CTC watercolors Unit 2

DAY 2

Your supplies are all listed in the book so I just pictured them here. 

You may have more than one brown. You will have to choose between them. 

 If your taping it down, now is the time to do that. 

 You can use your normal wide brush.
I have to admit when I do a wet paper technique
I love my big ol paint brush. It gets the job done quickly.
But your regular big bush will work just fine too.  

 Blot the paper  

Here is Little Miss Sunshine doing it. 

You will need 2 pea size of light blue to fill a 11x15 page

 Cover the page with blue color. 

Add the green. 

 Uh Oh I didn't follow the directions and I made a mistake.
I put a green stripe down in the bottom!! No problem I can fix that mistake. 

Grab your thick brush and wet it lightly.
Quickly brush back and forth lifting up I managed to sop up the green mistake. 

 Now it's the kids turn. 

 Add green strokes 

Sweet Potato's efforts.  

 Day 3

Now I had to choose between these 2 browns Burnt Sienna and Burnt Umber  

Since I didn't like either of them alone. I mixed them.
That is what I love about paint you don't have to use it straight from the tube you can play with it. 

 Here is a trick. I curved the bottom of the branch where it comes out of the water.
Because branches are round, and it helps it look right. 

 Outline with black. I advise using 1-2 drops of water to the paint before you outline with it.
Straight from the tube it can be a bit thick and hard to work with. 

 Sweet Potatoes advice is to set aside any bracelets you might have at this point. 

 Little Miss Sunshine says, put up your long hair, or you might end up getting painted highlights. 

 Little Miss Sunshine chose Burnt Sienna 

 Sweet Potato chose Burnt Umber
Any of them work it's what you fancy. 

 Remember only a tiny bit of paint is needed. 

 Look at that concentration. 

 Little Miss Sunshine did not! like using the tooth pick Ahhhhhhh it doesn't act like a paint brush. 

 Oh NO!!! she made the shadow all messy Mom I hate it... 

 She tried to erase it but it was not going away! 

 Boo hoo!!! what too do! 

So we added in a new branch , All better! 

 Sweet Potato added in her shadows. 

 Don't forget to add in the black strokes at the top. 

 Don't forget to sign your work. 

 When you are done put away your supplies. 

 Clean up your brushes and your pallet

 My final painting. 

Here are the kids Masterpieces. 

The Joys and Sorrows of Cooking With Children

Heart Of Dakota on Facebook posted some suggestions of what to do with your kids for breakfast. Since that first meal can set the tone of the day.

I replied saying I had trained my kiddos to make their own breakfast since I have a grumpy Gus, she has to be hooked up to her Vest Airway System for 20 minutes each morning. Letting her have control over this aspect of her life is beneficial for all parties involved. Not to mention the added benefit that Little Miss Sunshine now makes smashing omelets, and Sweet Potato makes great tho slightly wet scrambled eggs.

I have to admit this road was paved by my Mom. Can you guess who the grumpy Gus was in her house...can you? Huh Huh Huh? I was beyond annoying in the morning. I was hard to get out of bed and not fun to be around before 10am.  Oddly enough when Mom put breakfast squarely in my hands I became the pancake maker for my siblings. Looking back on the wisdom of my ancestors elders, I have followed suit.

I have to admit it took a good year to transition to self made breakfast.

The Sorrows... 

Look at that nice tiny dice and she's only 10!

 I lost sniff sniff my best beloved Calphalon Omelet pan in the process. I live in hope that when they grow up and realize how much one of those costs, they replace it. It's fine for other things now but no longer suitable for making omelets.

Letting kids in the kitchen means you will have large messes to clean up, and they might lose a bit of fingernail in the process. I'm a believer in giving a kid a SHARP knife to cut with. Once they have the mechanics of cutting down. Imho DULL knives cause more injuries than sharp ones. Sharp knives cut, dull ones slip off the red bell pepper and into child's hand, leading to a run to the bathroom for band-aids.

Was once a butter dish! Smashed 5 days after post. 

Don't forget if it's glass, it is going to break, expect things to fall and smash beautifully while your all walking around with bare feet.

