Thursday Thirteen: The Positive Side

So last week I was a bit of a sour puss when it came time to write my T13. I was having a bad week. I promised a more positive spin on the end of school.

So here are 13 things I am looking forward to this summer

13. Sleeping in
12. Leisurely breakfast that can be more varied than during the school year
11. Swimming in the Grand Rapids city pools
10. Library programs on Thursday nights
9. VBS (the music is rockin' for this year...Crocodile Rock)
8. Watching how much the boys mature this summer (I wonder if it's possible to beat last summer)
7. Trips to the beach
6. Playing in the sprinkler
5. Wearing sandals instead of socks and shoes
4. Freedom to take off for a day trip (if I can scrounge up the funds)
3. Did I mention sleeping in?
2. 4th of July birthday bash
1. More time playing with my boys

Oh SOOOO ready for summer.

Have a great Thursday!

Making Life Better Review: A Great Website Resource

We have an odd meal time arrangement in our home. Since I work teaching piano in the evenings, my husband is in charge of meals several night s a week. Most of the time, it consists of hot dogs with mac n cheese, froze chicken nuggets with fries, or frozen pasta with sauce.

Steve often nags me about getting other things for him to make for the kids . When I ask him what he wants me to get, the standard answer is , "I don't know", which make sit hard to come up with other things. I could be making much more use of the crock pot if I could get the boys to eat the fruits of my labor.

On the the other nights when I AM home, our standards usually run around, spaghetti and meatballs (or chicken patties), meatloaf (which the kids are still balking at), tacos (or other variations on them), or a chicken and rice dish of some sort.

When I was contacted by Mom Central to see if I would be interested in reviewing some other meal options, I jumped at the chance. We received LOTS of goodies, as well as a family fun book with cooking ideas.

We have tried several:
I have been making meatloaf for awhile now, but I keep changing recipes to find the one we like the best. the book suggested Pizza Meatloaf, using the new Ragu Pasta Sauce and Lipton Onion Soup mix. It was even better since it was topped with more pasta sauce and mozzarella cheese. Yummy!

Also in the kit, we received a jar of Bertolli Alfredo sauce and spaghetti. I used the sauce with corkscrew pasta and chicken breasts and even the picky little boys ate it up.

I still have a bunch more I want to try. If you are curious about these or some other recipes to try that are easy and healthy, check out the website Making Life Better.com. The site has more than just recipes. It has beauty and health tips as well. There is even a You Tube video showing demonstrations of recipe preparations.

I have bookmarked the site, and I encourage you to do so as well.
Have a great Wednesday!


This review is sponsored by Mom Central

The Love Dare and How I Am Changing It

Have you seen the movie Fireproof? If you have, you will totally understand this post. If you haven't, follow along and hopefully your curiosity will be peaked.

As I've said before, the acting in this movie is so "after school special", even if it does have Kirk Cameron (remember Growing Pains?). After you get past the bad acting, you start getting sucked in. The premise of the movie is a husband and wife on the verge of divorce. The man's father gives him a book called "The Love Dare", which is a book of 40 days of showing love to the other person, based on scripture. Steve and I watched it together a few weeks ago, and it is still on my mind.

Over at Write from Karen, she is sponsoring her own Love Dare Challenge. I was intrigued from the minute she posted last week that she was going to do this.

As I started thinking on Sunday night about doing this with Steve (without his knowledge), I was thinking over our current life situation. It led me straight to I Corinthians 13. You all know it, the "love" passage. But as I was contemplating the start of this challenge, I realized that having PATIENCE with my husband is not a challenge for me, but having patience with my boys is a struggle minute by minute.

So I will not be able to enter her contests since I have skewed this, but I am concentrating in earnest to use this passage in my parenting.

Guess what happened yesterday?

1. When Noah started his daily little fit about getting dressed, I repeated "love is patient" in my head, and I DIDN'T get mad. I said what I had to say, and walked away.

2. When Aaron was fiddling with his shoes for fifteen minutes when it was time to go outside, I usually would have lost it with him. Instead, I repeated again "love is patient" and headed outside by myself. He followed shortly after.

