My silly kids!

I think they are going to be very excited when Spring arrives!

Learning about Connecticut and Massachusetts

Last week we learned about Connecticut. I am rather slow in posting about it. Here are some facts about Connecticut:

• The state bird is the Robin. (That is why I decided to post my baby robin picture that I took last Spring.)
• The state tree is the White Oak.
• It is the 3rd smallest state in land size.
• Connecticut's capital, Hartford is also the Insurance capital of the United States. I guess over 50 insurance companies have there headquarters there. This was especially interesting to us as Ken is an insurance agent.
• Connecticut is a leader in Computer parts, submarines, jet aircraft engines, helicopters, ball bearings and roller bearings.

Here is a list of famous people from Connecticut.

Here are some interesting facts about Connecticut.

One of the things we enjoyed eating was Connecticut Beef Supper. When I went searching for Connecticut recipes on line I found a bunch of versions of this recipe. I assume it must be popular. We found it quite good and pretty economical. Another thing we ate was Clam chowder. We also ate Hamburgers which are thought to be first made in Connecticut.

This Week we are having a blast studying about Massachusetts. Are any of you from Mass. ? As always we are seeking any info you would like to share about your state. Also we would like to try recipes that you like. Next week we are studying about Maryland and we would love to hear any information that you would like to share about that state.

Decorating our girls' room frugaly

Lately we have been having a wonderful time decorating Mara and

Megan's room. We are doing it in a butterfly and flower theme. You can see my post on Megan's dresser here and Mara's canopy of sorts here. What has been really fun about this project is the fact that we have been able to put something together that the girls (Mara especially as Megan is a little small to care much) really like for very little money. I think I have spent about $8 so far and the other things that I have planned to make are also from things that we already have on hand.

Our very first project for decorating the room was stamping a swag of butterflys, dragonflys and flowers all around the room. My friend Irindee came over and helped Mara and I do it and we had a fun time. We used 44 cent bottles of Acrylic paint from Walmart. I bought one bottle each of purple, lavender, hot pink and light pink. So far I have had enough paint for the wall, making butterflys and I still have a little paint left.

This bulletin board is one of our other recent projects. Mara already had the bulletin board but it was showing signs of wear and missing the things to hang it up with. I took some of the extra tulle and twisted the lavender and pink together and fastened it around the edge. On top of the tulle I hot glued butterflys and flowers that Keren, Mara and I had made by painting on coffee filters. I also attached a rose that Mara had made earlier from coffee filters.
I happended to find some jewel flowers when I was looking in our bead box(they had come off of a project the kids had made at church) and so I glued on some of those too. Then we came up with the fun idea of gluing some of the little jewel flowers on the ends of the tacks so we have fancy tacks.

We have quite a few more things that we are planning on doing in the room including a new valance, covering for the night stand, a mobile for above Megan's bed and eventually a quilt as well as other things. I will be keeping you posted.



For more frugal ideas visit Frugal Friday at Biblical Womanhood.

As always I love to hear suggestions, ideas and comments from you!!

Satisfaction

As I was washing dishes this evening I was thinking about all the things that give me a great feeling of satisfaction. I thought I would share them with you. You might think I am weird on some of them but I guess you might be right. What gives you a feeling of satisfaction? Here are mine:

• Cleaning up a mess. Such as a dirty diaper, a stack of dirty dishes or a yucky toilet.
• Wearing something out - all the way out. I love thoroughly wearing my clothes and shoes out. I hate throughing something away until it is completely no good anymore.
• Creating order from chaos. Organizing something is very satisfying for me.
• Weeding a section in the garden.
• Using something up. I love it when I can figure out how to use up odd leftovers or tiny scraps of cloth or paper so that nothing goes to waste.
• Studying and gaining insight from the Bible.
• A day well spent. One that might be full of mundane activities but if I work hard, having a good attitude and get to spend loving time with my family, that is very satisfying to me.
• And most of all having the Holy Spirit in my life and a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. The song "Who can satisfy my soul like You?" by Dennis L. Jernigan describes my feelings very well. Psalm 107:8 & 9 says "Let them give thanks to the Lord for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for men, for he satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things."

Happy Valentines day to all of you! I hope you get to spend time with those you love. Also I hope you know the love of the One who loves you more than anyone else ever has or will. Jesus loved you so much that He died for you and He wants to be your Savior and Friend.

Organizing our utility room and teaching Kids to work to earn money

Yesterday I was able to get a lot done, largely in part because I had a willing worker. Jonathan has decided he wants to buy an I-pod. Ken has one (which he won as a door prize) and Jonathan thinks he needs one too. Something that I really appreciate about our kids is that when they want something they very rarely ask us to buy it for them. They try to figure out how they can make it or how they can earn money for it. Last year Mara wanted a new bike and though we would have bought it for her for her birthday that is not until the end of September so we told her that if she wanted to do extra jobs that we would pay her for them and she could earn money for a bike. She worked very hard and bought herself a bike in June.

Our method of doing it is that the kids have to do their regular chores for free and they need to do any jobs that we ask them to do for free. But if they come and ask for a job for pay then we will find one for them. We don't pay a very high wage but also not so low that they are just making pennies. When they get in the working mood it is very nice for getting a lot done. Kids can be great workers!

Yesterday Jonathan cleaned out and vacuumed the van, vacuumed the stairs, scrubbed the shower, folded some clothes, did odd jobs and was my great helper in cleaning the utility room. He made over $6 for all that. Today he did a little shoveling and now is cleaning in the kitchen.

Here is one of our before pictures of our laundry/ utility room. We have a lot of storage here and it is an unfinished room and it just seems hard to keep it in order.

Here is another before picture showing piles of things. Not the sort of look that is very welcoming.

Here is a before picture of one of my piles of "stuff".

Here is an after picture showing our recycling center. I moved it to right inside the door so it is very easy to reach in and put stuff where it belongs. Also I added the big box behind where we can put the already full bags of stuff to recycle. After we got it cleaned I also had fun putting up posters all over which help make the room more bright and cheerful. The posters are mostly ones that we got from our friends at the DNR and they had wonderful information about trees and wildlife. The above picture shows our extra fridge which I use for flowers, and in the freezer section I store extra grains.

Next to the fridge I decided to make a gift center. I buy quite a lot of gifts ahead of time and I had them in boxes. I was able to fit most of them in this old white file cabinet (that I had been thinking about getting rid of.). On top of the file cabinet is a rubbermaid tote where we keep wrapping supplies (gift bags, ribbons, bows, boxes and recycled wrapping paper) On top of that tote is another box with gifts in it. I am trying to use up the gifts I have instead of buying any more this year so hopefully I will be able to get rid of this box soon and just have the file cabinet for gifts. In between the file cabinet and water heater I have a tall skinny box which has our rolls of gift wrap in it.

For the winter we also have our little kids table in this room. Where the kids can play games or whatever.

This is a view of the other side of the room. We moved down what Megan had been using for a dresser (before I fixed up her "new" one.) and now I am using it for storage down here. Also on the top of it I can fold clothes or wrap gifts. Above the washer and dryer Ken not to long ago put up a shelf and a rod which is very handy. The shelf is where we store our extra 3 ring binders and also the extra ACE scoring books. I also have my buckets for flowers neatly stacked next to the cabinet.

There is something very rewarding about getting a messy place all cleaned up. It was especially nice to have such a wonderful helper to do it with. It definetely works for me!