Sunday Worship - Mistakes

I don't think I've shared this song before but if I did, it's ok.  I heard this one just once on the radio and the words were powerful so it has stuck with me very since.

Our Week In Photos - #13

Here's a look back at our week!

Saturday started with the Pinewood Derby Race for AWANA.  As I mentioned last week, the boys ended up using their cars from last year which worked out fine.  They both got 2nd in the first race, then, 3rd and 4th in the 2nd round.  Josh got knocked out in the 3rd round and Nate in the 5th round.

 On Monday, I got the call that my contacts and glasses were ready so we cancelled school and took of for town (I really wanted to see!)  I'm so thankful for them - I can see once again!

 We stopped at Olive Garden for lunch to celebrate!

On Friday we started spring break off with a trip to the movies!  We went to our favorite theater with the reclining seats.  Such a relaxing way to watch a movie :-)

 Then this happened on Friday.  We adopted this little guy - Dash.  Totally 100% unexpected and unplanned.  He showed up on my timeline, we went to the shelter, one person was in front of us filling out an application for HIM!  The boys and I waited and that person changed their mind.  We met him and he instantly attached himself to the boys.  He's super cute and the smallest dog I've ever owned!

Dash has attached himself to Nate!   

Weekly Menu - The Week of Spring Break

Does our menu change during spring break? No.  HA!  Anything that is planned is close to home so really, it's just a normal week.  It just sounds more fun to say it is spring break!

Friday - Breakfast!  English Muffins, Eggs, Hashbrowns, Sausage and bacon.  Yum!

Saturday - If the weather cooperates, we will have Hamburgs on the grill (to celebrate Spring!), and Fries.

Sunday - Today is a banquet at church.  We are supposed to bring a main dish and then either a side dish or dessert.  So, truth be told, I don't like taking food to things - it stresses me out.  So, last year I figured out a way to not stress - I pick up fried chicken from Meijer for my main dish and a couple packages of rolls :-)  And do you know what?  I'm not the only one that does that HA! 

Monday - Ham Steaks and Soup with yeast rolls

Tuesday - Either chicken on the grill or Amish baked chicken, Buttered Noodles, and carrots

Wednesday - If Darryl doesn't have practice I think we will go to Pizza Hut for a mid-week spring break treat; if he does have practice, the boys and I will have Tacos

Thursday - Tonight will be whatever we didn't do on Wednesday!  Either Pizza Hut or Tacos :-)

March Goals Recap

March Goals!  Yes, it's that time of month to write down my goals.  As I've done the last two months, I'll start with my main focus.

My March Focus is:

Strengthen my Scrapbooking

I know, really?  But yes!  The reason I picked this is because I already have some things in place to help this happen.

1. Put together my new shelves (an early birthday present!) to house my scrapbooks.  Two of the shelves arrived; once I get those put together and organized, I will order one more if needed. My shelves are not together.  I'm hoping that whatever day Darryl takes off during spring break we can work together and get them put together. 
2. Sort my albums as I put them on shelves.  I need to see what is missing and what needs to be updated.Since my shelves aren't together, this hasn't been done.  
3. Update any and all albums that I can (some might have to be spread out over the year depending on what needs to be done. Until I do 1 and 2 above, I can't do this one. 
4. Continue to plan to order the current months photo and one other months photos. This is on schedule. 
5. Continue to plan to order one month of digital pages a month This is on schedule

Even though I have a main focus, there are some other things I'm focusing on too.

