Happy Valentine's Day

We had a super Valentine's Day. Several years ago at a Valentine's Day Party, the kids made valentine mailboxes. Then put valentines in each mail box. We've continued that each year at home and the weeks leading up to valentines have been a flurry of valentine making. I'm not good at mailing all the valentines that get made for Grandma, Nana, Papa, out of state friends, ... but the mailboxes work out great for delivering within the Lewcrew. 

Here's KG with her new doll handmade by her favorite friend's mom

What a nice night of opening up sweet notes to each other- this time they added giving each other candy (from their Halloween/ Christmas bags.)

T enjoying some chocolate!

Show Me the Money!

We've been doing through Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace Junior with the kids for family devotion. A few weeks ago we started letting the kids earn commission for some (well 1) of their chores. We've explained to them that most of the things that they do to help around the house are because they are important parts of our family and we all need to help. But at the same time we want to teach them about money so they're not learning as college students overwhelmed with credit card offers. 

so they do their chores and at the end of the week get money for their giving, spending, and saving jars. Today they got the chance to spend some money and pick out a goal for their savings. Yes, they could have loftier, thinking of other's goals which they will but here are some fun things they're saving for too: 

can you guess whose this is?

C is developing quite an aresnal- a light saber from grandma, pirate sword from Nana, he bought a blow dart gun at Dollar tree today, and now this!

K is all about the legos

Yes, KG already picked something but she was so excited about words with friends

T is really into anything police 

C waffled a little on building up his arsenal when he saw angry birds T-shirts

We did make it home okay from our 2 hour trip to Walmart. Got this pic of C and KG hold babies.

Baby C has grown lots bigger than Kate

T and K didn't want to miss out on baby holding!

Learning

We've taken a while off "school." We were plugging right along our checklists and then baby C arrived. and then Thanksgiving, RSV, Christmas, OBX, .... We haven't been checking as much off as just learning life. Here are a fewof the lessons we've been learning-
Like this morning when K brushed his teeth and didn't wipe out the sink. When I saw it later today, bits of food hardened on the sink. It took some scrubbing to get it off (and it was only a couple hours old). If he'd wiped the sink right away, it would have come right off. Isn't that how it is with our habits? The longer we have a habit, the harder it is to undo; the sooner we have off a bad habit, the easier it is to stop.

Along the same lines, to get rid of a bad habit, we need to put on a good one. "Take off the old man and put on the new man." James and I had gotten into a bad nightly internet habit- not bad things- mostly homeschool, parenting, farming, crossfit, ... but not using our time as well as we could. When we just said we're going to decrease that, we didn't do it. well maybe for a couple days. But when we started using a few nights a week to prep food for Whole 30, it was easier to stop that habit.

I think that internet could easily fit into the Bible verse: "the love of money is the root of all evil." The internet is not all bad- definitely good there but the love of it is not good. It can definitely become an idol. K and I had a special time together today reading One Thousand Gifts'  Afterwards, he made a birthday card for Aleena- a little girl fighting for her life, waiting a heart transplant. As we talked about how she could get a new heart, I thought there's no other place I'd rather be right now then here teaching kids about life. Same when we're reciting Bible verses, singing hymns, patting a baby's back, ...

Whole 30 Part 2

We're nearing the end of our 30 days. it has been kind of fun to try new recipes. We've definitely eaten a ton more veggies over the  last couple weeks and I really feel good. I'd hoped to lose more weight. I am hungry a lot but I've realized one of the good things about healthy eating is that you can eat a huge plate of food and not feel bad!

