Christmas is for the Birds!

The birds in our yard that is! : ) 

During cold/winter months we like to feed the birds at our house. Normally that means seeds in the bird feeders ... but during the Christmas season we like to give our birdies a little treat.

The boys ... with some help from Uncle Alex and their big brother Zach ... strung up some popcorn, cranberries, fruit loop like cereal, and cherrio like cereal for our birds.

We started off with a needle and thread ... knotted at one end so the food doesn't fall off. : ) Then sat out the food stuffs for our chains ... boy you can tell where I shop can't you??? LoL

We started our chains with popcorn ... those Fruit Spins & Whole Grain Oat cereals would fall off even with a knot if the popcorn wasn't there to hold it on. Unless you tied the thread around a Fruit Spin like Uncle Alex did with his.

It seems I have to add pictures 1 at a time now ... apparently google has changed how picasa works and I can't even get to my albums yet ... great another thing to figure out cause google thinks they are so great ... blah!

 

 

Uncle Alex apparently got tired of stringing though ... he left before his chain was finished and Zach finished that one up. Then here are the boys with their finished strings of birdie food.

We wanted to be able to look out and see the birds feeding, so we put the finished chains on my Butterfly Bush that is out in front of the house. Here are the boys hanging their chains.

 

A fun time was had by all! Snacking was a BIG part of our stringing too! : ) We ended up with 7 food chains in all. I should've taken a picture of that, but we were all tired afterwards & just wanted to hang them up and observe! : ) 

We took the leftovers (the ceral & popcorn that was dropped on the floor; cranberries that nobody wanted to eat after trying just 1) and dumped them about the base of the bush.

We've enjoyed watching the birds the past few days too.

Merry Christmas to you all ... and if you have time ... put a little something out for your yardland creatures too!

Pearl Harbor Remembrance

PEARL HARBOR REMEMBRANCE DAY IN THE UNITED STATES

Today we commemorate "Pearl Harbor Day."  Seventy years ago, Battleship Row, in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, was attacked with incomprehensible destruction by the Imperial Japanese Navy. The next day President Franklin D. Roosevelt called December 7, 1941 "a date which will live in infamy." Thus we were drawn into fatal conflict with Japan.

It is fitting that we should remember America's war effort ... even during this Christmas Season.

1. It was during this season that the United States entered war with Japan ... in direct response to the attack on Pearl Harbor.
2. American service men and women engaged the enemy for several Christmases during WWII.
3. During the Christmas Season notable events of WWII happened.
4. Today the US is engaged in war in the Middle East and many Americans will be far from home at Christmas.

WHAT DO PEOPLE DO?

On the direction of the President, the flag of the United States of America should be displayed on the homes of Americans, the White House and all United States government buildings. The flag should be flown at half-mast to honor those who died in the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Many associations, especially those linked with Pearl Harbor survivors or those who died from the attack, participate in special services to commemorate the event. Memorial services are held at venues such as the USS Arizona Memorial in Pearl Harbor. Other activities include: wreath-laying ceremonies; keynote speeches by those associated with the event; luncheons; media stories on survivors’ recollections of the Pearl Harbor attack; and school activities to educate students about the attack on Pearl Harbor in relation to World War II history.

PUBLIC LIFE

Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day is not a federal holiday. Government offices, schools, businesses and other organizations do not close. Public transit systems run on their regular schedules. Some organizations may hold special events in memory of those killed or injured in Pearl Harbor.

BACKGROUND

On Sunday morning, December 7, 1941, the American Army and Navy base in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii was attacked by the Imperial Japanese Navy. The attack came as a surprise to the American Army and Navy and lead to great losses of life and equipment. More than 2000 American citizens were killed and more than 1000 were injured. The Americans also lost a large proportion of their battle ships and nearly 200 aircraft that were stationed in the Pacific region. More than 60 Japanese servicemen were killed, injured or captured. The Japanese Navy also lost five midget submarines and 29 aircraft.

The Japanese military had hoped that the attack on Pearl Harbor would prevent the United States of America from increasing her influence in the Pacific. However, the events in Pearl Harbor actually led to the escalation of World War II. The day after the attack, the United States declared war on Japan and so entered World War II. President Franklin Roosevelt in a speech to Congress stated that the bombing of Pearl Harbor was “a date which will live in infamy”. Shortly afterwards, Germany also declared war on the United States. In the months that followed the attack, the slogan “Remember Pearl Harbor” swept the United States and radio stations repeatedly played a song of the same name.

