Things I'm learning

My mission this year is to become a better mom.  One of the ways I am doing this is by reading up on the subject of motherhood....How to take care of myself...How to take care of the kids....How to relate to them better....well, you get the idea.

Right now I am reading The 5 love languages of children by Gary Chapman and Ross Campbell.

This is a really good book.  The 5 ways that children view and receive love are -physical touch - gifts- words of affirmation - acts of service - and quality time.  Our girls are still young and the authors say that one isn't able to figure out the your child's primary love language until they are around 5 or 6.  One of the best ways to find out is to simply ask them.  

With this all being said I've been keeping these 5 things in mind this summer.  Today we went to the local pool.  The girls loved it.  The undivided attention from mom was just the thing they were looking for.  I wasn't concerned about how I looked in my "old lady" swimsuit.  I was just enjoying the joy in my children's eyes as we swam around in the water.

All in all, the girls don't care if the house is clean and sparkling, they just want their mom.  I do want them growing up responsible though.  So before heading off to the pool we all worked together to clean each of their rooms so I could vacuum them before lunchtime. 

I would love to show you pictures of the girls playing in the pool.  But there are no pictures to show as I was in the water with them.  Tomorrow we are heading to the beach and instead of sitting in the shade reading a book I'm going to be in the sand building a castle with them.  I'm really excited.

Morning coffee

Good morning everyone.  Last night I decided I was going to get up early, before the girls.  Well, the alarm went off and I hit snooze a few times.  But I actually managed to roll myself out of bed.

I turned the coffee pot on and threw a load of clothes in the washer.  Then I opened the laptop and started on some things that I never seem to get to.  It was so quiet in the house, the only sound was coming from the basement as the washer was filling up.

Now Mackenzie is home from the Other House and the girls are waking up.  I think if Scott doesn't have to run to work right away I might go to the gym.  Seems like it's been forever since I've been there and really need to get back to exercising.

Well, we are off to start our day.  

Enjoy your Monday!

Our Summer to do list

Summer is in full swing here and with that comes the busy days.  With Mackenzie being out of school I am trying to make sure we have fun activities to do to keep the girls from getting on each others nerves.  There are a lot of fun things on our to do list this year.  Most of these activities are free or nearly free.

Here is what we have so far:

• Our fourth annual 4th of July party
• Middleton Splash Pad
• Activities at the Verona Public Library
• We are also doing to Summer Reading program at the library
• Free kids bowling at Ten Pin Alley - I'm super excited about this one
• Mackenzie has t-ball practice every Monday and Wednesday night so the 2 youngest will get some good park time in during practice.
• Goodman pool - done on 6/26/2012
• Mackenzie's t-ball games start the second week of July
• $2 movie Tuesdays - I'm thinking we are going to see Tin Tin and the Lorax
• We are planning on getting up to the Chippewa Flowage at least twice this summer
• Fly kites
• Playdates, playdates, playdates. 
• Color with sidewalk chalk  

Kristen gave me some more great ideas that I'm going to add to the list.

• go to the zoo - we have gone to the local zoo, but want to go to the "big" zoo in Milwaukee too
  go camping(in your backyard too)
  fishing -Scott has taken Kennedy fishing once already
  go to the beach or take a hike at Gov Dodge 
• play in the sprinkler -this is an almost daily thing here as I try to bring our grass back to life
• make smores
• have a picnic in your backyard or at the park
• go to the farmers market -we did this on Saturday
• petting zoo -we went to one on Father's Day
• concert on the square or concert in the park
• pick strawberries - we accomplished this at the beginning of June
• go to a drive in movie
• have sno-cones or ice cream
• have a movie party
• catch fireflies
• family pictures -planning on taking care of this in the fall when all the leaves change colors
• read outside
• make up stories/plays
• build a "blanket fort"(that's what my girls call it lol) inside or outside
• go for a boat ride
• paint
• crafts/projects
• Sing silly songs

It may seem like a lot just looking at the list.  But we like to have options and will always have at least one no travel day where we don't even get in the truck.

