Baseball Season is here!

  At last baseball has come, and I'm so excited! I am always thrilled when baseball season starts for Jacob, and football season starts for Christian. My boys have played many sports, but these are the ones their more passionate about, and it's great fun for the rest of us. Jacob's goal is to have fun playing baseball now, later get a college scholarship to play baseball, and then to go into professional ball one day. Many more pictures of Jacob playing to come.

Mehndi

  Finally I have time to catch up on my blog, and I have many to share at one time. So, here is the mehndi my husband did for me about two weeks ago. This is common in India for women, and is similar to the henna tattooing you might see here in U.S. It last for two to three weeks. Women will usually have this done very extravagantly for their wedding on their hands and feet, however it can be done at anyother time, and not only for marriage. I have also seen somewhere that women will have this done on their belly late in pregnancy. Sounds like fun, I think I will do that when I'm pregnant too!

A Surprise Giveaway!

The Farm Chicks are hosting a surprise giveaway. Check it out.

Snow day & Crafts

 

Yes! Another lucky snow day. The boys and I were so excited since school was cancelled for both Jacob and I, Christian also got to take the day off of course. So, what should you do with an unplanned day off? Crafting for sure. The boys colored Valentines Day pictures while I made these cute Valentines envelopes to hold sweet little notes to each other. In a bit we are going to break out the new Monopoly game that Jacob got for Christmas.

Making Dryer Balls and Dryer Maintenance

The other day I washed a large load of clothes and then was annoyed that I had to dry it in the dryer for more than one full cycle. I started to research what might be the problem and found some interesting information. Dryer sheets are first of all toxic to humans but also not good for your dryer. The dryer sheets cause a clear film that you can not see to build up over time on your lent filter. This can make drying a load of clothes take longer to dry and eventually will burn out heating elements in your dryer. There is actually an easy fix to this. About once every six months you can simply take out your lent filter and clean it with soap and water and an old tooth brush. And if drying your clothes with anything toxic is bothersome to you, you can make these neat all natural dryer balls. Check this website to learn how to make your own. I think I will try this myself next weekend.

Puran Poli

 

My husband and I made the favorite desert of his that my mother-in-law taught me to make while I was in India. It took us a little over two hours to make, but it was a success! I took a pic of him enjoying it, but he wouldn't allow me to put it on my blog.

Making time for crafting

BlogPhotos

Today I made myself commit to cleaning the entire downstairs of my house before I would allow myself to do anything I wanted to do. Then I made this pretty Valentines Garland. To tell the truth I only made the hearts and then attached it to the same ribbon I used for my Christmas garland, but it matched just fine.
My mother-in-law is a master seamstress and crafter, and when I met her she was nice enough to share with me many things that she had made, which included a lot of cross stitch items. I was so inspired by her work that I decided to start doing it myself. I have a new project that I am working on now that is going to be my Mom's Mother's Day gift. I can only work on it during the weekend so I'm not sure how long it will take, but I will share pics as soon as its completed.

Christmas

I just realized that I had not posted any pics from Christmas. So, here it is! The table setting from a small family get together we had Christmas Eve.

And here is the Christmas present I ask for from my boys, a jewelry box. The first one I have ever had, and I love it. Thanks guys! Just for fun, a picture of the snow from my back yard today.

Catch Up!

Thank God for a break! Today I woke up to what is our first snow, and probably only, snow of the season. Because my husband was leaving for Philadelphia to work this week and the boys were at their father's house, I was blessed with an entire day to catch up. Here is a link to some pics from our India trip. http://picasaweb.google.com/sawant.day.academy/IndiaTrip2008?authkey=mQHICEODdSo#

This is my favorite picture of my mother-in-law teaching me how to cook my husbands favorite food. This was the first time I met my husbands family, and I have to say I am truly blessed to be part of this wonderful family. I love each and every one of them!

Our first week of home school went well, I think. Thankfully, I had everything for the week already planned out before I took my India trip. Unfortunately my son Christian is complaining a little saying that this home school thing is boring. I'm a bit disappointed that I do not really have the time to spend on it like I would like. I have found that you can spend many hours just planning the next weeks activities for home school. This weekend with what little time I had, I allowed him to have a sleepover with four of his friends from school for his birthday celebration. That was when I heard him comment to his friends that home school was boring. This bothered me because I have spent soooo much time on this, and I want him to enjoy it. I'm hoping it is just part of the transition that so many have warned me about. Anyone have any ideas on how I can make it a little more interesting for him?

I have just returned from my trip to India, and we are excited to start our first day of homeschool tomorrow with Christian! Of course I also have to change Jacob's school first thing in the morning and then I also have my first day of class tomorrow. Wow! It is going to be a crazy day.
Pics from India to come soon.