... Dominic, the son of a carpenter, finds himself drawn into the unforgettable trial of the man called Jesus. Share in this amazing adventure that takes Dominic from Christ's crucifixion to a place of redemption, and a face-to-face meeting with the risen Christ.

 

Well, I'm finally back to give you the sequel to my Shopping, Shopping, Shopping post. I finally decided to purchase a Hamilton Beach 4-quart crockpot. I had a 6-quart, but thought the smaller one would work better for certain dishes and certain occasions.

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I’ve never been one to follow trends. While most women cut their hair short after having a baby, I decided to go long. I had had my hair short for my entire life.

In this shot when the prince was about 6 months old, my hair is as short as it has been for the last 10 years. After that, I found it a lot easier to “pony and go” than to dry, brush, and curling iron, (not to mention frequent trips to the hairdresser) to keep that styled look. From that point, I started growing my hair out.

I have no idea why I am whistling.

Approximately 3 years later, it was long enough to cut and donate to Pantene Beautiful Lengths. This program provides wigs to chemotherapy patients through the American Cancer Society.

Of course, that meant I had to dry and curl the ends if I wanted to be anywhere near presentable to go out in public. With a spirited 3.5 –year-old and a 13-month-old, that was not in my plan! So, I started growing it out again.

Good Golly Girl! Put some color on your face !

Last week, about 3 years after the first donation, it was long enough to cut again! I had Prince Charming measure to make sure. Then, made the appointment. Last Saturday afternoon, I told my hairdresser (Miss Kim) just to make sure it was at least 8 inches (the minimum for Pantene Beautiful Lengths). She made the ponytail and measured.

Before Miss Kim made the cut, she asked me if I was sure that I wanted to do it. I am not one to be prissy about my hair. IT WILL GROW BACK!!!! Oh, and while I’m on this tangent … why do hairdressers always ask how you want the back? I DON’T CARE! I’m not going to see it anyway. In all likelihood, how it looks when I leave the salon is the only time it will look that way.

O.K. Back to the haircut…

TA-DA!!!!!!

When I got home, the prince met me at the door and said he thought I was going to look like someone else. (We had looked at online photos and discussed everything from Halle Berry’s pixie to Lady Gag’s whatever-it’s-called.)  Later in the evening, the princess wanted me to “tape the ponytail back on.” I think Prince Charming is still undecided.

As for the ponytail, I measured it. Since it was so thick, she cut it in two section. They measure from 10-11 inches!!!! This time, I am donating it to Locks of Love. This organization provides hairpieces for children with hair loss related to medical conditions.

I am so loving my new haircut. I don’t have the wispy strands tickling my face or all of it getting wrapped around my neck while I sleep. The sides are long enough to pull up on top when I need to (around the house) or tuck behind my ears to run errands.

I didn’t blog about my new doo to get a pat on the back for being a do-gooder. I just wanted to bring attention to these organizations who do good for others. If you have long hair and are thinking about a bold new style, check them out before you make your cut.

I’m linking to Feature Yourself Friday, Follow Me Friday, and I’m Lovin’ It.

Disclaimer: My TOS  crewmate Wendy from Homeschooling Blessings was the inspiration for this post. Read her story here.

The grass is green. It’s good to be

I thought I would let ya’ll in on our homeschooling by sharing about our week. We had a really good week and got a lot done.


We started the princess on My Father’s World Kindergarten. She has already been working with us on handwriting, doing simple addition, and chiming in on discussions. So, we started the formal lessons. We’ll see how much she stays interested to see how to proceed. Mostly, she will be learning about letters and numbers and be included in the “heavy” stuff with the prince.

Bible

Spelling

English

History

I don’t think Squanto’s fish were quite like these…

Music

Science

Math

When the prince is asked where he goes to school. He gets some strange expressions when he says, “upstairs.” It’s the truth! Well, it was the truth last year. This summer, we switched our entire upstairs with part of our downstairs. Now, our schoolroom is in the prince and princess’ old bedroom. I thought I’d give you a peek.  

The paint was still in good enough repair that I just decided to leave it and just move in. I strategically placed the furniture to cover the knick in the wall where a John Deere tractor lost it’s brakes and crashed. One spot on the border shows where a red marker developed a mind of its own and make a streak. Pay no attention to the bed sheet on the window. The blind was not in good repair! I did a quick-fix to keep the early morning sun (and heat!) out.

This is where most of the action happens! The desk is an antique that Prince Charming received from his aunt when he went to college. The prince loves it. The big door has cubbie holes that hold most of his books. His map is handy, as is a reading chart to remind him what sounds letters and groups of letters make. He has a lot of surface area to spread things out.

