On our signs of summer nature walk we searched for: rolly pollies, hot spots, dried up dead worms on the sidewalk, sprinklers on, people in bathing suits, sunglasses, birds busy eating, sound of crickets, shadows from the sun, butterflies, flowers burning up from the sun, shady spots, dandelions, and the girls thought up some more that we found along the way.

I love going out with the girls and teaching them to smell, feel, see, and listen to nature. We just simply put a checklist on a clipboard. Although I did find this really great Summer Nature Walk Senses Scavenger Hunt that you could simply print out.

It was a fun afternoon:

Also a big thank you to Desert News for the shout out.
Last week I was also in the Salt Lake Tribune, article here.

I tried to make a special drink out of coconut WATER a few weeks ago and did not love it. I still had two cans of coconut water left and decided to give it another go.

Ya’ll this recipe is perfect for a late night drink or even a smoothie in the morning, IT WAS SO YUMMY!

Put in the blender: 1 can (1 1/2 cups) of coconut water, 2 cups of ice, 1 cup of fresh pineapple, 1 1/2 cups of strawberries)

DANG, it is really amazing. 

Doesn’t this look good? We went out to a Thai place awhile ago as a family and my girls have been talking about that “yummy peanut dipping sauce” ever since. So I tried looking at quite a few recipes but didn’t find one that sounded that good to me. My sweet cousin was over and I decided to be brave and just try to make the recipe from my head. I did have to throw out the first round of peanut sauce! But the second was perfect.

Peanut Sauce Stir Fry with Coconut Rice

Ingredients:

Rice

1 cup of water

1 can of coconut milk

1 cup of rice (I really like to use basmati rice for this type of food)

Stir Fry

Bok Choy, sliced in small moons and strips (the bok choy at the store were small this day so I bought two)

Red Pepper, sliced in small chunks

1 1/2 lbs chicken breasts, sliced in strips

Garlic

Salt & Pepper

Olive Oil

2 small or 1 large mango, diced

1/2 bunch of cilantro, chopped

Peanut Sauce

5-6 tablespoons creamy natural peanut butter

4 tablespoons rice wine vinegar

2 tablespoons red chili garlic sauce (in picture above if you are not sure, also you can omit this if you can’t find it)

1/2 cup water

3-4 tablespoons soy sauce

2 teaspoons ginger powder

Directions:

1. Bring the water and coconut milk to boil for the rice. Then cook the rice according to the package directions (or ya know just like you would cook normal rice).

2. Make the peanut sauce. Combine all the ingredients together and whisk very well.

3. Chop up the bok choy, red pepper, and chicken.

4. Heat up some olive oil in a pan and then add chicken, salt, and pepper. When the chicken is almost done cooking thoroughly add in the garlic and vegetables. You might have to add in a bit more olive oil after you add in the vegetables.

5. After about 4 minutes, when the pepper is a bit soft you can add in the peanut sauce. Let it coat everything and heat up a bit, don’t let it cook too long or it will start to burn on the bottom of the pan.

6. Serve on top of rice with chopped mango and chopped cilantro placed on top right before serving.

‘TWAS GOOD!

You really don’t have to be reading the book along with us to participate in the conversation, I am sure these are points that you already know tons about as a mother. So please join on in. I will start off with some of the points that stood out to me, quotes I loved, things I need to work on, and goals I have made.

Section 1 Key Points:

• This section was on “having an organized offense” I thought it was going to be more about keeping an organized home, schedule, etc. but was surprised that it was more of an overall how to keep an organized family unit.
• I am the greatest asset my family has, preserve that asset, and take care of myself.
• Set aside time for a weekly planning session, mine is Sunday after church, if I don’t do it my weeks go TERRIBLY different.
• Create a family mission statement with everyone’s ideas, that is short! I want to display it in my home and mention it during FHE once and awhile. Also I would love to help the girls create their own mission statement, super simple fun ones for now! Some of the examples in the book for family mission statements were “Broaden and contribute” and”Be thinkful, be thankful, and be bananas!”
• Make dinner time a priority. My husband is rarely home for dinner so lots of times I am so tired that the girls eat at the bar and I plop myself on the floor to rest. I am going to muster up more energy, sit them at the table, and try to make it short but fun. In the book they used the example of asking them their worst and best part of the day. I can do that, baby steps, that sounds doable for me right now. They also brought up the point that even if you make sure that you set aside certain days when you know you can have a family dinner and hold strong to those DAYS–that is great too.
• Family traditions are the “glue” that hold your family together. When I think about my childhood I will think of all the silly, sweet, important family traditions we had. It’s true!
• Review regularly how everyone is doing: physically, mentally, socially, emotionally and spiritually. In the book they said they did it once a month during a date night. And they went through the list together and talked about each kid. What a good way to sit and be proud of your kids and all their accomplishments. But also sometimes to notice problems so you can help fix them before they become an even bigger deal.
• Family Laws: I really loved how in the book she said it got to the point where they decided to only have 5 and that they had natural consequences.
• “Hard is good” Creating memories is sometimes hard (like her hike that had whiny kids, blisters, falls), that sometimes creating memories is hard work. If you don’t put in the “work” to create family memories the days will just be full of playing with friends, homework, schedules, etc. I am going to use this as strength for when I want to plan an “out of the ordinary” day to create memories–”hard is good” it is worth it!!

