I'm not ready for this

But I don't have a choice! I have a little man who is adventurous and daring, and who has figured out how to climb out, and into his crib. So I'd like to avoid the obvious potential of a head injury with this little man. We thought about just converting his crib into the toddler bed feature, but for Maxwell, if he'll get out of that bed just the same...so... since we're getting our house ready to show to sell, might as well get rid of an extra piece of furniture into the storage unit.

He looks too tiny in this twin size bed! But he felt like a big man I tell ya. The new Toy Story sheets were a big hit, he was so excited! Every time I tried to sneak out the camera and capture his happy face beaming, he would see me and say "cheese" sticking his finger in his eye... I have no idea why. Geek!

Day one of a nap, and bedtime: Success! Let's hope it stays this way. Max-ee-moose on the loose!

Somewhere over the rainbow

We have enjoyed some really neat (and big, and sometimes scary!) summer rain storms this year. After every rain storm, my kids always look for the rainbow. They still remember the time 2 years ago after a summer afternoon rain storm, we saw a rainbow, and I had packed them into the car and took them for a drive around the nearby neighborhood streets, following the direction that the rainbow was in the sky, looking for the end of the rainbow.

Little do they know that I put them in the car mostly to have them take a nap! But I love making little moments like that fun, inspiring magic and imagination, and giving them the excitement of life to make big wishes.

So after the rainstorm today, we were sitting at the kitchen table eating dinner. The sun finally broke through the clouds a little, and with the sunset, it made a rainbow which went through our backyard basically. The end of the rainbow seemed to disappear somewhere in the woods behind the house. So of course that was a perfect opportunity to build excitement about the end of the rainbow right on our own back yard! We went out looking for it too, but it faded and disappeared as soon as we got outside :(

Maren asked me if that would happen next time that it rained. I told her that a lot of people look their entire life for the end of the rainbow, and never find it. And we were so lucky enough to have it right in our own yard, that it was a super special once in a lifetime experience. Someday I hope my children know that the real magic is knowing that the once in a lifetime experience is happening every day, right here being a part of a loving family. And just like Glinda the good witch told Dorothy at the end of the Wizard of Oz when she asked for help to find her way home...

Glinda: Well Dorothy, you were wise and good enough to help your friends to come here and find what was inside them all the time. That is true for you, also.

Dorothy: Home? Inside of me? I don't understand.

Glinda: Home is a place we all must find, child. It's not just a place where you eat or sleep. Home is knowing. Knowing your mind, knowing your heart, knowing your courage. If we know ourselves, we're always home, anywhere."

We struck gold!

On our weekend vacation, we took the kids to a gem mining place in Grandfather Mountain, NC. This was actual gem mining, not a bucket of sand and walmart polished rocks that we've seen at amusement parks! They gave us a bucket full of rocks mined right there on site, and we got to sift and wash through them finding our treasures.

We found an actual piece of gold! The large nugget is Pyrite (fool's gold) and a small piece (on top) to show the differences in the color of the actual piece of gold (bottom.) Too bad it's not the large nugget that is the actual gold, we'd be rollin' !

Here's the large pieces of what we collected, there was lots of little tiny shards of gems as well, not pictured.

Topaz (also called Citrine. It's the alternative gem stone for April babies, Diamonds are in a class all of their own and some don't think they should be a birth stone. But I'm an April baby, so I think it's ok ;) heehee.)

I had a larger piece of Citrine cut into an emerald shape that they will ship to me, and maybe I'll set it into a ring or a pendant necklace someday.

Ruby. Not bright red as I would have thought, they're quite pink when they're surrounded in their natural unpolished form. They redden with heat and cutting.

Garnets. They look like meatballs. They're covered in rust when they're mined raw, but when you shine a light through them, you can see their clear red color. Maren wasn't too impressed with her birth stone!

Sapphires

Smokey Quartz. These were really beautiful when they were cut and polished, I debated about getting some of these cut, but I felt obligated to choose Topaz, I have no idea why now that I think about it!

Emerald. These are really deep green when you shine a light through them too, I bet they'll be a beauty when they're cut and polished!

