MENU MONDAY - 5/8/17

The only thing that changed on our last menu was that we didn't have enough leftovers for lunch and dinner on Sunday, so Silas made a bunch of Dutch babies for dinner.

NEW RECIPES FROM LAST WEEK
* Spanish quinoa - Simple and tasty, we'll definitely be having this recipe from Peas and Thank You: Simple Meatless Meals the Whole Family Will Love again.

COOKING IN ADVANCE (These are often spontaneous projects, so they'll include things we did at the last minute the previous week and/or plan on doing in the upcoming one.)
* peanut butter in the food processor and a seasoned mix black and pinto beans in the crockpot, just like we do once or twice every week

BREAKFAST
* oatmeal with a rotation of the following toppings - brown sugar, cinnamon, milk, homemade peanut butter, maple almond butter, raisins, dried cranberries, fresh or frozen fruit, huh-koe-pee milk, and/or energy mix x4
* doughnuts at church
* egg & veggie scramble
* baked oatmeal

DINNER
* leftovers (every Sunday so that we can have a day off from cooking)
* new recipe / rosemary parmesan brussels sprouts
* hot dogs / broccoli tomato salad
* garlic chicken with more garlic (crockpot) / brown rice / Greek cabbage salad
* new recipe / tomato slices / corn on the cob
* death by garlic / garlic green beans
* vegetarian black bean soup / whole wheat drop biscuits

SNACKS & DESSERTS
* fruits and vegetables
* peanuts and dry roasted almonds
* popcorn with nutritional yeast, regular salt, or seasoned salt (kernels from the WinCo bulk department that get popped in my Lodge Dutch oven, but you can see my thoughts on both the wonderful Dutch oven and the fantastic West Bend Stir Crazy in this post.)
* lemon cookies

Note: Any chicken breasts, 93/7 ground beef, applewood smoked ham, or pork tenderloins in our menus are from Zaycon Fresh. We've been making bulk purchases from them for few years and have been pleased with their products.

** This post contains affiliate links and we're grateful when people use them. ** 

CINCO DE MAYO & FAMILY FUN FRIDAY

Our community, which is predominantly Latino, has a free Cinco De Mayo celebration each year. We've lived here for six Mays, but this was our first time attending. It runs for three days and we went on the opening morning yesterday with friends from our local homeschool group.

We watched several dances performed by staff and and students from the local school district and listened to the high school mariachi band. These pictures aren't amazing, but they will give you an idea of the performances we enjoyed. The mariachi band kicked things off.

Then a group of female staff danced.

Next up were elementary students.

Then middle school students.

A mixed group of male and female staff did the next performance.

Then it was high school students.

Followed by a ukulele (I don't think that's actually the instrument, but it's similar) band composed of staff and students playing the music for another dance.

Catchy music, bright colors, and lots of smiles make for a great show! The next picture has nothing to do with the performances, but I looked down toward the end and smiled to see these two little Ws snuggled up together to keep warm.

We stayed for a while so the little Ws could fork out some of their spending budgets on the food vendors and we could all visit with friends, gave some friends a ride home, went to the library for a bit (a stop I almost forgot we had to do until the kids reminded me as we drove past), then we went home for some down time. I was getting grumpy by then and we all needed some time to just be still and quiet before tackling our evening.

We've been doing Family Fun Friday (FFF) since late February with whichever family members are around in the evening, but last night was the only Friday in a seven week stretch that all six Ws were home. Needless to say, I guarded that time and didn't let anyone commit to anything else.

Our goal on FFF is to spend at least an hour doing something fun as a family at home without spending any/much money. Given that Mexican culture was being celebrated around town, I figured it was a good night to ditch our usual popcorn snack for some goodies from Miranda's Bakery. We love that place! (No website, but they're at 1709 Mt. Hood Ave, 97071 and their bread is both inexpensive and delicious. Stop by next time you're nearby!) Everyone picked two items each (with lots of copycat Ws this time around) and we sat out in the front yard for a while to eat, chat, and laugh.

Then we went inside to eat popcorn (guess Miranda's ended up being a supplement, not a replacement snack) and watch The BFG. None of us had read the book or seen the movie and we all enjoyed the story.

