Testing out the Camper

For years we've wanted to purchase some sort of camper and who would have thought that the time one "fell in our laps" would be when Darryl was off work recovering from surgery.  We had a very very low budget but wanted something that was nice that we could use for years.  Well, that's hard to come by, let me tell you.  We had already resigned ourselves to not getting one until next year when maybe we could increase our budget slightly when a friend of ours heard we were looking.  Turns out her family purchased a pop-up quite a few years ago because she loves camping.  Now, though, her kids are grown and don't want to go and her husband is not a camper.  It hadn't been used in two years and she offered to sell it to us for the amount we had said we had to spend and she included everything in it.  That alone was incredible as it included things like an outdoor rug for under the camper canopy, a mini-fridge, cooking stuff, and more.  So it was really a "God thing" - he worked out the details, the financing and even how to get it to us (my parents!)

A few weeks ago I needed to set it up (to make sure I remembered everything my dad taught me two weeks before!) so that I could go through everything, reorganize it and also go through out camping stuff and make a list of what we need for camping.  Because we were setting it up, the boys wanted to "camp out". 

 Our camping "home".  It's fabulous (and over 20 years old!) and in near perfect condition.  The boys all have jobs that they do including the fact that Josh turns the crank to set the whole thing up!  We plan, Lord willing, to have this camper for a good 10 years.  By then the boys will be almost full grown and us old people will need to get a small camper that we don't have to set up HA!

 The boys had a blast (yes, they had been swimming before setting up the camper). 

 A view from the inside.

 Darryl with his brace :-)

 The boys moved in HA!  Sleeping bags, pillows, stuffed animals and flashlights.

Darryl tried out the bed with pillows, extra quilts and even more pillows . . .but we discovered he needs some cushions to sleep on so we'll be hauling the couch cushions with us when we camp HA! 

Food Friday - Fish Tacos

Fish Tacos
adapted from . .. .several recipes to create my own! (that doesn't happen often)

As you may or may not know, we love tacos in this house.  Yes, we love the good "old-fashioned" version but I've been venturing out and trying some different versions.  One of the best things about this meal is we ALL love them - Nate likes his with just cheese, ketchup and broken chips but at least we are all eating our own version of Tacos!  Several times when we've gone out to dinner I've gotten fish tacos and have loved them so I decided to try my own recipe.  I searched and searched and finally came up with a version I thought we would like and made it!  The meat guy at the grocery store helped me pick out the best fish for my tacos and even helped me get the right amount so I wouldn't have much - if any- left over.  

Ingredients/Directions for Fish
1 cup all purpose flour
2 tablespoons cornstartch
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg
1 cup chicken stock (or milk)
1 pound cod filets, cut into 2-3 ounce portions
oil for frying

To make the batter:  In a large bowl, combine flour, cornstarch, baking powder and salt.  Blend egg and chicken stock, then quickly stir into the flour mixture (don't worry about a few lumps.)

Heat oil in deep-fryer or deep frying pan to 375 degrees.  Dust fish pieces lightly with flour.  Dip into the batter and fry until crisp and golden brown.  Drain on paper towels

Ingredients/Directions for Topping
1/2 head of cabbage, sliced thin (I just bought a bag of cole slow mix)
1/2 cup Milk
1/2 cup Mayonnaise
1 teaspoon White vinegar
1 tablespoon sugar
1/4 teaspoons salt
1/4 teaspoons pepper

Taco Shells
Pico De Gallo
Lime Wedges

Mix the milk, mayo, white vinegar, sugar, salt and pepper together and pour over the cabbage.  Mix well - it should be wetter than normal "cole slaw".

To make tacos - lay a couple of pieces of fish on the taco shell, top with the Cole Slaw mix, a little Pico De Gallo and squeeze some lime juice on top.

 

Weekly Menu - The one that includes camping

This coming weekend we are going camping..  Have you ever noticed that when you are outside you eat more?  There is just something about being outside and sitting around a fire that just makes you want to eat HA!  Well, here's our eating plan for the next week :-)

I know I said last week that I would share our camping food in a separate post but I'm going to include it all here since it is pretty standard :-)

Friday - I debated on what to cook this first night but finally decided that we would have Hot Dogs and Brats roasted over the fire.  Yes, I pre-cook the brats at home so that we are just "roasting" them to get that great flavor.  I also made Potato Salad and Macaroni Salad to use for several meals and, of course, chips (and ketchup).  We'll have stuff for s'mores to have for a snack.

