Chicagoland in a Flash

The other day I told you all about the first part of our family vacation. Today I wanted to share the rest of it with you: Chicago!

It was our first time to Chicago~because flying through doesn't count. Vince and I have done big cities before, but this was our first time to do one with kiddos. A bit of a different story, I must say. But a fun story, too.

We arrived in town after a full day's drive from Ohio, just in time for the evening rush hour traffic~makes me happy to live in a small town. We finally made it to our hotel though and freshened up, then turned around and headed downtown for the Navy Pier.

There we took advantage of the children's museum's free admission on family night. The kids had a great time playing, even if it was just for a short while. I wish we had more time (thank you, never-ending-traffic), because it looks like a really fun children's museum. We only had time to explore a portion of it. The kids loved the *fort* room that was filled with nothing but furniture and things to make forts with. I wish my photos from in there had turned out, but they were all blurry because of the kiddos' constant motion:)

After playing in the museum, we headed to the top of the pier where it's like a carnival in the sky. The Ferris wheel is beautiful! Although I must admit we didn't ride it. I know Vince was disappointed, but I am terrified of them. I was willing to suck it up and ride with the family because they were enclosed cars, but Mr. B would have none of it. Apparently they scare him, too.
We did enjoy walking around and looking at the city lights though~it was a gorgeous view!

After a good night's sleep we were ready the next morning to head to the Legoland Discovery Center. The kiddos~especially Mr. B~had been looking so forward to this all.week.long. They were SO excited! Frankly, we all were:)

And it did not disappoint! Your first view of it is this adorable huge giraffe poking right out of the building; isn't Le-La cute?

There was just one exciting display after another in this Lego wonderland! I took a bazillion photos, of course, but these are some of the highlights.

The Star Wars display was definitely a favorite. We also enjoyed walking through the Indiana Jones jungle, watching a 4D Lego action movie, seeing how Legos are made, going on a couple of rides and much more!

The Princess was impressed with this Lego version of Van Gogh's *Starry Night*. It was amazing!

There was also a room where you could just play and have fun creating your own Lego masterpieces.
One of my fave displays was Einstein. He greeted us as we walked in the front door~his eyes even move! Quite impressive!

After that we had worked up an appetite and decided to try one of Guy Fieri's recommendations: Paradise Pup. It had some yummy, classic Chicago foods that we loved like Italian Beef and Chicago hot dogs. We had fun eating with the locals!

Then we were headed back downtown to the American Girl store. The Princess was in heaven!

And I must agree, it was such a fun store! Even for moms:)

My girl currently doesn't have an American Girl doll, but believe me, she has made her Christmas list and there's one on it. So...I'm making some plans.

Lucky for the guys there was yet-another-Lego store next door to the American Girl store. It had an even bigger selection than the store at the Discovery Center!

And of course there were more incredible displays! I could look at those for hours!

We were pretty tired by that afternoon~did I mention that Vince and I had both come down with nasty colds while on vacation? I know..boo! So we were dragging a bit. But lucky for us, all the kids could talk about (after they were finished looking in the stores) was going back to the hotel and building the Lego sets they had bought that morning. So funny!

So we spent our Friday night in Chicago grabbing some take out pizza at Giordanos and staying in to build Legos. It was a good night!

And it was a very fun vacation! The next day we headed for home and we were all ready to get there. We were full up with memories, a few souvenirs and lots of dirty laundry~home never looked so good!

Menu Plan Monday: Aug 29th

Can I just tell you how happy I am to be making a weekly menu again?! It has been one long month (meal-wise) and I am ready to get back into my cooking groove!

I've never been so tired of eating out in my whole life. Not that I haven't had some good food, but I could probably wait a week (or six) to eat another burger.

My kitchen has been the hardest room to figure out since our move and it's still very much a work in progress. I've got LOTS of painting to do and some more organizing, but at least I think I've finally found all of the kitchen boxes (I couldn't even find my knives until this past week!) and can now function fairly well. And thank goodness, my cookbooks are accessible again because I need some inspiration.

Last week I made our first homemade meal since moving in (Stouffer's enchiladas and pasta from the freezer section doesn't count): the Pioneer Woman's spaghetti & meatballs. Really yummy! Although I got a little heavy-handed with the crushed red pepper and the sauce was a bit too spicy...oops! The homemade meatballs turned out great though and I had a bunch to put in the freezer~now to come up with some great ways to use them!

What's your favorite way to use leftover meatballs? I'd love to know!

