Monday, July 18, 2011
Vacations, Missions, and Birthdays, oh my!
I have tons to write about. While I was on vacation, I worked on several blogs, but didn't finish any to post. I hope to get that done soon. As a family, we did Houston Project last week. Houston Project is a week long city-wide mission project. My family is visiting right now and we have been on the go! We celebrated my son's birthday yesterday at the Children's Museum. I hosted a party with a friend of mine whose son turns five in a couple of weeks. The boys have the same group of friends, so we had a joint party. The museum was crazy crowded, but we had a really good time. We had a guide that took the kids to various parts of the museum. It was a play tour! The playtime for the party flew by! The newly renovated museum is really cool it makes me wish I was a kid again. My sister-in-law and I are off to The Woodlands today. She lives in a small town in Alabama and loves to come explore my big city after being raised in a big city.
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
VBSing done
We finished our week at VBS strong. In my last post, I wasn't sure how the t-shirts would wash. After some Internet research, I heat set my children's t-shirts from Day 2 before washing them. The Staz-On did not bleed at all. A couple of the blue/green sharpie colors ran slightly. If I ever do any more T-shirts with ink, I will plan to tell the parents to heat set the shirts prior to washing. The Staz-On also says it is not recommended for fabric. I searched for the reason. A post on a message board said according to Tsukineko it was due to the solvent ink. It may deteriorate the fabric over time.
For the t-shirt project, I wanted to do something a bit different than what I kept seeing. I saw, "I *heart* VBS everywhere. While I do love VBS, I wanted to send a different message. I truly *heart* Jesus. I decided to put that on the shirts. I needed 8-9 stamp sets with those characters. After looking around, I decided to make my own. I used foam alphabet letters for the I. I stuck two letters together to build it them up a bit. The next challenge was to make a block for it. I wanted to be able to see through it, so the children could see which was they were stamping. I brainstormed and looked for weeks. One day in Michaels, I happened on these:
I took them apart, took the pin out and attached the foam letter with foam tape. I used both the front and back pieces for my stamps. I needed handles and found large foam marshmallows in our resource room at church. I used e6000 to glue the handles to the plastic name badge parts. I repeated the process with foam hearts for my second stamp. Finding the word Jesus was a bit harder. At Hobby Lobby, I came upon the word Jesus. It was a wood cut out in located their seasonal VBS section. I bought three packages so I would have nine pieces and kept looking. I never found anything else. I considered ordering a Jesus die for the die cut machine at church. To make my Jesus stamp, I attached craft foam to the back side of the wood cut out and used an Exacto to cut out all the nooks and crannies. Then, I used foam tape to attach the front side of the cut out to wood blocks. This way the word would be reversed and stamp correctly, My husband cut the wood, routed the edges of the blocks, and then cut them to size. Here are my finished products:
On Thursday, the children studied the story of the woman at the well with Jesus. I used the literature suggestion for a reminder well. Instead of using vegetable cans we used Crystal Light containers. I also made the stamps for this project. I cut sponges to look like bricks and then added small foam marshmallows as handles. I found the marshmallows at Michael's. That was a nice addition to the project because it kept the children's hands out of the the ink. You can see them in the below picture if you squint. There is a green and white object in the front left of the picture. That is the brick stamp. Here is the room prior to the first rotation of kids:
For the t-shirt project, I wanted to do something a bit different than what I kept seeing. I saw, "I *heart* VBS everywhere. While I do love VBS, I wanted to send a different message. I truly *heart* Jesus. I decided to put that on the shirts. I needed 8-9 stamp sets with those characters. After looking around, I decided to make my own. I used foam alphabet letters for the I. I stuck two letters together to build it them up a bit. The next challenge was to make a block for it. I wanted to be able to see through it, so the children could see which was they were stamping. I brainstormed and looked for weeks. One day in Michaels, I happened on these:
I took them apart, took the pin out and attached the foam letter with foam tape. I used both the front and back pieces for my stamps. I needed handles and found large foam marshmallows in our resource room at church. I used e6000 to glue the handles to the plastic name badge parts. I repeated the process with foam hearts for my second stamp. Finding the word Jesus was a bit harder. At Hobby Lobby, I came upon the word Jesus. It was a wood cut out in located their seasonal VBS section. I bought three packages so I would have nine pieces and kept looking. I never found anything else. I considered ordering a Jesus die for the die cut machine at church. To make my Jesus stamp, I attached craft foam to the back side of the wood cut out and used an Exacto to cut out all the nooks and crannies. Then, I used foam tape to attach the front side of the cut out to wood blocks. This way the word would be reversed and stamp correctly, My husband cut the wood, routed the edges of the blocks, and then cut them to size. Here are my finished products:
On Thursday, the children studied the story of the woman at the well with Jesus. I used the literature suggestion for a reminder well. Instead of using vegetable cans we used Crystal Light containers. I also made the stamps for this project. I cut sponges to look like bricks and then added small foam marshmallows as handles. I found the marshmallows at Michael's. That was a nice addition to the project because it kept the children's hands out of the the ink. You can see them in the below picture if you squint. There is a green and white object in the front left of the picture. That is the brick stamp. Here is the room prior to the first rotation of kids:
I used plastic sheeting on the floor to protect the carpet. It was essentially plastic garbage bag material. I used rolled plastic on the tables. That was nice because it could be rolled up, thrown away and replaced easily.
