Recap of May Goals

May was a good month HA!  We stayed home and tried to accomplish a few things! 

I do have some goals for May!

1) Scrapbooking.  I'm going to continue on with my goals in April.  1) I'd like to continue to order photos - I'm currently working through 2016 and 2019.  I'd like to get 2-3 more months order for each year 2) I'd like to continue to make time to scrapbook a few weekends this month.  3) Wrap up the projects I got stuff for last month - a couple of albums that need to be filled and to continue on with 2010 going into an album.  I ordered photos for 2016 an 2019 - both through July; I also realized that I had never done 2011 so I ordered January for both 2011 and 2020.  I took time to scrapbook and I wrapped up those few projects!  

2) Reading - My goal this month, as the weather allows, is to spend at least 30 minutes outside a day reading.  Soaking up the sunshine is good for the soul and being outside really works wonders on keeping me sane HA! I've gotten into a couple great series of books (I had book 1 in each series) and have order the rest of the books so I'm looking forward to reading.   I have enjoyed reading outside!  I finished a couple of books :-)  

3) Cleaning - To continue to follow the flylady plan. As I write this, I'm supposed to working in the kitchen but school has really taken up a lot of time so I am "behind".  The goal will be to spend time in all areas of the home throughout the month. Flylady has served me well most of the month.  

4) Family Time - We enjoy being together.  We have enjoyed going for drives on the weekend the past few weekends so it's mostly just spending time together.  We have found our new "fun" thing is we usually treat ourselves to one meal "out" each week - we all pick what fast food we want, drive through those places and then find a place to park and eat in the car.  It's all about building memories! 

5) Another main goal this month is my niece's graduation book - I want to get the basic layout done by mid-month so I know I have photos for each page and also get as much scrapbooked as I can based on the letters I've received. If my family would get me their letters I could get this done HA!  

6) Darryl's list - I can tell you that he has a honey do list a mile long and it just keeps getting longer plus he has added teaching Math to both boys and sometimes Social Studies - especially working on their projects with them.  This has helped me out a lot as I work with the other two kids. Darryl has marked a lot of his list including school!  He fixed our screen door for the slider plus he is working on getting my mom's camper ready to sell to name just a few things. 

7) Homeschool - My goal is to be done with all lessons by May 31st.  We might still have a couple products to finish up the first week of June but if we can have everything else done I will be happy! We finished a whole week early!! 

8) My MISC list - 1) Clean out my truck  (My MISC list is pretty small right now!) 2) The Garage!  This is also on Darryl's list.  We want to get the garage as organized as possible including getting rid of lots of things by donating them to a group that does a garage sale to benefit the teen center in town.  Ultimately, we are hoping to get our garage door fixed sometime in the next few months too.1) The vehicles got cleaned out 2) The garage got organized (as much as it can at this point)

9) The basement - 1) Pick up two new shelving units for the basement. 2) Once those are purchased I will start to organize what I have in bins downstairs so that I can clean stuff out easier.  3) Move the things out of the basement for the garage sale "people".  (That will open up some space too!) This is one area that didn't get any love this month.  

10) Music - My main goal right now is to just keep the boys moving on piano Done - they are still plugging along! 

11) Co-Op - I'm also working on my lessons for homeschool co-op.  I'm hoping to get 1-2 complete lessons done for each class.  This means having my "teacher copy" put together and everything else ready to make copies once I know how many students (I'm going on faith we will have classes this fall) Didn't do any of this - need to start this in June

12) Photography (this is new on the list this month!)  One of my goals this year was to take a photography class but, right now, I'm not sure I'll be doing that.  I just bought a new lens I've wanted for a long time with some birthday money so I want to research how to use that lens better and I also know that there are some great classes being offered on line too.  It made it on my to do list almost every day but did not get done

13) Spiritual Goals - (this is new on the list this month) This was also on my list for the year.  1) I need to get my Bible Study book out where I can see it every day!  2) I would like to start it :-) Done :-) 

