Wordless Wednesday- Red, White & Blue

Dixie at French Lique hosts Wordless Wednesday....visit her to see more or to join in. This week's theme is Red, White, and blue.

Child Training Tuesday

Today Elizabeth at Family Life With the Babler Family asked about chores and payment for the kids.

Here is what we do...

Both kids are expected to pick up after themselves...make their beds, clean their rooms, put their clothes away, etc. I do help Claire with some since she is only 6. They do not get paid for these things. We consider them part of being in a family and doing your part.

My son (11) clears the table after dinner. He also mows the lawn. He gets $5 each time he mows, but is not paid for other chores around the house. He is saving his money for a laptop so he mows without complaining because he wants the money!

My daughter (6) is suppose to set the table for dinner. Most days she does. She does not get paid for this. However, during the year, she does certain chores to earn her monthly dues for girl scouts. We made a sticker chart and when she got 10 stickers in a month she got $1, which was her dues for the month. The chores on the chart were simple things like picking up after the cat, dust mopping the floor, carrying in groceries, etc. Since we have started paying her brother to mow she wants to make money too, so I think this year I will give her $2 for getting 10 stickers. That way she can keep one and pay her dues with the other.

My kids have often asked for an allowance and we've always said no. Partially because we pretty much buy them whatever they need anyway. Partially because we think they should learn to be part of a family/community and do things because they should be done, not because they are getting paid to do them.

Since mowing the lawn is a bigger chore and a service that people actually pay for we are paying our son. Its not much, but the yard is small and he just mows...no edging or anything. If he starts doing it all we'll probably pay him more.

Great question, Elizabeth! I can't wait to see what others say.

Friend Makin' Monday

Today's Friend Makin' Monday is being hosted by Shawn over at Seriously!

If you'd like to join in, copy these questions and post them on your blog with your own answers.

Here are this week's Friend Makin' questions:

What are you doing this July 4th?

I'm not sure. I will be our first free weekend in over a month! Our house is for sale so we might use my husband's time off to go look at houses. I think I'll throw some ribs on the grill too!

What is your favorite dish to pass when attending a 4th of July party or summer barbecue?

Hmmm...I'm a dessert person so something festive and yummy! I like to decorate fun cupcakes or make a decorated melon bowl for a fruit salad. My kids always like making red white and blue jello parfaits!

Do you have any July 4th traditions?

No, we have a parade here in town, but usually just my husband and daughter go to it. My son and I are party poopers and don't want to go out in the heat!

I'd like to have an annual July 4th party/cookout. I'm really just waiting to see if we will me moving or not.




Share your favorite July 4th picture.

This is my son on his first 4th of July! My sister made him the little outfit.

Good website for homeschoolers

I discovered a really great resource today. I found a lesson plan for A child's garden of verses on it. I'm going to search it for more literature lesson plans as well. I started a book club for my son a while back and I am always looking for activites and lessons for various books.

http://www.learningthroughlistening.org/

You must register on their site, but registration is free. This is what their home page says...

Welcome to the Learning Through Listening website. This site is designed for K–12 educators and provides free lesson plans, activities, teaching strategies and other resources to help you teach critical listening skills and meet the needs of diverse learners in your classroom. The site is provided by Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic (RFB&D) and is an extension of our 50-plus years of nonprofit service, research and success in developing audio and listening support resources for individuals who cannot access the curriculum through standard print.

Postcard Friendship Friday #14

Welcome to another Postcard Friendship Friday hosted by Marie at http://www.cpaphilblog.com/ Stop by her site to join in or see other postcards.



.



This is another of my son's postcards. It was sent to him by his aunt and uncle. It is the Klamath Tour Thru Tree in Klamath, California. My brother-in-law and sister-in-law said they actually drove through this tree!



The tree is 700 yrs. old. The cut is man made. It is 88" wide and 9' 6" high.

No more "I'm Bored"!

Have your kids been chanting the summer chorus of "I'm bored"? Mine have. The other day I got an idea. My car was a mess so I told them the next one to say I'm bored has to clean it out. Wow, that worked great! It's been days since I've heard it.

