Happy Free-Candy-From-Strangers Day

why, hello there!

l-r Wilson's "jack", my curly "C", Madison's Cat on a fence
and then my worty pumpkin with poka-dot holes (hard to see)...
also a plastic golden pumpkin in the background looks like it might have eyes, it does not!

yep, I've been blog absent for a whole month...life just got busy, and as I wrote at the beginning of the year, this blog is for fun and it will not take away from my family...so I have been present with my kids and husband and working, and yes, the blog has taken back seat...

Wilson as his Father & Madison as a 6th grade student in 1988!

but I wanted to do a re-post for ya'll on this day...my post about 'Celebrating Halloween' as a Christian...

enjoy!
http://chambersmade.blogspot.com/2010/10/celebrating.html

you were born for this

our daughter had a rough entry into the world...
and a few more bumps around year 3...

when we tell her about her birth miracle and healing at 3 we remind her that God has a plan for her life.
(yes, I know...he has a plan for everyone's life)...
but we tell her that 'someone' tried to stop her from being the person she was meant to be.

that she is meant for greatness...
and not greatness in the view of the world, but greatness in how God views her...

this past week we had the privilege as her parents to witness her allowing God to live thru her and not to let 'someone' else control her life.

This is a Bible verse that we've talked about as a family,
" Therefore, to one who knows the right {or good} thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin."
                                                                   ~ James 4:17

and that is what Madison did, she knew the good, and she did it!
She started middle school last week...
She was worried about changing classes...
getting lost on the campus...
not finding her friends at lunch...
not having ANY friends in any of her classes...
of all that scary homework....

one thing that she went into the year knowing was that even if she had no classes with her friends...she at least HAD friends.  She has 2 really good friends going to the same school, and lots and lots of kids from the past 6 years of school all on the same campus...
she was good...

We did encourage her to meet and make other friends....
not because we don't like her friends, we do...
but she has 6 classes and her 2 friends are in NONE of those classes...so life will just feel better if she has a friend or two in some of those classes...it will be less lonely...
she wasn't out there to find replacement friends...
     just add to her friends...you know...
...make new friends, but keep the old...
....one is silver, the other gold....
she just maybe needed to add to the silver list...

day one...
she notices a girl in her 'core' class with the same backpack as her...
(core is the new term for homeroom...and just to make things confusing for us old school parents...core isn't always your first class of the day, you might end your day with core!)
day two...
she starts talking to matching backpack girl*...
(*special blog note...her name is not actually matching backpack girl, that would be weird, but to keep things safe I will not be using actual names besides Madison's)
she's  nice...
day three...
more talking...she's really nice...maybe we can be friends in 'core' together...
day four...
finds out that matching backpack girl moved from a k-8th school so none of her friends moved over to 6th grade but stayed at the k-8th school...
matching backpack girl is shy and worried about making new friends...
day five...
Madison invites matching backpack girl to eat lunch with her and her friends...

day five lunch time...
Madison and matching backpack girl see Madison's friends at 'their table'...
they walk to the table and Madison begins the introductions...
"old friends, meet matching backpack girl...matching backpack girl meet old friends."

only...one old friend doesn't wait for introductions to finish, but packs up her lunch and leaves in a huff...
other old friend stays at table but turns and talks to other kids at the table and ignores Madison and matching backpack girl...well ignores her while also making weird snotty faces in their general direction, (lots of exaggerated eye rolls and hair tosses)...

Madison tries to talk to old friends...
M..."what's going on?"
OF's...."we don't like matching backpack girl!"
M..."why not?"
"she didn't share her new ball," says one old friend (really are we in kindergarten?)
Madison asks matching backpack girl about the ball thing
matching backpack girl, "it was a new ball and I wasn't letting anyone play with it."

Madison thinks...
I've known matching backpack girl for 5 days, but she's nice and she's shy, I don't think she's lying about the ball thing...she even agreed with old friend that she didn't share her ball, but she had a good reason...