Amethysts. I can see a pair of matching earrings for me and Maren in the works someday :)

More pictures of our adventures to come soon! Including Tweetsie Railroad, Grandfather Mountain's mile high bridge, Linville Caverns, and the beautiful Blue Ridge. Since I am married to a man who insists on being a mountain man, I could be happy being a mountain man's wife... as long as it is in the Blue Ridge!

How do you homeschool in a small house?

In style! This idea brought to you today by Ikea, Target, and my hard workin' handy hubby.

We were going to do ONE bookshelf with two doors, but then we saw one of these bookshelves mounted around other units to form an entertainment center, so we merged the idea to take 3 of them mounted horizontally like this, one of them at counter top level, we got so much MORE space, and 3 were cheaper than the one! Ha! So we splurged on some accent lights, decorative boxes, and a cute clothes line with hooks to hang artwork the kids will soon be busy making. And we snatched up a magnet strip and magnetized containers to organize things like chalk, staples, paperclips, etc. Can you see it mounted on the far right?

Also would be great for a kitchen!

Have I mentioned how much I love Ikea?

2010-11 School Curriculum

I know a lot of my fellow bloggers are enjoying their summer and haven't wrapped their brains around school starting in the fall. But my brain has been anticipating school this fall for several months already. We will be doing our first year of homeschool, and I'm an obsessive planner, so I feel even yet unprepared for this fall to be approaching in just 6 weeks. Eeek!

Here's a run down of what we'll be tackeling this fall, I'm hoping my homeschooling mentors will offer suggestions if they see fit! (pleeeeease!) And since Maren and Kellan are close in age, I will teach them the same subject for most things. But some of it is tailored for their learning curves, of course.

Language Arts- We will be doing Abeka Phonics, Reading, and Writing cursive K5, Kellan will be tailored to writing manuscript first. (*even though Maren has a year of public school under her belt, there are so many concepts in these subjects that they didn't cover with her, sadly.)

Reading: We'll be going through Aesop's Fables through the year, as well as their own independent reading choices for afternoons.

Numbers/Arithmetic: Abeka K5 for both kids, again some concepts and sequences that Maren didn't learn last year.

Science: Usborne The living world encyclopedia, I plan to adapt my own lesson plans for this (lots of prayers for sure!) but we'll be following the outline of the Creation recorded in the KJV Bible, and learning about the life and intelligence and God's plan for each living species in his kingdom.

Social Studies/Geography combined: I have a few things on the United States and their capitals by Scholastic, we'll focus mostly on that through the year with Galloping the Globe K-4th grade, flash cards, and coloring diagrams.

Music: Both will be taking lessons from Master's Musicians School of Music, learning basic theory on piano, Maren will begin violin and Kellan will begin baby cello (so excited for my own little Yo Yo Ma!)

Spanish: I'm pretty excited for the course that we will try this year called "La Clase Divertida" (The Fun Class) with an interactive DVD, audio CD with songs and lessons for the car, arts and crafts, teacher workbook for me, and workbook for the kiddos too!

P.E.: We will continue with Bonita's School of Ballet for both children, James is also pushing for them to start a self defence or martial arts type of activity, but I'm starting to feel like Bilbo Baggins where he said he was like butter, spread over too much bread ;)

Typing out this list is mostly for me, to journal the beginning milestone of this shift our life is taking, and to put it out there for fellow homeschooling mama's to make sure I'm not missing anything!

He loves me... he loves me not...

He L-O-V-E-S me!

Just look at the new wheels my beautiful husband bought me! If anything says "Totally April" I think this might be it! All that is missing is the toddler trailer to tow Max-ee-moose along for the evening bike ride, I think I hear Toys R Us calling my name for a trip tomorrow.

(I had a 10 speed yeeeears ago, and sold it to a friend because I couldn't ride it. Bad knees. Hard on my neck and back issues to bend over a bike like that, so I've always wanted a beach cruiser because I can sit straight up! Man, that guy of mine sure knows my number.)

Sweet Potato Cinnamon Rolls

Photo by Allison @ Lemonbasil

(because we ate ours too fast for a picture!)

I tried sending this recipe to a friend in a message, and the format was being screwy, so I'll post it here, as a late edition of Tasty Tuesday traditions. It was a big hit, so I think it will be worth it. My friend Kate sent me the recipe idea, and I adapted it to be vegan, and a bit healthier ;^)


Put 1 cup raisens and 2 cups shelled pecans in a bowl of hot water to plump and soften, drain when they're ready.


