Last year, I went to Hobby Lobby right before Christmas and found some really cute and fancy-schmancy wire ornament hooks. They were in the shapes of curliques, with the hook end open to put on an ornament. You hang the ornaments with the curlique side, thereby keeping little hands from getting poked and stabbed by those cheap, plain, wire hooks that always seem to get tangled up with one another and it takes forever to simply untangle one, and making a mess of it at that. Some of these cool-looking hooks also had sparkly beads in the middle, just above the hook. They kind of looked like a question mark with a curlique on top, and beads at the stem just above the hook. The bad part was that they cost about $5/dozen, and I thought to myself, “Hey! I have colored wire leftover from another project! Oooh! I also have lots of sparkly beads! Shoot, I could make these!”

So, I whipped out my handy-dandy jewelry wire cutters, a pen, colored wire (20-gauge), and beads.

I cut off 6″ lengths, and strung about 1″ worth of beads onto one end, pushing them up about 1″.

With that 1″, I bent the wire into a 90-degree angle,

then bent that 1″ in half, leaving a gap onto which to hang an ornament loop.

The other 4″ I wrapped around my pen once. 

I loosely began wrapping in an open spiral, spreading out the wire into a curlique shape. 

That’s it! Easy-peasy. Aside from stringing the beads, bending the wire into an ornament hook took only seconds, and you could probably make a couple dozen in about 10 minutes.

…at least, not the way I wanted it to. Monday and Tuesday went as planned, but from Wednesday it went downhill from there.

I had to go to the grocery store, then over to my friend, K’s house. We decided to go over there to make the applesauce-cinnamon ornaments because her place was bigger. So, with 3 adults and 8 children running around, we successfully ate lunch, made our ornaments, and the moms visited while the kids played during the massive wind storm. Oh, yeah, I almost forgot. When I first got there, I opened the screen door, which the wind caught, and 2 of my coat buttons got caught on the door. With one giant blast from the wind, those 2 buttons flew off my coat and somewhere into oblivion. Drat! And I’ve only had that coat for about 6 weeks! Grrr…

Yesterday, it was still quite windy, though the winds were not the 50-60mph winds we had Wednesday, though they were probably close to 30-40mph. I took my girls to the post office to mail off a couple packages, then we went to JoAnn’s so I could buy all new buttons for my sad-looking pea coat. After browsing for 20 minutes, I finally decided on some really pretty metal buttons that have openwork and a really tall shank to fit the thick wool into. Then, back to the store to pick up mittens for the girls and chicken nuggets for lunch. Didn’t even make it close to baking cookies.

Today, we overslept. After breakfast, I sewed on my snazzy new buttons to my coat, prepared lunch for the girls, baked the M&M cookies, then bundled up the 3 of us into the car to head out to pick up our photos from Olan Mills. We then went to Lifeway to pick up a devotional for Buggaboo for her birthday next Friday, then we headed across town to take to Grandpa his birthday card and some cookies. By this time, Daddy was off from work, so we visited Grandma and Grandpa a little while longer, then came home to eat dinner, play Chutes and Ladders, and get the girls to bed. Here in a bit, I’m going to clean up in the living room and the kitchen, in the hopes of getting things ready for a Christmas tree, which we hope to get tomorrow.

There really hasn’t been anything new in my crafty world this week, though I have been taking notes for some ideas. Most of the crafts will have to be on the back burner until after the holidays, when I’ll have more time.

Schoolwise, we kind of took off this week. At least, we didn’t do math, though we may do it tomorrow (I try to get one lesson in per week. Munchkin tends to get an entire week’s worth of work done in one day, so I”m trying to pace her in order to make the book work last longer! :S ). She has finished the Dick and Jane readers, and can already read Green Eggs and Ham on her own. I’m hoping to start her on the McGuffeys this coming week, so that she has a little more of a challenge. She almost has all 10 commandments memorized, and we’ll be starting on the Lord’s Prayer next. Buggaboo is starting to rote count to 10, and can count to 5 consistently and correctly. She is memorizing the alphabet song, and we’ll be starting her on recognizing her numbers and letters in the new year. I need to pull out the puzzles and our alphabet writing book and get them ready for her. For our read-alouds, we’re a little stalled on Little House on the Prairie, taking a break for a couple weeks due to the sudden business of the holiday season. I think I’ll try to read more than one or 2 chapters per week, to finish up the book. Once that’s finished, we may move on to either Davy Crocket, Anne of Green Gables, or Farmer Boy. I want to talk it over with dh first to see what book he recommends, as I’m stumped. I’ll probably also ask around for recommendations. I do need to stick with what we have, and avoid going to the library (too many fines! eep!).What would you recommend out of the three books?

We still have turkey left over from Thanksgiving. I’ve been trying to be creative in order to use it up without everyone just plain getting tired of it, especially since we only have a whole turkey 1-2 times per year. So, here is what I’ve come up with so far:

Turkey wraps–Whole wheat tortilla, 1-2 lettuce slices (or other greens, if you prefer), 1/4 cup cooked diced turkey, your choice of cheese, touch of seasoned salt, ground black pepper, prepared mustard or Ranch dressing (whichever you prefer). Roll up, and enjoy. Delicious served with sweet potatoes, mini pretzel sticks, cubed mozzarella, and green bean casserole. (I arranged ours one night using the wrap as a tree trunk, the pretzel rods stuck into the cubes of cheese to look like fruited branches, sweet potatoes as the dirt, and the green bean casserole as the grass. My girls gobbled up everything!)

Turkey nuggets–1 cup cooked chunks of turkey, 1/3 cup corn starch, ground black pepper to taste, chicken bullion powder to taste (optional), 2-3 T. vegetable or olive oil. Mix together the dry ingredients and place into a zip-lock-style baggie. Add the turkey chunks and shake until well-coated. Heat the oil in a skillet on medium. Add the coated turkey and fry until golden-brown. Drain on paper towels, serve warm. My girls love this! I also do this with leftover chicken. you could probably even use flour instead of the corn starch, if you like. serve with Ranch dressing or condiments of choice, cheese cubes, carrot sticks, and snack crackers.

