Family Fun - Christmas Parade

Over the past few years, I've tried to be very intentional when it comes to Christmas and the activities that we do.  One of the wonderful things of living in a small town is things like an awesome Christmas Light Parade.  We have never attended because it has either been rainy or so unbelievably cold that we didn't want to go!  This year was perfect though - it was clear, only just below freezing, and we actually felt like going!  The boys were beyond excited because the Munchkin and Princess had talked about it so they planned on finding each other and, guess what?  They did! 

 The evening starts out with caroling around the tree.  The city puts a HUGE tree right in the middle of town - it sits in the middle of the intersection for the entire holiday season and it is amazing. 

 The start of the parade. 

 The boys loved seeing all of the the trucks decked out with lights.  Not to mention the candy.  I had no idea they threw out candy so we did not bring bags - my coat pockets were saggin' down to my knees.  I swear, they got more candy then they did at Halloween!

 The three friends -Josh, Nate and the Munchkin.  Sometimes I think we all forget that these boys are really best friends - they have been together since the Munchkin was 12 weeks old.  Crazy.

My attempt at a photo of the boys in front of the giant tree.  This is real life.  That's all. 

Once we left the parade, we went to McDonald's for a treat . . which in our family means Chicken Nuggets and Fries HA! 

Weekly Menu - The One I haven't Planned

I'm. tired. of. cooking.  Uuuugggg.  I'm tired of chicken, food that doesn't taste good, and cleaning up after dinner.  For real.  With that said, we are not eating out - we are eating at home and I'm still cooking, still cleaning, and we are not starving HA!! 

One of my goals this year is to get Nathan to try one food each month. Just one.  He has a very, very limited number of items he will actually eat but he refuses to try anything.  Well, month one was a success!  He has a game on his Ipad where he "makes" food and one of those recipes was Homemade Mac and Cheese.  He begged me to make it, so we did.  Too his credit, he tried it.  At about a 1/4 of cup of it and even said he kinda liked it but . .. then he said it made his stomach hurt HA!  He has a pretty sensitive stomach so I'm thinking it might have been too rich for his little tummy BUT he tried it!!!  Whoo whoo!! 

We tried several new recipes this week and two of them were a huge success - I'll share the success' (and failures) in the coming weeks.  But now, it's time to think about this coming week.  This past week I cleaned out my recipe book - took out all of the recipes that I've made once and will never make again.  I only want the stuff we love in that book - and stuff I'll actually cook!!

So . . here's the plan:

Saturday - Amish Chicken, Buttered Noodles, and Green Beans

Sunday - Roast, Carrots, Potatoes, and Rolls - a classic Sunday Dinner

Monday - Stuffed Meatloaf, Mashed Potatoes, Corn, and Biscuits

Tuesday -Tacos - we haven't had them in awhile

Wednesday - Sausage and Egg McMuffins (homemade), Waffles, and Hashbrowns

Thursday - Double Orange Crunch Chicken, Fried Rice, and Crescents

Friday - I'm heading to Linden to attend a Ladies conference on Saturday so the boys and I will grab something on our way out of town. 

Teaching Tuesdays

We are back in the swing of things once again and I would like to say that this is our mantra:

But it is not HA! My boys sing, "I hate school, I really do. . ..except for Math" HA!  Oh well.  That's ok.  They still get their work done.

We are wrapping up the first semester and, after weeks in November and December where we were over a week behind so I changed their schedule some, we are now so caught up that we will be done a week early with their semester work.  Josh is even further ahead and could be done today, if I let him, but we are just going really slow so he has an assignment each day at least.  I'm not complaining at all, after struggling so much at the beginning of the year with trying to stay on top of the boys work, it feels good to be in a better place and actually spending time on their lessons instead of just pushing through to accomplish tasks on time.

Our plan for the week is simple:
1) Nate has some journaling assignments from December that we need to finish up this week. 
2) Wrap up almost all, if not all, of the lessons for this week and next week with the goal of working only on Live Lessons, Sight words, and Nate's January Journaling next week.
3) We have a field trip this week that we are very excited about - we are going bowling!! 

We started Tea Kwon Do this past week which the boys are thrilled about.  Gymnastics starts in February and T-ball/Baseball is just around the corner plus I'm still trying to find some place affordable for some swimming lessons for the boys. 

Family Fun - Thanksgiving

So, I realize Christmas has just passed but I haven't posted any Family Fun posts since before Thanksgiving and wanted to start there so here's a recap of our Thanksgiving.

We spent Thanksgiving with my parents.  We arrived Thursday morning and enjoyed football, fellowship and, of course, some awesome food. 

It has become tradition for the boys to help my dad put the tree up and then help decorate it.  Papa had two very eager helpers as he put the tree together and worked to get the lights all working on the tree.  

Darryl . . enjoying some down time after working lots of days in a row. 

The boys watching Papa try to find the light that isn't working.  Notice the shirtless kid?  He is always hot and almost always shirtless. 

My dad.  Taking a break from all of the work.  

Quality time with Nana . . playing games on the Ipads.  HA!  What did we do before we all had something to play a game on???

The boys helping to hang decorations on the tree. 

The crazy kids, posing, shirtless, and just having fun.

