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Miami Boat Show, February 13, 2010

author Posted by: Andrea on date Feb 14th, 2010 | filed Filed under: Family Life, Field Trips, Photos
Today we went to the Miami Boat Show with our friends Eileen and her son, D. It was a beautiful day out, breezy and in the upper 60s, and I must say that the event was very well-organized. Instead of having visitors park at the facility, we parked near the Miami Arena in a large lot, and took Greyhound-style shuttle buses to the actual convention.

Both Eileen and I and the boys had a GREAT time. We got to see a few fishing demonstrations, got a free life vest for the kids, and D. and Shorty got to climb on approximately 29432535 boats. It was at the Miami Beach Convention Center, which is huge, and it was completely packed! We were both surprised that there were so many people that were that into boats.

The kids loved the navigation and electronics exhibits.  As you can see from below, we had fun looking at heat-infrared images of ourselves and playing boating simulation gamses. Many of the beautiful boats allowed the children to climb on board and even into the cabins. At the end of the day, Shorty had such a great time that he decided he’d like to live on a party boat one day. He declared it “a very interesting day.” ;)

I’m making a concerted effort lately to get out into the community more and enjoy the many outdoor opportunities for fun that there are in Miami. So far so good! Next weekend: the Renaissance festival!

Pictures from today are below. Eileen asked me to crop D. out of the pictures since she isn’t comfortable with his picture being on the Internet. I respected that, so I did so whenever possible, except for the shot where the boys are sitting in the lifeboat pretending to be lost at sea. There, I just blurred him out so you could still see Shorty’s “acting.” Hee!

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Happy New Year!

author Posted by: Andrea on date Jan 1st, 2010 | filed Filed under: Family Life, Photos

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Family playing LEGO Rock Band :)

author Posted by: Andrea on date Dec 27th, 2009 | filed Filed under: Art and Music, Family Life, Humor, Photos

Hope you all have had a wonderful holiday!

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Pictures from today’s Christmas party

author Posted by: Andrea on date Dec 21st, 2009 | filed Filed under: Family Life, General Homeschooling, Photos, Thoughtful Christianity
Today Shorty and I got together with six friends and four of their kids to have a little pre-Christmas party and fellowship. We have been hanging out with these ladies for fellowship and prayer for nearly five years – it’s a group of single moms from various churches around Greater Miami. There were a few of us missing, but in general, it’s a great and very encouraging and supportive group of people and we are so blessed to know them all! The party was AWESOME, with food from 4 different countries, a fun little gift exchange and lots of good music!

This season, we have focused hard on drawing closer to God and other people around us, vs. getting trapped in the relentless materialism and stress of the holiday season, and I have to say, it’s been one of our best, if not the best, Christmas season we’ve ever had so far. Definitely worth thinking about and redoing next year! Here is a picture of all my beloved friends:

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Karaoke!

author Posted by: Andrea on date Dec 20th, 2009 | filed Filed under: Art and Music, Family Life, Humor, Photos

Over the last couple of months, Shorty has developed an intense passion for music. A few weeks ago he discovered karaoke. Yesterday, much to his joy, he discovered our local mall has a brand-new karaoke booth, and now he has his very own CD. :)

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O Christmas treeee…

author Posted by: Andrea on date Dec 9th, 2009 | filed Filed under: Family Life, Photos
Our Christmas tree from years past was several years old and pretty decrepit, so I bought a 6 foot one for this year. They were only $20 at Kmart, marked down from over $50. That was a pretty good find, as far as I was concerned. :) Unfortunately, I feel like it looks a little sparse, since I didn’t add any new decorations, just used the ones from our 4-footer in years past, but I’m told by others it’s really cute. We chose a purple and gold theme last year to represent Jesus and the true meaning of the season. Wait, what? Purple and gold are all well and good, but sparkly hot pink has nothing to do with Jesus, you say? Ummmm… it’s for CONTRAST – yeah, that’s the ticket. Shifty eyes.

Also unfortunately, my house is TINY and I seriously had to spend 2 days rearranging furniture just to make room for it (and it still ends up partially blocking the AC) but all’s well that ends well!  This picture is pretty horrible, but it at least gives you an idea of what it looks like.

