Looking Forward to Dog Days

As of today Yip and Yap have only 10 days of school left. In 10 days they will officially be 2nd graders!  I think the state of Kansas has a much shorter school year than most states. I know teachers in Indiana that still have 2-3 more weeks left.


Wow, this school year went by fast. Only 10 more days until the dog days of summer begin. Where did the phrase "dog days of summer" come from anyway? I think it's awfully misleading especially to mothers! I remember last May, after the boys finished kindergarten, I was looking forward to a slow paced relaxing summer. Ha!! Last summer was full of swim lessons, baseball games, summer basketball, 4H fair, Vacation Bible School, summer library and squeeze in a short family vacation and I felt busier than when the boys were in school! Where were my relaxing days? 


As I look at my friends with older kids I often wonder if raising kids ever gets less hectic, before they move off to college of course. A friend of mine who has teenagers was super busy with golf matches, prom and graduation preparations...and that was just one of her kids! I suppose though that raising children has advantages and disadvantages at every age. At the age of 3 Yahoo can dress herself, often with interesting combinations, whereas she couldn't six months ago. 


Despite knowing that we'll be busy this summer I'm still looking forward to school being out. Yeah, my boys drive me crazy when they are home all day but I still really enjoy them and all the things we get to do together. I've learned that having school age kids keeps me busier than I ever imagined and we'll be busy this summer too just like summer last. Swim lessons, VBS, 4H archery and projects to finish, 4H camp (a first time spending a night away from family) and a family vacation back home to Indiana. NO BASEBALL this summer!!! I was ecstatic when my boys vetoed baseball for the summer! I've never been a baseball fan but going to games last summer when it was over 100 degrees out sure didn't endear me to the sport either! 


Yeah, we'll be busy. 

But I am looking forward to wringing out as many good times with my family as I can this
summer.

What is your summer shaping up to look like?

Foody Friday - Polenta Spinach Mayo Eggs

I've been in an experimenting cooking mood lately, much to the misery of my husband and kids. I made a mushroom soup that I thought turned out fairly well that my family judged as so bad that they DR didn't even try to hide his displeasure. The fact the soup came out looking like tile grout probably didn't help matters...yeah, that's a recipe that will never see the light of day again...and I definitely won't post it here. 

However there are sometimes I can experiment with food and make just enough for me, then I don't have to worry about any complaints. This is my new go to breakfast, Polenta Spinach Mayo Egg. Yum, This is soooo creamy. 

First off, let me tell ya, I hate mayonnaise. I have NEVER liked it...BUT I have always wanted to try and make homemade mayo because I've heard it was kind of tricky. I wanted to make mayo not to eat necessarily but just to see if I could do it. I found an awesome tutorial on making homemade mayonnaise and it worked perfect the very first time! But then I tasted it, oh my, homemade mayo is NOTHING like what you buy in the stores. It's wonderfully creamy and not fluffy. I know, homemade mayo is awful because you are eating raw eggs, well I haven't died yet and I'm not eating it everyday so I think I'll chance it. 

Second, I decided to make Polenta this week, another dish my family doesn't care for. I boil cornmeal in broth and then add Parmesan cheese, Italian seasoning and a bit of salt. Then I pour it in a bread pan and let it sit overnight, then slice it up. 

At first I was just frying up a slice of polenta and an egg for breakfast but then I had a brain flash! (some I know call it a brain fart) When the egg and polenta was fried I threw some spinach on the polenta, put the egg on the spinach, threw on the lid just enough to wilt the spinach and then slapped it all on a plate. Finally, I topped it off with homemade mayonnaise with a bit of dill seed mixed in. 

Yum yum yum de yum yum. 

Who said playing with your food is bad?  

Week 17 - Fire

This week's photo theme was Fire. Yes! A great excuse to roast marshmallows! Though, do you really need an excuse? 

1/60sec, f6.3, ISO 200

1/60 sec., f6.3, ISO 200

1/60 sec, f7.1, ISO 200

I'm not quite sure what the ghosty white curve is in the upper part of the photo above but I thought it was a pretty cool effect. I purposely left my exposure time slow to get a blurry fire. 

Before I even started shooting the fire I noticed that most of my photos so far in this 52 week project have been shot zoomed in on the subject. Very rarely do I find myself shooting a wide angle of a scene. I TRIED this time to shoot far away but I just kept getting drawn in. (Still, overall I'm really happy with these photos.) With the remainder of this project I'm going to TRY to be more aware of shooting both close up and far away, we'll see how it goes. 

Next week - Ice!

Ha, maybe I'll have to break out my Paintsicles :) 

The Mad Little Sister

I took my kids out early Saturday morning to the park with the only goal of taking pictures and HOPING to get ONE where all three of them are smiling and happy and a good individual shot of each of my kids. I know, I know...a huge expectation on my part wasn't it? But really, 4 great pictures was all I was asking for! 


