Open wide

Baby proofing your house when you have three little boys is pert near impossible.  They have their Lego's, marbles, crayons, Erector set wheels, screws, bolts, and then there's the bonus food on the floor-the corner of a Doritos, a couple raisins, and possibly something once resembling a french fry that probably fell out of someones pocket from the car ride home from Billings.  Other than that...oh yeah...it's perfectly safe.  My daughter is 21 months old and has been pretty good about not putting things in her mouth.  She'll pop a couple Lego's in, but she shakes her head and says "uck".  Great...we're learning. 

One evening she came to me shaking her head "uck" but she had two marbles in her mouth.  Marbles make me pretty nervous, so before I could even say anything my face must have reflected my anxiety because she plopped them out.  But then I heard a funny 'thunk' noise.  The kind you hear when you hit your front teeth hit against a real glass-glass.  She started laughing in her mischievous laugh.  And she started swallowing hard.  Uh-oh!  I think a marble went down the hatch.  I texted a good friend and thankfully she's really level headed, and shared with me what she'd googled.  I thought it would be fine because she seemed fine, and was drinking a bunch of water.  But you just never know if it was ER worthy. 

My third son did about the same thing, except it was a penny and he was four.  You'd think four is old enough to know not to put a penny in your mouth-apparently not.  He did actually choke.  I had to flip him upside down and whack his back.  When went to the doctor to make sure it was in his stomach, and the x-rays showed...sure enough.  A penny was growing in this tummy.  I also had the doc check his back bones in the x-ray too since I whacked him so hard trying to get the silly penny dislodged I was afraid I broke something, but it was fine.  I'm not sure how or when that trusty copper penny removed itself, but when we went back for a follow up x-ray it was gone.  

This time hopefully we'll 'pass' the time and marble, and see how this comes out in the end...the real 'end'.

Drifts

Snow, wind, drifts + more snow, 50 mph gusts, bigger drifts = up to this year's Montana winter.  While it's created a plowing nightmare for my husband, many stranded mornings for my boys getting to school, and a quality hike with my daughter and car seat, it has had some up's-literally-due to the snow drifts building 'up'.

It's a playground for kids.  My boys are constantly outside, when the wind isn't blowing them towards Canada, sledding, snowboarding or making snow caves.  One of my favorite scenes with the boys was of them using a metal snow shovel as their sled.  It got creative towards the end of the run especially when the stop was pretty abrupt, but they had big beaming smiles on their faces.  And my most favorite scene with our animals has been, when our pup, Bess, was running to the house.  The boys built a snow cave, with tunnels along the side and up top.  Well, the pup didn't see the 'up top' tunnel. 

Bess raced towards the house.  Her eyes were wide with the excitement.  She was finally being let inside on the blustery winter day. While scaling the great drift she leaped.  Her corgi legs spread out like super-dog soaring through the air.  But her bound didn't quite get her over the drift.  She did get a surprise.  "Thump" down she went into the tunnel.  One minute there, next minute gone.  Little Bess appeared confused as she ambled out of the tunnel.  She looked both ways before she exited.  Then went about her merry way to the door.  But I'll not forget her wide eyes in sheer surprise as she dropped into the snowy cave.

A little wax goes a long way

It all comes flooding back to me, why home waxing kits are a HUGE-note to self-not to do.  My original note to self moment, was-oh eight years ago, when I removed one of my eyebrows.  I looked AwEsOmE!  All I said was, "oh no, oh no" and came running out into the living room.  My husband looked at me and said, "w-h-a-t did you do?" really slow and with huge eyes as he looked at my bald patch above my eye.  I left a little tuft of hair towards the center of my noggin, but not much.  I had to draw it in for months with an eyeliner pencil.  But thankfully it grew back-whew!

I don't know what came over me when I went to the beauty supply store to get a new curling iron.  Walked out with microwavable wax and no curling iron...hum?!  Definitely a gap in the connective synapses. It took me about two months to try it-somewhere in my subconscious I must have known this was a bad idea or it was holding on to suppressed memories of the last time. 

Obviously this is not how a professional applies it, but it worked.  The box said to leave enough to grab ahold of and pull in a 45 degree angle the opposite direction.  I darn near had a handle crafted on this bad boy, and I could rip with vigor.  Enough vigor to remove the top layer of skin, maybe even the second, and have a little war wound present itself.  Good thing is, I have both eye brows and the redness went away after a day or three.  So a little wax went a long way and did it's job with minimal long term affects.   I will pass this extra tid-bit of advice along which is somewhat related.  I'd encourage you to never play beach volleyball right after waxing your eyebrows.  On the off chance you fall into the sand face first, as a result of your super beach volleyball skills, the sand will stick, like a fly to fly paper (or something else), to your ever so soft and supple freshly waxed eye brows.  From my illustrious first hand experience, it is a super model look...let me just tell ya.

