Valentine Play-Do

The kids and I get a little excited when it's time for a new batch of play-do. The regular salt dough recipe that we've used for years gets added "sparkle" with a sprinkling of glitter, red food coloring, and even a smidgen of peppermint extract that wakes up our senses. You can use heart-shaped cookie cutters for the full valentine experience, or just make your own shapes and figures. Here's the recipe. Enjoy!!

Valentine Play-Do

1 cup flour
1 cup warm water
2 tsp. cream of tartar
1 tsp. oil
1/4 cup salt
few drops of red food coloring
2 - 3 drops of peppermint extract
glitter, if desired

Mix the first five ingredients together in a sauce pan over medium heat.
While it's still warm, mix in the food coloring, extract, and glitter.

Our Bible Curriculum

Over the years, I've had all kinds of ideas for doing different things for our Bible lessons. We've had elaborately planned lessons and we've had coloring sheets to go with our stories. Honestly, the kids basically liked all of it, but I couldn't keep it all going. After starting something really neat, it just wouldn't last very long, or it would be such a big effort that it was hard to do Language and Math studies after the big production. Ever feel like you are doing VBS continually?

I sat down and thought out exactly what I want to teach my boys through our Bible lessons. I want them to learn scripture verses, learn to worship, learn to pray, and learn to rely on God! We start the morning going over our Bible verses. We use the Charlotte Mason Scripture Memory System with the notecards (http://simplycharlottemason.com/timesavers/memorysys/). It works wonders and is incredibly easy. Sometimes we practice Bible Drill, finding passages in our Bible. Then, we sing a song or two, like "You are My All in All" and "I've got the Joy, Joy, Joy." Finally, we talk about anything we would like to pray about, or mention specific requests that God has graciously answered. Then we pray. I will always pray, sometimes the boys want to pray, as well.

My absolute favorite thing about our Bible study is that it enables me to be consistent. We know what to expect every day, it's so easy, requires little preparation, and puts our minds on our Lord at the beginning of each day.

Photohunt: Skinny

Photohunt: Skinny

This is the skinniest thing I could find in my photo albums. We found this walking stick bug on our front door in October 2006. This is the only one I have ever seen in person, and we thought it was neat!

PhotoHunt

Thankful Thursday

This Thursday I focus my thanks on my children and being a mom. My two boys bring joy and adventure to my life and make me a better person. I'm humbled and eternally thankful to be their mother.



Because the boys are visiting their dad this week in Oklahoma, the house is so quiet, the table stayed cleaned off, and there were no arguements to settle. But those little things make up the day to day life of our loving family. The quietness continued when there would have been songs to sing at bedtime and jokes to tell at dinner. Those two are an unbelievably sweet blessing to this mom. I told my 10 yr. old son last week when I picked up his dirty socks from the living room that picking them up made me think that I was so grateful to have a son to pick up after. And it's true!!

Wordless Wednesday - My mother gathering pecans