Madison goes back to old friends...
"how about you meet her and talk with her, she's really nice."
OF's..."you choose her or us!"

Madison thinks...
Matching backpack girl has done nothing wrong...
     my old friends are being rude and mean...
          friends don't try to control you, bullies try to control you...
Madison chooses to eat lunch with matching backpack girl...

Madison comes home and tells us what happened...
we tell her we're proud of her...
we ask if she wants to call her old friends and talk about the situation...
she doesn't...she wants to wait over the weekend and see what happens on Monday...
maybe everyone was tired from the long first week of school and sports try-outs...

Monday morning...
old friends approach Madison before school starts,
"so who are you going to choose her or us?"
Madison said,
"I'm going to choose her, she hasn't done anything wrong!"


Matching backpack girl talks to Madison is class...
telling her it's okay if she hangs out with the old friends, she can tell they don't like her and she doesn't want Madison to not have her friends.
Madison said,
"no, you've done nothing wrong, I am going to stay with you!"

Meantime...I am frustrated...
of these 2 old friends, one is a REALLY REALLY good friend, they've been in class since 2nd grade
     (sorta a big deal when you have 120 kids in the same grade!)...
how can her friend not trust her?
why can't she broaden her friendships?
why are we back at this point of drama?
(we had friend drama for Madison's first 3 years of school...
until she found this really really good friend)
after lots of inner-turmoil I decided that I needed to talk to the mom of her really good friend...
we as parents have always trusted her parents,
we're on many of the same pages when it comes to parenting our kids....
and I would want to know if Madison had done this to one of her friends...

I find really, really good friend's mother and we talk...
I ask her if she knew about the drama on Friday...
what drama?
...nothing...
really?  what consumed Madison all weekend long and made her feel sick going back to school today and her daughter had told her nothing...
so I layout the whole story...
also remembering that although Madison is a sweet girl, her story is HER story and old friend's story might be different and might 'feel' different from her side of things.
Madison may have been seeing things thru emotional goggles...
one of the biggest issues I have with this whole thing is
     I like...really really like...her old friend.
they belong together...they GET each other in a very special way...
they are supposed to be friends...we love old friend's family...
not just her parents but her siblings as well...
Madison and old friend NEED to be together

And that is why I am so proud of Madison...
she knows all this...
she gets this...
she knows how hard those first 3 years of school were...
she remembers FINALLY finding old friend,
she remembers when they were new friends...
she can't imagine life without old friend now...
she also loves old friend's family...
but she knew that when friends were telling her she had to choose...
choose them or matching backpack girl...

Madison, heart-breaking, knew that matching backpack girl had done nothing wrong for these friends to tell her she couldn't be friends with both, knew she needed to choose the unknown, she couldn't choose her old friends, her friends that 'get' her, if her 'friends' were telling her she had to choose then her friends had changed and Madison needed to stay true to herself and choose the scary unknown, because even though it was unknown it was right.
(seriously...how many of us adults have been faced with choose old comfortable but wrong, and the unknown but right path...and chosen the comfortable wrong path?)

back to my talk with old friend's mom...
she's frustrated...
she knows Madison and she knows her daughter
and she knows that Madison wouldn't have made up this drama...
that Madison had been hurt (and maybe still being hurt) by her daughter
she knows her daughter did something painful, hurtful, and wrong...
she is pretty frustrated with her daughter....
she's going thru that, 'what did we do wrong?' as parents thing...
I am reminding her about that old thing we call free will...
she can teach her daughter everything right yet, her daughter still has to choose her own path...
this isn't a parenting issue, they didn't raise her to do this to old friends and potential new friends...
yet, as parents we have that small glimpse of God's pain, when our children make the wrong choice even when they know the truth...
old friends mom was ready to go home and tear her daughter apart...she wanted to yell at her and then have her call and apologize...I wanted that to...
but then we got to thinking...our girls are getting older...having their mommies make them 'kiss and make up' isn't what they need.
our girls are in middle school...
they're 11 1/2...
they might not always tell us when a friend has hurt them...
they are at the age that rather than a demanded apology the hurt child needs to approach the one that hurt them,
and say, "hey, you hurt me!"
    "What you did wasn't okay?" 
 they need to ask,
     "Did I maybe do something that caused you to react this way?"
they need to learn that mom isn't going to always be there to fix it...
but they can learn that when mom is still holding their hand...

