Stone Soup

Reese and I read Stone Soup the other night as part of our bed time routine and he just loved it.  It's a folktale that has been told in many different forms but this one features pigs.  The pigs are traveling and enter a town, hoping to find some kind strangers who will feed them.  The villagers, however, see them coming and shut their doors and windows hoping the pigs will go away.  They do not want to share their food, even though they have more than enough.  The villagers are stingy and greedy.  They have hearts of stone. That gives one of the pigs an idea. 

They ring the town bell for emergencies, calling everyone together because there is no food in town (the pigs know better of course).  The pigs begin to make stone soup to feed the town.  They heat water in a pot and put in freshly scrubbed stones.  One of the pigs tastes the soup and decides that it is good, but would be better if they could make the fancy kind with pepper, salt and herbs.  The villagers take the bait and bring those things for the soup.  The pigs use this trick with carrots, onions, milk, potatoes and meat.  The villagers bring it all willingly and declare it delicious.  They can't believe it's just made with stones and water!  The soup is shared with everyone and other goodies are also brought out to add to the meal.  Everyone has a great time and the village asks how they can ever repay them.  "Share stone soup with everyone!"  cry the pigs.

Reese has been bugging me since we first read it to make stone soup so yesterday I broke down.  I cheated and used a tortilla soup base and just added chicken, cheese, corn and squash but we added the freshly scrubbed stones first.  I happened to have some gravel in the backyard and we dug through it to find some big enough to be obvious (so we didn't accidently eat them). 

Kyle was too chicken to eat the soup for dinner but Reese and I did!  I love that books are making an impression on him.  It was totally worth all the scrubbing!

Tiling interruptions

So I had gotten about a quarter of the way done with the patio when we received a call from Karen Beard.  I was covered in mortar and dirt and really didn't want to touch the phone.  In fact, I wouldn't have if Kyle hadn't come outside about 2 minutes prior.  When he read the caller ID, I knew I had to answer it.  Well, of course, you can probably guess that that phone call set off a frenzy of activity as we learned that our dear friends Steven and Sherry Key had been in a bad car accident in Louisiana.  So the project hit a major and extended stall as we tried our best to take care of our friends. 

A few weeks later I was able to work on it a little at a time and I made decent headway.  I kept running out of mortar though and then it would be a week of so before I went to go buy more.  So, I started in May and will completely finish it tomorrow, September 7.  A little longer than I anticipated but I try to go with God's flow.  I will post a pic tomorrow of the final result.  All I can say is that I'm now begging to be allowed to re-tile the entryway!  It looks good!!!

A new project...

I love trying new things.  The way I figure it, it can go really well or hey, I learned a lot during that fiasco.  I ordered 440 slate tiles for our back patio, which got here today.  In my excitement, I managed to throw down two rows of tile in an hour and a half.  I went as far as my mortar would let me.  I gotta say that I am really hurting!  Bruises everywhere, sore feet and hands and an aching back.  But it looks pretty and that's all that really matters!  I'm going to try to document the process since it looks like it's going to be an extended one.  But tonight is not the night to elaborate as the Ambien and Tylenol kicks in.  See here are a few pictures to get you started.

We have THAT kid????

Why oh why does my sweet little boy have to turn into such a little brat when it comes to church???  Today was one of the worst days for me as a mom.  Last Sunday when we left Reese in his classroom, he preceded to scream.  Not an "I'm scared" or "I'm really sad" scream.  No, it was an "I'm mad and I'm going to make sure the entire building knows it" kind of scream.  Kyle and I stopped in the hallway three times trying to decide whether to go back or if that was just giving in to him.  The teachers told us to go on, but that's a really hard thing to do when your child is disrupting an entire hallway.  We decided his punishment before we ever left that hallway.  No TV or video games for the rest of the day which was big for him because he was really into one game that we had been playing together.  So, Sunday passed with few complaints. 
Skip to tonight.  We warned Reese before he went to Team Kid that if he gave us any problems or screamed that it would be no TV or video games for the rest of the night and the next day.  He was complaining that he didn't want to go as Kyle led him down the hallway, but he went.  Kyle came back and said he had to warn him again but that he went in.  Then we heard the screaming.  Really?  We have THAT child??  The one that everybody dreads having in their class because he's so bad??? 
Kyle went and got him and we had a little family talk about how this was going to end.  Right now.  Not only did the punishment stand but he and I were going straight home for a spanking.  I had tears in my eyes when I told him that because I really, really hate to do it.  I haven't had to in 3 years.  Or maybe that's the problem.  I haven't done it in 3 years...
We get home and I pull out my Mom's spanking tool of choice.  The "paint paddle".  You know, the stick you stir paint with?  Except for that I realized too late that Mom's paint paddle was plastic.  Mine's cheap wood.  Her's hurt more.  A lot more.
So Reese is scared and he's jumping around so much that I finally just paddle him with his shorts on.  What does he say??  "That didn't hurt a bit!"  Well, cowboy, you can bet it's going to hurt THIS time!!  Down go the britches and 3 raps later, I realize I have 2 problems.  One - the previously mentioned material issue and two - I didn't spank hard enough.  Now, although he's thoroughly mad, Reese is no longer scared of the pain aspect of the spanking.  Greeeeaaaattttt.  Way to go mom! 
I think I'll see if my Mom still has her paint paddle lying around....

