Chores, Nobody likes them but they need to be done

One of the things I've been working on is having the kids help out with the household chores.  I almost always had them help when I worked full time outside the home.  But for some reason (probably cause I can be a bit of a control freak) kids chores have slacked.  I been feeling increasingly overwhelmed with the amount of work it takes to run our household, keep the house looking decent, and have some kind of order.  Several months ago I redid the chore chart. 

The Loss of a pet

Death is never easy.  Dillweed lived a long and very loved life.  For the past year he has been fighting mouth cancer.  It's been very difficult to see him continue to get worse.  Rationally we know that this was best for him, but in our hearts we didn't want to let him go.

Going DEET free!

I am a bug magnet, if it bites or stings, it finds me.  Not only am I a magnet, but I'm highly sensitive to bug bites, I get Huge welts.  This pretty much means I have to wear bug spray when I'm outdoors.  I've never been a big fan of DEET

Celebrating Lammas

Just like almost everything in our hectic lives, we celebrated Lammas late.  (It's even taken me over a week to finish this post.)  But that is ok.  I've learned to accept that fact and move on.  What's most important is that we celebrated and enjoyed two awesome days together as a family.  (part of our family was gone one day)

The kids and I made spiral cookies.  I really enjoy baking with my kids.  It's one of the few times when I slow down and let go of the control. 
Everybody gets to read the recipe, measure out ingredients, pour ingredients into the bowl, and st
 ir/mix everything together.  And lets not forget about the best part licking the spoons!  We chatted

Is God Real...

A debate by children ages seven to twelve.

The debaters:

Potato - my seven year old son

A - my eight year old cousin.  Her Grandpa is very involved with his Church.

J - my nine year old cousin.  They're family is mostly Sunday Christians.

Monkey - my ten year old son.

B - my twelve year old cousin and J's brother.

Ladybug - my thirteen year old daughter.  She's very outspoken about being Pagan.

There were many raised voices the other morning at our campsite.  For a while I just stayed in my tent to listen, until the "debate" became heated enough that I felt I should step in.

July Garden Update



We replanted at the beginning of June.  Instead of starting again from seeds, we cheated and bought plants.  I felt it would be easier and the children would be see the garden growing right away.  It's been fun going out with the kids to check on the garden's progress.  They loved seeing how big the plants are growing.  And when we saw the first signs that veggies were growing they exploded with excitement!  I'll admit that sometimes I am the one most excited about the garden.  

Thoughts on Faith

What is Faith?

The dictionary tells us Faith is

–noun
1. confidence or trust in a person or thing: faith in another's ability.

2. belief that is not based on proof: He had faith that the hypothesis would be substantiated by fact.

3. belief in god or in the doctrines or teachings of religion: the firm faith of the Pilgrims.

Feeling like the evil stepmother

Lately Duckling has been taking things that don't belong to her and lying about it.  Both from people at our house and her mom's house.  It's frustrating to deal with.  Especially since I finally got Monkey to stop doing that a few years ago.

So here's where the evil stepmom part comes in.