Quick Takes Friday!

1. On today's homeschooling lesson plan: build lots of legos (because the boys are playing so nicely I can't possibly interrupt), and then later we'll probably do some music time and reading on the couch. Sounds nice, yes?

2. This flexibility is one of the reasons I love homeschooling. Monday was a holiday and the public schools have been closed all week due to ice and snow. We've done at least some schooling every day this week, so I figure we can easily justify an unplanned day off.

3. When my son found out Monday was a holiday, and the other kids didn't have school, he gave me a big, "Whaaaaaaaa?" Geez Mom, what kind of a trick are you playing on me? School on a holiday? Muahahahahahaha!

4. But again, doing school Monday and not taking the whole week off for "snow days" means we stay on track and I don't feel like I have to make up time later.

5. And today's lesson plan for Mommy includes "Drink tea and surf the internet while kids are happily occupied."

6. Perhaps this why my house is never clean? I waste away these quiet moments rather than scrambling around my house to get things done.

7. Ah well, I'll take the few moments of peace over a spotless house.

See Jennifer at Conversion Diary for lots more Quick Takes!

7 Quick Takes - Fall Edition

1. I love fall. Even though I live in the Pacific Northwest, which means it rains a lot (but heck, it rains most of the year anyway, so I'm used to it), fall is so lovely. Crisp, cool air. Vibrant colors. Beautiful sunsets. Scarves and knee high boots. And the food... oh the food.

2. I love fall food! Soups and stews and chili and squash. Mmmmmmm. I have a torrid love affair with my crockpot and it breaks into full swing when the weather cools. Oh how I love me some crockpot soup!

3. And pumpkin pie. Nothing tastes more like fall, and the forthcoming holidays, quite like pumpkin pie. I'm awesome at pies (and by awesome, I mean I rock pie making) but there's a grocery store nearby that makes pumpkin pies that are *almost* as good as mine. My dear husband brought one home tonight, and ooooooooohhhhhhh. Let's just say I ate way too much and enjoyed every last bite. That stuff is like crack to me.

4. Speaking of crockpots, tonight I made Spinach Chicken Artichoke Dip, posted by Wellness Mama. Oh my stars, was it good! I am married to a man who could make a serious run for the "Pickiest Eater in the World" contest. He is tough to please, and like all picky people, he defends himself with, "I just know what I like!" In any case, he took one look at my crockpot full of cheesey goodness and gave me The Look. I've known him since we were 15 - I know The Look. It was the look that said, "I'll try this if I absolutely have to, but only because I'm hungry and you took the time to make it, but I just know I'm going to hate it." It's quite similar to the look a four year old will give you when you tell him to try "just one bite" of his dinner (and yes, I did just compare my husband to a four year old - don't worry, I'd say it to his face). :) He did take the bite and the look melted into another one I am familiar with, the "This is so good I'm perfectly willing to admit I was wrong because I love it." I get that one a lot too.

So yeah... try it. It's yummy.

5. Speaking of rain (see #1), it didn't rain all week. In fact, we had the most lovely fall weather that really reminds me why I love this season so much. My four-year-old's preschool class had their annual trip to the pumpkin patch today, and all week I kept thinking how lovely it was we were going to have nice weather. Not so much. It rained all day today. On the bright side, it did temper the smell of the pigs and keep more of the bees away. So that's a good thing.

6. On said field trip, my older son (who happily tagged along with the preschoolers) said the turkeys looked like dinner. This is right after the tour guide told the kids these turkeys are pets and won't ever be a Thanksgiving dinner. This is the same kid who raised his hand on our recent salmon watching field trip and said seeing the fish was making him hungry and could he go get his fishing pole. A carnivore to the bone, that one.

