Darr Family Blog – Page 142 – The place to follow the Darr Family

Internet Project Successes and a Well-Deserved Break

Weekly Happenings: This past week was full of swimming in the backyard pool, playing pretend inside, going to the library for new books, and just chillin’ as a family.

The Weekly Weather: HOT! I don’t have much else to say. We are quickly approaching what is normally the hottest month of the year, so yeah…we’ve been staying cool by hanging out in air conditioned places and in the pool (I really love that it’s big enough and deep enough for me to get in (and the water comes up to my shoulders if I sit down…so nice).

What Paul’s Been Up To: He’s been rather consumed with end-of-the-semester projects and exams, but he finished all of that up on Friday, so now he gets a very well-deserved break from school until mid-September. He’s using his free time to spend even more time with me and Joseph and doing some updates to the home computers (having a resident IT guy is sort of handy).

What Sarah’s Been Up To: As the title of this post eludes to, I have attempted a couple different ideas that I have seen on the Internet (a craft project and a recipe) with successful results. One was a word-building kit encompassed in a metal lunchbox for Joseph to use and the other was a yummy peanut butter/Reese’s peanut butter cup cookie combo. I also hosted book club which was fun as always. I threw together a quick peach cobbler (another seriously simple recipe that one of my friends gave me a while back) that received rave reviews and pleadings for the recipe. My friends were pleasantly surprised with how simple it was.

What Joseph’s Been Up To: Playing pretend, playing in the pool, having play dates, and building LEGO creations. I now know why my friends have tons of LEGOs. Once Joseph builds something, he doesn’t want to take it apart. He’s almost out of the LEGOs that we have. He has expressed a desire to have a LEGO themed birthday party, so maybe we’ll get him some more for his birthday. One funny story: He told me that the ceiling fan (in the living room) made it so his In N’Out grilled cheese sandwich (on the table in the dining room) was cold and that we needed to turn the fan off. In reality, he was taking his sweet time to eat, so that’s really why his grilled cheese got cold. It’s interesting to see how his mind works (including a bad dream he had where cicadas were coming out of the trees and biting him…poor kid).

This Week in Pictures:

IMG_20160717_195011 — Someone may or may not have commandeered the family movie night popcorn bowl…

IMG_20160721_142823 — Success #1: Metal lunchbox Paul ordered from Amazon…

IMG_20160721_142934 — …meets craft sticks (with adhesive magnet strips stuck to the back) with words written on them (in lower case letters) and upper case magnetic letters. This way he starts to recognize both the lower and upper case versions of letters. I think he’s going to love it!

IMG_20160719_134821 — Massive pillow and blanket fort for the win!

IMG_20160721_122411 — Deep in conversation with his bear.

IMG_20160722_140114 — We’ve got some extra letter printing pages hanging around. Paul mentioned it might be a good idea for Joseph to get more writing practice (he starts pre-k at the end of next month), so I pulled one out. I believe this desk is going to work out just as well as we hoped it would!

IMG_20160723_151930 — Success #2: Refrigerated peanut butter cookie dough (sliced, quartered, and baked in mini muffin tins) meets Reese’s mini peanut butter cups (I just pushed the cups into the cookies while they were still warm). They actually turned out looking just like the picture on the recipe page, which almost never happens with me, hahaha.

This Year is Just Flying!

Weekly Happenings: It’s sort of hard for me to grasp the fact that we’re already halfway through July. This past week was pretty average as far as weeks go. I had a doctor’s appointment where I got to hear the baby’s heartbeat (and got advice from my doctor on how to combat the crazy heartburn/indigestion that I’ve been fighting). I also took Joseph to meet up with friends at the pool, which he enjoyed immensely. The highlight of the week was most definitely the past few days. We decided to purchase a small above-ground pool (complete with a filter). It was delivered on Thursday and Paul got it all set up yesterday. While he was setting it up, the heat and humidity started to get to him and he almost got heat stroke. Thankfully he recognized the early symptoms (which developed incredibly fast) and was able to get inside where he could instruct me in how to help him cool off. It left him drained, but okay. Joseph and I were able to enjoy the pool (a great distraction for Joseph while Paul was doing homework) and discovered that what I already knew was true for black widows is apparently true for other spiders as well: they can hold their breath. I saw a {thankfully} smaller grass spider SWIMMING UNDER THE WATER and it didn’t look like it was struggling at all. Ick. I was able to scoop it out and dump it over the side.

