What Does a Jet Engine Mechanic Do?

Well, take a look at these photos and maybe you'll get a better idea of what Caleb's job is like.

Here's an engine ready to be worked on.

Look, he's actually working.

I guess they also work on looking cool.

That's a huge plane!

God Helps Me Bible

God Helps Me Bible
In this Children's Bible 25 Bible stories have been retold for young children.  Each story ends with God helped... and states how God helped the main character with his troubles.  The book is hard cover with sturdy pages for little readers.  The illustrations are colorful and full of details which interest young children.  The reading level on the back of the book states that it is for grades 3+ and the book is not suitable for children under 3 years.

I reviewed this Bible with the help of my 3-year old.  He enjoyed the colorful drawings.  I found my older children reading the book to him often.  Each story is 2 pages of text and 2 pages of illustrations and has a Bible reference so you know where the original story is found in your Bible.

The God Helps Me Bible was the perfect size for my little guy to take to church with him.  He enjoyed looking through the book and talking about the illustrations.

Our book has held up well over the last month we have had it.  It still looks like new and we enjoy using it almost every day.

Disclaimer: I received a free book from Kregel Publishers in order to write this review and have shared my honest opinion.

Building Good Soil

Today I'm going to share how I'm building my garden soil.  Below is what our soil looks like before I begin building it. Yeah, mostly sand.  Last year I tried this method on my tomatoes and it worked so well I'm going to use it everywhere.

I dig out where I want my path and set up any permanent structures first.  This is my lazy way of building a raised bed.

Then it's off to the compost pile to get a wheelbarrow load or two per bed.  We buy our compost by the trailer load from a local mulch and compost supply place.  My compost piles are not producing enough compost fast enough.  Maybe after my soil is better I can use all of my own homemade compost.

I spread an inch to three inches on the bed depending on how the bed has been producing.

Then it's off to the trailer to grab some straw.  I hope 6 bales will be enough for all of the vegetable beds and maybe the back flower beds.  If not I'll have to find some more.  Alfalfa is grown in our area so I might experiment with it this year if I run out of straw.

Then I spread it on top of the compost.  Some of my beds have already been planted so the job will take a little longer as I will have to position the straw around the plants.  Below is a covering of hay which was sitting out all last summer and winter so that hopefully I will not have a problem with weed seeds.

Now why would I want to go through all this work?  I'll list some of the benefits I noticed last year when I experimented in one section of my garden.

* The soil stays moist.  I only had to water the tomatoes every 1-2 weeks.  As long as I water deep enough the water will slowly move up the sandy soil as needed.  I was amazed at how well this worked and the surface never developed a hard crust as the uncovered soil did.
* My tomatoes stayed cool enough to produce all summer even when the temp reached 100 and above.  They never even withered.
* The soil looked like I had been building it for years by the fall.
* I used less water and spent less time watering.
* Weeding was easier.  There were less weeds(almost none) and they came up with a gentle pull.  I end up with grass seedlings everywhere but the tomato section only had a few clumps.

This area took about 2 bales to complete.  I have not covered the long strip of peas in the back yet.

And now some pics from last year.  The tomato bed

I see three weeds in this photo

A comparison of weeds on mulched and unmulched soil.

Four weeds vs. uncountable weeds- mulch wins!

And The Winner Is...

Knee Deep in Grace has won the Sarah Macintosh CD.  Congrats!

Four Weeks On The SCD

I didn't lift weights this week but I spent over an hour each day working hard in the garden.

Tomorrow will mark one full month on the Specific Carbohydrate Diet so I will go ahead and report my results today since it is close enough.

First the numbers.
I stated at 173 and now I weigh 166.4.  I have lost 6 inches and gotten into a smaller pants size.  I'm now an 8-10(I'm 5' 10").  I'll detail the inch loss so you can see the overall changes my body went through.
Pecs -.5
Waist -1
1 inch above belly button -.5
Abs -1
Hips -1
Upper thighs -.25 off each
Lower thighs -.5 from each
Calves -.25
Arms nada but they look more toned

Now the symptoms.
My skin looks better and broke out a lot less this month.  I usually have a few pimples crop up on my neck and last for weeks.  I only had one this month and it went away a lot sooner.  My gut is quiet!  And less bloated!  This is a major thing for me.  I've been trying to figure out how much noise a normal gut should make for years.  Now I think I know.  My usual 24+ hour ovulation cramps lasted less than 12 hours and were about half as intense.  My hormones seem to be stabilizing and my hormonal swings were much less severe this month.  I was able to deal with things much better than usual and I had my fair share of stress this month.  After getting through the first week my energy steadily got better until this last week when I felt strong and can work hard.  I spent over an hour in the hot sun working outside in the garden every day and it didn't wipe me out as usual.

