End of Year Testing. . . .

I absolutely detest all the testing that is pushed on our kids in the public school system today.   I realize we must assure they are learning but there must be another alternative.  I have one child that has no problem testing and I have one that twists himself into a knot days before all of this testing.   He makes himself sick worrying over this mess.  There are many children that are just like my Big T and worry themselves until they are physically ill over end of year testing.   Our school system puts so much pressure on these children to perform, I wonder if during the year they are really learning anything.  Our we really educating our children or are we teaching them how to take a test?
In our family we try to make the days of the EOG's, EOC's and final exams special and fun.   This year my dear sweet hubby is making a special breakfast each morning for the boys.  Normally it is yogurt and a bar for Big T and Sprat usually has hash browns and milk.  This week of exams they have had bacon and pancakes with biscuits.   Sprat will most likely have sausage biscuits and hash browns and maybe some bacon during his finals.
Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, especially on exam days.   Prayer is also very important on days like this.  I said a special prayer with Big T before he left for school today and I said another one after they left for both Sprat and Big T.   I also slipped Big T a little peppermint patty to eat before the test.   I read somewhere that peppermint helps wake up the brain and keeps you focused.  In our house, we pull out all the tricks we can to get us through exams.
To everyone suffering from exam anxiety, parents and kids alike, prayers and hugs to you all.

New Recipe. . .

I have a new favorite recipe for my broccoli.  I found this one on Pinterest, but I did not save it and now I cannot locate it.  I did tweak it just a bit anyway so it is not the exact recipe from Pinterest.   We have a bumper crop of broccoli right now so I am trying to find other ways to eat it than just raw and in salads.  I do love it that way though.  I have done this recipe two different ways and obviously I encourage you to tweak it and make it your own.

1-2 cups chopped broccoli (depending on how many you are going to feed)
2-3 tbsp of olive oil ( I am never exact on this, I do not measure)
2 cloves of garlic pressed ( highly recommend fresh)
1-2 tbsp of water

I whisk the last three ingredients then add the broccoli and toss.  Spread over a baking dish and broil till tender or to the way you like it.  My hubby likes his really done.

This is the one I tried today and it was FABULOUS!!
1-2 cups chopped broccoli
2-3 tbsp olive oil
2 cloves garlic
1 lemon zested and then juiced

I whisk the last three ingredients then add the broccoli and toss.  Zest your lemon before you juice it and I only juiced half of my lemon.  This had the best flavor, I could not believe how good it was.  I broiled on 500 till it was very fragrant and a little crisp for my hubby.   When I bring it out of the oven I also sprinkle a little salt.

I think my kids might even like this, I may have to try it again tonight and see.  

Anniversaries. . .

My wonderful parents celebrated their sixty first wedding anniversary this month and my dear hubby and I celebrated twenty-three years earlier this year.   Someone at Church asked my Dad about their anniversary and he said, "I have been married all of my life."  My Dad is such a comedian.   My parents are both very funny and you can tell when you are around them that they really do love each other very much.   They have both been through their share of trials and tribulations.   I hope that the hubbs and I will last as long.   We argue and fight but I think that is just part of sharing a life with someone else.   Our biggest fights came when we bought our first house and then again when we bought the house we are in now.   These were very big decisions in our married life, I felt like if there was ever something to argue over these were two legitimate ones.   A few years after we bought our first house the hubbs sister ran into our real estate agent and he asked if we were still married.  I had to laugh we had only been married eight months before we bought our first house.   We had definitive ideas on what we wanted in a home and they did  differ just a little.  We were in our first house for twelve years before we bought the house we are in now.   The same agent helped us buy our second house too.  We will probably be in this one till we die, we have a big backyard.  Just kidding.  I think we will be here till we move to the beach.  Big T has already said he is going to live at the beach when he gets out of college.  I told Big T that he had to have an extra room for me.  The only thing Sprat has said is that he does not want to live where it is cold.   He may have dreams of the beach too.

The Things We Do for Our Kids. . .

