Animal coloring

free coloring

religious coloring

fruit coloring

lite brite online!

quia english flash

Well after deciding to not bore DS with the spelling papers he had been doing, I learned he really didn't know much about making sentances (capitalization) or nouns, so I decided to make some work for him, a bit of research online, and I had lots of ideas. a bit of time and I

had some basic sheets, I am very happy with his prgress so far, much happier thandrilling him on spelling I am iffy about!

I also decided not to spend any more money on programs for DD that I ditched half of and fudged the rest, so I made the worksheets up for my DD.

There is enough to keep us for a month, but I set a goal of not turning the internet on untill I have at least 10 sheets done for something each day. I aught to manage to get it done in only 2 ish weeks each program.

The sheets are pdfs and you are welcome to them if you want.page with all worksheets stored

We have officially invited people for GMCs birthday!

I cut out a dino scene, then used it to make a pattern for him to vut. JC made some snis too.

Then we glued it down, scanned it in to the computer, and added some important information.

After it was all done and ready DH complains about the lack of dinosaur, so eggs, and trees are easy, the dinosaur wasn't.

In comes a large T-Rex toy for his photo shoot. A few minutes later we fudge up a cropped dino and speech bubble. voila. fancy dino on the invite.


JCs version


the invite minus the photo details.


The dinosaur

Hopefully email invitations are good enough, I can't imagine cutting that many scenes, or printing the color copy!

I was killing time (trapped as a bed for my cranky snotty baby) and came accross this blog

tired but happy

And I thought it would be interesting to read a similar list of things about the posters here. But I couldn't imagine anyone caring about my list!

But then if I won't do it who would? so heres mine...but 50 is too much how about err whatever I get to before he wakes up?

1. I love to eat cake, quick bread right out of the pan. (doing so right now!)

2. I have been to 3 other countries (France, Italy, Britain)-I hope to take/send all of my kids.

3. I tried vegetarianism as a teen. (I missed steak too much!)

4. I can't compost so I toss the scraps 'over the hill' ( to be eaten by rodents/cats/raccoon)

5. I have no tact. Never learned the art. Makes me feel very nercous in meeting new people who havn't learned to ignore/deal with my inadequacies.

6. Politically I am a libertarian.

7. I am married to a computer geek (and I mean that in the nicest possible way!) but truthfully it took me weeks to warm up to win95, and then all of the sudden I had to learn XP!

8. I scored slighly less than 1200 on my SAT, which is slighly less than my brother, and that part bothered me the most!

9. I hate preschool games (candy land, ect)

10. I love to play with children (ever teach a kid poker err I mean that game?)

11. I haven't really drunk in 4 years! that is a long time for a former lush!

12. I love/need to be alone alot, pretty hard to achieve with 3 kids!

13. I am not an 'AP parent' but...

14. I co sleep most of the night with my baby, and did with each of my other two. (kick em out when they understand 'I'll be back')

15. I also wear a sling but only while walking (and only till my kid can walk on their own)

16. I am an anti-pacifier, breastfeeding, make my own baby food Mamma. (just don't call me AP!)

17. I am not an 'unschooler' but..

18. I have no science/social studies curriculum (library, real world, ect)

19. I can't see any point in insisting all X age kids know the same info...

20. I teach what my kids want to learn when they are ready (check frequently to see) -just don't call me an unschooler!

21. I am a closet ECer, and yes my 4 month old just peed in the potty. (shh don't tell the neighbors!)

I am having nightmares that making my sons math is not good enough, I have been doing lots of research both online and at the library, and of other programs. In everything he is exceeding expectations do date, but I am still having nightmares!

I think I will start pestering teachers I know to see what sort of thing they think I might be missing.

I formulated a plan of what he at least aught to know by the end of the year, it is mostly things he tends to know already! except for rounding, borrowing he already has the concepts down. He just needs to work on speed, and a bit of vocabulary (addend, product, etc)

Math requiurements

Some days when you have three snotty kids,a cough of your own, and a house in need of major cleanup, you just want some mindless entertainment.

In comes PBS, and the internet!

Terrible waste of electricity I am sure...

On a positive note, we are 'making' clay fossils for DSs birthdya party, and possible doing some early to 'bury' for them to dig up. I have seen some kits, but we are prolly just going for playdough imprints that we then 'shellac' or something.

