Graduation Ideas

I can't believe I have a son who is graduating from high school and another who is graduating preschool. The time has just flown by for the one in high school. I've been trying to rack my brain for some ideas for a gift. I saw something cute the other day. It was a graduation survival kit. It was more for a girl. It had glitter and perfume and stuff in it so maybe I can find something to make it more for my son.

A basket full of candy, snacks and water, a fan, a camera?? I don't know I'll keep thinking. Maybe make something else for the little one. I don't know I better get searching.


I want some fun ideas so I can make graduation memorable and fun for them, especially the high schooler, so if you have any ideas let me know.

Easter Decorations

Do you decorate for Easter? I usually put up a few decorations. I want some more spring decorations too.

I found some cute burlap bunnies.
Check them out here at the Little Green Bean

There is a tutorial here at Oopsey Daisy.

I'm going to attempt to make some.

Kids blow me away

My 5 year and I was were eating lunch with my mom the other day. We were in a restaurant with fans on the ceiling. Imagine (since I didn't get a picture) high ceilings with fans turning around. Ok now bring the fans down a bit. If you are like me I pictured high vaulted ceilings. They weren't quite that high. More within handling distance.

Anyway the waitress brought us our food and my mom and I were chatting and my 5 year old asked us what would happen if we through all of our food up at the fan. My mom and I started laughing and I told him food would go flying everywhere. Land in other peoples food, on their heads and all over the place. He said lets try it!

Kids just say and come up with the funniest things.

New Direction

I've decided my blog needs a new direction. I hardly ever post to it anymore. I don't want it to be negative and for a while there it was negative. I think this time after having a baby I kindof had the blues. So that was the direction of my blog, that and the weather. Who comments that much on the weather? unless you are a weatherman.

I personally don't like it when I happen upon a blog and start reading it and it is all negative. I feel like it sucks the life out of me. The occasional negativity or bad day is ok or even monthly but every post wow. The aura of some blogs kills me especially when I was already down to begin with.

I feel that is the direction of my blog and weather and negativity. So I'm trying a new thing. Trying to be grateful for everything in my life and I'm even writing down what I'm grateful for in a little journal every night. I think it will help me to become a more positive person and get me back to who I was. I feel like the fog has lifted from me already. Winter is coming to an end and the days are warming up and so is my mood.

Hopefully now I'll get some readers back :)

Spring

I've decided Spring likes to tease us. It's the season where we just can't wait for it to come after a long cold winter. It's the season we wait to see some life (or buds) springing out of our dormant trees and bushes. It's the season we wait to see the first signs of life from flowers poking their heads above the ground. It's the season to see green coming back to our lawns. The season for color to come back to us after a cold gray winter.

I love Spring but why does it have to tease me so? It starts to warm up and the snow melts and I think maybe no more snow, then today we get a huge flakes coming down. The good thing is I know that the snow won't last now. It will melt in a day or two and then it will warm up again only to have snow again for Spring finally hits. I know Spring will be here sooner than later but I'm hoping for the sooner.

New Moon Clip

I had to share I can't wait for it to come out it looks so cool!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fj2mRYwBgRw

I can't figure out how to post it so click on New Moon Clip and it will take you there!! One of these days I'll get it. ;)

Crisp Fall Days

I just love to wake up in the morning of a crisp fall day. It's so wonderful, a little chilly and the leaves are just beautiful. What really is better than golden, reds, browns and yellow hues all over your yard and mountains. Fall is such a beautiful time of the year. I think its one of my favorites and the days we are having lately are just beautiful. It warms up in the afternoon and cools down at night.

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!!

Too much family Too much!!??

On Saturday we had 3 family parties. Yes, 3 of them. The first was my husband's dad's side. We have it every year and this year his uncle was in town that we see maybe once a year. It's a swimming party at his uncles.

The second was my side a family reunion at my Grandma's. I was in on the planning so I had to go. Needless to say my kids were the worst there. I don't know if its more competition because there is more kids or what but they weren't at their best. Let's just say it wasn't the funnest of all the parties.

The third was at my hubby's Grandma's. His cousin was in town from Georgia. I've met her once since we've been married. I think we haven't seen her for about 5 years I would say. She brought her daughter which we haven't seen in person who is now 3 years old.

Well we went to all of them. The first started at one and the last we got their at 7:30 p.m. They were only serving snacks which struck me as kindof weird since it started at 6 p.m. which is most peoples dinner. We didn't eat at the first one since we were planning on eating at the second. Needless to say we were buying pizza at 9:30 at night. The kids were starving and so was I.

So after all the break downs, the whining, the bloody swelled lip, the crying, some laughs, we were exhausted yesterday. My youngest son was sick from not eating. He plays so much its hard to get him to eat. So a couple of bites of pizza at 10 when we finally got home, trying to keep him awake to eat it his pizza just isn't enough.

