Sunday, December 30, 2007

Like looking in a mirror

My oldest son is ALOT like me. I see it in the things he says all the time. Rob and I have a very crass, edgy sense of humor. This is great when its just he and I talking to one another, but as the children get older they get nosier. I catch Devon standing around listening to Rob and I or anyone else for that matter all the time. He will say things and its like looking in a mirror.
Today we were in the car driving and he says We should make a wheel of punishment. He proceeded to explain to me the different consequences that would be on it. One of those being a little sliver saying "get out of your punishment free". He was of course saying all this in jest and we were getting a good laugh out of the different (silly) punishments we could add to it.
This evening I sent the boys up to clean their rooms. Everyone ran up ahead of Devon and were jumping and yelling and making a loud ruckus (cabin fever) He started to walk up the stairs and looked over at me and says "this is going to be a long childhood"

bwaaa...haaaa....haaaa

Saturday, December 29, 2007

DONT!

If for even one second you loose touch with reality, thinking how extremely fun and entertaining it would be. Oh the things they could build, mold and create? DONT! Infact run fast, as fast as your feet will take you in the opposite direction.

In case you do not heed my warning, might I suggest that you also purchase a shop-vac and a bottle of calmness with a touch of sanity (for you of course, they dont make that for children;-)

You will need it as you look around the room and see the product "whos name shall not be spoken" in my home again. What could it be you ask?

Friday, December 28, 2007

Clearing out & Cleaning up


Fridays around here are lovingly called deep clean Fridays. We wake up early and get to work to make the house shiny clean by sundown. The kids stick with their regular zones, they just have a much more in depth list to check off. We also do outside chores on Fridays as well. Here is an example of the difference between a regular zone day and Deep clean Friday.

Example: Devon/Living Room
Regular Day:
  • Pick up all things that don't belong (toys, trash, cups, shoes etc. ) and the "I didn't put it there" line doesn't work...everything is cleaned up by the zone keeper...even if they did not contribute to the mess. Its fair though because this is the rule for all zones, so everyone is picking up everyones mess.
  • vacuum at least once a day.
Deep clean Friday:
  • Dust all furniture (entertainment center, coffee tables, end tables and stove) tops sides and bottoms.
  • Dust walls, doors, windows (we have really tall ceilings and a very dusty house with lots of woodworking detail, and if its not dusted it piles up)
  • Wash walls and door trims as needed (all fingerprints)
  • Clean out from under all couches, tables and anything with an "underneath"
  • Windex windows and doors
  • Dust drapes
  • Clear shelves and organize as needed.
  • Wipe down fan, light fixtures and picture frames.
  • Vacuum and clean wood floors.

So as you can see through the week each zone is kept up with general "pick up" and then Fridays it gets a good deep cleaning. This is also a great time to purge any areas, as we are doing today. We finish up before supper and enjoy the rest of the evening as well as Shabbot (Saturday) Once the children are trained in each area and know what to do its a breeze. We don't switch zones very often either, the older ones graduate out of a zone as a younger one moves up. They must train the replacee to my liking before graduating.

So there you have it an example of "Deep Clean Friday" Now I'm off to continue!

Thursday, December 27, 2007

Lost my Marbles

Question: How can you keep 5 boys completely busy for hours?

Answer: Marble Madness!

Monday, December 24, 2007

Congratulations


Letisha and her family were blessed with a baby girl this morning. I am so happy for them!

Praise The Giver Of Life, He does all things well!

I think my forehead is a bit warm....what is that....baby fever.....LOL

Friday, December 21, 2007

A trip to the Holy Land...kinda

Today Rob and I took the kids to the Holy Land Exhibit. Over 300 real relics dated as far back as 5000 years ago. It was awesome! I have a BUNCH of pics to share...enjoy!

Some of the first blown glass

A comb made out of wood on the left and a sandal on the right.Coins with the menorah on them.
Oil lamps dating back to before Messiah
Description on tablet above

Read description on tablet above (one of my favorite pieces in the museum!)


Read the tablet above...a very important piece of history.

