First Day of School

Okay well really we homeschool and do not carry back packs. But I love all the first day of school photos and since we had to have backpacks for co-op I had to take pictures. Everyone was not exactly thrilled about having there pictures taken. I love our homeschool group and I love co-op. This year Michael is taking Entomolgy, Presidents and Art. Faith is taking American Girl, Art, and states history. Hope is taking Art, Fun and games and oops I can not remember. I am taking, well baking and organizing and social skills and communication. No really I am just helping out.





It does fill like the school year has really started. The girls started speach this week and co-op started and Awana started. This year I have a cubbie, a spark, a T&T and someone in treck. Add to that we have piano and boyscouts and American Heritage girls and the week is packed. Plus trying to keep a full school time going. I love homeschooling and being with my kids, well most days I do.

Grace called the police

Yep, you read that right. The girls are watching a movie on the couch together. Grace is talking on her cell phone as usual. I thought she was pretending to talk to dad since it is a dead cell phone. Hope kept saying mom she is talking to a man and I kept saying no she isn't. After 5 minutes of this I noticed the light was on, on the back of the phone. So I had her bring it to me and was startled when I heard a mans voice. Almost defensivly I said, " how are you talking to my daughter this is a dead phone?" He said,
"MAM, THIS IS HUNTSVILLE POLICE DEPARTMENT". I almost died. I apologized, he almost laughed. I said she thought he was talking to her dad who is away at school. He laughed. I assured him I would take the battery out. I can not believe I did not listen to Hope when she said she heard a mans voice. So please remember to take the batteries out of those old phones.

We have the best sitter ever

Every time she babysitts for me she brings activities for the kids to do. The kids love it and I love it because she does all the messy things I do not enjoy doing. This week they made TP's and hats and bracelets out of jelly beans.

I wish it was a wordless Wednesday

But this is how my day went. I woke up and played on the computer and then I had alot of paperwork for co-op this morning and it ended up taking most of the day. had signs to print and such too (i should have worked on this earlier). then we went to the church and moved around tables and took pictures of the room. i like to take a picture of the room for the teachers to see at the end of the day. that way we know how to set up the tables and chairs. then we picked up the baby i keep (after her daycare which is at my church) and came home. the kids finished up awanas and showered. we dropped the baby off to her parents. Went to walmart to develop pictures, drop kids off at awanas and then i went to pick up pictures, went to books a million to pick up books for faith. Picked up kids, came home and got them in bed. Put pineapple upside down cake in oven (after making it, haha). neighboor came over with fundraiser, pulled cake out of oven. loaded dishwasher and straightened the kitchen. Now I am going to try and get the cake out of the pan (worried it will not come out right). brush teeth, straighten my room and go to bed. Somewhere in there everyone got fed and school mostly got done and everyone got hugs and kisses. The only thing that did not happen today was a phone call we expected from dad, maybe Sunday

Not me Monday

What a awesome week. All week I have thought about not me Monday. let start with my kids. Hope and Grace did not lay our broom from the couch to the love seat and then proceed to use it as a tight rope.They would not do this because they are smart enough to know that is dangerous and they also know that a dirty broom does not go on my couch. My son did not sneak on the computer 10 times because he respects me enought to not do that. Faith did not cry at the drop of a hat because she is not having hormones or learning to talk back. I did not come out of the shower to find Grace standing on one dresser turning my fan on and off, and notice she had climbed up and turned on the weather radio and the alarm clock on the other dresser, and she most definitly had on clothes while doing this because my girls are always properly dressed. Grace also did not pull her pull up to the side in front of a room of people to show them her diaper rash.
Okay onto me,
I did not get a higher electric bill than anyone I know because I leave my air condirioner on 68 because I am so spoiled, I am very cautious with our money and would not do this to us. I did not get so excited about Hope wanting to put away laundry yesturday because I do not expect my kids to do more and more chores. I did not think about how much help this would be for me and try to figure out how fast she could start doing this chore. I did not stay up late watching footloose and singing along to all of the songs because for one I would not know these songs and for two I do not watch these kinds of shows. On that note I also did not watch a hour of how did you get so rich this week.
I did not have to make the girls clean my bedroom on Saturday, I did not have to do this because for 2 days I encouraged the girls to watch tv in my room while I started official school with the bigger kids and even if I did this I most certainly would have watched them closer.
I did not force my son to stay in a scrapbook store for almost 4 hours on Saturday because he did not get his school work done. I know scrapbooking and boys do not go together and would not do that to him.
Last Sunday I did not get into the passanger seat after church and wait for Rob. I am in my right brain and would remember he had been gone for 4 days.
I also did not leave post without my wallet last week, I would never do this because I know that although the gate guards have seen me everyday for the last 5 years they will not let me back home. On this day I most certainly did not forget to brush Hope's hair and I definitly did not let Grace sneak out of the house in elmo slippers instead of shoes. I really do have my act together better than this. I also did not have a mini pitty party with myself about not knowing what I would do before calling a friend to help.
Okay, because I am starting to watch calories and trying to give up mountain dew I did not buy a 12 pack yesturday. It is for emergancy's. I hope everyone else has a awesome great week and does the silly things I do.

