It's been a very busy week around here! I am so thankful for the blessings God has given me and my family throughout the week. God is good...all the time...

"Uncle Johnny" decided to sell the keyboard his daughter never played so for a $20 bill we are now the proud owners of this beautiful keyboard! I got two learn to play the keyboard books on paperbackswap I love that sight! We got them in the mail earlier this week and Bug was excited to try it out. I have to admit it looks pretty easy and I am pretty excited to try a little learning myself!

I am trying really hard to set a better schedule for us for the coming school year. We have set events that we participate in and I really want to be better about staying on schedule and working more efficiently this year. So part of this is setting myself on a schedule where we can leave the house on certain days. This is my goal. Of course I understand that things arise and come up and life happens, but I am going to try really hard be more consistent.

So anyway my rambling above leads to my next set of pictures. The boys and I went to town on our "town day" to deliver Meals on Wheels, go by the library (Mom was out of books on tape!), run a few other errands and go to swim team practice. Well we had a little down time between the library and swim, so I took the boys to the park. It of course was still dreadfully hot, but we found some shade down by the maze and had a pic-a-nik! The boys enjoyed running around a bit and I enjoyed reading for a time. Well if you remember some time back I had posted about that huge tree that was downed in one of the storms earlier this year? Remember that? Well the tree has since been cleaned up some, branches removed, stumps hauled off, etc. But the massive tree trunk itself still lays most regally next to the maze. When you look at the trunk you can see it's already worn smooth in many places where the kids have been climbing and playing on it. Even laying on it's side the tree is still quite grand. Well anyway, someone carved a squirrel into the tree. It is very impressive! It looks as if he is coming up out of the tree, his bushy tail standing tall behind him. What a sight!

So Impressive!!!

A close-up of Mr. Squirrel!

And the artist has signed his work.

Momma reading at the park...Red's handiwork...he's finding a love for photography!

My cooking fiasco this week included a huge pot of Taco Soup - I had plans to get this into the freezer for later on, but both Hubby and Bug have already dug in! LOL - they both declared it awesome! Yeah! I will be bagging up some today for a later meal.

My Bug, he sure does love to draw. He was sitting doodling earlier this week and came up with this. That is the audience across the bottom and the announcers over to the right.

Another doodle by Bug - Noah's Ark and some lions heading on board!

I made some more breakfast sandwiches this week. Bacon and egg and some sausage and egg on English Muffins. We really liked these A LOT - so I am excited to have more in the freezer! This is such a great, super easy breakfast! Her e is what I do - Take a roll of breakfast sausage and squish it out onto a flat jelly-roll pan and bake it until brown. Then I move it to a cake rack to drain off any extra fat. After it drains I cut it into squares. For the bacon I just lay it out on a jelly-roll pan and bake until crisp - then drain on paper towels. For the eggs, I crack 8-12 eggs into the blender season with salt pepper and splash in some (almond) milk. Blend until nice and frothy. Then I pour them out onto a jelly-roll pan (spray with cooking spray) and bake for about 12 minutes (watch them) until they are browned on top. Cut into 12 squares. Toast the muffins, spread on a little butter then layer with meat and egg. Wrap individually in saran wrap and store in a zip bag. Heating is simple - 40 seconds in the plastic wrap then unwrap and wrap in a clean kitchen towel or a damp paper towel and heat about 45 seconds more until warm through. Yummy! *You can add cheese to these, I don't simply because Red is allergic to dairy and it's easier just to leave it off of all of them.

French toast sticks - easy simple breakfast and sooooo good! I used Texas toast this time and it was even easier than the french bread! (Although the french bread is super yummy!!!)

We are big big big french toast eaters around here...love the stuff! While reading through several blogs about freezer cooking I saw a recipe for these. Now let me tell you I didn't follow any particular recipe, I just did it the way I had learned from my mom and baked them instead of frying in a pan. The first two pans I put on racks because I had read that on a few of the recipes. Well that didn't work as well as just straight on the pan - so I recommend straight on a pan sprayed with cooking spray!

They take about 15 minutes to bake and man oh man are they yummy!!!! Here is my basic recipe. (Almond) milk, eggs, vanilla, cinnamon, sugar - blend in the blender until nice and frothy. Cut the bread into sticks and coat - not too much - you don't want them to be soggy. Then put on the pan and bake! Yum-O!

Red's Nail in the foot Fiasco!

So here is another part of our crazy week. Friday was quite a crazy medical day. Hubby had a doc appointment and a minor medical procedure done. While all went well it was still nerve racking for him and me - so when we got home I was already on adrenaline let down. We got home and got hubby all set up on the couch for rest and relaxing. I started in on some chores and the boys headed out to play in the yard. I was just heading to the kitchen to make some home-made dog biscuits, when Bug comes in half-carrying/half-dragging Red. Red had stepped on a nail - wonderful! The boys are forever barefoot these days. We even had the "watch for snakes" discussion just yesterday. Well I got him to the bathroom and cleaned if off as best he would let me. So I get on the phone with the nurse line to see if they think I should take him in. At this point I am completely unknowing if he has had a tetanus shot, for some reason I had it in my mind that you don't get it till high school. (Shot block?? - I don't know???) Anyway - I get put on hold forever! So Hubby and I decided to just take him in and have it checked to make sure it's okay. Our pedi is part of the Pediatrics after hours group and although Dr. J isn't there on Friday nights at least they have his records. (And it saved a very expensive and very long trip to the ER). The nurse looked it over and cleaned it up and determined that it looked clean inside and he did have his tetanus shot earlier this year. (She laughed when I said "Really they get it this young?" She said "Oh yeah, because little kids are always stepping on nails". Duh, of course!!!) But anyway - they didn't even charge us anything - THANK YOU!!! So my Red scared me, but it was okay - the worst part was trying to get him to let me clean it and put on salve and a band-aid. But later when I actually to the pic it looked a lot better.

Well on the way home I was REALLY REALLY tired by this point. Talk about a day! So we stopped in Midlothian for pizza and ice. After picking up the pizzas we stopped at Chicken Express to get ice. When we got back to the car, Red climbs in and say "Man it smells like a hot dog exploded in here". Ummm, is that a good thing - cause I thought the pizza smelled fabulous!!! Apparently it is because he said, "Man I could eat the whole pizza right now!" It was pizza and Friday night smackdown at our house....good times after a crazy day!

After smackdown I still had a hankering to finish Gideon's Gift (the book I had started the night before while making breakfast goodies), so I headed to the kitchen to get those dog biscuits made...finally! LOL

Oh these are just super duper simple dog biscuits - I can't wait to try some others as well. I didn't have a bone cookie cutter, so I improvised. I used wheat flour because I had read that it's better for dogs.

Here is my finished cookies. So cute and crunchy...well they feel crunchy...I didn't actually try them out. Although the hounds did - Sadie was especially excited about them! Yeah! I want to try to make some peanut butter ones. Several years ago I made peanut butter dog bones for Lady Bug and she always loved them. I don't remember where I put the recipe...I am sure I can find an easy one on the net!

Well anyway...that's my update for today...got get some house cleaning done...although I did clean the boys bathroom this morning after I got up - go me!!! LOL