Change of pace

Yesterday:

It's 75% empty now, the garden beds are full and planted and my arms and back feel like jello from the workout. 

All night long we watched the radar, and I woke the girls up to take cover in the basement when the tornado warning call came at 1am.  I'm relieved we had our dead tree limbs topped last week or we would have had a real mess out front today. 

Today: last night's severe weather was worth it. Sunny, clear blue skies today, a cool breeze and bright green bursting everywhere. I could soak this up all day long. 

Who can resist being lulled to sleep in the rocker? The weather is absolutely gorgeous today. Sloane isn't feeling well, and no one slept a wink last night, so we are putting April speed on hold and setting a new pace that includes naps, takeout pizza, four square in the driveway, and Popsicles. 

"There's always money in the banana stand"

We introduced the neighborhood to chocolate dipped frozen bananas, today. They'd never even heard of them! 

If anyone else out there is missing out on this bit of goodness here's how to make them: 

Frozen Bananas

1) peel fresh bananas

2) cut bananas in half and stick a Popsicle stick in them. 

3) lay bananas flat on parchment or Saran wrapped baking sheet, freeze overnight.  

4) dip frozen bananas in melted chocolate (we used chocolate almond bark this time because it's easy to melt and work with. I think real chocolate tastes better) 

5) add sprinkles because sprinkles 

Next time, dark chocolate and toffee bits! 

April Speed

Life picks pace when the earth comes back to life, every spring. Throw in 100 field trips, school and church events, and you've got a snapshot of our lives. 

There is no order to this post. Just bullets updating life at Fort Willy. Here we go...

There are Legos everywhere. It might be time to adopt some kind of organization/storage system. Everything I see online looks difficult (for children) to maintain. Any suggestions? 

Soren, Sloane, and I met up with my friend, Elizabeth, and her twins, at Crystal Bridges for the monthly preschool play date. I love being around elizabeth because she has a wild boy and speaks my mother language dialect. 

Please hurry, Summer. The end-of-year schoolwork load is out of control. This poor girl spends hours working while her siblings are in the trees. Can't wait to be assignment free for awhile. 

Um tried out a new recipe this week and it blew our minds. 

Aussie Chicken

We left out the mushrooms because we aim to keep things as unhealthy as possible and also because most people in this house believe that mushrooms are nasty. But go for it if they're you're thing. 

Cook 6 strips of bacon (you like where this is going, don't you?) set aside 

Fillet (and pound out if you wish) chicken breasts, season with seasoning salt, then pan fry them 2-3 minutes each side in the bacon grease (yeyah!)

Place chicken on a baking sheet and brush with honey mustard (recipe below to make your own, OR a couple packs of CFA sauce would be a perfecto time saver). 

Top with chopped bacon and sharp cheddar. 

Bake 15 min at 350 and enjoy. Serve with healthy side dishes because you love your arteries, but not enough to cool it on delicious things like bacon flavored chicken topped with more bacon. 

Honey mustard

1/2c yellow mustard and honey

1/4c mayo and corn syrup (I used even less corn syrup, maybe half)

Onion powder 

A little squirt of BBQ sauce (like 1/2 tsp)

What it looks like when I try to use any restroom ever. My fans are die hards. And they need a cheese stick right now. 

Frog Olympics in the driveway 

The kids have quite the clubhouse set up in the woods out front. They have a secret password to get in (that the entire neighborhood knows) and they host emergency meetings. It's their own little Terabithia. Oh Arkansas, you are one gorgeous dream of a magical childhood. 

Soren rules the yard and plays hard. Too hard, sometimes. Keeping up with the big kids on his scooter takes a toll and his legs are are skinned and scabbed from hips to toes. Last weekend, he'd had enough and played in dad's car did an hour while we did yardwork (for a zillion hours). 

