My Peacefully Chaotic Life

Once again I find myself arranging ballerina buns and finding missing tap shoes. A new year of dance has begun and my girls could hardly contain their excitement. The fun of pulling socks over shin guards is also here. The only difference is that it is now my sweet boy that is playing soccer. They can start at the age of 3 here and he was excited to play last year. But when he arrived for his first practice he balked and retreated to the safety of Mama's arms. He was barely 3 at the time and was even still in a pull-up so we really weren't surprised. This year, however, he was ready! Funny how they can seem so big at home and look so tiny on the field! He did quite well at his first practice though. I had no doubt he would. From the time he took his first steps he would grab a ball and dribble all over the yard. (Dribbling in soccer is when you see them lightly kick the ball to move it around the field. Very important skill as they must be capable of maintaining contro

So I said in my last post that so far the new recipes had been well received. Last night's meal...not so much. I should have known better than to say that  LOL! I liked it well enough and so did my youngest daughter. But the husband wasn't so fond of it. It was a Mediterranean recipe that had whole wheat rotini, grilled salmon, tomato, artichoke, olives and garlic. It also called for white wine but I used chicken broth instead. I think we are going to try it one more time with a few tweaks. Maybe a half box of noodles instead of a full box and add some canned tomatoes. I even thought about using quinoa instead of noodles since we all love it. I think extra artichokes and olives might be good, too. If that doesn't work, then this one will be discarded. It's funny but my husband hasn't been too crazy about any Mediterranean recipe I've ever tried through the years. When you look at the separate ingredients, he ought to love them. And the heart health aspect makes

READY FOR: Are you like me, wondering where summer went? It's passed by so quickly. Dance and soccer will start again next week. Yet, at the same time, there are days when I think autumn will never get here. Yesterday when we sat outside in the early morning and it cool and breezy. Yet it didn't have that fall feeling to it. I don't know about other areas of the States but in the South there is a certain feel to the weather, a certain way the sun and sky look, a certain scent to the air that tell you fall is on its way. I only wish it lasted a little longer! WORKING ON: We've been working on organizing our school room. Organization. Does it ever end?! It seems as though about the time I think I have things perfectly organized and running smoothly, I find a glitch that makes me start all over. I hate to call this organization prompt a glitch. He's certainly more important than that. :) It's my sweet boy. You see, he turned 4 in May and as such, is quite ready

Well, it's that time of year again! New Year's resolutions and good intentions on steroids. While most are making plans to improve some area of their life and just hoping for the best, we have been busy at our house! For quite a while now, I have struggled with keeping up with clutter. Some might think, hey, you're home all day, what's the problem? Therein lies the problem. I am home all day! Along with a 9 yr old, a 7 yr old, and a 3 yr old. Not to mention, the husband who is right next door at work and pops in and out at varying times. When you throw in books, paper, projects and all those enriching activities that fill a day...well, it tends to fill your home. After Christmas (which was lovely, by the way), I looked around at the piles of gifts, dishes and paper and groaned. It didn't help when a couple of days later the tree toppled over. Oh, what a beautiful mess! My children do pretty well about cleaning up as long as it hasn't turned into a chaotic

How was your Thanksgiving? Ours was very good. My oldest son was able to come home. We were afraid this might be the first Thanksgiving he wasn't with us but he was able to arrange his schedule to make it home. His band was away shooting a music video. What might have taken all week, they managed to do in one full day! He headed homeWednesday and stayed until Sunday. My guys were able to do quite a lot of hunting over the holiday. They both love to fish and hunt. We've been very blessed that our last home and this one, there are several places for them to enjoy the outdoors. We love deer meat. It is healthy and really helps to stretch the budget. When prepared correctly you might even think it is beef! The kids and I got a little creative with our vegetables on Thanksgiving day and created a fun centerpiece. My youngest named it Pluto. ;) Since I had a smoked turkey and a brown sugar ham, we opted for sandwiches for lunch and ate our Thanksgiving Dinner for supper that n

This week we have been enjoying a business trip that has us staying in the Atlanta area. Coming through Atlanta was absolutely crazy! The place we are staying is actually considered a suburb. You can't tell though because you never knew when you left Atlanta itself! Our hotel is very nice and that is always a plus. I had hoped we could sneak in a field trip of sorts but there really isn't anything close enough. There is a lot of shopping here though and our family enjoyed seeing the large malls and letting the kids ride the train and carousel. Wow, what a difference from any of the places we ever called home! Even the place we used to consider the big city is really nothing more than a town in comparison. Before we moved to our current home, we lived in a very rural area. Snakes and coyotes were a constant in life, traffic and people were not ha ha! But I loved my quiet life. It was peaceful. Peace was welcomed anyway we could get it during the stress of the last couple of y