This year I decided to start small on a tradition I’ve always wanted: a holiday snow village of porcelain figurines. Fortunately my local Walgreens was having a HUGE sale on some cute little figurines – these ranged from $0.50 to a whopping $2 – and I already had the “snow” blanket, so I set it atop the console you see when you first walk into the apartment. I added a little “hill” or two underneath the blanket for countours, and the beautiful large hand-painted wooden nutcracker my mom gifted us with this yeaar stands in the corner keeping guard. :D Shorty arranged the figures himself. I love the way it came out! 

The young woman who rang me up at Walgreens smiled at the figurines and said, “Are you adding these to a collection?” When I said no, I was starting one, she lit up and said, “I have a friend who did that! She started out with just a few pieces and added onto them every year. She started with a few like this, and now she has a whole coffee table covered in a cute little village! That’s how you get things done, you know. Little by little, you get there.” 

I’m sure she has no idea how encouraging she was to me right then. :)

Posted via email from hi, i’m andie.

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December Girls’ Night Out!

author Posted by: Andrea on date Dec 8th, 2009 | filed Filed under: General Homeschooling, Photos
Every month, the homeschooling moms (and one homeschooled graduate older sister!) from our local park group get together one night to go to a restaurant, while the kids all hang out together at home or visiting each other. Here are the pictures from tonight’s shindig at the California Pizza Kitchen!

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Thanksgiving 2009

author Posted by: Andrea on date Dec 5th, 2009 | filed Filed under: Family Life, Photos
We had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner with my grandmother, my parents and a family friend who was by herself for the holiday. We spent 2 days at my parents’ home and I spent most of that cooking the wonderful Southern recipes from Country Living’s Thanksgiving issue this year. On the menu:

Appetizer:
  • Three balls of fresh, handmade buttermilk cheese, each with a separate topping: chopped pistachios, pickled fennel and brandied figs. AMAZING, AMAZING, AMAZING. If you compare my picture and the one from the magazine, I’m proud to say they came out very similar! The cheese was incredibly easy to make.
  • Whole wheat crackers, for spreading the cheese on :)
  • Sparkling white wine (I would have loved to have tried the brandied plums sparkling white wine recipe from Country Living, but we just didn’t have the time. Maybe next year!)
Salad:
  • Cold brussel sprouts slaw with vinaigrette and sesame seeds – delicious! Brussel Sprouts totally get an undeserved bad rap. We had optional spicy Italian herbs available for those of us who wanted a little kick to the salad. It was a bit cabbage-y, but we all like cabbage, so we liked this.
Side dishes:
  • Steamed green beans in white wine and butter sauce topped with fried leek rings. This was a much lighter and much tastier alternative to the goopy soup-recipe green  bean casserole and got many raves. The fried leek rings were a really nice touch. We opted for this over the au gratin potatoes that the magazine article recommended.
  • Cornbread, Italian and sage stuffing. INCREDIBLE recipe. The only substitution I made was that I used a bag of dried tropical fruit instead of fresh pears. No one in my family likes pears. :) But we do like dried papaya and things like that! It came out SO GOOD, I should’ve made twice as much.
  • Lemon-glazed baked sweet potatoes. I bought limes by accident and the glaze was way too sour for me :/  I had to drizzle on brown sugar to make it palatable. It was a really good recipe, and we love sweet potatoes so I may make it again, but next time I think I’ll use a lot less lemon/lime.
Main course:
  • Smoked Paprika roasted turkey. The magazine had instructions about making Madeira gravy, but it was a lot of work and I’m the only one who likes gravy, so I didn’t bother. The turkey, I have to say, came out INCREDIBLE. It was a joy to eat leftovers for 2 days. LOL.  I used a turkey baster – my family usually doesn’t – and it made a huge difference. It was so tender and juicy and the paprika gave it great flavor - and as the pictures show, it was awfully pretty.
Dessert:
  • Sweet potato pie from scratch, using their recipe, made the night before. They recommended homemade buttermilk ice cream, but since all of the above already took 2 days to make and I don’t have an ice cream maker, I bought Publix brand Dulce  De Leche ice cream. It was perfect with the pie! Which, unfortunately, didn’t last long enough to get a picture! LOL
It was a very peaceful and joyous Thanksgiving filled with lots of together-time – possibly one of the best we’ve ever had! Pictures below. The one of all of us at the table was taken by Shorty himself. :)

