Weekend Fun

This past Saturday we headed to Darryl's mom's house for the day to spend time with his Uncle and his wife as well as the rest of the family.  It dawned a beautiful day - Sunny and cool (my kind of weather!)  After getting the grocery shopping done and a salad made, we hit the road and headed to Grandma and Grandpa's house.  As we were driving down the road Nate pipes up and says, "Mom, lets sing the song I want to sing!" and he started to sing "Over the river and through the woods .  .. "  Of course, Darryl quickly made up new words like "Over the big road (the expressway) and down the road, to Barry County we go . ." hahaha  We sang it the whole way changing the words as we drove along.  On a side note, we tried a new thing for Nate's car sickness.  I picked up a bottle of some stuff you put behind his ears that is supposed to help - for the record, he did not get sick and he usually does so we'll keep using it and see if it works.  If not, we'll find something else just so he doesn't get sick!  We've also noticed that if he rides with his window open, he doesn't seem to get sick so yes, we let him put it down even driving down the expressway (yuck!)

Anyway, here's to our fun! This is the first time that we've been at my Mother-in-laws when we felt like we could just let the boys run.  I felt like I could just make sure I knew where they were but I didn't have to follow them around like puppies :-)  It wasn't long before they came back into the house and handed me their shirts - it was obviously time to go shirtless!

 The theme of the party was "Hawaiian" but to the boys it meant "dance party" HA!  Nate kept asking when we were getting out the dance party stuff out.  Don't worry, eventually we did have a little dance fun on the lawn!

 The boys had strict instructions that they couldn't go down by the lake without either me, Darryl or Grandma so they were beyond excited once we were all outside and they could run down on the grass below the deck. 

My sister-in-law brought her Akita puppy and Nate just adored the sweet thing.  She is a beautiful dog!

 The other purpose of this party was a birthday party for Darryl's Uncle Jim's wife, Janet.  The boys love parties and were watching Grandma light the candles on the cake.  A funny story - Nate came inside and said something about "Daddy's mom and dad are outside."  We just figured he meant Darryl's mom and Charlie, her husband.  Later at dinner, though, Nate said, "Look, there's Grandma talking to daddy's Mom and Dad."  I had to not laugh out loud - he thought Darryl's Uncle and Janet were his mom and dad . .it made us all giggle a little :-)

 The boys love following Grandma around - I even heard the words, "I'm going to follow you everywhere, grandma" said by one of the boys.

 The boys waited and waited and finally we got to go on a boat ride.

They had so much fun walking from one end of the boat to the other, looking over the side. 

 They finally settled in by Grandpa and he let them honk the horn as much as they wanted . . ..

 . . . .and then let the steer the boat too. 

 The whole group!  I love group photos :-)

 This is Darryl's Uncle Jim and his wife Janet.  I love this photo with the boys standing right by them. 

The night ended with a great bonfire and smores.  Josh worked very hard at roasting his own marshmallows and I'm not quite sure how no one ended up with a burning marshmallow in their face but all in all, he did ok :-) 

Homeschool Happenings . . .kinda

We had a busy weekend - so busy that I never got a chance to even write the a simple Father's Day Post for yesterday nor to put together the post I wanted to write for today but just as a teaser .  ..  .

I have 90% of our curriculum in hand.  I'm working on printing some things  . . . .wrap my mind around a timeframe . . .. and gather the last 10% of the items I need.  I've had some true budget blessings like someone actually giving me the phonics curriculum that sells used for $250 or more.  The US history study we will use as a suppliment for several years was 30% off a few weeks ago and the PE supplement I was looking at was also free for Teacher Appreciation Week a few months ago or so  I was also able to find a few things on Amazon for a much lesser price as well. 

With that said, this week we are busy with Vacation Bible School every night this week and a family gathering this coming weekend followed by surgery week.  I'm hoping to get some posts written during the day and even get ahead but I also have lots of projects to finish up and lots of play time with the kids this week too.  It's about time for me to get in that pool since it is warming up this week!

Water Fun

First, let me state that I am LOVING this summer.  The weather is near perfect and by "near perfect" I mean that it has been in the 70's with lots of sunshine and very little humidity.  We have only had to shut up the house and cool it down with the window units one weekend so far which is just fabulous.  I'm soaking up my kind of summer as much as I can because I'm sure the killer heat will show up eventually!

