Thank you for all of your prayers for my Dad. Saturday night he took a turn for the worse and we were all called to the hospital Sunday morning. He went home to be with the Lord around noon. I thank God for my Dad – for his life, his faith, and his great love for his family. Please pray for our family, especially my Mom, as we work through our grief and all of the details that are to come. I will be taking a break from the blog for a bit.
Blessings,
Nancy
Photo courtesy of Corbis
We have been busy working on our 4th of July lapbooks this morning. It is good to remember why we are celebrating today! I will be hitting the kitchen soon to bake some brownies and start chilling the homemade ice cream. I am even going to try my hand at fresh squeezed lemonade if I have time.
It will just be our immediate family for the 4th this year with my Dad “relaxing” in the hospital (Hi Dad!) and my siblings off with other plans. Ryan will be coming over later, and we will be swimming in the pool, cooking out hot dogs, shooting off some fireworks and lighting some sparklers, eating ice cream, and – when it gets dark – heading out to watch the local fireworks display.
I hope you all have a wonderful 4th, whatever your plans may be!
Blessings,
Nancy
Anna had her first visit to the dentist yesterday. She was so excited to be old enough to go, that she was counting the days down for a week before the appointment. She had been with me to a number of appointments for her siblings, so she knew what to expect. She had x-rays taken and then it was time to clean her teeth -
She watched “Little Bill” cartoons on the tv while her teeth were being cleaned and handled it all like a pro. A little while later, she had sparkling clean, gleaming teeth to show off -
Her favorite parts of visiting the dentist were going up and down in the chair, being given a goody bag complete with princess toothbrush and toothpaste, and picking a prize from the treasure box – she picked bubbles.
Alas, they did discover one cavity in her little mouth, so we will be making another trip back to have it repaired. When she heard this, her eyes lit up and she has asked me at least ten times in the last 24 hours when she will get to go back – let the countdown commence again!
Blessings,
Nancy
My Dad has been in the hospital since Tuesday morning. He has pulmonary fibrosis and has been on oxygen for a number of months now. Tuesday morning he was having a lot of trouble breathing and my Mom called the paramedics. They are giving him antibiotics and oxygen to try to fight whatever is causing the problem – possibly pneumonia. Please pray for him and for his doctors.
Update – Dad is still in the hospital. While the doctors are still unsure about the source of the problem, they are treating him for all possibilities. An oxygen mask is keeping his oxygen level good, and his heart rate has improved while he has been there. Thank you so much for your continued prayers for him!
Thanks so much!
Blessings,
Nancy
Better late than never ~ here is my Daybook entry for today ~
Outside my window. . .the sun is shining today after a cloudy, rainy day yesterday. Birds are flying around the trees, bees are buzzing around the flowers, and a nice breeze is blowing.
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I am thinking. . .about school plans for next year.
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From the learning room. . .Fourth of July lapbooks all printed out and ready to go – I’ll be reading aloud “The 4th of July Story” by Alice Dalgliesh this week and we will start putting together our lapbooks.
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I am thankful for. . .the temperatures staying below 100 this week after last week’s hot streak.
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From the kitchen. . .Crockpot Round Steak and gravy with a tossed salad tonight.
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I am wearing. . .pink polo and denim capris.
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I am creating. . .still working on my file crate.
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I am going. . .to be postponing Summer Camp . . . again – I don’t have the finances right now to do it all the way that I want to – so I am moving it back to later in the summer.
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I am reading. . .schoolbooks, the book of Philippians for our new Ladies Bible Study, and I have started reading “Summer with the Moodys” by Sarah Maxwell with the children.
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I am hoping. . .that my Dad will get some relief from his bad coughing spells.
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I am hearing. . .children voicing their votes on what video to watch while they eat lunch – I’m hearing votes for Lucy, Little House, and Mario cartoons, and a last minute vote for Teletubbies (guess who?) – and the winner is . . . Brady Bunch . . . which came out of left field and swept all of the votes.
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Around the house. . .Edward (kitty) batting things around on the floor while Macey (kitty) observes, lots of coloring sheets printed out from the Internet – the kids have been spending alot of time lately coloring, washing machine running, dinner cooking in the crockpot (yay!).
