A day of rest

I think I am going to lay around and take it easy today. I am feeling a bit run down from taking care of a houseful of sick people, and I woke up Sunday morning with a nasty sore throat. It isn't sore anymore, in fact, it vanished later that day, but I am left with a general run-down feeling. So, today, in an effort to boost my immunity, I am going to take it easy. I will make a pot of tea, and curl up with a good book.

Okay, well, maybe I will do one thing. I need to make a teensy quick trip to the library to get a good book...besides, our books are due and the last fine I paid was over 20.00. I don't want to do that again

I always knew she was not made of sugar and spice:

Scroll down for the horrifying before pictures
She is the queen of snakes, and snails, and puppy dog tails. And now she looks the part, blue tongue and all.


I need some hair bows!

Someone needs to pass on a career as a beautician

Do you think I can dye it pink and pass her off as a punk rocker?

Sick

The silver lining: At least I am not sick. Everyone else is, but I maintain a modicum of health. I made muffins this morning to cheer all my sickies up, and it worked. Until they were gone. The kids and the husband are all grumpy again because of the lack of ability to breathe without coughing. I am grumpy- out of sympathy I guess.
The muffins are a favorite at our house and I am sure they will be at your too! They are the first muffins with a crumbly top that had a bottom as tasty as the buttery crumbles.

Delicious Pineapple Muffins
INGREDIENTS
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup white sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 (8 ounce) can crushed pineapple
1 egg, beaten
3/4 cup milk
1/4 cup butter, melted

1/4 cup butter, melted
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
DIRECTIONS
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease and flour muffin pans, or line with paper liners.
In a large bowl, stir together 2 cups flour, white sugar, baking powder and salt. Drain pineapple, reserving 1/4 cup juice. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients, and pour in the reserved juice, egg, milk, and 1/4 cup melted butter. Mix just until blended.
In a separate bowl, stir together the cinnamon, brown sugar, 1/2 cup flour, and 1/4 cup melted butter to make the topping.
Spoon batter into muffin cups, then spoon crushed pineapple over the batter and sprinkle with the cinnamon topping.
Bake for 30 minutes in the preheated oven, until a toothpick inserted in the crown of the muffin comes out clean.


And yesterday, in a desperate effort to ward off the germs, I made homemade chicken noodle soup. THe noodles are old fashioned eggs ones, just like grandma used to make. I learned how to make them from my great grandma, to whom I will be forever grateful.

I just take three eggs and whisk in some salt and pepper, then add enough flour to make a dough. need a few minutes, roll out and cut into strips.

Later, I add them to chicken stock, shredded chicken, and toss in enough onions to scare a preschool class of onion haters, and enough garlic to kill ever vampire in history. Throw in some carrots and celery and you have a yummy chicken noodle soup, far superior to Campbell's. The onions and garlic, besides the number they do on vampires and children, also seem to frighten away germ monsters. Except yesterday. Yesterday the germ monsters won.

It is time to plan a vacation

Planning a trip away from home is never easy, but when you have to bring the needs and desires of 6 adults and seven children into the matter, it becomes confusing, time consuming, and it gives one many nights of budget nightmares. But, along the way, you stumble on some very interesting places which are fun to explore- at least online.

this one looks very interesting

And if you are among the insanely wealthy, you might want to vacation at this extremely fun but expensive dude ranch. If only I could afford 1000.00 a night!

The picture is from our vacation last year. We went camping with a bunch of friends and this was a geocache site. For those who have not been or heard of geocaching, it is an awesomely fun, and very affordable family hobby. You get the coordinates from the geocache site, plug them into a GPS system, and then go on a treasure hunt. Some are more difficult than others, some are in the city, some are on hiking trails. There are as many unique locations for a cache as their are unique people to hide them. Every time you find the "treasure", you take something, sign the book, and leave something else behind. It's fun. Try it.

Mugs are not just for coffee

I have a "thing" for mugs. Not the cutsie kind you get for teachers or at souvinir shops. I like my mugs to give me some kind of feeling, mostly nostalgic.
We use mugs for everything. Just like my tea cups, they have multiple uses. Because they are sturdy, they make great cups for kids, and the handles make them easier to hold.
The ones pictured are new from Goodwill. I love the little cream flecked mugs, they are miniature in size and perfect for the kids. Because my mind makes weird and unexpected, unexplainable associations, they remind me of the tin cups from Little House on the Prairie. I told you I can make some weird mental leaps.