On Friday we made Jesus buddies. It was a variation on the literature suggestion. When my daughter was four, she was sure Jesus had purple hair because she loved purple and loved Jesus. I told the kids to make their buddy look however they would like it to look. Some kids made themselves, some made Jesus, and some just did their own thing. I loved the creativity. The kids really enjoyed the craft. They worked really hard on them. Here are a few:
I used precut tag board shapes I bought at Michaels. We decorated with wiggly eyes, yarn for hair, jute cord, scrap fabric, and heart sticker for a mouth.
Each project we made had the scripture of the day on it. I either used computer generated labels or we, the volunteers, wrote the scripture on them. Each day after the children completed the first activity, I had a second activity. This kept my early finishers busy. I did a different project a day and repeated the watercoloring on Friday. My activities included: watercoloring a picture for a child in Africa, license plate rubbings, gluing magazine pictures to premade box buildings, and drawing with sidewalk chalk on black paper.
I had a blast doing VBS this year. I had great volunteers with beautiful hearts. I prayed through the projects and the Lord gave me some great ideas. I prayed for help seeing potential problems and He brought them to my mind or my volunteers mind. I covered the entire thing in prayer and the Lord blessed it. Now pray for the seeds that were planted in preschool hearts. I did *heart* VBS, but I *heart* Jesus more!
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
VBSing
We are visiting The Big Apple this year through VBS. I am the preschool crafts director for my VBS. I should have about 350 threes, fours, fives, and Kindergartners rotate through my room in a day. I have a great team to help me and I am having a blast!
I completed most of the prep work thanks a couple of workdays with my team in May. I had a few last minute things last week. One thing completed last week wasmaking decorating aprons. I started with a plain red apron. Then using my Silhouette, I cut out Craftonista, The Art District out of freezer paper. I ironed that on the front and painted the negative space. I came up with the name because our room is the Art District of the Big Apple. I am playing on the word Fashionista. I orginally got the idea from my daughter who called me a craftist which plays on the word artist.
Here is the step by step. After using my Silhouette to cut the word on freezer paper, I ironed it on the apron.
Then I painted with Black acrylic paint.
Yesterday was t-shirt day. We used the Staz-on ink again. We stamped I heart Jesus. Then, the kids decorated with sharpie marker. I did not heat set the shirts. One of my volunteers said she washed her shirts and a few colors ran. I am going to heat set and then hand wash the kids shirts to see what happens. So the jury is out on whether that was a good call on a craft or not. Here is my son's shirt before I wash it.
Today was picture frame day. We used this craft from Oriental Trading. It was super easy and the kids loved doing it.
Tomorrow is the reminder well and Friday is create Jesus puppets day. I keep hoping to snap a few pictures of the craft room in action, but we get so busy I forget.
VBS is a ton a fun and I'm loving it!
I completed most of the prep work thanks a couple of workdays with my team in May. I had a few last minute things last week. One thing completed last week was
Here is the step by step. After using my Silhouette to cut the word on freezer paper, I ironed it on the apron.