We went out to eat the other day and I looked across the table at my kids and they are not my little boys any more.  They are young men and very handsome, if I do say so myself.  Sitting there I could not believe how much they have grown up they are practically men.  It made me think back when they were little and all the funny things they did and I did to get them to this  point.  
From the time Sprat was born the hubbs and I would read to him and say prayers for him before bed. When Sprat was almost three he said something about monsters being in his room and that he was afraid to go to sleep.   The hubbs and I read to him and said prayers but Sprat was still concerned about monsters, I got creative and decided to do the banish the monsters dance.  Yes, I am that mom.  The banish the monsters dance went like this; I clapped really loud and shouted in each corner of the room for all of the monsters to get out and stay out of this room.  I would then jump around and clap in a circle and yell "out, out, out."   This always made Sprat laugh, which was the point, so that his last feelings before going to bed were happy.   You have to be silly sometimes, you cannot be a serious parent all of the time.   This worked for the next several years.   The hubbs and I have always made it a point to say prayers with the boys before bed and we still do.  They are in separate rooms now so we do prayers in the living room before they go up for bed.   I am so thankful that they still want to say prayers together.
When Sprat was in elementary school I started knitting.  He saw me knitting one day and asked what I was doing.  I told him I was knitting a prayer shawl and he wanted to know what that was.  I explained that I was praying while I was knitting and that who ever received the shawl would receive my prayers.  Sprat had been struggling with some things in school and asked if he could have one for school.  I giggled just a little but I knew what he really meant.  He wanted something to give him comfort during school.  I crocheted him a bookmark and we tied it in one of his notebooks.  I prayed over that bookmark for him and I told him that when ever he felt bad he could look at that bookmark and know that he was not alone and that I would see him soon.  Big T went through something similar while in elementary school and he also took a crocheted bookmark that we had prayed over with him to school.  I think elementary school is one of the hardest times in the lives of our kids.   I would have done almost anything to give my kids some type of comfort during this time of their little lives.
We are getting ready for final exams and EOG's and EOC's.   I hate all of the  testing and rating of students and teachers.  The hubbs and I do our best to make these days fun and a little less stressful.  I know I have posted about this before but it does need to be shared again.  On days of exams or EOG's  we take the boys out for a good breakfast.  We try to make the day special and not so stressful.  I got this idea from my sister she started this tradition with her girls when they were in school and I thought it was a fabulous idea so when Sprat was in middle school we started the exam day breakfast.  Not sure where we will take the boys to eat this year but we usually let them pick the place.
Living and loving in the little moments of my kids lives.  I am so lucky to have these crazy boys and my crazy husband too.  They get it honest.  

Throwback Thursday. . .

A little stroll down memory lane.

My three favorite fellas on Father's Day 2011

The Hubbs and Sprat at the Fair 2011

The Beach with Sprat and Big T 2013

My fellas 2013

Just Grill It !

I love grilling season and yes at our house it is a season.   We love to grill, my hubby will grill almost anything.   We love steak and chicken on the grill, but anybody can do that, my hubby grills stuffed peppers, zucchini, and potatoes too.   The hubbs picked up a little gadget at Bass Pro Shop so that he can grill stuffed peppers and the stuffing does not fall out.  It is a pretty neat trick.  You can use either ground beef or shredded chicken with cream cheese and taco seasoning and stuff your peppers then stand them in the grill gadget for peppers and load them on your grill.  These are awesome, I hope we have enough peppers this year to make these.   I posted last year about grilling whole onions with butter and a little garlic powder and fresh sage wrapped in tinfoil.  We will be doing those too.
Here is the garlic and wine marinade recipe, you must promise that you will not laugh when I tell you where it came from.  I always give credit when I use a recipe or anything else that is not my own.   Remember no laughing.  The Brazilian Bikini Body Program by Regina Joseph.   I have no intention of ever wearing a bikini again and that is not why I bought this book.   I have always been fascinated by the diets in other areas of the world, I have read quite a bit on the Mediterranean diet and the Brazilian diet is very similar.  They eat fresh fruits and vegetables and they do not deny themselves things like bread, they do not have negative thoughts about eating the occasional sweet.  They are active and outdoors a lot and I think we would all be better off if we were outdoors more and away from the idiot box (what my dad used to call the TV).  
Here is one of my favorite marinade recipes I found in the BBBP book.

