Mundane Musings

*My blog is broken. Again. Stupid wordpress updater. I don’t have time to fix it right now, but I think I’ve figured out how to post using html for now. It’s not a fix, but it’s a bypass for now.

*The kids had a GREAT time at camp. I’ll have pictures soon!

*Seth didn’t win the Mr. Firecracker thing for our town celebration. But he still got to ride in the parade. I’ll have pictures of that too!

*We’re spending a lot of time at ball fields lately. We had seven games last week and six games this week. Noah is done for the season. Again, I’m promising pictures soon.

*Chip’s aunt and uncle are down from Fargo, ND this week. Looking forward to spending some time with them this week.

*I have some recipes that I’m going to post tomorrow for Works For Me Wednesday – it’s a special theme WFMW with favorite summertime recipes.

I used the computer for about 20 minutes on Saturday, only for church stuff on Sunday and didn’t turn it on at all yesterday! It was a nice break!

Saturday was a busy, busy day. After playing an 8pm game on Friday night, Kait had to get up and play at 9am on Saturday morning. We had to leave the house at 8am to be there on time. But she got to catch both games and *loved* every second of it! She was a bit sad she was going to have to miss just one game this week while she’s at camp. (However, if it doesn’t clear up, they aren’t going to be able to play tonight anyway). We have an 8pm game again on Friday night.

Saturday night, we all went over to Macon County Speedway to watch Chip drive in the “Faster Pastor” race.

Chip is in the yellow car, his friend Kevin is in the blue car

He finished 4th and only one person was able to get buy him! That person ended up winning the race and was an actual racer who happened to be a pastor. Most of the pastors racing had never raced before or had only done it a handful of times in the past. We had a great time. I’ll have some more pictures of the race on Friday.

Sunday morning, I woke up early. On my own. I got up to finish up stuff for our services and almost had a heart attack. Our external hard drive would NOT work. It’s making an awful clicking noise. That can not be good. So, I had 2 hours to redo everything we needed for our Sunday morning service. YIKES! I managed to get it done and get myself and our 4 kids to church only 5 minutes later than we normally get there.

After church, Chip’s parents stayed and ate lunch with us. His mom and I went and got the few last minute things we needed for camp for the kids for this week. His dad stayed here and watched 6 kids (our 4 plus the 2 kids of some of our favorite people in the world). I guess they had a good time. When we got home, we got to hear all about how PawPaw let them shoot the BB gun in the yard. They were all smiles!

The older two boys went to youth group that night and then afterward our youth leader stayed and played with all of the kids in the yard. My kids *love* him! He’s a great guy and I’m so thankful for the work he’s doing with the few teens we have! They’re having a great time and learning along the way! He encouraged them to fast on Monday morning, and they both did! They escaped to the church to pray for a while during breakfast. Can’t say I blame them – they both agreed to fasting knowing full well that I was making biscuits and gravy for breakfast. It really was a sacrifice for them.

Monday morning, I got up early again and with lots of help from my WONDERFUL husband, got 6 kids ready to go to camp! We breakfasted, showered, finished packing and loaded up the van!

Back row: Kaitlyn, Isaac, Race, Elijah, TJ, BreeAna, Jon Front row: Noah, Brianna

About 40 minutes away from camp, it started raining! The forecast looks like it could be a soggy week for them, but I’m sure they’ll have a blast!

After we got home, we drove into town and took Seth to the mall at his request. He wanted to go to the pet store. And GameStop. The boy knows what he likes.  We finished up our erranding and came home. Seth played in the yard with Kait’s best friend and her cousin for a while. We basically just settled in for a quiet night at home.

We did get a text message from our youth guy who is Noah’s counselor at camp this year telling us he won the “Best Kid award” for the day at camp! WOOT! I know he’s a great kid, but it’s great that someone else sees it too!

It should be relatively quiet this week with just Seth at home. I’m already missing the other three and can’t wait to see them all when we pick them up on Friday!

This guy…

This girl…

This guy…

And of course this guy…

(all of the pictures were actually taken back in March by Chip’s brother-in-law while we were visiting them and their new baby Lars. They don’t seem to stay still long enough for me to take pictures right now).

Wordless Wednesday

With all of the busyness that we’ve experienced lately, my house is suffering. Even more than my blog if y’all can believe that? (I’ll be most of you are asking yourselves what I’m doing blogging two days in a row – if that’s not proof miracles happen, then I’m not sure what is).

We have 2 ball games tonight. At the same time. Thankfully our two are on teams with friends kids, so we’re splitting the difference tonight for ball games. The guys are going to the boys game. The girls are going to the girls game. And then we’re all meeting back up here for dinner after the game. (I think that’s still the plan. Guess I should put checking on that on my list of things to do today).

