I know most children say, “Mama, I’m thirsty.”  Convenient that there’s a “y” on the end of thirsty, that makes it easy to whine that word out - long. Thirstyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!  If you never reward that statement with a glass of water, it won’t take long to re-train yer babies to say, “Mama, may I have a drink, please?”

Children learn what they live.  It’s not oppressive to teach your children manners.  Just decide what you’d like to hear, and teach that to your child.

Now that our littlest baby is 5 years old, I’m not even consulted for beverages anymore.  It’s all self-serve at our house.  In the morning we fill the nifty new Igloo cooler with ice water, write names on the disposable plastic cups, put a folded towel on the floor underneath and that’s it.  No more counter FULL of “dirty” cups half way through the day!  No more, “Mama, may I have a drink, please?”  Excuse me while I go get a tissue.

Do I Appear Quirky To You?

You may want to reserve judgment until you read this.

KimC at Life In a Shoe has tagged me for the 6 Quirky Things meme.  This is my first meme, I thought it would be hard to come up with 6 things, ha!  The hard thing turned out to be LIMITING it to 6!

I’m going to tag 6 of my virtual friends, I can’t wait to find out all the quirkiness out there!

Karen at Engstrom Family Celebrations

happy momma at Pink Explosion

Jonatha at Homeward Hearts

Cyndi at Modern Christian Homestead

Momma Bug at Momma Bug’s Blog

Faith at Blessed Quietness

OK, here are the rules.

* Link the person who tagged you.
* Mention the rules in your blog.
* Tell about six unspectacular quirks of yours.
* Tag a new set of six following bloggers by linking them.

All right, here you go.

1. I play (and sing-along to) the Ukulele, I love singing old campfire songs like “On Top of Old Smokey”, and I sing with mirth and glee, but the real fun is getting the Pirates and the Princess to sing along.
   
2. I didn’t know how to cook when I got married. He did all of the cooking!  But, he’s a good teacher and I’m a quick learner.  Funny how teaching me how to cook seems to have caused him to forget where all of the pots and pans are kept.
   
3. Actually adore absolutely awesome alliteration, always.  Absurdly abysmal alliterative acumen.
   
4. I played drums in jr. high-school band, because I’m a fidgety, fidgety person.  This is how I can be patient with certain fidgety, fidgety Pirates who shall remain anonymous for their own dignity.
   
5. I cut all of my families hair, including my own.  I do a great job on theirs.  Mine is so curly and I wear it long, you’d never be able to tell if I did a bad job of it.
   
6. I know how to fly REAL airplanes,  I know how to clean a rifle,  I know how to drive a Harley, and I know how to captain a sailboat.  All these things I’ve done, but not in 25 years and more.
   

Now it’s your turn!  Tell all your quirks (well, 6 of ‘em anyway) in a comment.

Is it hot where you are? Let me tell you, it’s hot in South Texas. Today it got up to 90° this afternoon, and the humidity is drowning me. So what’s for supper on a night like this? Taco Salad is just the thing.

• i head lettuce, iceberg
• 2 tomatoes, chopped
• 2 avocados
• 1½ C cheddar cheese, grated
• 4 green onions, chopped (or ¼ regular onion, chopped)
• 1 can Ranch Style beans, drained
• 1 lb ground beef, cooked
• 1 bottle Catalina salad dressing
• 3 C coarsely crunched Fritos

Mix the first 6 ingredients in your large bowl. Add the whole bottle of salad dressing and toss thoroughly. Refrigerate. Just before you serve it, add the warm, cooked ground beef and the crunched Fritos. Toss and serve.

I always try to cook all of the meat for the week at one time. Saves on time and effort and clean-up is much easier to do once rather than 3 or 4 times. Also, on days like this, I don’t have to do that part. I do warm it up in the m’wave a little bit.

Now, how about a yummy iced coffee to top off your supper. Early in the day, brew a large pot of strong coffee and put it in the fridge for a couple of hours. Pour the (now) cold coffee into your ½ gallon pitcher. Pour in a whole can of Eagle Brand Condensed Milk and a hearty squeeze of chocolate syrup. Stir it up well, serve in an iced tea glass over ice and with a straw. Yummm! Works for me!

Remember to enter my giveaway!

Well, Mother’s Day was fun, but I’m ready to get back to normal. Enough with the purple print and the flowery pictures already! I need a little high seas adventure in my life.

