My men make the call...

We are in Bryan/College Station today so Michael and my dad can help officiate at a track meet at A&M. It's a cool opportunity they have to do it AND-Michael reminded me-there's free food! So this morning, they're off to the track meet. Thankfully the track meet is indoors because a cool front came through here and it's 50 degrees, cloudy and windy. Not a fun morning for an outdoor meet.

Josiah's art...sing this one to "You're A Grand Ole' Flag" (know that one???)

**In case you haven't figured it out, I think in songs lots of times. Something will happen and I'll start singing a song about it (or saying a cheer) changing the lyrics to fit the current situation. The boys are used to it now! :-) So anyway, without further adeiu (adeiu, to you and you and you...see what I mean! -That's from "The Sound of Music" in case you didn't know.) here's Josiah's art project from yesterday. He's been studying the American Revolution and the making of the American flag. The flag was supposed to be made from graham crackers, but we didn't have any, but we did have a big chocolate bar, so the chocolate got the nod. Ok, start singing....


You're a grand ole flag,
You're a high flyin' flag,
You're Josiah's art project today.
You're created of
The stuff I love
From chocolate and icing you're made!

Icing sticks like glue

Colored red, white and blue

But the stripes and the stars might sag...

Should all the diets be forgot

Keep your eye on the Grand Ole Flag!

Great job, Josiah! Thanks for sharing your treat with your brothers!

More peanut butter science and today's spring cleaning project

Remember Josiah's peanut butter grasshopper project? That was fun-and yummy. Well, the other day, Jeffrey got to try his own school project with peanut butter. He's been studying the desert in science and was doing an experiment about how water flows in the desert. He used peanut butter and oatmeal (leftover Simple harvest oatmeal that no one really likes b/c it has pecans in it.) to pack down and imitate the dry, hard desert ground.
Then, he poured water over it and watched how much of the water ran off and how little was absorbed. Truthfully, he could have walked outside to our totally dry, packed ground and done the same experiment. But that wouldn't have been nearly so much fun!!

Then, when it was done, I sprinkled a little brown sugar on top and cooked it in an attempt to make peanut butter granola bars. They weren't bad. The goats really liked them!:-)

And today, I completed another project in my "Spring cleaning for Normal People"

I conquered the vitamin drawer/cabinet. Really the vitamins and supplements take up lots of space and clutter in the drawer and on the cabinet.

I originally set these out so I wouldn't forget to take them. Out of sight, out of mind. Well, know what? I'm so used to seeing them that I forget to take them. So now I have a chart of which ones to take before eating and I'm going to try and make a habit of taking those right before I start to eat a meal and then my "with meals" vitamins I'll take right after I clean up. I also have as a goal to have actually taken all the vitamins in my drawer and pantry before May. These don't do my body any good while sitting on the shelf!!

Here's the drawer-ful of more supplements. This drawer also houses coffee filters and coffee (and various other coffee JUNK...i.e. the plastic cow shaped creamer AND an empty coffee can) because it's easy access to the coffee pot.


So now my drawer looks like this...

And here's my cabinet!!!

I'm finding myself having to fight the urge to fill up the empty space. But all it takes is a few passes by the kitchen noticing how clean it looks when it's empty to change my mind.

How about those tulips! Aren't they beautiful??!! I got them FREE at Central Market this week (with a coupon). I so LOVE LOVE LOVE having fresh flowers around. Just something about it makes me happy. And it makes me want to keep things clean around it. They just don't look quite as beautiful with dishes and food and mail and junk piled up around them! So, maybe the investment of fresh flowers = a cleaner house, hint hint Michael! :-)

You know you're in Texas when...

Your goats eat (and love) tortillas...

( Isn't that the goofiest thing...with the tortilla hanging out of his mouth! But they specifically requested "No fajitas!")

And you know you're in Texas when...

that rustling sound you hear in the trees by your house is...Nope, it's not the kitties...it's

Michael took this great pic last night. At least it's NOT an opposum-and it's not in the garage!

There's a floor in this closet!!

