June 2016 Menu

Now that everything has settled down after tax season and our vacation, it was time to get back into planning mode. I used to post weekly meal plans, but honestly, I got tired of doing that each week. It is much easier to plan an entire month and go from there! 

Posting a menu makes me feel more accountable and so that I don't get lazy and serve the children cereal every night for dinner. Besides, I love reading what other mom's have planned for meals, so why not share mine as well?

This month, we are headed into blueberry season. There is a blueberry farm near my in-laws house that we plan on going to in the early part of June. I've tried to incorporate blueberries into a couple of our Sunday breakfasts. My husband and son George do not care for blueberries, which is why I have not gone overboard. Bridget and Liam, however, would eat their weight in blueberries if I'd allow it. 

Note: You should be able to click on the menu to enlarge it, if you're really curious about what we'll be eating. 

Happy Planning! 

Week in Review 2016: #21

Where to begin?!? We were out of town last week so I was unable to post. We had a much-needed vacation to Myrtle Beach. It was very cloudy and chilly for most of our trip, though the sun did come out the day we were leaving. Go figure. We played on the beach, at the pool, went to Medieval Times, played miniature golf, and saw some alligators. I have too many pictures to show from the trip (over 200... eek), so I have been blogging about each activity separately, as my blog tends to be more of a journal than anything else. I have only gotten as far as our day on the beach, which you can read about here.

We arrived home on Saturday afternoon, made it to church on Sunday, and began our week with a end-of-year celebration at gymnastics where Bridget and George both received their medals. Every year, they give the little gymnasts medals. Not for anything specific, but just for having a fun year. It makes them feel special. The older kids, of course, receive medals for other reasons. 

These two have been asking about their medals since January. They were so excited. 

On the homeschool front, while most families seem to be wrapping things up for the school year, we're still moving right along. The activity of seeing the alligators in Myrtle Beach was a field trip for the kids and they actually learned quite a bit about all sorts of reptiles. Bridget and George both touched a turtle, and Bridget touched a snake and an alligator. George is terrified of snakes, and he was also afraid that the alligator was going to bite his finger off, so naturally he refused to touch either of them. He cautiously kept his eyes on the alligator while I snapped this picture.

My husband was nice enough to snap a picture of me and the children in front of the flamingos. The children were all fascinated by the them so it was the best opportunity to get them all smiling.

  

New House Update #1

I am sure that this will be the first of many, many updates. A couple of weeks ago, we signed a contract to build our new home. This week, we met with the design center to finalize our floor plan modifications, light switches and receptacle placements, and house colors. 

The evening before our meeting, we loaded the van up after dinner and went to the new neighborhood to scope out possible house colors. The first stop we made was at our lot to see if they had cleared away any of the debris from a few weeks ago. As you can see, they had not. This is a picture I made from the back of the property looking towards the road. My husband was walking through the dirt/mud by the big mounds of dirt that will be getting hauled away. 

Back of the property facing the road

Our new backyard will be much larger than our current one. We're all very excited about that! The next picture is of the back of our new neighbors house to see about the size our backyard will be. 

The new neighbors are actually friends of ours. We had both been looking to build in this neighborhood around the same time. However, we were also looking at an older house in a neighborhood by our church but learned that the house had a bunch of mold and other issues (it was built in the 70's) and the owner was unwilling to lower the price of the house to account for the many repairs that would need to be made. So we came back to this neighborhood and had a lot picked out across the street from our friends. Because my husband and I were unable to get the details worked out until after tax season ended (his busiest time of the year), we lost our original lot to another buyer and went with our second choice next to our friends. The lot is a tiny bit smaller than our first choice, but actually works better for us because of the direction the house faces. Our backyard is facing the east, giving our future garden lot's of morning sun. It's really nice knowing at least one of our neighbors and that they're good folks.

This is the current state of the road. Both ends of the road are complete and the houses built, but this middle section is unfinished. With all of the rain we've been having, the crews have been unable to fill in the road. A huge puddle sits just beyond those barriers.

Our future home site from the neighbors driveway

This is the direction we would be driving to get to the house once the road is finished. For right now, we have to drive around the neighborhood to get to the back.

These are the colors we picked for our house. We had gone in thinking we wanted a dark blue or dark green color, but in the end decided on something light. The house will be "sterling gray" and vinyl siding (not the siding shown). The shutters will be a dark gray called "peppercorn". And of course, there is the brick foundation.

Now we wait for permits.

