Under Construction

I am currently under construction and working on changing my blog. Please let me know what you think as I only have a certain amount of time to change things.
A couple of things will still change.
Thanks in advance for your input.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!
Hope your family had a great day with warm thoughts of our baby savior being born is such humble circumstances.
We had a great day and entertained both Christmas day and Christmas eve.
We had a wonderful time and the kids were thrilled Christmas morning.
I am still doing dishes from our gatherings (I know you are shocked!).
We are enjoying our time off together and are currently locked in from a blizzard, but it is nice and we are having fun.
Have a great day!

Funny Things At Our House

my daughter made these and the husband ate them before we could. you have to be fast around here.

So, things are a little crazy at our house lately.
Christmas preparations, Christmas programs, family birthdays and tons of Christmas cookies.
But, crazy times can lead to a lot of funny stuff.

-While bustling around the kitchen the other morning, I hip-checked the little guy who is basically glued to my side lately. He flew across the floor and started to cry, not from being hurt, but because he didn't know what happened! Me, being a nurturing mom, basically said, "Well, maybe you shouldn't always be stuck to me."
I didn't even know he was there.
(only a self-confident woman would admit she knocked her own son out with her hip- or a mom who pressed the publish post button quick!)

-While asking the little boy I babysit for if he ate breakfast, he replied, "mama made me fries". Hey, tis the season.

-The same little boy, wagged his finger at the little guy, telling him, "Santa not coming to your house". To which my family cracked up because we know that is what is mom is saying to him lately.

-Then the little boy told my children that, "ho-ho coming to my house".
I love it - we all laughed at that one as well.

I am anti-santa, but this line of discipline seems to work well for some during the Christmas season. I mean my kids are crazy lately- how about yours?
To which my mother usually replies, "Oh - this is the time of the year when kids act out."
Again- tis the season.

Side note- does anyone have any sure-fire ways of potty training?- AHHHHHH!

Have a great day and try not to eat too many cookies.

Simple Times at The One Room Schoolhouse

We visited a one room schoolhouse, my daughter and I, for a field trip.
And it was COLD- seriously cold. So cold that I wore leggings under my jeans!
And I am not one to wear so many layers! There was unexpected snow here on the island and we had to drive in it, but, praise God, it was okay.

The school was so neat and from the late 1800s. It was small and had 2 doors, one for girls and one for boys.

It was only heated by a wood burning stove. I sat in the back and froze until I realized the kids were warmer closer to the stove. The museum "teacher" taught the kids all about the schoolhouse and gave them a lesson they would of had in 1880.

The kids had to do a chore much like the children of the times. They had to saw a log using a "bucksaw" . They dressed up from that era or tried to - this seemed especially hard for some of the boys- one boy wore suspenders and then upon realizing no one else had, he never took his coat off, all the while thinking of how upset he was with his mom for making him wearing said suspenders.

The kids each sat a desk for 2 and sat by a name tag of a child that actually went to school there in 1895. The kids thought this was great fun and my daughter continued the little game well after we returned home- not fun for a mama who needed the table set pronto and couldn't get her daughter to come by calling her by her birth name!

The class was so simple and of course, it made me want to return to simpler times. Imagine that the kids woke up early, maybe even 5 am, had farm chores to do, walked about a mile or so to school to be there by 8, stayed there till 4, and then walked home, only to most likely have more chores awaiting them at home. They did this in the winter! School was always during the winter and the summer, to avoid planting and harvest. I saw this poem on the board and thought it applied to me and my life even more than it applied to the children.

Work and Play
Those children who are
all the day
Allowed to wander out
And only waste their time
in play
or running wild about
Who do not any school attend
But trifle as they will,
Are certain in the end
To come to something ill.
There's nothing worse than idleness
To lead them into sin,
There to end in wretchedness
In poverty and pain.

Nassakeag School, c. 1895.
Teacher (far left), Ben Robinson; Students from left to right:
Windows: Kate Wood, Sarah Rowland, Maud Smith, Sadie Danbury and Olive Darling
Third row: Flossie Winters, Annie Fallon, Cleveland Davis, Ralph Hawkins, George Beach, Lillie Davis, Will Calahan, Rom Hawkins and Henry Rowland
Second Row: Laura Rowland, Elsie Davis, Bessie Freeman, Jennie Freeman, William Phiefer, Ed Beach, Manley Smith and Warren Rowland
Front Row: Ben Phiefer and Ed Calahan

My daughter was Bessie Freeman for the day and that would make her the taller of the 2 girls with the folded arms. Notice the bare feet and the "class dogs".

Ah, simple times...

A Tree, Some new ornaments and 200 POSTS!

