Algebra

 Let's talk about algebra for a minute. I graduated early, from homeschooling, at the age of sixteen. I did not finish all of my upper level arithmetic books, although I did pass the GED test with flying colors. 

 Ask me how many times I have needed upper level math in my life....basically zero. 

 Although I find math, especially upper level high school math to be very important. Studies have shown that it improves cognitive function and problem solving capabilities. I'm a big supporter of completing your high school math curriculums before leaving school.

 Even though I have rarely ran into any issues in life where I needed information that I didn't already have in my brain, it is still useful for increased knowledge and understanding. Plus I'm sure some people go into a career field that those maths are necessary. 

 Well, fast forward about nineteen years, I'm homeschooling four kids, and two are in high school. The math just got real people! They got to the point that I couldn't help them. Especially when they wouldn't need my help for a few lessons and then I would get dropped in the middle of an algebra lesson and I'd have no idea what was going on. 

 My husband and I discussed what to do. We had all but decided to change to a video program next semester, but that didn't help with this school year. Which resulted in me going back to school over Christmas break. I started at the very beginning of their algebra book and I did every single lesson. It took me longer than Christmas break to catch up to where Alex was. He was on lesson 94 when I had him pause and wait for me to catch up. It took me 5 weeks to complete all the lessons, and then we continued on together. It was a long five weeks for me guys! I had to have my husband help me a couple of times, Alex helped me a couple here and there and I even had to phone a friend here and there. Plus I'm pretty sure I will never be able to correctly calculate the mass and volume of a cylinder. Mine comes out wrong every time. Thankfully my kids haven't had an issue with those lessons yet. Maybe they can teach it to me? 

 I half expected to get some mixed reactions from my kids when I told them I didn't finish upper level maths, and I had to start over and learn it with them. I have always loved math, but that doesn't mean it is always easy. I was surprised when my son hugged me and told me he was proud of me for backing up and learning it all again.

 I'm glad I did it, and I plan to study the next math book over the summer before we start it in the fall. Let's be honest, Alex isn't my only high school student to come, I want to be able to help all of my children when they need it.  Now that I know I can help them, we probably won't switch to the video curriculum next year. I'm already learning it with them and I would hate to stop my education now. ;) 

  While the debate may be out on how much the average person needs algebra in their daily lives as an adult, I still find it important. I will still teach it to my kids. 

Do you ever struggle to help you children with their schoolwork? 

The Lactose Intolerant Kitty-Cat

***Warning! This post contains a lot of talk about constipation, bowel movements, and other unpleasant things associated with raising children. If that's not for you, then turn back now. ***

Two things to know about Anna.

1- She loves cats, and frequently refers to herself as a cat. She also talks about herself in the third person, and calls herself The Kitty-Cat. Dustin and I frequently refer to her as The Cat. 

2- We recently found out that she is lactose intolerant. She had had issues with constipation off and on, to varying degrees of severity since she was 2. It was always worse in the winter, although it never fully went away spring-fall. 

Fast forward to late last fall when her issue started to increase. By Christmas it was pretty bad. I had already removed dairy from her diet to see if it would help. Then she had a cold/bug that resulted in her needing to take medicine for a few days. That always makes it worse. 

When she was younger probiotics and a few days of no dairy worked wonders. 

It just got to the point that I couldn't help her. I ended up making a desperate call to a 'seasoned constipation mom' one afternoon when our dr was out of the office and Anna was absolutely miserable, just a few days before Christmas.  We started using pedialax jr, which was a life saver at the time. I thought that would solve our problem and started using it about once a week when she had issues. We continued with that, the elimination diet(dairy and some gluten) and probiotics to see if it would help until February. 

She continued to be miserable, and got to the point that her tummy was always bloated, she belched and passed gas all day everyday and she was miserable. One morning she sat on the toilet and just cried. That's when I called her pediatrician. Because we were eliminating so many foods, she was still miserable and I was starting to worry about the long term effects of not enough calcium, fat and vitamin d. 

Her pediatrician removed dairy from her diet almost completely for 6 weeks, added a vitamin d supplement, added dairy alternatives and put her on a medicine to help her body process things better. She told me that after a few days it would get her to the point of having diarrhea and we wanted to keep her there for 2 days to clean her belly out. Then we were to cut back the medicine until she had normal bowel movements. 

