It's beginning to look a lot like....

Christmas!


Yes, it's October.  And Yes, we've decorated for Christmas. :)

Check it out!

 Our nine foot tree....Oh How I love it so!

And there's even 2 presents under there already! :)

 The boys each had one of those little trees....then we bought the 2 foot tree last year on clearance.  Pretty soon we will have trees everywhere. :)

 Garland and lights on the railing.  The lights on the garland are a new addition this year. :)

My pencil tree in the foyer.  And as you can see I still have yet to hang the wreath on the front door.


Oh what a wonderful time of the year!


 

Kitchen Tip v22

There are some things I make and don't cook the noodles before hand and they cook themselves while in the oven.  But I had never done that before with my manicotti.

Well, then I found this little trick.


Cellophane.


Yup!  You heard right. ;)

I did not think you could put cellophane in the oven.  Well, I wouldn't recommend that by itself. :)  But if you cover the pan with cellophane and then top that with tinfoil,  you have a great way to lock in that moisture and use that moisture to cook the noodles for you.  This is a HUGE time saver!  I hope you enjoy this tip!
 


 

Randomness v41

1.
We are all sitting around the dinner table having a nice conversation.
Bear yells out, "TOM & JERRY"
TJ and I just look at each other wondering what that was about....then he says,
"I just had to let that out"
Bwahahaha

2.
Me- What happened to my yellow cloth for the chalk board?
Bear- maybe a chipmunk came in the house and stole it.

3.
Monkey- Mom, I'm finally reading little red robin hood.
Me- Well, is it robin hood or little red riding hood?

4.
Monkey was reading a flier about pig.  After reading about products that come from a pig like leather and soap he says, "Are you kidding me? My soap comes from a pig?  I may as well just go rub my hands on a pig to wash them!"

5.
Me- Isn't it amazing what God did for us?  It's not just amazing, it's amazing grace!
Monkey-You mean like amazing grace baptist church?  That should be the name of our church.

6.
Monkey singing- "rowin', rowin', rowin' on a river."
Me- It's rolling on a river....but I guess rowing would make sense. Ha.

7.
TJ- If you do that too much your eyes will stay that way.
Monkey- That's an old woman's tale.
Me- it's "old wives tale"
Monkey- most of the things parents don't want their children doing they tell the old wives about.

8.
Bear- We are just teasing you around.

9.
TJ sternly saying to 3 yr old child- "Do you say no to me?"
3 yr old child....Looks at him with a hilariously confused look on his face, like the answer to this question is no, but I'm not supposed to say no to him.....now what?

10.
Bear- Mom, guess what I wrote?
Me- I love you mom
Bear- nope
Me- mom is the best mom ever
Bear- nope
Me- mom is the coolest person in history
Bear- nope
Me- I want to eat cookies
Bear- nope
Me- Just tell me already!
Bear- www dot com
Me- Bwahaahahahahaha.....I would have never guessed that!

11.
I was preparing burritos with refried beans, and my 4 year old niece says, I don't want peanut butter on my taco.



 

Snack time

Have you ever noticed that there is a snack time for almost every "children's" event possible?

This is actually very annoying to me.  I know what you're thinking...so before you tell me how I mean I am, please let me explain a little.

First our schedule...We have one snack time in our house at 3:30.  That's it.  We do not eat except for the designated meal times.  Which are 8am breakfast, 12:30 lunch, 3:30 Snack, and 5:30 supper.
No bed time snacks or drinks, no eating away from the lunch table, no extra snacking while walking around or anything like that.

Second, you may or may not know that our children came to us when they were a little older....not a baby.  So right away we had to establish a schedule or routine out of nothing.  
Now given that information....our children also had/have eating troubles in their past.  Like never thinking there was going to be more food or enough food or food at all, or wondering when the next time you're going to get a drink is.  So from the start they would eat, or drink until they would throw up.  So from that background we had to establish limitations and we had to be their judge on if they were full or not.

All this to say, we had to stick to the routine and not allow any extra food from anyone else or at any other times.  This is very frustrating when every single event you want to bring your children to has a snack time.  So I was kinda of annoyed when we'd go to MOPS for instance....we LOVED going to it, but it's from 9-11 in the morning... we get there right after eating breakfast and we eat lunch shortly after getting home so why do my kids need a "snack" in between?  I think they can make it 2 hours without eating.  Then Bible school at night....we just got done eating supper, why do my kids need a snack 30 minutes later?  How about Sunday School?  Again we just came from eating breakfast?  Why do my kids need a snack 30 minutes later?  This is just not helpful when you are trying to help your kids figure out that they don't need to eat until they throw up, or that they need to establish a full button and stop eating, and that the stop eating sign means for a couple hours....not a couple minutes later you eat more.

Do you see my point of view?  I just had to throw that out there.

Besides that, kids get great freedom and comfort out of knowing a routine/schedule, and not having to wonder when the next meal is, but knowing the set times for meals and snack.  See my blog on routine for more about that.

 

Cursive Lessons

Join us in learning cursive together.
Click the links to find the original post and download the files for yourself.

Lesson 1  (a t)
Lesson 2  (c) review a t, word cat
Lesson 3  (d e) words ace & date
Lesson 4  (g) review d e, words cage, eat & dad
Lesson 5  review letters from lessons 1-4, words gate & dead
Lesson 6 (o) review g, d, words goods & coat
Lesson 7 (h) review o, t, blends th, ch, word catch
Lesson 8 (n) review o, d words hand & note
Lesson 9 (i) review n, g, blends ing, th, word thing
Lesson 10 review letters from lessons 6-9, words ant, did, hog, ice
Lesson 11 (y) review n, th, words thy, any, coat, chin
Lesson 12 (r) review y, words are, car
Lesson 13 (s) review r, n, words rains, sting
Lesson 14 (m) review s, r, words man, smart
Lesson 15 review letters from lessons 10-14, words mister, many, scar, year.
Lesson 16 (b) review s, h, words bath, boy.
Lesson 17 (j) review b, i, words job, major.
Lesson 18 (x) review j, b, words, exit, taxi.
Lesson 19 (p) review x, s, words pint, cap.
Lesson 20 review letters from lessons 16-19, words, eject, bigger, pajama, excite.

Click below to download the whole file at one time.
All cursive lessons.

Enjoy learning cursive!


 

Cursive 16-19 review

Lesson 20

Review letters, b, j, x, p, practice words eject, bigger, pajama, excite.

Click here to download this file for yourself.
 

Click here to see all the available cursive lessons.