Some fun we've had

I know I haven't blogged much lately. We've been too busy having fun!

We've gone to a birthday party for a friend at Peter Piper Pizza

We've learned how to arm wrestle

We've made dinner together

We've learned how to squirt the water hose

We've colored, a lot

We've been to the bounce house with Moms Club

Whew! Summer's not over yet, and we plan to get in lots more fun! Beth starts kindergarten in just 17 days!

Backyard Bible Club

I can't believe I forgot this, but I just found the pictures. Early in July, our church asked if they could use our yard to host a Backyard Bible Club. Sure! Beth loved having Bro. Brian and Bro. Jimmie come set up, play games, sing songs and tell Bible stories- all in her yard! A couple kids came and a few teenage helpers from church. Even Jacob enjoyed the little bit he payed attention to. He still sings "Bible time". I'm glad we got to be a part of planting seeds in kids about Jesus' love and blessings.

Singing time

Jacob had to get in on the fun

The oreo game

Worth our time

I pulled an article out of a parenting magazing about a year ago and just rediscovered it. I thought it's wisdom worth sharing. I know I sometimes let the chores of being the mom take over the joys of being a mom. I'm working to refocus my daily goals (but still keep a clean house). I really enjoy being a stay at home mom, but too many times I've said "later" or "tomorrow" when I should have dropped what I was doing to enjoy that moment. Now, those moments are fewer as Beth is about to head off to school every day. I want to keep these bits of wisdom in the forefront of my mind to make all these moments count. I know before long they'll both be at school, then before I can blink, they'll be out of the house. I hope I can encourage you to take the time to be the best parent you can be, enjoying all the moments you have!

1. Play with your children. Let them choose.
2. Take charge. Show your love by setting boundaries.
3. Eat at least one meal as a family each day.
4. Give your children responsibilities. It's good for their self-esteem and your sanity!
5. Read books together every day.
6. Love your children equally but treat them uniquely.
7. Be the role model your children deserve.
8. Always tell the truth.
9. Say "I love you" whenever you feel it, even if it's 654 times a day.
10. Schedule special time together.
11. Talk about what it means to be a good person.
12. Kiss and hug your spouse in front of your kids.
13. Don't try to fix everything. Give them a chance to work it out.
14. Gossip good about your kids. What we overhear is more potent than what we're told.
15. Fess up when you blow it.
16. Be vigilant about safety.
17. Remember that discipline is not punishment. It's teaching them about how to behave in the world.
18. Every child is a treasure but no child is the center of the universe.
19. Explain to your kids why values are important. When you're kind, generous, honest and respectful, you make people around you feel good.
20. Make warm memories.
21. Pick your battles.
22. Encourage daddy time.
23. Don't accept disrespect from your child.
24. Ask your children three "you" questions every day, preferably without yes/no answers. "What did you do at school today?"
25. Savor the moments.

Enjoy your children today (and everyday!)


Paraphrased from Parents magazine, December 2008

My eyes have seen (or not seen) new things

All my life, my church and school used the NIV (New International Version) translation of the Bible. Granted, that worked for me since it was realtively easy to read and understand. The church we currently attend uses KJV (King James Version). Sometimes the "thees" and "thous" make it hard to understand a verse, but I keep trying. In the last couple weeks, Preacher has mentioned in the sermoms a couple verses that are in KJV but don't appear in NIV. Finally, I took the time to look them up. Whoa! He wasn't kidding! Not that I doubted him, I'm just a see it myself kinda person. Are they in your Bible and what version do you use?

Matthew 17:21- "Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting."
Acts 8:37- "And Pillip said, 'If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest.' And he answered and said, 'I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.'"

What is the significance in leaving these out? What other ones have been left out? If the Bible is supposed to be infallible, why are there these errors? If this error happened in translation, then what is the true translation? Now, I'm not questioning God, I'm questioning the errors of humans. Some friends told me about a couple books that go into more detail about what's missing with the NIV. I plan to get these books and read them before long. The books? If the Foundations be Destroyed- by Chick Salisby and I can't find where I wrote the other one down.

