Photo A Day August part 3

Day 10: Art

Day 11: Mirror

Day 12: Gather{ing my thoughts}

Day 13: Inside

Day 14: Give {I've nothing left to give}

Day 15: Clouds

Day 16: Clean

MPM 8/17-23

Summer is unofficially over and it seemed like a whirlwind! Ryan goes to work for in-service this week. I plan to use this time with Ivy as a fun week before we start school together. I'm also using this week to organize Ivy's schoolwork, clean the house, get couponing in order, and get Ivy ready for dance. I am a control-freak and am over-planning a lot of things. But I know that MPM just makes sense for my family! Here goes another round of Menu Plan Monday's!

Sun - Nachos

Mon - BBQ Chicken Grilled Cheese Sandwiches

Tues - Parmesan Crusted Pork Chops with Rice Pilaf

Weds - Salisbury Steak with leftover rice pilaf

Thurs - Texas Ranch Chicken Casserole

Fri - Leftovers

Sat - Three Cheese Chicken Alfredo Bake

Head over to OrgJunkie.com for more menu plans!

August Photo A Day part 2

I forgot to post my week's photos on Saturday!

Day 3: "S" is for {Silence, snuggles, silly faces, surprise smiles, superheroes and shopping}

 

 

Day 4: In the Middle {of the day and the sky}

Day 5: Pile

Day 6: Grateful for...

Day 7: Spot {on the iguana's cheek} (Added bonus: Throwback Thursday to circa 2002)

Day 8: Pet Peeve {she takes things off while walking around and just leaves it where it's dropped.}

Day 9: Mix {a new-to-us local donut shop has wonderful varieties}

End of Summer Update

I have been avoiding writing about this because I had no idea how things would end up. I've been in limbo for the summer.

My contract with the school district was not going to be renewed this year so I resigned. I put applications out and I was interviewed but due to circumstances, I was not hired. My family and I made the decision to apply for unemployment. This means that I will be staying home with Ivy and teaching her and taking care of things at home. Things will be tight this year but I've lived like this before and I know I can make it work.

I am really excited to teach Ivy. I have a lot of plans and if you follow me on Pinterest, you've seen a lot of my pins about preschool education. I have so many ideas and plans and we are both pretty excited.

This will also mean I am going to be really ramping up my menu planning and home organization. Get ready for more recipes, couponing, and cleaning tips and just fun stuff in general.

August Photo Challenge

I participated in a photo-a-day on Instagram in December. I thought I'd do it again. It seems as though this person does this every month. 

I will post my week's worth of photos on Saturday every week. 

1. Landscape

This was from grapevine heritage park. We too Ivy on a small adventure yesterday to a local learning farm. The park was just down the street. She enjoyed the scenery. 

2. Lunch

This is just tragic. I'm feeding myself like Ivy should be eating. Technically we are trying to eat what we have at home. Milk, banana and strawberry coins, fish nuggets, and a string cheese. 

I hope you enjoy my August photo challenge! If you're on Instagram, hop on board!

The Frio River part 4

If I were to write about my week, it would be an entirely too long post. I'm breaking this vacation down into a few posts.

Alternate Title: Jump from a Rock

Day 4

I really wanted to be in touch with everything we did this day. I left the phones at the cabin (or kept it in my purse) and planned to just enjoy myself. The photos contained in this post are from Google.

We spent the early part of the day driving around Concan taking in the few shops picking up goodies. We were able to stop by Concan Pies to pick up an extremely delicious chocolate cream pie.

After we got back from our driving around, we ate lunch and it was back to the Frio for some swimming!

I was in the river watching the kids, and some adults, jump off the large boulders. I sat there telling myself, "You know, this could be one of your 40 Before 40's." Ivy wanted to see what the big deal was. She started swimming to it and by the time I reached the rock to Mommy the situation, she was already climbing up and following her older cousin, "W." He was going to jump and she was going to watch. After he jumped, I walked her back down to the waiting arms of her other cousin, "L," while I found myself safely in the water too. 

