There You Go Mr. Chicken Legs!

Hmmmm..... morning games of backgammon can be quite competitive around here. Sarah and Daddy were playing a fierce game this a.m. Daddy said, "your move!" She moved alright and said, "There you go Mr. Chicken Legs", to which we both started laughing......
Can this sweet little girl who greets her sister with such affection Call DADDY MR. CHICKEN LEGS?


YES! But only during Backgammon. :)

Here is daddy giving his best Chicken Yard Rooster Look! Isn't he charming? From this look can you guess who won?


In case you guessed wrongly:

Chicken Pox

Anna is reading a book about 3 girls. She got very excited when the chapter was called "Chicken Pox". After a couple of pages she came to me and said, "Mom, there isn't ANYTHING in this chapter about a chicken!" :)

Erika's Creative Math Answers

2 boys have 3 donuts. If they were to share the donuts evenly, how many donuts will they have? (paraphrased by mom)

Erika's answer: 1 each.

I asked her: How did you come up with 1 each? That only equals 2 total and there are 3.

Her answer:

They gave the other one away!

Little Girls Have Never Changed

I was reading this passage from the book of Job:
Job 41:1-5
Can you draw out Leviathan with a fishook, or press down his tongue with a cord?
Can you put a rope in his nose or pierce his jaw with a hook? Will he make many pleas to you?
Will he speak to you soft words? Will he make a covenant with you to take him for your servant forever?
Will you play with him as with a bird, OR WILL YOU PUT HIM ON A LEASH FOR YOUR GIRLS?

Little girls have been trying to lead animals on leashes since the beginning of time. :)

What Is It About Schedules?

After vacation time and the Chaos that Christmas brings, we were very happy to get settled back into a real scheduled day. For whatever reason, it seems when something is WRITTEN DOWN and on the WALL, the kids just seem to thrive. They LOVE seeing Lists of things to do and they love following time charts.

I am abit free spirited myself, but have come to appreciate the SCHEDULE. It is true that I get more done when I write it down and try to stick to it. Of course we are not perfect at it, and of course there are exceptions to the rule, such as Doctor appts., illness, field trips etc. But overall, schedules cause us to thrive with happy hearts.

The girlies and I sat down a couple of days ago to discuss family responsibilities, school work, fun time etc. This is what we all came up with together. I have to say, it works like a charm.
We made a school schedule, then a fun time schedule (not all done every day) and a Chore schedule (not all done everyday) The goal is to get them to be prepared if they see something out of place, to just take care of it without being asked. Also, to time THEMSELVES on things like computer time. So far, the minute timer has been in use for things like blogging and webkins.


Anna prefers to do outside type chores and Erika prefers inside. Sarah likes both, so we tried to make things to their liking. It cracked me up watching them pick things they actually enjoy doing, and then divvy up the rest between them.

In the afternoons, I want them to enjoy trying new things AND do old things, so we even put a time schedule on that ...... What resulted? Each of them had computer time, each tried playing a musical instrument, 2 spent time playing with animals and trying to be "goat whisperers", and there was time spent having fun.

When it came time for dinner, Erika very excitedly started to help. She chopped walnuts and an onion for me, and has claimed the kitchen just like a grown up girl~!
If I'm not careful, she will be kicking me out of my domain soon... LOL

For The Sake of His Great Name

For those of you who read this blog, I'd love to point you to another blog in my side bar. It is called, "For the Sake of His Great Name". Wayne, Hillary and Adelaide Denny made the trek to Paris France and are attending Language school before setting of to Senegal as Missionaries. Wayne will be teaching in the bible school in Senegal.

Please keep them in your prayers and follow their blog for updated information and lots of fun along the way. Hillary is a great blogger and I really enjoy reading about the great adventures of Wayne and Hillary.

Their little girl Adelaide is now 2 and loads of fun to read about.

Praise the Lord for technology used right. Many times when our missionaries leave, we get short snippits of news here and there and sometimes none at all for long periods of time. New technology helps us to keep in contact, and as stateside believer's we can feel a greater part of the ministry we pray for. I think it can also help our friends to not feel so isolated.

