Padme is 9!!!

Padme's 9th birthday was Sunday. We had a wonderful weekend with family and friends, including a birthday party at the horse ranch where they used to take riding lessons. It was a beautiful day at Four Fillies Farm!

The blonde transformation is courtesy of the Hannah Montana wig given to her by her sweet brother. :)

We are so blessed to have Padme in our family. She is inquisitive and quick-witted, friendly and caring, and she keeps us all on our toes! The Lord has gifted her in so many ways, and we so enjoy watching her grow into a beautiful, kind-hearted young lady who loves the Lord. We are so thankful God chose to give Padme to us, and we enjoy each year with her more than the last.

Happy birthday, sweetheart!

Sharkarosa Ranch

We had a fabulous field trip today to Sharkarosa Ranch's homeschool days. We enjoyed petting various wild animals, a bounce house and train ride, and a safety class by the local Sheriff's office. We learned about animal tracks and wildflowers as well. The weather was absolutely perfect and the girls and I had such a nice time together. I hope you enjoy these pictures.

Personality Insights

We went to a wonderful seminar this weekend that explained the different personality types. We have done these assessments before, and I am always eager to reassess & see how I have (or haven't) grown.

Basically, all people are split into 4 basic personality types. Most people are a blend of several different types, and most people can change as their environment demands. That's okay - that's what Christ did!

The two questions to ask are :
1) Are you more outgoing or more reserved? (Dh likes better the question, Do you tell (outgoing) or do you ask (reserved)?)
2) Are you more task-oriented or more people oriented?

From these 2 questions, you have 4 different categories of personalities:

1) D- Outgoing & task oriented
2) I- Outgoing & people oriented
3) S-Reserved & people oriented
4) C-Reserved & task oriented

Thus, the DISC method.

Here's what we discovered:

King Louie is a D/IS personality. This means he is primarily a Driver, Doer, Dominant type. Secondly he is Inspiring and thirdly he is Supportive, Sensitive and Stable. Actually his I & S were almost equal. This is not particularly surprising.

Jubilee is an ID/S personality. My I (have fun, be the star) ranks just below my D (take control, conquer the world). I was excited that I showed some S (sensitive, care about people) this time. I had none last time I did this assessment, about 3 years ago, and have been praying I would have more mercy and be better able to show love to people.

Eragon tested as an S/IC personality. So mainly he is stable and easy to please. Secondly he is fun-loving and thirdly he likes order. I thought his secondary trait would be D, but I have been told that a frustrated S often appears as a D. S's like everyone to be happy, they like to maintain the peace & the status quo. When that doesn't happen, they sometimes get frustrated & D-ish symptoms come out (i.e. being bossy & yelling). Still, he is a teller, not an asker, so I don't know whether the assessment was entirely accurate here. I am betting his were all pretty close together - haven't seen his graph yet.

Padme tested as an S/IC as well. I think this is pretty accurate of her. She does like stability and tends to be sensitive (that's the S). She is a performer (that's the I) and also likes things in order (that's the C). The graph shows her S as "very high" and her I & C even with each other, and above average. What's interesting about this report is that it shows your basic tendencies (listed here) and how you adapt to your environment. According to this, Padme easily pulls up her D, and just as easily pulls down her I and C when needed. I think this is very true. She can be quite bossy when she thinks she's right, she is level headed and pulls out of fun if it's too risky, and she has probably learned to live with disorder because she lives in my house.

Lil Yoda tested an S/C. She actually tested a very high S, and her D, I and C were all almost even, and pretty average. She tends to push her I way up as needed in her environment, and pulls her D and C down. Her S always stays up. That's good, I think. That tells me she always cares about people, no matter the situation. I think this accurately describes Lil Yoda. She really does care about people, and is very resistant to change.

This has been an enlightening assessment, overall. I do think the younger 2 may still be a bit young to test accurately, but still the insight is helpful.

Besides helping you understand yourself, the kids' assessments also provided help for the parents and teachers. The teen assessment also included career recommendations. Very cool.

Tonight we go to bed understanding each other better. :) Very very cool.

Motivation

Our piano teacher (go Mr. Truk!) informed us today that the kids will have a recital in March.

On a $70-$90,000 (at least) Steinway piano.

{{What?!?!?!? Does he have any idea what my Bundles of Joy could do to a $90,000 piano? I learned long ago never to underestimate my children, especially that One. But I digress.......}}

As for the Littluns, they were semi-impressed with the recital idea (sort of a vague concept, you understand) but when he started talking money, they began to get excited! They are already planning what they want to play.