Peel and cut one large sweet potato, add one cup water into a pot and cover, steam until softened. Mash or whip the potato when it's softened, and set it aside.


1 package active dry yeast in 1/4 cup warm water in a small bowl to disolve, set that aside too.


Scald 1 cup milk (I used vanilla almond milk) and pour over 1/2 cup coconut oil in a large stainless steel bowl, or a stand mixer.


Now add in the mixer or large bowl: 1/4 cup honey, 1 banana, the disolved yeast, the mashed sweet potato, and 5 cups of all purpose unbleached flour. The dough needs to be a solid form but elastic and pliable. You don't want it to drip, or sink or spread. If it still does that, you need to add more flour gradually until you've achieved an elastic consistancy. Cover the bowl with a kitchen towel and set it aside to rise for one hour.


After it has risen for an hour, punch the dough and knead it a few more times, then spread the dough out on a counter surface or table. I think it's easier to split it in half and work with it in smaller portions. Roll the dough into a large rectangle shape.


Brush it with olive oil, and spread the pecans and raisens all over the surface of the dough. Sprinkle cinnamon generously to cover the surface as well. Drizzle maple syrup over the pecans and raisens, and then roll from one side to the other to form a large "log." Use string or a knife to cut the rolls.


When you cut each roll, place it in a non-stick baking dish or bar pan, press down firmly on each roll. Lay them closely together for sides touching, and let rise 20 more minutes.


Bake them at 375 F for 15 minutes. Drizzle the tops with a mixure of vanilla soy yogurt and maple syrup. And try to resist smiling while you eat them. They are heavenly!

I knew better

When a day starts off with the crankies, I should just learn to say "Fine, we'll cancel our plans and stay inside." But then I start to think... they'll just fight with each other from boredom... it will be much more stressful... and I convince myself that going out is the better idea.

But then no one wants to get dressed. No one is listening to instructions. We're running late. An unexpected errand needs to occur first before the outing agenda, and everything is just chaos. And I'm a stubborn taurus, I don't want to be the person that calls and cancels, so we press on! And we head out the door....

To get stuck in traffic. Detours. Record high temperatures in a black car. Forgot our sack lunches. And I didn't pee before we left the house. What kind of mother am I?

The planned outing to the Farmer's Market had nothing of consequence today, didn't really benefit much, other than seeing a friend, that doesn't get to happen very often. And we decide to go to a public place to get out of the heat. But it's Max's naptime. Hmmm, he's a flexible kid, it will be ok.

Not ok. He has also discovered scowling, and yelling, and arching his back. And he whipped out his full artillary today. But I don't want to cancel on Maren and Kellan again because of it, so I tried to whip out my artillary of distractions... crap, forgot most of that at home too.

So I begin to think it was an utterly disasterous mistake, I'll go tell Kellan and Maren to get their shoes on and lets go home. Oh no, what's this? Another mother is scolding my child... seriously? Because a lot of mothers tend to think their child can do no wrong, I don't like confrontation so I tend to assume my child did ALL the wrong to avoid it.

I asked "Were they playing too rough? What's going on?" (As I intrude more to give her the hint that she shouldn't be scolding my child with her finger and in his face like she was....) And she says "He kept putting his hand on my child, I watched him do it like 5 times."

Ah, ok. That's usually Kellan. He's a good kid, but he loves TOO much. But what she didn't do was ask HER child what THEY BOTH were playing, and she also didn't encourage her child to work it out for himself. I don't go scold other people's kids in public when they are mean, I encourage my kids to work it out or play away from that kid. If it persists, I usually go ask the snot nosed brat "Where's your mom?" She's usually the one in the corner with the superiority complex unaware that her child is being...a child.

It's a good friend who will sit there with you through a mess like that, still try to press on with you, even though I should have just said "I'm so sorry, we've got to go." But... we'll see if this friend ever invites us out to play again ;^)

I've learned my lesson! Max can't be flexible anymore. He's almost two..... ugh.

4th of July

One of the perks of having a friend as a photographer... she captures the fun moments that you forget to do (even though your camera was in your bag.) Thanks Kate!