Top 30 Picture Books

Over at the Bookworms Booklist she has listed these 30 Books that have been given the title of THE Top 30 Picture books by School Library Journal! She has challenged us to see how many we have read from this list! I marked the ones we have read in blue. I would love to see your list!!!
I was totally shocked at how many of these we have actually read - considering Froggy is a big hit in our house - but I was even more suprised by how many we own but have not read!!! We will be doing some reading this week - a little good literature never hurt anybody!!! I love that so many of htese books I read when I was a little girl!!!

#1: Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak (1963)
#2: Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown (1947)
#3: The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle (1979)
#4: The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats (1962)
#5: Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus by Mo Willems (2003)
#6: Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey (1941)
#7: Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson (1955)
#8: Madeline by Ludwig Bemelmans (1939)
#9: Millions of Cats by Wanda Gag (1928)
#10: Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Tale by Mo Willems (2004)
#11: The Story of Ferdinand y Monroe Leaf, ill. Robert Lawson (1936)
#12: Good Night Gorilla by Peggy Rathmann (1994)
#13: Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey (1948)
#14: The True Story of the Three Little Pigs by Jon Scieszka, ill. Lane Smith(1989)
#15: Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse by Kevin Henkes (1996)
#16: Owl Moon by Jane Yolen (1987)
#17: Caps for Sale by Esphyr Slobodkina (1947)
#18: In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak (1970)
#19: Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney (1982)
#20: George and Martha by James Marshall (1972)
#21: Bark, George by Jules Feiffer (1999)
#22: The Monster at the End of this Book by Jon Stone, ill. by Mike Smollin (1971)
#23: Bread and Jam for Frances by Russell Hoban, illustrated by Lillian Hoban (1964)
#24: Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin, Jr. and John Archambault, ill. Lois Ehlert (1989)#25: The Little House by Virginia Lee Burton (1942)
#26: Corduroy by Donald Freeman (1976)
#27: The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter (1902)
#28: Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst, ill. Ray Cruz(1972)
#29: Sylvester and the Magic Pebble by William Steig (1969)
#30: Brown, Bear, Brown Bear, What do you See? by Bill Martin Jr., ill. Eric Carle (1967)

I am Guest posting at Today's Housewife...

go over and check it out http://todayshousewife.blogspot.com/. You should also peruse their whole blog - they have some really good posts and lots of helpful info!!!

Lots of Ice Cream

will be eaten in this house for awhile while the baby has his owie!! Every once in awhile the tears break out and he will scream that it hurts but so far it is going much better than I thought it would!!! He was screaming for me to get the splint off this morning(wait till Monday and the real cast goes on) but it seems okay now! He still has his stickers he got from the hospital and doesn't want to take the shirt off.....

Could you resist this face and his ice cream pleas???????

ANOTHER Owie....

Thomas broke (fractured) his wrist tonight! He was playing on the playground at Alex's school (we were there for his 8th grade graduation - more on that tomorrow) and fell off and must have landed on his wrist. The poor little guy was in so much pain - it was horrible to hear him just crying and crying. We headed to the ER - again - and he was fine after they put in an IV with pain meds!!! He even told the xray guy that it was okay and could take as long as he needed it too!!! I was in awe of how quickly they took care of the little guy - we were outof there in less than 2 hours! He has a splint(which is lamost just like a cast) on his right wrist and we will head to the ortho tomorrow to find out what will happen next!! We know for sure he will have to have a cast!

the Pool...

is now empty!! We went to sleep and when we woke up it was almost empty!! The spot where we put it was not completely level and so it tilted and I guess I put too much water in it because the water knocked over the top and emptied right out!! El sucko!!! My in laws are here and my father inlaw is sweet enough to help me fix it so he started to make a level spot for the pool with mulch and dirt and timbers - it is going to be sooo nice when it is full - again - and we can play in it!! My hubby keeps asking is it worth it?? YES!! Even when it is only part way full the boys will play out there and have so much fun and mommy doesn't have to drag all our 'stuff' to the pool every day because it is in our backyard!!!