Garlic and Wine Marinade
This is for a large batch that you can keep in a glass jar in the fridge for about a week.  I cut mine in half for 5 chicken breast.

4 cloves of garlic pressed
1 large onion chopped finely
2 cups dry white wine
Juice of 1 lime
3 tbsp cracked black pepper
2 dashes of Tobasco or Texas Pete
3 bay leaves
1 tsp salt

Marinate red meat for 3 hours in fridge, chicken and pork for 2 hours, and fish no more than half an hour.  I have not used this for red meat or fish, it is awesome on chicken.  My kids loved it.

A Planting I Will Go. . .

I love playing in the dirt and in the yard.  I have a beautiful trellis that my hubby gave me one Mother's day and each year we plant sweet potato vine to run on it.  I went yesterday and picked up my sweet potato vine and a Gerber Daisy.  I love the garden shop.  I potted my daisy in a new pot for my front porch to go with my huge Geranium.  
Last night we had grilled chicken and I was fixing a marinade for it, this is a garlic and wine marinade.  I noticed my garlic was sprouting,  well I decided I would try and grow some garlic.   It already had a little green shoot so I filled a pot with some potting soil and stuck my little toe of garlic in the dirt.   I left a little bit of the green shoot sticking out of the soil.  Below are my pictures.  I used a good size pot so there would be room to grow some delicious garlic. I have never done this so I will keep you posted on how it grows.  We tried a few years ago to grow garlic in the garden but it did not do anything.   I hope this works.

This is my sweet potato vine from a year ago.

Crisp, Beautiful, Monday. . .

Watched two wild baseball games yesterday after a beautiful Baptism and Confirmation at our Church.  Our youth group is growing and that is so wonderful to see.  Our youth choir, the Grateful Choir sang the National Anthem at a minor league baseball game yesterday.  They do an awesome job, we did not get to see them though because Sprat had a double header at the same time.  Sprat's team is off to a rough start this year but they came on strong yesterday and pulled two amazing wins. We had some unusual plays, to end the first game we had a triple play that began and ended at home plate.  Yes, it was a legit triple play.  Blooper fell right in front of the plate and a force out at home to start.  Catcher throws to first and gets the batter out, then for some reason the kid that was on third came on home, so first baseman throws to get that kid out at home.  Triple play!  Awesome!!  Wish I had it on video because it was crazy!    Sprat made two great plays, one at first base and another at third.  He did a  super stretch and a pirouette to tag the kid out at first.  They had a kid in a run down between home and third and Sprat stretched and got the kid out but the umpire called him safe and while Sprat was still laying on the ground at third the umpire looked back at him and smiled and said, "I know he was out and I missed it."  I do not think many umpires would admit that one but this guy has been an umpire where our kids play for many years and he has watched our kids grow up and I guess he felt a little guilty.   The very next batter the kid tried it again and this time Sprat got him out.  Sprat played first, third and he pitched three innings in the first game.  He loves playing ball.
I know that was a lot of play by play but these were two really exciting games.  
It was a wonderful day.

Financial Friday the 13th. . .

Good Friday morning.    On this rainy and overcast Friday the 13th I think we should do a check up of our rainy day fund/emergency fund.   Are you saving for that rainy day or emergency?  If you are not prepared for the rain a simple appliance problem could send you in to financial ruin or at least zap your budget.  Dave Ramsey talks about saving $1,000 in cash and fast as your on hand emergency fund.  He also talks about saving three to six months of expenses for your long term emergency fund. If you have an emergency fund in place, your emergencies do not seem so big.  
If you have not checked out Dave Ramsey I highly recommend it.  Read his information and test out his theories for yourself.  I am not a financial guru nor do I claim to be, I have followed most of what Dave Ramsey says to do and we are debt free except our house and saving like crazy for the boys to go to college.   I was thrilled that my friend Beth invited me to my first Dave Ramsey class and I was excited when my friend Craig said he would be teaching a class.   You do not have to attend a class to learn his system, check out the Dave Ramsey website.  I also encourage you to read books from other financial people like Suzy Orman.  There are many financial businesses that will counsel you in your financial matters but, do you really want to take advice from someone who has less money in the bank than you?  I am not saying that they are all like that but, I find it hard to take financial advice from someone who is in more debt than I am.  As Dave says, if you want to be a millionaire you do what millionaires do and millionaires do not take financial advice from broke people.   You can find Dave Ramsey's books at the library and at some used book stores.
Here is my disclosure:  I am not receiving any perks or kickbacks for this post.  I write this because I truly believe in this system and I think we would all be better off out of debt.   Imagine the contributions that could be made to charity if we were all out of debt. . .  