I have to hand it to my boys, they were great and happy and getting photos of them was quick, easy and painless! 


Yahoo on the other hand.....




....well, I'll just let a couple of photos speak for themselves. 

Hee, hee!! Yip and Yap were trying sooo hard to get her to smile and help me out but all Yahoo wanted to do was leave to play on the swings. 

Finally, we agreed to take a photo on the swings but I had to do it quick. It's not the greatest photo and I'll have to do some editing but at least they are all smiling, toothless and all! Thank goodness!

Yip's Zombie Pirate Skeleton Guy

Man, there are days when Facebook really burns me up! I tried most of the weekend to load pictures on my FB page for family to see and I couldn't get anything to happen. This is one of the reasons I started a blog in the first place, to make sure I could actually share photos!!! 


Facebook's crappy photo loading really bugged me this weekend because Yip had a great drawing that he really wanted to show our far away family, especially his Uncle Marvel Man. So, sorry I couldn't get this on FB family but here's a way to check out Yip's latest creation! 

Yip says, "The ghost pirate is rising out of the water. The one pirate has a broken vest on. He has a squid in his right eye. They shipwrecked in a jungle and the boat sunk. There's lots of trees and bushes and there is a vine hanging from a tree." 

Nicely done bud! 

Marker Monday - Knockoff Paintsicles

I was thumbing through a Discount School Supply catalog the other day and came across a Paintsicle maker.

 Interesting idea. Supposedly this particular kind of paint, BioColor, is a better quality of paint than your average run of the mill craft paint. I've used it and it IS very good but I was wondering if how the craft paint I had would work as a Paintsicle.

I had some tempera paint and some acrylic paint that I swirled around in two separate cups and popped in some craft sticks. Who needs some fancy shmancy paintsicle maker? 

Tempera is a water based paint while Acrylic is a latex based paint so I anticipated that Acrylic would work better when frozen. 

The tempera worked but I did have to press harder and the formation of ice crystals interfered with a nice smooth painted line. 

The Acrylic was much nicer! 

Yahoo tested it out for me but, really, she didn't seem too interested in playing with it. She scribbled on one piece of paper because I asked and then just walked away. I'm glad I didn't buy anything special if that was going to be her response! But who knows, maybe she'll be more interested in it later so I popped the paintsicles back in the freezer. 

Paintsicles; fun to experiment with, use acrylic if you have it but ya don't need to put a bunch of money into a "Paintsicle" maker! 

Sunday Devotions - The Ten Lepers

Luke 17:11-19

As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance and called out in a loud voice, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!” When he saw them, he said, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were cleansed. One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him—and he was a Samaritan. Jesus asked, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? Has no one returned to give praise to God except this foreigner?” Then he said to him, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well.”

This week I've been preparing for my very first lesson as a Sunday School teacher which is the story of the ten lepers and thankfulness. When Jesus heals ten lepers only one returns to say 'thank you' to Jesus. I can't imagine Jesus was too content with being brushed off by the other nine. Granted, I'm sure they were excited about the miracle that had worked in their bodies but honestly, would saying 'thank you' really have taken that much of their time? The lesson from this story seems to resounding in my own life quite a bit lately. 

As I mom I often feel taken for granted for all the things I do. Anyone else ever feel that way? One particularly stressful afternoon I had been cooking dinner, finished homework with my boys, allowed them to have a friend over to play, made a quick dash to the store for my kids and was bombarded for requests for this and that and whatnot. By the time my husband arrived home from work I was tired and upset and I just left. I left my husband to finish dishes and put the kids to bed. While I was off on my own I realized I was so upset because none of my kids had said thank you the entire afternoon or evening despite my running around doing things for them. I felt totally used and tossed aside. 

On a side note, my hubby must have laid a guilt trip on them because I awoke the next morning to homemade "I'm sorry" cards and solemn apologies from both my boys. 

Aren't I guilty of the same thing though? I have a prayer wall, a wall full of Post It Notes, of people I pray for. I don't thank God near often enough for the prayers he's answered or gifts he's provided me. Is "thank you" really that difficult to say? Does it take that long? And now that I think about it I should probably be thanking many others for things in my life as well. I need to thank my husband for covering for me and my mom duties when I get pushed to the limit and have to run off. I need to thank my kids for all the hugs/kisses/stories/pictures/laughs they provide me everyday. I need to thank a lot of people in one way or another. Who can you thank today? 

Dear Heavenly Father, The words "Thank You" don't fall out of my mouth nearly enough. Please help me cultivate a thankful heart that I may recognize all the work You do for me. Amen.