2nd Date

Okay so week one of 52 dates wasn't our/my best....

I was starting to kick myself over the fact that in one week I couldn't fit in one "couch time" and then I realized that everyone's couch time might look a little different...

I think Beau and I get couch time 3-5 times a day, in the kitchen in the morning, driving to work in the morning, at lunch (lots of time we get to eat lunch together, and during the school year sans kids!), afternoons in the car, earlier evenings at work, cleaning up the kitchen after dinner, and then we always hang out together at night watching our "Murder She Wrote", and we do talk then, but we've been talking all day that I don't think it looks the same as it would had we not had the whole day together....

anyways, I will continue to try the "couch time", but I will also remember that this will look different for us, and to try to make it intentional and about each other.

anyways...week 2 will be WAY better, we can totally do this...

Ice Cream Taste Off anyone....

go to your local ice cream parlor (without the kids....is that legal?), frozen yogurt place, the freezer section at your grocery store, and pick out 2 or more flavors that neither of you would regularly try, both of you have to choose at least one...then that night after the kids are in bed have an Ice Cream taste off...and talk about different ice cream memories,

what was your favorite ice cream flavor as a kid?

do you have a memory associated with ice cream?

did you ever make ice cream?

did your neighborhood have an ice cream man?

did you go to an ice cream parlor or frosty with someone special (dad, grandparents, older sibling, uncle, etc) as a child?

get to know your spouse and all about their ice cream memories, while creating the newest ice cream memory...

and then vote on who's flavor was the best...

this is going to be a fun one...might have to have this date 2-3 times this week!

and can I say I'm really looking forward to asking Beau some of these ice cream questions...I have no idea what his favorite ice cream flavor was growing up, still not even sure of what it is today...(I can always tell what flavor he WON'T pick but never which one he will!)...

let me know if you and your husband go on an Ice Cream date...

and whats even better about this date is it can happen on your couch and maybe count as couch time...

Couch Time

Okay well I told you I was going to do it...

I was going to date my husband...this week's "date" was couch time...

and REAL time, not two different couches, with you on your laptop and him watching the game, or him on his laptop and you with your nose in your book....

or our version of couch time, Beau reading some dork book spread out on the floor and me watching "Murder She Wrote", with Beau half watching it also...

We were supposed to spend time together when he got home from work, talk about our day...

no kids 

no pets 

no dinner boiling on the stove

no cell phones...

just the two of us sitting on the couch, the porch, taking a walk... 

some place where we could focused on each other...

take 5-10 minutes and just talk...

okay...

so this DID NOT happen this week...

our schedules are always sort-a-kind-a crazy, 

we have one car, 

2 kids, 

and 2 jobs (yes we both work at the same place...but still)...

and that might not help, the working at the same place, because we sometimes come home together (or I've gone to pick him up, or he's picked me up...)

yeah, did you see that all excuses...I need to stop make excuses for not doing things I NEED to do...

anyways...it hasn't happened YET...but I have till Wednesday so I plan to fit it in the next 2 days...

we did take a family picnic to the river the other night...okay so that's not a date...but the kids did wander off to the river and the two of us were able to have some alone time...like 30 seconds...

we even documented the moment...Beau just loves taking pictures...he ruined my two good smiles...I rarely have a decent smile and look what he did!

and then when he decided to take a good picture my smile had gone away...

and then they found us...

...that is us...cuddling boy, me without my hair or makeup done, Beau with a weeks worth of stubble, and Madison the life of the party!

I'll keep you posted on how our couch time goes this week...and I hope/plan to keep at it for a lifetime...

I'm Dating Again

It's time, I haven't dated for almost 12 years and I decided that it's time to get out there again and see what it's all about...

Okay, so I'm planning on dating the same guy that I dated 12 years ago...it seemed to work so well the first time I figured why mess with a good thing...

My friend over at Creative 2x Mom has started a wonderful trend of dating her husband...

52 First Dates...the idea of 52 weeks in a year and 52 maybe-new dating ideas to help build your relationship with your spouse (you chose him, so now remember why!)...

I think the line that had me hooked and made me realize not only that I wanted to do this, but maybe I NEEDED to do this...

 What a great thing it would be to finish off the year and realize that your marriage has actually improved rather than just survived?

I do want my marriage to improve, to thrive, to be a marriage that improves rather than survives 

I don't want to get to the end of this next year and have our marriage the same as it started...

