Laura, Author at Heavenly Homemakers

Healthy Treat for Today: Yummy Lemonade…or Limeade

July 28, 2008 by Laura 9 Comments

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We mostly drink water and milk at our house. Sometimes when we have company though, I feel kind of boring with the drink choices I have to offer.

At one point I realized…why, I have LOTS of drink choices!

Would you like your water cold…or room temp? Filtered, or not filtered? In a mug or in a glass? Ice or no ice? Crushed ice or cubed? Would you like a straw? What color of straw would you like?

By the time I get through all of my questions, my guests feel like they are at a five star restaurant that caters to their every need. (Or something like that.)

Occasionally though…it’s fun to treat the kids (or company) to something special and exciting. And when I really think about it, our blender works overtime making yummy smoothies, slushies and milkshakes.

Here’s the lemonade I make every once in a while for a refreshing change of pace. Or…I use limes instead of lemons to make limeade. Or…I use lemons and limes and make lemon-limeade. (Ice or no ice? Crushed or…)

Refreshing Lemonade or Limeade

8 cups cold water
4 lemons or 4 limes or 2 of each
1/4-1/2 cup real grade b organic maple syrup

1. Put the 8 cups of water into a pitcher
2. Slice the lemons and/or limes in half. Squeeze the juice into the pitcher of water.
3. Add maple syrup.
4. Refrigerate.

This will make you pucker…but it’s so yummy on a hot summer day!

Sometime soon I’ll share some of the recipes for the milkshakes I like to make! Our blender has been working overtime this summer on these healthy treats!

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Menu Plan for the Week

July 27, 2008 by Laura 5 Comments

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To start off this week, I have nothing exciting to share.

I have not been attacked by any roosters this week…and by all means, I am not at all thinking about putting scissors even close to my hair. We are still excitedly watching for the UPS man and eagerly preparing for our first day of school…but other than that…not one thing special or exciting is going on around here.

OH WAIT!

I’m hosting a GIVEAWAY for the new ebook I’m about to launch! That’s kind of exciting! Go check it out and sign up for the giveaway!

And now for this week’s menu plan…

Sunday, July 27
Oatmeal, oranges
Take to potluck: devilled eggs, fudgie brownies, burritoes
Quesadillas, fruit

Monday, July 28
Whole wheat pancakes
Lamb-burgers and onion rings, watermelon
Tuna casserole, peas

Tuesday, July 29
Scrambled eggs with cheese, kefir smoothies
Homemade pizza, strawberry-peach slushies
Shepherds pie, tossed salad

Wednesday, July 30
Apricot breakfast bars, bananas
Homemade chicken nuggets and fries, carrot sticks
Beef stroganoff (what with all that penne pasta I now have), zucchini

Thursday, July 31
Applesauce bread, pears
Pizza casserole , pineapple orange slushies
Pack snacks for Farmer’s Market

Friday, August 1
Fried eggs, oranges
Potato wedges, peaches and cottage cheese
Cheesy turkey stromboli, fruit salad

Saturday, August 2
Whole wheat donuts
Tostadas
Fried chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy, green beans

On the blogging menu for this week: I’ll be snapping pictures of our Homeschool Hubbub as we get our school room and supplies ready…I’ll share a recipe for yummy and healthy lemonade and limeade…and don’t forget the GIVEAWAY!

Visit Organizing Junkie to check out other great menu plans!

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Homeschool Hubbub at Our House: Ordering our Books

July 25, 2008 by Laura 14 Comments

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Please sing along with me:

(Sung to the tune of Oh Where oh Where has my Little Dog Gone?)

Oh where, oh where is the UPS man?
Oh where, oh where can he be?!
With the big box of books for our new school year…
Oh where, oh where can he be?

Thank you, you have so much musical talent. That was lovely.

That’s our theme song right now. We can’t help it. Every year right after I place our big curriculum order, we start listening for the UPS truck. Like obssessed people. Because we LOVE it when our books come in!! It’s almost better than Christmas!

So, let me tell you just a bit about our order (because while I’m waiting for the UPS man, I have to at least talk about my books)…

We order most of our school books through Rainbow Resource…because they have excellent prices for just about everything you could possibly ever need for school, ever. Plus they offer free shipping for any order over $150. I also order books through Amazon if I can find them cheaper there.

