Our America's Got Talent Afternoon

On March 8th we got to sit in the audience of America's Got Talent. It was very fun to go with my girls who have just turned 14 the day before. 14 was the minimum age they would allow in. The tickets were free and available online at http://www.ocatv.com/. The site gives you a list of requirements that they want the participates to obey. One of them was a dress code and another was no cell phones were allowed in the building. As we worried if we were dressed well enough. We were soon assured we were dressed ok by the way people were dressed in line. We wondered if half of them were cold, or would be let in. It was in the mid 40's and women were dressed in short skirts and sleeveless dresses. I thought my my my what women won't sacrifice to be seen! That wasn't good common sense. By the arrived we saw the long line wrapped around the side of the building and on across the street. We thought we were early! We got in line and waited along with everyone else. It was cold but it wasn't the worst weather either. As we waited a staff member came around with a bin yelling, "Cell phones? Anyone have a cell phone?" She obviously saw a few people on their phones and they gave them up. One man took his back to the car while the person he was with held their place in line. I thought, wow did they read the rules or did they just chance it? I left mine in the car. I admit I wish I did have my cell phone so I could take video or pictures which is just what they want to prevent! Any how we waited, I drank my hot coffee and people watched. As we made it across to the side of the building, I think time stopped for girl standing in front of us.There were a group of about 4 guys that got in line 2nd to last across the street. The moment they walked up the girl in front of us locked in on them with a unbreakable stare for a good few minutes. We have no idea why but she had such a look of disgust on her face. Maybe they were ex's friends?! I don't know but she didn't look happy about their arrival. These boys looked rather "hipster" as my girls called it. One of the guys had a huge Afro. My girls swore it was permed. We did laugh but we also we thought it was rather cool that he was doing his own thing. Now some would assume that the Afro was being worn by an African American guy. Nope! The guy looked to be Caucasian, and so was the girl staring in front of us. We were so curious as to what made her stair so intensely at the guys. Ashley couldn't contain herself laughing loudly and said, "Haters gonna hate." She eventually broke her stare. We never found out one thought in her head but those guys got closer seats than we did! I wonder if they will be shown on camera. Hmmm I think their chances are good. When they started letting people in the the line was moving in no time and we had no problem getting in. The Fabulous Fox did not do a good job with ushering people to seats. I don't know why when you get a crowd of people they tend to be like sheep. Some people have no idea what to do until they are guided. We were waiting in an isle for a few minutes because we were confused. Some people were walking seats, wondering around and confused. I have no idea what the confusion was so we went along side the stopped crowd and got seats. We were all the way at the top but I didn't mind. We could see and had end seats. There was even an empty seat between me and the person sitting next to me. When we were all seated they instructed us to do a few different things like booing and cheering so they could  get a few shots of the crowd. Right after that the show started with them announcing Nick Cannon. Of course Nick then introduced Howie Mandel, Sharon Osbourne, and Howard Stern. They said their hellos to the crowds and sat down. We didn't see much of Nick Cannon and the judges rarely said anything to the crowd. There were a few shouts of "I love you Sharon!" and she never responded to them. A few people yelled out Howard Stern related things and he never acknowledged it either. We were a bit disappointed for those people who wanted attention but didn't get it. I'm sure the judges get things like this on these shows all the time and if they responded to each one they would keep coming and the show would take for ever to tape. Any how in between the acts they had a warm up entertainer Corey Live that really got the audience into the show. He did a great job. During intermission he played the music to "I'm Sexy and I Know It." and took video of the audience dancing to it. We were on the right side at the very top. Nope you can't see us but we were there. So the girls went off to get us snacks to eat the drinks. They had a blast because apparently they were dancing around to the music and sing along as another group of teens joined in with them on their way back. When they made it back to their seats and sat down the show got started again. Thankfully there was an empty seat between me and the boy to my left. Remember that rule no cell phones? Well this boy broke out his cell phone several times during the show. He even had a phone call. He was talking low enough not to disturb others but he boldly ignored the no cell phone request. Well he finally did it one to many times. Security or their hired staff came around and tapped him on the head with their walky talky antenna. That then made the guy mad and told him not to put "that thing" on his head. Yeah I though a shoulder tap would have worked better. I thought it was either going to go down right there, or security would have needed to be called. So after he was spoken to he sat back down in his seat and started mumbling. He was mad and wanted to loud talk a lady that was sitting in the row behind us. Since she looked to be Caucasian he called her prejudice because she shook her head at the silliness. I thought it was foolishness too. Am I prejudice? That claim is worn out. I'm sick of it being used in cases where it's not fair to say that. If I was his mom I would have been on him and embarrassed but she wasn't there. I just looked at the boy in a tell all look. His eyes bounce back and forth avoiding eye contact with anyone around him. He had to have been a young boy since he was sporting a letter jacket from a high school. Timing was right for the next act to come out as I turned my head in letting him know I wasn't jumping on board with his claims by clapping and cheering loud enough to cover his non sense. That was the only thing that was negative for that event. It could have been prevented by the young man obeying the rules. I have no idea why he felt he didn't need to obey the rules. Maybe he needed his phone we don't know. The reaction to the staff makes me thing otherwise. Just obey people. Just obey. The show had a couple of more acts after that and it was all done. They dismissed and we were on our way home.  I'm excited to see the what the auditions will look like when the show airs. We had a few go to Vegas and a few didn't. There was one particular owl dude that stood out but nothing stranger than that. Over all it was a great thing to do with my girls. It was cool to see how they film these contest shows.

