ABC Scripture Book

A few months back while I was scrolling through

my pinterest stuff, I found a book for 

kids that had scriptures that started with each letter of the alphabet.

I was pretty excited, since I thought it would be useful to use 

in our homeschool and preschool activities.

But when I went to the site, she did indeed have 26 different scriptures, but

they didn't all use the King James Version of the Bible.

Which is kind of an issue for me.

So I decided to make my own.

And since I love a free printable as much as anyone,

I'm putting it here to share.

What I did with mine was laminate them, cut them up, and then

punch a hole in the top left corner, then stick them 

on a big ring.  We keep them with our other homeschool stuff and

use each scripture for one week.

Oh, and since I made my own, I included scriptures from the Book of Mormon.

And they are not in order.

But each letter is there.

You can find them HERE.
Enjoy!
 

Also, this is my first time providing a printable.

If you encounter a problem, please let me know

so I can fix it.

What will you use them for?

It's Sinking In

I've read enough homeschooling blogs to know that every now and then 

something happens and you know that your 

kids are understanding what they are learning.

And not the letters/numbers stuff, but the retention of history and other things that

aren't as tangible.

My first major insight into this phenomenon was today,

just a few minutes ago.

I was vacuuming the house, which takes awhile, since half of it 

is carpet.  And the girls were upstairs/downstairs doing whatever they were doing.

Then as I turned off the vacuum and headed to the next room,

I heard my 5-year-old say to the 2-year-old that

they needed to run from the Nazis.

This morning we read the last chapter of the book 

Twenty and Ten by Claire Huchet Bishop,

which is an historical fiction book about 20 French school children

who hide 10 Jewish children during WW2.

I highly recommend it.

It's only 5 chapters long, nothing too traumatic happens

(we are doing a Kindergarten curriculum), and a really good read.

Before we read it, I just told the kids a sentence or two about Nazis, 

about how they weren't very nice and tried to kill people, even children.

And we read it a chapter or two at a time, as we followed along with our curriculum.

Thank you, Sonlight!

Rainbow Birthday Party

I tried to avoid it.

But when my daughter came up with the theme of

rainbows for her birthday, I gave in.

And of course it was fun.

I'm not sure why I didn't want to do it, but I'm glad that I didn't try

to talk her out of it (well, at least not much).

And it's kind of embarrassing that it has taken me so long to 

post the pictures, since she's been 5 for a couple months already.

But my excuse is that I forgot my camera and had

to use a friend's phone to get pictures (which is why we only have some

before pics), and then I forgot to download them

to the computer after they were emailed to me.

But here they are, without any further ado...

 The food table

 The cake table

 The top cupcake, for the birthday girl

 The whole scene...my parent's backyard

 The birthday banner I made a few years ago & the rainbow paper chain

 Rainbow cupcakes in a jar (her choice) and some rainbow

Rice Krispie treats in a jar for the gluten/dairy free crowd

 Daddy's special birthday cake

 Rainbow water bottles

And the rainbow pinata!

I made it out of a shoe box.

And since I'm not a big fan of beating pinatas, I made it a pull-tab one.

And since the kids were all little, we made sure that they each had a ribbon 

to pull on at the same time.

We filled it with fruit snacks and homemade gluten & dairy free cookies.

December holidays

Tomorrow is

National cookie day!

We are celebrating by having some

friends over to decorate and eat some cookies.

And since it's also

National Cookie Cutter Week

We are making cutout cookies.  I think we will go with

gingerbread and sugar cookies.

Wednesday is

Bathtub party day,

so I guess if you can't celebrate cookie day you 

could have a bathtub party.

Friday is 

National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day.

Elf on the Shelf

Do you have an elf on the shelf?

Or something you use to daily remind the kids that

Santa is watching extra carefully during the month of December?

We never have, until now.

I just finished making some little elves.

One boy and one girl, so we can change it up a little more.

 The best part is, they are small enough to make from fabric scraps.

We'll see how it goes.

More November Holidays

I'm not sure what the problem is, 

but I've somehow been a little overwhelmed

today.  It could be some bad news I discovered this morning 

(aka a package that was supposedly delivered Friday

has not been seen, so I guess it's been stolen),

or that the kids are extra screamy,

not enough sleep, the moon isn't in my house...whatever that's supposed to mean.