Turkey-Two-Stew–1 c. cooked diced turkey, 2 32-oz. boxes chicken broth (or use up the leftover turkey broth you made from the carcass after Thanksgiving), 2 carrots, 2 celery sticks, 1 small diced yellow onion, 2 small bay leaves, salt, pepper, 2 T. butter, dried thyme to taste, your choice of small pasta or rice. In a large saucepan,  melt the butter. Add onion, carrot, and celery, as well as salt and pepper, and saute until tender (I like mine a little on the crispy side, and not mushy at all! This seems to help the veggies retain their flavor). Pour in the broth, and heat until it’s steaming pretty well but not quite boiling. Add the bay leaves, turkey, and thyme. Bring to a gentle boil. Add your choice of small pasta (my girls love alphabet pasta in their soup!) or rice and cook the length of time as per the package directions for your pasta or rice. Serve hot with your choice of crackers or bread. You could make this a little stewy by adding potatoes and a bit of flour to make it thick. This is simply a soup, despite its name (it sounds better as Turkey-Two-Stew, don’t you think? Turkey-Two-Soup just sounds a bit awkward in my head…).

Turkey salad–using your food processor, grind up the desired amount of turkey. Add finely diced onion and celery to taste, then add your choice of salad dressing or mayonnaise. Mix in salt and pepper, and serve in any manner you’d serve tuna salad, whether it be on sliced bread, a sliced bagel with lettuce and cheese, with crackers, or even in a halved bell pepper with carrot sticks and gold fish.

This is all I can think of for right now. I’m trying to come up with more as we continue to eat up the rest of the turkey, so please stay tuned!

This week, the girls and I have a lot to do in order to get ready for Christmas. Lots of baking, homework, crafting, visiting, and, hopefully, getting our Christmas tree at some point.

Today, we’ll be cleaning up the downstairs after I was sick all last week. It’s a terrible mess again after Thanksgiving, and I was enjoying having a clean living area. So, while the girls are watching “Cinderella” (hopefully, if I can find it), I’ll be cleaning up the kitchen and the dining room, as well as setting the living room back to rights. After lunch, we’ll be popping some popcorn in the air popper, and making Fruity Candy Popcorn, but making it all into popcorn balls. We’ll be giving these out to the girls in Munchkin’s dance class tomorrow, along with their Christmas cards she had picked out (again, from the Dollar Tree…they have several types of Winnie-the-Pooh cards in 10-packs, originally priced at $5.99. Sweet!). If I have enough energy, we’ll even start a batch of Christmas cookies, though I’m not sure what type yet. Perhaps some vanilla-flavored pizzeles (can’t stand traditional anise!), since they last for a long time, and don’t really go stale (though, they’re at their best fresh from the iron!). Once the girls are in bed and we’ve watched our Monday night shows (yay for CBS!), dh and I need to finish our Christmas lists so we know what to ask Santa to bring the girls.

Tomorrow will also be a busy day. I have to pack lunches for the three of us, put together the popcorn balls and Christmas cards in a bright red bag (hopefully, I do that tonight before I go to bed at some point!), load up the girls into the car and head across town to where Munchkin has dance class. Then, hang around that city for a bit, go to the chiropractor, then home so the girls can nap. Light cleaning, watch a little tv while crocheting like mad, then dinner.

Wednesday, I hope to have one of my bffs over with her girls, and another friend with her two younger boys so we can make apple-cinnamon Christmas ornaments. I have the stuff to do it, just waiting on a date and time. If our friends are all able to come over, we’ll pretty much be busy.

Thursday I have slated for baking: M&M cookies, Christmas Kolachys, Cream Wafers, and–if I don’t get to them today–the pizzeles. Maybe. We’ll see. I may just get tired of baking after the Kolachys and finish the rest next week.

Friday there was something scheduled, but I don’t remember what at the moment.

Let’s just pray that it all gets done. Oh! and I do promise to take pics of the place mats mentioned in yesterday’s post, after all the cleaning is done.

Thanksgiving is now over. Our family had a really fun time getting ready for Thanksgiving and then ultimately celebrating with the grandparents. Munchkin’s birthday was the following Monday, and we had a little party for her. Sadly, though, we’ve been sick with colds (I’ve had mine for 2 weeks, and am just now getting over it!).

I do, however, want to share a craft we did this year for our table. We made felt placemats.

Simple, easy, and very, very cute! This easy method can and will extend to other seasons and holidays throughout the year, so I thought it appropriate that I share it for the Christmas/winter season. 1 yard of 65-70″ craft felt will make about 8 or so placemats. (Or, you can simply use a regular 9×12″ sheet–it’ll be a tad smaller, but won’t take up as much space on the table!! )

At the same time, purchase some 9×12″ felt sheets (I can’t say squares, even thought the signs at Hobby Lobby and JoAnn’s say squares…I just can’t bring myself to do it! They’re NOT squares! They’re rectangles! Parallelograms! Quadralaterals, even! But they’re definitely NOT squares!) and cut out some seasonal shapes. For Thanksgiving, I had cut out various leaf shapes, fruits, and veggies in their corresponding colors. I also had cut out stems from greens and browns, and cross-stitched them onto the proper place on the veggies/fruits.

Allow the kidlets to arrange them however they like on the designated placemat and glue them into place with regular white glue (it doesn’t stick really well, but they’ll stay in place long enough for the next step!) or you could use fabric glue. what I did for dd1 was squeeze some glue into a small stainless steel cocktail sauce cup I had purchased from the Dollar Tree years ago (muffin tins work just as well, or old jar lids, etc.). I gave her a round 1″ foam stencil dauber, and showed her how to dab the glue onto the cut pieces and then place them on the place mat. Once they’re nice and glued, allow the mats to dry (white glue only takes a couple hours, tops!).

