Works for Me Wednesday and GIVEAWAY!

I have been involved in MOPS for over nine years. Yesterday our main speaker spoke on the importance of having girlfriends you can go to when you need to ask for help. Well, this morning I need help (and not just because I was up last night literally every 10-30 minutes with a newly three-year-old Avery with the stomach bug).

I'm linking to an earlier this week blog post in hopes that you can help me. See, Jim's invited a congressional candidate to host a fundraiser luncheon at our house!

You can read all about it *here*. Please comment either here or there with any fancy luncheon recipes you may have to be entered into a drawing for a fun kitchen gift!

Thanks!

(And of course you can always click on over *here* to look for more ideas for what Works for others!)

Hospitality, Review Preview and Giveaway!

Recently Jim has gotten Evan interested in politics. They've been to caucuses, attended breakfasts to meet candidates (Aidan went, too) and most recently Jim volunteered our home to host a fundraiser luncheon for someone running for congress! Needless to say this has gotten me a little stressed about the menu! It has also gotten me thinking about different types of hospitality styles and recipes. I know some women have big fancy houses where they can cook gourmet meals and serve fancy drinks from their home bars. That is not me. We have a modest home where I cook home style meals and serve drinks in glasses that do not match. :)

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I've been invited to host a review on my blog. The review could not come at a better time! I will be testing these and these. And here is where you come in!

I need some new recipe ideas; ideas suitable to serve to a future congressman at a fundraiser luncheon.

Leave me a comment with your favorite fancy, yet simple recipe and I'll randomly draw a name and send you a fun kitchen gift!

Edited to note: I will be putting together a kitchen gift package for you; it will not be coming from the above mentioned store! I will select a commenter at random on March 1. Let's get cooking!

Coming soon!

Fun stuff to come soon! Let's just say I've been contacted by an online store to do a product review...and possibly a giveaway! :)

Texting While Driving-Anything

Coming out of hiding (much like the groundhog!) to bring you a public service announcement about kids and cell phones. While this isn't a rampant problem right now here in the nation's icebox, it will be once we all thaw out!

A fellow MommyBlogger, FiddleDeeDee wrote this this morning. I'm copying it here with her permission. Please go to her blog *here* to read more of her writing!

I had a scare a couple of weeks ago. I was driving my van down my street, and as I came around a small curve, a young girl of about 10 was riding her bike straight towards me. I stopped, thinking that she would look up and get herself back up on the sidewalk. But she never looked up. Her eyes were cast down, and she was texting on her cell phone.

When I realized that she was going to run right into the front of my van, I honked my horn. The sound startled her enough so that she looked up just in time, and she swerved around me. And no, she was not wearing a helmet.

Had she hit me, even though I had stopped, she would have suffered a good deal of injury. Had she been heading toward someone who may have been distracted, or driving at a faster rate of speed, she could have been killed.

I couldn’t shake that thought. We have a number of residents who drive far faster than they should on our street, given that it is a very narrow street, and is shared by bicycles and children.

I knew where this little girl lived, but I did not know her parents. I debated going to her house and speaking with her parents. If it were my daughter, I would want to know. But, you just never know how something like that is going to be received.

A few days later, the little girl was playing outside at a neighbor’s house, a few houses down from us. I walked down and introduced myself to her. She knew immediately who I was, and that I was the lady in the van. I asked if I could speak to her, and she said yes. And I held her hand and talked to her about how dangerous the situation was that she placed herself in. I knew that the experience had impacted her, by the look of fear on her face when I honked my horn. She was very polite and remorseful, and I felt like I had gotten through to her. A few feet away, some of her little friends overheard our conversation, and I directed a brief “please don’t text while riding your bikes” speech. In my nicest mom voice. Which by the way, is not the voice that I would have used if I were giving the same speech to my own children.

I went back home feeling that I had done some good.

But then a few days ago, when I was leaving the house to go out, I saw another little 10 year old girl riding her bike down the street. This was one of the children that had overheard my texting speech. She was chatting on her cell phone, driving in the middle of the road, then up on the sidewalk, then back to the middle of the road. And then she stopped talking, looked down at her phone, and began texting.

I am a loud proponent of banning texting and even cell phone usage while driving an automobile. Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think it would be an issue with children riding their bikes.

This is not going to be a judgment against parents that allow their children to carry cell phones. I know there are circumstances that call for it, I get that. But I wonder if these parents understand the danger that their children are putting themselves into by allowing them to carry cell phones while they are out riding their bikes.

I now regret my decision not to go down and speak to the first little girl’s parents. I’m going to give the moms and dads the benefit of the doubt, and believe that they have no idea their children are putting themselves in harms way.

