Our week {April 15 – 21}

A collection of our memories from the week ~

 

 Learned about the letter j {making a jellyfish}

 had a yummy stir fry – fresh from the garden

 watched the Air Force Thunderbirds fly over our house as they practiced for the air show – had to call Daddy and tell him all about it {smile}

 enjoyed strolls in the garden

 and enjoyed a little help in the kitchen on fajita night

 spent some time with my husband and friends at a weekend retreat

 picked the first batch of green beans and golden wax beans for the 2012 garden season

 Grant passed district Bible drill (he is number 9 in picture above)

 This should actually go on next week’s post but I’m going to post it tonight.  Grant passed the state Bible drill tonight!  It was his third year to pass at the state level.  {smile}

What we’ve been up to lately

Hey y’all!  My name is Adriane.  I once was the authoress of this here blog… Ok, ok, I know…I’m still the authoress albeit the very, very distracted authoress of this blog.  Life has been super-dee-duper busy lately.  I think April may have been the month to schedule every single event that needed to be done for our family of seven.  However, with the exception of a birthday party, a retreat for David & I, and a camping trip for the guys, I do believe that we may be in slow down mode now.  To that I say – YIPPEE!

So what exactly have we been up to during this unexpected 20 day blog break. 

Well, we’ve been…

 

 learning to read

 celebrating a birthday with an ice cream dessert

(And he turned 14 not 4 as the candle would have you believe.  The #1 candle disappeared and was no where to be found until about 2 weeks after his birthday!)

 a little sculpting, a little painting

(And obviously some ironing as evidenced by the ironing board in the picture!)

 

 dying of Easter eggs and making Resurrection cookies

 hunting Easter eggs at PawPaw and Grammy’s house

as well as…

 riding the four-wheeler

and making a pound cake and fruit salsa for this month’s Bunco with friends

( Link above is to the recipe for fruit salsa which is YUM-O!  We tried it on the pound cake which is YUM-O times 10!)

 

There was also

 playing at the duck pond park with friends

studying of baby ducks

 helping mommy in the garden playing in the mud

(please excuse shovel handle in photo…I had to quickly stop what I was doing to snap the picture)

and you know there’s been

 gardening!

(I can’t wait to show you what’s going on in the garden right now!)

 

There was so much more that has happened like…Bible drill, being an Andrew sister, making paracord bracelets for soldiers, swimming with friends, walking with my walking buddy, eating crawfish…I told you it has been a busy month for our family! 

These are busy days but they are so full of precious memories!

Weeks 10 & 11 (maybe) {2012}

At the beginning of the new year, I started documenting our weeks in pictures.  And like so many other projects that I start, it kind of fizzled!  {smile}  However, I really like to look back and see what we have done so I’m going to try to stick with this week in pictures thing.   

Some of the happenings from our home during weeks 10 & 11 ~

 

 

 

Inter-club swim team competition.  My kids actually are on the non-competitive team.  The plan was to try a year and see if they would be interested in competing.  After a competition in which they all did very well, the older boys are interested in competing.  We may try out summer competitions and see how it goes. 

A birthday celebration.  Grant celebrated his 12th birthday!  The birthday child always picks out his birthday menu for the day.  We feasted on doughnuts and doughnut holes, baked potatoes & bacon sandwiches, garlic parmesan chicken legs, mashed potatoes & gravy, stir-fried green beans, and a delicious chocolate cake {with ice cream}. 

A trip out to visit some friends in the country.  That event has so many pictures to share that it will get its very own post.  {smile}  That is not their barn, by the way – just a random barn on the way to their house.

Home improvements here and there.  We are setting aside a little bit from every paycheck to fix up this and that around the house.  We’ve put track lighting in the kitchen.  {wonderful to be able to see when I cook}  We also added this little path of stepping stones and gravel to a particularly muddy spot that led out to the garden.  I love how it looks and it has cut down on mud in the house!

Green, green everywhere.  We are seeing a lot of green around here.  I like it.  The garden is growing and the grapes… can you believe how much they’ve grown?  (Check here to see how much they’ve grown since my end of February update.  Unbelievable!)

Busy City Chicks.  We get about 3 – 4 eggs a day.  As many eggs as we eat, we are still able to share with friends.  I like that.

Out of my music comfort zone.  I love to sing.  Right now I’m learning quite a bit of music.  Easter music.  Praise team music.  Children’s choir music.  I’m cool with all of those.  But I’m also learning to sing swing music as originally sung by the Andrews Sisters.  Who are the Andrew Sisters?  (You can find out a little about them here.)  They were a group of sisters who sang swing music and would entertain our troops during wartime.  I am going to be singing swing music too.  Me… {gulp}  I’m nervous but excited about it.  Just hope I can make my church music voice sing swing.  {smile}  Should be interesting.

That’s a few highlights from weeks 10 & 11.  Be sure to look for our post about our trip out into the country.  We had a blast and I can’t wait to share the pictures and our story.

And before I go…a little Andrews Sisters’ music for you.

 

 

Week 5 {2012} or the week we battled germs

From the title of this post, you can probably tell what we did all week.  We started the week with three sick and ended the week with three sick. (And a different three at that!)  Despite our war on germs this week, we did step outside of our home (though we went no further than our yard) and enjoyed some beautiful sunshine. 

The beginning of the week started with water streaming into the air across the street from us.  We had a huge back-hoe in our driveway as he dug a hole in our yard to repair the leak.  (And somehow spared one of our crepe myrtles when digging right beside it.  I was very impressed with the operator’s tractor skills.) 

As we started to feel better, we would go out and enjoy the beautiful weather.  I had to snap a picture of my boy in his black boots and red shorts.

 By Thursday, our house looked like this as many of us were busy battling those germs that were making us sick. 

We had to close school on Thursday due to sick students.  So I finished up that unfinished recipe organization project in between taking care of my kiddos.

On Friday, my babies were feeling better (almost all of them) and we ventured outside into the beautiful, spring-like weather and dug up carrots.  (The best tasting carrots ever, according to the girls.)

It was warm enough to pull out the flip-flops.  (If the weather stays warm, then Mama most definitely needs a pedicure!)

 

I can’t tell you how happy it makes me to see my little blessings out in the sunshine after a week of feeling badly.

Makes my heart want to sing

because I sure do love these kiddos!

 

 

 

 

 

Week 4 {2012}

I’m jumping on this bandwagon of documenting each day of your previous week in pictures.  Problem is…I can’t always remember what I did on such and such day!  So I’m taking a little bit different approach.

In week 4 of 2012, we…

Enjoyed some beautiful weather at the beginning of the week by spending time outside {The City Chicks loved it too}

Stayed inside due to rain {except when we had to leave} but we learned to play Mancala during our studies of Africa

Found some beautiful flowers after the rain that reminded us that spring is just around the corner

On family night we enjoyed a movie {Courageous – it was an awesome movie} and I planned out the spring and summer gardens while watching

Prepared the garden boxes for early spring planting

The weekend began with a sick little one, ended with another sick little one, and the new week (today) started with another sick child