When the kidlets are in bed (this is the only time of day I can do this undisturbed!),  take some corresponding embroidery floss and a sharp hand needle (I don’t know which type it was, but if you get the variety pack of needles at the store, test them to see which needle goes through two layers of felt the best!) and sew a running stitch either around the border of the item or–in the cases of leaves, pumpkins, and carrots–where ever you might see texture or veins on the real thing.

For instance, you could also get really fancy with the round ball ornaments on some of the Christmas place mats! If your children are older, you could even allow them to do the embroidery, thereby saving you a bit of work. Now, the mats could be finished if you like the look of them as they are. I ran out of time (and was–ahem–too sick to finish this part!), but I was hoping to take some pretty gross-grain ribbon and sew it about 1″ inside the outer edges of the place mats, giving them a more “finished” look. Take some pics! Let me know how they turn out for you!

Also, I do have two new favorite blogs to share…One is crafty, and the other is foody! Yum! And they often guest-blog for one another, and I enjoy reading their new posts. Lollychops.com is a blog I’ve been reading since the spring. Perhaps I’ve mentioned Lolly before? She’s based in the Dallas area, and has the cutest embroidery patterns I’ve ever seen! Either this past spring or last year, she even blogged about a link she found that had free stuffed bird sewing patterns, where the blogger made a bird-mobile using these birds and sticks, suspended from the ceiling. I soooooo wanna do that when we get a house! I would love to put that in the girls’ room, as well as a trompe l’oille (sp?) painting of a tree on the wall next to the mobile. Next is Our Best Bites, a wonderful foody blog! The gals over there have some scrumptious recipes, as well as gift ideas! One terribly cute invention they blogged about a couple weeks ago was pies-in-a-jar! How cute and how cool is that? Go check them out! My girls and I are going to make the Fruity Candy Popcorn for dd1’s dance class (we’ll be making the popcorn ball version) and hand them out either this week or next.

It’s been so long since I last logged into my crocheting blog, that it’s now considered inactive; I can’t access it! Ack! I need to add some new patterns that I’m re-writing from vintage turn-of-the-20th century patterns and updating the language, and I can’t add them to the one I want to! So, I’ll have to add them here. *sigh* Oh well. As one of my bffs would say, “Such is life.” (Hmmm…maybe I can simply start a new one? There’s a thought!….)

Anyway, in the group Reclaiming the Home on Ravelry, there’s been a challenge to blog daily this month. I don’t know how well I do, because thus far my track record isn’t that great. Please pray for me so that I can at least blog 2-3 times per week, and talk about the various things we’re doing here during the Advent season.

Speaking of Advent, last year I mentioned making a felt Advent Calendar, inspired by Pottery Barn Kids. Munchkin and I decorated 25 little 3×3″ felt squares to look like gifts, and we glued them onto the huge green felt tree cutout I had made. I used glitter glue to write on the numbers above the squares, and attached magnets to the back. Sadly, the magnets aren’t strong enough to hold the weight of the empty-pocketed tree to the front door! Ugh! And I kept wracking my brain, trying to figure out how to get this thing to stay on the door, and failed during the entire month of December last year. Well, this year, I had a brain storm (well, with a little help from L at Munchkin’s dance class! Hi, L!), and used 3 wire coat hangers. I sewed ribbons to the back of the tree at the top so that one whole hanger could be tied and sewn into place. The second hanger I cut with really strong wire cutters (believe me, plain jewelry craft wire cutters would not have worked! Grab your husband’s wire cutters out of the tool box to do this!) about 3″ on both sides from where the hook is twisted into place. I then used pliers and straightened this piece at the “shoulders”, then I curled back the cut ends so that little fingers couldn’t cut themselves upon touching the ends of the wire. I added more ribbons to the back of the tree at a branchy section, put the wire where I wanted it, sewed it into place, and tied the ribbons over the thread. With the third wire hanger, I cut just below the twists and straightened out this piece as well. (btw, throw away the hooks…you won’t be needing them!) Bend the ends just like the second, and sew at the bottom, just like the last piece. The next dilemma: still couldn’t get the thing to hang on the door! Well, I looked around a few minutes, then went to the dining room. There, on the wall, where a picture once hung, was a frame hook still nailed into place! Perfect! i thought. So, I happily took my huge-honkin’ felt tree to the hook and hung it there. And there, it stays until after Christmas. Inside each pocket I placed a 2″ bell. These bells I bought at the Dollar Tree (9-pk/$1, 3 pks. total), and last year at the end of the season, I had bought those nifty curlique wire hooks for, say, 25 cents? at Hobby Lobby. Took them out, placed them on the bells, and placed the bells into the pockets. Now, we have a fence surrounding our fire place (we take it down during the warmer months, when we don’t have fires) with exactly 25 spaces in between the posts on the front. I took a length of white organdy ribbon (you know, that sheer stuff that comes in 10-yd. spools for $1.47 at Wal-Mart), tied a bow at one corner and wrapped the ribbon through the spaces and around the top of the fence to the other end (25 times ), where I tied another bow. Each morning, the girls alternate who takes out a bell from a pocket and hangs it on the ribbon in front of the fireplace. Here’s the kicker…Once all 24-25 bells are hanging on the ribbon, Santa will be coming! Since he’ll be coming down the chimney, he can’t help but at least bump into the fence…Heeheee…Also, we’ll be leaving a note for him, with some milk and cookies, and some carrots for the reindeer, plus a giant, yellow brass bell that Grandma L gave to the girls last week…I’ll tie a huge ribbon onto it, and we’ll ask Santa to ring the bell and take it with him to help us wake up on Christmas morning. Cute, huh? Shhhh…Don’t tell Santa!

It has been a long while (again) since my last post. Every time I promise to come back and post more updates, I keep forgetting! Ack! Anyway, here are some updates from the summer:

I took the girls to VBS in June, during the first three days. I helped out in registration, which was perfect, because I was only able to be there for a short time. That weekend, dh and I went to the homeschooling convention and purchased the Math-U-See Primer, as well as a couple books from Simply Charlotte Mason. We were able to meet with Sharon, who, with her hubby, spearheaded SCM. Wonderful people, let me tell you! We are starting Munchkin a little early in some formal schooling, but it’s only because she’s ready for it and BEGS to do schoolwork! Hey, I’ll take it when I can, because I have a feeling that in the not-too-distant future, she’s not going to want to do it!

