Inspiring Poem "I Can"

This inspiring poem was shared by my friend Pam Jano from the website Homeschool Hop a wonderful community for spirit-led homeschool moms I found recently, these ladies are truly a blessing to me daily, so much info, freebies, fellowship and wisdom located here. We are working on the Thanksgiving unit studies, hand writing and memory verses this week. I love the groups on this site, so many women of all ages, races coming together for the greater good of educating their children and encouraging each other. Just what Jesus would want us to be doing, showing his love to all. Join us at the Homeschool Hop today!!

Thanks again Pam!!

Giving Thanks: Burlap Scrabble Wreath DIY

I just love this wreath idea that I found on the Living Locurto website from blogger Jen of the tatertotsandjello.blogspot.com blog. It is a Thanksgiving Scrabble Wreath and can be made from simple things you have left over at home, the kids can help out, plus you can add a little spelling lesson in at the same time (Ahhh mom!) You could even do a variation of this theme for other holidays coming up, Christmas with a " Jesus Saves"
New Years, Valentines etc. then coordinate the color of ribbon, interchange the burlap flowers and the tiles for each season and keep the wreath on your door.
Here is what the wreath looks like:

Here’s what you need:

• A wreath form
• Burlap — a 36″ square piece should do
• A few fabric scraps
• Some Scrabble tiles**
• Hot glue and gun
• Two types of coordinating ribbon

**FUN TIP — if you want to make one of these and don’t want to destroy your Scrabble game, you can buy “lots” of Scrabble pieces on eBay or etsy. Or, if you contact Hasbro, you can order a complete replacement set of tiles. It was around $6 for 100 pieces last year.

Here’s what you do:

1. Wrap the wreath with burlap.

Cut two pieces of burlap about 4 inches in width by 36 inches in length. Or, if you have a long piece of burlap you can use a 72 inch strip. Hot glue one end of the strip to the back of the wreath. Then wrap the burlap around your wreath. My wreath form was 12 inches wide, so if you are using a bigger form, you will need a longer piece of burlap. Once the form is wrapped in burlap, set it aside.

2. Make rolled burlap flowers.

 

I made 18 flowers in different sizes. For each flower, you will need a strip of material about 1 inch in width by either 32 inches, 24 inches or 18 inches, depending on how wide you want the flower to be.

Fold the material in half width-wise and then roll it tightly about 8 times. Then add a dab of hot glue and twist the material around the rolled center, adding glue as you roll. The flower will continue to get bigger until you reach the end of the material. Then add some hot glue to the back and glue down the end of the material underneath the flower.

For more in-depth instruction, check out my Rolled Flower Tutorial.

3. Glue Scrabble Tiles to Paper.

Now that you have the flowers made, lay out the scrabble pieces to whatever saying you want to display on your wreath. Then hot glue the tiles onto a piece of paper. Then cut out the tiles, trimming very close to the edges so no paper is showing.

4. Hot glue the Scrabble tiles to the wreath.

5. Hot glue the flowers to the wreath.

Now lay out the rolled flowers on the wreath. Once you are happy with the placement. Hot glue the flowers to the burlap wreath.

6. Cut the two coordinating ribbon for the top of the wreath.

Make a loop of ribbon for the top of the wreath to hang on the door or wall. Then cut another length of the two ribbon and make a bow. Attach the bow at the top of the wreath to the loop.

7. Hang up and enjoy your new wreath!

Thanks Jen! The wreath is fantastic!! Visit Tatertots and Jello for more amazing, crafty tutorials.

Thank you Amy for sharing this on your site, http://www.livinglocurto.com/ Visit for all sorts of fun crafty ideas and printable, I love the kids Thanksgiving party idea on the blog now, might have to share that one also soon. 

~Leslie~~ mommy blogger with 8 arms

Halloween Painted Rocks

I found this really cute and cheap idea on the FamilyCorner.com website for painted rocks for your Halloween decor.
If you are looking for some inexpensive, easy crafts for your kids this Halloween

, head out to your backyard to start the fun. Have the kids hunt around for different shaped rocks. Long, slender rocks for ghosts, oval shapes for spiders, and just about any stout rock will make a great pumpkin!

