Daffodil Days

As soon as we arrived in New York I signed up for a Friday co-op for the kids. They enjoyed the peer interaction and I enjoyed the peer interaction but we seemed to lose our Fridays every week. Friday is Kenny’s only day off so we decided that during the spring semester we wouldn’t do the co-op but take every Friday to explore something about our rich historical area.

Hmmm…

It really was a great plan. But we didn’t make a list as we had intended. Today was the first day we actually made it anywhere.

It was a great day. We should do it every Friday!

Today we drove to Stillwater, New York, to the Saratoga National Historic Park — the site of the Battle of Saratoga. If anyone needs a quick brush up on their history it was this battle that was the turning point of the Revolutionary War. (and no, I did not remember that until I was reminded during the overview film in the visitor’s center. I knew it was an important battle but that was about all I remembered.)

We arrived a couple minutes late for the start of the film but they let us sneak in. Afterwards the kids played dress-up.

They listened to the battle story again while watching lights representing the British and the Americans dance across an elaborate topographical map.

They played in a tent like the Revolutionary soldiers would have slept in.

Finally we made it outside.

And we were *blown away* by the beauty of the landscape.

We looked at lots of cannons.

And babykins got to stretch his little legs.

It was a glorious day in God’s creation. We can’t wait to go back and explore more.

I would like to talk more about the kids and homeschooling but the DIY projects are just lending themselves to better posts these days. Maybe because it’s the end of the school year. There really isn’t anything exciting going on in the Bailey homeschool. We’re just all trying to get to the end of the math books!

During Easter season our church puts out a Pascal candle. Kenny spent a lot of time polishing silver for Easter Sunday. The Pascal candle holder is aluminum so he couldn’t polish it. But it really needed something.

It’s hard to tell in the picture but it was dull and spotted.

So I went to my neighborhood Ace hardware store (have I mentioned that it’s 2 doors down from the house?) and picked up a can of silver spray paint for about $6. After 2 coats the candlestick holder looks fabulous.

And if you’re thinking you’ve got to carve out time for DIY projects when the kids aren’t around, nah. It can be done in the middle of the hustle and bustle. 3 kids were gone to Tae Kwon Do but John and the 2 mess makers were right outside with me.

The funny part was when I checked to see if it was dry a realtor and a potential renter of one of the apartments on the back of the house were in the backyard. Wonder what they thought of the giant silver candlestick holder in the middle of the back yard?

I think I’ve mentioned before that I love to switch around the furniture in the house. I don’t think my husband *really* realized this until recently. When we first got married I worked full time and by month six into wedded bliss I was expecting our first blessing. We have continued to be blessed about every 2 years. (Our youngest is 20 months and no, we’re not expecting right now ). So for the last 15 years I’ve been either pregnant or nursing or both! Moving furniture was not high on my priority list (although, don’t get me wrong — it did happen occasionally!)

For the past 7 months I have been neither preggo or nursing and my brain has been in overdrive as to the best placement of each piece of furniture. In my desire to learn more about interior design I stumbled on this blog: Interior Design It Yourself. The link will take you directly to a plan for moving your furniture around all you want without lifting a thing.

Basically you need to start by measuring your room in inches noting windows, doorways and closets. Then measure all your furniture (again, in inches). You only need length and width measurements — height is irrelevant for this project.

After everything is measured divide it all by 12 to get your measurements in centimeters. One foot = 1 centimeter. Then draw your room on a piece of paper. Draw all your furniture pieces, color them so they’ll stand out when you put them on your room drawing, and cut them out. Don’t forget to label everything. Then start moving your furniture around! Try everything everywhere! You’ll be surprised at what you can come up with.

When you get your furniture where you want it, show your husband how nice things would look the new way. If he looks at you skeptically, you can probably sell your oldest son on the plan. (BTW, he might even really enjoy the tedious work of measuring and cutting the paper furniture pieces!)

We have measured a lot of rooms and I didn’t want to lose any of our tiny furniture pieces. I three hole punched all of the room drawings and put them in an extra binder we had laying around. Then I put each room’s furniture in a zip top snack bag and put all the snack bags in a pencil pouch in the front of the binder.

The most fun part? When my brain wonders if that blue chair might fit in the corner of the bedroom, all I have to do is pull out my binder and try it out! Oh, and maybe show hubby and teenager how great the new design would be if only someone would help me move it.

I haven’t been to garage sales in years — mainly because I’ve been in declutter mode and I knew I would buy things I didn’t need if I went. But I’ve been meaning to go since we moved because we got rid of A LOT of stuff before we moved. We literally sold almost every piece of furniture we owned. We had a huge sale ourselves and Goodwill practically knew us by name we dropped van loads off so many times.