Now this is a good teacher. Motivation is often the key, isn't it?

Productivity

We had a very productive day. We finished our schoolwork. I did the laundry and cleaned up the house. (The kids used to do all of our laundry & housework, but I have discovered this year that I have more time than they, so I have taken over).

My favorite part was that we all spent about an hour playing with Lil Yoda's Disney karaoke machine. Well, it's not really a full-blown machine. It's actually a souped-up microphone that has all the karaoke stuff programmed into it. You can just plug it into your regular tv and go!

Daddy was home trying to work but came to join in the fun when he heard (and couldn't escape) our singing and laughter. We have a regular karaoke machine as well, but this Disney one allows you to change your voice. It does a deep & scratchy "dragon" voice that sounds like Ursula the Sea Witch, a deep horse voice that sounds like Barry White, a medium but-still-not-yours voice, and a tiny mouse voice. We had such a great time; I'm glad Lil Yoda dug this out of the garage.

Lil Yoda and I fixed a wonderful dinner together using one of the recipes she learned in her cooking class: Tex Mex Tarts. Padme saw us bustling about the kitchen and came to help out as well. We love to cook together! I have posted the recipe below.

After dinner we watched tv (this is an out of the ordinary Treat) and read The Last Battle, the final installment of the Narnia books. This was a very tense episode, when Tash comes to Narnia and Cair Paravel has been taken by the Carlormenes. I could have kept reading until I came to a more warm-and-fuzzy part of the story, but I know the doubt and tension of the delay will only add to their enjoyment when the story comes to its victorious conclusion!

I put the girls to bed and we sang and laughed and prayed. Their spirits lightened again by the power of the Almighty God, they sang themselves to sleep.

I didn't accomplish many of the things on my List today. I have much work to do still, and it is midnight already. I have papers to grade and lessons to prepare for co-op. I have research to do for the coming week. I'd like to take a bath.

But I had a very productive day.

I hope you all enjoyed an equally wonderful day. I love my job.

Here's the recipe:

TEX MEX TARTS

1 Roll of Fillo Bread (2 come in a pack but we only used one)
Taco Meat
Beans
Rice
Sour Cream
Shredded Cheese
Salsa
And Whatever Else You Want As Garnish!

Preheat oven to 350. Prepare taco meat and rice according to package directions. Warm beans over the stove.

Unroll the Fillo bread onto a cutting board. Carefully peel off 5 layers of Fillo & set the rest aside. Using a pizza cutter, cut the Fillo bread into 8 pieces (Lil Yoda says the are supposed to be Pop-Tart sized).

Get out a muffin tin. Each of the 8 sections of 5 Fillo bread pieces will be placed in a muffin tin to make a cup, but Lil Yoda says you can't just lay them in all together. You have to separate the pieces and lay each of the 5 pieces into the muffin tin individually, overlapping one another in sort of a star pattern, so that it will look prettier.

Once you have 8 cups of your muffin tin filled (with 5 pieces of Fillo each) you can peel off 5 more Fillo sheets and repeat the process. We filled 4 muffin tins with just that one roll of Fillo.

Sidenote: We don't have four muffin tins. However we have 2 muffin tins and 2 heart-shaped muffin tins so we used those. The heart shaped ones really ended up being too small but oh well...

Another Sidenote: At this point, Mom apparently did not look very busy, as the girls were doing the Fillo work. Lil Yoda therefore informed Mom that, "We are supposed to be cleaning the kitchen as we go, so you can go ahead and sweep the floor, wipe the counters and wash out the sink...stuff like that." Apparently this is what they do in her Cooking Class, so I dutifully begin to clean up.

Once you have all of your muffin tins filled, bake them at 350 for 5 minutes. When they are finished, take them out and display them on a pretty platter. Or, in our case, a cutesy beach platter because that's the one the girls picked.

Yell for everyone else to come eat dinner. After no response, yell again. If still no response, send the short people to get the others and tell them it is Dinner Time. As you wait for everyone else to come, let the Littluns put a pretty tablecloth on the table. And candles, if you have time.

When they arrive (at our house this is at least five minutes later and the food threatens to be too cold) let everyone fill their own Fillo cups with Taco meat, beans, cheese, sour cream, salsa and rice.

Enjoy!!!

A Sleepy Day

for the pets at least...



Diego



and Mary (in the Groovy Girls house).