The weekend of our vacation (the REAL final vacation post)

We still had a few days off once we returned from our travels to Mackinaw City.  I'd love to say that we did some wonderful "vacationy" things on Saturday and Sunday but that was just not the case.  For both Darryl and I, our focus on Saturday was to finish up some things.  I worked all day unpacking, doing laundry and cleaning up STUFF.  I had planned to clean and sort and organize toys and other stuff before we left on vacation but it got really humid the days before we left so I did not do that project.  Thankfully, the weekend we came home, it was cool and, even though it was a little humid, it wasn't too bad thanks to the overcast skies.  I went through all of the toys and cleaned stuff out, reorganized and cleaned the boys room and make sure all of the toys "matched".  Not to mention grocery shopping, food prep, and cooking!  Darryl, on the other hand, worked on the deck project and completed everything he planned to get done.  The deck is super close to being complete - just some railings are needed :-) 

 The boys built a deck out of scrap wood - they were very proud of this little project :-)

On Sunday we relaxed and really didn't get moving until afternoon.  I got up with the kids (who were up early) but when Darryl got up at 9:30, I went back to bed and slept until 11:00 and then read in bed until 11:30.  No interruptions - it was awesome.  We had a simple lunch and then went outside to the garage to do some minor cleaning.  Just trying to organize a few things and get the junk out of there.  We also loaded up months worth of pop cans to return.  Once done, we headed out to run errands - take the truck to the shop for repairs, then we returned the pop cans and, with the money (we had LOTS of cans) we used a small part of it to get dinner - Darryl's "treat" HA!  He was going to grill but it was already after 5:00 and kinda warm out so he said, "lets just go to McDonald's" and I have to say, I did not argue.  It was nice to not have to do the clean up after dinner :-)

And, as a side note, our truck is all fixed.  We had a wheel bearing go bad which was repaired and they also found that something with the braking system was sticking making it drag really badly (and get awful gas mileage.)  It was a simple $25.00 fix -imagine that!  So now, the truck drives like brand new and we love it once again.  :-)  I mentioned before that next year, I will budget about $300.00 in our vacation budget for vehicle repairs because it always seems that once we return from a weeks vacation, our truck has to go to the shop.  If we don't need it, well, then we can do something fun with that extra money :-)

Too Cute Not Too Cute

I'm cheating on this first post but it comes from Pinterest but only links to a photo yet I love the saying and would like to make it and hang it outside at our entrance. 

This might be cheating too since this idea comes from an Etsy Shop but I am not against ordering something to add to our home :-)

Ok, so I guess my theme this week is "ideas that go no where".  This is another idea from Pinterest that doesn't have a working link but the idea is there.  This is going to be a winter project, I think, to find verses that I can put in unique places at kid level.

Wow, I didn't even try to do this but here is another Pinterest idea that goes no where but the picture is all you really need.  I'll be sharing this with my husband - it would really help us out in the garage.

That's all for this week :-)  Happy Crafting!

Vacation - the final post

Friday morning we ALL slept in after that "Great Outside Party" HA!  Darryl and I started moving about at 9:00 and the boys finally peeked out from under sleepy eyelids at 9:30.  Then came the drama.  Josh wanted to know why I was packing things; when I told him we were leaving he started crying.  He begged us not to leave, told us he loved the bridge too much and then said he would stay there by himself.  Yes, it was that traumatic to him to leave something he had grown to love.  He even asked if we could take the sketch off the wall in the hotel of the bridge :-)  I promised him that we would look through all of our photos and he could pick out his favorite and we would frame it as an 8 x 10 for his wall.  That made him happy.

So in this last post I thought I would share some random things from our week.

1.  On Thursday I had to do some minor surgery on my foot.  For real.  See, about 10 days ago I thought I had a sliver in my foot from stepping on a thorn.  Then, since it become calloused, I thought it must be a planter's wart.  It was painful when I bumped it but I could walk ok.  Throughout the week, it got worse and on Thursday morning I got out of bed and about went through the roof when I stepped down on that foot.  At that point I knew it must be a sliver so I worked at getting the callous off the top of the dark spot (don't worry, that did not hurt).  Then figured I would shower and then put some salve and a band-aid on it.  When I went to put the band-aid on I noticed that it seemed to have gotten darker so I decided to try one last time to get the sliver out and . .. it worked!  I guess the water in the shower had made the wood piece swell and come to the surface.  It was about an 1/8th of an inch long and a little thick. No wonder it hurt so bad.  Then "Dr. Josh" helped me out by putting my band-aide on (He even said, "look mom, I'm a doctor now" hehehe).

