Kids
Brina & Karlie’s Awards Ceremony! Congratulations Girls!
Brina and Karlie with Ms. Osbey. They loved spending time in the library as Library Assistants helping her!
Proud of these two girls!
Karlie receiving her Accelerated Reading Trophy! 🙂 She broke the school record in AR points! Loves her books! Way to go KARLIE!!!
Fifth Grade Awards Ceremony!
Hanging out with friends between Graduation and the Awards Ceremony
Safety Patrol!
Brina’s fantastic Homeroom Teacher this year Mrs. Husso! She was an amazing teacher and Brina learned a ton in her class!
Brina’s reading teacher for the past several years Mrs. Whitmire! She is AWESOME and has helped Brina so much with improving her reading skills! Wish we could take us with Brina to Middle School!!!
Karlie & Brina – 5th Grade 2016 Class Graduation & Awards Ceremony! Proud of these girls!
Both Karlie & Brina were the Highest Student in Social Studies for their home class!
Karlie & Brina were the highest student in READING for their home class! WooHoo Brina, she has learned so much over the past few years even with handling dyslexia. Proud of both of our girls!
Karlie highest student in Science for her home class!
Jet Toy Competition! Both Karlie and Brina’s individual teams went on to compete in the Regional Jet Toy Competition this year!
Brina won her class Science Fair and went on to win 1st Place Grand Prize in our Regional Science Fair competition! Very proud of Brina and all her hardwork! We calculated that she made over 400 cupcakes throughout her Science experiment! Way to go BRINA!!!
Award for Academic Excellence!
Counting My Blessings: Week In Review
It was a week packed full of a lot of emotions. With the girls wrapping up at a school they have been attending the past 7 years it has been quite a stepping stone for us. We are grateful to all the teachers and administration at Crosswell Elementary for the amount of time, energy, and attention they have invested in our girls education. They have made a positive and lasting impression on our kids. Wish we could take some of the amazing teachers with us to Middle school. We are excited to see what Middle School will bring and know that the kids will probably adjust quicker and better than at least their Mom because with them moving up a school their growing up seems more real. Love my girls and very proud of what they have accomplished over the past year! There was so much to be thankful for last week.
I want to be accountable to you so the following are snip-its of some of the things I am thankful for this past week. Counting My Blessings – Week In Review:
Monday –Thankful to have the laundry room renovation started and that we were still able to get the laundry done so none of us have to run around wearing dirty clothes!
Tuesday – Thankful for the opportunity to spend some time with the girls after school that didn’t include doing a bunch of homework. We even had a few extra minutes to do a rapid quick clean up around the house and read some more of our books together. LOVE catching both of the girls reading independently on their own during free time (for those who know our family you know that for one of our kids this is a really big deal)!
Wednesday – Thankful for time after work to spend with other Mom’s at school prepping for the kids 5th grade Graduation Celebration Party. We were able to get a lot accomplished and organized during our time together.
Thursday – Thankful for Brina’s hard work on her “Cupcakes on the Rise” Science Fair Project because we were able to see her accept a 1st Place Trophy, Medals, Certificate, and Cash Prize (we had no idea there was a cash prize as well) for the Regional Science Fair! Very proud of our Brina Bee!
Friday – Thankful for an opportunity to watch the girls Graduation and Awards Ceremony! They did fantastic and both kids received numerous awards, medals, pins, certificates, trophies and other cool awards for all that they had accomplished throughout this year. Also, Karlie received a trophy for getting all A’s her entire Elementary School years. Super proud of these kids and the effort they put into their learning. Praying they continue to have the love of learning as they get older!
What are you thankful for today? I encourage you to take the time to write down a few blessings that you have in your life today. It will help cheer you up and turn your focus on the amazing blessings you encounter each day!
CONGRATULATIONS Brina & Karlie! 5th Grade Graduation Ceremony!
Proud of our girls!
We are so proud of our girls! They did it! Both girls successfully completed all of their elementary school classes. It is hard to believe that they are now heading into middle school. They went to Crosswell for 7 years! Thankful for all the great teachers and administration that invested all their time and energy into our girls. They have grown and learned a lot of about life, friends, and increased their knowledge.
Congratulations Brina & Karlie!
Today was a big celebration for all they have accomplished in their schooling. It came with a lot of emotions for me as their Mom. I was thrilled and happy while at the same time sad knowing that my babies are growing up very quickly. I want to hold onto and treasure these precious moments because these past few years have gone by way too fast.
