Another Instant Pot amazement!

I found out that you can pop popcorn kernels in the Instant Pot!

I used the rest of my popcorn kernels (which I looked at the bottle after we ate it and realized it was best by 2013!!!!) They were a little bit harder than fresh popcorn but other than that, it was really cool. We all can't wait until I go to the store the next time to get more kernels for us to pop!!!

MATTHEW TURNS 14!!!!!!!!!!

On Tuesday, it was the day that Matthew has been waiting for, for quite awhile. Our kids aren't allowed to text the opposite gender until they are 14 and Matthew has A LOT of friends that are girls and A LOT of girls that like him. Sometimes he used that as a sorry, I can't text you....but I have figured out his crush, and he has been wanted to text her and his other close friends that are girls. He was also allowed to get games on his phone once he turned 14, but those will probably get taken off once he finally goes back to school, but those are VERY distracting to him.

He has been counting down the days until his special day.

Once he got up, he got the go-ahead to start playing video games. 

I don't normally make breakfast, and we usually have donuts on birthday mornings, but that wasn't happening so Matthew asked for waffles for breakfast, so I made waffles, eggs and bacon for him. I had at least gotten Chocolate Milk and ice cream for him the last time I went to the store. I didn't think I would be back to the store before his birthday, and I was right.

He took a break from video games and came and ate breakfast.

I pretty much stayed in the kitchen all day on his birthday, and another thing is kids, nor their siblings, have to do chores on their birthdays.

I cleaned up breakfast and then put the ribs in the crockpot, since that was the meal requested for birthday dinner.

After that was going, I needed to start making a Lemon cake. I had never made a lemon cake from scratch, but I didn't it anyways.

For dinner he had ribs, baked potatoes, and strawberry jello salad.

Then cake and ice cream with some gifts.

 (Do you see how messy that kitchen is behind him? WOW)

He stayed in his pajamas ALL DAY. He played video games ALL DAY, except to eat, and we let him stay up until midnight playing games, because that is something he NEVER gets to do....and what does he have to get up early in the morning for......oh yeah....nothing.

He THOROUGHLY enjoyed his birthday.

Kitchen Helpers

I believe this was Matthew's night of cooking but Michelle wanted to help make Lemonade.

One Adorable Little Chef

This cutie got a chef outfit, I think for Christmas, and so here are some pictures of her being a chef.

I believe we were making jello here, or maybe Strawberry Jello Salad.

Here she is making a Peanut butter banana smoothie.

Matthew Playing Some Piano

Here is a link to some videos of Matthew playing some songs on the piano.

One of them is called Megalovania. I think it is a theme song from a video game. He liked how it sounded so he got the music and learned it.

The others are just a few of the Hymns that he knows.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/8XceEzMi1XpZZ23h8.

Chain Hair

Today, I put "chains" in Michelle's hair. It would look so much better if she had loner hair, I think, but oh well. If you put two twisted ones together, the correct way, it looks like a chain. If you don't put it together the right way, it doesn't really look like anything.

Books in the Book of Mormon - Apostle Verse

Someone in our ward asked if there was a recording of the Apostles being sung to the tune of Books in the Book of Mormon. I hadn't heard of one since the new apostles had been added so I had the kids do it real quick.

I Hate Running......

Well, I have tried to like running SOOOOO many times. It usually works for about a week or two...and then it doesn't. 

So I have a coach now to help me try to enjoy running.

My coach wanted me to walk a :15 minute mile, but that is a pretty fast walk for me so I did it for about 5 minutes and then I just had to start jogging. So I jogged with some fast walking for 30 minutes. It was a good workout. I think or hope that I do better with a Coach. I always have done well with listening to coaches in the past, so we will see what happens. 

Day 1 Running = complete

(and as a bonus, I decided that was the 1 thing I wanted to achieve today!)

Way Past Hair Cutting Time

I can't remember the last time this kids had a hair cut, possibly even December or January. I am not sure. We weren't cutting it because he was suppose to be scraggly for the Aladdin Jr play....but well since that isn't happening we needed to cut it. He had been messing with it SOOOO much the last couple weeks and I could tell it was even starting to bother him as well.

I cut the sides, and then decided we needed a before and after picture.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

I cut off about 2-3 inches of hair! 

He doesn't mess with it anymore.

Allison's New Skill

Allison has loved roller blading for awhile now. When we first started quarantine, she saw a video of someone doing the cross on roller blades and Allison decided she was going to be able to do to that before she went back to school....well, she has learned it, she can go back to school now....oh wait, no she can't. :(

Anyways, here is her new talent.