Monday: snacks & leftovers from the weekend (like I said, I'm just getting back into the groove!)
Tuesday: Meatballs (maybe in bbq sauce?) with mashed potatoes
Wednesday: Potato Soup
Thursday: Tacos (fave seasoning recipe here)
Friday: Stuffed Pizza Rolls with *Olive Garden* Salad
Saturday: Leftovers/Snacks

Now that doesn't sounds like too hard of a cooking week, does it? Gotta ease back into it slowly!

You can find lots more menu plans over at I'm an Organizing Junkie.

A Review: How to Have a H.E.A.R.T. for Your Kids

I recently had the opportunity to review How to Have a H.E.A.R.T. For Your Kids by Rachel Carmen with Apologia and I'm so glad that I did. It was a wonderful read for me as a homeschool mom just before we start back to school again.

I am familiar with Apologia's curriculum (our family loves their Exploring Creation series!), and I was curious to read this inspirational book geared toward moms.

*****

"As intentional parents we do not react, but we respond. We do not panic; we pray. We do not give sermons; we give scripture. And we are prepared to do so through our own pursuit of God, for His glory and by His grace."
*****

Rachel shares a lot of her family's homeschooling story in this book, but she also shares many nuggets of wisdom from God's Word in the five chapters.

She talks about:

• Have a heart for the things of God
• Enrich your marriage
• Accept your kids
• Release them to God
• Teach them the truth.

Each chapter is chock-ful of great truth and insight. I read eagerly with my highlighter! And at the end of each chapter is a *Heart Checkup*~three to five questions to help you go deeper and apply what you've read. This would help make this book a great Bible study for moms!

I just have to share some of the thoughts that really spoke to me.

*****

"When we attempt to rewire our children, we are actually rejecting them, even if we do not verbalize it. They can sense it. They feel it. Of course, we know not to tell a child we wish he were more like so-and-so, but if we're not careful, we can easily communicate this same negative message by our actions when we ignore or resent their strengths."

*****

"It is essential that we study our children and ask God to show us who these kids are for His glorious purpose. We need to learn their strengths and weaknesses so that we can equip them to be on guard, stand firm and not grow weary in doing good."
*****

The chapter on accepting our kids spoke to me the most. I personally often struggle with wanting to *improve* some trait in my children. This is not to say~and the book definitely does not say~that we are to be permissive and not train our children, but it was a wonderful reminder to me to constantly affirm my children and to encourage them in their strengths, helping them to grow and mature in them.

I love how Rachel puts it:

"Rather, acceptance means seeking His will and purpose for each child He places in your care. It means accepting and enjoying each one as a providential gift and a blessing from a Holy God, trusting that He will continue the good work He began by sending them to you and carry it through to completion

(Philippians 1:6)."

As I prepare to begin this new school year at home with my precious children~my gifts from God~I am once again encouraged by God's Word, this time through this book. It's full of wonderful verses that pierce deep into my heart and refresh my spirit to train my children lovingly and properly.

Even if you are not a homeschool mom, but especially if you are, I highly recommend this book! It is not a difficult read, being just 197 pages, but it is certainly a very worthy read. I am definitely putting it in my top 10 reads for moms!

You can head over to Apologia's site to check out a sample chapter and to order How to Have a H.E.A.R.T. For Your Kids for just $13.

And while you're there, be sure to check out their other great products!

Disclosure: I received a free copy of this book through The Old Schoolhouse Homeschool Crew and Apologia in exchange for my frank and unbiased review. The thoughts expressed here are completely my own.

Check out more reviews at The Old Schoolhouse Homeschool Crew blog.

On Lake Erie and Lessons Learned at a Campground

In the midst of all this moving process we planned a little family vacation for ourselves. It was good timing~even if it did leave lots of boxes waiting on us~we needed a getaway to relax!

The kids and I really wanted to go to the beach, but Vince wasn't up for it...it was too hot. Then I had this idea to head up to the Great Lakes area for a few days. They have beaches, right?! I grew up in Southern Ohio and had been up to the Lake Erie area a few times as a kid, but Vince and the kiddos had not. So we thought that would be a good place to head.

I'm glad we did, the weather was really perfect! We were only there for about 2 1/2 days, because we took our time along the way, stopping at antique stores or wherever we wanted.

We enjoyed one day at the Cedar Point beach and it was lovely! I had never actually visited any of the beaches along Lake Erie and was really impressed with the sand~it was just as soft and fine as any beach along the Gulf Coast. At least it was where we were. And the water was really nice, not frigid like I had feared:) The kids really enjoyed themselves, they are beach babies! They could play in the water, dig in the sand and chase seagulls all day long, day after day.

Our other day on Lake Erie we took a ferry out to Put-in-Bay island and spent the whole day just putting around, exploring and doing whatever again. Such fun and freedom!