so old friend's mom still had a nice long talk with old friend...
...and her dad did some talking too...
they asked her "why?"
"had matching backpack girl done something to her?"
"does she know matching backpack girl?"
etc, etc, etc...
they walked her through how her actions hurt her closest friend
how she hurt a girl that she did't even know (matching backpack girl)
how she embarrassed them
how they were proud that Madison her closest friend stood up to her when she was making wrong choices

and then we had Madison call her...
Madison was the one that had been hurt,
she needed to call her friend and tell her,
"you hurt me...
"you didn't act how a friend should act...
"I want to be your friend but I'm not going to chose you over matching backpack girl, because matching backpack girl has done nothing wrong!"

Madison had to make the stand...

she needed to initiate the conversation...
    not her mom or old friend's mom..
she needed to learn that her mom isn't going to always be the one to fix all the wrongs
but she could still do that with her mom sitting next to her.

She was amazing...
she said,
"I need to ask you why you've been hurtful to me?"
"Why you are being mean to my new friend?"
"Why you are asking me to choose?"

Her friend asked for forgiveness
she didn't know why she was being mean, but knows it was wrong
maybe she was being influenced by another friend,
     but that was wrong of her to allow her to dictate her actions.
she wants to talk to matching backpack girl and tell her she is sorry,
     ask if she'd be willing to try to be her friend even though she was mean to her

Tuesday morning...
old friend is in library and hour before school...
....so is matching backpack girl....
they are the only two in the library...
...old friend approaches matching backpack girl...
asks if they can talk,
tells her she's sorry for how she was acting,
wants to know if they can start over fresh...
can we all be friends?
matching backpack girl says yes...

old friend has some time to hang out and get to know matching backpack girl before Madison gets to school...
and guess what?
she likes her, she really, really likes her
matching backpack girl is a good person...

there were other 'characters' in the drama...maybe ones that aren't as close, maybe some that influenced old friend's behavior, ones that aren't interested in trying to be friends with matching backpack girl ...
but maybe it's time to distance ourselves from those friends...
move them from 'close friends' to 'I'll-say-hi-to-you-in-the-hallway' friends...
     or maybe even, say good-bye altogether...

Beau and I are so proud of how Madison stood up for right in this situation...
we know that we've 'taught' her to do right, we've instilled in her life God's truths
coincidentally (or not) her youth pastor just finished a series on
    being who you are, not someone else!
last weeks lesson was on Esther and living into who God made you to be...

we also know that this was/is not about us,
   this isn't because we did the right thing as parents...
or that her youth pastor just finished an amazing series

good parents have kids that make bad choices
     and horrible parents have kids that make amazing choices...

this was/is about Madison...
in a difficult moment she chose right!
     not easy,
         not comfortable
               not the known...
she made the moral choice, the good choice, the one that God was leading her to make

Her greatness...that God has planed for her...
     ...is her being her...
living her life and being the person God has planned her to be...
she was born to be this tenderhearted, empathetic, friend...
to stand up against 'evil'
...yes, I said evil...
girls being mean is the opposite of goodness and righteousness
therefore...they are acting out in evil...
Madison was standing up against sin....

Madison...you were born for this!

"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing." (Edmund Burke)

sum, sum, summa time...a plan

It's here...
today is the first day of summer vacation!

idea that I got from pintest...kids came home to this yesterday.

Can't believe it's here already!
AND I have a plan...
my goal is to not have a mind-numbing summer...
that's 2-fold...
1.  I don't want it to be mind-numbingly boring!
2.  I don't want the kids to have their brains be numb by the end of the summer and then school hurts their brain come August!

