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What type of Mother Hen Are You?
by Montessorimom.com: Educational Resource
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Actually, I'm the mother of four children who love daily art projects.
Thankfully, they don't need guidance from me.
I don't have an arstistic bone in my body, but I do open a mean glue bottle and I can squirt paint into little cups with the best of them.
Artististic. Not at all.
No change AT. ALL. to report this week.
My numbers are still 175/172/140
It's a bit of a bummer, but not a surprise. Simply giving up Pepsi and walking isn't going to make miraculous changes.
LOW Carb -- here I come. I'm no fool. The weight won't stay off, especially once I stop low carbing, but I need the boost.
If you're interested in joining or even encouraging us along, head on over to Regina's blog.
A great blessing in my life has been the ladies in my homeschool group. We all come together with ideas and try our best to make them work.
We wanted a Little Flowers Girls Club.
Since we prefer to meet during a weekday what about those of us with boys?
Blue Knights BOYS Club to the rescue.
Oh, one more thing. What about our little ones who will attend, but are too young to participate in the clubs? Got it! Hands on fun based around the ABCs could work.
Last Friday, we had our first Little Flowers, Blue Knight, and ABC Class meet. Each group met in a separate area of my home to help with the atmosphere of individual clubs.
Our Little Flowers Leader, Donna, kept the girls focused on their project.
The girls working on their Sunflower votives.
The votives are not only beautiful, but the candles filled the air with a pleasant Sunflower scent.
Olivia proudly showing her finished votive.
Here is our Blue Knights Boys Club working on this week's memory verse Hebrews 11:1.
Afterward, they made a Shield of Faith, followed by Sue, our Blue Knight Club Leader, taking the boys outside for a game of "Reconciliation Ball". (That would be Catholic Dodge-ball in case you're wondering. LOL)
Last, but not least, the ABC Class. Our younger children ages 2-4 enjoyed activities around the Letter A. Diane put several activities together from reading books, handling apples, to apple stamping.
This is an absolutely great group of families to enjoy fellowship with.
Having a walking partner has absolutely helped me to get outside and exercise. I am walking more than I would without her. Otherwise, I'd make the excuse that it's too cold. This morning, we even RAN for a little bit!! It's the accountability factor that is working so well.
This week, I'm DOWN 3lbs.
I'm going to be bold and share my actual weight.
This time last year, I weighed at least 205, but there was a point that I wouldn't/couldn't look anymore. I think I was closer to 210 before the scale started going down.
WOW Start weight: 175
Current Weight: 172
GOAL Weight: 140
From now on, you'll see those numbers in shorthand like this:
175/172/140
The middle number is what to watch for.
If you're interested in joining us or seeing everyone's results for this week, visit Regina's blog.
All bundled up on our way to the 31st annual March for Life and Rally at our State's Capitol in Olympia.
This was the first time we have ever participated in the March for Life, but our prayers were answered this year. We were able to gather peacefully to witness to LIFE -- all life is sacred from conception to a natural death.
Here are a few pictures .
Marching to the Capitol steps.
It was so amazing to stand at the top and see the stream of marchers coming to join us on the steps. The sight of families, men, woman, children, and clergy all smiles with the excitement to be together for LIFE.
Edited to add: I've just learned that a record number of over 7,000 people were in attendance.
Nathan has always had a fascination with frogs. He will sit on his bed searching through dozens of frog books for a new fact to learn about them.
Each visit to the zoo requires a stop to purchase a frog souvenir to add to his growing collection. I thought he would enjoy creating his very own frog book to look through and found a FREE frog lapbook at Homeschool Share.
Here is a partial list of books we read together in creating this lapbook:
From Tadpole to Frog: Let's-Read-and-Find-out Science 1 by Wendy Pfeffer
Why Frogs are Wet: Let's-Read-and-Find-out Science 2 by Judy Hawes
All About Frogsby Jim Arnosky
Poison Dart Frogs by Jennifer Dewey
Fun Facts About Frogs!by Carmen Bredeson
Frogs, Toads, and Turtles by Diane Burns
Flashy Fantastic Rain forest Frogs by Dorothy Patent
Red-eyed Tree Frogs by John Netherton
Animal Lives: The Frog by Sally Tagholm
We will be focusing many our upcoming science lessons around the Let's-Read-and-Find-Out 2 series.
