In the past week our menu has consisted of the following:
Tamale Soup
Enchilada Pie
Chicken n' Stuffing bake
Pizza Cups
German Pancakes
Roasted hot dogs and Dutch Oven Potatoes
The greatest part of all is that I only made two of the dinners.
I had an idea a while back and finally decided I wanted to put it into action. My idea was this: everyone over the age of ten will be responsible for one dinner per week. Pretty simple, but so nice for me not having to figure out what to cook 6 nights a week (one day is for leftovers). Taylor and Kendall (especially Kendall) are really excited about the idea too. Kendall because he is an aspiring chef and loves every chance he can get to play around with ingredients and Taylor because for at least one night a week he will get a dinner that doesn't make him want to puke. This was our first week and I thought it was fantastic. Mom made her yummy tamale soup, Kalen did the hot dogs and dutch oven potatoes in our fire pit, Taylor made German pancakes, and Kendall made pizza cups. They are already figuring out what they will make for this week and all I have to do is make sure we have all the ingredients and then let them have at it. I do step in to help if needed but this week I didn't really have to do much except help Kendall speed things up a bit. He learned that cooking can be a little more time consuming than he thought and that what he thought would be a 6:30 dinner time became a 7:30 dinner time as he tried to assemble the pizza cups at the same time that he was trying to get his vegetables cooked and the fruit washed and ready and the juice mixed up.
I really think that this will be a valuable learning experience for the kids, especially Taylor who will be leaving home in just a few short years. And it will be a very valuable experience for me not having to worry about getting dinner on the table every night in the middle of the craziest part of the day where I'm also helping with homework, cleaning the house and babysitting my afterschool charge. I can almost feel a bit of sanity creeping back into my life!
Monday, October 11, 2010
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
The Latest
Once again I have let time lapse and have major catching up to do. Life has gotten a little crazy with so many things to keep up with and also stressful with some unforseen financial emergencies (like the needing a new roof immediately or we might have a disaster this winter kind of emergency) that have been occupying our time and energy as of late. So anyway, my apologies. Here are just a few of the better things going on lately:
*Taylor has been so busy this school year with his advanced classes at the math and science center as well as his other classes, two of which are honors level at the regular high school. He averages probably 2-3 hours of homework per night. Add on to that marching band which is required to play at all the home football games, scouts, mowing our elderly neighbor's lawn and his online seminary class, and the poor kid hardly has a minute to himself. We've had to do a major paring down of his chore list because he just doesn't have time. So I thought it was great when I saw him sitting at the table one day doing some artwork (on a paper plate of all things) that was completely unrelated to school. He said he was inspired by some Native American pottery designs he had seen when we were in Utah. The scenery is representative of places all over the the world and in different time periods. I just thought it looked cool.
*We recently had our annual Festival of the Forks here in Albion. It was a chilly rainy day so we weren't sure how the turnout would be. But people braved the weather anyway and the street was packed with people and vendors as usual. The only thing that was really affected was the music. With the rain a lot of them weren't able to plug in their equipment to perform. Toward the later part of the afternoon the sun came out and we saw a couple of performances.
This lady raises alpacas and then spins yarn from their coats.
It wouldn't be the Festival without Elephant Ears! Kendall enjoying the sugary remains.
Me, Lynnsey and Spencer marching with the schools in the morning parade.
Taylor marching with the high school band.
Kendall marching with the Youth Theater group. Sadly only 3 members showed up and no adults, so they ended up walking with the Strander for Probate Judge group.
*After the parade we took a short break to head over to Marshall for the Relief Society craft day. The kids were invited so I took Kendall, Lynnsey and Spencer to make some fun crafts.
Kendall working on his loom hat. He also made some refridgerator magnets.
Lynnsey wearing her cute button headband that she sewed on her own. She did some magnets too.
Spencer with his 5 magnets that he painted.
Me with my fabric covered magnet board. I also made a button headband for Kaya.
*I mentioned Taylor's advanced math and science courses. I thought I'd just share what his "calculator" looks like (compared to my tiny little purple one that does all the math I need):
*Soccer season is in full swing again. We have three kids playing now. Spencer was so excited to give it a try, but now that he's had a couple of games he wants to be done with it. He could be really good because he's super fast and has really great balance and ball control. But he is hating having to be on the field with so many other kids. The first two games he would start out okay but as soon as someone bumped him or if he couldn't get anywhere near the ball, he'd get mad and sulky. The last game he ended up stomping off the field and wouldn't go back out. And that was after the time he just sat down right in the middle of the action and refused to budge until he saw me heading for him. It's been such a pain and the only thing that gives me hope is remembering that Taylor was that way when he first played too and he ended up loving it. So I guess we'll see.
Spencer in a more goofy moment--before stomping of the field and proclaiming that he was never playing soccer again.
Nothing gets past this goalie.
Nice kick Lynnsey!
*Without my babysitting jobs this year and with nothing promising on the horizon so far, I have taken to trying out other means of generating even a tiny bit of income. I've been coupon shopping like mad, selling some of our unwanted items on eBay, taking a few paid online surveys, and just recently I opened my online Etsy shop to sell some of my crochet items and hair clips. I'm still getting going right now so I only have a few things listed and I'm trying not to compare my work to the other amazing things that people are selling. I totally get overwhelmed and want to back out when I look at other peoples work, but I've decided to go ahead with it and see what happend. At any rate, Kaya has been having fun being my model. I thought I'd share some of her cute-ness.
