Bland to Creative

Horrible... real spiders of any kind, just thinking about them makes my skin crawl

 Lovely... Quality time with Nat and the kids, they are the BEST

After we went to the Pumpkin Patch, the kids decorated their pumpkins for the FHE activity last night.

 Before

 After

Mummy, Witch, and Dracula.

We haven't decided if we are going to decorate/carve the huge one.  I can't stand messes that are eeeewwwy and gooy.  I thought about just drawing a picture on it or coming up with a costume for it.  Although, some roasted pumpkin seeds do sound delicious right now, so I might just have Nat cut into it tonight.  To bad it's too big to fit in the oven, a nice soup cooked in the pumpkin would be nice.

The New Partridge Family?

Nat got these pics of the kids as they were each playing their new instruments. Let me tell you, it was very loud in the house when they were all going crazy and having fun. As Nat's dad said, "What have you guys gotten into?"

But it is all good. I am glad to see that they are enjoying the joys of music. I can't wait to actually start lessons with each and everyone of them. I have to sound of music in my house, something that I have never really had before. Nat was even super nice and made our very own microphone stand (but it was made after these shots were taken) so the kids don't have to hold it while they sing and play their instruments.

Worm Composting

We are trying to be more earth friendly as well as more self reliant. We have started some container vegetable gardening. It all started last week after visiting Whole Foods for a field trip here in town. Since Earth Day was Wednesday, Whole Foods celebrated it on Saturday for the whole community. The kids wanted to go, so we went...

One of the tabled was Red Worm Composting. Of course the kids just had to have one, so we got one and had to set it up once home, to give the worms their proper home. Well, we couldn't really have a compost bin without a garden to put it in, right? Oh, did I tell you... the compost bin is here in the house, can't you see my skin just crawling? So, we planted ourselves a garden. We have some herbs, veggies, fruit and even some flowers to go it it. We don't have a lot of space, so we are doing container gardening (this way, when we buy our house - our first house, we can take our garden with us). We will be adding to our garden some fun things like, windmills, bird houses, and some bird feeders. We are getting and using the ideas from the book "Green Thumb".

There has been a lot of talk about bloggers taking other bloggers thoughts and storied & coping them and posting as their own blog. That is rude. This post may seem like you read it before over @ Adventurous Instruction... that's ok, I did plagiarize, but hey, that is my homeschooling blog, so, I am aloud to do it.

Cabin Fever, Bored, Restless, Spunky

We (kids and I) have cabin fever. It's raining, it's raining, it's pouring, it's not stopping. But, we are not complaining, we need this rain. Our little city has been put on restricted water usage, everyone has to cut their water usage by 20%. 20%! Please tell me how I am supposed to do that, when I have small children? If we don't, we will get a fine. So, we have implemented a new rule... Yellow, let it mellow, Brown, flush it down (gross I know). The kids aren't used to the new rule. They say, but you always tell us to flush! What's more important here, good, clean, bacteria free toilet, or a fine? I guess it's all in the eye of the beholder... me, I will forgo the clean, bacteria free toilet to avoid a fine. Hey, I am the odd ball in my husbands family--they don't always 'get' me... in my family, I just follow suite in the flower child & hippie mantra.

Now, you may ask, why cabin fever? Well, it's not that we don't get out, we DO... Mud puddles are the bestest thing ever invented. Yes, I DO let my kids go play in the rain, get soaked and muddy, jump in puddles... that's what the puddles are for, right? I mean, they are kids (heck I'm a kid!) and we will go out without umbrellas and just get good and soaked to the bone...

Nat's car engine is all torn apart right now, and is having to use the van to go to and fro work, so we can't go and "do" our little errands during the day. Oh, how I am already missing my van, (my FREEDOM away from the house, the chores, the ever ongoing 'honey-do' list that a mom of 3, who just happens to be the best mom ever to homeschool's her kids so they don't end up corrupted by the public school system {imho--no one else better judge me}), and it has only been a measly 9 hours without a set of wheels. And today is only the 1st day without my wheels, with many more to come.

