The busy(ness) began

and mom (me) has no wiggle room!

Two Mondays ago we began with the kindergarten year of homeschooling for Sam. It is way more intense than I had anticipated. I don't know what I expected but Im sure in the weeks to come I will get this schedule down and it wont seem so stressful. He has 7, YES 7 subjects. Math, Literature Arts, Science, Social Studies, German, Language Arts (reading) and Handwriting. It does end up taking about 5 hours to complete it all. And now with the CO-OP starting I have no idea how I will manage it all.
Let me break down my schedule for you all!

Monday : Homeschool for 5 hours, I have school from 3-10 then bed ( find time to sneak in dinner)

Tuesday: Every other Tuesday is MOPS, then we come home and Homeschool, (or homeschool all day on the OFF weeks.) dinner, bed

Wednesday: Co-op and then my school from 3-6, Dinner, Homeschool, bed

Thursday: Homeschool for 5 hours, Awanas, Study time for me, Dinner and bed

Friday: Homeschool, bible study every other week, Dinner and bed

Saturday: my day to play catch up if I dont have a photo shoot

Sunday; Work in the AM, family day in the PM ( and homework again)

and start over!

whewwwww CAN I BREATH YET?

thats also doing all the normal Mom and Wife, Work duties throughout the week.

I CAN DO THIS... I try and repeat this each day. And yes, there are some bad days where the kids or I just arent having a good day.. but the good days are there too and those are awesome and make it all worth wile!

Oh and two new things: Sam has decided to be the 10th version of Dr. Who for halloween. ( David Tennant) and I am in the process of putting together the costume and today I finally found a trench coat that will work. Still waiting on the sonic screwdriver of course! (dont mind our messy homeschool station!)


and on an even bigger note. Delilah is POTTY TRAINED! this is huge. ( and she loves her "panties") two kids out of diapers! woo hoo! 

Homeade Albondigas Soup Sunday!

So in my efforts to keep meal planning going I planned this weeks meals in advance. Mondays are going to be soup days because I can make a big batch and the hubby and kids can eat leftovers the next day when Im at school till 9pm. Today is perfect because we have communion tonight and it can really stew and get more flavorful. I saw a recipe for Albondigas Soup and I am so excited about this one, I have never had it and was really wanting to try it. So I made it! 

(its a mexican meatball soup btw!)

 started to mix all the ingredients for the meatballs

(Grass fed ground beef, spicy sausage meat(pork), green chilies, cilantro, green onions, egg, rice salt, pepper and cholula)

 Had to mix it my hand...yum...( the rice is not cooked yet as it will go in the soup later)

 then I formed the balls and placed on a baking sheet

Next I started the broth..

(beef broth, water, minced garlic, diced tomatoes, green chilies, green onion, cilantro, cholula, salt, pepper)

after it boiled I added 1/4 cup more dry rice

and then added the delicious cooked meatballs.. and for my first ever meatball, it was freakin awesome!

  

It then stews for while. (about 4 or 5 hours on low) and the rice in the meatballs will soften and they will soak up that delicous broth! mmmm

having Mom, Sis and Jon over and we will eat it with a mexican salad, tortilla strips, cheese and of course a little wine ( beer for the boys!) 

What an awesome way to spend the day! 

Let your Geek flag fly!

Yep, Ill admit it, my secret (or not so much) is out. I'm a geek. In the past being called a geek was so not cool, but in the recent years more and more of us are becoming accepted and in fact down right proud. I say its the age of the computer really. And now the term Geek stands for so much more. You dont have to be a computer genius to be a geek. (although I can read and write code and know binary and open source) Its so much more. Also not to be confused with nerd, who generally have little to no social skills.

Take me for instance. I am a big fan of LOTR ( if you know LOTR without googling you may be geek), I spend most of my free time in front of a computer, I prefer E books over paper books, Im a huge fan of science fiction shows and it felt like chrismas morning when Wil Wheaton, Felicia Day and Stan Lee were on Eureka ( if you know who any of them are....you may be a geek) I prefer to stay in and watch a good movie than to go out ( say "clubbing") My child knew the theme of Star Wars before he could sing twinkle twinkle and could control any game system without the aid an adult by the time he was 4.( if your kid can work a computer better than your mom...you may be a geek) If I could, I would go to every Comicon in costume! ( if you know what comicon is ....you may be a geek) I know the differences between a .jpg .eps .pdf .indd .png  .doc etc file and know which one I just simply try to avoid at all cost. ( if you know too.... you may be a geek) I participate in online discussion boards and chat rooms regularly ( in fact I met my husband online). I play video games and beat MYST in a month. I even know what a guild is. ( if you know what that is...you may be a geek) Ive stood in line all night to be the first in line to get a copy of the newest Harry Potter ( if you dont know who that is.....you need to crawl out from under your rock!) this list could go on and on, but you get the idea.

Im a Geek.. and Im proud. Are you a Geek? Flash some of your geek cred and be proud! 

