Daddy Dates

Since my kids were about 18 mos old Eric has taken them on "Daddy Dates"...they love them! He has done so many different things over the years. Each child gets to spend $5.00 and they get a few hours of alone time with their hero. He and Emily went a few days ago to the tractor supply store...Emily likes to dream about owning her own horse farm so they walked around and Eric listened to her stories about horses and all the fun things at the store. Then they went to get a sweet tea and a chicken sandwich. I love that he has consistently done this with the kids for the past 15 years! The night is all about the child not about himself....some of the outings have been interesting some have been quite boring for him but he NEVER lets them know...he makes them feel important and special! I love him for it!

I LOVE crock pots....I have the one pictured below..it holds 6 quarts and it is pretty.....not that that helps the cooking but it helps me every time I walk in and see it! I use mine all the time. They are relatively inexpensive...I have 2....my other one is small for dips and things like that.

Yesterday morning I loaded it up with boneless skinless chicken breasts......15 to be exact(on sale at Kroger last week :) I filled in all the way up with water. I didn't season these at all because of what I needed them for but sometimes I do this for chicken soup and I season the water. I turned it on low and left it for 10 hours. Oh my goodness...TENDER!!!!

This is the breakdown of how I used the meat.......6 chicken and cheese (remember all that free cheese!!) quesadillas. I would normally use 3 for my family but I was feeding another family of 6. It really doesn't take a whole lot of meat on these.



5 chicken breasts I used to make Ritz cracker caserole.....we don't eat many caseroles but this one is so good.....1 can cream of chicken soup......3/4 cup sour cream(you can't taste it I promise!) 1 sleeve Ritz crackers(Iuse the whole wheat kind) 1/2 stick of butter

Shread chicken with fingers and put on the bottom of pan...I usean oval casserole dish.....9x5 mix soup and sour cream together and spread over the top of the chicken. Crush crackers over mixture and drizzle melted butter over all. Bake 30 min. at 375 I serve with veggies and a salad.




The remaining 4 chicken breasts I froze covered in the broth and I will use them at another date either for quesadillas or for chicken and rice. Either way the crock pot was already running so why not load it up....now I am partly ready for another meal.

Christmas Blessings

Oh how I love Christmas!!! We are so very excited around here. I wanted to share with you a real blessing for our family. We received an anonymous package in the mail the other day and it contained $50 gift cards for our entire family to our favorite places and even some fun entertainment cards. What a fun blessing! We of course started brainstorming about who it could be??? We have so many generous friends in our lives but only a few of those who would know where to buy the gift cards specifically. The last 2 years have been amazing ministry wise but they have been full of major sacrifices especially for the kids..it was fun to see their excitement!

Here is where my hearts delight came.....we have taken 3 of the children out to use their cards and all three used their cards to buy for others??? They were so excited to have their "own money" to spend on buying presents. I was very overwhelmed! So to whoever sent the cards...Thanks from the kids and thanks for allowing them to bless others!!!

Sweet Boy

Benjamin went to a party and there was someone there making fun balloon swords and animals for the kids. He asked if they could make a flower for him to give his mama. So sweet...he gave up his chance for a cool sword for me! AAHH these are the things that warm a mama's heart!

New Picture

We had some new pictures make for some promotional work we are doing and oh my goodness...my husband is amazing and I love these pictures. Thought I would share!

What FUN!!!

We had a blast with our friends! There are not many families (actually I do not know of any other family) that I could spend 12 days with and wish they could stay longer! Our approach to child rearing is very similar. Their kids are very polite and helpful...full of laughter and a heart to serve. I laughed till I hurt on more than one occasion.

We did go about half way through the "Do hard things" book. That was so good...it brought up so much conversation with the kids. It challenged me and I know it challenged the kids as well.

One day we joined my sisters at my moms house for a tea party...it was such a fun time. We will make that a tradition. Now we are trying to figure out how Eric and I can speak in churches down through FL so we can plan a visit soon.

It all reminds me of the importance of having good friends who you can laugh and cry with but also friends who have the freedom to speak truth into your lives. We love the Zaldivar's!!!!

Fishing!

My sweet husband took my two youngest boys fishing this afternoon at a local park. He doesn't like to fish but they LOVE it and he LOVES them so he does all sorts of things that he wouldn't normally do! Don't you just love that! Luke caught 5 fish and he was mighty proud....they threw them all back...they were all really little but still they were...fish! Luke took his shirt off and revealed the art work his sister had given him earlier this morning.

Recovering!

My baby girl is recovering from her accident. We are very thankful that her pelvis is not shattered! She is really really stiff, but she is now up and walking with a walker. Lindsey set her up with our laptop so she could watch a movie and she received many phone calls! Our family dog is not really the family dog.....he likes all of us but he LOVES Emily. He has been especially attached to her while she is recovering. It is odd...like he senses that all is not normal. You can see him draped across her legs. Thanks for praying for her! Some of you have emailed and asked if she will ride again........do fish swim??? This was a freak accident...she loves horses. She is really good with horses and she is counting down the days until she can get back...which will be a while!