This is what I got for $49 today

8 count them 8 things of parchment paper at $1.75 a piece
6 boxes of cereal
2 boxes of cereal bars
2 boxes of cereal sticks
2 boxes of oatmeal
toothpaste
9 count them 9 things of peanut butter
3 bags of marshmallows
7 count them 7 bags of chocolate chips
2 things of tortilla shells
1 peanut butter cracker
4 waters
3 sodas
it seems like something else but I can not remember. That is 6 bags of groceries for less than 50 dollars.
I stopped at a gas station to pick up a drink for a friend and saw a discount grocery store next door so I went in. I felt like a child on Christmas morning. The lady must think I am nuts because I was so happy. If you want to visit this place it is in Gurley, maybe 20-25 minutes away. And the best part is right across the street is a AWESOME, AMAZING scrapbook/ homeschooling store. It is wonderful.

Day 10 without daddy

We are holding up. I honestly think the shorter trips are harder because you do not want to change routine and get in the groove of them being gone. Hope did tell me yesturday that we can go get daddy. She was very upset with me because I am mommy and I can go get him when I want to. Poor child. Can you imagine me walking into his school and saying sorry he has to leave because his wife says so. I am sure I would not be the first wife to do it.

Getting Locked out

We live in a gated community, HAHAHAHAHA! Really it is a military post and most days I like it. Well this week I have my brain. I left the house to go to piano and after vowing to give up mountain dew I decided that a mountaindew slushie would surely help my sinus head ache. So I pull into the gas station and realize I left my wallet at the house. So we went on to piano. While we were there hope took sticks from the yard and made a hut. She said this is the hut we would die in because we could not go home and we had no money. Then she decided to rub two sticks together so we would have fire for the night. She was truelly concerned for us. Grace told her they could just build a bridge with the sticks to get to Michael (who was at home). I had visions of us getting caught sneaking over the fence to a military post. No worries my dear friend Crystal came to my rescue and brought me my wallet. Really it was not that big of deal because the gate is only a mile away and Michael could have walked to the gate to bring me the keys. I have to admitt I was a little embarrased when I realized we were stuck because Hope had not brushed her hair and Grace had snuck out of the house in her elmo slippers. I wish the pictures were better.

Day 8 with dad away

We are doing good. Busy and I think that helps alot. Everyone is doing okay. Grace is struggling, she talks about daddy all the time. This was her conversation last night:
mommy, i am not tired, i need daddy, hope is a sparkie and i want to be a sparkie and i have too many tears (honestly her shirt is soaked) and i need daddy, and i want to be a spark but I have no BM to put in the potty, faith does not put BM in the ...potty, no she does not have any. I need the lights on, I am not tired. now she is crying for her daddy in bed and telling me he is not coming home forevvvvvvvvvvver

singing at church

Sunday morning the kids got to sing in the santuary. Sunday night was the recital and everyone did great. There was a pizza party afterwards. Grace was so funny she loved the pizza and cried for more. Thank you Mrs. Amy for all of your help and all the work you put into the play

Liquid Laundry Soap

A couple of weeks ago we made homemade laundry soap and never took a picture. So today when I opened the 5 gallon bucket I took a picture. It looks great.

Bread

I have really enjoyed making bread. I love the look of white bread the best but want to feed my kids wheat bread. My wheat bread never comes out this tall. If you have a reciepe I would love to try it.

Musical

I think this is the first play the girls have been in. Today was dress rehearsal. It was kinda funny because they said where what you would wear to school and I had no idea what that meant. And just so you know I did not watch the kids walking to the bus stop to see what they are wearing. The girls have really enjoyed this. The funny thing was that they did not have microphones so they told each kid to speak louder, she kept saying it over and over. Can you guess what she said to Faith. Not please speak louder so that the people in the back can here. She said WOW, that is startling, or something like that. I am hoping Faith can speak loud and clear tomorrow. As soon as the kids were off the stage Grace snuck on the stage. She was so cute, trying to decide if she could or not.

