HOW did Mark and I ever make it?

OK- real-life family story-time. Children are asleep (HA HA!) and all is quiet except for the gentle, calming drizzle. Suddenly Lydia bursts into my room--- "MOM!!! Elisha put a booger on my hand!!!!"

Someone please tell me-- WHAT did Mark and I ever do as only children?? Must have been a pretty quiet life- I don't remember :)

New Book and Cake Recipe

Book recommendation for your little ones: Just finished a reading a chapter book to the children called Leepike Ridge- by N.D. Wilson, son of Douglas Wilson (The Lost Tools of Learning). The book had lots of little unexpected twists and I actually enjoyed it as much as Elisha. The book is authored by a homeschooler- makes a nice testament that homeschooled children really can grow up to write-- right Elisha?? :)

Also- had lots of requests for the cake recipe appearing in the previous blog. Here's the link:

http://www.rawguru.com/recipe70.html A few changes I might make: maybe substitute dates for the raisins in the chocolate layer (I used ground cocao nibs for the cocoa), and some dates instead of figs for the first two layers. I might reduce some of the coconut oil as well. All in all, Elizabeth loved it- that's what counted, since it was her day :)

Miss Elizabeth turns 5- sort of

Today was little Elizabeth's birthday. When she woke up, I told her she was finally 5 years old. She responded that she did NOT want to have her birthday here until her birthday at Grandma's was done. When this girl speaks, she KNOWS what she's talking about and EXACTLY what she wants. So- since it's her bday, festivities will have to be held off until next week with Jacob's birthday. He, on the other hand declared TODAY is his birthday! (not until the 29th). She did allow me to have a yummy raw fruit bday cake to 'kind of' celebrate, which she said you HAVE to make this

again for ME mommy! Until next week :)......

Oops!

Hi friends.- I just found out today that my email notifications for any comments left on http://www.home-and-family-values.com/ were turned off. Just received all your comments today and wanted to thank you all for leaving them! It's been a slow start, but little by little the site is coming along. There is a 'Homeschool Christmas Ideas' page that can be accessed from a link on the home page or the healthy homeschool page. I'm sure there are still typos- I find them every time I sit down, no matter how many times I've revised it :) Bear with me :) Thanks again~

PS-- got the car waxed today- thanks to Mark-- and again, literally within 1/2 hour it was raining!

Christmas in the Woods

It was another family-fun, tradition-filled weekend- our Christmas in the Woods pilgrimage of sorts. The weather was perfect- and leaves finally starting to turn.

No Christmas in the Woods is complete until you watch the B.E. Taylor shows- an early start for the Holiday Season. Have to admit as good as the shows were, I'm not quite ready to start that season yet, though I know there's no stopping it. Elizabeth wanted to know where her presents were because it was Christmas- we couldn't understand what she meant- and finally figured out that by going to 'Christmas' in the Woods- she thought it was time for Christmas day. Not yet little girl :)

The girls with Mr. Woods Man-- note that Elisha isn't in these pictures- he refused to let us take his picture today- he's had enough of the camera he says :)

"Unless there is an open bag of Kettle Corn I can get into- LEAVE ME ALONE!"

Until next year.... which will be here before you know it- the more children you have, the faster time flies!!

Birthday Fun

Tomorrow is Mom's Birthday, so we HAD to go celebrate while they were still visiting. Today called for a visit to Oglebay Resort, and while the leaves still weren't turned much, it is still a beautiful place! Love the children bunches, but have to admit just a few hours away to shop at 'adult' stores is a treat sometimes- You can certainly train your children to behave in stores, but shopping in a fine glass and china store tends to be a bit more enjoyable when not worrying about tiny fingers :)

What a great way to spend a day- and stuff ourselves with the delicious brunch buffet overlooking the lake!

These are the flowers hanging from my porch-- HA HA HA HA!!!! Like they would EVER look like this!

There's just nothing like spending time with family! Thanks for the visit!

Griswold Fall Vacation

The children are having a super-fun week~ Grandma and Grandpa Tony brought their newly purchased camper down so the children could 'camp out'. We told them it reminded us of Chevy Chase's Christmas Vacation with the RV parked outside~ minus Snots of course! We were going to take a picture of the sewage pipe hanging out and edit the photo with a green haze, but decided that would take too much time.

Here's Elizabeth with her 'STOP TAKING MY PICTURE' pose :)

Roughin' it- sure is a step up from the backyard tent.

And yes- there's Jacob with that finger again!

Tomorrow the men get the children- gotta LOVE a flexible homeschooling lifestyle- Mom and I are off to celebrate her birthday for the day! We might come back later in the day- maybe- ha ha!

Sure enough!

