A gift from God! (and a gift for you)

Look what God sent us this weekend!

A free keyboard!

Isn’t that cool?!  My brother-in-law found it in the trash last night on his way home.  They stopped and talked to the man at the house, who said he was throwing it out because there was a couple of dead keys that would cost $150 each to repair.  So we brought it home, took it all apart, and gave it a good cleaning.  Good as new! The kids totally love playing it, and as long as they leave the volume button down, I love them playing it too.
This actually makes two pianos for us.  The other one is in the basement apartment where the brothers-in-law live, and out of respect for them, I won’t publish the picture of the mess…
In reality, we probably won’t keep it, our church, it turns out, has been considering buying such a keyboard to use in worship. I think this would be a great addition to the worship team, so we’ll likely donate it.  The timing on this is just too good to think that it’s coincidence and actually meant for us, not church, don’t you think?
But, in gratefulness, I’m passing on the giving.  Here’s a monster hoodie for you.

Monster Hoodie

The monster

They normally look something like this

I’ve been making these for birthdays for a year or so, various kinds.  This is my first trial at a painted one, and they went over pretty well at last weeks birthday.  This one is purple with a green dragon wrapping around under the left arm.  I’m hoping someday to start selling these on etsy, but haven’t gotten there yet. Do you think they would sell?  (For, say $15-$20?) It’s a “youth XL” size, and would probably fit someone who wears an ladies small or is just a bit smaller.  (It’s definitely too small for me!)
We were exposed to the flu last weekend, so here’s the deal.  Leave a comment on this post telling me your best (preferably natural and/or cheap) tip for keeping kids (or yourself) healthy in the cold/flu season.  I’ll close comments Friday evening (2008-09-12), and randomly select a winner of the painted Monster Hoodie.

Living Simply Saturday: Playing Outside

My favorite tip on keeping life simple is to play outside. The more time we spend outside, the less time we’re strewing toys all over the house, therefore the less time I have to dedicate to cleaning and straightening. In the warm weather (which is vanishing rapidly), the kids can easily spend at least six hours a day playing outside. I encourage this by making sure they have plenty to play with, permission to “explore”, tools for making and building “stuff”, and by playing with them when I can.

Frugal Friday: Rag Bags

I’m new to this, (blogging and Frugal Friday), so I’m sure this idea has been shared before. But, I love my rag bags. I one to store rags in the kitchen - they substitute for paper towels. I use a second to store plastic bags in the kitchen. A third for bathroom rags. That way, I can grab one, wipe up the sink and toss it down the laundry chute. And a fourth for “wet wipes”. Just dampen a rag in the sink and clean that baby! Here’s a quick tutorial.

A bag for wet wipes (wash cloths)

A bag to hold rags or plastic bags

Dating my spouse - Why?

My husband is a pretty flexible guy, and is willing to compromise on almost any issue. But one place that he sticks his foot down is on dates. He insists (and I’m glad that he does) that we take a date each and every week. We have four kids, so this sometimes seems like a pain when I have to find a babysitter every week. I’m going to start a dating series on Thursdays about how to make weekly dating work. But first, the why.
Good marriages take work - we all know this. What we tend to forget is that all this work doesn’t come naturally in marriage (it doesn’t anywhere else either, does it?). It doesn’t take long for communication to slip into something not a kind and considerate as it used to be. It’s easy to develop independent interests and hobbies that leave less time together. Then there’s fatigue from the kids, stress from work and the “oh, you’re not as perfect as I thought you were” blues - we really need a planned defense.
Dating is marriage maintenance and a one to defend and plan for a strong marriage. It prevents us from becoming just roomates — people who live together but otherwise have nothing in common. And it allows a weekly escape from the stresses of life where we can reconnect and build each other up. And it’s fun! It doesn’t have to be expensive, and can be as creative as you wish. Most of all, it provides a natural way to spend time together, restoring communication, having fun, and keeping the romance kindled.
In the next few weeks I’ll discuss some of the ways we’ve made dating work even with a bucketload of kids, cheap dates, and keeping dating creative.
Meanwhile, visit Still Dating my Spouse. (I just joined the site, and really like the content - but there’s no affiliation to this liketrees blog ).

Home-made Pudding: a terrific (frugal) treat!

A favorite treat around here is home-made pudding.  It’s reasonably cheap, reasonably healthy, and really, really yummy.
Here’s the recipe that we use:

Vanilla Pudding

2 1/2 - 3 cups milk
1/4 cup cornstarch
Mix in a sauce pan, and heat over medium heat, stirring continuously, until it's thickened

Add in:

1/2 cup brown sugar
pinch salt
1/4 cup margarine or butter
2 tsp vanilla

Stir until butter is melted.  Then enjoy warm, or refridgerate until cool.