Well, turns out her tummy was so backed up, we never got to that point. I called the Dr numerous times, they upped her medicine three different times and she still never got to that point. 🤷🏼‍♀️ I was terrified that when we went for her check up the Dr was going to make me remove gluten.

When we went back for her follow up the Dr said her tummy was so much better. Most of the backed up issue had passed and her body was functioning as normal now. She still has to continue to take the medicine for another 3 months. Then we go back again for a recheck.

Anna is still off most lactose items, and the Dr instructed us to give her something more dairyish about once a week...a piece of pizza or a taco with cheese, to keep her body used to processing some dairy. She can still consume butter, ranch, cheese crackers etc. Everything else has been removed, eliminated or swapped for an alternative. 

Want to hear the craziest part? 

Anna has been our most difficult child with food. She was a picky eater, refused to try new food and was not a fan of many vegetables. Since we've gotten her tummy issues straightened out, she tries everything we put in front of her. She eats so many more types and kinds of foods, and she even asks for salad. Which is something her older three siblings did from a very young age. We started salad before age 2 at our house. We rarely had a picky eater type complaint until Anna. Now I'm realizing that she was having tummy issues all along but didn't know how to tell me because she didn't know the difference.

Once we got her body adjusted to no lactose, it was shocking how much her physical appearance changed! All of her tummy bloat went away and even her face slimmed out. What I thought was just a bit of baby fat still hanging on, was actually bloat from lactose intolerance. Poor kiddo. 

She is a much happier kid over all now. She used to be rather clingy, whiny and tearful from time to time. I didn't realize how much it had went away until I stupidly allowed her to eat alfredo sauce from Olive Garden yesterday. She ended up throwing up later in the day and was so clingy, whiny and tearful all day today. Any time I asked if her tummy felt better, she couldn't really tell me it was better but couldn't tell me exactly what felt wrong with her tummy. I'm 90% certain it was the dairy that made her sick. She had no other symptoms, other that burping and passing gas. No fever, no diarrhea and it was definitely not the viral kind vomit. Sorry, tmi, but it's the facts. Lol

In regards to my motherly mistake, she had had jared alfredo sauce and done ok. It didn't immediately occur to me that Olive Garden makes their alfredo from scratch with fresh ingredients...milk, cream, tons of butter and cheese too. 🤦🏼‍♀️ Plus I momentarily blanked because I'm also lactose intolerant, but I CAN have their alfredo.(I'm more of the can't have cream, milk, ice cream and yogurt kind of lactose person, with the occasional splurge on something without it making me too sick. Emma also struggles with some lactose issues, and is very similar to my diet with it.) Turns out Anna just can't have it. Now we know. We will definitely be living and learning from that one. I feel terrible that we learned that one the hard way. Sorry Anna. 

Now that she seems to know the difference of how she feels with and without dairy, she is very hyper aware of asking if an item has dairy in it. Thankfully the food system has come a long way with dairy alternatives in the past ten years. Anna loves chocolate almond milk, almond milk ice cream(I was pleasantly surprised by it as well, and keep my own pint hidden in the back of the freezer now. ;) ), yogurt(The almond milk key lime pie yogurt is my absolute favorite. It's nice to be able to enjoy these foods and flavors without the unpleasant stomachache afterwards.),  plant based cheese(No one in our house could stomach the stuff, but Anna is cool with it.) and so many granola bars and snacks without dairy. Just today we found a new item at Sam's club, it's called Oat Bites. They are these small oat muffins made without dairy, soy or gluten. Anna absolutely loves them. It does my mama heart good to see my youngest finally feeling and acting like the person she was meant to be all along. I just wish it hadn't taken us so long to get it straightened out. 

The best part of all of this, according to Anna, is the fact that she gets to keep Cheez-its in her life. They are a favorite of hers and she was almost in tears when she thought she would have to give them up. I'm thankful for her, a girl has to have a couple food vices in her life. Haha.

~Lyndsay

P.S. I used to find it so strange when other moms would openly talk about bowel movements. Now I totally get it. I've become one of those vigilant 'Have you pooped today? What did it look like?' kind of Moms. The older kids find it annoying and embarrassing. It's just a daily part of survival in life with a lactose kid. 😁 I'm looking forward to the day they have kids and start talking about poop like it's totally normal. 

Back to School | Catching up | Mom Life Journal

Back to school we go today. We took two weeks off to rest, have some fun and to accomplish some tasks.

We painted the kitchen cabinets and all the trim and wood work as well. 

