Little Okie Homestead

This has to be a really quick post. I'm ready to head off to bed. Last night I cooked out pumpkin seeds and they are great! Better than the years I just let my mom do it. So glad I took the risk of having them turn out bad because they are delicious! First I mixed them with melted butter. Then I mixed cinnamon and sugar together like I do to make cinnamon toast. Then I spread them out on a cookie sheet and sprinkle the cinnamon and sugar over them. I put them in the oven at 300 degrees and bake them for 40 minutes. Stirring them every 10  minutes. This is the finished product. They are so yummy and Rex loves them too!

What happen to having manners? Seriously did people just forget to teach a whole generation? Not only manners but all courtesy! Sometimes I feel like my family is so different from people around us.  When we go to someone's house whether it be a friend or family's we do our best to help them out. When we go to my hubby's grandparents house we cook them dinner, clean the kitchen and make sure there house is at least as clean as when we got there. We also do anything that we can that might be helpful. Cut the grass, fix things around their house, and just general talking with them. We do this pretty much anywhere. We try to make sure that if someone else has invited us into their home that we make sure that we show them that we appreciate everything that they do for us.  Not only that but we incorporated manners into our own house. When Rex is done with dinner we make sure that he takes his dish to the sink, puts his napkin in the trash, puts his drink in the fridge

It's 3:15 a.m. right now. I can't sleep and it's all because of a dream that has left me full of sadness, confusion and guilt.  First, sadness because the dream was of my little boy dying or at least drowning and I woke up while in the middle of giving him CPR so I don't know if I was able to save him or not. When I woke up it took all my strength to just breathe and not break down and cry hysterically. The first thing I did was go in his room and make sure he was breathing. He was fine and as I was walking away he woke up and said "Mommy?...I want to cuddle." We are trying to break him of having to cuddle every naptime and bedtime but this time I couldn't help myself. I laid down next to him and rubbed his back as he rubbed my arm. All the time praying.  This is where my confusion set it. Of course I understand my all consuming grief for the dream that I had. I understand why I was devastated when I woke up. But as I began to pray I was asking God t

Most people here in the wonderful state of Colorado are complaining about the snow however, I was so excited to see it fall and quite a bit of it too. I couldn't wait to get Rex all dressed up in his snow pants and heavy coat and head out to see how much fun he would have. Last year he really didn't care for it much but this year I think, if yesterday was a sneak preview, that he is going to love it! I think not only my excitement to have fun in the snow with Rex but the fact that my husband works for a roofing company snow is a plus for me. It means that he gets to stay home all day with us and not actually have to work the whole time! I love winter! Here are some cute pictures from our 'Out in the Snow' experience. He was so proud and excited to get in the snow. He couldn't stop smiling! His favorite thing to do on anything that is half way soft is to free fall into it face first of course. So I guess snow of the frozen ground looked soft enough! It must hav

I was going to post all about our snow day but I can't get our pictures to upload so instead you can hear all about what I'm planning for our Pre-Homeschool for the next few weeks. Any homeschool followers that would love to leave some suggestions or thoughts would be great. Still trying to get the hang of all this. So I decided that we would start out on Monday with All About Me for 2 weeks. We are going to learn about body parts, favorite things, and even some senses activities. I'm use to doing these activities with a class of 25 and they were all 4 and 5 year old's so I'm going to have to tailor my thinking to what a 2 year old can comprehend but I know I can do it. We are going to introduce scissors, cutting and glue for finding things in magazines that he likes. We are going to go to the library and get books about things that are about people, independence and hopefully some potty books. This is going to be something we talk a lot about. Read about why we

 There are going to be a few words but feel free not to read them since it is Wordless Wednesday! This exhibit it is awesome! If you can make it go see it. No photos are allowed so you have to go yourself! Such a boy! But also scared of things too! Yes my 2 year old is just over 3 feet tall when standing straight! His favorite part of the museum! He had to take Daddy back to see the Dinosaurs! He can't wait to go back! So glad we opted for the membership! It's a whatever kind of day! Come link up!

