Our Little Cottage

thanks

From Submissive & Surrendered Wives

for joining our group!

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We have been working hard on a reawakening of our group! 

Our hope is to get this group to be a strong community of women to come together to teach and learn from each other.  A place we can turn to when in need of encouragement and inspiration.  A safe haven for all of us who know the struggles and the joys of being a submissive and surrendered wife.

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Why settle for OK, when WOW is just an attitude away.

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Please, feel free to jump right in!  I've added a Welcome post just for YOU!  You can add an intro about yourself there if you would like!  We are looking forward to getting to know you!

Surrendered and Submissive Wives

Our Turtles...

Since I put up pictures of our turtle habitat yesterday, thought I would give formal introductions today of all our turtles...

Here is Speedio, our smallest turtle.  He lives inside, in an aquarium.  He shares his space with a toad, a Jefferson salamander, 2 water frogs, and another small salamander...

Our next biggest turtle, which isn't really too big, is Rexie.  He/She {thinking girl, but not positive on that one yet!} is a juivilnlle turtle.  Still pretty young.  She lives outside in the "play pen"...

Okay, so now to go thru our adult turtles.

This is Danny's Girl, yep that's her name!  LOL!  Poor little girl has holes in the underbelly shell, a stub for one of her back feet and does not have a tail.  She's had a rough life, but she is loved very much now!

This one is the smallest turtle in the turtle habitat.  He's pretty new, and doesn't even have a name yet....still learning his personality!

This is D.G.  She has recently started digging in our walkway in the habitat.  Digging with her back legs...maybe dropping some eggs soon????  {fingers crossed!}  Here she is sitting in the cool water of the small creek...

Here is Stubs {I'm thinking you can figure out why we call him that}.  He has a stub for a foot in the front...but it doesn't slow him down one bit!  He's one of the biggest turtles we have in the habitat.  I call him our old man because that is what he looks like to me!

I do believe this is Mr. Bump.  He's got a lot of bumps on his shells...very fancy!  LOL!

This is Hunter.  He's the first turtle we saw that actually went after his own worms!  The mighty hunter stalks his prey!

This is Pyscho...He's another one of Danny's favorites!  Pyscho was the first turtle to really eat out of Danny's hand.  He earned the name Pyscho when he dove into our pond and drug out a BIG dead fish to eat!!  And I think he just has a crazy, pyscho type look to him!

This is one that our neighbor dropped off with us.  We haven't named this one either...still learning about him.

 This one is Lightening.  Frosty just got him about 2 weeks ago.

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Danny is home from work today because of his sore back.  He has a dr's appt in just a couple hours.  I'm hoping they will give him something good to take care of his pain...I hate to see him so miserable!

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I've been reading Raising Your Spirited Child by Mary Sheedy Kurcinka.  This is the 2nd time I've read this book.  I actually got a bunch of books from the library about spirited/strong-willed children.  It's the one I like the best out of them all.

It talks about planning for success.  And that is what I will be doing today!  We have plans to meet up with some friends on Thursday at a park in the evening.  I've been racking my brain for the past few days wondering what things we can bring or things we can do to ensure a successful evening with our boys.

We will be taking Liam's high chair with us.  That way we will only have to make sure Zach sits when we are all eating...he usually does good with this, but being in a new place with a play area within sight, it might cause some issues.

When I go to the store to pick up some goodies for the picnic I will pick up some playdoh, bubbles, and coloring books for all the kids to play with.  Having that opportunity for a little quieter play might be great to have on hand...just in case!

It's been VERY peaceful here this morning...and I am VERY thankful for it!

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Well, I guess I should go do something other than sitting here...

...have a great day!

Cleaning My Kitchen {yet again} & Pics of Our Turtle Garden

Good Morning!  I hope everyone is having a good morning today. 

I was laying on the couch cuddling with Zach and Liam, to our surprise there was a knock at our backdoor.  YEAH, Daddy stopped by for a quick visit.  He had to pick up some cable stuff for work today.  Poor guy had to load these heavy reels of cable with his back still giving him problems.  He even came in to get some pain medicine after load his things.  Danny was only able to stay for just a little bit, but we are so happy he did stop in!

