Using the "Nifty Fifty"

For my birthday in April, I was able to get a lens for my camera that is nicknamed "The Nifty Fifty" .  It is a 50 mm lens which is supposed to be one of those "little gems" that is affordable.  It's been on my goal list for two months now to learn how to use it better.  Just before the 4th of July, I did a little reading to try and figure out how to take better photos of fireworks.

One of the tricks of the Nifty Fifty lens is that there is no zoom.  Since the fireworks were going off literally above our heads, it was really hard to get a full shot. 

I was hoping to take a couple of "portraits" of the boys to try a few other things with the lens but, it is hotter than the surface of the sun outside and no one wants to take photos in that kind of grossness HA! 

I hope you have enjoyed one of the most boring posts I've ever written :-) LOL

What We are Eating Wednesday!

So, what new and fun thing did we eat?  Nothing.  I tell you, Nothing! 

Granted I did find these at Wal-Mart the other day:

Cheesecake Factory at home!  I had thought they would be more like cheesecake with a cookie crumb on the bottom but they are more like a pudding cup with a sauce on the bottom.  I did notice, when looking for this photo, that it appears there are also cheesecake slices - I'm guessing those would be in the freezer section - so I might have to check that out!

This makes me miss eating out - I had planned to go to the Cheesecake Factory for my birthday dinner because the one other time we ate there it was AMAZING but we did not since everything was closed down!  Maybe next year :-)

My mom made this great dinner the other night with smoked sausage, corn on the cob, green beans and little potatoes with butter and seasoning - all wrapped in foil and cooked on the grill.  It was super yummy. 

I guess I better find something fun to cook this week so I have a recipe to share next week HA!

Are you thinking about Christmas yet?

I know, I know - it's JULY, not Christmas!!  This wasn't even on my mind until my neighbor, who sells jewelry, decided to plan a "Christmas in July" week for her business HA!  The past 4 years, we always enjoyed Christmas in July at the campground.  Santa always came to visit and brought treats, there were crafts to make and a parade.  Granted, if it wasn't for the pool I think we would have all melted HA!  (I just realized, I should have made this weeks school "Christmas in July" . . oh well!)

Christmas is one of my favorite times of year.  I love the lights, decorations, and planning.  We have such great traditions that I work hard on to make sure they all happen.

What are some of your favorite traditions?  Here are some of ours ---

1) I love the programs and concerts -- On normal years, I always have a choir concert (this year our choir season was cancelled) and the kids have the Christmas Program.  I've always wanted to add something else - a play, a concert -- but it has never quite fit into the plans.

2) Our "Grinch" calendar - This is our Christmas Countdown calendar that starts on December 1st.  Each day we read the card with part of the story on it.  It has gotten better through the years because the boys now read the story.  It does get harder though because the boys are quite as thrilled with little trinkets so I have to get creative with their daily gift.  (Money is always a favorite HA!)

3) The Christmas Tree -  We have a great place we go to cut down out tree which is still a fun tradition.  Plus decorating it is always fun as we watch "Home Alone" at the same time.

4) Christmas Lights - Driving around and looking at lights is fun too.  There are some really great decorations out there!

5) Christmas Eve Service - I feel like this service kind of grounds us into what the true meaning of this Holiday is so I make this a priority.

Of course, the culmination of it all is Christmas Day.

Yes, I have already started to plan for this Christmas.  I have Christmas wish lists started on Amazon for each of the boys.  They are already giving me some ideas as well.

So, to all of you --- MERRY Christmas (in July!)

Summertime Week 3- Links and Looks

I count week 3 as successful!  As always, we did not get through nearly what I had planned!  The main reason is because things took the kids longer then I thought they would!  It's fine though, I'd rather over plan then not have enough to keep them busy.

We continued with the morning individual time scheduled for Tuesday-Thursday.  Since this is the least favorite thing the kids do, they are glad that it is down to just three days instead of five.  Sometimes it's less than that due to our schedule for the week!

Our theme this week was "4th of July"!  I really had fun pulling together ideas for this holiday week.  I also had a little more success finding free things compared to last week.

