High Value Huggies Coupons!

Hurry! There are two high value Huggies coupons available here. One is for $3 off Huggies Natural Fit diapers and the other is $5 off Huggies Gentle Care diapers. These will go fast so hurry and go print yours! (Mia are you reading this!!! That grand baby needs diapers!!!) Oh and they are on two different pages. Happy saving!!!

So How Old Are You?

Someone posted this link at a forum I read and I thought it was too fun not to share! Age Calculator. According to this:

I was born on a Friday
I am 46 years old....
or 560 months old
or 2436 weeks old
or 17,053 days old
or 409,292 hours old
or 24,557,545 minutes old
or 1,473,452,791 seconds old
and my next birthday celebration is in 113 days 3 hours and 32 minutes.


So how old are you?

Does God Know Everything?

Justin: Mom does God know everything?
Me: Yes He does.
Justin: Even math?
Me: Even math, Justin!
Justin: Wow!

Don't you just love the questions they come up with?

My Blogs New Look

As you can see my blog has gotten a face lift! I love the new look and I am happy to have three columns back. Last night I spent sometime working on it and tweaking things. Several folks have asked me about my backgrounds. No I am not fluent in HTML but boy I can wield a search engine like nobody's business! I found all this bloggy background goodness at The Cutest Block on the Block. There are a ton of free backgrounds to choose from! So get going and spruce up your blog!

Snow Nature Walk

During our snow unit we actually had snow. Not a lot but enough to make the boys happy. I just knew we had to go on a nature walk! We have taken nature walks in the winter before but we have never taken one in the snow before! We had a blast! Our walk reminded me of my favorite RobertFrost poem.

Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening

Whose woods these are I think I know.

His house is in the village though;

He will not see me stopping here

To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer

To stop without a farmhouse near

Between the woods and frozen lake

The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake

To ask if there is some mistake.

The only other sound's the sweep

Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.

But I have promises to keep,

And miles to go before I sleep,

And miles to go before I sleep.

Robert Frost

Ready to go!




I love looking at the starkness of the trees in winter


snow clinging to the tree. The boys thought this was interesting.



Finding that even in winter there is the promise of spring and new life. We read a book on what happens to plants and trees in the winter. I asked the boys to see if they could find any buds and they did.


Trecking along!

Snow covered holly


I just love this shot of the pine cones
pine needles. You all know what pine trees are called don't you? Conifers.



Bark missing from part of this tree. We are thinking termites.




Making a very cool discovery! What is under all that snow? Ice of course! This is a low area in the woods that always has a large mud puddle. (Kaden calls it a lake, lol) We decided to brush away the snow and this was what we found!

leaves frozen into the ice making cool imprints!

This one is my favorite!


I scraped the snow out of it. It is hard to see, but if you click on the picture you can see it better.

When we returned from our walk we went to the back yard to check the feeders and found some cool bird tracks!

Oatmeal Squares

I made this recipe last night. It is very, very good!

Oatmeal Squares (or bars, it's almost like a cake)
6 cups oats
2 t baking powder
1 t salt
2 t cinnamon (I put in a little more)
1/2 c brown sugar
2 cups milk
4 eggs
2/3 cup oil
2/3 cup honey
Mix dry ingredients together.

Mix wet ingredients together. Mix dry and wet together. Spread into a 9x13 dish and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.
You can serve this with maple syrup over it, fresh berries, applesauce...really, the options are endless!

Lent

Yesterday was the first day of Lent. Do you observe Lent? Our family does. It is a time of reflecting and repentance. A time to focus on Jesus and his sacrifice for us. Many people fast or give something up. You can learn more about Lent here.

This year I have made a few plans for us as a family to observe Lent.

For me personally I am giving up candy and another of my favorite things, tastycakes. Lent is a time for preparation and reflection. Preparing for the crucifixion, resurrection and assension of Christ. I am going to do some deep cleaning and decluttering. To prepare my home and bring peace to my heart. By cleaning out I will have more time to focus on what is really important in my home and life. My God and my family.

For us as a family here are some of the things we are doing.

We will be reading each day from this book Journey to the Cross. It chronicles the last week of Jesus life in a day by day format. There are 40 chapters. We are doing a chapter each day throughout lent. This is our first year using this book.