Before I get too far into this journal entry I wanted to add a photo just for aggiewife...

{I don't know if you can really tell, but Arlee's eyes are her hazel color still ~ trying to be a little artistic~lol}

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Yesterday, I took some time to clean my kitchen...I feel like I am ALWAYS cleaning my kitchen, LOL!  From what it looks like this morning...you'd never guess, though!

Ahhhhhh!  BUT, I do have proof that it was cleaned up yesterday!

Here is my old homeschool bookshelf.  I  now have a bigger bookshelf in the living room for all the homeschool things, so I decided to put some of our "pretties" on this one...

I know all our shoes arn't that pretty, but it gives us a place to put them that isn't in the middle of the doorway!

Here's my stove...

If you look way back in the right hand corner of the stove, that is not a smudge spot....

It's my kitchen moth...

See how nicely he matches my stove?

And here is my bowl of nuts I got from our Walnut tree...still researching what I need to do with them, lol...

And here is the rest of the counter space around my kitchen...

See that piece of paper sticking on the inside of my cabinet door?  That's my Sweet Cornbread Recipe!!

Did you see the basket with my coffee in it up inside the cabinet?  Makes it so easy to grab!

There's my beans cookin' in the crock pot!  Mmmm!

There is the bowl of cherry tomatoes.  Some are from our garden, and a few from our neighbors garden!  Yum Yum!

That's my "junk" cabinet.  It does have all our plates, bowls, and cups/glasses too, though.  I have a bunch of odds and ends in that brown basket up there, batteries, my dishwasher detergent, washing soda, and borax.

Oh, see...another recipe!  That one is for my Zuccini Bread!

I love that candle there too.  My MIL got me that for Christmas this past year.  It smells like sugar cookies!

Hmmmm, ever since I cleaned around the coffee pot...I've been thinking about making me some more...Time for a break, a snack, and a cup of java...

Mmmmm...that's better!

I don't think I've posted what the front of my homemaker's binder looks like before...

Under where {ha ha} it says Home Management Binder there are 3 sticky "diamonds".  Then the cute little kola bears which I put each of the kids' names under.  Then the quotes {I love quotes}...

"The darn trouble with cleaning the house is it gets dirty the next day anyway, so skip a week if you have to.  The children are the most impotant thing." ~Barbara Bush

"The tragedy of life is not that it ends so soon, but that we wait so long to begin it." ~ W.M. Lewis

"There's no place like home." ~Dorthy Gale

I'll have to get into what all is inside on another day.  I love my binder and use it just about daily.

When Danny got home, the kitchen was looking pretty good and the beans where done cookin'....

I made some of my sweet cornbread, but forgot to take a picture of it.

Before we ate, Danny and I went out the the turtle garden to let the moth go.

We took a walk back to our garden, which is looking better, but still pretty sad.  After all the rain and loss of some of the plants, we just didn't have the passion for our poor little garden as we did last year.  But we are trying to bring it back.

I did get a picture of a peach on our peach tree...

I can just taste the peach crisp already!

 In one of my groups, I had a request to see the turtle garden.  So this morning I took a bunch of pics of it...

This is walking up to the turtle habitat...

Those are strawberries running along the wooden fence for the turtles to eat.  And, that is Frosty's weather station he made in Boy Scouts.  You can't really tell, but behind the gray square is a turtle hut {or what's left of it, it's caving in from turtles climbing on it and such} that Danny made for the turtles for the winter months.

More strawberries along the fence.  And there are Danny and my chairs where we sit back here!

Here's the pond {and my hubby!}.

Another pic of the pond...you can sorta see the waterfall in the back.

Awwwww...Someone is in the pond!

This is toward the back.  We've left it very natural back there.  You can see the other, bigger turtle hut where some go to sleep.  They will use this area for hibernation too.  And it the bottom left of the picture is 2 of our girl turtles. 

Here is a little better close up of the girls...

Here is someone walking out of the bigger turtle hut.

Here is the smaller wading pool and waterfall.  Many of the turtles walk thru here to get a drink of water.  They will, for some reason, try their hardest to climb up the waterfall!