It’s a super bed-time snack for a cool evening!

Kindergarten curriculum - Attainments for a child of six

In our state, we have to register homeschooling by the time our child is six years old. Bennet turns six in October, so we had to register kingergarten this year. We’re required to teach Language Arts, Social Studies, Science, Math, and Health. The Ambleside year 0 group is a yahoo group dedicated to Charlotte Mason methods for kids too young to be in a rigorous academic environment (i.e. kindergarten). They have a “”A Formidable List of Attainments for a Child of Six”, a reprint of a curriculum outline from a CM school in the 1890’s. I used it to outline objectives for this school year.
Here’s the original list:

1. To recite, beautifully, 6 easy poems and hymns
2. to recite, perfectly and beautifully, a parable and a psalm
3. to add and subtract numbers up to 10, with dominoes or counters
4. to read--what and how much, will depend on the child
5. to copy in print-hand from a book
6. to know the points of the compass with relation to their own home,
     where the sun rises and sets, and the way the wind blows
7. to describe the boundries of their own home
8. to describe any lake, river, pond, island etc. within easy reach
9. to tell quite accurately (however shortly)
     3 stories from Bible history,
     3 from early English, and
     3 from early Roman history
10. to be able to describe 3 walks and 3 views
11. to mount in a scrap book a dozen common wildflowers,
      with leaves (one every week); to name these,
      describe them in their own words,
      and say where they found them.
12. to do the same with leaves and flowers of 6 forest trees
13. to know 6 birds by song, colour and shape
14. to send in certain Kindergarten or other handiwork, as directed
15. to tell three stories about their own "pets"--rabbit, dog or cat.
16. to name 20 common objects in French, and say a dozen little sentences
17. to sing one hymn, one French song, and one English song
18. to keep a caterpillar and tell the life-story of a butterfly from his own observations.

And my Objectives for Kindergarten:
Language Arts:

• To read (we’re using Teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons)
• To write, copying simple sentances or short verses.
• To learn twenty objects in Mandarin Chinese
• To learn one song in Mandarin Chinese

Science:

• To know North, East, South and West from the nearby park (our home is on a slant)
• To recognize and describe nearby landmarks
• To describe how to walk to the park, the store and the mailbox (3 walks)
• To describe the what we see from our backyard and from the backyards of two sets of grandparents (3 views)
• To keep a nature journal with flowers, leaves and other found objects
• To identify nearby wildlife: blackbirds, swallows, sparrows, wild rabbits, racoons and some bugs
• To raise a caterpillar, release it as a butterfly and both tell and draw it’s life story.

Math

• To add number up to ten, with visual aids (like fingers to count), but without pencil and paper.

Social Studies

• To sing six easy hymns
• To recite or sing six nursery rhymes
• To recite one psalm (Psalm 1)
• To tell one of Jesus’ parables
• To tell three Bible stories

Health

• To know the names of all major body parts (not in attainments list)
• To know proper cleaning of all major body parts (also not in attainments list)
• To know the boundary of our yard (where he is safely permitted to go)
• To memorize our address and phone number, and know examples of when to call 911.

Taking off the masks

Last night we went to an open house at a friend-of-a-friend’s who has just bought a house.  Normally I love this kind of thing.  But this man, the Father of the household is someone that I have a hard time not dispising.  I don’t like the way he treats other people - always demeaning while puffing up himself. The whole time there, I was irritated — the new house was really nice, and they had decorated it with Christian icons, etc that seemed to me to say “look at how spiritual this household is”, all the while hearing snippets of conversations where the Father was tearing down others and strutting his pompousity.
On the way home, it spurred a conversation that started with “ugh, I like him less the better I know that family”, and, over time, proceeded to “how shallow and judgemental are we, to spend a whole evening irritated with one man, rather than looking beyond his obvious mask to see how hurting this man must be”.  We are the wrong ones here.  Rather than ask questions to try to get to know why this man is so rude, I avoid him.  Rather than stand up for the person being injured in his conversation, I leave the room.  His wife and daughter are both very sweet - why don’t I get to know them better, and be an encouragement to them?  Because I don’t like the Father.  This is a bad attitude, and I need to change it.
At the same time, Do I wear a similar mask?  Trying to look perfect while mistreating others?  This, too, must not be.  Humble me, Lord, until I can think of others, not just myself and my annoyances and feelings in situations.  Let my world not revolve around me.