The Extreme Housewife

First Day of (home) Kindergarten

2010-02-09T22:31:00.000-08:00

This is so not what I thought my daughter's kindergarten class would look like! On Monday she started her first day of Kindergarten. Up until then we had been doing activities to help her learn and keep her busy, but nothing that I kept up with and made sure I did it regularly.

My big girl woke up that morning and was super excited. She excitedly helped me clean up the upstairs playroom which is what I turned into her homeschooling area. I gave both kids a bath and got them ready like they were going to school. I even put a bow in her hair. :) She kept asking, "I don't know what is taking too long?" Her excitement has helped put my mind at ease. Sorta.

I have always known that we were going to home school, however actually starting Kindergarten has turned me into a basket case. I am a bit confused about what I need to make sure she learns.

On Monday we went over letters and she knows every single one. We played a syllable game and she got the answer right every single time.

She is having a hard time with rhyming. She just does not understand it yet, but she will get there on her own eventually. We are going to play a rhyming game tomorrow that I hope helps her understand.

She knows how to count to 30 and she recognizes the numbers up to 9 as far as I know. She knows how to do simple addition such as 3 +5 = 8. She needs each number to be no more than 5 because she likes to count one number on one hand and the other number on the other hand. I am wondering how to teach her to count the numbers in her head. I did ask her the other day, "If I give you 7 dollars and Dada gives you 3 dollars, how many dollars do you have?" She thought about it a second and then answered it without counting on her fingers. However, after that she has counted on her fingers every time.

We read a story on Monday and I asked her questions about the story and she answered every single one right. It is very nice to know that she is comprehending what we are reading. I am actually very proud of her. I think she is doing very well, and she learns quickly. We are about to start her Hooked On Phonics computer game where it teaches her what sounds the letters make because she is really interested in the sounds right now.

I am pretty much trying to keep her a bit challenged, and also follow her interests. I am just confused on what subjects I should be teaching her. I also don't know how to organize our days. I have six activity boxes set up that I have been filling with something each day. I would like to possibly label each one with a subject and that way I can make sure they get a little bit of each. The subjects that I have come up with are Bible, math, language arts, crafts, fine motor skills, and science. Am I way off? Are there so many different things I am supposed to be teaching that I am not? I purchased some books at the teacher store, but I am very unhappy with them. They are mostly geared towards students in school so many of the activities don't work well for us. I need to go out and buy a whole new set of books again and I am worried that I will get the wrong books again. Any suggestions?

And don't worry. Once I get this all down I am going to work on decorating the upstairs. I have orange paint, and scrapbook paper that I plan to cover one wall with. I also have some paper letters that I am going to place around the room at the top of the wall. I also have a felt board that I have made and a felt calander I can't wait to hang. So excited!

Not Me! Monday Princess edition

2010-02-07T23:44:00.000-08:00

I have not stressed myself completely out over my daughter's upcoming birthday party. She is having a princess party and actually very excited for the first time in her life for her birthday party. She knows which little girls we are inviting and she thinks that they are all coming. The party was supposed to be on the 6th, however I did not sent out invites for the party today. I did not push her party back to the 20th because I am not worried that none of her little girl friends will show up and then she will be heartbroken.

I did not just send all the invites out on the Internet in the middle of the night because I was not sick to my tummy that I have not done this yet.

My daughter and I did not make princess invites together weeks ago and I did not leave them within my two year old son's reach and he did not smear the glitter glue we did not use on the edges all over each invite. We actually have not made anymore, but I do promise that we will make some more before Wednesday so that she can hand them out to her little friends at Awanas.

I also did not schedule her party for the same day that I am doing an open house for my business Madison Rose Vintage. The open house does not end at 1 pm and the party does not start at 5 pm. Aghhhh! I didn't do this because I felt guilty for pushing her party back and just could not bring myself to make it any later than the 20th. I am at church all day on Sundays working in the nursery so that was not a possibility. Very few days I could choose actually.

I am also not stressed out over the open house. It will not be my very first time selling my vintage items outside of the world wide web! I have actually not purchased my folding table and I have no idea how I am going to set up all of my inventory. I have not put cute little price tags on anything. I have not passed out many fliers. I am not SCARED!

Fear does not paralyze me. Nope... not me!

Please visit Not Me! Monday over on McMama's blog to find out what all of us mamas have not been up to. :)

Involving Children in Charity

2010-02-06T21:51:00.000-08:00

Recently I have really been trying to get my daughter and myself involved in giving her time to charity. Freely giving to others in need is one character trait that is at the top of my list that I would love for my kiddos to develop. I am very proud of my four year old daughter because recently she has been thinking about using her allowance to buy presents for her brother rather than for herself. Don't worry. She has so many toys that she can't even think of anything else that she wanted for her birthday. Yes. Greed is a trait that I would hate for my kids to develop, but I am afraid that them having almost everything that they could want (even though I got 95% of it from yard sales) will turn into that when they are a bit older.

Not too long ago we "adopted" a deployed soldier. We are sending him letters and care packages to keep his spirits up. I did this through the website adoptaussoldier.org. My daughter and I have fun shopping together for him and putting together themed care packages. Right now we are putting together a birthday party package for him. We have added enough food to make two tacos for 16 soldiers, chips, cheese dip, a pinata with two bags of candy, a game that 10 soldiers can play together, pop corn, and a movie. I hope that they really have a good birthday party once they receive our package. My daughter really gets into making cards and collages for him. The most recent collage she made was with different comic strips and jokes printed from the Internet. She pasted them and colored the page as well.

I also love that Kristin from We Are That Family has started posting a new craft each month that can be made for charity. We all make some of the crafts and then mail them to her so she can distribute them to the charity that month. The craft project this month is very very easy and my four year old daughter can do the entire thing herself. Last month was the first month she did this and we all made no sew fleece blankets for hospice. It was very easy once I practiced on the first one. We ended up making two blankets. So much fun!

So what types of things do y'all do to get your children involved in helping people who are less fortunate? I would love more ideas!

2010-02-05T21:33:00.000-08:00

Today was bitter sweet. My oldest baby turned four. I have been a mom for four years now! And now there is only 14 more years until she turns 18. That really is a hard pill for me to swallow. These four years have flown by, and I can just imagine that the next four will pass us by even faster.

My husband has been working seven days a week for the last month, so he took off today so that we could spend today as a family. We spent most of the day at the Children's Museum downtown. It was our first time and the kids loved it! We will go back again soon for sure. I forgot my camera so I didn't take any pictures other than a couple on my cell phone that was dying since I always forget to charge it up.

When we were leaving I took a quick look through the gift shop and found a really neat game. It is called Monkey Math. There is a monkey scale and there are bunches of bananas with different numbers on them. You can put two different bunches on one side and then one bunch on the other side that equals them to keep the monkey balanced. My cutie is doing so well with addition so I thought this would be fun for her. Can't wait to play it with her next week when we have our first official day of kindergarten.

Now I have to brag a bit. When we were coming home tonight I asked her if all the toys in the toy store are $1 each and you have $5 how many toys can you buy? She answered correctly. So to see if she just guessed I asked her if all the toys are $2 and you have $4 how many can you buy. She answered correctly again. I am one proud mama. I think she is the smartest little thing ever! :)

So after the Children's Museum we got together with some friends at Chillies. I did get photos of this!

So the kiddos couldn't (or wouldn't) sit still. They normally do very well at restaurants, however today was an action packed day and we were all smooshed into a booth. They were also sitting with our friends so that didn't help much. They let them get away with more than mean mommy does!

They brought my sweet little girl a chocolate cake topped with ice cream and everyone around us sang happy birthday with us. You should have seen the huge smile on her face as everyone sang. It was so precious and my heart almost burst to see the joy in my little girl's face. Before I became a mama I never thought it was possible to have that much love in my heart for someone, and now I have that much love times two.

She is such a sweet big sister. She loves to share. She says she likes to make people happy. I couldn't be happier to be the lucky one who gets to be her mommy.

Yum Yum!

Done!

Get a picture of me too!

Opening presents!

There was even a diaper in her gift bag! LOL

More costumes that she wanted! Would she believe me if I told her I bought those dresses a year ago? She always seems to ask for items that I have in my gift stash.

Princess Smartypants book

A pretty pink dollhouse!

I just love my family! Happy Birthday Sweetie!!!

Stress Free Christmas

2009-12-18T21:04:00.001-08:00

This Christmas has been stress free for me! Well, I have not been stressed out about Christmas, doesn't mean I haven't been stressed out this month. But that is an entirely different story.

I have decided that stress during Christmas time is overrated! What do I want my kids to remember when they grow up - the fight I had with my husband over hanging the Christmas lights and accidental catching me crying in my room because I am stressed out about how I am going to get them the Christmas presents that they want, or the time we spent making fudge to take to Santa so that they can learn how wonderful it is that God has given us the means to give to others and decorating our home with homemade Christmas crafts. You can probably guess which is my answer.

This year I started Christmas shopping early. I actually started in January. Every time I went to a store I would make a beeline for the clearance section and purchase items I thought my kids would like. I decided that the kids would get three presents each just like Jesus did to help put a little bit of meaning into Christmas and to keep myself from going overboard like I sooo totally could. I actually went through my totes of gifts at the beginning of this month and I have enough to give them not only for Christmas, but also several presents each for their birthdays too which are coming up at the end of December and the beginning of February! What an awesome feeling!

Today my friend wanted to know what my daughter would like for Christmas. Her response, "A puter, camera, and a dinosaur toy for my brother." What a sweetie thinking of others! She wants a toy laptop which I didn't purchase, but one of the grandparents will, but I did get a kids digital camera with scrapbook and stickers on clearance sometime this year for $20! Do I know my kids or what? For my son he is even getting a talking bear that reads story books along with the books and cartridges that I got at a church sale for fifty cents. At this age he doesn't know the difference and he will love it anyways.

Through out the year I spent about $130 on both (not each) of them for Christmas. That includes three gifts from us (each kiddo has one gift that I couldn't resist buying off of Etsy), a gift that I took them to buy each other which they will receive on Christmas eve along with their new PJ's. This amount stretched through the year to me seemed like I was spending almost nothing. This is nothing compared to how I felt last December. What a relief!

I am trying so hard to keep the focus off of getting and instead put it on the joy of giving. I have done this by making fudge with the kiddos to take to Santa along with pictures they have drawn, taking each kiddo to purchase a gift for each other, and before they purchased for each other anytime my oldest started talking about the many toys she wanted I asked her what she wanted to get for her brother and she got really excited about choosing one for him.

The last thing that has helped take stress away from Christmas is by making decorations with the kids instead of spending money on them. I wanted a garland for the tree so with my daughter's help we made a paper chain from vintage music sheets. I also love the wreaths that the kids made at Church the other day from paper leaves, berries, and plates. I have one taped to my front door and one to my back.

So if you find yourself stressed over Christmas please step back and think about what is really important to your family. Our family values time with God and with each other more than any gift or decoration we think we have to have for Christmas. I am so much happier this Christmas because I finally realized what is really important to us. I hope that you are doing the same.

Dear Secret Santa,

2009-12-17T08:12:00.001-08:00

Thank you so much for my Christmas gift! I LOVED everything! You really were reading my blog! :) So sorry for taking a few days to post about your gift. With all the Christmas hoopla here at home and at church along with my regular routine it can get a bit crazy around here.

These vintage little girls are my fav! I absolutely adore them! :) They are so sweet and perfect for a cottage style home! :)

And of course I LOVE this little tea cup. I drink tea daily. I am a bit obsessed.
Can't wait to rip into these goodies! As you might be able to tell I already opened the cookie before my kids saw my gift! My daughter is begging for some marshmallow poles! I told her she had to wait til after I took the pictures.

And I am so excited to have some more Christmas decor! I have not collected much yet. If it wasn't for my Christmas tree you wouldn't be able to tell that it is Christmas time over at my home. I better get to decorating! :)

Once again I wanted to thank you for the lovely gifts! I also want to thank Georgie over at Decisionally Challenged for hosting this secret santa gift swap! It was so much fun! :)

Happy Thanksgiving To All My Bloggy Friends!

2009-11-25T16:08:00.000-08:00

I hope that you all are having a great Holiday!

I have had a pretty unproductive day today. I planned on getting much of the food made today, so I plopped my daughter up on the counter while my son was napping and we got started. We did make Summer Salad. Mix one box of raspberry jello, one can of fruit cocktail drained, one large container of cottage cheese, and one container of whipped cream. Very yummy. We have it every year.

Then I cut my pumpkins in half and put them in the oven. I am making pumpkin puree to make my wonderful hubby some homemade pumpkin pies! Here are the instructions. I haven't managed to puree them, but they are done baking.

Once I pulled the pumpkins out of the oven I put the yummy granola in. Too bad I burnt it because I spent too much time watching Jon and Kate Plus 8. That's what I get! I was also planning on making crock pot yogurt so that my hubby could have a breakfast that he really likes, but I forgot to save some yogurt from an old batch for the cultures for the new batch. I really don't know what we are going to do about breakfast now. I might make some more here in a bit.

The last thing I managed to do today was peel potatoes. Not cut them up or put them in my steamer. Just peel them. I have had a hard day trying to get all of this food cooked while I have what feels like a sinus infection.

But one thing I did get done today was I made my entire website for my new business venture - Madison Rose Vintage! :) No matter what I can't keep myself from working on my shop. Let me know what you think. http://madisonrosevintage.yolasite.com/

I hope you all have a great Thanksgiving! I can't wait to hear about it. And to try all your wonderful recipes next year!

Do you smell that?

2009-11-10T20:34:00.001-08:00

I feel like I can accomplish anything when I wake up and the house smells pretty. I LOVE for my house to smell good! I don't know what it is about scent that makes me feel so wonderful! Do you feel the same way?

However, I do not feel as good from artificial scents from air fresheners. I love for my home to smell beautiful naturally! Below are some of my favorite ideas on how to help my home smell nice.

1. Nothing smells better than a fresh bunch of roses. Especially if they were a surprise from my hubby. Too bad I hardly ever have these in my home so I have to resort to some of the following to make sure my home makes my nose happy!

2. My new obsession is pretty soap from Etsy. My powder room currently has a new bar that I bought off of Etsy sitting in it's soap dish. Every time I open the door I am greeted with the glorious scent of that soap. It is nice to have something in there that can overpower the scent of dirty diapers.

3. I also love the scent of eucalyptus leaves. I like to hide them in a pretty vintage bowl.

4. Baking can really help to fill your kitchen with lovely scents. I have made peanut butter granola in the morning and had people walk in later that afternoon and ask what smell so nice. Other baked goods I love is bread, pies, and brownies. The crock pot also smells good all day! Especially if you are making taco soup.

5. I like to grind up some lemon slices with ice and baking soda in my garbage disposal to help freshen it up.

Those are my ideas. Do y'all have different ones? I would love more ideas to keep my home smelling fresh!

For more tips, head over to We Are That Family.

Ready to Etsy!

2009-11-09T20:33:00.000-08:00

I spent all day today doing my weekly chores so that I could spend the rest of my week with my kids and working on my shop while they nap. The entire house is vacuumed, the bathrooms are scrubbed clean and now smell like my new pretty smelly soap I got off of Etsy, clothes are washed, the dishes that piled up this weekend are sparkly, sheets are changed, and the fridge is cleaned out.

I am not naturally organized and I am terrible at sticking to schedules, so this is a big deal! It would be great if I could do this every Monday so that I could get more done each week. I went out and bought a dry erase board that sticks to my fridge and wrote my daily and weekly chores on it in permanent marker so that I could mark them off and then wipe them off for the next day and week. It is so excited to check off each chore as I do it! If I am behind sometimes I have to write in something just so I will have something to check off. :)

I am very proud of my daughter because she has gotten so much better at her chores! She is three and she picked up everything on the floor downstairs while I cleaned the bathrooms. Then I vacuumed the downstairs and she worked on vacuuming the stairs with my stick vac. We then went upstairs and she picked up everything on the floor up there too and moved all the toys so that I could vacuum under them. She finished up by helping me to make her bed. I was so happy that she did all of this without complaining. I will need to do something super special for her during our fun time this week!

I have also tackled something great in my shop! I experimented with my camera, backgrounds, and props. I finally found something that works for me and I made a banner and avatar that goes along with my new pictures. I am working on taking new pictures of items in my shop and adding new pictures. What do you think?

I am so excited about the direction that my shop and my household are going in. I think I am doing a much better job and I hope that others have the same opinion. My next tackle will have to be waking up with my husband in the morning so that I can take a shower by myself, get dressed, do my daily chores, and make breakfast before the kids wake up. I would love to be able to focus entirely (or mostly) on them while they are awake.

This post is part of Tackle It Tuesday!

The Best Brownies Ever!

