Lots of stuff going on...

Hello out there to anyone that hasn't totally given up on me and this blog thing!

Hope you all had a fun and peaceful Christmas and New Year. We had lots of down time due to my Mom's emergency gall bladder surgery. Praise God it wasn't the heart attack that they originally thought she was having. Just a little too many Krispy Kreme's and a gallstone stuck in her bile duct! OUCH!

We have had quite an eventful first few weeks of the year. Becca and Darby both had birthdays, three and six respectively...

Everyone is back in school now, including me! Becca is now enrolled in a small 1/2 day program two days a week and loving it! One day when Derek dropped her off the teacher asked if she was ready to do karate! As you can see from the picture, she needs no help with the sassiness and I am not sure karate it going to make that situation any better for us in the discipline department! HAHA

On the days that Becca is in school, so am I. God has really shown his power to us in the last few months. He has made it possible for me to return to school at no cost and worked everything out schedule-wise too!

Monday and Wednesdays I have morning and night classes. I get out 2 1/2 hours before Becca does and can run errands, do homework or goof off sweetie-free during that time. (Call me if you want to do lunch!) Derek is coming home 30 minutes earlier on these days also so we do not incur any additional childcare costs. I try to have baths and dinner done before he gets in so we can eat a quick bite all together and then I can jet!

All of my classes are early childhood education based this semester and very interesting. Class time seems to go by too fast because of all the neat stuff I am learning. It is tons of fun and beneficial in to my mothering also. In my creative arts for children class we made colored rice. I brought it home thinking that the girls would not be interested and it would end up in the trash. Boy was I wrong! There is now multi-colored rice all over my kitchen floor but it can be easily swept up. The peace and quiet that small bag of rice has provided for me is worth WAY more than the $1 that it cost! All three play for hours scooping it up with spoons, squishing it in their hands and pouring it from one cup to another. It is really a great rainy or too cold day project!

Here is the "recipe" for those of you that are interested:

Colored Rice

1 bag white or brown rice (Colors will be more bold with white rice)

Food coloring (a few drops will do)

1 cap rubbing alcohol

Place rice and alcohol in bag and add food coloring sparingly. Squish around to ensure that color is evenly distributed on all grains of rice.

Be prepared to get the food coloring on your hands. No matter how careful I am, I always end up with multi-colored fingers too! It will wear off over time, doing dishes seems to help!

Gotta run for now. The sweeties are at MawGrand's house spending the night and Derek and I both have homework to do. Tax stuff for him and summarizing an article on infant brain development for me! The sad part about it is, we both really enjoy these things! We are such geeks!