I was totally wiped out by the end of the day, but it was worth it to watch our community celebrate their culture, spend time with friends, get library books, eat delicious treats, watch a good movie, and continue our new FFF habit.

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TRAMPOLINE TIME

Get Air had a great Cyber Monday deal last November, which Tim and I gave the little Ws as a group gift at Christmas. Snow and ice storms, illness, and scheduling conflicts kept them away for over four months, but they finally got to use their gift yesterday. I got them all in the same place for a quick photo about halfway through their jumping time, but neither attempt turned out well. Such is life. Spending a lot of time trying to get the perfect picture wasn't as important as them simply enjoying their time. And they did enjoy it. A lot!

They did stuff alone, in various sibling groupings, and with other people there, including a young man they later learned is paid by Get Air to do tricks in their promo videos. They were all doing various jumps and flips the whole time we were there, so I said I was willing to record two tricks per kid. My purpose was so they could show Tim later, but I'll go ahead and share them here. It's not high quality video and these weren't necessarily their best tricks, but they're the tricks the kids chose and the video quality is good enough to see what they did.

They each thanked me for our gift to them in the midst of jumping, one said it was the best Christmas present ever, they all talked about how fun it was on the way home, and the outing made it into the "best" category of "hardest and best" at bedtime. I think we chose wisely when we bought that gift!

THANKFUL THURSDAY

I'm thankful for the mix of sunny, warm days and wet, gray ones this time of year.

What's something that you're thankful for?

SOME APRIL PICTURES

I realized a few days ago that I have several pictures from last month that never made it to the blog, so here they are.

4/1 - Devon and Luke were at the same event one morning and I was going to be near Luke's house for an event later in the day, so we brought him home with us for a few hours between events. I asked for a picture and got this goofy pose.

But they finally gave me smiles.

4/4 - Teebs got a text from Papa and read the whole thing himself, with a tiny bit of help in a couple places. He was so excited!

4/7 - Half the family was helping at a church event, so I treated the rest of us to fun chips from Wheeler Dealer for Family Fun Friday ... and then Naomi reimbursed me from her giving budget so she could be the one to treat us. 

4/10 - "Devon said I look like Rambo." Of course, Devon's never seen more of Rambo than movie jackets and Teebs had never heard of him at all, but whatever.

4/12 - I love puzzles! A while back there was a conversation on Facebook about buying them at thrift stores and I said I'd never done it because I want to make sure all the pieces are included. Some people said all the pieces have always been in the box when they bought used puzzles, so I figured I'd give it a try. I forked out $1.99 for a 1000 piece puzzle that goes for $7-10 at Costco and Wheeler Dealer and over $15 on Amazon, figuring we'd get more than two bucks' worth of entertainment out of it, even if all the pieces weren't there. Aren't I such a risk taker? I got home, opened the box, and discovered the puzzle was unused with all the pieces still inside the plastic bag. Score!

Sidenote: For the puzzle lovers who may be interested, these puzzles are from Dowdle and have irregular pieces. We like the challenge of those pieces, but I know they drive some people crazy. This one is Noah's Ark Under the Sea (1000 pieces, but it also comes in 500) and the one we got for Teebs several months ago from Costco was Noah's Ark (500 pieces, but it also comes in 1000). The Amazon links give you some information, but the bargain hunter in me encourages you to wait for Costco to have them in stock around the holiday season (or super local friends to check Wheeler Dealer) because they're several dollars less than Amazon.

4/16 - A few years ago we had no money to spare and decided to cash in twenty bucks someone had given us to spend on doing something fun for a bunch of quarters, which we then hid for the kids instead of doing Easter baskets. They like the thrill of the hunt, so we decided to do a similar thing this year, but indoors. Here are the kids taking a break from sorting their quarters to smile for the camera.

4/17 - Teebs woke up vomiting in the middle of the night. Given some dietary changes we've been experimenting with for him, we were certain it was food-induced and that he wasn't actually sick. But puking nine times in four hours is still a lot when for anyone, and especially a little body. Needless to say, he was feeling pretty clingy and weepy by the time the rest of the family started waking up and I was bone-tired.

The bigs and some friends pulled through and saved the morning! (The whole day didn't need to be saved because he was feeling much better around lunch time.) Silas had Teebs crawl on his lap and showed him some cool Youtube videos while I cleaned the kitchen.

