A Day At The Lake

The weather here has been PERFECT.  As in it just could not be any prettier and there's no way we could be cooped up inside doing school.

So we did our morning meeting, chores, and packed a lunch for the lake.

We had the whole place to ourselves. 

Look at that sky! 

 The trails are always fun. 

And Jes caught 2 fish. 

Love me some pretty Arkansas weather! And the awesome Creator Who makes all things beautiful. 

Menuing For The Month

Here we are 1/2 way into October but I thought I'd show you how I do my simple monthly menu plan.  Better late than never I guess.

Setting up the grid in my bullet journal is the step that takes the longest.  Here's where the lined journals might come in handy but I still love the dotted ones best. 


Now the fun part.  And the easy tricks....

Because Wednesday is church night, we make sub sandwiches on french bread.  Easy prep.  Easy clean up.  And it's my kids' favorite dinner night of the week. I write that in every Wednesday.

Saturday is soccer so that is crock pot day.  I fill in all the Saturdays with whatever crock pot meals sound good. Sunday is always tacos after church and date night. Every Friday is homemade pizza.

See?  Super simple because that's 16 meals I don't have to think about!

Then I can just fill in all the blanks with whatever I have in my freezer, whatever the kids have requested, and whatever sounds good.  Mike was in Austin last week so we had 3 nights of kid food...whatever they wanted that they could cook and clean up themselves.  Read: Momma's not cooking when Daddy's gone. I bought easy foods for this so they could have fun with it.  I also have a master meal list in my bullet journal to make this whole process even faster.  No more thinking of what to fill in the blanks.  I just look at the list and pick from there.  Or maybe try something new on a night when I have lots of time.

When it's all done I make it cute for the month and then FINISHED!!

Because Clothes Are Of The Devil

 When Nathan was little I dreaded the seasonal transition to cold weather.  He was impossible to deal with when it came to clothes.  Long pants could not extend past the top of his ankle.  Sleeves could not touch his wrist.  And if the seam on his socks did not perfectly line up across his toes his day was ruined.  

Thankfully he outgrew it.  

Enter Bennett.  Nathan part 2.  In fact, he kinda hates clothes altogether.  He will run around in underwear and a superman cape all day until we absolutely have to put real clothes on to go somewhere.  Then we come home and he strips them all off.  

But now it's getting colder.  And rainy.  And there is just no choice.  

Yesterday it was time to get dressed and I pulled out a couple pair of pants.  I didn't even bother asking him to wear long sleeves.  One thing at a time.  I gave him a choice of which pants and then it was ON.  He dug in his heels and refused to cooperate.  He wanted shorts.  

The good thing was that we were not trying to get out of the house.  We were staying home and playing outside.  So I gave him the choice to put his pants on and join the fun outside with the rest of the family.  Or sit on his bed until he was ready to put his pants on himself.  He threw himself on his bed in the most dramatic display of despair.  

I left the pants on his bed and walked away.

I fully expected him to stay there until we came back in but NOPE.  In just a few minutes he came out with his pants on PLUS a smile on his face!  I was so proud of him. 

 I'm pretty sure if I had pressed the matter and fought with him, he would've panicked and refused even more.  I'm glad I was able to give him space and time and share the control.  He made a good choice and I'm hoping we can build on this for next time.  Otherwise, it'll be a long winter!

Happy Birthday Jesse

 

 This awesome boy is SIXTEEN today!!  

He is getting to spend his birthday week in Austin with his dad on a work trip and having a bunch of fun in the meantime.  He's played golf, slept in a hotel, eaten at fun places, toured the Capitol, and explored Austin. 

 

Isn't his smile THE BEST!?  He is such a sweetheart and I miss seeing him on his birthday.  We all called him this morning and sang to him.  We will celebrate when he comes home with some of his favorite foods and people.  

I love you Son of mine.  Happy Birthday! 

School This Week - Penmanship

I changed up almost all of our curriculum this year to a company called The Good And The Beautiful.  For the most part, I'm loving it.  One of my favorite pieces is our penmanship.  

This is Nathan's (8th grade).

I love the artwork they have to copy.  It makes developing fine motor skills more fun. 

Compare that to Jesse's (9th grade).  Totally boring.  I was hoping it would help him learn the Constitution and Bill of Rights.  Actually there's very little of that.  

 But a whole lot of this....snooze.....

Absolutely no fun and not interesting at all.  At some point he will switch.  

