Daily Blog Topics

My husband has a blog.  He likes to tell me the "stats" of his blog.  I, on the other hand, just write because I feel like it.  I started writing my blog about 3 years ago or so and almost always wrote a post every day unless I planned to take a day or two off.  Until this year.  I know that it has been a number of things that has caused this lull in blogging - A long, cold winter where we didn't go anywhere or do anything exciting to blog about on a daily basis; no crafting or creating going on for me to blog about or show off; no schooling topics, crafts, activities since we stopped doing regular lessons since my kids are so smart (hahaha); I've had no bright ideas for topics lately. So, you've been stuck with weekly menus, a recipe here and there, and some random posts.  I'm hopeful that the blog bug will get back under my skin and I'll get creative one again :-) 

I've some plans for the upcoming week so I thought I would share . My husband is having surgery on Thursday, just some minor, unexpected surgery (his back surgery is in June!).  Along with that, my kids are heading to Papa and Nana's house for a few days.  Ironically, it has been planned for months for the kids to go this weekend because I was going to attend a Homeschool conference but now, am going to hang out at home and maybe, maybe, get some things done. 

Here's what is on my radar for the next 5-6 days:

1. Paint the living room - it is still on the radar . .. not even 50% sure it will get done but if I get up on Friday morning and feel like going to buy paint, I will!

2.  Clean, organize, and move a chair into the playroom.  Awhile ago we purchased a small TV for the playroom and it has been a fabulous addition.  Now, I just need to move a few things around and make the room more usable.

3. Pick out, put together and set up a new entertainment center for the Living Room.  Again, this is a 50% item - if I can locate what I want, at the price I want, then we'll get the huge beast out of our living room and put something smaller and cleaner in the space.

4. Finish some final little things in the basement including putting up a photo album on facebook of items I have to sell.

5.  Update the homeschool learning wall and learning stuff.  As well as start to work on lesson plans and a final order of what I need to get before the end of June (I plan on using Back surgery time to get our year planned out so I want all of our books!)

6. Some yardwork.  I'm thinking a trip to the Garden Center and some new plants are in the works.  I also need to get some mulch and get that spread out and plant our tiny little garden.  I might try to enlarge our garden area so I can actually plant enough stuff to make a salad and even can some pickles or something simple but since I have to do it all by hand, well, we will see!

7.  Scrapbook - to be honest, I have already planned to go scrapbook crazy in June during the back surgery time when I have no kids here for over a week.  I can leave it all out on the table and just work on that and Home School planning.  BUT I do have some organizing to do and just putting some albums together.  I would like to get that done this next week.  If I do it with the boys around, they want to look at every album, which is fine, but I don't tend to get much done!

Well, that's my plan.  I will also confess that I'm looking forward to a few days without any kids.  The munchkins that I babysit will be back next week after a three day weekend but a few days with no kids is always a nice break :-)  

Things my kids say

* Yesterday, while reading a book about camping, we learned that Jason and Nate go camping quite frequently and really enjoy it.  No, I have no idea who Jason is but he is a very good (imaginary) friend of Nate's!

* We had some spring thunderstorms during the night recently so I ended up with Josh (who is very scared of storms) and China, the dog (who is even more scared of storms) in the room with me.  Once we were up in the morning - Josh needed to process his thoughts.  First, he asked me if I was scared of storms when I was little, which I was.  So then he said, "So when the storms came you would go sleep with dad?  And then Nate and I would too?  Because Dad is super brave and he was really old - he was 25." hahahaha I find it so humorous how to kids, we have always been together even when we were kids :-)

* My dad gave a perfect description to Josh and Nate recently. Nate lives outside the box; Josh lives inside the box . .. unless Nate pulls him out and makes him play with him HA!  It is so true!  Josh is my realist and Nate, well, his imagination is far greater than anything I've ever seen!

