Our Menu

I really have nothing extra to add this week - we've worked to stay cool and, other than Thursday, did pretty good at that.  This next week is also supposed to be hot - I think you'll notice our menu kinda shows that too!

Saturday - Burgers and Corn on the Cob (Yep, Burgers once a week!)

Sunday - Probably KFC - I have a concert and my husband has to work; we'll walk in the door about the same time and then I have to run the babysitter to church . . the easiest thing is to grab dinner out.

Monday - Slow Cooker Chicken Tacos, Rice, Chips and Cheese

Tuesday - Chicken Fried Chicken, Bob Evans Mashed Potatoes (easy peasy - you buy them in the store all made and they are REAL and GOOD!), and green beans

Wednesday - It's the Fourth!!!  Pork Chops on the Grill, Baked Beans, Outback Salad, garlic biscuits and then Strawberry Shortcake for Dessert

Thursday - Pork Roast in the Crock pot with potatoes and carrots cooked right with it.

Friday - Sloppy Joe Trianges and Hashbrown casserole.

Several of these recipes are new but make use of things I have in the freezer.  I hope they all taste good.  Also, it is possible that on Tuesday, we are going to feed the kids something they love like Mac and Cheese and we'll order out - kinda a date night with dinner and the watching our local fireworks outside in our front lawn :-)

Food Friday . . Ummm. . Oops!

Of all weeks not to have a recipe - the week of the commenting challenge!  Normally, on Fridays, I post a recipe.  Whether it be something new I've tried or an old family favorite that I remember to take photos of . . I always have something!  Well, it's been a little warm in these here parts so we are eating a lot of hot dogs, burgers on the grill, Little Ceasers . . .you get the idea. 

If you are visiting - check out the tab near the top of the blog for all of the recipes I've posted (or at least most of them . . I "may" be just a little behind on linking a few up!). 

I actually really enjoy cooking on normal days - baking, trying new recipes, experimenting with new flavors - but my kitchen is hotter than anything right now so my daily goal is to not turn the oven on.  I'm doing a lot of Crock Pot Meals (or sides like baked potatoes or sweet potatoes cooked in the crock pot- yum!) and we are using the grill a lot too.  I also have a basic rule of thumb - if the temps hit above 90, we grab something out (or, like last night, the boys eat hot dogs cooked by dad since mom (also known as "me") had to head out for a hair appointment. 

Here's hoping for some new recipes in the weeks to come - I need to get busy cooking some fun things and taking photos!

Stay cool!

Commenting Challenge Topics

Welcome to those of you stopping by from Jennas Journey for her third annual Blog Commenting Challenge.  Some of my regular readers might wonder why this is so much fun . . .well there is really one reason.  If you write a blog, you love to get comments.  It just makes you feel good.  So during this week, it is not only fun to find new blogs to read it also so much fun to have extra comments showing up!

On Tuesday, Jenna's topic was to share why we started our blog.  In July, 2010 I came across a blog called The Sullengers - it had hit facebook because they little 2 year old daughter was fighting for her life after a near drowning incident.  As I saw photos of that little girl laying in a hospital bed, it broke my heart because she reminded me so much of my own little 2 year old boy at the time.  I was beyond heardbroken for the family when I logged in one day to find that little Preslee had passed away.  After realizing how much Ashely's blog had touched me I realized that maybe I had something that would impact someone else.  I did a lot of thining about the title of my blog and, after being asked what I did for a living by someone and having no answer other than "Ummm . .I don't work" . . "The Unworking Mom" was born.  The topics of my blog change - I enjoy sharing things we do as a family, Craft ideas that I find AND actually complete, recipes, homeschool ideas and books that I'm reading.  Writing a blog is sometihng I really enjoy for me personally - it is my "adult conversation" some days in the midst of toddler fun!

On Wednesday, the topic was our media useage - I am only on facebook.  I don't tweet or do any other social networking.  Personally, I enjoy facebook a lot - it keeps me connected to family and friends and I love just reading what people are up to.  I'm also an big fan of Amazon because I love to find free books for my Kindle.  And yes, I greatly enjoy Pinterest.  I tend to be a fast pinner, meaning I just pin ideas that catch my eye, and then I go back later and look at things - sometimes deleting them because they aren't good for various reasons. 

Normally on Thursdays I post about the books I've read in the last week or that I am currently reading but . . .I figured I would answer a couple of these questions today instead.  Next week I plan to get back to my normal Book post :-)

A Date - Doing what we Love Best.

If you are visiting from Jenna's Journey Comment Challenge - Welcome!

I've mentioned on a few posts that my kids have been gone - they are actually returning today after being with Papa and Nana since Friday.  Here's my advice - if you have someone who can take your kids for overnight or for a week, do it :-)  It's so refreshing to get that break and it is good for the kids too!

When we planned this kid get-away, we planned it purposefully around a weekend that my husband had off so that we could spend some time just the two of us and actually get some stuff done. 

