Great Resource Thanks to Jimmie!

Jimmie over at One Child Policy Homeschool is like the queen of multitasking and does a fantabulous job in all her endeavors. She has a lens on Squidoo that is for audio learners, which is what Lillie is for sure. She has some great free sites on there, some I had never heard of, that carry mp3 files for kids that are just awesome. Check out the Science songs which are so catchy, you'll find yourself singing them while you're doin' the dishes. Click here to go to Jimmie's page. Drop her a line and tell her you appreciate her! I know I do! I am right smack in the middle of planning for our big startback come Monday, so I won't post again until then unless my children do something weird or strange or humorous. Blessings!

Christmas Past...

Well, another Christmas has come and gone. Once again, I have found myself buried in toys and candy. Had a great Christmas and got to have alot of fun with family. Christmas Eve, we headed to my sister's house. We decided to kick tradition in the teeth and have Stroud's BBQ for supper and in the process may have started a new tradition. It was sooooooo good. Played Christmas songs and hymns on the guitars and banjo and my poor left hand is still stiff and swelled where I haven't played that much in years. Here's pics of the fun going down at Leila's..

This is Baby Lauren, who is battling another case of thrush so has to scoot around with purple lips...She's still cute though.Here's Leila reading us all some Christmas stories. I think this will be a annual tradition with our family from here on out...

Jody has become really interested in playing chess, so I got him a nice glass chess set. Here he is imposing his will on the kids, Kasey in particular...Sophia lovin' her dolly....Chef Lillie in her flashy pink chef's hat ...Mom with all her grand babies ultrasound pics...Jackson with his basketball game...Now, just for kicks... I present to you "Anatomy of a Fit" starring Chloe...The wringing of the hands...The opening of the mouth... the shot of the tonsils...Look at those precious little hands balled up into fists...All this drama cause I told her she couldn't have any candy until she ate some breakfast! Sheesh!

Well, Christmas day we headed to Jody's mom and dad's. Everyone's had the stomach virus so we decided to eat light this Christmas. We had sandwiches, which was fine by me cause I'm a big fan of big Christmas dinner, but not such a fan of the after big Christmas dinner Kitchen Duty. My sis in law , Shanna brought over some bbq made from antelope and before you curl up your lips, it was soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo good. No one could be more surprised than me. Jason and Cassie and Olivia couldn't be with us, cause Livy was not feeling good. I can tell you one thing, when your family is close like mine is when someone is not there, you really miss them and are very aware of their absence. I'll take this time to say to Jay and Cassie and Livy, "We sure did miss ya'll!" Still had a good time opening gifts and watching the children's antics.

Poppy D in camo...we can still see you...you weren't gettin' out of it that easy! Paul with his headlights (literally)
Here's the boys screaming "Merry Christmas" at the neighborhood...

Scoots and Chloe fighting over the chair massager...Hey kids...you're supposed to be RELAXING! Chloe got her first haircut... Nanny with her babie's...well some of them anyway.

Here's the finished dolls I promised...

I sure hope your Christmas was as fun and action-packed as mine. I always hate to see Christmas go, means another year is come and gone and I'm reminded that time is still going on, whether I want it to or not and I must live everyday as if it were my last. Many thanks to my whole family, both sides, for their love and goodness this Christmas. Blessings, Della.

I'm Still Around...

The gifts are wrapped, the food is bought, and I'm down to just two more dolls and two stick horses which I am determined to finish today. I can't believe another year is slipping by me! I've been going non-stop and once again, I have failed to really revel in the wonder and joy of the season. For that I am truly ashamed. I've let worry and uncertainty steal away the joy of one of the most important events in History...Lord forgive me.

Been busy, for sure. Every year their are so many get togethers in our family. We'll use anything as an excuse to eat :) Last Saturday, me and my in laws of the female persuasion took our annual girls shopping trip. I am telling you, it ought to be illegal to have that much fun with your IN LAWS! We've done it every year for, oh, maybe four years now. None of us ever buy much, cause we're usually broke, but we do have enough fun to make up for it! I wish I had pictures, but everyone convienently forgot their cameras. Even me and I NEVER go anywhere without my camera.

Last week, we got hit with the stomach virus that is raging right now. Me and Chloe and Jack were the victims. It was , to put it lightly, HORRIBLE! However, Chloe and Jack have invented a new sport... synchronized puking. You think there is a market for it? Yeah, you're right...probably not. Oh well...

Well, Saturday we had our Christmas Breakfast with Jody's gramps Pa James and his wife, Granny Betty. Lordy, it was fun and I ate too much. Cracker Barrell didn't have NOTHING on us! We had every breakfast food imaginable. We also played the Dirty Santa game, though I'm thinking it would better be served by a name change...like "The Game that Will Ruin Your Christian Testimony" My poor mother in law just wanted a 3 lb bag of peanut M&M's, but everyone just kept picking on her. Just a word here, if you're prone to high blood pressure as my family is, don't eat a bunch of Country Ham and then play a game where you have to take gifts fron each other. We made it through without incident and we all shared our candy gifts afterwards. My mother in law did win out in the end...Go Pam! Didn't get a whole lot of pics, cause my battery was rapidly dying. But I did snap a couple.

