my mom.

One of my favorite things about growing up was my mom.  You're probably thinking the same thing...

I loved my mom.  She loved me...she loved being a mom.  I want my kids to know that I love being a mom.  I love them.

One of the reasons that I knew that my mom loved me and loved being a mom was because she was always coming up with ways for us to get to do things together.  Every summer she couldn't wait for us to get out of school so we could make plans of all of the fun stuff we could do together over the summer.

I make it sound like it was just me...she couldn't wait for ME to get out of school...but really there were five of us.  One of the first items of business for the summer was to sit down and make a list of all of the things we wanted her to teach us that we thought would be fun.  Then we'd make a plan for our field trips, projects, trips to the pool, adventures to fun places, and creative exploring that we wanted to do.

One summer the three of us girls wanted to learn to sew...that was the project that was going to be the coolest for the summer.  I remember sitting in our garage-converted-to-sewing/project/arts-and-crafts-room for hours working on a pair of shorts just after my 6th grade school year.  I had visions of being the most fashionable and stylish girl of the summer.  I knew people would wonder where I bought my cute shorts because they wouldn't look like I sewed them at all!  I'd like to say that the reality lived up to the dream....and I think it did in my own mind.  I was so proud of those shorts with their skeewampus zipper. 

And now, I have sweet summer memories of my mom guiding me through the unknown of making my first pair of summer shorts.  I didn't grow up to become an expert seamstress or world famous fashion designer but my mom did put the seed in my heart that whispered, "You can do anything.  You are amazing and beautiful and I love you."

And that's what I hope my little projects with my kids do for my kids.

Our American Girl Book Club met a few weeks ago and so since our last meeting in February the girls and I decided that we were going to brave the world of fabric and thread and ribbon and see what came out on the other side.  Each of my girls pinned fabric to pattern, picked through ribbon, and sat at the sewing machine and watched scraps of random bits become something that they created.

It was at times frustrating and at other times so full of wonder and excitement and fun and laughing and being thrilled at what can be nothing at the beginning and seeing it through to the end.

I hope my girls know, "You can do anything.  You are amazing and beautiful and I love you."

And to my mom who started it all.... "You can do anything. You are amazing and beautiful and I love you."

creative. LOVE.

american girl book club.

A few years ago a friend of mine told me about having an American Girl Book Club.  Now...I've never been into the American Girl dolls and I thought that's all that American Girl was but after we chatted about this super fun book club I wished that my girls were old enough to attend.  

In January Miriam and Emma came home all excited about the book their teacher was reading about the civil war.  As we talked more I found out that they were reading "Meet Addy", one of the American Girl books.  I love that American Girl has created stories about girls that are aroud 8-10 years old in different time periods of our country's history and in the midst of the story you learn some wonderful details about the era in which the girls lived.  There's even a little history section in the back that gives more details about what they ate, fashion of the time, what boys and girls did, and other fascinating information.

I said to Miriam and Emma (and Gracie, too, of course)...."we could have an American Girl Book Club!"  I explained that we'd need to send out invitations...and before I even said anything else they were all for an American Girl Book Club.

We wanted to have a Mother/Daughter Book Club and decided that each of the girls would invite 3-4 friends and their moms from school and church.  We chose to start with the book, "Meet Felicity".  

Each Mother/Daughter would need to dress in the time period and also bring a dish that was from a recipe of the era or something that they ate in 1774.  We also let everyone on our invite list know that we would read a book one month and then the next month we would have our book club get together.  We invited 12 Mother/daughters...which meant 24 people minimum (not counting me with my 3 girls) if everyone showed up.  I told the girls, usually when you have a party you can plan on about 50% of the people attending.  So we'll probably have about 10-12 people....

Everyone attended but one mom and her daughter!  We were so excited!

We were so thrilled when all of our friends showed up to the party and had totally gotten into dressing up and bringing a recipe!   It was so fun to see all of the little girls in homemade, patched together costumes (I went to Goodwill and found some skirts, used some stuff from around the house, etc.).  It was sweet to see them talking together and looking so much like they had stepped out of 1774.

Here are some of our details:

*The girls and I made invitations one month in advance of our first book club party.  We included details of dressing in the time period and bringing a recipe dish from the time period as well as the book we had chosen, "Meet Felicity".

*With the help of some wonderful moms in the group, the girls and I created a really pretty table that looked very 1774 with china and pewter for each of the girls to eat on.  (I think this was key to pulling off a great party...knowing that you can call other moms to help you and your girls out).

*We researched the time period beyond the book looking for famous women, politics of the time, fashion, what women and men did, the state of the country (colonies), what games the kids played, what school was like, what kinds of homes they had, plumbing and electricity of 1774 (zilch), etc. 

