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Scripture Memory Verse #4

Scripture Memory Verse #5

I headed to the computer. Started to write Hubby an email, because of course, the washing machine waits until he is out of town to break.

Knowing that he is going to ask me about what happened and the model number of our unit, I jotted down the pertinent information.  Then before I hit send, I thought “Let me check Google. Maybe I can figure out if this is a cheap fix or if we are going to need a new machine.” {Brief pause while Tanya dreams of a fancy, new washer and dryer set.}

Well, Google (through the sites it directed me to) wasn’t too clear about the cause of the problem.  It suggested that I remove the front panel in order to discern the issue.  So, after consulting Google’s instructions for “how to remove the front of your washing machine.”  I got to work.

Slip this thing here, poke that thing there, and voilà! I have removed the front of my washing machine!

Washer with broken yellow-thingy (aka suspension rod)

Then it was easy to see what was wrong.  A yellow thingy that was supposed to be holding the basket was broken.  However, knowing that Hubby isn’t going to know what “the yellow thingy” is, and telling him it was broken would just lead to more questions.  I, once again, consulted Google.  It directed me to a schematic drawing of said washing machine, and with clearly labeled parts, I figured out exactly what the problem was.  It was the suspension rod.

So again, I checked Google. Found the part and part number, and then sent hubby an email.  I explained what happened, what I did to find the cause of the problem, and what we needed to do to fix it.

I told him I found the part online and for $25, I could have it here by next week.  Being the genius he is, he suggested calling our neighbor, who owns an appliance shop, to see if they might have this part.  Sure enough, after talking to the helpful neighbor, she can have the part in the morning and it will only be $18.

Washer with repaired yellow-thingy!

After picking up the part today, I brought it home. Consulted Google again to figure out how to take the top of the machine off so I could get the new part into place, installed it and TA-DA! My washing machine is working again!

- – - – - – - -

I started thinking about how differently I would have handled this problem 20 years ago. You know, in the age before Google.  It would have involved much more time.  Time to make phone calls, time to schedule a service call, time to wait for an available appointment, time to wait for the repairman to show up.  It, likely, would have resulted in charges of at least $50 to get someone here. Who knows how much more to actually fix it, when you consider labor and parts. And really, the fixing part would be dependent on whether they had the part stocked in their truck.

So, thanks to Google (and the modern age of computers) I was able to fix the washing machine.  While I am pretty-dang proud of myself for saving at least $80, and probably, at least four days of wait time by going the d-i-y route.  I am really proud of the fact that I did it!  And I’m pretty sure Hubby will appreciate not having to go on “honey-do duty” as soon as he gets home from his business trip.

For our meeting time this month, I had the boys emulate the main characters actions. During one part of the book, the characters have to leave a note for someone. They have paper, but have no ink or pencil to write. So, the characters use a knife to poke holes in the paper to leave their message.

I had the boys use a sharp pencil while getting down on the carpeted floor to make their “poke” message. They absolutely LOVED this activity!  I think it was because poking holes in paper is usually a forbidden activity, and here I was telling them to do it!

I also had them make a small shield. I pre-cut the shield shape out of cardboard. The boys covered it in foil and then used foam shapes to decorate their shield.  Some of the boys got really creative for this activity. Lots of colors and shapes to create interesting patterns or designs!

For our final activity, we assembled catapults!  Oh such fun!  Constructed out of 10 tongue-depressor sized wood sticks, 5 rubber bands, and 1 cap of a water bottle. (Found on Pinterest here.)  The previously quiet-ish room became quite raucous with small missiles (small puff balls) flying across the room hitting the shields that they had just finished making.

Tigger’s Treasures: “Poke” message, catapult, and shield

These activities seemed to go fit just right with this book, and we had a great time!

Now, to gear up for next month’s “Showdown with the Shepherd.”

The key, of course, was starting my day with prayer.  How often do I over look this?!? How shameful. God’s Word plainly tells me in Matthew 7:7, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.”  Yet, so many days, I get up and try to do it on my own.

