First Freebie

If you subscribe to my blog I will give you the link to this printable I made the other day.

I'm starting pre-school with my 3 1/2 year old this year, so I'm making file folders like mad. So much so I thought about investing in a laminate machine. Then I realized I can have anything I want laminated from my local AEA (Area Education Association) for just $.50/foot! File folders work really well on their big machines, and I'm not running to the store all the time to buy lamination supplies (which would probably make us broke!).

I went last Friday and dropped off a whole folder of stuff for the gal to laminate, and by the time I got back from running my errands it was done! All I had to do was cut, cut, cut! I've made 4 file folders- 2 regular and 2 tot lap books. My son loves using the dry erase marker on them and then erasing it! I've made Robots, Word World, Thomas and Chicka Chicka Boom Boom folders.

I found my great lap books and file folder downloads over at http://1plus1plus1equals1.blogspot.com/
The other blog I'm using is: http://totallytots.blogspot.com/ . Starting with these two blogs has given me a lot of content and free downloads as well. Now I'm trying to keep them organized on my computer until I need to print them out. Hubby is going to be upset if I tell him we'll need to order ink cartridges for the printer every month- at $200 a round (we buy 2 sets of everything). It's just not something we can afford to do once a month, or even every other month!

This weeks' letter has been R... Robots, Rainbows, we even made this Rainstick from Enchated Learning. My son couldn't stop adding beans in ours, so it's a little too full!

Next week the letter is S... so I'm printing out file folders to make.... like Shapes, Seasons, Stars, and maybe even making a file folder based off the book of Stone Soup!

Which is why, if you email me at: sarah979c(at)gmail(dot)com and tell me you subscribe to my blog, I will send you the link to this download.

p.s. I have another free download for tomorrow- I made it last week- it's a simple Summer Banner!

Wordless Wednesday

 

Where did my baby go? My son at 3 1/2 years old. 

ps. Stay tuned for some free downloads!

Des Moines for a day

So hubby had a one-day conference to go to in Des Moines about Social Media. It was decided that his brother would drop him off, since he was going back up to school in Ames, Iowa anyway. That left hubby in Des Moines all day without a vehicle, but that was okay because he could walk to get something to eat on his lunch break.
That left the lovely wife and son back in our hometown, about an hour and a half away from Des Moines, but we had decided the night before it would be okay if after lunch I could drive up and spend some time with some friends- more about them later- and then pick hubby up when he was done at 4pm.

My first stop was the Barnes and Noble Bookstore on University Ave. Last weekend on Focus on the Family Weekend Magazine I heard about a book called 'Guilt-Free Motherhood: Parenting with Godly Wisdom,'  by Dr. Julianna Slattery.  A must have book for any mom, although I haven't actually got my hands on this book yet- it's on the top of my list of books to buy.

You have to realize that this was really brave of me to go off on my own in Des Moines, a city I'm not from and didn't grow up near- I grew up near Minneapolis-St. Paul and almost anytime we go to Des Moines hubby is driving around the city- not me. I pretty much know how to get around, but I was thankful that I had my Des Moines map in the car yesterday!

So I didn't find the book there, nor at another bookstore we stopped at later- the only answer I was given was 'I can order that for you.' Great. Except, I don't live in Des Moines.

Last summer- the 2 year olds
playing together at camp. 

After one failed attempt at finding my book I want I headed off to my friends' house. I had never been up to visit them, and although my friend Jessica had to work yesterday, we still got a little time to talk, before she had to get ready. Jessica and my hubby have known each other since they were young- middle school, maybe? Her dad is still the pastor of my church after 18 + years of being there! Jessica and I were pregnant with our first born children at the same time. Her daughter was born in November 2007, and my son was born in January of 2008. The now- three year old's played really well together while we were there. Since then, she's gone on to have twin girls who are about 6 months old now. So that was fun for me- especially because I got to hold each of them! These precious babies have been in cloth diapers since they were born- can you blame the parents? I can't- I know we saved a lot of money by putting our son in cloth diapers when he was a baby... the diapers they have now! The ones the babies are using are called Fuzzibuns, and I've heard of them, I'd just never gotten the opportunity to use one- well, I did because one of the girls needed a diaper change! Her dad walked me through it, and he said I even got it on right, but the little girl wasn't just wet- she left other surprises in there for me! Guess she must like me!