Changes I made to Make Things Easier

A question came through on a homeschool egroup I am on that asked: How do you keep it rolling with your older children while also managing meltdowns, diaper changes, nap times, watching the crawlers and new walkers? What works for you?

Before I had Fia who is now 5 months I wondered just how was I going to manage those things. I knew that having an infant is a full time job alone. She's our 5th child so our daily life is quite full. It has it's busy and calm moments. I worried how I was going to home school older children, tend to the busy body toddler and 

be a comfort to an infant who rightfully needs me. I knew it would work out, but how?

Well, here is what has worked for me so far in addition to praying! This comes with the disclaimer that it will not apply to all ;)

1. We are using a different curriculum -I began to look for a curriculum that would allow my kids to work independantly. I wanted something that would be easy for them to grasp and do on their own if need be. I wanted something fun since they are very visual and creative. We had always purchased the tried and true boxed curriculum from ABEKA. My thinking was "When in doubt turn to ABEKA." I still think that way. It's a great curriculum, however this year after the Bob Jones difficult year it pushed me to think outside the curriculum box. We decided to purchase curriculum that wasn't so mainstreamed and well known among all homeschoolers. It has worked out well. I stepped out of  fear and tried something new. It's working and the kids aren't completely dreading school. In fact I think they love this school year. Ok Love might be an exaggeration. ;)  

2. I have a schedule as a guide. Yes only a guide, not law. I have a mental schedule some what and I allow myself not to be bound by it. We are allowed to stray. I find if I try and stick to it, with the unpredictability of the 5 month old and 2 year old I get stressed. When I fight against the flow of the day I get frustrated.  It's not fair to them. Maybe this is what God has for me to do today. Maybe my idea of the day wasn't what was supposed to happen they way I planned. The schedule gets pushed to the side or rearranged  and we do what is immediate. So if we have meltdowns, diaper blow outs, an unusually hungry baby, a really clingy toddler, an injury, an attitude, or mom just having an off day, it doesn't mean the day is lost. Deal with what needs to be done at the moment, when and if it gets dealt with, continue with the schedule but don't worry if the time is later than you anticipated. We won't remember the time "lost" in a few days as busy as we are anyway. But think on this for a moment, time was not lost! It never is when we are caring for our kids.

