Beach Day!

We are VERY blessed to live in Connecticut, where even though it may be cold many months of the year we still have WONDERFUL, HOT summers. And we have gorgeous beaches too! However, most of our local beaches don’t have too many waves. We are sort of blocked from the big waves by Long Island, NY and Fisher’s Island, NY. So even though our beaches are gorgeous and fun, we do mostly swimming or floating, not surfing at them. But if you go just a little further away into Rhode Island – you are no longer blocked by the NY Islands and you get to experience the fun of the bigger waves! So, we have driven out there a few times this summer and each time we have an absolute BLAST! I’m talking about me boogie boarding in the waves with the kids for HOURS on end!

Yesterday was one of those days. Bob decided to take the day off from work because we knew it was supposed to be a gorgeous day. And since we’re trying to take advantage of every last ounce of summer it was a good day to do it.

 

I’m trying to make myself be more intentional about noticing things around me. Like sights, sounds, etc. To stop and enjoy the beauty of life and not just rush through it. So as we stepped out of the car I turned on all my senses and made myself pay attention. I was not disappointed! From the parking lot you walk up over the dunes, past the little trailer where they make all sorts of fried foods and goodies. Walking over the dunes I noticed the smells that came at me all at once – the salty air, the french fries, the suntan lotion … and as soon as you step over the dunes and onto the beach it’s the sounds that come at you – the crashing waves, giggling children, squawking seagulls … and let’s not forget the things you feel – hot, soft sand beneath my toes, cool, crisp ocean breezes, the warmth of the sun on my shoulders. I felt like I wanted to just stretch my arms wide and say a great big ‘AHHHHHHH!’

 

We had a fantastic day. We arrived mid-morning and I was just craving coffee and baked goods. So the girls and I walked across the street to this cute little shop and got a muffin and an iced coffee which I then enjoyed on the beach. We spent HOURS on our boogie boards, ‘surfing’ the waves. The water was a little seaweedy, not my fave thing, but we managed to find places where there wasn’t too much and swam in those areas.

A couple times I stepped out to dry off and warm up and take some pictures of the girls. They were having the time of their lives!

It was a wonderful, amazing day …. when we headed home around 4pm we stopped for ice cream, then the girls came home and swam in the pool for awhile. When I showered later at home I noticed my swimsuit was FULL of sand – I had to laugh, just the result of a fun, full day at the beach! When it’s January and I’m sitting in my house watching the snow fall I will remember this day and count the days {months?!} until we can do it again!

Bible Study for Girls

In my last post I mentioned that I was looking for a good Bible study for girls ... well I'm happy to report that after doing some searching on Amazon I found {what I think will be} a great one!

It's called Between God and Me: A Journey through Proverbs by Vicki Courtney. I have a devo from the same author and I love it so I hope and pray that this will be a great choice for the girls. And I LOVE the book of Proverbs so I think all of us will enjoy going through it together!

Just thought I'd share in case someone with girls that are similar in age to mine might be interested!

Curriculum 2011-2012

OK friends I have FINALLY decided on all of our curriculum for the coming school year – whew! Feels like it was such a weighty decision and I’m so happy to have it all figured out now!

This year I’m planning to take us in a different direction, mostly because I’ve been working with my kids for the past few years and am finally figuring out what works {and doesn’t work} best for them. So here it is:

Hope – 5th grade

Math – Teaching Textbooks

Language Arts – Total Language Plus {Charlotte’s Web, The Cricket in Times Square, Caddie Woodlawn, & the Wheel on the School}  --This program covers:

• Spelling
• Grammar and punctuation
• Vocabulary
• Analytical and critical thinking
• Comprehension
• Writing
• Listening
• Field trips/projects

But since it’s new to us and we haven’t seen it in person yet, we can supplement with other things if we find that it’s not enough. Evan Moor is one of my favorite publishers and they have almost all of their products at my local Education Works store. So we can always pop in there and pick up a daily spelling practice book or whatever we might need.

