Good Friday part 1

Happy Good Friday to you.  I saw a cartoon that was pretty interesting. Maybe you'll like it too. 

Guess what we did today?

My friend Doris and her son came over and spent the day with us.  We had a pretty fun day!

Ashley had a red shirt on and I gave her a piece of scrapbook paper and asked her if she could put on something that matched one of the colors in the paper.  She happily obliged.

 Doris had seen somewhere that if you use brown eggs the colors turn out darker.  So we had both white and brown eggs.

Doris also helped me decorate.  She got up on a chair and tied these up.  Thank you Doris I don't think I could have gotten on a chair!

Before Doris came over we were about to go out the door.  I asked Aussie who was upstairs to bring down my black shoes and I told him exactly where they were.  He brought down Greg's black tennis shoes.  I gave him one of those looks like REALLY? and said, "Those are your dad's shoes."  To which he replied, "Will they not fit you?"  UM......NO!

He is really really good at annoying me.

When we were with Doris and G. we found out that sometimes they call the library the libary.  I have a "little" issue with that.  And they all teased ME relentlessly.  I mean come on...I should have been teasing THEM!  But no  Aussie picked it up and ran with it.  Mom, I've been asking you for weeks if you would take me to the libary. When you going to take me to the libary.  It went ON and ON and ON!  Later on in the evening he tried to bring it up again when Greg was home.  He said, "Hey Dad- didn't you use to work at the libary? Weren't you a libarian?"  And he got a lecture!

HA HA HA!  

You messed with the wrong man little boy!

Of course Greg told him he had never been to Liberia, etc. etc. etc!

Happy Easter!

When it gets this late I have very few words to say.  I'm glad a picture is worth a thousand words!

Part 2 of Good Friday coming tomorrow, but you can get a sneak peak if you are friends with me on Facebook.

Weekend Craziness!

Friday I had a great art class.  We made crosses out of Plaster of Paris and everyone's turned out so uniquely different.  I loved it!  Here is just a sampling of some of them made.

 Then Friday night turned into a party.  The boys brought a friend home from school.  I told Doris that I would watch her son so she could go scrapbook.  So G. came over to play.  And since there were so many boys, Ashley invited her friend over.  I'd say 6 kids is a party!

I bought some ice cream and stuff to make sundaes.

Caleb went home just after dinner- but he said he didn't like ice cream anyway.

G. is grinning from ear to ear.  It sure does look yummy!

 Ashley just used a few sprinkles.

 Terrible picture but Aussie loaded up on chocolate.

 Mason's favorite part was the cool whip.

 And E. made her's an artistic masterpiece using everything but bananas since she is allergic to them.

It was getting pretty late.  Ashley always gets sick if she stays up too late.  So I sent her to bed.  I sent Aussie to bed to since he had Chinese in the morning.

So Mason, G. and E. stayed up a little longer.  That's when E. spotted a frog on my window.

"Can I get it?" she asked excitedly.

The other two got excited too.

So close to midnight they went outside to catch it.  E. got it and it jumped out of her hand so G. picked it up and put it in the jar.

 Cute little thing!  They kept it in that while they built a better habitat for it.

Here they are so proud of the little critter they caught:

 Of course E. told everyone it was poisonous because it had orange legs.  Doris told me it wasn't but E. was adamant so we just let her believe it.

 The next day Mason went to let it out of it's new home.

  Guess what?  It wasn't in there!  I so hope that it jumped out while they were trying to put the lid on it the night before and just didn't realize it. If it's in my house and I find it dead or alive- I'll Croak!

Well today is one of my favorite holidays! April Fool's Day.  I'm a prankster at heart.  I have been planning this prank ALL year long.

I emailed all my local friend's and none of them could help me.  I wanted a puppy, but couldn't find one. So I went with the next best thing.  Today, we had chorus practice at church.  So in Chorus I was asking if anyone had a dog I could borrow for an hour after practice for an April fool's joke.  I was lucky to find someone who let me use their dog.

