More, things I love

There is another website that I can browse over endlessly. I LOVE the clothing that they have. Let me say right up front that I am NOT Islamic, just in case any one wondered ;-) I just happen to really like, for lack of a better description, romantic, old clothing. They are so flattering, yet cover well and are just very pretty. They have fabulous skirts on this website. I aim to make my own replica of the dresses below. Not sure how they are going to turn out...but I'll give it a shot.

Head Scarf Q&A

I had a few questions about my head scarf regarding how I tie it that way and were I got it.

I actually make my own from material in the $1.00 rack at Wal-Mart. I buy cotton stretch material and then cut it in a large triangle. You do not have to stitch the edges of t-shirt type material so its a cut and go process ;-)

One of my favorite sites to browse all the lovely head coverings is here. If you would rather buy than make one this or this is the one you would want, they will tie exactly like the one I am wearing. The second is a bit larger and will give you a more full bun.



How to tie it? You place the triangle on your head like below.


Tie along the bottom Then pull up to the top and tie and continue like this until you are at the end of your ties, then tuck whatever is left into the bun somewhere. Its that simple. Your next!!

Theres always a first time.....

....for everything! I have been a mother for over 12 years and can say with pride, I've been through about all that a mother can go through on a day to day trek through life. Ive been here, here and who can forget here? This is the first time I have ever been here..........

Now I am not a squeamish person by any stretch ...I use cloth diapers....nuff said, but this really was more than I wanted in a root beer. Im pretty used to UFO's in my drink, but an entire chewed up and spit out cookie? Now come on yall....thats just gross. So I did what anyone would do.....right??!!??

Homeschool post up over here. Its a little less gross over there.

Things I Love

Where I put ALL my hair.

I always feel so pretty in this... its very romantic I think.

Out of the Skillet....

.....and into the Frying Pan!!

Children

I have been asked to write on my blog why we are QF (Quiver Full) and what that means to us.

We are quiver full for two reasons:

I believe that our Creator and Father knows more than we do. He knows the end from the beginning and therefor who better to give this area too? Life is His "forte", He created it and I trust Him to do all things good!

The second reason is completely a selfish one.....I am addicted to babies!!!! I know that Heaven will smell like roses and newborn babies sweet heads....I just know it!

Quite honestly our story is not that cut and dry. Many things have happened as we have walked down this path. There are many details that really aren't important. What needs to be said is that Our Lord has blessed us, covered our fears, hurts, mistakes. He has given us more than all the treasures in the world, seven wonderful children and we pray that He will bless us with many more!

One of my greatest heros was my great great grandmother. I posted on MOMYS her legacy and what her willingness to give her life for His will means to me. I'll share it with you now.

""I thought I would share my great great grandmothers maternal history. She is one of my favorite people although I never met her. Her name was Cornelia Sullivan. She had 20 children that began with her first born Noah Frank when she was 16. For those of you who like to look at numbers and facts I'll go into detail below.

First child at age 16 in 1906, Noah

16mo later she had Joe

15mo later she had William

15mo later she had Manie Emily

16mo later she had Lewis

16mo later she had Millie

18mo later she had Fannie Mable my "Mamie"

13mo later she had Mattie

21mo later she had Bonnie

15mo later she had Gracie

15mo later she had a still born baby girl

15mo later she had Jack

16mo later she had a set of "twins" that did not survive

10mo later she had "twins" Ruby and Ruth

23mo later she had Mary Etta

19mo later she had Murline

35mo later she had "twins" Elaine and Duane

Her last two were born at the age of 42 and she had no more after that. She lived to be 61 when she her husband and Elaine one of her last twins was killed in a tornado in 1950 that ripped through Caster LA and killed quite a few people, many being my family. Anyway I thought some might like to see the numbers of one QF family. Although that term meant nothing back then. LOL If she would have stopped at 3,4,5 or even that huge number 6 (grin) I wouldn't be here today, neither would my 7 precious children!!

