Almost Summer!

 

I can't believe we are almost done with another school year!! Phew! That was a busy one!! I, for one, am so glad that some activities are ending for the summer, so we can rest a little more and not be out every night of the week! There have been lots of changes lately!!

The kids are doing well, finishing up the school year, and growing so much!! Madelynn is finishing up her second grade year, and just finished up her second year of Classical Conversations!! She has been having fun playing outside, enjoys watching Judah and Ruth and helping with them, and has learned so much this year! She is my big helper! She has even started making some of her own food, including scrambled eggs with peppers and sausage, by herself! Tad has been teaching her how to skateboard, and they have been going on long bike rides together. She is getting so big!

Judah is doing preschool this year, and he has done really well. He enjoys sitting at the table and having his own school to do alongside Maddy! He is left-handed, and has learned how to write pretty well this year! He did a few sessions of swim lessons and loved it, especially when Tad got in the water with him on the last day of swim lessons!! He would be beaming the whole time!! Tad has also been teaching him how to skateboard, and he loves that! He is a joy!

Ruth is getting so big! She is now speaking in sentences, and can definitely get her opinions across! She is tiny but loud! She is my sweet cuddler and likes to encourage and make people happy! This week she told me, "I like your ponytail" and "you did good on your workout." She makes my day!!

Within the last few months, I have become a new Team Beachbody Coach. It is so fun to help people on their journey towards health and fitness, as I am on my own journey as well! I just finished up my T25 workouts, and started the 21 Day Fix, which is a workout program that comes with different sized containers, and it tells you how many you can eat of each a day (the different food groups) and also comes with workout DVDs. You get to eat so much food, are not starving, and the weight easily falls off. People have had such great success with it! It was on backorder for a month because it was so popular, but it is now back in stock! Let me know if you want more details, or details about a Fitness Challenge group!

About a week after I signed on as a Coach, I was asked to be the Director of the Classical Conversations in our area! So a lot is going on right now! I am so thrilled for the opportunity, and excited to embark on a new area of work with CC! I have enjoyed tutoring the past 2 years with CC, and this will be a fun endeavor as well, and an awesome ministry opportunity!

We have been busy at our church as well. Tad and I both sing on the worship team, Tad leads the worship team, and we enjoy doing other things there as well. We have been blessed with a vibrant congregation and a Pastor that preaches the Word diligently! What a blessing!
So, as we get ready for summer, and look forward to a family wedding/vacation this summer, we are feeling blessed. Tad is still enjoying his job as a mailman, and has lost a ton of weight running around the neighborhoods delivering mail! He loves being outside, so it is the perfect job for him! Hopefully we can see many of our Ohio friends and family this summer, and enjoy some time off of school! Happy (almost) Summer!

Raspberry Cream Scones

 
I have been waiting to post this recipe for a long time! It is one of the best things I have ever made! I love scones, and finally found a recipe I love! Yes, I have already posted a recipe for mini scones, but this recipe is much better! And you can really cut them into any size! I also love sharing recipes out of cookbooks, since they aren't so readily available on the internet for everyone to use! I recommend dipping them into whipped cream! Or putting jelly on them, or butter, or if you're really authentic and English-like, you can somehow find or make clotted cream! Which I have yet to do! These definitely aren't gluten-free, so Tad won't be having any of them, but I actually made these and took these pics during the summer, so he did get to have some!


Raspberry Cream Scones
The Earthbound Farm Organic Cookbook
Food to Live By
Myra Goodman

2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1/3 cup sugar, plus 2 tablespoons for topping
1 tablespoon baking powder
2 teaspoons grated lemon zest
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, cut into bits and chilled
1 large egg
1/2 cup heavy (whipping) cream, plus 2 tablespoons for the glaze
1 teaspoon pure almond extract
3/4 cup (from 1 half-pint) fresh raspberries or frozen (unthawed) unsweetened raspberries

1. Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Lightly butter a baking sheet or line it with parchment paper.
2. Place the flour, 1/3 cup of sugar, baking powder, lemon zest, and salt in a large bowl and whisk to combine well. Add the chilled butter. Using a pastry blender, 2 knives, or your fingers, blend the butter into the mixture until it is crumbly and well combined.
3. Place the egg, cream, and almond extract in a small bowl and whisk to combine well. Add the egg mixture to the flour mixture and stir with a rubber spatula until just barely combined. Gently fold in the raspberries. Do not overmix the dough or the scones will be tough.
4. Turn out the dough, along with any loose dry bits, onto a lightly floured work surface and pat into a disk about 1 1/2 inches thick. Cut the dough with a knife into 6 pie-shaped wedges and place them on the prepared baking sheet.
5. Brush the scones with the remaining 2 tablespoons of cream and sprinkle them with the remaining 2 tablespoons of sugar.
6. Bake the scones until they are golden brown and firm to the touch, 15 to 20 minutes.
7. Place the baking sheet on a wire rack and let the scones cool for about 10 minutes. Serve the scones warm or at room temperature. The scones taste best the day they are made but, if necessary, they can be stored in an airtight container for up to 2 days. Reheat them in a microwave for about 10 seconds or in a preheated 350 degree oven for 5 to 10 minutes.