Here is another coloring Page -- Frogs Over The Land -- Exodus 8:1-15
2008 was declared the Year of the Frog by The Association of Zoos and Aquariums.
FROGS in the LOCAL NEWS --
Imperiled frogs get a fresh start at Fort Lewis (1,000 baby frogs will be released each year until 2012 on a 50 acre lake on Fort Lewis.)
Time for Wednesday's weigh in.
The main goal I had to get this started was accomplished.....NO PEPSI! Woo-hoo.
In addition to that, I have joined Regina to walk two miles around this gorgeous lake.
After reading everyone's amazing results in the comment section (Congrats, Ladies!!) I'm going to have to kick this up a notch or two because I have NO CHANGE to report.
This week's goal:
~~ continue to stay away from the Pepsi
~~ increase daily water intake
~~ 50 situps each day
~~ walk the lake at least 3 times before next week
~~ decrease carbs and increase greens and proteins
~~ drop 2lbs
Total Goal: 35lbs
If you are interested in a joining us, visit Regina's blog and leave a comment in the WoW posts.
Monday
Are you interested in simple sustainability? Rhonda over at Down to Earth has opened her inspiring blog for discussions on various topics around The Biggest Kitchen Table.
The first topic is Chickens in the Backyard.
I am certainly no expert on chickens, however, I would enjoy sharing what I have learned since bringing Our Girls into our suburban backyard. Yes, we live in the heart of suburbia with the town center two minutes away and our home behind the police department.
Our backyard is about 1/2 an acre allowing us to own 8 chickens. My interest in owning chickens started after noticing several chickens walking through a neighbor's backyard. I checked our local regulations online and confirmed with a call to City Hall that we are allowed 16 chickens per acre. No roosters in city limits.
After reading every book I could get my hands on, visiting online bloggers with suburban backyard chickens, and gleaning from the Backyard Chickens community for additional information we bought 7, one day old chicks from a feed store. We have six Plymouth Rocks and one Buff Orpington. It was more than the 5 chicks that I planned to start with, but the store had a minimum purchase of 6 and there were 7 chicks left.
The Rocks and Orpingtons were our top two breed choices for their tempermant, looks, ability to deal with cold weather, and a fun perk of laying brown eggs.
COOP BUILDING 101 -- Lesson Learned: Bigger would have been better.
This photo on the right is of Minnie, one of our Plymouth Rocks, at 6 weeks.
After living in a large dog kennel for the first few weeks under a heat lamp, we thought we were building a palace for our girls! We would let them free-range, and they would only use their coop to sleep and lay eggs.
This spring, we must build a LARGER coop because they have outgrown their humble palace. Two girls don't even try to fly up to the crowded roost. There is enough space, but they constantly bump each other off. We knew these breeds would grow large, but apparently we didn't know exactly what LARGE BREED CHICKENS meant. They are much larger than any chicken I have ever seen.
click coops for larger view
FREE RANGING -- Lesson Learned: There are Positives and Surprises
At 21 weeks our girls started laying. There are several positives to letting your chickens free range that are covered in the books and blogs such as the increase of vitamins in the eggs you will be eating.
There is one large negative having us reconsider free ranging. It's an obvious one, but I didn't think it through when I decided to let our girls free range.
I even email Rhonda hoping she would explain in more detail her routine for cleaning up after her girls. I'm sure you've noticed on her blog the pictures of clean, manure free grass! Yes, I admit to having grass and porch envy.
I had NO idea what they leave behind can be the size of a small child's fist (there is the....surprise!!). At times, it feels more like cleaning up after seven small sized dogs than domestic birds.
Scrubbing down my back porch and checking shoes before allowing my children back into the house has become the only, but biggest thorn in my side. To solve this, we are considering fencing off part of the yard or simply keeping them locked in their run.
My question for everyone around the Kitchen table who FREE RANGES
If you have a suburban backyard and children who enjoy their time in it, would please leave a comment on how you are managing in this area?