*We create a timeline game with events that could be taped onto the timeline that we put on a huge table.

*For our book discussion we made a little list of questions that we could discuss.  We divided into two groups since our club is so big.  Half way through our discussion we divided into different groups again so that we could hear other people's thoughts on the book.

*The girls and I learned a dance from 1774 that we taught to the other moms and daughters.

*We had our book discussion before we ate.

*At the end of the book club party we decided on our next book, "Meet Kaya" and another mom and daughter volunteered to do the next book club party.  (Actually, 2 moms decided they would plan the next event together.)

*We talked about Abigail Adams (1st lady to the 2nd President of the United States) and how she had written over 1,000 letters in her lifetime.  So...each of the girls and their mothers wrote one another a letter with a pen that had a feather taped to it (we would have like to have used ink and quill but couldn't find either one...)

*I had a sewing activity and games activities planned as well but there just wasn't time.  We said the book club would go from noon-2pm...and really it could have gone all day with all of the fun we had lined up.  It was nice to know that we weren't running low on activities.  It was also nice for the girls to just have fun playing together with no structure.

*We had fun!  All of the girls played after we ate and ran around like crazy and had a really great time.  Moms helped to clean up which I really appreciated and absolutely had not planned on.

*We collected names, phone numbers, email addresses, and mailing addresses before everyone left.  Most of these moms I had not met until they came to the book club party.  Many of them I didn't have a phone number for because the girls had just delivered the invitations at school.  

*I sent the collected names list out to everyone in the group, thanked everyone, and let everyone know who to contact about the next book club party.

If you have girls in the 5-10 year old range this is such a fun way to learn!  Once my girls grow out of/or finish the American Girl books I'm hoping that the book club will keep going with other age appropriate books...I love these women and their girls and I know I look forward to seeing them all every other month.

learn. LIFE.

chores.

I don't know about you but I believe in chores.  Kids need to do them.  They need to learn how a house runs and that everyone in the family does their part to keep the house clean, neat, picked up, and that their parents are not their personal slaves.  Or that there are clean up fairies that come out at night while everyone is asleep...(that's something I know I'd love...can you order those somewhere?)

We have nothing fancy for our chore chart.  It's extremely homemade.  Not professional at all.  I didn't make it.  Well...I sort of did and I sort of didn't.  I made that graph thing and wrote the chores in.  The kids drew a picture that represented them.  There's just tape on the back of each person and we move each child every week in a rotating fashion.  Person on the far right moves to the far left and everyone moves to the right one column. 

Nothing fancy.  The chores aren't fancy either.  The chores (in bigger writing) are the chores that each child does everyday (except the person that folds the clothes...they do that once a week...and they don't really fold them...they throw them in a basket for each person and take them to the person's room....they get off easy for that week).  The smaller writing is weekly chores...Saturday cleaning chores...things like the bathroom, mop the floor, etc.

Our kids don't get paid for their daily chores.  Daily chores are expected.  That's what we do as members of a family.  Everyone does their part.  It's the way it is.

They do get commission for their weekly chores.  We want our kids, at a young age to learn what it's like to get paid for a job well done, how to save money, how to tithe, and the value of money to spend. 

Giving our kids a chance to earn money is a gift to them, and to us, when they're pleading for something at the store (or begging) and we ask them, "Did you bring your money?"  Most of the time they didn't.  Sometimes, they know we're going to the store and they grab their little purses or make sure they have their wallet.  It eliminates the begging.  It also makes them think about whether or not they really want to buy that candy.  If they are saving up for something big like a build-a-bear, they will forego a lot of candy and other little things they want to buy.  It helps them to decide what is worth spending money on and what isn't.

Here's the breakdown of our chore chart:

Chore one:

Daily: trash and sweep floor after dinner

Weekly:  Kids bathroom and vacuum and dust guest room and hallway

Chore two:

Daily: Dishes with Mom or Dad

Weekly:  Master Bath and vacuum and dust art room and Emmett's room

Chore three: 

Daily:Fold clothes (divide and put into rooms)

Weekly: Small bath, mop kitchen floor and mop and dust studio

Chore four:

Daily:  Set the table

Weekly:  Master Bath and vacuum and dust mom and dad's room and girls' room

With chores it's very important to train children how to do them and to be extremely patient with their best efforts.  Finding anything you can to encourage and compliment them on.  Mike and I are always going around to all of the jobs on a Saturday morning (or one of us if only one of us is here...which happens a lot) and we just check up on the kids, find out if they need help, encourage, or make suggestions.  We also have a little bit of work to do, too...we vacuum and dust the family room and help the kids.  Our goal on a Saturday morning is to start by 10am and be done by noon.  I'd like to get done faster and hopefully over time...it will get faster.