Cookbook suggestions: You can substitute 2/3 cup of any kind of fruit or nuts for the raspberries. You can use fresh blueberries, strawberries, chopped nuts, dried fruits like apricots, cranberries, or cherries, and you can also substitute vanilla extract for the almond, or orange zest for the lemon zest!!  And they also freeze well! So you can freeze the dough, transfer them to an airtight bag or container, and thaw them overnight on a baking sheet before you want to serve them, and glaze them right before you put them in the oven! Ah, possibilities!!

You will seriously drool over these scones! These are perfect for a brunch, shower, or having your friends over for tea!  Or in my case, coffee!

The Most Amazing Thing Happened

Pioneer Woman, at Barnes and Noble outside of Chicago in 2009

Last week, we were out of town because I had a Practicum, which is a 3-day training to be a tutor (which is like a teacher) for Classical Conversations. They call it a tutor because the parent is suppose to be the child's primary teacher at home. It was really good training about a classical, Christian education, training in learning Latin, learning how to teach the Foundations class, which is what I will be teaching, and we got a chance to get all our books and materials!! Maddy got a chance to go to a Geography/Drawing Camp for those 3 days, and Judah was in the nursery when he wasn't napping. Tad got off for all three days, and so he was my "manny!" Major props to him because he took care of the kids so I could take notes, listen to the seminar, and get some really good training in!!
So yes, that was all fine and wonderful, but I have to tell you about the most amazing thing that happened. I went into the sanctuary on the first morning for training and noticed that there weren't too many people there. I wish I had packed some fancier clothes, because a lot of the women were in dresses, all dressed nice and ready for the sessions. I didn't pack any dresses. I saw one lady who was helping people get checked in and seemed to be in some kind of leadership, and she looked familiar but I don't know anyone from Bartlesville, Oklahoma, so I just kind of brushed it off. I noticed one lady in the back of the sanctuary who looked interesting. I noticed her because she was especially tall, had long red hair pulled back, and was wearing an interesting top. I didn't think anything of it until I saw the lady I had previously recognized walk up to the red-haired woman and say something to her. And then, it hit me.
Who do I totally admire and blog about? Whose recipes do I cook, who lives in Oklahoma, and homeschools? Who did I wait for 5 hours while 35 weeks pregnant to meet, and have her sign my cookbook?
If you guessed PIONEER WOMAN you are correct!! I almost peed my pants!!! And the first lady I recognized was Pioneer Woman's best friend, Hyacinth, who is in her cookbook, on her cooking show at times, and was on the Throwdown with Bobby Flay. Yeah, I'm not obsessed or anything!! Her nametag said Cindi which must be short for Hyacinth!! So I wasn't gonna talk to her, since I already met her in Chicago, and didn't want to bother her or seem like an obsessed fan, but the third day, after prodding from several people, I was gonna talk to her. But guess who didn't show up the third day? Yep. I almost stole her and her kids nametags though, when I saw them on the table when she didn't come!! One of her sons was in Maddy's class, one of her daughters might have helped in the nursery with Judah, and I saw the other ones around. So surreal. Because her family has been an integral part of her blog and tv show.
The first day when I went to go pick up Maddy from class, Pioneer Woman and I (I love the sound of that!) were 2 of the only moms standing, waiting to pick up our kids from the camp. Why didn't I say anything to her!!  So I got Maddy and she started to tell me all about her camp, and then she saw PW in front of us, and her eyes got real big and she said, "Is that the lady from that cooking show?" It was awesome. She was as star struck as me!! And she does claim that that is her favorite cooking show!
So in the subsequent days, she asked PW's boy in her class, Todd, if he liked being videotaped (ha ha), and what his favorite meal was his mother made. He said pork chops! Swoon.
So, in my opinion, going to the Practicum in Bartlesville was totally worth it just because I got to see Pioneer woman for 2 days in the sessions. She checks her phone a lot. Probably checking her blog! I loved it!

