WFMW - Free (if you have a GPS) Family Fun!!

Our family has found a new hobby. It’s fun and gets us off the couch, away from the computer and television and outside to enjoy the great weather. It’s called geocaching.

We have tried letterboxing before, but my husband and I enjoyed it more than the kids and there was a little bit of whining happening while on the hunt.

Geocaching is very similar to letterboxing, except instead of written clues, you start with coordinates. All you need to get started is a GPS system. We don’t own a handheld GPS navigator yet (but are searching for the right a/k/a affordable one) so we use Garmeena, our trusty GPS from the car. (Ours is a Garmin and we named her Garmeena.)

Our GPS has a feature where you can type in longitude/latitude coordinates, as well as location. I’m assuming most of them do, you’ll just have to poke around for it. In order to get your “clue”, there is a website called http://www.geocache.com/. From there, you just enter in your zip code, and you’ll see the geocaches that have been hidden in your area. I like click on the “search with Google Maps” icon so I can see exactly where I am going. (In order to get the coordinates, you must register, but it’s free. Make up a username that you like because you’ll be using this later to log in your find.)

I would suggest going to an area that you are familiar with starting out. The ones that we have found have all been in parks that are in our area. With just a little bit of time you can find some that may be “easy” to find. I would suggest looking at the hints and information left by people who have found them so you can get a feel of where it is at.

The ones that we have found are typically right off trails. There have been times that the directions take us way off the path, but keep in mind that trails typically twist and turn. Just be patient with it. (You can get a feel for how far off the path you’ll need to search by the difficulty and terrain rating.) Once you get to the location, you need to look for trees, holes, rocks, etc. that a container can be hidden under. We have found various containers, from a coffee can to an ammo box. Different sizes too!

Inside the container is where you will find the prizes. Almost all of the ones we have found have small trinkets and a log book. The trinkets have been coins, bracelets, keychains, small toys – really anything you can think of . You may get a trinket out, but be sure to have some items with you to put back inside. Sign and date the log book, and make sure you hide it back well so no one can see.

We haven’t encountered anyone else on the trails where we have found the caches, but be sure you are inconspicuous. You don’t want anyone to stumble upon it if they aren’t looking for it.I’m still new at this and still learning all the details, but this has definitely worked for us. For other great ideas, head over to We are That Family!

She Speaks

I am a child of God. I am a wife of a minister. I am stay at home, work at home, homeschooling mom of four children. After a curve ball was thrown my way a few years back, I became a writer.

Not a writer of books, or a writer of a huge blog, but a writer of a CaringBridge website. If you are not familiar, Caringbridge.org is a wonderful site set up for families of people who are sick. It is a free site that allows you to set up a website where you can update friends and families on the medical developments of your loved ones.

My caringbridge site is for my daughter, Abigail, who was born in September, 2003 with congenital scoliosis. (Congenital means “born with it”. In Abigail’s case, she was born with a section of her spine not having developed properly. She has two vertebrae which look like triangles, and three that are fused together on one side. It basically looks like a puzzle back there.) Congenital scoliosis, if not treated, can be fatal. Typically, children with congenital scoliosis have lung issues. In Abigail’s case, her curve in her spine was causing one of her lungs to not grow like the other.

After waiting and watching to see how she would grow, and to see how her curve would progress, we had a titanium rod installed in Abigail’s back last January. She has had two expansion surgeries since then, and is scheduled for another surgery one week from tomorrow. Our life the past year has definitely not been normal, but it has definitely been a blessing.

I began writing Abigail’s caringbridge updates to inform our friends and family of her medical progress. Then it began to take on a life of its own. I found myself using it to encourage others and making them laugh. I would relay our day to day activities, searching for humorous moments in the midst of hospital stays. Most importantly, I was sharing the love of Christ by showing how He was loving our family through the storms.

I hope to continue encouraging others and to bring laughter to their days. Abigail will be continuing to receive treatment for her “curvy pieces” until she is done growing, so it looks like I have ten more years of writing. Maybe by then, I’ll have enough entries for that book that my friends are encouraging me to write.

There is a great conference coming up this summer in Concord, NC that would definitely benefit my writing and help me reach more people. It is called She Speaks and is hosted by Proverbs 31 Ministries. It is for speakers, writers and women’s ministry leaders. They are offering a scholarship to one very fortunate winner. Check out all the details on the conference and scholarship opportunity!