2009-11-06T14:47:00.000-08:00

It was my turn to take a snack to Awanas this Wednesday. We were learning that God made the moon so I was supposed to bring something moon related. I thought it would be a great idea to take cookies shaped as the moon, however I didn't know where to get a moon shaped cookie cutter so I checked allrecipies.com for moon related desserts. I found a recipe for "moon rocks" which are chocolate cupcakes with marshmallows in them which make them look like rocks.

I had my daughter stay up with me late one night so we could try out the recipe. We had a great time just the two of us which we hardly ever get anymore.

Even thought we had a great time making them, we didn't eating them. I didn't care for them much. I decided to use my brownie recipe instead with marshmallows, but they came out too chewy for 2 year olds. So instead I made brownies. Nothing to do with the moon... but what could I do?

Everyone loved the brownies so I have decided to share the recipe with you all! Let me know what you think after you make them!

2 chocolate squares

1/2 cup butter

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup nuts

Heat butter and chocolate together until melted Mix in sugar, eggs, and vanilla. Mix in everything else. Bake in greased pan on 350 for 25 minutes.

That's it! Very easy and very very good!

A Ballerina and a Dinosaur

2009-11-03T22:54:00.000-08:00

Thanks to everyone who continues to visit my blog even when I am not posting often. I am so sorry to be absent so much, however I have started working at my Church, I am getting ready to homeschool my daughter, I try to spend time with my kiddos, keep the house clean, and work on my Etsy shop. I am truly overwhelmed, and am trying to adjust. I plan to continue my blog, however I am learning how to adjust to my new schedule so it may be slow here for a while. I love to write and I am not ready to give it up. If you want to follow me on facebook I just made a new fan page on Facebook. I would also be thrilled if you would go check out my Etsy shop and let me know what you think. I have been working really hard on my banner and photos. I do have many photos that I need to retake to go along with my new background.

I hope you all had a great Halloween! We certainly did. My hubby got home early from work and I was getting ready to make dinner. He decided that it might be an awesome idea for him to cook hamburgers on the grill and I agreed! So he cooked while I helped the kidletts with their pumpkins. No complaining there even with all the ooey gooeyness between my fingers.

Doesn't his sweet smile just melt your heart?!?

My daughter is so funny with her silly face! As she would say, "Yer sooo siwwy!"

Once we finished our pumpkins and most importantly our burgers we headed out for trick-or-treating. My sweet little ballerina was so excited. This was her first Halloween where she really understood what was going on. She enjoyed receiving candy, but she also got a lesson in giving by passing out the candy which included a bunch of her candy that I wouldn't let her have because of it being a chocking hazard when we got home.

Yeah... my camera batteries died when I was trying to get a cute picture of my two little angels. So we promptly took photos when we got home from trick-or-treating and they were exhausted from the long walk. You can see how that turned out!

And here is the proud Dada! An awesome end to a great day! I am just so thankful for my family and the time we have to spend together.

Favorite Online Preschool Resources

2009-10-07T09:16:00.001-07:00

I went to dinner last night with a group of homeschooling moms from my church. I had so much fun and I am so grateful for the group of moms God gave me to help lift me up rather than tear me down. Other than my blog friends I thought I was the only homeschooling mom. I am so glad that I was wrong!

We got to talking about our favorite online resources so I thought that would be a great topic for my blog! Of course a blogger is always thinking, "I could soooo blog about that!" So here is my list of favorite places to visit when my kids are screaming, "Moooom! I'm bored!" Well, actually my kids are too little to scream that but you know that is what they are thinking when they are fighting with each other and rolling around on the floor playing with the dust bunnies they found under your couch.

Preschool File Folder Games
The Snail's Trail
More from 1+1+1=1
Homeschool Share
Totally Tots
Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers -she has a little bit from preschool on up
ABC & 123
ABC Jesus Loves Me
Lapbook Lessons
First-School Preschool Activities and Crafts
DLTK's Crafts for Kids
Kiddie Records Weekly
Montessori Materials
Shephard Software
Home Experiments on scifun.org
No Time For Flash Cards

Bliss is Found in the Sound of Screaming Children

2009-09-30T23:24:00.000-07:00

As I came to the door of my daughter's Awana classroom this evening, she came running out proudly holding her new vest, book, and bag. I scooped her up in my arms and told her how happy I was that she had a good time at Awana today and I am excited that she had finally gotten the vest she has been waiting for.

While I had been playing with the two year old Puggles that day she had been having the time of her life. My daughter absolutely loves going to church, and now that I have started working at our church she gets many more chances to be there with all her little buddies. Nothing makes me happier than knowing that she loves being in church learning about God's word.

They switched me out of my son's classroom today because I just can not deal with being in the same room with him. It isn't that I don't love him. I do. I love him to pieces and I think he is one of the two sweetest and cutest children to ever live! However, I can not deal with him being so jealous of the other kids that he tries to steal my lap from them. And when he is unsuccessful at that he starts to slap whatever is in the child's hand or mouth. One of his other quirks is that he loves to push kiddos over because if he does that then he knows he has to apologize. To apologize he hugs because he doesn't know how to say, "I'm sorry" yet,and he just loves hugs. He can be aggressive, but he has a very sweet heart.

Instead of being in my son's class today, I was put in a Puggles class full of two year olds. Not just any two year olds. The kiddos from my class last year! I was thrilled and loved every minute that we had in that class today. I was greeted with the sound of many small screaming children, however we were able to calm down pretty quickly and get to business. Oh how I missed those kids! I got plenty of hugs. I even got hugs from kids who didn't want to hug before since they hadn't seen me in so long. We colored, had snack, and sang songs. I hope that they had a great day this evening.

Once we left our church this evening we were able to scurry to the warmth and safety of our home. There is nothing more wonderful than being in my dream home with my husband and children. I love being a stay-at-home Christian mommy. I do believe that I have found my bliss.

Come visit Mama Kat to see more from her Writer's Workshop.

Awesome Trip to Washington DC

2009-09-30T08:40:00.001-07:00

On the 10th of this month my hubby and I left my kids in the care of family and friends and took our first trip to Washington DC! It was great to be able to have fun for four whole days without stopping to wash clothes or make dinner. I didn't realize how much I would enjoy myself. Washington DC is one of the greatest cities in the world! Or at least in my small world which maybe consists of 10 cities.

When I was planning our trip I decided for us not to rent a car to help save some money. I found out online that there was a bus and a subway train to help us get to our hotel and around town. I was so confused by the route online since I had never been to DC that I decided it would be easier to figure it out when we got there.

That was until I was standing outside of the airport with my cranky hubby wondering where in the world the bus station was! Thank goodness a nice man saw that we looked lost and gave us directions.

We took the bus from Maryland to the subway train in DC. When we got off the train to get onto another bus we found ourselves in the very bad side of town. I was terrified, but luckily we made it safely to our hotel and we hid in our room for the rest of the day afraid to leave. :) And frankly too tired to leave as well. Next time remind me to bring my swimsuit so that I will have something to do at the hotel while we are resting. And now I also know to take the subway train to Union Station and take my hotel shuttle to the hotel so that I do not have to take a trip through the bad side of town.

Bright and early Friday morning we took the hotel shuttle to Union station. At that moment we realized we hadn't planned very well because we were cold and wet! How was I supposed to know? It was still too hot to go outside in Texas!

This is a beautiful fountain right outside of Union Station. The flags are being flown at half staff because it is September 11th.

Here are the beautiful flag poles at Union Station. Everything in the city was beautiful and full of history. I took a picture of the front of the station, however all of my pictures disappeared and we are only left with my hubby's.

So we purchased some expensive umbrellas at a drugstore in the station and went on our way to the capital for our tour.

The capitol is more beautiful in person than you could ever imagine!

Here is the inside of the dome. It is breathtaking.

We had fun on our capitol tour. Our tour guide let us know that we could go pick up tickets from our Senator and sit in on the Senate. When we were rounding a corner in the senator building I literally almost ran right into John McCain. That was pretty fun. Our experience watching the senate was less exciting because there wasn't hardly anyone in there. Next time we go back maybe we will have better luck.

Once we got done in the Capitol building we went back to our hotel to rest for a while. The rest of the day we spent looking around at museums. I love how frugal a trip Washington DC is because all of the attractions are free!

This is the McDonald's in the Air and Space Smithsonian Museum. I had to take a picture of the menu because of how high the prices. It is more economical to eat at the restaurant in the Capitol than to eat at this McDonald's! There is also a McDonald's in Union Station with normal prices.

We ended our day by watching Jason Britton do stunts right outside of the Capitol. It was great and my hubby was very excited.

He even had a chance to get a picture with him! Now I hope that we don't end up on the TV show. I wasn't prepared for TV. I didn't even have any makeup on.

On Saturday morning we of course got up nice and early to make our way over to the White House for the march. I was absolutely amazed at the amount of people who showed up. No matter what the reporters say there had to be at least a million people. There were so many people that they couldn't all fit into the lawn of the Capitol. People were everywhere. There were large crowds far enough away from the Capitol that they couldn't hear the speakers because there wasn't enough room for them. The awesome thing is how nice and peaceful everyone was. There were absolutely no arrests. The majority of people were grandparent types. Not the crazy right wing people that the news portrays. These are people who love our country and want to save it. They don't want to do harm to anyone which was proven by the peacefulness of the event.

Who Created God?

2009-09-02T12:00:00.000-07:00

I find it awesome that almost every single argument that I used to keep myself from following Christ while I was not Christian can be proven incorrect. I used to think that since I can not see God, hear God, feel God, smell God, or even taste God that he can not be real. To me it just did not seem reasonable to believe in a God. I thought that science had an answer for how the universe came into existence and it clearly didn't include God. But, you know, that was before I knew anything about science as well.

I had been thinking about God for a long time. I finally came to the conclusion that there are only two possible ways that our universe was created. The first way and what science wants you to believe is that all matter was created from absolute nothingness. Now when I thought of science in this way it seemed more outrageous than the idea of God. The second way that the universe could be created is if something always existed and it created the universe. This idea to my reasonable mind made more since than what science had to say.

There is a theory called the Big Bang theory. Have you ever heard of it? Scientists believe that the universe was unbelievably small. From what I understand all of time and space and matter resided in that itty bitty universe. Now once upon a time the itty bitty universe exploded forming all space, time and matter. Now what baffles scientists is that they do not know what caused our universe to suddenly and rapidly expand. Scientists could never believe that God is what caused the big bang theory. To them that is just absolutely unreasonable and insane! No cause makes more sense to them than God.

What amazes me is that I thought that there was nothing other than time and space. I never believed that their could be anything outside of time and space. However when I read about what Einstein believed I found that he believed that gravity is caused by a distortion of time and space. If time and space can be distorted than their must be something outside of time and space. Our own science tells us this!

I once heard that our minds can no more grasp the ways of God as an ants mind can grasp the workings of a television. Just because the ant can not understand the television does not mean it doesn't exist. I have used that example to understand that even thought I don't reasonably understand almost anything about God it does not mean that he doesn't exist. He exists and that is the absolute truth.

Now I always wondered if the creation of the Earth, animals and plants is proof enough that their is a creator, than who created our creator. When we all see a television we do not believe that it appeared out of complete nothingness. We know without a doubt that their is a creator. I have always understood that, however, I always went back in my mind to if everything has to have a creator than who created God? One day I realized that in order for something to be created it has to be bound by laws of time and space. Without time and space there would be no creation, so therefore God was not created. He has always existed. He is beyond our time and space. He is also beyond our reasoning.

Nothing created God and God still exists! Isn't that AMAZING!

Freezer Cooking

2009-08-31T08:57:00.000-07:00

I am going to try really really hard this week to make and freeze all of the main dishes for September's dinners. I went to a party this weekend and got a great tip. You can pour all of your ingredients (not including the meat) into a Ziploc bag, close it and squish everything around. It will mix it and you won't dirty any dishes. Then you can add your meat and freeze.

I am excited about this so I am trying to get together lots of ideas for dinner that I can freeze this way along with some of my favorites. It literally took them 1 minute to make each freezer meal (they made four) which is nothing! I hope to be able to get mine all made. It would save me hours and hours which is invaluable.

1. ~~Slow Cooker Chicken Taco Soup~~
2. ~~Super Stuffed Potatoes~~ (from Kraft Foods & Family Fall '09)
3. ~~Baked Spaghetti~~ (from Betty Crocker Cookbook - probably not the real title of the recipe)
4. ~~Cheddar Chicken Spaghetti~~
5. ~~BBQ Beef Cups~~
6. ~~Sloppy Joes~~
7. Lasagna (my recipe - I use Ragu, cottage cheese and Parmesan cheese)
8. ~~Mexican Casserole~~ (mix ground beef, rotel, ranch style beans, chili powder and cumin together and then layer with corn or flour tortillas and cheddar cheese a couple of times)
9. Baked Chicken Burgers
10. Ground Beef Pasties
11. Blackened Chicken with Cajun Alfredo Sauce
12. ~~Chili Cheese Potato Casserole~~
13. Burritos
14. Chicken Cordon Bleu Casserole
15. Steak on the grill (not a freezer meal but it will make my hubby happy)
16. ~~Hamburgers and ribs grilled out with friends~~ (again not a freezer meal)
17. ~~Chicken Strips~~
18. ~~Dump Honey Glazed Chicken~~ - A friend made this before I did and found out that it was terrible so I substituted more chicken strips for this day.
19. Chicken Cacciatore
20. Meatloaf Pie
21. Talapia (this is for my mom to make for the kids while we are on vacation)
22. Unstuffed Pepper Skillet Dinner
23 - 26. Homemade Pizza x 4 (make the crust with the bread machine and dump on some toppings - easy peasy)
27. ~~Tamale Casserole~~ (Betty Crocker Cookbook)
28. ~~Mexican-Style Pork Chops~~
29. ~~Takeout~~
30. ~~Takeout~~

I will keep you updated this week on my progress. And maybe if I do a good job then I will work on freezing breakfast and lunches too! We will see.

Click here to visit Menu Plan Monday!

The Estate Sale Was a Success!

2009-06-27T20:59:00.000-07:00

Like I have told you we lost two wonderful people about two weeks ago. Eric and Rosse will be greatly missed by many people, especially their children.

Today we had an estate sale where many people donated items from their home and baked goods. Many people came out and we made a good amount for the family. We are very excited that it turned out so well.

This estate sale has brought me back to how I felt right after we found out. We didn't know Eric and Rosse very well. I had only met them a couple of times, but my hubby knew them a little better.

My husband is part of a motorcycle group, and when the group was out riding in Austin during the ROT rally there was a tragic accident. My husband was not there. I don't think anyone really knows how they ended up losing control. However, no matter what the media says, they were not doing anything stupid and they were not drinking. The organizer of the group will NOT let you drink. And I know that Eric would never try to jeopardize his wife's life by doing something stupid. It was a pure accident and a horrible tragedy.

Now that they have passed on we know that they have gone to Heaven to be with the Lord. I am at peace with that. What really tears me up is to think about their two babies who are almost the exact same age as my two. Mine are both about two months younger. Those are the people that we are thinking about now.

I just keep replaying in my mind how I think the children are reacting to their parents never coming home. It is terrible, and it has made me stop to think before I go out and do anything stupid. I don't want to leave my babies until I am old and they already have spouses and children of their own. Right now they need me.

I am just purely stunned at how fragile life can be. Days after the accident the last time I had seen them kept replaying in my mind. I could see them so clearly. Almost like I could reach out and touch them. It really didn't feel real. How could they be gone if I can SEE them?

Please just pray for the families who lost a daughter, son, mother, daughter, niece, nephew, brother, and sister. These are the people who need us the most right now. We hope that we can be a support for these people. Our group is starting a nonprofit and you can read about it here - www.houstongixxersridersdownprogram.org.

Anyone From The Houston Area?

2009-06-24T20:10:00.000-07:00

Two weekends ago a terrible tragedy happened within my husband's motorcycle group. Here is what one member from his group has written about it.

"The couple died instantly on Saturday, 13 June 2009 at approximately 0815 in Austin, Texas. They were both 23 years old. A group of us went to Austin on Friday to celebrate at the Republic of Texas (ROT) Rally. We went out as a group Friday night for dinner. We talked and laughed and celebrated our life and our love for riding. On Saturday morning the group left for an early morning ride through the hill country. Everyone arrived at the end of the route except Eric and Rosse. They were found a short distance back. They did not make it through a curve and they both died at impact. Eric and Rosse leave behind two small children, Johnny (3) and Gina (1).

Rosse was a beautiful girl, a loving wife and mother and she enjoyed spending time with Eric on his motorcycle. Eric was very friendly and generous and often someone’s designated driver, not only because he didn’t drink alcohol but because he truly cared about his friends. At the HoustonGixxer’s one year anniversary, 25May2009, Eric was presented an award “HG For Life” because of his dedication to the group."

