Summer Vacation Revisited-Part 1

Only four weeks after school started I've decided to post about our summer. I'll go backwards and start from the last major event. Pixy Girl's 6th birthday! We decided to celebrate it at home with just family this year and enjoy sub sandwiches, chips, cake and ice cream. It was nice not having to worry about entertaining a bunch of kids and all the chaos that goes into a larger scale party.

Pixy Girl still scored plenty of gifts from the grandmas, her aunts/uncles and mommy and daddy. The gift that she hoping to get and even asked for while she went gift shopping with my mother was presented at the end of the party. A brand new bicycle!!


She couldn't wait to try it out. She jumped on it without any shoes and tried to pedal it out on the lawn. She didn't get too far before her feet started hurting.



Here she is all suited up with her helmet and she has her shoes on, even though you can't see them. As you can tell from her face, she wasn't haven't a good time with it. Living on a dirt road was going to take some time to learn how to pedal harder on the packed road. Since the party she has mastered riding and enjoys doing it every chance she gets.









Having a party in August requires water and LOTS of it to keep
cool. So we busted out the shamu kiddie pool for the Pixy Girl, Little Prince and their little cousins. What a great idea that was! They had a barrel of laughs playing with the water spout. I think the adults had more fun shooting it in their faces!













What a better way to end the party with cake and ice cream. Chocolate cake iced with chocolate fudge with vanilla ice cream to be exact. YUM!

The gift of books

I have been away from blogging lately. If I'm on the computer I'm consumed by Facebook or email. I'm going to try and write at least one blog a week. I put some thought into this and figured if I had the time on Monday evenings after my Bible Study group I'd try to reflect on the previous week. It's a start.

So anyways, while I was spending some time on Facebook playing one of the application games I like I needed more coins to buy some virtual "goodies". You can pay for coins with "real" money but I refuse to, so I followed one of the offers on the link. I picked a book club subscription and what a great deal! I love books and am finally starting to find the time again to read them. Of course like any of those movie clubs or book clubs you get the 5 item for 99 cents plus shipping deal and then you're required to buy up to 4 items in a year or two's time. I picked three novels, one inspirational novel by Joyce Meyer and 2 more Christian books. When my order arrived at home it was accompanied by flyers about more books.

I thought I was going to have a hard time finding more books to pick, but I've already picked three and can't wait until I get more. I'm halfway through the book Any Minute by Joyce Meyer. If you haven't read it, it's about a woman caught up in the whirlwind of trying to be the corporate mommy who has lost her way with God. Something tragic happens and changes everything.

I'm looking at it this way, it was a good thing me playing those silly games on FB. It led me to my love of books again in a strange way. I'll keep you posted on my book and the next one I'm reading.

Opening my heart

Yesterday was the last day of my church's Vacation Bible School. It was the finale for the week, our big chance to get the Word of God to the children. If it didn't get through to them, it certainly left me hungry for more.
I didn't want to be as involved so I took a smaller job this year and was in charge of the preschool/toddler group. Since the little ones I had were younger than 3, I took them to their class earlier than the older kids. It was too much to expect to have them sit for 20 minutes and watch a Bible Story with everyone else. But God had other plans for me, I was there.

My mom became ill yesterday and she needed some one to be the leader in the Crafts class. I was resistant at first because I didn't want the responsibility of teaching the groups. I was especially negative about it because I didn't know what they would be working on and didn't feel prepared with only hours notice. Come on, it was the last night of VBS. I thought about and turned to God and asked , what is the best thing to do? He spoke to my heart and I knew I needed to do this for the kids.

Boy, am I glad that I was there. After the opening program, all the kids sit together for the Bible Story. Pastor Phyllis from the Community Life Worship Center taught the Bible stories. Pastor Phyllis is from the church that has been using our Fellowship Hall on Sundays to worship in. For the past 2 years we have joined with them to hold VBS.

The story she was going to tell was about Jesus' crucifixion and she was going to do a pantomime. Her miming touched me on so many levels. Her actions, along with the narrated music, were amazing. I felt so sad that Jesus did that for us and here were all these innocent children learning how much LOVE he had for us. She acted out when he carried that heavy cross and I wanted to be there to help him. Words cannot describe the feeling in that Fellowship Hall last night. The one thing I hope those children remember, is that Jesus is Alive! and that he lives in you and me. What a blessing in disguise that was for me. I can't thank God enough for showing me where I needed to be.

God is Great!




