Houston Christian Home Educators (Chickasaw Co. MS)
Playing around with my camera...
I have been wanting to learn more about my camera for a while now and I decided to play with it last night to see what I could learn. I have been wanting to take some black and whites and sepia's of the kids but, if you have ever tried to take a picture of kids, you know what happens... THEY MOVE! So, I piddled around and found a way that would capture them even while they were a bit fidigity.Here are a few of my shots...
It is still not perfectly clear, but at least it isn't a big blur... and I don't have photoshop.
How cute is he???? swoon :)
Intensely into the movie.... 
Anyone with advice... feel free to chime in. I would love it.Have a great Friday and a wonderful weekend! :)
My Cup Runneth Over...
Update and some Changes
Hello all--been a few days since I was here--We have been busy as usual--We are working on a deal with my dad's house--we are hopeful we can make this work, as I keep saying we are really ready to move to our land--The busy-ness we are having right now is more due to a change in schedule with hubby having this temp. job--the hours are hard and has totally uprooted our lives--seems there is just not enough hours in the day and I can only pick up so much slack--we are thinking of dwindling down to just 2 goats which would help a lot--I would keep "Millie" the one we raised from a bottle and we have on more we call "Leather" she is a pretty little thing and we all really adore her--I do have the others for sale, but things are slow to sell here so we shall see--we have really left it with the Lord--I am also selling the rabbits we have--we are really not set up for rabbits at this point and they are alot of extra work--not good when you are striving for simplicity--LOL--I have so many other projects I could be devoting that time to--we shall see what the Lord has in store--In the mean time we are enjoying some pretty nice weather, today should be close to 70 and its January--no complaints here! Will update again soon--
~Kris
Schooling the Littles
Sometimes I get busy with school and forget to spend a little one-on-one time schooling the littlest of my littles. What a difference it makes when I do. They are SO excited to have their own one-on-one School time with Moma. :) So much so that afterwards, I hear... "Moma, is it our school time now?" quite a lot. :)Now don't get me wrong, they school right alongside the older children, while we are having school time they are coloring or learning the Presidents or writing their letters... but it helps a lot to spend a little time to work with just them, one at a time.
What a blessing it is to me, to be the one who sees their children learn new skills, what a joy it is to be the one who is there helping them, teaching and nurturing them and watching them learn. There just is NOTHING like it. Enjoy them being close to you, being with you, so much so that it is an ache in you to be away from them...
Children are a gift, given to US... from the Lord.
Cherish, Enjoy, Treasure every moment.
No, it is not always easy for me to do that either, but when I realize that the next time I blink my eyes that they will be grown, it makes it a lot easier for me to slow down, breathe deeply and know how incredible my life truly is.
I hope you have a great day and enjoy time with your littles, big, small and in-between. :)
My Cup Runneth Over...
We made butter
One day last week I remembered that I had bought some heavy cream over the holidays for Moma's Favorite Cookie, which I am GOING to post the recipe for! REALLY! :) Well, I thought with this much cream, it would be a good time to show the children how to make butter... well the easy way to make butter.We pulled out the ole food processor.
Poured in all that cream and turned it on...
There were a few different stages that I told them we would see...First of all we saw it just as a liquid, as it is as cream.
We would start seeing the cream slowly becoming thicker, until we had it at the whipped cream stage.
They all tried it at this point and sneered... sadly they thought it would taste like cool whip. Pitiful, huh? I told them at the enormous amounts of 'stuff' added to cool whip and this was so much better, and that we could add a little sweetner if we wanted whipped cream, but we want butter!
Keep it moving, keep it moving...FINALLY!
BUTTER! :) HURRAH!
Please forgive the skunk stripes down my child's hair... our New Years Party got a bit crazy! :) haha
Mmm... this butter is good, Mom!We even took the buttermilk and put it in a jar to use later and washed the curds with ice water to help get all the milk off so the butter would last longer.
Now a solid. How crazy are we? Doing school when we are supposed to be on holiday? haha... so is the life of a homeschooler.
I hope you have a great day friends.
My Cup Runneth Over...