Thid is a during picture, I'll be sure to make a post with before and after a later on. I'm not too happy with how the color turned out, but the cabinets over all look brand new again. Which was the ultimate goal.

We also went hiking, visited friends, and visited family. 

It's just now occuring to me that we didn't take any pictures when we were visiting our friends and family. Oops. That tends to be how it goes though. We had a wonderful times making memories, I guess we didn't need the pictures. 

We also did some spring cleaning in the house, I boxed up some books to go into storage until we move next year, and we organized the garage. The garage needs a full deep spring cleaning, but I only had time for a quick clean up and organize this time. I will enlist my husband to help with the big clean in a couple weeks. 

We also spent some time planning the flower bed builds that need to happen this year. Alex and I are going to attempt to tackle it ourselves. Pray for us. Alex has been working in landscaping part time for about a year and he has helped us build some things and he feels ready. I'm nervous. There are a lot of big tree roots to deal with on this one. 

A also did something fun for myself. Fun being a relative term, because it hurt and continued to hurt for about a week afterwards. Haha. 

I got my second set of lobe piercings(barely felt it and no real pain after) and a rook piercing. That one hurt, and continued to ache for about a week afterwards. It was still worth it though! I'm looking forward to it being healed and just a normal part of me. 😁 Then I will go back for a couple more. I have an over all look I'm going for, and this was just step one. I have researched these things for years, but always just put it off...we were broke, had babies and life going on all the time. We aren't broke anymore, the babies have grown up and life is never going to just slowdown, so I did it. I'm glad I did. 

We also found some time to do some shopping. Emma, Addison and I did some decor shopping for Spring/Summer, and all three girls and I popped into Kohl's for some clearance shopping. 

I did not accomplish everything I had hoped to on our break. I've been working on relearning algebra so I can help the kids with it. I wanted to be caught up to where Alex is when we started back today, but I'm not quite there. I'll keep working and get to where he is soon though. 

I personally have cut back on reading fiction, took facebook off my phone and had to cut out YouTube. I didn't pick up watching YouTube, until I gave up the fiction books and Facebook. Turns out I'm really good at filling my time with useless hobbies when I'm trying to give them up to focus more on Christ. I think part of the struggle was because we were on break and off of our normal schedules. Today will be better. 

Today also starts a new diet for my husband and myself. We are working to lose some weight. We are both going about it slightly different, but it should show some results for both of us. Of course he's a man and will probably drop fifteen pounds in the first week. I'll still be here two months later trying to drop the rest of mine. He has less to go than I do also. He has 15-20 and I have more like 25 to lose. I'm sure we both will get there. 

Well, I'm off to get life started. It's a fairly full week. School, work, helping out at church and co-op. 

Happy Monday!

~Lyndsay

Freedom!

 Sweet, sweet freedom!

Today was our last day of school, and now we get a whole week off! It's hard to believe we have already been back to school and co-op for six weeks.

We are very ready for a break. I have the longest list of things I want to accomplish in the next week. In all honestly it is probably two weeks worth of things that need done. I need to prioritize and simplify to what really NEEDS to be done next week. 

So much to do, so little time. It feels like the story of our lives that last handful of years. It's all good stuff though so I'm immensely thankful for that. 

In the next week some of the things I want to accomplish/do are....

Spring clean every room.

Paint girls room.

Paint kitchen cabinets.

Go to Hobby Lobby for spring decorations.

Decorate for Spring.

Hike/exercise/have fun outside with the kids. 

Grocery shop.

Get my nails done.

Sew/quilt.

Paperwork for work.

Spring clean the shop.

See I told you it was a lot. There's actually more, but that is just what I have at the forefront of my brain for the moment. 

Some of the items are things I do monthly and they happen to need done next week. 

I also want to rest, sleep in once or twice, and watch some television in there somewhere as well. 

We shall see how the next week goes.

Either way, I'm excited for us to have a break from school for a week.

Well, I'm off to bed because I'm tired and we have co-op tomorrow. 

Happy Thursday! 

Secret Sister Gifts | Mom Life Journal

Our new church does a year long secret sister exchange. You get the woman's name in January and you try to keep it a secret the entire year ending with the big reveal at a special dinner in December. 

Well. I have absolutely no idea who my secret sister is, but she is amazing. She gave me gift cards in January and for Valentine's Day she gave me this beautiful orchid! I've never bought an orchid, because I'm afraid I'll kill it. 