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Say hello to my leetle friend.

author Posted by: Andrea on date Dec 2nd, 2009 | filed Filed under: Photos, Unschooling
It was raining yesterday, and rain in our area means teeny tiny snails by the back door rain gutter (which explains the water-blackening on the stair paint).  A perfect time to go outside and observe all the creepy, crawly things that come out to play after the rain! This guy was so cute we spent a considerable amount of time observing him… and then Shorty discovered that he had a companion! Note the snail buddy by the water-blackened part. Cute! Slimy, but teeny-tiny and cute. As Shorty observed, he didn’t seem to react at all to the camera’s flash – didn’t even turn away from it. Shorty surmised that might mean snails don’t see very well, and online research confirms this.

We live in the inner city, though we have a small yard. Proof that you can do nature studies even if you don’t live in the country. :)  

Posted via email from hi, i’m andie.

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Advent 2009 Awesomeness

author Posted by: Andrea on date Nov 30th, 2009 | filed Filed under: Family Life, Freebies, Photos, Thoughtful Christianity
Every year, I always kick myself for forgetting all about Advent until about halfway through December, by which time it’s too late and I’m too busy to put anything together to celebrate a full Advent season. Not this year! This year I came prepared. Advent is a great way to keep the season focused on the real meaning of Christmas, the birth of Jesus Christ, and Shorty and I both really want to focus more on that this year than the material, glitzy, commercialized aspect of Christmas. We want this season to be a joyous cap to a very eventful year that will draw us both closer to the Lord. We are excited!
I’m keeping it simple. I printed out this free amazing family-friendly all-ages study for Advent – one workbook for each of us:
I bought four little blue votives and set it around a vanilla and apple cinnamon Glade candle for a simple advent wreath. I figure if we only light them for a few minutes each day, the candles will probably make it all the way to Christms. LOL. I tried to find purple and pink votives instead, the more traditional colors, but after looking in five different stores, I gave up and went with blue. Blue is fine; the Advent police won’t be arresting me for having blue instead of purple.
I then made a matchbook advent calendar.  I liked the one Martha Stewart had, but I had seen someone make theirs in the shape of a Christmas tree, with each level wrapped in Christmas paper, and I wanted to try that. Unfortunately, it came out a little flimsy and leaning-tower-of-Pisa-ish, but it’s still very pretty. Here’s to hoping it makes it through the holidays and no one spills anything major on it!! Picture of the advent wreath and the advent calendar is below. If anyone needs instructions, I’ll type them up, but it’s pretty self-explanatory: glue the matchbooks in rows, wrap them in paper, and then glue the rows together and put stuff in them!
Finally, I printed out little slips of paper with verses on them to read each day and left space beneath them to write a little idea or fun activity for each day of the season. This included:
  • Writing out cards for loved ones, and then praying for the loved ones they’re sent to.
  • Wrapping presents
  • Making Christmas cookies/ treats
  • Giving gifts to neighbors
  • Listening to Christmas songs on YouTube
  • Coloring pages
  • Bits of candy
  • Watching a special holiday movie
  • Making ornaments
  • Going caroling with our church December 13 :)
  • A few quarters :)
  • Reading a Christmas story
Plus a few other ideas. These were LOOSELY based on Hubbard’s Cupboard advent page (lots of other good Advent ideas and printables there!). I’m including in PDF form the page I used to print out and cut out, both with and without the verses, so that you can print them out for your family as well if you’re doing a matcbhook Advent calendar too. They’re roughly matchbook sized.  December 25 has Luke 2:1-20 printed out and folded into tiny matchbook size with instructions to read it to our family over Christmas dinner. I have printed the verses out in Spanish, too, so that Shorty and my grandmother can take turns reading it out loud.  But I can’t sit around here blogging any more – I have to finish Christmas-ifying the house! Expect pictures. And the pictures from Thanksgiving! Still gotta post those – it was a GREAT holiday. Hope everyone reading this who celebrates can say the same!

Here are the matchbox slips, one blank and one with verses pre-printed:

Andrea's 2009 Matchbox Advent Slips (16) Andrea's 2009 Matchbox Advent Slips - Blank (19)

Enjoy, and please do feel free to leave links to your own Advent/Christmas craft related posts!

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