Updating the Recipe Tabs on this Blog

I'm working this week on updating the recipe tabs on the top of the blog so that you, if you feel like it, can actually find the recipes I post.  It will also allow me to link recipes to the weekly menu for easy access.

So for now, "What we are eating" is under construction :-)

As I go through all of my recipe posts, I'm only linking the ones we actually still eat.  I've found some that I made a second time and we didn't love so those will quietly go away.  I try to keep the links up for the things we love!  I'm made it through April 2012 (working backwards) so I have most of the recipes linked and plan to finish it up by next Wednesday!

Teaching Tuesdays - Week 5

This past week was officially week five of homeschooling but it went just a little differently.

Yep, those are my two crazy boys but they weren't at home!  They went to Papa and Nana's for an unplanned few days.  My parents were at my house a week ago Saturday to help do a few things and, more importantly, bring me a piano and a chair and ottoman.  As the day went on, Josh kept asking if they could go home with Papa and Nana.  I finally told him to talk to Nana and, of course she agreed ;-)

There were some great things . .. learning experiences . . .that happened:

1) It was raining all the way home so the boys helped Papa drive.  They told him when to turn on his windshield wipers, when to turn them off and even told him he should pull off the road (which he didn't).  I think my dad LOVED it HA!

2) They got to travel to their Uncle Kel's house to pick up their cousin.  I think unexpected extra family time is fabulous.  The boys love their Uncle Kel so seeing him is always a big bonus!

3) The boys planted some Crocus bulbs in our "crop circle".  I took down the pool while they were gone so now we have a perfectly round circle of dirt in the yard.  They wanted to plant seeds (and they did . . sunflower and . . well, peanut . .seeds.  What?  all I had was peanuts in the house HA!) so I bought them some blubs that will come up early in the spring before we put the pool up again.

My original plan was to do some school on Thursday and Friday but, honestly, on Thursday the boys played and played and PLAYED so I let them, play.  Then we normally don't have school on Friday anyway.  I looked at where we were in my year plan and we are more than on schedule plus I had planned for this next week to be a "free week" and now we'll have class! 

Some Simple Fall Decorations to make

I've been trying to figure out recently why I don't get nearly the same amount of things done that I used to get done.  I finally figured  it out.  My kids don't take naps.  There was a fairly short period of time where both boys went down for a two hour nap (at LEAST that long) at the exact same time which meant I had two hours to work on crafts, scrapbook, work in the yard or, well, just sit outside and read (and get a tan!).  Now that just doesn't happen.  They boys are almost to a stage now where I can work on crafts and they don't try to take over . .. almost but not quite.  :-) 

So, for this first installment of "Make it Monday" I thought I would share two very simple Fall Crafts I made several years ago.  They are still two of my favorite decorations to put out at this time of they year so even though they are simple, I still love them!

 The mason jar Jack-o-Lantern's are so adorable and so easy to make!  All you need is a few canning jars of varying sizes, some spray paint, Ribbon or Raffia, and Glad "Stick and Seal".

Very simply, cut out the shapes you need from the press and seal and stick them onto the mason jars.  Use spray paint to paint the entire outside of the jar.  Once dry, remove the press and seal pieces.  Tie ribbon or raffia around the neck of the jar.  Feel free to add tealights or electric candles inside the jar for added effect. 

The wood block pumpkins are beyond easy.  Just cut some 2x4 (or any wood in the scrap pile that is thick enough to stand up on its own).  Spray paint the wood orange, cut off some small tree limbs and hot glue to the top of the wood and add some raffia for something extra.  Super cute and so very easy!

Things my kids say

* Recently, when the boys were at my parents, Josh told Nana that he and Nate were now married.  She asked him what that meant and he said that it just meant that they can live together now.  Where do they get this stuff?

* Again, my mom was talking to the boys and told them that Darryl was going back to work.  Josh was all excited because "Now that Dad is going back to work we can buy stuff again."  Out of the mouth of babes . . .I've been going through shopping withdrawal!. 

* The other day I heard a drawer full of legos hit the bedroom floor followed by, "I didn't expect that happen!" (said by Nate)  The good news is that the boys then played for hours with all of the Legos!

* If you know the tune to Jesus Loves Me, sing it to these words. "Jesus Loves me and I know, God still sees us all the time, Nation wide is on your side and the cat is running fast.  Give me a zinger in this game so I can beat dad once again and God does good things even when I still ask why."  LOLOL  Those are just random things Josh has been signing to that tune ALL DAY LONG!!! (At one point he asked me if I liked his singing and of course, I said yes!)

