“"It's time for people who believe that they have a stake in Western civilization and its traditions to get a little backbone - even if it offends somebody." Fred gets it! Fred Thompson for President!”



"Al-Qaida have a 100-year plan," Thompson said. "We have a plan until the next election."



“It’s been kind of a pox on both your houses,” he says. “There’s a disconnect out there between the people and Washington. — It seems lately whoever has power, whoever has control makes the same predictable mistakes.” His campaign themes: tighter borders, smaller government, lower taxes.

My favorite free homeschool help site

This was the "blogger challenge" for SHS (homeschool support) list.

My favorite site is the 1000 Good Book List . The list is broken up in age groups and also organized by read alouds, poems, and so on. The books have all been suggested, and reviewed, by Moms.

What I like to do is open the list, let the kids pick some titles, read about them on Amazon, and then order online through our library. Its nice to have a huge list of books I can trust!

And because a blog post isn't a blog post without a picture.. let me dig one up.. This is a picture of Joseph at 2 years old. I snapped it in my mother's back yard.

Sunday morning ramblings..

Every sunday morning is spent the same way. Eating breakfast a "little" later so nobody is starving by 11am. Trying to wait til the last possible minute to get dressed so it minimizes the chance of messes. Wondering if everyone has shoes handy so we're not late due to a missing shoe (been there, done that TOO many times!) and so on.

We've also added in making monkey bread. What is monkey bread you ask? A very unhealthy concoction that probably shouldn't have been added to our sunday! hehe. Basically this is what I do..

• Spray two loaf pans with non-stick spray
• Cut of refridgerator tube biscuits (like Pillsbury, the kind that POPS! when you open it). Each should be cut into 1/4ths.
• Melt 1/2c. butter and dredge the biscuit pieces through butter
• Coating: 1c sugar, 1 TB cinnamon, and 1 package cook & serve butterscotch pudding all mixed together.
• Put buttered pieces into sugar mixture, coat, and then place into loaf plan
• I use 2 rolls of biscuits per loaf pan (this allows for leftovers instead of arguments over who ate the last bit!)
• Bake at 350 for 30 minutes. Let cool a few minutes and flip onto a large plate. It'll be ooey and gooey. Let this cool before serving. The bread will pull apart easily.

There are a lot of other monkey bread recipes out there. I prefer this one. James picked blackberries this morning so that was the side dish for breakfast. He's been picking bowls of blackberries daily from around the yard.

Last night's dinner was a hit. I do need to find a recipe for corn bread that doesn't fall apart. We will definitely have that again. I 'cheated' on the red beans and rice. I don't like bits of tomatoes or peppers in my food and I'm not using meat. For the beans and rice I made a large pan of brown rice in my paella pan (2c brown rice, 5 c water). I added 5 cubes of vegetable boullion to the water. After that simmered for 45 minutes I tossed in a large can of kidney beans (drained/rinsed), a can of tomato paste, and then seasoned it up with red pepper flakes, salt, pepper, chili seasoning, and onion powder. That all simmered together while we finished the corn bread and green beans.

Today is a super easy taco salad.. no dessert since we have leftover carrot cake *and* I think monkey bread would count as dessert, we simply had it for breakfast instead of after dinner.

Missed one!

I missed this one when loading the other pictures :)

The door saga & Bethany's baby wearing

The door saga has almost ended. For those who don't know.. Joseph dropped a mug a while back and the handle flew off. It traveled approx. 6', hit the door, and started it to crack. It was very scary because I thought it'd explode. That panel broke completely and it would have been a lot to replace. We decided, since that door drove us crazy anyway, to buy a new door. The french doors cost the same as new glass! A dear friend volunteered her husband to help replace the doors. Jim worked with him and they did an AMAZING job. Her husband really knew his stuff and that made it a do-able project. Once we get the molding on I'll take a new picture. This picture is looking through the old doors at the new doors. (Lowe's did mess up and send us the wrong door - right opening instead of left - but we didn't have time for them to get us a new one).

Bethany wanted to get in on the babywearing game. She is wearing Naomi in a crinkle cotton/gauze wrap. They both enjoyed it!
Naomi is so lavished on with attention. I know the stereotype is the 6th child would be neglected. Let me just say.. if I had to pick between being the 1st or the 6th that I'd DEFINITELY go for being the 6th. The cute thing is that Bethany has always been a type of momma to Joseph. I guess she felt he needed protecting from James when he was little. She's a quiet girl, but if someone messed with him she was 100% Momma Bear! Now.. Joseph is the one very into Naomi. If I'm not holding her he will say "Where's Naomi???" and go on the hunt. lol. (She's usually in the swing, bouncy, or being held by someone else.. so it isn't hard to find her). When she is nursing he likes to rest his head on my arm and just stare at her.. or offer commentary like "Naomi says she's filling up her tummy with milk!" Bethany is the 2nd child, Joseph is the 4th, and Naomi is the 6th. Maybe its something to do with being an even number!