Do not be alarmed by the giant hands in the tree...

I think I've stated before that this summer has been one of our busiest. I love all the post that remind me of the old "Country Time Lemonade" commercials where the lazy days of summer are spent drinking lemonade, running through fields of flowers, swinging on the front porch swing, & swimming in the Ye Ole Swimmin' Hole. The truth is...it's so hot. I don't want to leave my air conditioned house.

 I grew up in Miami. It's hot 360 days a year there. People are always reminding me, "Yes, but in Miami you have a breeze" true, but it's still hot, like your head has been unhinged at the top & heat has been poured in. One thing about Miami's summer is we schedule our rain almost daily between 3pm & 5pm, which cools off the evenings. Alabama has no such schedule. As the day wears on, the the temperature rises.
By 7 O'clock it's 95 degrees...in my living room. Ha!
So...summer is hot....winter is cold...wah-wah-wah.

School has been out over a month. Abigail has taken part in 5 Vacation Bible Schools. As suggested by my friend Linda we are thinking of making a quilt out of all of her free T-shirts.  I used to think I wouldn't be THAT parent sending their children off to all the VBS's available, but there are so many good ones, friends have invited us, & it reinforces our faith that we teach at home, so YES, I am THAT parent.
Katelyn has participated in 3 Vacation Bible Schools, 1 Art camp, & 2 weeks of swim lessons. This is actually the first week since the end of May that we have nothing structured planned. I've seen all kinds of posts about how we are over planning our summers, etc., but here, the days are long, VBS in the morning & free play in the afternoon through early evening is the best things for us. There is something to be said for adding structure to your free time to keep sanity in the home.

A few weeks ago was Father's Day. The girls were so excited. Earlier that week my friend Amy, & her two girls Caroline & Emma Kate came over to work on a Father's Day craft. Amy and I have fun together no matter what we are up to. We can be browsing Walmart & be amused. We are also good at solving mysteries like, where does this string wrapped around the inside of the house lead to, or how many days this summer could we feed our kids pizza before they protest. or, how can we count this trip to Sweet Frog Yogurt as dinner so we don't have to cook. So, first we went to her house to eat dinner, because there was no food at my house. Usually I cook each night, but this summer has had us at the pool quite a bit & for some reason dinner has taken me by surprise. Dinner at Amy's was delicious Italian beef sliders. Afterward I craved them for a week until I had to make them myself.

 
Recipe:
2-3lb beef roast
1 jar sliced pepperoncini peppers
onions
2 packets McCormick Au Jus
Italian Seasoning
Slider buns
Sliced Provolone or Munster Cheese (optional)

Place beef in slow cooker
2 packets of Au Jus
1 cup cold water
Drain & reserve juice from peppers
Add drained peppers
For the spicier version add 1/2 a cup to 1 cup of reserved pepper juice (1 cup was too spicy for my kids)
Or add none of the reserved pepper juice for a very mild version.
Place onion rings on top
Sprinkle with Italian Seasoning
Cook for 5-6 hours on low in slow cooker.
Remove meat & shred.
Test gravy to make sure the heat is good for your family.
Add some of the juice back to meat in a separate bowl
You can mix in the peppers & onions to the meat or serve them separately.
Place on slider buns & top with cheese if desired.

After dinner we headed over to my house to make the Father's Day Craft. Have you noticed most children's crafts involve a handprint or foot print. No more faking it & pretending your kid did it....they must at least get an appendage painted & memorialized on canvas.  We made trees with the girls hand prints, which was really cute if you can get past the fact that giant hands are growing out of the trees. Then we reworked a poem we found on the internet to make it more personal to our girls. The sweet thing is that our girls loved giving something special to their daddy, & Craig loved this much more than the Jimmy Buffett CD (I did eventually get him) & the polo shirts we ordered from Land's End because the last time he got new ones was before we had children & no matter how much he insists they are fine I'm drawing the line!
 He hung the picture next to his bed, where I'm sure he will gaze at it & have sweet dreams instead of nightmares of huge hands impaled by trees grabbing him in the middle of the night.
Pleasant dreams, Sweetie!
Here is ours:

Next week promises to be equally exciting.
Abigail has a check up
and I might cook dinner......