Chicken Licken'

I've written about this before, but yet again I share with you about my dog's hankering for chicken.  The live, squawking, bwacking, egg laying type housed in my chicken coop.  That is...once live.  He didn't get them all, but did do some damage on two and a half.  The story about the 'half' part is, she was   alive but I think she was in shock or had a heart attack-or both. There wasn't a mark on her, and all digits and neck were present and accounted for.  Although, she was sort of shaking...not a little but a lot.  So it seemed to be an impressive and obvious bad sign.  Then the next morning when I checked on her, she'd gone to the big hen house in the sky to lay the ultimate golden eggs.  With that, however, it angered me some what greatly.

My mission began, teach 'em rat dogs a lesson.  You can't beat them, that's not right or effective.  You can't do the 'old hang the chicken around their neck', they'll just want more.  I'm not going to get rid of them over a couple chickens, because they're sweet little dogs and actually help me with my ewes.  So I decided I needed to scare the chicken licken' cravings out of them.  "How does one do that?"  I say to myself.  None other than...fireworks.  Black cats to be exact.  They're terrified of gun shot sounds, and I knew I had to act fast upon finding the remnants of one particular chicken.  Running instinctively to their kennel, they knew they were in trouble.  And I ran directly to the shop where we had some left over fireworks.  Promptly grabbed a metal bucket and fire starter, and away I went. 

It took me all of a few minutes to line up the multiple packets of 100 black cats and light away.  I forgot how fast they fizzle and start popping.  So my kids got a great spectators view from the house of me leaping out of the way onto a snow bank, backwards with arms flailing.  But it worked!  Dogs jumped into their house, and didn't show their chicken licken' lips until the next day.  (They were fine, just scared. No permanent damage, and they had plenty of food and water).  They sure don't go close to the chicken coop anymore....time will tell.  But for the meanwhile all my hens are alive, well and laying some yummy big eggs.

Flying insect management

Forget the sprays, the fly swatter, the sticky paper or the bug zappers.  I have found the ultimate way to kill flies humanely.  Hold on...it's uncoventional.

With the New Year I've decided I need to try my Zumba game on our Wii.  Not as a New Year's resolution, because those simply don't work for me.  But as a highly recommended suggestion from myself to myself.  Hence, here comes my confession.  There is absolutely NO need for any sprays, swatters, sticky paper or zappers...the flies barrel off the walls dying of laughter as they watch me attempt my highly recommended suggestion to myself.  So they die happy and in giant quantities...it's awesome.  Well, not for the fly.  And thankfully the fly on the wall can't talk from all my vast entimology knowledge.

Zumba has to be one of the most hilarious attempts at exercise I have ever done.  I have a girlfried who loves it.  She's tried for years to get me to go to the gym and take a class.  Weeellll...there is absolutely, positiviely, NO way I will ever do Zumba in front of anyone besides my 20 month old daughter.  And that will only be until she starts talking in full sentences, and can tell me how embarrassed I should be at myself. 

I've had four children, so doing the Samba, samba, cha-cha-cha doesn't look right, at all.  Let me reiterate that note...not at all a good visual.  There are pieces and parts of me that literally go the opposite direction they're supposed to as well as there are parts still moving from the suggested 'dance' move three steps back.  Paints a pretty picture, don't it now. It's Awesome!  I'm being sarcastic.  I mean it is, not really, but kind of.  Clear as mud-huh?

I admit it is fun, and a great exercise.  And if you can't laugh out-loud at yourself, then who else should it be...that's a fact.  The greater part of it is sweeping up the dead flies.  At least they had their last laugh about it all, and I burned a few calories.

The month of LUV

1 Corinthians 13:4-7 (NIV)

⁴ Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵ It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶ Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷ It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

 

Love, love, love...all you need is Love!  That's what the Beatles said, right?  Yes, they did-but Love comes in so many realms don't you think?  I wish it was a longer word so I could make a curvy roller coaster analogy with all it's letters in a cool clip art cartoony metaphor, but our English language gives us only four letters. 

 

So I wanted to share the different spellings of love in various languages and cultures.  There are many different forms of the meaning in different cultures but it's a snippet of trivia.

