Ball Blue Gift a way!

Over at The Simple Woman's Cannery she is giving away this wonderful package of goodies. Included is the new Ball Blue Book of home preserving as well as a Ball Utensil Set. I would love to win this since this is the first year we have planted a very large garden. Three gardens to be exact. I have canned in the past but only a little bit. Stop on over and check out her blog with tons of wonderful information about canning. The drawing will be done by one of her children on June 9th. So hurry on over and see all she has to offer!

A little of this and a little of that!

Last night we got the rest of the garden planted! We now have a row of lettuce, radishes, and carrots. We have 3 rows of green beans, 2 hills of cucumbers. A row of 6 yellow squash plants, 6 roma tomato plants, 6 green pepper plants, 6 jalapeno plants, and 6 early girl tomato plants. The only plants we have not planted yet are the zucchini plants, they haven't arrived yet at the nursery. It was such a special time last night because everyone had their hand in planting the garden. We didn't even have to "pull teeth" to get the children to help. They actually wanted to help us. In our study last night we came across 1 Thessalonians 4:11 "Study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands." That verse kept going through my head last night.

We had a good day of school. One thing we did was read "Stone Soup". Then we made little books in the shape of a pot and wrote/drew the ingredients of the soup. The children want to make the soup tomorrow for supper. Since they will be with Grandpa and Grandma they might love doing that with them. I always loved this books as a child.

Tomorrow we will be heading out to Rochester for the NYS LEAH homeschool convention. We are very excited for a number of reasons. First, we are starting up a support group here in our area and we will be attending our first meeting which includes a great dinner! Second, this is our first time the the convention and we have a number of workshops we are attending. Third, there is a lot of vendors that will be on hand to answer any questions we might have about certain books, ect. Last but not least by any means we, meaning JUST my dh and myself will be going! We will be able to just stroll and have a nice relaxing time.

I tried to add a couple of pictures with no luck. I'll try back a little later and see if I can.

The Simple Woman Day Book

This is something I found on the Simple Woman Blog and thought it looked like something I could use to get me thinking in the morning. These are supposed to be done on Mondays. But I found it today and thought I would start.

Hopefully next week I will have figured out how to add the Simple Woman's Day Book Button. Until then this will have to do.

FOR TODAY May 27, 2008

Outside My Window...the sun is setting, the air is getting crisp although it is May we are in for a very cold night. The oriels are singing a wonderful song.

I am thinking...how wonderful it is where we live. We live in a small house but on a beutiful lot. Our nearest neighbors are through the woods.

I am thankful for...my family, with my back injury they have all been pitching in to help me. We all planted the garden this afternoon. The kids loved getting in the dirt.

From the kitchen...I hear the dishwasher, and I see our cat, Caspian, peeking out the window watching the birds.

I am wearing...My jammies, it is almost bed time!

I am creating...a cozy home for my family. Little by little I am making our house a home.

I am going...to our homeschool convention Thursday-Saturday. This is our first time and we are very excited to have it within 30 minutes of our home.

I am reading...Not really reading anything at the moment. I have a couple of books I will start soon.

I am hoping...for another wonderful year of homeschooling. Next year we are using My Father's World.

I am hearing...The Waltons on TV. The children are watching it.

Around the house...The day is starting to wind down. Everyone is in quiet mode. It is soon time for family Bible Study.

One of my favorite things...is cooking. I love to cook a lot of things for my family. The children enjoy helping me in the kitchen.

A Few Plans For The Rest Of The Week: We will do "double" school tomorrow so we are able to enjoy the convention at the end of the week.

Here is picture thought I am sharing...this is one thing I enjoy doing to make our house cozy. My DH loves it also! This is a Apple Crumb Pie with raisins added by our son.

Apron Give-A-Way!

Peggy, the simple Woman, is having a apron give a way. The aprons are made by her daughter, Olivia. She is going to bless a reader with one of these aprons. Stop on over and enter to win one.

I am so glad that people are still wearing aprons. I remember all the holidays cooking with my Grandmother, the first thing she grabbed was her apron. It was almost a staple in her wardrobe. In 7th grade home ec I made her an apron. I picked out this rainbow colored fabric, not the prettiest, but to this day Grandma still wears the apron I made for her. I miss being able to visit my Grandmother often, she lives an hour and a half away. She taught me a great many things, mostly do not forget your apron. So hop on over and visit Peggy and enter for your chance to win an apron.

