Country Life is the one for me

Summer has begun and while my kids great me each day with the sweet words, where are we going today, I am not overjoyed with the pressure of figuring it all out. 80 days of me being home with them is a huge task to fill with a balance of adventures. Of course there is the mere cost of all these adventures to budget as well, especially when there are 4 kids at the minimum. SO, Friday bowling and Sonic happy hour drinks was a cost day. Today, Memorial Day, was a no cost day. We BBQ'd last night and ate with family the night before leaving today, with Daddy on duty, like a regular day. We did some work around the outdoors. We spent a few moments discussing the real purpose for this holiday and then the FUN part. Water games won by a mile!
Who really needs to buy a slip and slide these days? I mean they hardly hold up to repeated use. Around our property tarps are a plenty so I sent the older kiddos on a mission to retrieve the cleanest one they could find. Then they were extremely resourceful on finding ways to attach it the ground.
Would you believe I got in on the fun too? Yep, sure did. While I was very cautious compared to them running, diving and the sort, it was great. After they tired of it, we all moved to the trampoline with the sprinkler under it. Hard to believe it was hot enough to feel pretty great. Also, let it be documented that I WON the last man standing game taking Annabeth out. Course, I imagine she will be smarted and harder to beat next time when she figured out how I was able to win. But I WON!

Oops. you dropped the ball. Pick it up and start again...

First stop is setting goals. In doing so I needed a system to be in place for accountability. This was found on Pinterest. I am certain you may have seen it yourself.
http://www.livinglaughingandlearning.com/2014/11/printable-youre-grounded-chart.html

SO, I downloaded the free document and made it my own. Shhhhh. My kids have no idea it was that easy for me to make :)
Feel free to do so yourself. I am definetly a fan of natural consequences. Yet there are times when it takes hard work and determination to get to the heart of the matter too. This does just that.

UPDATE 1 year after original post: STILL works
At this point I am a bit less rigid with handing out the points. I may need to tighten up a bit more and write down the small increments so they don't get lost in the shuffle. The kids have started to "forget" to complete them right away but now that it is summer I am all over that. Regardless the real truth is that a person must pick a system of accountability with their kids and hold to it. Disciplined individuals only come from a parent guiding them along the way. This is definitely the trickiest time in being a momma. Knowing where to let them step out and fail and cheering them on when the succeed. Good luck and share your favorite resources with me too!

Fantastic Food Friday

Ah.. Friday..ok who am I kidding. I am a teacher so Friday hardly means much during the summer. BUT nonetheless we stayed home for the afternoon to cook and play away.
The first thing I did was prep dinner, which was AMAZING! The main dish was italian caramelized chicken. I followed the recipe exactly and every single member of the family was thrilled! https://www.pinterest.com/pin/253257179022700343/
AND BLT salad which I really just cut up cucumber, avocado, tomato and added a small amount of italian dressing instead of mayo like the recipe said.
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/426153183467120344/

Meanwhile we made some healthy snacks. First came fruit snacks from here:
http://www.mommysavers.com/c/t/164335/dollar-store-crafts-homemade-fruit-snacks-from-100-juice

Next I made my first attempt at fruit roll ups. It sure does take a long time to dry out, but it tastes yummy, as it was close to dry earlier. All the kids are dying to taste it as they smell it throughout the kitchen, I cannot for the life of me find the original post that had way more suggestions, options etc on it. But this one works or you can search yourself. For my first round I went with 2 1/2 cups of strawberries, 1 1/2 cups of banana overflowing the measuring the cup before I put them in the food processor. I am so grateful to my friend Ashley for having one because I never knew how much I needed one till we used it at her house. ANYWAY, after they were pureed I tasted and added a bit of honey. You could use powedered sugar, regular sugar, agave or any sweetener you want as desired.
http://www.raininghotcoupons.com/homemade-2-ingredient-fruit-rollups/

Lastly since the impatience factor is HIGH we made something we could eat right away. Starbacks vanilla bean frappuccino
http://simpleethrifty.com/copycat-starbucks-vanilla-bean-frappuccino/

I would recommend more ice cream and possibly ice for the next batch and less milk. Either way they were perfectly yummy!

Gak attack and a repeat treat

This Summer break has been an odd one. It seems we are packing for one thing or another, (Youth camp, Nationals, Camp Penuel and finally vacation) and always on the run. I cannot believe how little time we have spent just hanging around the house. I guess that just shows I don't have little kids anymore. Sigh..
Last Friday we decided to repeat an attempt at the outdoor waterbed with friends who haven't done it before. Apparently I should have read my own reflection because it took more effort than playtime to get it right. First I grabbed 2 tarps forgetting that you really only need to get one and fold that over before taping with duct tape. Bigger seemed better in mind but NOT real life.
Second a FLAT SPACE is best. We got it filling with water and realized the space was not at all flat. After fixing a leak or 2 we decided to flip the entire thing to get to flat ground. 2 adults and a few kids later we had it flat. BUT well a few rips and tons more leaks we finally cut it in half and tried a 2nd time.
While the kids had a blast for a pretty short time all in all I have learned my lesson for any future attempts.