So after my diaper-changing adventure and I was reminded of why I'm not having any more kids, I left the girls in the perfectly capable hands of their dad.
I drove to where hubby was having his conference to pick him up and somehow because of my rush to get to Des Moines (yes! out of this little town!)  I forgot to grab lunch, so we checked out the 2nd bookstore and then headed to the Jordan Creek area of West Des Moines. I decided we should eat at Red Robbin. It had been a while since we ate there, and when we did our son wasn't with us, but we knew he'd like it. I had the Banzai Burger (pictured above)... it was super yummy and I saved half of it! Our son pointed to the Onion Rings on the menu so we ordered those right away, we found out he's a big fan of the breading, but not of the onions! Oh well. He did eat most of his Mac & Cheese he ordered.

We decided we needed to walk off some of the food we had just eaten, so we headed over to Jordan Creek Mall. I promptly headed to the Lovesac store.  Our lovely hand-me down (twice before us) furniture in our front room is driving us crazy. It doesn't work in the room, so we've been looking for the best solution and we think we've found it.

They are called Sactionals... and they come apart, just like Lego blocks. The sides come off, the bases come apart, so you can have different configurations. We've decided that instead of blowing some money now and getting the furniture we would use it as a reward for paying off all our credit cards- we have 2 large ones left! Kind of a motivation for becoming debt free, and no we would not walk in there and put it on a credit card- we'd pay with cash! We can't wait to finally buy some 'grown up' furniture- something that's not passed down, or found at a garage sale and something we can even change the covers on! Awesome, huh?

It was a fun trip, but although I took my camera I didn't take any pictures- I told the hubby that and he said 'good for you.' The photographer in me says 'No! That's bad!' Oh well. Hubby already thinks I take to many photos as it is. What can I say? I'm a shutterbug! I guess in Des Moines I was to busy driving!

Cars & Basement

It's summer time here. It's defiantly been hot the last few days. Christopher at the park today- we met some friends for a yummy picnic in the park, after story time at the local library! 

Grandma Shirley had Christopher at the farm for 2 whole days last weekend- the big project that hubby got done? Replacing the door handle on my car- driver's side. We lived with a broken one for about a month. I told him that it wasn't going to work in the winter, because it was taking 2 hands to open it all the time.

It was totally my fault- and I was in a hurry at the local grocery store. I was looking up at the storm clouds and I went to put my cart away - I locked the car door when I did- I was coming back to my car, not remembering I had locked my car and I guess I don't know my own strength because the next thing I know I'm fishing to get the rest of the car handle from underneath the car. Then thinking 'Oh, my gosh, my husband is going to kill me!" Not really, but those are the thoughts that go through my head.

He didn't kill me, and he really wasn't that upset and he found one for cheap online somewhere- although he had to take apart the door entirely to get it done- and he only added 2 bolts in my car door that he couldn't get out, it's done and I'm thankful I have a handy husband who can do these types of things for silly me!

Keep in mind it's been a little over a year since I did anything to my car- accident-wise, so I guess I figured it was time! I knew it was coming- I just didn't know it'd be a silly door handle. It could have been a lot worse! I've already banged up 3 bumpers- yes I know I only have 2- but I've banged up 3! I have the worst luck- or maybe they should take me off the road entirely!

My big project that I worked on last weekend was cleaning and organizing the basement. Above is the part of the basement I didn't get to- that's my scrap-booking table. Lovely, isn't it? The whole basement is like this- F-U-L-L. Throwing trash away isn't that hard, but deciding what to throw away is another matter entirely. Do I really need all my notes from an English class I had in College? Probably not. Recycle! 
Do we really need to keep all that Styrofoam from all those packaging boxes? Not really. Garbage! 

Not planning to have anymore kids, so why do I need this beautiful baby car seat? I don't need it anymore- anyone want to buy it off me? I'll take $75 for it- everything's included latch system, car seat base, instruction manual, etc.- I'll even throw in a stroller that goes with it! And despite my bad driving habits- it's never been in a car accident.

Is the basement done? No. Is it organized? A little more. Will it take me a while? Yes! But it didn't get that way overnight- we have lived here for a little 8 years. My goal is to get the basement cleaned so that can be our place where I can home-school my son.

Fun, Food, Friends, and Fishing!