The Scandinavion floral mug was one that Marcus picked out (after I talked him out of choosing a horrid owl one), and the retro mug was Esther's choice.

Oh, and here is a small sample of what I use mugs for:

Serving dishes for pudding and icecream
holding containers for chopped onions and other veggies when I am cooking
the heavier weight makes them great water cups for watercolor paints
paper weight
candy dishes
serving dishes for trail mix
juice, water, and milk glasses (I swear milk tastes better out of a mug)

Here's a little cheer on a snowy, dreary day

Perhaps my favorite peice of creative decorating that I have in my house. I love this window. My great-grandmother made the dish towels and they were two pretty and sentimental to use for dishes. They make me laugh too. The middle one has a rabbit, reading a cookbook that is entitled, "How to cook Rabbit". Cracks me up. My great Grandma always did have a wonderful sense of humor.

A little bit of kitchen

Just a bit of the place I love. Stay tuned for more corners of my kitchen. Oh, and the hanging mugs are another goodwill find. They were fifty cents a piece and still had the original World Market price tags on them. They match all my other green. Ahhh, green, the color that makes me feel peppy or serene, all depending on the shade. In my humble opinion, green is the most perfect color in the universe. If I was designing heaven...it would look a lot like the Emerald City.

In search of color

My home is missing an essential ingredient. It is missing an essential piece of the puzzle that declares it to be a home that belongs to "Becka". I knew it was missing, but I couldn't place eactly what "it" was. Now I know.

My mother, who perhaps knows me better than I do myself, looked at my pictures and said, "You are such a colorful person. You love color, and your house doesn't have any."

Where does she get the idea that I like color? Perhaps from this.

This was the play room area of the living room at our old house

Here's another view. I made the futon cover from some fabric I bought at IKEA. Those stenciled flowers never did get finished. I decided I didn't like them very much. And I have this issue with completing things

Here is the living room in it's final change and with the garish blue changed to a more mature but still brightly colored green.
Ignore the look on the boys' faces. It was Christmas morning and the were still sleepy. I didn't take any great pictures of that room and so this one will have to do.

I loved that room, it told people who I was, the moment they walked through the door. I heard jokes about needing sunglasses, about how I must have been high when I chose the colors. The truth was that it was a wonderful room. It was creative, imaginative, and so friendly. After getting over the first initial blinding shock, other people liked it as well. After being in the room for ten minutes, it grew on them. It was amazing how many compliments I got from that fun room. When we moved here, a certain set of people, let me know that they hoped I had matured enough to not destroy this new home with my obnoxious taste in color. For some reason, I let it get to me. I decided that their opinion was important enough that I would deny myself, my family, and my friends the one of things they loved about me.

Color. A sense of childlike love for brightness and simplicity. Creativity that defies normality.

On Being Cozy

I think humans (and animals) look for a place to feel enclosed. To be surrounded by safety, warmth, and self. My place is sandwiched between a white cloud of feather comforter and feather matress, my head upon a feather pillow. My cozy spot is warm and soft. Usually I am not alone as my snuggle bugs join me. We pretend we are penguins, inside an egg, waiting to hatch. Or, sometimes we are wolves, lost in a winter storm, and hiding in a cave dug from a snow bank. Sometimes, we are bears, in a rocky cave, and other times we are a human family, snuggling and cuddling...blocking out the cold and distractions of the world.

Who wouldn't want to escape to a world of white softness? I guess Esther. I worry about her. She seems to have chosen the cold hardness of metal bars for her hidey spot. I guess we can hope that this is not an indication of her future. She likes the crate far better than Heidi does, and no matter how much she coaxes Heidi to join her, the dog just looks as if Esther has gone off her rocker. And maybe she has. She has her mother's genes afterall.

It's a white world

The best way to describe St. Louis weather would be to use the word odd. We have a saying that goes, "If you don't like the weather today...just wait until tomorrow." Not meaning that it will get worse, only that it will surely be different. Two days ago, we were taking our walk without our coats and then we were slammed with what some called a blizzard? Ummmm...a blizzard? I don't think so. I can still see my grass. I absolutely love the idea of being snowed in, but I think it will never happen while living where I do. BUT, this is the first real snow of the season (and likely the last) and so I am grateful for this glimpse of short lived white wonder.