Let's get to the holidays!

Today is

Name your PC Day

Ours has been named for a little over a year, but if

your PC is still nameless, today's the day!

Tomorrow is

World TV Day

So I guess it's not a good time to be screen-free?

If you're traveling for Thanksgiving, maybe you should

take your TV along - you wouldn't want to abandon it

on it's own holiday, would you?

Isn't that a little like leaving a kid behind to fend for themselves

on their birthday?

No?

I guess you're right.

Thursday, the 22nd is

Thanksgiving

of course.

And Friday, the 23rd is

Black Friday

It's also

Fibonacci Day,

for those of you with an interest in math.

Or sequences and patterns.

You know, the fibonacci number....1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13 - etc.

With that being said, can you figure out why that's celebrated on Friday?

Saturday the 24th is

Celebrate Your Unique Talent Day

So what will you be celebrating?

Nap Time's Over....

Two days in a row in the past week,

when I've gone to get my youngest daughter up after nap time,

this is what I've found:

Every single piece of clothing from her dresser

on the floor.

And the drawers scattered around.

And she's been on the floor - I'm not sure if she was

sleeping on the floor or not.

You can see her if you look closely on the right side of the bed.

And please understand - we would not paint a room like this.

It was like this when we bought it.

Chicken Curry ala Anny

The other night I made curry chicken.

It is delicious.

I love it.

And it's so easy!

I have tried a few different recipes, but every time

I do, I always wish that I had tried the first one that I ever attempted.

It's pretty much fool-proof,

so I thought I'd share it with you.

Here's what I do:

Cook up some chicken - my latest method is to just stick a couple of boneless,

skinless breasts in the crockpot in the morning,

cook them a few hours, then transfer them to the fridge

Cut up and boil some potatoes and carrots.

I think I used 6 or 7 potatoes the other day, and 2 carrots.

Boil until soft, then drain out the water.

While the veggies are cooking, I chopped an onion and 

fried it with the chicken in some olive oil.

Then add it to the drained veggies.

Next, I put in half a package of this curry.

It's delicious.  And not very expensive (notice that price is for a 12-pack!).

And I always make sure to buy the mild.

Because that's how I roll.

This mouth can handle a little spice, but I don't want to buy the hot style

and not be able to enjoy it since it's too spicy for me.

But I digress....

put in the curry, then add some water.  I put in a little over 4 cups, and it was a little 

too much, because it ended up watering down the curry flavor.

So probably 3 1/2 cups would suffice.

Stir it occasionally, so the curry paste will melt and disperse.

Serve over rice.

It may not be a great picture, but it's delicious.

Even the kids have enjoyed it.

I learned this method by watching my sister-in-law make curry when I spent a summer

living at their house in Las Vegas.

And when I remembered it a year or two later, I was super excited

that it turned out so nicely.

I think you can find this type of curry in most supermarkets; it tends

to be a little hidden on the Asian food aisle.

I don't think it's too outrageously priced, either - probably $3-4 per box,

which you can use in at least 2 recipes.  When I first started, I would only

use a square or two.  But now that our family's bigger, we make bigger dishes.

I like it a lot more than the powdered curry that has been used

in the other recipes I've tried.

This Week's Holidays

This week is Young Reader's Week.

Sounds like the perfect opportunity to go to the library,

although today probably isn't a good idea, since

most libraries are closed in order

to observe Veteran's Day.

Speaking of which, did you thank a vet?

I did.  My favorite one, my husband.

Here are a few pictures of him keeping busy in Afghanistan,

back in 2008:

Wednesday is

National American Teddy Bear Day.

So grab a teddy bear and have a picnic!

Wouldn't that be so fun to do for lunch?  I'll have to make sure

and celebrate that with the girls,

which works out pretty well, since Wednesday is also

International Girls Day.

Thursday is the

Great American Smokeout.

It's a great day to stop smoking if it's been on your mind.

It's also a great day to stop smoking if it hasn't been on your mind.

Thursday is also the day that 

my little brother gets home from his mission!

That's right, his two years are over, and he will

be back in the West before the week is up!

