This and That

Summer vacation has started, which means things are a little less busy around here. I have been scrapbooking a good bit. I decided that instead of working on other crafts and hobbies that I enjoy doing (photography, sewing, cake decorating) I was going to focus on scrapbooking and make a good dent in all that I need to do to catch up (as if that is even possible). I've gotten three layouts completed so far. Which sounds pretty good, until I remember I have 4 kids:) J/K how can I forget that I have four kids.

We have spent time at the park, had snowballs,played on the slip n' slide, been to the zoo, and spent lots of time lounging at home. Summers is panning out pretty good so far.

I have started the Couch 2 5k running program (again). It's a 9 week program and I am on week 4 tomorrow. Today is a rest day. I didn't actually start from the beginning because all that walking is just really boring, so I started with week 3 with more running. It seems to be going ok. Hopefully , in a few weeks I'll be running my 2nd ever 5k.

Our Day at the Beach

 

We had an absolutely fantastic weekend. The fun started on Friday night when 3 cousins slept the night at our house. Then we woke up Saturday and went to a local lake and played on the beach and had a picnic for lunch. We left there, went home, changed and headed to the zoo with my parents and sister,Megan, who is in from Kansas with her baby. We ate out for dinner and headed home. Needless to say the kids crashed.

It was so nice to not have any obligations or events scheduled for a change, and to just be able to have fun with the kids. It seems that often our weekends are more jam-packed with places to be and things to do that we don't get to enjoy those days off. We need more of these days.

Monkey Bread

 

When I was a kid, an aunt of mine made Monkey Bread for us one morning. I loved it then, but had forgotten about it and didn't have it again for years. Once I was grown with a couple of kids, I suddenly remembered the yummy goodness that is Monkey Bread and began a search for the recipe. I couldn't wait to make it for my children and they now love it as much as I do. This weekend I made it for breakfast for my 4 kids, my nephew and 2 neices. It's a special breakfast treat that we only have every so often. When you see the recipe, you'll know why. It's not exactly nutritious!

Monkey Bread Recipe

You'll need:
4 cans refrigerated biscuits
1/2 cup sugar
2 Tbs cinnamon
1 1/2 sticks butter
1 cup brown sugar

What You'll Do:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Spray a bundt pan with nonstick cooking spray
Cut the biscuits into fourths.
Pour the cinnamon and sugar into a medium sized ziploc bag.
Drop the biscuits pieces (10 or so at a time)into the bag and shake,coating well
with cinnamon/sugar mixture.
Lay the coated biscuit pieces in the bundt pan.

Combine the brown sugar and butter in a saucepan and boil for one minute.
Pour brown sugar/butter mixture over the biscuit pieces.
Bake for 35 minutes.

Enjoy the buttery, sugary, sticky yumminess!

Just One More Reason I LOVE Summer.....

FLIP FLOPS!!!!


I love flip flops! I wear them every day during the summer. Fortunately, so do my kids.


And that means...NO SOCKS!!

This was the huge pile of socks that had not been put away. I hate that this happens and it really bothers me. When I am staying on top of the laundry, I fold socks with each load. But if I start getting behind and clean clothes start piling up, I fold the other stuff first, and socks get thrown in a basket.

I was home from church with two babes who weren't feeling good, so I attacked the mountain. They are all matched and put away now.

Randomness

It has been a while since I last posted, I know. We have been extremely busy and I have been very, very tired lately. I just trudge through the day, waiting for the second that I get to fall into my bed. Praying for more energy, or to realize what it is that is sucking me dry. I am really just counting the minutes until school is out and I can rest.

But in the midst of all the chaos, I got new floors, French doors hung in my foyer,a brand new stove, a new kitchen light(the old one hadn't worked in quite some time) and a new front door installed. My hubby has been working his hiney off and my house is looking great because of it.
We also recently celebrated our 10th anniversary recently, which I didn't blog about because we didn't much celebrate, since he had a "mandatory" crawfish boil with his work. But I will say that the past 10 years have been absolutely wonderful, and I wouldn't change a thing about them.

While at said crawfish boil, we discovered a great state park that we are taking the kids back to in a couple of weeks. We went canoeing and "hiking" on nature trails, if you can really call it hiking in Louisiana...everything is so flat that it is pretty much just walking through the woods. But it was lovely just the same. Except for the "snake" that I saw. Cecil swears it was a salamander, but I'm not convinced.

And then there was Mother's Day, which I also failed to blog about. I've really got to get on the ball, I'm missing some great blogging opportunities. A quick recap of the day: We went to church, then had lunch with my mother-in-law and sister-in-law. Then we came home and I cooked dinner for my family, and my parents. Oh that reminds me, I have to share the recipe that I cooked for them. Maybe I'll get to that later on today. Well, that about catches you up on the happenings of late.

Have a wonderful day, all!!

Sand, Pebbles, and Stones

Many years ago, when I was still in high school, I heard a sermon illustration that has stuck with me all this time. This past Friday and Saturday I attended the Fresh Grounded Faith Conference with some ladies from church and I heard the illustration again.

I has to do with prioritizing and balancing all the things that we, as busy moms, need to balance. There are days when things go undone, maybe we don't get to the dishes, or the laundry that needed to be put away. But there comes a point when you really have to sit down and think about the important things in your life and what matters most. You have to set your priorities straight. Even then, once your priorities are in order, there are going to be times when things are left undone, because there are just so many minutes in a day. And, do you know what? That is okay!

Consider this: If you put sand in a bucket, then small pebbles on top of the sand, then larger stones on top, it is not all going to fit. BUT if you first put those large stones in, then the smaller pebbles, then pour the sand in, the sand will filter through all the cracks down to the bottom and the sand will fit in the bucket along with the pebbles and stones.

