February Recap

My February focus is

Strengthen our Homeschool

Part of the reason I picked this for February is that it won't take as much time and, considering I'm just getting started, I only have a half of a month to focus on it!  I also feel that if we can stay in our established routines this month now that we have missed 2 weeks of school (yes we did!! The weather has not been our friend - but it has brought extra friends to our house making school hard to do!!) that we will end the month on schedule, if not ahead of schedule. 

1. Make sure we are doing Math Minute daily, We did incorporate this is often as possible. I find that even though the boys have two hours a day to do independent work, they don't get through everything I want them too! 

2. Accomplishing our IXL goals weekly (IXL is a math/reading practice program the boys are required to do). We are trying but the boys aren't enjoying this anymore so it is becoming a challenge to get them to do it without a battle. 

3. Focus on cursive writing - the goal is to be writing in cursive by the end of May. This is part of our daily independent work. 

4. Go to the shelter and read at least once this month to the Shelter animals We never did this - between weather, snow days and just keeping up with school, there wasn't a day to do this during February. 

5. Look at some other options for homeschooling next year - do we need to change from Connections Academy?  It's the time of year to re-evaluate what we are doing. I have been doing some research and haven't made a decision about next year yet.  

6. Get the boys reading daily - I have the books and they need to read daily! YES!  I did a facebook post and got lots of great ideas.  I ordered four books and the boys have started reading. 

7. Josh needs to finish 1 Social Studies project and Nate has 4 reading journals he has to complete - I want to be on schedule with these extra projects. Josh picked both his Social Studies project and his Michigan History project, neither of which we could start this month as we aren't that far into the chapters yet.  Nate has completed the one journal related to the story he has read - he hasn't read the other three stories yet. 

Even though that's my main focus, I also have some other goals to work on as well. 

1. Add exercise to our daily schedule - we started this and then the horrible winter weather hit and "locked us in" thanks to bitter cold, lots of snow and then ice, upon ice, upon ice. We've still been frozen in this month.  Maybe March will be better!

2. The basement is always on my list.  I just have to do 15 minutes a day - that's my plan.  I know from past experience that 15 minutes a day = lots of work done.  I had good goals and then it was March HA!

3. Have a movie night at home.  We did this on this past Sunday! 

4. Find one activity to do this month as a family - my father-in-law gave us money to take the boys out to do something as a Christmas gift so we are tossing around a few ideas for that.  There is also a place called "Cat Cafe" that I think the boys would enjoy that is on my radar. We had a few plans but due to weather they didn't happen yet. 

5. Update my Holiday Journal - Superbowl and Valentines Day

6. Scrapbooking - my goal is to order pictures to finish up 2014; and then order January 2019 photos.  I also want to scrapbook both December 2014 and January 2019.  The photos are ordered! 

7. Find my song to sing at church at the end of April. 

8. Read - I'll have a book club book, a Baker Book House book club list and just general reading. I'm reading :-)  Yes, yes, yes! 

9. Plan Darryl's birthday (it's coming up quickly!) Done! 

10. Work on the idea of what class I want to teach at the co-op in the fall. I've picked it - The 13 Colonies.  Now to just plan it out.  I'm also looking at Space - if I want to teach two. 

11. Totally 100% clean the playroom (I have a motto of "organize one thing" to accomplish each month). I'd like to empty the playroom, clean the carpet, clean everything else, and then reorganize and put things back neatly. This is done :-)  (I didn't clean the carpet . . .I'll wait until I'm ready to clean the living room carpet too.) 

12. Purchase 2 items for our grinch calendar in December - I'm trying to get ahead. Nope!

13. Shipt - try to into shipt shopping to earn extra income.  It's hard to get into it started. The weather has really derailed this plan. 

14. Schedule my dental cleaning Yes!  I finally got this scheduled. 

15. Make a list of summer clothing items the boys need so we can get ahead of the game.

16. Practice piano - pick one or two songs to work on until I can play them well. 

17. Plan ahead for St. Patrick's Day - find the annual shirts and plan activities

18. Set up my 2019 Scrapbooking file folders Done. 

19. Incorporate Flylady routines. 

Food Favorites - Mexican Street Corn Casserole

This is a recipe that was on last weeks menu that I actually tried and we actually liked.  In Darryl's words - "It's corn and it's cheese, how can you not like it?"   I did cut this recipe in half and it was the perfect amount for our family.

The recipe can be found at Easy Family Recipes.

Ingredients

• 32 oz frozen corn, thawed
• 1/2 cup mayonnaise
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1.5 tsp chili powder
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp cayenne (optional)
• 5 oz queso fresco, grated or crumbled

For Garnish

• 1/4 cup fresh cilantro, chopped

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350˚F
2. Pour the corn into a large casserole dish.  Mix in the mayo, sour cream, chili powder, garlic powder, salt, and half of the queso fresco until combined.
3. Bake for 30-40 minutes or until heated through and the sides begin to bubble.
4. Sprinkle the remaining queso fresco over the casserole and top with chopped cilantro. Enjoy!