He has done a great job serving on the East coast of the USA.

We love you, Elder!  Looking forward to seeing you during Thanksgiving!!

Saturday is

Homemade Bread Day.

mmmmmmm

Need I say more?

 

Laundry Soap Recipe

This is by no means my own recipe,

but I really like it.

I found it on Pinterest, and after a friend

of mine tried it on her blog and loved it, I decided

to try it out

You can find the original post HERE.

When I made my first batch, I also purchased a large container for it.

I was a little nervous about it, since it's large and glass,

and that's not always a good combination,

but it's worked out wonderfully.

So I think for my first batch it was about $30, with

the inclusion of the pretty jar (which I bought for $9.97).

I still keep a spray bottle of Shout handy,

to give the kids' clothes a quick squirt when they've had a messy day,

and a small container of OxyClean for soaking things - 

have you ever tried it on a white baby onesie that's been 

washed and dried (without realizing there were stains from a diaper)?

I soak them overnight in a small amount of cold water, then rinse and wash the next day.

Presto!

Clean white onesie.

I can't remember when I made the first batch of soap, but I know

for sure it was in this house, and I don't think that 

my son was born yet, so I will go with March.

But my current batch was made on November 1, so 

when that runs out I will know for sure how long it has lasted around here.

Junk Show

I went to a junk show this morning,

Junk Salvation,

and it was AWESOME!

I picked up a couple of things....

 As I'm sure many of the attendees felt,

I wished I could purchase multiple things from each vendor.

But I had to be responsible....

....such is my lot in life.

Most of the time.

I have even utilized them already!!

I bought them both for the laundry room,

and here they are, 

looking and fitting perfectly, I might add.

 Here's a close up of how the tray

is being used.

I put in our homemade laundry soap (love!),

a tide-to-go pen, and the dryer sheets.

Looking forward to the next show!

If they come near you, I sure recommend checking it out.

November

Trying to get settled in after a month of 

being busy busy busy with Halloween.

Let's just say that I will not

be doing that for Thanksgiving.

At least not this year.

Before I forget, here is a picture of my costume - 

part of it anyway.

My sister complained that there wasn't a picture of me,

but I had already changed and then lost

the motivation to get back into it.

I blame it on the tights.

I was a witch.

I made this tutu with ribbons following the great

tutorial found here.

May I just say that is was SUPER EASY,

and I like it a lot more than the tying kind, although it still has the look of a no-sew tutu.

I wore some cutie pink and black striped tights, a black shirt, some

black knee-length leggings, and a black witch hat.

 

I love Halloween.

I also discovered my husband's requirements for costumes (finally),

so hopefully I will get something figured out for him next year.

 

Without further ado,

let's get on to this month's special things:

 

Banana Pudding Lovers Month...mmmmm!

 

Family Stories Month...good time

to work on your family history - especially to ask older family

members to recall their lives

International Drum Month - get banging!

Military Family Appreciation Month - so grateful

for families who have people who willingly serve in the military!

My husband just finished his Army National Guard career of 7 years.

I have mixed feelings about it, but we are happy he's out.

National Georgia Pecan Month - pecan pie would be delicious at

Thanksgiving!  We always have it at my in-laws,

although it's really Washington Nut Pie, since grandpa uses

walnuts instead of pecans.

It's just as delicious - but half the price to make.

Sweet Potato Awareness Month - are you aware?

And next week, we can enjoy:

Saxophone Day on Tuesday

I LOVE the sax - I played alto sax from

seventh grade through twelfth grade.

It's pretty much awesome.

Tuesday is also Election Day!

Don't forget to vote!!

It was a little strange to do that this weekend

and then drop our ballots in a mailbox.

It's not quite as fun,

but just as important.

Thursday is 

X-Ray Day.

Any suggestions on how to celebrate that?

I don't really want to have a family member need an x-ray.

Friday is

Domino Day

We have two types of domino games at our house.

Fairy Go Round Domino Game,

which the kids love...but shop around because

the price I saw on the link is way too high,

and the other is just a regular set of domino tiles.

But we usually play the Mexican Train way.

 

And Saturday, the 10th,

is the

United States Marine Corps Birthday.

