Decorate your desk...or...Over the river and through the woods

The craft for today involved one bunch of $1 flowers from Dollar General and empty sour cream containers (we needed containers with plastic lids that we could cut slits in). The general idea is here and here. While Ds#4 got paint all over the kitchen floor and I nursed the baby [and accidentally myself] to sleep, Dd#2, as usual, went a little overboard with the creativity. She can never just follow a recipe or particularly any directions. There's occasions where that's not so good (like the refried bean quesadilla she insisted on making for lunch today with swiss cheese which I advised her against). There's other times when it's absolutely darling!

There's an apple tree with apples on the ground, a stone path through an arbor and a stream for her garden.

Pencil Sharpeners...aaaaarrrgggghhhh!

Sing it with me, "Ohhhh Where oh where has my little sharpener gone, oh where oh where can it beeeeee?"

I'm just not willing to spend $70, $50, $25 or even $10 for another electric or manual pencil sharpener that my kids will break or that will break itself or that is "touchy" so that the kids can't use it (some can't have the pencil at any sort of angle but a right angle, some require a particular amount of pressure against the grinding mechanism--the kids just want to get it done).

I've been reduced to hand held pencil sharpeners and thought the loss in technical stature was a little demeaning.

After discovering The Pencil Revolution - that reviews hand held pencil sharpeners, I no longer feel demeaned, but liberated (a great thing to feel after the 4th of July).

I'm going to try the KUM this year ... from this site.

By the way, just for enjoyment sake, read this blog post - it's a pencil sharpener's review of a sharpener I haven't tried and it's HILARIOUS!!

Baby Milestones

The baby got his first 2 bottom teeth at 6mo (he started teething at 2mo.) and his top teeth are just popping through, now. We just recognized them. We had some biting issues with nursing last week, but we're doing better, now.
The baby started crawling FORWARD this weekend. He's still not great at it, but unfortunately he'll get better FAST. My other kids didn't start crawling until 10 months (Ds#5 is 7mo.)

Dd#2 was about to crawl at 8mo, but I fell down the steps while I carried her and broke her ankle, so she crawled at 10 mo, too. Here she is at 9mo. in her cast -- one of the sweetest, saddest most precious pictures of my heart.

The Quangle Wangle Hat and St. Kevin

This summer, we are working our way through the various books we haven't read on this list.

We are also starting our Catholic Mosaics, but we're reading the books and doing the discussions as the saints appear chronologically in history. This week a common theme emerged -- animals building houses on people (or bears or whatever a quangle wangle is). The boys got a kick out of the similarities (and we LOVED the quangle wangle and will read the rest in the series!).

A good time will be had by all!

I've been helping friends (many people from my homeschool support group) put on the Lapas Family FUNdraiser these last few months and the date is swiftly approaching. THIS SATURDAY (June 28th) our family will be there with many others (hopefully!!) to raise money to help with the medical bills for our friends who have been through so much. It should be plenty of fun to boot!! A big room with games for the kids, music, raffle prizes and dinner. And...and...and...and... Emilija's going to try and make it!! She JUST finished her last radiation treatment (her last for the rest of her LIFE, God willing!) and will be feeling well enough to come!

I'm helping with the food so I can tell you what we're serving : shredded BBQ pork, chicken, hot dogs, chips, pretzels and brownies for dessert. My kids are really looking forward to it (and would have so much more fun if your kids came, too!!)

The website (done by some lady who thinks she's a website diva - NOT!) is www.supporther.info and has lots more specific info. (get it - the dot info)

There are some SERIOUSLY KEWL auction & raffle items! I think I'd like the Mackinaw Island Vacation Get-a-way, or DeBrand's, or cookies from the Cookie Cottage -- heck, I'd be happy with Dairy Queen coupons!

Shepherd's Pie

I was thinking about this recipe, because a friend had a baby and this is what she'll get tomorrow night.

Shepherd’s Pie 45 minutes @ 350 Jenn’s Mom

1 lb. Hamburger, cooked
6 C Mashed Potatoes
1-2 can Green Beans
2 C Shredded Cheddar, or Mozzarella Cheese
1-2 can Cream of Mushroom Soup

Layer, in order, in a casserole dish. Bake uncovered 30 minutes at 350 until bubbly. Sprinkle cheese to cover. Bake additional 15 minutes until cheese is melted.

This is my all-time favorite dish. To freeze for cooking later, layer all but cheese in a foil disposable dish, cover with foil. Attach cheese in a ziplock baggie with masking tape. Then thaw it for the day on your counter and cook as described above.

Once we learn to count our blessings they increase. -Stella Terrill Mann

Edited to add : Sorry, Anne, after your comment I reread what I wrote -- you're right, the layering goes :

• hamburger on the bottom (I fry mine with chopped onion to add in more veggies)
• green beans
• spread a thin (and uneven) layer of canned cream of mushroom soup
• then mashed potatoes
• and last cheese (after it's almost done baking, just to melt).

My friend liked it just fine.

Prayer Intention Poster

I've been trying to think of a way to keep the people we promise to pray for in the forefront of our minds. This is what I came up with. I think it's missing something, visually, but the kids each decided what prayer intentions we needed to put down and we have extra sheets for new intentions. Rather than taping them to the poster, we used a poster putty. The idea is our prayers rising to Christ while the love in his heart stream down to answer us.