my blessed life

From the archives. This was originally published on June 27, 2013. (just yesterday here in Kentucky) Family picnics : these words may bring various visions to our minds depending on our families.  For my family these words bring visions of fried chicken, potato salad, baked beans , mac & cheese, pickles, olives, deviled eggs....mmmmmm  Yes, as long as I can remember this has been my mom's standard picnic fare. We ate A LOT of picnics when I was growing up.  My family owned a camper and traveled quite extensively when I was very young.  We hit every state park and national park that we could find for picnics.  And my mom would even whip up the a fore mentioned menu in our camper--amazing! I've been hungry for one of those picnics recently and just yesterday my mom was gracious enough to make it happen (see top photo!) .  She fried up the chicken and made her world's-best-potato-salad, I baked some beans and made the deviled eggs and we a...

  Here I go again with my summer school scrapboooking goals!  Last year I failed miserably and got nothing accomplished other than ordering a few photos.  This year I am much more determined ...and I have a plan ! :)  Anyone who knows me knows that I love to have a plan!   My plan is to get one grade for one kiddo done each week this summer.  For instance, the first week of June I was scheduled to do The Princess' K5 pages.  This past I was scheduled to do Mr. B's K5 pages.  This week will be The Princess' 1st grade pages ...and so on, back and forth, until I'm current.   OK.  I admit, I'm a week behind already.   BUT I did get The Princess' K5 pages completed!!  Whoo hoo!!  And I'm planning to make up some time this week and maybe get back on my schedule :)   I think once I get into a good rhythm I'll start moving more quickly.  Can't wait to be totally caught up!!   ...

So last week I shared my kiddos' summer reading plan but today I thought I'd share my own summer reading goals with you. I'm afraid that my stack of books for this summer is a bit ambitious but I'm going to give it my best shot! Here they are: Just RISE UP!  by Sarah Francis Martin: this is the book I'm going through with my church ladies for our summer Bible study.  I'm loving it!  Inspiring and challenging! Life of Pi by Yann Martel : I actually just finished this one this week.  It was such a good book ...and then the twist at the end really got me.  I have continued to think about it all week after finishing it.  Now I want to watch the movie.   Murder at the Manor by Agatha Christie : this is actually 3-books-in-1: The Seven Dials Mystery , Crooked House, and Ordeal By Innocence .  I'm currently reading The Seven Dials Mystery and thoroughly enjoying it.  Christie is one of my very fave mystery writers! Miss Marple, The...

This week has been full and fun!!  We began Mr. B's 10th birthday celebration on Sunday (a day early) with our special meal out with my parents and sister (my parents are so awesome to take us all out on each birthday!).  Mr. B picked Chili's this year.     On his actual birthday, Monday, he opened his gifts here at home.  Then we went to Chick-Fil-A for lunch (his total fave!) where we also enjoyed a birthday cookie cake.  Yes, celebrations around here involve LOTS of good food! :) Then Monday evening we drove to Union City, TN to spend the night and visit the Discovery Park of America on Tuesday.  The whole family went and we had SO much fun!!   If you have never heard of the Discovery Park of America it could be because it's practically brand new!  It's been open only about a year and a half.  It's located in a small town about 3 hours west of Nashville but it is well worth the drive!  And the ticket prices...

Summer break is in full swing around here and we are at it again with our Summer Reading Program !   Last summer I decided to develop a little system all of our own and it was a big hit--so much so they couldn't wait to begin again this summer.   It's really simple:  They get to fill in a spot on their reading bingo charts each time they read for 25 minutes (yes, I upped the time by 5 minutes this year). Every time they bingo they earn a coupon (things like: choose your fave dinner, buy one thing at the dollar store, go bowling, a family bike ride...  primarily these are free experiences or very cheap treats). When they black-out their bingo chart they get to pick a golden ticket (these are things like: $10 at Books-A-Million, something from 5Below, a trip to our local froyo place...  things that cost a bit more but not too much either) Every week they get paid .01 per page of every book that they've finished during that week and recorded in th...