AARP

Apparently someone has the demographic information in my household wrong. A couple of days ago I got a letter in the mail saying that I would get a free gift if I joined or renewed my AARP membership. I thought it was quite hilarious as we are quite aways away from that. :-)

My apologies

If you've ever tried to make the health nut muffins that I posted awhile back, I apologize. I forgot to add the sugar!!! I discovered it this morning as I was making them. I thought it odd that there was no sugar so I found the original recipe that I modified. Sure enough, it had sugar in it. Thankfully the muffins had only been in the oven for about 2 minutes so I got them out, removed the batter from the muffin tin and added the sugar. Then I had to put it back in and back in the oven. So my muffins are finally about ready.

Miscellaneous

This may be a bit disjointed so I apologize in advance.

Natalie is being quite sweet this morning. She slept in till 9am and is now eating breakfast. She was just hugging me with one arm while she was eating and didn't want to let go. Then she would periodically turn her head to give me a milk-filled kiss and say "I wub you." I love it when she says that. It just melts my heart. Here is a pic of her eating breakfast at our new table. Ellie says of the chairs, "Why did they have to make them for people with big butts?" The chairs are definitely wider than our last set.

In other happenings, I finally got my massage that Dan got me in July. All winter long last year I told him he owed me a massage since I was the one doing all the shoveling, especially with that heavy, wet snow. So he got me one in July and I've just now been able to schedule it when he was home. It was WONDERFUL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! She was really good. She told me that I put a lot of stress between my ribs. And she was right. When I feel stressed, I feel it in my ribs (weird, I know). Also, she could tell other things about me based on the energy she felt. And she was right. That was a bit strange. But I would definitely go back to her. She had just the right amount of pressure when she massaged.

On Black Friday, my wonderful husband went out and bought me an electric roaster! He asked me if I wanted one and I said sure, I would use it. He first went to Fleet Farm as they had one for $25. While he was in line there, a lady told him that they had a better one at Shopko for cheaper. So he put that one back and went to Shopko. He got it for $20 and it has a divided insert you can use for serving. The roaster will come in handy especially in the summer when I don't want to turn the oven on and when I'm doing my huge cooking sessions.

When mom was here a couple of weeks ago, she brought me an early Christmas present--a new vacuum for my kitchen. Mine died a couple of months ago and I was really wanting a new one. I hated lugging the large vacuum out just to vacuum the kitchen so invariably it would just sit in the living room since I never wanted to put it away (I'd only have to get it out a few hours later anyway). The vacuum has been working wonderfully and I can store it in my pantry.

Here are a couple of pics of Kara working on her math flashcards. She sits in this same spot everyday to work on them--right by the front door.

It's here!!!!

They just delivered and set-up our new kitchen table. It is gorgeous!!! We'd not actually seen the table before. When we went to HOM Furniture, they didn't have the round one on display--only the rectangle one. So we knew sort of what it looked like, but not exactly. I got Darin up from his nap (he'd only been in bed 15 minutes) so he could watch them put it together. I asked the delivery guy about the weird delivery time estimate and he said it is all done by computer. The computer estimates how long it will take the drive from the warehouse to the first house, how long it will take to set-up, etc. We were the 6th stop out of 9. He said they usually deliver to about 12 houses in Rochester each Tuesday (their Rochester delivery day). We will be having our own HOM Furniture come March.

An interesting tidbit about the table--the top of the table is actually made from 1 piece of wood. Then they cut the leaves out of it. There are 6 leaves. I think we'll attempt to store them underneath the spare bedroom bed downstairs. I opted to leave the aprons (the part that hangs down on the edge of the leaf) off so that they would store a bit more compactly. They have to be stored flat so they don't bend.

Hmmm. I 've been thinking for the past week of all the things I should post about and now that I'm sitting here writing it, I can think of nary a one.

We finally got our telescope last week. It arrived on Friday although I have yet to set it up. I worked all weekend (stayed late 2 mornings) and it has been cloudy--not a star or moon to be seen. On Saturday, a second telescope arrived. So I called them yesterday and shipped one back. Not sure why we got 2--we only paid for 1. We had originally ordered a telescope in early September. However, the one we ordered was on backorder but they said we should have it within 2 months. Well, 2 months came and went. So last week I called them to see if they had a better idea of when the telescope would be coming. It would be nice, after all, to have it before we completed our astronomy. The customer service lady told me that yes, our telescope was still on backorder. However, there was another telescope with the same specifics and better optics for less. And it would be here in 3 days. I chose that one.

