Spirit Week at SCCA

SCCA is in the midst of "Spirit week". The children are admonished to dress up each day to go with the theme.
Monday - Pirates & Princess: Jonathan said, "I said 'arrggghhh' to the girls and they screamed and ran" [ he is the only boy in his class]
Tuesday - Billy Bob day: Jonathan doesn't go this day but Justin told me "I do not want to wear those nasty teeth"; so he didn't.
Wednesday - Bible Heroes: Jonathan is "David" (notice the home-made slingshot). Justin was supposed to be "Goliath". I was going to paint "blood" on his forehead, but he doesn't want paint on his face, and he informed me "I do NOT want to be a Phillistine!". So he decided to be a Soldier in the Lord's army. On a side note: I noticed one boy (I think Nate G. [a really cute boy with a small build], who was wearing a fur vest and a long, blonde wig. I assume he was Samson. He was quite the picture running across the parking lot this morning. I wish I had my camera!)

Thursday- Patriotic Day: Justin dressed as an American soldier. I couldn't think of anything more patriotic than someone who'd give their life for our country. I cut up an old "Old Navy" t-shirt for the flag and "support our troops" bands.
I appreciate our soldiers! Thanks to Pa-pa Matlock for the awesome army stuff that he bought my boys for Christmas 2007. That certainly made it easier to pull this outfit together!

Saturday Drive

On Saturday morning, I woke up early and prepared to go for a drive to an Amish bulk food store. We all packed up in the van in the early afternoon and took off. Unfortunately for us after driving and driving, we realized we had missed an important turn. We ended up in Wabash before we realized what had happened. Ok ...I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE taking drives through the country. I really enjoyed this particular drive. One of my favorite things to do. However, I wasn't extremely thrilled that we did not make it to the Amish bulk food store before it closed (at 4:00). I told Michael that the boys would not understand if we drove around all day and then ended up back at home. So we found a great park in the town of Odon (near the Amish bulk food store) and we all had a good time. I didn't get any bulk food supplies, but we all still had a great time driving and looking at the beautiful scenery. We all had a great time at the park.
Here are some pictures at the park....

Answers to prayers!

I know I could never praise My Lord enough for everything that He has done for me, but I just wanted to give Him the praise He is due! It seems He has decided to pour out some extra special blessings on us as a family. A huge financial burden has been erased. I felt an assurance in my heart that the Lord would meet this need and He did not fail me! I thank Him for it!

Resurrection Sunday picture

I don't have a lot of time to post much, but I wanted to share a picture of the boys after church Easter morning at Pa-pa and Grammy's house. Ryan's new thing is to make faces at the camera... thus the silly smile.

Regardign the weather, this year we actually had SNOW FLURRIES! Quite a change from previous years of sunshine and warmth!

I love Easter or as my pastor calls it more appropriately "Resurrection Sunday". Aren't you glad we have a risen Lord?! I am so thankful that our wonderful Savior is ALIVE!

Hopefully I will have more time soon to post more pictures and updates from the past couple of weeks.

Spring cleaning/cleaning wipes recipe

HOME-MADE CLEANING WIPES RECIPE

I really like this idea I found on http://organizedhome.com/. Go there for the paper towel/pine-sol version. Stay here for my more economical/cheaper version. :-)

I have always thought those cleaning wipes looked very convenient, but I have never allowed myself to buy them!

I made these today using my own home-made cleaning solutions and old rags instead of paper towels. The rags clean so much better than paper towels!

Here is one of the recipes I use - gleaned from books from the library and internet studies of essential oils!:

Cleaning solution

• 1 cup of vinegar
  
• 2 cups of water
• One squirt of dish-washing liquid (about the same you'd use to do the dishes)
• 25 drops of essential oil (I currently have lemon-grass, pine, and tea tree/Melaleuca in my cabinets). I could go on and on about essential oils ,but I'll say a couple of basic things to help anyone who doesn't know what they are to understand. If you have a big interest in them, the library and internet have a lot of interesting books about them.
  

