Be Kind To Yourself, Simplify And Use That Crockpot!

Last month before Thanksgiving I had gotten really sick and it took weeks to get well enough to even do the easiest task at hand.  It was rough for me to say the least as I am not one who can just simply sit still.  Well, little did I know that this was going to change things for me and see things in a different light.  I think it is a wonderful thing how our Father in Heaven can help direct and guide us in any situation with the help from the Holy Spirit.  We just have to listen to that still, small voice.

I am so thankful for the opportunity that my family and I had to just slow down...alright really slow down!  I have found myself enjoy having less things go on and truly be in our HOME.  As you know we are a homeschooling family and as I was working on our 6 Month "No" again I decided that this upcoming semester we will not be doing any outside classes.  Just a monthly park day and a few other homeschooling meet ups.  It's not that they aren't fun or that my children did not enjoy them but that it truly did take a lot of time away from what I know we are in need of right now and I have seen a huge change these past few weeks.  No feeling rushed and needing to stop a project or learning activity because we need to hurry up to get to the next destination.  With knowing of these minor but crucial changes for my children and I during the day I knew that I wanted to be better prepared having everything we needed for all that I wanted incorporated at home.  Let's just say that I am very excited to start a few fun little classes with music and art with my children in our home.  That means our dog Blue get's to join in and he loves when we are reading and learning!  It makes him happy!

One thing that is in need of a change is our family dinner time.  It's more like the preparation that comes before the gathering at the table to eat the meal as a family.  I really want it to feel like I have been in the kitchen all day  but without the being in the kitchen all day for one meal.  I am trying to have less snacks in our home aside from fruits and vegetables, nuts and a few other things which means that I really want my children to eat more during our meal times.  Since dinner is our last meal of the day I must make sure that they eat enough and are full so I do not hear how one is hungry two hours later before getting ready for bedtime.

I LOVE my crockpot!  Well, I have one big crockpot and one small crockpot.  I need one more big crockpot now.  I have always liked the idea of having one crockpot meal each week but something came to me when I was figuring out the simplifying of our home.  Why not three days a week or more if need be?  This can go for using crockpots for the entire meal, the main dish, sides and more. It truly is up to you.  As for me, it is just something that will continue to make my life easier so why not use it more!?!

For Christmas Eve we had a rotisserie style whole chicken that I cooked in my crockpot!  Say what?! That's right.  My crockpot.  I had seen it before but had not tried it out for myself until now.  I make baked potatoes in my crockpot and other dishes so it was a great time to try it out.  Super simple and easy but very delicious and looked like I put in way more effort than I actually did.

Prep your whole chicken like normal taking the gizzards out and cleaning it, then choose your seasonings.  Whisk your seasonings together to make your rub.  After you put the rub on your chicken in the crockpot it goes on high for 4 to 6 hours depending on the size of your chicken.  What I did after it was cooked through was place it in the oven to broil for less than 10 minutes to give the skin that crispiness we like.  That's it.

It was moist and delicious!  You can do this weekly which is what I plan on doing as you can get a whole chicken for a great price a lot of the time and use different rubs depending on what you plan to do with the chicken.  This is great to do if you want to use the meat for enchiladas, chicken salad and so much more.  The wonderful thing is that you do not need to do much at all to make this.  The same goes for making baked potatoes, mashed potatoes and so much more in your crockpot.

I encourage you to use your crockpot more if this will help you to feel a little more peace when thinking what's for dinner.  Just a little preparation and the possibilities are endless for us all!

I will be sharing more crockpot ideas with you soon!

You Silly Goose We Must Open Up And See What's Inside

Oh, silly goose!  Petunia is her name as well as the name of the book which is a wonderful children's picture book filled with so much interpreted through a sweet story with wonderful artwork.  Last week my daughter Kylie picked out a book from the library that she wanted to read.  Actually, it's more like wanting to read from looking at the cover.  I don't mind.  We always have over 100 library books in our home at any given time and as long as I take a peak and find it alright we give it a go and bring them home.

We are a homeschooling family as you know and I do something with my kids 5 to 6 days a week known as our "kidschool" which takes place in the morning after our devotional time and we all are gathered (sweetly for the most part) around for me to read stories, go over things that I am excited to share with my kids, educational games and more.  It can last anywhere from two hours or a bit longer.  It just depends.  Then we break up and my kids get excited  for their individual studies (learning with one on one), more family work (chores), and so forth.  You could say that most of the time we are all excited for our chores.  They have their days!

