Carnival of Kid Comedy #27

It’s a fast and furious carnival again! My computer is giving me about 10 minutes between stops, so no pleasantries!
Thanks to Why Homeschool for hosting last week and presenting a call for submissions this week as well! Next week’s edition will be hosted by our own Kittykait on her newly redesigned blog. If you haven’t popped over to give her a pat on the back, please do so. She loves the company and she did a great job!

• Urailak Liljequist presents Living for God – Do you know your level of energy? – Homeschoolblogger.com posted at Maureen O’Brien.
• Steve Walden presents My 3 Year-Old Comedienne posted at Walden’s Wits.
• Patricia presents 15 Signs An Adult Is Stuck Thinking Or Acting Like A 3-Year-Old posted at A Better You Blog.
• Dana presents My daughter seems a little confused. posted at Principled Discovery.
• Rocket presents Concerning Hobbins posted at The Rocketman’s Change For A Dollar.
• From Dana, I snagged Cute Phrases from my 9 Year Old
• Mary at Owlhaven shared A joke compliments of my 4 year old
• Shannon learned a bit of Humility this weekend

Whew! So far, so good! Now to hit the publish button and say a little prayer…

Oh happy day! (potty training)

Our Little Red is eating lots of potty candy these days.
She has been using the potty on occasion for the last few weeks. Mostly she uses it for gas. Yes, that gets candy too, since she is recognizing some sort of imminent bodily function. I want to teach her to play it safe on this stuff.
Yesterday I encouraged her to use it when she woke up. She actually peed (hurrah!) and was cheered and received her candy.
I went out on a limb and casually left her diaper off, and she told us when she needed to go again. This was unprecedented for her! Hurrah and candy!
She peed just once on the floor and had absolutely no more accidents all day. I put her in a diaper for nap, but she woke up dry 2 hours later and went right to the bathroom.
Hurrah and candy!
Her “potty candy” is white chocolate chips. We happen to have an abundance of these right now, so it works. After peeing in the potty all day and receiving her white potty candy, she spotted me eating some of my secret stash: Hershey’s Special Dark Chocolate Chips.
“Is that your potty candy, Mommy? Did you poop in the potty?”
We’re not going to analyze that statement too much, OK? I have to mention, though, that she specifically requested some of my potty candy after her first bowel movement of the day.

Now – don’t hate me for this – she slept in a diaper and woke up dry, asking to go potty.
No, you can’t have her. She’s mine. And today, she’s getting her very own brand new package of Winnie the Pooh panties.

Old pic, just for fun

and because I’m having a little trouble finding the camera cable to post a new pic of my 4 month old Little Guy.
Here is a photo of me sometime before my first birthday.

We have an entire row of framed First Birthday pictures in our dining room, beginning with Hubby and going all the way down to the baby – though he’s only 3mo in his picture, of course. Does anyone else do something like this?
I love to be able to compare baby faces and see who resembles whom in our house, and the first birthday seems like the perfect time to see a combination of a person’s baby face and their “real” face.
It’s also fun when people come to visit and try to guess who’s who on our Wall of Fame, until it dawns upon them that we are all in order. Or until I jump the gun and tell them so.

Cold weather breakfast

We love to use the oven in the morning when we wake up to a cold house. We had some old hot dog buns in the bread basket that weren’t likely to get used, so here’s what we had this morning. Amounts are approximate. You can make it with less eggs, but they make the protein content higher for more “staying power.”

Baked French Toast, fast and easy style

8-10 slices of bread or equivalent amount of buns, muffins, etc. Stale is fine!
1/2 cup brown sugar or honey, or to taste
8 eggs
6 cups milk
cinnamon & nutmeg

Break up bread into a greased 9 x 13. Sprinkle with brown sugar or honey. Beat eggs, stir in milk and pour over bread. Sprinkle with cinnamon and nutmeg.
Let sit a bit or overnight so bread can soften and begin to soak up liquid.
Bake 45 minutes at 350 degrees or until puffy in the middle.
Serve warm with a tall glass of milk.

I think she missed the point

After the girls and I watched this over and over and discussed the implications, 6yo Natalie seems to have missed the point. She announced that she wants to do that when she grows up.

Kaitlyn’s blog

Go have a look at what my very talented 11yo did with the template to my blog, a little html knowledge, and the Paintbrush program that comes with Microsoft Windows.
And she even got her math done today. I love homeschooling.

