Flashback: 1983

I was telling my kids, well my two older girls, about my "schoolbus song." There is one song that everytime I hear it I flashback to riding the schoolbus during the winter of my freshman year of high school. I can see the black rubber flooring covered in slush, the straight-backed bench seats and the bus driver's boombox strapped onto the center console at the front. I don't remember our bus driver as especially nice, but she was cool in the fact that she didn't subject us to the bus' staticky AM radio, but instead brought her own boombox and tuned it to the popular FM station.

This is the song that takes me there:



Ahhhhh....YES 90125. I loved that album. Owner of a Lonely Heart was not especially my favorite and I don't recall every watching this somewhat strange video. (As I recall that's what music videos were back in the day - strange.) My favorite song was "Leave It." LOVE that song. I don't recall this video either. I guess I really wasn't into the MTV thing. But this video is kinda fun - especially when you remember that this was the early eighties technology that produced it.




I found the "Leave It" video here which lead me to the other. Thanks Taking Me Back for the fun flashback!

Upwards Basketball

Just wanted to share another page I completed yesterday. This is my son playing Upwards Basketball at our church. It is a wonderful program that several of my kids have been a part of. )Patrick is finally old enough to play this year and he is having a ball. The young ones are so cute to watch. My older daughter, Anna, is playing this year, too, but I haven't gotten her page done yet. Look for it soon.

Journaling reads:
Journaling reads:Go, Patrick! You are doing a great job playing basketball for the very first time at 6 years old. We are so proud of your enthusiasm for the game and your happy spirit.

Credits can be found here.

A little scrappin'

I finally managed to sneak in a little scrappin' time this morning and I did this silly page.

Journaling reads:

Yes, I confess...I am having a torrid love affair. It is so hot and steamy, so delicious that I can’t bear to give it up. The amazing thing is that Barry doesn’t even seem to mind. In fact, he has encouraged it. So who is this “Ned”? He can often be found checking out the contents of my fridge and I do feed him often. But what I love about him most is his amazing talent at baking bread. Yes, Ned is my homemade wild yeast (sourdough) bread starter. Am I crazy for giving such a thing a name? Perhaps, but I have heard that explorers in the Klondike would sleep with their starters to keep them warm. At least I haven’t gone that far...yet.

Credits for the page can be found here.

Everyday Life

Yesterday, I was feeling run down and took some sit down time in front of the computer reading some favorite blogs. I ran into several people doing daily photos of everyday stuff. I am always intrigued by this. I know that I am bad about keeping projects like this up, but I got the bug to walk around the house snapping photos. I put them together into a quickie layout using FotoFusion this morning. Even if I could do this once a week, it would be really cool.

Here are a couple Photo-a-Day type blogs I thought were neat:

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Soule Mama

So, confession time here....you can see in the photo here that we still have our Christmas stuff up. I know; it's bad. I was really enjoying leaving it up this year, but then life got busy and I just didn't have time to deal with it. I am going to try to make today the day it goes away.

I have another big project I need to get done right away. Last week I popped into a Hallmark store that is going out of business looking for some good deals and discovered that they were giving away all of their bookshelves for free (this particular store also sold books). I ended up getting seven big double sided bookshelves. As a homeschooling family we have no shortage of book around here and I have been storing the bulk of them in rubbermaid tubs and boxes because bookshelves have not been in the budget. Well, now I can really set up a fantastic library! We had to unload them off the truck and trailor quickly, so they ended up going in the garage for now. This means that my van is sitting out in our current bitter cold weather so I am anxious to get these carried down to the basement where they will permanently reside. I can't wait to get this set up!

I also got another great bargain from that store. I got a computer for $5 complete with monitor and printer. Can you believe that? Good friends of ours had one they were looking to donate and were wonderful enough to think of us a couple of weeks ago, too. I have been wishing for a bank of computers for the Rich Hearts Homeschool and these will bring us up to 4. Now I need to reorganize the school room and get them set up properly. There are several educational things that I have wanting the kids to do on the computers, but it was hard to do sharing just one. It will be great to finally be able to do that!

So if I am quiet on the computer, it is just because I am busy with all of these projects in my real life.

Everyone keep warm and have a great day!

A little fun

I thought this was fun, even though I can't get past level 8.

Why don't you give it a try:

brought to you by TravelPod, the Web's Original Travel Blog ( part of the TripAdvisor Media Network )

Just Checking In

Sorry, I have been pretty absent from the computer lately and haven't checked in here. We are still alive and kicking. There is always plenty to keep us busy around our home.