Then Devon and Naomi returned from a bike ride to the library, where they went for the sole purpose of picking up a few movies they knew Teebs would like so that he could lay low all day while being entertained.

Earlier in the morning Teebs had asked me if I could ask Facebook to link funny pictures and movies for him, so by the time Devon and Naomi returned from the library several friends had linked a bunch of funny jokes to tell and things to watch. Teebs loved being able to show the sibs some of his favorites. So much laughter from everyone!

4/19 - Piper cooked a delicious meal while Teebs did stunts all over the living room.

Meanwhile, Devon, Collin, Naomi, and Lili chowed on snacks while Devon did card tricks.

4/21 - Silas volunteered to do Naomi's hair for an annual crazy hair/hat bowling event for grade schoolers at church.

Off they go with Silas wearing the turtle hat Tim usually wears (Tim didn't make it to the event this time), Naomi sporting her funky hair, and Devon with a bowler hat, which he considered perfect because of the hat theme of the evening and the fact they all go bowling.

4/26 - The oldest and youngest Ws playing sight word bingo. (You can use this link or code BW20197051 if you're making your first Sonlight purchase and it's $50 or more to get $5 off your total.)

Then getting caught in the act while we goofed off with the chips.

Later in the day Piper came over and pulled out Wacky Wednesday, as she always does when she's at our house. I read it with the littles.

Then we gained Naomi.

Then Naomi took over reading more books once I had to get up.

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BOOKS I FINISHED - APRIL 2017

100 Days of Read Food, Fast and Fabulous: The Easy and Delicious Way to Cut Out Processed Food, written by Lisa Leake

There were several recipes from this book that I want to try. So far we've enjoyed simple roasted pork tenderloin. 

*****

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Dairy-Free Eating, written by Scott H. Sicherer and Liz Scott

We're cutting back on dairy around here, so I found some recipes in this book to try. The only one we've tried so far is maple pecan granola, which we liked, but we have more waiting.

*****


Good News for Weary Women: Escaping the Bondage of To-Do Lists, Steps, and Bad Advice, written by Elyse M. Fitzpatrick

Beep and I read this for our Skyble study and it had a lot of great stuff in it. The nutshell is that God's love for and acceptance of us has absolutely nothing to do with us obediently working our way down a checklist of cultural rules (with cultural meaning the country we live in, the church we attend, or whatever). He chose to love us. Our identity is not based on the good or bad things we've done or following man-made rules that we or others have elevated to the level of scripture. Our identity comes from acknowledging we are sinners who can never get our act completely together on our own and resting in the grace of God, who obeyed perfectly, sacrificed willingly, and loves freely. There were tons of quotes I liked from this book, but I'll try to choose a few highlights.

p. 16, Motherhood is not a woman's only calling, nor is it her highest calling, just as fatherhood is not a man's highest or only calling. The Bible never makes such a claim, and shaming women who want to work in the marketplace (or have to) is unkind, unwise, and unbiblical.

Soapbox alert - I was so, so, so grateful to read this! I could not possibly agree more. I've always been bothered by the ignorance and arrogance this belief conveys, even though I know that, at least among my friends, it comes from a sincere love for one's kid(s) and a deep desire to do the best possible job at parenting that one can do. Being a mom is a privilege and responsibility that carries so much weight and value, however motherhood is not the supreme role in life and staying at home full-time is not the indicator of holiness or successful parenting. I feel the same way about the belief that homeschooling is the best choice for educating one's kids, but that's another soapbox for another day. For now, back to quotes I like.

p. 42, We've been given everything our souls ever needed in Christ - and not because we earned it or because we're really good. It's because He is really good. That's really great news, isn't it?

p. 61, Failure to live up to human additions to God's rules always produces guilt, and guilt never produces grateful obedience. < snip > True obedience must be fueled by love, and love occurs only in hearts that have been warmed by the knowledge of God's love for lawbreakers like us.

p. 69, In addition, if we remember that God's law has already been fulfilled by Jesus Christ, who obeyed in our place and then died for all our disobedience, we will grow in our desire to love Him and live for Him - not out of obligation but out of gratitude for his mercy.

p. 114, Jesus never tells us seventeen things we need to do to be better people. He simply tells us to believe in Him.

p. 119, We do not earn God's smile by our own works after we are saved any more than we did before we were saved.

p. 132, If we don't take the good news of the gospel as the only antidote to our weaknesses, sin, and slavery to self-approval - if the grace of God doesn't flood and satiate our souls - then stupid rules about how to make ourselves better will take over.

p. 148, The cross of Christ, that bloodied wood, is the surest sign any of us will ever need. Have our sins been forgiven? Are we loved? Will He care for us? We need no more proof than to look to Golgotha and fall down in worship.

