Things My Kids Say

* I think it is adorable that my boys like to carry purses and "get clean" (i.e. use my make up brushes).  Why?  Because it drives my husband insane LOL  I have started calling my purse a "bag" instead of a purse though because, well, they are boys. 

* Josh has a new nick name for Nate - He calls him "Net" when he is just having a conversation with him.  "Net, come here and play with me".  Ironically, Nate doesn't tell him that isn't his name yet if we call him anything other than Nate or Nathan, he says "I'm not cutie, I'm Nate". 

* We are working on pro-nouns . .. when I ask Josh where Nate is he'll respond with, "I'll go get her mom"  :-)

*At the ages that they are, my kids often mis-hear how to pronouce words which makes it lots of fun!!

A Tape Measure = Temperture (Say tape measure really fast . . .it kind of sounds like that!)
BO = Radio
Madison (one of our babysitters) = Medicine.

*The boys have been told that they cannot go into the back half of the basement - that is where Darryl's work area is so we don't want them in there. One day this week, when Josh told me he had to go downstairs, I reminded him to stay out of the work side . . but then he proceeded to explain to me that it wasn't his fault if he did because if the Spiders run in there he has to follow them. Seriously? HA!

Weekly Menu

We had a week with a lot of accomplishments!  Amazingly, despite the holiday weekend throwing us a slight curve ball (my dad going into the hospital with what appeared to be a heart attack but that turned out to be a pinched nerve) meaning that my parents couldn't come over on Monday to celebrate Labor Day at help us paint, we still got lots done.  I "busted a move" (as my husband said) and painted the boys room on Tuesday along with moving out just about everything that was in the room.  On Tuesday, I moved on the rest of the furniture and sealed the floor.  During the day on Thursday, I worked on some projects for the room as well as some homeschool projects that I wanted to get done while the kids were gone (did I mention my kids were at Papa and Nana's for the sole purpose of us getting that room done!!).  Thursday evening we pulled off the baseboards to get ready to put the floor down.  Friday I finished up my projects and did some grocery shopping before we started to put down the hard floor on Friday evening.  As you read this today, we are working diligently to get the floor all down, a couple of electrical outlets replaced, and everything moved into the room.  Don't worry, I'll be posting pictures soon - I'm waiting for  some photo printsn to come that I ordered as well as a piece of vinyl art work that I picked out to arrive.  Once I get those things done, I'll share what we did :-)

So . .. we followed our meal schedule pretty well - we ate out every night.  Well, actually, I cooked on Thursday night - my mom had sent home some corn on the cob and steaks with us (that we didn't eat on Monday - that whole hospital thing kinda threw off dinner plans . . .) so we ate that on Thursday.

Now on to next week. 

Saturday - For lunch I am making French Dip Crescents, Chips and Dip, and fruit - probably just a bowl with apples, bananas, and strawberries in for people to pick out and eat - my parents will be here working so I want to have a good lunch; Then, dinner is going to be Crockpot Cube Steak and Gravy with mashed potatoes (Bob Evans Style - so easy!), Roasted Zucchini and Carrots, and rolls.  Again, my parents will be here for dinner (I'm assuming) so I wanted to have something in the crockpot ready to eat - the potatoes get warmed up in the Microwave while the veggies roast for 20 minutes :-) 

Sunday - First, I'm hoping to start a new tradition of Mini Cinnamon Rolls on Sunday Mornings - I saw this idea on a friends facebook status and thought, "How fun to have the kids always smell Cinnamon rolls on Sundays".  They are quick and easy so we'll see how it goes! This is Football Sunday - it's Kick Off baby!!!  We like to have some fun foods to munch on throughout the day so I made up some Brushetta, Apples and Caramel Dip, cheese/crackers/pickle tray, and chips and salsa, - then  got stuff to make our own pizza's for after church (quick and easy) and I have chili in the crock pot for later in the evening

Monday - Tacos - we haven't had them in a very long time :-)  And Salad.

Tuesday - Spaghetti, Salad and Garlic Bread

Wednesday -  Slow Cooker Salisbury Steak over egg noodles, green beans, and salad

Thursday -  I think we will be doing something we rarely do - it will be left over night.  We have some bigger meals this week and I have a feeling that there will be lots of left overs in the fridge.  I can always cook up more veggies, Mac and Cheese, or baked beans if needed as an extra side to add to things.  Worst case - we will grab a $5.00 pizza for dinner :-)

Friday - The boys are on their own - I'm going scrapbooking!!! (I will probably have a box of Mac and Cheese and hot dogs for the boys to eat so no one will go hungry HA!)

As far as sweets this week - I will be making some white chocolate chip cookies and cupcakes for Sunday - the boys love them and they are so easy :-) 

Food Friday - Summer Vegetable Tian

Summer Vegetable Tian
adapted from Budget Bites

Yes, I am always looking for creative, fun ways to serve side dishes.  Vegetables and other sides get so boring!  We are big fans of Zucchini and Yellow Squash so I thought I would try this recipe out.  It was really good but, next time, I would leave the potatoes out.  They don't seem to really go with the other flavors, at least in my opinion, and they really have zero flavor.  I'm not a huge fan of tomatoes either but my husband really liked it so I will still include them next time . . I just end up picking most of mine out! 