I've had it less than a week at this point and it is already looking a little wilted. This picture was taken this morning, I should have taken it the day I got it. It was in perfect full bloom when I got it on Sunday. 

I learned how to keep succulents alive over the last couple of winters, and I really hope I can keep this one alive too. 

If you have any tips for how to keep this thing alive, I'd greatly appreciate it!

Valentine's Date and Eyeliner | Ramblings | Mom Life Journal

Earlier in the month my husband and I attended a Valentine dinner at our church. We had a great time being out together without the kids and spending the evening with our church family.

When I was getting ready to go, I did something I don't always do. I put on eye liner. I used to wear it every single day,(the pencil kind that looks like a colored pencil.) then it started to irritate my eyes. I stopped wearing it a few years ago. I felt like looking special for the occasion, so I dug into the bottom of my make up container and found an old eyeliner. It was so old I figured I would get an eye infection. Surprisingly I didn't. Yay!

My kids asked what was wrong with my eyes and my husband was even surprised I was wearing it. Which prompted a couple of conversations about make up. I asked my family and basically all of them couldn't tell if I had it on or not most days. Hmm. While I'm all for it looking subtle, I kind of figured people could at least tell I had it on. 

Which also prompted the kids asking why my face looks weird and their father telling them that's how a lot of women wear their make up, mom just happens to be different. 

It caused me to think that maybe it wouldn't hurt to wear a little more make up than I currently do. Especially if people literally can't tell if I'm even wearing it. 

If you are still reading this you are probably wondering where I'm going with all of this. 

Well, after wearing that super old eye liner, I didn't have any issues with my eyes. Which then prompted me to buy some new eyeliner that is less likely to give me an eye infection. Haha. 

I grew up in a rather conservative home, and my mother was very strick with make up in particular. So while a lot of girls in their teens were trying out make up, and learning how to use it...I wasn't. I basically missed that whole part of growing up. Now, I'm not saying I especially missed out on anything special with that. However I definitely missed the part where younger teens learn how to do some of these things. 

While shopping for eyeliner, I discovered waterproof liquid liner. Um, liner that doesn't smudge under my eyes and stays put all day? Yes please. 

Turns out there is learning curve with putting on liquid eye line. Lol I'm 35 and I was up late a couple nights last week watching videos on how to put on liquid eye liner. Yep. I did that. 🤷🏼‍♀️ It helped. I can actually put liquid eye liner on really well, on one eye. Haha. I'm still working on the other eye. Yep. I'm 35 and still learning how to be a girlie girl, I guess. 

This little adventure also prompted me to send a handful of random pictures of my eyeballs to my friend Julie, because she is good with make up, and ask her if I was doing it right. At one point I told her I feel like I missed a seminar on this when I was twelve and she promptly replied 'You totally did.' and that is one of the many reasons why I love my friend Julie. 

Well. I guess this rambling has no true reason, besides I went on a date with my husband, I kind of learned how to put on eyeliner and all of this snow is starting to drive me bonkers. 🤷🏼‍♀️

Happy Thursday!

How Much Snow Is Too Much Snow?? | Mom Life Journal

Snow. Snow. Snow. Snow. 

How much snow is too much snow? 

Because I think we might be there. We rarely get snow like we have had recently. This is the third full week of inches on the ground and every few days more seems to keep on coming. We got 8 inches last week, on top of 4-5" that was melted slightly. Then we got  another 6" and they are projecting another 6-9" in the next week. The temps are nowhere near above freezing for the next 10+ days. 

I've really, REALLY been trying to just enjoy the season we are in the last few years. I like winter and snow, and I don't mind the inches of snow hanging around. We really don't get this kind of a winter very often around here. It will probably be one that we talk about for a while. 'You think this is a lot of snow, well in the winter of 2021....' Yep. We will be talking about it for a while. 

I'm doing my best to enjoy this extra snowy winter season, but I do feel the stir crazy setting in a bit for all of us. We have been able to get out when we need to, but the snow is deep enough now that I can't get my 2 wheel drive suv out of the driveway. Today we switched all of our daily use items to the SUV with 4 wheel drive. It's my husband's vehicle. He doesn't drive it daily, so it's nice we can't use it.  I'll be driving it until further notice. I probably could get my SUV out, but I really don't want to risk wrecking it or getting stuck in the snow. I'm thankful for my husband's SUV in times like this. 

I have more pictures and stories to tell, but these are the ones that sum up our life in the last week or so. 

