Free Summer Fun

For those of you in the US, every summer Regal cinemas play free movies every Tuesday and Wednesday. All of the movies of G or PG (one of each each week) which makes it something everyone can enjoy. Here the theater is usually not full but there are plenty of moms with kids of all ages including infants (with older siblings). It's completely free, unless of course you hit the concession stand. They are not first run movies of course but most of them are popular, well-known movies like Charlotte's Web.

If you want to see if a theater near you is participating this summer, go to http://www.regmovies.com/freefamilyflicks/ffffresults.jsp , click on REG Free Family Film Festival on the left side of the page then scroll down to your state. You'll get a list of theaters participating in your state as well as what movies their playing and the dates. It seems like most theaters start around June 19 and end around August 20 but it may be different in your area and the movies that are shown do vary somewhat by location.

I am not associated with this chain in anyway. It's just that we really enjoy this program. You can check your local newspapers or your parks association as well because a lot of times there are free outdoor movies during the summer sponsored by different groups.

Slow progress

My little ones kindly shared their colds with me so I haven't been up to doing too much the last few days. I have made some slow progress on blocks for R.'s quilt, which I'll keep slowly plugging away at.

I haven't gotten much of anything else done since dh got back. The bathrooms still need to be painted and I really want to get that done before my sister and her family come up for a visit next week. If I'm really feeling better, I might even try to tackle stripping the wall paper border in the kitchen and getting the upper walls in there painted as well, but I'm not holding my breath on that one. Things will get done when they get done.

DH remembered to bring our camera back with him (but he forgot his jacket and didn't realize until he was freezing on the plane) so as soon as time and energy allow I should have pics of works in progress, my "new" glider all painted and recovered and my "new" sewing table which I picked up for $7 at a huge Boy Scout garage sale.

The weekend after next I'm hoping to go to a Quilt show. DH has already promised to watch the kids all day but the last few times I wanted to go out on my own for awhile something has come up-bad weather, sick kid, feeling too morning sick to do much. So, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that nothing comes up to thwart my plans. I've never been to a quilt show before but I think it will be a fun way to spend a few hours.

I've been in that limbo stage of pregnancy where the only real indicator of being pregnant is weight gain and an expanding waist line, so you just sort of feel fat. (I have never gained less than 36 lbs. per pregnancy no matter what I eat or how much I exercise.) The morning sickness past with the first trimester and until a few days ago, I still hadn't felt the baby moving. But now the baby has started to make its presence known with little flutters every now and then.

I'm debating whether or not to find out the sex of this baby. I usually don't but we got rid of nearly all of the baby clothes when we moved so now I have to stock up again. So, do I stick to neutrals or go ahead and find out so I have can snap up gender specific bargains? I have until mid June to make up my mind when I have the next sonogram.

It's time to get off the computer and get the kids ready to go grocery shopping. We managed to use 2 doz. eggs last week!

To all the Beautiful Women out there

Did you know that it's Beautiful Women Month ?
Well, it is . . . . and that means you and me!

Facts On Figures : There are 3 billion women who don't look like super models and only eight who do.
Did you know Marilyn Monroe wore a size 14? She also did not have good hygiene . . . . . Can you believe that?
If Barbie were a real woman . . . . .she'd have to walk on all FOURS due to her proportions!

The average woman weighs 144 pounds, and wears between a size 12-14 (US sizing - 14-16 English).
One out of every four college-aged women has an eating disorder .
Models in magazines are AIR-BRUSHED - NOT Perfect !!
A psychological study in 1995 found that just 3 minutes looking at a fashion magazine caused 70% of women to feel DEPRESSED , GUILTY and SHAMEFUL ! RELAX . . . and learn to love who you are You are BEAUTIFUL!!!
20 years ago, models weighed 8% less than the average woman. Today, they weigh 23% less . . . . . ~ ~
The Beauty Of A Woman ~ ~ The beauty of a woman is not in the clothes she wears, The figure she carries, or the way she combs her hair. The beauty of a woman must be seen from her eyes, Because that is the doorway to her heart, The place where love resides. The beauty of a woman is not in a facial mole, But true beauty in a woman is reflected in her soul. It is the caring that she lovingly gives, The passion that she shows. The beauty of a woman With time, only grows . . . . .

An English professor directed his students to punctuate correctly the following words: "WOMAN WITHOUT HER MAN IS NOTHING" .
The men wrote: "Woman , WITHOUT HER MAN, is nothing."
The women wrote: "WOMAN! WITHOUT HER, man is nothing!"