PUMPKIN
stout, roundish rock                                     
orange tempura paint

black marker
small amount of raffia
3-4 silk leaves
tacky or hot glue
3/4" piece of green chenille stick
bits of Kleenex tissue

The texture of the rock for the pumpkin can be smooth, bumpy, or even jagged, as was in our case. Before you begin, stand the rock up in the position you would like it to be when your craft is complete. Ours was a little tricky, we just leveled him off using the raffia and tissue.

Paint the rock orange and let it dry. Using a black marker, draw on pumpkin's face. Glue silk leaves to the bottom of your pumpkin. Using bits of Kleenex for leveling and bunches of raffia, glue rock onto "straw bed". Top off your pumpkin rock with green chenille for the stem by folding in half and gluing on top of pumpkin's head.

GHOST long, slender rock
white tempura paint
black marker
handful of cotton batting
tacky or hot glue
white glitter glue

Paint rock white and let dry. Draw face onto ghost with black marker. Glue cotton batting to the bottom of the rock to give the appearance of a ghostly trail following him. Smear white glitter glue down the sides of the ghost.


SPIDER
oval rock
black tempura paint
pair of wiggle eyes
6-8 12"-long black chenille sticks
red glitter glue
small piece of paper plate or white paper
scissors
tacky or hot glue

Paint rock black and let dry. Wrap chenille sticks around body to secure legs in place. Bend sticks to form legs. Glue chenille sticks in place on the bottom of the rock. Glue on two wiggle eyes. Cut little fangs from paper plate or paper and, using red glitter glue, glue onto rock-face, underneath wiggle eyes. use red glitter glue to create a few drops of blood on fangs and paint around mouth to finish up.




Editor's Note: Be sure to keep these cute crafts out of the reach of small children under the age of 3 years. Wiggle eyes can be easily removed and swallowed, or worse yet, choked upon.

Imagine the other holiday possibilities you can make with those rocks that might be laying around in your yard, put those kids to work making some cheap decorations for your front porch and walkway, spray them with clear coat to shine and be waterproof. 

Have fun !!

Ms Leslie ~~

Up Up and Away

Just how far do you think a drifting balloon will travel? Is it even worth the try?
My husband and I have thoroughly enjoyed teaching vacation bible school at Woodlawn each year now for several years. For 3 yrs now we have let our 3rd graders let go of balloons in a little mini-ceremony in our church courtyard. Each balloon is tied with a string that has a tag with the instructions to please call or email if found so our children will know how far the balloon may have traveled. The ABC's of how to become a Christian are also on the card A=Admit  B=Believe C= Confess, so that if someone finds the card and is not saved they may come to know Jesus. We explain to the kids why we let the balloons go and pray for whomever may find one of them.
Our balloons have traveled as far as Georgia and Tennessee and we delight getting emails all summer from our church secretaries. This year our "Balloon ceremony" was on June 29th 2010, and we received this email from our VBS director today. It gave me chills to read it and know that God's hand was already at work, even thru a small bird.
~~~~~~~~

Hi,

 My name is Dawn Doty and I live in the northern part of Durham, NC.  I am married and have two children, ages 22 and 17.  The 17-year old is going to be a senior in high school and the 22-year-old attends the School of Engineering at State.  We are a Christian family and love the Lord very much.

On July 1^st, my husband and I spotted a long, white string with a card on it in a tree near our driveway.  We could see that a balloon had popped, but the string was too high in the tree for us to reach it, even with a ladder.  We were wondering how we could get that high up in the tree when all of a sudden, a robin flew into the tree and started pulling on the string.  He sure did like that string because he came back several more times to pull on the string.  After about a half hour of the robin playing with the string, the string fell to the ground and we were able to read the card.  We were amazed to find out that the balloon had been released in Conover, NC, which is quite far from Durham! 

The fact that the balloon had been released so far away, got stuck in a tree in our yard (of all the trees and yards it could have gotten stuck in!), and a bird – the robin – helped make the string and the card fall to the ground for us to see, was evidence to us of God’s work.  What would be the likelihood of all these things happening by chance?  I think God told the robin to loosen that string so that we could read the card and think about God, and how the balloon came to us, and about the child at a vacation Bible school class who released the balloon into the air. 

 Even though there are many miles between us, this shows that those who truly love Jesus are never far apart in their hearts! 

Thank you and God bless, 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Our Homeschool yearbook picture 2009-2010

 As you can tell this homeschooling mom also has the photography and digital scrapbooking fever, I have given up my glue and scissors for my mouse and Photo-shop Elements 7. I can't just post a plain picture without adding some color and elements to it. Our home school association puts together a yearbook for all the families in the area that are interested, the top digi scrap is a recap of our year. We celebrated the birth of a driver as Mr K turned 16, we saw Miss S loose both of her 2 front teeth and Miss L get more and more sassy as usual. We also mourned the loss of our "Papaw Tom" (my daddy) as he lost his long battle with cancer. Being a homeschooling family made it all the more easy to spend his last days at his bedside and let the kids say their goodbyes and "I love you's". Our family has only grown and came closer together since we started homeschooling, I don't think that we would ever be able to do it any other way.

