Keslee-the little homemaker

My sister, Chastanie, got Keslee the cupcake maker for Christmas. Keslee had seen it in the store and fell in love with it. It was one of those presents that as soon as it was opened and Keslee realized what she got, she dropped everything and ran to Chas to give her a big thank you hug. She was so excited! It brought back easy-bake- oven memories for me so about a week after Christmas we had to try it out. It came with mix and frosting for 4 cupcakes, a little mixing bowl, and a "pan" to cook the cupcake in the microwave.

Each cupcake is mixed separately in the little bowl by just adding a little water. The mixture is then poured into a cupcake wrapper and put in the "pan" to cook.

This pan is put into the microwave for about 45 seconds. After it cools for a few minutes, the icing is mixed and put into the icing tube.

As you pull the handle down to squirt the icing, the cupcake spins around. Theoretically this is supposed to produce a little ice-cream type swirly frosting top on each cupcake making perfect beautiful cupcakes just ready for sprinkles.

We were not able to achieve that perfection!?! Our frosting kinda flopped out all in one plop and ran down the sides of the cupcakes. The kids still enjoyed the whole process. After eating a microwaved cupcake-I think I will pass the next time!

I LOVE WORDS SO I HAVE TO BE A FUNDAMENTALIST AND I THINK EVERYONE SHOULD BE!!!

Yes, I am a Fundamental Baptist and proud of it. I have noticed lately how many people often use the word fundamentalist to refer to people in a negative way. I will let you know right now that I am proud any time someone uses the word fundamental when referring to me and my family. For that matter, I love being referred to as radical as well!! I am radical and I am a fundamentalist and I believe EVERYONE should be and I will tell you why.
As spoiled, lazy Americans, we begin to take tons of things for granted. This is no secret to any of us, we know we do it We all have times when we begin to take our freedoms, our health, our cars, our jobs, our friends, our family and even our God for granted.
These things are there.
They are always there so we stop seeing them as the precious commodities that they are. We loose sight of how they enrich and enhance our lives everyday. They are so common in our everyday lives that we use them and use them and use them until we don't even remember what they are actually worth anymore and so we start to abuse them and abuse them and abuse them. We forget their true purpose, why did we have them, what were they good for, why did we need them and then they are gone. Either we have used them up or they are taken from us or we have rejected their true value so often that it is almost impossible to get them back to the status that they deserve and then we are upset and wonder why we did not cherish these things while we had them!? That is what is happening to our language. WORDS ARE AWESOME!! We have them for a reason! They MEAN something. They are WORTH something. Only someone that has forgotten the value of our language would use the word fundamental as a way to insult someone else.
Webster defines fundamental as:serving as an original or generating source: primary: serving as a basis supporting existence or determining essential structure or function: of central importance: one of the minimum constituents without which a thing or a system would not be what it is.
That is exactly why EVERYONE should be a fundamentalist! It is essential-of utmost importance-indispensable-necessary. You should be a fundamentalist in everything you do. What good is a math teacher that holds no regard for the fundamentals of math? I sure don't want that teacher trying to teach addition to my child. Who would choose a surgeon that says "well I just don't believe the fundamentals of medicine are really that important so I skipped a few classes but I bet I can still do your liver transplant just fine!" WHATEVER!!! It makes no sense not to be a fundamentalist. Whatever you do, whoever you are, whatever you believe amounts to nothing without the fundamentals!!
What we know about our Lord and his Word is the most important thing we ever strive to learn. It is only natural to turn to the fundamentals in order to find the truth that lies between the pages of the Bible. Now I am not saying that everyone should be a Fundamental Baptist-but you should seek the fundamentals in regards to your walk with the Lord and Bible study. I am not willing to say that the Fundamental Baptist churches are the ONLY churches that you can hear preaching that originates from and focuses on the fundamentals of a Christian life. I just know that MY Fundamental Baptist church does. I want to have the relationship with my saviour that he desires to have with me and it is impossible to reach that without the fundamentals! The WORD fundamental tells us that any church that is not fundamental is in turn not truly a church and therefore will not be able to truly assist me or anyone in reaching the ultimate relationship with our Lord and Savior.
Now if you want to know why I also am proud to be called radical, just ask Webster-proceeding from a foundation or root: drastic: making extreme changes in views, conditions, or habits: carrying convictions or theories to their fullest application.
Now don't fundamental and radical just seem to naturally work together!!! I wouldn't have it any other way!