In July, Munchkin had swimming lessons. Silly girl, she would not get into the pool! Ah well, there’s always next year!

In August, we made a trip to the state fair and took in all the sites. We got to ride lots of rides, eat lots of yummy food, see lots of neat displays, and pet lots of animals. The girls really enjoyed seeing the sheep, the horses, the ducks, and the geese, but were not impressed in the least by the chickens. Munchkin’s friend, Little Miss (remember her from earlier in the year?), is now a big sister. Her baby sister was born August 22 via emergency c-section due to mama’s complications. Baby is now home (after 33 days in the NICU at OSU) with her family, and is the tiniest little thing! While she was still in the NICU, Little Miss came over a couple times to play with Munchkin so that Mommy and Daddy could be with baby sister.

During September, we started school. Munchkin LOVES it! We’re done within about 2-2.5 hours, tops, and it is a lot easier than I’d expected. After we get dressed upon finishing our breakfast, I pop in the DVD to watch the short video of Mr. Demme who presents the lesson. I pause it, then Munchkin and I settle in to do the workbook. Sometimes a lesson lasts us a whole week, and other times we’re done the same day and we get through 3-4 lessons. I’ve slowed it down to pace ourselves, and I print off some worksheets reinforcing what she’s learning, or needs to practice (like writing her numbers. She’s getting there, though). Once math is finished, we bring out the readers. We’ve almost finished with Dick and Jane, and we’re now on to Dr. Seuss books, like “Green Eggs and Ham”, “Little Bear”, and “Mouse Soup”. She’s currently reading through “Little Bear”, and is so proud of herself for knowing so many words already! I do have to assist her now and then, which is normal. I mean, after all, she’s still not 4 yet! I have to keep reminding myself of that almost daily! For science, we have been walking nature trails at local parks, and I’m hoping the weather clears up enough this week for us to do a little letterboxing (don’t know what letterboxing is? Go to letterboxing.org for more details about letterboxes in your area!). We also occasionally take in a class at a park geared toward preschoolers. Next week’s class is “Life in a Leaf Pile”, which I think the girls will find rather interesting, since our landscaper just piled all the leaves he mowed around the bases of our trees. For Phys. Ed., she’s taking a combo dance class in ballet and tap, and we’re hoping to get her going in piano lessons with her aunt, my SIL. We also listen to various genre of music in the car when we’re traveling, even if it’s the short 10-minute jaunt to the grocery store! I pop in a CD, and we listen to a piece, and we discuss it afterward. For art appreciation, we haven’t started it yet. I’m still searching for some online resources to see the works in better detail. I know the artists I want us to study, but finding quality sites with large pictures has been rather challenging. I may have to break down and go to the library. *sigh*And for handicrafts, she’s learning basic embroidery. She’s working on a bird from lollichops.com, using floss on muslin. He’s kinda cute, and I do have to get her working on it some more soon, because it’s been a little while.

On a personal note, it seems as if most of the young-ish couples around us are expecting! Yay! It started off with Little Miss’s parents, then another couple from church, who are due any day now. My mom’s boss is due around Thanksgiving, as well as an online friend (and you know who you are! I’m calling you this week!), but I don’t remember her due date. And in the past 2-3 weeks, I’ve found out that at least 4 couples from church are expecting, all due in the spring!! Yowza! I’m just glad we’re holding off for a third, because I don’t want to be pregnant and trying to move! Lol. Oh, and our chiropractor and his wife are due on Christmas day! That’s 7 babies, folks! Thankfully, I have a few hankie bonnets made, but for some of the couples special projects are called for (I know some of them better than others). Oy. This is going to be a busy autumn!

In my last post I mentioned a game that Munchkin and I discovered while searching for a birthday gift for her little friend who just turned 5 recently. It’s more commonly known as a pub game, but Munchkin and I have been playing it for the challenges that exist in playing it.

To make the basic game set you need:

2 standard 6-sided dice

9 uniform pieces to use as Tiles

a cup for shaking and rolling the dice (very handy for little hands)

something to put all of this in

I taught my dad how to play this game, and even made him a set. My mom took it a step further and made a very simple one using 9 pieces of scrap card stock, a styrofoam egg carton that holds 1 dozen eggs, and two dice. I made mine out of wood chips that I purchased at my local Hobby Lobby that are in plastic bags, and come in different sizes. I bought squares as well as rectangles–either shape lends well to the playing of this game, but if you would like an elaborate set, the rectangles might well suit the purpose a little better.

Take your nine pieces (to be here on out known as Tiles) and number them, one through nine. some folks simply use a writing utensil to write simple numbers, others use stickers, decals, or stamps. Use what you have on-hand. I have used scrapbooking markers (Sharpies bleed too much on wood pieces, btw) as well as foam stamps and ink pads. I also made my own dice, but even the standard plastic dice will do (you can find multi-packs of them at your local Dollar Tree if you don’t want to take them from a game you currently have in your house). I purchased 1/2″ and 3/4″ wooden cubes that were blank, also from Hobby Lobby (the 1/2″ ones are simply little colored blocks, but you can use either the colored, or the natural wood–it’s up to you), and I used my scrapbooking marker (very ultra-fine tip) to put dots on the cubes. That’s all you need for a basic set.

To play the game, lay out your Tiles in a line in numerical order. Roll the dice. Looking at the total number on the dice, flip over the tile or tiles that total up the same number on the dice. That’s it. To clarify, let me give you some examples: Suppose you rolled a 5 and a 3. Total is 8, correct? You can flip over any Tiles that are still facing up which total up to 8, such as 8, 7+1, 6+2, and so on. Now, suppose you roll a 12. There is no tile that says ‘12′ on it. That’s where you can flip over 9+3, 8+4, etc. Just so long as the sum of the Tiles you flip over is the same total as the dots on the dice. Get it yet?You keep rolling and flipping over Tiles until you roll a number for which you can’t sum up by flipping any more tiles (i.e., you roll a 7, and all you have left are a 2, 4, and 8). If you are playing alone, you start the game all over again. If you are playing with other people (to which, this number has no limit), your turn is over and the next player’s turn begins. All the tiles are flipped to facing back up and he or she begins (unless you’re playing the Long Game version, to which I haven’t grasped yet. I’ve only played this with an almost-4-year-old, and no adults, so I haven’t had the opportunity to try it yet).