My Goals: Figure out how to “take care of myself”, always eat with the girls even if Tyler is not home, think through our family traditions–see if we need to add any, establish family laws and a family mission statement together, help kids with their mission statements, make sure we rotate responsibilities during our FHE, and review once a month how everyone is doing (the 5 key things).

What about you? what points stood out to you? What quotes did you love? What new goals do you have? Etc?

P.S. See you next Monday to discuss Part 3 of 5!

 P.P.S. I sent the book to five of you out there, hope to hear from you!!!

Living at least 30 minutes away from a really good bakery, so I don’t get in trouble like this very often.

The girls loved spending time with Grandma Brown, talking her ear off!

Abby being a patient, easy going, oldest cousin/friend/sister it seems like almost all of the time!

Sweet nieces that are always happy to say hello!! So sweet this one.

Date night “in” Tyler made our favorite appetizers: his being buffalo wings and mine being potato skins. Both Pioneer Woman recipes (can you see her two cookbooks sitting out on the counter?)

How many books she goes through before she finally falls to sleep.

Ok I am not loving this….LET SOMEONE ELSE HOLD YOU SHAE!! Mama needs to fix this soon.

Goodbye kisses to JB.

Getting her to finally like bath time, it took awhile!

——————————————–BATMAN!——————————–

I will quickly say that Jonathan, you are going to be a wonderful missionary. You are dependable, trust worthy, hard working, honest, genuine, friendly, and understand the importance of what you are doing. This will make you an amazing missionary and also a man, someday father, and someday husband.

I love you, will miss you, and be rooting for you every single day.

You really don’t have to be reading the book along with us to participate in the conversation, I am sure these are points that you already know tons about as a mother. So please join on in. I will start off with some of the points that stood out to me, quotes I loved, things I need to work on, and goals I have made.

Section 1 Key Points: This section to me was helping me to answer the question of how can I “live in the trenches” or in the moments of motherhood in a way that I can survive, that I can enjoy, that I can look back on and be proud of myself, and that can help me raise some pretty great kiddos. I loved how the book actually helped me write a list of applicable things, that it didn’t just have a nice thought, that it helped you know what you can actually *DO* to accomplish this. And some of these I just thought of myself while reading the section, so no not all of these were in the book.

• Sit down and PLAY! Stop with your to do list and get on the floor and play legos, do the puzzle, have a pillow fight. Whatever your kids want to play take time to sit down with them and play. I have little kids so all my examples relate to that age.
• Stay HOME! I wish I could find who originally said this but I read somewhere a few weeks ago that one of the “secrets” to spending less money, spending more time with the kids, having a more balanced home life is to…STAY HOME. Now that doesn’t mean you need to be a stay at home mom or anything. I mean just to stop having so many errands, places to go (because we all know if we are being honest some of them are un-needed) and stay home. If that is after work, or if you are a stay at home mom, just to be careful with the time you spend on errands.
• Keeping Little Promises. If I tell Abby, “I am busy with dinner right now, but I can read you a book right before bed.” then I need to keep that promise. Or if I tell Cameron that, “Mom will play that game with you later!” to actually pull out the game and play it, even if she forgets. Some days are crazy and things happen—but a lot of the days, I know I can keep the little promises.
• LOOK. Watch them play, play with them, talk to them, listen to them when they talk and LOOK at them. Look into their eyes and see their excitement, watch their reactions, and it will make you fall in love with them even more every day.
• I enjoyed when Linda (the grandmother/mother in the book) said this, “…some days “motherhood is like being pecked to death by a duck” (an anonymous quote my sister has hanging in her hall), but the secret is that eventually your efforts will start to count. Sooner than you can realize now, you’ll be watching your children having children and will be amazed at how much better they are than you were and that somewhere, somehow, you must have done something good!” The duck part made me laugh and the realizing your efforts are going to count made me tear up!
• Imagination. Find your own way to be imaginative and fun with your kiddos, my husband has had to learn this! I can sit down and think out this whole pet shoppe plan, play for a long time, the kids are so into it. My husband looks at me and cannot comprehend how I can do that. But you know what he can do? Tell the best stories, have the best pillow fights, make the COOLEST secret dens with all the pillow and blankets in the house. Find your own way.
• Refiners Fire. I think I should read this section every week to myself, that right now I am in the refiners fire, hopefully I come out looking pretty great. Someone explain her point better than I did with this!
• Everyday Moments. They are beautiful, they are what make up our lives, they are so important. Cherish them and realize they are what make up your life.
• 3 Things on Your To Do List. She suggests since some days your to do lists don’t get done because life happens…to on your planner put three things up on the top. #1 What you can do for yourself that day (even if it is only 5 minutes), #2 What you can do for someone in your family that day #3 What you can do for someone out in the world today. I like that, that would help me feel connected to myself and the world out there!
• Enough is Enough. Don’t jam pack the schedule, be careful with what you sign your kids up for and realize they need unstructured play time.
• Family Prayer. Your children will find security in this time together, even if they are whining about it some days, they will think back to it and it will bring feelings of security and warmth.
• PRAY ALL DAY LONG!! As the Mom to God…pray all day long!