Monday - We started out our group time with a 4th of July word search that you can find HERE.  They kids worked on it for about 20 minutes but no one finished it.  We moved on to our next activity which was a  trivia scavenger hunt.  The kids had a sheet with questions on it; I had taped the answers around the house.  They just had to find them and write them down under the correct question. You can find it HERE.  After that we played some simple BINGO games. The down side to this BINGO game is that there were only 3 cards so the kids all played the same card and won all at the same time.  They loved it.  Finally, we worked on a 4th of July Lapbook. 

Tuesday - Today they focused on the Lapbook.   We also made Pinwheels.

Wednesday - Our first activity was a Mystery Graph Photo which is found HERE.  This is all we did because it took the kids a full hour to work on this and only Nate finished.  I totally expected this to take about 20 minutes!

Thursday - The main goal today was finishing some things.  We worked on finishing up the Lapbooks, finishing their mystery pictures and finishing their word searches. 

All in all, this was a good week.  I enjoyed the kids projects and I "think" they did also. 

Weekly Worship - Oceans (Where Feet May Fail) Lyric Video - Hillsong UNITED

This song was not on my radar but my brother, Kel, mentioned it in our Zoom call last week so I thought I'd share it this week!  

Weekly Photos 2020 #25

It's mid summer which means it is hot, hot, HOT (I did that for my brother, Jeff).  Here's a look back at what we did this week.

Saturday - We hung out at home for a good portion of the day before heading to my mom's for an AMAZING dinner of her "famous" Meatloaf, mashed potatoes, and salads PLUS fresh strawberries on vanilla ice cream for dessert.  When we left her house for the evening we made the quick decision to drive to the next town over for their Fireworks show.  Most shows are cancelled around us including our own local show but this one was "saved" by an individual sponsor.  We ended up with front row seats, socially distanced from cars on either side of us because of how we parked and the kids had their first experience of having fireworks go off right above their heads.  We usually watch from our front yard so we watch from a distance - having them go off directly above you is amazing.

Sunday - Today was our ZOOM day!  I Zoomed with my brothers and my mom (and we laughed and laughed) and the boys had Zoom Sunday School class.  We then watched a Worship on the Waterfront concert that was live streamed since they can't actually hold the concert.

Monday - This was just a normal day at home with our fun activities (well, the kids don't all agree on the fun part HA) followed by TKD with Nate.

Tuesday - More fun!  The kids played outside in the hose for over an hour in the morning.  We worked on our group theme things for the week too.  After dinner we went for Dairy Queen Blizzards as a treat and then took the boys swimming at a local lake.  They swam for over an hour and did not want to get out!

Wednesday - So, today something happened that has not happened in months.  It took a lot of discussion and some trust but we let Nate visit his friend at his friends house.  If I didn't know the family well and know that they are pretty cautious I wouldn't have allowed it.  Even then, it was a tough call!  Needless to say, Nate was super excited to see one of his closest friends.

Thursday - We just did our normal day.  School.  Nothing exciting at all

Friday - Our friends were gone today so we had the day "off".  I ran errands and then went to a bridal shower.  My first "event" in months.  It was small and outside but I did notice that people do not social distance well!! 

Weekly Menu - The one with the 4th of July!

Wow!  June actually flew by!  I'm amazed because we are just staying home and staying healthy. We can feel the July heat moving in and that means the "dog days" of summer.  I will admit, again, that planning meals are not high on my list right now so I'm working on keeping them simple!  We are sticking really close to our plan of only getting take out once a week which means no running to just "grab" something.  We also are not eating in any restaurants at this point either so that limits where we eat!  That's just what we are comfortable with at this point which is perfectly fine :-)

Here's our plan for the coming week:

Friday Night - Frozen Lasagna, green beans, and garlic bread (I know, I'm changing things up!)

Saturday - It's 4th of July!  Nothing better then hamburgs on the grill, potato salad, chips, and strawberry shortcake!  We will have my mom over so we can do some fireworks too.  We also have a tradition of having Monkey Bread Muffins in the evening too . . .I have no idea how this tradition started but Josh would be very disappointed if I did not make them!

Sunday - Maybe I'll make my mom cook HA!

Monday -   Sloppy Joes and Chips

Tuesday -  Brats on the grill and daddy fries

Wednesday - Pancakes, Eggs, and bacon.

Thursday - Chicken on the grill, corn on the cob, and amish noodles