Everyone went to the dentist. No cavities, yay! One kid is ready for braces, one needs a consult for wisdom teeth removal, and one has three loose teeth. 

We are trucking along with school, there's not much else to do with all this snow. You can only play in the snow and shovel for so long. 

 Speaking of shoveling, Alex has shoveled the driveway so many time I think he's about ready to go a little crazy. Up until this point he has just been shoveling walking paths and the spaces in front of the garage. It worked until we got so much snow that it was just way too many inches to get the vehicles on and out easily. We are going to spend some time this weekend shoveling the entire driveway. Then it should be mostly clean for the next couple of storms that are set to come through the Ohio valley. 

Poor Emma is so over winter. She is ready for summer and has already made her bucket list for the year. I'm trying to stay positive about winter and just let it have its moment. It's getting more and more difficult to stay positive about it. 

We have some friends who moved to Michigan this year. One of the bonuses to moving to Michigan is the snow. They love snow. Well, we've had more than then this year. I keep telling her they should have stayed here. Haha. 

We've been passing the time in the evenings watching movies with the kids. Tonight we are watching The Chronicles of Narnia. I was talking to the kids about it, when Dustin said he had never watched it...or ready the books! We obviously had to watch it immediately. 

Tomorrow is co-op. We are excited to get out of the house for a few hours and see other humans! Woohoo!! 

I have to head to work for a while after that and then I plan to come home to clean house. 

How much snow do you have at your home? 

Is it more than normal? 

Happy Thursday! 

Banana Breakfast Cakes Recipe | Gluten Free, Dairy Free, Paleo, PCOS Diet Compliant

I have PCOS and I should not eat lactose, gluten and a handful of other items. 

I do my best but I sometimes jump off the wagon and eat all the things I shouldn't. Life gets in the way sometimes and it's not always easy to stay compliant at a drive thru or when the food budget is tight. 

Recently I have been at trying to leave out the gluten. But let's be honest, you can only eat so many eggs before they just soind gross. 

I was struggling with what to eat for breakfast. When I hit this point I end up defaulting to oatmeal, which is not goitennfree. It is better than toast though. (I need to add gluten free oatmeal to my list)

This morning I remembered a recipe that I used a couple years ago when I was first on this eating journey. 

The original recipe was called Paleo Banana Pancakes. Now, let me tell you something, if you are expecting these to taste like fluffy, gluten filled pancakes...get that out of your head now. You aren't going to find that with most gluten free pancakes situations. It's just not happening. Sorry. Readjust your expectations now. Okay? Ok! Yay! 

I have since fiddled with this recipe and adjusted some things. As well as the name. 

They have now been called Banana Breakfast Cakes.

There's barely a recipe because it is so simple, but I'll do my best. 

Banana Breakfast Cakes

1 banana

2 eggs

1/2 tsp cinnamon

2 tsp baking powder

Dash of salt

Butter for cooking in pan. 

Smash the banana in a bowl with a fork, add the eggs and mix well. Add the cinnamon, baking powder and salt.

Allow to sit for a few minutes until it is foamy. 

Heat a skillet on medium heat, add butter and wait until melted. 

Fry the banana cakes, I really just guess on the amount I put in the pan. This recipe makes about 3 rather large cakes. You could make them smaller and make six, they would cook even faster. These will be very brown on the outside, they aren't burnt. It's normal. Flip once or twice and make sure the inside is cooked well.

I enjoy there with pure maple syrup and peanut butter or almond butter on top. 

I usually only eat two of them and give them third one to one of the kids. They are very filling! 

Enjoy! 

Learning Some Things About Myself | Mom Life Journal

Hi!

It's been a week since I sat down to write. I need to work on that. Once a week is better than a year ago, but far from once a day. I figured out what happens when I go dark on the writing/creative side of things, I log onto social media. Yep. I turn on social media and my creative brain shuts down. I know this about myself, but this little writing experiment has made it blaringly obvious. Ouch. 

It is hard to walk away from social media ll together, it just a major part of the world we live in. I have walked away from the social media world before, and it can work for a time. However, I always end up there again for one reason or another. 

When I was writing once a day at the end of 2020, I had logged off of Facebook and or was closely monitoring my time on there. Then I slipped back into being on there more and I all but completely stopped writing and doing other creative things at home.

Essentially, for me personally, when I turn on social media I become a scrolling zombie. Not good. 

It's something I really need to work on. 

