Day O' Free Food

I didn't specifically plan it this way, but I think it may almost be possible for us to eat entirely "free" today.

Our local Chick-fil-a has been giving away free breakfasts every Wednesday in April. This April is a 5-Wednesday month and I can assure you that we have had all five of our free breakfasts this month. Although we did have to skip our little playdate with the cousins and friends today in favor of the drive-thru due to our hectic schedule. So we had breakfast for free (Scott drives through on his way to work too!).

Today was the chicken biscuit...yum!

On to lunch... Domino's was giving away it's Pasta Bread Bowls for free today from 11-2. Guess who went and took advantage of that one?




They were huge! And we each got one, so there are plenty of leftovers. I only ate a quarter of mine, because...

Awhile back I printed a coupon for a free 3-Scoop Sundae at Friendly's and the coupon expired today. So after I dropped Lily and my niece Sophia off at their science class, I ran across the street and got my sundae at Friendly's carry-out.




Oh yeah! Vienna Mocha Chunk ice cream (one of Friendly's best flavors...I used to work there) with hot fudge and almonds, topped with whipped cream and a cherry.

After only a few bites, I was convinced there was no way I was going to finish it...

...until I sat down here at the science center. And pulled the rest of it out of my bag. Oh no. That baby is g.o.n.e.

And on the way home, we are stopping at Pizza Hut to get the second to the last of the kids' free pizzas for the Book-It program. (We'll meet daddy for lunch to claim the last ones on Friday.)

It's been a day o' free food. I love this kind of day. :) (And now I feel the need to hit the treadmill.)

my little princess and me

Ever since Joey started kindergarten, this little lady has had to learn to play a little more independently while big brother and sister are schooling. There was an adjustment period to this "playing by herself" thing, but now she is doing pretty well with it. The downside is that I don't get as much one-on-one with her anymore (a first in her short, little life).

So the other night, while Scott took the big kids to visitation, Gracie and I had a whole night together. First we glued "jewels" onto this pretty, paper purse. Then we made some equally bejeweled rings and bracelets. Just Gracie and Mommy!



And to top off our perfect night, Daddy and the big kids brought home a chocolate donut, just for the princess! Could a three-year old's life get any better than that?

a few of my favorite things today

-flowering trees out front

- paint on these walls. I cannot tell you how wonderful our home feels now that the majority of it is painted.

- a husband with a mind to finish the rest of the painting. (He is so awesome!) Which color do you think we chose for the dining room?

-this white crock. I don't know where she will end up, but I have loved her since the first time I laid eyes on her. :)

- the JCP $10 off $10 coupon! I love it when these show up in my mailbox.

-a beautiful afternoon spent with my littlest sweetie celebrating her girlfriend's birthday. It was a very "Grace-ful" time. :)

And those are just a few of the many benefits that the Lord has blessed me with today!

Blessed be the Lord, who daily loadeth us with benefits, even the God of our salvation.
--Psalm 68:19

the food chain according to my J-man

A killer whale attacking an alligator which is attacking a fish.

Meanwhile Joey is snorkeling below!

The other day I cleaned out and reorganized the homeschool armoire and all of the arts and crafts junk. While doing so I accumulated a huge stack of "crafts" and papers that my kids drew, colored, stickered, or otherwise crafted recently. There were so many that I'm convinced I could wallpaper your house and mine with all of them! My kids love them the arts and crafts. :) I have to do this routinely and it pains me to throw the majority of them away because while I sort through them I inevitably laugh and cry at the preciousness of their little minds at work creating each new "masterpiece." (For the record, I posted before about how I go about saving theirs and my favorites.)

When I came across this masterpiece above of Joey's from awhile back, I laughed and cried at the "Joey-ness" of it...he incorporated several of his favorite animals, showed his true maleness by making them aggressive with the teeth showing, and then included himself in the picture at an alarmingly close distance from all of this action. I love that guy. :)

another goal accomplished

My Lily recently completed another goal card book in King's Kids (the Wednesday night children's program at our church). This means that she memorized 40 goal cards which consist of verses and Biblical truths that she says to her teacher each week. There is a lot of other work that she does for King's Kids, too...it has become quite the involved program.

Generally, we spend much more time at home on our family memorization of a passage of Scripture, so King's Kids is an endeavor that she determines to do, and I'm so proud of my girlie for going the extra mile and earning another patch this year. Way to go, sweetie!!

