Family Fun - The Life of Our Pets

 Truth be told, we love our pets.  Harley, our cat, has very quickly won a special place in our hearts.  Josh is especially found of him and loves to carry him around.  Harley always follows us into the boys room at night - in the photo above he is talking to me and giving me "what for" !  Recently, Josh was laying on his bed playing a game when Harley jumped up next to him, cuddled up, and went to sleep.  Yes, that made Josh one happy kid!

 Such an adorable face!!!

 As with any cat, they have to take over anything new.  Even with all of the laundry out of the basket, Harley curled up and went to sleep. 

And then there is China.  HA!  I will often find her in our room sound asleep with her head under the bed.  After all, if she can't see us, we can't see her :-)  This is her place to go to get away from a very noisy, busy house!

Weekly Menu

Last week was an easy, relaxing cooking week.  We ate out a little and I tried a new pasta recipe too.  (Yes, I cooked one day while the kids were gone after all!)  We are back into a normal routine again after a few busy weeks.

Saturday -We are going to a free concert (A friend from College sings in the group) so we'll grab either Red Robin or Smash burger or maybe even head to the Beltline "Bar" for our favorite Mexican food . . .it's been a LONG time!

Sunday - Cheesy Cauliflower Soup and Ham Sammies

Monday - Quesadillas, Roasted Veggies, and Chips

Tuesday -Chicken and Dumplings  . . .and Mac and Cheese for the boys.

Wednesday - Chicken Noodle soup (my favorite thing to do with leftover Chicken and Dumplings!)

Thursday -Pork Loin in the crock pot, brown rice, veggies and rolls

Friday -  Taco day! 

Remembering

This photo was taken in September of this year and it is of my dad's 5 sisters.  Little did they know that this would be the last time they would all be together again.  My Aunt JoAnn, the one on the left, passed away almost two weeks ago.  Aunt JoAnn was the youngest of my dad's 8 siblings (yes, 9 kids in all - 4 boys and 5 girls!) and it wasn't expected.  She was attending her granddaughters birthday party, walked in, sat down, felt a sharp pain in her chest and was gone.  I didn't get to see my Aunt often - but I know she appreciated the yearly Christmas letters I sent and loved seeing photos of the boys.  It saddens me to think that at the next family reunion (someone needs to get to planning that thing!) there will only be 8 siblings left.

This is such a great reminder to each of us to take time and share love with those we are closest too.  Don't like little things keep you apart (or big things for that matter) but, rather, take time to love, care, and have an interest in the lives of those who are part of your family.

What we are eating - Ranch Tacos

Ranch Tacos
adapted from Real House Moms

As you know, we love tacos in this house.  Friday night is taco night - at least that is the tradition I am working on installing into our home.  The boys even talk about it now and, if I happen to not serve them, they ask why we aren't having tacos!  This chicken taco recipe is very good.  The flavor is fabulous, the ranch dressing keeps the chicken moist and flavorful.  This would be an easy recipe to use left over chicken in or a rotisserie chicken.  I had chicken breast in the freezer so I took that out and cooked it up earlier in the day to use in the recipe.  I did actually use extra ranch dressing on top of my taco instead of sour cream and it was so yummy! 

Ingredients

• 4 chicken breasts, cut into chunks
• olive oil
• 1.25 oz Ortega 40% less sodium taco seasoning mix
• ½ cup ranch dressing
• tortillas (or hard taco shells)
• toppings-additional ranch dressing, tomatoes, lettuce, shredded cheddar cheese (you could also add olives, avocado, and any other taco/salad toppings you like)

 

Instructions

1. Heat a skillet with olive oil over medium high heat
2. Add pieces of chicken and cook completely
3. Drain
4. Sprinkle the taco seasoning mix over the cooked chicken (DO NOT add water)
5. Stir the chicken and cook for 5-7 minutes until all the chicken is coated and the powder is stuck to the chicken pieces
6. Add ranch dressing and stir until well combined
7. Cook for an additional 2-3 minutes
8. Fill tortillas or taco shells with chicken, a little additional ranch, and taco toppings (or make into a salad with the chicken, ranch, and toppings)
9. Enjoy

 

Teaching Tuesday - Week 9 (A Birthday and Family get-away!)

This past week was an "off week" for our homeschool.  It was Josh's birthday and we planned a much needed yet last minute family get away.  Yes, it was planned and has been planned for several months but we didn't even know if we could go until just a few days prior.  It all was dependent on how work went for my husband after being off so long for surgery.  God provided through some great work days, an anonymous gift from someone at church and turning in a years worth of change.  Our "vacation" was much needed and much enjoyed!

 This is the view from our hotel room.  We had an awesome lakeview room that did not disappoint.  Added to the excitement was the seagulls that were very well fed the whole time we were there :-)  

 Before we left home, we stopped at the grocery store and Josh got to pick out his cake.  He has been "watching" the pumpkin cake for months and was beyond excited to finally be able to pick it out!  The boys had to taste the frosting.