Joshua :-) 

We had a great time at my parents and then we left the kids!!  Another tradition - they boys always stay for a few days after Thanksgiving while Darryl and I get to take off for home and enjoy some "kidless" days. 

Weekly Menu

I didn't realize until after I went grocery shopping last week that I planned all soups . . .the weather ended up being perfect for it though so it was ok.  We tried something new in our soup this week too - Kale.  It was actually good and holds up better than spinach does in a hot bowl of soup.

Things have calmed down after the busy holidays and, like normal, I try to "stop the bleed" of holiday spending and save money instead so a big part of that is keeping the food budget as low as possible.  So our meals stay simple :-)

Here's the plan for the coming week:

Friday - Pancakes, Sausage, and Hashbrowns.

Saturday - Copy cat  Chick-Fil-Lay Sandwhiches, Coleslaw and Fries

Sunday - Sunday Swiss Steak, Mashed potatoes, Corn, and Rolls

Monday - Slow Cooker Teriyaki chicken, Fried Rice, Egg Rolls

Tuesday - Nate has been asking me to make homemade Mac and Cheese because he has a cooking game on his Ipad that has taught him how to make it.  So, I'm going to make Mac and Cheese  not out of the blue box, Ham, and Green Beans. 

Wednesday - Spinach Ricotta Pasta with Chicken, Salad and Breadsticks

Thursday - Leftovers OR Homemade Pizza. 

2016 Theme Word

If you have followed this blog for any length of time, you know that each year I pick a Theme Word.  Something I want to focus on throughout the coming year.  It's a way to steer my monthly goals into something more productive.  After several years of "action" such as "Simplify", I've decided to go more with attitude this year.  Something that will impact the whole family; something we can work on together.

Simple  Joyful Thanksgiving.  It's so easy to get wrapped up into the competitive nature of living in the current day that we (are least I do) lose focus on what is truly good and given to us by God.  It's so easy to take the things we are given for granted instead of offering up thanksgiving for those things or, on the reverse side, to see the trials we deal with as punishment instead of trying to live with joy during all circumstances.

.I have a few ideas I've been tossing around in my head over the past few months on how to incorporate this is our lives and to hopefully change some attitudes in my kids. . .to maybe get them past the normal mindset of entitlement that pretty much all children have to work with (shoot, most adults still struggle with that too!)  I'll make a short list but this will surely grow, morph and change over the coming weeks . .. month . . year.

1. Giving back.  Part of Thanksgiving is giving back to others.  Some areas of service that I see are possibly going to volunteer at Kids Kitchen once or twice; packing Shoeboxes at Christmas time; donating needed items to an animal shelter; saving some money to send to our favorite missionary.
2. Chores.  I'm one of those "it is easier if I do it myself" people so I haven't been really good at following through with the chore idea.  I'm not ever sure if "chore" is the right word - more like doing responsibilities with joy.
3. Bible lessons.  Our normal school day has lost its Bible focus.  I want to pull back into this and teach about Joyfulness and Thanksgiving and help the boys  hide Gods Word in their heart even more.
4. My own study.  Books, scripture study, memorization - all ways to change my mindset daily.
5. Letting Go of Stuff.  More to come on this later.

This is just a little glimpse of where I'm heading with this topic this year. 

The Perfect List of Snacks

I will admit, we haven't been eating a lot of new, creative fun foods recently.  I've been trying to keep it simple so we have stuck to a lot of plain meals or stuff I've already posted.

So, New Years Eve.  We love to have snacks.  Past years I've done soup and then snacks but, really, that's a lot of food.  Instead, I planned a variety of snacks that we ate at 6:30 for dinner and then, everyone could snack on whatever they wanted the rest of the evening. 

Now, here's the other thing.  I was burned. out. on. cooking.  I told Darryl that I didn't want to cook anything - just buy premade stuff.  He said . ."ok!" LOL  I did end up doing a combo of both which was perfect.

So, here's our almost perfect snack list:

Bacon Crescent Wraps - this recipe goes way back.  Like 20+ years I've been making these and we love them. 

Mini Pigs in the Blanket - These are simple yet so tasty. 

Apples and Homemade Caramel dip  - this dip is just cream cheese, brown sugar and vanilla so it was super easy.

Chicken Drummies - These came out of a bag in the freezer from Schwans (Thanks to Nana).  A new favorite and so easy to make.  Josh loves them :-)

Mozzarella Sticks - I bought the TGIFridays brand and they were soooo good!  For real. 

Mini Quiches - I purchased these, and have in the past, but this time, neither Darryl nor I were impressed with them.  I won't buy them again. 

I also had Corn Chips and Spinach dip, Tortilla chips and Queso Dip, cheese and crackers, and a can of spray cheese for Darryl (which is also the boys favorite things HA) 

Guess what, I didn't even bake a thing.  I bought some holiday Lofthouse cookies (they were on sale!) and some mini cupcakes that we love. 

Look, no pictures :-) HA!  I meant to take pictures of our spread but I never even got the camera out.  I can tell you that I plan on trying out various new recipes in the coming weeks from main dishes to snacks to lunch ideas.   You will probably see this list of food again in a few weeks at our annual Superbowl Sunday Fun Food day so I'll take a picture  . ..maybe ;-)