Surprise trip to Minnesota 2011

My last post was a bit of a spoof. I wrote it while we were in the middle of Montana, and I wrote it to make sure my Mom wasn't going to suspect anything...we were on our way to surprise her! And surprise her we did. Thanks to Rory, we were on the porch before she suspected a thing and in the house before she had a chance to process what she was seeing!

Rebekah was so excited to be in Minnesota, but she didn't grow up in cold weather. Apparently she's fairly numb because the next morning my Mom found her out on the porch and took a picture of her, and then a picture of the thermometer....

Really, bare feet?

So much to learn about Minnesota in the winter. The concept of ice fishing produced a rolling belly laugh from the back seat when I asked her if she knew what those little houses out on the ice were, and explained it to her. Then she thought she needed to take off her heavy coat to go into the store because she would look like a "dork". Also? Make sure you leave your regular pants on when you put snow pants on :) The education continues...

I have one picture for December in my picture file. Sad. I will try to fix that this week, I promise! I do have pictures on my phone, I just have to email them to myself and save them to files and get them uploaded here. Don't you think with technology there should be an easier way?

Everyone is so busy this time of year, us included. But Grant had a nice birthday on the 17th, Rebekah just had a Christmas party for gymnastics that she raved over (I have a couple of pics of that on my phone) and I've been busy with church stuff and getting packages sent to loved ones across the miles.

The house is never clean all at once these days but if you drop in you might find one room clean at a time...lol

Then along comes January with a birthday party for Rebekah and the February my Mom comes to visit and we take her with on our trip to Tucson to visit Ashley...I have a lot to look forward to! I better figure out a better system for the pictures! :)

Sick for a week...

Sunday night marked the first clue of my not feeling so well...we are now at Saturday morning and though I'm better, I'm not 100%. I very rarely get hit this hard with anything but man this week has been tough!

So, no pictures, no crafty wonderfulness, no recipes. Just crickets and tumbleweed.

Some things are going to HAVE to get done around here today. Like the bathrooms NEED to be cleaned! I NEED to wrap some gifts and get them in the mail. And some baking NEEDS to happen! I have way too much to do to be sick.

Last week Rebekah and I went to the church to help with Christmas decorating. Rebekah's job was to help put "snow" under the trees...this seemed like a perfect photo op :)

Tonight I taught her how to play checkers. She beat me the first game with only small hints, I won the second game giving her no hints but she is a tough opponent and will be winning fair and square in no time. The brain, it works!

Mail call!

It's a little shaky and low quality, I was still in bed having the first cup of morning coffee when I called her in to see what Grandma had sent, but you certainly get the idea...she was happy! These are the special pretzels she asks my Mom to make almost every time she sees her.

I let her eat half of the small bag before I cut her off this morning :)

She then sat down on the bed to read the new Ranger Rick magazines that were in the box...

good call Grandma! She likes them a lot!

Happy Thanksgiving 2011

Well..I didn't take pictures, but there was a turkey! And it actually tasted pretty dang good :)

We had a friend join us for the holiday, who happens to be from Minnesota, so that was really nice! She introduced us to Skip Bo and Sequence (I loved both!) and she loves games as much as I do so I suspect we will be getting together in the future for game time!

The day started with some sad news as my Mom and Dad lost one of their llamas to illness. I felt for them, for the loss they had to deal with first thing in the morning and all of the tasks that entails, I cried. And then I was immediately thankful that we weren't mourning the loss of a child or a loved one who is deployed as other people are dealing with during the holidays. I feel incredibly blessed.

I'm so thankful everyday for so many things. My daughter, all grown up and moved to Arizona now, called me this morning (thankful!) asked me what I was thankful for. I told her, most of all, I'm so thankful that I have the ability to be SO THANKFUL for every little thing in my life. I mean, sometimes I wake up and I just think...Thank you God, thank you for our home, for my family, for the daylight! Thank you for the breath that sustains me!

Grateful that I'm not waiting for anything to make me happy. I am happy. In good times and bad. In all things, give thanks. There is always always always something to be thankful for.

Love you all near and far.

My friend, Ms. Robin, hates to have her picture taken, which confuses me because she is such a beautiful person. But I have learned that if the picture includes Rebekah, she'll tolerate my snap happy ways!

The art shown here was from a tutorial here fall tree . We really can't keep all of the art projects Rebekah does, so I always ask her what she wants to do with it when she's done. Sometimes she wants to keep it, but usually she already knows who she wants to give it to, this time she wanted it to go to Ms Robin...lucky lady :) I happen to know she's already bought a frame for it.


I don't have any art projects planned for today...we seem to be playing catch up. Rebekah has had a low grade fever and headache for two and a half days, today she's in her room working on something that required glitter and later came out for a broom and dustpan. I really can't bring myself to look and I also don't want to interrupt her. So when she's done, we'll go to the library and maybe this afternoon do school work.