So if you read something from them, leave them a friendly message. I'm sure they would love it. :)

A New Guitar

I found this guitar at a great price. Erika has been wanting a guitar for a long time, and we can all learn to play it. I remember a little bit, but not enough to really play, so now we need a good cord book and we will have Music class! :)
Here are a couple of pics of Erika with the guitar. It really has quite a good sound.




As I was cleaning up abit this a.m., I heard Erika in the bedroom strumming away, the same strum the same sound and same note, but singing a most wonderful song she made up from the bottom of her heart.

"I Praise You Lord" "I thank you Lord", "I thank you for my Family"
"I Praise You Lord" I thank you Lord......

It was all just really sweet. :)

Little Girl Mischief?????

I was just notified of a little girl who decided it would be great fun to take her leg off, place it on the sidewalk and hide behind the brick mailbox, so the innocent woman walking her dog could get the shock of her life. :)

This little girl proceeded to let me know the woman's response which went something like "OH MY G--!"AHHHHH!!!!!

This certain little girl won't be doing that again, I hope. :)

The Last Funny of the Year......maybe.......

Erika just asked, "Do we have any chop sticks?"

I said, "Yes, but what do you need them for?"

She has been knitting and I thought she might need them for something different.....

She said, "My lips are really sore and dry."

OHHHHH, that is "chap stick" you want. LOL

My Special Anna Time

Every month I spend one on one time with each of the girlies. It is New Year's Eve, the LAST possible day to spend time with Anna. The other girl's already had their time.
So she and I set out to Walmart to use her gift card. She was so joyful, she grabbed my hand and didn't let go nearly the whole time we were in Walmart and she TALKED, and TALKED.... she had this big smile on her face and was so proud picking out her things.

It is fun spending one on one time with the girls. Their little personalities just come out and the dynamic is so different when they are alone vs. when they are all together.
She didn't need to compete to talk, and that is probably good, because she had so much to say, I don't think her sisters would have been able to squeeze a word in. :)

After getting our Walmart Shopping done, we went to get goat feed and then stopped at Wendy's so she could get some lunch. She got a new favorite purse from Gramma this year and when we left Wendy's, she forgot it.

When we got home, she was looking everywhere for it, so we went back and luckily somebody had turned it in.

What I did notice, was when it came time to ask the clerk if they had found her purse, she was really shy and afraid to ask. She wanted me to ask. I remember working on these skills with the boys long ago. Anna reminds me so much of Chuck when he was her age. It took alot to learn to buy things and speak clearly etc. She did wonderful though and as she gets more experience, she'll do even better.

We had a really sweet enjoyable afternoon together.

Anna purchased a "Paint by the Number" set, and a "Pottery Wheel" to make clay pottery. She has already tried it out and she and Sarah had a good time trying to make a cup. LOL

Anna finally came in and announced, "I made a great CAVE!" LOL

So What Are Your New Year's Traditions?

When the boys were little, we spent time with some friends who were WAY FUN. We were sad when they moved away. One of the things we did together, was to fill up a room with balloons, like over a hundred. We would stick candy and gum in the balloons before blowing them up all the way and money in others. Then, at midnight, we threw a roll of quarters, dimes and nickels into the balloon room and sent all the kids in there for a "balloon fest". What they got was theirs to keep! It was REALLY FUN!

We haven't done the balloon thing with the girlies, but it did cross my mind this year.
Instead, we are going to do "The Minister's Cat". At about 10:00, you sit in a circle and a person starts "The Minister's Cat was a...." and then you start with an A adjective to describe the minister's cat. When everybody has exhausted the A, you go on to B, then C.... until you get through the alphabet or midnight comes. :) It really is a fun game and the adjectives the kids come up with are pretty funny.

"The Minister's Cat was an Angelic Cat" "The Minister's Cat was an Angry Cat" etc.

