Happy 15th Birthday J!

My boy turned 15 yesterday!!  That's crazy!!  I mean, wasn't he just a little baby in my arms a couple years ago...it couldn't have possibly been 15 years already!  =)  I feel like I have only blinked, and suddenly he is this young man with whom we only get a few more short years with, until he is on his own. 

I am proud of him and the young man he is becoming.  Some things haven't always been easy for him, but he has worked hard to overcome them; and just like everyone else, he is still working on some things. That's life though, and part of growing up.  And that is what my baby boy is doing; he's growing up.   

He is a hard worker, and he loves to help others.  He's goofy, and creative, and funny, as well as, strong willed.  He loves to play basketball and video games. He loves Selena Gomez and can't stand Justin Beiber!   He doesn't like school much, but he loves to read. He loves cars and movies and he'd rather stay up all night and sleep all day.  He is my oldest son, and I love him more than he will EVER know!   

We also had a party for him yesterday.  We went with a candy theme, since the boy LOVES him some candy!  (Can I just say how HARD it is to find teenage-boy-worthy party and game ideas!!)  And, I'm pretty sure I got some cool mom points on the cake!!  Everyone loved it!!  =)

It was a fun and easy cake to make!!

I also got to feed my Pinterest addiction with a few new recipes I made (that I of course, got from there)!!

 

 

Once we all finished stuffing our faces, they played some games!  Did I mention how hard it was to find teenage-boy-worthy games yet?  But luckily, I found a great site (finally), that helped me in that department.  (Go to my Pinterest page if you'd like it, cause I'm too lazy to go find it myself right now!!)

 

A few games played, were:

1. Who's the best sucker-  They had to see who could drink all their juice from a baby bottle the fastest. 

2. Truth or Dare Balloons- I printed up a bunch of truth or dares on slips of paper.  Then put them inside some balloons.  They had to bop them in the air and if the balloon hit the floor they had to pop it and perform the truth or dare inside!  They really seemed to like that one!  (I promise, they were all good, clean truth and dares!!)  A few of the truth or dares were: Kiss the bottom of your bare foot, Eat a spoon full of mustard,what's your biggest fear, pretend you are asleep and having a nightmare, stick your finger in your ear then pull it out and lick it, what is a feature that you'd like to change about yourself, and more!! 

Garrett had to kiss his foot and stick his finger in his ear and lick it!!  LOL!

Daniel had to eat a spoon full of mustard!

3. A gummy bear pie eating contest!  The pics explain it all on that one!

All in all, I think it was a great day!! 

 

 

 

Box Day

We had box day this past week!  Well, we've been getting small boxes here and there the last few weeks, but we got our biggest box of stuff this past week.  G was most excited about it!  We are still waiting on a couple more smaller boxes to arrive, but for the most part we are ready to start school this week.  =)

Best Banana Pudding...EVER!

We had a luncheon at church this morning, so last night I made my banana pudding to bring.  This is the yummiest banana pudding ever!!  How do I know?  I just do!  =)  You need to make it...right now...go ahead...and you'll see what I'm talking about!  It's so delicious and creamy and banana-ey and pudding-ey!  You'll love it, I promise!

Best Banana Pudding Ever:
1 small box of instant banana pudding
1 small box of instant vanilla pudding
3 cups of milk
1 can of sweetened condensed milk
6-7 bananas (I usually get bigger ones)
3-4 Tablespoons of lemon juice
16 oz of cool whip
1 box of vanilla wafers (I actually use like a box and a half)
A really big pan or bowl (A 9x13 pan is not quite big enough)

1. First whisk together your 3 cups of milk and both boxes of pudding.

2. Next add your sweetened condensed milk.

3.  Now put that in your refrigerator for a few minutes while you slice your bananas.

4. Slice your bananas, not too thick now, and then drizzle your lemon juice on the bananas. Don't worry! You won't taste the lemon juice, it's just going to keep them from turning brown. Then give it a good stir to get all your bananas coated in it.

  5.  Now take your pudding mix out of the refrigerator and mix in the whipped topping.  Mix it up really good!!  Make sure you taste a little, too!!  =P

 6.  Now line the bottom of your pan or bowl with vanilla wafers.  You don't have to make it look pretty either, you can just dump them in and spread them out if you want. 