Do you have any other fun summer ideas we could add to the list?

What I've been up to lately

As I stated in the previous post, summer is in full swing here.  And I wanted to let you know what we/I have been up to lately.

Seeing how Mackenzie was going to the Other House for Father's Day we had cake and opened presents the night before.  The girls worked really hard on the bottles they gave to him.

Dad and his girls.

 The next day, Father's Day, we drove up to Waupaca, WI where Scott spent most of his childhood.  One of our favorite places up there is the Red Mill.  It sits right next to this little shallow creek.  I planned ahead and packed a change of clothes for the girls.  So they were able to play in the water without worry about them getting their clothes wet and us being 2 hours from home.

I rolled up my capris and joined them.

Me and my best friend.  You have no idea how much I love this man of mine.

This is one of my favorite pictures.  God creates such beautiful landscapes for us to enjoy.

I have been getting some crafting done in the meantime.  I am actually working on helping two friends with their fundraising efforts.  My dear friend Cherie has been crocheting hats and selling them with all the money going to a fantastic organization called Feed My Starving Children.  She has found a place that will carry and sell all the hats starting in August.  I have offered to help and came up with this little creation the other day.

I think this would look so cute on a newborn.

 My other friend Greta has a passion for helping the little ones over in Ethiopia.  Here is link to her blog Give me Your eyes.  Greta has traveled to Ethiopia on a mission trip once already and is planning to go over again.  This time she would like to take along their oldest son Caleb.  In order to do so they are going to have to come up with double the amount since the first time she went over.  This is where I (and so many others) come in.  Greta is setting up a craft show at our church in August.  I am so excited to help.  I have been collecting glass jars and bottles for quite some time.  Now I get to put them to good use.  Here are some of my creations.

Flower vases

More vases

Refrigerator spice jars.

I have so many more crafts to make before August.

So even though I'm not able to give you a daily update we have so many things going on.

Wishing it could be daily

I wish that I could post daily for everyone.  But that just isn't going to happen.  We only have one laptop and my sweet husband needs it with him for work everyday.  When he comes home at night some times there just aren't enough hours left in the day to get up a post about something I saw, or did, or thought about that day.

There are a lot of great bloggers out there that are able to post daily, sometimes 2,3,4 times a day.  Right now I am just not one of them.

Please know that there are so many things that I am trying to get together and up for you right now.  Maybe someday I will be able to be a daily blogger.  But during this season in my life I know that is not possible.

In the meantime, have a look around at some of the older posts I've put up.  Oh, and you can find me on facebook.  Look for the page With God by my Side.

Have a great night!

End of the school year for Mackenzie

Mackenzie's last day of was this week.  The Friday before was Author Celebration day.  All year long the students have been working really hard on their writing skills.  Well, this particular day the students were presenting and reading their original stories.

Here is a picture of her and the award for all her hard work.

 On the last day of school Mackenzie wanted her sisters and I to walk her into school.

 Here she is.... our official 2nd grader!

Mackenzie had a much better year this year.  Her behavior was great and she worked really hard.

We are so proud of her!!  Great job Felix!  :)

My adventures with meal planning and freezer cooking.

I really love to cook.  But sometimes I am so stressed out from running after 3 little ones, and making the house a home, and breaking up fights, and drying tears, and flirting with my husband, and remembering to do this and that....that I just don't feel like cooking supper.  What happens is I make something simple for the kids and then Scott and I would order take out and eat it after the girls go to bed.  This was taking a serious chunk out of our budget and adding inches to my waistline.  A double whammy.  Yuck.....  Plus we weren't eating meals together as a family.  Something that I remember doing growing up and strive to do with our family as well.  It's the perfect time to talk to the girls and teach them about table manners and nutrition.  And the girls get a chance to tell Scott about what they did during the day.