So far today I have done laundry, 2 loads of dishes, made juice, used the pulp to make 2 loaves of pulp bread, made smoothies with the left overs going into popsicle molds, cleaned the cat box and the fridge, fed the kid breakfast and sent a couple of emails. It's 11:15 AM and I'm going to have more coffee to get me through the second part of the day! AMEN :)

Art art art

I'm loving art time. Since I've made it more of a priority in our curriculum, we get more of it done!

So I used this tutorial found on Pink and Green Mama: Turkeys with crayon and marker resist.

 *Note the band-aid on the finger that was slammed in the car door

Rebekah's bird is flying off to Arizona as we speak. I'm planning to stick mine in a file, I'm tentatively planning some home school art classes at the library next year. I thought this would be a good one for all ages and not too messy!

More art

 Well, actually this was a science project on recycling. We made paper with a blender and a screen. Seemed more like art to me :)

And yes, she is wearing her cat costume...we take our homeschooling perks where we can get them!

 

Love it when I can help the North Coast News with a picture :)

Part of today's homeschool lesson was voting and what it means to be a democracy.

Halloween in Arizona

Ashley informed me that I forgot to post these pictures...sorry honey :)

Sickie

Middle of the night upchucking and a popsicle to cleanse the palette. I know, ick. The past few days have been exhausting. At least she's not throwing up anymore. Just coughing and runny nose. 

Lunch with Sharon

This is one of my dearest friends in Ocean Shores! Sharon and I work on Operation Christmas Child together and we are the VBS crafting queens :)  Every time we get together I leave feeling happy and full of life, she makes me believe I can do things and is most gracious with my short comings.

Last week Rebekah was lucky enough to come with to one of our lunch meetings because Daddy had to work...she looks all broke up about it doesn't she?

Day #3 of No Facebook November...

I admit, I don't like it so far. I feel a bit disconnected and isolated. I guess as a homeschool Mom it is a way I stay in the loop. We are out of the house nearly every day...okay, I don't remember the last time we had a whole day at home, but that doesn't always mean knowing what's going on with people. I don't anticipate making it the whole month and will at least check in on this coming Sunday.

This week I added 4 new subjects to the curriculum, and while they aren't really "new" subjects, they have not officially been scheduled before. So this has been a very busy week with art, science, phy ed, and home ec. We've baked cookies and granola, made paper, studied composting, made a prayer banner and today started on a 3 part watercolor and acrylic painting of a fall tree. We both love the variety this week has introduced, but we are both wiped. I think I need to scale back a little as it leaves very little room for the extras in life and we find ourselves rushing through things or still doing school work at 7:00 at night, and that was never my intention. Live and learn.

 

Rebekah starting her watercolor after gymnastics and dinner tonight, about 8:00 PM. It was great bribery to get her to eat her veggies though! HAAHAA!

Tomorrow we are going to Sears to get our very first professional family picture taken. I still have no idea what we are wearing. Clothes...I guess :)

Yeah...

This is what I was talking about in yesterdays post about missing Ashley and turning back the clock...

Read this and see if you don't agree

Today is day #1 of No Facebook November. Started by our youth pastor, Dennis Reed. I'm only a couple hours in to it and already one of my facebook (and church) friends has sent me an e-mail because she doesn't want to lose touch while I'm on my facebook fast. I think that's pretty special and it touched my heart that she made the extra effort to stay connected.

While I don't see myself permanently giving up facebook, I think taking some time to refocus facebooks place in my life is a fabulous idea and I look forward to the changes it brings.

Have a beautiful day and don't forget to take time to make memories.

Halloween 2011

Days like today I really miss Ashley. It reminds me that the time she was a little girl went by so fast and I want to turn back the clock and do it over, do it better. I love you Ashley, even though you're in Arizona you are here in our hearts.



Today's home ec and health lessons were tied in with the pumpkin carving. Rebekah now knows (as do I) that pumpkins are high in vitamins A (for your eyes), C (to fight off colds) and E (for your skin). And the seeds are a good source of protein! We are soaking the seeds to be roasted tomorrow.

On to the sketching and planning, we have a pumpkin to carve.

Pumpkin gut removal...always a little gross.

But tadaaa....so worth it, cause these are going to be yummy tomorrow!

It says "This pumpkin Loves Halloween"...well yeah, what pumpkin wouldn't?

A couple of beauties!

Meow! All dressed up and ready to go!

And a shot of the tail...Cutest little black cat in town :)

Happy Halloween 2011

Making Butter!!!!

What a fun day! I am fortunate to know someone who has a cow and I got some milk...yum! Fresh! If you can see the line Rebekah is pointing to, that's the cream line.

So we used a turkey baster to suck the cream out of the milk jug. A fun job for a 6 yr old...

Then we poured it into the mixer bowl and let it mix...for a really. long. time. I was starting to wonder.

