Tired

I have been so tired lately. I have been on a spring cleaning frenzy and although I have been getting the usual amount of sleep, I am too tired to think. So after my last post I didn't even crack open the computer. Now I am way behind on reading and commenting on posts (not that I am that wonderful about always commenting, but I do always read). So I had about 150+ posts to read and am now down to 85.

So then today, I decided to give blood - which in retrospect was a stupid thing to do. And now I feel like every last drop of energy has been sucked out through a straw, which in a sense it sort-of was.

With my allergies and the storm clouds I then got a headache. It wasn't/isn't a bad one, but between that and being so tired, I went and took a 3 hour nap.

Can I just say, I am so grateful that my kids are at an age where they can entertain themselves for a few hours without destroying things or hurting themselves.

And . . . the point of me telling you all this . . . .

I forgot.



Oh yeah! My point is, I am not trying to be rude or anything, I am just behind and am trying to catch up while being so exhausted I can't think.

Because oddly enough, I prefer to be at least semi-coherent.

Jumble of random stuff

I was going to post something about my wonderful Hubby yesterday because it was his birthday but I barely got on the computer at all. It was one of those busy days.

Junior had an eye appointment, just a regular check-up. Thank the Lord, he doesn't need glasses. I may have heard angels singing Hosannas, or maybe that was me. I truely do love the boy, but there is no way we could afford to keep him in glasses. He would be breaking them on a weekly basis, bless his heart.

We went to the library, because I had 2 bags of books to turn in. Unfortunately I left one at the house. Luckily, this library is very homeschool friendly. As a homeschooler, any "school" books aren't charged fines and that is anything from cookbooks (which Daisy regularly checks out) to fiction or history. It doesn't include the books I check out for me to read, but I am totally fine with that. I am grateful for the break I get.

Then Hubby had a dental cleaning appointment over in the neighboring town and the kids and I rode along on that. While he was there, the kids and I went to stuffmart to pick up a few things. While I was there, I saw a neighbor of this friend/former employer of mine, so I asked how Stu was doing. He said that Stu was fine, still in the same place so we are probably going to go visit some day soon.

When Stu was a teen, he got behind the wheel mad one time and it changed his life. He has been in a wheelchair 20-30 years but that hasn't slowed him down considerably. When I worked for him, one of the things I did was type up his tests because he taught science. That was one of the first times I ever found science interesting and while I typed them up, I was able to ask questions. He also tutored some homeschool kids which gave me more confidence that I might could do this homeschooling gig, since I could find people to help with the subjects I don't feel comfortable with (although Stu always said that those parents "thought" they couldn't teach science).

Anyway, after the dentist appointment, we went to Hubby's parents and visited for a bit. Hubs was exhausted (it has been a long week for him full of much longer shifts than normal - fire at the plant) so we were going straight home so he could put his feet up.

Until I told him what his birthday present was, then he changed his mind.

He has been mulling over getting a new DVR for awhile. I haven't been enthusiastic about it, maybe because TV isn't one of my love languages.

So when I told him that that is what I was thinking of "getting" him . . . he wasn't so tired anymore. So it took a bit but we finally got it hooked up and working - I had the important and difficult job of putting the batteries in the remote.

The funny thing about DVRs, the people who don't have them think they are stupid, pointless etc. But after having one . . . .

My family nagged and nagged my grandmother to get one. We were in the mall and saw them on sale and mentioned it again. She said if I would hook it up, she would get it (I think maybe she was hoping I would back out of it). She has since said how handy it is, and how glad that we nagged.

We don't have ours completely set up with all the programs, but so far I am fairly happy with it.

7 quick takes - unravelled

1. It all started out quite innocent. I was perfectly happy crocheting my lopsided dishcloths. I was even getting to where they weren't completely lopsided.

And then we went into H*bby L*bby and found they had their pretty, soft, snuggly yarn clearanced out at 1.99 a skein. So I picked up a few that I really liked, and came home.

Well, you can't make dishcloths out of them so I decided socks. I like fuzzy socks in the winter, or when I am sick cold at other times. And now this . . . illness hobby is growing.


2 Last week I mentioned my hairy spider project (number 5 here and again on this post). Well, I have made a little more progress on them.

Here it is before I switched out needles to the double-point.

