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Someone over at the hive board posted a link for this, go on over, it is really cute, funny and well-done.

The homeschool family song clip *here*

I'll be singing this in my head next time we load up in the van...

Labels: homeschool

Here is our official toilet- paper-cutting- ceremony for our remodeled bathroom.

Yeah!!














And here is a shot of late night fooz-ball happening after the meetings.

Caffeine...the gift that keeps on giving...it takes a while for everyone to wind down once we all get home for the night.


Late, late nights around here. And then it is up for breakfast and after breakfast it is study time, because they actually will quiz people before each session. I've never been quizzed yet, but the thought of standing up before almost 4,000 people live and having to answer deep theological questions kind of does something to me.

Tonight is the last night of the training, then things will get back to normal. If that really ever happens...

Our last 2 guests arrived yesterday, and one of them is a baby- it's so neat to have a baby around to hold. The best part though is that I don't have to get up with him at night!!!

keeping it real, bloggy friends, just keeping it real...

so how was your week?

My oh my, it's a whirl-wind around these parts! Bloggy friends, I've got to tell you that the posts are going to be a little few and far between for the next week- and I am sooo behind on my blog reading...I promise to catch up on all of you soon!

This is the week for our annual winter Bible conference- known as the Winter training. This week we have 6 people staying with us, with two more arriving on Saturday. No foreign visitors this year, so we are not doing so much driving around- but...lots of fellowship, fun, food and Bible study going on around here!

I have to highly, 4 star recommend the peppermint Joe-Joe's brownie recipe that
OC Mom posted over at her blog, -brownie recipe *here***
This recipe showcases the ever popular and much in demand candy-cane Joe-Joe's of
Trader Jo's -fame. I am a boxed-brownie kind of girl, but my-oh-my...this recipe is totally worth the extra bit of effort! I have to tell you that I made these brownies to take to an Irish party and of OC Mom baked some too!

Finally, and very close to my heart- could you please lift up my mom and step-dad up in prayer this week? My step-dad underwent a triple heart bypass surgery today (Wednesday)- on very short notice. My step-dad's name is Mike.
There is just so much going on all in one week.

But hey, ...no asthma and no vomiting. As of yet.

And our bathroom remodel was finished just in time for guests!!

gotta look for the silver lining!

I wanted to share with you two charities worthy of consideration during this season of giving.
The first, Access Empowerment International is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to improving the lives of children and the communities they live in, through education. Their work is primarily concerned with Ghana- the home country of our dear friend Kern.
Access Empowerment International was started by friends very near and dear to our hearts. We first met our friend Kern when he attended University in this country with one of Sky's brothers. Kern lived with the family during school breaks and worked for the family business during the summers. He is very much part of the family, sang at our wedding and spoke at the memorial for Sky's dad. His wife Erika is lovely, smart and big-hearted- their kids are just the cutest!
Erika is also immensely brave- taking small children across the world on a plane!! They just started a blog to chronicle their adventures working in Ghana, you can visit it *here*.

Another charity that I think highly of is heifer international. This group reflects the thought,
"Give a man a fish and feed him for a day, teach a man to fish and feed him for life." Through this group you can purchase an animal for a family to help provide food and/or earnings for that family to improve their lives and to share with other families in their community. Animals are picked for each unique area and situation. You can support this group directly through the organization, by buying gifts through their gift catalog, or by purchasing gifts such as this shirt here.

Of course, I would want to tie this into homeschooling for my children, Heifer international has a storybook titled "Beatrice's goat" that explains what the charity strives to do. It's a great story, the kids will really be touched and interested.

So, did you get a goat for Christmas??

I wrote a week ago that Demi-Sky had a severe bout of asthma, he recovered fairly quickly but then Meg had asthma...and so it goes- I continue to sleep little.

Sunday night I determined to turn a new leaf, get to bed at a respectable hour and try to shake the endless tiredness I seem to live in. I really, really tried. After hosting the bible school boys for the evening, getting the kids to bed, starting some laundry and closing up the house...my head actually hit the pillow at midnight. I even took a tylenol pm to help sleep along, I am prone to lie awake thinking...

At 2 a.m. I woke up to find Meg and Amie standing next to my bed in the dark. Meg said to me, "Mom, Amie's covered in some brown stuff, it's all over her face and bed..."

I closed my eyes tight and began to repeat to myself "go to your happy place! Go to your happy place!, Go to your happy place!!!!"

