Deogratias

A Wonderful Surprise

Back in June when we were packing up to move, Celia,  my mother-in-law, found a camera in a kitchen drawer and asked me about it.  When I told her that I wanted to throw it away, she asked if she could have it.  We opened the back, and sure enough it had film in it, and she said she would take it to be developed. 

Yesterday she brought the pictures to Jacob's baseball game, and they were fabulous!  In 2002, when I was about 4 months pregnant with Andrew, all decided to walk up Stone Mountain.  

It's only 1.3 miles, but it felt like 10 miles.  It begins pretty easily but toward the end you are actually walking practically straight up on top of a big slab of granite!  It's unbelievable that we actually made it to the top - a pregnant woman and a 2, 4 and 7 year old.  Thanks to Lee for carrying the boys as much as he could and for providing me with moral support. 

The blurriness in the photos is  probably due to age and the fact that the camera was opened.  Celia had them printed in black-and-white, which is really neat and gives them an artistic appearance.  It also reminds me of my memories.

 

 

 

 

 

 

It's amazing how young everyone looks.  The boys are just adorable, and I'm so glad we captured their image in film.  And I'm so grateful for Celia for having the foresight to have the pictures developed.

Numbers Game Meme

Shelly  tagged me on her 6th, 6th on the 7th, and so I'm doing 7th, 7th on the 21st.  Here's how it works -  go to your pictures, go to the 7th file, go to the 7th picture and then post it. For bonus points [Ha! Ha!] see if you can remember even taking the picture.

Why did I change it to 7th, you may wonder.  It is because the 6th file contains photos of the cast a play my kids were in, and I didn't want to get permission from all of those parents to use the pics just for a fun meme. 

 

I guess I don't get the bonus points, because I'm sure that I did not take this picture.   In fact the shots just after this one had me in them.   I'm guessing either Nicholas or Jacob did it.  After viewing this post myself, I give myself EXTRA bonus points for being in line with the music.  Can't you just see that Alex is pictured dancing to Scott Joplin's The Entertainer?!!

A big sigh of relief that Shelly didn't tag me for her most recent meme about movie lines.  I am definitely not a movie buff, but even if I were, I can't remember the lines very well.  Maybe I'll take Megan's tag and get Alex to help me with that.    

 

Puzzle-buiding Mania

This morning I was awakened by a little whisper in my ear.  "Mom, can I build the 60 piece puzzle?"

Here he is at work.

 

 

   

The finished product. 

Here are some others he has done.

 

 

 

Another Genious

Amazing that so many Catholic homeschooling bloggers are geniouses!  Here's my score on the Commonly-Confused Words Test.   I only wonder  how I could score higher on Intermediate and Advanced than I did on Beginner.  Hmm.

    You scored 93% Beginner, 100% Intermediate, 100% Advanced,  and 87% Expert!

   You did so extremely well, even I can't find a word to describe your    excellence!    You have the uncommon intelligence necessary to understand things that most people don't. You have an extensive vocabulary, and you're not afraid to use it properly! Way to go!

Take the quiz here: 

http://www.helloquizzy.com/tests/the-commonly-confused-words-test

Mitika Battle

An Action-Adventure

by Alex

 

A gang of Bionicles called Makuta attacked the main base of the Toa, a earth-protecting organization.

 

The Toa unleash their top secret weapon that they call Wind Attack - a huge wind turbine capable of creating a small hurricane.

 

Makuta nearly gets blown away by Wind Attack, and later does.

 

One of the security cameras of the Toa base got this picture.

 

Another security camera got this picture.

 

Makuta returns to the base undetected and captures the Pope who visited the Toa.

 

A member of the Toa, Gali, discovered the Pope's disappearance and suspected Makuta and chased them.

 

When Gali found them, he took Makuta out and rescued the pope.  He was later rewarded with money.

Credits:

Action figures by Lego Bionicles (except for the Pope Innocent II Action Figure)

Photos and story by Alex

Scenery by Alex and Nicholas

Filmed on Location in Alex and Nicholas' room

It's Here!!!

 

And it sure sounds great!

Some Sights in the Yard Today

 Two boys in the window

 One boy in the air

 

Another boy in the air

  One boy in the air and one boy on the ground

 

One dog

 

One boy and one dog

   

One man and two dogs

One woman, one boy and three dogs - doggie hugs and doggie kisses!

