Sunflowers

This past spring the boys planted sunflower seeds and it's been fun to watch them grow especially the ones they did NOT plant this year!  Yes, we had some HUGE sunflowers that grew from seeds that fell out of the plants that grew last year.  A few weeks ago I decided to snap some photos of the flowers at their prime and I'm so glad I did because just two day later the biggest of the biggest flowers all fell over. 

Between my black-eyed Susans and the Sunflowers - my back yard is just fabulous!

Weekly Menu - a day late

I missed a week.  I tend to do that every once in awhile so when I planned the menu last week I had appointments in the wrong week and forgot about other things so we did not follow the planned menu well at all!  I'm back on track this week so I think we'll be a little better off!


Saturday - We are going to my in-laws for the day and she has instructed us to not bring anything :-)  I'm sure it will be a great day and I always like it when I don't have to cook!

Sunday - This is our first real football Sunday so I've planned some football food.  I wanted things that we could eat after church and then snack on throughout the day.  I'm going to cook a big pot of Chili (which is nice for leftovers and then to freeze for another meal in a few weeks).  The snacks on my mind as of this writing are:  Strawberries/Pineapple with our favorite fruit dip, Holiday Bacon Appetizers (this are great because I can freeze the left overs and take them out in a few weeks to enjoy during a game), Cheesy Bacon Bites (a family favorite that I will cook up later in the day), Warm and Creamy Bacon Dip (this is still on my "maybe" list), Little Smokies (yum, yum YUM!), and maybe I'll make two cheeseballs (but cut the recipes in half for each of them) Now, don't freak out by the list.  Ultimately, I'll probably only end up putting 1-3 of these items on the list but I haven't narrowed it down yet.

Monday - Today is my husband's x-ray AND MRI (not last week!) so we will go into town as a family, maybe do some free fun (Like the big bacon and egg play land at the mall) and get some dinner before his appointment.

Tuesday - Tonight is Pan Fried Pork Chops, Salad, Savory Rice, and Rolls

Wednesday - Philly Cheesesteaks, Broccoli Salad, Coleslaw and Jell-O Salad.

Thursday - My plan is to make a big pot of Sloppy Joes.  The boy's soccer game is later this session so I think we'll try to eat before hand.  The sloppy joes freeze great too so we can use them in the future.  We'll also have left over salads from Wednesday.

Friday - Tacos!  I'm hungry for Fish Tacos again so that is the direction we'll go.  Plus, we should have some left over coleslaw from Wednesday to use as the topping !

September 11th

A simple photo such as things can bring back so many gut wrenching memories from that day.  I remember where I was when I heard, who told me, and the shock as I finally got out of work and started hearing and seeing the stories.

Today is a day to remember all that was lost on that one day.  To keep it in the forefront and never forget.

What I'm reading (or Not)

So, here's the deal.  I started out the year with a great list of books to read.  I even started out reading them!  Something happened and it is called "Darryl's Surgery".  Seriously!  You would think that spending 5 days in a hospital I would have spent hours and hours reading but I haven't cracked open a book since June 25th.  That is just crazy coming from me because I LOVE to read!  I was trying to figure it out and there are a couple of key things.  1) Darryl is home.  I do most of my reading while eating lunch (by the time I get the kids settled down and eating and my lunch on the table . . .they kids are done so I get to read for a bit!).  I don't read when Darryl is eating with us because we all talk and eat together.  2)  I always read for 30-45 minutes in the afternoon for my "down time".  Now, we have school during that time so I really don't get that chance to read like I did before.  3) I stay up later because Darryl is staying up since he isn't working.  Before, he went to bed at 8:30 so by about 10:00, I would be ready to lay down and I would read for an hour.  Now I just stay up until 11:00 watching TV or playing a computer game.

Now that September is here, I'm ready to get back into some books. 

Well, my brother wrote a book!!!  So, of course, this is on the very TOP of my reading list!  I'm really excited to read it and then promote it for all of my readers. 

I have two other "must reads" on my list this month and you've seen them before:

I'm adding these to my "September Goals" list - to read the above three books by the end of September.  I also want to read for fun.  I've been saving a lot of books to my wish list for my Kindle and need to find a really good one to download and read! 

Camping - Fun Fun Fun!

I've shared all of the planning and activities and food from our camping trip so now it's time to share the fun we had over the weekend.  We learned a lot, made short lists of things we want to do differently, and remember things we used to enjoy doing while camping.  But, most importantly, we had fun.

 All of us worked together to get the fire started - the boys and I went searching for some sticks and dried bark around the campsite (Ok, the boys rode bikes HA).  Darryl had me set up the wood and he got the fire going.

