The Bare Necessities

We took The Jungle Book out at the bookmobile on Saturday and I was reminded what a fun movie it is. Not to mention how awesome having a bookmobile within walking distance once a week is - now I have no excuse for fines.

Back to the movie though, with it's musical tunes it held even my daughter's 'too busy for TV' interest for some of the time. Except for the snakes, she came into the kitchen with two bowls asking for raisins saying, "nakes, no like nakes." But then she cautiously carried two bowls of raisins back to the couch offering one to her brother and sat and watched some more.

The lyrics to the bare necessities song reminded me of Mary's grocery challenge next month .... ah, yeah Heidi, that's tomorrow! Adam and I will talk later today about what our goals for the month are. For us it's usually the temptation to go out to eat. Especially since people seem to want to look at our house a few times a month between 5-6pm with little notice. It sorta throws a wrench in even my best plans for dinner. But those are not the only times we are lured by restaurant food so if we could cut back all together we'd save quite a bit.

I know one of my goals is to install a money program and use it to more thoroughly track all of our money expenditures especially our food items. I've gotten out of that habit and need to start it up again!

Mary's book Frugal Feasts for $75 a Week has awesome tips and one that is helping me lately is not just not going to the store right away when I need something. (To avoid other frivolous spending.) I now need six essentials though so I'm going to plan a couple weeks of meals tonight and go tomorrow am or maybe by myself tonight! Eggs and rice milk have been out for a couple days and those are now necessary! We've also cooked several dishes from the cookbook that are terrific!! Thanks Mary for adding some yummy goodness to our lives as well money to our pockets!

One of my favorite things about the recipes Mary shares is they use mostly fresh and scratch ingredients instead of processed or canned ingredients (like cream of whatever soup)which are of course more economical and more healthful too. I'll keep you updated on our progress throughout the month and am looking forward to reading about what others are doing too. I'm sure we all will still be well above the bare necessities of life!

Look for the Bear Necessities,
The simple Bear Necessities,
Forget about your worries and your strife!
I mean the Bear Necessities,
It's why a bear can rest-at-ease
With just the Bear Necessities of life!

Give Me a High Five!

It's birthday season in the cocoon here and my son's birthday comes just eight days after his baby sister's. (Incidentally, mine is eight days after my husband's too - unless it's leap year.) Now I've got a five year old. It's just too surreal the changes in him that have happened this summer.

He just loves to make his sister laugh. Learning to tell a few jokes and he's pretty good at delivering the punch line too. A couple favorites? Why do gorillas have big nostrils? Because they have big fingers. And what did one volcano say to the other? Do you lava me like I lava you?

Ha, ha!!! Seriously,he is full of energy and spirit and love. While he really does find joy in making the rest of us giggle and belly laugh he also loves to read and Ralph S Mouse is our current adventure. So much fun. I'm so grateful to get to see all this learning and changing daily! He adds so much color to our daily life and so much love. I love you my great big five year old. You are my little knight in shining armor and I adore you!

A conversation between my Mom and him the other day:

Granny: How does it feel to be five for a whole day?

Son: Great! Am I going to be five all day?

G: you are going to be five for a whole year.

S: I just can't believe it!

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Between My son and I last Saturday:

Mommy, is tomorrow church?

Yes

Great! I can go and play with my friends and sing and praise God!

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Instead of saying triple, he'll say, "look it's a double three."

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Five seems like one of the launching pads to independence and it is great! Almost every day he does something that I have to fight away a tear in my eye lately. Leaps more independent than how he was last year and even this past winter. It's been a very big summer, taking off training wheels, pumping on the swings and full of watching things just "click" and him really "get it".

Besides him physically changing is the things that he's into, he loves to play superhero it's a fun game for when I'm actually stuck in the kitchen cooking or doing dishes. We'll pretend I'm stuck in a cage, a sinking ship, a stinky shoe or wherever else our imaginations go and he'll come to my rescue.

