Keeping our Hearts at Home

Moving on.....

2009-01-02T18:38:00.002-06:00

I decided to move my blog....I felt like I needed a change, so here it is "Solace in Simplicity"

2009-01-02T10:25:00.004-06:00

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

For New Years Eve we stayed home and had some fun with just the kids and I. Gilbert got home at 11 from work......just in time to ring in the New year with us.

First we has some yummy food....Cheese, sausage, crackers, lil' smokies, shrimp, chips and dip. We has sparkling grape juice to drink and cheesecake for dessert.

The littles had fun trying on Papa's hat that he brought back from work.

We counted down to midnight with Dick Clark and then we blew our horns and shot off our poppers and confetti!!

My whole living room floor looked like this....

The kiddos had SO much fun...they said they can't wait till next year...:-)

Well, on Monday we have to start school again and get back on a routine. As much fun as all the Holidays were (Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years) I am glad to get back to reality...hee..hee. I still need to make my list of Goals that I want to TRY and accomplish this year. Still got some cleaning left to do...I also need to get the kids schoolwork ready for Monday!!

Our Christmas 2008

2008-12-30T11:30:00.003-06:00

We had a simple relaxed Christmas....which is fine with me :-) On Christmas Eve we went by Gilbert's parents house. We ate tamales, pozole and the desserts that I made. We just hung out and the kiddos opened presents at midnight...then we went home. On Christmas morning we woke up late and the kiddos opened their presents..they were VERY happy with everything they received. The kids and I got Gilbert some things he needed...work shirts, work pants, socks, pajamas and new gloves (his old ones had a hole) and Gilbert got me a Gift card. After we opened presents and ate some cinnamon rolls we went back to Gilbert's parents house and ate left overs and later had some Tinga tostadas....Simple yet fun :-)

Christmas Ramblings

2008-12-26T15:26:00.003-06:00

Well...we had a wonderful Christmas!!! For those who were wondering...I got all the stuff done on my list except that I didn't get the Fridge clean!! Last night I cleaned up the living room and tried to take most of the stuff out of the packages so we could throw out all the garbage. Today the house is still quite messy...I have a lot of catching up to do...aahhh well..the joys of Christmas :-)

Usually I start taking down the Christmas decorations the day after Christmas but this year I am going to wait till after new years day. The time before Christmas just went by so fast that I felt like we didn't really have much time to enjoy every thing. So we are still going to pretend it is Christmas for another week..hee..hee.

The two eldest children are upstairs playing with their new Lincoln Logs, 3 yr old is watching her new Barbie movie (Barbie and the 12 dancing princesses), the baby
is sleeping. I am still very tired from staying up late for so many night in a row so I am not getting too much done today..but tomorrow I am going to a major cleaning.

I am looking forward to the new year ....it always feels like a "fresh start" for me. I usually make a list of goals for the year..so I will be doing that soon. Tomorrow I will share some pictures from Christmas...I am not sure where my Camara is right now. Ok well since I am just aimlessly rambling right now I am off :-)

Baking Day!!!

2008-12-23T09:54:00.004-06:00

Today I have tons of baking to do. I am going to be making a variety of things..here is what I am going to be baking today:

~~Gift of the magi bread~~ Done
Cobblestone brownies
Jam Thumbprints cookies
Triple-layer mud pie
Chocolate Crinkles
Candy Cane cookies
~~Neapolitan~~ ~~Cheesecake~~ Done
~~Gingersnaps~~ Done
German Chocolate pie (this one is a maybe)
Sugar Cookies (that we rolled, cut out and baked yesterday...we just have to decorate them).

Later on today I have to get a bunch of presents wrapped still, bathe the kiddos, iron the clothes for tomorrow, clean the bunny cage, clean out the fridge and straighten up the house...whew...I don't know if I can get all that done..LOL.

Well...I am off...maybe I will update later on how I am doing :-)

Oh yes...I forgot to mention it is snowing here AGAIN!! On top pf the 14 or so inches that are already on the ground, we are supposed to get 3-6 inches more today and 4-7 inches more tomorrow.....It will definitely be a white Christmas here!!

Just to clarify.....