Dry erase markers

Dry erase markers,
How do I love thee?
Let me count the ways:
You clean up so easily
Your colors are vivid
I can use you on so much more than just the white board…

I know where to get a 4-pack of dry erase markers (black or assorted) for $.99 and free shipping. Do you?
Use Spoofee to find a nice selection of $.99 office supplies at Staples.com, and join their (free) Rewards Program to get free shipping on any order, any time!
Consider the binder clips too – they make great, durable chip clips that don’t get brittle and break in the freezer. I use them on bags of shredded cheese, nuts, brown sugar, animal crackers, etc.
Be sure to follow the ordering instructions on the Spoofee link above or else you’ll be charged regular retail prices rather than $.99. Also, watch the shipping – it may take a call to customer service to get the free shipping in place. But it’s worth it!

So I guess Spoofee is my Frugal Friday tip. We check it every morning for amazing deals!
Check Crystal’s blog for more tips or to contribute your own.

While we’re on the subject of free shipping, rumor has it that Overstock.com is also offering free shipping on any order through 10/30.
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BTW, Sunday is the last day to use the free shipping CBD coupon code, so hurry if you’re going to use it. You can find it at my Shoelaces blog.
I’ve also posted several new reviews and moved things around a bit. Drop in and let me know what you think!

Yes, I’m famous

Hubby has prevailed upon me to toot my own horn and mention that Doug Phillips posted a photo of Lydia and me on his blog. The reason for said horn tooting is to direct inquiring minds toward the Live-blog Labor that so impressed Mr. Phillips.
Here is a good place to start, although you might just want to read the entire June archive to build up the suspense. Yes, I had a lot of stop-and-start/false labor.
I’ve also added a link to the labor in my sidebar under the header Just For Fun, along with a few other fun items.

Film festival celebrities

This year we had the privilege of rubbing elbows with quite a few celebrities in our little world:
Mr. Charlie Zahm sang ballads in his kilt again, with that amazing baritone voice, including a new one about the Alamo. Becca didn’t seem to mind the kilt much this year.
We sat at a table and talked with George Sarris (check out his blog, Engage the Culture) and his lovely wife – such friendly people and the parents of 5 children – they fit right into our group! We introduced the children to them and Mr. Sarris launched into a short impromptu performance from Acts based upon our daughter Lydia’s name.
The children absolutely love Mr. Sarris’s performances. Even the 2yo is riveted, and I love that he uses the text of the Bible word for word. You can hear samples of his work here, and just try to imagine seeing him in real life – his gestures are even more expressive than his voice when he performs!
Mr. Sarris has generously offered to send us a CD for review, so look for our review on the Shoelaces blog soon!
We sat and talked to Brett and Alex Harris, who made waves last year by live-blogging the Film Festival. Of course they did it again this year, posting videos, summaries and photos of many of the highlights!
We visited with our friends Pat and Sandy Roy, the creators and writers of the amazing Jonathan Park series. I can’t say enough about their series: it’s a crash course in creation science, packed full of scientific facts and rebuttals for evolutionary nonsense, all ready-packaged for children’s consumption. This is guilt-free entertainment at its finest!
We met the Carpenters, who made the film A Journey Home, which took awards last year.

Our girls stalked film celebrities, most notably Miss Human of the 2004 Audience Choice winner, Washington’s Cross. It took watching their winning film this year for the children to learn to call her by her real name. This is another very talented couple working together to impact the entertainment industry to God’s glory!

Homemade gift ideas

Thanks to Meredith for the link to Homemade Gift idea exchange, complete with Mister Linky so you can contribute your own. GiBee has some beautiful ideas of her own and I’m sure she’ll have a plethora of participants sharing theirs too.
One of my favorites is a unique and longterm project – not all are like this, so don’t let it scare you!

The mother had purchased [a Bible] new, and read through the Bible in one year, making “mom notes” in the margins, written especially from mother for daughter, about her favorite passages, spiritual yearnings, memories of how a biblical truth was learned, or various people who embodied certain attributes of god.
She gave the Bible to her daughter with a Scripture Reading Plan so the daughter would have the Bible read by her 18th birthday (5 year plan).
This is also an excellent gift for kids going off to college, leaving the house for their own place, or getting married — not only did the daughter receive insight and special notes from her mother’s heart, but she also received a guide for getting into the Word every day. Yes, it takes some planning on your part, but it’s a gift that will be treasured for years and years.

Actually I do have an idea for gifts to our extended family – semi homemade gifts that will require more time than money. That’s the problem with having family read your blog: I can’t share my idea til after Christmas.
Hi Grandpa and Grandma!