A Secret About Popsicles

If you mix blueberry juice and pureed spinach,

and freeze it in a popsicle mold,

no one is the wiser!

Panic

Everything is More Fun in Threes

Summer Learning

This summer we decided to focus on learning reading, writing, and numbers.  But we also wanted to include some fun stuff, so I added in learning about what it means to be in a family, some American Sign Language, and the different months of the year.

I'm keeping things simple at first.  Sometimes it's hard to remember who belongs to whom and who is married to whom when you're 4.

But as long as we know we're all part of God's family, that's all that really matters anyway!

The kitchen cabinets have become a place to display what we're learning.

Each month, this cabinet's display will change.  For July, we saluted zucchini, flowers, the American flag, popsicles, "cob on the corn", watermelon and fireworks.

Everyone gets their own cabinet to display current works of art.

Each child's creation is so precious to me!

I can see their different personalities in each pen stroke.

And now for a little signing!

Desk Makeover

My friend Caryn gave me an old school desk and she totally inspired me to give it a makeover. 

 Here it looks just like the desks I sat at in elementary school, waiting for it's cubby to be filled with rainbow and heart shaped erasers and #2 pencils. That nostalgia (and a little bit of laziness) tempted me to leave it as is.

But reading Trey and Lucy and Lemonade Makin' Mama gave me the inspiration and courage to try a little spray paint therapy.  (Those girls spray paint everything!)

I didn't understand the attraction until I stood quivering in awesome wonder in the spray paint aisle at the hardware store.  You can spray paint anything!  Your refrigerator.  Your barbecue.  Plastic toys.

 

After a little sanding, I spray painted everything black.  After it dried, I spray painted the writing surface of the desk in an almond color. 

After it dried, I had a cathartic experience beating up the edges and sanding away spots here and there to reveal the first coat of black underneath, giving it a nice worn look. (Thank you again LMM!)  Then I finished it off with two coats of satin polycrylic.

A wood and metal schoolhouse chair is waiting in the wings for it's matching makeover, but for now, the desk is all ready to impart some learnin' to some little ones!

Andrea is hosting Thrifty Thursday on her lovely blog Rural Revival (one of my very favorites!). You can go there to check out other great thrifty finds and show off your own!

My Boys

Oh how I love them.

Prayer

Whisper a prayer into your hands.

Then blow on it just like a dandelion

and watch it float right up to heaven.

For when prayers go up,

we know grace rains down.

And while you may not always receive the blessing you were expecting,

just keep looking through the eyes of love,

and the joy of the Lord will always be found.

* I tweaked a Yiddish proverb from "prayers go up and blessings come down" to "For when prayers go up, we know grace rains down".

Love Notes to My Family (Or Possibly a Dictator)

Did you know dry erase boards could bring about world peace?  It's true.  If everyone had one on their refrigerator, there'd be no more war.  I guess I should tell Congress or something.  Write a letter to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave about my breakthrough.  Well, I bet everyone in Washington checks my blog frequently anyway.  Senators seem the type that would lurk and not comment.  So I'm sure they'll see this.

It's a simple fix, really.  Writing out thoughts, to-do lists, grocery needs (or perhaps national debt balancing ideas, troop deployment schedules, job creation tactics) knowing you can just carelessly wipe it all away moments or days later--it has a calming effect.  It organizes a frantic brain.  Every world leader should have one.  They should come standard with every UN seat.

You know, someone should really give one to Kim Jong-il. 

I've taken to writing love notes to my family on my dry erase board.

Don't you think some country's dictator could be placated for a day if he saw this when he woke up in the morning?

Or possibly this?

Recently my mom brought me another dry erase board from her church's thrift store.

I affixed some magnets to it and put it up next to the other one on the fridge.

And you know what happened?  Our household harmony doubled!

I'm telling you, these things are miraculous.

Because, did you know that the amount of harmony found in a home is directly proportionate to the amount of dry erase boards in the home?  Mm-hmm.  Little known fact.

But I still need one more.  Because, did you know that the amount of joeys found in one's home is directly proportionate to the amount of chaos in the home?  Yep.  Betcha didn't know that. 

This means I need my household harmony tripled.  Must make a note on my dry erase board to pick up another dry erase board.

Glad I could share so much knowledge with you (and come up with the solution for world peace) today.  You can thank me later.  Or now.  Whatever you feel is best.