Here's Zeke's.  Even though Zeke is 6th grade, I bought him level 3.  Handwriting is such a struggle for him.  I had him evaluated by an OT at one point and he basically said that 

1. He's a boy. 

2. He's 10

3. He's left handed

So give him a break.  

It's very basic but sill has simple artwork to copy.  Every day is different so it keeps him interested.  I also love that it doesn't require much from me. In fact, on this page he just wrote his own letters in the boxes!  I just check it off each day and correct anything that looks terribly wrong.  

Chicken Soup and Banana Muffins

My kid is sick today and needing some chicken soup.  Also I have a lot of over ripe bananas that need to be used up.  So that means my kitchen smells amazing today!! 

Here's my recipes to make that happen..

Chicken Soup
5 chicken breasts
3 carrots
2 large onions
3 ribs of celery
5 cloves of garlic

Chop everything except chicken and add to a big soup pot.  Cover with water and add salt and pepper.  When the chicken is done, fish it out and chop it all up and throw it back in.  Add whatever seasonings you like and some noddles.  When the noodles are soft it's all done!

What kind of noodles do you like for chicken noodle soup?  I kind of like spaghetti noodles.  But I'm not sure everyone does.  My friend is sick today too and I'm taking some to her house.  So I decided to go with the flat wavy egg noodles.

Banana Muffins
1 1/2 C flour
3/4 C. sugar
1 tsp baking soda
pinch of salt
2-3 over ripe bananas
1 tsp vanilla
2/3 C butter melted
1 egg

Mix the dry ingredients.  Add the wet ingredients (including bananas) to the mixer and mix them all up. Add to the dry stuff and stir.  You can add nuts now if you like.  Line your muffin pan with paper liners because it's a million times easier when you have to clean it up.  Then fill them up and bake at 350 until done. 

You can also make this into banana bread but I like the portion size of a muffin better and I have better luck with getting them cooked all the way through.

Journal Prompt - 30 Things

I am trying to resurrect my blog but couldn't think of a good way to start.  But finally I decided the best way to start is just to START already!! 

What makes it even harder is that I don't have anything exciting or new to talk about and Blogger is hating me and making it difficult to upload my pictures.  Grrrr......

But here's something fun:  Journal Prompts!! 
Do you like these?
My kids do one everyday for school and I thought I would join in on some of them too.  And even though I'm pretty boring and don't have 30 interesting things, at least I could come up with 30 ordinary things and it gives me a good blogging start after a long hiatus. 

30 Things About Me....
1. I love God
2. I want to learn what it really means to "abide" in Him.
3. I am desperate for my family (and me) to make God the passion of our hearts.
4. I love my family.
5. I wish my family could feel happy all the time. 
6. I have unreasonable expectations on myself to try to make that happen.
7. I struggle with my relationships with 3 of my kids. 
8. I love real estate.
9. I want to learn everything about it.
10. I love quiet alone time.
11. I wish I had more skills/talents.
12. I'm teaching a 1-2 grade Bible class on Wed nights.
13. I hate sickness.
14. I wish I could visit my grandmother more.
15. I like my handwriting.
16. And my hair color.
17. I want my own office.
18. I love rainy days at home.
19. I love Brycen Claire.
20. I love my 2 houses and made an offer on another one today.
21. The seller said NO but I'm hoping he changes his mind. 
22. I want to white wash my fireplace.
23.  I'd like to earn money and contribute financially in our household.
24. I want to read more.
25. And eat better.
26. And exercise more.
27. I HATE (with a passion) wasting time.
28. I hate too much noise.
29. People say I'm patient and organized b/c I'm a homeschool mom of 11 kids.  (They are wrong.)
30. I love being an only child. :-)

Our Saturday

 You know you're in for a good day when you start by sleeping until after 7:00.  So nice.  

THEN! It's even better when your husband makes breakfast for everyone...thanks Love.

At that point we went our separate ways.  He took Zeke to fix the kitchen faucet at the rent house and I took the girls to the farmer's market.  Love me some small town farmer's market!

The little boys do better with a good schedule and since there was none they were all over the place, discontent, and not knowing what to do with themselves.  So I pulled out the paints. 

 

There was a lot of this going on....

 

And some shooting...

 

 

Aren't they so cute? 

 

*Catching frogs is just about his favorite thing to do.  Last night we even had one in the house!  EEEK! And while he was tormenting frogs, I called my mom to catch up.
 

