Make It Monday - Creativity

Periodically, when I dump photos from my camera I'm surprised by what my future photographer, Josh, captures through the lens.  He has always loved taking pictures and has gotten impressively better through the years.  Occasionally, with my permission and direction, he is allowed to use my camera.  I thought I would show some things that he and Nate have created and have been caught on camera.

 This little train the boys got several years ago and it is seldom assembled but on this occasion Josh and Nate got it all put together correctly; Josh took a photo so they could remember how to do it next time.

 Towers.  The blocks are well loved but we have so few of them and those towers get knocked down often.  Josh took a photo to remember what was built.

 I must say, their building is very good and they have asked for more blocks. 

Finally, they boys are into this "thing" of cutting their lego boxes into teeny tiny pieces.  I don't get it but they will sit for hours doing this "thing".  Josh took pictures of all of the boxes so they could look at them in the future.  I will say, photos are MUCH easier to store than all of the misc. sizes of boxes! 

On a side note, Josh's photography interest is something we plan to encourage.  He loves taking videos as well and has asked for a small camera for his birthday.  This type of ability is something that makes a great side business in the future and is such a great talent to have and use!

Family Fun - Water Fun

My boys love water and they love playing.  Put those two things together and you get hours of fun and creativity!

 The boys wanted a water slide so they hauled the hose over to the Tree house and finagled it until it was running down the slide.

 Rain boots are very important features on a water slide.

 The water coming out of the hose is very cold HA!

Nate returned to the pool :-)  It was bit chilly too but he still loves it!

That pool is one of the best purchases ever.  This is the second year for it and it will be the last for this particular pool.  I love the fact that with the filter and pool chemicals I can keep it clean and fresh most of the summer (by the end it's a bit sandy but that's ok).  The outer ring has a small air leak that we can't find but we just refill it every few days and it is ok too.  Next year we have the next size up already waiting in storage thanks to my brother and the boys will ove having a deeper pool to swim in!

Weekly Menu - the One With Camping

We get to go camping again!  We can't wait to get away and enjoy camping once again.  I feel like we are getting into a good routine with our meals and that makes it nice too. I will admit that the camping menu has stressed me out this time and I'm not sure why.  I feel like there is so much food to plan and I tend to over plan.  I've tried to shape our menu based on things we've learned this summer and things we love!  So here we go!

Saturday - We are leaving!  Lunch will be on the road.  Dinner will be our standard - Steak Kabobs either cooked over the fire or cooked in the frying pan.  This time I'm going to prep two small seven layer salads for Darryl and I to enjoy with our steak, Macaroni Salad (Store bought - I can't make it any better!),  Jello, and Mac and Cheese (a standard for the boys while camping!)

Sunday - When we camped last time, it rained.  A lot.  So we ended up eating cereal and Poptarts and guess what, we loved it and it was easy so this time, We will have that (and bagels for me too!)   Lunch will be out - we want to do some sight seeing so we'll be out and about for awhile.  Dinner - Sloppy joes (I can leave it in the crock pot while we are gone!), Potato Salad,  Cole Slaw, Jello, and Beans

Monday - Breakfast - The Same Easy Breakfast! ; Lunch - Out.  The campground has a cafe or maybe we'll explore the town and eat somewhere.  Dinner - Brats/Hotdogs and Loaded Baked Potatoes.

Tuesday - Breakfast - I do love the smell of bacon cooking in the outdoors so on this last morning, we'll have bacon and Pancakes before we start packing up! ; Lunch - We will grab something on the way out.  Dinner - Pulled Pork - all ready made just ready to be heated up when we get home.

Wednesday - This is recovery day!  I know from past experience that we will come home with food.  So, we will either have leftovers from camping OR Corn Dogs and Mac and Cheese.

Thursday - Darryl always has PT so it is just the boys and I - we will have more leftovers, Corn Dogs, Mac and Cheese, Pot Pies or something else depending on what we feel like eating :-)

Friday - TACOS!  (Normalcy HA!)

Neighbors

I don't know about you but I think neighbors can either make or break a homeowner and thankfully, ours are good! 

We have Glenn and Cindy who are fabulous neighbors.  The week they moved in they repaired a fence the previous owners had neglected for years.  Cindy just went through major surgery and is dealing with unexpected set backs like infection and kidney problems.  She is really just so a sweet person - I plan on putting together a little gift bag for her next week :-)

Then we have Louie.  Louie has lived in his house for 80+ years.  Louie is . .well 80+ years old HA!  Yes, he has lived in the same house his whole life.  He is the best neighbor.  Nice, quiet, kind and always has a smile.

Finally, our third neighbor is Eric.  Eric moved in about 6 years ago and is really a great neighbor.  Yes, he has a foul mouth at times and plays his truck stereo way too loud but anytime he sees us needing help with something, he steps in.  Just yesterday, he saw my husband getting attacked my bees and quickly came over with spray to start going after the next.  Or one time he saw us working to secure our new willow tree - he walked over with long pieces of metal rod, beat them into the ground and then helped Darryl tie the tree up.  He's just a good guy.  We never thought we had any impact on him until recently when he was going through a super difficult time after witnessing a co-worker get crushed in a machine.  He came to us and just cried and asked us to pray for him.  Which we did. 

