Mondays and school

My 1st grader got up this morning got ready for school, ate breakfast, fixed his hair, brushed his teeth and was already to go and then told me he didn't want to go to school today. I said why? Usually Mondays are hard and if we have a long weekend they are hard but we didn't do much and he's only been in school for a week. I usually don't expect to hear this until about a month into school. He's been so excited to go.

I asked him why he didn't want to go to school today and he told me it was so BORING and he was tired of sitting on the floor. I said sitting on the floor, why do you have to sit on the floor? He said its circle time and it school is so BORING. I asked him if he liked his teacher (which I have asked a couple of times last week) he said yes but that he liked Mrs. ____ who was his kindergarten teacher better. I said, "Is your teacher nice to you?" He replied yes. I asked him why he liked Mrs. ____ better? He said he didn't know.

I think its so hard on Mondays but I've noticed the excitement for school dwindle in him by the end of the week. I don't know if its his teacher or not. I've heard a few things from other parents and teachers that his teacher is flightly but seems to be a good teacher.

Is that how it gets with 1st grade?? He was so excited for school last year until about Feb/March then he kindof got tired of it. I wonder if its because its only been a week and he isn't use to going to school all day, being away from his younger brother that he plays with all the time or what it is??

Hopefully its just because it's Monday and he is still getting use to the full days of school.

Can anyone give me advice on 1st graders?? I haven't had one for a long time and don't remember with my older son. He's a senior now so it's been a long time.

Season of life

(picure from countryliving.com)

Do you ever feel down on yourself wishing that you could be better than you are? Down on yourself because your house isn't as clean as you would like it or perhaps not as clean as your friends or neighbors? Down on yourself because your yard isn't as weed free and beautiful as your neighbors?

I know I am that way sometimes and lately I seem to be so overwhelmed with getting my house clean. By the end of the summer the kids are fighting not wanting to do any of their chores or we have slacked off on them because of doing activities throughout the summer, so by the time school starts I feel so overwhelmed with my house that I don't even know where to start. I feel like a failure because my house isn't as clean as I want it to be, my kids are fighting, not doing chores, my yard has become a weedfest and I can give you a million excuses for it all. I feel so overwhelmed that some days all I want to do is sit on the couch and watch tv or sit in front of my computer reading blogs, searching the internet, anything to keep me off of my task at hand.

I read this great post on a blog and it helped me to really feel better about myself. I'll give you the link but you'll have to wait til the end. lol
I realize that I am at a "season" in my life that may not be like the "season" of my friends or neighbors and I'm trying to compare myself to them. It's not fair of me to do that to myself.

For example: my yard this summer started out great, the weeds were kept at bay, the garden growing, and lawn mowed. Now by the end of the summer my yard is full of weeds, my garden has weeds (not as many as my yard, I have kept up on that) my flowerbeds are starting to get weeds in them and the lawn looks like the jungle(ok not that bad but it is long).
My neighbor next door's yard is immaculate, no weeds, flowers are blooming, lawn is green and trimmed, it looks so nice and inviting. Granted they have their parents living with them so they have 2 extra hands (see what I mean about excuses) Well after reading this post I realize I am comparing myself to someone who is in a different "season in life" than I am. They have 2 kids, girls and they are 12 and 8.

I have 3 boys and a baby. My oldest boy who helps me with the weeding and mows the lawn has been working this summer so he hasn't had as much time to help me with the yard. My 6 year old hates I mean hates the heat when its really hot so it is very hard to get him to go outside to help and my 4 year old is a good helper but doesn't have a long attention span and then there is my baby who is 9 months old. She doesn't want to be couped up in a stroller and loves to crawl everywhere including dirt. I hope you are seeing what I mean. I am at a different stage in life where things aren't going to be perfect, I'm sure when my sons get a little older they will be able to pull more weeds, and take over mowing the lawn for my 17 year old in time. My house won't be destroyed by boys playing with toys and using their imaginations.

This post really helped me to feel better about myself, I know feel more motivated to get my butt off the couch and work on my house. I know I don't have to keep up with the "Joneses" and can only do what I can do for this "season" of my life. I love the stage of life I'm in. My kids learning and growing and playing and being a senior in high school, driving, and dating. It will pass by me in a flash so I don't need to be worried about how bad my weedfest is and my house will be immaculate one day so for now I'll just keep on working at it and there will be the times it will be spotless and other times just a few toys.

So here is the post check it out for yourself and thanks for reading about my season of life.
Courage to be you

Kitchen floor and flour don't mix

I think I told you I have tons of zucchini's this year. I usually plant 2 plants and ended up with 3. For more details scroll down a bit.

Anyway I've been trying to come up with different recipes to use them and I've frozen some shredded zucchini also.