For God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son, so that those who believeth in Him, will not perish but have everlasting Life. John 3:16

Reflections

Why is when some one is ill, hurt or not doing so well do people want prayer? They tell you the bad news and ask you to pray. I know there is nothing wrong with that request, but I always have the doubt. I dutifully as a Christian take a moment and say a prayer for that loved one. I tell them that I will keep that person in my thoughts and prayers. But what do words really do? We are only mere mortals. We cannot perform miracles.
I say all this because a friend's grandmother is ill and today she posted that Hospice has been called. I know it cannot be just because I had doubt. I feel that it was time. God is now calling her home. We should be happy for her. We should be happy that she will live eternally. I know that my friend is sad. She needs God now. I hope she can see that.

Busy Summer

Wow. I thought the anticipation of going to visit my brother was bad. For the next two months I'm going to be very consumed with 4th of July celebrations, birthday parties, VBS, vacation and Disney World.
We've been invited to our friends Fourth of July party. To keep the kids cool, there will be kiddie pools, water slides, sprinklers and lots of juice and water to go around. For the parents, we're hoping to have an ADULT-sized water slide and we can't forget the BBQ!! I will be making my famous macaroni salad and I might surprise everyone with a yummy dessert. I'm leaning towards cool and refreshing on this one. Soo possibly a fruit salad or strawberry shortcake!! Yummy. I've heard they're having a real DJ this year, so it should be a BLAST. And we can't forget the fireworks! The kids are going to have alot of fun. I can't wait.
Evan celebrates his 2nd birthday next month. I decided that we would have a large friends and family celebration at our local State Park. I vowed I would never have a large birthday party at the house again. Or at least the current house we live in. Since the weather has been EXTREMELY, unseasonably HOT what better way to celebrate with cold water nearby to splash and swim in. It's a lot cheaper than renting a $200-300 water slide, not to mention the added expense of a security deposit.
Two weeks after we celebrate Evan's birthday, we're taking a "stay-vacation". We won't be traveling too far from home. We're planning a few beach outings, hoping to potty train Evan and we're taking Kelly and Evan to Disney World for her 6th birthday. We had originally planned to take her horse-back riding but for liability reasons they require a minimum age of 9 to ride the horses. So that idea got scratched and we had to come up with another idea for her celebration.
I can't believe we're actually doing it. DISNEY!!! Here were come Mickey Mouse! What a great way to spend the summer. We're so busy with weekly activities and the weekend's are full of fun stuff.
By the way, I'm wishing myself good luck on my potty training adventure. I'll keep a log of how it goes. I'm hoping he's going potty by the end of July. Big boy under pants or BUST!

Trying for Months

Ok, so this might be the easiest way to find some help. I am not program friendly and I have tried about a hundred times now. I want to change my blog to a 3 column. And I also want to change my blog background to a custom one. I located some elements that I want to use but once I get into the Paint.net program, well let's just say we dont' work well together. I will try one more time this weekend at home with hubby. He has Powerpoint on his computer so I'm hoping we figure it out on that one. But if not, HELP!!!!!!!!!!! The Free ones are nice but not my style. I really really would love to learn this but I'm frustrated. Thanks for reading. Pass along if you could.

Household Cleaners

Being a neat freak and obsessive cleaner, I don't mind giving and receiving tips on how it can be done better. Better with a more effective cleaner or more efficient and saving me time. Recently I switched toilet cleaner brands to be more "eco-friendly". I also tried using back to basics cleaners that include lemon juice, baking soda and ammonia. I'm not sure that using more "eco-friendly" products save money in your wallet.

I started with cleaning the bathroom sink and tub with baking soda. It scrubbed away the grime and soap scum without scratching the counter-top. It removed most of the iron in the bottom of the tub and the dirty tub ring was gone. I was pleasantly surprised. It was nice to use a cleaner and not smell the "bleachy" chemical smell associated with most household cleaners.
The downfall, just a few days later the tub was beginning to look grimy again and it took quite a bit of baking soda to clean the tub. It may only cost about 40 cents for a small box, but when you need to use more than half the box each time it adds up.

I moved onto the toilet with my new GreenWorks toilet bowl cleaner. I try to use thick gel-type toilet cleaners. I feel that if it starts under the rim and has time to sit on the "slimy toilet scum", it's going to be more effective. The Greenworks is thicker, has no chemical smell but doesn't hold up against my original brand. It does not remove the iron stain and the mildew that grows around the water line came back before the next cleaning. I clean the toilets every week and it was nasty before 7 days.

I cleaned the tub last night with my tried and true duo. My soft scrub and clorox cleanup. The clorox removes the grime and iron and the soft scrub finished it off. So until I can find an eco-friendly cleaner that keeps my bathrooms cleaner for at least a week, I'm going back to my bleach buddies. Oh, don't get in a hurry forget to use gloves. I did that last night too. My hands smelled of bleach for hours. Another reason to keep on my mission.