Meet The Murdocks's

Magic Kingdom -Day 2

2015-09-05T08:03:00.003-07:00

Woo-hop it's day two. First thing this morning was breakfast at Cinderellas Royal Table. This was strictly just for me.

We met Cinderella right away & I was clearly thrilled. Then on to the breakfast where my sweet hubby surprised me with a tiarra.

He let Noah crown me.

Then he presented me with a glass slipper and a toast.

Then he got everyone desserts. Such a wonderful husband. And such a great way to celebrate 15 years of marriage.

Today we finished up Main Street, Fronteer Land, Adventure Land and Liberty Square.

We fast passed meeting Mickey.

Totally worth it. We also fast passed Big Thunder Mountian Railroad. I loved that one as well.

For dinner we had a reservation at Mickeys Backyard BBQ. If your kids are really into characters, do this. My kids were not that interested. They liked meeting a few, but didn't want to meet them all or wait in too many lines. It was fun, good music, good food but super super hot.

If given the chance we would skip this one next time.

That wraps up day two!

This is where we got inspiration for our Magic Kingdom touring plan.

Magic Kingdom - Day 1

2015-09-05T08:03:00.001-07:00

We had such a wonderful time today. We arrived at the Magic Kingdom and had a character breakfast at the Crystal Palace.

It was a really good Buffett. After we had seen all of the characters we headed out in to the park. We started out in Tomorrow Land, then on to fantasy land. My favorite ride there was The seven Dwarfs Mine Train. I am so impressed how every detail is remembered.

For lunch we ate at Be Our Guest. It was okay. It was not really what I was expecting. For as fancy as the Resturant is, I thought the food would be better. It's pretty much sandwiches. But the presentation is nice.

It was recommended that we fast pass Enchanted Tales With Bell. I am so glad we did. I highly recommend this one. My husband and both kids got a part & they absolutely loved it.

We started calling Eli the ultimate tourist. He pretty much spent all of his soy inert money the first day. Noah & Wes took up pin trading. I booked us to watch the fire works at wishes dessert party. It's an all you can eat dessert buffet with an awesome view of the fireworks.

After that we headed back to the hotel, exhausted. Ready for tomorrow.

Total steps for today - 19,704. About 7 miles!!!

This is where we got inspiration for our Magic Kingdom touring plan.

Manatee Day

2015-09-05T08:00:00.002-07:00

Swimming with the manatees has been on my bucket list since I was a little girl. I saw one somewhere & fell in love with this giant creature.

Since the trip to Disney was a surprise, I incorporated things into our homeschool that would be beneficial. We did a little study on manatees a few weeks before we left.

Who doesn't love super hero manatees?

I found several free teaching resources on teachers pay teachers, as well as if any news stories popped up on manatees we watched them. I used the ones linked here, here, and here. But if you type in Manatee a lot pop up and none are very expensive.

We booked our Manatee tour through River Ventures

It was so much fun. We rented a car and took a two hour drive.

We then got on a boat house and started our four hour tour. It was unbelievable, better than I could have imagined. The first two that we came across was a mom and calf. It's crazy how this is a 3000 pound animal and it sneaks up on you. The mom was fine eating. The baby was so curious. She swam all around us and "kissed" Noah twice. This baby was also about Noahs size. Roughly 85 pounds and over four feet long. After that we had two more swimming encounters and a viewing encounter. When I get home I will up load some more pictures, but for now - the baby.

Dinner was at the Hoop-Dee-Doo Musical review. This is worth it. Very enjoyable, super funny. The kids and adults loved it and we all agreed it is a must do for when we come back.

Noah was so tired he fell asleep on the boat ride back to the bus. However, they still wanted to swim when we got back to the hotel.

Finally - Bed.

And on to day four!!!

Surprise! We are going to Disney.

2015-08-29T19:25:00.000-07:00

We decided to surprise the kids with a trip to Walt Disney World in Florida. I did a ton of prep work for the Vacation. I ordered the Passporter, which I highly recommend. It has a ton of useful information, plus tabs and pages for you to plan your vacation and store all of your reservations.

I made the kids their own travel journal to fill out while on the plane and each night in Disney. They can re-cap their day & remember it later. It can be printed out from here.

We have this fun Disney bingo game for while we are waiting for the plane & on the plane.