On the bright side we loved a lot of life last week and I'm looking forward to sharing it with you all! I'll be including it in one (or a few) posts in the next couple of days. 

I logged off of Facebook again, so my productivity should increase again. I had this same issue with Instagram a couple years ago. I do know I created more content for instagram than I ever did on Facebook, but it still sucked my time more than it should have. Same with youtube...I want to create but I end up consuming. 🤷🏼‍♀️

It's something to praying about and work on. 

Hope everyone is doing well, and I'll be back to write more often moving forward. 

~Lyndsay

Snow Day! | Mom Life Journal

 Yesterday we had a lot of fun in the snow we got from winter storm Orlena. 

                                                          

We did school in the morning, then went outside to sled during our lunch break. Then back inside to do school and chores, then a coupe kids went back outside again. 

I finally got around to making a video for the YouTube channel. A few of us have been feeling under the weather, hence the sniffly noses in the video. I'm considering taking up making more videos again. I know for a fact that life is going to be one crazy roller coaster ride this year, and I'd like to have video evidence of it in later years. :) 

Yesterday was one of those days that you really remember later on in the year. The type of day that you dream of having when you think about winter coming to town. Sledding, snowball fights, attempts to make a snowman, hot chocolate, and if you are Alex you body slam snowdrifts. Ha, teenagers!

My legs are sore from climbing hills with the kids yesterday! shew!

 Today the snow is still out there, but slowly starting to melt. It is pretty darn cold out there, but it is sunny and that is nice. I love the sun, too bad it barely feels like the sun this time of year. 

It's all down hill until the time changes now! We are gaining 2 minutes of daylight a day right now. It has been light all the way up until 6pm the last few nights. That brings me serious joy. :)

I'm including some pictures of all of the snow we got, some sun in the snow and the you tube video that I made.

Happy Wednesday!

~Lyndsay

Alex found a new sledding hill. It's fast and you have too bail out of the sled before you slide into the creek!

A woodpecker has been hanging out on the front tree.

A couple inches of ice plus 8+ inches of snow!

Alex did a lot of shoveling!

Poor Pool...the steps almost disappeared.

First Day of Homeschool Co-op 2021 | Homeschool Life

Co-op started last Friday. It was nice to get back to seeing friends and learning together. This is not our normal co-op, but it has some of the same friends. 

I know we live in a totally different world now, and I sometimes wonder if things will ever be the same again. However, a first day of co-op picture felt necessary this year. Even more so than on other years. 

We all had a great first day, and Anna even cried when it was time to leave. That's a major change from our last co-op experience when she cried the entire time we were there. 

I really enjoyed teaching my literature class and can't wait to go back next week. I've never taught middle school grades before, and I'm pleasantly surprised. 

We are all looking forward to a fun semester! 

First Snow Storm of 2021 | Winter Storm Orlena | Mom Life Journal

Today is Monday, we are in the middle of a  storm that started Saturday night. 

We got 2 or so inches of snow, then a ton of rain. It turned it all into a few inches of slush Sunday. We managed to get out and about for church Sunday. It was nice to have a few hours if rain so we could make it to church. There weren't a lot of us there, but it was a good morning of worship non the less. Then home to settle in for some nasty weather. 

It turned back to snow Sunday night and has snowed non stop since then. They keep changing the forecast, and can't seem to make up their mind. 

The temperature dropped throughout the day today and all of that slush is now a solid sheet of ice. We have gotten 2-3 more inches today, when they said we would only get 1. 

They are saying we could get another three inches tonight and one more tomorrow. They original said this would end tonight, but now have pushed it back to Tuesday night. 

Dustin went to work today when the roads were mostly clear, tonight it was pretty slick when he got home. We are currently at a level 2 snow emergency, and I'm crossing my fingers for a level 3. At level 3 you are not allowed to go out on the roads and that means Dustin will have to stay home with us for the day. :) I like when he is home with us. 

  Today was one of those days that the temperature dropped throughout the day. It has been a slow drop and won't reach its lowest until tomorrow evening. It started close to 40 and will end around 16 degrees. I don't know why but I find days that the temps drop like this to be absolutely fascinating! Something about the temperature doing the opposite of what it normal should is just down right entertaining for me. I'm a nerd, I can't help it. 

(I didn't get a picture of Addison. Please note a rare sighting of Alex.)