Ingredients:
1 Tablespoon Olive Oil
1 medium yellow onion
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 medium zucchini
1 medium yellow squash
1 medium potato
1 medium tomato
1 teaspoon dried thyme (I did not use this . . .not a big fan of thyme)
Salt and Pepper to taste
1 cup shredded Italian cheese

Directions:
Step 1:  Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Finely dice the onion and mince the garlic.  Saute both in a skillet with olive oil until softened (about 5 minutes)

Step 2:  While the onion and garlic are sauteing, thinly slice the rest of the vegetables.

Step 3:  Spray the inside of an 8x8 square or round baking dish with non-stick spray.  Spread the softened onion and garlic in the bottom of the dish.  Place the thinly sliced vegetables in the baking dish vertically, in an alternating pattern.  Sprinkle generously with salt, pepper and thyme.  (Note: by generously . .. I mean generously . . .:-) )

Step 4: Cover the dish with foil and bake for 30 minutes.  Remove the foil, top with the cheese and bake for another 15-20 minutes or until the cheese is golden brown.

Home Organization 101 Challenge

 

I'm always up for a good challenge!  This is a blog, A Bowl Full of Lemons, that I used to follow quite regularly but, then she moved.  States, not Blog Locations.  She quit posting and her blog became . . .boring.  Recently, I noticed her Facebook pages was getting busier with posts and ideas so I kept an eye on it - then she posted this challenge.

 

She recently posted photos of her Master Closet  . . ummm . . .it's bigger then my house HA!  Ok, not really but it is bigger then one of our bedrooms ;-)  Despite her dream home, she does have some great ideas so I'm looking forward to progressing through this challenge. 

 

As with most challenges, I tend to post at the end of the week so, look forward to seeing before and after photos of what I get accomplished!

 

Give Them Grace - A Book Study; Chapter 2

Catch up with previous chapters by clicking HERE.

This chapter begins with a close look at the Beginning - Adam and Eve, their true goodness, the fall, and then how they suffered and were no longer good in themselves.  It was a great study on those beginning chapters but I personally had a hard time making the transition to my kids (Maybe I've been out of school too long to bring these deep thoughts together!!)

The author brought the idea of "being good" to the forefront again but I do see her point.  She talks about how we often praise our kids for the good things they do by saying, "You are so good", "You did a good job", "What a great kid you are" and so on.  By doing this, building their self esteem, you begin to form a person who will always crave the opinion of others.  Rather, we need to point the good behavior back to examples of Christ.  For example, "I noticed you shared your swing.  Do you know what that reminds me of? How Christ shared his life with us.  I'm so thankful for God's working in your life that way.  I know that neither of us would ever do anything kind if God wasn't helping us.  I'm so thankful".  (pg42) I totally agree that the second response is fantastic . . . and I wish that I could think of that without needing note cards to help me ;-)   I DO really like the idea that she gives about praying with your child about an area they struggle with, like sharing, and thanking God for what he has shared with us - then ask Him to help the child with their own struggle.  And don't forget, when you see them doing that very thing, remind them of how God answered their prayer! 

This quote spoke to me: "The one encouragement we can always give our children (and one another) is that God is more powerful than our sin, and he's strong enough to make us want to do the right thing." . .. "Our Encouragement should always stimulate praise for God's grace rather than for our goodness" (pg 43)

Now, this is where I get real :-)  The concepts shared are great and in a perfect world, the right things would come out of my mouth every day and I would lead my children down the road of understanding that only Jesus was truly good yet he chose to leave that goodness and come to earth to die for us.  Most days, I'm lucky to remember my name HA  What this great lesson has taught me is to try and be more mindful of opportunities where I CAN teach a lesson.  Realistically, a 2 and 3 year old are not going to sit through more than a sentence most of the time so trying to teach a lesson through every moment is not going to happen . .. but I can work on focusing on one thing at a time.  (I wonder if there are verses that apply to potty training . .. .)

I'm still on the fence with this book - it's very deep with maybe a little "legalize" in it but there are some good concepts so I'll keep reading :-)

Too Cute Not To Toot

Welcome back :-)  Sorry about last week and, for the record, I did not make the cut for the Follies.  No harm, no foul though - it will save us money in a babysitter and tickets for the concert!! Now, on to the fun stuff!

If it wasn't so much work, I would completely decorate my entire house for fall . . .and then for Christmas but, lets be real, it is a ton of work.  That doesn't keep me for looking at great fall ideas though! 

The first one is from Craft-O-Maniac.  I'm not such much a "skull" kinda girl but I really love the little candy corn bags.  In real life, this would make a great decoration for my dining room table.  I bet if I go cut a branch off of my big old ugly bush tree, it would be dead in time to use it for this craft.