This has been a terribly sad time for everyone involved in this group and the parents of both Eric and Rosse. If anyone is from the Houston area we are having two benefits this weekend. On Saturday the group will be hosting a rummage sale and on Sunday a bbq plate sale. If you are unable attend and would like to help there is a paypal account set up for the children. Just email me and I will send you the paypal address.

Here are the details-

rummage sale and bake sale:

Date: June 27, 7am-2pm (will finish when majority of items are sold)

Location: 19001 FM 529, Cypress (S and S Instruments)

Items: This estate sale offers items from a household including golf clubs, pool stick, air compressor nail gun, cordless vacuum, two couches, grill, large mirror, sturdy side tables, chairs, bar stools, purses, clothing, fishing equipment, motorcycle equipment, tools, kitchen items, baby changing table, baby rocker, fold away bed, TV stand, toys, and more items.

Directions:
From downtown, take I-10 West and exit "Barker-Cypress", take a right. Take a left at 529. S and S will be on your left. If you reach Greenhouse Rd, you have gone too far.
From Katy area, take I-10 East and exit "Fry Road", take a left. Take a right at 529. S and S will be on your right. If you reach Barker-Cypress, you have gone too far.

BBQ plate sale:

SUNDAY JUNE 28, 2009 @
WEST ALABAMA ICEHOUSE
Noon till it’s Done!
1919 W. ALABAMA
HOUSTON, TX 77098

*FOOD*BEER*BIKES*FAMILY* FRIENDS* ~~* WHAT ELSE IS THERE?*

~~Featuring “80 PROOF” Live Music 4-6pm
~~A Texas Style BBQ Extravaganza (Brisket, Sausage, Beans, Corn on the Cob)
~~Tasty Dessert Treats by local caterers
~~Raffle for Awesome prizes

I would love for you all to come out and support!

Not Me! Monday - the dreaded Monday morning edition

2009-06-01T09:03:00.001-07:00

Thanks for coming to check out what I have not been doing this Monday morning! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

I did not run to my room just now to escape the screaming of my two lovely well behaved angels. I am not blogging to mentally relieve myself from the constant waaaaaaaaaa! I am not counting the minutes until nap time.

Well, actually I am not because then I have a long list of items to take care of - grocery shopping, paying the mortgage, picking up new post office keys, sending off forms, and getting my van inspected.

Do you think I can get that all done during their 2 hour nap? No. I didn't think so either. I will not be lugging two cranky screaming children through the grocery store today for my monthly shopping trip.

Oh and please remind me that I need to blog about it on my other blog. I definitely have not gone months without updating it because I have been failing miserably in financial planning. I am kicking myself to get on board now and quit going out and having fun!

I did not just go into my dinning room after I got fed up with all the screaming to find my son standing on a chair with no idea as to how to get down. He doesn't get himself stuck on chairs or tables frequently. And he definitely never takes a tumble off of any chairs.

Oh and most of all I did not find 12 count boxes of Poptarts on sale this weekend for $1 and purchase three of them so that my hubby would have something quick to grab for breakfast for when I forget to pack his breakfast. I do not forget to pack it weekly. Or even daily at times. And I most certainly DID NOT steal a couple of them this morning to feed to my two precious little ones that I only feed foods made from scratch out of nice wholesome ingredients.

I of course slaved over a hot stove all morning long instead of desperately trying to put my house back together after this weekend. You know. Because I kept up my weekday cleaning routine all weekend long as well. That is why it is called a weekday cleaning routine. :)

Weekly Wrap-Up: Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

2009-05-29T12:32:00.001-07:00

This last weekend my friend who just happens to be a teacher introduced me to the book, Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. She let me borrow it and the kidlits and I read it multiple times this week. We also did many reinforcment activities using the alphabet.

To make this really cute palm tree I used this template and printed it out. I then held it together with a sheet of green construction paper and cut out all of the leaves. I then switched to brown and cut out the rest. My daughter then used alphabet sponges I purchased in the craft section of Wal-Mart to sponge paint letters all over the page.

My son had a ball drawing with markers on construction paper and his face while she worked on her art project.

Outside on the road at the back of our house I wrote out the entire alphabet with sidewalk chalk. My daughter would throw our handmade bean bags (click here for instructions) and she would jump each time she said a letter until she got to the letter that her bean bag landed on.

I got the inspiration for this name card and alphabet cups from this site. Her's are way cuter, and made out of bottle caps, but these are the only things I had on hand and I didn't have much time to get the activity ready. I think I will make her version in the future. For now this works for us!

To get the printable for this activity click here. You are actually supposed to print and laminate this, but I instead cut it out for her and had her glue it on construction paper. She got bored after doing this activity for a while, so we stopped. I will offer it to her again today to see if she wants to work on it some more.

We are also going to start back up on our Hooked On Phonics today. We were doing it and she got all the way through the upper case letters, but she was not getting the rhyming part. She finally understands what a rhyme is so we are going to start back up with it and hopefully finish it this time. She absolutely loves the computer games that come with it.

This week offically kicked off the beginning of our letter unit studies. Each week we are going to do a letter craft and some activities to go along with it. Make sure to check back each Friday to see what we have been up to. And please click here to visit Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers to see what other bloggers have been up to this week.

My Little Neat Freak

2009-05-28T20:11:00.000-07:00

Look Mama!

I am cleaning my bike just like Dada!

Now time to clean the floor!

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

What An Awesome Week!

2009-05-25T12:08:00.000-07:00

Preschool went pretty well last week. The kids are having so much fun. They think that they are playing, but what they don't know is that they are learning as well. What am I going to do next? Slip veggies into casseroles so that they don't realize what they are eating is not only yummy but good for them as well? :)

They loved finding their activity boxes full of new items to play with each morning. The above butterfly craft was in their box one morning. My son made this one. I can not find the one my daughter made. I was very excited about this craft because I was going to use them for decorations in my home. What I did was fold and cut a V shape out of a coffee filter. The kids colored the coffee filter and clothes pin with markers. We then sprayed the filter with water from a spray bottle to get this look. Once it was dry I glued the filter to the clothes pin and glued on tiny googly eyes.

I got this idea from the blog Flipflops & Applesauce. They have a similar card game that they made on their website which can be printed out, but instead of different animals they have monkeys. For our game what I did was take an activity book and copy it on my printer and cut out photos of five animals. I pasted them to index cards and wrote numbers 1 - 10 on the rest of the cards. To play we place them upside down and draw a card. If you draw a number card you say the number. If you get an animal card you act out the animal that you drew.

This game is good for practicing fine motor skills. My one year old loves it and can easily spend half an hour playing. What I did was take an empty drink mix container and cut a small hole in it's lid. I then cut some bendy straws to fit length wise into the container. The game is simple. All they do is take the straws and put them through the hole on the top.

I found these counting bears in the teacher store for a little over six bucks last week. The set came with 50 bears and five cups. There are many different activities that can be done with these bears. I plan to do this activity soon.

Now who would have thought that beans in a box would become the most requested activity in my home? I mean, I was only going through my pantry and cleaning it out when I came across these beans. I never cook them and didn't want them to go to waste, so I let they play with them. It is awesome! They can sit and play with them for at least half an hour.

And last but not least, our color lapbook. I tore strips of construction paper and glued them to the front of a file folder. My daughter used her letter sponges that I got her from Wal-Mart and sponge painted the word color to the front. I then put together several sheets of construction paper and cut out a rainbow shape and stapled them together. My daughter glued pictures of different foods for each color. On the inside I glued strips of construction paper which are folded in half. I printed out color names and glued them in. On the other side I glued in a library pocket that I got from my local teacher store and slipped Popsicle sticks in that I wrote the color name on. She matches them up and is actually learning to recognize the color names. You should have seen her face light up when she saw the game. She was thrilled that she was going to learn to "read"!

I have many more ideas for our activity boxes, so click here to see what I have thought of so far. I will be trying these activities and attaching links afterwards. We are also planning on making a lapbook each weeks, so click here for those ideas.

Preschool Activity Boxes

2009-05-14T18:02:00.001-07:00

Last Thursday we had a great day in our home preschool. I have been reading from other bloggers that they have started following a work box system and that they love it. I have not bought the book. My kids are not old enough yet to really need something like that. Or at least I don't think so.

I do think that the idea of activities in boxes is a great idea. I went out to Wal-Mart and bought six shoe boxes Wednesday night.

We went camping this last weekend and in preparation my husband set up our tent in our living room on Wednesday night so that we could see what condition the tent was in. We hadn't gone out camping for years and last time we went camping it was pouring down rain. Since the tent was still in good condition I had a wonderful idea. I had him leave it up through Thursday.

When we woke up Thursday morning the kids were thrilled to see a tent in the living room! We played with our activity boxes in the tent. When my son took his nap my daughter stayed up and we played a board game. I am going to fill the majority of the boxes with activities that both of my kids can do, but then have a few that need to be done during my son's nap time.

After all of the fun my daughter was wore out and she had her nap in the tent. Overall it was a successful day.

Happy Birthday To Me

2009-05-07T07:07:00.000-07:00

Happy birthday to me!
Happy birthday to me!
Happy birthday dear Mommy!
Happy birthday to me!

Today is my 26th birthday. I just keep getting older and older. Now when do the years start reversing for you like they did for my mom. My mom is now actually a year younger than me!

My daughter came and knocked on my door this morning and said, "Come look at your birthday!"

I went into the kitchen and my mom was there making me a cake and my daughter shouted, "Happy birthday!" all excited. It was really cute.

So this mommy is taking a break and we are going to go to the park. Well, if you can call that a break! :)

Favorite Bloggy Finds

2009-05-05T08:26:00.000-07:00

It is difficult to write blog posts when you are busy reading. There is so much good reading out in bloggy land that you can become consumed by it. I don't want to be the only lazy blog reading housewife out there, so I will pass on my great finds to you. I'm a great friend like that!

Today I stumbled across an awesome daddy blog. I normally don't read daddy blogs. They don't hardly ever appeal to me. I mean, why do I want to read a whole post on the art of burping or a post on how to get out of changing diapers? Yeah. I don't. However, Craig over at You Could Call This A Blog has a wonderful blog chocked full of thought provoking posts with tasteful humor mixed in. I haven't read the whole blog, so please don't hold me accountable if you find a post on burping. :) All joking aside, he is an awesome christian daddy of three, so what are you waiting for? Go check him out. I will still be here.

The ladies over at Casa Petrie took a $5 crafting challenge, and came up with the cutest wreaths that would warm any mommy-to-be's heart. The best part is that anyone can afford to make their friend smile because the whole project cost just $5. I know that I can't wait until my friend's baby showers so that I can give them one of these wreaths. Click here to be taken to the post.

Over at Tuesday's With Molly there is a lovely post about making a pennant banner which I am going to be making here soon for my daughter's upcoming Valentine's day themed birthday party. Yeah. Her birthday isn't until February, but I want to get most of it done ahead of time because I hate waiting till the last minute. I normally procrastinate, and then I am disappointed in myself because I ran out of time and the party doesn't turn out the way I had it in my mind. I bought most of her party supplies this last February after the Valentines day items went on clearance. My goal is to do one thing for her party each month so that I will be ready!

So there you have it. Three of my favorite recent finds from here in bloggy land. Let me know what you think, and feel free to pass along some of your favorite posts or blogs. You know, I don't have enough to read already! :)

Welcome back Stellan and read all about what I did not do this week!

2009-05-04T08:52:00.000-07:00

Okay. So I totally can not say that I am not excited that Stellan and his mommy are finally back home because I totally am! After weeks of prayers our prayers were finally answered. This amazing family will continue to be in prayers for what they will need to overcome in the future.

So this weekend I did NOT skip house cleaning to play with my hubby and kiddos. The house does NOT look like a disaster area and I am definitely NOT blogging rather than cleaning. Do you think I would do something like that?

I also did NOT bike a couple miles around our neighborhood park yesterday to only go to my neighbors house and eat jalapenos stuffed with cream and cheddar cheese and wrapped with bacon. My burnt up calories were NOT replaced rather quickly.

I also did NOT go riding on my hubby's motorcycle yesterday. I have been completely terrified of it since he has gotten it, and he has been dying for me to ride on it with him. I totally did NOT think that it was fun. I am not not dreaming of the pink helmet and riding jacket that I found on eBay. I am definitely NOT thinking about cashing in my points that I earn from my bank for using my debit card to have the ability to bid on them.

I also definitely did NOT have a lot of fun this weekend while not getting any of my projects that I planned for this weekend done. I hope y'all had a great weekend!

Please visit Stellan's mommy's (aka Mck Mama) blog to see who all is participating in "Not Me! Monday".

Baby Steps

2009-04-30T12:21:00.000-07:00

I have realized here recently that I can not do it all.

Oh. My. Gosh. That was a shocker, wasn't it?

I hope to eventually be able to blog, keep a tidy home, home school my little ones, work on my home based business, cook all meals from scratch, eat all organic from my $400 a month budget, and create a haven for my hubby when he gets home from work. All in one day. Yeah. Right. That may be too much for me to accomplish in one day, however I have recently realized that the more I learn the easier it is to make more time in my day and get more accomplished.

Freezer cooking has been a Godsend. I haven't done it as well as I would like to, but I am still learning. Things that hold me back are simple questions that come up such as, how do I make a meal and store it? How do I dedicate a complete day to cooking when I have kids. I have managed to make and freeze all of our breakfast meals which helps out quite a bit in the morning. I am not a morning person in the least, and it is great to wake up in the morning, be able to lounge for a couple minutes reading blogs, throw something in the microwave or toaster for my kids, and then get on with my day. I have started making freezer cooking an activity for not only for me, but for my children as well. I sit my daughter up on the counter and pull the high chair up next to her so that my son may get into the action as well. They do little things for me such as dumping ingredients into the bowl and stirring. Cooking from scratch really doesn't have to take that much time. Especially when you make four batches of breakfast cookies or waffles at the same time. Just make sure you have a really big bowl! I have switched from medium bowl, to large bowl, to really really large bowl when I make a recipe for the first time.

I bet from reading my blog previously I don't have to tell you that I am the queen of disorganization. I am worse at being organized than I am at spelling. Praise God for spellchecker! This week I have written down a whole list of things I wanted to do with the kids to keep them happy and to teach myself about how to stay on a homeschooling schedule. I did okay some days, but overall I haven't achieved nearly what I wanted to achieve. One thing that had gotten to me was having to run up and down the stairs retrieving items for our projects. I finally decided to organize our items downstairs in the dinning room. I used an old computer hutch that I don't need for a computer. I made the video below for newbaby.com where I am now a vlogger thanks to the complimentary pink Creative Vado video camera! Now I am able to sit the kids at the dinning room table, pull something out of the hutch for them to play or create with, and I then am able to finish the load of dishes and mop the kitchen floor while entertaining the children all at the same time! Super mom. I know! :)

I also have realized that I can't get everything done on my own. My hubby has to get the kids ready for bed by giving them a bath and reading them a story. He has to pick up after himself. He has to play with the kids when he is home. Most of the time us moms want to do it our way, so we push our husband's help away. However, in order to accomplish a huge to-do list you have to allow him to help. After all, he is the father, and he needs time with his children as well.

I also have picked up small tricks such as packing my husband's lunch during the day. Today at breakfast time I pulled out some waffles while I was reheating them for my kiddos and put them in a lunch bag along with a small Tupperware container filled with syrup. And then tonight at dinner time while I was making every one's plates I pulled out a portion for his lunch tomorrow. I did not spend the 15 minutes that I would have getting his lunch together.

I have been pretty proud of myself for what I have accomplished so far. Pretty good for a woman who when she was a little girl thought that she would never ever be a housewife. "I am worth more than having someone walk all over me," I thought. Now if I could just go back and tell myself that when I grew up my husband wouldn't expect any of the housewife type stuff from me, but instead I would want to do it for him and my children, maybe I would have taken a home economics class and learned from my mom a little more.

How I Know God Exists

2009-04-19T14:22:00.000-07:00

I have not always believed in God. In fact, I didn't start seeking the Lord until I became pregnant with my daughter. My friend kept asking me to go to church with her. I went with her on my daughter's first Easter. My daughter sat in the church with us for the entire hour and smiled and laughed. She didn't cry once. I was amazed. I thought back to when she was born and couldn't figure out how in the world I had experienced such a miracle if God didn't exist. I couldn't believe anymore that the miracle of my baby was all by chance.

We moved to the Houston area shortly after that and I visited my sister's church. It was father's day, and the service was just amazing. Nothing like I had ever experienced. They had a video up on the screen with a dad caring his son though a thunderstorm. He was trying desperately to get home while protecting his son from the storm. Realizing that God loves us and protects us even more than we love and protect our own children brought tears to my eyes and God into my heart.

