Devotions, Quiet Time, God and I time = Discipline in a good way

Twice a year I start looking at how to get my quiet time back into my schedule.  It is not easy to make time to have daily devotions when you have a very active 3 and 4 year old in the house, let me tell you!  A few months ago, I tried getting up at 6:00 - figuring I would be able to get ready and have my quiet time before the kids got up.  That worked for one day and then my 3 year old started getting up at 6:30 . . .then 6:15.  I'm not sure if he heard me up or what but that took the wind out of my sail so I started getting up at 6:45 and just getting ready for the day.  Some days he sleeps until well past 7:00 and some days he is up with me.  With that said, I'm really feeling the need to get back into a Bible Study as well as reading my Bible daily.  I need it for me - for growth, for encouragement, for conviction.  I need it for my kids - to see me reading my Bible, to prepare me for the battles I fight throughout the day, and to help me keep my attitude right while raising two boys!  Not to mention that getting up at 6:00 is not my favorite thing but, I'm leaning back towards getting up at that time again and this time, embracing the fact that my kids will see me spending time in the Bible even if it cuts my time short some days because they have needs first thing in the morning (Chocolate Milk and Pop-Tarts just can't wait!)

The time is the easy part, right?  What will I study?  The top pick on my list right now for a Study is a book I started probably 2 years ago and then got to busy.  Well, I need it now.

I am picking this book back up because I am finding that it is easy to be negative all day long.  My perfect kids are pushing the limit right now and, before I can move to books on raising Strong Willed Children, I need to get my attitude in the right place :-)

From there, for Bible Study, I am waiting for Good Morning Girls to publish their next Bible Study which starts in September.  I think it will post this coming week.  I love the SOAP study (Scripture, Observation, Application and Prayer) and have some new ideas for the observation section thanks to my dad - thinks like looking for all of the verbs, finding lists, picking out the nouns and more.  Things to help me focus on God's word.  I have other things to add like scripture memory, prayer time, and even journal time for my boys - I've wanted to start journals for each of my boys since they were born and here they are creeping up on ages 4 and 5.  No time like now to get started, right?

I'll let you know how I do once I get started!!! 

Some Things I've tried

Many times when I write this post, it is about ideas I've tried from Pinterest but this one is a combo of things I've tried from there as well as real life things.Lets start with the real life stuff:

This is my new "best friend".  I love sweet tea.  I make it and I buy it - it is so good.  Yet I know there is a ton of sugar in it (since I make it at home) and sugar substitutes do not work with sweet tea.  My dad at some of this Arnold Palmer in his fridge when I was at my parents house a few weeks ago so I tried it and was quite surprised by how good it really is to drink.  Don't get me wrong - it is not sweet tea but it sure is refreshing :-)

I've tried so hard to get on the "Greek Yogurt bandwagon".  I even went as far as to buy these dips thanks to a sale at the store AND a coupon which gave me two dips for $2.00.  It's a good thing because they both went in the trash.  Talk about gross.  Seriously.  I'm so done with anything greek yogurt.

Raise your hand if you love Arby's curly fries?  Arby's used to be my favorite fast food resturant years ago.  I loved the turkey deluxe with a side of curly fries and cheese.  I was so sad when the chain changed their menu and no longer offered my favorite sandwich.  Recently I saw these fries in the freezer section of my store and decided to pick them up for dinner.  They were really, really good.  Of course, you must have them with cheese sauce so I tried this recipe from Serious Eats - a fantastic recipe for cheese sauce and so easy. 

So, I tried a couple new recipes recently.  The first is for the chicken from Pia Recipes and is Baked Garlic Brown Sugar Chicken.  This recipe came highly recommended from a friend but when I made it, the chicken had very little flavor, did not brown up on top and was dry.  Then, I thought I would try this new green bean casserole dish from AllRecipes.com, which usually does not steer me wrong but this was not very good. 

Some success and some failure but what fun is life if you don't try new things?  :-)

Food Friday - Chocolate Chocolate White Chocolate Chip Cookies

Chocolate Chocolate White Chocolate Chip Cookies
adapted from Pioneer Woman

I'm always looking for new cookie recipes and this one really did not disappoint.  The cookie has a fabulous chocolate flavor and each one is filled with lots of white and chocolate chips.  I was surprised by the amount of butter called for but it gives the cookie a great, rich flavor.  I will admit that my first few batches didn't turn out well . .. I found that I needed to refrigerate the dough for a bit to let the butter firm up before I baked them for the cookies not to become paper thin.  Also, I made them bigger then I normally do and they turned out better.  

Ingredients

2 1/2 sticks butter, softened
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup cocoa
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups white chocolate chips, or more to taste
1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Using a mixer, cream the butter and sugar until fluffy, scraping the sides once. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing after each addition. Mix in the vanilla.

Sift together the flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt, and then add in batches to the mixer, mixing until just combined after each addition. Gently blend in the white chocolate and chocolate chips.

Using a cookie scoop, add 1 tablespoon portions to a baking sheet. Bake until the cookies are done but still soft and chewy, about 8 minutes.

Let cool on a baking rack. Yummy!

 

Weekly Menu - Nothing exciting

I have nothing exciting to post about with this weeks menu.  No food prep, no stories, no events - nothing! So with that in mind - here's this weeks plan

Friday - I'm going scrapbooking for the evening.  I'm hoping to be out the door by 4:30 so I'll leave something for Darryl and the boys - probably some frozen pizzas :-)

Saturday - At the time I'm writing this, I'm planning to head over to my parents for the evening so the boys and I can attend church on Sunday.  That may change but for now, that is the plan.

