Family Reading Time!- Our Favorite Books

Good morning! I can't believe it's almost August! I feel like summer just started, yet it feels like it's been the longest summer ever-very odd summer for us. At the beginning of this summer our kids were given reading lists, which honestly when your kids are in first and second grade it's more like homework for you than anything. Luckily I love reading, especially kids books they're always so light hearted and fun. I normally read to my kids everyday, but this time it was a little different the books they picked this time were more fun and ones that we would love reading again. So for this post I asked each of my kids their favorite book and why it is their favorite, I was a little surprised about some of the answers. Let's start with my oldest, Zayden, his favorite didn't surprise me at all- Magic Treehouse-any of the books in the series are okay with him! He said "They're my favorite because it's really cool because books take you somewhere and thats what really happens when you read its a free vacation!"(he got that from Matilda). Magic Treehouse is actually a series I read as a kid so I love that my kids are reading them now I get to relive these moments over and over again. Tyson is our next oldest and until this summer HATED reading, it was like pulling teeth-actually that's easier because you can drug the person and yank them out, he wouldn't read for anything. It was tough finding a book he actually wanted to read so I let him watch movies based on books and when he wanted more information I told him it was from a book, that's how he got hooked on Wonder. If you haven't read Wonder you need to go get it. Obviously he hasn't seen the movie yet, just the preview but it was good enough to get him interested. To sum up why he likes it, he sees Auggie as a cool kid that he'd be friends with in real life. He really liked how brave Auggie was and was so happy with the book, I was really happy to read it with him and see him so interested in it. Hunter, much like Tyson, doesn't really enjoy reading-except the Captain Underpants series-those he'll read again and again! I don't think I really need to explain why a five year old boy likes these books, which is good because his reason was "They're good". Man of few words. Callie is actually rereading her favorite book with me now, Matilda. Matilda is a family favorite in this house, but near Callie's birthday every year she always wants to read it not a clue why. She said Matilda is her favorite book "Because she's just so funny and makes trouble!". I think almost all of you have at least seen the movie "Matilda" so I probably don't need to explain how awesome it is. Brooke takes after me in her favorites and I'm sure everyone has heard of this series before Junie B Jones. Junie B Jones was my favorite when I was my girls' age and I remember reading it with my step mom and feeling like I was Junie B Jones sometimes! I loved them. Anyway, this is about my kids- Brooke loves the series because she's so funny. Now onto my nerd, Estella, Stella loves reading and reads at a higher level with some help she's actually reading the first Harry Potter book right now. I was the same age as her when I started reading Harry Potter so I don't think it's inappropriate at all, though I can see why people would think that. Again, Harry Potter is one that I'm sure everyone already knows about and probably doesn't need much explaining. Stella likes the books because it's always a surprise. I'm so glad my kids are enjoying reading and I can't wait to read even more books with them because honestly this is one of my favorite parts of parenthood. I'm going to do a separate post for "Toddler Favorite" books in the future because some of these aren't suitable for my younger kids but most can be read as a family.

Our favorite gluten free food

Good morning! I am up way too early today, my kids are super mad about it-they can blame the neighbors for this awesomeness. Since I'm up I figured I might as well get my blog post up. The first thing people normally learn about me is that I have celiac's disease-not the most exciting fact but it's the truth. The conversations after that range from "Oh, I'm so sorry" to "Me too! What do you enjoy eating?" Which brings us into this lovely topic, what our family's favorite gluten free foods are. Now, there's the obvious meat products, fruits, veggies, you know the boring things that everyone knows are gluten free and don't really help people who were diagnosed with celiac's or just choose to eat gluten free. I'll start with our first meal, if we aren't eating eggs for breakfast we normally have pancakes or cereal- for pancakes we LOVE Hungry Jack Gluten Free Funfetti Pancake Mix- it doesn't HAVE to be funfetti, but I honestly haven't found a non-funfetti one since before Christmas time so we just kind of deal with it. Now onto cereal- Lucky Charms are my kids favorite(we eat healthy around here) and granola is another favorite-almost any granola is gluten free but we like Udi's the most. Now onto lunch! I like lunch more, mainly because I'm more awake at this point and I actually enjoy eating by this point-our lunch foods very so I'm going to name a couple if it's a sandwich day like today we use the Canyon Bakehouse bread-ok if you have celiac's go to your nearest Target or go on Amazon and order this bread it is the only gluten free bread I like-shout out to my cousin Mark for suggesting it! The other super popular item in our house for lunch is Mac and Cheese-I have kids-we like the Walmart brand which costs around two dollars per box as opposed to the normal price of gluten free Mac and Cheese it's a steal! In the winter we have soup, a lot, like more than I should admit to because it's probably not healthy but we love it and our favorite is New England Clam Chowder. Moving onto dinner, I work at dinner time so normally I'm lame and have a salad, but when I'm home I make pasta very often, again the Walmart brand-great price and seems like it's the only brand we found that doesn't stick together in the pot and on Pizza nights we have Udi's pizza. The big issue I've seem to run into is deserts so even though we don't eat these often I figured I'd add them-if you are gluten free for whatever reason or you want to make me brownies the BEST brownie mix ever is Kruestez. They taste like a bit of heaven and people don't even realize they're gluten free until I tell them(or eat one in front of them). Now that I made myself super hungry, I'm going to go-I hope you enjoyed this lovely blog post and I will see you guys again soon!