Joy – 3rd Grade

Math – Teaching Textbooks

Language Arts – Total Language Plus {The Courage of Sarah Noble, The Whipping Boy, The Sign of the Beaver}

BOTH

History/Geography – Confessions of a Homeschooler’s Road Trip USA curriculum {It covers some US history, but if we find it’s not enough we’ll get some History Pockets by Evan Moor}

Science – finish up Apologia’s Astronomy from last year and then we’ll do Considering God’s Creation {which I already have} – we’ll cover Rocks & Minerals, The Plant Kingdom, and The Animal Kingdom.

Spanish – still slowly making our way through Hooked on Spanish – this is just NOT my strong point! I’m laughing as I’m looking up the link online because it says it’s for 4-6 yr olds! hahaha … well like I said, Spanish is not my strong point so we’re not great about working hard on it around here.

Art – the girls take art lessons through my Father in law and we’ll visit several local Art Museums

Music – piano lessons from my awesome friend Jessica and they will hopefully be joining the Praise Kids choir at church this year

Activities – Awana at church, soccer for Hope and swimming for Joy.

Bible – Christian Heroes by David and Neta Jackson {love these authors!!} as well as Awana memory verses. Looking into some kind of daily devotional for girls as well.

Well, that’s all for now … I’m sure I’ll tweak things or come up with some other stuff as we go along. Right now I’m just thankful to have the big decisions made!

The past two weeks …

The past two weeks have been a couple of the most insanely busy weeks ever! I’ve hardly taken any photos, but figured I’d give you a little bit of an idea of what it was like…

2 full days of scrapbooking with my dear friend Julie

40+ scrapbook pages done

2 full days of sewing / prepping / last minute details to get ready for the craft show

1 night going to the car races to see Hope’s bestie sing the National Anthem

8 hours sitting in the extreme heat for the craft show – which even though it took me MONTHS to prepare for and even though I didn’t make much money, was still worthwhile because it was a great experience and I got to share it with my good friend Jen.

3 hours setting up at church for VBS

{10 awesome helpers to help me get it done!}

5 nights of Vacation Bible School

12 kids who made professions of faith {makes it all worthwhile!}

15 amazing helpers on my VBS team – I could not have done any of it without them!

1 lovely afternoon to enjoy a ‘date’ to the beach and for ice cream with my honey – a welcome time of rest in the midst of a busy week

10 – approximate meals on the run we’ve had this week

10 – approximate number of times we’ve had unhealthy treats in the past couple of weeks

11 – days I’ve had a yucky head cold

0 – days I’ve exercised in July/ Aug. {horrible, isn’t it???}

3-5 approximate number of pounds I’ve gained with all this unhealthy eating and non-exercising :( My own fault, I know … I guess it could be worse!

1 morning of picking blueberries

approx 6 pounds picked

1 blue Smurf movie attended

3 – old friends I got to visit with

2 of which I haven't seen in almost 10 years!

1 full day cleaning up my house which looked like a tornado had torn through

 

And after all of that …. I’m still smiling. Yes it was insanely crazy, but I’m sort of learning that summer is meant to be spontaneous and fun. Even though we have the Summer Fun List – we’ve only crossed off a few things from it. But we’ve done a TON of different, spontaneous things this summer that we didn’t even plan on. And I kinda like it! I’m not typically a spontaneous person, and during the school year I find we do better on a routine, but for summer – why not? But now that the two big things are done {the craft show and VBS} I finally feel like the month of August will be my chance to sit back, relax and just enjoy myself until we start school again. Now the only ‘task’ left is to choose and purchase our homeschool curriculum!

I will be back with more posts and pictures soon!

Summer ‘11 ~~ Weeks 4 & 5

Ahhhhh summer. Busy, fun, summer. Summer means my poor little blog gets neglected … but I can’t feel guilty because we’ve been having so much fun! And so I’m catching up again, this time with the past 2 weeks of summer fun.

Saturday, July 9th ~ Our local area does a HUGE fireworks display the weekend after July 4th, so we took the girls to it and had a fabulous time … below you can see my cute little Red, White and Blue girls!