I hit up the goody bag section of party city and made a great air plane bag. It's all Mikey Mouse themed. Pens, crayons, coloring sheets, and more. A great place to make a fun air plane bag. Sorry I'm not a great blog photographer, but you get the idea.

We packed in secret two weeks in advance, hoping that we could pull this off and that they would not know until the morning that we left for our trip. Of course, I had to make us custom luggage tags.

I really never thought we would keep the secret this long. The night before they had no idea. Noah was asking me "what's for breakfast" and "would school be hard tomorrow?" "Were we going on field trips". So crazy.

http://youtu.be/jhs_dLsmRaI

All of my prep work was for this moment, the surprise. I wrote the boys a letter from Mickey Mouse you can down load a Disney font and it looks like its from the Mouse him self.

Then it was off to the air port. This was where it started to sink in. "We are really going? This was not a prank?"

When we landed I asked "can you handle another surprise?" Noah said "you are going to kill us with all of these surprises. We grabbed our luggage and walked out to the limo that Wes and I had rented.

"What is going on???"

And then to the hotel where we unpacked and looked around. It has some beautiful pools.

And we took a swan shaped paddle boat out.

(View of the hotel)

Our first night we had dinner at English blue Zoo.

I was channelling my inner Belle.

We are celebrating our 15th anniversary while we are here.

So super excited & no idea how I got that huge bruise. But what I do know is that I am going to sleep!!!

See you tomorrow!!!

Friday Favorites

2015-07-17T18:52:00.000-07:00

This was another fun week. The kids got to see the fabulous sweet Georgia. Whom we always love to get time with

We got to look at our trunk from Texas Wild life. This was a wonderful resource.

Then they left for Summer Camp.

I had a busy week with out kids. I got my shoes for my sisters wedding, my nails done and....

I did a really fun pin-up shoot with Zoetic Studio. David was awesome and he got some really wonderful shots. I can't wait until he is done editing so I can see them!!! After the photo shoot we had a fun home-school mom's wine night. It was a hit, we will do it again for sure.

That was our week, how was yours?

Friday favorites

2015-07-10T06:00:00.000-07:00

We had a wonderful 4th of July. My mother had a similar color swim suite as I did, so we were beach twins.

My sister & beautiful niece were there. It is always good to see them

The fablous Shannon H & I got to meet up to look for bridesmaid dresses. We some how convinced my sister that she did want us to have floor length sequin gowns.

This one is bitter sweet. We sold our truck of 15 years. I know it was the right decision, but its sad not to see it there anymore.

My mom held a cupcake class for our homeschool group. It was a huge success.

The kids left for Gran & Gramps camp.

And I had a relaxing beach weekend with my best friend of almost 30 years.

How was your week?

Murdock Monday - Cup Cake Class

2015-07-06T15:03:00.001-07:00

My mother was kind enough to host a cup cake icing class for our home school group. Everyone was so excited and we had a great turn out.

I do not know what the tip numbers are, but these were sold at Walmart and they are basic decorating tips, in the largest size. The large size is good for cup cakes and for children to get a hang of how to ice.

She had all of the cup cakes set up. Each child got to do three different styles.

They did a great job! There was some real talent today.

After cup cakes we had some swimming time.

Thanks again Mom!

Friday Favorites

2015-07-03T06:00:00.000-07:00

Here are my favorite things from this week. :) I am linked up here. :)

We met some monkeys.

I found roses in the street (which are still alive BTW)

We met some friends for play time.

My sister asked me to be her maid of honor in her wedding.

We met friends at Palm Beach for a fun day in the sun!

How was your week? Tell me about it

Pre-K Thursday

2015-07-02T14:52:00.001-07:00

This week we worked on the color yellow.

I did similar things as I did with blue. We found a basket of yellow toys, we read yellow books, we played with yellow play-doh and other yellow things (water beads, construction paper, paint). How ever, because of Micah's speech delay/Apraxia, he did not catch on to yellow very well. The sign for yellow is also difficult.

To me, this week seemed like a failure. I was very frustrated. But we will push on to "Green" next week and hopefully make some more progress.

ADHD diet update - Murdock Mondays

2015-06-29T06:03:00.000-07:00

We have been on a dye free diet for about two or three months now. The whole family eats dye free, however the dye free diet is for my middle son who has ADHD. It appears that to people who are ADHD they are hypersensitive to the dyes in our foods and its almost like they have an alergic reaction after eating foods with dyes. (There are tons of studies on why they are bad, I am not linking to any, but this is a good overview on them.)

