My Day in Photos...

Here is a montage of photos depicting my day.lol

Chocolate covered oreos...


Isaac at the party with his boppy...


Sophia joined in all the reindeer games, not shy one bit...


Allison with her red striped hair...very festive...


Sophia back in the stroller...


Looking bored already!


Jon, looking tall...



The party was fun for all the kids. Evie lost another tooth while there! Now the tooth that has already come in has a hole to move into.LOL We ended up with some extra kids after the party. That kept everyone happy and they are now off skating with grandpa. Fun, fun, fun! The littles are in bed except a teething Sophia. She's trying to help the pain by banging her head against things. It's not working.LOL I think Tylenol is in order and I'll be praying for some much needed sleep tonight. Oh, and I made it to the grocery store tonight! Yippee! We now have Christmas dinner in our possession. lol

Blessings,

My Menu for this week...

Here's my menu for the next week...

Dinner

Thursday: Taco Stuff
Friday: Grilled Chicken, rice, salad
Saturday: Meatloaf, rice, steamed veggies
Sunday: Split Pea soup, bread
Monday: Garlic butter pasta w/salad

Christmas Dinner

Standing Rib Roast
Potatoes, onions, and carrots
Sweet potatoes
Sauteed asparagus or greenbeans
Rolls

Dessert

2 lemon pies (from MIL) that's our favorite!
1 ice cream pie (chocolate w/chocolate dipped oreos, cool whip, and chocolate drizzled on top)
maybe something I can eat...lol chocolate chip cookies maybe?lol




Blessings,

The Sophia Chronicles...

Here are some photos from this morning...

Is my hair red or what?!

My two younger girls coming to get me...

Whatever you do, don't notice the mess behind the charming children.LOL I promise to clean up later.lol

Blessings,

My Daily Ramblings...

We're having a pretty good week.

Monday Evie and Isaac had dr's appts at their old dr's office. Yuck. I'll be so glad when we don't have to go there again. Both of them got two shots and a finger prick. Neither were pleased.LOL Eric said that it's probably best to only remember shots and stuff at the old place, that way they'll always love the new dr. We do shots very slowly and have them slated to be finished before they are of school age. Evie is almost done and Isaac has a ways to go. Better safe than sorry though.

Tuesday was a great day at PE! The kids had so much fun and I stayed for the first hour. The littles have made some great friends and Sophia loves to crawl all over the gym floor. Ack! It's making this germ-phobic mom crazy, but she has such a good time. Isaac is even :gasp: sharing! Phew! He must really like having buddies to share like that. He doesn't even do that at home.LOL After PE, we stopped by my moms and she fed us. Yay! That was a nice bonus and we've decided to stop by during dinner time more often.LOL We actually stopped by so that we could go to the Train display that their church hosts each year. Isaac loves this and we'll need to go a couple more times before it's over. It's free and Isaac LOVES trains! We were there an hour and he still didn't want to leave.LOL

Wed was a easy day. I caught up on some chores, built Isaac's Christmas presents (I'm still nursing some sore fingers from it.), and I wrapped every single gift. Whew! I'm glad that's over and that I won't be trying to get that all done on Christmas Eve. After dinner, I ran to the Dollar Store and bought some cellopane gift bags and we filled them with candy for the kids' Christmas party at PE today. They turned out nice and I used all the clearance candy that I bought after Halloween, so it wasn't even too bad on the pocketbook! We made 60. I was pretty tired last night but we still did our Advent study and Jotham. I read two chapters on Wed since Thursday night the kids are gone skating. Allison usually has Bible study and of course we could have gone to church for the last Advent service but we were all tired and chose home.

Today is the Christmas party! It's from 9-12 and then I'm supposed to go shopping with my mom. We'll see how I hold up.LOL I'm so thankful for how healthy I've been this season! I don't think I've ever had a year where I felt this o.k. It's been a true gift and I've been praising God for this time. Eric will be off later today and he's also taking tomorrow off. It will be so nice to have him home. Well, I better get a move on! I've managed to use up all my extra time and need to get those kids out of bed. Merry Christmas everyone!



Blessings,

create your own personalized map of the USA
or check out ourCalifornia travel guide


Here are all the states I've been to. I see that I need to make it farther north sometime.LOL

I saw this on Kristine's blog and thought it was neat!

Blessings,

Recipe...

