Mothers Day and Muffins

I had an awesome Mother's Day!!  It started with breakfast and beautiful pictures and cards made by my beautiful girls. They were both big helpers in the kitchen (Hunny told me). I got to relax upstairs until all was ready. Then they surprised me with a pendent. It is a Celtic cross with a diamond in the center and  Hunny had the girls birthstones set into the cross. We had a relaxing morning enjoying time together and nature outside our windows.

Then, we made muffins....  Well, we tried. On Monday, our homeschool group was doing a marketplace at one of the local parks. The idea was that kids could make items to sell to each other and teach about commerce... Buying and selling ... cost of goods sold ... etc ... For kids and fun. So we decided on mixed berry muffins. I had purchased a set of various gluten free mixes (Jules Gluten Free bakery) and this was our chance to try the muffin mix. I should have known not to try, after all it was Mothers Day. I should be relaxing, not baking. But I wanted to bake with my girls. I took the softened butter and try to cream it, but it flung all over the kitchen. Literally, butter flew. It was on the granite, the stone backsplash (fun times cleaning), the floor, me... It flung. After which, my little helper laughed and said, "Now that's a funny something!". So I adjusted how I was holding the immersion blender with the whisk attachment (probably my problem) and it was better. So we got things cleaned, and we began adding eggs one by one. I held the bowl wrong and we had a small fling of butter again, but this time much smaller. Then an egg got cracked on the counter  and dripped down the cabinets to to floor. Should we just stop here? Yes, but we did not. We made muffins. Mini muffins. You would think that if it takes 30 minutes for regular size muffins to cook, it should take less time to cook mini's.  Half the batter got put into the pans, the other half waited patiently. And waited. And waited. And waited. Finally we decided they were not going to cook. The centers were still raw while the outside was looking scrumptious. Did we get defeated? Did we give up? No. We reinvented the muffin. We mixed the half cooked muffin into the patiently waiting batter and spread it out on a sheet pan. It turned out kind of a sponge cake muffiny squares. We also didn't sell our muffin squares creation at the marketplace either.

We figured our mistake with the muffins was instead of using just blueberries (as called for in the recipe) we used mixed berries. Which, after thawed and mushed to blend nicely into the batter, added too much moisture to the batter. We shall try again.

After our muffin mishap, we hurriedly showered and got ready for church hat evening. Even the dogs got showers that day. And we drove to church. We go to a 5:30 service about 1 hour 15 minutes away. The drive is a great nap time for the girls. We all enjoy the church.

We finished our evening with a nice dinner at our favorite Mexican uncles place (a restaurant called Uncle Julio's or as the girls call it ... the dough place .... They get to play with tortilla dough while we wait for our food). It was a great Mothers Day!!!

Oh - and in case you're wondering, we only shopped at the marketplace. Both girls took money from their own piggie banks. One got a pair of earrings, a necklace and a chocolate chip cookie, while the other bought a shower cap. It was fun.

I hope your Mother's Day had afunnysomething also!

Lizard (picture now included)

As soon as I figure out how to get a picture on here, I will. But we had a HUGE lizard on our back porch screen this morning. HUGE!!!!  No joking it was at least 9 inches from head to tail. The girls were fascinated. They even moved their breakfast closer to it so they could watch it. Punkin has documented it in her nature journal also. HUGE. But it was outside, so that's good. Did I mention it was HUGE??

Picture will come soon. I can't figure it out.... Refer to post one... I don't know what I'm doing here :-)

That's afunnysomething for us this morning. HUGE Lizard!!!

Kimono dragon...

Mini dinosaur...

Huge...

Shark!!!

Punkin passed her Fish 5 swim test tonight and is now a Shark!!  Woo Hoo!  She did great. The skills to pass were the backstroke, the kicks necessary for the breast stroke, and the sea saw body movement of the butterfly. She did awesome.

Button also did great and is close to moving up to the fish level. She is currently a minnow. She has progressed tremendously though. Tonight she held her streamline. Next she will just need to swim in her streamline forward and back float for 10 feet. She is currently at 5 feet. But with improvements in her kicks, she will be there.

Both started swimming only a year ago. So to see how much they have progressed and what they are learning is tremendous!!!  Proud of my girls!!

Crazy Sleep and Sweet Moments

Today started early, but was relaxing and lazy at the same time. I should probably backup and start with bedtime last night. My hip was hurting, so I laid down while the girls were getting their beds ready. They came in to give me hugs, although I said I would come tuck them in. But they crawled in the bed with me. So, Hunny, in trying to get them to their rooms, laid on Punkin's bed and said "I am ready to snuggle". Well, the girls stayed in our bed with Button declaring it a girls pend-da-night party - no boys.  Then, Hunny feel asleep, in Punkin's room.  Button went and checked, he was sleeping. So they went to sleep, in our room. Which means I don't really sleep...I got popped in the mouth once by Button's flinging arm, but not solid sleep. Until 4 am...Hunny woke up, I heard him, and we managed to get the girls to their own beds. We haven't had a spend the night party on a while, so it was nice laying down with them like that.