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One of my favorite things. . .Homemade vanilla ice cream (can’t wait until Saturday!)
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A few plans for the rest of the week. . .working on lapbooks, swimming, Ladies Bible Study, Anna’s first dental appointment (she’s so excited!), and celebrating the 4th with the family.
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Here is a picture thought I am sharing. . .
Bounty from the garden
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Thanks to Peggy at The Simple Woman’s Daybook for this wonderful meme.
Have a lovely day!
Blessings,
Nancy
Here is a wonderful easy dinner that is so perfect for these lazy, fun-filled days of summer. We had dinner about a month ago at my sister-in-law’s home and she served this for dinner. It was delicious, so, of course, I asked for the recipe. It turned out to be a recipe on the back of this McCormick seasoning packet -
A few weeks ago, pork loin went on sale, and so I decided to try cooking this myself. I bought two packets of seasoning and about 6 lbs. of pork loin to be sure that I had enough for our group. It turned out to be plenty with extras to eat on for lunch throughout the week (always love that!). I will give you the ingredients for a single recipe ~ you can double it on your own if you so choose -
Ingredients
1 pkg. McCormick Slow Cookers BBQ Pulled Pork Seasoning
3 lbs. boneless pork shoulder roast, well trimmed (I used pork loin and it was fine)
1/2 cup ketchup
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/3 cup cider vinegar
Place pork in slow cooker.
Mix seasoning, ketchup, brown sugar, and vinegar until blended. Pour over pork.
Cover and cook 8 hours on LOW or 4 hours on HIGH.
Remove pork from slow cooker.
Shred pork, using 2 forks.
Return pork to slow cooker; mix and heat with sauce before serving.
Couldn’t be easier! And it was kind of fun shredding the pork – it fell apart so easily.
There are also instructions on the packet for using this to make BBQ Spareribs, if you prefer.
Serve it up on hamburger buns with french fries and some cole slaw (wish I’d thought of that when we had it!) and you’ve got the perfect summer evening meal!
Blessings,
Nancy
We recorded our first 100 degree day yesterday for the year. . . with how many to follow? Looks like we’ll be spending our afternoons here for the foreseeable future -
Happy Summer!
Blessings,
Nancy
Beware! This post contains harsh realities and fuzzy findings! Continue reading at your own risk. Really, it’s not that bad – it could have been much worse than this – in which case, I may not have been so willing to share it with you. If you have an aversion to dust, feel free to skip this post entirely.
As I mentioned in my Daybook yesterday, Michael (7) was in a real cleaning mood yesterday. I don’t know if it was the Dr. Pepper he had for lunch (not a normal occurence) or the driving force of earning a dollar, but he kept coming to me asking for more work. To his credit, the paid jobs came after his initial independent decision to clean the entire living room, as well as do his other afternoon chores without being told and before our normal chore time.
Anyway, one of the jobs that he asked to do was to clean out behind our entertainment center, which is a mostly neglected area, not high up on the list of places to clean up regularly, and so generally forgotten . . . until you are hunting for a missing DVD or video game, and then you muster up your courage and dive into the mix of cords, dust and whatever else has found it’s way back there. It doesn’t help that our entertainment center is rather large and therefore, has lots of space behind it for gathering . . . things.
So, what did Michael find while on his expedition to rid our home of this particular black hole? Well, I asked him to tell me, while I jotted down his findings so that I could share it with you (whatever was I thinking?).
Here’s the list he gave me -
-Dvds
-Books
-Videos
-Dust (we won’t even talk about how much)
-Video games
-Uno card
-Toy figures
-Cheeseburger – no, it wasn’t real – a toy from Anna’s play kitchen.
-”Soft, gray thing” – which turned out to be an old tissue covered in dust – he was wary of diagnosing this himself and called me in to investigate. My first thought at his description of it was, “Oh, no, I hope it’s not a dead mouse!” Needless to say, I was quite relieved to find that it was not.