Then I painted with Black acrylic paint.
After the paint dried, I pulled off the freezer paper. There were a couple of mistakes which I remedied with red paint and no one has noticed.
I decided it needed more bling so I added some fringy stuff.
Done! My helpers love them!
We used Staz-On ink for two projects. Our aprons kept our clothes ink free!
Day one project was graffiti bags. I stamped in black Staz-on I heart VBS. The kids drew in washable markers on the bag as well. We sprayed the bag with water a few times. I didn't work on mine as hard as the kids worked on theirs. My pitiful example looks like this:
Yesterday was t-shirt day. We used the Staz-on ink again. We stamped I heart Jesus. Then, the kids decorated with sharpie marker. I did not heat set the shirts. One of my volunteers said she washed her shirts and a few colors ran. I am going to heat set and then hand wash the kids shirts to see what happens. So the jury is out on whether that was a good call on a craft or not. Here is my son's shirt before I wash it.
Today was picture frame day. We used this craft from Oriental Trading. It was super easy and the kids loved doing it.
Tomorrow is the reminder well and Friday is create Jesus puppets day. I keep hoping to snap a few pictures of the craft room in action, but we get so busy I forget.
VBS is a ton a fun and I'm loving it!
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Book Review: When Sparrows Fall
This book centers around a young widow, Miranda Hanford as she struggles to break away from a fringe church. Early on in the book, she is involved in an unfortunate accident. This accident results in her single half brother-in-law coming to help with her children while she recovers. Throughout her recovery, she works through various issues concerning her church and specifically the pastor. There is also a sense of coming-to-age. You watch the character mature and take a stand for herself at the end.
The book grabs your attention right away. The romance element was a bit predictable and somewhat forced. I found this book to be interesting overall because of the various twists the plot takes. I would recommend this as an easy summer read.
I recieved this book free for review purposes from Multnomah Waterbrook Publishers.
Thursday, June 9, 2011
Parent Participation Day
May is finally over! May is a rough month because tons of stuff happens in May. School is out now and I hope to be able to blog more.
One of the fun things we did in May was parent participation day at my son's gymnastics gym. My husband is awesome...let me just say that upfront. On parent participation day, he left work, came to the gym, changed clothes, and participated with my son for parent participation day, changed his clothes back, and then went back to work.
Here is my son with his coach.
One of the fun things we did in May was parent participation day at my son's gymnastics gym. My husband is awesome...let me just say that upfront. On parent participation day, he left work, came to the gym, changed clothes, and participated with my son for parent participation day, changed his clothes back, and then went back to work.
Here is my son with his coach.
They also did some floor exercises. This is my son demonstrating a handstand.
Not bad! He is improving his skills every week. We have seen lot of progress over the past year and a half that he has taken. His coach this year has been WONDERFUL!
Here is Jason doing some things with our son.
Saturday, June 4, 2011
The Garden
This spring we decided to to turn half our backyard into a garden. When we bought our house three years ago, half the backyard was planted with St. Augustine and the other half was planted with Bermuda. We got rid of the Bermuda to start the gardens. I've tried gardens in the past will little success. Usually, I get to busy and don't water them. I only agreed to this project with 100% participation from everyone else in my household. We even solicited the kids to help.
My husband scoured Craigslist for a few weeks looking for a rear tine tiller. We finally found one that met our requirements. It a A) didn't require too much work B) wasn't sold before we called on it and C) didn't cost as much as buying one new. Jason was looking as far as Austin and we found one less than 10 miles away from our house. While searching for the tiller, we took a soil sample and sent it off to TAMU for analysis. We added the needed nutrients and got started. Here it is in process.
We pulled tons of grass and weeds out of the areas. I researched on the internet what the best plant placement would be. From my research, I learned we should plant the corn and tomatoes in the north most point of the garden. The reason being that when they grew tall, they would not shade the shorter plants. My husband then made raised rows and we planted. We are using multiple soaker hoses to irrigate. This has worked well considering we still have a garden despite the severe drought. At first, we found the squirrels chewing into our soaker hoses for water. We put out a five gallon bucket of water which we change every 2 days. Now they drink out of it instead of chewing into our hoses. A pond is in the long range plans to provide water for the squirrels and birds. The pond will also encourage the toads to hang around and eat pests.