We do a lot of reading in our home and love every minute of it.  I love that my children enjoy reading as well just as much as I do.  Why?  Because to some reading is just simply reading but to many of us out there it is so much more powerful.  So many doors are opened becasue of it and we grow not only individually but together as well.  I guess this is why I teared up reading Petunia aloud to my children.

The main character Petunia was tired of being the silly goose.  Can we blame her?  She stumbled upon a book and remembered a family sharing how wonderful books were and how they can bring us great wisdom.  She did not realize however that just holding a book under her wing was not what could bring her that wisdom.  She thought that was enough.  Poor Petunia.  After the catastrophic events that took place with her friends all because she thought she was smarter than everyone else because of the book under her wing she came to realize something after it fell to the ground and it opened up.  There were pages and they were filled with written words.  These were words that Petunia could not read.  And this is where I began to shed tears while finishing up reading the last few pages to my kids because these words were and still are so very powerful.

"It was not enough to carry wisdom under my wing.  I must put it in my mind and in my heart.  And to do that I must learn to read."

After we finished this book a thought entered my mind of why I felt these words strongly in my own heart and mind.  We will often go places and people often ask my kids what they learned in school today.  They always smile and say that they are homeschooled and how they were able to read so much that day.  Such beautiful answers as yes, we read a lot and so much of learning is from reading with added projects and more.  We are able to do so much but I will say that reading jump starts so many things!

In order for our children to gain much knowledge and wisdom we must make sure that they have great access to the great books from before our time and of our time today.  I love this quote from President Gordon. B. Hinckley.  Think of us adults.  In order for us to become better educated in any topic we must read from the great works.  Just like the Gospel.  We cannot just carry our scriptures under our own wing without reading the words written inside of them.  We would lose and miss out on so much.

I have found an eternal book friend who is my book twin! We became friends through belonging to the same groups online which all include books.  It is wonderful.  Brenda and I have read books that speak the same volumes to us and I truly cherish our book conversations.  We just get one another and it is a wonderful thing.  Hello Brenda!!!!!

I cannot imagine my children not being able to experience the Gospel through scriptures, The Chronicles of Narnia, The Little House Series, Pinocchio, Frederick Douglass, Mary Seacole,  Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Linocln, The Trumpet of the Swan, Number the Stars and The Harry Potter Series, along with all of of the great people and works from long ago through today.

So, yes!  We must put the written words in our minds and our hearts!

I'm That Mom...

What a wonderful evening it was having a date night with my girls thanks to some dear friends of ours who gave us tickets to be able to go to the Disney On Ice show!  This was our first time and they enjoyed every minute of it!  Seeing their eyes twinkle with much delight, their big smiles and looks filled with anticipation of what might happen next was the cutest!  I will say that these girls felt like the princesses that they were watching during the show.

Of course, they would look around and see a child next to us with Frozen Popcorn, wands, princess necklaces, and much more.  You name it and they were probably selling it there.  I am known to be frugal and maybe it's just my frugality but I just do not go to these types of events to spend more money to buy overpriced food, snacks and the works.  That $15 princess necklace, I am sure I can find for $1 and that popcorn I can make at home, put inside a Frozen themed bag and call it a night.

I guess you figured out already that I did not purchase anything while we were there. Did my twincesses get sad a few times?  Yes, they did.  But, I have always explained to my kids why I choose not to at these places and they do understand.  I am sure they feel like they are missing out at times, but I assure you that we do many things and they have made so many great memories.  All three of our kiddos have and continue to do so.

One parent next to us had purchased everything from the cotton candy to the wand and I could see my girls stare for a few seconds here and there and then go back to watching the show and have those bright smiles again.  On the way out heading to our car another little girl kept asking her parents why she could not have the $5 coloring book and her mom simply replied that she would not spend $5 on that.  I overheard and commented how we could totally get a Disney Princess coloring book at the dollar store.  The two parents smiled and I smiled back.

Is there anything wrong with parents wanting to purchase things for their kids at these types of shows and more?  Absolutely not!  It just won't be me and I am fine with that.  For me, the savings add up.  After the show we headed home and made a quick stop to grab their treat a $1 ice split into two cups and they were so happy!  I was happy too!  

Because of my only paying for the parking and the icee treat, I will be taking my son on a date night next month!  Of course, I will save money when choosing our date night then too!  What can I say?  I'm That Mom!  Well, a Frugal Mom that is!!

Scentsy Delivery

Kylie and Blue

 Earlier this evening my husband took one of our twin's with him to our son's soccer practice.  After they had left the other twin and I finished up packaging Scentsy orders that had come in so we could get them ready for deliveries and pick-ups.  I wanted to make sure that our dog had his walk before my husband had gotten home as I knew that would be one less thing that he would need to do after a long day from work today.  Thankfully, Blue has been getting better with his daily walks.

