The Gift of Giving Life

If there is one thing I hope people visiting my blog know about me it is this: Motherhood is a joy and a gift in my life, even through the ugly days. I have known when it was time for each of my children to join our family. It is amazing to me how similar, yet different, each of their births have been. I have learned that though they come from the same gene pool they are each unique with talents and abilities God has bestowed upon them. Motherhood...

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Grocery Budget for a Family of 11

Food. It's necessary for survival. It's good for you. It's bad for you. What used to be good is now bad...what used to be bad is now good. Knowing what to feed your family can get confusing at times! And expensive.Rather than re-write how we go about grocery shopping I thought I'd post links to past articles I have written. The process hasn't changed except now we have 11 people in our family and our grocery budget has increased from $100/week to...

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I Believe in Jesus Too {Giveaway}

Did you know there are over 1 million Primary children throughout the world in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints? One of our favorite new bedtime reads is this beautiful book, I Believe in Jesus Too, written by Mark S. Nielsen and illustrated by Craig Stapley.Just as the name implies, it shows through beautiful illustrations and simple text how different children throughout the world believe in Jesus, even if they are baptized in different...

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Putting a Pinterest Pin on Your Blog Post

Jaime asked "How do you get a pin it button to pop up with the things already written for you? I would love to know how to attach them to my posts."Step 1: Publish your blog post so you have its URL. Open your blog in a new tab or window. Open your blog post edit page in a different window.Step 2: Go to the Pinterest / Goodies page and scroll down to the section "Pin It Button for Websites."Step 3: Fill in all the required fields. Hover over the...

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Vintagey Chocolatey Goodness!

Hmmmm.....noticed any changes around here? The blog has received a long overdue makeover thanks to my fabulous friend, Misty! Seriously, she is listed as a synonym for fabulous in my thesaurus.For those reading in a feed reader or through an e-mail update here are a few changes that have occurred {you know, to entice you to come and see it for yourself!}.A yummy new font in my header and on the sidebar graphics. It makes me want to lick a chocolate...

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Vole PatrolI have been thinking about photographing water voles for a while. The main problem was where to start with numbers having suffered such a catastrophic decline. The key reasons for the decline, of this once common rodent, may be attributed to both habitat loss and fragmentation and the appearance of an 'alien' invader. The habitat requirements appear to be fairly straight forward being a slow flowing watercourse with a diverse abundance...

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Our Summer School Schedule

The weather is getting warmer. The days are longer. And school will soon be out. Or will it?Not for us! We still have two more months of school. I can just hear you saying, "Your poor kids! Cut them some slack. Stop being a cruel, mean homeschooling mama!"Would you still say that if you knew my kids had all of December and April off with a week off in the middle of October and February too? One of the pleasures of homeschooling is creating a schedule...

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Pregnancy and Weight Gain

My side of the closet is bigger than my husband's side. I have twice as many clothes as he does. Not because I am a fashionista, far from it! Instead my clothing is divided into regular, maternity, and in-between. One shelf for each {see, I told you I am not a crazy clothing lady!}. The "regular" size has definitely gotten closer in size to the in-between. Thankfully, they haven't merged . . . yet!Why do I share about my clothes? Because it chronicles...

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Wordfull Wednesday: Shoes

Do people still shine their shoes?I know, I know. It's a silly topic for Wordfull Wednesday. I think I was in a crazy mood, or is it desperate? Now I'm stuck with it. Stuck like gum to the bottom of your shoe.  ☺My favorite shoes are an old brown pair I've had for 10 years at least. They are the work horse of my shoe collection. I wear them when I go grocery shopping {although not as much now that they are finally wearing out}, when I water...

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Bits and pieces

♦ We received our Sonlight order for next year! The smell of new books is wonderful. We will be studying American History {except for those in High school}. The younger set will be using Core D. The older ones will be using Core 100.♦ We don't have enough room for all our books! I had to buy a new bookshelf and do a bunch of rearranging which included moving books up and down the stairs. I am almost done though {{breathing a sigh of relief}} It's...

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Solar Eclipse May 20, 2012

Sunday evening we were able to witness a good portion of the solar eclipse. We were a couple hours too far north to see a full "ring of fire" but still got a good view.We used welding helmets and lenses to look directly at the sun. The lenses make the sun green!The shadows of the leaves were also crescent shaped.I was trying to get the setting right on my camera in this photo. I like the two reversed eclipses from the mirror shake on my camera. You...

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Gifts from this week

Laughing with the babyAfternoon sunlight filtering through blinds on the kitchen table {with leftover decorations from Mother's Day!}Big umbrellas to hide behindSmell of fresh cut grassspilled granolaPEEKABOOI SEE YOU! © 2007-2012 Chocolate on my Cranium, LLC all rights reser...

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