Koi Bath Bombs

These turned out better than I thought they would as I was making them - the mold was very soft and I felt I didn't have enough moisture, but they popped out nicely!

Poppy the Country Dog

Some people look down on little fluffy dogs as some kind of accessory or a yapping annoying little gnat, so I decided to make some scrapbook pages from the point of view of our tiny country dog! I admit my best dogs were probably my Rottweiler, Hannah, and my half-St. Bernard, Megan, but this little dog, not yet 7 months old, has brought so much joy to our lives. She is a tiny blast of sunshine - we just smile goofily when she is around. She is cuddly and sweet but also fierce and sassy - she ain't afraid of nuthin! If I had half her exuberance for life or half her social skills, I'd be a happier person!

My gang

I love my gang! I love that they not only will go for walks with me every day - usually two unless it is raining - but they are excited about it. It is vital for my health issues and sometimes I am tired and don't have the motivation, but their eagerness always gets me up and going, and it's great for the dogs too. We have some of our best talking time during these walks and find so many natural treasures since we walk not only on the acreage we live on but also at every nature preserve within 30 miles of our home.

Next step on the hope-to-do list - camping! I really want to take my girls camping. Camping with my father is one of my favorite memories. Our complications are all our pets and a car on its last legs, but we are hoping to find a way this fall to start - and also to go canoeing. Wow they are growing up fast and I want to have more adventures with them before they flit away.

Rolling on the couch, gasping for air!

People, if you're having a hard week and you need something to get your belly laugh going, Mad Libs are a must!

When Jing came home at nearly 7, we began homeschooling a few months later, but the first couple of years, she had great difficulty with English work and was very tense when the workbook and textbook came out (this was not introduced immediately, of course, but after she had learned English). For the life of her, she could not even tell the difference between a noun and a verb. I decided to put the text away and find a fun way to learn where she would not even know she was being educated. Enter: Mad Libs (and many other games and creative ways of learning).

These are simple little booklets with a short story on each page where one person who is holding the book asks the others in the room to give a random word - a noun, a verb, an adverb, an adjective, a part of the body, a famous person, a color, a number, etc. These people do not know what the story will be about. The book holder fills in the blanks with the words and then reads the story, which is often hilarious to the point of laughing so hard you have an asthma attack (me) or maybe a little pee in the pants (me again) (forgive my candor, but it's true).

A few evenings on the couch at our nightly together time doing Mad Libs, and Jing had not only nouns and verbs down pat - after a year of struggling with it in school books - but also all the other parts of speech. Some Libs are not as funny as others. The girls watched the Raiders of the Lost Ark movies last year and we got that Mad Libs book (there's one for Star Wars too), and those haven't been that entertaining for some reason. But tonight Lily drug out a book of Christmas Mad Libs that we did year before last, and honestly we all were in agony we were laughing so hard, tears rolling, weird strangled sounds coming out of us.

Here are some selections from our Christmas Mad Libs. The word in parentheses is what the players were instructed to provide and the bold words are the word they provided to fill in the blank.

"Yesterday I took my friend Alice (person) to see Santa Claus at the department store. He is only 6000 (number) years old, so I had to hold onto his bladder (part of the body) whenever we crossed the flower (noun)....Santa is a bit, fat, plush (adjective) man with a black (color) beard who dresses in a bright red bra (article of clothing)."

"The next morning when the moon (something round) came up, Scrooge jumped out of his bathtub (piece of furniture) and said, 'I am a changed scroll (noun). I only hope it is not too stinky (adjective) for me to become a kindly, generous squirrel(something alive).' He put on his underwear(article of clothing), rushed to the butcher shop and said, 'Give me the biggest Red Tanager (type of bird) you have.' Then he bought cakes and yucky (adjective) cookies and a beautiful cake (noun) pudding....Scrooge said, 'Boring (adjective) Christmas, Bob Cratchit. I have rats (plural noun) for everyone, including Tiny Tim.' And they had a disgusting (adjective) dinner and sang jolly lanterns (plural noun). Scrooge had indeed changed from an exciting (adjective) skinflint into a wonderful dragon (noun). He gave Tiny Tim a solid gold eyeball (noun) and Tiny Tim said, 'Merry Christmas, and may Paris Hilton (famous person) bless us every one!'"