*Leftover burgers for lunch.  Then soccer on TV and a nap. :-)

*Laney is driving the Explorer these days and Jesse has taken her car.  He paid to get it fixed last week and Saturday he washed it.  His dad even took him to get it waxed.

*Speaking of soccer....this is my current lock screen.  When I get a text or call the whole day stops.  I want to know everything!! I am loving getting to "follow" him around Russia.  And he's all the way across the world but it seems like he's still right here.  Of course there's pictures and videos and updates that he's texting us, but also questions about artichokes and what he thinks of the Russian church.  My heart just might explode!!

 

*I took some quiet time to work on my bullet journal....

   

 

Still working on our Destin trip layouts....

 

*A friend gave us zucchini from his garden.  So I shredded it and make a new zucchini muffin recipe.  I made a healthy one last week that was delicious.  But this time, I didn't have all the same ingredients so I just looked up another one using what we had.  They were good.

*Remember I said that Mike made breakfast?  And we had leftovers for lunch?  Well it gets even better!!....My man also made dinner.  I KNOW!!  Blackened chicken that he planned, shopped for, cooked, and cleaned up.  It was simply amazing.  And I was out of the kitchen almost all day.

*Meg and Brycen joined us for dinner and for some Wii Dance.  Brycen Claire is so cute shaking her booty and trying to keep up!

*I squeezed in a short walk.  I'm walking in my first 5K next week and trying to get used to the heat.

*We ended the day with kids beating me at Dutch Blitz on my bed.  They beat me every single time. 

God's Goodness This Week

Isn't it funny how you don't usually recognize the goodness until after the time has passed?  Maybe that's why it's such a bitter sweet time looking through old photos.  It always seemed hard in the moment.  But after you lived through it and didn't die, THAT'S when you see how faithful God has been to you all along.  

It's Saturday night.  My heart is so full.  It's been a great week of being home with my crew.  

This is my happy place.  I love this chore.  In fact, unless there's a big storm brewing I don't let any kids help me at the clothes line.  

"Momma! Come take a picture of my bed.  I made it by myself!"  

*swoon*....my little boys are doing great learning their chores.  

This kid is always finding frogs.  But this week he found this tiny turtle.  

I love summer time for toddlers.  Naked kids outside in the pool all day.  Filthy.  Tired. And so happy.  

Nana bought us new decorating tips and Mallory made us a cake.  Yay! Just because.  

Getting to share life with this baby makes me so happy.  I love Brycen Day.

Jes is quick to try to bless his momma.  I sure appreciate him making breakfast for the family without being asked.  

Look what Zeke grew! 

This.  This was the last detail to work out today.  Christian leaves for Russia tomorrow for World Cup and I could not be more excited for him.   Such a dream come true and a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for him.  He has planned the entire trip by himself and I love that he has let me be privy to the particulars.  He's been telling me all his plans and preparations and new Russian words.  But his phone plan situation wasn't clear and I sort of resigned myself to not hearing from him much for 17 days.  But today was the day to nail down this important matter and we (he....completely him) found out he has free roaming for the entire time!  No buying a new sim card, no buying Passport, no figuring out which is a better option.  Nothing.  Just this!!  

And I actually cried after he told me.  Now we can talk, text, send pics, ....the whole thing for the whole time.  Plus he has all the data he needs for navigating his way in a foreign country.   Maybe that's even more important than talking to his mom. :-) 

God is so so good.  

Spice Cabinet Love

 

 Have you ever seen such a mess?

I've been looking at this at Walmart for awhile but was slow to lay down the 20 bucks.  But my mom's kitchen store in TX had one and I decided I couldn't live without it another day. 

 

 So I pulled out every single thing, wiped the shelves down, and did something scary....shelf paper!! 

The stress y'all!  Because if you don't do it right the first time, it's a nightmare to get it off and try again.  So I told everybody not to talk.  But Laney took pity on me and took over.

 

 So pretty!

 

Ta-Da!!  It's beautiful!!  I wish my whole house was as nice as my spice cabinet.  

A Little Bit Of Lately (in pictures)

Whiffle ball in the back yard...

When your brother is in danger of being the easy out...

Hit it Mallory!

Oh them blue eyes!

]

Laney had an idea to build a fence around our trash can area.  I think this turned into more of a project than she planned. 

Silly girls leaving selfies on my phone

1/2 Price burger night at Sonic AND beautiful flowers! Thank you Nana!

Waiting for an appointment with my guy. I love him.

And LOOK IT.  Another future driver in the house!! Proud of you Jesse.