Moving on over

Well my big "wahoo I updated my blog!!" Day will be April 1st.  But I am blogging over there as I learn the ropes.  Go check me out www.mommahopper.com

Cruising & Cozi Calendar

As I mentioned before, I am trying to update my blog, moving it to Wordpress and doing some exciting things with it.  But it is a little bit more of a learning curve that I first thought and taking me a little bit longer that I thought (I have a tendency to take on way more that I know:))-but that is ok!  I have a goal to launch it April 1st with post from our upcoming cruise with our family and friends from church!  I am real excited about it!

Did I mention we are going on a cruise!  5 nights to the Bahamas-I am looking forward to being off duty from cooking and cleaning for the week.

Cooking and cleaning...which brings me to another subject.  February I got off on our planning meals-I had good intentions and don't know what happened.  I also got off on my cleaning schedule.  Life happens, kids happen, mess happen!  Sometimes it just takes a moment to step back and regroup and move forward.  Now that I think I am finally kicking this infection in the butt (thanks to antibiotics) I am ready to get up and moving.

In the process I started up Cozi calendar again.  This is a free service that is so worth checking out!  I figured out that I can import our ical into Cozi so I keep using both calendars.  I like many of the features of Cozi and love all their list ideas.  But mostly I love their menu area!   It was so easy to do.  I have all my meals planned from now till I leave for Florida.  They also have a shopping area that works with it, although I haven't used it yet!

So as I get ready to go on vacation, I have a few goals to work on.

• Packing (which I have a list for) by this weekend.  Since kids up here are still wearing cooler weather clothes, I can pack most of everyones clothes.
• Travel busy bags for the kids
• All rooms cleaned and picked so when I take the kids down early Dan can clean carpets!  
• All Easter related things ready to go since we will be getting back on Palm Sunday.  Their Easter outfits are also going to be used for the cruise.   I don't go crazy with Easter baskets, but do like a few things for them to add to the eggs and chocolate bunny's.  
• And of course working on my new blog!  

Make sure you check out Cozi!  Did I mention it is free?

I am moving!

I am moving my blog Hopping to It and Hopping Through Homeschooling to www.mommahopper.com
Please bear with me as I learn a lot on my own!  Till then I will blog on here!

National Lutheran School's Week

I am a member of the LCMS.  (Lutheran Church Missouri Synod)  This week Lutheran child development centers and preschools, day schools, high schools and colleges, universities and seminaries are celebrating National Lutheran School's Week.

I have much to celebrate with this as I grew up in Lutheran schools.
I went to 5th -8th grade at Redeemer Lutheran School in Stuart, Fl.
I got my BA in Religion, Psy/Soc from Concordia College in Ann Arbor Mi.
I got my DCE certification and Masters in Parish Ed from Concordia College in Seward Ne.
And three of my kids have been in our church preschool and CDC at Ascension Lutheran, Huntsville, AL.
And while my kids are not in a Lutheran grade school, I like to think our homeschooling reflects Lutheran's home education.

I have much to celebrate this week as Lutheran School have shaped much of who I am today!

This morning the CDC kids sang at our church.  My dear sweet son at least went up on stage (this is been a progression the last few years, being in front of people are not his thing, but he went up there, just stood back wards!)  It was fun!

 Guess which one is Isaiah!!

Where did you goto school?

Packing Lunches

This year I haven't been very good at packing lunches. There was just too much for me to think about at the beginning of the year with three going to school (I had two other foster boys) Because my boys got free lunches it just seemed easier to have AnnieQ buy her lunch. Then for a while she and JJ were asking for me to pack their lunches. Oh it comes and goes really. Now since the boys moved home before Christmas, this year, AnnieQ has been asking more and more for me to pack it. I know it just takes some planning and I can do it. And since all she does is grab the grab and go lunch at school, it seems just easier. I had bought these Ziplock containers a while ago that looked like bento ones I had seen before. I though these would be great! And they sat, and sat, and sat. Finally I cam across a Pinterest post about a container looking similar and was inspired!

I found the sight for Easy Lunchboxes.  It has great Lunch box ideas!

So here is how I did it! First AnnieQ doesn't really eat bread, they pick it off and eat the inside. So I don't bother with bread.





One compartment there are raisins, banana chips, and there is a little starburst for her as a special treat!:)
Then strawberries, of course strawberries!:)  Apple sauce, crackers, cheese, and turkey (wrapped in wax paper)




Now this is in my fridge ready to go in the morning!



Plenty of room in her little lunch box.  I will add a milk in the morning with a ice pack and she will be ready to go!

Just need a plan and stick with it! 

A Little Lent and Easter for Kids

Hard to believe we are in our second week of Lent.  Sad to think I haven't done anything with the kids!  We have a devotional some where that we have use in the past, but this year I am bearly keeping up with my own devotions.  And I think that our cruise at the end of the month has over shadowed our preparing for Easter vs Vacation.  I have a few ideas in mind to help get our kids ready for Easter.

Things I want to do

• Resurrection Cookies-  Faithful Provisions has a wonderful step by step how to do this.
• Holy Week banner
• Resurrection Eggs
• Blessing Baskets- we did this a few years ago, we put together some baskets with some fun stuff in them and handed them out to various people.  
• Jelly beans poem.  We did this before and handed it out to people.

I also collected some great Lent and Easter ideas over at Pinterest.  Check me out.  

Other sites that have some fun ides.  

The common sense mama - has some awesome ideas including a link to Lenten Adventure.

Children's Ministry- Has some great Palm Sunday ideas

Catholic icing - has wonderful ideas from food to crafts

Sunday school kids -a learning game for Holy Week

http://www.worship.ca/easter.html - a HUGE list of resources for Lent and Easter

raising little saints - Also a nice list of blogs and resources for Lent and Easter

CPH has a great collection of books to teach and share the story of Lent and Easter

While I am not Catholic, some of these catholic mom's have awesome ideas!

What are you doing for Lent and Easter?  Share with me!

Pictures from 3:45 storm from Athens

I love taking pictures of storm clouds! This is from a Thunderstorm with possible tornado just north of us coming out of Athens Al.








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