Right before the storm hit, I decided to take a meandering walk through our local goodwill. I am so glad I did. I have an eclectic collection of tea cups and saucers, which get used daily, and most of which have been broken by my two legged, clumsy hooligans. This one was only .30 cents. I know that most people display tea cups, but I am not much for displayed things. I like everything to be pretty and useful at the same time. When I can pick them up at .30 cents each, I won't get overly sad when one falls and crashes to a million jillion pieces on my floor. I love sipping tea, or eating oatmeal, or dipping apples into peanut butter, all from the beauty of a tea cup. I love the way it makes me feel dainty and special. I love the link to the past that it gives me. And I am not one to hog good feelings, so...I share my pretty cups with my children, who are not quite as attached as I am to pretty fragile things, and who seem to like the sound of crashing china. And so, I am in constant need of tea cup replacements. My new one feels a bit wintry, which matches my world at the moment.

Dreaming...

One should never take a break from a task such as cleaning out a closet. The break will give you time to ponder the state of your wardrobe and you will become convinced you need a new one.

But seriously, If I were to toss every ill-fitting, stained, torn, or grungy item in my closet, I would have two pair of jeans, one dress shirt, one jacket, one skirt, one sweater, two everday shirts, and two pair of jeans. I am thinking that I need a new wardrobe. I am also still in the funk I talked about several posts down, and wishing and dreaming and shopping is a sure cure for a funk. Of course, finances would have it that I can only window shop. And the arctic weather would have me stuck inside and shopping from the warm comfort of my home.

So...
Here's my dream wardrobe
3 pair of well fitting jeans These jeans are a perfect fit and HEY, They're on sale! I already have two other pair of jeans, so this one pair would do it.
5 everyday shirts that fit well, are stylish enough to run to the store or a casual outing, but inexpensive enough to do the daily chores in Such a pretty shirt... Holy cow, Eddie Bauer is having a winter clearance, I bet I could buy an entire winter wardrobe of shirt for less than what the one Hanna shirt cost! And did you see? Didja? They come in Talls.
1 grungy shirt to wear while painting or deep cleaning- lol, I have a million of these already.
3 dress shirts that can be worn with jackets or sweaters
2 pair of well fitting dress slacks
4 Sunday outfits- skirt+shirts or dresses, and matching hose and shoes I love this dress! I wish I could try it on, and lookie, it's on sale. I have never even touched anything from Hanna Anderson, but I hear, from reputable sources that the clothes are so soft you could sleep in them, and very well made. This one has a matching cardigan/jacket that could carry me through more than one season... This skirt, in green, of course, has me wanting to swish myself to church in a frenzy of smiles. I am pretty sure I NEED that skirt.
2 set of workout clothes
2 sets of lounge around the house and eat bon bon clothes
2 dressy jackets Is this jacket pink or red? because I am thinking I love it...but I am not much of a pink person.
3 cardigans (one should be cashmere, because if I am dreaming, why not dream in cashmere?) The matching cardigan to the Hanna Dress but it could be worn with jeans...or a skirt...it's versatile...

I will just keep shopping and adding my finds throughout the day. maybe someone will have some cash and be able to buy my dream wardrobe for themselves, otherwise, I am having fun wasting time...and sometimes- while in a funk- you just need to skate through by wasting time.

and thinking ahead to summer when long sleeves and jeans make way for capris and tshirts, These capris are rugged enough for camping and expensive enough for someone who would rather be at a spa resort than roughing it up in a tent. Ooh, I like these too! but they would break my budget big time. But I am dreaming. Dreams are not limited by finances, so my dream summer wardrobe would definately include those two pair of capris. Oh, wait I found another pair, these are cute and are a great length for a short. I am thinking I need those as well. And These shirts look like they would be long enough. I think one stripe and one solid would be good.

And, as long as I am spending imaginary money- how 'bout these shoes? and these would be great for camping. I would only need to take one pair of shoes, these work for the water and on the trail.

Is it at least a small amount of improvement?

It still isn't the fabulous collective look that I want to achieve, but does it at least look a tad bit better? Surely there is some reading somewhere about making displays that look great. Are all these cottage bloggers just born with all the wonderful talent their pictures display, or is this something I can learn?

