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Of course Mr. King and I have our favorite family traditions from our families of origin.  So we have kept some of those and have come up with some new ones that we wanted to be in our family.  ( Some traditions haven’t been born yet into our family and I am excited about that too – the fact that you can start making memories and traditions any ole time you want to.)

All that being said, I wanted to share with you just one of our family traditions, which is, camping in the backyard.  This one is a summer time favorite! We started this when little C was 2 years old and each child after that has graduated to this good ole time after their 2nd Birthday as well.  (I think little B is already excited for her chance next year.)

Sitting in front of the tent

Little C and Mr. King have always set up the tents.  Yes now we have more than one tent.  (We really need one of these pretty soon I think. The set up time is just what we need.) Then we get our cookout on.  And smores, yes please!!  Of course the kids drag everything that they find “necessary” out to the tent and get it all cozied up.  We catch fireflies, lots and lots of them.  And then we end the night reading to our hearts’ desires. This year little C had his head lamp on, which makes reading in the dark and in bed so much fun!  The best part of camping in the backyard is that the bathrooms are close and clean (well, pretty much) and no bugs are flying and crawling around. Eww.

Little B having a treat (you can't see it though)

Do you have favorite traditions in the summer?  Share em if you’ve got em.  And if you don’t, just start something and if you like it bring it back time and time again.  Your family will look forward to it!

Yay to Summer!

The campers

On a side note, just look at little E’s jammies.  Her top is borrowed from her little sister and her bottoms are borrowed from her big brother.

Now that is style.  Hehehe.

Click on me

Thanks for coming along again for Meal Planning Monday.  Seriously y’all,  you have helped me stay on task with my meals… so I just wanted to say thanks.  I hope that you enjoyed celebrating the men in your life for Father’s Day this weekend.  Our plans got rearranged due to some crummy weather but needless to say we enjoyed the “Dads” in our lives!

Monday:

Breakfast:  Cinnamon and Honey Soaked Biscuits

Dinner:  Favorite Sandwich Night  (this one is fun!) served with fresh pineapple

Tuesday:

Breakfast:  Homemade Granola and Milk

Lunch:  Empanadas (Filling is your choice) served with Black Beans and Salad

Wednesday:

Breakfast:  Applesauce Bread with Scrambled Eggs (eggs made by little C…he is learning!)

Dinner:  Grilled Chicken Brats with grilled asparagus and applesauce

Thursday:

Breakfast:  Pancakes with Maple Syrup and Bananas

Dinner: Left overs (seriously whatever is in the fridge is a possibility.  we hate wasting food!!)

Friday:

Breakfast:  Yogurt and Granola with Sourdough Toast

Dinner:  Homemade Pizza with Salad and Homemade French Dressing

Saturday:

Breakfast:  Banana Muffins and Fruit Smoothie

Dinner:  WEDDING

Sunday:

Breakfast:  Eggs and Sourdough Toast

Dinner:  Crock pot White Chicken Chili (we have church in the morn and a B day party in the afternoon so I need something to throw in a crock pot and not worry about until it’s time to eat!)

Happy Monday! I hope you have a great start to another week.

Get your meal plan ready!

Okay here we go:

Monday:

Breakfast: Homemade Yogurt, Homemade Granola, Whole Wheat Toast with butter.

Lunch: Fruit Smoothies

Dinner:  Grilled Chicken Salad with homemade dressing

Tuesday:

Breakfast:  Scrambled Eggs with Sourdough Toast and Pineapple

Lunch:  Chicken Salad melts on  Sourdough with carrots sticks

Dinner: Blackbeans with Homemade Whole Wheat Tortillas served with cheese, yogurt (in place of sour cream),  and lime juice

Wednesday:

Breakfast: Breakfast Cake and milk

Lunch: Homemade Tortillas with butter, carrots and grapes

Dinner: Pizza Spaghetti (using whole wheat pasta) and Salad

Thursday:

Breakfast: Whole Wheat Pancakes with real maple syrup

Lunch: Grilled Cheese on Whole Wheat

Dinner: Chicken and Noodles served with Salad

Friday:

Breakfast: Banana Bread and fruit

Lunch:  Turkey roll ups and cucumbers

Dinner:  Leftovers

Saturday:

Breakfast: Granola and milk (whole and/or raw)

Lunch: PB and J on Sourdough (using natural Peanut Butter and Jelly with natural sweetners – read the labels)

Dinner:  Ham and Beans with Homemade Cornbread

Sunday:

Breakfast: Toad in Hole (toast and fried egg)

Lunch: Leftover Ham and Beans

Dinner: Homemade Pizza with Salad

Snacks for the week include: Homemade Popcorn, Homemade Granola bars, Fruit, Cheese Sticks, Homemade Cheese Crackers -

Hopefully you too have your meal plan together for the week. You will thank yourself. I know I do!

