Weekly Menu

Welcome to another week of eating.  I stuck to my menu last week.  Boom!

Here's the plan for the coming week:

Friday -- The past few weeks we've enjoyed moving our once a week treat of getting some fast food out to Friday.  So that's the plan.  the back up is just some frozen pizza if we decide to eat in!

Saturday - We are heading to Darryl's mom's for the afternoon.  I'm guessing we will eat there.

Sunday - We moved our weekly "eat at mom's" dinner to today since we were gone on Saturday.  It's also Father's Day and having my mom cook means Darryl gets the "day off".  Why do we always make Dad's grill on Father's day?? HA!

Monday - Club Sandwiches, Chips, and pickles (I'm going to make "homemade pickles for me - sliced cucumbers and onions in vinegar - yum!).  I'm still trying to find a good plan for TKD Monday's -  the plan this week is for Nate to eat around 4:00 so his food has time to settle before working out hard at TKD; I can eat by about 5:00 leaving Darryl and Josh to either eat with me or eat after we leave . . .. so dinner has to be flexible!

Tuesday - Bacon Wrapped Beef Tenderloin, baked potatoes (Maybe a sweet potato for Darryl - he likes those better!), mixed veggies and yeast rolls.

Wednesday - Breakfast Burritos (I saw this on Pioneer Woman recently) and fruit. I might make some homemade cinnamon rolls too but I have to decide if I actually feel like it :-)

Thursday - Frozen Lasagna, Salad and Garlic Bread

How we ZOOOOOM!

Did anyone even know about zoom before the lock down?  I had never heard of it that's for sure!

For a few years my oldest brother has tried to get my other brothers and I to connect in various ways - phone calls, video chats, face time, etc.  I know that I would always say, "Sure!" and then never make the time.  Well, guess what, when we are all locked in our houses with nothing to do, it's easy to all make time!

Zoom is great because you can see the people you are talking too and everyone can interact.  We can also do it from anywhere.  One week my little family took off to the lake shore so I zoomed from the car and shared the beach with my brothers and mom.

Guess what else it did?  It helped us discover that we enjoy meeting together once a week and now, always make time to do it.  I think (and hope) we are planning to continue to do these meetings even as things open up. One of the advantages to zoom for us is that we use the "free" version which means it cuts us off after 40 minutes so we know going in that it won't linger on for hours!

That was just one way we took advantage of Zoom.   Josh and Nate had Sunday School via Zoom and it was great.  Their teacher went above and beyond with games, quizzes, and fun activities all through Zoom.  It was such a neat way for the boys to connect with a few friends from church.

I've said it before, even though there were things we were sad to miss over the last few months, the slower pace and even the "stay home/stay safe" concept has been really nice.

Rhubarb Slushy (What we're eating Wednesday)

A few weeks ago I shared a recipe for a favorite summer drink, Strawberry Freckled Lemonade which is a super simple but refreshing drink for summertime.  Today, I'm going to share another fabulous summer drink recipe.  This one takes a little more prep but it is well worth it!  It's a Rhubarb Slushy and it is the best thing ever!  My mother-in-law made this for me a few years ago and, for whatever reason, I never thought to make it until just a few weeks ago even though I distinctly remembered how amazingly refreshing this drink was at the time!  It's a great thing to keep in the freezer and just pull out and enjoy on a hot summer day.  When I made this recipe, I cut it in half only because I didn't have 8 cups of rhubarb.  It was easy to cut in half and, really, for my freezer, it was the perfect size.  Also, I used sprite instead of ginger ale.  To serve I use a spoon to scrape the slush mixture off the top of the container until either my thumb is frozen or I have enough in the glass HA!  If you like the frozen mixture sit out for 5-10 minutes it will make it easier to serve. 

8 cups diced fresh or frozen rhubarb
4 cups (16 oz) frozen unsweetened strawberries
3 cups sugar
8 cups water
1 pkg. (3 oz) strawberry gelatin
1/2 cup lemon juice
Ginger Ale

In a large pot, bring the rhubarb, strawberries, sugar and water to a boil.  Reduce heat, simmer uncovered for 5-8 minutes or until rhubarb is tender.  Press through a sieve; discard the pulp.  Stir in gelatin and lemon juice until dissolved. 

Transfer to a freezer container and freeze, stirring occasionally until firm.  May be frozen up to 8 months. 

To use frozen rhubarb mixture:  In a punch bowl or several pitchers, combine equal amounts of rhubarb mixture and ginger ale.  Or for one serving, combine 1/2 cup rhubarb mixture and 1/2 cup ginger ale in a glass.  Serve immediately.

Haircuts! (Finally!)

Just like everyone else in the country, we were desperate for the hair salons to open!  Well, 2 of the 4 of us were - the boys!  Thankfully our hair stylist stayed in contact with us all the way along so we didn't have to wait to get a trim!

Here are the before photos:

 Josh's hair was very long HA! 

 Because of the style, Nate's wasn't quite as noticeable . . . .

 Until you look at the shaved side and see how long it is! 

 and the back which touched his collar! 

And the after!!

