What a kid

Simple Things Sunday

Saturdays, as a family, cheering them on, is the sweetest.

Linking up with Rebecca.

Simple Things Sunday

The Little Engine That Could, then sleep in Daddy’s bed. A pretty good end to his day.

Sleeping boys are often the sweetest.

Linking up with Rebecca.

Crockpot Beef and Broccoli for the Win

My crockpot has been getting a serious workout since activities have started up. I use it every week when we have Classical Conversations, and usually one other night a week when we have an inconvenient sports practice. This is a new-to-us recipe that was delicious and when I posted it on instagram, I got asked to share. I wish I could post back to where I originally saw it, but I think it was something someone had liked on facebook and I snagged it that way. I’ve noted the few tweaks I made below.

CROCKPOT BEEF AND BROCCOLI

1 pound boneless beef chuck roast, sliced into thin strips I used stew meat that I got on sale and found in the freezer
1 cup beef consumme
½ cup soy sauce
⅓ cup brown sugar or honey
1 tablespoon sesame oil
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 tablespoons cornstarch
2 tablespoons cooled sauce from the crock pot after being cooked
Fresh broccoli florets (as many as desired)
Hot cooked rice (brown rice, or riced cauliflower)

1. Place beef in a crock pot.
2. In a small bowl, combine consomme, soy sauce, brown sugar/honey, oil, and garlic. Pour over beef. Cook on low for 6-8 hours.
3. In a cup, stir cornstarch and sauce form the crock pot until smooth. Add to crock pot. Stir well to combine. (If your sauce is not thickening, try bringing your sauce to a boil on the stovetop with the corn starch mixture. Boil until your desired consistency is reached). Mine thickened okay in the crockpot, not as good it probably would have on the stovetop, but I didn’t want to dirty an extra pan. : )
4. Add broccoli to the crock pot. Stir to combine. I cooked the broccoli separately – steamed it in the microwave – instead of adding it to the crockpot. It took all of 5-6 minutes and made those in my family that don’t like broccoli (or don’t like their foods mixed together) happy!
5. Cover and cook an additional 30 minutes on high (the sauce has to boil for it to thicken).
6. Serve over hot cooked rice. I also had a small portion of leftover mashed potatoes from Monday night and served it to a couple of family members over the potatoes since I was low on rice. Also yum!

There you have it! It was like a little trip to Panda Express with ingredients that I have on hand. I tripled this batch (because it worked with the amount of stew meat that I had) and ended up with five extra single servings of the meat and sauce that I’ve packaged up in little containers and popped in the freezer. Can’t wait to pull those out for quick lunches for me over the next few weeks.

Enjoy!

Simple Things Sunday

Friday night was a family trip to the soccer field to take one of the girls to practice. We traded off watching munchkins so that each of us could run for a bit and then headed home for our family Friday movie night. (This week’s pick was the Disney Robin Hood version).

Simple evenings are often the sweetest.

Linking up with Rebecca.

Project Life ::: August 19-24, 2013

Maybe one of my favorite layouts for a week,ever.



Those eyes. : ) He’s my only blue-eyed one so I’m a little bit mesmerized by them when I can get a good shot of them. It just had to be the title card.

 

On the left:

• reading to the boy during school
• the current series that N1 is reading through (in the journaling pocket)
• new desks for the girls
• music lessons! (they come to the house! I don’t have to take the kids anywhere! I don’t have to entertain the boy at an hour and a half of lessons! This is a good. thing.)

All the journaling cards in these layouts are from the August Studio Calico kit. I love how the cards really are so different, but they all tie together and don’t clash. Still thinking that the Project Life kit from SC has been a good investment for me this year. Other than having to purchase my PL pieces (a new binder, pocket pages, etc.) it has kept me out of the scrapbook store. : )



On the right:

• the current read-aloud
• a boy and a dad playing a little guitar together
• the little girls working together to climb a tree that was a bit too high for them. I told them I wasn’t going to help. : )
• some shots of planning that I’ve been doing that I just liked. And this spiral notebook and this yellow folder are tools that I use every day so worth including.
• a shot of N1 enjoying a piece of cake as we celebrated her and N2’s baptism a few weeks ago! I have an insert that covers that but didn’t include photos of it for this post.

All the yellow scattered through these photos make me happy.


And that’s all she wrote for this week. As of right now, I’m staying current with my album, but have a quite a few weeks that I got behind on last spring. Maybe our fall break will give me a little time to play catch-up? : )
Project Life is a product and a system created by Becky Higgins and available on Amazon.com, DigitalProjectLife.com, and many major craft retailers. It can be anything you want it to be. You can view all my posts about Project Lifehere. I'm always happy to answer questions about how Project Life works for me, if you have any.

Simple Things Sunday

Soccer and softball are back in full swing for us. Evening practices on the field and Saturday games are on the schedule until early November. While life is busy for the next 8 weeks, it’s really not that long when you think about it. Enjoying the little moments of three sitting together, watching a sister practice, a boy contentedly eating some popcorn before sister take turns playing with him and running him around the field and wearing him out.

Simple things are often the sweetest.

Linking up with Rebecca.

Discipleship & Discipline Webinar with Sally Clarkson and Sarah Mae

How cool is this!

Sally Clarkson (who I consider to be one of my homeschooling / mama mentors is co-hosting and webinar based off her book Desperate with co-author Sarah Mae. This looks SO good!

Topics that will be covered include:

• How to Raise a “Wild One”
• How to Instill Excellence in Your Child
• How to Have a Quiet Time When There’s No Quiet
• How to Deal with Over-Emotinal Children
• How to Find a Mentor
• How to Build a Winning Relationship With Your Child
• How to Motivate Your Children to Listen to Your Instruction and Obey Your Training
• How to Deal With Your Lies So You Can Parent in Freedom Instead of Fear
• How to Get Through the Desperate Days
• How to Find and Nurture Friendships with Other Moms

I’m hoping to register and attending this and if you are interested in doing so, here’s a link to get started.

The links included are affiliate links and if you use them, I will make a small profit which most likely goes towards books in this household. Thank you!