Goals: Sewing

I've had more requests for chicken bags. So, I put that down as a goal for the past two weeks: get them done! I have other things I want to sew but knew I wanted to get the bags done first. (This would also take care of a "cleaning up" goal. The other day Seth says, "Do you think you could do something with all these chicken bags?" "Yes, dear.") And he had every right to ask . . .we have empty chicken bags in the garage and in the breezeway and even in our bedroom because that's where my sewing machine is.

Whew! 7 bags later and I'm done! I even made a goat bag for a friend. Anyway, now Reba, my sister-in-law Michelle, Theresa, Evonne and Peggy all have their bags!

I was excited to learn that the pink chicken bags are back.

Do you like the bags on the left? Much cuter than our chicken feed bags in Iowa. Those bags are from my cousin in Minnesota. Peggy, if you're reading this, you're bags are done. We'll get them to you sometime.

Stay tuned for my next sewing goals!

Goals: Menu Planning

One of my goals for the new year is to get back to Menu Planning. I've tried it in the past and it hasn't lasted too long. Mostly due to over-planning or lack of motivation. I found a printable and customizable monthly calendar to use on Money Saving Mom's website. She has a variety of styles and sizes (monthly, weekly, biweekly, calendar style, list style, etc). I printed one for January and began filling in menu ideas for breakfast, lunch & supper. I did not fill in all three meal times for all 31 days. In fact, I only filled in about half. I left plenty of open space for leftovers or for whatever I want to fix. I like to use my Supper Swapper meals in the open spaces, too. I usually only plan our main dishes. It is fairly easy to put together a meal once I have the main dish figured out. I like having breakfast ideas planned for too. Our favorites are cinnamon rolls, muffins (all kinds) and monkey bread. I usually plan out one or two desserts/bars/cookies a week. Some are new recipes, some are not.

I filled in with our regular meals items: hamburgers, steak (weather permitting), tacos, spaghetti, etc. And then I'm picking one cookbook a month to try new recipes from. I pick a few and then compile my grocery list to make sure I'll have the necessary items. I'm still trying to use up our stockpile in the pantry and freezer so all that factors into our menu, too.

So far, January has been going well. I do like the relief that having a menu brings. And the new recipes we've tried so far have been great! I'm using our church's new cookbook this month and we've tried Tami's Stromboli--very good and easy!

Now I see that it is time to start working on February's menu.

From the mouth of Eden :)

Eden continues to amuse us with some funny sayings from her mouth!

1. A while back the girls and I were in my bedroom and I was sewing. The girls were playing on our bed. They were straddling the railing at the foot of our bed, pretending to be riding horses. Eliza wanted to be in front but Eden said "No. Maybe when you're older." Ha. Because being one minute younger/older makes all the difference.

2. The girls and I were in the bathroom doing their hair. I was working on Eden first. Eliza was right beside her, possibly bugging Eden. And Eden says "Your highness majesty, don't bother me. I'm evaporating!" Too funny! Eden has quite the vocabulary and is always trying to use 4 syllable words, whether it is proper or not.

3. It is Christmas time and we're getting ready to leave a gathering. And Eden . . . out of the blue . . . . says "You just can't keep a little pig out of the mud!" What? Where did that come from? And we didn't know for the longest time. Until a couple weeks ago, we were watching Wild Kratts on IPTV and that saying was on one of their episodes. I think the song "Oh be careful little ears what you hear" comes to mind. And we are very careful with what the kids are allowed to watch and how much tv they are allowed to watch.

I'll post more as they happen. And it is WHEN, not IF.

Ferguson Christmas

On Sunday, January 15, we had our last Christmas party. It was also a birthday party for Grandpa Ferguson--he's 89 this year!

We had all but one family in attendance which is pretty good considering all the families involved.

Last year we took a twins picture when Addison and Evelyn were a few months old. Here we are one year older.

And Grandpa Ferguson with all this twins: Karl & Kurt from Janet's family, Evelyn & Addison from Paul's family and Eliza and Eden from Donna's family. One set of twins from each of Grandpa's children.

Paul, Grandpa, Janet & Donna.

Ephraim had a great time playing with all the other boys who are his age.

And they could play indoors, too. The gym is nice for big wheels and basketball, although both at the same time is a bit dangerous.

Eliza hanging out with the boys. Eliza, Elliott, Cody & Ezra.

It was a great lunch and time spent with family.

Clothes for a doll or a baby?