Brina getting her diploma from Mr. Holliday!
We look forward to seeing them continue to grow. They are sweet girls who have grown up so much. It will be neat to see them transition into Middle School. Love our girls!
Karlie getting her diploma from Mr. Holliday!
My girls are not babies anymore!
Intentional Living: Weekly Goals
Last week was crazy, but good as we celebrated a lot of great rewards that the girls had earned for all their hard work throughout this past school year including watching them graduate. Thankful for our girls and their excitement to learn. They had a lot of activities and times when it was tough to get everything done, but they pushed through it. Jake and I are proud of our girls.
I have added a “kid goals” section to my list of goals. Now that they are getting older and realizing the importance of improving and maintaining goals I want to be intentional about keeping up with their learning as they grow older. Here are my goals for this week:
Last week’s goals
Family Goals
- Finish reading Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s Library by Chris Grabenstein to the kids. – was not able to finish with all the extra school activities this week, but read a couple of night
- Read 7 Stories from the Bad Pets on the Loose by Alan Zullo book to the kids. – read a couple, but not 7
- Go through 7 more Brain Quest Flash Cards with the kids. – did a handful only
- Read through 7 more pages of History Trivia with the kids. – hoping to pick this back up again this week
- Do devotions and prayer time with kids every night. – prayers yes, but it was really late a few nights so kept it short
Plan one special activity with the family- Play a Game with the Kids – we didn’t have enough free time in the evenings to play a game
Spend time Monday –Friday helping the kids with Homework- Attend After School Activities – attended all the activities including celebration / graduation meetings, regional Science Fair Competition & Awards, Graduation, Awards Ceremony
Lunch Boxes & Book Bags packed the night before- Prep for upcoming Family Adventure(s) – working on it, but still has some more to go
- Prep & Figure out Schedule for upcoming Summer Break – getting closer to finalizing everything
- Ride Bikes with the Kids – the extra activities took more time than expected
Work on family projects together– we worked on several items together as a family including items in the house including the laundry room. The girls LOVED helping paint!Brina & Karlie’s Graduation Ceremony– great seeing the girls graduate!Brina & Karlie’s Award Ceremony– the girls received A LOT of amazing rewards! Both received trophies, several certificates, award pins, medals, and more. Once again we were blown away by how well they did and all they received. Evidence that the hours they spent working on school work really did pay off. They were part of several great groups and had a wonderful team of teachers / coaches. We will miss this school that they have been at for 7 years, but looking forward to what middle school has to offer!Prep & decorate for Graduation party (Meet with people Mon / Wed) after schoolTake Brina to the Science Fair Competition– not only did we take Brina to the Regional Science Fair Competition – SHE WON!!! FIRST Place in the Regional Science Competition so proud of her! Way to go Brina! She received a trophy, medals, certificates, and a cash prize! She was shocked, but excited. The last 3 months of baking cupcakes for her “Cupcakes on the Rise” Science Fair project were worth it. We calculated that she made over 410 cupcakes by herself these past 3 months. She’s gotten really good at making cupcakes!
Personal Goals
Drink 8 glasses of water each day- Keep up with my FitBit Goals – did so well this week with the exception of forgetting my fitbit at home on a day where I did a lot of moving around at work and after school activities. Oh well…
Do yoga at least 5 times a week- Go to my Appointments Scheduled this week – Jake took Brina to set up for the Science Fair over lunch on Thursday so I could work my regular hours, thanks Babe!
Update Counting My Blessings and Other journal entries daily- Tackle some lingering projects on my “to do” list – I did get several things moving forward, but nothing completely crossed off so officially I cannot cross this off my list….
Home (Yard & Pets) Management Goals
- All laundry for the week washed, folded, and put away in one day – my laundry room is still being renovated, I was unable to get in to do laundry on my normal schedule. Hopefully this will be complete or at least in a more working condition by the end of next week! 🙂 It’s going to look awesome though, Jake has done a fantastic job and the girls have pitched in and helped a lot too!