At one point, Charles Ingalls needed some movies to keep his appendix warm, and fifty years ago children got caring electric trains or baby dolls that said "Yee-Haw!" Santa put the presents in the boxer shorts that the children had hung on the mantle. After he did this 5 times, he went home to get ready for Chinese New Year (holiday)! Then we did one on New Year's resolutions where "I promise to help bathe my pet sewing machine and help snuggle the dishes after dinner."

I love to see the Chinese influence in so many of the words they chose and the "famous people" they picked - Charles Ingalls heehee! Lily was really into the body parts and instead of arms and legs would say "sphincters," or "intestines." There are some Junior (easier) Mad Libs for the younger kids, and be careful as there are also some adult Mad Libs! There are Survivor Mad Libs and Nancy Drew Mad Libs, which we enjoyed during Lily's obsession with the titian-haired sleuth. They are a lot of fun and a great way to laugh together as a family while teaching the littles the parts of speech!

Georgie goes all Mao on us

The girls dressed Georgie up in their Red Scarf someone sent them from China and did a photo shoot. She seems quite proud of herself. Another amusement to fill time during the freeze of 2010 when it's too cold to go outside for a walk (we are easily entertained)!

Cats bouncing off the walls!

It has been exceedingly cold for central Georgia, and our cats, who normally prowl through the woods like little tigers much of the day, have decided they need to stay inside. But they are very antsy and Daisy, our resident diva, keeps leaving my room and coming back in again and again begging for treats very vociferously! Normally when she comes in for a visit I give her treats and I guess she figures no matter how many times she enters the room she will get treats. So she just leaves and comes back two minutes later. Pretty smart, but she is driving me nuts! She has been playing with her own tail like it's a mouse and galloping back and forth through the house literally crashing head-on into walls. Then she sprawls across the foot of my pitiful little twin bead and I have to sleep in the fetal position. Did I mention she is a diva?!

So while grocery shopping I found an inexpensive pull toy with some irresistable feathers on the end, and both she and her mom Zoey have returned to kittenhood, batting, pouncing, attacking, wrestling and chasing us through the house, which has also turned out to be good exercise for us, as we've been missing our daily walk, not having anything but a light jacket. It's very cute but the dadburned toy has two little bells on it so now I find my nerves being stretched again with the constant jingle, but we have had fun!

The Simplest Things

I love how kids are so thrilled with the simplest things, even almost teenagers. We only had some clear mugs from Walmart - seen in the background - to drink our hot stuff out of. I had at the time not been able to find any pretty ones and decided it would make a good Christmas surprise. So I ordered us all one from online - Lang for the girls and Leanin' Tree for me because I fell in love with the little Shetland pony on this mug.

I think this was almost their favorite thing they got for Christmas. They have told me numerous times how much they love them. They get up an hour or so before I do because I get them in bed in time to get to sleep before daylight - on the nightshift I always see the sun come up before I go to bed. I worried about them getting hungry but didn't want to give up having lunch together, though I need to get them started making some meals, so I suggested they get up and fix a mug of hot cocoa. They love this new little independent pleasure and do it almost every day.

Good times and no camera. Sigh.

This is Stone Mountain State Park, where the girls went today after a sleepover with friends. I was all primed for photos of their great time and they get home and inform me they left the camera in our car when they took their suitcases to our friend's car. I am SO disappointed! My friend said she would email me some photos but it won't be this great new experience from their point of view. The Flip video camera was in the same camera pouch so no videos of their fun with their friend Sarah either. Heavy sigh.