With that said, the sun has made it warm enough outside for the boys to starting asking for some water fun!  Last week we pulled out the sprinkler and boy, did they play in the water for hours!!

 Josh trying to water the garden with the water but instead he watered himself!

 Nate just trying to spray Josh :-)

They loved pulling the sprinkler around the hard and, yes, for the record, my kitchen got a little wet.  Note to self:  Shut the kitchen window when the kids have the sprinkler out hahaha

 Joshua just hanging out and having fun!

The boys also have been asking for me to put the pool up.  I bought a new pool this year -one with a filter and all that fun stuff so I don't have to empty it every day like I did with the little plastic pool we've used the last few years.  I kept saying that it takes more work but Nate told me that it was "Three easy steps Mom" and proceeded to show me on the box that you just had to 1)Blow it up 2)Lay it out 3)and put water in it.  I finally told them we would do it on Sunday.  Now, to keep it real, I was beyond excited to get up on Sunday morning to a rainy morning and was already planning my afternoon of watching TV, reading, and relaxing on the wonderful rainy Sunday . . .. except my boys must have prayed extra hard because the sun was shining by the time we got home and, while I was cleaning up from lunch, they hauled all of the pull stuff out to the yard.  Their excited was unmeasurable as we worked to set upt.  Josh kept saying, "Mom, I'm your helper, I'll do whatever you need me to do." HA!

We worked and worked and finally got it set up but no one could swim in it on Sunday because it had to fill!  I finished filling it up on Monday and told the boys that they couldn't swim in it until we did the chemicals.  But, then I got to thinking, I filled it with the same water they take a bath in HA!  Yep, we fill it from the kitchen sink so that the water comes through the water softener.  Darryl and I both said - Go swimming!! - especially since they wouldn't be able to swim in it on Tuesday while we got the chemicals stabilized.  Which, for the record, made me feel DUMB!  Darryl figured it all out, though, and now we have crystal clear water and it is wonderful!

Food Friday - Slow Cooker Hawaiian BBQ Chicken Sandwiches

Slow Cooker Hawaiian BBQ Chicken Sandwiches
adapted from Eat At Home

This is a super simple recipe but it tastes so good!  Because it didn't need to cook quite as long as a lot of Slow Cooker Recipes, I was able to use this for a "Sunday after church" lunch!  I served this with "Chinese Coleslaw",  fruit and chips. 

Ingredients

• 2 - 2.5 lbs. boneless chicken breast
• 1-2 cups barbecue sauce
• hoagie buns
• pineapple slices
• provolone cheese slices

Instructions

1. Put the chicken and bbq sauce in the slow cooker.
2. Cook on high for 5-6 hours or low for 7-8 hours.
3. Shred meat with a fork.
4. Toast buns.
5. Place meat on buns. Top with pineapple and cheese.
6. Broil until cheese melts.

Weekly Menu!

Another good week of food prep.  The fruit is still not at its summer best but that's ok, I'm still trying!  This week I prepped a couple of bowls of strawberries, pineapple and a cantelope (which needed to ripe a few more days but what can you do??).  Also, lettuce for salads, fresh veggies (carrots, broccoli and cauliflower) along with some homemade french onion dip for those veggies.  I also picked up a nice pork loin so I divided that up for the freezer.  The only thing not in the picture is some boiled eggs that I also use on salads throughout the week.  Oh, and raspberries that I had already eaten by the time I got around to doing food prep!

Oh, and remember I said once that we would never go thirsty in this house?  Well . . .we almost did! ;-)

THIS is what our fridge looked like last Friday afternoon.  It gets worse - that little bit of milk was to use for Waffles for dinner which left some Kool-Aid/Crystal light, gaterade and a bottle of Pepsi HA!  I was very thankful for our water distiller because I know I could at least make Kool-aid!! 


This next week is filled with Vacation Bible School (VBS).  That means that the boys and I have to be heading out of the house by 5:15pm Sunday-Thursday so dinner is going to be simple.