Today was a day of car prep for the winter -- boo! :( ! In our family we know that if you wash a car it's not a matter of if it will rain, but in how many hours. With today's total wash and wax job, even paint chips fixed, (ALL credit going to Mark) the rain held off for exactly 3 minutes. At least it was shiny for a few moments, right? :)

Still working...

Work is still being completed on the brick project-- door in, window to go. Of course the brick had to be pressure washed to remove all of the gunk- thank goodness I hadn't cleaned the windows AGAIN already! :) Jacob was looking pretty cool in his worn-out jammies, combat boots and too-small coat. Children just don't care- let them out to play!

Glad that's over

Mark and I passed our stripe test-- doesn't look like that big of a deal, but sure felt like it as we let our minds give us the 'nerve jitters' all week-- why is it so hard to calm that subconscious part of your brain at times? Now- onto another little stripe just like that, then red, 2 black stripes, then the BIG black belt!

Think I need to go for a run to finish calming down. Or maybe just a really fast walk :)

Our evening debate

OK all, help me out here! This is our debate of the evening-- I've accused certain male family members of leaving the toilet seat up-ALL the time-- and they have debated back: Why should we leave the seat down as a courtesy for women, and women not leave it up as a courtesy for men? I gave my proper etiquette reasons, and as a quiet, submissive wife, I humbly, gently, and meekly :) (ok- maybe meekly is a little extreme) debated back. They weren't buying it and the consensus was to open this debate to the public blog readers. Why should MEN have to put the lid down? Do they in your house? Should it be just the lid or the seat? That was another debate- "how come the lid has to be closed, too"? (Please note that the 'how come' wasn't spoken from my homeschooled students!) Help me out! I need some more ammunition- from a TOTALLY quiet, gentle-spirited wife of course :) How's that one for down-to-earth, real family life?

Another project down

Another project down- our 'brick-man' did an awesome job- made a mess, but what project doesn't have a mess involved? When he was done last weekend, I washed all of the windows- did I mention ALL OF THE WINDOWS in the house and removed the messy dust.

Mr. brick-man came back today to repair the porch-- didn't know that grinding out the old mortar would make MORE of a mess in 1 hour, than the entire 6 days of cutting the bricks last week. Every front window was in the path- oh well. At least the porch looks great. Mark found it to be pretty funny-- he tells me- "hey- you just have another blog story now". HE can wash the windows this weekend!

Yummy!

Had a fun 'home-ec' morning-- Mark bought an Auntie Anne Home Pretzel Kit from a local fundraiser. They made yummy pretzels, but WAY too messy for Mom- 4 little fingers playing with dough spells flour everywhere! But they had a great time, and made pretty decent pretzels too! (Not really sure if you could call all of their shapes pretzels, but that was their intent :)

This one is MOM'S! :)

I wonder....

I wonder how much dirtier my 4 little grub-balls would be if we lived in the country, if this is what they look like in a town.......

What is it about dirt and children?? They sure do love good old fashioned play outside! Too bad we as adults 'grow-up' and don't do more of it!

One THRILLED Little Girl

Lydia came bursting through the door last night after karate- she was chosen as Little Dragon student of the month- talk about an excited little girl! Congrats Lydia!

Weekend Outings

It was another SUPER busy weekend! We arrived at Gma and Gpa Tony's to see a new camper parked beside the house for the children to have TONS of fun sleeping in- I intended on taking lots of picts of their first night in it, but waited too long as my camera battery ran out :(. We're definitely talking a step up from the tent days!!

Then, on to a fall drive to the spillway in Pymatuming, PA. The children had a great time feeding the fish- Jacob said- forget the fish! I'm keeping these bread cubes for myself- and most of his bag ended up in his own belly.

LOTS of VERY hungry fish!

The next day was another beautiful fall day- had to take advantage (besides it was better than watching the Steelers lose-- they were so close, too) and headed out for another fall activity. Went to Coolspring, PA for a 10 acre corn maze and hayride. The children opted to do the hay ride, but had the most fun running around the hay maze just outside of the corn field.

It's beautiful fall days like this that make you want to pack it all up and head to your own homestead in the country- maybe someday........

I was SOOO upset that this is where my camera battery died-:( There were limitless awesome pictures I could have had here- next year we're have to try it again- this time with a full camera battery!

Upon return home, the children were immediately in the mud and dirt made by the brick project outside. (More picts on that to come.) Elisha was a bit perturbed that his sister stepped on the underground tunnel he was building, caving it in. Ahhh ... siblings. HOW did my husband and I EVER make it without them????

Thanks for a great weekend Mom and Tony!!

The perfect summary of my days!

We just returned from a super fun weekend at Grandma and Grandpa Tony's house- I'll have to post pictures later- too busy now. Just have time for this quick blog- someone emailed this to me and I never thought anyone could express what I feel like on most days- this is the PERFECT summary- check it out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OzZJO3ZRNCo