Fun on a nature walk

On Wednesday morning of this week the kids and I headed out the door and off in the van at 7:45 am. That is rather early for us but we wanted to go "birding" and our friend who is an expert in birding said we should go early, 6 am would have been better but starting at 8 am was going to have to suffice. :-)

   We went to the state park where we met up with our birding friend and her son and also another homeschool friend and her 4 children. As we headed off with 6 young boys and 3 girls, two strollers and one wagon as well as 3 mamas we realized that we just weren't that quiet as a group. So much for not having the birds notice us!

   We did hear a lot of pretty bird calling and were able to see some way up in the trees and our friend identified them but our children were a bit impatient when it came to long periods of standing and looking up into the trees so we ended up making our walk more into a plant identification walk instead of bird identification.

  We went on the "Bog Walk" at the park, where you walk on a wooden pathway over swampy areas. There were lots of flowers blooming and neat plants and we enjoyed reading the signs and the books we had brought along in order to learn more about them.

   The plant above is Labrador Tea and is used medicinally.

We saw a bunch of pink lady slippers which was very fun as we don't see them often.

Part of the crew (the slow walking group!)

These are Pitcher Plants. They are very cool because they "eat" insects.

Moths were discovered by the kids.

Mara very much enjoyed the walk and learning about new plants.

I am so thankful that God made so many neat plants and animals and we live in a place where so many beautiful ones are! I also feel blessed to be able to homeschool my kids and let them learn in such fun ways!

Memorial Day Bike Ride

 We have had a very busy, but very fun couple of weeks. Last week I spent a bunch of time getting my garden in. I got almost everything planted. I do still have a little to go but this week has been so busy that it has been put off.

   To start this week off we went on a little biking and camping trip. Then more fun things that have kept us busy have been going to the state park for birdwatching and plant identification with some friends, beginning a weekly baseball time with other homeschool families and then Tomorrow I have a wedding to do flowers for and my sisters Open house to help decorate for and go to (and yesterday we helped set up and get ready for that). Besides that there is normal housework and laundry and stuff to do as well as a couple of consultations. I have felt the need to really make sure that I stay organized and on schedule but it has been fun.

   Our bike trip was a pretty frugal mini vacation. We left on Sunday afternoon on our bikes from home. This was a kind off spur of the moment trip so I did no extra shopping for it we just figured out food we could bring along from stuff we had on hand. I pulled out the pannier bags that I had made last year and we packed them and half of the trailer (Megan sits in the other half) full of our camping gear.

 By the time we were ready to go at 3 pm in had started sprinkling. Oh dear, what should we do? We decided to go anyway and we are very glad we did! It continued to lightly sprinkle for 4 or 5 miles but then it cleared off and got nice and sunny. Sprinkling and sunny were both fun to ride in and we enjoyed the scenery as we rode around the lake. We are blessed to now have some nice bike trails around our place, which makes riding with kids a lot more fun and less stressful (especially compared to busy highways!).

After riding around 10 miles we made it to the state park. The kids wanted to show me this hollow tree that they had found when going there with some friends. This picture shows just Jonathan's feet as he is up and inside.

  

    We got checked in at the campground and rode up to our site. There Mara started looking at the clover and found a bunch of 4 leaf clovers and then even found this 6 leaf one.

   When unpacking and as I started cooking tuna noodle dish for supper we realized that we had forgotten both the air mattress and spike (which is what we usually use in place of salt and pepper). Oh well. After our meals and our night of sleep I think Ken and I are going to be pretty careful not to forget them again! :-)

After supper we had fun going around the state park and the kids wondered if they could go wading. I was sceptical as how well wading would work (I was doubtful that they could keep their clothes dry). They went wading and sure enough Aaron fell pretty soon and so was wet all over and then Jonathan got pretty wet too but the girls remarkably enough did keep their clothes dry.

Mara had lots of fun looking for shells and pretty little stones.

Megan wanted to go on a walk over a little bridge. It was so pretty out as the sun was setting over the lake.

Back to camp again we got a fire going so we could roast the few marshmallows that I had found in my cupboard.

One thing that I find very cool about the sort of camping where you have to pack all your gear by your own muscle power (whether it be backpacking, canoeing or biking) is finding out just how little you can get by with. I think that way is truly me favorite type of camping. It was fun to make myself do all my cooking and dish washing all using one medium sized pan. For our supper I made the Tuna noodle dish with cheese and then for breakfast the next day I mixed up in the pan some juice (I had brought concentrate) and then poured it in our water bottles (as we didn't bring cups) and then in the same pot I cooked scrambled eggs with potatoes, cheese and salsa in them (and they would have been better with spike and meat!). After each meal I also washed dishes in that pan. On the topic of packing light I found that I could put 7 eggs (out of their shell) in one small peanut butter jar which made hauling and putting it in the very tiny ice chest much easier. I think I could have actually put 8 or 9 eggs in there too.

    

On Monday as we rode home we had to do a bit of riding along the rode (We took a different route home as we were going around the lake on our little trip). We got pretty warm while riding and wouldn't have minded the light mist of the day before.

