Moments in My Life - Monday

Here are just a few moments from my life on this particular Monday... This morning I photographed some beautiful snow that is now gone... Wasn't it beautiful?
Here it is on my lilacs:

At moments it was coming down pretty good...
A view down the street:

A lovely up close photo of the individual flakes... Beautiful: I picked up coats for all my blessings and myself today... I'm washing them so photos will be come in a bit... I made Chicken Mushroom Fettuccine... Recipe to come on Tasty Tuesday... Made a few homesteading phone calls... We finished the rest of our 'Family Movie Night' movie... We watched Race To Witch Mountain... Interesting movie... My husband picked it...

Friends Friday

Boys were off to school... Peanut went to test to see if she qualifies for any services or not... I have a feeling with all her gains she won't be in ECSE this fall... That is a good thing because she will be able to spend a whole year with Mommy before starting Kindergarten... She has shown an interest in knitting so that will be our fun 'girl' project we are going to do this year... Once the cool weather comes we are going to quilt together if she shows an interest and maturity for such an activity... She finished all her early childhood testing except for a few things... She will do those when she meets with the speech therapist next week.. The teacher who tested her and the speech therapist both worked with her all year last year and they also worked with Engineer his first year of ECSE... So, they know us well... Today is our 5th Anniversary for our marriage convalidation... We didn't do anything exciting to celebrate it... We watched half of Forever Young... We do more on our civil anniversary (10 years this year) which will arrive in a few months... I dropped the bars off at a friends to be taken to the parish bake sale... We rested and picked Monkey up from school... On Friday's respite staff picks Engineer up directly from school... We walked from school to home to drop off things then walked to our friend's garage sale... We were there 2 hours... I found 2 dresses for Peanut and if we can switch the handle from our wagon to theirs we will have a new wagon too!!! I had planned on heading over to MN for Play Date at the Park but the van was acting funny so we stayed close to home... We walked back home and did 'mail'... Thank you to my friend (and blog reader) for the wonderful card... It was special to read it... ::smile, tear:: Yes, I will try to be as prompt as I can be with updates so you and all my readers know what is going on here... Remember my some times cryptic messages are because this is a public forum... Always feel free to email me for the decoded version... ::smirk:: We had our first Sloppy Joe dinner... We also had Alfredo broccoli noodles and steamed broccoli... All the children went to sleep without much fuss... Woo hoo! I walked 16 blocks (1.6 miles) yesterday... Go me!!! I transferred my chicken scratch menu planning into a printed version... I design the layout... I also now have a complete respite schedule till move in day that I also designed (layout for that too) and printed copies for every one... My program I usually use I can't find the disc to install it on this computer... I didn't like any of the 'free' ones I could download so I just designed my own 'form' to fill in, that's printable, in the word processing program...

Saturday-Sunday

I was still not feeling well either yesterday or today... Engineer was upset because the air show is in town and the jets have been zooming across the sky... Fr. W. had a fantastic homily... Linebacker's fever is finally starting to go away... Fr. W. gave him a blessing after Mass... We ate subs and watched the air show from the sub parking lots with the younger children on Sunday... I have finished Peanuts, Monkey, and Linebacker's winter hats and currently working on Engineer's... We watched Nim's Island for our family movie night on tonight... We have a Yes and final move in date for Engineer... We will meet soon to talk out more of the details and start setting up dates to being the transition... He is very excited... I am excited too... I can't wait to see how much this helps him...

Super Movie Saturday / Special Request

Several new Netflix movies arrived today... I watched most of this new series called 'Christy' some times it is hard to watch because of what the people endured during that time period (1912 and beyond) but I enjoy it because of how they responded to what times were like... My husband's first movie arrived today too... He wanted Enemy of the State... I will not be watching it with him... He isn't interested in watching Christy... I washed several loads of laundry today... My husband had to work today... When he works Saturday it makes for a long day for me... Our oldest flushed the toilet paper roll holder down the toilet... I went to the local hardware store and picked up another then installed it... I'm not sure how he managed this task... He did clean up his room today when asked... We bought him a drawer to store his toys in... It is working like we had hoped...

I have a special intention prayer for one of my readers... If you could please prayer for M. and her family in this especially hard time we would both greatly appreciate it... Thank you...

Ash Wednesday

Happy Ash Wednesday... I don't know why we have Ash Wednesday... I just know we fast, don't eat meat and go to Mass to have a cross of Ashes put on our forehead... I will have to do some research as to the whys of Ash Wednesday... I welcome my readers to share their resources... I'm always learning new things as a convert... The children colored some Ash Wednesday print outs (photo to come)... I picked up a veggie pizza which the children revolted and refused to eat... I gave it to a friend and her family of 10... We had plain ole boring cheese only pizza for dinner instead... I guess I will know better next time... I have Mac & Cheese scheduled for the children on our first meatless Friday... Peanut had ST this morning... I tried to rest this afternoon but the Schwan's man came and knocked on my door... ::smirk:: I flipped through the new catalog and saw several items I'd like him to bring when he comes again... Nothing for today... I'm still fighting off various ills... I'm going to rest and watch my newest to arrive movie Kit Kittredge... She's an American Girl for those who don't know... I've seen Molly, Samantha and Felicity's movies... I'm not sure if Chrissa's movie is available through netflix or not yet... I will have to do a search... I wish I could go to sleep but the tub is clogged (read hair cuts on Sunday) and I'm waiting for my husband to unearth the snake where ever he put it so I can unclog it... Maybe tomorrow I will have some good rest time... We will see...