We had a discussion in our Bible study class this morning about questioning God and the Bible. We discussed how it is normal to question things in the bible, but you can't spend your whole life questioning. You have to just realize that you will not understand everything. The discussion made me remember something that I had heard. We are to God as ants are to a television set. In other words ants are so simple minded that it is impossible for them to understand the complexities of a television set. Our minds are the same when it comes to understanding God's plan. When I read something in the Bible that I just can not believe or understand I think of it in this way.

I have also came to realize that my understanding of the Bible before I had actually read the Bible was all wrong. All of those ideas that turned me away from God end up being incorrect in my mind when I read what the Bible actually says.

For example, one of the main reasons I turned away from God was that the Bible says that women should submit to men. Yes, the Bible does say that, however submitting does not mean that women submit because there is something wrong with them and that men are free to walk all over them. This is just how God has set it up so that we can each do our job effectively. The men that I grew up around treated the women in their lives terribly. Women were to do what they said to do, and all orders are centered around the men's desires. In all actuality when a man tells a woman what to do it should be centered around what God wants. The man is to love his wife just as he loves himself. The man is to love his wife as Jesus loves the church. Jesus of course served other people. He washed feet which was a servant's job. Something that a reasonable person at the time would never do. This is not what I was taught growing up. I didn't know that God demanded so much of the man. However, women should give 100% of themselves to their marriage and expect 0% back. People are not perfect, and men many times do not live up to God's instructions.

Another reason that I didn't believe is that I always thought that science reasonably explained how the world and the universe began. Science was pushing the possibility of God out of my mind. That was until I started thinking about it. Science now sounds as crazy to me as religion used to. From my small amount of knowledge I understand that science says that the big bang created the universe. Everything was packed together in a small area and BANG it exploded and everything was created. The universe is still expanding. Space must go on forever. However, in my mind it seems unreasonable for it to go on forever. I can not understand how it is possible, however I do know that there is a universe. There has to be. We live in it. But just because I can not understand the universe doesn't mean it doesn't exist. Just as I don't understand why God does certain things that he does doesn't mean he doesn't exist. Science proves that. I think that science can compliment religion rather than compete with it.

One last thought. As I learn more about the Bible I realize that the Bible gives me so much information on how to live my life joyfully and purposely that I just can not believe that humans wrote it with no help from God. These are just some of my ideas tonight. Please if you have any questions or ideas that may help me learn more about the Lord I would love for you to leave me a comment. And of course some of my ideas may be wrong. I am just in the beginning of figuring this all out.

We Are Back!

2009-04-16T13:33:00.000-07:00

Okay. We are back from the doctor. I actually took him to a new doctor today. She thinks that it is just a severe case of diaper rash. She gave me a prescription cream that I am about to go pick up. I am also supposed to keep him out of his diaper. How I am going to do that; I don't know.

She didn't once say anything about him not being circumcised. I am so relieved. She says if it isn't better by tomorrow then bring him back and she will probably prescribe an antibiotic.

Thanks for y'alls comments. I really appreciate them. I am going to check out that website that one of y'all told me about.

Help! My son has severe diaper rash.

2009-04-16T11:13:00.000-07:00

My son has been having frequent breakouts of diaper rash for a while. I was using lanolin, but the diaper rash would disappear and then come back again. A couple days ago I switched him to zinc oxide cream. His diaper rash is still coming and going as with the other cream.

Today I changed his diaper, and the head of his penis and a red patch on his leg are all swollen. He acts like he doesn't feel that great, but he doesn't act like it hurts really bad like my daughter did when she had severe diaper rash.

I am scared that I am going to go to the doctor and they are going to tell me the cause of this is him not being circumcised. I have heard lots of horror stories, and I am sure I am blowing this out of proportion.

We are heading out of here in a few minutes to see what the doctor has to say. Please pray that there will be a simple cure, and that the doctor will not try and push circumcision on us. I am sick my my tummy over this.

Happy Tea Party Day!

2009-04-15T22:15:00.001-07:00

I am so excited about seeing so many people standing up for our country today! It is just the beginning. We will make a difference.

I was unable to attend today, however I sent my hubby to represent our family. I was so bummed, but I am sure there will be another one. Our whole family is actually going to a rally this Saturday. I can't wait!

My three year old daughter actually begged to go to the tea party! Too cute. She thought we were going to sit around with tiny china cups sipping tea with our pinkies up.

So were you there? What do you think of the tea party?

And yeah, I vowed to keep my personal views on politics out of this blog. However, I think this is too important not to speak about.

I Need To Get To Cleaning!

2009-04-02T06:54:00.000-07:00

I just asked my daughter to go get a chair and bring it to her table to eat. She looked at the one in the kitchen and said, "This is a nice chair. There is no stuff on it!" OMG! That is what I have taught her a nice chair is. I should probobly be cleaning now, but instead I just had to post it here! :)

I am feeling quite a bit better than the last time I posted. My mom kept my son and my sister took my daughter to a baseball game last night. My hubby and I went to a comedy club with our neighbors. It was lots of fun, and I got a much needed break from my day to day life.

When I got home I heard that my worst nightmare happened. When my daughter was at the baseball game my sister gave her a ring pop, sprite, and some other junk food! The horror. She was also filthy from playing in the dirt!!

In all honesty, I don't mind her to have junk food every once in a while. Yeah, I wish that she never had it, but I know that isn't possible. The main reason I don't like my kids to have junk food is because diabetes runs so strongly in both of their parent's families. I am diabetic along with my mother. My hubby's mom and dad are both diabetic. I would really love for them to develop a taste for healthy food so that they may never develop diabetes. I am proud that whole wheat bread is one of my kid's favorite foods. They also eat whole wheat pasta like it is going out of style. Vegetables. Not so much.

Last but not least. Please keep praying for baby Stellan and his family. I am beyond excited to find out this morning that he has not had any bouts of SVT all night and into the morning.

Please Pray

2009-03-29T17:34:00.000-07:00

Please pray for baby Stellan. He is not having a good day today. I really can not wait till he is finally home where he belongs. Please pray for Mc Mama as well. She is doing incredibly well considering her circumstances.

I Have To Admit...

2009-03-26T20:39:00.001-07:00

Now that I have read that baby Stellan is in the hospital I feel like the most horrible mommy. My heart just aches for what they are going through. I can not imagine what it must feel like.

The last week or two I have just felt so burnt out with the mommy job. We just recently moved and we met a couple our age who do not currently have any children living full time with them. My hubby has been going out quite a bit with the other hubby and I am a bit jealous that he can just up and leave and I can not.

I also am pretty upset that I never have fun anymore. I don't mean that I don't have fun with my kids. I DO love being with them and I DO have fun with them. The fun I am talking about is the fun that I would have had before I had kids. I sometimes just wish that on Saturday morning I could get out of bed, get myself dressed and only myself, and then go shopping, watch a movie, or whatever I wanted to do without an agenda for the day.

To me this feels like a terrible way to think. Especially after I read what Stellan is going through. How can I be upset when I have two very healthy children??? I know that if one of my kids became ill I would pray for them to make it through and I would believe that if they did make it through I would never be unhappy being their mommy again.

I mean, I am not unhappy being their mommy. I just wish I could have some fun every now and then. Please tell me that I am not terrible. I would really love to hear that I am not the only one that feels this way. And if I am, please don't tell me that I am!

Please Pray For Baby Stellan

2009-03-26T13:12:00.000-07:00

I haven't been blogging for the last week for personal reasons. Today when I logged in I was very shocked to hear what baby Stellan has been going through this last week. Please pray for him, his Mck Mama, and his whole Mck family. Visit the blog My Charming Kids to read updates.

The Last Several Days

2009-03-17T15:58:00.000-07:00

I don't think I mentioned on this blog, but not this last Saturday, but the one before my son got terribly sick. He was running a fever and I figured it was just a cold. On Sunday I figured I better take him into the doctor on Monday. When Monday came he seemed to be quite a bit better, so I didn't take him in. On Tuesday he was sick again, so I decided to get a new set of tires for my van because they were completely bald in the front that day and take him in on Wednesday. I was expecting it to be nothing like it ALWAYS is! Nope... he had an eye and ear infection I was told. My daughter also. She got sick that Tuesday. I was sent home with two prescriptions for penicillin.

Everything was going as well as it could with two sick babies in the house until Saturday morning. When we woke up that day my daughter had broke out with a red splotchy rash all over her body. She has had this one time before. Thank goodness my kid's pediatrician has Saturday hours.

It was supposed to go away in about a day after giving her Zyrtec. Well, it didn't. I called the on call doctor on Sunday and told him it started to go away, but it came back and now her eyes are all swollen. He assured me that everything was okay.

Yesterday her arms, hands, and cheeks were swollen. I took her back to the doctor and I found out that the doctor that told me what was wrong with my daughter was wrong. She had a different type of rash, but it was still caused by an allergic reaction and instead of it going away in about one day with the Zyrtec it was going to take 1 - 4 weeks to go away. I was relieved to find out that everything was still okay. I was terrified her neck was going to swell shut and make it to where she couldn't breath.

Today my hubby had a problem with his car, so he stayed home and fixed it. It only took him a little while, so afterwards my family and my sister's family all went up to Rocket City Entertainment Center and ate lunch. After that we rode bumper cars, watched a movie with 3D glasses that looked and felt like we were on a roller coaster (At first I was a little scared!), played video games, etc. My daughter bought a princess accessories kit with her tickets. We all had a lot of fun.

It was very frugal. We spent about $15. If you wore green today you received a free attraction. Also, we received a free game ticket with $10 on it because my hubby asked an employee if it was normal practice to allow people to come in with t-shirts containing profanity. There was a guy in there with a t-shirt with the F word on it! In a place designed for kids! I couldn't believe it. Why do people think that that sort of thing is acceptable? They brought him another shirt and had him put it on over his shirt.

Now after the last several days I am exhausted! Not to mention that my hubby woke me up around 5:45 in the morning! Ugh! How rude! What does he think I am? A morning person!?!

I Am Finally An Adult

2009-03-12T09:51:00.000-07:00

Shortly after I was married I managed to get THE BEST job at a telemarketing company in my town. I was going to be selling Internet service. I think I was going to be making $13 an hour which was a fortune to me at 20 years old. I was also going to have the ability to upsale and make commission.

I was so excited and proud to tell my new husband that after taking the job test that they had placed me in THAT job! He was also proud of me and we were beyond psyched that we were finally going to be able to pull ourselves out of the financial hole we had dug ourselves into. I went out and bought myself all new work clothes since I had never worked at an office before. My last job was at a vet's office taking care of the animals that were boarding. I went there right after my last college class and wore whatever I wore to class that day.

I eagerly attended training each day. Well, eagerly for the first two days. On the third day the electricity went off at my house and so did the alarm. I didn't get up in time. I made it to work an hour late and they fired me. I was crushed and scared to tell my hubby what had happened. I knew that I was a looser for not being able to get to work on time. Instead of going home I went to HR and begged and pleaded for my job back. They agreed and put me in a new training class for the next week.

On the second day of my new training class while driving to work I managed to spin my car around a couple of times on the freeway and bounce off the barrier wall several times. It is a miracle that no one hit my car. I do not have any idea why I got into that wreck. I saw a large piece of tire in the road and then my car lost control. I remember telling myself to run over the tire because I can't go around it. After my wreck when I looked back at the piece of tire it was just rubber. Nothing that would have caused me to lose control by running over it. I still replay that wreck over and over again in my mind trying to figure out what happened.

When I got out of the car I was fine physically. I had a bit of a burn from the airbag, but other than that I was okay. I was very shaken up and very scared. A man stopped to help me. He was almost like an Angel. He called my hubby to let him know what happened, and he stayed with me until he got there to pick me up. I was crying so hard when he called my husband. I was so scared of what he would think about me after wrecking our only decent vehicle while we had no insurance.

We were in an even bigger hole than we had been before. When I showed up at the HR office right after that happened with the burn on my face they wouldn't let me continue my training. I was fired for real that time.

Everything that happened in those two weeks have been very hard for me to get past. We ended up losing the mobile home we were purchasing at the time. We went to live with my mom after that. However, now I can see the beauty in the situation. I am thankful we lost that place because I finally feel like we are where we are supposed to be.

Because of this event I hardly ever drove for quite a while afterwards. I was devastated and terrified. I felt like my life was over. In fact, I never drove with my kids in the car until the end of my son's first year of life.

The first time I really felt like a mom was the first time I drove with them in the car. I drove them to the Mexican restaurant down the street to eat breakfast. I got them out of the car by myself. I got them seated and situated by myself. I finally took them outside of the home and did everything for them by myself. We had never been alone outside of the house together.

Since then I have been able to get more and more comfortable with driving them around. We go to story time, the park, and friend's houses on our own. It is great to not have to work around someone else's schedule. I can finally make my own schedule.

I was very happy to finally feel like a mom. My husband even said that I was finally a mom. That kind of hurt my feelings, but oh well. He doesn't always say the right things. Now, while I was happy to finally feel like a mom, I was not prepared to finally feel like an adult. While I was in the car at a red light I looked in the mirror to see if there was something in my eye. When I did that I noticed all of these little lines coming out from the side of my eye. Where did those come from? I never had those before. Since I was outside in the car with lots of sun shining through I was able to see those lines up close and personal. I finally realized that I really don't look like that 16 year old I imagine myself to look like.

I don't stress so much about driving with my kids anymore. I now stress about anything that shows that I am ageing. I am so dreading my 26th birthday which is coming up in May. Now when did birthdays become a stressful occasion?

Thanks For Stopping By

2009-03-05T23:02:00.000-08:00

Thanks for stopping by, but I can't blog!

Remember when I said my computer died and right now I am using my old computer? If you don't remember go ahead and scroll down. You don't want to miss anything I have to say! It may be important. :)

Back to my point. Yes, I click on your name after you post a comment on my blog so that I can go and read your latest post. Yes, I even want to leave a comment for that post. But no, I can't. My computer freezes up each time.

I am so frustrated and I hope to get my computer fixed this weekend. Something is telling me it isn't going to be. Frustrating!

Now that my computer has given me more free time my children have been watching way less TV! :) We went to a new park today with our mommy group. My daughter (I keep saying my daughter now because I want to switch over to nicknames and well, I am not creative enough to come up with any. Got any ideas?) had a ball running around with all of the little girls. Just today I realized that my son is almost the only boy in the whole group! Poor little guy (or lucky depending on how you look at it!).

And by the way, the park is awesome! It is huge and the kids can easily get lost. There are so many different things to do. Anyone that lives in Katy has got to go visit that park!

Okay, off to go relax with John and Kate Plus 8 before going to bed. Hope to be able to chat more with y'all soon!

Cute Little Girl Accessories From Etsy

2009-03-04T13:12:00.000-08:00

I ordered the cutest pair of crotchet rose flip flops and a matching monogrammed hair bow from Zoe Lynn Designs which is one of the cutest shops on Etsy! My daughter was thrilled yesterday when we received her package in the mail. She put her "princess" dress, shoes, and bow on today and played in the yard. Isn't she adorable?

I would recommend visiting Zoe Lynn Designs and purchasing a pair for your daughter. They are too cute to pass up. She also offers matching crotchet caps which I would have loved to order. However, yes, I have to deal with a budget. :)

No, I am not paid to post this. I just wanted to let you know that my daughter (and I) were thrilled with my purchase.

Homemaking Cheat Sheet

2009-03-03T20:56:00.001-08:00

Yes. I call myself the Extreme Housewife. However, I am a fraud. There is nothing extreme about me other than my disorganization! :) I am extremely unorganized. I think I was born without the organization gene that I so badly need.

In order to fix this I have started coming up with simple ideas that are very easy to fit into my schedule which help to keep the home running smoothly. These are my bright ideas that I am sure you all have been doing for years! :) Please let me know if you have some of your own ideas. I need all the help I can get. :)

1. I absolutely hate open floor plans. Who ever came up with that concept never had small children. They constantly come into the kitchen while I am doing something dangerous like opening the hot oven or straining a pot of pasta. However, I am also learned to love the open floor plan. When I am doing something simple while cooking (browing meat, waiting for a grilled cheese to grill, etc.) I have realized that I can run into the living room and dining room and pick up the clutter. No more toys everywhere during the day because I no longer have the excuse that I don't have the time.

2. Making my hubby's lunch is a terrible chore that is necessary to help save money for the family. I used to dread going into the kitchen to make it so I ended up staying up super late just trying to avoid that chore. What I do now is keep a lunch bag in the fridge and add items to it during the day. Today I made breakfast cookies and I put three of them in a Ziploc bag and added it to his lunch bag. And tonight before I served everyone their portion of lasagna I put a lunch sized portion into his bag. This works great for me!

3. I am now unloading the dishwasher each morning and filling it during the day. As soon as a dish becomes dirty it gets rinsed off and put into the dishwasher. If I wait to fill it the food gets dried on and it takes at least twice as long to rinse off. I start it each night after the kids are in bed. If I start it while my son is awake he will push all sorts of buttons and my dishwasher won't know what in the world it is supposed to be doing!

