Monday – Papa Murphy’s
Tuesday – Chicken & Gravy
Wednesday – Chicken Parmesan & Broccoli
Thursday – Chicken & Spinach Salad
Friday – In-n-Out
(I know…2 “eat out” meals in one week! I’m traveling and super busy. Don’t judge! 
Oh, and sorry to all you non-Californians)
Saturday & Sunday – Whatevs….at my mom’s with the kids. Woot!
In sitting down to type up today’s blog post, I quickly scanned through my local drafts to see if I had started anything in the past I could finish up and post. And I’m glad I did! I found the start of #1 below (dated from April…2013, eek!), and came across two similarly adorable apps by the same maker that I had yet to download, “Endless Reader” and “Endless Numbers”. So, enjoy if you haven’t already downloaded these (for kids, obviously). And BONUS…they’re ALL free!!
(for Endless Numbers, I think only #1-5 come with it, you have to purchase the remaining #’s, but you can check it out for free)
#1. Endless alphabet
For starters, this gem of an app is FREE, and essentially teaches your kids letter sounds, spelling of words AND their definitions!
It shows a word, like above, and you drag the letters to where they belong. As you drag the letters, it repeats the letter sound over and over in a cute, fun voice! Then it says the word, followed with a short little skit depicting the definition, and then the word and definition are read one last time to wrap it all up.
Belch is ONE of my kids favorites, go fig!
#2. Endless reader
Seriously can’t wait for my soon to be kindergartner to dive into this one! Same idea, except AFTER you put the letters together for the word, a sentence pops up and you drag the words into place as they are said aloud.
Then, another cute skit to act out the sentence, and the sentence is read aloud, reinforcing reading skills.
#3. Endless numbers
While my son will likely get bored quickly with this one, I’m thinking it might be a huge help for my daughter. But, it does touch on addition, which might be helpful for my son, too.
Hope you enjoy these! At the very least, it makes me feel better when I let my kids have “screen time”. At least they’re actually learning something! 
I saw this ADORABLE idea over at Happy Home Fairy to create a visual prayer aid for my kiddos. I’ve been meaning to create one for months!
Today during lunch, I grabbed a pad of paper and a pen and said to my kids, “God tells us in the Bible that we ought to be praying ALWAYS. And that we should pray for our friends and family. So, who do you guys think we should pray for?”
My intent was to get a list of whose pictures I needed to print out to slap on a popsicle stick. But instead, this happened…
My son said, “Oh! For that boy that cut his chin!”
Our neighbor’s nephew cut his chin earlier this week and my amazing hubby utilized his medical training to help them out (so madly in love with him – side note). And my kiddo remembered, and thought to pray for him!
MIND BLOWN.
Here I am trying to overthink prayer for my kids, when in reality, prayer can come very naturally.
We continued with our list, and I would still like to carry out the “family prayer jar” to help in consistency, but my son’s response today was such an amazing reminder that with a technology-filled, Pinterest loving world and about a million amazing ideas flooding our brains daily, sometimes, doing something in its most simplest of manners might be best.
So as you REALLY delve into your summers (i.e. spend 24 hours a day, 7 days a week with no break from your kids), feel free to ignore those blog-perfect pictures and just BE with your kids. Don’t overthink the activities you do with them. They’ll love you for it!
First world problem here.
I have an unhealthy love of fonts.
So much so, that when I’m putting something together and am pondering which font to use, I can’t even grasp my favorites because I have so many.
Here’s my solution…
WORD FILE WITH FAVORITE FONTS
I keep a word file with an alphabetical list of my favorite fonts IN the font so I can readily see it. This way I don’t have to sort through my other fonts I use seldomly in the font drop down. I just open the word document and quickly scroll through to spot the perfect font for said project.
Here are my non-script faves…
And my script favorites…
Monday – Sesame Chicken Stir Fry Salad
Tuesday – Taco Chicken Bowls
Wednesday – Spicy Thai Chicken Wraps
Thursday – Root Beer Pulled Pork Sandwiches
Friday – Turkey & Pesto Paninis
Saturday – Southwestern Chopped Salad
Sunday – Warm Goat Cheese Salad
In an attempt to keep the blog rollin’, I’m going with imperfection. Sorry, no recipes for some, just couldn’t find them. But drool over the others, ready….go! =)
#1. Polident
First off, yes. You read that correctly.
It says polident, like the old fizzy tablets your grandparents used to clean their dentures at night.
It’s still me writing the blog, not an 80 something year old Grandma. Although my daughter did just recently utter the words, “Mommy, here’s your teeth!” while running up the stairs with my RETAINERS! 
Anybody else wear these every night?
That is not actually MY retainer, I just pulled a pic from the interwebs. I wouldn’t dare show you mine!! It has a gray stain where I’ve got a ghetto old filling. How EMBARRASSING!
Cue: eye roll akin to Eep from the Croods
Anyone else get sick and tired of BRUSHING them old school style? My husband mentioned trying polident, semi-jokingly and I simply refused on principle. Then, I came across this Pinterest post that said you could use polident to whiten your nails. I thought, well, why not. It’ll serve 2 purposes!
And guess what? I tried whitening my nails with them. Meh.
BUT…the ease of cleaning my retainers! It’s seriously…heavenly.
#2. hot wheels wall tracks
Santa MAY have gone overboard buying Hot Wheels wall tracks for my son’s room, but boy howdy am I glad he did! They’re so cool! I read a whole bunch of reviews and they were all pretty good, so I figured I’d give them a go. They work like a charm! And it simply uses command strips to adhere them to the wall. Pretty much everyone that comes over likes playing with them.
#3. Clorox toilet wands
Not much to be said here, other than, makes cleaning the toilet easier and much more pleasant. Who wouldn’t want that? Love these bad boys!!
Okay. This is a major pet peeve of mine.
Shopping carts left either hitched up on a curb, or simply out in the parking lot. I have MAYBE hitched a cart up at Costco WELL out of the way of a cart “stall” as well as any car MAYBE 3 times in my life. Other than that, I always bring it back. Raining, 2 whiny children, whatever.
This isn’t a rant blog post, allow me to explain.
I’ve heard the excuses. They have someone who specifically works at the store, that is paid to go around and collect the carts (this excuse certainly was not uttered by my husband, no!!). I’m sorry, have you ever heard of common courtesy? That’s why they HAVE the cart stall! For you to return it, so your cart doesn’t unexpectedly try to escape and ding up a fellow shopper’s car.
All this to say…other than returning my cart out of respect for the store’s employees, I have discovered yet another reason which is even more special! Read and listen closely…
LITTLES ARE WATCHING!! AND THEY WILL COPY!
I want my kiddos to display that common courtesy. And we all know that being selfless simply does NOT come naturally. So any and every opportunity I have to display that for them, I’m going to do!
One of my absolute favorite “common courtesy” things my son has picked up on is wiping down the sink in public bathrooms, and picking up any paper towels that miss the trash (WITH another paper towel mind you, thank GOODNESS he learned that from me, too, otherwise, EWW!). It WITHOUT FAIL, makes me smile each and every time I see him do it. It’s a baby step mind you, but it’s a step. It’s a glimmer of hope that he has it in him! =)
So, will you think twice before leaving the cart? What other ways do you model to your kids other common courtesies?
