TURN IT OFF TUESDAY ~ Charcoal

Okay, so I have a challenge for you.  I double dog dare you to turn your family off for one night a week.  No, I dont possess a secret remote that has a magical mute button to quiet everything down.  What I mean is, unplug the video games, turn off the cell phones, sign off the computers and turn off the TV.  One day a week...cmon it cant be THAT hard right?  I challenge you!

I must warn you though.  Your family will NOT like this.  They WILL baulk, they will growl and be COMPLETELY uncooperative.  But I promise as the magnetic waves leave their systems they will loosen up and start to have fun.  Just remember to count to ten before answering for the 97th time of why they have to do this even though its the dumbest idea you've ever had.

I chose Tuesday only because its a pretty uneventful night in our house.  No Church, its not Monday where everyone is tired and cranky and its not the weekend where it runs into everyones social calendars.  But pick a day thats good for you.

I also decided to pick subjects to focus on.  Gives everyone else a chance to have an imput in what you are doing too.  Let the whole family participate in the planning just as much as the actual stuff, I promise it will be beneficial, not only for you in the planning part, but for them too.

So for our first week, I picked Charcoal.  This stuff is fun!  I had no idea you could do so much with the stuff that was meant for cooking!!  Our first endeavor....we colored with it!  Yes, just briquets and white paper...and DRAW!

Dad's Fish

Heather's Grr

Hannah's teacup

And my awful rendition of a milkcan.

It can get kind of messy so take that into count.  But it was great fun.  The kids loved it! 

Then we moved on to a little experiment.  For exact directions go to MRS. STEWART'S BLUING to learn how we made this wicked cool Crystal Garden.

There are lots of directions out there on the internet.  I chose one that doesnt use any chemicals other than the Bluing.  There are lots that you use Amonia and other stuff with.  ICK.  Cant imagine using the stuff myself, let alone handing it to one of the kids.  Plus I didnt want to buy a huge bottle of something that I would NEVER use.  The only thing I found in research is that it might take longer for your garden to grow without the harsh chemicals.  I am ok with that!  :)  So here is our Charcoal, salt, water and Bluing.  We fed it every day....

(a week later)

And then added some food coloring.  And whala!  Isnt that neato?  The kids have had fun watching it and feeding it.  I figure once they get a little bigger and more defined we'll take some more photos and make some paper or something.  BTW---Bluing can be found in the laundry section of the supermarket.  Its not real expensive and I figure whatever is left I will just take to the laundry room and use. (Its also biodegradable).

OK. Now its on to dinner. We made hobo pouches filled with inside out hamburgers, potatoes and onions (and Ronnie put broccoli in his). So around the table we sat...each person with 2 sheets of tinfoil (double layer) a hunk of burger, seasonings, cheese, cup-up veggies and olive oil and butter. Drilled a hole in the burger and stuffed cheese in it, then sealed it back up (cheese on the inside gives you a cheeseburger but protects the cheese from burning. Put olive oil down on the tinfoil then potatoes (we cooked ours in microwave for a few minutes to help em get done before adding to pouches) then the burger and spices and a big ole pad of butter on top for taste. Then rolled em up into pouches and took em out to the pit. (Your grill will work fine).

They were AMAZING!!!  I added Ketchup to mine (of course)....PERFECT!!!  The kids LOVED the idea.  They loved that they got to make em just the way they wanted them (with or WITHOUT veggies).

And whats dinner without dessert?  Back to the table.  2 more sheets of tinfoil for each, a peeled and cored apple and all the mixings.  What ever tickles your fancy.  We had brown sugar, cinnamon, marshmallows, peanut butter, chocolate sauce & butter.  Stuff the apple with your mixture and a humongous pad of butter.  Again wrap it up and take it back to the grill.

 

AMAZING!  The more brownsugar you add the more carmel-y (is that a word) it will be.  You can then add other stuff like cereal and cream.  I must add a note here tho...peanut butter is not great.  The fire cooked the peanut butter and turned the apple straight to mush.  It was really quite disgusting.

 And you CAN'T have a fire without Marshmallows.  My husband decided we needed the jumbo roasting marshmallows.  The ones that have the power and capacity to stick to you, the kitchen sink AND everything in between.  Seriously....a marshmallow the size of your fist?  Necessary??  My kids think so!  =}

 This is hilarious.  This photo is awful.  But Cyris had his taste of marshmallows too.  Did I mention they were UBER sticky??

And then Heather got creative and brought out a waffle.  She was still hungry (note to you...might need more than one burger for some) so she wanted to experiment.  She said it was the best waffle ever!