 After unloading and relaxing for a little bit, we went to dinner at one of the few restaurants that was still open (We kinda cut it close in going to Macakinaw City - our favorite restaurants had already closed for the season!)  After dinner, we drove across the big bridge in the dark so that the boys could see the lights and it did not disappoint.  We stopped at the state park and were able to get this awesome view of the bridge.  I think this might end up on the wall in my living room at some point. 

The boys got to experience the huge viewing telescopes at the park too.  When we returned to the city, we all got our bathing suits on and drove to the water park.  We had the whole thing to ourselves - it was awesome! 

Tuesday was the big day and we took the boys to Mackinaw Island - their current favorite place on earth.

 When Josh opened our hotel curtains Tuesday morning he exclaimed, "Wow!  Look at that view!" and he was right!  It was incredible!

 We loaded unto the (empty) boat at about noon on Tuesday.  Because we were just about the only people on the boat, we got a special invitation . . ..

 We were invited up to the Pilot House and Josh got to drive the boat all the way across the channel. 

The Captain was great.  He explained exactly what Josh needed to do and let him drive, giving him pointers along the way.  We learned that the Captains 5 younger siblings are all homeschool and his family (and where he grew up) is all of about 30 minutes from us in a small neighboring town.

  For the record, Nate did NOT want to drive - he preferred to watch.

We might have a future Captain on our hands!

 Once on the island, we went to get lunch and check out the pool at this hotel where we ate lunch.  The boys loved the stairs. 

Then, we explored the island.  One of our first stops was this rocky beach that the boys loved.  We brought home a lot of "pretty" rocks, sticks and "flowers."

 The boys!  Yes, we have hats and gloves on but the weather was fabulous.  The sun was shining and there was very little wind so we were never cold.  Really, we couldn't have asked for a nicer day in late October.

 One of the special things we did was brought the boys bikes.  They loved being able to ride their bikes through town without any worries. Darryl and I chose to walk but the boys . . ..they loved their freedom! 

 On the return trip home, one of the crew members had Josh help him get all of the ropes ready for landing.  Josh loved it and Nate loved watching.  So, maybe we did have "school" - the boys learned about driving the boat and curling the ropes.

On the way back to the hotel, we stopped at a new resturant for hot dogs and waffles fries.  The boys loved it, and the chili cheese fries were pretty good.  The hot dogs . .. well, they were just hot dogs :-)   After dinner, we once again headed back to the water park where we enjoyed the pool, the slides, and yes, I even enjoyed the hot tub for a bit too.  And yes, we had it all to ourselves once again!

 Wednesday was Josh's actually birthday - yep, he's six!  Once we checked out of our hotel, we drove back across the bridge (because it is one of Josh's favorite things to do!) and drove along the lakeshore in the UP for a bit.  We pulled off at this awesome park where we could view the Lake and the bridge.

 Josh loves maps so seeing this huge map of Michigan was a treat.  He was able to see where we live and where the bridge was as well as where Papa and Nana live.  He loved it. 

 Nathan!  We told the boys we wanted to build a house where the park was located and they loved the idea.  We talked about it a lot on the way home :-)  Before we headed back across the bridge we stopped at Big Boy for lunch and then headed to meet Papa and Nana for dinner.  The boys had no idea!  When we pulled in the parking lot of the resturant we parked next to Papa's truck and the boys both said, "That looks like Papa's truck but why would he be here?" - they were so shocked when we walked in and saw them HA! 

 Josh LOVED getting his presents - lots and lots of Legos!  So many that he could build a tower! 

 This was Nate when we got home - sound asleep!  The poor kid was exhausted.

 Josh still had more gifts to open though, and was very excited to do so!

 Harley loved the paper :-)

We ended a very fun few days with pictures with the birthday boy.  Josh loved turning six! 

Make it Monday - Pumpkin and Apple

I recently went on a baking frenzy because, 1) It is finally cold enough outside to actually want to have my oven on for a few hours and 2) I love all of the fall recipes!

Two of the above recipes were a huge hit and one of them hit the garbage can after one bite.

So which one went in the garbage?  The Apple Cake .  It sounded so good and the photo on the blog looked great but when I made it, there was nothing great about it.  It was very dense, dry, and tasteless.  Plus the "frosting" never set up and was just a gooey mess.  Ironically, as I was making it, I remembered making a similar cake a year ago with the same outcome.  No more apple cakes for me ;-)

Now, on the other end of the spectrum, the Pumpkin Cheesecake Muffins were fabulous.  I made them into 12 regular size muffins instead of mini-muffins and they were fabulous.  That is a recipe I'll make again without a doubt! 

Finally, coming in at a close second to the muffins was the Pumpkin Bread.  Darryl said it was the best he ever tasted.  I thought it was great bread but wasn't quite as "pumpkiny" as I was expecting. 

Things My Kids Say

* This past week we were out of town.  The boys loved staying at our "Otel"  Also known as our "home".

* We stopped at a park in the UP of Michigan and pretended we were going to build our home there.  It didn't long for the boys to grasp onto that idea and they had it all figured out from the fact that we did not need to bring Darryl's grill because there were grills there to the fact that Papa would need to help us tear our house apart, carry it across the bridge, and then rebuild it for us HA!

* Legos have taken over our home.  That's it.  Seriously.