Our First Sunday in our New Church

Sunday, August 4th was our first Sunday in our new church and Heath's grandmother, mother, sister, niece and nephew were in attendance. We were so thrilled to have them sitting in the sanctuary for Heath's first sermon as pastor of this new church. 

As you can see, the cousins were all pretty excited to spend time together. My sister-in-law is quite the creative photographer.

The Gift of One-on-One Time

If you have more than one child, then you know how special it is to spend one-on-one time with your children. My little one here was just acting a little more clingy than normal and even saying things like, "Mommy, I never get to spend time with JUST you." So, one Sunday afternoon, we went to a dollar store, bought some new crayons and coloring books and sat in a coffee shop and colored and visited. It was simple and fun. We were gone less than two hours, but she felt special spending time with JUST me and I enjoyed simply focusing on her. My husband and I take turns spending time with the children one-on-one. Sometimes we simply take one of them at a time to run errands, go get a drink at Sonic's happy hour, and one of their favorites is breakfast at a local donut shop.

Do your children like spending one-on-one time with you? What are some things you like to do together?

Spa Birthday Party Fun!

For Kaitlyn's 10th birthday she wanted to have a spa party. We searched on Pinterest and found a lot of great ideas. We made our own invitations and sent them out three weeks in advance, put together these simple and fun goodie bags filled with lotion, lip gloss, and nail polish, and we made our own Oreo pops and cookies and cream cupcakes.  We also found some cute and free printable place cards.

The Oreo pops looked so cute as cupcake toppers, but as the cake began to come to room temperature, the Oreo pops began to fall over. If I ever do this again I will try finding shorter sucker sticks or simply keep the Oreo pops and cake separate. A friend of mine suggested using a harder icing to help hold the sticks in place as well. This particular cake is topped with homemade whipped topping and it simply wasn't strong enough to act as a "glue" to hold the Oreo pop in place, but I really liked the idea of a cookies and cream cake paired with the Oreo pops.

We had three spa stations which included places for the girls to enjoy a manicure, pedicure, and a facial. We purchased three black dishpans for around $2.00 each and some inexpensive bath salts, some fun nail polishes, and sliced up some cucumbers for the eyes. I cannot stress to you enough how incredibly simple this was and the girls all thought it was fun and special to celebrate a birthday in this way.

In our family the children are allowed to have friend parties every other year. We have enjoyed some fun parties this year, but I am looking forward to keeping things a little more low key in 2013. How about you? Do your children have friend parties every year?

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from our family! Things are going to be very quiet here on this little web space of mine for the rest of the year. I am going to be spending time and making memories with my family! May we all be still and see God in our midst and truly worship Him this Christmas season.

Joyfully,

Nikki


P.S. There's still time to order special gifts for special people in Asia through the Gospel for Asia's Christmas Catalog.

1st Day of our New School Year

The teacher and her students

Before you look at the 1st day of school pictures of the children, I want to let you know that they were given permission to wear whatever they wanted. I think this is a cute way to let their little personalities shine.

The 4th grader

The 3rd grader

The 1st grader

We had the children sit at the table after their pancake breakfast and hide their eyes while we grabbed their 1st day of school goody bags. The bags were filled with school supplies, bookworms (gummy worms), bubbles, punch ball balloons, and tootsie pops.

They really enjoyed their goody bags.

We headed out for a nature walk this morning, which is something we plan to do every Monday morning and hopefully a few more walks will pop up throughout the week. We found some Queen Anne's Lace, one of our favorites!

We spent some time at the dining room table doing some work, but my favorite part of the day was reading chapter one of "Little House in the Big Woods." The children got a kick out of what Laura and Mary used as a ball (a pig's bladder)! We also started our Lapbook to go along with our "Little House" studies today. I can't wait to share more with you as our lessons progress!

This week's Scripture memory is 1 Corinthians 10:31 - So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God." Lord, may our school year bring you glory!

A Weekend of Productivity

On Friday the children and I went grocery shopping. We shop for two weeks at a time. I am used to doing this with my husband (yes I know I'm spoiled). Doing the shopping without him really made me appreciate all the heavy lifting he does for me.

Once I put all the groceries away, I began the process of making homemade spaghetti sauce.

I did one batch of sauce on Friday night and a second batch on Saturday, and ended up with a total of 20 quarts of spaghetti sauce.

Homemade Spaghetti Sauce

(This is a recipe two ladies from my church taught me last summer)

1/2 Bushel ripe tomatoes

3 pounds onions

3 green bell peppers

2 cups oil

1 cup sugar

1/4 cup salt

4 Tbsp. minced garlic

1 Tbsp. basil

1 1/2 tsp. oregano

4 bay leaves

4-12 ounce cans tomato paste.

*I use a 12 quart pan to cook this amount of sauce.

*I use the minced garlic that comes in a jar.

*I don't quite use 3 pounds of onions, but pretty close.