7. Also at the field trip, I was the recipient of a wonderful gesture of mommy-kindness. I realized on the way back to the car that my daughter had a poopy diaper. The boys climbed in while I laid her out on the passenger seat to change her. Only after I'd taken off her dirty diaper and wiped her clean did I realize, I didn't have a diaper! Oh the horror! My mind raced with the possibilities - what should I do?!? I tried to think of where I might have an extra one stashed, but alas, I had none. As I was trying to calculate the odds that she wouldn't pee on the carseat after having just had a juice box, and whether I might have any napkins in the glove box to put down to catch some of it, a woman came up to the car next to me. I managed to catch her eye and asked if she happened to have a diaper. I didn't even see if she had diaper-aged kids. Matter of fact, she did have one to spare! (insert Halleluja Chorus here). Oh thank heaven! And thank you for kind-hearted and prepared mommies! She saved my bacon, and my carseat cover.

Friday Quick Takes

It's Friiiiiiday.....

1. Thank goodness.

2. Today's workout is a testament to the power a goal has over my willingness to get up early and go to the gym. I didn't get to bed until late and the only reason my annoying alarm finally woke me up is because my husband elbowed me. I don't usually sleep that soundly (thanks to babies), and under typical circumstances I would have turned it off and gone right back to bed. But I kept thinking about how I want to see what this workout experiment will do, and I don't want to have to preface it with, "Well, I didn't really do all the workouts...." So I got up.

3. And now my legs feel something akin to jello.

4. Tomorrow is week three of fall sports - flag football for my 6-year-old and soccer for my four-year-old. I'm not enjoying this sports season very much and I'll be pretty glad when it's over. My husband is coaching flag football, but he's also rolling out some sort of upgrade at work (I pretend to understand what he's talking about, but he's way smarter with all that technical junk than I am), and looking for a new job, so he's not exactly focused on it. And Grayson, well my Grayson is just... Grayson. Soccer games are really frustrating. And yet the kid still says he loves playing and is excited about his practice tonight. I guess that's good - and I'll still be glad when the season is over.

5. Flag football this year has reminded me of one of my biggest pet peeves as a parent - other people's kids. Some kids are great, mind you. I like kids, generally speaking. But we have some kids on our team that are... difficult, to say the least. There are two brothers on the team, in particular, who cause a lot of trouble. They weren't at practice this week and my husband (and my brother and our other friend, who are helping coach), kept going on and on about how great practice went. When I pointed out that those two kids weren't there, they were all, "Ohhhhhhh....." I feel bad for thinking this way, but it would be a lot more pleasant if those kids decided to stop showing up... Isn't that terrible?


6. Fall is probably my favorite season of the year. The colors, the crisp, cool air. I like fall clothing too - layers, and coats, scarves and hats. I am so not a fashionista, but I do appreciate cute fall clothes. And boots - oh the boots! I think if my husband gets a job that pays well, I may have to treat myself to a fabulous pair of boots.

7. I think I deserve 'em. ... and maybe a pair in brown too ;)

Happy Friday and see Jennifer for more Quick Takes!

7 Quick Takes Friday

1. I am most definitely in the homeschooling honeymoon period, if there is such a thing. Right now, I love, love, love it. I hope that lasts, although I am prepared to find that we go through times when it isn't so smooth and maybe I'm not so in love with the whole thing. But for now, it's seriously awesome and I'll take awesome when I can get it!

2. I not quite so in love with the fact that I have to get up at 6am to get in my workout. That part isn't the best, but in the grand scheme of things, it's a small sacrifice to make in order to follow God's call for my life. That said... yawn!

3. Speaking of working out, I only hit the gym twice this week, but considering that's about how many times I had worked out in the last MONTH, it was pretty awesome.

4. I'm reading Charlotte's Web to my first grader. I haven't read that story in years and I am enjoying it as much as he is! I am such a bookworm and it is so gratifying to hear him ask for "just one more chapter!"

5. My four-year-old is welcome to join us while I read, but he is rejecting this whole "homeschool" thing quite soundly and whenever I pick up a book or suggest any activity, he immediately finds something else to do. This doesn't bode so well for next year when he'll be in kindergarten and I will be attempting to include him in our schooling a little more. I'm hoping by then he'll be over his little rebellion and will at least give it a shot. Otherwise I might be dumping him off at the office of David's old school so he can see the principal.

