Just Because...

We have ice cream cones in the middle of the day just because it's Summer and we are loving it! Something about the air this week has made it feel like our next season of Fall is upon us, so we quickly started enjoying Summer more, just because we are not yet ready to let go of it!

Micah is here with us today. Jordan has went on his fishing trip with Sam and his work crew, so we traded Jordan for Micah today...:) Jordan was looking so forward to this day for a long time now! I can't wait to hear all about his fun day on the boat!  Marilyn is having a much needed, much deserved, day at the beach today with her friends... childless! Soak it up Marilyn!!

I have bread cooling on the counter top, the laundry got caught up. I have been to my favorite grocery store this morning. Wegman's is so much fun! When I go there I take my time checking out all the details this store has to offer. I'm a mess when shopping alone! I can spend fifteen whole minutes just looking for the perfect sauce in the sauce isle!

Thanks to Justin being home this morning I got to go shopping alone... Thanks for getting the Little's breakfast Justin!! It's a blast having him at home today! He did some mowing, entertained his siblings, cleaning up the basement, biked a paper to Dutch Way for me. Got some paint samples... He wants to paint his room before he moves back upstairs! He is leaning towards ORANGE!! Could get interesting yet!...:) Love Him!!:)

Back to Wegman's...
I love spices and sauces!! It's totally my weakness!  I get annoyed that almost all the best sauces have high fructose corn syrup listed as one of the first ingredients! I check out a sauce and if that's the case it goes back on the shelf, more then not this is the case and I leave without ANY sauce, and a tad disappointed because I think the sauce is the boss, in any dish creation I make! A bad tasting sauce can ruin the dish so I try to be careful when making my selections. I found a few good ones this morning at Wegman's , I feel like I hit the jack pot after finding a good sauce!

I only make it to Wegman's maybe once a month or more in the Summer because I have great fruits and veggies right in my own garden or the local roadside stands. When I do make it there I load up on my favorites, like Asian foods, garlic butter, oils, simmer sauces that make my veggies out of the garden taste amazing!

I have been reading up on Hemp... Seeds, oil and milk and it sounds like the benefits are amazing! I found this oil this morning and I can't wait to try it on salads etc...
A few of my favorites...

I can't wait to make a new kitchen creation, but this week we are going lighter then usual, which will have me waiting until next week. We have big plans this week-end with some wonderful food coming our way...:) Baptism on Sunday has us in charge of the dessert table! It will take Lots and Lots of desserts to fill four to five hundred people's sweet tooth!  I look forward to it though and plan to spend Saturday in the kitchen making desserts! Sunday afternoon we look forward to a pool party with our wonderful friends! The food there is always amazing to!

 

Running is slow this week again! My right leg is trying but still not 100%... I did a five mile yesterday and want to do more miles with a long run this week end if all goes well but it's slow for me once I feel an injury! I get frustrated but that never helps so I must be patient~!...:/

 

 

I have been juicing this week with more goodies out of the garden. I love to mix and match things a bit. This week was cucumber, kale, ginger, mango, other greens mixed in... I tried some Stevia! Only a tiny bit but I think it made the juice a tad sweeter? Still learning about this plant and how to use it.... I planted two plants and still have hardly cut any off. I find a small amount goes a long ways but I'm still learning.

 

I have started new books... My boys took one look at these and said "Oh No" to each other!...:) They make me laugh!  So far these have been great!! I love reading! It totally awakes something within when I learn so much from books!

 

The "cleaning house" book is so good for me! I tend to be just like the Mom in this book in a lot of areas! I want to make life easier for my kids and  I somehow just become there slave or house keeper rather then making my parenting role more of a "training" process. With proper training they can one day be responsible young people and feel really ready to take on the world. They do need to be taught how to really work and be "trained" to really keep up with house work,  kitchen duty, laundry duty, yard work and everything in between!

 

 If we as parents just do it all for them they will just come to expect it even as young adults! I'm working on leaving those wet swimmies lay on the carpet until that child comes back to clean them away on there own! It takes just as much training for my mind as it does for them, I'm so used to just scurrying behind them picking up as I go!!

 

I have seen a neat idea in this book... My kids already do pretty good on this one but I thought this would be a great idea and make there rooms even more kept after!! She put a jar on each of her participating children's dresser with 30-31 dollar bills in it (however many days in that month). Every day when she would inspect the rooms and bathroom she might need to take a dollar out for something un kept. (wet swimmies on the carpet!) Then at the end of the month she let them keep what was left but it was for them to buy that extra stuff that Mom normally buys. Like an ice cream cone or any other extra thing that might normally come from Mom's wallet.

 

 After the first month she added "Kitchen duty" to the bedroom/bathroom upkeep! Each child had to do a turn getting groceries, (mom drove them and helped out) making the meal, (again Mom helped out at first) cleaning up along the way! (Mom helped at first) If they walked away from the dishes totally, Mom paid herself from there jar! Like enough that they missed it! I'm only half way through with this book but I can already tell I will be using some of her ideas!

 

I think I do teach my kids how to work, but when I think back to my childhood, they don't even work as hard as I did and they are even boys! We have more conveniences these days with the riding mowers, dishwashers, front loader washer and dryers. To add to that we got way more gadgets to deal with in our day then we did back when I was a kid!

 

This one sentence in the book goes... Mom to kid... Did you just say "Shut Up?" The kids response... "Yes" ... Mom says I'm forty years old and I still have a really hard time saying those words! I can almost see the look of disapproval on my Mom's face! 

 

So where do we draw the line with language or how one sibling talks to the other?? It's necessary that we follow our hearts and God's guidance with child training but I like books on the parenting subject since I'm in that stage of life right now, taking some and leaving some is what I do. We all need to find what works best with our own families.... I have much to learn!

My desire is to raise up children that will be a help to society and the world we live in, not a dependent burden.

 

Baby Steps,... Baby Steps,...Baby Steps:)

Have a Blessed Day!...