Meh

I had a friend reach out to me and ask me how I was doing, and he didn't just want the Facebook, fine answer. I told him, if he actually wanted to know how I am doing, my blog is where to go. He is really cool and plays the piano and organ EXTREMELY well. Chris and I have fun talking to him. He has been giving Matthew some pointers on how to play the piano better. He told me to do something, and I am having a hard time coming up with that one thing to do. He told me to write down 1 thing that I wanted to do for MYSELF for the next day on a piece of paper, and I couldn't go to bed until I had done it. As I was talking to Chris about this, I am sadly realizing, that I am kind of in a state of meh. I don't really know anything that I really want to do for myself. Each day it is just to try to make it through the day, getting the kids homework done and then getting them to bed, and then either sometime during the day or after they go to bed, Chris and I will go for our 3 mile daily walk. I just don't really know where I am these days, so I think I am just meh. I would like to lose weight....but I don't really want to put the hard work into it....so.....I don't really know. That is a question I will have to keep thinking about.

Facebook Video

My Relief Society President asked me to do a Facebook Live, and I asked if I could just do a video instead. I am not one to do anything like this and I am very critical of myself, but since I made it, I will post it here, so my two readers will be able to see it but mostly just more for family journaling purposes.
Hopefully you will be able to see the video here:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/wFpSt1Jd7Zv13tZt6

Jelly Bean Fun

For craft time today, we played with jelly beans and made different things. Matthew made a tik-tak-toe board and played games with everyone...using jelly beans!

Allison was doing some Science stuff and making letters 

LA for Language Arts

Math

Rainbow

Fire, that is what she said

History

Another Rainbow

Then she helped make Michelle

Challenge Accepted

Chris' mom challenged all of Chris' family to read the Book of Mormon for 20 minutes in the month of February....BUT if they wanted to take on even MORE of a challenge, they could read the WHOLE Book of Mormon before the end of February. I asked the kids if they wanted to take on this challenge and they were actually up for it. We got the ok to start on January 26, and figured out that we needed to read 15 pages a day. It was intense having to read that many especially if you missed a day and had to read 30 pages a day. It was cool because we actually started a little family text group, I had one with the kids, but this was one WITH Chris on it.

I would send a text out usually every day to let everyone know what chapter we needed to be on by the end of the day.

One day I hadn't sent out the text yet saying our stopping point.

Matthew texts through our family text:

Matthew: Where are we supposed to be by the end of the day?

Chris: Typically at home....in bed.....sleeping....

Matthew: In scripture

Chris: "verily verily I say unto thee. At the end of the day though shalt be in thy bed, asleep."

This was the FUNNIEST thing to me. I have shared this so many times and I have read that so many times and every time I do, it makes me laugh so hard. They have the best dad!!!

It was really fun to have this family text and send each other different things that stood out to us and such. Chris was the first one to finish it, Michelle was the second one (we read the Book of Mormon Illustrated book), then me, then Matthew, then Allison.  She finished a week before February ended so we all read it in 4 weeks! It was a fun accomplishing challenge.

The kids didn't know this but we may have gotten a little bit of compensation if we actually finished the whole thing. We didn't know how much, and didn't rely on it, but when it came in the mail we are all happy to get it. Also Chris has been doing a lot of commissions and had a lot of hundreds, and then we had some hundreds still from other presents and events. 

Clearly, we happened to have a lot of cash ($100s) all at once and I needed to get it to the bank ASAP to get some bills paid but before I did, I let the kids look at that much and hold it, it was pretty crazy to have that much in cash. 

We made a special trip to the bank to get that in there, thankfully we did because a couple days later, we got quarantined! 

I needed that money into the bank to take care of things.

Allison wanted pictures of it.

Allison's Cooking Merit Badge - Trail Cooking

During Allison's Cooking Merit Badge, she had to plan some trail meals and then she had to go on a hike and actually make them.

So she planned it all out, we went to a trail that I knew about and did what we needed to do. Allison had us eating Oatmeal, and some other stuff, when we first started and then we walked to our destination, which was to the North Anna River.

I thought when we got "there" we would be at the river, but we were a lot higher than the river, but the big kids wanted to go down to the river. I am on over paranoid mom, but I let them go down. As I sat up on top with Michelle and saw how fast the water was moving, and I didn't see my kids anymore, I started to have a bit of a panic attack. What if they fell in, there was no way I would be able to get them. I called out for them and they answered but I was ready for them to come back up.

It was a good steep hike for them, but I was SOOOO glad to see them come back up.

When they got up we ate the snack Allison had brought for us.

They are pretty cute, even as old as they are.

This was cute, too bad it is fuzzy.

And then the cherry on top!

This is my favorite picture of these guys!

SOO CUTE!!!!

We spent quite a bit of time up on that little hill area. They were having a ton of fun throwing rocks down. I was scared every time they throw one that they would roll down the hill. Like I said, a paranoid mom.

After that we went and looked at a map

On the way back, we found a table and Allison made us our lunch. 

She warmed up some soup for us.

However, when we first started, we started feeling raindrops. Thankfully the soup heated up pretty quickly, but we still got rained on. As soon as we finished our bowls of soup we quickly rinsed them out and started running.

We were about 3/4 of the way in so we had a long run back in the rain, but Allison did what she was suppose to do.