Weekend

On Friday, we celebrated the first real fall-feeling day with lunch at La Madeleine, a place we never eat at unless the temperature outside requires outerwear. After lunch, I took Clay to the dollar store because he had some birthday money burning a hole in his pocket, and he was dying for some dress-up clothes. He bought up all the boy choices they had and left so very happy. He loves that he can be a ninja-firefighter-chef, while still maintaining his Batman persona. Plus, he has all the weapons. So, don't mess with him.

Weston had a game yesterday, which ended in another Rebel victory. Woohoo! Then, the Aggies managed to give every single one of their supporters a long, slow heart attack but ultimately put another mark in the "W" column. We are all thankful for the bye next week, so we can recover.

Today, we decided to take in some of the local culture by attending the FloMo Food Truck Fest, which was such a great way to spend a beautiful fall day. We enjoyed lobster rolls, BBQ, pizza, hot dogs, and ice cream, along with craft vendors, bouncy houses, live music, and free tchatches.

And the crowning achievement of our weekend was that, after living in this house for two whole months, we finally got some decorative things hung on the walls, put our house numbers up, and got the boys' loft beds delivered and set up. Because we can be regular, normal, non-nomadic people.

Ninja or Ninja Turtle?

#99 with the catch in the endzone for 2!

FloMo Food Truck Fest

New Beds

House Number Helper

My favorite additions to the house

Happy New Year

New Year's Eve Shrimp Boil
(Max just could not believe Dad was pouring the food directly on the table!)

nom, nom, nom

The New Year Fairy came and set up the breakfast table after the kids went to bed.

She also added door decor.

2015 looks like it will be a great year!

Four times the good luck, with four varieties of black-eyed peas to sample

Ruth missed the breakfast picture, since she partied all night with her friends,
and I'm always the picture taker, but we still wanted to show our New Year spirit.

We are very much looking forward to all this new year has to offer! We hope your new year's celebrations were as much fun as ours and that 2015 will be filled with blessings and adventures in abundance for you and yours! Happy New Year!

10 ways to get your kids to eat more fruits and veggies

1. When grocery shopping, pass through the produce department first and let everything be a "yes" in that section. It is easier to say "no" as you continue shopping, if the cart is already full and you've already given the green light multiple times on healthy choices. 
2. If you need to limit the number of yeses in the produce section, let each child pick out at least one veggie and/or a fruit and buy enough of it to share with the family.
3. Use a clear bowl or open-sided basket to make a display of fruits and veggies to keep out on the counter or as a centerpiece for the table. It will look so beautiful and appetizing, the kids (and adults) will be drawn to it like fruit flies.
4. Keep fruits and veggies in the lower drawers and shelves of the fridge, so that they are easily accessible to the smaller members of the family.
5. "Sell" fruit as a dessert and then don't feel guilty for saying yes to dessert every night. Adding heat to fruit brings out a greater natural sweetness, so baked apples or peaches with cinnamon or caramelized bananas make excellent desserts. (It doesn't count if you add sugar and/or butter, though.)
6. Kids love to snack (sometimes in place of eating actual meals), so let them snack on fruits and veggies any time they want.
7. Make a Half and Half rule. Any time someone fills their plate, they need to have half fruits and/or veggies and half other stuff. This should apply to seconds and thirds, as well.
8. Involve the kids in the menu planning and meal preparations. Let them throw together a fruit salad or choose a vegetarian entrée. They will feel a natural affinity for something they helped create. 
9. On gift giving occasions, give fun, age-appropriate kitchen gadgets, like an apple corer/slicer, a peeler, an avocado slicer, a strawberry stem remover, or a banana slicer. The kids will be thrilled to have their own equipment and will look for opportunities to use them. 
10. This is probably the most important: Model the behavior you want to see in your children. If your kids see you eating fruits and veggies, they will follow suit.

Kitchen Love

I love home decor, but I've always been slow to decorate any house I've lived in. What it boils down to is commitment issues. A nail in the wall or purchasing new items just feels like a forever thing to me, so I need to be sure. And, by that, I mean I need to overanalyze until I lose interest in decorating altogether. But, last week, I was looking through some of my pins on Pinterest. The ones I create like a woman possessed, and then never do anything with. And, suddenly, I felt that I needed to do something productive with all those good ideas that other people had. So, I told Jeff I was thinking about doing a "Pin of the Week," and posting about it here on my blog, just for some accountability. And, then, before I knew what had come over me, I had ordered this wine/towel rack that I pinned eons ago, with the intention of turning it into a display rack for our rolling pin collection. It arrived, and Jeff hung it for me (using only one wall anchor!), and I love it! With that addition, the inspiration sort of started to run over, and the next thing I knew, I had bought baskets to organize a particularly rough-around-the-edges (literally!) cabinet that needed some serious organization. (You'll not be surprised to learn that it was the kids' cabinet, with all the plastic cups and plates, one of the doors of which had been broken off in an unauthorized game of hide-and-seek that got completely out of hand.) Then, while I was at it, I got out the wooden utensil collection we have been working on since we lived in Brazil. While there, we visited a museum that had the most amazing wooden utensil exhibit and decided we wanted a wooden utensil "exhibit" of our own. And, until today all the awesome wooden gadgets we've collected or been given from all over the world have been sitting in an unopened basket, waiting for me to get finished analyzing and never seeing the light of day. The decorating floodgates were already open, so it was time. And, now, my kitchen sink is flanked by wooden spoons and forks and things-I-don't-even-know-what-are-but-look-really-cool! And, it just makes me so happy to look at all the pretty little doodads. My kitchen has never felt so loved! And, I am in love with the way it all looks! I wish I would have taken the plunge years ago.