I’m so glad that these are people who will be coming to spend time with us and not to see our house. Because I have a *lot* to do today and I’m not sure it can all be done before we have to be out the door at 5pm!

Living Room

• General pick up
• Sweeping
• Swiffering (giggle away ladies – I’ll be doing this in ALL the downstairs rooms today. Told you I’d be busy. ).
• Dusting
• Organize the video games/videos
• Wash front window
• Vacuum couch
• Wash, dry, put on couch covers

Dining Room

• General pick up
• Clean off the dining room table
• Get books on table ready for the mail  and off the table
• Clean up bookshelf
• Return books to the library to be counted for reading program
• Sweep
• Swiffer
• Dust

Kitchen

• Clear and wipe down counters and stove
• Give haircuts (Chip and Noah)
• Sweep
• Swiffer
• Make Crockpot Pizza, cut up bread, etc… for dinner tonight

Office

• Have kids pick up their toys
• Sort through miscellaneous papers that have appeared on the desk
• Sweep
• Swiffer
• Fold laundry that has invaded the dining room and will have been  moved to the office by this point in the list
• Turn futon back into a couch instead of a bed

Bathroom

• Get Chip to clean bathroom (I think this is my favorite room on the list)
• Carry laundry to the basement

So, that’s it. But I think it’s enough, don’t you? And the good news is that the older three kids will all be at camp next week, so if I can make it through this week and keep it all clean, that means it will actually STAY clean for more than 4-5 days! WOOT!

What’s on YOUR agenda for today?

I had a brilliant post all ready to go this morning. I hit the “Publish” button and it all went away. I have no idea what happened. I had to just walk away so I wouldn’t smash the computer to bits. A friend says that maybe my blog is just getting back at me for neglecting it so much lately. I think she might be right.

But there is this bright, shining orb in the sky most days (at least for part of the day) that just draws me outside to bask in it’s warmth. I love summer and sunshine! So I’ve put down my laptop and traded it in for books that can be transported to various sunny spots on the porch. The laptop screen is just too hard to see in the sunshine.

We’ve been crazy busy with ball games lately. Elijah’s team played a FANTASTIC game on Saturday. They were down by 5 going into the last inning and game back to win it all! I love games like that.

Playing ballgames 4-5 nights a week has made menu planning a bit interesting to say the least. I thought I had dinner all planned out for the week, but I’ve already had to make an adjustment to what I thought would be the menu because today simply didn’t have enough hours in it to get everything done.

I made Taco Pie after seeing a recipe on Blissfully Domestic. I was able to make the meat before we left for the game and it only took about 5 minutes to finish up when we got home. It was really yummy and gets a huge recommendation from everyone in our house. The kids have already asked when we’ll have it again.

So, here’s the menu…

Monday – Taco Pie

Tuesday - Crockpot Pizza

Wednesday – Chicken Wraps

Thursday - Three Cheese Baked Pasta

Friday - Carnitas

Saturday – Texas Cowboy Pie

Sunday – Pizza

So readers, are you still with me? Tell me what meal you’re looking forward to most this week!

I had my menu plan monday post ready to go. I hit the button to preview my brilliant post and everything CLOSED! I came back into it and it never saved as draft.

I’ve about had it with my blog host. Seriously. This is ridiculous.

And now I’m out of time. I’ve got to get ready for lunch and shopping and such. I’ll be back later with my menu and such.

This is just ridiculous. Sorry, readers. I’ll be back.

It’s Tuesday and still no cord for the laptop. And I’m being forced to do computer work on the ancient desktop that we use as little as possible.

I’m attempting to get the rest of Chip’s financial aid paperwork filled out for the fall semester. I’m very thankful for financial aid because we wouldn’t he wouldn’t be able to do it without it, but oh. my. word. with the paperwork already!

Apparently those in Washington have decided that they need to waste even more of my time by making me fill out a “verification” worksheet? It’s a form that I can’t fill out without our 1040 right in front of me. A form that I have to send in WITH our 1040. It’s ridiculous the amount of information that we have to provide in order to prove that we really are who we say we are.

Like for our daughter, for instance. We recently had an issue with the state of IL needing her birth certificate.  Um, shouldn’t they already have that? You know, her being BORN IN THE STATE and all? Ridiculous! And of course, the state doesn’t automatically just GIVE you a copy of the birth certificate when you’re born. I can see maybe making people pay for a copy, but shouldn’t at least a copy be mailed to the parents when the child is born?