I hope that our marriage is stronger, healthier, happier, funnier...

I'm not saying that we don't have a strong, healthy, happy, fun marriage...

but should we just say 'okay'...and leave it?...

we all know that if you're on a diet or a weight loss plan, and you reach your goal weight you can't just go "okay, I'm there!" and stop...you need to maintain that weight loss by continuing to work out, eat healthy and make good choices...

that's what I want for our marriage...I don't want to look back and say, "wow we reached our goal in marriage on year 12"...I want it to be that every year we reach a new level of good and keep at it...

so here's to dating my husband for the next 52 weeks...

Chicken Tortellini Salad

We've all been there...

you know you need to make dinner but it's just too HOT...

and we all know we're going to be there a few more times this summer... 

especially since it's not even summer yet!

This is a wonderfully easy recipe that I stole from my friend Rayna...

the beauty of this recipe is that you can make it in the cool of the morning or the night before, or whenever and then toss it together when it's time to eat...

it's also an easy meal to throw together for someone if you have anyone that might need a meal this summer 

(well except for the family that I took this meal to last night...

I slaved away in a hot kitchen for you most of the day yesterday!)

...and it's also easy to make a vegetarian version (leave out the chicken) 

or beef it up (with steak strips instead of chicken)...

Chicken Tortellini Salad

Grilled Chicken Breast (as many as you need to feed the people you are making the salad for...

     I used 3 breast and made 2 salads yesterday, 

     one for our family and one for another family...

     for a total of 4 adults and 4 children...)

Italian Dressing or marinade of your choice

1 package of Cheese Tortellinis (fresh or frozen)

Romain Lettuce (or a bag of Romain Salad)

Fresh Parmesan Cheese

Caesar Dressing

Croutons -optional

Marinade the Chicken for whatever length of time you have (Mine sat in some Italian Dressing for about an hour), and then grill (if this is on your menu for later in the week and you fire of the grill earlier, throw the chicken breast on the grill and then just keep them in the fridge until you need them for the recipe...no need to grill them the night/day of!)..slice up chicken into decent strips.

Cook Tortellinis according to package directions, drain and cool. You can also cook these earlier in the day and have them cooling in the fridge.

Chop up the Romain Lettuce, toss in the cooled tortellinis, the sliced up grilled chicken, the Parmesan cheese and either dress with the Caesar or leave that for everyone to dress on their own, add croutons in desired.

pic with maybe a little too much dressing and sans croutons...

and yes on paper plates...

who wants to do dishes on a hot summer night?!

My kids ate all of their dinner last night...both of them love this salad...

and I left out the croutons...

1st because then my kids would have only ate the croutons and forgot there was a salad to eat...

and 2nd I forgot to buy the croutons when I was shopping....

I didn't serve it with anything, but a nice fresh loaf of French Bread would have been nice and maybe a fruit salad on the side...but the salad was enough for my family...

Menu for June 14-20th

oh, wow...

I knew it had been awhile since I had posted a menu...

I could tell because dinner has been really...really...really frustrating the last few weeks...

and then i looked on my blog and it hasn't been weeks...but months since I posted a menu...the last week of March/first week of April...2 months...YIKES...

which means months since I made a menu...

and without a menu grocery shopping has been hit and miss...

...I hit the store...buy stuff...but miss anything that would make a decent meal in our house!

Sunday I knew it was time...

I had to bite the bullet and make a menu and a decent grocery list...

and then go grocery shopping...on SUNDAY...

yes SUNDAY...

grocery shopping on Sunday might be breaking the 4th commandment

(remember the Lords day and keep it holy!)...

but for my family I risked it!...

and a grocery list that should have taken 45 min max

(I was shopping sans kids)

took me 2 hours because it was Sunday

and because apparently EVERYONE else goes shopping at 5 pm

on Sunday

with all of their kids

and they might even borrow the neighbor kids to take along!!!

sorry about the tangent...I learned a lesson, go grocery shopping before it becomes a dire situation in the house and you won't be forced to grocery shop with the rest of the world, their kids, and their neighbors kids...

Monday, June 14th

Chicken Tortellini Salad

Tuesday, June 15th

Oriental Chicken Salad and fried rice

Wednesday, June 16th

BBQ'd Pulled Pork Sandwiches-in the crock pot

and baked beans

Thursday, June 17th

Chicken, Veggie, & Fruit Kabobs with rice

Friday, June 18th

Hamburgers

Saturday, June 19th

Tex Mex Taco Salad

Sunday June 20th....

