Great BIG FUN!!

This picture was taken May 17th 2012. Yes that is snow. 

This is our Before picture :) 

We started our GREAT BIG FUN project on 

 Saturday May 19th. 

A little mind boggling with all the pieces.. took us about 30 minutes working together to get it organized so we could find stuff! 

By the 21st we realized a tree or 4 would need to come out! 

Papa grabbed up his chain saw and started cutting.

Before too long the trees were down 

and a bunch of junk wood, trees down etc 

on the hill was all chopped up

 and the kids were piling it on the large burn pile on the other side of the driveway! 

On the 24th J got his knee stuck in between two of the boards and I had to rescue him with a power drill.

Of course I was a great mom and took a picture first. :) 

By the way I guess I'm getting better with a power drill... Papa complemented  me on it!!

And I used the same drill bits the whole project through! 

And the next day the swings were finished and in use.. 

They spent HOURS outside on the swings those first few days..

OH WAIT... they still do!! 

R fell out of the door way and cut a tiny cut right on her eyelid! It healed fast but sure looked terrible!

By the 29th it looked done!! But wasn't quite.. the slide was not tightened and the star bursts above the windows were not finished! I think it looks lonely in the picture, normally there are kids crawling all over it :) 

On the 30th Papa got all those pesty bolts tightened on the slide and found some wood to support the bottom and R was the very first one down the slide!! YAY!!! It's FINISHED!!! I'd put up the star bursts that afternoon :) 

Neat picture of E and R!! I love the fluid look of E and R's face!! 

Then it was a never ending flow of kids coming down the slide!

 They went so fast I almost got dizzy.

Macho Man here decided to put the 6x6's around the 'playground' while the kids went around and around and around enjoying their new slide! When the road bans are lifted we are getting a couple loads of sand to fill in the playground area and the 6x6's will hold it all together. 

Fun for the whole family!!

Baby G~ Jolly Jumper Take Two :)

Yes, she is asleep! 

J3's New BED!!

Mrs K from Our Peculiar Lives had an extra crib mattress hanging around and she asked if we wanted it. 

We did :) J3 needs a new bed :) 

I decided to cover it with black plastic bags to protect it. Two bags did the job nicely. 

Duct tape sealed it off nicely and with style :) 

Then the kids put a couple of sheets on it.. one on both sides, 

and I used some sheet clips and a couple of baby diaper pins with a length of elastic

 to hold the sheets on. 

I'm not sure why but ALL of the kids have loved to take the sheet off their mattress at this age.

So now I just prepare for it. 

5 Little Monkeys laying on the bed! 

J3 is so far only napping on this mattress.. we drag it out to the living room every nap time and he sleeps happily to his hymns. He's learning the important lesson that he must stay ON the bed. Even if your awake, even if the house is quiet, until Mommy says you can get off.. you stay ON! 

So far he is doing very well. Though I do believe he sleep walks which will likely make things very interesting when he starts to sleep on the mattress at night and probably explains his terrible sleep habits. 

Yesterday I left the mattress in the kids room for naps and he fell asleep quickly and stayed ON the mattress!! YAY!! Soon we will move him on to the mattress for nights 

and 

as R says...

We'll hear the thump thump thump of J3 RUNNING to our bedroom several times a night 

until he realizes that you have to stay ON your bed at night too. 

But until he figures that out at least I'll get some sweet little boy cuddles :) 

Good thing Baby G has started sleeping at night again... 

I thought for a bit there I might actually be getting enough sleep! 

Baby G and the Jolly Jumper.