A winner is determined in 1 or 2 ways (at least, in this variation):

1. When your turn is over by being unable to flip any more tiles, the sum of the tiles still facing up is your score (again, 2, 4, and 8, which equal 14). The first person to score 45 is the loser, and play may continue with the remaining players.

2. During your turn, if you are able to successfully turn over every single tile (which is rare, but it does happen), you win. If you have your Tiles inside a box, this is your opportunity to slam the box shut, which is a very gratifying feeling as winner (trust me on this!!).

If you choose to use the egg carton method like my mom, you can even make tiles that number up to twelve. This is a more difficult game, and earning a 45 happens a lot sooner. Simply size your tiles to fit inside each compartment of the egg carton and number them on one side. To flip over a tile, you simply knock it forward so the number isn’t visible. when you roll the dice, you can toss them into the lid. This way, all the pieces won’t get lost.

To store the wood pieces, I also found unfinished wood boxes with hinged lids and latches on the front. I simply sanded all the pieces down if they’re rough, and, to make it easy, just tossed the pieces inside so that Munchkin could grab them and line them up. I’ll explain some of the math skills that this game reinforces a little later in this post. I numbered all the pieces using marker or stamps (my first set I painted with acrylic paints. Munchkin loves this set!), and tossed them into the box, which I also painted. The more elaborate set I drew all the numbers with the ultra-fine point marker, colored them in with watercolor markers, and also drew little filigree designs around each number. I then took a small hand drill (available for about $4 at Hobby Lobby, complete with 3 bits) and drilled a small hole just below the numbers. I also drilled a hole in each side of the box, then threaded a colored 20-gauge wire with beads and the tiles, and placed either end of the wire through the holes in the box and bent the ends into coils so the wire couldn’t unfasten itself. My next step will be to glue in some flannel into the box’s bottom, below the wire, as well as to the inside of the lid, to help deaden the noise from the dice being thrown.

These are some of the mathematics skills this games helps to reinforce:

*simple addition
*simple subtraction

*may aid in multiplication

*may aid in division

*numeral recognition

*one-to-one correspondence

*counting

*matching

*thinking in sets (i.e., 9=1+8, 2+7, 3+6, 4+5, all as a set of numbers that total to 9)

*memorization (i.e., 5 dots and 3 dots visually equal to

*problem-solving, including discovering multiple solutions to a single problem

Tip: If you have a preschooler learning to play this game who hasn’t quite figured out that 5 dots plus three dots equal eight dots but instead only counts the dots on each die, try using an abacus if you have one to show the dot totals. Simply move over 5 dots, then ask your child to move over three more, then count all the beads total. Then, to work on more advanced skills, ask your child to figure out what numbers to flip over to make 8.

I hope if you choose to try this game that you enjoy it as much as Munchkin and I do. We play it a couple times per day.

So much to tell, as so much has happened since my last post!

Dh and I have officially decided to start Munchkin on kindergarten work this year. We’re going to use Charlotte Mason’s methods for certain, even though we’re starting a couple years earlier than what Miss Mason would have liked. We’re reading the Little House series for our books this year, through Farmer Boy (we’re currently almost finished with Little House in the Big Woods, which I’ll get to that in the next post!), and we’ll also read Davy Crockett. For writing we’ll be using Handwriting Without Tears, then The Writing Road to Reading, as well as copywork, and then we’ll also be using Math-U-See. For science, we’ll be doing various nature studies, as well as a bunch of other stuff.

I’m no longer watching Little Miss. Her mother was able to get her into a preschool just before Easter, and the past couple of months have been busier than ever!!

We’ve gone on nature walks, trips to playgrounds, visits to my parents, shopping, VBS, trips to the pool, and a whole slew of other things.

Munchkin and I have discovered a really fun game that’s traditionally known as a pub game, but can be played without all the “traditional pub things” (like drinking and gambling). This game is called Shut the Box. I discovered it while shopping for a birthday gift for a friend’s little boy who just turned 5. Melissa & Doug made a nice, fancy version of it and it’s available at many places on the web, such as Itsybitsyworld.com and toysrus.com. Unfortunately, being a M&D product, it’s also a tad pricey. I found out I could make my own version for less than $3–minus any stains or polyurethanes. I’ll explain more about this game in my next post.

On Ravelry, I’ve been participating in a read-along with “Little House in the Big Woods”, by Laura Ingalls Wilder. I’m going to blog more about this, because the Little House series is a passion of mine. I’ve always been a fan of Mrs. Wilder, and when I was a girl, I would pretend that I was Laura traveling with my family in a covered wagon to literally what seemed to be the middle of nowhere to help it become Somewhere. When playing with my younger brother we would collect the wild onions that grew in the yard and I’d pretend to cook with them while he went “hunting” (really, it was more like he went to play with his Tonka trucks, but I didn’t care…I was in my own little world). Anyway, the read-along group is about halfway finished with the book, though Munchkin and I are only 1.5 chapters away from finishing it and beginning “Little House on the Prairie”.

This read-along group has been reading one chapter per week, and each week, the other mods and I suggest various activities and recipes to go along with the chapter. It’s been a lot of fun so far. Munchkin and I really need to do more of the activities that are listed, and we’ll probably end up coming back to them soon in the future, as autumn approaches. With the start of “Little House on the Prairie”, we’ll be able to explore our adventurous spirit as a family. We hope to go camping here a couple times before September, which will be a perfect backdrop for our book. We’ll be able to take photos of the things we get to do on our camping trips (which will more than likely be someplace local, perhaps at a reservoir that has campgrounds and the like), and we’ll also journal about everything as well. I already have Munchkin drawing at least one thing she did each day (though, I’m not as consistent as I would like to be in reminding her to do it), so hopefully we’ll be able to compare what we do while camping with what Laura experienced while traveling with her family and sleeping under the stars or inside the wagon.