The girls got special dolls for Christmas. They are the 18 inch dolls and they love playing with them! One benefit to the doll's size is that we already have some doll clothes that fit Miss Lily and Miss Katelyn.

Are those really the pajamas that the girls wore when they were first born?

Yep, here's the proof of that! I tried to find a happy picture of Eliza, but I didn't have one of her happy AND in this outfit! They are just a few days old in this picture. It was kind of fun to rummage through their newborn tote and repurpose the clothes for dolls.

Pictures of the week, January 15 to January 21, 2012

Our week started out with a Christmas/Birthday party.




Sunday, January 16, 2012

We gathered at the Boender's cabin for a celebration. The kids had a great time playing with cousins and second cousins. The adults enjoyed conversation and food!
And here is the 2nd annual picture of twins. Grandpa Gene on the left (not a twin), Karl & Kurt holding Evelyn (in yellow) & Addison (in pink); Eliza and then Eden. Eden was not happy about this photo opportunity. And if I remember correctly, we had some grumpy girls last year, too.


Monday, January 16, 2012

Monday was a State holiday for me. I was home working on farm book work (yay for me, not). I got an email that was sent to all the local homeschool families. There was a gentleman in the community giving away free paper from 3pm to 5pm. I wasn't sure I wanted to make a trip into town, but decided to go for it. And boy am I glad I did! Whew! We came home with A LOT of paper, poster board, cardstock, etc. All sizes and weights. It was great! Here is a picture of most of what we came home with. And since we were blessed with this . . . it felt great to bless another family with some of the excess. A great way to incorporate a lesson for the kids in giving away some of our blessing. Given the price of poster board and a box of paper, I'm guessing we've got $100 to $150 worth.


Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Ephraim's tow truck that he designed and created himself.

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Here's what happens at the dinner table when mom's away! Seth had a meeting all day Wednesday and I thought he would have been home a bit earlier in the day. I needed to get groceries and I wanted to go as soon as he got home instead of going after supper. So, I left about 5pm and hoped to be back at 6pm for supper, but I walked in about 6:15. Looks like the kids came up with their own fun at the table!

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Not the best picture, but the kids were at my parents' house on Thursday afternoon so I could work a little. They had a great time and then I joined them for supper. This is Emmet, with is bag straps over his head, holding cow down. It was kind of one of those "had to be there" moments.

Friday, January 20, 2012

Ephraim's spy car he made. He's wanting to take pictures of a lot of his creations and then make a Lego scrapbook. All I heard was the "scrapbook" part and I was game. Maybe, just maybe, I'll be able to get my scrapbook stuff out one day.

Saturday, January 21, 2012

It is Saturday afternoon and the kids come out of their room and exclaim "We want to rearrange our room. The bunk bed will go here and Eden's bed here and Eliza's bed here and I'll sleep over there and . . . and . . . and. . ." They had some grand ideas and were talking a mile minute. My only stipulation was that the bunk bed would not move. Oh no! That put them in a grumpy mood. I don't care what else we do, but the bunk bed had to stay. They finally came around to see my point of view. Here is the end result. The boys sleep under the bunk bed, Eliza's on the left and Eden is in the upper right. (And no one is currently sleeping in the top bunk!) The boys do okay sleeping on the same bed, so we let them continue that way.

Pictures of the week, a few leftover

I had a few pictures left over from last week so I'll put them together in this random post.

The boys love Legos and they've got their Lego table set up to actually play with their creations. In the past, they've built something, played with it a bit and then destroyed it for something new. Now they're leaving their creations built for a longer period of time and playing with them. Here is a harbor scene and a roadway.

Another Little House in the Big Woods activity. We printed a picture of a log house and glued popsicle sticks to it.

More dinner time entertainment while mom was gone!

Goals: Reading

I've set a variety of goals for myself and my family for 2012. As I have time, I'll share them with you. One of my goals has to do with reading. I love to read a good book, who doesn't? But with 4 children, a husband, a farm, working 16 hours for the State, homeschooling, laundry, cooking & baking, cleaning (kind of) and a house to make a home, finding the time can be difficult.

I'm going to try to read at least two books a month. One will be an education/informational/motivational book. The other will be non-fiction or an autobiography. The latter type are usually a quick read for me and I can get them done in a couple of days.

For a family goal, we'll be reading aloud The Little House on the Prairie books and doing some activities I found online. We're halfway through The Little House in the Big Woods. We are lucky enough to be reading the books I read when I was young.

