Where Does The Time Go?

Wow! I really can't believe it's June and I really can't believe the kids are almost out of school. Time sure does fly when you're having fun, or just super busy like us! Here are some updates on what's going on in the Enfield household and some things we are looking forward to this summer. The kids have all done really well in school this year. Bethany of course continues to be at the top of her class. She has been an Eagle leader (student leader) at school this year as well as the only girl in the highly capable program this year. Rebekah has had an amazing year of kindergarten. It's so awesome to listen to her read and to watch her do addition and subtraction. The end of her kindergarten year is so bittersweet. We are excited that she is moving on, but yet again it's hard to watch the youngest become so independent. We are also sad that this is our last year with Ms. McDaniel! She has been the best kindergarten teacher for all 3 of our kids. We have been so blessed to have her involved with each of our kids lives. JD had a wonderful year this year in 3rd grade. He was definitely blessed with his fabulous teacher, Mrs. Walters. It takes a special personality to deal with JD sometimes and she definitely gets "him". Sports of course has continued to be a huge part of our everyday life, as we try to find lots of ways to keep the kiddos active and healthy. Bethany and JD both did basketball this winter. JD is now in baseball and he is doing a fabulous job pitching. He is still working on hitting in the kid pitch league, but continues to improve. Rebekah loves soccer and we are doing that right now. One of the biggest changes around here is that we are trying to follow a whole foods/real food lifestyle here at home. We cleaned out the pantry, fridge and freezer of all processed foods, including anything with white flours and white sugars. I wish I had taken a picture to show you what we ended up donating to the food bank. It was a lot! It has been a very exciting change and now that we are over a month into it I think it will be a permanant way of life around here. Of course there will be the occasional treats here at home and outside of home, but overall this is a change for the better for all of us! I'm still working on how this will work with my couponing and freezer cooking, but I'm just trying to take it one step at a time:-) Lots of big things going on for the summer that I will be sure to write about. First off, we are headed to New Jersey in 2 weeks to celebrate my grandmother's 90th birthday. So excited to see my family that we haven't seen in several years. After that the kids will all go to camp, JD has baseball camp and then we head back out to North Carolina to visit with my mom and then the big trip to Disney World. 18 months in planning and saving and we are going! So excited! I hope to get back on here more often as so many great things happen every day! Love to you all!

Night out with Bekah

Anybody reading that knows me in real life would probably be pretty assured that I was firmly planted on my couch watching my Seahawks on Monday Night football. If you didn’t think I was watching the game, you probably assumed I was there at the game. Not tonight though.

So I try to do daddy-daughter dates with my girls for Christmas time for the last couple of years. This is the week we decided to do it. I want to say this is the week we had time to do it, but really I don’t. Sometimes you just have to forfeit the things you want to do or even those things you’re obligated to do for those rare, special times that you have the privilege of being dad. Daddy-daughter dates are a privilege and I will take them out on dates for as long as they’ll let me.

Tonight was Rebekah. I learned so much about my six-year-old kindergartner and how she sees the world. She told me that the third president was Thomas Jefferson and he lived in a house named Monticello and our president now named his house “The White House”. Bekah told me, “Presidents’ get to name houses. I want to be president so I can name a house.”

Then she asked if I was driving the speed limit. I told her we were going less than the speed limit because I was behind someone going slow. A second later, I sped up a bit.

“Are we going the speed limit now?”

“Yes,” I said, “Right on the speed limit.”

Bekah sighed, “Ahhh, the speed limit is sooo comfortable.”

We went to place in Lacey called Charlie’s Safari. It is a huge indoor play land with a dozen inflatables, a three-story jungle gym with slides, and an enormous arcade. Basically, it is heaven on earth for a six-year-old. We jumped and slid and climbed and did it again and again. I chased that girl all over the place as she constantly beckoned me, “C’mon!”, “Watch me!”, “Follow me!”. It was awesome. I nearly couldn’t stand by the end of it all.

As we were there, I noticed another couple that was chasing around their 2-year old daughter. Her dad was still in his Army uniform. That soldier was being very cuddly with his wife as well, not inappropriately, but noticeably. I asked him if he was going to be taking some leave for the holidays. He told me he just started his leave. He just got home. Literally just got home – they had just come from the airport and he was here until Dec 26, then back to Afganistan. He never stopped holding his wife’s hand the hold time. It was amazing. I did something I don’t normally do to people in tpublic; I asked if I could pray for their family. Sgt & Mrs Royal looked at each and said they would love that. There was not a dry eye in the place.

Bekah and I left and got dessert and chatted more about the important matters of the day like how much she loves kindergarten and how her school is the best school because they have a play toy, monkey bars, AND a music teacher.

Everything about tonight reminded me how blessed I am to be in the family that God gave me. I would miss 100 Seahawks games for another night like tonight.

Bekah and I before we left in front of the tree.

