One of those moments

Don't you ever just have those moments? You know, those moments when you are out in public somewhere and you glance over to see your child doing something terribly embarrassing?

One of those moments when your small daughter is walking through the store with her dress pulled all the way up around her chest. Oh she's grinning and having a grand ole' time, walking along, oblivious to the fact that everyone is snickering at her.

I had two, yes two, of those kind of moments happen today.

Today's first moment happened when my small daughter was desperately trying to get to the car before I left, lest she have to stay home with her sisters. She comes darting out of the house carrying her shoes AND shirt, wearing only her skirt. I FREAKED OUT.

*screeching* "WHAT-DO-YOU-THINK-YOU-ARE-DOING-GET-BACK-IN-THE-HOUSE-NOOOOOOOOOW!"

She is still little and no one was outside. I had to laugh so hard. I assume she missed the part where I told her I would wait for her in the car while she got dressed and wouldn't leave her behind.

Today's second moment actually involved the same child as earlier in the day. She's certainly on a roll today. We were sitting in the waiting area at the beauty salon while my older daughter was getting her hair trimmed. I'm checking some stuff on my smartphone and I see my little girl in the corner of my eye, doing something. I briefly discuss with myself for a second before I look.

"Is she?"
"no way"
"I think she is"
"oh she can't be"
"please let this not be what I'm seeing'

So, I slowly turn and look and my eyes open 10 times the size in horror. SHE IS! She pulled off her flip-flop and was biting her big toenail. I whispered, in pure shock, without breathing

"whatareyoudoingputyourfootdownnowthatissogrossyou'regoingtogetsicktherearepeoplewatchingyou"  breathe.......

She looked at me like, "what are you talking about crazy woman my toe is bugging me"

Life is definitely exciting.

Around here

School is just about done for the year. We officially have one more week. Kiley and August have completed most subjects. Their science is taking longer than expected so they will be working on that during their summer vacation until it’s finished. Their Science curriculum this year was a lot of fun! 8^th grade is Advanced Physical Science; we used this kit by Exploration Education. I was pleasantly impressed with the kit. I’ll most likely be ordering from them again for Emily and Julia.

August has been working on making a quilt for herself. She has been working all week to get it finished up; she is planning on entering it into the county fair. Last year she did a smaller placemat sized quilt and got a 3^rd place ribbon. She was a bit disappointed since she had worked so hard. She’s hoping for a better ribbon this time around. I have a couple pictures of her progress and I’ll be sure to share the finished project as soon as she’s done.

Emily and Julia have almost completed their reading book, after much struggle we ended up with “Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons”. This has been a magnificent book. I will most definitely, without a doubt, use it again if we ever have more children to teach to read. They are finishing Kindergarten and looking forward to being first graders. I have a lot of fascinating things planned for them for next year. They have very scientific/mathematical type brains and that is exciting.

The weather around here has been very warm, in the 80’s and 90’s. Last weekend Adam took opportunity to burn all of our dead brush in a fire pit in the yard. We are city kids; we grew up 25 minutes outside of San Francisco in a little Bay Area suburb. We now live father away in an area that’s more farming, agricultural.  Adam said he’d always wanted to have a fire pit in his backyard. This pit is temporary and will be moved to another location in our yard; still it was fun. The kids were all amazed by it all day long. This can definitely be added to the, how-to-keep-kids-entertained-all-day-without-TV list. Once it got dark, we burned up some scrap wood that was housing Black Widows and the kids made S’mores.

Speaking of Black Widows, we must have moved to the Black Widow capital of the world. There’s a TON here. Adam spends at least one evening a week searching them out and killing them. I have never seen so many in my life. The picture is of a HUGE lady we found under our wheelbarrow.

Emily is modeling the derby hat I made for my Mom. Our town was having a Derby stroll for women downtown that she was attending. I think it turned out great!

And this is Julia, trying on a hat at the store.

Adam has taken all the girls shopping and I’m home alone for a little while today. It’s so very quiet and I’m really not complaining.

Have a lovely Mother’s Day to all of the Mommy readers. 

Mini Meat Loaves

This is one of my favorite recipes. It's easy, fast and oh so yummy.

Mini Meat Loaves


Prep Time: 10 minutes   Start to Finish: 30 Minutes  Serves 6 (2 loaves each)


1/2 c ketchup
2 T. packed brown sugar
1 lb lean (at least 80%) ground beef
1/2 lb ground pork (or turkey)
1/2 cup Bisquick (I substitute with quick cook oats)
1/2 t pepper
1 small onion chopped (1/4 c)
1 egg

1. Heat oven to 450°F. In small bowl, stir ketchup and brown sugar until mixed; reserve 1/4 cup for topping. In large bowl, stir remaining ingredients and remaining ketchup mixture until well mixed.
2. Spray 13x9-inch pan with cooking spray. Place meat mixture in pan; pat into 12x4-inch rectangle. Cut lengthwise down center and then crosswise into sixths to form 12 loaves. Separate loaves, using spatula, so no edges are touching. Brush loaves with reserved 1/4 cup ketchup mixture.
3. Bake 18 to 20 minutes or until loaves are no longer pink in center and meat thermometer inserted in center of loaves reads 160°F.

Makes 6 servings (2 loaves each)

I like mashed potatoes with this and fresh cooked veggies. Can you guess what we're having for dinner tonight?