I have been dabbling with freezer cooking for awhile now.  Katrina would come over in the morning and we would cook for a few hours while the kids played together.  Our worst day was the time we forgot to turn the oven on when making banana bread. *slaps her forehead*  Our best day was when we made 20 some meals for each of our families.  Yes, they were chicken meals.  It was seriously on sale that week.  ;)  Katrina has 4 boys under the age of 7.  We have 3 girls 7 years and younger.  So the extra meals in the freezers has been helpful.

However, I just wasn't making good use of them.  After having a meeting with my amazing friend, Steph, who is also my accountability partner.  I told her that I was going to get back into cooking meals for the family.

So on May 14th I set about getting to work.  The week before I was blessed with the grocery store having yet another sale on boneless, skinless chicken breasts.  I'm pretty sure they don't like chickens as much as my husband claims I do,  he always jokes that I have it out for chickens because I buy a ton of them when they are on sale.

The week before I made a plan of what I was going to cook, gathered the recipes and made a list of what I was going to need from the store.  I knew I was going to need to go to several different stores to get all the ingredients needed.

Anyways,  here is how the day went.

The night before I put the chicken in the crock pot with some chicken broth.  I set the crock pot to low and in the morning my chicken was ready to shredd.

I crawled out of bed at 5:30 a.m.  I wanted to get a good head start before the girls woke up.  I started a fresh pot of coffee and got to work.

Here is my red recipe book.  And my homemaker binder with all my other recipes.

A view of my stove hard at work.

Due to Lexi's allergy to tree nuts I make our own pesto.

Our freezer at the end of the day.  I think I made 15 some meals that day.

Check out my new dry erase calendar for meal planning.  I love being able to move the meals around if I don't feel like having something on a certain day.  And right next to it is my favorite picture of my hubby. =)

I am so happy that I have taken back control of our kitchen.  And due to the fact that our girls eat like birds we still have meals left in the freezer.  We regularly have leftovers which works out well for lunch the next day too.

This is definitely something I am going to continue.  One of my favorite sites to frequent is onceamonthmom.com . If you have any meals that are great freezer meals please let me know.

” Mama & Me” Journal

My friend, Katrina, knows me so very well.  She sent me a link to a homeschooling momma's website, mamajennblogs.com and I have still not explored everything yet.

One thing I did find and set right to work making was the Mama & Me journal.  I knew this would be perfect for our oldest daughter.  What is a Mama & Me journal?  It is a notebook for Mackenzie and I to write letters back and forth to each other.  With 2 younger sisters around it is not always easy for us to have conversations. Plus, she is at the other house 50% of the time as well, so she will have something to look forward to that is all her own. And it serves a double purpose- she can practice her spelling, writing and penmanship.

I really hope that this notebook will help for us to keep the line of communication open.  Life can be hard, so if/when she asks some tough questions I'll have some time to ask God how I should answer her.

You only need a few things to make a Mama & Me journal of your own.

• A notebook
• Some fun scrapbook paper
• Clear contact paper

You can download and print off a Mama & Me label from Jenn's site. But I didn't have the laptop printer with me so I just wrote it on myself.

Then I took an idea off Jenn's blog that she took off Erica's site (Confessions of a Homeschooler) and wrote a letter on the first page explaining what the notebook is about.

Dear Mackenzie,

Would you like to be my pen pal? Instead of mailing letters to each other, we can keep them here in this notebook. Does that sound like fun?

I will write to you and then leave the notebook on your bed. Then, when you want to write me back you can begin writing on the next page and leave the notebook on my bed when you are done.

You can write about anything! It can be funny or serious! Just write about whatever is on your mind!  :-)

I am so excited and I hope that you are excited too!

Love,
Mom

P.S. Write back soon!  :-)

Mackenzie has already discovered it and can't wait for me to write back to her.

