Today I will

1. do a ton of laundry
2. weed out the gardens so I can bring my herb seedlings out this weekend, and free up my kitchen counters
3. tell my kids I love them.
4. not get too mad when they come back from the frog pond in head to toe mud.
5. go to Grace's softball game
6. give hubby a kiss just because
7. read my KOnos volume and plan out next weeks lessons.
8. feed the ducks and geese in the river
9. sit on the pier after the kids go to bed with hubby and chat about the day.
10. continue to fight my seasonal allergies

What are you doing today:-)

a friendly visitor

this cute little grey tree frog showed up yesterday, it was so nice to meet our neighbor:-) We hear him and his friends quite a bit but they are hard to see, so this was a treat, his name is 'Fred':-)





our visitor hopped on Adam's head-, and then everyone had to put him on thier noses he just set nicely for the photos, and did not seem to want to leave.


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Fred was then put safely back on the tree he was found on, and he went his happy way, he was a very kind guest, with wonderful manners. We hope to see him again as he is out and visiting our yard.

What we are up to

it seems like awhile since I last blogged. We have been busy, with softball, opening day was Saturday and both girls played games we where there from 10am-4pm what a long , fun,hot day, I am so red it isn't even funny. But we came home and got Chinese take out and had a great day with the kids. They all slept like rocks. Which is nice for daddy and I when we can sit outside and have a conversation.

And it is HOT here unusual for April here in Maryland, it has been in the 90's, we actually had the kids jumping in the river on Sunday, and playing on our raft. We had a friend of the girls come over after church and hang out with them she is a bit of a 'city' girl , not used to getting dirty or handling frogs, bugs, worms- all the stuff my kids don;t even blink an eye at-. I think she had fun after she got past the icky factor.

We have also been doing school, and trying to get all the bookie stuff done , - its not our favorite thing to do but it has to be done-, the girls are reading very well, Madeline has been doing well. She has learning issues and it takes her a long time to get things, we are reviewing math this year from the beginning, so we can touch on all the facts again before we begin pre algebra next January, at least that's our goal. But again we try to do it at her pace, I want her to understand the concepts, so she can have an understanding of why ?
Grace she is like a little Einstein reads most anything is doing multiplication- she is 8- and writing cursive- at her own initiative- ,she amazes me. I am finding I have to do very little sitting and explaining to her, she just gets it.
Adam is working on those ABC'S and writing his name and going to speech, he is doing well.
Shawn is a 2 year old in to everything and growing like a weed, he can get into anything and no child proofing seems to stop him

Happy Arbor Day

it is Arbor Day the day to plant,climb and/or hug some trees. Adam and Grace choose to climb the very big pine tree in our yard:-) We are planning to hit the local nature center and do some hiking this afternoon it is so nice today, perhaps do some leaf and bark rubbings, and hug a few trees:-)

Have a wonderful day.Tell a tree you love it:-)

Our Earth Day Adventures

Happy Earth Day everyone, we began our day reading the Bible-of course- and read the parable of the mustard seed- how the smallest seed becomes the biggest plant- . So we planted some mustard seeds to begin our adventrues, it was storming out early so this was a goodplace to begin.





we decorated pots that came in a gift basket, from Grandmom Marge, and had a small snack:-)






filled our pots with soil.




and planted the seeds, now we will see the smallest seed become one of the biggest plants




we watched the clouds overhead and wondered at the beauty in a rain cloud- gods creation is awe=inspiring





we picked up trash on our street, we had wanted to do more but the storms blew through quite often.We ended the day muddy wet and chilly, so it was off to hot bubbly baths and hot coco.

Adams Baseball parade

Saturday was opening day for MIddle River Rec Councils Baseball Season, which was opened with a parade through the neighborhoods to the middle school ball fields and each team played thier first game of the season- it was a very long day- it was nice and warm and Adam was so excited. It is his first year he is in tee-ball and is on the A'S . We began the day in a fresh clean new uniform, looking pretty good- this was not to last very long:-)







a few random team shots of the kids waitng for the parade to start- notice how the new pants are no longer clean thanks to rolling down the hill-, so much for making it to the beginning of the first game clean:-)







marching in the parade, the team behind us was The Pirates- in yellow- the Iron Bird from the local minor league team was on hand to hand out gum to the kids.







the parade ended at Middle River Middle School with the pledge , and the offical opening of baseball little leauge season.

back to school today

well we are beginning our school days again today, Spring Break is over, much to the dismay of the kids:-) We will be doing our regulars math, spelling, language, bible, and today we will begin in Stewardship in Konos Volume I . Since this week is Earth Day and Arbor Day we will begin with conservation.we are going to dissect an amaryllis bulb from the holidays today. Which I think is a good way to use it , and its a great hands on learning activity which we love.

Well here's to another week of fun and learning.Adam went back to speech today and is doing very well with his word sounds, he is talking very well. Though he always talked much before,now he is becoming more legible. Which make shim less frustrated when we don;t have to keep asking him to repeat words.

Hope everyone has a wonderful Monday- ours is very rainy and windy.

Fearless friday

on Fearless Friday we are suppose to post prayer request and pray for other bloggers. What a great concept, I know we can all use all the prayer we can get.

My request is for hubby's job, that he continue to be able to provide for his family in the manner he wants to, and that he let god lead him where he is suppose to go/be.

Thanks ladies I will be praying for all you wonderful ladies and your families.

great is my thankfulness:-)

with a crazy week behind us, it is time to think of those thinks we are thankful for and make our life so great.
1. this week I am so happy the girls are home they came home last night, tired and happy, with lots of stories to tell and pictures to show of the fun trip to NYC with my mom and step.dad.