They will put the $10.99 a pound cheese in their omelet and not leave any for you, because "MOM this Cheese is fantastic."  You will run out of eggs halfway though the week when you have no more money in the food budget envelope, because they burned them, dropped them and/or left them out.

Not to mention the time it takes to train them! When you can do it faster, and more efficiently by just kicking them out of the kitchen.  It's not easy having that little one with sticky fingers touching all the drawers and handles that will need to be cleaned up after. You know your not gonna be happy till all the honey is off the fridges handle, And your going to be the one to clean it. But as they age up they actually start putting away the eggs with out being told. Even soaking the pans.

The Joys...
The hard work of training them is beginning to pay off. No longer are my quiet times reminiscent of Nehemiah's emergency prayer requests. Quiet Time is in the morning before I get out of bed. I grab my itouch  and open up my bible reading program and read, think, pray. It's fabulous I can't believe I'm 62%  done on my bible reading plan!  It helps me be a slightly more patient Mom, and it gets me more awake and functioning. So I can face the math! Cause lets face it I'm still not really wake before 10am still! 

I have found my kids will eagerly show off their egg cooking skills, and make me a tasty breakfast in bed. Unlike some of the nasty burnt creations of my child hood. Those I lovingly carried up to my parents room. BTW Mom/Dad I'm so sorry for all the nasty eggs you had to secretly feed to the cat. My kids make food you can eat, delish even.

Allowing the freedom to fail, leads to creativity in the kitchen. It's amazing the MEALS yes I did say meals Little Miss Sunshine will make. I'm so proud of her when she asks to make dinner at 10 years of age.

Frying up spices to replenish our Garam Masala spice jar.

They can cook... think when they go to college they can cook for all their friends. Who are resorting to Raman cup-o-soup. 

They appreciate food more. If I made Sweet Potato eat eggs everyday for a week she would have a whine fest. Yet this same child can make herself eggs for 10 days in a row without complaint. Odd isn't it??? I think this falls under Giving Voice, in the ideal parenting model.  Like Burger King they can have it their way everyday as long as they clean up afterward. 

I now have helping hands, yes the pieces of green bell pepper may not be cut into OCD precise cubes, but hey you didn't have to cut them up!

I'm making memories, of failures fixed by a dash of this and that, or standing by and letting them cook it all by themselves. That first loaf of bread or batch of cookies they did while you "spotted" them in the kitchen.

The joy you feel when Daddy praises you for a great dish, and you nod your chin at the children and you coyly say "They made it." I swear their little faces beam back at you.
 
Update: Yup we have had a glass smash! added photos :-) 

Creation To Christ HOD Unit 1

Yesterday we finished Unit 1 took over a week but were easing into it.
The kids had a blast with the science experiment. Making a royal mess but having so much fun! 

Sorry about the blur they were moving so FAST!

Yeah! skittles, who knew the blue would be the hardest to find.

I love how I am able too work a bit with the kiddos then let them do a independent box, while I sweep the floor, or do some laundry, prep lunch. Last year running two programs, I was hopping back n' forth between them. Two programs are totally doable, but I can say my house is/will be cleaner this year.

Another reason is the new book shelves yeah! that give me ample room to store the school books. A couple of bins to box and banish the art supplies and all things that clutter up school.

Watercolor For Unit 1 CTC

So I thought I'd make a tutorial for how you can paint the Poetry/Art project for Unit One. 

Things you will need:

A wide brush

A skinny brush.

Water
Yellow paint

Brown paint
A pea size amount of each should work just fine.

3X5 card of poetry verse

Water

Newspaper to protect surfaces

Tooth pick (missing from supply shots) 

Art board (optional, helps keep art flat and neat.)

Masking tape (optional, helps keep art flat and neat.) 

Day 1

Do poetry verse

Day 2

Gather your supplies and lay down newspaper. 

Tape paper to the board.

Taping the paper allows it to have a nice clean edge and keeps it from curling.

This is optional but I recommend it, as it makes them much neater to store.

 Just a pea size is enough paint!