2008-12-20T22:27:00.003-06:00

just because I have Santa decorations in my house doesn't mean we "do Santa". The reason I don't do Santa is because I don't feel comfortable lying to my children...I also don't like the greediness that comes from thinking Santa will bring a child anything they want. My sister-in-law felt like she had to buy (because she didn't want to disappoint her child) a $130 remote control dinosaur because that is what her child requested ( and she told me they could NOT afford it) Yikes!!! No I am not making a judgement on those who do feel it is o.k. to do Santa.....that is not my place ;-) For us Santa is just a fairy tale.....that is pretty much it.

So Much Snow!!

2008-12-20T09:55:00.004-06:00

Since before Thanksgiving we started getting snow....and it has been snowing ever since. Good thing last week it rained and melted all the previous snow or we would have tons of it out there by now. Thursday night we got about 13 inches of snow and we are expecting another 4-7 inches tonight!!! On top of the snow, tomorrow with the wind chill factor it is supposed to get between -20 to -34 below 0.....now that is cold...brrrr. So I will share some of my pictures from our snowy weather for those that might not have snow and actually want some..hee....hee.

All bundled and ready to go play in the snow (even if it was only for about 15 minutes)

This one LOVES the snow!!

Work before play.

Even 3 yr old was helping shovel ;-)

"Mommy..I NEED my glasses so the snow doesn't blow in my eyes"

Now it is time to play.....hmmm..what are they building a big hill for?

And why are they now up in the tree?

Why to jump out of the tree on to the pile of snow below of course!!

"Hey Mama....need some ice??

A Christmas Tour of My Home : Part 2

2008-12-19T19:55:00.004-06:00

Now I will show you the "Pink Princess Palace" where the two little princesses reside, of course ;-) I didn't really have too many Christmas decorations that went with the girls room so I had to be a little more creative here.

This is a view with both of the beds in it so you can see how it is set up.

This is the jar of lights that is on the bookcase. I just found an old vase and took the left over lights from the window behind it and stuffed them inside. Then I took some old ribbon that I used on the Tree a few years back and tied it around the top.

I put some lights around the window and used the same ribbon I used for the jar to make a swag....I did the same thing to the other window. There are also some cute window clings on the windows but they didn't show up.

This is my 9 yr olds side of the room.

And my 3 yr olds side (can you tell she likes Cinderella)

Above the closet I just put up a simple white garland.

Here is the Christmas tree. It is actually a white tree with pink lights....decorated with lots of princess ornaments.

I will try to get the Kitchen and Living room posted BEFORE Christmas...hee hee.

A Christmas Tour of My Home : Part 1

2008-12-16T11:59:00.004-06:00

This is my 7 yr old's room.....I just used stuff that I had from years past and some things that were my dads that I had stored in the basement. My children wanted to name their rooms so we called 7 yr old's room "The Wilderness Lodge" hee..hee. We are silly..but hey, it is fun :-)

The pictures did not turn out great so a lot of the "details" are lost but....aahhh...well. His sheets have snow flakes, pines trees, cabins and moose on them. The tree is a rustic looking Winnie the pooh tree that 7 yr old has had since he was 3.

This pic is kinda dark...but the lamp has a moose,a bear and pine trees on it. There are also cling-ons on the windows but they really didn't come out in the picture.

Here is a close-up of his bookcase ...a Winnie the pooh snow globe, a moose that was my dads, and a little wooden box with a duck on the top that was also my dads. That is it ...nothing spectacular but my little guy loves it :-)

Now on to my room....here I kept it pretty simple.

The sheets are the same a 7 yr old's (they were on sale for really cheap ;-) Every thing else is just stuff that I have had for years.

Above the curtains I hung a simple swag of pine cones, greenery and such.

This is the other side...just a stuffed mickey mouse Santa that I got from Gilbert the first year we were together. And a vintage looking Santa on the dresser. I will try to do the rest of the rooms later this week:-)

I'm still here....

2008-12-15T17:46:00.003-06:00

I have been decorating the house for Christmas....getting presents for the kids and figuring out what I am going to bake for Christmas. We got our tree the Sunday after Thanksgiving...unfortunately the tree farm where we get our tree from every year was not near as fun as usual :-( They sold their Buffalo so there was no yummy buffalo burgers to eat, they put all the miniature donkeys and horses away..and well frankly it was boring, the kids were disappointed....next year we will be looking for a new place.
I am finally pretty much done decorating the house....I promised to do the kiddos rooms this year too...so they have lovely decorated rooms too :-) I am almost done Christmas shopping too..just got to get some stocking stuffers and something for Gilbert. This year time seemed to just fly by and I really felt like we weren't able to do much Chirstmasy stuff :-(

I can't get any of my recent pictures off my camera for some reason they won't download on to the computer which is really frustrating so I have a few from the beginning of this month but that is it. We have been getting tons of snow already and then this weekend it rained and melted all the snow. Then within an hour it went from 43 to about 18 and flash froze all the rain!!! Right now it is 7 degrees out and -6 with the wind chill..brrrr. Tomorrow night we are supposed to get about 3-5 more inches of snow....this is a crazy winter so far!!