When I told my husband we were going to do this diet, I was at my whits end. We discipline, we are good parents, I am always looking for ways to become a better parent and person in general. So even though I realise that his behavior had lead me to try the diet before I tried medications, and we had gotten HUGE feed back from family and non family that he was a different kid while on the diet, I still said when he went to summer camp that he didnt have to follow the diet.

Big mistake. He started exhibiting unacceptable behavior at home day one and two (it was a day camp) day three the camp counselor pulled me aside and told me that Eli had spent 15 minuets running from 3 male counselors. I was mortified. I asked if I could bring his lunch and explained the diet and what we do. Luckily the counselor him self was ADHD and had been on a similar diet when he was younger. We finally realized that he had ketchup that day. Ketchup is loaded with red dye. Then I thought back to another time I made an exception to where he had been totally normal, then he had a hot dog with ketchup and not more than 5 minuets later was acting like a fool. So normal, non organic ketchup made it to the "no, never, not in your life time" list.

Trying to navagate this dye free eating is daunting and quite frankly it makes me angry that non food items are in our food. As we go on I learn more, but since it is impossible to know if dyes are in food with out reading the lable we have tried to implement some rules when we are out in a place where the diet can not be stuck to strictly (vacations, etc)

1) Nothing red. I think you can safely assume anything red has a ton of dyes (unless you are at an organic restaurant)

2) No cheese products. You can also most likely assume its not real cheese.

3) The only acceptable soft drink (if they really must have one) is sprite.

We have started carrying his ketchup with us, and what reinforces it even more to me that the diet works is - he hates to get off of it. He notices a huge difference in himself and he always asks me if what he is about to eat is okay.

When I started researching ADHD food I found these blogs/links most helpful

1) Our Family Eats - Great for eating/food

2) A good list of ideas to get you thinking

3) This is a link to my ADHD party food board. Now that you have a child with a special diet, you have to get in the habit of bringing snacks with you. If I know there will be a treat I try and bring him one too. I have pinned cute natural food ideas here.

Friday Favorites

2015-06-26T07:21:00.001-07:00

I am linked up here

We celebrated Father's Day Saturday and Sunday. I found this place called Boyert Shooting Center. Their one year anniversary coincided with Father's Day. So we went there and entered contest, had snow cones and cotton candy, games and they had a fun simulator.....Oh and that contest, they called me Tuesday to let me know I won a gun!!! Exciting!

Great family pictures

This doesn't happen that often, so I was glad to have some photos of us that looked cute.

Whole foods cinnamon rolls. I am a big Whole Foods shopper, and these are awesome.

Noah's "joy tank" he made in Sunday school. He filled it with things that brought him joy. The first (and only one) that I pulled out said "mom". That brought me so much joy.

Teaching the kids to be bored. Or "empty hours". I recently read a blog that talked about "empty hours" and not having to have a full schedule for your kids. We are currently doing 21 days with out ipad/phone/electronic games and I am encouraging the kids to be bored. When they come and tell me they are bored I say "That's good, its good for you. That is when the best ideas come. Now go enjoy your empty hours in your room." Its working, they are doing much more board games and other non-electronic things.

One thing they did in their empty hours was load the truck with wood. After they finished I pointed out the feeling of self accomplishment and pride that they had. They were very proud of themselves.

How was your week? What was your favorite?

Pre-K Thursday

2015-06-25T14:40:00.000-07:00

We started our at home pre-school lessons this week and our first color is blue. I got a lot of motivation here.

First we gathered lots of blue items and put them in our blue box

I picked out books with blue covers to read. I would ask "what color is this?" and point. I also am teaching him the signs for colors. With him being apraxic it seems to be helping. It gives him another way to say the color, which leads to less frustration.

He had a blue bath (frozen ice cubes, blue shaving cream and craft foam)

* Fun tip * cut out the craft foam into the shapes you want, when you get it wet, it automatically will stick to the bath tub.

Blue play-doh and blue cars

our blue sensory bottles

And our blue water beads

At the beginning of the week I gathered up all of the activities we would be doing for the week, and then each day I grabbed one. The most important thing was I pointed out and signed blue every time I saw the color.

I would say this week was a sucess, however now a lot of other colors are "blue" as well.