Surface Problems:

Warning: This post will have a LOT of pictures, and they will all demonstrate my lack of skill in arranging clutter. These areas are an embarassment to me, and I post them in hopes that some blog friends across the blogging universe can help me create that creative, put-together look I want so desperately to have. HELP ME!!! I have skills in other areas, this is not one of them, and it will be painfully obvious as you browse the following pictures.


Perhaps the ugliest spot in my house. I love these hatboxes and bought them to use as an endtable, but my current furniture arrangement doesn't allow for an extra endtable. So, I stashed these in an empty corner, and put some misc, crud on top. THe little green and brown things must go somewhere! They were a mother's day gift to me from Weston. Aren't they pretty? Want to know what they are? Help me find a better place for them and I will tell you.



And the dog crates double as an endtable in my family room. Eventually they will have pretty covers, but until I get the motivation to get them made, I am just piling on some random items.



Probably the nicest arrangement I have. This is a tiny shelf where we hold homeschooling workbooks and such. I think the only reason I like it is because of that gorgeous picture of Esther.



UGLY. Nothing else to say. It's plain ol ugly. It humiliates me.



A small work area for me, in my living room that doubles as a homeschool room.



Top of the bookshelf. THis shelf has so much potential. Why can't I get it to look right? Oh, and the gold frame is an obvious error. It was thrown up there during a recent furniture rearranging and I just tossed it up there for lack of a better place.

I am completely unsurprised at the results of this quiz.

Which Classic Heroine are You?

I am:
Jo March

Josephine March, from Little Women, is a tomboy who loves writing, acting, and her family. She dreams of seeing the world and publishing her book.



Totals
51% Jo March
33% Elizabeth Bennet
32% Eowyn of Rohan
31% Anne Shirley
29% Maid Marian
29% Wendy Darling
21% Emma Woodhouse
20% Jane Eyre
14% Helen of Troy
13% Juliet Capulet

So, people who know me best, were you surprised? LOL. I bet not a single iota. I was slightly dissapointed that I didn't have more Anne Shirley in me.

On the homemaking front, I must admit, the reason my blog has been so scarce lately is because I have been in a bit of a funk. Nothing looks right. I look at other blogs and I just get jealous because they can take such simple things and make a beautiful display from it. I have no display skills, and my beautiful things always end up looking like clutter. My surfaces have three choices
1. Bare
2. Cluttered
3. "Ummm, what was she thinking....it looks a bit stupid".

Somebody send me some tips on how to make the tops of my bookshelves, tables, and mantle all look fabulous.

What's For Dinner?

Carrots and Celery, served in a big pot of melted butter? With a side of shredded chicken? Nope. That's just the start of 8 pot pies. I kept two out for tonight's dinner


Here they are all piled up. For the fun of it I included an onion sketch I did once upon a long time ago. Yes, that's an onion, and yes, there is a reason I don't draw for a living. One of these days, I am going to get that onion and it's sister drawing of a teeny pumpkin, framed and hung in my kitchen. It doesn't actually matter much to me that it looks more like a striped squished ball than a vegetable. I just like to look at it, knowing I stretched myself to do something that was not a God-given, born in my soul talent. I challenge you to try a new skill. It is heartening to a. learn you can do something you never thought you could do and b. Learn why people who are actually good at what you just learned to do get a lot of money for their efforts. Appreciation can be best gained by self effort. True. And worth the price of a community class.

No one can have too much love

And every dog needs a friend. right?

We brought this itty bitty girl home Sunday night and she has stolen our hearts in a big way. She might be tiny, but she has the attituude of a BIG dog. She has already rolled Heidi over. I don;t know how she did it- but this is one fearless little dog. They called her Sally at the shelter and we think the name fits her just fine. So, we welcome Sally to our home, and we welcome all the love and joy she will bring us.


Sweet sweet doggies, tuckered out from playing tag and from figuring out who was going to be the boss of every single toy.


This is their favorite game. Heidi will pick up a toy and bring it over to Sally, just for the opportunity to play Tug of War. Surprisingly- teeny little Sally wins, much of the time. The boys and I (with the help of a friend) made several of these tug toys. I saw them made at Petsmart for 6.00 and said "I can make that!". And so I did. They are just strips of flece, braided and knotted. It was a super easy project for the kids, and so cheap that I don;t mind if they get shredded and destroyed by Heidi the destoyer dog.

