Blogtipping - April 1

It’s April 1st and I’m participating in Blogtipping for the first time! Blogtipping day is the first of every month. When you go blogtipping, you pick three blogs that are new to your readers and list three things you like about each and provide a helpful tip. I’ve chosen 3 blogs that I think you would really enjoy reading, and I’m going to skip the helpful tip, because these sites are so well done that it would just nit-picking and I hate picking nits.

Scribbit - I can’t remember how I stumbled across Michelle’s blog, but I’m glad I did. I participated in Michelle’s “Write Away” contest last month and have been a regular reader ever since. She is a mother of 4 from Alaska, but her blog is about much more than raising children. She posts about a variety of interesting topics and is obviously very intelligent. It’s always interesting reading. I featured her instructions on making an indoor golf game on my FreeStuff4Kids site recently. Check out her cute Easter Peeps Treat idea.

It Coulda’ Been Worse - I found this blog courtesy of Michelle’s post at Scribbit last week, and I couldn’t stop reading it once I got started. DeeDee is a Christian homeschooling mother of 3 “quirky” children. She is a wonderful writer, and she certainly has lots to write about, thanks to her son in particular! I enjoyed reading her “100 things” About Me page, and it inspired me to change my boring “about” page to something similar. Of course, mine will never be as interesting as hers, since she “had a Pekinese named Max E. Padd in college,” and “once played poker with Brad Pitt.”

Casual Keystrokes - this is the personal blog of the kind and helpful Char Polanosky. I’ve gotten to know Char over the last couple of months via the MomGadget forum, and she’s been such an encouragement to me. Her blog subjects are interesting and varied- just look at her list of categories! I especially like her Menu Plan Monday posts, as I hate deciding what to make for dinner and am always looking for ideas. Her blog is easy on the eyes too- such a nice design!

Movies are better with a friend

This evening, after his bath, Jack still had about 20 minutes until it was bedtime and he asked to watch the animal movie (Baby Einstein “Baby Noah”). I said ok, and he climbed up into the chair as I got the DVD player going. Then he hopped down again, and ran into his room. I followed him asking if he had changed his mind and wanted to play in his room instead. He rounded the corner to his room, and ran and pounced on the giant baby doll Emily has been playing with [munching on] the past couple of days. He exclaimed, “Baby!” and carrying her, ran back into the office. He sat her in the chair and climbed up beside her, just in time for the movie to start. I guess movies are better when you watch them with a friend!

This is how he spent his “movie time” this afternoon. The chair just wasn’t comfortable enough I guess, and he needed to recline, so he went and got the bathtub.

Online animal game for toddlers

If you have a toddler, you need to check out the ABC Animal “game” at the Fisher Price website. As Jack has just begun to recognize letters and numbers, we have made this game a daily visit. He LOVES it. He now alternates asking for “Coos” (Blue’s Clues) with asking for the “Efant” (elephant). When you press a letter, the letter pops up and then an animal that starts with that letter. The animal sounds are great. I think he would sit there for an hour pressing letters.

Little dollhouse on the prairie

Some of you may remember when I posted in December about the giant dollhouse project. At the time we had hoped to have it finished by Christmas, or soon thereafter. Well… it’s now March, and it’s finally finished!

Thinking back at how naive we were to think we could have it finished by Christmas is rather amusing. We had no idea what this project would entail, obviously. I don’t want you to get the impression that Mark worked on building it continuously through these last couple of months, because that is certainly not the case. There were long gaps during which the dollhouse sat gathering dust in the basement. But, it was a lot of work. In case you would ever consider building one, you should be aware that it’s like building a real house. The results make it almost worth it though. Mom added the icing on the cake by making curtains and adding flowers to the window boxes. We hope Hannah will enjoy it

Visiting from Parent Hacks? Welcome!