So, this week’s giveaway is one of my all-time favorite swash-buckling tales. Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson. This is a beautiful hardcover edition, illustrated by N.C. Wyeth. `

I love this Piratey adventure. I first read it to my Pirates when the oldest 2 were little enough to fit on my lap at the same time. This story is interesting, no matter what age you are. Didn’t R.L. Stevenson have a knack for painting word pictures?

The following poem by R.L. Stevenson is the forward of this edition.

TO THE HESITATING PURCHASER

If sailor tales to sailor tunes,

Storm and adventure, heat and cold.

If schooners, islands, and maroons

And Buccaneers and buried Gold,

And all the old romance, retold

Exactly in the ancient way,

Can please, as me they pleased of old,

The wiser youngsters of to-day:

-So be it, and fall on! If not,

If studious youth no longer crave,

His ancient appetites forgot,

Kingston, or Ballantyne the brave,

Or Cooper of the wood and wave:

So be it, also! And may I

And all my pirates share the grave

Where these and their creations lie!

The Rules

Just for fun, tell about a great book that you’ve read recently, or are currently reading. I hope that you are all reading your Bibles regularly, and if you want to tell about that, that’s fine. No silly governmental regulations here! If, however, you choose to tell about another book, I will not call you a heathen backslider, ‘cuz I know you’re reading your Bible too!

One entry per person, FIVE extra entries if you blog about this giveaway and link to it, a REAL post about this giveaway, not just a word or two as part of a list. If you blog about it, please leave a second comment telling me that you did, and leave your URL so I can find it. (Just to clarify… comment once to enter and tell what books you’re currently reading. Then if you blog about it, comment one more time to tell me you blogged about this giveaway, and leave your URL so I can find it. We’re pretty sharp around here, and we’ll work out which comments count as one entry and which comments count as 5 entries.)

Limited to the continental 48, please. It costs WAY too much to ship to anywhere else.

Enter before 7pm cdt on this Friday, 16 May, 2008.

What I’m Reading

I’ll start it off here. I’m re-reading Passionate Housewives Desperate for God, I need all the reminding I can get in this area! Also, we are reading 1st Samuel, we turn on our Bible on cd and follow along in our Bibles. This is very handy, the cd man doesn’t stumble on the hard names, and he goes at a steady pace. We generally get through 5 chapters in about 20-25 minutes. Our current read-aloud is a very interesting piratey book that I had never heard of before my sweet friend Donna H gave it to us a few weeks ago, thanks Donna! It’s called Blackthorn Winter and was written by Douglas Wilson, published by Veritas Press. We are really enjoying it, well the Pirates and I are. The Princess really doesn’t care that much. Maybe she’s not old enough for it, but I suspect it’s just because she’s so Princess-y, not very Pirate-y. (Although, yesterday she donned a Patrick Henry Tri-Cornered Hat and declared herself to BE a Pirate)( I should let her wear the hat while we read our next chapter, maybe that’ll help, I’ll let you know) Later today, I’ll be reading her The Princess and the Kiss so she’ll have her own turn.

So, to enter the giveaway, leave a comment. Yours doesn’t have to be as much of a book as mine is, but I do enjoy hearing what folks are reading and how they’re likin’ it!

Congratulations to Nancy, the winner of the Mother’s Day giveaway!

Happy Mother’s Day to all of you!  I hope you’re having a fun day celebrating with your children!  I am having a fabulous “day off”.  I woke up this morning to the wonderful aroma of food I didn’t have to cook, which makes it tasty, no matter what it is.

Come back tomorrow to enter this weeks giveaway!

This is a topic on which I am UBER qualified to speak. I affectionately call it HOW NOT TO SPEND ALL YOUR HUSBAND’S HARD EARNED MONEY ON CURRICULUM. We have homeschooled for a long time and I’ve probably not spent (in 15 years of homeschooling) what many families spend in a year, two at the most. Do I have your attention now?

The place you want to start is with your own education. You need to educate yourself on what home education is and can be. And you need to un-learn what you think you know about class-room schooling.

First, open your Bible and read Deuteronomy 6:4-9 ( go ahead and read to the end of the chapter). There’s your duty, laid out by God Himself.

Next, read as many of the following books as you can get your hands on.

• When You Rise Up by RC Sproul Jr
• A Charlotte Mason Companion by Karen Andreola
• Homeschooling for Excellence by David and Micki Colfax
• Christian Unschooling by Terri J Brown
• The Successful Homeschool Family Handbook by Dr. Raymond & Dorothy Moore
  

These will give you plenty to think about. I’m not going to choose a favorite or tell you to read one before another, they are too diverse, they each have tons to offer. I will say, if you have Pirates, please be sure to read Homeschooling for Excellence. It’s a lot out-dated, but there’s gold in them thar pages. Contrary-wise, if you have Princesses, don’t miss A Charlotte Mason Companion.

