Saturday, January 25, 2020

2020 Week #4 Photos

We had a great week!  Here's a look back (In words and a few photos!)

Saturday - Nate's birthday party started on Friday evening and  went overnight into Saturday.  It was a great night that ended up a snow storm!

 Nate had 2 friends spend the night - he had one more coming but he ended up with the flu!  
 This was Nate's request!  I made a cake similar to this years ago for him and he wanted it again.  It's actually M and M Cookie Bars that I stacked in a "two layer cake", surrounded by Kit Kat's and topped with more M and M's!  Yum! 




Sunday - We had another quiet Sunday at home thanks to a winter weather advisory.  It was nice to sleep in after the all night party HA!  Plus we enjoyed hours of football too!

Monday - This is a break week from school so I took advantage of that on Monday and Josh and I cleaned his shelves and put his Christmas gifts away.  I always love a clean room!  Our evening ended with Nate and I heading to TKD.

Tuesday - The boys had a piano lesson.  Then, Tuesday evening Nate and I headed into town as he had a sleep study!  I did take photos of him all wired up but he did not like them and does not want me to share them - so I won't!  I thought he looked pretty cute :-)  It was a long night (or a short night) but a good experience.  The room was comfortable, we had snacks, and it was quiet.  It was almost like a little vacation!

Wednesday - Needless to say, Nate and I were tired HA!  We didn't do much except read and watch TV until it was time or AWANA.

Thursday - The boys actually stayed Wednesday night at my moms as I had a doctor's appointment in the morning.  I enjoyed a little bit of a "me" day.  After my quick appointment, I went to my favorite little Mexican place for the best Tacos ever.  From there, I even treated myself to a rarity - a cupcake from the Cakeabakery!  yum!  Best cupcakes ever.

Friday - It's Friday School!!

 Josh and his friend Ty playing games in the Game Fever Class. 
 Josh working on art using homemade art supplies in Crazy Kid Concoctions. 
Nate (on the blue Yoga mat) is his Healthy Mind, Body and Spirit class.  

Friday, January 24, 2020

Weekly Menu - A Quiet Week Ahead

We had a great birthday weekend and then a little bit of a crazy week - well at least for dinner.  We seemed to be running a lot this week and that always impacts dinner time.  If I'm gone all day, I don't love the crock pot because things over cook but if I'm gone all day, I hate coming home to cook which means I have to prep the day before!  It's the never ending circle of .. DINNER!! :-)  Before kids, when I worked full time - sometimes 50+ hours a week, it's no wonder we ate out a lot!  After working all day, it was never fun to come home and make dinner!  Anyway, I'm getting distracted. HA!  This coming week is a very quiet, stay at home kind of week.  We will hit school hard as we start the 2nd semester and not make too many plans outside of what needs to be done at home.

Friday - It's Friday School time which means I'm usually tired when I get home!  I love things I can just pop in the oven and require no work on my part.  I'm going to put in a frozen lasagna for dinner along with garlic bread and green beans.

Saturday - The weekend is the perfect time for the crock pot since we tend to be home all day.  Slow Cooker Zuppa Tuscana is one of our favorites.  I'll make some "homemade" yeast rolls to go with it.

Sunday - Scalloped Potatoes and Ham in the Crock pot with Salad and green beans

Monday - This is leftover night since we eat in shifts.

Tuesday - Crock Pot Fajitas, Beans, and Chips and Salsa

Wednesday - AWANA night = Pizza (or chicken nuggets or whatever else is easy!)

Thursday - Homemade chicken nuggets, buttered noodles, and carrots

I'm hungry just writing this plan!

Monday, January 20, 2020

January Goals

We were forecast to get a super huge storm this past weekend (plus we got more this weekend too!)   We did get a storm with freezing rain, sleet and a little bit of snow but it wasn't nearly as bad as they said it would be, which I am thankful for as we did not want to lose power.  From Friday Evening until Monday morning - we stayed home.  Darryl had planned to take the weekend off due to the storm and I made sure everything was done as far as errands.  We hung out, watched football, played, and enjoyed just being at home.  It also gave me some much needed time to plan, make my lists  and get some things typed up!  One of the things I got done was my January goals.  As I had said previously, the first two weeks of January were totally 100% school focused so we could finish up our semester  With that in mind, I knew I didn't need any goals for the first two weeks or goals that would take the whole month to accomplish.  Instead I wrote all of my goals with the idea that I only have two weeks to accomplish them!