3. We have some structure. I say this for the sake of having rules for the older kids and not letting it become a free for all. We do have rules that I rarely flex on like school work must be done! Home school does not equal or mean Optional school! The rules that I won't flex on are those that develop good habits, morals and values. The kids showering, brushing teeth and getting dressed for school are must dos. No electronics until school and chores are done, be in school by 9 am (I know late huh wonderful benefits to homeschooling) and not a minute later if so then no electronics etc. As you can see we like our electronics ;). Our older kids need some structure. They have chores and set rules that are to be done. Those aren't things I am willing to flex on easily. Well maybe. If they don't get all of the chores done due to helping me or others then I feel they have accomplished far more than sweeping etc. So for us structure is basically enforcing fundamental and moral things.

4. I had to redefine "Productive"- I was viewing productive as doing things other than taking care of the kids. I know it sounds crazy but it comes from the mentality of not being "just a stay at home mom". I battle with having a career that brings in an income while being a stay at home mom. So I feel a bit non productive when I haven't done anything business wise, or saved any money by using resources we have here. I always want to feel I'm contributing something to the family.  It's hard not to feel non productive when you haven't done anything on your to do list. Step back and see the exact opposite has happened. We have in fact done our God given job of caring for our children. My husband said to me one day:

Cuddling the little ones sounds productive to me. I don’t think we have a greater responsibility as parents than loving our kids. To me the state of the house on an everyday basis does not compare to spending time with the kids. It does agitate me some when I’m trying to help clean up, especially when I know you’re not happy with the mess, but in the end if it’s a toss up between cuddling Fia, spending time with Helaina dancing or laughing and goofing off with the Ashley, Angela and Adrian or having a clean house then give me the mess any day.

Gosh I love this man! Talk about support and encouragement! 

5. Enlist the older ones!-  So when all is going a little off the tracks, call for back up! I have older ones as in 14, 14, and 12. I'll say hey guys can you hold Fia while I make this bottle, will you play with Helaina while I change this diaper. Most of the time they are happy for the break away from school work. School work 

gets done, but not just in 8 consecutive hours. It teaches the older ones to pitch in, makes them feel important and creates stronger bonds in the family. I am careful not to over use the older ones. They are still my children and not parents to their younger siblings. 

6.  Don't Compare Yourself!  I don't think I'm saying this right but bear with me.. I over heard a mom who's oldest is 12 talking about her home school life as if she and her childern were the bees knees! I had to walk away. I had to in order to save myself from comparing. I don't recall what she was saying I just recall the attitude in which she was saying it. I remember early on I wanted to keep up with other families. For goodness sake that "Little Johnny was doing physics and already accepted into college at the age of 3!" Ok that is an exaggeration but you get my point of parents bragging about how smart their child is. Hearing these stories of exceling far beyond expectation used to bother me. I would get stressed and start academically pushing with the motive to have my child at the top academically. I pondered, "Well you have the opportunity like little Johnny to excel, why aren't you?" I questioned their motivation, their laziness, their ablity to learn etc. I simply had to lay off. This wasn't healthy for our family and I was blessed to catch on while they were younger and stop. When you find your family's way things will naturally happen. It won't be forced.  Now when parents "brag" I rejoice with them but you probably won't hear me bragging that my children are "So advanced for their age!" I hope to be supportive and not a hindrance to families. I don't feel the need to brag that my children are smart. Why not? Wise people don't go around sounding like know it alls, patting themselves on the back for their intellegence and making others feel bad because they "don't know". That's actually against our Christian walk. I hope my children's intellegence along with morals and values show natrually in general conversaion with people.  Again, I do rejoice with those that tell me about their kids accomplishments. They are considered inspiration, not competition. I believe that we are to encourage and celebrate with one another, not compete. Do what is good and works for your family. Just because you hear the success stories of others doesn't mean you have to keep up with that. I believe you already have your own unqiue success story in the making.

