Tackle It Tuesday… May 13, 2008

It’s Tuesday and I’m grabbing it by the broom handle! Spring hasn’t really completely sprung here yet. I’m ready to be able to pack up the winter clothes and pull out the summer clothes, but the weather just is *not* cooperating! It’s only 56 degrees here today and breezy - which makes it a bit sweatshirt-y out there! Something I’d like to pack away, but when you want a sweatshirt EVERY day and are still wearing jeans it’s a bit hard to put those things into storage. Let’s talk about this global warming thing again, eh? I think maybe I’m going to start leaving my lights on all the time and maybe running empty appliances for a while. Maybe that will warm things up around here?

Anyway, I’ve decided that I’m going to tackle Tuesday anyway. And I’m going to use “Life Skills” as a reason to make the kids help and incorporate it all into schoolwork for the day (they are done with their curriculum, just trying to fill these last few days with “legitimate” activities). So, we’re packing away things like winter jackets and snow boots (because if we end up needing snowboots again, I *will* most certainly need some serious Starbucks therapy). We’re going to clean the living room, dining room, office, kitchen and bathroom today. That will take care of the entire downstairs.

And I’m going to make those kids of mine WORK! And work hard. My theory - and mind you it’s only a theory - is that if they WORK hard to get things clean, then maybe they’ll actually want to *keep* it clean for more than 20 seconds? They’ll be singing that “Cinderelly” song by the time I’m done with them and wishing for a far off prince to wisk them away (or a princess for the boys).

So, what are your plans for the day?

Menu Plan Monday… May 5, 2008

I need to go grocery shopping. In an if-I-don’t-we’ll-all-certainly-starve kind of way! Right now I have stuff for turkey stroganoff. And some apples. And maybe some boxes of macaroni and cheese. We don’t even have any bread - or bread products. Very disheartening to our carb-loving family! And the scariest part? We might not even have time to hit the grocery store today! We’re leaving early this morning for Springfield because we have a birthday to celebrate (Seth turned 3 last Friday but we were busy and Chip’s parents couldn’t join us). We’ll do Starbucks, Build-a-Bear, Dicks Sporting Goods (Kait needs a new ball glove), Toys R Us, and Chuck E Cheese and still somehow make it back for Kait to be at softball at 4pm and then Noah has tball at 5:30pm. But we still have to eat, so we’ll find time in there somewhere to go to the Kroger.

Monday - Turkey Stroganoff

Tuesday - Grilled chicken legs with

Wednesday - Hamburgers and homemade ovenbaked fries

Thursday - Spaghetti with garlic bread and salad

Friday - Homemade pizza

Saturday - Three Cheese Baked Pasta (this is our friend Karen’s recipe - I’m hoping it’s half as big a hit with our family as it is with hers).

1 lb uncooked pasta (I use mostaccioli)
1 lb ground beef
1 onion chopped
6oz mozzarella cheese
6 1/2 cups tomato pasta sauce (Use your favorite spaghetti sauce)
6oz provolone cheese thinly sliced
1 1/2 cups sour cream
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheesePreheat oven 350 degrees. Brown ground beef and onion in skillet over medium heat. Drain meat. Stir in Pasta sauce. Reduce heat and simmer 15 minutes. Cook pasta in boiling water until al dente, then drain. Lightly grease 9×13 inch pan/baking dish. Layer ingredients as follows: Half of the cooked pasta, all of the provolone cheese (layer evenly), all of the sour cream (spread an even layer), half the sauce, remaining pasta, mozzarella cheese and remaining sauce. Top with grated parmesan cheese. Bake in oven 30 minutes.Sunday - CORN (Clean Out Fridge Night) because this momma isn’t cooking on Mother’s Day!

S - CORN (Clean Out Refrigerator Night)

Sunday bulletin… May 4, 2008

• I’ve gone without coffee first thing in the morning for the past two mornings. We ran out and had no time to get to the store.
• I’d rather *not* drink coffee than drink Folgers.
• It’s my fault we ran out of coffee.
• We *will* be stopping by Starbucks in the morning on our way to Springfield. I cannot face Build-a-Bear and especially not Chuck E Cheese without coffee.
• I’ve been popping Excederin the past two days merely for the caffiene kick.
• I bought a Veg-o-Matic today. We’ll be having oven-baked fries a lot more often now.
• We had a successful sale at the church but still only raised half of what we needed. I’m sooo glad that’s done for another year!
• I think someone should make “I twitter therefore I am” tshirts.
• Twitter makes the world significantly smaller - even moreso than blogging.
• Our weekends are full through the middle of OCTOBER! That’s right - booked for the next 5.5 months!
• Mother’s day is next weekend.
• I put that bulletin in there hoping that maybe I’ll actually remember to send my mom a card this year.
• My mom shouldn’t hold her breath! But I think she knows that (or at least she does now! Hi Mom!)
• I things cards are fun - but I’d rather someone just give me the $4 they’d spend on a card so I could go to Starbucks.
• We’re doing a study on a Gordon Fee book on Sunday nights. When you throw around words like exegesis, hermeneutics and eschatology, it makes me remember how much I hated going to classes in college. *Loved* the college experience. *Hated* the classes with too many big words!
• I had couscous for dinner tonight. I love couscous.
• Kait is going to be mad that I ate it without her! Sorry, Kaitlyn!
• I don’t have to babysit this week. Which means I won’t have to change any diapers this week! YAY!
• I had a great nap today and feel like I caught up on some much needed sleep.
• I’m still looking for inspiration for new meals for my menu - all recommendations need to be tried and true recipes though.