Thursday, December 20, 2007

Wednesday, December 19, 2007

A bunch of Silly's

Are your kiddos as goofy as mine?




They are always coming up with something to make me laugh. Robyn at Lentils and Rice had a very cute homeschool video on her blog today, its extra funny when your maiden name is Adams.

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Another long night!


I have been very blessed with having children who sleep through the night at a few months of age. Ava Rose was no different. She slept all the way through the night from about 8 weeks on.....until she hit 7 months. Then she decided she would get up 1-2 times a night to nurse. This was not to bad because she would nurse herself to sleep and then I could just lay her back down and she would sleep until morning. There are some nights though (a couple a month so far) that she wakes up to nurse then decides she wants to cuddle with me and not go back to her bed.

Last night was one of those nights. I went to bed at midnight ( I have to stop that madness and get to bed earlier) as soon as I headed to bed she woke up, I nursed her and went to lay her back to bed, the problem....I had been unable to find a paci for her at bedtime so she went to bed without it. Thats usually OK...but not last night. She protested and I ended up sleeping with her in her room , on the day bed. The problem is I can never go to sleep, because I am watching to make sure she doesnt slide through the back bars of the bed.

Long, extremely boring story-short, I finally just laid her down in her bed and let her cry it out at about 4:30 in the morning. I listened to her cry until about 5:00am and was up at 7:30...yep only 2.5 hours sleep last night. This is such a rare occurence for me that when it does happen, its front page news around here. LOL So thats the headliner!

For the rest of the news....we are in our "5th week" school break this week. Four weeks on, 1 off. We all enjoy the break and the extra time to do other things. I am getting the next 4 weeks of school planned out. We will deep clean and purge all areas of the house. We are also working on training the younger ones to do knew chores and other things. If I needed to potty train or anything else this is the time that we do that, so that all focus can be on the task at hand!

Saturday, December 15, 2007

This and That

I think I got about 3 hours of sleep total last night, up with the baby you say? Nope....I was up with our neurotic, crazy dog! There was a storm with lightening, thunder and the whole works last night, all through the night. Maverick is petrified of storms (we think he was a rescued puppy from LA Hurricane Katrina) which makes since why he gets so scared.

After last nights "hooraa" I will be getting him some doggy downers from the vet. At every thunder he would wine relentlessly, run back and forth and cry, all night until 2:00am when I had had enough. I coaxed him to the bathroom downstairs and shut him in. I got a few hours of sleep after that and then 5:30 Ava wakes up and is ready for breakfast. A long night indeed!

I received the first box of Raising Godly Tomatoes books today, I ordered two sets of 5. So if you were in the early order, I will mail your book(s) to you on Monday. I am so excited to sit down this afternoon and read, read, read!! I expect to get the second order sometime early next week, so everyone should have theres before Christmas (in case you needed them as gifts)

It is cold here today, a good day to curl up on the couch with a cup of hot tea and a good book!

I leave you with some cute pics:

Licking her first plate ;-)

mmmm...Dorrito crumbs

Our "good" dog LOL...he is such a sweety...a huge sweety!

Shabbot Shalom



Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Bow Tutorial

I thought I would do a bow tutorial. This one is for an basic, no frills clip. First you need to gather your supplies. An aligator clip your ribbon, glue gun, white craft foam paper and scissors.

Hot glue one end of your ribbon to the bottom of your aligator clip as shown bellow.

Wrap the ribbon around the part of the clip that you grasp and squeeze to open and hot glue to the top part of the clips edge.

Cut your ribbon about 1/2 inch long, from the tip of your clip.

Put some hot glue along the other end of your ribbon and wrap it around the top of the clip, pull it taught and squeeze it until it dries (just a few seconds)

Cut a piece of foam to fit on the clip top (where the ribbon was wrapped around) and hot glue into place. This gives your clip that extra grip, that will hold on to the finest, thinnest hair.

And you are finished. These are cute, not to bold hair clips. My 10 month old has bangs that will stay in her eyes if the are not pinned back. Regular (store bought) clips just dont stay in, these are the only things I have found that work great!