I also want it to feel like summer for the kids...
a little carefree
a little laid back
screen time (in moderation)
a little spontaneity here and there

so this is the sum, sum, summa time plan
a minor, not too rigid agenda
*swim team
     this is a great low commitment scheduled 'event' for the kids.  It's 3 days a week; MWF, for an hour.  It's early, but not too early, starting at 8:30.  The early factor is do-able because the prep is zilch...the have to have their swim suits on their bodies and all their swim stuff will just live in the car (goggles, sunscreen, etc) and their towels will hang in the garage right next to the van to be grabbed on the way......then they can eat breakfast on the go in the car, a breakfast burrito or peanut butter sandwich, etc.  Also it's WAY cheaper than actual swim lessons $1.51 per hour compared to $8.75 an hour...AND swim team lasts all summer and lessons are only for 2 weeks.

*reading
     we will take part in the Barnes and Noble summer reading program for kids (download the pdf form here) and we're going to do a family reading program that will be geared for the reading level and age of our own kids (boy child needs to read 7 chapter books to earn a free book, girl child needs to read 5 chapter books...her chapter books are WAY longer than his and takes her longer).
     we're also going to do reading bingo....our own version...for every bingo they earn a coupon and then when then get a blackout they will get a golden ticket.

idea from how does she

   visit how does she to download the printables that are totally customize-able for your kids.

*theme days
     Movie Monday's = our local dollar theater (that's actually like $1.50 but we still call it the dollar theater) has family days on Monday's and a group of 3 or more (aka a family) pay only $0.75 per person.  If there isn't a move we want to see we will do the red box and watch a movie that we haven't seen yet.  We haven't 'rented' a movie all year long and rarely go to the theater so there are a ton of movies for us to catch up on.
     Errand Day Tuesday &/or Garden Tuesday = kids are not in love with errands...or actually the boy child is not, the girl child is on the fence about errands if there is a store involved she's all over that.  Then the garden day will happen early and will be weeding and harvesting our garden.  This is also a day that Redding has a local Farmers Market so errands and gardening go hand-in-hand and we will probably visit that a few times a month.
     Music Wednesday = their piano lessons are scheduled for Wed afternoon...so really not too
musically...but I might make this a day that we also crank up the tunes and rock out while we do our chores.
     Library Thursdays = this doesn't need an explanation...we will go to the library on Thursdays...
     Field-trip Friday = Beau's day off so this is a great day to go on family hikes, visit waterfalls, drive to the coast, etc....
     AND/Or Friend Friday = we will probably let them invite friends along on our field-trips and if we have nothing planned they can just have a friend over anyways.

* responsibilities before screen time

     the kids both have a responsibility chart that hangs in the hallways and they will need to complete all their responsibilities before they are allowed to turn on the tv or play their DS's.  And their screen time will be limited to 1 show per child and then a 30 minute time frame on the DS games....

*various other ideas
     I have pinned a ton of ideas on pintrest to keep the summer fun...visit my School Vacation Idea board to see what we might be doing....

...
also I will have to be working from home most mornings and will have to make trips to the office a few days a week....
so here's hoping our summer is smooth and not-too-mind-numbing....

what's your summer look like...
are you planning it out or letting it just happen?

May Day

May Day...May Day...

it's another ChambersMade family 1st...

we've never really lived in a neighborhood that we could really 'celebrate' May Day...

 now we do...
I've been collecting cans for a few weeks now...
I have a plan for them and this summer...

but I figured I have plenty cleaned & up in the cupboard that I could spare 4 so the kids and I could have a little May Day fun...

we wrapped wire around the groves in the cans and made a handle with the wire...
printed up a little May Day Tag and tied it with twine
and then cut some mini roses off our rose bush...

the kids sneaked up to the doors...

rang the door bell...

and RAN as fast as they could...

