Our boys LOVE to play football every year.  They look forward to the following year the day after the season ends of the current year. 

This year is the first year that Dane is old enough to play after tagging along to games for a couple years.  He was ECSTATIC!  (that’s him in the brown with his best buddy) – LAST year…

 
We have our boys play football because:
- It teaches them Sportsmanship, Honoring Authority, Teamwork, & Skills
-It keeps them Active & Physically Fit
-They Enjoy it!
-They get to Interact with other kids outside of our church and their little private school
-It Builds Self Esteem
-I Enjoy that Time with the other moms and families

But this year they are not playing…  This was such a HARD decision for us… and honestly I couldn’t even blog about it until now because I was still just sad about the whole thing.  They got all their equipment, they went to ONE practice and that was it.  WHY?

When we signed-up we specifically asked what day the games were on (you see last year they did some Sat. and some Sunday)  Their answer was mostly Sat. a couple Sunday.  Great!  (we much prefer Sat. but could handle a couple on Sunday)  Well… turns out they changed ALL the games to Sunday’s.  Sunday at our house is church day and family day.  We have Bible Study and Youth Group at our house in the evenings on Sunday’s.  They also had our boys (we had 3 playing this year) playing at the SAME time on DIFFERENT fields in DIFFERENT towns – on SUNDAYS.  So logistically it just wasn’t going to work out.  AND… we strongly believe that Sunday should not be filled with extra-curricular sports. 

It was a very HARD decision, and it was SAD… but we as a family decided to DROP-OUT of football…  We mourned and moped.. but…

Now that it is said and done – I think we are all glad we made the decision.  We now have our afternoons from 5:15 – 7:45 free (normal practice time) AND we aren’t rushing around on Sunday.  (Or Sat. for that matter)  Practice started mid-July so it was almost like we were able to reclaim the remainder of our summer.

We did take the boys to watch their friends play last Sunday.  Our kids had fun serving as water boys, eating concession stand food, and just hanging out.  In the long run, the decision was RIGHT for our family. 

How about you?  Does your town have kids sports on Sunday?

C-

I’ve been out of the office a lot lately…  We’ve been busy doing things like:

Riding on rides at Indiana Beach

  
Riding in Horse Drawn Carriages @ Rockome Gardens

and

 
Playing at the Skate Park

To name just a few…

This blog has been neglected a bit (it should pick up again soon), but in the summer it is of upmost  importance to me to spend LOTS of quality time with the kiddo’s.  I am so sad that school is starting back up 2 weeks from today.  I wish summer could just go on ‘n’ on ‘n’ on…  Yet it seems summer just flies by faster and faster each year. 

I am hoping that you are having an enjoyable last few weeks of summer as well, and I promise… I’ll see you more very soon!

In the meantime, I’m off to cuddle my pumpkins.

Christine

We took a few days off – totally unplugged… okay, I had my cell phone and checked email once a day… but I didn’t respond to anything unless it was uber important (which was like 2)…  We went to family camp – I kind of went kicking and draggin my feet – you see the kids would miss their first few days of football practice, they would miss their swim team party, it is a lot of work to pack up, Matt’s parents would be leaving earlier if we went… so many things on our plate, so many EXCUSES…  Funny how life gets in the way sometimes.  But we went…  And now I’m glad we did – we needed time away to recharge, worship as a family (It was church family camp – and since Matt is a pastor, he doesn’t get to just sit back and worship and listen to teaching very often), let our kids meet new friends, and just have an all out relaxing time. It was good.  (well minus the walk-in clinic visit I had to make for a allergic reaction rash I ended up with… but that’s okay – I got medicine and all is good)

Now we’re back to reality – the phone hasn’t stopped ringing, there are piles of laundry everywhere, mail covers my kitchen counter, I have 1023 unread emails to attend to (after I have already waded through many) the kids rushed off to guitar lessons and football practice, and the evening brought stress as they announced that all football games have been moved to Sunday instead of Saturday – which is not really okay with us…   (but that is probably a whole other blog post.) 

But life is good…  

Christine

P.S.  Yes, if you are a Dine Without Whine Member, I know my assistant accidentally sent out the same menu as last week today.  I emailed her tonight, and hopefully she will be able to send out a new one very soon!  So sorry about that! 

How is everyone?  My in-laws are visiting for the next couple weeks – they arrived on Saturday.  We are having a nice time together.  Matt has taken a few days off work to get some projects done around the house and on his car and our camper. 

The boys had their last two swim meets Monday and Tuesday.  I was sooo proud of them!  They really showed a lot of improvement the last couple meets.  We now have 3 whole days off from any sports involvement before football starts!  What a nice break huh?