Weekly Dinner Menu planned out for the week- Clean House (Focus – Laundry Room Remodeling Work (get all of the subflooring cleaned and help Jake with getting at least 1/2 of it completed) – flooring is up and was stalled a little bit by another issue that caught our attention that needed to be fixed prior to doing more in the laundry room (thankful for a husband who can do so much). Having an older home can have a lot of fun and unexpected surprises that take extra TLC! 🙂
- Organize Chaos (Focus – Find Bins / Containers / Baskets to put on shelves in Laundry Room once up) – I have some ideas, but waiting a couple more days until I figure out how the new laundry room layout will look like prior to committing to any specific bins/containers/baskets. I want the items I get to be practical, efficient, and uniform as much as possible.
- Yard / Garage Cleanup (Focus – Plant Lilly Flower and Blueberry Bush – weather permitting) – the laundry room took up more time than we expected as well as a couple extra activities with school and other events were more time consuming than we original planned.
- Pet Care (Focus – Give Skipper her vitamins) – Brina especially is good about keeping up with Skippy’s vitamins!
- Repairs – (Focus – Refinishing our Laundry room, tearing out the old linoleum and sprucing it up) – All the old flooring is up, we are starting to paint and work on other areas. Looking better already, cannot wait until it is complete! Will be very nice!
Business Goals
Work on ideas for upcoming blog posts- Respond to Inquiry – Business Relation Emails – few more need to be completed
- Keep up with the day to day items that need my attention – a couple of days got away from me with all the activities last week, hoping as we get into rhythm with the new summer schedule I can tackle a few more of this necessary items
- Work completed for clients – have a couple more projects to complete
- Notes typed for work – I got them started (kids and other family activities took priority this past week.)
- Folders Labeled for work – I actually got a decent start of this one. I finished some of the categories that I was doing, but have a handful more to wrap up before I am officially done.
- Desk drawers organized – getting closer….does that count?!
Ministry Goals
Meet a friend or family member for Breakfast or Lunch
Financial Goals
- Schedule a meeting with the Financial Advisor – have a couple I need to follow up with this week
- Payoff Other Outstanding Debt – made another extra payment
Pay Bills & File Paperwork- Go grocery shopping one time this week and stay within budget – went over with the graduation party celebration and other big activities that filled up our week
My goals for the upcoming week
Family Goals
- Finish reading Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s Library by Chris Grabenstein to the kids.
- Read 7 Stories from the Bad Pets on the Loose by Alan Zullo book to the kids.
- Go through 7 more Brain Quest Flash Cards with the kids.
- Read through 7 more pages of History Trivia with the kids.
- Do devotions, reflecting on our blessings, and prayer time with kids every night.
- Plan one special activity with the family
- Play a Game with the Kids
- Attend After Work Activities
- Lunch Boxes packed the night before work & other planned activities
- Prep for upcoming Family Adventure(s)
- Prep & Figure out Schedule for upcoming Summer Break
- Ride Bikes with the Kids
- Work on family projects together
- Start packing suitcase for next family adventure
- Daily 15 minute “Speed Clean” for entire family to keep the daily clutter under control
Kid Goals
- Have kids do 1st week in Summer Workbook(s)
- Encourage Kids to read independently at least 30 minutes a day
- Sign up kids for the Easley, Anderson, & Greenville County Summer Library Reading Programs
- Sign up kids for Barnes & Noble and other similar reading programs
- Have kids work on our approved educational websites to encourage growth (at least 2 hours for the week)
- Have kids work for at least 1 hour on this week on improving their typing skills
- Each kid finish creating at least 2 blogs posts for their Fun with Sis blog
- Spend time Monday –Friday encouraging the kids to find creative ways to learn and grown their skills
- Kids start packing suitcases for next family adventure
- At least 30 minutes of outside play, fresh air, or activity time a day
Personal Goals
- Drink 8 glasses of water each day
- Keep up with my FitBit Goals
- Do yoga at least 5 times a week
- Go to my Appointments Scheduled this week
- Update Counting My Blessings and Other journal entries daily
- Tackle some lingering projects on my “to do” list
Home (Yard & Pets) Management Goals
- All laundry for the week washed, folded, and put away in one day
- Weekly Dinner Menu planned out for the week
- Clean House (Focus – Laundry Room Remodeling Work Completed
- Organize Chaos (Focus – Refill Kids Snack Bins – hope to focus again on the laundry room in the future once further along)
- Yard / Garage Cleanup (Focus – Plant Lilly Flower and Blueberry Bush – weather permitting)
- Pet Care (Focus – Replant grass in Goat pen)
- Repairs – (Focus – Refinishing our Laundry room, painting and laying new flooring)
Business Goals
- Work on ideas for upcoming blog posts
- Respond to Inquiry – Business Relation Emails
- Keep up with the day to day items that need my attention
- Work completed for clients
- Notes typed for work
- Folders Labeled for work