Sunday, July 10th ~ We went to church, then planned to just relax at home. We ended up inviting our friends over at the last minute and just had a relaxing BBQ and pool day with them. They brought one of their dogs to play with Gracie and they were so cute together having their puppy playdate!

Monday, July 11th ~ We went to one of our favorite beaches in Rhode Island, where the waves are much bigger than our local beaches. We had SO.MUCH.FUN boogie boarding in the waves. I literally stayed IN the water about 90% of the day! So far, it was one of the most fun days I’ve had all summer.

Tuesday, July 12th ~ a steamy hot day so we went bowling with our friends, then back to their house for the evening so the kids could play and the Moms could scrapbook. No picture.

Wednesday, July 13th ~ We had an ‘at home day’ where we just caught up on stuff like housework and laundry. We began our new ‘Marble Jar’ system {which I will detail in another post}. The girls were very helpful around the house that day! In the evening our friends came over for dinner and we were supposed to go see the Wed. night fireworks but got rained out.

Thursday, July 14th ~ Went to the beach with some friends. It was a GORGEOUS day, there was a nice little breeze and we had such a great time. Then we came home, showered, changed and headed back out to a different beach that holds a concert every Thursday night. We brought chairs and blankets and pizza for dinner and hung out with our friends. The concert was fun and there were a TON of people there. After the concert we went back to our friend’s house for awhile to have a campfire. Is it any wonder why I’m so exhausted??? I mean, how many things can we possibly squeeze into ONE day?! 

Friday, July 15th ~ We had a quiet day at home. Got some things done and swam in the pool. Then in the evening we went to a park that has outdoor concerts all summer on Friday nights {isn’t it cool all the great, FREE things we can do around here in the summer?!}. The band was FANTASTIC, they played mostly country music and it was all songs we know and love. The girls and their friends spent the WHOLE night right up in front of the stage dancing their little hearts out all night long. We brought a picnic for supper and the adults hung out and talked and just had a great time.

Saturday, July 16 ~ Joy has been taking a Jazz/Hip Hop dance class this whole year and Saturday was her dress rehearsal. We were there for about 3 hours {outside, in the heat!} but the girls all did SO well! I took lots of photos and a couple videos that day because I knew it would be easier to take them then instead of at the actual recital. She is the one right in front! I love how she’s concentrating so hard!

Sunday, July 17th ~ We went to church, then home to change quickly, then it was off to Joy’s dance recital! One of her best friends was in dance with her this year and they did amazing! It was a very cute little recital and we are so proud of Joy! They both got flowers from their families at the end and I got this cute picture of the two girls.

Later that afternoon my in laws, brother in laws, sister in law and nephews came over. We had a BBQ and a little b-day party for my nephew and of course the kids swam for hours. That night the adults had a campfire and just hung out and talked. I love my sis in law and bro in laws and it’s always so nice to just catch up with them whenever we can.

Monday, July 18th ~ My bro in law, sis in law and nephews spent the night, then on Monday we all went out with my in laws on their boat {some friends of ours came too}. We had to take a couple trips with the boat cause there were 9 adults and 7 kids! We always take the boat to our fave beach where there are hardly any people and you can explore and find crabs and snails and all kinds of other stuff. It’s a great place for kids to explore and swim and have fun. So there were 7 kids all together and they had a BLAST all hanging out together! There is this HUGE tree that washed up on shore so I had all the 7 kids stand on it to snap this picture. I love it! That night we grilled out with my bro in laws, sis in law and nephews and the kids swam some more.

   

Tuesday, July 19th ~ another catch up at home day. But the girls and I did go to the library later in the day. No picture.

Wednesday, July 20th ~ We went to our friend’s house to swim and play. There were 6 Moms and FIFTEEN kids! I love these get togethers though because even though it gets a little crazy it’s still fun. The kids swim and play and the Moms get to talk and hang out.

We went home, changed, showered and then had to head out again. Since it was such a busy day and I had a VBS meeting at church that evening we just went to Chili’s for dinner. After Chili’s we went to church where I hosted a meeting for my team for VBS. We only have a little over a week before our VBS starts! {VBS = Vacation Bible School … Me = the department head for the primary kids}. {no picture again this day} Since the girls behaved well during our meeting I took them to one of our fave farm fresh ice cream places on the way home. It is OH SO YUMMY!