Pepper Lime Chicken and Cucumber Salad

that's what I got so far...will post a few of these recipes this week...all nice easy, cool recipes for summer...

Jar of Doodles and Ideas

Oh My...

Summer is here...

and as I type 

I am pretending not to hear the
whining voices happily contented voices 

of my grouchy spawns lovely children

assaulting me from down stairs floating up the stairs

Not sure if there is a perfect age gap between siblings, but the gap between ours is almost 5 years!

Not sure if it helps or hinders that I have one of each gender...

I know that it works for us and that it was God's plan for our family...

it's nice for when you need the oldest to help...

so hard when the youngest wants to do something that the oldest can do but that they just aren't old enough to do yet...

It can also be difficult finding activities to entertain and educate them both at the same time....

side note: after many discussions with both my husband and our daughters 3rd grade teacher we made the decision to "home school" her for the summer...insert the sound of wailing and gnashing of teeth here!

so now I must educate first and then entertain...and the irony that the boy child would LOVE to have a summer of "home school" while the girl child would prefer a summer of "boredom" over anything she might deem educational...

how do I now incorporate this new element into our summer, without totally making it blow up in my face and while also keeping both children entertained???

one idea that I have waited to post because I wanted to see how it would be received by both the girl and boy child...

the girl has just finished 3rd grade and is of course going onto 4th...so she can read and one of her assignments this summer is a daily journal...

the boy child is getting ready for kindergarten so he can not "read" yet...don't tell him because he thinks he can...but he loves to draw...so one of his assignments this summer is a doodle journal...

introducing the "journal & doodle jars"

also made a 3rd jar for the girl child's bff...

Taylor, Wilson & Madison

these will hopefully help push their creative juices when it comes to drawing and writing...

both are filled with prompts, they will pull out a prompt that they then get to journal about or use to draw...if they want they can put the prompt back into the jar, tape it to the page, or throw it away...depending on how they felt about it...

take some scrapbook paper that is only pattered on one side

print off prompts on the back that your child will like & that will stretch their creativity

Cut them into strips

fold them and tuck them into the jar

and then decorate the jar

"W" is for the boy child's name 

talking about their jars

reading some prompts...apparently Taylor wasn't too pleased with this one!

Changing it up a Bit...

Just changed my door wreath for the summer...

after a few hours lost in blog land I found some inspiration and decided to go with the color groupings idea...

here is our summer wreath...not going to show you how I did it 

1. because I didn't take pictures of the process

2.  because all I did was shove plastic flowers into a grape vine wreath and add a bird clip!

do you see little Hummy up there at the top...she's so sweet...

I always like to include a little something more than just flowers in my wreath, it could be fruit, or eggs, or a sweet little bird like Hummy....

I SEE How My Garden Grows

The joys of gardening...

the joys of cutting a beautiful flower grown from your garden...

eating veggies grown by your hand...

oh, the joys...

....

and the cat poop...

you spend hours weeding and pruning and getting it just perfect for the neighbors cat to use it as the local litter box!

the loud blue jays that believe they own my yard and trees and throw the apricots from those trees at me to scare me out of my yard!

oh and the WEEDS...

for years I've been blaming the weeds on the same nasty cats walking through the yard and the birds bringing the seeds from all over God's Kingdom and spreading them all over my beautiful yard...the hours and hours...days and days I spend removing those weeds from my garden...ARGH...where do all the weeds come from?!?

Well, here in Northern California we have been enjoying a beautiful late spring with wonderfully mild days and lots of rain (VERY abnormal!)...

and my son has had lots of days outside playing in my garden (we have no yard and "my garden" is lots of flowers and plants randomly planted by years of different home owners and me and ivy that I am in a constant battle with over areas that I deem "flower areas" and the ivy deems "ivy areas")...

I have a few rules for playing in my garden

1.  do not dig up my flowers or cut/break off my flowers

2.  do not tear leaves off plants or flowers

3.  do not kill any bugs (we are in their home...we can only kill them if they are in our home)

4.  do not rearrange my cobblestone walkway or lift up the cobblestones to find bugs (this might be the hardest rule for both children!) 

