Thankful Thursday-Happy Birthday Mama Flo!

Today my grandmother, Mama Flo, turns 92!!!!!!!  I am so very thankful to God that she is my grandmother.  Thankful for all the wonderful memories I have of her.  And thankful God has blessed her with another day! 

She is still in the hospital, but recovering. 

Today we will celebrate her birthday six hours away.  We will sing "Happy Birthday" to her via the phone.  She always calls and sings to us on our birthdays so it is a big deal to be able to do the same to her.

We will also have Coke in the old fashion glass bottles because Mama Flo always had these when I was young.  And for something sweet.......Keebler chocolate chip cookies.  She always had a stash of these too!

Here I am with Mama Flo two years ago celebrating her 90th bday!

Happy Birthday Mama Flo!!!!  We love you!

Just need some time.....

Some time to think, to remember or simply sit and stare into space. 

My grandmother, Mama Flo, is very ill.  The boys and me made a quick trip back home with my sister over this past weekend to see her.  I am so happy we did!

But now my heart is heavy.

Today was a cloudy day and that did not help.  I have been in a funk off and on all day.  Weather does that to me. 

Tomorrow is a new day, but for now I just need some time.............away from blogging.  A week just to my family. 

Lord willing I'll be back next week!

Nature walk

Yesterday was our Nature Walk day. We headed down to the park/nature trail looking for tadpoles since we have been learning about frogs this week.  We saw plenty of tadpoles, but no frogs.

While there we ran into a very interesting woman who cleans the park.  She is also a lover of nature to say the least. She seemed quite innocent, but I was thinking this would be "our" nature walk.  I tried to get away from her, but she continued to walk along side us as we made our way around the path.  Even when the boys stopped to look at something she stopped to tell us all about that area.

She has lived around the area for 16 years and remembers when it was heavily wooded with lots of wildlife.  She has seen her share of changes in this big park area.  She shared with me about fighting the HOA on many of the changes, but as usually they win and our wildlife has to find a new home.

After walking with her for a while I decided she just may be able to "show and tell" us much more than we would ever see out on "our" nature walk.  I learned where the bobcat hangs out.  And I now know where a giant tarantula lives and likes to cross the path.  I found out we have an eagle that lives in our area.  And she solved the mystery for me of a bird I saw last week on our walk.

Needless to say today's nature walk was a real treat!

Here is a picture I took last week of a BIG nest right off the path by a picnic table.  I stood around the area for about 15-20 minutes trying to figure out what kind of bird was in this nest.  Last week the tree was just starting to bud out.

 And here is the same nest and mystery solved!!!  Thanks to my new friend, JT.  Check this out!!!!!!!

Horned Ear Owl or Great Horned Owl

JT told me all about "Mackenzie" the owl(she has names for all the animals in this area).  I kinda hope we run into her again next week!  I almost ask her if she would meet us there. 

Also along on the walk with our new friend we came across this bright yellow bird.  I have never seen a bird this yellow out in nature.  If you know what it is please let me know.  I "think" it might be a Yellow Warbler.  JT was not sure, but said some sort of wild parakeet.

This little fellow flew right up to us.  Maybe it is a pet that got away?  He did not seem phased by us getting pretty close to get a picture. 

He flew by us and made his way to some twigs on the ground.  Maybe to build a nest???

I am so glad we made the time to go on our walk today.  What an amazing gift to see these two birds out in nature.  And not very far from our home.  I plan to visit Mackenzie again next week.  And maybe I will see Sunshine(JT named her while we were standing there with her today)too!

As we start our weekend today I hope to see many more amazing creatures out in nature.

Have a great weekend and do something FUN!!!!! 

Thankful Thursday

This is the newest bed Brant built for our backyard. Lima beans, green peas and cucumbers are sprouting out right now in that bed. Our once blank brick wall will be taken over(we pray)with these veggies.

I have said it once before, but one of my favorite things about having a garden(flower or food producing)is going out every morning to see what has started growing.  I LOVE it!!!  And get down right giddy about each new little bit of growth.  I pray my excitement for God's creation rubs off on the boys.