So, where is this post going?  Simply this, we have now run into something we've never had to deal with and I know many of you had!  Eric's girlfriend just moved in with him this past week and she has two girls.  The youngest is somewhere around the age of my boys.  Yesterday, she came over and literally spent the entire day in our yard with the boys.  We have never had neighbor kids to be concerned about since, well, there aren't any HA!  So, how do I graciously limit the time this new neighbor is over?  The little girl is slightly bossy and is frequently knocking on the door asking for things.  Darryl and I are uncomfortable having a child whose parent we don't know in our house so the rule is they kids play outside, in our yard . .. yet several times she managed to wonder inside uninvited.  She asked for drinks and to come to lunch (I did give her a bottle of water but sent her home for lunch) and to use the bathroom (I sent her home for that too) Any suggestions on how to be gracious yet firm?  If I'm going to babysit her, well, her mom needs to compensate me :-)  (And I don't want to babysit her!)  We also have to deal with the fact that she uses not always language we would approve of and have already (after one day) had to talk to the boys about being examples of Jesus in the words we use. 

I know this is an odd post but I figured I would ask to see if I get any comments!

What We are Eating - Crock Pot Lasagna

So, I have no photo because, well, taking a photo of Lasagna in the crockpot isn't pretty HA!  But it IS tasty! 

I've been wanting to try this for awhile for multiple reasons such as I'm always looking for something to take to a potluck and I'm also looking for Sunday After Church Meals that are ready when we get home and I love my crock pot in the summer!  I did some reading on some different sights and decided to try it out and this is what I learned.

1) It works.  The lasagna was done in about 4 1/2 hours cooked on high. 
2) I followed a recipe I found on a recipe blog but as I was making it I thought, why didn't I use my tried and true Lasagna recipe and just follow the concept. 
3) Spray your crock pot with Pam Spray well to ensure easy cleanup (or use crockpot bags but I tend to only use those when camping)
4) The recipe I used said there was no need to cook the noodles before hand and yes, that is true because the noodles were soft but, next time, I would precook them.  I've found that putting the noodles in uncooked makes them slightly gummy. 

So the concept - Place a layer of your sauce/meat mixture on the bottom of the crockpot, followed by noodles, a layer of whatever cheese mixture you use (ricotta, cottage cheese, etc), and I put on a layer of Mozzarella cheese (I use cheese slices, not shredded cheese) and repeat the layers (meat, noodles, cheese mixture, Mozzarella, noodles and then one last layer of Meat Sauce).  Just before serving add one last Layer of Mozzarella cheese and let it melt. 

The Lasagna is a little "loser" when cooked in the crock put but the leftovers the following day were just like oven baked lasagna.

Teaching Tuesdays - The Countdown

Three Weeks.  That's right.  Three weeks until School Starts. This is different than past years because I've always been able to set our own schedule and normally, we would have started school by now.  Connections Academy, though, has their own schedule so our first day is September 8th.  The boys have been assigned teachers and I've heard fabulous things about Josh's teacher. 

I still have the same few things to finish up as I did last week :-)  Setting up the computer and watching a video session that teaches me what I have to do.  My goal is to get that stuff done this coming week. 

The boys have completely organized their desks, their way (and I about plucked out my eyebrows watching them mess up what I had done HA!) 

On Sunday, the boys and I each had a gift.  Someone, so thoughtfully, gave us all gifts - the boys got $1.00 each plus markers, crayons and more markers.  I got a travel mug and some truffles.  It was so thoughtful and I have no idea who did it!

Make It Monday - Clean Towels

No, I did not make towels BUT I did make my towels fluffier and smell better! I found this tip over at Passion for Savings quite awhile ago and tucked it away for one simple reason.  We have never had hot water to our washer.  A leaky pipe kept us for using the hot water and it wasn't on our priority list since I've always washed with cold water anyway.  Recently, though, we had to have some plumbing done so in the process we had the pipes to the washer replaced.  I pulled out this idea and washed all of my old and slightly stinky towels.  And . . .it worked!  My towels are softer and they don't stink anymore! 

Quite simply:  Wash your towels on the hottest setting on your washer.  The first time, add one cup of white vinegar to the load.  Once done, leave the towels in the washer and wash them with one cup of baking soda, again on hot.  Once done, dry them like normal. 

It's really important to make sure your towels are always very dry after you wash/dry them or they will start to stink.  For us, we had a dryer that didn't not work well for several years so I know the towels didn't dry well and then we didn't have a dryer for a few months so they hung in the basement.  Not to mention years of "summer drying" in the bathroom - they never really dried and always smelled.  Now, I plan to do this with my towels every couple of months just to keep them fresh!