The next thing was something new I started with the boys today.  It was in response to my lament on Facebook last week.  I was sad that my children had no reaction, no connection, no response to the “William Tell Overture” (aka The Lone Ranger theme song.)  Even though I never saw the show, I knew the song “belonged” to the Lone Ranger.

Their lack of response caused me to look into Composer Studies.  My research shows that there are many ways to do a Composer Study. But in the attempt to not spend money on yet another curriculum, I opted for an easy DIY version.

I chose George Frederic Handel because his music was very popular during the time period we are studying in History.  I pulled up a short biography online, read it to the boys, and then played a few of Handel’s pieces via Spotify. As the music played, I relayed to the boys that this was the music that our Founding Fathers would have heard.  While they know that our nation was founded with Christian principles because of our visit to the George Washington museum exhibit. They had a deeper understanding and comprehension of that after hearing the “Hallelujah Chorus” from Messiah.

Showing Tigger (aka Little Preacher Man) the culture of the time period, helped him to understand that it truly encouraged our forefathers in the founding of our nation. He totally got it.  It was like I could see the little puzzle pieces in his brain coming together.

Woody saw how these men actively filled their minds with the knowledge of God and the Bible. Then, for fun they would listen to music with lyrics that proclaimed, “The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.”  He began to see that it was the constant exposure to God’s word that helped Jefferson to write our Declaration of Independence.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

Then, our afternoon studies included watching the funeral of American hero, CPO Chris Kyle.  The boys knew who he was because he  spoke at our church last year.  They knew that their father and I had nothing but absolute honor and respect for him, his family, their service to our nation.

Today with a tear-stained face, they heard me proclaim that the words Jefferson so poignantly penned in 1776, the words that stirred men to stand for their independence from England- were timeless. For it was those same words and ideals – our rights, our freedom, our independence – that is what this man so valiantly fought for - and they understood.

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Yeah.

Today was not one of those days.

.

.

.

Today, I’m feeling like a failure.

The boy, who knows better, tells me a lie.

Straight faced, without blinking.
Didn’t even think about it.

TWICE.

We’ve tried talking about it.
We’ve tried spanking.
We’ve tried copying scripture.
We’ve tried yelling.
We’ve tried removing privileges.
We’ve tried adding chores.
We’ve tried PT. (push ups)
We’ve tried praying.

What else is there to try?

I will not tolerate lying.

What do I do?

To help my efforts, I decided to change my pc wallpaper to reflect the current verse, and then I figured out that I could use them as my facebook cover photo, too.  I’ve had a couple of people ask if they could use the images, so I am here to declare that the images in this post are available for your use. You are welcome to use them freely with my blessing.

2013 Scripture Memory Verse #3

2013 Scripture Memory Verse #2

2013 Scripture Memory Verse #1

What’s a girl to do? Search her Pinterest board of course!  I’ve recently seen several recipes to create a pizza crust that is made out of cauliflower, and because  I love cauliflower, I have pinned them all.

After purchasing a potato ricer yesterday, I decided that I needed to make the cauliflower pizza crust.  {Possibly the best decision I have made all week.} Oh. My. Word.  It was so stinkin’ good.

This is the recipe I used – Cauliflower Crust Pizza.  I steamed a head of cauliflower and then riced it.  After looking at a couple of recipes, I determined that it would be better to make smaller pizzas rather than one large pizza.  So, I ended up making 8 personal pizzas.  And, get this – I had no leftovers.

The man who doesn’t eat vegetables (aka Hubby) had 4 pizzas! 4!  He even declared it to be one of the best things I have ever made!  Seriously! I am completely astonished that he liked it that much.

The boys enjoyed it, too. Woody had a pizza and then begged for a second – he really loved them.  Tigger liked his, but he wasn’t as favorable to it as his brother. I think the fork turned him off.  While this was great, it doesn’t hold together well enough to pick up a slice.

I followed the recipe for the crust and then topped the pizzas with turkey pepperoni, a light sprinkling of mozzarella, and a pinch of Penzey’s Tuscan Sunset herb blend.  If you think I burned it by looking at the picture, I didn’t. The edges did get dark, but that part was crispy and mmmmm, sooooo gooooood.

