~Family Update~

Yay! Gregg is better!
Yay! Nathan woke up without a fever!

On the down side...Eric and Aaron started with fevers yesterday.

On the other down side...Jordan and Jared started with fevers today.

Kiersten and I are still hanging in there!

~Change of Plans~

Gregg was scheduled to be off last Friday and all week this week. He has a HUGE to-do list and thought he could knock quite a few things off his list and have some family fun time.


Well, he worked hard around the house Friday, but when he came in for supper he was chilled. By the time we were putting the boys to bed he had a fever and I quickly made him a space in the playroom to sleep. Kiersten is still in our room and I really don't want her catching anything. Anyway, after a weekend of washing my hands, cleaning germs, washing my hands,eating healthy, washing my hands, and putting Gregg in quarantine...Nathan came down with a fever last night...sigh...

Gregg has been wearing a mask when he has been outside "his room" so naturally Nathan wanted a mask too!

~Blog Party at Penny Raines~

Hope on over here to see Penny! She is having a blog party all week with some great giveaways!

Today she is offering a free ebook about making popcorn and the giveaway is her whole set of e books! The three that I have are great!

~ 7 Weeks~

~A Beautiful Day~

Me and my constant companions... "Come, my children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord."

"And all thy children shall be taught of the Lord; and great shall be the peace of thy children."

"These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts."

"Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up."
"Take to your heart all the words with which I am warning you today, which you shall command your sons to observe carefully, even all the words of this law."
"We will not conceal them from their children, but tell to the generation to come the praises of the Lord, and His strength and His wondrous works that He has done."

"And whoever welcomes a little child like this in My Name welcomes Me."

~Back to Baking and Two Breakfast Tips~

It is so nice to be back in the kitchen baking again! This cool weather has me changing my menus over to soups and casseroles...I love a side of homemade bread with those! Of course, I like to finish the meal with something sweet!

I spent Sunday afternoon baking cookies and scrapbooking. What a fun treat!

Here are the loaves of whole wheat apple bread I made last week...delicious toasted for breakfast!

And my first try at whole wheat French Bread...from my blogfriend Tracy. She has a bunch of scone recipes that I'm anxious to try soon!

Now for the breakfast tips:

Tip 1... I don't like getting up in the morning...I REALLY don't like getting up when the house is cold and the boys are hungry and I'm stumbling around trying to wake up and cook at the same time. So I often (not always) plan breakfast the day ahead at lunch time! While I am cleaning up from lunch I will bake some oatmeal, make some baked french toast to soak overnight, make a coffee cake, or at the very least get a pack of english muffins or bagles out of the freezer. Did you know you can make your pancake batter a day ahead and just keep it in the fridge!!?!??! This makes many of my mornings much happier for all of us...especially now when I have to feed Kiersten before anyone else gets to eat!

I just pulled some baked oatmeal with blueberries out of the oven for tomorrow!

Tip 2... I have one 3 ring binder full of only breakfast/bread recipes! This tip came from Monica. It makes it so much easier for me!!! Monica covered her binder with fabric but I just laminated some scrapbook paper and hot glued it to my binder with some ribbon around the edge:-)
Do any of you have a favorite breakfast food or a breakfast tip to share!?!?!?

~Catching Up~

Where should I begin...I had such a busy week! I guess I'll start at the begining...I added the photos just for fun!Last Saturday Gregg and the boys did a lot of cleaning in the garages and basement. Unfortunatly, we did not know Nathan had some type of allergy/asthma issue with the mold/mildew in the the garage and outside with the leaves changing. Long story short, Gregg ended up taking him to the Emergency Room Sunday night. His oxygen levels were fine but he needed an inhaler. They arrived home around 1 am and Nathan was full of energy. We did mange to get to bed soon afterwards but it was a rough start to the week! Nathan has been fine since then, but next time he has a yearly checkup I'm going to ask about this!

Monday was a trip to the dentist for Jordan and a full day of school. We are back to doing the full load...busy, busy, busy!

The rest of the week I ended up cleaning/organizing a lot (closets, cabinets, drawers, changing the boys cloths to bigger sizes, etc)...that means the house is messier than it was before! Don't you hate when that happens!!!! It has to get messy before it gets clean. So, I'm still in the midst of mess but I am certainly progressing.

I was also grooming our dog Bullet this week. She had sooo many mats that I had to go through her hair with a comb and cut it all off. Poor thing looks really pitiful right now! It think total it took over 3 hours! I will be doing River in the next week or two...and giving the boys strict instructions on how to comb them!!!

I spent some time in the kitchen. These cool days certainly push me in the direction of baking. This week I made frech bread for the first time and I also made five loaves of apple bread.

I'm still crocheting in my "spare time" and I'm reading a few books right now. I'll be sharing about some of those soon and also my new thing...digital scrapbooking!

I'm not ready for winter...but winter weather has arrived. I cleaned the gas fireplace and Gregg hooked it up tonight. It was so nice to see a fire in there again!

I'm hoping to finish cleaning our living areas this week and start working on the basement...then on to the attic! My goal is to get rid of a trash bag of stuff a week. It can be trash or things for a thrift store or things to give away...but it has to be going out the door!!!!