Ultimate Blog Party 2010

Hello and welcome! I'm excited to jump into the action of the 5 Minutes for Mom's Ultimate Blog Party 2010!


My name is Kathy and I am a Christian wife & SAH Mom and I live in beautiful New England ~ I'd tell you exactly where, but then I'd have to shoot you ~ so for now we'll just keep that little fact incognito, OK?! I grew up in Canada and Florida and went to Bible college in Iowa where I met my amazing husband. So I've sort of been all over and am happy to say that I love where I am now and am thankful that the Lord brought me here.


I have been married to my wonderful husband Bob for 13 years. He is truly my best friend. Here we are at Bible college about 14 years ago - wow, we look SO young!

Here we are on our wedding day in November 1996.

And here is a recent picture of us from Valentine's Day this year.

We fellowship at a wonderful Bible church and I am involved in a MOMS ministry there. Our church and church family are one of the top reasons why I would never want to move away from here!

We are blessed with 4 precious girls in our home ~ two of them furry and two of them lovely little girls. My husband is SO outnumbered in our home! Our oldest 'girl' is Casey, our yellow Labrador retriever. She is 11 years old and is one of the sweetest dogs you'll ever meet.

Our oldest daughter has been nicknamed 'Hope' {for the purpose of privacy in the blog world}. She is 8 years old. Hope is smart and athletic and thoughtful. She loves sports, books and music.

Our youngest daughter is nicknamed 'Joy' and she is 7 years old. She certainly lives up to her nickname and is constantly joyful and happy and smiley. She loves to play and be silly and do anything her older sis does.

Our newest addition is our puppy Gracie. She is a golden retriever/ brittany spaniel mix and she is just adorable! We've had her for about 3 weeks now and it's been challenging getting used to a puppy again ~ but it's also been incredibly fun and rewarding! {lots of snuggles and puppy kisses ...}

We are a close-knit, homeschooling family. We take a lot of trips together and put a high value on family time. My husband and I love cruising ~ we have been on 8 cruises {5 before kids, 2 w/out kids when the girls were younger and 1 with our kids last year} We love the Carribean and our favorite destination is Bermuda. We love outdoorsy stuff like hiking, biking, the beach and swimming in the pool.

As I mentioned, we are a homeschooling family. I can honestly say that this is a path I never imagined we would take - but am so extremely blessed and thankful for the freedom to do it. This is our 3rd year and each year we enjoy it a little bit more and more. I still have a lot to learn and I still question whether I'm doing all I should be as their teacher ... but the beauty of homeschooling is learning right alongside the girls and seeing the joy in their faces when they learn something new.

I have a lot of hobbies that I dabble in ... nothing that I am really outstanding at ~ but many things that I enjoy and have fun with. You'll see that my blog is a mish-mosh of a lot of little things. A lot about my family and our adventures. A little about homeschooling. And a little about all these other hobbies that I enjoy. It's really just a reflection of my life as a wife and Mom.

Some things I enjoy are:

Decorating my home ... from painting rooms to re-arranging furniture to finding thrifty ways to decorate.

Baking and sharing recipes .... I love to bake {a little too much I'm afraid!} and am always interested in learning new recipes to try {especially healthy ones!} Gotta balance all that sweet goodness, you know?!

Sewing and scrapbooking ... scrapbooking is one of my favorite things to do, I just need to make more time for it! Sewing is something I've only done a little of ~ mostly just simple curtains for my home and some quilts for my daughters. If it's a straight stitch, I can handle it!

I also work part time at a Flower Shop that my friend owns. Floral design is a wonderful creative outlet for me! I love that I can enjoy it part time and still be home with my girls full time.

I am also trying to learn to be a better photographer as I love to take a TON of pictures!

And that's pretty much my life and my blog in a nutshell ... I'm glad you stopped by and look forward to checking out lots of other wonderful blogs over at the Ultimate Blog party ... why don't you join in too??