* We've been talking to Josh about obedience a lot lately - mostly because when we tell him to do something (or not do something) he has to do it one more time just to try and prove he is in charge.  Well, recently he stopped as he was heading outside and said, "Mom, I'm almost big enough to obey all the time.  Really, I'm old enough today so I will obey from now on and never ever disobey".  While I appreciate his sincerity I highly doubt I have a life full of obedience in front of me with that kid :-) 

Weekly Menu

Hello!  So last week, before I shopped, I scoured the stores online coupon system, the weekly ad and my own coupons and really went to work on keeping the grocery bill below, well $150.00 for the week.  I did it - by $10.00.  I won't lie.  I got a little giddy as the cashier kept swiping coupons.  I will also not lie and say that I had $20.00 in coupons . . .between rewards, and in-store credits but still, all of that brought that bill down!  I even bought a few things I don't buy on a regular basis (like a Roasted Chicken so my husband could have something different for meals then his standard PB and J!).

I had to change the original plan slightly because I did not buy Pork Chops but just extra Ground Chuck.  Sometimes you just have to buy what's on sale . .. and red tagged!

Here's the plan for the coming week.

Friday - Tacos.  We haven't had them in awhile and the kids love them.

Saturday - Chick-Fil-Lay Nuggets and Fries.  This is something we all enjoy and it really is pretty easy to make.

Sunday - After church I plan on us going out to eat at the Chinese Buffet.  Based on Easter Sunday, I don't think it will be too busy even though it is Mother's Day.  I don't want to cook today :-)

Monday -So, Darryl has finally started to have relief from his stomach issues so we've slowly been adding some things back into the rotation.  Tonight, we'll have just some baked chicken (or grilled, depending on the weather) and then Cheesy Broccoli Rice Casserole and Rolls.

Tuesday -Wednesday - The truth?? I have no idea what we are having for dinner.  I'm going to see what meat is the least expensive and go from there.  At the writing of this, we are anticipating some surgery for my husband within the next week or so . . .so who knows - I might be eating hospital food HA!

Thursday - Soccer, my parents are coming . . .we'll eat out after the game!

May Goals

It's the beginning of May and time to start on some new goals.  My main goal in April was deep cleaning and I'm pretty proud of myself.  No, I didn't finish every room but I did complete the kitchen, which included cleaning out some stuff that was old, seldom used or I had something else that would serve the purpose (for example - I had a small rice cooker; yes it was convenient for making some quick rice but we've found that we like baked brown rice better than white sticky rice so I got rid of that cooker! ); the bedrooms - moving the winter clothes out of the way for the summer stuff; the dining room got a good cleaning and organization; and the basement is pretty fabulous.   First I went through and put everything away and then I've been working on going through every single area and cleaning out the junk that has been laying around.  It looks pretty nice :-)  I still need to do the bathroom and the living room. 

So, what is on the radar for May?  Here's a short list!

1) Paint the living room.  This is a big, huge, gigantic goal but my kids are going away for a few days so I'm planning to paint that week.  We'll going to tackle one wall a day (or maybe two on the weekend!) and get it done.  The plan is to get the huge entertainment center out as well and move in a smaller one that I found. 

2) Deep clean the bathroom.  I have a huge storage cupboard that is not being used wisely right now so I plan on cleaning that out along with just general cleaning.

3) Planting - by the end of May, I want to get some flowers in and our little mini garden planted.  Nate has asked for lettuce, carrots and tomatoes this year.  Not that he eats any of it but he sees it in "Peter Rabbit" and wants to see it grow.  Not to mention sunflowers!!! 

4) Homeschooling - Even though we aren't doing classes right now, I'm trying to get some ideas going and ready for the fall.  Plus I'm hoping to attend the homeschool conference in a couple of weeks and (hopefully) pick up our curriculum books! 

5) Scrapbook - I want to get more done ;-)  I will be honest and say my plan for the time my husband has surgery in June while we have no kids in the house - I plan on scrapbooking a lot.  I have huge goals for that week and half time frame but I'd also like to get some things done now too.  Again, my kids will be gone for a week in May and, during the day while our extra friends are here, I'd like to scrapbook (leaving the painting for after they leave so it can dry by the next morning!