I always comment for the rest of the day about how awesome the house looks.  That I love the clean smell every time I walk in and how fantastic things look.  If I walk into the bathroom, I say how great it looks.  I want everyone to feel good about their chore...whether it's during the week or on the weekend.

Once we're done we spend the afternoon doing something that's more along the lines of entertainment. It always feels like we accomplished a lot by getting chores done first thing. Our house is clean, everyone has completed a project, and we've worked together.  Working as a family brings a family together. 

clean. LIFE.

helpful hints for your next vacation.

 *warning: this post has too many pictures and most were taken with my point and shoot camera*

Just in case you didn't know a few things about how to have a family trip to Pawley's Island I thought I'd give you a couple of hints and tips. (if you missed my first vacation post...click here.)

#1-Get ice cream every day.  Bruster's will give you heaping ice cream cones that will make your eyes pop out of your head when they hand them to you.  You'll wonder who they think is planning to eat this one ice cream cone?  You and everyone that lives in Texas?  Of course, my kids loved that they got to down that much ice cream. 

#2-If you go to Bruster's...you must try the peanut butter explosion ice cream.  It's making my mouth water just thinking about it.

#3-If you don't get peanut butter explosion...you have to have cotton candy explosion.  It has pop rocks.  Gracie and Emma got it every time.

#4-Make sure to measure yourself 10 times while you're there to make sure you are too BIG to get the baby ice cream cone.

#5-When you go crabbing...make sure to go at low tide.  You will actually see crabs.

#6-When you put the chicken leg bait in your net...tie it on...or the crab will take off with it and laugh at you when you lift up your net.

#7-Let your kids put the nasty chicken leg in the net.

#8-Big brothers are an excellent way to get out of walking...anywhere.

#9-A new hat makes for a great souvenir, especially if you look like an awesome cowgirl in it.

#10-Digging is mandatory on the beach.  It's possible that you could dig all the way to water...or buried treasure...never give up.  Just keep digging.  Get the big shovels.  Not those whimpy beach shovels.  Put your heart into it.  Be serious.

#11-It is impossible to collect enough seashells.  Each and every one is so completely beautiful.  It doesn't matter if they are broken or not.  They are all, every one, wonderfully wonderful.

#12-You can be the youngest child in the family and be the very first, brave soul to try boogie boarding.  And then love it so much that your entire swimsuit fills up with sand.

#13-Your swimsuit will fill up with sand...especially if you're a girl.  Good luck getting it out.

#14-Pizza Grill-a has excellent pizza and corndogs...and stuffed Gorilla's that will stare at you while you eat.

#15-Riding bikes around the island is super fun...even if you almost have a heart attack...or three...or four... when your child rides their bike out in front of oncoming traffic (yes, that means multiple cars...multiple times).

#16-Jumping on beds is good stress relief.

#17-Eating cold breakfast cereal at a beachside condo tastes better than it does at your own house.

#18-A joke book from the 1950s can keep kids entertained for hours.

#19-You can go out on a deep sea fishing boat.  We saw the ads.  We're going next time.

#20-It will never be a long enough trip.  Kids will be sad when it's time to leave.

good. LIFE.

delish!

Oh baby! We had the best summer dinner last night.

All of us worked together to get this beautiful piece of colorful artwork and bursting flavors onto the table. Through out the entire dinner out on the deck as the sun was going down everyone kept saying, "Oh my gosh! This is soooo good!" I have to admit I said it the most...because it WAS!!

I got the base for this recipe at Cooks.com (I've completely butchered this recipe and have put my modified version below.)

The menu:

Grilled chicken with Grill Master Chicago Seasoning

Veggie Kabobs with Amazing Marinade

Grilled Corn on the Cob

French Baguette

Our Veggie Kabobs:

Red Potatoes

Red, Orange, and Yellow Peppers

Eggplant

Cherry Tomatoes (absolutely Bursting with flavor:my fave)

Yellow Squash

Zucchini

Red Onion

Here's my modified marinade recipe:

2 tbsp. dijon mustard

1/2 cup lemon juice

1 tbsp. fresh basil

1/2 c. olive oil

3 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped

1/4 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. black pepper

Cut potatoes into chunks and boil them for about about 6 minutes (they need to be hard enough to go on a skewer and not fall apart).

Cut the zucchini, squash, onion, and eggplant into chunks.  Cut the peppers into squares. Mix marinade ingredients and marinate vegetables 4 to 6 hours at room temperature, or overnight in the refrigerator (I totally did not do this.  I poured the marinade over the already skewered veggies and let it sit for about 10 minutes) . Thread onto skewers and grill over coals or broil in the oven, approximately 5 minutes, basting with marinade and turning often. Spoon leftover marinade onto kabobs as a sauce. Serves 6.

yummy. LIFE.