Our new kitchen table is coming today. Yesterday I got an automated call telling me they would be here between 12:33 and 3:33. Huh? Why not 12:30 and 3:30? I had to listen to the message twice to make sure I heard it correctly--I was, after all, going on very little sleep.

Ellie and Kara are in Des Moines with my parents. Mom was here last week Wednesday through Saturday. It was nice to have her here as she hasn't been up here for awhile. Ellie and Kara went home with her on Saturday and I am meeting mom tomorrow in Mason City to pick them up. They've been having a good time. Kara tells me that she got to help grandpa build a new bench for their park. And she drilled right through her pants. Not sure how she did that but she said that grandma fixed them for her. Before they left for Des Moines, Ellie drew pictures for Dan and me. She hid them in spots around the house and wrote a note letting us know which spots were for which days. It was very thoughtful of her. Ellie really likes to give gifts--I'm pretty sure one of her main love languages is gifts. It doesn't have to be anything large. And she likes to give "surprises" to her siblings--something she learned from her grandmother.

On another front, I made some very yummy bran raisin muffins for lunch today. You can find the recipe here.

Weekly Update

I worked this past weekend so haven't gotten around to an update yet. Here is the update for last week. There will be no update for school this week as we are off and the girls are in Des Moines.

History: We finished up a King Tut activity book that I found online and read about Moses and the Exodus from Egypt. We'll take a break from Story of the World until January as we will be studying Christmas and Christmas traditions for the month of December.
Science: We started the chapter on the moon. We got our telescope last week so this will be of great use during this chapter.
English: Ellie got 3 lessons done. Kara got several lessons done in OPGTR and read a couple of books.
Spelling: Ellie took her pretest but we haven't gotten around to her post test yet. We'll have to do that this week.
Reading: Ellie is currently reading The Adventures of Dr. Doolittle.
Math: Ellie did 3 lessons and 1 test. She needs to work more on her multiplication and division facts. Kara did several lessons also.
Art and Music: Didn't get it done on Friday as planned. The girls were doing their chores and packing so they could go to grandma and grandpa's on Saturday morning.
Latin: Ellie finished lesson 9 in LC1.
Bible: Ellie did several of her lessons in her Genesis book. We discussed commandment number 9--thou shalt not bear false witness.

MOPS this morning

I was the guest speaker this morning at MOPS. For MOPS this year, they are having speakers based on the different rooms in the house. This month they are focusing on the kitchen so they asked me to speak on Once a Month Cooking. I wasn't sure how it was going to go since I haven't done much public speaking before but it went quite well. I was allotted 20 minutes--and I went over. I could have easily talked longer. There were quite a few questions at the end so at least people were paying attention and seemed interested in what I was saying. I did a PowerPoint presentation and I wasn't sure I was going to be able to use it. They've never had a speaker use power point before so they weren't sure how to get it to work. Thankfully one of the husbands who does sound, etc on Sunday mornings was able to get it working.

Also at MOPS this morning we did a freezer meal exchange. So I now have an extra 8 meals in my freezer. I shouldn't have to cook now for quite awhile.

In other news, Ellie and I took a trip to the mall to buy her her first bra! My firstborn is growing up. It is really exciting to see her growing up and she is such a lovely young woman. I am so thankful that we are homeschooling this year so that I can spend more time with her and see how she changes. She didn't want to come home last night after shopping and kept asking if there were more errands we could run together. She loves spending time with me and I with her.

In even more news, our new kitchen table is being delivered next week Tuesday!!!!! I am quite excited, although I've got to figure out where to put the extra kitchen chairs. We certainly can't keep all 10 in the kitchen. We freecycled our old table this weekend so we are currently using the one that was in the laundry room.

My sunrise this morning

Other updates

Laurie, Sean and kids were here this past weekend. It was great to have them around. They arrived her Friday night, spent part of the day on Saturday at John and Erika's, then left here Sunday after dinner. I made Chicken with Lemon Cream Sauce for dinner on Sunday and it was delicious. I've made it a couple of times before and it is really, really good. This time around I made it with half and half instead of heavy whipping cream. It was still delicious and I didn't even notice the substitution.

On Sunday night, I gave Darin and Natalie haircuts. Darin was in desperate need of one and I had procrastinated long enough. Natalie's was starting to get a bit more snarly so I thought I better cut it; although I hated the thought of cutting off those gorgeous curls. She is quite cute with her new haircut and she still has some curls, though not quite as many.