Teaching these duties to our little people takes time and patience. It takes planning and organization. That brings me to the present. Yesterday I told little C that his new responsibility would be cleaning our bathroom. We use the acronym MAWL (model, assist, watch, leave) when training new tasks. I gave him a basket of the supplies he would need in order to do his job. (No more chemicals thanks to Norwex)

Basket of supplies

I also gave him photos of our bathroom, laminated them, and put them on a ring so that he can visually see what needs to be done and what product/cloth to use on that part of our bathroom. On the flip side I described what to do. This little check list of cards is also in his supply basket.

Side 1 of card

Side 2 of card

I excitedly told little C he was responsible enough to have the privilege of helping out our family by maintaining cleanliness in our bathroom. He is also responsible for keeping our bathroom stocked with toilet paper, tissues, and soap. (Also in his cards.) I was amazed at how excited he was to learn this new task! I modeled how to clean while he watched, eager to do it on his own. I could sense his pride and ownership of an area of our home that was fully “his responsibility!”

I am looking forward to the day when I can “leave” little C to this without assistance.

Cheers to one more thing off of my load and all the while teaching and training my little people.

Is it clean yet?

Don’t you feel like life pulls you in a million different directions and that sometimes it is difficult to find a balance? I know I do. And cleaning my house and keeping it in order is one of those things that gets in the way of things I REALLY want to do, but on the other hand a messy, unorganized, dirty house kinda drives me nutty. It just makes me feel “chaotic” inside? Does anyone else feel this way? I do have to say that I have come a loooooong way from where I began (just ask Mr. King). I am sure this is one of the reasons God blessed us with 4 kids in 5 years… I literally can’t keep up anymore and God is using this to refine me.

Thankfully too, I am blessed to be married to my sweet Mr. King. With every child and every new “thing” I take on he moves in willingly to help in an area that NEEDS helping. Which is why we now have FAMILY STEWARDSHIP NIGHT!!! Hooray for the day! This is amazing and extremely beneficial for us. What is this, you ask?

It is a once a week occurance, where Mr. King and I each take a little person or two under our wings and demonstrate and teach them how to clean while we are actually cleaning.

Yes it takes longer than if I did it myself. (Well, maybe not since I usually get interrupted a billion times.) Yes, my mirrors are streaky and dust might still be on my dressers and tables. But ya know what? We are giving them tools and skills to be able to manage these things on their own. Our prayer for our little people is that they will be a blessing as a roommate, house guest, and spouse because they will know HOW to clean up after themselves and do it joyfully. Our little guys look forward to family stewardship night because they always eat a dinner they like (something easy to throw together like pizza or breakfast for dinner) and after we are done cleaning and organizing then we do something fun together as a family!

The best part is my house is CLEAN and put back together… and it was free…. and my kids are learning….and the stress is off of ME. (Insert happy dance here!)

So that is how we roll one night per week at our house? What about you? Do you have tips on how you keep it together because I would LOVE to hear them!

andy even made a special play list that caleb created so that they had some good tunes to listen to on the way to school.  once arriving to school andy walked caleb into his classroom.  normally caleb will be dropped off in the car pool line but today was special!

andy told me that caleb was asking to see his teacher when he got into his classroom.  upon finding her caleb said, “today is my last day.”  she replied, “well we are going to play with shaving cream on thursday, so you might want to come back.” he agreed!

needless to say when i picked up little c from school he was grinning ear to ear.  he had such a blast and told me about the fun songs he sang, the snacks he ate, the friends he played with and sat by, the stories that were read to him, and the list goes on. so he officially is a little pelican and off to a good start.

on the other hand, it warmed my heart to see caleb and emmry miss each other today.  they really are built in best friends.

of course there is never silence and time to really think things through while shopping because i am talking to caleb about everything and nothing, making sure emmry doesn’t pull anything off of the shelves as we drive by, making sure caleb is with us at all times, and soothing ansley because of course this is happening during her nap time.  by the time we left the store emmry had pulled out her hair bows and rubberbands and lost her baby.  ansley had finally fallen asleep with a blanket over her carrier. and caleb was being his normal full of energy self.

i was thankful to pull in the driveway and have a calmer rest of my day.  once i got everyone into the house it was time for me to get ansley out of her car seat.  i lifted the blanket and she was grinning ear to ear with wide smiling eyes and holding a pair of size 4, which happens to be caleb’s size, navy blue athletic pants.  (i actually bought a pair of these for caleb in gray.) i am not sure how she got a hold of these in the first place.  secondly i don’t know how she got them into her seat with her without me noticing. it was just quite the sight to see my klepto baby holding onto these pants all wadded up with the biggest grin you have ever seen!

needless to say a return to kohls is in our future.  (sorry kohls!)