In future posts, I will share all the activity suggestions that we posted in the group, so that anyone who reads this who does not belong to Ravelry will also have a chance at participating with us. Plus, it’s easier for me to share photos here.

Anyway, I must go so that I can get Buggaboo to sleep before Munchkin wakes up from her nap (which should be really soon). In my next post, I will share how to make a Shut the Box set, as well as photos of what my simple wooden ones look like (as well as an elaborate one for someone’s birthday that’s coming up, but I can’t say who because I think they occasionally come to read my blog). I hope you all have a blessed day, and that the weather is as beautiful where you are as it is here in sunny Central Ohio.

Things have, as usual, been quite busy here in the Homespun household. I’m babysitting Little Miss again, and with this comes new routines for us to become used to. Starting next week, I’ll have her all week long, and lesson planning has been more fun this time than last.

Noah’s Ark was a bit of a bust. I’m not sure what happened. During our 3-week long study we did discover that we have other threads of interest to follow, and we may bring Noah’s ark back into our plans somewhere down the road.

We are working on Valentine’s Day things right now. Wednesday, we made two little heart garlands out of red and pink felt, and they’re now hanging in the front windows with some birdies that were made. To make the heart garland, take one sheet of felt (usually about $0.20 at Hobby Lobby) and cut it into 16ths (it’s easier if you cut each piece in half, then half again, then half again, then again). Fold the smallest pieces in half, cut half a heart on the fold, and voila! You have a little heart. I made 16 of each color, then took a hole punch and punched holes into the little humps in the top. I had Munchkin and Little Miss string them onto red ribbon in alternating colors, and then I hung them on suction cups in the window. They look darling inside and out! If I can, I will later take a picture (yeah, yeah, I know…I’ve said that before! ).

With the warmer weather slowly beginning to return, some of the local birds are becoming more active around here. February is also bird-watching month, so we’ll begin working on our Nature Journals by letting the girls take the binoculars and watching the birds. They’ll ideally draw pictures of what they see, and we’ll hopefully discuss the antics of the birds outside. There is also a little sparrow family nesting right behind the downspout in the gutter on the patio just outside our sliding door. On clear days, you can hear them chirp, chirp away. With the spring coming, they’ll probably have a couple broods of little ones to raise, so that will be something else we’ll all be watching. Seeing as how insects and seeds are a bit scarce right now, I may see if I can talk dh into letting us get some wild bird seed and refill the feeders out back. We can even let the girls use the excess to make little heart-shaped suet-type cakes to hang on the back fence so that we can watch our little feathered friends enjoy their treat–that is, if the exceedingly fat squirrels don’t make off with them. During this little bird study, we’ll also be making some bird mobiles. I found some really cute free sewing patterns at spool.com and lollychops.com, and I’ve already made some really cute little birdies who now make their homes in the front windows. Lollychops has a new little applique pattern download available for free on her site. I’m going to use the applique patterns and enlarge them to use on felt. Once the felt pieces are cut out, I’ll punch holes in them with my hole punch and string them up together to make a cute little 2-dimensional mobile, reminiscent of what is seen on spool.com’s site (which is a 3-D version). I may take the single birdie applique and have the girls decorate their birds and let them sit in the window, or perhaps on our front glass door–it’s been looking kind of boring as of late.

With it being Valentine’s Day next weekend, we’ll also be making bouquets of felt flowers. We’ll be using more little felt hearts, pipe cleaners, and glue to make them. I’m not sure how well it will work, but I’m going to try it first today during nap time and see, and then if it turns out well, I’ll have the girls begin making them next week. Also, we’ll be making Valentines, but I’m not going to say how just yet…Some of my readers may be receiving them and we don’t want to give a way the surprise!

For our read-aloud book, we’re still plugging through Laura Ingalls Wilder’s “Little House in the Big Woods.” Munchkin keeps begging to hear more, which makes me so glad to hear. I can’t wait until she’s ready to begin reading the series on her own, as it happens to be one of my life-long favorites.

The girls are also continuing in their study of Dick and Jane readers. Munchkin reads so well, and I just started Little Miss this week and will be sending home with her the book I started with her for the weekend. When I work with Munchkin, I see the look on Little Miss’s face that says she wants to read just like Munchkin. I hope it lasts for her mother’s sake.

We’re also going to start discussing Weather next week. First we’ll start with observing to see what is going on outside at the moment, then move on to see what might happen, then discuss what we should wear for the day if we were to go outside. It will be quite interesting to see what they come up with, no?

We may even top the week on Friday by going to one of the local metro parks to visit the Nature Center and observe the birds and other wildlife that visits the feeders outside the observation area. There are also many books the girls can look through, as well as naturalists who can answer any questions they may have.

Over the following weeks, we’ll take a look at Spring, and plant some seed and flowers. We’ll start the seeds indoors for our vegetable garden out back, and we’ll also be planting flowers for the front flower bed. Each girl (Munchkin and Little Miss) might be given their own flowering plant to look after and take care of once it’s planted, and I’ll have them take their nature journals outside to draw pictures of their plants and discuss them. Once the violets and other bright flowers begin to bloom, we’ll take on the task of “flower pounding” and making neat and interesting designs on scrap fabric that I have. We may take the fabric and set the design with heat, and frame the pictures. Other topics that may come up are: fairies, fairy tales, Hans Christian Andersen stories, bugs, poetry, and more. We’ll also continue our bird study, and and perhaps visit a pet store to see the larger and the smaller birds available, and perhaps even make our own birds’ nests with yarn and felt. I also found a neat recipe for edible birds’ nests, which I’ll have to modify due to a chocolate allergy (won’t be hard, though, since there are cinnamon, butterscotch, or even peanut butter chips available!). We may do this in conjunction with Easter…I’m not sure yet.

