MOM ADVENTURE #6

Today our 8 year old was the Boss.  He wanted to get donuts and go to the Children's Museum.  

 He was nice to let our first stop at the museum be a visit to the princesses for the little girls.  

 They enjoyed pretending to be ants and explored a "Bug's Life."  

 They fixed cars in the repair shop.  

 They even enjoyed a science show.  

Mom Adventure #5

Today's MOM ADVENTURE:

1.  We stopped at the Library and the kids turned in their reading charts and received coupons for free ice cream, and free projects at "That Pottery Place".

2.  We had a picnic lunch.

3.  We went out for ice cream.

4.  We went and painted projects at "That Pottery Place."   

(Ellie especially loved it! She cried and cried when we left.)

We are back. . .

We just returned from a fun family vacation to visit our grandparents and cousins in Utah.  

Power of Moms

Stop by the Power of Moms site today and read a short picture story that I wrote.  It is called, "Learning The ABC's of Motherhood."

Two Winning Recipes

 My mom and sister tried this bread recipe and then emailed it to me.  It is so easy and so delicious! 

Artisan Bread

3 c flour

1/4 tsp yeast

1 1/2 tsp. salt

1 c  water plus enough to clean dough off the sides of the bowl and form shaggy ball (be careful, you don't want too much water!)

3+ Tbs vinegar

Whisk dry ingredients in bowl, add wet and stir until a shaggy ball forms. Cover with plastic wrap and let sit for 8-18 hours.

Transfer to counter, knead 10 times and form into a ball. Place on parchment paper or small pie plate and let rise until double about 2 hours. 

About 30 min before baking preheat oven to 500 and place a Dutch oven or heavy stock pot inside (a big pan with a lid). Make one slash across top of loaf. Pick up by the paper / pie plate and transfer into the hot pot. Put the lid back on and place in the oven. Reduce the temp. to 425 and bake for 30 min. Uncover the loaf and if needed bake for up to 20 more min. Until golden brown, or 200 degree internal temp.

Amish Oatmeal

1/2 cup oil

2 eggs

1 cup brown sugar (I used less)

3 cups oats

2 tsp. baking power

1 tsp. salt

1 cup milk

2 apples, peeled and diced

1 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 cup craisins

Combine all ingredients and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes in a 9-inch square pan.  Spoon into bowls and serve with half and half or milk on top.   

I doubled the recipe.

All of my kids thought it was so yummy.  My four year old keeps asking me to make it again!  

Summer School Work Plans, So Far. . .

I posted my plans for summer in this post.

I didn't want to make the summer stressful with a lot of school work, but I wanted to do enough to keep up their skills for when school starts in the fall.

So far we have been consistently going to the library.

The oldest kids have been turning in awesome book reports on Monday.

We have had "Time Test Tuesdays."

Wednesdays they have spelling tests.

Thursdays are MOM ADVENTURES.

Fridays are home days (I have been cleaning on Friday because we don't have any activities) The kids also work on projects on Fridays.

Balance

Note to self:
(I wrote this about the first week in June, it was extra busy and unusually cool!)

It is good to be busy and active, but there is such a thing as too much!  When my oldest daughter said on Wednesday, "Mom, I think you over scheduled us this week."  We all knew it was an understatement!

We take one kid to summer camp at 8:30 a.m. and head directly to swim team in the opposite direction.  While two kids swim on the swim team I sit on a freezing pool deck and I have two others read to me.  We run an errand and then pick the summer camp kid up.  We stop at home, eat a quick lunch, and take the boys to basketball camp. Tuesday afternoon one kid goes to a library class, Wednesdays are flute lessons, while waiting for them I walk on the track for my exercise, and then we are ready to pick the boys up when their basketball camp is over.  We drive home and get ready for dinner.   Two nights a week the boys have soccer and one night is a swim meet which we are usually gone to from 4:30 until 8:30.  Throw in a date for Justin and I on Friday, family home evening on Monday, some grocery shopping at some point  and what do you have?  A crazy week!

When we made it to Friday of last week.  I took a deep breath and cleaned the house because it had been very neglected!  Thankfully, that was our craziest week of the summer and it is over!  

The problem that I realized with over scheduling yourself is:
You miss the magical moments of life when you are in a rush.
You don't take time to serve when you have too much on your plate.
You become overwhelmed and emotional (especially when you are pregnant :)

Summer Camp.

A typical morning of swim team.

A stop at the park for a picnic lunch.

It seems tha we are constantly pulling in and out of the garage.

This sweetie doesn't want to take naps and miss any excitement, but by the time bedtime comes she is exhausted!

She enjoys going to the library and park with her friend.

First ever swim meet.