Pumpkin Patch

we took the boys to the pumpkin patch to pick out a pumpkin to carve and mommy got some fun gourds to decorate with!! I do love the wackiness of Gourds!

Mommy's Boys...what a crew!!!

Ben liked the little pumpkins

Thomas picked out some fun gourds for Mommy!

Stephen was soooo dissapointed when we told him he had to choose one or the other

Alex made quite the spectacle of himself riding down the hill over and over again in these tube things.....Stephen was happy to give his big brother a Push.....

You roll down this little hill and the hay bales are supposed to stop you. well - Alex went right over the top of the bales and then stopped - it was hysterical!!

Mommy even took a turn but we will not be sharing those pictures with all of you!!!

Alex had done these before a few years ago and was very excited to do them again!

The Corn Maze. The boys were so excited to go into the corn maze - until they got lost! They were in there for quite some time and I was getting a little bored waiting for them when they came busting out the side of the maze and onto the tractor path - clearly not the Exit of the maze!! Do you notice Alex pointing to his father and tattling on him???? He didn't waste any time telling that it was daddy who made them do it!!!

Carving our Pumpkins. Thomas would have nothing to do with touching the guts inside the pumpkin so Stephen did it for him!! I was surprised because Stephen has always been the one who didn't want to touch gross stuff!!!

WOW!!

I have a pretty amazing teenager!! He definately has his faults and issues and troubles but he is such a Joy!
This week has been busy for him! Monday night he was in a One Act Play competition between the 4 high schools in our area and Broadway came in 2nd Place - YEAH!!! Those kids worked their butts off and it was such a rewarding experience for them! Now they will go to a Regional competition - he is so excited!!!
Tonight was the All City-County Choir Performance of the same 4 local high schools and their choir's. Alex is in choir so we also attended that! It was incredible!
There is some serious talent in our high school kids and truly a pleasure to get to enjoy it!!!
I am the proud, bragging mom tonight - I hope that is okay!!!

O' Christmas Tree

For some reason we have been having LOTS of discussions about christmas already and putting up the lights(the outside goes a little towards trailer park trash and WE LOVE IT)! Since we can't put up the lights outside - the boys asked if they could put up their tree today? They have a tree that goes in their room and they have their own decorations and they just love it....so we put it up! It was so much fun!!
I just couldn't resist when Stephen said to me - "Mommy, I just love having the tree up and all the lights" I do too!!!

Alex

Did I share with you that Alex is the Freshman class President at his new High School? I am proud and bragging - yes I am!!! The boy has no problem making friends and fitting in or not fitting in and making himself comfy in whatever situation he is in! I am truly amazed time after time at his ability to fit in and get along with just about everybody. There have been very few people he has ever not gotten along with in his lifetime. What amazing skills for him as he grows up and ventures into new and scary situations!

He went to his first Homecoming dance last weekend! He was NOT allowed to take a girl or dance too close to any girls but he still had a blast - big suprise! He was a dancing machine all night - so he said - and just had a really good time. He was all wired and pumped when he got home and just talked about nothing else for 2 straight days!

It is scary and exciting to watch him go through this phase of life. I did let my Fear take over a bit and probably will again but God worked it out and now it is a little better for Mom to handle all the girl stuff and growing stuff that comes along with high school and teenagers!

Craziness

Our lives spun out of control in a matter of minutes and I am still reeling!!!

Alex has adjusted to High School without any problems whatsoever! He is now the Freshman Class President!! He didn't even go to public school last year and he got elected President within the first 2 weeks of school!! He also tried out for a one act play and got the main part he tried out for! My son is quite the socialite!! It is going to be a BUSY year for us with his new schedule! Now we will just have to see how his grades do with all the business!!

or this is how we all are gonna feel......

Last week Alex brought home some wonderful flu/cold and it hit us all - HARD!! He had a cough and sore throat for a day or so. Then Danny got it for a couple days, Stephen had a cough for a day or so. Thomas got a runny nose and Ben had a cough for about a minute. I got it on Thursday and I STILL have it!! I cannot get rid of this runny nose and sore throat - it is miserable!!!

being sick brought everything to a halt - real quick! but it didn't stop the fact that I started back to work at the Family Christian store on Monday & Tuesday! YUK!! It is only for christmas and it will be worth it to get some debt paid off!!

the little ones enjoyed it because they got a day or 2 off of school due to mommies sickness!!