We found Sallly from This petfinder page If you are on the lookout for a new pet, please check out Petfinder. It helps to link up animals who have no home, with people who have room in their hearts and home for four legged (and some two legged) creatures.

Tag: I'm it

So, Danielle has informed me that I am now a member of the six things about me game. I am to list six weird things about myself, and then, I am supposed to tag six new people. That should be fun...I don't think I KNOW six people!


1. I have a freckle in my eye. Look real close and you can see it right outside my pupil. It is a real, honest to goodness freckle and matches the rest of the browny red spots that can be found here and there all over my face.


20. I had close to twenty different majors and minors while in college. I, however, have not a single degree. The ones I am closest to finishing are Theatre and Sociology. I have a semester left for both degrees. The above picture is a publicity picture done for a production of "Twelve Angry Jurors" I played a pregnant juror #6.

3. I love Dandelions: They are my favorite flower. In my not so humble opinion, there is nothing more beautiful than a field of green green grass, dotted here and there with dandelions. NOTHING.
(dandelion skirt and top made by me)

4. I enjoy body art- tattoos. I am a fairly conservative person, who grew up as a PK (Pastor's kid), and people are usually shocked by the revelation that I have a tattoo. If Dustan was not so appalled by the idea, I would have my body covered. As is it, I have one, a dandelion (go figure) that wraps around my belly button. One half is the flower head, and the second half, on a different stem is the seeded head...with a few seeds blowing away in the wind. When I got pregnant, it looked more like a sunflower than a dainty dandelion, and after I had a baby, it looked more like a mess than any form of actual art.

5. I had an 11.13 oz baby at home. In the comfort of my own bed.

6. Because my public school teachers called my mother at least once a week, crying because I was such a rotten child...my parents were forced to pull me out of school and homeschool me. I was homeschooled 3rd-12th grades with a stint in a private school in 7th. That didn't work out so well. I had detention every single day, and 4 swats during the year. There is nothing more humiliating than being a 13 year old girl receiving swats at school. It was horrible, but it didn't encourage me enough to act more appropriately. It made me even more obnoxious. Now I am so very fortunate to have a daughter who takes after me. I am getting very close to sending all my former teachers a note of apology. I have already apologized to my mother--nearly every day.

Resolution #1

I made several resolutions for this year. The first one is to take frequent walks, as a family, and to get the kids outside more often. We have started taking long daily walks and once a week we trek out to the walking park. Dogs are welcome there, and the kids love to run and play.

Crisp Air+ Blue Skies= ahhhhhh

Here are my mountain climbing experts

And lunch on the run (or on a break during the run)

We had a homemade trailmix. I have to make my own because Dustan hates black raisins. I throw in peanuts, walnuts, pecans, choco chips, golden raisins, and cranberries. I get all the ingredients and throw it into a big glass jar. It makes a handy treat, and sometimes, when I feel lazy, we have it for lunch. It worked perfectly for our outing today.

I challange you all to take a walk today. No excuses. If it is raining, take an umbrella, if it is snowing, wear warm gloves and a hat. I promise, you will have a better day (and maybe life) because of it.

Beware of Wild Cows

I think my son gets his creative skills from my father. My dad is amazing in his ability to enjoy and create things. He was never like this when I was growing up. I guess he was too busy writing term papers or sermons to use that side of his brain. Now that I am an adult, I have learned all kinds of things about him that I never knew. He has composed music, he paints, and apparently he makes some really beautiful tiles. He needs to find a kiln, because as soon as I move to a permanent home...he is tiling my entire kitchen.


Here is Marcus' current effort at being creative. He made this puzzle for me to figure out, and what an incredible warning! Truly...you never know when you might meet up with wild cows, and now I know. If I ever see a wild cow...BEWARE. Cute kid.

Like a chicken with its head cut off.