Those things hanging down are the circular knitting needles.

And here is where I am now.

I put an Easter egg in the toe so you could see the hole. I am not working on that one right now, I need to see how far I get with my other one which you can see with the 3 double-point needles. The double-point needles (dpn) look much more intimidating than they really are, you just knit on one and then move to the next.

As for the cool stripe effect, I don't know quite how that got there, I am hopping it will happen on the other sock, but I am not holding my breath.

3. So I was happily working on my sock when all of a sudden I realized that the next steps of the pattern were in Chinese.

Ok may not Chinese. Would you believe Greek?

So I emailed a wonderful cyber-friend (can you imagine having to wait for the stage-coach to bring your mail with something like this?) and she explained it so that it made more sense.

Because of her guilt in another matter though, she shall remain nameless (She is right here). She had a link to one of those sites.

You know, one of those black hole sites where you can spend days. This particular one is crocheting and knitting and other stuff and it has patterns, and projects, and tips.

They even have some tatting patterns. So now I have been perusing the site and coming up with too many projects I want to do. If you do knitting or crocheting you might want to peek at www.ravelry.com. You sign up for an invitation and you get one pretty quickly. It is really pretty cool.

4. complete change of subject We had our last homeschool skate day today and it was fantabulous. We had a great turn out and it was a used curriculum sale too. Last year at this time, we had to bribe Junior to leave the game room - 1 quarter for one lap around the rink and the most he earned was 50 cents. Today he spent almost the whole time on the rink doing a running skate thing.

Not that I am making fun. Since I have never been able to skate, I would be the last one to make fun of someone else.

5. This talk of re-usable shopping bags got me thinking about the ultimate shopping bag.

The bilum bag. This bag is used by the nationals in Papua New Guinea for carrying around everything, including children. They put their small children in the bag and hang the bag in a tree when the child needs a nap, and I am not talking just newborns.

The bilum (bee-lum) bag stretches amazingly this is what I decided I wanted for a shopping bag. Until I thought about how heavy it would be full of cans.

So I went for a much, much smaller version.


The purple bag is my bilum bag, with string made from steel wool grasses. The lighter multi-colored one is made from cotton yarn, much softer.

And here it is with 2 1/2 lbs peanut butter, a bottle of wine, a box of chicken broth, a can of pineapple and a can of olives (just random stuff out of the pantry, no really meaning to them).



And just so you know, I can fit 3 king-size pillows in my bilum bag with a bit of room to spare.

6. And here is another mini bilum bag, this one made with regular ol' acrylic yarn. These take about 4-5 hours to whip out and are pretty brainless work, so I can watch TV with Hubby while making one.


And again with stuff in it.



Daisy wants a shirt that looks like this for the 4th of July which is something I think I can handle.

7. I was reading about the most fantabulous idea at Down to Earth . . . ok she has lots of great ideas but
I love, love, love this one since Junior is now getting into legos.

You take a large circle of fabric - think play mat size for the legos - and put a drawstring on it. So your child can sit there and play with the legos, and when he is done, just pull the drawstring and it is all in a bag.

This could also be done for Barbie and her bazillion shoes.

How clever is that! She does say she didn't come up with it, but that her son had one bought from Lego but they no longer sell them. Of course now I can't find the post. GRRR

Free Reynolds Wrap

Oh cool! You can get a free roll of Reynolds wrap made from recycled aluminum. You fill out a form and they will give you a mail in rebate.

It does say today only because they are celebrating Earth Day, so you may want to hurry over.

Just click HERE

Kinda cool timing for us, we just used the last of the foil the other day and I haven't purchased anymore yet.

Works-for-Me-Wednesday - Toothfairy pillow

When I was a little girl, we spent alot of time with M and her mom L. M is 5 months older than me and our moms were/are best friends.

You know the kind of best friends who don't see each other in 2 years but meet up wearing the same outfit.

M and I have stayed friends, we were even roommates for awhile. She is more like a sister than a friend.

Anyway, L is one of those incredibly crafty people, she is always in some sort of project - that always turn out looking good. When M and I were little girls, L made each of us a tooth pillow for when the toothfairy would visit. It was a small-ish pillow (about 8x8 inches) with a little pocket on the front just large enough to hold a tooth inside a kleenex. This made it easier for the toothfairy, she didn't have to scramble underneath the pillows, wink, wink.

