I need to "Let it Go" --Friday Favorites

Y'all, I'm having a real hard time with this end of the school year. Last week was Carleigh's 6th grade choir pop show. She sang a solo, which I wanted her to sing for me beforehand, but she wouldn't. I just wanted to make sure she was comfortable with the track we downloaded and that she knew where the entrances were, etc. She would hear nothing of it. I was a little bit nervous. Oh.MY.GOODNESS.GRACIOUS!! Sister did not disappoint! She was amazing. She walked out on that stage and owned it! Sixth grade!!

Bad shot, but here Carleigh is with her choir teachers

Here's a couple of minute snippet from her song

Cora and Luke were playing outside the other day, and Cora broke out the hippety hop ball. I remember playing with those...so fun! Seeing the kids playing on them brought a smile to my face. 

Carleigh had her last dance class of the season this week. While she was there and Luke was at an end-of-the-year choir party, Cora and I ran a couple of errands, then stopped by the spray park for a little fun before Carleigh's class ended. She had a BALL!! She has such a sweet little spirit. She came over to where I was sitting and told me thank you for taking her there...warmed my heart!

Carleigh's dance recital was last weekend. I can't even tell you how beautiful she was. I'll have to post more on that later to give it justice, but here's a snippet...

oh my {heart}

Here are a couple of my favorite links from the week...

A great article from the Power of Moms about teaching our kids the importance of Memorial Day. I think Memorial Day is so important, and I am disappointed, to say the least, that our school district decided the holiday should be a bad weather make-up day. I'm looking forward to sharing with our kiddos the importance of Memorial Day.

The Power of Moms also recommended a summer learning program called Brain Chase that sounds totally up my kids' alley. I can't wait to check it out and order it.

A friend of mine sent me a link to the She Reads blog. I'm excited about reading this summer. My boy wants me to read Summer of the Monkeys to him, which completely thrills my soul. I LOVE that book. My fourth and fifth grade teachers read that book to our class, and it is one of my favorites. {heart} I'm finishing up the third book in the Mark of the Lion trilogy by Francine Rivers. Her books are so good. I love historical fiction, and these books send you right smack dab in the middle of the action. 

Y'all have a wonderful weekend!

My legacy in selfies

It all started with this lady...my mom. She is so strong. Such an example of determined faith. 

Sometimes I wonder what in the world I'm doing. I told a friend yesterday that I thought I would have it at least a little figured out by this point, being 41 and all. But I'm not even close to having it figured out even a little bit. I'm glad that God does. "All to Jesus I surrender/All to Him I freely give. I will ever love and trust Him/In His presence daily live." Prayer of my heart. 

My heart is a little achy with this one. The years are so fleeting. She only has seven more days of preschool. (She goes twice a week.) We were in the drop-off line at school last week when I snapped this pic. She wants to be big so badly. And she is. I want her to slow down. Aren't we all like my little preschooler, though? I wish we could learn to live in the moment and not wish for something else or something more or something different. How much do we miss? How much do I miss?

We are hot and sweaty. Taking a break after a bike ride.

My love. He is the one who makes me smile and my heart pitter patter. He loves me. He shows our children how to work hard and respect and love and laugh. He is passionate. I am blessed beyond measure. 

A little paint...a Friday Favorite

One of my favorite things is a before and after photo. One of these days I will remember to take a good "before" shot before I dive into a project. :/ The top photo is a before with a golden wheat color paint on the walls. I loved it when I painted eight years ago, but it was time for a change.

BEFORE: bad photo taken with my old jalopy phone...grrr!

AFTER: better photo taken with my new phone. :) Pay no attention to the dirty rug. I probably should have turned off the light. It casts such a yellow glow to everything. Oh well...live and learn.

 I finally finished painting the laundry/half bath section of the  kitchen/breakfast/laundry/half bath area last week. It's Sea Salt by Sherwin Williams, and I love it! Little by little I will finish the downstairs. Wish I could grow a money tree and pick off some money to hire a painter. Those painter people are well worth the money. Patience. Ahh. I'm learning.

A couple days late and more than a dollar short

Well, it's Thursday, but I'm posting my menu plan for "On the Table Tuesday" anyway. I didn't get around to posting last week at all. I'm sorry. We had a great week of food, and I wish I had a good enough memory to share our menu with you, but I don't. I erased our sweet little menu board, and it's lost forever. Actually part of it found it's home on each of my thighs, but otherwise, it's gone. You should know, I didn't get around to making dinner last night. I worked on Cora's big closet switcheroo all.day.long, and I was too pooped. So, we had sandwiches from Schlotzskys, and I might have devoured mine in less than 2 minutes flat...well, maybe 3, but who's counting?  Anyway, here it is...