Thursday, July 21st ~ our friends came over for lunch and swimming. Then in the evening we went to my friend’s house for a ‘31’ party – it was so nice to get out for a girl’s night {even if I did bring my kids along!}. The girls were going to sleep over at their friend’s house, but at midnight my friend called saying Joy was crying for me … so I drove back out there to pick her up – poor thing! She’s still very much a Mama’s girl! Hope still slept over though.

Friday, July 22nd ~ We went and picked up Hope in the morning, then ran a couple errands, then came home to get some stuff done around the house. It was BLAZING hot so we tried to stay inside in the A/C. We re-organized Joy’s room and switched the furniture all around. It was so good to get it all cleaned out and organized again. I feel like I have to do this with the girl’s rooms about every other month because they collect so much junk! That evening the girls went to a birthday party, hubby went out fishing with his buddies and I went to my friend’s house to swim and hang out.

{why have I been so terrible about taking pictures this week??!!}

Anyhow … that is our busy, fun life for the past two weeks! We’re cramming all kinds of stuff in each and every day and having a great, great summer so far!

MYO Caramel Macchiato!

{MYO = Make Your Own}

I LOOOOOVE sweet, creamy coffee drinks. But I don’t love the price tag, or the huge amount of calories. So lately this is my fave ‘afternoon delight’ that I’ve been making right from the comfort of my own home.

The cast of characters:

*Iced coffee tumbler

*Ice

*Green Mountain Coffee – brew over ice – Nantucket Blend

*Torani Sugar Free Caramel Syrup

*Coffee Mate Italian Sweet Cream Creamer {my FAVE flavor!}

*Reddi Whip

These little brew over ice k-cups from Green Mountain are fabulous! They brew stronger than the regular k-cups so even though the ice sort of waters it down it won’t taste watered down at all.

Fill your tumbler to the top with ice, brew your coffee over it…

Add your creamer and caramel syrup to taste …

Add a little {or a LOT!} of whip on top …

ENJOY!!!

 

With my creamer and whip this is about 100 calories … it’s a perfect summer afternoon pick me up! It’s got a nice strong coffee taste with just the perfect blend of sweet and creaminess – JUST LIKE my fave Caramel Macchiato from Starbucks!

Summer ‘11 – Week 3!

Is it normal that I’m more exhausted in the summer time than the regular school year?! Hahaha … just goes to show there has been a whole lotta fun goin’ on around here and this Mama is plain wiped out!

On Saturday my girl came home from camp!! WOOT WOOT! I missed her SO much last week! We also had friends visiting from Virginia – Julie is one of my dearest friends and we LOVE seeing them. They stopped by for a quick overnight stay on their way back home from NH. Her girls are about the same ages as mine and they always have a blast together! We grilled out, had a campfire, lit off some fireworks and all stayed up way too late – but it was so fun and so worth it!

On Sunday my only agenda was church, then naps for everyone since we were all pretty overtired  -but at church our friends invited us over so we spent the afternoon and evening with them. We swam in their pool, we had a cookout, lit off MORE fireworks and stayed up too late AGAIN! {heeheehee} Sadly, I was a bad girl and didn’t take any pictures. :(

Monday our plans changed because we were supposed to spend it with my in laws, but there was a medical emergency in our family so they could not be home {more on that later}. So some other friends asked us to come over, and lucky for us, they have a pool TOO! It was another fun filled day with swimming, BBQing, hanging out with friends and just relaxing. My brother in law, sister in law and their boys also came – so my silly hubby and his brother had a little competition going with their CRAZY pool jumps! I was nervous that someone would get hurt but no one did. {That’s my hubby mid-air in the photo!} We came home and watched the Boston Pops fireworks on TV with the girls and then I crawled into bed {late again} totally exhausted.