So Rex has entered the stage of self-reliance, independence, self-entertained...whatever you want to call it. I wasn't sure that I was ready for him to be at this stage yet because that means he's growing up. I think every mom wishes they could stay little longer than they do. God has another plan laid out though and we only get to keep them for 18 short years. Just a cute little picture of my big 'little' guy! This stage (like every stage) comes with it's perks and it's challenges.  Some of the perks are that he can entertain himself and I don't have to worry about what he is doing every second. He also can clean up his own messes (still with encouragement from Mom) that he makes while entertaining himself. He can express his needs in full sentences and with manners too! If I'm prepared he can get himself his milk cup out of the fridge and his own snack. This is especially helpful on days that I'm watching the baby and he always wants som

So this summer I planned out our pre-homeschool. I bought a lesson plan book and wrote (luckily in pencil) what I planned to do through the first of the year. Well....that has all changed! The way I originally planned things was based on my experience as a pre-school teacher. At home this doesn't work. I only have one child, I have to buy everything that I need, and things are always coming up and changing.  So...how do I deal with the change........ I am embracing it! I love what it is becoming! I grab a big eraser and got rid of all the plans I had already made and I'm starting over.  The last 2 weeks were our first and our trial run to see what works. I decided to start with the letter D and to learn all about Dinosaurs because there is a great dinosaur exhibit at the museum. We got books from the library that talked about all different D words and of course a bunch of dinosaur books.  After our 2 weeks is over Rex can identify the letter D both big and little in

Last Friday we headed out to the best pumpkin patch in Colorado, according to me at least! It's great because it cheap to get in and we get to take a tracker and trailer out to the fields and pick our own veggies. You can take 5 bags full of veggies home and a pumpkin just for the $15 to get it! It really is a great deal! Plus they have lots of fun things for the kiddos. Here are some pictures of what Rex enjoyed the most... Rex is a huge cars fan. He loves the movie and anything with wheels that he can push around. When we pulled up he saw Mater and had to go and see him. As you can see he's super excited to be sitting on Mater. (He just walked by and said "I sit on Mater!") He was able to see Lightning McQueen! And Sheriff with his friends! And Doc! He was just as excited to see Doc as he was to see Mater. He was smiling and enjoying being in the pumpkins but the sun was so bright that I wasn't able to get a good picture. How sad :( Picking corn. It

I knew I have failed as a mom more than once but as I was reading  Mama G's  post I couldn't think of anything. Crazy right? I guess I just let it go when it happens. Well as I neared the end my most recent failure hit me.  We have started potty training. Rex was super excited. He did all his business in the potty and we made a huge deal about it. Then we headed later that day to the store to get him so underwear. He was so excited. We let him wear his new underwear and kept asking "Do you have to go potty?" like every 15 minutes and we would remind him "Don't go pee in you new underwear. Hold it in so you can go on the potty."  Things seemed to be going good. No peeing on the floor but also no going in the potty. He was just holding it. Then of course he starts heading up the stairs. We don't have carpet on our main floor but we do on the stairs and in our bedrooms. He makes it up 2 steps and starts peeing. Normally he knows to stop and hold i

Thank you so much for the prayers. Grandma's surgery went very well and very quick. It's not going to be the last but they think they were able to get the infection that was growing quick enough that it shouldn't cause any other problems. We are grateful for that and just need to wait for the cultures to come back to make sure.  I'm still exhausted though. Last night the hubby did something really nice for me but of course it ended up back firing. He came home early (5:30pm instead of 7pm) and told me to order in dinner and to head off to bed to get extra sleep. So I headed to bed and read a book until I was ready to pass out. Well finally I did sleep until 3am then I was wide awake and slept maybe another 30 minutes after that. So once again I'm tired. So today I'm taking it easy. I enjoyed Bible study this morning and always get so much out of it but now I'm hanging out watching movies and letting Rex hanging out around the house and playing.  I'