In 1991, which marked the 50th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States Congress established the Pearl Harbor Commemorative Medal. This is also known as the Pearl Harbor Survivor's Medal and can be awarded to any veteran of the United States military who were present in or around Pearl Harbor during the attack by the Japanese military. The medal can be awarded to civilians, who were killed or injured in the attack.

SYMBOLS

Memorials have been built to remember or to symbolize the day. For example, the USS Arizona Memorial in Pearl Harbor is a marble memorial built over the sunken USS Arizona, which was dedicated in 1962. The memorial remembers all military personnel who were killed in the Pearl Harbor attack. The memorial was designed by architect Alfred Preis, an Austrian-born resident who lived in Honolulu and was placed at a detainment camp after the Pearl Harbor attack as part of the internment policy of Japanese and German Americans at the time.

Another memorial that commemorates Pearl Harbor Day is the USS Utah, a battleship that was attacked and sunk in Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. A memorial to honor the crew of the USS Utah was dedicated on the northwest shore of Ford Island, near the ship's wreck, in 1972. The ship was added to the National Register of Historic Places and declared a National Historic Landmark in 1989. It is also Utah’s official state ship. Memorabilia, books, and movies about the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 have also been made available to the public over the years.

WHAT WILL WE DO TODAY?

Today my boys will be learning about Pearl Harbor. I've downloaded a couple of video segments from Discovery Education that will give them some insight on the attack ... these are just a few minutes in length. I also have FDR's speech he made to congress that we will listen to today. After that we'll watch National Geographic's "Pearl Harbor: Legacy of Attack" which is narrated by Tom Brokaw on Netflix. This had a nice review from another homeschooler with boys close in age as my own. I'll let you know how it goes.

I'm also going to see if the boys will sit for the movie "Pearl Harbor" ... I'm pretty sure I have that one. That may be a little too much though! :) If they won't I'll still be watching it.

My thoughts and prayers go out to our service men and women everyday, but especially on a day like today.

Emotional Examples

Guilty as charged!

How many times have I allowed current stressful circumstances to lure me into thinking my present situation is more important than my boys' future???

How many times have I been annoyed by the the sounds or actions of my boys and then reacted out of fustration rather than realizing that my actions as a parent will affect the adult lives of my boys???

How often do we find ourselves reminding our children to speak respectfully to their siblings, us parents, and other adults ... then turn around and speak disrespectfully to them ... or to our spouse???

We see them throw a tantrum and with a contorted screwed up face we angrily exclaim ... YOU NEED TO CONTROL YOUR ANGER!!! UGGGGHH!!!

We tell our children that God does not want us to hold grudges or unforgiveness in our hearts ... and at the same time we are giving our husband the 'slient treatment' for telling us the truth ... when we didn't want to hear it.

Are we not also guilty of occasionally being too lazy ... or self-absorbed ... to discipline offenses in which we know we should??? Or just the opposite ... disciplining for "offenses" when were in a bad mood ... things we would normally not mind???

How often do we parents forget our focus??? We tend to focus on the now rather than the what will come. It's just too easy to get wrapped up in the overwhelming day to day of life and to convince ourselves that keeping up with the laundry or dishes or yard work or whatever is more important than training our children for their adult lives.

When we look at our daily behavior from the perspective of our children's future ... are we setting the right emotional examples for them??? Are we rearing emotionally sound human beings ... or creating little emotional train wrecks??? Annoying childhood behaviors can become detrimental adult behaviors if we don't "nip them in the bud" now! If our children find whining to be a valuable tool in getting their way ... they will continue to whine into adulthood and an adult whiner isn't pretty!!! If our children are chronic complainers ... you can pretty much bet that their future spouses will spend a lifetime of listening to constant negative words ... or won't spend their lifetime with that person at all. These are some of the behaviors that we as parents are responsible for curbing in order to eliminate adult grief for our children.

While supplying the physical needs of our children is a very important part of our job as a parent ... providing character training is far more important!!!

This is just something I've been thinking about lately.