...

fun times...

all in all it took 30 minutes...

from creating and printing the tag,

to wrapping the wire around the can and creating a handle

tying the tag onto the can

cutting the roses

and then the delivery...

and cost us $0.00

we will hopefully make this a ChambersMade family tradition...

and hopefully our neighbors are pleasantly surprised by the little can of flowers on the door knob!

have you ever participated/celebrated May Day?

Crafty Shower

Okay so I blogged last week about my friend, Rayna's baby shower...

and how, per Rayna's request, we play zero games!
I was okay with that
     (even though I love a good game)

together we talked about what to do instead of games
you do have to do SOMETHING
this would not be good...
Hello, welcome to the baby shower...
put your presents there...
okay now were're opening presents
okay, thanks, that was nice, good bye!
well, maybe you could, I think it's a little rude...um...odd...

So for the shower activity we decided to make oneies for the coming baby...

some onesies created by guests at the shower...
(btw 3 of these were created by kids the dino top middle made by  my boy child,
animals top right, my girl child, whale bottom left by a friends 11 yr old drama queen)

This is what you'll need...

toothless

boy child lost a tooth last night...
...no literally...
     HE LOST HIS TOOTH

big ol' gap...top tooth lost a few weeks ago
& then bottom one last night

we're sitting at dinner talking about loose teeth
...both boy and girl child have multiple loose teeth right now...

boy child had dad feel all 3 of this loose teeth...
    girl child wanted to have dad feel her loose teeth but then chickened out
...dinner continues...
    boy child is eating a chicken leg...
         gets some grisly grossness in his mouth and I tell him to go spit it out...
...dinner continues...

I don't mean to scare anyone

but I figured with Halloween 3 days away it was okay to post this...



you may need to ask small children to turn away...


the picture you're about to see is.

so..


very....


VERY...


disturbing...

If you have nightmares you may not want to scroll down and see...

have you removed all little children from the viewing sight?

okay...


it it just me or is this beyond creepy!

I totally get the pillow pet thing...

totally wish I would have come up with that million dollar idea...
it's a pillow...it's a pet...it's a pillow pet...now give me $20 for one!!!

but really...Dora?  creepy!

Summer Lovin'

....the kids have the count down going,
they know that we only have 15 more days of school...
15 days until...
....

UNTIL

...

SUMMER BREAK

Summer is...
amazing
it's staying up late
it's sleeping in late
it's slumber parties
swimming parties
lake parties
camping
VBS
BBQ
4th of July
a week at grandmas....
and then...
then....
it happens.
....
..."MOM....I'm soooo BORED!"
....
how can something so wonderful in the eyes of every child turn out so boring?

source-Brassy Apple

I think I might make this little beauty and hand it over to whatever child whines to me that they're bored
directions at Brassy Apple 


I also stumbled upon this blog early this week with 100 activities to do over the summer
http://www.digitalreflections.typepad.com/digital_reflections/2009/06/100-free-things-to-do-with-your-kids-this-summer.html

and my goal is to have my kids read over the list and make a list of their own, they can choose up to 30 things off this list (there is a 100 to choose from).

I'm hoping that some of their 30 overlap so we don't end up with a list of 60 to do before summer is over!

I have already counted and there are 70 days of summer vacation..
so even if we end up with 60 activities we can double up and do more than one on certain days, and then we will have some weeks that none of these happen
(VBS week is enough entertainment all on it's own, and wears me out, so I get a free pass that week!)...

so I'm almost ready...
I'm getting mentally prepared for the moment when I hear the words...
'Mom...there is nothing to do...I am so bored'...

I think I will also make up a list of chores that I get to assign to the kids that tell me they are bored...

Who's That on Your Shoulder?

just wanted to share a few pictures of what we did last night...