As you have figured out from other posts, we have a classroom!  One of the things I've been trying to figure out is how to give the boys each a place for crayons, pencils, scissors ect.  When I saw this idea from The Happy Scraps, well, it is quite honestly, perfect.  She also gives a few other ideas.  I hope I can find these at my "local" Target!

I totally fell off of my wreath wagon and after the total fail of my wreath in March I haven't made another one BUT when I saw this Halloween wreath from Crafty in Crosby I had to share.  I REALLY want to make this one so I'm thinking a few trips to Hobby Lobby with a coupon might be in the works.  (Shoot, I might make my husband stop on his way home for work - won't he love that? HA!)

Alililly is sharing a free Halloween printable and yes, I've already downloaded it.

Every year (ok, it's only been 3 years) I say I'm going to make my kids Trick-Or-Treat bags and I never do.  I saw this idea over at Enjoy the Journey.  She claims they are easy so . . I think I might have to actually do this.  I have two months . .which is plenty of time and I think (maybe . . ) I have some Halloween Fabric I never used on a past project.

I'm not a crafty person - I only craft because I see other people's ideas first so when I came across this post at Second Chance to Dream for 15 Fall Children's Crafts, well, I could not pass it by.  We may not make many of them this year but they will go in my fall idea folder for future years.

I think that gives you plenty of ideas to keep you busy until next week!  Happy crafting :-)

Homeschool Happenings - Week 2

This week I thought I would share our classroom.  When my husband and first started talking about homeschooling one of the concerns I had was that I had no where to set up "class".  Using the dining room or stealing a corner of the living room seemed the only option but, it just didn't seem like it would work.  We thought about it a lot and finally did something we had talked about several years ago - we even talked about it before kids - we switched rooms.  We took the medium sized room which is actually right next to the bathroom so it is ALMOST a master suite ;-)  The boys are now in what used to be our room - the biggest room.  We turned the tiny bedroom (Nate's old room) into the classroom and we love it!  The boys love hanging out in there (but we are still working on how to treat some things in that room . . it's a learning process for sure!) 

Here we go!

 I moved this book case from the dining room into the classroom. It is still, quite honestly, an organizational work in progress for sure!  The top of it houses things that just don't have a home or I need to evaluate (i.e. - I have a bunch of "old" 12x12 size pages . . I need to go through the old albums and make sure they are all done - if so, I need to get rid of that stash once and for all).  The first full shelf houses my current/in progress scrapbook albums.  This makes them easy to get to to work on.  The rest of the shelf houses the stereo (which Josh loves), my sewing stuff, craft stuff and, on the bottom shelf is our file box.  Which is kind of ironic . . I had emptied my filing cabinet so I could move it into the classroom but . . I forgot about that until right now . . maybe I can move that stuff from the file box back into the filing cabinet and free up a shelf!

 This is a shot looking into the classroom from the door.  The table that is under the window is my area.  It houses scrapbooking supplies and my current pages, my cricut and laminater and, of course the school books.  Under the table I'm able to store all of my scrapbooking bags.  The table on the right of the photo is the table the boys use.  The posters are from our "All about reading" curriculum.

 The storage closet :-)  The top shelf is where my scrapbooks are now all housed.  The second shelf is also a work in progress but it is where I store games and activities I don't want the kids getting into.  Then I moved our 9 cube storage shelf into the closet and this houses books and other activities the kids can get to - but they are learning that those items need to stay in the classroom. 

 This area is specifically Josh's work area.  The white board is his weekly learning board that has all of the info from his RRSP lessons.  Yes, that is a computer - it is our old laptop that still works well (It was my baby shower gift from the group my husband plays in - they gave it to me while I was in the hospital for 7 weeks - it was perfect!)  He'll be using the computer for power point lessons at this point. 

 This is our calendar wall.  Starting from left to right - there is a bulletin board which has some daily songs and also will have photos of people we are praying for in class.  (Right now the photo is of John and Betsy Wenz - Betsy was diagnosed with a brain tumor recently).  Underneath that is our white board.  We'll use this for class a lot :-)  Then, you can't see it but hanging just above the calendar is our "We Choose Virtues" poster.  Obvious, the calendar is the big blue thing in the middle!!  Finally the board on the easel houses our weekly items - song, verse, color, shape, weather charts, and some obedience poems we are working on.  The Zebra on the top is from our "All About Reading" curriculum. 

This photo was taken of Josh while the room was in process.  I found him sitting in his chair with his head leaned back listening to the CD in the CD player that HE can turn on all by himself.  I will often here the music playing and find him in that room. 

And, just as an FYI - I mentioned in my post last week that we would be starting piano lessons.  Well, Josh has already moved his lesson book to the piano and I often see him flipping through the pages, "playing" the songs.  He is going to be THRILLED when he can play his favorite song .. "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" ;-)  (Granted, right now, every song he sings has the word poop in it - just keeping it real.)