Ava and her new hair clips

Tuckered out Boys

Ahh, arent they cute. All asleep...warm and cozy. Must have been a long day!




Monday, December 10, 2007

The Christmas Post (Long)

I have been reading many posts on Christmas lately, all of them on the PRO Christmas side. I want to make it very clear that I have no animosity towards anyone who celebrates Christmas. Infact, I allow my children to receive gifts from family members as not to be rude. We go to my grandmothers house a few weeks before Christmas for a family gathering every year. Sadly because this is the only time my family ever attempts to get together, so I dont want to miss it ;-( I am sending out "Happy Holiday" cards this year to family and customers. We enjoy the lights in the neighborhood. I dont have a problem with Christmas, but I dont like that it has Jesus name attached to it. I know gasp, blasphemy! There have been a few posts going around about pagan things, how much is to much LOL and what is just enough...huh?

For example street signs apparently are pagan....who knew? This was used as a defense in celebrating Christmas in Jesus name. Now I cant see how this even relates. There are things in this society that we as Christians have to abide by. Many would agree that taxation is just legal theft of Americans and their money. Yet we pay it because its the law. We stop at stop signs because it is the law. I could go on and on but you get my point. Now how stopping at a pagan stop sign and attaching a false birthday to our Beloved Messiah are the same...I am confused?

For those who would like to know the origins of our beloved christian holidays please read the letter below written by a dear friend of mine. I know that many already know these things, you can skip reading the letter ;-) and have a truly Merry Christmas...I really mean that, I pray that your Christmas be filled with all things good, that your family gathers together and that you rejoice. For those who would like to read on, the letter is below.

Basically, all false religions and their traditions can be traced back to the tower of Babel and Nimrod (Gen. 10). Nimrod was the grandson of Noah's son Ham. Scripture says he was a "mighty hunter before YHWH (the LORD)". The Hebrew word for 'before' is the same word used in the second command which tells us to have no other elohim (gods) 'before' him. It is related to the Hebrew word for 'face' and the context in modern American English could accurately be stated 'in his face'. In other words, the second command could be understood to say "no other elohim in my face" and Nimrod could be described as a "mighty hunter in YHWH's face." Please understand that this is my best explanation of the Hebrew meaning of the word. I don't know that you can find that anywhere else, but if you study the Hebrew there, you'll see what I mean.

Nimrod's name comes from the Hebrew word meaning 'to rebel' or 'we will revolt'. Nimrod's wife's name was Simarinmas, and was later Sammur-amat (gift of the sea), and the scriptural land of Shinar was named for her. After Nimrod's death, Simarinmas claimed to be miraculously pregnant and gave birth to a son who she named Damu. In scripture, it is the name 'Tammuz'. These three people were set up as gods, even during their lifetime, and their legends were scattered throughout the world when YHWH confused the language s and scattered the people at the tower of Babel.

An entire book or even volumes could be written on the influence of Nimrod and his family on today's religions, but to simplify as much as possible, we'll just hit the high points and show how it relates to us today. Basically, Nimrod is (and even set himself up as) the sun god. The sun god) has been known by many names in many different cultures. In scripture, one of his names is Ba'al and there are other mentions of the ba'als, which are false gods, some of which were known as sun gods. Throughout history, his birthday has been celebrated on what we know of as December 25, just days after the winter solstice, since that is when the days start getting longer and the sun has been acknowledged to have been born.

In the first few centuries AD, one of the most popular sun god figures was the Iranian sun god, Mithras. His birthday was celebrated December 25, his day was Sunday (the first day of the week being named for the sun), one of his symbols was a cross (as it had been in previous generations and cultures of sun worshippers), and he was to have returned to the heavens at the time of the spring equinox. He was referred to by his worshippers as 'lord Mithras', hence, sunday was referred to by pagans as 'the lord's day'.