Now all I have to do is make invitations (fast) and send them out, oh plus decide on food...

Most Sundays I make a muffin or pack some fruit, or bake some cookies for the kids to share, if I have time I pack extra for my husband and I to share, only half the time there is no class for us to share it with, but that is beside the point.

This week, again, I ran out of time, err procrastinated to the last minute, and I had nothing to take to the adult class. Which left me VERY hungry, and I am sure DH was in the same boat. (we eat alot, going from breakfast at 7:30 to home for lunch at 11 is way to long for us!)

I can easily double a batch of muffins, but I have only enough pans for 3 Dz mini muffins and half a dozen big ones, which 6 is not enough to share, and cutting a loaf is not a very good idea, too many crumbs.

So either I need to not procrastinate and bake twice, or I need more pans. Or I need an alternate snack (still frugal)

Wy am I stuck inside? cause my kids have the snots, sniffles, whatever, nothing to drastic, but enough to keep them in on a sunny but chily day. I hate that! and I have no desire to save money, make homemade treats, dinner, or whatnot when I am cooped up with kids!

Nto to mention when I have too snug jeans I can usually say "I am working on it" well I dont appear to be working on it, I seem to be sitting at a computer (with baby in hand)

No offense to Nate but I really have a problem when I have 20 minutes on a computer spending 5 hunting up the blogs I check on the most! So I am finding a solution! (really has been a bit of a motto since having kids, find solutions not problems)

Money Talk$

Nanamom

Miclason

Flashs blog

Circis

No offense to anyone who isn't on here, there are some other wonderful blogs, I tend to hit the most interesting headlines, and well these guys come up most often!

Well I have been doing so well at walking I am goiing to actually do the strength stuff this week... I think. After all that was part of the plan in the begining but I failed, so I reevaluated my goals (meaning I lowered my expectations!)

Anyway after 5 weeks I have burned a total of : 03259 calories in only 839 minutes.

But more importantly.....
I lost an inch on each thigh!

So why is this on a finance blog? It is all free! I signed up for the Self.com challenge, no cost, free tracker.

I walk, no cost, free.

I have a gift subscription to Self magazine with free strength workouts.

So why no weight total? I have no scale, never owned one, I lived with one at my mothers oh so long ago, but I do not own one.

So why no new waistline loss? Err not sure, prolly cause I have not been targeting my abs, and I have not changed my eating habits, something I really need to work on.

"I like Firetrucks" GMC thinks I need to put that in here today.

"everybody likes buffalos, trucks and cars. Well not everybody likes buffaloes."

He is cute! And he finished all of his level one math today so I get to venture into the world of making things up for level 2, which I am actually looking forward to, and so is he, he wants to learn how to write the date with numbers, and how to cube, or square numbers. I figure in the process I aught to teach him how to multiply and divide!

Doing it myself is not only frugal but fun. Course it is also scary, so I am getting 'what your kid needs to know' out of the library to make sure I cover what other people think is important too.

My husband and family really like playing with magnets, the not so new building kind. So I decided to expand our collection for Christmas. We had one set like this(only green):


But 50 is not enough, so I searched around for more, I found a huge set at a great price:


But I can't build a dodecahedron out of it!


(my sons request. I can't even build a proper cube, it collapses! The plastic rods are not strong enough.

So cheaper was a waste of cash...

Aren't I supposed to be saving for a rainy day? well this is a rainy day, and it is misearable! The kids arn't really listening, my newest is cranky, I am tired, and DH spent the night having nighmares!

So what is the money for? Is saving for a rainy day an old reference to when a job depended on the weather? Silly that a phrase I have used so often I don't really understand.

I did some searching online, and while I found lots of advice on how you should save for a rainy day I found no information on why.... (about the rain, not why on saving in general, that advice abounds online).

Might be a product of the modern world but honestly I am less likely to spend money in the rain. (cept on heatng up hot chocolate!) I don't want to go anywhere and I have to force myself to do anything (like dishes)

Well I forgot to put our grocery cost up last Thursday, $60

So how did I manage that (finally)? No menu! Which means no 'must get for the meal' items on the list! Which means, no clue what is for dinner!

So err, does making a menu really save money?

No, not for us! but it is healthier, spicy noodles and macncheese might be cheaper and faster than any planned meal, but they are not healthy.

