September 11th

A simple photo such as things can bring back so many gut wrenching memories from that day.  I remember where I was when I heard, who told me, and the shock as I finally got out of work and started hearing and seeing the stories.

Today is a day to remember all that was lost on that one day.  To keep it in the forefront and never forget.

What I'm reading (or Not)

So, here's the deal.  I started out the year with a great list of books to read.  I even started out reading them!  Something happened and it is called "Darryl's Surgery".  Seriously!  You would think that spending 5 days in a hospital I would have spent hours and hours reading but I haven't cracked open a book since June 25th.  That is just crazy coming from me because I LOVE to read!  I was trying to figure it out and there are a couple of key things.  1) Darryl is home.  I do most of my reading while eating lunch (by the time I get the kids settled down and eating and my lunch on the table . . .they kids are done so I get to read for a bit!).  I don't read when Darryl is eating with us because we all talk and eat together.  2)  I always read for 30-45 minutes in the afternoon for my "down time".  Now, we have school during that time so I really don't get that chance to read like I did before.  3) I stay up later because Darryl is staying up since he isn't working.  Before, he went to bed at 8:30 so by about 10:00, I would be ready to lay down and I would read for an hour.  Now I just stay up until 11:00 watching TV or playing a computer game.

Now that September is here, I'm ready to get back into some books. 

Well, my brother wrote a book!!!  So, of course, this is on the very TOP of my reading list!  I'm really excited to read it and then promote it for all of my readers. 

I have two other "must reads" on my list this month and you've seen them before:

I'm adding these to my "September Goals" list - to read the above three books by the end of September.  I also want to read for fun.  I've been saving a lot of books to my wish list for my Kindle and need to find a really good one to download and read! 

Camping - Fun Fun Fun!

I've shared all of the planning and activities and food from our camping trip so now it's time to share the fun we had over the weekend.  We learned a lot, made short lists of things we want to do differently, and remember things we used to enjoy doing while camping.  But, most importantly, we had fun.

 All of us worked together to get the fire started - the boys and I went searching for some sticks and dried bark around the campsite (Ok, the boys rode bikes HA).  Darryl had me set up the wood and he got the fire going.

 Nate did finally start to help me some to search for some small sticks.

 Josh was SOOO tired (haha) that he needed to rest for a bit while the fire started to burn.

 Our "new to us" camper.  Two of the canopy poles would not open up so our canopy was very tilty.  It worked though and that's all that mattered (And we can easily replace the poles before next summer!)

 Nate set up a camp light and enjoyed playing in the sand in the dark.

 Darryl and Josh.  We took Josh camping when he was about 9 months old - Darryl sat and held him by the fire just like this photo.  (Except he was MUCH smaller!)

Our lights!  Over the coming years we plan on making our camper notably ours but for now, these little lights worked.  I have some other lights picked out and want to get a flag to put outside and we want to "name" our camper too!

 Saturday the boys LOVED riding their bikes around.  We happened to be near a turn around on the road which gave the boys lots of space to ride while still being in our site.  They loved the freedom of just being able to ride their bikes all over.

One of the things that Darryl and I always loved was taking a short walk out to the pier and walk along the water.  We introduced that tradition to the boys.  They loved the short walk but were not quite as enthralled with the pier and channel as we always are but at least there were some HUGE sailboats that came by to entertain them!

 (My all time favorite photo - I didn't even know I got this photo until I downloaded photos after we got home.  That boy can jump!)

 Once we ate lunch and went to the store, we came back to the campsite and got ready to go to the beach.  The boys and I headed down to the water while Darryl stayed up in the pavilian at the park.  I went in the water with the boys and we had so much fun.  At one point, I turned around and there was a HUGE wave coming.  I grabbed Nate's hand and told Josh to run to the shore.  Had I not been holding Nate, it would have gone over his head and knocked the poor kid down!  The waves went all the way up on shore and got our stuff wet!  The waves kept coming for a few minutes and we had a blast!  The boys even made a couple of trips running in the sand up to tell Darryl things - I'm not sure how they had the energy to do that!