Madison had a friend over and we decided to make felted owl necklaces...
totally, completely, 2-legit-to-quit, 100%, our own idea...
in no way what-so-ever
did we sort-of
kind-of
totally steal this from Mrs. Smith and Drama Queen over at TheSmithHotel....
I would totally not do that EVER...
okay maybe just a little

 girl child and  her bffsb (best friends forever since birth) working on their creations...

 our parliament of owls...yep...my blog is educational...a group of owls is called a parliament

 the girls modeling their owl necklaces....

 close up of girl child's owl

 close of of girl child's bffsb owl...

close up of boy child's owl...whom he names Albert...so random...

whoa...you got an owl named Albert on your shoulder!

the boy child also opted for the owl sans chain...not sure I blame him, owl necklace isn't what the cool kindergarten boys are sporting on the playground!

okay so just in case you didn't know owls are in right now...but so are all birds...and since I totally stole this idea from Mrs. Smith...I want to send you over to her etsy shop and check out all the cool bird type accessories and fun gift ideas she has for sale...

like this birds nest pendant...

or this bird cage bottle cap

or this bird bath tea towel

random blog fact...my house is so cold, or maybe I should say the office in our house is so cold....that I'm blogging with gloves on...not the easiest...good night!

Rain + Sun = Rainbows...

both my kids love looking for rainbows after the rain, or during the rain...

and we always try to remind them of the promise of a rainbow...

God's promise of protection, his promise to NEVER flood the entire earth again...

so when I signed up to bring cupcakes to Wilson's preschool graduation he suggested that I make rainbow cupcakes...

fun times...

I've made a rainbow/polka dot cake before and the dramatic part is cutting into the cake and seeing all the colors...

well...in case you forgot, there is no cutting into cupcakes...and I don't like to put extra work into something unless people know I've done the work...

so I needed to find a way to make rainbow cupcakes and have everyone see all the work I did...

I googled rainbow cupcakes and a few images came up, and one had the cupcakes not in the cupcake papers  but in wax paper...

GENIUS...you can see all the colors...

so I cut enough wax paper squares for the cupcakes (26)...

then formed them around the bottom of a small cup and then sat them in the cupcake/muffin tin...perfect fit

then mix up your cake batter (I used a simple yellow cake mix with a simple cake mix dr. recipe...recipe at the bottom of the blog)...you NEED to use either a yellow cake or white cake recipe...

divide your batter into the number of colors that you want/need to make your rainbow or polka dots...

and color each the color you want

I had planned on 5 colors...

Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue...

very rainbow like...

and it wasn't until I had the cake all mixed up that I got out all of my colors only to discover I was missing my Red and Yellow food coloring...

so I left one batch the "natural" color of the yellow cake batter and then left red out entirely...

thinking...

"They're preschoolers, they won't notice that the rainbow cupcakes are missing red..."

then using a small spoon or cookie scoop, start filling your cupcake papers with one scoop of each color

then bake per directions...

remove from pans to cool and then frost with the color frosting you want...

I had planned on making 5 different colors of frosting and then once I realized I didn't have the red or yellow I just asked Wilson what color he wanted...he said green (I was actually a little surprised, he's a blue sort of boy)...

so I frosted them all green...

and I was also going to make little crayons out of fondant to top them all with...but then the boy got sick...and wasn't even going to make it to his preschool graduation...so I just left good enough alone...kept one cupcake at home for the sick little boy and delivered the rest to the little graduates...and it was raining for the "outside ceremony" they had planned for the graduation...perfect cupcakes for a rain soaked party...

picked up Wilson's graduation cap and school goodies and came home to "celebrate" his own personal graduation...

little boy bummed that he's not with all his friends...

and finding it rather silly that mom will only let him eat his cupcake if he wears his graduation cap...

are those eyes just melting you right now???

"hmm...mom, did you forget the red?"...

okay so preschoolers might notice if you don't have red in the rainbow!

but it's still good...can't believe that my sweet little boy is going off to kindergarten next year!

Easy Peasy Yellow Cake

1 yellow cake mix

8 oz, 1 stick butter melted

1 cup whole milk or half & half

3 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

Mix together all the ingredients on low speed for 1 minute, scrape down sides and mix on medium for 3 minutes...

bake per directions on the back of cake box for whatever size pan you're baking your cake/cupcakes in...

frost with vanilla butter cream or chocolate butter cream frosting.