14) Dates with Darryl :-)  I'm not sure how to write this goal - but while he is off work, we enjoy sitting on my swing in the afternoons, drinking a coffee together.  So, we want to do that while we still can (while he is off work).  We have enjoyed sitting out on the swing on cooler evenings :-) 

15) The Yard (this is new this month)  It's the time of year to think about the yard.  1) I have a planter box on my deck that needs flowers.  2) I want to plant sunflower seeds this year FOR REAL! 3) Clean out the weeds in the sand box and maybe even fill it with sand again.  Nate says he's too old but I think if there was sand in, the kids would all play in it.  That's about it :-)  As much as I love beautiful flowers and such - I hate yard work so I keep it super simple!  (I think I need to get the kids to help me plant the sunflowers - which they will, I'm sure HA!) 1) The planter box is planted!  2) The sunflower seeds will go in the ground this weekend 3) I did not get sand.  BUT we did put up a little fence to keep the dog from getting so close to the neighbors dog through their fence. 

My "word" for the year is Perfect Peace and, has weird as it sounds, I feel like our family has found some peace during these times.  I think it is because we stopped.  For the first 4-5 weeks we did nothing - we didn't eat out, go anywhere, do anything.  We just stopped, stayed home, and enjoyed being together.  We have now gotten take out as a "treat" a few times and gone for some drives - all of which we all enjoy very much.  Even though the cause of this "stoppage" isn't a good thing - it has brought about some rest that I think we needed.  Yes, we miss things and people but sometimes, we also need to rest.  

So, there ya have it folks.  Since Darryl went off work, my schedule kind of got tossed about (Yes, Kel, my schedule, I'm just like you HA) but I'm working on getting back on track to get more things done during the day so I can enjoy scrapbooking all weekend and doing things as a family.  

2020 Weekly Photos #20

I missed last week - oops!  I'll share photos form both weeks!

May 16th ---

 My tree bloomed!  I thought we might lose the blooms because of a late frost but they survived and looked beautiful! 

Nate loves to swing! 

May 17 -- 

 Look how close they are!  Just before this photo they were actually sitting on the back of the chair -- right. next. to. each. other. !!

May 25- My Mom's birthday! 

 We got her a pack of her favorite TP :-) LOL 

May 27th -- 

Josh in his year end Live Lesson

Nate in his year end Live Lesson

Last week we pushed hard to finish school.  This week, we got to slow it down a little and just enjoy the year end Live Lessons.  Next week is the last official week of school! 

Weekly Menu

Hello!  It's another week of meals HA!  Darryl made some amazing BBQ chicken on the grill for Memorial day/my mom's birthday . .. .we need to do that more often HA!

Here's the plan for the coming week!

Friday - Pork Roast, Sweet Potatoes, Veggies and Crescent Rolls (This was supposed to be yesterday but I forgot to take the Roast out of the freezer so we had pizza on Thursday!)

Saturday -  Dinner at my mom's :-)

Sunday - Sweet and Sour Meatballs over Rice and Garlic Bread (I will probably leave some meatball's "plain" to go with spaghetti because I "might" be the only one that is a true fan of Sweet and Sour HA!)

Monday - Marinated Pork Chops (Hopefully on the grill!), baked beans, veggies, and yeast rolls

Tuesday - Taco Tuesday!

Wednesday - French Toast Sticks and Sausage

Thursday - BBQ Chicken on the grill, Mac and Cheese and corn.

Keeping it simple :-)

Weekly Menu - The Unofficial Start of Summer!!

Wow!  It's Memorial Day Weekend!!  It's crazy!  We don't have any big plans other then getting together with my mom  . .. well, that's because it is also her birthday!  We are still eating at home 99% of the time.  Actually, every weekend I say we aren't going to go out - but we usually end up getting something out one evening - a lot of times we take off for a drive and stop somewhere to eat in the car.  The kids enjoy it and so do we! Oh, and we didn't grill out nearly as much as planned - it RAINED for half the week!

Here's our plan for the week:

Friday - Pizza and salad

Saturday - Going to my mom's!

