Ponderings

Life has been busy, lately. Some of our busy-ness the past few weeks stems from : a family trip to Colorado, a garage sale, company coming to stay, a family wedding, home-schooling, trying to teach and train a 2-year-old, and just trying to keep up with household things. I feel worn out, but am sure my kids are tired too. Teaching and training a 6-year-old at home can be a challenge. I love having my son here, but at the same time...there are moments when I want to run away. ;-) Today he has been especially whiny. We were out doing errands earlier, and I had a coupon for an Arby's turkey sandwich (yum.) So, we went through the drive-thru. I decided I'd order both of the kids a kids' meal. And then P started whining about how he didn't want to eat "THAT". So, no kids' meals. And then we were doing math this afternoon, and I assigned him 1 more page to do. It's an easy concept for him...filling in missing numbers, counting to 20. He did a page but apparently one more was just TOO much. He whined and complained and sat there NOT doing his work. So, he got 5 more pages assigned. Yippee. This all lead me to think about things we may miss out on without even knowing it, because of our attitude. Maybe the Lord wished to bless me in some way today but because I was crabby or complaining, I didn't get my "kids' meal" that I didn't even know I had coming. Or maybe I had a bad attitude about the work load I had to do, so instead of just getting things done and enjoying time with my kids, my "punishment" is that the work isn't done and instead weighs heavy on me. Verse I need today : This is the day which the LORD hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it. Psalm 118:24

Jesus Loves Me!

Joel caught Kenzie on video several weeks ago, singing her heart out. I love it!! This girl adores music. Her favorites are Jesus Love Me and "Twinkle Twinkle" as she calls it.

Expecting

We're expecting a new addition to our family! I'm 14 weeks along, and things seem to be going well. I had an appointment today and got to hear the heartbeat. Last month, my midwife couldn't find the heartbeat, so she did another ultrasound. (I've had 3 ultrasounds so far.)

This pic is from last week. We're excited to meet this new blessing!

Pinteresting...

I've been on Pinterest for a while. I mostly use it to organize the recipes I find online and then I can pull them up on my Kindle when I'm in the kitchen. Technology can be such a wonderful thing. :) I started following my Sister-in-Law on Pinterest and found a yummy recipe for a chicken enchilada casserole with fresh pico de gallo that she'd pinned. So, I made it last night...Joel and I both really liked it!

Here's the recipe.
If you want to follow me on Pinterest, I'm talljen80.

Better Late Than Never

My "baby" is now TWO! Her Birthday was June 11th, so I'm a little late with this post. :) We had a family party and I think everyone had a good time. We were also celebrating Mr. P "graduating" Kindergarten, so we had a combined party for the kids.

We grilled burgers & dogs and had lots of fun sides. I got the idea for the pinwheel cookies and the fruit kabobs from Pinterest. So fun!

We bought a cake for Mr. P that said Congratulations! I'm so proud of him for working hard this past school year. Even though there were challenges and some hard days in the mix, he learned a LOT and is ready to move on to 1st grade. :)

Kenzie usually isn't big into sweets, so we put a candle in a cookie and gave her one of those.

Of course, she barely touched her cookie and wanted cake instead, haha!

Some of Kenzie's gifts included pretty jewelry, a puppy that barks from my In-Laws, a water table, from my parents, and a beach towel. She is one blessed little girl to have so many that love her!

Mr. P also got some fun things, wow!! He was pretty excited to get GIFTS at his graduation party. Not expected!! He got an Angry Bird water bottle, activity books, a Burger King giftcard, and other fun things.

I displayed some of his school projects and the photo book from Shutterfly to show some of what he worked on in Kindergarten. :)

I can't believe I'm needing to order next year's school stuff this week. Summer has been going too fast. And it's been so HOT. Yesterday we were outside (watering the yard) and by 10:30 a.m. I was hot and ready to come in, ha! Our favorite places to be outside these days are in the water...kids playing in the sprinkler, in the inflatable pool, at the water park, or the splash pad. We've also frequented the zoo which is of course toasty until you enter an air-conditioned building-ahh...Guess we need to enjoy it now because soon enough, we'll be back to the grind.

Hand-Foot-and Mouth Disease (x2)

Well, the nasty virus turned out to be Hand-Foot-and Mouth disease. Awful stuff! The kids had sore throats, dizziness, nausea/vomitting, loss of appetite & lethargy and THEN after the crazy fevers broke, they started to break out in rashes & sores! P-man's throat looked awful with the horrible blisters and Kenzie got the worst of the sores all over her body. Her poor bottom was covered with blisters and the rash was all over her legs. Blisters are still looking pretty nasty on her feet. :( My only consolation is that after children get this, they can't get it again (at least the same strain of it.) It was horrible watching them go through this nasty disease!

P-man's hands with painful sores.
At one point, it was hard for him to even bend his fingers, with sores all up and down the sides of them. :(

Kenzie's rash on her leg

P-man with his genius invention : a Propeller Hat :)

Watching Shaun the Sheep with her baby dolls

Getting outside to soak up some Vitamin D=GOOD for healing!

Even though they felt pretty miserable few days, it amazes me because they were in good spirits, for the most part. Good thing kids are pretty resilient. And I'm SO glad that they're on the mend!

Nasty Virus

Well, my kids have contracted some type of nasty bug. It came on suddenly : fever yesterday afternoon, nausea, sore throat, CRANKINESS, and Mr. P kept telling me that he felt like he needed to puke. Thankfully, he didn't. We have big plans for this weekend, too. Tomorrow evening was supposed to be Mr. P's Kindergarten graduation party, combined with Kenzie's 2-YEAR Birthday party. But now, it's looking like we'll have to move it. Maybe if the littles are better by Sunday, we can have it Sunday evening after church. I took them in to the Dr. this morning to get a throat culture. Thankfully, it's not strep! Hopefully the fever leaves them. SOON. I hate seeing them sick and in pain.

Shortly after the mystery virus struck, yesterday afternoon.

Watching Timmy Time on Netflix today. :)