So we’ve been busy around here this week and last – painting and baking and enjoying less school.

Last Saturday we set up Chandler, Ellie, and Amania’s new-to-them beds.  The room already looks better with real beds, rather than just mattresses on frames.  Now we are working on “art”, bulletin boards, and remaining furniture.  I will post pictures when the room is finished, which will hopefully be this month.

Monday we grocery shopped for what seemed like the entire day.  I guess that’s what happens when you have a family of six and you skip a week.  Grace also got her massive cast cut down to a “short arm” cast which made her quite happy.  The whole darn thing comes off May 14.  I think I’m as excited as she is.

Tuesday we drove over to KC and visited Deanna Rose Farmstead.  Such a sweet little place, and free on weekdays.  The morning started out stormy and dark, but the rains stopped just as we got there and we enjoyed some beautiful sunshine the rest of the day.

Wednesday and Thursday we had a baking fest here.  Six loaves of bread.  Four batches of granola.  Oreo truffles.  Mini egg casseroles.  Couscous dip.  Banana pancakes.  No bake freezer granola bars.  Five ingredient granola bars.  And now I’m sufficiently burnt out on baking again.  🙂  Everything we made was pretty tasty.  The five ingredient bars need more peanut butter and/or honey as they don’t stick together at all.  And the mini egg casseroles were too much work for what is essentially one meal for my family.  I think next time I will just make a regular breakfast casserole and portion it out for the freezer.

Out of my own curiosity to see the difference it might make and to see how do-able it is on a long-term basis, I am trying to transition us to a “real foods” diet this summer.  I have a little more time to be in the kitchen and it’s so much easier to find good produce this time of year.  If it works well, we will hopefully be in enough of a routine with it by fall that it won’t all unravel when school starts back up.

I mentioned last week that I am not a perfectionist.  Neither am I a legalist (at least I try not to be).  And I’m definitely not one when it comes to food.  As soon as someone says I cannot have something I really enjoy, it suddenly becomes all I think about.  So, I find it easier to just enjoy certain foods from time to time and eat as nutritiously as I can the rest of the time.  I also find that the healthier I eat on a regular basis, the less I crave the unhealthy stuff.  That said, we will still eat out at Mexican restaurants and enjoy ice cream cones this summer.  I will just do my best to make sure the majority of our food is “real food”.

Today is the girls’ last day of Friday classes.  As much as we love love love Friday classes, it’s always nice when they are over for a bit.

I learned something about us this week.  I have come to the conclusion that we all do well with “flexible structure” to our day.  I have tried time and again to give us a real schedule, with times for this and that.  Every single time it fails and I end up incredibly frustrated.  What does work for us is a good To Do list with a start time and an end time.  For whatever reason, most of us here function really well with that type of structure and challenge, but crumble under set-in-stone times for everything.

I’m not quite sure what the weekend holds.  Perhaps some small painting projects.  We will definitely be celebrating Cinco de Mayo this weekend, what with our latent Mexican heritage and all.  (Surely we have some roots we don’t know about….how else can you explain our passion for chips and salsa?)  Regardless, I’m looking forward to relaxing and enjoying time with the fam.  Hope your weekend is great as well!

For His Glory ~

~ Sara