Climbing to the slide.

The Slide!

She loved this long orange slide from the top of the structure.

I can't believe she's nearly 4 feet tall

Bekah and Daddy at the top!

Zipline

Dad is pretty tuckered out.

What kinda date would it be without dessert?

Big Cooking Day Again

So, as I continue to do this once a month cooking thing I promise not to write a blog every single time, but I was so excited to complete another big cooking day today! I really can't wait to try out all the yummy recipes I made today. What's on the menu this month? Lots of good stuff. Gingerbread Waffles, Lemon Poppyseed Pancakes and Pumpkin Cinnamon rolls for breakfast; sweet potato chili, french dips, and turkey burgers for lunch; And stuffed pork roast, apple-cranberry pork chops, mandarin chicken, turkey stroganoff, spicy honey chicken, turkey shephards pie, chicken broccoli casserole and chicken with cumin and lime for dinners. I think I spent more time on this cooking day with the more detailed recipes, but I also think I spent LESS money, which definitely makes me happy. So, in the pictures you will see that I set out everything I needed out of my pantry the night before. It was definitely a huge help! You will also see the sweet potato chili cooking, the lemon poppyseed pancakes and the full freezer:-)

It was so nice to go throughout the month not having to wonder and worry about what to cook. We didn't love every recipe, but it was all good stuff and definitely worth the long day of work. Check out www.onceamonthmom.com. I am so glad I found it!

Another Enfield Outing

So last week as Doug and I were talking, we were discussing one of our favorite parts about the trip to Texas. While we were down there, we were able to go and explore so many different local treasures. This is such a great way to spend some family time while not spending a lot of money and learning more about the area around you. Well, since we have been back, life has gotten just as busy, if not busier than it was when we left. So, we haven't gotten very much family time, let alone time to explore. Well, this past Saturday we actually had a day off. *GASP* We hardly knew what to do with ourselves! So we decided to find something in Western Washington that was not too expensive yet fun at the same time. Doug found information on the Ballard Locks and fish ladder. So, we called up Aunt Angela, had her meet us in Seattle and we all went to explore this amazing engineering marvel. I don't know if I've seen locks since I was a kid in Germany. Our school would take us on a field trip down the Rhine river and the boat would have to go through locks. It is so interesting how they thought up a way to transfer boats from one body of water into another. The kids really enjoyed seeing the boat "locked" up and then released. The fish ladder was a little disappointing as there were no fish in there, but still interesting for Bethany who is studying the life cycle of Salmon right now in school. After that we headed out for a walk in the botanical gardens and then walked around Pike place market. All in all, it was a great family outing. I can't wait for another day off and another adventure!

Once a month cooking

So the last few weeks I've really been wanting to figure out how to meal plan a little bit better for our family. My search for good meal planning websites led me to onceamonthmom.com. This website was very intriguing to me and I have been looking forward to trying it. Well, today was the day. The BIG cooking day. The premise is that you cook a ton of meals in one day that should last you about a month. I went shopping on Thursday and got all the essentials (the website provides the list) and set aside the whole day today to cook. So, $191 and 10 hours of work later I have a freezer full of food. The recipes were ones that I have definitely not tried before. We have pumpkin chocolate muffins, coconut chocolate granola bars and harvest pancakes for breakfast; ham quesidillas, broccoli cheddar cups, taco soup and chicken wild rice soup for lunches; And chicken enchilada lasagna, chicken stuffing bake, stroganoff, turkey meat loaf, meatballs with gravy and salsa chicken for dinners. The only thing I think we don't have a months worth of is breakfast, but the lunches and dinners should last us. I can't wait to get into the month to see if this really saves me time and money! I will keep you updated. In the mean time, here are some pics from our day of cooking!

First and Last

Last May, I was asked to preach at my church. I just noticed that the audio is online. So... here it is. Matthew 20 - Thankfully Being Treated Unfairly.

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Wow It Sure Is Quiet!!!

So....here we go. Another school year has begun, but this one is definitley different. For almost the last 10 years I have had a child at home or 2 or 3. My days were filled with playdates, trips to the park and childrens museums, driving to and from pre-schools and dealing with nap schedules. This year marks a new era in my life as my youngest has ventured off into the fun world of kindergarten. Since Doug and I were out of town the whole last week, I missed out on her first full week and this is really my first day with absolutely nothing I have to do. I got up, got the kids ready for school, walked them to school, did my morning run, got dinner in the crock pot, loaded dishes and started laundry.....now what? I think this is where I start redefining my days, start re-thinking my purpose and how to accomplish all I know that God has planned for me. It's interesting that our pastor spoke on purpose yesterday and made us think about being the salt and the light of the Earth. Definitely something for this mom of all school age children needs to be thinking about:-) As for the rest of today, I think I might sit back, read a book, take a nap and take on the world tomorrow. Enjoy your day everyone!