Pinterest Fail

When we moved to Mexico our Christmas ornaments were one of the things that just did not fit.  So, we began a new tradition of making Christmas ornaments.  We have made popcorn chains with chilis, popcorn balls (very yummy, they make great gifts also), paper snowflakes, origami cranes, dried apples and oranges (bonus: they smell great), cute little peanut snowmen, gingerbread cookies, ect.  The kids love this tradition.  

I turned to Pinterest for inspiration this year and I found this neat idea that SEEMED very easy and staight forward.  The idea was to place peppermint candies in cookie cutters and place them in the over to melt together, producing {these} cute ornaments.  Honestly, I thought the hardest part would be finding peppermint candy in Oaxaca, Mexico.  Super, mega easy...right?  I mean, I'm crafy...right?  :)

I think this is when you say...NAILED IT!

In the end, we did get a few to turn out nice enough to hang on the tree.  

How about you?  What Christmas tradition do you enjoy with your family?

Growing Luffa

Sam has set up a garden for me in almost all of the 15 or so houses we have lived in.  It is where I like to go to quietly work and think and pray.  It is where I can catch my breath and breathe deep.  Unfortunately, as of late it has been hard to have enough time to do even basic garden chores.  The saga of this garden is long and interesting only to me, so I'll spare you the details.  We moved into this house September of 2012 and I finally have a bit of green in the garden.  If we can only survive the dry season, we will be golden.  I wanted to share one of my successes from the garden and a new plant for me, Luffa.  It survived much neglect and powdery mildew when almost all other types of squashes and even the cucumbers perished.  

You can eat them in stir fry when they are green and young.  We haven't tried that yet.  We allowed ours to dry and turn brown.  Then we gave them a good shake to harvest all the seeds.  That was super fun and made a neat sound.  Once most of the seeds were out we soaked the dried luffa in water for about 45 minutes.  Below you can see Haden easily peeling off the out layer.  Once that is gone we laid them in the sun to dry.  

They work great for scrubbing both your body and your dishes.  I can't wait to include them in little gift baskets with some homemade soap.  We are loving the low maintenance, useful luffa plant.

March 2013 Recap

Meme took the girls to a cooking class.  Where we got to go on a market tour and learn about traditional Oaxacan food.

March 2013 Recap

Crazy February Holidays: Answers

Las Repuestas!

As Gru from Despicable Me says in an eastern Europeanish accent, "Of course, I have pins and needles that I am sitting on."  As I am sure many of you do, waiting to find out which crazy, fabulous February holidays we were celebrating last Friday.  

I have good news!  The wait is over!  All fourteen are in the pic below.  Can you find them?

Thank you Baptist Missionary Women for hosting this super fun event.  Looking forward to next year.  

Next Friday, I will be sharing part of our homeschool room makeover.  All I can say is it was cheap and the results were spectacular!  (Lots of exclamation points this post, please forgive me)

Here is the before picture...I know, almost anything would be a much needed improvement, but trust me...it's going to be great.
  

See you on Monday for Ministry Monday.

What crazy holiday do you like to celebrate?  Maybe it's Star Wars Day(May 4th) or Eat Ice Cream for Breakfast Day(Feb 1st) or Collect Rocks Day(Sept 16th).  

Post your 'fav' in the comments below.  



Linking up:  A Mama's Story

Missionary Kid Spirit Week: Crazy Holiday

Happy Valentine's Day!

Today is Crazy Holiday Day for MK Spirit Week over at Baptist Missionary Women (BMWs - get it! ;) ).  

There are so many great crazy holidays, it was impossible to pick just one.  So, we picked, just one month...February and tried to see how many crazy holidays we could fit in one picture. 

We managed fourteen crazy holidays celebrated in February.  Can you figure out which holidays we are celebrating today?  CLICK HERE to see a list of crazy February holidays and see if you can find all fourteen.  I'll post the answer sometime next week.  

Update:  A picture with the answers has been posted, simply CLICK HERE.

