Saturday, October 18, 2008

Meal Planning Calendar


It's nothing fancy, but it's what I use. Of course I had to dress us up a little. You can get it HERE at photobucket. If you don't want it color, just set your printer to "greyscale".

And ladies, I know it can be tough, but the more we cook at home the more our hard earned "dinero" stays in our pockets. Sounds good to me, especially with the economy woes right now.

Also, as we know, the more we cook from scratch, the more money we are able to grow in our accounts. ING Direct, by the way, even earns interest through their checking accounts. You can have as many accounts as you would like and they are all FREE, without minimum required balances. I have a secret crush on ING Direct, can you tell? Here is another recipe that my family adores, Banana Pancakes, oh so yummy. With bananas being an inexpensive fruit here, I'm all in!!!

Thanks again to allrecipes.com for this delish breakfast. Go HERE to enjoy.

Now I always do this to my recipes {add something to make it better} it's just the "rebel" in me I guess. {Hee! Hee!} Here goes, I add 1/2 a teaspoon of cinnamon and 1/4 teaspoon of nutmeg. If my family wouldn't revolt I would add chopped pecans also. Then before I pour the batter on my pan, I place 5 thinly sliced bananas slices on my pan then spill the batter on to them. It adds to the flavor and looks super pretty. We know for us women, it's all about presentation.

Well, it's Saturday, my sweetheart is out of the country, and I'm taking my kids on a monkey tour. It's so much fun. Shhh! Dallin is a little nervous. He's been afraid of boats & water since he was about 3. We had an incident with a paddle boat and my honey almost capsizing us. He's never been the same since.




Friday, October 17, 2008

Five Minus Two equals...

Three!

I only had three kids home today thanks to my GREAT and WONDERFUL sister {in-law} Rusti. She decided to take the younger two while I tried my best to shove home school material into my older one's heads before it was time to cook dinner, no I meant, lovingly guided my older three with their studies.

On a side note, does anyone else realize I'm the only one in the entire "world wide web" that isn't thoroughly enjoying home school? Humm.

Either I need to repent, or there are quite a few women that are afraid to voice their opinion. Probably both. Hee, hee!

So Rusti shot over these pictures and I thought I'd post them.

She writes:
"Mom look what we did today:

We ate cake and ice cream...

had very sticky hands...

jumped on the bed...

then... "

Rusti said that Aiden walked into her closet, stood there for awhile and exclaimed, "WOW, you have a very beautiful closet." The funny thing is it isn't very big at all, I just think he forgot what a closet looks like. So funny.

Thursday, October 16, 2008

It's Midnight..

but I had to post this "button" I just made for the sidebar of my boy's blogs. {It was either a "scouting" scrapbook or blog. Blog won hands down.}

How cool is this?? It goes on their sidebar and they can link it to www.mormon.org. Pretty cool aye?

Here is how you do it:

Just right click and save the image to your desktop.
Log on to your blogger account.
Go to layout
Click on add a gadget
Scroll down until you see "Picture"
Click on it
at the link address add www.mormon.org
"Browse" your computer for the image
Click on "shrink to fit"
Save
Your done. It's that easy.

Here is the "girlie" button I created last month. Please feel free to use this one also. Please!!! Let's get those {ugly} other LDS buttons off the internet.

If you have any problems with getting the buttons just email me and I would be happy to send it to you.

Happy Friday!

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Homeschool Woes..

Troy and Dallin are doing quite well. Paige is doing well also, Mythology being her favorite subject. She just seems to enjoy stretching her class time to 7+ hours. Yep, that's what I said. Today we actually broke a record with the school bell ending at 6:15 pm for her {and I}. I would say I'm a very patient person, but "ARE YOU KIDDING?!?!?"

O.K., I'm better now.

So after a fun filled day, I received this sweet note from my dearest daughter:

Dear Mom-
I ran away. I don't want to spend the rest of my life with my family. So I have to move along. Good bye!
Paige
I love you! Bye. I'm at Rusti's. Bye mom. I love you! Bye.

Well, at least she still loves me. :)

She didn't really run away, she was playing under her bed {thank heavens}. That could have really added the element I was missing from this fun filled day.

Did I mention my sweetheart left for the states and will be gone for 8 days.

It has been weird to think that I'm here in a 3rd world country with our 5 little ones, without my "fluent" husband. Yeah, it's been weird. Miss you honey!

Monday, October 13, 2008

My Little Guy...

Isn't a little guy anymore! Troy turned 12 today. In six short years he will be an adult. WHAT?!?!?!

This is a warning to all you women out there "struggling" with toddlers. It's tough, I know it is. I've been there. {actually, I'm still there!} But really, before you know it, he's getting baptized at 8, then the priesthood at 12. The one thing I have done really well as a mother has been to "drink" of every little moment that I could treasure. And I'm here to tell you that it still speeds by too fast!!!
I am looking forward to these teenage years. I know it will have some rough times, but I am. I can't wait to guide him through becoming an adult. "Troy, be easy on your dad and I. o.k.?"


So in my birthday tradition, I will post my "12" favorite things about him.
12. Troy has a GREAT sense of humor. He really does!!!!
11. He's athletic.
10. My "man in training" is a good people person.
9. He enjoys surfing and will do it even with the fear of crocs in the water.
8. He is a true "business man"!
7. Troy is learning Spanish so quickly
6.  He "ISN"T" addicted to video games!
5. He has a great singing voice.
4. He has always been appreciative with all that he has.
3. He is a naturally good drummer. Really, he's good.
2. Troy has a strong spiritual sense.
1. He's not afraid to work and work hard. I love it!!!