Weekly Menu

 Welcome to another week of eating!  HA!  Last week summer arrived - close to 80 degrees and humid!  Uugg!  I'm not quite ready for summer yet!  I love the nice cool, dry days of spring! Now that spring break is done, it's time to buckle down and get as much school done as possible.  Trust me, by mid-May we are done and it is hard to spend hours a day on school when the weather outside is calling us to go to the park:-) 

Here's the plan for the coming week

Friday - It's eat out night :-)  Last week, since the weather was nicer and it was still light out - we did what we did last summer - we did the drive thru "hop" and ate in the car.  It was fun.  We will probably do that again! 

Saturday - Dinner at mom's 

Sunday - It's pizza night!  

Monday - Meatball Soup and Rolls

Tuesday - Chick-Fil-Lay Nuggets and Fries

Wednesday - Amish Chicken and Noodles and Green Beans

Thursday - French Toast Sticks and Breakfast Meats 

These are all carry overs from last week  because we had lots of leftovers from Easter Breakfast and Dinner so we had that a few nights last week instead of what was planned.  I'm also doing my normal Fridge/Freezer/Cupboard clean out that I do ever 6-8 weeks which just means I'm trying to use some things up that have been sitting in the freezer/cupboards for a month or so and need to get moved out!  :-) 

Weekly Worship - Phillips, Craig & Dean - Saved The Day

This is my all time Easter song.  Enjoy!

2021 Week in Photos #12

 I realized how few photos I took in March when I ordered photos on Thursday.  It shows how little we have done this month too - school, school, and appointments HA!  BUT, the doctor and dentist appointments are done for 6 months to a year so that is good!  Everyone is healthy and has good teeth HA!  

Here's a look back at our week: 

This week we celebrate Dash's 2nd "gotcha day".  Dash is a huge part of our lives and we are all so thankful that we adopted him two years ago!! His favorite thing is to sleep on the couch snuggled in between people - especially as Josh, Nate and I do school on the couch. He loves belly scratches, his Norwhal toy, and being with his family.  

April played the all time April Fools Day Joke with snow on April Fool's Day!  Actually, I loved it :-)  I wouldn't have even minded a little more of a "snow storm" just for one last breath of winter before summer arrives!  

Weekly Menu

 Our spring break has started!  Even as homeschoolers, we enjoy our spring break and the opportunity to not have to do anything related to school!  I also enjoy it because it allows me to get some things done and checked off the never ending list!  Yes, I have lots of things I hope to get done over the next ten days . . .the questions is . .. how much will I actually do HA!  Sometimes my motivation takes a vacation too!  

Here's the plan for meals for the coming week - it is very "chickeny" since I have a lot of chicken in the freezer. 

Friday - Dinner out.  We have a Tropical Smoothie that just opened yesterday so I'm hoping to try it for dinner . .. unless the line is too long in the drive thru! 

Saturday - Dinner at home tonight (since we are having Easter with my mom!) Crescent Chicken Club roll-ups and fries

Sunday - We are having Easter dinner with my mom :-) (And she is cooking!) 

Monday - Amish Baked Chicken, Noodles, and Green Beans

Tuesday - French Toast Sticks and Bacon/Sausage 

Wednesday - Chick-Fi-Lay Nuggets and Fries

Thursday - Meatball Soup and French Bread

Lots of favorites this week - even if most of it is chicken 

April Goals

 April!  Spring is here and April is the month that where we start to work on some outside projects before it gets too warm.  We don't love yard work, truth be told, so we take advantage of cooler spring weather to mark things off the list.  

Here are some goals for April:

1. Complete 30 pages in Scrapbooking (toward my 365 total page goal)

2. Complete March 2020 photos

3. Complete March 2021 photos

4. Complete July-August 2016 photos

5. Complete March 2011 photos

6. Complete any 2016 and 2011 scrapbooking goals from February

7. Take part in the April Virtual Crop

8. Order the next set of Photos on May 1st. 

9. Order Album spines for my Heritiage Albums

10. Read my April Books

11. Complete my Decluttering tasks for March AND April 

12. Steam clean the living room carpet

13. Make my first batch of Macaroons

14. Organize the "toy room" area in the basement

15. Go on one Date with Darryl

16. Plan our next adventure to visit at least one of the great lakes

17. Update my Holiday Journal through Easter

18. Work outside - we have multiple things to get done from putting up some plywood along the fence to keep the dogs from fighting to some minor landscaping.

19.  Clean and re-organize the garage

20. Clean the oven 

21. Stay 100% on track with school - and even get ahead throughout April.  We are on track to finish by late May and I'd love to finish by mid-May instead. 

22. Darryl has a list - like we did last year.  It includes small house projects that need to get done like hanging my flagpole or filling Josh's punching bag.  