So when my daughter had her first loose tooth, we went to the store and picked out about 1/2 a yard of fabric and some ruffley trim and made her a pillow with a "U" shaped pocket.

Then for my son, he chose a "Cars" fabric so we made a pocket out of the Lightning McQueen character.

The pillows are easier to find in a dark room, and the pocket holds the tooth secure.



They may not be perfect but it works for me.

Win a free reuseable shopping bag!

I just won a free shopping bag!

If you go to this webpage and take the pledge you too can win a free shopping bag. You have to be one of the first 1000 people to take the pledge, but they are doing this every week in April.

Yes, I realize that April is almost over, but you have next week if you aren't able to win it today. If you can just remember on Monday morning to sign up, then you might can win one.

Thank you Tiffany for posting this.

Good luck!

Is it just me or are the weekends getting shorter?

We had record rains here this weekend so we stayed inside and had a quiet weekend.

Daisy did a little bit of her knitting, but not a whole lot. She is wanting to make a purse for her first project so I am thinking of her doing two of Grandma's favorite dishcloth. With those sewn together and lined and a handle it would make a great little girl purse. Not to mention Grandma's favorite seems to go incredibly fast at the beginning and end. It is knit on the diagonal so the first and last row are 4 stitches, the next row (and next to last) are five stitches, and so on.

I think I mentioned my hairy spider sock project (it is number 5 on this list). I continued to work on it this weekend, I am 3/4 of the way through it thanks to this wonderful lady who is the only person I "know" who has actually knit socks and graciously answered some questions of mine. It is even beginning to look like a sock . . . well if you cut the toes off.

I don't know if I am ready for this week though. Dentist appointments Monday, piano and entomology Tuesday, kickball and teamkids Wednesday, skate day on Friday and Tae kwon do Mon, Wed and Fri. Phew, I am tired already.

Who do you worship?

In church we are studying the book of Daniel which is one of my favorite books in the Bible. This is the book where Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were thrown in the furnace lit 7 times hotter than normal. This is also the book where Daniel was thrown in the lions den. This is the book where a disembodied hand writes on the wall pronouncing judgment over a king.

Even though it is my favorite book, I am still learning from it - I love how God can do that! You know, show you something new each time.

To set this up, I need to give you a very, very condensed version of one of the stories.

So in Daniel 2, King Nebuchadnezzer has a dream that he wants interpreted because he can't sleep, but he doesn't want to tell what the dream is. Daniel and his friends pray and God tells Daniel about the dream and what it means. Daniel then tells the king what his dream is and what it means. The king is mighty impressed and makes Daniel a VIP.

Here is something I never noticed, Daniel 2:46 "Then King Nebuchadnezzer threw himself down before Daniel and worshiped him." Daniel had given all the credit to God but Nebuchadnezzer worshiped Daniel.

So we were discussing this in our class and someone mentioned how stupid Nebuchadnezzer was to worship the wrong one. Instead of worshiping the Most High God, he worships the messenger. But he wasn't the only one who did this.

It is human nature! We want someone with skin or something we can see to worship. For example, when Moses died, he was buried by God (or the angels) so that no one could worship him. You might think that is a bit extreme but if you consider all the "holy relics" of the middle ages - splinters off the cross, etc - you might realize that it probably would have happened.

And what about today? We aren't really any better. A popular pastor says something that is contrary to God's word and we would prefer to believe the pastor. Or almost as bad, we never look to see if he is correct.

Is that not a form of worship? The only infallible human to have ever walked the earth was Jesus, the rest of us - pastors and priests included - mess up daily.

Please read the Bible for yourself, double check what you are being taught.

I am very blessed to have a pastor that is very open to correction. If you can show him in the Bible where he is wrong, he admits it. He says he is only right 80-90% of the time, and that it is our job to figure out where he is wrong.

Some are not like that, they want to be who you trust. They remind me of the abusive spouse/boyfriend, the first thing they do is isolate you from what can tell you the truth.

If you are told that you are too stupid to read and understand God's word, you have been lied to.

If you have been told to blindly trust your preacher because they know God's word better, you are being told to worship a man.

Unfortunately, it is much easier to worship a man, especially when he is saying what you want to hear.

