This is new and I love it. Wanted a brown pair of shoes to match but all I have is black. I actually like what my M-I-L is wearing and want that top now. These shorts are my favorite everyday comfort ones to wear now.
I really like this shirt, it's my fave color and I like the print. Wore it with pair of jean shorts and blue tennis. I also wear this shirt with my jean capri's and will with my jean skirt too.

This is the dress I wore for the graduation. I like and don't like it. Wore it with bracelet from my sister and new shoes which gave me the worst blisters in about 10mts. I still have band-aids on. I liked having my hair pinned back for a change and want to try this more.


I love this top of my sister's and she let me borrow it for the trip. I wore jean capri 's and flip flops with it. The pattern and layers on this was so pretty, tried to take close up but didn't come out as pretty. Still getting use to taking my own self-portraits.

Finding our summer rhythm

I'm having so much fun reading all the summer ideas and ways to display summer activities all over the blog. I think this is a great idea for the parents and kids to do together. We are still in the planning and process part which means....

The start of summer break is always a little bumpy and slow to start at my house. The kids are getting use to being home and being I have to get use to them being home all day invading my space to put it somewhat nicely,lol. It takes us a couple weeks to adapt to the new found freedom for them and the noise level and the mess for me. Don't get me wrong I love that they are here and we get time together but after 9months of a quiet house and doing my own thing in peace it's hard to make the switch easily. By mid June we are liking each other and in July we are loving it and by mid August we are ready for school.

This year I have the challenge of entertaining 2 teen girls and my only boy on my own, yep 3 against one. The odds aren't good for me. I'm keeping an open mind though and want this to be a memorable one for us. I usually don't like summer, the bugs, the heat, the water, the sun, the sand, the bugs again, sorry to ruin it for those of you who love summer. I am a fall girl all the way and could stay in fall weather the rest of my life and be happy. This year though I'm embracing the summer and trying to change my attitude towards it and finding the beauty of it. I want to make the days longer and stretch out summer for as long as possible.

Ok, enough rambling and onto my ideas for the summer. The biggest one is of course having the kids in the kitchen cooking and learning about being healthy and cooking. I did a post about this below already if you want to read it. The next thing is getting the kids to the track with me and getting good quality exercise in as a family and also one on one with them. This week the kids have made a list of some ideas to do this summer which were a little impossible to do so we redid those lists and I added some ideas too which they aren't that happy about but I'm hoping they will come around. So here goes in no order

library summer program, make two new smoothies a week, make new muffins every week, have a spa day, go to the zoo, try new parks, amusement park, walking trails, starting a gratitude journal, drawing outside, one tank trips to wherever we end up, working in garden, painting girls room, lots of reading inside and outside, camping, free summer bowling, try new ice cream stands, the beach, watching a sunset at the beach, having a meal outside, picnic at the stream, practicing our flashcards, learning the capitals of states, writing book reports, arts/crafts/ sewing if possible, listening to music in the village on Thurs. nites, cleaning grandpa's garage, visiting grandma, spelling words and tests, workbooks, learning to type on computer, learning to be kind and helpful to each other, do random acts of kindness to your siblings, play with Lucky, to to the movies, go to a baseball game, bonfires, smores, camping, smash journals, painting, scrapping, learn to wash clothes, of course lots of swimming in our pool that's a given and we've already started a tradition of playing baseball each evening which is so fun and I love already.

So that's our list for now and I really hope we can do all these things. My dream is for each day to be filled with activities and fun, laughs, adventures, story's and enjoying the time we have together since it is over pretty quick. My girls are no longer into playing games, hanging with family and playing outside. They want the tv/computer/phones/ friends and that's it. My son still wants those but he's willing to play a lot too. I did want a no electronic summer except for a rare treat but the kids are really giving me a hard time on this. Thinking of making Mon/Wed/Fri no electronics as a compromise. Hope this gives some of you some ideas and please share some of your ideas with me too. Let's make a pact to have the best summer ever!!

Project Life Tuesday

I didn't take as many photos this week seems the kids keep me so busy now that I forget. They were at Vacation Bible School all week during the morning hours then we swam, babysat, read and hung out. We are still trying to find our summer rhythm which takes us a couple weeks. This year though school lasted longer due to snow days, then I went to Miami then VBS all last week so this is our first official week off together. I'm trying new things this summer knowing that my girls are in the teenage years and fast approaching the time where all they want to do is sleep and hang out with friends. That leaves me a few years left with Sam at least. Hoping to try new things this summer and really make it memorable for all of us. One of the changes is in my post below on exploring the kitchen, that will be my biggest change. I'm working on a summer list and hope to post it this week.
Some exciting news too is that the coolest and best story teller Ali Edwards is doing her Week in the Life project again and will be this summer. She has the dates planned from July 25 to July 31 and I plan on joining her for my second time. This is such an amazing project and well worth the work and the writing and the picture taking involved. It is our family's favorite most read album. I would love it if any of you would like to join me, you can read more about it on her blog (her link is on the right of my blog) and can ask me about it and I will try to help. Since this big project is less then a month away I'm going to try and keep my POTD limited since my kids will have to endure the camera 24/7 soon. I figured I would give them a break for a couple weeks then when it's time bring it out and start snapping away. This truly is such a fun and a real look at our day in and day out life, I can hardly wait!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I do have future posts planned that our not related to PL so stay tune for more story's and happy lists and such. Have a great last week of June and safe and Happy July 4th everyone.