 Wet and wipe your bush then load it up with all the paint. 

Draw your brush across the top of the paper. 

See nice bright yellow!  

Dip brush, wipe on side of cup 2x and do it again.  

 And yet again. 

Keep dipping, wiping and drawing your brush across the paper. 

See how the yellow is gradually getting lighter and lighter.  

All done now set aside and let it dry. 

Day 3

Ok I forgot we need a tooth pick, so add that to this bunch of supplies.
Note how nice and flat my painting is. 

 Here again you only need a small amount of paint. A little goes along way. 
I washed off half that paint at the end so even that small amount was to much. 

  Here I have added 3-4 drops of water from my brush into the paint and I'm mixing it to make it smooth. 

Draw the trunk don't worry if its not big enough now, you can always make it bigger later. 

 Added branches. 

 I found I had to stop here and use the toothpick to draw the bark.
It is very very dry here in TX!
The paint was drying so fast.
So keep an eye on the trunk and once it starts to set,
grab that toothpick and scratch in some bark. 

 I added in branches as my fancy prescribed. 

Look here I went over the first branch I put in. Trees do this, so its ok to overlap your branches.
No seriously go look at a tree... I'll wait... Did you look?
Tree branches over lap and under lap and go every which way, so anywhere you want to put one go ahead put one.  

 Oh no! The top is not dry, but I want to paint on the other side. See how I stuck my pinkie down on a dry part of the painting to steady my hand. (Only do this if your finger is CLEAN!). 

So you don't think you can paint a leaf? On scrap paper, see what happens if you just gently press your brush to paper. If you like the results you can easily make a leaf this way.  Himm looks like a Ginko leaf. But I don't want a Ginko leaf, I think I'll paint my own.

 Painted my own... Now let dry. 

Day 4

 Add your poetry verse and your all ready to frame it... Ok it's not this weeks verse its unit 2's but it saved me from having to write it all out.  :-) Note how flat the painting is. 

Here is Little Miss Sunshine's painting. See how curled it is and not as nice looking.
If we had taped down the edges, it would be neater.
Even curled up I think it is FABULOUS! 

I'd like to thank Little Miss Sunshine for being my photographer today! She does great work! 

Just Go to BED!!!

Ever have one of those nights where your slacking and the kids are still up... it's way past their bed time and you realize; "They must go to bed now! Or I may end up in the funny farm."  Yup I had that kinda night.

My Knight in Shining Armor is really awesome he puts them to bed most nights.  When we first adopted I was working from home and I typically worked 7pm to 11pm. Thus he got into the habit of putting the child to bed. I have carefully nurtured this habit for a decade.

Tonight was a different story, work followed  him home today. It happens, we usually roll with the punches and carry on. Alas Sweet Potato did something with the right intentions but with bad results. I ended up helping her make a cloth book cover to fix her sisters quiet time journal, she accidentally "ruined." Bed time routine got delayed. I also felt it would behoove me to make a cover for Sweet Potatoes journal. I know the green eyed monster will rear it's ugly head as soon as she figures out her sisters QT journal is prettier than her plain old one. So I took the 20 minutes now, to stave off hideousness later.  I think this falls under the High Nurture part of I.D.E.A.L. parenting.  It was the last thing I wanted to do but I knew I needed to do it.

I have come to the conclusion that Sweet Potato is in no way a princess. How did I come to this conclusion you ask??? Well after I had managed to get them clothed in PJ's, snacks eaten, teeth brushed, hugs and kisses delivered, a drink of water given, Daddy is now required to pray with them before they can go to sleep.  Alas the room was in need of some clean up. A full morning working at the cafe, followed by a full day of school apparently means while we were away a tornado hit just their room.

I check on the mess Daddy is concern about and, yes it qualifies as a fire hazard.  A 5 minute room rescue is in order. I step out to let them work magic on their room. You know stuff all clothing in corners hide books under the bed...