For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. (2 Timothy 4:3-4 New International Version)

Who do you worship? The one true living God who made the heavens and the earth or someone who is a fallible human.

Despereaux and Marley and Me

After hearing our weather reports for the weekend, I thought that some movies sounded nice. We enjoy having "Family Movie Night" when we can, maybe once a month. No one is allowed to do something else, no playing on the computer, no reading a book; to be honest these rules are for the grownups though.

So Friday night, we popped some popcorn and settled down to watch Despereaux. All in all we enjoyed it, some parts were confusing - what was the deal with the magical man made out of vegetables? - but the kids gave it an enthusiastic thumbs up. We may need to read the book. I was a little worried this would turn out to be a Ratatouille makeover since there is a rat and food in the beginning. It doesn't take long before you forget Ratatouille though.

Would I recommend it? Yes, we enjoyed this movie and there was nothing really objectionable.

The other movie was Marley and Me. I should have known better. Stacey had mentioned a language issue but you know different people have different definitions of words they don't want their kids to hear. And it is rated PG but they are apparently alot more lenient than I would be. Among other terms there was S.O.B. (not abbreviated), b*st*rd, B*tch, *ss, etc. Not to mention there was also discussion about "making a baby," activities that lead up to making a baby, and a scene with a squeaky bed. Yep, lottsa stuff I wanted to explain to my kids.

Actually Junior got bored and left the room, which is good because he wouldn't have wanted to see the ending. Daisy did watch the ending, but she didn't like it.

Would I recommend it? Ehhh, it was ok. If I was watching it with teens, sure. With younger kids, no.

Things that make you go huh?

I went into the bathroom and the floor was pretty wet in front of the sink, the counter around the sink was wet.

That much water on the floor is usually caused by the smallest member of the family. So I called him in :

"Junior why is the floor wet?"

"Because I have a runny nose"

Huh?

"Why does your runny nose make the floor wet?"

Because I had to blow my nose."

"But that still doesn't explain why the floor is wet"

"Because it some dripped. I'm sorry."

"What dripped? Your hands when you washed them?"

"The toilet paper dripped."

"Can you please explain to me exactly how you blew your nose?"

It turns out he wet a handful of clean toilet paper in the sink so that he could blow his nose although why he thought he needed to wet it first, I don't know. By this time, I really didn't care and was more concerned with trying to control my laughter.

7 quick takes

1. I am apparently searching for something more elusive than the Holy Grail, or Loch Ness Monster, or Big Foot.

I am trying to find a kettle that is inexpensive and not a piece of #*@(. I had a kettle that worked well for 5 plus years but then it broke or something (I honestly don't remember what happened but after 5 plus years, it was ok).

So then I got a pretty red kettle - because I love red.

The handle broke off in less than a month.

So I got a metal kettle.

About a year later it has sprung a leak.

There is a hole in the bottom of it, no where near any joining or anything.

So last night I went to w*lm*rt to get me a new kettle. My w*lm*rt is apparently no longer selling kettles of any kind.

Stupid stuffmart.

2. While I am at it, let me tell you about my newish stove. We got it a year or two ago, and for the most part I love it.

Except that it does this
That is my now broken kettle on to boil. The stovetop warps when heated, at first I thought it was heavy stuff - like a big pot of cooking pasta. Nope, the kettle does it too. The spoon actually fits in the gap created with room to spare.


Here it is with nothing on top of it, the gap is still there.

And the black spots on the drip pans is where the paint has chipped off. They just do that when they are used. It has nothing to do with anything. They haven't been dropped or anything.

We got the extended warranty and called the guy out to look at it.

He all but said that it is cheaply made and there is nothing that can be done about it. Nice.

It's a Frigidaire by the way.

3. I have to confess, I have been sucked into the Twilight vortex. When I first heard about it, I wasn't remotely interested in some stupid vampire thing. Then with all the fuss over the movie, and again when it was released to DVD. So I finally suggested Hubby and I watch it (he likes those sort of shows, you know like supernatural, paranormal, scifi, etc). We both enjoyed the movie and then when I saw the book at Sams for $7, I thought I would pick it up.

I have to admit it is a very enjoyable series to read. I haven't read the whole thing yet, just 1-3. I have the 4th on reserve at the library and am impatiently waiting for it.

