Cruising

Last week was the anniversary of Trey and My cruise debut. We had a blast last year and I was dreaming of cruising all week long. Our good friends that we cruised with last year told us of an amazing deal they found. They cruise shop all the time and this is the best deal she has ever seen! It was to good to pass up! So, It's official we are cruising again! And this time we are taking the girls so it will be FUN and exciting. We disembark on Sunday November 8 from Galveston. So I have a little over a month to get organized and pack. FUN here we come!

Thankful Thursday

"B"
*nothing fancy this week, but here it is and on time!

I am thankful for...

Books

Blankets

Bread and Butter

Wild Mushroom

We had our first encounter with Poison Control today.

Saturday afternoon/evening Samuel decided to pick a wild mushroom and chew on it a little. As soon as I noticed it in his hand I rushed over and cleaned all that I could out of his mouth and threw the remaining on the ground, "No sir Samuel, No sir!!" We watched him for the rest of the evening and he seemed completely fine. Trey and the kids, Samuel included, took a quick walk over to the neighbors before dinner. Baths, dinner with movie night, then bed.

Sunday when we got him out of bed for Church he sad thrown up all over his bed and had diarrhea. The mushroom ingestion did not cross my mind, I just thought maybe he ate too much pizza. About half way through church the light bulb went off. He was not interested in breakfast or lunch but still got had diarrhea in the afternoon. He did finally eat half a PBJ sandwich and a banana when we got home from running our errands last night.

This morning when I went to get him out of bed there was throw up and diarrhea again. He was not running fever and acted like he felt fine, except for the not eating part. I decided to take him to the doctor anyway just to be safe. After 2 hours in the Dr. Office that included talks with poison control, mushroom specialist and pooping through all the diapers that i brought, the decision was blood work and wait for the mushroom to be identified. Trey took a picture of one and harvested 4 ,that he found in the wooded area across from the house, and put them in a zip lock in the fridge. I was hoping we would get the all clear and I could saute them up for dinner with our shrimp. I emailed the "specialist" the picture from my phone before we left the parking lot of the Dr. and before we got home she responded.

"This is a Russula species. I can't tell the exact species name, but they are not generally very toxic. It is enough to make a small child sick,but they will make a full recovery. After this much time, I'd send the kid home, with orders to watch him and let you know if the symptoms persist. The diarrhea should clear up shortly. "

So Thankfully Samuel will be fine! He will just have to endure a raw bottom for a little while longer. The rest of us will have to endure the stench and I will probably be washing lots of sheets. Oh, and we DID NOT have mushrooms with dinner tonight :)

Apple muffins

This is the recipe for the Yummy Apple muffins that Hannah and I mixed for our short A week. We ate them this morning and they were DELICIOUS! So, I thought I would share.

Ingredients:
1 cup unbleached white flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup white sugar
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup no sugar added 100% apple juice
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 egg
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 medium Red Delicious apples-peeled, cored and finely chopped

Directions.
1.preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease or line muffin cups.

2.mix dry ingredients. in medium bowl. In small bowl mix egg, juice, and oil; blend well. Mix wet mixture into dry ingredients and mix just until moistened. Mix in apples, batter will be lumpy.



3. Fill cups 2/3 full. bake 18 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Cool slightly before removing from pan. Enjoy warm!

Short A week

Our school days will look a little different this year. We are focusing on one sound/letter each week. We are also doing a new Bible lesson. This is Abigail's first year of Cubbies so we will be doing lessons from her book for Bible time. Very excited about this! I have also added Science and Social studies this year in addition to math activities. With our calender time I added the clock. The girls are showing interest ,always asking what time it is, so I thought this would be a great time to introduce the concepts.

We finished our first week on Friday, still working out the fine details. Some things have been tweaked several times already, behavior chart being one of them. But, things went very well. Here is how the week went.

This is Table time:
Bible lesson- This week was "All have sinned" Rm 3:23

Language Arts (daily)- Short A: introduce/review written letter and sound, went over theme words, Read Poem of the week aloud.

Wednesday, Science- Antelope: we went over 5 facts about the Mammal. I even pulled out the Atlas and showed them where Antelope live, Africa and Asia. They really enjoyed looking at the map, and yeah I threw some Geography in there :) I will continue that. They then drew their own interpretation of an antelope, very interesting. At dinner, on this night, Abigail was able to tell Trey several of the 5 things she learned, with a little help.