Upon my return I note the classic pile and hide technique was employed by Sweet Potato. It was all I could do not to bust out laughing. A 2.5 foot hump was at the end of her bed covered in a bright yellow poke-a-dotted blanket.  I pulled off the blanket and I found
4 pairs of jeans (clean)
4 pairs of shorts (clean)
2 pairs of shorts (dirty)
3 pairs of undies (questionable)
1 pair of leggings (clean)
a kitchen towel (huh?)
a bath towel (dry!)
coloring book
a Nancy Drew (now dog eared)
2 Star Wars graphic novels (fair condition)
1 set of pajamas (questionable)
1 adult slip (how did that get in here?)
3 blankets (assorted sizes) and yes we keep our house at 80 in the hot summers these are a necessity!!!

While sitting on the bed folding and sorting and making her put things away, I find something sticking into me... So I commence dissecting her bed.

Anyone who can sleep with the following IN her bed cannot possibly pass the Princess Pea Test.
6 leggo pieces ranging from Darth Vaders head to a 3x5 building plate.
4 pens
2 pencils (Sharp!)
2 markers (caps were on!)
3 Journals
1 3 ring binder
7 stuffed animals
4 blankets (including the weighted blanket) note were up to 7 blankets.
2 LIBRARY!!! books Yippie Found!!! (that are not allowed to be in her bed room for fear of them being eaten by the dog.) Why that dog loves library books is beyond me, but he cannot resist them! 
1 flashlight (batteries dead)
3 full size pillows (hello 2 of these are the guest pillows! No Dog Hair allowed!, needs must wash these now.)
and 4 pairs of undies... (now I know why she can't find any underwear.)

I have not been able to stop giggling as I write this, I'm sure my mom found as much stuff, if not more in my bed at various times in my life. I am absolutely positive, it was super uncomfortable, but since she managed to sleep without complaint she cannot be a princess. :-P

CTC First Day

Yet again it's August and the heat is on! We have heat advisories for the next few days, 106 in the shade!  My box day (HODies way of saying my books are here!) was last week and the living room is finished, painted and re-shelved. I have shelves of books for school in there now. Yippie! I'm going back to schooling around the kitchen table.

If the clutter gets out of control we'll go back to schooling in the kids bedroom. As it is, I love how I have homes for all the books. Mise en place works for school as well as the kitchen :-)

Little Miss Sunshine and Sweet Potato are able to share a curriculum this year. I love how I can combine them, they are very much in the same place in math, science, history, and reading.  Sad for Sweet potato that she is not progressing as rapidly as her sister but she is progressing! Little Miss Sunshine thinks math is fun and interesting.  While I wonder what is wrong with her I do rejoice that she likes math... 

I've chosen the history read aloud's as Sweet Potatoes extensions to push this curriculum in to "6th" grade for her.  Last year Sweet Potato did just the history and the quiet time from CTC, along with piles of Nuro-therapy work.  I do not recommend this path of repetition for an average student.  Since my eldest is in no way average and I know she needs input, input, input, and she likes Romans and Greeks. I feel this is a good call for her as an individual. 

As we were working through some math (review) on how to say big numbers, I was yet again reminded of my childhood. Ever have flashbacks to events when you were a kid? It was just like being back in my 3rd grade class room. Terrified of Mrs. Beecher the creature and that I had to say 10,506 in front of everybody. I failed miserably, Instead of saying ten thousand five hundred and six I gabbled out ten, five, six.  Zeros were a mystery to me.  It's as if they have some mystical power. Really how can you have 5 divide it by nothing and end up with nothing... what happened to the 5????  

It was hard to watch her struggle while her sister (who totally grasps how zeros work) just flies through the assignment. Sweet Potato says 5006 is 500 and 6.  I had to take her back to the number street. By the way teaching the number street from Math U See was like opening a window for me into the darkness that was place value... Once we revisited The number street she would give me the wrong answer then go "nooooooo" and say it right. I could see her tongue wiggling to force out the correct answer, while not saying the wrong one. I finally talked to her about letting it process.  "You need a bit more time. Take a deep breath and then think, Then take another deep breath, then answer."  All that deep breathing helps oxygenate her brain too :-) Bingo! she started getting them right. I jumped up and down and hooted and hollered for each one she got right. Big fist bumps and all that jazz. She started to blossom and smile doing MATH!  I love to see that, even tho I feel like a complete faker making a big deal out of accurate place value. Then I think "oh wait you were how old when you understood it???  um 37."  Yes this is hard!  Oooo and I'm supposed to be working on being more approachable, so humble thyself and be goofy.