I printed up 2 sheep coloring pages for the boys. I put Jesus is the Lamb of God at the top and we will glue a cottonball to the sheep for each day of lent. Thanks to Candace for this idea!

We will also be doing the Ten Plagues Adventure. I saw this last year and thought we would try it this year.

I would also like to have a simple sedar feast to celebrate and teach the boys about passover.

I may also use parts of The Lenten Tree and Activities Book. It is a free download. Scroll down to the second book for your own copy.

Food Combinations

What is your favorite food combination? Do you have an unusual one? Monday night we decided to go out to dinner at the diner since we had a gift certificate that I had received on the weekend. Kaden ordered french fries and grilled cheese. Nothing unusual about that, right? As we were eating Kaden spied the little jelly packets on the table (our diner serves breakfast all day/evening). He asked if he could have some. I said sure! He proceeds to open the jelly and starts spreading it in his french fries. Jelly and french fries. What a combination!

My favorite food combinations are chocolate milk and toast. I always dunk my toast in my chocolate milk. It is something my oldest brother and I have always done. I am happily passing this talent on to my boys it seems!

Free Jonathan Park Episodes

Do you like free? Today through Friday anyone with a Behemoth. com account can download the entire first volume of Jonathan Park for free. That is 12 full episodes! I had heard of Jonathan Park sometime ago but never really checked into it. They are like an old time radio program from Vision Forum. I signed up yesterday and downloaded mine! Let me just say they are excellent! We listened to the first one last night. Justin is hooked and cannot wait to hear more!

To get yours free simply go to Behemoth.com and create an account. You will have to give them a credit card number but you will not be charged. Once you create your account and login, click on cart at the top of the screen. On the cart page you will see a box that says redeem coupon. Simply enter the code JONATHANPARK and your downloads will appear!

This offer is not limited to new Behemoth customers. If you have an existing account, login and enter the code!

While you are there visit the home page. They have daily freebies!

A big thanks to His Hands His Feet for sharing this great offer!

Our Snow Unit

We had such a great time with our snow unit! We did a lot of activities, learned a lot about snow and just had a bunch of fun!

We learned all about snow flakes and snow crystals. We read Snowflake Bentley. In 1885 Wilson Bentley was the first person to photograph snow crystals (snowflakes). Did you know that no two snowflakes are alike? That every snowflake has six sides? Wilson Bentley was a self educated farmer and went on to photograph over 5000 snowflakes. You can read more about Mr. Bentley's life's work here.

We made our own snowflakes out of Borax. We've made them before, but they are always fun and very easy to make! We studied the crystals and looked at some of the pieces that fell off under out portable microscope.

Our borax snowflakes

checking out a crystal from our borax snoflakes

Kaden was very intent on looking at his crystal!

We played a snowflake matching game. I found these over at Kelly's Kindergarten. Kaden has an excellent memory! This game was hard for Justin and I but Kaden could remember where the matching snowflake was almost every time!

Kaden also did some snowflake patterning.

We did a snowflake building activity found here at Making Learning Fun.

I printed out the cards, laminated them and cut them out. Then cut out felt pieces. This was a lot of fun.

We made snowmen scenes with paint, marshmallows and Q-tips.

Justin's snowman family!

I brought snow inside for them to play with. They made all sorts of things and also watched it melt back into water.

One of our favorite science tools

Before Christmas I picked up this portable microscope. My intention was to give it to Justin for Christmas. I stashed it away and promptly forgot about it! A few weeks ago I came across it while looking for something else. I bought it out and showed the boys. Let me tell you. This little thing is awesome! It fits in the palm of your hand, is illuminated and pretty powerful for such a small microscope. It is great for taking outside on a nature walk. We have looked at a pine needle, crystals, paper all sorts of things. It is so fun! We love it so much I am going to buy another one. I knew I would need to get more than one because the boys fight over it.

I have been featured on the Crafty Crow!

What a nice surprise! My snow playdough was featured! Have you visited The Crafty Crow? If you haven't you really should! There are a ton of great ideas there! Well....what are you still doing here? Get over there and get creative!