4. Daisy decided she wanted to learn how to knit. Just between us, I think this was the reason.



Maybe it is only part of the reason or it could be that she thought knitting had to be easier than crochet. She has the very, very basics of crochet down - chain and single crochet, we are working on double crochet - but she decided she had to learn knitting.

Honestly, I would prefer her to proficient at both. From a very limited study (like 2 or 3 people) it seems that whatever you learn first is what you think is easiest. So if she learns them about the same time . . . she will either find both easy or ridiculously hard.

So I thought I would sit down with the instruction book and follow their directions in case she had any problems and needed help. I taught myself to knit from directions I printed off the internet while I was on bedrest while pregnant with Junior. I was bored and needed something to occupy my mind.

So anyway, with the Princess knitting kit, (I used my own needles, I could quite bring myself to use the pink plastic needles). Following their directions I did the slip knot. Unfortunately it seems that the knot slips the wrong way. But anyway.

Then I cast on about 15 stitches. That went well, I was pretty happy.

Then for the knit stitch, the directions put the yarn in the wrong (right) hand. Stupid book giving little girls the wrong directions.

Then I started wondering, what if I was wrong.

Nahhhh.

But, I wondered. So I got on the internet and pulled up directions for "how to knit".

The first 3 sites had directions for knitting while holding the yarn in the right hand.

So how on earth did I start knitting while holding the yarn in my left (which feels much more natural to me.)

I finally figured out that there is two ways of holding the yarn, American (or English) and Continental. I just happened to have taught myself the Continental style.

So now I am practicing in the American style - somewhere I was looking pointed out that being able to knit both ways made it easier to do the 2 colors.

5. So I decided to try my hand at socks. I had made slippers while I was on bedrest, and baby booties, and half of a blanket, but no socks.

The challange is, I don't have any double needles the right size (going to get some today). So at first I used 4 regular needles,and kept turning them around - because I couldn't wait to start.

Then I thought of using 3 sets of round needles (I inherited a bunch of needles from my great aunt, she apparently liked the round instead of double). For those of you that don't knit - and have made it this far - those are two needles tied together with plastic cord-like stuff.

It works, although it is vaguely spiderlike. And then because it is knit 2 purl 2 and I kept forgetting where I was I put rings on it. Before the knit 2 is one style of ring, before the purl 2 is another, so it is a decorated spider.

And it is using some of that yarn with the strings hanging off - so now it is a decorative hairy spider.

I gotta get those other needles.

6. Finally a quick one - my kids still haven't eaten their chocolate Easter bunnies.

The Easter bunny brought this cute one for each that was a chocolate parent bunny with a white chocolate kid bunny molded separately. They both at the baby bunny but haven't touched the parent.

I really don't get it, especially since I hate white chocolate. Ok, maybe hate is a strong word. I barely tolerate it. I wouldn't pick it out like it was a raisin, but wouldn't go out of my way to eat it either.

7. Modern things are not going to survive long enough to be passed down to the next generations. I have my great aunts sewing machine that she received during the cleanup in post WWII Japan, it still works beautifully. In fact, If I were going to sew anything with any thickness I would use it over any modern machine.

Those old fans may cut your fingers off but they still work well, and if they don't they can be repaired - so can the sewing machines for that matter.

Now I love some of the modern stuff, I am not a complete Luddite. I just want stuff to last and not break in the first year and a half.

Reason 261 I love homeschooling

Yesterday we were able to eat lunch with my parents as they drove through town. They were going from the Houston area up to Oklahoma and decided to take a bit of a detour through our little town.

We met at H*bby L*bby and then went to have a wonderful lunch together.

I hadn't told the kids who we were meeting - or that we were meeting anyone - so the look of surprise and joy on Juniors face when he saw "Grandfather" was priceless.

As a side note, we read Heidi last year which started Daisy calling him Grandfather and then Junior picked it up. So it isn't that he chose a stuffy sounding name.

And this is something we couldn't do if they were in school . . . or at least I would feel guilty about it.

Standing up for what is right

I don't get involved in politics very much, or protests, or political activisim.

But I can't stay silent about this.

This is wrong and if we do nothing a tragedy will happen.

A good man will be sent to his death.

This is a friend of ours, not just some article in the newspaper to us. We have seen his precious boys, and met his lovely wife.