I had a “hack” posted today at the brilliant Parent Hacks site, and I wanted to give a warm welcome to any who might have clicked through to my blog from that post. If you are a Parent Hacks reader, I assume you have kids, and I wanted to point you to my site that is dedicated to kids: FreeStuff4Kids.net

Here’s a taste of what you’ll find there:

• Printable play money - the most popular item on the site
• Number and letter tracing sheets for preschoolers
• A very useful list of 101 things to do with kids when there’s nothing to do
• and… a zillion other printables, makeables, eatables, teachables, playables, orderables and downloadables!

It’s all free- check it out!

Thursday Thirteen

Thirteen things I couldn’t live without in the kitchen:

1. Reynolds Wrap Release - how did I live without this stuff?
2. A really good knife - because chopping vegetables with a cheap knife is a giant pain.
3. An enormous stainless steel bowl - I hate mixing something up and having it fly out of the bowl, and I like being able to double recipes with no problem. Also, stainless bowl clean up really easily and work great as the top part of a double-boiler.
4. A nice deep skillet with a see-through lid
5. Sharp kitchen shears
6. Garlic
7. The spongy/scrubby thing that holds dish soap in the handle for washing dishes
8. The Smart Spin Storage System
9. Chip clips- for closing everything, chips included. They also make good baby toys, and really annoy the cats when you clip them on their tails!
10. Crock Pot - I don’t use this enough.
11. Magnets on the refrigerator to entertain Jack
12. A set of flexible cutting boards - having several of them means there’s always one available. They make it easy to slide what you’ve cut up into a pot, and then you can just throw them in the dishwasher.
13. Sugar Free Cherry Kool-Aid - we drink gallons of this. It’s the nectar of the gods.

What are the kitchen-y things you can’t live without?

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!

The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

View More Thursday Thirteens

Jack @ 20 months

It is harder and harder to get Jack to sit still for a picture. We took him, with Emily, to Target to have their picture made together, and it was like chasing a greased pig around a muddy pen. Just wasted a lot of energy and didn’t end up with much to show for it! For his monthly picture with the bear, I finally managed to get him to sit still, but only after I turned on Blue’s Clues (Coos Coos), the new love of his life. He asks for Coos Coos all day- anytime we get near a TV (PB in Jack-speak).
Jack can feed himself things like applesauce and oatmeal with some degree of success these days. If only I could get him to put the spoon in his mouth right side up! The other thing I’m working hard to teach him is to come when I call him. I had no idea that would be such a hard lesson. What am I doing wrong? Any suggestions for learning that? Do all kids have a hard time with it? Sometimes it just feels like I’m talking to a wall!

Jack’s language continues to explode, and he can name some shapes and numbers. When he leaves, he says “bye-bye-uh-later”, and when he wants to leave somewhere and I’m dawdling, he says it louder and louder, as if he believes that he says it loud enough I’ll actually leave.  He’s doing great at learning his manners.  He regularly says “thank you” (fack-u), “please” (peess), and “excuse me” (coo-me).  Often, preceding the “coo-me” he says, with a look of apology, “I tooted.”

He went outside with my dad last week that one day it was warm, and since Dad was doing some yard work and couldn’t keep an eye on him every second, he got a rope from the garage and tied one end to a tree and the other end around Jack’s waist. Click on the picture above to see the larger version so you can see the frustration on Jack’s face at being restrained. He was not happy. It was pretty funny. I’m such a bad Mommy to laugh at my child’s distress huh?

My new favorite desktop wallpaper site

Check out the Socksoff wallpaper collection to get some really nice images for your desktop- it’s one of the best sites for wallpaper I’ve visited in a long time. I appreciate one of my favorite bloggers, David Airey, pointing me to this one.

Some pictures and some quotes

Check out the rest of these sets of pictures at my Flickr page.

I was looking for some quotes to put on a page of girly stuff for my printables4scrapbooking site, and I thought these were funny:

I never expected to see the day when girls would get sunburned in the places they do now. ~ Will Rogers

Every girl should use what Mother Nature gave her before Father Time takes it away. ~ Dr. Laurence J. Peter

The day my daddy died - part 3

today’s post is the end of Mom’s account of her father’s death.