Well, one of the orders needed to be delivered to a friend nearby and Kylie wanted to hand deliver their package, so we took care of that while taking our dog for a walk.  As we were doing this I thought to myself what a wonderful thing this is.  I was doing work for my business while spending time with one of my children and walking our dog.  I know that I have been able to do so much with my business while being home with my children and it has been such a blessing for me.

This has not been something new, but since I began this journey I have been trying my best to really take the time to notice all of the little things that I have been able to do with my Scentsy business and what a wonderful thing it is.  From being home with my children, being able to continue homeschooling and all of the relationships that I have built have been huge blessings in my life. Maybe they are small things, but together they bring so much more.

The other thing is that I wanted to be more than just a Scentsy Consultant.  I wanted my customers and team members to feel and know that I am there for them and want them all to succeed.  I knew that I too wanted to succeed and by getting to know each other, working hard, striving for the best, staying positive and motivated would help.  The relationships with those that I have come into contact with have been nothing less than amazing and I want to share that with them.    Scentsy is more than just a sweet wickless candle company.  It truly is so much more.  I have been able to reach goals that I never thought imaginable, am fulfilling a dream and it keeps on growing.  You can reach your goals too!  You just need to not be afraid to Chase Fireflies!!!!

I Love being a Scentsy Consultant!!!

Scentsy Orders!!!

That Want to Learn, An Upset Stomach and Fun With Homemade Pizzas

The morning started out like most mornings we have here in the Sanderson household with much going on.  I normally wake up pretty early.  But, just to clarify, it is not as early as my husband who is a truck driver.  Let's say that he gets up when the moon and stars are still lit up in the sky (now that is beyond early).

Well, because of my getting up early my son is usually up early as well.  I know I am not the quietest person to get things ready for the day when the kids are asleep, or anyone else for that matter but I try my best.  I never said that I have magic powers to make that happen!  I do the best I can and that counts for somerhing, right!?!  It's more like he is a light sleeper.

My son will either read a scripture with me, draw, read aloud to me from one of his chapter books (so I can be near to help him with any words if needs it) and much more.  Something that he has been excited about lately are two workbooks.  I know!  Some like to use workbooks and some do not.  As for me, if it is something that my child wants to do and learn from, I am all for it!  It is a wonderful tool and all three of my children LOVE workbooks and worksheets.  It is a great tool for my family.  They like to do these activities during what we call our "Tablework Time" and I enjoy helping them when needed.  Seriously one of my twins could sit there for an hour and it has been really fun for her to do the whole time.

Lately, my son Caleb has been taking two workbooks out of our cabinet a lot.  One is a Sylvan learning Spelling and the other is a 100 Words to Know by each grade.  I really could care less about the specifics, but I chose these because they had such a variety of activities within the workbooks and with ones that my son finds fun to do.  It was cheaper than printing off a bunch of sheets in this case.  Besides, he has been working on his reading and spelling.  It is something that he is excited about right now and as a parent I chose to run with it.

My kids must make special sound effects with almost everything they do.  Seriously! Caleb even more than his sisters.  Here's one time that I was super excited to hear these noises.  I was in the kitchen preparing lunch and all of a sudden the sounds had begun, along with bursts of excitement.  Shouts of phrases like "I did it", "Come here, Mom" and more.  Thankfully our kitchen is smaller and I can go back and forth quickly.  I took a look at what he was doing.  Each time he worked on a question and answered it without my help he would get excited.  He was so proud of himself.  It was a wonderful moment.

I know that he works on a lot of things on his own, but I see more of a passion now and a want to do his best job at things.  I was very happy to have been able to witness that while preparing lunch.  It made my heart very happy.  I just had to stop what I was doing to capture a picture of the moment.  So glad that I did.  He could not stop smiling.  

Later on my stomach was upset and I had to sit down.  It was nice to listen to my kids play nicely together for a bit and help each other out.  Caleb truly is a great big brother.  We listened to an audio book from earlier and thankfully I already had the pizza dough going in my bread machines.  It felt great to know that dinner would still be served later and that pizza night did not need to be changed to another evening.  I promised my husband pizza!

I still taught my cardio class that afternoon.  I am glad I was able to do so.

