Tuesday, September 25, 2012

A Few of My Favorite Pins!

I love Pinterest.  I might love it a little too much.  I'm always pinning away, knowing full well, I'll probably never do most of the things I find on there--either because I don't have the money, I don't have the time, or I don't have the motivation.

But, I have tried a few things that I've pinned.  Some of them turned out great, and some, not so much. 

So, here are a few of my favorites.

Slow Cooker Cashew Chicken:


This stuff is awesome.  Mark and I can't get enough...warning, it says it serves up to 6 but we could eat it all by ourselves in one meal.  I crave it, a lot.  It is so good.  I made it once in the crockpot (awesome) and once, I forgot to put it in the crockpot, so I made it in a skillet.  It was fast and easy.  It is SOOOO good.  Yum.

To Die For Cream Cheese Chicken Enchiladas:

[creamcheeseenchiladas11[4].jpg]

I love these.  They have rice and beans and a delicious sauce.  Plus, it makes a ton.  So, I love to make them when I need to take a meal to someone, or when we're having our small group over for dinner.  Or, when I don't want to have to cook for the rest of the week.  :)  Very good...and easy.

Crockpot Cheesy Chicken and Rice:


Yummy and easy.  I love this stuff.  I modified it a little.  I was out of onion, so I used half a package of Lipton onion soup mix. I used frozen corn instead of canned, and  I also added some frozen peas.  It was really good.  Anna ate 2 full servings!  Good stuff.

Peanut Butter Sheet Cake:

I thought this was so good.  Mark thought it was a little too much peanut butter.  But, I loved it.  I will say, if I did it again, I would probably make the peanut butter cake, and use chocolate frosting.  Because, peanut butter and chocolate together is a gift straight from heaven.






Chocolate Oreo Cream Cake:



Three words:  chocolate, oreos, cream cheese (4 words?). 

I love this cake, and it's pretty easy.  Yum.

Okay, so most of these are recipes.  But I've done a few crafts too. 

I made this nursing cover:



I got the idea/instructions from this pin:
bebe-au-lait-style-nursing-cover.jpg



And, I made this wreath for our door. 

 
I can't find the original pin for this one, but I know that's where I got the idea.
 
Can anyone else recommend any great pins, that they've actually tried?
 
 
 





Thursday, September 20, 2012

I Am...

I am...

...teaching my 4 year old to read in 100 easy lessons,

...teaching my 10 month old to drink from a cup,

...teaching my 9 year old geography,

...and geometry.

I am...

...making breakfasts, lunches, and dinners,

...and snacks, lots and lots of snacks.

I am...

...cleaning,
and then cleaning again.

I am researching, reading and choosing curriculum.
I am writing curriculum.
I am doing a Bible study and writing a Bible study.

I am washing, drying, folding, and sometimes I even put away laundry.

I am blogging and scrubbing and vacuuming and nursing, and I even do windows.

I am facebooking, pinning and sometimes crafting.

I am refereeing, entertaining, enforcing and training.

I am snuggling, rocking, kissing boo-boos, singing songs, and telling jokes.

I am counseling, coaching, and encouraging.

I am wiping hands, and noses, and bottoms.

I am praying.

I am tired.

I am taking a nap.

The end.

Monday, September 17, 2012

A Few Things I've Heard Lately

Ella:  I don't like monkeys.  I like unicorns.  Monkeys are SOOO unnecessary.

Aidan:  Sometimes I can tell something is going to hurt before it happens, so I go ahead and scream.  Of course, a lot of times, I just make a fool of myself.

Aidan:  (after killing a moth)  The moth is dead!  The victory goes to the humans!!

Ella:  (to the sweet little boy following her around the park)  I know you want to be my friend, but I already have lots of friends, and I don't want anymore. 


Aidan:  (while bemoaning the fact that he is the oldest, and the little kids get ALL the attention)
 Ella, you've got just a couple more years of attention, and then you'll join the lonely club like me.
Ella:  I can't be in the lonely club, because I'm in the super awesome club.

Score 1 for the Humans!


Super Awesome Club President

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

The Princess of Taking Care of People

I love listening to my kids play by themselves.  I love how they narrate what they are playing.  Do your kids do this?  Or is it just because mine talk no matter what they are doing?

This is what Ella was saying today.  (To set the stage, she was wearing a crown, holding a wand and playing with animals).

I am the princess of taking care of people.  I have to take care of everything.  But, sometimes, I just want to be alone.  But these people won't leave me alone.  They only think about themselves!  I can't do everything. 

Which has me wondering...is Ella reading my mind???  Creepy.

Friday, September 7, 2012

Homeschool

Wow!  What a crazy, awesome week this has been.  We started homeschooling for the first time on Tuesday.  Aidan is in 4th grade, and I am doing preschool with Ella.  I don't know who learned more this week, me or the kids.  I learned so much about them...their learning styles, what they already know and about myself...my teaching style, my strengths, my weaknesses.  It has, at times, been great, amazing, scary, frustrating, and exhausting.  But, overall, I am really excited that we're doing this.  I've already figured out some things I'm going to keep doing, and some things that just don't work. 

I have had to constantly keep in mind my reasons for doing this.  Lots of people ask me, "so, why are you homeschooling?"  And, I never know what to say.  A lot of people home school because their kids are not flourishing in public school.  Aidan did great in school.  A lot of people home school because they worry about the influence of other kids at school.  This was certainly a concern of ours, but mostly those experiences have been great teachable moments about why we have the values we have, why we believe what we believe and what it means to be in the world, not of it.  I'm sure there are tons of other reasons too...but none of the typical responses matched up with what prompted me to make this decision.

I guess the short answer would be, God asked me to.  As third grade progressed, there were many times I felt God prompting me that it was time for Aidan to come home.  The long answer would be...
1. I want to reignite Aidan's natural curiosity about the world and excitement about learning.  School had turned this into drudgery.
2. I want to integrate our values and our faith into everything Aidan does...instead of having it compartmentalized into "school," "church," etc.
3.  I want to expose Aidan to a great variety of experiences so that he can discover what his gifts are, what his passions are and what God has for him to do.

So, this week, I had to check my "public school teacher" self at the door.  I had to work hard to find that perfect balance between high standards (Aidan seriously acted like I had 2 heads for demanding correct capitalization, punctuation and spelling!) and keeping it fun and engaging.  And all the while, I had to balance this with feeding the baby, working with the 4 year old, doing laundry/dishes/cleaning/meal prep, etc.  Wow!  It's a lot...but it's working, and it's amazing.

My greatest gift this week...hearing my kids encourage each other in their work, watching them make up games and play them during our "recesses," and spending lots of quality time together.  Don't get me wrong...they also had moments of fighting like cats and dogs, making unbelievable messes, etc.  But, let's not dwell on that.  :)

The kids even came up with a "school" mascot...we are the Jaguars.  We have a little stuffed jaguar that does school with us and will go on all of our adventures with us.  Speaking of adventures...I joked with a friend last week that I am like a teacher on speed...this is what we have coming up in the next 2 weeks:  making a paper mache model of the earth, making a salt map depicting the regions of Texas, visiting the Texas wild exhibit at the zoo, Baseball camp, Farm camp, writing letters to Major League Baseball teams (and hoping they send us some free goodies), a tour of Ranger Ballpark, and possibly a camping trip to Gonzales to see a reenactment of the battle that started the Texas Revolution. 

Just writing that makes me want to go to bed.  Pray for energy and stamina for me!

First Day of School :)