Feeling Crafty

Really enjoying the new craft area. It's amazing how a little bit of organization sparks my creativity. Here are some cards that I have made the last couple of days.

My darling Ann was feeling left our and wanted to make something herself so she picked out a project from a craft book- Princess hat.

My Cardmaking and Scrapbooking Obsession

Three CHEERS for my husband-

Hip, Hip, Hooray!

Hip, Hip, Hooray!

Hip, Hip, Hooray!

Thanks to David my crafting supplies are now in order. Isn't this a great peg board he made me??? He also made my work area. It's tall enough that I can stand and work on layouts, I find that I work better that way. Hopefully now that I am so organized I can start posting all of the wonderfull things I make here on my blogspot.

On the opposite side of the room I have our homeschool area set up. I wanted to post pictures of it as well but no where in my hometown sells HandyTack so that I can decorate my walls! So I will post those pics at a later time.

Creation Museum: A Critique

This past week David and I made the 300 mile trek to the Creation Museum. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the museum it is dedicated to documenting and showing evidence for the creationist view of where life began, with God.

For this venture David and I opted to leave the kids at home and I am glad of it. While it was a very family friendly place to visit, the kids aren't old enough to appreciate the topic ( at least not enough to outweigh a night alone with my husband). We arrived to the CM just before open, with a line already forming. A security officer who noticed my husbands style of haircut came out of his way to remind us that he should present his identification to receive their police, fire, military discount. I wonder if my haircut screams 'stay at home- homeschool mom'-more then likely. Any ways- My husband did present his ID and he got in free and I for half-price. We did go ahead and add on the planetarium making our total cost $27. A bargain I think.

We began our museum exploration with the planetarium. The planetarium show was wonderful. It reminded me of just how small that we are in the great big cosmic scope of things- from our Sun you wouldn't be able to see the Earth, from the Milky Way Galaxy you wouldn't see the Sun, half way across the universe you wouldn't see our Galaxy- yet this is where God choose to send his Son for us to be saved by! Well worth the extra money.

We then toured of the exhibits. The exhibits were all very nicely presented with all of the technological advances that you would see in other museums. Exhibits took us through the fall of mankind, Noah's flood-to remove wickedness from the Earth and how this plays into the 'Young Earth Theory', and through the wickedness seen in the world today- suggesting an eminent threat of Christ's return to Earth. However I was disappointed with all of this- I already believed all of this before I went. What I was looking for was more detail and it simply was not there. I know that these details exist and are fact based, I have seen them. I was really surprised that there was nothing dedicated to the discussion on problems with carbon dating. An unbeliever would not be able to take much away from this experience due to the lack of these details.

Outside of the building there is a wonderful and beautiful botanical garden- a true testimony to God's magnificent artistry. Also their is a well maintained petting zoo. I must say that customer service was unmatched-ever helpful without being a bit overbearing. And the food was better here then any other museum I have encountered. The picture above was taken from the dining balcony overlooking the pond and gardens.

All in all the Creation Museum was very nice and not a bad idea but... I left wanting more.

Tea for Me.... and my Friends

Ann has been asking to have a tea party for weeks and I have been putting her off. I finally ran out of excuses this week and we invited friends to tea yesterday. The girls love to put on their princess costumes and play act as adults taking tea, this time Snow white and a Pirate Princess. The Pirate Princess (Kay) became a 'nude' Princess when she shucked her clothing shortly before our guests arrived. We went on to have a great tea without further incident. Our Menu included- Mini Ham Crescent Puffs, Cherry Chicken Salad, Cream Cheese and Strawberry Sandwiches, Deviled Eggs, Lemon Shortbread Cookies and Strawberry Cupcakes, all served with Stash Vanilla Chai Tea(very good). I am delighted to say that I made everything myself save the cookies.

Here is a recipe for the particularly easy Mini Ham Crescent Puffs-

1 (2.5 oz) pkg. processed ham
1 Tbs. Onion Onion seasoning from Tastefully Simple
1 egg, slightly beaten
1/2 c. shredded cheese (I used Mexican blend cheese that I had on hand)
1/8 tsp. course ground black pepper
1 1/2 tsp. mustard
Cooking spray
1 (8 oz.) pkg. crescent rolls

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Chop in food chopper. Place in bowl. Add Onion onion, egg, cheese, pepper, and mustard. Stir to combine. Spray mini muffin pan with cooking spray. Unroll crescent rolls and press dough into one large rectangle. Cut rectangle into 24 pieces using a pizza cutter. Place dough pieces in mini muffin pan cups. place filling in cups. Bake 15 minutes or until lightly brown.

Conservation

This year I resolved to help planet earth by making the switch from plastic grocery bags to reusable cloth.

For the past year or so, I have already been doing this with my library bags. The libraries in our area give out heavy duty, plastic bags to patrons each visit. When I began reusing the bags I at first got some rather strange looks. I then made the switch to the cloth bags about 6 months ago when one of the local library systems that I use got rid of the plastic bags all together. I have to say that I love the convenience of the bags, especiallly with two small children to keep track of. It is much easier to tuck the books in the sack, keeping my hands free to grab escaping children.

Now back to my grocery bag usage. This past week Walgreens had thier bags on sale 3/$1. What better time then this to have purshased bags? So I bought 6, the limit. Because the bags do not appear to be ultra washable I will still use plastic for meat products. So far I have made 2 trips to the grocery and have used the bags only one time. We will see how it goes.

Introducing... ME

I thought that my first post should tell you a little about me and therefore the kind of blog this is to be. I am 28 years old. I am a Christian, a wife, and a mother. I aspire to one day be debt free, be somewhat self-sufficient, produce homeschooled graduates and make a difference in the lives of people around me. Oh, also I would love to one day write a book- this will be a long time coming due to the fact that I have preschoolers, hence brain drain.


About my family.

My husband, David, and I have been married for 8 years. He works in the area of law enforcement, serves in a military branch and works a part time job as a locksmith. We are blissfully happy together and credit this entirely to our common faith in God.

We have two daughters, Ann age 4 and Kay age 2. They are both absolute darlings at times and wild children at other times. Better blog names for them would probably be "Queen Supreme" and "Crazy Pants". However, they may come to resent these names so we will keep it simple. Ann will begin Homeschooled Kindergarten in August, Kay will be running around distracting her and I both.



We live in a rural area and love it. We have 2 dogs Pippy a beagle and Major a black lab and also a recently adopted stray puppy who we have named Ally. We also have cats- Honey, Bit and Sunny. And we have chickens 5- which should begin laying in the next month or two.