What's Cookin

So to say that I have gotten a little off track this summer would be generous. The truth is that I have gone completely round the bend. I think that I have cooked dinner twice in the last month. So with all my great new plans and organization I have decided that I need to be better about my cooking too. The problem is that I hate cooking, so I have been blog-stalking looking for new recipes to get me excited about it. I have found a few that I like, but some seem pretty far above my level of expertise, so if anyone has stumbled across anything that looks fun but not too complicated let me know. =)

P.S. I got the above picture from taste of home and cookie madness, great baking sites. These are their Peanut butter squares.

Olympic Spirit

I am now trying to get myself organized and ready for this fall and the start of homeschooling the kids. There are lots of great resources available and I have finally chosen curriculum. I am not nearly as worried about teaching them as I am about losing my mind. I'm really excited for the Olympics because I found a great three week unit on the Olympic games. So we will be starting with that this year. We will be focusing on patriotism, teamwork, self confidence, and good sportsmanship. So we will be watching the games for the next few weeks. I bought a huge world map to hang on the wall and pushpins to mark the different countries we hear about. Our handwriting practice will be writing about things we see on the Olympics, spelling will be sports-related words, and I have checked out some good books about the games too for our reading practice. Wish me luck!

How Does Your Garden Grow?

After a long and stressful weekend, I have made an important discovery. Working in my garden can cure anything that ails me. Now it may not be fair to call this a discovery because that implies that "new" information has been found, and I have known this for a long time. but it seems that during times of great distress I forget this important fact. It's kind of like reading my scriptures, I know that reading them will bring me comfort and answers, but sometimes I just seem to forget that that's what I should do. Does anyone else do this? I find something so relaxing about watering them and seeing all their new growth. I also feel such satisfaction as they bloom open so brightly, and who can deny that ripping the invading weeds out by the roots is not a good stress reliever. So I have been outside puttering with my flowers. They are all late coming up this year since we had that memorable snow in early summer, I'm still mad about that btw. So my first sunflowers and cosmos are finally putting on a show, and I am afraid we will have our first frost before my Dahlias get to do anything spectacular. I adore my sunflowers and I think this variegated variety are my favorites, but the cosmos are a close second. My daylilies are also going to be nice this year I think. Georgia, our kitten, loves to play in the front garden, she thinks she is a Lion stalking her prey through the tall Savannah grass. She hides in the sunflowers only to pounce on unsuspecting bugs, lizards, and frogs. No one wanted to pose for me so I coerced Rodger into doing it, can you tell he's not really happy about it?

Funny Boy......

Dean has said a couple of funny things in the last couple of days and if I don't write them down somewhere I am never going to remember them.
A couple of weeks ago I was at girls camp, yet again, and my sister was watching the boys for a few days. Dean and Ali were talking and he mentioned that he had a girlfriend, and Ali immediately began digging for information. She asked if this was a serious girlfriend to which he said, "No, I'm only 6 for Pete's sake, she's just a girl that is a friend."
Then yesterday he was playing with some neighbor kids who were annoying him and he told them to," quit doing that, for the love of food!"
I think I must say very strange things for him to be picking up on these little sayings,

Happy Fourth

The Sloan clan had another wonderful Fourth of July this year. Now I know some families really get into Christmas or Thanksgiving, but here in the sticks we do the Fourth of July up right. Everyone came and we had a wonderful time at our sunrise flag-raising, the parade, playing our non-competitive (yeah right) sports, going to the rodeo, and watching the fireworks. I'm so glad that I was born into a family that celebrates patriotism and love of country.

I almost bawled when Alec participated in our color guard ceremony. I am so proud of my little scout. My brother T.J. is our resident Eagle scout and ran the ceremony.


This float was the best one of the parade, and represents George Washington's prayer at Valley Forge.


These five helicopters showed up during the parade and flew in formation up and down the street. I wish I had a better picture of them.

I don't have any pictures of our volleyball play-offs because things tend to get a little tense in our "non-competitive" family. Plus I was busy sacrificing my body for the team, lol. But here are a few from our Ultimate Frisbee game.





We also had a crazy game of Water kickball, where the bases are baby pools and there is a slip and slide from third to home. I was not planning on sliding, but my Aunt Erin bunted when I was on third, and I had to slide to get the run for the team. Thanks a lot Erin!

Erin made up for it though by bringing us Fireworks from Texas so we could have our own show. Now fireworks are totally illegal here so we are probably going to get arrested, but it was a great time.

God Bless America

I feel so blessed to live in this amazing country! This weekend has been a wonderful time for reflection and thought about our great country and the many freedoms we enjoy. I know that Heavenly Father has blessed this land and directed it's formation that we might worship who, where, or what, we may.

“This is a choice land, and whatsoever nation shall possess it shall be free from bondage, and from captivity, and from all other nations under heaven, if they will but serve the God of the land, who is Jesus Christ.” (Ether 2:12.)