First of all, I hope you all are training your children to not be overly concerned when “life isn’t fair”. When we cater to these bursts of “inequality” by rewarding and promising equal “perks”, we are feeding the selfishness. And that selfishness will turn our darlings into little monsters.

For instance, my middle daughter, age 6, has never been on a sleepover. Her older sister has only this past year been allowed this privilege, and only to her Grammy’s house. We always told 6 yo, that her day would someday come, and in the meantime, she needed to be happy for her sister! Guess what? It was that simple. Sure, I told her we’d have some mommy-daughter time, but it wasn’t anything earth-shattering. I didn’t pay her money or anything for “choosing to be happy”. I didn’t go out of my way and finance a Chuckie Cheese expedition or anything brag-worthy that she could hold up to big sis: “See what you missed out on?”

I think we adults are our own worst enemies in things like this. We want so badly for our children to be fulfilled and not feel left out. None of us want to be the proverbial Jacob, who favorited his son Joseph. Equal treatment is nice (not necessary), and parents should not have favorites…if you need further convincing, read The Blessing by John Trent and Gary Smalley.

But definitely read 1 Corinthians 13 to your children, and show them that God’s love means we’ll be happy, not jealous, for our friends and loved ones when life grants them special blessings. You cannot start too young instilling this!

Last night we decided to bless my 6 year old with the privilege of having a cousin spend the night. My oldest was going to be gone at my mom’s (second slumber party of her life) and dh and I thought it would be fun, since this is Spring Break, to invite one of 6 yo’s favorite cousins over. In trying not to leave any cousins out, it almost turned into a “that isn’t fair” free-for-all. We ended up having two cousins over, and the girls all had a great time…for the most part.

Inevitably, two’s company, three’s a crowd. My six year old got to play peacemaker between her two cousins. Thankfully, she’s used to being “bossed around” (she does, after all, have an older sister!) and she made the best of it. This morning she told me she had the best time ever! (Thank you, Lord!)

One last thing…when hard situations come up–and I hope they do–use them as the great learning curves that they are and emphasize to your child that acting this way only hurts others! Hopefully they’ll remember how awful it felt and resolve to never behave in a similar fashion.

True fulfillment and happiness comes from being able to be content with the life you have. Are we being faithful to teach this, or are we feeding the discontent by making issues where there shouldn’t be any?

Seeking Faithfulness posted a while back on the importance–and the frustration–of keeping a homeschooling family in good physical shape. One of her commenters shared a favorite P.E. activity, and it sounded so good I went to CBD and ordered it!

Fun Physical Fitness for the Home by Sono Sato Harris (mother to Joshua Harris). It’s a book full of exercise diagrams and how-to’s and it comes with a CD that plays classical music for just the right tempos per exercise!

We walked like bears, scuttled like crabs, “rowed” donkeys, marched/leaped/ran/skipped/slid all around the house…have I mentioned how our home can be traveled in a complete circle from kitchen to living room to the bedroom/bathroom hallway and through the laundry room to again re-enter the kitchen? Talk about fun leaping the loop three times before the music switches to the more challenging “gallop”!

If you’re still not sold, the author gives many extra tips on making this activity mentally stimulating as well. For instance, in the section on “The Four Seasons Interpretation”, the “coach” (me) would talk the children through the motions of imagining a Spring day:

“April showers…you are walking through a field after several days of spring rain. It’s pretty muddy, ooey, gooey, slippy, slidey…oops! Be careful that you do not fall! Oh, no! Now you are having trouble. Your feet are getting stuck in the mud. Try to get out of it. Just a few more steps. Oh, oh. It’s starting to rain again.”

All to springlike music! My “drama queens” really eat this stuff up! I mentioned the “gallop”–well, we did as the author suggested, ran the “derby” for this one, with me holding a broom up for them to “jump” during the course!

These girls of mine love to get the wiggles out to music…they beg me to play “The Spinning Song” as they twirl and whirl, pleading “faster, Mommy, faster!”. Well, this CD-exercise program has been well worth the $13.99 investment. I went through all the exercises with my girls, explaining each one and after three days *I’m* even feeling the burn!