A crazy chicken.
6:00 Wake UP
7:30 House work is done
7:45 Wake up kids
8:00 kids are dressed and they have picked up their madatory five things before breakfast. So feed those buggers some cereal.
8:30 School with Marcus
9:30 school with weston
and all during that time, field seven incoming calls.
10:00 make close to thirty phone calls and stress out about how to get everything done.
10:45 receive a phone call from Teen MOPS co-coodinator. She wants to meet at 1:00 at her house
11:00 PANIC. Okay...PANIC BIG TIME
11:15. Kids have on shoes and coat. Weston has on a striped shirt, inside out, a brightly colored pair of pants with a friggy print, and no socks. No time to change. Esther has chocolate icing smeared on her face (because somewhere during that crowded mess we call morning, I found time to give them a snack of grahm crackers with choco icing- a treat from my own childhood.) Wipe Esther's face.
11:16 Oh crud. Cell phone is dead. Plug in cell phone.
11:17 Pack kids in car and run inside to put dog away and grab the cell phone which had less than a 5 minute charge.
11:30 On the road to the other side of St Louis. I have to pick up my fresh meat order and be at Christals by 1.
11:31 Realize I am a crazy nincompoop idiot woman.
11:40 get lost in St Louis. Good thing I had 5 minutes on my phone. A quick call to Dustan gets me back on the interstate going the right direction.
12:00 I am at the butcher's. They just finished my order...but it's lost. I order half a pound of bologna and american cheese while they search for my order
12:15 They found it and bring it to the van. reload the kids and pass out slices of bologna and cheese for a lunch on the move.
12:30. Field off the whining from thirsty kids (yes, I forgot to buy water).
12:45 Arrive back at house. Unpack meat while kids are still in car and listen to the dog whine because he needs to go out.
1:00 Teen Mops planning meeting
2:10 Arrive at home. Grab dog and put him in van for a trip to the park.
3:30 Arrive home and begin to boil 6 chickens...who frankly, have all had their respective heads cut off. No running around for them!
4:00 Sit down to blog
I still have to make dinner and Marcus has basketball practice tonight. When he gets done, I will conk out, literally.

Here is my fridge, after being piled with 4 chuck roasts, 16 pounds of chicken breasts, and 30 pounds of ground beef. The six headless chicken are already boiling on the stove. I bought enough meat for four months of my meal plan.

A Four Week Meal Plan

My life has been chaotic lately. i have forgotten important appointments. I have started to procrastinate important tasks. I have run out of precious time to do all those things I lov to do. In an effort to simplify the most stressful part of my life: cooking, I have made a rotating Four week meal plan. I worked under the constraints of needing sandwiches on Mondays because Dustan does the cooking (I am at Mops), one soup per week, and Sunday had to be a super fast meal.

Four Week Meal Plan

Week One:
Monday: Caccitore Chicken Sandwiches with green beans (These are chicken patties topped with marinara and parmasan cheese)
Tuesday: Black Bean Chicken with corn
Wednesday: Leftovers
Thursday: Chicken Noodle soup with buttered bread
Friday: Chicken and Broccoli Casserole
Saturday: Hamburgers with fries and salad
Sunday: Chicken Quessadillas

Week Two:
Monday: Ham sandwiches with chips and apple slices
Tuesday:Pot Pie
Wednesday: Leftovers
Thursday: Potatoe soup in bread bowls
Friday: Cowgirl Beans with cornbread
Saturday: Spagetti with salad and garlic bread
Sunday: tacos

Week Three:
Monday: Grilled Cheese Sandwiches and tomato soup
Tuesday:Meatloaf with mashed potatoes and green beans
Wednesday: leftovers
Thursday: Bean Soup with biscuits
Friday: Angel Hair Pasta with shrimp and Spinach
Saturday: Shephard’s Pie
Sunday: Marinaded grilled chicken or steak with salad and veggie medley

Week Four:
Monday: Tuna sanwhiches with apples and peanut butter and chips
Tuesday: Savory Herb Beef Roast with mashed potatoes and green beans
Wednesday: Leftovers
Thursday: Chili with cornbread
Friday: Quiche and salad
Saturday: Chicken a La King with peas
Sunday: Citrus Dijon Chicken with broccoli

Most of these meals can be frozen which I plan to do. I am working on a shopping list now.

How to plan a party in 2 days.

You read that right. Two days. At our house, birthday kids rule. They choose the theme and get their way in almost everything they want. King or Queen for the day.

Well, I thought Weston wanted a birthday party at the grand place off all-pull-your-hair-out-evilness...Chuckie Cheese. Two days before his party, Weston informs me that, "You don't listen good mommy. I want to go to Chuckie Cheese. But NOT on my birthday. I want a castle pirate party. At home."

