My garage sale find!

I am so excited! Since we are planning to put the house back on the market, I have been wanting to better organize my scrapbooking as it is in our bedroom. I would have loved to have used our computer armoire but we still need it. Then I started looking to see if there was anything I could set on top of the drawing table I was using to put things behind close doors. Yesterday, I had to take the twins to have their yearly school evaluation done and passed by a nice neighborhood having a community garage sale. I stopped by on the way home and, at the 2nd house, found something to help with my dilemma. It is a roll top desk with storage underneath.

It works perfectly for some scrapbook stuff. The top has drawers for my pens and adhesives along with spaces for all punches. The desk part pulls out so I can leave the page I am working on laying there. The bottom part fits my sticker album perfectly and in the large drawer, you find my extra paper and whatever album I might be working from. The top drawer holds my cricut cartridges perfectly.

I love how the Lord cares about even our little wants!! I hadn't even considered this until this week and, if I hadn't had to take the girls, I probably wouldn't have passed the garage sale. He just worked everything out for me to find it at just the time I needed it.

Just a little behind

I haven't been very faithful blogging and posting pictures here. It seems easier to put them on Facebook. Anyway, we have had a few events in the last weeks. One was Puddin's 4th birthday. It fell on a Saturday so we had a birthday party complete with friends. We started the day with a breakfast of the cereals she picked out. She also received her gift of a cinderella dress as the party was a dress up one. The Lord allowed me to find it at a garage sale for $2! She looked beautiful in it and it fit wonderfully. After her guests arrived, we did crafts, went on an egg hunt, played games and danced. We also ate a lunch of hamburgers and hotdogs and then opened presents. The doll cake I made was eaten and then everyone headed out. It was a great way to start age 4 which she reminds us that she still is every day.






Next came mine and hubby's 16th wedding anniversary. I don't have any pictures but we enjoyed a wonderful evening of dinner and spending time together.

We also enjoyed the local fair. The girls and I put some items in. I put 2 of my plants along with some blueberry muffins. I was pleased to see they earned 2nd place ribbons. Eldest put in some whole wheat bread and a crocheted blanket and won a best in class ribbon on both!! Let's just remember who taught her how to make the bread!

Longlegged Girl put in a skirt she made, a drawing along with a paper project. She did well with 2nd and 3rd place ribbons. Pumpkin put in a paper maiche project, playground made from pipe cleaners and paper and a hummingbird drawing. She received all 2nd place ribbons. Cucumber put in a butterfly project and a mountain drawing which received a 2nd and 3rd place ribbon.

We had a grand time visiting the fair to see how our items did. It was suppose to be an evening of bad storms and tornado watch but the Lord allowed the rain to stay away for the majority of the evening. We were able to spend time with my Aunt and Uncle from Chicago along with my mom at the fair which just added to the fun.

Time with G.G.

Before the state conference, we spent some time at Dh's mother's house since she lives just across the bay from Tampa. The girls enjoyed going to the beach and park with her. It was nice to have a few days of relaxing.

FSCAR State Conference

We spent this past weekend in Tampa for the girls' FSCAR State Conference. Eldest served as Organizing Secretary this past weekend and the other girls were state chairman for various committees. They all had speeches to give so Mom had lots of opportunity to work on her speech writing skills. :-)

They also served in various ways at the conference. Pumpkin and Cucumber were personal pages for the State President and Sr. National President and Longlegged girl carried the American Flag during the processions. Mama got to make sure everyone was lined up for the processions and marched into the room correctly.

Saturday night was the awards banquet so everyone, including Puddin, got fancied up. Eldest was also installed as Chaplain for next year. Afterwards, a dance was held and even Puddin participated in it.

Science happenings

The girls found a butterfly and was able to catch it. They enjoyed looking at it and examining it.

Eldestof5 is taking Apologia Biology this year and made it to the dissections. I let Daddy have the fun of helping her out. They did the earthworm and crayfish first. I worked out on the Wii Fit while they did the dissections. The younger girls enjoyed watching some also. It was a profitable time and information was learned by all.

Twins 11th birthday

February 16th is the day the Lord blessed us with twins. Their birthday fell on President's day this year, just like 11 years ago when they were born. They started the day eating a breakfast of cereal - their pick of anything, Mom can't say no. They then opened their gifts. It is neat to see how creative the girls get with each other's gifts. We then headed out to spend some time at Parks at Chehaw. We enjoyed seeing the different animals they had there and then spent some time at the big playground. It was a beautiful day! We then headed towards home after such a great weekend. Happy birthday girls! May the Lord erupt into your lives in this next year!

Weekend Trip

We took advantage of the 3 day weekend and headed up to Georgia. Our reason for going was two fold - one was visiting a Civil War site since we are studying that time period now and the second was to do something enjoyable for the twins 11th birthday which fell on President's Day this year. Mike's uncle and aunt who live outside of Albany opened up their home to us which was a blessing. They had a nice big back yard for the girls to play in along with a hot tub that all of enjoyed some. They even had a duck named Stanley. Longlegged girl fell in love with him.





Andersonville is the site of a former Confederate prisoner of war camp. It was very sombering to walk around and read of how 45,000 Union prisoners lived here. It was only planned to hold 6,000 and was expanded quickly to hold more but the conditions were still very crowded, unsanitary and awful. It is amazing that the number was only 13,000 who died here by the end of the war. There is also a museum dedicated to POW's in all wars but we decided not to walk through it with the girls. Dh scanned through it and felt there was some info that was too graphic for the girls, especially the younger ones.

This spring was considered to be a miracle. It sprung up during a storm at a time when fresh water was greatly needed in the camp. The prisoners originally used cups on sticks to reach the water since it was in the "deadline", an area that the prisoners would be shot at if they stepped into it. The guards later agreed to let them cross over to reach the water.



These are all graves of the soldiers who died in the camp and it is only a tip of the iceberg.