It's about that time

In just 4 weeks, Beth will start kindergarten. She's so excited! We've been reading a new book about kindergarten every week. Today, it was Miss Bindergarten Gets Ready for Kindergarten.

Last week, I took her shopping for school uniforms. The girl loves clothes, but I have never seen her so excited to try on so many things. It's hilarious to see her coming out of the dressing room, trying to hold up her skirt or with pants so big and so long. My sweet girl got my long legs (I think the only thing that proves she's mine, since she looks like her daddy), so it's been tough to get her fitted right. However, for the first time in her life, I think, I'm going to have to hem a pair of pants and not take them up in the waist! The skirts and skorts will be taken in at the waist tonight, though. She has already told me what she wants to wear the first day of school- a skirt.

This past weekend, while Yaya and Popi were in town, they took her school supply shopping. It was so exciting for her to pick out her supplies- pink, of course, if she could.

Looking for pink in the construction paper. Nope, just plain ol' colors.

Yaya talked about how she loves the smell of new crayons and convinced Beth to smell them. Beth just loves new crayons because they're sharp.

We got folders (no pink), construction paper, pencils, pencil sharpener, colors, and more.

I love school supplies even though I'm not teaching or a student anymore. There's just something exciting (or nerdy) about new supplies. I have to keep myself from buying them when they go on sale. I really don't need any more spiral notebooks beyond the 20 I have at the house already! But, when they're only 10 cents... As for Beth, we still have a few things to get (boring things, like kleenex and hand sanitizer), and then she'll be ready to go!

Oh, Jacob got his own pack of crayons too, though Beth has used them more. He also got a toy shark and toy penguin. He wasn't neglected. Not that you thought he would be, but still.

Way back when, in Texas

We took a trip into Fort Worth to Log Cabin Village with our friends Kerry and Holly. It was hot, but thankfully there were trees. Log Cabin Village is a great collection of restored cabins from various places in Texas from the mid 1800s. Volunteers are dressed in period costume and available at most cabins to give visitors more information about what they see and about the time period. Seeing that both Kerry and I were once teachers, we turned this into an educational experience for the girls. On the village's website, we were able to download and print an activity booklet as well as detailed information about each of the cabins.

The girls' favorite cabin was the interactive one where they could really touch and experience things- rope bed, corn husk doll, grinding corn. What fascinated them most was that whole families- usually at least 8 kids plus parents- would sleep in that one room (a few had a loft) and that the parents usually got the only bed. They were grossed out by the bath bucket and that the dad (the dirtiest from working in the field) would go first down to the youngest.


Jacob loved the water pump. He would work so hard to pump it, having to stand tiptoe, then hurry around to touch the water just as it was done flowing. He also liked collecting eggs from the chicken coop (pretend eggs and hens).


I found the schoolhouse the most interesting. The tour guide in there was very knowledgable. His mother in law had been a teacher in a one room school house when she was 14. She had an 8th grade education, where most kids only reached 6th grade, so she was able to teach the rest of the kids in the class. Then, as was the norm, she was no longer allowed to teach when she got married (at age 17). The guide also told us that a favorite lunch mothers would send with their kids was raw potatoes. The kids would get to school and stack the potatoes on the pot-belly stove. By lunch time, they all had warm potatoes!


After a picnic lunch, the girls finished their learning packets, and we returned to the village for their certificates of completion. I think those packets really helped the girls benefit from and enjoy the village instead of it just being some boring old place to go. Beth couldn't really understand the time period difference, but she still learned to appreciate what modern convienences we have now. I look forward to going again!

As American as Apple Spice Cake

For July 4th, we made a trip to visit Kevin's folks. A good time was had by all-

Beth fell in love with her cousin's new puppy, Jacob was charming as usual, the girls made and sold sno cones, there was more than enough food, and lots of fun visiting (us, Kevin's parents, Kevin's sister and fam, both Kevin's aunts and their hubbies, plus Kevin's cousin and her friend- 16 people, 4 dogs). There's nothing better than spending a holiday enjoying time with great family! Why did I call this post "As American as Apple Spice cake"? Well, we're not fans of Apple pie. However, I made my famous apple spice cake, by request of my FIL, for the event. I just forgot to take a picture of it before it was devoured. Trust me, it's yummy!

