life in full speed

EVERYONE says the same thing.  Enjoy the moments with your kids, cuz they grow quick and life moves at lightning speed.  Everyone is right.
Dustin has been helping complete a home that will be in the Parade of Homes, MN this march, so we have been like two ships sailing past in the night. He is getting up at 4 am to be to work by 5 and he is exhausted by 8pm.  Now add the crazy, fun life I am living.  I started watching my nephews on Mondays and Wednesdays.  They are two adorable gems who make the days fly by filled with lots of giggles. Kyla has now gotten to "the age of activities".  While I am all for kids getting involved in activities to grow their skills and expand their horizons, I really keep it in check.  Kyla has been averaging about every other week riding lessons on Mondays at Pine Lake Pastures and every Wednesday night is AWANA.
  So, you can see that the first three days of the week are an absolute blur! And I have been struggling with forethought on dinners.  That's where Google calender, Pinterest and the wonderful world of blogging has been helping me tame the wild beast of dinner prep!

 

I go to Google calender and print off the month that I am planning meals for and print off a blank copy.

Then I took one evening at caribou with a decaf Vanilla latte and a pencil( you may notice that the one above is written in pen and it looks all kinds of messed up!) and wrote out a list of all the meals that my family loves to eat.  From that list I also made a list of what are quick and easy.  Examples:  soup and sammies, pancakes or waffles, tacos , any crock pot meal.  You get the picture. EASY!!  

Those easy meals are what I then plan to make for those crazy busy Monday and Wednesdays.

Now on paper that looks awesome but real life happens!  I have a knack for forgetting to take out meat to thaw or I am not in the mood for what I wrote down.  

Enter Pinterest and the blog world!  

I pinned a link to this blog and was so excited to implement what she does!

aturtleslifeforme

Here is another link to

 savingyoudinero . 

There are some great crock pot meals that are easy to put together 

and throw in the freezer for future dinners.

 

   Kyla helping me make twice baked potatoes.

 

 Kyla showing off the end product. YUM!

I spent about 4 hours in the kitchen this Tuesday and I have about twenty "meals" ready to just whip out of the freezer (avg cost per meal $2.50! that is .63 per person to eat!).  So, now of those days when I am not feeling what I wrote down  was a great meal, I have some different yummy meals to choose from. 

So now, life may be moving, but I am able to enjoy the ride a bit more. 

Balto

One of my last posts I tried to recap last year to the best of  my ability without being too long winded.  Of all the things we did last year I forgot one of the biggest things we decided to do!   WE expanded our family.
Introducing our newest family member. Balto.

This Picture was from his 3rd birthday in November 2012.  He was very patient and waiting very nicely for his puppy cupcakes I made for him.

He is a German Shepard /Border Collie and he has brought a lot of joy to the family.  The kids love him to pieces and he has found a way to sucker a whole lot out of Dustin with his expressive eyes.  I love to take him on walks since he listens pretty well, unless there is an unleashed dog wandering.  Lucky for me he is only about 45 lbs, cuz he would squish me if he were any bigger.  He seems to think he is a lap dog and if the whole family is sitting on the couch he thinks that he needs to sit with us too.  

                                                                  Those eyes!!!

We got Balto in July 2012.  After Kyla praying and begging and pleading for a a dog, her dad finally said we could start looking.  After scouring shelters and websites galore we knew a couple things.  We did not want a puppy. We did not want a small dog or an  ubber large dog.  We wanted a mix and we wanted to find a well behaved dog that liked kids and had some personality.  After much searching I found a re-homing site through craigslist and emailed Balto's previous family.  They lived about thirty minutes away and were willing to bring him our way to see what we thought of him.  WE knew we hit the dog jack pot with him. :)

Balto is :

• Great on a leash
• amazing with the kids
• plays and enjoys the cat
• the biggest snuggle bug
• eager to please
• good with other dogs as long as he is NOT on a leash.
• great in the van. loves rides. 
• wary of strangers(questionable ones) when I am walking alone with him. 