I’m still really in declutter mode. I hate clutter. I hate being drug down by “stuff.” But I’ve also started reading design blogs.

Abe got up early to go with me this morning because the first thing I wanted to do was stop by Ace hardware for the free quart of paint they were giving away today. For some reason he really wanted to go to Ace. He was so funny. He went up and down every aisle very slowly (some of them twice!) and kept saying, “Wow! There’s a lot to see at Ace Hardware. I really like this store!”

We got this:

I don’t know if the color will show up but we picked a light fresh yellow called “Saffron”:

I’ve got a small plain three drawer chest I’m going to paint and let Novella use for a night stand.

After we left Ace, we headed out to an area not far from our house where there was a neighborhood yard sale. Gotta love those! 15 sales almost within walking distance from each other. The weird thing about New York is that the sales don’t start until 8 or 9 in the morning and they strongly discourage early birds. In Alabama the sales never start later than 7 a.m. and to be honest most of the good stuff is gone by the time the sale officially starts because the early birds come at 6 a.m.! Abe and I got to the first sale around 8:30 and no one was there. In fact we didn’t really see many people until around 10.

Anyway, I digress. I went hoping to find a couple of matching lamps for our bedroom. The first sale we stopped at had 2 of these:

They need a little cleaning up and maybe some modern shades but they were $1 a piece, people!! I also picked up a yoga mat for Novella and this cute little Rembrandt print:

We hit several duds after that. Abe got a pinewood derby car kit for the wood to carve, a lightsaber for 25 cents and a lampshade out of a free pile. I picked up a t-shirt and this Escher print for $1 in a glass frame:

Remember I said I don’t go to yardsales because I come home with things I don’t need? Yeah. I didn’t need the Escher print. But I’m a sucker for real art prints. And Kenny was excited. He claimed it for his office.

The biggest mistake of the day? $5 for this bucket of gears:

I wanted a huge bucket of tinker toys, too, but I ran out of money. Probably a good thing. Abe was totally against it. His point was that he would probably be the one cleaning this stuff up!

Biggest score? At the last garage sale we stopped at we found this:

For free! And they seemed apologetic that it was dirty. Abe and I were so excited!! I probably shouldn’t go garage saling (is that a word?) too often but it sure did make for a fun morning.

This sauce is so easy and so simple that I almost never use anything else anymore. For the longest time I used jarred spaghetti sauce but this version makes the perfect amount for 2 pizzas so I don’t have half a jar of sauce sitting around in my fridge.

1 8 oz. can tomato sauce
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

Stir it together and it’s ready to put on the crusts. You don’t even have to heat it first! If you made your crusts ahead of time or have a store bought version you can have dinner on the table in about 20 minutes. Whoo hoo!

Oh boy are my two youngest high energy and high maintenance kids! They definitely keep things hoppin’ in the Bailey homeschool!

I get asked a lot how in the world I can homeschool at all with a 3 year old and a 20 month old running around. In some seasons it’s been very hard. Newborn seasons are always tough and to be honest, the kids get a bit more life lessons than book lessons in those first few months with a new baby. We do our best but baby’s needs come first.

We are in a calmer season now. HA! I think the key is to remember that it’s homeschool. You don’t have to start at 8 a.m. and plug away until 3 p.m. with a couple of 15 minute breaks and a 30 minute lunch. It’s not like that at all. We have things ordered now to accommodate the littles better. The kids get up around 7 a.m. or 7:30 and do their chores and eat breakfast. One of the big kids helps Sophia get some breakfast. I’m usually still downstairs getting dressed, taking out the dog or starting the laundry. Around 8:30 the 4 oldest start their independent seat work. By this time I’m upstairs with Jesse. I prepare a simple breakfast for him, myself and usually my hobbit daughter Sophia who by this time is ready for “2nd breakfast”.

Around 10 we all sit down together at the big dining room table and do “together school”. We pray, read history lessons, do an art study, etc. I have nothing formal planned for the littles during this time period. They usually run around the upstairs playing. We have lots of manipulatives and we’ll usually dump something out to occupy them for a few minutes. Their favorites are Lauri puzzles, Lincoln Logs and Wedgits. They also like to play in the toy kitchen area.

We also just flat out have to be flexible. Sometimes we have school on the living room floor so the littles can feel like they have mommy, too, and crawl all over me while I’m reading. Sometimes Sophia wants her own “school” so we’ll give her a workbook and box of crayons at the table or we’ll give her an extra map drill to color. Sometimes we have to close the books, have lunch early and finish while Jesse is napping.

