Today has been full of . . .

 kids . . .



banana wheat muffins . . .

I made a triple batch of these this morning, putting some in the freezer and leaving plenty out to enjoy for the next few days.

fingerpaint . . .

I love making homemade fingerpaint and mixing up the colors.

and making an offer on this house that we hope to call home soon.



It's been a great day.

Meandering Through Saturday

All day I've been enjoying these roses that Mona brought with her when she came to work Wednesday. They are on a little shelf in the kitchen where I can see them while I cook and bake and feed the kids and clean up after them. Somehow they make me happy just to have them there to look at.

I tried some new recipes to today and they all turned out very good. I made Pumpkin Bread, Chili, and Amish Bread. The last few weeks I have been using the bread machine more and it's so much fun to try new reicpes in it. And I love the smell of baking bread. Another thing that makes me happy.

The rest of the day was spent with the kids and at naptime I printed the pages for our new circle time book and the pictures for our new wall display for next week. Most of what I printed came from one of my favorite sites for kids activities - DLTK Kids. Our letter of the week is Kk, the shape is circle, the color is purple and the number is 8. I printed several songs for the letter Kk and some pictures of things that begin with Kk, as well as some songs about dinosaurs  to compliment our dinosaur wall display. The only thing that did not come from DLTK Kids was our sign language lesson for the week. That came from Lesson Tutor.

Doug took trash to the landfill, went grocery shopping (Amanda and Michael went with him), did some laundry (Thank you!) and mowed the yard at our rental house. Austin slept until after 2:00 this afternoon and then I had Amanda go wake him. He's had a cold and was really sleepy yesterday, so I thought he probably needed the rest, but I also wanted him to be able to sleep tonight. Amanda spent most of her free time either playing with Toby and Scout (our cats) or on her laptop watching YouTube videos of WebKinz.

And that in a nutshell was our day. I feel like I just kinda meandered through my Saturday and it was good.

Catching Up Again - Our Somewhat Crazy Week

This past week has been a little crazy. In some ways not so great, in other ways wonderful, but either way very busy.

Tuesday we began our homeschooling year. We had a great day Tuesday and the kids really enjoyed it even though they weren't to excited at first. Math is our biggest challenge and it is done first thing in the morning and gotten completely out of our way before we move on to anything else. The other morning subject is reading and they are both loving the books they are reading. In the afternoons we are doing Bible, Science/Social Studies (alternating days), and Literature. We are also spending about 30 minutes each afternoon watching a video from Snag Learning. We watched 3 Points and I felt it really made all of us think about how fortunate we are and what role each of us has in making life better in some way for others.

On Wednesday we had two new kids start coming to daycare. Unfortunately I got up that morning and discovered that I had been hit with some kind of stomach but. There absolutely no way I could handle taking care of the kids so I had to call Doug home from work. I felt so bad doing that but Mona (my helper) had left early on Monday because she was sick and had not been able to work at all on Tuesday. I had no idea if she was coming in Wednesday or not but even if she was she normally doesn't get here until 10AM. This was 6:30AM and I new I couldn't handle things that long. Thankfully, Doug was able to leave right away and as soon as he got home I went to bed and stayed there until about 3:00 that afternoon. Also, thankfully, Mona was able to come in for a few hours and make lunch, clean up, and get dinner in the oven, before she had to leave again. I was grateful that the mother of the two new kids took everything in stride and understood these things happen and they were back the next day to a much more normal schedule.

Thursday evening shortly after Mona left for the day she had to turn around and come back because the radiator in her car developed a big leak. So Friday her son brought a new one and Saturday Doug put it in for her - with supervision.

Another wonderful fix-it project that Doug had to deal with when he came home from work on Friday was a stopped up toilet. It turned out that "someone" (translate that to Michael) had flushed the end of a paper towel holder (that I accidentally broke the other day and should have thrown away) and it was causing major issues. Lovely!

The church we attend just finished building a new addition and this weekend in celebration of that there were a lot of ativities going on all weekend long. We've had to miss most of it because of daycare schedules but we were able to go Friday evening to a concert by No Greater Love. It was great to get out for an evening and the music and singing were beautiful. We took our kids and some their friends and they had a great time as well. Michael was even out in aisle dancing for the last half of the concert. Also wonderful was getting see for the first time all the renovations and additions that have been going and I have to say the architects and builders did a wonderful job.

Amanda has adopted a stray cat the she originally named Lola. When we realized that Lola is a boy she changed the name to Toby. It was very malnourished and starving for attention and Amanda has been spending a lot of time nursing it back to health. She even bought him special food yesterday when she went grocery shopping with Doug.

 We have five daycare children so far today and three more scheduled to come later this evening but it has still been a pretty quiet and peaceful day. Hopefully the week is that way as well.

Vacation is Over

We had a great vacation! Time to relax, time with family and friends, sleeping in (as much as Michael would let us), shopping, eating out, catching up on a few projects here around the house.

And now it's over.

But that's okay.

Today two of our kids were back. It was a slow easy start back into the routine. I got a text earlier this evening from another family saying their daughter was excited about coming back tomorrow. That's always good to hear and makes me happy to be back at work.

Doug is glad to be going back to work as well and anxious to see if the new machine they've been expecting at work has come in yet.

I guess we're lucky to have work we love and are excited about.

