Review of Gifts - Beat the Parents

(I figured out how to put in a picture for this one.)

Beat the Parents was one of my gifts that I received.

There are questions that kids ask parents and questions that parents ask kids. You move across the board in opposite directions. If you land on the same space, you can move your opponent back. (Instead of Battle of the Sexes, it's parents versus kids.) The box says ages 6+.

We've played this game a couple of times. It's not a good fit for our family. Our kids trounce on on the parents. When our kids can win the game and we are virtually at the starting line, it's not a ton of fun.

Why is it not a good fit for our family? The parents in our family are not familiar with all of the teeny-bopper shows on Disney Channel, we do not know much about Harry Potter or the Lord of the Rings Trilogy and our repertoire of pre-teen music is limited. In our opinion, the kids questions are pretty easy general trivia and the parents questions are pop culture for children and pre-teens from the 2000's. With our family, it makes for a very one-sided game. The kids are good generalists on things like primary colors, names of continents, identification of mammal, reptile or fish, etc. The parents don't watch the Disney Channel or listen to teeny-bopper music.

This game will be for sale or donated soon. If your family is somewhat like ours, I do not recommend this game. Let me know if you would like to buy it from us!

Reviews of gifts - Rory's Story Cubes

We received Rory's Story Cubes as a gift this year. We already had these, but I wanted to sing their praises and will be happily re-gifting these!

The story cubes are a set of 9 six-sides cubes with different pictures.

You roll the cubes and then tell a story based on what you see. There aren't really rules, the cubes are just a "help" in being imaginative.

We've played where the cubes are rolled and each person works on a story one cube at a time alternating with each cube. We've also played where a person has to tell part of the story with everything that they rolled and the next person rolls all of the cubes again and continues with the story.

Most recently, we had a Benjamin Franklin themed time with the cubes. Each one of us rolled and we had to talk about Benjamin Franklin based on the cubes that came up. (I knew that there was a picture of a key and a picture of a lightening bolt so those were easy. A turtle kept coming up during this session and we were concluding that he did not study sea turtles, but you never know.)

I would like to incorporate these more into my homeschool writing assignments. We struggle with writing, and I hope that we can maybe use the story cubes to get some more creative writing done!

They come in a fun package too which is always good for containment and transport! The box says 8+ for ages. Adults can even have fun with this one!

If you are in Rolla, these were at Rolla Toy and Book and here's the link to Amazon. (I do not get any commission from this link.)

Compost!

So life has been so full of adventure blogging hasn't been a big priority!

A few weekends ago it was time to work on the garden and prepare for winter. It was time to take down the compost pile and rebuild it. I hoped there was some good stuff in the bottom and there were some big holes between layers of bigger stuff.

As I took it apart, I started to be sad that I didn't have something that looked like beautiful compost that you see from Martha Stewart or other gardening guru. Then I realized, that I was messing with dirt that was not identifiable beyond dirt.

Really, how cool is it that we throw carrot peels, potato peels, pepper innards, apple cores, cantaloupes rinds and other fruit and vegetable scraps in the garden every few days. Then, on an October day I dump out the pile and almost nothing is recognizable except some egg shells and avocado pits. So, my compost is not perfect looking, but I do have something to amend my soil with! I transported at least 15 gallons of stuff to other parts of the garden. That's 15 gallons of stuff that I didn't have to buy!

As a kid my mom composted and I thought it was pretty silly, but I do appreciate it so much more now. My husband is always looking for some type of gadget to make compost faster but I tend to be pretty content with my round mesh bin and dumping it in the spring and fall to get the good stuff from the bottom. The automatic composter died and was taken apart the same day that I pulled the compost bin apart.

As an aside, I found lots of little pieces of concrete in my compost pile. I was perplexed about where those came from...we finally determined that they were from fireworks. We burned all of the cardboard from our 4th of July fireworks and put the ashes in the compost. I guess they put some small plugs in fireworks to keep them weighted so the bases stay put!

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Starting School Tomorrow

Tomorrow morning, we are starting school for the year! I still need to figure out exactly what we are going to do tomorrow, but we are going to make a start :)

I will be placing an order for curriculum tonight. I've known what we were planning to use for awhile, but just haven't placed an order yet. I have quite a few of the books already so I needed to go through those and we did that last week.

Our school rule for this year: Boys have to be out of bed by 7:15 and ready for school at 8:30. To be ready for school, they need to get dressed, pick up their room, eat breakfast, clean-up breakfast and brush teeth!

I think we'll start with prayer and writing a grandparent letter tomorrow and we'll see what else we can muster up to get us going!

Spring Update!