Busy, Busy, Busy

Fasting from the TV & Computer

A call was put out by some friends of ours to fast and we didn't do very well with the whole food fasting idea so we decided as a Family to fast from the Tv & Computer for a week! Starting today we will no tbe watching any TV or using the computer for games or such for a week. Yes - I know I am on the computer - but I am on it to tell you that I won't be on it for a week!! I am allowed to use it to check email and some other things because I have some books for sale and other things I need to be able to respond to but no blogging!! It is going to be a LONG week for me!! I am addicted to this computer and talking to you is my release at the end of the day!!
I am excited to see how God works in us this week! We have some verses posted around about worship and we will be praying those and some others every time we want to blog or turn one of the screens on!! I am looking forward to an amazing week of some spiritual changes in our house!!!

Makin' Bread

I made my first loaf of fresh ground whole wheat bread! I do love the taste of whole wheat and with a slab of real butter melted onto a piece of freshly baked bread......My mouth is watering......YUMMY!!! I got a new bread maker so I can make bread every day - the boys boycotted me making bread and freezing it and I don't mind throwing a loaf in the maker every day! It seems to get eaten so it is worth it!
I borrowed a friends grinder and ground some hard red and some hard white and I am excited to experiment with each of the wheats to find what we like best! So far I have made 2 loafs of bread with the same wheat but a different recipe. I don't know how to fix the recipe if we don't like it but I don't mind trying new ones till we find the one we like the best! We already did this with the pancake mix and determined that they like the hard white the best BUT mommy likes the hard red!!
It is weird for me to be this excited about cooking and bread making but I am really excited about the benefits for our family!!!

If any of you have a great breadmachine bread recipe you want to pass on I would love to have it to try!!!
It just dawned on me I should have taken a pic of my first loaf to show off!!!

Friend Makin Monday

I did this a couple weeks ago and it was fun so here I am again - tryin to make me some friends!! My answers to the 20 questions - I hope you will still be my friend after you read my answers!!!

1. Do you cook every night?
Not if I don't have to!! I really do not enjoy cooking! But you gotta do what you gotta do - right? and if we are going to change our eating habits - which I posted about yesterday - then I am going to HAVE to cook every night - YUK!!!

2. What kind of laundry detergent do you use & why?
I used to use the costco brand int hat big huge container but lately i have been buyin whatever is cheapest! We have this great store around here that has super cheap prices on food items and some other odds and ends so I have been buying laundry detergent for 3.49 a bottle for a few weeks!

3. Do you do laundry every day or loads at a time?
I do it whenever the mood strikes and it is usually when we run out of undies! I usually end up doing it 2 or 3 times a week a few loads at a time.

4. How often do you eat out per week?
NEVER.

5. Where do you usually eat out?
if we do - it would be to hit the drive thru at chick-fila or mcdonalds

6. What is your favorite retail store?
I do soooo love Thrift stores!! But real stores - my favorite is TARGET - and since hubby works there we do get a small discount!!!

7. What is oyur favorite thing to drink?
Dr.Pepper but it has to be fountain soda!

8.Do you take vitamins? What kind?
i was taking mellaluca but it has been a few months since i got them

9. What percentage of the household chores do you do?
80%

10. Do your children do chores?
yes - alex does the 2 bathrooms(not mine), sweeps and mops the stairs and hallway, vacuum downstairs after dinner
the little ones empty the dishwasher, scoop dog poop, clean the van, clean their room, and they each have a dinner chore - get drinks, set the table, wipe the table
Here are some pics of the chore charts and schedules I recently made for the boys.

11. Do you go to church?
ABSOLUTELY

12.Do you have a housework schedule?
HA!HA! I wouldn't keep it but the OCD in me would sure have fun making one!

13. Do you keep a working budget?
Dave Ramsey all the way!!

14. What do you do at night as a family?
we always eat dinner together. we watch movies, play games

15. How do you prepare yourself for a new week?
I wish I planned out my school week on sundays. I have tried to do a meal plan but so far I havent done so good with that!! Other than that I pretty much fly by the seat of my pants and take it as it comes - I would not recommend this method!!!