Well if I can figure out away to get any of my pictures off of my camera I will try to show you some of my decorations later this week!!

Here is my little man all bundled up out in the snow...

My little princess with her little "snowball"

This picture was from our first snowfall before Thanksgiving!!

Thanksgiving and other things

2008-11-29T10:22:00.005-06:00

We had a nice Thanksgiving...we went over to my in-laws house. Usually we have Mexican food but this year my sister-in-law said she wanted and "American" thanksgiving...so that is what we had. And me being the only American in the bunch...I pretty much cooked all the food!!! This is what I made:

A 25lb turkey
A 9lb ham
Gravy
Stuffing
Cranberry relish
Pecan pie
Pumpkin cheesecake w/ praline bourbon sauce
A layered chocolate cake
Peanut butter blossom cookies

My sister-in-law made the mashed potatoes and the in-laws bought 2 huge pumpkin pies and I brought some frozen rolls (didn't have time to make any). Everything was really yummy and we had a great time. It ended early because everyone had to work the next day.....short and sweet..hee hee. Oh yeah I sewed my girls some really cute dresses that they wore....I will have to try and get some pictures and post them later :-)

I NEVER shop during black Friday...too many people, to much greediness.....anyways..we live in a small town so we decided to hit the Menard's and Kohl's here and actually it wasn't really that busy. All the people headed out to the city I guess. We got some really good deals on a few cozy blankets...which was great. We got some really warm...slippery wool socks from Menard's. Why do I say slippery....well I was wearing them last night..getting ready for bed , thinking to myself as I was going to head downstairs..I am going to cuddle up on the couch for a little bit wrapped ion my new blanket. Then I slipped down the stairs and WHAM...smacked my back SO hard on the stairs....it knocked the wind out of me. And as anyone knows who has ever had that happen to them...it induces a state of slight panic. So there I was sprawled out on the stairs and I couldn't breath....Gilbert ran over and I was trying to get up while I couldn't breath and well ...he told me to calm down and just focus on breathing...so I channeled my childbirth breathing skills and I was o.k. in a few minutes...with breathing that is. My back is still this morning in ALOT of pain....bummer. I have had a bad back as long as I can remember....I have mild scoliosis (curvature of the spine)..so this just makes it worse...aahhh well. I need to visit the chiropractor..SOON!!

Oh yes..I almost forgot about my tooth!! I had a severe abscessed tooth the pain was horrible it was in my jaw, my ear, up the side of my head and down the side of my neck. I was taking 3 Advil's every 4 hours during the day and I could still feel the pain but it was somewhat bearable. At night I had to take 2 regular Advil and 2 Advil pm and that would last about 4 hours. I couldn't go to the dentist because we had to wait till our insurance kicked in. There was NO way I was going to be paying hundreds of dollars out of our pockets...we just could not afford it. As far as dental schools around here..there is 1 and it is 45 minutes away. The only take a limited number of patients a day and it is on a first come first serve basis...so that would not work. Well I knew if I went to the dentist the first thing they would do is give me a prescription for Antibiotics to clear up the infection and give me a stronger pain med (probably Vicodin or Oxycontin) and I really did not want to inject any of that crap in my body. So I made a whole made Antibiotic (raw honey, garlic, Echinacea, and colloidal silver) ....I got the recipe from Amanda at wholly by grace. So I took that along with "berry well", "bee immune" and my super mom vitamins. Then I took a cotton ball soaked with salt and baking soda and kept putting it on my gum where it was infected...that caused the infection to draw out and drain and whaa...laaa..I am now pain and infection free. So now I just have to make an appointment with a dentist as soon as I get my insurance card!!! ( now I know there are those who will criticize me....so I am NOT saying that others should do as I did....this is what I did and it worked for me. If you can get to a dentist..by all means please go ;-)

OK.... well I got to run...tomorrow we have to go and get our Christmas tree so I have to get the house cleaned today!!!

