Congrats to Kaley

My oldest daughter, Kaley (age 17), entered a writing contest for teens put out by Proverbs 31 Ministries. The winners would receive a full scholarship- food, hotel and conference attendance- to the She Speaks Conference, a conference for speakers and writers in christian ministry.

Contestants had to write a devotion for teen girls. Kaley chose to write about God's control vs. our control. She used a friend's tragic experience, the loss of her mother to cancer, as an example of putting faith in God even during the toughest moments. I know Kaley was very moved by her friend's faith and how she never tried to control the situations around her... even when things felt completley out of control.

Kaley received a call last Friday informing her that she was one of the 4 winners! All we have to do is get her there!! I am so excited for my girl!! Kaley has always been pretty hard on herself and I'm glad that she can now realize that she does have gifts and talents worth sharing!! I just wish I could go with her! :-) Congratulations, Kaley! I hope this is a great experience for you.

Oh, and Kaley recently began writing fashion and beauty articles for Proverbs 31 Ministries teen site, Radical Revolution. Her very first article on the blog was written a couple of weeks ago. Check it out!

Girls Weekend Away

This weekend Kaley, Abby, Liz and I headed to Topeka for the Fashion Meets Faith Real Beauty Makeover conference. We had so much fun! This will be a weekend we all remember.

Friday night's event focused on teen girls. We all had a color analysis done and learned the colors that were best suited for us. We even purchased a set of color swatches that show a variety of "our" colors. The speaker, Shari Braendel, shared all kinds of good tips with the girls. She especially focused on modesty and how the girls should value themselves and who they are in Christ. I loved the message!

Saturday's event was for adult women although my girls went with me. They enjoyed it just as much, if not more, than the teen session. This was one of Shari's smaller venues so we had lots of one on one time with her. The girls and I were full of questions. I can design a room with no problem but ask me to design a wardrobe and I'm lost! I came home with lots of new information.

Kaley took lots of notes. She wants to become a hair dresser (and eventually own her own salon) once she graduates from high school so this conference was right up her alley. During one of the breaks Shari commented on Kaley's note taking and I mentioned that Kaley is really into this sort of thing. She told Kaley to keep in touch with her and that maybe she can start traveling with them as an assistant. I think that made Kaley's year!

We left the conference wishing it lasted several more days! With color swatches in hand we headed for the mall. We shopped for 8 hours! I do not like to shop. I despise malls. It was only for the love of my girls that I did this! ;-) Actually, I ended up having a lot of fun myself and found some great clothes!

We were shopping for our Spring/Summer wardrobes. I had a list of items each girl needed. Anything else they wanted they could buy with their own money. Oh, and I did tell them that I would only buy colors that were on their swatches. Abby ended up buying a black skirt with her own money (Abby had to vow to never wear black again as it's such an offensive color for her skin/hair/eye coloring. I don't think she really cares! LOL).

After a very long day we headed to the hot tub at our hotel. Our legs and feet were grateful! We stayed up late, watching Food Network and eating junk food. It was a great weekend!!

We headed home this morning and I realized I didn't take one picture while we were gone. How disappointing! There were lots of great photo ops! I did take this one once we pulled up to our house. I had to have at least one picture to remember our trip. :-) (Can you tell the girls stayed up all night?)

Snow on My Daffodils: Winter and Spring Battle it Out

Two weeks ago we were outdoors- in shorts and flip flops- enjoying the warmth of the sun. It felt like the early days of Summer, not Spring. Earlier this week the kids were outside enjoying the cool, brisk weather as they worked on their Spring nature studies. Today there is snow on the ground! Winter is not going out without a fight. I'm rooting for the underdog, Spring!

We did take advantage of being "stuck" indoors and had a very relaxed day. Chris made his yummy chocolate waffles (topped with fresh strawberries and whipped cream... okay, I added that little touch!) for us this morning. Then we moved into the living room with our coffee and made a fire in the fireplace. I spent the afternoon planning our upcoming Easter study and Chris worked on some iPhone app thingy.... Whatever! Couldn't explain it if I wanted to. The kids spent their time in and out of the house(depending on if the snow was falling or if they needed to thaw out). We were supposed to cook a big meal tonight but were enjoying our care-free day so much that we decided to order Chinese to be delivered to our front door. It was a perfect day!


This is where Natalie and Ellie were lifting rocks earlier this week, in an eager search for bugs. Now the rocks- and all my daffodils- are covered in snow.


This is down our street. We didn't get nearly as much snow as anticipated but enough to do some damage to the flowers. We covered them and are hoping for the best.


This photo was taken this morning before the snow came. We had freezing rain all night and there was a solid sheet all over my van. Liz cleared it off for me so I could go get those strawberries and whipped cream for our waffles. She is giggling because I wouldn't stop taking pictures.

Workbox Email Loop

I added the link to my Workbox Fun email loop on the sidebar. Scroll down a bit.... you'll get there. This loop is for those who would like to share ideas with other workbox users.

Wrapping up another school week

Today we- Natalie, Molly, Ellie, Emmy and I- wrapped up our week-long unit study with the book, The Wild Horses of Sweetbriar. The girls have really enjoyed this book and were not pleased when I announced that this was our last day with this study.