6) Decorating the living room.  We still have extra furniture in the Living Room until Darryl has his surgery but I'd like to start working on picking out photos for the walls and all that fun stuff.

7) Get my piano fixed.  I called on it last week but haven't heard back yet so I need to call again and see when the guy can get out here. 

8)  Fix the cushion on my swing outside - several of the ties have seen better days due to the wear and tear things take with boys.  Just some good solid ribbon sewed on will work wonders!

That should keep me busy ;-) 

Life

So, I had planned - even written on my To Do list for Monday - to write some blog posts and have this weeks posts ready to, well, post.  Then Life happened . . .. a migraine that kinda knocked me out on the couch for the afternoon so I didn't do much of anything. 

I did play legos for a bit because a little four year old cutie pie who goes by Nater Potater said in his sweet voice, "Mom, will you play with me now?".  Kids don't really understand migraines or what they do to a person. 

Beyond that, though, I was pretty much just the popscicle opener for the afternoon.  Yes, my kids eat popscicles like they are going to melt if left in the freezer for longer than 24 hours HA! 

Here's hoping this nasty headache will be gone by the time THIS blog actually posts itself on Tuesday. 

Things My Kids Say

* Did you know you have two sets of shoulders?  Where are the second set, you ask?  Your elbows of course!  Nate will hold his elbows and tell me, "Mom, look these are also shoulders!" HA

* My kids are funny.  That is all there is to it.  I wish I could capture expressions, little sayings, and more but I can't.  Josh makes me laugh out loud daily.  Nate always has some creative idea that comes from his imagination.

* The boys had to go to the vet with us when we took Misty in so they had a few questions about why she didn't come home with us.  We told them that she was too sick so we had to leave her at the vet.  About half way through the week, Nate said, "I heard a cat meow on TV.  It sounds like Misty.  I wonder how she's doing."  He's just so sweet.

* The neighbor has a cat who looks surprisingly like a cat we had when we first got married named Franny.  The boys have looked through photo albums and have seen that cat.  Well, one day, the boys crossed our little street with me to get the mail and the cat starting rubbing all over their legs.  Nate exclaimed, "Mom, this used to be our cat back when we were all kids!!" hahaha  They have no concept of time!

*Nate wiped out on the sidewalk one day this past week.  Wiped. Out.  An elbow and a knee were shredded and he was so mad.  Eventually I heard him yelling to me from his room where he was in bed asking for a drink because, well, he couldn't walk HA!  He even had Josh getting him popscicles  - Josh informed me that "he was takin' care of Nate because he wouldn't be able to walk until tomorrow." hahaha  Even in the shower, I was informed by Josh that Nate needed a stool to sit on so the water wouldn't hurt his knee and I found him in there on the stool with a washcloth covering his knee when it was time to get him out.  Poor kid.  

Food Friday - Pancake Muffins

Pancake Muffins
adapted from Pinterest

This week, over at Kelly's Korner for "Show us your life" She is featuring what to feed your kids - especially lunches!  Well, I have tweaked and changed and tried to create so many lunch ideas that I figured I would share.  In the house, I've gone from a list of about 25 different lunch ideas down to about 8 HA!  I've figured out what the kids love and just rotate those items while trying to put something new in once in a while.  What do we eat . . .well, here's a short list:  Peanut Butter and Jelly, Quesadillas, Chicken Noodle Soup, Hot Dogs, Mac and Cheese, Waffles and Sausage, Pizza, Spaghetti, grilled cheese, and pancakes . . .. I think that's all!  Well, I decided to try something new since my kids DO like pancakes so I took this idea from Pinterest and made Pancake muffins.  I added blueberries to a few of them and those were a hit with the two boys that love fruit!! 

The recipe is pretty straight forward (and technically doesn't count a as a recipe!

Mix up your favorite pancake batter.  Fill mini-muffin tins about 3/4 of the way full.  Add whatever you want on top of the muffins and then bake for about 12-18 minutes at 350 degrees.

These muffins would be great for a brunch since you don't have to stand at a griddle flipping pancakes!