Project Life Tuesday

I didn't snap many photos this week due to Julie and Jax sharing the stomach but with each other!

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Tuesday (24)

Justin snapped this picture.  Love how the clouds look!

Wednesday (25)

No picture.

Thursday (26)

I got this great photo of Justin reading a bedtime story to Jax.  Surprise...it's Curious George yet again!

Friday (27)

No picture.

Saturday (28)

No picture.

Sunday (29)

Every month, our church puts on Lazy Summer Days. Families get together to hang out and the kids run around in the sprinklers.  It's fun.  Julianne likes the bubble bucket the best.

Monday (30)

No picture.

 

A doozy of a week.

Last week was a doozy.  Just wait until I put up the Project Life Tuesday post.  I've taken 1 picture...total, this week.  One! That is highly unlike me to not be snapping pictures, but like I said, it was a doozy.

It all started this week when Julianne threw up in the car.  It wasn't like the terrible "Stomach Flu of January 2012," but she was still sick and didn't feel well.

She lounged around on her princess couch and watched Barney a lot.

I was worried that Jaxson would catch it.  And that following morning, I caught Jaxson brushing his teeth with Julie's toothbrush.  When I asked him why he was using the pink toothbrush and not his Spiderman toothbursh, he just shrugged and kept brushing away.

I was no longer worried that he was getting it, I now KNEW it was a just a matter of time.

And sure enough I was right.  As soon as Julie was well enough to eat regular food again, he got it.  We went out to Sam's Club and he said he wasn't feeling well.  And when he didn't pester us for a hot dog at the end of our shopping trip, I knew something was up.  In the car he told us that he felt like he was going to throw up, but he was going to wait until we got home.

That's exactly what he did.  He really didn't even make it past the entry way.  So here I was juggling gallons of milk and herding Julie into the house, while Jaxson was sick.  Oh what fun.

I'm just thankful that he wasn't sick in Sam's Club! 

And that was my week.  Extra laundry and filling up sippy cups with Pedialyte.  I also didn't feel so well, but part of me thinks that I was just tired of cleaning up throw-up.  That in itself is pretty hard to deal with.

Goals for this Week

Personal

Read pages 36-38 of The Proverbs 31 Women by Courtney at Women Living Well.  I didn't get to page 38 yet.  I'm actually a week behind on this because of our stomach flu surprise.

Read Radical Together by David Platt (Eh.  Nothing earth shattering in this book.  Once you've read Radical, you really don't need to read this.)

Start Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins  I haven't started it yet. 

School

Letter Ll~Because we were sick with the stomach flu, I gave us a week off.  Jaxson did not like that, but I wasn't about to try when I had sick kids.

Plan Letter Mm

Home Management

Journal the last two weeks in the Project Life Album to be caught up.

Clean out oven, microwave, and fridge.  After we were all sick, I lost motivation to do this.

And now for this weeks goals:

Personal

Read pages 38-40 of The Proverbs 31 Women by Courtney at Women Living Well.

Start Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins 

School

Letter Ll

Plan Letter Mm

Home Management

Print out pictures for Project Life Album

Clean out oven, microwave, and fridge.

I'm linking to Money Saving Mom!

 

Project Life Tuesday

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Tuesday (17)

No picture.

Wednesday (18)

It was storming in the afternoon, so what better time to make cookies?

Thursday (19)

Justin's glasses came in the mail and since he was gone at camp for the week, Jaxson modeled them.

Friday (20)

We've been going to the library a lot this week with Justin being gone.  I love how Julie reads her books on the ride home.

Saturday (21)

No picture.

Sunday (22)

I woke up at 3:25am to a VERY loud thunderstorm.  It was so loud that I knew Julie would wake up, and possible Jaxson.  I checked my Dark Sky app and it told me that the storm would last four an hour.  With heavy rain!  Justin had never seen it with heavy rain before so I captured a screen shot of it.

And I was right, Julie woke up.  I went into her room and she was scared and pointing to her window as if to ask, "what is that?"  So we came out to the living room and cuddled to wait for the storm to end.  The thunder shook the walls and it was lightning all the time.

The next morning I asked Jax if he heard the storm and he said he did.  He said it was too loud and he didn't like the lightning so he hid under the covers.  Too cute!

Monday (23)

We went to an outdoor mall yesterday before meeting up with Gwen and Paul.  Here, Jax is looking for bad guys along with Spiderman!