I want to take a moment to give thanks. Thank you to military, past and present, who protect the freedom this country is all about. Thank you for the Founding Fathers for having the vision to establish the freedoms this country loves and people in other countries long for. Recently our President said "We do not consider ourselves a Christian nation or a Jewish nation or a Muslim nation." Many years ago, Woodrow Wilson said, "A nation which does not remember what it was yesterday does not know what it is today nor what it is trying to do. We are trying to do a futile thing if we do not know where we came from or what we have been about." In 1892, our Supreme Court stated, "No purpose of action against religion can we imputed to any legislation, state or national, because this is a religious people...This is a Christian nation." It seems to me President Obama needs to study up on the history of our country! I'm so grateful that our Founding Fathers came to the shores of this land with a Bible in their hands!

Whose idea was this? (Wordless Wednesday)

Once upon a time...

Beth got this adorable storybook/scrapbook kit for her birthday. Since she gets up so much earlier than the rest of us in the morning, she works on crafts or plays quietly until I'm up. One morning, she wrote this story. Enjoy!

Once upon a time....

Princess Beth loved the enchanted forest

There was only one thing she did not like... the witch

I love to be a mermaid

I love to be a princess

I love to be a mermaid

I like to be me

Backlog of blogs have been blogged!

Can you believe it? I've spent the last hour of nap time catching up on blogging. Enjoy! Hey, if you take the time to read, please take the time to comment. I'm feeling neglected by some of you :(

Zoo trip, part 2

Old friends are the best

Family Fun

Budding Photographer

Coming soon:
Once upon a time...
Whose idea was this?
Time at the pool
Way back when, in Texas
As American as Apple Spice Cake

P.S. I changed my music to not auto-starting. Some of you don't even know I have music because you always leave your volume off. But, those who like listening to it, feel free to scroll to the bottom to turn it back on.

A budding photgrapher

Beth has the Fisher Price tough digital camera. She loves taking pictures. I recently downloaded them. I guess I should download more often- there are some oldies but goodies on here. Oh, the perspective of a kid!

Family Fun

Also while in Houston, I had told my folks I'd love to have dinner with my grandmother, Nanny. My time with her is so limited and so precious now. Her heart's been giving her some trouble, not the cancer. She's still planning to make it to her 90th birthday in October. Ok, so we picked a great weekend to visit! My Aunt Diann visits/helps Nanny on Saturdays, my Uncle Bubba and Aunt Diane from Amarillo were in town, my cousin Stacy and her family (including her son I'd yet to meet) were able to come, plus my sister, my parents and us. What a great group!

The kids were quite enamored with baby Keaton. Jacob really liked his toys.

The kids with Marshall (Keaton's dad) and Aunt Diann

Jacob also like the "tent" that Nanny's table made. Goofy boy!

We all had such a good time visiting with each other and watching the little ones. It doesn't seem like that long ago when Stacy (my cuz), Casey (my sis) and I were the little ones!

Mom and Nanny

Aunt Diane with Jacob

I wanted to make sure we got group pictures while we were together. Over the years, at big gatherings, we've always taken group pictures like this, and I think those are amongst my most treasured memories.

Nanny with the grandkids and great-grandkids-me with Jacob and Beth, Casey, Nanny, Stacy with Keaton (13 more not there)

Nanny with her kids- Dad, Aunt Diann, Nanny, Uncle Bubba (2 more kids not there that day)

Now, Nanny is quite a character, Aunt Diann is a hoot, and when my dad is around his brothers look out. So, getting this picture was quite a feat. I could hardly take the picture I was laughing so hard (and standing on the stairs and holding Jacob).

Finally, they all behaved! Mom and Dad, Aunt Diann, Nanny, Uncle Bubba and Aunt Diane

I hope I get to spend more time with Nanny before long. It was a good time. Family, even with the crazy ones, is a treasure!