Linking with: Shaken Together

Learning to Read Again: Our Story of Dyslexia

As many of you may know from a previous post, on our last trip to the U.S our sweet sunshine girl was assessed for some reading difficulties she has been having.  The story of how this was provided for feels like a warm hug from above.  It amazes me how our heavenly Father watches over his little third culture kids even when their parents have no idea what is needed.

Today over at A Mama's Story I am sharing part of that story and some of the things we are beginning to learn.  CLICK HERE to continue reading about this part of our journey over at A Mama's Story.

MK Spirit Week

This week Baptist Missionary Women is hosting MK Spirit Week and MKs all over the world are joining the fun!  Yesterday was mustache day and today was crazy hair/hat day.  We didn't have time to join the fun yesterday, so we combined mustache day and crazy hair/hat day.

Hooks and Setting

This week we were introduced to two interesting literature elements, hooks and settings.  The oldest two kiddos worked on writing a paper about how Mark Twain used the setting in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer to further his main reasons for writing the book.  It was challenging to think about how a setting would be used to do more than just tell a story.  I was proud of them for brain storming, outlining, and revising until they had a good paper.  

Angel Biscuits: The Magical Food of Home and Childhood

That Magical Food of Home and Childhood

There is something whimsical about Angel Biscuits.  The recipe came to us through Sam's mom.  It is one of her special dishes.  One of those dishes that evokes the feelings of childhood and comfort and home.  The dish that always gets gobbled down first at any gathering.  Always light and fluffy and melts right in your mouth.  It's an old recipe and the act of rolling out the dough, brushing on the butter, sprinkling on the cinnamon and sugar and rolling them up always makes me feel so smart and domestic in a good way.  Kind of like when you go out and cut herbs from your own plants for a dish you are making.  I hope your family enjoys this recipe as much as ours does.  You will find the recipe and a print friendly version at the bottom of this post.  

Kool-Aid Man

I love sitting around my the table talking to my children, of which several are really not children anymore.  They have thoughts and opinions about all kinds of things, but sometimes they are just funny.  Once you get one of them going they just feed off each other.  It can get quite loud and seem like complete chaos from time to time.  

Kool-Aid man photo bombed breakfast!

Tonight went something like this:

Me:  I don't know if it's because I'm a bit of a crunchy mama or if it's a third culture kid issue, but it was so funny when we were in the U.S. and Haden was offered Kool-Aid at a birthday party and he's looking at his aunt all unsure and says, "No, thank you."

Samuel:  Yeah cause he doesn't know what Kool-Aid is.

Haden:  What is Kool-Aid?

Me:  That flavored, colored water.

Haden:  Oh, yeah!  I didn't know what it was.

All:  {Laughing}

The Way We Roll

This is the way we roll...literally...this is the way we roll down the road.

We all roll out of bed at 6:45 am (with the first snooze).  In 35 minutes everyone is dressed, packed, and the two little ones that were too tired to shower the night before are showered. That’s because one change of clothes, two pairs of underwear and one pair of PJs are packed in backpacks at the beginning of the trip.  The backpacks and shower bag are the only things that go into the hotel and the only things that have to be packed and rolled out in the morning.  At 7:15 am we roll out of the hotel parking lot and start the first mile of the 650 we will drive today.  This is the third long travel day since leaving Arkansas 6 days ago.   

Means Academy: Life as it relates to books this week. {Oct 14-Oct 18}

This week the kids have been able to really relate to a few of the books they have read.  It is fun to see their eyes get big in realization that they can relate to that personally because they have first hand experience.  It makes the books seem to come alive a little bit.

They may not admit it, but even my older children can not resist the charm of Ladybug Girl in the series of books about Lulu and her adventures as LadyBug Girl by David Soman and Jacky Davis.  You can read it for free at WE GIVE BOOKS!  Haden was delighted when he discovered that Ladybug Girl had planted an avocado tree, just like him.  

Illustration by David Soman for the book Ladybug Girl.