So right now it is 4:30am and I'm exhausted. I was so worried that I wouldn't get up on time that I decided (not on purpose) to not sleep at all. Now I get to finish eating my cereal, blow dry my hair and head out the door to take my husband grandma in for back surgery. I'm so grateful that I'm in a position to help out. I love being able to stay home with Rex, to teach him what we feel is important and to just be able to raise him myself instead of relying on someone else to do it for me. With that I also get to be able to help out family. Like today this is the 3rd or 4th time that I have been able to help out my hubby's family. This means so much to me because 1. they need it but 2. they have excepted me into the family like I was apart of it their whole lives. Family is so important to me and I'm so grateful to have in-laws (more extended in-laws) that love me and care for me like I'm true family (father-in-law and mother-in-law excluded, they treat me l

I'm linking up with Growing up Geeky with Toddle Along Tuesday. I love that there are themes to write about now. This week it is what you love about your child(ren). Having a 2 year old that is full of energy there are some days I have to remind myself of all the things I love. Those days are normally pretty far apart and most days I can just look at him and melt. So I love... The way he always uses his manners. "Please" "Thank you" "Welcome" "God Bless You" and on we are still working on "Excuse Me" When he curls up in bed and say "I want to cuddle" and before I leave his room he makes sure and says "I love you Mommy" That he's so intuitive. He can tell what I'm feeling and cares about how I'm feeling too That he enjoys spending time with his Popa so much  That he can find humor in almost anything  That he loves to read and will just go up to his room and spend hours just looking at

Our church is doing parenting class for 6 weeks and this first week really showed me that I'm doing a lot of things the correct way. Thank goodness! Sometimes I wonder if all the effort I'm putting into Rex is really worth it but according to these people with a bunch of letters after their names and spiritual knowledge, it really is.  I decided to take this opportunity to learn some new things and practices into my daily life with Rex and for skills as he gets older.  The first video we watched was great! It's where I really learned or at least pondered about some things that I need to change. First, I know I'm a good mom. I don't care how bad that sounds. I know that it is true. But even so I do know that I still need to learn more which is what I did.   First thing is that I need to keep my focus on the long term goal. I want Rex to grow up to love God and have a strong relationship with Him. I want him to know God's will for his life and listen when

Tuesday was my Bible study group for my mom's group and I have to say it was so important for me. I posted about struggling to get back to my role as homemaker after vacation and I still haven't fully embraced it. Well Tuesday I was surrounded by other mom's that are my support group when it comes to being a homemaker. They all work so hard to make their families and homes what God has called them to be. We are also studying the book "Becoming His Help Meet" by Debi Pearl which is a great book but I know that its not everyone would feel that way. For me it's perfect!  One of the mom's shared a schedule that she put together for herself to keep herself organized and a list of everything she needs to get done whether it would be this week or weeks from now. She has it split up into 4 categories.  The first is a list of household cleaning things that need to be done everyday week if not more than once. Ex: Sweeping, toilets, windows, etc. Then she has a

So we are finally starting our schooling this fall. With our vacation I didn't want to start before we left and I wanted to get back and into the normal routine before we started so here we are on day 2 and we haven't accomplished a bunch.  Yesterday we hit the library for all of their D books and Dinosaur books. The Natural Science Museum has their exhibit on Dinosaurs so I figured this was a great place to start. I also printed out some color sheets and a few counting sheets. I'm very excited to get started! I have official school time on the daily calendar and tomorrow will be our first day using it. I plan to spend 2 weeks on each theme.  On the schedule this week. Feeding d ucks at the park.Going to the museum to see d inosaurs. Talking about D addy and making special projects for him. Coloring pictures of d eer, d olphins, d ogs, d inosaurs.... I was trying to find some matching activities with the d sound or some counting activities online but didn't have m