So at 4:30 we finally got into each of our beds.... But Hunny realized his alarm would be going off soon and neither of us were really sleeping, so he got up to get ready for work. I however stayed in bed. Then at 7:30,  Button came in to let me know she had an accident and  I got to change sheets. No big deal. She has been doing really well staying dry all night. Then we laid back down. But neither Button or I went back to sleep. We just kind of lounged in the bed. And about 9 Punkin woke up. And we all lounged and played then finally came down stairs for " breakfast" - or better the first meal of the day since it was 11:30.  Thursdays are our relaxing morning though, so all was ok.  We don't have to be anywhere until swim classes tonight.

What inspired me to write today was not our sleeping arrangements or waking times, but rather interactions that have happened throughout our day. The girls asked if they could go outside, so they were on the back deck. It has rained for the past 3 days, so I encouraged the enjoyment of sunshine. They, with their doctors kit, were on the deck playing doctors office (Doc McStuffins inspired I'm sure).  Punkin came in to put on flip flops because the deck was warm. I was in the kitchen doing dishwasher stuff and I heard " Punkin where are you?" "Getting shoes. Why." "Because I just want you". Music!!!  I love that they love being together. We all have moments of wanting alone time, they do too. They don't always want to be together. But they do interact so well and look out for each other. That's been today.

We just took a break from me typing to look up images of a skeleton.  Punkin is writing the names of bones on a sheet we found that labels the skeleton and playing a game of telephone/make up songs. And laugh. They are currently laughing. These are the moments I love. This is why we homeschool. Their song is about being sisters and singing together and about our family. Awesome.

We have swim classes later.  Button is jumping in the pool and learning cool things.  Punkin has already passed her freestyle level and is working on techniques for backstroke, breaststroke and the butterfly. It's so cool watching them. To have only began swimming a year ago, and lessons were really for safety purposes, to watch them now. So cool.

I hope you find afunnysomething in your day!

Post One - an introduction, a test and an explanation

I've decided to put myself (and therefore my family) in the world of web, the Internet, online, on the computer....etc. We are not on Facebook - so, this is it. We have recently moved to a different state and this page can act as a virtual bridge to keep our daily lives a bit more connected.

We are a homeschooling family. We enjoy being together and learning from each other. We have daughters, 2 legged and 4 legged. We love each of them and their unique personalities, attributes and contributions to this family and earth. We dance, act, plant flowers and veggies. We enjoy watching the birds and trying to figure out what kind they are. Deer are fascinating - every night we watch them eat in a field across the street and every night it is fascinating. We don't eat gluten. We are Dawg fans through and through. Occasionally we will cheer on the Hokies in support of cousins nd friends who school, work, teach and live there. We love God and all he has blessed us with. We love each other. We are not perfect, we have never claimed to be. We love. We forgive. We get frustrated. We pray. We laugh - a lot. And we cry. Sometimes a cry turns into a laugh and vice versa. We play. We like to make smart choices. We make mistakes. We like Dave Ramsey and his Financial Peace University program. His Hands Church is awesome. We love you guys - and miss you terribly!!!!  We like swimming. Especially the 2 legged. I love watching them grow and learn new abilities and skills. Watching them do cool new things that they don't realize are as amazing as they are. I could go on and on.... And I will (hence the start of a blog :-)). But for now, that should serve as a good introduction.

I will say as I begin typing, I really have no idea what I'm doing either. If you visit regularly, please be patient. The background may change, posts may be in different areas, I don't know what all may change....but I'm sure things will. This is a classic case of " I don't know what I don't know". So, bare with me :-). I just know I have ideas that I want to write, stories about our day to day, girls that are accomplishing things at a rapid rate, and just funny moments that I'd like to capture somehow to be able to remember and share. The technical stuff will progress, just at a slower pace than the ideas and moments I want to share will come.  Here is the test... We will see if this actually posts after having typed all of this.

Some of my post may be stories you've heard before, but I want to post them to have them documented. Some may be short, funny things that happen. Not all will be funny, despite the name of the blog. They may just be moments that I put into words. I hope you don't mind if you appear in some if my posts. If you are part of my life, you may. You should know that nothing will be revealing of personal information that you have told in confidence - that's not who I am.  But rather encounters we may have shared. Experiences. Moments. Explanations.

So, all being said, thank you - I do hope that you enjoy your visit to A Funny Something.