Dh has made it past 400, and ready to branch out for more money making schemes. I just want to know when we get to use the profits for the house payments!

wixx's wasteland

So looking at food that must be used (cooked ground turkey) and availible ingredients (not much)

I decided to make cheeseburger casserole, then I thought I should sneak in some of the yellow squash puree that UE wont eat. I was trying to guesstimate how much I could sneak in before the flavor bothered my family when I hit on a perfect idea - 'tacafy it!' If I turn it into taco flavored meat the ground red peper will cover up most anything!

boil elbow macaroni (or whatever) drain
Mix
grnd turkey (some)
tomatoes (two cans)
secret squash (shh)
taco seasoning (two packs)
extra pepper and onion (we like spicy)
add macaroni back in then
cheese


It was a success with not enough food left for lunch today! I love when an experament works.

So I dragged the family off to Target yesterday, because I wanted mini muffin paper cups. To be fair it has been awhile and I do make muffins a lot. Plus we save on me making the muffins not buying them. But while we were in to get two packs of 2$ papers, we had to check out hair stuff for my DD and seeds for easter, and we almost got way more. I suppose I should be greatful that all we spent was $14, but I would be happier with $4. (the cost of the papers)

So far in the month of March, according to Self.com, I have done alot of working out!

Week 3:
Total cardio minutes: 215
Total strength minutes: 40

Week 2:
Total cardio minutes: 150
Total strength minutes: 20

Week 1:
Total cardio minutes: 90
Total strength minutes: 25

And more important to me I lost 1.5 inches from my waistline!

Not My waistline (I am a girl) but more fun to look at for me!

a machine like ours.

After a couple months of making yogurt we have learned a few things.

1. We need more milk! over 4 cups a batch, and a batch lasts roughly 2.5 days.

2. A tablespoon of powdered milk in each batch helps it be smoother (mix in before heating)

3. Cook past the 185 point, reducing the milk leaves a creamier sweeter taste.

4. Never mix powdered milk after cooking! Not a good taste (to us)

5. Remove the 'skin' from atop your milk before you mix in your starter.

6. Mom is still a wuss and wont eat it!

I am gonna be in trouble!

JC comes out of her room yesterday all happy "it matches” It was a shirt and pants, of two complimentary shades of pink. (That is a word I thought I would never use for clothes!)

Now to understand the trouble you have to know I am one of those people that only wears the basic colors and only in solids, I don't trust my fashion sense! I say I only wear what I have liked for years cause I like it, but also because I am done trying to figure out what looks good on me! I have half a dozen basic outfits that work and no luck experimenting!

This is incredibly frugal, I have no real clothing envy, only fashion sense envy! Which is not fixable with cash, so no real worry about me blowing the budget on clothes! But now I have a daughter who loves clothes, and actually seems to know what matches, I could be in big trouble as she grows and learns clothes can be bought, they don't just come from Grandmas!

I knew what I was making and I had a plan, stick the beans in during lunch, well miscelaneous children interfered, for one reason or another. But thats ok there is still naptime, well... I forgot! totally and completly forgot! I got first one kid than the next to sleep, then I did some schoolwork with my son, and then my daughter woke up, so she got to do some some schoolwork, then they both got turns on the computer, and, and and...it is now too late to get dried beans cooked for dinner - Urgh!

So what shall we have instead?

How much milk can 2 growing kids and two adults drink! (one adult who is nursing a 4 month old) We buy 4 gallons every week, and this week we have half a gallon left! Half a gallon! it is Tuesday! We wont be buying milk till Thursday! (well if My husband gets his way he will stop on the way home today)

I cannot believe how mcuh milk my family drinks! We honestly limit it, one glass of water for every glass of milk (more for me) and it still is almost all gone in only 5 days! That is almost a gallon a day!

I need a bigger fridge! I can't imagine how much milk we will go thru when UE starts to drink it!

That is what GMC told JC today while playing with coins!

They are so cute!

Later he tells her "some of that money is for taxes, some is for church"

Then while cleaning up I discovered he was 'socking some away for later' - literally in a sock!

I love hearing what my kids say all the time!

Since I am sitting here witha cranky baby, and not able to go outside (though GMC is feeling better) I decided to work on all my old posts and get them into categories, I did it! They are all categorized! Ok so nothing major, but hey, I am proud of it.

And I learned something, in just 2 years I have coime a long way! A very long way!