Update

2008-11-21T11:23:00.002-06:00

Things here have been...a pain.... literally. I have had a SEVERE toothache (an infection) for about 2 weeks. The pain is excruciating!! I am waiting to go to the dentist till my insurance kicks in..which won't be for another week or two. Meanwhile I am taking a natural antibiotic and immune builders.....this has been working I think as the pain has gotten more tolerable. For awhile there I thought I was going to overdose on Advil...lol.

My 3 yr old and 1 y old keep getting sick from my sister-in-laws daughter..who is always sick. I have been working on building up their immune systems but ..ugh!! A week ago 1 yr old had a really high fever for 5 days and now he got another cold. And 3 yr old has a cold too..not as bad but still.

And on top of that yesterday dh broke out in hives....really bad. We hoped it would be gone by this morning so he could go to work but he still had it...and worse. He started to go to work but then the hives started going on his hands and face..well he works in a restaurant so he can't exactly go to work like that. Anywhoo he went to the doctor and they said there is some virus going around that is causing hives!!! So dh is on his way home now...

So please keep our family in your prayers..it would be greatly appreciated!!

Fun in the fall leaves!!

2008-11-12T08:00:00.000-06:00

When I see my sweet littles playing in the leaves it always reminds me of when I was young... raking up the leave piles just to jump in them and then rake them all up again..over and over. Aaaahhh....the carefree life of being a child. I so enjoy just soaking in my littles playing, laughing..havin' a grand old time...without a worry in the world.

Yes, children are precious jewels of such value!! They bring such joy and happiness to our homes...all the riches in the world can not measure up to the treasures that children are.

Children bring such warmth and happiness..they add depth, color, and zest to life!!

....."Suffer the little children to come unto me,

and forbid them not: for of such us the

kingdom of God.

~Mark 10:14

The Faith of a Little Child
God, give me the faith of a little child!

Who trusts so implicitly,

Who simply and gladly believes Thy Word,

And never would question Thee.

God, give me the faith of a little child!

A faith that will clasp Thy hand,

And willingly go where Thou see'st best,

Though he may not understand.

God, give me the faith of a little child!

A faith that will look to Thee,

And never will falter and never fail,

But follow Thee trustingly.

-Author Unknown

Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord:

and the fruit of the womb is his

reward ~Psalm 127:3

As arrows in the hand of a mighty man;
so are children of the youth.
~Psalm 127:4

Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them:

they shall not be ashamed, but they shall

speak with the enemies in the gate.

~Psalm 127:5

I am very surprised!!

2008-11-11T09:36:00.000-06:00

As many of you know the voting for the Home school Blog Awards are going on right now...well yesterday I went on over there to vote for my favorite blogs and lo and behold I was VERY shocked to find that I had been nominated in the Best Homemaking/recipes Blog!!! I never would have thought in a million years that I would be nominated..so to who ever did that..thank you so much!! So head on over and vote for your favorite blogs!!

My Fall Kitchen

2008-11-10T14:18:00.000-06:00

Finally..here is my fall kitchen. I try to keep things simple and uncluttered so you won't find lavish and expensive decorations here..but I like it :-)

This is a close-up of the window above the sink...two little pumpkins and a little angel with a pumpkin

This is the side where my stove and coffee maker is....I just hung some fall towels, used my squash on the side decoratively (till we eat it..he he), and I have a little pumpkin candle holder on the edge by the squash.

This is the other side of my kitchen where we have the table (the fridge and the home school area are to the right) I hung up a fall wreath and put a little garland around my oil lamp.

And on this side of the kitchen I have a fall cookie jar (I got from wal-mart years ago for $10), my fall cookbooks and a fall candle.

And here I just have a little pumpkin on my microwave and a pitcher on the counter.

This is where my calendar is and some of my school books. Here I filled a basket with gourds, used some candle holders I had and set a bunch of Indian corn out :-)

Well that is it I hope you enjoyed my little tour..I will try to get my living room tour posted soon!!

An Award!!

2008-11-10T11:51:00.000-06:00

DeNiece over at Organized Homemaking For Christ honoured me with the Butterfly Award. Thank you DeNiece for choosing me to recieve this award..I am very grateful :-) Here is my Award:

Now to pass this award on to a few special people:

Jewels at Eyes of Wonder

Christine at Lily of the valley

Stephanie at Musings of a Mountain Mama

Linda at Homeschooling 6

He Answered Prayer

2008-10-24T13:41:00.000-05:00

He answered prayer!
Not in the way I sought:
Not in the way that I had thought He ought!
But in His own good way; and I could see
He answered in the fashion best for me.
And I was glad that I had such a share
In His parental love and gracious care,
That thus He answered prayer.