Inhofe for President!?!?

Newsmax.com ran a story today about our own republican Senator Jim Inhofe. Inhofe has been very outspoken about the fact that he did not and does not support the bail outs that seem to be happening on a daily basis now. I hear Senator Inhofe on the morning radio show-Mullins in the morning KTOK 1000-periodically and I am really glad that we have him in Washington representing us. He seems to hold true to the conservative values he was elected with and listens to what the people that he represents say. I only wish there were more like him there!!! It is so good to hear someone speak out against the government running amuck. Of course we only hear about it on talk radio or conservative internet news sites-we wouldn't want the world to know there are actually a lot of people that hold true to conservative values. The media would have us believe it is just a few backwoods hicks that still feel that way and therefore there is no need to even acknowledge them. Well I am proud to be one of them and am glad we have politicians from our state not afraid to call things as they are...outrageous! Here is part of what he had to say to newsmax.(colorful emphasis was added by me!)

U.S. Sen. James Inhofe tells Newsmax that Congress’ approval of the $700 billion
Wall Street bailout is the “most
outrageous vote in American history.”
The Oklahoma Republican also
said he doesn’t believe taxpayers will see the bailout funds paid back as
promised.

“I think history will treat that vote as the most outrageous
vote in American history, where 75 percent of the House and Senate voted to give
an unelected bureaucrat an unprecedented amount of money – the largest amount in American history to be actually voted on at one time, with no strings attached,
no guidelines, no oversight.

“Now that was bad enough and then … President
Bush came out with his statement [asking for the appropriation], which really
disappointed me. I was still trying to get what we call S64 and that would have
made the members of Congress responsible for passing or not passing this
recommendation from Obama.
“Now what has happened is that President Bush has
said, I guess he called up Obama, and said: What’s your wish list?
“We’ve already introduced our resolution of disapproval … I think it will pass the
House and it could pass the Senate, although I think Harry Reid would not even
allow a vote on it just to save the embarrassment to the new president, Obama,
because all he has to do is veto the resolution of disapproval and then” the
votes are there to override the veto.
“So it’s a fait accompli,” he added.
“It is done. We’re going to have another $350 billion to add to the first $350
billion.
“And I think there are a lot of smart economists who have said that nothing really good happened with the first $350 billion.”
Martella asked: “Wasn’t [Treasury Secretary Henry] Paulson supposed
to account for the way he spent the money?”
Inhofe answered: “He was
supposed to account for it. Even worse than that, he promised how it was going
to be spent. He was going to buy damaged assets. That’s what he was going to do.
“Fifteen minutes after he got his hands on the money, he
forgot all about that and never bought any damaged assets and instead bailed out
various banks…
“A lot of Republicans are saying, well that money’s
not gone, he bought preferred stock and it’s going to be paid back with
interest.
“Well that would be awfully nice, but I don’t
think that’s going to happen.”

WHY I LOVE HOMESCHOOLING!!!!!

Keslee had and AWESOME day in school today. She has been learning to read. She has a 1st grade Bible reader with simplified Bible stories for her to read. Before the holiday, she was working on the seven days of creation. Every other day she learned about the next day. She added each new creation to a drawing and read about that day in her reader. Today we finished with the 7 days. Of course she did not have to add anything to her picture because the Lord was resting on the 7th day. We read the seventh day from the Bible and then she read the entire story from her reader-25PAGES!! Keslee often has a melt down when it comes to reading time. She does really good but is afraid she won't so when she gets to a word she has to sound out, she looses it. NOT TODAY! She did so good that she made her mama cry and then there were high fives all around. Not only that, it also clicked today for her in math! She gets it! She can count be 2s, 5s and 10s! She did 2 pages in her workbook today to prove that. It was a great day!!!

Here is Keslee's creation drawing. She got a little ambitious in the beginning and started running out of room in the end. Also her moon and most stars have fallen off now but she understood how each day added more and more to the earth.

I LOVE TO COLOR! so I joined her in the creation picture. Here is my rendition of the 7 days. Days like today are what gives me the strength to homeschool on days like yesterday(which was everything a Monday has always been accused of being!!)