Meet Scruffy...

He is a friendly little thing!  I called Greg from the road told him I was on my way home but had to stop at Walgreens first.  Then several minutes later I called him and told him that I couldn't believe it but someone just pulled up threw out a dog and just left.  Greg asked if I got the license plate number but I told him I was too stunned to look, but it was a white car with tinted windows.  Then I told him I was bringing him home.  Greg did not get good sleep last night so he was exhausted and surprised me with his answer.  He said, "OK we can put him in our fenced in backyard until we figure out what to do with him."  He doesn't really like dogs- hence the reason I was playing the joke on him in the first place.

On the way home I wondered if he thought I was kidding.  Maybe that was the reason he said, OK.  Then he would know for sure I wasn't kidding when the dog came in the house.

So I got home and Scruffy got out of the car and just went right in the house and said hello to everyone.  Greg was laying on the couch.  The kids loved on him some.  Greg said, "Put him out back before he gets fleas in the house."  That's when I knew I really got him!  I let the dog roam just a few more minutes hoping to build a little tension.  Then I said, "Guess what everyone?  APRIL FOOLS!"  Aussie said, I knew it had to be and April Fool's joke!  Greg gave me a nasty look, asked me who it belonged to and then said, "I'm going to bed!"  HEE HEE HEE!  I got him!

Then I drove Scruffy home.
Later Greg woke up and admitted he was glad to know it was an April Fool's joke because he didn't know what we were going to do with it.

But the jokes didn't stop there.  It was time for me to get the kids.  I put Orajel in the kids' toothpaste.  I tried really hard to mix it up.  Ashley was the first one up to brush her teeth.  She was very observant and said the toothpaste looked weird and she didn't want to use it.  She grabbed a different one and used it.  Then Aussie was next.  He wasn't as observant!  He used it.  He got a confused look on his face and went to rinse off his toothbrush.  I quickly said, "April Fools!  But shhhh....don't tell your brother and let's try to get him."  That's when he YELLED out, "MOM sabotaged the toothpaste!"  I giggled and giggled!  Then he took a cup of water while I was sitting on my bed and threw it at me.  It made me laugh!

Ashley wanted to prank someone so bad.  So she got a red marker and someone wrote "April Fools" on her bottom.  HER IDEA!  Not sayin' who did it as it might incriminate me.  Then she mooned her Daddy.  Too bad that's not something I could take pictures of!  It's been kind of fun around here to say the least.

Now it's 1AM- I don't have the dishes done or the school plan created.  Bah humbug!

Kids IDOL camp

IDOL Camp

Last week the kids participated in a musical Idol week.  One of the days, Ashley wanted to dress up.  Many of the girls would come in cute dresses.  So here she is in her pink dress that was a hand me down from a girl at church.

On Saturday they had their performance for the parents.

Each kid had at least one solo. (Which was usually one or two lines in a single song.)

Mason sang so beautifully- I cried!

Ashley had junk in her throat but she did quite well too!

And Aussie did an awesome job as well!  He really has a voice for country.  He doesn't like country music though even though he is good at it.

While they were practicing day after day I was able to have a little fun.  One day I painted pottery.  I picked that up today.  And I absolutely LOVE it!

I think I'll go back next month and make some smaller bowls to match, each with one owl on it in different colors.

Greg is performing tonight in some Tokens thing-a-ma-whos-it.  NPT is filming it, and it will air on TV at some point.

I'm working on a video that hopefully I'll post later on tonight.  It has the 3 songs that my kids have their solos in.  I put only the first part of the song Homework, then I added 2 other songs in their entirety. 