I talked to my mom yesterday and she said I need to learn the word no. Well in hindsight I wouldn't have gone to the party on my side. There wasn't enough food and the kids were either getting punched or getting into trouble. If I would have told my mom I wasn't coming she would have had a fit.

So how do you go about making it easier on the kids. It was way way too much for them and too much for the parents. I know it doesn't happen often but the recovery from it all is exhausting. The kids are still tired today and my hubby well, I'll just say he is ornery.

Sometimes I wonder what it would be like to not live around so much family. My husband and I have 2 sets of parents each. Both of our parents are divorced and remarried. My dad lives the furthest away in Idaho so I don't see him very often, my mom is 30 minutes away, mother-in-law 5 minutes and father-in-law 15 minutes. We don't see his dad as much as the mom's. It seems we are always having family things, birthday parties, reunions, etc. It wouldn't be so bad but some of these people I see several times a week. There are the blessed times that we go a month or two without seeing them. I guess I shouldn't complain because they are close. You would probably say you have a sitter whenever you need one but it never works out that way.

Our anniversay was last Tuesday. My mom was sick and my MIL had things going on with her mother. We had the kids and the weekend was shot with family things so I planned a scavenger hunt with my hubby and the kids to find things and pick up chicken and meet me at a park. The boys loved it. I kept the baby with me and my oldest son whose 17 was gone on the trek. It turned out nice. So now that I wanted my blog to not be about venting here I've gone and done it again. Oh well....I'll try better tomorrow :)

BAD BaD Blogger

I admit it I'm a Bad BAD BAD Blogger lately. I've really been slacking and I try not too. This summer has been more hectic than I am use to. I've also felt that I'm so negative on my blog and I don't want to be. I think I've used it as a place for venting out my frustrations. Venting how imperfect I am lately and how I can't seem to get things done. So I'm trying to change my negativity to positivity!!!

I don't know about you but this summer has been crazy between art camp, 2 gaming camps, and keeping the kids from boredom and fighting, planning a reunion and more I've been really busy. We are not planning a vacation this summer. It's been too hard to plan with the baby and all the other activities my oldest son has going on. He just left today to go on a Pioneer Trek for the next 4 days. I think I need a vacation though. Mom's deserve a vacation, maybe a spa treatment, a pedicure picture this with me...



a good book and a nice hot bath. (Ok the hot bath isn't sounding so good right now. Its 96 degrees here.) The nice warm bubble bath. That could work ;) time away from the kids, a massage. Sounds nice to me where do I sign up!!

With the current economy and my husband being in real estate not so good for the vacation either which is fine since its hard to plan with all of my sons activities. So we are doing a "Staycation". I've heard a lot about it lately in the newspaper and on tv. Here's how ours is playing out swimming, playing in the backyard in the sprinklers, with the slip and slide, water fights and just playing around. The local amusement park, dinosaur park, the zoo and a trip to the Childrens Discovery Center we are having our "Staycation". I think I'll book mine after the kids are back in school.

Camping Week

The summer fighting has begun. My kids need some structure or some activities to keep them from fighting. I usually have crafts set up and a day to cook or bake something, we do a field trip once a week, maybe the $1 movie at the theatre but this year with the baby its been hard to get anything set up.

I can't stand all the fighting that has begun now though. My two younger boys play together really well. They will go outside and jump on the trampoline play outside with toys, in the dirt or mud. But its been raining a ton so they haven't been playing outside as much. They have good imaginations and play with toys and come up with things inside but then they get fighting and I want to rip my hair out so I sat down on the computer and thought I can do a week at a time so this week we are doing a camping week.
Our activities for camping week is as follows:

We are going to the library to get books on camping. I ordered one from the kids last book order of the year. Mercer Mayer's Little Critter book Me and My Dad and they go camping.

Make indoor forts or tent with blankets etc.
Tell ghost stories
Let them sleep in it at night

For cooking and baking:

Hobo dinners
Another dinner night will be roasting hot dogs and marshmallows. (the weather is supposed to clear up and be good this week except one day)

Make smores and trail mix.

Make Banana boats for dessert one night.

Go on a walk and gather twigs, leaves, rocks, etc

For crafts we are going to do:

Camping Paintings-
we will use our twigs, rocks, leaves and stuff from our walk.

Camping Collage- they can make with the leftover stuff from the walk and I'll print out a few pictures too.

Make stick men- have them hunt for sticks and glue their own stick men together along with googly eyes.

Make grocery sack backpacks

Make glow in the dark pictures that they can see while they are sleeping in their tent.

Coloring and some activities on paper about camping.

So this is my plan for this week. Hopefully the weather will hold out maybe I'll let them sleep out in the backyard but the mosquitos are so bad after all the rain. Hopefully this will make my week go by faster.

Busy Summer Days

I am such a bad blogger lately. With the kids home, baseball, t-ball and summer camps I haven't had much time lately. I've also taken a couple of digital scrapbooking courses. Its so much fun. I'm just getting into it and trying to figure out Photoshop Elements.