And when I say *putting* I really meant it. We rented a golf cart for the day and I'm pretty sure that was the kiddos' favorite part of the island...heehee There are cars there, but tourist mostly rent bicycles or golf carts. The tandem bicycles are fun (I did that with a friend on a school trip in 9th grade), but the kids weren't quite big enough for those yet. Not to mention that my legs are not what they were in 9th grade either...ahem.

The little island is so pretty! It's very New England-ish, with beautiful houses, flowers and seafood.

It was fun to see flowers blooming that have been out of season in the South for several months now.

We just thoroughly enjoyed our day here. Asking strangers to take our picture...

...riding a vintage carousel (my kids have never seen a carousel they didn't love!)...

...eating lobster sandwiches on the waterfront...just a beautiful day!

We also took the opportunity to visit the national historic military site of Perry's Victory and let the kiddos earn another Jr. Park Ranger badge.

Now, I did say something in the title of this post about a campground, didn't I? Well...when we were planning our trip, we were trying to keep within a certain budget and be somewhat frugal. So while we were checking hotel rates in the Sandusky, OH area I thought I would check out some campgrounds, too. We really didn't want to bring the tent and all that goes with it on this trip, but when we saw this one place that rented cabins we were interested. The price was great, of course, but we should have done a bit more investigating...like used Google Earth maps or something:)

When we arrived and saw the cabin, it was cute on the outside...but on the inside it was pretty much like staying in a tool shed. Plus, see that little *hedge* right behind the cabin? Right on the other side of that (literally) was the exit ramp off the interstate. You can only imagine the noise. So. Loud.

However, the kiddos thought it was great and immediately proceeded to play Little House on the Prairie. I told you it was *rustic*. The big charm for the kids was the set of bunk beds. They decided to take turns sleeping on the top one.

Well, as it turned out, during our two nights there Vince and I got almost no sleep whatsoever. It got pretty chilly at night and we needed more cover~that we didn't bring~and we both developed colds. The kids slept well only on the nights they were in the bottom bunk. The Princess froze on the top and Mr. B kept waking up with the fear of falling off. We had to laugh about it all, because we were so miserable at the cabin. I told Vince that I realized I only enjoyed camping when we were just doing that, not going sightseeing during the day, not trying to look presentable for the public, just being out in nature...camping. Trying to camp while on a vacation doing other things just wasn't working for us. Maybe if we had an RV...

Finally, Vince had enough~the morning he woke up with the beginnings of his cold. We were actually scheduled to be there for three nights, but he was able to get a refund on the third night and splurged on one night at the Great Wolf Lodge. Yeah, the hotel with the indoor water park. We didn't mention it to the kids until we pulled up, but when they heard the words *water park* they were beyond excited!

And it was totally worth it! The kids couldn't have had more fun that night at the water park...hey, even Vince and I had a blast! Plus we really enjoyed that king-sized bed in a cozy room. I was even tempted to turn on the fireplace just because it was there and I could. But I thought that might be pushing it:)

So our time in Northern Ohio was very memorable and fun! Then we were off to Chicago...

Getting Settled In...Still

This month has flown by! It must have gone by somewhere in the whirl of cardboard boxes and freshly painted walls. I really thought I would be further along in the settling-in process that I am. This has been on of my rougher unpacking episodes. I think it had something to do with doing some remodeling right at the beginning, plus starting to paint right away, plus the unbelievable disorganized mess of our boxes in the garage..ha

Slowly, but surely I'm getting there though. Thank goodness!

I still have a very long punch list of things we want to do to this house though. I thought I'd share them with you...in no particular order:

• paint the master bedroom walls
• paint the kids' bedrooms
• paint The Princess' bedroom furniture
• paint some of Mr. B's bedroom furniture
• paint the hall bathroom walls
• paint the hall bathroom vanity
• paint the kitchen walls
• paint the kitchen cabinets
• paint the hall light fixtures
• paint the *new* hutch for the kitchen
• sand/stain/paint our dining table and chairs

OK, I'm not done, but I'm going to stop there because the list is making me even more tired. But you get the idea, right?

Don't worry, I've already taken the *before* shots and I'm taking the *afters* along the way!

We've already:

• painted the front, aka:reading room, walls
• painted the learning room
• built custom shelves for the learning room
• painted the hallway walls
• created a custom headboard

I can't wait to start sharing some of these projects! Even though they are a lot of work we are enjoying it because it's our house. It's just not fun to do things to a rent house~at least not for me~so I haven't really enjoyed decorating much at all in the past 3 years. But I'm having fun again!

Oh~and we are back online as of yesterday! Whoo hoo!!