I am still going to try to do a "Pin of the Week," so check back in next week to see if I make good on that. I'm not promising it will be amazing, but it could be fun. And, it might just inspire you to take action on some of your long-neglected pins, as well.

This week's Pin of the Week: towel rack turned rolling pin display

Sanity saved, and it looks cute, too!

Wooden Utensil Exhibit

The (mostly) African Collection

Things I love

We just ordered this gorgeous bedroom set, and I cannot wait until it arrives!

In my seemingly endless battle with ants in the house, this has been my most effective weapon.
(Plus, the automatic trigger is really fun to use!)

A useful and stylish little device.

We are always listening to or singing this happy little song.
And, while this was the first Train song we fell in love with,
it certainly wasn't the last.

This dress from Loft might be the perfect LBD.
Super-comfy, great fit and can be dressed up or down.

This is the amazing writing program Ruth is doing in her Challenge class.
But, instead of just teaching writing, it actually teaches deep thinking.
I wish I would have been taught to write (and think) this way when I was Ruth's age!

A more calorie-conscious (and non-alcoholic) version of one of my favorite drinks.

Quite possibly our favorite vacation to date!

One of these opened in Marble Falls this summer,
and I think we have been at least once a week since that time.
(And, we still haven't tried all the different combinations of sandwiches!)
Everything is so tasty, and there are lots of healthy options.

I laugh until I cry. Every. Single. Time.

These lids are incredible and super cute!
(We have the sunflower and two banana leaves.)

My quest for the perfect set of sheets has been long and mostly unproductive.
Until now. These Tencel sheets are soft and cozy, don't pill and stay in place!

Bye-bye blank walls

I am always slow to hang things on the walls in a new house. Call me a hole-a-phobe or a commit-a-phobe, but I like to take my time when it comes to totally altering the landscape of a perfectly good blank wall. And, yet, I crave to have the emptiness filled. What can I say? I am a woman of contradictions. And, in our house, there is a sort of unspoken rule: Don't ask the husband to get out all his hanging gear--hammer, drill, wall anchors, level, ladder, etc--for just one item. (And whatever you do, don't go about hanging something without a wall anchor)! So, today, we took advantage of being trapped in the house by the weather to add a little pop of interest here and there. I love to surround myself with things that remind me of people, places and ideas that I love, which all of these things do perfectly.

This one we've actually had up for a while, and I absolutely LOVE it.
It is in the "kid wing" of the house, where everyone is sure to see it
everyday and be reminded what's expected of them.

This was a housewarming gift from my grandparents.
I love the way it exactly matches our woodwork.

On the left is an embroidered picture commemorating our wedding date,
made by Jeff's aunt and given to us just after we married. It's always been special.
And right above the bed is the amazing quilt my amazing mother-in-law made for me recently.
It's family heirloom hankies, hand-quilted together in absolute perfection. 

This was a gift from my parents for Christmas. It is hanging in a high-traffic area,
which must be passed on the way to the garage. I need this reminder daily, and especially
when I'm trying to get everyone out the door to go somewhere.

Home Improvements

In the last couple of weeks, we have had some nice home improvements. They may not mean that much to you, but I'm thrilled.

This is the inside of the dishwasher. See how shiny it is? Up until Friday it was solid white.
That's how hard our water is. Thank you Dishwasher Magic for making it shine again!

The fantastic water softener that has made our lives SOOO much cleaner and less filmy.

New keyboard and maps in the homeschool room

Blinds, glorious blinds. Now I don't feel like the cows are spying on me,
and I'm not forced to wake up with the sun in my eyes!

My much beloved old-window-turned-new-mirror

Shell Decor

We now have many pictures on the walls, including this awesome one my in-laws gave us.

Sonic Drinks

Thank you Sherry and Sweet Blessings for rocking my world with this! It is absolutely perfect and will have a special place in my new home. I love it so much!