Place tomatoes a few at a time in a pot of boiling water and then transfer to ice cold water in sink or dish pan. This allows the tomatoes to peel easily. Peel and core tomatoes, remove any bad spots, and quarter them. Place them in a pot on low heat to begin cooking down for your sauce. Keep adding tomatoes as you peel and quarter them. At this point, I turn the heat up to at least medium. While the tomatoes are cooking down, chop your onions and peppers. When you have room in your pan, add the onions, peppers, garlic, oil, and sugar. Towards the end add the seasonings and then add in your paste. When a wooden spoon can sit upright in the sauce, it is then thick enough to put in hot, sterile jars and begin canning.

Sometimes you have to wait to add ingredients as the tomatoes cook down. It all depends on how many tomatoes you end up with after removing bad spots and what size your pot is. I do not run my tomatoes through a strainer b/c I don't care if it has seeds. Our family really likes this sauce. We use it to dip homemade breadsticks on pizza nights and of course in all our pasta dishes. Lots of stirring is involved during the cooking process to help break up the tomatoes. I even got out my handheld potato masher to help break up the tomatoes.

If you have any questions, I'll do my best to answer them.

It was nice having a productive weekend. How did you spend your weekend?

Grab and Go Thursday

Grab & Go Thursday is all about Mommas sharing resources that make their lives more simple and flow a little easier. I don't know about you, but I could sure use some simple in my day! Today in my home is menu planning and grocery list making day, so I would like to share with you a simple menu planner I found online. You can download it onto your computer and grab it and get to work planning healthy meals for your family! Below is a screen shot of the planner I use. You can get your free download from Organized Home by clicking here. Click over to Half Dozen Mama and see what others have to share!

Our Study on Lewis and Clark

Here are a few of our notebooking pages from our study on Lewis and Clark. We of course have a map included that shows the Louisiana Purchase and the route of the expedition. The maps we used came from a WonderMaps, which I am reviewing for The Old Schoolhouse Crew, and that review will post on Monday. The children also have some written narrations included. My son and daughter both wrote about Sacagawea and my son wrote an additional narration about when the expedition team first encountered a grizzly bear (his favorite story from the book we read).

Resources used:

* Items we used in our notebook came from a website called Dynamic 2 Moms. They offer free lapbooks, notebooks, and units for homeschoolers.

* National Geographic: Lewis and Clark: Great Journey West - this is a 45 minute movie available to watch instantly on Netflix.

* The Lewis and Clark Expedition by Richard Neuberger

Once we finished doing all our reading and our notebook pages were complete, the children were excited to find a couple books about the Lewis and Clark expedition at the library. I was thrilled to see their interest and their desire to continue their learning!

Canning

This year I've canned strawberry jam, tomatoes, spaghetti sauce, and pizza sauce. I am going to work on some pears this week, and I hope to can applesauce and pumpkin later this fall. I have never canned before, but I have learned because three different women in my church took the time to teach me. I am so thankful for these women who gave freely of their time and their knowledge to teach me! I want to learn to provide healthy food for my family, and to pass on my knowledge to my children. I love going down to my basement and pulling a can off the shelf because I know what kind of produce I used and what is inside each can. Heath and I find ourselves reading food labels more and more and when you can't pronounce the ingredients -that's not a good thing.

In the next few weeks we hope to till up a garden plot in our yard to prepare it for planting next Spring! We really missed not having a garden this year, and look forward to growing our own tomatoes, squash, peppers, and okra next year.

2010-2011 Schedule

It is my goal to kick off our new school year Wednesday, August 11th. The past couple of weeks we have been practicing our new morning routine. Our mornings typically went this way: Dad would feed the girls a bowl of cereal while I either slept in a few extra minutes or finished up my Bible study and prayer time. Dad would leave for work. My son and I would drag ourselves to the kitchen and eat our breakfast and we'd all start doing what we call our "Morning Work." This just was not working because everyone was starting their days at different times, and the girls were ready to start school and my son and I were still trying to wake up. So, we are working on some good habits around here, and my husband and I are really pleased with the changes we're making! This is how our morning routine looks now.

6:30-7:00 a.m. - Mom's Scripture and Prayer Time

7:00 a.m. - Mom Prepares a healthy breakfast (cereal is only for the weekends now).

7:30 a.m. - Family Breakfast and Prayer Time

Children stay in their rooms until breakfast time.

8:15 a.m. - Dad leaves for office and we begin our morning chores

(Breakfast dishes, make beds, get dressed, brush teeth and hair, and we do our weekly chore [see below], and start a load of laundry)

9:00 a.m. - Family School Work

Bible

History

Science

Language Arts

11:00 a.m. - Lunch Break

Eat, Read Aloud, Break

12:00 p.m. - Independent and one-on-one time with Mom

Math, Copywork or Dictation, Silent Reading, Spelling, Reading Lesson with Kindergärtner

Afternoon Rotations

P.E., Art, and Music

So, the past couple of weeks we've been working on getting used to our new morning routine. On August 11th, we will see if the schedule on paper actually works well for our family or not. I am not a strict schedule follower, but I do like to have a routine. I thrive with structure, and I am a total mess without it. Needless to say, I am really looking forward to getting back into a more structured way of doing things. We have had a lot of fun this summer, and have enjoyed our relaxed summer projects a lot. Learning about reptiles, amphibians, and butterflies was a lot of fun! I can't wait to see what the children choose to learn about next summer!