No pictures, but the peas are coming up nicely! I did get some radishes and lettuce and black beans in the ground on Sunday afternoon. The gladiolas are coming up! I'm excited about that since it's the first time that I've tried to dig those up in the fall and plant in the spring. Tomorrow I think we'll get some flowers and other vegetable plants! The phlox on the front walk looks beautiful! The stone edging looks really great! The Grape Hyacinth looks very pretty with it's border too! Daffodils are done, but the iris are coming up lovely! We have a little bit of lilac blooming...I need to bring some of that in the house tomorrow! Yea spring!

How Big of Bargain is it really?

It's fun to come home from a store with a big bag full of stuff and tout how little you paid for it. As I read blogs about people who are always out for the deal, I'm challenged to follow the money or lack there of and think about how I would like to keep my country afloat and have jobs created for people here and not sent overseas. If I go to the grocery store and pick out $100 worth of items from the shelf and in the end my total goes down to $50 because of coupons and deals, what has just happened? What would be the affect if I somehow got the total down under $5? Are the prices higher so the store can still make money on people like me who use coupons? Are those who don't use coupons then paying even more to cover my cost? The store will get reimbursed for the coupons, but how long do they have to float the money before they see reimbursement? What does that do to their bottom line? If I get the total down so low, who is actually paying for the food? Who is paying for the transportation costs? Who is paying for the laborer who harvested the food or butchered the animal? Is it more important for me to temporarily get a "great deal" where the money doesn't go out of my pocket right now? or is better for me to support local business and actually use my money wisely so living wages can be paid to everyone involved in the food chain and keep as many jobs in our country as possible?

I can't believe it's April!

Yes, it's April. I do have peas planted in my garden, but no lettuce and radish. I have the seeds, they just aren't in the ground. I did get my gladiolus bulbs in the ground too that I faithfully dug up in the fall. Hmmm, I wonder if they have sprouted, I need to look.

We've had a fabulous winter! I'm so thankful that we've had the opportunities that we've had so far n 2011 and it's just the beginning of April.

Here's a run down...

January - spent 10 days in Washington, D.C. area. So blessed that our friends came down to visit for the weekend because we miss them so much! The boys and I had a blast visiting all of the sites around Washington, D.C. when there weren't any lines. Breakfast and pool were still probably their favorites! (My husband had to work.)

Came home for a week and then headed to Texas for 11 days. We were able to see old friends in Dallas which was so great. Then to Houston area for my husband to take a class. The rest of the family hung out in the hotel quite a bit and once again visited with some friends and let our kids play together! At the end of the trip, we headed to Dallas to celebrate a grandmother's 90th birthday!

We drove home thankful for the radar on our phones to watch the winter storm a-brewing. School was closed for the rest of the week I think because it was pretty slick and REALLY cold.

During the great snow, I get a phone call asking if I was available to do some Cerner work. So, by the end of February four of us flew to Seattle and headed to Vancouver for me to work for three weeks. Wow, how blessed I was that the opportunity worked out as it did. I couldn't have planned it, I know that the Lord was so involved. After a brief half day delay at the border, we spent most of the next three weeks in the lovely city of Vancouver. My husband was able join us for the last week!

We spent a week of March at home and then got on another airplane and headed to Tampa! This trip was planned way before the Vancouver opportunity arose. We enjoyed some sun and relaxation there!

Now it's April and I really haven't been home much. I did extend my contract beyond the three weeks that were in Vancouver. I have promised that my primary responsibilities are still to be a wife and mother! I'm grateful that my memory served me well that I remember all this great Cerner stuff and the client was happy with my skills to let me set my parameters!

Now, on with spring!

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Washington, D.C. what fun!

We are home after an great and adventurous trip to Washington, D.C.

My wonderful husband had to do some work out there so the rest of us went along for the ride! And some people wonder why we homeschool, this was one of those reasons why!!!

Before we went I was challenged by how much did we need to do to justify it being school site seeing, but the boys were amazing. We didn't follow curriculum, but they definitely learned a lot! Todd challenged the boys to come up with three questions to stump him with every night. That was a great challenge and they took it very seriously, especially when dad started offering a "Lego Buck" when they were able to stump him! (They usually even had more than three questions to ensure their stump.)

We are creating some lapbooks from our trip as suggested by my friend Jan Bloom. We've only done of these before, so I'll post pictures when we are done.

Wonderful stuff:

Going in January - NO lines, personal tours, not crowded

Hotel Staff that was amazing to us - rides to and from the Metro everyday, breakfast staff so friendly, lifeguards at the pool (life guards are required in VA at pools)

Free stuff all over D.C.

My highlights:

My boys were interested in most museums!

My boys had enough stamina to actually enjoy going to museums all of the time.

I was able to calm down and enjoy what we got to see and not stress (too much) about not seeing it all. (Hopefully we get to go back.)