Here's Stubs...he's digging for worms...

Well, that's all I have for today!

Thanks for dropping in for a visit!

Hope to "see" you again here soon!

Weight Loss Journal ~ Wishful Dreaming ~ Pictures

Well, let me get my talk about my weight loss {or lack there of} first.  I just don't know...I know it's been a long while since I lost my weight for my wedding...but you'd think I'd still remember how it's done!  But instead...I'm going in the completly WRONG direction!  I weighed myself this morning and the scale read 194.  That's 2 pounds HEAVIER than when I first started...Ooopsie!

I will do good for about 3 days...then loose my focus I guess.  I just can't seem to find the same motivation/willpower I had the last time I had a lot to loose.  Why is that??

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Danny was home for 4 days this weekend!  YIPEE...it was AWESOME having him home so many days in a row!  We were sad this morning when he had to return to work.

Over his long weekend, we had the opportunity to dream about our "perfect" homestead!  I ended up stumbling upon this...

http://www.unlimitedrealestate.net/displaylist.asw?listnum=1133208&mls=cincy

This place is so close to being EXACTLY what we are looking for it's scary!!  Of course, it is just a tease, because we are NO WHERE near ready to move.  There is SO MUCH that still has to be done here in our "now" house before we can sell it.  I just wish there was some way to sort of "trade" houses.

I don't know if any of the rest of you believe in the Law of Attraction, but I have turned my fridge into my vision board for this house {or one like it}.

On the left is the print out about the house, on the right it says...

If this is in the highest & best interest for me and those around me, then please allow it to happen.

{deep sigh} One day we will be "there".

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 Thought I might share some pictures with you today since I had to clear out our camera {it was like 352 pictures!!}

How about some pretty nature photos??

Danny found this strange creature fluttering around the flowers that are in our turtle pond...anyone know what it is??

We found this BEAUTIFUL moth in our house.  It's a Large Lepord Moth..I believe that is what it was called, I don't remember exactly.  We did have the caterpilliar in an aquarium that we were taking care of, that was starting to make it's coccon, but we thought it had died in the process.  Now we find the EXACT moth...so now we arn't too sure....but either way...it's it gorgeous??

We also have a female turtle that is digging in our walkway!  This is EVERY exciting news...sort of!  We are very happy because she is showing the signs of wanting to drop some eggs, but where she is digging is not the best spot for us!  She has taken over 1/2 of our walkway!

The kids got little Rexie out and played with her in the sandbox.  She is one of our younger turtles.  Sorry, this picture is a little blurry, but I thought was still VERY cute...

Well, I'm sure you are wanting to see some pics of the kids as well...

Here is some of the boys playing outside...

Little guys with their freezer pops...

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Well, that's all I have for now.  I'm off to do a bunch of cleaning.

I hope everyone has a GREAT day! 

How Has Your Morning Been? Here's Mine!

Had to get up a little early this morning because Arlee starts her Girl Scout day camp.  She was SO excited that she woke up around 4:20 am and couldn't go back to sleep!  She is going to be SO tired by the time I pick her up this afternoon at 3pm!  I know she will come home and probably just crash!

Her theme for camp this year is, "A Pirate's Life For Me"...LOVED IT!  So we had to deck her out this morning for her first day of camp, of course!  Here are the pics I took of her before she left this morning...

And here is one when she was putting on her sunscreen right after we arrived at the camp area...

She's going to have such a blast today!  Her best friend, Miki, is in her group so she is SO excited about that, too!  This is Arlee's 3rd year, I think, doing day camp.  She looks forward to it every summer!

When I got back from dropping Arlee off, I finished watching a Tarzan episode with the boys.  Cuddled with Liam.  Then I had to start getting the turtles food ready...

Looks yummy, huh??

Danny brought home a new turtle this morning before Arlee & I left...

Ooooh, pit stop to see Danny's pond flowers...

Arn't they beautiful??

 Three turtles so far have come out to eat...

Here's one I took the other day.  I thought it was great to see 4 of them eating together...

After this day, I started leaving the BIGGER plate over in this area!!