But you can bet that I’m going to be taking to my keyboard to get the word out. Here, and in my neighborhood.

Have you seen anything similar in your neighborhood? I fear that I won’t hear anything in the media, until something tragic occurs.

Please. If your children carry cell phones, talk to them about the dangers of texting and driving.

Hello dear neglected blog. I'm sorry. I have lots of excuses! :)

This morning I had three extra kids, and wanting to have something for them to do, I sent Jim to the store last night to purchase ingredients to make cinnamon Christmas tree ornaments.

Here's the recipe:

4 cups cinnamon (get the dollar store version, MUCH cheaper!)
2 big spoonfuls of cloves (or not, whatever)
3 cups applesauce
1/2 cup glue (more or less)

Mix the ingredients together. I was sneezing like a crazy lady as the cinnamon wafted up my nose. :)

Mix and mash and knead the dough. Roll it out in small batches and use cookie cutters to make shapes.

Put the ornaments on a cookie sheet, poke holes in them and let them dry. The recipe I found says to bake them at 200 for 6 hours or let them dry on the counter for four days! **Note, I did this this morning and it didn't take NEARLY 6 hours. Mine were dry in 1-2 depending on the thickness of the ornament. Check on them after about an hour, if they still have a little give when you squeeze them let them dry longer. If they're all dry, they're all dry.

We plan to leave some plain, paint some with craft paints and use some glitter on others.

If I ever had two batteries full of juice at the same time or the ability to load pictures on this borrowed bare bones computer I'd include pictures!

A word of warning, your house will smell REALLY strongly for hours after.

Ten Questions answer one, question two

Yesterday I posed the following question, "What's the one thing you would have done differently as a mom?"

My mom's response and one I hope to emulate was, "Spent more time making memories with my children and less time cleaning."

Today's question is, "Why did you choose to be with my father?"

Ten Questions, Part One

Last night I was reading an article in an old Real Simple. Since the magazine was from May the article was fit for Mother's Day and gave ten questions to ask your mother. I'm planning on asking my mom all ten questions, perhaps sharing an answer or two here.

I'm also challenging you to ask your mother these questions if you can.

The first one is, "What's the one thing you would have done differently as a mom?"

Mystery Gift

Last Saturday I took the three littles to Home Depot for their kids' workshop event. While Aidan, Toby and Avery were all making a trivet (yes, they all did 90+% of the work themselves, even Avery!) Evan was home alone. He's nine and we let him stay home alone once in a while; usually for no more than an hour or two.

When I got back he asked me if I'd ordered some flowers. "No, not that I know of, why?" "Some flower shop called and asked when they could deliver. I told them you'd call them back, the number is by the computer." I was shocked and proud of him for not accepting a delivery when I wasn't home (and that he had no knowledge of!)

So I asked Jim if he'd sent the flowers. He denied it (no surprise there!) Toby piped up from the table and told me that he'd ordered them! "Really?" "Yup, it was me." And he said it with this cute little face which was a cross between so serious because he was trying to convince me and a spark of mischief because he was trying to convince me! He kept up his story, elaborating as the day went on. When asked how he paid for the flowers he replied, "when I didn't have enough money they gave them to me for free!" And he decided that "Evan helped me make the phone call because I didn't know the number." (That morning Evan had a lesson in using the phone book to call a business.)

When the flowers finally arrived I was of course eager to read the card! It turns out that the lovely bouquet was an early birthday gift from my parents and brother. As I was pouring over how lovely they were Toby confessed, "I'm sorry I tried to trick you about buying the flowers." I hugged him and reassured him that it was okay and that I knew if he could he would have done it!

PSA time!

PSA for Moms or anyone who's purchased Baby Einstein DVDs in the last 5 years. Baby Einstein is issuing a refund or exchange for their DVDs. The FTC has issued a complaint because of the movie's "educational" claims. Children under the age of 2 (the intended audience) are recommended to have zero screen time.

Print out the following form *at this link*, send in your movies and receive a B.E. book, CD or refund!

Unfortunately we have all VHS Baby Einsteins and can't take advantage of this. But we'd be willing to accept any donations from your refunds! :)

An old story revisited

This morning our pastor spoke on a select few chapters of the book of Joshua. He briefly touched on the story of Jericho, but those brief moments were enough to bring back an unforgettable story from Evan's early pre-school years.

One spring our church offered a parenting class. Jim and I signed up, partly to try to gain new insights, but partly because they also offered free child care for the all day seminar! Evan and his friends had an entire unit that day on Joshua and the Battle of Jericho. They had the Bible story, they sang songs, they watched the Veggie Tale version of the story, they built a wall of cardboard and made horns to knock it down, the whole nine yards. By the end of the day the boys were thoroughly immersed in the tale of Joshua!