Behold that which I have seen: it is good and comely for one to eat and to drink, and to enjoy the good of all his labour that he taketh under the sun all the days of his life, which God giveth him: for it is his portion.

-- Ecclesiastes 5:18

another favorite

I've mentioned before that some of our favorite poems come from this book. Here is another one... (My kids LOVE the swings!)

The Swing

How do you like to go up in a swing,

Up in the air so blue?

Oh, I do think it is the pleasantest thing

Ever a child can do!

Up in the air and over the wall,

Till I can see so wide,

River and trees and cattle and all

Over the countryside--

Till I look down on the garden green,

Down on the roof so brown--

Up in the air I go flying again,

Up in the air and down!

--Robert Louis Stevenson

happy day

Some newer friends of ours trusted Christ and decided that they needed to be married. So, some dear people to me (some of them family of mine and others who are family in Christ!) put together a lovely little ceremony for E & J so they could have a simple, but sweet church wedding! There were flowers, food, a cake, favors, decorations, a lovely dress, and a gathering of close friends and family...all to celebrate the union of these two people who desire to follow the Lord!

Lily and her friend were the "guest book attendants" :)

Marriage is honourable in all...
-- Hebrews 13:4

another weekend of painting

I am happy to report that the "biggie" mentioned earlier (kitchen/family room/foyer/stairwell/upstairs hallway) is DONE! Scott took off one day last week and between that day and Saturday we got 'er done! There was a time that I wasn't sure that we were even going to do that project by ourselves. But with that awesome, one-coat-wonder Aura paint and a huge supply of the grace of God, we did it! It looks so awesome! (Sorry, I have no pictures yet.) Scott is an amazing "edger"...he does a great job of "cutting in." (my least favorite painting task) We have had such a great time together during our painting weekends. I think we make a pretty good team. :)

Today the kids and I (minus Gracie, plus my niece Sophia) went on a fun Immersion Day field trip with some other homeschoolers. I'll have to post pics soon. It was a lot of fun despite how cold and rainy it is in Pennsylvania. I hope you all are having a great Monday!

the benefits of blogging

I could go on and on about how much I enjoy blogging...both writing and reading others' writings, but I will spare you the volume of words. Your welcome. :)

But recently, I have been especially touched and benefited by the bloggy world in a physical way.

For starters, my sweet friend Emily graciously gave some of her unused skirts to me! She packaged them up and on my doorstep arrived a box of three skirts perfectly-suited for me! When I put our summery stuff away after returning from Florida, I realized that I was going to need another skirt or two by summer. Finding decent skirts is so difficult, but I figured that the Lord would provide in His time. Well, what do you know but her skirts fit GREAT and are in lovely shape! I think I know Who put that one together. :) Thanks Emily, you are a dear!

And then as if that wasn't wonderful enough, I won a contest that Jendi held, and she mailed me a coupon for a free pint of Haagen-Daz! Mmmm! Fashion and ice cream...does it get any better than that? :)

See what I would have missed if I wasn't privileged to be able to participate in the bloggy-world? Thanks to all of you who read my boring drivle day-after-day. You make my world a happy place!

name that animal- update

You were all right...Joey's creation is an elephant (or mammoth, depending on his mood). And he was quick to point out that it is an African elephant as evidenced by the large ears. :)

I am amazed that when I find his little creations lying around, I not only can identify them on my own, but like Nan said, I don't think I would be able to come up with them by myself! It must be those spatial-reasoning genes he got from his engineer-father, and definitely not from me.

Thanks for playing along!

name that animal

Of all of Joey's Lego creations, the animals that he makes up himself are always my favorites. :) Can you tell what this is?

it strikes again

Daddy Brain is back. Actually, it rears it's ugly head quite often. (And so does Mommy Brain) But tonight's edition was especially funny. So much so that Scott actually asked me to write it down so he wouldn't forget it. The kids were in fits of laughter.

As he was finishing up the bedtime routine with them, he tried to instruct them to quickly come in and kiss me good-night. Only it came out like this...


"Go give Mommy a quiss kick good-nice!"