Anyway, I must go. We have a few errands to run as we continue our day. I WILL take pictures during nap time of the garland, our birdies, and the hopeful crafts for next week. Until then, God bless!!

A few days ago, I ran across an old friend on facebook. Ah, the memories! I found out that since I had last seen him (about 10-12 years ago…I don’t remember) he, also, has become a Christian. Praise God! Hallelujah! I told him that I had been praying for him for about 11 or so years now, and that I would love to hear/read his testimony if he ever gets the time to write it out (he has kids, like I do, so I know how it is! Heehee). Well, he wrote back and said 11 years ago, on his birthday (Jan. 2), he accepted Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior. Can you just imagine how ecstatic I felt? I mean, this was true joy, and all because of God. It’s a joy in the Lord, that He makes things happen according to His purposes and Plan. Now, I don’t know if my friend accepted Christ before or after I began praying for him. It doesn’t matter, really, because it was not of my power, but God’s. How great is that?

So, I began thinking. What exactly is my testimony? How did I come to know the Lord? Well, I’m still getting to know Him, and it’s been almost 14 years! 14 years? Really? Huh. Time seems to fly when you have fun, doesn’t it? Okay, let me start from the beginning.

Most of my family is Catholic, and when I was little, I went to CCD, since I went to public school instead of Catholic school. A few weeks before my first communion, though, Mom and Dad pulled me out, and told me that I could decide for myself what religion I wished to follow when I was old enough. We never really went to church much after that, and I’m not sure why. There were a number of factors contributing to it, but it doesn’t matter. When I was in high school, I had been invited by friends to go to their respective churches. I went to a Disciples of Christ church, and while I learned a little, it didn’t feel “right” to me. Another friend, whose parents were old friends of my folks, invited me to her new church, which was an Assemblies of God church plant that was just starting up.  During this time I started dating the friend at the beginning of this post. We were together through our senior year, and around Easter of ‘95, I accepted Christ. I invited my friend a few times–I think, and it’s been so long I really don’t remember–to come to service with me. Well, we graduated, and he moved to Tucson, AZ in the mid-summer. I continued to go to church and Sunday school, but during Sunday school I felt I was being pressured to do something I wasn’t called to do.

The pastor of this church, which I know now wasn’t completely representative of its denomination, was our Sunday school teacher. One Sunday, not long before I left for college, he began teaching about spiritual gifts. Our assignment was to read chapters 11-14 of 1 Corinthians. Okay, I did, and I felt it was fairly straightforward. I was loving what Paul said about some being called to be doctors, others to be servants, some to be teachers, others to be ministers, etc. Some were also called to speak in tongues while others were to interpret, some to be prophets and others for discernment. Paul even stated how speaking in tongues was to be done during the service. I thought, “Huh, this isn’t how we do that. I wonder why?” So, I wrote down my questions, as it was part of the assignment. The members of this church openly spoke in tongues during service, and they each interpreted their own, um, words? So, I asked the pastor about it, and he said that Paul only said that others were to interpret during the service because it was the times they were living in, and it didn’t apply today. So, I asked, “Well, if that doesn’t apply today, then why does the rest of the bible?” I don’t remember his reply, for it must not have made much of an impact. Then, we started talking about the spiritual gifts, themselves. He stated that yes, you are saved when you accept Christ as your Savior, but you’re fully saved when you are baptised by the Holy Spirit. By that, he meant speaking in tongues. To this pastor, speaking in tongues was the ultimate gift, and that everyone must aspire to it. It is your outward proof of being saved, he told me, and that you’re completely saved when you do speak in tongues. Huh? I don’t get it. I asked, “So you’re only half saved when you accept Christ?” “Well, sort of. When you speak in tongues, it shows the Holy Spirit’s approval of you.”  Woah. Um, yeah. To this day, I still haven’t felt called to speak in tongues. Does that mean I still have not been approved by the Holy Spirit? I’ll get back to this in a moment.

Needless to say, after that, I didn’t go to church as often. I went to college, and backslid quite a lot. The religion course I was required to take did nothing for my faith at all, which is sad, really. The professor I had taught from the book of Mark, and said that it was the only gospel that was considered credible, since it was written by an actual apostle closer to the time of Christ’s death, compared to the other three gospels. He went on about Jesus feeding the 5,000, and loosely stated that another gospel mentioned that Jesus fed 4,000. Which story is correct? Well, I went back to my dorm that night, and looked up the matter. Turns out, they were  2 separate events. Luke (I think, it’s been a while…I will edit it otherwise when I have time to look it up) says that Jesus first fed the 5,000, and then the next day he fed the 4,000. Two days later, I returned to class, and pointed it out to the professor, who didn’t even know! Can you believe he was a pastor, himself?!

Anyway, fast-forward to the spring of ‘97. I went through burnout, and had to change majors to elementary education (I had been working full-time on top of going to school full-time, and I still couldn’t pass piano competency!!). One of my friends offered to let me live with her and her family so I could continue working in Columbus. She introduced me to a whole new group of people, one of which who invited me back to church again. I began going, and I rededicated my life to Jesus. I could not believe how liberating that was! For the first time ever in my life, I felt truly free, free from all my burdens, free from past sins. I was overjoyed and on a spiritual high for several months.

During this spiritual high I learned so much. The pastor of my new church taught one Sunday morning about how the impact of today’s prayers could make a huge difference in someone else’s life, and you may know it right away, or may not know it for many years to come. He had us write down a list of people we knew who did not know Jesus, or those who did know Him but did not have a relationship with Him. He told us to think about the people in our lives even from our pasts, such as former co-workers, classmates, friends, teachers, neighbors, etc. If we didn’t know if that person on the list had a relationship with Christ, we were to pray for them. We were also to pray that God would bless each person on our lists and that He would exercise His Will. Now, I don’t remember when I started praying for the folks on my list. It could have been that fall, it could have been that spring, I don’t know. He also explained that in some ways prayers could be retroactive, that God knew you would eventually be praying for a situation, and He was already taking care of it before you even knew to pray about it. I thought, “Alright, I can do this.” I prayed for my family, I prayed for co-workers, and even for friends from high school and college. I kept that list for a few years, and continued to pray for those people.