Summertime is Here......

The Pool is full - it only took about 4 days off and on - the water bill is going to suck!!! It is going to be so much fun once it warms up - the boys have been in but it is still WAY too cold for mommy and especially Daddy(it might be august before daddy actually gets in it)!!

The Ice Cream truck has started coming and that means summer around our house!!! Lucky for us he comes every Tuesday and slowly makes the turn in the cul de sac we live on becasue he knows that all of our kids will come running! They are usually already out front waiting for him because they heard him coming at least a mile away - if not further!! Another item we are going to have to add to the budget Because - I dont know about you but - I just don't have the heart to say NO to the ice cream truck!!!!

A friend or two came running as well!!!

This is the second time alex has gotten his tongue stuck to this exact same flavor popsicle!!! The first time(last year) he was crying it hurt so bad because he stupidly YANKED it off his tongue - along with about 3 layers of skin!!! This time he ran to the hot water and it came off very nicely!!! Every time, we retell the story of how Grandma got her tongue stuck to the jungle gym bar when she was a little girl and how she was stuck there and how they got it off!!!!

The boys are going camping on Friday and leaving Mommy home alone - NOW that is what summer is all about!!!!

What's Up....

Alex had his second weekend of Sea Cadets and got to go for the whole weekend this time instead of just saturday. He LOVES it and is so excited to be doing this and all the military training! He has got his whole next year of promotions and skills trainings planned out and we are just loving watching him be so into this! The driving 2 hours to and from one weekend a month might not work out so well for his brothers - we left at 445 saturday morning - way too early for anybody in our house(except daddy who wasnt even going for the ride - next time)!!!! It might be time to invest in the dvd players for the car!!!Hmmm!! Target has some on sale this week....

The other boys and mommy messed around with trying to get the pool set up this weekend. We didnt get it up because it has to be on level ground and the only level ground in our yard is the front and we will not be having a big blue pool in the front yard for the next 3 months!!! Tomorrow the boys and I will be getting mulch or sna dto do what w ecan to make it a little mor elevel so the whole pool doesnt tilt and spill over!!! We got this 16ft buy 3.5ft pool at walmart last year on clearance for $25 and we are going to make it last as long as possible!!!

I finally got to hang my laundry out on the clothesline(it stopped raining briefly) that my hubby and father in law built for me last year and I was so excited!! there is just something about hanging those clothes on the line and watching them blow in the wind hanging on my line that just makes me feel like a real country girl!!! Am I weird???

I am now headed over to the homeschool blog to share what I have been working on tonight to be ready for our back to school day tomorrow!!! I needed a week vacation from life to get ready to get back on track with the boys now that I am no longer working so tomorrow our time is up!!!

TV Guardian...

I used to work at the christian bookstore and we sold this thing called clear play which would bleep out language and some violence but I could never bring myself to pay $70 for it!! Well - i have had several customers come in and say they wished we still sold TV Guardian and that is so much betteer than this clear play - I don't know as i have never had either...until Today!!!
I just got the TV Guardian at a thrift store for $2!!! I am soooo excited and can't wait to see if it actually works!!! It is supposed to be able to determine when bad language is cominga nd it bleeps it out!!! We soooo need that inour house - the boys love things like batman, hulk, xmen but mommy hates the language so.....I will be praying over this little contraption like crazy till my hubby puts it in to make sur eit works!!! I am totally stoked at my find today!!!

I have soooo missed you guys....

I am having total blog withdrawals and now that life has calmed down a little.....I am back!!! It started out by offering to help a friend get ready for her yard sale, then I had to get ready for my own yard sale, have the yard sale, then I was working on a couple gifts and things for the house - which I will gladly post pics of below - and next thing you know weeks have gone by - my goodness!!!

