who’s your daddy?

Delaney is just a tiny bit confused. Her big sisters call her daddy by his first name. Her mama calls her daddy by his first name. So about fifty percent of the time, Delaney calls her daddy by his first name. It sounds something like “Neramy.”

This weekend her cousin Hayden was visiting. And he calls his daddy, “daddy.” And so Delaney did too. She would walk up to her Uncle Jason and call him “Dad” or “Daddy” and then call her own daddy, “Neramy.” Yes, the poor girl is confused.

And her poor daddy. All he wants is a child to call him “Dad.” But he has two step-daughters who call him Jeremy. And a son who can’t talk. And now a daughter who calls him “Neramy.” Hopefully Delaney will get this crazy family tree figured out. And Neramy is just going to have to be patient until then.

got mold?

Ever cleaned out the fridge and found a disgusting container of leftovers, riddled with mold? I typically just throw those things out, container and all. Or how about the damp corner of your basement? What’s growing in there?

Well now, thanks to my youngest brother, Scott, there’s a website where you can take a picture of your mold and post it for everyone’s viewing pleasure. Moldy Buns is a site dedicated to mold. I never knew Scott had such an interest in mold. But maybe this explains some of his quirky eating habits!

Don’t let that good mold go to waste! Go find your mold. And go check out other people’s mold.

sweets

If there’s one thing Delaney loves, it’s sweets! (I think she might just get that from her mom.) So after Bible Study I thought I’d take Delaney out for a little treat, just us girls, and enjoy some yummy sweets at the new bakery downtown. Delaney looked at all the good things in the display case, and chose a sugar cookie with M & M’s.

I’m telling you, this girl loves sweets. She ate every last bite. Darn, I was hoping I could eat some.

That’s ok though because I had this delicious apple pie. It’s about as close to my grandma’s homemade apple pie as you can get.

arachnophobia

Hubby has a little fear of creepy crawlies. So I’m typically the spider killer in the house. So what is hubby to do when he encounters a brown recluse and the family’s exterminator is on the phone?

Sweep it up, of course! Alive!

I must say that even I would’ve been reluctant to squash this sucker.

classroom pics

I wanted to show you a few pictures my classroom (since it’s pretty much my second home). And also to share some fantastic bargains I picked up over the summer.

This summer I completely overhauled my classroom library. This allowed a space for a reading corner with lanterns and flowers hanging overhead.

I have all my books organized by genre or series. It makes it easier for the kids to find books they are interested in. It took forever to do (just ask my hubby) but it was worth it.

This is the area where I teach mini-lessons for Reader’s Workshop, Writer’s Workshop and Math Workshop. We also hold our Morning Meeting here. The cute little rocking chair was something I found in my parents’ basement. The unfinished part of their basement is better than any thrift store around…because it’s FREE!!!

This lamp was another find in Mom’s Basement. It was antique brass and was missing a shade. So I painted the lamp, bought a shade at Goodwill for $1.99, covered it with fabric and added the pom-pom trim.

Another basement find. I painted the lamp with a textured paint so it looks like stone (it was teal before…very 80’s!). Bought the shade at Goodwill for $1.49 and covered it with fabric that was purchased on clearance.

I bought the stool at Goodwill for $5. It was a yucky, scuffed up wood, so I spray painted. Good as new and very comfy and sturdy.

The red chair is a garage sale find. Circa 1950’s. It was love at first sight!!

The gumball machine was recovered from the basement and I filled it with M&M’s.

Along the front of the classroom, I hung buckets ($1 each from the Target Dollar Bin). One for each child. We’ve been talking about the invisible bucket that we all have and how we can fill each other’s buckets or dip from each other’s buckets. We want to be a class full of bucket fillers so throughout the day, they can write on a drop and put it in a classmate’s bucket. We check our buckets on Friday afternoons. You can read more about Bucket Filling here.

So that pretty much sums up my home away from home. I figure the students and I are there more than at our own homes, so I might as well make it warm, cozy and inviting!

randomness from the end of summer

Waiting for Gaga (Grandma) to come over.

Ready to play in the rain. Those are pj pants, by the way. Pj pants that are too little. We never quite made it outside. But we were prepared, just in case.

Brianna got a pedicure. Even her toes were ready for school!

back to school…busy week!

What a week! Nate started first grade this year, Allison is now a freshman and Bri is a sophomore. Not only do I have 2 kids in high school, with very busy schedules I might add, but Brianna drove them both to school for the first time on Friday! According to Brianna, everything went great. According to Allison, she feared for her life. I think she’s probably just a tiny bit jealous that she’s not the one driving just yet. But her turn will come soon enough. In one year, in fact.

I’m really bummed that I wasn’t here to see them off and get a picture as they headed off to school. But I’m planning a re-creation of the momentous event, including a photo shoot. So check back in a few days for that!

out with the girls

I took Allison to a bead store and she got to make her very own necklace. There were tons of beads to choose from. It was overwhelming and so hard to even know where to begin.

So she picked out a cross pendant and then found some beads that matched and lined them up on a special tray.

She worked very diligently for close to an hour.

A certain little two year old was along for the ride. And was anything but helpful while Allison worked on her jewelry. But the lady in the shop was very kind and patient and even found some crayons and a coloring book to try and distract Miss Delaney.

Voila. The finished product.

And a beautiful smile.

going beyond

 

Be careful what you wish for, girlfriends. Because sometimes you get what you want in unexpected ways!!

I’ve been in somewhat of a blogging funk lately. I’ve run out of things to write about and as the summer winds down, I know I’ll have even less to write about once school starts.

On Friday I headed out with about 20 other ladies from church to a Priscilla Shirer Conference in Tulsa. And I was secretly hoping for something exciting to blog about. Like I said earlier, be careful what you wish for, because excitement is exactly what we got!

After about 30 minutes of driving, our car ran over a bungee cord. You know, the ones with metal hooks on each end. And let me tell you, that sucker made some noise as it rattled around under the car. And sure enough, about 15 minutes later…flat tire! On the turnpike!

 

And do you think any cars pulled over to help 6 damsals in distress? Not a one! We did call AAA, but they were taking FOREVER to get to us, so being the industrious ladies that we are, we decided to take matter into our own hands. Starting with reading the manual to find out how in the heck we were supposed to get the spare tire out. And when I say we, I really mean they. Because all I did was stand around and take pictures with my phone.

 

I think Melissa is my hero. She rocked that tire iron like it was nobody’s business.

Eventually a couple of guys from the Turnpike Authority happened upon us and finished the job. Thank goodness.

Now that’s a flat tire! We made it back on the road after about an hour. And we had a fabulous time at the conference!