Here's a list of what I'm now eating without symptoms.
Yogurt
Gelatin(homemade using mint tea and a little honey)
Chicken broth
Beef broth
Turkey broth
Chicken
Carrots
Honey
Bananas
Acorn squash
Turkey
Butternut squash(I have to keep it to less than 2/3 a cup per meal or I get bloated)
Yellow squash
Beef
Liver
Spinach
Coconut oil
Green beans
Pear
Zucchini
Salmon
Avocado

Everything is well cooked and pureed except for the avocado, winter squash and banana.  I am eating carrot chunks instead of puree now and will try the other veggies well cooked but not pureed when I need to make more.  I've been cooking a big batch of each item and then freezing it in 1-2 day serving sized containers to make the cooking easier.  I just defrost what I need in the fridge and then add it to my broth for each meal.  So each meal is meat, a carb(banana, pear, or squash), and then a mug of broth with veggie puree in it.  Oh, and I also eat 1/2 cup of yogurt with each meal.  I add some to my broth and pour the rest over my meat and veggies.  I'm not too bored with my eating because of how good it is making me feel. I have been craving salt so I'm using Real Salt sprinkled on each meal.

Next week I will talk about my weight loss and health journey over the last four years.  I need to get some photos of how I look now taken to include.  I hate having photos taken so I don't think there are very many before and during photos but I will search my archives and see what I can find.

How did your fit week go?

I'm linking up at Fit Mommy Friday with Annie Kate.

This and That

My son is on his way home to visit as I write this!  Our house is gonna get noisy(noisier?)!  He gets to spend some time working as a recruiter assistant and will be here for about two weeks before he heads to Little Rock, Arkansas where he will start his new job as a jet engine mechanic(I can't remember the fancy Air Force term for his job).  Jacob(second son) graduates from High School while his big bro is here so that worked out perfectly.

Would you visit our house?

I'm preparing my home for visitors as my parents will be coming to stay with us for the graduation.  They bring a trailer which makes it quite a bit easier for me.  I just have to worry about keeping the house picked up and the bathrooms clean.  No, my parents aren't picky about my housekeeping but I would like them to be comfortable.

I almost have the whole veggie garden covered in straw now.  I will be writing about that on Saturday so stay tuned if you're interested.  My arms are getting pretty tan from all the outside work I've been doing.  It feels good to be able to work hard without being in pain as I was last year.  I can't believe how much stronger I am now.  It's awesome!

The children and I are doing school this week and then we will work off and on throughout May as visitors come and go and come back again.  I have lots of Science and History documentaries added to our Netflix instant queue in case I feel their brains are turning to mush.  And I will encourage them to spend a little quiet time in the hot afternoons with a book until it's cool enough to go outside and play again.  I love lazy days.

I wonder if he still has his flashlight?

I'll try to share some pics of my son at work next week so you can see more of what he does.  Sorry, I'm a proud Air Force mom now and I have to brag a bit.  Plus, your boys might enjoy photos of airplanes and engines.  I know mine do.

A flower for you for reading all the way to the end.

And last but not least.  I stepped down from TOS Homeschool Crew and will be posting my last review in May.  I enjoyed my two years on the crew but am looking forward to changing my priorities and taking a break from the constant work of trying new products and writing reviews.  It is a rewarding job and I wouldn't discourage anyone from trying it but I'm ready for a break.

Happy To Help

My three year old vacuuming the dining room

My two youngest boys love to use this mini vacuum.  It is light and easy to push so now they have vacuuming on their chore list once a week.  My youngest children have always loved to help with chores.  They like feeling like a "big kid".  Too bad this desire doesn't last forever!

There's a Latin Teacher in My Living Room!

Did you know Visual Latin is on sale right now?  Well, it is.  And what a great way to get a good deal on this program if you are wanting to add Latin to your homeschool!
Lessons 1-30 DVD - $60 (normally $90)
Lessons 1-40 DVD - $80 (normally $120)
Downloads - $20 (normally $25)

Disclaimer: I am a Visual Latin affiliate so if you buy through my link I do earn a commission.  I decided to become an affiliate after using and loving this program for months with my 14, 12, and 10 year old students.  