"Mom she said I was a girl!"

Hello my lovely friends, I'm sorry I don't post as much. Summer is a crazy time, it's starting to calm down now since school is starting up again soon. We have been spending a lot of time at the pool which brings me into the post I have for you today. Recently we were at the pool which use to be Callie's least favorite place for all the obvious reasons. She has since started to accept the fact she just has to wear shorts over her bathing suit and be good to go-which by the way this seems to be popular in our area right now so that's a win! However she is always afraid for whatever reason someone will find out she's transgender this is always a worry Jason and I have because of what jerks people can be. That's why when my sweet little one came running over to me screaming I was a little worried. After getting her to calm down she excitedly told me that the lady at the concession stand told her she liked her bathing suit and she was a beautiful girl. Yup! A stranger told my transgender daughter that she looked beautiful and I didn't think it was weird, I thought it was amazing. I thought "wow she really is a girl!" which out of context would be super weird. My daughter was so happy for DAYS after the event and will still randomly bring up the nice lady who didn't even realize she was transgender. So to you, the stranger at the pool-THANK YOU! Thank you for being so kind just because, you didn't have to say anything to Callie, but you did. You told her something she needed to hear from someone who didn't know our situation and I will never be able to repay you in anyway. You changed my daughter, summer isn't a fun time for a transgender child-at least for ours it isn't. She doesn't like wearing shorts-people notice things, she doesn't like swimming suits-same reason, and she isn't comfortable with herself yet-or she wasn't until you commented on how she looked. You verified what she knew, that she is a girl. I pray that one day everyone sees her the way you did.

Homeschooling while working full time?!

So often when people hear we homeschool they follow it up with "So, you're a stay at home mom?" and they are shocked when I respond with a "no". Until I started homeschooling I never realized most people think you can only be a stay at home parent and do it. Little do they know over half of the homeschoolers I've ran into work full time while homeschooling their children. I will admit, it would be much easier if I just stayed home and did all of this, but we simply could not afford to do that so here's what works for us. I do have some kids that mainstream so those kids get up around 6:30-6:45, I obviously get up with them and get breakfast ready while they do their morning chores/dress. My homeschoolers typically wake up around 6:45-7, breakfast is normally ready so they knock out their chores quickly and start on school work. I don't have an exact schedule of the order they do their school work in, but they start at 7:30. I also have two toddlers at home with me most days so on the days they don't have preschool I put on Paw Patrol or set them up with a toy in the living room so I can hear/see them and help my school aged kids when needed. Brooke normally takes about 3-4 hours to do her work because she works without breaks, this isn't something I force them to do, she's just always been this way and it's one of the reasons we homeschool her. Zayden however, takes about 6-7 hours because of breaks and the fact he's a perfectionist and will keep doing work until he gets it perfect. Because Brooke normally finishes her work earlier than I would like I have a stack of worksheets relating to the work she did, if she finishes those quickly-which she will-I just let her read or play an educational game on her tablet. Regardless of how long they take their almost always done by the time I head out to work and if they aren't then the babysitter taking over helps them out with whatever is left. By homeschooling my kids I am able to spend time with them that normally I wouldn't have, I work in evenings so it is a little easier to do this for my kids than if I worked during the day. I'm sure over the years our schedule will change, but right now this is what works for us and hopefully is of some help for people out there who are wanting to homeschool, but work full time. It's not easiest thing in the world, but just like parenting in general it is one of the most rewarding things I've ever done.

Stuck in a minimalist rut!