With the dawn of a new day, people began coming to the house with food and to express their condolences - some immediate family members and others from our church family, First Baptist Church, Brownfield. We had purchased Daddy a suit for Christmas; it was under one of the beds in the house. That is what he wore in the casket. We didn’t get to see Daddy; he was burned too badly to have an open casket. One of our uncles, Daddy’s brother, Carl, actually identified the body and stated later that he wished he hadn’t done that. I believe his body was found in a field some distance away from the blast site. His watch was returned to our family and it had stopped at 11:53 pm. We also received his billfold. It had some cards in it that showed signs of burn. Even with all we knew, it was hard to believe he was dead. Continue reading »

The day my daddy died - part 2

Continued from yesterday…

Neva and I dressed quickly and left for the local hospital. I don’t remember much about the trip. It was a local hospital, not very large and not very far from our home. By the time we got there, there were already ambulances arriving bringing injured people. We were in a waiting area very close to the point of arrival and were able to see those who were arriving in the ambulances. We were sure the next ambulance was going to contain our Daddy, but one after another arrived and he was not among those being brought in for treatment. Even now, 48 years later, it brings tears to my eyes and a lump to my throat as I remember those feelings of loss as I realized my Daddy was not going to be among the survivors. We had no idea how many casualties there were but judging from the severity of the blast we knew there would be many. Once the ambulances stopped coming, the three of us (my mother, my sister and I) walked the halls, looking in rooms to see if possibly he had been brought him in and we hadn’t seen him. So many people were burned and Neva remembers vividly the smell of burning flesh as we looked for Daddy. At times it was difficult to even get down the hall because there were cots in the halls with doctors and nurses working on injured people. Continue reading »

The day my daddy died - by Lenda Marshall, part 1

I mentioned in a previous post, when my “Memommy” died, that my mother’s father had been killed when she was a teenager. Since then, Mom has been thinking a lot about that time and what she could and couldn’t remember of it, and decided to write it all down. She ended up with a nice article that we have encouraged her to submit to the Brownfield News next in case they would be interested in publishing it. I thought I would share it with you, and since it is rather long, I’ll break it into 3 installments.

THE DAY MY DADDY DIED - Reflecting back 48 years later

written by Lenda Ray Marshall with reflections from Neva and Clara and others who were present

My seventeenth Christmas is forever etched in my mind and it changed the course our family life forever. December 22, 1958 was just like any other day. My sister Neva, 5 years younger than I, received an autograph book for her 11th birthday in October. She had been asking Daddy to write in her book since October and he finally fulfilled her request in the early evening: “Merry Christmas and happy years ahead to a sweet daughter (tom boy) All my love, Daddy.” Those were his last words to her. Continue reading »

Super good deal on kids toy organizer

Check out this great deal on a multi-colored canvas organizer. The whole shelf/canvas bin set for just $13.95! I just ordered one. I’ve seen these at Target, and thought they were nice, but this is definitely a better price.

(P.S., as my mom pointed out to me, it’s smaller than it looks in the picture.)

Writing contest and a nice surprise

I’ve discovered a new blog y’all might like, and in the process have entered a writing contest.  The contest is for posts about childhood memories, so I entered my post about memories of visiting my grandparents’ house as a child.  I don’t expect to even come close to winning, of course, but I thought my post fit the topic well anyway.  The blog is called Scribbit and is written by a mom in Alaska- check it out!

Also, I discovered today that the author of Thingamababy, which is a must-read for those who have little ones, has listed this blog in his Parents blogroll, and even pointed out the “Watch Jack Grow” page!  This is a really popular blog and I was excited to be mentioned.

Jack’s favorite friend

Jack is a kissin’ fool nowadays.  Here he is leaning in to give his friend Steph a kiss on the cheek.  Now if I could just teach him to pucker!