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