Celebrating My All-Stars

I'm a self-described Wallflower.  Webster defines a wallflower as:

a : a person who from shyness or unpopularity remains on the sidelines of a social activity (as a dance.

Looking like a Wallflower...maybe not

Friends and family would vehemently say "wallflower" doesn't describe me.  I have often teasingly said, "I wish I was an introvert.  I want to be less predictable."  I think in some ways I do have a slightly introverted side.  I do really like being alone.  I get VERY nervous in large social gatherings, especially when I don't know many people.  I'm horridly afraid of failure.  I'm a perfectionist and if it's not perfect, it's crushing.  This could be the first born side of me.  But reality is, in a Myers Briggs-Kevin Leman world I'm a first-born ESFP {wallflower}.

Growing up I wanted to get picked for "the team," but often didn't.  What I lacked in athleticism as a child, I think I'm making up for as an adult.  I've learned, it's worth trying, even if there is failure.  At least I tried, and if it's fun, I'm all about it!  Maybe that's why I'm so crazy about running and CrossFit.  I'm testing and pushing myself harder than ever before.  My only competition is me.  Can I do better than I did last week? or even yesterday?  I thought this yesterday when the workout consisted of a mile run, 2000 meter row, 100 burpees, 100 box jumps and another mile run.  I was sweating like I've never sweat before!  It was tough, but it felt great!  It was an accomplishment and it was fun.

Unlike their mother, our kids are naturally athletic!  I think they get it from their dad.  They excel at most sports and the best part is they love it!  It's not an area we push them into, they just beg for more and more sports.  Last year I asked our middle son what he would like to change about his homeschool experience.  He thought a minute and then replied, "I'd like to do MORE sports!"  I wasn't expecting that, but it's what they love.

They've just completed a fun-filled season of baseball.  All the kids' teams did very well.  I couldn't be more proud.  They gave it their best.

Today the Little League All-Star Teams were announced.  Our boys didn't make the all-star teams.  Granted, one of them is injured with a broken collar bone.  In addition, we live in highly competitive area where little leaguers have private hitting and pitching lessons from former baseball pros.  They swing $300 bats, and drag around $200 bags.  They've been playing most of their young lives.  I think playing with a high quality of players raises the bar so our kids will strive to play up to a higher level, but it also makes selection tough.

This spring, I sat in the stands proudly cheering for our oldest son as he single-handedly completed a double play.  He was playing 3rd base.  A runner was on 2nd.  The batter hit the ball.  Our son dove for it, tagged the runner coming from second and then shot the ball over to the first baseman and got the batter out.  Amazing kid!  And I proudly watched as game after game he was called up to the mound to pitch relieving another pitcher.  Often when he was called, bases were loaded and he'd shut out the 5th and 6th innings.  He did not cower under pressure.  We will also remember the time he hit the ball out of the park, scoring a home run!  He was part of a great team that supported one another and was given opportunites to grow as a baseball player.

The Home Run Ball

Home Run Hitter

Clutch Pitcher

That's my sweetheart- full of joy!

Reflective

Our middle son also had a great season.  His Little League team made it to the Tournament of Champions.  They had a great winning streak.  Our little sweetheart had some awesome plays at 3rd!  The most exciting was the triple play his team made!  That is a true rarity in little league baseball!  He spent most of the season as catcher and at 3rd base.  He did a fantastic job at both.  We will also remember some super throws to the infield when he was playing outfield.  He has a terrific arm.

Catching- He loves it!

 

  

The truth is I love baseball.  Today, learning the boys didn't make the All-Star teams marks the end of the season for us.  I think I'm grieving.  In fact, this is strange to admit, but when I was oxy-cleaning and spray and washing the boys' baseball pants the other day I was overcome with sadness.  Perhaps, I'm going to miss laundering the stains from sliding.  It's one of the joys of motherhood.

Our boys are my All-Stars.  I'll celebrate them.  They're on the team!  Our team!

As my husband was leaving this morning, we were all sitting in the living room with long faces.  In his wisdom, he said, "We are about more than baseball."  He knows all things happen for a reason.  In all we do, we'll continue to give it our best and see what happens.  We are about more than baseball. 

I love this family!

