Our life in August! Moments 08.2018

I can’t remember all the times I tried to tell myself to hold on to these moments as they pass.”

Welcome to “Moments” here on JoyFoodSunshine. At the end of every month I share a recap of all the shenanigans that went down in crazy town (i.e. my life in a nutshell).  So here it is for August 2018!

Recipe love:

Here are a few must-share recipes from the month of August from my favorite spots around the web!

Classic Hummus from Cooking Classy {SO creamy}!

Coconut Flour Waffles from Feasting on Fruit {NEED to make ASAP}!

Roasted Tomato Basil Soup from Ambitious Kitchen {For all those garden tomatoes}!

Strawberry Cobbler from House of Yumm {My mom asked for a cobbler recipe this week…I’d go with this one for sure}!

How to make Breadcrumbs from Budget Bytes {Use them to make these…}!

New Recipe Videos

So, here are the videos we produced for you in August! More to come in September!

Asian Chicken Lettuce Wraps

This is, by far, THE most popular recipe here on JFS. And for good reason…these Asian Chicken Lettuce wraps are AMAZING! You should totally make them this week, and come back and tell me what you think by leaving a comment on the post!

Best Pasta Salad Recipe

Raspberry Peach Crisp

Life with my tribe

In case you missed it….

We’re having another BABY GIRL, and we couldn’t be more excited!!! Read all about it here!

Building a new HOUSE!

And if adding a 5th child to our family wasn’t enough excitement for 2019….we are also building a new home! Honestly, we bought our current home before I started my blog as a hobby. Since then (2.5 years ago) it has really taken off thanks to all of YOU amazing people who make and share my recipes….and I now own my own business (crazy).

Ritch and I have been praying about the next steps for our family. We are very convicted that we should always live on his salary. Even when I was working and we didn’t have kids, we just saved the money I made and lived off of his very modest salary. This set us up to win BIG time, and we give that counsel to all the young couples we know in our lives!

Anyway, as we have been trying to patiently decide what would be best for our family, we realized a few things.

1. We don’t have wanderlust…no desire to take huge fancy trips around the world. We are perfectly content exploring the American West, where we currently live!
2. We’re not stuff people. I hope to drive my minivan until our kids go to college. LOL
3. Our highest goal in this phase of life is to provide a loving home for our children!

So…we decided to invest in a new home with enough space to raise our five children…that also has a YARD (which we currently do not have and miss terribly)! We’re hoping to time construction so we can move in May or June, which would give us plenty of time to snuggle our sweet baby girl before having to pack! We’re moving less than 1 mile from where we currently live…on the same street. So it should be pretty easy! 😉

11th Wedding Anniversary!

Ritch and I have been married for ELEVEN years! I know some people say they can’t believe how fast time passes, but honestly I feel like we’ve been married for a lot longer! I wrote a long post about marriage at our 10 year mark…check it out here! My wonderful momma flew in to watch our babies while we went on a much-needed night away!

We stayed at our favorite place in Utah…Deer Valley Resort! We enjoyed an amazing dinner, watched the sunset over the mountains, soaked in a slow morning as we sipped on our coffee and talked about anything and everything, hiked a gorgeous trail up a mountain, rode the scenic lift down, and enjoyed a relaxing lunch outside in the fresh mountain air. It was the best ever. I feel so relaxed and rejuvenated, and still oh so very much in love even after 11 years.

I do need to pause and mention that we went to dinner at Powder Restaurant at the Waldorf Astoria, and it was possibly the best meal I’ve ever had in my life!

I am NOT someone who likes to spend money to eat out unless I am certain the food is amazing. We wanted to try somewhere new in Park City, and spent literally an hour looking for restaurants. I am the type of person who reads one negative review and absolutely cannot get over it. {Can anyone else relate?! LOL}!

I also have a hard time shelling out a lot of money for a meal. We are pretty frugal and only eat out about once a month. So when it comes time to go to a restaurant and I know I’ll be spending a lot of ca$h money, I get really stressed! Anyway, Powder did NOT disappoint. For the first time, in maybe EVER, I was GLAD to have spent more money than is reasonable to me on a meal that I will NEVER FORGET.

Everything, the atmosphere, the service, and of course, the food, was five-stars. I highly recommend that anyone traveling to Park City gives it a try!

Starting Homeschool!

We started homeschool the second week of August! We didn’t take a super long break (maybe 3 weeks) in the summer, but we definitely decreased our load. It was really great getting back into the swing of things! This is the first year I have three kids to teach because Naomi is starting preschool. So I am trying to figure it all out!