One fun sight was these families of Canadian Geese. The babies were so big already but quite cute.

For lunch on Monday we had fun going to a small cafe. We enjoyed food that wasn't missing it's salt! :-) As we were getting ready to leave it started raining and so we were pretty sure we would get rather wet. We pulled out our rain gear and headed off but after about 10 minutes the sun popped out again and it was all done raining.

   It was a fun little trip that created some fun family memories and it didn't cost very much either! We hope to do something like that again soon (well as soon as I have a free weekend again which won't be for a while!)

Find more frugal ideas at Life as MOM.

Parenting with less stress {Feeding our children}

  After giving our children a good start with breast feeding the next step was of course solid foods. I think when I had Mara the recommended time to start feeding them was 4 months. I believe they have lengthened that not. For about the first year breast feeding was definitely our children's main course but they did enjoy some solid foods too.

   Mealtimes have always been an important family time for our family so even when they were babies they generally joined us at the table at meal times, sometimes in my lap (and then often they nursed while I ate) or in a bouncer seat set on the end of the table, or in a highchair or the swing very near by. Almost always our whole family eats Breakfast and Supper together, sitting down at the table and then the kids and I eat lunch together at the table. It is good visiting time and we really enjoy our mealtimes.

   I think with every child I bought a box of rice cereal and then they ate about 4 servings or so of it and I put the rest in cookies. For some reason they didn't like it to much and they thought mashed bananas and things like that were much yummier.

 Other than the rice cereal I never did buy any baby food for my children. Baby food in little bottles is quite expensive (I think), doesn't look that appealing (I think) and has a lot of packaging that I would have had to figure out all sorts of craft projects to use. It worked much better for me to just mash up things that we were eating (potatoes, peas, carrots, and such) or fed them teeny tiny pieces of the things we had. They grew and thrived and didn't choke or have allergies. If we were having something that simply didn't seem baby friendly I would often get out a soda cracker, applesauce or mash a banana for them.

   As kids get older they can have a bit of a tendency to get picky. It was my goal to NOT have picky eaters for children. I know that picky children are frustrating to others and it would have been very stressful for me!  Another thing that we really wanted to avoid with our children was food waste. I have seen this happen many times with kids and that didn't sit well with me as I really don't like waste. Ken and I did quite a bit of thinking on how to avoid these things.

  We did set some basic rules in our house and they are: (note, some of these "rules" are for the children and some of them are for us.)

• Give small starter portions to the children and allow them to have more when they finish what they have.
• They are required to finish their food (We DO NOT always enforce this when we are at a public event, especially any time that others give them a serving (like at a dinner at church) as others usually give them way to much). If they just don't think they can finish their food we allow them to put it in a container and put it in the fridge and then they eat it before they eat anything else. So naturally if dessert was served with that meal they will be forgoing dessert. Times this rule is forgone altogether is when we find out they have the stomach flu or something like that.
• Complaining about food is not allowed! You can admit that something isn't your favorite and ask nicely that you don't get a very big helping but if you are complaining you will receive more of what you complained about. This has pretty much stopped the bad attitude complaining at the table.
• Everybody eats the same thing (unless it is leftover buffet!). I do not cook special items for various members of the family. I am just not that into cooking nor do I have lots of extra time for something like that.

  There are other things that have helped our children not to be very picky. Here are a few of the things we have done to help them to have a palate that enjoys a variety of things:

• Served a wide variety with the expectation that they would like it.
• We got them involved in gardening and growing their own food or gathering it together from the wild. Or even having them involved with butchering the meat.
•  Having them involved in preparing it. We especially did this with various ethnic foods. We would read about the country and then pour over recipes and then work together to make something. It was an adventure for all of us. We had fun having international students over a few times to show us how to cook their countries food.
• Be excited about new foods yourself.
• Feed them the things their dad is picky about while he is gone to work. There were some things that I knew Ken didn't like that I really didn't want the kids to dislike so I decided a long time ago that I would fix those things fairly often for lunch. That I happily report has been very successful! My kids love Peas and Cantaloupe and eat beans and split peas and lentils fine! They also think wild foods are fun which is not something Ken is very into eating.

  I have heard that many parents find mealtimes stressful but I am here to tell you that they don't have to be. We really truly enjoy mealtimes, it is a time of visiting, sharing what we have learned and just enjoying being together as a family. The food nourishes us and we enjoy it but what we really enjoy is our time together. It is not stressful or overwhelming.

   Have you done anything special to make sure that mealtimes work for your family? I would love to hear your methods!

A Tote Bag {Made as part of my wool skirt project}

Remember last week I told you about being given a bunch of wool skirts/slacks to make things from? Last week I showed you the fun I have been having making flowers out of their lining. Today's "show and tell" is a easy to make tote bag with a few more of those flowers as decoration.

  I liked the plaid wool, it reminds me of skirts my mom wore when I was a kid, and it turned into a very cute bag I think. I used wool from both the plaid skirt and a charcoal grey skirt. I cut the main pieces from the plaid skirt and then I cut a piece for the bottom and for handles out of the charcoal skirt. I did also make a pocket from the plaid. This tote was very fast to sew up (I made it similarly to this tutorial) and then I had fun adding flowers as decorations.

