Lazy Days of Summer...Sort of

I love summer. I love summer because everyone in this casita sleeps in. Well, everyone except my husband, but someone had to pay the bills, right? Right.

At any rate, sleeping in is very high on my list of things that are so great about summer. And then there is the whole “no school” thing. Since we homeschooled last year, I’m aware we got a serious reprieve on the homework front, but I’m glad to have this time before school starts to just hang out with the boys.

Apparently, I’m feeling a little angst and guilt about the fact that we homeschooled last year. I’m so stressed that they aren’t going to be “up to par” in their new (public) school. We did a lot of “unschooling” last year and now I’m afraid I’ve failed them in not preparing them. In order to make sure we can keep up with the demands of school again, I found the boys an amazing personal tutor to help us evaluate their strengths and weaknesses. Yes, I know I already know their strengths and weaknesses, but learning from me is not benefiting them at all. Although they are not thrilled that I’ve enrolled them each with a personal tutor, they both know that I’m just trying to do what’s right for them--whatever in the world THAT is. And, quite frankly, this woman is the gentlest yet most stern woman I’ve ever met. She captivates them for the hour each of them works with her. Maybe I’ve gone too far. Maybe I should just trust what they know and leave the rest up to the natural progression of what they’ll learn this year. But that’s never really been my speed. This is what I deem best for my sons…and this is what we’ll do.

So I have a coffee mug today! Obviously, it’s from California, but the funny thing is that when my mom bought it for me, she called me from Starbucks and told me that the manager informed her that this was the first time this cup had been offered in our great state. WHAT?! I have cups from Hawaii and Tokyo, but California has never had a cup? And did I even mention that I used to WORK at a Starbucks? Insanity. But now I have it. So all is right with the world, y’all. All is right with the world.

Starting Fresh

Over the past year, I had such grand intentions for this little blog. I wanted to document our homeschooling experience (which was great, hard, and amazing, all at the same time). I wanted to take a photo a coffee cup every day and tell you a little story about it, just so you could get to know me a little better. Then I think I just did what I usually do...I stopped. No reason other than I'm not very great at the follow-through of things.

So here I am, again, asking you to check out this blog whenever you have a minute. And, again, I have a list of things I want to achieve or accomplish through the blog. One of the differences this time is that I'm going to show you my list:

• I still want to do the coffee cup of the day. And I'm gonna. 'cause I can.
• My kids are going back to school this year (for reasons I'm sure you'll read about as time goes on), so there won't be anymore home school talk and the subtitle of the blog will change.
• I will designate a day of the week to blog. Friday seems logical because Mr. Armed with a Latte is home, but, because he IS home, I like to spend time with him (occasionally). So I need to find another day to blog. (Pardon me if I think/babble out loud here.) One of things I'm looking forward to this school year is having an occasional cup of coffee (or 3) with my mom-friends, so I want to keep mornings free (or as free as possible right after drop-off). I'm also looking forward (hmmm...or just wanting) to having a more structured house routine since the kids will be gone a big part of the day. So I'll have to figure out a day that minimal cleaning needs to be done (just the everyday stuff, not deeper cleaning).
• I want to have a notebook that I carry with me to jot down ideas that come to me or experiences I have during the week so I can share them with you. That way, I can a) be more consistent (an idea from one of my sisters by choice!) and b) not babble, which I've been known to do occasionally. I mean, frequently.
  
• I want to be a blogger that makes you smile and laugh. I don't necessarily want to give you tips (Lord knows I don't have any great ones...have you seen my house?), but I want to share my heart and my life with you.
• I want to be real. I don't want to pretend to be the brave little Christian girl who has it all together. I am not. I am a girl who loves Jesus, but fails to exhibit that love frequently. I'm a girl who wants to grow in Jesus, but chooses the easy way out sometimes. A lot of the time. I love things I shouldn't, I don't always LOVE getting up in the morning for church, and I don't let very many of my Christian friends know who I am or what I really struggle with spiritually. I want that to end. Or ease up at least. I want to be honest with you.
• I love books. I LOVE BOOKS!! And I want to share my love of books with you. I got a Kindle for Christmas this year and I swear I'm reading twice as much as I used to...and that's a lot.
  

Ok. That's enough of the list for now. There's more, but I can only ask so much of you, right? My plan this week is to go get a small notebook and brainstorm about the optimal day to blog. Wish me luck!

I'm a lame-o

Yep. I'm completely aware of it...I'm a lame-o. It's been an insane amount of time since I last blogged (not that anyone but me notices!). I wish I could say that it's because I'm such the busy mom and I have so much going on in my life, but I think that would do a disservice to all the truly busy moms who do so much more than I do. While it's true that I stay somewhat busy with home schooling, baseball for both boys, and trying to keep this life of ours sailing somewhat smoothly, I am an incredibly unorganized, undisciplined person when it comes to things like blogging. The idea is so great, but the execution just falls short on my part. I'm trying, I'm trying...

