Monday, June 09, 2008

Lunch With a Very Old Friend

Pin It Now! What crazy timing!

I get in touch with my best friend from the 4th grade, who I probably haven't seen or spoken to in about 14 years, find out she's the founder of Bella Lucce, and then to top it all off, she tells me she's coming to Arizona for a speaking engagement!




This past Saturday, she treated me to lunch, and we had a fine time reminiscing about our fourth grade adventures and everything in between then and now. She seems to remember an incident that I must have forgotten after all these years. Even though I was usually a perfect angel, I guess I did get into a teensy bit of mischief every now and again. Lela made me do it!!! :)

An hour and a half just wasn't enough time to cover 14 years!







Thank you, Lela, for a great time and for the lovely gifts!!!




Thursday, June 05, 2008

Another Spider Episode

Pin It Now! As I was making my bed this morning I spotted a teensy weensy spider crawling on a pillow that had been sitting on the floor all night. No big deal--I didn't even really flinch. I quickly and mercifully ended its life, then flushed it down the toilet.



After that I noticed a tremulous spider with long, bendy legs right in the middle of my bed on top of the quilt. It looked like it had already been squashed a bit, and since it was still twitching I didn't know if it was already dead or not. Ewww, it reminded me of a you know what, so I wanted to take a closer look before ridding myself of the beast.

Even though I am no longer living in the Brown Recluse capital of the world, there are still a few of these infamous critters that have chosen to reside in the desert. Hoping and praying that this was just a wanna be BR, I grabbed some toilet paper and picked the thing up by a leg. I got nose to nose to that spider analyzing its pancake head to make sure that the markings weren't really those belonging to a true BR. At that moment I was having a nightmarish vision of it regaining strength to jump onto my face and bite the fire out of me disfiguring my face for life.

After careful inspection and to my great satisfaction, I decided that was in fact not a Brown Recluse. It was one of those smart spiders who evolved into a BR look-alike to avoid being eaten. Just kidding. But there really is a non-poisonous spider that closely resembles the venomous Brown Recluse.

I was a happy girl!!





Wednesday, June 04, 2008

Works For Me Wednesday: "Mom, I'm Bored" Edition

Pin It Now! Summer's here and eventually we moms will hear the ever familiar whines from our spoiled (I mean sweet) kids, "Mom, I'm bored!" :)








While we do have many fun things planned for summer, everyday can't be a party and being stuck inside during triple digit temps. out here in the desert can bring on those boredom blues. But, I can usually hush them up with threats of chores if they continue to hassle me!!!








So, what are some ways we ragamuffins ease the blues of boredom? Well, for starters we got out a piece of construction paper and a marker and made a list of things the kids could to do around the house that don't involve my help. Then, I hung it up on our dry erase board, so they could easily consult the list. The list includes simple things like: play a board game, play with little sister, watch cartoons, play computer/X-box games, draw or do art, read a book, do summer workbook pages, help with extra chores, etc... The last 3 items mentioned bring me to my next point for this special, themed Works for me Wednesday.











Inspired by the Harry Potter books, we have a "house point" system. I am sure many of you are familiar with the 4 houses of Hogwarts: Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Slytherin, and Hufflepuff. Well, we decided as a family to name "our house" Stormcrow after the dearest of wizards, Gandalf. Yes, we are all die hard Lord of the Rings fans as well!! Anyway, all throughout the year my kids can earn house points for various things, but this summer I have decided to add an incentive to earn even more points. I am hoping this will help keep them busy and out of my hair while I try to get some things done. (I home school, so it is imperative that I make wise use of my time off!!)







Here's what they have to do to earn those extra points, which will help them reach 300 points by summer's end. (They can redeem 300 points for a trip to Chuck E. Cheese.) I guess I should mention here, too, that during the year they can turn in 100 points for a certain reward or wait until they reach 200 points for an even better reward. Any time they choose to use their points, we start over at 0. Okay, with that out of the way I will move on.


I have bought a workbook for each of my boys and they can receive 1 point for each completed page. Each workbook has over 75 pages. For each novel that my almost 9 year old reads, he earns 5 house points. For each easy reader that my 6 1/2 year old reads, he earns 2 points. For extra chores I will give points based on performance. So, hopefully with those incentives, my boys (daughter is still too young to participate) will choose to earn points instead of choosing to bug me to death!!



**My kids can also earn 5 points for each Bible verse they memorize over the summer. Our aim is 1 per week.



The House Point system has definitely worked for our family, so hopefully it will work for yours, too! I would love to know what your "house name" would be if you choose to use this idea!!





Please visit Rocksinmydryer for more tips on keeping your kids occupied during the summer.




Tuesday, June 03, 2008

Bean Makin' Baby

Pin It Now! Helping Mama make refried beans the old fashioned way! You know, sorting, soaking, simmering, and here she is stirring. We added salt, paprika and garlic powder, too. But no lard and other yucky stuff. After one taste, I couldn't keep her from eating them off the spoon!

Spreading mixture on tortillas. No, they are not homemade. That is the next food project on my list since it is so hard to find truly healthy tortillas in stores. Can somebody please make some without hydrogenated oils!!!


Next she sprinkled cheese, and then I popped them in the oven for a few minutes.

It is so nice to just be "mom" for two months and not teacher,too. Gives me time to spend doing fun stuff like this with the kiddos. It was great mother/daughter time. The boys were outside with the neighbor kids. Gotta love summer!!


My Very First Harvest

Pin It Now! I can't even begin to express how delighted I was to pick my very first yellow squash! I know it sounds silly, but there is just something so amazing about watching food grow. This is my very first garden, and I am absolutely loving it! Thanks to hubs for building it for me. :)
These are my squash and zucchini plants. I have a few carrots and 2 pumpkin plants, too. My cilantro and onion seeds just wouldn't sprout even after planting them twice. Oh well, not too bad for a beginner.


I have been so tickled over the excitement the kids have shown. They helped plant the seeds--even Shiloh helped. Everyday they would watch for sprouts and boy, you can imaging the shouting when the first one emerged!!



Here they are, my first two squash. (Should that be squashes?) Lincoln was so excited about them, and he doesn't even like squash. That is until Sunday when we cooked them.



He helped me saute` them in butter, onion, spices, and cheese. And......he like it!!! But, he says he will only eat squash from the garden not the store. Silly boy.

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