6. Speaking of school, and working out, and early mornings... I'm tired. It's about 9:00pm my time and I wouldn't mind going to bed right... about... now......

7. And I just might have had some wine tonight, which is making me sleeeeeepy........

Friday Quick Takes

Friday Quick Takes with Jennifer at Conversion Dairy and all the rest.... :)

1. Mom mom had brain surgery back in April. She had a benign, but very large tumor, that needed to be taken out. Thankfully, it was operable, surgery went well and she's been recovering nicely. Unfortunately, she had a major seizure two nights ago. I'm so very grateful that my stepdad was home with her at the time (he travels for work a lot, so it was unusual for him to be home). She's ok now, but it was very scary for both of them. She's now on anti-seizure medication indefinitely, and she can't drive for 6 months. I have no idea how that's going to work, given my stepdad's travel schedule, but we'll see how it plays out. I don't live close enough to be of much help either. In any case, prayers for my mom would be much appreciated!

2. On a lighter note, my family and I are leaving for a week-long vacation on Sunday. Hooray! It should be a wonderful end to our summer fun and I am really looking forward to the time away.

3. After our vacation, school will be upon us! I'm still having so many conflicting thoughts about my kids' schooling, so it's something I'm still pondering and praying about.

4. My oldest will be in all-day school for the first time, and this means packing lunches! I'm planning to do bento-style lunches and bought some fun containers to make it easier. He's a picky eater, and we aren't eating grains and processed foods anymore, so packing lunches will be interesting. But I have some fun ideas, so it should be kind of fun.

5. Packing lunches, however, means my days of sleeping late are drawing quickly to an end. Lately I've been getting away with rolling out of bed between 7:30 and 8:00. I am not much of a morning person, so this has been lovely - especially after years of my kids waking up at 6:00am. We're all going to have some serious schedule adjusting to do!

6. This also means I need to reign in my late-night writing sessions. That's going to be the hard part. I am mommy all day, work part time after bedtime, and who doesn't want a little freetime in the evenings. This has meant me staying up rather late all summer, which in some ways has been great because I feel like I have more time, and I know the kids aren't going to have me up at the crack of dawn. It's going to take some serious willpower to get myself to bed at a decent hour.

7. I hope some cooler weather is on the way for those who have been sweltering all summer. We've had the coolest summer on record here, and although we've had a little stretch without rain recently, probably also the wettest. It's hard to believe fall is right around the corner when it feels as if we barely had a summer. But I can't complain - I'll take gray skies over 100 degree heat any day.

7 Quick Takes Friday - Late Edition

1. I haven't written anything since last Friday... Two quick takes posts in row - sad? Perhaps. Or...

2. The sun is finally out!! This has a lot to do with why there have been no posts between then and now. We've had a terrible spring in the Pacific Northwest and summer appears to finally be making an appearance. We've been outside a lot.

3. My anniversary weekend with my husband was a resounding success. We had so much fun together - we went out of town for the night, the kids were in great hands, and we had a blast. We walked around town, went on a couple hikes, and ate some great food.

Me and the Hubs in the Cascade Mountains

4. Speaking of food, I started going through the incredible blog, Wellness Mama, which prompted me to start doing more research. My brain is still swirling with everything I've read and learned. Some of it I knew, some of it was new to me, and some of it was simply worse than I realized. She touts the benefits of eliminating grains from your diet, and at first I was highly, highly skeptical. But the more I read, and the more I realized this went along with things I already knew - the more I became convinced.

5. So we're making some big nutritional changes in our house! Slowly but surely, and there are things we'll still have, and things we won't. We're using paleo/primal/cave man/grain-free/whatever you want to call it as our framework.

6. This is a huge shift, especially for my kids who I was forced to admit, live mostly on cereal, cereal bars and crackers. I mean sure, I feed them other things - but that's a HUGE portion of what they wind up eating every day. I had to take a hard look at how I'm feeding my kids, and I have to admit, I'm pretty ashamed of how lazy I've gotten. I've told myself they eat "good enough" for a long time, and the truth is, they don't. I may as well have been giving them bowls of sugar every day.