More bike riding fun after the beach!

 Who is this kid?  Every once in awhile we get a glimpse of what the boys will look like at 16 and this is one of those times.

 Yep, more bikes!  This time we let them ride their bikes out to the pier.

 I wanted to get a great shot of the boys . . .. well, this is the best they would give me.

While Darryl and I started packing up, the boys had fun in the sand.  I turned around and saw Josh on the bike, throwing sand back at Nate who was holding the umbrella.  It was so cute!

That was our adventure.  It was a ton of fun and we are still holding out to get to go one more time this season! 

Homeschool Happenings Week 2

After taking Monday off, we got back to the books on Tuesday.  The boys were a little silly again but are slowing getting into a routine.  They love singing our Phonics ABC song and Nate asked several times to sing it throughout the day.

 This week, I introduced their Handwriting books.  Josh really has great control with the pencil so this is great review for him.  Nate is struggling with holding his pencil correctly so we are working on that skill alot.  Because of that, his letters are a little shaky but I'm already seeing improvement. 

 The view of the table while we have class.  The plan of doing our "Fred" Math first saving worksheets till the end of class has been great.  This allows the boys to work at their own speed without having to wait for each other. 

 Notice the tongue?  When he is concentrating the tongue always comes out.

One of the benefits of homeschool?  Going to school without your shirt on!  The boys love to be "shirtless".

Nate is my "bouncy" kid.  When we work at the table he literally bounces on his feet and it is a struggle for him to concentrate especially when it comes to handwriting.  He asked to move to the desk and he became a different kid.  He could sit still and finished his worksheet in 2 minutes instead of 20.  So, I have a feeling he may end up at the desk often.

In my planning I unrealistically planned that we would do some sort of craft/cooking/fun activity on Fridays - kinda like some science or social studies related idea.  Well.  by the time we get to Friday, we are ready to be done.  I need time to get things done; the boys just want to play; it's nice to just relax.  So this week, we didn't do anything on Friday - the boys enjoyed the pool for about 2 hours and, considering it may be the last time the weather is that warm, I'm glad they got to do that on Friday.  Most likely as the days get colder and winter keeps us in the house more, we'll add some fun activities on Friday afternoons but for now, the best thing for little boys is to play and play hard!

Things my Kids Say

* We were getting ready for soccer last week and Nate wanted to get his own stuff on.  He was putting on his ankle guard and said, "Look mom, this strap goes over my hood."  Then he pointed at his . . .heel . . and said, "This is called your hood mom."  I tried really hard not to laugh!!

* Darryl gave the boys lunch on Saturday.  Nate said he didn't want anymore mac and cheese because he was "Hull".  So later Darryl has him if he was still "Fungry." hahaha  I love Nate's words!!

Camping - Activities

In order to keep the boys entertained on our camping trip a few weeks ago, I scoured Pinterest and read blogs to find some fun things to do outside.

After setting up, going out to dinner, and finally getting a fire going the boys and I sat down to make a craft.  It was a simple lightening bug that I found over at Crafts for All Seasons.  I ended up having to do most of the work on these but the boys got to pick out their colors of pipe cleaners and how they wanted the wings taped on.  They also loved picking out the glow sticks to put inside.  A fun thing about this craft is that on Saturday night, they picked out new glow sticks to put inside so they got a lot of play time out of this little craft.

After eating breakfast on Saturday and cleaning up, the boys played with toys I had packed for them - I had shopped at the Dollar Store and the summer clearance over the course of a few weeks and was able to get things like Magnifying glasses, Army Guys and little toys and trucks for next to nothing ($1.00 each!) which made for lots of fun - we worked on a nature craft.  I found this idea in "passing" as I read through a ton of blogs and did not save the link (sorry!).  The boys rounded up some leaves and sticks to make their "Weird Animal".  They laid the items out on a sheet of contact paper and added as many eyes as they wanted.  Once they declared they were done, I covered the whole thing with another sheet of contact paper and cut it out.  The best part is that it tied into their VBS lessons this summer . . "Even if you are weird, Jesus loves you" LOL

I had mentioned in a previous camping post about Saturday evening and how it kinda started dragging.  We then went and had ice cream before coming back to camp for fun.

