{"id":2512,"date":"2013-01-19T13:00:07","date_gmt":"2013-01-19T18:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.handsful.com\/?p=2512"},"modified":"2013-01-19T13:05:26","modified_gmt":"2013-01-19T18:05:26","slug":"last-week-at-a-glance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.handsful.com\/wordpress\/archives\/2512","title":{"rendered":"Last week, at a glance&#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I thought I&#8217;d speed through our last week here on the blog. \u00c2\u00a0Just for kicks. \u00c2\u00a0Life is never dull.<\/p>\n<p>** Randy spent the early part of the week in NYC. \u00c2\u00a0He and his engineer were working a big vendor fair right in downtown&#8230;in fact, his hotel was 1 block from Times Square. \u00c2\u00a0Yes, I was jealous. \u00c2\u00a0I&#8217;ve never been to NY, and it&#8217;s definitely on my bucket list. \u00c2\u00a0I love visiting big cities (San Fran is a favorite), but I most certainly prefer to live in the country. \u00c2\u00a0As far as scenery goes, cows over cars I always say&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>** Like I did last year, I&#8217;m participating in our church&#8217;s 21 day fast. \u00c2\u00a0It&#8217;s a time to put aside the things we view as &#8220;necessities&#8221; and remember where our blessings come from. \u00c2\u00a0I&#8217;m taking a Facebook break for 20 days&#8230;gotta sign in one day early for my mom&#8217;s birthday wish, I knew she&#8217;d be mad if I missed THAT! \u00c2\u00a0I also did what&#8217;s called the &#8220;Daniel Fast&#8221; again, but this time 5 days instead of 3. \u00c2\u00a0I know many people who do this the entire 21 days&#8230;.No sugar, processed foods, dairy, meat, butter, breads, and only water to drink. \u00c2\u00a0It&#8217;s not exactly easy, but that&#8217;s not the point. \u00c2\u00a0Yesterday was my last day, so today I enjoyed this&#8230;<\/p>\n<a href=\"\" title=\"\" rel=\"\" class=\"flickr-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm.static.flickr.com\/\/_.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"\" title=\"\" longdesc=\"\" \/><\/a>\n<p>Hot tea is my friend in the morning. \u00c2\u00a0And, I&#8217;ve got a pint of frozen chocolate yogurt for later. \u00c2\u00a0Thank you Jesus for the sweet things in life.<\/p>\n<p>** For the first time, Lainey and Dylan have their very own outside homeschool class. \u00c2\u00a0Our friend Sandi (Hollyn&#8217;s mom) told us about it, suggesting it would be an awesome way to get them active AND give them time together on a regular basis. \u00c2\u00a0They are in heaven with this class. \u00c2\u00a0It&#8217;s through our town&#8217;s parks and rec, and involves one hour learning about a certain sport (so far, they&#8217;ve done basketball and volleyball), and then one hour on a health\/safety topic (the last two were bus and fire safety). \u00c2\u00a0We&#8217;re giving the kids some extra playtime afterwards, too. \u00c2\u00a0Last week at our house, the coming week at Hollyn&#8217;s. \u00c2\u00a0I&#8217;ll try and get some pics next time they go!<\/p>\n<a href=\"\" title=\"\" rel=\"\" class=\"flickr-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm.static.flickr.com\/\/__z.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"\" title=\"\" longdesc=\"\" \/><\/a>\n<p>** My northern friends are laughing right now. \u00c2\u00a0It&#8217;s okay. \u00c2\u00a0This is the only snow we&#8217;ve had so far this year, and the kids loved feeling it on their faces. \u00c2\u00a0It didn&#8217;t stick so well, since we&#8217;d had rain, rain, and more rain for days before. \u00c2\u00a0But, the dusting was very pretty in the morning.<\/p>\n<p>** One thing about homeschooling that I find interesting is that you&#8217;re always making changes. \u00c2\u00a0 Early on, I assumed there&#8217;d be this time when I would have it ALL figured out. \u00c2\u00a0Ha. \u00c2\u00a0This is our 12th year. \u00c2\u00a0I think I forgot to factor in the changing ages of our kids, along with the increasing difficulty of their classes. \u00c2\u00a0We&#8217;re always changing. \u00c2\u00a0This semester, Payton switched to an online math class that, so far, is going very well. \u00c2\u00a0We also tweaked how we manage the kid&#8217;s accountability, \u00c2\u00a0as far as getting their work done and turned in. \u00c2\u00a0Last, after having a family meeting with the kids, we agreed on what&#8217;s expected of them and gave them the incentive of allowance in return. \u00c2\u00a0Teens love a little spending money in their pocket.<\/p>\n<a href=\"\" title=\"\" rel=\"\" class=\"flickr-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm.static.flickr.com\/\/_.