That's where we are this month!  I feel like April is a little "busier" as our co-op is doing a shortened 6 week session so my Friday's are fuller and, right now, Nate has state testing 3 days mid-April.  I'm still hopeful the state will cancel those again this year!  

March Goal Recap

March was not a super productive month.  I was thinking back over the month to try and figure out why so I can fix it next month and I don't really have a strong answer.  I will say that we buckled down on school this month so I had no time during the day to work on projects.  I also think that my motivation dragged this month too - maybe just the season transition where everything was wet and muddy for a good portion of the month.  I hope to use spring break, the first week in April, as a little bit of a catch up time to accomplish some things I wanted to get done this month and didn't. 

With that said, here is what I did accomplish this past month: 

1. Complete 31 pages in Scrapbooking (toward my 365 total page goal) - I'm trying hard - just 9 more pages so I might have to stay up late today to finish this goal 

2. Complete February 2020 photos - Done. 

3. Complete February 2021 photos - Done

4. Complete May-June 2016 photos

5. Complete February 2011 photos

6. Take part in the March Virtual Crop

7. Order the next set of photos on April 1st - Ready to order 

8. Order the next set of album spines - Done

9. Read my books for March 

10. Complete my Decluttering tasks for April. 

11. Make my first batch of Macaroons

12. Now that the weather is turning a corner and isn't bitter cold - the basement is back on the radar!  We are planning to have some plumbing work done here soon and they need to be able to get to it HA!  So my goal for this month is to make sure that can happen. 

13. Read one chapter in my photography book and practice the skill. 

14. Pick camping dates for the summer and reserve the spots that I can  - Done (well hopefully HA) 

15. Go on one Date with Darryl - Done

16. Practice my song for recording for Christmas - the goal is page 2! 

17. Plan out the first adventure to visit a least one of the great lakes.- Done AND we visited Lake Huron

18. Update my holiday journal through Easter. 

19. Visit Flour Child Bakery since it didn't happen last month!  - Done!  We ended up with a "free Friday" as TKD was cancelled so Josh and I took off and tried it out.  Best Bagel's ever. 

20. Take boxes and bags of donation items to a donation center. - Done 

21. Set up Josh's punching bag.

22. Hang Josh's solar system

23. Set up my 52 envelopes savings plan

24. Clean out my filing cabinet

25. Organize my closet storage area/corner - Done

26. Have Darryl hang my new flag pole

27. Put up the March flags - Done

28. Plan our outside landscaping we want to do :-) 

29. Do all the "medical' visits - dentist appointments, check-ups, and even a vet appointment :-)  - Done

30.  Take our trip to where we got engaged - we go almost every year to just remember. - Done

31. Plan some fun activities/crafts for spring break.  (our friends are usually here so I like to plan a few things for fun to do so everyone isn't playing video games all day HA!)  - Well, not technically spring break as I plan to work on my goals/projects and the kids already told me all they want to do is play on their x-boxes (HA!) BUT I planned some things for Holy Week and Easter. 

32. Plan for Easter.  Done 

33. Get back to my cookbooks - make one new recipe from each of my cookbooks this month.

34. Clean the oven - a friend shared some stuff that is suppose to make the oven door look like new - I'll see if it works HA!  Hopefully on Spring break! 

2021 Week in Photos #11

 Here's a look back at our week

On Saturday we took off for the day to celebrate the 20th anniversary of when Darryl proposed.  We have tried to make a trip back to where we got engaged every year and have made it most years.  We are thankful we could go this year! 

After picking up our rental car, we drove to my old hometown so we could stop at my dad's spot.  He sure is missed every day. 

We also took time to drive past my parents house (it all still looked the same!) and to stop at the church too.  

From there, we headed to the Detroit area where we had lunch at our favorite - National Coney Island.  We always take time to drive by my old apartment where we first met before heading to Metro Beach.  

We had a beautiful day.  This is a retake of a photo I took about 5 years ago.  It's just a fun photo as we enter the park. 

Darryl re-enacted the moment :-)  

Yes, they are barefoot, standing in the water.  They did admit it was cold HA! 

After leaving Metro Beach, we headed to Sander's Candy Factory to pick out a few chocolate treats.  This vehicle was our rental car!  It was amazing to say the least!  Anyway, we drove to Port Huron so the kids could see Canada!  We love to drive and explore so this was perfect. 

This is the Blue Water Bridge that connects Port Huron to Canada.  It used to be that you could drive back and forth with ease; then 9-11 happened and you needed more documentation; then Covid-19 happened and the only vehicles driving over the bridge currently are Semi-Trucks.  

The rest of our week was busy but quiet.  The boys had well child visits and I had things to do for our co-op as far as meetings.  I felt like I ran around more this week then I have in a year!  The kids did great working on school work and actually accomplishing all of their lessons by first thing Thursday morning.