There were SO MANY instances yesterday of this kind of challenges and changes.

For most moms, this would be common sense...be nice and patient with your kids. But for me, I struggle daily, hourly, and every minute with how I interact with my children. It's not that I don't love them. I love them with all of my heart. But I am an impulsive person who has a tendency to react first and think later. If I even have hopes of helping my sons learn to think before they act, then it is up to me to model the behavior.

Today the challenge is "Love is patient, love is KIND". In addition to PATIENCE, I will find ways to be KIND to those special three men in my life.

So I will continue to visit Karen each day as she posts each day's challenge. But I will also continue to practice it on my hubby AND my children.

Have a great Tuesday.

Weekend Top Five 5/18/09

Pretty good weekend. I am finding myself more and more scatter brained and short tempered than I was. I think it is time to break down and get to the doctor. Now I just have to figure out when I can do so without kiddies tagging along...yuck!

Here are my top five for the weekend:


5. Student Recital
I have a much smaller piano student load than I used to, thanks to Michigan's wonderful economy. But I still had enough to hold my annual recital on Saturday. Unfortunately, three of my students never made it, but it was still a pretty nice little event. My wonderful hubby, Steve, was gracious enough to play "hostess" for me, greeting people as they came in and setting out the snacks for the reception afterward while the recital was going on.



4. Beginning of a big tackle
It is going to take awhile before I can present a finished product on this one. During the reception after my recital, I started to talking to quite a few parents who are interested in morning lessons in my home this summer, so I have A LOT of work to do get my entry way and basement presentable for the public. I got restless when we got home from church and searched my basement for left over paint. I found some and went to work, only to discover that it had solidified on the bottom after I have gotten half of one wall done. So now I will have to go purchase more to finish it off and redo the sections I already did.

Noah was VERY sad that I didn't let him help paint. I guess I have to figure out a way for him to help me when I start up again. I only have three weeks to get this done.

BTW: If you want to help me be able to get new paint for my yucky house, PLEASE go to this site and vote for me as the stinkiest room contest. When you vote for me, you can be entered into a drawing for free paint for yourself.

3. Sunday Church: 3 out of 4 parts
Since Steve was gone singing all afternoon, evening and into the wee hours of Sunday morning, he was very tired and wasn't in any shape to go to church Sunday morning. So I packed the boys up and headed out to double duty alone.

The first service we were scheduled to sing but there weren't enough ladies so I ended up singing soprano (I am normally an alto). For the second service, I resumed my alto part for the anthem, and then since a certain unnamed tenor (STEVE) wasn't in church, the tenors needed help and the directors asked me to step in as a tenor. Very strange singing that low but it was definitely a good move...I didn't realize how lost they are when Steve isn't there to guide them. It was the first time ever that I sang three different parts in one Sunday...and it was kind of fun.





2. Sunday Afternoon Frequent Plan Changes
What started out as a trip to the little church carnival by our house, changed into a trip to the zoo.

Kind of strange, but so are we.

After taking a quick walk through, we realized that there was no way we were going to pay the kind of money they wanted to ride these rides so we settled on letting the boys play a few games and then headed over to the park. After about ten minutes, we realized we needed to extend our outside activities for the afternoon, and asked the boys if they wanted to head to the zoo.





The zoo membership we got for Christmas has paid for itself tenfold by now, and it was fun to sit above and watch the monkey in the new exhibit that opened this weekend.

Of course, the boys' favorite part...when the monkeys peed from the high ropes. It was easily the highlight of the day for little boys ages six and four.












1. A Man And A Saw
After getting home from the zoo, it was still beautiful outside so we started playing in the backyard. I, for one, am unable to sit in the backyard without wanting to perform yard work. It is by far my favorite chore and I have been so frustrated that I can't afford to get what we need this spring, so I have been doing my best making any improvements that I can.

One of the things that has bothered me since we moved the little cherry to the backyard is this big useless tree that hangs over everything. Each year it bugs me, but now that I have put down some new grass seed and planted a new tree, I REALLY want it gone.