 On this Thursday I am thankful for the knowledge God has given us to plant gardens.  I am thankful for the food it will produce.  And most importantly I am thankful for what it is teaching our boys. 

What are you thankful for today?

Wordless Wednesday-Angels

Fruit Freeze

The weather here has been amazing! And amazingly warm for March. So much so the boys are already freaking out for snow cones. I am pretty sure the snow cone stands do not open until summer and have tried repeatedly to explain this to the boys. But because it has been so warm they can't understand why they are not open now!


Anyway last week they were begging for something "freezing" to eat or drink. I had heard enough so I thought surely I can make up something cold and delicious.


And I did! With nothing but fruit.......OK a little honey. This has now become a new thing around here and I am going through fruit like crazy!

It is all natural, it is good for you and is NOT loaded with SUGAR!

The different combinations of fruit are endless. We have played around with all kinds.


So far this is our favorite:
-handful of green and purple grapes
-lots of strawberries
-a whole orange
-2 apples
-honey to taste
-ice
**If it is too thick you can add 100% real apple juice**


All we need now are Popsicle molds and we are set for those HOT days!

Signs of Spring

During last week's insect lessons we made our way to the park/nature trail.  We were going to look for ladybugs, but had no luck.  We did run into some grasshoppers though.  And many other amazing creatures!

The nature walk was delightful!  I could have walked the trails slowly and quietly for much longer, but I had two little boys that were eager to make it to the park area. I loved looking around seeing signs of spring. And watching the boys be curious about paths off the path we were going.  They were quite interested in where these little paths would take them.  Cautiously they would enter the trees and quickly come back out.  We stopped to look at "waterfalls" as they like to call them, but they are really just streams of water. We stopped to see turtles, to blow dandelions, to look at nature-to observe all around us.  All the while we were looking for signs of Spring!

Spring is near!

As I walked down the trail I saw a Robin.....a big Robin. He was way too fast to did get a good shot, but I continued to follow him. As I got closer he flew to a tree where I turned to look and there were literally eight Robins in one tree. I quickly and quietly called the boys to see this amazing site! We I stood in awe of the beauty and tried once again to get a decent picture. My poor little camera just could not get them all. It will just be one of those memories shared by the boys and me.  Sometimes those are the best because then you relive them all over in your head.

We finally made our way all around and headed to the park.  The boys were thrilled to have a new place to play.  It was a sunny day, windy enough to take my hat off and I must say,  "Down right spectular!"
I could feel Spring in the air!  I could little signs all around me.  It is close!

After begging the boys to leave we arrived home to do our first real nature journal entry.  I have been wanting to start this for over a year, but until recently Ryan has shown no interest in drawing.  Matthew has always loved to draw and does it very well.  I picked the right time to start it because most of what will go in their nature journal is what they draw.

When thinking of their journal I wanted this really nice spiral book with great pencils and a carrying bag for it all to fit in.  Who am I kidding?!  They were done with this is less than 10 minutes.  Don't get me wrong they were excited to document what they had observed, but I am glad I went the simple, frugal way on this one.
Check it out:

Cost? Nothing! We already had everything!

Dividers with their name to store their work

Page 1 of Signs of Spring

Page 2-these pages will change with the seasons.

I plan to have a nature walk once a week followed by sitting down together and working on their nature journal.  My hope is they will enjoy it so much that it will become second nature to them. I pray they grow to have a love for thinking back to their time on our walks.  Or even just in our backyard or neighborhood.
And once they ask for their own journal I will buy it ASAP.

As we walked I made a special effort to point out signs of Spring to them.

I made them stop to look and realize the beauty right in front of us....to slow down, take it all in and observe. 

No matter what the season is I want them to grow up knowing the gift from God we have in nature.

And to document it as we go.

Sugar Cereal Friday/100

Is this not the best thing in the world or am I CRAZY?!  OK maybe a little of both! 