Yeah, that's Pioneer Woman and I, just chatting!!!!

 So, maybe I will actually blog about the Practicum or Classical Conversations, or starting school up soon, but first things first! Just had to tell you guys about it!! See, I guess it was worth it to move to Oklahoma!

Vacation with Littles

Recently, we had a week-long family vacation with my mom's side of the family. Every other year, my Grandma and Grandpa pay for a big house for us all to stay in for a week. We are spread out across the country, and don't really get to see each other, especially since my sister moved to Colorado and we moved to Oklahoma. It is a great time of bonding, catching up with each other, seeing each others kids, doing stuff together as a family, and relaxing. Relaxing. That's a relative term when you have 3 small children. In the past, these vacations had been pretty relaxing. We got sleep. So that's what I expected this time. And although there were moments of relaxation and sleep, it was not what I had expected.
Towards the end of the trip, I got on the computer to look at one of my favorite blogs, Passionate Homemaking, and ironically, the post that was up was Summer Vacationing with Kids. I wish I had read this post before we had left. The last trip we went on, we had an enormous house because we were expecting my uncle and aunt and their 10 kids and then they couldn't come. So we had extra rooms and only 2 kids. This time, we had a house that fit the amount of people who came, and that included fold out couches out in the open. Not too ideal for kids who need to go to bed early. We actually got a room with a couch that had a fold out bed in the room, so we thought that would be perfect. But Judah had never slept in a real bed before, and now he was going to sleep with Maddy as well. Mistake #1. We were going to bring the pack and play, but we ended up running out of room. It took Judah about an hour or more to fall asleep each time he needed to nap or go to sleep for the night! It was exhausting. He kept getting up and coming out, talking to Maddy, and taking forever to fall asleep. One night he got to sleep as late as 11! And then the next day, he was exhausted and a mess. He did manage to take some 3 hour naps though, to catch up on lost sleep. One morning he woke up because he fell out of bed, poor guy!
So, we ended up shuffling Maddy around between her cousins fold out beds, put Judah's mattress on the floor and he slept there in our room, and Ruth slept in her bed in our bathroom. Gotta do what you gotta do!
So, all in all, it was a fun trip. I just wasn't expecting the ordeal it was to get the kids to sleep. And the frustration of them getting woken up. And melting the next day. It is exhausting as a parent when your kids or you don't get enough sleep. I guess I just wish I had different expectations going in to the trip. Which is why you need to read the aforementioned blog post before you go on vacation with your small kids!! It makes things so much smoother when we know what we're in for!!
Also, think through the sleeping situation before you leave and make up different scenarios that could work. That way you are not locked into one situation that has to work. Even if you are all in one hotel room, there are different options. We are doing this at the end of the month, and I'm already trying to figure out the best possible solution!!
When you go on vacation as a mom, you don't get away from mom responsibilities. Unless you are in a high class resort and literally have people waiting on you. But we were in a house, so laundry, dishes, cleanup, taking care of kids, and cooking still had to be done. One of my favorite things that was said in that blog post is that it's called a family trip, not a vacation. That is so true.

I hope this didn't sound super negative!! We really did have fun, but I guess it did shine through that the sleeping arrangements were pretty stressful! But you just have to roll with the punches I guess and not let things you can't control get you too down!! Try to enjoy those little sweet moments when you are on vacation and not let lack of sleep get you down! Needless to say, I'm so glad to be home with my kids sleeping in their own beds!!

 

Head on over to Alicia's Homemaking, one of my favorite blogs, to read more about people's fun new adventures!! 

Creamy Corn and Zucchini

I made this wonderful little number for our church 4th of July barbeque!! Right when I saw the picture of it in a magazine, I bookmarked it in my mind to make it for the 4th of July. And it delivered!! After I put all the ingredients together, I couldn't figure out if I was suppose to serve it hot or cold. But I put it in the fridge until serving time. I thought I was suppose to serve it warm, but it was so hot that night that I didn't want to warm it up. And I'm so glad I didn't! It tasted really good cold and went really well with other barbeque food! But just beware, this is suppose to serve 8 people, and it looks like 8 people could take about 2 bites. The full amount filled less than half of a small serving bowl. So if you are feeding more than 4-6 people, I would double it. Enjoy!!