A time stamp on my heart

The headstone for Dwayne's grave was finally laid down.  They really did a beautiful job.  The train is one that Dwayne built as a birdhouse.  It is surreal to think that one day my body will lay on the right hand side of his.  Seeing these pictures made me think about the time since he died and how life has changed.  It's been 7 months now.  What was so fresh in August has dulled to an occasional thought.  It concerns me that his death seems as though it were so long ago, much longer than 7 months.  I didn't see him all that often in life.  Now in death, I'm afraid that he might fade even further.  I'm only 34.  Lots of years to live yet, God willing.  But that means that for the majority of my life, I will not have a brother.  If his image is fading already, what will I have left in 30, 40, 50 years?  The vague notion that I once had a brother that was a part of my life but I can no longer remember?  Dwayne wasn't an easy person to get to know.  He was very quiet and didn't make friends easily.  Maybe the issue is that I just didn't know enough about him to sear a feeling or impression of him into my brain.  I think in the grand scheme of things, that is truly tragic.  We should at least connect with the important people in our lives that we can conjure up an image, a feeling, a memory, an emotion of that person.  That mixture of thoughts and feelings should be like a time stamp on our heart, something that is powerful enough to be instantly recognizable as belonging to one distinct individual.  A culmination of every experience, memory, or emotion connected to them. 
I also suffer regret that Reese will most likely not remember him.  That's especially sad to me because I've had the experience of having family members die when I was young or before I was born.  I often wonder what my grandfather was like, for instance.  All I know about him comes second hand and I've often thought that we would not have gotten along.  But relationships are complex things and they are different in different situations between different people.  My grandfather might have treated me so kindly that I would have overlooked our disagreements about life and religion.  Or maybe not.  But I'll never know for sure and that uncertainty I carry with me as part of the person that I've become. 
I saw Dwayne do things that surprised me in the year before his death.  He was excited to see Reese and actually gave him hugs.  He thought enough of Reese to dig that jeep out of the trash to fix up for him.  Who knows, with time maybe Reese would have pulled Dwayne out of his shell a little.  I wonder what kind of questions Reese will ask one day about his Uncle Dwayne.  And what my answers will be....

On the trail...

I went garage sale-ing this morning in the search for more books but it was a bust. I guess because it's Good Friday, there weren't many garage sales to be had and what there was was full of junk. I ended up at Goodwill because I just can't stand not spending money when I've set out to do just that. I bought quite a few books there but it still wasn't a very satisfying find. Hopefully next week will be better.




I won the auction on ebay for the Five in a Row series curriculum and I feel like I got a really great deal. FIAR volumes 1 thru 3, the Christian supplement, the cookbook, the holiday supplement and 6 books on the lists for $120. Considering the FIAR books are $35 a piece, I made out like a bandit! I enjoy the challenge of finding things at a bargain so I'll just look forward to next Friday's garage sales!

Book surprises...

Reese and I read a book last night called The Five Chinese Brothers. It's about these five brothers that look identical but all have something special about them. One can swallow the sea, another has an iron neck, one cannot be burned, one can hold his breath indefinitly and one can stretch his legs forever. The first one gets himself into trouble and is scheduled to be executed but the next brother takes his place and on and on. At the end the judge decides that the man must be innocent since they have tried so many ways to kill him and have not been successful. I was really surprised when I heard Reese telling his daddy a story very similiar to this one and then tonight he asked to read it again. I think it is interesting that he would really like a story about executions and all. The first time we read it, I thought he would probably be scared but I guess I was wrong! Definitely opens up the possibilities though for future books if I don't have to be so careful about the content so as not to scare him.

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Shirley's half of Dwayne's eulogy

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My half of Dwayne's eulogy

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Facebook | Brandi Mensch Gibson: Life lessons

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Whiskey’s whinings….

From my original blog on May 6, 2009
Whiskey’s whinings….: "I’m reading “Sitting at the Feet of Rabbi Jesus” for a Foundations class I’m taking at Kingsland. It’s all about the Jewish customs and history that would have been a part of Jesus’ life. By becoming more familiar with his everyday life, we should begin to understand many things written in the Bible that we may not have caught before. One of the old customs was to go about your day blessing God in all the ways that he touched your life, good and bad. For instance, when you got up in the morning you might say “Bless the Lord our God, King of the Universe for returning my soul to me another day.” Or as you got dressed “Bless the Lord our God, King of the Universe for clothing the naked.” This would tend to give perspective to your day, don’t you think? The Jews give blessings like these all day long. For us Westerners, we feel uncomfortable with “blessing God” because it feels a little blasphemas. How can we bless God with anything? Think praise instead of bless. We most certainly can and should praise God for everything good and bad. This might just go a long way towards understanding that we did not do it on our own. We would have nothing without God. So, Bless the Lord our God, King of the Universe for provided everything we need, down to the minute details and caring enough to look past our sins to provide for us at all."