We choose our books based on what Sonlight Curriculum recommends. They are very literature based…so we get to read many, many wonderful books together to learn more about the Bible, History and Science.

Here’s what we’ll be reading for History (we’re focussing more on World History this year) and Geography:

A Child’s History of the World
The Story of the World: Ancient Times
The Story of the World: Middle Ages
Time Traveller
People of the World
Ships, Sailors and the Sea
100 Gateway Cities

For Science we’ll be learning about electricity and magnetism…and about how things are made. The boys are especially excited about this.

Usborne Elecricity and Magnetism
Usborne How Things Work
Usborne Book of the Microscope
Light and Color
Diary of an Early American Boy

For Bible lessons, along with simply reading from the Bible, we’ll read through Egermier’s Bible Story Book…work on memorizing verses and work on godly character training.

For Math, the younger boys use Miquon…and we LOVE it. It’s kind of a backward way of learning math, and it doesn’t work for everyone, but our boys have done well with it.

This year for Asa, we bit the bullet (what a weird figure of speech…I would never put a bullet in my mouth and bite it). Anyway, Teaching Textbooks was recommended to me and after checking into it, I thought it looked great. So, that is what Asa will be doing for math. Thankfully, all of the other boys will eventually use it too…so that makes me feel better about biting…that bullet.

For Reading, each of the boys have a list of books to read either on their own, or to a parent.

Elias:

Bob Books (great set of bunches of little readers)
The Fire Cat
The Bravest Dog Ever
Greg’s Microscope
A Big Ball of String
Little Bear
The Cat in the Hat

Justus:

The Sword in the Tree
The House on Walenska Street
Jake Drake: Bully Buster
Keep the Lights Burning Abbie
The Littles
Long Way to a New Land
Lon Way Westward
Viking Adventure
Third Grade Detectives (series)
Along came a Dog
Frindle
Mustang: Spirit of the West
Shadrach
The Whipping Boy

Asa:

Adam of the Road
Archimedes and the Door of Science
The Bedwins Gazelle
The Bronze Bow
Catherine Called Birdy
Luther: Biography of a Reformer
Detectives in Togas
Mystery of the Roman Ransom
The Phantom Tollbooth
The Samarai’s Tale

Matt and I will also read the following books to the boys altogether:

Island of the Blue Dolphins
Little Britches
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry
Diary of a Worm
Johnny Tremain
Calico Bush
Justin morgan Had a Horse
Sign of the Beaver
Toliver’s Secret
Mr. Popper’s Penguins
Mountain Born
Homer Price
Cheaper by the Dozen
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Wow…looks like we’ve got our work cut out for us. Except it doesn’t feel like work…it feels like READING! And if we don’t get them all read this school year, we’ll carry them over to the next. (And by the way…I didn’t have to order ALL of these books this year. We have quite a few of them already. Otherwise I would TOTALLY be over-budget!)

Coming up in Homeschool Hubbub: I’ll share more about what we do for Language Arts, what our schedule looks like…and after the UPS man brings our books…I’ll show you pictures of the excitement!!

Oh where, oh where is the UPS man…..

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Another Round of Randomness

July 23, 2008 by Laura 11 Comments

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Encouraged by your comments after my last post of random topics, I’ve decided to ~~bless you with~~ allow myself a totally random blog post every once in a while. So, I randomly chose today to write again about some of our random activities…

1. I finally finished looking through curriculum catalogs, made my list, checked it twice, then a third time, and then placed my orders. I finally just had to close the catalogs and put them away so that I would quit finding more and more awesome books that I wanted to order. Tomorrow I’ll share our list of books with you!!!

2. Tuesday we picked up our Azure Standard order for the month…but not without a little drama. The truck driver called me Monday (because I’m the top of our group’s calling tree) to tell me that he would be at the Walmart parking lot on Tuesday at 9:15 am. I called everyone, then we all met at the appointed time. Then he never showed up. Turns out, his truck had broken down and he had called to tell me that he would be late…but I missed the call somehow. Bummer. So, we finally figured it all out and went home…and then came back to pick up our order that evening after his truck was working again. Poor guy.