The girls have been practicing, so I'm curious about tonight to see what they come up with.

Gettin' Ready For The New Year!

The Countdown has begun..... 3,2,1, NEW YEAR 2009!!!!!

I can't believe it is almost 2009! Where did 2008 go? For that matter where did 2000-2008 go? I'm still remembering Y2K!
ALOT has happened since then.....

In Y2K, I had one graduate living on his own. 2 seniors in high school and 1 junior in high school. I had no hopes of ever having a girl in our home besides me, even the dog was a boy! We purchased a bunny, named her CLEO and she turned out to be a boy and had to be renamed CLEVON..... I was alone! I loved raising boys and never even thought about girls.

8 years later...... We are a house of girls and now MIKE is the one who is on his own...he is the lone male of the house; but we all adore him. That means he gets LOADS of hugs and attention. :)

I have so many loose ends to finish before the new year begins and so many "New Year's Resolutions" that were never met. However, It is NOT too late! I can add them to this year's New Year's Resolutions!

So what are your resolutions this year?
I like resolutions because they help us to set goals, even if we don't meet the goals. If there is no goal to meet, we definitely won't strive to meet it...... :)

This year, my ULTIMATE earthly goal will be to keep up with my personal filing....
My personal spiritual goal will be to spend more time studying my bible and praying.
My mothering goal will be to begin to teach the girlies to cook and sew.
My schooling goals will be to get them to SPELL with accuracy.....
I also plan to kiss my husband more and see my grandkids more.

I have loads of resolutions but..... I'd like to know yours. :)

WARNING

I was looking for a particular BBC program about Bulgarian Orphanages on Google.
I found a site that mentioned it, and had "documentary" highlighted, so I clicked on it. It took me straight to a porn sight and I got an eyefull right off the bat! I couldn't believe it.... I'm SOOOOO glad the children were not standing by the computer.

Sheesh, that is just awful to trick somebody like that.

May my mind be cleared of such garbage.

BLOKUS: The Thrill of Victory and the Agony of Defeat

Ahhh victory!




And Now In Reverse:



All because of this little game:

More Pics:

Erika was a busy bee knitting scarves, here are two of the happy recipients of her hard work.


Here was an interesting Backgammon Game: Uncle Bob was very amused at his demise:



Here are a few pics of the girlies:

After the Day Is Done

THERE IS MEGA CLEANUP! :)

We had a really fun time with our family. We missed Joe, Becca and Sam, who spent the Holiday in Maryland, but it was nice to talk to them on the phone. We also talked to Uncle Dave in Arizona, who is planning to play backgammon with Erika online at Amazon Games. He is a very creative uncle.

Our biggest joy this year was that Uncle Bob made it safely after a pretty nasty accident. He is feeling better today. Advil is a great product!


Three of our Son's and daughter's in law and 4 of our grandchildren were here. We didn't even put a dent into this:


Here are a few more pics of the day:

Merry Christmas!

The Good News Is.....

Uncle Bob is OK!

The bad news is, he was just in a car accident. He called from the scene of the Accident and Mike is on his way to Oklahoma to get him. His car is totaled.

Apparently, somebody tried to cross the highway and pulled in front of him while he was going 65 mph! He said he now knows what air bags feel like. :) Poor Bob, still can't locate his glasses. I'm sure he and Mike will look for them before they come back. If not, we can get him an emergency pair here.

In the mean time, please pray for him as he will need a car for his job. This one is definitely totaled. And pray for him as he processes what just happened to him.
It is a miracle that nobody was seriously injured.

I think we have the best Christmas Present of All. Another visit with our very precious Uncle Bob. :)

I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus......

Sarah was peeking!


Mama and Santa in his BLUE UNIFORM! :)

WHOO HOO! We burnt the lights out on that one. :)

The Girlies Blog Privatized

I made a step to privatize the girlies blog as daddy requested to protect them.
If you would like to follow their blog, email me your email address and I'll add you to the list of private viewers.

mikeandchristie@minichfamily.us