We didn't get separated on the Metro which we rode every day!

Here's a quick rundown of what we did:

Day 2 - Smithsonian National Museum of American History (great hands on exhibits and the "Star Spangled Banner Exhibit" was very cool), U.S. Marine Memorial (Iwo Jima)

Day 3 - Smithsonian National Zoo

Day 4 - Capitol Tour, ran into John McCain at the capitol basement, Visiting with Congresswoman Jo Ann Emerson, Library of Congress. Orsborn's arrive!

Day 5 - Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, Lincoln Memorial, Old Post Office Pavilion – Look out across the city

Day 6 - (Just the girls and the baby) Smithsonian National Museum of American History - First Ladies Dresses and Julia Child's Kitchen

Day 7 - Bureau of Printing and Engraving, Washington Monument, CP-3O at National Museum of American History (just a photo op), National Archives

Day 8 - Arlington National Cemetery, Lego Store shopping

Day 9 - Smithsonian Museum of National History - ran into a homeschool group and joined their activity, IMAX Grand Canyon Adventure in 3D, Dinner with Todd's boss's family...veteran homeschoolers even!

Day 10 - National Building Museum (The boy's favorite - Lego Exhibit.)

Days 1 an 11 were travel days...

None of us were ready to come home. I need to evaluate what we so great about this trip so we can maybe replicate some of that at home. I of course loved not cooking or cleaning a kitchen for 10 years and not having to clean a house...not sure that it's realistic to have that be a part of our every day life!

Things that pain me...

Realization that non disposable items need to be replaced. (Silly things like dish towels and cloths and my clothes.) I think about my mom using the same hot pads that we used when I lived at home but mine that are less than 10 years old are falling apart! Why do I need new ones and she doesn't. (Even though I got some for Christmas, this still pains me, why or why?)

When to stop cleaning/picking up. I am NOT the neat freak of the family but I don't necessarily like messes. But if I start to pick up or clean something then I keep seeing more things that need to be cleaned or picked up and I just don't know when or where is reasonable to stop! Everything will take just a minute or 5 or 10, but when you have 10 things to do that just take 10 minutes, that's over an hour and a half...and dinner was supposed to be done by then....ugh! There is ALWAYS something more to do, but my husband will always wonder why I didn't choose to do thing that he happens to see because it would only take a minute or 5 or 10!

I know that there are more, but I do need to feed my family now....

2011 - What I'm hoping to do...

When I do make a resolution, I really attempt to fulfill it! I haven't done for awhile but I have one this year. Unfortunately my resolution will be hard to measure.

My goal is to have a "lighter" house at the end of 2011.

I of course, can't weigh my house and it's contents so I won't be able to know if my house weighs less or not. I can judge by the amount of stuff that is stashed in closets and under beds and such.

I tend to keep things just in case or hold off from using items until the best time. This year there will be candles burning in my house. I will get rid of clothes that I don't wear. I will allow my children to purge more things even if they are good toys.

We will probably have more books at the end of the year which means I need to purge more of other things. I can get rid of all but the best early readers and small children books!

Please feel free to ask me how I'm doing!

Shopping, Money, Commercialism, Thrifty and more - Part 2

Something that's been on my mind a lot has been this article that I read "10 Things we don't spend money on". The first item on the list was restaurants. We don't eat too out much. There are two main reasons for us eating in more than eating out. First, in our town there aren't that many restaurants that really tempt us to eat out. Second, our budget allocations have changed over the last five years which keeps us in more. When we do indulge in a treat of eating out, I'm happy that there are places to go and eat for us to enjoy.

The article writer says that they do go out to eat but only when they've figured out how to get a free gift card or have some type of groupon deal so it's really cheap. I'm having a hard time with this concept. As I've said before, I'm all for a good deal, but when we get to restaurants I get to see the people involved in the deal and start to think about how the dollars are flowing.

Restaurants need to buy food, pay employees, advertise, buy insurance and all kinds of expenses that I don't even want to understand...I want restaurants to be there for those times that we do get to have a treat or we are on a trip and I didn't make the effort to pack a meal.

I am starting to better understand that I need to pay for these services that others are providing and restaurants is definitely one of those services that have a direct correlation with the dollars in my pocket. If I go to a restaurant and don't really spend any money then can I really expect them to be there the next time? If everyone came in with a coupon, they couldn't stay afloat unless they raised their prices high enough to cover the coupon. Is the coupon really then a deal?

For 2011, we aren't necessarily going to have more money to spend than we did in 2010 (especially with Obama stopping federal employee pay raises), but I am going to be more thoughtful of how I do spend the money that I can put into the economy. I hope to truly support businesses this year and not just take advantage of them.