Anyway…just in case you’d like to stare at my groceries for a while…here you go:

Here we have five pounds of Landmark raw white cheddar cheese, three jars of Hain safflower mayonnaise, six pounds of butter, two jars of Natural Value peanut butter, one can of olives, one container of Nancy’s whole milk yogurt, five pounds of carrots, five pounds of oranges, a jar of olive oil, five pounds of peas, and three packages of mixed veggies. The boxes you see are 10 pounds of whole wheat spaghetti noodles and 10 pounds of whole wheat penne pasta. Partially pictured in the background are two really cute little boys. They did not come with the order, but they are very sweet and delicious.

3. I’ve taken the time to read a few Karen Kingsbury books during the past couple of weeks. I usually don’t really have much time to read, but with school starting soon, I decided to allow myself a little chill time. So, I went to the library and checked out some good reads, then neglected a bunch of housework for a few days so that I could enjoy some books.

4. You do not want to enter my bathrooms right now. (See #3.)

5. Malachi is totally into microphones, and creates one out of anything he has in his hands. I have been interviewed by and asked to sing into many a Lincoln Log lately. Last week at a garage sale, we found a real toy microphone for 50 cents. You would have thought we gave him the moon.

6. Let’s just take another look at that box of penne pasta. Now that’s a lot of pasta.

7. Elias wants piano lessons.

8. When I was a little girl I got one of those “Doll Head” thingies that sat on a little stand so that you could fix her hair and make-up. You know what I’m talking about? Well, I enjoyed it thoroughly for about two weeks…and then my brother used the lip stick pencil and drew a thick, bright pink line from the top of her forehead to the bottom of her neck. He truly thought that it would scrub right off, but it never, ever did. Ever. But I’m over it now.

9. Asa and Justus are in a musical that the city is putting on this summer, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. They are in the children’s choir and are having such a wonderful experience. Anybody ever seen this musical before?

10. I think it’s weird that we call small towns like the one I live in a “city”.

11. Last Friday I let each of my boys pick one friend to take to the bowling alley. (Remember the free bowling passes we have?) Matt wasn’t able to go with me, so it was just me and the boys. Now, let’s do the math (and try to figure out WHAT in the world I was thinking when I made this plan). I have four boys of my own, and each of them chose one boy to take along. That equals a total of eight boys…ages as follows: three, three, five, six, eight, nine, eleven and twelve. How many arms did I think I had? Simply figuring out who needed what shoe size at the beginning was just about enough to make me turn around and go home. At least the no smoking ban has officially been put into place this time, so we did not come out smelling like the deep fat fried cigarettes we smelled like last time we were there.

12. I should not continue to come up with random thoughts at 11:32 pm. Especially when I need to get up and bake for the farmer’s market tomorrow.

13. We keep getting rain and other severe weather right when it’s farmer’s market time. I like the rain, but not when I’m trying to sell pretzels.

14. There’s a 30% chance of rain tomorrow.

15. Seriously, I’ve got to stop. What random things are going on with you?!

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Getting Real with Food, pt. 8

July 23, 2008 by Laura 25 Comments

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Catch up on the rest of this series here!

In my latest post of this series, I talked about some simple ways for you to make some changes in your diet in order to begin eating healthier.

I also recommended that you start taking a good look at the labels on the food you buy.

Today I’d like to share a few ingredients that you should be alerted to when you see them on a food label. The big NO-NO list. Try to avoid eating foods with these ingredients…at all costs…don’t even get near the stuff…avoid it like the plague…run far, far away! (Or…maybe we’ll be realistic and say…try really hard to not eat it most of the time if you can possibly help it...)

Okay here’s the biggie no-no list:

Hydrogenated oils

High fructose corn syrup

Food dyes

Artificial sugars

I’ll explain these ~~poisons~~ no-no’s in more detail in the next post of this series…but first let me admit to you (so that you don’t feel overwhelmed…maybe) that sometimes our family puts some of this into our mouths. They are found in MANY, MANY “foods” out there, and they are very hard to avoid!! So, don’t despair…just do your BEST! (Isn’t that the point of this whole eating right thing? Do your best! That’s it!)

Notice something about each item in the No-No list. None of them are REAL FOOD! (Remember, we’re working toward eating real food, right?!) They might have started out as real food (might have)…but after undergoing several processes of “this and thats”…they usually end up being some form of freaked out chemical when it’s all said and done. (I made that up all by myself, “freaked out chemical”…like it?)