We took two days to do Unit1 Day 1, I'm fine with taking extra time. Getting back into the swing of things is always difficult. As I see it any "one day" we get done in the heat. Is a day off we can have during the great fall weather of November.

Connecting

After a pretty lax first day of school, working at the ministry, some emails for the ministry, and more school, I hopped out to water my gasping garden. Imagine my disappointment when I realized the birds had gotten all the ripe tomatoes. Booo Hoo! Bad Birds!!! Off to Rosemeade Market  I went to get tomatoes for homemade salsa.

The kids wanted to come with me, so I let them. I love my new to me car in that, the passenger side air bag turns off when a kid sits in the front seat. Sweet Potato asked "Can I sit in the front with you?" I said "Yes!"  oo getting in an extra yes today. Off we went, we saw our favorite cashier behind the counter and got a deal on red bell peppers .99 cents each!

As were driving back home I change to an oldies station. Normally I keep it on the Christian radio station because the music is so awesome, but lately they have been running so many boring commercials.  I notice Sweet Potato is pouting because apparently she doesn't like rock n roll. Does this mean I get an A+ in Christian parenting? On comes the song More Today Than Yesterday... sitting at a long light Little Miss Sunshine and I are car dancing to the music. Yes I have one eye on the road and the light!  So were being silly, Sweet Potato is looking out the window ignoring her weird family, but we start singing the song to her. She looks up at us, glances and looks away then looks back, starts to giggle. I love how most of this song fits how much I love her.
"Oh, I love you more today than yesterday
But not as much as tomorrow
I love you more today than yesterday
But, darling, not as much as tomorrow" 
The whole chorus can just be sung over and over at her.  I loved how she broke out of the "You Guys are so WEIRD" thing and just enjoyed being sung at till the light turned green. I could tell I was connecting and she was accepting my love, my words, Yippie.  You know who cares if the person in the car next to me thinks I'm as nutty as a squirrel. Being goofy with my kids makes me approachable something I need work on, not to mention it is also very fun.

Walking The Walk

Today we got together with another adoptive family and watched chapter 4 of Trust Based Parenting.

Usually we watch the chapter and then discuss it.  How it applies to our lives, where were going wrong, what were doing right, and is it working in our homes etc. Not today we were constantly stopping and starting the video to talk about how it worked in our homes. We could not stop chatting about our failures, yup like many other parents I'm sure I'm scarring my children for life, and our successes in the journey our families are on. I really enjoy these times with other like minded families, it's a place to share our growth and back sliding without fear.

We chatted about how other people just don't get it.  So often as an adoptive parent, your child displays grief of an unknown origin. If you mention this to a natural mother they often respond, "But they have so much love here in their new home why should they cry?" I love how my friend put it. "Can you picture me responding to this mom, oh so if I took your kid, and moved them into a new home you can just be replaced by another home and love?"

Sweet Potato used to fantasize about her birth mom, then she got angry at her, now she loves her, but it just makes her sad.  Today's chapter talked about letting the child talk about birth parents, and how the child will go though many differing chapters of their stories before they get to the heart of how they feel. Often children are incapable of handling the emotion of their life. They do not have all the tools in their tool box yet.  Think about it. Somehow we believe this story of everything is better now that the child is in a safe and loving home.  When adults who experiences these same type of traumas often need years of therapy, even when they are in a safe and loving home.

Where did we get the idea that children can handle the rough stuff? Ok, yes we see that they can adapt to many unusual situations.  I have a sneaking suspicion it's is out of necessity and not out of an inherent ability. If Karyn Purvis is right, the kids aren't necessarily adapting, but rather retreating into a lower level of brain function. So they are walking, but they may not be talking.

