Balancing

Isn't life all about balancing? We balance our time, our money, the things we eat and pretty much everything else. Right now our lives have felt very out of balance.

Homework seems to be dominating our time right now. They boys have their every day homework with projects on top of that. I have work and projects and volunteering and all such "mom" stuff. Damon has work, cub scouts, and "dad" stuff. The one thing that isn't getting enough attention is, "Down Time". The only one who seems like they have a pretty nice life is Lily.

In a way to balance my time I try to break it up, but when I feel like I don't do one of my normal things because I spent more time with another thing I have guilt. It's way frustrating. I'm working on it.

Tuesday I drove on Lily's field trip to the apple orchard's. It was nice, but with lots of wasps. I don't like those. Of course, now that I drove on this field trip I will be driving on everybody elses too. Must keep things balanced.

Well in a need to spend more time with my kids and not let work get to out of control we went to the Science museum for a couple of hours on Oct 30th. We had lunch in Balboa Park and then explored the museum. We all had a nice time.

Halloween Fun

I find Halloween a very exhausting holiday. I would much rather celebrate fall in general, but since Halloween is a big holiday in fall I am forced to celebrate it. This past Friday I went to 3 Halloween parties at school. The kids absolutely love it when I show up and if I am going to continue to win the best mother of the year award I must make an appearance in all classes. It's very exhausting, but again the prize is mother of the year.

I made some Lollicakes for Noah's class only to fall two short so I didn't take them to his class. We have been enjoying them here. There were way cute, easy after I figured out what to do and way yummy. I'm almost glad they didn't go to class.

Saturday we had the Trunk or Treat at the church.

We didn't go Trick or Treating this year since Halloween fell on a Sunday. We, as parents, just didn't feel like it was an appropriate Sabbath day activity. We got together with some of our other friends and had an enjoyable dinner at there house. It was great getting together with friends and that way our kids could all be miserable together since they weren't going Trick or Treating. They had a great time too though. I made a pumpkin spice cake that was delicious.


So glad Halloween is over. Now let's get on to more real holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas. Bring on the calories and the treadmill. It's time to get baking!!

Disney Birthday Fun

Damon decided to take a few days off for my birthday and the kids and I wanted to celebrate at Disneyland. So that is what we did for two days. The kids think going with Dad is the best. We had a wonderful time there and got to do some new things.

Noah went on Indian Jones for the first time and LOVED it. One of these days he is going to realize how much he is missing because he hates doing something different. We also tried something new in the eating department. We had lunch at the Thunder Mountain Ranch Barbeque. It was fun to eat BBQ out of a castiron pot and have our drinks in jars. There were also performances during lunch and I was sang to by Tex. We watched a ragtime piano performer play on Mainstreet and he invited Adam to come and play. He choked under pressure and couldn't remember any of his stuff. We also stayed at a different hotel then we usually do. It was down the street aways, but the kids loved the inside atrium and the made to order omlettes. We ran into some friends from Oregon who were on vacation.

After Disneyland we drove to Redlands to spend 2 days at Mortensen Manor. My little sis was in town as well and her son was born in October too so we had a joint birthday party with a yummy Chicken Oriental Salad for dinner and a super yummy Chocolate cake for dessert. It was the perfect end to a perfect birthday. The only thing to do now is to get over the cold I have. I guess there was just to much partying done.

Garage Sale!

After cleaning out the attic I decided we needed to have a garage sale. It required very little effort and it seemed like a good idea. The kids helped with what they could and so did Damon. We sold some stuff and now the garage looks a lot emptier. So does the attic. It was a good way to spend 4 hours on a Saturday.

We made 2 new things this week. One was a scramble because my parents called and said they were coming down. I threw together this...

Pumpkin Brownies.


We also had Italian Herb Chicken. What I liked about this is that it required very little effort. Friday nights need to be like that right now because of Lily's ballet class.

The downside of the garage sale is being so tired now that I don't know how I will make it through the rest of the day.

Cooking now!

So we have been eating lots of new things lately and loving it. I haven't hit a bad one yet. My kids have loved every meal which of course is music to my ears. I am starting to run out of ideas though so if anyone has any suggestions please leave them in the comments.

General Tso's Chicken

Mexican Pork

Apple Crisp

Chocolate Pumpkin Muffins

French Carmel Spice muffins

My treadmill is getting a lot of use...... constantly.

To Go or Not To Go?

Today I had to answer that question for myself. My house was very cluttered, laundry needed folding, life needed to be organized and shopping and dinner had to get done. All before 2:45pm. So the question was, do I go to the beach and be a little irresponsible, or stay home and get my chores done? It's a harder question to answer than I thought it would be. It's a question my kids are having to answer a lot more lately. As they are getting older their responsibility level is starting to climb and both of the boys are starting to fall short of it. We had a nice long chit chat tonight about doing the job well, not just "getting by". They rush through their chores, homework, piano and everything else in the hopes to get outside and play faster. It has led to forgetfulness and some really shoddy work. Hopefully things will improve.

How did I answer my question?

Beach. It was a lovely day. I had a wonderful time chatting with some friends and enjoying the beauty of La Jolla. Did I get my chores done, yes. Just double timed. Tomorrow's job....Real Cleaning.

Yummy dinner tonight. Stuffed Shells. The kids asked to put this on the regular meal schedule.

Girl Time

On Saturday I drove up to Mortensen Manor to spend the evening my mom and sisters. My little sis was in town for the weekend. We were able to go out to a Thai restaurant and then went to Women's Conference. After that we went back to the Manor and had yummy Cheesecake. We had so much fun chatting that I ended up spending the night because I didn't want to drive home. It was nice to be able to get together with my sisters and mom with no outside distractions. Back to reality. I drove home this morning in time to make breakfast for everyone.