Christmas Day

I finally got some Christmas pictures downloaded. This was what the living room looked like before it was invaded by the kids.


Then they awoke. They were very excited. This year they really did not know if they were getting anything. I am sure they had high hopes and faith that somehow mom and dad would pull it off, that was proven by the fact that they were up by about 7:30 am, but they know that money has been tight lately. They know daddy had been getting home early a lot and that means he will get less money from work. Before they went to bed they were talking about mom maybe getting some paper route money so I could go to the store in the middle of the night and get some presents. They really did not think that we had gotten anything before bedtime Christmas eve(I love having an attic!!). We usually at least have all the cousin's presents wrapped and under the tree but this year I had not wrapped anything before Christmas eve.

We got to see genuine thankfulness when they opened presents to find things they had really hoped for but really thought was out of the question. All Kalysa wanted was littlest pet shop, and she got that along with a baby bed, a new doll and a few other things.

Just about a week before Christmas, Kenyon had told me "If I could have just one present, I would want it to be an instrument." He did not know that I had a guitar waiting for him since about July. He loved it. He also got the book to help him learn how to play. My mom also gave all three of them a small organ so he actually got 2 instruments this year.


Keslee got a baby doll that she had wanted and a stroller and a cd player along with a "Patch the Pirate" cd but I think her favorite gift of the day came after we went to Aunt Darla's for dinner....My cousin Tony and his wife Jessica had Kiara Elizabeth Lea on Sunday before Christmas so she got to hold a 4 day old baby.

All in all it was a great Christmas day!

HOMEMADE NOODLES

My grandma has always made THE BEST homemade chicken and noodles. A few years back I told her that she was gonna have to teach me how to make them someday. That is when I learned that it is SO easy. First I boil a chicken. When it is about done I start my noodles. I use 2 eggs, about 1/3 cup of milk, salt(I like onion salt), and pepper. Whisk until frothy then add flour until you can stir into a dough ball(about 2 cups). Roll it out on a floured surface.

When it is rolled thin, cut into noodles. I have a noodle cutter that cuts about 6 at a time-I have no idea where it came from! It is one of those things that was in my drawers when I first moved out and for years I had no idea what it was for but I kept it. A pizza cutter would just fine for this step.

Some people like to let the noodles dry but I just sprinkle cut noodles with some flour and make sure there are no sticky parts. If you are like me you may think-" this doesn't look like enough noodles. I think I will just double the batch!" Don't be fooled! this makes plenty of noodles after they have expanded. If you want to double the batch, be sure you have a tall stock pot with plenty of liquid. Doubling the batch in a regular pot WILL result in burned noodles to the bottom of the pan!! It stinks and is not fun to get out!! Just trust me on that one!

After the noodles are cut, I remove the chicken for deboning and add the noodles to the chicken broth. The broth has to have a good boil or the noodles will get sticky and gooey. I add the chicken as I debone it. The noodles take about 30 minutes at a good boil for the consistency I like. Just check them periodically in case you want them softer(less time) or harder(more time).

You can always add some veggies it you like. We enjoy the plain0 chicken and noodle.

Don't be scared to make homemade noodles. They are kinda like rice krispy treats-everyone thinks you must have slaved over them but they are really very easy. I have never really messed up the noodle(even saved most when I burned them to the pan) even if they don't come out exactly the same every time. It is one of those recipes that brings memories of Grandma's cooking back and is just as good as hers.

We are still here! We survived the Holidays and are trying to get back to normal!

Well we made it through Christmas with the family. We really have had a good week. Monty had been home for 5 days at Christmas and 4 days for New years and the kids loved that. Kalysa even asked if daddy had quit his job. She just is not used to getting to spend so much time with him. It has been really great because Monty has got to see some of the issues I deal with with the kids first hand. It is gonna be a lot easier to correct some of them when Daddy understands what Mama is talking about!! Chastanie and her family and Chuck and his family all came down Christmas day. We all went to Darla's for lunch and presents. It was a lot of fun. I love to see all the cousins together! I have so many things in my head to post about but just have not found the time. Just wanted to touch base and let everyone know-WE ARE HERE! I am hoping today will be the day that the house is finally back in order after the holidays and then I will be able to get back to normal life and regular blogging. I have several pictures to post and even some recipes so stay tuned for that.