These are a couple of things I did awhile back that I couldn't remember if I showed you or not so....here they are!!! The mail thing is something I saw someone do on another blog and I loved the idea so much I had to try it - of course!!! The bench was a find at the local thrift store and I found this awesome chicken(or rooster) fabric and knew it just had to go on this little bench!!! I painted the bench with some left over paint I had and then distressed it!!

I keep seeing these banners all over on other people's blogs and I decided I wanted to make one! Some new scrapbook paper, a few embellishments and my creativity went to town!! You can't see it real well in the picture - it says Spring and looks super cute hanging on one of the many bookshelves we have in our house!!!

Do you remember those houses I posted a couple months ago and wanted ideas on what to do with them???? Well - I decopauged paper onto this one after painting the background and then decopauged this saying I saw on some artwork at work! I made it for a really good friend who abandoned us and moved to Texas!!! I really hope she finds somewhere special for it!

That same friend was throwing away this lovely bulletin board and I was able to rescue it for my own uses!!! I painted the corkboard part with LOTS of coats of chalkboard paint and the outside edge with(once again) leftover paint and then I wrote the verse from Deuteronomy 6 around the edge! I painted a little tin cup black, filled it with chalk and an eraser and hung it up next to it! Super cute and way practical for school!!!!

And last but not least - I made these for a girl at work who graduated from college this weekend! Ilove them and how they turned out! I have had the idea for awhile - I got the frames from super duper clearance at work after christmas(i have lots more too) and have had this idea but noone to do it for...so...I found someone to make them for and I do like how they turned out!!!

That is why I have been offline for so long and I must say when I see all the fun stuff I got to paint I am not as sad as I was at not blogging when I started this post!!! I am now off to get started on teacher gifts - a week late!!! I will share when i finish them - I have 8 to do!!!

Is it just Me????

I was just picking up and vacuuming because the house is a pit(as always) and I found two new(brand new but cheap - $$store) toys that are already broken laying on the floor!!! Are my kids the only ones who terrorize almost every toy they get and rarely ever play with it the way it is intended?? Is it because they are boys? Is it because I don't watch them close enough?? They have fun - there is no doubt about that but to what extent!!!!!

FREE....FREE....FREE....

I just found about this and wanted to pass it along....This website Learning A-Z has freebies all week long - all you have to do is register!! I have been downloading goodies and having fun looking around - hope you do too!! Pass it along!!

I just gave my 2 weeks notice......

YAHOOO!!! Praise God!!!! I am jumping and dancing with Joy - you just can't see me!!! it has been a really rough month of trying to do it all and we just decided that me working is not worth the extra stress it is adding to our lives!! I have worked almost every night for the past 3 weeks and it is sooo not worth the gas money, the kids crying, I haven't seen my hubby in weeks, the stress it adds to mommys day, the way mommy yells because she is stressed and tired all the time! This is not the life we want for our family and that comes first!!! There is such a peace in my spirit right now and the joy it brought to the boys faces was even more worth it!
We have been a 1 car family for over a month now and with me working it was causing way extra stress and we will be a 1 car family as long as needed(it all depends on how much it will cost to fix danny's car)! We have been following Dave Ramsey's plan for getting out of debt and with the last 2 paychecks I make we will have Baby step 1 - which is our emergency fund - and so that was the cincher in me being OUTTA THERE!!!