The red brick wall

So I got to take pictures of a beautiful family (and wonderful friends) this week. And what is exciting is that I was dying to shoot in this location. I had seen other local photo shoots here and LOVED the bright colors. If anyone is wondering, its down at West Street Market.

They were so much fun to shoot, even though Danny was off in 2 year old land. It was like shooting my daughter. You have to run to keep up. I call it the photog workout! enjoy! and thanks to Zach and Jeni for letting me take photos of your beautiful Family!

Meatless Monday on the fourth!

So we have been doing meatless monday for a few months now ( actually we do more than just mondays) and this holiday I wasn't sure that we would continue this tradition. Usually we BBQ on the 4th, hamburgers or some other juicy protein. So I looked into the history of meatless mondays and found it to be suprisingly patriotic.

First a little background. Going meatless at least one day a week will lower your risk for cancers, heart disease, diabetes and obesity. It also helps reduce the carbon footprint on the planet. How you ask? Well its an entire movement and if a buch of us do it.. it matters. Visit MeatlessMonday.com to find out more.

On that site I found the history of Meatless Monday.

During World War I, the U.S. Food Administration urged families to reduce consumption of key staples to aid the war effort. “Food Will Win the War,” the government proclaimed, and “Meatless Monday” and “Wheatless Wednesday” were introduced to encourage Americans to do their part.

Herbert Hoover, then head of the Food Administration, spearheaded implementation of the campaign. In addition to advertising, his office created and distributed recipe booklets and menus in newspapers, magazines and pamphlets.

The effect was overwhelming. Some 10 million families, 7,000 hotels and nearly 425,000 food dealers pledged to observe national meatless days. In November 1917, New York City hotels saved some 116 tons of meat over the course of just one week. According to a 1929 Saturday Evening Post article, “Americans began to look seriously into the question of what and how much they were eating. Lots of people discovered for the first time that they could eat less and feel no worse – frequently for the better”.

The campaign returned during World War II and beyond, when Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman used rationing to help feed war-ravaged Europe

and in 2003 the meatless monday movement resurfaced, and its growing each day.

With that, I decided that of all the days to go meatless, today was a good one! So what did I make? A delicious Quinoa stir fry.

Started with some beautiful veggies




While those cooked (sauteed (sp?) a bit I cooked the Quinoa *just look at that mmmmmmm


then I seasoned the veggies and tossed in the quinoa, and look at the beautiful dish that came out of it.. served with a sangria on the side.. delicious meatless monday meal.

Family Dinner night

So tonight we had family dinner night. I made garlic and basil polenta with red sauce and Parmesan. Spinach and arugela salad with artichoke hearts, red and green peppers and croutons..yumm.
The kids said it was super yummy ( the polenta) and loved it. It will be a staple from now on for sure.
It was good to be able to sit down and actually have a dinner with too, we talked about future plans, things they would like to do..mosty that involved candy and the x-box.  It was good for Tom and I to sit down too. We have been talking about some things in our life and it was good to just and work out all the little details. So heres to another yummy family dinner night!

Adventures in Canning.

I couldn't take it anymore, I had to try and can. I have to wait 24 hours and see if it sets, but as of now sadly the jam is still syrup.

well lets begin.

First I cut the berries

 Then we chopped a bit

She was so excited to help

mixed with the pectin

While that boiled, I sterilized my jars

you can see it in full boil here

Then poured it into the jars

while I did that, little miss was busy with the spoon!

Then in goes the jars 

Boiled to seal and preserve 

The final product Sam got to name!

 Heres to hoping it will be a jam not a syrup:(

Summer!

I'm way to wedding'd out to even start the wedding photos. So today I blog about summer. While its supposed to be a relaxing vacation, I still find myself busier than ever. The head doesn't help either. Having and AI disease, the heat exasperates it and causes what I like to call flare ups. My body aches and I get over exhausted and end up spending the day in bed if I over heat. So I'm really trying to stay cool. No AC in either car stinks though, because driving anywhere just wipes me out. If I remain indoors, or in the shade ( if cool enough) I do okay.

Anyhow, speaking of busy. Sam started his summer school this week. He is enrolled in the Nevada Virtual Academy and they have different classes the kids can take throuout the summer. This weeks theme is art. He is learning all about the different types of art, ( expressionism etc...) Then they submit some artwork and it gets displayed the next day to the whole class ( about 250 kids). He loves it. He gets to do it in his jammies which he thinks is awesome!

You cant tell, but the teacher is speaking through the mic. 

 here the teacher was telling him to relax his eyes! 

Next week is another theme...cant wait to see what it is.

Now also this summer I have decided to give canning a try, Im super nervous and have NO clue what I'm doing. Im hoping to find some friends to do it with me too. But to make things easier I got a great party to host and here are some things that were included.

Im hoping to make some Jams and Tomato sauces to start, we tend to use those things in our house the most. I know its cheaper to buy the already pre made jellies and sauces, but if I can make my own and know what goes in it and where the food came from ( local farm!) it would be even better. And if I get good. Yummy gifts!