Flashback Friday: Addicted to Dollar Tree

Disclaimer:  I may or may not mention Dollar Tree a ridiculous number of times during this post. You've been warned.

Friday:

We were in hyper drive Friday morning, getting ready to take lunch up to Doug's office. We had friends coming for a tour. Doug knew them in missionary training before he met me.  We've been facebook friends for a while, but this was my first chance to meet them.

I discovered Kees saved all the chocolate Cheerios for last...

Then I looked over to discover Kora had eaten all the marshmallows out of her Lucky Charms.  Yep, they're opposite!

Getting ready to go!

He sure knows how to make her laugh!  We know how to have a good time.

 They both love getting all wrapped up in their towels.

At the last minute, I decided to make dessert.  I let them lick the first bowl for half a second, then changed my mind because they were clean and dressed.  Kees went to his room to cry about it, Kora used the batting eyelashes, "peas, me careful" *head nodding*

Kora's method worked.  I DID make her wear the giant smock/bib.

We saw some fake birds flying on fishing pole looking things.

After the lunch at the office, we got to hang out for awhile.  Sad I didn't get more pictures, Kora was wearing her OU cheerleader outfit, in preparation for our FIRST big game.

Saturday:

GAMEDAY!  Ugh, this was the beginning of my sickness.  Unfortunately, I needed to get groceries, so I took a hot bath, and muster some energy. Got the stuff we needed and got back in time for the beginning of the game, WORN out.  I ended up laying down, and just checking the score on my phone.  :(

Kees made a belt out of a slinky.  Can't remember what he called it exactly, but it was funny.

Sunday:

I had a rough night, not feeling well, but I didn't want to miss church because we'd been at camp the previous week.  When I woke up, I saw George peering around the corner of our closet door.  And if that wasn't creepy enough, after a snooze, I woke up with Kora 6 inches from my face, whispering/muttering/demanding, "church, you wake up now"    She then listed everyone who needed to get up, then each individual that needed to get dressed, and said 'church' a couple more times.

Church has coffee and hot chocolate mix.  I combine the two and add caramel creamer, so sugary and so good!

 Kees went right to Sunday School, and slept in my lap, as usual. He gets his Sunday nap a little earlier than most people.

After lunch, we had some new co-workers come over for tacos.  We had such a great time, can't wait to hang out again.  Then, a couple of ladies and I ran to Dollar Tree to grab a card and a few goodies for a co-worker we thought was in the hospital. Ended up going over to her house to visit and gave her some fun balloons and such.  (DOLLAR TREE!)

Monday:

And the sickness continued, on Doug's Labor Day off of work.  :(  In the whole scheme of things, I'm glad he was home, so I could sleep up and get ready for our first day of school.

I love our apartment. The setup is really nice.  After sleeping the first half of the day, I was able to sit up, and I opened my door so I could see the kids playing in their room.

I had the kids come hang out with me.

I started to make this soup (from a mix), and Doug finished it for me and brought it to me in bed.  The kids shared my crackers and looked at a book.  I was able to read to them too.

Tuesday:

Our first day of homeschool for the year.  We did shaving cream paint in the tub.

I wanted to do something special for our sensory table outside.  Which resulted in reorganizing the hall closet since I couldn't find the little bead thingies.

FOUND THEM! These things are so cool, they grow 500Xs their original size, and I got them from the Dollar Tree.

Here we are putting the tiny little beads in the table.

 Then we added water, and checked on them every hour or so.

Kora made footprints.

So, everyone was making their first day of school pictures, so I joined the bandwagon.  Unfortunately the kids hands were wet, and you can't really read the tiny signs.  Oh well, we tried.

Not sure what happened with this picture...

Making curry for dinner.  Doug went to Walmart after work, on the one night I actually had dinner ready. I ended up eating other stuff waiting on him, and then got too full.

When Doug goes to the store, he buys ice cream. When Daddy eats ice cream, Kora helps.

After my days of sickness, and a somewhat stressful first day, I NEEDED to check out Dollar Tree and revamp our sight word process.  I found cat ears and a tail for Kora, and a dinosaur hat for Kees.  FUN!

There was also a really cute dance, maybe I'll upload it to Facebook.

Wednesday:

Apparently our first day of school wore Kees out.  He slept pretty late. Which is fine by me, I did some cooking and spent time with a very cute little kitty cat.

I made Dill Crunch Cheese Ball, but never made it into a ball.  So it's just dip.

And bacon, because, yum!

Still sleeping...

He's up!

New sight word flash cards, hooray!  Kora has been enjoying school too. She sits and watches Kees, or gets her art bucket out.  The other day, she wanted to do the sight words, she did about five, with hints, then she said, "all done".