A few weeks later I was watching two boys about Evan's age who had also been in that class. With three boys in the three to four-year-old bracket eventually the noise and squirrliness level got to the point where I sent them outside. I gave them the following instructions, "go outside and march around the garage seven times shouting the entire time and see what happens!"

A little while later one of the boys came back in the house and told me that the garage window was broken! It turns out that God did not move the garage in the same way He moved the wall of Jericho so the boys took matters into their own hands. They found some plastic toy golf clubs and started trying to break down the "wall"!

Works for me Wednesday!

Hello all! I'm back. Well, we'll see about that. I'm doing some part time day care here in the house of Kluth so I've been a little busy to blog. At any rate, this morning as I was working on getting Aidan's uniform together I thought, "this would make a good Works for me Wednesday" but it didn't dawn on me that it was actually Wednesday and that I could write it!

I actually got this idea from a more seasoned mom of many. Aidan and Toby are in nearly the same size pants. Evan and Aidan are both in unform and some of their shirts are really close to the same length. It's hard to tell from looking at them whos are whos and since sizes aren't universal that doesn't help either (I once put Aidan in an 8 and Evan in a 6 and the shirts fit both boys perfectly!)

So, the simple solution would be to label the boys' clothes, but how to do it so the clothes can be easily handed down to the next one without scribbling out the previous boy's name? Here's my solution: I put one dot on Evan's clothing tags, two on Aidan's and three in Toby's. Then as I pass Evan's down to Aidan or Aidan's down to Toby I just add a dot and the label is current! Makes quick work of sorting the laundry and getting it to the correct closet.

Hope this idea helps with hand me downs! Head over to *We Are That Family* for more ideas that may work for you!

Pray for Bethany

Without lengthy introductions, I'm asking you to pray for a little baby girl named Bethany. You can read her story *here*. I can't say much else but to ask you to pray and pass her information along. Because of my own loss of twins at just 13 weeks gestation this family is particularly close to my own heart.

If anyone knows how to format code for a blog button for my sidebar let me know and we can talk about it!

Thanks,

An Avery Story

In my life as a stay at home Mommy I have had many stories that I tell laughing hysterically only to a girlfriend, my mom or my husband. There are some that just should not be blogged about to protect the innocent even though the tale is JUST that funny!

If I knew how to categorize my posts into a nifty system on the side I would categorize this under "Things I'm not sure I should have blogged about".

One morning I was on the phone with Mel. Avery found a small square piece of cotton batting from a jewelery box. She lifted up her dress, pulled down her unders, placed the cotton in her unders and pulled them back up again, reminding me that perhaps it is time to insist on my own privacy in the bathroom not only with the boys! This few sentences long description does not do justice to the hilarity that it struck in my heart!

Monkey see, monkey do is an understatement!

September bullets

* Aidan started kindergarten.
* Evan started 4th grade.
* Jim started year 15 of teaching.
* Avery's staying dry more than getting wet and had two poops in the potty today.
* I'm starting day care for 3-5 extra kids for the next six weeks.
* Toby LOVES doing his homeschool preschool.
* We got a hamster which takes our "no pets" household up to two cats (got rid of all the kittens) two fish and a hamster.
* Oh, and I've also really riled up a bunch of my facebook friends talking about health care reform!

August Update

Here is a conversation Toby and I had tonight.

Me: Toby, what should I blog about tonight?
Toby: Blog about pickles.
Me: What about pickles?
Toby: Oh, you know, how weird they are, how weird pickle people are.

(Me typing furiously to capture all that!)

Aidan's idea was much easier:

"You should blog about how great your children are."

I've had a few facebook/comments asking about how Avery's potty training is going. I'd say we're about halfway there. Occasionally she initiates, she stayed dry at Sunday School this morning (her first time in a real class and not just nursery!) but still doen'st get it all the time. It's been about six days, so we're well on our way!

My goal is to have her basically done by September 9 when I start a temporary day care center at our house! I have two friends who need temporary part time care for their toddler and preschool aged children for the months of September and October. One family has a kindergartener who goes to school Monday, Wednesday and Friday. She also has a four-year-old and an eighteen month old. The other family has one school aged child (so I won't have her at all) as well as a four-year-old and eighteen month old. I'll have Aidan in the afternoons as well as Toby and Avery full time. So, if I can have one less in diapers I'm all for it!

School starts for Jim on Tuesday and the rest next week Wednesday.

WOO HOOOOOO!!!!!

3..2..1...