Over the next few years, I grew so much spiritually. The spring of ‘98 was rough, but not because of school so much. I started stressing about how I was going to pay for the new PRAXIS exams, which are now necessary for all Ohio teachers. I did continue and press on, because I felt this was what God wanted me to be doing. Summer came, and I was baptized that August. Mom was angry with me, but Dad and my grandfather came to watch.

In the spring of ‘99, when the rest of my classmates were preparing for graduation, I ended up changing my major yet again to religious education. And my parents separated. Before I left the dorms that May, they had a dissolution of marriage, the dog was put down (he had cancer and was going blind), Mom had a new puppy (who is now a horse of a dog), and Dad had his own apartment. I had to tell them both that just because I was away and in school, that didn’t make me partial to one or the other. I was also not qualified to be a counsellor (psychology wasn’t even my major!), I was not their friend but their daughter. All this was a huge stressor for me. At the same time, I began dating a friend from church, joined the youth ministry, the church orchestra, and was just plain busy!

That summer was wierd for me. Dad wasn’t there but at his apartment, and my brother had moved out of the house. I was still working in Columbus and thought I had another job, but after I put in my notice, the new job fell through. I was supposed to help Mom with the bills, but couldn’t come through with the money. I started working for a temp agency, and found a place to live for the fall (being a 5th year student, I was no longer eligible to live on campus). Two weeks before I was to move, I had a falling out with Mom, and was kicked out early. Through all of this, meaning the spring and summer of that year, I was strangely calm, and I could tell it bothered some of the folks around me. I simply knew that God had a reason and a purpose for all that was going on, and I had faith that He would pull everyone through it. I moved in with my new roommate for about 9 months. After that, her lease was up, and she wanted to move to a new apartment with a different friend. This was fine by me, and I moved farther away, into the country with another gal in a huge studio apartment with 4 gentlemen in a separate house on the same property. We had weekly bible studies (no, it was NOT a commune) and we often carpooled to church, depending on who had to be there when (we were all serving in various ministries–a couple of the guys were on the tech crew doing sound, Power Point, lights, etc., another was working for the church and had to be there at the crack of dawn to open up the building). I learned so much on studying the bible, strengthening my faith, and serving others. I was working full-time for a local gourmet cookie company that also distributed in selected areas nationwide, plus serving in ministry almost 7 days per week. The gentleman who I had been dating and I broke up, and it took a long time to learn it was okay to be single.

9/11/2001, I was working in our downtown location on Broad and High Streets. When news of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon arrived from customers stopping quickly by for coffee and hurrying to their cars (basically, all of downtown Columbus was evacuating, which in itself was odd, and I’ll save that story for another day), I felt it was God who was warning us. We, as a nation, need to return to Him. As it says in II Chronicles, “If my people who are called by My Name and humble themselves and pray and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from Heaven above and I will heal their land.” For a short time, yes, I believe more people began turning to God, yet it seems like as a nation it wasn’t enough. Anyway, I’ll get off my soapbox and save that rant for another day, as well. The whole situation really opened my eyes to praying for our nation’s leaders, as well as those of the rest of the world.

2 days before Christmas that year, I kind of sort of lost my job with the cookie company. From day one, the district manager knew I could work any day of the week except Sunday, and when she wanted me to work at a certain location on a particular weekend but I couldn’t (I was going out of town, and didn’t know I had to request it off, despite the fact that my home store was only open Mon-Fri), she demanded that I go part time. She then hired a co-manager for my store (I was an assistant manager whom she was grooming to be a store manager), which took all my hours. After 12/23 that year, I simply had no more hours. I wasn’t laid off, I wasn’t let go, so i couldn’t file for unemployment. i couldn’t work there, either, since there weren’t even any hours at any of the other stores. Because of the September attacks, no one was hiring. No one in retail was hiring until spring, and other places of business had no interest in someone who had no degree (an almost-degree didn’t count, either), or experience working in an office. For 6 weeks, I searched and searched for employment, knowing that God had something out there for me somewhere. During this time I did a lot of growing. The youth pastor I served under said he was going to be talking about relationships, and since i primarily worked with jr. high schoolers, I had to find a way to talk about it with my girls. I had also started hanging out with a new group of friends, one of whom was Brandon. He had some books that he was willing to let me borrow to help with the discussions with the girls. A week or two later, I went to Snow Camp with the youth ministry at church. The youth pastor in charge of leading the devotions and services talked about being content with being single. He was mostly speaking to the high school students, because so many kids feel that they have to have a significant other or they’re not worth anything. Yet, he even mentioned that he was talking to us single adults, as well (most of the youth workers were single). Hmmm…being content to be single? I never thought of it that way. So, I prayed about it. You know what? It worked! I was perfectly happy to be single. I didn’t want to look for a husband, or boyfriend. So, when I came back from camp I felt I was a totally different person. Later that week, I received a job offer through a local Head Start agency, and began subbing at one of the schools. At the beginning of March, Brandon asked me out on a date to see Blast! at the Ohio Theater. We began courting, and really getting to know one another. I joined him on a church plant across town, where a friend of his was the pastor. I learned a lot about patience. We even decided not to kiss unless we got engaged, and saved our first kiss for our wedding day. We got engaged in October of 2002, and were married May 3, 2003.

Since being married, I’ve learned a lot about what it means to be in a true partnership. I still have a long, long way to go. I have learned the difference between being biblically submissive versus subservient. My goal is to become submissive, and while I’ve come a long way, I have quite a ways to go. And to be honest, I also thought I was a pretty patient person (well, unless you’ve been in a car with me, which proves me otherwise…I have a ton of issues with other drivers!) until I had kids. Wow. Many, many life lessons have been learned, as well as many more are being learned as I write these words. I’m also learning a lot about grace and mercy, as well as forgiveness.

How about you? What is your testimony?