I took Lily to Stone Mountain when she was about 4-1/2 or close to 5. She loved Thomas the Tank Engine with a passion, so I thought I would take her and ride the train. Well I don't drive downtown Atlanta much and got lost and we took a tour of several highways. When we got there it turned out to be a holiday - I don't get any holidays off so the more minor ones I forget sometimes, and I had not realized it was Memorial Day. We got there with most of the day gone, and it was crowded beyond belief with a 2-1/2-hour wait to ride the train, so we didn't. The petting zoo I had built her up about was closed. We rode the riverboat and she was terrified and clung to me. The seats were full and I had to hold this heavy child for a long time while a row full of "gentlemen" watched me struggle. We went to the plantation house - such a thrill for a 4-year-old! NOT!

So I was excited about them getting to ride the tram up the mountain and walk down. They rode the cool train. They saw a 4D movie of the Polar Express but only 20 minutes long. They went to the petting zoo and the plantation house and went in some kind of barn where you shoot balls at each other. They had all sorts of fun but I have nothing to show for it. One more gusty sigh and a loud groan.

Lisa Leonard Jewelry Giveaway

Simple Mom is giving away a gift certificate to Lisa Leonard, who makes beautiful hand-hammered silver jewelry, most of which is customized. I am longing to win the cute Chinese lantern necklace. I have all of one necklace and this one would be special as I could wear it for life and then Lily and Jing could each take their charm to wear. (Not to be morbid or anything!) Head on over and leave a comment on the blog for a chance to win the gift certificate!

http://simplemom.net/a-holiday-giveaway-lisa-leonard/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+simplemom+%28Simple+Mom%29

Old Houses Repurposed = Happy Me!

The girls and I visited Old Town Morrow just past sunset - passing the No Trespassing signs to take a peek. A gentleman trespassing before us said they didn't seem to mind so we went on in and were met with cold stares, so we quickly left! This is a little pedestrian shopping and dining community being created across from the mall near us. There is a streetfront made of new buildings that look old and several old houses repurposed into a pub and boutique shops.

It was hard to resist the wooden bridge leading to the town and the sight of the old houses taken from the local area and fixed up to be new again. One of them I had sadly lamented when it was removed from a property near us - I thought torn down - to make a strip mall. I was so happy to see it freshly painted and covered in lights. I LOVE old houses and if I were wealthy we would be living in something at least 100 years old! We can't wait until it opens and we can visit without worrying about the security guards from the mall across the street booking us for trespassing!

Operation Christmas Child

It's THAT week of the year! Pack a shoebox or two and take it to the nearest pickup location. Our favorite restaurant, Chick-fil-A, is accepting boxes this year AND giving away a free Chick-fil-A sandwich if you bring a box. It's a great way to give back and make Christmas a little better for children across the world who may not have as much as we do. My girls had so much fun picking out toys to put inside our boxes - you can choose boy or girl and different age ranges. We chose girls 5-9, and their AWANA class at church is filling boxes for 10-14-year-old girls, so they took some things for that too. You can find info at samaritanspurse.org on how to send your boxes - they must be done by 11/23!

Lily and Sadako

We read the sad but wonderful book "Sadako and the Paper Cranes" a few years ago and Lily just reread it and then sat and made one origami paper crane after another with some washi we had. (I am addicted to the beautiful patterns and will buy it on impulse even when I have no idea what I will use it for!) I think these are so pretty!

Six years ago today

This is Jing at the orphanage two weeks before her adoption.

It is so hard to believe six years have gone by since Lily and I arrived in a hotel room in Xi'an, exhausted, and an hour later a wild child was brought to our room - a child we were both terrified of and who was quite difficult in every way she could think of, a child who had lost everything in one day and abandoned yet once more in her short 6-3/4 years. Thus began a journey that began quite roughly but has taken us only to worthwhile places and given Lily the sister and friend she longed for and the second daughter I wanted. Six years ago today Jing became a Johnson!

Civil War anyone?

We had such a fun time today as well as a thoughtful glimpse of our country's history. We went to a Civil War battle reenactment - The Battle of Cheatham Hill. It was quite exciting! (Lily said, "Mama, why did they call it "Civil" when they did all that fighting?" Good question!)

