Flashback Friday

This week has been demolished by sickness.

Monday was normal.  Monday night/Tuesday morning, Four woke up coughing and snotty.  It was a rough night, and it progressively got worse as the day went on.  Around 5pm, he was wheezing badly enough that he asked for "his machine."  (Nebulizer.)  Over the next 12 hours,  he had 6 breathing treatments and was STILL having a really difficult time.  We had anticipated going to the zoo on Wednesday with our homeschool group, but after such a rough night (honestly, I climbed into bed at around 7am) we nixed that plan.  The day was lost to breathing treatments and naps.

What a difference 24 hours makes!  Thursday morning, Four woke up feeling much, much better and immediately asked to go to the zoo.  So, we went with that.  We loaded up and went to the zoo.  It was a great day, lovely weather, and very active animals.  YAY!

This morning, I woke up with the beginnings of a cold (I'm guessing it is what Four has, only stuff always settles in his chest right away...) I'm vitamin C'ing and Zinc'ing away my day.  I've also spent most of it in bed.  The Punk let me sleep until 9:30, and then he took Three to Kindergarten Co-Op this afternoon so I could chill in bed with Four.  He brought home flowers, and dinner, and has now taken the boys up the street to play so I'm still in bed.  My life is so awesome.

We have a busy weekend, so I really hope all the meds I'm taking work and I feel better in the morning.  I have to finish up Four's costume, and re-do their candy collection buckets.  There are also pumpkins to buy for an annual pumpkin carving party.  Cold, cold, go away!

Sideways Saturday

Today, I had the day off.  WAHOO for my husband being home!

I've spent almost the entire day in bed.  One thing I did accomplish?  I made a running playlist for the days I run alone.  Most days I run with a partner, and we chit chat.  Once or twice a week though, I run alone.  Now, I scoured google, and Pinterest.  I looked at what they had to offer, and it occurs to me that playlists are very personal.  It's about what motivates YOU, what gets YOU moving, what gets YOUR blood pumping.  Reading other people's lists did get my wheels turning.

I opened the music on my phone (which is my constant running partner, as I use the C25K app to train.)  I created a new playlist called "Runnin' Dirty,"  which is appropriate considering it is my team's name for the mud run I'm doing in March.  *big smile*  I scrolled slowly through my music, and I added all the things I know will work for me.  Then I downloaded the things that other people's playlists had put into my head.  Here is my list, as of now, it will change, I'm sure.  But for now, this is it!

Caught Up-Usher
Follow Me-Uncle Kracker
Hey Hey-Superchick
Work Out-J Cole
Your Love Is My Drug-Ke$ha (but really, anything by her would work, this is just prob my fav)
Like It's Her Birthday-Good Charlotte
One More Night-Maroon 5
Not Afraid-Eminem
One More-Superchick
Out of My Head-Lupe Fiasco
Birthday Cake Dance Remix-Rihanna
We R Who We R-Ke$ha
Whistle-Flo Rida
Yeah-Usher, Lil' John and Ludacris
#1-Nelly
Raise Your Glass-P!nk
Candy Shop-50 Cent
Gold Digger-Kanye West
Finally Found You-Enrique Iglesias
Fastest Girl In Town-Miranda Lambert
Til the World Ends-Britney Spears
Kerosene-Miranda Lambert
Settle Down-No Doubt
Sweet Escape-No Doubt
Everybody Talks-Neon Trees
Undo It-Carrie Underwood


It's so schizophrenic...it's perfect!

Skinny Housewife

Orange Chicken Stir Fry-this turned out SO good.  Super yummy, lean chicken lots of veggies.  MMMM.  Changes I made-because I rarely make a recipe exactly as it states:

I didn't have oyster sauce, so I left that out.  I didn't have cornstarch (because I used it all in a crafty project for the kids...and keep forgetting to replace it) so I used flour.  I had half a red bell pepper left over in the fridge, so I chopped it and threw it in.  I didn't have oranges, because my kids never eat straight oranges (they love mandarin ones though!) but I did have lemons, so I threw in the zest of one lemon.  I didn't have minced ginger, I used dried.  It was still really good.  :)

And, I'm sharing a snack suggestions list:  26 Low Calorie Snacks to Keep you Looking Slim

Get your skinny on.  ;)

Wordy Wednesday

Today's post has nothing to do with homeschooling, or children.  It has to do with me.  Just me.  Not mommy.  Not wifey.  Just Shauna.