FYI ... there are hundreds of prizes to be won just by simply participating in this fun blog party ... I would be ecstatic to win ANY of them ... but here are some of the ones I'm especially excited about #7, 11, 18, 22, 27, 31, 32, 35, 37, 39, 48, 49, 52, 55, 59, 61, 71, 72, 73, 78, 84, 87, 88, 91, 95, 100, 105, 107, 112, 113, USC#3, USC8, USC15, USC32, USC33, USC36, USC37, USC40, USC41, USC44, USC63. IF YOU GO CHECK OUT THE BLOG, YOU'LL SEE THE WHOLE LIST OF AMAZING PRIZES ... I think it's kinda funny that I'm most drawn to the Amazon.com gift cards - I'm such a book nerd!!

Easter Sunday

We had a wonderfully blessed Easter this year. For some reason each year Easter becomes more and more meaningful to me. I think it's because each year the girls get a little bit older and more able to understand the full depth of it's true meaning and all that Christ surrendered for us.

On the days leading up to Easter we read some great lessons on Jesus death and resurrection. I found the lesson plans at DTLK kids. They have whole lesson plans with the story, crafts and ideas for teaching little ones. This year we skipped the crafty parts and simply read the lessons. It's written in a way that is very understandable for children without taking anything away from the story or glossing over the truth. Hope that makes sense! I love that it helps the girls see how thankful we should be for our salvation, because Jesus Christ paid the debt we could never pay for ourselves!

On Sunday morning we had the girls hunt for their Easter baskets. We hid them and gave the girls clues to search around the house for them. A really fun tradition that they love.

Then we went to church to worship and fellowship and hear the message. It was such a good message with a clear presentation of John 3 and the gospel. The thing I was most blown away by on Easter morning was the worship time. WOW, it was so amazing and glorifying. Above you'll see I posted the Revelation song by Philips, Craig and Dean. It happens to be one of my Mom's favorite songs right now and it is simply amazing. Literally gives me chills every time I hear it. Well the worship band at our church sang it on Sunday for the first time and it was AWESOME! I just LOVE worship like that!

After church we came home and spent the afternoon enjoying the glorious, warm weather with our family. We had an egg hunt for our girls and my three nephews and a nice family Easter dinner prepared by my awesome hubby. The night was finished off in the living room watching the Red Sox/Yankees season opener. All in all, it was a wonderful, wonderful day. I am blessed. I would not be who I am, or where I am, without Christ in my life and I'm SO thankful for that!!

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OK, I have to say a little something about the whole Easter dress thing this year. I will admit, I had a grumpy, less than spiritual attitude over this issue. I hate to say it out loud but the fact remains that I can be a control freak when it comes to my girls. It's not a virtuous quality and it's something I'm trying to work on. But needless to say, this year the battle was over dresses ... and shoes.

We go to church every week and most weeks the girls may wear whatever they wish. We ask them to dress up a little more than regular clothes, but other than that, we don't say much. But at Christmas and Easter I like for them to dress 'special' and also like them to match. Call me silly, but it's just what I like. My hubby thinks I'm goofy and says, 'they're not twins, you know!'

Anyway ... to make a long story short my oldest would not co-operate and finally Grandma offered to shop with her and she finally found something she was happy with. Not what I would have chosen, however it DID look pretty on her.

Then I made the mistake AGAIN of taking them shoe shopping ... and more drama ensued with the same child!! I swear next year I might just shop on my own and bring the stuff home and say 'you're wearing this!' LOL

So, for the first year I can remember they are not matching for Easter ... but in the end I decided that life as a Mom is all about picking your battles. And since it was more about me wanting to control things, than something more important like modesty {which I'm sure will come up in future years!}... I chose NOT to fight this battle.

So here is 'Joy' in her dress {she decided to wear something she already had, and got new shoes}

And here is 'Hope' ...
My beautiful girls ...

I am one blessed Mama!

I love how much they love their Daddy! {and how much he loves them too!}

This is Bob's brother, his wife and their three sons ... aren't they so cute all dressed up?

This was in the afternoon after Bob and I had already changed into something more comfy ... it was HOT that day! A rarity for early April in New England!

Here are the kids all ready to hunt for eggs ...

I hope that each of you had a blessed Easter too!!

Work your Wallet Wednesday

Today I'm linking up with a great blog, from a great friend of mine named Jessica. Each week she holds a blog party called Work your Wallet Wednesday in which you share some great bargain you found that week.