Grammar: Teaching Adverbs

I love to tell a good story.  Sometimes a good story needs a bit of embellishment to make it even better.  Descriptive words that give us visual pictures of nouns are adjectives.  Sometimes the adjectives need even a little more help to make the story even better so we call in the adverbs.  Adverbs can add more description to adjectives, verbs and other adverbs.  Adverbs tell us how, when or where something happened.

Recently, we were learning about adverbs in our grammar text.  It's very easy to just tell the kids adverbs are the "-ly" words and words like "very."  That's what I thought about adverbs when I was growing up.  I learned about adverbs by watching School House Rock.  Remember Lolly?  Actually School House Rock taught me most of what I remember about grammar, the Preamble, a bill, etc.  This video may bring back Saturday morning memories for many.

To help us learn more beyond the School House Rock video, I checked out a couple books on adverbs at our local library.  I can honestly say, we may have been the first to check these books out.  Apparently, there's not a big interest in adverbs.  When I opened the books they actually creaked as if they had just been shipped from the bindery.

As mentioned earlier, an adverb is a word that modifies a verb, an adjective, or another adverb.  They tell us when, how or where something happened.  Some examples are:

How?
Our son enthusiastically arrived at the baseball park.  How did he arrive?  enthusiastically

When?
Recently, he broke his collarbone.  When?  Recently

Where?
He broke his arm there.  Where?  There

"Where" adverbs include: here, there, everywhere, anywhere, nowhere, far, nearby, away, outside, inside, out, in, up, down.

There are also the comparative adverbs.  The key to many of these is -er or more.  Some examples are fast- faster, slow- slower, quickly- more quickly.

Beyond the comparative adverbs are the SUPER adverbs, actually they're called superlative adverbs.  They are the most super! I may actually be breaking some grammar rule.  I know they're not the super-est.  They compare three or more things.  With these we often see -est or most . Some examples of superlative adverbs are:

That watermelon was sweetest treat at the picnic. 

Mariah was the most athletic competitor at the games.

Other examples of comparative and superlative comparing words that do not fit the regular -er or -est rules are well, better, best and badly, worse, worst.

Lastly, there are the very misused, misunderstood adverbs well and badly.  All too often we hear the adjectives good and bad used incorrectly.  It can get very confusing at times.  Remember adverbs answer "How."  Only an adverb can modify a verb, so if the adverb is describing how the "action" was done, use the right adverb.  For example, Jane sings well.  How does Jane sing?  We're looking to describe the verb sing, so use well, not good.

If you're describing the noun of the sentence use the adjectives good and bad.  Example: His arm looked bad.  When using linking verbs that deal with the senses: seem, taste, appear, look, feel, sound, and act use the adjective.  In addition, when following regular linking verbs: is, am, are, was, and were use adjectives.

Most of  this information was found in the book, The Magic of Adverbs by Ann Heinrichs.  I hope this is helpful and not confusing.  It's a little more than School House Rock, and hopefully we've all gained a little more information about adverbs.  There's still a lot more to learn.

I'm truly hoping our kids will read this blog post and let me know they now completely understand adverbs.

I'll be waiting for their response.

Civil War Study: Gingerbread

During our Civil War study this year we made a few simple foods of the era like Johnny Cakes and Hard Tack.  Just like our soldiers of today, Civil War soldiers awaited special packages from home.  In these packages they would find items like socks, soap, and food.  One special treat was Gingerbread.

In honor of Flag Day (there's always a good reason to celebrate) we made Gingerbread once again today.

Gingerbread

Ingredients
1 tablespoon butter (for buttering 9X9 baking dish)
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 cup (1 stick butter, softened)

1 1/4 cup molasses
1 egg
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons allspice
1 cup very hot tap water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Butter a 9 X 9 inch baking pan.

In a large bowl combine flour and baking soda.  Cut soft butter into flour mixture with fork or pastry blender.

Measuring out the 2 1/2 cups flour

Dip-Level-Pour

Cutting butter in with pastry blender

My little baker

Add molasses, egg, cinnamon, allspice, and water.  Stir well.

Stir wet ingredients well into flour ingredients.

Pour batter into baking pan.  Bake 30-40 minutes, or until wooden toothpick inserted near center comes out clean.

In the oven for baking

Done

We doubled our recipe to share with friends

  

Enjoy!

Starting The Day Off Right

I love being a stay-at-home-homeschool-mom.  I cherish the days spent with our kids.  I love teaching them, spending time with them, laughing with them, learning from them, doing activities with them, and having an hour of silence away from them so I can recharge, regroup, and energize my soul.