WFMW - Family Friendly Happy Hour

My kids love to eat out. I can’t really blame them. If I had to choose between eating in and eating out, I’d definitely choose out. But with a family of six, it just doesn’t happen that often. Well, probably more often than it should during some weeks, but I try to not make it a habit.

I have discovered though, that many times it doesn’t matter what we get, but as long as we get something out of a building that has a drive thru window, they think they are eating out.

One of my bffs has always been Chick-Fil-A and their “kid size”. I’m all about getting kid sized drinks and kid sized ice cream cones because they are much less expensive. Especially if you are eating in, why not get a kid sized drink. Free refills. And the kid sized cones are definitely plenty of ice dream for a snack.

Our newest discovery, which is probably not new to most, is Sonic’s happy hour. Oh my. Just the other day, it was unusually hot while we were out running errands. Everyone was “dying” of thirst, so I thought, “Hey, we’ll just run by Sonic because they have slushes.”

For some reason I always thought Sonic was a little pricey for me. Well not during happy hour, my friend. No, during happy hour, all of their drinks and slushes are half price. So all five of us got the beverage of our choice (no one had to share this time) and it was $3.21. I was thrilled. It was certainly a special treat and I know now I can treat them “out” without it breaking my budget.

Sonic Happy Hour. It definitely Works for Me! Head on over to We are That Family for more great ideas!

Might not survive otherwise

Might not survive otherwise. Those words pierced my heart today.

When my girl was first diagnosed with congenital scoliosis, I spent hours researching on the web. As a parent, I felt like knowledge was vital. I wanted to know all of the possibilities, all of the options, and really, I wanted to know that she was going to be OK and live a full life. I was searching for answers.

It’s been a while since I’ve went searching. Life has been busy and things have gone well. My girl has a VEPTR in her back which seemingly did the trick. She’s had three total surgeries since last January. I had it settled in my mind that we would have expansions every five months, probably install a new VEPTR in a couple of years. Everything was settled.

Until we had our checkup a couple of weeks ago. The short version is that the VEPTR isn’t really working any more. We need another solution. We were informed of the next possible step, which is called a Shilla. It’s relatively new, still considered experimental. I’ve been busy and haven’t really researched it much. Until today. And this is one thing I read.

“the Shilla procedure is being used on patients who might not be able to survive otherwise”.

Wow. Straight to my heart. I’ve never thought of my girl in that way. That she might not survive. Oh I’ve known the reality of her condition. Basically, her lung can be crushed if we did nothing. And I know that life can be a little tough if you have a crushed lung. But I’ve never thought for a moment that we wouldn’t come out on the other side of this, and all would be well.

I’m still working through it. I’m not a worrier. I’m a “let me ponder it, understand it, accept it and let’s move on with life” kind of gal. I have absolute faith in God and stand on our verse that we have claimed for my girl from the beginning. “For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Jeremiah 29:11

Meanwhile, I’m off to ponder. And understand. And accept. Then we’re moving on. We’ve got lots of fun to be had. Lots of laughter and funny moments to come our way. And on the other side of our curvy journey, we will be able to say that we survived.

Buma the Cow

Have any of your children ever had a stuffed animal that became part of your family? I’m sure most parents could answer yes.

Our family is no different. We have Buma. Buma the Cow. (Pronounced Bumma – long story on the spelling of his name.)

Buma became part of our family on our first family mission trip to Cleveland. Our church collected stuffed animals to give to the campers (we held an Upward sports camp) and my youngest son was a camper. So he got to pick a stuffed animal. And he picked a cow.

I’m not sure when or how, but Buma has become an integral part of our family. He goes everywhere with us. He has his own blog. (An in-progress blog, but a blog, nonetheless.) He also has his own group on Facebook. It’s called “Friends of Buma the Cow”.

One of our favorite pastimes is taking Buma and have his picture made different places. He has been to Carowinds and had his picture made with Blue from Blues Clues and Diego. He’s visited Washington, DC and Disney World. He had his picture made with a lot of the characters at DW and had a song composed for him by one of our favorites, Gi-Tar Dan at Animal Kingdom. Most recently he went to see the Charlotte Bobcats play and went to Myrtle Beach for some relaxation!





We’re looking to many adventures this spring with Buma the Cow. Stay tuned.