Tuesday was my ‘catch up’ day – I have lots of work and planning to take care of for our church’s VBS program so I spent most of the day doing that. The girls played, relaxed and watched some TV. Later in the day around 3 I finished up my stuff and we went swimming in our pool until dinner time, then snuggled up to watch movies in the evening – does it surprise anyone that I could barely keep my eyes open for the second movie??!! {again, no picture that day}

Wednesday is the day we get together with friends! We had a bunch of friends come here to swim and it’s a good thing we have a pool since it was a HOT one! We DO have a big pool, but I got this little kiddy pool because there were a couple of little ones and I figured it would be easier for them – and of course the BIG kids loved playing in it too! So silly! We had lunch, swam, played, etc until everyone went home around 4pm. When hubby got home we packed up a picnic supper and headed to a local beach where we grilled out, enjoyed the ocean breeze, took lots of fun photos and enjoyed the sunset. Then, on our way home we stopped at the casino to watch the free fireworks show that they do every Wednesday night in the summer. It was another busy and fun day.

 

On Thursday we packed up our stuff and headed to a friend’s house. They live on this gorgeous little lake and we got to spend the day there having fun with them. We ate lunch at their house, then headed to the lakefront where the kids swam, caught fish, jumped off the floating dock, and snorkeled around in the water searching for fish. After the lake, we had a yummy snack back at their house {Cindy makes THE BEST popcorn and Mango Green Tea EVER!} … then we headed for home. Thursday nights I have deemed ‘scrapbook night’ for the summer and I leave it as an open invite for anyone who wants to come scrap with me each Thursday night. My Mom came last night and she came a little early to join us for dinner which was nice. A friend named Maria also came to scrap with us.

{I’ve included the photo below just so you know that I AM taking part in all this summer fun too, I’m just RARELY in the photos since I’m always behind the camera lens  - but I assure you, I’m here!}

And that brings us to Friday again … the girls are off to my Mother in law’s house for the day, hubby is at work and I have been doing a bunch of little things. Ran some errands, stopped at church to do some VBS stuff, and am just getting some stuff done around the house today. {Can you see the toad in this pic? I saw him outside and even though the girls aren’t home, I KNEW they would want to see a pic of him – he was right near my kitchen door when I came home from errands.}

All this busy, busy, busy may have me exhausted, but it’s been such a fun summer already! I can sleep in September, right?! ;)

 

PS. Just wanted to throw out a quick prayer request – my husband’s Grandpa isn’t doing well. He has a cancerous mass on his brain and has been having trouble seizuring last weekend. They did surgery yesterday to determine what stage his cancer is and try to alleviate some of the pressure on his brain and only time will tell if the surgery was helpful or not. The surgery/mass might also affect his speech and memory. Bob’s Grandma JUST passed away in November and his Grandpa has never really been the same since. His health was in jeopardy even before his wife died, but it seems as though he’s sort of giving up his will to live now. Would you pray for his Grandpa? His name is Bob, just like my Bob. Thank you!

Our favorite pasta salad

And a couple of other super easy recipes …

We have been making our favorite pasta salad for several years now and it’s super easy and always a hit with just about everyone who tries it.

First, make your own dressing using the following:

Good Seasons Italian dressing mix, olive oil, and balsamic vinegar.

I have one of those shaker things that tells you right on the side of the jar how much of each ingredient to put it – super simple and the dressing comes out so yummy every time.

Other ingredients needed are:

One box of tri-colored rotini noodles

One whole cucumber

One box of cherry tomatoes

One block of colby/jack cheese

One stick of pepperoni

Cook the noodles and while you’re waiting for them chop up all the other items – we chop the cheese into small cubes, the pepperoni & cucumbers into small quarters and the tomatoes in half.

After the pasta is cooked drain it, then give it a bath in cold water, then drain again. Find a large bowl and toss the pasta, chopped items and dressing all together. And that’s all! Serve well chilled! Makes great leftovers for a couple days too!

Here is another simple thing we made for the 4th of July weekend – red, white and blue strawberries – SUPER delicious! Wash and dry your whole strawberries, then melt white chocolate and dip the strawberries about 2/3 of the way into it. While the chocolate is still ‘wet’ dip into blue sugar. Set on a sheet of waxed paper and allow to set. You can keep them in the fridge for a couple days. These were SO.SUPER.YUMMY.