Thank you Cornelia, Love your great great granddaughter Audrey""

The interesting thing to me is that those folks that think that I should not allow The Lord to take hold of this area, don't realize that they would not be here today.....if it hadn't been for a QF family two generations back.

I want to also say that my heart goes out to those precious families I know who's hearts so long for another little one. Know that you are on my heart often and that many a prayer has been lifted on your behalf!

Homeschool Blog

I have started a new homeschool blog, please come and visit!

Big Brothers.....

Are the bomb!!!!!

Jordan scooting the girls around the house on a skate board! He is so great with the little ones!

A Parable

In the days that the African slaves began to protest slavery, they would scream from the auction blocks as they were being bidded on..."I WILL NOT WORK!"

One day went down in history as the end of slavery was nearing. A large young healthy slave was on the block...the bidding went higher and higher as he continued to yell, "I WILL NOT WORK!".

The highest price ever paid for a slave was recorded that day. The man who won the bid went to the slave and the slave said to him, "man you made a mistake, I will not work!" The man said, "no, you dont' understand. I am against slavery. I bought you to set you free. You are a free man." At that point the slave fell to his knees and thanked the man and said, "Master, I will serve you."

Sugar&Spice and Sillies

Everythings better with a bow, or two!

BOW-tastic....BOW-errific.....Fanta-BOW-lous!

I made these this weekend, FUN FUN FUN!

They are my new "Butterfly Bow" line.

I dont have them up yet but I will in a few days

Silly Pickles?

Yes, I have those too! They arent for sale though, I get to keep them all to myself!

They told me they were being rich people! LOL

All rich people have eye glasses and curly mustaches, you know?

Whats that say?

Rob looking at the calender this morning points out to me that the kids homeschool art fair is today.....I let him know that it was moved up to next week. Straining in real close he asks "what does it say behind art fair?" (my children like to write really big on the calender) I reply "I dont know, I cant remember anything else being planned for today."

We both pull our heads in close looking at the calender, trying to read what it says. My oldest son walks by and asks what we are doing, we inform him....he looks at us and laughs "it says Valentines Day"

Oh, we say surprised....look at each other and proclaim happy valentines day in unison, then carry on. Thats how busy we have been lately! LOL

We dont celebrate V Day, so it was just a funny blurp in our morning goings on.

Sweet Fragrance

"The vanity of the mind is our fault and our shame, and the one chief cause of
our misery. We too much mind earthly, carnal and sensual things. Hence Christ
our chiefest glory is too much banished from, and kept out of our minds...When
Christ, the sun of righteousness shines in the mind, the tongue will discover
it: the life will manifest it. "

"Ever reflect on your new birth, and
heavenly pedigree in Christ. Ever clothe your mind with what honor now comes to
you by Christ, and what glory awaits you with him in the heavenly mansions. So
you will look down with a holy contempt upon all objects beneath your Beloved,
to make you honorable."

"Aristotle mentions a parcel of ground in
Sicily, that sends forth such a strong smell of fragrant flowers that no hounds
can hunt thereabout, their scent is so confounded by the sweet fragrance. Thus
it will be, when Christ is put on the mind, as our chiefest pleasure, we shall
find such sweet fragrance flowing from him, as will confound our scent, and
prevent our hunting after the vain pleasures of sense, and the carnal joys of a
wicked world."

....is that Spring?

I tell you it has been so beautiful here the past week. It feels like Spring has sprung.....but I'm no dummy.....this is Texas where if you dont like the weather just wait a second and it will change. Nevertheless we have been drinking it in fully! We have made it to parks, gone fishing and what ever else excuse we can find to be outside.

I have been planning the garden plot for this year...it is going to be our biggest ever! I am quite excited! Another desire of mine was to get some fruit trees in this month. We really didnt have the money to spend 30-40 dollars each, on fruit trees, so I laid my desire before The Lord yesterday. Today.....I found dwarf Gala, dwarf pear and Georgia Peach trees and got them ALL for less than $50.00, with a few grape vines thrown in there!!!

