There's a new name written down in glory.................

To my most dedicated readers: i apologize for not posting earlier, these first two months of  home school has taken me for a loop.  Not only are we busy, in a good way, but we're also doing co-op for the next 6 weeks.  I'm also in the middle of projects I'm investing my time on for my step Mom to sell in her booth at the MagPie in Clarksville. 

Landon is doing very well, in fact, has about 30 more lessons to finishing his learn to read program.  He is reading paragraphs now and doing great.  We try to be flexible each day and most days we HAVE to be with Livia the great Hudini and most especially Mrs. Curiosity and her fun game of opposites.  She can find herself in the midst of great messes and trouble at exactly all the wrong times.

Here's a quick look at some of these great times!

paper throw/sticky spider web, and yes they found a way to tear this up within minutes! forget the pinterest title "HOURS of FUN"


This activity did actually last longer than 5 minutes: Objects frozen in ginormous ice block. Great for a hot day! Not so great for frozen ice chips flying into toddler's face from brother's determination to get them out.

Landon's sometimes loving facial expressions for his teacher's requests!

 Special Guest Teacher: (Mamaw Annie) Mrs. Gack, teaching Arkansas History on how the state veggie/fruit Tomatoes are grown in her own garden.

 Soccer season is now in progress: Practices just now got a lot more serious!

Grandma Nina gave us her childhood piano. Landon & Livia have enjoyed playing and it's brought our home a new lively atmosphere. Landon has taken a great interest in Literature and the Arts and Math. He is especially fond of drama, music, and finished reading the Lion, the witch and the wardrobe recently(i read this to him)

Landon accepted Jesus Christ into his heart, September 18th, this week. We had been studying the plan of salvation in the Old testament, of obedience and trusting God and the penalties of sin and God's grace through his son Jesus.  I had been talking about my testimony of asking Jesus in my heart at age 7 and how real it was to me and how God spoke to me.  Every time i shared this, I cried and he kept saying, "oh no, are you crying again, Mom?"  So I explained why I was crying these tears of joy.  I also explained a hard subject of a man Landon knew from our previous church ministry, who passed away.  We talked about it very realistically and i talked about how when Terry got to heaven, he was able to see Jesus, face to face.  In fact, i got up out of my chair and showed Landon how he might have hugged Terry and embraced his homecoming.  We talked about how our sin puts a wall between us and God, and that Jesus Christ was the only way to take that wall down.
The privilege of homeschooling is I get to do what I love the most, and that's talk about the Bible in every subject.  Especially science, it's the greatest explanation of our creator. Explaining all these things to a child for the first time, makes me emotional and those moments are priceless when I see the look on his face as he hears for the first time, in great detail, the salvation message and my personal testimony.  He asked me if I was a Christian, while explaining how the Holy Spirit speaks to our brains and helps us make right decisions.  He said, "i want to do that thing you did. What do you call it?   He asked me to pray with him.  I almost tried to discourage him and said, "why don't we wait until you really understand,  he said, No, mom, I  understand and don't want to wait.  I didn't want to discourage him any further, so we prayed and i cried and we hugged each other. I said, did God speak to your heart? What did he say?  He said, God told him that he was a good boy and Jesus died for his sins.  Landon was excited to know that his name was written in "that big book", he told daddy this when he got home. We talked about how when there's a new name written down, the angels rejoice.  He smiled and planned to tell his family when he sees them, so he can hug them.
 We plan to explain baptism through the next year.  Right now he thinks it's a trip to the bathtub and mentioned he isn't stepping his toes in that baptistery!  We need more explanation and understanding!

Now, I am finally able to document this next, but not as eventful historical event:  Livia is wearing Mamaw Annie's dress, worn around 1959. When i find these pics of her I will post them side by side.

Another drum roll please.........Here is my dress worn around 1980, a vintage dress with such cute details. The dress label was entitled, "Cinderella".  

 Landon was concerned about a certain white goose that kept stealing the other geese's bread and was also afraid of them landing on the dock!

And the ducks were a lot less aggressive than the geese! He was concerned they weren't getting their share of bread.

Please feel free to write your thoughts here, I'd love to read them!

1st Field Trip to SpringHill Park, Trindle Lock & Dam

Today's homeschool lesson was on the 3rd day of creation, Land, Waters and Plant/Trees..........so, what a perfect reason to go to the nearest water/land experience than the Lock & Dam Park.  We saw it driving over to Van Buren and wanted to check it out someday and today was THAT day.  Perfect weather and the water level was up high and flowing great.  The two separate playgrounds were perfect for their ages and Landon rode his bike all over the place. Great site for bike trails & picnics & fishing. We walked down to the water after snacks and having our Bible Truth lesson. This is a great place to go. Two thumbs up!

Please feel free to write your thoughts here, I'd love to read them!

Faux Granite Countertops & Faux Copper Vent A Hood Makeover

Kitchen Contertop, Vent A Hood, Knobs, Makeover for Sister In Law......
I wanted to share what techniques I did for this kitchen makeover for design reasons, but I did not do this just to have something to blog about.  I wanted my Sis In Law to know how much she's appreciated and wanted to do something special for her and their family.  They spend most of their time doing things for other people and I wish I could have done so much more. My Bro In Law provided the funds to pull of this surprise....How Much?  Well, I'll never tell!

