To Fool or Not To Fool

Nothing like waiting until the last minute...tomorrow's April Fool's Day...

The boys are really into it this year...what to do, what to do?!?

Do you practice the day of pranking? Any good ideas?

I've got a couple, one in particular makes me die laughing...but would be soooo mean to my sweet little innocent (chocking now) dears! We saw a funniest video with guys eating caramel apples, except they weren't apples...onion..a big ol' bite of caramel covered onion!!!

Can you imagine?!?

My mom says it'd be hilarious, but I'd have to be on the look out for pay backs!

A few years ago, the boys taped my dad's crutches together...imagine the surprise of my one legged father wobbly reaching for his crutches only to find them stuck tight! Jamie also popped the bottoms out of a few of those paper bathroom cups..classic...and neither of these were actually done on April 1st...we're just a mean family ;)

So, do you hide for the day? Or do you pull out all the stops? Any fun ideas?

I'll be back tomorrow with some picks of what we decide to do!

Sunshine Day

I am feeling Sooooo much better! Back in the kitchen, no more fake food...poor kiddos!

We had a ton of leftover carrots from the last grocery trip and I really need to use them up fast before I have to toss em!

What do you get when you are thinking about this at 7 am?

Sunshine Muffins!

-finely grate 4 carrots and one apple (I peeled mine because I didn't want to push the kids too far)

-to the carrots add :

1/2 cup yogurt (ours just happened to be freshly made, but any reg plain

old yogurt will do)

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup melted butter

1/2 cup honey

-in a mixing bowl combine:

3 1/2 cups flour (I used regular AP, but switch it up if you'd like!)

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp nutmeg (I would probably do 1/2 ginger or cloves next time)

-whisk dry ingredients, add wet and stir until combined. if your batter is too thick, add a little

milk....I had to add 1/4 cup, but I'm assuming that all depends on how juicy your apples are...

seriously, you can't mess these up (or I would have!) these were not overly sweet muffins, if you

need more sweetness, add in some sugar....I won't judge!

-in prepared muffin tins, add about 1/4 cup of batter...maybe 1/3...you know, until it looks right;)

-bake 350 for 20 min

(and don't tell the kiddos what's in them! oh, and the batter will be freakishly orange, but it tames

down during cooking!)

Make sure to sing this song as you're grating by hand all the carrots....unless you're lucky enough

to have a food processor...then you won't have time to get your groove on!

Of course, every day in our house is a Sunshiney Day...everybody's smilin' and nobody's fightin' or banished to their rooms...sunshine daaaaaay! ha, yeah right.....at least their bickering got 3 loads of laundry folded! Well, I guess things are looking up when you think about it....Doo doo doo doo, dodododododo...sunshine day!

Ducking For Cover

(this was waiting for me today on our school table...why work on spelling when they can just build it?!?)

Man, what a MONTH! I have been sick since Feb......and frankly, I'm sick of it!!!!

I started with a cold, then went to just completely worn out for a few weeks (like 2 naps a day and still sleeping 10 hours a night!)...then the bomb hit---my lymph system went completely nuts :/ All of a sudden, I had these lima bean sized bumps everywhere---hurt like you know what---antibiotics, pain meds and plenty of sleep and I am finally back to somewhat ok.

I'm sick of eating "easy" food---of course, everything that I bought for our meals the last two weeks were super labor intensive sooooo the boys have been having lots of mac and cheese and spaghetti o's (gag!).

I've got a few projects on the back burners and I've made a couple of cool recipes the last two days.....but the hub is picking up hours today and is standing over me wanting the ol 'puter so he can leave....

TaTa For Now----hope that spring is shining where ever you are today (the sun is here, but it's stinkin cold...talk of snow this weekend but I'm holding out for only green grass from here on out!)

Tuesday....Seriously?!?

This is pretty much my morning....except swap out legos for the bananas! Why, Oh Why Can't They Share?!? You'rrrrrrre Sooooooo Selfish!

By 7:30, 2 boys were banished back to their beds......by 8:00 they were doing hard labor.....

Torture Tuesday---or----as I'm thinking back on it, shake your head and laugh at the little geniuses you've brought into the world!

WW3 has begun because someone wasn't flying their lego starship in the correct formation for StarWars episode 5 (No! In episode 4, Luke flew into the whatever like that...NOT episode 5....well Duh!)

Skip StarWars, onto Indiana Jones....or should I say Corey Jones... What? It's Riley Indiana?!? No, wait...It is indeed Corey.Jones. Ooops, my bad.....it's RILEYINDIANA!!! Which results in a wrestle match where poor Riley Indiana gets the snot kicked out of him......

Ok Folks, time for the boys to do something constructive-----Dishes! Noooo, oh the wailing and nashing of teeth heard from that idea!

Dishes done, time for school.....What? Today's topic is not on why Riley indeed makes a better Indiana Jones than Corey?!? Yes, Riley Does have a cowboy hat...but Corey was so kind to inform us that Indiana does NOT wear a cowboy hat! It's a feDORaaaaaaaaaa! Really, well now we know ;)

15 minutes into school and I'm sounding more and more like Sister Mary Elephant----class.....Class......CLASS!!!!! Boys, sounds to me like it's time to take a break.....watch Indiana Jones Last Crusade. At least I can ooogle the Jones Boys plus the added bonus of WW2, Bible, Ancient Greek and Geography. (I'm sure that I could think of more homeschooling merits for Indiana, but my brain is fried...margaritas for lunch anyone?)

I guess we'll try again after lunch....but remember you can't have your pudding until you eat your meat.....or is that you can't go outside until you finish your Math? There we go, that sounds better....

Calgon take me away!

Intentionality

A couple of weeks ago, we had a little craft girls weekend.....Ami was sweet enough to show us how to make these domino necklaces (sorry for the bad pic, it's so hard to get a good close up of anything with my bb)

During my fast, Hebrews 12 was something that I kept coming back to:

-Throw every hindrance aside, the sin that so easily entangles us.

-Run with perseverance the race marked out for us.

-Fix Your Eyes On Jesus!

I love how The Message paraphrase says this next part:

Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we're in. Study how he did it. Because he never lost sight of where he was headed—that exhilarating finish in and with God—he could put up with anything along the way: Cross, shame, whatever. And now he's there, in the place of honor, right alongside God. When you find yourselves flagging in your faith, go over that story again, item by item, that long litany of hostility he plowed through. That will shoot adrenaline into your souls!

Intentionality---focused, purposeful, eyes on the prize

Never loose sight of where you're headed! In this life we will have trials, pain will come....but keep your eyes focused...keep putting one foot in front of the other...before you know it, you've reached you're destination!

I've been focusing on this when New Mexico seems so far....funny how passionate we were just after returning and now life chips away at the dream, it gets dusty, maybe misplaced a bit.

Living with intent. Every day has a purpose, what are we doing.....are we running, training, persevering or sitting on the sidelines eating hoho's?

I need more intention in my day to day

---less fluff, less distractions, no excuses

---More Focus

---More Determination

---More of my eyes lifted up looking at my Coach!

Keep my eyes focused Lord....open to your leading-teachable, moldable......I want to live a life full on for Jesus....I want to experience the miraculous everyday.....don't let these light and momentary troubles harden my heart, blind my eyes. Fill me with Your Holy Fire---blow the roof off the paradigm that I build around you, Father.