What methods did you use to teach colors?

5 Ways to avoid Home Schooling Burn Out - Murdock Monday's

2015-06-22T07:28:00.000-07:00

I am an expert on burning the candle at both ends. I am also pretty good at looking like I have it all together. Except when I am not all together, and the world (or a select few) see me fall apart. That's always a lot of fun (heavy sarcasm).

Is it possible to avoid burn out? Can you do it all? Can you Educate your children, keep a perfect house, and any other duties that may be yours as a wife, mom and home educator? I believe that the answer is no. You have to prioritize

What I do:

Pray

I ask God to give me strength to do what I NEED to do. (remember there is a difference between need and want). Does the house NEED to be clean or do you NEED to eat. There is a difference. We do school, meals, animal chores, laundry, cleaning. In that order. Something else that helps me is assigning a chore to a day. Example: Monday's sweep kitchens and bathrooms, Tuesdays - Mop, Wednesdays - vacuum, Thursdays - Clean bathrooms, and so on. That way I know that at least once in the week a particular area was cleaned

Set relaslitic expectations.
Can you do it all? No. Expecting your self to keep a perfect house, cook every meal and homeschool your children will only lead to frustration.

Get rid of the guilt
This stage in our lives is very important. It may seem tedious and like its going to last for ever, but its not going to. I am coming up on my 15th wedding anniversary. When I look back it doesn't seem like that long. I have 7 years left to teach my oldest child. Seven, less than a decade. So if the house is a mess dont worry about it. Soon enough this season will be over and all I will have is memories of these three beautiful children that I have been blessed with.

Don't over book
Its funny, people always ask about socialization. When I started homeschooling this was a BIG concern. When will they be social? Oh my goodness, when will they not be? We are apart of 3 or 4 homeschooling groups, some more active than others and we can not do ever field trip offered to us or we would never be home. I try to do one field trip a week or every-other week.

Don't worry what other people think.

Not everyone is going to be supportive. Period. When I first started there were a select few people who did not approve and I felt that I had to convenience them. I dont. They dont have to understand. They are not homeschooling, I am. I know this is the best decision for my family and their opinion doesn't matter to me.

What are some ways that you avoid homeschooling burn-out?

Friday favorites

2015-06-19T13:02:00.002-07:00

Happy Friday!!! It's time again for Friday Favorites, you can see my favorite things from this week and share yours with me. I am linked up here.

The grandparents took all of the kids to the beach. I absolutely love seeing the pictures of the boys with their cousin. The love they have for each other is so beautiful and I just really enjoy watching their interactions with each other.

I've started doing "pre-school" with Micah. This week was blue week. He made so much progress. He learned the color blue and the sign for blue as well.

Tropical storm bill was supposed to make its way to the Houston area. The media did a lot of hype but we had very little rain that day. The boys and I made our own news clips that day.

We went to a magic show with friends, it was so much fun!

I actually found a cute swim suit, and I did not have to order it on line. Academy had some really cute suits! I went with the blue one.

That was my week! How was yours?

Technology Tuesday

2015-06-18T22:47:00.001-07:00

Technology. I'm not sure that there is anything else that I have such a love hate relationship with. In my new "Techinology Tuesday" weekly post I will set a goal or goals and then follow up the next week with how I or the family did with our weekly goal.

My goal:

I had started reading the hands free mama last year, but did not finish it. This time I will do one week at a time, implementing each chapters goal each week.

The Boys:

I get so frustrated with video games and the desire they have to just watch tv and play games all day (if allowed). Last week I flipped out and told them we were on a two week - no iPhone/iPad break. The break is going nicely, while we are on this break I will be looking for a system to implement to where game time is earned like an allowance.

How do you handle technology in your family? With yourself? I would love to hear your tips.

Friday Favorites

2015-06-12T15:13:00.002-07:00

My friend Tracie motivated me to do a Friday Favorites day. Here are some of my favorite things this week, and I'm linking up to see everyone else's right here.

Summer camp - The older boys did summer camp this week and they loved it. This picture was day one of summer camp.

One on one time with little man. This is very rare. We had 5 days about 7 hours each day of just Mommy and Micah time. I really enjoyed just watching and playing with him.

My grandparents came out last week (I think) and planted watermelons. They started sprouting and I sent him pictures. He has been calling me for updates and I love it.