And then these freaked out chemicals are mixed together with other ingredients (that we may or may not recognize)…put into a box, usually with a label telling you how good it is for you…placed on a shelf and sold to you as “health food”. Or at least as “a part of this balanced breakfast”.

I promise to explain each of these no-no’s in my next Getting Real With Food post…because I think it’s got to be frustrating for you to hear me tell you to avoid them, but not really tell you all of the reasons why. It’s just that I feel like the explanations of each of those terms deserve a blog post of it’s own…and I really don’t want this particular blog post to go on for three years. :)

But, I will tell you this. The process those ingredients have gone through to make them become the freaked out chemicals that they are effect your digestive system in ways that are really scary. When food digests poorly…every organ in your body is effected negatively. Beyond that, these ingredients have the power to change the healthy cells in your body to become unhealthy cells. The cells around your heart…the cells around your brain…

Here are just a few of the foods that contain at least one, if not all of the ingredients in the no-no list:

Pop and candy (Well, we probably all knew that.)
Juice that isn’t 100% fruit (Although sometimes there’s food coloring added to the 100% juice too. Grr.)
Peanut butter (Choosy moms choose…hydrogenated oils? Grr again.)
Cereal (I have been shocked to see that almost ALL boxes of cereal have both high fructose corn syrup and hydrogenated oils in them. And food coloring. Even the ones considered to be healthy cereals.)
Crackers (Grr to Shabisco and Beebler.) (Names have been changed to protect the guilty.)

Unfortunately, that list could go on and on…but I’ll stop with just those few.

Remember though to focus on making small changes! YOU DON’T HAVE TO CHANGE EVERYTHING AT ONCE!!!

Also remember…REAL FOOD tastes so good! Really, really good. (Much better than the “food” provided for you by Keneral Zills and Mellogs.)

Hope to see you back here at WeavenlyDomeShakers…WAIT… Why am I changing MY name? Guess I got on a little carried away there…

Hope to see you back here at HeavenlyHomemakers for more Getting Real with Food encouragement!

Find more Works for me Wednesday here.

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Gratituesday: Sweet and Simple

July 21, 2008 by Laura 14 Comments

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I don’t have anything profound or deep to share with you this Gratituesday…just something sweet and simple.

Three years ago we planted a peach tree in our yard. It has grown bunches and bunches in the past three years, and we were excited this spring when blossoms began forming all over it! (We had heard that it usually takes about three years for a new tree to produce fruit…so we were really hoping for peaches this year!)

Now, we have cute little peaches growing on our peach tree…and we are SO EXCITED for the day when we can actually try one!

I LOVE God’s goodness. Whether it’s in the form of something “big” when he provides a blessing to you…or whether it’s just a simple thing like a yummy, sweet peach.

God’s goodness is just so…..good.

What are you grateful for this Gratituesday? Please share with us!
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Swiss Steak Trivia

July 21, 2008 by Laura 14 Comments

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Here’s a quick and yummy Swiss Steak recipe for you…perfect to make with the great fresh vegetables you can find in your garden or farmers market!

It’s not like I have oodles of spare time on my hands…but I just had to take the time to wonder…

Why is Swiss Steak called Swiss Steak?

Did it originate in Switzerland? Do I need to dress like I’m from Switzerland when I’m preparing this dish? Must I learn to speak a new language in order to serve Swiss Steak?

These very important questions came to mind as I stood cooking our most recent Swiss Steak…so I googled it. Because I knew that as soon as I posted this recipe, I’d be swarmed with emails from all of you, full of questions such as these. I just couldn’t leave you hanging with so many unanswered questions. Hey, I’m here for you.

Get this! According to Wikipedia…Swiss Steak does not come from Switzerland at all. (Which is a huge relief because I am not a good student of foreign language.)

Swiss Steak is named Swiss Steak because the meat has undergone a process called “Swissing” in order to make it tender.

I’ve never “swissed” my meat before…nor do I remember learning to “swiss” my meat in Home Economics in high school. Imagine that…I’ve gone all these years without ever “swissing”.

Apparently I purchase my meat already “swissed” in the form of “Cube Steak”. How about that? I never knew that the cube steak in my freezer had been “swissed”. I’m willing to bet that some of you have some steak in your freezer that has been “swissed”. Eh? Am I right?!

Now that you have all the background information you could possibly ever need (and oh so much more) about Swiss Steak…here is my recipe. (Take heart…the recipe is VERY SIMPLE compared to all of the swissing detail you just received.)

