This is a photo of our friend’s pretty lane a week before Christmas. We went to her house to pick up eggs since none of the hens we have left are laying. Sniff. Sniff. Anyhoo….I just had to stop to take a photo of the winter wonderland.
It’s been bitterly cold the past few days. All the animals have been hunkering down in the barn.
How’s the weather where you are?
It has been a long time since I did a Motivation Monday post. Let’s see when was the last time? Wow, back in August! The purpose of Motivation Mondays was originally explained here, which was to help me get motivated and get more done. Since that time I have become more busy but still need motivation to stay on track towards my goals.
I have a lot to do now that the new year is here. It’s easy to get overwhelmed if I think too much about it. I have to take one thing at a time and do things one day at a time.
Here’s what I *think* I am looking at for this week and possibly the rest of the month with slight variations:
– Teaching my five year old to read. Hubby is home so he’s helping.
– Getting the children back on track for their school work. It’s always tough after a break. Gotta shake off the lazies.
– Cleaning
– Organizing and reorganizing my office, again! Getting ready for tax time….again.
– We need to make some farm decisions – how many chicks to buy, will we buy pullets from the hatchery in March, what seeds do we need, how many plug trays will we plant or buy to get our veggies started, will we take on an intern and worker shares this year? Are we raising turkeys, if so, how many? Will we add any other farm ventures? Will we do any farmers markets? How will we meet our goals?
– Apply to more VA jobs. My goal is to take on one client for 10 hours per week or two clients for 5 hours each per week. This will help us in replacing my husband’s income, just in case he cannot find a job.
What about you? Do you have a list of to-dos or goals for the week?
I haven’t been reading much lately but I did have the privilege of reading No One to Trust: A Novel (Hidden Identity)
No One to Trust is about the Abernathys, a married couple whose marriage takes a completely different turn when Kyle turns out to be someone else entirely!
As life takes a dangerous turn for the Abernathys they learn quickly who they can trust and who they cannot trust, though Summer Abernathy feels she has no one to trust, including her husband.
I could relate to some of the trust issues the characters, especially Summer, struggled with. It is very hard to be hurt by someone you care about and not know who you can trust or if you can ever trust that person again.
No One to Trust: A Novel (Hidden Identity)
is about learning to trust again, especially God, and learning to forgive so you can trust again. I think my issue is unresolved forgiveness hindering my trusting people again.
I really enjoyed this “candy” read because I couldn’t put it down until I read the whole thing! I am looking forward to the next book in the series.
I took some time off over Christmas so I broke my straight run of posts for the Saturday Top Laughs but I enjoyed the time off! And now it’s time to laugh with the Goulds again! Once more we have joined The Mommyhood Chronicles for Week #10 – for us – in the Saturday Top Five Laughs of the week.
6. My husband was messing with the garbage cans at the end of the driveway on garbage day, when our three year old saw him from our front window he started calling, “Daddy!” Then it changed to, “Robert!” which came out more like “obert”. I proceeded to ask him what my name was and he goes, “eesa”. It was cute and now he hasn’t called us by our names since. Recently I taught him our real names but it was like one time so I was surprised that he remembered our real names, then again he does hear us calling each other by our real names.
5. Robert celebrated his birthday recently and the girls made him two birthday desserts but only one was ready to eat in time. He said the next morning he had a bad dream (I call it a birthday nightmare) that mice came and ate his chocolate chip cheesecake during the night. He woke up with relief to find out the cheesecakes were just fine. 😉
4. Kittens climbing across Miss Moo’s back.
3. Kittens sitting under Miss Moo’s udder to catch the drips of milk in the morning.
2. Padfoot, our goofy Newfie, jumping to catch snowflakes!
1. Our children started calling my husband “Vader” after watching Star Wars over the Christmas break. Our 14 year old daughter, B, discovered “Vader” is the alternate spelling of the Dutch word “Vater” meaning father. Darth Vader means “dark father”. B and O even decorated their dad’s birthday dessert accordingly. B’s been calling me “Mater”, latin for mother.
That’s as good as it gets this week. How about you, what laughs have you started 2014 with? Or what nicknames do your children come up with for you and your husband?
Most of you who are regular readers know nearly all the apps on my cell phone are educational. Our children love to go on my phone to play with the apps. They also love it when I change the apps by downloading new ones. GS Preschool Games for Android has a cool little app our children have been enjoying the past couple of days.
GS Preschool Games has ten different activities children can enjoy and learn from:
– Jigsaw puzzles
– Match the Objects
– Solve the Maze
– Memory
– Burst the Balloons, which teaches letters, numbers and colors
– Count the Objects
– Compare the Objects
– Find Odd Items
– Find the Correct Count
– Scratch the Pad to Paint – while doing this activity our three year old son passed me the phone and said, “Scratch Mommy”….it took me a minute to figure out what he meant!
The characters are whimsical and fun. Not to mention attractive to a little one’s eye, as the colors are bright.