Nathan slipped up today though so I got my car cleaned out!! :)

Of course little sister, Miss I want to do everything he does, wanted to "help". I told her no, to stay inside. It's over 100 degrees outside! Of course she went out anyway. She got in trouble and I sent her back in....or so I thought. My son came in, closed the garage door, and then the doorbell rings. Guess who stuck off to the other side of the house when she was told to go inside? Needless to say, she's in big trouble!

Anyway, the I'm Bored chore seems to work. Next chore...scrubbing the sticky hairspray residue off of my bathroom floor!

Wordless Wednesday: Texas Sky

Dixie at French Lique hosts Wordless Wednesday....visit her to see more or to join in. This week's theme is Blogger's choice so I chose the Texas Sky.

VBS

This week is a busy one...VBS. I am head of crafts. Lots of planning goes into crafts, but the actual week you can kind of sit back and just let the kids do the work! Today went by really fast and I have great helpers...both adult and teen.

Check out the sign I made for our station.

Cute, huh? I would like to take credit for drawing the little crawfish, but alas, I cannot tell a lie! I printed out a coloring page from the internet and kinda traced it on.

My daugher loves VBS! She was so excited today. She really likes the fact that she gets a shirt every year. This year its yellow. She was happy because she's never gotten a yellow one before! Girls! Always focused on the clothes!

My son is a volunteer. I'm very proud of him. This is his 2nd year to volunteer. Since he is homeschooled and is a year ahead he started volunteering when most others his age were still participating. He's always very helpful and responsible. Now, if I could just get him to be like that at home!

Tomorrow we get to do VBS and Claire's gymnastics. I'm going to try the amazing feat of being 2 places at once! Just kidding, I'm really just going to be a little late to VBS!

In honor of Father's Day...

In honor of Father's Day this Sunday I'm posting some "Daddy shots" of Chris and the kids. They are mostly in order. I was having trouble moving the pictures where I wanted them!

Sailing on the Disney Cruise...

A truly rich man is one whose children run into his arms when his hands are empty. ~Author Unknown

Chris & "Baby Nathan"

Spread the diaper in the position of the diamond with you at bat. Then fold second base down to home and set the baby on the pitcher's mound. Put first base and third together, bring up home plate and pin the three together. Of course, in case of rain, you gotta call the game and start all over again. -Jimmy Piersal, on how to diaper a baby, 1968

Nathan's first trip to the zoo.

(It was Halloween. That's why he's dressed like a dalmation!)

"Look, I can dress like Daddy!"

Small boys become big men through the influence of big men who care about small boys. -Unknown

Chris and "Baby Claire"

There's something like a line of gold thread running through a man's words when he talks to his daughter, and gradually over the years it gets to be long enough for you to pick up in your hands and weave into a cloth that feels like love itself. ~John Gregory Brown, Decorations in a Ruined Cemetery, 1994

Chris & Claire on the [fake] snowhill at Six Flags.

It is a wise father that knows his own child. -William Shakespeare

Riding Casey Jr.'s Circus Train at Disneyland





On the Disney Cruise Ship


"Noble fathers have noble children." -Euripides




At Disney World

Chris and the kids at the Alamo.

Any fool can be a Father, but it takes a real man to be a Daddy!! -Philip Whitmore

Kids are funny

Today we went to the store and there was a bag blowing in the parking lot. Nathan kicked it under a car and said "I bet it won't be there when we come out." {no one bet him} Then he added, "it just blew away! I win!" Claire said "No you don't, no one was competioning!"

We had a good laugh before I explained that the word is competing, not competioning!

Postcard Friendship Friday #13

Welcome to another Postcard Friendship Friday hosted by Marie at http://www.cpaphilblog.com/ Stop by her site to join in or see other postcards.

Here are the other 2 Disneyland postcards I got at the anique mall the other day. Like I said last Friday, I think they were all bought by the same guy for his wife in 1972. Unfortunately, neither of these was written on.

The first one is of the enchanted Tiki Room. The back of the card boasts of the "entirely new medium of three-dimensional entertainment called Audio-Animatronics." This is funny to think about now with today's technology!