Friday night we had some friends over. We invited more, but some were busy- that's okay. We had about 12 people including our family. It was so much fun to get some new and some old families together- meaning some that have hung out before together with one family that hadn't. There were 5 kids under the age of 4! The 3 three year olds were fun (Stephen, Christopher and Be'lin), they've hung out together before. But then again there was a finger slammed in the bathroom door, bubbles dumped on somebody's head and marshmallow stickiness smeared in the same person's hair! Then there was Lola- she's 2, and sometimes she was in her own little world, but got into playing with the other kids eventually. Then there's Veronica, who just turned 1 and wants to do everything the 3 year olds were doing! We started the party inside (silly rain), but it stopped raining later in the night so we could move outside and let the kids run off even MORE energy and make some s'mores. One person in the party had never had s'mores before- can you believe it?! Crazy! But he liked them!
What an awesome way to kick off the summer with food, friends, fun and good times! 

On Saturday- Christopher got to spend some time fishing with Grandma, his Aunt Vicky and Uncle Mike while they were in town for a day.

Waiting for the fish to bite... hard to believe he's 3 1/2 this month! 

Cutest fishing boy I know! 

 He caught one! 

Christopher had a pretty great weekend, spending 2 whole nights at grandma's house- which is rare, because usually grandma can't keep him over on Sunday nights because she works. He was really good, and was lucky enough to stay up late and even slept in early- why is it he does some things at grandma's house that I can't get him to do at his own? 

Summer has begun and we have our summer reading books for the week- even mommy joined the adult summer reading program at the local library! Grand prize is an hour long massage from a local massage place called 'Time Away.' I won't win, but just thinking about getting an hour long massage makes me start to relax! All Stay-At-Home moms need relaxation time! 

"So did you have a _______ time?"

I asked my husband that very same question on our way back from our weekend getaway today. I said it just like that.

Good. Couldn't classify it as a good time.
Boring. Nope. Not that either.
Horrible. Nope.

There really doesn't seem to be a word for the weekend mini-retreat that my hubby and I just got back from. We went to Honey Creek Resort for a Geocaching event. We knew about it ahead of time, and we knew that we'd get a great rate for the weekend- I scrimped and I saved my money in a jar because if I put it in an envelope that's in my purse I will spend it. This past Thursday was our wedding anniversary, on May 12, 2002 I married my husband. Nine years later we are at Honey Creek Resort enjoying, or rather trying to enjoy our time.

The weather: was cold, and rainy, and windy, and drizzling/ misting. Yuck!

Hubby thought of a great idea to bring our bikes along. So we could get more Caches around the area. We didn't count on the weather being icky. We found a few caches on our bikes, and then we looked at each other and said: "Why are we doing this? This isn't fun! Let's go back and warm up!"

Hubby finding one of RedDarlings Geocaches.... but you don't need a GPS unit for this one! 

(They aren't EVER this big!) 

Here's a photo from a while back: Getting a geocache with my dad, photo taken from his iphone in Kentucky. I showed him how to do it and now he is a geocacher too!  The great thing about Geocaching is that they are everywhere- all over the world! My dad and I are excited to take our GPS units with us when we go on our family cruise next year and get some then!

Side note: It's funny that this weekend was cold and overcast cloudy. That's exactly how my wedding day was. Cold, and windy. My mother-in-law will never let me forget how cold my wedding day was! All because this girl thought she had to have an outdoor wedding in mid-May. Perfect, right? Not always in Iowa! On my wedding day I don't remember being cold- I had layers upon layers of gown on- and being nervous that the wedding would go off without a hitch probably prevented me from getting cold.

So we sat by the resorts fireplace for most of the late morning and afternoon. It helped that some friends loaned us their ipad2, it was kinda fun! Hubby played on the Wii that was there in the lobby for a little bit, and we did some people watching too.

We ate lunch at the Lakeshore Grille, which I must say was the BEST meal I've had out to eat for a very long time. I had to warm up, so I ordered a French Vanilla cappuccino- which was better than Starbucks that I can't get in my town anyway! I opted for the Tenderloin sandwich, while hubby had the special- a sliced ham with goat cheese sandwich on toasted rye bread. I had a few bites- and I loved it. The ham was amazing. I even saved room for their Cheesecake with Raspberry drizzle- super rich and one of the rare times I was allowed to order dessert!

