Sunday, April 22, 2012

60 Fun Things Update

It's been 10 days since I posted about the 60 fun things we are trying to do.  I'm crossing off the things we have done as we go along.  You can see it by revisiting the original post.  Here I'm just sharing some of the photos and details from our latest adventures.  In no particular order...

Beach fun--She finally learned to love the sand!
More museum fun, this time in Sugarland

Played with our cousins!

Found a new park with sweet hiking trails

Our trip to the zoo

Waiting for the bats to come out at Bat Fest

This is the rehearsal for the wedding, we forgot our camera for the actual event...

We still have a ways to go to complete this list.  It's exhausting to even think about it.  But it's a good kind of exhausting.  The kind of exhausting that makes you happy to be alive and happy to have a comfortable bed to fall into at the end of the day.

*Sidenote:  The best and most heartfelt wishes to my sister and new brother-in-law!  It was a beautiful wedding.  Thank you for allowing us to all have a special part in it.  And congrats to two of my sister-in-laws on the recent additions to their families!  We are so blessed!


Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Our Journey to 30 Successful Meals!

I'm sure I'm not alone when I say that sometimes I just don't want to cook.  The reasons vary from time to time. Sometimes the thought of dirtying all those dishes just horrifies me.  Sometimes I just feel uninspired by my ingredients on hand.  Sometimes (and this probably happens the most often) I'm just out of energy.  So to cure me of this horrible affliction we are embarking on a journey.  I've set out to make a list of 30 successful meals that our family enjoys and that are easy for me to go to should I fall into a cooking rut.

Now in order for a meal to be "successful" the majority of the family members have to give the meal a thumbs up.  Since we are a family of 5, this is pretty easy to achieve.  The other criteria is it has to be fairly easy to make.  I'm talking about one skillet meals or meals made in under an hour (30-45 minutes preferred).  And of course there is the healthy food quota that we have to meet...

So here are the first 6 meals on our list, in no particular order:

  1. Loaded Baked Potatoes
  2. Baked Pork Chops
  3. Chicken Fried Chicken (which is not very healthy nor is it made in under an hour, but dang is it good)
  4. Tostadas
  5. Homemade Pizza (with whole wheat crust)
  6. Chili Frito Pie 
Now all of those are just the entrées.  We of course add things like rice or potatoes, salad or fruit to the side. These have all been tested on my kids and they approved (or the majority of them did, at least).  But this menu looks to be heavy on the meat side of things (we are still doing a high calorie, high protein diet for Isaac).  So if you are of the vegan/vegetarian persuasion, there's a menu for you as well.
  1. Minestrone with Kale
  2. Asian Stir-fry with Edamame
  3. Loaded Baked Potatoes (I usually sauté a bunch of veggies to put on top and leave off the bacon)
  4. Homemade Pizza (I don't like vegan cheese, so this one is vegetarian for us)
  5. Creamy Lentil Soup (I sub the cream with coconut milk)
  6. Taco Salad with Cumin Lime Cilantro dressing 
Troy tends to like to eat less meat than we do since his cholesterol runs a little high.  I usually don't cook two meals a night.  I will alternate or make a simple meal for the kids (e.g. Chili Frito Pie) that allows me time to make another meal.  

We are all pretty happy about our eats these days.  Maybe because I'm taking special care to make things that everyone will like.  I would hate to make a meal that I couldn't put on the list.  Waste of time.   That, and we are happily eating leftover wedding food at the moment.  Oh, you should have tried the Pastalaya...  The kids loved it.  Maybe I'll try to make it on my own and then put it on the list.

So what's on your Successful Meal/Go To list?  I'd love to hear about it.  My kids would probably love to eat it for dinner.  Let us know!  And if you are interested in any of the recipes for the meals above, just ask.  

Thursday, April 12, 2012

60 Fun Things To Do Before Orry Turns 6

Allow me to set the scene.  Orry asks if we can eat at 59 Diner again.  I say no, but to console him I give him the option of choosing where we eat for his birthday.  Now, this seemed like a pretty good deal to me.  But to Orry is was a question of how many days until his birthday.  Not doing the proper math I estimated that it would be a little more than 60 days.  60 days!!  To a 5, almost 6, year old, that's like forever.  He was sure it wasn't going to be any fun waiting for his birthday.  And so an idea was born.  60 fun things to do before he turns 6. (Unfortunately yesterday was the 60th day before his birthday.  Thankfully we've already crossed a couple of things off the list.)
HMNS
Sidewalk chalk-check...  Fun-double check
  1. flying kites
  2. going to the beach
  3. going to the museum (HMNS)
  4. going to the movies
  5. finding a new park
  6. swimming in a pool
  7. taking a road trip
  8. going fishing
  9. going to the zoo
  10. making homemade ice cream sundaes
  11. riding bikes
  12. watching the transit of Venus
  13. sculpting with clay
  14. going to the arboretum
  15. going to the botanical gardens
  16. Children's Museum
  17. having company for dinner
  18. sprinkler fun
  19. making paper airplanes
  20. waterballoon fun
  21. have a dance party
  22. make wooden models 
  23. go to the library
  24. make homemade smoothies
  25. make hummus
  26. Zoobilee
  27. Parish Picnic on May 20th
  28. tie dying shirts
  29. music day
  30. making a wreath
  31. going camping
  32. star gazing
  33. making smores
  34. Bat Fest
  35. go to the Waterlife Museum (in Houma)
  36. go to a wedding
  37. drawing a mural (on paper)
  38. sidewalk chalk fun
  39. visit the new paleontology hall at HMNS
  40. scavenger hunt
  41. bake cookies (and eat them)
  42. finger painting
  43. building a fort out of sheets
  44. play with cousins
  45. celebrate Isaac's birthday
  46. eat a meal with no cutlery
  47. play frisbee
  48. make rubberband airplanes
  49. puzzle fun
  50. LEGO day/go to the LEGO store
  51. Aviation Museum (to see a P-40 Warhawk)
  52. wash the van
  53. snowcones!
  54. blueberry picking
  55. urban hiking
  56. visit the Williams Tower
  57. play board games
  58. visit the comic shop
  59. play hide and seek
  60. go bowling
Whew!  That a lot of stuff once you look at it all written out.  On top of going to the museum and playing with chalk, we have also gone to the library, taken a road trip, and played with cousins (I'm sure some pictures will make it up soon).  Since we are in Houma, we will try to get to the Waterlife Museum.  We will  also probably knock off going to a wedding this weekend as well....