• Greek, one form is Agape
• Latin, one form is Amo (with a line above the o)
• Persian, shares a few which are Rumi, Hafiz and Sa'di
• Chinese, one form is Ai
• French, is Amour

I like to lean towards the meaning of Agape which means "unconditional love",  It is often referred in Christian theology as referring to God's unconditional love for man kind as well as reciprocating love to each other. 

• Wikipedia states-In the New Testament, agapē is charitable, selfless, altruistic, and unconditional. It is parental love, seen as creating goodness in the world; it is the way God is seen to love humanity, and it is seen as the kind of love that Christians aspire to have for one another.

In the spirit of the month of love, I want to share a Christian website a good friend tapped me into, and toss a couple challenges your way.  Family Life  This site has invaluable resources, especially in the art of LOVE.  The radio broadcasts are great-filled with authentic conversations and powerful tools for your heart's tool belt.  I'm thinking that's what cupid has wrapped around his waist too...

How Do I Love Thee-this broadcast gives a wonderful perspective on the verse above; 1 Corinthians 13: 4-7

God's Extravagant Love-Your kids!-this was a great broadcast for perspective with your children.  The speakers wrote the Love Dare for Parents.

10 Valentines Ideas for your Family - AWESOME, AWESOME ideas to share with your family for showing Love!

14 Ways to Love Others-I found these ideas to be easy, everyday things we do to show love as well as respect to others.

My first challenge to you is listen to these broadcasts, pod casts or however you can make these digital bytes sync into you.  I encourage you to be filled with the joy this information can open up to you-gotta think on a deeper perspective.

My second challenge to you is to implement at least 50% of these Valentine ideas for your family and others.  Having fun and paying it forward fills your heart more than any'thing'.

My last and final challenge for you is to go rub your dog behind it's ears.   If you don't have a dog, grab a cat (they have it there-under their independence), and if you don't can't find a cat-a horse works, but I wouldn't suggest a fish.  So maybe go borrow a friends pet, if all you have is a google-eyed fish, like one of the above...but back to the dog.  He'll look at you with those big puppy eyes, lean into your hand, and show you a truly grateful and loving response for the simple gesture. Often their response is much more genuinely loving than many people react for far greater physical efforts.  That'd be one form of Agape love-unconditional love.  This is a simple snippet of the blessing God gives us with His pure unconditional love-given freely and filled with Him.  Look to Him, lean into his hand, share your gratefulness and be filled with L-O-V-E.

Bunko

Over the New Year we learned how to play Bunko or (Bunco).  What a fun game!  And an easy game to catch onto.  I often hear my mom, say she's going to her Bunko night.  I let it roll over my brain because I automatically thought it was a concetrating game of card 'something' or other.  But it wasn't.  Our children even wanted to learn, of course minus the betting aspect and alcohol that are often involved.  But I found it is a great way for them to hone in on math skills for all their ages, too.  I'm not a card player, besides Go-Fish.  I am even a tragic UNO player.  I always have to reread the instructions, which is just fine.  But Poker, Bridge or Rook are just out of my league, and honestly-my interest. I like word and action type games-Scrabble, Apples to Apples, Guesstures and some Trivial Pursuits. 

My nine year old and I started playing, I'm sure we adapted the 'true' rules for this.  But it gave us a little one-on one-time doing something new,  and sneaking in-again-some math.  Here's a link to a You-Tube  (sorry about the ads) video on how to play.

Your turn to roll...

What's for Dinner?!

The classic nightly question,  What's for Dinner?  My forehead crinkles in pain as I rack my brain for what to do, what's new, what's healthy, and what to thaw?  It often ends up being the fool-proof tacos.  But alas, we can't have that everynight, so I pulled out my cookbooks, went to Pinterest for some of those new fangled fun recipes I've seen and drummed up some weekly menu plans for dinner.  I've done this on and off throughout raising kidos, and once I start this regimin again I wonder why I don't conistently stick with it, because IT IS SO HELPFUL!

Not only on the evening planning side, but budget side.  I'm not guessing what I need at the store to round everything out.  I know what I'm going to need.  I also try to look even further than just this week, and see how I can use like ingredients for future meals or even some substitions in recipes.  That way I don't open some fancy sauce to use a teaspoon and then it sits in my fridge creating it's own being.  This has 'saved my bacon' and pulled in my pocket book budget.  I started this again the first of January, and I have four months of menus to share-so far.  I'll work on more.  The 15 minutes of brain damage reduction for me has gone to more attentive helping with homework, reading outloud or listening to kidos day's.  In the long run, the deeper side to this planning tool benefits little and big hearts as well.