I know you’ve probably read this advice in many other places. I know, because I read it too. I also know that you’re asking your computer screen, “Sure, when am I gonna do that?” Well, do it now. Start now and don’t stop. You absolutely must build your children’s education and growing up years on a firm foundation. Stop, right now, stop spending time and money on workbooks and unit studies, at least until you’ve taken the time to educate yourself.

Spend a little time in the mornings reading to the children. And a little time counting change from the money jar. Then let them go play. Charlotte Mason calls it “masterly inactivity” if you need a phrase to write in your record book. Make for yourself as much time as you can to get your education.

Here’s a little trick I used to employ, during the diaper years, when time was at an extreme premium. After I read them ALL of their bedtime stories, I would stay in their room, in my chair, and read MY book aloud to them. It was a complete bore to them, of course, so they went right to sleep. I often got so involved in what I was reading that my Very Dear Hubby would have to come and retrieve me when the news came on.

This is just the start, but don’t skip this important step. I’ll try to remember to continue to give tips for eeking out some spare time. I realize how impossible it is seems. Often it’s a matter of eliminating the truly un-necessary.

More to come………………

The process of shaping the child . . . shapes also the mother herself. Reverence for her sacred burden calls her to all that is pure and good, that she may teach primarily by her own humble, daily example. Elizabeth Elliot

Be sure to enter my Mother’s Day giveaway! You only have until Saturday evening at 7pm cdt.

Something strange is goin’ on. This week’s Mother’s Day Giveaway is quickly becoming a flop. Today is Thursday and only 7 entries! What’s the deal?

I’m considering the possibilities.

1. The gift is not a book. (nah, that’s silly)
2. The entry requirements are too rigorous. (please, y’all do fun stuff with your family, don’t ya?)
3. You are under the mistaken impression that your fun idea has to be original. (not so, click here)
4. Y’all are not aware that there is a giveaway. (e-mail all yer friends)
5. You are on a fabulous Mother’s Day week long vacation. (you are excused, but wait, if the vacation is so fabulous, why are you reading this? click here)
6. You’ve already won so many giveaways, you thought you’d be polite and let someone else win. (There have been an awful lot lately, but there is no rule excluding previous winners, you know who you are)
7. You feel that, because you know me in real life, you should exclude yourself. (hah! click here)
8. You feel that, because you don’t know me in real life, you should exclude yourself. (hah! click here)

Well, whatever your reason, get over it and click here and enter the giveaway, for crying out loud!

My mother had a slender, small body,
but a large heart - a heart so large
that everybody’s joys found welcome in it,
and hospitable accommodation.
~Mark Twain

These cookies are very yummy and very easy to make.  Be sure to take yer Princesses in the galley  with you, if ya don’t have any Princesses old enough fer the work, why then take yer Pirates and teach them the manly art of cookie baking.  Y’all may think I’m kidding around, but I don’t ever have to bake cookies anymore unless I just want to.

MOMMIE N’ ME COOKIES

Preheat your oven to 400°

Mix all of the ingredients (except the powdered sugar) in your large bowl.

2C Butter (softened slightly) (use the real thing!)

1/3 C Sugar

4 C Flour (unbleached white)

2 tsp Vanilla (artificial vanilla is bad for you, your children, humans, all living creatures, use the real thing)

1 C nuts, ground fine

Powdered Sugar

Using your hands, mold into half moon shapes.  Place on ungreased baking trays.  Bake for 8-10 minutes.  Don’t over-bake.  Remove them from the baking trays and roll ‘em in powdered sugar while they’re still warm.  Set on racks to cool briefly.  (I like to skip that part)

Enjoy with a glass of cold milk or a cup of hot tea.  Yummy!

“The mother’s heart is the child’s school-room.”    Henry Ward Beecher

If you haven’t read my post titled It’s a Whirlpool !!! please go do so now, before you read the rest of this post. Then come right back here and read this one. Go ahead, we’ll wait. No, really, do that first.

The more I think about God’s gift of a washing machine for me this last Saturday, the more I realize I just have to tell y’all the rest of the story.