Basically in the Tiki Room birds and totem poles and stuff "come to life" by talking and singing. They put on a cute little show. Its an original attraction from 1955, I believe. We enjoyed it when we went to Disneyland. There were no live actors in it like this postcard seems to show though....just the animatronic characters.

We just went to Disney World a few months ago and they have "updated" the tiki room. They say it is under new management. It is now being managed by Zazu (the bird from the lion king) and Iago (The bird from Aladdin). In our opinion, the original show was much better! We were not impressed by the "new management"!

The second card is a wonderful picture of Goofy posing in front of Sleeping Beauty's Castle. Ahhh, makes me want to go back to Disneyland right now!

Thousand Word Thursday

To see more pictures or participate in Thousand Words Thursday stop by Cheaper Than Therapy or Sweet Serendipity . Here's my picture that's worth a thousand words...

(From our trip to Alcatraz a few years ago.)

To Terry At Lady Liberty Patriot.

Terry,

I've been having the hardest time connecting to your blog. My computer keeps giving me error messages. Sometimes I can pull it up and read it, other times I can only see your header and margins. Either way, I can never leave you comments. I feel so rude because we join in on some of the same things and I never leave you a comment!

Anyway, please know that I am not trying to be rude. I do read your blog. I just can't comment on it!

This has been aggravating me for some time now. I didn't know how to email you so I'm posting this on my blog hoping you'll read it.

My husband is trying to figure out what is wrong with the computer, but it has him stumped. Hopefully, he'll figure it out soon!

Aimee

Wordless Wednesday- Fathers

Dixie at French Lique hosts Wordless Wednesday....visit her to see more or to join in. This week's theme is Fathers.

Look what I got!

My bloggy friend Sasha at Small Town Mamma had a photo caption contest on her blog awhile back and I won.

Look what fantastic prize I won...

Lemon Rosemary bath salts made by Sasha herself! I got them in the mail today. They smell WONDERFUL! I can't wait to use them. And just in time...I've been really stressed out lately!

Check out her blog for another great pampering giveaway she is doing...

http://smalltownmamma.blogspot.com/2009/06/pampering-by-candlelight.html

Thanks, Sasha!

Friend Makin' Monday

Kasey at All That is Good is hosting friend making Monday today.

Today's task is confessions.

So here goes...

I've eaten more jellybeans out of the candy dish than the kids have!

I slip off to my room and watch Days of our Lives when we are home...usually leaving the kids watching their own TV show or playing video games. I know, I know, but I've been watching it since I was in college!

I don't always listen to what my kids tell me. Sometimes I just nod and say ok!

I often forget to put sunscreen on my kids. I'm getting better about this, but I'm still not diligent.

I'm scared of spiders and I used to have nightmares about them!

I once lost my car in the parking lot at college and had to get the security guard to drive me around looking for it! I thought it was stolen, but I was in a hurry that morning and parked in a place I didn't normally park.

New Glasses!

Claire had to get glasses. She was so excited! She picked out the frames herself...after much careful consideration! She tried some on and said "too rectangly" or "too round". She was so cute. When they came in she begged me to go get them that day!

I'm so happy she likes them. My husband said when he got glasses as a kid he didn't want to wear them. I think Claire likes them because they are just another cute accessory!



Claire is that child of ours that always has something. When she was a baby she had to have part of her esophagus removed. It was almost grown shut in one place...just some weird thing she was born with. She also has a peanut allergy, has had colon polyps, has dry skin/eczema, seasonal allergies, and she will never be able to throw up (thanks to the surgery when she was a baby). You should see the stack of buisness cards I have for all of her doctors! She has a pediatrician, dentist, allergist, dermatologist, gastrointerologist, and now, an optometrist. With all of that, she is suprisingly easy going and has never been scared of doctors or anything. She went right into the eye exam by herself. She even had her eyes dialated. She never complained at all! Sometimes she just amazes me!

Postcard Friendship Friday #12

Welcome to another Postcard Friendship Friday hosted by Marie at http://www.cpaphilblog.com/ Stop by her site to join in or see other postcards.