2. and what a blessing they are, my kids love them and they would do anything for them . and my mom and step dad do anything for the kids as well, they take them everywhere, always send them special treats, and plan fun things to do with them.

3, I am thankful for hubby still not layed off yet, his job is really having a tough time- as many are- contracts have dwindled as hospitals are delaying work, as folks are delaying getting procedures done. we have taken a cut in his monthly bonus check, and health insurance though. So that hurts too.But at least he still has a job and he has been approached with offers from other companies, so its nice to know theres other offers out there. He has often said he feels theres something else God has in mind for him and this may be the Lord leading him to that place .


4. today I am thankful for a nice warm springy day, and also thankful for the rainy week we really needed here, we where in moderate drought conditions- not so much now-It will be nice to hang out my towels and blanket on the line outside, I love line dried clothes, and it save on the electric bill a bit.

5. I was watching the news this week, with the tax protest on Wednesday, and I thought how thankful we should be that we live in a country where we can protest and not worry someone will come harm our family or gun us down in the street for disagreeing with our government, this is not so in much of the world .

6 I am so glad to have kids who will bring in a box of crickets to raise in the closet- I had no idea of this,btw-. or try to hatch an abandoned nest of duck eggs- these are across the street not in the house. They want to do the right thing and it is a gift and blessing, and I have to remember that with each discovery I make:-)

6, an of course I am so thankful for Jesus my Lord and Savior who is watching over us, and guiding us.

cleaning the girls room

while the girls are away on their spring break, I have decided its a perfect time to declutter and clear out their room. Which is pretty yucky, I have cleaned out all the laundry that was shoved everywhere and all the dishes- I have no idea- and candy wrappers. we are planning to steam clean the rugs tonight. Gees for a teen and pre-teen so worried how they look that room is pretty scary.

OH well at least it was a project for a rainy afternoon and Adam bless his heart crawled under the abyss called the bed and pulled out all the junk under there, I half expected him to find some sort of living creature, but thankfully no such thing happened.

Well off to clean the windows and get all the make-up and crayon off of the dressers.

Girls are going to New York

the girls are going to New York City today with my mom and step-dad and will be home on Thursday night. They went last year and are returning for more sight seeing and to see the musical Shrek. The plan this time is to go to Central Park Zoo, The Museum of Natural History- they have a mummy and Madeline is so excited to see that-,they plan to walk across The Brooklyn Bridge, go to American Girl- they did this last time too , visit the M&M's store, F.A.O Schwartz- they did Toys R'Us last time- and have a slice and a pop- pizza and soda in NYC lingo:-)-.

Please keep them all in your prayers to have a fun safe time this week. Grace got a little teary eyed when she left this time- she has not ever done that before.

Happy Resurecction Day

The Old Rugged Cross

I think today this says it all:-) Have a Blessed Good Friday.

Good Friday

this is a day of prayer ad bible reading and a bit of sadness for us as we remember the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. WE will read the gospels today, only one we have read them the last two weeks in bits and pieces.

It is interesting since I have really been trying to focus on what the Easter season is really about-Jesus- and not on other things. We have not even brought up the Easter Bunny, and no one here has asked either. I have been pleasantly surprised, the kids are not so interested in themselves and what they will get they are talking about Jesus and praying more meaningfully, so special to see them mature a bit in their faith walk. As I am maturing in mine as well. Such a blessing to grow together , I pray they continue to grow and never lose the faith in the Lord. I pray we can continue to turn more to Jesus and less to the world for our hope and needs. I know the Father is working on me this year and I cannot wait to see where he leads me/us.

John 13- Jesus washes the feet of his disciples

our bible lesson yesterday was on John 13 and the washing of the disciples feet. I honeslty think its a beautiful passage, of Jesus getting on his knees and washing and drying their feet and showing them such love and affection.Imagine what kindness he must have used, and how gentle his hands where on the feet of his beloved lambs. And it makes me think how gentle he is with us, how we are his beloved lambs too.


we traced our feet on paper and wrote John 13 on them and hung these on our Easter Tree.




we washed each others feet, and talked about giving and receiving and which is easiest. And why we need to be 'cleaned by Jesus, to be of Jesus'. how this is a spiritual cleansing not the actual body cleaning
, and how we where cleansed by the blood of Christ on the Christ.

making pretzels

we are going to make pretzels this afternoon and I was searching for the story of how the first ones where made by a monk for the children during worship service and the symbols behind the criss-cross- praying hands- and the three holes- the trinity-. And how they where eaten at Lent - no eggs-.Anyhow I did find this little blurb with a recipe on it to, I thought I would share, we actually are using Pillsbury bread stick dough today, its basically following the package instructions for baking you just roll them out and shape into a pretzel.we are also making some out of sculpty clay to put on the Easter tree.


click on the image and it will be big enough to read and print out if you would like.

tye-dye coffee filter Easter Eggs

This Morning on The Crafty Crow there was this very cool craft to make filters have a tye-dye effect and then trim into Easter Eggs, thoguht this would be so pretty in the windows, so we decided to do them.

Everyone colored a bunch of filters. Shawn also colored himself.:-)




since I did not have a spray bottle- and we really wanted to make these- we instead used paint brushes and dripped on the water and watched the colors blend together some very cool tye-dye effects going on.





the finished products drying on some foil so as not to leak and stain the counters.




when these are done drying I will trim them into a bit more of an oval/egg shape and hang them in our dinning room window for some pretty stained glass effect.