Swiss SteakYum

1 1/2 lb. cube steaks or minute steaks
4 T. whole wheat flour or unbleached white flour
2 T. palm kernel oil
2 cups chopped tomatoes
2 T. water
1 small onion, cut up into rings
½ cup chopped carrot
½ t. thyme

Coat meat in flour and cook in hot oil until lightly browned on both sides. Add tomatoes, water, onion, carrots and thyme. Salt and pepper to taste. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer on low heat for 1 hour or until meat and vegetables are tender.

Serve over noodles or rice.

Enjoy the Swiss Steak…and all of the information about “swissing” that you can now use during important moments such as awkward silences or while completing crossword puzzles (five letter word for the process of tenderizing meat).

You’ll thank me later for this.

Grocery List

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Menu Plan for the Week

July 20, 2008 by Laura 21 Comments

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Last week I told you how I was taking care of chickens for my friend who was out of town, remember? And remember how I told you that I was nervous that I would do something wrong and kill a chicken? I am so very happy to report that I started out with 50 chickens…and there are still…as far as I know…50 chickens.

And two roosters.

Two mean roosters.

Yeah, I’d forgotten to tell you that part. My friend Susan was walking me through all of the elements of chicken care: “Here’s the feed…here’s the hose for water…”

“Oh,” she says, “And if the roosters try to attack you, just whack them over the head with the feed bucket.”

If the what? The roosters might attack me? I’m supposed to what? With the feed bucket? Uh…oh…okay… That doesn’t make me scared or nervous at all. <cough>

Each day last week, the boys and I would go over to do chicken chores. The boys would gather the eggs while I would courageously feed and water the chickens.

Each day I would scope out where the roosters were and make sure I stayed out of their way. ‘Cause I really didn’t want to have to whack a rooster over the head. Not even a little bit.

So, everything went fine and I had no rooster attacks to tell you about.

Until Saturday. I made it all the way to Saturday.

I had kindly filled the water…thingy. I had sweetly filled the chicken feeder with feed. I even smiled (albeit nervously) at the roosters in appreciation for leaving me alone all week.

And then it happened.

Not one, but both roosters simultaneously charged at me…at the same time…together.

But don’t you worry. I bravely jumped into the air in shock and fear…and screamed something that sounded kind of like, “Aaahhhhhhh….aaahhhhhhh. Aaahh. Aah.” (‘Cause that will stop a rooster from charging.)

And I sorta swung my bucket and hit one of the roosters barely, which made him look at me like, “Seriously? Is that all you’ve got, lady?”

In which I answered, “Yeah, pretty much. B-bye.” And I hightailed it out of that chicken coop.

It is a GOOD thing I’d already given those chickens feed and water, because I still haven’t gotten my heart rate back to a normal pace….and there is NO WAY I was going back in there that day.

Anyway…I returned home unscathed…and I’m sure the roosters are now completely intimidated by my presence, what with my strong muscled bucket swinging and high pitched shouting.

Yeah, whatever.

Okay, now to the menu. (Which just might include Roasted Rooster on a platter…)

Sunday, July 20
Oatmeal, orange slices
Lamb chops, corn on the cob, grapes
Nachos

Monday, July 21
Whole wheat waffles
Tuna salad, strawberry-peach slushies
Chicken and rice, carrots

Tuesday, July 22
Fried eggs on toast, bananas
Homemade macaroni and cheese, peas
Swiss steak, new potatoes, green beans (hopefully fresh from the garden!)

Wednesday, July 23
Chocolate swirl muffins, applesauce
Chicken tostadas, pineapple
Spaghetti, tossed salad, corn

Thursday, July 24
Scrambled eggs, fruit smoothies
Meat and cheese burritoes, pineapple-orange slushies
Pack snacks to take to Farmer’s Market

Friday, July 25
French toast
Turkey and cheese melts, carrot sticks, milk shakes
Biscuits and gravy, eggs, potatoes

Saturday, July 26
Breakfast cookies
Cheesy turkey sausage stromboli, mixed veggies
Tacos…or Roasted Rooster…depending on how the next few days go… :)

I’m kidding of course..about roasting a rooster.

(I might make rooster soup instead.)

Check out more menu plans at Organizing Junkie!