From Twitter 08-14-2010

• Good morning. I`m enjoying my 1st cup of coffee. Hubby made it and it's very strong!
• Wonder if he's thinking I'm going to need some extra caffeine today.
• Making a list and checking it twice - grocery list that is.
• I guess the water for the pasta would boil faster if I actually turned the burner ON. Oops!
• I found something that I can sit in a roomful of kids and eat witout them all begging for a bite. Spinach.
• One by one they walk by, take a look and walk away.
• Wow, it's quiet. Four little ones napping, Doug, Michael and Austin went grocery shopping. Just leaves Amanda & me. :-)
• I guess I better clean up the kitchen and start dinner while I can.
• Dishwasher emptied and reloaded, dinner in the oven, laundry switched and two loads folded and put away, fresh pot of coffee brewed.
• And the kiddos start waking up. I'm surpised they slept so long. Making up for yesterday non-nap I guess.
• Michael just seasoned the green beans with taco seasoning. Wasn't what I had in mind but it wasn't too bad.

Tweets copied by twittinesis.com

Daily Adventures at Rose's House Thursday July 22, 2010

Working on "The Lord's Prayer" booklets.

Puzzle fun.

These pictures are actually from yesterday. It was so hot that no one wanted to do anything active and everywhere I looked this is what I saw.

Daily Adventures at Rose's House Monday July 19, 2010

Today started at 3AM when Michael woke up and crawled into bed beside me. He was very restless, swinging his arms around and tossing and turning. Doug couldn't go back to sleep so he got up, got ready for work, went to the store for milk, and ran an emergency call with the Rescue Squad before he even started work.

I dozed off and on between Michael's flailing around and then, when I thought he had finally settled down enough that I could get up without him noticing I slipped out of bed. This was around 4:50. By 5:30 Michael was back up and wouldn't go back to sleep. And so began another Monday.

It had been awhile since we got our the rice and beans for the sensory table. I put them in the freezer early this morning so they would be very nice and cold as an added sensory experience. The kids loved it.

We did some Math.

The kids enjoyed taking a close look at a grasshopper. It's hard to see but it's sitting on Gabe's hand. Gabe said he was having a staring contest with it.

The kids enjoyed playing with balloons during music and movement time. We ended up just doing a whole lot of moving with no music since the cord to my CD player misteriously disappeared. But it was fun anyway.

The letter of the week is Ff.

Queit time with music and books. And yes we did have music. I didn't find the power cord to my CD player but I did use my computer to play the CD.

We played two games of Memory this afternoon .  .  .

.  .  .  and then got out the craft supplies.

And here are some pictures of the fun they had during their free times.

It's been a good day, and fun day, a LONG day. I'm really hoping Michael sleeps well tonight. Not too sure how it's going to go though - he has already fallen out of bed once tonight.

And now I'm off to bed to get some sleep.

Weekly Menu Sunday July 18 - Saturday July 25, 2010

SUNDAY JULY 18
Breakfast - Pancakes, Boiled Eggs, Bananas, Milk
Snack - Grapes, Milk
Lunch - Pork Chops, Scalloped Potatoes, Peas, Rolls, Milk
Snack - Animal Crackers, Juice
Dinner - Taquitos, Lettuce/Tomato Salad, Pineapple, Milk
Snack - Toast, Milk

MONDAY JULY 19
Breakfast - Cereal, Milk, Juice
Snack - PB&J Squares
Lunch - Fish Sticks, French Fries, Applesauce, Butter Bread, Milk
Snack - Bananas, Milk
Dinner - BBQ Chicken, Rolls, Spinach, Watermelon, Milk
Snack - Apple Slices, Cheese

TUESDAY JULY 20
Breakfast - Scrambled Eggs, Bacon, Toast, Applesauce, Milk
Snack - Grapes, Milk
Lunch - Ham & Cheese Sandwiches, Vegetable Beef Soup, Crackers, Pears, Milk
Snack - Graham Crackers, Milk
Dinner - Beef Stroganoff, Cauliflower, Fruit Cocktail, Milk
Snack - Blueberries, Yogurt

WEDNESDAY JULY 21
Breakfast - Bacon Cheese English Muffins, Bananas, Milk
Snack - Animal Crackers, Juice
Lunch - Chicken Nuggets, Mashed Potatoes, Green Beans, Bread
Snack - Raisin Bread, Milk
Dinner - Tuna Cheesy Pasta, Peas, Peaches, Milk
Snack - Fruit Cocktail, Cottage Cheese

THURSDAY JULY 22
Breakfast - Sausage Biscuits, Hash Browns, Milk
Snack - Graham Crackers, Milk
Lunch - Grilled Cheese Sandwiches, Tomato Soup, Crackers, Bananas, Milk
Snack - Cookies, Milk
Dinner - Chef Salad, Peaches, Milk
Snack - Cereal, Milk

FRIDAY JULY 23
Breakfast - Donuts, Boiled Eggs, Peaches, Milk
Snack - Animal Crackers, Juice
Lunch - Hot Dogs, Macaroni and Cheese, Peas, Pears, Milk
Snack  - Grapes, Milk
Dinner - Roast Beef Sandwiches, Mashed Potatoes and Gravy, Cooked Carrots, Milk
Snack - Yogurt, Strawberries

SATURDAY JULY 24
Breakfast - Scrambled Eggs w/Cheese Sauce, Bacon, Cinnamon Rolls, Blueberries, Milk
Snack - Pears, Milk
Lunch - Chef's Choice
Snack - Toast, Applesauce
Dinner - Pizza Rolls, Lettuce/Tomato Salad, Apples, Milk
Snack - Graham Crackers, Milk

The Binky Bandit!

Austin set up and took this photo of Kaleb. "Look Mom" he said. "It's the Binky Bandit.

Celebrating the 4th With a Birthday Party

We celebrated the 4th today by attending Doug's daughter's birthday party. Her birthday is actually the July 4th.

We had four daycare children this morning when it was time to go so we loaded everyone up in the van and headed out.

It was an outdoor party at Kristen's house and the kids loved the playground and the creak.

We had a great time and Kristen seemed very happy with her gifts.

Happy Birthday Kristen!