I can't even say that without getting tongue-tied. Oh yeah, Daddy Brain is back. :)

great weekend

This past weekend was so wonderful for us, and I hope it was the same for you! Not only did we get a big dent in the painting projects around here, but we got to celebrate the Resurrection on Sunday! The most important holiday of all! Our pastor mentioned my favorite "Easter" verse on Sunday morning and that is Job's words in chapter 19, verse 25 when he said, "For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth:"

Job was farther removed from Christ's ministry and resurrection than we are. The kids and I are studying the ancient time period in which Job lived and I marvel that he had no printed Word of God in hand that holds the very promises from on high. Yet he had confidence to speak these words with full assurance. This reminds me of what Jesus said to Thomas in John 20:29, "...blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed." Even those of us on far-flung ends of the spectrum...having lived either thousands of years before or after Christ's death and resurrection...are blessed for believing in Christ without having physically seen Him! I could go on, but it was a great Easter Sunday!

My older girlie sang in the King's Kids choir yesterday morning! For the life of me, I cannot listen to a children's choir without tearing up. Precious, little souls singing their hearts out for the glory of the Lord...it gets me every time!

Then we headed to my parents' house for some yummy food!

blowing kisses to daddy

and a few for mommy too

my monkey...doing what boys do best

my sweet Easter Lily

The Lord blessed my girlies with beautiful, shiny straight hair! I love it! But every year on Easter, Lily wants curls. We've tried sponge rollers, but they usually end up leaving her looking like a drowned-rat by mid-morning. But this year, I came up with a solution that worked, gave them the curlies they desired, and they held up all day!

This is what they really wanted to be doing during picture-taking time.

Mimi had a birthday last week, so Easter was a joint-celebration.

Happy Birthday Mimi!

My parents gave the kids a little bit of candy for Easter and a small gift rather than an Easter basket. Lily is so happy that now she has a big Bible tote like mine! Only hers is cute and stripey floral.

(And how do little girls aquire so many papers and junk in their Bible cases?? Lily's old case was exploding with all of the knick-knacks.)



Not to be outdone, Gracie now has her very own Bible tote to carry her little Bible in! Oh my, is this thing adorable or what?!

Joey already has a Bible case so he got a Lego set. He had the first model put together yesterday afternoon. I love it when his right dimple appears when he's not smiling. That means he's really pleased, but is trying to be cool about it. I love that guy. :)

I hope your Easter was lovely too!

another round of S&A Painting

Scott and I made full use of his long weekend to paint our bedroom and the girls' bedroom. My parents watched the kids overnight for us, which was a huge help. We were amazed by how much we could get done without children in the house!

I was a little concerned after the girls' room was finished because it looked very PINK in there. But once we got the furniture put back in place and the curtains hung again, I think it just looks pink now and not PINK, so I'm feeling a little better about it.

The girls, of course, love it! I still need to put somethings on the walls.

And I think I am going to replace those brightish pink lampshades for something with a white tone.

I think that will help tone down any lingering PINKness.

The added benefit of painting right now is that I got some "spring cleaning" done while everything was pulled away from the walls. (Thanks for watching the kids, Mom and Dad!)

We painted our bedroom, also. Scott says that so far, this is his favorite paint color in the house. We both really like the way it turned out!

A painter-friend of ours was telling us about this awesome line of paint by Benjamin Moore called the Aura Affinity line. I thought, "Yeah right, that's nice for the pros, but we buy whatever is most economical."

However when I finally found the color I liked for our room, it was part of the Aura line, so I bought it and we were amazed how much of a difference it made.

Aura is low-VOC paint, so there is virtually no paint odor in our room, it dries in one hour, and we got away with only one coat! I really didn't think that it was possible, especially with a darkish color, but that paint was really great and I think the rest of our house is going to be coated in Aura on account of the one-coat aspect alone. :) It was totally worth the cost to spend more $$ but save time and cost without having to do a second coat.

When we had made record time on these two rooms, the Man said to go out and get paint for our bathroom, because he had decided that we were painting the bathroom too.

I love it when my Man tells me to come home with paint!

So we painted our master bathroom also. I was so happy to squeeze one more room out of the weekend.

These pictures don't show the true color of the bathroom. It looks like an iced coffee. :)

Now I need to buy some new (and matching!) towels for our bathroom.

And lastly here is my little model who wants to be in every picture that I take but who is looking into the mirror and not the camera because she can't take her eyes off of herself. :) I love that girl!

Now that we have these rooms painted, we are left with the dining room, the kids' bathroom, and the "biggie"...the kitchen/family room/foyer/stairwell/upstairs hallway. Ugh. But my Man has scheduled it in and we already have some sample colors on the wall, so hopefully I can report that the "biggie" is painted soon. After that, the dining room and kids' bathroom should be a piece of cake.