So, here's the goal plan for January

1. One of my yearly goals is to go fun places and take photos.  I don't foresee us going into Grand Rapids this month so I'm going to try and find some place local that is fun to take a photo.

2. Scrapbooking - I have a couple of goals for this month.  1) Clean up my desk so I can scrapbook again.  2) By January 31st go through all of the "January" photos on my hard drive and make sure they are sorted and uploaded to Snapfish.

3) Reading - My goal is to read 4 books in January. 1) The Printed Letter Bookshop 2) The Bright Season 3) The Boy in the Photo 4) The Power of a Positive Mom  I'm also working on finding a book to support my Goal Word - Perfect Peace.

4) Cleaning - I've created my January plan for the rest of the month!   Now to accomplish it all!

5) Family - I'd like to go see a movie as the family - there are some really great ones out.

6)  Homeschool - Wrap up the 1st semester; Create a set of flashcards and a speed test for both boys to use during seatwork time: find division problems for seatwork time for practice, set up a Monday morning meeting time to start each week off on the right foot; Make sure both boys are current in their AWANA books

7. Update my Holiday journal with information from this past Thanksgiving and Christmas; Look ahead at my plans for Valentines day and set that in motion.

8) Get Nate new shoes and Josh a new pair of dress pants

9) Pick out a piano song to practice and . .. well, practice it until I have it down.  Also, practice my song for special music.

10) A friend shared a bible study online on James - I plan to start that this month.

11) Finances - Stick to my January plan for the rest of the month.

12) Complete our 2019 Taxes

I think that's it for this month!  Here's to another great year of getting things done!

Sunday, January 19, 2020

Weekly Worship - Shane & Shane: I Will Wait For You (Psalm 130)



One of the Bible Study books I have for this year is on Psalms so I've been looking for songs based on the Psalms as well.  I might not make it very far in the Bible Study Book but music speaks to my soul - sometimes even more then a book. 

Saturday, January 18, 2020

2020 Week #3 Photos

Here's what our week looked like.

Saturday - We went no where and did nothing.  We were forecasted to get a huge ice storm.  We did get freezing rain, sleet and snow but not as heavy as they thought (which was good - we didn't want to lose power!).  We hung out at home and watch playoff football games.  It was awesome.

Sunday - Read what I wrote for Saturday - same thing HA!  Church was cancelled - we went no where!

Monday - School!  My mom surprised us and took us out to lunch which was very nice.  Finally, Nate had TKD :-)

Tuesday - School! We were wrapping up projects today like Josh's food truck and Nate's science experiment.



Wednesday - We finished up the last few projects.  I took Nate to get new tennis shoes and the boys went to AWANA.  It was actually a low key day.

Thursday - School is done!  Yeah!  Today we headed to the library for the homeschool activity.  Our friends had a half day so that was added fun!


Friday - Today is the first day of Friday School and Nate's birthday party!  I'll be honest, I don't think I'll get a chance to post photos before this automatically posts on Saturday morning.  Darryl and I are being banned to the playroom after dinner and cake so the boys can have the living room HA!  So, I'll share photos from his birthday weekend in next weeks post!

Friday, January 17, 2020

Weekly Menu - The mixed up week!

This coming week has lots of little things that are different than the norm!  I'll still work on keeping it simple and easy!

Friday - Since Nate's birthday is so close to Christmas, it was too hard to get is friends together for a party so, tonight is the night!  He has three friends coming over to spend the night and he wants Pizza Hut Pizza and Breadsticks so that is what he gets!

Saturday - Since the party is an all-night, I might be sleeping by dinner time HA!  For real though, simple is the key so leftovers are on the menu or Spaghetti.

Sunday - It's still football!  My plan is to have Chili going in the crock pot before we leave for church.  I'll cook up some spaghetti noodles after church (because Darryl loves his chili over spaghetti!) and we will enjoy that while we watch football!

Monday - It's TKD night so dinner is eaten in shifts.  I think we will just have chicken noodle soup and french bread.  It's simple and tastes good :-)

Tuesday - Nate and I have to go in for a sleep study (well, technically Nate does, I'm just along for the ride . .. well, actually I'm driving HA) Josh will be at my mom's so maybe Darryl, Nate and I will eat at McDonald's (Nate's favorite) before he and I leave.

Wednesday - AWANA - Pizza night!

Thursday - I might actually cook!  Zuppa Tuscana Soup - I can put it in the crock pot and let it go!  I'll make some garlic bread and maybe even add a nice salad to round it all out.