While Laurie and Sean were here this weekend, we took some family pics. After church Sunday I drove around trying to find some burning bushes with leaves still on them (at Laurie's suggestion) and found some beautiful ones in Pill Hill near St. Mary's. Here is our family pic.

Weekly Update

Here is our weekly update from last week. We didn't get nearly as much done last week as I had hoped, partially due to me working 2 nights last week.

Spelling: Ellie did a review lesson with 50 words--she got 1 wrong on the pretest and got them all right on the post test.

Math: Ellie got 2 lessons and 1 test done. Kara got 2 lessons done.

English/Reading: Kara's reading has really taken off and she is now reading Frog and Toad books, among others. She got several lessons done in OPGTR. Ellie got 2 lessons done and finished the ending she wrote for Clubhouse Magazine. We mailed that off on Saturday. She also finished reading A String in the Harp and wrote a one-page summary. She was glad to be done with the book as she didn't really care for it. It was a fantasy book and she says she doesn't really like that genre.

Bible: Ellie continues to work through her book on Genesis. We are continuing our study of the 10 commandments. This week we studied commandment #8--Thou shalt not steal.

History: We first studied Queen/King Hatshepsut. She was the only successful woman to rule Egypt as a pharaoh. She dressed like a man since the Egyptians weren't too keen on a woman ruler. Later we studied King Tut and learned what they found in his tomb.

Science: Didn't get any done.

Other: The girls started a theater class a couple of weeks ago. It is a 6-week class run by a home school dad who also does lots of theater stuff. I'm not sure what sort of training he has had but I've seen him working with other home school theater groups and he's good at what he does. He also relates to the kids well and can draw out the shy ones. I had originally planned on only sending Kara as she is a bit more dramatic than Ellie, but when I mentioned it, Ellie was immediately interested. So I signed them both up. They are both enjoying it although Ellie is getting more out of it than Kara. Kara's a bit young, I think, for acting classes. She sees it more as just playing, whereas Ellie sees the technique behind the acting.

Art/Music: Didn't get that done either. Here are the photos of the Mary Cassatt they colored the week before.

Pics from our Owatonna Trip

Here are some pics from our annual trip to the Holiday Inn in Owatonna. We take the whole family there every year to celebrate Ellie and Kara's birthdays. We all had a good time and it didn't take Natalie too long to enjoy the water.

I spoke too soon

2 accidents today, and a poopy pants. Ugh!

Natalie is finally potty training

So I've decided to take the plunge in potty training. We started Sunday evening and it's been going pretty well. Natalie was dry after her nap so I put her on the potty. Surprisingly, she did not throw a fit.

Now for a little history. For awhile a now I know Natalie has been able to control her bladder, etc. Anytime she wets her diaper or poops, she immediately comes and tells me. However, when I mention going on the potty, she adamantly refuses. She says, "I go in my diaper." When I tell her that Shannon goes on the potty, she replies, "Ezra doesn't go on the potty."

So I figured that when I decided to potty train her, I needed to be able to give it my full attention since there would likely be resistance.

But since she didn't resist sitting on the potty on Sunday, I've decided to seize the opportunity. This isn't the best week for it since I work 2 nights this week, but oh well.

Monday afternoon I took her to Target and let her pick out her own potty (the kind that sits on the toilet--I prefer those since they take up less room) and some panties. She picked out Sesame street ones. Monday night I had to work and Dan said she threw a fit when he put a diaper back on her for bedtime.

I imagine she will have to poop today since she didn't yesterday so we'll see how that goes. Yesterday she had only 1 accident and stayed dry during naptime and when we went and ran errands yesterday afternoon. She was wet this morning and yesterday morning. Well, actually, yesterday her diaper was dry in the morning, but she was wet. Since she was throwing a fit Monday night when Dan was putting her diaper on, he didn't get it on all that securely. So, somehow, she managed to soak herself from head to toe, but keep her diaper dry. :-)

Lots and lots of bread

I had planned on making 6 loaves of bread this morning. However, instead of adding 6 cups of water, I added 12 cups of water!! Of course, I didn't figure this out until I kept having to add flour (more than was necessary for 6 cups of water) and it was still quite sticky. Then it dawned on me that I had used a 4 cup measuring cup instead of a 2 cup measuring cup. I was tempted to just throw the whole bunch out, but Ellie convinced me otherwise. So I added more yeast, oil, salt, etc. I'm now making 11 loaves of bread!! I didn't even know I had 11 loaf pans.