Okay, so I am a bad listener. But I do throw one heack of a thrown together party. Oh, and I really pulled this two themed party off. Castles. AND pirates. Sheesh.


Here were the party plans. Feel free to use them for your own use.

Food:
Funfetti cupcakes with chocolate frosting. Some were sprinkled with gold glitter and others had a skull and bones sloppily piped on.
Ruby juice: 7 up with cheery koolaid ice cubes
Pizza from Little Ceaser's. I like easy and I like cheap.

Activities:

Craft- making jeweled goblets. I bought the goblets on clearance at Target for close to .50 cents each. We just glued on flat jewels from the craft store. The kids loved it.
Who stole the Gold game: The King (or Queen) sits on the "throne", his back facing the other children. I place a gold foil rolo under the throne and pointed to one kid to "steal" the gold. THe King turned around and the kids chanted...
"King King, Where's your gold?
Somebody stole it,
From under your throne."
THen the King would guess who had stolen it. I gave him two guesses. If he guessed right then he got to keep the gold. If he guessed wrong than the theif got to keep the gold. Either way, the thief became the next King. It was a tone of fun until all the rolos melted in the kids' hand. LOL
Treasure hunt- We did the high tech version. For his birthday, we gave Weston an electronic pirate chest. You hide the bottom half of the chest and the top half is an electronic map. It lights up blue when you are "cold", yellow when you are "warm", and red when you are "hot". The kids had a blast with this.

We all had fun at far less money and far fewer germs than would have been had at Chuckie Cheese.

Here is a pirate and pirate mommy!

Who are our neighbors?

For some reason, that thought weighed heavily on my mind last night. The story of the Good Samaritan kept running through my mind. And then that follow-up question. The question of all questions. Who are my neighbors? How can I say I love my neighbors as myself when I am overweight...nay, obese, and yet there are those who have no food to eat at all? Heavy thoughts for 11:00 at night.

This morning I woke up to a letter from All God's Children . I look forward to their newsletters whenever they come because it is so heartening to read about the work that they do. This letter was not heartening. It was terrible, and I have shed many a tear over the news that it held.

This is a long post: Bear with me, but it has a backstory.

Almost six years ago, Dustan and I felt that we wanted to add to our family. Adoption has always had such a large place in my heart. Adoption is one of my favorite Biblical principles and I am drawn to it like a moth to a flame. So, we began a long journey into adoption. We looked and waded through an overwhelming amount of information and agencies. One agency stood miles above the rest. One agency grabbed my heartstrings. All God's Children . They not only were an adoption agency, but they did relief work. Amazing relief work. Their story is incredible (I urge you to order and read the book offered on their site). They would go into what seemed to be a god-forsaken country and offer the greatest thing of all. HOPE. They began to help out existing orphanages. Government ones, nasty places, where no child should be. They painted and provided workers to hold and care for the babies. All babies need love, oh how much they need love. Can you imagine never being touched except for a diaper change? And so, these babies began to be loved, and held, and nourished, and so many of them found families, that would love them the rest of their lives.

But do you realize that their are children all over the world who will never be adopted? Either they have health or mental, or just legal issues that won't allow them to be adopted, or just realistically speaking, they will not be able to find a family. There are thousands of these children. Flooding government orphanages around the world.

All God's Children takes care of these children. They offer them a home, and caregivers who provide more than just food and clothing. These children are given a place to live, to eat, and to be loved. They now have beautiful homes filled with hope.

Back to my story: Dustan and I eventually went with another agency because All God's Children Did not yet have an adoption program in Guatemala, our country of choice. we felt such a strong pulling there, it was the country who would birth our second child. Or so we thought. Right after sending off a check to the INS, I got some funny news. I was expecting the very child who will celebrate his fifth birthday tomorrow! Weston Mathis King has filled our lives with joy, and on the eve of his birthday I read what has to be the saddest most heartfelt letter ever written.

The writer of the letter says that because of lack of funding, they have had to close down one of the Hannah's Hope homes that they had begun in the very country Dustan and I had chosen to adopt from. Right before Christmas, Jan had the horrible task of choosing which children would have to be returned back to the government orphanages. Please remember that these are not children who will temporarily be there. These are children, who, for one reason or another, will live there the rest of their childhood and maybe longer.