But then it happened!!! We started seeing the fat granules! Squeeeeee!!!!

We used a slotted spoon to get most of the butter out of the milk (and saved the milk, for something, I don't know what) and squeezed and rinsed the butter in ice water.

Oh the joy of making something from scratch...she's so excited!

And it is oh so very yummy! Seriously! Tonight? Ice cream!

Today seemed like it started a lot longer than 15 hours ago!

Rebekah, after specifically being told not to, tried to give the cat a bath in the bathroom sink (quietly with the door closed). She maybe would have gotten away with it other than the fact that she shattered a drinking glass in the process. Mind you she was supposed to be fixing her hair and getting ready to do school work.

Since she's been on a roll with not listening and getting distracted at the drop of a hat, she got a writing assignment. : I will stay on task when I am told to do something, and I will NOT do things I was told not to do. 20 times!

So she was sent to her room for her writing assignment, about 45 minutes she comes out with 2 sentences done and I said, "seriously?". She said "whaaaat? I was taking a rest!!" Right. Back to her room to write until lunch time.

Lunch was eaten and we had an appointment to pick up milk at a friends house at 1:00.

On the way to our friends house we saw two hitch-hikers (carrying a case of beer...good luck with that), and Rebekah asks me why they had their thumbs up. So after I explain to her what hitch hiking is and what a bad idea it is and why, she very seriously says, "oh, I thought they were giving you a thumbs up for your really good driving skills"...LOL You know, now that I think about it, I'm just going to assume that's what people are doing from now on :)

After a short visit (and Rebekah played with my friends homeschooled kids), we stopped at a little country produce stand we'd never been to. It was cute and reasonably priced and the owner was really sweet and chatty so we hung out there for a short while discussing the history of the building, avocados and chickens. You know, the usual.

On the way home we go by the Kingdom Hall, and I say "that's Aaron's church right there", and she says, "oh, we haven't seen him for a long time". I said, "yeah, they gave up on us". She asked for an explanation so I told her that they wanted us to go to their church but they know that's not going to happen because we love our church so they don't come around much anymore. She asks why do they want us to go to their church? I said, "well they don't think we know all of the truth at our church". She says rather disgusted " No one knows all of the truth, not Aaron, not us, not anyone...only God, and Jesus, and the Holy Spirit". I swear she's going to be an evangelist someday. She makes me smile though.

Back at home, Rebekah continued working on her writing assignment while I put away groceries and chopped veggies for pico de gallo and cleaned up the kitchen. Still putting things in order from the kitchen remodel.

She did finally finish right before supper, which was nachos...mmmm! Unfortunately that took up most of her day so she'll be doing make up school work tomorrow which is usually her (and MY) day off. Oh well...live and learn and better to learn these lessons now I figure!

 Today the library had a face painting class for kids called "Paint Yourself Silly".

This is Rebekah's before picture.

It was very basic, which was good because it's apparently harder than it looks and requires much concentration.

Applying detail with a q-tip...

 

 What am I ???

A pony, she says....There is a heart on one cheek and a star on the other and she wrote love across her chin. I didn't have the heart to tell her it was backwards to the rest of us because she was so darn pleased writing it while looking in the mirror. And yes...she did go to gymnastics that way. LOL

Another cell phone picture

Got another couple of snap shots from Arizona :)

 

Ashley and Colin sent me this picture from Arizona today. It's still not real to me that she's a grown up (I don't mean that in a bad way honey), it seems like she's on a trip or something. The fact that she is living several states away and starting her life long adventure just kind of blows me away.

For Mom

These two comments from my husband today...

"Whoa, your inner Martha is really starting to come out, dear"

And later

Me: Well no use crying over spilled milk, right?

Grant: Unless you have to drink it after it's been wiped up, then you might cry over it.


LOL :)

The way home...day three

 This picture was taken the morning we left Bozeman. This is the lobby of the Hotel and we texted this picture to Grandpa Rory because he loves buffalo ( and Rebekah :)).


Our first stop of the day is just about half an hour outside of Bozeman. I've always wanted to stop here because it just looks so darn cute.

 Inside it smelled of heavenly carbs and the farm cuteness factor was a 10! See the tractor seat lunch counter stools?

Back on the road we did a search for the next available Redbox, and came up with Anaconda, Mt. Well Anaconda is a little off the freeway and the rest stop we went to just before that turn off showed a scenic lake if we kept going. Turns out there was a loop we could take (I think it was called Pintler Scenic Loop) and it was about 40 miles but put us back on the freeway in under an hour. It was gorgeous! 

It was a very long day of driving. I always love to see the wind farm come in to view once we're approaching the hills before the Cascades.

Rebekah crashed shortly after we ate in Moses Lake and wasn't awake for much more of the 5 or 6 hours we had left to go. Long day but good to get back home and sleep in our own beds!