Three more down...

a little bit of glory in the middle of history

The kids and I are studying ancient history right now (and really enjoying it, I might add). And we came across this little factoid that totally astounded me yesterday. Terah (the name of Abram's father) expresses kinship with the Akkadian moon-god, Sin. Sarai's name (Abram's wife) is the name of the moon-god's goddess wife. Later God renames them Abraham and Sarah which mean "father of many nations" and "princess" respectively. The meaning of the new names, in and of themselves, are amazing and speak so clearly of their new and special relationship to the Lord of heaven!

But what I didn't know before is that God also placed the syllable "ah" in both of their names. This is part of God's own covenant name YHWH (Jehovah) and symbolizes that they have been reclaimed from the worship of the pagan god of Ur and their ownership has been transferred to Jehovah! Isn't that awesome? That God would not only call moon-god worshippers to be the "father" and "princess" of His own special people, but that He would place a little reminder of Himself into their new names is incredible!

It reminded me that my own name has been written down in heaven for all ages! What an unbelievable thought, but one that I can so easily forget. I'm thankful that the Lord used a humble history lesson to remind this mama again, of His amazing love!


Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven. -- Luke 10:20

so dear to my heart

This school year has been so sweet to this mommy's heart. During our first year of homeschool, when I was teaching Lily to read, I was a newbie and felt like I had no idea what I was doing. There were two younger, more needy children nipping at my ankles, and I just didn't "feel" in the school "zone" if that makes sense. Lily was a great student, I felt like an unprepared teacher.

Last school year was a little better, but I came to loathe my curriculum choices very quickly. Again, there were two littler kids who weren't sitting with us for school and we had to continually clear the kitchen table at our old house in order to do school. It went like this:

Clear the table for breakfast.

Have breakfast.

Clear the table.

Get out school stuff.

Clear the table for lunch.

Have lunch.

Clear the table.

Get out school/art stuff.

Clear the table.

Have dinner.

Clear the table.

You get the picture...there was a lot of clearing of the table. Because the school stuff could never be left out, school always felt like a shuffle rather than a way of life.

The Lord provided our beautiful new house last summer (perfect timing with the break from school). And then He provided great furniture for us to be perfectly set up in the dining room to start school last fall. And lo, and behold, we have had a fabulous year this year!

I don't attribute all of that to a room and furniture. Those things have helped tremendously. Having Joey do school this year which meant that the majority of us were sitting for school also helped make the schedule feel more concrete. But overall, I think this school year has been a blessing from the Lord! These children are able to learn and develop and this Mama is able to (barely) juggle it all ONLY because of the goodness of the Lord! And it has been a delight to watch it all happen!

(This picture was taken in the beginning of the schoolyear. The inside of our homeschool armoire looks NOTHING like this now. I can only wish it looked that neat!)

Lily is reading chapter books and learning independently this year! In a strange way, homeschooling Joey makes Lily's progress seem more exciting than when it was just her because I can remember where she was two years ago and marvel at where she is now!

Big Sister pulled "The Princess" up onto her lap this morning to have her "help" do a lesson

And whereas I had no "warm fuzzies" from teaching Lily to read. (It was more "grin and bear it." Poor girl, it was me, not her.) It has been a pure delight to teach my man-child to read! He is eating up books. We just got an Amazon box (is Amazon a drug, or what?) the other day with a new box of BOB books and he sat down promptly and read half of the new books to me in one sitting on Saturday night! I came downstairs this morning to find this:

Joey sitting alone in the dining room reading books to himself. I love that little dude. :)

This schoolyear has gone so well that I'm almost afraid to take a break for the summer. (Don't worry, we will be breaking officially for the summer. I need it more than anyone!) There have been plenty of hair-pulling moments wherein I wanted to throw in the homeschooling towel this year. But I still wouldn't trade this experience for the world. God is good!

what are your thoughts?

Thanks for all of your kind comments recently! It appears that all of our children are on the mend and seem to be in robust form today. Thanks to those who prayed for us!

Now that we have been home from Florida for several weeks, we're finally getting back into the "painting zone" again. I believe the paint color selection for our bedroom and the girls' bedroom has come to an end. I sampled a few colors for those rooms prior to vacation. They turned out to be "Swimming Pool Blue" in our room and "Pepto Bismal Pink" in the girls' room. Wrong, wrong, wrong.