Friday - Something simple for the kids like Mac and Cheese and Darryl and I are ordering in!!!  (I have to take the boys to do a little shopping for Father's day  so dinner needs to be easy!)

Saturday - We have a family party at my Mother-in-laws house so dinner will be there!  I'm going to make "Ken's Fruit Salad" and take a few bags of chips.

Sunday - Happy Father's Day! Darryl chose going out to the Chinese Buffet for dinner and I won't complain about that!

Monday - I will pick up a Rotisserie Chicken and some steakhouse rolls on Sunday for Darryl to use for his dinners.  It gives him something simple and he will cook up some veggies to go along with it and he'll eat that for 2-3 nights.  Tonight, I'll cook some chicken nuggets and fries for the boys and I.

Tuesday - Mac and Cheese.  I'll add some chopped Ham to mine.

Wednesday - Spaghetti for the boys.  I'll probably have a can of soup and crackers (I'm not a huge spaghetti fan!)

Thursday - Frozen Waffles and Sausage/bacon.

I'm hopeful that with a week like this - our grocery budget will be low too not to mention that there were some great sales last week so I stocked up on a few things. 

A Little Family Fun Day

Last Saturday we took time for a much needed Family Fun Day.  As a one car family, the boys and I don't get to go many places since Darryl, obviously,  has the car so on those rare Saturdays when he isn't working and we have nothing else going on we try to do something fun.  We've also been known to take off after church on Sundays and do some fun things too!  The added kick to this family fun day is that we wanted to do some things as a family before Darryl is laid up for awhile with the upcoming back surgery.

We headed to town with plans in place but then, we got caught in a pretty big traffic jam that set us behind just enough that we switched some plans around and that ended up being a better plan anyway.  We started by stopping at Smashburger for lunch. This is our favorite place to go for burgers, by far.  The boys love it too and the staff thinks the boys are fun and always talk to them while we are there.  Now, for this family fun day, we asked the boys what they wanted to do and we were given two very specific answers.  Josh has been asking to go to Chuck E Cheese for months so we did that next.  With the help of a coupon, I was able to get tons and tons of tokens for not a lot of money.  Our plan was to play until their tokens were gone but they had so many we ended up leaving with tokens left for next time.  What was great this time (it's been well over a year since we've gone to Chuck E Cheese) is that the boys were much more self sufficient with picking what they are going to play, putting their tokens in and just playing.  Surprisingly, the place was empty which made it nice too.

 Darryl hung out with Nate most of the time while we were there.  Nate did find a favorite game - it was one that handed out tickets like they were candy! 

 Josh actually made a basket - I was pretty impressed.

 Gotta love that concentration . . .. and that tongue!

 "Hi Mom!"  Nate enjoyed climbing through the tunnels too!

  Darryl and I had fun - we got to play Air Hockey with the boys and laughed so much.

The second requested place was . . .Catch Air.  We had visited there several months ago (and blogged about it too!) and the boys have been asking to go back.  It is such an awesome place because the kids can just run and play (and Darryl and I can just sit and talk . . and rest HA).  Again, it was empty (we then realized that there were two HUGE events going on in town  which is why the areas we were at were empty - it was kinda nice!) and they were giving 25% off  as a special deal which was an added surprise.

The boys played a lot then they wanted to take Darryl around and show him fun stuff.  Then, they talked me into going down the huge plastic slide with them and it was a riot.  We held hands and one would sit with me and we would FLY down that slide.  So much fun!

From there, it was time for some dinner so we hit Red Lobster for some Fish and Chips (well, for Darryl and I).  Josh loves fried shrimp so he got some popcorn shrimp and Nate, well, he ate Fries HA!  (His favorite food!).  Even though we were all tired, we couldn't forgo our tradition - we drove by Krispy Kreme and . . the light was on so it was time for a donut stop!  Josh loves his Chocolate Glazed Sprinkle Donut and Nate loves to watch them be made.

A Tribute to my Brothers

My brother, sister-in-law and nephew are returning from Brazil, where they serve as missionaries, today so I wanted to give a tribute to all THREE of my fabulous brothers.

