Sweets for my Sweets

Every year I make these molten lava cakes for Valentine's Day. The kids love that they all get their own individual cake! I get so excited each year when they actually turn out and look good! I get way too impressed with myself.
This year they were beyond perfect. All the chocolate oozed out and I added a chocolate sauce drizzle on top. Even the raspberries were in at the grocery store and I didn't have to substitute with strawberries like some years.
I am in the process of gathering all of my favorite cookies and desserts for a Miller Family Cookbook and this has to go in the book. I even think it photographed well!

New Year's Resolutions

Sue and Mike Murphy


An open letter:


So… here it is the end of January. How many of those New Year’s resolutions have you kept? How about a resolution that will place no demands upon your wallet? This resolution can also make you a HERO – something many of us have always yearned to do.

What am I talking about? Becoming an organ, eye and tissue donor. Every day across America 18 people die awaiting a transplant. As of Jan. 7, 2011 there were 110,112 individuals in the United States awaiting a life- saving organ transplant. Every ten minutes another person is added to the list.

So what’s stopping folks from joining the donor registry? Sometimes myths such as apprehension on the procedure, the concern of whether the doctors will work to save your life if you are listed as an organ donor or how transplantation may reflect one’s religious views prevent people from registering.

Through educating yourself you can easily dispel these myths. The procedure of organ recovery occurs with the utmost respect to the donor and his or her family. The doctors that are involved in recovering organs are not the same as those that worked diligently to save the person’s life. Only when it is determined that a person will not survive and every effort to save a person’s life has failed, is the subject of donation brought up with the family. As for the religious beliefs, there is not one major religion in that U.S. that is opposed to organ donation.

Our son Jason was killed in an automobile accident in June 2003 and gave the “Gift of Life” as an organ donor. Since then, we have tried to help educate the public about organ donation and work to register donors. It’s amazing that 95 percent of American adults approve of donation as an important life-saving practice, but in a state as Ohio for example, only about 52 percent are registered donors.

So what’s stopping you from making a resolution to save lives? If you need more information, learn the facts to help you make an educated decision to register as a donor. Every donor has the potential of saving eight lives through organ donation and enhancing over 50 lives with tissue donation.

Aren’t you a giver at heart? We feel fortunate to have met Jason’s heart recipient and feel blessed that Jason decided to be an organ donor. To know that his heart beats on in Russ makes Jason our HERO. Be someone’s HERO this year and resolve to be an organ, eye and tissue donor.

Peace,

Sue and Mike Murphy, donor parents


Used with permission from Sue Murphy.

Love is in the Air, Along with Pizza and Dance!

I really do love Valentine's Day! It's a great craft holiday and time for simple fun and love. Girls especially love making valentine's for their friends and it is probably their favorite party of the year. My valentines to the girls are the ones above. I have had so much fun making these flowers! Believe it or not this is flat ribbon that when heated takes on this ruffled look. I stuck a glue dot on the back and put them on little doily cards so they can be removed and used. You can put a pin on the back and wear them, stick them on bobby pins and put them in your hair, there are limitless possibilities.

After hosting the Cookie Rally last month, we decided to celebrate with a pizza party. Celebrate they did! Not one piece of pizza was left, we decorated heart cookies, exchanged Valentine's cards and treats, and then moved on to Just Dance on the Wii. What an awesome group of girls!

Mackenzie stitched this for me!

Loads of glitter everywhere!

Kyle and Cynthia who both helped out! Cynthia is loved by all these girls!

Faith is so sweet always including Kyle in her cards.

I love every Valentine I receive here are some.

I think this needs to be framed in my house. Every day is  heart day at the Millers.

Skylar has made me some of the most creative cards. I commented on the paper heart when she walked in the door. I just love the paper she used. Skylar promptly told me that was good because it was for me, yeah!
Included is a poem (she is a wonderful poet):
To a great fun person
to who? you say
My 120 troop leader
I want to thank you and hug you
for every thing you've helped and cared.
Thank you Happy Valentine's!


Brought tears to my eyes!

Dance Party!