16. What do your mornings look like?
In reality - i roll out of bed whenever the boys come pester me to get up. then we have breakfast, do our morning chores and get started with school. there is no set time for any of the above but I am trying to follow the same routine every day!

17. What time do you get up in the mornings?
during the week I set the alarm for 7:00 and usually hit snooze till about 8:00. on the weekends I sleep as long as they will let me but i am usually up by 830 or 9!

18. What time do you go to bed at night?
I would like to be in bed by 11 but so many nights i am up till 1,2 and sometimes 3!! Now that we have started school I am better about getting to bed but alot of times it is 12 before i hit the pillow!

19. How do you manage all the paperwork that comes into your house?
Anything that needs to be attended goes staright ont he calendar whitha s much info as I can fit and then the piece of paper goes into the trash can! if i need the paper it gets attached to the door to the garage with a magnet( it is right next to the calendar) or it goes around the calendar ona string I have hanging there attached with a clothespin. I have a bill/money file taht all that goes into until bill paying time. all phone lists are in 1 binder in a central spot by the calendar.

20. How do you keep your household organized?
I think my answer to 19 would qualify here as well! Pic here of my wall calendar system!

Healthy Eating

About 6 months ago I started making our own bread and it has been a good change for us. That is about as far as I got in the healthy eating dept until recently. The other day i found myself listening to Sue Becker of the Bread Beckers on one of the MP3's from convention. I was mesmerized and God just struck something in my head and heart and said listen up because this needs to happen in your house! We do love our cereal, popcorn, chips and all sorts of frozen goodies like chicken nuggets and pizza rolls but hubby and I have gotten sick of the way we eat and so we knew it was time for a change!
The 2 things that really struck me were 1) shop for REAL FOOD. do not shop the inside aisles of the grocery store - only shop the outside perimeter and only buy real food. I didn't understand at first but I just so happen to go to the grocery store a day or so later and was floored by the reality of what she was saying! It will mean I will have to actually cook and make food for my family instead of opening a bag or dumping it onto a pizza pan but i feel like God is behind me on this and will keep me fed with ideas thru the internet and friends!
2) grind our own wheat. this will be a little harder since I don't have a wheat grinder and I sure don't have $300 plus to drop on one! But I do have a dear friend who has one and is willing to grind it for me! I was totally convinced just listening to Sue Becker talk about what they do to the wheat to make it have a shelf life of undetermined time. I have been blessed since we decided to make this change by realizing half my friends eat this way and are so willing to share recipes, hints and tips and even help me get started(I really have NO desire to cook - I would much rather be painting). Any recipes or tips YOU want to share I will be so blessed to have!!!
Those are the 2 things we are gonna slowly strat to change around here!

I will be more than happy to make you a copy of her talks and send them to you if you want to listen to what she has to say!

Once I started researching recipes and figuring out other things to eat for breakfast and lunch I started thinking about my son's acne and if this change of eating might be helpful to him. I found nothingt hat said 'these foods cause acne' but i found multiple articles that had found correlations between caffeine - soda & chocolate, dairy products and all the preservatives put into food and acne! Are you suprised? I was - just a little bit - but the more I learn about what things are being put into my food the less and less I am suprised by what a change in diet can do for us!!

My hubby, Alex and Ben are okay with the idea of change but we haven't had the full effect of it all yet - there is still cereal in the pantry and chips so as soon as those are gone it could get UGLY around here! Stephen and Thomas are my picky eaters and when I say picky I mean they will go hungry rather than try something(which is almost everything i put in front of them). Stephen actually GAGGED when I made him try a bite of a wheat pancake I made with our fresh flour!! I have always given them the option to have a bowl of cereal if they didn't like what we were having for dinner but we are going COLD TURKEY on the cereal and they will have to take a NO THANK YOU bite before they can turn it down and refuse to eat! I am sure we will still have some frozen items for lunch now and again - I love pizza rolls and tater tots as much as they do!!