We're halfway through the Big Woods book and are enjoying it. I found several activities online. This particular activity on the right is Pa's smokehouse. The kids colored their own tree and then we poured liquid smoke on the opening. I'm sure I'll share more of our activities as we do them.

My book this month is Voddie Bachman's Faith Driven Family. I'm halfway through it and it is great! I heard Mr. Bachman speak at the conference I went to in September. He's very passionate about the cause that faith begins in the family--and not just a "we go to church once a week" type of faith. His seven kids are homeschooled, but this is a book for every Christian family.

The first chapter addresses what is happening in our society and in our churches. Young people in college and even older high school students are not sticking with the faith of their parents for a variety of reasons. Is it because we place to much value on sports? Education? Dating? All of the above? What value are we placing on our children's relationship with the Lord? And what are we teaching them when we don't have this taking first place?

The second chapter addresses "A God with No Rivals." This chapter is packed full of good info but I quote from page 33: "A family without a commitment to the God of the Bible has no hope of stemming the tide of cultural onslaught." In this chapter he also stresses the importance of prioritizing your marriage. This is important when it comes to multigenerational faithfulness.

Chapter 4 was all about our worldview. Many Christians do not believe in absolute truth nor do they look at the world with a Biblical perspective. Sad.

I think this is important to start with kids at a young age. For instance, yes, there were dinosaurs and yes, they roamed the earth. But no, it wasn't billions of years ago. Are dinosaurs or sea monsters mentioned in the Bible? YES! Are the planets billions of years old or created with a big bang? No.

And that's as far as I have read. I do hope to finish it soon, I've been underlining a lot of the best info.

I have already read my non-fiction book. I read Unshaken by Daniel Woolley. I bought this book for my mom for her birthday--and once she's done with it then the book makes the rounds through family and friends. It's a good story about God's goodness to Mr. Woolley, a Compassion International worker who "happened" to be in Haiti at the time of the earthquake 2 years ago. His survival is documented in this story, along with his good-bye letters to his family should he not be resuced (which at one point. . . . well, I don't want to give it away if you haven't read it). He was buried in complete darkness for over 60 hours. His story isn't just about his Haiti experience, either. He has a lot to share about his life in general, too. So, take time to read this one.

I'm not one to list out which book I'll read in February, March, etc. I don't have all of the books I want to read, so I'll have to check the library.

Pictures of the week, January 1 to January 7, 2012

Another blessed week!

Sunday, January 1, 2012

I suppose it was time to take down the Christmas tree :) We'd kind of gotten used to it in the house. It just didn't feel right to take it down the day after Christmas--Christmas is a season and we can make it as long or as short as we want. And as I write this, I realize that I still have our stockings hanging on the wall. Maybe next week we'll take those down. . . .

Monday, January 2, 2012

Yes, my husband loves me and knows that I like re-usable bags. He had to get a few parts at Titan Machinery and needed a bag. The salesman gave him a re-usable bag and Seth said "Oh, I've got four kids who are going to fight over this." And the salesman gave him 4. Of course, they're all for me and not for the kids!

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

We had Bible study with 5 other couples on Tuesday night. The NOOMA DVD series has be GREAT! The DVDs are 10-15 minutes and then we lead our own discussion. Seth and I were in charge of this night's lesson which prompted discussion on how we live our lives, the choices we make and our eternity. We talked about the fingerprints that we are living on the world for God. We talked about what we know and don't know about heaven. It was a great evening with friends discussing the Bible.


Wednesday, January 4, 2012

I think Katelyn likes her new swimsuit I made for her, don't you?

Thursday, January 5, 2012

And here's another happy customer: Eliza with her doll Lily in a new swimsuit.

Friday, January 6, 2012

Making chocolate chip bars! A favorite recipe in our house. A 9x13 pan only lasts a day and half, if that! We try to make a bar or brownie every other day so we can have snack in the morning and afternoon.

Saturday, January 7, 2012

Our chance to get outside and enjoy the snow! Hope you were able to get out and enjoy it with your family, too!

Our Winter Express

The kids have been praying for snow for about a month now. And I admit, I did want some snow, too. Seth, not so much. But such is winter in Iowa. It is bound to happen. My prayer was that we would get some snow and then have some decent weather to enjoy the snow (zero degree temperatures is not decent). Our prayers were answered this week. We got the snow on Thursday and then some sweet temperatures on Saturday! Perfect.

Seth had the kids outside in the morning doing farm work--burning sticks and working in the barn. After lunch and a short quiet time (mostly for Seth), it was time to get outside! Seth fired up the 4-wheeler, attached a large inner tube and attached a sled to that. We were good to go!

