Anita Renfroe | William Tell Momisms | Official Version

Help Me Be Good!

A few weeks ago, I was laying in bed with my 17 year old daughter, and she jokingly said, "Mom, before you die, you have to tell me what you did to raise me, because I'm so awesome!" We laughed hysterically! Then after a few minutes she said, "No, really. What did you do?" We laughed some more. Apparently, she wasn't very fond of my strict ways while she was growing up, but now that she's old enough to realize that her morals and values are starting to serve her really well when she's faced with situations where she has to decide what to do on her own more and more, she's appreciative of the way we've raised her. She's able to be with her peers and love them, and understand them, and not judge them, but not feel compelled to join along with them if they partake in things that just don't feel right to her. I couldn't be more thankful.

One the tools that helped me with growing Godly girls are these "Help Me Be Good Books." I know it sounds silly but my girls LOVED these books when they were little. They'd beg me to read them over and over and over again. They touch on so many subjects such as Being Greedy, Cheating, Lying, Stealing, Being Messy (Come to think if it, that one didn't work so well. Maybe I should get it back out!) etc. I really suggest getting these books if you have little ones. They're fun yet powerful at the same time!!

http://store.joyberrybooks.com/index.cfm/product/22/help-me-be-good-series-box-set.cfm

No Chicken Noodle Soup!

This past week my little girl came down with a nasty tummy virus. She had a fever and just a really bad case of the yuckies! On the way home from the doctor I stopped off real quick at Wholefoods and got the goods to rehydrate her and make her my homemade no-chicken noodle soup. We're vegetarians but still love the flavor and feel of a big bowl of steaming soup when we're sick. I thought I'd share my recipe in case you ever have a vegetarian friend in need of a good soup when they're sick!! You'd be a rock star to show up with this!!

I gather all the usual suspects for chicken noodles soup: garlic, frozen stew vegetables (makes cooking soup really fast and easy when you've been up all night with a sick child!) veggie bouillon, vegetable soup stock, sea salt, egg noodles, and spices. Instead of the chicken, I add Morning Stars Vegetarian "chicken strips." Even my meat eating husband loved this soup!

Boil the noodles first and drain the water.

Keep the noodles in the colander to be added at the end when the soup is all ready so they don't over cook and get mushy.

Throw all the ingredients into the pot and boil 'er up!

I added 2 boxes of the vegetable broth. 1 wasn't enough.

And because I like my soup really flavorful I add more bouillon cubes to make it stronger. Add cubes to your taste!

Then add back the noodles and voila!!! It was easy and delicious for the whole family!!! Bon Appetit!

Scaphoids, School, and Scotch!

OK ~ I'm just kidding about the Scotch but it rhymed well and seemed to describe my state of mind lately. The summer ended with my little one finally getting her blasted cast off of her poor little wrist. (She had a Scaphoid fracture and bad sprain back in June) She's now just in a splint that she can remove and is SO happy to have that gross, itchy cast off! It was a looooong torturous healing and one that I'm grateful is O~VER! And as for school it's a year of excitement and fear~~middle school for one daughter and the JR year (the year of the dreaded ACT's and SAT's) for the other! The only thing I like about school beginning is that it hearkens the ushering in of FALL!!! Cool weather and hopefully, God willing, SOME RAIN! This is the first time ever that I feel the anticipation of joy when the weather man mentions that a hurricane is headed our way....let me make this clear~~people are DESPERATE for some rain around here. It's dry as a bone. My rose bushes have been growing potpourri!! And I'm NOT kidding! So I hope you all had a nice back to school week! I look forward to turning my attention back to blogging a bit more again now that the house is quiet! Let me know how you're doing~~I love hearing from you all! XOXO

Meet Bob

Meet Bob. Bob was being used by a group of young boys as a football last week when my youngest daughter caught eye of the inhumane games and rescued our little friend here. After quite an exhilarating bicycle ride home, Bob remained tucked into the safety of his shell for quite awhile. We decided to leave him in our back yard to let him calm down a little but and when we returned to check on him, he had traveled all the way across our big yard! It was good to see he hadn't suffered any injuries. We kept Bob for just that one night and then decided to free him in a neighborhood pond where we'd seen many of "his kind" living together harmoniously. We drove to the pond, set him down right at the edge and waited. It took Bob about 3 seconds to jet his head out of his shell, LEAP into the pond, and swim away at the speed of a motor boat! I've never seen a turtle so happy! It was fun to see. So this weekend we had "Free Bob" day here at our home. And as much as I know my little one gets attached to these little critter she rescues and releases...I also know she's excited to see them back in nature. She's got a big heart, that one. :)

Turtle Time!!