Memorial Day Activities

We had a wonderful day at the museum. My parents ended up coming along with us. Which is so great because we really do not get to spend a lot of time with them since my sister getting sick. If any of you are ever in the Western NY area it should be on your list of places to go. Here is the link if any one is interested. Even just looking at the website will give a lot of information. http://www.gcv.org/

There were a lot of activities going on. Since we are homeschoolers we turned it into a learning day for the children. Except they didn't even realize they were learning! Its so great! There was a wreath lying ceremony with someone from each war era. Below is the picture of them in the 21 gun salute.

From there we went and ate our picnic lunch. It has been such a long time since we took a picnic. We had sandwiches, chips, jello, pasta salad and drinks. There is a big hill by the picnic area and the children had fun rolling down the hill. I'm surprised they didn't get sick right after eating.

The museum has a group called the Genesee Harmonics that have been singing together for 18 years. They sang a number of hymns, along with patriotic hymns. Below is the picture of them. It is unknown if the group will continue since the director is retiring, today was her last performance. Thank you to all the service men and women and their families who have made the ultimate sacrifice of their lives so that we may have the freedoms that we have in this great country of our. Also to those who are fighting right now! May God bless you always.

Memorial Day Activities

I will post more later. This weekend has been one of getting the garden planted. Since the cost of everything has been going up we decided to plant a very large garden. We actually ended up with 2 fairly large gardens. We are looking forward to a wonderful harvest of fresh fruits and vegetables. At 6:00 am this morning, my husband and son were up getting the majority of the work done before it started getting warm. So far (last month) we planted peas, today was carrots, radishes, lettuce, green beans. Later today we will be planting the rest. I will post more later, we are off to the Genesee Country Village and Museum, a local living history museum with interpreters dressed in 19th century attire.

Savings

Since the cost of everything has been rising, we have had to make cuts to a lot of our everyday items. Along with budgeting our money for the month we now have started making a budget of how much we drive. Thankfully my husband works in a town with a lot of the stores we go to a lot. I study the ads and send him off to work with not only his lunch but a bunch of coupons! Boy does he love this...lol. Since there is no CVS right near us we plan that into our budget driving trips. Who knew that you could save so much money by going to CVS! Since the new church that we have been attending is right near a CVS we stop there on our way home! God is SO good!

I read on a blog somewhere about getting to know the meat butcher at the local store, along with the produce person, and dairy person. Well last night I had to run to the store for a few items we had run out of and found out some GREAT tips from those very people. Here is what I got:

2 Pillsbury ready made pie crusts ...........................1.50 each marked for clearance
1 pound of brown sugar (what I needed).................1.79
1 dozen of eggs................................................................99
6 containers of yogurt marked for quick sale.........2.00
3 boxes of cereal..........................................................5.00
2 bags of Troyer Farms Pretzels BOGO..................2.69
____
For a total of 15.47
Savings of 24.07!!!!

I was so thrilled about what I found out yesterday at the store. The pie crusts were an added bonus because I was thinking about making a pie today. Since I found them that cheap I grabbed two of them. So my hubby will benefit 2 fold! Oh BOGO is by one get one free.

Another cool thing that happened recently was that my husband while at work found a dollar on the ground in the parking lot. He had heard his partner mention that he had lost a dollar so he returned it to him. Then while at the grocery store he noticed that someone had left their change in the change bin $7.00(self checkout). He gave it to a clerk and told them someone had forgot their change. The next day at work he was offered overtime for the week! Like the Bible says we will be blessed 7 fold. 8 (the amount he returned to the owners) times 7 equals 63. Guess how much extra we received this week in the check, in our pocket not in taxes. It is so awsome when you see how the Lord works everyday in our lives. Have a great day!

Wordless Wednesday????

Wordless Wednesday??? I am hardly ever wordless. So I'm posting a couple of my favorite photos I took for my photography class.

This is a picture of a tulip from our garden. The tulips were those that my Husbands Grandfather planted for his Mother. Now his Father did not like flowers of any kind so he mowed over the garden. My Husbands Father passed away a few years ago, guess what started growing? These beautiful tulips. We have also planted some Iris plants that came from my Great-Grandmother's garden.

The following pictures are also some of my favorites from that same class. Enjoy. I told you it is hard for me to be wordless!!!!

Surprises

My WONDERFUL Husband has surprised me with a few wonderful gifts. When we were talking about our tax refund and places we should spend the money he had told me I could purchase a Cuttlebug die cut machine. Well I was very excited about that. I couldn't wait unit I was able to get one. During that time our camera had broke, I think with help from the children. Anyway, we found a great deal on a great camera, we couldn't pass it up. I said I would pass on the cuttlebug for now. I think by now you have guessed what he got me...yep! He also got a couple of scrapbook items for me. But won't really tell me until they get here!