*****

Make It Mighty Ugly: Exercises & Advice For Getting Creative Even When It Ain't Pretty, written by Kim Piper Werker and illustrated by Kate Bingaman-Burt

Desiree read this and thought it may be good for me to read. It's like she knows I'm wound tightly or something. The book addresses the fears that keep us from creating, helps identify our strengths, encourages imperfection, includes interviews with various people and interesting links to check out, and has several exercises for those who want to dig a little deeper. Not life-changing, but an easy read that has me thinking about some ideas I may try.

p. 63, I can't stand it when people attribute their successes to luck - it's unfair to themselves, and it's falsely humble. At the same time, I do think it's important to acknowledge the role that privilege and happenstance play in our successes. Taking an honest look at what contributes to our successes can be just as difficult as doing the same for our failures, and it's just as important for our growing ability to handle both in stride.

*****

The One-in-a-Million Boy, written by Monica Wood

Anne Marie recommended this fictional story of a 104 year old woman, an 11 year old boy, and the people in their lives. It's a book about love and grief, family and friends, chasing dreams and taking responsibility, hearts breaking and healing. A bittersweet story that I really enjoyed.

*****

Slathbog's Gold, written by M. L. Forman

I don't like fantasy books with elves, magic, dragons, time warp stuff, and so on, but Devon does. He's enjoyed the Adventurers Wanted series and asked me to give the first book a try. I love him more than I dislike that genre, so I read all 382 pages of this book. It wasn't my favorite, which was no surprise, but there were good things about it - loyalty, honor, friendship, and bravery.

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MENU MONDAY - 5/1/17

My goal last week was to delegate way more cooking responsibilities and it went really well. I don't know how we got out of the habit of cooking being a team effort, but we're getting back to it now.

NEW RECIPES FROM LAST WEEK
* maple pecan granola - I don't think I'd ever used sesame seeds in granola before.
* Johnny Marzzetti with ground venison - We tried this casserole as a way to use up some of the venison in our freezer.

COOKING IN ADVANCE (These are often spontaneous projects, so they'll include things we did at the last minute the previous week and/or plan on doing in the upcoming one.)
* peanut butter in the food processor and a seasoned mix black and pinto beans in the crockpot, just like we do once or twice every week
* doubled the Johnny Marzzetti sauce and froze half
* chopped several onions in the food processor and froze them
* triple the creamy white bean chicken chili and freeze half

BREAKFAST
* oatmeal with a rotation of the following toppings - brown sugar, cinnamon, milk, homemade peanut butter, maple almond butter, raisins, dried cranberries, fresh or frozen fruit, huh-koe-pee milk, and/or energy mix x4
* doughnuts at church
* egg & veggie scramble
* almond coconut granola with milk or Greek yogurt

DINNER
* leftovers (every Sunday so that we can have a day off from cooking)
* Mexican chicken (crockpot) / new recipe / roasted asparagus
* crockpot beans / brown rice
* creamy white bean chicken chili / Basque salad
* spinach quiche / garlic quinoa with parmesan
* buffalo slaw / brown rice
* chicken pot pie / apple cranberry green salad (for a potluck)

SNACKS & DESSERTS
* fruits and vegetables
* peanuts and dry roasted almonds
* popcorn with nutritional yeast, regular salt, or seasoned salt (kernels from the WinCo bulk department that get popped in my Lodge Dutch oven, but you can see my thoughts on both the wonderful Dutch oven and the fantastic West Bend Stir Crazy in this post.)
* honey & spice cookies

Note: Any chicken breasts, 93/7 ground beef, applewood smoked ham, or pork tenderloins in our menus are from Zaycon Fresh. We've been making bulk purchases from them for few years and have been pleased with their products.

** This post contains affiliate links and we're grateful when people use them. **