Have Some Fun!

It's April Fool’s Day.

Come on! Do something fun today. We are.

Over the years we’ve done everything from green eggs and ham, (delivered without a word or hint of smile, at breakfast) to vinegar soaked paper towels in the kid’s pillows (which they, in turn, would leave in Dirk’s truck).

One of my favorite memories is of my dad, the family breakfast maker, putting cotton in our pancakes. Man, those suckers were hard to cut! And chew! He was quite the jokester.

Today, we’re pulling an old trick out of the ol’ April Fool’s jokes hat. It’ll be Vaseline on the doorknob and saran wrap on the toilet seat. Probably not new for our camp-veteran teen boys, but it will be fun when they groggily stumble down the stairs in the morning to their normal first stop: the bathroom. Besides, Dirk said he’d clean it up. Just hope they only have to….well, you know.

Lettuce Grow a Salad

Right now is a great time to sow some lettuce seed, water it, and watch it grow. This is a great kid project with many teaching possibilities (spiritual, nutritional, learning responsibility, etc).

Lettuce can be grown in a vegetable plot, a flower bed or even a large flower pot. Just make sure your area receives around 6 hours of sunlight each day.

I planted mine in our vegetable garden. I used three types of lettuce: a romaine mix, a butterhead mix, and some mesclun. The first two are leaf-type lettuces and mesclun is a Spring Mix of several types of greens.

Prepare the soil by tilling with a spade or hand shovel. Then rake it smooth. Sprinkle your seed on the soil, not to heavily.

Use your rake to lightly cover the seed with soil. A good general rule is to plant your seed twice the depth of the seed, so for lettuce, that’s not very deep!

Next, I like to pat the soil with my hand, just to ensure that the seed won’t blow away and is covered with fine soil.

Now, using a sprayer on your hose, lightly spray the newly planted area with a mist of water until the soil is well-watered, being careful not to dislodge the seed.

Lettuce seed will sprout in about a week, depending on the weather. The most important thing is to keep the soil moist, watering as much as twice or more a day, until germination. Soon, you will see baby lettuce plants! (My seed packet even says, “guaranteed to grow”. And it is! I'll show you on Friday.

Let the lettuce grow to about 4 inches before harvesting for your salad. Pick leaves from the outside of the plant and allow the center to continue growing. You should be able to enjoy your lettuce until about the end of June, when our Oklahoma weather is too hot, and the lettuce will get bitter tasting and go to seed.

There’s something very spiritual about digging in the dirt, watching seeds grow into plants and harvesting! You’ll be hearing plenty more from me about gardening and life applications.

And let me know if you try it. Take pictures! Send them to me and I’ll post them here.

PS – another easy thing to grow for your salad is radishes. They grow so quickly, although many children don’t care for the flavor.

Friday Finds

A friend sent me this link: 31 Days of Prayer for Your Husband

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Staci McAuley wrote a poem a few years ago giving us a good perspective. You'll enjoy it! The Moon.

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Think the teens of today don't "get it"? Think again! Check out this awesome story from Anna's blog. Snap Shot

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Jon leaves Iraq April 8 and should be home in 24 days!!!

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Come learn the Foxtrot tonight at Beginning Ballroom Dancing. E-mail me for details

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Next week, we're going to "grow a salad"----I know you can hardly wait!! ; )

bee on a cherry bush by our garden

Family Night with the Guys

After dinner Tuesday night, Kody built a fire in the fire pit on the back porch and we did some marshmallow roastin’ and some “Office” DVD watchin’. (Have you seen any episodes? Very funny!). Yeah...we moved a TV to the back porch. ; )

It was a beautiful evening. Dirk’s dad walked down from his place and sat with us.

Now, Jacob prefers his dessert to be Marshmallow Flambe'..... ick!

Dirk roasts his to perfection (of course). Kody (after he got off the computer and after he washed off the hot, sticky marshmallow I dropped on his foot) roasted several, toasty brown.

Me? I’m not much of a regular marshmallow fan, but let me tell you! The coconut covered ones…..when they’re roasted? Well, it’s like hot Macaroon-on-a-Stick!

We heard the first frog croaks of spring, the coyotes howling in the distance and went to bed smelling like we’d been camping. But, hey…..it’s something my teen boys still enjoy doing together!

I’m there!!

Are You a Warrior? Really?

The message series at Lifechurch.tv right now is “Warrior”. If you didn’t get a chance to see it last weekend, it’s a “must-see”. Watch it here.

In the message, Craig Groschel says that the Church has emasculated our men, our warriors. I totally agree, but I think we women have had a lot to do with that. Even emasculating our own husbands.

Think about it:

We train them to put the seat DOWN after they use the toilet.

We purchase hair removal products, “encourage” them to pluck their eyebrows, and talk about the “disgusting rugs” on their backs.

We invite them into our frilly, pink, lacy bedrooms (or living rooms—hey! I’ve seen some!)

We relegate “their stuff” (hunting trophies, pictures of the guys, military things) into the garage, their bathroom, the closet.

We “encourage” them to speak nicely (translated: “act like me, a mommy”) to our children, even when they have misbehaved. “Honey, you’ll hurt their little feelings”.
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I don’t know about you, but if the tables were turned, and my guy expected me to be like him….well,…..it makes you think.

Maybe some of us shouldn’t wonder why when he:

Shuts down
Quits trying
Doesn’t want to be at home
Won’t go to church with us

Craig encouraged us girls to be Warrior Princesses, to stand by our Warriors . I’m thinkin’ there are a lot of us that just want to be The Princess.

Ouch....

A mother and her young son were standing in a long line at the grocery check out. She had only a few things to purchase in one hand and her other hand held the small hand of her son.

As his patience was wearing out from the lengthy wait, and his young energy could no longer be controlled, he began pulling away from his mom’s hand.

She had to hold tighter to keep him from running away.

“Ouch, Mommy, you’re hurting me!” he whined.

“It only hurts when you pull away”, his wise mother responded.

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I’ve recalled this story many times when I’m just not trusting God; when I think He needs my help; when I’m pulling and tugging to get my way.

I’m still learning just to let my hand rest in His….it doesn’t hurt so much that way.

Ps. 37:7 Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him.

You May Be a Home Educator if.....

A re-run, but one I want you, my readers to understand: what I believe about home education.

Add to my list. What makes a parent a “home educator”?

You may be a home educator if…..

*You teach your children to love God

*You teach your children to love and respect others

*You teach your children manners

*You teach your children how to do chores

*You teach your children to give

*You read to your child

*Building family relationships is very important to you

You are a home educator if you are intentional in your efforts to “teach a child in the way he should go”.

Somehow, we get caught up in thinking it's all about academics.

Are you a home educator?