Are these children my neighbors? These precious beings, created by the very loving hands that created my precious Weston? Am I somehow responsible for this tragedy? My heart is heavy...and somewhat heartbroken. In y mind, everything about this points to a very clear declaration of what God wants me to do. He wants me to give. I only wish that I had done more, and done it sooner.

Please, dear blog readers, in honor of my son's birthday, will you visit the All God's Children website? Will you read about them? Will you read about the work that they do? And then will you consider making those un-adoptable, but not un-loved or un-wanted, children you neighbors?

The letter mentioned that if everyone on the mailing list could send in a one time gift of 30.00, that it would allow them to continue one home they still have in Guatemala, as well as Ethiopia, and China. And, what's more, they could increase what they are doing.

My wish, is that by sharing my heart, I can find three readers who are willing to give. It's a one time gift that will bless the hearts of a child, all the way across the world.

If, this ministry is not calling to you. I urge you to be generous to another one. The season of giving may be over for most of the world. But the season for caring for neighbors will be here, every day, every year.

I am having trouble posting pictures on blogger right now, and so...in an effort to continue posting...I would like to pass on this wonderful site

One Hour Craft

It has some lovely projects for kids and right now they have a tutorial on teaching children to sew, using a sewing machine. The tutorial is worth reading, as it has some wonderful advice (like sewing at first without the needle, and making a game out of it).

UPDATE: I was able to post my pics, and the result is the post below this one.

A quilt for Marme

My mom, (who goes by the name Marme) loves sheep. This started when my aunts (who go by the name of c.r.a.z.y), decided she needed to collect "something"...anything. It was an effort to make gift giving easier I believe. Crazy aunt Brenda collects rabbits and crazy aunt Peggy collects cows. I won't even say what my other crazy aunts collect. Anyhow, when Marme couldn't choose "something" to collect, the crazy aunts chose for her.

And our house was overwhelmed by angels, most of them naked, and very ugly. We had fat dimpled baby angels, whose perky heinies plumped out under soft real feather wings. We had snooty, tall and slender angels that had ceremic wings that drooped down their perfectly arched backs and puddled in the floor. We had pictures of angels watching people do all kinds of things...always watching us, those angels were. The problem was that Marme did not care for angels, especially the naked baby ones, and so in defense of her home being invaded by them, she chose to collect sheep. The sheep are cute, cozy, and all her sheep have such funny little personalities. Over Christmas she bought a porceline fatty sheep that is glazed in green and looks as if it weighs 400 pounds AND was sat on my a rhino. She has itty bitty beady eyes and in my honest opinion is the weirdest thing I have ever seen. But Marme loves her, and had been waiting until after Christmas (for Chrsitmas money) to buy her. Marme petted the ugly squatty sheep the whole way home and I swear I heard her mumbling, "I am taking you home now baby...taking you home." I think craziness might be a gentic flaw in that side of the family.

All that to say, my mother adores sheep. And my sister-in-law Carrie, knowing this, decided to surprise her for Christmas with this extrordinary example of beauty.


The top picture is my mother hiding underneath it because she is crying her eyes out and she doesn't want anyone to know it. Which is silly, because what else would she be doing under there...and she wasn't exactly quiet about it either.

Carrie is fairly new to sewing, and this is, I think, her second quilt. The entire thing is hand quilted, and is beyond lovely.

I am guessing my mother went to bed mumbling, half in her sleep, "Go to sleep my little babies, go to sleep." Because Marme is just crazy that way.

A homemade Christmas

Here is a finished picture of the quilted wall hanging after MIL opened it. My machine was really acting up on me and the bobbin threads kept jumbling up. MIL is inspecting the mess in this picture. I was proud of it, the quilting part was really difficult and because we all know that I have an issue with finishing things...I am proud that it even got completed in the first place.

My little ones made this nativity set while staying with Grammy Pammy. I think it is ingenious, as well as the most beautiful nativity set I have ever seen. It's made from toilet paper rolls and almost 100% done by the hands of children. Grammy Pammy thought they were making it for her. That was the plan anyway, but when they finished, they couldn't bare (bear?) leaving it there, and so...It come home to me, and it will be my main nativity set next year.