Renee took this one for me, Sam wanted a buddy to sit with. Love this one
My husband caught fish on father's day, he was so happy but wanted more. We had it for dinner that night and it was good.
Doesn't that look yummy, my first smore of the night, love these. It's officially summer now
The kids swim almost everyday but it hasn't warmed up much so they only go in for half hour before it's too cold to take it anymore. C'mon sunshine where are you??
Here is Colt having tummy time which he likes and scoots forward now, this boy is ready to play with the big kids. Love those blue eyes
Here is sweet little Colt just shy of 5months and full of energy. He can scream now and doesn't like his swing so we pulled out the stroller and it worked like a charm. Sweet dreams baby.

Exploring in the Kitchen

The kitchen usually is the heart of the home. Where we gather with our families and loved ones to share a meal together. Sometimes though to get here is a challenge, you know what I'm talking about. The rush to get dinner fixed, to make sure everyone likes it, to remember which kid is eating only white things right now, to clean up the spilled milk. Ok you get the picture now? Not very pretty is it. Stay with me folks there's a reason why I'm writing this right now, truth be told it's my 3rd attempt. It all started this past Sunday when reading a recent found blog Learn As I Go, by a sweet and thoughtful lady named Deborah. Her post that morning was on exploring your kitchen and finding something new or a story to tell. This made me think all day about our kitchen then about the kitchen's from my past. It has changed so much over the years and I have to say only the past 2 years have I really gave much thought to what my family was eating and how it effects us. I just bought a bunch of box/cans/frozen/fast food meals and cooked them fast because the kids were hungry and wanted their food NOW. There wasn't always that good family quality time at the table. Well this past year I've decided to change that and to make our meals more enjoyable and family time. During the school/soccer/homework year is to hard to change. My idea now is to start making it happen now while we are home and have no plans and no time to go by. I have to admit having the kids in the kitchen bother's me and I tell them to go play and let me get dinner done, fast. So it's not just their faults they can't cook yet, turn on the oven, read a recipe and where things are. I am going to step back though this summer and let these curious and smart and wanna-be cooks into MY kitchen and teach them some basics and go from there. I want this to be a happy adventure and maybe by the end of the summer grocery shopping and menu planning won't be such a dreaded chore for me.
I've changed my eating habits drastically over the last year and hope my kids will start eating healthier and learning how to take care of their bodies and health now while they are young and it's easier unlike me who waited till I was 40. My other plan is to keep them around the dinner table longer and sharing stories and laughter and questions whatever it takes to make these meals last longer and to appreciate them more. Some days my kids inhale their dinners and leave me sitting there within 10mts of sitting down. I have some plans on this and will post them later when I try them on the kids. So wish me luck in this new kitchen adventure and please share some of what your kitchen story is in the comments, it would make me happy to read them. If you have any ideas or tips for me too please share those as well. Thanks Deborah for sharing this on your blog and inspiring me to look harder at what I want for my family and our kitchen. You can read Deborah's blog at http://tischd.blogspot.com
I'm going to try and have a new post every day this week, wanting to do more writing and story's. Also gearing up for Ali Edward's Week in the Life which is less then a month away and I'm so excited to join in again this year. Thanks for all those that stayed with me and read this,hope you enjoyed it and the pictures that follow it.

This photo is from today and means so much to me. It's a first step into getting this son of mine to try and eat better and to love food. He is my snacker and not much into meals. I haven't bought pop-tarts for 2 weeks now and he's getting cranky about it but I'm staying strong. Here is being my junior chef tonight and making corn dog muffins. This boy wants corn dogs everyday but I'm determined to wean him from them so we found this recipe and I let him cook it all. Well, they were good and he loved them and was so happy and proud. Hope to have more meals like this one. GO SAM!!
This is where it can start for us this summer, the kids helping in my husband's garden. This is his joy and passion. He can sit for hours just staring at the beauty growing around him. We planted new things this year and I'm excited to try them and hope the kids will be too.
This is the knife set that my parents had when they got married. I told my mom that's one of her things I'd want when she passes. Bless her heart she repainted it to match my kitchen and gave it to me just a few days later and said to start enjoying it now instead of when she's not here. Thanks mom, makes me that much more happier when I pass it everyday.
Here are some of the ingredients that I used to make my favorite Rachael Ray bbq meatloaf muffins and her smashed potatoes. That girl can cook and I love her and hope to cook like her one day and to meet her. I am happy when cooking foods like this for me.
This is the chili my sweet hubby made us this weekend. Sorry the photo isn't the mouth watering kind in magazines and blogs, was very busy after we ate. My husband does most of the cooking on weekends and never complains if there isn't dinner for him, he will gladly eat a PB&J. Thanks sweetie.We are looking forward to just cooking for us two one day, lol

Happiness is....

seeing Summer draw/sketch/art almost daily now
seeing Renee give a stuff bear she caught at VBS to a little kid instead of keeping it
seeing the girls being good leaders at VBS
seeing the girls sing at VBS but really love seeing Sam sing and the joy it brings him there
seeing Sam catch two of my amazing hits at baseball, he caught them mid air then fell down
seeing the kids reading constantly for summer reading program
seeing the new teal/purple bands on Renee's braces, so cute still
seeing the kids swimming in our still COLD pool
seeing the new CARS 2 this weekend, can't wait love love this show
seeing my hubby outside mowing and working in garden with his gorgeous summer tan
seeing a book at the library that I saw in Miami and wanted, I can't put it down
seeing some stunning sunsets and clouds in the sky this week
seeing the kids enjoy the first bonfire/smores of the summer
seeing all kinds of inspirational blogs this week
seeing my little cousins and loving them

I love writing these posts and remembering to look for the little things to be happy about. Now with the kids home every day there is some not so happy moments going on too, so this post is a reminder to look for these little moments in life and capture them. Let's hope it's a good day in our house and the kids will be nice to each other.
So what's making you happy today? Share in the comments if you'd like. Happy weekend.