A clean house. As a homeschooling mom of 3 I prioritize what gets done around here Education is first, then feeding everyone, having clean clothes. I keep the house tidy, but actually having it clean. Rare. This week I was able to get a lot of cleaning done when I laid little guy down for his nap. During school days, that is sometimes when we are able to get a lot of schooling done. I really enjoyed being able to get in to some area that needed cleaning badly, and getting them clean. I joked that this week and next week the house would be clean and three weeks in July.

After camp snacks. I saw on pintrest that you can make smores in the oven using the broil setting. Man they were delicious! We really enjoyed them.

These were my favorite things this week. What were yours?

30 Day Fast - Day 4

2015-06-02T15:23:00.000-07:00

Good Morning! I started my day with today's readings - Judges 16-21 and 1 Corinthians 13-14. As I am reading I am running into questions and some areas of these readings I am digging in deeper as I have time. As always I took my measurements in the mornings. I am down about 4 pounds. I am not expecting to loose as much weight as quickly as I did with my first fast, because there is less fat to loose.

Fast measurements	Day 4
Weight	153.2
Bust	39
Chest	35
Waist	33
Hips	42
Thigh	23
Calves	14
Upper Arm	12
Fore Arm	10
Neck	14

We did school in the morning. I love the kids science curriclum that we use. The Micah and I went to his speech therapy, which is going really well. Then once hubby got home, he let me go run around I had some errands to run and finally got my eye brows waxed (about 3 months too long on that)

I really have very little to report as far as fasting symptoms. By very little, I mean nothing. I dont know if its because im just not focused on it. I dont think "im not eating" like I did last time, I just dont eat.

Day 4 down!

30 Day Fast - Day 3 (May 31, 2015)

2015-05-31T09:43:00.001-07:00

Weight - 154.2

Bust - 38

Chest - 35

Waist - 33

Hips - 42

Thigh - 23

Calves - 15

Upper arm - 12

Fore arm - 10

Neck - 14

I have been playing somethings over and over in my mind. Last night I had the song "Beyond Me" stuck in my head. I finally listned to the lyricks my brain was singing.

"Beyond Me"

Call it a reason to retreat
I got some dreams that are bigger than me
I might be outmatched, outsized, the underdog in the fight of my life
Is it so crazy to believe
That You gave me the stars, put them out of my reach
Called me to waters a little too deep
Oh, I've never been so aware of my need
You keep on making me see
It's way beyond me
It's way beyond me
Yeah, it's out of my league
It's way beyond me
It's way beyond me
It's way beyond
Anything that I got the strength to do
In over my head keeps me countin' on You
I'm leaving the sweet spot, sure shot
Tradin' it all for the plans You got
Is it so crazy to believe
That You gave me the stars, put them out of my reach
Called me to waters a little too deep
Oh, I've never been so aware of my need
Yeah, you keep on making me see
It's way beyond me
It's way beyond me
Yeah, it's out of my league
It's way beyond me
It's way beyond me
You take me to the place where I know I need You
Straight to the depths that I can't handle on my own
And Lord I know, I know I need You
So take me to Your great
Take me to Your great unknown
It's way beyond me, w-way beyond me
It-it's way beyond me, w-w-way beyond me
Yeah, You gave me the stars, put them out of my reach
Called me to waters a little too deep
Oh, I've never been so aware of my need
Yeah, you keep on making me see
It's way beyond me (it's way beyond me)
It's way beyond me (it's way beyond me)
Yeah, it's out of my league (it's way beyond me)
It's way beyond me (it's way beyond me)
It's way beyond me (it's way beyond me)
It's way beyond me
You take me to the place where I know I need You
Straight to the depths that I can't handle on my own (it's way beyond me)
You take me to the place where I know I need You
Oh take me to Your place
Take me to Your great unknown

I felt like God was letting me know that somethings were out of my control and that was okay. Then the church we visited this morning talked about worry and how sometimes its things we have no control over that we are worried about. That's totally true and it is what I was doing. I am so grateful that God spoke to me through this song and his word this morning.

For breakfast I had 9oz grape juice, coffee and some orange juice. We went to a new church, they have a truly wonderful children's program, we are so excited. I came home and took care of the animals. I had some grape juice and V8. I really have not had any symptoms at all to report. Last night I had some insomnia. But other than that, this time has been so much easier than the first time. Other than the first day, I did think about giving up. I asked my husband "should I really do this?" You miss out on date night dinners and things like that. But its only for a month, and to me the benefit, spiritually, is so worth it.

