an acquaintance of Geoff's since his college days, and their loss. And though it is hard to comprehend, God is still good, all of the time.

A great idea!

Kirsten made a brilliant suggestion to take a picture of something that is important to you and record the story. My mind always takes off with suggestions like this and goes berserk to a point where it becomes an out-of-control project - at least in my mind. This is not a special treasure per se, but it is in the cabinet with all the special treasures, and if I tell the story of it (which is freshest in my mind), at least my children will have a record of where it came from, and when, and know that it is NOT a family heirloom (though perhaps by using them, they will become one). A couple of weeks ago I was out with a friend shopping and having lunch (first time to do that in months!) and passed a sign for an estate sale on the way back to her house. We decided to stop and it was almost cleaned out, but these cute little dishes were still piled along the wall with some other things. There were 8 of them and it was marked $10 for the set. Now we really didn't NEED these, but my friend is pretty good at talking me into buying things. (This wasn't the first purchase she "helped" me with that day!) And when the seller said something about $5...well, as you can see, they came home with us. We used them a couple of times on Valentine's Day, and will try to remember to bring them out to make more memories with them. With two little girls in the house, that shouldn't be too much of a problem.

(Stay tuned - I took some great pictures of some old dolls of my grandma's when we were at my parents' last year. When there is another moment to spare, I'll share them. Right now, I have about 45 minutes to make a soup for a potluck, that I just discovered I don't have all the necessary ingredients for, so it's time for plan B!)

Yum! Chicken and Noodles

Well, the year started off well with blogging a bit more consistently. Then I fell off the wagon again! Life is full, and it is good to record bits and pieces of it here along the way (as it isn't happening elsewhere - the recording that is). But sometimes there isn't much to report, or no time to report it.

Here's little G giving me a grumpy look because I was giving him a hard time for shoveling in the chicken and noodles. One of the kids made some comment about this being one of the best meals and it made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside, because my grandma used to make this, and my mom, and now another generation is learning their value! Homemade noodles are not hard to make, though they do take a little muscle to stir up and roll out.

Salad stories.

Grandma's Spaghetti Salad - comfort food, pure and simple

We lived near my father's parents while I was growing up and spent much time with them. I have many warm memories of my grandma, and more than a few of them are food-related. She would frequently cook for family gatherings such as birthdays and holidays. This is a dish she served from time to time that I remember really enjoying. In my adult life, I have not been a huge fan of pasta salads. It is just more enjoyable to me served warm. But I came across the recipe for this recently and felt like giving it a try again, just for "old times' sake." It really wasn't a recipe, but more of an ingredient list. Not having directions wasn't too big of a deal, but it does involve making a cooked dressing, that I wouldn't necessarily recommend to a novice, even with directions. But it didn't turn out half bad. There was one unfortunate incident. It calls for pimentos, which I happened to have in the pantry. Pimentos are unfortunately packaged in a glass jar. It is probably already obvious, that in the midst of getting them out and rearranging some other things, that pricey little glass jar of pimentos took a dive off the shelf onto the tile floor and exploded into a bajillion pieces.

Anyway, one child appreciated the rendezvous with historical family tastes and two did not even try it.

Remember when I mentioned reading The Pioneer Woman a while back? I hadn't returned to her site till today, but just discovered that she has a whole section devoted to photography with just the kind of info I can handle: short bites and not overly technical. Somehow I made it through pharmacy school but for the life of me, cannot wrap my brain around "apertures" and "f-stops" and all. There's just some block in the neurons that prevents it. Not to say I won't keep trying and might someday get it, but it probably won't be in this life phase where at every given minute of the day there are anywhere from one to four people talking to me. I love all 4 of them dearly of course, but 2 consecutive minutes of silence might do wonders for my tendency towards "ADHD" ("Acutely Drained Housewife - or Homeschooler - Disorder).

I went to the site looking for these Bacon-Wrapped Jalapenos that I learned about here, and ended up wasting 45 minutes that I did NOT have this morning reading posts on her site. Let me say again, that lady has a crazy-huge number of readers! Agh, and now the birthday girl and her entourage are down (up, really, but downstairs for the day and for presents and cinnamon rolls) and no shower for me yet. I'll regret this.

By the way, it was 38F outside and 58F inside when I got up this morning. Brrrr... Hopefully baking those rolls in the oven will warm the house up!

There's a good post on the importance of teaching children to serve here.