Try it! You’ll like it!

Tigger’s Chinese Lantern and Hand Print Dragon to celebrate Chinese New Year

This month the boys in the young boys book club read The Imagination Station: Peril in the Palace.  It takes the main characters to China in 1271, the time of Kublai Khan.  Seeing how I didn’t want to encourage the boys with any Mongol warrior stuff.  I decided to make our hour about Chinese New Year.

We briefly talked about the book, but most of our hour was spent on crafts.  This meeting had lots of scissor work. They cut slits in construction paper to make Chinese lanterns.  Then they decorated them with Chinese characters.  Then they created a dragon, so they could celebrate Chinese New Year as tradition calls, with a dragon.  This particular dragon was made with their hand prints.  I thought they turned out really cute.

And that is what the Young Boys (6-8) Book Club did this month.

So, what did I learn?

1. I can have juice for only 13 days and survive!  And really, thrive for the most part.

2. A juice only diet caused me to lose 20 pounds.

3. I suffered the same fate that many Biggest Loser Week 2 participants have after a huge loss on Week 1. The scale hardly moves for Week 2.  Although I was beyond impressed with the weight loss I had in Week 1, so I was not discouraged at all.  Instead, I was rather impressed with myself.

4.  My sleep improved! I guess when your body receives all of the nutrients it needs, it can rest easy.

5. Most of the juice I made tasted awful, but because it made me feel good – I kept going.

6. Yes, a juice diet has plenty of protein as long as you are juicing dark green veggies. For me, every meal included a dark green veggie because those have lots of protein! Spinach is 49% protein, broccoli and kale are 45% protein.  Beef has 25.8% and chicken has 23% according to a chart I came across last week.

7. Being a watcher, rather than a consumer of food, food establishments, and the greater public for the past 13 days caused me to realize that our society is not set up for health.  The vast majority of us have no interest in healthy food, we want food that tastes good, dang the consequences. There are soooo many bad options when choosing to dine out, but very few good options.  I wonder if good choices were available, would we choose them the majority of the time? Probably not, would be my guess.

8. My kids still want to try to “juice” meat – just to see what happens. ( I’ve told them it ain’t happening, but they’re still trying to talk me into it.)

9. Even though my juice fast has ended, I’m not finished juicing. I plan to juice at least one meal a day.  This morning, I had ginger, carrots, & a small apple.

10. I watched plenty of videos about juicing last week.  One I came across on YouTube was hysterically accurate. The gentleman in the video stated “Kale tastes like [nastiness].” Let’s just say, HE IS RIGHT!  I like it in salad, but juiced it is blech.

11. For the record, the same could be said about collard greens.

12. This fast has convinced me to give up white foods for the time being. For now, foods like flour, sugar, and processed stuff like chips will be banned.  With the caveat that sit down restaurants are free from restrictions since we don’t eat out that often.

13. It has also re-inspired my love of vegetables, and while I will not be going vegetarian, I am going to increase my fruits & veggies.

Overall, I thought it was a great experience and I am pleased with the results!

I promised the boys that we could have something different for breakfast a couple of weeks ago.  After perusing Pinterest for days on end, er, a couple of minutes, I found this idea.  It’s apple slices dipped in pancake batter, then cooked on the griddle. Wow!  Talk about a new family favorite.  All of us loved them.

Because I was out of baking mix, I Googled recipes to see how I could make my own.  After whipping up a batch of this mix, I used two cups of it, 1 cup of milk and 2 eggs to make the pancake batter for the apples.

My tip for the apples is to slice them as thin as you can.  The thin ones cooked best. The thicker slices were still quite good, they just required a little more force to cut into bite sizes.

We had leftovers! (A rarity around these parts!)  This one batch of pancake batter was a little more than what was needed for two sliced apples.

They were so good that we didn’t even need butter or syrup. We just ate them plain! The sweetness of the apple was the perfect complement to the warm pancake. Soooo yummy!

Try ‘em!