Happy 237th to my brother Jakefoot!

So much to do.

The most important is probably to vote.

Don't forget!!

31 Days of Halloween, 28-31

Happy Halloween!

Isn't it crazy how soon the last few days before a holiday come

and then are suddenly gone?

Is it just me?

Day 28:

I took a break.

31 Days was pretty ambitious, and resting is important.

Day 29:

We made B-b bats in our preschool co-op,

which I'm in charge of for two weeks.

Good thing it's only 2 times a week!

Day 30:

Costumes!  I finished them yesterday

with 4 hours to spare before we went trunk or treating.

Day 31:

Halloween!

We hosted our preschool co-op Halloween party.

Here are some pictures of the treats that I made:

We made some ghosties out of a paper plate

and streamers, played Don't Eat Frank (find the free board and

instructions here), and played 

a small bingo game.

We had rice krispie treat pumpkins,

jell-o jiggler witch hats,

and witch brooms made from pretzels and string cheese (which were eaten 

before I remembered to take a picture).

31 Days of Halloween, 27

Day 27:

Ghost pancakes

Tonight for dinner, we ate pancakes

with chocolate chip eyes and a mouth.

When I filled the plate with the complete pancakes,

I made sure to put the top ones

face-side-down.

That way no one knew about it until I put one on the first plate.

The kids were shocked.

And ate them.

And loved them.

Are you wondering how the pumpkin bowling went?

Great.

The girls really enjoyed it.

If you listen closely near the end of the one
where my daughter scoots close up and pushes over the rest, you
can hear how much fun the baby had.
He laughed and laughed every time they all fell.
It surprised me that he was even paying attention.

31 Days of Halloween, 24-26

No pics, just a quick update of the latest 2 activities.

Day 24:

Leaf rubbings

We grabbed some leaves outside and brought them in,

stuck them under some paper,

and rubbed them with crayons.

The pictures ended up on the fridge.

Day 25:

I'll be working on the costumes tonight.

Day 26:

We will be pumpkin bowling.

Take a few rolls of toilet paper and stack in a small

triangle.  I think we will use 3.

Then we will use a small fake pumpkin to roll at the toilet paper

and try to knock them down.

I've got high hopes for a fun thing....we'll see.

31 Days of Halloween, 19 - 23

No excuses, but please forgive me for taking so long.

Day 19:

The kids and I had the car the other day while Daddy

was camping with the Scouts.

So we went to the home improvement store for some supplies.

On the way, we passed a sign that said free pumpkins.

I thought about stopping, but didn't.

Then we passed it again on the way home, and there were several adults

wearing costumes and flagging down passing cars to come

and get some free pumpkins.

So I turned around and had the girls each pick one.

They had to be small, since the baby was

in the car seat, and he's over 20 lbs (what a chunk!).

Here they are (I included a pencil in the picture so you could see the size):

Day 20 & 21:

Made sugar cookie dough, chilled it overnight.

Cut out cutie Halloween cookies.

Day 22:

Attempted to frost them using royal icing, so it would set and be so beautiful.

It was okay, but I wasn't very pleased with the results:

 Plus I kept dropping them on each other before the icing set,

so they were mainly turning out to be a big mess.

 Note to self - ice with buttercream.

Day 22:

Corn maze!

It was FREE!!  Woohoo!

Here we are at the end.

 Here we are when I lost my balance.  Luckily I caught myself and only my fingers

hit the mud.

Day 23:

Pumpkin patch.

It was a little more than we had expected to pay, having never been to one before.

They were 30 cents a pound.

But we only picked out two (thank goodness).

And while Daddy was paying, we found a big box of teeny pumpkins,

so the girls picked some up and we snapped a photo

'cause they are so cute!

31 Days of Halloween, 16 - 18

Happy National Chocolate Cupcake Day!!

These were delicious!

And so rich that I needed a glass of milk after eating one.

I'm SO glad I made these in mini size.

AND since I put them in

jack o'lantern wrappers, they are good for a day of Halloween.

Woohoo! for counting double.

 Day 16:

Chocolate cupcakes

Get this amazing recipe HERE.

Day 17

Milk Jug Jack O'Lanterns

Day 18:

Ghosties from garbage bags.