Since we have been trying to cut out all processed foods I was a little hesitant at first about this, but I thought the boys were old enough to get it.  And for crying out loud the poor boys are missing out on some good eating!
When I told them what I was thinking excitement filled the air!! I made it clear it would only be for breakfast on Fridays.  Hard thing for them was we grocery shop on Mondays and they had to pick something out then.  It was hidden away during the week, they never found it and eventually(by Wednesday)forgot all about it.

This morning is a special day not just because of the sugar cereal, but it is also a celebration of counting to 100!!! 

Since we started school each morning we put one straw into a jar.  Once we get ten straws we put a rubber band around those straws and put them into a box.  And then start all over again in the jar.  Each day the boys write a number.

Picture taken before they wrote 100

Today we finally made it to 100!!!!!  Now remember we have taken LOTS of holidays, free days, sick days and just because days so that is why we are just now reaching 100!!!! 
In honor of 100 I have counted out 100 squares(why yes I did count out 100 squares of cereal!)of Cinnamon Toast Crunch!  Enjoy boys! 

Ryan prefers it dry with Strawberry milk.

So now on Fridays they will get to be a normal kid and have sugar cereal.  Now that is what I call a great start to the weekend!
Enjoy your weekend and do something FUN!

Insect week

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!!

We are not doing much in the way of celebrating St. Patrick's Day today. For no other reason then we have a full day planned to get all our Spring gardens planted.  We are pretty sure the risk of frost is over.  It must be done.  And since Brant is off we are taking full advantage of this day.
Maybe after a long day of working outdoors I will treat myself to an Irish beer. 

What a FUN week this has been!  We will finish up our insect week tomorrow and be outdoors most of the day.  My allergies are excited!!!! On Friday we will be looking for any insect to observe.
Today we will look for bees to observe while we are outdoors getting our Spring gardens ready. 

Here is a breakdown of our week:
Monday-Intro to Insect week.
Tuesday-we learned all about ANTS, observed our Ant Farm and started on The Wiggly World of Bugs.

The Wiggly World Of Bugs

The Wiggly World Of Bugs is from a friend's blog. She is also a homeschooling Momma.  She has recently started designing educational printables. They are on her blog to print and use for FREE!
The Wiggly World Of Bugs was full of great info about insects. Went along perfect with all Insect week!
The boys LOVED it!!! 
Check out Morgana's blog  for her homeschooling printables!!
Wednesday-we learned all about ladybugs, read The Grouchy Ladybug and headed to the park/nature trail to look for ladybugs.......did not find a one, but did enjoy NATURE!

Cute book, grouchy bug!

The nature walk was delightful!  Although we did not see any ladybugs we did see plenty of other amazing creatures.  I'll save that post for next week.  For now I am off to start on our SPRING gardens, look for bees or any other kind of creepy, crawling, wiggly BUG!!

Off subject of insects.......if you missed my post last night make sure to check it out.
Ryan rides with NO training wheels!!
Check it out!

Training Wheels are OFF!!

I have been so close to talking him into taking the training wheels off lately.  Tonight I was successful and he was SO ready to do this!!!!  He took off and FAST!  Check it out! We even had him riding on the sidewalk and all around the culdesac. So proud of Ryan!!!!

Wordless Wednesday-Newfound love for drawing!

My Spring Favorites

With Spring comes lots of gardening and windy days around here.  When it comes to the windy days what is the point in "fixin" your hair...right?  Well I don't.  And on those gardening days although I prefer to be barefoot I don't like to feel dirt between my toes.  So flip flops are out!  And by the way I said my toes.......dirt between my fingers is heavenly. 

I am a hat girl.  I love wearing a hat, but I'll be honest what I really love is that I can go a few days without washing my hair and wear hats.  Or my new favorite.......wearing a bandana! So CUTE!
You can think I am gross for not washing my hair two days in row(sometimes three!), but I think about all the damage I am NOT doing to my hair on those days.  I like to call it a natural oil treatment.  Anyhoo, it works for me and I get to wear cute, funky head gear. 

