Introducing.......

We have a new family member! I would like to introduce you to Cali Rose!

Lil Momma Strouse

Scientific vs Spiritual

Homeschool science review usually leads into a discussion between creation and the big bang theory. I am not talking about the TV show either. We at least in our house it leads to this type of discussion. With the resurrection celebrations coming up this weekend. We talked about scientific belief vs spiritual faith.

We are reminded that just because we can not see it, does not mean it is not there or real. Went trying to explain God and our belief to our youngest children we use the example of air. Air is all around us, we don't see it but it is there. We can feel it in the form of wind but we can not see it. You don't see God, but he is there. You can feel him in your heart. Another example would be history. We did not live in the medevial times, were kings and queens, knights and castle where the normal. The same goes for the time when Jesus walked the earth. We did not live it but it still happened. The bible is our history book.

How do you explain or review the not seen but it exist to your young children?

Lil Momma Strouse

Go Fish!

Today in our homeschool elementary we have enjoyed one of our favorite games.

 This seems to be a popular game in our house right now.

I love that my two youngest like to play together. It make my heart over flow when I see all of my kids playing a game like this together!

Lil Momma Strouse

Florida Weather

Florida did not want to participate in the COLD weather in Florida during December.

O, but it is catching up with some freezing weather in January. 

It has really given our kids some great weather lessons.  We have learned about all kinds of energy sources. 

They have gone to bed with the a/c on and woken up to have the heat on. 

ONLY in Florida! 

Lil Momma Strouse

Fun Stuff!!

We have been doing all kinds of fun stuff this week.  In our area this is Spring Break week for the public schools. Since the youth group Biggun goes to had a great mission trip planned for the first three days of the week. We chose to go ahead and take the week off and let him help out with that. You know we homeschoolers never get to "socialize" (Said with a evil smile on my face.)

The Pipeline (youth group) did a great job locally. They helped a family rehab a house that was needed the help, they did work around the church - washed windows and things like that then finished their time off with helping a church members family member move. They did a lot of "Jesus work." I am very proud of all 35 students.

As for the littles, we used this week to have fun doing Easter projects. Speaking of Easter, we have never been a family to do the Easter Bunny, Santa, tooth fairy and so on. My kids think of it all as being just cartoon characters. We watched the movie The Guardians. If you are not familiar with this movie, the guardians are all the cartoon versions of the holidays, such as Santa, Easter Bunny, Tooth Fairy and the Sand Man.  They all guard over the children and keep them happy. The Boogie Man is also called Pitch, is back and wants to take all the kids happiness and give them nightmares. Then there is Jack Frost that kids do not know about or understand but he keeps giving kids snow days. You see all the cartoon characters in this movie. We watched this movie and after the movie my two littles (age 4 and 6) could not stop talking about Easter. But not what you are thinking. They could not stop talking and asking questions about Jesus on the cross, in the tomb, and how can he be in our hearts and in heaven.  It is amazing to see how they took "Holiday" talk and remembered that it was not about the cartoon version but about our Jesus. Makes this Lil Momma's heart just beam.


What else did we do.....

Oh we made stain glass crosses and stain glass butterflies out of tissue paper, wax paper and liquid starch.

Since we had the liquid starch out we also attempted to make slime. It did not work correctly but the kids still had a blast playing in it.

We sang educational songs and played educational games on the computer. What a great week! Can't wait to see what next week has in store for us.


Lil Momma Strouse

Life is like a a big Fill In the Blank.

My life fills like a big fill in the blanks game. My kids seem to always to always ask questions that I have to fill in the blanks on. Questions like when we stand outside and look up at the sky and I hear The sky is __________, what is it Mom. You know the word.

Then there is doing letters with Honey and she keeps asking me. " I know that S is in my name but are _______________ letters in my name.  Sometimes she will come up w/ some strange letters in that blank like Z.

My favorite fill in the blank questions to get are about God or Jesus.  The innocence of a 5 and 4 year old can really make a 37 year old Mom think.  Like Mom, where there ______________ at the stables when Jesus was born. Some of those fill in words might be rats, penguins or even lions. Or what about "Mom, Jesus was wrapped in cloth before put in the cave with the big rock. Was that cloth __________. Fill in that one with any color you can imagine.
It is times like that I want to do lapbooking with my littles to help them with the understanding of God's word.


Below is a picture that has nothing to do with this post but I sure thought it was cute.....

Lil Momma Strouse

My Mom - Interview with Biggun

Camara over at Winging It did interviews with 4 of her kids. I liked this idea.  I am going to do this interview with Biggun and might do one with Honey too.

Biggun is 12 years old.

1. What is something mom always says to do?
"Don't forget.... list chores"
2. What makes mom happy?
Kids being quiet.
3. What makes mom sad?
Kids not following directions 

4. How does your mom make you laugh?

By being weird, I mean being yourself. 

(yes he actually said that)

5. What was your mom like as a child?
A brat.

(where does he get these things?)

