Just Breath

I'm pretty sure I've shared this video before for the song by Jonny Diaz called "Breathe".  It speaks the truth, that's for sure.   I'm pretty organized and easy going but every once in awhile, I hit a place where I just have to stop and regroup.  I hit that spot on Wednesday, Valentine's Day.  Nothing bad happened, nothing really went wrong but I began to feel like the plates were spinning out of control and I needed to just stop, regroup, figure out what was really important and move on.

So I sat down on that Wednesday evening and made a simple list for Thursday - what really, truly needed to be done.
1) Make our family Valentine Box for Co-Op
2) Prep our food for the Pot-luck for Co-Op
3) Make cookies for the Co-op
4) Complete prep for my two classes for Co-op

Do you see a pattern?  I do - the Co-Op this week was the cause and the effect of why I aws feeling slightly out of control.  I over committed a little this week and need to make sure I fix that for the future (Such as having the boys make their Valentine's and our box a few weeks before Valentine's day!)

I then planned my day.
1) In the morning - the boys still have some lessons they needed to get done in order to not hold us up in future lessons.  So, we will focus on school items in the morning.
2) The afternoon - I will totally focus on food and lessons while the boys decorate our box.

I knew my evening was already full as the boys begin a bowling league and I must run to the store to grab the last food items for Friday (Lettuce and Tomatoes for Taco Salad!) so I had to get everything done by 5:00.  No pressure :-)

That's when this song came to mind - Breathe.

Breathe, just breathe
Come and rest at my feet
And be, just be
Chaos calls but all you really need
Is to just breathe

I don't say all of this for sympathy because, really, by the time "you" read this - life will be moving back at normal pace and I'll have regrouped.  But rather, maybe there is one person who reads this that feels like the plates are going to fall.  Well, you are not alone.  Facebook paints perfect pictures but in reality we all have days when things just fall and that's ok.  Listen to this song, take it to hear and remember to  just . . . .Breathe! 

Our Week in Photos #30

Here's a look back at our week!

 The Olympics.  That has been a focus of our week.  This was the boys camped out as they did several nights the first few nights of the games.  They aren't quite as into them as I am but they did love watching Shaun White win the Gold!  They've also enjoyed watching some amazing crashes in some of the sports too.

On Tuesday night Nate got a game of "Spin the bottle/Truth or Dare" going.  Josh accepted a dare to put his face in the snow.   Yep, the kid takes after his mom - the cold doesn't bother him!  He also ran barefoot from the house to the garage and back in the snow HA!

Of course, we celebrated Valentine's Day.

 Thursday night was the first night of a new Youth Bowling League.  I think bowling is one of those life skills all kids should learn because every youth group or college group goes bowling.  Everyone wants to know how to bowl!  Anyway, this is something new at our local Bowling Alley and I'm so glad we got involved.

 Josh is in the "older" group so that means no bumpers!  This was his first shot and it didn't go in the gutter :-)  He did great!  (53, 53, 52)

Nate's in the younger group so he still gets bumpers.  He used them to his full advanatage (think - Pin Ball Machine HA!).  He got a 63 and then an 84.  Pretty Good :-)

We ended our week with Friday School which included our Co-Op Valentines Potluck and Party.  The boys created a Valentine's box for our family and we passed out all of their Valentines.  Then they had Tae Kwon Do after that party.  I took my camera fully planning to take photos but it was so busy all day that I just never had a chance. 

I feel like after a good month "off" of not doing much, this week we were busy!  Sometimes busy is good :-)

Weekly Menu

So last week's menu was a flop.  I picked a few new recipes and the first one was awful.  As I was making it I realized that it was very similiar to the other new recipe so I threw that one away.  I did a lot of "off the cuff" cooking this past week. 

Friday - I've said this before but after a day of Friday School my goose is cooked and I have a hard time cooking anything for dinner!  So we will get something tonight - I'm not sure what yet.  It jsut depends on what we feel like eating!

Saturday - Tacos.  We all enjoy them different ways but at least we all enjoy them!

Sunday - Swiss Steak, Baked Potatoes, and Green Beans.

Monday - BBQ Meatballs, Rice and Green Beans

Tuesday - Spaghetti/Ravioli, Garlic Bread.  It's a family favorite.

Wednesday - Out before AWANA

Thursday - Today is Darryl's birthday!  I haven't had a chance to ask him what he wants so I will make (or bring home!) whatever he wants!

Happy Valentine's Day!

I love Holidays.  This year I really wanted to be a little more prepared for these fun little holidays but this one kind of snuck up on me!  I think with homeschooling and then prepping for the two class I'm teaching at our Home School Co-Op has kind of sucked my time up!  I forgot to even get out my few Valentine's decor item! 

Josh truly hates doing school on any holiday; he loves to do holiday themed things instead which is fine by me.  Eventually he won't enjoy all of the cute things as much (or at all!) so I'm going to enjoy it while I can!  He also likes to create his own decorations and plan a "party".

So this is how we spent our day! 

 We made Valentine's for our Co-Op party on Friday.  I fully intended to take photos of the boys working on their cards but I ended up right in the middle of it helping them and never got a break!  Instead I took a photo of the aftermath HA!  (And hes, that is a cup of Biggby Coffee on the table - that was my Valentines Treat to Darryl!  Coffee!)