I've tried 2 different bread recipes. I have my mom's which I love its more like bread. My friend gave me a recipe that she uses so I tried that. It has more of the crunchy sweet crust. I love both of them and to mix it up a bit so my kids don't get bored with it I'll make one recipe one week and then another the next.

Today I made the sweeter crunchy crust recipe. I didn't have the lemon zest so I left that out and I don't use walnuts since neither my kids nor myself like them. Well I started making the bread and was flouring the bread pans and my little helper under my feet loves to play with my shoe laces. My 9 month old had untied my shoe lace and I moved to step over to dump out the extra flour and tripped and the extra flour in the bread pan went flying so I have flour all over the floor and all over my shoes and on my little helper.

Later as I am taking out the beaters (that's what I call them) from my hand mixer I take a step toward the sink and slip on the flour on the floor and accidentally turn it on while pressing the buttons in to release the beaters, so bread mixture is flying all over the kitchen cabinets, the walls, the floor and me. I swear it is not my day today. Yesterday I just cleaned off all of my cabinets. I scrubbed them all down and put some orange oil on them. I guess they weren't use to being clean so now they aren't again...lol I was hoping to go at least one day with them clean.

Here's the bread recipe if you want it and take note that the picture I'm posting is actually for my mom's recipe. I'll post that one later after I get my cabinets cleaned up. If yours doesn't look the same you'll know why.



Zucchini Bread

3 cups all-purpose flour
2 teas. ground cinnamon
1 teas. baking soda
1/2 teas. salt
1/2 teas. baking powder
1/2 teas. nutmeg
2 cups white granulated sugar
2 cups finely shredded unpeeled zucchini
1/2 cup canola oil (or vegetable
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon finely shredded lemon peel or zest of
1/2 to 1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

In a mixing bowl combine flour, cinnamon, baking soda, salt, baking powder and nutmeg. In another mixing bowl combine sugar, shredded zucchini, oil, egs and lemon peel; mix well. Add flour mixture to the wet mixture; stir just until combined. Stir in chopped walnuts.

Pour batter into 2 greased and floured 8x4x2inch loaf pans. Bake in over for 45-60 minutes depending on your oven or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes on a wire rack.

Remove bread from the pan;cool completely on a wire rack. Wrap and store overnight before slicing. (I just serve it when its cool)

Back to school time

It's back to school time for us. Getting our routines back on track. It seems by the end of the summer bedtime is later and later and other routines have gone haywire. I love the thought of getting back to my routine. Getting up, getting ready, getting kids breakfast and out the door to the bus.

The hard time for me this season is when I'm going to get ready. I have a senior that gets up at 6:30, my hubby is up at 7 and I get my 1st grader up a little after 7. So that leaves me with getting ready after 8 but in 2 more weeks I have preschool starting.

So do I get up before 6:30 or get ready after 9. There are times when I can squeeze in getting ready between 8-9 but I still have breakfast to get for my preschooler. Getting up before 6:30 a.m. makes for a long day and especially if the baby didn't sleep well that night.

I'm sure after a few trial and errors and driving my preschooler to school with wet hair I'll probably get my routine down.

How's your routine going? How do you cope with changes such as new baby, kindergarten, work, etc.?

Zucchini

I usually plant two zucchini plants because one usually dies. Last year they both lived so naturally I thought I'd plant two again this year. Well now I have 3??? To my amazement another one grew. I planted some crook neck squash and cucumbers and none of them came up. A plant started right next to my other zucchini plants so I let it grow thinking it was a crook neck or yellow squash because that's what I planted there. Well it wasn't it as another zucchini plant. Now I have zucchini's coming out of my ears.

I am searching for recipes to use zucchini in. I have a zucchini mushroom casserole recipe, a zucchini bread and a zucchini chocolate cake recipe. All of those I love. I found a zucchini muffin recipe that you use Raisin Bran with so I need to try that and someone gave me a cream of zucchini soup I thought I would try in the fall. It's too hot for soup right now. My cousin gave me a zucchini boat recipe that I need to try.

So if you have any recipes let me know. I am giving zucchini's away and making things like crazy. I guess I should freeze some but I think I will be zucchinied out here pretty soon.

I'm back

The bad blogger is back, hopefully for good this time. It's been a long summer. Haven't had a lot of time to get on the computer. Now that summer is winding down and school is about to start I'm hoping to get into my old routine.

I've started putting the kids to bed earlier in hopes that the early morning wake up call in a couple of weeks won't put them into shock.

I've started them back on chores again. They've been doing them but not all of them. Summer use to be the best time for chores for me and the kids but with the baby this time its thrown us all for a loop.

So back to the old routine and getting everything back to being organized!!

Yeah!!