The short story is, the US immigration department has tried to deport him and will probably continue trying until he is given asylum. He was witness to the murder of an Albanian parliament member and so is a threat. If he returns to Albania, he will be murdered.

The longer version can be read here at ICE Age USA: The Retraumatization of Rrustem Neza.

This is a kind, big-hearted, generous family.

I have a petition that I am going to post; if you want to print it out and sign it, please let me know in the comments and I will send you the address of the petition, as well as where to send it.

Please pray for this family.

A new 5 X 30 Challenge! Are you up for it?

This one is going to be a tiny bit more complicated. It is still 30 minutes of exercise 5 days a week, but this time also choosing to forgo 100 calories.

Any 100 calories. Just don't have that 2nd piece of cake, or don't sneak the candy out of one of your children's eggs, or only drink 2/3 of that coke, or . . . well you get the idea.

Just doing that one thing every day will have you losing 10 pounds in a year.

Come join us over at2nd Cup of Coffee.

I can't even begin to think of a title

On Wednesday for the past few weeks the homeschool group has gotten together and let the kids play kickball and softball. The younger ones (under 1st or 2nd grade) just do kickball and the older (up to 13 years old) played both.

The kids have loved it, its low key and fun.

Wednesday I get a phone call from C, she has been coaching the little ones in kickball.

I didn't really think anything of it, we go to the same church, our sons are friends . . .

Ya'll, she asked me to coach! (Did you hear that thud? That was the sound of my family falling off its chair laughing.)

I don't mind admitting, I am horrible at sports. Awful. Beyond belief.

I passed P.E. because I showed up and my teacher took pity on me.

True story: in 1st or 2nd grade we had 2 sisters from Cambodia arrive at our school. They didn't speak a word of English and had to be very overwhelmed. They only went to school with us for a few months before they went to another school (I don't know why).

In 9th grade we went to school together again and became friends. They remembered me from when we first went to school together.

Do you want to know why?

They remembered me as the girl who was afraid of the ball - which I might add is something I haven't outgrown.

So I "coached" kickball.

I suppose it went ok, nobody cried, there was no blood. Really there are only 3 of the little ones who have the slightest clue what is going on and one of those kids is Junior.

Talk about out of my comfort zone though!

I did it! The 5 X30 challenge

Well I participated in the 5 X 30 challenge and actually completed it! We had a long and grueling exercise regimen to follow: it was 30 minutes a day, 5 days a week, for 2 weeks.

I know! Awful!

No really, I felt pretty good about it. It was nice having "5 days a week" instead of setting days, and then kicking myself when I didn't do them.

I kept up perfectly. Well, except for the day that I only did 20 minutes. . . . And Wednesday when I "coached" kickball (which should count as partial credit since the coach is also the pitcher).

So

Dayenu

I realized that I didn't say how the actual Seder went and I will in a different post, but first I wanted to talk about Dayenu.

Dayenu is a Hebrew word that means "it would have been enough," and is one of the songs sung at Passover.

The words to the version we sang in English are:

If you had just brought us out of Egypt, it would have been enough.
If you had only given us the Sabbath, it would have been enough.
If you had only given us the Torah, it would have been enough.
If you had only given us Messiah, it would have been enough.

I would imagine the ancient Hebrews just wanted to stop being slaves and go home to their father's land but God had so much more planned for them. There is a longer version here at Wikipedia that also mentions much more such as being given the Egyptians wealth, the sea being divided, providing manna, and building the Temple.

God still allows His blessings to overflow on us. If you had only saved us from hell and not wanted anything from us, it would have been enough.
If you had only wanted our worship and not wanted a relationship, it would have been enough.
If you had just wanted a relationship with us and not wanted us to be your children, it would have been enough."

Yet how often do we respond like children? If you feed children a meal, it is enough. If you give them cupcakes with sprinkles, it should be enough but someone will complain because someone else got more sprinkles.

"God, I like having a roof over my head but I want it to be bigger like the Jones." "God, I like my kid but I want him on the honor roll like Mary's kid."

We I need to make a more conscious effort to notice thank Him for the blessings we are given.

Dayenu.