7. This also led to a mom-piphany. My usual routine for everything but dinner, is to stand in the kitchen and ask what they want to eat, and then get it for them. So for breakfast they might want cereal (dry - the weirdos don't even want milk on it), so I'll grab whatever cereal they've requested. For snacks, I'll do the same thing - ask, then grab. It occurred to me today that I could forego the "what do you want?" (and think they're going to request something super healthy simply because Mommy has been doing internet research) and instead simply put out a plate of food with a bunch of stuff on it, and tell them to have at it. I did that today - put out a plate of peach slices, carrot sticks, celery, salami and cheese. And you know what, they ate it up, not missing a beat! I seriously think my boys ate more produce just today than they ate all last week (which is completely MY fault - hence the changes!).

I'm excited about making these changes and I know we're all going to be healthier for it. Yay!

7 Quick Takes Friday!

1. Many, many congratulations to Jennifer Fulwiler on the birth of your new baby girl! And thank you to Betty Beguiles for hosting this Friday :).

2. I haven't been blogging much recently and the reason? Busy, busy, busy! Who knew the start of summer would have me so crazy! But I have VBS in barely over 2 weeks (yikes!) and a lot of writing projects for work (I work part time from home). Not much time for blogging!

3. I am busting at the seams because in about 15 minutes a babysitter will arrive and I will be off to surprise my husband with a night away for our anniversary! He has no idea we're going anywhere today, thinking that the secret plans I have are only for tomorrow.

4. My husband is notoroiously difficult to surprise, so I'm excited to see if I've really pulled one over on him, or if he has suspicions that we're going somewhere tonight.

5. This will be the very first time the hubs and I have gone away together, overnight, since having children. And our oldest is 6 1/2. We've both been away, separately, for one reason or another, leaving the kidlets in the care of the other parent. But this is the first time he and I are going away, overnight, without our kids.

6. I always feel really excited about a little break from being mommy, up until the last few hours before leaving. Then I start missing them. My daughter is napping and I suspect I'll be leaving before she wakes. Sniff, sniff! I will very much enjoy the alone time with my husband, but I always get a little anxious leaving my precious babies overnight.

7. So with that, have a lovely weekend to any who happens across this post and I will be sure to do the same, celebrating 12 wonderful, fun, challenging and basically fantastic years with my best friend and love of my life.

7 Quick Takes Friday

I decided to give Quick Takes a try! Thanks to Jennifer at Conversion Diary for the Friday fun!

1. My son's last day of kindergarten was today. Sniff, sniff! It is so bittersweet to watch your children grow up. He's terribly sad about school ending. Instead of being excited for summer, this week has been full of tears and tummy aches. He already misses his teacher. Sweet boy.

2. Speaking of summer, the sun is finally out! We've had an unusually rainy spring with only a handful of nice days, so the blue sky this morning was a welcome sight.

3. This weekend is, of course, Father's Day and I had to laugh when my husband sent me a list of ideas for "the kids" (aka me) to get him. It could easily pass for my son's birthday list. My 34, almost 35-year-old husband wants Legos and XBOX games. Gotta love him!

4. I'm wondering if some pain meds and a beer might be more appropriate for him, however, as he's nursing cracked ribs, various deep contusions and a lot of road rash from his mountain biking adventure last weekend. I guess I'm grateful it wasn't worse, but the poor guy has been in a lot of pain this week.

5. On a lighter note, I'm pretty sure Starbucks puts something highly addictive (besides the caffeine) in their mocha coconut frappuccinos. Those things are to die for! I've been craving them ever since I tried one a couple of weekends ago. I don't even want to know how many calories are in that thing...

6. Last night I went out for a little shopping with the hubs and found a great new dress for when I need to look professional. I only work very part time, and mostly from home, so I don't often need to dress up anymore. But I'm attending a speaking engagement later this month (given by our CEO, aka my stepdad, who is a frequent public speaker), so I needed something nice. As a bonus, it was even on sale!

7. Said new dress is a size I didn't think I'd ever see again - yay me!