Making a Light Hut

The kids made a light hut for science. This is for growing herbs and plants indoors. So here they are lining the inside of a large box with foil:
We put a fluorescent bulb at the top with a little light socket and extension cords. Here's the box finished:

The kids planting their seeds:
Nicole's planting peppermint, William's planting lemon balm, and Josiah's planting calendula. These will be harvested later and used to make homemade soap.

Here are the pots in their new home.
All tucked in.

We use Apologia Elementary Botany course. The kids seem to like it, so far. We haven't used it as faithfully as I'd like, but I'm hoping to make up for it with this semester. Kind of hard to do some of the projects when we travel so much. But anyways...

Random Pictures

Caleb sweeping.
Nicole working on her blog.
The boys cleaning out the van.
Some 100% whole wheat bread I made. (That's butter on the bread.)

Cold, Rainy, and an Accident

It's been cold and rainy the past few days. Can it be true? Cold in south Texas? Yes, it's true...I don't lie. But I like the rain. It hadn't rained in a while, so it's been nice for a little change. The cold can go, though. Oh, well, it'll be gone soon enough.

On another note, Caleb was rough-housing with Josiah in our room and got himself a nice little owie. He hit his face on our bed frame (the metal frame under the mattresses). Ouch! Poor baby. :( Just like the cold, it'll be gone soon enough.

Ice Cream Cone Cupcakes

My grandmother gave me a cookbook, The Cake Mix Doctor. Cool cookbook. I've been letting the kids pick out some recipes to bake. Josiah picked the Ice Cream Cone Cupcakes. You bake the cake mix inside the cone and then frost. They look like ice cream cones. Too cute. So, here's the pictures.

Back from Louisiana

We're back from our stay in Louisiana. It ended up being longer than expected, but that was o.k. since we were able to do some things we wouldn't have been able to do otherwise. I hadn't been back to Louisiana to visit family for a couple of years, and Keith even longer than that. It was so fun to be back in the area again.

We were able to visit from my grandparents, some aunts and uncles, and my brother and his wife. And we ate TONS of great food.

Friday we stayed the night with my brother in Lafayette. We got to see his cute house and just hang out with them. Was really fun...cause it's always fun being with my brother. Aaawww. Then Saturday we went on to Houma. My grandmother met us for lunch at Boudreau and Thibodeau's. We ate po'boys (I had shrimp...yum!) and the kids ate beignets for the first time.

We had some meetings to go to, and we also visited with my grandparents (dad's parents) for a few days. They cooked us some great fried shrimp (yum, again!) and also took us to a cool Italian restaurant. See what I mean about all the good food!

Then on Wednesday we took the kids to tour a plantation home with my grandmother (mom's mom). That was really neat. It also had some history of the area. We'll be back again in April, so I would like to take the kids to another plantation that has more plantation style stuff. Does that make sense? :) Here are a few pictures of the plantation.


This is the house where the food was cooked, and the clothes washed. Not bad for just a laundry room and kitchen, huh?

This was a house typical for the slaves.

We had a lot of fun, and we're looking forward to going back.

Happy New Year!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

We spent New Year's Eve doing fireworks like I'm sure everyone else did. The kids really enjoyed it. Here are some pictures from last night's excitement.

Everyone did sparklers.


Even Caleb!


Waiting for something exciting.


There it is!


Today we're just relaxing and enjoying being home. I have a pork roast in the crockpot and we'll be having cabbage and black-eyed peas with it. Not sure what they stand for, but you can't break tradition.

We went to Keith's parents this past weekend. His mom is still in the hospital, so please continue to remember her. She has had a few setbacks, but is slowly getting better. We were able to stay with his dad a few days and give him some company, and I cooked him a couple weeks worth of food and froze it for him. Anything to make it easier on him being without his helpmeet.

We're headed to Louisiana this weekend. Really looking forward to that, as I get to see some of my family.