My Casual Saturday Chores

After three weeks of sickies at the Gaudet Ranch, we are back to health.  In the process of being back, I am taking care of many piles.  Piles that always sit and wait for me.
The one chore I could not wait to get to this morning was putting away the piles of meds that consumed my counter top.  I don't like gobs of stuff on my countertops unless it's food for a party.  My drawers can be messy but not my counter tops.

Of course this chore could not be done until I went through the rest of the medicine cupboard.  Oh my!  The things I found that were long expired (like 2003 stuff even).  Birth control pills I got that I never took..oops I forgot, they were on the top shelf.  Thank goodness, I probably wouldn't have Hunter right now. 

Then the lovely forgotten pregnancy pills:  iron tablets, folic acid tablets, two lovely bottles of stool softeners.  Expired teething soothers, gas drops and baby meds....

Each expired bottle reminded me of memories: my blissful pregnancies, my miscarriages, pedetrician visits and concerns, Alex's fall.  All the blessings and trials of the flu, cold, injuries, ailments and rashes.  And most of all the abundance and access to remedy ourselves. 

Chore conquered. 
Blessings remembered.
Now if I can just remember to not take my health for granted.
Off to the next chore..bleach common areas, even my countertops. 

Fall Teachable Moments

I have been asked by several people about the resources that I use this time of year in reinforcing the activities in the Fall.

First of all, I need to let you know that our family does not celebrate Halloween.  So I keep away from resources that enforces that celebration.  I know that this topic can cause division even with Christians.  So if you really want to know why we don't celebrate Halloween, I would love to sit down with you and discuss this topic.  I could totally enter this conversation without judgment and with love, respect and gentleness.  If you celebrate Halloween, I still love you; it's just a deep conviction that we have for our family. 

If you are searching for answers about Halloween, I encourage the following:
The Facts on Halloween, by John Ankerberg, John Weldon & Dillon Burroughs. ISBN:13-978-0-7369-2219-7 or http://www.harvesthousepublishers.com/
And another resource, it's a quick reference guide:
Halloween, What You Need to Know, by Ron Rhodes, ISBN:13-978-0-7369-2179-4 or http://www.harvesthousepublishers.com/

While we don't celebrate Halloween, we love pumpkins and the harvest theme of fall.  One book we enjoy is: 
How Many Seeds in a Pumpkin, by Margaret McNamara, ISBN 978-0-375-84014-2 We do the pumpkin activity then we read this book. 
We teach our kids that pumpkins aren't just for carvin for Halloween.  We make our pumpkin activity academically challenging:

     1. Talk about size and shape of pumpkin (small, medium large) (tall, skinny, stubby)
     2. Guess how much it weighs then weigh them;
     3. Guess how many seeds are in the pumpkin then count them;
     4. Clean pumpkin seeds and cook them together (sometimes we have saved this for another family night activity);
     5.  Cook your pumpkin.  I cook mine on 350 for about an hour.  Just like you would any squash.  I then scoop the pumpkin pulp and put in the freezer for pumpkin recipes or make pumpkin soup. 

Pilgrims of Plymouth by Susan E. Goodman and National Geographic Society, ISBN: 0-7922-6675-7
     I love this small paper back book because of the visual pictures that were produced in the book.  My kids have a better understanding of the verbage that we tend to only use at Thanksgiving: Mayflower, Pilgrim, Indian, Settlement, life without electricity. 
  
     This book however fails to really mention the main reason why the Pilgrims wanted to make America their home.  It has one little blurp: "Here, the Pilgrims could pray in their own way."  I always add the verbage I want my kids to know.  Great, great visual resource of what Pilgrim, etc. looked like and how they lived.

My favorite book (other than the Bible):
Stories of the Pilgrims, Written by Margaret B. Pumphrey.  Revised and edited by Michael J. McHugh, ISBN: 1-930092-36-9
     I discovered this book while homeschooling Crystal.  It is a chaper book and is about 244 pages long (paperback).  It begins explaining the circumstances for the Pilgrims in England and their journey.  We have not read this book in a few years because of the ages of our two little ones.  But cannot wait for the day that Hunter can sit still for longer than two minutes.  It is an easy read, with lots of white space (very appealing to young readers) and has questions at the end of each chapter.  We are going to try and go through this book this year and see how Hunter does. 