We planted them today in our fruit orchard (haha)! We also trimmed the old pecan and pear trees on our property, I love being outside in the dirt, can you tell?

The chickens must be enjoying the weather as well because they have been laying up a storm. They gave us 23 eggs in three days.

Sorry I have been so quite lately, and its not that I havent had the time. I go through periods of quiteness I guess and this is one of those times. I'm still here though.

Winner

The winner of the "triple pack" of hair bows is

Jamie Sibley.

Jamie let me know which set you would like and where you want it mailed to!

Thanks galls for entering. Look for the contest again next month!

Visual and Auditory Processing

We attended a neurodevelopmental meeting a few weeks back, in order to get some tips on teaching Jordan. It was very interesting and we learned ALOT, to much to mention it all. I did want to share one of the things that we took away from the conference. Visual and Auditory processing; obviously is a huge part of learning. Did you know that there is a way to know where you stand in these areas and then improve them? All with just a few minutes a day of FUN!

I'll start with Visual:

For children who recognize numbers; write on 10- 3x5 cards four random numbers all in a line such as 4 8 2 0 mix up the digits to create 10 unique cards. Make 10 more with five digits then six then seven....you go higher if/when you find that your child’s processing and retention of the numbers is going up, but to start unless you have a bunch of geniuses ;-) seven digits will be good.

Testing is a unique process and is only administered one time for each child/adult in the family. The purpose of the testing is to ascertain each individual’s current visual processing ability (visual short term memory). Ideally the child’s proficiency level should match their age up to age 7. A visual processing level of 7 (numerical digits) is the minimum functional level of all individuals who are 7 years and older. One level up from the proficiency level is the therapeutic level.

Sit your child down and tell them that you will be showing them a card that will have numbers on it, you want them to look at the card (that you hold up for only 3 seconds and turn away, timing is very important) then when you turn it away they are to tell you what numbers they saw. They must get it on the first try or it doesn’t count as correct. If you have shown your child 5 four digit cards and they make no mistake in telling them back to you, move up to 5 digits and continue going up until they stumble, then that is where you begin the daily practice, as soon as they are able to process and tell back that amount of digits move up again. This is also great for us adults as well.

It was interesting to watch my children do so well on a certain number of digits then when one more was added their brains just couldn’t process that many. But as we all know the brain is a magnificent creation and can be retrained and connections can be re-made.

If you have younger children you can still work with that child using a line of pictures. You might have to get creative and print them out in black and white on the computer. They should be pictures about the same size and of individual things. Example: a card might have, in a straight line across a car, hat, doll, blocks. If the child can look at the pictures and call them back to you with no problems add an extra image to the line.

Auditory is very similar except you SAY the numbers without them seeing the cards. It is very important that you say them in a monotone voice with a small pause in between each number like this"1....7....4....8" where the dots are there needs to be enough time for you to say one thousand (to yourself of course).

With both of these techniques you never tell them they are wrong when they get it wrong...just move to the next one. You of course can tell them that they are doing well. You need to not create any hesitation in them, which can happen if a child is afraid of getting it wrong.

Keep it short and sweet. Of course the testing part may take around 10 minutes, but the daily drills should be no longer than 2 minutes a time, 2-4 (or more) times a day.

Another interesting discovery was that visual is alot easier for my children/as well as me, than auditory. Give it a try and build your child’s visual and auditory processing skills, and have some fun while you are doing it!

Giveaway

Its time for February's Giveaway.

I have added a ton of new hair bows and hair clips to the Shoppe.

Go over and check them out.

While your there choose the one you would like.

Drawing is Wednesday Feb. 6th.

One rule, choose a triple pack!

Leave me a comment with the one you would like.

If you post about it on your blog, let me know and I will put your name in twice.