The garden looks like this now. The corn is as tall as me.
So far, we have corn almost ready for picking. We have picked and eaten: grape tomatoes, yellow tomatoes, green tomatoes, green beans, cucumbers, okra and tons of zucchini.
This was our first picking of zucchini. They were so big, I sent one to school for my daughter's teacher. The largest one measured 12" and it wasn't dry or bitter. One was enough to feed my family of four as a side dish for one meal.
Here is the cucumbers I sliced for dinner one night.
I made some fried green tomatoes with some of the tomatoes. I fried the okra as well. The rest has been steamed, grilled, or sautéed and eaten.
We are making notes this year how to improve and plant for next Spring. We plan to move the cucumbers to a less severely sunny spot, plant more corn rows and increase our number of green bean plants. We also do not plan to raise the rows. It makes irrigation a bit of a challenge. It has been fun to do the garden. My kids love going out and picking the veggies. They have also eaten everything I have prepared out of the garden. I firmly believe if they grow it, they will eat it.
We have been creative to keep the squirrels out of our garden. I read on the internet we could make a spray with tabasco sauce, vinegar, and water. It would repel animals. We also set out a fake owl which we move around. The animals ate a few things when our home made repellant wore off. We reapplied and they have stayed away again. We have used Neem Oil for some ant control. A friend suggest Orange Oil, but I haven't gotten any yet. Jason read coffee grounds work as well. I'm trying that for the ants. Since I love coffee guess where the grounds have been going. :) Here is a view of the okra. You can see a marigold we planted for pest control. We have been able to grow without pesticides.
We are also thinking of a Fall garden filled with lettuces and cool weather plants. There are many possibilities...
My husband scoured Craigslist for a few weeks looking for a rear tine tiller. We finally found one that met our requirements. It a A) didn't require too much work B) wasn't sold before we called on it and C) didn't cost as much as buying one new. Jason was looking as far as Austin and we found one less than 10 miles away from our house. While searching for the tiller, we took a soil sample and sent it off to TAMU for analysis. We added the needed nutrients and got started. Here it is in process.
We pulled tons of grass and weeds out of the areas. I researched on the internet what the best plant placement would be. From my research, I learned we should plant the corn and tomatoes in the north most point of the garden. The reason being that when they grew tall, they would not shade the shorter plants. My husband then made raised rows and we planted. We are using multiple soaker hoses to irrigate. This has worked well considering we still have a garden despite the severe drought. At first, we found the squirrels chewing into our soaker hoses for water. We put out a five gallon bucket of water which we change every 2 days. Now they drink out of it instead of chewing into our hoses. A pond is in the long range plans to provide water for the squirrels and birds. The pond will also encourage the toads to hang around and eat pests.
The garden looks like this now. The corn is as tall as me.
So far, we have corn almost ready for picking. We have picked and eaten: grape tomatoes, yellow tomatoes, green tomatoes, green beans, cucumbers, okra and tons of zucchini.
This was our first picking of zucchini. They were so big, I sent one to school for my daughter's teacher. The largest one measured 12" and it wasn't dry or bitter. One was enough to feed my family of four as a side dish for one meal.
Here is the cucumbers I sliced for dinner one night.
I made some fried green tomatoes with some of the tomatoes. I fried the okra as well. The rest has been steamed, grilled, or sautéed and eaten.
We are making notes this year how to improve and plant for next Spring. We plan to move the cucumbers to a less severely sunny spot, plant more corn rows and increase our number of green bean plants. We also do not plan to raise the rows. It makes irrigation a bit of a challenge. It has been fun to do the garden. My kids love going out and picking the veggies. They have also eaten everything I have prepared out of the garden. I firmly believe if they grow it, they will eat it.
We have been creative to keep the squirrels out of our garden. I read on the internet we could make a spray with tabasco sauce, vinegar, and water. It would repel animals. We also set out a fake owl which we move around. The animals ate a few things when our home made repellant wore off. We reapplied and they have stayed away again. We have used Neem Oil for some ant control. A friend suggest Orange Oil, but I haven't gotten any yet. Jason read coffee grounds work as well. I'm trying that for the ants. Since I love coffee guess where the grounds have been going. :) Here is a view of the okra. You can see a marigold we planted for pest control. We have been able to grow without pesticides.