After stuffing ourselves on Easter, my little girl & I decided to take a walk to get a little post dinner exercise.  As we walked, we came across a baby turtle on a neighbors driveway.  The little gal (we think) was all dried up and crusty and couldn't move~~we both actually thought she might be dead, but being the optimist that  my daughter is, she scooped her up and ran all the way home to get her into some water.  After a few minutes she slowly started to come to life.  My daughter's been asking for a turtle for a long time so, of course, she saw this as an opportunity for a new pet!  She aptly named her "Shelly."  I mean really, how cute is that?!  So after calling the Texas Turtle & Tortoise Conservation folks to get scoop on how to care for little Shelly, we've got her tucked away in a little Tupperware bin filled with water, rocks, turtle food, and leaves.  They explained that due to the water draught here in Texas, the mama turtles are laying their eggs in people's yards and then wandering off to find water.  The babies hatch and then take off looking for mama and water, and then when they can't find either, they die.  So little Shelly is one of the lucky ones as she was found and saved!!  Turns out Shelly is a Snapping turtle...not the best to keep as a pet, so we'll be taking her to the Nature Conservatory that has offered to give her a safe home, in a few weeks.  But for now, my little one is loving her temporary friend, checking out turtle books at the library and becoming quite the little turtle expert!  You never know what a little walk in the neighborhood will bring! 

Feeling Campy

Good Golly folks, what have I just done!!  I just clicked the "Verify" button to register my youngest at a 2 week summer camp that's she's been asking to go to with her friends!  I know it's a wonderful place and a lifetime experience, but I've never been away from either of my girls for 2 WEEKS!!  OK...I'm taking deep breaths.  She's going to have a ball but what about me!?  I'm going to be a mess for 2 long weeks!  This is true love people.  I don't do well with shipping my younguns off to camps with no phone call rules.  What's with that??  Why can't she call home?  Maybe I should plan a trip to Paris or something while she's gone to preoccupy myself.  I know I sound like a kook but seriously, 1 week, I could handle, but 2 weeks is a looooong dad blasted time.  It's a wonderful Christian camp that has horses and her friends and all kinds of cool things to do all day...truly, it's kid heaven!  Oh, I can't wait for her to get home from school to tell her...she's going to be SO EXCITED!!  :)

Driving Miss Spacey

Maturity: Coming Soon to a Mind Near You ~
If anyone else out there has a teen that's about to turn 16 or has already turned 16, then this post will resonate with you guys!  I have a daughter who turned 16 in October.  16 is the legal driving age here in Texas & as any other  mom out there will attest, it's sometimes really hard to believe that at this young age, it's time to hand over the car keys & allow your child to just take off & head for the highway!  The frontal lobe in the human brain isn't even fully formed until our 20's!  I looked "frontal lobe" maturity up on Wikipedia and here's what it says:
"The executive functions of the frontal lobes involve the ability to recognize future consequences resulting from current actions, to choose between good and bad actions (or better and best), override and suppress unacceptable social responses, and determine similarities and differences between things or events. Therefore, it is involved in higher mental functions."
So there you have it!! We are giving keys to large mechanical devices to our children who are not fully formed mentally yet!  Someone said that when you ask your teen, "What were you thinking?!"...they weren't! And it's no their fault...it's just the nature of the beast.  So it's our responsibility to protect them until they're ready to make safe decisions.  But how do you gauge just when that time has arrived when dealing with matters of life & death? 

So as I mentioned, my precious angel of a daughter, in the form of a teen, turned 16 a few months ago and really wants her license and a car.  And as much as I would love to have less running around on my plate, I'm super hesitant to turn her lose on the streets!  And I've not even touched on the dangers of texting while driving, driving at night, driving with multiple people in the car, drinking & driving, etc.  There are some pretty scary stats that I won't post here but I'll add a link for you in case you're interested:
http://www.car-accidents.com/teen-car-accidents.html
So am I alone in thinking 16 is too young to have a license?  Or at least should we rethink giving them cars on their 16th birthdays?  Maybe let them drive with us for just a bit to make sure they're as safe as possible?  I don't know.  What do you guys think?