Poor P?

We ran into Mardel yesterday and Princess P Had to have a journal that was $2. I bought it for her and she was going to pay me back at home. I just remembered to ask her for the money and it turns out, she only had $2 total to her name. When she gave me her last $2, she started saying, "I'm poor. I'm poor! People need to give me money because I am poor!"
Terrific T informed her that she is not poor and doesn't need money. They argued a bit and I just listened.
P: I'm poor. I don't have any money.
T: Do you have a home? Family? Food? Clothes? A pet? You are not poor.
P: But I don't have any money...people need to give me money.
T: Do you have a toilet? Poor people have to pee on a rock! You aren't poor.
P: yes I am.
T: Do you have a bed? Poor people have to sleep on a rock!
P: The same rock they pee on? Ewwww!

I think that finally convinced her that she isn't poor! I watched a great clip recently about being poor. It talked about what makes someone poor...and T has it right. Poor isn't about money, it is about relationships. The video asked if you lost all your money, your home, your family, your job...how long would it take you to get a meal, a bed to sleep in, another job? Most people have enough connectionships/relationships that they could get a meal in minutes if needed, a bed to sleep in that night, and some form of employment pretty quickly. They are not poor. Funny how so many people have the same attitude as P, my six year old, "I'm poor...people need to give me money!"

Interesting.

impressed but frustrated

When I saw Terrific T on Monday after CC, he was very agitated and pulling on my arm to leave. He was acting exactly like he does when he has Red 40. No reasoning with him. No making him happy. I still had to finish up at church and get things cleaned up so we were there another 30 minutes. By the time we all loaded in the car, he was done. At that point, he would have argued that his name wasn't T and he wasn't a boy. He really was arguing just for the sake of arguing. Again, exactly like he does when he has had Red 40 (see why we eliminated it?).

The only thing that he said that he ate differently was a Chips Ahoy cookie (which I gave him without checking the package). I emailed them to see if they happened to have red 40 in them because I didn't have the package. Online it only listed "caramel coloring" which I had read in the past that some caramel contains Red40. It was after hours on Monday and I figured I would get an email reply sometime this week. I just checked messages this morning, and someone from Kraft had called yesterday while I was sleeping to chat about it. She told me on the machine that they HAVE to list the colors if they are in there and it didn't have it. Very sweet. Just a minute ago, she called back to make sure I got the message and to talk more. She was so nice and actually seemed to care. She practically begged me to take coupons on other Kraft items (even cheese!). ok...twist my arm ;) I wasn't upset at Nabisco or Kraft or anything....just frustrated that I don't know what caused that reaction.  Ugh. I'm betting he ate something else without thinking, but he can't remember and there is so much candy and snacks going around right now that there is no telling.

Anyway, just wanted to give a shout out to Kraft for their impressive customer service. In this day and age, that is pretty rare! I've called quite a few companies about this same issue and they had, by far, the best CS I've seen.

another reason I love homeschooling...

Terrific T is starting to feel better, but now Princess P and I have been struck with the bug. I made it through our last CC day yesterday, but P laid pretty low all day and didn't get to go to her class (except when they were having cake, but come on, you have to be pretty sick to not be able to have cake!). Today, I broke out the extra strong prescription that my dr prescribed for me to take to Cambodia if I came down with anything. I didn't need it there, thankfully, but hoped it would knock this out of me before Thanksgiving (and Black Friday shopping!). I also took some Robitussin for my cough. One of those two made me super spacy and shaky. So...I curled up in front of the fire, like a cat, and napped the morning away. But not before barking out the kids school orders....


Read this:

Watch this:

And then write a paper comparing and contrasting the two.

OK, Captain C wrote the paper, the other two just listed a few things and drew pictures. They were thrilled to "not have to do school" and I got a few hours of rest so I can attempt to get over this and move on with the 1000 things I need to do this week.

Sometimes you just gotta scrap your lesson plans and wing it, and a benefit of homeschooling is that that is ok. I'll let them practice math calculating how much I am going to save on Black Friday ;)

kids these days...