Those things have helped me to grow in my home. I'm taking these days one at a time and praying I'm not making a mess of them lol. Not to say I'm just sailing on through! That is not the case at all. I find the older I get the more irritated with messes I get! I look around at my floor at times and yall I'm telling you I'm ashamed! So on and so forth, but I'm working on it!  I hope those bits will help you to know that life is challenging. Do your best and keep going :)

From lovinglife

Musical, Creative and Microwaveless

Hello Everyone! I hope your soon to be over winter season has been great. The first day of Spring is March 20th! Yay! We've had a rather mild winter but I am looking forward to warm weather. So I've been up to the regular ol things. Our baby Fia is now 5 months old. She's a little delight! I find myself checking daily for teeth. No teeth yet! I love it because without teeth I can still have my "baby." I honestly think I might cry when she gets her first tooth/teeth. She's the happiest baby I've seen. Loving it! She will be 6 months on the 7th. She's trying to sit by herself now too. Our little one is trying her best to keep up with her 2 year old sister. Every time Helaina comes around Fia starts smiling and laughing. She's also got this one little curl on her head. It's so cute! This is one of the photo collages I did with picstitch and Instagram. This is after bath time. Speaking of Fia's older sister, Helaina is on the go!  This was today at church. Goodness she's got energy! She is very active little girl. There are times I wonder if I am too old for all this! Eh maybe not!  Helaina has taken to her older sister's guitar. She's rather dramatic. Have a look at her playing if you can stand it. The ending is "rock star."  Here older sisters are becoming active at church. I am so proud of them. Angela has joined the choir! Yay!! I'm so glad she is using her voice for the Lord. Ashley has decided to dance in the hiphop part of the Easter Trilogy. I'm so proud of them. Our son Adrian is growing by leaps and bounds. I had to rush out Wednesday to get him new jeans because he has out grown the ones he has. We are now shopping in the adult section for him. He's all leg now and we think he is going to be tall. We shall see! So that's what's going on with the kiddos, now my project was to make a diaper bag right? Remember the pink one in the previous blog? I decided to scrap it. I wasn't comfortable with it. I wanted to start over. So I did. I wanted to follow a pattern or tutorial this time. I chose modabakeshop.com  Baby on the Go Diaper Bag. Mine doesn't look exactly the same but here it is.  It's not as cute but hey it worked! I got the fabric from Joann Fabrics.  It was a no brainer for me to have to have our diaper bag dedicated to the Lord since we firmly believe children are a blessing from the Lord. My next sewing project will probably be simple dresses. One of the biggest changes our family has implemented was a experiment to see if we could do without a microwave. It was something that had been on my mind for while. One day while cleaning up the kitchen, I got tired of how much space it took up on the counter top. So I discussed it with my husband and we agreed to try it. Well it's been at least 2 weeks or more and it's still gone! I am excited to go without the microwave. We've had great discussion about how the microwave may or may not effect the nutrition in food and water. My take on it, better to be safe than sorry! So far we've been doing just fine without it. It takes a little more time to do things but we don't mind it. Food tastes better and the skeptic in me feels like it will be healthier.  So that's all for now! Oh! I just blogged on my photo blog check it out please! http://tscullenphotography.blogspot.com/ ...can't believe it's 4:40 am!