Who knew I could crab-walk my way to great triceps! What a novel concept!

How do you keep your children active? Especially indoors?

This picture reminds me so much of my first six years spent living one block away from the Pacific Ocean.

My dad pastored a church and ran a training ministry for pastors. He preached twice a day every day just to fit in with all the demands for truth. His sermons were broadcast out to sea for miles and miles.

Many commercial fisherman attended our church, and as a result, several of my friends lived on fishing boats, tethered to cables running the boat’s length lest they fall overboard!

The year I was born, 20 other babies in our church joined the celebration! I’m the youngest of five, btw.

Our diet was rich in seafood, admittedly a bit too many oysters, eels, clams and octopus for this gal! I’ve shared the story before of how commercial fishermen would stop by evenings with some of their catch to share. Sometimes their catch would consist of a five gallon bucket full of live octopus. They’d pour it into our kitchen sink and mom would rave over how cool it was. Yeah, to the point of her sticking my little arm down into the writhing slime so I could “experience” the suction. Twas just lovely, I can assure you. (Thanks, mom.)

That was in the early 80’s. Mom and I walked to the beach every day when we found out Dad was taking a pastorate in the midwest, where only wheat made waves. We collected seashells, starfish, beach glass and driftwood for the last times. I still have those treasures….in hand and in heart.

It took me several years to get over the west coast, to quit comparing its oceans and redwoods to the browns and golds of the prairie that I love so much now.

Where did you grow up, and what are your favorite memories of that time and place?

Cold today, especially since we’d turned the corn stove off thanks to an all too brief warm-up. Perfect day for reading, and I have had the privilege of reading four awesome books this past month. Last night I finished Tricia Goyer’s Valley of Betrayal…all I’ll say about that is this story is even more beautiful than its cover art! I’m to review it here on the blog in April as part of her blog tour, so rest assured I’ll share more in the near future!

If you haven’t gotten your hands on Deborah Raney’s Remember to Forget, what are you waiting for? Heroine Maggie’s carjacking provides the impetus she needs to disappear from life, and Trevor is a hero that will linger in your heart and mind long after you put the book down!

My oldest blessed me with the morning off! She took my six year old to the kitchen table and proceeded to do more than two hours of schoolwork with her! They worked together so well, giving me and toddler some one on one time, and also letting me dip into a new read: Allison Pittman’s Ten Thousand Charms. Wow. I’ve been reading as many “first” books by authors as I can get my hands on this year, and this one was amazing! I can’t wait to read her next book! The other one of the four was Kristen Heitzmann’s Freefall. In my opinion, this was Heitzmann’s best book yet, and she’s written some exceptional reads. Plus it’s one of those big thick ones that you can’t put down!

Okay onto the recipe for Broccoli-Cheese Soup…one of the only meatless soups my dh eats and enjoys! And great for this winter-like day…plus, it’s souper easy and takes very little time from prep to table. I’ve often thought I’d like to try substituting cauliflower or asparagus for the broccoli…but broccoli is one of our favorite vegetables…

Broccoli-Cheese Soup

• 1 diced onion
• 1 stick butter
• 3 cups water
• 1 bag frozen broccoli florets, or 2-3 stalks broccoli, chopped
• 2 cups broken dry egg noodles
• 1/2 box Velveeta cheese
• 3 cups milk
• Dash of garlic powder

Saute onion in butter. Add water and broccoli and noodles. Cook till done. Add Velveeta and Milk. Add a dash of garlic powder. Heat until cheese is melted.

My six year old and I had one of those satisfying days in which “school” is disguised as “fun”. If you read my homeschooling archives, you know this is my favorite kind of school. Thankfully, six year olds are easy to dupe in this context!

She’s familiar with the “easy reader” style that takes multi-letter phonograms and uses them to death for familiarity’s sake.

Well, her cousin, who is in Kindergarten, is loving the learn-to-read process, so my daughter decided it would be fun (with a little creative prodding from me, not much!) to write and illustrate an easy reader featuring the “sh” combination. First we brainstormed what animal we’d write about, then we made a list of “sh” words to incorporate into the story.