Saturday.....AAAHHHH....Saturday

On Thursday night I was able to get someone to cover my shift at work on Saturday and I couldn't wait for saturday to get here!!! The weather was supposed to be hot, my hubby was off and with me not having to work we could all hang out at home all day and putz around!!! For me that meant sleeping in, projects and hanging out with hubby!!!!
I almost finished painting the picnic table for the deck, almost finished spray painting a new bookshelf i got at a yard sale - these two projects will have to be completed sometime this week in my spare time. We got a queen size bed - Praise God because our old bed(King) was so horribly misshapen and my back was on fire from sleeping in it - from the same yard sale and my hubby moved some things around for me in our room to make it look a little nicer!!! Sleep was so good last night and we made it loud and clear that the new bed doesn't accomodate small children so we flew solo all night long last night!!! We will see how long that lasts but for now I will enjoy the quiet of my new, Hard bed with just me, my hubby and Shiloh!!!
Hubby and I also got to go on a date sat. night!!! We went to a free concert at JMU performed by their girls christian accapella group - they were fantastic!!!! Now - the concert was free but the groceries, the garden supplies for my dear hubby and the other non essentials that were picked up at a few stops we made along the way - were not!!! It was so nice to get to hang out with just my main squeeze for a couple hours!!! I highly recommend it!!

Life has been CRAZY around here.....

and it doesn't seem to be slowing down any at all!!! I have barely seen my hubby and my kids in the past 10 days between his work, my work, track meets, and all the other Life that has happened in between! We have helped my in laws move out of their house in MD, spent a few more hours in the ER getting Ben's stitches out, driven across town and back again to look for lost backpacks and so much more that I can't even remember!!!

We are back to a one car family again - after a $400 repair bill it died again after about 3 days and who knows if we will be able to fix it again and when!

Alex and I spent all day Saturday in Roanoke at SeaCadets. It is a really neat program run by the Navy for young people ages 11-17 who are interested in the military. This particular program is run by the Navy and Roanoke is the closest one to us so we visited on Saturday and Alex loved it!!! He will go to training once a month and this summer he will attend a Boot Camp that is an intro into military life! Next summer he will be able to go to Boot Camp that specializes in a more specific area of interest that he has - like Seal training or marksmanship!! This is going to be an interesting journey for Alex and for us to see if the Military is really a path he wants to pursue!!! I can't wait to get pics of him in his uniform to show you guys!!!!

Talk about BLISS.......too cute not to show off!!!

Happy Easter

Yesterday our church had a 10,000 egg hunt! It was a chilly day but that didn't stop the boys from eating sno cones, bouncing/sliding in the bounce house and hunting down alot of eggs Full of candy!!! Our church Rocks!!! Uah & Tat (danny's parents) were here to join in the fun with us.

Some pics for you all to enjoy......

Hospitals and Owies......

We have spent way too much time and money dealing with both things these days! I am guessing that instead of having all the extra girly type things to buy and spend extra money on we are going to be blessed with dr. bills and hospital visits!!!

Stephen had some kind of abcess on his finger that had to be drained(more than once) and that cost us close to $300 and tons of tears!!

A month later he broke or fractured his sternum - crazy I tell you! We are currently dealing with the orthopedics on this one but at least the swelling and pain has gone away! Poor guy! The bills haven't started arriving for this injury yet - can't wait!!

Ben fell on Sunday and cracked open an old scar under his chin and we spent a couple hours in the ER getting 4 stitches! This was very exciting thanks to Ben's extremely out of control habit of crying hysterically!!! Praise God for fabulous friends so I didnt have to drag the other 2 little ones with us!!! All is well now and we will get the stitche sout in 7 days! I am on pins and needles waiting for the bill for this visit!!! Because you know I am going to get a bill from the dr.,the nurse, the hospital, the anesthesioligist, the receptionist, the security guard and his entire team that were on duty that whole night, the linen company for the sheet thathe got blood on......okay okay I know I am exaggerating just a little but it is a bit ridiculous at the bills that come after every hospital ER visit!!!

just in case you wanted a close-up view of the stitches(ben did)!!

A New Blog....

I just created a blog that focuses on our Homeschool journey.....come on over, check it out and become a follower - followers are Fun!!
http://boysschoolandfun.blogspot.com/

I LOVE DIRTY JOBS!!!!

Homeschooling...a way of life.....