Because of the Jewish provocation of the Romans, Jerusalem was destroyed in 70AD and the Jews came under severe persecution. At that time, anyone resembling a Jew was in danger, and since the earliest followers of Y'shua followed all of the commands of scripture, including sabbath, feasts and other scriptural practices, they were persecuted, as well. However, there was another group of followers who mingled following of Y'shua with the more pagan elements of the day, including the worship of Mithras and Krishna (another sun god). Many of the stories of these two false gods are identical to many of the new testament accounts of Y'shua. So it was not difficult for the religions to merge.

By the forth century, persecution had extended from the Jews and devout followers of Y'shua and the scriptures to the other churches that mingled scripture with pagan practices. The Roman empire was weakening and a commander by the name of Constantine claimed to have a vision that he would conquer in the sign of the cross. In spite of the persecutions, Christianity was spreading and it's followers increasing in number. Constantine followed up the vision by marching his army through a river to baptize them and had crosses put on their armor. He then claimed to have converted to Christianity However, there are several problems with this claim.

The cross at that time had been a symbol of sun worship for over a thousand years, baptism was practiced by the followers of Mithras, converting to Christianity was a good political move, and in his life after this time, he continued to worship the sun god and in later years, even had himself coined on money as the sun god and had a giant statue of himself as the sun god erected. He became Emperor Constantine to the relief of the Christians because since 'converting' to Christianity, he had the persecutions of Christians stopped. However, he continued with the persecutions of the Jews and anyone else who appeared to be Jewish by following the same practices from scripture that the Jews had been practicing. This included the Nazarenes, those who continued to follow the teachings of Y'shua and his apostles, which included remembering the sabbath, keeping the feasts and not wavering from the teachings of the old testament scriptures.

In 321AD, he declared Sunday, "the venerable day of the sun" to be the day that Christians would rest and worship. In 325AD, he declared December 25 to be Christmas, an immovable feast that would celebrate the birth of Christ. December 25 had already been celebrated as the birth of Mithras and was in the season of Saturnalia, which was a pagan agricultural celebration. It is named after Saturn and is where the name 'Saturday' comes from. (Actually, all of our days and most of our months are named after false gods. But that's another trail.) Later, at the Council of Laodicea, in 363AD, a law was enacted that forbade Christians from resting on the sabbath and practicing the other scriptural feasts and commands that they (the state and the church, which were basically one by then) declared to be "judaizing" (which is a word coined by the early church 'fathers' and in no way comes from scripture).

We can't really talk about where Christmas comes from without finishing the story and learning about Simarinmas and Tammuz. Tammuz is actually mentioned in scripture in Ezekiel 8:14-15, where the practice of 'weeping for Tammuz' is called an abomination by YHWH. Weeping for Tammuz is a 40 day period of mourning that stems from the story that Tammuz was killed by a wild boar. It was traditionally practiced the 40 days before the spring equinox and is the origination of today's Lent. That is also why ham is traditionally eaten at Easter (and from a similar account of the killing of the god Adonis, is eaten at Christmas). Easter comes from 'Ishtar', the pagan fertility goddess that can be traced back to Semarinmas. She is also mentioned in scripture as Asherah, Astheroth, and the 'queen of heaven'. Her high day of celebration was traditionally celebrated the first Sunday after the spring equinox. At Constantine's council of Nicea in 325AD, Easter was declared as the Christian 'passover' and the date was set, to get away from the scriptural celebration of passover that was still being celebrated on the 14th day of the first Hebrew month, in order to distance Christianity from anything considered to be 'Jewish'

It's fairly easy to find where all of the pagan traditions of Christmas and Easter (and other pagan celebrations) originate. Most encyclopedias have information concerning the tree, ornaments, wreaths, yule logs, gift giving, etc., and the eggs and hot cross buns and other traditions for Easter. I won't get into all that here. But even if we forget about all that (because many Christians have already forsaken those things, anyway) and just stick to the actual origination of the feasts themselves, we can easily see why scripture forbids our participation in them. There is nothing about them that even resembles the Almighty or His Son, in a true sense, but there is alot to them that can easily confuse people when they are mixed with the true worship that YHWH desires. And that's the way that Satan likes to deceive, by mixing truth with error and getting YHWH's people off track.