Our van had been in the shop, so we borrowed a van from a friend. We HAD asked to borrow their little car, but that didn’t work out, so we got the van. God’s hand was in that, I wouldn’t have been in a position to ask for the washer had I been driving a little car.

On the way to the thrift store I got in a huge traffic jam, took about 20 minutes longer than it “should” have. God’s timing.

The line at the check out in the thrift store also took forever. They had one lane open, and that with a rookie cashier. It took another 20 minutes or so. God’s timing.

While I was checking out, the rookie cashier made a $45 mistake. The check out process took about 7-8 minutes longer than it would have otherwise. God’s timing.

The man who was donating the washer doesn’t live in town. The thrift store in the little town where he lives doesn’t accept appliances, so he had to drive an extra 20 miles or so. How did this out-of-towner and I end up at the same place at the same time? God’s hand.

Remember how I was waiting for that IRS check before I could buy the $225 machine at the appliance repair shop/store? If that check had come in Saturday’s mail I would not have gone to the thrift store at all that day. Yeah, the check came in Monday’s mail. God’s timing.

I’ll never look at these kind of “inconveniences” the same way again. I’ll just be looking for God’s blessings.

I have been without a washing machine for about 3 months. If I got to pick which appliance to go without for an extended time, washer would come in dead last. It’s not that big a deal to go without a dishwasher, been there, done that. We also went without a dryer for about 3 years, even while using cloth diapers (for 2 babies), no biggie. This is Texas, solar powered clothes dryer, not a problem. We even were without a fridge for a while, not all food has to go in the cooler, we got by. But, I’m just not up to pounding the grime outta their jeans on a rock in the bath-tub.

So, the two eldest Pirates have faithfully toted load after load of dirty laundry back and forth between the house & van & laundry mat & back again. Week in and week out. They have been the best helpers I could ask for. But, I’m here to tell ya, we are ALL sick of the laundry mat.

My Very Dear Hubby stopped in at a 2nd hand appliance repair shop/store on Friday and found that for $225 we could get a nice Whirlpool or Maytag washer. Not top of the line, but extra large capacity, heavy duty, you know, family style washer. The owner of the repair shop/store said the Maytags and Whirlpools have the strongest transmissions, so clearly we want a Maytag or a Whirlpool. $225 is a great price, but we needed to wait for that IRS check.

Saturday we decided to NOT do the laundry mat, just let it wait for a couple of days. I didn’t take much convincing, did I mention that the laundry mat is no fun? Later in the afternoon while I was running another errand, all by myself, I stopped in the thrift store to enjoy a little book browsing. My Very Dear Hubby had said I could spend $10 book shopping. I had a great time and made some great book selections. I’ll tell you about them another time.

While I was paying for my books I noticed another ten dollar bill in my wallet that I had forgotten was there. No great shakes, but new mental note, “I have a ten in my wallet.” Not burning a hole there or anything, I just didn’t want to forget that it was there, didn’t really know why that was so important at the time. I found out less than 2 minutes later.

I walked out the front door of the store to see a man backing his pick-up truck up to the entrance area. In the bed of the truck were, among several other things, a new looking washer and dryer.

I was kinda in a daze from this point until I got home. I waited for the man to get out of his truck and I asked him, “Are you donating a working washing machine?” He said, “Yup.” I said (in a daze), “I’ll give you ten bucks for it.” I’m astonished that I was so bold. He looked at me, kinda serious like and said, “OK.” Did I mention this is Texas, some of the men here are overly concise like that. I said, “I’ll go back my van up, be right back.”

The whole way to the van I was asking myself if I was violating some sort of thrift store protocol, not that I really cared a WHOLE lot right then. After I backed the van into the spot next to his truck, and opened up the back, I was sort of surprised to see the thrift store manager helping the washing machine man carry it to the van. I guess the thrift store didn’t have a problem with it!

The man told me the machine had only been used for 6 months and it worked fine, his step-son just didn’t need it anymore. I was still in a daze and don’t really remember all the details, so I don’t know why the step-son ceased to need it.

I didn’t even look to see what brand it was, I just wanted to get it home before I woke up so I could see if it really worked.

Well, it does work. It works better than any washer I’ve ever had. It fills FAST, it agitates great, it drains FAST, it spins great, it has no leaks. I am hap hap happily doin’ every little bit of laundry in sight.

God is such a wonderful provider. His timing is perfect. I am so thankful to Him for giving me this washing machine.

So, say a little prayer that I won’t throw my back out dancing the Extra Large Capacity Whirlpool HAPPY DANCE!!!!!