A Surprising Vegetarian Hit

I was leafing through a copy of Vegetarian Times at a doctor's office the other day, and came to the realization that I really need to cook more vegetarian meals.  Lee and I both have high blood pressure and could stand to lose a few pounds, and we definitely want to prevent the kids from having these problems when they grow up.  Plus that, vegetarian meals are often much less expensive.  

This is a tough feat for our family of carnivores.  We all consider meat to be a must at dinner time.  Meatless Fridays have always been a huge struggle for us.  The kids all eat vegetables because it is required, but they often balk about it and try to get by eating less.  

Well, last night I went out on a limb.  The boys were all busy helping Lee work on our new gate operator and so dinner was going to be late.  I figured the best way to introduce a new dish is to feed it to them hungry.  Plus, I had made an apple pie for dessert which they could only have it they ate their dinner.

I got the recipe here under the category of "Busy Cooks".  It had a prep time of 5 minutes and a cook time of 10.  That sounded like a winner to me.  Here it is:

Polenta with Black Bean Salsa

Ingredients:

16 oz roll refrigerated polenta

3 Tbsp. butter 

1 (15 oz) can black beans rinsed and drained

1 cup chunky salsa

2 green bell pepper, chopped

2 Tbsp. chopped fresh cilantro

1/2 cup shredded Pepper Jack (we used Colby)

1/4 cup grated Parmesean (we used a mixture of Parmesean and Asagio)

Preparation:

Cut polenta into 1/2" slilces. 

In medium bowl, combine beans, salsa, green pepper, cilantro and cheeses and mix gently.  Set aside.

In skillet, melt butter over medium heat and add polenta rounds; cook, turning once until golden brown and crisp.

Place two polenta rounds on each plate and top with black bean mixture.  Serves 6.

I honestly couldn't believe it when everybody went on and on about how delicious it was.  They cleaned their plates and asked for more.   Everybody got to eat the yummy apple pie  made from apples we picked from our neighbor's trees.

Our Creepy Crawly Friend

 

She's been living outside the dummy half of our sliding glass door.  People are going in and out all the time, making noise and accidentally touching her web on occasion.  She doesn't seem to mind.

Saturday night there were 10 of us hanging out on the backporch. 7 were children who were going in and out, in and out.  Instead of fearing for her life and running away,  she entertained us by capturing and eating a moth. 

Low Cost Household Products

Our new house payment is higher than the old and prices are higher than they used to be, so I've found myself looking for ways to stretch dollars.  Here's some ways I have found.

1. Practically eliminate the use of paper towels.  We have tons of rags and they work better and are re-usable. 

2. Homemade laundry detergent.  I googled it and found a bunch of websites with recipes, some of which looked really complicated while others looked simple.  I chose the simple.  It contains 4 ingredients, all of which can be found on the laundry aisle of my grocery store.  1) 1 bar of Fels-Naptha soap grated or shredded (I used my food processor)  2) 1 cup Arm and Hammer Washing Powder 3) 1 cup Borax and 4) 1 cup Oxy Clean.  

I tried it without the Oxyclean at first, but it didn't get things as clean as I wanted.  Turns out the oxyclean is just what it needed to do the trick - especially with all the dirt around here and the baseball games.

One website I found said this cost about 6 cents per load as opposed to Tide at 25 cents.  I actually haven't calculated it out and I don't remember the website name. 

3) Homemade shampoo.  I would link to the site where I found this because it is very informative, however on principle I won't because it contains a Vote Obama link.  The recipe is 1 T baking soda and 1 cup warm water for shampoo and 1 T apple cider vinegar and 1 cup of water for a rinse. 

In order to save mixing so much I just put a handful of baking soda in my hand as I am getting into the shower.  I make it into a paste and rub it in my hair.  After rinsing it out, I pour the vinegar mixture on and keep it on while I wash.  Just before getting out I rinse it off.  One booklet I found recommended not rinsing the vinegar, but I have found that my hair does much better when I rinse.

I have been using these recipes for a while now and have found them to be quite effective.  Our clothes are clean and our hair looks good.  My hair has been much more manageable and it stays cleaner about a day longer.

I recently purchased the book Clean House, Clean Planet by Karen Logan and am looking forward to learning about other cheaper and more natural methods.