Schools out

With school being out I really thought that I would have more time and not so rushed in the mornings. HA! Who was I kidding. I still had to get the kids ready, breakfast fed and take them to daycare before heading to work! Needless to say I was 10 minutes late to work this morning.

The daycare is really a teacher from Lady Bug's school that is watching my kids in her home for June & July. August isn't covered yet. The teacher has 2 girls so my boys were concerned this morning about being "bored" with all the girls. So they took some balls and games to play together, my hope is that they will all be able to play together. I know Lorie is planning to do some crafts and walk to the park and things like that also. If we can survive the next 7 weeks we will be ok!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Our weekend here was full of rain, rain and thunderstorms and flooding and more rain. I am ready for the sunshine again.

Because of the weather we were pretty lazy and didn't do much! Weekends like that are so fun!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I have been working on some crafty things that I hope to be able to post about soon.

Friday Recipe - Smokey Bacon Wraps

I got this recipe from here. These are always such a huge hit whenever I make them. I take them to parties, and serve them at my house often too! People are always asking for the recipe. They are SUPER easy to make!

Smokey Bacon Wraps
INGREDIENTS:
1 lb sliced bacon
1 package(16oz) miniature sausage links
1 cup brown sugar

Cut each bacon strip in thirds. Wrap one piece of bacon around each sausage. Place in a foil-lined 15 in x 10 in x 1 in baking pan. Sprinkle with brown sugar. Bake, uncovered at 400 for 30-40 minutes or until bacon is crisp and sausage is heated through.

Summer Activity Book

We don't homeschool our children (and boy do I wish we did somedays... but that is a post for another day!), so maybe this is mean or maybe it isn't I don't know, but I want my kids to keep learning all summer long. So every year at the end of school I put together some pages for the kids to work on throughout the summer. This is different than the activity book we use for road trips. This is a collection of worksheets of things they learned already in school and a touch of things they will be learning next year.

I put things in this notebook like mazes, color by number math sheets, crossword puzzles, word finds, etc. I like to use these sites for printables.

TLSBooks.com

Education.com

SuperTeacherWorksheets.com

edhelper.com

The kids have all summer break to work on the sheets and most years I have found they complete them and ask for more sheets. We also journal our summer vacation and we do Reading Bingo for summer too.

My kids really enjoy the notebooks and always show it to their teacher when school starts back up. We often times will all sit down together and I help them journal their events. This book often goes with us places when we might need to fill some "down-time". It works great. The boys will sometimes pull a few pages out to work on while in a restaurant.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Lately we have had some issues with fighting over the computer with conversations like:

Kid 1: "But mom, he got to be on it for an hour this morning and I haven't had a turn all day."
Kid 2: "I didn't get it a whole hour, only a little bit because we had to go to the store."

OR

Kid 1: "Can I use the computer now and then again after we eat?"
Kid 2: "If HE uses it now AND after dinner then when do I get to use it?"

With 3 kids those conversations usually end with one of them saying "Then when do I get to use the computer? You never let me have a turn."

So, we decided for the summer (and maybe even beyond) that the kids have to earn tickets in order to be able to use the computer. We actually had a roll of tickets from some event we participated in and somehow managed to bring home the whole roll of tickets. We came up with a list of things they can do to earn 1 ticket, 2 tickets and 5 tickets. Each ticket earns them 10 minutes of computer time.

When Mr. Man and I were coming up with the list, we made two lists, one for the boys and one for Lady Bug since she is younger.

Items on the list for 1 ticket:
BOYS
* Dust and vacuum bedroom
* Complete 2 worksheets out of the summer workbook
* Read to Lady Bug for 10 minutes
* Write in your journal for 10 minutes
* Practice guitar/piano for 20 extra minutes
LADY BUG
* Dust and vacuum bedroom
* Work on reading for 10 minutes
* Write or draw in your journal for 10 minutes
* Help sort & fold socks

Items on the list for 2 tickets:
BOYS
* Dust and vacuum one room the house (other than your bedroom)
* Memorize 2 Bible verses
* Memorize 5 state capitals
* Help with yard work
LADY BUG
* Feed & water dog
* Memorize 2 Bible verses
* Clean the trash out of mom or dad's car
* Help clean the bathrooms

Items on the list for 5 tickets:
BOYS
* Read a chapter book then write a 1-page summary of the book
* Complete your Reading Bingo
* Write out 1 entire chapter from 1 John
* Complete and pass the state capital test
* Memorize the books of the Bible
LADY BUG
* Complete Reading Bingo
* Memorize the books of the Bible
* Write out one story from your kids Bible

There are also ways they can lose tickets, such as back-talking or arguing when asked to do something (2 issues in our house right now).

We talked to them about how they can save up their tickets and "cash" them in in one hunk or use them as they get them. It is totally up to them.

