What is Fall...

...Without a Scarecrow?

Prepare the stuffing...

...then stuff it!

Be sure you have all the necessary parts!
Now, where did that head go ?!?

AH-HA!

Once we got our scarecrow assembled James was afraid of him. LOL! My brave little man. :-p Marli was the first one to approach. She kept saying, "Hi" then looking at me as if to ask, "Why won't he say 'hi' Mommy?"

"He's the strong silent type, Darling"

Now that all the others could see that the scarecrow didn't eat the baby they figured he was safe enough. :-D

Happy Harvest! God Bless!

Watch Me Wednesday... Marli's Two!

I know, I know, we just had a birthday, but thats how it goes in a family of six... there is always something to celebrate. This time it was Marli's turn. her birthday was on October 3rd. She is two! Oh my! My baby is two! *sniff*sob*WAAAAHHHHH*
















ahem...

OK, I'm over it ;-)

We had a fun time making Marli feel special while maintaining a small,intimate family atmosphere. Since My Love's cake day fell on Wednesday and he got a cake that looked like this...




...we added him to Marli's cake which looked like this...





Marli didn't Seem to mind a bit having Daddy on there too... tasted just as good... plus she can't read yet. I was hoping for a real mess but Marli minded her manners and ate like a lady... for the most part anyway :-p




My apologies to everyone who gets to hear me sing again. Really, I'm really, really, really, really, really... reallyreallyreally sorry. I give you permission to NOT watch. :-)






Happy Birthday to the sweetest baby hugs ever! *MWAH*

Awards and Then Some

I am so happy and blessed to have found Sandy Toes over at A Shell in Your Pocket. She is always sharing beautiful craft projects that are easy enough for me to do even with the kids' help. Reading her blog makes me want to keep my glue gun (I must find that thing) and my oven warm because she shares great recipes too. Now she has honored me with this award...

Thank you Sandy Toes :-D

The rules which go with it are to share 6 interesting things about myself then pass on the award to six other bloggers. And since I had no other post on my mind for today, here we go...

#1 I am embarrassed at how long I sat here staring at the #1 while nothing interesting about myself came to mind :-p

#2 I am almost to 100 posts! YIPPEE!!! For some reason I think that should be celebrated, and my joy at this accomplishment shared... stay tuned! I'm thinking GIVEAWAY! (you can forget about me posting 100 interesting things about myself... 6 is hard enough)

#3 For about five years I have been baking goodies and making sandwiches every other Tuesday for a high school outreach called Campus Life which is a chapter of Youth for Christ. Our local club has between 50 - 80 (and sometimes more) high school students show up every week to hear the gospel and encourage one another. Praise the Lord!

#4 Whenever I need to escape from the daily grind for a moment I find one of my cats, usually sleeping on my bed, the changing table, a couch top, or a patio chair, and I lay my head on their belly, nose to nose, with my ear and cheek buried in their soft fur. Their whispery purr resonates through me and I can feel some of the stresses float away with its steady rhythm. I do this at least twice a day :-)




#5 I have four kids ages 6 and under. As if that isn't shocking enough when my fourth was born my oldest was 4 (and three quarters)! EEK! Sometimes I force them all to take a "nap" so I can blog... and breathe ;-)

#6 If I had an entire day at home all by myself I would spend the entire time cleaning, organizing and getting ahead on our home school curriculum... and maybe read a few blogs... but only a few :-)

Now to pass the baton... I am going for ones which I have not tagged before, are Kreativ and sooo worth reading. I know its customary to follow the rules and pass on the awards but we are all busy in our own ways so please don't feel obligated to do anymore than you can handle :-)

Green Acres
Over Good Ground
Little Acorns Treehouse
A Familiar Path
Fresh Fixins
Stepping Heavenward

The next part of my post is not required by the receiving of the "Kreativ Blogger" award but I thought it would be nice to show off some creativity.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In my quest to find Fall decorations I decided some of my regular decor was in dire need of an update. I have a twig valance that was always lopsided which I had glued a bunch of eucalyptus to. It looked good... in the 80's.




So I ripped off the dilapidated eucalyptus, gave the garland a trim, washed it up, evicted the spiders and ... hmmmm, now its a little too plain... I look around at my stark white walls and set my sights on a garland of hearts and bows. I separated the pieces, sadly I had glued eucalyptus to this one too, I know, I know... what was I thinking? Then I used the hearts to decorate the twig valance. The hardest part was hanging the hearts with the clear thread which is rather like working with spider webs. I could feel it but not see it.




Now rehung and surrounded by some thrift store finds and new Autumn decorations I feel I have successfully breathed new life into some old, sorry, home decor.

My Joys of Parenting

My sweet baby Kiah. Not a baby anymore but still sweet... when she wants to be ;-) Now she reads to me. *sniff*





Whenever James gets excited telling a story his hands go up as if any moment he is going to shout out, "and that lizard was THIS big... I mean it!"





Eden picks up the phone, pushes the 'TALK' button, and says, "Hello, China."
I assume this is because every time I see one of them playing with the phone I say, "Give me that before you call China."





I don't know how it happened, but it sure looks like little Marli was having fun during the process. Straight to the tub with you, do not pass go, do not collect $200.

Sunday Songbook

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. And they were calling to one another:

"Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty;
the whole earth is full of his glory."

Isaiah 6:1-3

Holy, Holy, Holy

Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty!
Early in the morning our song shall rise to Thee;
Holy, holy, holy, merciful and mighty!
God in three Persons, blessèd Trinity!

Holy, holy, holy! All the saints adore Thee,
Casting down their golden crowns around the glassy sea;
Cherubim and seraphim falling down before Thee,
Who was, and is, and evermore shall be.