I am going to pack up some drinks for my moms house, we have an afternoon of swimming, naps and family fun. School tomorrow and on to day 4!

Readings:

Judges 11-15

1 Corinthians 11 & 12

30 Day Fast - Day 2( May 30, 2015)

2015-05-31T09:33:00.002-07:00

Today I woke up & took my measurements. Today they were:

Weight - 156.4

Bust - 39

Chest - 35

Waist - 33

Hips - 42

Thigh - 23

Calves - 15

Upper arm - 12

Fore arm - 10

Neck - 14

I let our ducks out, had some coffee & did today's readings. Judges 7-10 and 1 Corinthians 9-10. I had 16 oz of orange juice. We cleaned the house took care of the animals and did the laundry. For lunch I had grape juice and V8 juice.

We went shopping at whole foods where I grabbed some kombucha. Kombucha has a very small alcohol content (.5%) and I have to admit I felt it (it was store bought) I think it was due to the lack of food. I normally feel no alcoholic effects from Kombucha. This fasting time my husband commented that drinking the different juices I don't seem as tired as last time.

That wraps up day 2 on to day 3!!!

Day 1 of 30 Day Fast (May 29, 2015)

2015-05-30T16:52:00.001-07:00

Today was the first day of my 30 day fast. I had arranged for my kids to be with my mother this weekend, because the first three days of the fast is the hardest. I started by taking my measurements:

Weight - 156.4

Bust - 39

Chest - 34

Waist - 34

Hips - 42

Thigh - 24

Calves - 15

Upper Arm - 12

Forearm - 10

Neck 14

I am unsure about the three pound fluctuation between yesterday and today. I guess it was the orange chicken. I made my coffee, grabbed some orange juice (8oz) and sat down to do my morning readings. Today I read: Judges 1-6 and 1 Corinthians 7-8

After my readings I took a nap. When I woke up I was achy, hungry and sore. I drank 16 oz of orange juice. I went out side and took care of all of our animals. We have 4 turkeys, 9 rabbits, 25 ducks and some where around 75 chickens. Some are full grown and some are babies.

Wes and I went to buy some juices and he suggested that I get more than just orange juice, which is all that I drank last time. So I grabbed some V8, black cherry juice. I had a glass of V8 juice and black cherry juice when I got home, the black cherry is too sweet for me, so I will cut it with water. The symptoms I had in the evening were: I was cold, and I had a headache. I ended up falling asleep around 12:30am. Day one down.

Preparation for fast - day 4 (May 28, 2015)

2015-05-30T16:36:00.002-07:00

The final day before the fast begins. This morning I took my measurements:

Weight - 153.6

Breast - 40

Chest - 35

Waist - 33

Hips - 41

Thigh - 24

Calf - 14

Forearm - 13

Neck - 14

This morning I woke up at 7:00am, I got dressed made my coffee and had some yogurt with fruit and honey mixed in.

The kids have gone to this awesome creative arts camp for the past few summers, and last summer I started volunteering at it. I lead the "God's Great Outdoors" class. Today was supply room day so at 8:30 we headed in to Friendswood.

I gathered up most of the things I would need for camp.

When we were done there we ran to HEB to get the kids organic lunchables (tomorrow is shopping day)

Ordered orange chicken as my "last lunch"
I decided that instead of eating healthy today that I was going to order what ever I wanted for lunch and dinner. So I had orange chicken for lunch. And Wes took me to Gringos for dinner.

I asked Noah to take some pictures of me. For comparison later. Hes an awesome photographer :)

Fast starts tomorrow

Preparation for Fasting - day 3 (May 27, 2015)

2015-05-27T17:24:00.003-07:00

Today I am focusing on the kids and continuing to make good eating decisions.

6:00 am - woke up, dressed, made coffee, I had fruit for breakfast, the kids had Panda Puffs

6:15 am - woke up the kids

6:30 am - headed to Galveston to see the release of the sea turtles. It was pouring down rain when we got there. I had the kids take off their shoes and grabbed an umbrella. It did not really help that much. We were freezing cold and wet.

Then the turtles came out. And the boys realized why I had brought them there. It was absolutely amazing. To think that God created such awesome creatures.

