Living Large!

Here is Wesley with his project from last week. An extra large, life size Joseph...wearing his coat of many colors of course! We actually traced Wesley and added the coat. He enjoyed seeing himself "on paper". We put him up on the wall (a bit too high!) but had to take him down because JD was messing with his feet and we didn't want him to get ripped.
Roz got us this huge container of cheese balls. They were leftovers from an activity at school and when they offered them (being the good frugal daughter she is) she took them and brought them home. As you can see, Justus and the rest of the boys enjoyed them!
I saved the container to use for some kind of storage. Wesley suggested we make it a cookie jar...that would be a LOT of cookies! When I mentioned that he didn't seem to think it would be a problem.

Published!

Well, I finally did it! I have been wanting to do this since May when I had blogging for one year. I had the first year's worth of blog posts published in book format. So I guess that means I am now offically a published author.

I used an online company called Blurb. They have a program you can download onto your computer. You give them some info and they pull all of your blog posts into the program. You are then able to edit out and reformat to your heart's content. I found that was the most time consuming (and fun!) part. Backgrounds and fonts are available to dress up the pages, almost like a digital scrapbook. I didn't do too much of that since I wanted it to look like it did on the blog. I did add backgrounds to a few pages just for fun.

When you are done editting you upload the finished product to their site and they print it for you. Only when you print do you have to pay. Everything up to that point is free. Books are pretty reasonably priced depending on number of pages and cover style. I chose a hard cover with dust jacket and my book was about 120 pages. I had a free shipping code so I saved a bit with that and ended up paying just over $50. This frugal momma choked a bit at the cost but the finished product turned out great and is...well...priceless.

Cover

Pages (above and below)

Inside back dust jacket

Blurb isn't just for blogs either. If you have a book you want to publish, they will do it for you. One book or 200. Stories, poems, cookbooks, photos, etc. You can order a copy of any book on their site, including mine (although mine is set to "private" right now--if you want the link let me know).

A Visit to the Fire Station

I'm a bit behind...here are a few photos from last weekend's trip to the fire station. The weather was beautiful! Some years we have had to wear winter gear but not this time.

We visited for a few minutes with my Uncle Mark who is a volunteer fire fighter. Wesley even got to try on his helmet! The boys wore their fire engine shirts and we got several comments on those. Although Uncle Mark noticed the trucks said Oshkosh FD because their shirts were from Oshkosh B'Gosh.

Justus and Eli were a bit nervous at first and didn't want to try out some of the activities. But they warmed up eventually. ALL the boys enjoyed the popcorn and other treats available for munching.

Trapped!

Well, we had an interesting start to our morning. The boys were playing nicely and I was checking the weather on the computer. Eli and Justus were in the boy's room and had shut the door. Wesley tried to get in but said they were blocking the door so he couldn't open it. Both parties, inside and out, were moving the door knob but the door wouldn't open.

At first, I just thought the door was locked and I could use the little "key" to pop it. Nope! The knob was functioning and the door was NOT locked but would not open. No problem. Eli did this at the old house. You just have to take the knob apart. Oh, wait...the screws to take the knob off are inside the room...you know...where the boys are...

Eli: "We're trapped!"
Justus: "Call the fire department. They'll get us out with their ax!"
Wesley: "They'll be locked in there forever!"
Me: "Everyone calm down!"

I made a quick call to Jerry to see if he had any suggestions. Unfortunately, he did not. So I got dressed and took the little ladder out to the boy's window. Various orders were given: Open the blinds. Move Hayden's bed over. Farther. Push up that lever. Now push up that lever. Try harder. Push really hard. Move. Let Justus try. Okay, now crank the handle. Now Eli put your fingers in this hole and Justus in this hole and lift. Now pull the screen towards you.

Shouts of joy! "We're free!"

Mom to the rescue!

I lifted each boy out the window and carried them through the yard into the kitchen. Then I went back and climbed in with the screwdriver to try and get the knob off. I got the knob off and discovered the problem. The pin that moves the latch was broken. So the whole assembly remains off until dad gets home to fix it.

Roz (she hadn't left for school yet) and I thought the whole thing was pretty funny. In fact, I told her to snap the above shot cause I knew this would be a great blog post! Then I got to thinking...what if it had been a different door. Like the door to our closet where there are no windows. What if it had been different kids...like Hayden and JD. I don't know how I would have gotten them out! Then it wouldn't have been so funny...oh, I would have gotten them out one way or another, but either a door or window would not be intact.

So in the end, I am thankful. Thankful for a good laugh to start off my day. Thankful that it was the twins who got stuck. Thankful they remained fairly calm and obeyed my directions. Especially thankful that no door or window had to be smashed with an ax to remove them!

And tonight we are going to try and figure out a way to turn all the door knobs so that the screws are on the outside!

Weekly Projects

At the end of each week, Wesley (with my help) makes some kind of project related to what we studied in history. Some of the things we have made include a family tree, cave paintings, and an Egyptian crown. After learning about the first writings we made a cuneiform tablet. Actually, we made two tablets since the first one we made was picked up (by me!) a bit too soon, before it had a chance to dry completely, and cracked. Here is what our finished cuneiform looked like:
It says Wesley Shown (vertically) in some made up cuneiform alphabet from our history book. We put holes in it so we can hang it up somewhere.

Wesley's favorite project so far was the sugar cube pyramid we made last week. He had never seen a sugar cube before and was quite happy to taste one that had cracked.
The homeschool group has a project fair. I told him I think he should make a little display of all the things we have made for the fair. He said he would like to do that so we might have to give it a try.

My (Already Invented) Invention

A few weeks ago I got fed up with our bathroom situation. The boys bathroom started to stink about 5 minutes after I cleaned it. I am telling you those boys cannot hit the toilet bowl! They end up going towards the back where the pee gets behind the bowl area but under the tank. I tried put a towel around the toilet and then changing it each day but the problem wasn't really on the floor.

[Quick side note, Grandma Grey Squirrel has a sign in her bathroom that says something like...
My aim is to keep this bathroom clean, Your aim will help.
Yeah, that's what I'm talking about. Guess it's the plague that affects all mothers of boys!]

We have TWICE taken the toilet apart to clean it. I am not kidding...we removed the tank, unbolted it from the floor, and then put it back after cleaning both toilet and floor with bleach. A day or two later it started to stink again. It was driving me crazy! Even the room freshening plug in things I've gotten for free weren't helping.

I decided I wanted to convert our toilet to a urinal. Somehow. Some way. I really was going to do it. A home urinal. I'm telling you I thought I had a million dollar idea on my hands until I googled "toilet to urinal conversion". Some one else obviously had boys with an aiming problem. So for about $20 I ordered the Potty Shield. The day it arrived we took the toilet apart one last time, gave it a good cleaning, put it back and hoped for the best.

It has been AWESOME!! Help delivered in a box from UPS! Daily frustration gone! The problem area remained clean for DAYS! All the boys got instructions on removing it and replacing it. (Included with the thing is a little mat that sits on the floor to rest it on just for that purpose). Once Wesley didn't put it back on and then went pee without it. After I saw the mess it made he got in BIG trouble and let's just say I'm pretty sure he won't forget again.

No, I am not a paid spokesperson. Although I would be if they'd hire me! The amazing thing about this (besides a clean toilet!) is that I was even able to find this product. Google to the rescue again!