 7.  Next, you will spread your sliced bananas on the cookies.

 8.  Now, you will pour your pudding mix on top of the bananas.

 9.  And then if you like, you can put more cookies on top.  Also, if you are using a big bowl, you may want to alternate your layers more, rather than just putting all of it in at one time.

 That's it!  Now refrigerate it until you are ready to serve.  Enjoy!!  It's so good!  And it makes a LOT so make sure you have plenty of people around to help you eat it.  =P 

My Garden

I love vegetable gardens!  There is just something so amazing to me about growing your own food.  Now, with that being said, growing a garden in HOT, DRY west Texas is not an easy thing to accomplish.  I have tried all but one year since we've lived out here.  And every year has been a FAIL.  This year, I have tried extra hard.  I actually had to re-plant THREE times.  It's growing great now (most everything is still a baby, though), and I just got to pick my first vegetable this week (at the end of July, no less!).  A zucchini!  We were (ok, I was!) super excited!!  I got two more zucchini a couple days later.  :)  So, now I want to share pics of my beloved garden!!  It's not much, but to me, it's great!  I'm happy to have gotten this far this year!! 

As you can see, all but my zucchini plants are still babies!

 It's about to be picked!  =)

My one and only watermelon...so far!  I do hope that we will get a lot more!



My boy!  Just as excited as his mom about our first harvest!  Lol!  He wanted to be the one to pick it. 



So the one on the top is the one that grew in our garden, and the one on the bottom is a store bought one. 



My boy again!  Helping me cook up our zucchini!!





Our menu this week!

I wanted to share our weekly menu for this week, maybe someone needs some inspiration!! =) I know I do sometimes!!

I am trying to incorporate Meatless Monday's, too.

I will put up some of the recipes, too. But, let me know if you want a recipe for anything specific on here. Or there's always Pinterest... =)

Also, for our snacks that are fruit & veggie sticks, I cut up a bunch of fruits and veggies at the beginning of the week and keep them in the fridge so they are ready to go when they need them. Makes life easier, ya know?!?!

Have a great week, everyone!

	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
Breakfast	Baked Oatmeal	Cream of wheat & smoothie	Cheerios & smoothie	Breakfast cookies & yogurt	Oatmeal &smoothie	Grits & eggs	Pancakes
Lunch	PB&J &yogurt	Corn dogs, carrot sticks, and fruit	Chicken nuggets, applesauce, &; corn	Leftovers	Homemade lunchables: Ham, cheese, crackers &; carrot sticks & fruit	Hot dogs, chips, & celery sticks	Grilled cheese, fruit & cucumber slices
Dinner	Rice & Beans &fruit	Grilled chicken, squash, fresh fruit	Taco Soup	Tater tot casserole, peas & carrots, & garlic bread	Crunchy chicken bites, couscous & salad	Sticky chicken, broccoli, & quinoa	Chicken tenders, mashed potatoes, & green beans
Snack #1	Muffins	Peanut butter toast &milk	Muffins	Cheese sticks &applesauce	½ small bagel w/ cream cheese	Breakfast cookies	Yogurt
Snack #2	Fruit &veggie sticks	Fruit & veggie sticks	Fruit & veggie sticks	Fruit & veggie sticks	Fruit &veggie sticks	Fruit & veggie sticks	Fruit & veggie sticks
Snack #3	Cookies	Graham crackers and yogurt	Popcorn	Chocolate banana snack squares	Rice Krispy treats	Pretzels	Cheese & crackers

Tasty Treats

I made these delicious little treats today. They are so yummy, and I thought I would share them with you all (the recipe that is, cuz my crew already ate them all)!!  I've actually been making these for years and  they're really easy to make.  Be prepared though; they won't last for long!!  At least, they never do in my house.

Chocolate Banana Snack Squares

Ingredients:

3 medium bananas-mashed

3/4 cup packed brown sugar (I've even used less before)

1/3 cup oil

1/4 milk

2 eggs

1tsp baking powder

1tsp cinnamon

2tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4tsp salt

1&3/4cup flour (I've done this with half the flour as whole wheat)

1/2 cup mini chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.  Grease an 11x15 cookie sheet.

