Scrubbing the tile

There are a few odd chores the kids enjoy...among them scrubbing the floor (only when we are all doing it together) and cleaning the toilet!  Weird.  This episode of scrubbing the floor was actually requested by the kids after our regular chore time ended.  Lest you think I have the ideal, most amazing kids EVAH...the "regular" chore time right before this was p.a.i.n.f.u.l.  As in we had to practically use cow prods to get anything done and it took forever.  But with a fresh burst of energy, they all wanted to join in and scrub our tile.  It actually looks really awesome right now!

Thanks kids:)

Menu Plan

Silly boy sitting on the carseat with his "doo doo" mickey mouse:

Apologies for the long absence, a lack of pictures seems to be de-motivating for me. We decided to definitely get a new cheap "point and shoot" while here since although Daniel takes better pics, I take more pics, which leads to more fodder for the blog:). Anyway, other than that, we are all fighting of mild colds and plugging away with school and language learning! Louis is starting his vaccines for Cameroon soon (I had the consult with the doctor today...things work differently here as in you go in, get a prescription for a vaccine, go to the pharmacie, get them, keep them in your fridge!!, then take them to the doctor to get them injected. Interesting, huh?

So the next visit we will actually take the vaccines in to the dr. Other than that, nothing new here!

Here's our menu plan for this week by the way:

 Monday: Cabbage soup, bread
Tuesday: Crockpot Chicken Honey Mustard Drumsticks, Rice, salad
Wednesday: "Haystacks" or piles of beans, rice, meat, veggies, sour cream, salsa, etc.
Thursday: Whole Wheat Homemade Mac N Cheese, carrot sticks, peas
 Friday: Pizza pockets, veggies and dip
Saturday: Chili and Cornbread or Beef Stew
Sunday: Undecided

What's on your menu this week?

SNOW fun

A decent snowfall this week=fun times outside for the kids (and the cool dad who took them out while I was at class!) Louis was particularly enamored, and had to use all of his senses to experience it, including taste of course (as you'll notice in the last pic:).

Snow angels (or snow rascals maybe?)

Ca fait du mal! Someone is always getting injured or sad.

Yippee! Jubilation in the form of snow.

C'est toujours mieux de travailler ensemble (It's always better to work together!)

Did someone say snow cone? Not quite as tasty as I was originally thinking...

Menu Plan

We actually had an unusually productive weekend with finishing our newsletter and getting the house clean so this week has started out well.  We thought our big girl was sick on Sunday but she seems to just be a little sick today so that is really good (I was bracing for another round of the yucks!).  I had no idea what to make for dinner this afternoon so I knew I needed to make a menu right away tonight.  I usually waste less food when I menu plan too, so yay menu planning!

Monday:  last minute decided on a leek fritatta with squash rice flour muffins and carrot sticks.  Not too bad.

Tuesday:  White Bean Chicken Chili

Wednesday:  Lasagne, peas

Thursday: Duck Steaks, potatoes (had these in the freezer forever, now is the time!

Friday:  Pizza pockets, veggies (just did sourdough pizza last week, so need to stick do this)

Sat:  Homemade pigs in a blanket (didn't do this last weekend either, forgot to buy the pigs:)

What's on your menu this week!?

Puzzles, puzzles

Our girls have always seemed to like puzzles, must be because their mom has a degree in School Psych (aka puzzle-ology:). In addition to the puzzles we've inherited from other missionaries and gotten from grandparents, we've moved on to bigger things and Daniel found two 300 piece princess puzzles for 50% off this week. Here in two of the pics Daniel and the girls are working on the mammoth puzzle. The girls really got into it. Louis just wanted to be in the picture!

New Year's Goals

These are going to be New Year's Resolutions "lite". There are things I want to improve on and do more of so I'd like to remind myself what they are:)  

1. Read through all the kids' books on our bookshelves...I think there are over a dozen I've never even cracked open with the kiddos! That's too bad, I really need to read more with them! One of the things we actually started and have continued is to read chapter books to the kids almost every night while they are in their beds. It's been amazing to see how much reading we can get done this way and if I am lucky they fall asleep while I am reading!

2. Continue our morning family devotions (we are on our second go through now...we started when Marianna was two!) but we're adding a reading through the Bible in a year plan for lunch and dinner reading. I really enjoy it so far, even though the kids have a hard time being quiet.

 3. Work toward incorporating more fermented, probiotic and soaked food into our diet. I really would like to make more drastic changes, but I don't think it would work right now. So...I'll work on the little things. We already have kefir in smoothies a couple times a week but I wanted to do more of that plus make saurkraut regularly (and other fermented veggies) since its been successful so far. I just have to figure out how to get everyone else to eat it! I've been doing all our baked goods pretty much with sourdough or soaked (and with grain free flours)this year so far and it seems to help Marianna and I some. If I do it right it tastes good too:) Well, that's all for now!

Menu Plan

A new year and getting back to posting my menu plan here. I'd love some meal planning inspiration...trying to get out of our ruts! Here's what's on our menu for this week: Sunday: Had Sweet potato shrimp curry over rice monday: Had Lentil brown rice casserole, bread and salad Tuesday: Smoked chicken, baked potatoes, salad, peas Wednesday: Taco Salad (this is my go-to meal when I've overbought on lettuce...which is the case this week!) Thursday: Chicken alfredo over pasta, squash, broccoli Friday: Pizza pockets Saturday: Homemade pigs in a blanket, home fries, raw veggies Breakfasts: granola over kefir, eggs (scrambled, fried, etc.), sourdough pancakes or biscuits Snacks/Desserts: granola, fruit, sourdough crackers, almonds, peppers/dip, bean brownies, want to try coca cobana cake

Friends & house-sitting

Our good friends came and spent the whole day with us at the house we "house-sat" last week. And they survived:). That's always a good sign. We forgot to take many pictures, but here are the two that we did take:

We definitely miss having the yard and the fireplace that came with their house and it was so nice and quiet there. I do not miss having a huge house to clean and keep track of children in however! Sadly another camera has bit the dust...my cheap Canon I bought two years ago is now a thing of the past so my picture taking is sparse these days (daniel guards his nicer camera fiercely since I have a bad track record with camera survival:) I have a birthday coming up so maybe I can scour enough for a new cheapo camera then. On verra!