Sunday - The boys and I will grab McDonald's as we leave town; for dinner . . .Maybe grilled cheese and soup.  I have a recipe for French Onion Grilled cheese so I may try that for the adults :-)

Monday - Honey Siracha Glazed Chicken, Roasted Green Beans, Rice and Rolls.  (Something new off of Pinterest - lets see if it is good!)

Tuesday -  Fried Pork Chops, Eggplant Gratin, Mac and Cheese (really for the kids), Rolls

Wednesday - Darryl will have practice so the boys and I will have something simple like. .. Frozen Pizza

Thursday - Chicken Cordon Bleu Pasta, Salad, Garlic Bread

For something sweet - Peanut Butter Chocolate Dessert!

My New Planner

On Sunday, I mentioned in THIS POST that I had found a new planner but I was patiently waiting for it to arrive.  I was like a kid in a candy store going to the mailbox every day only to be disappointed until . . .yesterday!  The planner is exactly as it was shown on the website and I think I will get a lot of use out of it.  The planner comes from Picket Fence Publications .  .if you love it, I would order soon.  Based on last years sales, once they sell out, they are gone.

 My new planner, The Home Executive (sorry for the sideways photo - blogger was giving me issues!).  It is a soft covered, spiral bound planner.  It is small enough to fit into my purse (with is a Thirty-One purse skirt - so nothing huge), small enough to fit nicely on my desk, yet large enough to have writing room!

 Each month has its own two-page spread.  I love the full size calendar for keeping track of the entire month.  There is also a recipe included in each month and a place for notes. 

 Each week of the month also has a two page spread.  The left side has three columns that you can use for anything - one for each member of the family, one for planning, one for . .. well, anything you need!  The right side has a place for meal planning (the first colorful column), a place for a grocery list and then another blank column followed by a highlight column - a great place to write down fun stuff about the kids. What will I use mine for?  The first three columns will be for "Morning", "Afternoon" and "Evening" so I can list my to do list each day.  On the right side, the blank column is where I list school/field trip/ect notes related to preschool.

Finally it includes fun things like a page for birthdays, babysitter notes and Stickers!!!  These are super cute and will add some fun to certain events :-)

I look forward to filling it in starting with this week! 

Too Cute Not To toot

Welcome to another week of fun ideas from the wide wide web :-)  I like this first idea from Not Just a Housewife because I really like to use fresh herbs in some recipes but hate buying them.  I think this planter idea would work great for growing a little herb garden.

I love using $1.00 cookie sheets for homeschool because they make great magnet boards so when I saw this cute idea from Bella and Bambino for painting one of those cookie sheets with chalkboard paint I had to share it.  Not only could we use magnets on it, the kids could also use chalk to practice writing letters, numbers and more. 

You probably know that I love sayings to put on the walls of our home.  I saw this great saying on an Etsy site and think it is awesome.  I would change "daughter" to "son", of course, but I think this deserves a place on my boys wall - something they could see every day and live by as they grow up. 

One last idea before I go.  We want to do bunk beds in the boys room in another year or so in order to give them some more floor space.  I really love this idea I saw over at Tim and Meg. 
The double loft bed idea is awesome and would really open up floor space in their room plus I know both boys would love being on the top bunk :-) 

That's it for this week!  Enjoy crafting!
 

K-4 - Back on Track

After a week off of school because the boys were gone, we had a hard time getting back into the groove. .. well, I did.  Josh was ready!  I spent so much time cleaning, decluttering, and organizing last week that I forgot to do one thing, prep for this week!  On Monday, the boys just wanted to play anyway.  They moved toys to the play room (it was so cute!!) and set up their favorite places to play in the new room and then play outside before playing with more favorite toys inside.  Then, on Tuesday, Nate had a doctor's appointment in the "Big City".  The boys and I spent most of the day in town between the appointment, then lunch at Smash Burger (or Smashed Boogers as the boys called it HA) which lasted 1 1/2 hours.  For real.  Those boys are slow eaters.  From there we went to the Christian Book Store to drop off some used books and then, while the boys played with the train table, I went in search of some Bible curriculum.  I had something picked out but I thought if I could find a good book while there, it would save on shipping.  I did find something I liked plus I got a discount because it was for homeschool so that was even better!  We finally got back in the saddle on Wednesday.  I plan on combining some lessons and skipping a few smaller things in order to catch up and end on time with our planned 6 week schedule. (We are on week 3 lessons and should really be on week 4 but I think we can catch up :-) )

Here are some fun photos from our week!

 We had a huge rain shower early in the week - just a down pour - so the boys headed outside and had an absolute blast playing in the rain. 

 They also rediscovered their computer this week and played their Bible Games every single day.  We also printed off the coloring pictures that went with each Bible story and they colored them for hours . On multiple days.  Don't you love Nate's arm band?  That is from VBS last week and he loves it!

 We did do school work last week that included cutting, pasting, math, reading and more!

 Nate kept jumping into the middle of the photos I was taking so I had to share that funny face!!

 Working on sight words.  I added magnets to the back of letters and used $1.00 cookie sheets as magnet boards.  He loved using the cookie sheet for everything he did all week. 

Currently all of our curriculum is from Confessions of a Homeschooler.  I am  in love with her K-4 curriculum - it fits our life perfectly and is so well written and prepared.