The bucket is our day-to-day life. It holds all the "stuff" that we need to get done. The sand represents all of the little things that we often run around frantically trying to accomplish; chores, errands, our to-do lists. The small pebbles represent the people in our lives who need us or those that we have the opportunity to bless throughout our day. The larger stones are....you guessed it! God and our relationship with Him. What happened in the bucket illustration when we tried to put in our sand and pebbles first? God didn't fit. That day God was an afterthought. Maybe you quickly gave a sleepy little prayer before you crashed that night, but you didn't give Him much of your time.

But when the day started out with God (large stones) all the other "stuff" fell into place. Notice too, that the pebbles (the people in our lives) are put in before our to-do lists. If you have to make the choice between blessing a person-a friend, a family member, a church member, an exhausted mommy-always, always choose the person over your to-do lists or your errands.

This was applicable to my life back when I was a junior in high school just as it is today as a wife, mom, and teacher. I still have work to do in the art of prioritizing but each day, God's grace meets me where I fall short and I wake up the next day and try it again.

Five Question Friday

***Disclaimer...sorry about all the wonky formatting...can't fix it.


This is my first time doing Five Question Friday started by Mama M at My Little Life. If you want to read more about 5QF, hop on over to her blog. Okay here goes....

1. Who would you want to play you in a movie of your life? This is tough. I love Rachel McAdams. We have nothing in common but I think she is gorgeous. I know that after I publish this, I will think of someone better.
2. Did you ever go to summer camp?I went to 4-H camp once in 4th grade...I cried and was miserable for the most part. Then cried even more when I realized that I had forgotten stamps so I could send my mama a letter. So I put a letter in the mailbox with 27cents (or however much it cost back then) thinking that the mailman would take it and put a stamp on the envelope for me. But when I later checked the mailbox, someone had stolen my money and left the envelope...then I cried some more.

I then went to Church camp in 10 grade...had the best time there!! No crying.
3. What sends you running and screaming in the other direction?Geckos!!!!! They do not look like the cute little GEICO gecko, and there's no endearing Australian accent.---I have been paralyzed with fear of those things on more than one occasion. Once when Cecil and I were first married I found one in our bathroom. I had never seen one and it FREAKED ME OUT!! I mean they are transluscent for heaven's sake.

Then once more recently, I found one in my office as I was setting up for a photo shoot. It was literally staring me down in the corner and I couldn't do anything about it. Alyssa could tell that I was panicked and said, "Mommy, maybe you should pray to God for strength". I stood there and watched that thing until my photography "client" got there and had him remove it from my presence. Luckily he was my brother-in-law.
4. What is something you do that drives your spouse nuts?Leaving waayyy early when I have to be somewhere. It's what we fight most about. I want to be 10-20 minutes early...he wants to be right on time.
5. What is currently your favorite song?I Need A Savior by Among the Thirsty

My Girls' Checklists

I am a list maker. I make lists for everything. I have even been known to add something extra that I did that was not originally on the list just so I can cross it off. I have my list of chores, groceries, daily tasks, lists for work, lists for extra things I'm doing (like the school book fair). I just love lists.

So imagine my sheer delight when I found my girls making these one night.

The first one is Alyssa's (8). The second one is Lylah Grace's (5). I really hope you can make out what they say. They are so cute...they have their day mapped out detail by detail. Lylah Grace's says things like:

Sleep for 10 hours

Wake Up

Get Dressed...

Wait at Door

Go to Van

etc...

I have passed on just a bit of my Type A gene to them and I love it! It's a very, very small bit but I'll take it.

What's On Your Cabinets?

I'm still cleaning. I have finished the office, along with the living room and foyer. I am halfway through the kitchen, which is a painfully daunting task, between the refrigerator, oven, inside the cabinets and pantry. But it is coming along. The tops of my cabinets are bare and I vow not to use that area as storage ever again. Apparently that used to be the hiding place of choice when we wanted to keep something from the children. I found 2 baby bottles that Cecil put up there when trying to get Ava off the bottle (still working on that one). I found two pacifiers (put there when trying to get David off the pacifier (that mission was accomplished). I found a Pooh Bear book that was supposed to be a Christmas present for a nephew (about 2 Christmases ago) ...apparently I forgot where I hid it. I found a giant art kit filled with paints, markers and crayons that the older girls used to strow everywhere, and use to color the walls. And I also found a Valentine's Day card (not from this past Valentine's Day) that opens up and sings the High School Musical theme song over, and over, and over, and over again. I bet you can guess why that was up there.

I had to take a break for a bit because the hubs is installing flooring in the kids' rooms. ----Am I the only one who hates it when someone reads over my shoulder while I blog? I love you, honey but please go away. Thanks!----Anyway, we ripped up the nasty carpet that was in there...the carpet that we installed about 3 years ago...the carpet that I hated (no offense to anyone who loves carpet), and we are putting down laminate wood flooring. Not real wood because we know our children well enough to know that it will need to be replace in a few years anyway.

BEFORE

Back to work I go, hope you all have a wonderful Tuesday!

Let the Cleaning begin...

I started Spring Cleaning today. To be honest, I'm never sure where to start when I'm spring cleaning. Or even what to do when I spring clean. I just know it's something I'm supposed to do. But who is really going to notice if I vacuum all my ceilings and walls, really?? Anyway, vacuum I did. So far I have completed my living room and foyer....walls, ceilings, fan, under couch cushions, vacuumed shades, cleaned out fireplace, dusted every surface, cleaned all glass, organized DVD's, vacuumed and cleaned floors. So, if you happen to visit me anytime soon, please say something to the effect of, "Wow, your house really looks so much cleaner", so that I will feel like this was all worth my time.

How about you? Have you complete your spring cleaning? Do you plan to? What tasks to you aim to complete while cleaning?