Here are a couple of Disneyland postcards I picked up at a local antique mall last weekend. I bought 4 total and I believe they were all bought by the same gentleman at the same time. Only one was written on though. It's postmark is 1972.

The first one is Sleeping Beauty's castle and the horse drawn street car. They still have horse drawn vehicles there, I think, but not trolleys. (We were there 3 years ago so I'm going on my own observations.)

This next one is of the Carousel of Progress in Tomorrowland. We went to this in Disney World, but I don't think it is in Disneyland anymore. We liked it. You sit in a small section of chairs that move and travel around a stage where you watch a family as they grow and change over time. It was a very relaxing thing to do after being on your feet at the park all day! I thought the kids would be bored, but they liked it too.

The back of the card reads:

Hi Honey! Yes, I'm working hard. I will have chapter 2 finished when I get back. Just think, after June we'll be normal folk! Can't wait to get home. (Hope this gets there before I do)!

It's not signed so I'm not sure who its from. Obviously, he was writing to his wife Nancy, but it would be nice to know his name as well! I'd also like to know what kind of work would take you to Disneyland...whatever it is, sign me up!

The other 3 Disneyland postcards I bought I think he brought back for her since there was no writing on them. I'll post the other ones next week. They all appear to be from the same time.

Thousand Word Thursday

To see more pictures or participate in today's Thousand Words Thursday stop by Sweet Serendipity.
So here's my pictures that's worth a thousand words...

It was a dark and stormy night...

It was a dark and stormy night last night and today is more of the same! We got some big thunderstorms last night. We got an inch of rain in less than an hour.

This is how the sky looked right before it started raining...

I thought that they were over when we went to bed, but more woke me up around 3:30 am. And there were more to come!

Ok, Three things about me...

1. I don't drive in Dallas

2. I don't usually go out when it rains.

3. I don't drive in rush hour traffic.

Well, this morning I drove to Dallas in rush hour traffic in the rain! Claire had an appointment at Scottish Rite at 8:45 am. We had her tested for dyslexia. (Found out today she doesn't have it so that is a relief.) The weather was just awful though. And to top it all off we had to park on the roof of the parking garage! I got soaked running from the parking lot to the elevators. (I had dropped the kids off under the sheltered elevators.)

When we got home it looked like it hadn't rained at the house. The pavement was all dry. Right after we got home it started raining again. We got about an inch and a half in less than an hour! Here is our street about 11:30 this morning.

I think I might need to build an ark!

Wordless Wednesday- Flags

Dixie at French Lique hosts Wordless Wednesday....visit her to see more or to join in. This week's theme is flags/flag day.

Computer problems

Well, its Monday! For me, that means something is going to go wrong! Today it is my computer. It has been really slow lately, but this morning it keeps giving me error messages when I try to read blogs. I read half of the post, a message comes up and then it takes away the blog completely and says it is unable to open it....even though it was just open! Arggggh! Hopefully tech support (hubby) can fix it tonight.

And my mouse is messed up too. It won't scroll right. Very aggravating! I think I'm going to replace it with a wireless one. Anyone have a wireless mouse? If so, I'd love to hear your opinion on it.

Postcard Friendship Friday #11

Welcome to another Postcard Friendship Friday hosted by Marie at http://www.cpaphilblog.com/Stop by her site to join in or see other postcards.





This is a postcard my son picked up in the Bahamas. He loves money! (He's like me...he buys a postcard from every place we visit!)

I thought it was cute that they included the sand dollar on the card too! We brought back a Bahama dollar for each of the kids. I didn't think about it but we should have brought back the $3 bill! That would have been a little more unique.

Thousand Word Thursday

My bloggy friend Melissa at Sweet Serendipity always has great Thousand Word Thursday posts so today I thought I'd join in.

To see more pictures or participate in Thousand Words Thursday stop by Cheaper Than Therapy.

So here's my pictures that's worth a thousand words...

She's 6 now, but still loves chicken legs!

Wordless Wednesday- Water/Wind

Dixie at French Lique hosts Wordless Wednesday....visit her to see more or to join in. This week's theme is water and/or wind.