Thrift Store Finds

I know, I know, but I couldn't resist. My mom told me that the thrift store in her town has books, so we just had to go. And wouldn't you know that the day's special offer was that paperback books were only five cents! So I got all of these books for only $2.90!



I love finds like that! If you can't see in the picture, the authors include Shakespeare, Verne, Steinbeck, Dickinson, Twain, Dryden, Faulkner and Crane.

And to top it off, my father-in-law will be bringing our two new bookshelves that he and my husband made earlier this summer so all the books we have stacked in boxes in the corner of our dining/school room will have a new home! We hope to get our school room fixed up this week, as well as our schedule finalized.
Elyse is really coming along on her reading; she's reading four letter words now. And she's figuring out the concept of subtraction. I'm really pleased with how well she's doing even though we've taken off so many days this summer for all of our traveling. We'll start in earnest in two weeks when dad reports to school for the first day on August 13.

Summertime fun

Here are a few random pics taken this last week of the kids.

Swimming Lessons

Elyse and Aidan have been taking swimming lessons the past two weeks. They've had a great time and I'm so impressed with how well they've done. Two weeks ago they wouldn't even put their face in the water and screamed if water got in their eyes. Now, Elyse is swimming underwater, floating on her stomach and back, diving into the water to pick up rings, and jumping into the pool.



Aidan is kicking his way around the pool on a wakeboard, blowing bubbles in the water, floating on his stomach and back, and also going under the water to pick up rings.


Hopefully, their newly learned skills will not only make our excursions to the swimming pool more fun, but also our nightly bath times easier!!

Home Improvements

My dad has been down the last week helping Josh do some improvements on our house. They finished up the last of them yesterday and although not much of what they did was for aesthetic reasons, hopefully they will make our house run a little better and were a good investment.
The first thing Josh did was put in two turbines in the roof as well as six louvers in the soffits that combined will hopefully relieve some of the unbearable heat that gathers in the attic. The goal: to lower air-conditioning costs in the summer.



My dad worked at rewiring much of our electric, separating one breaker into four, adding GFI outlets in the kitchen, expanding single receptacles to doubles, and a few other miscellaneous things to bring our electric up to code. The goal: to avoid breaker overloads when running the microwave and electric tea kettle at the same time.
While working on the electric, Josh and dad worked to put in an exhaust fan/light in the bathroom. The goal: to reduce the moisture levels in the bathroom after showers and baths.



And lastly, Josh put up guttering on the front of the house. The goal: to be able to plant flowers in our front garden without them drowning when it rains!

Theological Worldview Quiz

I've never heard of a Neo-Orthodox, but I guess I am one! ;)

You scored as Neo orthodox, You are neo-orthodox. You reject the human-centredness and scepticism of liberal theology, but neither do you go to the other extreme and make the Bible the central issue for faith. You believe that Christ is God's most important revelation to humanity, and the Trinity is hugely important in your theology. The Bible is also important because it points us to the revelation of Christ. You are influenced by Karl Barth and P T Forsyth. Neo orthodox 71% Emergent/Postmodern 68% Classical Liberal 64% Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan 64% Modern Liberal 46% Reformed Evangelical 43% Fundamentalist 36% Charismatic/Pentecostal 32% Roman Catholic 32% What's your theological worldview? created with QuizFarm.com

...And More Soup!!

I got a package from FedEx today. It was a whole case of Creamy Mushroom Soup! Who in the world sent this to me, I wondered, as I opened the attached letter. None other than the Senior Customer Manager at General Mills. Here is an excerpt from her letter:
Ms. Hawkins,
Wal-Mart corporate notified me that you were unable to find Progresso Creamy Mushroom Soup in your local Wal-Mart Supercenter. I'd like to apologize for this inconvenience and provide you with a case of product free of charge.

She went on to say that most of the Mushroom soup is sold in the Northeast U.S., so I guess that's why it's hard to find here. Hopefully, it will be stocked here soon, though as she said that they as well as Wal-Mart are working together to get it here.

Thanks to General Mills and my parents who picked me up a few cases in St. Louis, I should be good to go for the next year or so!! :) Bring on the pot roast!

Three Cheers for Soup

(Warning: A post that may seem overly-exuberant to some, but to those who are gluten-free and mostly cook from scratch, you'll understand!)

I am so happy right now! As many of you know, in 2005, Wal-Mart began requiring all of their suppliers to reveal all sources of gluten in their products, and many of their products now display a large GLUTEN-FREE label next to the ingredient info. Yeah!! That makes my life SOOOO much easier.
Now, for the other good news. I recently emailed Wal-Mart headquarters to thank them for their GF label, but also asking them to please begin stocking the only gluten-free mainstream mushroom soup that we've found--Progresso. It's not condensed, but I can easily adapt my recipes to accommodate that fact. Wal-Mart carries Progresso, but not the Creamy Mushroom variety, so I emailed them on a whim to ask if they could start stocking it. (I also slyly happened to mention that I had to cross town to go to another grocery store that did carry the product.) I decided to email them not so much because I actually believed they would begin carrying the aforementioned soup, but more so that the issue of gluten-free products would again be put in front of them. I figure the more they hear about it, the more they'll realize the market for GF products.
Well, today I received a call from the manager of our Wal-Mart. He said he had been forwarded my email and then he asked me the specifics of what I wanted. He then said he would look into trying to get it stocked! Wow! I thought that was pretty cool. So, if all goes well, we might be able to buy our Creamy Mushroom soup again!
Oh, and to top it all off, I've heard that some Wal-Marts also now carry the Gluten-Free Pantry's brownie and muffin mixes. And for only $2.98! I must check that out! And if my Wal-Mart doesn't have them, I might just have to talk to my new friend, the manager! (He's going to be sorry he opened this can of worms! ;))
So, let's all give three cheers: Hip-Hip-Hooray! Hip-Hip-Hooray! Hip-Hip-Hooray!