Mother is Always Right. . .

Not only is Mother always right but so is Daddy.  It took me twenty-two years to come to this monumental conclusion.    I wonder how long it will take my kids to come to this conclusion?    I look back on all of the advice, solicited or not, that my parents gave me and boy my life would have been so much easier if I had followed half of what they advised.   I did follow some but I do wish I had listened to it all!   This goes back to that post where I talked about the kids "earning" knowledge.  I earned a great deal of knowledge through those twenty-two years.   I talk a lot about Mom but Dad is also a force that cannot be left out.  He showed me how men are supposed to treat women and when I dated those that were not up to his standards he pointed it out.   He let me know that these boys were not fit for my company or my attention in very subtle ways.   They never told me who I could or could not date but they helped me see the true colors of some of the less desirable boys that I had contact with.
My Mom and Dad met my dear hubby at a basketball game.  They did not get a lot of time to talk to him but they immediately liked him.  He met the WHOLE family at a reunion a month or so later and of course everyone immediately loved him.  He blended well with the rest of our clan.   The hubbs was thrilled when he found out we were having road kill stew because my aunt Laura had hit a deer the day before on her way to town.   You may think that is gross but we all love some good deer meat and it did not matter how it got to the table.  Everyone had only the nicest things to say about my hubby when they met him that day and I guess I knew deep down he was going to be the one.  We had not been dating that long but there was just something about him that lead me to believe that he would be my forever love.
I do still lean on my Mom and Dad for advice for different things and I have no regrets.  I hope that my kids will come along at some point and make the same realization.  They are young, impetuous, stubborn, and very reluctant to listen to the hubbs and I right now.   I pray for them daily, I pray for whomever God has picked out for them as their mate.  No, it is not too soon to pray for that.    You want them to have a godly mate and someone that will love them the way they deserve to be loved.   I want them to have the kind of love that my Mom and Dad have, that my hubby and I have, and the love that my in-laws had.

Plant Celebration. . .

Today I am celebrating our beautiful garden and our beautiful plants and herbs.  I love gardening and working with the soil.  It is very rewarding to watch a plant grow from a seed or seedling into a beautiful flower, herb, or vegetable.  I am very lucky that my hubby shares my love of plants and gardening.    I hope that my kids will learn to love gardening too.   I am sharing some of my pictures that I took this morning of our garden and my flowers.

Sweet Basil, not to be confused with my four legged one. 

A gift from my Mom.

Cherry tomato

Parsley 

Dahlia, a gift from my Mom on Mother's Day

Broccoli and Cabbage

Mixed bag of Lettuce

Fresh Oregano 

Gorgeous Geranium from my dear Hubby for Mother's Day.

End of Season. . .

I hope everyone had a great weekend.  We lived in the little moments, unfortunately separated.  The hubbs and Sprat spend All day at Carolina Rebellion and Big T and I spent our Saturday at Lax Fest.  They played four games and won three out of the four.  That is a lot of Lacrosse for one little boy.  We had fun though and he finished his season with three big wins.  We also got to see a few girls college lacrosse championship games too.  Duke, Carolina, Virginia Tech and South Florida were there playing and those that think girls lacrosse is not as physical as the boys have not watched them play.
Sprat and the hubbs were at the concert all day and got to see several bands that they both like.  Spent Sunday at Mom and Dad's celebrating my Mom and my sister and what great mothers they both are.  Enjoyed some wonderful food and spending time with the family.  Big T did not feel real well so we did not get to go see he and Sprats name sake.  My sister named her newest baby goats after my boys.  Big T the goat is quite rambunctious and usually finds trouble.  Sprat the goat is not as much of a trouble seeker.  They are both very cute goats.  
Big T is in black in the middle.  Last set of games for this season, they finished with only two losses.

