My Little Entrepreneur

My son Yip LOVES superheroes! Wolverine is his favorite and he's watched XMen numerous times. So of course when Captain America and Avengers came out he wasn't going to miss the chance to see them in the theaters. 

He thought he could make a Captain America Shield. Pretty cool son. 

Then he went to the grocery store, bought a pack of heavy duty paper plates and made them all into Captain America Shields.

He's given some to his brother and sister and friends. They are especially good at repelling water gun attacks!! 

Yip decided that he needed to branch out though. So yesterday he painted a sign, with minimal help from me, and sat up business on the sidewalk. 

God Bless him!! 

Yip was outside for a couple hours in the morning and a couple more in the afternoon selling his shields. 

I want to give a big shout out to all friends and neighbors who stopped by to buy a Captain America Shield from him! Boy, did you lift his spirit. There was an older couple who bought one who I KNOW have no little grand kids to give it to. They bought it to brighten my boys day! He sold 6 yesterday! 

What a wonderful little town I live in where friends and neighbors go out of the way to encourage a little boy's creativity! 

Happy Father's Day

Fathers are wonderful people

Too little understood, 

And we do not sing their praises

As often as we should...

But fathers are just wonderful

 In a million different ways.

 And they merit loving compliments

And accolade of praise, 

For the only reason Dad aspires 

To fortune and success

Is to make the family proud of him

And to bring them happiness...

And like our Heavenly Father, 

He's a guardian and a guide, 

Someone that we can count on 

To be always on our side. 

(Author Unknown)

Malachi 4:6 
He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, 
and the hearts of the children to their fathers; 
or else I will come and strike the land with a curse.


Proverbs 3:11-12 
My son, do not despise the LORD's discipline
and do not resent his rebuke,
because the LORD disciplines those he loves,
as a father the son he delights in.




Psalm 127: 3-5
Children are a heritage from the Lord,
    offspring a reward from him.
 Like arrows in the hands of a warrior
    are children born in one’s youth.
 Blessed is the man
    whose quiver is full of them. 
They will not be put to shame
    when they contend with their opponents in court.


Happy Father's Day!! 

More Swim Lessons....

Yap and Yahoo just finished their swim lessons. 

Wait a minute? Don't I have three kids? 

Why didn't Yip take swim lessons you ask? 

Yip was signed up to take lessons with his brother but an hour before their very first lesson he decided to play with a pocket knife (that I told him not to touch!) and he cut a big gash on his knuckle. The doctor said no swimming for a week. Therefore Yip will be taking lessons during the next session. Yip just can't make life easy. 

On the upside though Yap was able to do something without his brother. Being twins can be tough when you are always thrown together with your brother. 

I love the instructor they had for this session. She was great with all the kids; I sure wish she would teach lessons all summer. 

Not only does Yap LOVE going off the diving board.....

....but he loves doing it his OWN way! 

Foody Friday - Hobo Stew (or Poor Man's Stew)

My garden is coming along well. 

And I'm putting my kids to heavy toil harvesting and eating the vegetables. 

Eating some of those veggies is the hardest part. 

Summer squash...blech! 

Our purple beans have done really well. 

I love purple beans because I can actually see them when I go picking them. 

I think my mom called my favorite fresh green bean dish Hobo Stew. (Correction: My mom just let me know that my Grandma always called it Poor Man's Stew.) I just always remembered it as "the dish we always ate right after we picked the beans" 

Put diced potatoes, fresh snapped beans, salt, pepper and cooked ground sausage in a pot. Cover with water and boil until potatoes are soft. 

I love the way my purple beans turn green :) 

Serve hot!! 

There is nothing better than eating veggies straight from the garden. 

What is your favorite way to eat fresh produce? 

Weeks 23 and 24 (I'm caught up!)

I went out yesterday morning determined to get all my photos for 52 Weeks caught up. I've been running around like crazy this summer and my photo homework has slipped my mind :P But I'm caught up now!! 

Week 23 - Coil 

I 

1/50 sec., f6.3, ISO 1600 

I did a little editing to this one to give it a subtle vintage quality. 

1/100 sec., f11, ISO 1600

Obvious editing on this one :) 

I love this sign, my grandmother gave it to me a couple years after I became a mom.  

Week 24 - Stop

On these following two I only increased the contrast slightly. 

1/100 sec., f10, ISO 800

1/100 sec., f11, ISO 800

Yip has been making tons of these paper plate Captain America shields. (More on that later:) But I just thought it was cute how Yahoo was playing with one and pretending to stop the bad guys. (Yes, we are big Avenger fans!) I liked the stop sign behind her as though the bad guys needed another reminder! 

Next week, 25, is COLOR!! 

Yahoo and her Personal Assistant

It's summertime and that means swim lessons! 

Our town pool is only a block away from our house and last year we practically lived at the pool. I was accused by one of the teenage lifeguards of being there all the time last summer...like that's a bad thing! 

Hey, I think I can justify "living" at the pool when we our first full summer in Kansas was one of the hottest and driest on record. I mean, 104 degrees was an average temperature last year!! (It seemed to me anyway.) 

Moving on...swim lessons. If we are going to live so close to the pool I would just feel a lot more comfortable if my kids are taking swim lessons. Not that my boys would agree. They think swim lessons are too much like being taught something, heaven forbid, and swim lessons cut into their playtime! 

Not Yahoo though. Yahoo is in LOVE with the water! 

She has. no. fear.

She's the only one in her class that doesn't mind getting dunked. She can't wait to get to her swim lessons everyday which makes it kind of difficult since her lessons are right after lunch. She gets so excited it's tough getting her to eat. And after every activity they would do Yahoo would pipe up, "That was awesome!" LOL...I'm pretty sure the lifeguards are tired of hearing that! 

The funniest thing about lessons is that Yahoo gets so excited about swimming that she ends up talking and bouncing all the time and drifting around the pool, not paying attention to the instructor.

Therefore one lifeguard has the job of holding Yahoo's hand and keeping her still and listening. 

Well look at you Miss Thing! Aren't you special? You have your very own Personal Assistant by your side. 

(Hmmm. Where can I get one of those?)

Car Talk will end this year. NOOOOOO!!!!!

I came across some devastating news this week on my Reader feed.

Car Talk will end this year!

What??? You don't know what car talk is? What do you live in a cave? Haven't you seen the movie Cars? 

Remember these two guys from the movie CARS?
They were the Rust-eze guys, Lightning McQueens sponsors. 
A short part but unforgettable. 

In real life they are brothers Tom and Ray Magliozzi and they have had the popular show Car Talk on NPR for 25 years. 

Hey I hardly know anything about cars and even I love tuning in to listen to these two guys talk about cars on the weekend. These two are hilarious! They sure make learning about cars a lot of fun as they talk through car problems with callers. 

If you've never listened to Car Talk take a minute and check this one out. 
It's classic!