1. Add exercise to our daily routine - the weather has not been our friend yet this year but maybe, just maybe March will be our month!  The weather is FINALLY nice!  So it is time to start walking!
2. Now that the weather is starting to maybe clear, I might actually try to do my first Shipt SHop.Not yet but it's still on the plan. 
3. Schedule an eye appointment - I think I need new contacts and I DO need new glasses!Done!  I have both new contacts and glasses and I can see again! 
4. Paint the Dining Room - I'll be honest, I'm not sure I can actually fit this in this month but I want it on the radar. Not done, still on the radar though - maybe spring break? 
5. Put up the spring/summer shower curtain (Maybe that is why it is still snowing - I still have my snowflake shower curtain up HA!)Done! 
6. Price out a different Homeschool option for next year and see if it is a doable plan if we decided to not do connections academy next year. Not Done
7. Decide about camp for the boys - they have expressed a real interest in going this summer to a full week of camp - I need to see if we can make this happen financially. Still working on this. 
8. Find one activity to do this month as a family. It seems small, but we did the Pinewood Derby at church, then later that day, we went to Taco Bell for dinner and laughed lots, looked at some new cars for fun, and then got ice cream at McDonald's.  
9. Continue to read - I think I'm doing pretty good on this one.Still doing good. 
10. Make sure I have our St. Patrick's stuff in the plans are in place.Done
11.  Update the holiday journal Not done as of the writing of this - but the 31st of March is still a few days away ;-) 
12. Purchase items for the boys Easter Basket and get their Easter outfits I have picked up two things for their baskets; have one thing to order on Amazon; I know two other things I'll be adding but some of their favorite candy.  I don't have their Easter Outfits as of this writing, but plan to go on the weekend and pick out their stuff. 
13. Finalize my song to sing at church and practice it.I still haven't decided. 
14. Go through all of our summer clothes and make a list of what is needed I did this for the boys - they need almost everything HA! 
15. Deep clean the master bedroom - I did a big clean out last September but it tends to get piles quite often and I need to clean all of that stuff out. This is on my spring break list. 
16. The basement.  That's all HA!
17. Finish one project with Josh for School (he has three) and finish up Nate's big Michigan History Project and his reading journals This is on my spring break list (and every other list too!) 
18. Plan my fall co-op class.  I have the information, I just need to lay out a basic lesson plan.Now that our semester has finally ended, I feel like I can focus on this again. 
19. Plan for summer planting.  I want to plant sunflowers and maybe some other flowers.  I'd also like to plant a few (very few) veggie plants. I have a few ideas but now we wait until May to do anything. 

I don't feel like I accomplished a lot in March on my list yet we were super busy.  School seems to take a front seat during March as I push to be current before we stop for spring break.  That's why I always set specific goals for spring break, which I posted yesterday.  I need to use my time without school to get stuff done!  After spring break, I'll push hard on school during all of April so we can hit May with all of the projects done and most of their school work done.  Once May hits, it is hard to stay focused!  

Spring Break

Yes, Homeschooler's take a Spring Break, well at least we do!  Connections Academy, our online school, does a Spring Break as do our friends that we babysit so, too keep it fair, we don't do school either!

I try to plan a mix of activities over the week of Spring Break - for both the kids and for myself.  After months of schooling and busy life, the house needs attention and we all need a break.  Not to mention that after being stuck in the house for awhile, we are all ready to get out.

Spring Break officially starts on Friday, March 29th and the plan is to take the kids to the free movie - Hotel Transylvania 3.  This works because the movie starts at 10:00 so we need to leave home by 9:00.  This would normally be way to early for us but since our friends  by 7:30 - we are all up! HA!  That's really my only goal for this day.

The weekend is just our weekend.  I think we will hang out around home more than anything else.  Just relax and enjoy a break!  I'm hoping to set up a scrapbooking table so I can scrapbook all weekend

Monday - Monday is my day for the house.  I have some goals.  1) 20-30 minutes in the basement 2) Clean the Master Bedroom.   For the kids, I have a small craft planned.

Tuesday - Kids Day - This is weather dependent.  If the weather is comfortable we will head to the park.  Today is also our Co-Op's "Sponser Day" at Mooville so we will go and get Ice Cream as well.  There is an activity at the library which we may do if the weather isn't nice.