Magnetic Paper Dolls and Backgrounds

Ok so I am super duper excited about this project that I created for Ashley.  It has taken a good part of 2 days to create it.  Several months ago I saw on Make It & Love It blog where she bought paper dolls and made them into magnets.  I loved the idea and kept it in the back of my head to someday create.  I thought how nice it would be as a quiet church activity, but I thought bringing a huge cookie sheet to church might not be ideal.  So I created a carrying case. I am by no means a seamstress, but sometimes what I make comes out doggone cute!

This is the outside. It ties at the top to keep it shut.

When you open it you will find 4 metal pages (8 front and back).

This is the front page.

I found the metal sheets at Home Depot.  However, it took me asking 5 people before someone knew what I could use.  I first found sheets of aluminum which is not magnetic.  Then I explored painting with magnetic paint.  The paint was something like $36, which I wasn't willing to pay. (But later I found a smaller amount in a spray can for $11 at Hobby Lobby.) Anyway, I then thought I could cut a cookie sheet- which is actually what I tried to do the night before but couldn't cut it.  So I asked at Home Depot for something that would cut a cookie sheet.  This is the 5th person to help me and he asked me what I would be cutting.  I told him and told him what I really came in there for and he said he had something and took me right to it. You can get a cookie sheet at the $1 store, so that would be the cheapest route if you had the tools to cut it.  But the metal sheet I bought were a little less than $5 each.  They were huge though.  So I cut them in half.  The sides could be sharp so I covered them with pink Duck tape. 

Outside backgrounds

I found different pictures on the internet to print for the backgrounds. I printed some at home on photo paper- which is what I recommend.  I had Greg print me some on legal size paper, but when I put those pages on they wrinkled badly.

I ModPodged the pages onto the metal.  Now she can put her dolls right on the page without them sliding around.

The ballroom

The bedrooms

And the playroom.

On the back page I created a pocket where she can keep the dolls and outfits while she is not playing with them.

One thing I would like to do but I really don't know how, it to create one more page of pockets.  The pockets need to close.  This little set came with 100's of pieces.  I would like to create a pocket for shoes, dresses, pants, crowns, wings, winter coats, etc.  That way it would be easy to find what you need.  I still have to figure out how to do it, but I will probably make one at some point.

I just love how it turned out and Ashley loves it too.  She does say it is a bit heavy to carry though.

Spring Break Begins- Day 1

It seems like it has been forever since I blogged.  I have been super busy.  This week is Spring Break.  The kids are going to a music camp and I'm crafting like a mad woman!

My little art class that I teach on Fridays to K-2nd graders had a lot of supply money leftover so I've decided to have fun these last few weeks. We are not allowed to keep the money for ourselves. So I decided we will make these magnetic calendars out of cookie sheets.  I got the idea several years ago and I even made myself a Christmas Advent calendar.  So this is one that can be used all year round as a regular calendar or an advent calendar.  I needed an example so I let Ashley make it. I of course helped her quite a bit.  But she picked out the papers and the doodads and arranged them the way she wanted them. And she painted the sides of the cookie sheet.  We will probably do this craft in 4 weeks in my class.  I think I have everything bought for it.  Each person's will be different.  I'll let them pick out all the stuff.  I'll have to prepare the cookie sheets for them since I think they are a bit too young to do it themselves.

Ashley's friend is having a birthday party Sunday and Ash wanted to make one for her too.  I made a "happy" mistake.  I accidentally glued everything to the wrong side.  But I think I actually like it better that way and will probably do the art class that way as well.  With her friend's calendar, Ashley chose all animals since her friend likes animals.  We printed several animals off the internet and laminated them. We are not completely finished with it, but here's how it looks so far:

The cats have been less than useful! I have one kitten who will, I think, intentionally step in paint every time we have it out.  Now sometimes she gets her little paws on our project, but most of the time she just leaves footprints on my Kitchen floor.  Anyway, it has been quite difficult with them getting in the way.  But here is a time they weren't in the way and we had to capture the cuteness of Izzy in the box.