She loves it :)

~~~ More Worms~~~ An Experiment :)

Night crawlers!! This one was average size of the 3 J got! See how it's lifting it's head? 

J said it was trying to escape! This worm was about 8 inches long stretched out! 

J got these HUGE worms called night crawlers from Grandpa F Sunday night while we were visiting. We decided to do his last science experiment by the book with them :) We did a large unit study on worms and learned way more then we were suppose too for his science but the experiment is cool so we're going to do it too ;) 

First you put sand and dirt in layers in a jar, pop bottle with the top cut off or some other see through container. It says to add onion leaves or leaves or something like that to the top but we just added some worm food from the bin instead as I thought onion was on the no no list for worms.. and it is :) 

See how you can see the layers of sand and dirt? 

The experiment is to put your worms in the container and put them in a cool dark place for 3 days and then your should be able to see that they have been turning the earth in the jar. The sand and the dirt should be mixed up! 

Now J put 3 LARGE night crawlers and 2 larger worms he found outside in the jar and now 3 days later you can see that they have mixed the earth around a bit but not enough to really see it well.

A few things we would do differently is to add water.. worms don't like to be dry. I did add some water the 1st day and again today as the bottom half of the jar was still very dry. I think they will mix it better now that the earth is wet. I would also leave it a bit longer and I think next time we will mash up a banana for them instead of using the worm food we had from the bin. They haven't, and I just realized probably will not, touched the carrot unless they are in there for a LOT longer then 3 days. 

Now I'm just wondering what we're going to do with them after the experiment is done?

I'm not sure I want them in the house.. they are practically snakes at that size! 

***SHUDDER***

I seriously DISLIKE SNAKES!!! 

I think they may have to find a new home in the dirt pile at the end of the driveway.. 

J wants to keep them, cut their tails off to go fishing with and watch them regrow their tails! 

And keep them forever and ever...

um..

Maybe not 

but 

Maybe??

Science ~Friction and Gravity~

Reading 'Forces Make Things Move' before getting out the toys and experimenting! 

Mac and Lightning McQueen worked great!! 

Everyone got a few turns to try it out. J3 is letting Lightning hit the sandpaper..

then they moved to the kitchen and got some great results on the lino! 

The kids science project was to see what different surfaces, carpet, lino or hardwood, sandpaper and paper, did (slow it down, speed it up?) to the same car with the same force/gravity behind it. Then they had a sheet to fill out about which went the farthest and shortest and why. 

First Fruits 2012~ Rhubarb

J and L cut up the rhubarb they harvested from our plant. We made a rhubarb crisp with it and stuck in in the oven. When Papa went to work in the morning he turned it on and we had a nice hot breakfast to wake up to! We are going to try and do more breakfast prep like this as the house is cool in the morning but not cool enough for a fire and the oven on for an hour or so warms us right up.

Next time though I'm going to remember to put sugar in the rhubarb!! 

Here is what we did.. it was pretty good, but not the best we've made.

Chop rhubarb into fairly small pieces.. too big and they will not cook through. 

We had about 8 to 10 cups of rhubarb.

Pour about a cup of sugar? (this is the part I forgot!) over the rhubarb evenly.

Mix together 

 1/2 cup flour, 

1/2 cup of sugar,

About a cup of melted butter,

1tsp salt,

2 cups and a bit :) oatmeal,

1 tsp cinnamon 

until well mixed..
I used my new mixer with the whisks.

Dump this over the chopped rhubarb in the baking dish.. we used a roaster :) 

Make sure you cover all the rhubarb.

Bake at 350F for about an hour.

 ENJOY!! 

We love rhubarb crisp with cream or milk on top for breakfast, lunch or dinner :) Or dessert :) 

Or all 4 :) 

Cheese Making 101?~ What IS The Problem?

Papa and I made a batch of cheese Mothers Day weekend in his new SUPER POT. This is how much cheese 8 gallons of milk makes :) YUM!!! Too bad the cheese was hard and rubbery! We are still trying to make a decent cheese. I did another smaller batch today with a different culture and all the cream. Our cheese making friend Mrs. E's told us taking the cream off can cause your cheese to be rubbery, we are willing to try just about anything at this point. The only cheese we've made that was really eatable was my simple vinegar cheese! All of our hard cheese has been rubbery or holey or something. Papa was saying the other day that it is not like us to fail so badly at something so many times in a row. It is not a cleanliness issue as our cheese, rubbery as it may be, does not mold.  

