Sunday muffins

With a husband who is in the bishopric and never home on Sundays,

I was tired of the fighting, tv watching (yep, guilty), and the unorganized day it was turning into.

 Our church time was noon, so I drafted a plan and said I will stick with it for a few weeks

and see how it turns out. Maybe needing to shift a few things around.

I came up with SUNDAY MUFFINS!

Around 8 while I make homemade muffins, the kids will work on Faith in God,

or Rusty will read to Lindi, or I will print out church coloring pages or crossword puzzles for them to do. Or I will let one of them be my helper in the kitchen.

This Sunday I guess Lindi was my helper

and Rusty worked on puzzles.

If you look at my pinterest page you can find about any type of muffin recipe!

I think we've made them all!

We eat the muffins then play games.

Usually Della goes down for a nap while we play.

Rusty loves it because... he's my gamer boy!

Lane secretly likes it, too:)

After an hour of games its time to get ready for church.

 By the time we get home we only have a little bit before we head off to dinner

at either one of our parents.

So yes,  I am SUPER guilty and let them watch a nice Disney type movie until then.

IF they were good at church.

We did it again the following week...

...and the next.

Almost a whole year of muffin Sunday!

I must admit I am pretty proud of myself for sticking with it.

Sunday's at home are much more lovely now.

They all know the routine and I love the time I get to spend with them instead

of yelling at them to stop yelling, lol!

Fast Sunday's are a little harder since we now have 2 fasting boys.

We just skip the muffins and play games.

And we also just switched to 8:30 church.

I think we will eat something simple in the mornings then move our muffins and games

to lunch time.

We'll see how it pans out!

Beginning of the school year stuff

It was that time of year again!

I love when Instagram starts blowing up with all of the tearful, sad first day of school

pictures. I hope my kids didn't have their feelings hurt when I posted:

A is for Apple, B is for Bye!

As much as I love them, it just becomes time to get the school year rolling

before an amazing Summer turns to bloodshed of brotherly "love" and boredom:)

I try to make the after school snack on the first day a little more special than 

ransack the cupboards or resort to a bag of chocolate chips like the rest

of the school year goes. 

They beg me for the monkey bread in the freezer isle, so that was easy enough!

A couple of weeks later Lindi started her second year of Shining Star

preschool, only THREE days a week this time!

I of course forgot to take a picture of her on the first day.

But here is her picture page they put in the Shining Star binder.

When you are star of the week you get to take it home and look at all of the

other kids pages.

Craig texted me the night before Mesa High's homecoming wondering if I wanted to drive

the pink golf cart in the parade.

Heck yes I would!

We got to chauffeur last years King and Queen.

Before it started we were waiting in the shade observing all the hustle and bustle.

Rusty was very enthralled with it all.

Especially when this truck packed jammed with teenagers in the back pulled up 

and out popped cheerleaders, football players, basically a sea of  purple and gold.

You could see the sparkle in his eyes.

I could feel the fear in my chest!

It won't be long until that will be HIM!!

And I SWEAR that was just me in high school.

Now I am the mid life crisis mom driving my pink golf cart in the parade. 

I have never seen Della whip around so fast when that "bunny" walked up to her, lol!

Going along the parade route 

the Brazilian float won my vote as #1!

Haha, they made sure it was recognizable!

A close second was the swim and dive team... tarp-ing the back of a truck

and filling it with water. Props to anyone who can sport a speedo proudly.

I stole this off of Marcie's insta story.

After the parade we stayed at the carnival for a while.

Can you tell who the big chicken is?

Silly girl does not like giant stuffed animals!