Pennant Banner Tutorial

My mantle was looking a little bare of spring

So I created a triangle template and cut the triangles out from some spring looking scrap material (I cut 2 sides with my pinking shears and one side with regular scissors)

I found some single fold bias tape in a good coordinating color

At the sewing machine, I folded over the bias tape along the raw edge of the triangle

The middle triangle needed something a little extra, so out came the box of felt and jar of buttons

Using a template, I cut a flower shape out of the felt

Hand stitched a button through the center of the felt flower through the middle triangle on the banner

And now the mantle looks a little more like spring!



When the skies are grey and cloudy...

It was dark and cold this morning when we woke up...

...so I was glad that we had these ingredients at home...

...so that I could bake up a batch of these... :o)

What do you like to bake when it is grey and cloudy outside? Tell me what you like to bake and I will send you the recipe for these cookies!

Meet Our Compassion Kids Monday: Murimi

This is Murimi. He will be 6 years old this month and he lives in Kenya. There are 3 children in Murimi's family and he likes to play ball. We don't know a lot more than this about Murimi yet because we are still waiting for our first letter from him.

When Kelsey and I started signing up for correspondent kids, my husband decided he wanted a child to correspond with also. So he called Compassion and got himself on the waiting list. When we received his packet in the mail, we were excited to see that he received a correspondent child in Kenya! We have friends who are currently living and working in Kenya with Agape Children's Ministry. They were just getting ready to leave for their trip, so we were able to send over with them some items for Murimi.

Kevin is anxiously awaiting his first letter from Murimi, so if you think about it this week, pray that a letter comes soon!

The Cake Challenge

A friend of ours issued a challenge to Kelsey...try making a cake more moist without adding more liquid. So we took a recipe which was easily divided by four and started adjusting ingredients.

Kelsey kept notes of which batter contained which ingredients.

It was interesting how different each set of cupcakes turned out.

Her favorite cupcake was the one where she accidently added butter and shortening to the batter. Which goes to show that sometimes mistakes turn out just fine.

Fix Fatao's Heart

Fatao is a young boy living with his family in Burkina Faso and he needs to have heart surgery. He has a hole in his heart that needs to be repaired. Thankfully, he is a sponsored  child with Compassion! The total cost of his surgery is $23,000 (this cost includes the surgery, travel expenses, and follow up care.)

Read more about his story on the Compassion blog, then be sure to make a donation today!

Meet Our Compassion Kids Monday: Alesi

Let me introduce you to Alesi from Uganda! This is Kelsey's third correspondent child.

Alesi is 9 years old and lives with her father, mother, older brother, and uncle. She likes the color red, social studies, and net ball. Her favorite Bible story is when Jesus calms the storm. She wishes to one day to see an airplane and would like to become a nurse when she grows up. Her prayer is that God gives her wisdom to pass her class.

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you." - Matthew 7:7 (ESV)

Back to our regularly scheduled blogging...

Now that the voting for the My Gift of Compassion Video Contest has closed, I will now resume my regular blogging. :o) By the way, as far as I know, we did end up in the top 3 for votes. We will know on March 7th the winner of the contest. I will be sure to keep you all posted. :o)

Any way...we have just finished what I consider the hardest 2 months of homeschooling...January and February! There is usually not a lot going on outside the home in these 2 months, the weather is cold and dreary, and you spend many days just going through your routine of day to day homeschooling. My solution to all of this to is plan a field trip or two!

So the kids and I headed over to San Francisco to spend a day at the Exploritorium.  This museum (if you haven't been there before) is really an enormous museum filled with many hands-on science exhibits.

We were able to see a demonstration of how to make a light bulb with some basic items.

Matthew was able to create sparks on Kelsey's hand.

We were able to see huge leaves that have been preserved from the rain forest.

After we were done in the museum, we spent some time walking around the Palace of Fine Arts. The last time we visited the Exploritorium, renovation work was being done at the Palace of Fine Arts. It was a chilly afternoon, but a great time to get some photos.

If you look closely, you can see a couple of new additions... :o)

Have you been on a field trip lately? I would love to know about it!