Now on to today. I am in the unmotivated process of finishing packing for our trip to Nationals with dance. Well for 3 of us out of the 6 anyway. Knowing I will be gone from my baby girl who truly cares the most about spending time with me I decided why not make some GAK.
Here is the website I used: http://www.stevespanglerscience.com/lab/experiments/glue-borax-gak

The great thing about GAK is there is no perfection on recipe needed. You simply follow the directions and then edit as desired. We did what it said and then I spilled too much of the Borax solution in the bowl making it runny again so I added straight Borax. It definitely made it way better. We then had some color mixing fun too though I am out of red food coloring..random.
http://www.stevespanglerscience.com/lab/experiments/glue-borax-gak

Other than Borax you probably have everything you need.

Restoring, renewing and onto bigger better

Whew! It sure has been quite sometime since I sat here. I feel a little bit like the mom on the movie Mom's Night Out. I mean how much I wanted to be a blogger, someone who had something to share in this daunting but worth every second mom gig. I like to write but have little true flare except well when it comes from the heart, or the Holy Spirit. Anyway, here I sit on the brink of summer feeling like a freight train almost ran me over. Almost you ask? Why yes because if it had really run me over I would have no hope of prevailing.
This year feels like a year of equipping and restoration. A year to set things in a forward motion in the best way possible. It seems in the years from being a stay at home mom/Aunt to today of a full time teacher, part time preschool coordinator have taken its toll. I had to give up on what once I had time for and live moment to moment. Yet somewhere in that transition I lost the overall focus of my kids futures. Yes the day to day was taken care of but we all just survived. The grace of God has been in it but before my eyes I now have a 14 (less than 2 months from 15) year old full fledge teen son and a 12 halfway to 13 year old daughter. The younger 2 are 10 and just now 7 but there is a bigger of window of time for them. Plus by getting the elders figured out I am only helping them too.
The big ones, oh my precious first 2 kids, every inch of my being is screaming these are your crucial days. Get in there are get busy leading them to the lifestyle God wants them to cling to when they leave. They may be 2 1/2 years apart but so much of their milestones in life have been done together.
SO, here I am. Learning just like them. Will you join me on this journey too?

What resources do you use to guide you in this mom gig?

http://www.themobsociety.com/
http://meaningfulmama.com/

Pinterest FAIL

It was bound to happen at some point but well I just wish it wasn't on something that required so much effort! You see my dear sweet children were not OK with letting it fail so we attempted not 1, not 2 but 3 times. REALLY!
What is it that we determined to make...rock candy. I mean how hard can it be to get sugar to crystallize? Apparently more difficult than I thought. Course the post I got the idea from also stated it took them 2 attempts to get it right. directions click here

 First, make sure to read ALL of the directions, every... single...word. An example would be continue adding sugar UNTIL it appears they liquid will no longer absorb more. That makes for fail number one.I never added the clothespin to keep the sticks straight and in the middle. (I know I have a real following directions problem when cooking, sorry!)

 THEN, use the right kind of sticks. I used paper wrapped sticks and not wood. I am pretty sure this makes a difference because on attempt three it was the ONLY part of the directions we did not follow exactly.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         Here is the final product. As you can see it kinda  (not completely) worked, basically enough for the now desperate kids to semi eat. I a true sugar addict didn't think it tasted that great but who am I after all? How about you try? Feel free to post a comment and let me know if you were more successful than I, thereby confirming we stink at this but well its fun to hear :)


Click for better directions As you can see above it just didn't work quite right. There is tons of sugar in those glasses but well it didn't attach to the sticks.

Homemade fruit snacks and flip flops

Odd combination of activities I know but well kids are random like that. Heck, I am random like that. One is extremely easy and the other is VERY time comsuming. Neither are brand new ideas, one from Pinterest of course (where else?) and the other from observation of others. But they both were worthwhile!

This time of year flip flops are very inexpensive so you just need to find a pair the darker the color the better. The girls chose water balloons as the decor for theirs. It does take roughly 200+ for a pre-teen size foot to give you a starting place on purchasing if you choose. Thank goodness they are found in packs of 100 at the dollar store. Patterns make no difference in order because in the end you cannot even really tell unless you did all of one color making a rainbow.
Here is the finished product:

 Don't mind silly C sitting on the floor. This project took 2 days to complete though it was not worked on nonstop.

1 down, only 2 more to go.











Now to the real reason you are reading this post, homemade fruit snacks. They require 3 ingredients. 2 .25oz packets of unflavored gelatin (each box comes with 4 packets in it), 1 3oz package of any flavored jello and 1/3 cup water.
All you do is pour the water into a much smaller saucepan than I used and add the 3 packets. Then turn on medium heat and stir till dissolved.
Lastly, pour it into silicone molds as these are the easiest to get back out when set. It takes about 20 minutes to set and viola!
I purchased the jolly rancher flavors for a fun first attempt and they were gobbled up quickly. My molds were a bit large so we only filled them halfway. I will however look out for smaller molds to do this again. It was super quick and tasted great.
This is only part of them as I had to be quick or there would be nothing to show you.