Sunday - Brats, Fruit Salad, and Fries

Monday - Memorial Day and My Mom's Birthday!  The plan is BBQ Chicken on the grill, baked beans, Fruit Salad, Lettuce Salad, and Rolls

Tuesday - Sloppy Joes and Daddy Fries!

Wednesday - French Toast Sticks, Hashbrowns, and Sausage

Thursday - Pork Loin, Baked Sweet Potatoes, and Mac and Cheese

So, that's the plan!!!  :-) 

2020 Weekly Photos #19

We had a pretty quiet week!

Saturday - We stayed home!  It was a cooler day and we just hung out at home.  Eventually we headed out for a drive and ended up at Dairy Queen where we just all ordered what we felt like HA!  Then we enjoyed our dinner looking over the little lake in town.

Sunday - Mother's Day!  My mom came over for Burgers on the grill.  I forgot to take a single photo!  It was a great  day!

Monday - Josh had to finish up a science project for school.  He had to create a water filtration system.  He used a Frappe cup (from McDonald's), rocks, dirt, gravel and a coffee filter.  It filtered out everything . . .he even was brave enough to take a drink HA!

It was actually warm enough on Monday that Josh filled up a hole in the yard with water and played in it!!  Yes, PJ's are normal attire right now. 

Tuesday - Friday - School and more school.  We are just a few weeks from the end of the school year and pushing hard to get done as soon as we can!  They boys also had their weekly Zoom Sunday School class on Wednesday night! 

Weekly Menu

Welcome to another week!  I've labeled this week as "grill week".  I've decided to take advantage of Darryl being home and hopefully he will grill dinner for a few nights.  When he is working, it's hard to grill when he doesn't walk in the door until after 5:00 and he's tired! 

Here's the plan for the coming week:

Friday - Steak, baked potatoes and garlic bread

Saturday - Hamburgers, fries/tater tots

Sunday - My mom is cooking!

Monday - Pork Chops, baked beans, and veggies

Tuesdays - Taco Tuesday!

Wednesday - Biscuits and Gravy and hashbrowns

Thursday - BBQ Chicken, Noodles and Veggies

Keeping meals simple still.  The grocery store is actually fairly well stocked now but some of the recipe specific items are still hard to find if they aren't "normal". 

2020 Weekly Photos #18

A look back at our week

Saturday - We went for a drive and took Darryl's Dad lunch.  We were thankful for nice weather so we could sit out in his pole barn and not go into his home. 

Sunday - We watched church at home and my mom actually came over for dinner.  Darryl has been off work long enough that we felt like we could do this now. 

Monday - School.  It was a long school day. 

Tuesday - School.  It was also Taco Tuesday and Cinco De Mayo!

 We enjoyed Tacos for dinner! 

Wednesday - We had school (do you notice a pattern) and the boys had their zoom Sunday School class.  Darryl and I enjoy it too - their teacher is really good! 

 Why this random photo?  Because my most used camera lens quick working about 4 weeks ago.  I still had my zoom lens, which meant I had to back WAY up to take photos and then my new 50 mm lens which is meant for close ups.   After looking at the cost of repairing the lens and seeing the price drop on Amazon, Darryl told me to order it since it would be less to buy a new one then to get it fixed!  I was very happy to get the new one :-)  

Thursday - More School.  Darryl has started helping with school which I'm thankful for so that I can help our friends with their work too.  He does math and helps with all the Social Studies Projects! 

Friday - FINALLY!!!  Sadly (ha!) all the kids had school to do.  Nate and Josh each had a project to work on , the extra's had pages to correct and pages to finish.  We try to avoid school on Fridays but not this week!  Plus, the princess and I made homemade Ice.  In her Social Studies unit this week they talked about making ice cream so I got out my Ice Cream Maker and we made that today for fun. 

The princess enjoying our ice cream! 

I'll be honest, I'm about done with school.  Normally we are done by about May 15th but not this year.  I'm having a hard time getting projects done with the kids and keeping myself motivated enough to keep the kids motivated HA!  We will get it all done, no worries!