Let's Go Tarheels!!

Our family loves basketball. Love to play. Love to watch. And we absolutely love the Carolina Tarheels.

For the second year in a row we were able to go watch the Heels practice for the first round of the NCAA tournament. It is basketball heaven.

What a glorious day to see Ty Lawson, the ACC Player of the Year, walking. I've never prayed for a toe as much as I have the past week. Carolina is a great team, but boy, oh boy, we need Ty Lawson.

It is so cool to go to these practices. Admission is free, parking is free, entertainment is great. The Tarheels definitely did not disappoint their fans today, and had a great slam dunk performance at the end of practice.

LET'S GO HEELS!!

A Rotating Spine and a Goat

Our family has lived in a whirlwind over the past couple of months. All the boys played Upward basketball at church, with my girl loving being a cheerleader for the first time. I also coached a girls team this season, so we had five games we HAD to be at every weekend. Upward is a great program, and I would highly recommend it to anyone. But I am so thankful that it is over.

We went to see my girl's specialist last Wednesday and are thinking maybe she enjoyed cheering and jumping just a little too much because her device is pulling through her rib again. (He didn’t actually say what caused it. It’s probably a combination of activity and growing.) It is not completely through the rib, so that’s a good thing. It looks like it’s about halfway through.
We also found out that her spine is still rotating, which has really always been one of our biggest concerns. Well, that and her lung are the biggest issues. The “cut to the chase” version is that the VEPTR device is working to her curve from getting worse, but it doesn’t keep her spine from rotating.

The plan is to go in a couple of weeks and try to extend the device again by another cm. He is hoping to do this without coming all the way through the rib. (Yeah, I’m hoping for the same thing.) His goal is to buy her a little more time with the VEPTR.

The next stage of the plan is to try and stop the rotation of the spine. The curve continuing will smush her lung, and the rotation will do the same. (I know that smush is not a medical term, but it works for me.) The option that he recommended is in the next six months or year, he will need to remove the VEPTR. Right now, the plan is to fuse the vertebrae that are causing the rotation, and install a new device, called a Shilla.

The Shilla is a new thing that he has mentioned for a couple of visits. The inventor (or whatever you call him) is in Arkansas. It is still considered experimental, so there’s not a lot of data on its success rate. It is some type of rod that will be attached on both sides of her spine with screws, and will extend on its own. This would be great to prevent all of the little surgeries between the biggies. This is definitely a plus.

Like every option we have had up to this point, there are always unknowns. With the device being considered experimental, the first unknown is how the insurance company will treat it. We’ll definitely be trusting God to work that one out. I know that the VEPTR was $22,000 and it is only one rod. Hmmm…..I’m thinking that we oughta “ebay” the VEPTR to pay for the Shilla. Surely there’s a market for titanium.

The other unknown is the surgery itself. Our doctor told us that his experience with the Shilla was with a goat as the patient. You can only imagine the amount of self-control that I exhibited after he gave us that little tidbit of information. Do you know the number of jokes I could have made with that one? Bless his heart.

So that’s the update with our little Super Girl who’s walking around with another ½ broken rib. Please pray for wisdom during the upcoming surgery that he is able to extend without completely coming through the rib. Also pray for wisdom for our next step in the process. And that the man puts one in on a human in the meantime.

WFMW - Computer Desk Organization

Cords, cords and more cords. They are everywhere. Sometimes I think that electronic devices are going to over take my house.

We have six people in our family. That equals lots and lots of cords connecting devices to the computer. We have two digital cameras, two cell phones, four mp3 players, one Didj and one Crammer. And they all can plug into the computer. With cords.

In order to keep them all straight, all cords have been labeled. I used a label maker and printed out whose and what the cord goes to. I found a cute little box in the $1 aisle at Target to store them all in.

Labeling our cords works for me.

Check out other WFMW tips over at Rocks in My Dryer!

The Hocker

This post is part of "Laughter Lives! Tuesday" on the Riggs Family Blog. Check our their blog to read everyone else's "Laughter Lives!" posts.

Disclaimer #1: I have given this entry a title, mainly as a warning. If things gross you out, please don’t read this.

Disclaimer #2: I did get permission from all parties involved prior to sharing this story.

Set up: The timing of this event was great. It had been a stressful week. My daughter had just gotten out of surgery the Sunday before, having been there all week. She was not walking yet and her recovery was going slow. This was my chance to get out of the house for a while.

