I'm working on this next post.  I'm sure 99% of you know why I haven't posted recently.  Just gearing myself up for this next one.  It will be a teary night for me.  I'm getting used to those.

Soon people.

Peace

Strawberry Leather

So for this week I gave my kids homemade fruit roll-ups.  They love these, however I am not a huge fan so we rarely buy them because they are like all sugar.  So we had a bunch of strawberries and I pureed them and added some stevia and honey.  Then in the oven at 170 degrees for like 8 hours.  Pretty simple.  They actually turned out pretty good.  The kids like them and they sure beat the sugar loaded ones at the store.


Here are the pics:

So a big thumbs up for REAL FRUIT! Okay and Peace out.

Infused Water

So last week for my something new challenge, I tried infused water. Here is a link that I have pinned.
http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/fruit-recipes/quick-easy-flavoured-water
I have also recently seen one on facebook that I didn't pin.  I made 2 batches.  One with apple slices and some mint sprigs from my garden, and one with cucumber and mint.  They were good, and I was/am trying to get into the habit of drinking lots of water.  The problem with making 2 batches, is that this kind of water will go bad.  I didn't drink it fast enough.  Oh well, good to know for next time.  Maybe just throw in a sprig or two in a tall glass of ice water rather than trying to make a couple gallons to keep in the fridge.
It didn't magically make me drink any more water though.  This week I tried quite a few new exercises.  I'm trying to tone my muscles because the man and I just decided that we are going backpacking.  So we need those muscles to carry some heavy packs.  Here are a few of the different moves I tried,
http://www.sparkpeople.com/blog/blog.asp?post=the_lose_your_love_handles_workout

http://www.shape.com/fitness/workouts/lose-pooch-best-exercises-lower-abs?page=7

and let me tell you- boy am I SORE!  It's a good kind of sore.  A sore that you know that things are gonna happen! Watch out.  I have a bunch more pinned that I want to try so I'll be using those soon.

Okay I can't post without saying what cute and fun things my kids say.  After I gave some instruction, the smaller boy was trying to be silly and straightened his back and gave me a big salute and said, "Aye aye sir......I mean uh woman!"  Ha ha.  It was pretty funny.
Also I was changing the smallest boys diaper and had to pull his legs to get him a little closer.  He smiled and said so sweet, "It's okay mommy, you can pull my legs, but don't pull my....(big pause here as I can see the gears a-turnin') oh wait- I don't have a tail!"
It really makes you wonder what is going through their little minds.
He also told the man recently that he can't pull him yet because he is not a bunny.  Whaaa?

Yep this is what we get around here.  A bunch of craziness and sweet little remarks from our 4 angels (read hellions).  It's a crazy, busy life- but it works for me. (Most of the time)

Here are some pics to enjoy.
Peace out.

Something New

I am sure that I am not alone in the emotions I am about to express.  I guess I feel like life kind of cycles.  In many different ways.  But there are certain times when I feel completely unmotivated.  Not depressed, sad or angry.  Just like I don't have a good reason to do anything.  At these times it is the hardest to keep dinner on the table and chores accomplished in the home (something that I am not the best at anyway with 4 kids).  

So I have decided that I want to set one day a week where I try something new.  Whether it be a new meal recipe, dessert, craft, way to clean, etc.  I have over 2000 pins on pinterest and I love the idea of the pins, but I don't feel like they behoove me in anyway because I never use them.  I spend all this time perusing through the fantastic ideas of others through pinterest and it leaves me with little spare time to try new things of my own.  It is kind of fun and exciting to step outside yourself and do things a little differently every once in a while.  Hopefully it will help a little with this slump I've been in lately.  Then I want to photograph it and blog about it.  Hopefully it will help me to be more consistent in posting.  I will try a new thing one of the first 3 days of the week and post about it one of the last 3 days.

Since the kids were out of school this last week for spring break, I tried a couple of new things.  I wanted them to have some fun, but it is not completely warm enough to go running through the sprinklers just yet.  So I found this project where you tape two pieces of plastic sheeting together with duct tape and fill it with water.  So it ends up looking like a water bladder you would see for the old-school water-beds.  How fun that they can jump and roll around on it and not have to get wet.  Here is the original link to where I saw this.
http://gokidyourself.com/2012/03/giant-squishy-sensory-bag.html

Well I must have got some really crappy sheeting, because our bag lasted all of about 5 minutes.  It started leaking so I made everyone get off of it, determined to fix it so they could continue to play.  I needed some of the water to dry up so I could tape the leak and so we waited... Well the next day it was rainy.  Then most of the water had leaked out of some unseen hole and all was lost.  What a waste of money.  But we had fun doing it and it was a good idea.  

