Edible Slime

Still no baby, BUT who could resist this recipe for edible slime - slime they can play with AND eat! Just one more thing to keep the kids occupied while I rest with baby (once he decides to arrive).

Also, if anyone knows a dairy free version of this recipe (or how to make it dairy free) please email me! Thanks!

MOM! So-and-so did this and that...

I wish I could take credit for this idea (I mean it seems so simple! After all it is IN Scripture!), but I cannot. So I will direct you over to What Is Your Sin?

If you have tattletales in your house, it is a must read (and so short! --- I love how deep she is in the time I actually have to READ a blog). :D You busy moms know how it is. ;)

-=-=-=-
Update on me:
I am sorry I have not been posting much lately (or been reading all your wonderful blogs all my friends). With pre-term labor, Passover, Easter, false labor and big time nesting I have been BUSY! :) I have finally gone through and added all those friends who added me as a friend to their blog. Baby is not due till May 3, so I am supposed to have time, but you know how it is. Only God truly knows when the baby will be born and I am so anxious for this baby to arrive!!

The Little Things

I am sorry I have not been posting lately. I am not even sure this blog has a following (or anyone really interested in reading). With pre-term labor, Easter, Passover, false labor and big time nesting I have been busy.

But this article about the little things truly blessed me. I hope it will bless you too.

Fun, Beautiful, Inexpensive craft for girls

WOW! I could not believe it when I saw it.

http://www.dltk-bible.com/mpapercross.html

Those beads look so beautiful and so real! WHat a GREAT way to eat up some time while preparing/cooking Easter Dinner! And what a wonderful way to remember the reason for the season!

Precious PRECIOUS Moments

There are some moments that a camera just cannot capture.

My 2 1/2 yr old is almost 3 (next month). She is in pigtales right now and singing Jesus Loves Me. She smiles and ask me if I love Jesus. I say yes, and her smile gets bigger. Then she puts a piece of watermellon in her mouth that takes up her entire mouth and chews with a smile and a giggle. OH I love this age and will miss it when we no longer have children.

My 6yr has been making her own books (does anyone know of a goood INEXPENSIVE source for blank books that she can use) by cutting paper just the right size and folding over 1 inch on the left side. Then gluing (is she smart or what?) the pages together using that folded inch on the left hand side. Of course it is all pictures in her book, and there are no orginal stories yet (only her interpretations of stories we have already read her). But I am so proud of her! I never told her to make a book. Almost as good as narration! LOL!!

And my 4yr uses her Lincoln Logs to build bird houses. She recently built a three room birdhouse and begged me to take it outside and hang it up for the birds. I tried my best to explain that the birds couldn't QUITE fit into that birdhouse, but that she is coming up with some wonderful desgins for bird houses. I think we are going to have to go get some sort of kit (anyone know of a good place to get a good ENXEPENSIVE kit to build birdhouses??)

All these moments aer so short lived! I wish that a camera could capture the true beauty of these moments.

A Mother's Love

I love this quote that Laine (from Lanie's Letters) wrote and just HAD to scrap it with these pictures my husband took of me during this last pregnancy.

TV and Sesame Street

Last night on the news, they were talking about the new Sesame Street DVD's and the controversy surrounding them. I have always disliked Seasme Street (read the book Endangered Minds to find out why - it is a MUST read for every parent whether they homeschool or not).

So anyways, the news says that the new DVD's are aimed at chidlren 6 MONTHS (not years MONTHS) and older. They go on to say that the American Academy of Pediatrics advises against TV viewing for children under 2.

After they announce that, the spokesperson for Seasme Street gets 1 1/2 minutes of news air time to talk about how unrealistic it is for children under 2 to not watch TV, and that all their studies show that children under two years are watching at least 2 hours of TV a day and that Seasme Street is just trying to provide something educational for those ages. And how important it is for caregivers and parents to watch the DVD's with the children.

Now how realistic is THAT? I am sure most parents (and especially caregivers) put on those DVD's to babysit the children rather than to spend wholesome time together.

It saddens me that an association as important as the AAP gets 2 seconds worth of mentioned airtime (they did not even get interviewed), while Sesame Street gets almost 2 minutes worth of air time including an interview to convience parents to let their children watch not only their DVD's but TV in general.

It's no wonder that I get flamed from other parents who allow their children to watch TV, or from family who sees nothing wrong with allowing children to watch lots of hours of TV ("after all" Mom says "we let you watch lots of TV and look how well you turend out"). The media is pushing it as something that is not only normal but GOOD.

If only Mom knew of my addiction to TV and how difficult it is to break. Having kids makes it easier, but after they are down, I must admit, the TV comes on - especially if hubby is working late. And I learned a lot of things at such an early age that I just shouldn't have known at the age I knew them.

We went to Yellowstone a few years back. My then 2 1/2yr daughter was FASCINATED with the gysers and EVERYTHING. She had not been desensitized to that by all the fakeness and special effects that are on TV today. But I had a difficult time grasping that this was REAL and not just some special effect. I knew that it was real, but there wasn't the AWE that my daughter had.

Here is a great article that I encourage you to read.

The Ugly Babysitters.

And in case you are wondering, what do my kids do while I am blogging? Well, right now my 6YR is working on her art (she loves to look at pictures and try to copy them, right now she is trying to draw Snoopy). My 4YR is builing a bird house with her Lincoln Logs (I cannot tell you how many birdhouses she has made and unmade and made and unmade LOL!). My 2YR is sitting with a library book and "reading" it. She also has paper and crayons near her (and she knows NOT to color in the book - we have always torn pages out of coloring books for them to color so they do not get the idea that they can color in books).