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"\" title=\"\" longdesc=\"\" \/><\/a>\n<p>** Payton has always wanted to learn to cook&#8230;I tell him to SHOW UP in the kitchen when I&#8217;m cooking, but so far he&#8217;s not done that. \u00c2\u00a0Enter Abbey&#8217;s friend D&#8217;Qota who&#8217;s been spending some time with us lately. \u00c2\u00a0He LOVES to cook, and yesterday I found him going through my spice cabinet. \u00c2\u00a0That was a first, as far as my kid&#8217;s friends go! \u00c2\u00a0Turns out they were inventing a recipe for a spiced-up philly cheesesteak sandwich. \u00c2\u00a0They even named it&#8230; the B Shooks Philly. \u00c2\u00a0Not sure how they came up with that. \u00c2\u00a0I tried it&#8230;very flavorful, I was impressed.<\/p>\n<a href=\"\" title=\"\" rel=\"\" class=\"flickr-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm.static.flickr.com\/\/_.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"\" title=\"\" longdesc=\"\" \/><\/a>\n<p>While they were cooking, they flipped through my Southern L*ving magazine and decided to try the lemon cheesecake today. \u00c2\u00a0This recipe is involved&#8230;you have to make lemon curd! \u00c2\u00a0I&#8217;ve never even done that. \u00c2\u00a0The curd is chilling in the fridge as I type. \u00c2\u00a0I&#8217;ll get back to you on how that worked out.<\/p>\n<p>Here they are making those sandwiches&#8230;<\/p>\n<a href=\"\" title=\"\" rel=\"\" class=\"flickr-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm.static.flickr.com\/\/__z.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"\" title=\"\" longdesc=\"\" \/><\/a>\n<a href=\"\" title=\"\" rel=\"\" class=\"flickr-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm.static.flickr.com\/\/__z.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"\" title=\"\" longdesc=\"\" \/><\/a>\n<p>** Lainey has been looking forward to today for about a week. \u00c2\u00a0She was invited to her friend Anna&#8217;s birthday party! \u00c2\u00a0But, that&#8217;s not the best part. \u00c2\u00a0She was invited to spend the night, just her and Anna. \u00c2\u00a0Deliriously happy would describe her response to that last part.<\/p>\n<a href=\"\" title=\"\" rel=\"\" class=\"flickr-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm.static.flickr.com\/\/_.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"\" title=\"\" longdesc=\"\" \/><\/a>\n<p>I asked her if she was excited, she said yes. \u00c2\u00a0I asked her if she was nervous, she said no. \u00c2\u00a0I do wonder how she&#8217;ll be at bedtime, this is only her 2nd friend sleepover. \u00c2\u00a0I&#8217;m sure Anna&#8217;s mom will let her call to say goodnight.<\/p>\n<a href=\"\" title=\"\" rel=\"\" class=\"flickr-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm.static.flickr.com\/\/__z.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"\" title=\"\" longdesc=\"\" \/><\/a>\n<p>We&#8217;ll pick Lainey up at church tomorrow. \u00c2\u00a0Marley is at her friend Kylie&#8217;s house until Sunday. \u00c2\u00a0D&#8217;Qota is here till tonight. \u00c2\u00a0Payton and Ethan are going to their friend Jason&#8217;s house tonight, with Payton sleeping over. \u00c2\u00a0Ethan and his friend Trevor are leaving Jason&#8217;s early and coming here to spend the night (since they both have to be at church super early for worship team). \u00c2\u00a0Confusing? \u00c2\u00a0This is quite common for weekends around here!<\/p>\n<p>So, that was last week. \u00c2\u00a0Tomorrow is church and two Testify practices, as usual. \u00c2\u00a0Randy leaves for Atlanta for 2 days\/1 night on Tuesday. \u00c2\u00a0Life is busy, but great.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I thought I&#8217;d speed through our last week here on the blog. \u00c2\u00a0Just for kicks. \u00c2\u00a0Life is never dull. ** Randy spent the early part of the week in NYC. \u00c2\u00a0He and his engineer were working a big vendor fair right in downtown&#8230;in fact, his hotel was 1 block from Times Square. \u00c2\u00a0Yes, I was [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2512","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.handsful.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2512","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.handsful.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.handsful.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.handsful.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.handsful.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2512"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.handsful.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2512\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.handsful.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.handsful.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.handsful.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}