2. Our truck sounded like an airplane.  We noticed it on Wednesday on the way back from Castle Farms.  Apparently we have a wheel bearing going bad.  Ironically, this happened the last time we traveled to the Upper Peninsula.  The truck went into the shop the Monday after we got back and is all fixed.  I've made a note in my vacation plans to budget about $400 for car repairs in the future since it always seems we have to do something to our vehicle when we return :-/

3. While traveling we listened to this song:

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Josh and Nate loved it and would sing right along on the chorus.  Later, though, Nate said to me, "Mom, this is about dad's grandpa's house (really Darryl's Dad) except he doesn't have a big table.  Just a big yard and a great big fence" HA!  I guess he thought "This is my father's house" was grandpa's house!

4. When we got home, Josh had to have some alone time.  He was very melancholy  He sat in our room and colored all the pages he had left in his travel book.  He is so much like his dad it isn't even funny.

5.  We are already talking about our next vacation.  Sure it is a year away but we cannot wait to go again because it was so much fun.  The boys would like to go back to Mackinaw City but we have a few ideas in mind.  We would like to make a trip to the UP an every other year event and then experience other things on the other years.  Let the planning begin!

Vacation - The Fort, The Beach, and the Great Outside Party

Our last full day of fun :-) As is our pattern, we all slept in, got breakfast, got ready and headed out.

 The Bridge.  Josh loves this thing!!  He and Nate would walk around chanting, "Mackinaw Bridge, Mackinaw City, Mackinaw Island" over and over again.

 We went to the Fort in Mackinaw City and let Josh kinda take over the leading.  He was in his element to say the least.  He wanted to walk all around the fort first on the raised walk way.  Then we went through all of the buildings, one by one.  This is the one day we had rain during the day so we ended up sitting on a bench under an overhang for a little bit while the storm passed.

 After we finished at the fort, we went back to our favorite restaurant and got the awesome fish again.  Then Josh asked if we could go across the bridge again and to the beach.  It wasn't our plan but he was so set on going over the bridge again we decided to do it.  We thanked him later for suggesting it because it was the perfect thing to do that afternoon.  We played on our "own" private beach for close to two hours and all got in the water.  The boys loved it because they could walk out a long way with us before it ever hit their belly's. 

 Back at the hotel they played "workers" again and set up this long chain of "barrels".  We loved watching the boys play together in the evenings. Tonight, we let them just stay up because they were playing so well.

I ended up sitting out on our balcony with my Kindle enjoying the view and reading.  As it got later, Josh and Nate joined me and then we had "A Great Outside Party".  They brought out shoes to make a "campfire", we had marshmallows and Crackers that became S'mores, pillows for sleeping and more.  Josh kept raising his fists in the air and saying, "Mom, this is a great outside party".  Talk about fabulous memories.  They were enjoying the last few moments of outside time in the photo above before we all headed to bed since it was almost 11:00 :-)

Vacation - The Castle, The Family Farm and Leggs

We had one road trip planned for our week vacation and that was heading to Charlevoix and Petoskey.  Once again, we slept in, ate a later breakfast, got ready and hit the road at about 11:00.

 On our way to the Castle in Charlevoix, we stopped at a local store and all picked out a fun snack so we could have a picnic.  The Castle is beautiful with fabulous gardens.  We really did enjoy a picnic before starting our tour. 

 The boys got to feed the fish - the fish would jump out of the water to get the food - it was pretty cool.

 My silly boys after our picnic - they were running around on the little bridges.

 The main reason I chose the Castle as a place to visit was because it has a HUGE train set.  Like the miniature trains but there are miles and miles of tracks.  My little engineers loved them.  We probably spent over an hour just exploring and watching the trains.  There was also a maze for the kids to go through and an ABC garden.  To be honest, Darryl and I didn't explore the Castle itself at all - we just focused on the kids stuff and we were still there a good 3 hours.  We want to go back without kids to actually walk through the whole thing.

 We ended with a walk through the enchanted forest but we were all hot and tired so it wasn't so enchanted - just muggy and buggy :-)

 On our way back towards Mackinaw City, we stopped at Bill's Farm Market. Bill is my dad's cousin so it was neat to meet a family member that I had only heard of in the past. 

Finally, on our way home, we stopped at Leg's Inn.  It is a Polish Restaurant that we ate at almost 12 years ago at the tail end of the McMaster family reunion. Both Darryl and I had a better memory of this place then we actually experienced and honestly, won't go back.

