It took all I had to stay focused and not be a science project pooper!

Hmm... what did we do over the weekend starting with Friday???
I can't remember.
It's pretty bad when you can't remember what you did Friday & it's only Monday.
Think. Think. Think...

Oh yeah! 
I got my hair done on Friday! 
I'd been thinking about having some lighter color weaved into it for a l-o-n-g time and by a l-o-n-g time, I mean like over a year now. Yeah.. don't ask me what took so long?? I'm loving it!!! I really liked it darker too, but I just think a change was way overdue, ya know? 
So here it is now! Thinking I might even go lighter again next time.. I don't know, we'll see.

Lovely hair-do huh? This is the pony tail I threw together when I rolled out of bed this morning to get the kids ready and off to school & it looks the same way right now. That's real life for ya!

Saturday was chore day and of course the kids usual morning grumpiness was present as they set off to do what they know is required of them each and every Saturday as if we'd just barely asked them to do it... some of them wander around the house and take longer to eat breakfast than others just to see how long they can get away without getting started and some are smarter and realize if they just get up and get it done then they're free to play with friends and do what they want. 

I just remembered thanks to cellphone pictures, I drug Tanner all over the mall shopping after I picked him up from school on Thursday. He was so good. Normally he hates going to store after store shopping like that 'for girl-y stuff he calls it,' but I started out with lunch in the food court @ Chick-fil-a then hit a few stores, after that we made our usual stop at the candy store for a rainbow sucker to hold him over for a few more stores 'til we finally made it to the play area that I'd promised him he could play at for a while before going home. This is him giving me a wink from inside the dinosaurs skull.

Andres & I started our Saturday with a nice long walk together. I love it when we take the time to do that. We talked about business, air soft wars with the boys, scouts, family vacations, & a new tradition we want to start this year. The boys will be turning twelve this year and each time one of our children (or two in this case) turn twelve we want to plan a special one-on-one getaway with just that child and us. Make it a time to really get close and connect with them as they're heading into their teenage years. We're excited and can't wait for this to be the first year we get to experience this new tradition with the boys. It's gonna be fun! 

Saturday afternoon I didn't feel very good. I kind of had a headache and was really tired but I managed to plan out the meals for the upcoming week and we took Syd and went shopping for all the groceries we'd need. Toward the end of our running around town Andres got the Sonic Happy Hour urge and guess where we went.. yep Sonic! A Rt.44 caffeine free Diet Coke with limes & cherry, small lime slush & medium peach sprite later we all had smiles on our face & I was starting to feel a little bit better! We were on our way to our last grocery store stop, one of Andres' favorites all because of the special aged cheeses, flavored olive oils with little slices of baguette bread they sample & yummy green olive bar they offer. He's so funny.. he get's all giddy about going & getting to try out some new kind of cheese and then paying a fortune for a tiny little slice of it because he just couldn't resist. 

 (The Cheese AND the garlic oil that day were a thumbs up!)

Does anyone else completely dread the daunting task of having to help your child come up with and do their science fair project??? 
I DO! Those who don't, I envy you...
I did not want to do it.. and Andres didn't either. Guilty as charged!
Therefore we procrastinated until the last minute and had to do/finish the bulk of the projects after church on Sunday because they were due Monday! 
Glad to report we they both finished their projects and they turned them in on time, but it was not all fun & games let me tell ya. 

Somewhere in the midst of it all I found the time to make stuffed manicotti with homemade meat sauce from the tomatoes I learned how to bottle in the fall and we had a yummy dinner. I think that's actually the only thing that kept me sane through the whole thing because I would much rather have taken a nice long nap with my hubby, had dinner, and snuggled up with the whole family on our bed to watch a good movie with a big bowl of popcorn! 

 It took all I had to stay focused and not be a science project pooper!

Sydnee took this picture of me during dinner & it pretty much says it all..

at that point I was thinking-

'I'm tired.. & we're no where near done.. someone give me strength.'

 

*knowing the science projects were finished and turned in...

*checking something off my "look for while I'm thrift shopping list"

*making homemade sour cream & onion enchiladas with my hubby for dinner

*& a fun family home evening with Sydnee's famous oreo shakes

made my Monday deliciously gritty!

 Can't wait to share what I found thrift shopping...

It's so exciting.

At least for me it is!