Aprons
Like I told you... I have been excitedly sewing again. I am so happy. :)I decided the other night to make myself a new apron. I like the smock type of aprons so I went for that. This one is modified a bit from my original purple smock that I love. This fabric was my Grandmothers/Nannie Red's. I only had a smallish remnant and sadly the smock is a bit too short for me. I am considering what I want to do with it now... try and sell it in my Etsy or possibly wait and see if I can refashion it to make it work somehow.
I LOVE how it turned out... the colors are wonderful and vibrant and I adore the fabrics.
I finished the edges with bias tape and made 2 pockets on the front... perfect for clothes pins on wash day or running out to the garden to pick a few peppers. The rick rack was a tribute to a dear friend of mine and I just love it. :)
I hope to find the time to get back in the sewing room again soon... to make one equally as cute that I can wear. I LOVE my aprons, I love wearing them... I actually do wear them. Putting one on helps me feel ready to get to work. :)Here is a little something a friend sent me about aprons, I was reminded of it when I saw it on a message board that I frequent...
Grandma's Apron
The principal use of Grandma's apron was to protect the dress underneath, because she only had a few, it was easier to wash aprons than dresses and they used less material, but along with that, it served as a potholder for removing hot pans from the oven.
It was wonderful for drying children's tears, and on occasion was even used for cleaning out dirty ears.
From the chicken coop, the apron was used for carrying eggs, fussy chicks, and sometimes half-hatched eggs to be finished in the warming oven.
When company came, those aprons were ideal hiding places for shy kids.
And when the weather was cold, grandma wrapped it around her arms.
Those big old aprons wiped many a perspiring brow, bent over the hot wood stove.
Chips and kindling wood were brought into the kitchen in that apron.
From the garden, it carried all sorts of vegetables. After the peas had been shelled, it carried out the hulls.
In the fall, the apron was used to bring in apples that had fallen from the trees.
When unexpected company drove up the road, it was surprising how much furniture that old apron could dust in a matter of seconds.
When dinner was ready, Grandma walked out onto the porch, waved her apron, and the men knew it was time to come in from the fields to dinner.
It will be a long time before someone invents something that will replace that 'old-time apron' that served so many purposes.
REMEMBER:
Grandma used to set her hot baked apple pies on the window sill to cool. Her granddaughters set theirs on the window sill to thaw.
They would go crazy now trying to figure out how many germs were on that apron. I don't think I ever caught anything from an apron !
Have a wonderful day.
My Cup Runneth Over...
The Sewing Bug...
I have been bit by the sewing bug again, finally. I haven't been in my sewing room since the craft festival. I have thought about it, only to say, "No way". I don't know, it must have been all those nights of being in there until 3 am that helped me to shun my love of sewing for all this time.So I had been thinking of making my children some colored pencil rolls. I thought they would be a nice thing to have to take along to church, on field trips, to have on hand when they want to sketch something... I also thought I would make them a bag to hold their pencil roll, their Bible, and a sketch pad... I still have to make those. :)
So Saturday afternoon, I seized my opportunity to go into my sewing nook.
And here is the outcome.
The one above is Cameo's. She loves the fabric. I made 14 slots in hers... 12 is because colored pencils come in a 12 pack at the dollar store and then I wanted her to have a place for a pen and a pencil. 
It was a strange thing when I went to the sewing nook to pick out the fabric... I pulled most of the fabric off the shelf, sorted, folded some neatly and came to realize that the deer/elk fabric was the only boyish fabric that I own! NO JOKE! How sad is that! I know that there is some really cute boyish fabric around but I own only the half a yard or so I used to make these roll ups. So I had to make two different colored ties for Eli and Abrams so they could tell them apart. I ended up making myself an apron after I finished the pencil rolls and I will show you pictures of that later on.
And if that didn't tickle me enough, I taught myself how to knit a little. Oh, am I awkward and silly looking right now... but I figure in time it will become easy to me. I know how to cast on, and how to do the knit stitch. I am so tickled. I have been practicing over and over and am so slow. haha. Next I will learn the purl and hopefully try and make something... hooray! :)
Have a great week friends.