So baseball is in full swing (pun totally intended) around these parts. My Little Man plays for our local Babe Ruth league and my Big Boy is on a travel team this year (for the first time). We have baseball 4 nights a week (between the two), games on Saturdays and some weekdays for Little Man and at least 2 tournaments a month for Big Boy. It sounds like so much...but I love every second of it. I'm so proud of both of my kids for working so hard this year. It's Little Man's first year catching and he has already shown us that this is probably going to be a long-term commitment for us. He's thrown a couple of runners out at 2nd base (furthest distance from the plate, thank you very much!) and I can't believe how seriously he's taking his job! Just look at the kid!
And now, I'm officially the mom of a competitive baseballer. Big Boy is having a great time this year. Mr. Armed With a Latte is coaching and he plays with like 6 of his buddies that have played together for the last couple of years in All-Stars. It's been so much fun watching him get better and better every tournament. He's still catching (apparently, there's a trend going here...) and he plays left field when he's not. Let me tell you something. I play a lot of softball and there were two things I couldn't do if my life depended on it: put on the catcher's gear and catch a high fly ball. This kid does both and does them well. Take a look at him (c'mon, you know that little butt is the cutest thing ever!)
Besides baseball, we're still home schooling, although I'm pretty certain I'll only be home schooling Big Boy next year. Our reasons are various, but the bottom line is that I don't think that home schooling is the best option for us. I've taken slack from so many people already that nothing you can say can really hurt my feelings, but please keep your mean comments to yourself. I've heard enough of those to last me a really long time.

So I think that's it for today. I'm down with the good old-fashioned flu (for the first time in a long time) and the boys are with my dad (seriously, I know I'm a lucky girl), so I'm just laying around the house today. Here's to chicken soup and fluids!

Are You Ready for Some Football?

Oh, baby I am! And that is because my older son's Novice football team made the Superbowl in the TVYFL. I am not normally a football girl. I am a baseball girl to the very core of my soul. But when your baby's team makes the Superbowl, ya gotta represent! So my girlfriend, Alice, sent me the cutest Buccaneers shirt yesterday. I will have a shirt that no other mom is wearing...and you know that makes me happy. Not because I'm a fashion snob (not by any stretch) but because I hate blending in, for the most part.

So we're leaving in about 3 hours for a town that is over 2 hours away to play a team that is less than 30 minutes from here. Yeah...I'm fairly certain that men thought of that stupid set-up. It reeks of testosterone. At any rate, my parents are going and we're spending the night tonight so we don't have to get up at o'dark hundred and have tired, cranky footballers on our hands. Good idea, husband of mine. Very good idea.

Yummmmm...

I hate cooking. Not because I'm not good at it, but because I'm not creative or adventurous and I'm a bit of a "go-with-what-you-know" kind of cook. (Translation: boooorrrrring!) So I'm trying to go out of my comfort zone a bit and experiment a little with that little machine that my Auntie Carole loved so much: the crock pot. You may know it as a slow cooker, but you know what I'm talking about. By the way, the crockpot I linked to is NOT the crockpot I have. It's the one I want. And will get. If I have to buy it mahself.

Anyway, I found a website that has been pretty popular for a while among the cook/stay-at-home/working/mommy set for quite some time. It's Crockpot 365 and it's amaaaaaazing! I won't run through all the recipes here, but I will tell you that I made this for dinner tonight and I LOVE IT. I don't even care if my family likes it (but they totally will). I'm going to eat it all by myself if I can. The chicken is falling apart, it's so tender. Yes! Score one for the mom! The boys (well, two boys and a man-child) will be home in an hour or so from football practice, so I'll let you know after that what the consensus is. Oh, and check out the way the author of the blog laid everything out for us! Crazy cool, right?

I'm thinking about trying this for dinner tomorrow night. Or maybe this. Oh my...the possibilities are endless!

Ok, so now send me your favorite crockpot recipes! I want them all!

The Pumpkin Patch

Today, my parents wanted to take my kiddos to the ENORMOUS pumpkin patch near our house. Lord knows I could have thought of 563,456,786,313 other things to do today, but I went along because my mama asked me. And guess what? I had a blast. We did the corn maze, the kids chased each other around for hours, we picked out pumpkins, and the boys did the zip line. It was amazing to watch my kids just have fun. I get so caught up in trying to make them "behave" that I often forget that they are children. But today, I was reminded that I am so very blessed that God saw fit to gift me with these boys. And today, I got to watch them just be 8 and 9. It was a beautiful thing.

My sister (who is my biological cousin, but we were raised like sisters) turned me on to this website called smilebox and I created a little scrapbook and sent it to some family members. I also posted it below. Enjoy. Oh...and smilebox is FREE. Go check it out.

Make a Smilebox scrapbook