5.  respect the ivy and the scary ledge (that possibly goes to the center of the earth) at the edge of the garden that the we all have deemed "ivy area" and any and all items that fall into the ivy over the ledge become property of the ivy and anything living in the in the center of the earth.

6.  remove (or accidentally kill) any and all snails and slugs that are destroying my plants (ignoring rule 3 about this being their home...it's MY garden!)!

well...I sent the boy child out to play one morning last week, reminding him of the rules...# 4 being the hardest it was the one I highlighted that morning...

"Remember, don't pick up my cobblestones to look for bugs"...

"okay mom..."

and then I happily open up the windows so I can watch him while I begrudgingly happily stay inside and fold Mt. Laundry a few loads of laundry that have taken over the entire love seat in my living room that I have been able to keep contained in one stylish laundry basket...

as all wonderful moms I "watch" my son with my ears and since I can hear him singing weird funny songs that he makes up I know all is well...

as I slowly make my way through Mt. Laundry the few loads of laundry I decided to look out the window and check on the boy child...

...

...

he's crouched down really seriously involved in whatever he's doing...

has he found a bug?

is there a line of ants marching?

is he "removing" a snail?

...

seems like he might be digging something...

....

seems like I might need to make sure he's not digging up my bulbs...

....

I nicely walk out onto the porch,

"Hey Wilson, whatcha' doing?"

"I'm planting some flowers for you."

"What flowers? Where'd you get the seeds?"

"This flower right here has 67-100 (his favorite number) seeds on it, and I'm planting them!"

...

time for me to take a trip off the porch to look at said flower....

...

hmmm....

wow...

what I have been blaming on the nasty neighborhood cats and loud birds....the weeds...

was really my son...

my son had just spent a good hour planting the seeds from a few different type of weeds that I had yet to pull...and then he informed me that he made sure to plant them all over the garden not just in one spot!

he so gently removed all the seed pods from the weeds, using his sweet little fingers poked 100's of perfect holes in the ground, dropped the seeds in, covered them up...and then proceeded to water them with drops from the hose....

and now rule number 7...a rule that seemed so obvious

Do NOT plant WEEDS in mommy's garden!!!

I will now publicly apologize to the birds and cats for blaming the weeds on them...

I still hold them accountable for the poop...but who knows that could be the boy child also!

100% Mermaid Athlete

or at least that's what the shirt says

swim, laugh,

ride, sweat,

run, celebrate, 

repeat.

I DID it!  WE DID it!....

we ALL finished our first triathlon

we all started this for different reasons

but we all finished it!

it's all still pretty surreal that I...

ME....

Kiera Colleen Chambers....

I....finished a triathlon!

a sprint triathlon...

400 meter swim (about 1/4 mile)

12 mile bike

2.5 mile run...

yep...I DID all that...

there were 8 of us...7 doing the tri and 1 doing the duo (run, bike, run)

NONE of us had ever done something like this before

7 of us...missing Amy..L-R

Diana, Becca, Natalie, me, Rayna, Rosie, & Michelle

all 7 of us triathletes are moms...

moms in different stages of mommy-hood

we had a mom with one child 9 months old...(still nursing!)

three moms with toddlers, 

a single mom with a teenager and a hearing impaired child,

a mom with five kids ranging from 5-14

     (she has one going into kindergarten and one into high school next year!...with a pair of twins in there also...)

and then me...with my two kids...

we all overcame the difficulties of "training" and being a mom...

we're all different ages 28-46

we're all different sizes (not going to share that info)

and we might have set out to do this to prove something to ourselves

but we also proved to our kids that we care about them

we care about our kids by taking care of their mother

we proved to them that mommies can be healthy

...healthy NO matter what size...

and we ALL finished...FINISHED!!!

my daughter, me, Diana...we FINISHED!

Diana, Me, Michelle, and Amy

welcome to the gun show! 
back row Becca, Natalie, Rosie, Rayna
front row Diana, Me, Michelle

and that we can have a blast doing it!

I even had to learn a really STUPID lesson that helped teach my daughter a really important lesson in life...

I have asthma...

I learned I had asthma when I started training for this tri back in January...

...needless to say I'm still new to this asthma thing...

and I tend to forget that I have asthma...

so I tend to forget to use my inhaler

...I did NOT want to forget my inhaler for my tri...

I brought 2 of them with me!