Aaron brought these home the other day. Fresh tulips appearing in my kitchen will never get old. I hadn't said anything to him about it, but it's like he knew I'd had a Monday of Mondays. My joints ached so badly all day last Monday and my endocrine system fraught back with swollen glands and fever by bedtime. I skipped night running and went to bed. I may never understand why body randomly freaks out like this, especially after being outside (hello vitamin d!), but a little rest goes a long way. Maybe that's all I needed. By morning I was mostly feeling back to normal and was even complimented at my yearly physical (where apparently you cannot discuss any health concerns with a doctor---someone please tell me what the point of a physical is??) when the nurse asked, "do you run? Because your resting pulse is freakishly low and so is your blood pressure...especially for someone with five kids." Yes! I do run! Thanks! You're welcome, arteries. ...Sorry about all the bacon. 

It was Soren's turn to host playgroup last week. How cute are these kids? I am so happy for Soren that he has so many little pals his age. 

This just makes me laugh. I canceled piano lessons Tuesday afternoon in favor of time together with the kids. Too much homework and places to be, plus a low energy mom called for a do nothing afternoon. We made frozen bananas, are burritos on the porch, and the kids wore dirt until long after Aaron left for some evening church meetings. That sounds like I did a lot, but I also sent the big kids out to play and slept hard from 3-4pm while Sloane and Soren finally napped.Thanks, neighbors, for knowing where my kids are! Mom of the year. 

I texted his page from the Marie Kondo organizing book to Aaron the other day.  

I think he's terrified, because he has a business trip coming up and knows there's a storm coming. I like to tackle projects when he leaves town, to spare him the stress of seeing the half finished mess. This usually involves a home renovation project, but I'm still working my way through the KonMari simplify process. (It's never going to end with all the papers that keep coming home. I feel like Kramer on te Seinfeld episode where he tries to refuse junk mail. "You can't stop the mail!" 

We are also planning a neighborhood schoolwork bonfire after the last day of school. No. More. Papers.

Preschool was a wild this week. It was like all of the children had ants in their pants--which was funny to me, because it's insect week! Good thing I had a lot of sensory activities planned. My favorite part of the day was the discovery of the worm bin. Every year, I buy love earthworms for te kids to observe abs play with.  The kids love it! Those well loved worms are now living it up out in my garden beds. 

I am getting familiar with this book again, to help the YW with theirs. 

Everything is tracked and managed online now, which is really convenient (less papers! Haha!). It's taking some training and time for a Luddite like me to familiarize myself with the system in a way that I'll be confident enough to teach someone else how to use it. I'm a slow learner in the electronic application department. I'll get there!  

I'm ready to see some green in this space.  don't think I've ever waited this long to plant. There's a trailer with a yard of compost in it sitting in my driveway calling for me and I'm going to get as many loads done as I can during naptime today.

With Aaron traveling and if being "birthday week", I've treated myself to a couple things. Mainly, not cooking a lot. We're having very simple meals, like haystacks, hot dogs, cold cut sandwiches last night and pancakes and eggs tonight. Easy button! I love to cook, but the break is really nice. Less dishes are nice, too! 

I bought a yummy lemon scented candle yesterday and it's filling my house with a happy summer citrus fragrance. 

Today, I picked up some starters for the vegetable garden and ended up with several other plants for mixed pots on the porch and this hibiscus tree that I stopped to admire 3 times. Finally, I just put it in my cart with a prayer I don't kill it too quickly. It's so happy! 

The front island recon project is owning along. I cut the ivy back and hacked away at the other stuff, pretending to know what I'm doing (I don't). I want some colorful flowers of bushes out there but really have no clue what will survive the shade and my neglect. Vegetables are so much easier. 

This is after most of the leaves were raked out. I'll spray the weeds today and mulch 10 days after never because mulch is expensive and a royal pain to maintain. I do wish I had taken a "before pic" though because this sad spot already looks SO much better than before with the foot deep pile up of leaves, twigs, rogue ivy, and pollen cleared out of there. 

My Corbin scored a goal at Saturday's soccer game! He's doing so well. Here are a couple of random pics from last night's practice. 

Our stake hosted a fun event called Family Strong for the community. There were mini classes, resource rooms, team building exercises, and lunch, all centered around strengthening families. We had fun together. 

I'll never catch up, but there's a taste of our April. 

