Neglected

Dear Poor Neglected Blog  and Blog Readers {are there any of you left out there??}~

I am still here. I promise to pay more attention to you. It is on my to do list for the weekend to start catching up.  I have many pictures downloaded and stories to tell. There just hasn't been much time to sit, think, and write.

My time has been filled with sick children, homeschooling, hosting, meal taking, chauffeuring to and from gymnastics practice, attending landon's rookie ball games, running errands, soaking in the few nice days we have had, and just life in general.  I am not sure we have had a night at home without an event in weeks.

I am hoping this week I can catch my breath and catch up.  I don't like when life gets that crazy.  I feel exhausted, anxious, and like our house and life are just chaos.  

I am looking forward to a weekend of enjoying being at home with my kids, catching up on emails, reading {books, blogs, etc..}, and getting some things up on my blog.  If there is time I hope to make a quick trip to JoAnn's. I found some fun new patterns/tutorials I want to try out.  I am sure there will be some type of baking involved since that seems to help me relax.

What is on your agenda for the weekend?  How do you manage when life gets crazy??

I will be back soon!

Easter Weekend 2010

We had a very quiet and uneventful Easter weekend.  Lance was on call and we didn't have anything on our calendar.  It was so nice to not have any commitments for the weekend.

We dyed eggs:

Not only did we dye eggs, one of us also dyed her hands {i bet you can't guess who it was?}

On Easter morning the kids were up early to check out what was in their baskets:

We went to breakfast at church, enjoyed our early worship service {our worship leader broke out his fiddle it was awesome}, had a nice lunch at home, and then let the kids hunt eggs in the yard.  Lance out did himself this year with interesting hiding places.  The kids had so much fun trying to discover Lance's best hiding places.

Our neighbors stopped over later in the afternoon.  It was nice to get caught up since we haven't seen them in a week or so.  The kids played and the adults visited, uninterrupted. What a treat!  They decided to stay for dessert since cookies were not going to cut it I made this cake.  It was quick, easy, and yummy.  A perfect way to end a great weekend.

Post Lent Reflections

The closer it came to the end of lent, the harder it was to resist the fountain soda, the chocolate chip cookies, and the draw of facebook.  Although, I realized I could survive without these things, the closer the time came to enjoy these things the temptation became greater.  I was able to persevere. It was a good learning lesson.

I used soda and cookies to reward myself after a particularly hard, long, or busy day.  It was an easy way to treat myself.  

I gained more time during lent by not being on facebook.  I read more books, had time to do a little sewing, and spent more intentional time with my kids playing games and enjoying time reading books.  This is an area where I will definitely will be scaling back.  I did miss keeping up on day to day things with friends and family but it can also be a very time consuming activity.  

My kids spent time during lent staying off the computer and having more time to read, play with friends, explore outside, and enjoy playing games.  We also worked on a daily devotional called Significant Sacrifice.  They loved the daily bible reading, mystery message, and giving activity.  It gave them great practice in working with money.  By the end of lent they had collected $41 to go towards clean water in Africa!

What insight did you gain through the lenten season?

Happy Easter!

He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed. 1 Peter 2:24

Spring Break

When I was in college and teaching, I looked forward to the breaks, especially spring break. Even though we didn't take trips over the breaks, I was doing something different. I wasn't teaching in the classroom, but enjoying days at home with Morgan. It was a time to refresh and reenergize before the final stretch of the school year.

Now, I have a love/not so fond of you relationship with our school breaks.

I love not having a schedule but I am also not so fond of not having a schedule. I find that the only difference in our normal routine is that we are not having school. I am thankful for a break from lesson planning and teaching but I don't come back from our breaks feeling refreshed, recharged, and ready to take on the rest of the school year.

This year we have been following a modified year round calendar. We started school in early August and have taken scheduled breaks throughout the year. {we will definitely be following this type of schedule next year - loved it} I have found that taking the longer breaks has helped in giving us {mainly me} more time to recharge. We are beginning our second week and I am hoping it is more restful and productive than our first week.

Our first week was busy:

* we started the week with Landon's birthday party

* had one day where we ran errands

* morgan had piano lessons and gymnastics {4 days}

* visited the new indoor jump house

* helped stuff 10,000 eggs, 400 bags of jelly beans, and divide tickets for games for our churches eggstravaganza {are you loving mauryn's outfit... }

* celebrated Landon and our neighbors Val and Amiah's birthdays

* attended our churches eggstravaganza

My list for our second week:

* take Landon to have 6 year photos taken

* clean out closets and make a list of spring clothing needs

* visit the jump houses

* take Morgan to the Owl City concert

* Morgan has gymnastics {4 days}

* try to make a pillowcase dress for Mauryn

* work on skirts for the girls

* dye eggs for Easter

* lesson plans

What are your plans for spring break? Do you find it a time to refresh?

Intimidated

If you have read this blog for any time you know that I love to bake. love it.

It relaxes me.

But there is one thing that has intimidated me for a very long time.

Pie crust.

If I was to make a pie, I would just buy a frozen pie crust.

Last summer, Sarah posted a tutorial on how to make the perfect pie crust. Since I am a visual learner, a tutorial with pictures was just what I needed to attempt my first pie crust.

A few weeks ago, I took on a homemade pie crust for a french silk pie. It was easy. So much easier than I had imagined.

French Silk Pie

recipe came from one of my former students

1 pie crust

1 c sugar

3/4 c butter

3 (1 oz) squares unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled

1 1/4 tsp vanilla

3 eggs

* Cream sugar and butter together for 4 minutes

* Blend in cooled chocolate and vanilla

* Add eggs one at a time, beating on medium speed for two minutes between each egg. Scrape sides of bowl constantly. Turn into pie shell.

* Top with whipped cream and chocolate curls.

This pie is very rich. I am not a huge chocolate fan but I love mixing the chocolate filling with the whipped cream.... yum! I really love white chocolate so I think the next time I make this pie I am going to try it as a white chocolate pie.

Is there anything in the kitchen that has intimated you?

Leaping Lemurs

Animals,

the zoo,

plus the pbs show zoboomafoo

equal a zoboomafoo themed 6th birthday at the zoo for Landon.

His party day started with a number six pancake with candles. We usually do that on their day but since he spent his birthday out of town at his sisters gymnastics meet he didn't get his special pancake.

the invitations
Our zoo doesn't actually schedule birthday parties but they let me schedule his party as a field trip. It was so fun. Our guide talked about four different animal groups: insects, reptiles, birds, and mammals. She told them about the unique qualities of each animal group. Our guide had something for the kids to hold or touch while she described each group. Then the kids were able to touch an animal from each group. Definitely a highlight!! When our time in the classroom was over, we had a guided tour to see a few animals before being able to take on the zoo on our own. It was an easy party and my boy loved every minute of it.