There's nothing like a box!

You just don't have to tell a child that boxes are fun. They know it instinctively!

Oh, how he loves his baby

Rough and Tumble, maybe.

Defintely tender and sweet too!

Earning Minutes

We have a new system in place in the Holland home. Video games have been quickly becoming things over which to be obsessed. Martin's attitude was less than desirable and my even keeled child was quickly becoming a bad attitude with legs. My friend Shannon gave me a great idea - and I quickly put this idea into place. My children are now required to earn minutes to play video games.

Read for 30 minutes (or more), you get 30 minutes to play games

Chores around the house ... gets them more minutes. Each chore has a certain amount of time earned. (I made a chart in my notebook with the chore and the number of minutes they can earn next to it) My bathroom sink has never been cleaner!! In fact, I had to tell him that he could clean the sink as many times each day as he would like, but I'd only give him the minutes for it once per day.

Once the minutes are earned, we set the timer. When the timer goes off, the video games do too.

The attitude problem is mostly fixed now, since they lose minutes for a bad attitude, being unkind to their brothers/sister, general bad behavior. They also realize that the ball is in their court. If they don't play - it's not just because I don't want them to - it's because they haven't done anything to earn the minutes.

Harmony has mostly returned to our home.

Granola Bars - homemade - delicious

I have been trying to come up with a "healthy" granola bar for at least 3 years. I've made lots of different varieties and used lots of different recipes, and was never happy with the results. I finally discovered a recipe that I thought I could tweak to make it both healthy and delicious!

Here is the recipe:

Larissa's Granola Bars

1 cup brown sugar (I mix up my own using evaporated cane juice and molasses)
1/2 cup butter
2 Tbsp. honey
1/2 cup. *natural peanut butter (or natural almond butter - it's great both ways) *natural does not contain sugar
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 egg
1 1/3 cup flour (I use either spelt, soft white, or kamut)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cup rice crispies (I use brown crispy rice cereal - which contains no high fructose corn syrup)
1 1/2 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup finely chopped almonds
1 cup chocolate chips (I use 60% cacao, dark)
1 cup coconut (unsweetened)

Mix 1st 6 ingd. together. Mix dry ingd. together, minus chocolate, coconut. Add to wet mixture, fold in remaining ingredients, press them down firmly into the pan into an 11x15 greased pan and bake @ 350 for 20 minutes or so. You should cut them while they are warm.
You can use pumpkin seeds or sunflower seeds instead of almonds for variety. You could also add a cup of raisins or dried fruit if you like that sort of thing. You could use raisins for an oatmeal raisin type of granola bar. Add about a teaspoon or so of cinnamon if you do that! Every person in my family loves these bars, in fact, Rosalie starts squealing with delight when I pull them out!
And I happen to know that they really are great - because they got the seal of approval from Rich.

I want to play too!

Rosalie definitely has a bunch of brothers! And she wants to do the same things she sees them doing!!

I feel like a teenager!

Today is our 13th anniversary! Earlier this month we were able to celebrate our anniversary with a night away from the children. We went out to eat, walked around an outdoor mall, listened to some outdoor live music, and spent the night at a hotel. It was a great way to spend our anniversary.

I'm so thankful for my husband in so many ways. I am thankful to be on this journey by his side. I can't believe that it's already been 13 years!

May we continue to serve the Lord together and bring honor and Glory to Him in this journey of marriage and raising our children.

A quote from Charlotte Mason

"Their Bible lessons should help them to realise in early days that the knowledge of God is the principal knowledge, and, therefore, that their Bible lessons are their chief lessons."


This is one of the many reasons I use the Charlotte Mason method to educate our children. God is at the center. The knowledge of God is the principal knowledge. We are getting close to starting the school year, and I love reading the philosophy behind the Charlotte Mason method. She wrote 6 volumes of her philosophy of education. I have so much to learn! I am taking it one day at a time.
The Holland philosophy lines right up with the CM philosophy. The very heart of education is God. He is at the very center of all that we learn. He is the reason that we have anything to learn. Leaving Him out of the equation of learning and education is not a possibility nor an option.
Next month we will be starting Pre-K, 1st grade, and 3rd grade. The books are slowly showing up on our doorstep. I am way more excited to start than the children. (although Jonathan is a very close second!)