I do want to share how I managed to diffused a situation this week... yet again Sweet Potato was  purposely messing up the last problem in her math worksheet. She could do it, but was playing dumb. I really get annoyed at this behavior it can trigger my dark side. I so want to praise her success's, I hate to see her fail on purpose.  I figured out she was delaying, wasting my time and failing on purpose, she so knew the answer! Instead of raising my voice or flipping out, I told her she was gonna get it... I got an ice cube from the freezer and chased her like a goofy mom around the house, till I cornered her (she let me) and popped it down the back of her shirt. Yeah!  instead of me pulling a freak face, and blowing it.  I ended up with playful interaction and us in a giggling heap at the end of it.

Secret Chocolate Peanut Butter Pudding

Caving to demand here is how I made it.

2 Avocados
1/3 cup Cocoa
1/2 cup Raw Honey
1/4 cup Peanut Butter

Tossed it all in the blender and blended well. Kids had no clue it was healthy. It's a great way to add fiber and guilt free chocolate to your diet. And I'm all about the guilt free chocolate.

Many recipes call for agave nectar. So I'm sure you can sub that in. I found as chocolate pudding it's a bit to bitter. When I tasted it it was also just a wee bit off. Adding the peanut butter helped boost the chocolate and creamy aspects of the pudding.

Eat within a few hours of chilling it. I noticed it got grainy overnight so it's not a make the day before dish. It only takes a few minutes to make, so I know this will become a family favorite. Especially when Avacados are .50 cents each (I tend to over buy at that price).

We love guacamole but even my family gets tired of it after 4 days in a row.

Hope you guys like it.

OH one of THOSE days

Today was pretty good over all but  Sweet Potato was a bit of a bitter pill, and in fact has been just icky lately. She finished her school books last week for 5th grade (just not math) and I told her we would start on 6th in about 2 weeks. Now her sister finished the first week of May, and we had sundae's and a movie. Gotta love that new Almond dream frozen Ice cream like stuff So Sweet Potato could participate in that. 

Now for the last week I've been on bed rest,  Saturday I managed to get to the Holt Adoptee picnic and last the whole time, after which I retired to my cushie bed and fell asleep most of the rest of the day. Sunday I managed to make Church, nap and go to a quiet get together with friends where I basically sat and listened to a sweet 20 something. Oh was I ever that young?  My my my... So since I have been on bed rest I figured the girls would pitch in and help. Last week the girls did do some work but left the majority of it to their father.  I thought I had them better trained than that. I'm finding evidence of slacking everywhere today now that I'm not totally comatose. 

Icky Additude examples:

Mom finds all the hard boiled eggs needed for Picnic are barely soft boiled... Mom knows she gave clear instructions. Child even checked with Mom when water was not boiling to makes sure it wasn't really boiling... then went and turned off the water so it wouldn't boil. Because she wanted them to fail. Her heart at that time:  Mom is faking needing to lie down and should do her own work and I don't care or feel like doing her work.  Yup I faked almost blacking out and asked you to finish this terribly hard job of boiling water, my idea of a good time is being asleep all day. 

Oh how bout me trying to encourage friendships. "I know honi not a lot of people call you for play dates why not call some one and invite them over here." 

Instead of calling and making a plan she calls 5 minutes before she wants to play, In which her friend says No sorry I have plans for "Right Now"  or makes a play date without checking in with mom, and has to send her friend home because its just not working out for us at that time because she knew it was a bad time for mom. Seriously she knew! before hand! I got the reason out of her today your gonna love this "Because I'm not a good friend and I don't want to make it work, or act normal."  Well at least she got the whole marching to the tune of her own drummer thing down. 

Today I find that for the last week Sweet Potato has been purposely putting things in the wrong place... this is her idea of fun... The hiding got so bad last year I had to make a rule: I find "it" any "it your directly responsible for" in the wrong place, you loose a token... You don't want to loose all your tokens (3). I gave her grace I found 5 "it's" in the wrong place all at once and only took 1 token because she was down 1 already...