Update :) The cheese I made yesterday is out of the mold this morning and the tiny taste I got tasted a LOT better.. so maybe buttermilk culture will be our saving grace of cheese making! I'll keep you posted :) 

Cutie Pies!

I don't want too...

FINE I WILL!! 

There I'm WEARING THE HAT!! 

Papa napping under the 'sombrero' as the kids dubbed E's hat, while Baby G plays with a truck and watches herself in the living room mirror! 

ZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzz!! Nap Time :)

J3 asleep on the couch. 

Several people have asked me how I get my kids to sleep everywhere and 

I thought I'd put a little blip on here. 

We practice, we learn to lay still and mostly we learn obedience from a early age. 

He was only about 14 months old when he decided he'd had enough with naps. 

I disagreed. He was a cranky little person and still would fall asleep at 4pm if he missed his 2pm nap. 

Did I mention kids that need naps who don't want to nap make ME cranky?

They do.

VERY!!

When J was this age we battled.

 Actually he was about 9 months old and refusing to sleep during church when it started. 

I won.

He slept.

He started to sleep with me in the room.

Then with me out of the room.

He still naps sometimes and still will sleep at nap time! 

It's simple.

You WIN the battles you choose. 

I choose to win, I planned my battles, my steps, my days

and then I won them. 

Step by step.

Step 1. Decide when nap time is for your training week. It helps the 1st week if nap time is always at the same time. After the 1st week they should be able to nap any time and everywhere.

Step 2. Clear your life for a week at nap time. (This is not hard for me normally but with Baby G it made things a bit harder which is why J3 still naps on the couch.. where I can see him.)

Step 3. Find a good book. 

Step 4. Talk to the child... tell them "It is nap time. Nap time is when you sleep, you are going to sleep. You will lay still and you will not move and you will go to sleep." My kids have to lay on their sides and face the wall.. something my mother did with us as kids.. walls are generally boring. 

Step 5. Mean what you said in step 4. Enforce it.

Step 6. Sit beside your child's bed, or in my case the couch, and read your book. If said child moves/talks /gets up or anything besides laying quiet and still, remind them of step 4 and discipline as often as needed. BE CONSISTENT!! 

Step 7. Spend the next 3 or 4 days doing this at every nap time. DO not leave the child's side until they are asleep unless the house catches fire..or in my case Baby G wakes up :) 

Hints and Tricks.

It really helps to have a fan or music going while you are 'in' training. I still keep music going in the living room while J3 sleeps. He almost always falls asleep to All Hail The Power of Jesus Name, the second song on the list. I keep the music on because the rest of us don't always remember to be quiet while he's sleeping and it muffles the sounds we make while he sleeps. 

Don't get such a good book that you forget what your doing : S

BE CONSISTENT!!! The more consistent you are the faster it will work. 

If the phone rings on day 3 and you answer it and chat for 39 minutes in the other room while forgetting your child was ALMOST asleep.. you'll likely have to start on day one the next day. Not always.. but quite likely. 

Kids have a knack for kicking a habit before it hits 3 days.

 Some kids need 4 days in a row.. some only need two.. shoot for 4 and save yourself the trouble of doing it again in a week. 

J3 will now sleep anywhere.. the first day you take the child out somewhere at nap time make sure where ever you take them is kid friendly enough to handle it if you have to use some discipline. I often just put him on the couch beside me for the first few times while we are out and about and often people don't even know he's there. I can nap my child without missing out on visiting or having to run home for naps. I can nap them, and have, at the beach, church, grandma's house, long car rides, the mall (in the cart!), on the lawn, pretty much anywhere!  This frees us up amazingly. We can spend a day at the beach with a happy napped kid, or spend a day shopping or whatever, wherever we want and the child who needs to nap gets one :)