2014 Catch Up Posts

NOVEMBER 29, 2014
I woke up early this morning to get in a little exercise and make breakfast. A few minutes ago, this was my reality: Josh is in the shower getting ready for work, Olivia is in her bedroom singing (at the top of her lungs) a love song for the bacon I'm cooking, Carly has just wandered out and is drowsily eating her Bento inspired breakfast, and Korbin is sitting under the kitchen table with his empty nerf gun, shooting our ankles with a "peew! peew! peew!" sound. Loving my life at the moment!! 

My day took a nosedive right before lunchtime...I was outside hanging some Christmas lights when I heard dogs fighting. It ended up being the neighbors two large dogs attacking my chihuahua Peppy. I think he's going to be alright, he has bloody puncture wounds on each shoulder. Then to top it all off, I came in the house and realized that our German Shorthaired Pointer had eaten the bacon that was left to cool on the counter. But right now I'm just thankful that Peppy looks like he's going to be ok.

DECEMBER 1, 2014

What's under the towel!??

Fresh Homemade Bread! YUMMM!

 DECEMBER 2, 2014

The fresh bread was such a big hit, I made 3 more today smile emoticon And I'm trying to make overnight cinnamon rolls from scratch for the first time tonight! Fingers crossed!

DECEMBER 5, 2014

This is one of our homeschool activities for today. Find the gingerbread bears! smile emoticon I will have Olivia write where she found the bear and what the bear is holding.

Fixing up a Country Boil for dinner tonight. I even have a live crab to throw in!! (At my fingertip in the picture)

 It needed a lot more seasoning, but was still good. I know for next time!

DECEMBER 7, 2014

The girls had to stop for a photo op with this beautiful little patch of bromeliads while we were on our walk this afternoon.

DECEMBER 8, 2014

Guess who found a marker out by the sandbox this morning. He even managed a couple marks on his back!

This is our spelling test for today. I made the game "Spell the Beans" out of dry lima beans using a permanent marker. Olivia loves it!

DECEMBER 10, 2014

Just scored these for Carly at Dollar General this morning!

DECEMBER 18, 2014

This evening, the girls brought me a large broken hand mirror, saying they had found it like that in Korbin's room. When asked what happened, Olivia said they screamed really loud like this ***high pitched scream*** and it broke. I was laughing so hard on the inside, I had her throw it away and just sent her to bed. (It was bedtime.) I'm pretty sure she knew that I KNEW she was telling a story.....

DECEMBER 19, 2014

I know I said we are on a school break, but these opportunities for learning just keep throwing themselves in our faces!! We happened upon some dry ice today and the girls are BEGGING me to look up how it works and why it burns your finger if you touch it! It makes me sad to think of how much of a dormant parent I was before we started homeschooling. I love that these kiddos are so excited to learn!

Korbin finally had the girls right where he wanted them....

DECEMBER 19, 2014

So here's what took up much of my day today. I made a triple batch of pancakes this morning...some for breakfast and some for the freezer. I made a triple batch of "refried" beans for freezer and a batch of potato corn chowder with homemade rolls for dinner. Oh, and a little over 80 choc chip walnut banana muffins for the freezer and snacks. Whew!! I know I shouldn't, but I think I'll save the dishes for tomorrow!!

DECEMBER 29, 2014

 

 As weird as it sounds, it was such a relief to get back to homeschooling today! Olivia had a lot of fun with the solar system model and Carly even helped paint a couple of the planets.

Crowley Natural & Cultural History Museum of Sarasota, FL

This was an amazingly fun field trip for the kids and I. We drove in totally not knowing what to expect...well honestly, I was expecting a traditional museum and maybe a little zoo-like area. I was wrong! This place has a nice little shop with very affordable toys and snacks, several pioneer era homestead cabins that are set up as if they were still lived in, and hiking trails and a lovely little boardwalk.

I really need to start bringing bug spray with me on all of the field trips, but luckily the mosquitos weren't ~too~ terrible this time. First, a quick stop at the playground, then we pet some bunnies, then a 500 lb pig named Squirt, then tromped through the mud and water to see the children's loop.