The Images of Mother
4 YEARS OF AGE My Mummy can do anything!
8 YEARS OF AGE My Mum knows a lot! A whole lot!
12 YEARS OF AGE My Mother doesn't really know quite everything.
14 YEARS OF AGE Naturally, Mother doesn't know that, either!
16 YEARS OF AGE Mother? She's hopelessly old-fashioned.
18 YEARS OF AGE That old woman? She's way out of date!
25 YEARS OF AGE Well, she might know a little bit about it.
35 YEARS OF AGE Before we decide, let's get Mum's opinion.
45 YEARS OF AGE Wonder what Mum would have thought about it?
65 YEARS OF AGE Wish I could talk it over with Mum. . .

Please send this to all the PHENOMENAL WOMEN you know in celebration of Women's History Month.
If you do, something good will happen . . . . .YOU will boost another woman's self-esteem!


I found this on http://ozcountryquiltingmum.blogspot.com/ and just had to share it with everyone out there.

How do kids do these things?

The day before yesterday, S. managed to break the outside door handle on the car! It still boggles my mind how she could possibly execute such a feat. I still haven't had a chance to call the dealer and see how long it will take to get fixed and how much it will cost. I don't think it will take that long but given the fact that it seems like an unusual situation we'll probably have to wait for a new handle to be ordered.

Life's never boring with kids!

Sorry if I bored anyone to tears with my "busy days" post.

Today I've been working a bit on piecing R.'s 1st birthday quilt. You read that right. He's already past his 2nd birthday and I still haven't finished even piecing the quilt yet. Ah, well. It'll get done when it gets done. Being the 2 year old that he is, he's doing an excellent job of making every room in the house look like a mini tornado hit today. He's been up since 5:30 this morning and man has he been busy.

DH comes home Sunday and I still have so much I want to get done before he comes back. I thought I would get a lot more done by now but I've been so tired that I usually fall asleep not long after I get the kids to bed and at least one of them is up soon after I am. Since R. doesn't nap and he sleeps the least of everyone, I haven't been able to get to the bathroom painting or finish the ironing yet. I hate ironing and much prefer letting it build up and do a lot at once rather than a little at a time. Well, I let it sit a little too long this time. I had 21 shirts and several pairs of pants to do. If I'm really luck R. will decide to take a nice long nap since he was up so early and maybe, just maybe I'll get it all finished. Then I can start on the bathrooms tonight.

I was watching Good Morning America this morning and they had on a segment on decorating. Big deal right. Anyone can decorate if they've got lots of $. Well this time they did something interesting. They had a "vanity table" drape in pink fabric. Then they showed that the "table" was an old banged up desk that they picked up cheap. I've seen something similar at the local school district's auction site. I just realized something like that might work pretty well for a sewing table. It's amazing what a little TLC can do for a tired piece of furniture. Once I repainted the glider that I bought, it looked a thousand times better for less than $3 in paint. Now I just have to get the cushions recovered. Hopefully when dh gets back I'll post a picture.

I had decided already that whenever possible I'd rather try and get furniture used rather than buying it new, especially solid pieces like bookshelves or cabinets. I feel like it is a more environmentally friendly option. And most of what people get rid of really only needs a little cosmetic pick-me-up.

Time to go clean up the "tiny tornado" damage.

Question for any who sew clothing out there

I want to make my girls swimsuits this year that are more modest than what you can find outside. I found a website that sells patterns for such suits and it includes the dimensions for each size. Well, I just measured the girls this morning and their measurements would land them in at least a few different sizes. Now this might not be a big deal if I were sewing only tops or only bottoms but their chest sizes are much more narrow than the chest size that matches their waists. What do I do? Would it work to narrow the seams around the chest on the bigger size? I haven't sewn much in the way of clothing so I'm really not sure how hard it would be to get a good fit on a swimsuit.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Busy days