He answered prayer!
But not in my brief hour:
I looked to see the fruit ere yet the flower
Had shed its gales of sweetness o'er my path!
But I have learned that slowest blossoms yeild
The choicest fruit; and so I leave them there
Upon the boughs, assured that they will bear
In time my answered prayer.

He answered prayer!
So sweetly that I stand
Amid the blessing of His wondrous hand,
And marvel at the miracle I see,
The fashion that His love has wrought for me.
Pray on for the impossible and dare,
Upon thy banner this brave motto bear,
"My Father answers prayer."
- Selected

I HAVE to believe

2008-10-22T20:28:00.000-05:00

I am in a valley right now but I HAVE to believe that He will bring me through....please keep me in your prayers.

Curriculum and books for sale

2008-10-15T11:27:00.000-05:00

The following are in brand new condition and prices include shipping in the contingent united states, if you live anywhere else let me know and we can discuss additional shipping. If you are interested in anything or have any questions e-mail me at amitymatthia at hotmail dot com. I will be accepting Pay pal.

~~The Well-Trained Mind~~ SOLD (revised edition) By Susan Wise Bauer and Jessie Wise
I only read this one time and it is in like new condition

Retail: 39.95 Selling for: 22.00 pp

First Language Lessons For the Well-trained Mind by Jessie Wise (grades 1 &2)

Retail: 24.95 Selling for: 16.00 pp

Shurley English Level 1 kit
This is BRAND NEW never used
Retail: 70.00 Selling for: 45.00 pp

Explorers Bible Study Beginnings And it was good! Old testament lessons for little listeners
Used twice.. brand new condition
Retail: 23.99 Selling for: 15.00 pp

Literature Pockets Nursery Rhymes Grades K-1
Brand new never used. I accidentally ordered 2.
Retail: 14.99 Selling for: 11.00 pp

Miquon Math Lab Sheet Annotations
Never used
Retail: 16.95 Selling for: 13.00pp

Miquon Math The Orange Book
Never used
Retail: 6.95 Selling for: 5.00pp

Miquon Math The Red Book
Never used
Retail: 6.95 Selling for: 5.00pp

Home school Family Fitness A complete Curriculum Guide by Bruce Whitney, PH.D
Retail: 19.95 Selling for: 15.00pp

Alpha Omega Health Quest unit 1

Retail: 4.20 Selling for : 5.00pp ( sorry no picture)

And I am not sure if anyone would be interested or not but I have the Son light K Teachers guide w/binder and students science and language arts sheets w/binder. The students sheets are used through week 11 but I know you can by new student sheets for 21.00 for both science and language arts. Although not that many were used. The instructors sheets have check marks and some note through week 11 but it is still fully usable. I would be willing to discuss prices on this..It retails for about 150.00 new (willing to sell for $50.00). So e-mail me if you are interested.

Just what I needed...

2008-10-08T13:23:00.000-05:00

Jewel over at eyes of wonder has done it again...she has the most beautiful and encouraging post up...right when I needed it. Please go here and read her latest post, it is long but you will be so encouraged and inspired. Jewel is truly a Titus 2 women !! I anticipate her every post as I always glean so much from her. Enjoy :-)

Stuff

2008-10-06T20:09:00.000-05:00

Right now I have just so much stuff I want and need to get done. I am planning on getting up earlier so we can get school done earlier. Right now I need some extra time to get some things done. I have a list and it just keeps growing longer and not much is getting scratched off....so I am going to do a temporary schedule to get caught up. I am going to try to leave a chunk of time in the afternoon for my list :-) Here is my list so you can get an idea of what I am talking about:

-Finish putting up fall decor (before it is Christmas time..he he)
-Clean out and organize all cupboards and drawers in the kitchen
-Organize both children's bedrooms
-Clean out entertainment center
-get some stuff up for sale on e-bay
-finish sewing 3 yr old's dress and start 8 yr old's dress
-Go though current clothes and pack away summer clothes
-Go through EVERYTHING in basement ....and sort...Giveaway ~ Throw away ~ or sell what I don't NEED or TRULY ENJOY!!
-Do the same as above to the rest of the house.
-Clean out coat and shoe closet get rid of stuff that is too small
-Clean out and organize mine and Dh's closets
-Go through ALL books and get rid of any that I don't want
-Sell curriculum that I no longer want

I am really wanting get rid of a lot of STUFF....I don't have much compared to what most people have in America but for me it is still too much. I don't want to spend hours in my day cleaning, organizing, moving around, picking up, looking for STUFF. STUFF has just become a burden for me...I would rather have fun with my family, spend time with the Lord and live life than worry about things.

