Tony the Builder

(hee hee-instead of Bob the Builder!)

Heaven's father in law gave me a chalk board that was left behind in a house that he purchased a few years ago. I thought it was so sweet of him. I'd been wanting one for a while and the Lord blessed Kingdom Academy with one.

In our classroom I've simply ran out of room. All of my walls are full. I don't have an empty space to hang a chalk board so Tony offered to build me a rack for it to hang on. He has been such a handy man for me the past couple of weeks. Below are the pictures that I took as he went along. I didn't get the whole process but you'll get the idea.

This is on our back porch. He cut the pvc pipe with a handsaw.

This is the extra room-that use to be Heaven's bedroom. It's a work in progress so ignore the mess. Tony almost has the rack finished in this picture.

Look at the smile, I just love this man.

And here is the finished product. I think it looks fabulous!

Thank-you Tony, for all that you do for our family.

Breakfast Quiche

One of our projects from My Father's World was to fix a quiche. Meadow and I baked two breakfast quiche this week. It's one of Tony's favorites and we are playing with different variations of this dish. Tony wanted gravy on his so he fixed a small batch each time we fixed this. I prefer it without the gravy and thankfully this was a dish that every member of our family ate. It's nice to find something that everyone likes because my girls (especially Sky) tends to be really picky.

We changed the recipe up a little-I love that you can change this dish easily. I kept this one simple for Sky.

We used a pie crust already prepared. I mixed 3 eggs, 1/2 cup milk, 1/2 cup of shredded cheese, a bunch of parsley and a pinch of salt. Then took tater tots that I had already baked and mashed them with a fork and whisked those in.

I cut up 1/2 pack of bacon and fried it a pan. I also cooked 3 sausage patties and mashed them. (no pictures of the sausage though)

Meadow rolled the dough out.

Sprayed the pan with Pam and pressed the dough in.

Mixed all the ingredients.

Poured them into the prepared crust.

She wanted to tuck the pie crust edges down since the mixture didn't fill to the top, so I let her.

We baked it at 350 for 40 minutes and it was perfectly golden brown!

Delicious!

Our Love Birds

I can't remember how long ago it was that I decided I wanted lovebirds. A friend of mine's mother had a pair years ago and I was fascinated with them. I think they are so beautiful. I have never studied them or attempted to acquire any simply because I've never been around birds in my life and I wasn't so sure that I could take care of them or if I really wanted to.

A few weeks ago another friend of mine purchased three lovebirds and three parakeets. I went over for a visit and my interest was rekindled but I was still very hesitant. I began searching online and learning about them. This led me to craigslist and I was baffled that there were so many available in our surrounding areas. I sent out several e-mails mainly to ask WHY so many people were getting rid of them. The majority of the people said they simply didn't have the time to spend with the birds. I had one lady that kept coming back to me and in the end she offered me a breeding pair, cage and all for $50. My husband and I decided we couldn't say no. I picked them up on Saturday. Here are their pictures.

Peeping out

Aren't they gorgeous?

I'm so amazed.....and..............

They've laid eggs!

There were five day before yesterday and today when I checked there were 6!

I have really high hopes of being able to eventually tame the parents but will have to wait until after the eggs have hatched. At the moment I am preparing to pull the clutch and hand feed them so that we will have tame birds for the parents to learn from. It's going to be a job and I am praying that I can do this....I CAN do all things through Christ who strengthens me. :) If there are any bird lovers out there with tips, please feel free to share with me!

Oh and I had to edit this to add a sweet blessing from the Lord. I had ordered the cubes to build the Guinea Pig cage weeks ago. I had no idea when I chose the color purple that I would be getting lovebirds in a purple bird cage just a couple of weeks later. How sweet is it that their cages match? Tony asked me if I thought God really paid attention to those little details just for me, and I replied, OF COURSE HE DOES! I'm so special to my Father!
(He knew this...he was just picking on me!)

Our Cavy Cage

Today Tony built our Guinea Pig cage. We learned about C & C cages from Cavy Cages. There are lots of neat ideas there and we plan to add a second level soon. In the beginning we had one of those folding tables and a huge dog cage on top of the table with card board used for walls for the cavies. You can see it below in the pictures. They had plenty of room but cleaning wasn't so easy and access to them was hard too.

