Easter and the Egg Hunt

One of our favorite times of the year is Easter. We look forward to it almost as much as Christmas. From the reading of the stories from Palm Sunday to Resurection Sunday, to the coloring and hunting of eggs we really enjoy this time as a family.

On Saturday we spent most of the afternoon coloring eggs. We really have alot of fun doing this, and it can take hours as each child, including Baby J, has their own dozen eggs. Out come the crayons, markers, and dye as well as the newspapers, rags, and vinyl table cloth.

The kids had a blast coloring and experimenting. I finally came out from behind the camera. Baby J just kind of took it all in, and believe it or not, the Warrior managed to keep all dye and ink on only the washable surfaces of himself. Princess and Professor were a little more artistic, and really came up with some cool looking eggs.

Here is what the kids looked like before we left for Church on Sunday.

I had grand designs to make Princess her Easter dress, but Easter snuck up on me this year. I barely had the patern cut out, and was envisioning late nights in front of the machine to get it done. However, my Grandmother in her infinate wisdom made this pink dress for Princess and we recieved it in the mail on Tuesday. Princess asked me if she could wear that dress instead of the one that she had picked out. Naturally, and relievedly (is that a word?) I said yes. Oh, and the dress I bought to make...it's still uncut in the sewing room.

Here is what they looked like hunting for 48 eggs in our living room. The weather was beautiful, but our back yard was a swamp. It is amazing how creative you can get with hiding that many eggs in a small space. Baby J? Well he could have cared less, as he decided that he would rather nap than hunt eggs.

Now, I know that no good Mother would let their child consume large amounts of chocolate, but hey what can I say. When it comes to chocolate, Warrior is just like his Momma...The more the better. Check out this chocolate grin.

Daily Musings

I just thought I would get caught up today.

The New TV
I have to admit that I was worried about the new TV becoming a big draw for the kids, and my having to constantly tell them "No, you can't watch TV." However, I am pleasantly surprised as they have only asked to watch TV (actually to play Wii) once a day. Then they have played for about 30 min, and turned everything off to go play a game or play outside. I'm still getting used to the look of it, and am planning a trip to the garden center for plants to make the technology spot look more homey. We did purchase "Enchanted" and really enjoyed watching it on the "big" screen. I highly recomend seeing it even on a little screen.

The Wii
For those of you who are wondering about the purchase of the Wii, I am proud to say that I had very little to do with it. If you will remember my previous catch-up post, I told how we had instigated child labor. Well, to tell the full truth Professor and Princess did the work of their own accord. They even escued playing with their friends for 3 days. They would work on and off all day long for those three days, and managed to work 4 hours a day per child. They worked, got paid, and purchased the Wii on their own. And, I get to play with it...Have you ever raced a cow?

Homeschooing
That time of year has come again...Sonlight mailed out their catalogs on Monday. Now I am waiting for the mailman with great anticipation. Rock says it really isn't fair of our Christian Curriculum Co. to cause such coveteousness in their clients.

Now those of you who do not homeschool are probably wondering why in the world I would be so excited to get a catalog of school stuff, and those of you who do homeschool, but don't use Sonlight are probably wondering why I would be so excited about this particular catalog. Well, for one thing there are the books, and I mean tons of books. I start reading the catalog and realize what wonderful books we will be adding to our library. I envision shelves full of books tht my children will read, and maybe even read to their children and I get so excited that I am almost giddy. We are pretty much strictly Sonlight users, and I can hardly wait to see what books we will be reading next year. Professor will be starting Core 3, which is the first part of American History. Princess will be starting Core 1, wich is the first part of World History. I just love the books, and the kids and I get a huge kick out of seeing how many books we consume over the course of the year. Now, if I can just figure out how to get the Mailman to bring my catalog TODAY.

Motherhood
I have decided that children have a sensor in their brain that lets them know when Momma is on the phone, on the computer, nursing the baby, and/or trying to take a short nap, because it is then and only then that all of them need your undivided attention all at once.

Irony Update

Well, I know you are waiting with bated breath to know what happened yesterday while TV shopping...but you are going to have to wait. I have a much more exciting story to tell first.

Yesterday, as we were headed out into the rain to find our new "black hole"(just kidding sweetie). We came upon a car that was stalled half way in the street and half way in the drive of a shopping center. We passed it, but Rock found another turn in and pulled up to help the person push their car out of the street. The driver was a lady, dressed to the nines for a meeting. Rock tried to push her up the drive, but it was raining and he was wearing dress shoes. He found a strap in the back our our Suburban and was able to tow the car onto a level surface before it broke, then he was able to push her into the parking lot where she could safely wait for the tow truck. Now, this is a good story in and of itself, but the really neat part of it was happening in the Suburban where we were staying dry.

The kids asked me what Daddy was doing, and I told them he was helping the lady in the car because her car was broken down. Professor asked me why. I reminded him about the story of the Good Samaritan, and while this lady was not in a life and death situation she still needed our help. Daddy was helping because it was the right thing to do. We watched as many cars went around Rock in the street, as even more cars passed on the other side leaving the drive, as perfectly capable people (even men dressed to be in the rain) went in and out of the stores right there by the drive, and no one helped the one person trying to help another person in a pouring rain.

The kids were extremely impressed with their Daddy... "Wow! Daddy can push a car?!" "Daddy is doing what Jesus would want him to do."... And we got to talk about how we are to help people even when it isn't convenient, fun, or easy. What a terrific example of Christian behavior Rock was to his babies.

Now to leave the wonderful and go on to the simply material.

Yes folks, that is 47" of TV. We got a great deal, and of course Rock is thrilled with it. As far as the Wii goes, well that is another post.

Oh the Irony....