Family outing

This past Saturday was the first that Geoff has been off in months. (Seems like there was one some time, but few since this semester started.) We had a big family day in Camp Verde. (Who would've guessed???) Here, our family of 5 stands atop a hill that is at the corner of two major roads trying to "stealthily" find a geocache (which we eventually did, but not without attracting quite a bit of attention). There is also a letter box in this same general location which the kids and I found a while back, at rush hour with quite an audience parading by.The geocache was in route to the Fort Verde History of the Soldier event, which would explain the girls' attire, in case you were wondering. They don't regularly go out in pioneer garb, but in a moment of temporary sanity it occurred to me that this might be a great place to wear it. They received several compliments and fit right in!How many give-aways can you spot that reveal the true time period of this photograph?Here the girls' are stationed at their favorite part of the event: Little G's favorite was the automatic weaponry. Great. But he got to listen to and ask a lot of questions of a WWII vet about a machine gun that was on display that was priceless. Unfortunately, no picture.

Some of the earlier American "soldiers" parading.

They announced that a Navajo man was going to be speaking about the code-talkers, which little G has been interested in, but for some reason it didn't end up happening.

This was something else that little G was pretty interested in - an old shovel from the salt mine. It made us all think of Mike Mulligan...As can be seen in the previous two photos, the lens cleaning we have attempted has not resolved the problem as of yet. Will have to get the cloth out and scrub at that thing a little more.

Now we are off on the next part of our day, which was finding another geocache at an old salt mine. We never knew about this till we saw it on the geocache website. Great little historical site and fun adventure. It was good to go now. It will be too hot before long, but was about right this day. Bunny was there, but guess who ended up carrying him.

A hill of salt.

Found the cache! (No rattlesnakes.)

On top of a hill of salt.

It made unusual formations and made the dirt into unusual shapes as well.

Some deteriorating mining equipment.

Climbing a mountain of salt and dirt, and hunting for interesting crystal formations.

Being herself in the car afterwards.

We came upon an access to the Verde River and stopped there for a bit, then finished the day off by meeting Grandma in Camp Verde for dinner! It was a great day, marred only by a lengthy wait on the highway on the way home due to an accident (during which of course 2/3 of children had to use the bathroom, so daddy hightailed them into the woods and made it back to the car just in time for the traffic to start moving). When we passed the scene, it was very sobering, and kind of subdued us all.

Babies remind me of reality of God

We got to meet our new niece this weekend. She was 6 days old when these pictures were taken Checking out her toes...

Everyone got a turn.

Sweet baby girl!

The kids and I also went to an airshow. It was at least 90 degrees in the full sun with little to no shade available. Little G happened to grab the umbrella out of the car which helped significantly.

But we stood in line in the hot sun for an hour to get on a bus from the parking area to the air show, then were stuck on the bus for an hour driving the mile or two from the parking area to the Air Force base. We decided to leave about an hour before the Thunderbirds flew, to try and avoid a similar - or worse - return trip to the parking area. It was a good decision.This video really shows how terribly dirty the camera lens is. I'm hoping to go get that taken care of within the next week! Ick. If you have your volume on, you will get a more realistic effect. The kids had their hands over their ears...

I've really had a hard time getting around to blogging this spring! So much to do, so little time!

Gingerbread house-making extravaganza!

Here they are. Making these took a lot of time and was a LOT, LOT, LOT of work!!!
We used this recipe for gingerbread, and this recipe for the icing "glue." (I did beat it nearly 10 minutes to get it nice and stiff. You want it as thick as possible for the assembly process.)I didn't use the gingerbread recipe at the second link because it called for whipping cream which I didn't have. (This site had blueprints for a variety of houses such as a log cabin, etc., but I didn't check them out.)
We ended up needing two batches of both the gingerbread and the cement to complete these three structures:This mat worked really well for rolling and transferring straight to the pan. The recipe suggested using foil.Geoff designed the pattern for the two smaller houses. Here are the baked pieces for one of them. Little G wanted a bigger house, so he designed his own. This is one of the end pieces ready to cut out:And in the oven, nearly done:
Assembling them was the most difficult part. It required both adults and several pairs of patient hands to hold pieces together till they set up enough to stand on their own. Geoff used graham crackers (and saltines after we ran out of those) for supports on the insides of two of them:Once we got them assembled, we propped them up and let them sit overnight to dry and stabilize!Then the best part...decorating!!!