My oldest brother, Kelly, is nine years old than me so he will tell you that he really doesn't remember me at home very well since he left when I was just a kid. I actually have a lot of memories of him - for example, when we slid into a ditch on an icy road; when he took me out on a date before he left for college to my favorite restaurant . .. McDonald's. . .. and we even dressed up; when we were taking him to college and his car almost rolled over a mountain taking him and several others with it.  (noticed I said "almost" . . God stopped that car from rolling!).  I loved spending time with him and his family as I got older - I was able to go camping with them quite a few times and later, after they were on the mission field, had the wonderful opportunity to visit them twice in Brazil.  Nothing made me prouder then to sit in a church service and hear my big brother preach in Portuguese.  To see him in HIS element doing what God called him to do was just amazing.  I miss him a lot while he is away; wish he could see my kids grow up every single day; and love the fact that my oldest is "just like Uncle Kelly".  Kel is the only person who is allowed to call me "Jack-Baby".

My middle brother is Jeff.  Jeff always had a watchful eye out for me growing up.  One of those memories is when we were standing at the bus stop and he would always give me the universal signal to push my glasses up on my nose so I didn't look quite so much like a total geek!!  I've always bragged about Jeff because he is, well, smart.  I felt like it gave me a super power or something to say, "Well, my brother finished college in three years because he tested out of one year." (Considering the fact that I failed the placement test in English in college and had to take bonehead English, well . . enough said).  Or I would say, "Jeff remembers everything he reads."  Well, he proved his smartness by accomplishing something none of the rest of us have come close to  - he finished his doctorate recently.  So yes, now I call him "Doc" and yes, I have asked him, 'What's up Doc?" just for fun! And Yes, I'm extremely proud of him and what he has accomplished! I was able to spend a lot of time with Jeff and my sister-in-law Nora through the years whether it was spending the weekend at their apartment when they lived in Michigan or spending spring break at their house in Florida several times.  Jeff is a fabulous cook so any stay at their house was always filled with great food.  I wish he and his family lived even just a little closer so we could all get together more! One last fun thing - Josh will ask all kinds of questions and, when we get a little tired of answering things like, "What's the biggest number ever?" we say, "Ask Uncle Jeff because he knows everything!"

My youngest brother, Ken, is STILL four years older then me so he is STILL older :-)  Ken and I grew up together more than the other brothers because, well, we were closer in age.  Ken was my protector growing up, and probably, still is if I needed him to be.  I remember him "throwing"a  few kids against the bus window because they would pick on me (yes, I was a nerdy, geeky, kid).  I think he probably got sick of my hanging around him sometimes but I thought he was pretty cool especially when he would sing "Barbara Ann" on the bus every morning and all of the kids loved it. Then there was the time that he messed up his ankle playing basketball the same night as my induction to the Junior National Honor Society and I was so sad he couldn't make it BUT when I went on stage to get my certificate, I heard him cheering!  He had my dad drive to the school after the ER just in case they could make it to see me!   Another great memory is the first summer I attended camp when he was the lead counselor.  I was treated extra nice because of who my brother was and that was awesome!   I also had the benefit of having Ken on staff during my freshman year at the college.  He helped me navigate through that first trying year and really, helped me succeed at things I didn't want to succeed at . . .like working in the kitchen.  This carried on to my first year of teaching where Ken and Lynnette lived just a few minutes from me and were always there for me whenever I needed them.  One of the great things I've been able to do is watch Ken go from that camp counselor to a fabulous youth pastor to an incredible Pastor that he is today.   I have told him more than once that I try to let my mind wander while he preaches but I just can't . . .he keeps me interested and yes, even convicts me often.  I'm blessed that Ken and his family live close enough that we are able to get together with them more frequently than the others and I don't take that for granted! 


Oh how I wish that we all lived close enough together to go out to lunch once a month and to have huge family dinners once a month.  Instead we are limited to times when we can all gather - especially when Kel returns from the mission field for a time back in the states.  I've already told them all that we WILL get together at least once in the next 6 months for lunch.  Just the four of us.  I'm hoping that maybe we can do it twice  . .. we'll see!  There is nothing like family and, as a sister with three brothers, there is nothing better than that either.  I'm so thankful that God blessed me with brothers - Kel, Jeff and Ken.