It had rained quite a lot over the previous few days but luckily we don't mind getting a little dirty! The kids loved the sculptures, zip line, the cows that crossed our path, and the huge rope spider web! Then we started off down the boardwalk into the swamp. It was absolutely beautiful. After almost 1/2 mile, I found the baby alligators. All 3 kids had walked right past them! :) After we stopped and were talking amongst ourselves for a bit, some of them started to call for their mama and it was really fun to see in real life. We've seen them so many times on t.v., it was such a different experience to really SEE them. The kids were all pretty tired of walking by the time we got back to the shop and then the car.

Birds of Florida Lapbooks

     It occurred to me the other day while driving Carly to preschool that the kids would probably love to learn the correct names of the amazing tropical birds we see every day around the city and occasionally on field trips. We only recently started experimenting with lapbooks and I was excited to make this into a weekend project for the kids. Once finished, these will be kept in the car for reference on any drives we take. Here are the finished products.

 

 

 

I just printed out a bunch of pictures of local birds I wanted to include and glued them to construction paper, and then to a plain folder that we folded toward the center. Most of the pictures open up so the children can see other variations of the same bird or more pictures of the same kind of bird. So far, these lapbooks have been a huge hit!

My Vegetarian Failure....and I don't really care.

Overall, my first couple weeks went pretty well.

Day 1:We went to Dinosaur World. I was worried about eating out while we were gone but the Chinese food place we stopped at had a vegetable dish that was pretty good. 

Other than that I pretty much ate bananas and Apple Cinnamon Cheerios. Oh, and I love starting my day with Ghirardelli hot chocolate mix with Silk soy milk. It's like a melted candy bar in your cup. NO SODA at all today! And bonus - no caffeine headache at all either!

Day 2:A little rougher day today. The kids and I have taken to eating pretzels and hummus VERY well and I'm excited to try making my own. I really wanted a soda today, and almost had one, but made myself put it back.

Day 3:Gave in and had a soda. Just one. Don't judge me! Ha! The kids and I are really enjoying our fruit smoothies, plus they get whipped cream on theirs so they're extra psyched. I'm enjoying my hot chocolate mix and now my coffee with sugar and chocolate creamer....a lot of chocolate creamer. Damn my sweet tooth!

Day 4:Another rough day....with a headache this time. Really wanted to have a soda again but I'm realizing that it's something besides the caffeine that I'm craving....the burn and bubbles maybe? I didn't have one today though. Josh cooked the kids bacon and eggs. I made him save the grease for my eggs on the 1st. (It stores amazingly in a jar in the fridge.) I mostly had my pretzels with hummus, cereal, and some peas with white rice that was leftover in the fridge because I didn't feel like doing much today.

Day 5:Normal day. The kids decided that they could make their own lunchmeat and PB&Nutella sandwiches so I just munched on apples, bananas, and pretzels with hummus. For dinner I cooked up a couple Boca veggie burgers. The kids tried bites, but ultimately stuck to their sandwiches. 

Day 6:We got up and outside first thing this morning and got some good exercise in! It felt good to get all sweaty and tired in the humid FL air. I whipped up some stir fry veggies and rice for lunch. YUM! This one is my favorite.

 Days 7 to 11 are a blur. I had a lot of stress trying to get Carly's medical records switched to Florida from Colorado so she can continue going to preschool for this year AND had been trying to figure out some way that I could fly to South Dakota for my mom and grandma's birthday's but it ended up not working out. I admit that I ate a few items that list milk as an ingredient and I'm pretty sure I had 2 or 3 sodas. I know. I suck. Apparently my will power is in even worse shape than I had originally thought but I continue on! Yesterday on Day 10, my husband cooked up an entire pack of bacon.....talk about needing will power! Also I bought a jug of Arizona Green Tea to try and stave off the soda desire. Coffee is ending up making me very jittery if I drink too much so I need to find other alternatives.

Day 12: So. Hopped on the scale today and realized that I have gained 4 pounds since Day 1. Time to get my BodyMedia Fit arm band back out and start tracking calories along with this special diet. It shouldn't be too hard...I hope. Looking back on the past 12 days, I probably need to shift towards a lot more veggies and a lot less carbs and sugars anyway.
I tried my hand at making my own hummus today. It's not too bad, but still not quite the same as store bought.