So here are my Spring favorites for this year.   
-Hats and bandanas for those windy days.....or when I just don't feel like washing my hair.
-GREEN clogs for those gardening days.



Hey this momma still likes to look cute even if I am just hanging out around the house, gardening in the yard or running errands.  And I am crazy about a splash of color!

What are some of your Spring favorites this year?

Invasion!

Can you imagine if insects were this big?!

We have an invasion of INSECTS this week!!!! We are starting on the letter "I" and learning all about insects.  This is sure to be a fun week full of lots of creepy insects!

I pulled out all the boys' insects and have them all over the dining room.  I found all our insects type books and have those ready to use. I found stickers too!

And over the weekend the boys were busy capturing rolly pollies and other insects. I especially loved how when they found a rolly polly they would come and let me know all about it.  At one point Ryan came and told me they were having school outside.  They were coutning the legs and "investigating" the rolly polly.  LOVE...LOVE...LOVE this about my boys!!! 
Learning is just not sitting in a classroom Monday-Friday. As they were learning about the rolly pollies Matthew was so anxious to draw a picture.  My little artist.  He loves to draw everything!

This picture will go in his nature journal.

For our lessons this week we will observe ants(got the ant farm on Friday if you missed my post), ladybugs, bees and then any other kind of insects. 

A trip to the park and nature trail is a must this week!  I have no choice in this invasion!  I'll update later in the week.

Dirt and rocks

What do get when you have Spiderman lunch boxes and twin BOYS?

Yep, that's right!  DIRT and ROCKS!

I LOVE my 100% BOYS!  OK they are really 90% DIRT and 10% mischief!

ANTS!

Yesterday we went to check the mail and had a little surprise........ANTS! School ants. The ants had arrived and I was not prepared. OK their new home was not prepared.  I had ordered them a couple of weeks ago and as usual, did not read the intructions about getting their house ready before they arrive.

So I quickly gathered everything and "fixed up" their little home.  The boys were SO excited.  Our family went from a family of 5(that is including one dog)to a family of 30(that is including one dog and 25 ants).

Happy Ant Hill

The rod in the sand is making their first tunnel....they will do the rest.

As I prepared their home the ants went into the fridge. This made them less active.  And yes the instructions said to do this. But only for 10 minutes so I worked fast!

Finally we were ready and took them outside.  The ants came in a small tube and I found it funny that these 100% boys I have were afraid to carry it outside.  Eventually I talked someone into carrying it for me so I could carry the house.

And in went the ants into their new home! 

Home Sweet Home

COOL!

It will take about 24 hours for them to get really active. There is a small group that have yet to venture around so I am not sure if those are dead or not. Will the other ants eat them if they are dead? Hey that is less we have to feed them I suppose.


These are adult Harvester ants. They are fairly low maintenance creatures. We will feed them every 3 days(fresh fruits and vegetables....popcorn kernal size pieces)and give a couple drops of water.

The ANTS came just in time because next week we start on INSECTS!!! It will be a FUN week to say the least.

Enjoy your Friday and have a GREAT weekend!  Get out in nature and explore!(I think that in from Dinosaur Train)

Homemade Cheese Crackers

No fishy smile in these crackers!  All homemade with lots of love and I can prononce every ingredient! 
They are really good too!  We all loved them. 

In an attempt to eat heathlier as in NO processed foods, I needed more ideas for snacks.  Mainly for the boys, but Brant and I love to snack too. These little crackers may be dangerous to have around for me.  Next time I will try them with a whole wheat flour for sure.

They are much thicker than what the recipe called for, but Matthew was really begging for these new crackers. So I got in a hurry and did not roll my dough out thin enough. Next time I will follow the recipe and make them much thinner.  For now we will devour them so I can make more.  This is sure to be a snack I will make twice a week.

You can find the recipe here .  Hope you enjoy!!!

Wordless Wednesday-Little Helpers