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Letting go

by Kym on March 17, 2012

I am a control freak. Not in the type a “gotta have everything perfect” sort of way, but in the I want to be in the driver’s seat kind of way.
So, this week with four college aged drivers along on a trip halfway across the country, I have had to face my fears head on. I am blogging right now from the back seat of the van in the middle of Tennessee.
I am learning each day to let go a little more.

What things do you have trouble letting go? What are you not doing because you won’t let go? For me, this week away from David and two of my kids really stretched me. Then I stop and think of all the good memories that we made and all the “firsts” that happened because I let go…

Was this hard? Yes, at times some of the hardest things I have done….
Was is worth it? Every stinkin’ minute!

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Making Movies and Memories

by Kym on February 27, 2012

Mornings in our house generally look like this….the older kids get off to school and the younger ones get up and do their jobs. I get my coffee and breakfast and settle in to check email before we get going on our day. Some days we are slower than others…

Today as I was drinking my coffee, Ron asked about the HOWS of claymation. I told him that I was not quite sure, but that my basic thoughts were that they created the figures, took pictures, moved the figures in tiny increments….and put them all together.

We have a running dialog of things like this. “Mom, how do they?….” and then I do my best to answer.

Ron’s next question. Can I borrow your camera?

Can you see where this is going?

I can not even find my camera. So, he took my cell phone and disappeared for about 45 minutes. When he came back, he had the beginnings of a Lego movie short. He had tried several, and showed me the one he liked best. So we downloaded the pictures to the computer and made a movie.

Now, I am not really technical, so this was a first for me, too. Here are the basic steps.

1. Have a cool kid take pictures of something in sequence.

2. Download them onto a good, easy to use program. We used Google Picasa 3.

3. We edited our pictures to all be horizontal and the same size.

4. We clicked on the movie icon at the bottom, and deleted the photos from that session we did NOT want in our movie.

5. Ron told me what to type, and we created the captions for the different slides. We added some extra slides for the title and ending.

6. After watching a time or two and deciding how fast to make the movie slides change, Ron decided it needed music.

7. There is a button that says, “Add Music”, but I did not have any on my computer. So, Ron went and found the CD he wanted to use, and Baylee (our oldest) showed us how to Rip a CD to the computer. (that is easy as well)

8. Once we added the music, the movie program gives you a choice of having the slides fit the length of the song, having the song end when your slides end, or having your slides loop until the song ends. Ron made his choice to have the song end when the movie did, and we saved the movie.

9. We watched it several times, and then we uploaded our movie to YouTube.

And now, here for your viewing pleasure, is Ron’s first movie!

Adam’s First Apple

We really enjoyed the time together figuring out how to make the video. Ron enjoyed taking his love of Lego’s to a new level. What creative things did you do today?

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I Read and Read and Read….

by Kym on February 23, 2012

I am a reader. I have been a reader my whole life.

You know, the kid who takes a book on field trips…

who reads the ingredients on the cereal boxes….

who takes books in the car to go to the grocery store, church, on vacation, to bed, to take a bath….

WOW.

I have just described several of my kids.

and some of my kids are readers, but not in the same way. They read to figure out HOW to do what they want to do….

they read to build something…

or find out where a movie is playing….

or what all their friends are saying on Facebook…..

You know, both kinds of readers are okay.

While it seems that sometimes we strive for a world of “curl up with a good book and read” kind of people, the people who read as a means to an end are DOING a LOT. And when we try to push them to stop doing to READ, what are we saying to them?

I want my kids to LOVE to read, but more importantly, I want them to be passionate about their life. I want them to love LIFE enough to ENJOY being immersed in the world, not just in books. That is why, for my cereal box reader kind of kids, I have to encourage them to PUT DOWN the books and GO OUT SIDE!

Until we make another trip to the library!

~for some suggestions of books we love, see my Favorite Reads page

What are some good books you love to read?

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Pinterest Addiction

by Kym on February 21, 2012

Everyone I know has been pinning, or talking about their wives pinning, or talking about how they DO NOT have TIME for pinning.

Last night on Facebook I posted that I have actually been inspired to make some quite a few changes around my house because of Pinterest. Someone said, “Give us some examples!”

First, I am going to tell you why I like Pinterest. I love learning new things, but to do a Google search to find what I am looking for many times just leads me to frustration. I either get some spammy site that someone has set up to make money, or a lame “How to” list that is basically like, “Go to Michaels, buy a kit, and make it”. I want DETAILS. I want someone to teach me something I don’t already know. I do not want to spend a lot of money! When Taylor told me about Pinterest, I was excited to find out what this site could do for me….turns out, A LOT!