Whiskey’s whinings….

From my original blog on May 5, 2009
Whiskey’s whinings….: "I want to play with SO-O-OMEBODY! It breaks my heart when I hear Reese say this. Sometimes I think it would have been worth it to have another child just so he had somebody to play with. But that is not a reason to have a child. I play with him as much as possible but hours of imaginary play is just not my idea of fun anymore. It makes me feel incredibly guilty. When we start homeschooling we should be more entertained. I just hope that he likes to learn and that we spend more time doing instead of arguing. I’m actually having fun researching unit studies and looking at all the things that we will get to learn together. I just don’t look forward to the mundane things such as sentence structure and geometry. I didn’t enjoy those things the first time!"

Whiskey’s whinings….

From my previous blog on May 4, 2009


Whiskey’s whinings….: "Where do I start? I’ve decided to try out this blog thing. I don’t know. I’m a big fan of journals and writing but it is so much easier and faster to type. I might be better at getting my thoughts down on this format. We’ll see.
Life has been extremely busy for the Gibson family lately. We’ve undergone a major project on the house. We knocked down a wall between what was the scrapbook room and the study and made it into one big playroom/man cave. This meant that the scrapbook room went downstairs into the soap room, the study moved downstairs into what was the playroom, the playroom moved upstairs and Reese’s tv and such moved upstairs as well. It has been a lot of moving furniture around and STUFF! I’ve been throwing things away left and right and putting things into piles for donation. I think I’m moving into a minimalist phase of my life. I’m so sick of stuff being everywhere! Really, we don’t need all this stuff!
Eventually, I would like to have a dining room again but that is just not possible with the current finances. I also would like to have an ikea love seat for the man cave but again, that is not going to happen anytime soon. We still have a lot of work to do but at least it is starting to look like things were put there on purpose and not just put wherever they landed! I’m just really, really tired. I have worked so hard on moving things around and painting and demolition and everything that goes with that. I wish I had a magic wand. Since I don’t, I’ll keep plugging away…."

In search of Caldecotts....

I've decided to start a new curriculum with Reese called Five in a Row. You take a book from the book list and read that book for 5 days in a row but emphasizing a different area (language, history, geography, etc.) every day. Reese has really taken an interest to books lately so I think this will really work with him. I know I can find most of these books at the library but I'm not very good at returning books (as my over due book fines will attest) so I'd much rather buy them. Besides, if they are Caldecott medal earners then they are a good addition to our library anyway. I'm so excited that Reese is finally showing an interest in books. I love books and was pretty much addicted as a child. I was an early reader and would immerse myself totally into a book, much to the frustration of my mother. I would be thrilled if Reese developed a love of books.
I've started trying to track down the books we will need. I made a trip to Katy Budget Books yesterday and was able to find some on the list and a whole lot of others that I wanted. I've been taking books there to trade in for a while now and with my credit from yesterday, I was able to get $250 in books for $50. I probably got about 40 books or so. After I got home and started looking at the list for FIAR again, I realized I had passed up some at the store that were on the list. I'll have to go back again without Reese so I can look easier. The good thing about Katy Budget is that new stuff comes in all the time.
I need to start making an effort to go to garage sales on Fridays. I want to start looking a little closer at the books that I find now that I know better what I'm looking for. It's the cheapest way to get books and I can always go trade them in at Katy Budget for credit. I'm also looking on Ebay and I'm bidding on a couple of lots with FIAR curriculum and books. Definitely cheaper than getting everything new, although there is something really awesome about a new book. I'm surprised to find that some of the Caldecott winners are books that I remember having as a kid. We sold most of my books in garage sales but I managed to hold onto a few. I was surprised to find that I actually have a few of the books on the FIAR list from when I was a kid. I really need to ask Kyle's parents if they still have any of his old books because he remembers some of these too. I've also been ordering some of my favorites as a kid that I don't have anymore. Some like Harry the Dirty Dog and the rest of the series. Dr. Seuss books, which Reese adores. The Legend of the Texas Bluebonnet. And some of Reese's favorites that aren't on the list such as Caps for Sale.
I always wanted a full library when I grew up. You know, the kind with a ladder on a track that goes around the room and a little catwalk at the top. I still think it would be so cool to have a room full of books. Lately, I've been limiting myself to what can fit on my shelves but I find that I start to look for a book and then realize that I've sold it or traded it in thinking that I was done with it. How cool would it be to be able to keep all the books we've read in our lifetime! What a legacy!

Growing up...

I'm constantly amazed at how fast Reese is growing up. I'm sitting here watching him play Mini Ninjas on the Wii and I'm impressed with how well he can play. It seems like just yesterday he was "playing" with a controller that we gave him that wasn't plugged in. He was perfectly happy just to sit there and "play" beside us. He knows how to change disks, turn everything on and off and start whatever game he wants now. His language cracks me up too. He's sooooo dramatic. He's growing up way to fast and it makes me sad.