God give me strength to make these changes and stick to them for our family and the benefits we can receive by eating the way you intended us to eat!

Yard Sales and In-Laws

I spent the week getting ready for a yard sale at my house this weekend. I LOVE yard sales! I love going to them - I love having them and I love getting rid of stuff! We have bought very few pricey things - most everything we own has come from thrift stores and yard sales so it is easy to get rid of stuff every year because there is not alot of emotional attachment! But now that the boys are getting older we are putting more thought into what we buy them so there is less and less need to get rid of stuff!!

Ben had a blast selling lemonade for 25 cents a cup! He was very patient and sat there all morning waving and saying hello to folks and asking them if they wanted to buy lemonade! He made $12!!

I would sooo buy lemonade from him if he smiled at me like that!!!

My In-Laws will be arriving Monday or Tuesday and I am a total stress case! They are never here long but when they are it is very stressful. I have been cleaning like it was 'spring' and i still have a LONG way to go!!! I love them dearly and they are awesome, God-lovin' folks but they are just different than I am and my mother in law does not hesitate(at all) to tell me how she is feeling, what I am doing wrong and how ugly the color on my walls is! It is very hard to prepare myself mentally for the put downs..aaarrggghhhh!! The biggest problem is that they are the most wonderful people EVER and it is so hard to remember that sometimes!!! God has truly blessed our family with them but sometimes it is just HARD!!!

on a side note.....I found an old Dave Matthews cd when cleaning and I am just chillin' listening to it right now - I love the instruments he uses in his music!!!

I love to paint and be creative and use bright colors!! I started painting about 5 years ago - from the encouragement of a friend whose art I kept buying - and I haven't stopped since!!

Frig Frames are my absolute favorite thing to paint and to gift!! I can be as colorful and fun as I want because most people aren't worried about a frig magnet clashing with their decor!!I love to have my frig full of them!

I love to mix old and new with the use of color and patterns. I love to look at something at a yard sale or in the thrift store and think how I can make it my own!

For years I have also wanted to figure out a way to make some extra $$ from my art - we always need extra $$$!! I tried a website but right as I got it set up we decided to homeschool and there was no way i could do both at that time! I tried some craft shows around here but I don't think my style was quite country enough!! So - I gave up and just have painted to give as gifts and to decorate my house with the random person buying stuff from me here and there.

Well - a friend encouraged me to try again at a local coffee shop - so I did. I met with the owner yesterday and she liked my stuff!! I am excited! I am going to start with a couple of small things that I have around the house and see how it goes!

Bowl.....

Lazy Susan.....

and Frig Frames - of course!!!

We have 2 colleges near us so I am gonna try to do something with their school colors too!!

I am really excited and hopeful that maybe now is the right time to try to make something of my passion!!!

Lady Julie

I was Knighted today!!! We went to the Medieval festival today and I was knighted along with the boys. It was fun! It was a small festival and we were so looking forward to the Jousting Tournament but it turned out to be not what the boys were expecting. Oh well - we enjoyed getting to see the period costumes and all the armor and weapons that they wore!
I totally forgot my camera so no pictures - the memory will just have to be etched into my brain forever!!!

Busy, Busy, Busy

My sister just recently turned me onto the whole coupon shopping craze and a fantastic website that does all the work for me - southernsavers. She goes thru the coupons you get in the paper and matches them up to the store sales for each week. It is truly amazing what you can save by adding coupons to store sales - which I never knew you could do!!! Now - I have not experienced the amazing deals my sister has but I have found milk for only $2.17 a gallon and eggs for $.89 - that works for me for now!!! I plan to get a little more into it now that we are home from all our vacations and we are starting to get back into our routine!! It seems to take a little bit of work but I think it will be worth it for the savings!!!

I have been painting in my free time the past couple days. I started working on my sister's LATE birthday present and couldn't stop so I got a few other projects done that had been sitting around waiting for me to finish!

like this stool that I bought at least 6 months ago, painted it orange and then it sat around and waited for me to do something to the top of it.....

my sisters late birthday present!

a little something for the wall in our family room!!!

tomorrow we are going to a medieval festival and we get to watch a jousting match!! should be fun!!