The hats aren't nearly as cute without her in them, but if you're interested in some gift ideas or for your own kiddos check them out at www.etsy.com/shop/kayalucreations. I'll be adding more stuff every day or you can ask me about a custom order too and I'll see what I can do.
*Taylor has been so busy this school year with his advanced classes at the math and science center as well as his other classes, two of which are honors level at the regular high school. He averages probably 2-3 hours of homework per night. Add on to that marching band which is required to play at all the home football games, scouts, mowing our elderly neighbor's lawn and his online seminary class, and the poor kid hardly has a minute to himself. We've had to do a major paring down of his chore list because he just doesn't have time. So I thought it was great when I saw him sitting at the table one day doing some artwork (on a paper plate of all things) that was completely unrelated to school. He said he was inspired by some Native American pottery designs he had seen when we were in Utah. The scenery is representative of places all over the the world and in different time periods. I just thought it looked cool.
*We recently had our annual Festival of the Forks here in Albion. It was a chilly rainy day so we weren't sure how the turnout would be. But people braved the weather anyway and the street was packed with people and vendors as usual. The only thing that was really affected was the music. With the rain a lot of them weren't able to plug in their equipment to perform. Toward the later part of the afternoon the sun came out and we saw a couple of performances.
This lady raises alpacas and then spins yarn from their coats. 
It wouldn't be the Festival without Elephant Ears! Kendall enjoying the sugary remains.
Me, Lynnsey and Spencer marching with the schools in the morning parade.
Taylor marching with the high school band.
Kendall marching with the Youth Theater group. Sadly only 3 members showed up and no adults, so they ended up walking with the Strander for Probate Judge group.*After the parade we took a short break to head over to Marshall for the Relief Society craft day. The kids were invited so I took Kendall, Lynnsey and Spencer to make some fun crafts.
Kendall working on his loom hat. He also made some refridgerator magnets.
Lynnsey wearing her cute button headband that she sewed on her own. She did some magnets too.
Spencer with his 5 magnets that he painted.
Me with my fabric covered magnet board. I also made a button headband for Kaya.
*I mentioned Taylor's advanced math and science courses. I thought I'd just share what his "calculator" looks like (compared to my tiny little purple one that does all the math I need):
*Soccer season is in full swing again. We have three kids playing now. Spencer was so excited to give it a try, but now that he's had a couple of games he wants to be done with it. He could be really good because he's super fast and has really great balance and ball control. But he is hating having to be on the field with so many other kids. The first two games he would start out okay but as soon as someone bumped him or if he couldn't get anywhere near the ball, he'd get mad and sulky. The last game he ended up stomping off the field and wouldn't go back out. And that was after the time he just sat down right in the middle of the action and refused to budge until he saw me heading for him. It's been such a pain and the only thing that gives me hope is remembering that Taylor was that way when he first played too and he ended up loving it. So I guess we'll see.Lynnsey is playing on the team that Kalen is coaching and she is having a great season again. She gets right in there as midfielder and plays her heart out. She's really fun to watch too because she is such a graceful, athletic runner. She did not get that from me.
Kendall is also playing another season on Kalen's team. They gave him special permission because if he played on the older team on that full size field, he wouldn't last very long before he'd be worn out. Eventually, he'll either have to quit soccer or move up and stick to playing goalie but for now we're glad he gets to be on this team still. He is getting to be a phenomenal goalie and usually spends half the game in that position and the other half playing forward. He scored their team's only goal in the last game!
Spencer in a more goofy moment--before stomping of the field and proclaiming that he was never playing soccer again.
Nothing gets past this goalie. 
Nice kick Lynnsey!*Without my babysitting jobs this year and with nothing promising on the horizon so far, I have taken to trying out other means of generating even a tiny bit of income. I've been coupon shopping like mad, selling some of our unwanted items on eBay, taking a few paid online surveys, and just recently I opened my online Etsy shop to sell some of my crochet items and hair clips. I'm still getting going right now so I only have a few things listed and I'm trying not to compare my work to the other amazing things that people are selling. I totally get overwhelmed and want to back out when I look at other peoples work, but I've decided to go ahead with it and see what happend. At any rate, Kaya has been having fun being my model. I thought I'd share some of her cute-ness.
The hats aren't nearly as cute without her in them, but if you're interested in some gift ideas or for your own kiddos check them out at www.etsy.com/shop/kayalucreations. I'll be adding more stuff every day or you can ask me about a custom order too and I'll see what I can do. *Spencer is still saying hilarious things. Here's one of our latest conversations:
Spencer: Mommy, did you know that there are a lot, lot, LOT of soldiers in Michigan?
Mommy: Oh really? How do you know that?
Spencer: Because they drove by my school today and we got to stand outside and wave flags at them and stuff and there were so many soldiers. They were on their way to I think do a battle or something like that but I'm not sure where they were going except I do know that it is not Canada. Yeah, not Canada.
*Kalen, Taylor, and Kendall are going to be in an upcoming roadshow for our stake. It should be interesting. Taylor had to be coerced into it with the rest of the branch youth, but I think he's really having a great time even though it involves some dancing and singing and holding hands with a girl. Kendall's having a great time, of course, since he loves performance stuff like that. And don't tell anyone, but I have major hopes that someday he'll marry his little dancing partner. (You can see her in one of the above pictures with Lynnsey).
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