My littlest dinophile turns 3.

Another week in pictures...

Can it have been three years already?


Littlest requested a knitted dinosaur for his birthday. So, of course, he got one.

It was a dinosaur-themed week, at least at home. (Eldest and Middlest were visiting the early Christians in Rome all week.)


In between playing with his birthday presents, he took advantage of the absence of his brothers, and mastered using the computer mouse. Only dinosaur games would do, so I dug up as many as I could find online. He played them all.

Look how big he's gotten! Oh, wait, that 4-pound zucchini makes him look kind of small, doesn't it? (And yes, that's a T-Rex on his shirt.)


Happy birthday, sweet boy! We love you!

Jamminess. Synonym for happiness.

Perhaps I should have scheduled more blogging time into the last few days? ;) Thank you for all the sweet comments on my last post. If you actually use the idea, I'd love to hear about it!


We had a lovely first week with Scott home. Lots of hanging out time. Some baking. Blueberries! Some jam-making. Jam sessions. Pajama and movie days.

Plus, some yard work. Skating on the new driveway.

Lightsaber duels. Sunshine with a breeze.


New library books. Side-by-side reading. Dinosaur books. Dinosaur games.


Chess. Math sticker books. Nature trivia mazes. Playdough. Potty learning!


Busy, busy, and mostly at home. Yay!

Now this week is all about Vacation Bible School (for the three big guys), and Littlest's 3rd birthday -- I can hardly believe it. Except that he's growing and learning so fast, I half expect him to be four by next week.

WFMW: Creative scheduling

Every few months, when the season changes, and our plans and routines follow suit, I find myself yearning for a calendar I can manipulate with my hands.

(Yes, even unschoolers can use a schedule. We just prefer really flexible ones.)

I was inspired by Mary's spreadsheet, but I wanted something I could change whenever I wanted, without having to re-print. No online cut-and-pasting. No erasers. No more messy scribbles in my daytimer.

I needed something visual -- so I could see if I was trying to squeeze too many things into one day or week. And I wanted to look at all the possibilities -- even the ones that wouldn't fit.

I stole Jessica's magnetic fridge menu idea long ago. Brilliant. It's visual. It's kinesthetic. If only it would speak out loud and remind me to thaw the meat.

I already had the Days of the Week magnets. I just needed the rest of my calender on magnets.

I don't have any fancy programs on my Mac. Or at least, I don't know how to use them. But I know Word. So, I started with some text boxes. Typed in the various things we do -- eat, shower, play, eat, clean, go to church, etc. Duplicated the ones we repeat throughout the week. Color-coded them for fun. Outdoor activities: green. Indoor fun: red. Housework: blue. Mommy time: orange.


Then I printed the text boxes on magnetic paper, which I had leftover from my refrigerator menu. Cut them up with my rarely-used scrapbooking cutter. Found some colorful number stickers to use for the Time of Day.

And then I played with my new fridge schedule puzzle!

The best part about this is that I can change our plans anytime I want to, and still make sure the important stuff fits in somewhere. Obviously we can't do everything in one day, or even one week. This helps me adjust my expectations when I start a week with long list of hope-to-dos.

It also helps me see that we have a rhythm, even when it doesn't feel like it. And we get a lot done, even when it feels like we're moving slowly or haphazardly.

More about what's filling up our schedule later...

For tips on finding your routine with the kids, go to Simple Mom.

For tips to beat summer boredom, visit Works for Me Wednesday at We are THAT Family.

Menu Plan Monday

I haven't felt much like menu planning the last few weeks. Maybe because it's getting so hot. Maybe because I keep forgetting to call the appliance repair guy to come check out why my oven stopped working.

Although I'm pretty sure I know why -- it was feeling overworked! It quit after I baked four dozen cookies, and then tried to bake a lasagna. Fortunately, my parents didn't mind me coming over to use their oven and share the lasagna! Or the bbq chicken pizza, or the strawberry banana bread...

But it's been mostly about easy, stove-top meals lately:
Tacos, grilled cheese and tomato soup, spaghetti, pancakes and eggs for dinner, quesadillas, bbq burgers or chicken, fried fish and sauteed veggies...

I'm about done with soup for the season, but I need to make that yummy Swiss Chard and Artichoke soup one more time before the artichokes disappear for another 11 months.

And I definitely want to get back to baking this week. I've got six pounds of organic blueberries waiting for me to turn them into blueberry cobbler, pie, muffins and jam! And we're about to have zucchini coming out of our ears. Time for zucchini bread!!

On that note, here's a recipe (I'm sorry, I don't remember where I found this one):

Zucchini bread

3 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp ground nutmeg
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
3 cups sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs, beaten
2/3 cup water
2 cups grated zucchini
1 tsp lemon juice
1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans
(Note, adding a handful of chocolate chips is great too)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix dry ingredients except for nuts (and chocolate chips if you go that route) in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, mix wet ingredients. Fold into dry, and add nuts (and chips). Bake in two greased loaf pans for one hour, or until done.

For more Menu Plan Monday, visit Organizing Junkie. She's got a giveaway going on this week!