Blessings and Lessons

This weekend turned out to be a blessing and a lesson learned for me. Jay really wanted to go back to the Rennisance Festival with some friends and no kids. We had already been a couple of weeks ago with the kids. Jay loves this place and looking at all the armor and swords and seeing the shows (all of which was very limited while the kids were with because they wanted to go on all the rides.) I like going but once a year is enough for me. I also didn't want to spend the money again as tickets are $16.00 as a discount if you buy them at Fry's (a local grocery store) and then food while there and pay for our babysitter for the day. But he really wanted to go and it is so rare that the two of us spend the day together by ourselves. So I prayed really hard about not letting my attitude show and to try and be the "Proverbs 31 and Titus 2" wife and honor my husband first. I fail quite often at this as I know I can let him know how I really feel and he will most of the time defer to my feelings. I knew this wasn't fair so off we went. Now you should know I was excited just to spend the day with him so I was looking forward to that.

We left about 9:30 and stopped by Fry's grocery store to buy the tickets. They had a sign posted that said they were out of tickets. I thought to myself ,"great now we will have to pay $20.00 per ticket at the gate as there are no other Frys close by on the way". Jay wasn't too excited about that either but he was not going to let that stop us from going. So we drove out there (it's about a 40 minute drive). I was praying a lot on the way. We got there and went to get in line and a lady was standing close by and asked us if we were buying tickets and we said yes. She said she had two extra tickets because she got them from her company and we looked like just the two people she wanted to give them to!!!! We couldn't believe it!!! We were very greatful and thankful. I kept saying Thank you Lord!!! He is so faithful to answer prayers when we just submit. We saved $40.00 and it was an awesome day together and the Lord blessed us!

I wanted to write and share this so I myself can look back and remember how faithful God is even in the small things when we are obedient and selfless.

Here are a couple of pictures from when we took the kids:

Sir Joshua and Lady Savannah

What a Knight!

I love Lapbooks

We are still working on the school room. My husband wants to move some furniture around when he gets home later today. So hopefully by tonight or tomorrw I will post after pictures.

I wanted to share about our lapbooks. I love doing them and so do my kids! I am going to add some links so you can check out some different sites that make and sell them or the templates. Do you lapbook? If so share with us some of your favorite sites as well.

I am addicted to Hands of a Child lapbooks (www.handsofachild.com). We have a lot of them and have completed several this year. (Genesis, Exodus, Ten Commandments, Thanksgiving, Valentines, Presidents, and Easter) We are finishing up the year with ones on plants and the farm. I also branched out on my own and had two of my younger kids make their own letter lapbooks. The items in here were from some great preschool websites that I will put links to as well. At the beginning of each year I have also had Anastasia make a lap book that includes her favorite things, sample of handwriting, things she did over the summer, etc. These are fun to look back at each year. Joshua will get to do one of these in the fall as he will be starting Kindergarten!!!

We also love to notebook and have a collection of great pages. Some one on one of my yahoogroups sent a great idea for putting lapbooks into 3-ring binders. Here is a link to her site so you can check out her pictures. This is a great way to store them. http://littlehomeschoolonthehill.com/category/great-ideas/

Here are some pics of some of our lapbooks:

Before Pictures of Our School Room

I can't believe I am actually posting before pictures for everyone to see our mess!! But if it makes someone feel better...LOL. I know I will feel better seeing the after pictures. Which will hopefully get posted tomorrow because I can't stand the mess any longer. We are having a "cleaning party" tomorrow. Although I don't think my kids would use the word "party". But they should be eager to help and get it done because they know afterwards we get to go to their cousin's birthday party.

We have a large loft area upstairs and half is the schoolroom and the other half is playroom, sewing stuff, treadmill, etc...

This is the main school area and table. The computer on the little table is the old one for Savannah to play her little games. As I find papers and such I have been putting them on the table to go through.

This is opposite the school table. It is our computer and my desk area. This is where Jay is setting up our computer and printer.

This is the area to the left of the computer. I moved our calendar over here. The cabinet holds all my scrapbooking supplies and then the printer and paper on top.

This is the other half of the room. The play room side with baby dolls galore and the hide a bed is currently out. The stuff in the back corner is sewing stuff which we hope to get back to this summer.

Now after posting these pics I will definetly get it arranged tomorrow so I can post the "after pictures" and redeem myself.

It's Friday!!!

Friday's are always more relaxed and we are usually home unless we have a field trip. Joshua, Savannah, Alexa and I played Candyland and Hungry,Hungry Hippos this morning while Anastasia did her morning work. When Anastasia gets to take a break we like to play "spit". It is a fast paced card game and I don't know how it got that name because there is no spitting involved! If you play make sure you use an old deck of cards though because they can get pretty beat up.



It's pretty quiet around here right now as the little ones are napping and Anastasia is working on her Arizona studies. We are learing all about our great state and on Wednesday we are taking a field trip to the State Capitol. I told the kids if they take a good nap I would let them play in the sprinklers out back! (Yes, it is warm enough here already! I am not looking forward to summer.) That got them all excited and actually ready to nap with out too much fuss.

The Homeschool Room

I am working this week on organizing and rearranging our homeschool room. Jay just got a new computer and so we moved the other one to the school room and we have a really old computer with no internet access I am trying to set up for Savannah to play jump start baby and stuff on. We seem to get papers piled everywhere and I need a new place to hang our calendar. Right now there is a bunch of stuff all over the floor and it all needs a home!! As it gets reorganized I will post some pictures. We will be finishing up the school year at the end of May to take a break and get ready for the baby.

I have been wanting to set up a blog for quite awhile now and I am so excited to get started. I think this is a great way to share with family, friends and others.

We had a great weekend and Easter Sunday. We love building family traditions and continued this year with our Easter traditions. We love to do the Resurrection eggs and this year we read the story "Benjamin's Box" that goes along with them. It is a great story that helps bring what Christ did for us to life for our little ones. The kids had numerous eggs hunts and loved each one of them. Sunday morning they got to see thier baskets, we made Resurrection Rolls (reciepe follows) and then went to church. After church the kids got to find the eggs hidden in the back yard and then we had a nice lunch with Papa and Grandma Donna. The rest of the afternoon was spent playing sidewalk chalk, bubbles and baseball.

Resurrection Rolls

These are a great easy breakfast or treat to make that even the littlest hands can help.

Use refrigerated biscuits or cresent rolls, marshmallows and sugar and cinnamon mixture.

The marshmallows represent Christ's body. Roll one in the cinnamon and sugar mixture (this represents the oils and spices that were brought to rub on His body) The biscuits represent the tomb. Wrap each marshmallow in it's own biscuit. Make sure it is completely sealed or the marshmallow will ooze out. Then bake them on an ungreased cookie sheet following the directions on the can of biscuits or cresent rolls. When you go to eat them you will notice that the marshmallow is no longer there. It is hallow inside. Just like Christ's tomb.

These are yummy!!!

Savannah and Anastaisa decorating eggs.

Joshua thought this was great. He made all sorts of colored eggs.

Alexa really got into it this year. She would scream if we took the cup away!

Her first official egg hunt. Alexa carried that basket around all afternoon!

Papa and Grandma's neighborhood had Easter activities for the kids one morning.

Aren't they adorable all dressed up!!

Happy Resurrection Sunday!!