Things I have learned because of blogging

Things I have learned because of blogging:

1. HTML and some CSS because I am a geek that way. I want to ba able to manipulate my blog to my satisfaction.


2. HTML and CSS can be two of the hardest languages on the planet ok, not really but you feel that way when trying to get it to cooperate and it doesn't want to.
   
   Not that I would know anything about it


3. I do like HTML better than WYSIWYG yep, I am a geek that way. If you aren't big enough of a geek to know what WYSIWYG is, it is "what you see is what you get" and the default format of most places you will type in text.


4. Steel cut oats are vastly different from regular rolled oats better flavor and better texture. Plus unlike rolled oats, when they get cold they do not turn into sticky play-dough. gag.


5. This post is a beautiful illustration that makes so much sense! I have referenced it so many times recently.


6. And then there are so many posts that make me laugh so hard I snort tea out my nose like this one or this one and . . . . well there are many, many others.


7. Blogging can help your memory, since you have stuff written down.


8. It can also make you feel stupid when you realize that there are 5 posts you have been writing in your head and you can't remember any of them when you sit down at the computer.
   
   So I have heard. It has never happened to me.cough, cough, cough



9. and sometimes blogging can be like hair

The blogging community is like every other community, there are some toads as well as some wonderful people. I fell so blessed to have made some of the friends I have found here blogging.

Works for Me Wednesday - boiling eggs

My first Works for Me Wednesday! I am soo excited!

My kids love boiled eggs. They just love them and since they are healthy I try to keep them around.

I just don't want them cracking an egg only to find out it isn't a boiled egg.

There is that little trick of spinning an egg and if it won't spin, it is raw. Especially when it is on it's way to the floor. The cooked eggs spin nicely, also on the way to the floor.

But an even easier method (and much less risky) is to tint the eggs as they are boiling.

I don't mean drag out the red dye and the vinegar. Just save your tea bag from the morning cup of tea, or some used coffee grounds and drop them in the pot with the boiling eggs and boil as usual.

It doesn't take very much, just 1 bag or about a tablespoon. It isn't enough to flavor the eggs, but it does give them a darker color like the manilla paper used in grade school.

They can then be stored in the original container. Tinting the eggs with a used tea bag Works for Me

Sunday Seder

Our church (along with 2 others) was so extremely blessed to have some of the people from Congregation Beth Messiah in Houston come to let us experience a traditional Passover Seder.

Oh, it was amazing. I could go on and on but I will try to contain myself to just a few things.

First, in case you didn't know the Seder is one of the feasts commanded by God in Leviticus. It is to remind them of how God freed them from slavery to Egypt and how the angel of death passed over their homes in the last plague. In Leviticus it is called the "feast of the unleavened bread." It is also the meal that Jesus and the disciples were eating at the last supper.

That first Passover, they were commanded to bake bread with out any leavening and roast a lamb. The leavening is a symbol of sin, but it also shows that they were not supposed to take their time. Bread with leavening takes awhile and they had to be ready to leave.

Now the Jews that celebrate Passover are supposed to rid their house of leavening. This is not just the jar of yeast in the freezer, but any bread, and anything that might have bread crumbs (like a toaster.) The point is though, we can't remove every bit of it any more than we can remove every bit of sin. That's why we need Jesus.

At the Seder meal there is a plate filled with Karpas (greens), Betzah (egg), Maror (bitter herbs), & Charoset (Nuts & Fruit). I am not going to attempt to give an explanation because you will find many on the net that will be much better than mine.

But there is something I want to share about the Karpas. We had parsley for our greens and the green symbolizes life. Passover happens in the spring when new life starts up. Life is given and sustained by God.

Before eating the Parsley, we were told to dip it in some salt water which symbolizes the tears that were shed by Israel as well as the tears that we shed. The Maror symbolizes the bitterness in slavery, but I also see it in the tears.

Tears shed because of slavery. I also know that we are not immune to slavery. So many are enslaved by their sin - powerless to stop. And then so many exchange those bonds for a new set of bonds. Any religion that wants you to jump through hoops to assure you that you are saved - for the moment at least - is not what He planned. If you have to do A, B and C in order to be saved, then you are saying that His sacrifice is not enough.

Ok, I am getting off of my soapbox now.

The Seder is so rich in symbolism that points straight to Christ as the Messiah. There are three pieces of unleavened bread together in a pocket, the middle one is broken and then wrapped in linen and hidden to be found later. "He took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me." Luke 22:19.

