A Canadian eating bugs?

At dinner Nicholas was excited as he said,

"We saw a Canadian eating bugs! His tongue moved really fast...."

It took a while but the translation was

'a chameleon eating bugs'

You know, either way it's a good story.

Lessons from great leaders

My father-in-law would always ask trivia questions at dinner. One night he asked "Who was the greatest leader in the history of the world?" We were stumped. We threw out answers like... Alexander the Great?, Caesar?, George Washington?... The answer was "Jesus, he still has millions of followers even 2000 years after his death."

Today I am left with the thought that I need more Jesus, and less Caesar in my life. People fallowed Jesus out of love not fear. Cesar lead with his might. After their death each was remembered, books written about them. Yet, it is obvious which one was the greater leader. The one that changed hearts, and minds.

I was listening to my husband talk to our son about doing his best. He was encouraging him with love and kindness. He was pointing out his strengths, and encouraging him to work on his weaknesses. He did not use threats to persuade him to do what was right, he used love. I find it hard to fallow this path sometimes. I just want to say as Caesar would "DO IT! GET IT DONE." or "Stop That!" The path that Jesus would take would be a much longer road. I know it has more rewards, but in the heat of the moment it is not easy to choose the high road. If everyone always behaved as they should ... well then I guess we would still be in Eden.

So that is my prayer tonight and through the day. My prayer as I work on my dishes, and a commotion starts in the next room. I am praying for more patience, strength, and grace. I am praying to have more Jesus and less Caesar in my life, and in our home.

Spelling Test on Friday

School started this week. Today we received notice that spelling tests will be every Friday. Starting August 28th. Last year spelling was a tough subject. Not that John couldn't do it, he wasn't overly motivated. This year I have a plan... I bought refrigerator letters. They cost about $1.00 at Wal-Mart or Target. I plan to make a game of it. Here's the letters for the word aircraft....can you spell it? Hang-Man with his spelling words. A stacked game of Scrabble with spelling words. Why didn't I think of this sooner? If you have more spelling word games we can try, please leave me a note. I could use some more suggestions. Wish us luck.

words

Nicholas commands Donald to Stay at the top of the stairs.
Donald reply's "I never not going to stay up here."

a change in lighting?

Isn't it funny how you can look at something and not get it. Something that just keeps coming up in different ways at different times. Still does not make since. Then one day the light is just right, and BAM, there it is. I'm not sure what makes the difference. Whether it is the messenger, or life experience, or a change in wording, but there it is simple as can be.

One of my favorite quotes from Mary Engelbreit

"To be happy,

Don't Do Whatever you like,

LIKE Whatever you DO."

Sunday Fidgets

The 1st Reading was 1Kings 19:4-8. Elijh sits at the base of a broom tree exhausted by his journey and ready to give up. An angel gives him food and drink. The angel encourages him to eat and drink so he will have strength for his journey. We all have times we are exhausted by our journey and need encouragement. Fathers question to us was, two part "Who or what do we turn to when we are exhausted and depressed from our journey?" "How do we encourage others when they are down?"

Of course there was more, but we had a very distracting crew in my bench on Sunday. I caught so little of the sermon, yet I am thankful I heard this much.

Bench project

LIKE NEW AGAIN!

If I were thinking I would have a before and after shot. Instead I have a picture during and after my little home improvement project. Oh well, I am new at this.


A friend gave me this bench. I LOVE it! However, it needed a little TLC. The wood was a bit weathered. A painter friend of ours gave me a little advise. He told me to add 1 cup of bleach to a gallon of water. Then use a scrub brush to clean the wood with that mixture. He said that somehow this seals the pours in the wood, it kills anything growing in the pours. This would return it to a like new condition. After scrubbing with the bleach solution, wash with a power washer or just scrub well with plain water and rinse. Make sure you get all the bleach solution off the wood. Then the wood is ready to sand and stain. He suggested an outdoor stain that protects against the UV rays.


I know I'm not the only one with this delima, so I wanted to share the solution with you. It was a lot easier then I first thought it would be. The color of the wood after the stain was the same as the color when it was wet. I probably should have bleached it one more time before staining, but I still think it turned out great!

This is a picture of the bench in progress. The top part is wet with the bleach solution.

You can see the weather damaged to the wood.

A 3rd Grade lesson in Economics

Our first lesson in business. It's not a lemonade stand, but it's the same concept. A lesson in business, customer service, and money management.

Market research: What is the going price for your product in your area? I handed John a local flyer, and stopped by a local farmers market. 33 cents to 50 cents was the going rate for corn on the cob. We settled on a price...

Then advertisement: We created a sign. Letters in bold so cars driving by could read it.

Assessment: We had 5 cars stop and sold $12 worth of corn. Everyone who stopped was wonderful, and kind. His first customer gave him a $1.00 tip. Very nice man. It is not a fortune in the making, but a hands on lesson in economics. All in all a great experience. We are hoping to have enough cantaloupe in our garden to do this again. Cross your fingers that the deer don't spoil our fun. So far they have done a good job of raiding our garden at night.

A Trip to the Farm

Now that's a lot of corn!

We had a great day on the farm.

The corn made a delicious treat for dinner.

Angie's exciting morning

I received an email from a friend of mine, she gave me permission to share it with you...


"Thought you might like to hear about my excitement this morning....

Nickers (her dog) wanted out last night and I didn't bother turning on any lights as I went through the house. I let her out, waited a few minutes and called her back in. It was dark so I didn't see the possum in her mouth. This morning I'm running around getting everyone ready and go into the living room and notice this nasty thing laying on the carpet in front of the couch. it was still breathing and had its teeth bared...very intimidating! I thought the dogs might take it outside but neither one of them would go near it. Chickens!

I got the pooper scooper so I could grab it and toss it outside, but then I thought what if, when the metal touches the possum, it flies up and attacks me? I didn't know if it would keep playing dead or if it would valiantly defend itself. So I called my neighbor to see if he knew anything about possums, no luck. I tried calling Uncle Mac but he didn't answer the phone. I tried calling animal control, but the phone just rang and rang and rang. I called Dad and he wasn't sure what the possum would do, but he suggested putting a box in front of it and pushing it in with a shovel and then carrying the box outside. I still didn't want to get that close to it so I called Bob to see if he knew what the possum would do. He told me to grab it by the tail and toss it outside. I wasn't about to get that close to it!

In the meantime during all of these phone calls, Ben (her 4 year old) is running around the house going "Scooby Doo, where are you?" Like Scooby is going to solve my problem. Then he goes upstairs and is watching the possum through the rails of the catwalk and gives me a status report, "Mom, he has a long stretchy tail." "Mom, he opened his eyes." "Mom, he moved his head." "Boy his teeth sure are scary looking."

So I stood behind the couch by the sofa table and tossed a box a few inches from the possum. Also from behind the couch, I took the shovel and flipped the possum into the box. Then I ran around the couch and using the shovel to push the box outside. Ben is still giving me a status report, "Mom, he's moving!" So, using the shovel, I ran and pushed the box/possum out onto the deck.

I called Bob and Dad to let them know I lived through the experience of getting the possum outside. Then I happened to think if this thing dies right outside of the sliding glass door it's going to stink. So I took the shovel and pushed the box to the edge of the deck. Then I gave it a great big push with the shovel, The box goes flying through the air and I realize it's empty and the possum has already run off.

My husband didn't call me back until about 9:00 and he was laughing when I answered the phone. "