Spending hour after hour, day after day with your kids can be emotionally draining.  It's so important as a mom, especially a stay-at-home-homeschool-mom, that we get a little bit of time alone or away from the kids to refuel.  I find I need about an hour in the morning of silence and a strenuous workout about five days a week to be a focused, loving mom.

Usually I wake up around 6:30-6:45 when the aroma of freshly brewed coffee wafts to our room.  My sweetheart , who doesn't drink coffee, started making my morning brew this year.  I'm so blessed!  I get up, make my way downstairs and pour that first cup of coffee.  The kids usually don't get up until 7:30-7:45, so I have a wonderful hour of quiet.

One of my favorite mugs

I then cozy up in my chair, pull out my Bible, Bible study, journal, book of choice and begin fueling my heart.  I love this time.  Yearly, I used to set goals to read a book a month (this would be an adult book that would further my spiritual development, a biography, fiction, etc., not a children's book), but found as a mom of toddlers this was hard to achieve.  I was perpetually exhausted dragging myself through the day.  If I sat down to read, I'd fall asleep.  I found I needed smaller segment goals to accomplish the book a month.  My goal now is to enjoy at least 10 pages per day.  Ten pages is doable and I find I often can sneak in additional pages throughout the day or at bedtime.  I'm able to read more than a book a month now with this little system.

My escape



My Pile

Just looking at the photos makes me want to run downstairs.  I missed my time today.  I was awakened at 7:10 when a little blond headed girlie cozied up in my bed.  Oh no!  I slept in!  I missed the alone time bus!  As much as she loves to cuddle, I couldn't just immediately run from the bed, but I realized I had missed my time.  Immediately, I felt stressed.  No morning alone time for this momma.  Overcome with the sense of being behind before the day even began, grumpiness was my mood of this morning.  Not a mean grumpiness, just a bummed out, missed my opportunity for alone time grumpiness.

We've done most of our morning schooling.  The kids are working on math.  I'm escaping for a moment.  Soon I'll head back downstairs to make lunch.  Maybe while they're eating, I'll sneak away to my chair, grab my book and get my 10 pages in. 

Some days I just have to roll with it.  I guess I needed that extra 1/2 hour of sleep this morning and I should be thankful for it.

My heart melts

As mentioned in an earlier post, our middle son broke his right collarbone about a week ago.  This little guy LOVES baseball.  He memorizes statistics, he examines standings, he knows the Little League line-ups.  He thinks baseball just about all the time.

This injury has been tough on him, but he's doing very well considering.  He missed out on playing in the Tournament of Champions this past weekend, but was still able to suit-up and sit in the dugout and cheer on his team.  He's been such a champion of character!

A couple days ago we celebrated his birthday as a family.  He wanted to go see a movie.  Throughout our kids' lives, while driving, I've routinely reached back and grabbed one of their hands to hold it.  It started with our oldest as he liked to have me rub his hand and he'd fall asleep and it's continued through the kids.  On the way to the movie theater, I reached back to grab our middle son's hand.  I touched leather.  What?  I felt where his hand should have been and felt a baseball glove.  My sweetness!  He was sitting in the back seat, right arm in a sling, wearing his baseball glove on his left hand.  I know he misses wearing the glove, throwing and catching the ball.  He melted my heart at that moment.  What a precious!

I know he's counting down the days to being able to throw comfortably again and play catch with his dad and brother.  Fortunately, this bone heals quickly.

Memorial Day Tournament

Birthday Idea: Krispie Treats Tower

This week we celebrated the last of our immediate family birthdays.  As I've mentioned before, on birthday days each kid chooses his/her special cake.  Sometimes there are two celebrations as the birthday occurs close to another function, so there may be two choices.  This was the situation today.  The birthday fell on the same day as a baseball get-together.  We'll be making the Chocolate on Chocolate cake for the party, but something special, that would feed a crowd was in order for the baseball gathering.

We decided on the crispy treat tower.  Birthday boy got to choose four cereals for the treats.  He chose Rice Krispies, Cocoa Krispies, Reese's Peanut Butter Puffs, and Froot Loops.  We don't normally buy these sugar cereals so this choosing creates quite the excitement.

When making the treats, I've found melting the butter and marshmallows is much better in the microwave than on the stove.  The mess is minimal and the process seems to go much quicker.