 The boys each got to pick out two different Valentine's from my Pinterest folder that we could create.  I'll share more details about each of these in a later post but this is one of Josh's.

 And Josh's second choice.

 Nate's first choice.

 And Nate's second choice.

 Josh planned some fun games for us - there were hearts everywhere.  Darryl, Nate, Josh and I had to race to pick up as many as we could.  Nate won :-)  Josh also hid hearts around the house that we had to find . . .in the dark .. . using one flashlight.  I'm glad he loves this stuff :-)

 Dinner!  This year we went with an Olive Garden/Red Lobster theme.  Darryl and I had Zuppa Toscana while the boys had Spaghetti :-)

 I also made garlic, cheddar biscuits.

 Dinner is served :-)

 I also made a No-Bake Strawberry Cheesecake (I'll share recipes in the coming weeks too)

 We ended the evening with some fun gifts. 

They each got a "Mermaid Pillow" (those pillows with sequins that flip over)  Nate had gotten one for Nana at Christmas and both boys loved it so I figured it would make a fun gift!  They also got a stuffed animal, Lego/Pokemon Cards, a book and candy. 

 Oh, and I woke up to this on Valentine's morning :-)  Hearts and Roses from my Sweetie :-)  He's pretty special!

It really was a fun busy day! 

The Well is Kind of Dry.

The well is running a little dry lately  I know it's a season and that's ok.  I think it's a combination of long school days, not a whole lot going on, and cold and snow.  Now, I love the beauty of the snow - especially when we get a storm where the world looks like a giant snow globe.  Yet, despite that, we've been a little homebound lately so that means there isn't a lot of exciting things going on!  Homeschooling takes up a good portion of my day - lessons for both boys, staying on top of their practice work, and making sure journals are writen, AWANA books are done, and papers are written.  I find it hard to accomplish much beyond that with the exception of laundry and dishes! As I sit here, waiting for Shaun White to complete his qualifying runs on his snowboard, I realize how easy it is to get lost in the mundane.  To live in past successes and wonder why you can't do now, what you could do then and so on.  It's easy to miss out on the day to day joys amidst the seemingly busyness of the day but really, I like to breath, and sit next to my boys and they ask questions and share knowledge, dreams, and hopes.  That is what "fills my well".  

The Olympics

Are you enjoying the Winter Olympics?

We are!  The boys get pretty excited as they approach - especially the opening ceremonies.  They love to have me print out a world map and they then keep track of all of the countries and how many athletes each country has competing.  Nate has about every country memorized on the map so it's an easy thing for him to do and Josh isn't far behind him. 

It's events like this that make me miss the more traditional style of Homeschooling where I could have put together a two week study of the Olympics for the boys but with our on-line program, it's really hard to add anything other than what is required. 

It seems that on this first weekend, it has been dominated by Ice Skating.  The boys are looking forward to Skiing and Snowboarding.  I look forward to seeing Shaun White.  I was sure he was done after the last Olympics so to see him come back is awesome (Plus he looks so much like one of my nephews - how can I not cheer for him!)

I just wish there was more to watch during the day but due to the time difference, it seems to run more through the night instead of all day! 

Did you ever dream of being an Olympian?  I know I did.  I dreamed of being an Ice Skater which is kind of funny since I can't ice skate to save my life HA!  I also loved watching the divers in the summer Olympics but I never learned to NOT plug my nose underwater so that caused a slight issue with that dream :-)

So, yes, we are watching lots of sporting events over the next few weeks.  It was a nice transition after Football ended to have something else fun to watch for a bit!

Our Week in Photos #29

It's time for a little catch-up in photos! January always slows down in picture taking and I just haven't take the time to recap our weeks lately either!  Time to get back into that routine :-)

 Josh and Nate spent a week with my mom and one of the things they did was head to the world famous Frankenmuth for the snow and ice festival.  Ironically I think it was in the 50's that day and they saw more melting than anything else!

 Behind them is a sloth - we tell Josh he is related to the sloth family because he is so slow HA!

 Finally, a picture of Nate with Santa Claus! (That was my mom's creative idea!)

 Last Sunday we got hit with a huge snowstorm.  A friend challenged her facebook "world" to stop and go outside to take pictures of your kids in the snow.  I did just that (PJ's and all!). 

 We got a lot of snow!  Finally!  And it wasn't so cold that we couldn't be outside :-)

 Nate is my snuggle bug.  He loves to sit with me every single night before bed.  Sometimes it is easy to forget that he is just a little kid (only 8).  I know these days won't last forever so I try to enjoy them as much as possible.

 On Wednesday of this past week, Darryl was home so after haircuts, we took the boys to the sledding hill at our local park - it was their first time on the huge hill and they  . . .liked the smaller hill in the middle better HA!  It was great because the hill was empty so we didn't have to worry about collisions!

 While the kids were sledding I enjoyed a wonderful coffee treat HA!  Darryl enjoyed his with me too - then got tired of the boys trying to figure out how to sled so then he headed out to help them :-)

Heading in from the snow (We had our little friend with us too - she was a trooper and just loved sledding!)

This has been a super snowy week - we got hit with another big storm (about 8 inches of snow) on Friday and are ready for round two on Sunday (expecting anywhere from 3-6 inches of snow).