Well, this has been my morning so far.  I've got oatmeal setting up while I'm putting this together for us all to eat.

Thanks for dropping by.  I hope you all have a wonderful day!

For MIL...

Here are some of my pics that turned out pretty good.  I'm sending you the pics below.  Let me know if you want me to or need me to send them to you as an attachment so that you can fix the size or whatnot.

If they have a catagory for children or portrait...here is a perfect one....

And on another note....here was Arlee before we left to drop her off at day camp....it's "A Pirate's Life For Me" theme this year....YEAH!

A Look at My Day ~ Late Afternoon/Evening {yesterday}

This was actually written on June 6th...

Zach didn't sleep too long.  I finished cleaning off my kitchen table, uploaded some pics, and folded a little laundry before he woke up though.

After he woke up, and saw that Liam was still asleep, he wanted to draw.  So I got out a couple pieces of paper, some heart stickers, and the coloring bucket {has crayons, colored pencils, and markers in it}.

You can see Liam on the couch still sleeping.

Here is Zach's finished picture...

I drew one too...

After Liam woke up, he wanted to draw for just a minute...

...then he was done. 

Zach got out a book and started reading to us...

And, of course, if big brother does it...

Little brother has to, too!!

Then Zach just wanted his picture taken...he's quite the ham isn't he??

After playing around for a minute, I went and started a bath for Zach.  Frosty sat with Liam while I was in the bathroom with Zach. 

Here is Zach posing after getting dressed...

This one is a little blurry...I don't know if I moved or he moved or a combination of the two, but I thought it was still really cute...

There's that AWESOME smile...

I think that I've sort of strayed from actually showing what I do all day...well, not really, I guess....since as how I am usually looking at Zach and Liam all day long!!  LOL!

We had a late lunch today.  I made some Raveloli...Mmmm, I love that stuff!

Here's the boys enjoying their lunch while watching some tv.

Notice Zach there...in the blue shirt...right after he's had his bath...LOL!

Now that everyone is done eating, it's Liam's turn for his bath!

So here is my Liam after he was dressed.  Clothes don't last long on him...so I had to take these quick!

And I know ya'll want to see his curls while they are wet...

When I was giving Liam a bath, Frosty was watching Zach for me while watching tv...

He looks SO EXCITED doesn't he?

I went outside real quick to pick up around my back patio area so I could take pics of it...and here they are...

I was just telling aggiewife about our new little fire thingy the other day.  I got it up at Family Dollar for like $25....

Isn't it cute?  We've already used it to make some smores...and it works great!  Can't wait to use it again!

And what was my wonderful husband doing?

Mowing grass, of course...

He even found a frog while he was mowing...

...this man has THE most amazing eyesight I swear!  I mean, how do you find this dark little frog in the grass when you are mowing??

Well, when my hard working man got done cutting our grass, he decided to have a little fun...

The rest of the evening/night just mostly consisted of dinner and getting kids to sleep!  Danny and I did end up watching a movie together though.  I didn't go to bed until almost 2am!

Well, I hope this gave you a little peek into my day.  Having the camera is SO MUCH FUN {thanks again aggiewife...YOU ROCK!!}

A Look at My Day ~ Afternoon

This was actually written on June 6th... 

Here is three of the turtle pictures I promised on my last entry...

Not too much to report.  I finished cleaning up my counters and doing dishes...

There's my breadmaker!  I love it!  My good friend, Holli, gave that to me.  She was going to donate it to Goodwill, but I happened to be visiting that night so she gave it to me!  YEAH!

Can you see Zach in the pic above?  He's sticking his head through one of the shelves in the wall that separates our kitchen and living room!  LOL!

Arlee called a friend of hers to talk.  The friend invited her over to swim in their pool.  Danny had to go out to pick up a part for his lawn mower and run to get a few other things...so he dropped her off.  I think Arlee is most excited because she gets to wear her "new" bathing suit.

I decided we where having roast for dinner...

I'll add some green beans, whole sweet corn, and sliced carrots here soon.  Our neighbor, Earl, gave us some onions from out of his garden.  Danny wants me to clean them up, chopp them up, and throw those in, too!