Saturday - Breakfast - I love this while camping - Bacon (makes the whole campground smell good!), eggs, toast, pop-tarts and cereal (the boys favorite things!).  Lunch will be a trip to our all time favorite pizza place - Bernie O's.  Then later for dinner we will do steak kabobs over the fire - I marinate a sirloin steak and we just put the pieces on hot dog sticks and roast them until they are done - fried zucchini and the salads mentioned above.  Again, we'll have s'more stuff but also at some point today we'll take a trip to the Ice Cream Stand and get a treat.

Sunday - Breakfast is always more simple the second day.  Cereal, Pop-Tarts, Donuts, and Bagels (for me!).  We'll be packing up after that and will stop at McDonald's on the way out - we can eat cheap!  Then for dinner, it will be left overs from camping and/or Mac and Cheese.

Monday - I'm not sure why I planned our school schedule this way but today is our first day of school.  So we will go out to dinner to celebrate.  I'm thinking even the Chinese place - it's cheap and the boys love it.

Tuesday - Philly Cheesesteaks, leftover salads from camping and chips.

Wednesday - Sausage Gravy and Biscuits, Eggs, and Fruit

Thursday - Chicken Fried Steak, Mashed Potatoes, Gravy, Corn and Rolls.

The amazing thing to me is that coming up next is Labor Day Weekend.  When did that happen and where did this fabulous summer go?

Photo Fun

We've had lots of fun around here the last few weeks so I thought I'd share some photos of whats been going on!

The boys love to help with my flower garden.  They know to pick the "dead" flowers and are very serious with their given task.

 So, Josh was taking a bath one night and I walked in, walked back out and got the camera, came back and got some fun photos.  This one makes me laugh out loud every single time.

Nate just being silly.  I like this photo because he still looks like a "toddler" . . .even though he is totally 100% little boy!

So, I attempted to take some photos of the boys recently and the photos above show you that I was not successful HA!  Squinty eyes and funny smiles is all I could get!

 We have a sunflower.  It's huge.  Yes, that's Nate standing next to it.  Ironically we didn't plant this group this year but last year the boys played with a big sunflower head that came off one our plants and it ended up sitting in that spot for a bit.  Obviously it dropped some seeds!

 One of the many roads that the boys built.  In the rain.

 The boys love playing instruments and creating a band. 

They also love playing games on the Ipads before bed :-) 

We had excitement at our house recently - they worked on our road.  Needless to say, we sat on the front porch and watched for quite awhile. 

Dinner time!  I've been informed that we can have tacos every single night for dinner because they love them.

Cakes and Cup Cakes

A few weeks ago, Josh saw a cookbook in the checkout lane at the grocery store and wanted to buy it. It was all about cakes, cupcakes and other fun cake things (Like cake pops).

He read it from cover to cover, then "read" it to Nate.  They proceeded to read it every night after they were supposed to be in bed (hahaha) and Josh carried it everywhere.  He even took it to Pizza Hut when we went and showed the waitress!  Then . . .he left it outside on accident and it rained.  Hard.  I had to go buy a new one it rained so hard.  (yes, it was ruined HA!)  The boys each picked out a cake they wanted to make and this is what we made:

 Nate picked a race car cake.  My fingers were black from the food coloring to make the racetrack and we ran out of regular M and M's so we had to use some peanut M and M's but all in all it turned out well. 

Josh picked out these rainbow frosted cupcakes.  Yes, that is a full rainbow of frosting - each layer a different color.  It was quite the task to get that frosting on there especially since what I used wasn't nearly as thick as the book showed!  The funny thing?  Josh never ate one of these because he said he doesn't really like frosting.  He ate the M and M off the top of one and took a bite out of one cupcake but that was it! 

We had fun though.  It was a family activity and I will admit that the reason it got done is because Darryl offered great ideas along the way otherwise I would have given up !  I will also admit that I am glad the boys forgot about the cook book for now . . .making those two desserts made me realize that I don't really want to decorate cakes :-)

Homeschool Happenings - Why I Quit the Co-Op

We are gearing up for the start of Kindergarten in just a matter of days (ok, like 14ish).  The boys are counting down the "sleeps", they keep asking me to start NOW when they see me doing prep work, they get excited as the last few things come in the mail and they got to go school supply shopping on Saturday.

