— 1 —

We’ve been in a rut (according to the kids) as far as dinner goes, so I’ve been letting our youngest (8) pick out a few new dinners from our Publix Apron Meals collection.  (We grab the recipe every week while they stalk  chat up Rick, the cooking dude and see if he has any grub ready.  Last week was a Rib dinner (not so great), Scallop dinner (delish!) and Honey mustard chicken pasta (pretty tasty).  This week, she picked out Peanut Satay chicken.  I figured it would be tricky, since we aren’t a very spicy or Thai craving people….however, OH MAN!  Huge hit.  Especially the Edamame sauté side dish.  We’ll keep up with this…it’s shaking up dinner in a good way!

— 2 —

I finished the Kite Runner.  I can’t say my Hubby didn’t warn me.  Multiple times.  I just finished yesterday.  It was “difficult”.  In that heart wrenching, yanking it out of your chest, stomping on it, trying to shove it back in “difficult”.  A glimpse of a life I really can’t bear to think about most days.  I’m still processing the book.  Rest assured, the next book will be light and fluffy.  Maybe the next two books. I need to regroup.

— 3 —

We hit the beach for Happy hour last night.  I needed it after finishing my book (see #2).  It was great.  Nice breeze.  Refreshing water.  Fun waves.  Ahhhh.  My soul rejoiced.  Heart refreshed.  Zero calories and no hangover 😉

— 4 —

Adoration.  Lunch break.  Never disappointing.  I went for peace regarding a few things in my life right now…ask and you shall receive.  (Matthew 7:7) Super cool.  I don’t ALWAYS get my prayer request answered so quickly!!  Sadly, I did NOT get the handout with bullet points and step-by-step instructions as to the direction I should take.  It’s coming though.  Probably in the format I least expect, seems to be how it usually works out.

— 5 —

The kids all received their FCAT scores from their teachers and everyone passed.  Hallelujah!  There wasn’t a “doubt” per se, but there’s been a lot of controversy on the testing changes this year and they had to have an emergency education meeting for the state to address the scores (they were THAT bad).  It’s an awful test.  Every year they take it is another year I mourn the fact I can’t home school (sorta) and not subject our kids to this ridiculous test and the immense amount of pressure it brings to the teachers and the students.  EVERY.  YEAR.  There must be some growth in it for us.  somewhere.

— 6 —

Apparently, my our lazy summer plans just got less lazy.  Our youngest wants to do Pop Warner cheerleading.  She’s been interested before, but dance and soccer have always won out in prior years.  This year she’s committed.  And our oldest daughter wants to play Club soccer.  She’s been conditioning with DaddiO this week, running and biking and will start drills next week since tryouts are in about 10 days.  She’s better than she thinks she is, she’ll just need to find that “competitive” spirit and learn to dump the “nurturer” to the curb during game time.  Thankfully the boys will be focusing on skateboarding and practicing French Horn and Xbox.  And they have their little lawn business.  So they are set.  phew.

— 7 —

We’ve been hitting the old home movies this week.  The girls LOVE to see themselves as babies (their baby scrapbooks are worn. out.)  The movies are putting them over the moon.  Meanwhile, Hubby and I have vacillated between sadness, laughter and absolute AMAZEMENT that we made it through those years mentally intact–for the most part.  It’s such a bittersweet, tangible thing to see your sweet BABIES and toddlers and now you look UP to look them in the eye.  Surreal.  And I did not enjoy those years enough.  I am, however, relieved that I am not really shrieking or scolding anyone (on camera), and I have video proof that I did laugh, so maybe I enjoyed it more than I think and it just went so quickly I don’t remember.

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

and my other May blogging friends!

Laura

Lynnell

Apurva 

MB

Brite  

Amanda 

Lea