But we need to remember where all of this originates, the tower of Babel, where YHWH confused the languages. In both testaments of scripture, YHWH calls His people out of Babylon. It's not just talking about a literal place 'Babel' means 'confusion' and Babylon has always represented false worship. YHWH is calling His people back to the true form of worship that He set for them in His covenant. He gives us specific times and ways in which to worship Him. Anything else is potentially an abomination.

During the time Y'shua and the apostles walked the earth, there was no such thing as Christmas, Easter, or Sunday as a regular day of worship. These things all came about as infiltrations from pagan Babylonian sun worship and were instituted as law in the forth century. And during the same period of time, the state church of Rome actually outlawed the observance of the scriptural instructions of YHWH's sabbath and feasts, that were instructed to be kept throughout all of the generations of Israel. That includes us, as we are grafted into Israel and into the promises.

Christmas was outlawed by many of the early settlers of America because of it's pagan roots. It was not celebrated widely until the influx of Catholic immigrants during the potato famine in Ireland.

In 1836, Alabama became the first state to recognize Christmas and it was made a federal holiday in 1870.

If we want to look to scripture and get an idea of what YHWH loves and hates, we can go to the account of Gideon and see what YHWH tells him to do with his father's idols. The word translated 'the groves' in the KJV is the Hebrew word 'asherah'.

Jdg 3:7 And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD, and forgot the LORD their God, and served Baalim and the groves.
Jdg 6:25 And it came to pass the same night, that the LORD said unto him, Take thy father's young bullock, even the second bullock of seven years old, and throw down the altar of Baal that thy father hath, and cut down the grove that is by it:

So, YHWH instructed Gideon to destroy the images to Ba'al and Asherah. He calls us to do the same. Understand that these are Gideon's father's idols, not his own. This is important to remember as Jeremiah tells us:

Jer 16:19 O LORD, my strength, and my fortress, and my refuge in the day of affliction, the Gentiles shall come unto thee from the ends of the earth, and shall say, Surely our fathers have inherited lies, vanity, and things wherein there is no profit.

We are not to blame for the sins and practices of our fathers. But we are called to turn away from them and back to Him and His ways. Now look at what Elijah says concerning the Ba'als and Asherahs:

1Ki 18:21 And Elijah came unto all the people, and said, How long halt ye between two opinions? if the LORD be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him. And the people answered him not a word.

Will we be like the people and answer not a word? Or will we be like Gideon and Elijah, who completely demolish the Ba'als and Asherah's from our lives? Ba'al is the sun god and his birthday is December 25th, making the celebration of Christmas a mixture of Ba'al worship and worship of YHWH. Asherah (Ishtar) is the goddess of fertility and her day of celebration is what is known as 'Easter'. Celebrating Easter is a mixture of Asherah worship and worship of YHWH. How long will we halt between two opinions? If YHWH be Elohim (God) let's follow him, but if Ba'al, then let's follow him. As for our house, we will follow YHWH.

Saturday, December 08, 2007

Lunch


Most people like to see how a larger family handles everyday life. I giggle at how it really is not much different now than it was when I had three. So heres lunch. 10 PB&J's a couple of apples and oranges and you have a meal. Notice the kids dont have plates. If we are eating things that can be picked up and eaten then we dont use plates, less to wash!
See how easy that was!! ;-)

Friday, December 07, 2007

Officially a Bow Head



Do you remember that term of not so endearment in high school, LOL I sure do. I sat down today and for the first time in my life I made a bow ;-) Actually I made a bunch of bows....it was a blast, with only a few burnt fingers in the process. Ava helped, I needed someone to taste the bows when they were finished. LOL
Just adorable she is! If I do say so myself!

Thursday, December 06, 2007

Book Order


I am going to be making a bulk order for Elizabeths new book Raising Godly Tomatoes. I have gleaned so much from her website and so often have wished that I could take the info from her website (in the form of a book) and sit down on the couch with a cup of hot tea and read. Now I can!!

She has it set up that you can get a very good discount if you buy the book in multiples of 5. So if you would like to get in on the order, I will be placing it on the 10th (Monday). The cost will be $14.50, that includes me shipping it to you.