At first they were mostly at a distance but at one point I was staring right at a horse's bum two feet away! It was a huge production and the cannons were quite convincing! I could feel the booms all the way up through my body and there were quite a lot of them! It was fun to wander around afterwards and see the tents and campfires, the blacksmith, the Ladies Aid Society offering medical car for the "wounded." Lots of tents with clothing, jewelry and even corsets for sale. We didn't want to leave but I was oh so late for work!

We ran into a guy who had actually been on the property we live on documenting a battle they recreated this morning - too early for this night-shift girl - Kilpatrick's Raid, which actually took place on the farm - Nash Farm - that we were watching the Cheatham Hill reenactment. After Kilpatrick's raid the soldiers ran all the way down where we live in one day - many miles - and crossed a bridge over the river next to our driveway, burning the bridge behind them. So much history in this area. It was so interesting to see a bit what it might have been like and wonderful tha the fallen soldiers could get up and walk away after the battle was over.

Looking back...

I found these sweet photos of Lily while cleaning out today and thought I would post this scrapbook page. We haven't had a working camera for a while and have just been having a challenging time so haven't been posting but I'm sure everyone who has my blog linked is tired of looking at Karl Malden LOL! The designers used are Studio Phong and Ptitesourus.

This man mattered, or, who are the heroes?

I came home tonight to catch the news and hopefully watch some clips of an old favorite fellow of mine who I heard, before I ran out the door, died today - Karl Malden. Needless to say, after listening through several news and entertainment programs as I worked about the house, I heard maybe one or two short sentences on each one, buried at the end of the program, and saw a flash of a picture across the screen, then it was back to more repetitive coverage of "The King of Pop." Well EXCUSE me, but this man mattered too. I admit I am not a fan of MJ and I do understand that others are. It is always sad when someone dies, especially a father with young children. But the obsessive focus of even serious news programs on this one human being leaves me feeling, hmmm, I'll call it "disgruntled" since I make it a point not to swear. And saddened.

Karl Malden lived 97 years, and even from my limited knowledge lived a full and active life up to the end. He was never accused of child molestation. He never had his lovely big nose altered and was known to be unhappy when asked to use a stage name rather than his given name of Mladen Sekulovich. I'm pretty sure he never did drugs or wandered through stores buying ridiculously useless and excessively priced items (excuse me, just a memory I have from a documentary of MJ). He served his country in the US Army Air Corps, he maintained a happy marriage for 70 years, he had children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren. He worked hard and from what I understand was a gentleman who practiced kindness and humbleness. He made many acclaimed movies, he starred in a television program that earned him five Emmys and was one of my favorites of all time. He served in the Screen Actors Guild. He was fascinating to watch, a truly good steady actor.

So why does his life barely rate a blip on the screen that he gave so much to in comparison to that other person who died DAYS ago?

Who are the heroes of today and why? When you ask my girls who they admire, some of the names they mention are Anne Frank, Helen Keller, Rosa Parks, Sojourner Truth, Clara Barton. I am so happy about that and feel somehow I feel I did something right as a parent, though they are the ones who ultimately made their choices. I have to say they didn't even know who Michael Jackson was. Not that I purposely kept the knowledge of him a secret - it just never came up!

Who are the heroes of so many today, these people who rate countless hours of air time when they pass or do something stupid, such as Britney forgetting her underpants or Paris Hilton in jail or the beloved Miley Cyrus in a pose or situation that belies her age? Who do our children admire and want to emulate?

I will always remember you Karl, and maybe considering the mob mentality of today that rates "Speidi" as worthy of airtime, you can call it a compliment that your death went virtually unnoticed in media land. Long after the media obsessions of today have gone, you will live on through your work, as steadily and vigorously as you lived your life.

Cat envy

Is it wrong to envy your cat?! I sit and stress over work issues, scrambling to survive, and I look over at the most peaceful, contented little being. Daisy spends her days being bathed by her mom (her birth mom, not me!), sprawling out in the sun in the grassy yard, being treated like a princess by her three human slaves, being fed no less than six times a day on demand and gamboling through the woods.