This is my family's new favorite soup...found in a book called One Pot Recipes by Linda Doeser

Bacon and Lentil Soup

1/2 lb bacon, diced
1 onion, diced (I used 1 tbsp dried onion)
2 carrots, sliced (used two handfuls of baby carrots)
2 celery stalks, chopped
3 potatoes, chopped
1/2 cup red lentils
1 bay leaf
6-8 cups water or chicken broth ( I used half canned/half water w/3 boullion cubes)
salt and pepper to taste

Brown bacon. Dump everything into your crockpot. Cook on low for 6-8 hours. Remove bay leaf. Serve with bread and salad. YUM!

I will double it next time. We had NO LEFTOVERS and people were scraping the crockpot out.LOL

Blessings,

My Daily Ramblings...

Yikes! I don't think I've gone this long without a post in a year!





God has been calling me away from the computer for this season in my life. I can't say that I've been giving up my time easily, but it has had so many rewards! I'm thankful to have this time with my children.

We've done quite well keeping up with our Advent studies. I would even say we're thriving on our evenings together. We are planning to continue with this, doing different studies throughout this next year. Our first study will be Heart of Wisdom's A Family Guide to the Biblical Holidays. I think we'll enjoy this. We're also doing well with Jotham's Journey! It's been a long time since I've been able to read something outloud! The littles are really growing up for us to be able to do this each night.lol





Allison got a haircut today. I can't believe how grown up it makes her. I'm going to have to talk to her about that. LOL

My Allison

I'm very excited about Christmas! It will be so much fun to watch all these kids opening their gifts this year. I will try to take lots of pictures.LOL I've even toyed with the idea of each child opening a gift and then actually taking that gift out and letting them play with it before they open another gift. It just seems a little overwhelming to have the free for all that we usually get each year. We'll see. I'm sure I'll be out voted anyway.lol

Well, all the gifts are bought, all the cookies have been made and given away, and the house doesn't look too bad.LOL I think that's the best I've been able to do for a few years now. I've got a few more things I'd like to do around here before Christmas day but I'm pretty happy.

I've got Big Plans for the New Year! I'm going to be choosing a room each month in the house to overhaul. I will ruthlessly go through that room and throughout that month I'll look for something to make that room look nicer. Maybe paint some rooms, maybe some nice pictures for another. The plan is to make this house my home this next year. I'll be praying through each room hoping to make each area a blessing to our lives. I'm already dreaming about different rooms.LOL I'd LOVE to put a bottle glass back splash behind my oven and wall and then paint the rest of the kitchen a real pretty blue. I'd love to repaint the dining room, maybe something a little darker than the kitchen, but of the same color palette. Eric and I have decided to start saving up for dark wood floors throughout the house and a nice tile floor for the kitchen. That will have to wait though.LOL Of course I'll be taking photos.LOL

I've got plans for our school time too. Evie needs more time with me and Isaac is itching to do more too. We'll be stepping things up a bit in January. I'd like to get back to my roots and follow Charlotte Mason more. I love short lessons. I love teaching nature study, drawing, poetry, and music. No more just the basics for us! That's just not fun.LOL

The bigger kids are plugging along and will be needing more subjects soon. I've been bringing the older kids back down to the table to work. It's nice to have us back together! It also helps me to know where the kids are each day instead of having to catch up on the weekends.

Well, I guess I'm all talked out now.LOL It's going to be a good year next year. I'm Choosing Joy!

Blessings,

My Daily Ramblings...

So it's been another crazy week. I need to find time to update more often! Saturday we spent the day going to the dump. We were doing a clean up of the backyard. It was pretty embarrassing how bad it had gotten over the past year. We still need to go back another day but the yard is looking much better.

Once the yard was finished, I made black beans and rice for the church and Eric ran Jon to the church for practice. Then Jon had a Christmas recital at our church. It went well and we had a nice time fellowshipping afterwards at the potluck dinner. We left Allison behind to watch over the sleeping little ones and of course they all woke up while we were gone.LOL She handled things nicely though.

Sunday was church again. I really like our church! They love having the littles in the service and don't mind when they get a little noisey. It's a real blessing to have a place to worship. Eric took the littles and Jon to the park afterwards and they had a great time. I stayed home with Sophia and spent some time talking with Allison about her school work and her plans after graduation. It was nice to have that time together!

Today, we've been busy baking again. We've made 4 more banana breads, some oatmeal cookies, sandies, and last night we made chocolate chip again.