To make, melt 1/4 cup butter and one package of Kraft Jet-Puffed Marshmallows in a large microwave safe bowl.  I recommend spending the couple extra cents and buying the Kraft Marshmallows.  They just seem to melt better.  Microwave butter and marshmallows for about one minute.  Remove.  Stir until smooth.  In a separate large bowl place the box of cereal.  I think the 12 oz. box is suitable for this amount of marshmallows.  Pour marshmallow mixture over cereal and stir to coat.

Line a 9 X 13 pan with parchment paper.  Pour cereal mixture in 9 X 13 pan and pat down evenly.  We find it is best to also butter your hands when patting down.  The cereal/marshmallow mixture will not stick.  When cooled it's so easy to lift the parchment paper and treats right out of the pan, no mess.  Cut treats into squares.

Finished and cooling

Rice Krispie and Froot Loops

Cocoa Krispie and Reese's

Easily lifted out of the pan

A candle, just because it's a birthday

Kids love these

Colorful Treat

Enjoy!

Paleo Dinner- Mexican Meatball Soup

A dear friend gave me a new cookbook for my birthday.  It's Everyday Paleo by Sarah Fragoso.  It's a great collection of paleo recipes.  Sometimes when you think of cutting certain foods out of your diet/meal planning you're left with a sense of "What's left for me to eat?"  It can be like hitting a wall in food preparation.  Following a paleo food plan isn't hard, just different.  It takes preparation, planning and regular shopping trips for fresh vegetables and meats.

My sweet friend and I at Disneyland last year on my birthday

This week we made a soup inspired by Sarah Fragoso's Albondigas Soup found on page 160 of her book.  I made a few changes based on what I thought our kids would like and what I had on hand.

Mexican Meatball Soup

Meatballs:
2 pounds ground beef
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons ground cumin
2 tablespoons dried oregano
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 egg

Meat and seasonings

Add egg to meat and seasonings and mix well.  I just use my hands to mix it up.  Set aside.

Soup:
2 tablespoons minced onion
3 cloves garlic, minced
4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
5 carrots, chopped
4 cups cabbage, shredded
2 1/2 cups fresh tomatoes (not canned), diced
6 cups chicken broth
4 cups water
1 tablespoon cumin
1 tablespoon dried oregano
2 teaspoons sea salt

In a large soup pot saute garlic and onion in olive oil.

Add carrots, cabbage, tomatoes, chicken broth, water, cumin, oregano, and sea salt.  Mix and bring to a boil.

Vegetables in soup pot. 



Soup mixture


Using your hands, form the meat into small meatballs and gently drop into the boiling soup.  Reduce heat to medium low and simmer 20-25 minutes, stirring occasionally, but be careful not to break up the meatballs.

Top with salsa, avocado, or sour cream (if you're not going paleo).  Add additional salt if necessary.

Mexican Meatball Soup

Enjoy!

One more pic of us in our Mickey's

What We Can Learn From The Children- Reflection

This has been a very emotional week following the fracture our our son's clavicle.  We realize it's a commonly broken bone and are grateful it heals quickly, but the reality that life can change so quickly has been a bit sobering.  In an instant our plans for him for the next two months have drastically changed. 

Although he's looking at not being able to play with his team in the Tournament of Champions or compete in a sand soccer tournament or do a sports camp, he's all smiles.  How can that be?  He's full of joy in this situation.

Why is it possible?  I think it's possible because he has his priorities straight.  I can guarantee you my hub and I have only been thinking of what he's going to miss this summer.  But our son, in his great 9-year old wisdom has a healthy perspective. 

At dinner the other night he commented, "I've been thinking of why this happened.  I've realized I was too busy with sports and activities and wasn't making time to reflect on God.  I need some time for reflecting, and because of the injury I will now have it.  Maybe this is why this happened now."

Wow!!  He knocks my socks off!  He needs time to reflect on God.  We all do.  I'm so humbled and blessed to know our son knows he needs it.

May we all have time to reflect today.  I'm going to reflect on God's amazing Goodness in our lives. 

I'm going to reflect on my dad and our relationship/friendship.  Today's his birthday.  Happy Birthday Dad!!! 

I'm going to reflect on my little 9-year old and his last day as being a single digit kid.  Tomorrow he turns double digits (10).  This is a BIG deal!

I'm going to reflect on the lessons learned along the road of life.  And hug on this little guy a lot!