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Houston Area Live Steamers
Jason had a fun event planned for us this past Saturday. We packed a picnic lunch and headed out. It involved this:
That is a miniature steamer train. My kids love trains. They cheer when I get stopped by a freight train in my wanderings around Houston. Jason found these and we headed out to Zube Park in Hockley to check out the Houston Area Live Steamers. HALS is open to the public the 3rd Saturday of the month from March to Novemeber. We got there about 11:00. There was a pretty long line by that time. They start giving rides at 9:00. HALS do not charge admission, but will accept donations.
We waited in line about 30 minutes, but it seemed to go fast. We watched the trains pull in and out of the station. They had 3 or 4 trains running at the time. As we waited, we got to watch them service a couple of the trains. The people running the club are really friendly. The trains are fascinating to watch. As we entered the station, this was some of the fun signage they had:
That is a miniature steamer train. My kids love trains. They cheer when I get stopped by a freight train in my wanderings around Houston. Jason found these and we headed out to Zube Park in Hockley to check out the Houston Area Live Steamers. HALS is open to the public the 3rd Saturday of the month from March to Novemeber. We got there about 11:00. There was a pretty long line by that time. They start giving rides at 9:00. HALS do not charge admission, but will accept donations.
We waited in line about 30 minutes, but it seemed to go fast. We watched the trains pull in and out of the station. They had 3 or 4 trains running at the time. As we waited, we got to watch them service a couple of the trains. The people running the club are really friendly. The trains are fascinating to watch. As we entered the station, this was some of the fun signage they had:
When our turn came we climbed aboard. The passenger seats are benches that you straddle.
The ride was about 10 minutes. The weather was an overcast, slightly breezy day which made the ride enjoyable. They had cute signage along the route. My favorite was "The Badlands, watch for snakes and alligators." Here is a sign I had my camera ready for:
At the end of the ride we headed to the other side of Zube Park for picnic lunch and then playtime on the play structures.
This park had some interesting play structures, but I didn't get any pictures of them. We headed home after playtime to check in on the puppy we are puppy sitting.
Monday, May 23, 2011
Four Legged House Guest
Tug-o-war is another favorite game. We're enjoying our little house guest. Marcy, Missy says, "Hi!"
Friday, May 13, 2011
Book Review: When the Soul Mends
This is a sweet story of relationships restored after an Amish girl chooses to leave her famly and the plain ways. A tragedy brings her back to her family for a visit. She must deal with her past in order to go on with her future.
I thought this book would hold a lot of promise. I enjoy fiction novels particularly about the Amish. This title is the third in a series. Since I jumped in the middle of the series, I spent the first 30-50 pages just trying to figure out who was who and their significance in the book. I liken it to going to a family reunion where you know no one and continually ask, "Who was that? Who do they belong to?" There is a chart of the characters at the front of the book which I referred to frequently. Once I had the characters and back stories straight, I was able to enjoy the book. I would not recommend jumping into this book without reading the first two. The character is very believable in her struggle between her past and her present lives. The author is obviously versed in Amish custom because the Amish people are not mischaracterized.
This was a good read once I got past my initial confusion. It was well paced and interesting.
I received this book free from Waterbrook-Multnomah Publishing for the purposes of review. All opinions expressed are my own.
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Holiday Posting
I noticed my last post was at Easter. Now I am posting about Mother's Day. I hope to have time to blog about more than holidays going forward. We've finished a home improvement project that was a huge time commitment. That being said, I had to let other things slide. I am gearing up for VBS at my church. My projects are planned, my materials list is in, and we have a workdays to start prepping stuff this week and next. I must say I have been blessed by the wonderful people God has put on my team this year. I can tell they will be fabulous. We are doing the art room for preschool. How fun is that??? I want to have all the prep work done well before VBS, so I can sit back, execute the plans, and not be stressed by it all.
