doodle art

Todd uses videos for school.  They are very good, but sometimes, especially with his art class, we just watch the art project and don't actually do it.  I'm ok with this because most of the art projects are more craft-y than art-y.  And every year the boys take art classes at the Art School for Children at UHCL.  Those classes are so much better than anything we learn on the video.

 

 





 

However, last week's art lesson was about doodle art.  It was such a fun idea that we needed to try it.  Todd has water color pencils and water color paper

( Thank you Uncle Chris and Aunt Johanna for the neat Christmas present!)

 

We took turns and experimented with several ideas and ended up with this doodle art.

Doodle art is easy.  You can do it with a pencil and crayons, if that's what you have.  Just doodle out a shape or you can doodle out some loops and swirls if you don't care to have a particular shape.  Then you color in different parts of the doodle different colors.  We used the water color pencils and after we got done coloring we painted our doodle art.

 

 

A flower for Megan.

 

S for Seth.

 T for Todd.

We like them so well that they are going in frames and on the wall.

sunday snapshot: photo a day week four

SUNDAY held a first for me:  popcorn made on the stovetop.

(Read this as we still have no microwave)

 

 

 

 

MONDAY:  Megan taking a snack over to a play date at the neighbors.

 

 

 

TUESDAY:  Todd doing school at the kitchen table.

 WEDNESDAY:  Celebrating the half way point of the school year (lesson 85!) at Menchie's!!!!

 Megan gives it two thumbs up.

 

 

 

THURSDAY:  Playing with our friends at Challenger Park.

 

 

 

FRIDAY:   Wrestling with Daddy...what else would we do on a Friday night?

SATURDAY:  Riding bikes.

my little coffee drinker

Much like her momma, Megan likes to drink coffee. 

 



golden crescent rolls

A long, long time ago in a galaxy far away...or maybe just in Louisiana, I was a Girl Scout.  My Girl Scout leader was really awesome.  She was industrious, frugal, and fun.  I learned so much from her (thank you, Mindy Ford!).  I remember the homemade butter we made during one troop meeting by shaking cream in a baby food jar.  I also remember the delicious crescent rolls we made to go with that homemade butter.  I have no idea what recipe we used for those rolls, but I have remembered them fondly all these years.  Besides, I have no love for the canned crescent rolls.  Something just ain't right about those things.  

Last week I tried out this recipe for Golden Crescent Rolls.  They were a lot of work.  They took a lot of time.  They didn't last very long, because they were so, very good.  And they brought with them that memory of making butter and crescent rolls with my Girl Scout troop. 

 

I was watching a YouTube video on how to knead bread. 

Got my triangles cut.

All rolled up.

Baked and ready to eat!

 

I made one pan of regular crescent rolls.  The rest I spread with butter, sugar, and cinnamon chips before I rolled them up.  We had those for breakfast the next day.

sunday snapshot: photo a day, week three

 

1   Editing photos in Lightroom.

2   Megan watching Phineas and Ferb on the Ipod.

3   Making crescent rolls from scratch

4   Twins night at AWANAs, or triplets in our case.

5   Seth playing with the static electricity on the trampoline.

6   Megan drinking her coffee.

7   Seth's crazy jump off the trampoline

 

 

sunday snapshot: photo a day week 2

Here we are on week two of 2013.

This week I remembered to take a photo every day. 

I'm so happy I did or I might have missed something really special.

 

 

 

1.  Megan on Sunday morning with her hair all twisted up to make it curly and fancy for church.

2.  Seth reading his History book.

3.  Megan playing in the rain.

4.  Muffy asleep with her blankies.

5.  Wonder by R.J. Palacio.  My second book of the year.

6.  Todd and Megan doing school in the kitchen.

7.  Our Bradford Pear tree that thinks it's fall and time to drop leaves.  That's what happens in January down here in Texas.

 

 



oh todd

 Oh, Todd, you don't like the camera.  You dodge it whenever you can.  I keep telling you that when you are thirty years old, you're going to think that your mom didn't love you as much because there aren't as many photos of you.  When I tell you this and that all I want is one photo of you looking at me, you give me this face.  And that's a face I love so much. 



our microwave

Notice the clock is off.

Our microwave broke last week.  I've learned a few things since then.

1.  I don't use the microwave every day.  I never thought about it much.  I use the clock and timer on it more than the machine itself.  I didn't even know it was broken.  My dear husband brought it to my attention.

2.  If your microwave is broken and about 10 years old, don't call a repairman.  It will probably cost you around $50 to find out that, yes, they could repair it, but it'll cost about as much as a new one.  So you should go ahead a just get a new one.