 

 

And lastly – since you all know by now I’m a semi-homemade kinda gal – these cute and fun ice cream sandwich pops! Simply cut your ice cream sandwiches in half, stick a popsicle stick in the middle and roll the edges in fun, colorful sprinkles! Freeze until you’re ready to serve! I was hoping for red, white and blue sprinkles but couldn’t find any, so I just went with the rainbow colored ones.

America Bless God!

 

God has certainly blessed Americans, with life, liberty and freedom. So today as you celebrate and enjoy your freedom take a moment to bless God, thank Him for all that we are privileged to have in our country. Bless His glorious name!

And don’t forget to pray for our troops who fight to protect our freedoms every day!

Have a blessed 4th of July friends!!!!

Summer ‘ 11 ~ Week 2!

It’s been another fun and busy week around here! Sadly I wasn’t as good with taking pictures every day, but if you’re interested, here’s what we’ve been up to …

On Saturday the girls, my Mom and I did some yard-saling. The girl’s piano/music teacher had a HUGE yard sale and we found lots of great things there {not everything is pictured}. Then I feel like we were just all over the place that day, too much to write about but in the midst of our running around we did hit Cows & Cones, one of our fave farm, fresh ice cream places. So we checked that one off our list!

On Sunday we drove up to New Hampshire to take my oldest daughter to summer camp. She had been so super excited and confident about it until the night before we were to leave when she burst into tears crying ‘what if I miss you too much?!’ … it nearly did me in! Thankfully once we got there and got her all settled in on Sunday she saw a girl she knows from our church and hooked up with her and was happily swimming in the lake when we said goodbye {with a huge lump in my throat!}.

We spent Sunday night and Monday night up there in NH at a hotel. We figured we were making the long drive up there, we might as well stay a couple nights. We also brought Joy’s friend with us so that she would have someone to hang out with since her sis would be at camp. On Monday it was a gorgeous day and we explored some beautiful rivers, waterfalls and a short hike through the woods. Then the girls swam in the hotel pool for HOURS!

 

Tuesday we drove home. No picture – sorry! We came home and did unpacking and laundry. The minute we pulled into our driveway my youngest burst into tears saying she missed her sister! It broke my heart! At that point I was also missing my girl SO much and felt like if I didn’t hold it together I’d be in tears too!

Wednesday is our day to play with friends so we headed to a friend’s house and all the kids swam and played for hours. It’s always nice to hang with my friends and have lunch and talk. After that Joy and I went to the library, then home for dinner. That night we ‘camped’ out in our living room – we set up mattresses and watched movies we had borrowed from the library. We slept out there all night.

Thursday I decided was my day to focus all my time and attention on Joy. She’s been lonely this week and I wanted to keep her busy and also enjoy the time with just her. We headed out to our fave used book store ~~ The Book Barn, then went to Micheal’s where we got some crafty things for her and I to do together, and a bunch of stuff I needed for VBS crafts. Then we got a sweet drink at Panera and headed home for a late lunch. In the afternoon we swam in the pool and just relaxed. She LOVES it when I go IN the pool with her instead of sitting out and just watching. I forgot to take any pics this day as well! That evening when Daddy came home he took her out for a special Daddy/Daughter date to go see Cars 2 at the theater.

And that brings me to Friday – today! Joy is spending the day with Grandma and Grandpa today and I have lots of stuff to do. I’ll be cleaning my house and working on VBS stuff and craft show stuff. Sometimes it’s nice to have a quiet house to get things done!

My girl is coming home tomorrow and I simply CANNOT wait! I have missed her so much this week! The house is just way too quiet with only one kid here! I have really enjoyed the special time I’ve had with Joy this week … she’s been a wonderful companion to keep me busy and keep my mind off missing Hope. I wonder what I would do if they both went to camp, I’d be so sad and lonely!

And so that ends week two of our summer vacation. Hope you and your families are also having a great summer so far!