A Season of Thanksgiving ~ Part 4

My final post for my ABC's of Thanksgiving.

U ~ umbrellas on rainy days

V ~ velvet throw, especially on these cold days and nights

W ~ water

X ~ eXceeding joy

Y ~ yellow sun that gives us light and warmth

Z ~ zucchini :)

A Season of Thanksgiving ~ Part 3

I was busy yesterday helping my dog deliver puppies. Here is the next set of my ABC's of Thanksgiving:

N ~ Night (Especially once the kids are all in bed and it is quiet)

O ~ Ocean, I am so thankful we live so close to the ocean.

P ~ Puppies (will make a separate post about our new puppies)

Q ~ Quietness, rarely happens, but I am so thankful for the times it is quiet in the house. Unless, it is quiet because they are being bad.

R ~ Rain, even though we had too much to grow a garden this year, I am still thankful it rains.

S ~ Sara, my joyous 2 yr old

T ~ Thanksgiving, a time to get together with family and thank God for the blessing from the past year

A Season of Thanksgiving- Part 2

It is already the second week of November! Wow, time sure is going by so quickly. 

Here is the next set of things I am thankful for this year:

G ~ God 

H ~ Health 

I ~ Ice Cream :)

J ~ Josiah, my 2nd son

K ~ Kevin, my 1st son

L ~ Laughter (it sometimes gets me through my rough days)

M ~ Many friends

A Season of Thanksgiving

This month, in America, is a time to reflect back over the year and list what we are thankful for. Last year, I tried to write a post a day, but that didn't work out. This year, I am going to try to write a post a week on what I am thankful for this year. I have decided to do an ABC's type thankful posts. I will post 6-7 letters per week  until Thanksgiving.

A ~ All of God's blessings on my family

B ~ Blogging. Thankful to be on the Schoolhouse Review Crew this year.

C ~ Comfort (my word for the year)

D ~ Daily hugs and kisses from my family :)

E ~ Extended family (in-laws)

F ~ Food. God provides even when we are down to almost bare cupboards.

G & H is for...

Going hiking! Okay, I was having a difficult time coming up with something for the letter "G" of blogging through the alphabet. I didn't want to get too far behind, so here is my "g" and "h" post.

A few weeks ago, the kids and I stopped at a place near our house and hiked a couple of the trails. These trails are about 1/2 mile each and are listed as easy. One of the trails follows a little creek.





The kids had to stop every once in a while to see if they could see anything in the water. There is a little waterfall at one of the spots along the trail.



This particular state park actually has a major river that runs through it. Near the rivers edge, there are some beautiful trees.



There are also some cliffs that overlook the river.



We had a great time going hiking! Looking forward to going again and hiking one of the other more difficult trails.

F is for ...

Fish! If you read my How to Have a Successful Spontaneous Field Trip post last week,  then you know we went to the aquarium. We had a great time and we were able to see a lot of fish.

My 2 year old had the best time looking at everything:


We also saw many other sea creatures while we there including turtles, sea otters, and sharks.








We also saw the dive show. It was fun and the kids all had a great time.

ABC Bible Memory Cards Freebie

I wanted a way to teach my 2 year old the alphabet while also teaching her some Bible verses.  I did some googling and found a list of Bible verses that correspond to the appropriate letter. Just a note ~ these are all KJV verses.

I then made a pdf of the cards and printed them:

















After printing, I cut them out and folded them in half:













And finally, I wanted them to be durable, so I laminated them:

















Now one side is the letter and one side is the verse:

Click here and here for this freebie.

E is for...

Excitement!

It's always an exciting time as the school year is winding down and the weather is getting warmer. The kids love playing outside, so they are excited when they get their schoolwork done for the day.

Blowing bubbles

Playing in the dirt

Big brother trying to hide

It's also an exciting time waiting for our new curriculum for the fall to arrive.

I am also excited for a couple of products we were picked to review.

Here's a sneak peek of one:

Excited to see what is in store for us the rest of 2013!