About a year ago, on a Saturday, 2 of the boys and I were driving home from a basketball game at church. (Both boys will remain unnamed to protect all involved.) We were travelling on the interstate. The older of the 2 had recently celebrated a birthday, which allowed him to ride in the front seat of my van. He had also been battling a cold and drainage.

As we were going approximately 69.5 mph, the child in the front seat cleared his throat. Hard. This produced what I like to call a hocker. He turns to me and looks with a “what do I do with it” kind of look. I quickly look for an empty cup. Nothing.

So I say “just roll down the window, and spit it out. But please don’t let it hit the side of the van.” It was winter and the van was not going to be washed anytime soon.

The window goes down, he spits, rolls the window back up. I’m assuming all is well.

I was mistaken.

A few seconds goes by and he doesn’t turn his head around.

Our conversation goes something like this:
Me: Did it come out?
Child: Yes ma’am.
Me: Did it go down the side of the van?
Child: No ma’am.
Me: I turn around and quickly check the child in the back of the van to see if he was hit by the hocker. He was clean.
Me: So is it all over the window?
Child: No ma’am, it’s not on the window?
Me: Well what’s the matter?

The boy turns around and I almost wet my pants. The hocker, which wasn’t on the side of the van, or on the window, or on the child in the back seat, was on my son’s face.

The whole hocker.

And I died. I was laughing so hard I couldn’t see. As I tried to compose, I could see through my tears that I was now traveling about 53 mph on the interstate. I contemplated pulling over, but we were only a mile from our exit. I couldn’t speak. I could barely breathe. It was hysterical.

Thank goodness this child is not afraid to laugh at himself, and he begins laughing too. When I could finally get words out – I say “Don’t touch it. I have to take a picture of it when we get home.”







We arrive home in just a few minutes and the clean child in the back seat runs in to get my camera. I took this opportunity to explain some of the laws of physics to my son, such as, you can't spit into the wind. Ever. Meanwhile, my husband comes out to see what’s going on. He doesn’t really appreciate it as much as I did.

I guess you had to be there.

WFMW - Coupon Organizer

(I am definitely not the originator of the following idea, however, I can’t for the life of me remember where I read it. If I do, I will certainly add the link later.)

I am attempting to cut our grocery bill this year, just as many others are doing, and I’ve decided to give a more concerted effort towards using coupons. I have tried doing coupons in the past, but I’ve never felt like I’ve utilized them well. I have read article after article about people spending $3.43 on a stash of groceries that would have normally cost $4,532, but that’s just never happened to me. Oh how I hope it will, though!

My first goal in couponing was getting my coupons organized. The best idea that I ran across was storing your coupons in a 3-ring binder, using baseball card sleeves/protectors. I believe I got my sleeves at either Target or Wal-Mart, right alongside the baseball and football cards.

Each page has 9 slots and the majority of the coupons I have fit nicely with only one or two folds. I store coupons for the same product in the same sleeve, with the ones expiring soonest in front.

I thought I’d feel weird taking a notebook into the grocery store with me, but that hasn’t been the case. I have organized like coupons together, meaning all the frozen foods are together, cereals, etc. and I make sure I preview the coupons before going into the store.

With most stores doubling coupons, and sometimes even TRIPLING coupons, my next goal is stockpiling coupons so I can get more items for little or no money. I’ve asked the neighbors if they use their coupons, and they do, so I’m looking into ordering some from here.

Coupon organization works for me. To read other great tips, head over to Rocks in My Dryer!

Tales of a Cheetah-leader Mom

Saturday was the beginning of an era for me. My baby girl became a cheerleader. (Cheetah-leader is what she used to say a few months ago. So cute.) Now for my friends that have known me for a while, they are probably giggling at the fact that I am a cheerleader mom. Evil, evil giggles. Like they are “really enjoying this” type of giggles.

Here are a few things that I have learned as I have entered a new phase of my life:

• Cheerleading squads have very interesting names. My girl’s squad (my word, don’t call it a team like I did the other day. She was very quick to correct me.) is called the Twinkle Stars. OH MY SOUL. The Twinkle Stars. I asked a friend at church when I found out the name if I looked like the mother of a Twinkle Star. I don’t think so.