Creamy Corn and Zucchini
Kraft Foods
Food and Family

2 Tbs. Kraft Zesty Italian Dressing
2 cups fresh corn kernels
1 zucchini, chopped
1/2 cup chopped onions
1 cup Kraft Mexican style shredded four cheese with a Touch of Philadelphia (I just used Mexican Cheese from Aldi's!!)
1/2 cup sour cream
3 slices bacon, cooked, crumbled
1 Tbsp. chopped fresh cilantro

1. Heat the dressing in a large skillet on medium-high heat. Add vegetables; cook and stir 8 to 10 minutes, or until crisp-tender. Remove from heat.
2. Stir in cheese and sour cream; cook on medium heat 3 to 5 minutes, or until cheese is melted and mixture is heated through, stirring frequently.
3. Top with bacon and cilantro.

Drizzle with a squeeze of fresh lime juice before serving. 


Like I said, it appears that you would serve this warm, but it tasted great cold, and if you are eating outside when it's really hot, it might be a good idea to serve it cold!! It's very tasty and flavorful!!

Happy Summer!!

Summertime!!

 We are finally done with school!! It feels so good to have those 180 days of kindergarten under our belt!! The year went so well, and I am so pleased with Madelynn's progress! She is reading well, counting to over 100, knows so much more about our world than when she started the year, and knows a lot of states/capitals!! I am so proud of her!!

Maddy playing doctor at Leonardos!

 
Next year will be quite the journey! I have already mentioned that we will be doing Classical Conversations. Well, I was just offered the position of being the first grade tutor (which is the teacher of the class, though they call it the tutor.) I will have to go to a 3 day practicum in another city and begin preparing how I will present the material to the class! Pray for me!! I have never learned Latin, and this kind of teaching of different subjects will be different than anything I have done in the past. Though I am excited because it is definitely out of my comfort zone, and the training and teaching will help me be a better teacher to my kids!! I am looking forward to this next year!!
But for now, I am excited about summer! Now that we are done with our schoolwork, I have so many summer projects to tackle!! Not to mention the extra time we now have to play, get out in the mornings, hang out with friends more, and relax. I am hoping that by the Fall, Ruth will be on more of a solid schedule, and I will also be doing a little bit of preschool with Judah. He seems ahead of the game, and is already picking up so much from Maddy and from hearing us do school!

Judah was finally big enough to wear bowling shoes!!

We also just got a set of books that I am excited to use! The first set we got is for littles and has bright colors, fun pictures, and teaches them words in English/Spanish so I hope to use that with Maddy and Judah in the Fall and a little bit this summer! I plan to go through Maddy's desk, school papers, books from this year, books/magazines about homeschooling, and books for next year and get going on her lesson plans for next year! Of course, I have the whole summer to do this!! I planned on doing so much of this last summer and then I was pregnant and super sick and barely got Maddy's lesson plans done in time for school to start! So I look forward to doing it this summer!
We will also be reviewing different topics throughout the summer to refresh Maddy's memory, especially her reading/spelling material so she doesn't lose it!! Any tips for a new homeschooling mom of an almost first grader is appreciated!! I am still new on this journey!!

She is three months already!!

A Birthday, and Puppy, and School!

Well, I haven't done so well keeping up with this 'ole blog! I apologize!! Life has been so busy and writing a post gets pushed to the bottom of the list! I have actually had this post written for a couple weeks and have had problems uploading pictures to the blog, so that took awhile to figure out! So sorry! I feel so behind in writing about all that has been going on with us!! We have had a lot going on!!
Maddy had her 5 year old birthday at the end of August! It was extra special that my grandparents from Ohio came to visit and got to be here for her birthday party! We had a wonderful visit with them, and they enjoyed seeing the new little town where we live! Anyone else brave enough to come visit us down here in Oklahoma? Grin :)

(Maddy, hidden behind the pony, with her friends at her birthday party!)

(My Little Pony birthday party!)

For her 5th birthday present, we decided to get Maddy a puppy. The long-awaited puppy she has wanted since she was old enough to voice it. We promised her we would get one when we had a house in Oklahoma. And finally, it happened!! We have had Minnie for a couple weeks, and the kids have really enjoyed her! She is a sweet, hyper, crazy puppy and fits right into the mix, especially for my sweet, hyper, crazy 5 year old! We have enjoyed getting to the dog park where all 3 little rugrats can get their energy out! Judah thinks the dog park is for him! He plays on the dog stuff more than Minnie does!
(The day we brought her home!)

(Headed to the playground, with Minnie riding in the stroller!)

(Lovin' on the puppy.)

(Tad is so happy to have a dog!)

And finally, Maddy had her first day of kindergarten. Once again, we are homeschooling this year and building on what we did in preschool. We had a good first day, and I enjoyed turning Maddy's room into a little makeshift school room. Hey, it works! It also works out perfect that Tad works the afternoon shift, so he can watch/entertain Judah while Maddy and I get some special, important one-on-one school time. She has a great attitude about school, and is doing really well!
(Maddy's first day of kindergarten!)