Other people have already done a lot of the work finding the cool things. So, instead of getting frustrated looking at a lot of useless links to half done directions or fake websites, I am getting right to GREAT PROJECTS with Lovely pictures and links directly (for the most part) to the projects.

I use Pinterest several ways….with my coffee, I catch up on what new pins the “pinner’s you I follow” have pinned. Those are the pins that show up when I first sit down…then, if something is interesting to me, I click to read up on it. If nothing strikes my fancy, and I still have coffee or toast, I switch to the everything category. If I want to remember how to do something, I will repin it. If I don’t have time to check out the pin, I will usually “like” it so that I can follow it up later.

If I want to repin something, and a person has just pinned the whole blog, I try to go back to that blogger’s original post. You can do this by clicking on just that posts title-and then linking to it. It will save people later from having to hunt for your idea! Also, if I follow a pin to a blog, and they got the idea from another blog, I like to go to the FIRST bloggers blog for the pin. While I am of the opinion that there is nothing new under the sun, I do think that the original poster (blogger, writer) should get the traffic to their blog. If the comments with the pin explain the pin satisfactorily to me, I leave them. If not, I change them…If it says something like, “My grandmother’s cake” I will add, “Original Pinner says…My grandmother’s cake” so that their is not confusion about whose grandmother made the cake!

I have been playing around with the BOARDS. I first only had a few. Then I realized, this is MY PLACE to PIN UP what I WANT! Like having that GIANT bulletin board (thanks Dad) in my room as a kid. I could put what I wanted on, in any order that I wanted. So, as I have been pinning, I have also changed some of my boards and added more.

One thing I have also begun to do….if I see something that I LOVE that someone has pinned from another friend, I will go to their friends board. Think about this….I already see what my friends pin, but I don’t see what their friends pin. When they pin something from someone that is neat, chances are, that person has some other pins I may want to look at….and so I do! I have started following about 10 different boards this way. That is how I have found a lot of neat DIY projects. I love that I don’t have to follow EVERY board that a person has….there are some boards that I am just not interested in, so when I check out someones boards, I have the option of following all, or just some of their boards.

So, after my coffee is drunk, and my toast is gone, I have to get with the day…and that is when I get busy. (ha ha ha) okay, I pretend to get busy. That is where the search bar on Pinterest comes in extremely handy. Right now Ron is very interested in container gardening. He has been coming up with all sorts of plans to build things. I was able to search “recycled gardens” and show him some of the very cool things that others have done. Today he built a box to hold his toilet paper seedling starters that he has planned.

Here is a list of what I have actually followed through and made/incorporated from Pinterest and some links …for all of the links and the other things I LOVE, follow me on Pinterest, of course! (button on the right!)

I have made my own Laundry Detergent

added Legos to my soap dispenser for coolness

bought new shelves and each person their own laundry basket

repainted the bathroom vanity and the dark shutter medicine cabinet doors

learned how to make my own labels for organizing

Ron has made a box for toilet paper seedling starters

we have made bouncy balls

I have planned several meals from my “things I want Maddy to make” board….including the yummy mini baked corn dogs Go Try Them! We kicked them up a notch by adding a can of creamed corn, some cheese and jalapenos to the mix and making spicy mini corn dogs! This is one of our new favorites!

I have a cute little place to iron by my sewing machine because I saw this and I was getting ready to give away a TV tray, and I made some cool fabric boxes that are also pinned!

So, tell me what you have been inspired to do? What are you dreaming of doing? Anyone I should follow?? Fill me in!

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my amazing Valentine

by Kym on February 15, 2012

I woke up Valentines Day to french toast with powdered sugar and real maple syrup….and hot coffee made just the way I like it!

Did David stay home?

No…..

Ron, nine, and Kiley, seven made me breakfast!

And while I was eating, God sent me the perfect rainbow right out the sliver of window I was sitting near….

not one of those almost rainbows.

This was a perfect ROYGBIV rainbow.

The first one I have ever seen.

And even though the rest of the day had fighting, bickering, laundry, cooking….and 4 extra kids for dinner, I went to bed knowing that in addition to kids that love me, a husband that adores me (he tells me so!), I also have a God that loves even me enough to put a perfect rainbow in the exact place at the exact time I was eating my Valentine breakfast. For me, that was a love letter straight from Heaven.

How does God remind you of His great Love for you?

