On My Mind...

What's going on at the kitchen table...

Our table sees alot, it is rarely lonely or empty!  We eat all of our meals as a family at our table, it's a great place to sit and watch the birds out back, many times throughout the day it is a meeting place for a game, crayons, markers, play dough, or small things that want to be played with but can't be on the floor so that a baby doesn't eat them :)  This school year it seems that Emily has had more projects that require poster board and the space of the table to work on.  Tanner loves to hang out at the table with his sister and find some projects to work on near her.

*project for Emily's french class

*Tanner working on miscellaneous projects over the last couple weeks - he has discovered that oil pastels are "really cool"

This is not my Grandma's sewing...

Emily made the apron in an hour since our aprons are Christmas fabric!  She did such a great job...I would like one now! 

Bet you wouldn't find my Grandma sewing with laptop beside her...whatever it takes to learn since we can't have Grandma sitting with us to teach us everything she knows.

Vegetarian teenager

When your 13 year old decides to become a vegetarian what do you do??

Well...I read, research, and talk...alot.

I'm all for helping the environment, helping animals...blah, blah, blah...but...I'm more about helping my daughter!  I want to make sure she gets everything that her growing body needs.

Here is what I am finding...first...The Idiot's Guide to Being Vegetarian is pretty darn interesting.  I just hope it isn't so interesting that it makes me want to not eat turkey dinner, or grilled burgers, or chicken salad, or my husband's yummy smoked brisket...the list could go on and on...I love food!  Second...my daughter is so incredibly bright.  Those who know my daughter already know this...but this just made it even more visible.  She is paying attention to what she eats...not weirding out over it, but making sure she gets enough protein, things like that.  She is writing down what she eats so her and I can look at together and make sure her body is getting everything that it needs. 

I need to try and find a book or a site that lists food and what nutrients it has...right now this is work ...I am spending time searching...

New art supplies!!!

I placed an order for new art supplies (some are waiting to be opened on Christmas) from Stubby Pencil Studio...LOVE THEM!  I have been waiting for about 2 months to order the rock crayons - everytime I got online to check, they were out of them - I was finally able to order them, and we are enjoying them!  I always love when Emily draws - I didn't get a picture of her drawing, she would have thought that was "weird"  ;) but I did take a picture of her pictures that she was doodling while trying out the new art goodies - rock crayons and watercolor pencils - too cool!

 

 

 

 

Pretty in purple

Ok, so Emily thought I was being weird...

 

she was trying to eat her breakfast, and I was taking pictures of her...

Anyone who is a parent though, will understand.  You know those days when you just look at your kiddo and think "wow! I am so blessed to have her in my life!"  It was just one of those mornings.  Emily and I had went shopping over the weekend and had a great time!  I was explaining to a friend that I think with a teenage daughter it should be a rule that you do not shop together longer than 2 hours...no matter how good of time you think you are having...do not go over the 2 hour mark.  We almost passed the two hour mark...and no sign of a good time ending!  We had dinner together and shopped...I am not a big shopper so this was extra good that we had such a great time together.

2 pumpkins that equal one...

Emily picked 2 small pumpkins to equal one that she would normally carve...she discovered that little pumpkins are very tough to carve!  Notice the lovely new hair color.  I'm sure she wanted it just to compliment the fall season right? 

My boys

When I have time like this with my boys - 15 and 2 1/2, I wonder how many more times I will have both my boys at the park together playing?  Before long, one of the boys will think he is too old to be playing like this...but thankfully not yet!

Hostess with the Mostest

My daughter was the hostess for her Girl Scout meeting last week.  She truly was the hostess with the mostest...

 

 

She likes to make food pretty...

St Martha

I have talked about growing in my faith, and trying to bring the faith to my children.  I once heard someone (I don't remember who) say that their goal is to incorporate Feast days and other important Liturgical year celebrations so well into their children's lives that when they are older the Catholic faith is such a part of their daily life that even if they stray from their faith, there are always reminders - always making pretzles on Good Friday...etc..

Yesterday being the Feast day of St Martha I was thinking of a way to work it into our day with my 2 teenagers who have not grown up hearing about Catholic "stuff" outside of church.  Here's how it went...

One of my teenagers was mixing up sugar cookie dough -

Me - today is the Feast day of St Martha

teenager - hm

Me - she is the patron saint of homemakers, housewives, butlers...

teenager - ok (like only a teenager can say)

Does that count as trying to live Liturgically??  

Getting Stylin for School!

The start of school (public school) is right around the corner, and this coming weekend is tax free shopping!  What does that mean around our home?  Spending the evening in my 13 year daughters room going through clothes!  Amazing the clothes you find when you have to go through them all :)

The goal was to go through all her clothing so we can take them to the consignment store to see what they will buy from us..that gives her more shopping money for new school clothes!  Talk about motivation for going through everything in the closet!

At the end of the evening we ended up with a yard bag full of clothes...can we say a few too many clothes...I added in some things out of my closet that I'm sure have shrunk, them not fitting doesn't have anything to do with a third baby over 30, quitting nursing, change of lifestyle - I no longer do the yard work thanks to my awesome husband!

Wish us luck on being able to sell alot of the clothes to the consignment store, otherwise I guess I need to look into selling stuff on e-bay - never done that before!  Happy Tax Free Shopping!!!