He is still working on:

• Mouthing( his previous family let him gnaw on their arms! and he mostly does it to me)
• Jumping on people.(this has been curbed by never letting him greet people entering the house first)
• Running around the neighborhood if someone leaves the gate open.(this one is mostly our fault, who can blame a dog for wanting to see the world if he has open access to it! and to his credit he RUNS back to us the moment we call him.)
• Barking and jumping on our picture window when other dogs pass by( hey, he is a dog and barking is how they communicate, but the jumping on the window makes me freak!)
• Balto hates it when we leave.  He will run past the kids and sits by the van begging to go with. 

            Kyla thought he might be cold outside. So she insisted he needed a scarf. 

I never thought twice about pet adoption.  There are so many animals in the world would need a loving home and we are grateful for this great dog who is now apart of ours.

Kyla and Balto "Thunder Paws"

Valentines Lunch

 Today is Valentines day!  The day set apart to tell those around you, I love you.  I had planned all week before the love fest day to do PB&J heart sandwiches.  And with all my enthusiasm I could not win over my darling children to the idea.  Kyla particularly asked for meat, cheese and crackers.   

 So that is where I am praising the Lord above that I happened to have a mini heart cookie cutter!  I was able to cut out bologna, salami and cheese into these adorable hearts.My kids were happy.  That means this mama was happy too! Happy Valentines day! 

long time no postings!

Wow, I am in awe at how long it has been since my last post.  Almost a year!  Uffda!

Well, I can say that my year has been a blur and it really is true.  I can't say that I remember every detail of 2012, but there are a couple highlights!

• We were blessed to celebrate the wedding of Britta(Dustin's sister) and John Cusick.  I was one of three photographers for the big day and what a great time that was.  
• We spent a weekend in Milwaukee visiting family and celebrating Dustin's cousins graduation.
• I was asked to photograph the wedding of one of Dustin's uncles.  (that was crazy! hottest day of the year!  talk about melting!)
• My dad had a great 60th birthday party and we were so happy to see the Pearson side of the family all come to celebrate. 
• Kyla started to slowly take a couple riding lessons, which only increased her love of horses and her deep desire to learn how to ride them.
• Isaac is obsessed with all things Disney Cars/Mater.  He was also out little outdoor boy.  Lots of time was spent outside enjoying the backyard adventures.
• Dustin's business has been steadily growing, which is a HUGE blessing.  We still know many people in the home construction business who never recovered from the years of slow business.  Dustin has been blessed to NOT be one of them. This fall was not the greatest year for hunting.  He only got one doe, but I was so happy that I was with him!

• For me, it was a year of really learning to let go. I had a pretty traumatic experience with two abscessed teeth in the spring.  Having to remove them really stretched me and my faith.  God honored me and kept me healthy through the whole ordeal.  I finally gave up scrap booking too.  Not that I was EVER as good or as thorough as my mom, but I just stopped focusing on trying to scrapbook my memories and instead just focus on enjoying the memories.I also found an amazing company and products that have helped transform my life and health( more of that in another post!)

I am still attempting to be crafty, although that has been something through the holidays that I have not focused on so much. I have been pretty focused on my husband, kids, cooking and homeschooling.  So that sums up my weeks in a nutshell.

In this past week God has really been stretching me and opening my eyes to see some areas of my life that really needed to be reigned in.  I love social media, but God revealed how deeply I was using it to fill unmet needs that He himself wanted to fill in my life.  So this month will be a no Facebook month. (it may turn into more, we will see!)  There may be more posts about that in the coming days too!

I am reading an amazing book right now called Made to Crave by Lysa Terkeurst. She is filled with some amazing insight and wisdom.

This saying spoke to me. Lysa repeats it three times so its hard not to hear it! LOVE LOVE LOVE her God centered focus on being healthy and fit!