A great morning

Right after my last race, I mean that evening, I signed up for Race for the Cure.  I knew that this race would be easier.  It's only a 5K compared to a 8K.   I just didn't know how great of a morning I would have running it.

I got up a little earlier than I usually do.  My brother, Roy, and brother-in-law, Justin, would be at my place at 7:15 a.m.  My friends, Pati, Steph, and Julia were meeting us at the race.

We arrived right on time.  We didn't have to do a whole lot of standing around.  After everyone helped each other get our race bibs and "In Memory" and "In Celebration" bibs on we were all set.

I painted my nails pink the night before.  I figured it would help me run faster.

Our race bibs.

"In Celebration" bibs.

"In Memory" bibs

A great view of the Capital while on our run.

In the back: Justin and Roy. In the front: Steph, myself and Pati

Steph and I stayed running together the whole time.

The girls were so happy to find me at the end of the race.

I had such a great time with a great group of friends.  And we were able to raise money for a fantastic cause.  We shared a lot of laughs and jokes this morning.  I'm already looking for our next race to run.

Reflection Day Results

I recently posted about Utilizing the 31st day. Even though it was written on my calendar yesterday I forgot until Sandra made a comment saying she was excited to know what I write about.  Oops, time to reflect.

I did take some time today before starting supper to see how things are lining up in our life.

1. How is the overall pace of my family's life right now?
   Our pace is different from day-to-day, one day we have playdates and errands, the next day we are relaxing at home.  We currently don't have any outside activites that anyone is in but am hoping to find some for the summer months.  Nothing that requires a real commitment, more so a drop in type basis.  And I have a few friend things going on this month.
    
2. How long has it been since we've enjoyed a family night together?
   The last intentional family day we had was Mother's Day.  The strawberries have peaked early this year.  I am hoping we can sneak away from the daily to do's to go pick some.  Maybe after my 5K Breast Cancer awareness run on Saturday.
   
3. Does our schedule allow us to eat dinner together at least four nights a week (or however many you're comfortable with)?
   I recently moved dinner time to 6:00 here.  Two reasons- a later mealtime means the girls aren't asking for snacks right before bed.  And Scott is more likely to be home from work to eat with us.  He is a sales manager for a roofing company so his daily schedule isn't the same every day.
   
4. When was the last time my husband and I had a chance to be alone (and awake!) together?
   We get to see each other every night now that Lexi, 2 1/2, is sleeping in her own bed.  We actually have time to talk to one another without being interrupted.
   
5. Is everyone in my family (including me) getting an adequate amount of sleep?
   I would say most of us are getting a good amount of sleep.  We are making sure the girls are in their own beds on time and not staying up to play.  We do need to work on getting ourselves to bed at an earlier time and not staying up to watch TV.
   
6. Is there something that should be taken off my family's "to do" list at this time?
   No, looking to add summer activities.
   
7. How are the girls behaving?  Is there something I need to change or get back to?
   The girls are behaving pretty well.  I do need to remember daily that the big influences on their behavior are: myself (what's my mood?), food (are they eating on time and healthy), and sleep (are they getting enough).
   
8. Is there something in the house that needs my immediate attention?
   The living room wall could really use a fresh coat of paint.  I need to talk to Scott about this.
   
9. How are we eating?  Are we eating on time?  Are we eating healthy?
   I feel we are eating pretty healthy. I have started more freezer cooking and meal planning (post coming on that soon.) Which makes it easier to control what we are eating.  I do take the girls with me when picking out produce.  They are more likely to eat it when I do.  We usually eat on time, I do need to get better about everyone eating breakfast at the same time everyday.
   
10. How are Scott and I relating?  When was our last date?  Are we on the same page?
    I feel we are relating well.  Our last date was on the 19th for our 5 year anniversary.  He is really, really busy with work now.  So being on the same page is going to be difficult at times.  But I know we will be fine.  Just have to slow him down from time to time and make sure we communicate.