It didn't work, when I opened my eyes, they were still standing there.

You can guess the rest, I'm sure. If you have kids, you can picture the rest in glorious scrubbing/laundry/bathing and bathing again after the second round-detail.

Lately it seems like the universe is trying to kick my trashcan.

Labels: Jen's world

Different things happening around here,
Last week Josie and Sky had their piano recitals. They both performed excellently, Sky was very nervous... I know how difficult it is to play in front of others, poor guy- but he did great! Josie knew her piece by heart and played beautifully, we were so proud of her. Grandparents attended, as did my sister and my new niece.










Here is Sky concentrating- he did really well and you couldn't tell how nervous he was.









Once a month now we have some of the Bible School (called the Full time training) girls over for dinner, instead of the boys. We can't have them over at the same time, "no patty fingers in the holy water, if you please..." -hah! I love that quote and movie!!

Anyways, the girls had been trying to plan a good ole southern craw-fish fry...or whatever, but they failed to hunt up any live craw fish here in the OC, so oh joy! They brought over a live crab, instead! I wouldn't even know how to how
cook that, nor could I- It was alive! Luckily, Sky

knew just what to do and took care of it, I fled
the room till it was all over. And, I couldn't eat it...I love crab, but I couldn't eat it after it died in my kitchen. Amie and Demi-Sky were very entranced by the whole, live crustacean thing-and they dined very happily on him, too.


Here is a new chapter on "cooking with Jen"...
It was Sky's birthday, and he requested a spice cake. Here are some of the gathered ingredients...
It, unfortunately stuck to the pan...and here is
the sad result. And no, I didn't drop it!! Sky laughed and said it looked like I had...and then he took these photos because he thought this episode was blog-worthy...
the moral of the story is to get the cake out of the bundt
pan post-haste, because if you let it sit while you go out for some orange spiced chicken, this will likely be the result. umm, ummm...

Labels: family, Jen's world

We are all trying to finish up our shopping, aren't we? I am really appreciating shopping online this year, I really, really, really have no desire to brave the malls. Here are a few gifts and catalogs outside of the mainstream that are very nice.

Wolferman's - it's a catalog full of gourmet english muffins and other baked goods. You can order gift packages, towers, baskets- full of goodies to send to someone. I am ordering one for relatives I do not know well- you can find some nice packages just under $30- they go up from there too, of course.


Chinaberry- one of my all-time favorite catalogs, full of books and gifts. I love this catalog for the detailed and thoughtful descriptions of books, and superb taste in reading. Most of my reading comes from this catalog. I just ordered the Alpha Animals game from this catalog, after trying to get it the last 2 years- I always waited too late and they were sold out, I scored this year!

The Acacia catalog - kind of a "different" catalog, full of things to please a friend into yoga, natural living or thoughtful living...just kind of out there- in a serene sort of way. So, what do you buy for Nana who has everything?? Well, if she has 3 dogs she dresses up...I think this
"while you were gone" dvd might please her. (what will they think of next??)I also snagged some neat yoga socks for me...

happy shopping

Labels: gift ideas

I wonder nightly why- in Sam's Hill- can I not get more then 3 hours straight sleep? My kids were all Ezzo-routine babies -I so did not point that out to start a debate, just a fact...- they all slept through the night before or around 10 weeks. My first actually started at one month. And yet, I sleep not... If you want to see a grown woman cry, just dish out nights like I've had routinely... It comes down really to asthma; 3 of my 4 have it (I'm still waiting for my prize for that,...) and lately the cat is a problem. The cat has it in for me. The cat is slowly trying to make me crazy.

Two nights ago, my oldest woke me at 2 a.m to tell me she was itchy. (great...) My head had hit the pillow at 12:30 after doing one last(oh dear God let it be so!) nebulizer treatment with Demi. Up at 2 with Meg's problem, then up at 3 a.m again with Demi's asthma treatment. Then at 5 a.m Demi was asthma coughing, so I got up to do the nebulizer thing yet again-which you have to sit in bed with them for, because they fall asleep..after all, it is the middle of the night -and who wouldn't fall asleep?? Then he started crying because he had an earache. I got him some pain medicine and some cold medicine and advised him to not cry, it'll only make things worse. He was still fussing as I shuffled/sleep-walked/dragged myself back to bed. I entertained high hopes of 2 hours, pray- maybe 3?? hours of sleep before the next round, or getting up for church- since I had tossed the cat out at the 2 a.m. thing...the cat is my biggest nemesis in the sleep deprivation game.