The small desk is for the princess to do school work. The prince had a slightly larger version of this last year. It really didn’t work for him. The desk area was just small enough to write and the slope was too much for pencils to stay put.

The princess has a play area to keep her busy when she isn’t doing school work. So far, she has made me “fish head to eat” three four times today.

See the string across the top of the area? That’s our time line. There are many discussions on “How do you do your timeline?”

Here is what we are trying this year. It is just a piece of cording. I think this piece is from a tent that you can make in the living room. Then, I bought some small clothespins from the craft store.  I stretched the cord and attached it to the wall with thumbtacks. The dates are stuck to the wall with poster tack. That way, when I see that we only have  one or two events in a time period, I can move them closer together to make more room for later events.

This bookshelf holds all the other items that we will need for the rest of the year and some toys for the princess. It’s a shelf that belonged to Prince Charming’s grandmother. I’m sure it has seen it’s better days, but with a coat of paint and an anchor to the wall, it serves a great purpose for us.

This area has really worked great for us. We’ve been back at school for three weeks and are loving our space and set-up.

Jump on over to Heart of the Matter Online to see what other homeschool rooms look like. I’m also linking to Feature Yourself Friday, Follow Me Friday, and I’m Lovin’ It.

The grass is green. It’s good to be

Last week, I was super excited to receive my first blog awards. Heather at The Blessings Pour Out thought enough of my blog to award these to me. Can you imagine? Me. Little ‘ole me.

Since I am the only one in the palace who likes summer squash, Prince Charming didn’t plant much. It was the first vegetable to start coming in after the corn. For others to eat it, I either have to fry it or “mix it with enough other stuff to cover up the taste.” I have been trying to come up with ways to fix it. I had already made the squash casserole with the sour cream and stuffing mix. So, I wanted something else to make. I could have searched the internet for other recipes, but I went “old school” and actually pulled out a cook book. I know … I must be insane! This was the cookbook from the church in which Prince Charming grew up. I usually ask him if “Mrs. Such ‘n Such” is a good cook. This time, he wasn’t home to ask, so I picked a recipe and tweaked it some. I usually don’t tweak until I have tried it the written way at least once. Since I was already being a renegade by getting the cookbook out to start with, I just went totally crazy!   Here’s what I did: (Basically, I added ham, mixed the ingredients in the wrong order, and added cheese and butter to the breadcrumbs … and crossed my fingers that it worked!)

Gathered my ingredients:
 
 yellow squash, eggs, flour, cheese (I’m not so old school that I won’t use pre-shredded cheese), onion, butter, milk, sugar, salt,  bread crumbs, ham chunks

Combine the squash, onion, sugar, and salt. Simmer for 20 minutes in small amount of water. (I told you this was old school. You could probably just microwave it until it is really tender.)

Drain the vegetable mixture and mash it with a potato masher.

Stir in the flour. Add the eggs and butter. Stir over the heat until the butter is melted. Take away from the heat and add the milk.

Stir in the grated cheese and salt and pepper to taste.

Add ham.

Pour into buttered casserole dish. Mix breadcrumbs with a couple tablespoons of melted butter and a big pinch of shredded cheese. Sprinkle breadcrumb mixture on top of casserole.

Bake at 375 degrees for 45 minutes.

Yummmmmm! It passed inspection! Prince Charming said it was “the best I have ever had of this particular vegetable … EVER!” He even asked for a small second helping!


Squash Casserole

2 lb. yellow squash, sliced
1 medium onion, chopped
1/2 tsp. sugar
1 Tbsp. salt (I used less to account for the salty ham)
3 Tbsp. flour
2 eggs
6 Tbsp. butter
1 cup milk
1 cup finely grated cheese + about 2 Tbsp. for topping
salt and pepper to taste
1-2 cups diced ham
1/3 c. bread crumbs

Combine the squash, onion, sugar, and salt. Simmer for 20 minutes in small amount of water. Drain the vegetable mixture and mash it with a potato masher. Stir in the flour. Add the eggs and 4 Tbsp. of  butter. Stir over low heat until the butter is melted. Take away from the heat and add the milk. Stir in the grated cheese and salt and pepper to taste. Stir in ham and pour into buttered casserole dish. Mix breadcrumbs with a couple tablespoons of melted butter and a big pinch of shredded cheese. Sprinkle breadcrumb mixture on top of casserole. Bake at 375 degrees for 45 minutes.


I’m linking to I’m Lovin’ It, Feature Yourself Friday, Foodie Friday, and Follow Me Friday.



The grass is green. It’s good to be