Wednesday What

Hey friends! Happy Wednesday!!! We have a long weekend ahead of us, and I am here for it! Today, I'm sharing a little Wednesday What.... it's a new series that will fill you in on what's happening :) 

DJ and I have binge watching episodes of Keep Your Daydream. They're YouTubers that RV and document all of their trips along the way. DJ had watched some of their episodes to learn how to do certain things with the RV, but then my parents got me in to watching the actual vacations.... I had to show DJ one of their vacations down the Colorado River in Utah, and we've basically watched all of their Alaska travels, and Alaska is now on our bucket list. 

Right now, I'm not reading anything for myself. I'm reading The Magic Treehouse books to Adalyn and Little House on the Prairie series to Megan. 

I'm obsessed with Taylor Swift's album and the Hamilton soundtrack. When we road tripped to Arkansas earlier in August, those two soundtracks helped us make it through! We had so much fun having a big Hamilton sing-a-long. 

Now, if Adalyn gets to choose what we are listening to..... her current favorite song is Wine, Beer, Whiskey from Little Big Town. 

All of the Thieves, and Geneyus during the day time. 

Thieves is wonderful for providing immune system support, so I typically diffuse it in the living room. Then, I put Geneyus in our aria diffuser while we do our homeschooling.

At night, I'm diffusing Frankincense and Egyptian Gold. I used my Itovi scanner and scanned for a ton of immune support earlier last week. I diffused it at night, and now I'm hooked, and I love that our Dessert Mist diffuser will run intermittently all night. 

Give me all the yoga pants. These are my favorite pair.

Getting the girls closet's cleaned out, eventually going to goodwill, shipping clothes I've sold, and working on shipping some giveaways from our oily group. Basically, I'll be going to the post office a bunch! 

I just changed my mind about Megan's homeschool curriculum, so I had to buy the workbooks. We were going to use The Good and Beautiful with her, but her level is out of stock and her math level won't be in until close to Christmas, and while I was happily going to wait, Gretchen's curriculum is going so well with her, that I thought I may as well put Megan on it for her reading, language arts, and math. She also wanted to take science, so she's all set and ready! 

I shared our recent Costco haul here, and we're eating anything that's easy that I don't really have to cook. It's Fall(ish) and Football, so DJ isn't home often for dinner. Since we're busy most nights with activities, dinners are just super quick and easy. We had Orange Chicken Sunday night.... I made spaghetti one night last week, we had tillapia and veggies one night.... anything easy and quick. 

 

Happenings

Happy Tuesday! I'm not sure about y'all, but I finally feel like we're in a good groove and routine. We eased ourselves in to the school year, and we're slowly getting back in to a fairly typical schedule for us, and it feels good. We also have been sure to maintain the downtime we enjoyed last Spring, and thankfully, with my work schedule and the girls homeschooling on our time, things just feel really good. I know 2020 has sucked, but there have been some awesome things happening within families (not just ours) that have been really wonderful to see. I think we all needed the stillness of the world. 

With that, here are the happenings as of late. 

Megan has discovered my blog and she now enjoys reading and catching up. Which also means, I'll have to be more careful in what I post and share ;) 

Addy needed to do some mediating one morning. Sigh, I probably should have joined her. 

The girls were upstairs painting, and in my head, I knew they'd be making such a mess that I'd have to clean up later, and I refused to go upstairs. Then, they came down with this masterpiece (and a cleaned up mess) and I was blown away! They did such an amazing job! 

Addy and I are spending lots of time in the car! While we wait on gymnastics to start, we usually do some school work. After her class is over, we sit and wait for Megan, so last week we filled goody bags for all of DJ's students since they were heading back to class. 

We also get in lots of cuddles. I know she's getting big, but I'll let her be my baby as long as she'd like. 

Just a girl rolled up in a yoga mat. 

I have to let Adalyn choose where we complete her work. Sometimes it's at the kitchen table, sometimes it's on the floor, my bed, or, the trampoline. Whatever works! 

Just a girl in her momma's sunnies. 

We went to Costco last week and Adalyn picked out her Halloween costume. For an entire year, she told me she was going to be Mal from Descendents, and now, she's Anna. 

We have the best neighbors. They played all day Saturday! I don't think our water hose was ever shut off. They had water fights, we had a pizza lunch with neighbors.... there was bike riding. The girls were outside all day long! 

Then, we headed for snow cones in DJ's new truck!  We've been looking at trucks since we bought the camper, and we have a big camping trip planned for next Summer, and we knew we would need a truck. Thankfully, he found a truck he couldn't refuse and brought it home Saturday night. 

We could probably get use to snowcones in the truck bed. 

That's a bit of what's happening around here! We hope all is well with you too! 

August Young Living Order

Each month, we place an order from Young Living that arrives right on our doorstep! I love that it saves me a trip to Target or a million different stores, and I'm no longer wasting time in store aisles reading ingredient labels. 

Here's what I ordered this month: 

Thyme Vitality was free, and I ordered a new blush color. When Young Living released make up a few years ago, I was pumped because finding truly clean makeup had been super hard for me. 

These three oils were free for helping friends enroll with starter kits last month! I'm so thankful for all of my friends that trust me to help them get started with Young Living. 

Gretchen and I are obsessed with these vitality drops. The grapefruit/bergamot is my favorite, but she really loves the lavender/lemonade. I ordered a 3 pack in June and we went through them SO fast! Just by adding a drop in our water, makes us drink so much more water, and they're pumped full of electrolytes, so they're perfect for the hot Summer days! 

I haven't been to the doctor to confirm, but I was talking to a friend about how tired I had been feeling, and she asked if my thyroid was sluggish. After hearing all of my symptoms, she told me that I needed to take a thyroid supplement and suggested one from Amazon. I ordered it and immediately started taking it when it arrived, and y'all, I've felt a huge difference in my energy levels. Where I use to want to crash early in the evenings, there are some nights, where I still have a ton of energy at 10 pm. Anyway, I realized that Young Living had a thyroid supplement too, so I ordered this one to try. 

I ordered DJ a small bottle of his body wash to keep in his locker at work. 

And his shave cream. 

I started using Young Living's Bloom skincare line in June, and I've seen a huge difference! I still have plenty of step 2 and 3, but I needed more face wash, so I was able to order it. 

Young Living released a liquid foundation in June, but I've used their powder for years. I am currently using the liquid, but I like to have the powder foundation on hand for quick touch ups. 

Oh friend. The Unwind supplement has been a game changer for Gretchen and Megan. Both of them take a while for their minds to settle down before bed, and this supplement has been a huge help! It contains magnesium and essential oils, and it taste similar to grape bubblegum in my opinion, but it's a watermelon flavor..... anyway, it helps them fall asleep and stay asleep! I've even taken it a few times and I sleep SO hard when I've used it. 

All of these goodies were free this month, and I can't wait to incorporate them in to our dishes!

To grab your own starter kit of oils and become a member, click here. 

Strawberry Banana Bread Muffins

You know those times when you go to the grocery store and buy bananas and your kids eat them up so fast? Why does that not happen every time you buy bananas? For this very reason, I don't buy bananas often. The last time I bought them, which was just a few weeks ago, the girls gobbled them up so fast. So, I bought some last week when I was at Costco, and they were just sitting there already turning brown. Sigh. 

Since the bananas weren't going to be eaten, in their original form, I made banana bread.... with strawberries! Yum! 

This recipe isn't the healthiest. Sorry friends. This is a family recipe from a family cookbook, but it is oh so easy and the muffins (or bread) always turn out beautifully and so tasty. 

Mix 1 c. sugar, 1/2 c. oil,  and 2 eggs

Add 3 over-ripe bananas. You can mash these ahead of time, but I feel like they mash well in my mixer, so I skip that step.

Next, add 1/2 tsp salt, 1 tsp baking soda, 1/2 tsp baking powder and 1 3/4 c. flour. 

For a boost of flavor, I added 2 drops of Nutmeg Vitality essential oil, and Cinnamon Bark Vitality. You can add in the spices or the oils. 

Mix it all together. 

Now, you can add in nuts, chocolate chips, or bake it as is. I really love adding in strawberries! Especially if we have strawberries that need to be eaten, which doesn't happen often. Strawberries are typically gone from our house within a day, and for some reason, the girls weren't chowing down like they usually do. 

You'll want to chop at least 1/2 c. of strawberries. 

Add in to your mixture and mix for a few seconds. 

Scoop in to muffin tins or a loaf pan. I love our square muffin tin from Pampered Chef. I use this pan all the time- mini meat loafs, brownies, muffins.... this pan gets a lot of use in our house! 

Bake 350 degrees fro 25 minutes. If you're baking in a larger loaf pan, you'll want to cook for an hour. 

Feel free to copy/paste below:

What You'll Need:

1 c. sugar

1/2 c. oil

2 eggs

 3 mashed bananas

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

1 3/4 c. flour

Optional Add Ins:

2 drops Nutmeg Vitality or a dash of Nutmeg Spice

2 drops Cinnamon Bark Vitality or a dash of Cinnamon

1 c. nuts

1/2-1 c. chocolate chips

1/2-1 c. strawberries or other berries of your choice

Mix in order given. Bake in loaf pan at 350 degrees for 1 hour, or in muffin pan for 25 minutes. 

Remove from pan and cool.

Bonus: You can freeze these and re-heat, but we gobble these up really fast! 

 

Home School

I'm sure you know by now that we decided to home school the girls this year. 

As of the end of July, we were planning on sending the girls back to public school, but our school system decided to hold virtual school for 3 weeks and then start in person September 8th. We knew that virtual school would be difficult with both DJ and myself working, and we didn't have a lot of options as to who would watch the girls or even help them. Virtual school last Spring didn't take us long at all and there weren't required times of day to be online. Heading in to the Fall, this was going to heavily change for our district. Gretchen would have to be online off and on from 8-3, as well as complete any assignments. The little girls would have certain times of the day to be online as well. Honestly, it completely stressed me out and I felt our best option would be for me to take several days off and DJ and I to completely re-work our work schedules. We also had the unknown of if school would actually start in person on September 8th. 

Then, if we did send our kids in person, they would be in masks all day. Many of their friends were not returning to in person learning and opting for the distant learning option. It broke my heart that their friends wouldn't be there. I also felt like the school experience would be quiet different and not healthy for the girls mentally or emotionally. 

So, I started talking to DJ about homeschooling. We watched some videos from other families that home school and learned that it could work around our schedule, without the pressure of falling in line with what the public school expects. We also loved the possibility of traveling more on the weekends in the Spring since we have the camper now. 

Thankfully, home school laws in Texas are pretty relaxed, and I only had to send a written notice to their schools letting them know we were withdrawing to home school. After that, I found a curriculum to use with the girls and we're pretty much off and running. 

We are using Easy Peasy All In One Home School with Gretchen. It's a free online program from a parent that home schooled 6 kiddos. She put all of her curriculum online and it's divided in to subjects and each day. Gretchen is taking language arts, reading, ancient history, Spanish, Bible, pre-algebra, p.e., music, and thinking. 

Personally, I think she could drop a few classes and be fine- I'd prefer her to focus on core classes, but she thought the others would be fun, and her electives are only once a week, except Spanish and Bible. 

We are using some mixed curriculum with Megan right now. I had several friends recommend The Good and The Beautiful, but, all of her leveled workbooks are sold out or unavailable. They have some free resources, but I am hoping that within a few weeks her language arts and reading will become available. Her leveled math through them won't be available until at least December. 

So, we are working through a few workbooks that I purchased from Costco that we are really enjoying. I also purchased two math work books from Abeka , and we just started those last week. 

If I can't get a hold of her language arts and reading soon, then we will start supplementing with Easy Peasy for her as well. 

Adalyn is also using a few workbooks from Costco. We were able to purchase her reading/language arts from The Good and Beautiful, so we have started on that with her. Right now, her math is out of stock, but thankfully, the Costco workbooks are perfect right now to get her back in to the swing of things. 

My main goal for right now, is that we just do something each day. I'm really working on Gretchen becoming independent and focusing  on her math skills. She's a great reader and writer. She loves to learn and soaks up anything she can. I would say that we're struggling some with math and simple mistakes, and we're working a lot on her being able to work with me and learn from mistakes- both mine and hers. 

I just want Addy to love learning. She has never been a big fan of school. She just wants to play and have fun, so I really have to use a lot of positive reinforcement with her and make it as fun as possible. I have to somewhat trick her in to learning and make it her idea. She also does really well if she can choose something to work for. So, she earns pom poms that she can trade in for rewards or she'll say "I'm working for your phone" or "I'm working for mochi" At this point, I don't care what she works for as long as she does the work. She's stronger in math than she is in reading, so I'm really wanting to focus on reading with her. Sight words, spelling, grammar, writing, and then adding and subtracting and other math skills.

She really wanted to go to school this year- because she's super social. I've read a lot about 'unschooling' which is basically just following your child's interests, so we're trying some of that with her while incorporating some workbook time each day. Right now, she's doing about an hour a day and we will slowly increase that as she starts to tolerate more. 

Megan has just really made me happy through the start of this journey. She's anxious and ready to get started and she rarely complains. School in Oklahoma was wonderful for Megan. She had amazing teachers and wonderful friends. When we moved to Texas, she had great teachers, but she went in to her shell more and didn't take a lot at school and didn't make a lot of friends. Thankfully, she has made friends in our neighborhood and at gymnastics, but I don't think she felt comfortable AT school. 

Even though her curriculum hasn't arrived, we're focusing a lot on math skills for her. She has started spelling and some grammar, and she's reading each day. We will also focus on hand writing, because she is sloppy and rushes through her work. 

This year, she'll do a big research project on the state of Texas, and she loves arts and outer space, so I'm hoping to incorporate it when we can. 

I literally have zero expectations for our journey. I just want the girls to enjoy themselves and to learn along the way. We're not spending 4 hours a day on school work. Gretchen's school days are longer because she is older and has a lot of classes. Right now, she takes about 4 hours to get everything done. Megan and Addy have about 1 hour each day, and again, we'll slowly build that up. 

DJ and I have decided that if this doesn't work, we can send our girls back to school. We are literally taking this a few weeks at a time.

So, that's where we are. I am definitely not an expert, but my goal is to always be open and transparent and share what our family learns. I've shared a lot on Instagram and Facebook, and I'll share here along the way too. I have found that the home school community is SO helpful. There are so many facebook groups, curiculums, and anything you'd need out there. I am SO thankful to all of my friends that have let me ask them questions. They have been so helpful and patient. 

We are making this work for us, and each day will look different, and I think that's where I'm finding the beauty of it all. We do covet your prayers though as we all do our best in our current situations. 

 

Life Lately: August

August has been keeping us busy! It always does.... DJ is back to football and long hours during the day; I feel like I'm playing catch up at work; and all things back to school, which looks a lot different for us this year! We basically slingshot ourselves in to our typical August business. Here's a little look at what we've been up to. 

The girls have been back to gymnastics. Megan goes 3 nights a week, and Adalyn was going twice a week for some make up classes. The gym is basically our second home. 

I rearranged my furniture and then decided I didn't like it, so I've moved it yet again. 

Megan created a maskless Target and we were there for it. 

We did some shopping and she checked us out. After I shopped and took this picture, she changed in to a full on red outfit, and the girls shopped for a while! 

We made a girls trip to Arkansas! When the girls were younger, we use to try to get away to Arkansas during Fall football camp, but it's gotten harder as they've gone to school This year, we actually took off on the day they were suppose to start public school! 

I was so happy to see my momma on her birthday! 

And these cousins were so happy to see each other! We were having a surprise party for my brother (he turned 40) and they made him a big birthday banner. 

We went to the splash pad too. 

And then got hair cuts! Y'all, I love Addy's long hair, but girl does not let me do anything to it. No brushing, no bows, no clippies, no headbands. It breaks my heart. She just wanted it cut off, so that's what we did. 

She's so happy!

And that freckle face, blue eye, gaping hole smile just melts me. 

We celebrated my brother with a family get together and it was so good to see everyone and be together.

On Monday, we drove home from Arkansas and our poor little pup had had it. She was sick while we were at my mom's, and I'm not lying when I thought we were going to have to put her to sleep last week. DJ took her to the vet, they gave her some meds, and she is back to her old self. She's 14 (this month) and the vet said she's still very healthy! I know she's a pain (oh, the dog hair) but, we were all pretty sad when she was so miserable on Monday. 

So, that's a little look at our life lately! What's something fun your family did in August?