Projects and Such

Well Hello All! I hope this winter season has been a great one. For me it's been rather mild. I am ready for weather I don't need a jacket for though. Then again I'm always ready for that! I've got a few projects going at the moment.   Today I finished off some homemade diaper inserts. We use gdiapers and we love them. We were using the disposable/flushable liners which are great, but we are having to buy them all the time. So the cost effective advantage isn't there. We bought the Flip inserts but they have this ammonia odor that is just ugly! So I haven't used them much since we bought. After dealing with the smell all we could, we went back to using the disposable/flushable inserts. Recently I saw a tutorial on http://seekatesew.blogspot.com that I found fairly easy to use.  I don't have a serger so I did a zig zag stitch around the edges. I made them with soft fleece and a plain cotton cute fabric. Got it all on sale at Hancock Fabrics. Thank you to Kate for the tutorial! Hers look so much better. It was an easy project and a money saver!  I'm in the middle of making our own diaper bag.  We need a bigger diaper bag with a toddler and baby. I decided to take on the challenge of creating one that fit our needs. I have a list of things that we need to have and created the diaper bag off of that list. I've got the bag done with the pocket inserts inside. My problem now is it's flopping inward. I wanted the sides to be a bit more sturdy. So I'm trying to sort that out.  My son says it looks more like a nanny bag with the sides floppy. lol Thanks son!Guess what! Baby Fia turns 5 months today!   She's such a snuggle bug too. Every morning she wakes up with a smile.  I hope she never loses that joy. I'm happy that all is well and she still hasn't got any teeth coming through! It keeps me in denial that she's growing up lol! She does like to try and talk which is too cute! I am so very proud of my dear friend and sister Tony Robinson! She has written her first book and Wow what a great one it is! I can't say enough about her. Tony has been there for me every since my older kids were toddlers. She's seen me through good and bad. She's hung in there with me through my crazy times. She's talked sense into my head during my "I'm about to lose it!" moments. She's seen just about the worst of me and has always been able to bring me down to earth lol! I tell you, she, Tony Robinson has been a priceless friend. She's always given me great spiritual advice in every situation. She is an inspiration, an encourager, and a Well Watered Woman! I pray your cup runs over with blessings from the Lord! Please do purchase her book Water From The Well. You will be blessed!  I got my copy and saw she even put in a mention for measly ol me! Love you Tony! Along with spiritual growth we've been doing the 100 days of Real food challenge for physical health. It's not bad! I am surprised at how easy it is to do. We've enjoyed the food and plan to stay on this path. I do wish our Whole  Foods store wasn't so busy. I have to figure out when the best time to go shopping there. Today I've decided besides the Tofu Chocolate Pie, I like the Strawberry Parfait! We make them in these little cups. Yes we do recycle them! I think after we are finished we will invest in some better clear cups we'll keep. So we use some granola we found at Target by Archer Farms it's French Vanilla Almond Crunch. (lol wait does this count as "real food" since I'm not making it??) , Maybe I will looking to trying to make it. Not sure yet but anyway we use that Granola, strawberries, drizzle it with honey, and then Vanilla Yogurt. I repeat until the cup is full. Yummy! Just closing with this, I made these little shoes for Helaina. She rarely wore them. I am so happy baby Fia can! I plan on making a few more shoes for her but using a different pattern. They are so easy to make! I haven't found a pattern I've settled on yet. I've just done a google image search on "Make baby shoes" and saw all the cute shoes! Oh brain overload! Ok on that note, I'm out. Enjoy your day!

I just can't help it. Wait Yes I can!

and again... found a new homemade project! I want to make my own coffee creamer! Mad scientists suit up! A friend of mine shared a site with us as we chatted about stevia sweetner. Here is the link to the recipes deliciouslyorganic.net this is a beautiful site I will be following all over the place. Another project I hope to work on is the Craft Hope website.crafthope.com Please do check this out. If you do any crafts or sewing please help. This current project is helping kids who are fighting cancer. These are simple and easy project to help spread happiness. Please get involved! Thats all for now...

Sunday Religion? No. Christ? YES!

Sunday mornings have been a source of stress for me. It's getting 7 people ready and out the door that is the whole issue. 

For us it goes a little like this: 

Have you had showers? 

Brushed your teeth? 

Do your clothes match? 

Do your clothes fit? No too small go put on something better. I don't have anything better! No? Yes you do we just bought you clothes! But I don't like that shirt, pants, etc I raved about in the store anymore. I don't care wear it anyway! 

Where are my socks? So and so took my socks! 

Honey what do you want the little ones to wear? That's too small she's grown out of that. 