By the time we got back home it was time to get dinner in the oven.  I just really needed help.  My twinsies came to the rescue.  I am very grateful to have been bringing my children up all along to know that family work, chores and helping out when can is very important.  Helping out in the kitchen is one of those things.  Yes, there has been many times that I could maybe get things done much faster without the help, but it would not benefit anyone in the family if I have not tried to make an effort.  Helping to get dinner going so we could eat was one of those times.  Unless you do not like pizza it is fun to help make.  Especially, when you are a kid!  The dough was already made and cheese was grated.  We were off to a great start.  My girls helped with making the pizza sauce and putting the ingredients together on the pizzas.

Happy twinsies!

That's right!  I let my kids lick the spoon when they are finished spreading the sauce on the dough and eat a pepperoni slice when I know they are finish preparing a pizza.  Oh, the horror!  I know.

Smiling faces after a job well done.

The whole day was not perfect by any means, but we had some awesome moments that really helped me to get through the day in great spirit.

My Love For Barbara Keeps On Growing...She totally is a TJEd Mentor All The Way!

Well, this past school year just flew by with our charter homeschool.  We definitely will keep a schedule during the summer, but will have a lot of outdoor and fun activities throughout!  We are so fortunate to have our ES Barbara.  She is such a gift.  My kids and I are keeping her.  As summer approaches, we only have one more meeting for the school year and it makes me a little sad, but we will be keeping in touch over the summer.  We also will be having a lunch date with just us adults and my friend who also happens to have Barbara as her ES.  We are the lucky ones.

Let me explain what an ES is.  It stands for Educational Specialist.  At our charter school each family is given an ES and they are there to help support you.  They also take care of monthly samples to put in each child's portfolio, help the parents with choices in curriculum (if you choose to go that route), help in putting purchase orders together, enroll students in classes if they want to take any, keep attendance and records in general, along with so much more.  I would say that the main thing is to serve as a huge support system for you and your family.  I will say that Barbara has been the most supportive ES that I could ever ask for.  Honestly, she listens to me and values what I feel is best for my children.  She always gives such great advice and at the right time when it is something I need to hear.  Always!

Again, she has always supported my wanting to use the TJEd philosophy.  This woman gets it and totally is a TJEd mentor!

Seriously!

Yesterday we had our monthly meeting and we were chatting like normal about books (we love books and so do our kids), along with taking care of the attendance and all that good stuff.  Then, we moved on to what our kids were learning about and how one of her son's were all registered for the upcoming school year with South Sutter (the charter school we use).  I mentioned how my son Caleb is all signed up with Duolingo to utilize the free program for his French.  Learning a language young is awesome and French is part of our heritage.  Totally making my Grandma proud!!  My kids and I are having a fun time with it.  Truly something special.  It just so happens that one of her son's is taking Spanish in school right now and Barbara decided that she is going to learn Spanish as well to help out, along with just to learn for herself.

Here we go with

You, Not them and

Inspire, Not Require

I am very excited that she will have all three of my children under her watch for the upcoming school year.  I would not have it any other way.  Again, we thank you for all that you do for our family and for your friendship too.

We love you!

The Unexpected and Special Moment During A Bloody Situation

It was a wonderful Saturday all around from a Baptism to a day spent with family and friends.  Our evening was going great and then something quite unexpected happened.  All of sudden my daughter Kylie began to scream and my son and I ran into the girls room.  The first thing I saw as I walk in was my daughter Caylee making a scared and disgusted face curled up on her bed in her blanket.  I reach my Kylie's bed and she had thrown up.  Yes, I know that this happens.  But she threw up blood (along with clots of blood).  It was all over her hair, clothes, pillow and sheets were soaked in it.  To say the least, I was quite freaked out.  My son ran to grab towels and I reached for my phone to immediately call my husband.

As I was trying to calm my daughter because she was frantic and she was filled with so many emotions, I tried my best to remain as calm as I could and let her know that I would get her all cleaned up.  I let her know that a nice bath would help.  She had just taken one a few hours before, but obviously this was a must.

My son overheard me mention a bath and he runs to the bathroom.  The next thing that I hear is the water turned on and he is letting me know that he is getting things ready for her to get in the bath.  I was overwhelmed with the warmest feeling inside.  I personally felt lifted up.  With my husband gone at the time, I was scared.  We dealt with some issues with our twins when they were babies and I immediately began to have flashbacks.

I am very thankful for the thoughtfulness and great concern my son had that night.  It brought tears of joy.  Caylee was quite the trooper herself. She does not handle situations like that very well and she did her best to cheer up her sister from the other side of the room.  She is known to make herself sick by witnessing a situation like that one.

I am glad to share that after she was cleaned up and everything was being washed, we watched a movie together and what was left of the night went smoothly as possible.  Soon we will find out what is going on as other experiences have been happening.  Staying positive.

A fresh start with everything clean again!