I thought I'd show you a little more about how it works.  You pop in a DVD and listen to a lesson.  Each lesson includes three parts(grammar, sentences, and reading) and we listen to one part each day.  Each part of the lesson takes less than 10 minutes to listen to.

After watching our lesson we head back to the schoolroom to work on our worksheet.  Since I will be reusing these later to teach my younger children I like to place the sheets in a page protector and use a dry erase marker to complete them.  Plus, I think my children enjoy their work more this way.

I also complete a worksheet to so I can learn along with my children.  It really is simple and I think Latin is so interesting.  I'm a word person so I love nerding out on where words come from and seeing the origins of common English words in Latin.

I keep all of our worksheets in a binder with two sections, one for the worksheets and one for the answers.  You will also receive a vocabulary list to print out which I keep separately for easy reference.

I hope you enjoyed seeing how we use Visual Latin in our homeschool!  I need to keep things simple and this program works perfectly for me.  Oh, and my 14 year old works on his Latin independently.  How easy is that?

*I should also mention that the instructor is a Christian and he uses a Latin Bible for the reading section of each lesson.  We are familiar with the Bible stories so it makes it easier and more interesting to translate them.  We have translated creation, Cain and Abel, Noah, and a few other stories so far.  I also love this aspect of Visual Latin because it brings something we know about into Latin and gives it more meaning for us.*

Here is the review I wrote for TOS Homeschool Crew which is how I learned about Visual Latin in the first place.

Remember to check out the sale!

Paws & Tales

Paws & Tales, Biblical wisdom for kids
Being Kind & Caring

This 50 minute DVD contains two episodes, The Hullabaloo At Hunker Hill and The Great Go-Kart Race.  Bonus features included are music videos, activities, and teaching resources for parents, grandparents, and church educators.  You can watch the video in English or Spanish as both audios are included.

In episode #1 which is based on Matthew 18:21-22, the club must decide to seek revenge or forgive after Staci takes Hugh's derby car for a ride which ends up in disaster.

Episode #2 explores teamwork through a go-kart race and is based on Matthew 6:14.

My children ages 12, 10, 8, 6 and 3 enjoyed watching Paws and Tales.  Each episode features cute bear characters who learn a lesson in how to treat others.

Hannah,  age 12 said it was interesting and cool.  They all went to build their own go-karts and it didn't really work.

I think this is a DVD my children will ask to watch again.  I like the positive message portrayed in the stories.

Disclaimer: I received a free DVD from Tyndale Blog Network in order to write this review and have shared my honest opinion.

Fitting In The Extras

They are baking a birthday cake from scratch.  No box mixes in our house!

We don't do many extracurricular activities in our homeschool.  We will do an art/craft project every once in awhile and the children have a shelf full of craft books to look through when they are in a creative mood.  My daughters are slowly learning to sew by watching and helping me when(more like if) I sew.  My older sons know the basics of a sewing machine and can repair clothes by hand if they need to.  As a Marine my husband learned how to do some basic sewing so I think every boy should also know how to sew on a button or mend a tear.

They each received a 6-pack of flowers for Easter.

My daughters are learning piano with Alfred's Teach Yourself To Play Piano and my 14 year old has a guitar which he is learning to play on his own.  I played clarinet for a few years in school so I can help my daughters with piano and am learning along with them.  We also have a few recorders around the house and the children have learned to play a few simple songs. 

My daughter checking on her the gardens of her siblings.

Each of my children have a little garden bed to experiment in for the warmer months.  Right now they are full of flowers. My 10 year old son has planted some peas, sunflowers, and squash in his plot.  He is the most interested in vegetable gardening.  My 12 year old daughter even bought herself a geranium to plant in her bed.  They also help me with the main gardens and are learning along with me how to grow our own food.

Hannah's garden

Each child also has a pet to take care of.  I know that's not really an extracurricular activity but it teaches them to be careful and realize the responsibility of having something(later someone) depend on them.  Also most of them know the basics of baby care since there is usually a little brother or sister to help take care of.

Our oldest son and our youngest son.

Another thing they are learning is to cook.  It is not something I set out to teach them just to have something else to learn but because I needed help.  Some of them are quite creative and they don't need to use recipes most of the time.

How do you handle the extras in your homeschool?  If you would like to read what other members of the TOS Homeschool Crew have to say please visit TOS Homeschool Crew blog.