I remember way back when I was a working woman. I specifically remember getting out of my car one morning and thinking, “Is this how it is? Every day of my life the same thing?” I can’t sugar coat it. Homeschooling with littles is challenging. But it is NEVER EVER boring and I love it!

I really should have titled this post what “we” did on spring break because I could not have accomplished what I did without the help of my strapping 13 year old son! But more on that in a minute…

Mostly, I was lazy and it was grand. I let the kids be lazy, too. We slept later, we breakfasted in our pjs, they played games on the computer. I had no “to do” list. We’ve worked so hard this school year that we really needed a mental and physical break.

Until Friday. Friday I got the bug. I needed to get something done. I took a look in Jesse and Sophia’s room: (please note that it was not normally as clean as it is in the pictures; we cleaned a lot before I remembered to take pics!)

This was the view as soon as you opened the door — a glider rocker and Sophia’s toddler bed.

Jesse’s area plus a dresser the two kids shared.

This “toy” cabinet was to the right as you go in the door. As you can see it wasn’t being used to its full potential at all.

The top of the closet was stuffed with extra blankets.

As for the rest of the closet, let’s just say it’s a good thing we forgot to take a “before” picture.

My mind had been ruminating for a long while about the problem with the teeny tiny boys room upstairs. It started out with 3 boys in twin beds. That was crazy. We bought a set of bunk beds as quickly as we could from Craigslist and it helped a little.

But they struggled mightily to keep such a crowded tight space clean. We toyed with all kinds of ideas from moving Novella downstairs and the three boys into her room to moving ALL the kids downstairs and eliminating Dad’s office (that was popular — NOT!!).

Finally I hit upon an idea I liked. While Novella LOVED having her own room, I had never been happy about splitting up the two girls. Sophia needed to be close to Mom and Dad when we first moved here but I thought maybe she might be ready to go back upstairs to the girl room. And John. Sweet John is such a different personality than the rest of the gang. He needs his personal space. Plus he really needed a buddy! So the obvious choice was to put him in the downstairs bedroom with Jesse and move Sophia up.

Have I mentioned that my loving husband is not the “move your furniture around and switch everyone’s bedrooms every few months” kind of guy? He’s never excited when I get one of these wild hairs (which, by the way, runs in my family. I totally get this honestly. My brother’s house is different every time I visit.) SO happily for me (and for Kenny), Abraham is big enough and STRONG enough to help. That boy is STRONG! 9 years of Tae Kwon Do and 100 push ups a day has bulked that boy UP. (Don’t worry about the preposition at the end of the sentence, honey. It will be OK.)

Anyway, Abe was more than happy to help me pull off my scheme. With his help, we transformed the downstairs bedroom into an all boy room.

Now the glider rocker is in the corner and you can see John Elijah’s bed on the opposite corner. The white chest stayed and is on the wall by the rocker.

Jesse’s crib is right bedside his brother’s bed. John Elijah is SO sweet to him and sings and rubs his head when he’s upset. Little sis would just yell “shut up and go to sleep!”

We moved the old toy cabinet to the washroom and put the changing table in its place.

We’ve got a lot of really cool ideas about how to decorate this space. We’re hoping to get really creative and do a DIY bamboo headboard when the bamboo growing rapidly in our yard gets a little taller. John Elijah is a super panda lover so in addition we’re going to go with a black and white theme color and use a cool green as an accent color. That should work well as the walls are already painted a light cool green.

The only real problem with the whole room switch? Remember I told you we started this on a Friday? It was a Friday before the 3rd Sunday when we have a prayer meeting in our home. No biggie, right? Well…

We did THIS to the great room when we started. YIKES!!

But it was a good thing. Normally this may have taken us weeks to clean up. But we had to get it picture perfect by Sunday. Sneaky, huh? EVERYONE had to help.

Whew! That feels better!

I’ll admit it. I love beans in almost any form. I’m not too crazy about limas unless they’re fresh and my dear friend Mrs. Diane makes them. I’m not sure which bean is my favorite but lentil beans rank right up there with a big ole pot of pintos cooked with a ham bone.

I love that lentils are so versatile. Some of my favorite recipes are lentil soup, lentil tacos and lentil spaghetti. One slightly unusual lentil recipe we love is Honey Baked Lentils. It takes a few minutes to prep the veggies but then you throw everything in a casserole dish and pop it in the oven. If you’re trying to eat a little healthier but are craving the comfort of a casserole this recipe fits the bill.

I like to get all the ingredients out first.

Oops, forgot a couple of things.

Did you see that red pepper? That is one pretty pepper! The kids didn’t want me to cut it up.