Dot a dot.

Another great thing about homeschooling, if you're hungry at calendar time, you can just grab a snack.

Felt board, and calendar stuff.

Dramatic play.

More grapes!

The kids put these chairs here, and pretended it was a waiting room. They kept "dying".  When they were dead, they would stare at the ceiling.  It was interesting to hear them explain all of this to Daddy when he got home.

I ran out of word strips and wanted to get some. Dollar Tree is 5 minutes from my house, or less, so it's a problem. The best problem in the world.  I wanted to take Kees with me as a reward for all his hard work this week.  He didn't want to go without Kora, and Kora had her feelings hurt.  Kees needed a buffer, and Kora didn't want to miss out. So, with lots of instruction, we had a lovely trip to the store, and they each got to pick one item.  Kees picked a money set, and Kora got a tea set.  They opened a business up right away.

This picture was to remind me to say, "It was so stinking cold!"  I had to wear my sweater boots and a heavy-ish jacket.

We got Doug some little Halloween figurines.  On the way home from the store, I was telling Kees that Doug could put them on his desk at work and scare people. Kees said, "Those won't scary anyone, they're really little.  They might scare kids, I guess."

 Selling tea and coffee.

Doug really should have eaten his ice cream before we got back. Both of our kids grabbed spoons to help him out.

Thursday:

I found turnovers for $.99 at the Grocery Outlet.  My parents make those for Sunday morning breakfast a lot. And I've never bought them before.  My kids loved them!

I found tongs at Dollar Tree (4 sets in the package!).  Great addition to our sensory table.

They also had test tubes at DT for Halloween.  They look like really tall communion cups.

Kora was not impressed by my pickle dip.

I have done all the sight words for the next 11 weeks! Whew!

 Kees ducky was helping.

Kees was drawing a picture of our family.  Kora was picking what color she wanted for her rabbit.  I think Kees drew it red at first, and she wanted pink, so he drew her a pink mouse.

I swear I'm not a rep for DT. but I also found this game there.  I made it a little easier since Kora played with us. We just rolled the dice and moved spaces.

Doug's grandma (on facebook!) posted a recipe for Orange Chicken in the crock pot. So I gave it a whirl.  It was equal parts BBQ sauce and orange marmalade with a splash of soy sauce. I think I'll omit the BBQ sauce in the future and just do marmalade with a little soy sauce.  I topped mine with more marmalade and crunchy baked coconut chips.

All in all, a great week, school gets easier. Kees is catching on quickly and Kora has been a lot more involved and mellow than I had expected.  Yay!

Love to all of you, have a great weekend. BOOMER!

Thankful Thursday: I Married Rainman

As I'm gathering the photos for this post, I look over, and Kees is sorting his cheerios, by color.  They're the multigrain chocolate ones, he saves the chocolate till last, so, yeah, there's that! And Kora is hugging my arm while I type, and licking my elbow.  I lead such a life of adventure!

Now, on to Doug!  Last night we were watching Sherlock, and when it was over, Doug came across this:

He then proceeded to rattle off EVERY movie title represented, and correcting the previous comments in the thread.  Seriously.... 

And who knew that Arnold Schwarzenegger was in that many movies?!  If you'd asked me, I would have told you he was basically a 1 1/2 hit wonder: the "Terminator" movies, and "Kindergarten Cop". You can decide for yourself which of those I'm calling the "1/2".

(Upon further research, for this post, I remember watching "True Lies" with my dad one weekend when my mom was out of town. And I've seen previews for "Jingle All the Way")

Now Doug is going to make me watch every Arnold movie ever made.

(And in case you're confused, Rainman is able to count all those toothpicks in a matter of seconds. They *think* he gets the number wrong,  but there were a few left in the box.  You should go watch THAT movie to fully understand the joke!)

Wordy Wednesday: The BEST Investment

While we were at bible camp, I kept thinking about how the investment we make in people is never wasted.  And then I started feeling convicted, because I often think of "people" as everyone other than my own family.  I think part of our fleshly desire to invest in everyone except for those closest to us, is wrapped up in pride. Who really notices if I'm investing in my family?

Um, God.  God notices.  And if that's not reason enough, our kids notice. They know, more than anyone if they are truly a priority in my life.  I hear (and have said) so many times how important our kids are to us, do they feel like they are?  I can get so distracted, and a whole day will pass and I'll think, "Ugh, I blew it! I missed opportunities to read with my kids, share a snack, laugh, run, sing, play a game, or just snuggle."