Spirit Fighter~Son of Angels~Jonah Stone

Spirit Fighter by Jerel Law is the first book in a new series called Son of Angels for children.  In this first installment Jonah finds out that he is a quarterling.  What's a quarterling?  A child born to someone who is half angel.  Right after Jonah finds out he is part angel something bad happens(don't want to spoil the story) and he meets two angels who send him on a mission with his sister, who is also a quarterling, to save the day.

The author Jerel Law is a pastor and father who began telling stories to his own children as a way to build their faith in God.  And now he is sharing those stories with the rest of us. 

I enjoyed this book even though it is written for children.  There is a lot of action in this Christian Fantasy story.  As a mom I appreciate that it doesn't have the usual disrespect for inept adults.  The children rely on their faith and accept the help and advice of others as they go through their journey.  The main character refers back to his father's advice and to what he has taught him about God and faith.  The children use memorized Bible verses in times of trouble and a Bible an elderly friend has give to them to learn more about their angelic gifts.  The story line was interesting, exciting, and full of imagination.

After I read the book I handed it off to my 10 year old son and he instantly took interest in reading it.  The cover illustration draws your attention and makes you want to find out what is going on inside the book.  I know my children will enjoy this story and I know they will learn about their faith as they read it. 

Disclaimer: I received a free book from BookSneeze in order to write this review and have shared my honest opinion.

Garden Tour of the Month

I'm going to do a garden walk through with photos once a month so you can see how my garden changes over time.  I am starting with the veggie garden so if you would rather see the flower gardens just scroll down for a bit.

Here's the entry to the sitting area under the grapes.  Beets are on the right and greens on the left.  You can't see much because the plants aren't very big yet.

We'll come back for a rest in a bit.

Here is the view across the length of the garden.  I'll try to measure this sometime so you can get an idea of the area I have for planting veggies and strawberries.

The herb garden is the round bed in the middle.  We are walking into the garden between the pea trellises.

This will eventually be filled with strawberries.  For now about 1/4 of the beds have bare root strawberries, only half of which are making it.  I have peas planted to grow up the fencing you see to each side.  Something ate the peas so there won't be any back here this year.  I will plant green beans in a few weeks and hopefully whatever is eating the peas will let the beans grow.

I planted marigold after reading a tip that it would keep rabbits away from my garden.  Well, maybe I don't have a rabbit in the garden because whatever is eating the peas started eating the marigolds!

Here is the view from the back corner of the garden.  I'm standing back by the shed(former chicken coop).  Peas are growing in the long strip on the right.  The first bed is full of asparagus, the next one lettuce, and the third one back is hopefully going to grow carrots.

Here's a close up of the peas.  I planted them all over in order to help build this soil.  I also planted cabbage and leeks but they haven't come up yet.

This is the long strip behind the house.  I will plant tomatoes, peppers, and basil on the left side and flowers on the right.  I already planted onions.

Here baby lettuce trying to get going.

My potatoes finally came up and I've covered them once.  They are almost ready for some more soil to top them off.

Here's one of my raspberries.  Only two of the five I planted came up.  I need to see if the company I ordered them from will replace the ones that didn't grow.

And now we can sit down under the grape vine for a little rest.  I have pansies in the pots.  I need to pull some weeds but just ignore them for now.  I enjoyed sitting under here last summer to take in the view of all my hard work in the evenings.  I find it amusing that I end up surveying the veggie garden more often than the flower beds.  I guess I find the veggies a little more challenging to grow and am more proud of them.

Now let's go back to the herb garden and I'll show you the first roses that I was surprised to find this morning.  They only last for a day or two but this little bush flowers all season and smells nice so I'm happy with it.

This is a little garden area I've carved out in front of the children's sand box and play area.  It's slowly getting going.  I just started it last year so this isn't bad for its first official spring.

Do you need another rest?  You may sit in the shade and I'll show you the rest of the back flower beds.  That brown dead looking thing is a crepe myrtle, it should be blooming soon.

Here's the view from your chair.  the grass is perking up but we still need to fill in the bare spots.

I have some pansies tucked in the shade under the crepe.

And here's the little path that leads from the grass to the veggie garden.  Alyssum is starting to flower, the strawberries have lots of little berries, and the roses are getting ready to bloom

Now I've walked all the way back to the children's area and turned around.  I have a bunch of shasta daisies on the right which are full of almost blooming flower heads.  There's a rose in the corner, snapdragons and pansies on the left and a few other things here and there.  I've planted many flower seeds and hope they come up soon.

And here's on of the first daisies!  She says "hi" and "see you next month".