We tossed around the idea of staying another night, but I don't think there were any empty rooms and we left the little man at home with the babysitter and figured out it wasn't financially worth it to stay another night. Unfortunately, we weren't impressed with the hotel side of the resort, some major Architectural flaws that we happened upon by accident just going where we thought we needed to go ended us up in the laundry rooms of the hotel. Whoops! Minor things such as HGTV being listed on the channel list, but when I turned to that channel it was QVC, and they didn't know anything about it at the front desk. Hubby took a while to figure out some electrical switches in our room- and the decor was nice, but not superb- plus the room had a bit of an echo when you talked. Sometimes it's just good to sleep in your own bed (says the lady who couldn't get to sleep until 2am!)




ps. I found 14 Geocaches this weekend, despite the weather! Most of which I found while Hubby escorted me around in the truck on our way home.

Easter 2011

So this Easter I did all the things I normally do on Easter Sunday, get up early to attend for the life of me what I can figure is Sunrise Service at our church, but for the most part at 7 in the morning, I am not generally awake then.

This year the pastor handed me 3 nails as I sat down. Okay, that’s weird, I thought. Oh yeah, right- it’s Easter- the reason I had to get out of bed early this morning and come to church before 7am, why anybody should be awake at 7am is beyond me.

He invited us, during a special song sung by a church member to come put our nails in the bucket. I placed my nail in the bucket, and had my 3 year old place one in the bucket as well. He is not without sin, as I was able to witness later in the nursery of him getting so mad at another little boy that he was angry- so visibly angry that after he hit that poor little boy over and over again, and was told to stop by the adults, his head was vibrating back and forth in an anger motion. The only other person who I’ve seen do this, or know that this motion is done is myself. Yup, he has my temper.

The pastor later told us that it was interesting to watch us place our nails in the bucket; because as a whole handful of people came forward one by one, we placed our nails in the bucket- not dropped them as he was hoping to hear the metal cling on the metal. I guess for most of us, we’ve been raised in the church so well that we know better to make a lot of racket in the sanctuary, because it is just that: a sanctuary, sacred.

As the choir sung their songs of the story of Jesus and how he came to be crucified and rose in three days, I thought of the one nail that the pastor encouraged us to take home with us- to dwell on. Was the cross heavy? Without a doubt, and I thought of all my sins, and then I think of all the people who have been murders, rapists, robbers, but who have found Jesus- all their sins were on that cross too.

The night before I happened to be out at my mother-in-laws house, and on the History Channel was a show called The Face of Jesus. I don’t normally watch the History Channel, as we don’t really have traditional television in our house. But this kept my interest… and for two hours the show went on to talk about the shroud (or cloth) that Jesus was wrapped in and with the technology that we have today they can make and they have made a 3-dimensional model of what Jesus looked like 2,000 years ago. One of the things that they said in the show was that there was a lot of blood on the shroud - the man who was wrapped in this fabric was beaten almost to the point of death- and then the crucified him and put him on the cross. It was not a pretty picture, and yet, we see drawings and paintings of our Lord and Savior with very little blood on him, very little flesh tears, and just three holes in his body. In fact, he had much, much more. It was much worse than we could ever imagine.

If you’ve never seen the movie The Passion of the Christ, I would recommend it, if you are a believer. You will see the things that Jesus did, the things that we- as humans did to Him.

As I looked at my nail, long, round, and sharp during service this morning, I thought two things the first one I thought- “How much bigger was Jesus’ nails?” and my second thought was “How much noise must have come from Jesus when these nails went through his flesh, and all the way through his body?” I can’t even fathom the pain level; it would be off the chart. The nail that I had was machine made, manufactured in a plant somewhere in America, maybe. But Jesus’ nails where hand made, forged by a blacksmith in a way that we would call primitive in today’s terms. They were probably very long, and very large.

So this Easter, as I partook in our Church’s communion service, I took my time. I was seated in the back, so I was one of the last to receive my bread and cup- but I took my time, everyone had taken of the cup and taken the bread when they got them. But I took my time, waited until I got my bread in order to start drinking my cup. I actually dipped my bread in my cup- some people believe that this is what Jesus would have done. Saying “This is the bread, and this is my body, for which I give unto you.” And “This is my cup, which represents my body.”

What a sacrificial love that Jesus has for each of us. So, will you partake, did you partake? If so, I hope that you took the time to remember in our fast-paced World we sometimes forget why Jesus died on the cross.

I know in these next few weeks I will forget my nail- and every Sunday morning I will pull it out, ponder it and put it back in my bag. The cross was heavy- very heavy. Do you know how heavy it was? Jesus still didn’t care- He would have carried the cross if it was twice as heavy as it was. It was so heavy in fact, that he couldn’t carry it all the way up the hill- someone had to carry the cross for him.