 

Goals for this Week

Personal

Read pages 34-35 of The Proverbs 31 Women by Courtney at Women Living Well.

Read Chapter 1 of More Lost Than Found by Jared Herd (Finished!  It was an easy read, which I was surprised by.)

Exercise every day this week with the 30 Day Shred.  (What am I thinking?!?) (Ha.  I only got in two days this week.)

School

No Tot School this week.  Taking a week off!

Plan Letter Ll

Home Management

Journal in my Project Life Album, then I'll be up to date! (Got all of the last two weeks of July caught up.  Whew!)

And now for this week's goals:

Personal

Read pages 36-38 of The Proverbs 31 Women by Courtney at Women Living Well.

School

Letter Ll

Plan Letter Mm

Home Management

Journal the last two weeks in the Project Life Album to be caught up.

Clean out oven, microwave, and fridge.

I'm linking to Money Saving Mom!

 

Project Life Tuesday

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Tuesday (10)

We took the kids over to the library.  I was sick of reading Curious George books every night and needed a break.  (These were my old books from the 1980's.  Did you know the George smoked a pipe?  He does in my editions!)  Jax found Dora and Diego books and was really happy.  So cute to see these kids "reading" in the backseat on the way home.

Wednesday (11)

I made homemade paint using this recipe.  This was Julie's paint tray.  Once I told her that she couldn't have her blanket with her while she painted, she was done painting really fast.  But Jax painted forever and loved it!

Thursday (12)

No picture.

Friday (13)

No picture.

Saturday (14)

No picture.

Sunday (15)

I just really liked this passage of scripture of Paul praying for future Christians.  It didn't even have anything to do with our scriptures related to the sermon, but when I was flipping pages and stumbled upon it.  Beautiful words from Paul.

Monday (16)

We took the kids to the museum and Jax went to Story Time and Meet the Animals class.  He loved it!  Here he is holding a worm.  He also touched a cockroach, and a turtle!

Goals for this Week

Personal

Read pages 28-31 of The Proverbs 31 Women by Courtney at Women Living Well.

Read Chapter 8 of 1000 Gifts by Ann Voskamp

Finish Radical by David Platt

School

Finish Jj

Letter Kk

Plan Letter Ll

Home Management

Journal in my Project Life album

Find a photo deal to print out all of June pictures.

And onto goals for this week:

Personal

Read pages 34-35 of The Proverbs 31 Women by Courtney at Women Living Well.

Read Chapter 1 of More Lost Than Found by Jared Herd

Exercise every day this week with the 30 Day Shred.  (What am I thinking?!?)

School

No Tot School this week.  Taking a week off!

Plan Letter Ll

Home Management

Journal in my Project Life Album, then I'll be up to date!

I'm linking to Money Saving Mom!

 

Horseflies. Hot Weather. And a praying mantis on my doorknob.

Oh my.  We've been through some hot weather again this week.  Again, I won't complain.  But when I was out running errands around 8:30am, my lipstick was melting off my lips.  Not kidding.

And with all this hot weather, we sure have been having some severe weather around us.  In one of the storms, this big ol' branch fell down on the side of the house.  But that's nothing compared to what other neighbors had in their yards.

One of the things I would like to ask God is if bugs are really necessary.  Or maybe just the PLETHORA of bugs...horseflies, for instance.  Those are pretty much the dumbest bugs ever.  The fly around in our grass in the mornings.  And if you try to go out to the car, they dive bomb you.  Those things are huge and I always freak out when they run into me.

But you know what topped dive-bombing horseflies?  A praying mantis that likes to hang out on my front door knob.  Again, not even kidding.  I was loading the kids into the house and then planned to go out to the car for a second trip.  I reached my hand out to unlock the door and...proceeded to scream like a little girl.  You would think I'm used to 6-8 legged creatures, but I may never be.  I almost touched this guy!  So we headed around to the back door where it was bug free and we could get inside.  Enjoy.  {He's hanging upside down.}

After we were safely inside, we took a peak at him through the window and he would just stare at us.  I know that because I could see his eyes and what he was focused on.  

Which was me.

If you have 6-8 legs and are bigger than a quarter, you win.  I'm not even going to try to take you down

Or maybe I need to take some kind of course/class in Entomology to help me deal with these guys.