4. When I brown meat I brown as much will fit in my skillet. My skillet fits three pounds. I use one pound and put the other pounds each in a Ziploc bag and label with a permanent marker. If I don't label the bag then I forget what seasonings are in each bag and a lot of the time they will go to waist. Not labeling can actually be a waist of time and money I have found out.

5. I also cook the whole box of pasta and I place the extra pasta in a container in my freezer to save up. Eventually I have enough so that I don't have to cook any for a meal.

6. I am also letting my daughter help a lot more with cooking. I used to find myself sitting her in front of the TV a lot so that I could cook. I felt much guilt for the amounts of TV that she watched. Today she actually didn't watch any TV. I was so proud of that! :) She helped with lasagna today by mixing and by sprinkling cheese. Very simple things, and she just is thrilled to sit up on the counter and help Mommy cook. Another good idea is to give them a craft project to do while you cook. While I made grilled cheese today for lunch my daughter and son sat at the table and made goldfish puppets. They had a ball and I got food on the table quickly.

Visit We Are That Family to find out what works for all of the other bloggers (which I promise really are extreme housewives!)

When It Rains, It Pours

2009-03-03T20:42:00.000-08:00

Sorry I have been gone since last Friday! It seems that when it rains, it pours! Remember when I told you that my camera died? Well, my keyboard also quit working. My hubby unplugged it and plugged it back in and it started working again. After that my computer stopped working while I was making dinner this weekend. I had to get my dinosaur of a computer out and plug it in to get back on the Internet. And of course my keyboard didn't work again. Now I have bought a new camera and a new keyboard. Of course my hubby's hours at work got cut down significantly. It was just a matter of time.

Don't worry about us, though. My hubby has taken a pay cut of about 1k for each month, however we have just enough to cover all of the bills, gas, food, etc. We have no extra to spend, however we are some of the blessed. We have enough money and we have 3 months of bills saved up in our account. Others can't even pay their bills. I am still kinda upset about this because for the first time in my adult life did I not have to worry about where I was going to get the money to pay our bills, and I had a bit of extra money that I could do whatever I wanted with. Hopefully the hours will come back again. I can't wait until the economy gets straight again.

Landscaping My Front Yard

2009-02-27T20:30:00.000-08:00

I really need y'alls help. I purchased a really ugly front yard. Yeah. When I saw that yard I should have thrown up my arms and said I can't do anything with this. It is UGLY! Instead I thought this 'lil thing. I can handle this. After all. I am getting five bedrooms along with it.

I went outside today. Yep. To "landscape"! When I got out there I saw this.

And this.

And this!

And what were they thinking here? Styrofoam bowls filled with cement and placed on top of bricks for trim around the flower beds? To think this isn't nearly as bad as the shed these people built in the backyard that the homeowners association is now demanding us to tear down.

Today I have realized that out of the two thumbs that I have neither one of them is green. All I did today is go outside to clean up the yard and start thinking to myself about what I should be doing. Trim up the bushes? Dig up the grass and add mulch? Remove the terrible trim and figure out what to put there instead? Paint the house light yellow? Build some flower boxes for the windows?

I decided to dig up the grass and trim up the bushes. And then I decided that I didn't have the tools for the job. I went digging around my hubby's garage and came out empty handed. So I went inside and made granola instead. After all that thinking I was hungry for something sweet! :)

Here is my little cutie showing off the table and chairs that we were given by some friends. I want to spray paint them and sew up some cute cushions.

Of course I couldn't leave out this cutie. Can you believe that I got up this morning and actually did her hair? I was so proud of myself. They were both dressed and ready to go by 10 am. :)

Now I am going to bed so that I may get up for yard sales in the morning. Night night! Oh... and don't forget to leave me some comments letting me know what in the world I am supposed to do in the yard to pretty it up. I am completely baffled.

Say it Forward

2009-02-26T22:02:00.000-08:00

I would love to thank Kristin from the blog My Art And The Mom In Me for being such a wonderful blog friend. She is very creative with a wonderful Etsy shop you all should visit, a great mom to her two daughters, and she always has something positive to say in her blog comments.

Now what are you waiting for? Go visit her and let me know how much you love her blog! :)

It would also be great of you to stop by 5MFM for more Say It Forward posts.

Thank you so much!

2009-02-26T21:04:00.000-08:00

I have received a few rewards here recently. I am so excited each time I find out that someone is reading my blog and likes it enough to pass an award on to me. I am very thankful for all of my readers! :)

The sweet Sarah from Storing Up Treasures passed this Kreative Blogger award on to me. Thank you so much!

Now I would love to pass it on to Kate over at A Simple Walk and Cooking During Stolen Moments. She is one of the most awesome mommy bloggers out there. She does freezer cooking like nobody's business. She is a loving wife and a very attentive homeschooling mom. I hope to one day be half as good of a mommy and wife as she is.

I received this Excellence in Broadcasting award award from Tracey over at $1200 Frugal Challenge 2009. Her blog is awesome because she has set a grocery budget goal of $1200 for the whole year. She is doing an awesome job, and I wish her the best of luck. She is also a very sweet homeschooling mom of three daughters.

The rules for passing on this award are as follows:

1. Post this award on my blog.

2. Pass it on to some friends, up to 15.

3. Let them know they've received the award

I have chosen to give this award to Georgie over at Decisionally Challenged. She is such a wonderful person. I just love her blog so much including her confessional booth. I soooo need it sometimes. And yes, sometime I post as anonymous! :)

These two awards were received from Tammy over at Pink Stinx who has a wonderful blog which is a mix of everything happening in her life. Please go visit her and wish her well with her recent move over to my neck of the woods! :)

I would like to pass these awards on over to 7 of my favorite bloggy friends.

Pink Slippers

Domestically Disabled Girl

Tracey

Sarah from Storing Up Treasures

The Chickenista

Cardiogirl

Debbie over at Suburb Sanity

Thanks so much y'all for being such a wonderful part of my day. I ran out of time to write something personal about everyone. I am sorry for this. I will come back later to add it.

My Children Love Each Other

2009-02-25T20:37:00.001-08:00

Today has been challenging. I say today like every other day is a breeze! :) Hahaha!

Isn't it hilarious when you meet another woman who is just about to have her first baby? She doesn't know what is coming. Wouldn't it be wonderful if you actually understood what it was like to have every single free second of your life taken away from you the second you give birth to your first child before you actually have said child? That way we could cherish our free time before we have kids. I would have my kids all over again in a heartbeat, however I wish that I would have cherished my me time when I actually had me time.

From last week until this last weekend I was absolutely sick. All of the chores that I do here at home (meaning every chore there is) piled up because I just couldn't get myself to do them. On Monday I planned to get everything under control, however I only did a little before I decided my children and I needed to get out of the house. We went shopping at Old Navy and they played in the soft play area. We had lots of fun, however the house did not get done.

At the current time I am not quite sure what we did yesterday. Today, I know that I was exhausted. I do not know why all of a sudden I am soooo sleepy. I could have slept all day today if I would have had the chance. I had to settle for laying on the couch with one eye open. I did take the kids outside to play for a while, so the whole day wasn't a loss. We also went to church tonight.

Today I found out that my daughter does love her brother to pieces. When he was put in the bedroom with the baby gate up so he couldn't come out, she burst into tears. She cried and wanted him to be let out. It just warms my heart to see my children love each other.

Advertising On My Blog For Donation

2009-02-21T22:00:00.000-08:00

I just finished watching an episode of John and Kate Plus 8. I was moved to tears because this episode was about the family visiting St Jude's hospital.

I am so in awe of how strong these children and their parents are even though they are going through one of the most difficult situations. One woman said that going to St Jude's is the best thing that has ever happened to their family because now they know the meaning of life, and that they are so blessed.

It really puts your own life in perspective, doesn't it? I stress out about simple things, and then when I see something like this I can just kick myself. How can I be stressed about all of the items on my to do list when my children are happy and healthy? How can I be stressed about wanting to purchase something and needing to wait when their are so many people who don't know how they are going to pay their monthly bills each month? We were some of those people just years ago. Now my husband brings in much more than what we need. We are very blessed.

I would LOVE to be able to give back. I had a hospital grade breast pump that I never used because my son would not take a bottle. I had to breastfeed round the clock 24/7. I decided to give it away on my local Freecycle group because I knew from when I had my daughter and I could not get a good pump of how important something like this is to breastfeeding mothers. I gave it to a woman who gave it to her best friend because her friend was about to give up on breastfeeding because her child would not suckle. I hope that the pump was able to help out.

I received many requests for this pump for various reasons and it broke my heart because so many people needed one for various reasons. I wish that I could give a pump to every mom who needs one. I added a donation gadget on the left hand side of my blog to help me get as close to this goal as possible. I received one donation so far from an anonymous donor (if that is you let me know so I can add your link) and one from Cardiogirl. She has a very giving heart. Please take the time to go check out her blog.

Anyone who donates will have the chance to have their blog or website link added to my side bar. Please let me know who you are so that I may add you. The website must be family friendly.

I will continue to update you on my goals, and I would like to thank you all for your support.

Scrapbook Guilt

2009-02-21T20:26:00.000-08:00

I absolutely love to scrapbook. I have totes and totes full of scrapbooking supplies. I would do it everyday if I could. Now that I am sick I have quite a bit of time to sit around and look through my babies' scrapbooks.

Now here is where the guilt comes in. I have three layouts finished for my daughter and none for my son. I have some unfinished pages and you read that right, THREE finished layouts.

My excuse for this is that I never had a good place to scrapbook. Anytime I would start one of my kids would wake up and try to grab all of my pages and wrinkle them up. Now that I have more room maybe I will scrapbook more often. I can always dream, can't I?

Here is the first page that I ever made for one of my children. I can not express how much love I felt for my daughter before I even knew anything about her. I attached velum to a purple sheet of card stock with eyelets to make a pocket to hold the instruction sheet from the test. I couldn't keep that stinky test. Eww!

Here it is with the instruction sheet in place.

Here are the pages I made for the first ultrasound. She was adorable even in her ultrasound! :)

And here is her bathtub shot! She was about three months old if my memory serves me correctly. I still have to take my son for his. Uh oh! I am not so cut out for this mommy stuff! :)

Just Fluff

2009-02-21T14:37:00.000-08:00

I am just checking in. I haven't written in a few days because my children and I are severely ill. I say severely because I feel like I am going to die, but they are playing like it is nothing. They are just a bit cranky.

I have the sore throat, the achenes, the shivers, the migraines. My poor mind has not been able to come up with intelligent conversation to add to this blog, so I have just stayed away.

Please forgive me. I will be back when I am feeling better.

Organizing Your Craft Room

2009-02-17T23:23:00.000-08:00

Having my own craft room works great for me! Or so I thought. Ever since I moved in it has been full of boxes that contain my many different crafting supplies that I have stockpiled. Even my table and desk are full! How is a girl to create in an environment like this?

Once I have my downstairs completely unpacked and under control I am coming up here to my craft room. I can't wait! Here are some photos of craft rooms I have found online that I absolutely adore.

These are from HGTV.com:

These are from flikr:

If you are looking for inspiration for your craft room make sure you visit flikr.com. Everyone on their has the cutest ideas.

Visit Rocks In My Dryer for more ideas on Works For Me Wednesday!

"Not Me!" Monday

2009-02-15T21:38:00.000-08:00

Please do not read if you are the judgemental type. What I didn't do this week is probably worse than what you did do all month! :)

I did ~~not~~ scratch my head this whole weekend after hearing that my sister's daughter came home from school with a head full of lice. I have~~'nt~~ checked and rechecked my family all weekend to find nothing in our hair, however I can't quit scratching!

I did ~~not~~ throw my wedding ring at my hubby Saturday night after he told me I was being stupid. Don't worry. I made sure that I was wearing my ring for Sunday worship. :)

I did~~n't~~ sleep and watch TV all day today after church instead of actually doing something. The Dugger's did~~n't~~ have my full attention all afternoon.

Okay, but ~~not~~ confessing did~~n't~~ make me feel any better. Check out MckMama's blog to read more people ~~not~~ confessing their sins!

American Presidents Preschool Curriculum

2009-02-15T20:40:00.000-08:00

Presidents Day has motivated me to focus this week on America. I would like to talk with the little ones about what America is, what a president is, and what makes our country great.

I think this week will be very useful in teaching about our country. Most importantly, though, this week will be a happy time with my children where during our activities I devote my full attention to them.

I love to talk with them about how things work, however my main goal at this time isn't to actually teach them, but to have them develop fine motor skills and people skills which are most important for them to learn at the current time. I do not want to push them into academics before they have the skills to learn and understand what I am teaching them. I believe that if I tried to force them to acquire knowledge at the present time it would just push them away from learning. It would no longer be any fun. I do, however, try to sneak the academics in and they remember a lot more than I ever imagine that they would.

Coin rubbings - show children how to place coins under paper and rub with a crayon to make the image appear on the paper. To brush up on math skills you could have them count the coins. For older children you could talk about how each different type of coin is valued differently and explain how to count their value.
Construction paper flag - show children a picture of the United States flag and talk to them about the number of stripes and starts. Have strips of paper and stars cut out so that they may glue them on a piece of construction paper to make their own flag.
Pledge Of Allegiance - Proudly place your child's flag up on your wall for everyone to see. Explain to them why we say the Pledge of Allegiance and say the words aloud to them each day. Small children can be very quick learners and they may surprise you and have it memorized in no time.
USA coloring sheet - have your children color a USA coloring sheet. Once they have done that show them a map or a globe and explain to them that they live in America which is one country on the earth.
USA cookie - Kris from Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers did an awesome job making an edible map of America. I was so impressed by this that we are going to try making one this week. My daughter absolutely loves helping me bake so I think this will be a wonderful project for us to do together. This is a good time to teach about cause an effect by scooping ingredients into measuring cups and pouring them out into your mixing bowl. This project also helps develop motor skills, and you can even sneak math in while you measure the ingredients.
Take a nature walk and talk about your climate, the different plants and animals in your area, etc. Then explain about how different the many regions of America are.

Please leave me a comment if you have some suggestions for this week's activities. My children would really be appreciative.

Please visit Homemaker Monday for other wonderful posts!

Do I Stress Too Much?

2009-02-11T09:46:00.001-08:00

Today I am completely consumed by stress. I have been trying to do many different things at the same time. I have several big things that I have yet to do. One thing is to fax in signed paperwork for the insurance on our home. Please don't tell my hubby that I haven't done this yet. He probably would be a bit upset.

So I am trying to get the big things taken care of today. I have to run my daughter to the doctor to have a test run that I was supposed to do a week ago. I have to pick up a check and deposit it so that I may pay the guy who fixed the holes in our wall. My hubby says that once I pick that up I can buy a new digital camera which I really need. Run to the post office to pick up my mailbox keys. While there I need to send off a giveaway prize that I should have sent off already. Please, please, please forgive me. I am truly sorry.

I am just so consumed by guilt and stress right now that I can't seem to get anything done. I spend my time blogging, cleaning, and doing our homeschool lessons and try to put out of my mind anything that gives me stress, which in turn gives me more stress.

Why I Want To Homeschool

2009-02-10T22:05:00.001-08:00

Today I have been sitting and thinking a lot about my reasons for homeschooling, and how I plan to help my children achieve the set of goals that I have in mind for them. My three year old daughter started home preschool this week, and I am scared to death. It isn't that we actually schedule home school, but I am making sure that I spend a certain amount of time each day with her helping her to learn. I wanted to start early to help teach myself about the sacrifice that it is going to take to home school my two little ones.

Today we played Candyland, drew pictures and I wrote on the picture what she told me was in the photo, painted with different types of brushes (hair brush, sweeper vac brush, large paint brush, etc.) on construction paper, played with play dough, read stories, sang songs from No Time For Flashcards, colored worksheets (she likes to do it - she actually asks to do workbooks that she gets from the dollar store), and played with items in our feeling box (sandpaper, rocks, cotton balls, scraps of fabric, etc.).

I have started writing down what I ultimately want my children to learn and experience from their education. Learning to me isn't just about adding, subtracting, and reading. Education is also about positive character development, and from past experience there isn't as much of that happening in many public schools in this country. There are many things that I didn't learn by going to public school as I think I should have learned.

The hopes I have for my children during their homeschooling experience include

being able to center their entire lives around God.
Coming to understand that learning is something to be done everyday during normal conditions for the rest of their lives (not just until they throw their cap into the air) and to actually enjoy it.
Becoming self motivated by having the ability to design some of their own schedule and lessons.
Having the opportunity to pursue their own individual interests.
Having their lives enriched with actually getting out and experiencing the real world instead of just reading about it.
Developing deep meaningful relationships with people of different ages and backgrounds as opposed to being designated to their own age group and zip code.
Always being able to work at their own pace.