Grace

Can you believe I let Grace out of the house wearing this today. We were only going to church for rehearsal and she was happy. These days it is about a easy life. We did end up going to the grocery store afterwards. Thank you Janet for the red boots. Would you believe no one noticed that she did not have sleeves on her shirt and normally my kids are very outspoken.

Our first Saturday alone

We have talked to Rob maybe 10 minutes total since he left. He is doing good. Tired but good. He said he will loose his phone tomorrow. He also told me that he signed a paper saying he would not have caffeine and he would drink 2 glasses of water at each meal. I asked him how he was doing without diet pepsi and he said alot better than the ones who are going without tabacco. He said he has 2 roommates now but will have three when they switch. He said he is hoping the new room has better air conditioning. Please pray for him as he starts real school tomorrow. I will try to keep everyone updated but it may only be through twitter. The kids are doing well. We have a busy week and I think that will help

Day 2 of 35 without daddy

Day 2
I have not heard from Rob this morning. He did call a little after 9pm last night and said he had not been given a room yet but soon. He thinks he will have his phone until Sunday. I am hoping he calls soon. The kids did well yesturday. Grace had a mini melt down this morning when she could not call him.
I decided today we would go to the pool with friends to break up the day and then go to DQ for blizzards.

Alabama Adventure

Last Saturday we went to Alabama Adventure and had a great day.There was a glitch with them giving us our tickets and the kids had to set in the sun for a hour. The kids were already red and hot. This is right outside waiting to get in.

The carousal was our first ride and we even snuck in a picture of Michael.

This was about 20 minutes after we got in the gate, Grace was done, she had already fallen asleep once in the stroller. Poor child is like her mother and does not do heat and sun.

Homemade fabric softner

1 Container of Name Brand Fabric Softener
4 Inexpensive sponges, cut in half

Pour entire container of softener into a 5 gallon bucket. Fill empty softener container with water twice. (2 parts water to 1 part softener) Add sponges to softener/water mixture. When ready to use wring out extra mixture from one sponge and add to the dryer as you would a dryer sheet.

Home made laundry soap

First let me say I stole this picture from some place on line. Okay a few weeks ago we made powdered laundry soap and I love it. I did buy different soap. I bought Yardley soap because that is what I found at the dollar tree. I have made 7 batches of the powder and last night we made the liquid.
this is the duggars reciepe
TIPS FOR LAUNDRY SOAP: We use Fels-Naptha bar soap in the homemade soap recipes, but you can use Ivory, Sunlight, Kirk's Hardwater Castile or Zote bars. Don't use heavily perfumed soaps. We buy Fels-Naptha by the case from our local grocer or online. Washing Soda and Borax can normally be found on the laundry or cleaning aisle. Recipe cost approx. $2.

Homemade Liquid Laundry Soap- Front or top load machine- best value

4 Cups hot tap water
1 Fels-Naptha soap bar
1 Cup Washing Soda
½ Cup Borax

- Grate bar of soap and add to saucepan with water. Stir continually over medium-low heat until soap dissolves and is melted.

-Fill a 5 gallon bucket half full of hot tap water. Add melted soap, washing soda and Borax. Stir well until all powder is dissolved. Fill bucket to top with more hot water. Stir, cover and let sit overnight to thicken.

-Stir and fill a used, clean, laundry soap dispenser half full with soap and then fill rest of way with water. Shake before each use. (will gel)

-Optional: You can add 10-15 drops of essential oil per 2 gallons. Add once soap has cooled. Ideas: lavender, rosemary, tea tree oil.

-Yield: Liquid soap recipe makes 10 gallons.

-Top Load Machine- 5/8 Cup per load (Approx. 180 loads)

-Front Load Machines- ¼ Cup per load (Approx. 640 loads)



Powdered Laundry Detergent- Top load machine

1 Fels-Naptha soap bar
1 Cup Washing Soda
½ Cup Borax

-Grate soap or break into pieces and process in a food processor until powdered. Mix all ingredients. For light load, use 1 Tablespoon. For heavy or heavily soiled load, use 2 Tablespoons. Yields: 3 Cups detergent. (Approx. 40 loads)