 Nate - so much cleaner!  :-) 

 Josh can see again and doesn't need a head band :-) 

No, I didn't take pictures of me - I just needed a slight trim; nothing big.  :-)

What We've Missed by Staying Home

I know, I know - don't focus on the negative but, since this is my blog and it is partly for the sake of memories I also wanted to record what we missed (that was one long sentence!)

1) We missed our last day of Co-op.  It's the day we work towards where the kids get to finish up projects, do their last class work and celebrate with a Pizza Party.  We were all disappointed for sure!

2) We missed our Presentation Night with Co-Op.  This is always such a fun night where the students work is displayed and they get to do presentations.  Nate had been working all semester in his Sign Language class on a song so he was sad they couldn't share that with the crowd.

3) We missed Nate's tonsil surgery!  Really, he wasn't sad!  It will get rescheduled eventually but I'm not rushing it at this point.

4) We missed the last week of AWANA and Awards night.  The boys finished their books and are looking forward to still receiving their awards.

5) We missed the AWANA fair.  I thought the boys would be more disappointed by this one but they really weren't.  It's fun, but they have one more year to both participate (hopefully!)

6) Nate missed TKD belt testing.  Even though he knows it will happen eventually, he was disappointed to have scheduled messed up. He has a goal to test for his black belt by a certain point and this has messed that goal up!

7) We missed a planned get away with my mom to a hotel for a few days.  This was a BIG disappointment but there are plans to do this eventually.

8) We missed a family vacation to Great Wolf Lodge.  Again, super sad but we will do this eventually.

9) We missed Flag Football.  This was our last thing cancelled.  It was supposed to start April 26th and got postponed with hopes it would start June 14th but it also finally got cancelled due to all the restrictions for sports.  This was probably the biggest disappointment for the boys since they had been planning on playing since about October of 2019.

10) We missed out on field trips with both the Co-Op and our Field Trip group.  Plus our Year End Party was cancelled with our on-line school.  The Party was the biggest disappointment - we look forward to that every year!

Now, last week I posted about What we learned by staying home and I missed something! (My brother Kel reminded me of this!).  We also learned how fun ZOOM calls are!!  My brothers, mom, and I meet every week to catch up and it's just fantastic! 

I think it's important to look at what we gave up to stay home/stay safe even though we haven't minded being home.  I'm thankful that my kids didn't miss "big" events but rather will still get to experience many of the things they missed in the future.  It was a good life lesson (I guess!) for them to understand that sometimes plans change and that's ok!

Weekly Worship --Tasha Layton // Into The Sea (It's Gonna Be Ok)

I love songs with powerful vocals and Tasha Layton doesn't disappoint as she comes into the chorus of this song!  Yes, it has great words but I love the powerful voice even more! 

Weekly Photos 2020 #22

A quick look back at our week

Saturday - we were at home and just did some things around the house before going to my mom's for dinner.  Some friends from the other side of the state came over for a cook out.  It was an enjoyable evening with lots of laughing.

Sunday - we enjoyed a very quiet day at home.  I think peaceful is a word to describe it perfectly.  I also had my weekly Zoom with my mom and brothers and the kids had their Sunday School Zoom call as well.

Monday - We worked in the garage to get things cleaned out to donate to a fundraiser yard sale.  And Nate got to return to something "normal" - Tae Kwon Do started.  We had to really discuss this option and decided that we could let him participate because it is outside and they are always "social distanced" when they practice.

 The weather was perfect on Monday and the kids enjoyed eating lunch outside.  The love this table and chairs that my mom gave us. 

 I'm not going to lie, it was HOT to be outside for TKD but Nate did great.  

 Prior to the lock down, we ordered Nate's sparing gear and he was SOOO excited.  Well, fast forward a couple of months - he finally got it but said, "But now, I can't even use it!" Sparing means contact between two people and right now, there is no contact allowed.  Eventually he will get to use it though! 

Tuesday - it was HOT!  We took our truck load of stuff to the yard sale and dropped it off.  For the rest of the day we hung out inside! 

Tuesday evening we had "TV Dinners" in the living room while watching Family Movies (the kids idea - they like to see themselves as babies) 

Wednesday - Today was a stormy day.  Thankfully, the worst of the storms missed us and we just got tons of rain.  I think we were all kind of "off" today because of the uncertainty of the weather - even the dog was acting strange!

Thursday - It was grocery shopping day (so thrilling!)  The weather was beautiful so we opened windows and, after finishing up shopping, delivering, and putting away, I sat outside and read my book in the sunshine and breeze!!!

Friday - I should have taken some "before" photos today.  Why?  Darryl and I did some work in the yard.  Of course, we mowed.  (Every other Friday, whether it needs it or not HA!) .  We also worked in a corner of our yard that has been overlooked since having kids.  That is the area that they could "dig to China" in and I call it the "scary zone" because the ground is always soft and I'm afraid of what's living in the corners :-)  Anyway, it also became a little bit of a "stash" corner for some scrap wood. So we worked on starting to clean all of that out.  The weather is comfortably cool this weekend so we decided to attempt to get some work done outside - once it heats back up, we are done!

This seemed to be a week that just dragged - I'm not sure why.  Even as I looked back at photos from this week it feels like it Monday was forever ago!!