Essential oils can be bought at health food stores, nature stores, and they have tea tree oil at Walmart in the vitamin section! We also have a health store here in in town where I bought my lemon-grass & pine oils. The essential oils I listed above are all disinfectants and they smell wonderful! They not only disinfect but some have healing properties (especially tea tree oil!)The ones I mentioned usually cost around $5 a bottle, and they last a LONG time. I have had mine for months! Much better than spending $3 a week for pine-sol or lysol ...and they smell so much better !

Mix 2 cups of water, 1 squirt of dishwashing liquid, & 25 drops of essential oil. The essential oil also discourages molding! :-)

If you don't have essential oils and want to try this, you will still have clean kitchen or bathroom with just vinegar. The essential oils add a very pleasant smell and disinfectant qualities!

Pour all of this over the rags and into a Rubbermaid, Tupperware, or whatever type of container you have on hand that will hold three cups of solution and rags. You can drill a hole in the top but I think that they dry out too fast if you drill a hole.

VERY CONVENIENT!

Verse Memorization ideas

I just wanted to share a Scripture Memorization that I got from a very creative friend Nicole C. (you may know her since she travels and sings)
She was very gracious (and humble) in sharing and I sooo appreciate her help!

So I am sharing this because if you are like me... I am a sponge for good ideas to help kids learn... I have wiggly boys who need a little "help" in this area of Scripture memorization. My boys are not inclined to enjoy learning verses by just repetition. I could not THINK of anything to do... One of my boys was getting to where he HATED studying verses. Ugh! Not good! And last week he told me he missed several words while saying it to his teacher. Help!
So I was looking online to find help! I saw an idea on this website.

http://www.msssbible.com/memoryverses/scripture.htm

They suggest you use tunes the kids would know. Then I remembered Nicole's idea of using pictures that help them remember. So I combined Nicole's idea with this website's idea and this is what we came up with. Microsoft's clipart website is awesome!

Here is Jonathan's verse for this week. Sing to the tune of "London Bridge" with the reference at the end. (on microsoft's clipart website,if you type in "God" it does not pull up Jesus or even anything remotely looking like God or a big light or anything like that. It pulls up nasty looking fake gods. You have to actually type "Jesus". You also have to substitute words. Like for "ashamed" I had to type in "embarrassed"). I haven't tried this yet but I know it worked for Nicole without the added music. I may not use music.. don't know yet. :-)





Have you had anything work well for you? I would love more ideas!

Menu planning/groceries

My friend Michelle K. has been posting her weekly menus on Monday(thanks Michelle!) and it has inspired me to ask... how do you, my friends, keep your grocery bill low?

I think there are more ways than mine to do it. One of my friends buys convenience foods because she works full time. It is more cost efficient for her because she can spend less time cooking and more time with her family. Others buy some convenience foods and cook/bake part of the time. Another of my friends has to deal with her child's food allergies so she has to juggle with baking for that child and cooking separately for the rest of her family.

I plan my own menu every week and I don't think I'll ever go back to the my old way of going to the store without a clue. We eat healthier now too!
This is a big thing for the queen of disorganization(me). Don't get me wrong, it is very time consuming and frustrating at times, but I have learned to enjoy it and it has become a necessity for my sanity!

My strategies for saving money (learned by researching and in my quest to be frugal):

• shop the cheaper store
• buy in bulk when I can
• aim for 2 vegetarian dinners a week
  
• avoid most convenience foods like the plague (there are some exceptions to this rule)
  
• bake like crazy
• cook extra and freeze
• eat venison instead of beef
• do a little gardening (mostly tomatoes) in the spring
  
• and make homemade laundry soap and household cleaners
  

I do not do coupons... no time for it and it's usually for convenience foods I wouldn't buy anyway.

Here is where I get my menu template. I love it because it has every meal so you won't forget....

http://www.hillbillyhousewife.com/weeklymenuplan.pdf

What do you do to keep your grocery/household necessities low? I would love your feedback and tips!

I also found this great article I wanted to share.. it was very inspiring! The link is long, so copy and paste it into your browser for better results. Then delete the space I made between "publish" and "homemaking" so that it will take you to the right article called "No Need of Spoil".

http://www.ladiesagainstfeminism.com/artman/publish/
Homemaking_and_Other_Practical_Topics_15/No_Need_of_Spoil1002888.shtml

P.S. I welcome lurker comments too (as long as you identify yourself)... I know you are out there! :-) I have the map!