I paid off over 8,000 in CC debt (medical bills/stupidity)

I have a budget 'in the black'

I have two potty trained kids, and one new baby.

And I am getting a new mattress over easter (we are paying FIL is transporting)

Plus I realized I should take another look at my 'vices' I think it will help me solidify what I need to work on again. But now I have an asleep baby and I am starving! (lunch time, a splurge of burgers I think .)

I got this in my email, and thought I would share.

It's nice, The government recently calculated the cost of raising a child from birth to 18 and came up with $160,140 for a middle income family. Talk about sticker shock! That doesn't even touch college tuition.

*******************************

But $160,140 isn't so bad if you break it down. It translates into:
* $8,896.66 a year,
* $741.38 a month, or
* $171.08 a week.
* That's a mere $24.24 a day!
* Just over a dollar an hour.
**********************************


Still, you might think the best financial advice is don't have children if you want to be "rich." Actually, it is just the opposite. What do you get for your $160,140?

* Naming rights. First, middle, and last!
* Glimpses of God every day.
* Giggles under the covers every night.
* More love than your heart can hold.
* Butterfly kisses and Velcro hugs.
* Endless wonder over rocks, ants, clouds, and warm cookies.
* A hand to hold, usually covered with jelly or chocolate.
* A partner for blowing bubbles, flying kites
* Someone to laugh yourself silly with, no matter what the boss said or
how your stocks performed that day.

*******************************


For $160,140, you never have to grow up.

You get to:
* finger-paint,
* carve pumpkins,
* play hide-and-seek,
* catch lightning bugs
****************************

For $160,140, there is no greater bang for your buck. You get to be a hero just for:

* retrieving a Frisbee off the garage roof,
* taking the training wheels off a bike,
* removing a splinter,
* filling a wading pool,
* coaxing a wad of gum out of bangs, and coaching a baseball team that
never wins but always gets treated to ice cream regardless.

*************************


You get a front row seat to history to witness the:
* first step,
* first word,
* first bra,
* first date, and
* first time behind the wheel.

GMC puked yesterday after church (thankfully it was after, not in!) Then spent the rest of the lazy day avoiding food (anytime my kid refuses a meat I know something is wrong!)

Then last night he puked again, several times, I have enough laundry to sink a ship and I am tired! My 4 month old, UE, still does not sleep thru the night and has taken the habit of screaming in the middle of the night, I honestly never had to deal with that, fussing yes, screaming, only if I wasn't there (or later, like 6 or 8 months, both my older two went thru a bought of midnight screaming around then)

Then to top it all off, JC (my girl) wakes up having peed the bed, yet another load of laundry. I so hate washing sheets. though at least pee doesn't make me puke like puke does!

Actually we did the math yesterday, but it was for church. I sent GMC, my son, off to find a dollar in coins, any coins except pennies or quarters (we use the quarters for JC, she can count to 4).

He got practice counting out a dollar and we got rid of some small change. Now when JC (my daughter) is getting better at counting, we will set them to rolling the penny jar!

I finally know what I am doing for my son when he finishes the last 8 lessons. I will make it up! I must be crazy! But honestly he learns more from us sitting down with a blank sheet making up things than from the worksheets.

Now I prolly will want a formal program for him later, but for now we have exponents, division, multiplication, greater than less than, perimiter/circumference, and so much more! It helps that he is a math brain kid...

Today we also wrote a

book review. I love hearing him making complete sentences out of his thoughts, and answers. I can't wait to see if he turns into a writer like his father.

So while I was blow drying my curly haird son, I aimed the dryer over toward my Daughter, jsut to get a giggle. I found myself thinking about how that was a waste of electricity and therefore money. But it is soooo cute to see her giggle! And really I don't want to be so focused on saving money that occassional fun cannot be had. It was a fraction of a cent, and so cute! (I got my son to giggle to, two for the price of one!)

I am totally suffering from the desire to gorge after a long famine. We were doing so well to pay off all the CCs and now....Well I like cooking real food, not quick cheap throw togethers. I like buying fruit, not hoping that multivitamin does the trick. I like baking and sharing. I really hate hanging laundry, or rather I hate having it doen early enough to hang! I want to goof off online for the first hour, not switch laundry and hang a load!

But I am doing good on cloth diapers still, and we are still frugal with all that cooking, just not as frugal as we could be. In any event I am not going to need your tax money to pay for it, just might never own this house!