I really don't think God intended for us to spend hours everyday cleaning and picking up our things because I really don't believe that he intended for us to have so many things.

Harvest

2008-10-02T13:17:00.000-05:00

O.k. well it might not be MY harvest but it was free. My sister's dad has a farm and they sell corn, vegetables, pumpkins etc. But I got some for free..yay!!!

These are the pumpkins that I still need to artistically arrange ;-)

some corn shucks for decoration
here we have apples, gourds, squash, cabbage and Indian corn

We just ate some of the corn for lunch..but if you are 1 perhaps you would like to use the corn for a sword?
Or if you are 3 maybe you would rather dance with the corn...while wearing sponge bob pajamas of course.

Well besides playing with corn ;-) I have been fairly busy...I got my3 yr olds dress cut out and ready to sew, I have been studying up on e-bay as I have some things I want to sell, doing school with the kids, keeping the house clean and brain-storming ideas for preparedness. I have been figuring out what the essential basics are and making a list. Once we have that purchased I will move on to the secondary things and so on. My first priority is to put together some BOBS (Bug Out Bags) These are important to have because if you need to flee you have something you can just quickly grab that will sustain you for a short time here is a link that will give you some ideas as to what you should put in the bags ( actually back packs would work best). Anyways that is what I have been doing....right now I have some squash in the oven that is almost ready....I will mix it with butter and some brown sugar for a yummy treat. Well gotta run and do a quick tidy of my house :-)

A wonderful link for "new preppers"

2008-10-01T18:37:00.000-05:00

I was perusing the forum at mrssurvival.com and I came across a WONDERFUL thread for those who might just now have started prepping HERE is the link....it has some great information!!! It will give you some needed encouragement and some advice on where to start :-)

Are You Ready?

2008-09-30T17:36:00.000-05:00

As you all know our economy is in a downward spiral....things are going to get BAD. Now of course we all shouldn't be in a panic and riddled with fear...but we should use our common sense and get ourselves as prepared as possible. I have known for a few years that things were going to get bad....Gilbert wasn't on board at the time and it was hard for me to take the initiative. Well he is all for preparing now...hopefully it is not too little too late. We will just do as much as we can and trust in God for the rest. Let me tell you though I am NOT playing around...I am going to try as much as can to be frugal and make some money to try and pay down are debts and stock up.

Here are some great reads and links to help you get ready for what lies ahead.

Captain Daves
SHTF Daily
Survival Blog
Backwoods Home
Anna Matrix
Millennium Ark
The Z BLOGcastosphere
Duh Daily Scoop
End Times Report
Mrs Survival
Free 4 Him

The Last Days of Summer

2008-09-29T17:40:00.000-05:00

Last week was still very warm here....it was in the mid to high 80's the whole week. Well this week is cold in comparison today it was about 67, gloomy and rainy. It seems like it is to stay that way now ....the next 10 day forecast doesn't get any higher than 70 so it seems like it is actually going to start feeling like fall.

Monday and Thursday of last week Gilbert was off so we enjoyed the nice weather and had some fun family time. I know I should have named my blog "my life in pictures" he he....so I am going to bore you all with some more pics of our "last days of summer"

Soccer is always fun to play on a warm sunny day

It seems like 1 yr old would much rather eat a crab apple off the ground

Or maybe he will get in on the "action" after all (notice the optical illusion..he really was kicking the little soccer ball that is behind the big ball..but at first glance it looks like he kicked the big one..he he.)

Gilbert practicing his soccer skills ;-)

The soccer fun ended when we got distracted by this little froggy

Got to rest a little

And my sweet 3 yr old who never wanders far from Mama's side

Then on Thursday we had a little fire...we roasted some brats, then we we roasted marshmallows and made s'mores.

Here are some of the pictures that turned out odd from using the night scene setting..kinda neat..I think..he he.

Right now I have some wonderful scented candles burning....taking a break in my clean and comfy house....drinking some whole made gingerbread coffee. Aaahhh..this is the life ;-)