Some of the things I am working on:

Breadmaking. I have become a baker. I never would have thought I could because I have made more loaves of brick bread over the course of my lifetime than I would care to admit. For the past several months, I have been honing my breadmaking skills and have adopted it as part of my daily routine. I could go on and on about this, but I will save it for another day. (Actually, I think I feel a scrapbook page coming on about this ;-)

Making bread has brought about a desire for more simple, healthy eating. I am not sure exactly where I am going to go with this. I want to move towards fewer processed ingredients, perhaps more organic and local ingredients. Of course, this means more cooking from scratch which takes time and planning. I think a lot of it is just a change in attitude and mindset. I am reading this book and it has make me think more about what we are eating, what is in it and where it comes from.

I am also reading up on how to make cheese. According to this site, you can make mozzerella cheese in only 30 minutes. Sounds fun!

I am also working on frugality and less clutter. The expenses for a family of 7 are not cheap and I am trying hard to give us more positive cash flow. Anywhere I can realistically cut, I am cutting. I am inspired by this woman who plans to take a year away from shopping and only buy needs and NO wants. I have been thinking more about each of my purchases, even my groceries. I have been postponing my grocery shopping and therefore forcing myself creatively use what's in my pantry. Of course, today I am sitting here with no milk, fresh produce, meat, eggs and many other things that we normally consume each day. I think I am going to have to break down and go. I do, however, have homemade bread. ;-)

This week, my daughters unearthed my guitar. I haven't played it in years. They want to learn to play, especially my oldest. Wow, am I ever out of practice and I soon became painfully (yea, I mean that literally) aware that I have NO callus on my fingers. So, my daughter and I are plucking away a bit each day trying to build up our fingers and learn/relearn how to play.

Those are the highlights of our recents adventures. Surprisingly, scrapbooking hasn't happened in weeks which is really strange for me. I probably won't be able to go too much longer without having a scrap-attack, though. Oh, that reminds me, I forgot to mention one of our big highlights...we bought a new computer. It is awesome! Once I have a chance, I will install Photoshop on it and it will become my primary computer and the old one will be more the kids'. There are currently 6 people in this house fighting for computer time (before we know it, Rachel will figure out she is missing something and it will be 7 people). Adding a second computer has been wonderful! I plan on utilizing it for more school assignments and research now.

Well, I have babbled enough for now and the household chores are calling.
Have a great day!

Christmas Hangover

No, I haven't been drinking, but I do feel like I have a hangover of sorts. After the months of planning and preparation for Christmas, I can finally take a breath and relax. Of course, all those tasks that I have been putting off until after Christmas are now looming over my head. I really don't even know where to start. [sigh] That's just life, though. There is always so much to do. I don't think it would matter how much time I had, I would still never run out of work. I do have to say that this was my most organized Christmas ever. I owe that to early planning. I did that this year with the help of this little Christmas planner. What a difference it makes starting in October! The planner has a week by week schedule to follow and really helps you to get a lot done. It also helps that we were more minimal with the Christmas gifts this year. Our kids got their traditional gifts of PJs, socks, and underwear and then we got a big family gift.

And about that...all I can say is that Wii are having fun!

My kids (especially the older ones) have been drooling over the Wii for quite some time. We were not going to buy such an extravagant gift, but when I started thinking about how much we would end up spending on individual gifts for 5 kids, I figured we would have that kind of outlay of money anyway.

If you want to see something hilarious, watch a 4 year old and a 6 year old in a Wii boxing match. They put so much into it. Abi was giving Patrick some kung fu air kicks even though we kept telling her to just use her arms. Patrick felt it nescessary to make the punching sound effects. I suppose that is just because he is a boy and LOVES to make those kinds of sounds. I wonder if he is ever in a situation where he really needs to fight if he will add the sounds, too. "Take that...ppshhhh....pshhhhh..." Hee hee! Both kids were running in place so fast that I thought they were going to wear down the floor. They have a boxing technique all their own!

Santa also brought the kids some used PS2 games for their stockings, so they are kind of in video game overload. I figured I would let them go crazy this week because we are on holiday, but then we are gonna have to enforce some serious limits.

Off the subject of Christmas...
Here's a funny little video parody about homeschool families. I got a kick out of it.

Speaking of homeschooling, I got creative this morning and put together a cute Reading Record sheet. My oldest already keeps her own reading list, but I am going to start having my 10 year old keep her own, too, and I thought she would do better using a form. Of course, I will still have to keep track of what the little ones do. Keeping good school records is a weak area for me. I thought perhaps I would be more excited about it if I had something cute to use.

Credits for the reading form can be found here.

I better get away from the computer and go have some fun with the family.
Have a great day!

Merry Christmas!