• The other names are just as good. The Cheerios and Sprinkles were the other “squads” on stage with the Twinkle Stars. My youngest son, N even thought that one squad was called the Toe Nails. No dude, it’s the Toe Touchers, not Toe Nails. (N’s having some issues with the names too. He just doesn’t get why they are naming them after food. Bless his heart.)


• Pom poms take 4,568 hours to fluff. No exaggeration here. Pom poms are of Satan. There are even instructions on the Upward website entitled “How to Fluff a Pom”. I’m not kidding.


• A basketball would have only taken 3 minutes to inflate by hand with a bicycle pump. Or even by mouth.


• When you are the smallest person on your squad, your uniform is big. Even if you ordered the smallest size. Apparently other 5 yr. old cheerleaders have arms the length of my leg. Needless to say we had to roll the sleeves up on the girl’s turtleneck.


• Also, when you are the smallest person on your squad, it adds to your cuteness.


• Fixing hair on Saturday morning at 7:15 a.m. is a difficult process. Especially when you really need to get some type of color coordinated ribbon placed in the hair, somehow, some way, so that said hair can match every other piece of clothing on your body. I should have just ripped out some of the pom pom ribbon and tied it in the girl’s hair. (I’m kidding. I really wouldn’t have done that.)


• After you get the hair fixed, then you absolutely cannot, under any circumstance let the child touch her hair with her pom poms. There is a lot of static produced by pom poms. (Remember their Satanic factor?) And then you gotta start all over again.


• A small plastic megaphone can increase your child’s voice by around 53 decibels.

Despite all of my “issues” with cheerleading, my girl had a blast and did everything she was supposed to do, when she was supposed to do it. Little Miss “don’t look at me” was up on that stage having a grand ol’ time.

Christmas Tour of Homes

Welcome to the Funny Farm. Our Christmas decorations are kinda slim this year. We spent the first week of December at Walt Disney World, and I haven't caught up yet. We have gotten our trees up and that may just be it this year!

My mother-in-law gave us this advent calendar 12 years ago, and the kids LOVE it. It is all felt, with velcro on the back of each ornament. There definitely has to be a schedule of who gets to put which ornament on!

I got this little tree for my girl last year. It's hard to see in the picture, but there are purple lights and pink ornaments. Just like a girl tree oughta be!

This tree is in our sunroom and has ALL of the kids handmade ornaments on it. I love having a tree that is all theirs. My crafty boy made an angel for this little tree this year, and is working on a nativity set crafted with popsicle sticks and pipe cleaners.

Here is the angel on the kids' tree!

Here is the baby Jesus ornament he made from pipe cleaners!

Our bigger tree has all of the breakable ornaments on it. It's been a gold/ivory/crystal theme for the past few years.

Thanks for stopping by! Maybe next year I will attempt to get out all of the decorations, but a trip to Disney was definitely worth the sacrifice of not getting them all out this year.

Animal Kingdom - Christmas 2008

Head over to Boomama's and check out other homes on the tour!

Have a great Christmas!

Round Three goes to my girl!

I have noticed that people are beginning to arrive at this blog via google when they search under scoliosis. I am so thrilled by that because I want to be able to let other's know about our journey with scoliosis, particularly congenital scoliosis. My daughter was diagnosed when she was around 20 months old and we (well the doctors) installed a VEPTR to help stabilize her curve, in January, 2008. We had our first expansion/reattachment surgery in July, 2008 and the following happened this week.

My girl had another surgery on today. It started around 9ish this morning (yes, we still got there at 6:00 a.m. – I’m thinking they ought to have call ahead seating like the restaurants do) and we were leaving the parking deck about 2.5 hours later. This is definitely more like it.

All went well. The doctor was able to extend her device by 1cm like he had planned, and he did not feel like the rib was being compromised while doing so. She seemed to recover well initially, so we were allowed to leave straight from the recovery room and not have to hang around. I was really surprised with that process.

The “plan” is to have another expansion in April, which will give us 5 months of growth. If that works well, he’d like to get us on a five month plan instead of six. That will also get us through the summer without having to be in the hospital. That would definitely be a good thing.

WFMW - Fabric Organization

I love fabric. And I have plenty of it. I would say lots, but I have seen pics of other stashes, and mine really wouldn’t qualify as lots. But it is plenty.

Organization is definitely not my strong suit. Never has been, but I do think I have found the perfect solution to fabric organization. This was definitely not an original idea, but one that I found after diligently searching the web.