I don't have it on this month's calendar, but freezer meals are huge too.  Or just double some of your recipes this month, and toss them into a freezer bag for next month when a 'surprise' busy evening presents itself.  I really like the Six Sisters Stuff site.  They have some great recipes, menu plans, and loads of other helpful resources.

Here's my February Menu Plan (my apologies it's an image below, and I need to figure out how to upload a pdf to this blog)! 
Wishing you a helpful, healthy and happy dinner!

February Weekly Menu Plan

Just a Scrappin'

The art of scrapbooking truly is an art.  I have a few friends who cut, crop and tape their photos into amazing books, then I have friends who do the most beautiful, awe inspiring works of art with digital scrapbooking, and then I have friends who have awesome tubs full of 'scrapbooking somedays'.  I happen to be one who attempts, kind of, all of them.  My goal is getting caught up on my digital scrapbooks, and off load the paper into something-time to eliminate the trusty tubs.  I'm only six years behind on photos and keepsakes, but who's counting. 

 

I love the digital realm.  It gives me a ton more freedom to create.  I'm a quotable quote nut.  So I love to find inspiring and fun quotes for to document my children's youth and our family.  I also enjoy the fact of scanning artwork and memorabilia so they can go into the books as well-and multiple books.  This is only a couple reasons why I love digital scrappin'.

 

The physical books I've made are extremely generic.  I have the paper from preschool to 12th grade that I'm filling only a couple pages for each with school, team and other extracurricular photos.  But I'm trying not to over do it, because I have so much room to work in the digital scrapbook world.  

 

 The next thing about scrapbooking as anyone will say is 'time'.  That's been my excuse, well for 11 years now.  But again with digital I can create ten pages in the time it would take me to make two.  And I can duplicate these books tailored for each child, event, or whatever needs may be.  Which is a GREAT option!  But back to time....a girlfriend and I committed to one day a week last year.  We choose Thursday, and we've stuck to it-minus summer , however.  During the winter is an ample time to crunch out not only some pages but books.  This has been an immense check off my 'mommy guilt' to do list.  Not only the 'mommy guilt' but just some 'me' creative time.  Two hours goes a loooong way for my sanity, or lack there of.  Even if I'm only able to meet for that amount of time, I've been able to get mass pages done.  I've already finished one book this year, started inputting 2014 and going back through choosing my photos for 2013.  My friend and I switch houses, every other week, and make it super easy.  She's a whiz at the digital and an amazing designer.  So it's also great to learn more efficient and creative means to crafting these books.

Moral of my story is in reverse...take a couple hours for yourself to be creative.  Scrapbooking digitally is my idea of the absolute way to go now-a-days.  And have some fun with all those precious memories you made in pictures.  For digital products check out my friend Gina's blog at Back Road Scrappin.

Happy Scrappin'!

Blogging Delinquent returns with a Christmas tale

Well it's been over three months since I plopped something upon my blog...hence the blogging delinquent title.  I'll blame it on the holiday season-not my procrastination. But thankfully in my untimely scribing a good friend showed me some extra features for my blog, and I have a slew of more things to write about-then post to the schedule.  Yeah for automated push buttons function's like that.  So..I'll rewind to Christmas and begin with a highlight that will go down in baby books and are etched in to memories of the masses...literally.

Christmas Eve-Does this little ham look like she'd single handedly change the course of the entire Christmas Eve service?  Weeeell...she did.  My daughter with one simple jerk-pulled the main electrical cord out of the wall which supplied 'juice' to ALL the bells and whistles for the Christmas eve service. Right in the middle of the sermon, with a packed house, all the amplifiers, electric everything POPPED, ZAPPED and BOOMED as they lost ALL the audio and video elements to the service. It was a true Rock star mom moment. We were the delinquents sitting in the back of the church, so no one saw but everyone jumped up to fix it. I was mortified, but laughing so hard I was crying. I held her in front of my face trying to hide my roller coaster of emotion.  I couldn't believe she yanked the black cord with such little effort and it pulled out of the wall...THEN... there went the entire thing. Just like that...POP!  It happened so fast I couldn't do anything about it. People were scrambling.  Our poor Pastor was scrambling for what he had planned.  Thankfully, they got the sound and visual PowerPoint up for the very last song.  At least they were Christmas carols, most folks know those, and if you don't you can lip sync easy enough.  But more thankfully when I told our Pastor he laughed, whew!  At first it was a nervous laugh, like "Really?" but he is a gracious man and saw it was a true accident.   I do suppose when it comes right down to it, just another lesson that someone else is in charge.  And He gave our Pastor the words, as well as composure, to deliver a inspirational Christmas message.  I know I'll never forget it.