Or with his sister he'll pull all the little chairs into the living room and have a show. Puppet, rock star, who knows what but they both like to get it all set up and organized. Tiny legos, superhero action figures, it all seems so big boy to me. Yeah, he's even starting to get that sweaty little boy smell after playing outside. I guess it's official, he's a boy!

We all love you my little BIG boy!

Perhaps the caption:

"What to do when you find those extra stubborn dandelions" is fitting.

My Baby Goose at Two

I thought it a bit funny several months back, that my daughter's first sentence was to our dog. "No lyler eat, MINE!" She emphatically proclaimed in the dining room. The dog's name is Tyler by the way and since then she has been just a chatterbox at trying new words. Not hard to fathom in our family where her older brother just proudly admitted to his Granny tonight (after she explained what the word speechless meant) that no he'd never had that happen because, "I talk really a lot." At least he told the truth!

Last week my baby girl turned two. Twos are fun, great and full of learning. Lots of giggles and a love of life now that more understanding is taking place. I find it amusing how people always comment on how quiet she is when we go places. Well, other than chattering in the middle of church I guess! LOL! My son too was quite the observer at this age.

I love watching this learning, absorbing and watching with all present eyes. I think we could learn more about other adults to practice this every so often. My true joy however comes when we are at home and her true personality comes shining out. And shine I do mean, everything about her is a ray of light to every family member. She babbles and chats and smiles and giggles and sings and yells and happily attempts to recite bible verses (a couple words anyway.) We've affectionately nicknamed her the hurricane because you never know where she's going to go next or what she'll find to tear apart and play with, climb on, or fit inside.

She melts her fathers heart with her hugs, cuddles and smiles. Not to mention tickles and running hugs! She makes her brother's day by not backing down from a good ol' fashioned rough and tumble. Not to mention the fun those two are starting to have together, man I can see that she will follow along with him for awhile but she won't hesitate to assert herself either. She's got to stand up to her very bossy big bro and she's got the skills! She melts my heart with her giggle and smile she literally is my burst of sunshine. I love her giving spirit, constantly asking "help you" and wanting to do everything big brother does!

So as my second hits her second birthday I am amazed at the hand of God and so thankful he has blessed our family with this baby girl.

I wish you my sweet spunky one the happiest of happy birthdays and you are adored and loved with all our hearts.

Things we want to remember about you at this stage:

• You lift your leg behind you when you stand around holding onto a wall or Grandma's gate.
• You'll just start doing little sashes out of the blue like life is a song you hear.
• At times you are still a bit attached to Mommy (and I rejoice in it, even revel) and enjoy our extra cuddles as we extend or nursing out a bit longer than average.
• When I lay you in your crib you ask for "ov me" (Jesus loves me) one more time while you nod your head at each "yes" at the and for the last the bible tells me sooooooo!
• "Written Down" over and over and "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my word will by no means, pass. a..way!" You've got those down!

I Finally Finished a Book!!!

The pile of books to be read (or reread) on my night stand keeps growing and finally in the last month or so I have been able to slice some reading (for me) time back into my crazy life. My friend Mary Ostyn's book (it's the cute pink one on top) A Sane Woman's Guide to Raising a Large Family was one of the first on my rather long list. She's the author of the blog Owlhaven but you probably know that already!

It is a fabulous parenting book full of really sound advice. I say this not because she goes into many researched and clinical details as other parenting books I've read, but really because she doesn't. Her advice is real, mom to mom, down to earth and enjoyable to read. The theme that spoke most to me was to focus on the stuff that matters most (to me.)

Mary's words flow nicely and the information she shares is obviously very personal and gained from her own parenting experiences. Even the times when someone (who shall not be named) kept stealing my bookmarks and I would read the same sentence or paragraph over and over, it was fine. I'm learning how God works and there was a reason I needed to read these particular passages over and over and really, I was delighted to do it! I mean how could I not be...

"Kids grow fine sharing rooms, and God does fine at stretching budgets. In fact, I suspect He takes delight in surprising us with just how well He can provide." pg 35

Each section of the book has a sense of warmth and care for the children of the family, while keeping things practical for mom and fun for all. Obviously my two kids puts me nowhere near having a large family and I don't have some of the unique challenges that comes with it. Even still, I have taken much from the book and never felt excluded because of my small family size. It was nice to gain an insight into what happens in large families. In fact I think no matter the number in your family, creating a unique bond with each child and having more time to do it is something we all are looking for.

