Felicity Unplugged

Just a little sacrifice

This quote is from the book:  "A Mom Just Like Me"  by Vickie Farris and Jayme Farris Metzger.

"If today's remnant of Christianity would make the sacrifice it takes to instruct their little ones in God's Ways, I believe we could see a vastly different America after only a few generations.
    When we raise Godly children in the midst of a  hurting world, we are striking at the very root of the problem...'Just being a mother' is far from inconsequential!"


This book was written for me.  She truly is "A Mom Just Like Me".

My next book to read is "Making Brothers and Sisters Best Friends".

Critterwoman

Today our Library had a special event with critter woman.  I was thinking how fun, she'll have a rabbit, rat, frog, etc.  The first critter she pulled out to show us was a King Snake.  One of our adult Library friends is terrified of snakes and she just about fell off her chair trying to get back.  Then she kept covering her baby's eyes cause she didn't want him to start liking snakes.  Did you know that king snakes eat other snakes including venomous snakes?  She had a dragon (some kind of lizard) from Australia.  She also had a African hedgehog type animal, a box turtle, a young African beetle that was the size of her finger and she said it was only half-grown.  She then let a tarantula crawl all over her hands and my kids all started backing up.  Then she pulled out her prize, a 5 year old yellow Burmese python about 8 ft. long.  She said they grow to be 18-20 ft. long as an adult.  It was yellow because it has a disease that doesn't let it be the normal browns and greens (I think it might be an albino, though she didn't use that term.).  It was quite an interesting program and she gave a lot of information about the animals she had with her.  Since we had a small group at the library all the kids were given a chance to touch all the animals.  The only animal Kent touched was the box turtle.  Katy touched the box turtle and the python.  And the only animal Kaomi touched was the python and I think she liked it.

1st day of School

I decided to start school on Monday.  I'm running out of ideas to keep the kids occupied and they were excited to start.  We had a great first day.  Since Kent is in 1st Grade and Katy is in Kindergarten I wasn't sure how it would all work out.  I had a schedule planned for their classes allowing each one time for me to teach and them to begin any work on that subject, then while the first child was finishing up his work I would start teaching the next child.  I went back and forth between them like that for all subjects and the timing I planned for each one was just about perfect.  I used my timer for each lesson to keep me on track and if they didn't get something finished we worked on it later in the day. 

Life just goes on.

We have been so busy.  I finished the girls dresses on the 10th and they wore them to church on the 11th.
On the 11th we also had a baby dedication at church in which Jeff and I dedicated ourselves to raise our Children (Kaomi and Felicity, this time) God's way. 
We had Vacation Bible School the 12th-17th and then on Saturday we took our yearly family tradition to go blueberry picking.  We picked almost a gallon and a half of blueberries and have really been enjoying them.  They seem even sweeter this year than they have in the past.

Dresses

The Girls dresses that I am working on are coming along nicely.  They should be finished this week.  Katy is so excited that I am making her a dress.  I keep asking for Kaomi's input because she picked out the fabric for Katy's dress (but I'm making Kaomi one, too).

Recomended Reading

Within the last two weeks I completed reading:

"The Duggar's 20 and Counting" By Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar
and "Anonymous Tip" by Michael Ferris.

I enjoyed reading the Duggar's book and picked up a few tips from it.

I highly recommend "Anonymous Tip" to anyone looking for a good intriguing Novel.


I am currently reading "Is There Life After Housework" by Don Aslett and Next up is "A Mom Just Like You" by Vickie Farris and Jayme Farris Metzgar.

Thing I Wish I'd Known Sooner

My favorite quote from the above book:

"Sometimes we just turn a corner, and the unexpected reward is there, waiting.  The walk is worth the surprise.  Those who love may find starfish for breakfast."  -Jaroldeen Edwards

This quote is from the last chapter.  I enjoyed this book and the last chapter was like the icing on the cake.  I even read Jeff a part of it.  It sounds like something I might have done as a child if I had thought of it.  I Pray that God helps me to love my family, so if I have a similar situation I would respond in a good way. 

Now I understand...

why we have the hardest time finding clothes that fit Katy properly.  I took Katy's measurements yesterday to know what size pattern I should use for a dress I would like to make her.  She is so scrawny that she measures for a size 2 shirt, she is long waisted so she measures for a size 7 and her actual height shows that she should be a size 4-5.  Needless to say, I'm going to have to pull all my sewing memories for how to adjust a pattern so I can make her a nice dress that fits her well.

Current Books

Yesterday, I finished reading "The Duggars: 20 and counting".  It has a lot of information I found useful and I may just have to add the book to my personal library.  It shows their faith and trust in God and God's blessing on them throughout the whole story.

Next up is:  "Things I Wish I'd Known Sooner: Personal Discoveries of a Mother of Twelve" by Jaroldeen Edwards.

Continuing:  "Interwoven: A Pioneer Chronicle".  I've been enjoying this piece of History.

Have a I mentioned that I love our Library System.  We have a small library that is in a Consortium with many other small Libraries.  I can go online and search for whatever book I want and put a hold on it then pick it up when it arrives at my library.

Psalm 70:4

"But may all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you; may those who love your salvation always say, 'Let God be exalted!'"

Thanks God for your Salvation; help me to exalt you and show that I love you.

Mayonnaise on What!