Project Life Tuesday

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Tuesday (3)

Ok.  Funny story.  When Jax was a little over two years old, I bought him this gigantic alphabet puzzle for Tot School.  When we moved to NC, somehow the "M" went missing.  And according to Jax, we just couldn't play with it, if we were missing the M.  I wondered if we had somehow left it up in Washington, so that is what I told Jax to make him feel better.  Well.  We needed to move the fridge to fill in some holes where we thought mice were coming in.  And what did I find?  The letter "M".  And when I told Jax the next morning, he was so happy and said, "Now I can play with my alphabet puzzle again!"  

So we had lots of fun singing and jumping around on the alphabet puzzle.

Wednesday (4)

We're a bunch of sickies and are blaming this on Justin since he came down with it.  Instead, of going out and doing something, we stayed home and relaxed.  And then a huge 2 hour thunderstorm came through with the heaviest amount of rain ever.  The wind was blowing it ever which way and I was never so glad to stay indoors.

Afterwards, Jaxson found a frog outside and wondered where his family was.

Thursday (5)

No picture.

Friday (6)

I caught this beautiful sunset in between all the crazy storms we were having.

Saturday (7)

No picture.

Sunday (8)

Ahhh, Starbucks.  

Monday (9)

Justin and Jax were playing a game of real-life Angry Birds.  My favorite part?  The pig is wearing a hat!  And Julie must have been the spectator, as she looks pretty comfy on the couch!

Goals for this Week

Personal

Read pages 28-31 of The Proverbs 31 Women by Courtney at Women Living Well.

Read Chapter 8 of 1000 Gifts by Ann Voskamp

School

Letter Jj (Didn't get the whole week finished due to the 4th of July and I was sick in the middle of the week.)

Plan Letter Kk

Home Management

Journal in my Project Life album (Nope.)

Find a photo deal to print out all of June pictures.  (Found a deal at Rite Aid.  12 cent prints...cheaper than Costco!  Now I need to get them printed out by Saturday.  I find it amazing that it's taking me 3 weeks to just get photo printed.)

And now for this weeks goals:

Personal

Read pages 28-31 of The Proverbs 31 Women by Courtney at Women Living Well.

Read Chapter 8 of 1000 Gifts by Ann Voskamp

Finish Radical by David Platt

School

Finish Jj

Letter Kk

Plan Letter Ll

Home Management

Journal in my Project Life album

Find a photo deal to print out all of June pictures.

I'm linking to Money Saving Mom!

 

Project Life Tuesday

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Tuesday (26)

Hopscotch!  And feeding bunnies carrots.

Wednesday (27)

Photobombed by Julie now.  I'd still say that Jax does it the best.

Thursday (28)

I was way to lazy to fill up their pool, so I opted for buckets of water instead.  The kids didn't care and still got soaking wet, just the same.  Jax poured water and his head and by the picture, I think he liked it.

Friday (29)

Can you say it's hot outside?  I will never complain about 100 degree heat though.  I love summer and the island is only in the high 50's low 60's this week.  Which means I would be cold!

Saturday (30)

No picture. 

Sunday (1)

No picture.

Monday (2)

We went over to Steak N Shake for 1/2 priced milkshakes during happy hour.  Yummy!  Jax really liked the hat they gave him.  Julie..not so much!  But atleast she posed for us.

Cheddar Chicken Spaghetti

I never post recipes.

I'm not too creative in the kitchen.  But I have been working on a Chicken Spaghetti recipe that we all like.  We found one recipe that we really liked the flavor, but it wasn't really creamy.  And the other recipe was creamy, but not a lot of flavor.  So I took those two recipes as my base and made up my own recipe.  

We all loved it and when Julie and Jax clean their plates, I know it will be a meal that I will make again.

(Not the best photo.  But gives you an idea of how yummy this dish truly is!)

Cheddar Chicken Spaghetti

2 cups of chicken, chopped

1 tablespoon of dried onion

1 tablespoon of garlic minced

2 tablespoons of Worcestershire sauce

2 teaspoons of Italian seasoning

8 ounces of thin spaghetti noodles

1 cup of chicken broth

½ teaspoon of salt

¼ teaspoon of ground pepper

1 can of cream of mushroom soup

2 cups of cheddar cheese, shredded

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  

Boil noodles according to the instructions on the package.

Using a skillet in medium-high heat, pour oil and add the garlic.  Stir around until fragrant, usually one minute.  Then add all the spices and stir for about 30 seconds.  Add the chicken broth and let it simmer four about 5 minutes.  