~~~Leslie~~

Beautiful day for memories

April 9th we traveled to South Carolina to the Medical School of USC for the annual memorial service for those families that chose to donate their loved ones body to science. This was my father's choice to help others and let his legacy live on thru the hands of a doctor that might just be the one to help find a cure for cancer or just treat patients that have cancer with extra care. The "gift of body" program at the USC medical school was such a blessing to our family, they took care of everything the night my father passed on to his next destination, at the foot of Jesus. My mother did not have any expense to worry about, they even sent all the family a thank you card for our "gift".
Here are a few pictures of the Memorial garden that is on the campus of USC in Columbia S.C. and a few of the kiddos.

 

Below is the long hallway that the students travel going to class's, we walked these hall's from the memorial service in the chapel to the garden's where they had a reception for the families and we were able to go see the memorial garden. The wall in the garden contains the remains that have been cremated after they are done with all medical studies. Each medical school class is represented on this wall, and a book is there with the listing of your family member and the year in it. You will notice "Thomas G Conway Sr" is listed for the year 2009.

 

The young man in the picture below was actually one of my dad's first "Awana" kids at church, he is now a medical student at USC and part of the "gross anatomy" class that might have worked with my dad's body.

My mom (on the left) and our family friend Ms Rachel had a wonderful talk with him at the reception.

 

A happy note at the end of the day :) 

Thank you for letting me share, it was a tough day for all of us, my family all came and it was even my middle brother's birthday ;( My dad would have been proud.

Smile!! you are on camera....again :)

A handsome smile!
A missing my front tooth smile!
Puppy dog birthday smile!
All different, but so much the same grinning kiddos

And one "getting her groove on St patty's day grandma smile!
Love it!

~~Growing up, oh so fast....

As I remember the day that my oldest child was born, some 16 years ago, I shed tears now thinking of how small, sweet and wonderful he was. The sweet smell of little baby boy was almost intoxicating and I was instantly in love with a 5 pound 15oz bundle of joy, even though he screamed constantly, wanted to eat every hour on the hour and spit up on me for the entire first year of his life. We move forward way to fast and before I knew it he was taller than me, now driving and going to his first big event with a young lady. I embrace the teen years now with reluctance, my emotions are changing daily and I want my baby back.....now!
Below are some recent pictures of K driving ( after mommy got off the hood of the car) and he and his beautiful date to the Newton-Conover High School Military ball (Miss T is a Jr-ROTC cadet), they look so good all dressed up.

B

~~ Leslie (sappy mom of the year) :)

~~ Barn owl watching~~

Our new obsession is watching this pair of barn Owls named "Molly and Mcgee" in their "owl box". The kids and I have been learning all about barn owls and incorporating this into our lessons each day. I am working on some lapbooking and notebooking projects they can use also. Hope to share these here soon. Stay tuned~~

Leslie aka "mommy owl-o-holic

Snowfun January 2010

A little digi scrap of our fun day outside

Spoiled rotten piggies, the bottom step was hidden beneath the snow

Got to feed to birdies and the squirrels some food

Goofy goober did not want her picture taken

This pink diva was throwing snowballs at me :)

On January 29, 2010 it began to snow, by morning we had a thick blanket of white stuff

all over our yard, totally 11 inches in some spots. What a mess, I am so ready for spring, but these girls have had a blast outside everyday playing in the snow.

The weatherman is even calling for more ice and rain tonight, yuck. This busy mom has to work the next 2 days and drive in it. More pictures to come soon.

Snowed in~~~~ Leslie