Little Things that Help the Morale of the Troops

Homemade chocolate milk

Building a tent

Snuggling on the couch reading story after story

$3 markers and coloring WITH your kids

Dancing to music

Watering the flowers with little $1 water cans

Homemade popcorn and a movie together

$1 Side walk chalk

Bubbles, also a $1

Kashi cereal

Just lighting a candle for the dinner table

Painting little girl finger nails ( a personal favorite...)

Rolling a ball back and forth with your son

Visiting a thrift store and letting them play with the toys after you have looked around

An occasional french fry from Chik Fil A

Hugs and kisses

Ellie Speaks

Ellie: "Mom, I was just reading some verses."
Me: "What verses?"
Ellie: "The one where God made Earth, Mars, and Saturn. And the one where He made fairies."
(We have no idea where she heard about the different planets, and the fairies, we are working on that...as you will see.)



Ellie is really imaginative so sometimes we talk about things that are real and things that are pretend.
Me: "Let's talk about things that are pretend...like unicorns are pretend."
Ellie: "Right!"
Me: "And...fairies are pretend."
Ellie: "Yep!"
Me: "And...Hobbits are pretend."
Ellie: [With a very serious face.] "No Mom, Hobbits are real."

I'll be honest, I laughed out loud. She was so sure they were real...they do look real, just mini.

In the Zone

These are my couch potatoes. They were probably watching something amazing like Toy Story 3 for the first time. What is funny is Clay held that bite for her for awhile and didn't seem to notice, and neither did Ellie. :) I thought when I pulled the camera out they would snap out of their trance, but no. I was glad though. I love that Clay is so into the movie too. Sorry the picture looks so horrible it was dark so I had to bump the ISO way up.

Laura's Thought on Women's Work Undone

Flaring headlines in the papers have announced that "women will fight to hold jobs," meaning the men's jobs which they took when the men went to war. What to do about the situation seems to be a very important question. One would think that there must have been a great number of women who were idle before the war. If not, one wonders what has become of the jobs they had. To paraphrase a more or less popular song -- I Wonder Who's Holding Them Now?

With men by the thousands out of work and the unemployment situation growing so acute as to cause grave fears of attempted revolution, women by the hundreds are further complicating affairs by adding their numbers to the ranks of labor, employed, unemployed, or striking as the case may be.

We heard nothing of the numbers of women who could not find work before the war. They were all busy apparently and fairly well satisfied. Who is doing the work they left to fill the places of men who went into the army, or is that work undone?

It would be interesting to know, and it seems strange that while statistics are being prepared and investigations made of every subject under the sun, no one has compiled the records of "The Jobs Women Left or Women's Work Undone."

Laura Ingalls Wilder

Ouch.

Not sure what happen to cause pain to the head but glad we got a picture of him wearing the cardigan Aunt Abbey gave him.

Happy Saturday

We are closing on a happy Saturday, meaning we are putting the kids to bed (early)! Woo Hoo! We had a full day of shoe shopping that actually turned out well with little to no stress. Ellie enjoyed looking at all the sparkly prom dress purses on the wall and of course her favorite normal purse was a bright red shiny one. And she really wanted me to buy some "high" shoes. I love her and her loud, three year old style. Later we enjoyed lounging at home reading library books and talking with Papa on the phone. I had a perfectly good chicken roasted but Daddy preferred Kashi cereal so the littles followed suit. I had a wonderfully big, too much feta, with almonds and chicken salad. Much better than Kashi I would say. :) Honestly, Clay would have enjoyed my chicken but we had a big lunch and I think the idea of meat was too much for him. Or maybe it was just an excuse to eat his favorite cereal. Enough of my ramblings here are a few pictures. May you have a blessed and joyful Lord's Day.



This is my life as a Mom. Trying to talk on the phone and keep Buddy away from the mysterious dog chained in our neighbors front yard. I didn't know Clay took this, but I like it. :)

Giving to the Poor

Homeless...Will work for food...Need Help...

What do you do when you see someone holding a sign like that? It is hard because Christ commands us to give to the poor but at the same time you do not want to be fueling someone's drug addiction (not that every one asking for help is a drug addict). I have a a close family member that has struggled with drugs and from experience they would much rather have a fix than food. From being so close to someone with a problem like this I have learned a couple things: first, they are human beings that our God created, second, they more than likely are embarrassed by their lack of self government and feel guilty a lot of the time, and third, think how hard it is for you and I to stop some "little" sin or habit let a lone something as gripping as cocaine. Clay and I really feel pity when we see someone in the Walmart parking lot holding a sign. I can not imagine being desperate enough to stand in front of people begging. We give to them when we can but we really don't like giving them cash. So what is our solution? I'm not sure when we thought of this or where we got the idea but, we buy little $5 gift cards from McDonald's and keep them in our car. We feel better about this.
Well, that is what we have decided to start with... what are your ideas? Any other suggestions for times like this when there is a need but, you are not sure what to do?