Goals:

• Keep little promises to the girls, keep cell phone downstairs more so I interact better when I am playing with them, and start doing the 3 things at the top of my to do list. Also to watch myself this summer, to not plan too many things and over schedule.

What about you what points stood out to you? What quotes did you love? What new goals do you have? Etc?

P.S. See you next Monday to discuss Part 2 of 5!

It is completely the right decision, we both have so much going on and my life is completely changing with moving out of the country and have soon FOUR kids under 6.

I wanted to tell you all these different stories from our SassyScoops.com days. Some of them are funny stories, sad stories, disappointing stories, beautiful stories, learning experiences…but my sister-in-law and I were out to dinner and she said to me: “You should be really proud of yourself, are you proud of yourself?” It took me completely off guard because lately SassyScoops.com has just been a bit of a thorn in my side–the only reason being I am so worn out. So I shrugged my shoulders and didn’t really answer. But man we have given so much time, heart, and work into promoting local .

I AM proud of us when I think about it, I AM.

The reason we put so much time, work, and heart into this site is because we believe in local. We believe in community, we believe in supporting those around us, we believe it is essential to help all of us thrive. We think it is essential and a beautiful part of our country, and the movement to put more importance into it continues to need your help and support.

Your local community, business owners, farmers, shops, restaurants, etc. NEED YOU.
Please always consider supporting local, it is so vitally important for you to do so.

I believe in this so much.

If you live in Utah, you can find the list of over 100 places we featured during our three years on our last post in a quick easy to read list. So you can try some of them out, find it here.

If you don’t live in Utah, find places that you support that are local.

Please.

P.S. Thank you to Emily, she is such a great woman and friend. She was the absolute best to do this, LOVE YOU EMILY!

I am in the need of a mothering jump start because I am in a new stage of mothering. I decided after this past weekend that I am just going to need to stay home—I mean ALL THE TIME STAY HOME. Which is hard for me to do. I can’t go out on little field trips a few times a week, or even once a day. I can’t plan fun parties or big craft/art project days or even have big fun dinners for the family. For me to be able to be a nice mother and a nice wife until I have this baby, I am going to have to change things up to be very low key. Hanging out at the house, walking to the park down the street, and that is all. So things have changed quite a bit–I need a jump start–I need a pick me up right now.

My sweet neighbor let me borrow this book, A Mother’s Book of Secrets by Linda Eyre & Shawni Eyre Pothier. She even texted me to remind me to read it and it is coming at me at the perfect time I tell ya. Thank you sweet neighbor!

I wanted to invite 5 of my blog readers to study this book along with me and join me each Monday to share our notes, goals, and insights. If you are interested will you email me at inevergrewup at gmail dot com? I will send the first five of you a book (for free) within two days so you can catch up with me. 

But even if you don’t read it along with us…you might have already read the book (it’s a popular one) or you can join in on the conversations really without even reading the book. OR feel free to get yourself a copy and do it along with us. Every Monday we will meet back to discuss one of the sections (there are just five of them, and very short reads).

See you Monday!

Abby’s Chocolate Strawberry Smoothie

This makes a whole blender full!

Ingredients:

1/2 cup of almonds

1/2 cup of oatmeal

1/2 cup of water

1/4 cup of cocoa powder

1 1/2 to 2 cups of almond milk (or any kind of milk)

2 to 2 1/2 cups of strawberries

Ice

Directions:

1. Blend together the almonds, oatmeal and water till smooth.

2. Add in the almond milk, strawberries and cocoa.

3. Add in ice till it is to your “icee likeness”

She really did think up all the ingredients! I just helped her know how much to put in. Good job baby girl!

P.S. I have a very important public service announcment. To my loved ones and anyone else….nap time has started again my house, 1pm to 3pm, I WILL IGNORE YOUR CALLS. If you call over and over till I pick up during this time zone I might just block you from my phone. I am serious about my nap time ya’ll.