My Favorite Things

We are working on the letter T this week. :)  I didn't take many photos.  I thought it would be fun to share with you a post about some of my favorite things.  I'm not really a person who places much emphasis on things, but these ones that I use are my favorites.

First up- Burt's Bees lip balm.  It smells GREAT- it's minty and works really well.  I find it heals chapped lips much faster than any of the other lip balms I have used.  Confession- I have four of these in my bedroom, one in my kitchen, one in my purse and one in my coat pocket.  Easy access.  

$11.99 on Amazon for a four pack.

Next up- Bare Minerals make up.  I've been using this for about 8 years now.  I love that it feels invisible and has SPF 15 sunscreen in it.  Because it's a powder, it blends easily.  I also love Bare Minerals eyeshadow.   Pictured above is  Medium Beige Foundation (open) and Warmth, a light powder I use as a blush.

Foundation and Warmth can be purchased through Amazon.com.  Did I mention that each one of these items lasts me more than an entire year?  It goes a LONG way!

Aaaah Proactive.  The commercials are telling the TRUTH.  I have been using this stuff for about 7 years now.  I recently developed an allergic reaction to step 3, the stuff that actually prevents breakouts, but now that I am a little older, the breakouts aren't so bad.  I still love the cleanser and the toner.  This stuff is gold.  I had it on auto delivery for about 8 years.  WORTH EVERY PENNY.  Check it out here.

I use nail polish every day of the year.  Mostly on my toe nails.  Out of all of the polish I have used, OPI is the brand that holds up for the longest.  Not only that- but the brand produces the deep rich colors that my heart desires in a polish.  It is thick- usually only requires two coats for maximum color.  It kills me to spend almost $9.00 on a regular sized bottle of it, but it is worth it.  

This is my favorite electronic.  My Sony MP3 player.  I use it every day.  Right now it's holding 1300 songs, 9 playlists.  (4 Gigs.)  It is small, fits easily in my pocket, is comfortable to hold and switch songs while walking.  I hook it up to my stereo and play music daily.  I paid $99.99 at Best Buy.  

 This is my favorite kitchen appliance.  The thing I love about this (besides that it sits on the counter looking awesome) is that I can load it up with ingredients and walk away while it mixes.  I am no longer a slave to the hand held mixer.  Anyone who knows me, knows that I am baking all of the time.  I set it on a piece of fabric so it slides effortlessly across the counter top when I am ready to use it.  It's perfect.

I saved the best for last.  The one thing I feel like I couldn't live without-- Partylite melts.  I am a Partylite junkie.  Pictured above is a pack of melts- perfect for use at Henle House because I'm not allowed to have candles lit during business hours.  I thought I would die.  I purchased an electric warmer and some of these melts. At $6.00 per pack of 9, they are a great deal!  I always watch for clearance, too.  That is the best time to stock up.  The red one in the photo is my favorite scent- Cinnamon Sparkle.  It smells like a cinnamon stick in raw form.  Who doesn't feel at home when walking into a house that smells of cinnamon? 

Of all of the "things" that I love, this is the stuff that I refuse to let run out.  I love to have Partylite candles and melts ready ahead of time for each season, with extras to pass out to family when they need them. 

You can order online here.

Praise the Lord for being able to order online without attending or throwing a party.  I am an introvert most of the time.  I like to do my shopping alone!

I would love to know what YOUR favorite products are!

♥♥♥Happy Tuesday♥♥♥

Dandelions Are Flowers, Too

We did the whole dyeing eggs thing on Friday.  It was fast and easy!

This is the method we used- dye the egg one color, add rubber band, re-dye it another color.

I loved her reaction to the pop of color she saw when the rubber band was removed!

Yum!  I don't know about you, but I love to have a hard boiled egg with lunch.

Meanwhile, I've been thanking God for the Dandelions.  Let's face it-- our yard will never be just grass.  I'm ok with it.  The Dandelions that have been blooming are a great way for the kids to get the picking "flowers" out of their systems without destroying my flower gardens.  Besides that-- Dandelions are beautiful.  Look how bright and cheery they are!  This little one picked herself a bouquet and I tied it together for her.  She likes to ham it up for the camera.

We were celebrating how beautiful the flowers are!

Do they smell?  I think so.  They smell like joy.

Brother didn't think that they smelled so great..  

I sure did.  Don't forget to thank God for the Dandelions!