I love quick and easy projects that upcycle old things!

What have you been making lately?

This is linked to:

Reinvented's Trash to Treasure Tuesday

and

Be Ready

Lately I have been enjoying reading Max Lucado's book "And the Angels were Silent". He has a neat way of writing and a neat way of making you see stories in the Bible in a totally new light.

 In one chapter he talked a lot about these verses (and the rest of chapter 24 and 25):

   Matthew 24:42-46
  "Therefore be on the alert, for you do not know which day your Lord is coming. But be sure of this, that if the head of the house had known at what time of the night the thief was coming he would have been on the alert and would not have allowed his house to be broken into. For this reason you be ready too, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour when you do not think He will.
  Who then is the faithful and sensible slave whom his master put in charge of his household to give them their food at the proper time? Blessed is that slave whom his master finds so doing when he comes."

Chapters 24 and 25 of Mathew are Jesus last sermon and He spent that sermon telling the people over and over again (in various ways) to be ready! Jesus would be coming again and Jesus doesn't want people to put off getting ready until it is too late.

I really like some of what Max said about this and so I will quote part of the book:

  "His return is certain.

   His return is final.

   Upon His return "He will separate them into two groups as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. The Son of Man will put the sheep on His right and the goats on His left."

    The word separate is a sad word. To separate a mother from a daughter, a father from a son, a husband from a wife. To separate people on earth is sorrowful, but to think of it being done for eternity is horrible.

   Especially when one group is destined for heaven and the other group is going to hell.

    We don't like to talk about hell, do we? In intellectual circles the topic of hell is regarded as primitive and foolish. It's not logical. "A loving God wouldn't send people to hell." So we dismiss it.

   But to dismiss it is to dismiss a core teaching of Jesus. The doctrine of hell is not one developed by Paul, Peter, or John. It is taught by Jesus Himself.

    And to dismiss it is to dismiss much more. It is to dismiss the presence of a loving God and the privilege of free choice. Let me explain.

    We are free either to love God or not. He invites us to love Him. He urges us to love Him. He came that we might love Him. But, in the end, the choice is yours and mine. To take that choice from each of us, for Him to force us to love Him, would be less than love.

   God explains the benefits, outlines the promises, and articulates very clearly the consequences. And then, in the end. He leaves the choice to us.

    Hell was not prepared for people. Hell "was prepared for the devil and his angels." For a person to go to hell, then, is for a person to go against God's intended destiny. "God has not destined us to the terrors of judgment, but to the full attainment of salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ." Hell is man's choice, not God's choice.

   Consider, then, this explanation of hell: Hell is the chosen place of the person who loves self more than God, who loves sin more than his Savior, who loves this world more than God's world. Judgement is that moment when God looks at the rebellious and says, "Your choice will be honored."
   

So what do you think? Are you ready for Jesus return? We don't know when it will be but He is asking us to please get ready!

Bunny Rabbits

 We have had so much fun at our house this week enjoying a small part of God's wonderful creation- baby bunnies. A week ago Saturday my dad had run over a nest of them while tilling his garden, the mother left and there ended up being 6 babies that needed care. My sister Keren has 3 and they brought us 3 on Sunday night as well.

We are trying to care for them as best we can until we are sure they are able to go off on their own. When they told us about them I figured they would be cute but I wasn't prepared for how cute they are and how easy it would be to get totally attached to them! I have never been a animal lover but baby bunnies could possibly change me.

We have to feed them milk replacer with a medicine dropper several times a day. When we first got them they would jump all over, especially if we touched their whiskers, and not eat to much but now they are just like a baby with a bottle, they latch on and eat for all they are worth. Mara feeds them most of the time and I do it some too.

The second night they were here they were in a fairly shallow box (about 10 inches tall) and during the night they got a bit restless- they have a tendency to be more active at night. The next morning Jonathan checked their box and reported that it was empty, where were the bunnies?!

 We looked all over the entry way (in our split level house it is in between levels with stairs going both directions) but no bunnies, then Mara checked downstairs and sure enough there were the bunnies. The were right at the bottom of the steps, all lined up (shown in the picture above). Somehow they had all tumbled down and ended up together.

The next night 2 of them burrowed under the rags while the third one would climb on top of them and the rags and then try to jump out over the top of the box. We had changed them to a bigger box so this one was now about 15 inches or so tall. He never made it over but he tried over and over. Ken and I enjoyed watching and laughing for some time.

The next night after Mara had given them their nighttime feeding Aaron and Megan took two outside and Megan sat hers down and left it for a bit. When I found out about it and we all went out to look for it we couldn't find it anywhere. I felt pretty bad but it did have a tummy full of milk, it knew how to eat grass and clover and such and it could run fast so I am really hoping (and yes I have been praying!) that it is okay. I just feel bad that it is separated from its siblings as they do so love to cuddle and snuggle and care for each other.

  The other two are enjoying eating greens more and more too. I suppose it won't be long before it will be time to release them too.

They are learning how to hide.

They like to munch on Dandelions.

But we are going to miss them!