I also tried won ton tacos.  My kids have always liked taco's (we have them regularly- taco Tuesdays).  So I decided to change it up a little.  It was fun and all the kids ate them.  I'm still not sure they liked them any better than regular tacos, but I think they enjoyed something a little different.  Here is the link for the won ton tacos.
http://amazingpinterestworld.blogspot.com/2012/10/mini-tacos.html     
Definitely something I would recommend trying.  Pretty tasty! Alrighty then so now we have a new "segment" on my blog on whether I recommend it or not.  And this is my fist post for that! Wish me luck.  Let me know what kinds of new things you have tried and how they have turned out.  Let me know if there is something you think I should try for sure.  Pictures will follow soon.

Peace

Cute Quotes

I have finally joined the land of the living and got a smartphone.  I have this game that I play quite frequently. It is hill climb, a racing type of game.  Well the smaller boy says to me today, whilst watching me play, "Mom, I know that you can get an airplane on this game [you can't].  Don't you want to know how I know that?"
"Sure, how?"
"Well when I was in your belly [I didn't even have a cell phone then, no less that particular game], I had X-ray vision and I saw through your belly that you could get a plane."

...


Also this same smaller boy and smallest boy bicker quite frequently.  There was some banter back and forth and smaller boy started whining about it.  I told him to just IGNORE smallest boy.  He then proceeded to loudly make some annoying noise at recurring intervals.  He just wouldn't stop.

Not only did I start to get sick of it, but so did smallest boy.  So he kept asking him to stop.  No in reality he kept screaming his head off to just be quiet.  I continued to talk to smallest boy and told him that maybe he should ask nicely.  He then asked nicely, all to no avail. I asked nicely. Smaller boy just kept on going.

Finally I had had quite enough of that.  I finally said in a huff, "Just stop it!"
To which he replied, "But mom, you told me to just ANNOY him" [referring to smallest boy].  Ha ha ha.  So he had misheard and thought he was following my instructions all along (and was doing a fantastic job of it I might add).

We are still hanging in here.  I have just started the boy on ADHD medication.  I really did not want to medicate, but it was becoming worse and worse.  Natural stuff was not helping (enough).  I do have hope that he can go off the medication in the future, but for now he needs to calm down and notice a difference so that he can learn to control himself and focus.

We have known that he has ADHD for a few years now.  But up until this point it hasn't really been affecting his grades.  He was JUST. SO. HYPER!  And loud.  And that was okay with me.  But I knew we had to do something when grades started coming down.  Other than that, things are the same kind of crazy here.  Thanks for checking.

Peace Out

Rice and Beans

Rice and Beans.
No this is not what we will be eating for the next year (unless it comes to that).  This is the name that the Man and I have given to our new financial plan for the new year.  We will be pulling out all the stops and staying in MUCH more this year.  If you have ever read Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey (which I totally recommend), we will be "gazelle intense".  We will limit our eating out to once a month.  This will be the hardest change for us.  No more movies in the theaters. (Not like we did it that much anyway).  No more extras.  I mean we are really cutting back.
The last three months of last year really did a number on us.  When it rains it pours, and in our situation, it became a monsoon.
 
I had a crown and three root canals on one tooth.  We didn't have dental insurance.  It cost us over $2000.  The brakes in our van were going bad and needed to be replaced.  While they were replacing those, they notified us of a few problems they had found that needed to be fixed.  So the total for that was around $600.
Garbage disposal broke.  Got a new one $100.
The smaller boy broke his leg.  Doctors bills, cast and X-rays ran us another few hundred.
Some surprise bills for the smallest boy's surgery (tonsil/adenoidectomy) became due (we didn't know about these, we mistakenly thought we had paid for it all). This was another $600.
Our new insurance denied a regular yearly check-up claim that cost us another $150.
We cancelled a trip to Colorado that we were really looking forward to.
The boy turned eight and got baptized. Yeah! We bought him a suit along with his birthday presents.
Garage door spring snapped and had to get a new one and get it fixed.  (We are so lucky to have a super father who knows how to fix everything and helped us out with this one.)
All of these happened the same time we were buying Christmas presents for the kids.
It wasn't all bad.
We had some help (of which we are truly grateful).  And in the mist of what happened then, I was just so eternally grateful to have my children alive and well.  I didn't (and still don't) feel I had any right to complain.  Money is just money.  I am so glad and blessed to have a family that is alive and healthy.

I do not mean to complain.  Just let you know where I am coming from so my reasoning can be better understood.  So if we don't go out to eat with you, or go to the movies or any other extra-curricular activity--- now you know why. We love and appreciate all our family and friends.  We will just be entertaining in our home this year;) If we are invited somewhere, you might only hear us respond, "rice and beans my friend, rice and beans". And now you will know what we mean.

All in all though, our Christmas was fantastic.  We indeed were spoiled and got more than we deserved. Hope yours was great too.

Peace out
Here are just a few highlights of Christmas Morning:

 Well not this one, this was a few days before.  Silly elf.

Kara