An Invitation

This week I was given a handwritten card on bright orange paper. It read...

"Dear Mom,
You're invited to my birthday party.
It will be on the 29.
It will begin at 7am.
Please help with the cake."

So glad I made the guest list!  Tomorrow at 7am the celebration of Benjy's 8th birthday begins!! He's made sure of it. ;-D

My Trip to the Spa

My children treated me to a trip to the Spa today.

They have a lovely front desk...

...and waiting room.

I decided to go all out and order the Full Treatment.

It was the best Spa I've ever been to. But, make sure you are ready to drop some Big Money!

I'm tellin' ya'. I have the Greatest Kids Ever!

12 Weeks...12 Things The Countdown Begins!

After two days of snowfall, we're buried and April feels VERY far away. But, when you take a look at the calendar, it really is true that this baby is due to arrive in only twelve weeks!! GASP!

Okay, don't panic. We're going to take this Baby Prep one week at a time. I've put together my 12 Weeks-12 Things list.  One project each week will leave us well-prepped for baby's arrival.  It also leaves me feeling a little less overwhelmed. ;-)  And, hey, I even get another cool list to check off. Oh, how I love my lists!

I'm posting my list on the side of our blog so I can see it and check it off. It's quite motivating to see things getting done!

Does the Lord have something coming up in your life that you need to be preparing for? I encourage you to prayerfully make a list of all that you can do to be ready for His blessings. :-)

Still Living Free!

At least as far as home education is concerned!

Today we joined hundreds at the statehouse for a rally asking legislators to vote ITL (inexpedient to legislate) a bill that would destroy the home education freedoms in our state. *If* this bill would have passed, our state would have had one of the most stringent home education laws in our nation. *If* this bill would have passed, it would set yet another precedent for taking away the rights of parents and citizens to choose what is best for their homes and families. *If* this bill would have passed, it would have been without any evidence that home education is failing students in any way. In fact, all the data concerning our state's home educated students shows quite the contrary! I am so grateful we serve a God who overpowers every *IF* in our path!

Hooray for all of the families that attended the many rallies, meetings and sessions that were made to try to sneak this bill through. Hooray for the hardworking individuals who daily watched and carefully followed this unneccessary bill so that we, as a people, could be informed and take action. Hooray that our prayers, words, actions and presence still make a difference in our state and nation. Thank you, Lord, for allowing us these freedoms yet!

Done.

Well, the baking all got done. I did a quad batch of muffins in place of the cookies, but we should be set for most of the week, aside from the yeast breads.

Didn't get all the casseroles done. One Cheeseburger Pie for a family from church to welcome their new baby. I also have a pot of chili in the crockpot cooking tonite to be ready for lunch tomorrow. Also prepped some oatmeal pancakes for breakfast in the morning. It was a successful day. I'm definitely feeling that. ;-)

Have I ever shared just how Very Capable I am in the kitchen?? Yeah, well...Very Capable of making a Huge Mess!!  I had bread overflowing the pans today and ended up with some lopsided loaves as well as an accidental new bread. Pumpkin-Gingerbread loaf!  See, the pumpkin bread oozed over the edge of it's pan and leaked down onto the gingerbread below it. Makes for a colorful loaf!  It's a good thing my family is more interested in the taste than the presentation.

My yeast breads turned out lovely, though. I was really happy about that. I haven't made bread since last summer. I was afraid I had forgotten how to do it.

Well, thanks to my little helpers and my loving husband, I even have a clean kitchen as I now sit with my feet up. What a great feeling to have a freezer full of goods and a day of rest ahead of me.

Kitchen Day Returns!

It's been awhile since I've been able to get back to my normal routine of Kitchen Day on Saturdays. It seems that once we settled in from our trip the holiday season started up and everything just kept changing.

So, while David is busy at a town budget meeting, I'll be busy in the kitchen!

Baking:
3 loaves yeast bread, one pan dinner rolls
4 loaves pumpkin bread
2 loaves gingerbread
Oatmeal cookies
2 loaves Leftover oatmeal-blueberry bread

Cooking:
Beans to soak
Hambuger casserole x2
Chicken casserole x2
Applesauce

Hopefully I'll still have some energy left to help the Girlies get their room in order before Big Sis returns from a visit with Grandma and Papa. We'd like the room to look pretty for her. :D

The rest of the day we'll be working on simple winter decorations. Well...after a nice nap!

We Three Kings

Tonight we celebrated the end of our Christmas season with our Three Kings party. The children chose to present the story of the wise men meeting the child, Jesus, with a puppet show. It was very sweet. We're so lucky to have such a great drama team right in our own home!

King Herod

Ruth modeling her stocking gift.

And a couple of Haddie being just plain cute. She sure is going to miss that tree!

We packed up all the Christmas decor tonite too. That made everyone pretty sad. It's hard to take down all of those pretty lights and put the house back to normal. We've decided we are going to put up some snowflakes and other winter decorations to keep the winter blues away.