Oh yes, I have cat envy, but in my attempts to decipher something intelligible from Dr Taggart's dictations from her home with the phone lying on the table and her kids screaming incessantly in the background she also provides me a little oasis of peace when I look over and see her sweet contentment. Until I now have to go back to the hair-pulling-out madness! Anyone looking for a long-distance secretary!?

LOVE the Asian Market

We had another unexpected day off work - there was none, again - and I was antsy with stress so we just set off in the car. We had been trying to get back to the Asian Market, which is a good ways away, for some time and on a whim decided today was the day. Before we even got in I had picked up a full-size seedless watermelon for 2.99 and Lily had whispered, "Even outside, it smells like China!"

Inside we got Napa/Chinese cabbage for 54 cents a pound! I still had the remains of our last head in the fridge that I paid 1.49 a pound for. I love Napa cabbage and it is very healthy. I chop some up and put it in all kinds of things.

We got some huge boneless chicken thighs, my favorite piece of meat other than rib-eye steak, for 1.99 a pound. We passed over the rabbit, beef tongue and cod fish heads!

We also nabbed a full pint of blueberries for 1.99 a pound and some nice onions for 49 cents a pound, as opposed to 1.29 a pound at Publix. I just am in awe of the prices. We had fun looking at all the noodles. I have finally come up with a serviceable Lo Mein recipe but we thought we might find some noodles like they use at the Chinese restaurants. We did not, but on googling once we got home, seems that is an American Chinese restaurant noodle, not authentic Chinese! Sadly the udon noodles were too expensive. I miss my Japanese friend's Nikku Udon, tender beef strips floating with the yummy noodles in broth. We got these rice noodles to try, which were 99 cents a package, and the girls love rock candy and this heavy box for 88 cents proved irresistable!

We never have time to look at everything and I always mean to write down some of the names of seasonings and noodles and things to look them up at home and see if we might like them. We don't have any play in our budget to experiment as I wish we could. Lily kept gloating - "Mom, you look so out of place here!" I told her that was fine, it was far past my turn to look out of place.

China Learning Kit

A fellow homeschool mom, who happens to be living in China, has paired up with a Chinese friend to help her raise some money to send her son to college. She is offering a little packet from China with goodies and some information sheets. The facts are really great, and even my well-versed-in-all-things-China girls learned a few new tidbits. If you'd like to take a look, click the buttom. Quantities may be limited so if you want one, order soon! We are about to read "Red Scarf Girl," and having much vintage art picturing the scarf, they were particularly tickled to have a real red scarf of their own and they loved the stamps on the package and the money.



While Jimmmie's blog deals mostly with homeschooling, she has some great photos and posts about China if you are willing to dig for them.
http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Jimmie/

On her collage, if you scroll down on the right you can find some "life in China" posts to click on.

http://jimmiescollage.com/

Proud mama today!

Tonight was AWANA graduation and the girls got a nice plaque for finishing their book. Unfortunately my batteries died at the church and I couldn't get any photos there. I still can't believe they did eight months' good work in two months and with no promptimg from me at all! I really love the program.

Their cousin Beth brought them this lovely book originally printed in 1960 - Chinese fairy tales translated from the Chinese. The artwork is beautiful but as Lily pointed out some of it looks more Japanese than Chinese. She used to amaze me starting about 5-1/2 being able to correctly identify art pieces, paintings and photos as being Thai, Indian, Japanese or Chinese. I had pointed things out to her at flea markets and we read together copiously, especially Asian themed books, but it still amazed and delighted me that she developed that eye at such an early age.

That kid has loved the whole wide world since she was a toddler - wildly excited about globes and maps and showing me places I myself had forgotten about on them before she hit 4! At our library, she just checked out a book on Pyramids, Japanese in internment camps, a novel set in Laos, a novel set in Thailand and a book on the Titanic! She just wants to know about everything everywhere! Jing, as usual, had all dog books except for one from her new passion - Star Wars. I looked with a pang at the rows of picture books - it seems just yesterday we were choosing from there and tonight I ran into both of them on the adult side of the library - Jing just to get her Star Wars book but who knows what Lily was looking up LOL! I love love love having bookworm girls!