So my sister suggested this Pottery Barn color: (which, of course, looks entirely different in person as opposed to the computer screen)










It's a Benjamin Moore colored called Atmospheric. I 50%'d it and I like the depth...darkish without being too dark. I suspect that the designers didn't use the full-strength color in the photo above either, because it is a very deep color in person.

(Wow, that pink sample looks hideous against my blog background!)

And the girls are getting Ribbon Pink in their room. Once again, I couldn't just use the color straight off the chip. For this one I used 75% of the color...so that it comes in somewhere between the lightest color on the strip, but closer to Ribbon Pink. And I'm pleased with the results. Now to actually paint both rooms. :)


Lastly, I would like to ask for your assistance. We're going to be putting ceiling fans in the bedrooms shortly. For the fan in our room, I'm trying to decide if the "bowl" glass shade looks better....


...than the traditional four or five "little glass lampshade" look?

What do you think? Bowl or candle shades?

I know that I want "hugger" fans, or "low-profile, flush-mount" (whatever you want to call them) fans. Neither of the above fans are ones that I saw at Home Depot, I just pulled them off for illustration purposes. I will probably end up buying all of the fans at Lowe's. Their lighting section is awesome. So which light fixture would you choose?

never a dull moment

It's been an interesting week in these parts. The kids have all had the upper respiratory thing with fever. Joey was on amoxicillin for the ear infection and bronchitis. And on Thursday he broke out in a horrible red rash, head-to-toe! After a series of phonecalls with a few different doctors throughout the day, we made a trip to their office at 9:00pm that evening. By this time the rash was coating him...palms of his hands, soles of his feet, in his ears, everywhere! Three doctors later, they said the rash wasn't a seasonal allergy thing, was atypical for a drug reaction rash, and could be an unexplained viral exanthema (rash). They drew his blood to test for a virus, and they couldn't "get it" right away so they dug around in there. My little champ did SO WELL! Not a tear or a flinch or even a pouchy lip. I know grown adults who don't handle that as well. And he was tired and itchy, to boot. I'm so proud of how brave he was!

The rash started looking a little clearer by the next day, and my maternal instincts said it was a reaction to the amoxicillin (penicillin) that he had been on. (The doctor checked his ears/lungs and told us to discontinue it, thankfully.) We got the test results today, and they were negative, so it definitely looks like he is allergic to penicillin. I'm so thankful that that's all it was and that he is getting better. My poor guy was so itchy there for awhile.

I *think* we all may finally be well, again. It's been a long two weeks. Never a dull moment with children. :)

what my kids think of mother-dearest

Several others have done this one with their kids. Actually, I quizzed my kids about a month ago and just found their answers and thought I would post them. Here goes...

Mother-dearest by Lily (7) and Joey (5)
(my commentary is in parenthesis)

1. What is something mom always says to you?
L- I love you
J- I love you

2. What makes mom happy?
L- giving her presents
J- that you have a son (narcissistic though he may be)

3. What makes mom sad?
L- when I don't clean up and make big messes
J- disobeying

4. How does your mom make you laugh?
L- she tickles me
J- by tickling me

5. What was your mom like as a child?
L- she liked her doll
J- ticklish

6. How old is your mom?
L- 30 (smartypants)
J- 13

7. How tall is your mom?
L- I don't know, pretty tall (bwah!)
J- 20

8. What is her favorite thing to do?
L- be on the computer
J- cook

9. What does your mom do when you're not around?
L- relax (ain't that the truth?)
J- eat chocolate (true also)

10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for?
L- her cooking, especially the fish
J- tell people about Jesus

11. What is your mom really good at?
L- helping us do school
J- cooking

12. What is your mom not very good at?
L- making furniture
J- making roads

13. What does your mom do for her job?
L- homeschool
J- cook

14. What is your mom's favorite food?
L- ice cream
J- mashed potatoes

15. What makes you proud of your mom?
L- when my Mommy cleans up my room
J- when she gives me a hug

16. If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be?
L- Beatrix Potter
J- Mama Pig

17. What do you and your mom do together?
L- go shopping
J- play with animals

18. How are you and your mom the same?
L- we both put lipstick on
J- we both have noses

19. How are you and your mom different?
L- we don't have the same hair color
J- we have different hair

20. How do you know your mom loves you?
L- because she homeschools me
J- because she hugs and kisses me

21. What does your mom like most about your dad?
L- that he goes to work
J- that he spends time with you

22. Where is your mom's favorite place to go?
L- Giant
J- Target (smart boy)

23: What would your mom be if she wasn't a mom?
L- begging
J- a cowgirl