I wish I would've gotten a picture!

I had a busy day of working in the kitchen yesterday afternoon so needless to say my story takes place there! I was making my food for supper swap, so I was busy making pie dough and kneading it and cutting it out. While I was doing that, Rebecca was "innocently" playing on the floor. I didn't think much of it, so I just kept on about my business. After a few minutes, I turned around to see my little girl had turned blue!!!! I don't mean the "she can breathe and needs CPR blue", I mean the "she got into the food coloring gel and has it EVERYWHERE" blue!!!! She looked like a little smurf!! At the time, I was so busy and I got upset, but now that I look back on it, I laugh a little bit! I wiped and wiped her hands, face and belly, but the blue just wouldn't come off! She ate lunch a little bit later and all of her food ended up with a blue tint from her fingers. Now that it is over, I sure wish I had used my camera!

Going on a road trip!

Yay! I am so excited! After a year of trying to make things happen, we are finally taking a road trip down to Texas to meet my online friends! I am really excited to finally meet them and I am even more excited for a road trip with the girls! We have decided to make it an educational trip. We are going through four different states(at the least) that we have never been to so we are going to stop along the way and visit some landmarks and hopefully learn the states, capitals and other useful information! We are going to take pictures the whole way down and then make a scrapbook for a school project on the states we visited.

I feel so blessed that we are able to make it happen and hopefully have a great time on a budget! We found a hotel for $39/night and that is unbeatable! We also have fuel rewards at two different places that we are able to use to help save on gas costs.

So let the countdown begin.....we are leaving Sept 2nd!

Reflections for the day.....

As I sit her listening to the Ice Cream maker hum and my children laugh together, I sometimes wonder how there are people out there in the world who don't take the time to be at home with their children. And worse, don't want to! I am currently reading the book by Ted Nugent called "Ted, White and Blue" The Nugent Manifesto and it has confirmed to me that I am not the only person left who wonders what happened to the way things used to be. The American Way. When did "keeping up with the Jones's" become so important that people **choose**(and by choose, I actually mean choose and not those people out there who have to work to survive) to be at work all day instead of at home raising their own children. We are allowing outside influences raise the generation of tomorrow. The government takes control of the majority of our children's learning at the tender and influential age of five and they are trying to make it even earlier by implementing universal preschool! Where are the parents of these children?? Why aren't they fighting for their children and the few precious years they have with them before they are sent off to the voluntary brainwashing we call the public school system? When did mothers and fathers become so incompetent that they are no longer good enough to educate our young people?

As a homeschooling mother to three young girls, I am appalled to see what some school districts are teaching their young people! It is no longer up to the parent to teach abstinence and procreation to their children. They leave it up to the teachers. Parents no longer want to teach discipline at home. Instead they want to leave the discipline up to the teachers while they focus on being the "cool" parent and their child's best friend. But, if the teachers get too harsh, watch out! Those same parents are quick to retaliate against the school system saying that their child was treated unfairly or disciplined too severely.

Although I think that it is a personal decision to homeschool your children or send them to a public school, I cannot feel more strongly about my decision to teach my children at home in a structured environment where they are free to practice their religion w/o feeling pressured to change their mindset and where they are learning the importance of saving your virginity for marriage. I want them to learn that there is a difference between respecting other people's choices and accepting them. I am happy that they will learn about all of the religions of the world along with other historical figures w/o feeling the need to agree with all of them b/c some "activist" told them they should.

So, as I continue to sit here and watch my children ride their bikes and feed their animals and talk amongst each other, I thank God that my husband and I have chosen this simple life for ourselves and our children. I am thankful that they will value the dollar and not expect to get all of the finer things in life just b/c someone else has them. I am thankful that we have chosen to put our children above money. I am thankful that God has given us the ability to make these choices for ourselves and most of all, I am thankful that my children have helped me see that the simple things in life can be more exciting than any shiny new toy that can be bought in a store.

Supper Swap....my new favorite thing!

If you have never heard of supper swap before, or if you have heard of it and never done it, I HIGHLY recommend that you join a group NOW!

Supper Swap is where a group of women get together each month and plan meals for each night of the week. So, since there are four women in my supper swap group, there are four nights that we get home cooked meals and one night where we have to fend for ourselves. My cooking night is Wednesday evenings. So, I decide on a meal that I would like to cook and I suggest it to my group. If they are interested in it, I will put it on the calendar for one of the Wednesdays that I am doing the cooking. When my day comes up, I make meals for myself and the three other womens' families in my group. So, I make a total of four meals in one day. Then, I go around and drop those meals off to those families at 4pm. They have a fully prepared meal and they didn't even have to do anything! Now, on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays, they do the same in return(on their scheduled day) and I have meals brought to my house and I don't have to think about dinner at all! I just pop the 9x13 pan in my oven and let it cook until ready to serve! What a grand idea! As I am typing this, I am smelling a pan of sausage and scalloped potatoes cooking in my oven that I didn't even have to prepare! Talk about wonderful!!!

Now, get on the phone with some of your friends and family in close driving distance and set up a meeting to plan your first month of supper swap! You will be soooooo happy that you did!

How much is that doggy in the window??

Because lately I have been willing to trade three little girls for that cute little puppy for sale!

Well, not really, but I am sure that most moms can relate to times when our kids drive us insane! We are all trying to adjust to a new schedule with my niece now having a job and needing to be picked up at 2:30 each afternoon. It is a 1/2 hour drive each way and is right smack dab in the middle of nap time! How convenient! Not only am I dealing with the nap situation, but we are also dealing with two little girls who are trying to see how far they can push mom and dad! They have tried being defiant in public and when it is time to go to bed, among other times. But last night really took the cake! Fortunately I wasn't there for the fiasco, but Marvin had to go to the store to pick up some milk and the girls wanted to go with him. From the bits and pieces I got of the story, it is my understanding that the girls were given specific instructions at some point and decided to ignore those instructions and continue on with whatever it was they were doing. That did not fly with good ol' dad and when they got home, they both got a firm swat on the behind and put in bed for the night!

Now, most times I would have felt somewhat bad for their poor end to their evening, but last night was an exception. They had been defiant with me that afternoon when we stopped at a store and had also been extremely mouthy throughout the day. My patience meter had run out and those girls didn't get an ounce of sympathy from their mama!

I can only hope and pray that the end of this phase comes sooner than later!

Post Baby Body

Well, as many moms know, your body after you have a baby can be soooo different than the one that you had just a few short months before. Of course there are those lucky mama's out there that can keep a great little figure(these are the ones we despise! J/K!!) but most of us feel like we are dressing a completely different person! I am no exception to this rule and I have noticed that after giving birth to my three little heathens angels, that I have changed in many ways. So, I have decided to do something about it! I was doing Weight Watchers for a while, but I got tired of counting points, so now I am following the 8 simple habits in a wonderful book that was recommended to Marvin and I from his dietician! It is called "Water With Lemon" and it is full of great ways to lose weight and get healthy without counting points, calories, carbs or even feeling "dieters guilt"! Both Marvin and I have been doing well on this new lifestyle, but after talking to my PCP about it, I have decided to incorporate regular exercise into my daily routine. I have been walking at night with a friend a few nights a week, but it didn't seem to be enough. So, this week, I have started doing cardio workouts on the treadmill for an hour each morning. Wish me luck as I try to maintain this new habit! Maybe in a few months, I will have progress pictures to share with you all as well!!!!