Holy, holy, holy! though the darkness hide Thee,
Though the eye of sinful man Thy glory may not see;
Only Thou art holy; there is none beside Thee,
Perfect in power, in love, and purity.

Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty!
All Thy works shall praise Thy Name, in earth, and sky, and sea;
Holy, holy, holy; merciful and mighty!
God in three Persons, blessèd Trinity!

Reginald Heber

Cyber Hymnal

Friendship

Whenever My Love and I become discouraged about our current financial situation we always remind each other that we are rich in love and nothing else really matters. Not only are we bathed in the love of our Savior Jesus Christ, and the immeasurable love of our Heavenly Father, but we have the love of each other, our love for our children, our childrens' love for us, and the love of our extended family.

Included in that extended family are friends from all walks of life. One family of friends came into our life through a church in common. They had five kids at the time of our meeting and we had none, so we ministered to their oldest daughter and were enthralled with her wisdom and maturity at her young age of 11. We met the rest of the family and became attached to them through commonalities of life, spirit, and interests.

We could offer them our loving friendship, entertaining moments and admiration, and they reciprocated the same and added to the table mentorship and generosity. I think of them everyday and pray for them continuously, for reminders of them are all around us. From hand-me-down clothing to books to school supplies they have given us so much without expecting anything in return.

And although their greatest gift to us is their prayers, love, and the imparting of their wisdom, as a mother of four I can not help but appreciate the playset which their kids have out grown, but fits ours just perfectly.

Since assembly we have spent hours on end swinging, climbing, playing and imagining we were many places other than our front yard.





Even Flip has learned to climb up...

... and slide down.






For Eden, using the slide can be a little hair raising ;-)











The swings are the greatest attraction and have aided my kids in flying over many a mountain.

Thank you my dear friends.





"Why did you do all this for me?" he asked. "I don't deserve it. I've never done anything for you."

"You have been my friend," replied Charlotte. "That in itself is a tremendous thing."

~E.B. White

Friday Fix Up

The weather is cooler... the clouds have come... Fall is here and I am loving it. I am waiting with eager anticipation for those first heavy, cleansing rains to wash away the last of the Summer dust and sweat. In the mean time, I go to Rite Aide. :-D

All of the Autumn decor at Rite Aide is 50% off already. I don't know why... perhaps they know that normal people wouldn't pay full price for the fodder they are selling. At any rate, I did like this Welcome wreath. I had been looking for something to put on my front door to replace my Spring / Summer wreath.

Have I mentioned before that I love birds and all their accessories? Bird houses... bird feeders... bird feathers... bird songs... bird watching... bird books... wild birds, mind you, not the domestic. I gave up on them long ago. Anyway, there was this cute, okay, potentially cute bit of decor that seemed to call my name. As I held the birdhoused welcome in my hands I envisioned some small woman in China using a precariously sized glue gun, pasting the wimpy leaves, scarce berries, and pathetic raffia bow onto the wreath with as much pride in her work as she could muster.





I decided I needed to give this wreath a home. I continued down the isle and found some fake Fall flowers, also 50% off. I made my purchases, went home, put my little ones to bed, then got to work.

*snip*snip*rip*pluck*stick*shove*
*snip*bend*rip*push*fluff*hang*

~Whew~

And Voila! :-D Welcome to you.

Spontaneous Tea

At the end of this summer we had the opportunity to host an impromptu sleepover. Kiah's friend Haley was all too happy to come over for a visit to the zoo which we call our home. However, with the dawn of a new day the girls' interests were turned from zoo keeping to dressing up and having a tea party. I was all to eager to break in a four service, child sized, porcelain, Strawberry Shortcake tea set which I had found at the Salvation Army, in the original box, for only $3.00.

I love the Salvation Army :-)




I had not yet done the shopping for this particular week so our tea party supplies were low. I found what I could on short notice. We had chocolate drop banana chip 'cookies' and cereal straw snaps (not too much, we had just finished a huge breakfast) :-p. James was our gentleman server and made sure the tea sipping needs of the little ladies were met.

O taste and see
that the Lord is good.

Psalm 34:8

Happy 41st My Love!

Yep, today is the day.....






.....41 years ago on October 1st My Love was born :-D

I can still remember his Mother's words as she spoke of the day he was brought into this world...

"Man, he had a big head!"

;-)

I love you My Love! (((*MWAH*)))

Watch Me Wednesday

Wow! There are some awesome ladies out there doing the bloggy thing and I would like to thank Linda at 2nd Cup of Coffee again for putting together the I See What You Are Saying carnival.

*mwah*

I have only gone through the first thirty videos as I write this. I'm not being lazy I just am stuck with the horrible, slow death of a beast that is dial-up. I actually am sitting in the Safeway cafe area using the wi-fi. Otherwise, it could take up to an hour to watch each video at home depending on the length. I kid you not. I was here last night... and I may return tomorrow to finish viewing the rest of what I am sure are hilariously touching video posts. I had a few faves but I can't think of one that didn't at least make me smile. So thank you again Linda and thank you to all who played along. It really was an honor to make all of your acquaintances. I wish I could meet you all in person but this really was the next best thing.

Now on to Watch Me Wednesday. I know you are probably all videoed out but I could not resist showing off what a joy homeschooling your children can be. And in case you don't know me... that last sentence was drenched in sarcasm.





Who knew asking a five year old to hold his pen correctly could be so distressing. I'm still not sure but I think the problem was that I put one of those tiny, rubber finger positioner thingies on his pen. I know, I know... I'm a terrible mother... the poor innocent child :-p

To view my I See What You Are Saying video click here... no HERE... no really, click HERE.