I set up my transition zone* with my inhaler right were I wouldn't miss seeing it...

pic of transition zone

(*transition zone...TZ...is the area that the triathletes set up all of their gear for each leg of the race and change in and out of their clothes for each leg...and ONLY the triathletes are allowed into the TZ)

...and then in the chaos of getting ready I couldn't find my swim cap...(all of the divisions are separate by color and your swim cap must match)...I went back to the car to look, still couldn't find it...then went to the booth and picked up a new one...no big deal...race back into the TZ to leave for the swim with my fellow triathletes...who have so kindly waited for me...then we all anxiously leave the TZ to head down to the swim start (400 meters from the TZ)...with me never going back to my area...me not seeing my inhaler that I put out so I COULDN'T forget it...

we all walk nervously to our start...

we greet our friends and family that have traveled from all over to support and cheer us on...

we start to make our way into the water...

I realize at that moment that I have forgot to use my inhaler...

and NO ONE can go get it for me...all my fellow athletes are also getting in the water and my friends and family aren't allowed into the TZ...

I made the decision to do the swim without my inhaler...

...

side note...

I was participating in the "Friends and Family" division a group that isn't divided into age categories so friends and family members of different ages can participate together...

the Friends and Family division (yellow swim caps) was starting at the same time as the 50+ age division (green swim caps)...

...

I told myself and WAY TOO many others...

"well, I'm starting with the 50+...so at least I won't be the last one out of the water!"

...

hmm

ever heard of pride cometh before the fall...

so there I was having to swim the 400 meters (the swim was already my weakest leg of the race)...without being able to breath...

...so I just laid on my back and did the back stroke...

...I was very upset at myself...

turning and watching the group grow farther and farther away from me...

watching the yellow swim caps get farther and farther away..

and then the green caps get farther away...and seeing the struggling yellow and green caps pass me by

I laid on my back huffing and puffing 

sounding like a dying seal...

with a cute life guard on a surf board telling me I could do it...

encouraging me along the way, telling me to relax and take deep breaths 

(easy for you cute, young guy with two healthy lungs...SITTING on a surf board!)...

listening to my family on the sidelines cheering me on...

I kept hearing my kids and my husband telling me I could do it...

...

I wanted to tell the life guard I was done...

pull me in...

and then I'd hear Beau yell, "way to go Kiera, you can do it!"...

I'd think of all my friends that I had trained with

...who were now on their bikes and would be looking for me on the bike path...

I just took my time...

and YES...I WAS the LAST one out of the water...

but I GOT out of the water I finished the swim...

my husband and kids were standing there encouraging me...

got a big kiss from my husband....

went to my area in the TZ and got my inhaler and took some nice deep breaths...

...got out of my wet suit onto my bike and finished.

...then finished my run...

but the whole time I was so mad at myself...

mad that I forgot my inhaler...

mad that triathletes 50 and older kicked my tail in the swim...

beating myself up that I was just stupid!

than later that night I was having a nice moment with my daughter...

she was asking me questions about the tri...

and then telling me how she was scared to be on the swim team this summer...

"Mom, what if I come in last?"

she just asked me...

ME..."what if I come in last?"

HMMMM

what if...what if I'm the last one out of the water even with a group of women 50 and older...

is the world going to end...

I asked her if she was embarrassed that I was the last one out of the water...

she was shocked...

she told me she was so proud of me because she could tell that I was having a really hard time out there, that she was scared that I might not finish...and that not only did I finish the swim but I went on and did the ride and the run...

She decided that she didn't have to be scared of finishing last, but that she would finish!

wow...

so I may have been a little too prideful...

but one of the most frustrating moments of my life may have turned out to be the best thing my daughter could have seen me do!

and even though I'm still a little disappointed that I forgot something so simple

I'm proud that I finished...

and I am so thankful for all the friends that trained with me, even though a tri may be an individual event it is 100% team...without those other moms I would have given up a few times during the training and I might have given up on the swim...

I am also so thankful that I have been blessed with such a great family...I know without a shadow of a doubt I couldn't have done this without my husband...

my family greeted me at the finish line...

Beau with a kiss and a hug telling me how proud he was.

Madison (9 yrs old), saying, 

"MOM, you did it, you did it...I'm so proud of you!"

and Wilson (4 3/4...wish you could hear him say his age...so cute)...

saying, "Mom, I'm thirsty, can I have your water?"