Monday- Sausage and Tomato Rigatoni. It was a huge hit!

Basil from my basil plant. Isn't it pretty? I just love herbs.

What's not to love with ingredients like garlic, basil, mozzarella, tomatoes, and pasta? Target didn't have rigatoni (and I didn't have time to go to Kroger,) so I got the cutest chubby, twirly noodles instead. They made me smile. 

See what I mean? I forgot what they're called. Bottom line, any noodle will do. Don't sweat the small stuff. AND, if you don't have Italian sausage on hand but do have another kind, just add some oregano and fennel, and voilah! you have Italian sausage. 

We had dinner al fresco and were all transported straight to Italy! This is definitely a keeper.

Tuesday- Taco Tuesday! I know Monday was Cinco de Mayo and all, but I had to stick with Taco Tuesday. I used Edie's suggestion for guacamole, Kelvin browned some meat while the kids and I were at gymnastics, I added some chili powder, garlic powder, coriander, cumin, a handful of chopped onion and bell pepper when I got home, grated some cheese, warmed the tortillas, and we were good to go, amigo! Kelvin and I topped ours with some yummy green chili salsa, but the kids were wimps. The older I get, the more I like it HOT! ;)

Wednesday- was supposed to be Brown Fried Rice with Chicken and Vegetables (because sometimes you need a meat free day,) but like I said, I was too pooped to cook. Let me know what you think if you make this recipe. The photo from The Lemon Bowl looks awesome don't you think?

source

Thursday- Thai Chicken Enchiladas OH.MY.GAWSH!! These are so good. I wish I had the energy to make a quadruple batch. You'll want to eat them all and lick the dish. One of these days I'll remember to take photos of my food before we devour it, but until then, aren't these yummy looking?

Source

Friday- Date night. The kids are staying with my MIL!! Whoo Hoo! Yeah baby! That's what I'M talking about! Oh, I'm sorry, I got sidetracked. Anyway, I'm not cooking tomorrow night. 

Saturday- I haven't nailed it down, but I'm thinking steak and peppers on the grill with a nice big side salad. mmmm!

Sunday- Happy Mother's Day! I'm not cooking again. I don't know if this is even legal! ;) It's up to the man of the house and our offspring. They never disappoint, so I'm sure it will be great. 

So, I FINALLY got Cora's closets switched. Her bedroom was previously our office and the closet in the office was Kelvin's hunting closet. There are two closets in Luke's room, so instead of doing the big switch when we moved Cora from our room to her own room, I just put all of her clothes in Luke's extra closet. It worked kinda of well, but recently it's been a huge pain. Luke doesn't necessarily like for his younger sister to come tromping through his room to get to her clothes, and frankly, I was tired of hearing them bicker. The big switcheroo has been on the books for quite some time now, and I'm so glad to report, it's completely done. It's SO nice to have all of her things in one space. And now, she can reach everything because I bagged and bagged and bagged all of the size 4T to make room for the 5s. It was kinda of crazy how many clothes that little girl had (I sure do appreciate my friend who gives us hand-me-downs, 'cause this mama is NOT a shopper.) Anyway, I'm happy to have that chore checked off my mental list. Talk about a load lifted...whew!

So, what have you been doing? What's on your menu this week/weekend? Hope it's awesome! Share something in the comments below. 

XO

Kindergarten Round up

I just registered this sweet face for kindergarten at the big school. I don't think I'm okay with that. I'm worried about how I'm going to hold it together on the last day of Wee School. We have been there for 10 consecutive years. It might be ugly...I'm not a pretty crier. 

On the Table Tuesday

Hey there! How was your Easter? Ours was just lovely, really! We took an awesome bike ride with the kiddos on Friday, did an egg hunt and other festivities at church Saturday morning, went to Easter services Saturday evening, took it easy Sunday morning and made Resurrection Rolls, played a fun game, watched the girls wash my car, and joined some friends and let the kids swim until they were a nice shade of blue and covered in chill bumps. All good things must come to an end, huh?

Our family shared time together during Holy Week reading through some scriptures each day and discussing the symbols that led to Jesus' crucifixion and glorious resurrection. Treasures. I just love our Easter Heartfelt banner. Click the link and check it out. We also love our Advent banner from Heartfelt.

Well, now for the food....

Monday- We had hot dog croissants. Our sweet friend, Angie made these while we were at the beach last summer, and I remembered them when I had an extra can of croissants from the Resurrection Rolls. I bought some dogs, wrapped them in cheese, and then wrapped them in the croissant rolls, and baked those babies. They are so good. Dip them in your favorite condiment. I served them alongside some sliced apples and strawberries.