So after dinner the kids AND hubby are now into this full swing.  We play frisbee and finish out the play time with flashlight tag and reading.  I have to tell you, I had no arguments with anyone taking showers or heading to bed.  Everyone was worn snap out!  We had a blast and EVERYONE is looking forward to next Tuesday. 

Jump on board!  This is really fun!  Dont freak out if you dont feel like you have a repertoire of creative ideas.  You can handle this a few different ways.  a) surf the web.  Theres uber amounts of stuff out there with step by step directions.  b) just play.  Break out the bubbles and side walk chalk, go for a walk, play catch, play board games...just do SOMETHING that doesnt require someone to be "connected".  c) feel free to copy what weve done. If you have questions...ask!   

The whole point is to reconnect with your family.  We spend so much time chasing the calendar and existing that we forget what FAMILY means.  I love my husband and my kids, but every once in awhile I need to be reminded that I like them too and wanta spend time with em. 

So go now!  HAVE FUN!

NEXT WEEK:  Eggs

Lovin life in Tennessee!!!!

Have I mentioned how much I love my yard?  OK, so these are on the corner of the property.  Are they not GORGEOUS!????  Purple again.  Youd think with all of this inspiration I would be stamping my guts out.  Truth is tho that I am having soooo much fun out ENJOYING this stuff that I havent really gotten inky at all.  ~sigh~  I will soon, tho--I promise!

Look tho, I DID transform this pickle jar into a vase ...that has to count for SOMETHING! 

OK....so I told ya the cakes would be coming.  This is one I did for our Celebrating the Golden Oldies at church yesterday.  We had a great service and luncheon to celebrate our 75 years + members.  It was awesome!  The decorating was fun.  I have an order to do a cake for Heather's BFF's Birthday this coming weekend too.  WOOHOOO!

 This is "Splash".  See him?  Little bitty tree frog that lives on our back hose reel.  Have to tell you when I first found him he scared the pee outa me.  But we are buds now.  =}

 And flowers!  I am having sooo much fun with my flowers.  Nothing can make ya smile like flowers.  Well ok, a baby can, but there are DEFINITELY NOT any of those around here...so I am enjoying my flowers. 

Doesnt my bunny look like a soldier out there???  He looks so tiny when actually hes like 2 1/2 feet tall.  Theres impatients all around him though I just planted them so they are bit whimpy right now.  I am hoping before too long he will be in a sea of pink and white petals!

After all that we have been through in the last year I can honestly say that when God takes a hold of your life He really DOES have some place better for you in mind.  One year ago I was getting ready for a celebration with our family in my ginormeous house.  I was so busy chasing the American Dream that I seriously had no idea what was REALLY important in life.  Now I once again am preparing for the family get together but this year is different.  We will still host the party, but it will be in our tiny little 2 bedroom 1 bath cottage, rather than our corner mansion, but I want to enjoy each and every single person, I want to enjoy my surroundings and I want to recognize all that we have to be thankful for.  This year it wont be our kids' baskets overflowing with $Tree junk, it wont be the assurance that we all have brand new outfits from head to toe or that every item is perfectly in order.  Those things dont matter.  Sure...they are nice.  But they arent the most important...not at all and I refuse to spend anymore time worshiping them.  Mind you--my kids will still get Easter treats and we will of course spruce up our spring wardrobe with a few things, but I am NOT losing sight of Jesus this year.  For without his death and resurrection wed have no holiday to celebrate.  It always cracks me up that those that say they dont believe in Jesus' have no problem participating in His celebrations.  I dont think I have ever seen a non believer turn down a Christmas Bonus at work, and I am sure none of them are barking too hard when they get Good Friday and Easter Monday off.  Yeah, we have glorified it into a JellyBean and stuffed rabbit holiday....but without Jesus, wed not have a reason for those either.

So we have seriously been wearing out the lake this spring.  I loooove

Tennessee and I love living just minutes from the lake.  Everything is getting soooo green...its simply amazing to sit out there and just relax. 

Flip Flops flappin and my pink fishing rods flippin...yup~ pretty dang close to PERFECT!

 

Heather was trying so hard to enjoy herself.  I gotta admit when yer not CATCHING, fishing can be a quite boring.  I love this pic of her tho.  Shes amazing!

 And my little mermaid! Hannah was having a good time splashing and playing in the water!

 And whats a day fishing without a fish???  This is the crappie I caught yesterday.  YUUUUUMMMM!

And the thunder rolls...