To begin with, my mom so graciously came over on Friday and stayed all day even though she was taking the boys home.  Why?  Because I had already been planning to go scrapbooking all day when we made these plans so she was going to watch the boys and the munchkin for me, like she usually does.  She stuck around all day and headed home once Darryl got home from work :-)  I enjoyed a fantastic day with friends and got through Easter 2012 (If you remember, I'm working to stay current so being caught up through Easter is a big deal!!)  Darryl got to enjoy a quiet night at home. Alone.  No kids, no wife.  That is a true rare deal for him and I think he enjoyed it :-)

We decided that we would take Saturday out to just get away and that is what we did.  One of the things we did pre-kids was take off for the day and just drive - stopping along the way to do fun things and always (or so it seemed) ending up at Lake Michigan for the sunset. 

 The very first thing we wanted to do was . . .clean the truck :-)  We washed it and vacuumed it out so that we weren't driving around with 3 month old cheerios rolling around at our feet HA! 

From there, we headed to lunch at a place called Grand Woods Lounge in downtown Grand Rapids.  Darryl had heard some great things about it and really wanted to try it out.  Now, recently, we have gone several places looking for the perfect burger and have been highly disappointed.  We both ordered burgers (each a different one) and let me tell you - when we want burgers THIS is where we will go!  Thankfully it was a beautiful day because they have a huge outdoor area (that is covered) that we really enjoyed - the indoor area is very "lounge/bar" like so it isn't some place we would go when it was super busy but for an early lunch it was perfect. 

 If you know my husband at all, you know that he loves Grand Rapids history AND Coffee.  We killed two birds with one stone :-)  First, we drove around as we headed towards Grand Rapids Coffee Roasters as he was looking for the path of the old Street Cars.  He has done tones of research and knew where the bridges were and the basic path that he wanted to follow.  He loved it (I loved just riding around with the sunroof open HA).  We ended up at this awesome coffee place which on the 5th floor of an old furniture warehouse.  The Business is open to the public on Saturdays from 10-3 for free coffee tasting and you can get a coffee roasting lesson to boot!  If you so choose, you can even have him roast beans for you right then and there while you wait.  Darryl loved it.  I got a bonus while there because, you see, I'm not a fan of just "coffee" so I was wandering around when I noticed this guy taking some cool photos so I asked him about a technique he was using.  Come to find out this guy is a professional photographer and used to do the late night scene chasing after celebrities and the such.  He got burnt out on that lifestyle and now does nature photos - specifically lightning.  In 20 minutes he gave me about 3000 tips and ideas  - no joke, I wish I could have spent a day with him because he was such a good teacher and his speciality is low lighting/night time stuff . .plus he even gave us some cute ideas to try with the kids.  He gave me his e-mail and said to contact him with any questions or if I want some ideas on some fun shots. 

 Once we left the Coffee place we drove back roads to the cemetery.  One of the things that we feel is important with our kids is to start teaching them about their heritage which includes family members who have passed on.  Obviously, we didn't have kids with us but we wanted to stop and visit Darryl's brothers grave site.  In the future we will take the boys - Nathan carries Darryl's brothers name as his middle name (Adam) - Darryl and Adam were 16 months apart and best friends all through their life.  It means alot to have two boys of our own so close together who are already best friends.  Ironically, my parents took my boys to visit my grandmas spot - which is something that we wanted them to do to.  We want them to know grandma too :-)  We also found Darryl's grandparents spot as well while visiting the cemetery. 

 When we left the cemetery we drove out on  one of our favorite roads (funny how you have favorites, huh?) and come upon the old Poor Farm in Ottawa County.  Again, my husband loves historical things like this and always tries to find old Poor Farms.  This one has been turned into a County Park just within the last few years and it is just a cool place to stop.  We didn't walk on any trails or anything - just read the signage they had posted this spring about the history of the place (which is really awesome) 

After leaving the park, we drove on towards the lake shore and had to decide where to eat.  Now originally we were going to go to a free Selah concert but we decided we really didn't want to be tied into that time frame and instead headed into North Muskegon to Bernie O's Pizza.  Several years ago when we camped - it rained the entire 2 1/2 days so we ended up finding this pizza place to eat dinner at and fell in love with it.  We were not disappointed when we ate there on Saturday - it was fantastic (and busy!!!).  Such good food :-) 

Naturally, from there, we drove to our favorite, secret beach (notice I'm not telling you were it is!!), got out our beach chairs and sat by the water for well over an hour.  The sand and the sound of the waves - there is nothing like it, anywhere.  I wish it hadn't been cloudy so we could have seen the sunset but it was still beautiful.  No trip to the beach is complete without a drive along the lake shore and, of course, stopping for ice cream. 

It was a great day - very relaxing and just a break from every day life at home and at work. 

We did work on Sunday, don't you worry :-)  We spent 3 hours cleaning out the garage and re-organizing it as we do once a year.  We also cleaned off all of the outdoor toys and rearranged a few things before being done for the day! We then treated our selves to some incredible smoothies from a local ice cream shop before relaxing for the rest of the day.  That night we enjoyed a HOT dinner (something we don't always get to do) of Steak on the grill, sweet potatoes (cooked in the crock pot!), asparagus and garlic bread. 

Nothing better than making great memories with the one you love!