Tooth Tuesday

If you hadn't guessed by the title of today's message... Linebacker has his first tooth coming through on the bottom right... I don't think I've ever seen a cuter tooth! Amazing how we can take the most joy in the tiniest things... He has to show his tooth off to those he meets... The children are all excited and now they think he can eat all kinds of things... ::smirk:: I had to explain he needs lots of teeth just like them... He does eat his far share of items without the aid of teeth... Some of his favorites are bits of chicken and waffles...

Today is Fat Tuesday... To celebrate I ate a whole regular size Baby Ruth... It was delicious... I'm going to switch Tasty Thursday to Tuesday starting next week... I think I'm going to share my Northern Pike Cakes recipe... It is simple and oh so Tasty... Thursday will be Thankful Thursdays when I list 10 things I'm especially Thankful for that week... If I don't limit myself it would be a very long post... ::grin:: I have no staff today because it's the staff birthday... He waited till late Sunday afternoon to say anything so no replacement staff could be found on such short notice...

I had all three conferences today... Monkey is doing AWESOME... The district had tried to hold him back a year because of his delays but I'm so glad I pushed for him to be in Kindergarten this year instead of a year of Head Start before starting Kindergarten next year... He is doing well in ST, OT and PT... He will probably not need OT or PT at all after 1st Grade... That is very exciting... In general academics in November when writing the numbers 0-20 he could only write 6... He can now write 17 out of 21... Upper case letters in November he could only write 2... He can now write 13 of 26... Lower case letters in November he could only write 5... He can now write 17 of the 26... He won't need ESY this summer but we are looking into a delayed students summer program through the local city park district... He has had wonderful improvement...

Next was my oldest Conference... He is doing very well too... They found a way to help him write... He builds the letter/number using wooden pieces then he writes the letter/number... That is a huge improvement over last year... It was a struggle to write just one letter or number for anything... He is also working on putting his shoes on correctly (left on left foot) and tying... He can put his shoes on his correct feet 75-80% of the time... They also noted he had only had 5 time outs in about 60 days... Where it was 20+ in a month... He would only work for 5 minutes or less... He can now work up to almost 1/2 hour with minimum disruptions... All amazing improvements...

We loaded up and had to drive across town for Peanut's conference... She is also doing very well and won't need to attend ESY this summer... She will need to come in for ST but only once a week... I'm hoping to work it out with my oldest ESY schedule... She has mastered since she started in September words that end with M and T... She has also mastered the concepts in/out, on/off, over/under, big/little, up/down and open/close... She still needs to master words that end with D, P and N... She is also still working on the concept of behind... She spoke in understandable sentence length in September of 2.5 words... She now speaks in an understandable sentence length of 3.95 words... It surpasses her goal of 3.5 words...

Linebacker showed off his gross motor, fine motor and social skills... I'm not sure if I wrote about this but he was screened last week and had to score a minimum of 48 out of a 100 to not be developmentally delayed... He scored a 78... The test is only up to 11 months so he is advanced at 9 months old...

I'm finishing off today with fighting the laundry and watching Out of Africa...

Tasty Thursday

I made homemade 100% from scratch Sloppy Joes... Here is the recipe for those who are interested in making it for their families...

Crockpot Sloppy Joes

INGREDIENTS:
2 pounds Hamburger
1 Onion, chopped
2 cloves Garlic, minced (I use my garlic press)
1 C. Ketchup
3 T. Worcestershire Sauce (I use our fav Steak Sauce)
3 T. Brown Sugar
2 T. Mustard (2 t. dry)
2 T. Cider Vinegar
1 1/2 t. Chili Powder
Other Seasoning (your choice)
Buns

PREPARATION:
In a skillet, brown ground beef with onion and garlic... Drain off excess fat... Combine ketchup, worcestershire sauce, brown sugar, mustard, vinegar, and chili powder (and other seasonings) in slow cooker... Stir in ground beef mixture... Cover and cook on Low setting for 8 to 10 hours/High setting for 4 to 6 hours... Serve spooned over buns... We like to add a slice of cheese to our 'sandwiches'... ENJOY!

We seemed to all be sharing something... My husband is still recovering from what he had... My oldest is losing his voice... Monkey has this scratchy congested cough... Peanut has a milder version of the cough... I have this nasal thing that comes and goes... Good news it is warming up here... So, hopefully these annoyances will be short lived... My oldest has his pre-op screening for his surgery in Feb... As long as he doesn't have any colds before he goes under he is all clear for surgery... They are going to preform an Orchidopexy or Orchiectomy depending on what they find... It was a pretty quiet and tiring day... We were all up and down in the middle of the night and didn't sleep well... Tirediness and stress made for unpleasant conversations during those waking moments... My husband and I watched Waitress tonight... He bought it for me for Christmas... It is a very good movie... I love the matching outfits at the end... Cool if Peanut and I had little outfits like that... ::smirk:: I'm going to lay down and rest... Hopefully this nasaly thing I have will go away soon... It is really making me tired...