Wednesday - Another "me" day!  Oh, and the boys have dental appointments for cleaning Wednesday morning!   1) 20-30 Minutes in the basement 2) Clean the Kitchen and Stairs.  For the kids, I'll pick out some fun idea off of pinterest to do in the afternoon.

Thursday - Kids Day - We may go see another free movie (Small Foot) or see what activities the Library has locally.

Friday - The last "me" day  1) 20-30 Minutes in the basement 2) Clean the living room and playroom

Depending on the weekend - we might go to the Pet Expo on Saturday just for fun :-)

BBH Book Club

So what have I been reading!  Here's a little recap.

The BBH Book Club weeks are as follows:

Week 8 - Read an author that is new to you. 

I shared this book last time I posted but I am counting this as a new author.  I had never head of him and I love his style of writing.  This reminds me, I want to read book two in this series! 

Week 9 - Read a book based on the cover.

When this challenge came up, I went out to Amazon Prime Kindle Unlimited and just scrolled until a book cover caught my eye.  I love being by the water so this one fit that love.  It was an amazing book.  The main character signs up with a mission board after the man she thought was going to propose to here, proposes to another (her dear friend).  She signed up thinking she would get sent to China but instead got sent to a small group of Indians.  This is right during the time that the Native Americans were being forcefully moved to reservations.  She not only wins the love of the people but also of her true love.  It really was a well written book and I'm so glad the cover caught my eye!

Week 10 - Read a book you can read in a day. 

This was also a book I shared in my last post but considering the fact that I read each of the books in the series in one day (or less . . .I might have read two of them in one day) I am going to count them!!

Week 11 - Read a book outside your comfort zone

I started this book a few weeks ago.  It was free on Kindle Unlimited.  Why was this outside of my comfort zone?  Because it was horribly edited HA!  There were spelling errors, incomplete sentences, misnamed people and more.  I forced myself to read it to the end.  While the story itself had potential, the writing was so awful that I wouldn't recommend it and I won't be reading any future stories in the series.  So, it is a stretch for the weekly challenge but honestly, I don't look for books outside of my comfort zone - I want to read books I enjoy!

I haven't read as  much I would have liked over the past few weeks.  One reason is because I got stuck in the book above, Willow Falls.  It really bogged me down!  I just opened up a book on my kindle today to start reading.  I also have the 2nd book to Beartown that I want to read, a new book club book I need to read, and another BBH Book Club challenge book that will appear on Wednesday.  Not to mention that I have this whole stack of books I get to read :-)  I just got new contacts and glasses so I can finally see better to read real books!  Yeah!

Origami - A Recap

This past Friday was our presentation night where all of the students work was on display.  I enjoy seeing what the students did in Origami and was actually more impressed with their work then I was at the time we created it all.

 Our display Table

 

 The Dog and Cat - this was week one.  Just some basic folds.  To do this again, I would teach more folds the first week like the fox, a flower, ect.  We had lots of extra time on week one. 

 The Fish.  This was a favorite project.  The fish actually were a more difficult fold so it was a challenge to the students.  It took most of them the entire hour to complete.  

 I was disappointed in this project.  The wreaths were very flimsy and did not "slip together and hold firm" like they were supposed to.  I would not do this project again. 

This project was an all time favorite.  The fold was easy but there were a lot of them needed so it took up the hour.   This is also the project that got the most comments at our display. 

The piano!  It starts as a house and then fold to a piano.  The kids enjoyed this one and we also demonstrated it at our live presentation.  Next time I would use a solid color though so that it looked better AND have all of the kids add keys to their piano like Josh did above.

So, the ultimate question is, would I teach this class again?  Yes but I would need to find about 4 new projects to do.  I would also need to practice those four projects before committed to teaching it again.  That was one of my downfalls this semester - I had several really awesome looking projects but I wanted until the day before class and couldn't figure out the folds!  

Sunday Worship - Even If

Mercy Me songs are always amazing and this one has never disappointed.

Also, if you didn't catch my "Our Week in Photo's" post that went up on Saturday night, make sure and check out what fun we had last week! 