3 weeks from now I'll have the kids in my art class decorate their own bag.  I'll keep them for the following week so they can take their calendar home in them.  But again for practice I had Ashley create one for herself.  As with hers, I will put everyone's name on their bag.  I'll let them choose the fabric they want for their names and I'll use my Cricut to cut out the letters and I'll iron them on the bags.
Here is what Ashley created:

Oh wow, I'm so tired and I haven't even shown you what I'm super excited about!  I'm going to put it in its own post.

Pretty girl and more cats

  

Just a couple pictures of my daughter.  With her new haircut, the hair gets in her face.  So she likes to put barrettes or headbands in her hair.

I finally took the tape off of my toes.  The toe still feels funny, but it doesn't hurt anymore.  

Greg is not feeling well tonight.  He thought it might be allergies.

Believe it or not we might add another cat to our family.  I'm not sure I want one.  But after church on Sunday we went to this cat store that was right next to where we ate.  The owner rescues cats off the streets.  There has got to be 20 or more in her store.  She takes them in, gets them their booster shots and takes care of them.  If you adopt one, she just asks for a donation to help with the vet costs.  Anyway, she was talking to Greg saying she always recommends kittens by 2's.  But since we have an older grumpy cat and a spunky kitten, she thought if we had another kitten that the 2 kittens would play and groom each other and leave the older cat alone.  The boys want this black cat that has a scarred eye.  I think it looks creepy.  I don't want that cat.  Greg told the boys we would talk about it.  He has yet to bring it up with me.  I'm not sure where this will end up, but the kids haven't forgotten and they continue to bring it up to me. Like I need another cat.  Good grief!

Hard Sad day

Today was a hard day. Over the past 48 hours I had been reading updates from various sources on how our young friend was doing.  This morning before church I learned he has gone home to meet our Lord.  I didn't know Ty very well, but I knew his family.  I hurt for them!

Ty Osman was a Freshman at Harding University.  He was traveling to Texas for Spring Break with 5 other students.  When a jeep in front of them was in an accident, he pulled over to check on them.  He was out of his car when his truck was hit causing it to hit him.  He was life lighted to a Texas hospital in critical condition.  His parents and siblings made it to Texas from Tennessee before he died.

Today I sang on Praise Team.  As much as I love to sing on Praise Team, this was a hard hard day.  Our whole congregation was sad.  We cried. My eyes hurt.  But I prayed.  I prayed that even though I didn't want to be singing at this moment that God would sing through me and He did. Then He gave me a gentle reminder that let me know that He was there for me and He did just as I asked.  We sing for 2 services.  In between the services and immediately after the 2nd service I lost my voice.  But when I had to sing, I sang. It was beautiful.  Even the 2 songs that I didn't know before coming to church this morning and the duet- God sang those songs through me. I am blessed.

Now as I try to process all of this, I'm trying to prepare for another consignment sale.  I need to drop off the clothes tomorrow morning. I'm more mentally exhausted than I am physically. I hear the cold rain hitting the window, the wind blowing, the loud snoring from the above bedroom and I am just somber. My eyes are worn. It's hard to be motivated. I just need to sit in the quiet- for a moment- before I can start tagging these clothes.

Just trying to stay awake

I'm. just. trying. to. stay. awake!

Ugh, last night I went to bed in plenty of time to have a good night's sleep and get up early and teach today.  Before I went to bed I learned that terrible storms were going to hit today.  Storms from Georgia to Ohio with the worst hitting in middle TN and KY.  Weather.com said from 1-10 the tornadic activity was a 9. That made for a rough night.  I tossed and turned and could not sleep well at all.

Today when we got to school, they told us that they are closing at 11:30.  So I only had to teach one class today.  I'm not sure that I mentioned on here that I am taking over the rest of the year for a friend who moved to Georgia.  Today was my first day.  It went well, but the class was longer than I expected.  I need to have more planned for next time.

Many schools around town closed early.  Most banks and many businesses shut down early as well.

We got home and prepared our safe place.