Well, I had seen on a few blogs to get Glow in the Dark bubbles.  I checked them out on Amazon and they were pricey plus the reviews weren't great.  Guess what I happened to find on clearance for $1.25 at Meijer?  Yep!  Glow in the Dark Bubbles!  I actually forgot I had them until I went digging through my craft bag Saturday evening.  I mixed the stuff up and it looks fabulous in the bottle.  The bubbles don't really glow that well in the dark night - you probably need a black light - but when they popped on anything they left behind glow in the dark goo :-)  We all had streaks and splatters on us so we laughed a lot!  We also got out more glow sticks and had fun with those too.  So, if you find the bubble mix for sale or really cheap - it is a fun thing to use :-)

When we told the boys we wouldn't be going to church on Sunday because we would be camping, Josh suggested we have our own service "Just like church".  So we did.  I took the boys Hymn Book that we sing out of most nights, our Storybook Bible and picked out a craft and we had "church" on Sunday.  The story had to do with the storm while the disciples were out on the boat so we made fish.  It was the perfect craft because it was simple and quick.  They still have their fish two weeks later and love them.

I had taken a bag full of things - quite a few we didn't use so I plan on putting those away for a future trip.

Food Friday - BBQ Chicken Pizza

BBQ Chicken PIzza
adapted from The Pioneer Woman

  It is no secret that I love pizza.  It's one of those foods that I could eat daily and never get tired of it.  (And when the boys are gone, I have been known to do just that!).  Through the years I've tried my hand at making homemade pizza dough but have found that the Pillsbury Pizza Crust in the tube is better (and easier) than anything I have made.  Anyway, this pizza really caught my attention as something new and different to try and I was not disappointed.  It was so tasty - the BBQ Sauce (Nothing but Sweet Baby Ray's Honey BBQ in this house!) gets that smokey sweetness as it cooks which just makes it so tasty.  Besides not making the crust from scratch a few other changes I made to the recipes is that I did not put cilantro on top (not really a fan of soapy tasting herbs on my food) and I used leftover chicken from a Rotisserie Chicken that I had in the freezer which made it super easy!  Oh, this recipe is written for two small crusts - if you use the pillsbury tube crust, just put all of the toppings on one crust since it is a larger crust.

 

Ingredients

• 1 whole Recipe For Pizza Crust  (The Pioneer Woman Recipe makes two crusts)
• 2 whole Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breasts
• 1/2 cup Barbecue Sauce
• Olive Oil, For Drizzling
• Salt For Sprinkling
• 16 ounces, weight Fresh Mozzarella Cheese, Sliced Thinly
• 1/2 whole Red Onion, Cut In Half And Sliced Very Thin
• Chopped Cilantro, to taste

Preparation Instructions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Salt chicken breasts on both sides, then place in an ovenproof dish. Pour BBQ sauce over the breasts and turn them over to coat. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until chicken is done. Remove from oven and cut into a fine dice. Set aside.
Increase oven temperature to 500 degrees.
Roll/stretch out one pizza crust. Lay it on a sheet pan drizzled with olive oil. Drizzle a little olive oil on the crust, then sprinkle on a little salt.
Spoon a couple of tablespoons of extra BBQ sauce on the crust and spread it evenly. Top sauce with half the sliced mozzarella. Sprinkle on half the diced chicken and thinly sliced red onion.
Sprinkle again with a little salt, then bake for 15 to 17 minutes, or until crust is golden brown and toppings are bubbly.
Remove from the oven and sprinkle on plenty of chopped cilantro. Cut into squares and serve immediately. Repeat with other crust and other ingredients, or save for another time.