I'm starting to get really frustrated with my back problem. I can't do anything for a long period of time. I try to work on the dishes and my back starts hurting resulting in my foot going numb. Same with doing the laundry. I feel bad because my husband comes home from a long day at work and does the things I'm supposed to do. I keep praying for some relief in my back. I just have to learn to slow down. I'm not one to sit for a period of time. Even sitting at the computer updating my blog gets to me. So it usually takes me an hour to update. Oh well, enough whinning!

The children are starting to drag their feet with school. Whenever I tell them it's time for school all I hear is AWWWW. They used to run right out to the table. Our 14yo is rebelling again. This afternoon I caught her downstairs watching Soaps! I promptly took the TV. I was unaware that the TV even worked. I'm praying that with the new curriculum and new Church she will come around. I wish there were some way I could regulate what they watch and do while at their Dad's house. Right now the only thing I can do is pray. I pray that God convicts them to know what is right and wrong while at his house. Our 11 yo is sick today. She has a runny nose, cough and is VERY cranky. I knew she was really sick when she brought me the WORST tasting medicine in the house and asked for some. She has been lying on the couch all day. Our 8 yo son has a stuffy nose also. He is also very warm, no fever but warm to the touch. I've had a headache all day. Like the one you get before a cold sets in. YIKES! It's the up and down weather we have had recently.

Weekend Happenings

This past Friday we had a Family Date night. We took the children to the opening of the new Narnia movie. We decided to go to the early show to beat the rush. I'm glad we did. We had only a hand full of people in our theater. When we left there were tons of people waiting to get in. Not sure it was for Narnia or not. OK back to the movie. I HIGHLY recommend this movie. But with reservations. It had a lot of "action" violence in it. Not gore violence. It was very well done. Our son who is 8 LOVED the fighting in it. For anyone who saw the first one...there is more violence in the second. Our youngest is 8 but a pretty mature 8 so he knew that it was a movie and not something he could recreate with his sisters. :-) Especially the catapult scenes! After the movie we went to dinner to the Chinese resturant. That was fun, but the resturant was full of very rude people. It was a buffet style of resturant, our children are taught to wait their turn, but obviously many people don't teach that or follow that themselves. Our children were like small little ping pong balls. But we still had a good time.

Then Saturday we ventured out to my 2 cousins college graduation parties. Thank goodness they are brother and sister and had the party together. My cousin Lindsay graduated with a Masters in Counseling, my cousin Justin is now Dr. Justin! WOOHOO he is also going into pedeatrics. Great when you have children. But unfourtantly he is moving out of state. Many doctors just don't stay here. But I can continue to email him. He has been great through the past 2 1/2 years with all the family health problems. My sister had a brain infection and had to have a portion of her brain removed, my Uncle (Justin's father) had a heart attack during my husband and my baptism at church, my father had a heart attack a year ago December. So he got a lot of hands on learning with our family. I will miss him.

THEN yesterday we went to our camp, a Christian Conference Center, to open our camper for the season. We had to replace the floor in it and give it a good cleaning. So while my husband and Dad were doing the floor my Mom and I cleaned. That is pretty difficult with them using the saw and drill fixing the floors. But we got it all done and ready for next weekend.

Welcome to my blog

Welcome to reflections in the window!

As we grow in our Christian lives our reflections change as well, so sit back and enjoy a glimpse into our lives. At the end of the day are you able to look at your reflection and smile?

I have been blogging for a while now. A friend of mine was talking about blogging a while back and I wanted to know what it was.....some kind of dance? Oh wait that is clogging! LOL Anyway, I've been blogging since November '07. Not quite a year. It is such a wonderful way to keep track of the what goes on in our lives, good and bad. Its great to see how we have grown as Christians and sometimes things that convict us.

I am a stay at home Mom of 3 wonderful children...don't we all say that? Katie is 14, Hannah is 11, Andrew is 8. We have been homeschooling for 2 years and LOVE it. We have been using an unschooling method so far. Since we pulled them out of public school we had to "undo" public school. This coming school year we will be using My Father's World. We are very excited about it. It uses a Charlotte Mason method of teaching children. A lot of reading and writing. If you had come up to me 3 years ago and said I was going to be a stay at home Mom, and homeschooling I would of said you are crazy!! But ask me now and it is the only place I want to be. I loved my kids before homeschooling but since starting homeschooling I have fallen in love with my children.

I love to take pictures and once I figure out how to post pictures I will be posting a lot of them. I love to cook and create new recipes, or at least revamp old ones. I will try and post some of them.