I’m blogging… May 3, 2008

I really don’t have much to say today. A bunch of scattered thoughts and I’m too tired to even be able to discern which should make the blog. I’ll be back tomorrow. It’s been a CRAZY weekend. I’ve decided that it’s definitely Chip and the kids who keep me sane when things get hectic. And sometimes just walking away from what I should be doing and playing with the kids for a few minutes can make all the difference in the world. Unfortunately, that also means that I’ve procrastinated more than I should tonight, so I’m STILL not ready for church tomorrow. I’ll have a rather jam packed bulletin tomorrow.

Happy 3rd birthday, S-man! May 2, 2008

Today, Seth turns THREE!!! Can you believe it? Most of y’all have watched him grow up from a bitty baby by following my blog. I’ve been blogging longer than he’s been alive. Finding pictures of him for this post was easy because he’s always bringing me a camera and asking to have his picture taken. We’ve celebrated and celebrated today. Right now, he’s celebrating in true 3 year old boy style by ripping up the box his gift came in and throwing it all over my living room. But he’s the birthday boy and he’s only going to be this age, right now, once. I’m content to let him be.

I had to be up early this morning. I came home from the church at about 8:50 and was planning to get him dressed to bring him over with me. He was already dressed and Kait was helping him put on his shoes. He dressed himself - completely with backwards dress pants and his favorite Thomas the Tank Engine tshirt. I just let it go. It’s his birthday. We walked into the church, where the church rummage sale was in full swing. He walked in the door and the place ERUPTED in cheers of Happy Birthday and the Birthday Song. It was all a bit overwhelming for him and he hid behind me until it was done.

We spent most of the day hanging out at the church. When we were done, we loaded up in the van to go buy his birthday cake - angel food cake and fresh strawberries. We made a quick stop on the way home for some strawberry plants at Buxtons and a short visit with Sam - the garden farm dog. We came home then and cut up the strawberries and put them in the fridge and then he got his birthday present - a little people alphabet zoo - from us.

What came next was a big moment in Seth’s life. He threw away his beloved “gi” (hard g, long eee sound). His paci has been more than just a comfort item. It’s been a friend to him. And today, he took the brave steps towards growing up and threw it in the trash. There were no tears, but he did need a big hug and a lot of reassurance that this really was part of the growing up process.

And to celebrate all of his growing-up-ness, we did birthday dinner at McDonalds. All day long he said he wanted to a hamburger for dinner, but when it came down to it he ended up with chicken nuggets. After that, we drove THREW a storm front (it was really cool to come out on the back side of it) for a trip to Target. We bought him a new pair of Cars “flip flops” (really sandals but he insists they are flip flops) before coming home to play with his new toy and watch Alvin and the Chipmunks (I was pleasantly surprised with since even Chip and I found it rather entertaining).

Monday, we’ll celebrate in normal Sanders’ fashion - Build-a-Bear and Chuck E. Cheese. It was very important to Seth that PawPaw and Gamma (Chip’s parents) come with us - so we’re postponing it just a few days. I’m looking forward to another whole day of listening to him sing happy birthday to himself!

Happy birthday, Big Man! You bring more joy into our home than you’ll ever know!

April 2007 - helping clean up the floor after we pulled up the carpet…

May 2007 - Ready for swimming in the big pool…

June 2007 - Summer days just make him tired…

August 2007 - He held his new cousin Wesley more than anyone! Now Wesley is so big I think he’d have to hold Seth…

September 2007 - Not EVERYONE was happy on the first day of school. Seth was *not* happy that his “bo-bo brother” (Noah) had to do schoolwork instead of playing with him…

October 2007 - Seth is the ONLY one I got a picture of this month. He absolutely INSISTS quite often that I take his picture. This one because he got a new shirt…

November 2007 - This is one of my favorite pictures of Seth and Noah. They really are more than just brothers - they are also best friends…

December 2007 - decorating the Christmas tree…

January 2008 - Seth developed his own cooking show that we all watched daily for most of the month of January. It was a long, cold winter…

February 2008 - We potty trained Seth at his direction. The book on his head is called The Potty Train…

March 2008 - Seth STILL loves his cheese fries…

April 2008 - Noah took this picture of Seth while we were at the chiropractor…

May 2nd, 2008 - by the time I took this picture, Seth was DONE with birthday pictures…

Tackling Tuesday… April 29, 2008

There are two days left in April - if you count today - and I’m FREEZING! It’s 45 degrees outside. I thought we left Minnesota 10 years ago??? My body does not like to work when it’s this cold outside! I want to stay in, curled up under blankets and drinking coffee!