We actually won’t be attending the first week of football practice though because we’ll be at family camp (which I have considered not attending for many reasons, but that’s a whole other story)…

We went swimming with friends today and all out enjoyed the HOT weather we are having.  We also came home with two new kittens.  They are so friendly and happy, but our other kitty seems to have disappeared (after spotting the new ones overtaking her outside house).  Hopefully she will be back soon and learn to share her territory with the babies. 

Tonight my mother-in-law and I went shopping for a bit.  Walgreens has some good back-to-school deals this week (did I just say that… “Back to school”???  Can’t believe it is time to think about that!  WOW!

Tomorrow (or I guess today – it is already 1 a.m.) we are heading off to our county fair for some good old fashioned summer fun.  If we get there before noon it is only $5 for our entire car load!  HMMMM wonder if we can fit all 8 of us into our big ol’ Suburban!  (It’s designed to hold 7)…  We told the kids no rides since we just did rides at Indiana Beach when my parents were here, but grandpa told them he is paying for rides… so we’ll see…  It is supposed to be extra HOT with the heat index possible over 100 so it should be just lovely miserable.  My goal is to be outa there by early afternoon and then return in the evening for the demo derby.  Gramma volunteered to stay home with Annika, so that sounds like a good plan to me!  Hopefully we can meet up and sit with some friends for an extra fun time! 

Okay, I guess I really should go to bed.  I hope you are having a great week!

Christine

P.S. Have any of you heard of YUM Magazine?  If so, what do you think of it?  I was contacted by them this week, but had never heard of them.  I need to go find an issue and check it out!  Apparently they have a new Kids YUM Magazine coming out this month as well…

 
My parents were here this week, and we went on a quick
weekend camping get-away.

 
       We did some of this… (look at those BLACK feet!) 

 
                                And some of this…

 
                                 And of course this…

We even threw in some shopping and sleeping and eating… 

                     Oh, and some fireworks watching

So how about you?  What were you up to this weekend?

Hello!  Can it already be the 4th of July almost?  Wowzers! 

My parents are visiting this week.  We only see them one week a year, so we’re trying to soak it up and do lots of fun things with the kids!  We’re heading out to go camping tomorrow for a couple days at Indiana Beach.  The kids are ecstatic!  Yesterday was a trip to Chuck E. Cheese, and inbetween all that we have been squeezing in swim team practice & meets and T-ball games.  Summer at its best!  

At any rate, I just wanted to check in with you briefly to say “hi” and to share what is happening at The Menu Mom Blog Frog Community that you might enjoy.

4th of July Food Ideas

Kids Bowl Free

What’s For Dinner

Favorite Company Recipes

Christine

Here is my calendar for this month.  There are a couple days when I only have 2-3 things on it, but most days are packed!  Nothing unusual I guess.  I was thinking summer would slow down a little bit… and in a way it has – it’s just a different kind of busy.  A fun kind of busy!

School is out, so I have actually gotten to sleep in a few mornings!  That has been so nice!  Soccer has ended and t-ball and swim team are picking up where soccer left off.  This year we will pretty much have sports back to back all year I have a feeling! 

The garden is doing so-so.  I picked 8 pounds of strawberries last week – boy were my legs sore after 2 hours of squatting!  And tonight I picked again – I didn’t weigh yet, but I’m guessing about 5-6 pounds . The raspberries are starting to ripen as well – yum my favorite!  Everything else is mediocre looking.  Maybe a little fertilizer love will give them a pick my up.  It has been really wet, so we haven’t had a ton of opportunities to work out there.  The weeds are loving all the rain though!

We made a trip to the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry Monday (it is free week!) Wow that place is big and incredible!  We didn’t even get to see everything when we were there all day – it is huge! 

Today I spent the day making meals for my friend who just had a baby and one of my son’s Sunday School teachers who just had surgery.  I was in the kitchen the majority of the day, but I just love doing that!  I wish I made more time to just randomly bless people with meals.  I made Meatballs, Cheesy Potatoes (that recipe, but omitted the milk & cornflakes, and added double the cheese and bacon bits instead of chives), fruit salad (bananas, blueberries, strawberries, apples, grapes, fresh mandarin oranges & nectarines), rolls (just frozen yeast rolls I warmed up), homemade strawberry jam with strawberries from our garden (well that was already made, but I took it), stir-fried fresh green beans with minced garlic, and brownies (out of a box) with chocolate frosting and M&M’s on top. 

We did finally purchase a camper trailer. (a North Trail 31QBS for anyone who is interested)  We have had a couple nights out in it.  I think we are going to really enjoy having it!