3.  There is a part to a microwave that sounds like the name of a toy Transformer, like....magnatron or something.

4. While Frankie The Repairman was here he told me some useful information.  (Don't you love it when something breaks and the repairman lets you know you have been using the appliance wrong all these years and that's probably why it broke.)  He told me when cooking on the stove top I should always run the vent on my over-the-range microwave.  Frankie says the microwave is basically a computer and all that  moisture from cooking under it can mess it up.  So run the vent when you cook under it.

5.  Frankie also told me this. Latch key kids are the ones using microwaves so much, so I should get my microwave replaced so my kids won't miss it too much.

6.  I can reheat just about any thing in the oven.  Even Rotel dip.

7.  And, finally, when the microwave is broken it is so much better to use the drip coffee maker than to do the pour over coffee that I usually make.  Then the coffeemaker can keep my coffee warm for me and  I don't have to reheat my coffee in a saucepan. Literally took me days to figure out this one! Duh!

I think I've learned about all there is to know anout broken microwaves.  And I'm sure Frankie would disagree with me.

i heart faces: best face 2012

When I saw the January photo challenge on I Heart Faces was the Best Face of 2012, 

 I knew exactly what photo I wanted to submit. 

 

This one.

This is my ten-year-old's personality.  

I was having trouble getting the photo I wanted of him for our Christmas card. 

So I said, close your eyes.  And open them and smile. 

This is the big ole cheesy face I got from him. 

It made us laugh so hard.  He's a good and funny boy. 

I love him!

 

 

Learning to Savor the Journey

I came across this aritcle in the Homeschool Enrichment magazine that showed up in my mailbox. It is a wonderful reminder and encouragement to moms, especially homeschooling moms.  I contacted the author and she graciously gave me permission to post the entire article on my blog.
Thank you so much, Tia!  I truly appreciate it.  I hope you, my readers, are encouraged by it.  To read more by and about Tia check out her blog Skipping Sideways.
Love, Holly


Learning to Savor the Journey 
by Tia Phillips

I was a horrible mother this week.

The state of it all...the house, the schoolwork, the meals...I struggled through it, dragged my children through the day and barked orders. 　I lamented about time, about mess, about toys and books not put away properly.  I felt crushed. 　Burdened. 　Buried. 　I tried to dig my way out, but I couldn't get to the top of my laundry pile or to the edge of my sanity.

I failed.　
A dear friend offered to keep my kids for a couple of hours today so I could dig a little more. Get a little closer to the surface. 　And what I found was startling.

After de-cluttering toys in the basement, filling two boxes for thrift stores, I climbed the stairs. 　I was working fast...hard...only 2 hours and so much to get through. 　I entered a closet upstairs, prepared to rid it of all its unnecessary necessities once and for all. (I know that, one day, if I'm not careful, the owner of this closet will end up on t.v., crying as the Hoarders Police carry away the puzzle she never liked but was "too much in her memory" to part with.)

I walked into the closet and faced the shelves jam-packed with items, books, toys and things with zippers. 　I sighed as I stared, wondering where to start.

Quite suddenly, the scene faded and another took its place. Images flashed and startled.

The shelves looked pristine. White. 　Empty. Clean. 　Bare.

The image loomed and I couldn't rid my eyes of its sight. 　I stood, paralyzed as the box dropped from my hand and the truth of that image burned straight into my heart. 　The clothes hung improperly on the hangars, the stuff placed precariously on the shelf, the shoes piled in the corner...it was all gone. 　The mess was cleaned up, the clutter removed, the shoes but a memory. 　And my heart ached.

My spirit broken, my resolve crushed, I stood and stared. 　More foreshadowing thoughts invaded the scene.  In the wake of perfect shelves, cleaned and pure, I saw a woman with time. 　Full and in abundance, she was blessed with the commodity. 　She was able to contemplate a never-ending stream of thoughts without interruption. 　But there was less to contemplate.　 She walked through a pristine house. 　But she was alone. 　She wrote to her heart's content. 　But she had less to talk about. 　

The mother who, just some short years ago, yearned for clean and put together suddenly longed to see crumbs on the floor. 　She ached to see messes, to hold hands, to teach multiplication and read stories. 　She longed to go back, do it again, this time with a calmer spirit...with a heart that understood the brevity of these years.

I'm not sure how long I stood there, staring, before the rightful image took its place. 　Slowly it came into focus...the mess reappeared and I saw something different. 　Instead of a messy shelf and unruly clothing, I saw a sensitive heart and a mad dash to save the memories lest they cease to be.