The supplies that you will need are shelving, or cubicles (I purchased mine from Target) and comic book boards. The boards took some searching to find locally, but I was able to get them at a comic book store. (Not just any comic book store, mind you, and the comics that I am familiar with, Archie and Jughead, were nowhere to be find. This was a very, very dark comic book store. If that is your only choice and you happen to be a 40 yr. old woman, who would be very out of place, I would say skip it, and order them online.) The boards remind me of poster board, just a smaller size.

I went through my storage boxes of fabric and took the large pieces, fold them neatly and wrap them around the board. The size of the fabric was anywhere from ½ yard to 2 yards. I had my husband take a handful of boards to work and cut them in half, making smaller boards. On those, I wrapped my smaller pieces of fabric and have stored them in a fabric drawer. I secure the fabric with a straight pin at one corner and then place it upright on a shelf, similar to storing books. I have attempted to group them by fabric type/theme, but they always seem to get out of order. For now, I am pleased with the progress.

You will be amazed at the amount of fabric that can be stored this way. This was from two to three huge plastic storage containers full of fabric.I cannot explain what a time saver this has been for me. I can now see all of my fabric and am able to find it without digging through a bin.

It definitely Works for Me. For other great tips, please visit Shannon at Rocks in My Dryer.

The Old Schoolhouse Magazine Fall Promotion

Jump over to my homeschool blog, Funny Farm at School, to check out a great promotion from The Old Schoolhouse Magazine!

TRUMPED!!

While walking through the W*l-M*rt parking lot the other day, I was busy giving instructions about our impending venture inside the store. I announced that I only needed a few things, therefore, we didn’t need to get a cart. (A cart really slows me down when I’m shopping some days.) I figured that between the five of us, we have 10 hands. And some of those hands can carry more than one thing, so no cart necessary.

After the announcement of “no cart”, my girl (A) gets a little bit of the whinies, saying she was tired, and didn’t know if she’d be able to walk through the store. Now, she knew that we were heading to the park after our quick stop, and I’m sure she’d have renewed energy by that time. I assured her that she would be able to make it, that we wouldn’t be in there long, and I needed her help carrying some things.

Well my oldest son, C, immediately tells A that the boys always have to walk in the store and they never get to ride in a cart, and she always gets to ride in the cart, blah, blah, blah. Basically, wanting to do his brotherly-fatherly duty and try to explain that she didn’t have it that bad, but the boys do. (Apparently he forgot that he is 12 and would look rather silly sitting in the shopping cart!)

Poor fella. He didn’t know what was coming his way. I looked at him and asked him if he had a titanium rod in his back that went from his shoulder down to his bottom, and had his back been sliced open twice so far this year? Answer: Well, no. My reply: OK then. Maybe she has a point. She’s allowed to ride in the cart from time to time.

Trumped. She’s not really old enough to realize it yet, but she has the mac-daddy of all trumps. 3 surgeries in one year, with 10 years of surgeries to go. Hoping she doesn’t realize it too soon!

WFMW - 5 Minute Chocolate Cake

Do you ever have a craving for something chocolate and can’t find ANYTHING in the house? Not even a stray M&M in the couch cushions? Well this might be your answer.

The 5 Minute Chocolate Mug Cake! We made one today, and it was surprisingly good. It came right out of the mug. The texture was a little bit spongy, but other than that all was well. I did not have any chocolate chips in the house, and I will definitely add those next time.

5 MINUTE CHOCOLATE MUG CAKE

4 tablespoons flour
4 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa
1 egg
3 tablespoons milk
3 tablespoons oil
3 tablespoons chocolate chips (optional)
a small splash of vanilla extract
1 large coffee mug

Add dry ingredients to mug, and mix well. Add the egg and mix thoroughly. Pour in the milk and oil and mix well.

Add the chocolate chips (if using) and vanilla extract, and mix again. Put your mug in the microwave and cook for 3 minutes at 1000 watts (high).

The cake will rise over the top of the mug. Allow to cool a little, and tip out onto a plate if desired.

ENJOY! For more great tips and hints, visit Rocks in My Dryer!

Science for the day!

One of the things I like to joke about (kinda sorta joking) is how there are always opportunities for learning in every situation, if you just keep your eyes open. (Really it is the same principle as being thankful, if we just look around we can always find something to be thankful for.)