Partied Too Hard

Ethan talked me into having a sleep over with his best friends on Monday night. Yes, you heard that right, Monday night! Really I didn't mind a bit. I had a meeting Monday night, Bill had a meeting Monday night, and Tuesday would be pretty consumed by a Girl Scout Valentine Party. Not much school would be going on so really I was totally fine with it. Plus I was told, "we'll watch a movie around 11 and go to bed afterwards". Um, yea.
I went to bed about 1 and things were still pretty active and I don't think a movie had been started. I probably could have demanded that they get to sleep but really, they were behaving and being respectful of the sleeping people in the house.
Around 7am Ethan came into my room to get a band aid. Hmm? Kind of an odd thing to get first thing upon waking! But not such an odd thing to need if you haven't been to bed. At all. They pulled an all nighter!
By 9:30 Ethan was done. He fell sound asleep in the living room chair amidst cleaning and chaos. He woke about an hour later to relocate to his room. He didn't even close his bedroom door and slept through an entire Girl Scout party!
Around 3:30 he wandered down for waffles for "breakfast". He was ready for bed by 9 which for Ethan is a miracle!
Bill summed it up best in his response text he sent me when I sent him this picture, we are so glad that he is having fun. We want him to have the best childhood ever and always remember these good times. Its so cool to home school and give him this experience. Truly, if any of our kids deserve a fun and crazy night its Ethan, enough said.

Her Imagination...

is actually about a boys imagination! Erin worked hard on these pictures and told me the story that went with them.
The girl in the top picture "Emily" is the way the girl looked when he (the mysterious, unidentified boy) "imagined her and what she looked like". The picture below is what "Emily" really looked like when the boy met her.
"Did he like her?" I asked her.
"Oh yes, she was very smart! and the other one was kind of (insert your silly face with eye rolling here!)."

Oh my! Where does she get this stuff?! Sounds like a Disney princess story of some sort. I love cute, adorable pictures with even cuter stories.

Tween Night Celebration

 What a great night for a party! It has been cold, icy, snowy, and everyone has been cooped up. Sounded like a great night to get all the teens together for a night of Wii fun and tons of snacks. Throw in a birthday and it knocked the evening up a notch!
Tween/teen nights are always a blast, what a great group of kids. We had almost 30 tonight and they all are pleasant, funny, and low drama (which is such a plus!). The xbox ran Call of Duty all night and the Wii had Just Dance. They got some serious energy out, Just Dance will do that to you. They went through an entire case of water and almost all the juice and soda.
Chas celebrated his 14th birthday with everyone tonight so we also had ice cream cake. Good choice since everyone was hot from dancing around! We had a quick round of "Happy Birthday" and everyone even cooperated for some group pictures. I try not to be too pushy with the camera during their events but I was able to coax since we were already gathered for the cake. Plus they will love having some pics of their fun nights together.

Tubing Fun

We surprised the kids at the beginning of the week with a snow tubing outing. We had tried to go a couple of weeks ago but something came up at work and it didn't work out. So when Bill said he didn't have much on his calendar we loaded up and headed up!
One of the best things was that it was practically empty, its awesome to have places to yourself.
Everyone had a blast, Erin kept up with everyone! That girl is unbelievable, does everything on her own and is completely fearless. There is something kind of weird about loading your 32 pound little peanut into an intertube and then pushing her down an enormous ice covered hill and telling her goodbye. Even better, not being able to see her face because she is so bundled up and hearing her tiny voice yell "bye "as she goes flying down.  Pictures from our fun...

 Little bit of wind burn!

 Daddy Love

All About Erin

 Seems all my pictures lately are all about Erin. She's a sweetheart and always willing to smile, just lights up everyone around her. Especially her mommy! (Hair style compliments of Lindy)

Academy of Science

This is the time of year that we get tons of school done. I prefer to hibernate all winter but we have fun in the process. Last year at the Homeschool Convention (which is a fabulous event!) Bill and I found these awesome science kits. Each one covers a different science topic in depth. The kits come with all the supplies to do the experiments and they are better than any science kit I have ever had. And we have had many different kinds of science curriculums! Since this company is devoted only to science they know how to make it fun.
The other great thing is that everyone can participate. For Ethan and the girls this has been great since they really like doing things all together. Even Erin has been keeping a science folder with her "results".
We brought home the Matter and Polymers Kits last spring and I am trying to figure out what I want to get this year. So many choices!
When they complete the unit they receive a certificate from the Academy of Science for Kids. So cool!
Here's a peek of what we've been doing:

This was an awesome lesson on atoms and making different elements. Great visualization!

Multitasking

This is what kids today look like. They can do so much at once! Of course they learn it from all of us who are always doing multiple things at one time. Erin's new thing is to pretend to talk on her "cell phone" while working on her laptop. And yes she does this all while eating lunch!