Outrageous supply of unders? Check.

M&Ms? Check.

Dirty duds bucket? Check.

Fingernail polish? Check.

Sticker chart with stickers? Check.

Singing potty with fresh batteries? Check.

Let the Potty Training (Bare) Boot(y) Camp begin!

Oh, and caramel macchiato ice cream and moral support from a girlfriend? Check!

Your Laugh For The Day

I saw the following sign outside the entry to the fairgrounds today:

No bicycle riding
skateboarding
rollerblading
dogs
on fairgrounds.

Of course. We wouldn't want the less talented dogs there to feel inferior!

Hey, I can blog this!

The well has sort of run dry for possible blog topics lately. Sure, the kids are saying and doing really cute things, I'm reading books and seeing movies I could blog about, but my motivation is at a lull right now.

Until the following email came. I have a friend with five kids five and under. The newest ones are 4 month old twin girls. Knowing my history, you can guess that these little beauties have a special place in my heart. Ironically, the heart is the problem. Not mine, but one of the girls. Bethany and Grace are the baby twins, Faith, Noah and Asher are big sibs, Kady and Karl are Mom and Dad to the bunch.

Please lift this family up in your prayers. You've never seen such strength and hope in the Lord as you will with this Momma!

Here's Kady's email:

Hi Friends, I'm sorry that I haven't updated many of you on what's happened with Bethany. She has a very rare condition in infants called Mitral Arcade (or Congenital Mitral Regurgitation). She'll need Open Heart Surgery or possibly a transplant in months / years to come. Her condition is evidently "severe" or serious.. but the doctor feels good about her chances because of how hard she's fought thus far. We don't know how quickly she's been deteriorating so now we have a starting point to compare to. She is on 3 different medications at this point and seems to be tolerating them pretty well. We'll be seeing alot of the pediatric cardiology dept at Mayo and are thankful for their expertise and care. I'm planning on setting up a caring bridge site in the next week (hopefully).. in all of my spare time ;). Karl and I are confident that God's already got all of this figured out and His purposes are so much greater than anything we can imagine. Our prayer requests are for #1 a miracle if that's God's will, #2 her heart to grow stronger and last until she's a little older for surgery.. her chances are far better the older that she is. #3 that she won't have pain from all that her body is having to go through #4 for strength for our family and finally #5 for God to use her for His glory! Please feel free to share this with anyone.... the more prayer warriors the better :) In His Arms, Kady

Boys and Books

This is a self-imposed backwards edition of WFMW. To find other ideas please head to "We Are That Family" today!

I do believe I've mentioned that Jim, Evan and I have been reading through the Harry Potter series. Evan and I are finished and Jim just hit a MAJOR point near the end of book six. That's all I'm going to say about that.

My rant here is about the quality of good books for kids Evan's age (he's heading into fourth grade). I haven't done the actual math, but I'm guessing that ninety percent of the books I pick up in the library are geared towards girls. They have a female main character dealing with female issues (hair, make-up, periods, babysitting and the cheerleading team). Or the female lead is off doing heroic things like slaying the dragon (which in my opinion should be a male lead, but that's another topic believe it or not).

So, that leaves ten percent of "literature" with a male protagonist. But how many of that ten percent leave us with a positive male role model taking his leadership position seriously? Evan wanted to read the "Diary Of A Whimpy Kid" series next so I checked them out of the library. In one afternoon he polished off a book and a half. I got through about thirty pages and declared them unfit for, well, anyone. Agreeing with me, Jim will be returning them to the library today. The main character, though a boy, is a middle school boy. These books are written at a second grade level at best. Children who are in middle school *should* be well beyond the level of these books (but again, that's a post for another time!). The main character also showcases blatant disrespect for his own father, his mom, his friend's father and all other adult/authority figures in his life. And that is just in the first thirty pages!

Here's my plea for help. I have a voracious reader with a heart bent towards Christian worldview. What books do you recommend for him? We'd also like the books to encourage boys and men in their God given leadership roles. We'd like him to have some positive reading for the rest of the summer.

So, what would you recommend? Oh, and no pressure here, but library day is Thursday at our house, so if you've got a suggestion please leave it!

We Have a Winner!

Congratulations to M, the winner of my "Green Bag Lady" green bag giveaway! I contacted her to let her know she won and to get her address. I knew she lived here in the great state of Minnesota and learned that she is actually from the same town I am! So thanks, M, you saved me some postage!

If you'd still like your very own "Green Bag Lady" green bag I'm more than happy to mail you one. All I ask is $2 to cover shipping. Email me your info and we'll work on getting your bag to you ASAP!

Thanks to all for entering!