I glanced at the empty box in my hand...back to the heavy-laden shelf...and through my spirit into the longing that lingered. 　I closed my eyes tight...yearned for a new heart, a new beginning, a chance to do the week over and embrace the messy that is motherhood.

Beckoned by the cross, running to the throne, I chose grace. 　Cleansed...washed white...a new beginning. 　Oh that I would embrace it fully! 　That I would refuse to let the enemy steal my sunrise and knit regret together with failure.

I resolved to try again. 　To make more effort to hold the hands responsible for the mess and help them, yes, learn to clean up their own...but more than that I desired oh so desperately to love them unconditionally. To live this out together...to experience a peace and calm in the bits of chaos that envelope this life.

I left the closet as I had found it, carried the empty box back downstairs, and journeyed to gather my children.
　
Tia Phillips is a homeschooling mother thriving with her husband and three girls in small town Missouri. She leans heavy on grace as she falls hard in this endless endeavor to serve a Worthy King. She writes at www.skippingsideways.com about lessons, life, failure, and everlasting grace.  


my image added -- hrs photography/itwouldbegoodforthekids.blogspot.com

walls within walls

I walked by the Bluebonnet Nominee shelf at Helen Hall Library and this book caught my eye.  Or, well, actually, the eye (on the cover) caught my eye.

When I read the jacket summary, the storyline sounded interesting so I thought I'd give it a try.
I really enjoyed it.  I even stayed up late a few nights to read and find out what was going to happen next.  I do love good children's literature and while this book isn't the best I've ever read, it was really good.
The story is cute and one that I would have loved as a child.  A treasure map is hidden in the walls of a Manhattan apartment.  A Brooklyn family moves into the apartment so there's a little fish out of water story there.  The children that move in stumble upon a treasure hunt, team up with an super fun elderly woman and end up learning a whole lot about each other through the book. 

The two main characters are an older brother and his slightly younger sister.  The negatives:  the children lie mulitiple times and skip school, but they do get caught and feel bad about it.  The mother is preoccupied, but by the end realizes the need to be present more in the older childrens' lives.  The father realizes that his work is not as important as his family.

sunday snapshot: photo a day: week 1

Here's my first attempt at a photo a day.

1.  My dear husband.  I forgot about photo a day on the very first day and so took this at the eleventh hour, literally.

2.  Ha!  I also forgot until the day was almost over.  So, this is my bathroom doorway.

3.  This is the first book I've finished this year and it was the first day I actually thought about taking a photo for photo a day. 

4.  On day four we went to Petco and saw this funny snake hanging out.

5.  On day five I made waffles on my new waffle maker and this delicious Buttermilk Caramel Syrup to go on them.

13 goals for 2013

I don't think I have ever had a theme for a year before, but this year of 2013 is presenting itself to me with a theme.  A theme I truly need to work on in my life,  and more so in my heart. To live peaceably toward those people God has chosen, in His wisdom, to put in my life. I'm convinced and convicted that I am lacking in this and I pray that a year from now, I can look back and see His work in me.  As our pastor says often, it's ok not to be ok, but it's not ok to stay that way...it's about transformation.  So with that, here are my list of goals for 2013

1.  To live peaceably.  " If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone"  Romans 12:18

2.  Read the whole Bible. 

3.   Take more everyday photos.  I was thinking of a photo a day, but I'm not sure I can remember to do that!  I barely remembered to do it today.

4.  Read more books.  I read 14 in 2011, 22 in 2012, and I want to read 30 in 2013.  I'm starting the year off with Walls Within Walls by Maureen Sherry.  It's a Bluebonnet award nominee.

5.  Go back to Brazil to PQQ.  Can't wait to do this.  Everyone is our family is ready to go back.

6.  Spend less time on my phone.  Ouch. This one is going to take some major self-discipline.

7.  Sew.  Mostly, I have some clothes for Megan planned and I want to make a new purse for myself.

8.  Create a photographic tryptych for the wall in our room.

9.  Make it through another year of homeschooling.  I'm thankful that I will meet this goal halfway through the year. 

10.  Cook more from scratch.  So this is telling of me, but the first time I ever cooked dried beans was in December.  They aren't hard to fix, I just thought they were.  And if something seems hard, it might take me forever before I try to do it.  But it's not hard.  It's easy. 

11.  Going along with the previous goal, I am going to make a master recipe list and a recipe binder to hold my all my recipe print outs.  This project is happening very, very soon.

12.  Be more willing to serve and to actually follow through.

13.  Grow my photography hobby into a very, very small business.  I'm not in a huge rush to do this.

Do you have any goals for the year?  What are they?