So if you are interested email me at audreys5boys@sbcglobal.net and let me know.

HOW Give Away

Heart of Wisdom is having "A Free Book Random Drawing" for the months of December and January, starting Dec. 10th. Each week one Heart of Wisdom subscriber will be randomly selected to receive one FREE Homeschool Book from Homeschool-Books.com. They are offering a new title each week. Head on over and take a look at the books to be given away.

HOW is a big part of our Homeschool. We love the units and Robin has so many great books available. I highly recommend Heart of Wisdom Teaching Approach, even if you never use their units, HOWTA is just a great book about putting the Bible first in your childrens eduction.

Sunday, December 02, 2007

A bee in my bonnet

I just have to voice this real quick so I can get on with my day. I actually had the idea for this post last night, but after speaking with someone today, it brought it home for me.

What makes a woman successful? Well to most it looks something like this. You go to school (PS) graduate, go to college, graduate, have a career, get married if you want, have children if you feel like it, but just know that your career comes first, so don't jeopardize that. You must also be stable financially, with a nice house, good cars, etc. If you are famous or well known or know someone who is that is an added bonus. Never be weak, and if you are by all means never show it. You must be strong, even stronger than a man, and don't ever create a situation for yourself where you have to depend on one. Lastly and most importantly take care of yourself, you come first!

So I can raise someone else's kids and that's acceptable, but to stay home and raise my own is being lazy. I can teach other peoples kids, but to teach my own is second class. Staying home and cleaning my home on a daily basis is less acceptable in the eyes of most as going out and cleaning others homes for a salary. I should go to work for someone else's husband, not stay home and take care of the affairs of my own husband?

hmmm, yep....doesn't make much sense to me either.

that darn bee...its still in my bonnet! Shew bee...shew!

Saturday, December 01, 2007

This and That

I went to bed early last night because I had the second worse headache I have ever had. To give you an idea of how bad it was, my prayers went something like this; "Lord if you take me tonight, please give Rob a heart to stay home and homeschool the children, etc, etc!" I ran down my list of things that I needed the Lord to do and then laid there waiting for sleep.

I awoke this morning though with only a slight headache, that has held on all day...but its a walk in the park compared to last night. After skipping dinner last night I was hungry!! So I had some scrambled eggs (courtesy of the hens outback) covered in Gouda cheese and herbs, with a big ole glass of milk.

Lunch was a spinach salad again and another load of fruits and veges in the juicer.

I was starving again by dinner, I'm sorry but salad just doesnt stay with me for longer than an hour or so. It doesnt help that I am hypoglycemic and if I dont eat every few hours I am ravenous, but for the sake of clearing out my system, one of my goals is to lower my food intake. So dinner was Couscous with meatballs and a delicious acorn squash. My dinner buddy was Ava, she loves squash and Couscous.
I promise not to bore you to much more with my eating habits, it helps me to actually SEE what I am eating, because like I said I tend to graze all day long just to keep my sugar up.

I received my copy of Passionate Housewives today in the mail. I am at chapter 4 and am so far very encouraged by the book! It is so nice to know that somewhere out there are woman that feel the same way you do. I personally need that fellowship, even if its only through a book.

Mercy Me (the band) is playing tonight 2 blocks from my house. They always come home for Christmas. Yep they are from little ole Greenville....whoda thunk it?

Shabbot Shalom!
Have a Peaceful Sabbath

Friday, November 30, 2007

Nutrition

If there is one thing I would change if I could go back and do it all over again, I would have eaten better! You see I have a mean sweet tooth, coupled with an awesome set of genes. Those to things put together, means I can sit down and eat an entire box of cookies without blinking an eye. So even though I don't gain weight, I do feel the effects of a horrible diet. It has shown itself in achy joints, tightness in my chest at times (scary). I just dont feel as good as someone my age should feel, 7 children or not.

I used to be invincible, up until I had my 5th child...then slowly I have felt worse and worse. SO, I decided enough is enough. If I am to continue having more little ones and be around to raise them, I need to change my ways. So for the next month I am going to safely clear my system and flood it with nutrients, while still nursing Ava. Here's what today's menu included:


Breakfast: all of this in the juicer.