This year I wanted to make a plan for my kids for summer. A calendar of activities and ideas of things to do so the summer didn't just fly by.

Some of the things could be reading, our library has a summer reading program. Workbooks so my kids don't forget during the summer months.

I also wanted to include cooking days, activity days, field trips (inexpensive ones), craft days, etc.

Well I haven't done it yet. I wish I could find a website that would have something already done that I could just vamp to my family. I found a couple that have some ideas. Here's one Chocolate On My CraniumNow I just need to incorporate it.

Do you make plans for the summer months or do you just let it fly by? I don't like to be all scheduled, I like some spontaneity so I can go do something with friends or family if needed. But I also want some scheduling some sort of plan.

Pumpkin growing contest

My dad, brothers and I are having a giant pumpkin growing contest this year for fun. This is the first year that all of us have a place to grow a garden. My older brother is a pretty avid gardner. He loves it, he's good at it and he has a good, warm, longer growing season too.

My youngest brother is pretty good at it too. This will be my other brothers first year with his garden. I've grown pumpkins but not giant pumpkins. So we'll see how it turns out.

Last year I had a beautiful hubbard squash plant. It was dead in a day. Squash bugs got it. So I'll need to be careful to watch my pumpkin plants.

I planted some seeds back in March. I finally got them in the ground a couple of weeks ago. So we will see how they turn out. My dad probably has the shortest growing season. Late and early frost but I think he has a few tricks up his sleeve (so I've heard) to get his going and growing.

Wish me luck and we'll see how big they turn out.

Peanutbutter Cornflake Treats

1 cup sugar
1 cup light corn syrup
1 cup creamy peanutbutter
6 cups corn flakes
1/2 bag chocolate chips

Put corn flakes in a large bowl set aside. I medium saucepan over medium heat combine sugar and corn syrup just til boiling. Remove from heat and add peanut butter until combined. Pour over corn flakes. Stir gently to coat. When coated add chocolate chips and gently stir to combine. Spoon spoonfuls (however large you would like them I use a tablespoon) of mixture onto waxed paper. Don't crush together. Let cool. Store in airtight container. Makes about 60 more or less depending on the size you make them.



This recipe is quick and easy if you need something fast. With the end of school coming up and all the things going on with right now I'm into quick and simple dinners and desserts.

If anyone knows of some great quick and simple dinners or freezer meals that I can make let me know. I have baseball 4 nights a week right now and I really don't like to eat dinner at 9 o'clock every night.

Shrek has nothing on me

Things have been quite a mess around here. We were becoming like Shrek, living with a "swamp". That's what I liked to call it, it sounds so much nicer than a sess pool. (Not sure how to spell that never had to before)

Okay I need to STOP right here and issue a WARNING!!! As you may have guessed while you were reading above the next few posts are going to talk about really smelly stinky stuff mainly POOP.

When Shrek said he was like onions and Donkey said they get all brown and smelly and Shrek said no they have layers well they were both right. There are a few layers to my story and it starts out nice then goes to the inside which is smelly and brown maybe black.

So now that I've issued my WARNING!! We can continue...

Let me take you back a little. We started noticing our grass in the backyard was getting a little squishy, then getting a little swampy. Anyway my "no more than you" teen would mow the lawn and the lawn mower started to sink. My husband went and checked it out and yes, you guessed it our leech lines from our septic tank were having problems. Plugged, broken, I don't know but were had a little swamp starting in our backyard in the grass.

So fast forward about 2 weeks. My husband had been really busy with work and we had been having lots of rain and bad weather so the "little swamp" just stayed put. Well more rain, more ground saturation "bigger swamp" started. Then my 5 year old had his birthday party. We had to tell the kids to stay away from that part of the yard. We told them not to go into the tall grass. My "no more than you" teen quit mowing the grass in the "swamp". My husbands aunt thought we had snakes so all the kids heard her say that and stayed away.

Fast forward again. Well the weather all of a sudden cleared up and started to get warm, really warm and the smell started coming from the "swamp". (I forgot to tell you at the birthday party my cousins husband offered to help fix the "swamp") So this is about a week later...
I have this in my backyard

I'll spare you the really gross and smelly details and just end with 6- 10' pipes, two big deep trenches and a load of gravel later and now part of my backyard looks like this
Well Shrek still lives in his swamp and mine is all gone (hopefully it all worked) I don't think he has anything on me except he can make a mean weed rat stew and pull wax out of his ear for a nice romantic dinner but I'm "swampless" now I just need to smooth out the dirt and plant some more grass....

I forgot to mention the previous owners of the house put carpet and vinyl flooring in the sand box. We started digging and found the carpet. To our amazement we found the vinyl flooring in there also so while we had the backhoe we dug that out too. We had tons of "puncture weeds" in the sand box so now its just dirt and a pile of carpet of vinyl.