Weekly Chores

Monday: Bedrooms (organize, dust, and vacuum)

Tuesday: Bathrooms

Wednesday: Empty all trash cans and clean living room

Thursday: Kitchen

Friday: School Room/Basement

Hanging the Sheets Out to Dry

I have 51 feet of clothes line at our new home. I tie it up when I want to use it, and take it back down when I'm done because this is the main area of the yard the children play things like Frisbee and football. My washer and dryer is in an unfinished room in our basement. We have to run a dehumidifier down there constantly (which uses a lot of energy) and of course dryers take a lot of energy. So, I'm going to try and dry more things on my clothes line to save energy (which means saving $). The less I run the dryer, the less energy I will use, and the less humidity it will add to the room, which in turn will allow the dehumidifier to run less. I have a little saying when I do things like hang clothes out on the line to dry instead of putting them in the dryer - I say: "That's very 'Little House on the Prairie!' " I love that show - don't you?

The little girls had a lot of fun running under the sheets today! My children truly help me see HUGE blessings in the tiny little things tucked away in our everyday lives! I am so thankful for the joy they bring into my life!

Noble Rose Press

I entered this giveaway over at Like A Warm Cup of Coffee and I WON!!!!

I got to choose which set of paper dolls I wanted. I chose set #3.

Please go over to Noble Rose Press and see these beautiful historic paper dolls. I am certain they would bring delight to any young girl. I think they'd be a great supplement to an American History study.

Homeschooling & Ministry

This week I've been reflecting a lot about homeschooling and the many reasons I am blessed to do what I do. My husband is an Associate Pastor. We have a Bible study in our home most Sunday nights. The study lasts about one hour, but people like to hang out, drink coffee, and eat cookies. So, it is often 9pm or later before everyone leaves our home. We really enjoy this time with our church family. Because we homeschool, we can enjoy a late start on Monday morning if we have a late bedtime on Sunday night. I am thankful that we can relax and be flexible, and teach our children the importance of truly investing our lives in other people's lives. Loving and encouraging your brothers and sisters in Christ is more important than getting to bed on time so you can start your school work by 8am on Monday morning. God has always shown us that He will give us the strength we need to get up the next morning and complete all our work. I try to keep Matthew 6:33 as my focus in life. This is how I paraphrase this verse: If you seek God first and His righteousness, then everything else in your life will fall into place. If I put the needs of others above my schedule, He will bless my service to Him and help me to accomplish the things I need to accomplish.

Spring Cleaning Party

Last week my daughters (ages 6 and 4) decided they wanted to trade bedrooms. So, they did! They switched out all their toys and clothes. But, you can see from the before pictures below, things didn't quite get done in an orderly fashion! So, with their help today, I did some major cleaning and organizing in their rooms! We had a 13 gallon bag of TRASH to throw away!!!! We now need to make a trip to a local mission to donate toys and clothes. I just put them to bed, and told them how much better they would sleep tonight since their rooms are back in order! 

L's Room Before and After

K's Room Before and After

Kaitlyn loves to draw, color, and paint! In her old room she had pictures taped up ALL OVER THE WALLS!!!! So, in her new room I gave her this bulletin board to put her artwork on. The bulletin board is the ONLY place she can hang things on. I am proud of all she does, but we need some boundaries here:)

There are still a couple things I need to purchase for K's room. She needs a bed skirt made for a daybed, and a valance for her window. For L's room, I need to paint her dresser. 

Go over to Simple Mom if you'd like to learn more about her Spring Cleaning Party!

Spring Cleaning the Kitchen

I finally got my act together and joined Simple Mom's Spring Cleaning Party. It's only day four, so I'm not too late!

We've lived in this house for 8 months now. It was time to empty out the kitchen cabinets and give them all a good wipe down! So, I did! I also got things back in the cabinets in a much more organized fashion!

Here are some before and after pictures of a few things I organized today.

While I was in a cleaning groove in the kitchen, I also got the refrigerator and pantry cleaned out! This was perfect timing because both are near empty since tomorrow is our bi-weekly grocery shopping day! 

Works-For-Me Wednesday - Frugal Edition

This is going to be short and sweet. If you use dryer sheets, don't use the WHOLE thing. Just tear that baby in HALF and throw it in. You'll get twice as many loads for that little ol' box of fabric softener sheets you bought. I have a friend who actually cuts her's into THIRDS!!!! It works for me:)

Over at We Are THAT Family, they are hosting a Works-For-Me Wednesday Frugal Edition. Do you have a frugal tip you'd like to share? If so, post something on your blog, and then link.