Last summer, I was CRAZY busy all summer. I will not do that to myself again. I hope to spend many days at the pool teaching my kids to swim, AGAIN. Every summer I teach my kids to swim, then we spend some time at the beginning of the summer relearning. I really wanted to put them on a summer swim team, but I am also cutting back on activities to avoid the CRAZY summer. I think my daughter is going to take gymnastics lessons this summer, while my son takes a break from gymnastics. I really wanted to put them in classes at the same time, but the class times don't match up. Also, I will say...classes are not cheap. Little man and I will get some quality time while sister takes her class. She looks forward summer gymnastics because I won't let her take during the school year. I am planning some morning schooling activities for us as well. I am the mean Mama who makes my children school year round. There is tremendous loss of knowledge with a long summer break. We do school to keep this from happening. Maybe one day the successful professionals my children become will thank me or maybe they will just hate me for it.
I started this post to talk about Mother's Day. On Mother's Day, the kids bounced up out of bed at 7:00. Jason and I just groaned and rolled over. We have worn ourselves out with our project. The kids were so cute. They made invitations to a party. Jason and I each got one. They also posted signs leading up stairs to the party room. I sat in the hula hoop with a crown on my head to open...THE gift. My daughter's teacher made each mother a book. The students in the class drew a page about why he/she loved his/her mother. She them compiled them all into a book and bound it. It was really cute. Jason gave me a beautiful rose bush. The flowers are white with red tips. I love roses. I nursed three bushes back from the brink of death at our house in Woodridge. I haven't had any roses to mess with since we moved from Illinois. I'm excited about this one. My first challenge right now is to keep alive through our drought. We had a great morning at church. Our church always gives gift to the oldest mother. They have ALL the mothers stand up to start. At 33, I sincerely doubt I am the oldest mother, but I did it anyway. I used to hide in the balcony and not feel weird about standing up, but now we sit on the bottom floor and well, it is weird. Two sweet 90 year olds won this year in our service. They were as cute as could be. After church, we came home and later went to my Mom's house. We ate and spent time together. It is a blessing to be back in Houston and get to see my Mom and Grandmother so regularly. I enjoy getting to see my family.
I have several things to accomplish today. I'm off.
Last summer, I was CRAZY busy all summer. I will not do that to myself again. I hope to spend many days at the pool teaching my kids to swim, AGAIN. Every summer I teach my kids to swim, then we spend some time at the beginning of the summer relearning. I really wanted to put them on a summer swim team, but I am also cutting back on activities to avoid the CRAZY summer. I think my daughter is going to take gymnastics lessons this summer, while my son takes a break from gymnastics. I really wanted to put them in classes at the same time, but the class times don't match up. Also, I will say...classes are not cheap. Little man and I will get some quality time while sister takes her class. She looks forward summer gymnastics because I won't let her take during the school year. I am planning some morning schooling activities for us as well. I am the mean Mama who makes my children school year round. There is tremendous loss of knowledge with a long summer break. We do school to keep this from happening. Maybe one day the successful professionals my children become will thank me or maybe they will just hate me for it.
I started this post to talk about Mother's Day. On Mother's Day, the kids bounced up out of bed at 7:00. Jason and I just groaned and rolled over. We have worn ourselves out with our project. The kids were so cute. They made invitations to a party. Jason and I each got one. They also posted signs leading up stairs to the party room. I sat in the hula hoop with a crown on my head to open...THE gift. My daughter's teacher made each mother a book. The students in the class drew a page about why he/she loved his/her mother. She them compiled them all into a book and bound it. It was really cute. Jason gave me a beautiful rose bush. The flowers are white with red tips. I love roses. I nursed three bushes back from the brink of death at our house in Woodridge. I haven't had any roses to mess with since we moved from Illinois. I'm excited about this one. My first challenge right now is to keep alive through our drought. We had a great morning at church. Our church always gives gift to the oldest mother. They have ALL the mothers stand up to start. At 33, I sincerely doubt I am the oldest mother, but I did it anyway. I used to hide in the balcony and not feel weird about standing up, but now we sit on the bottom floor and well, it is weird. Two sweet 90 year olds won this year in our service. They were as cute as could be. After church, we came home and later went to my Mom's house. We ate and spent time together. It is a blessing to be back in Houston and get to see my Mom and Grandmother so regularly. I enjoy getting to see my family.
I have several things to accomplish today. I'm off.
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