Sorry I haven't been around much. I had some problems with my blog, that you can now get to by www.thechattymommy.com instead of blogspot. So exciting!
And then I got sidetracked with Christmas.
Still not 100 percent decorated, but that is usually the way with me. We are doing pretty well though.
We bought our tree a week ago and we finally decorated it!

Last week, I kept reading these blogs about traditions where each kid gets to pick an ornament each year. While I thought it was cute, I thought not worth the money.
I never shared these thoughts with the husband and lo and behold, we go to get the tree and he announces each kid may pick a special ornament.
Who cares, if we pay the electric bill late, we have ornaments!!!!
(incidentally, only half kidding about the bill part)


So, here, after much thought, are what the kids winded up with:
Oldest daughter has the sneakers, because converse are in this year! And so is the color green for some reason.
Younger daughter picked the skater only after much prodding by this mama who thought is was beautiful and a real keepsake ornament. Enjoy her picture because she now has a broken hand- her darling brother and she decided to fight over it and if fell to the floor- I know you are shocked about their behavior- I was too.
Older son got the Yankees ornament after much prodding from his father and the little guy got the mustang even after we tried to get him to get the firetruck. It reminds me of the dukes of hazard car, which the husband scoffed at, because apparently everyone knows that car wasn't a mustang. Silly mommy.

And this is officially my 200th post. You guys are great and so is blog world.
Have a great night and stay tuned for more Christmas pictures.

17 Giveaways

You all know, I love a good giveaway.
Well, you have to check out Mandy at Mandipidy.

It is her birthday and she is having 17 of the coolest giveaways I have seen it one spot!

I have only entered a couple so far, but I want to enter them all before they end.

Check it out!

Warning- New Things Ahead and 2 Mandys.

I have been striving to do some new things within blog world.
I think I have finally made some headway.
First, I think I have finally managed to purchase my domain name, www.thechattymommy.com.
It takes a few days to go through, but as long as everything goes smoothly you should be able to get to my blog by both www.thechattymommy.com and www.thechattymommy.blogspot.com. This was a lot easier to do than I thought and I can't believe I put it off this long. Thank you Mandy for explaining to me how it works.
Also, I have been working on my blog makeover for a very loooong time with a very patient and talented woman, also named Mandy and it will be done soon, so do not be surprised if you come and visit and this blog looks very different.
As for my etsy site, I know you think I have flaked. And maybe I have due to birthdays and kids illnesses and Christmas decorating and etc...
I have decided I will still open my shop, but I want to wait until it is done the right way and this might take a little longer. So, no set date, but I will keep you posted.
Have a great night!

Christmas Preparations and Blessings

Well, things are moving a little slow in the decorating department.
This is the boys' room Christmas tree.
I considered buying them a little bigger of a tree this year at Walmart, but thankfully my mom's voice saying, "Why?" was in my head.
They throw this thing around, take off the ornaments and leave it in different rooms, only to decorate it again and start over.
They get excited when I take it out and think it is the coolest.
I have battery operated lights that they can turn on and off themselves.
Let's face it- life is good.
I don't have our avon advent calendar up yet and it is December 2nd.
My mom bought the kids a trader joes chocolate advent calendar, which the kids love to talk about who gets the next chocolate. However, this is not hanging up because I can't figure out how to hang it.
So, it sits on the shelf.
Tis the season.


On a serious note, I have been thinking a lot about giving and really want to teach my kids about blessing others.
I heard a couple of stories about a little girl getting a doll from a family friend who said someone left if for her and another woman who had her leaves raked by a friend after dreaming someone raked her lawn.
I read about a man who sent a $1000 check to a woman from a different country who came here to the US and waited on black Friday lines to buy her siblings computers that were stolen from her car.

My son said to me the other day, "I know we are supposed to be thankful and I am, but what are poor people thankful for?"
"What do they have?"
After pulling back my tears, I reminded him of the Lord's gift of salvation and the promise of eternity with Him.
He was okay with that, but concluded with, "It makes it hard to be thankful when I think about poor people, I mean I am thankful for poor people, but I feel sad too."

So, we will find a way to give this year- if we can spring for an extra gift under the tree or an extra cheap toy in the stocking for our own kids, I am sure we can dig deep for others.
We do the angel tree at church, give a dollar when the cashier tells us about a Christmas charity and put a toy in the toys for tots box, simply because the Marine asked us to and he looked pretty serious. My kids want to give to salvation army, but funny enough, I never have change on me- not with my bank card in my pocket. lol
But I want to show them more, not necessarily monetarily, but a bigger act of giving or service.

What does your family do- for Christmas or year-round? I'd like to know.

He who gives to the poor will not want, but he who hides his eyes [from their want] will have many a curse. Proverbs 28: 27 amplified