So, last night Rock goes to our local hardware store and gets some new backer board to fix our wabbly TV cabinet. After he fixes the cabinet we are going to rearrange all the electronics, hook up our new ClearPlay DVD player, and the Wii (more on that later). So everything is running smoothly, the cabinet is fixed and very sturdy, and we put the TV in the cabinet. Well, lets just cut to the chase.

The TV fell out the front of the cabinet! I hear this loud thump that sounds like a toilet lid slamming down and come into the living room to find my very irritated husband setting the TV upright on the ground. Okay, so the irony is...we have a very sturdy TV cabinet, a brand new DVD player, and a brand new Wii...all of which we can't use because we no longer have a TV. Well, we're going shopping in about half an hour so I'll let you know what happens when we get back.

Fruit

You never really know what God is up to in the lives of your children, until you see the fruit there of.

Christ laid claim to Professor's life Sept 8, 2006, and since then we have seen many battles going on with his flesh. However, we have also seen him soften to the commands of God and we have seen him heartbroken over his disobedience (even when we didn't know he had been disobedient). More recently we have seen Christ working in Professor's heart about his concern for other people. For example:

This past Tuesday Professor had his first Little League practice. During that practice one of the boys was just being a little bit of a pill, kicking dirt, throwing sand, giving little shoves. Aparently, I'm telling this second hand via Rock, during the huddle at the end of practice this little boy began focusing his efforts on another little boy, and Professor called him on it. "You stop picking on him. You can't treat people like that. You need to be nice to people." Well, when Rock told me this story, I was a little giddy. All that teaching, all that hard work was finally paying off.

Then last night Professor told me about the boy on his team who was "being a bully." He didn't tell me about what he had done, but he told me that he wanted to be friends with this boy, but didn't know if he should because the boy was being mean. Then he said the words I didn't expect to hear, "I think (boy's name) needs to have Jesus in his heart." Blow me down and pick me up! He's getting it! He is beginning to really understand the difference between a heart for Christ and a heart for self.

It is humbling to realize that it was not my discipline and teaching that made that difference in his life, because I fail far more often than I succeed. It is amazing to see God work in the lives of your children. I am excited to see what Christ has in store for Professor.

Playing Catch Up!!!

I didn't realize how much had happened in February until I started trying to publish a post that encompassed everything that had happened. Needless to say I don't think I have that much time...at least not today.

So to sum up...

Baby J had his first solid food. Brown rice cereal and milk, and really liked it. He also likes apple sauce and carrots, but his favorite is avocado. The jury is still out on green beans.

We spent an evening with some friends, and needless to say Baby J

was in the center of the action.

February also saw the return of Z-Man. Who fit right back into his routine with us after a 4 month sabatical for me to take care of Baby J.

Momma Monk and I attempted a sewing marathon while our Darling Hubbies went to a hockey game. We had grand ideas that we could sew 3 simple little girls' skirts while taking care of 8 children ages seven and under (2 of whom are nursing babies). Needless to say, it took us 7+ hours to finish one skirt. I finally finished the Princess' skirt, and here is what it looks like.

Baby J got to see snow for the first time. He was only mildly interested.

The kids are saving money to purchase a Wii, so we institued child slave labor. Believe it or not the kids actually put the stamps and lables on straighter than either the Rock or I. They are saving their money to buy a Wii.

Now for some beautiful pictures of my beautiful family.

AWOL

I had no idea that so many of my family read my blog. As far as I knew it was only read by the people who's blog is linked to mine. However, I have been reprimanded by my Mother over the phone and by my Sister-in-Law via comment to my last post.

Things have been a little crazy around here. Kids have been sick on and off, I've been sick on and off, Rock's in the middle of tax season, homeschooling, the little boy I babysit is back after a sabatical, and I am in conquest of keeping my house and myself clean using only natural cleaners. So needless to say, something had to go by the wayside.

The cleaning stuff is pretty cool. I first made my way to my local library and checked out a book called Organic Housekeeping by Ellen Sandbeck. It was very helpful, although I had to be convinced to actually read a housekeeping book. There was a lot of scientific information that is way cool, but at the time, all I really wanted was a recipe for an all purpose cleaner. Well once I finally got over my expectations and read the thing I really got interested. I mean, who knew that vinegar is pretty much the best thing to clean anything.

Right now in my cleaning arsenal I have baking soda, borax, vinegar, a small piece of copper wire, Dr. Bronner's liquid castile soap and hydrogen peroxide. To tell you the truth I was expecting it to clean. But, I was not expecting it to clean as well as it did. Not only did it remove the regular every day dirt, but it also cleaned off the residue left by the chemical cleaners I had ben using. I even made up some of my all-purpose cleaner for the church nursery, because the nursery coordinator and we mothers didn't like the idea of washing the toys that go in our children's mouths with chemicals that they would again put in their mouths.

So, here is the recipe that I use.

Sarah's Natural All-Purpose Cleaner
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp castile liquid soap - like Dr. Bronner's - or dish soap if you don't have the latter
1/4 cup distilled white vinegar
2 cups hot water
spray bottle

Combine the baking soda, soap, and vinegar in the bottle. Allow the baking soda and vinegar to react and some of the bubbles to subside before pouring in the water. It is important to allow the bubbles to subside before adding the water as this little amount of soda and vinegar fill my 24 oz spray bottle with bubbles. Adding the water to early will give you a nice pile of bubbles flowing out of your bottle.

To use simply spray on surfaces and wipe with a cloth. Then let your house smell like you have been coloring Easter eggs until the vinegar does it's job. Then once the vinegar has dried completely you will be left with fresh smelling house because after all, vinegar is a natural air freshener as well.