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:



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:




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?

 

 

 



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.

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

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.

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 :)

10 Reasons I Haven't Updated my Blog in 3 Months

Three months!  It's been 3 months since I wrote anything.  Yikes.
Here are my excuses reasons:

1.  My laptop was broken.  We had to send it off for what we thought was a repair covered by warranty.  It turned out we had to get a new motherboard.  There was "liquid damage."  I'm still a bit baffled by this.  I don't recall there ever being any liquid damage, and while I don't doubt for a moment my children's ability to damage something with liquid, I do seriously doubt their ability to clean it up well enough that I would never notice.  Hmmm...anyway, it broke in June and I just got it back a little over a week ago.

2.  Anna is mobile.  In June, Anna started creeping, crawling practicing for basic training?  It's not exactly a crawl, although sometimes she gets up on her knees.  There is a lot of pushing with her feet, pulling with her elbows, rolling and sometimes pushing her face across the floor...I'm not sure what you call it, but she manages to get where she wants to go.  And, where she wants to go, is never where she needs to be. 

3.  It's summer. 

4. I have 3 kids.  wow.  I really have 3 kids.  And they need me.  A LOT.  Like, constantly...who knew?

5.  Television.  Well, not just any thing on television, but just this one certain show...I'm ashamed to tell you which one it is, because it is HORRIBLE.  I mean, it's good...the writing is good, the story lines draw you in, the characters are interesting...but I'm a little embarrassed that I like it so much.  I won't tell you what it is, but I will tell you it rhymes with "Raking Fad."  Don't blame me if you get hooked.

6. Mark.  Mark is a night owl and a bad influence.  He makes me stay up late watching TV (see #5).  Then, the kids wake me up early.  I think they're trying to break me.

7. I am going to home school Aidan.  Wow.  I'm a little terrified and a little excited at the same time.  I've spent a lot of time this summer researching curriculum.  He is really smart, so I think we can do some really cool stuff, and I think he will get a great education.  But, it's been taking up a lot of my mental energy lately.  And, I'm terrified.

8.  I have 3 kids!  (one of which just came out of her room at 10:00 at night with a puzzle that she wants to put together...she gets this from her father, see #6)
 
9. I have a stupid cat.  I don't know what that has to do with my blogging, but it's true, and I needed to get that off my chest.  Are there support groups for this kind of thing?

10. My family likes to eat.  And not just once a day either.  They like 3 meals a day, plus snacks.  Every single day.  And the little one...the littlest one, that doesn't gain weight...she eats like 10 times a day.  If they would just stop eating...or at least cut back...I would have more free time for writing.

It's good to be writing again...that first post after a long hiatus is always the toughest...and now it's done.  It's not going to win a Nobel Peace Prize or anything, but it's done.  Hopefully, there will be more posts to follow soon.  :)

Amazing

I was reading a story in Luke during my quiet time last week.  It's the one about the centurion who wants Jesus to heal his servant.  He was a man of power.  The elders of the Jews told Jesus, "This man deserves to have you do this, because he loves our nation and has built our synagogue."  But, the centurion wouldn't even let Jesus come into his house.  "Lord, don't trouble yourself, for I do not deserve to have you come under my roof.  That is why I did not even consider myself worthy to come to you.  But say the word, and my servant will be healed."  A man of power and influence...yet, he knew.  He knew his place.  And then, there was this verse, which I haven't been able to get out of my mind this week:

"When Jesus heard this, he was amazed at him, and turning to the crowd following him, he said, "I tell you, I have not found such great faith even in Israel." (Luke 7:9...emphasis mine).

He was amazed at him.  Jesus was amazed.  The son of God, creator of the universe, savior of mankind was amazed.  I love that.  I wonder if he's ever amazed at me?  Does my faith ever amaze him? 

I hope so.  Because He amazes me every day.

This Morning.  Amazing.