Then I ran Allison to her Dr's appt. I was thinking it would be a quick 10 minute thing and I'm so thankful that my MIL offered to watch all the other kids. It was an hour appt! First off, I must say that I LOVE our new dr! He is a wonderful, Christian DO who is amazing with my kids. We found him when Isaac and Sophia woke with ear infections a few Mondays ago. I tried to get appts with their peditrician but they were booked. I was going to run them to the urgent care center and was passing by this new office that just opened up and decided to stop in and see if they could fit us in. The receptionist is his wife and they homeschool their kids! Pretty cool. I felt at home immediately and Dr. Baglino has a wonderful personality and is amazing with the kids. I am switching everyone over to him and will see him myself in January. Well, back to Allison, (lol) I think he adjusted every bone in her body. She said that she felt great afterwards. She will need an MRI of her knee because she's got some issues going on there but he helped her with the pain and she's feeling better than she has in a long while. What a blessing this Dr is!

Well, here are some photos...

Allison and Isaac: Two peas in a pod.


Are you comfy Jon?


You caught me Mom!


Here are five of the chickens I made...gotta love my roaster!


Here are those fancy cookies...


Here is the current condition of our Christmas tree. Notice the lack of ornaments on the bottom half and all the candy canes on the very top.LOL


Blessings,

My Daily Ramblings...

What a GREAT week! It has been so nice to have healthy little ones! This week I was able to bake banana bread, two kinds of cookies (chocolate chip and oatmeal crispies) and make 3 gallon bags of Tic Tac Toe Mix. Yum!

Today we got up late. lol First time in a MONTH! It was so nice to wake up before Sophia. As soon as I was dressed for the day, we loaded everyone up and I took them to the park. It was such a nice day. We all had a great time! After the park, I took the kids to Larry's Giant Subs for lunch and then ran into FoodLion. They were having a sale on whole chickens. I bought 8 and have them all cooking right now.LOL 5 in my big roaster, 2 in my big crockpot, and 1 in my little crockpot. Guess what we're having for dinner? LOL

After they are all done, I'll make some chicken broth and get everything in the freezer. It sure is nice to have this in the freezer for busy or sick days! It sure saved me this past month.

Once I got the chicken cooking, Allison and I made Tic Tac Toe mix. It's sooooo good! Just mix chex cereal, cheerios, pretzels, and m&m's together in a bowl and then pour melted white chocolate chips on top. Mix and spread on to baking sheets and let dry. I got this recipe on SHS a few years ago. It makes a wonderful Christmas gift!

Right after we got that mixed up, I ran to WinnDixie. They were having ground beef on sale, along with sugar and their brand of canned veggies. I bought 12 pounds of beef, 20 cans of veggies, and 2 bags of sugar.LOL I don't think I'll be needing chicken or beef for a while.lol

I came home divided up the meat and got that into the freezer. Then I started cleaning up the mess. What a mess we made! I'm thankful to have all that done though!

Well, here's my fancy schmancy cookie recipe...these are my kids very favorite cookie of all time! It was the very first cookie they asked for me to make...

Oatmeal Crispies...

3/4 pound of butter (3 sticks)
1 cup brown sugar
1 1/8 cup sugar
1 egg
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
3 cups oats(regular)
1 1/2 cups flour
3/4 tsp salt
2 1/2 tsp baking soda

Preheat oven to 350. Cream butter and sugars together until light and fluffy. Add egg and vanilla. Stir dry ingredients together in separate bowl and then add to wet ingredients slowly. Mix until combined.

Drop by tbsps onto baking sheets, leaving 2 inches between. They will spread. Bake until browned and crispy around the edges, about 8-10 minutes. Remove promptly from baking sheet onto paper towels to cool.

Makes about 48.

Blessings,

My Day in Photos...

We've gotten a lot done! The house was a complete mess from everyone being ill and from having to run around all last week. It took us a couple of hours, but we were able to get the house back under control, some wash done, a little deep cleaning finished, and 4 banana-nut breads baked! I only have one bathroom to clean, 3 more loads of wash, and Sophia's room to finish and the house will be in good shape.

Here are some photos of today...

It was hard to pick just one of this little sweetheart...

I'm cute and I know it...


Cheeeeese...


Here's my award-winning $1,000,000 smile...


Isaac getting his point across...


Evie the pirate...


Sophia helping Jon with his homework...


I love this photo of Jon...


Well, this break is over.LOL Must return to the work at hand.

Blessings,

My Menu for this week...

Somebody Get Me Out of Here!

