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It was 70 degrees on Sunday! After a yummy post-church lunch at Italian Sensations, we ventured over to Bel Air Family Golf. What a great place.
We strolled our way through the miniature golf course,
and hit a bucket of balls on the range afterward.
What a fantastic day! I loved hearing the kids hit the sweet spot. And they were so proud of themselves. Now they want golf lessons. Anyone know of any good ones in Harford County?
I struggle with dinner. I don’t mind breakfast, which is typically cold cereal, or lunch, which is often some type of sandwich. I suppose I don’t mind those much because my children make their own. But I just can’t seem to muster up excitement about the meal that’s supposed to bring us closer together as a family. I just can’t stomach preparing the meal that will burn itself into our memories for eternity. The meal that comes at the end of a full day of home schooling, cleaning, errand-running, dog-managing, and trying to find some little piece of quiet for something that brings me peace and joy.
Ugh. Dinner.
A meat and a veggie. Maybe a bread. Sometimes a side salad. And a glass of Country Time Lemonade. Nothing spectacular, but a necessity.
Needing a little inspiration, recenlty I borrowed a dozen cookbooks from the library and found two I really liked. I ordered them on Amazon and they arrived today.
I’ve already chosen next week’s meals! (I sure hope this kind of enthusiasm sticks.) I chose recipes that looked interesting and included meats I have in my freezer.
- Fri: Pizza Night
- Sat: North Woods Wild Rice Soup
- Sun: Leftovers
- Mon: Cranberry Chicken
- Tue: French Steak
- Wed: Honey Pork Chops
- Thu: Penne with Chicken, Broccoli and Cheese
If you know me in real life, hold me accountable. Ask me how my kids liked the soup or the chicken. Make me tell you the details of putting together the meal. Don’t let me snow you.
If you know me from blogland or facebook, comment on here to let me know you’re waiting for an update. Maybe a little peer pressure will help.
For pete’s sake, something has to help…my kids can’t eat many more dinners of homemade waffles or scrambled eggs. And I can’t stand anymore pizza! (Well, except for Friday Pizza Night.)
We spent most of our Saturday in Philly in the Franklin Institute.
We took our time, seeing most every exhibit, having fun touching everything. (And praying we didn’t pick up some virus or the Swine flu!)
We tested the brakes
before we rode on the real steam engine.
We spent plenty of time in the Heart wing.
Here we are making our way through the walk-through heart.
Chuck found out he has
of blood in his body. Interesting.
Brooke has always wanted to be a doctor. She decided to practice a little open heart surgery in preparation for her future career.
Where else will you get to sit on a bone bench?
Or crawl through a blood vessel?
We made sure to get plenty of exercise to keep our hearts beating strong.
In the space wing we made and tested moon rovers
and watched a really cool movie in the plantarium all about the sun. Perfect preparation for our upcoming solar system study.
We had a BOO-last at the Liquid Scare show. Here the children are all molecules in a solid, packed tight together, being quite still.
I forgot to take photos of our faces at age 70, as seen through an age progression machine. That’s probably better left unphotographed, anyway 
I do highly recommend the Institute for lots of science fun.
Poor little Junior Sparks had been struggling to breathe all day. I assured them it would be just fine to put him right into fresh new tap water. I’d done it my whole life. He’d be just fine and he’d be able to breathe.
The next morning, Brooke told me Junior Sparks was sleeping. Oh no. To tell the truth or a story that would buy me time to get a replacement? It didn’t matter what I said–the look on my face was honest. No poker face here.
An apology and acknowledgement that yes, there just might be a pink fish out there somewhere, was enough to quell the tears. Now I know. No fresh tap water for Junior Sparks Junior.
Hubby makes sure he includes the children in home projects. Sure, it would be much easier and quicker to do it himself, but he wants the children to learn for their future benefit. He learned how to fix many things from my own father. He’s grateful for that, but I think he wishes he’d learned from his own father.
He even finds jobs for the littlest ones. I wish you could see the smile on her face.
I like to take the children on “dates” to local theater productions. Breanna is finally old enough to get in on the fun. This night we went to see Harold and the Purple Crayon. She loved it! I loved sharing it with her.
Years ago, before we even had children, a friend convinced us letting a child ride on a mower was akin to murder. We were frightened into banning all grass-cutting activity until our children hit 18.
But I’d grown up on our family’s tractor. I have plenty of fun, and quirky memories from my time on our tractor. Like the time I got the snow plow on the front of it caught in the neighbor’s fence when I was only eight years old. Driving it myself.
So this year we finally broke that stronghold of fear and invited our children to ride on our mower. The smiles on their faces tell the story of growing up enjoying all things in life. The joy of independence. Of trying new things and growing in confidence.
Fear keeps us from so many of life’s challenges. I hope my children grow bold and brave, and say we helped them to become courageous.
When warm days
turn cool,
we find new beauty
in familiar places.
And in familiar faces.
As the seaons roll on, we are not unseated,
but find joy
in the change because we are confident in our
Who is