6 a.m. and Meg came in to tell me that Demi was crying. I guess I slept thru it out of sheer exhaustion... I did the comforting thing, warmed up some ear-oil to help with the pain. All of this is hard on me, because I have bad circulation and it is freezing in our 1950's home... He's still crying, so now out of patience I tell him to stop. Several times. I am frustrated and so tired. I think to myself, "God must hate me..." and right away I know this is a wrong thought, and I feel bad because I know many parents have much worse situations to work through. And yet, I think it again. Demi hits for the heart and says "I want Daddy!" "Ha! I laugh back, do you think you'll get any sympathy from Dad?!" In our house, mom is the coddler, Dad is no nonsense/tough-love.

Demi is looking as put out with me as I must look to him... My mind goes back to a childhood memory of a stepdad dragging my little stepbrother into the bathroom and making him sleep in the tub because he was throwing up, and yelling at him. The tub idea suddenly seems kind of reasonable... appalled at myself, I go get Demi a hot rag to put on his ear. This works and he goes back to sleep. For 30 or 40 minutes... I wake up to realize that Demi is in our bed, in the unheard-of-side, next to Dad (mom's the cuddly one...usually) it must have been his final jab at me, mom-the-traitor...after 15 minutes of sniffling and crying, Dad says roughly and commandingly..."stop crying".

Ha.

Dad finally has pity and gets Demi up for a bath -which is his solution for most problems, that and ice cream...which surprisingly works most of the time. I get up and get Demi a hot rag to put on his ear.
Because I'm the sympathetic one. Usually.

Nobody made it to church, and the happy ending part is that Sky let me sleep in past 9.

Asthma, -the gift that keeps on giving.

The really sad part of my night-time asthma/cat woes...even on good nights now, I can't fall asleep, or I wake up every 3 hours or so- which is about the time frame between treatments.

I think I'm back to exalted-mom position, but it may be pending....

Labels: being mom, Jen's world

Look, look! A trailer for the next Narnia movie!! Go *here-Prince Caspien trailer* to see it.
oh, why oh why do we have to wait till May?! I honestly can't remember anything from the book, I think it had too much battle-ness in it when I was a girl and I skipped through it. Maybe we should read it aloud next??

Go on over and get your Narnia fix...we've already watched it 3 times...

I stumbled upon this great read quite by accident, I picked it up thinking it would interest Josie age 10- who seems to be between books right now...She hasn't picked it up yet, but I did- and wow, what a cute/fun/sweet book.

This is homeschool family read-aloud-fun, people!

Cornelia and the Audacious Escapades of the Somerset Sisters by Lesley Blume is listed for grades 4-6 or 5-7, but I think it would have a wider interest range as a read-aloud.

Cornelia is the 11 year old heroine of this story, mostly left to herself home alone with servants while her famous, pianist mother tours or vacations. Cornelia is a quiet, introverted little girl-and the housekeeper's attempt to compensate for the lack of attention by her mother -by smothering her-pushes Cornelia to resort to using big words as a shield, isolating her even more. Cornelia also struggles mightily with hating how people only show interest in her because of who her mother is. Just as Cornelia is feeling more alone then ever, a new neighbor moves into the apartment next door. Cornelia becomes friends with fascinating Virginia Somerset who begins to share wonderful stories of the four Somerset girls and their daring adventures during the 1930's and 40's. Cornelia begins to change alittle, and to become a little more adventurous due to the impact Virginia and her stories have on her. The ending was sad, Virginia is elderly and dying, but she makes an effort to connect with Cornelia's mother and influence the healing of their relationship. It was a good, fun story, though sad at times too. The ending was satisfying. Virginia herself says in the story,

"Notice I didn't say that story endings should be tidy, Cornelia," she added solemnly. "Very few stories have tidy endings, or entirely happy ones. But a story can have a positive ending without it being wholly happy."

That is exactly the sort of ending this story has.

It was a really fun, witty and satisfying read that just begs to be read aloud, specially the French parts. The next time you go to say "what?", you just might find yourself asking, "comment?", and you will always think of French china and chiens together and have to laugh.

Put it on your next read aloud list, you won't be disappointed.

Labels: book review, reading basket