I'm just gonna go ahead and say it

Barbie Life in the Dreamhouse is the funniest show on tv. I laughed out loud more times today watching one episode on Netflix with my kids, than I have laughed all week. Go ahead. Judge. Or join us and watch it, and you can laugh your face off, too.  This show needs more credit than its getting, folks. 

Spring Break Destin Ends: Easter in Memphis

We had not planned to be out of town on the Sabbath, and did our best to dress nicely for church. I fortunately had Easter dresses and shirts for the children and they sported them with rubber flip flops. Aaron and I wore the nicest things we'd packed which were, at best, mismatched but clean. At least the children were adorable. 

Church in Memphis was quite an experience. The ward choir had put together an Easter pageant of sorts that we won't soon forget. It was definitely a day for the books. 

The drive home was very pleasant. Everyone chipped in for 20 minutes and we had the car totally unpacked in record time. The funniest discovery was the last duffel bag, though. The clean clothes did NOT smell clean, and the removal of each item released a foul odor into the room. I finally dumped the bag and discovered a Baggie is saved seashells from our first walk on the beach, nearly a week before. Problem is, the shells had been closed clam shapes and been homes to living things at the time of their collection. I am alive to tell you that rotting shellfish is one of the worst odors I've ever known. It took some serious chemical intervention to de-stink all of Aaron's clothes! Good times! (Gag) 

Spring Break Destin Day 8: back through Memphis

We left Destin early to allow for some playtime in Memphis to break up the long drive...and ended up finding a hotel on Memphis for the night. Not the original plan, but the baby was DONE being in the car, and the rest of us just weren't ready to go back to reality. We visited the National Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Motel and arrived right before closing. We toured the outside and had our own lesson on Dr Martin Luther King Jr and the Civil Rights Movement. 

Next stop: The Duck March at the Peabody Hotel. 

Every morning the Peabody hotel rolls out the red carpet and parades their resident ducks off the elevator to the fountain in the lobby. And every evening, they are escorted the same fashion back up to their fancy habitat on the roof for the night. The ducks were adorable, but living in Arkansas with pet chickens has certainly taken the novelty out of seeing this type of wildlife up close in action. We were more impressed with the grand hotel. 

The rooftop view was clear and beautiful. 

We thought the late 1920's tile floor upstairs was fascinating. 

Our favorite was this fancy older lady playing piano in the lobby. She was glamorous, animated and energetic and very entertaining! 

For dinner, we just grabbed pizza and pasta to go from Pizza Hut and took it to our hotel room in Germantown. Aaron took the little ones out to explore hotel amenities and eat in the common room and Reese, Quincy and I settled in to watch the General Women's Broadcast on Aaron's phone, which seemed to be the only device able to get a strong enough wifi signal to stream the meeting. Q took notes on the complimentary hotel notepad and the boys brough us cookies when they came back. It was different from routine, but still a special experience. 

 At 9pm the children reminded us we had  promised to take them swimming. Aaron was exhausted from driving all day so I volunteered as tribute while he stayed back with Sloane. 

Of course it wasn't until after two diaper blowouts and baths that we realized we had zero clean diapers left! I guess that's what happens when you extend your vacation and extra 2 days! Aaron went to the store and I used Corbin's underwear and a hotel hand towel to fashion a cloth diaper for Sloane to protect the hotel carpets from a poop disaster. It was pretty funny. 

What wasn't funny was not sleeping that night. We have officially outgrown the single hotel room. Big time. The kids had a really tough time falling asleep, and out littles have finally grown past the size where they are comfortable sleeping  3 in a queen bed. Corbin no longer enjoys the makeshift "bed" from the armhair and bench, and Sloane just cried all night.  I knewaaron needed to sleep so he could drive the next day, so the boys ended up in bed with him, and I floated between rocking Sloane in the armchair and the foot of Reese and Quincy's bed. Q kicked me hard enough in the face that I just gave up and moved to the floor while Sloane crawled around on me. I don't say this to complain, but to immortalize the awful sleepless night and remind Aaron and I to pay up and get two rooms next time. It sooo wasn't worth the money saved to cram together! Not the best way to "end" a family vacation, but luckily, Easter Morning gave plenty of redemption and we finished on a high note.