Have you visited our community lately?  There are several discussions going on.  You can see the latest in the left side-bar here on the blog.  We’d love to have you join us! 

Also, if you aren’t a fan of our facebook page yet, now is the time!  (I guess you don’t “become a fan” anymore, you “like” our page)  At any rate, we are about 25 “likes” away from a big drawing for a lifetime Menu Planning Central or Dine Without Whine subscription.  Anyone who has “liked” our page is entered.

So what is on your plate so far this summer?

Christine
”The Menu Mom”

I know it has been awhile since I have blogged.  So sorry, and this is going to be short too.  It is 1:23 a.m. and I should be in bed…

Today was the last day of school – YEA!  Well, Friday is report card day, but that is only for an hour and a half.  I’m quite excited summer is finally here!  It was 104.4 on our back porch this afternoon though.  I could take it a bit cooler than that.  I need to make it back out to the garden sometime soon too!

I had my first birth with a doula client Monday – Tue.  I was gone for 30 hours and discovered I could stay awake still (haven’t done that since I was a teenager I don’t think) for 33 hours straight!  Phew!  I was quite tired when I got home, (imagine that!) but I was also amazed how good my husband took care of things.  He even looked at my calendar to see what was on it, and took care of everything on there!  (that included a 18 month check-up for my daughter and 3 sports physicals for the boys) WOW! 

We have also been driving all over the place looking at camper trailers.  I think we at least have it narrowed down now – as far as what we like…  Now we just have to decide if we for sure are going to purchase one.  We have been working on this decision for a few weeks now, and it has occupied quite a bit of our time as we drove to various dealers in all different directions (None that are less than an hour away). 

At any rate, between school, sports, trailer shopping etc. I just haven’t been home much! 

I’m looking forward to hopefully a bit more relaxation in the coming weeks!

C-

Wow life just keeps moving at our house!  I always think maybe in a couple weeks things will slow down… but it never seems to be the case!  I’m sure a lot of you can relate. 

We have been working hard at getting our garden going, but temperatures keep dropping (we had frost the other night) and it keeps raining, so it is a mud hole out there.  We did go out – in the mud – and plant grapes and blueberries last night.  I had ordered them from Burpee, and I didn’t want them to die before I got them in the ground.  (Even though they look half dead already.  I always joke that I am planting sticks in the ground when I get dormant plants shipped to me.)  We’ll see if they actually grow.  We don’t have the best drainage out there, which is what those two things need, so I’m not sure if they’ll thrive or not.  We added a bunch of mulch, so we’ll see!  I have six rose bushes sitting in our garage waiting to go somewhere (where I was planning on putting them is not going to work out after all) and several seed packets.  Matt planted a few things tonight.  Of course now it is supposed to rain 2-3 inches between tonight and tomorrow so those poor little seeds will probably be floating. 

I continue to work on my doula training.  I’m taking another class in June for post-partum stuff, so I have lots of reading and work to do!  I’m working with my local friend who is taking classes with me on designing a web-site for that as well.

There are 9 1/2 days plus report card day left of school.  YEA!  SOOOO Excited for summer break!  I’ll still be working with Christian on reading, but it will be so nice to not have to rush out the door every morning and deal with homework every night. 

Soccer season is coming to an end (two more weeks I think) and T-ball and soon swimming are picking up. 

We are contemplating purchasing a travel trailer.  The one we thought we wanted turned out to be a piece of junk when we went to look at it (a brand new piece of junk – it was not used…) So we have a couple other models we want to look at, and then I guess we will have to make a decision!  I go back and forth.  I think it would be fun to just be able to easily go camp several times throughout the summer.  On the other hand that is soooo big to pull down the road!  With our Suburban and the trailer we would be over 50 feet!  I also like staying in hotels on vacation and we could stay in a lot of hotels for the price of a trailer…  We’ll see…  My husband is pretty gung-ho about the whole thing!  (It was his idea and he’s trying to make it grow on me.  ) 

I have a few things to do and then I’m off to bed!  Just thought I would check in for a couple minutes.

Take Care!

Christine
”The Menu Mom”

Children’s & Infants Tylenol, Motrin, Benedryl & Zyrtec have been recalled. http://www.mcneilproductrecall.com/page.jhtml?id=/include/new_recall.inc Refund info here: http://www.mcneilproductrecall.com/page.jhtml?id=/include/faq.inc Go figure I had FOUR unopened boxes, I just bought two boxes YESTERDAY…within an hour of the recall. I guess at least I didn’t give any to any of the kids. (although it doesn’t sound like it is a serious health risk if you have, so don’t panic)  Wondering if I’ll ever see the refund money or not… In the meantime I guess we stock up on generic?