Yesterday while I was taking a walk.. well I wouldn't call it a walk more like a saunter mixed in with a stroll,  around the block trying the whole "side hug" "low body language" "ideal parenting thing" of walking and talking with her while she was in a snit.  It WORKED! The reason she was displaying classic maudlin teenage  behavior is *drum roll please* 

We weren't there for her GRADUATION CEREMONY.  

Aren't we horrible bad terrible parents OH MY! Ya know she home schooled I didn't know we did ceremonies for catching up in the summer because you are behind. Oh wait did I say that out loud... noo just in my blog.  OH do read on... read on... 

You see 3 weeks ago we started attending Irving Bible Church because they have programs for special needs kiddos, and purposefully minister to adoptive parents. So we thought we'd give it a go to see if it would be a fit for us. Maybe our kids would feel more comfortable because they would be one of a crowd of adopted kids...   So Sweet Potato was put in the wrong class the first week. She was properly placed in the 5th grade class the second week... and the third week she GRADUATED FROM HER SUNDAY SCHOOL! Wow woo hoooo amazing *can you hear the one hand clapping alone?*  it's a very zen moment.   

Yup she in a all day chip on her shoulder snit, because we were one of the many parents that didn't attend the 5th grade Sunday school graduation. It was described to me by the Children's Ministry guy as "We pray over them as a big group."   Not one word about parents can come and participate... last week her teacher said "Oh she did great!" not one word about "Hey don't forget to attend the class next week because your kid is graduating." And oh yes only a handful of parents came, arn't we Just awful parents leaving her alone and NOT COMING... Oh the drama of it all. Man it sounds like my 13 year old diary reads, Ahh now you know the real reason I never journaled as a kid. I'd reread my diary and say ugh that's just awful! I wrote that eeew... 

Talking to my Mom today she was giggling over the "drama" saying don't worry she will turn into a fine young lady when she is 16.  WOW mom I'm totally holding you to that!!! 

Don't forget my Reusable Grocery Bag give away is still going on 

http://gardenforsara.blogspot.com/2012/05/chicken-give-away-hey-free-stuff.html 

face book shares off of my page count too :-) as long as YOU share Xiaoyun's story and I can track back to you and find you so I can ship it, is all that is needed to enter. :-) 

Chicken Give Away (hey free stuff)

Isn't it cute! 

I'm still super excited for the Chicks for Children Campaign.

So much so I made this really cool reusable grocery bag. 

I'm giving it away Free! 

https://www.mygfa.org/chicksforchildren/

The bag is made from 100% cotton. It is hand painted and one of a kind. I used acrylic paints, which my mom can testify... will only wash out if you mix Era and gasoline together and rub really well... I have hand painted art on fabric before and as long as you wash it in cold water and tumble it dry. It's good for years. 
I'd like to shout out to my friend Michelle who inspired me by showing me this style bag and the blogger who describes in detail how to make your own.  So if you don't win you can still make your own. I switched out the pocket for a simple strap.


From a usability standpoint the strap was just easier!!! It folds up nicely into a pretty compact package that can be stored in a purse or in the trunk.

It fits plenty! inside is 4lb. of sugar, 3 cans, one large container
of trail mix, 4 pounds of beans and a bag of chips.
* Disclaimer* You do not win the contents of the bag, just the bag.

So how can you get your hands on this bag?
It's quite simple...
Share the link to the Chicks for Children campaign on twitter, facebook, (or any social media) or in person to someone your standing next to in the grocery line.
Share my blog post about the bag and I'll put your name in the hat 2x.  (<----------click the facebook link up and to the left).
THEN... Comment* on this blog post and let me know how you shared the link/story/blog.
The Fine Print *You do need to "sign in" when you comment so I can track back to you and let you know if you won.  If you don't sign in, I can't contact you. Any anonymous or non signed in comments will not make it into the hat.  
This giveaway will be open from May 18, 2012 to May 30, 2012.
I'll stick all the comments and shares in a hat and whoever my Chinese adoptee picks, wins! 

Ahh The Search For a Car

So were at that place where our cars are getting beat into the ground, over 150k miles on each :-).  We know our cars have basically no trade-in value, $500.00 but it's a great car! We really regret having to turn in a V6 engine and the reliability it has given us over the years.