Oh no and here comes the toddler nuclear meltdown because she can't have dessert for breakfast. 

Do we have our bibles? No I left mine at church 3 1/2 Sundays ago. What and you didn't say anything? 

Got your coats? I don't have one, mine doesn't keep me warm, I don't need one its only 1 below out anyway! What?! Put your coats on! 

The baby needs a hat! 

Diaper bag ready? 

Ok lets get in the car. I'll skip that whole dialogue. Wait... who forgot deodorant? We hear a low "me"... (from the back of the back of the suburban) Ugh go put it on and hurry!

... finally arriving at church. *gasp!* Helaina doesn't have any socks on and two out of 5 kids have light jackets on complaining that it's cold! (O.o) I think to myself, yeah I've got to plan the night before. This morning routine of chaos has got to change as my husband drops us off close to the door and parks the car. 

I shuffle through the crowds with a bulky car seat and 4 kids as someone decided to add a little gasoline to the fire that was almost out with,  "Whew I'm glad those days are over for me."  I nod, although offended inside but laugh it off then proceed to catch eye contact with people I know coming or going. Some I'm glad to see some I completely avoid eye contact. Yes I admit, some people just can say some of the craziest things that I try to avoid. It makes my day easier. By the way the "Whew I'm glad those days are over for me" comment was said to me twice. Once before service and once while I was feeding baby Fia. I thought to myself wow, you know I wouldn't give this up for the world. My family as crazy and unorganized as we are, I love them. They are my world and I'm honored the God let me have a family. Yes this stage of life is a bit overwhelming at times but I am enjoying seeing my kids grow up. For some it might not have been that way. Maybe they suffered through the infant, toddler, preteen, and teen stages. I don't know but you can't assume everyone has. I for one didn't like being pregnant at all but I would never tell a pregnant woman "Whew glad those days..." She might love being pregnant for all I know. I guess people just don't think. To me that says they don't care enough about the passing person to give a passing word of encouragement. Of all places, we were at church but some are their due to their obligation to fulfill a religious tick off their list.  Love doesn't reside with that motivation. I can't say they even meant well, because the words were accompanied with the head shake and facial expression. As we were leaving an older lady asked me if I had just had a new baby because she saw the car seat. I said yes and she asked how old. I said she's 4 months. She then says oh that's not so new. Well ok then! The she says, can the baby breath? I assured her yes she could. We had a fleece blanket over her to shield her from the whipping winds. She said ok, I don't want to have to do CPR. I did the smile and nod again. Maybe she didn't notice the alive and well 4 kids traveling behind me?? Wow people. Wow.

It's moments like these that make me question why do I even put up with going to church? Why when you have people 
who talk to you crazy, criticize you, your parenting, your family, where you live, how you look, how often you serve, etc. Why when you can get the pod cast and rest in your own comfortable home? Well here's why. Each Sunday our Pastor fights through his or her own battles to bring a message to us. Each Sunday other families go through this same thing. I see families that I love to talk to, I see friends that encourage me, I see my kids enjoy it. I see my husband joking with others, and that makes me smile. In reality it's not about me. It's about God. Its about our spiritual growth. It's about hearing the word of God and applying it to our lives. It's not about who's wearing what, who's popular, who's got this and that. Sure that stuff happens even in church but I shake off the offenses and move ahead. I'm learning if I give it more time than the moment of dismissal it deserves it steals my joy, and my family's joy. It's not worth that.  We aren't perfect but we can be aware of our actions and words. Live what we proclaim, open our eyes, and began to LIVE because God gave us our lives not to harm one another but to build one another up. I don't claim to have or to expect life to change over night. After all we are a church full of imperfect people trying to do something right. That's it. So we do this every week, (until God leads us to do something else) and we learn... some of us learn because I still have to get that morning routine down lol. 

A friend of mine posted this video on facebook. I'd like to share it because it's so true. So many are going the religious route. I'm not religious and here's why.