I've been on a sorta mission after reading about Spring Cleaning for Normal People. The premise of this is taking time (and making time) in short bits and manageble pieces to go through and simplify your house, springtime or not. The first phase was to go through each room and throw away trash and give away stuff that you see right away that doesn't meet the criteria to keep: "Is it useful?" "Is is beautiful to me/or my family?" I couldn't believe how much trash was around. Just pieces of stuff here and there left on a counter or on a floor, near the trash, but not quite in it.
Anyway, two days ago, I moved on. This is what the closet in Jeffrey and Josiah's room looked like. REALLY! I didn't mess it up first! It's kinda like on "Clean Sweep" on TLC when you think "That room didn't really look like that did it? Surely they've dumped stuff out of drawers to make it look worse than it really way was." Well, I guess rooms CAN get that messy. Just look what two seeminly calm and sweet boys can be do in this tiny space and in just a matter of days! I guess they were trying to prove the whole "things tend to move from order to chaos" law. Which one is that??? (If you know, post a comment and we'll all be impressed!)

Well, two hours, three HUGE black trashbags of stuff to Goodwill, and a huge black trashbag crammed full of trash later...

Yippee, the floor!! And I moved some toys around so now the window seat houses linens for people when they come to visit. I couldn't believe the stuff I found in that window seat/toy graveyard. Some of my resistance bands, my hairclip (YEAH-my favorite that's been missing for a long time), tweezers, 4 (!) paddles/spankspoons (conveniently "misplaced" I'm sure), almost an entire load of laundry of dirty shirts, pants, socks and underwear. It was crazy! And while I had the trashbag out, I headed to my nightstand and chunked a bunch of stuff AND FOUND MY ADDRESS BOOK!!!!!!! This has been lost since we moved and I gave it up as gone forever! I was thrilled! And now I'm pumped. My ruthless attitude toward the accumulation and storage of STUFF isn't diminished, it's fueled! Watch out! By the end of it all, we may be all have only 4 outfits each to wear, a much smaller book collection, an even smaller toy collection, almost no DVDs, no VHSes, very little in the realm of decor, a lot less to move come May.... and a mom with a big smile on her face!!! (And maybe a bald dog! :-) )

And the birthday just keeps on coming...

Remember when you were so young it was FUN to keep celebrating a birthday over and over and over and over....It's almost like the Bill Murray "Groundhog Day", remember that one? And it IS Groundhog day, but Feb 2 will never again be known for the rodent again. It's about these two...

Isn't that SUCH a CUTE picture. Guess what! I DID take this one. Shocker! It's cute!

Following the tournament win on Saturday, Michael offered to take the boys to Pappsitos to celebrate the win and more importantly their birthday. Granna was with us so that made it even more special. J&J had to think about it for a little bit...NOT.

So away we went. It was so yummy! Michael told our waitress that we were there celebrating J&J's birthday, so the waiters came over and sang "Happy Birthday, Que Paso" (The Pappasitos b'day song)

And the boys got to wear the hats...

Is Jonathan trying to do a Mexican dance????

Jeremy's comment was "Whatever I have to do....I'll go through the humiliation if it means free dessert!" Hmmmm, wonder where he got that from?

We left totally stuffed with fajitas with the boys so tired from the games that they could barely stay awake at the table and in the car home. I couldn't help but remember many, many trips we'd made to Pappasitos with little boys in tow who spilled chicken fajitas and rice ALL OVER the floor and COULDN'T stay awake on the trip home. Man, time flies!

We interrupt this celebration...

for a basketball tournament. We had to put some of the celebrating on hold to play in the Independent School Athletic League (which means the small private schools of San Antonio) tournament. The Patriots have had a wonderful season this year, losing only 1 game. Chances were high that they would be able to play SACS (the team that beat them) in the finals of the tournament. After winning on Thursday night in the first round of the tournament, the Patriots had a game at 11 on Sat. morning against St. George and won by two points when a guy from their team hit a 3-pointer with 7 seconds left. Talk about an adrenaline charged game!! So then they were off to the championship game. And they did get to play against SACS. It was a great game and the Patriots won by 9 points. Here are some pics from the game. Guess what?? I DIDN'T take them. That's why they're good! :-)

Jonathan (#52) swats down a ball. Jeremy (#15) is ready to help.

Jonathan brings down a rebound.

Jeremy dribbles past #12, the player who caused no end of torment to the Patriots the last time we played SACS. This time, we were ready and shut him down.

The team in a huddle.

The Patriots pose for a picture with their trophy. It was a great day!!