In the picture below you can see Tony putting the cage together on top of a flat panel board. The cage we were building turned out to be bigger than the table and the dog cage that we originally had them in. We put the table away and used the dog cage for a table. Tony zip tied the cavy cage to the panel board and then zip tied the panel board to the dog cage to ensure the cavy cage wouldn't be accidentally slid off.

I love his smiling face, it meant so much to me that he built this cage for us.

This is the cage with the coroplast style flooring in it, you can see the guinea pigs in the dog cage below.

I then lined the coroplast with newspaper. I had my friend sew a piece of felt onto a thick towel the size of the cage and then lined the newspaper with it. I've read that the pee will wick through the felt and the towel will absorb it leaving the fleece dry for the cavies. I have two so that we have a fresh one when the other goes in the wash. I'm praying this saves me a lot of money as the bedding I was using was around $18.99 a bag and we used a bag every 6-8 weeks.

Here is the home completely set up.

They are hiding in their house. So shy they can be!

I just purchased this tunnel yesterday and they LOVE it! Penny is sneaking some fresh veggies.

Here Penny is again. Sophie didn't come out until the camera was put away today! I really love the new cage, it is bright and cheery. I found the purple cubes online at Walmart. It allows the cavies to be a bigger part of our lives. They are less hidden and we are able to see them and enjoy them even more!

(I do not leave these curtains up and windows open all the time. The curtains are very heavy and keep the heat or cold air out including the bright sunlight. I just thought I'd add that so that no one would think I was keeping the cavies in a harsh environment.)

Our Cavies

This is Sophie, she is eating her fresh veggies during her floor time. She is so shy that she hid inside of her log and peeped out to grab bites. They are so fun to watch.

This is Penny trying to push her way into the hidey log.

Sophie again.

This is Penny, she is Meadows. Penny is really growing to be a fat little booger!

Meadow is playing with Penny.

This is a good close up of Penny nibbling on a carrot.

We have learned a lot about Guinea Pigs and taking care of them. We've provided them with ample living quarters and feed them fresh veggies daily. They are a great addition to our family!

Editing to show how they've grown. These are pictures we took when we first got them in April.

Me and Sophie

Me and Sophie

Meadow and Penny

Playing

Bonding

This is Penny. (Meadow's)

This was their home.

Homeschooling Dad

I caught him off guard, he was reading the girls their history. Precious he is!

States and Presidents

I cannot believe how long our history days have been.

I have to admit....it's my fault. I can't help it.

I start our lessons, I read the required entries and I'm full of questions for the girls. We discuss and I explain and then....I remember, "Oh, yes! I have books on this. I have the 'State-by-State Atlas, Don't Know Much About 50 States, The Declaration of Independence-The Words that made America, We The Kids-The Preamble to the Constitution of the United States, Words That Build a Nation-In Congress, The Congress-America's Law Makers, The President-America's Leader, The Judiciary-Laws that We Live By'......and I could go on...and on....and on.

I can't stop.

I believe I have a problem.

Hee hee, no but honestly I am going to have to limit our days. I find it funny that I use a bit of the Charlotte Mason approach with Meadow and limit subjects to 10 minutes and she is through with her work for the day except for history and crafts. Before you know it, the time has slipped up and oh dear, my husband is home.

It has taken us last week and this week to get through week 21 of My Father's World Exploration-1850's. It'll probably take the beginning part of next week too.

:D

I'm not going to speed up though, I'll shorten our days but take the time we need to learn the material. I missed American History my first go round in school and I'm loving learning about them this go round in our homeschool. We have all year to finish this year of My Father's World and next year will change.

Sky will be officially entering highschool (in our homeschool) and she'll be working on her own. Meadow and I are going to begin in My Father's World Exploring Countries and Cultures for 4th grade and we will work our way back through the five year cycle.

So this year, I can take my time!

Sky is scheduled to have her tonsils removed on the 23rd so that'll hang us up a bit too. It'll give me plenty of time to read aloud though. The joys of homeschooling!