Friday, Math: We did a review of counting with my red and white counters, from my school teacher days. Or as we called them this week "red apples"

Friday, Social studies: We read our copy of , Hello Reader Johnny Appleseed. The girls also really liked this and wanted to read it several times.

Calendar, story time and clock also happen daily but, we move away from the table. The girls can sit on the floor but they seem to prefer to pull their chair over by my comfy reading chair. They say they can see better. As long as they sit still and pay attention it is fine with me :)

Friday after nap time we made the batter for apple muffins. Hannah did a great job stirring she kept saying, with a grunt "I am working hard." and "I'm a great helper!!" We ate them this morning and they turned out delicious, moist and healthful. Cant beat that! Delicious end to our A week.

Thankful Thursday

This weeks letter is A so here it goes

A bigail- I am so thankful for my first born child. There were lots of sad dark days when I wondered if a first born would even arrive. I am so blessed by the gift of her life, her helpful spirit, eagerness to learn, and LOVE of life and her Daddy. My prayer is that her love of her Daddy will one day turn into a LOVE for her heavenly Father!

A nimals- We have kind of become our own little "animal farm" around here lately. 2 growing lab puppies and 2 kittens. I love watching the kids interact with them. Especially love watching Samuel with the pups, they love him.

A ssurance- I am so thankful for assurance of my salvation. Nothing, Nothing can separate me from the love of Christ.

Up and Growing

The Fall garden is growing, things are looking GOOD. I found some row markers today at Target in the $1.00 bins, thank you Target, so I will stick them out soon.

(from left to right)

We have a whole row of Long Imperator carrots(which i have already thinned once and need to do again), broccoli and early snowball cauliflower, Table Queen Acorn Squash, half a row of endive(not really sure why it was on sale and it looks like lettuce), and a lettuce mixture that I received from the horticulture teacher at Trey's work.

Also in the back planter box, along the fence, I planted a whole row of Rutger tomatoes. I really hope they do well. We sure do miss our fresh "matoes", as the girls call them.

In one of the pots I have a jalapeno plant. We did not get any peppers all summer. I did not pull it up when I planted fall, even though I wanted to use the planter for some fall flowers, because the plant was so big and pretty. I just thought it would slowly die. Well, now it has peppers. So I may be freezing some Fall salsa.

In the other planter I started my herb pot. They had basil on sale so that is what I got this time. I would like to add rosemary and oregano. We have found that oregano is a very good flavor with all the venison we eat. Trey cuts slits in the back strap, before he throws it on the grill, and pours a few shakes of Oregano in. Then he wraps it in bacon. Mmmm...delicious, seriously my mouth is watering just thinking about it! I would love to have our own fresh herbs for this and other recipes.

*Everything was planted from seed with the exception of the broccoli, and lettuce mixture so generously provided from GCTC

Alphabet week

We finished our first week of school yesterday. I wanted to wait until after labor day...well, just because I could. It was a short week. We started on Wednesday and did a review of the alphabet. Each day we had our Bible lesson, reviewed our letters, did calendar, clock and read some great books for the library.

Our favorite book, by far, was A is for Annabelle. If you want an alphabet book for a little girl that loves dolls this is the book for you. My girls LOVED it! I need to try and find a copy to purchase.

Friday we made whole wheat alphabet cookies. Which the girls had fun making but did not enjoy eating. They are gonna have to get use to the fact that I have officially made the switch to whole wheat flour. I am sure once they get used to it, like with our Peanut butter and mac n cheese switch, they will love them just the same.

Thank you card craft

It is official Abigail's thank you cards for her 4th birthday are finally finished!

Last year our theme was balloons so she colored the balloons on the front of the cards. This year I really thought that she was capable of more and wanted her to take part in the project. After some thought this idea came to me in a vision :)

1. I printed the cards, to go along with the theme, on the computer like all I always do. But instead of writing everything out I left blanks.




2. I then used clip art and found images for all the gifts that she received and other key words.




3. When it was time to assemble the cards, Abigail cut out the images and then used the glue stick to apply glue to empty lines and put the appropriate picture in the blank.




