Posts from — May 2007

Gage had the best time with his Dad yesterday! It was so neat to see how much he learned. I did not regret in any way not having “regular” school yesterday. He told me all about it yesterday in his ultra-excited way that I love. He is so passionate and describes everything in such great detail. What’s really awesome is that we have book about caves that we picked up at the library book sale a few weeks ago, and so we looked through that when he got home and he showed me some of the very same things he had just seen with his own eyes. He knew about the zones of a cave and what kinds of animals you can find. We read in the book about how stalactites and stalagmites sometimes join and form a column and he got all excited b/c he had just seen the very same thing. We literally spent an hour talking about caves and he was loving it! To get to this cave, they had to crawl through a small opening and continue crawling on their bellies for about 50 feet. Jared said he doesn’t think I would have liked that part, considering that I can be claustrophobic at times. They saw bats sleeping and Gage said they were really cute. I can’t even tell you how much I learned about caves just from the hour I spent talking with Gage yesterday. It was quite an experience for him. In a couple of weeks, we’ll be going on a little family vacation, where I am told there are caves to explore. We just might have to do that.

Gage is going cave exploring with his Dad tomorrow. (a program at the MO Dept. of Conservation). I realized today that I will have the entire morning free from doing school and free from keeping Gage busy, listening to him talk constantly, and so on and so on. I have to admit, it’s going to be REALLY nice. I’m going to wash clothes, clean, and maybe even blog about what I’ve been reading in “Peace Making Women”. Gage is an INTENSE kid, and it’s nice to have a break sometimes. Let’s just hope Shea is in a good mood and let’s me do all these things I want to do. I’ll fill you in on Gage’s cave experience. It should be really cool, and just the kind of thing he’s totally into. I would say I’d post pics, but I’m afraid to let Jared take the camera! Sorry honey!

Here’s a WW recipe my friend Janie gave me.  These are so good!

Mini Chocolate Chip Cookies 

2T. Butter, softened

2T. Canola Oil

1/2 c. Brown Sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

1/8 tsp. salt

1 egg white

3/4 c. flour

1/4 tsp. baking soda

1/2 c. mini choc. chips

Preheat oven to 375

Cream together butter, oil, and brown sugar.

Add vanilla, salt, and egg white and mix thoroughly.

Mix in flour and baking soda.

Add choc. chips and stir.

Drop by 3/4 t. onto baking sheet.

Bake for 7-10 min. depending on how chewy you want them to be.

I need to check with my friend, Janie, but I think that 2 cookies equals 1 point.  But, the key is to make the cookies small.  If you make them too big, you’ll be eating more points than you’re counting.  I usually double the recipe b/c my boys love them.

I normally start school with Gage between 8:30 and 9.  But, this morning, Shea woke up extremely early and he is so grumpy.  He was making it pretty obvious that doing school with Gage was going to be a challenge.  So, I decided to turn PBS Kids on, and he’s as happy as he can be.  Gage is at the table drawing, Shea is watching TV, and I’m having some blog time.  Today, we’ll be doing the majority of school while Shea is sleeping!

I couldn’t resist these flowers when I saw them at Trader Joe’s a couple of days ago.  I passed by them once and resisted the temptation.  But, as I was checking out I ran over and grabbed them.  I mean, is $4 going to break us?  I don’t think so!  The downfall was that when I brought them home and put them in water, I realized that the stems had been dyed with pink, so therefore the water turned bright pink.  Not very appealing to me.  But, oh well.

The women’s bible study I just joined at our new church is reading through the book “Peace Making Women”. I cannot recommend it enough! I’m going to make it a goal to share on my blog each week the highlights I’ve picked up. Don’t have time right now because Shea is waking from his nap, but I will share soon. One thing I did want to share is that Tara Barthel, one of the authors of this book has a blog that I just discovered through two of my friends. It’s really worth checking out. And, please check out this video that she posted today. Such a picture of the gospel and community as it should be!

Gage really likes to get under my skin.  He’s decided the best way to do this is make comments like “I like to poop in my pants”, “oooh, that fart really stinks, do you smell it?”, you get the idea.  At this age, boys can be so annoying!  Some days, I just don’t know how I’m gonna make it through!  At the homeschool expo I bought a MadLib Jr. book thinking it would be a great way to teach Gage about nouns, adjectives, verbs, etc.  (I actually got the idea from my sis-in-law, Robin.)  Today Gage asked to do one of them, so as we filled it out, of course he had to choose “butt” as one of the nouns.  He would have chosen penis and testicles as well, but I wasn’t going there.  So, as we read what he had filled in, I have to admit it was pretty funny.  This is the line that had us both laughing:  “Not I, said the ugly duck.  I have to go wash my butt.”  Those of you who know Gage know that he has a great belly laugh.  Believe me, you could have heard him laughing from a mile away!