Yesterday at church I was talking with a friend about how we get our kids ready for church, meal planning and picky eaters.  Somehow we got on the topic of spinach.  Her son likes sauteed spinach with lots of garlic and black pepper; I like spinach with mayonnaise on it. 
Why do I like spinach with mayonnaise on it?  It's what my father did, so I called my Dad.  "Dad, why do you put mayonnaise on spinach your spinach and broccoli?" 
"I don't know," he answered "my father did it.  Do you do that, too?" 
"Yes, I do."
Today I called my Grandpa.  "Grandpa, why do you put mayonnaise on your spinach and broccoli?"  Grandpa simply answered, "Because I like it that way." 
I don't know if Grandpa's father did it, too, but I like his answer.  I like it that way, too.
My Dad also told me that my Grandpa also likes tomatoes with mayonnaise and sugar on them.
I prefer my tomatoes with mayonnaise or ranch dressing, no sugar.

Current Book

I've been trying to do some more reading and I thought I'd try to keep you updated on what I am reading.

Currently I am reading:

"The Spiritual Power of a Mother" by Michael P. Ferris
and
"Interwoven: A Pioneer Chronicle" by Sallie Reynolds Matthews  (This book is often used as a source of West Texas History.)

I recently finished browsing through "The Well-Trained Mind"

Sports World

This week Kent is going to Sports World.  It is a day camp through Student Ministries at our church.
He's having fun.  He is supposed to be learning about how to play baseball in the mornings.  I  think he is a little disappointed that they played catch on Monday (even though you need to catch in baseball), he wasn't real clear about what they did today.  I'm praying that the whole week will be fun for him.

I don't like feet.

Kaomi just came and crawled up in my lap to snuggle and we had the following conversation.

Kaomi:  I don't like feet.

Me:  Why don't you like feet?

Kaomi:  They are dirty.

Me:  God created us with feet; they help us walk.

Kaomi:  I smelled Kent's feet and they stink.

Me:  You're silly.  You are supposed to smell flowers, not feet.

Kaomi got a big grin and got down to go play again.

Chore Charts

I made new chore charts this week for the kids.  Katy has been asking me to make a pink chore chart.  I revised our chore list and made a morning chore chart (pink) and an evening chore chart (blue).  They are all excited about it.  Katy is excited that she gets to wash the dishes once a week.  Kaomi is excited that she gets to help set the table and wipe it off after dinner a couple of times a week.  Then there is Kent...he was reading the chore charts and excitedly said, "Oh, boy I get to do chores on Saturdays."  He loves schedules and routine.  Maybe now he won't grumble if we give him a chore on Saturday, especially if he is just doing his regularly scheduled chores.

The Box Car Children

I had Kent take "The Boxcar Children" out of the library on Tuesday.  Then I told him at quiet time that he should read 1 or 2 chapters everyday at quiet time.  After quiet time on Tuesday I asked him how the story was and he showed me that he was almost done - with the whole book.  He read 12 chapters at quiet time.  He finished the book yesterday and restarted it.  He said it was an interesting story and he should read it again.

Feeding the Giraffe

We had a wonderful day.  Jeff was able to take the day off and we went to the Frank Buck Zoo.  It was a beautiful sunny and hot day.  We enjoyed seeing the animals.  We also enjoyed feeding the giraffe, the kids were just a little bit scared.  We held out romaine lettuce for him to eat.  Giraffe's have incredibly long tongues and he would stick it out trying to get the lettuce from you.  When he got the lettuce on his tongue he would curl up his tongue around it and pull the lettuce into his mouth to eat it.  Giraffes have purplish black tongues, too.  Later we were able to feed some goats.  After visiting the Zoo we ate lunch in the park outside the Zoo.  Then the kids had fun playing on the giant playground that was there.

Blue Bubbles

I had noticed that Kaomi had stopped coloring with markers and I assumed she was done and had gone to play in her room....

Then Kent said:  "Mommy, Kaomi is in the bathroom and has blue soap."
Blue Soap?  The only blue soap we have in there is the girls shampoo.  Well, I guess I'll go see what he is talking about.

Sure enough Kaomi had blue soap, but it wasn't what I was expecting.

She had colored with blue marker all over both hands and then went to wash her hands and used the foaming soap (it looked like she had used about 1/4 of the bottle).  She had blue soap all the way up her arms, above her elbows and on her face where she must have pushed her hair back.  Of course she hadn't turned on the water so she couldn't rinse the soap off.  The top of the toilet where she was standing had soapy blue splotches all over it too.  I should have taken a picture, as she was a pretty shade of blue.  Of course I didn't think of taking her picture then.

The Understanding of a Child

Yesterday I had sat down to feed Felicity and the phone rang.  It was my Mom (thanks for calling).  While I was still feeding Felicity and on the phone with Mom, I heard Kent (6) say from the bathroom, "I need a new roll of toilet paper."  I told him he would have to wait til I was done feeding Felicity.  Then I thought well maybe Katy can help him.  I sent Katy(4) to get the roll of toilet paper from my bathroom, but she came back shortly and said she couldn't get it off the holder.  Kaomi (2) was sitting there absorbing all that was going and she got up and went to try to get the toilet paper from my bathroom.  Soon she comes back with a whole wad of toilet paper and took it to Kent; who of course didn't want to use it since it wasn't on the roll.  I told Kent that it was okay to use it, because she brought it from my bathroom just for him.  Then she came back through with the leftover wad of toilet paper and put it back in my bathroom.  I have to admit what a smart child and why didn't I think of that?  She was probably sitting there thinking, "Why can't Katy get the toilet paper for Kent, I can do it."