2. Beat all ingredients; EXCEPT flour and chocolate chips; with an electric mixer on medium speed until well blended. 

3. On low speed, beat in the flour just until it's blended.

4. Stir in the chocolate chips.

5. Spread batter into your prepared pan.

6. Bake 15-20 min until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

That's it!  They are delicious!  I hope you guys enjoy them.  Let me know what you think!

A New Year!

Ok, so it's that time of year again...planning for our new school year!  I can't believe this will be my 10th year homeschooling!  Phew!  Time has gone by so quickly!  And to top it all off I will have a high schooler this year!!!  Holy cow!  How on earth do I have a high school kid already?!?!  Wasn't he just in kindergarten...like last month, or something?!?!  I will also have one in middle school and one more still in elementary. 

My planning this year has been a little different and trickier, with having to plan for high school.  It feels like starting over again.  There is so much to keep track of, so much to make sure is covered, credits, electives, etc., etc.  Thankfully, I did start planning the high school stuff a couple months ago.  J and I sat down and started working out his 4 year hs career on paper.  It looks good!  He is a little more ambitious than I thought he would be, which is great!  He's chosen some great electives, and is planning on starting dual enrollment classes at the community college in 11th grade (maybe 10th; we'll see).  All in all, we have a great 4 year plan set out!  It's the beginning of the end here.  So bittersweet. 

Planning has also been different for me this year, as in, I actually set specific goals for each child and have them written down on paper.  You're probably thinking just finishing up our years curriculum is goal enough, right?  Well, it's not!  There is so much more for us to make sure gets done, on top of just finishing up our curriculum.  You know, specific things for each kid, like making sure that G child fully memorizes his multiplication tables.  I even went so far as to make goals for MYSELF!!  I plan to look at our goals every couple of months and make sure that we are on target for completing them.  It's gonna be a fantastic year for us...I can just feel it!!

Ok, I thought I would go ahead and share our 2012-2013 school year curriculum.

J 9th Grade:
History: Biblioplan Ancient History
Math: Saxon Algebra I
Spanish: Live Mocha & Destinos; both online
English:
     1. Spelling: Spelling Workout & Apples Spelling Drills
     2. Writing: Writing with Skill & Rod & Staff (this boy has a really difficult time in spelling and     writing)
     3. Reading: Literature books listed in Biblioplan and a few other great literature books
     4. Grammar:  Rod & Staff
PE: He'll play basketball for the homeschool team
Science: Apologia's Physical Science
Electives:
     1st Semester: 1. Drawing: A Complete Course & 2. Family Life Skills
     2nd Semester: 1. Health & 2. Home Repair & Maintance

B 7th Grade
History: Sonlight and Biblioplan (combined) Early American History
Math:  CLE Lightunits 7
Spanish: La Clase Divertida I
Art: 1.2.3 Draw books
Typing: Free stuff online like this one here,  here , and here!
English:
     1. Spelling: Spelling Workout, Sequential Spelling, & All About Spelling (another struggling speller here)
     2. Handwriting: A Reason for Handwriting
     3. Writing: Writing with Skill & Jump-In
     4. Reading: Sonlight and Biblioplan reading lists
     5. Grammar: Saxon 6
PE: Workout videos & play basketball for the homeschool team
Science: A Beka 7: Order and Reality
Health: A Beka 7
Piano: A computer program that came with our keyboard
American Sign Language: This site right here (this boy requested to learn this)
Latin: Getting Started with Latin

G 4th Grade
History: Sonlight and Biblioplan (combined) Early American History
Math: CLE Lightunits 4
Spanish: La Clase Divertida I
Art: 1.2.3 Draw books
Typing: Free stuff online like this one here, here , and here!
English:
1. Spelling: Spelling Workout, Sequential Spelling, & All About Spelling
2. Handwriting: A Reason for Handwriting
3. Writing: Writing with Ease
4. Reading: Sonlight and Biblioplan reading lists
5. Grammar: Rod & Staff & I'm gonna throw in some Primary Language Lessons for good measure!
PE: Workout videos & play basketball for the homeschool team
Science: Considering God's Creation
Health: A Beka 4
Piano: A computer program that came with our keyboard
American Sign Language: This site right here
Latin: Getting Started with Latin

That's it!  It's gonna be jam packed and fun year!!  They're gonna learn a lot and it's gonna be good!!!  =P  Let me know what you think.