Happy Birthday Hubby!!

My husband turned 35 on October 16th! Here are a few pictures from our family celebration dinner with the kids. I also took him out for lunch without children this past weekend. My oldest daughter made a Key Lime pie for him for dessert and we made homemade lasagna for dinner also.

We love you hubby/daddy!

Oldest daughter making Key Lime Pie.

Making the table "pretty" for Daddy's dinner.

Homemade lasagna.

Mystery Dinner Fun 2007!

My oldest daughter attended our local homeschool group's annual Mystery Dinner on Friday night. We had a huge turn out--about 80 -- 7th-12th graders. The theme this year was the Roaring 20's. Almost all the kids dressed up! In addition to the dinner this year, we also had a dad teaching the kids the Fox Trot and one of our SHINE alumni girls teaching several other dances.

Parents and alumni of our SHINE group come and help prepare/serve the food to the kids. Everyone has a great time!

All the kids had a wonderful time! We have such a wonderful group of teens!

Here are a few pictures from the night!

Ballet Milestone Reached!

Both my girls have been taking Cecchetti ballet lessons for a little over a year. My oldest daughter had the opportunity to take her Level 1 exam this past week.

She, as well as the other girls from her class who tested, passed! She was very nervous for the past 6 months anticipating this exam but she did well! She spent the rest of the weekend attending all day seminar classes with various guest Cecchetti teachers. She is now exhausted and sore but she had a great time!

Congratulations sweetheart! All your hard work and studying paid off!

Here are a few pictures from exam day!

Waiting to go into the exam.

After the exam!

"Sitting Pretty"

Beautiful Ballet Painting with our 5 beautiful girls!

Make Your Own Spirulina Capsules!

A number of months back, I started on the road to learning more about how to use herbs, and how to make them into tinctures, rubs, etc. At that time, I had also purchased several items that need to be encapsulated to be used easily and all the supplies to do it.

Of course, I spent a lot of time make various tinctures and rubs, but didn't get around to trying out my supplies to encapsulate the spirulina and bentonite clay that I had bought.

So, yesterday, in the midst of having 3 extra kids in my house, I decided to try it out. It was actually a very easy process and I will finish filling up my 1000 capsules on a day when I don't have so much going on! Below are some pictures of the process of filling up the Spirulina capsules. I will do the Bentonite clay later also.

You can order these items and so much more at the Bulk Herb Store. The water filter they sell is also wonderful!

I will let you know if taking the Spirulina makes a difference. It is supposed to be very good for you. You can even use it to replace food as it is a complete food.

Here is a link to some information I just found today--it even has a break down of nutrient content if you click on the various links towards the bottom of the page. It is for a different spirulina product than what I have, but should be very similar! What is Spirulina?

I will continue to share what I learn as I go along!

My capsule making "set up".

Filling the capsules.

Capping the capsules.

The finished capsules.


Labeled and stored in a bag for now.

Keeping Van for Now

Well, it looks like we will hold onto our van for a bit longer. Several things came up that will prevent us from getting a new vehicle for at least another month.

If anyone is interested in it, please let us know because we will be trying to sell it in about a month!

Thanks for checking it out!