In no way am I judging anyone or criticizing in regards to the choices you have or have not made - I am simply stating my recent observations and how they have made me feel. My ramblings from my head!!!
I have had a couple of conversations this past month about the mindset of homeschoolers and this is what I have realized - homeschooling is THE reason we have become a better mother, father, brother, family, learner, teacher and lover of all things that happen in the world around us! I have learned to stop and smell the flowers, to look at the stars, to not be in a rush(okay we still are some of the time) when we leave the house and to truly Love, Appreciate and Enjoy the Blessings God has given me in my children! I used to laways rush thru whatever they wanted so I could get back to what i wanted and I have had the most Joy brought to my life by the Lord convicting me to HS and to stop being consumed by me, me, me and to change my idea of what I want from the time I have been given with these sweet boys of mine! Don't get me wrong - I am still the Queen of projects, rearranging furniture and redecorating from a recent thrift store adventure but I am not consumed by it!!!
I recently read an article where a lady was talking about how at the end of the school year they had decided to start homeschooling the following year. That summer they went on a car trip and instead of sitting in the front reading her book, fussing(yelling) at the kids, breaking up fights and whatnot (as she ahd done in years past) - she was in the back with them - reading, laughing and enjoying the time she had with her family. Her mindset had changed in just the decision to HS - they hadn't started HSing yet and that I think is one of the biggest differences between us HSers and the other parents - our mindset is different.
I think we look at our kids different, we learn from them as well as them learning from us, we truly have Fun together, the boys are friends - not just brothers, we enjoy each others company, our kids are definately more aware of why we make the decisions we make and how they affect All of us, they live alot of their school - not just read about it and I could go on and on.....
All of the above reasons are why I am learning to not feel so terribly quilty about how far behind we are in school due to mommy having to go back to work! The boys have learned way more than I thought they had in areas I didnt even realize I was teaching and our family has grown in ways we never would have if the boys were at school all day long! As soon as I can quit - I will and that will be time enough to get all caught up!!
Now - I do have 1 in school all day but I believe he has benefitted from all of this as much as the little ones have because he sees the changes around him and he responds to what all of us are doing - as we are all more on the same page than he might be!! Because of that mindset we have adopted it affects everything around us and how we deal with life!
Thanks for letting me ramble!!!

Twilight...

Oh my goodness....we watched this movie tonight and I am totally hooked!! I have just been scouring the internet to find the books at the library or from paperback swap and neither of them have them! I want to read them - I want to know what happens next - it is killing me!!!
I may have to give up eating this week and buy them!!!
I am off to watch the movie again.........

Co-Op....

I want to go to co-op but my kids don't - until now! We visited last Friday and now they are gung-ho and whining becasue they can't wait to go back...aaarrrrgggghhhhh!!! Why are they never happy! I have been pushing co-op all year and they wanted nothing to do with it and now they won't stop talking about it!!
What is co-op? Is it a place for your kids to get classes like music,art and maybe science with actual experiments that they might not get at home? Is it a place for homeschooling kids to socialize? is it a place for moms to socialize?? That is what I would like co-op to be but how in the world do you meet all those needs in one place?? I think if we could figure it out we would have the perfect co-op!! But until then........we will stay home - just kidding!! We will make do with what is available!!!

School, School, School......

I went to bed with a sense of renewed spirit and faithfulness in the Lord - an amazing night of loving the Lord at church last night - and with the idea that I was going to get up and get it right today!! Didn't happen - again! Big suprise there! I rolled out of the bed at about 930(i went to bed at a halfway decent time) with 3 little ones jumping all over the bed and hollering at me(the cartoons they like are now over) and I was all ready to get our day going(a little late) on the right track. I grabbed the laundry and hung it out on the line - I love hanging my laundry on the line - I feel like such a country girl and I just Love it! We all had a little something to eat and we were ready to go.....
We are reading a little bit each day of this book I got called the Story of Easter to get our hearts prepped for Easter and refreshed of all the events that led up to the cross. They were like wild animals while I was reading and so I tried the whole stop reading until they get quiet routine - they did not get quiet! They just looked at me and then continued on with their playing! so I did what any mother would do - I yelled at them! They listened for approximately 2 minutes and then they were crazy again. I go thru the story and they were gone - I yelled again. By this point I didnt even know what I wanted to do with them so I just let them go - this is where being an unscheduled, non routine person is of no use to anybody!!! I have such great plans about all that we are going to do and then I get sidetracked or off the subject with them and it is all gone! The curriculum that we use has it all right there for me - what pages, which book, what to say but if I dont follow it for whatever reason then I am at a loss. I am also very bad about looking it over prior to opening the book to do the days lesson so I realize i dont have what I need or I didnt finish yesterday's and I am once again scrambling!! I am a MeSS!!! And then this warm weatehr has come along and I have nod esire to be inside doing school - I want to be outside as much as they do and it is so hard to keep them in after being inside for months on end! Somehow the boys are learning - a little bit here and a little bit there so I cant be failing them completely but I sure do feel like it!!!
And now I am so done with the history we have been doing that I have just decided to sell it and start with next years - is that horrible??? I was able to borrow almost all of the curric and the books we will need for next year so I am ready to just start and I figure since we are going nowhere fast(doing bits and pieces here and there) with this years curric that I may as well just start with the one i really wanted to do all along anyways! From the moment we started hsing it has been my greatest desire to learn history chronologically - starting with creation. That has been the plan all year is to do a brief intro to american history and start the cycle of history next year. Now that I have the stuff in my possession I cant control myself - I want to start so we are!!! The boys dont care one wit - it is all about me! Is this crazy or what??? We are going to have to do school all summer anyways because of my work schedule messing us up here and there so we may as well do what I want to do - right????

one project done....

I finished the sign I have been working on for my room today!! My hubby was sweet enough to hang it for me and I love it!!! I am always very critical of the lettering when I do stuff because I am too impatient to use a stencil - so the lettering is not perfect by any means but it sure does look cute on my wall!! You can't tell in the picture but the walls in our room are a beautiful shade of turqouise and the colors on the sign look so good against it!!! I do love to paint and decorate!!

This cost me nothing! I had the boards in the garage(they are old cabinet doors I bought last year at $1 each and i have a whole box of them) and of course I have lots of paint upstairs!! I wanted the sign to be bigger because the space it is in is bigger but to buy a different board or canvas it just wasnt worth it!!

warm weather means PROJECTS.......

at least for me it does!!! I have been waiting for it to get warm for these two projects and I am having such fun!!! One of them is an old barn window that I am going to paint and do something with - havent decided yet and the other is a sign for my room that says always kiss me goodnight! hopefully i will have pics in the next day or so!

my mom was here this weekend and we worked on my quilt some more and I just wanted to show off what the main body of it is going to look like because I love it!!!

the edge that falls over the side of the bed will be red with white polka dots!!!

off to play outside.......

Such Fun.....

Do you celebrate Easter with baskets and chocolate and eggs and such?? We used to but once the oldest found out the Easter Bunny was us and the little ones hadn't really picked up on the whole idea of Easter = presents we decided to just make it about Jesus and nothing else and forgo the baskets, presents and candy! Noone has ever been the wiser......but me! I miss the little trinkets you put in Easter baskets and all the chocolate and the Easter egg hunts!! Walking past all that fun stuff in the dollar spot at Target makes me want to make easter baskets for the boys!! We saw the cutest stuff in Walmart, too and is was just a fleeting thought (and an expensive one) but it would have been fun to make the baskets!!!
We do color eggs - like crazy!! That was one thing we couldn't stop - the boys just love to color eggs and they associate that with easter so......
We did decide to have an Easter Egg hunt here at the house for all their little friends so that should be fun and i can do some cute things for that - right???