(Working at her desk on schoolwork.)

(Little corner nook for school.)
(Luckily we had room to move some stuff around so that her room is her school room too. She loves it!)

So hopefully that catches everyone up on our most recent big events around here! We are finally having an awesome break in the weather, which has been so nice. Especially since that means that we can get outside more! We had up over 100 degree days for over 60 days and someone told me that this is the hottest Oklahoma summer in Oklahoma history! A great first summer for these northerners!! We were melting! But now, with these cooler nights, school starting back up, schedules coming into place, and Fall quickly approaching, I am a happy lady! Not to mention I'm finally in my second trimester, so I'm feeling much better! Hope you all are doing well!

Our Attempt at Gardening Part 3

Well, we have had a pretty bountiful first garden this year! We didn't really know what we were doing to start with, but we asked some questions, did some research, and then just planted and watered!! You can read about our other gardening adventures here and here.

We started out with planting watermelon, cucumbers (which Tad forgot he planted until we found full-grown ones in the garden!), strawberries, chives (which grew from small chives into big green onions), carrots, parsley, cilantro, basil, tomatoes, and green peppers. We got almost everything we planted. The strawberries, parsley, and basil just never came up at all. We had the cilantro probably the first half of the season and then it was gone. Our first watermelon patch produced a lot of watermelon, and then Maddy's watermelon patch on the other side of the garden started producing the second round and we are still picking. Watermelon must like super hot, sticky, nasty weather because we probably got around 12-15 watermelon!! The hard thing has been knowing when to pick them. We have picked them too early and too late, but this last one was just right! And Judah and Maddy had a blast eating it!

We got a plethora of carrots, but we didn't really know what to do with all of them! One tomato plant got huge and produced no tomatoes, and the other stayed small and produced no tomatoes (sad!) Our small little green pepper plant looked like it wasn't gonna do anything and then it produced 2 small beautiful green peppers and is working on 2 more!
The green onions are plentiful but I have too many to use up! They are still thriving in the garden so if you live in Oklahoma and need green onions, just give me a holler!
Maddy planted one sunflower from seed, well 2 actually but Judah pulled one up from the root early on :( and it got to be a huge tower! It bloomed while we were in Ohio and we still got to see it in all its glory when we got home. We now are just now harvesting the seeds from it!

And since being back from Ohio, and being very sick in pregnancy, the garden is overrun with weeds and looks like a safari jungle. Every time I go out into the heat for any length of time it makes me feel sick, and I couldn't imagine getting out there with the hoe to hack down the mass amount of weeds that have overtaken everything. Who knew I would get pregnant and so sick halfway through garden season? Oh well. At least it has still produced far more than we could have hoped for!!
So, I guess for next year I have a better idea of what we can get the most use out of, what we don't eat much of, and how much work a garden is. I did pretty well keeping up with it until I went out of town and got sick. So I'm sure I will have different plans for next year's garden. But I must say, I think it did pretty good for a first garden planted by amateur gardeners!! So, until next year, happy gardening!!

Salsa Fresca

I love, love, love food with lots of fresh ingredients. The problem is, when you are shopping for them, you have to make sure you use up those ingredients before they go bad!! But the food with fresh produce, especially in the summer when everything is in season, and not super expensive, is delicious!! I got this recipe for Salsa Fresca out of a Rachael Ray Magazine a long time ago, and have been making it ever since. In fact, this is a base recipe that is similar to pico de gallo, and could be used for many different things, and the magazine has several recipes that use this base of salsa. Tasty!! I did make the chicken salsa soup with it, and it was divine!! So, you might want to make a double batch and see what else you can use it for!! It might even be a nice, light summer meal for those hot, sticky nights when you don't feel like eating!!



Salsa Fresca
Rachael Ray Magazine

1 cup packed coarsely chopped cilantro
2 cloves garlic
1/2 onion, coarsely chopped
1 jalapeno chile, halved lengthwise
2 1/2 pounds ripe tomatoes (7 or 8), cored and quartered
Juice of 1 lime
Salt

1. Using a food processor, pulse the cilantro and garlic together for 30 seconds. Scrape down the sides, add the onion and jalapeno and pulse until finely chopped; transfer to a medium bowl.

2. Working in batches, add the tomatoes to the food processor and pulse until finely chopped. Add to the cilantro mixture. Stir in the lime juice; season with salt.

Uhhh, chips please!!

Happy Summer!!!