I know that helping my children to learn and accomplish these items will not always be easy (or may never be easy), however I am more than willing to give my time and effort to their education. I think that it is very important for their future.

To read other "Works For Me Wednesday" posts visit Rocks In My Dryer.

Summer Party Theme

2009-02-09T15:15:00.000-08:00

My daughter had her 3rd birthday party *weep* this Sunday. She is growing so old so fast. :(

Planning this party made me realize that if you use a season as your theme you can really lower your budget. Plan ahead and you can snatch up decorations and supplies when the season is coming to a close. We chose summer because we would love for her birthday to really be in the summer, but it isn't. Using this theme we had just as much fun as if she was born in July. Her aunt, uncle, and cousins came over to our house. We cooked out hot dogs, steaks, and sausage. I made some dip with my free chili and my really really really cheap cheese. :) Just like we would do in the summer. Thank goodness it was a very nice day.

I spent hours and hours making the cupcakes from the picture above look just like ice cream cones with sprinkles. When my daughter saw them she said, "Those are peeeety! Thank you, Mommy! THANK YOU!!!" And she hugged my legs. It was so sweet, and it made all of those hours spent worth it.

What I did was fill the cones up with M&M's. I baked two mini cupcakes for each cone. I put the first one upside down on the top of the cone and then smeared some icing on it's bottom. I placed the second cupcake on top of it also upside down. I then ice the cupcakes and take my butter knife all around the cupcakes to smear the icing and make it look like it is soft serve ice cream. I also added the little loops at the top of the cupcakes to look like it came out of a machine. I added sprinkles and I was done. They were very simple, and I am not at all good with this type of thing. Please take into consideration that it took me hours to do 35 cupcakes and plan accordingly.

I bought dollar table cloths from Wal-Mart in bright green and yellow. One for the island and one for the dinning table. I have found it unnecessary to buy expensive party supplies with characters on them. If we want characters we use them in the invites and in the centerpiece. However, we really have quit using characters because I don't want my kids to think so commercially. That doesn't stop it, though because my daughter still has a love of all things Dora The Explorer.

On the island I set up the cupcakes. On the table I made a centerpiece using bunches of flowers I got at Kroger for three for six dollars. The flowers were bright green and purple. Very summery. I was going to use a glass container from the dollar store, fill it with sand from the sandbox, and stick some drink umbrellas and shells in it that I already had, but at Kroger I couldn't resist the flowers. That and I was being lazy.

The kids played outside and then as an activity we made ice cream in Ziploc bags. Click here for directions. One of my favorite money saving tips is to make something that you already have to spend money on (for example ice cream) into an activity. That way you kill two birds with one stone. I think next year we are going to decorate our own cupcakes.

Now during the party a obsessed blogger and mommy's worst nightmare happened. My digital camera died! I only had that thing for the last five years. I thought it could surely handle another five. Well at least I have been wanting a new one. I just couldn't justify the expense because I already had one that worked. So I don't have pictures of the flowers after the party. My daughter decided she wanted to pick them.

I also don't have pictures of our first day of home pre-school either. Makes me so sad. But that is for another post.

Check out more
"Tackle It Tuesday",
"Kitchen Tip Tuesday",
"Tempt My Tummy Tuesday",
and "Talk About Tuesday".

My Blog Makeover!

2009-02-08T17:38:00.000-08:00

I just LOVE it! Do you? Tiffany over at Mira Greetings made it for me! :) Go check her out so that you can purchase your very own! She also sells custom greeting cards.

Sweet Shoppe Decorating Inspiration

2009-02-07T11:19:00.001-08:00

My downstairs half bath will be decorated in a sweet shoppe theme. I have gotten most of my inspiration off of Etsy. I can't wait to finish it so that I can show you.

Saturday's Treasures

2009-02-07T07:31:00.000-08:00

I went to two yard sales today. That was it! I hit the jackpot at the second sale!!!

I found a shutter that I am going to hang on the wall and tuck old valentines and photos in.

I also found an old 50's chrome cake plate that I absolutely adore. Who doesn't love anything chrome and 50's? Oh yeah, my sister! :)

That really cute vintage salt shaker is going to be filled with glitter and make itself home in my craft room.

I also love the old suitcase. I can't wait to find some more to stack on top of each other for an awesome end table. I already have a cute clear plastic tray to put on top.

And the bird cage! It is very fragile and it looks hand made. I am not sure of it's age. It could be a couple years old or it could be really old. I actually have no idea. I love it nonetheless.

Want To Help Me Donate A Breast Pump?

2009-02-05T17:41:00.001-08:00

When I was pregnant with my oldest I spent a lot of time researching breastfeeding. I, of course, found out that it is the healthiest option for my child and I decided that it was something important enough for me to give my all to. I read many books and took classes to make sure that I knew how to breastfeed while I was pregnant. After all, I was pregnant with my first and I had nothing but time.

However, we all know that it isn't as simple as that. No book or class is going to teach you to breastfeed. They will, however, help you to prepare which gives you more confidence when you finally have your little bundle of joy in your arms. To me knowledge is one, if not the most, important thing you must have in order to make sure you have a successful breastfeeding experience.

When my daughter was born she was a natural. She did have a little problem with gumming my nipples. She was getting all the nutrients that she needed while I was in a LOT of pain! Finally a couple days later the lactation consultant came in and simply told me to push down on her chin and that was the end of that. It was smooth sailing from there on out.

I did have a problem with wanting a break once in a while. I got to where I had someone else give my daughter a bottle of formula each day so that I could have a break from breastfeeding. Maybe wanting that is selfish, however I think that for the bonding between mother and child both must be happy and comfortable. So the mom's feelings really do matter. I really wish that I could have afforded a breast pump at the time so that I wouldn't have had to resort to formula.

I did have the luxury of receiving a hospital grade breast pump after having my son. Now that he is a year I decided to give it away on freecyle and I had many requests for that pump. Once I gave it away I received a heartbreaking email from someone wanting the pump. She is pregnant with their second child, and their first has cancer. She needs the pump to be able to supply her soon to be born with breast milk while she takes her son to chemo. She is unable to purchase a pump because the cancer is eating away at their budget.

I would love to be able to supply a pump for this mom and other moms who need them. This is something I feel is important and I would appreciate it if you would help me raise the funds for this cause. I have added a chip in gadget at the top left hand side of the blog. My other future fundraisers include a virtual Tupperware party and selling fundraising items in my Etsy shop.

Writing Assignment - Ten Things On My Mind

2009-02-04T20:38:00.000-08:00

Let me tell ya, this week has been no less cram packed than any other week here recently. I started out the week thinking that I would have a nice slow week where my daughter and I worked on one project a day for the entire week so that we would be ready for her birthday party this Sunday.

It is almost Thursday and we haven't gotten one thing ready for her party. Actually, I have planned the activities and decorations. I have also bought almost everything needed. We just haven't physically put together any of our plans.

Over at Mama's Losing It the top 10 list of what has been on your mind this week really spoke to me. Of course the first and main thing that has been on my mind is my daughter's birthday. I can not believe that it has almost been three years since I first became a proud mommy! I also can't believe that only fifteen more years until she turns eighteen. That is about enough to make me weep.

The issue that has popped up second most in my mind is the state of my home. We are moving in meaning boxes everywhere! I have been unpacking and the newspaper has been flying. I want to get the house fixed up to actually look like a home for the guests this weekend. I want to make and put up drapes, paint the downstairs, and have my hubby do some projects such as put up the bathroom hardware and replace the kitchen faucet. Um... I also have to finish all of this party prep. I don't think it is going to happen.

Third, I can not believe my ears! No screaming. Yes, I am one of THOSE moms. I co-sleep and breastfeed. Please do not tell your pediatricians about me. I promise I will lie. No doctor, my babies have always slept in their own beds since the day I brought them home from the hospital. And no, my son has never fallen off of the bed (or better yet - jumped!). My children co-slept and lived to tell about it. However, I sit here in awe the second night that I have had my bed to myself. Myself meaning me and my bed hogging hubby. My babies look like little angels all curled up in their own room. What could be sweeter than that?

Now the fourth thing on my mind (however, most important) has been trying to entertain and spend time with my kiddos. This Tuesday I decided to take them to the story time at the library close to the old house instead of the new so that Madison could see all of her friends. I managed to make it over there a couple minutes after 11:30 which is the time story time starts. I rush them into the library and we go into the room that story time is always held in. The only person in there is an old man. Definitely not the normal person that attends story time. So I go ask a librarian and she informed me that story time starts at 10:30 not 11:30. The story time that starts at 11:30 is the one by our new house which is 15 minutes away. No way we are going to make it there before it ends. You would think a whole year going to story time I would have remembered it. Thank goodness after ten minutes of trying to figure out what I was going to do I finally remembered the park down the road. My mommy brain is mush.

Now the fifth thing that I can think of is coupon shopping. I went coupon shopping with my older sister on Tuesday and she was amazed! I saved 91 percent people! It was my best run yet. I bought 14 avocados, 10 packages of Kraft shredded cheese, along with other items. I spent less than $5! I literally jumped for joy in the store. I will be writing more about this on my other blog here shortly. The way things are going shortly may mean next Monday. Sorry, but I am trying! My sister did great for her first time saving around 70 percent. She made me promise to keep going grocery shopping with her. I love having a shopping buddy now! Especially since her hubby (my bro-in-law) watched my daughter while we shopped.

Now number six on my mind is NOTHING! I have been very forgetful this week as you can tell from the library story. When I went shopping with my sister I totally left my debit card at home. I was stressed in line because I thought my total was going to come to around $20 something, but like I said it was only a couple of bucks. My sister let me borrow it and then we ran to my house to get the debit card. And also tonight I made lasagna forgetting that I had Pizza Hut deliver some lasagna last night since I was so tired from grocery shopping. My sister thought it would only take around two hours to go shopping. Hahaha! Yeah, shopping for a month with coupons. I don't think so!

Seven... My little nineteen year old sister! She is moving in with my big sister once the current school year is over. She has had her roommate bring her home the last couple of weekends and she has acted like a typical teenager. My older sister and I have been pulling our hair out worrying about her. Now we know how our parents felt.

Eight, nine, and ten... my husband, daughter, and son. They are very important and always on my mind. I have really been trying to honor them this week and be the best wife and mommy possible. We are taking a parenting class at our church each Wednesday and I am really trying to take the lessons to heart. I want to live deliberately and have goals for our family, marriage, and children. I pray to God that I am able to accomplish what he is asking of me as a wife and a mother.

I recieved my writing assignment from Mama Kat so please go check out her blog for other writers who are actually talented. :)

Free Toys

2009-02-03T23:38:00.000-08:00

Okay... maybe not free, but pretty close. And yes, I have already started Christmas shopping for the upcoming season. My two sisters and I went to Wal-Mart one night and found the toy clearance. I was in Heaven! I already knew that they clearance out toys right before they brought in the Christmas stock, but I didn't know they did that right before they brought in the summer stock.

I purchased a saucer chair for each of my kids at $7 a piece. My daughter got Disney princesses of course and my son Disney Cars. A set of Lincoln Logs for $7. I want to use them in home schooling so I am giving them to my daughter for her birthday this week. I also purchased two Princess dress up dresses for $4 each. Those suckers are normally over $20! I am excited to be adding them to my kids dress up area.

Creating a dress up area for children is also something that works great for me! They just love it and can be entertained for hours. I have been picking up costumes at yard sales when I see them. I am also pretty sure I could pick up some more if I put a wanted ad on my local freecycle group. My goal is to set up a little curtain in the play room eventually to use as a stage for them in their costumes and for their puppets as well.

My daughter and niece both had a ball trying on costumes tonight. I love being only two minutes away from my sister now! :) Madison has so much fun.

And that works for me! To see other "Works For Me Wednesday" posts visit Rocks In My Dryer.

We Moved!

2009-01-28T20:44:00.001-08:00

Just wanted to drop in really quickly and let you all know that we have finally moved. I am going to go to the old house tomorrow and clean a bit and finish packing up what we left, but after that we are completely done! I am so very excited that this transition is almost completed.

I know I promised pictures a while back, but each time I came here I forgot my camera. The problem now is that we are here and I have my camera, but I just don't know where it is! Thank goodness I don't so that you all can't see my mess I have everywhere! I am almost done with the kids areas and the kitchen, but other than that everything is a mess.

How Would Someone Start A Charity?

2009-01-23T10:12:00.000-08:00

Ever since I had my daughter I have truly understood how important breastfeeding is to children. Before I gave birth to her I really didn't get it. I knew that it was the healthiest choice so I took classes and read up on breastfeeding. I was determined to learn how to do it before I had her so that I would be ready.

And I was ready. I was very lucky. She attached like a pro. Maybe better than a pro because she attached very well and was so into it that she would gum my nipples and it was very painful. I was in tears at the hospital nursing every two hours for almost two days. The nurses didn't know what to do. Finally a lactation consultant was available to help me. She told me to push down on her chin as she nursed and she would stop. It worked! I was so relieved and we nursed for over a year.

Now that I have nursed my babies I understand when people say that it is a wonderful bonding experience. Breastfeeding not only nourishes your baby, but also gives comfort to them. You know how when you hug or cuddle with your spouse and it gives you great comfort? That is how it is for you and your baby when you nurse. Okay, that is at least how it is for your baby. Some mothers enjoy breastfeeding and some don't.

Ever since I gave birth to my daughter I have wondered how I could go about helping other moms successfully breastfeed their own children. I gave an electric pump away on freecycle today and it hit me. Some moms can not afford classes, pumps, and lactation consultants. I would love to be able to offer that service to moms free of charge.

The problem is that I don't have the means to pay for it all. Have any of you ever started a charity? How did you go about doing it? And how did you fit it around your schedule? With my two children, my etsy shop, my website, and my home I am finding it impossible to keep up. I am not quite sure how I am going to start homeschooling soon and start a charity. I know that something will have to give. I am just not quite sure on what. I wish that I could just focus on my family and a charity, but I need to help my hubby financially so that he may go back to school soon. I am certainly not enjoying having to work on a business that I wish I could just forget about. I long to give myself 100% to my family. However, money doesn't grow on trees.

I am Blessed

2009-01-22T21:39:00.000-08:00

When I think about pregnancy and labor I don't think about the fear and pain that many people I know talk about. Holding a baby who hadn't seen the light of day just five minutes ago is such a miracle. When I felt my babies crown it was very painful, but at that very moment it was almost like I was touching God. The only way I know how to explain my feelings on such a surreal moment is that my breath is taken away when I realize how close I was to God's miracle each time.

I am so thankful for the two babies I was given to care for in this life, and I can not understand why I of all people are so blessed with these two wonderful individuals in my life. No matter if I am going through temper tantrums like tonight, or my babies are running to me to give me hugs and kisses, I am very very blessed.

I am so happy to see them grow and learn new things. I am also very sad to see them grow because I know they will not be with me forever. I hope that I am able to cherish every moment I have with my two little ones. Even if they are not always under my roof, they will forever be in my heart. I just love my little family to pieces! :)

There is nothing finner than the love of a family. Please stop by Amy's blog, "The Finner Things In Life" for her lovely blog carnival.

We Have a Puggle in the House

2009-01-21T20:18:00.000-08:00

Today is my older sister's birthday. She is now thirty something. Yeah, I can now say that guilt free. Last week she told me of how she was making fun of my dad because he didn't know how old I was. She told him, "No, she is twenty-four." Um... yeah plus one!

So, yep. She is thirty something. She called today and said she was having some friends over for cake and ice cream and I told her I would come. Then I realized that the parenting class at our church started tonight. The one that she told me she would sign up for with me.

I called my hubby and he left work early and met me at our new house since it is only four minutes away from our church. We are currently living fifteen minutes away, so this move is going to be nice on Sunday mornings.

I felt like the biggest loser when I handed my baby to a woman in the nursery along with two diapers. I completely forgot to grab him a change of clothes and a sippy cup. Along with that he started screaming as soon as he left my arms. I don't get it. Madison just couldn't wait to get away from me, but he doesn't want to leave me.

Madison is now a Puggle. She gets her shirt next Wednesday. I am such a proud mama! She brought home a Puggles parent plan that lets us know what we can do that goes along with what she learned in her Awana class. It might be a nice thing to have her learn in her home pre-school the same things that she is doing in Puggles.

In our parenting class we received a book called "Shepherding a Child's Heart" written by Tedd Tripp. I sure hope the books is a good one. God knows I need all the help I can get with these two little ones! I just caught my daughter pulling my son's leg up sideways which made him look like he was doing the splits standing up. Sometimes I wonder about her. :)

Bad Mom Alert!

2009-01-21T08:25:00.000-08:00

My landlord is coming over today to check out the house and pick up his last check. So of course I am cleaning. I was just vacuuming and I sat down to read a little bit on the No Time For Flashcards website. My daughter was sitting here listening to the songs on the site, and I needed a break.