My Cup Runneth Over...
Prayer request
Please say a small prayer for me today as I have surgery on the wrist to have a bone removed .. I won't be on computer much for a few weeks.. Thanks Blessings BrendaIts a wonderful life
This new year has started out great--Yesterday here in my part of the world we had record breaking temps--77 degrees!!!--This broke the record from 2004 when the temp was 74--today is 40!!--We actually took the opprotunity to drive over to our Oklahoma 'soon to be farm' and look around and make the final decisions as to where we will be putting critters--with the leaves off the trees and underbrush gone it makes the task easier since more is visiable--We both are just itching to get over there and begin the hard task of clearing, working and planning--we both feel such a sense of peace when we are there--we have pondered many names to name our farm and we are still undecided--one keeps coming to mind, but we shall see--we found the perfect spot for a home--off the beaten path a ways but also close enough to the road that you don't feel totally isolated(which I like, but hubby does not)--I could live 25 miles from a road and be content--LOL--I am not much of a people person anymore--I like my solitude and peace and the less attention I can draw to myself the better off I feel--Not much longer now until the temps will warm up and life will begin to pop up everywhere--I just get all excited thinking about it!--New land, new home, new critters being born, new plant life abundant everywhere--I just feel happy when I think about it--Winter is just not my 'cup o' tea--Its depressing to me and I have such a hard time health wise in the winter--Spring to me means so many things--new beginnings for one--and this year will be a new beginning in the rest of our lives on a wonderful peice of land that the Lord blessed us with and I hope to establish memories for my grandchildren there that they can pass on for years to come--The work will be much--but so very worth it--
~Kris
The Recipe Boxes, The Gift of Love
For many years, during my nursing career, one family had been on my list . First, the grandmother, until she passed away, then my dear friend, Lisa, who died of brain cancer, and last, Lisa's mother, my dear friend Christene. Christene could not walk, she had to crawl every where, I made sure I was on the call list to go to her whenever she needed help, and as the years crept up on us, I bought all the groceries for her, put them away, checked on her every day. She was more like family to me than a patient. The inevitable day came when I had to say good-bye to her as well. The family called me to the home, every thing would be picked up the next day by a buyer, and they offered me anything in the house I wanted. I chose Lisa's Recipe Boxes. Her daughter was still very small, and someday, I wanted her to have them. Handwritten ones, recipes from when she was in school, just cherished family recipes. Today her daughter, Christy, came to visit me. She and the family had driven down to place flowers on Lisa's grave. She is just like my own child, I dearly love her, so we sat down on the bed of my old pick-up truck, and I told her the story of the Recipe Boxes, and now since she is all grown up and starting college, I felt it was time for her to have her Mother's, Great Grandmother's and Grandmother's Recipe Boxes. I had taken very good care of them, and went into the house to retrieve them . We both shared some special moments as I handed her the three boxes. I opened the one, and took out her Mother's favorite handwritten ones. The handwriting brought tears to my eyes, as I look at this child, I see my friend Lisa, I see her eyes, her smile, her height. Yes, she is the image of my friend and her grandmother. My job is now done as caretaker of the Recipe Boxes, they are where they belong, with family. They will be cherished forever.Ringing in the New Year
Isn't it exciting how a new year seems to bring forth a clean new slate, all kinds of new possibilities are just waiting... everything seems a bit more doable. We/I feel that, "Yes, I Can" mentality. :) In all honesty we can feel that way all the time if we are believers in the Lord Jesus. He gives us all the hope that we can ever need.
Our New Year's Eve was a lot of fun, somewhat quiet, but still very fun. The children and Shannon and I played games, had a new homemade pizza concoction I came up with, and ended up falling asleep before midnight...
Shannon was the only one awake at exactly midnight because he wanted to get up and pray. I woke up 7 minutes later. :) Pretty close...
Well, I am excited for the New Year.
And as for resolutions.... one of mine is, to treat each day as a gift.
That is of course why it is called The Present. :)
Happy New Year my Friends,
My Cup Runneth Over...
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