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Tomorrow is a BIG day!

by Kym on December 12, 2011

I am giddy.

I can hardly contain myself.

I can’t believe tomorrow is finally here.

What? What have we been waiting for???

FINALIZATION!

Tomorrow is the day that Tyler is forever and all time officially OURS!

What a day of rejoicing! What a glimpse this gives me of how God and Jesus must feel when one of us decides to accept the gift of salvation. Happy dances all around! A child has come home! Forever!

I love that through adoption our family has been given a glimpse of Heaven.

Wow.

Pin It

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sick of being sick

by Kym on December 2, 2011

For almost 3 weeks now I have been sick.

I am tired tired of being sick.

My house is not the way I like it….the kids are doing fine.

I have not gotten out enough….the stores are doing fine.

I did not get to see the 4th Twilight premire….and I still haven’t been.

And just when I think I am better and can begin to do a few things….I start to feel bad again.

sigh

You know, being sick forces you to step outside yourself. Sometimes by forcing you to take care of yourself. I am finding this paradox hard to deal with. By taking time to do all the things the doctor told me I have to do to get better, I cannot do all the things I normally do. And so either they have not gotten done, or the kids and David have taken up the slack.

And if you came over, you would find that the house is not that messy (not too much more than usual), that we had an awesome Thanksgiving meal that I did NONE of the cooking for, that the Christmas tree is up, and that I have blogged two times in a month. (and you did not have to come over for that!)

I am sick of my sinus infection, taking meds, my head hurting, and my body not having the energy to do what I want to do. However, I am thankful that I am learning that when I slow down and get out of the way, life still happens in so many wonderful ways every day. I am ready though, to get well enough to see that Twilight movie!

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what 11 months looks like!

by Kym on November 26, 2011

Last year our adoption profile was being considered by two different families during this week. One family said yes. Our lives were changed forever by our journey with them. David and the kids and I were so blessed by our time with them. We walked out the last week of their pregnancy, through labor and delivery….and then said goodbye.

and then we said hello to our son. The one God brought us to Reno for. Only we did not know it then.

How many times do we think we have a situation all under control….only to see it turn out differently than we expected?

How do we face this?

One of my friends posted this week that she “Thank(s) God for NOT giving me all the things I’ve thought I wanted ….because you knew better.”

Isn’t that like the BEST? and this year I am Thankful that David and I walked through last year trusting that God had a plan, and that we would be okay with whatever the outcome….and we are so beyond amazed at the way He works.

We have our son. We have new friends. We have a greater understanding of how much God loves us. And we have a real picture of NOT knowing all the answers…and trusting HIM anyway.

I must add a disclaimer….the baby in this picture did not actually eat this candy bar.

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50 Healthy meal ideas

by Kym on September 3, 2011

We are doing a LOT of cleaning out and organizing around here. One of the things we have done in the past, is compile a list of meal ideas. I thought I would share them here and ask what you all like to eat!

(my kids and husband and I put these together….)

1. Spaghetti-bread, salad, butter

2. Meatloaf-green beans, milk, canned fruit (peaches) mashed potatos

3. Grilled hamburgers-lettuce, tomatos, pickles, potato chips, sliced cucumbers and a veggie salad

4. Lasagna-salad, bread, green beans

5. Bruscetta- grilled chicken or hamburger, rice cripy treats for dessert

6. Chicken nuggets-fruit salad (no cherries) mixed vegetables

7. Beef and broccoli stir fry- rice and lettuce

8. Spam and pineapple stirfry, mixed veggies, rice

9, Grilled chicken on salad, bread or croutons

10. shish-k-bobs, rice, we like- cherry tomatos, mushrooms, squash, zucchini, purple or vidalia onions, green and red peppers, chicken or steak