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The Crazy Woman Who Cuts Her Own Hair

July 17, 2008 by Laura 29 Comments

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Hold on just a second!

Before you read this post…you must sign this waiver:

I, ______________ , understand that Laura will be showing us pictures of her very own hair cutting procedure, such as it is. Some should not try this at home…or in anyone else’s home…or in any other location that is not a home. I recognize that Laura is slightly crazy and that if I cut my own hair I will also be considered slightly crazy. I acknowledge that if I do cut my own hair after reading this post, and I am not happy with the results…Laura @ HeavenlyHomemakers is in no way responsible and should therefore not receive pitiful emails from me. Furthermore, the following post shall reveal several embarrassing pictures of Laura, and I hitherto promise to only laugh a little bit and shall refrain from rolling upon the floor and receiving a side ache with the hilarity of the pictures.

___________________________ (Your signature here)
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Okay, now that we’ve got that out of the way…we shall commence with the showing of the pictures and explanation of the hair cut.

I have no idea why I’m feeling brave enough to show you this. Oh, yes…I know why. Because last week I mentioned that I cut all of my boys hair and my husband’s hair and my own hair…and MANY of you wanted to know more about how I do my own….since it’s on my own head.

I thought about writing this explanation for how I cut my own hair: “Beats me.” Because really…I don’t have a clue what I’m doing. But then I figured surely I could give a little bit of a better explanation than that.

I started doing this about seven years ago when my first two boys were little bitty and I was pregnant with our third. Getting out of the house for a hair appointment was very hard…or maybe I was just too lazy to make it work. Either way…I just figured I could try doing it myself and that if I totally messed it up…then I could make it a priority to find someone to stay with the kids while I went in to have it fixed.

And so it’s been for seven years. Hey, where else can you have a hair cut at 10:00 at night in your pajamas?

So, I’ve been needing to trim my hair for several weeks…and your response from last week’s post made me jump into gear and finally get it done.

Remember…I told you that really, I don’t know what I’m doing. I just play with it and have fun with it and see what I come up with. Obviously I don’t have too big of an obsession with having great hair, or this wouldn’t work for me. But, I figure as long as it is sorta decent and easy to fix…I’m okay.

But here’s the thing. In my excitement to cut my hair and show you pictures I got a bit carried away. Perhaps we could say that I gave myself a summer hair cut this time. Truly, I did have a lot of dead ends that needed to be taken off. But, um…I don’t think my hair has ever been this short. <ehem> I don’t really like it this short…but hey, it’ll grow back, right?

Anyway…here are a few shots that I had Asa (bless his heart) take of me while I was cutting my hair a few days ago.

Here, I had brushed it all forward in preparation for the cut. Asa says to me, “Really Mom? You want me to take THIS picture for your blog? With you looking like that?” I don’t know what his point was. I mean, I think it’s one of the best pictures I’ve ever seen of myself.

I usually start with the bottom layers and then move “up”. So, I use a big clip to hold up the top part of my hair. In order to cut the back of my hair, I just pull it forward at my neck. It mostly, sorta works so that I can see what I’m doing. Again, Asa says, “Okay, a picture with your hair all up in that clip like that, with that weird piece all fuzzy at the top?” (And he shrugs and takes the picture…then takes another one closer up so that you can really see the piece of fuzzy at the top…see below.)

After you’ve admired the fuzzy piece a while, you might notice that it looks like I’m chopping off a huge chunk of hair right at the top. I wasn’t though. I was actually just barely clipping it to kind of get a tapered look around my face. If only I was ambidextrous, that part would be much easier.

I keep a trash can on top of the sink as I clip, in hopes of catching at least some of the hair in it while I cut. As you can see…I had a bit of cleaning up to do when I was finished. And I won’t even show you what the floor looked like.

Now, I will show you my finished hair cut. But seriously…I am NOT very photogenic and I was trying to take pictures of myself because no one else was available (except Malachi, and that wasn’t working either). So, I’m sorry if you take one look at this picture and gasp at my bug-eyedness and lack of make-up. And at how much hair I chopped off. Yikes!

Yeah, after about 56 shots, that’s the best one I could come up with. I TOLD you I wasn’t very photogenic. (Which means…if this is the one I posted…you should have seen the 55 that I DIDN’T post.)

Anyway…I cut it shorter than I meant to, but it’ll grow back and be just about right in about a month and a half.