This week I was on the hunt for inexpensive fillers for the girls Easter baskets. I did not want ANY candy or ANY stuffed animals. And no little junk either as they already have SO much of that. I wanted cute, quality items that were not too costly ... I'm not asking too much, am I?!

A few things I found were sunglasses, flip flops and sidewalk chalk --- all great things for the spring and summer.

Anyway, my girls love the outdoors and love to catch bugs and frogs. My oldest specifically is in love with ANYTHING frog related right now. Her room is filled with frog stuff!

So I happened to stop in the Rainforest Cafe the other day and was looking for frog items. I did pick up a snowglobe for each daughter {another thing they collect!} ... and was at the check out paying. Then I saw these super cute Bindi the Jungle girl adventure play sets. Little characters with a boat or an animal or a surf board or whatever. They seems like something that would be fun to play with in the bathtub, pool or just outside with a bucket of water.

What stood out to me was the price! $1.25 each! I said something to my Mom who was standing next to me and she said, 'no, they must be 11.25 ...' but then the check out guy said no in fact they WERE a DOLLAR, TWENTY-FIVE!! WOW! I got one for each girl ... I could not believe they were so cheap! I should have bought them all and saved them for b-day gifts but wasn't thinking too clearly at the time!

I had to google them to find an image, because I forgot to take pics of course. And found that on Amazon they go for $8-10 per set. So $1.25 was a great bargain in my mind!

If you've got a great bargain to brag about, go over to Jess's blog to share!

Kids interrupting?

I just had to share with you this brilliant post from one of my new fave homeschool blogs, 'Confessions of a Homeschooler'. I highly recommend you take a minute to go check it out. If you're anything like me ... well actually pretty much every Mom in the world could relate to this - your kids love to interrupt you at the most inconvenient times.

I personally am a Mom who hardly ever talks on the phone. Ever since my girls were little it's something I just began to do less and less. Why? Mostly because pretty much every time I'd pick up the phone it was like someone hit the crazy button and someone would either be screaming, crying, fighting, or just vying for my attention. I got to the point where I simply relied on email more and more because I could complete an email with kids screaming in the background, but could not complete a phone call.

I began training my girls to wait for my attention when they needed it. Even now, if they come into a room and see I'm on the phone I hold one hand up to them to signal to them that I'm busy and they need to wait.

This Mom, at Confessions of a Homeschooler has an even better system to train her children to wait for her attention. As a homeschooler with 4 littles I think this is brilliant - how smart of her to find a way to teach them patience when she might be busy attending to a different child.

So take a minute and go read it ... you will find she is a great Mom who has great organization and great ideas!

Resurrection Rolls

One of our favorite Easter traditions is making Resurrection Rolls. These yummy, gooey rolls help us remember Jesus death and resurrection on Easter morning.
When you cut them open - they are empty - just like the tomb!!

Here is my recipe ...

1 package of frozen dough {I used Bridgford Parkerhouse Style Rolls, found in the freezer section} You can make as many or as few as you like - we did a dozen and saved the rest of the dough for another day.

1 package of large marshmallows

1/4 cup butter

sugar

cinnamon

One of the most important steps is to make sure you THAW your dough according to package directions. I forget this step EVERY year! I planned to make these on Saturday morning but since I forgot to THAW my dough, we had to have them Sunday morning. Silly me!

OK, now melt your butter in a small bowl.

Mix some cinnamon and sugar in another small bowl. {sorry for the lack of measurements!}

Dip a marshmallow in the butter, then the cinnamon mix, then wrap it up in the dough.

We found that it worked best to do this with at least 2-3 ppl and do an assembly line. So I would take a piece of thawed dough and spread it apart, one daughter would dip the marshmallow in the butter, the other daughter would dip it in the cinnamon, then she would place it in the dough that I had spread out and I would wrap the dough tightly around the marshmallow. Make sure to close up all seams.

Place them on a cookie sheet and bake for approx. 12 - 15 min. I would check them to make sure they don't burn.

MOST of the marshmallow will leak out, this is normal, even if you have sealed your seams. Serve them right away as the marshmallow gets hard and sticky VERY quickly!