Yes, I know. Yesterday was Christmas. But if you think about it, we should truly be celebrating all year, right? Sometimes I think that all of our celebrating in December will just do me in with all of its busy-ness. So, here I sit on the day after Christmas. All of our "Fa la la-ing" is done. The gifts have been opened; the food has been eaten. There have been months of planning to get everything ready. Sometimes in the midst of all the hustle and bustle, it is easy to forget why we do it all. It is easy to get distracted and forget the miracle we are celebrating. God came to earth wrapped in flesh and it was all part of a plan to save each one of us. It's a mind-blowing miracle! It's more than I can truly comprehend. I am fortunate to be a part of a dance group at church and we have been worshipping to a song called "I Believe" performed by Natalie Grant. The words to this song tell about this wonderful story of Christmas:

"Natalie Grant - I Believe"

In a land far away
Time stood still
Long ago
There were shepherds in fields
Or at least this is how
The story goes
The story goes
Woman with child
And a man with no room
Born in a manger
For telling it too
This is how
The story goes
But it is more than a fable
And it’s more than a fairytale
And more than my mind can conceive

I believe
The Wiseman saw
The baby born the angels called the son of God
Heaven’s child
The great I am
Born to take away my sins through nailed pierced hands
Emmanuel has come
I believe

Two thousand years
Still the story lives on
God’s gift to us
Sent to earth
Wrapped in flesh
His only son
His only son
And the heartbeat of heaven
Confounded our wisdom
But it’s still the simple truth
That sets me free

I believe
The Wiseman saw
The baby born that the angels called the son of God
Heaven’s child
The great I am
Born to take away my sins through nailed pierced hands
Emmanuel has come
And I believe

Precious child
How can it be that God’s great plan
For His story
Would send you to
The lonely tree
That you would come
For one like me

I believe
In a cross
I believe he came for one, he came for all
Heavens child became a plan
Gave his life for me
In spite of all I am
I believe
I believe
Oh I believe
Christmas lives in me
I believe

Play the video to hear the song.


The words to this beautiful song have been ringing through my mind each day during our Christmas preparations and celebrations. I am thankful to constantly be reminded why we are celebrating.

May this amazing truth of what Christmas is stay with you not just during December, but all year long.

Merry Christmas!

Snow Day Sunday

We have had a snow storm blow through our area which dumped a fair amound of snow followed by freezing rain followed by more snow. We made the executive decision at 7:30am this morning that taking our pack of children out in the big ol' van to go to church wasn't wise and declared today a snow day. It turned out to be the right choice because we later discovered that our overhead garage door was frozen shut anyway making it impossible to leave in the van.

Barry and our oldest went out and about plowing and blowing snow at our rental properties while I held down the fort here with the rest of the kids. It was rough ;-) So rough that I felt the need to stay in my PJs until after lunch. I can't tell you the last time that happened.

One thing we did manage to accomplish today was to watch "It's a Wonderful Life" with the kids. I couldn't believe it. My older girls told me they had NEVER seen this movie. How did they ever make it to the ripe old ages of 13 and 10 years old without being subjected to this classic during the holidays. I mean it airs all the time! I was feeling like a really bad parent who has been neglecting the cultural edification of her children. Thankfully, we were able to watch it. Elizabeth wasn't sure if she could actually sit through a black and white movie - no color - horror of horrors. Her only comment was, "Did people really act like that back then?" I fear that the deeper meaning of the movie may have been lost. [sigh] As for me, I watch the movie and wonder, "Does my life count?" George Bailey made a huge impact on many people's lives. Hmm...who do I impact? Just thinking out loud here. It is a good reminder that I am here on this earth for a higher purpose and my life is not my own.


Because I tend to get stressed around the holidays and scrapping tends to relieve stress for me and because we had a snow day today, I got a couple of scrapbook pages done. You should recognize the photo from the top page from my last blog entry. My Abi loves to taste the snow.

This second page uses photos from our big extended family get-together that took place yesterday. My father-in-law is one of 11 siblings. Most of them were there along with their children and grandchildren. There were a whole lot of little cousins running around. I have lots more photos but I did this page called StoryTime with Uncle Don showing how he did his traditional reading of "The Night before Christmas" to the kids. This was followed by the traditional singing of the Christmas Carols. The kids aren't too thrilled about it, but it is required by tradition before the opening of the presents. (It's so much fun to torment the kids, isn't it!)

Credits for the pages can be found here and here.

Snow!

We got our first snow of the season here. It started to snow before we went to bed last night and the kids were SO excited! Patrick went to bed tellin me that "There's white stuff on the roof!" Patrick, Abi and Anna were awake first thing this morning ready to don their snow clothes and take a trek outside. As you can see here, Abi couldn't wait to get a good TASTE of it. They had so much fun and stayed outside unil they were freezing cold. Then I welcomed them inside to sip hot cocoa and warm up by the fire.