Week in Review 2016: #18 and #19

In the months of January through April, I don't blog very much because nothing all that interesting is happenings. Once May rolls around, our schedules become busy and while I have things to blog about, I can never find the time! Here are the past couple of weeks in a nutshell.

George was able to attend the Father-Son campout with Daddy and Granddaddy. We missed our family camping trip due to rain and were worried the boys would miss out on this trip but it all worked out well and that had a great time. 

Bridget got her very first haircut. It was well below her waist and it was something I had been meaning to do for awhile but never set up the appointment to do so. She insisted that her hair still be long, so we only cut off about 5-6 inches. 

At the very beginning of May, I was diagnosed with strep throat. I limited my contact with the children as much as possible and they were able to avoid getting sick, or so I thought. Bridget woke up on Mother's Day with a fever. A couple of hours later, Liam had a fever. George was going to be attending church with Daddy and I took his temperature to be sure he was healthy before they got ready and he had a fever too! I spent Mother's Day at home with three sick children. The following Friday, after a week of fevers coming and going, all three children were diagnosed with strep throat (and George with an ear infection on top of that). The doctor and I were both shocked because they all acted fine, had no complaints of sore throats, and only had mildly runny noses! I had taken them in Friday morning as a precaution (due to the fevers coming and going throughout the week) with our upcoming busy weekend. Fortunately, they were started on antibiotics immediately and the contagious period of 24 hours after the start of the antibiotics passed before Bridget had to be on stage the following afternoon.

Bridget had a lovely performance on Saturday and is preparing for another performance this afternoon. I tried so hard to get a picture of the boys with their big sister, but this was as good as it was going to get. They had just sat through two hours of dancing, so I can't really blame them!

Linking Up With:

Father-Son Campout

Each year, our church hosts a Father-Son Campout for the men in our church. It is a tradition that my husband had when he was a child, attending the campout with his father, and now George, Daddy, and Granddaddy all go together (Liam still needs his mommy, but he may be attending next year).

This was George's third year going and he has a blast every time. His favorite thing to do is to go out on the lake. There are canoes and paddleboats to use and George was able to go out on both. Here he is on one of his canoe rides. 

Canoeing at the lake

George ready to get back on the water

The boys opted for a cabin again this year (instead of using the tent) because it had rained a lot lately and more rain was expected that night. Later that evening, George's friend (and our future neighbor) arrived and I was told that they played all evening and did not go to bed until 10:30 that night. 

George and Granddaddy

While the boys were out camping, Bridget, Liam, my mother-in-law, and I spent Friday together, making a trip to the library and having dinner. That night, Bridget and I stayed up late reading the books we had borrowed from the library. It was nice spending some quality time with just her. I had intentions of going somewhere fun with Bridget on Saturday, but since we spent most of Friday out and about, and had been unproductive all week prior (I was diagnosed with strep last week Monday), we did some catching up on schoolwork and house cleaning. The house was very quiet with George being gone but we were happy to have our boys back home with us that evening. 

Bridget's FIRST Haircut!

We have put this off for years, but it was finally time for Bridget to get her first haircut. She was mostly bald up until the age of 2, and we were so excited that she finally had enough hair to put into a ponytail at almost age 3. Her hair growth took off from there and she has loved having it long. Now at the age of 6, we felt it was time to warm her up to the idea of getting her hair cut. Finally, she was the one telling me to schedule the appointment. So I did! 

Here are the "before" pictures. (Excuse the leotard. We were getting ready for ballet and I snapped the pictures just before putting her hair up in a bun.)  

She wanted us to get our hair cut together, so after ballet we headed over to our appointment with Kelly. Bridget wanted me to go first (I had about 3-4 inches cut to even out my hair which is still trying to recover from post-baby hair loss---nothing dramatic). 

Then it was her turn! Her hair looked especially wild since it had been in a tight bun. 

Kelly tied the ends of Bridget's hair, her "baby hair", into a ponytail so that I could keep it for Bridget's baby book. The ponytail was about 5-6 inches of hair. Then Kelly did some more cutting to even it all out before Bridget got her hair washed, dried, and trimmed some more.

When she was all done with the cutting, Kelly asked Bridget if she wanted some waves or to make it straight, and Bridget opted for straight hair (though I was hoping Bridget would ask for waves).

Since Bridget really doesn't smile for pictures when we are around other people, I didn't take any good "after" pictures until the following morning. She had almost no tangles and she is absolutely loving her new hair.

My biggest fear of getting Bridget's hair cut was that it would make her look too grown up. While it does make her look older, I still think she is absolutely adorable. Love this girl!