How do you do it all???

There are so many electronic avenues to explore and keep in touch and follow that I am overwhelmed! It started with blogging which I loved and still do - I love that i can just write absolutely random thoughts and some of you out there have them too!! Then I got on Facebook - finally if you asked a few friends and my son(the whole reason I got on facebook) and was found by my HS and it turns out there is a 20 year reunion coming up this summer - can you say DIET??? aarrgghhhh! Then I was aked to join another online community that is about homeschooling and i did! On top of that my regular email communication with friends and family and I am about done in! How in the world does a person keep up with all this stuff?? i cant imagine those of you that have even more than that! I almost go into panic mode when I look at the computer because I know I am going to be sucked in for hours on end checking out all the comments, emails, blog updates and discussions!!

Today was another Snow Day......

and I just had to show off a couple of pics! we went across the street to the hill behind the high school and did a couple of runs. we went twice and mommy forgot her camera the first time so i didnt get any of alex or ben(who sat in the car the whole time and refused to go back). it was very cold and windy the first trip so we went back after lunch and it wasnt as cold but it sure was windy so we only lasted about 30 minutes! but - it was fun!

I was coming down the hill on the sled with my camera so I took some pics of Stephen waiting till the last possible minute to get out of the way!!! I almost took him out becasue I was not dropping the expensive camera!!

Visiting the Grandparents

we went to grandma and grandpa's for the weekend...........


Ben and Thomas wanted to ride in the elevator - constantly! Thomas went in the 'vator' every time he went up or down and could get an adult to ride with him!!!



Thomas was glued to grandma's side the whole weekend. Everything we did he wanted to know if grandma was coming, where's grandma??? It was just too cute!!!


we went to Yorktown for the morning on the way home and toured an army encampment and a colonial house and farm.
Alex was the water boy!


Here dinner, dinner, dinner!!!

Thomas is all about daddy's ipod! He knows how to work it better than daddy and loves to listen to it! Isnt he just too cute???

calling all creativity.....

I found this...........

at Michael's for 29 cents - yes you read right - 29 cents and i had to buy them ....all!! But I am not sure what to do with them......do i decopauge scrapbook paper on the front and maybe embellish with an initial or verse or word??? do i paint them to look like a house?? myhusband suggested putting a verse or initial in the roof and afamily photo on the bottom part??

i love the saying - Home is where your story begins and that is what I was thinking of when i bought them but I need ideas.......any ideas......all ideas are sooo welcome..........

Moses...

The boys and I have been reading a book that is about a little boy and his family and it revovlves around the ten plaques and the freeing of the Israelites. It is a very good book but it has brought to light some random thoughts.....
The people didn't like Moses! He was causing all these horrible things to happen - ultimately for the good but at the time it wasn't just hap[pening to Pharoh's people it was also happening to the Israelites - that would have sucked! I can only imagine the anger and fear these people were feeling because here comes this guy who was raised with Pharoh and he has been gone for all these years and he comes back and all these horrible things are happening to free the people but they are happening to them as well and it is making life worse for them than it was before! I am sure Pharoh was punishing the Israelites for what Moses was doing - making them work harder, punishing them more severly,etc.. - and yet these people were supposed to be on Moses' side and okay with what he was doing?? I dont know if I would have been on his side - even if I did have faith - that would be hard! I would be downright pissed at Moses and I sure wouldnt want to be glad about what he was doing. I wonder how hard it was for some to trust him and do what he said? I wonder how many lost their lives before they were able to leave because they didnt do what Moses said because of their anger or fear of all these crazy things happening around them??
I have always seen this story and heard it from such a positive angle - I mean what he did was incredible and the people did get their freedom and God is always right in what he does - but I never thought about the fact that everyone had to suffer throguh each of the plaques and Pharoh's anger to gain their freedom.
Crazy I tell you....God is so stinkin Good!! but not always fun in the way he gets us to the good!!!!