Happy Mother's Day...

To all the Mom's, I hope you have a wonderful weekend with your families.  To all the Dad's being Mom too, I hope you have a wonderful weekend also.
Being a Mom is a very difficult job; there are no vacation days, no sick days, no pay raises, and most days no pats on the back for a job well done.  There are days when your kiddos will give you a kiss on the cheek and a whisper, "I love you."    I consider those as my pay raise. 
I think being a Mom to boys is the hardest.  They go from loving you and wanting you around all the time to being embarrassed to be seen with you.   When my kids get on that trip, I give them fair warning, that they have not even begun to be embarrassed.   Yes, I am that Mom. 
I love my boys to the moon and back, and I would do anything for them within reason.   They do push me to my end sometimes.  
You want your kids to do better than you, you do not want them to make the same mistakes you made.  I am here to tell you, you can only tell them so much.  Some things they have to learn from experience.  My hubby calls this "earning" knowledge.   I want to protect them from some of those "earning" experiences.  
Again to all the Mom's out there making memories, living in the little moments, and trying to make a difference for their children.  Prayers for us all.

This is a picture of my Mom and the boys on one of our outings a year ago.  

My niece, Mom, and Me at Biltmore last Summer. Photo by Big T.

Happy Mother's Day 

First Greens. . .and a Little Tuna

Enjoying my first salad of the season this week.  You just cannot beat fresh greens.  Last night the boys had cheese steaks, and the hubbs and I had tuna over our fresh greens and sprouts.  Yes, I am still sprouting, working on my third crop of alfalfa sprouts. 
I wanted to share my tuna recipe with you.  I never liked tuna when I was younger,  it was not until I started fixing it this way that I really liked it. 
Here we go: 
1 can solid white tuna in water
1 tbsp mayo
1 1/2 tbsp mustard
Dash of garlic powder
Dash of dill
Dash of vinegar

Drain your tuna and mix with your other ingredients.
Chill and serve over a bed of greens and you will not need extra dressing.  Spread on toast or a tortilla with some greens and sprouts.   You can also enjoy with some crackers and cheese.  

If that does not fit your tastes this is another recipe for tuna I have used.  My kids even eat this but, shhhh they do not know it is tuna.

1 or 2 cans of solid white tuna in water (depending on how many you have to feed)

Sweet Baby Rays BBQ sauce (or whatever BBQ sauce you prefer)

Drain your tuna and put in a skillet on medium heat.  Add your BBQ sauce and stir to combine.  Let this heat up and you can eat by itself or on a bun like a BBQ sandwich.   You do not even realize it is tuna.

School is Almost Out. . .

One final down and one to go, I am really excited and relieved to see this semester come to an end.   I will have about a month to decompress and prepare for a wild Summer full of College tours, football workouts, and Lacrosse camps.  I hope we can work in a visit to the beach too.  
Big T is almost done with his season of Lacrosse, he got to play attacker this weekend.  The attackers are the ones that get to shoot and score.  Big T was very nervous and they threw him the ball and caught it clean and turned to shoot but unfortunately the goalie caught it.  The goalie and Big T were both pretty surprised.   They won both games and they were so far ahead in the last game and that is why Big T got to be an attacker.  They were letting the boys play what ever position they wanted.   Their record right now is 13-1-1.
Baseball game was cancelled due to the weather.  My niece has moved into her new apartment up here to start her clinical rotations for her final year of Pharmacy school.  I am so proud of my nieces they are smart, talented, beautiful and are not afraid to step out of their comfort zone to achieve their goals.   I wonder if my sister would mind if I claim her as mine while she is here?  
Back on the books for that final, final exam and then I can cheer my boys through their finals and EOC exams.