I have so much more to share, but I am going to stop here for now. I want to tell you about Dayenu - it would have been enough. What a deep and rich word! But that will be tomorrow.

Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star

We had the opportunity to go to a star watching party on Saturday night. It was amazing.

We have had a telescope for awhile but neither Hubby or I can figure out how to use it.

Well, we know how to use it, but it is difficult to find what you are looking for when you aren't very good at it.

We got a star wheel and learned how to use it, directions to make an astrolabe and other tips. The two astronomers leading had brought 3 good telescopes and then would focus them on some amazing sights.

The moon with its craters is beautiful, it was like those pictures you have seen, but this was not a picture. Hubby and I had seen Saturn before in my Dad's telescope, but his doesn't give as close of a picture. Saurday, we saw the line of rings and one or two of the moons.

It gave us more ideas on how to get out there and watch what is going on in the sky. They are planning on doing it again in June and we are hoping to be there, as well as one in July.

There are more tips and tricks we learned and will hopefully be able to keep learning more. I will post these as I get time.

Sometimes they make you proud

This is my precious girl.

If you notice the hair, its long. She decided 3 years ago she wanted to grow her hair out. It had reached the point where it wasn't getting any longer.

In November, Daisy mentioned that maybe she wanted to get it cut off. She wasn't sure though. I mentioned that she could donate her hair to an organization that uses it to make wigs for kids who had lost their hair.

I also told her that I was going to make her think about it. She wasn't going to cut off her hair in a whim.



Summer is coming and it gets hot here. Ok, it is pretty warm now.

She mentioned again that she wanted to get her hair cut and donate it. She had really long hair.


Seriously, that is long hair.

Well, her hair isn't long anymore.


First they put it in a ponytail and then they took the scissors to it.



Too late to back out now. Her hair went to Locks of Love where they will use it to make a wig for a child who needs it. Interestingly enough, 80% of their donations come from children.



It took awhile to get her hair cut into a style. Or maybe I am spoiled to all she needed before.



So now her hair is very short in the back, compared to very long.

She is thrilled. She has it longish in the front and short in the back.

She didn't want me to tell because she wanted to surprise people. Now that they know, I can share the news.

7 quick takes

I have all these posts that I am planning on sharing and then it gets to be Friday and might as well do them in the 7 quick takes.

1. Our church is doing a Seder supper on Sunday. It will be led by some Messianic Jews who will explain to us what it means. I love doing these things, I inevitably learn something that makes me be even more amazed at Him.

2. Some of you seemed a bit intimidated by letting your kids help you cook. With mine I started on the fun and easy stuff, like instant pudding. I would let them pour the powder into a huge bowl (so it reduced the chances of splashing) and then they poured in the milk I measured. When their arm got tired of stirring, I took over but they had done enough to feel ownership.

Both of them have helped me make chicken sticks (like tenders). You slice up a boneless chicken breast into tenders size, then let them dip it first into plain yogurt (not vanilla) and then into bread crumbs (crushed cereal or whatever). Then bake at 350 til done.

Over at the cooking blog, I have some more recipes that my kids have made right here.

3. I have kept up with the 30 x 5 challenge! I have managed to work out for 30 minutes 5 days a week for the entire first week. I mostly do the jog/walk mix but I have done some yoga and some other stuff with the Wii fit. I just need to lose 2 more pounds to be back where I was when I fell off the exercise wagon and then about 50 more pounds to get me well into "healthy" weight.

4. I have some other news that I can't share yet.

I just hate when people do that. Don't you?

5. I made a pot roast last night and impulsively added mushrooms.

OH MY STARS!

We usually put a portion in the kids bowls and they Junior only wants to eat 1/3 of it but we make him eat half (He wants to save room for a piece of candy).

Last night there were 2 bites left. I asked if he wanted more and he said no but gave it 2 thumbs up.

And it had onions. And mushrooms. And he hates both.

6. I tried getting the kids pictures made in some bluebonnets but the light didn't cooperate. It looks too blue in the pictures but I can't seem to fix them.

7. We saw a man shoeing some horses near our church yesterday evening so we got out to watch for a few minutes.

I didn't realize that horses stopped with their front feet and so the front shoes are different from the back shoes.