♥♥♥Happy Monday!♥♥♥

Jesus Is Alive

Now is the time I like to teach the kids about Jesus conquering death.  It's deep- it's not always easy for them to understand.  We talk about God and Jesus all year, but I think it's important to teach them that "Easter" is really about resurrection.  Every year I change my wording to suit the group of kids that I have based on what I think they can grasp.  We created a cross.  One child called it "Traffic from God."  :)

On each paper I placed a dot where we wanted to aim with our hand prints.

This is the idea!  When I think of God's love for us in sending Jesus, my mind imagines light.  We added some yellow hand prints to create a glow!

 There was some somber talk about how we do not like how Jesus died.  I try to explain to them that it is a symbol of how it feels when we break God's rules.  It's so hard to explain!  I just tried to get them to understand how when Jesus was born, this was his job.  It's how he showed us that Gods love is never ending, we can now look forward to spending eternity with him.  (Blank stares, because that means we will die.  Too much I guess.)   I glossed over that with,  "God loves you so much!  That is what is important for us to remember about Jesus.  He is so powerful that he came back alive and lives in our hearts forever!"  They could understand that.  He is a superhero!  The only REAL one!  Phew!

We had a celebratory dance party to Newsboys' song 'God's Not Dead'. 

We rocked the house.  It was so loud!

Happening right now- one taunting squirrel who is out of reach only because these two cats haven't figured out how to get on the roof yet.  I put her nuts up there.

Have a great weekend, have a blessed Resurrection Sunday!

♥♥♥Happy Friday!♥♥♥

Birthday Wind Wheels

I feel like we have had endless Birthday parties lately!  Unbelievably, most of the kids did not even eat their cupcake this last time.  They are cupcake'd out.

Here she is, the Birthday girl!  

Sometimes we get out balloons, sometimes bubbles.  This time we colored some paper plate wind wheels to run and dance with.

We always have to have the "Birthday" by The Beatles dance party!  

One Barbie later...

Outside they went!  Our next party will be in May!

 Hopefully our visiting ducks will attend.

♥♥♥Happy Thursday!♥♥♥

Animal House

"Miss Nicole!  The ducks are heeeeere!!"  We know that the ducks have a nest of eggs near the church park playground.  I haven't gone over to investigate because I don't want to upset them.  It's been nice having the ducks around again.  This is year three of them visiting us! 

They get pretty close to the fence now.  Luckily, the cats haven't been menacing during the friendly visits. 

The ducks have been eating well, the kids are great at feeding them bread.

We got lucky and they laid in the grass and stayed a while. 

Chippy has returned!  She was really bossy and came inside when I opened the door. 

She has been visiting daily as well, but baby Zuko is pretty bold about chasing her up the tree.  I just move her nuts up there and she eats them while keeping a good eye on the cat.

I love living in an animal house.  It's great that the kids get to see these animals!

We created some animals of our own.  We are working on the letter S, so we created some Spring chicks.

Adorable!

They each chose to use a different color of feathers.

This made me happy.  Grass is such a great toy.

♥♥♥Happy Wednesday!♥♥♥

Busy Being Busy

I'm a few days behind on my blogging.  It's just been very busy around here.  I'm busy being busy.  It's awesome! Last week during spring break we created some coffee filter butterflies.  Another repeat, but one that is always welcome.  Who doesn't like butterflies?  I think this year I will order some caterpillars again so the kids can watch them cocoon and emerge.  In the meantime, it's just talk.

The kids used washable markers to add color to the coffee filters.  I used a Sharpie marker to put their names on.  It's important to use Sharpie, because the goal is to wet the filter and watch the colors run together.  Everything moves, except for that permanent Sharpie name.

See?  The kids used a spray bottle of water to wet the coffee filter.  (In a tray, to contain the water.)  It's fun to lift it up and watch the colors run!

We laid each one down onto the newspaper and patted them down with paper towels. 

Add a pipe cleaner, and BOOM!  Butterflies. :)  They each made two.  One to take home, one to hang up.

Seeee?

I caught some Lily Of The Valley coming up in the back garden. 

It's that time of year when we can have our afternoon snack outside again.  I am so happy that we have had so many days of sunshine lately!  Rain is in the forecast for today and the next five days.  Typical.  We have been loving our outside time. 

♥♥♥Happy Tuesday!♥♥♥