The last couple days/nights have been nuts at our house. Pirate has started teething again and her sleep schedule (and subsequently ours) is ALLLLLLLLL messed up!


Next week looks like a big week for us. I plan to continue my Ancestry post with sharing a few little tricks that I've learned along the way, I might post about our garden, I'll attempt to get mass amounts of red crayon off my living room wall,  and who know what else!

Have a great weekend!




Look at those teeth! 
And that's not even 1/4 of them! I love my smiley girl!

As far back as I can remember, my mom has always been a genealogy junkie.... maybe "enthusiast" is a prettier word! I don't know how it started for her, but I can remember her filling in family trees with vital stats on each member and posting them on the wall. I remember her spending hours on the computer as if she was trying to crack a mystery. I'll also note that the lady knows her stuff; she can spout off details and names that any normal person should have forgotten!

I'm not sure when I transitioned from sitting quietly as she chattered about our dead relatives to not being able to get enough of it. But it did happen, and soon after I started on my first genealogical dig. 

It was the summer of 2005. I was 21 years old, Johnny Depp was in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,  and my brother and I were working all summer long as awesome camp counselors. I sat in front of a computer with a pen and paper, ready to take notes on whatever family info I could find.

For the sake of the story it might make sense to know that there was a chunk of time where I wasn't in contact with my genealogy junkie mother. My first ancestry hunt took place during this time. If I had been, I don't know if my search would have been so important to me or if I would have been indifferent - knowing that I could just always get the info from mom at anytime. 

Anyway, there I was. I had a mental list of info that I knew. And I was ready to go!

GOOGLE: ________________________

Shoot! What do I look up?!

I stared at the screen for half a minute. I decided to look up my mom's side of the family. They seemed to be a little more clouded in mystery.... murder.... mayhem.   

HAH! No. Not even close.  

It just seemed like there was a huge gap in some areas and I wanted to find something tangible. So Google was still staring at me. I decided that I was just going to wing it and see where I got.  

I should be able to do this by instinct alone, I am after all, my mother's child. I might have been a bit full of myslef. 

After a few minutes of typing whatever I could remember into the search engine, I found my first piece of gold! I'm pretty sure my jaw dropped. Google had found a message board from a few years earlier with several familiar names on it. I was so excited. As I read it, it all seemed to line up with names and facts that I knew.I then saw my golden ticket confirming that I was on the right path, it was my mom's username next to the message I was reading.  I think, in that moment, I knew that I could confidently begin researching my family tree.

I was hooked after that! I made a list of everything I ever wanted to know, I made another list of every fact that I could remember. On another sheet of paper I started to fill out my family tree. I decided that there would be no stopping me! (Lol, please insert a hearty laugh as I mention that this was all before I had real life responsibilities like a husband, child, or rent!)  

I have been on this quest ever since that day. I began to learn how to navigate the internet and use different databases to find what I needed to. I found a lot of free and creative ways to fill in my gaps, and I also found some awesome and pricey methods as well.

In the upcoming posts, I plan to share some of my favorite tricks and resources. Maybe it will be of some help to you in your search, or even fuel your curiosity.

I hope everyone has a great rest of the week. We're to the halfway point!

Melly

Last week sometime I came across something very exciting - to me, anyway!
On one of the blogs I follow, Confessions of a Homeschooler, a post caught my attention about a bible study - online, printable, and free! All words I like.  (Go here to see it!). And what was the icing on the cake? It's on Proverbs 31.

I was telling my Mr. Incredible last night, (as we were driving the baby around town at 1am trying to get her to sleep), that I love Mrs. Proverbs 31. 
What am I talking about? Proverbs 31 is about a "wife of noble character", and what makes her noble and good, how she blesses her family and husband, and why she the bible says she is to be praised.
 Let me give a quote from the first day of reading in the bible study:

"Once upon a time there was a prince who would one day be a King. While he was young his mother wisely trained her son on how to find a virtuous wife. She went through the alphabet one letter at a time giving him attributes that he was to seek out in his future wife. Using the alphabet in this manner made it easier for her son to remember and even perhaps memorize what he was looking for in his dream wife. And thus, we have the writings of Proverbs 31 – except this is not a fairy tale!"   taken from the e-book: Proverbs 31: One Virtue at a Time, pg. 5

I know some women who find her overwhelming, and even feel inadequate reading about her. But to me, it's different.  I find such encouragement in this chapter. It gives me hope and it gives me instruction of what in the world I'm supposed to be striving for. And since it's scriptural, I believe that it is possible and it is what is required of us. And I re-learn everyday that being this kind of wife is not something to be done in my strength, but in Christ's.

As a young wife and mother, I am bombarded with different ideas about what is important. I am surrounded with different methods for parenting and ways to make my marriage more significant. Not to mention, all the different theories of what will make my life as a woman in 2012 more significant and meaningful. And none of these items, in and of themselves, are a bad thing. But I find that it is far too easy to lose sight of what God's word has to say about the subject. 

I pray that rather than 'conforming to the pattern [of the wives and mothers] of this world', that I would learn what the bible says a wife is to be. I want to be THAT for my husband, and THAT for my daughter.

So, I ramble when I get going..

I really look forward to this bible study. If you feel so lead, please check it out! You don't have to be a part of the online group to do this, (we just finished week 1) but it's really cool. 


Melly
p.s. These ladies also offer wonderful and helpful things on their site about homemaking, recipes, homeschooling, and all sorts of good stuff. :)

My 18 month old, Pirate, has been battling new teeth for a while now. And when her mouth is hurting she goes from an easily pleased eater to a picky, cranky, and sad baby. 