- Desk drawers organized
- Do at least 5 blog posts this week
- Catch up on Hootesuite
- Upload pictures from last few weeks and update
Ministry Goals
- Meet a friend or family member for Breakfast or Lunch
- One-on-one quality time with Jake (talking, date night, or doing an activity together)
One-on-one quality time with Brina (talking, date night, or doing an activity together)One-on-one quality time with Karlie (talking, date night, or doing an activity together)
Financial Goals
- Schedule a meeting with the Financial Advisor
- Payoff Other Outstanding Debt
- Pay Bills & File Paperwork
- Go grocery shopping one time this week and stay within budget
- Sell, giveaway, donate, or through away items no longer use
- Take items to the recycling distributor
- Make meals with items from pantry, refrigerator, and freezer to use up what we have and eliminate any extra spending
I think it is important to share and encourage each other as we seek to improve our lives and the lives of those around us. I want to live intentionally not just hope all my dreams and goals come true. When I focus on small
steps of improvement I am able to see results as I get closer to my goals. Some weeks I get closer to the goals I have in my life and other weeks a take a few steps back (life happens, emergencies occur, people get sick). Once the goals are written down and shared it provides a guideline for what I aim to accomplish this week.
Why Share My Goals?
- To keep me accountable
- To share a piece of my life with you as I strive to be a better Child of God, Wife, Mom, Friend, Homemaker, Entrepreneur and the many other roles I have each week
- To have my goals consistently written down so I can gauge progress more accurately
- Create healthy habits in my life
- To encourage you to share your goals with me as you continue to grown and learn
How did you do this week on your goals? Feel free to share or link to your list of weekly goals.
The picture above is one that I created for my own purposes, however, The “SMART” acronym was originally coined 30 years ago by Peter Drucker in his classic work, Management by Results.
Counting My Blessings: Week In Review
Last week was incredibly tough with all the school projects, activities, work, and balancing everything that was going on with the family. We were all exhausted by the end of the week, but thankful for what we were able to accomplish and for the blessings along the way. There was so much to be thankful for last week.
I want to be accountable to you so the following are snip-its of some of the things I am thankful for this past week. Counting My Blessings – Week In Review:
Monday – Thankful for a job that allows me to adjust my schedule so I can pick the girls up from school earlier since they are no longer having Chorus practice this school year.
Tuesday – Thankful that the girls were able to attend swimming lessons these past few weeks (today was their last day). They really enjoyed the classes, made a few new friends, learned a lot of great techniques, and had fun. I think they would be happy going to swimming lessons year round and were asking when they could take them again!
Wednesday – Thankful that the girls were able to get a couple of their huge school projects turned in today. Their Book Reports and Science Fair Projects. They did a wonderful job on their presentations too. I was able to go to Karlie’s presentation and Jake was able to make it to Brina’s presentation. The class was absolutely fascinated by Karlie’s presentation and they loved eating cupcakes for Brina’s.
Thursday – Thankful for Brina qualifying for the next level in the Science Fair Competition with her “Cupcakes on the Rise” project. She has been working for months on her project and it was great seeing her get rewarded for all her hard work. Also, grateful to our chiropractor for getting all of us on his schedule this week. Jake went earlier in the week, but the girls and I went today. It is amazing how much better you move when everything is working and in line.
Friday – Thankful for an opportunity to spend time working together as a family. Cleaning up the house from all the science fair and school project paraphernalia. As well as working together on projects around the house, reading together, and taking some time to relax together.
What are you thankful for today? I encourage you to take the time to write down a few blessings that you have in your life today. It will help cheer you up and turn your focus on the amazing blessings you encounter each day!
School Activities, “Snow White & The Prince,” and Roller Skating!
Our girls at Falls ParkThese last few weeks have been a whirlwind of fun with Jake & I going on our anniversary cruise, the girls school activities, fun adventures, work, and more! 🙂 Here’s a little snip-it of some of the school and fun activities Brina & Karlie have been up to lately -“Snow White & The Prince” Play at the Peace Center, a School Roller Skating Fundraiser, Beta Club Induction Ceremony just to name a couple. Very proud of both girls for their hard work at school. They were both accepted into Chorus, STEM Club, National Beta Club (for maintaining an A or A-B grades for their past year in school), Library Assistants, Safety Patrol as well as a number of other school related extra-curricular activities. I had no idea how busy 5th grade could be! Thankful for their hard work, positive attitudes, and their love of learning!