So while my daughter and I are checking out the site my son decides to get busy behind me. I hear him and turn around and he has unplugged the vacuum and is trying to plug it back in. I start screaming, "NO NO NO NO" and he stops and starts crying.

Yeah, I know. Not my best mommy moment. :(

Best Kids Music Ever

2009-01-20T21:14:00.000-08:00

My two year old daughter and I both just love the same band - Mr. Chris & The Gassy Bubbles! It is our favorite! I just love them because I love how their music sounds just like 60s / 70s rock. My daughter loves them because of their really cute lyrics. This group of guys are truly talented which you can hear if you click on the right side of the screen on their photo.

As written on their My Space page, their mission is "to create music that EQUALLY appeals to both children & parents. - To unite parents & their children together through song & dance. Furthermore, to help parents see the beauty in reading, singing, dancing & playing with their children on a daily basis. - To give our music for FREE, so that everyone can equally enjoy our music. We're advocates of love - and deep down inside - you are too."

If you would like you can purchase one of their Cd's by clicking here (and no this isn't a paid advertisement - I just love them so much!) for $10 to help support their mission. I have purchased one, and I just can't wait until they release their next album.

Check out more WFMW!

My Natural Views

2009-01-17T16:52:00.000-08:00

This is a repost from August 2008

As you may have read, I prefer natural in many different aspects of life. I am working hard on switching my family's food to all organic, I didn't circumcise my son because I feel he was made the way he was for a reason and he has no need to apologize for it, I gave birth to both of my babies with no pain reliever or pitocin, and I breastfed both of my babies.

One thing that I do not go natural on is immunizations. With all of the above I always talk to my doctors to see how they feel about things. I was advised to not circumcise because I had no religious reasons to do so by my obstetrician. It is no longer considered necessary or even beneficial. Many past reasons for doing so have been proven wrong he advised me.

"Organic is best", said my children's pediatrician. One thing that a doctor has never told me is that immunizations are bad. I don't have a medical degree, so I trust in my doctors (to a point at least). If I don't trust my doctor I find a new one.

I do know that not all people agree with my views on this, and I do not expect them to. Many people think that I was crazy for not just getting an epidural. The reason I fought so hard for a natural birth is because I didn't want unnecessary unnatural drugs put into my babies bodies so early in their lives. I do not see how this can be beneficial to their well being. However, I do see how it could be detrimental. I believe that my job as a mother is to protect my children from harm, even when it means putting my feelings aside to do this. My job is to fight as hard for them as I can manage. I managed to go without medication, and I feel that I did my job and I am proud of that.

When it comes to breastfeeding, I feel that pain relievers during labor help to destroy the breastfeeding relationship between mother and child. Of course, this isn't true in every situation, but when I tried to breastfeed my babies I had very little problems. Almost every single person that I know didn't breastfeed because their child wouldn't suck. I also know that almost everyone I know used pain reliever during labor. Breastfeeding is natural. I do not believe that it is natural for a baby not to suckle. There must be a reason for this.

I could write a separate post for each view that I have, however that takes quite a bit of time, and time isn't something that I have an abundance of at the present. Hopefully in the future I can write more of my viewpoints. I would love to have a discussion with other moms on these issues. I am the provider of health and nourishment to my family, so these are issues that are very important to me. My family depends on me to make every decision when it comes to doctors, foods, etc. My husband trusts in my opinions. Please let me know what you think. I do not want this to be a debate on different ways of life. I would only like a discussion so that we may learn and grow from each other's ideas. Thanks for reading!

Are you going to BlissDom?

2009-01-16T21:32:00.000-08:00

I am new to blogging so this is the first that I have heard of BlissDom. To me it sounds like it is going to be a blast! I would absolutely love to go, and I have been trying to figure out a way to make that happen, but I am very sad to say that it seems that this year I won't be able to make it.

There are going to be some awesome bloggers attending including some of my favorites - Kristen from We Are That Family, Shannon from Rocks In My Dryer, and The Nester. Click here to read the list of awesome women that will be attending.

Make sure you come back after the conference and let me know how it went. I will be living through you! And I hope I will be able to meet y'all all next year!

The gas man came over today

2009-01-16T13:10:00.000-08:00

Now why didn't anyone tell me that the stress of buying a home doesn't stop once you sign the papers?

The gas guy was supposed to come by yesterday and turn it on, but that didn't happen. Well, he did come by, but I wasn't there. I was at home waiting for his call. What happened was that he was supposed to call 30 minutes before he came. At the exact time he called yesterday morning I was putting muffins into the oven. I was late getting breakfast ready and my kids were cranky. I asked if he had any other houses in the area that he needed to do so that I could finish breakfast and get my kids fed. He did. So I waited for him to call me again and let me know when he was coming. When I didn't receive a call and several hours went by I called him back.

He said, "I came by and no one was there."
I told him that I had waited for his call and didn't get one. Then he informed me that he never told me he would call me. I just assumed he would. I don't know what I was thinking.

So today once I got his call I got over there as quickly as possible. I ran around the house trying to find shoes for my daughter and couldn't find any. So since I didn't want to be late I grabbed some papers I had to fax to the water company and left with no shoes.

We pulled up just as the gas guy was pulling out. I frantically waved for him to stop and thankfully he did!! I was supposed to have a full half hour to get over there, but he came sooner than that. Oh well.

We went inside and he showed me the shut off valve thingie right by where my dryer is supposed to go. He told me that I need one of those for my stove since I am going to be using a gas stove. I need a plumber to do that he told me. Thankfully my hubby says he knows how to put in a shut off valve thingie. My hubby is a pro at anything that can possibly blow him and my brand new (to me) house up! But I have faith.

So now we are getting to the good part. I finally finished with the gas and I drove down the road to fax some paper work to the water company. I got out and since my two year old wasn't wearing any shoes I had to stick her in the umbrella stroller and hold my one year old. I could have just kicked myself for not bringing the double stroller. So I was trying my hardest to push the stroller with my hands full. Let me tell you. It wasn't easy. However, I did finally get to the door of the place I was faxing the papers 10 minutes later. People were looking at me like I was crazy.

Once we were in there and I let my daughter stand up I realized that the seat of my daughter's pants was wet with pee. So of course I was beyond embarrassed. She was in there with no shoes and a wet butt. I was trying to get her to stand in front of me with her back towards me so that no one would see, but she was just throwing a fit about that and I was trying not to bring attention to us.

I am so glad we are done with all of that and I am finally home, however, I just got off the phone with my hubby. Now that I faxed the papers to the water company they are sending out someone to turn the water on today, and my hubby just informed me that I need to be there so that I make sure that water isn't running from the water heater in the attic (I think he said)! So I have to drive the 15 minutes back over there and wait for the water guy (or lady). Ugh!

And all of this while I am supposed to be packing!

But you know what? This is good stress. I am so blessed because we found and bought the house that was perfect for us. It is more than I could have ever asked for. I am so thankful to you all who took the time to console me when I thought I had lost the best house that I was going to get. You all told me that things happen for a reason. I didn't believe it then, but I know for a fact now that things do really happen for a reason. Everything has worked out perfect. God loves us! And we have so much to be thankful for.

Vintage Game Pieces Giveaway

2009-01-14T20:57:00.000-08:00

Cyber_Hippie is the winner! Congrats!

Here recently I have found that I am in love with vintage items that can be used for crafting. My favorites are vintage game pieces, music sheets, seam binding, bottles, postcards, toys, milineary, glitter, magazine advertisements and business records.

I am planning to add many of these items to my etsy shop in the near future. I am not quite sure of the exact dates because with everything going on here recently I pack my days as full as possible, and I still haven't accomplished half of what actually needs to be done. If there is something in particular that you are looking for please convo me and let me know. I will be more than happy to accomidate your needs if at all possible.

Vintage containers such as bottles, compotes, jars, etc are perfect to display my vintage crafting treasures in. I love to sell my crafting supplies this way so that all you have to do is place the container on your shelf and it looks cute as can be. Here is a compote that I have filled with vintage wooden dominos. It is just the prettiest etched glass compote and the dominos are really unique with the fluer de lis on the back sides of each of them.

This vintage cream jar was the perfect container for my vintage pink button collection. It sold almost instantly.

Wouldn't you agree that these pink hoosier jars make the perfect display for these vintage game pieces?

Today I am starting my giveaway back up. I have two more items to give away. Today I am offering a vintage game piece kit which is a brand new item that I am adding to my Etsy shop. All you need to do is leave me a comment letting me know what your favorite crafting supplies are and you will be entered to win. And of course if you do something to promote my giveaway, blog or Etsy shop you can leave a second comment for an additional entry. I will be drawing names tonight (Thursday January 15th) at 11 pm.

Thanks for stopping by! I hope that you will stop by my Etsy shop as well and let me know what you think.

We Own A Home!!!

2009-01-12T20:14:00.001-08:00

Closing is over with and we own a home now! I am super excited about it. I am going to take some pictures tomorrow to show y'all! I know everyone is waiting on pins and needles to see my new (to me) home. :)

I will start the giveaway back on Wednesday night at 11 pm. I have two more items to give away. Sorry that I had to put it on hold, however things just got very stressful very quickly. I didn't anticipate it. Now I understand why buying a home is sooo hard. I am glad we are finally done!

Giveaway on hold 'till next week!

2009-01-10T19:24:00.000-08:00

I have two more items to giveaway, however I regret that I am having to put my giveaway on hold 'till next week. I am having some personal issues that I have to deal with right now. Stress has also gotten the best of me, and frankly I just need a break. I hope you all can understand.

We are closing on a house right now and it is the most stressful thing that I have ever done! We are almost completely finished, and we should have the house on Monday. I can't wait! :)

Once my stress is gone on Monday I should be able to come back here and finish up the giveaway. Thanks for your understanding.

Friday Givaway

2009-01-08T21:45:00.000-08:00

Congrats to Mannequin who won the Thursday giveaway!

Contest closed!

I have one more $10 gift certificate for my Etsy shop to give this week. If you would like to enter leave me a comment and I will draw names at 11 pm tomorrow night - my time. Thanks for visiting!

My Little Ones Aren't So Little Anymore

2009-01-07T22:17:00.000-08:00

Scroll down a couple of posts if you are looking for my Thursday giveaway!
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I can not believe it. I woke up on my son's 1st birthday and realized that my kids' childhood is just flying by. It feels like just yesterday I fell asleep right after getting home from the hospital with my first born baby.

She is now turning three this February! That realization really brings tears to my eyes. I can just imagine what tomorrow brings. High school, dorm rooms, wedding planning, and a new family which makes my sweet baby girl's heart swell till she thinks it will pop.

What I really can't believe is that my sweet little son just turned one. It feels like I was just walking around and around in my neighborhood trying to jiggle him out of my uterus. I thought that he would never come. When he was due before Christmas but I still hadn't had him on Christmas I was crushed. My arms ached to hold him that Christmas. The one that was supposed to be his first. Now his actual first Christmas has come and gone. In just flash it has flown by.

For more entertaining Sincerely Fro Me To You posts visit We Are THAT Family.

My New Grocery Shopping & Couponing Blog!

2009-01-07T22:07:00.000-08:00

Thanks for stopping by! I wanted to let you all know that I have started a new blog The Extreme Housewife Goes Shopping to help me with my resolution I made this New Years to keep track of my spending.

I have decided to start with my grocery shopping because that is the biggest chunk of money I spend each month not counting bills. Once I get a hang on what we are spending I can edit my budget to reflect reality.

Please come by and help keep me motivated. I would really appreciate it!

And to show my appreciation scroll down to the next post and enter my Thursday giveaway. I am giving away an item each day this week! You will not want to miss it.

Thursday Giveaway

2009-01-07T20:54:00.000-08:00

Congrats to Pink Slippers for winning Wednesday's giveaway! Thanks to everyone who visited and entered.

Contest closed!

Now for today (Thursday) I will be giving away a new item that hasn't even made it to my shop yet - a 10 page packet of music sheets from 1912. Great for making crafts of all different types. Scrapbook pages, banners, collages, etc.

I will anounce the winner tonight at 11 pm my time! Leave a comment about my shop (good / bad / silly / it doesn't matter) and you will be automatically entered.

Gift Certificate Winner

2009-01-06T21:19:00.001-08:00

Sito50 is the winner of the $10 gift certificate. Thanks everyone for playing.

Contest closed!

Wednesday's giveaway is for the cutest little owners manual from 1957. I found it just the other day at my favorite antique shop and thought it would be a great item for the giveaway. To enter leave a comment. For a second entry let me know that you have written about my giveaway somewhere (your blog, myspace, etc.) in a second comment.

I would give more info about it tonight, but my baby is screaming and I gotta get off here!

My Baby's Growing Up!

2009-01-06T20:28:00.000-08:00

If you are a new mother whose first child has yet to turn one I bet that you are looking forward to the 1st birthday party where you are going to invite all family and friends and rent a big bouncy for the kids to jump up and down on after you have fed them lots and lots of sugar.

Actually, that is what I envisioned. However, I decided not to rent a bouncy for the kids, but buy a smaller one to fit in the house since my daughter's birthday is in the winter.

And you know what? Once her party started I realized that all the planning and preparation (read: STRESS) I put into the party didn't matter one ounce to her. She didn't want to bounce. She didn't care for our singing voices. She didn't want to smash cake in her face. However, she did have a ball while pulling all the tissue out of the bags.

So with my son's first birthday that just passed last week I didn't go all out. Actually, his party only lasted about 30 minutes. We had it at my sister's house and we invited her next door neighbors, and that was it. I didn't use my computer to make cute invitations with my son's photo on them. I didn't make his cake which I planned on since I woke up sick on the day of the party.

What we did was allow him to open his presents. He isn't great with tearing paper, so I used gift bags and put in lots of paper which I knew he would enjoy pulling out and playing with.

Once his presents were opened we stripped him down and gave him the chance to smash cake in his face. Which he didn't do. Bummer. We all had his store bought cake and ice cream and then the party was over. And that is what worked for us.

Visit Rocks In My Dryer for more Works For Me Wednesday.

First Tackle It Tuesday of 2009!

2009-01-05T21:25:00.000-08:00

I had such high hopes for today. I wanted to tackle so many things. I hoped to go grocery shopping with my two sisters (my older sister and my 19 y/o sister who is now living with her), however my older sister called and said she didn't want to go anymore. It kinda threw my whole day out of wack. I decided to wait till Tuesday to go so that I would have someone to watch the kids for me. I also wanted to start freezer cooking today, but I only managed to get some pasta frozen. I cooked extra while I made dinner. I was also sick today, so I didn't really feel like doing anything. I hope that tomorrow I am feeling better.

Instead of making spaghetti today like planned, I made Cheesy Pasta Casserole which I got from the blog Cooking During Stolen Moments. I have made many things from this blog and they all came out very yummy! The dish I made tonight my hubby even went back for seconds! I was very excited. That just doesn't happen around here. :) Everyone loves the recipes from Kate's blog.

Scroll down to the next post to enter my Tuesday giveaway. I am giving away something each day for this entire week!

Check out more"Tackle It Tuesday","Kitchen Tip Tuesday","Tempt My Tummy Tuesday",and "Talk About Tuesday".

Dick & Jane Crafting Kit Winner and New Contest!

2009-01-05T21:04:00.000-08:00

Contest is closed!

I used random.org to choose a winner for the contest. It chose number 5 so congrats to Celeste for being the lucky winner!

Tuesday's contest is for a $10 gift certificate to my etsy shop Madison Rose Vintage. I promise I will be adding more $10 items here shortly. The certificate can be used for any item at any price. To enter this contest you will need to visit my Etsy shop and tell me which of my items is your favorite and why. Good luck!

Menu Plan Monday - January 5th

2009-01-05T07:05:00.001-08:00

So this week my sister and I are planning on going grocery shopping together and doing freezer cooking together. I am very excited, and I hope to get almost all of my meals for this week frozen. My plan is to have most of my meals made ahead of time, and then I can prepare all meals in the morning just like Kate over at Cooking During Stolen Moments.

So since I am going to be doing so much work this week I think I am going to keep my menu simple.

Monday - Chicken Parm fingers over garlic spaghetti
Tuesday - Cheesy Pasta Casserole
Wednesday - Chicken enchiladas
Thursday - Meat loaf
Friday - Homemade pizza
Saturday - Salisbury steak
Sunday - Fajitas

Click here to read about more menu plans for the week.

Welcome Visitors From Happy To Be At Home!

2009-01-04T20:48:00.000-08:00

Contest closed!