"It's not that high." I thought to myself. "I can do it. I can show Ivy how brave Mommy is. I can show her that being afraid can be overcome. Her daddy won't believe it. It looks like fun. Yeah! Let's jump!" As an act of solidarity L jumped off, never having done it before either. And she kept jumping. 

I climbed. I looked over the edge. W jumped again. Got myself psyched up to jump. Made sure Ivy could see. A few more kids jumped. Ivy cheered me on. W peer-pressured and teased me. I looked over again at the water below. The soft cushion would catch my fall from a two-second drop. W promised to hold my hand, or just push me - whatever I wanted. Ivy cheered again. I looked over again, my hands shaking. I remembered the last time I fell from a similar height 20 years ago and broke a limb. All these other kids are jumping. 

I looked over the edge again and made my way down. The same way I came up. Later, Ivy had found a significantly smaller version of rocks and did her own jumping. 

It's okay to look your fear in the eye and say "Another day. We will meet again." I am okay with still being afraid and not ready to jump yet.

The following day, we woke up, cleaned up, packed up, and said goodbye to the Frio. 

Read More! Frio River Fun Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

The Frio River part 3

If I were to write about my week, it would be an entirely too long post. I'm breaking this vacation down into a few posts.

Day 3

Another early morning! While almost everyone was still sleeping, Ivy and I took a little walk. We immediately down a couple of fawns!

She wanted a picture with this fawn behind her. 

"Let's go!"

Once she and I returned to the cabin, we decided to go to Garner State Park while everyone was still asleep. 

Adding to my collection!

We were going to try to actually hike but we couldn't find parking near any trails, it was scorching hot even at 9AM, and Ivy would not be a fun hiking companion. 

One of the scenic overlooks. 

Once we returned to the cabin, we ate an early lunch and headed out to a rental place to TUBE DOWN THE FRIO!!

Some areas of the river were low so we had to wade but there were deeper parts too so we did float. The water was cool and consistently this pretty green color. 

During one point of the river in which we were wading, all those round rocks kept slipping underfoot and made it difficult to walk. Ryan's feet and legs were sore for a few days. I actually fell backwards twice and ended up with a bruise on my lower back. 

Her form of going with the flow.

Bobbing along when she couldn't touch the bottom.

This face says it all!! She was squealing with excitement the entire time. 

After tubing, we went back to the cabin to freshen up. We decided that a few of us would go in search of desserts. We wanted PIE. Concan Pies pies to be exact. But they were closed. You have to get there early!

While we were gone, the kiddos did the nature scavenger hunt I made for them. 

We ended up picking up desserts from Neal's. 

Me and B on the back porch of Neal's.

"Squeaky Styrofoam is Satan's Soundtrack!!"

Once we got back and things quieted down, Cousin L started putting out deer corn. This is the result...

This was one of the best days!

Read More! Frio River Fun Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

The Frio River part 2

If I were to write about my week, it would be an entirely too long post. I'm breaking this vacation down into a few posts.

On day two, our morning was spent quietly playing. We shared breakfast, Ivy played outside with the other kiddos, she and the other kiddos took a walk with my uncle, and Ryan and I hung out at the cabin. Then we went to Uvalde to shop at Walmart for some things we didn't bring from home.

We visited a stationary part of the river called Neal's Swimming Hole which has a shop, cabin lodging & camping grounds, and family-owned restaurant all reside with the name of, you guessed it, Neal's. The whole area reminds me of several scenes from Dirty Dancing. We were going to eat lunch in Uvalde but we ended up back in Concan and I suggested we lunch at Neal's Dining Room. It was delicious! I really loved the fact that Neal's has been around for a really long time and how rustic everything is.  

Our activity of the day was Neal's Swimming Hole. Technically, we parked and entered on the Buchanan side.

Someone really loved swimming in the river! She didn't want to leave and kept wanting to go back and swim in the "lake."

Later in the evening, we enjoyed listening to my younger cousin sing and Ivy played with her a bit. She is such a sweet young lady who practically mothers everyone. Her brother is very similar - he played well with Ivy too.

 

Later in the evening, it was "Spot the Deer." This was the first time any of the deer came close to the cabin. We were told that the deer would come close but we were certainly not prepared for just how close they would get.

Read More! Frio River Fun Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4