Once we got back to the hotel, we headed to the swimming pool.  While out, we had picked up the arm blow-up swimmy things for the boys because Nate really wanted to swim on his own. Well, swim he did!  These were common phrases while in the pool, "Mom, don't touch me.", "Mom, don't hold on to me", Mom, move away from me right now" hahahaha  Those $1.00 arm things made him float and he didn't even care if he tipped and got his face in the water.  Now, Josh . . .when we left the pool an hour later we had finally gotten him to only hang onto Darryl's thumbs . . instead of a death grip on his neck :-/ The best words of the night from Nate?  "Look mom, I CAN swim!!!"  We headed back to the room and yes, the boys got to stay up late once again. 

Food Friday - Balsamic Shredded Beef

Balsamic Shredded Beef
adapted from Shugary Sweets

This recipe has been sitting in my "need to try this" section of my recipe book for months.  Coming back from vacation, I wanted to use as much as I could from the freezer/cupboards in order to keep the grocery bill down.  Well, I happened to have a roast left in the freezer so I decided it was time to try this recipe.  I loved that I could use the crock pot AND that it is a long cooking recipe (6-8 hours) which means it would work to use on a day we had to be away for the day.  Well, I put this in the crock pot at 10:00.  At 11:30 I came back inside to start lunch and discovered that my crock pot had died.  It wasn't the  least bit warm - don't you hate that???  I improvised and dumped everything into a big pot and just simmered it on the stove all afternoon.  It did work out but most of the juice simmered away, which doesn't happen in a crock pot, so we didn't have much "gravy" for our potatoes.  This was a very tasty meal - my husband said it is his new favorite meal ;-)  I had it for lunch the following day and it was every better.  The seasoning is not over powering at all - it is a very mild flavor.  The people I babysit for walked into the house and said, "Wow, that smells amazing, how about if we watch your kids for the evening and just eat dinner here" HA!  I served this beef with mashed potatoes, corn on the cob and rolls. 

Ingredients

• 4-5lb beef chuck roast
• 1 cup beef broth
• 1/2 cup light brown sugar
• 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
• 1 Tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tsp kosher salt
• 1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
• 3 cloves garlic, pressed

Instructions

1. Whisk together all the ingredients and add to the bottom of a slow cooker. Add roast. Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours. Remove roast and shred with a fork, return to juices.
2. Serve and enjoy. The gravy is delicious with mashed potatoes too!

 

Happy 4th of July (and a little weekly menu thrown in for fun)

Happy 4th of July!!

Our local fireworks were last night and today, we are off having fun on the 4th.  It's hard to believe it is already the middle of summer!!  I have really enjoyed this summer because it has been fairly comfortable.  Yes, we've had a few hot and steamy days but 80 degrees with some humidity is a little more bearable than 100 degrees with a heat index that makes it feel like 110 degrees.  Last year by this point, I was making plans to escape the record breaking heat and ended up spending a long weekend with the kids at my brothers home in Indiana.  This year, we have beautiful weather and I'm loving it.  We've created "central air" in the two bedrooms by using fans to push cooler air into the boys room making it much better for sleeping.  We had thought we would have to buy an A/C unit for their room but, so far, this plan has worked.  

On to other things such as the weekly menu.  I did do food prep last Saturday when I went shopping after vacation but did not take any photos.  It included cutting up a free watermelon that I got after mentioning to the manger I know well that the last two I bought I had to throw away because they were so under ripe (and this watermelon was perfect), shucking 12 ears of corn to eat with meals this week - you can't beat $0.15 a piece-, blueberries, grapes, lettuce, and limes for drinking water.  

We are in the middle of getting both cars fixed (the truck was unplanned, Darryl's car was planned) so our goal is to spend as little money as possible right now so we can get those things taken care of without feeling too much of a pinch so I'm working to keep meals as simple as possible, using the weekly ad to plan means and using as many coupons as I can get my hands on.  On a side note, I used to coupon a lot - I'd spend up to 20 hours a week planning, cutting, printing, and shopping to save about 30% on my bill.  I finally decided that my time was worth more than that and quit.  I'm slowly starting to get back into it some.  Even if I can knock $10.00 of what I spend, I figure that is a good deal.  

Here's the plan:

Friday - Hamburgers, corn on the cob, and chips

Saturday - Brats, baked beans, Macaroni Salad

Sunday - Teryaki Chicken Thighs, Macaroni Salad and Corn on the cob 

Monday - Beef Strogenoff, green beans and rolls

Tuesday - Oven Baked Chicken Thighs, Mac and Cheese, Carrots and bread

Wednesday - Just the boys and I - we'll probably get out of the house for dinner :-) 

Thursday  - Sloppy Joes, Pickles and Tater Tots