After noodles are cooked, combine noodles, chicken broth with spices, and cream of mushroom soup.  Stir together.  Add about 1  1/2 cups of shredded cheese and stir until melted.  Pour into a casserole dish.  Sprinkle the leftover cheese on top.  Cover with aluminum foil.  Cook for 20 minutes.  Remove foil and cook for an additional 10 minutes until cheese is thoroughly melted and mixture is bubbling.

Goals for this Week

Personal

Read pages 25-28 of The Proverbs 31 Women by Courtney at Women Living Well.

Read Chapter 7 of 1000 Gifts by Ann Voskamp

School

Letter Ii

Plan Letter Jj

Home Management

Catch up on Project Life...journal last week and print out pictures for June. (Nope.)

And onto this week:

Personal

Read pages 28-31 of The Proverbs 31 Women by Courtney at Women Living Well.

Read Chapter 8 of 1000 Gifts by Ann Voskamp

School

Letter Jj

Plan Letter Kk

Home Management

Journal in my Project Life album

Find a photo deal to print out all of June pictures.

I'm linking to Money Saving Mom!

 

2012 Goals Update {June}

I thought it might be time to do a little update...just to see how on track I am on my 2012 goals.  Here is my update for June:

Financial

Start putting money into savings. (Yes.)

Starting a Christmas fund. (I actually used some of these funds to buy Christmas gifts!  Talk about being on the ball!)

Vacation fund. (Update:  Got a little bit in there!)

School

Plan out the year with Tot School.  (Update:  The year is planned out and modified for us.  We took a break this week when Justin was on the Mission Trip.  As for Julie, I'm taking it slow with her.)

Home Management

Make a cleaning schedule and stick to it weekly. (Update:  My own cleaning list was too ambitious.  So now I am trying a modified cleaning list from Little Green Notebook.  It is working great!)

Personal

Books

Here is the list I want to read.  Again, I'm shooting under the table because if I finish this list, I can ADD MORE.

The Hole in the Gospel by Richard Sterns  (Finished in April.  I felt that the Part 1, 2, and 3 were too long.  And Parts 4 and 5 were too short!  But overall a good read.  Some great principles and ideas discussed in here.)

Real Marriage by Mark Driscoll  (Finished in February.  It took me almost all month to read this.  It was not interesting.)

Ministry of Motherhood by Sally Clarkson

The Hunger Games by Suzane Collins

The Help by Kathryn Stockett  (Finished in January.  Fantastic book!  But after reading the book, the movie was very disappointing.)

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen  (Finished in February.  Love, love, love it!  I watched the movie and loved it!  I think I had lowered my expectations of books turned into books after watching The Help.)

The Choice by Suzanne Woods Fisher

More Lost Than Found by Jared Herd

Kisses from Katie by Katie J. Davis  (Finished in January.  A great read about an amazing young lady following Jesus to Africa.  Highly reccomend!)

Radical by David Platt

Book read with YA Book Club at church:

1000 Gifts by Ann Voskmap (Finished in March.  Highly recommend!)

Orthodoxy by G. K. Chesterton  (Hardest book I ever read.  Period.  But I'm so glad I read it.  Lots of great things to think about.)

Books I've added on:

Bossypants by Tina Fey

Bible Study time

Memorize the book of James  (Memorized to verse 2:9.  I downloaded Scripture Typer for the iPhone and am loving it!  Scripture Typer helped me memorize 14 verses this month!  I highly recommend this app.)

Mercy Triumphs by Beth Moore (Finished.  So good!)

Study Ephesians with Good Morning Girls.  (Done!)

31 Days to Pray for your Children from Keep it Personal  (Done.)

Proverbs 31 Woman from Good Morning Girls. (Doing this now.)

Whew...in just a month, I've accomplished a lot!

It's like an oven.

Y'all, it's a million degrees out.  And by a million, I mean 105.  Which translated with the heat index gives us a nice 111.  

I guess we've broken all sorts of weather records for the last two days.

You open the front door, and it's like you are stepping into an oven.

But, I will not complain about it.  No siree.  I knew moving from the rainy, mild island to NC last year, that I would be in for a change.  

We've chosen to embrace the heat by enjoying ice cream.

And staying indoors.  

It's like what the news reporter said yesterday.  When it does cool down to 98 degrees in the next couple of days, it will be just like when gas went down to $3.

We'll take it.