Origami Week 4

On week 4 of Origami we made a really cool project using a basic Origami fold.  I found it over at Mrs. Byrd's Elementary Art Studio

It included just a basic triangle fold but made a beautiful finished project.

Aren't those awesome?   I totally forgot to take photos of the student creations (this was mine!) but they are all so cool!  This is my favorite project this semester!

Darryl's Birthday Fun

Friday the 22nd was Darryl's birthday but we had some fun planned for the entire weekend. 

Our Friday plans got changed which was ok.  The boys had a plan for something to do with Darryl Friday after work but they also got invited to a friends sleepover birthday party and they started to do some thinking.  Then we were down to one car for part of the week which included Friday.  The boys and I had the privilege to take Darryl to work on his birthday (so yes, we sang happy birthday at 4:00 AM in the car driving to Grand Rapids).  Which meant we also had to pick him up!  The boys got to thinking that their original plan might not work well on that day . .. and they REALLY wanted to go to their friends birthday on time.  So in the end, we made it for the birthday party drop-off about 10 minutes late and then Darryl and I went out to dinner.  I took him to his favorite Chinese Buffet where he ate his fill of Shrimp and Mushrooms.  We then came home and both fought to stay awake until 9;30 HA!

Saturday Darryl and I planned for a day out. 

After picking the kids up from their friends and dropping them off at home with the babysitter, we headed out for a fun day.

We started with lunch at :

Darryl and I both love Long John Silver's but the boys do not!  So, we enjoyed a nice lunch with just the two of us!

Darryl has been waiting to get an amp so from lunch we headed to the music store where he finally got to get his amp!  It's fun seeing him get a new "toy".  Especially one that show cases his fabulous guitar talents

After that we headed to see a movie.  It's another one of those things we love to do without kids because we can see non-animated movies :-) It's a movie that has been talked about a lot and we both wanted to see it.  Ultimately it was a pretty good movie, but I can't really recommend it in good conscience :-)

Finally, we headed downtown to a place called:

Mojo's is a dueling piano "bar".  It was so much fun!  We got some great burgers and fries and sang along with some songs.  It was really a fun thing. 

We really had a great day being out together.  We would do it more but, boy oh boy, paying a babysitter for that many hours is expensive (It will be nice to have my mom closer next year HA!)

The party was still going on Sunday!  We enjoyed a quiet Sunday at home.  Thanks to some nasty weather, we didn't even head out to church, which really,  both of our kids needed to sleep - they were lacking sleep from Friday and Saturday.  We had a wonderful brunch.

 I made some of Darryl's favorites - Sausage Gravy and Biscuits and Fried Eggs.  

 Darryl spent a good part of his day playing with his new toy - his amp.

We spent the afternoon relaxing and then watching a movie together as a family (Diary of a Wimpy Kid) and laughed a lot. 

Dinner was some of Darryl's favorite snacks - Shrimp Cocktail, Crescent wrapped Sausages, Bacon Bites, and Chili Cheese dip!  Yum!   

 Finally we celebrated with Darryl's favorite cake - Carrot Cake and Cream Cheese Frosting.  

 And we gave him his presents.  

 Josh got him a coffee cup and a gift card to Starbucks. 

Nate got him this Spongebob t-shirt and a gift card to Starbucks. 

It was a really wonderful weekend celebrating Darryl!  (And we are so thankful that the power never went out in the wind storm!) 

Sunday Worship - Worth It All

I found this song while searching on Youtube.  I love Meredith Andrews - especially when I'm scheduled for special music because her songs tend to fit my voice.  This is a great song - who knows, maybe I'll sing it some day :-)

Our Week in Photos #8 -

Some weeks are super busy and some are not.  This was a "not" busy week which = no photos!

That's the week we had!

1) On Saturday I had book club - it was a great time with friends.  We spent more time catching up then talking about a book but I think we all needed the break after weeks of bad weather!

2) On Sunday we went to church and just hung out at home.

3) On Monday we did a full day of school.

4) On Tuesday we took our "President's Day".  I had actually planned to run errands today (which is why we did school on Monday since technically we did not have school) but Darryl's truck broke down so I was without a vehicle!  We just enjoyed a day at home - I did some organizing and cleaning!

5) On Wednesday we did a little school and then went out to lunch with friends.

6) On Thursday we did a full day of school!

7) Friday was Darryl's birthday.  He worked, we had Friday School.  The boys went to a birthday party/sleep over and Darryl and I went out to dinner. (Oh wait - a couple of photos!!)

 Nate  - 4th one from the right - loves to help lead the verse and song in our morning opening. 

Josh and Nate in their "Grateful Hearts" class.  (I was a helper)  They made a meal for a missionary family. 

At least I have a couple of photos :-)

Happy Birthday Darryl!

Today is Darryl's birthday

Our schedules are busy today with work, Friday School, and a birthday party the boys are attending but we still want to honor this great guy!  

He brings laughter and humor into our home.  He has the ability to make the boys laugh uncontrollably at times.  He is super talented (we love hearing him play guitar!).  He works hard so that I can stay home with the boys - long hours, two jobs and is always tired! 

I'm so thankful that he is ours! 

Happy Birthday to my hubby today!