Lunch: A spinach salad with red beans, sunflower seeds, cranberries and tomatoes. I love Spinach salads!!

My lunch buddy, who enjoys a good spinach salad as much as I do.

Dinner, well it will probably be smashed up garlic in some honey and Echinacea. About mid morning I started coming down with my monthly Mastitis infection ;-( Which makes me feel like I have the flu for 2-3 days then its gone. Ugghh...Its worth it though, its ALL worth it!

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Keeping it all together

We have one room in our home that serves many purposes. Luckily it is a room of good size, but it still takes a bit of ingenuity to make it all flow together smoothly. This multi purpose room that we so lovingly call the Library (because I one day want it to have built in floor to ceiling bookshelves all the way around, and we will use it just as library) now serves as a Library, School Room, Sewing Room, Office for our home and our two businesses. So how do we keep it all together?

I have separated it into zones. We have our Library zone which also holds all the school books and manipulative's as well as craft supplies that are stored in the labeled stacking shelves beside the bookshelf. Don't underestimate those bookshelves either, they are holding around 1,000 books and probably more, with a shelf to spare.


Next is my sewing zone. This is where I do all the sewing for the business, so it also holds alot of business material as well. The storage totes hold my finished products so that they are protected from dust and dirty little fingers. Utilize your wall space, by hanging things up.

The next area is our school desk which houses the kids school bins. They each have a color and you can see how we use those here. This obviously is where we sit and do most of our school work. I do tend to send some to read in other rooms so that they can focus.

Then the office area is off to the left of the school table. It is where I spend way to much time trying organize my life and all that comes with it. Receipts, schedules, lists, bills, calendars, phone numbers, addresses, to do lists, and that is just for the house. Add to that two businesses, our construction business and ALL THAT COMES WITH THAT. Yes I am the secretary, the personal assistant, the bookkeeper, the accountant, the media personnel, employee relations....ugg I'm tired just typing it all. Then there is my business that is a bit less daunting, but still leaves its paper trail none the less. I am notorious for throwing things away, I really don't like stuff...it clutters my mind even when its in another room. So I don't keep much paper around, if its important I will scan it and store it on a disk. I also try and deal with any paper work "to-do's" before I go to bed, that way its done and off my desk. Lastly, the biggest thing I can think of that has helped with keeping all this stuff together is the lock that is on the door. When I am not in here and there aren't any big kids in here to keep an eye out for wandering hands....the door is pulled to and locked. The lock is a simple slide lock that is placed just high enough that only those aloud in the room can unlock it. If that is not an option for you, I would suggest locking cabinets, for ALL craft stuff, as well as games. These are the things in our house that the little kids just love to get into.

So that is how we keep things "together" around here. Some days are better than others, but for the most part it works.

Now the day that the lovely 40's wallpaper is gone will be a joyous day.

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Gifts


Dont foget to support Family Run businesses this holiday season.

Pros:
  • You are buying products that are made in the USA by Americans.
  • You will be buying safe products that are made with safe materials.
  • You will be supporting families!

Cons:

  • NONE! ;-)

Monday, November 26, 2007

Once again

32 wonderful years here, I am truly blessed!

Sunday, November 25, 2007

Girly Girls

If you would have asked me 3 years ago if I thought I would be putting bows in two of my childrens hair, I would have laughed outloud. These little ladies sure have brightened things up around here. The top three pics are from this morning after I got them dressed. Sisters forever!




I saw a picture of an outfit like this on another blog. I fell in love with it, but I had no pattern. So after a little creativity and pattern drawing, I finished it. Rob says she looks like the littlest daughter on Little house on the prarie; as she is running down the hill and trips.

Good, thats what I was going for! I think the dress needs to be a little longer and the bloomers a tad shorter, but sense its winter and COLD, the bloomers will come in handy! I think it turned out alright.





Oh that there were such an heart in them, that they would fear me, and keep all my commandments always, that it might be well with them, and with their children for ever! Duet 5:29