I'm very eager to read and start tasting recipes from her new book Family Feasts for $75 a Week which is now available! My plan is to start in September when Mary is doing her grocery challenge and I'll tell you about all the yumminess! After all if a Mom of ten recommends it, I'm at least going to try it out for size!

Ants

Hopefully NOT in their pants! ;-)

I didn't even notice that they were both sitting the same way when I took the picture.

Hey Diddle Diddle

Yesterday we had a fun day searching for wild huckleberries. We found and picked for awhile with some friends. I also use the word "we" rather loosely as it was our friend who found the berry plants on what we affectionately now refer to as huckleberry hill.

If you've ever read that book with little Sal on Blueberry Hill our experience was remarkably similar. Minus the bears, thankfully! My daughter ate berries right off the bush and my son would collect them in his cup until there were several and then he would eat them. Let me tell you, it takes awhile to pick a pint of huckleberries!

The hilly terrain was fun to hike around including a brief rainfall where we all stood under a densely branched pine tree. The kids are still talking about the adventure of the day, how when my son hiked with the boys to the top of a slope I looked this tiny (holding his fingers a couple inches apart.) And exaggerating slightly I'm sure! Also my baby keeps asking for more 'huhuberry' and 'up mountain.'

A funny conversation between my son, husband and I ensued since the land where we were looking had many groups of free roaming cattle.

"Cows can jump really, really high."

Adam and I replied in near unison, "Well, actually cows don't jump at all."

His sincere reply, "how do they jump over the moon then?"

A Gift

Steph from Adventures in Babywearing wrote yesterday about 'This is the day' and it spoke to me. Especially the following paragraph:

Who am I to lament the day I did not create? I only live in it. I am so blessed to live in it.

Thank God that we get to live in it!! I'm reminded again how encouraging it is to read other blogs, so real and what a blessing these other Moms are. Even if I don't know them in real life, there's still a connection through writings that I'm so grateful for!

Resourceful Little Buggers!

Have you seen this!

Some Blogher moms are giving away a pretty cool Intel Laptop. And that is a giveaway I'm not going to miss!

Click here to enter at Owlhaven! OR Click here to enter at Mom to the Screaming Masses!OR Click here to enter at Deb on the Rocks OR click here to enter at Bacon is my enemy!

Or visit all of them - plus more Moms are going to be reviewing it too, which means even more chances to win!

Recycled Catch

An evening a couple of weeks ago, as has often happend this Summer, we were all playing outside. My son had his baseball in one hand and a dirty water jug missing a bottom in the other. I could see his brain working, the bottomless jug had become a funnel for the sand box last summer and lived there ever since.

Watching his face as he put the wiffel ball into the open end and then threw the unit up toward the sky as if he knew this dirty plastic had a bigger purpose. Then he caught the ball safe, back in its sand caked trap. After awhile, he came over to me and making sure he had my full attention explained that some changes would make it work better.

You know what, he was right! He took his finger and showed me where there needed to be a difference in the shape of the bottle, it needed to angle down on both sides and scoop down in the front. He actually supervised my use of the scissors as I snipped the old dusty plastic saying, "Yup, that's good, that's good."

After seeing how much fun he was having with it he encouraged me to make three more (all just as supervised) so we all could play together. And you know what, we do! The best part about it is that he figured out what he wanted for a new game and how to make it for FREE!! Both resourcefuI and creative now that's my boy. Yeah, he gets it from his dad mostly but still... ;-)

Comfort

Words that surround me like a cozy blanket and a warm cup of cocoa.

From the ends of the earth I call to you, I call as my heart grows faint; lead me to the rock that is higher than I. For you have been my refuge, a strong tower against the foe. I long to dwell in your tent forever and take refuge in the shelter of your wings.

Psalm 61:2-4 NIV