The Weekly Weather: It’s been pretty much the same: warm, humid, and no rain. We had a few days where the humidity level actually dipped below 50% (almost unheard of in the summer), making the mornings slightly cool-ish with a breeze, which was nice.

What Paul’s Been Up To: He’s begun working on final projects and getting stuff wrapped up for his online classes. He’s got finals this next week and then it will be break-time from school until mid-September. Other than that big load, he’s also keeping busy at work and helping out with Scouts.

What Sarah’s Been Up To: I haven’t done much this past week other than the ordinary stuff: keeping Joseph fed, dressed, and happy…and keeping the house {relatively} clean. 😉 I did go out with my girlfriends for shaved ice one evening, which was nice.

What Joseph’s Been Up To: Not too much out of the ordinary for Joseph, either. He has been enjoying playing Pokemon Go with Paul. It’s a game on Paul’s phone where they go different places (like parks and our neighborhood) and “collect” different Pokemon characters. He also enjoyed playing in our new pool yesterday. I had to really work on convincing him to come in after almost two hours (I was getting cold, haha). He probably would have been happy to be in there longer…it reminds me of when I was a kid. Maybe it’s hereditary. 😉

This Week in Pictures:

IMG_20160715_111823 — Pretending to be a koopa troopa (turtle from Super Mario Brothers). 🙂

IMG_20160714_171425 — It’s been a while since I’ve felt good enough to make pizza from scratch (the idea of making the dough and then waiting an hour before making the pizza just seemed too hard, haha). This time around, I switched to freshly grated mozzarella (as opposed to the bagged, pre-shredded stuff). I don’t think I’ll ever go back!

16 - 2 (3) — I think the pool is going to be a great addition to an already fun back yard.

16 - 1 (8) — Paul also put up our canopy. It was nice to sit in there without worrying about getting sunburned.

16 - 4 (1) — It’s the perfect depth for both kids and grown-ups. 🙂

Happy 240th Birthday, America!

What Sarah’s Been Up To: I had quite the packed week as far as evenings went. I went to a meeting for one of my book clubs and a Relief Society meeting. I also hosted a LuLaRoe party, which is always fun. I love the clothes and love being able to try them on at someone’s house as opposed to trying on clothes in a dressing room. I can get my friends’ input on how things look…it’s just a lot of fun.

What Joseph’s Been Up To: I’ve kind of already mentioned all the fun stuff Joseph got to do this past week (fireworks, swimming, birthday party, sleepover). He is such a social kid and loves to play with friends SO much. It kind of surprises me. Paul and I are social, but we like our quiet times, too. Yet, I remember being like Joseph as a kid…so I suppose I ought not be too surprised. I do make sure that Joseph gets quiet down-time so that he doesn’t think someone needs to be entertaining him 24/7.

This Week in Pictures:

IMG_20160704_203431 — Getting to do one of his favorite Fourth of July things: holding a giant sparkler. 🙂 I really like these sparklers because the fuse is really far away from him and burns out WAY before it gets even remotely close to him (it was already almost completely spent at this point).

IMG_20160704_152655 — i pretty much leave this stuff up year round (I only change the bottom banners out for other holidays), but thought taking another picture of it since it was Fourth of July was warranted.

IMG_20160705_123458 — One day, I got a major craving for Chinese food. Paul, being the amazing man that he is, found where the nearest good place was, and we headed out. Joseph loved getting to use the kid chopsticks (though his love for noodles, veggies, and chicken won out and he eventually switched to a fork).

IMG_20160705_132038 — Another major craving: cold, crisp watermelon. Paul knows how to pick them!

IMG_20160706_163801 — I haven’t done much “cook book cooking” (survival, put food in our bellies cooking is more accurate, haha), but Joseph had been asking for shells and cheese for a couple of weeks. I would always forget by the time it came to meal plan and go grocery shopping, though. He happened to ask about it (again) the morning I was doing the meal plan and making the shopping list, so I was finally able to grant his request. 🙂

IMG_20160707_100038 — He insisted on bringing his swim ring to the pool, but once more of his friends showed up, he abandoned it in pursuit of just splashing around in the shallow end with them.

IMG_20160708_105620 — We were at Target getting the present for his friend’s birthday party and he saw this mask. He really wanted it, but we told him if that was the case, he’d need to use his allowance money to buy it. We went home, counted up how much he had (barely enough for the mask after tithing was taken out), and the next day headed back to get it. He was just a LITTLE excited.

Enjoying birthday cake at the party yesterday.