We've had some really busy days lately. DH is off visiting his family and I'm trying to get all kinds of stuff done while he's gone plus other stuff that has just happened to pop up or coincide with his trip. If things keep going as is, from last Sunday until this coming Mon. we will have spent exactly 1 day at home without going anywhere. We've been or will be out and about for a minimum of 3 hours up to 7 all of those days. Now for some people that's the norm but I'm generally a house mouse and prefer to stay close to home. Plus I've got lots of projects I want to work on at home that are begging for my attention as well as necessities like house cleaning and lawn mowing. (Although a very good friend as offered to come this weekend and mow our lawn.) On top of all of this, we just did our annual required proof of progress testing for the kids. I intended to break it up over 2 days but the kids want to go to a local farm/park tomorrow and didn't want to get up early to finish their tests so they completed them after dinner. I'm proud to say that both kids sped through the tests in record time. Safiya only missed 1 out of 100 questions and Mustafa only missed 3 out of 120. Not bad for my very relaxed, eclectic homeschoolers. Zahra was so jealous while they were testing tonight that she insisted I make up a math "homework page" for her to do while they finished. She finished 16 addition and subtraction problems in no time and Safiya graded it for her. (all correct) She was so proud of herself. Now all I have to do is send the tests in for "official" grading and the send a copy of the scores to the superindendent's office. I told the kids, as a reward, they wouldn't have any work to do for 2 weeks.

What have we been doing that's kept us out and about?
-We hit garage sales on Sat. which had the kids all excited since they got to spend up to $2 each however they liked and I scored a gliding rocker with ottoman for $10. It needed a fresh coat of paint and a new cover and the nuts need to be tightened on the ottoman but after buying the spray paint and fabric, it still will cost me less than $35. Not bad since new ones are well over $100. Now I'm on the lookout for a bookshelf for the tv/computer room. We'll hunt for that this Saturday. Their friends came over and played for a few hours in the afternoon and then we went to the masjid/mosque in the evening.
-Big chunks of Sunday are always spent at the masjid where the kids take Quranic Arabic classes followed by running to Wal-mart for various necessities.
-Monday we stayed home but spent more than 4 hours outside while I painted the glider, a mirror frame and the linen closet shelves (easier than covering them in contact paper and cheaper since the paint was left by the previous owners).
-Tuesdays we go to a sewing class where we've been working on quilting for the last several sessions. That's followed by the weekly grocery shopping.
-Today ended up being quite busy with testing in the morning followed by a check visit for Reza, an hour waiting to do a glucose test at my OB's office (You have to drink a soda like drink then wait an hour for your blood to be drawn.) Normally you only do this once in a pregnancy but this OB's office has a policy that if you had a previous baby above 9 lbs. you get to get tested twice so I'll have to do this again around 28 weeks since Reza was 9lbs., 10oz. After that we went to the fabric store where we picked up some swimsuit fabric for the girls. They all want to do swim classes again this year but I don't like most of the suits I've seen for kids. I found one website that sells a pattern for modest swimsuits which I'll attempt to make for them. (www.modest-swimwear.net) Then we hit Baskin-Robbins. They had a special promotion tonight where a scoop was only 31 cents from 5-10 and the proceeds went to help the families of fallen firefighters. We couldn't pass up a deal like that. We ended our trip out with a trip to the gas station where prices rose 8 cents since Sunday.
-Tomorrow it's a trip with other homeschoolers to a local mini-farm that is run by volunteers. This will be followed by a picnic and plenty of playground time. I'm hoping to get the front yard mowed at least in the morning before we go. Mustafa really wants to do it but I'm not sure I'm ready for him to do something that potentially dangerous at 8 years old without heavy supervision which I can't really give him since I have to also keep an eye on Reza at the same time. When we get back, I have some sewing I'd like to get done.
-Friday is one of our favorite events-a semi-annual used book sale at our local library. Tons of great books, most for less than $2. It's always packed but lots of fun.
-Saturday will be more garage sale shopping followed by another promised picnic and a trip to the islamic butchers to stock up on meat. They also have great prices on vegetables, often half what the local supermarkets charge and the quality is usually tons better. Their friends may come over to play for a couple of hours and then it's off to the masjid for a few hours.
-Sunday will be just like last Sunday except I have to throw in a trip to Lowe's for some white trim paint for the bathrooms and some flowers for the yard. I'm hoping to get both the main bathrooms painted next week while DH is gone and if time permits maybe even the kitchen too.

So, as you can see, we're a little busy around here right now. All the activity keeps the kids occupied and not missing DH as much, but man am I going to be tired by the time he comes back. ;) I forgot and sent the cd of pictures with him to give to his family, so once again, there are no pics for the blog. I'm really hoping he doesn't forget to bring our camera back with him.

It's time for me to get this posted, take care of some laundry, either do some ironing or sew up another tote bag for our book sale finds and then head off to bed. Considering it's about midnight, I think I'm going to be in serious need of a nap come tomorrow afternoon. Too bad none of the kids will take naps.

I'll try and post again next week when things might be a bit slower.