Thumb Sucking

Lindsey had a passie......easy to take away with a bribe to trade it in for a toy at Walmart. Marshall handed me his passie's when he was 20 months and proclaimed that he was a big boy. Emily....somewhat harder.....she reluctantly traded them in for a toy and then cried for several nights wanting to take the toy back! But this soon passed. Benjamin....never took a passie...AAHHH so easy!


Then came Luke....Oh the baby????!!!!! No passie.....he found his thumb on day 2 and we all thought it was the cutest thing we had ever seen....and we continued to think that for some time. Oh but the habit!!! He is 6 now! We first tried the Thumb stuff...it didn't do anything...then we moved to the more serious stuff...it is also a paint on solution....this stuff is aweful and it stays around for days........ after many hand washings! I even tried to put red pepper in the solution....I know it sounds awful...but it didn't work!

He only sucks his thumb at night....during the night...so it is not intentional...just habitual. I have tried putting a glove on him but he gets it off in his sleep? I really don't care all that much except his teeth are paying the price!

Any suggestions??

Back in the Swing of things

I am always glad to move on to the next thing....when summer is over I am ready to start school...when Christmas comes I am so ready to enjoy Christmas and all it's activities....when it is over I am ready to dive back into school again...just a cycle. It has been a good start back but it is so hard to get back into the routine of early mornings...I am such a night owl and I love the lazy holiday times when we can be up half the night and sleep until 10:00 and yes my children will do this as well. They have been well trained in the sleep department!

You can pray for me if you think about it...I have 5 children and 3 of them are dyslexic! I knew very little about dyslexia when we started the homeschool journey 11 years ago. But I quickly had to learn because it was so odd that Lindsey was so amazingly bright and verbal and just could not pick up the reading part. There are many different aspects and degrees to dyslexia and thankfully we were able to get the first two the help they needed, they were also both "milder" cases......but one of our children has such severe problems with it....it is very frustrating for her and for me. She is so bright...she is on or above grade level in everything she does but she can't read. She is approximately 5 grade levels behind:( ......I have to read everything to her....this is very time consuming! We have the amazing blessing of having a very gifted specialist donate her time once a week for an hour to work with her and help me know how to teach her and that is going well. The specialist confirmed my suspicions that this was a severe case and that it was going to be a long process.

It is another time that makes me aware of Gods sovereignty when He called us to home educate all those years ago. She would be in every "special"class imaginable if she was in public school and I am sure she would not be the same happy, sweet determined student that she is today. I am glad to help her but it is very demanding of my time...I have a 1st grader who almost totally needs me....a 3rd grader who is becoming more and more of an independent learner and 7th and 10th graders who do a great job but still need guidance and some help. I am asking the Lord to provide some help. I do not know how that will come....strength for me?...someone to help?...healing for dyslexia???...I do know this...He cares about her more than I do and He knows what both of us need more than I do!!!

Love those babies!

traditions

I know that I say it all the time but I can't seem to say it enough...I love traditions and so do kids! If you want to be amazed start asking your kids about Christmas last year....do not say anything about presents just ask them what they remember about Christmas last year. Unless they received a significant gift or they just happen to remember crazy details....they will most likely have forgotten all about the gifts that you spent so much time and effort and STRESS on! They will remember the traditions of baking or parties or grandparents! I remember very few of the gifts that I received as a kid but I have vivid memories of the traditions! What about you? If that is the case shouldn't we put a little more effort into enjoying the traditions!

This weekend we went to my moms to celebrate Christmas with her....she just lives a mile from me, and my sisters live 7 and 9 miles away but we all spent the night with my mom and dad....all 20 of us and 3 dogs! Yes it was nuts! Yes it was great fun. We sat up last night playing spoons. Great fun but it was wild and noisy and a great memory! We woke up this morning and Eric read the story of Jesus' birth and then we opened gifts and ate an enormous breakfast. We spent the day playing games..taking naps..and cleaning up.

Eric...yes my husband..set this little thingy up, by himself while watching the game...boys never grow up. I love it! We had a wonderful time making memories.



Love those babies!

The Olympics

Are you all watching the Olympics?? We are loving watching..however it seems like we were just watching them a few months ago!! Is time going faster??

One of the things that you hear over and over again is the amount of training that these kids invest into their sport. Are we surprised? It takes much time perfecting every detail. Do you think that most of the training is spent in repetition? I do!

We expect this with the athletes but we do not expect the same things in our own homes. We expect that when we tell our little ones to do something....they should get it the first time and never ever forget it. The Bible says TRAIN up a child....it takes much, much, much time and repetition! If we want children who are respectful, kind and giving we have to train...train...train. It IS hard and sometimes tiring work but oh the payoff is BIG!
Love those Babies! Michele