Hanging out with the family!
Skating with Daddy!
Beta Club inductions!
Snow White & The Prince at the Peace CenterVolunteering at School
Crazy day volunteering at school, watching both girls speak in front of their classmates, teachers, and parents – they did awesome! After running errands, sharing a surprise with someone who has been a blessing to our family, and various other activities I was able to finally sit down, eat a late lunch, and soak in the beautiful sunny Fall view from our back deck. Thankful for the colorful landscape!Happy Halloween!
We gave the girls a choice about what Halloween activities they wanted to do this year. They chose to stay home, play games, spend time together, carve pumpkins, make a special meal, and more fun instead of going out trick & treating! We had a lot of fun together! Thankful for our girls and sweet time together!
Baked and seasoned pumpkin seeds!
Karlie’s scary pumpkin!
Caramel flavored pumpkin seeds!
Brina creating her owl pumpkinWhat’s for Breakfast: Easy Breakfast Clowns
On this particular morning I was already up early and decided to do a little extra surprise for breakfast. Although, this doesn’t happen every morning in our house because some days it takes everything I have just to get through the necessary steps to get everyone out the door for work and school. Each girl got two blueberry pancakes, two sausages cut into half, and fresh grapes and strawberries for their main breakfast. They also got their normal milk, juice, and multivitamins. The girls are always excited to see something different at the breakfast table. Seriously, sometimes the silly and simple things like the Easy Breakfast Clowns are all it takes to brighten their day. It never hurts when you get the day off to a good start!
Tip: I like to make up a large batch of blueberry pancakes whenever we have them and freeze a bunch for future breakfasts. It is easy to pull out a few frozen pancakes and have breakfast ready in a few minutes (plus there’s less of a mess).
We are pretty consistent with our week day breakfast menu. For each day of the work and school week Monday to Friday we have the same main menu item from week to week the only thing that changes is the “extra item” we add each day such as an egg, sausage, fresh fruit, cottage cheese, bacon, smoothies, or other items that we have in the kitchen. During the school week the girls always have their main breakfast, at least one side (usually fruit, sausage, egg, etc…), vitamins, milk (one has non-dairy milk due to allergies), and small glass of juice. When I am ambitious, awake, and my creative juices are flowing I will add a little extra silliness to make breakfast more enjoyable for the kids.
Here is what our breakfast menu looks like this week (the items in parenthesis are examples of the extra items we will add and change from week to week):
- Monday – English Muffins (Egg)
- Tuesday – Toast (Cottage Cheese)
- Wednesday – Cereal (Smoothie)
- Thursday – Pancakes, Poptarts, or Oatmeal (Fresh Fruit)
- Friday – Bagel (Bacon)
- Saturday – Family Brunch (a lot of times we make Saturday breakfast together and it is whatever sounds good that morning or a new dish we want to try out. It is not always planned in advance and could be an egg or breakfast casserole, omelets, hashbrowns, waffles, pancakes, etc… this is our big family meal of the day since Saturdays are often spent with extended family, friends, or doing other afternoon and evening activities) Since we make more complicated breakfasts on Saturdays it is usually between 8 to 10 before we sit down to eat therefore they have become our Family Brunch.
- Sunday – Make Your Own Breakfast (everyone makes their own breakfast before church which is usually something easy like cereal, toast, poptarts, oatmeal, smoothie, etc….)
We first started doing a different main breakfast item everyday a few years ago because I have one child who if she eats the same thing too many times in a row she stops eating. Adding a little variety from day to day was enough to keep her motivated to eat breakfast. It wasn’t until several months later when the girls pointed it out that I realized that we do the same main item on the same day every week. “Mom, Tuesday is Toast Day…..” So now it has become our rotating breakfast menu which helps keep us on track because we know exactly what we need to prepare for the next breakfast. Plus the girls are sometimes still waking up when they come to breakfast and the morning menu helps them figure out the day of the week as well as prepares them for the upcoming activities they have that day.
There are times I will mix it up (just for fun) or Jake will get up first and make breakfast! The girls don’t hesitate to let him know if he makes a main food item on the wrong day….ha! Our breakfasts are not fancy, but it gets us up and started for the day. What do you make for your family breakfasts?