If you've been following our blog for awhile you know we are on a minimalist journey. This journey started in January, but really got in gear in April/May. We were taking truck loads of bags to Goodwill, it was amazing! It felt so great to truly clean out everything. Fast forward to July, it's been months and we still have more stuff than I am comfortable with. Our buying habits have changed drastically, we no longer buy things just because and we think more about purchases. It's crazy because even though we have gotten rid of so many different things it just isn't enough. We are stuck in this never ending cycle of "Get rid of, clean the room, enjoy" but they never really seem to stay clean and there's really no reason for it. The amount of time it takes me to clean the house is getting insane, especially since we have like no items! After watching tons of minimalist videos I've realized I'm not the only one starting this process who feels like they get stuck in a rut from time to time. It actually seemed like everyone has experienced this at least once, the best advice I found was from a minimalist Youtuber(I can't think of their name or find their video sorry!). She talked about thinking about your house catching on fire(I know morbid but stay with me). If your house was on fire what would you save? Obviously for me it would first be my kids and animals. Okay now that the living things, that don't even count in minimalism, are safe-now what? As bad as it sounds I would want my laptop, phone, and honestly that's probably it. I'm not longer the super sentimental person I used to be-I used to hold onto ANYTHING that reminded me of someone especially if they had passed away. Now I realize that's not what keeps their memory with me. For example, my nephew passed away and a year ago I probably would have NEVER let go of anything of his. Today when we were cleaning out the "Harry Potter Room" we found a shirt that was his and I almost got rid of it, then I realized Ryker is going to need that size soon so I held onto it(or at least that was my reasoning). I no longer live with the "what ifs" for small things like baskets or trinkets "What if so and so wants this in the future?", they can buy it most likely, it's not a huge deal to get rid of these things. The main issue I am now running into is my mom just doesn't see a benefit to being a minimalist, she keeps telling people I'm not really becoming a minimalist and hearing that kind of kills me. This is a journey, it's not just something you wake up and do and people-family included-don't realize that. I'm hoping once this insane pre journey is over people realize how serious I am about this, because it's getting really hard having to defend my choices even though this choice isn't dangerous people still seem worried about it. Anyway! I have hungry children glaring at me, so I'm going to make lunch now.

Bunch O Balloons-Bunch O Fun!

Happy belated fourth guys! I hope everyone had an amazing time with family and friends, my bunch sure did. Because I worked later in the evening and the pool was packed(it was 90 degrees), we decided to pick up some water balloons and test them out. We had heard so many good things about "Bunch O Balloons" and since I don't have the time or patience to fill and tie 100+ water balloons, it sounded like a dream come true. The downside to this is, we don't own a hose and all the videos we had seen of people using them used hoses to fill them up, so that was a little worrisome. Luckily, we were able to find one that had a water gun with it that you used to fill it up and it was a bonus toy. I'm going to be super honest, I was hoping the water gun would be easier than it truly was, but that's why I was blessed with a son who loves to do things like this. Tyson sat in the tub pumping that sucker until all the balloons were filled, or Ryker popped them whichever happened first. It took him about ten minutes to fill them all up, which for being six didn't seem too bad to me in the long run. They truly do tie themselves and that was the best thing in the world, whoever invented these is my best friend right now. I remember as a kid going to tie the water balloons and having them burst in my face as I tied them, it was never a fun moment and I'm glad that's a thing of the passed now. Kudos to you Bunch O Balloons for making these! We had hours of fun throwing balloons at each other and getting soaked and cooled off-so well needed on a day like this. I know for a fact if it wasn't for this product we wouldn't have had a successful water balloon fight, because in all honesty I wouldn't have even bought balloons I hate them that much. This is one product I would be okay with my kids getting for their birthdays(for all you gift givers out there reading this blog). I hope I can find more fun, easy, family oriented products like this out there because right now it's exactly what we need.

We missed you!

I am so sorry that you guys have been neglected so much this passed month, but I have just been so busy. Working full time, raising kids, and trying to clean our house consumed my life and I put posting on the back burner. But, I really wanted to start blogging on because I love it and honestly missed it during my break, but my kids come first. That's why you're getting this lovely post after I got four hours of sleep and my kids are currently playing with Ryker's car track and not fighting(I'm going to regret saying that). I honestly just wanted to do a bit of a wrap up for the month of June so Jason can read this when he gets home and know what exactly went down. So, let's go back to the beginning of June-school got out all our kids moved up in their classes. We had pretty awesome graduation ceremonies and the kids got "awards", our school gives awards to all the kids Tyson is the only one who got one(only child at the school) and honestly I can't think of what his award was and he's not home for me to ask. He was very very proud of his award, he marched into our favorite locally owned restaurant and showed it to his favorite waitress, she seemed happy for him-may have been faking it but that's ok he was pleased with her reaction. We did our traditional ice cream party(ok we really just went to an ice cream place and got ice cream) to kick off the summer, we got our pool passes and put them to good use already. Most of our kids learned to swim, Brooke was the most surprising seeing as she has a fear of water or at least she did last year. As of now the only kids using floaties are Ryker and Skyler, for the obvious reasons of my pure fear of them drowning and them being two. The older kids have all now gone down the water slide at the pool-yay! Baseball is officially over in our house and that took so much stress off of me, as much as I love my kids are their sports it was so hard to juggle all of that. The summer sessions of gymnastics have started and are starting to consume our lives just as much as regular season practices, luckily there are less of these and you can miss some without too many issues. All in all we had a great month of June, we miss Jason so much but are so proud that he took this step in his recovery. It's now a new month and we are one month closer to being able to hug him again and can't wait. I promise I will be posting more now that my life is a little less hectic than it was this passed month, we have a lot happening this month and you guys are coming along for the ride!