4. She then chose stickers to describe each friend and placed them in one blank.




5. When all finished she signed her name by gluing her cut out name to the bottom of the card.

We had fun and I think they turned out really cute! I hope you enjoy especially if you are expecting on in the mail :)

P.S. sorry now finished product will be posted yet. I don't want to ruin it for MeMe and MomMom whom I know read the blog. I will update pics later

Thankful Thursdays

I am going to start going through the alphabet and making a list of things that I am thankful for that start with each letter. Each Thursday I will post the new letter with my list of 3 things. My prayer is that this will help me have an attitude of gratitude and a thankful heart even for the little things.
" Oh, give thanks to the LORD! Call upon His name; make His deeds known among the people!" 1 Chron 16:8
So check back next Thursday for the debut of "Thankful Thursday" and the letter A
* Thanks Denise for the great idea

Labor Day

Trey had Labor Day off and it was the first day in a LONG time that we did not have something that we had to do. We didn't have to clean the Church or anything, so nice!! So, we took our first trip to the State Park. Since moving to New Waverly it is the closest park and we thought we would give it a try. We had fun on the swings and checked into the canoe rental. After the park we headed home for lunch and nap time. After nap we played outside and Trey lit up the grill for Dinner; had our German friends over for their first Labor Day celebration. It was a very nice day!

Congrats Sara L

This past Sunday afternoon I headed to the great big asphalt jungle, aka Houston. One of my best friends from childhood tied the knot in July in Tahoo and they had a reception at the historic Heights fire house.

We were inseperable from about Kindergarden thru 12 grade. We are both Sara's so in our young years we were affectionatly known as Sara L. and Sarah P. I am so glad that I was able to share in her special day this way. It was a fun night with old friends. Congratulations Sara and Simon!

Prayer time

Tonight we went through our normal Saturday night routine. Dinner, baths for Church, and then bedtime. We spent some time brushing hair for church in the morning. I brushed Abigail's and then she brushed mine, while I brushed Hannah's and then we let Hannah brush her own for a few minutes. We talked about how pretty we all looked and then moved into our nightly prayer time. Our nightly devotional time is so precious. We all choose who want to pray for and the girls often interject requests as Trey prays. So sweet to hear what is on their little hearts. Tonight's was too funny not to share. As a book that I am reading calls it "true unadultarated humor", straight from the mouth of a adorable little girl.

As Trey is praying ...
Hannah adds, "and thank you for my hair"
Abigail then says," and pray that you (Daddy) will grow hair so that I can brush it someday!"

Controlling my laughter was very difficult!For those of you that don't know Trey, he is slightly balding. He shaved his head most of his college years but has just been keeping it short the past couple years. He just shaved it again this morning because I think he looks like a hunk bald! Thank you LORD for laughter and for the sweet children that bring us so many laughs!!!

Late bloomer

So it seems I am a late bloomer in the reading department. My poor mom tried so hard to instill a love for reading in both my brother and I. She is one of those people that is always reading, riding in the car, on the boat, with the TV on, always and anywhere. Well until recently she had just missed the mark. I realize now it was a focus thing for me. Even if I thought a book was good, it was never good enough to keep my attention over all the other things in my life. I have always read Non fictions Christian books, but just within the last 2 years have I started reading Fiction. I started out reading juvenile fiction but have since stepped it up a notch and read a few classics, you know those ones we were all supposed to read in High School. I now LOVE to read! I just finished my first "grown up" fiction novel

It was fantastic. If you have not read it I highly recommend it! I am now finishing a Non-fiction Christian book that I started several months again. Which, I also highly recommend to all of you homeschooling mothers out there. It is a Fantastic encouraging read!
and I have started another Grisham novel. That's right people, two books at once! I am my mothers daughter!

Fun Friday

Friday the kids and I had a GREAT day! I finished planting the garden while they kids played outside. Then we walked, Samuel included, to our "neighbors" about 150 yards away. I wish someone had been there to take our picture. Oh well, let me correct myself, I wish we hadn't been covered in dirt and someone had been there to take our picture. I looked like a Mama duck with my ducklings all in a row. We had a jolly time jumping on their trampoline. Then we headed home for baths and made homemade peanut butter for lunch. What a fantastic Friday with my fabulous kids!

A Mother's love

This evening I am overwhelmed with my love and adoration for my handsome son Samuel. I mean seriously, he could not be any cuter if he tried, and I think he knows it! I absolutely love everything about him! I love the way he says "Mama". Yes, he is finally saying my name. I have been waiting to hear that precious name come from his mouth! I love his giggle and the way he LAUGHS out loud when we smooch his neck or rub his tummy. And Yes, sorry dentist, I love the way he sucks those two fingers. I love that he rubs on his ear when he gets sleepy and I love watching him cuddled up in his bed with his blankie. But most of all I LOVE the gift that the Lord gave to me in the life of my "Smiling Samuel" I look forward to watching him grow and seeing what my Lord has in store for his life.


*Here are just a few pictures, so that those of you who don't know him can
grasp the magnitude of his cuteness :)