Days 13 to 14:I started using my arm band to track calories consumed and burned. I had a few vegetarian slip ups without even realizing until afterwards when my husband pointed them out to me. I made pizza for the kids, got distracted and ate a piece myself. Then later, discussing it with the hubs, I was like, "I know. I know. The cheese on the pizza and eggs/milk in the crust." and he says, "And the meat." I was floored that I didn't even recall or consider the meat!! I think this is my subconscious' way of telling me my body wants meat. HA!

Days 15 to 19:A note about the hummus from Day 12; it was pretty good once I let it chill in the fridge. Last night I had a totally defiant "I give up" sort of night and had a lunchmeat sandwich, a couple eggs over easy and 2 sausage links....plus I have lost all control with the soda. The stress of the low calorie diet on top of the veg diet just really started to get to me. I fell off the wagon hard and don't see any reason to stress myself and my family even more. Now just isnt a good time to be doing this little experiment. When Mama's crabby, ain't nobody happy! LOL

Sorry if I disappointed any of you, but now I can move on to posting about other things. :)

 

Mystery Eggs

On 9-6-14 Father in law found these eggs while we were cleaning up the demo pile behind the house. They move inside when poked. We think they are a lizard of some kind. We know we have anoles and geckos around the house in abundance, but a friend of mine also thinks they may be a skink or salamander also. I hope they hatch ok in my jar!! I will update this post at the bottom when/if they hatch.

 

THEY HATCHED!!

They hatched into the teensiest, tiniest little bitty froggies I have ever seen! And these little guys can jump! I went ahead and released them outside so they can find their own mosquito larvae or whatever else itty bitty bugs and stuff they might eat. These pictures show them sitting on the rim of the regular mouth jar. 

Spontaneous Museum Stop: Arcadia, FL

Today, the kids and I stumbled upon this little gem during a trip to the Post Office. If they had had a bathroom, we would have definitely stayed longer and looked around much more. I think we will probably go back again some other time with Josh because I saw things here and at the shop next door that I would like to get ;)

(Added Haunting notes at the bottom of this post!)

 

From Yelp.com:

Specialties

The Opera House is a an antique mall and museum housed in a second floor theater that is in near original condition.  The antique mall spans 12 rooms and an enormous main stage gallery filled with treasures.  The building is frequently investigated by professional paranormal teams as well.
The entire historic downtown Arcadia main street is filled with antique stores, cafes and the Opera House is the best attraction of all.  It's a wonderful way to spend a day!

History

Established in 1906.
The Arcadia Opera House was founded in 1906.  In 1905 a large fire destroyed most of downtown Arcadia and the Opera House was one of the first buildings to be rebuilt.   After it was built by John J. Heard it housed his bank downstairs, the Florida Loan and Trust Company. The rooms upstairs surrounding the theater were rented out to help business owners get back on their feet after the fire and to continue to supply services to the residents of the county.  In addition to being a performance hall it was also used for dances, political meetings, movie theater, the local USO,  graduation ceremonies, black face comedians, vaudeville, silent movies and talkies.

Meet the Business Owner

James C. Business Owner

James is the new owner of the Arcadia Opera House Antique Mall and Museum.  He is originally from New England and recently relocated his entire eclectic inventory to the Opera House.  In addition to the antiques he also has tens of thousands of vinyl albums for the serious music collector.

 

 

Who doesn't love The Great Zoltar!?

 

The Phantom! He kinda freaked the younger 2 out. Lol

 

I LOVE this cauldron. That's the only reason for the pic. :)

 

The kids thought it would be really neat to ride around behind a horse like they did before we had cars.

 

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These last pictures are from the antique shop next door, that had a huge inventory of very neat and VERY expensive items. Thank God that my kids are occasionally able to behave and keep their hands in their pockets!

 

 

They had some awesome Uranium glassware....and maybe some Vaseline glassware on the bottom right too. Not sure.

 

I just thought this was a neat piece. 

 

This photo is horrible but this stained glass is BEAUTIFUL and the darn thing didn't have a price on it! HA! Probably would have been too much anyway.

 

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After some Googling, I found this article about the Opera House- http://www.visitflorida.com/en-us/articles/2012/august/2299-arcadia-opera-house-lures-hunters-of-ghosts-and-antique-rarities.html 

and they even have a Facebook page!

https://www.facebook.com/ArcadiaOperaHouse

 

VERY NEAT PLACE!