I hope you are all excited about the summertime and spending some extra time with your tots.  Let us know what you are up to lately!  We may need some new ideas if any (or all) of ours fall through.  (And to any Houston moms, if you are interested in tagging along for any of this, please let me know!  The more the merrier!!  And if you are not a mom, well, same applies to you as well.)

Sunday, April 8, 2012

Once For All

Funny story.  Orry and Isaac were sitting next to each other in the back of the van.  Orry turns to Isaac and says, "Put your arms out like you're on the cross.  I'm going to hammer you to the cross."  I turn to look and sure enough, Isaac is sitting there with arms wide open and his head hanging down.  Crucified.  Orry had his turn at it.  I'm sure that he could give Jim Caviezel a run for his money.

I hope that everyone had a wonderful Easter weekend.  Here's a bit of what ours looked like:

Sandcastle #2



About to sing in the Easter Eve service

Way too early to dig into baskets in their underwear...

Hunting eggs in rain boots

2 out of 3 ain't bad
"For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God.  He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit."

Friday, April 6, 2012

Green and Growing

Winter came and went. Spring is here in full force. The days have been full of sunshine and gentle breezes. I hope that the already 85°  highs is not a sign that Summer is knocking on our door. But since the weather is accommodating, we took the opportunity to go ahead and start our little garden.

Orry and I made a class lesson out of it. We chose some seeds that we would like to plant. Cucumbers, tomatoes, parsley, basil, sunflowers, beans, and radishes. We examined all the seeds and drew pictures of them. When Troy came home he happily dug out a little spot for us. He and Orry got right to planting. (At this time I was really starting to feel ill from the flu that I didn't suspect I had.) That was March 23. 





We are following up on their progress as the weeks go by. We have many a sprout in our little garden.  It's funny that the plant that is growing best is one that was basically composted in our garden because it finally started to decompose.  That would be the pumpkin.  Also, our avocado pit finally sprouted!  (We planted it a year ago.)


I hope you are all enjoying your springtime.  And if you are growing something, tell us about it!  I also hope that the weather is treating you kindly and that you have a chance to enjoy these beautiful days!

Sunday, April 1, 2012

Waves of Optimism

We finished off this week with more rounds of Brainwave Optimization.  I will update you now and tell you that Isaac has been doing really well, physically and mentally.  He's growing leaps and bounds as far as learned knowledge goes.  He loves to do his "work" as he calls it.  It's a preschool workbook full of concepts that children should learn, like the difference between big and small, first and last, red and blue.  As far as his health is concerned, he seems to be fine.  And by fine, I mean that it's the first time in a long time that I forget about the diagnosis and really consider him to be just another normal kid.

We scheduled the treatments now (as in this weekend) for a couple of reasons.  First being that Grandma Tammy has so generously offered to pay for them.  We are so blessed.  The second is that doing the next round of treatments within a relatively short time of the first round will give us the maximum results.  It also helps us avoid the cost of another assessment.  And finally, Troy was able to help out on Saturday, when we scheduled two of the four sessions.  Remember, we have to wait for him in our car, so the extra hands do help.

I'm very optimistic about the results from this mini session.  Isaac is pretty sure that this work on his brain is going to make him a genius (his words).  I wouldn't mind the genius factor, but I'm just shooting for good bowels.

Since we were all together, and out and about, we decided to make an adventure of our Saturday.  Our adventure, going to beach.  I know, I know.  We've been plenty since moving to Houston, but what differed this time was the time of day when we went.  Usually we wake up before the sun does and head out there and enjoy the beach with few others.  It's nice to beat the crowds and the heat.  So we were really shaking it up this time.


It was pretty sunny and a little windy.



We rescued a tiny fish from the moat around our castle.


The boys did a great job making it look really ruinous.  


Here we are taking credit for Daddy's work.


Daddy found a small hermit crab.


Then he found some more.


Annie had to rescue them all.

Going to the beach in the late afternoon was surely a different experience.  It was pretty warm outside when we got there and pretty sunny.  We managed not to get burned, but it did cool off pretty quickly as the sun set.  We felt less rushed in the evening.  Troy even mentioned staying around for longer than we did, but the kids were getting pretty cold and tired.  Another difference was the amount of people.  We were not the only ones on the beach.  It's okay, a crowded beach and all, but I prefer the quiet time away from the people.  *Sidenote- What is this new mullet of a bathing suit style that women are wearing now a days?!  It's almost a one piece in the front and definitely a bikini in the back.  Huh.  Back on track.   The sea gulls were out in flocks in the evening.  I'm sure it has to do with dinner time/people out there feeding them.  But we managed to avoid any droppings, so that's good.  We will probably do the evening beach excursion again.  We will definitely do the early morning excursion this summer as well. 

In summary, I'm enjoying the wave that we are riding on now, so to speak.  Good health and great fun.  In my opinion it's a great way to start off the sunny season.

*Sidenote- Happy April Fools!