 Nate did finally start to help me some to search for some small sticks.

 Josh was SOOO tired (haha) that he needed to rest for a bit while the fire started to burn.

 Our "new to us" camper.  Two of the canopy poles would not open up so our canopy was very tilty.  It worked though and that's all that mattered (And we can easily replace the poles before next summer!)

 Nate set up a camp light and enjoyed playing in the sand in the dark.

 Darryl and Josh.  We took Josh camping when he was about 9 months old - Darryl sat and held him by the fire just like this photo.  (Except he was MUCH smaller!)

Our lights!  Over the coming years we plan on making our camper notably ours but for now, these little lights worked.  I have some other lights picked out and want to get a flag to put outside and we want to "name" our camper too!

 Saturday the boys LOVED riding their bikes around.  We happened to be near a turn around on the road which gave the boys lots of space to ride while still being in our site.  They loved the freedom of just being able to ride their bikes all over.

One of the things that Darryl and I always loved was taking a short walk out to the pier and walk along the water.  We introduced that tradition to the boys.  They loved the short walk but were not quite as enthralled with the pier and channel as we always are but at least there were some HUGE sailboats that came by to entertain them!

 (My all time favorite photo - I didn't even know I got this photo until I downloaded photos after we got home.  That boy can jump!)

 Once we ate lunch and went to the store, we came back to the campsite and got ready to go to the beach.  The boys and I headed down to the water while Darryl stayed up in the pavilian at the park.  I went in the water with the boys and we had so much fun.  At one point, I turned around and there was a HUGE wave coming.  I grabbed Nate's hand and told Josh to run to the shore.  Had I not been holding Nate, it would have gone over his head and knocked the poor kid down!  The waves went all the way up on shore and got our stuff wet!  The waves kept coming for a few minutes and we had a blast!  The boys even made a couple of trips running in the sand up to tell Darryl things - I'm not sure how they had the energy to do that!

More bike riding fun after the beach!

 Who is this kid?  Every once in awhile we get a glimpse of what the boys will look like at 16 and this is one of those times.

 Yep, more bikes!  This time we let them ride their bikes out to the pier.

 I wanted to get a great shot of the boys . . .. well, this is the best they would give me.

While Darryl and I started packing up, the boys had fun in the sand.  I turned around and saw Josh on the bike, throwing sand back at Nate who was holding the umbrella.  It was so cute!

That was our adventure.  It was a ton of fun and we are still holding out to get to go one more time this season! 

Homeschool Happenings Week 2

After taking Monday off, we got back to the books on Tuesday.  The boys were a little silly again but are slowing getting into a routine.  They love singing our Phonics ABC song and Nate asked several times to sing it throughout the day.

 This week, I introduced their Handwriting books.  Josh really has great control with the pencil so this is great review for him.  Nate is struggling with holding his pencil correctly so we are working on that skill alot.  Because of that, his letters are a little shaky but I'm already seeing improvement. 

 The view of the table while we have class.  The plan of doing our "Fred" Math first saving worksheets till the end of class has been great.  This allows the boys to work at their own speed without having to wait for each other. 

 Notice the tongue?  When he is concentrating the tongue always comes out.

One of the benefits of homeschool?  Going to school without your shirt on!  The boys love to be "shirtless".

Nate is my "bouncy" kid.  When we work at the table he literally bounces on his feet and it is a struggle for him to concentrate especially when it comes to handwriting.  He asked to move to the desk and he became a different kid.  He could sit still and finished his worksheet in 2 minutes instead of 20.  So, I have a feeling he may end up at the desk often.

In my planning I unrealistically planned that we would do some sort of craft/cooking/fun activity on Fridays - kinda like some science or social studies related idea.  Well.  by the time we get to Friday, we are ready to be done.  I need time to get things done; the boys just want to play; it's nice to just relax.  So this week, we didn't do anything on Friday - the boys enjoyed the pool for about 2 hours and, considering it may be the last time the weather is that warm, I'm glad they got to do that on Friday.  Most likely as the days get colder and winter keeps us in the house more, we'll add some fun activities on Friday afternoons but for now, the best thing for little boys is to play and play hard!

Things my Kids Say

* We were getting ready for soccer last week and Nate wanted to get his own stuff on.  He was putting on his ankle guard and said, "Look mom, this strap goes over my hood."  Then he pointed at his . . .heel . . and said, "This is called your hood mom."  I tried really hard not to laugh!!

* Darryl gave the boys lunch on Saturday.  Nate said he didn't want anymore mac and cheese because he was "Hull".  So later Darryl has him if he was still "Fungry." hahaha  I love Nate's words!!