My hats off to all you, who live in tornado alley and on the coast in the line of hurricanes.  The winds here howled ALL NIGHT long and I dont think I slept more than an hour at a time.  Id doze off and then Id wake up to thinking that I heard the "freight train"...so Id lay there contemplating whether or not to uproot everyone and whisk them to the basement.  Then Id do it all over again.  I am exhausted!!  I know...Im a weenie.  I just dont like weather.  Remember...I like not too hot, not too cold, no white stuff and these wicked storms need to be contained into a nice rumbly thunderstorm...a good light show and thats it!!!  Cmon is that too much to ask for???  I mean seriously! 

So, yesterday I worked like a dog trying to get my house back into shape.  Geesh...how quickly it can go to heck in a hand basket.  But it is all sparkly now and as soon as it will quit "STORMING!" I will be able to head back outside.  Good news is...its still raining right now so I can get all purply today!  Before the storms came in yesterday I went out and clipped a bunch of the lilac blooms to put into a vase.  My house smells amazing!  WOW!  One little bouquet and the whole place smells like a garden. I am sooo glad that I did go out yesterday as I am looking at my bush now and she took quite a beating in the wind overnight.  I see a lot of little purple petals on the ground.  :(

Anyways.  So I hope you who have sunshine go out and enjoy it.  For me...Im going to go catch a siesta then hope to get inky.

Wish upon a star

Geesh, I cant seem to get the hang of blogging again.  Then I often wonder, is anyone even reading this thing anymore?  Am I wasting my time??  Oh well....I will continue to limp along.  :)  Maybe for you-- maybe just for me!

So this is another one of my images.  Dont ya love her??  I had fun drawing her and loved how coloring brought her even more to life!  I am still drawing some.  I am not quite certain of what I am going to DO with them---still working on that.

 Our yard is amazing.  You can tell that someone who really knew what they were doing planted all this stuff.  Each of the blooms are timed almost perfectly.  There is always color!!  When one thing is at peak or almost turned to green another thing is bursting with blossoms.  I dont think I have ever loooved a yard as much as I love this one.  Its like Christmas every single day.  Right now our Lilac bush is simply AMAZING. When I was out mowing yesterday the smell was almost tranquilizing. Holy cow! And BUTTERFLIES! I bet there is 30 of them on there at any given moment. NO, that is NOT an exaggeration. They are amazing!!!!! It makes me want to break out my Jelly Powder that is Lilac Scented and do a little purple stamping!





Anyways, most of you know that we dont have TV here.  We have succombed and gotten NetFlix on our Wii and have been wearing it out.  Well the latest craze of our family is Cake Boss...Tho I am not a huge fan of Buddy and his Itallian-Jersey-Jerk attitude, I looove watching the themes come alive.  So this week...the girls and I are gonna attempt to make a masterpiece.  Stay tuned for updates on that department!!  For now....I challenge you---go outside and find something that is completely God's master piece...and let it inspire you to be creative.  For me...Im going to get purple!!!

Love you all!

Im a little rusty

Hannah was selected to be in a Festival last night and I decided today that I would go ahead and see if I could SCRAP the photos.  While they are still fresh.  OK, so I am a little rusty on the ole digital scrapping.  But hey--I did a page!!  First one in over a year.  Arent you proud?

Hard to believe...

Spring is almost here, I can taste it!  I just wish the ol' spring showers would give us a tiny break too.  We were sposed to get our garden tilled today.  But noooo, we woke up to RAIN SHOWERS!  Somewhere in the wee hours of the morning that 20% chance of afternoon showers went straight to FULL DAY of DOWN POURS!  I mean, seriously!?!?  So I guess the garden's uprooting will have to wait til tomorrow.  ~sigh~

This is another one of MY images.  Bunny Bear here just looks so squeezable dont you think??  I am having the hardest time getting back into the grove of blogging.  Geesh...there was a time in my life that I never missed a day.  Maybe if I signed up to get paid to blog I might be more faithful??  But then, where would the fun be in that?  I mean seriously----I like to keep ya all on the edge of yer seats, wondering where the heck I have gone.  So for now...I am off again!

Much love to you all!

PS.  The bookclub has kicked off!  Make sure you check it out!!

Its April!

 So I have had lots of time on my hands lately.  And with that time I have been sharpening my pencils and doing a little bit of drawing.  This image is one that I have had in my head for a long time.  Its funny...I have the hardest time getting images from my head down to paper.  I erase so much that my paper oftentimes looks more like toiletpaper when I am done, than the sketch paper I draw on.

 But this is kinda cool huh?? 

So this week has been nuts for us cause we are all still battling this stupid cold bug.  DANG!  Its a doozey.  I think MAYBE we are on the homestretch of it tho.

I have so many ideas swirling around in my head tho.  I hope that each one of you will hang on to see just whats going on.

As for today...its April Fools Day and lets just say I cant wait for my kidlets to get home!  :)