11. Aunt Ruth’s Sunday Suprise- (Tuna mixed with cream of mushroom soup) over rice, and peas

12. Shepherds pie

13. Ground beef stoganof, rice, canned peaches, asparagus

14. Sausage gravy and biscuits, apple sauce, eggs

15. red beans and rice, sausage, corn bread, lettuce, celery stalks

16. Chicken tetrazzini- steamed broccoli, salad, and bread

17. Pecan chicken and saffron rice, broccoli

18. Lemon pepper chicken with flavored rice, green beans or corn

19. Fish tacos w/broccoli slaw, applesauce or canned fruit

20. Roast- potatos, carrots, onions, green beans or salad

21. Roast plain or add barbeque sauce, fry okra, canned pears

22. Pork roast-

23. Chili-corn bread, baby carrots and celery

24. Baked chicken and ratatouli

25. Steak-green beans, mashed potatos, plums

26. Pork chops- star fruit, bread, salad, mashed potatos

27. Stir fry veggies-sugar snap peas, lots of veggies, baked chicken, and rice

28. Baked potatoes as a meal-with all the fixin’s, and salad

29. Tacos and fruit salad

30. Enchiladas and salad

31. Pork roast, new potatos, wilted spinach, bread

32. Taco salad with shells

33. Hot dogs apple slices, fresh veggies

34. Hot dogs with cheese- apple sauce and pears

35. Macaroni and cheese, steamed veggies

36. Ribs- baked cut potatos (or mashed potatos), steamed veggies

37. Sloppy joes, steamed or fresh broccoli, fruit salad w/oranges

38. BBQ sandwiches, same plan

39. Grilled cheese (we like to use the bread from a bread machine and cheddar cheese and call them hunka munka sandwiches), cucumber salad, fruit salad

40. Southern sausage, celery, onions and rice with garlic bread

41. Fish-snapper, scamp-panneed w/artichokes and cherry tomatos, veggies, and rice

42. Summer sausage, apples and cheese, and crackers

43. Polish sausage, cabbage and potatos, carrots and apple sauce

44. Pork chops, cabbage, burnt w/sesame seeds

45. Roast chicken- roast veggies, carrots or ratatouli

46. Chicken coqavin…..

47. German potato salad

48. Breakfast for dinner- eggs and bacon

49. Pancakes and sausage, fruit

50. Italian beef-see recipe in previous post

What are your favorites? What would you like best? What are you having for dinner tonight?

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Crockpot Italian Beef Recipe

by Kym on August 20, 2011

Several years ago, our neighbor kids kept raving about the delicious Italian Beef dinner they were going to have. FINALLY, my neighbor was kind enough to save a tiny bit for me to try….

Can I say….YUM?

After tasting, I can assure you it is DELICIOUS. And, I was kind enough to share with David that night anyway.

Fast forward to today….on Facebook I commented on how much I liked my neighbors recipes. And then she messaged me to ask for the recipe again….so I thought in honor of good neighbors, school starting, and not having blogged for a very long time (I know, but summer time is soooo busy)….I am posting the recipe here.

Enjoy.

You will. No doubt about it.

WARNING: This is likely to become one of your families favorite recipes. You might have to fix it for multiple birthdays, have it requested at familygatherings, etc. Consider yourself warned.

4 1/2 to 5 pound beef roast (we like to use London Broil or sirloin or bottom round….less fatty, so we watch for them on sale…we also sometimes cook about twice this much at once. Two big roasts are my norm….and I do the rest shifting measurements to how we like it….make it once and make your own adjustments!)

32 ounce jar of Italian Giardiniera, drained

32 ounce jar Pepperocini Peppers

1 envelope Zesty Italian dressing

10 ounces can condensed beef broth

Preparation

Combine dry salad dressing mix with condensed beef broth and put in bottom of crock pot. Add beef to mixture. Drain Giardinieraand pour over roast. Add Pepperocini peppers, including liquid.

Cover and cook on LOW for 12-14 hours until meat is tender (very tender). Remove meat from crock pot and drain crock post mixture saving the juice. Put juice back into the crock pot with meat. Add 4 cups hot water with 8 beef bullion cubes dissolved into crock pot.

Shred meat with fork into the mixture.

Put on sub sandwich rolls or french bread.

Serve with the veggies and peppers, chips and raw veggies….not much else is needed or wanted with this yummy dinner!

Since I have been avoiding soy, we make a few substitutions. We use Organic Full Circle Broth, or some other boxed broth with no msg. instead of any of the broth…we add the equivilant of a can at the beginning and then the rest at the end in place of the water or bullion. We add some salt and garlic powder to this to make up for the salt.

We also have made up a combination of spices for the zesty Italian dressing. Tablespoon of Italian seasoning, teaspoon of sugar, teaspoon of salt, tablespoon dried minced onions, 1/2 teaspoon of garlic powder. This is a pretty good approximation (that or we have just forgotten what the original tastes like!) And, in addition to not having any of the stuff I can’t have, it saves us a dollar or two!

The other meal that we love from these neighbors are called Haystacks. I will share those another time….isn’t it great how lives and food intertwine? What favorite recipes have you gotten from your friends? And when do you serve them? Thanks, Barb, for the memories of our lives living next to you! It was a blast and a blessing!