6. How old is your mom?
36

(Yup!)

7. How tall is your mom?
5 foot 2 inches

8. What is her favorite thing to do?
Crochet and facebook
9. What does your mom do when you’re not around?
She does my stuff I normally do around the house (chores).

10. What is your mom’s favorite food?
Gamma's homemade fried chicken.

(Oh yeah next to chocolate.)

11. Where is your mom’s favorite place to go?
Her Girl Time dates with her friends once a month. 

(good guess that does rate up there.)

12. What is your mom really good at?
Crocheting and typing on the computer.
13. What is your mom not very good at?
NOT talking.

(he is saying I talk a lot)

14. What does your mom do for a job?
Office work

15. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for?
Making a website and google buying it from her for millions of dollars. 

(oohh I like that idea.)

16. What makes you proud of your mom?
Being able to admit that she makes mistakes. 

(aaahhh I am glad he see's that.)

17. If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be?

Photo credit to My Mummy Daze

18. What do you and your mom do together?
School work

19. How are you and your mom the same?
We both have a sense of humor.

20. How are you and your mom different?
She is weird and I am not. (Isn't he nice. See 19.)

21. How do you know your mom loves you?
By encouraging me to do my best.

Lil Momma Strouse

ABC's of Homeschooling -- N

This weeks letter is "N" 

 "N" is for Noise. 

My house is always NOISY.  Between the littles playing and well fighting, too. Moose screams like a girl and Honey whines very loudly.  Biggun on the computer doing his school work, playing math games or playing mindcraft. Oh, then there is when Biggun is practicing his bass guitar. 

The TV is always on in our house even if it is on the news channel or on PBS it seems it is always on.

Did I mention the NOISE the dogs make, too. Yes I said dogs as in plural! We have 2 dogs. When one barks the other barks too. 

Add the phone ringing and the fax machine going off for my husbands work.  It is always NOISY in my house.  People wonder why I stay up so late at night, after the kids go to bed. It is because that is the only time that this house is NOT NOISY! 

But wait as I sit here writing this blog I realize it is not really my house that is NOISY but my family is NOISY.  We can't go on a walk with the littles in their jogging strollers with out them making NOISES (I don't mean talking I mean NOISES like barking and squealing) 

This is also the reason why my son, Biggun, gets up early before everyone else and does his school work. For the quiet. Sometimes we can do roadschooling and still deal with the NOISE it just depends on where we are going. 

Stop by TheMommaKnows.com to find out what others say about the letter N. 

Lil Momma Strouse

Christmas Wrap Up!

Christmas has come and gone.  How did ours go. Pretty good and I hope that your's went good also.

Here is our Christmas in pictures.

Making Christmas Cards

Making Birthday Cake for Jesus, we changed up the story a little this year. 

Multi color swirls to represent all the DIFFERENT people in the world. 

White icing to represent how pure Jesus is. 

Kisses to represent the love that God has for all of us that he sent his son.

The candle that is lit and never blown out like the love that God has for us will NEVER fail. 

On Christmas Day there was Christmas at church where the kids had a party in children's church. 

We had a wonderful sermon, I will share some of that in a different post.

When we got home we finally let the kids open gifts. 

Top Gift pictures are below...

This was the face of, "You had me clean my room and make room for a stool?"

Only to find out later on in the day when Aunt C and J came over that this was the true reason for making room in his room.

Honey asked for a PINK guitar, here is what she got! Thanks Nana you did a great job on this find.

One of Mooses many favorite toys.

I got the cutest bee slippers!!! LOVE THEM! 

There are so many pictures in my Christmas 2011 file that I can't post them all.  I hope your Christmas Wrap Up was just as wonderful as mine. Blessings to all.

Christmas Traditions.

Every family has Christmas Traditions. Last year I did a 4 part series on listing our traditions. Check them out.

Part One - 3D Christmas Art (baby)

Part Two - Hand Made Christmas Stockings 

Part Three - Gift From God in the tree. 

Part Four - Birthday Cake for Jesus

This year I saw to late to implement but would love to maybe next year what Amy over at Raising Arrows  Thanksgiving Stockings. I love the idea. 

This year we started a new tradition to add to the other four. We made our own Christmas Cards. The kids made two different designs.  One was of their finger prints making Christmas Lights and one of a scarp book paper Christmas Tree. All 3 kids did the Christmas lights but only Honey did the scrapbook Christmas Tree. I found both of those ideas on Pinetrest. I will have to look for new cards for next year. 

Wordless Wednesday 11-9-11

Love the way she is dressed.

Love her self expression.

Vacation 2011

The Strouse House went on our first family vacation that was not to visit family in 18 years. Where do you go if you live in Florida for vacation? Disney of course!!!

Here are some pics to recap our week of vacation....

Moose was chosen to be the Music Marshall on Main Street for the 3pm parade.

Oh I almost forgot the kids really enjoyed our hotel too.  They LOVED the Splash park that was next to the pool.