Here's a couple recipes we really liked;
 sweet potato/ zucchini frittata  was really good
so we're trying              sweet potato zucchini hash soon
butternut squash roasted in coconut oil was so good I'm going to go get some now!
butternut squash custard 

James made bacon explosion twice which was really good- meatloaf wrapped in bacon.
I've had grand plans over the years for monthly (or at least weekly) meal planning. I've never really followed the monthly- I do try to generally make a weekly plan. But what's worked best for my meal planning is having certain meals for certain days of the week-here's what we had for whole 30 for those days
Sunday cereal for breakfast- I had diced apples, carrots, and nuts with cinnamon and a little coconut milk
Monday night- dinner salad- lots of toppings- just add some meat
Tuesday night taco night- some nights we had in romaine leaves and sometimes taco salad
Wednesday- easy- usually quiche or a fritatta
Thursday- leftovers
Friday-pizza- we usually had shrimp salad
Sat/ Sun- grill

breakfasts have been a rotation- oatmeal, pancakes, oatmeal, eggs, ...(sometimes puffed pancakes, waffles, or toast) and smoothie to drink
the kids haven't really changed but I've been eating lots of veggies with eggs most days and usually save the smoothie for a midday snack. I've really liked the times I made a huge smoothie and frozen some of it in muffin tins. then on a busier morning, I just pop the frozen smoothies into the vita-mix. instead of chopping up lots of fruits and veggies

I wasn't sure what we were going to do for the Super Bowl but James had a terrific idea and made yummy wings- whole 30 and very good

Whole 30

We started Whole 30  last week. Whole 30 is a more restrictive paleo- mostly meat and vegetables. some fruit and nuts. no dairy. James did it in the fall and felt and looked great. We thought after the holidays would be a great time to kick-start our healthy eating.  We're about a week into this. I wanted to share some of the shortcuts we've taken. Well, not exactly short-cuts but getting some things made at night so we're not trying to make everything from scratch right before a meal.

Here are some of the most helpful:

One night each week we've made egg muffins and baked egg cups, hardboiled eggs, and bacon. 

Another night we made Lara bars and salad in a jar.
Another night James made chicken patties and shredded lots of sweet potatoes for this yummy breakfast staple 

What I've missed the most so far is popcorn for our Friday night movie night. I missed pizza too but this super shrimp salad made me not mind.

The first few days were pretty rough- headaches, just yucky feeling- but now I feel good. I still get hungry during the day but not so many highs and lows. I'm not sure how much of this we'll continue afterwards but I'm definitely glad we've done it. still hoping to lose some weight too!

OBX 2013

We love the OBX. We've gone there a lot of years now- starting New Year's Eve 1999-2000. We did miss a few years while we were in Kansas but we've been there a lot. Our trips have changed over the years- NYE James and I, then with Janelle, Rob, and their new baby, a few more trips of James and I, then with our growing family. Here's some pics from this year's trip.

 walking around the lake

 a little cross fit on the nature trail right behind the condo

 hanging out with Papa

 It was warm enough to go out on the beach a couple times. We even got to see a migrating whale!

 We went to a new place this time Museum of the Albemarle. They had a kid's program on doctors in the early 1800s. So glad they did because we probably wouldn't have gone otherwise and it was really nice. Definitely going back sometime. The Coast Guard exhibit was really good.

 Last year we found O'Neals Sea Harvest- a small restaurant/ seafood market. We've been there 3 times now. We ate lunch there- all fried but really good- and picked up seafood to cook at the condo for dinner. Yum!

 Loved the nature trail

 Date night! The Flying Fish was super! My parents cooked mussels and clams from O'Neals that were so good that we ordered them again.

C's 7th birthday was well celebrated- Friday night at Grandma's, Monday night at the condo with rice krispy train, Friday lunch at Black Pelican, and Friday night at the condo with cake.

Good trip! Good memories!

Merry Christmas

Such a super Christmas Day. At 7:03 C came down asking if they could go downstairs yet. We played red light, green light down the stairs. They were so excited to open their stockings- Reeses' Tree, a quarter, an orange, and some other fun things! Angry Birds hand sanitizer is pretty exciting! (I like it too especially after our RSV December.)  

We had eggnog french toast and maple bacon for breakfast. Yum! After breakfast we gave a gift to Jesus first. It is his birthday! We've been saving money in a piggy bank. Christmas morning we counted it and got out the World Vision catalog to select a gift. Then we opened presents here- I love that kids like taking turns passing out and opening the gifts.