The boys participated in a local county fair last week, which means they made some things and baked some things, and we entered them for judging. They look forward to this time of year because they know they will actually get some decent money.

This year’s fair was profitable. C (12) made $28, G (10) received $16 and N (8) raked in the highest total of the three, $39. With this particular fair, they pay you cash money on the spot when you pick up your ribbons. Wooohooo!!

From previous experience, I knew that one child in particular would be itching to spend his money. Immediately. Probably all of it. Bless his heart. And he received the least of the three. (Yes, I just gave it away.)

Anywho, yesterday the three younger ones went shopping with their dad, while me and my oldest son went off for what we like to call M&C Day. (This is where he goes along for the ride while I run all of my errands, including the ever-exciting fabric store, and in return, I reward him with a lunch out. The boy loves him some food. And I love his company, so it is a nice trade.)

G was predictable once again, and came home with a couple of things from Target. The first was what he had been searching for, a guitar instructional booklet that comes with a CD. (I thought this was a great purchase for him and was pleased. He loves music, and is actually pretty talented, and is determined to teach himself every instrument ever created.) The second purchase was neat, but I figured it was one of those things that will get misplaced, and turn into “just a fad” type toy. It was this: Wild Planet Micro Ear Gear

Boy, I think I might have been wrong about this little gadget.

This morning, N, who is the early riser of the four was playing with the little ol' micro ear and discovered that he could use it to hear his heart beat. What??? We now have a stethoscope. How cool. So I listened to his heart, then I said "Hey, let me see if your stomach is talking." So I put it on his little washboard stomach and you could hear the stomach acids just a churning. What?? Even cooler now.

So today we will be studying medical science. All because of a toy from Target called Micro Ear Gear. (Let's just wait and see how gross it gets with 3 boys playing. I'm sure it will only be a matter of time before one suggests to listen to the others' bottoms.)

Science for the day!!

FREE MOVIES ON MONDAYS!!

My family likes to watch movies. We don’t have cable, well except for the cable you can get when you pay around $6 a month. I used to subscribe to Blockbuster online, then they made me mad. I had been a customer since day one, and then they went and increased my membership fees without increasing my benefits. So I quit them. And then they sent an email asking me to come back. No thank you.

We now subscribe to Netflix. I like it pretty well, mainly because I get movies off of it for school. (No cable equals no History Channel in our house.) I do miss being able to trade a movie in at the local store (like the “other” place would let you do, but not enough to go back to them.)

But my favorite place to get movies is from the little red vending machine known as Redbox. It’s becoming more and more popular and I have seen people write about it here and there. DVDs for $1 a day. Can’t really beat that price, can you?

I think you can. If you have a Redbox in your area, then you have to go to http://www.insideredbox.com/ on Monday mornings. Every Monday they list a “free code” for the day. Must be used on that particular Monday only. As long as you turn your movie back in on Tuesday by 9:00 p.m. (at least that’s what ours say), then you had a free movie.

Definitely works for me. For other great WFMW tips, visit Shannon at Rocks in My Dryer!

THE PAINT EDGER - MY LATEST BFF

I have been painting lately. The sunroom, kitchen and downstairs bathroom. The sunroom took something like 478 hours. Not much wall space but lots and lots of trim. I thought it would be quick and easy. It wasn’t.

Last week I decided I wanted to tackle the kitchen. I have been growing weary of off-white, dirt-colored walls. While in W*l-M*rt, I discovered a gift from God.

It’s this.A Shur-line Paint Edger. It really, really works.

My friend came over on Friday to help me paint the kitchen, bless her heart. We started at 2:30. We were 95% done by 4:30. And it was all because of my new bff. The edger.

The key to the edger is really simple. Put paint on. Place little wheels next to ceiling/cabinet/door trim, etc. Apply small amount of pressure and zip. A nice clean line of paint, approximately 4 inches wide.

A couple of tips: Do not, I repeat, DO NOT, soak in the paint. Be careful not to get the wheels in the paint. This causes some problems. Also, be prepared to smooth out the line of paint that remains with a roller fairly quickly. Unless of course you are going for the textured line-look on your walls.

So there you have it. The Shur-Line Paint Edger. My new bff when it comes to painting. It definitely works for me.

To check out other great WFMW tips, head over to Shannon's!