I know I've gotten out of the habit of posting my menu. It's just been a bad couple of weeks. Everyone is now on the mend, some more than others, but I'm hopeful that we'll be healthy in a week or so.LOL Without further ado...

Dinner

Roast Pork w/noodles and steamed veggies

Chicken soup w/dumplings

BBQ Pulled Pork sandwiches w/veggie tray

Chili w/baked potatoes and steamed broccoli

Grilled Chicken w/baked potato wedges and salad

Holiday Baking List

8 banana-nut breads
24 muffins (chocolate chip, orange-pineapple)
30 rolls
Cookies!!! We'll need chocolate chip, peanutbutter, sugar, and one fancy-schmancy cookie

(Everything will be given away sometime this week before people go on vacation.)

Blessings,

My Daily Ramblings...

This sums up our week.

I've not been feeling too good lately. Probably a combo of late nights and early mornings, coupled with the cold that was shared so graciously with me.lol

We started our Advent studies on Sunday. We've never studied Advent before, but we're all enjoying the time together. Evie is THRIVING on this time! It's amazing to see her happily listening to the study, coloring her picture, and then listening to Jothom's Journey. I sweeten the pot by handing out a handful of candy to everyone at the beginning, right before we light the candle.

I am trying to make this Christmas season more memorable and more focused on Christ. We are getting the littles excited about what we are doing each day, not just on the presents that will be there on Christmas day. We're also scaling back the presents this year. It's been a tough year financially for us, but instead of that being a bad thing, it has allowed us to see what we really want to be doing at this time of year. What do we really need? I think for us, we need to come closer to God and to form better bonds with our kids. We're spending more time together, we're making gifts for others, we're spending more time in the Word together, we're happy! It's been a blessing and a gift in itself.

I've been scaling back my computer time lately. Just not enough of me to go around. It's all I can do to get everyone's medicines delivered on time each day, but I WANT to do more! I've got my list and plan to work my way through it as I can.

Allison is really trucking on her school work! It's amazing how well she's doing. She's been a reluctant learner the past few years, so to see her working hard again is a blessing. I went through all her work this past weekend and she's set to finish some subjects by January and all the rest by February! Good job Allison! She's taking more subjects starting in February, but to finish full credit courses in less than a year, takes stamina! She'll be graduating in no time if she keeps this pace.

Jon is doing well....now.LOL We had some issues with laziness so he is now taking about 10-12 different subjects. That should help. He's taking MUS Algebra 1, Jacob's Algebra, 10 Things all Mathematicians need to know, Keys to Geometry, Abeka History, Abeka Science, Apologia Biology, Abeka Literature, Understanding the Times, two biographies on missionaries, Abeka Health, Japanese, Matin Latin, and a few more things I can't remember off the top of my head. Hopefully, once this year is over, next year's work will look like a walk in the park.LOL

Well, I guess that's it for now. I'm in the process of making a grocery list, going through my coupons, and ironing a million clothes. lol

Blessings,

Our Thanksgiving Day...

The tree is a work in progress. The littles can't be trusted within twenty feet of the tree without dismantling it, so it changes hour to hour. We had to move all breakable ornaments to the top of the tree, along with all the candy canes and Isaac spends all day knocking all the bottom ornaments off the tree so it's not ever going to look like something that you'd see in a catalog or movie BUT they love it and that's all that matters.lol


Voila!


Here is our very first homemade icecream pie! The kids want this as our new tradition from now on. We got this idea from De'Etta's and Kathy's blog. We used chocolate crust, chocolate icecream, three Musketeer's candy bars, Cool Whip and melted Chocolate chips drizzled on top. Yum!


All in all, it was a good day. I think the littles had fun and I think the older kids had fun and that's hard to do with that big of an age span! We had issues but life has issues so I'm calling it good.LOL

Blessings,

Our Thanksgiving Day...

As our fabulous house was coming together, the kids started getting a little goofy. I really don't know why, perhaps it could have been the candy...nah, I'll just chalk it up to an "off day".lol


Evie pretending to be a model with the wind blowing in her hair. Really, she's a natural...lol


Isaac being cute...


Notice his hands are in both bowls...


Mick Jagger I presume?


Now you all know my secret, we have a huge sucking machine above the dining room table to keep messes from hitting the floor...


Please don't make me eat this candy pose?


Voila! Our masterpiece! :snort:


Well, I think I need another post just for the tree. That part of our day went just as well.LOL