I went outside and around the house taking a few pics of the new siding.  Please don't mind all the HUGE weeds everywhere!  Danny's weedeater is broke down...something else on his list that needs fixed!

Ok, front of house...

Here is my front stoop....

And a side of the house....

I'll get the back porch a little later.  I've still got coolers and such on it from when we went to the park!  Oops!  I'll get that stuff put away then I'll take pictures of the back!

I did take some pics of our side yard, though...

Side-front...

Side-back...

You can just about see our red tent back there!  That's where Danny, Arlee, and Frosty go when they camp out in the yard!  We have a burn pile {aka bonfire area} where they can have a fire too.

Now this one is actually the field behind our house.  It's not ours, but I'm SO glad it's there!  You can see our chain link fence in the corner of the picture...on the other side of all that water {thanks to all the rain we've been having} is our neighbor, Earl's, yard.  The high grasses starts the farmer's field.

It makes for a pretty view!

I have more cleaning to do, but the little boys are acting up.  I'm going to try and get them to lay down for a nap.  While I'm doing that, I'm going to try and read a little more in the book, Living Simply with Children.

Yeah...BOTH the younger guys are sleeping.  Went to check on Frosty to see what he's doing and this is what I found...

Playing video games in Daddy & Mommy's room!  Go figure!

Since Zach & Liam are sleeping, I'm going to go find something to do.  The camera keeps trying to tell me that the battery is low, so I'm going to let that charge while I go fold some laundry or something!

Pictures of me??  Well, I might get brave later...if I get a chance to fix my hair and stuff!  I just don't like myself in pictures much anymore...sorry!

Check back in again later for my late afternoon report!

A Look at My Day...My Morning

This was actually written on June 6th...

Good Morning!  I woke up this morning at about 8:10am due to the phone ringing.  I answered with I'm sure a quite groggy, "Hello."  I'm assuming the person on the the end of the line said something like, "Sorry wrong number."  I can't be sure though because I believe they were speaking Spanish!!

Ok, so I'm up...might as well get started!  I jumped on CafeMom really quick just to see if I had any new messages...Nope.  Looked around at some of the activity in the posts.  I don't know if it's just me or what, but there seems to be a huge cloud of negativity looming over the posts the past couple days.  I don't know, maybe I'm just reading the wrong posts!

Now to get my coffee started!  Got it all in the pot and brewing!  8:25am I headed to get dressed, put up my hair, and wash my face.  I'm know that I really need to do some laundry because I'm down to this one blue shirt that I really don't like so much.  I'll have to add that to my list of things to do today!

Ahhhh, coffee is ready.  Mmmm!  Well, since I'm having my coffee...and it usually is at my desk while on the net in the mornings when I'm drinking it...here is a pic of my desk...

This is MY spot!  I do my net surfing here, my banking here, my bill paying here, my menus here, my to do lists here, our home school things here, and much much more!

Well, the little ones are still sleeping...why don't we go see what is going on outside this morning!

But, first, we better make a pit stop at the laundry room to get a load of laundry going!

Sissy puppy, our old dog, wanted to go outside with me, too!

And since we are introducing our furry friends...here's Shakes...our watchdog!

Ok, so on to the habitat garden.  When I come out here and sit down for a quiet moment in my chair...this is what I can see...

It's a wonderful little spot just to take a moment.

Ok, well, let's walk around and see if we find any turtles out yet...

Oh, here is one of the girls...

Do you know how to tell if it's a girl or boy turtle?  The girl turtles usually have darker heads and their shell on the bottom is flat.  A boy turtle has very colorful heads.  From what I've seen mostly yellow and orange mixed with black and/or brown.  Male turtles also have an indent on their belly shell {I don't know if that is a "technical" turtle term, but that's what I call it!}

Oooh, here's Physco...this is Danny's favorite turtle...

Doesn't he have a little scary look to his face?  I think so!  He's still very cool though!

Ok, well...it's 9:17am and Zach and Liam are awake! 

9:32am...Time to figure out what's for breakfast!  Hmmmm???  Oatmeal, I guess!