We skipped school today, because the house needed cleaned and we haven't had a snow day yet this school year. :) The kids played outside in the morning before it got crazy cold, and then we cleaned house, did laundry and worked on projects. I also gave Alex a haircut which was way over due. It looked like someone murdered a chia pet when we were done. Haha. 

I started working out again today. Lifted weights, did squats and crunches. I will probably be sore tomorrow. 

It was a good Monday. I didn't take enough pictures. We will probably pop outside tomorrow after school, and I'll try to take more then. 

It will finally be cold enough tomorrow to do one of my favorite science experiments with the younger girls. Addison has done it before, but Anna is too young to remember. We are going to turn hot water into snow in an instant! It's fun! 

I'm very thankful we have no plans until the end of the week. With these low temps it could take a few days to clean up the roads enough for me to want to go anywhere. I'm not a fan of going out on snowy roads. 

Here's hoping we don't lose electric tonight, the lights have already been flickering today. 

-Lyndsay 

Well... | Mom Life Journal

Here I am after making a commitment to write and it has been six days since I last wrote. Yep. I failed. Oops. It's a good thing I didn't set parameters to all this, right? 

In my defense, I was sick most of last week and a lot of the time when things are quiet here online there's actually a lot going on in my real life. 

We started back to school last week, and I managed to power through not feeling so hot and we got it all done. We kept the house clean most of the week and stayed on top of laundry. Yay! 

We had a new employee start at work, and I had to go set that up. We also had to make some big decisions regarding the business, which took a lot of number crunching and prayer. 

Like I said, it was quiet around here, but it wasn't quiet in real life. 

We were supposed to start back to co-op last Friday, but it got postponed because of a funeral. Postponing was a small blessing for our family, because last week was full. Speaking of back to co-op, I'm teaching a middle school literature class...and the book list was already chosen before I got the class. I haven't heard of or read a single one of the books. Which is ironic because I read a LOT of books every single year, and my kids do too. You'd think we have had heard of these books before. 📚 I'm looking forward to teaching the class and plan to have some fun with it. I haven't really taught middle school at co-op yet, so this should be interesting. I used to always teach under third grade and then I taught mainly high school. Wish me luck! 

Speaking of books, a friend told me about a book challenge group she joined with another friend. They are doing an alphabetical book challenge. You read a book that the title starts with each letter of the alphabet. Um, I find this kind of cool. It would be good to help you get out of a book rut. My friend said she also joined a challenge with a friend to read 80 books a year. Knowing my friend, this will be no challenge for her. She and I got to discussing it and we ended up doing a quick count of the books we had already read this year...I'm up to 15, not including books of the Bible I've been reading. I told you I read a lot.

I'm half tempted to keep a yearly count of the books I read this year. Maybe I will, although I have a feeling I'd lose track eventually. But it would be nice to know my total count for the year. Hmmm. I'll have to think on that one. 

Church was amazing on Sunday. It had been a couple weeks since we got to go, and and we definitely missed it. I snapped the above picture of anna while she was praying at the beginning of church on Sunday. Let me tell you, this little girl has been blessed with a heart for prayer. One of the elder women in the church stopped me a couple months ago and said she was surprised to hear Anna truly praying while she was at the alter on Sunday mornings. I'm also surprised how much she pours out for the Lord in her moments of prayer. Such a blessing to witness the Lord at work in my childrens lives. It's only been two days and I'm already ready for next week's service. Why can't everyday feel like Sunday?

 Today I went to get my hair cut and dyed, I didn't take a single picture of the process like I normally do. I need to take more pictures of daily life again. I get swamped in actually living life and forget to take pictures of it.

Tonight was carnitas rice bowl night for dinner. 

Something kind of sad happened yesterday. My friend has been inviting me to join her at a women's conference hosted by her church for years now. I've always wanted to go, but it never seemed to work out. This year it finally worked out for me to go, and I logged on to sign up. It was sold out, when an hour before it had openings. :( They placed me on the wait list but said they were taking half the women than last year because of new virus restrictions. What a bummer. I really kind of hope someone cancels so I can go, but I'm also aware of the fact if I don't get to go then I must be because someone else needed to go and hear the word more than I did. I'd love to go but will understand if it isn't the Lord's will for me to go. 

Dustin and I are planning to attend our churches Valentine's dinner early in February. I'm excited about it. They said they play their own version of the newlywed game, and it's their favorite night of the year. I'm really looking forward to attending. 