8:30 am - headed home
10:00 am - let the kids play/ relax before starting school, fixed an early lunch
10:45 am - lunch

2:30 am - left for Micah's speech therapy

I worked on my supply list for camp

Cooked an easy dinner.

Had some sunggle time with my little before I put him to bed.

7:30 - Little guy is in bed, I'm exhausted heading to bed for today

Preparation for fasting - day 2 (Tuesday, May 26, 2015)

2015-05-27T08:31:00.001-07:00

Up until Thursday the only real "prep" work I am doing is staying away from alcohol and drinking more water. (All of our food is organic from Whole Foods)

Here is a recap of my day (starting super early):

12:35 am - We have lost power twice and the weather warning went off on both of our phones, right as I was drifting to sleep.

8:00am, fixed breakfast. (panda puff cereal) started laundry

9:30 am - left to drop things off at good will and pay for creative arts camp

10:30 am - stopped by moms, she was off 1/2 a day due to the flooding in Houston

10:42 am - the kids started their science work

11:00 am - left for lunch at mod pizza

12:30 - 1:00 - pm science

1:00 - 1:30 pm - Eli works on geography while Noah does math.

1:30 - 3:00 - Break/nap

3:00 pm - Lesson on China, lesson on Andrew Jackson, and William Henery Harrison
          Reading time with Noah & Eli (30 min each)
          Cleaning and Laundry
          tend to animals
started 2nd fermentation on my Kombucha

6:00 pm - Dinner (Mexican casserole, rice, beans)

7:00pm - run to a friends house to grab some toys she picked up for me

8:30 pm - lock the ducks up for the night, tuck the kids in and tell them about tomorrows great adventure.

9:00 - bath & goal to be asleep by 10pm.

Preparation for fasting - day 1 (May 25th, 2015)

2015-05-25T19:58:00.003-07:00

My first 30 day juice fast in January was so life changing for me, physically and spiritually that I decided it was something I wanted to incorporate into my life every 6 months. On my last juice fast I did zero prep work. I basically just started. This time I wanted to prepare a journal and have a better idea of how I would record my fasting.

Today was Memorial day, the kiddos were with my mom so we slept in until about 10am. That is totally unheard of. I fixed my coffee and had a banana and peanut butter for breakfast. We fed all of the farm animals, moved the chicken tractors, collected eggs and did some laundry. Then it was time to head over to my mothers where we had a wonderful time swimming and eating with family. I did very little food wise to prepare for the fast today. I just ate as normal. This week leading up to the fast I will not be drinking any wine. I will be increasing my water intake and drinking Kombucha. Kombucha is something that I have been introduced to since the last fast and will be drinking this time.

We headed home about 7 and I prepared our home school lessons for the week. I worked on my fasting journal. Each day has the daily scriptures that I want to read, a spot to journal my weight, measurements and a recap of my day.

Currently we are getting ready for a big storm and I
will be loosing my internet soon. Stay safe!!!

My fast will last from May 29th to June 29th. If at anytime during the fast you would like to join me and have a cheerleader on your journey, please let me know.

***This is my personal fasting experience, it is not medical advice***

ADHD Diet - Day 3, 4 & 5

2015-05-17T09:35:00.000-07:00

My motto this week was "Come Closer" I had read a blog about it (I tried to find it, but I cant. When I do I will link to it) It basically said that you don't yell across the room for people in any work type situation. That if you need a person, you go to them - come closer. So I started asking the boys to come to me, or I would go to them. This cut down on yelling, actually it made it almost zero.

Wednesday we did some cleaning, I purchased birthday cards for my volunteers at church. The kids were having some serious carb cravings so I made some home made tortillas and they ate them with their ham and cheese roll ups for lunch.

Thursday was pretty similar to the earlier days. I am noticing a huge difference in Eli, but I am wondering if anyone else is.

Friday I took the kids to their grandparents house. I packed their lunches and got dinner together for our evening group. This part is going to take some practice. I dont normally have to worry about packing food. I replaced our toothpaste. Now for the BIG reveal that this is all worth it. I called their grandfather after they had been with him for about an hour or two and asked if he noticed a difference. Now their grandfather is a meat and potatoes - no special diet kind of guy. He said YES! He has become one of my biggest ADHD diet fans and goes out of his way to make sure they stay on the diet.