I mix everything right in the casserole dish to save clean up. Then bake on 350 for an hour and a half and serve with a bright green salad and cornbread. (a pic of the complete meal would have been nice; too bad I didn’t think of that!)

The basic recipe came from the Mothering Forums.

1 cup lentils (I always rinse mine)
2 cups water or stock
2 Tablespoons honey
2 Tablespoons soy sauce (I love to use Nama Shoyu but if I don’t have it I use low sodium soy sauce)
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1 clove garlic, minced
1 small onion, chopped
salt and pepper to taste

That’s it for the basic recipe. Mix and bake on 350 until the lentils are tender which takes about an hour and a half.

The wonderful thing about this recipe is that you can add whatever veggies you have on hand. I’ve heard of people adding everything from kale to spinach to sweet potatoes. I always add the following:

1 medium potato, cubed
1 stalk celery, sliced
2 small carrots, cubed
1/2 red pepper, diced

It’s cold and rainy in New York today (what happened to spring??). We might have to enjoy this recipe again tonight!

I have loosely followed the Flylady for close to 12 years. I’ll freely admit that I have allowed myself to be “flywashed” by her theories on keeping the house clean. And I am not about to bad mouth her ways or say they don’t work. They work. They work well. If you’re having trouble keeping your home clean, Marla Cilly can really help!
But there is one thing she teaches that I have recently called into question. She tells us that those of us who are not “born organized” are letting our tendency towards perfectionism paralyze us into non action. If we don’t have time to do a job right or perfectly, we do nothing and our home becomes chaos. Again, none of this is false. But somewhere along the way I’ve gotten the impression that my God given human tendency to strive for perfection is a bad thing. And I’ve slipped into complacency. I’ve joined the throngs of people in our current culture who preach that mediocre is good enough.
Is it? Is it wrong to try to be perfect?
My sister forwarded an article to me yesterday about Steve Jobs. I have admired Steve Jobs for most of my adult life. Yes, I know he considered himself more a Buddhist than a Christian. And yes, he certainly had plenty of character traits that were not admirable. A lot of people have criticized him since his death because he was famous for his perfectionism. But the article I read challenges that perfectionism is actually a Godly character trait. Following is a quote from the article by author Gerald Flurry:

The determination to reach perfection is a remarkable quality.
In a very real sense, it points us to God! In Matthew 5:48, ]esus
Christ commands His followers, “Be [or become] ye therefore
PERFECT, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.” This
is a profound scripture. It really encapsulates the gospel of God!
It is all about human beings actually becoming like God Himself!
God is a perfectionist!

It’s OK to try to be perfect. The author goes on to describe how Jobs focused in on a few key areas to be perfect in and that’s why achieved such a measure of worldly success. He challenges us to do the same but, unlike Jobs, to focus on perfecting those areas of our lives that will aid us in our eternal success.

How does that translate to my every day? I have to decide what is most important and strive for perfection in those areas. I can’t be a perfect Christian, wife, mother, homeschool teacher and homemaker if I’m also trying to be a perfect writer, photographer, sign language interpreter wanna be, bird watcher and furniture refinisher! I have to zone in on what I really want — or what God really wants for me. That’s my struggle right now. But I’m so inspired and rejuvinated to know that it’s OK to work at being more.

I know I’ll ponder these thoughts more as I go along. If you’re interested in reading the full article visit The Philadelphia Trumpet and sign up for their free newsletter. You will gain access to their archived articles and can search for Steve Jobs and His Burning Passion to be Perfect by Gerald Flurry from January 2012.

I’m going to be a wee bit lame today. I’m trying VERY hard to blog at least three times a week but I’m not quite in the groove yet. So today’s post is going to be more of a half post and I’ll finish it later in the week. I’m going to go ahead and publish it because I know some of you want to see Easter pics and haven’t given in yet to the Facebook monster.

The above picture was taken at church after the service. We had a beautiful Easter service with our talented organist singing a solo at communion and our PRIEST playing the trumpet throughout the service. It was definitely an EXTRA special service. I wish I had a pic of the priest with the trumpet. Maybe I can get him to don his church garb just for a blog pic.

Before we left home I wanted to get a picture of the children together in their Easter clothes. I had some trouble…

You should have seen the look of surprise on Abe’s face when the flash went off as he was putting on his socks. ha ha ha ha ha

Jesse didn’t really want to co-operate. He heard there was candy in the baskets…

So Abe tried to hold him.

This was the best I could do but for some reason I absolutely love it! I can be a perfectionist about things like this and the kids are somewhat used to me taking dozens of shots to get the right one, but on this morning perfection didn’t feel right. So I let it go once I had a clear shot with everyone looking in my general direction. And the kids were glad.

Blogging time is up for today. More later…