Well, that pretty much catches everyone up on life at our house. I'll try me best to write more later this week. We have plans every single day this week. We aren't used to our weeks being this full anymore. It's an adjustment for sure.

I'm also realizing that even though we went on vacation in January, it didn't keep us from getting the January blues. All of us are a little sad and really hoping for some sunshine soon. Springtime, hurry up! 

Happy Tuesday!

~Lyndsay

Tips to Streamline Candy Land | Mom Life Hacks

  Ah yes, little kids and board games. They love them, especially Candy Land. 

  Board games are great for kids, they help teach many new skills and promote problem solving, strategy, hand eye coordination and increase brain growth. 

 

  Yep, all of that from playing games with a sibling or parent. :)

  However, with all of that positive stuff to gain from playing board games with our little ones, it can be hard to remember all of that on the tenth time through Candy Land on a rainy afternoon. 

  I discovered early on that there was a way to make the game go a little faster and more smoothly when you have negotiated for 'just one round' before bed or naptime. 

1. Take out all of the single color cards.

  Yep, take them out. They slow the game down, and are annoying. That leaves you with only the double colors, the game moves much faster after that. 

2. Take out any of the special cards before the the peanut. 

  You heard me, Gum drop, Candy Cane and the dreaded Gingerbread can all take a hike for the speedy version of this game. 

  Has anyone else had a tired preschooler be three spaces from the end and pull a Gingerbread card. The meltdowns are fierce sometimes. Yes, I'm all for learning how to lose graciously, but sometimes Mama just needs the game to be over and done with so naptime can happen. There are other days times to learn those lessons. 

3. Stack the Deck.

 You bet I just said that!

 Tell your kiddo you are shuffling the deck and put those special cards at the top. Imagine the light in their eyes when they pull the infamous Lollipop card on the second turn. It great, and you are done in no time. 

  These tips also help when you are first teaching a little one how the game works. I start all of my kiddos out with this modified version of the game, and add other cards in as they age. 

  

  This really does make the game go a lot faster. Give it a try and share these tips with another mom in the tranches. 

You can thank me later! 

~Lyndsay

P.S. Since we are on this topic, I'd like to know how many kids you have and how many sets of this game you have gone through? 

I'm on my fourth kid and probably the fifth set of the game. No matter how hard we try to take care of it the board tears and the cards just don't hold up. If I was more organized I would laminate the cards or something. 

Those of you that only had one set of this game throughout all of your children, please tell me your secrets to life. Because I'm clearly doing something wrong. 

Back to normal life | Mom Life Journal

We got home from our little adventure on a Monday and still had one more week before returning to work and school.

Dustin worked on the utility room, while the kids and I worked on some organizing and cleaning. We also found time to fit in some movies, games and rest.

The utility room did not get finished. We knew it probably wouldn't be finished when we decided to take our little adventure. 

That's ok, that's how life is sometimes. As much as I wanted it to be finished, it is a lot better than it was. The stacked washer and dryer, new freezer, one of the walls, ceiling and flooring are installed. The tankless water heating is working great and Dustin reworked the intake for our furnace to have an easier way to replace the filter. The new furnace intake took a lot of metal bending and framing, it took the whole day. He also had to rework part of the floor, because the main plumbing drain clean out is in the floor of that room as well.

A lot of these tasks are time consuming and don't seem to change the appearance of the room all that much, but each little job gets us that much closer to it finishing. Once all of these small jobs are finished the room will go quickly. 

The very last day before he returned to work he build the cabinet parts of two of the cabinets that will be in the room. One it larger for bulk appliances and laundry sorting, one is smaller for a pantry unit. It holds canned goods and bottles etc. These new shelves made for the ability to put some things back into the room where they belonged, which opened up some space in the rest of the house. 

We were able to go back to work and start back to school with our house feeling mostly normal again. It is a good feeling. 

We will continue to work on the utility room every weekend until it is complete. 

I'm looking forward to it being finished in the near future. 

It would have been nice to finish the room before our time off ended, but I wouldn't trade the memories we made for a dozen utility room remodels. 

Today is Tuesday, we are on day two of normal life being in full swing again. It is going well, and I think we all were ready for school to begin again. 

I have bread in the bread maker, it's bedding wash day, Anna is watching a Veggie Tales movie for quiet time, and the older three are finishing their school work. Then it will be time to send people outside for a few minutes and chores. We are probably having cheeseburgers and fries for dinner and I need to try to do some sewing this evening.

Happy Tuesday!

~Lyndsay