We learned a lot about bacteria and germs this week. The kids did a great experiment that I just had to share with you all. It's a wonderful visual lesson for young ones (and probably many older ones!!!) as they get to see how germs spread, how we need to wash thoroughly and how those germs don't always come off as quickly and easily as we think they do. Give it a try!

The girls lined up and ready to wash off all those "germs"

Here's Natalie learning about pints, quarts and gallons at the math center (aka kitchen table)

Revel in His Creation

Yesterday we kicked off our Spring nature studies. I know that we should be outdoors and enjoying nature in the winter months but this Florida girl hasn't gotten that used to cold climates. I still prefer to enjoy the winter months indoors.... by the fire... with a warm drink! :-)

Spring in definitely here in Kansas... or at least it's trying to make its presence known. We've seen all kinds of birds in the yard, our flowering trees are blooming, the daffodils are showing off their golden-orange faces, the tulips are creeping out of the ground. The days are cool and the evenings even cooler but the promise of warmer days to come is there. (Although there is a chance of snow in our weekend forecast. Eek!!)

My kids love to be outdoors. They love playing with bugs and peeking in on the little bunnies that make their home out of the big bush in our front yard. They search for worms and rollie pollies under rocks. They marvel as a big hawk or a flock of geese fly over. We enjoy walking down to the park and watching the ducks in the pond and seeing Mama Bird feed her babies.

Here are Ellie and Natalie looking for creepy crawly things under rocks in our front yard. The painting above is by my 12 year old, Liz. She found this cute little squirrel at a nearby park. She sat on the bench while our neighbor's dog rested (she walks their dog daily) and painted her journal entry. Ahhh... the life of a homeschooler!

The Butler's Pantry

This is my very favorite room in our house. It is so adorable and practical. The only way it could get any better is if there was an actual butler to make use of it! :-)

We found some information about our house online and it stated that the butler slept in a room off the kitchen. We're not sure if he would have slept in this pantry or in the little alcove that we now use to house our computer. Do any of you history buffs know where the help typically slept?

This little room stores all of my over sized cookware as well as our Italian ceramics that I collected during our 3+ years in Sicily. I've got a drawer for art supplies and this is typically where the girls do their art projects for school.

Here's a picture of my deep ceramic sink under the window. I made the sink skirt using Amy Butler fabric (love her stuff!!). I hide all my baskets and pet food under there. I displayed my De Simone ceramics on this wall.




This is the connecting wall where we hang our aprons. Next to the mirror is a swinging door that leads to the dining room.




I love these cabinets with glass doors. I display a lot of my Italian ceramics, tea pot collection and some antiques that I've found over the years at thrift stores. The wide cabinets at the bottom are very useful for my over sized bake ware as well as art supplies.




This wall is opposite the sink where I keep most of our dishes and serving pieces. I love that I can have all my Italian ceramics out in clear view! I also made this skirt using Amy Butler's fabrics. I hide all my cookbooks and loose, unorganized recipes behind that skirt! To the left is a doorway leading into the kitchen.

For the Love of Bread

I love bread. I could never get on that South Beach/Atkins kick where carbs were viewed as evil. To me, bread means home, warmth, goodness, love. Over the years I've tried to perfect a good, artisan bread. I came nowhere near perfection. My breads were pretty lame. I can make a mean sandwich loaf but not those beautiful breads you find in specialty grocery stores.

I mentioned this to my husband recently. He is a science guy and I thought maybe this bread making thing could be something we worked on together. I figured his knowledge of science would aid us in figuring out how this whole bread thing works. Also his attention-to-detail could compensate for my spontaneous, just-do-it-and-don't-waste-time-reading-directions mentality.

A few days later a book arrived in the mail. While I was thankful for the gift I couldn't help but feel like I was being blown off. After all, I wanted to work on a project with my husband and he sends me a book on bread making. Humph! :-) Well, I have to say this book is awesome and I have been baking bread on a daily basis ever since it arrived!

Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day has allowed me to bake beautiful, delicious breads without any fuss or long preparation or waiting periods. You simply mix a batch of dough, stick it in the fridge and pull it out when you're ready to bake. Pinch off some dough, shape, allow it to rise then bake. Love it! I've made flat breads and baguettes and boules and bagels and pizza dough. All so very easy and yummy! If you love bread and are looking for a quick, easy method to making stuff that looks like it came from the bakery then go buy this book!


I made bagels just days after purchasing my copy of the book. They weren't very pretty (was still getting the hang of the dough) but they tasted great!


I made this baguette one beautiful afternoon (yeah, I already dug into it before taking the photo!!) and served it on the front porch with some delicious basil olive oil and balsamic vinegar that I bought while I was in NYC. I sent Chris this picture and enticed him to leave work early and join us. It worked!


Here's my pizza from this week's make-your-own-pizza night. It's full of spinach, fresh tomatoes, red onions, olive oil, mozzarella and globs of ricotta!!!


I made this multi-grain dough from another book called "Kneadlessly Simple". I don't find the recipes from this book to be as quick and simple as the recipes in "Artisan Breads in Five Minutes a Day" but they're quite tasty and there's lots to choose from.