The newest Pasiecznik has arrived.....

isn't he stinkin cute???

our neighbor had puppies and the boys just fell in love and we thought Shiloh needed a brother so........

look at how he just loves on him.....i couldn't resist!!!

Meet Jack........

Legos HURT.....

Who knew legos could cause some serious damage when you step on them?? I didn't!
I was helping a friend paint yesterday and I stepped down off the ladder and stepped right onto a lego. That thing jammed up into my foot and I literally had to yank it out! It hurt so stinkin' bad! Now I have a gash in the bottom of my foot, it is all swollen and painful to walk and I am in bed with my foot up! There are gonna be some changes in our clean up process around here!!!

we are home...again

We are home to stay this time!! no more vacations - although they were all really fun and well worth it - we are glad to be home! We went camping this past week and can I just mention it RAINED the WHOLE week!!!! It was yucky, wet, more wet, smelly but the kids had a lot of fun! They played in the rain with their cousins, they cooked smores when it cleared for a little bit, they swam in the lake and jumped off the high dive for hours in the rain, they played in the rain some more, we took a hike or two during brief respits from the rain and we had FUN! But - we are glad to be home - even the boys are glad to be sleeping in their own beds!!

I told a small fib - it didn't rain for about 1 1/2 of the days we were there!

I am having trouble loading pics so maybe later I will be able to put some up!!!

Vacation....again

We are off to go camping with my sister's family and my parents for the whole week next week! We will not be so lucky as to be roughin' it in a tent for the whole week though - we will be in a cabin!!! With real beds - Praise the Lord!!! I love camping and I don't mind roughin' it but we have yet to find an air mattress that actually holds air and you don't sink into the floor in the middle of the night - which then means NO SLEEP!!!!! I am usually quite grumpy by the time we come home from just 2 nights camping I couldn't imagine sleeping in a tent ON THE FLOOR for 6 nights - YUK!!! Maybe a cot is in order for dear old mommy???
I am pretty sure we will be off the airwaves for a week so talk at you when we get back in a week!!!

Mommies New Toy

we were given this wonderful hammock as a gift last week in canada and my hubby just put it up for me today.......

Thomas & Ben thought it was great fun to twist mommy up and watch her twirl around and around! It was great fun!!!

I don't really have a story to share so I thought I would share our favorite places to go on vacation!

We have 2 favorite vacation spots.....

Canada - we stay at my in-laws 'cottage' at the Ukranian Bible Camp on Pigeon Lake near Peterborough. We spend our days at the lake playing in the sand, canoeing around the lake and just enjoying the peace and quiet of the woods. The boys also do alot of fishing and we eat alot of fish! We spend our evenings by the campfire,that is always going, and chatting with the in-laws and any other relatives that are there at the time. This year we had 4 wheelers that we got to ride all around the camp - that was way fun!!!

the Lake.........

the Cottage........

Outer Banks - my boys absolutely love the beach! This was the second year that we didn't get to go to OBX(finances and our vacations have to be to visit family since we have NO family near us)

and we are all very sad about this change in our vacation spot!! We always stayed in the same house that was about a block from the beach and on the other side of the beach road was the sound where the boys would spend hours crabbing and fishing! We really, really miss the beach!!

Vacation Dreams......

1. To get back to the beach every year!

2. Drive across the US in an RV! I want to see all there is to see - the Grand Canyon, Yosemite Park, that big forest in CA that I cannot recall the name of right now and all the other amazing places we have right here in our own country!!! I also want to stop at all the funny places along the way like - the biggest ball of string, etc.. It has to be in an RV though becuase if we tried it in our van we would most likely all go crazy!! Plus - the whole RV experience seems like it is a must and that it would be super fun!!!!

3. Swim with the Dolphins! This is my ultimate dream! I have always wanted to do this and I will someday!! I love Dolphins!

4. Alaska & Australia. They just both seem like must visits!!

5. Jungle Trek! I so would love to go on a Guided tour thru the Jungle/Rainforest. All the animals and mystery leave me breathless!!!!