So my challenge to all of us chaotic parents, who do all sorts of things, is to slow down and FIRST invest in our families.  Then branch out from there, TOGETHER!

(And in random update news, today is our second day of "homeschool", and it has gone SO, SO much better than our first day.  Our first day was okay, but stressful at times. Today has been much better, I had to regroup, and get crafty, and now we are on our way! Hooray!!)

Taco Tuesday: Dill Crunch Cheeseball

Week #14: Dill Crunch Cheeseball

You Will Need:

• 1 (8 oz package) cream cheese, soften
• 1 1/2 cups cheddar cheese (grated)
• 1/2 cup dill pickles (finely chopped)
• 1/4 cup green onions (finely chopped)
• 2 tbsps mayonnaise
• 1 tbsp worcestershire sauce
• 1/2 cup pecans  (finely chopped)
• 2 tbsps parsley and/or dill (finely chopped, fresh or dried)

1. Combine first 5 ingredients, beating until smooth.
2. Cover and chill until firm, 2 hours or overnight. Shape into a ball, and roll in a mixture of nuts and parsley.
3. Serve with assorted crackers.

As you know, we were at bible camp last week.  Many of you also know, they fed us every 20 minutes or so.  I gained 5 million pounds.  And this is the recipe I HAD to find online.  If you don't like dill pickles, too bad for you, and sorry, we can't be friends.  Just kidding, Doug doesn't like dill pickles, weirdo!

Just do it, and watch some OU football while you eat it!

Manic Monday: Mommy Mayhem

Some days are harder than others.  And some parenting decisions are nearly impossible to make, especially if you're an over thinker like I am.

My latest parenting road block has been about homeschooling.  I much preferred living overseas, and KNOWING that homeschooling was absolutely the right thing to do.  Now that we are back in the states, I just keep waffling on myself.  And most of my hang up is about feeling inadequate, as a mom, a housekeeper, a teacher, a wife, a person, and on and on.

But guess what?  God chose me to be the mother to my children, and I can drown myself in the mirth and mire of this one decision, and compare myself to other people all day long.  OR I can take a minute to thank God for this opportunity, it's such a unique gift, to be able to invest in tiny people and help them discover the world.  Then step back from the flood of thoughts and emotions choking out all reason and remember that I am not alone.  What I should focus on is what I need to do today, and not get bogged down with the next 12 years of Kees's education.  And take deep breaths, and maybe a nap.

I was looking at a free online homeschool curriculum, and the mom who developed it, teaches her kids to read when they are 3-4, so when they start kindergarten, they are already reading.  And that's when I went into a tailspin!  Kees knows his letters, and the sounds they make. But he's not reading, and now I'm TWO years behind! How did this happen?!  Then the panic and urgency set in, I have to teach this child and if I mess up, I've ruined his life forever!  It's too much responsibility.

Did I mention, I was jumping off this cliff partially because I'm sick. In other words, the WORST possible time to try and evaluate yourself or make a decision.  And I ended up back where I started, I do want to homeschool, at least for Kindergarten, and see how it goes.  I have a whole list of reasons why I want to homeschool, but I won't bore you with all that.  Suffice it to say, I feel it's what's right for my family, for right now.  I think I need to sit down and just make a mission statement about what our goals are, and remind myself daily that we are working towards those goals in small and big ways.  Some days, we'll eek by, and I'll want to sit down and cry. Other days, it'll click, and we'll take long strides.  I need to be okay with both.  And most of all not let my emotions get the better of me.  That's what I try to teach my kids, how to handle their emotions, communicate them in an appropriate way, and find a plausible solution if need be.  Geeze, why is it that everything I'm teaching my kids I'm STILL learning!?  Someone tell me it gets better, even if it's not true, just tell me it gets better.

So that's it, no fun activity to do with your kids, just an encouragement to myself and all the mommies out there.  One day at a time, and if today isn't the best, you get a new one tomorrow.  And don't be afraid to apologize to your kids WHEN you mess up.  It's okay for them to know you aren't perfect, in fact, I recommend it. It's not the mistakes they'll remember, but the way you handled them and how you made them feel on a daily basis.

Deep breaths Mommas!  You got this!  (If you need a pep talk, hit me up!  I'd be happy to encourage any mom out there that needs a listening ear or a virtual pat on the back.)

Whew! And here is a blog post from a missionary dad that hits a little too close to home, but I think whether you're a missionary or not, you'll identify with this. As women, sometimes the standards we put on ourselves or PERCEIVE others are putting on us, can make us feel paralyzed.

Plus Also (in the voice of Junie B Jones), I'm still a little sick, and probably not making any sense, so at least if you read that guy's blog, you'll read something worthwhile today! :)