Really Thankful

Every November I look forward to Thanksgiving. The food. The family. The end of fall and the beginning of Christmas! There really is so much to be thankful for. This year that was hit home even more.

Quick. Easy. Tasty

You know those days where you realize it's an hour past lunch and you have no idea what to make? I know that feeling far too well. Lunch is the toughest meal for me. I don't like the regular "cop out" meals like PB&Js or mac n cheese. At least, not frequently. Even if I let myself make those things once a week, there are 5 other days every single week! So, when I come across a simple and well received meal, it's a time to celebrate!

Turkey Turkey Turkey!

For one of our crafty activities we decorated turkey cookies! They were super easy and so very fun!

But Baby It's Cold Outside...

With all of my recent posts about the time my family spent outside while on vacation, you may mistakenly think that we spent no time at all inside our unit during our stay. This, my friends, is a common misconception.

Crazy Weather!

Our family has a history of chasing snow. My husband and I lived in AZ most of our lives until moving to Texas about 4 years ago. There was little snow in either place. We grew accustomed to the idea that if we wanted to see or play in the snow we had to drive somewhere to find it. We learned the hard way that snow is not very predictable until typically after the first of the year. We made two trips to see snow while living in Texas, neither of which had us finding much of that fluffy white stuff.

BBQ away from the BBQ capital

My family loves BBQ. I mean, we've always loved it, but the love was most certainly refined and brought home while we lived in Austin. This is a good and bad thing. Good because, well, YUM. And not so good because we now can't just eat at any mediocre BBQ joint and be happy. Now it takes something special to please our BBQ lovin' family.

Child's Play

One of the things we were most excited about with this trip was enjoying the great outdoors. Any chance we could get to let the kids explore outside and play in the dirt, we took. Thankfully the children were the ones to spearhead this effort. It's funny how my kids never want to do anything if they feel forced to do it.

Shenandoah National Park

The weather was beautiful most of the day on Tuesday. The high was in the 60s. The kids wore long sleeves and were perfectly comfortable in the sun or shade. They found a lot to do. I love how much kids can find to do when there are no "toys" to play with.

Off Season Travel

Whether or not to travel somewhere off season is a constant question for my family. We homeschool, so we don't have the same schedule restrictions that most American families have. Do we go somewhere when it's the "season" to go there? For example, do we take a beach trip in the summer or a ski trip in the winter? Or, do we travel trying to avoid crowds? That would mean spring and fall trips to these places. When you are trying to tote around a family of small children, we have leaned more towards off season traveling to avoid the crowds.

Day of Rest

The best part about our first day of vacation here in Virginia (well, the first FULL day) was waking up whenever we wanted and just taking the morning slowly. I hate morning rushes. It was so great to be able to wake up and not have to jump out of bed right away. Baby North slept all night! It was a tender mercy for sure. When he did wake up, we just nursed and snuggled for awhile. He is such a sweet baby. Sometimes I can hardly contain myself.

A Much Needed Family Getaway

Some periods in our life are more hectic than others. We're in the middle of a very busy time with my husband's job. He works a lot. This past week we saw even less of him than normal. He is trying to find someone to hire onto his team, but in the meantime he has to get the work done. Needless to say,  at this point we are all ready for a vacation!