Last night we visited a Kia dealer who swears he can put us in a new Soul for the car payment we can afford. Not that I want a car payment! but I will if I must.  I'm perusing Kelly Blue book for realistic car prices.Oh wait no realistic prices are out there! I'm flabbergasted at how much used cars are commanding. We also decided to try the Toyota dealership that Ed Wallace  recommends He's the local guru of cars on the radio, so off to Toyota of Lewisville we went today. 

Fred shows us a nice Rav 4 2006 low mileage etc. Drives nice I hadn't considered a Rav 4 because I thought the gas mileage would be horrible, but it's the same as the car I'm driving now so no loss, no gain. Were honest about how much we have, how much we can pay, etc. We like the car It looks like a good buy.  Sweet Potato is IN LOVE  with it.  We ask the sale rep to run the numbers for us.  He runs off and does it, comes back with a car payment 76$ above what we said we could pay. We'd need 3k more down payment to even get it within range.  So we ask if he can move a bit on the price cause it's way too high.

He comes back with a sedan that we might be able to afford. But we don't want a Sedan we like the Rav 4, the Matrix 5, a hatchback type is in order. Sweet potato's medical equipment must go with us where ever we go and it takes up 3 cubic feet easy.  He goes off comes back with another car we really don't' want.

So we go home and I'm looking at the paper work he gave us, I realize there is no interest rate on this paper work.. curious I go to Kelly Blue book car loan calculator and punch in the numbers.  I put it on Used Car loan rates. A rate of 3.16% comes up so I use 4%... car payment for what we would be financing is below our requested payment. Himmm... I punch in 6% still within range, 8% slightly above... I'm thinking are car loans at more than 8% these days?? wow that's a lot. But wait....were still waaaaaaayyyyyy under the chart of car payments they have displayed on this paper. So I keep upping the interest rate I finally got the car payment they were displaying with 18% interest.  SERIOUSLY?????   This tells me they really don't want to sell us this car 18% is outrageous.

Ed Wallace I trusted you to send me to someone who would be fair and honest. I feel betrayed at this moment. We have great credit! We only owe on the house.  I could put the balance of this car on my 1% credit card, and have a car payment I could afford. Shhh don't tell Dave Ramsey I still have A credit card.  Yet they Toyota of Lewisville is trying to charge me a usury rate of interest.  Sorry Ed I'm thinking you need to have a chat with whoever in charge cause your both getting some bad press here...

Well I don't think they will be getting my business unless they want to be more realistic on interest rates.  I'm so glad we walked away and that we had an idea of what is realistic for us before we went in. We can go down to one car and deal with the hassle that is. I'm grateful I didn't have to take on more debt and we can just keep looking till we find someone willing to work with us.  Till then we'll just keep paying ourselves the car payment and waiting till this craziness in used car prices goes away, or we can find a car we can afford for cash.

Quick Marinara Sauce

Quick Marinara Sauce
1 16oz can petite diced tomatoes. 
1# ground beef
1 zucchini diced
1 med white onion diced
2 cloves garlic (minced/pressed) 
1 Teaspoon Basil *
1 Teaspoon Oregano*
1 bay leaf *
( * Or 2 teaspoons of Italian Spices) 
salt pepper to taste 
1 Teaspoon Parsley
2 Tablespoons Olive oil

fry beef and onion together till onion is transparent, then
add zucchini and garlic. Drive off as much water from the zucchini as you have time for. It helps the sauce not be to watery if you can fry it a bit before you add the tomatoes. 
Lower the heat to medium then In a corner of your pan ,add olive oil. Bloom your spices in the olive oil (blooming means you fry them briefly this helps them to release their flavor quickly). 
Add in the can of petite Diced tomatoes and simmer for 10 -20 minutes (or until your spaghetti noodles are cooked). 
Serve hot feeds about 4-6. 
If you want to make it stretch further, use 2 16 oz cans of tomatoes. 

Try to use the petite diced. Regular diced you must simmer for longer.