Weekly Menu

 This week we are spending at a friends cottage with my mom.  We are cooking most of our meals so here is the plan.  (Subject to change!) 

Friday - Frozen Pizza :-)  (So exciting, I know) 

The rest of our week will be at the cottage - lots of grilling like burgers, steaks, pork steaks, and chicken.  We plan to order pizza one night and the there's sloppy joes, taco salad, and stuff for BLT's too.  

We plan to eat our mail meal around lunch time so then we can take off to the beach or whatever else we want to do.  Then we plan to do campfire food for dinner such as Hobo Pies, Hotdogs, Brats, Hot Pretzels (you can roast them over the fire!) and Smores.  

Our Week at a Glace

 

This one picture is our entire week.  We had a pretty quiet week and didn't go anywhere or do anything out of the ordinary.  These four played a few board games this week but otherwise we just all kind of chilled, watched a few movies, and are enjoying the last days of summer.  Our friends go back to school two weeks from Monday - thankfully we have a few more weeks after that of summer to enjoy!  

Matthew West - Broken Things (Lyric Video)

Matthew West is such a great singer and song writer.  I always enjoy his music. 

Our Week at a Glance

 We kind of had a quiet week . .. especially with Nate gone at camp!  Nate brings a lot of joy, life, and noise to our house so when he is gone, it is quiet.  Even the dog was out of sorts without his "person" around!  

Darryl took off on a day trip with his dad on Saturday so my guys and I had a quiet day at home.  Sunday was church and getting Nate packed for camp!.  Monday I took Nate to camp, ran errands and then came home and enjoyed a quiet afternoon with the windows open on a beautiful afternoon!  The rest of the week was just "normal".  

Here's a look at some photos from Nate's week at camp! 

Checking in!  We stopped to pick out Nate's free t-shirt.  

This photo makes me laugh - I shared this on Facebook.  See the arm on the right hand side?  That's Nate.  I mentioned on Facebook how glad I am that the camp shares photos and that I scour them for a glimpse of Nate . .. when I saw this photo I said, "Hey!  I know that arm" LOL 

Carpet ball - Nate has the Blue and Green towel - his two friends are next to him.  

Nate loves the water!  (He is the kid with the white tank top swim shirt).  

This was Nate on Monday morning - getting ready to load up and head out! 

Nate's second cousin, Christa, is working at camp.  Nate and Christa have similarities and anytime they are together (which is not often) they just click.  It's fun to see!

Nate and his two friends he went to camp with - Monty and Coleman.  Such a great trio of friends! 

Weekly Menu

 We are all back together again!  It's always nice to have everyone back home :-)  This week I'm working on cleaning out the freezer, fridge, and cupboards. 

Friday - Darryl and I are going out for dinner since Nate is at camp and Josh is at a church overnighter! 

Saturday - Our church has a hotdog roast so we are going there for dinner tonight

Sunday - Pork chops on the grill, Acorn Squash, Green Beans

Monday - Hamburger Stroganoff and peas

Tuesday- Pulled Chicken BBQ, Mac and Cheese, and Corn 

Wednesday - Amish baked chicken, noodles and mixed veggie

Thursday - Ham and Cheese Quiche, Hash browns, and Toast. 

What We are Eating - Shrimp Fajita Bowls

 These Shrimp Fajita Bowls were so yummy!  One, we love shrimp and two, we love Mexican food. This was a nice change from tacos and tortilla based dishes.  It was fresh and tasty.  

This recipe can be found over at SkinnyTaste. 

Where has Summer Gone?

 Back in May I wrote an amazing plan for my summer.  Like, amazing.  And then somewhere between the last week of May and the first week of June things kind of changed.  I didn't even touch my to do list until the middle of July.  Now, here it is the beginning of August and I know it will go quickly.  Blah!  I'm really not ready to think about school yet or all the fall things like music lessons and youth groups.  I still want to check things off of my list and prepare for another great school year that would start in three months, not in one month!  

Sometimes life hands us unexpected things and that is one thing that happened this summer.  Our Homeschool Co-op went a different direction so several friends and I started a new Co-Op.  That was hard.  It was hard to walk away from something we had known and loved for so long.  It was scary.  Scary to let "our" members know that our leadership team felt we could no longer support the old group.  Scary to start our own group.  It was time consuming.  Instead of checking things off of my list, I was busy checking things off the list of starting a new group!  I spent hours upon hours prepping and reading and planning.  Whew!  We are thankful that our quick, thoughtful, hard work is paying off though and we are excited for the fall.  It's still work to create something from nothing but we have great support to do so and are feeling ready for another semester. 

Sometimes scheduling doesn't go as planned.  Our June started with a tough push to finish all things related to school.  The last two weeks of school were hard and full of a lot of work.  We checked off boxes, finished projects, and still worked hard on every lesson as both of my guys were working towards straight A's again this semester.  Then we had a week off - our friends weren't here, no school, no plans.  We all kind of needed to recover.  That was followed by a week of my guys at camp.  Then, finally, a week with all of us here and that week is always hard - our friends are kind of stretching to see how far they can push; my guys are not loving the fact that now they have "no electronics" time twice a day.  Once we made it through that first week things fell into a pattern.  That's where we are now except, our friends have been on vacation and then Nate will be gone to camp.  There has not been much routine to our summer that's for sure. 

So where is this post going?  Very simple, Time is fleeting.  We all know time goes more quickly as we get older (or at least it seems to do so) but I've really felt it this summer.  That makes me stop and ask myself -- What am I doing to make a difference.  A difference in my kids lives, my husbands life?  What my friends and other family?  Don't let the passing of time steal the moments where you can show kindness, joy, or lend a listening ear.  Why?  Because those are the moments that last forever.