These two have become fast partners in crime...

Scooter knows how to party!Here's that big bully Pa James, pickin' on my momma (in law)... Pam here seems to be trying to bargain with him... using Cassie's (whose 5 months pregnant) two big ole boxes of Crunch and Munch. Do you see the panic? Luckily, Cassie is very calm and can , even with hormones raging, control the urge to come up swinging. In the end, Pam gracefully handed over her most prized possession, realizing that a judge probably wouldn't take "The Ham Made Me Do It" as a defense for boxing her father's jaws.

See, real men wear flower aprons...This is Pa James...Master of the Ham.

This is one of the many rag dolls I have made this month for the little girls in my family...I'll post pics of all of them when I'm done.

I made some aprons from vintage pillow cases...I gave this one to myself, cause I like pink...Don't have pics of stick horses, but will post them after the holidays. Well, that's it until after the festivities are over. I just want to take this moment to wish you all a very Merry Christmas. My wish is that the joy of the season and the peace of Christ will fill your heart. Happy Christmas blessings to all you and your families this year!

You Know It's Gonna Be One of Those Days When...

Your three year old son, who seemed to have potty training licked for good, comes running up to you and says "Mommy! I peed in your washing machine!" ...and he's proud of it!. Now, although I'm sure this will be very amusing down the road when I'm trying to weed out girlfriends, some things minorly bothered me aside from the obvious that the kid is marking his territory on my major appliances.
1. It wasn't the washing machine...that would have been better. It was actually the dryer that had a batch of clean, dry (well, were dry) clothes. Man! At least I could have run a cycle in the washing machine and be done with it...not biggie! But NOOOOOOO, my little overachiever goes all the way!
2. He doesn't know the differences between a washing machine and a dryer (Oh, Lord, where have I failed!!!!!!!!)
3. He thought it was a GOOD idea and one that I would be proud of him for.
Oh well, let's just pray this is not a repeat performance thing...

Laid Back Learnin'

I made the executive descision a couple months back to take the whole month of December off from school. Now, that's not to say we won't be doing any work, but just that it will be more flyin' by the seat of my skirt kinda learning. Reading lots of great books, doing some crafts and projects, letting the kids guide a little more and , of course, focusing on the true meaning of Christmas. I have been up to my eyeballs in crafting for the holidays. I have so many neat projects I want to do, that I'm making a new list every day. I have finally realized that I need to stop looking, settle down and focus and get to work or I'll never get it all done.
Today, we read "Mirette on the High Wire" and I introduced the kids to their story journals. I saw a similar idea like it on a blog that I can't remember. Instead of elaborate lapbooks, this mother bought some blank scrapbook notebooks and added only a few little mini books or pictures for each story (each book got it's own page). I really liked this idea, cause , although I love to do lapbooks, until my children can be more involved in the making part, it's too overwhelming and not as much fun as it ought to be. Well, then my sister , oh wise mamma as she is, suggested doing pockets instead. So....here's the collaboration of the two ideas. Just a regular cheap composition book with some cardstock pockets taped to the pages. A pack of index cards , glue sticks and an itchy Google Image Search finger later....voila! Self-guided learning at it's finest...




The cards have information written on the back so they'll make nifty little flash cards for more advanced readers, while even the littles can use the pics to jog their memory. We had Geography of France, Niagara falls, Bellini's travels , French landmarks, and French artist cards. I also threw in a little mini book on the circus that I found and they tuck them away in their little pockets. It's a very handy and more simple alternative to lapbooking. For a craft, we made torn paper collages ala Henri Matisse, a french artist we learned about. No post would be complete without an assortment of pictures of my kids...




Here's Chloe...eating....again. I know it must seem like that's all the kid does. Well, that's about right. Here she is with Lillie and Jack's rejected bowls of soup the other night. Chloe's kinda the clean up crew around here. Everyone gives her their scraps....:) Just for the record, she only ate her bowl and some of the next in line.Here's some pictures taken at Thanksgiving...If you're a PETA supporter, you might want to look the other way...this bird's been picked!






Tanner doing what he does best...riding on Jack!
Livy Grace doin what she does best...being too darn cute!

Hunter doing what he does best...cheesin' big time for the camera.

She even looks cute when she sweeps... The next generation of Kitchen Duty...

Don't let the looks fool you...they are rotten...and adorable.

This was the before dinner pic, I didn't take an after dinner cause it wasn't pretty...neither was the clean up!