And there you have it. A bit about how I cut my own hair. If you do decide to try this at home…remember that you signed the waiver. Don’t forget the waiver. I’m sure you’ll do great and I’m sure your “after picture” will be tons better than mine…but just in case you are not entirely pleased with your new “do”…I am not to be held responsible. (Although I would love to see your “after picture”.)

Perhaps you’ll find some less crazy frugal ideas here?

;)

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Homeschool Hubbub at Our House

July 17, 2008 by Laura 17 Comments

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Whether you homeschool or not at your house…I hope you won’t mind me sharing with you some of our hubbub!

It’s the time of year again when we are getting all geared up for a new school year. Summer break is awesome, needed and refreshing…but by the end of July, we’re starting to think about getting back into our schooltime routine again.

Because homeschooling is flexible (one of my favorite parts about it), we usually begin our school year the first week of August and end the beginning of May. This schedule has worked very well for us mainly because starting our school year in early August means that we get a great start before anything else we’re involved in begins. (Public school around here starts Aug. 16, by the way, so we’re not starting much earlier than everyone else!) Soccer doesn’t start until the end of the month, nor do any of our homeschool group events. So, we have a few weeks to get established in our school routine without having to run here and there to soccer practice and field trips.

Okay…now that I’ve explained when we’re starting and why…can I just tell you a little about how excited we’re getting?!

I love this time of year! Beginning fresh with crisp, never-opened books, freshly sharpened pencils and new notebooks. (I get a little giddy with just the mention of the word, “supplies”. Ooh, school supplies? I love supplies. I think supplies is one of my favorite words…)

The boys are starting to ask more questions about what we’ll be learning this year, and I can see the excitement in their faces. (Okay, I LOVE that my boys get excited about learning!)

Here are a few of our homeschool hubbub highlights that I’ll share more about in upcoming posts:

1. I have made my curriculum list and am getting ready to check it twice. There are SO MANY great books out there, and while I’d like to buy $5,000 worth of books that look wonderful….I’ve decided that perhaps I’d better not. I’m working to fine-tune my list so that I can call in my order in the next couple of days. I’ll share my list as soon as I get it all figured out! Just in case you might want to know what we’ll be reading this year…

2. I always order just a couple of weeks before we want to start school. We get so excited when the books come in…which makes the boys motivated to get started reading and learning…and I don’t want to lose that momentum and excitement with the boys. If we start school just a few days after the books come it…the boys are pumped and ready. A few days after I order, we all start watching for the UPS truck. It is ONE EXCITING DAY when Mr. UPS Man brings our heavy box of books!

3. I’ll make each boy a list of the school supplies (supplies!!!) he needs…then we’ll head off to Wal-mart where each boy gets to carry his own basket and pick out his notebook colors, get a new crayon box, etc. THIS is probably one of our FAVORITE days of the whole year. I can’t wait to share more about this day with you!

4. We always give our school room a thorough cleaning, and then we rearrange the desks and rugs and bookshelves so that we start our school year in a “new room”. The boys love this part too.

5. Each school year, Matt and I decide on a new “Godly Character Training” focus for the boys. We make a fun chart so that we can reinforce the behaviors we want to see in our kids. It seems that the beginning of a new school year is a good time to re-focus and begin fresh. The boys always anticipate finding out what new chart I’ll make for them! Here are the charts we’ve worked through in the past several years. I am SUPER excited about the idea we came up with for this year. I’ll be designing it and showing it to you soon! I think the kids are going to love it. (By the way, we never use these charts as a reward system. All we have to say is something like, “Elias, you did what I asked without arguing or complaining. You are really shining like a star right now. Go put a star on your chart!” His face will light up and he’ll put a star on his chart and that’s it. We don’t give them anything for having a certain number of stars on their charts. The reward is just having Mama and Daddy notice that they are being like Jesus.) Okay, I am super excited to get this years chart finished up!

6. We usually let the boys have one big “Before School Year Bash” where they can each invite one friend over for a little party.

Okay…enough hubbub for now. I’ll have the camera ready so that I can share with you all of our special days of getting ready for school to start! Feel free to ask questions and I’ll try to answer them as I write these posts!

I’m curious about any of the special before-school traditions you have (homeschool or not)! And also…does anyone else get excited about the word “SUPPLIES” like I do?! Just wondering!

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