I used some mini white trash bags and balled up a

newspaper and then secured with white string.

Chocolate Cupcakes & Other Good Stuff

This Thursday is

Chocolate Cupcake Day!

Yum.

I am going to try a new recipe, which

I'm really hoping turns out as good as it looks.

Tomorrow is

Wear Something Gaudy Day

Apparently this is from the 70s, and the show Three's Company.

So grab something bright, showy,

outlandish, not in good taste, and join the celebration!

Sounds fun.

And right up my alley.

Sunday is the

6th Anniversary

for my husband and me.

That's right, it's been six whole years since we tied the knot.

And we are happy as clams.

Feel free to join the celebration.

31 Days of Halloween: 12 - 15

I know, I know, it's

FINALLY another post.

We had planned for one trip out of town this month, but

ended up having to go out of town again this last weekend.

So it's a catch-up kind of day again.

But it's a great one!

Here's the follow-up to Day 10, my

free Home Depot craft is finished.

 I kinda like it.

Day 12:

Mummify the front door.

After I looked at this picture, I added some

black eye balls, since I thought this was a little strange looking.

 

Day 13:

Paper pumpkins.

I used paper strips and small brads.

Day 14:

Tissue ghosts

Day 15:

ghost on the mirror

I cut out a ghost from some clear contact paper

and stuck it on the bathroom mirror downstairs.

So far, only my husband

has noticed it.

I saw this on pinterest, and the post suggested

that you use some cling wrap, but I don't buy that.

So I thought contact paper would work pretty good, and it did.

PLUS, I was able to draw out the image on the 

backing paper, which I'm not sure if cling wrap has that or not.

I'm still working on today's craft,

so I will have to post it tomorrow.

31 Days of Halloween: 9-11

Okay, here's the next three!

Day 9:
I made a banner for the mantle, which consists of
two pieces - the googly eyes on thread,
and some orange and white papers taped to some black ribbon.
Easy-peasy and cute.

 The whole look.

Day 10:
Last night, a friend and I went to
Home Depot to check out a new thing they are
doing at our store, a
FREE monthly craft night.
The craft last night was based on THIS PICTURE,
and here's how mine looks after last night.

 I'll be finishing it up today.
And post a finished picture later.

The craft night was pretty awesome - the four 2x4s were all
painted the base colors and drilled with holes,
because they are put together with dowels instead of screws.
And they provided more paint, markers, and some templates (I didn't use those).
Anything else that we wanted to have on it, we needed to bring it with us,
like gauze or material (or pink ribbon!) for the mummy.
You should check out if your Home Depot will be doing this, too - it was GREAT!!

Day 11:
That same friend brought me a piece
of her pumpkin cheesecake,
which I will enjoy as soon as I feed the baby.
I'm pretty excited because I could smell
the pumpkin as I was taking the picture - it took some restrain to
eat lunch first.

31 Days of Halloween, Days 3 - 8

Have you given up on me yet?

Sorry.

We went out of town for the weekend,

and I've been working on getting the house in order.

Even though we cleaned it pretty well before

we left, it's always a chore to get it cleaned up when we get home.

But, I have still been working on my 31 Days of Halloween.

Here's what I've done so far:

Day 3:

  Got out the decorations we already had

and decorated the downstairs.

 

Day 4:

 Printed out some Halloween cuties

and stuck them in frames, then added to the decor

from the day before.

You can find the subway art here, the witch here (available in 8 different colors),

and the say boo here.

Day 5:

 Printed and hung this free Trick or Treat banner.

You can find it here.

 Day 6:

 While we were at grandma's house, the girls

made some spooky haunted houses

with stickers inside the windows and doors.

Day 7:

 Then they made some bats out of circle heads with

pointy ears and tracing their hands for the wings.

Day 8:

 Of course we can't leave grandma's without

my sister painting the girls' nails.  One has candy corn

colors alternating on each finger and the

other has white with green and purple dots.

Or for a different candy corn approach,

see the toes below.  It's a mixture of what

the girls have, candy corn big toe and polka dots for the rest.

Super cute!

Thank you for the free printables to the blogs I linked to.

They have some great ideas, so be sure

to check them out.