Kimmie in Real Life (week 6)

I am learning to be a more
patient person than I ever have been.

I LOVE my calendar in my kitchen as it has the most uplifting and funny quotes that always make me smile!

Here is the quote for this month:
"...and everywhere the flowers bloomed and people laughed and there was peace in the world"!

Anytime, I get feeling a little overwhelmed with life, I just think of this quote and it makes me chuckle and I am instantly put in a happy place with smile on my face...
FLOWERS, LAUGHTER and peace
always put me in a good mood!

I am a VERY organized person with my time...
I am a list person and it has become a joke that Tracy will come home and give me a big hug and kiss and put his hand in my back pocket and pull out my "list for the day".

Until this summer,
I usually accomplished everything I had on my daily lists, however, since I am still doing Physical Therapy each week and we still have Tae-Kwon-Do two nights each week, AND there is endless yard work that needs done, house work that never ends, meals to cook and most of all KIDS TO LOVE,

most days I am doing good to do a fraction of the things on my list that I have to take a moment each day and laugh and most of all feel SO grateful that I live the era of time that I do with washers and dryers and many of the modern conveniences of life that make my crazy life so much easier to deal with each day.

LIFE really is AWESOME,
especially when it's summer time and we enjoy most of our dinners sitting on the porch, enjoying good food, laughter and great conversation one with another!
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Here are some of our food highlights for the week.

Our favorite smoothies turned purple this summer...
I was really hoping that one of our Bountiful Baskets would include grapes and yes it did, only they were purple.
SO, we compromised and used purple grapes and limes instead of lemons and it was still just as delicious as we remembered it.
(for our favorite green smoothie recipe click here)
We enjoyed this for three different meals this week.

YUMMY!!

Monday
we enjoyed some leftover cauliflower covered in yummy Hamburger Gravy.
(for recipe click here)

I had VERY excited kids
when they opened the fridge on Tuesday morning to find
Apple Butterflies sitting on the second shelf in the fridge for their morning snack.

Our Tuesday smoothie
was another favorite this week.
1 cup milk
2 cups strawberries
1 or 2 bananas
1 or 2 tsp. vanilla
1 or 2 cups ice
Blend together until smooth.

This is sure to satisfy
any Strawberry/banana milkshake you might be craving and much healthier!!

Veggies never tasted so good!!
This was one of the most favorite meals of the week.
(click HERE for recipe!)

Muffins and Eggs saved my Wednesday!!
(click here for recipe and original post about this)
Wednesday was by far my most hectic day of the week as I only had about 35 minutes to prepare dinner, between my daily chaos,
SO, I heated up the oven, baked up Cereal muffins and while the muffins were baking, chopped up veggies for our Omelette Eggs.
That way, when we got home from Ethan's Tae-Kwon-Do, we just sauteed the veggies and scrambled the eggs and we had dinner "lickity-split"!!

I noticed some overripe cherries
and so I pitted them and blended them with some other fruits and yogurt and that was MY favorite smoothie of the week!

This photo is priceless...
I LOVE my sweet little boy in his little hat, sitting on a rock, eating dinner while enjoying the beauty of our yard.

I love this little guy and realized that I had the happiest kid in the world, when I cooked up pasta for dinner. He said that was his favorite meal and asked why I didn't make it more often.
Friday was yet another busy day without much time to prepare much of anything and so I cooked up our fresh green beans, browned one hamburger patty, added in one jar of Ragu spaghetti sauce and we enjoyed it over pasta spirals with a spoonful of cottage cheese.
I have to admit that it was really quite a yummy meal!

We realized our National Park Pass expired on June 30th and so we knew that we needed to head to our most favorite place on earth
YELLOWSTONE National Park to enjoy the beauty before the craziness of summer sets in even more.
We spent Saturday and Sunday enjoying the beauty and awesome family time together!

We didn't let being on a getaway stop us from being frugal and we brought food from home for every meal.
The only splurge we made was on some yummy ice cream to cool off.
As I get time, I can't wait to share photos and thoughts from our wonderful weekend getaways!

June 20th-26th
Sunday
Cherries
Salmon, Green Salad, Lime Drink
Gumdrop bread

Monday
Steel Cut Oats
Cherries
Grape smoothie, grilled cheese sandwiches, carrot sticks
Hamburger gravy over Cauliflower, cantaloupe, lime drink
Gingersnaps

Tuesday
Steel Cut Oats
Apple Butterflies, Gingersnaps
(Tracy lunch) leftover hamburger gravy, cantaloupe and grapes, apple, gingersnaps
(kids lunch)Strawberry/banana smoothie, tuna fish sandwich
Veggie cobbler, grapes, lime drink

Wednesday
Steel Cut Oats
(Tracy) Leftover Veggie Cobbler, Apple, Cherries, Gingersnaps
(kids)Leftover Veggie Cobbler, grape smoothie
Muffins, Omelette Eggs, Grape Smoothie

Thursday
Steel Cut Oats
Muffins, boiled eggs, carrot sticks, plums
(kids) muffins, boiled eggs, smoothie
LOTS of lime drink as it was a HOT day
Tracy treated us to Taco Time since it was pay day

Friday
Steel Cut Oats
Plums, carrot sticks and veggie sandwiches on Multi-grain bread with lettuce, avocados, tomatoes, pickles and cheese
Tracy bought us a frozen yogurt ($1.00 each) after we took the kids to the Summer movie
Pasta and red sauce with cottage cheese and steamed fresh green beans, lime drink

Saturday
Steel Cut Oats
Miscellaneous snacks while we drove to Yellowstone (grapes, apple slices, carrot sticks, Gingersnap cookies, licorice, popcorn)
Pasta Salad for lunch
At our campsite for dinner, Tracy boiled up water and we cooked a Ramen up with frozen corn and peas and added in potato flakes to thicken it up. We then popped up a Jiffy Pop to enjoy after dinner

YAY we are enjoying the sunshine and heat from summer and savoring each moment we get to be together each evening!
With good food to eat each day, LOTS of laughter and smiles and wonderful family memories...

LIFE doesn't get any better than this!
Good-bye June...Hello July!