Our Week In Photos - #12

We had a busy week (which is why I'm just now posting this on Saturday night!)

 Our week started with my mom hanging out at our house for the weekend.  We went into town and shopped at the Christian Bookstore and then stopped at Nothing Bundt Cakes for a little dessert treat!  

 Sunday was St. Patrick's Day. 

 We did school including taking staged photos for Nate's Social Studies Project (He had to create a board game - He won and is thrilled and I'm sad because I lost HA!) 

 Our presentation night for our Co-Op was Friday night.  It including showing off projects from the semester and live demonstrations for some classes. 

 On Thursday (Yes, out of order!) we finally made it back to the Homeschool project where the boys learned about South America and made these art projects. 

We also worked on their Derby cars BUT, these cars just fell apart so the boys ended up using their cars from last year on Saturday.  

Weekly Menu

Last weeks menu shirted some.  I had great plans but again, we had lots of leftovers by the time we got to Sunday night/Monday so we ate doctored up leftovers both days.  I also made a grocery store run on Sunday night without a list so I had to just buy some things for meals that I could come up with on the spot!  Oh well, it worked out well since we ended up with some stomach flu in our house this past week so meals needed to be simple.

So, here's the plan for the next week.

Friday - Tonight is our presentation night for our co-op and dinner is served!  We are doing Soup/Chili, rolls and salads.

Saturday - Lemon Chicken (this is an OLD favorite of mine I kind of forgot about it!), Roasted Cabbage Steaks, and Baked Potatoes

Sunday - Darryl has a concert and then we are gathering with his family to celebrate his mom's husband's birthday.

Monday - Meatball Soup and Rolls.  It won't be much longer it will be too warm for soups so I thought it would be nice to have one of our favorites.

Tuesday - Sloppy Joes and French Fries

Wednesday - Pizza and Mac and Cheese

Thursday - Pork loin in the crock pot, Mashed Potatoes and Veggies

A Few of my Favorite Things

I don't think I've done one of these posts in quite awhile.  It's always fun to see what other people enjoy as a "favorite"!

The Spring baking Championship show on Food Network just started this week.  I love these competition style shows and seeing what the bakers come up with each week. 

This soup is the best.  They sell it in the grocery store and it is actually worth the price.  (Honestly, the other flavors, I don't think are worth the price)  This has become a go to dinner option - Darryl and I will have this for dinner along with a ham steak and it is so good. 

My go to drink.  Just add it to a bottle of water and I have something yummy to drink. It has to be this flavor too!  The others just don't measure up! 

We watched this movie this week and it is for sure one of my favorites.  I kind of avoided it when it came out due to the whole "spirit" idea but Nate wanted to see it so we watched it at home.  The moral of the story is just spot on.  I'm so glad we watched it. 

What is this? The SUN!  This winter had some long days in it with ice storms and record breaking cold so to see the sunshine and blue skies once again is a true favorite. 

So, what are your favorite things? 

Origami Week 7

This is our last week of our Co-Op.  I'll be honest, I didn't plan a whole lot for our last week.  We talked about what we would be sharing next week at our Presentation Night and then we actually made an activity out of their origami book.  We started with a house and then turned it into a Piano.  Here are a few samples of our work :-)

St. Patricks Day

We enjoy St. Patrick's Day in this house.  It was totally by accident but somehow, it's become a fun little day and we always have T-shirts!

 Nathan

 2012 - It was in the 70's so shorts were a must! Joshua

 2013 - Josh and Nate

 Joshua

 2014 - Nate

 2016 - Josh and Nate

 2017 - Josh and Nate

 2018 - Nate and Josh

2019 - Josh and Nate

So, the Leprechaun visits our house throughout the day and leaves "Gold" (Rolo's) all over the house.  The boys try frantically to catch him (and "he" tries frantically not to get caught HA!)  They always write him a note and he always writes back.  It's getting harder and harder to not get caught!!!!