My favorite Audio Book:
Thanksgiving, A Time To Remember, Barbara Rainey, http://www.familylife.com/
     If Hunter cannot sit through reading the above chapter book, we will listen to this cd instead.  Somehow it just peaks his attention more.  The author does not read the book but there are several characters that speak.  We listen to a little bit each evening. 

Other Preschool Books:
Let's Be Thankful, PK Hallinan, ISBN 13-978-0-8249-6585-3
Thanks for Thanksgiving, Julie Markes, ISBN 978-0-06-051098-5
Arthur's Thanksgiving, Marc Brown, ISBN 0-316-11232-1, (Definitely not spiritual just a silly book)
My Thanksgiving Prayer, Crystal Bowman (one of my favorite "rhyme" preschool author) ISBN 0-310-71162-2

Books for Children 5-10:
Squanto and the Miracle of Thanksgiving, Eric Metaxas, ISBN 0-8499-5864-4

A New Resource This Year:
If You Were At The First Thanksgiving, Anne Kamma, Scholastic Book, Reading Level 3, ISBN: 13:978-0-439-10566-8

     I am intrigued by this book because of the acknowledgments to a Plimoth Plantation Historian and Research Manager had contributed to this book.  It is a 64 page, paperback, with several illustrations, in a questions and answer format. 

Some of the questions include:  
     Why did the Pilgrims come to America?;
     Why was deer meat so special?;
     What foods did the Pilgrims hate to eat?;
     When was it time for dessert?;

Website:
Be sure to check out www.plimoth.org  

And of course, our main resource:
Our Bibles

Would love to know what you use for teachable moments this time of year.

My Poor Muffin!

My Autumn girl is still sick.
It just breaks my heart.
She has never been sick for more than
a day or two at the most.

Please pray for her fever to stop,
the sniffles to go away and that
she would get to her normal self. 

We've been stranded at home but
I was able to get out on Thursday.
I love taking care of my kids but
I am so starting to get CABIN FEVER.

Thank goodness it's the weekend and I
have Alex's help.  And thank goodness
I pampered myself last weekend; it helped 
having my cup full so I could give overflowing 
and patiently this past week.

I am so PUMPED!

Ya baby.
This is MY weekend.
LOVE IT!
Alex took the day off .
Took care of the kids this morning.
Took Autumn to school.
Took Hunter to run the errands.
And will continue to take care of the kids
until Sunday night.

And I in return:
Get to scrap, craft and eat.
Out to dinner with my teen group.
Spend the night with my Crystal girl.
Get a spa day on Saturday.
A Hoosier.
And I am even going to get an outfit.

Watch out, girlfriends,
my cup will be overfloweth,
which puts me in a very generous mood. 

Let's See

Let's see, perhaps I can get a way with quick little phrases on my blog:

Full Day.
Worked.
Finished majorly cleaning the playroom. 
Canned seven quarts of pears.
Sewing class - learned what a bodice is.
Book Club - reading Sacred Marriage. 
Hyper.
Making myself go to bed.

I've Lost

I think I have lost my blogger game...Facebook made me do it!  I have been pondering why. 

Well the first reason is I need a new cord for my camera.  Who likes to blog without pics.  Not very motivating. 

And the other reason is Facebook is appealing to me with my brain power lately.  On Facebook, I can just type a quick: "I've got seven quarts of pears in my canner.  My house smells yummy."  With blogging, I feel like I need to take professional quality pics, provide a detailed tutorial and have smooth writing that describes every sensory.

Trying to decide if I should continue participating in bloggie land.  Perhaps this is just a dry spell too.  Time will tell. 

In Hunter's Heart

While doing our  family devotionals one night after dinner, we were talking about Jesus being in our hearts.  Hunter piped right up and said, "Jesus isn't in my heart but my momma is."

As much as I love being in his heart; I cannot wait for Jesus to be.  Soon very soon.  I can tell and I just cannot wait.