-Pencil
-Duplo block
-Ball
-Cords (LOTS of them)
-MarioKart steering wheel
-Paper
-Dirty socks
So, there you have it. No, I’m not proud of it, but not too disturbed either. In a house with this many people, including small children – you just learn that there are priorities in life, and the floor behind my entertainment center is just not one of them right now – unless, of course, you are seven years old and looking for income anywhere you can find it – even in dusty, uncharted territory.
Hmm. . . maybe he’ll decide to dive under the couches next. But I really might not have the courage to tell that story.
Blessings,
Nancy
Here is my Daybook entry for today ~
Outside my window. . .HOT summer weather – should be almost 100 degrees this week.
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I am thinking. . .about summer camp plans – camp is now scheduled for the week of July 6th!, and next year’s school plans.
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From the learning room. . .I have a new Fourth of July lapbook with red and blue folders ready to start with the kids when the moment presents itself.
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I am thankful for. . .my Dad, who is a loving father to me and my Husband, who is a loving father to my children.
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From the kitchen. . .dinner tonight will be Mexican Chicken, Tossed Green Salad and Strawberry Shortcake for dessert.
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I am wearing. . .white t-shirt and capris.
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I am creating. . .a new file system for each week of the year similar to Dawn’s system here.
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I am going. . .to be implementing a new discipline system this week as consistently as I can. I hate disciplining, as I would like everything to be happy and pleasant all the time, but I know that it is necessary and things have been a bit out of balance around here lately, which means I’ve let them get away with too many bad attitudes and behaviors, so I’ve come up with a list of consequences for misdeeds ~ now I just need the discipline to stick by it!
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I am reading. . .a book my Dad loaned me yesterday called “same kind of different As me” by Ron Hall and Denver Moore. I started it at bedtime last night and had to force myself to put it down after four chapters so that I could get some sleep – am looking forward to getting back to it tonight.
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I am hoping. . .for a productive week with projects around the house.
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I am hearing. . .computer keys, the dryer dinging at me . . . again, a dog lapping up water, music playing on the stereo, and children talking to each other as they play.
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Around the house. . .the dining table is piled up with clean clothes piles and the remains of a busy weekend, Legos scattered around, craft supplies all out of place as they await their new larger cabinet home which is being moved from upstairs when Jeff gets home.
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One of my favorite things. . .when my children clean up a room without being asked – a rare moment, but one that I’m being blessed with right now by Michael!
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A few plans for the rest of the week. . .organizing projects at home, Keepers club meeting – our topic this month is horses and we will be meeting at a friend’s house for live hands-on ( and seats-on!) learning, dental appointments for two children, painting t-shirts for camp.
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Here is a picture thought I am sharing. . .
A favorite spot in my kitchen.
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Thanks to Peggy at The Simple Woman’s Daybook for this wonderful meme.
Have a lovely evening!
Blessings,
Nancy
I found this recipe on the Betty Crocker website a little while back and tried it a few weeks ago. It was delicious and a wonderful summer meal. The recipe calls for using the boxed pasta Suddenly Salad. I knew that I was going to double the recipe, so I opted for just using bagged spiral pasta instead. I will give you the recipe the way that I cooked it and in the amounts that I used. If you want to see the original recipe, click here.
Ingredients
Pasta (spiral or your choice)
2-3 cups cooked chicken
1 1/2 cups halved red grapes
1/2-1 cup thinly sliced celery
1/2 cup slivered almonds, toasted
1 bottle refrigerated poppy seed dressing
Cook pasta -
I used two boxes of Rotini -
Drain pasta, rinse well with cold water. Shake to drain well -
Chop up chicken and vegetables. Grapes -
Celery -
Chicken – I used two packages of this chicken that came already grilled, I just had to chop it up -
Toast the almonds by sprinkling them in an ungreased heavy skillet. Cook over medium heat for 5-7 minutes, stirring frequently until the almonds begin to brown, and then stirring constantly until light brown -
Now everything’s ready to be mixed together -
Mix all of the ingredients except dressing in a large bowl -
Add the dressing. I used this one -
Mix well. Serve immediately or refrigerate -
This salad would be perfect for a luncheon or as a light, cool dinner on a hot summer evening. I loved the flavor of the toasted almonds in the salad! Enjoy!
Blessings,
Nancy