We were very lucky.

All we got was 2 minutes of pouring rain.

But my friends on Facebook have other stories.

People were reporting pancake sized hail.

Friends showed pictures of hail the size of their palms.

Many were stuck in places other than home.

2 cars that I know of had cracked windshields and hail damage. One family was in their car.

There were at least 3 pictures of tornadoes around town.

On TV they reported seeing a tornado at Hickory Hollow- which is in the town I live. My friend about 5 miles from me had lots of hail.

I prayed a hedge of protection around us and I believe it went completely around our house.

Also tonight I have learned of a young boy from our church was in a bad car accident.  He goes to Harding and was life lighted to a hospital in Texas.  He is having emergency surgery now.  His parents are trying to make it there from TN, during all these storms.  Please pray for this family.  His name is Ty Osman.

I am emotionally and physically tired.  I am attempting to do anything to stay awake until a decent time to go to bed.  If I go to bed now I will wake up at 3AM.

Oh crud, I just thought of something.  Tomorrow is the first Saturday of the month.  If Ashley remembers she will hound me in the morning about going to Home Depot.  

Maybe I should go to bed now.

My thoughts on Lent this year

What is Lent?

I used to think it is only what the Catholics do.  It's not something I grew up learning about.  But a few years ago I realized that many Christians are observing it as well.  It is certainly noble!  Lent is a time of soul-searching and repentance in preparation for the celebration of Christ's death and resurrection on Good Friday and Easter. (I read that in a devotional and thought that pretty much sums it up.) During this time many people go into a fasting period and give up something.  For some it may be food and for others it may be a time to give up a bad habit.  A few years ago I gave up playing games on Webkinz.  I was so addicted and it was quite hard for me to do.  Last year I don't believe I did anything.  But this year instead of giving up something I just decided to get more in tune with God.

What does that mean exactly?  Well for me it means getting back on track with my Bible reading.  I'm reading the daily Lenten reflections that are emailed out by my church. You can read them online here as well. And I decided to go to church tonight.  I stopped going to Wednesday night church when my kids were babies.  It was right at the time they needed to go to bed. One crabby baby is bad enough but when you have three it gets a little crazy.  And it was hard for me to get them ready and get there by myself.  So during this Lenten season, I think I'm going to try and go every Wednesday night.  I'm not going to hold myself to it, but I certainly will make an effort.

Now, I said I wasn't giving up anything, but yesterday God talked to me.  I know many in my faith find it strange that I can hear God.  It seems Pentecostal or something.  But I do.  I hear him.  It's a voice inside my head that I know in my heart is from God.  I've also had experiences where God took over what I was saying.  The words that came out of my mouth I would have never thought of on my own.  Anyway, on to yesterday. I've become quite addicted to the game Angry Birds.  I've downloaded and won Angry Birds, Angry Birds Seasons and Angry Birds Rio. Now I'm going back and trying to find all the hidden eggs and get 3 stars on every level before advancing to the next level.  Well I've gotten stuck on one level.  For the life of me I can't get 3 stars on it.  I found myself praying that I win this level and getting frustrated that I wasn't.  Well yesterday, I picked up my phone to play the game and I heard God say... I want your attention.  I must have hesitated or thought I'd just play a little, because I heard it again.  I want your attention!  OK God I heard you. I put it down and didn't play.  It's one thing to hear God, it's another to obey Him.  I still think it may have been a one day thing, but I didn't play it today either.

This is something I read in one of the daily Lenten reflections that I would like to ask you to join me in doing. Spend some time in prayer asking God for strength to reveal what needs to be revealed, and courage to remove what needs to be removed during this Lenten season. Next ask God to fill the void that will be left, and thank him for what you are becoming.  Brilliant!  I've thought to ask him to reveal what needs to be changed, but I never thought to ask him for courage to actually do it or to fill the void!

Are you observing Lent?  What are you doing during this time?