Wednesday, January 15, 2020

20 in 2020 Goals

This year our little goal group is doing 20 in 2020.  The plan is to write out 20 goals to accomplish in 2020.  This are always bigger items, not the little monthly goals I try to accomplish.  Often these are goals that can be broken down into smaller chunks - sometimes not.


1. Take the boys to fun places in Grand Rapids and get photos.  (Fish ladder, the huge tire swing, the lion mural, the blue bridge, and more.  I want to take advantage of our city while the boys are "this" age.

2. Scrapbooking goals.  I'm learning to be more intentional  with scrapbooking at home.  It's been difficult to find scrapbook crops that I can actually attend so I have to make time to do what I love at home.  I'd really like to finish 2014 (almost there).  Then look at the other years and see where I'm at and work on the next year (I think it's 2016) while also working on 2020.  It is hard to work on multiple years but I'd like to be current with this year while working on catching up the other years.

3. Reading.  I want to focus more on reading.  I had some issues with my contacts last year and found it very hard to read so, well, I didn't.  That problem is now corrected so it's time to read again.  My goal is to set a reading goal each month and try to accomplish that goal.

4. Cleaning I am working on creating a 20 day a month cleaning challenge for myself.  It is based on the concept I did over a year ago where the group I'm part of set a goal to get rid of the number if items to match the date.  It worked well for me - I don't tend to have hours to dedicate to a project but I can carve out 20 minutes or so around our school day.

5.  Family.  Go see movies we want to see; do things we want to do; and enjoy time together.  The boys are looking forward to playing flag football this year so I want to help that happen.  Josh loves to run so I want to help him success at that by getting the right shoes and seeking out guidance from friends who are runners.

6. The last "McMaster" niece graduates this year so I need to complete her graduation album by May.

7. Complete some simple projects around the house including replacing the difficult lightbulb above m sink, getting the seal for a piece on the sink (that I dropped down the drain a year or so ago HA!), and maybe even a new thermostat just to name a few items.

8. Homeschool - I have some new ideas for our second semester including a "Monday Morning Meeting" were we can go over our week and also the goal of both boys working on their multiplication memorization.  I also, as always, will need to decide what to do about the fall when it comes to the program we will use for homeschooling.

9. Learn how to make Macaroons.  It doesn't seem like much but I love them and would just like to try my hand at making them.

10.  Plan our "Holidays" - This includes Birthdays and traditional holidays.  I need to update my my holiday journal and then start on plans for Valentine's Day :-)

11. The Misc List  - I tend to have a list of things that are just needed or need done - such as - Josh needs new dress pants, Nate needs a light jacket, I have two gifts we got Nate I need to return/replace, the boys need sleds, I need to hang up Nate's racetrack we moved to the basement, Darryl needs to help Nate make shelves for his TKD boards that he has broken, clean out the misc card in the bathroom.  As you can see that list is long and I'm sure there more!

12. Buy a "new" car.  It might seem odd to add to the goals but, we kind of now this has to happen so, I guess, making it a goal is a good thing.

13. Go camping at least once in the summer.

14. The basement - this is separate then the other cleaning goal.  Last year I worked hard to make the basement need and basically organized.  This year, it's time to go shelf by shelf, bin by bin, and really clean stuff out.

15. The garage - the boys want to have a garage sale, I do not HA!  So, no matter what the garage will get cleaned up and organized as stuff will either get sold that has been sitting out there for close to a year OR it will go to charity.

16. Music - The boys are continuing piano lessons.  I would like to focus on "perfecting" one song a month on the piano and also having my next song for special music ready before it's time to sing :-)

17. Take a photography class.  There is a local photographer that does classes several times a year.  I have a goal to sign up and take one this year.  I took one from my friend several years ago and enjoyed it but have forgotten most of it - I'd like to learn to use my camera better.

18. Plan some dates with Darryl.  With my mom close by, it is easier to make this happen now.

19. Spiritual - I'm a strong starter and a slow finisher when it comes to Bible Study Books.  I have one picked out to start - I'm part of an accountability group so hopefully that will help :-)

20. Finances - I have some savings goals for this year as well as continuing to look for way to make a little extra income that fits well with our family life.


I feel like I'm a little more  "broad" this year in my goals.  As the year progresses I will narrow them down to more specific things, I'm sure.  I'm also a little scattered on goals still this year.  These first two weeks of the year are 100% school focused as we push to finish up lessons.  Plus, just "recovering" from the holidays seems to take up my time.  I won't really start even January goals (which are not written) until the 20th!