ENJOY!!

Happy Easter!

He is Risen! He is risen indeed!

For the special 'peeps' in your life ...

I found this free printable on a blog I like called "Skip to my Lou" and just knew I had to use it. It's so springy and cute! She actually made these with a row of Peeps to go with it - but since I wanted to make something homemade, I made sugar cookie cutouts and used those with the tag.

It was really simple to put together, just print it out, stick it to some fun, colorful cardstock, and staple to the bag of goodies!

I made a bunch and gave them out to some of my friends, co-workers and neighbors.

Because I can't resist ...

Just thought I'd share some new pictures of Gracie. I gotta tell ya, these past two weeks have been very tough - filled with many ups and downs. I honestly think having a new puppy is a lot like having a newborn baby! But Gracie's redeeming quality is her cuteness and her sweetness! It saves her every time!

I think it's so funny how puppies sleep in the funniest positions!

Here she is gated in the kitchen - could she squeeze her little body ANY closer to that gate?!

When we're trying to do school work, both dogs camp out right underneath the table!

Trying to get a decent shot of them together ... they're usually wrestling and playing together so much that it's hard to catch them sitting still.

I love the outstretched paws!

Hubby, who didn't want a puppy ... can be found snuggling with her on the couch almost every night! heeheehee ...

The girls are also madly in love with her!

Here she is snuggling with Bob again ... I had to laugh again at the funny position she is sleeping in!

And lastly ... when she's wet, her hair goes all crazy and looks like it's been crimped! hahaha

It sure is a lot of work having a puppy ... but it's been worth it!

Coloring Easter Eggs!

Coloring Easter eggs is a fun family tradition in our home! I know that colored eggs have nothing to do with the real meaning of Easter ... but I love being able to teach my girls about Jesus and His death and resurrection ... but also bring in some fun family traditions to each holiday.

I hard boiled 2 and a 1/2 dozen eggs the night before, so they would be all ready to color in the morning.

I LOVE all the pretty colors!!

Here is the finished product! After coloring them we added some glitter. They look so pretty and glittery! Just what every girly household needs ... glittered Easter eggs! {I'm sure if I had boys we'd be making camo eggs!}

So now what do you do with all those hard cooked eggs??

In our house - two things - EGG SALAD {for lunch on Good Friday with friends} and DEVILED EGGS {for Easter Sunday appetizers}.

Happy Easter everyone!!!

HE IS RISEN!!!

Awana Awards Night

Over the past few years we have been SO blessed to have our girls involved in a program called Awana. It's a fun kids program that is held in many churches where they play games, learn more about Jesus, and most importantly learn to hide God's Word in their hearts through LOTS of scripture memorization.

I've seriously been amazed at some of the passages that my girls have been able to learn and memorize. Certainly a very important tool for when they are grown and going through all of life's trials ... they will have a wealth of scripture to recall and to dwell on.

In Awana they each get a book for the year and as they progress through the book they earn little awards. For the younger ones they earn these jewels that go in a pin on their vests. For the older ones they earn these little buttons that go on a pin on their shirt. When they finish one book they can move on to the next book and at the end of the year they have an awards ceremony.

Joy is in SPARKS this year. She finished her first book! Yay, we are so proud of her! In fact, both of our girls finished there books despite the fact that we missed several weeks ... they were both so determined to finish that there were many weeks where they memorized several sections of scripture so that they could keep up towards their goal. We are so proud of their determination!!

This is the group of Sparks - they sang a couple songs before the awards were handed out.
And here she is with her ribbon!

Hope is in TnT - or 'Truth in Training' ... here is the group of TnTers singing their songs.

And here she is with her ribbon! {the ribbons get bigger and better as they get older! In fact the next awards for her are more like a plaque}

The girls have been friends with these girls in the next pictures since birth - their Mom and I were pregnant at the same time for both of our pregnancies. So here is Joy with her friend, "S".

And here is Hope with the older sister, "E" ...

We love you girls! We are so proud of you both!

Oh, by the way ... AWANA stands for ... Approved Workmen Are Not Ashamed ... based on the verse in 2Timothy 2:15 "Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth."