Hm, let's see....considering we have only left the house on Monday for the State House, and Wednesday, for Bible Bowl, we don't have much to share except for regular routines and lots of school work done. That being said, there were plenty of interruptions and rough moments throughout the week. Next week seems to be pretty quiet as well, which is good considering there are some weeks in the near future that are going to be just a bit crazy. Fridays and Saturdays are Benaiah's days to do nothing but sit in front of his computer watching some crazy Counter Strike tournament. Thank goodness this is the final weekend of that! He did go to church for the afternoon yesterday to help Jared finish the e2 closet's makeover. Jared didn't want to hurt his back again because it's just finally recovering, so he needed Benaiah's manchild powers to lift book boxes here and there. But now that's all in order. Saturdays are our Sabbaths, at least I like to think so, especially when we don't go anywhere like today! I had a friend/mentor come over and we got to talk for over 2 hrs, which was wonderful and needed. Jared took care of the kids' needs, like lunch, and I am very grateful for that. He spent the afternoon preparing for lessons for his Bible class next week. I spent my afternoon looking at taxes, specially my Lilla Rose taxes, since I think I finally reached the threshold where you need to start reporting income. You can report at any time, but you don't have to pay taxes until a certain amount of net income. And you can't report a loss on a home business for more than 3 years. I do realize that I haven't kept the most perfect records, so I have to recreate some figures and do the legwork now, but hopefully I'll get into a routine and a spreadsheet this year so I can just plop those numbers down next January without pulling them from all corners of the direct sales world.
Anywho, there were plenty of laughing moments, and arguments, but all is well. Tomorrow is super busy with church, and some training in the afternoon, and then more church. Some of us will be at church for 10 hours, with a brief break in the middle.
Oh, and I finally got my external hard drive to work! I had to go behind the scenes in my computer and turn on automatic syncing, and it took 4 hrs to fully sync, but I did it! I've come to realize that a) a laptop is very limited b) my laptop, which is only 3 years old, is outdated and c) I want a desktop again. Benaiah said he has a friend whose dad has taught him a bunch of things about building towers from scratch, so hopefully we can do that at the end of this year or next year. I just don't have enough memory on here, plus I never upgraded to Windows 10. It's super slow, despite being very, very clean. I'd like to try to get something before this laptop dies so I can use this laptop for on the go purposes. But having a desktop would allow me to switch out drives more easily. My brother built my old one and it lasted 8 years with severe abuse. I'm definitely not into netbooks because there's no DVD drive and again, it's not meant to hold all the pictures and videos I take, even when I have them somewhat cleaned off and backed up in other ways. And, the pictures I do have currently on the laptop already fill half of the 1 TB external hard drive. And that's just the documents and pictures I have, not windows itself or programs like Quicken, so it's not a true whole computer backup, like my old drive was. But at least with this one, I can pull files off of it easily like I do with my SD cards. And I found out how to eject it correctly from the computer so it isn't harmed.
Anyway, that was yesterday, today was taxes, and now onward to million other things I'm sure I should be doing, like sleeping.
 |
| Pretty rainbow reaching all the way from our bedroom windows to my side of the closet yesterday! And on one of my "not very fashionable, but very comfy and reminds me of my mom because it was hers," cardinals shirt! If I'm wearing something like that, it's because it's comfortable and I just need a mom hug. I'll probably keep them forever. And I think they are pretty, but then again, I think all "ugly" Christmas sweaters are pretty neat and some are very beautiful. I wear what I like and what fits our lifestyle. Function over fashion always. |
 |
| Justin made this to match his favorite video game's motto. It's from Overwatch. |
 |
| Abishai joined us for a few minutes while we watched our writing lessons DVD. It's a bit dated, but the material is the same. He's a great teacher and I'm learning lots! And I didn't mention the other day, but the kids are steadily making progress in their math. Justin is usually a whiz, but Keturah, who has been slower, has made a lot of effort and hasn't complained and is starting to catch onto that multiple digit multiplication we struggled with in the fall. I'm very glad we took a break from it and started on the division book so she could regain her confidence. And sometimes kids' brains aren't ready for certain concepts. That's why there shouldn't be a mandatory age to start school and delaying formal school until 7 or 8 isn't a bad thing, but I digress. Keturah is also reading her novel on her own and is able to narrate back to me what she has read, where last year I had to read it to her and she still couldn't tell me much. So, lots of progress! |
 |
| It was a warm enough and dry enough day yesterday that Jared was able to check on his baby trees. Well, the bunnies have eaten some of them. I guess we'll be purchasing some new ones and buying some fencing, too. |
 |
| Keturah's doll, Joanna, had some fun playing outside yesterday, too! |
 |
| I started a makeshift fort yesterday to show the kids that you can just use whatever is in the yard and we won't get mad at you. We might have to take it apart if we need it, but have fun with it for now. |
 |
| I adapted this recipe to make it Whole30 compliant. It's for "cheesy" potatoes, but no dairy and no gluten. |
 |
| This was our result! It was super creamy and super yummy but again, too much almond/coconut milk or oil and my stomach protests. We started with ghee and almond floor, melting those together. Then we added a can of unsweetened coconut milk and 1 cup of almond milk. That's it. And the fat that is on the top of the coconut milk can when you first open it is heavenly! An Instagramer mixed just that fat with her strawberries with no added sweeteners and said it was super yummy! I could see taking that top layer off and whipping it up into some coffee, too. Which, we can do better now that I bought us a milk frother. I didn't take pictures of that today, so I'll show you that when I get some coffee going. I can't have coffee every day and when I tried it with tea today, it just doesn't jive with me. But the "creamer" did froth up within seconds! |
 |
| This is Leah's real homemade cheese sauce with real cheese and white flour. The kids and Jared put it on the potatoes on their plates to add to a bit of flavor. |
 |
| And they had the cheesesauce on the super sweet ham as well. Boy do I want a taste of it but it's so full of sugar! We crisped that right up in the oven as the potatoes cooked. |
 |
| Grandma stopped by with these new oreo bite things from Arby's and the kids scarfed them up! Even Abishai who sometimes takes one bite and leaves it. I guess they were that good! |
 |
| Wow, all 4 kids playing together at the same time without arguing! They were bouncing the ball off of the trampoline to Daddy and he would bounce it back. Benaiah was "helping" Justin to do the throwing. |
 |
| New trick for Justin: balancing a spinning spinner on his nose! |
 |
| The younger boys wanted the micro machines again that were in the shed for the least few months, so they switched out a box of little people for it. They, and Keturah, have been pretty possessive of it. It's fascinating how a 25 yr old toy can bring so much joy into the house. |
No comments:
Post a Comment