(My pictures aren't the best--I took my little camera . . . and I was wearing thick gloves which makes it difficult to zoom.)


Emmet and Eden on the tube with me. This was early on our ride--you'll see Emmet's mask looking a bit different later on.

Ephraim and Eliza started out on the sled. You can barely see Eliza's face but the joy in her laughter was PRICELESS!

It was time for a switch. Now it's Ephraim and Eliza on the tube.

Emmet and Eden on the tube--and Eden is laughing, not screaming "Stop."

Seth took the camera for the rest of these pictures. Ephraim and Emmet are on the sled, the girls and I are on the inner tube.

We'd race up and down the pasture and turn around by the crick--getting a lot of joyful screams from the kids.

And Seth would try to flip the boys off the sled, but they could hang on pretty good. The inner tube is pretty safe so the girls and I never fell out.

Oops, looks like we lost Ephraim on that turn. And Eliza had snow all over her face and head.

And the boys fell off again when we took a sharp turn on the terrace. They were loving every minute of it!

After a while, we had just one boy on the sled and then the rest of us on the inner tube. It was Ephraim's turn on the sled and Seth was going fast to try to flip him off. Eden was to the point of having had enough snow and was ready to go in. She was sitting by Emmet and then it was Eliza and then me on the inner tube. I told Eden "Hold my hand, we're almost ready to go inside." And Emmet put his arm around her . . . . Eden buried her head in his shoulder and Emmet said "No mom. I've got her." Ahhh. So sweet.

Looks like you boys ate a little snow! After the girls were inside, the boys got another wild ride! They're already asking about the next snow storm!

Doll Clothes

Now that the girls have nice dolls, they need clothes. And that isn't a problem since I enjoy sewing. Sewing doll clothes is a bit tedious since they are small, but they also don't take too long to make. They use up some of my scrap material, too!

There are a variety of free patterns online. I downloaded a free swimsuit pattern and ordered swimwear fabric from Fabric.com.

The fabric came this week and Eden asked what I was going to do with the fabric. So, I answered honestly and said, "I'm going to make a swimsuit for Katelyn." "Oh, great!" And Eden starts getting her doll undressed. Oh, okay, looks like I need to get started right away. Good thing it only took me 30 minutes to whip up a swimsuit.

A "funny" story about the swimwear: my pattern said 1/4 yard per swimsuit. I needed to make three so I ordered 1 yard (I always like to have a little leeway). Well, I DO have plenty. One swimsuit took about 1/3 of 1/4 yard. Nice. Anyway need a swimsuit for a doll? I've got plenty of this print.

For Christmas, I made shirts and jeans for the girls' dolls.

The jeans turned out really cute. I'm hoping to make some more shirts and dresses.

Playing with presents

The kids have enjoyed playing with all of their new presents! Here are a few highlights:

One of the homeschool blogs that I read highly recommended the Dino Dig sets. I knew the boys would enjoy digging for dinosaur skeletons, so I added it to their list. We hadn't been home very long before they wanted to start digging. They chip away at the clay until they find a bone. Then you can use the brush. This kept my boys a the kitchen table for over two hours! They were thrilled. Ephraim was a faster digger than Emmet and had his bones uncovered in one day. Emmet was more meticulous and it took him several days.

Oh, did I mention that this was a dusty project! We did sprinkle water on the blocks to make it easier to chip at and to control the dust.

You can see some bones on Emmet's block.

Once they were done digging, we washed the bones and then assembled them into a skeleton. Then we attached them to the display board, complete with a display name sticker.

Emmet's are the velociraptors on the left and Ephraim's is the t-rex in the middle. The shark? That's Ephraim's other present. We had this shelf in the basement serving no purpose until now. And at some point, the boys got out their Lego minifigures with Lego flashlights and put them on the shelf. They were the night guards. If you haven't seen Night at the Museum then you probably wouldn't understand.

This is a 4D replica of a shark's insides. Yep, the stomach, liver, etc. all comes out. Ephraim loves it!

TIME FOR A PUPPET SHOW!

The kids love their puppets that we got them. Here is Eliza and Eden giving us a show.

Add in the horse, t-rex, pterodactyl and fawn. Is the pterodactyl eating the fawn?

BRAVO! BRAVO! And you can tell the boys have grasped the concept of "staying hidden" but the girls haven't. Oh well, they're cute and having fun!