Summer has just started so who knows where this will go.

UPDATED - Take a Tour of My Home - Lady Bug's room

As promised, here are some pictures of Lady Bug's rearranged room, but first you might need to click here to visit the first "Home Tour" pictures of her room.

Over Memorial Day weekend my goal was really deep clean my house, but knew for sure I wanted to move the furniture in the kids' rooms to vacuum under it. While I was doing that realized since it was being moved, why not re-arrange it? So I did. (Click here to see how I re-arranged Lefty's room)

Moving on to what the room looks like after I re-arranged furniture in there.

Picture taken from the doorway looking towards her window (Just remember I am a terrible photographer, but I took one picture with her curtains closed and another with them open - couldn't decide which one looked better because frankly I didn't like either one...). You can see that I moved her bed so it isn't up against the wall and then moved her dresser/armoire under the window:

This is taken from over by her window looking towards the door:

This is taken from the closet looking towards the built-in corner shelves. You can see that I moved the bookcase from where it was by the door (which is where the kitchen set is sitting now) and put the bookcase at the end of her bed (it is sitting where her dresser/armoire was before):

This is taken from in front of the corner shelves looking towards the closet. That little kitchen set used to be tucked under the corner shelves. I tried to get Lady Bug to let me sell it at the garage we are having soon but she refused. Her room is so small that all that stuff in there makes it feel more cramped. But I like the kitchen set where I have it now. It fits nicely and allows her to play with it easier.

I think overall I am very pleased with how the room came out! She really likes it too, but the first night she rolled out of bed. She told me the next morning how she is so used to having a wall there that she just rolled right out of bed "But mom, I laughed and didn't cry about it!"

Meal Plan for June 5 - 11

SATURDAY:
Breakfast - Biscuits / sausage / fruit
Lunch - Homemade pizza
Dinner - Red beans & Rice / cajun pork chops / corn

SUNDAY:
Breakfast - Cereal
Lunch - Tuna Noodle Casserole / peas
Dinner - Lasagna Roll ups

MONDAY:
Breakfast - Cinnamon toast
Lunch - Turkey wrap / chips/ fruit / homemade granola bar
Dinner - Pancakes / Bacon / Fruit

TUESDAY:
Breakfast - Cereal
Lunch - Burritos / fruit / carrot sticks
Dinner - Spaghetti / salad / rolls

WEDNESDAY:
Breakfast - Cereal
Lunch - Pita pocket sandwich / chips / fruit / jello cup
Dinner - Tator Tot Casserole with green beans / applesauce

THURSDAY:
Breakfast - Raisin bread french toast /bacon
Lunch - Parmesan noodles / carrot stick s/ fruit / cookie
Dinner - Burritos / Rice

FRIDAY:
Breakfast - Cereal
Lunch - Pizza rolls / fruit / pudding cup / cucumber slices
Dinner - Mac-n-cheese / peas

Friday Recipe - Cheddar Baked Chicken

Often requested in my home!

Cheddar Baked Chicken
INGREDIENTS:
1/4 c butter, melted
1/2 c flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp garlic powder
1 egg
1 Tbls milk
1 c shredded cheddar cheese
1/2 c Italian seasoned bread crumbs
1 c crispy rice cereal
3 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves, cut in half again
2 Tbls butter, melted

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place a medium baking dish in the oven while it preheats with butter (this will melt the butter while the oven preheats). Coat dish with melted butter.

In a bowl, mix flour, salt, pepper, and garlic powder. In a separate bowl, beat together egg and milk. In a third bowl, mix cheese, bread crumbs and cereal. Dredge chicken pieces in the flour mixture, dip in egg mixture and then press in the breadcrumbs to coat. Arrange in the prepared baking dish. Drizzle 2 Tbls of melted butter evenly over chicken. Bake 35 minutes in the preheated oven or until coating is golden brown and chicken juices run clear.

UPDATED - Take a tour of my house - Lefty's Room

Last year I took you on a tour of my home, click here to look at Lefty's room last year.

This past weekend I spent the whole weekend deep cleaning my house and I re-arranged furniture in both Lefty and Lady Bug's rooms. It started out because I needed to move stuff and really vacuum and clean under/behind things. I decided their rooms could use a new look as long as I was moving stuff to vacuum under it.

Next week I will show you pictures of the updated Lady Bug's room.

Lefty's room tends to be the hottest room in the summer (and I don't really understand why) but by moving his bed under the window I am hoping to be able to pull in more cool air with the attic fan. We had a couple hot nights this weekend and so far this theory seems to be working.

Here is how it looks today (taken from the doorway):

Here is a view looking towards the closet (in the "before" pictures this is taken from where his bed was and now his desk is there):

These are taken from the closet looking towards the desk/bookcase/doorway (in the "before" pictures this is where his bed and bookcase were):