She narrowed it down to shark or sheep, and chose sheep because she really didn’t want a water-themed story. Plus, she’d learned how to draw sheep from a special feature on a Veggie-Tales dvd.

So here is her book…all her own creation! She can’t wait to give it to her cousin!

My big sis is giving her kitchen a “Tuscany” feel…you know, earthy colors like terra-cotta, yellows and reds…

My understanding of the Tuscany “look” is that it could incorporate anything from roosters to grapes to olive oil jars all lined up in rows…yes, I admit, I know next to nothing! (so share away in comments!)

My sis is good about growing herbs in her windowsill (I envy her green thumb–you should see her plants and landscaping!). In addition, she loves vintage art! So I thought I’d look up a “Tuscan” print for her…one chock full of poppies, since she mentioned she’s thinking about stenciling red flowers on her valances…

Here you go, Sis! A field of red poppies in Chianti Region, Tuscany, Italy…this one’s so pretty I’m wishing I had a room to hang it in!

Does anyone have any decorating tips to share on the Tuscany style? Would love to hear them!

P.S. Can you tell I’m really enjoying my allposters affiliation?

Morning Has Broken recently shared the importance of using a “vegetable wash” rather than relying on tap water alone to remove pesticides, etc. from produce. I just happened to be in a health food store that same week, and decided to buy some. Grape Seed Extract, to be precise, also called: GSE.

I love this new approach to health! I swear our veggies and fruits taste much better! According to the instructions, I fill my clean kitchen sink with cold water, add 30 drops of GSE and start cleaning my fruits and veggies. The added bonus, is we no longer have to wash individual pieces of fruit/veggies at breakfast or snacktime, and my long-shelved Tupperware is finally getting used as refrigerator storage! I transfer my big bags of apples to two-gallon ziplocks and we’re good to go!

Here is what Morning Has Broken said in a reply comment to her post “A salad a day…”

You can get vegetable scrubs at many health food type stores such as The Vitamin College, Whole Food Markets, Wild Oats, if you have any of those near you. Unfortunately, we don’t here, so I stock up when I get the chance. Anyway, these washes clean the vegetables better than plain water and should get off some of the junk they spray on them when you can’t buy organic. Any vegetable with high surface area and thin skin like broccoli, cauliflower, lettuce, spinach, apples…you get the idea will absorb more of the pesticides, etc.

Now the lady at the health food store, and also, the link I shared above to the GSE info page, stated that they also wash their meat in a sinkful of this GSE water! I haven’t done that yet, mostly because I’m a bit too frugal wrap my mind around doing this every time I fix meat for a meal. But being able to wash all my veggies and fruits at once seems like a good deal. I know the option is there to spray your foods with this, that may be the way I’ll go concerning meat.

You really should check out that link. GSE can be used for many thing other than washing food. Toothbrush cleanser, cutting board disinfectant, orally for sickness…

Some sources say warm water and vinegar will get most of the residue and that whatever method you use, certain chemicals will not wash off. If you can afford to buy organic, do it. Otherwise, wash and hope for the best, or peel everything! If you think this is a little over the top, read up on the huge amount of pesticides consumed by America’s children, and how it ups their chances for childhood diseases like leukemia!

Doesn’t this picture speak for itself?
This is how I’ve felt every morning since my family became ill with the flu. Some nights, I wondered why I was even going to bed anyway! Mary Cassatt captured the feeling well in her “Breakfast in Bed” painting above. (available at allposters if you just click this link or the pic)

Pregnant mommies, and parents of newborns know the feeling. The nice thing is, you really appreciate the good nights when they’re few and far between! Last night was the first night my toddler went to bed at 8 P.M. and didn’t get me up five times in the night for bathroom runs. (She drank a lot more while sick!) She also slept past 6 A.M.! I almost woke up in a panic! (Remember that feeling the first time your newborn slept through the night?) Blissful.

I scheduled my three babies from day one in the hospital, according to the “feed-wake-sleep” cycle lined out in a parenting book I was blessed enough to get my hands on before giving birth to our first. The goal of the “feed-wake-sleep” cycle? To promote health and sanity (my words!) and the bonus of getting an infant to sleep 10-12 hours straight through by eight weeks of age. Worked like a charm with all three of my children. Baby #2 took till she was ten weeks, but was sleeping 8 hrs a night before that. Sound too good to be true? It’s worked for thousands of babies.

