July 4th Recap

Yippee!  It is the 4th of July weekend! 

We were busy picnicking, swimming, eating, parade-watching and most importantly lounging!  It was a great time to enjoy slowing down, savoring the summer and being together as a family.  Hope your holiday was filled with lots of red, white and blue!

Sand and sun

We spent some time enjoying the sand and sun yesterday.  The water was brrrrr cold, but felt good once you got used to it.  The Noodle's teeth were chattering the whole time, but that didn't stop her and J from splashing around! 

A day in the life...

Big Warning!  
I've been seeing quite a few "day in the life" posts recently out there in blogland and thought I'd give it a whirl.  Now many of you will probably find this waaaay boring, I mean who really cares what we do each hour of a typical day?  But, there may be a few like me who are curious, so without further ado...

A typical day in our life!

4:30 a.m.--the alarm goes off.  Ugh.  Morning comes too early!  This is when both J and I do our quiet time and workout.  We switch off mornings.  Today is a 5:30 spin class for me--off to the gym!

6:30 a.m.--the Noodle has slept in today!  We hear a "Who's there?" and J goes to get her up.  She's all cuddly and warm.  Don't you just love kiddos when they've just woken up?

Everyone heads downstairs to do a quick read-through of the paper (are there any characters to be found in the circulars?!) and then I go in to the kitchen to start pulling together breakfast and assemble J's lunch (don't worry, I'm not too 1950's...many days he does it himself!).

Don't you love the Noodle's developing fashion sense?  Ha ha!

7:00 a.m.--we all head upstairs to start the showering/dressing routine (at least some of us).

7:30 a.m.--breakfast!  The Noodle has decided that this morning she wants cinnamon toast (no crusts, thank you very much), plain yogurt with crasins (which she doesn't end up eating-it gets saved for lunch or snack) and milk.

8:00 a.m.--J is out the door, off to work and I'm cleaning up the kitchen.  I go in to find the Noodle playing Legos and sit down to join her.  Somehow I manage to make both an airplane and a helicopter.  No small feat because I can never the pieces that match the idea book!

9:00 a.m.--we both head upstairs to finish getting ready and put some clothes on.

9:30 a.m.--let's head out the door!  Time to drop off a package at the post office, run to the bank and maybe hit a few garage sales.  It is looking like a beautiful day!

10:30--weekly shopping at our locally owned grocery store.  We always have to make a stop to look at all of the character cakes, no surprise!

11:15 a.m.--stop by our local health food store where we purchase our produce, bulk items and vitamins.  Today we're low on oatmeal, so it is always a challenge to let the Noodle "help" without oatmeal spilling over the entire floor!  Ha ha!!  Each week she also picks out fruit leather for us to eat at lunch.

12:00--time to race home to unload the food and fix lunch.  It was a typical lunch for the C.N.--hard boiled egg (whites only), crackers, pickles, hummus, some raw veg (grape tomatoes, red pepper and peapods) and milk.  She finished it off with the fruit leather and 2 small chocolate kisses. We ate outside because it was sooo gorgeous!  You can't beat upper '70s-low '80s with no humidity!  My ideal summer day :)

1:00 p.m.--read a few stories and then up for quiet time.  She read in her room (talking to herself the entire time) and I made a few phone calls, checked e-mail,and made a batch of 7 layer bars.  Doesn't she look thrilled to be having her picture taken...again?

2:30 p.m.--run to Tar-jay to pick up a few things.  It was suppose to be a quick in and quick out.  I should have known better.  Anytime, and I mean ANYTIME, she sees a character, she wants to look at that specific product.  Do you have any idea how many things in Tar-jay have characters on them?  Even the kleenex boxes.  Geesh!  Oh yeah, on the 8 min. drive that it takes to get there, guess who fell asleep?  Mm-hmmm

3:30 p.m.--we get home, put away our loot and decide to break out the play-doh.  I love playing with the stuff outside--that way when the little pieces and crumbles fall, it is no big deal; unlike when we we're inside and it gets ground into the dining room chair cushions.  Grrrr.  As an aside, the afternoon is usually when we do table time, working on the You Can Read activities and practice the violin.  We threw caution to the wind today and didn't.  Ha!