Let's see...what can we do to make it a little more exciting for the youngins'?   Add color!!

While the water was boiling and the oatmeal setting...I rinsed off some dishes.  Yep, I'm one of those who has to rinse my dishes before putting them into the dishwasher...crazy stuff, huh?  Our dishwasher is older and I guess just not as powerful or something as those nice ones that will actuall get rid of the food particles! 

I also got the coffee pot ready to make another pot of coffee when Danny get's up...he needs his coffee to wake up on his days off!

Well, well...there he is!  Sorry...no pics of him!  He's a little camera shy...so am I!

Well...that's about it for my morning.  I did go out to the habitat garden with Danny for a little while.  We took some pictures of a few turtles...I'll try and add them in a little while!  I'll be back later to update for my afternoon!

Thanks for visiting and hope you enjoyed your stay!

My Mother's Day & Why I Love Our Cable Box

Good Monday morning, friends!

How was your Mother's Day?

On Saturday, I recieved my first Mother's Day suprise which showed up in my mailbox!  I received a package from my friend Ky Mama!  I opened it up....it was the prettiest little apron I have ever seen!!  Handmade by her.  I just about cried when I saw it because it was such a sweet thing for her to do!  So I want to send out yet another Thank You just to Ky Mama!

On Sunday, when Danny woke up he made my coffee and made me breakfast {with help from Arlee}.  I just LOVE Danny's scrambled eggs....Mmmmm!!  And he just helped so much that day with the little guys!  Right there would have been THE best present in my book!

After breakfast, I got some more suprises!  Arlee brought me this really cute card that she had made and a Carmello bar {my all time FAV candy bar}!  She also had for me a hanging basket of impatients.  Frosty had me a pot of those large orange hybrid lilies.  Danny and the little boys had me another hanging basket with some of the prettiest pink flowers {I'm not sure exactly what they were called} 

Danny hung my hanging baskets outside on each side of our arbor that goes into the turtle garden!  They look SO pretty!  I just love my family so much!

We took ALL day to get ready to go out and visit with Danny's mom.  We hemmed and hawed around inbetween baths and showers!  We wrapped her present we got for her {a new dvd player that she's been wanting}.  We didn't have any plain or non-mother's day wrapping paper so I grabbed some birthday paper and turned it over to wrap the box.  Then the kids decorated the paper themselves!  {I think Sue was wanting to save the paper after she opened it!  LOL...she's so sweet!}

We left the house around 7pm...the day really did end up getting away from us.  It was very very chilly and rainy...I guess we really just wasn't anxious to go out into the yucky weather!  Sue really liked her present...we even gave her some movies to get her started with her new dvd!  She got me this big pot of panseys!  They are a light purple and white!  So pretty!  I got very spoiled with flowers this year!

We had a good time visiting with Danny's parents.  After we left and got back home, Danny made us some more coffee.  Then we all started to get ready for bed.

What a great day!

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Here's a little back story....Last week, when we went shopping for plants for our garden, we ended up going a little farther out into the country.  Of course, we saw cows.  Well, Zach would start belting out this new song of his  "Cows, Chickens, Pigs".  It was so cute and so funny!  He LOVED singing this song.

Just the other evening I was in the kitchen just starting dinner.  I had put on Noggin to keep the little guys occupied while I was cooking.  Next thing I know, Zach is screaming, "Mama! Mama! The curious buddies!!"  I went to go and see what on Earth he was talking about....with Zach, you just never know!  LOL!

Well, right there, on Noggin the Curious Buddies was singing his song!  I had to pause it, and rewind it just a bit to get it back to the beginning.  Then I called for Danny to come and see it!

Once Danny was in the living room, I had to play it....if I hadn't, I think Zach would have exploded!  He was so excited!  I "heard" the song on the tv, but I don't think I "saw" too much of it...I was too busy watching Zach and Liam!  They were just too funny singing the song!

So, of course, with such a cute show from the two little guys what was the normal thing to do next?  We rewinded it to listen again!  And again!  I just love our cable box...it brings such joy to my children!  LOL!

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Thanks for stopping in!  I wish everyone a great week!