Healthy sleep, healthy weight gain, predictability as far as knowing when baby’s naps or feedtimes will happen…I’m so glad I did it, and I tell all my expecting friends about it. And since I started implementing this from the hospital, I didn’t have to deal with any crying as far as re-training goes when you’re trying to teach your baby to fall asleep without sleep props (nursing to sleep, etc). The basic premise: Feed your baby, keep them awake even if only five minutes (face it, most newborns want to sleep all the time), then put them to bed for their nap. When they next wake up, feed them, keep them awake, etc. As they get older, you keep them awake longer. Try to go 2-3 hrs from the beginning of one feeding to the beginning of the next. This is directly related to how well they sleep at night! Hospitals do this with preemies!

Anyway! Have a great day, and here’s to uninterrupted sleep for all of us!

Not the figurative “lemon” a good-for-avoiding-scurvy, of-the-citrus-family lemon!

From an article entitled, The Amazing Benefits of Drinking Lemon Water, I found this very interesting tip:

Buying a sweet lemon

Some lemons are more sweet than others. A rule of thumb for selecting a lemon that is both sweet and high in mineral content, is to pick one that has a high specific gravity measurement and is heavy for its size. By comparing equal-sized fruit, the one with the greatest weight will have the most mineral content and sugar. A thick skinned lemon will not be as heavy as a thin skinned lemon and will not have the desired sweetness or mineral content.

The method I use to ensure the purchase of sweet lemons is to look at the stem end of the lemon. There are two ends on the lemon. One end has a point where the blossom started to grow; the other end has a stem or a dimple where the stem used to be located. On the stem end of a highly mineralized, sweet lemon, you will see little lines radiating out of the stem like sunbeams. These little lines can look like a star shaped structure and is called a calyx. The calyx may have three, four, five or more points to the star. The greater the number of points on the calyx, the higher the mineral content of the lemon.

Who knew? For more on safe drinking water and how adding apple cider vinegar or lemon to it can boost your PH, go read More Little Tips at Morning Has Broken’s blog.

I love baskets! We have a small-town retail store with a whole aisle-full of baskets–ones I can afford! I have a huge rectangular basket on the hearth that doubles as a home for library books and/or fleece throws, a small-medium-and-large nesting set of baskets that are currently serving the separate functions of holding: mismatched socks waiting for mates on hubby’s dresser, rolled up washcloths in bathroom, toddler’s board books in living room. I have an adorable square basket in the kitchen for napkins…I say adorable because I love its burgundy-checked gingham liner that perfectly matches my kitchen curtains…

My favorite basket of all? An Amish one my parents bought me. You can see it in the picture below. Hand-woven in natural colors with a simple navy/burgundy design added, it’s large enough to house my sewing things. 

Other decorative+functional uses for baskets:

• smallish square basket for holding potholders…perhaps on the microwave, or somewhere handy to the stove
• fruit basket on countertop or at breakfast nook
• magazine basket plus a book or two in the bathroom
• devotional basket–Bible, prayer journal, pens, candle. Mine would have to be by my coffee table, next to the couch…
• hanging plant-type baskets (you know the wire 3-in-1 kind that hang from the ceiling and vary in size?) needn’t be only for plants…use them in the kitchen for veggies and fruits, or hung in a bathroom short on space…they’d be great for washcloths, make-up, toothbrushes and toothpaste…
• plants…my African Violet would be beautiful tucked down in just the right sized basket on an end table
• stationary basket–a place for get-well notes, thank-you cards, birthday and anniversary cards to use in a pinch…and my favorite: You’re having a baby cards! You could also keep “snail mail” letters in this that have yet to be answered!
• I forgot to mention above that I inherited an antique picnic basket, and display it in my bathroom, lid open and propped against the wall by the tub. I keep our best towels (navy, dark brown, and cream–if you care about color schemes) rolled up in residence there

Can a woman have too many baskets? A place for everything, and everything in its place…

Tell me about your baskets!