GS Preschool Games app is easy to use. Simply choose your activity with a click and then swipe and click to play. The skip button allows children to skip and choose a game based on his or her interest at that moment.
One thing I noticed while doing the balloon activity is when you earn your sticker for clicking the correct balloon, the pop up has this pause and there is barely enough time to catch the rest of the balloons as they float up and off the screen.
Even our five year old and seven year old had fun with this app. The app is recommended for ages 3-6. My daughter who is seven said it was fun and it has rewards. They love earning something for their effort. It’s very motivating for them as they learn and play. However, we could not figure out if the stickers led to more activities or bonus features or if they were just a reward pop up with an encouraging word. We are inclined to think it’s the latter. After a few activities within a game they do get to choose their own animal sticker reward.
Each game contains approximately 16+ individual exercises within that category, providing ample fun and entertainment for children at home or on the go. One thing to be aware of is a parent does have to be involved and read the instructions to a child who does not yet know how to read.
This app is available for yours and your child’s educational pleasure for Android here:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.greysprings.games
and is also available for iOS as well:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/gs-preschool-games/id726944785?mt=8
Enjoy!
Remember the review I did of a local farm’s wool dryer balls? Well, I have an extra set I was going to donate to a charity auction but it fell through so I thought I’d offer you all a chance to win the set. They are Christmas colors though, just so you know.
Oh and I must add, I am still not sure if we have completely eliminated the static or if the dryer balls are missing some of our loads. Still working on figuring it out. Other than that we do still really like them!
And I fixed the tweet in the Rafflecopter! Sorry about that!
Wool Dryer Balls Giveaway
I’m not a huge perfume fan but I have my favorite, which is also my husband’s favorite, but it is no longer made by its manufacturer. Boo hoo. I am on my last bottle of it. It’s been nearly 20 years since I bought it, at which time I bought like four of them. Let’s just say I have used it very sparingly and for mostly special occasions.
My husband doesn’t always use cologne or aftershave. Sometimes I even have to hint for him to put some on, other times he surprises me. I’ve loved my husband’s cologne since I have known him. He uses Drakkar Noir. Sigh. I get dreamy eyed smelling it on him! (blush!)
I actually bought him some as a surprise at Christmas time since he was getting low. It was a discount fragrance and an impulse buy while grocery shopping. I’m glad I got it for him because now he can wear it more often!
Did you get any new perfume for Christmas? What is your favorite perfume or men’s cologne?
Another year has come and gone….and I am not sure how I feel about it. I cannot say I am excited about the new year. Excited for spring and summer. Guess I am quietly contemplating what is going to happen when my husband’s unemployment runs out in 2-3 months. It kind of puts a damper on the new year cheer to say the least.
Looking back on 2013, I can honestly say it wasn’t all bad. The good list certainly outweighs the bad.
The Good:
Finally sold our townhouse.
Increased my income….somewhat.
New work at home job as hostess on Moms.com
Saw growth and potential in our wee organic farm venture.
Added a cow to our farm family.
Healthy family.
Not one but TWO visits from my mom.
Birth of my first niece on my side of the family.
Signed a two year lease with our landlords. Hard to believe one year is gone already. Only a year left.
The Bad:
Sixth miscarriage in June 2013.
Husband’s second job loss in five years.
Loss of poultry.
Bad break with a client.
Looking forward to 2014, I really only have one goal in mind and several others stirring. I don’t like to make new year’s resolutions because past experience tells me I won’t succeed. I prefer setting short-term and long-term goals.
What about you did you make any new year’s resolutions?
As 2013 comes to an end, I am thinking about things that make me smile.
1. I am usually not thinking of things to smile about while doing the paper route at 3-4 AM, especially during the winter months. However, there’s this one house that has a tunnel built right through a huge pile of snow and every morning it makes me smile as I think of how much fun they had digging through the snow. It also makes me smile because of how much our children love digging snow tunnels.
2. Seeing all the snowmen children build around our town. I must say they are few and far between this year.
3. Obviously, my children.
4. My husband. He has the ability to make us all laugh.
5. The look on my children’s faces when they learned to read. This doesn’t happen during reading lessons, but usually after we are all done and they read something over my shoulder or their older sister’s and really realize they can read.
6. Our goofy dog.
7. Christmas lights. I’ll miss them once everyone takes them down.
8. Christmas music.
9. My favorite foods: Pizza, chocolate, ice cream. All the healthy stuff, right?
10. Doing a job well.
What makes you smile these days?
Have a wonderful New Year’s Eve! We will be hunkering down at home, watching movies, munching on some goodies and probably letting some of our children stay up late to ring in the new year. Not sure why that is so appealing to them but it is. 🙂
Wishing you and your family a very Merry Christmas! We are staying at home and celebrating as a family. We opened gifts last night and made lefse (Norwegian potato bread). Today we surprised the younger children with a teepee which we set up last night. We served a breakfast of homemade cinnamon rolls with yummy cream cheese frosting. Then we will have our Christmas dinner mid-day or early afternoon, play games and/or watch a movie.
Have a wonderful day!