I guess, it is now time to take a nice long walk in the rain, get all muddy and have fun jumping in puddles... who cares about having dinner on the table in an hour... life is tooo short.

forgive me, I am in a spunky, bored, and restless mood... hence the sarcasm in this post

Snow Day

It was so nice to have a surprise like snow right in our own backyard. Well, not literally, but pretty darn tootin' close! We had to go up to Meadow Vista for homeschool and on our way up, we got the pleasure of seeing snow. Once in Meadow Vista (a 40 min drive from where we live), the kids had fun playing, throwing and just plain having fun with the snow. My only regret is not taking the camera with us up the hill to get pictures. Thankfully, by the time we made it to our destination, they had just plowed the roads.

We are Off

to 1820. We will be at Fort Ross State Historic Park if anyone would love to come and see us in action (Jan 26-27 a Mon-Tue). We will be in time period clothing, cooking on an open fire, churning butter, hunting for fish, making lanterns out of metal, etc. To learn more about our characters, please visit us here.

Photo taken from: http://www.fortrossstatepark.org/

By the way, we are still waiting on the check for $800. Why, oh, why did I NOT double check before clicking a final ok? Thanks to my folks and for Nat's mom for lending us money and buying our food for our campout. That we are still able to do this field trip.

Why am I Nesting, is the MILLION dollar ?

Yes, I am in the 'nesting' stage. BUT, I am not pregnant.

The kids have gotten into the cleaning too (much to MY urging). Take a look @ their pretty/handsome rooms...

I would have posted B4 pics, but you all would have gone RUNNING for cover, screaming! and asking yourself, "how on earth did she put up with THAT?"

.

No, I did not lift a finger in their rooms, they did it all by themselves. I just pushed the broom around the rooms when they were finished. (it only took a GOOD 4 hours or so, but I may be exaggerating just a little). .

Excuse the unmade beds, they are about to make forts.

If you have ideas why I am cleaning, cleaning & doing more cleaning, please let me know.

What Animals Say

My sister told me about this conversation that she and her family had at the dinner table one night recently. (J=my sis & M=2 year old niece)

J- M, what does a cow say?

M- Moo

J- What does a cat say?

M- Meow

J- What does a dog say?

M- Woof

J- What does a sheep say?

M- Baa

J- What does a pig say?

M- MEAT!

My sister and her family were raising a pig for meat, and it finally went to the slaughter house (sorry for all the vegans & animal lovers out there).

Happy Halloween

I know, I know, I'm a day late in posting this, but I tired last night. The kids had fun trick or treating with some of our friends from church. Charlie ended up not feeling well, so he and I stopped early and went back to our friends house. The candy that we left on the porch was completely gone when we got home at 8 pm. I was bummed, I wanted some of the candy that I had bought, but then again, I DO have my kids candy that I can eat in a day or two (after they PIG out for a little while.)

We FINALLY got some RAIN! It started raining on Thursday evening, continued through to the afternoon of Friday. It stopped just in time for all to go out on All Hallows Eve and BEG for candy in some cute, not so cute, and just plain WEIRD costumes! It sprinkled just a tiny bit through out the evening. Then, it started back up sometime during the night and hasn't really stopped since. We are expecting a good 1 1/2 inches for this storm.

OH - - A reminder for everyone... DAYLIGHT SAVINGS... CHANGE your clocks TONIGHT before going to bed! Back on hour.

Zoo Trip

We went to the zoo with my folks a couple of weeks ago. It was a nice and pleasant outing with the grandparents, but it was short lived. Nat was on call that weekend, and low and behold, he got called into work. Luckily, we were at the Folsom Zoo (plan was to go to the Sacramento Zoo, but that was WAY out of either of our budgets). We made it around the whole zoo once when we got the call. The kids had fun seeing the horses, pigs, chickens, coyotes, deer, peacocks, eagles, and many many more...

Bishops Pumpkin Farm

Yesterday, we went to the pumpkin farm and had a lot of fun. We started off with watching a PIG Race, a hay ride, to go pick out our pumpkins, and then came back and was able to take a train ride. Once we were done with all the things scheduled for us, the kids were able to have fun and play around on all the toys and stuff.

Skateboards & Scooters

I swore I would never get the kids a scooter, because of all the hazards that come with it. Well, Nat's boss was going to get rid of his, and asked if there would be any takers. Nat jumped at the opportunity, without even talking to me first. All I can say, it was FREE. My favorite spending method! The kids saw it and haven't stopped practicing since. Jim also found Charlies old skateboard and is having fun on that too.