Cyber Monday

Don't miss Currclick's Cyber Monday Sale! You get 10 items totally FREE (who doesn't like free???)! Eight of them on Currclick.com and 2 on their Facebook page.

 

Plus their Stocking Up Your Shelves sale starts today also. 1000's of homeschool items are discounted up to 75% off!!!

Thanksgiving Day Disasters

Well I hope you all had a safe and happy Thanksgiving!

Our day was most certainly NOT a typical Thanksgiving!!! It seemed that every time you turned around something else went wrong that day.

It all started with not getting up on time. Mike and Nick both had to work Thursday night due to the Black Friday sales, so I wanted to get the turkey on by 6 am so that we would be ready to eat by 1 pm. I didn't get up till 7:30 though, so the turkey went in 2 hours late.

No biggie ... we'll eat at 3 pm instead ... still plenty of time to take a nap. J

A few hours after the turkey had been cooking it was time to pretty much start everything else. Zach and Nick made egg noodles the day before and I was putting them into the pot. As I went to grab another handful of noodles off the pan the wax paper they were on went “poof”! I had gotten the wax paper too close to the burner and it was on fire!!! **Do you know your first instinct is to blow the fire out? I think that comes from blowing out birthday candles. J **  WARNING: Do NOT blow on wax paper if it’s on fire!

Zach and I were cracking up at this point, hurrying to get the noodles off the pan and thrown into the pot, and then dashing to the door to throw the pan outside. I’m sure we looked as silly as we felt. We managed to save the noodles without any bodily harm.

Mashed potatoes, gravy, green beans, deviled eggs … these all went well.

Time to take the turkey out of the oven so that the sweet potatoes, rolls, and pies could all have their turn in the oven. So out comes the turkey and we turn the heat up on the oven and wait for it to preheat. And wait. And wait. And wait. The oven doesn’t seem to want to get any hotter. Actually it seems to be cooling off. L 

Mike! To my dismay my husband can’t figure out why the oven isn’t working. But then he spots the problem. The heating element in the bottom of the oven in burnt in two!!! What!?! I have more stuff to cook!

Good thing I was talking with Nana when we figured the stove wasn’t working. She reminded me that we had a little oven thing (it’s a rotisserie/oven thing … I don’t know what you call that) that I could put stuff in.

So the turkey went back in the oven to help it keep warm, the mashed potatoes went in the microwave on the keep warm setting, and the egg noodles just sat on the stove top … they can be reheated. In go the sweet potatoes to the little oven thingy. The breaker kicks. Oh! That’s right, I can only run extra appliance at a time. Ok, so the microwave is turned off and the sweet potatoes are on again. This little oven thingy is only big enough to cook one thing at a time.

30 minutes later … sweet potatoes come out … stuffing goes in … 30 minutes after that stuffing comes out … rolls go in. 15 minutes later oven thingy gets turned off.  Microwave gets started to warm up the potatoes, noodles get turned back on to warm them up.

Table gets set, Mike carves the turkey, say prayer and eat. Finally! J The younger boys are loving all the Thanksgiving Day dinner stuff I had on the table. I made a menu this year and they thought it was great and wanted to order like they were in a restaurant. I have pictures of our table below.

We’re talking about what everyone is grateful for, eating our dinner (and yes it is dinner time by the time we did get to eat), so thankful the replacement part for the oven is less than $20 J, and just really enjoying ourselves.

Then pie is mentioned! Ack!!! I forgot to start the pies! So half way through dinner the first pie goes into the oven thingy. It’ll be at least an hour before it’s cooked and then it has to have time to cool off. Only 1 pumpkin pie got made. At least we were able to have some before the younger boys went off to spend the night with Nana and Pawpaw. Mike and Nick had to work that night. Zach, Alex, and I were shopping (that’s another story).

All in all … we had a good Thanksgiving. Didn’t go as planned, but we were altogether, we are all happy & healthy, the oven lasted at least as long to get the turkey fixed (no way it would have fit in that little oven) and we had plenty of food to eat.

Even though it didn’t go as planned … we were thankful for what we did have … and that’s really what Thanksgiving is all about anyhow! J

Ok ... maybe I won't have pictures of our table ... it doesn't seem to be working for me now.

Happy Thanksgiving

I just wanted to say ...

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!!