Tuesday- TACO TUESDAY! Whoo Hoo! It's my lucky day. We had fish leftover from last week, so I repeated the fish tacos from last week. Nothing like bringing a little happy to your day with fish tacos!

Cilantro and lime...two of my favorite combos. I hope the cilantro I planted will take off so I won't have to buy it at the store anymore. Not that it's that expensive (2/$.88 at the K-Roger), but picking your own is so much more fun!

I found another fish taco recipe I thought I would give a shot tonight. I gave the chiptole sauce a shot, which was pretty good, but stuck with my tried and true Cilantro and Lime Fish Tacos from Closet Cooking. Y'all, I'm transported to the white sandy beaches of somewhere wonderful when I've had that crema sauce. I could eat it right out of the bowl with a spoon. MMMMM mm mmmm!

Wednesday- We're going to give the Chicken with 40 Cloves of Garlic recipe a shot. There were rave reviews, and I have chicken and garlic. It was calling my name. I'm serving it over pasta. 

Thursday- Coconut Rice and Black Beans. How could I go wrong with that combo? I've made this recipe before, and I lurve it. So creamy and gooood!

Friday- YOYO- We'll be at a Zumbathon to benefit Emma's Hugs. If you're local, join us at Cedar Bayou Grace United Methodist Church at 7 p.m. Bring your $10 donation and a bunch of friends and get cray-to-the-zay with us! 

Saturday- not sure yet. Luke has a choir festival all day. It might be pizza night.

Sunday- probably cold cuts or BLTs. Luke has his last soccer game of the season. Hope they win.

And because I know you want to see my little darlings hunt for eggs, here they are...

Kelvin made them close their eyes. I think every one of them cheated!

It's all about winning for Luke. We finally made him stop so the girls could find some. 

How'd she get to be so big?

I was waiting for the swing to break so I could laugh. Is that bad? ;)

Such a sweet sister. Carleigh passed over quite a few so Cora could find them. I love her!

Counting the loot  findings!

Have a great week!


I'm Linking to the Organizing Junkie's Menu Planning Monday. Click the link for more menu plans.

Menu for the week

Well hello there! Hope you had a lovely weekend and made it through your Monday and Tuesday. It's time to menu plan for the rest of the week. Here's what's on our table this week...

Monday- Bean and cheese quesadillas. I used the leftover taco soup I made last week (sans meat) and blended the beans to make what looked like refried beans. I spread the beans on a tortilla, topped with cheese, and added another tortilla on top. Cook these in a skillet or on a griddle until tortillas are crisp on each side and the cheese is melted.

Tuesday- was going to be fish tacos, but I'm moving them further down in the week. Tonight is tomato basil soup and grilled cheese sandwiches. The weather completely freaked out around here, and it feels like fall instead of spring. Soup sounds good to me. The link to the soup is from way back when my littles were a lot littler. ;) Carleigh is six, so that means Luke is four. Emma was not enjoying the pumpkin patch very much, and Cora was still in the womb. My how things have changed.

Wednesday- Breakfast Bowls  I still have some potatoes and sausage leftover from the other night, so we will add some eggs and cheese to the mix and call it supper!

Thursday- 10 Minute Fish tacos--10 minutes!?! That's what I'm talkin' about! I love fish tacos. And lime. And cilantro.

Friday- YOYO

Saturday- hamburgers. I love the Teriyaki Turkey Burgers I discovered from Sasha at Lemonade Makin' Mama, but I think we will go a little more traditional and break out some bacon and jalapenos this time. Oh, baby!

Sunday- Easter brunch including Resurrection Rolls and Baked Egg, Tomato and Bacon Cups. I looked through my archives today to find a post about Resurrection Rolls but couldn't find one. I can't believe I haven't posted about them before. That's just terrible. They are so neat and are an exciting (and yummy) way to celebrate the resurrection on Easter Sunday. Check out my Easter board on Pinterest for a link to the rolls and some other really neat Easter ideas. I think I will talk Kelvin into cooking a brisket or some crawfish or something for later in the day.

So, do you have any fun traditions for Easter? I would love to hear about them. Share them in the comments below. I hope you have a great week. Hope to hop back on here a couple of more times this week. I have so many neat things to share. We'll see. I also have Easter parties and other stuff that has to be completed...like painting. Those walls aren't painting themselves. Painters deserve every penny. That's some hard work!

Toodles!

I'm Linking to the Organizing Junkie's Menu Planning Monday. Click the link for more menu plans.