 

4:15 p.m.--the Noodle decides that she's happy to just skip around the backyard, explore the garden and pick up "treasures" for J.  I just enjoy watching her and soaking up the sun.

5:00 p.m.--time to go in and start getting dinner ready.  On the menu tonight is meatloaf (J will be thrilled that it is a meat day!), mashed sweet potatoes and sauteed kale.  The Noodle keeps herself busy by finding various small toys, putting them into different bags and generally "organizing".  Whatever floats your boat I say!

6:00 p.m.--J gets home and we sit down to eat.

6:30 p.m.--clean up from dinner, change clothes and go to the neighborhood school playground.

7:15 p.m.--bath, read books, read Bible/devotional and say prayers and then it is lights out!  J and I catch up about the day and then he heads up to finish up a little work while I work on this blog post.

9:30 p.m.--we collapse into bed and turn out the lights!  Sweet dreams and thanks for following along on our day!

A little teary

The past few days I have been at a training for school.  My M-I-L watched the Noodle for the first full day and my mom watched her for the other 1/2 day.  As always the Noodle had a great time and was busy, busy, busy.

Today when the timer went off signaling that quiet time was over, the Noodle came bounding into the office so I could silence the noise.  Something in me snapped and the tears started rolling down my face...all of a sudden it became real that I would soon be going back to school and would miss the day to day goings on of my sweet, little girl!

She of course looked at me weirdly and said "You're crying!  Why?"  and I answered her that I was sad because I was going to miss her.  She reminded me very matter of a factly that she wasn't going anywhere and would be right here.  Then she went and got her stuffed panda, her lovie blanket which she spread across my lap and a Kleenex and proceeded to lovingly poke dab my eyes.  I gave her a big hug and a kiss, whimpered a little bit more and then realized I needed to get a grip--millions of women do this everyday and that I have been sooo blessed to have off the time that I have.

Up until this point I have been feeling calm and at peace, but I think with the 4th fast approaching (I always think of this as the halfway  mark of summer), reality is setting in!  I've just got to keep telling myself to take one day at a time and to enjoy EVERY SINGLE minute!

Yes, she wanted hot cocoa...in the middle of summer!

CSA--week 3

So here we have our CSA bounty for the week (plus a little chewed up, green pea-pod in the Noodle's mouth--lovely, right?!).  The Groucho Marx mask was thanks to the library...she was the FIRST person to finish the summer reading challenge!!!  Whoo-Hooo!  As an aside, each week they had to "read" 5 books (or have 5 books read to them or for older kids, read for 5 hrs./wk).  This last week, she actually did read 5 books.  Heh heh...you go girl!

Anyhooooo, on tap for this week was:  garlic, onion, bok choy, maple syrup, mint, pea-pods, yellow squash, zucchini and a couple of pickles.  Anyone know what to do with those, since there are only like 2 and I have NO interest in learning how to can or pickle?  Can you use them just like regular cucumbers?  Do tell!

Just another day...

If it is not one project, it is another!  The carpet in the upstairs hallway/stairs has been needing an "intervention" for quite some time.  Today seemed like the day to do just that. 

Of course J had his assistant (notice her knee pads...just like Daddy's?) right by his side the whole time.

Girls Get-Away

As much as J loathes the term "stay-cation" that is exactly what Lollie, the Noodle and I did...went for a quick trip up to Lollie and Papa's summer place.  We were only gone 2 days (1 night), but the Noodle thought it was so fun that it was "girls only". 

The great thing about their little get-away spot is that it really feels like a throwback in time.  Everything moves slower and easier.  We did a lot of strolling, biking, gazing, reading, laughing and eating.  Ice-cream one time/day...okay!

When we got home, it was time for the Noodle and J to have their weekly date to the vegetable man (cue song Que Onda Guero by Beck).  The pickings were slim tonight...unfortunately one of the downsides of signing on with a CSA.  You're in it for the long haul, whether the harvest is a bounty or a bust.  Here's hoping more ripens for next week!

Yes, it may look like an empty bag, but there was produce in there...promise!  The stash this week included:  mint, garlic scapes, 1 head of garlic, green onions, red lettuce, and red popcorn kernels.