Two years ago I stumbled upon a list on someone's blog.  It was entitled 101 Things in 1001 Days.  I googled, and found that it's an actual thing:  Day Zero Project

I began about making my list.  I'm 250 days away from the completion of my project.  For the record, my list still isn't even up to 101 things, so I need to add some silly little things.  I mostly concentrated on BIG things I wanted to tackle (like putting my feet in TWO oceans, and traveling to another country) in the beginning.  Then I added things that would push me out of my comfort zone (like wearing a skirt or dress OUT five different times, and eating at 10 new restaurants.)  I'm only up to 79 goals.  I've completed only 17 things from my list.  I have until my 37th birthday to complete my goal.  I really want to make it.

This project is about expanding myself.  Big and small.  When I complete this 101 things, I intend to make a new list because I like the idea of always having things to accomplish and push myself towards.

I encourage you to do something like this.  Maybe it's not 101 things, maybe it's 10.  Maybe it's not 1001 days, maybe it's 100.  Maybe it's 1 thing, in the next 10 days!  Whatever it is, set some goals for YOU.

You.  Not your children.  Not your husband.  YOU.  You do remember YOU, right?  Sometimes as moms we lose ourselves to our children, and our marriage, and the business of our days.  Find you again.  I promise, you will not regret it.  Making yourself a priority is not something that should make you feel guilty.  It will make you a better YOU, and THAT is beneficial to your children.

Do you.

Two for Tuesday

Halloween Fun with Five Little Pumpkins

And, if you're kids are asking every day about Halloween, you can make this cute countdown craft with them (we did this over the weekend.)

We're counting down to Halloween!

Manic Monday

Today consisted of normal Monday things.  Zumba for me (I so love Zumba...like, LOVE it love it!) Pottery class for my girls, then we had lunch with The Bestie and her crew, along with The Boo Boo.  It was bearable.  There was some discussion about some uncomfortable mess going on between my kids, The Bestie's kids and another good friends kids during pottery class.  Sigh.  I mean...my kids aren't in "real" school shouldn't we be immune to this sort of thing??  We'll deal.  We'll hope that friendships between the grown ups are strong enough to withstand the growing up of our children.

We came home and I discovered the dog has fleas.  Two let him swim in the pond and then gave him a bath.  I washed our comforter (since he sleeps on our bed.)  Fleas are so gross.  *shiver*

There was an impromptu rain shower, and Three and Four played in it.  I love it when the kids get to play in the rain.  One of my favorite childhood memories is playing in the rain (yeah, so, it was a hurricane technically...I lived.)

Manic Monday hasn't been so manic...I like it like that.

I got my blog report-and last weeks hit count:  131!!!!  Awesomesauce!  Keep it up, y'all.  Comment too, let me know what you're thinking.

Sunday Snapshots

Ducks galore.

Dueling Carolina Blue and NC State Red pumpkins.

Boys playing "Titanic."

One making popsicles.  (umm...I'm not sure why teen girls make this face, but most of her friends have pics like this too.)

This is my ticket to board the RMS Titanic.  Such a cool feature of the exhibit!

He was a "bakery man."  Helping me make pumpkin bread.

One of the best parts of helping out in the kitchen.

Helpful boys helping me "mop" the floor.  I poured water out and let them skate around in socks to mop.

Spooning.

Flashback Friday

This week has flown by.

School-hmm, well, umm, errr...not so much.  The girls, yes, because their stuff is all on the computer and ready to go.  Honestly, I hope to actually get to school for Three over the weekend, because I mean, it doesn't really matter what days of the week we get to the work.  The weather turned GORGEOUS this week.  They've spent a lot of time outside.

We live on a pond, and there are baby ducks!!!  Baby ducks that come right up into our yard!  Baby ducks that if you sit down and are still will come and eat RIGHT FROM YOUR HAND!!!!!!!!  I'm a little excited. The kids have all fed the ducklings by hand, and they've been able to touch them too.  A baby duckling pecked at Four's elbow after he was done feeding them and he said "Are you trying to eat ME??"  It was adorable.

Yesterday, we attended the Titanic exhibit at the museum.  It was incredible.  Unfortunately, I had to take Three and Four (which was NOT in my original plan) and they were monsters.  But, we do what we have to do and we make the best of things.  In the end, we all got to touch an actual piece of the hull of the RMS Titanic AND a freshwater iceberg.  Win?  Yeah, we'll call that a win.