ENTER Frozen Yogurt Bites!

In scouring Pinterest for awesomeness, I came across a quick and yummy idea. Here it is. 

I should have started taking pics earlier, but "oops!".

What you see if what you get! 
1. I bought some Vanilla Yogurt (use whatever you like, I wasn't sure what to get so I kept it plain.)
2. I put the yogurt in a ziplock bag. 
3. I cut a small whole in one of the bag's corners to simulate a pastry bag.

  
These are the results! I just pried them up off of the foil with a spoon. I put some on a plate for Mr. Incredible (poison check!), and the rest went back into the freezer for the bubala. 


Just guessing, I think I could make about 5 trays of Frozen Yogurt Bites with the container of yogurt I have! We'll know tomorrow what Pirate thinks! We hope that they'll feel good on her teeth and gums, and she'll just love them!

Is it already the 21st of March, where did this month go? 

The sun is out, the temperature is up, and sky has been blue! I've had the windows open and have been letting Pirate get in her Little Mermaid swim suit and play in her little kiddie pool everyday. Oh, how she loves being outside. I'll have to get my camera charged so I can take a good picture of her. It wears us out and we get such a good naptime out of it, and we soak up the much needed Vitamin D. 

Mr. Incredible has been making use of our front porch and has set up quite the little garden, I've contributed by filling up the watering can. :) He got me a Topsy Turvy to grow strawberries in, some Carnations, and a Snapdragon for Pirate. I can't wait to see how they turn out. Especially the strawberries! We're big strawberry fans in this house. 

In an awesome and bizarre chain of events, we have started spring cleaning this week - and our fearless leader has been the one to initiate the cleaning frenzy! The apartment is looking noticeably better! How nice.

Hope everyone else is having a beautiful day, too! 

Mr. Incredible made the most awesome soup last night. Even the baby liked it! Here it is:

Vegetable Beef and Rice
8 cups of water
1 can green beans
1 lb cooked ground beef
2 bay leaves
10 chicken boullion cubes (ours are small, adjust as you see fit)
about 1 cup frozen corn
about 1 cup frozen mixed veggies
about 1 cup frozen onion, celery, pepper mix
about a tbsp. parsely
about a tbsp. basil
about a tsp. garlic powder
salt & pepper to taste
about a cup of rice
 
Seasonings were eye-balled, so adjust as you see fit.
Cook it until rice is done. 
He put all of this in the Crockpot on low, overnight. 
It was amazing!!
We've been eating it all day. 
Enjoy!

Today has been a kitchen cleaning day. One of my favorite little tricks is for cleaning the icky, sticky, hardened, and crusty splattered gunk off of the inside of my microwave. While I'm not 100% certain where I picked up this neat little trick, but I can almost guarantee you that it came from my mother.


Here's what I do:

1. I grab a bottle of Windex, and spray the inside.
2. I wet a dish towel and put it in the microwave.
3. I microwave it for a couple of minutes (beware, the towel will be hot b/c we just microwaved it!).
4. I open it up, take the towel out. Grab a clean dish towel or a paper towel and wipe the inside of the microwave out.  It comes cleans so easily!! 


Basically the steam from the towel softens it all up. As for the Windex I'm honestly not sure what it adds to the cleaning magic of it all or if it's more of my personal preference. Either way, it works like a charm! If it saves time and energy, I'm all for it. Hope that somebody finds this as useful and awesome as I do! 

I have to take a minute and brag about my cool husband, Mr. Incredible. He will be the first to tell you that his brain is a storage unit of useless random information. I think he's definitely correct that his head is a receptacle of random and unique info, but it's far from useless!

About a week or so ago, we bought some scallions (green onions) at Ingles. We chopped them up and used them in a recipe and I never gave them another thought.


A few days later, I noticed that Mr. Incredible had set a little bowl in my kitchen window sill. In the bowl was a little bit of water and the white pieces from the scallions.

 ME: Hmmm... that's interesting. But, it's little and not messy, so I don't really mind.

I went back to whatever it was that I was doing. A few days later I looked at it again and there were green shoots popping up. And a couple days later, they were longer and growing like crazy!

ME: Mr. Incredible, you know your little thingies in the window sill are growing?!

That is when he told me about his project. "My grandmother was always able to take something, put it in water, and watch it root and grow. I've always wanted to try that. We may not have to buy green onions too often - dependent on how these do."

MR. INCREDIBLE'S INSTRUCTIONS

STEP 1 - BUY ONIONS
STEP 2 - CUT ONIONS DOWN TO THE WHITES.
STEP 3 - PUT WHITES, ROOT SIDE DOWN, IN WATER.
STEP 4 - PLACE IN WINDOW SILL.
STEP 5 - SIT BACK AND ENJOY!

I just thought this was cool, have a great week!

I love coffee.
Coffee makes me feel like a grown-up in the middle of Phineas & Ferb and Blue's Clues.
Coffee often needs sugar.
Until yesterday, I faced a small annoyance.
If I was to put sugar in my coffee I had to get the 10-lb bag down from the top of the fridge and scoop my sugar from there.
Tuesday, I was in the Dollar Store and found a little sugar jar (like they have in restaurants) and thought about getting it. But didn't.

So there I was, little Miss 5-foot-3-inches when I stand up straight, straining to get the sugar from the shelf above the fridge realizing that if I didn't find something soon, this would inevitably end in a sweet sugary mess on the floor. The kind of mess that my child would spot from a mile away and dive into before I had a chance to clean it up. And all this would happen in slow motion while I'm yelling, "Nooooooooooooo!" Something had to be done!!