Our Curriculum

Bethany: Saxon Math 3, Shurley English 2, Spelling Workout D, Veritas Press Bible and History self-paced courses.

Gabe: Saxon Math 1, All About S

pelling 1, Spelling Workout A, Veritas Press Bible & History self-paced courses.

Naomi: God’s Little Explorers Preschool Curriculum (I have used this with all three kids and love it)!

This year I chose to do some video courses for Bethany that Gabe can also watch. I don’t love history, so I thought that would be a good place to start! LOL! I have been putting off using videos/technology for school because I don’t want that to be the only way my kids learn. However I see great value in occupying the older two while I do preschool with Naomi! So we’re going to try it this year and see how it goes!

Classical Conversations 

This is our second year doing Classical Conversations, and the kids were so excited when it started! I really enjoy the program and hope this year is just as good as last! The kids absolutely adore co-op days, and this year I’m trying to navigate what to do with Naomi and Mara during class!

Mara Hope!

Let’s start with a 15 month update on my sweet baby girl!

• Talking: She is finally starting to say actual words. This month is was cracker, Daddy (very well articulated), dog (could be better lol), Boppies (what we call Bethany), Hi (but it’s more like HIIIIIIIIIIII!), and last but certainly not least… Momma!!! YAY!
• Shhh… Mara learned how to hold one finger over her lips and say “shhhh!” It’s adorable!
• Attitude. Well Mara has discovered screaming when she doesn’t get her way. If she’s not happy she will be sure you know all about it! LOL!
• Praying. Ok this is almost too cute. Whenever we pray she covers her face with her hands and peeks through her fingers. I love it so much and am still hoping to catch it on camera one of these days!

Poor sick Mara!

Mara got Hand Foot and Mouth disease and it basically ruined our last two weeks of summer! I realized she had it on Monday, the last week that the pool was open during the day. Every sunny, warm day that we were stuck inside I was SO frustrated that my poor baby had to get sick, and that we weren’t at the pool.

PARENTS: If you child is sick, DO NOT bring them out in public. You pass their illness on to others whether you know it or not. Someone brought their child to church with HFM and five other kids got it. Even if you’re going CRAZY being quarantined (We couldn’t do anything for two weeks, I GET IT), put others first and don’t spread the illness!

She was so miserable and in so much pain. But thankfully she is over it now! None of my other kids ever had it, so this was a new experience for me, and one I hope to never relive again!

A few of my favorite things…

Le Creuset Skillets

I am absolutely in love with my Le Creuset 10″ Cast Iron Skillet and 6″ Cast Iron Skillet. I’m trying to switch to cooking most things in cast iron cookware, and I know these will last forever! Plus they are so pretty! 😉 I bake my favorite Fudgy Paleo Brownies in the small skillet and they come out perfectly every time!

Glass Storage Containers

I am loving these! They are perfect for taking dishes to BBQs or potlucks, or just for storing leftovers!

OGX Hair Spray

I was paying way more for a different hair spray before finding this one! It’s smells amazing, holds curls, and doesn’t make your hair hard or crunchy! Plus it’s easy on the wallet, which is very important to me! 😉

Urban Decay Naked Basics Set

This might have been my favorite purchase from the Nordstrom sale. The primer is amazing, and I love every single color of eyeshadow in the palette!

Click on the photos below to shop! 

Recipes I’m Making on Repeat

Here are a few recipes we enjoyed in August…

The BEST Chocolate Chip Cookies EVER

Bethany is wanting more and more responsibility as she gets older, and is showing a keen interest in learning how to bake! Since we were stuck inside with Mara being sick, I thought it was the perfect time to let her try her hand at making our favorite Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe!

She needed a little refresher on fractions (which was actually great!) but she got the hang of it and really felt so proud of herself for making the cookies!

Healthy Slow Cooker Chicken Chili

This is my mom’s chili recipe, and it’s the BEST! Whenever a friend of mine has a baby, I always make this recipe for them! It’s so great because it’s healthy and can easily be frozen!

Paleo Sweet and Sour Meatballs

This recipe is one of my favorite weeknight meals! So easy and SO good, even my kids love it!

Fudgy Paleo Brownies

Are you surprised?! 😉

IF YOU MAKE SOMETHING FROM JOYFOODSUNSHINE I WOULD LOVE TO SEE YOUR CREATIONS! DON’T FORGET TO RATE THIS RECIPE AND LEAVE A COMMENT BELOW! ALSO, FOLLOW ALONG WITH ME ON INSTAGRAM, PINTEREST, FACEBOOK AND TWITTER FOR MORE RECIPE INSPIRATION AND A GLIMPSE INTO OUR EVERYDAY LIFE!