Today was LONG.  L-O-N-G.  But, great!  We left the house at 9:30 for a great park playdate "All About Orange."   Almost everyone wore orange, there were orange snacks (including some amazing pumpkin doughnut holes!) and orange games/toys/crafts.  I like this idea, and intend to plan one based on another color-I'll let Four choose.  After that, we headed to Kindergarten Co-Op where the focus was on smell.   It was at the same amazing park we went to last week, so we made an encore trip to the airport observation deck.  We won't be doing that again, at least not AFTER.  Maybe we'll go early and do that first.  The traffic has been HORRIBLE afterwards both times.  I thought we left early enough this time to miss it, but I was wrong.  After that, I had to stop in the grocery store to finish up some baking projects.  Then came home and made dinner.

I.Am.So.Tired.

Issues.

So, I didn't post at all last week, but my week was crazy.  Crazy for me is a level beyond insane for most, because well, crazy is just the norm here.  :)

The week prior you all helped me reach my goal of 100 views, actually surpassing it by 9!  109 visits.  SWEET.  Thank you to all of you who read, and shared, and pimped me out.  :)  And, then, I promptly left you hanging.  My bad.

I typed out a super long post with pictures on Sunday-entitled "A week in a day" as it included notes about Manic Monday, some links for Two for Tuesday, a wordy bit about life, a fantastic recipe for Skinny Housewife, Flashback Friday, a note about our amazing Saturday, and a ton of pics for Snapshot Sunday.  And, my phone promptly ate it.

I tried again yesterday morning, to at least get the pictures up, and type out a note about Monday but it was extra Manic and I just didn't get it done.

I'm going to try again because as I type my kids are occupying themselves.  Woot.

Last weeks recap begins-NOW.

Four was very into working on his knife skills.  Here he is cutting his bread.

Three building a spontaneous letter K with plastic knives.

On Tuesday, I had a date with my biggest girl.  Ok, so it was a dr. appt, but we went alone and made a target trip, a starbucks stop, a visit with one of my dear old friends, and had lunch out.  A date that does make.

Reason #1 you should stop buying toys for your kids.  My kids LOVE a box.

Reason #2 you should stop buying toys for your kids:  During our Target trip, I bought a new laundry sorter. The boys wanted the old one, so we let them have it.  It's been an endless number of things, but this was my personal favorite.  They converted it to an ambulance.

Reason #3 you should stop buying toys for your kids:  We had several overcast, rainy days last week and I made this race track/airport with painters tape.

Kindergarten Co-Op has been focusing on senses.  This week was sight.  They put on eye patches and tried tossing a bean bag to a friend with and without it.  Here is Three in his eye patch.  And, it looks like the teacher is poking him in it, points for the photobomb.

The park where co-op was this week was AWESOME.  Right on a lake, with this little beach area.  Here is an example of teamwork, Two and Three pulling a root from the sand.

Saturday we attended a local festival with bounce houses, pony rides, music, etc.  Here are Three and Four climbing.

After the festival, we attended a Pig Pickin'  (a decidedly southern thing) and enjoyed live bluegrass music, a yummy potluck meal, and a bonfire as well as just good times with friends.  Here are One and Two engaging in some sidewalk art.

(These are out of order.)  After co-op on Friday, we went to the airport because my boys are ALWAYS asking to go, and co-op was at a park less than a mile from the airport (which is a 45 minute drive for us.)  Here is Four ready for take off on the runway's and Three watching the construction AND an airplane taxiing down the runway.

Back to the Pig Pickin':  There was some serious cornhole.

This one is just funny.  :)

Yesterday was Manic Monday and it was more manic than normal.  One and Two only have 2 pairs of jeans  between them, and the weather has been chilly!  So, after our regular Monday of pottery class and bowling league, I left Three and Four with a friend and took the girls shopping.  We left the house at 9am, and aside from coming home for a half hour, we weren't HOME until 8pm.  It made for a long day, but the girls now do have 5 pairs of jeans total, plus a hoodie, another long sleeved shirt, and a pair of pj pants.  

Now, Two for Tuesday links:

As we are having a rainy fall so far, and I know some of my friends out west have had some snow already, I created a board on Pinterest full of ideas for "Less than Stellar Weather"

Some more fun fall ideas:  50 Fun fall activities