I am so excited that you all came to visit me in my little area of the world wide web!!! Please feel free to kick off your shoes and stay a while. I have been slacking on my blog posting this holiday season, but this week officially marks my arrival back into bloggy world! I will be posting one giveaway each day for the next 7 days. My first item to give will be a Dick and Jane crafting kit similar (read: somewhat different) to the one I have in my Etsy shop right now. You may enter by signing up for my newsletter and posting a comment to let me know. Make sure you leave me a comment because otherwise I won't know that you are in the drawing. I will draw names at 11:00 pm tonight.

New Year's Resolutions

2008-12-29T15:36:00.000-08:00

I normally do not make new years resolutions. I quit after I realized that I made one every year since I was 13 to loose weight and my resolution never helped me to reach this goal.

This year will be different. My hubby and I have decided that we would like to pay off our home in 3 - 5 years so that once it is paid off (or at least down by a whole bunch) my hubby can go back to school and finally become an engineer. He has gone to school some, but he always ends up needing the overtime and he isn't able to stay in school.

So on that note my resolutions for the year are

1. Keep track of spending - I plan on doing this with a new blog. I am going to keep track of all grocery and toiletry items bought. I am hoping for it to be motivation for me to keep lowering my grocery bill.

2. Work really hard on organizing my new home - This is very important to cut down on a lot of stress. When I stress I do stupid things with my money such as go out to eat even though I have groceries at home!

3. Make most meals for the month during the first week of each month and freeze - This will make it even easier to keep myself from eating out. If I have something to pop into the freezer than what excuse do I have to eat out? I am going to post my progress (considering I actually manage freezer cooking) on this blog.

Well there you have it. Those are my resolutions. Actually not so much resolutions as goals. These are small things that I have to do for us to meet our ultimate goal.

Do y'all make resolutions? What are yours for '09?

Thanks so much!

2008-12-25T13:03:00.000-08:00

I have received three awards here recently. I am very excited that people are reading and loving my blog!

These two awards were given to me by Pink Stinx -

And this award was given to me by Jenn over at My Kids Are My World

I will be adding my 7 winners and the rules here soon. I started this post and now my hubby is driving me insane! I will be back later. Thanks so much for the awards! I am honored.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

2008-12-25T10:35:00.001-08:00

I hope y'all are each having a wonderful Christmas! Sorry I have been gone for quite a while. This house thing is really pooping me out. I never realized how hard it would be to buy a home. It is one issue after another. The last thing was the possibility of mold. We had an inspector come in and let the financing people know that there was no mold, so that issue is over. We were told that there are no more issues, and it is finally being sent to the title company! Yea! I am sooo excited, and we should be closing soon!

On Christmas Eve we all went to church. Everyone except for Tyler. He was running a fever so he stayed with my mom. When we got home they opened their Christmas PJ's. You should have seen Madison's face when she saw the princesses on her PJ's. Her face just lit up!

After we put the PJ's on we made cookies for Santa. And nope... I did not use a chocolate chip cookie mix that I purchased from Wal-Mart that same day! No way! :) Nope, we slaved over them cookies for hours making them look just like little candy canes like my sister does. Ok, maybe not...

Anyways, the kids went to bed after we put the cookies out for Santa, and we stayed up putting the Christmas tree up and wrapping our presents to the kids. This year I didn't put the Christmas tree up until the last minute because I didn't want to have to fight with Tyler for weeks. Christmas ornaments are like magnets to kids! And each year we do not put of Christmas presents under the tree until the kids are asleep on Christmas Eve. It is so much fun to wake up on Christmas morning and see presents sitting there that were not there the night before. That is a tradition from my childhood.

I woke them up early this morning (8:30) to open the presents. I am glad that they liked them, and we had fun all morning playing with the new toys. Now we just have to figure out what to do with ourselves the rest of the day. I think I am going to work on packing. My Christmas present this year is my new home and our new kitchen appliances! :)

I am exhausted!

2008-12-06T20:17:00.000-08:00

And so are my kids!

Today they went to see Santa two times. Yes, two. I am a bit crazy, wouldn't you say? First we went to the library to see Santa, and I forgot my camera. So They sat on Santa's lap and the lady took a photo. It will be posted on the library's website. I don't get to see it until then. All I know is that it was a terrible photo because my baby was screaming and trying to get out of Santa's lap. That wasn't the first photo of my baby with Santa that I wanted. Madison took the cutest picture her first year where she was looking up at Santa and Santa was looking at her. I just cherish that photo. So off we went to Bass Pro Shop to take another photo with Santa. They are free there! Santa had me stand beside him holding Tyler. I didn't like that picture much either, but I figured I would give up on getting the perfect photo with Santa.

I am getting ready to leave out of town in the morning for a brial shower. I was going to give the kids a bath tonight, but they fell asleep as you can see in the above photo. I decided that there was no better time to blog than now. No screaming kids to worry about. Too bad I have a long list of things I need to do before we can leave.

1. Wrap present

2. Pick out my clothes

3. Make breakfast that we can reheat in the morning

4. Make lunches to take with us

5. Go get some cash for my hubby

There are many more things, but ugh! I am too sleepy.

Christmas Pictures

2008-12-03T08:39:00.000-08:00

This past weekend my older sister insisted that we all dress alike and take pictures over at her house. I think they came out a lot better than I thought they would. I normally hate any picture of myself, but these are not bad. Maybe I am just getting more comforatable in my skin.

Here we are (from left to right) - Tyler, Me, Madison, and Darrell aka DaDa

Here are me and my sisters - Tiffanny, Mashonie, and Me

And here is everyone - Robby, Victoria, Dusty, Mashonie, Cody, Tiffanny, Me, Tyler, Madison, and Darrell

Happy Thanksgiving Y'all!

2008-11-28T10:46:00.000-08:00

Sorry. I forgot to get on yesterday and wish everyone a happy Thanksgiving. We went to my sister's house and I made pea salad and brought rolls. I am so thankful that I wasn't responsible for all that food this year. Thanksgiving is my least favorite holiday. I hate to cook all that food. Having to be in the kitchen all day while everyone else is out doing something fun really makes me un-thankful. Which isn't the way I should be looking at it. I should be thankful that I have all that food to where I have to spend all that time in the kitchen.

So the day before Thanksgiving I went grocery shopping to stock up on super cheap turkey and sweet potatoes. The sweet potatoes were a quarter a pound, and we all know how expensive they are the rest of the year. I think I am going to cut them all up and freeze them for the rest of the year. I hope they freeze well. I am going to try a small amount before actually doing that to all of them. I need to figure out the best way to store them.

The turkey was something like thirty-seven cents per pound. I am planning on cooking it and shredding it to put in casseroles. I am going to have super cheap dinner for a while!! However, I need to know the best way to cook all of that turkey. I have heard that you can cook it in a crock put and then it just falls off the bones. Is that true? How do I go about this? I have never done anything like that before. I hope it isn't harder than everyone make it seem.

Now I can't wait for Christmas. I am glad I got all of my shopping done before today so that I didn't have to fight the crowds today. I am planning on cleaning up today and going to buy a Christmas tree this weekend. This is the first Christmas that Madison is excited about. Next weekend Santa is going to be at the library, and they are going to have all sorts of events for the kiddos. I, I mean Madison, can't wait!

Potty Training

2008-11-25T21:31:00.001-08:00

Potty training has been one of the most frustrating experiences I have gone through. When my daughter at 18 months decided that she wanted to start getting on the potty and imitating Mommy, I thought the potty training thing was going to be a breeze!

"What is all the fuss about? This is going to be easy!" I thought to myself.

"Hahahahahahaha," I now say to my former self.

My daughter was over 2 1/2 years old and still not potty trained. Yea, she would go in the potty sometimes, but not frequently. She would use the potty when she felt like it. Not when I wanted her to. I tried many things. I put her in panties, but she would wet them and not even seem to care. I tried letting her watch an Elmo DVD about potty training. Nope. Didn't do anything for her.

All of this went on until a couple weeks ago when I brought home a board book about potty training. She read that book and didn't need diapers anymore after that. Craziest thing! I had been pulling my hair out for months, and that is all I had to do??? She doesn't even wear them to sleep in. I do put them on her, though when we go out in public. I don't want her to get wrapped up in playing and forget. Which never happens. She always tells me out in public when she needs to go and, well, we go.

So my suggestion is to try anything you have ever heard that works. Something is bound to work for your child. Here is my list of suggestions.

1. Throw a party for the child when they go potty.
2. Let the child call a favorite character. Of course, please talk with a family member or friend about this ahead of time so that you can call them and have them pretend to be that character.
3. Bribe with cookies or candy. I know... I am a bad bad mommy for this one.
4. Read a potty training book.
5. Watch a potty training video.
6. Give your child a potty training toy.
7. Put underwear on your child, and let them learn what happens if they use the potty in them.

If you have any suggestions please let me know. I will add them to the list.

Go check out WFMW for more wonderful tips!

Finally... A House!!

2008-11-25T11:57:00.000-08:00

We finally found our home! Our offer was accepted. Now let us pray that nothing gets in the way. I am so excited. It is a bit over 2100 sf with 5 bedrooms. It is a foreclosure, so we are getting it for a steal. The back yard it tiny, but you can see our front yard in the photo above. No road between the fronts of the houses, so the kids can just run and run. We are supposed to close by mid December. I don't know the date yet.

I have a confession...

2008-11-22T09:39:00.000-08:00

Okay y'all. I have never ever told one of my friends this. And please, don't think I am a freak. I am just a little crazy, okay?

Shortly after my hubby and I got married I was driving on the interstate and spun my car around bouncing off the walls on the side. If there were no walls there I can just imagine what would have happened.

I got out dazed, but uninjured. I just had a burn on my cheek from the airbag. I wasn't even sore the next day. This one man had stopped and helped me 'til my hubby got there. I didn't want to call him. I was scared to death of what he was going to say. We were going through some financial difficulty and well I was on my way to my new job that was going to help us through it. I was going to make more than I had ever made in my life. Even more than my hubby. We didn't have insurance. I totalled the car. We didn't have a way to replace it. I was fired from my job for being late. I sometimes wonder if this didn't happen where would I be in my life right now.

Anyways, that wasn't what I haven't told anyone. What I haven't told anyone is that I have been so scared of driving since then that I had never drove with my children in the car. Not until today. Just out of no where it seems that a lot of my fear has been lifted. I have no idea why. I drove us to a Mexican restaurant to get breakfast tacos, and I wasn't scared. Craziest thing I tell ya!

Ok, You Got Me!

2008-11-20T07:00:00.000-08:00

Mama Hen over at Clucks From The Hen House tagged me ( a long long time ago - sorry - I am behind on my tags) and now I have to share 7 things about my kitchen.

1. You regularly find shoes and clearance milk in my refrigerator.

2. I love and collect Blue Heaven dishes. Please ignore the cookies.

3. I love vintage table cloths, especially pink ones with roses!

4. I love doing craft projects with the kiddos in my kitchen. See above picture. My two year old daughter decided one day that she wanted to make a kite. That up there is my pathetic attempt. She drug it around the house for a couple days afterwards.

5. Hence the mess on my vintage chrome dinette table that I just love

6. My rental cabinets are white and very hard to keep clean. I can not wait 'till we buy a home so that I can paint them if I need to.

7. My kitchen is often messy! I am always having a hard time keeping up on making sure the kitchen is clean. But... shhhh! Don't tell anyone. I don't want to lose my reputation as Martha Stewart like!

I am tagging...

1. Pink Slippers

2. MySweetThree

3. Jewelgirl

4. Amy

5. Vintage Whimsy

Vintage Thingies Thursday - Christmas Table Cloth

2008-11-19T22:17:00.000-08:00

I absolutely adore vintage table cloths. I always use them on my vintage table right now because the top isn't so great looking, and I don't know how to fix it. I can't wait till we move into a new home of our own so that I may drape the whole house in table cloths. Okay... maybe just the windows and table in the kitchen. I think I am even going to use some vintage half-aprons to make some valances. I can't wait!

This is the cutest Christmas table cloth ever! I have it in my Etsy shop right now. I would keep it, but I need some Christmas items in my shop. I actually love everything that I purchase during my treasure hunts, so it is always difficult to decide what to put into my shop.

After The Apron Queen's big announcement that she will no longer be blogging she passed the responsibility of Vintage Thingies Thursday over to Coloradolady. Lisa will sure be missed. Click here to go to the new home of Vintage Thingies Thursday!

Having Fun On Etsy!

2008-11-19T08:59:00.000-08:00

I have been having so much fun looking at all of the great items and dreaming about what I am going to purchase when I get my own orders. All of the items on Etsy are so wonderful and unique. All items are either handmade, vintage, or crafting supplies. I have realized that I can purchase boutique type gifts that will be greatly appreciated on Etsy while supporting other people who work at home without even leaving my home. I LOVE it!!

Here are some of my recent gifts I have purchased. Click on them to be taken to the seller's shop.

Quick Easy Cheap Dinner

2008-11-18T21:12:00.000-08:00

For the last two weeks I have been extremely busy. House-hunting, working on my small home based business, playing with the kids, and the normal household chores.

All of this teamed with lots and lots of stress has really taken it out of me. I have not been feeding my family as well as I should be. I normally make sure that everyone has eaten enough veggies, dairy, etc; that we are eating mostly organics, and not consuming very much sugary products. Well these last two weeks I haven't done nearly as well. I went to Kroger and stocked up on those TV dinners that were on sell for $1.50 when you buy 10. Hey... in my defense... at least they have no preservatives! Maybe not the whole wheat that we have become accustomed to, but we can't have everything in times of stress! We also bought doughnuts today. Not something I would normally buy!

So tonight I actually made a meal. A really simple easy meal. First I started with making sweet potato fries. If you make sweet potato fries, it doesn't matter what else you make, people will think you slaved over a hot stove all day long. Seriously. No one I know makes them. Everyone thinks that it is awesome that I make them. I am not quite sure why. But it is what it is.

Cut some sweet potatoes up. Grease a pan with olive oil or canola oil. Sprinkle some season on top and bake them at 425 degrees for 30 minutes. Very very simple.

Then I cooked some pre-sliced ham in a skillet with just a bit of sugar. Steamed some corn in the microwave. Cut up a tomato. And we were good to go.

Psst. Don't tell anyone else, but ranch dressing is great with sweet potato fries. Try to sneak some when your kids aren't looking. It is my guilty pleasure!

I love works-for-me Wednesday! Click here to read more.

House-Hunting Still

2008-11-17T16:28:00.000-08:00

They countered on the home. They only offered to lower it $500 from their asking. They also changed the closing date to the middle of January, and we need it sooner than that. So that house is out.

So we will be going out looking again. They are also taking back-up offers on the first home we really wanted, so we are going to offer them a little more than the asking price. Maybe we will get it! I really really hope so.

Sorry that my posts have been so dull here recently. I am just so wrapped up in all of this that I can't think of anything to write about if I do come up with a little bit of time.

Sorry I Have Been Gone...

2008-11-15T13:54:00.000-08:00

I have been so busy with house hunting, my business, and the kids that I just haven't had much time to blog. This is just so much more stressful then I ever imagined it would be.

We went out on Wednesday looking at houses and have put an offer on a home that we like okay. I don't love the neighborhood, though. We put a low offer on it. We offered the price that we would absolutely love to have, but I doubt that they are going to accept it since it is $15,000 lower than their asking. We will see what they come back with. We don't want to pay what they are asking for it since we don't love the neighborhood. Choosing a home is a very difficult decision.

We found a house!

2008-11-10T12:00:00.001-08:00

But we couldn't get it. :( We were going to put an offer on it today and our realtor finds out that there is already a contract on it. I was so mad. It showed on har.com that it was still available. She called and got the code for us to look in the house even. They didn't tell her!!

We really needed to find a home this weekend, and this one was at an unbelivable price. One that would make it to where my hubby could go back to school and I could still stay at home with the kids. This house could have changed our lives. I am so sad today.

Cookbook Winner Announced

2008-11-06T21:13:00.000-08:00

Congrats to Beth over at $20 Challenge 4 Charity for being my vintage cookbook winner! I assigned everyone a number and randomly choose a number with the help of an online generator!

Thanks so much for all of your wonderful suggestions! I have taken them all into consideration, and I will be using them to help make my Etsy store better for y'all. I wish that I had a vintage cookbook to give each one of y'all. Now I hope you will come back and visit sometime!

Thirteen Things To Stockpile

2008-11-05T20:16:00.000-08:00

There are 13 food items that I HAVE to have in my kitchen at all times! If I have them along with my spices I can always come up with a meal out of the ingredients. If I really don't want to grocery shop one week all I do is make sure I have these items in my stockpile. What are your must haves?

1.Ground Beef
2. Chicken
3. Tortillas
4. Condensed Soup
5. Pasta
6. Sour Cream
7. Cheese
8. Rotel
9. Beans
10. Broth
11. Frozen veggies in steam bags
12. Fresh baby spinach
13. Tomatoes

For more Thursday Thirteen, click here.