Coming Off of Vacation

(in Put-in-Bay, OH)

I feel as though I dropped of the face of the virtual world this past week. Well, really this whole month so far. This past week though I have not had time to blog at all, even though the thoughts are swirling around in my head. If you follow my tweets (and you should, right? just kidding;) then you may have been keeping up with our comings and goings.

We have been on family vacation! Whoo hoo!

And it's really been a lot of fun. We really haven't been on a true vacation in about three years and this was the first one we've been on that's just been the four of us (no extended family). And while we do love our extended family and enjoy traveling with them, it has been fun with *just us* this time around.

We started off last weekend by driving to Tennessee where Vince spoke in the Sunday morning service at a church there. Then after lunch with our pastor friends there, we changed into traveling clothes and took off!

Since then we've spent nights in Louisville, KY, Sandusky, OH and Chicago, IL. We've stayed in a total of 4 hotel rooms and 1 cabin. And we've eaten in all kinds of places and seen all kinds of sights.

It's been a great trip!

Tonight I am blogging from Chicago as we get ready to head home in the morning. (And I must say that after spending what felt like half of our time here sitting in bumper-to-bumper traffic, I am ready to head back to my small town! I do love the big city, but the traffic is for the birds.)

I'm looking forward to getting back to our new home and preparing for our first Sunday~and life!~ as pastors, finish unpacking boxes, painting rooms, organizing my kitchen, getting my lesson plans done for homeschool...the list goes on and on.

But I just wanted to drop in and say *hi* to you all, my blogland friends. I have missed you:) We should have internet up and running when we get back home (yea!!) and I will be back in my groove!

Peaches from an Amish Farm

Do you have any idea just how many peaches are in a half-bushel?! Well, I didn't.

I know... silly, you say. But just so you know....I do know just how many there are now.

After I bought them:)

I am really enjoying exploring around the new area of the country that we've moved to and the Amish and Mennonite farms are so beautiful. One day I just followed the signs for *peaches* to one of those farms. I just couldn't help myself. It was late in the day and I really didn't expect them to still be selling...

...but then two boys appeared and waved me (and my mom and sister) on up the driveway. So of course I had to buy something. Turns out they just thought we were lost, but were happy to show us their produce anyway.

Boy, did my mom and sister have a laugh when I came out of the produce shed carrying a box with a half-bushel of peaches:) They knew that I had no idea by my sheepish grin. But the peaches were so pretty~and smelled so good~ I didn't care.

Except that I was in the middle of moving into our new home and my kitchen was in complete disarray. But that was okay. It took me a couple of days to get around to them, but I took a little while and peeled, sliced and bagged those peaches all for the freezer. We're going to enjoy us some yummy peach dishes all winter long!

Who's laughing now? heehee

*Walking {err...Driving} On a Country Road*

Here I am, back at Starbucks, sipping on a blended strawberry lemonade (which is absolutely divine, I must say!). We won't have internet at our house for a few more days and I needed a mental health break anyway.

Yesterday evening we took a little drive through some of the farmland that surrounds our new hometown. It is such a beautiful area! The pace of life just feels slower here...and I really like that. The town that we're from is only about 80,000 and while that is large by no means, Hopkinsville is only roughly 30,000. The town is completely surrounded by gorgeous farms and I just love driving by and looking at them.

Here is a little peek at some of the farmland mere minutes from our house.

I love the orderly rows of crops, in this case, soybeans.

Tobacco is also a large crop here.

Isn't that moon beautiful rising over the cornfield?

There are so many beautiful barns here! I'm already scoping one
out for a Fall family photo shoot:)

Did I mention that there is a very large Amish community here as well?
This is one of their farms~they are just lovely! I've already visited one to
buy some peaches.

I'm Back!!

Hey, Y'all!

I'm out of the house for a couple of hours today to run errands and get some wifi at our local Starbucks:) It's been a crazy week of moving here! And I've been missing blogland. You can only do so much on a phone and a tablet...ha

We've been in our *new* house for a week now~well, sleeping there for the past 3 nights, the rest were in a hotel~and we're busy digging out of boxes. Right now it seems like an endless task, but I know there will be an end.

We've also started doing some painting and today Vince is starting that project for the learning room that he's been dying to do. Yea!!

I'm sorry I can't post any pictures today, but as it turns out the usb cord wasn't in Vince's laptop bag after all. Oh well, we should have internet at the house within a day or so and then there will be LOTS of pictures! I've already taken lots of *before* pics:)

And that's my little update: moving, closing on our new home, unpacking, updating in the house, getting ready for a much-needed vacation, preparing to start back to school soon and gearing up for the transition Sunday at our new church home.

So, yeah, it's busy here. But life is good and I'm loving it!