Part of my planning process this summer was to do a lot of praying about participating in the homeschool co-op group that we've been part of the past few years including me being on the board.  Ultimatly, I made the decision to resign and pull the boys out.  While there are benefits to being part of a homeschool group but I've found that when you homeschool you often get pressure to make sure your kids are "socialized" or "well-rounded".  Guess what?  I've decided to let go of that pressure so here's a short list of why I quite the co-op:

1.  We are not morning people.  Going to co-op requires us to be up, dressed, fed, and have smiles on our faces as we head out the door by 8:00 on a Friday morning.  It's not easy, trust me.  I'm not awake, the boys are draggin', and we struggle to get in the door still smiling!

2.  The variety of classes is very small.  As I looked at the class offerings for the "Kinders", where both boys would be this year, I noticed that they would be teaching the same curriculum that I am using with them.  Now, I know that repetition is always good but considering the fact they would be doing the same worksheets, singing the same songs, and doing the same activities, I decided that to have to actually do #1 above for repetition, well, it just wasn't worth it.

3. I am not a gun-totin', homesteadin', live off the land, die-hard republican.  Ok, ok, yes, I'm doing exactly what I don't like, I'm stereotyping HA!  But in reality I had started to notice a political under current within the homeschool group and spoke up several times as a board member to say that we shouldn't do something because it made us "political".  I am not the stereotypical homeschooler - instead I'm a teacher - one with two degrees in education - that just wants to teach my kids.  And yes, I feed my kids processed food and drink Soda.  :-)

4. Most of the "big" homeschool bloggers I follow and enjoy do not attend a co-op.  That was my realization that it is not a requirement.  Your kids will survive :-)

5. As a board member, I ran into a few very important issues to me that were not be listened too.  One involved screening adults for the safety of our kids.  I finally realized that I really didn't have a voice on the board and didn't like that nor did I feel comfortable with a few decisions that were made concerning those screening areas.  That is what finally made me step away.

6.  My kids will be well-rounded and socialized.  First, they attend church on Sunday.  They shake hands (and sometimes hide haha), go to junior church, run around the gym with the other kids of all ages during fellowship time and then attend Sunday School with a fabulous teacher.  This fall they will be attending AWANA - Cubbies and Sparks - which means they will be playing games, learning verses, and hearing Bible truths while hanging with friends from church and other kids that come from the neighborhood.  In just a few weeks the boys will play soccer again with kids they do not know.  They already have learned about how to deal with a bully have the spring season.  Add to those activities that they have kids that come to the house every day, have met a few neighborhood kids (even if they are strange . . .it is the nature of our town), and will be doing other activities this fall/winter like swimming lessons, bowling lessons (hopefully) and other fun stuff I can find.


So, as you can see, there are plenty of good reasons for us to Quite the Co-op.  I'm not against the Co-Op at all and we may go back in a few years when the boys are older and there are some different options for them as far as classes or we may do other things like homeschool activities at local Museums or the Zoo.  We'll just wait and see!

Things My Kids Say . .. Kinda

Apparently my kids have been quiet this week because I don't have any fun and crazy things to say. 

The boys and Darryl have been playing games and building houses out of Lincoln Logs - anything they can do sitting at the table.  Those boys love having their dad home right now! They've also been busy building roads using the scrap wood in the garage - even building a racetrack at one point.  Speaking of race tracks my boys have decided they love NASCAR.  Seriously.  I  never thought I would hear, "Lets watch the races today" in our house but, well, we hear that often.  They also love Monster Trucks, Dirt Bikes and Motorcycles.  Yes, they are boys. 

They are also counting down days until we go camping AND until we start school so their is lots of excitement in our house right now! Not to mention counting down days until their birthdays and Christmas.  And it was "decided" today that they both want to be Pirates again . . the same ones they were last year.  Now, I know, that this tends to change a few times before Halloween but for now, it appears we already have their costumes on hand - I just need to make sure they still fit :-)

So, my kids may be "quiet" but they sure do have a lot to say!