The Search for Miss Direction: Crafty Idaho

This has been such a great week. I don't know what it is particularly, but my mood has been fabulous, we have had lots of fun and the kids (for the most part) have been great. I think my determination to get a little more sleep each night and my ultimate decision to decide how much of certain situations I am going to even bother dealing with anymore has made a huge impact. It may have taken 31 years (gulp, yep next week) but I am finally starting to see that at the end of the day, I'm really the only one I have control over. Plus I get to decide how much I am going to let others behavior, choices and decisions (whatever they may be) effect me.

I got another lift late last night when in the midst of exchanging emails with Noah's teacher about when I could next come in and help in the classroom she writes me to say "Noah has been really excited about what you are working on at home. He's been telling me about Idaho and gold mining...sounds fun!" I know this really isn't all that big of a deal, but it made my whole night! I have put a LOT of work into this whole project and knowing that he 1) is enjoying it and 2) he is sharing his knowledge with others delights me to no end!

If that wasn't enough I got to spend my morning with my friend Tess' daughter Alexis. Tess was helping out in her son's class this morning and I was delighted to hang out with Alexis while my twosome were in school. We headed off to Michael's to get the supplies to make some princess crowns and went to town! She did a BEAUTIFUL job decorating them and we had a lot of fun. Tess, you should be SO proud of her.

After swapping Alexis for Mikayla, we headed off to check out the Book Fair at Beechview (which I failed to realize didn't open until 5pm. Epic Fail), run another quick errand and then it was back here for the afternoon like usual. We got Noah off the bus and then the kiddos set out to create their state maps. They had already been discussing what they were going to draw on the way to the bus this morning so I was expecting big things :) They, as usual, made me smile. Check them out below. They also got some really fun mail from Aunt Shell and all the minions today. It made me glad to only have two to keep track of - I think Michelle's got a whole minion army at her house, all of which she named in her letters. (I'm not kidding, there are at least 20 of them. I do love you, Shell!)

Mikayla has been getting fidgety about two landlocked states in a row and the lack of seafood, so I took into consideration how important fishing is as a recreational activity in Idaho and decided to try out a recipe for Lemony Steamed Trout. The Bean of course was delighted. I don't think I've ever cooked trout before so this was tasty and SUPER easy. Every night this week my crew has made meals disappear in twenty minutes or less. Maybe Noah's onto something with this moving to Idaho, thing. Since I learned that you never serve fish without a bread side (to assist with getting a bone dislodged if it ever so happened supposedly) I made some Potato Rosemary Rolls to accompany dinner tonight. YUM!

After dinner we finally got a chance to take a look at the mail we got from Idaho. My friend, Deb, has a friend, Judy who is a retired teacher that, with her husband, does some driving across the country for FedEx. She has helped us with a few states now and she was kind enough to send both Noah and Kayla postcards from Idaho! Noah thought the couch potato post card was about the funniest thing ever.

We also put together our "We've Been There State" Yet again, sadly, no Gatchel's can claim to have been to Idaho (we're going to be remedying this with the next couple of states, promise!). But I think that Noah and Mikayla are both pretty determined to make it out there now.

A coffee date in the morning with my friend, Jen, storytime with the Bean, fried mashed potato balls, potato candy (yep, you read that right. Candy with potato in it, too!) and Michigan basketball promise to be the highlights of tomorrow. Until then...

Idaho Fun Fact of the Day: American Falls is unique from most communities because the entire town was moved in the mid-1920s when the original American Falls Dam was constructed.