Digital scrapbooking

I am hooked! Sometime last year I got a whole bunch of FREE digiscrap stuff off the internet and I couldn't wait to start scrapbooking digitally instead of the regular old way with lots of stuff strewn around. I finally got around to getting some pages done while we were in Canada and all I had to bring with me was the laptop!! It was fantastic - every night I could scrap away and I didnt have any mess to clean up after I was done and every single piece of paper, mat, sticker or other embellishment that I put on the page was FREE!! I have gotten so much stuff free that I could seriously scrap for quite a few years this way without having to buy a thing - except the scrapbook itself and the pages to get printed!
Now - on the other side of it I have spent hours since we got home downloading NEW Freebies and Goodies so I can get completely caught up when we leave again and go camping next week! We will be in a cabin so I can bring the laptop for late night scrapping!!!! Fun, Fun, FUn!!!
I tried to upload some pages to show off but becuase htey are such big files they wouldn't load!!

Family Vacation.....Canada

We still have 5 more days of vacation but I wnated to show off some of the pics I have taken already! We are in Peterborough Canada - well actually we are in an ever smaller town but that is the closest town that is on the map! This is one of our absolute favorite places to come for vacation and we are having so much fun! We stay in the in-laws cabin that is on the property of the Ukranian Bible Camp Retreat Center. The lake is just a brief walk down the dirt road and we are surrounded by beautiful trees and quiet! Fishing, Playing at the Lake and the campfire in the backyard - that is always burning - are the highlights of our vacation! This year we have 4 wheelers to play on and they are so much fun - Mommy rides the big one more than the boys do! Stephen has mastered the little yellow one and zips all over on it with the biggest smile on his face but Ben and Thomas ride with mommy, daddy or Alex. Daddy and Stephen rowed the canoe ove rto the island that is across from us on the Lake and Alex goes over by himself! He wants to go exploring over there so hopefully it will stop RAINING long enough for him to be able to go! In between rain showers - which it has done every day since we got here - we have meanaged to get in some playtime!!! We also go to go strawberry picking with Uah - that was fun and dirty!!! Enjoy the pics........

Uah & Tat's backyard and house...beautiful!!!

I Painted...

...again! The Boys went to Canada with their grandparents a couple days ago(we will join them after we pick up Alex in Va Beach on friday) so I had a couple days to myself!! Big Suprise - I painted some things around the house!

I have been wanting to change the color on the stairs so I used some leftover paint and painted the wall in the stairs. When we first moved here I painted the walls very colorful and then when I started painting more of my own stuff and putting it up on the walls and it got to be way too colorful so..I have slowly repainted the walls in lighter colors and it makes the colors in the things I paint and like really POP!! It has been fun to find my style!!

This frame has been hanging on the wall for awhile now with our calendar and other necessities clothespinned to it. Yesterday I got a wild hair and painted the inside of the frame with chalkboard paint so when I need to write down a number or note real quick - it is right there!! I do love chalkboard paint!!

I found this adorable table at a yard sale for $4. It was plain and green when I bought it and now it is burnt orange with lots of fun squares decoupaged to the top with the words 'when God is in your heart - love is in your home ' around the edges! it is fun and random anad the colors are so much brighter in real life!

I have been eyeballing a silverware caddy at Target to use during school time for pencils, markers, crayons and such but since it costs money I got creative and created my own. I had this wooden box from somewhere and I used frosting containers to put everything in. Now - of course I had to decorate the containers with scrapbook paper because just plain white doesn't cut it!!

This was so fun to paint! I painted a flat canvas in fun colors and then wrote this quote from Dr. Seuss that I saw on a blog I like and I have been wanting to put it up somewhere in our school room - okay, kitchen - for awhile! A friend had given me this old frame made out of barn wood and instead of putting it inside the frame I glued the canvas to the top of the frame. it really looks good - i think! I love the contrast of the barn wood and the bright colors!

the more that you read the more things you will know, the more that you learn the more places you will go! i just love it!!

Leaving a Legacy

You have got to listen to this pastor - Voddie Baucham - speak about leaving a legacy for our kids and our families. He is incredible and this video is amazing. He spoke at our homeschool convention and we were all just blowna way by his talks about family, worldview, and education!
If you google him there are lots of other videos of his that you can watch! I really hope you will listen to him and that your spirit will be as moved as mine was!!