In other news…

Ball season is underway. Noah played his first “real” game last night. It’s always a comedy o

• I may end up MIA. Even more than normal.
• Our laptop power supply no longer works. I’ve ordered a new one, but it’s going to be later this week before it gets here. One of our desktop computers is completely dead. The other is on it’s way. May was *not* a good computer month in our house.
• Not that we have much time for being online. Baseball and softball season is upon us. Keeps us hopping!’
• If I go missing, you’ll still be able to keep up with me on Twitter or right over there in the margins!
• It’s a BEAUTIFUL day outside today! In the high 70’s and very sunny!
• I’d say something about how the ground is almost dried out, but I’m afraid that might make it rain again. So, I won’t be saying anything about that!
• We’re just about done with school for the year! WOOT! I think I was as ready as the kids for school to be done.
• The kids leave for camp in just 2 weeks! Really hoping we’ll be able to make a trip to see some friends for a few days while they are gone. I miss Chicago! And really, really want some pizza!

Today was a BUSY day. We woke up this morning to thunderstorms. Which meant that the Memorial Day celebration that is usually in the cemetery across the street from our church would need to be moved inside the church. It was an honor and a privilege to be able to serve our community in this way. Until last year, I never knew anyone (no matter how remotely) that had been KIA (killed in action). I always thought that I understood what it was all about. But now I actually know real people are are celebrating the life of someone who died fighting for their country. It’s changed my perspective on it all a bit. It brought it home for me.

After the service, we spent some time getting the house ready, napping and just hanging out. Chip did most of the cleaning. My back/shoulder has been giving me fits lately. My husband is my hero. I know a lot of women who complain about how their husbands never help out or take care of the kids. Not my man! Not only is he a natural with the kids, when I’m down, he really steps up. He’s an amazing man and I love him more than words can even describe!

We had friends over for dinner tonight. It was great seeing them. And while we’re about to see a *lot* of them with baseball/softball starting, it’s just different when you’re sitting together in a crowd than it is when you can have one on one time. Kevin is a pastor as well, so we have a safe place we can go to talk about the things that are unique to ministry families and get some perspective. And Margie? She’s a peach! She’s not all girly and needy in our friendship. She’s a rare gem and I’m so glad that our paths have crossed.

I made up my grocery list and did my shopping last week. I had my menu all planned out. Some great things on the list. And as I put it up on the white board that hangs in the kitchen, I realized that it’s going to be tricky to make it all work since we have baseball and softball games starting this week. We’ve got some picky eaters and some that don’t do well when we eat too many processed foods. So, we try to eat organic or “pure” (foods without many additives) as much as possible. Which is tricky when you’re on the go 5 days a week.

So, I’m going to try my best to stick to our menu for this week. And come up with meal ideas for the future that won’t require numerous trips through the drive thru of fast food restaurants.

Monday – grilling out (brats, hamburgers, baked beans, noodle salad, chips, etc…)

Tuesday – Chicken in lettuce cups (I plan to blog this recipe tomorrow. It looks delicious!)

Wednesday – Feta cheese and cherry salad

Thursday - Jamaican jerk chicken with sweet potato fries

Friday – Italian beef

Saturday – I am completely unsure what we’ll eat this day. I’m considering letting the kids choose.

Sunday - Chicken Spaghetti

So, what’s on your menu for this week? Anyone have a delicious idea for a meal that travels well?

• Woke up with a migraine this morning. Struggled through church. Came home and took a nap and it was even worse when I woke up.
• Missing the Okaw Valley Baccalaureate service tonight because of said migraine. Stupid migraine.
• I love to hear the sound of my friends giggling in the yard with their friends.
• Looked out the window to see Kait and her BFF taping themselves together with electrical tape. And laughing as they tried to walk across the yard. Made me smile.
• Elijah and his BFF (what do they call it for guys – his “homeboy”? rofl) were talking with me today after church about the 4th/5th grade dance (don’t even get me started on it). I guess they played ring around the rosy so they would have a reason to hold hands with the girls. Lots of stupid grins going around.
• Stupid grins were traded in for the serious business of seeing who could blow and empty soda can the farthest along an 8ft table.
• Chip’s leaving me tomorrow for two days for District Council. By myself. With four kids.
• I’m not so worried about being alone with the kids. But I’m going to miss my husband terribly. I do *not* sleep well when he’s gone. I’m glad it doesn’t happen often.
• My kids are getting very excited about Barefoot Sunday coming up the first Sunday in June.
• We signed the kids up cheerleading (Kait) and football (Elijah) yesterday. Which means we now have things on our calendar until mid-October.