After attempting to cut back the branches with neighbor's clippers, Steve broke out the saw and started slicing. I was so excited to see how much he got rid of. After asking him to put the wheelbarrow and fire pit in the garage, the backyard looks much better.

Now if I can just find the stupid dog that keeps slipping into our backyard and pooping in the same place over and over again, I would be happy. It's making me really angry.

The Week Ahead:
Noah's last full week of school, two baseball games, figuring out a time for Noah to celebrate his July birthday in school, and the biggie, getting a doctor appointment for me. I will also be doing some research on the best way to get a handrail installed on our stairs leading to the basement, and it would be good for us to find Steve's phone which he lost on Saturday and has been panicked about ever since.

Let me know below of you posted about your weekend.
Have a great Monday.

Thursday Thirteen: UUGGGHHHHHH!!!!!

I take the risk of sounding EXTREMELY negative as I write this post, but I am feeling very frustrated with a certain first grader at the moment, so without further ado, 13 things I will NOT miss when school gets out




13. Forcing a PB&J sandwich down Noah's throat every morning
12. Ditto for apples on the way to school
11. Explaining why it is not possible to wear PJ's to school every day and then battling over getting dressed every morning
10. Worrying about whether the lion, tiger, or bear got taken out as discipline each day
9. Checking the backpack for which foods didn't get eaten for lunch, and which ones have now gone bad and can't be put back into the lunch box for the next day
8. Homework
7. Making Noah redo all the work that comes home marked "too sloppy" and sending it back to school the next day
6. Fighting with Aaron each morning to leave the school after we drop Noah off (he wants to sit at the fish tank and talk with his 7th grade "friends")
5. Keeping track of show and tell days and other "special events" that have been written incorrectly on the calendar this year
4. Friday lunch duty that used to be fun and now feels like a chore
3. Wondering each day if I should put Aaron down for a nap or let him sleep in the car on the way to pick Noah up
2. Spending a HUGE amount of money in gas to drive Noah 12 minutes each way twice (sometimes three) times a day
1. Feeling like a complete NAG all of the time!!!!

Disclaimer: Noah has had an awesome year. For some reason in the last two weeks, he has let himself shut down and has given up following directions both at school AND at home. It seems as if everything is a battle. This happened last year in May too. I seriously thought about pulling him last year for the last month. I have no intention of doing that this year. I am just so frustrated after such a great year that he is all of a sudden getting in trouble every day. Is anyone else seeing this kind a pattern happening at the end of the year too?

Again, I am sorry for the T13 vent. Next week, I will plan to spin it in a positive light about things I look forward to do with the kids this summer.

Have a great Thursday!

Wordless Wednesday; Everybody Loves a Good Book

Tackle It Tuesday: Housework and Books

In preparation for my MIL to visit Friday afternoon, I went psycho in house cleaning mode on Friday morning. I got rooms done that hadn't been taken care of in ages, including finding our bedroom floor which hadn't been done in quite a long time (I think ever since I hid Christmas presents in there back in December.)

I also found a way to tackle SOME of the book dilemma in our house. Noah's bed is actually the top part of a bunk bed that my parents gave us awhile back. It sits about 2 feet off the floor with a border all the way around. We had an ongoing problem of whenever he would have reading time in his bed, he would take a pile of books to his bed, and then just drop them on the floor when he was done.

My first solution was to divide them into nice baskets at the end of his bed, but they seemed to be in his way when it was time to go to bed at night.














A couple of weeks back, I shared with you a tackle that I got out of the Family Fun magazine. I had also seen an idea from that same magazine about a way to handle books in bunk beds, and after much finagling on the part of my husband, we made it work. We attached a window box holder to the end of his bed.


Now whenever Noah is reading in bed at night, or Aaron at quiet time (yes, they both use that bed at different times), they can sit and look at books and they can go right back into the flower box when they are through with them.







We still have the problem upstairs with overflowing books, but like I've stated before, is there a better problem to have than books that are read TOO OFTEN?

Have a great Tuesday!