Using a Faux Granite Paint Technique I took a greenish/black countertop and gave it an overhaul.  My Sis in law was gone for a week 1/2 and it was a great opportunity to surprise her with a slight kitchen makeover. She homeschool's 3 children and is involved with many church and charity events.  I thought this would be a great way to let her know how much she is appreciated. I searched her Pinterest boards for some ideas of what she's been meaning to do and got the O.K. from her husband to go ahead.  The items I used were from another blogger who watched a Pro do this technique.  Here's what i used:
6 different colors of acrylic paint, 2 of them were metallic
gold flecks, intended for paint mixing
Bull's Eye Primer
sponges & cheap watercolor brush
roller brush, angled brush
6 layers of Polycrylic Satin
2 layers of Polycrylic Gloss

 I got paint happy and bored waiting on the paint layers to dry, so I experimented on the vent a hood.  It is wood and I used an antique copper acrylic with a turquoise paint over the top of it. Using several techniques and topping with a polycrylic gloss, the outcome was so realistic and it achieved the patina look I was hoping for.  It looks so much nicer in daylight. 

I took this little table from across the kitchen and painted the legs a turquoise-ish grey color and moved it to the center of the kitchen

Here, i took the curtains from the top and cut them in half and used a spring rod to make a cafe look.  The stone laminate in the shelf above was a suggestion for later installing to make a rock look in the shelving nooks.

I took an old board laying on the dining floor, dusty and I hope she hadn't intended this for anything else, but did a total personalized sign. I first painted it with a self mixed greyish chalk paint & then I used wax paper in my printer and used a pencil and exacto knife to outline the letters and used acrylic paint to finish.

I took her cream ceramic knobs off and spray painted them a hammered grey-blue and used the antique copper color to sponge on.  As it dried it separated from the other paint and produced this lovely patina copper finish.

Over all, my sister-in-law loved the overhaul.  I knew she would either Love it or she'd never let me back in her house again!  I did some organizing for her with some Pinerest ideas such as a rod under the sink for spray bottles and other organizing helps.  It was such fun playing in someone else's things!











Please feel free to write your thoughts here, I'd love to read them!

My Parable of the Frog, a story Uncle Si would enjoy!

I've never heard of what I'm about to share, so please be advised, it's about to get as gross as High School Biology Lab day.  In fact, I remember that week very clearly.  I was already familiar with the smell of formaldehyde from my dad's taxidermy, but it is still never became a pleasant smell to me, especially when the class is right before lunch period.  I hated the frog lab week and I really despised the lab rats.  In fact, I was so disgusted with each lab exam, I made a horrible grade on all those 'parts' we had to label and sometimes stick a color coded pin into the flesh.  I was often day dreaming of a class where a living animal was the source of inspiration for a painting or drawing or at least the images for a little boys room design, never an investigation into a dead, bloated animal corpse!  And I certainly would never eat fried frog legs, or boiled frog legs or any sort of frog part.  Recently watching Duck Dynasty has enlightened my knowledge of such people and their delicacies.  I love the country fresh air and the freedom it brings and I realize that some people like to literally live off the land, but I would rather 'hear' those frogs than to see them on my plate.
Uncle Si would enjoy coming to eat the frogs I've discovered in our backyard.  Here are the images I found today:

Yum, CRISPY!

Guess these critters were trying to cool off from the mist of the a/c unit and ended up getting fried instead. Oops, should have been down at the pond!

So, to my story of our A/C unit I now go.  In the spring when the first hot day came, our A/C would not come on so we called the repair service and they were out within a few hours.  Within a few minutes, the service man said, with a quirky little smile, "mam, it's up and running.  You see sometimes frogs like to get warm where the wiring is housed and they overheat the wires causing them to short out and then trip the breaker."I said, "so it was a frog huh? I guess he's, well.....fried?"  He responded again with a quirky smile as I looked at our 5 year old son, "Yes mam, I pulled him out and repaired the wires, it was black inside the panel from the sparks and he was a crispy little critter".  He said that this happens a lot, but it's an easy fix.

Wow! What a vivid biology/science lesson for Landon, what a 

costly little varment & what a dumb animal.

 I remember the fact that frogs cannot respond to hot water if it's 

heated slowly, they just don't realize the heat is getting too hot and 

then forego their need to escape because they're simply only 

concerned with their selfish need to get warm.

That reminds me of the way us Christians can somehow get caught up in a place and through merely trying to stay 'comfortable' they end up stuck.  We try and conform to that place and seek refuge with something that's not our natural habitat.  How we might be trying to seek comfort with things that weren't meant for us and in effect cause ourselves to adapt to the heat until it's too late.
It's easy to find alternative answers for our needs in life and basically become self sufficient.  We can get so far away from God and relying on him that we alternatively burn ourselves up by self gratifications and self sufficiency.  

There have been times in my life that I found myself floating in Christianity until I became comfortable, unchallenged and not growing in God.  Then, God decided it was time to stretch my faith and he then allowed some hard challenges to come my way.  It was for my own good so that I could learn to rely ONLY on him, so I could not even boast about what I was doing, but could only turn to him.  It was then that I learned the different capabilities of God, I came to know him as Healer, Provider, Sustainer and sometimes only Friend. For if it wasn't for these lessons, I wouldn't be able to explain how God is any of these things.

Here is a song by LeCrae that would fit this particular attitude of boasting in God and not in ourselves.http://youtu.be/4Ec7ofMOqVM
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I think if we find ourselves in this position, we need to evaluate who we're relying on mostly and turn things back over to God and let him handle things for us.  We certainly don't have any business getting into a place that is grounds for compromising God's word or blending into the worldly views of today.  After all, we're living to please God and not man. Many people are just 'fans' of Christianity and not a true follower of Christ.   There is a difference and a great explanation of this is found in the book, "not a fan".  If you  watch the video along with the reading, you will find it an overwhelming realization of what it means to follow Christ in this generation.

 I'm afraid that getting on the worldly wires to save our lives or our

 reputation of being a "Jesus Freak", will only end up with us losing

 our eternal life in the presence of the Almighty.

Thoughts for today.
Please feel free to write your thoughts here, I'd love to read them!