Terrific T isn't feeling great so he wanted to soak in the tub. Seeing as it is school time, I couldn't let him just soak, so pulled up a movie about Abe Lincoln on Netflix and he watched that on the ipad during his bath. I went in to check on him and Princess P had brought in a tea set and was sitting beside the tub watching the movie too.

 

It got me thinking about how times have changed from when we were kids. Technology has come a long way! And then made me think of this picture that I have seen on pinterest that says our kids will never know the connection between these two things:

I wonder what technology will be like if Jesus doesn't come back before our kids have kids. And if Jesus DOES come back before then, wow, forget technology...I can't wait to be walking on those streets of gold in heaven!

Bountiful Basket

A friend of mine found Bountiful Baskets Food Co-Op on Facebook a couple of weeks ago and we decided to give it a try. We figured for $15 a basket, it was worth the risk. We were very pleasantly surprised with our basket of fruits and veggies. We also split a case of apples that our family has enjoyed for the past two weeks (and will continue to enjoy the applesauce that is frozen). We went today to pick up our baskets and it was even nicer than last time! I had to take a picture of the goodies.

For $15 we each received squash, potatoes, sweet potatoes, onions, persimmons (had to google those!), bananas, apples, grapes, blackberries, celery, kiwi, and oroblanco (also had to google those!). Then Lisa added on tangerines (they are tiny so I told the kids they were Clementines and they have eaten 2 since I walked in the door an hour ago) and squash and there were so many in her add on that she shared with me so we now have about 40 Clemintines and three huge squash (butternut, acorn, and spaghetti). We tried their bread last week and I loved that but the kids didn't so I didn't get it this time. It is all so good and I love that it is making me try new things. Please feel free to share recipes with me for any/all of the above. I'm attempting to make my menu for the week and use all of this...it will be interesting :)
Check and see if there is a Bountiful Baskets Co-Op in your area - totally worth it, in my humble opinion.

big brother advice

Terrific T: Princess P, if you are going to get married when you grow up, my suggestion is you are going to have to stop tooting so much!

Princess P: You want me to be constipated?!?!

Terrific T: No. You can eat more raisins.

What's on your mind?

Facebook asks us everyday, "What's on your mind?" Try randomly asking your kids that sometime. It is pretty interesting to hear their answers! I started asking them when we are driving and love getting a glimpse into their thoughts. Personally, I was very pleased to learn that Terrific T DOES want to get married now (originally he was going to adopt kids and then adopt a wife to take care of them because he didn't want to kiss anyone). He decided he doesn't want to have Spanish kids and wants them to look like him (one of his good friends was adopted from Guatemala ... I assume that is where that train of thought originated?). He isn't sure who is wife will be but said he thinks she will be skinny, like me. His words, not mine. (He is totally my favorite!)  Oh he also said that he is going to be a jet pilot...or maybe a preacher.

Try it - talk to your kids. They are pretty darn awesome.

Christmas is coming...time to get swaggin'

I love Swagbucks! I know I have posted about them before but if you haven't signed up, now is a great time. Tomorrow they are having a swag-a-palooza, so to speak. They are giving away 60 swagbucks during the day on their blog, facebook, twitter, etc. Love it. Normally, you earn swagbucks by searching through their search engine (instead of google or yahoo) as well as doing polls, surveys, and my personal fave...swagbucks TV. I keep it running on the side of my screen and just click on the next video (usually rotating through the same 2 or 3 all day b/c I'm not watching them or listening to them so it doesn't bug me). You can easily get 30 or more swagbucks off those each day. Every 10 videos you "watch", you get 3 points. It doesn't sound like much but it does add up fast...and you don't have to finish the videos either. You get credit when it is about 1/2 over and can switch to the next video. Easy peasy! I am started to save up now for Christmas. Every 450 points you get, you can request a $5 amazon GC. I have earned $55 so far. So...if you haven't signed up before, DO IT, and if you use my link, I get credit too which I would really appreciate ;)