Twirls 'n Curls

"Oh, that's a nice drawing," I told the little boy in my first-grade class. "Are you done?" "Just a minute," he said, "It's for my mom, I just need to write her name on it." Then he carefully scrawled, in his best six-year old writing, the letters "M-O-M." My mind went back to an earlier conversation I had with my own daughter, who is his age. "Look Mama! I made this picture of you. It even has your name on it. See? It says 'Mama!' And I wrote 'I love you' a bunch of times because I love you a LOT!!" That's when it dawned on me. To her, my name is Mama. The more I thought about it, the deeper I felt this statement. There's no other role I play that changes my entire name. I don't go by wife, or cousin, or teacher, though I am all of those things. I retain my identity, who I've been my whole life. But being a mom is different.  It's not just a part of my life - it changes all ...

School is really rolling along, as you can see. :) Having 7 kids together (I do a co-op with a friend) from 6 months to 8 years old is challenging, but the kids are having a great time, and so are we. First grade is studying weather right now, and I just had to share these cute devices we made! The first one is a weather vane . I was so suprised that it actually worked!! You can find directions for a similar vane here , though ours didn't call for the plastic cup. It was really easy! The second device is an anemometer , used for measuring wind speed. Directions are very basic: 1. Tape 2 straws together to make an "x." 2. Punch a hole in each styrofoam or plastic cup about an inch away from the top. 3. Poke a straw end through each cup about an inch or so, bend, and secure with tape to the inside of cup. Be sure cups are all facing the same direction. 4. Push a tack through the center of the straws (where the "x" is formed) and push gently into...

And the winner is.... Wait for it... Mom4Less! (Number was chosen through randomizer.org .)  She has been contacted and has one week to contact me for more information, otherwise a new winner will be chosen. A big thanks to all who participated in my first giveaway, and there's more good news!! Even if you didn't win, you can still get this great software at a great price, and just in time for the holidays! My Memories Suite has given me the go ahead to offer a $10 discount for their basic software,  (bringing it to less than $30!) PLUS another $10 in downloads from their site. Just follow this link for the software and copy and paste the code STMMMS73689 in the coupon/promo code box. That's it!  Thanks again for joining in, have a great day!

My husband, who is a pastor, occasionally asks me to do a skit with him as an introduction to his message. Not too long ago, he was teaching on communication in marriage, and our skit went something like this:     (Tom walks through door)     Me: Hi, Sweetheart! (kiss) How was work today?     Tom: Ok.     Me: Did anything exciting happen?     Tom: No.     Me: Oh, ok. Well, what do you want for dinner?     Tom: (Man grunt).     Me: Your mom wants us to come over for dinner next week, do you think Tuesday sounds good?     Tom: I dunno.     Me: She really wanted to set a day. Please can we go Tuesday? I checked and our calendar is wide open.     Tom: Sure. Whatever.      Me: Oh, thank you, Sweetheart! (big kiss on cheek) For the record - HE wrote this. Not me. I hadn't read it until we starte...

I have been tossing around the idea of doing a few giveaways and reviews for awhile, so when My Memories Suite emailed and asked me to host a giveaway for Amazon's #1 ranked digital scrapbooking software, I jumped at the chance! I love traditional scrapbooking. I've done several books of my own and some for friends, but having a lot of small children around and a lot of small (expensive) scrapbooking material is a bad combination, especially because I don't have a workroom to close off. Over the past few weeks, I've fallen in love with digital scrapbooking. The Memories Suite has so many options - when I make a digital scrapbook, I can add video, text, embellishments, music, you name it! I started with some of their templates (tons of options!) to save time and learn my way around the program, then I customized them a bit. Plus, you can go online after the initial download and choose from even more layouts, or start from scratch and make your own book. You can even ...

Everyone knows the best part of school is going on field trips! Between teacher meetings, appointments, and even a couple of planned educational activities, our school year so far has been packed with fun places to go. The kids loved these carved trees at a nearby park! Nattie climbing her first tree... stump :) My kids are enrolled in a virtual online academy that uses the K12 curriculum . It's creative, innovative, challenging and fun. I love that the school organizes (optional) activities and field trips for the kids to do. They also let us know about businesses in our area that offer homeschooling events, such as Six Flags , Legoland , and the local Performing Arts Center. (if you homeschool, these are worth checking out!) We couldn't possibly attend every event, but a few weeks ago we had a great time a school-sponsored park day where the kids got to make their own t-shirts, eat ice cream, and just have fun! 2nd field trip: A nearby library has a huge boo...