D is for...(3 month lifestyle change update)

Decisions! I have had to make many decisions over the past three months. I started a lifestyle change on January 7. I made a decision to start eating healthier and drinking more water. It was somewhat easy to give up the soda and the sweet tea. I only drank soda about 3-4 times a month before anyway.  I did drink sweet tea almost every day, but I gave it up for a whole year in 2010, so I knew what to expect. I'm not going to lie, I have drank a soda (or two) and had sweet tea over the past three months. It was a decision I made- it may not have been the best choice, but I have to live with it.

I also made a decision to eat more fruits and vegetables instead of snacking on sweet and salty items. Every week I am faced with having to make decisions about eating a piece of chocolate or eating a piece of fruit. Sometimes I do pick the bad over the good. I'm learning that the better decisions will help me in the long run. I'm not perfect, but I do want to be healthier by the end of the year.

In my 3 month journey, I have lost a total of 22 lbs. I was aiming for 10 lbs a month, but sometimes, those bad decisions may make me have a week with no loss. I did not take a picture on January 7 (I wish I had), but I had my son take some pictures a couple of days ago. I am going to start taking monthly pictures to track my change.

Here I am on April 5, 2013:


I did find this picture of me taken in October 2011:


I hope to share at my 4 month update that I have made the best decisions to stay healthy and stay on track with my change.

C is for ...

Cleaning!  I actually had no idea what I was going to write about for 'C' until I saw a post from Money Saving Mom. Money Saving Mom is having a 30 day cleaning challenge. Today is day 1, so if you would like to join, it is not too late.

Today's project was to surface clean your kitchen and living room. I had just done a deep cleaning because we had family over for Easter, so this should be a great motivator to maintain the cleanliness.

Here is the before of my kitchen. I don't know if you can tell, but there are dirty dishes in the sink and the counters have not been wiped.

Another before of the dirty stove and messy counter top. Here you can see my Amish Friendship Bread starter- I will write about that another time.

So my plan for the project for today was to clean up from the days meals in the kitchen, including washing the dishes, wiping down the counter, and cleaning the stove. I swept the floor too. I also need/ want to steam mop the kitchen floor, but I will do that after everyone has gone to bed. I didn't get a chance to do it this weekend.

Ta-da! Dishes are done and the counters are wiped down. I told my kids and husband that once I had the kitchen cleaned up, we could eat our dessert. I made a pinterest recipe for dessert- pineapple angel food cake. It is so easy to make. You take a can of crushed pineapple and mix it with a box of angel food cake mix- don't add anything else. Bake it at 350 for 30-40 minutes.

I bought some whip cream to put on top. Yum!

Okay, back to the cleaning ~ I don't have pictures of the living room, but we just cleaned it this weekend for family, so it is still pretty clean. I do plan on going through after everyone is in bed to make sure everything is still tidy.

I hope I can stick with this 30 day challenge. It will make my life so much easier. It's so hard for me to fit cleaning into my schedule, but doing a few little things every day will make it a little easier to deal with. I'll probably update once a week on my progress.

B is for...

Basketball! Every March, my boys and I fill out a bracket and see who can pick out the winning teams. We also love to watch the games during the "March Madness" weeks. 

This year was a tough year picking teams for our brackets. Obviously, if you have been watching or paying attention, there have been some major upsets. I think my bracket broke during the first round. It's hard picking those first round wins, you never know what is going to happen.

We gave ourselves a second chance during the second round and we still missed a bunch.  Who has even heard of Florida Gulf Coast University? I haven't and never thought such an underdog team could make it to the final sixteen.

It's been fun watching and participating with my boys. We look forward to the rest of the games.

In case you are wondering ~ I live in NC, but am picking Indiana to win it all. 

A is for...

A is for Amazed!  I was looking through some pictures last night of my boys when they were just babies.

It's just so amazing how fast they are growing up and turning into young men.

I look at my oldest daughter and am amazed at how much she has grown and matured over the last couple of years.

And then, to look at my baby and see how quickly two years has flown by, I realize how short of time I have left with my children.

Watching your children grow up is amazing!  Be sure to make the most of it with the time you have left with them.