But, I don’t have time for that. My days are filling quickly. Thankfully Tuesdays are one of only two days a week that we don’t have to be on the ballfield. I’m currently at home and finishing up giving baths to the littlest two. Kait is taking my place at the church this morning and helping set stuff up for the rummage sale. She’s loving it and loving the attention of all the wonderful grandmas and grandpas over there. I’m sure they’re loading her up with cookies and snacks and I’ll be the one to pay for it later, but at least my sneez-y allergies aren’t bothering me this morning.

Elijah and I have to sit down and figure out the best week for him to go to camp. I’ve got loads of design stuff to do for the church. I need to refigure the signage for the rummage sale this weekend, start working on baccalaureate, tweak some other signage and sermon graphics and CALL MY GRAM because her birthday was 2 days ago and I still haven’t talked to her!

OH! And my new books have finally arrived. What I really want to do is sit down, snuggle in and start to digest Pop Goes The Church by Tim Stevens. Or I Became A Christian And All I Got Was This Lousy TShirt by Vince Antonucci (although this one has already made it’s way to Chip’s office so it may be a while before I see it again).

OH! And everything I have to do today must be done before dinner. Because after dinner, we have to go find a pair of cleats that fit Elijah’s ever-growing feet! Which are now as big as mine!!!! And I should probably sort through the assortment of cleats in the closet to see if we have any for Kait and Noah. I don’t want to go cleat shopping more than once!

All that before I come home tonight to blog about American Idol. At least *that* I can do from the comforts of my snuggly blanket!

Menu Plan Monday… April 28, 2008

I’m really, really struggling with a menu this week. I want fast, simple, so-easy-my-kids-can-make-it meals. I should have thought ahead. I should have frozen something for this week. I should have, would have, could have if I had actually looked at my calendar for this week in particular. Things are crazy busy and I’m going to be crazy tired by the ends of the day. But I’m pretty sure Chip and the kids are going to want to eat, so I’ll come up with a menu of sorts.

Monday - Frozen Pizza

Tuesday - Chicken & Couscous

Wednesday - Spaghetti

Thursday - Enchiladas (because I never made them last week)

Friday - Grilled Chicken Legs (because I can make Chip cook them if they are on the grill)

Saturday - Turkey Stroganoff

Sunday - Leftovers

Sunday bulletin… April 27, 2008

• Chip preached his face off this morning. GREAT sermon on a touchy subject. It’s great to see him really preach when he’s passionate about it.
• My kids are getting too big. It’s that time of year where we go through stuff and redo the dressers. They’ve outgrown so much in the past 6 months.
• It’s birthday week in our house. Elijah’s was last Saturday and Seth’s is on Friday.
• I have a migraine. Again. And it sucks!
• Chip and I compared calendars and we are busy every weekend from now until the middle of June and that doesn’t count baseball/softball/tball schedules. That will just make things even crazier.
• My desktop computer is starting to die. I really need to get everyone off that we need and restore it. We’ve had it for 4 years and have never had to do a total restore so I guess it’s about time. We’ve been fortunate.
• Looking forward to the new Indiana Jones movie coming out in May.
• I’m completely addicted to Twitter. Y’all should go join and follow me.
• I need some inspiration for my menu for this next week. Anyone have any suggestions?

Happy 11th birthday, Elijah!!! April 26, 2008

My oldest turns 11 today!  ELEVEN!!!  I can hardly believe it!  He’s grown up so much in the past couple year. He turned FIVE about five months after we moved into this house. He’s a great big brother - always helping to take care of his little brothers and sister. He takes his job as the oldest very seriously.  He makes me proud! 

Happy 11th birthday, Elijah!

Celebrating his birthday at his restaurant of choice - Pizza Hut…

On his 10th birthday - April 2007…

Elijah with the HAL ball (hustle, ability, leadership) - May 2007…

Fun with mud - June 2007…

The HAL ball for the second time - only one other kid on the team got it more than once - July 2007…

Meeting his cousin Wesley for the first time - August 2007…

Starting 4th grade - September 2007…

Didn’t take pictures in October, here’s why - October 2007…

His first facial at his sister’s spa party, oh the things he’ll do for his sister - November 2007…

Celebrating Christmas - December 2007…

On the moving truck when we helped pack up cousin Taet to move to Wyoming - January 2008…

We got A LOT of snow this year - February 2008…

Easter legos - March 2008…

My great protector/mouse hunter - April 2008…

Happy, happy birthday Elijah!

Blah, blah, blah… April 25, 2008

With this post, I’m officially 1/4 of the way through my 100 days of blogging and I feel like I’ve got nothing to say today. I’m tired. It was a L-O-N-G day. A long, blustery day. I got about 75% of what I wanted to get done, done. I should work on folding laundry, but my back is killing me. Probably from doing laundry earlier.

And apparently it was a hard day for Seth too because he just crawled up into Chip’s lap a few minutes ago and he’s already snoring. We’ll wait until this Bee Movie is over and then put the kids in bed. Here’s some pictures of what he was up to today…

He pretended to mow and they got to help clean up afterward…

Using his little weeder to whack the weeds…

Sweeping up after all was done…

Playing soccer with his brother….