Too Cute Not To Toot . .. . and a Commenting Challenge

Jenna's Journey is sponsoring her third annual blog commenting challenge.  This is my second year and I so enjoyed it last year - I found some new blogs to follow and, honestly, loved getting lots of comments :-)  The challenge actually started yesterday - I did link up my post but I did not make reference to it because . . well I kinda forgot about it until the last minute :-) 

Each day Jenna is posting a topic to blog about if we chose or we can link up our normal post :-)  Yesterday the topic was to share about ourselves so for those of you stopping by that are new I thought I would give a quick paragraph before doing my normal "Too Cute Not to Toot" post.

My name is Jackie and I am a stay-at-home mom to two little boys ages 2 1/2 and 3 1/2.  I also babysit for a friend so we have an almost 2 year old with us all day long too . . yes a boy :-)  Before staying home with my kids I was a business analyst for a bank among other things :-)  I also was a school teacher for 8 years too.  I am super happily married to my husband of almost 11 years and we live in West Michigan where we get to enjoy so many wonderful things including Lake Michigan - there is nothing like it!  We also are home to one dog and two cats who add to the chaos most days :-) 

Now, for some cute ideas - I like to search some of my favorites and find cute ideas I wish I had time to make and share them with you.  Every year I set a goal of making some of the things I find and . . well, I'm still trying :-)

I love holiday T-shirts for my kids and I wish I could make more of them . . .I love this idea for the 4th of July from Love and Laundry and, if it wasn't a week away, I might actually make them :-)

This idea from While Wearing Heels  is so cute - a great puzzle for the kids on a camping trip (Ok maybe not or they might play with fire HA!)

I absolutely want this for my homeschool room - I just need to find  make the time to do it!  This idea comes from Almost Never Clever.

This is a great printable for this time of year - when I can get back into decorating for each holiday, I will frame this as part of that display :-)  Check it out from More Style than Cash.

I'm not sure about any of you, but we love to camp so I have been watching for various camping ideas.  Second Chance to Dream offers several ideas.  The first being some organization ideas which you can see by clicking on the link above.  The second idea is for Activities, and the third is for Desserts

This rug made by Life on Maple is so cute - she warns that it takes a long time so maybe this could be a winter project . . ..maybe :-)

That's all for this week.  Enjoy!

Summer Fun - Week 3

Welcome back to week 3 of our summer fun activities.  To check out the previous weeks activities just click HERE.

This week was a little more difficult because the heat changed some of our plans but I can honestly say we did something special every single day :-)

Monday:  I found this idea from AlphaMom on Pinterest and knew I wanted to try this idea.  So on Monday, I showed the boys how to color hard on Sandpaper and they created their colorful pictures.  Then I followed the super easy instructions for ironing onto the shirt.  This was so simple and it transferred without a problem.  I am THRILLED with their shirts (I wrote their names, and yes, the "N" in Nate is backwards - you have to write the names on the sandpaper backwards so they transfer correctly and I was sure I had them both right!).  This idea is going in my repeat file - I want to make these every summer and then save them to see how their drawings change :-)

Tuesday:  This was haircut day.  Now, my kids do just get a little snip and they are done - they become "rock stars".  Our stylist is fantastic - she treats them like little men just chattin' away and then lets them pick out the color of gel they want for their hair before styling it up in an awesome due.  The boys LOVE to go get haircuts all because of Kylie!

Wednesday:  So, this was supposed to be the first Library Activity but I made a decision to skip it.  I didn't really feel like loading three boys up in a hot truck on a 95+ degree day to go to some place that did not have a/c (our local armory).  Instead, we had a ton of fun in the pool (Oh, and the mud first thing in the morning!)  :-)

Thursday:  I thought I was going to have to say I skipped today but, the weather actually helped me out.  It started raining Thursday afternoon - the great soft, warm rain that kids love to play in so out they went and they had so much fun running in the rain :-) 

Friday:  The fun today?  Nana!  My mom came over to watch the kids while I went scrapbooking all day and, in the end, she took my boys home with her :-) 

Next week will be a short week since the kids won't be back until Wednesday but I will have activities planned for both Thursday and Friday :-)

Decluttering - Phase 3 . . a redo :-)

I have no photos and really, not much to post about but I didn't want to not post this week either.

I had grand plans when I wrote the post last week but, I took Monday-Wednesday off and spent Thursday trying to catch up on a few things.  Why did I take Monday-Wednesday off?  It was hot and humid.  Instead I played and had fun with the kids in the water and sat in front of the fan reading :-)

Now, though, my kids are at the grandparents house so I have a few days to get a lot done.  Here are my short goals:

1) The basement - this is top priority and I want it 100% done.  Without my kids here I can spend extra time down there and am pretty confident it will be done by Monday evening.

2) Cleaning - I've made a list, in order, of the rooms and what I want done.  There are some rooms that are harder to clean while the kids are here, like the dining room, because it is in use constantly.  I plan on having a very clean house by Tuesday Evening :-)

3) I also have some other paper projects/goals I want to get done this week too so I'm hoping to get some of those done while the kids are gone too! 

Sorry for the boring post :-)