* One of the things Josh told me when they came home this week was that he told Papa and Nana that he would always obey and would stop asking me "WHY" when I told him to do something.  Well, on Thursday of this past week I asked him to do something and said, "Why?".  Nate (also known as the Holy Spirit a times to all of us . . .. hehehehe) pipes up with, "Josh you told Pap and Nana you would not ask mom Why anymore."  Do you know what Josh did?  He got a piece of paper and made a "No Why" sign - he wrote the word "Why" on the paper and then put a circle with a line through it over top of the word.  He said he would carry it with him so he wouldn't forget :-)

Family Fun - It's Soccer Season

We signed the boys up for Fall Soccer since they enjoyed it last season.  Josh enjoys soccer and is very competitive but he is extremely excited about playing T-Ball in the spring.  Nate enjoys the "idea" of soccer but it isn't his favorite thing in the world.

 Our first week of soccer was interrupted by a Thunderstorm.  We were all sent to our vehicles for 20 minutes until it passed.

 Did someone say football? 

 Nate is playing much better this time around - he actually ran after the ball instead of picking flowers :-)

They both got to throw the ball in at some point.

The second week was COLD!  My parents were able to attend the game which thrilled the boys.  Nana was their biggest cheerleader that's for sure!

The past two weeks have been beautiful.  The perfect weather for soccer - not too hot and not too cold!  We still have two more weeks left and so far (even though they don't keep score . . .) the Earthquakes have won every game :-)  (The parents keep score HA!)

A Change Up

My blog has lacked a little bit over the past several months.  The easy thing to say, and it is true, is that "life got in the way."  We have been very boring people for the past year which just means we haven't done much.  We are hopeful now that Darryl is slowly getting back to work we can start planning things like fun little day trips and activities, crafting plans for me and other fun things along the way.  I've been re-hashing ideas for my blog and this is what I'm hoping to start posting:

Monday - "Make it Monday".  Since I accomplish most of my crafting or creativity on the weekends I decided to make Monday the day I post about it.  It might be a holiday craft, an organization idea or some cleaning tip I picked off of Pinterest and tried.

Tuesday - "Teaching Tuesdays".  I'll share our homeschool adventure from the week before. Picture of just our general day but also any fun stuff we do like crafts, experiments or field trips.  This might also include my simple reviews of our curriculum or ideas for organizing homeschool chaos in a tiny space.

Wednesday - "What we're eating" I don't always have new recipes to share but when I do they will show up on Wednesdays.  I may also just share fun snack ideas, my favorite kitchen tools and total failures that I try :-)

Thursday - "Thoughtful Thursdays"  This is the place I'll share everything from a book review to what I'm reading to what I'm learning in a Bible Study to some other truth I want to share.  This is also where my goals for the month will show up and also the recap :-)

Friday - "Food Friday".  But in this case it will be our weekly menu.  I hope to clean up my "recipe" section on the blog (I got lazy with that!) so I can provide links for the recipes I'm using again (and again).

Saturday and Sunday - These days are reserved for posts about the family.  The best snap shots of the week, some adventure we went on, "Things my Kids say", holiday posts ect.

I plan on putting this new plan into place starting Saturday with lots of fun pictures!  If I miss a day here or there it's ok - I may not have anything to share or sometimes, life gets busy.  With homeschool, babysitting, AWANA, soccer going on, Choir Practice and more . . .days are sometimes short!

Weekly Menu

Last weeks plan went nothing like, well, planned.  It was all for good though.  My parents came over this past Saturday to bring me some furniture (my piano!!).  As they were getting ready to leave Josh asked (for about the 10th time) if they could go home with Papa and Nana.  I told him it was up to Nana and only if she didn't have plans otherwise he would have to wait.  Well, of course Nana said yes HA!  If you have followed this blog for any length of time you know that when my kids go away, I don't cook!  We are still being super conservative with money so we knew that we had to keep it on the down and cheap :-)  Sunday afternoon, after church, we went to the Chinese Buffet.  It's always nice when just the two of us get to go because it is easy . . and cheap :-)  We can eat there for less then it costs to eat at a Fast Food Joint :-)  Then, we decided our one "date night" dinner we would go to Outback.  We have eaten there twice in the last 4 months and really liked it.  Monday night, it was not that great.  My steak was terrible.  Because of that, though, my meal was comped so our dinner, which included two salads and two meals came to under $20.00!!!  Finally, Tuesday was Darryl's first day back to work; he has been craving Jet's Pizza and we have been waiting for him to go back to work so we could get one (since he has to get it before heading home) so yes, we had pizza!  Anyway, that means that this weeks menu will look very familiar!

Saturday - We will have some family time today.  We have options - an event called Art Prize begins this week so maybe we will head into see some art or we will head out to some fun park or even some little fair.  What we eat will be determined by what we do :-)

Sunday - Roast, Carrots, Noodles and Rolls YUM!

Monday - I have a hair appointment so we'll just have Hot Dogs and Chips.  That way Darryl can feed the boys and I can eat when I get home.

Tuesday - BBQ Chicken on the grill, Baked Potatoes, Corn and Rolls

Wednesday -  Meatball Soup and Bread

Thursday - Soccer :-)  (We are coming to the end!) We'll get fast food - this is something the boys really enjoy being able to do - go out to eat after they play

Friday - Tacos!!!!!