At Home With Chick-fil-A

For several years, Rinar and I lived in Atlanta, Georgia. It is the home of Chick-fil-A.  I love Chick-fil-A. As a kid, this restaurant was only found in a mall but in Atlanta, there was a drive-thru about one mile from my house.  I would go there at least once a month and that chicken sandwich was heavenly.

Then we moved to Nevada.  No Chick-fil-A...like, anywhere.  Seriously, I think the closest one was in Salt Lake City.  After several years, Rinar got a job where he would work half of the week in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The first thing I asked him when he started this new career adventure was if there was a Chick-fil-A in Albuquerque. I mean, the plane ride was only an hour long, so I figured he could bring one home to me every once in a while. And he did.  Plus, he would have done just about anything for me since I was pregnant at the time.

Sadly, Reno does not have one either. And every time we have driven to California, we always make it a point to stop at one of their restaurants in Sacramento. I have always thought that two hours away was not too bad. It is a heck of a lot closer than Salt Lake City.

But now I am free of the Chick-fil-A curse.  Why, you may ask? Is it because they are building one here in Reno?  Well, no.  I don't think so. But it really does not matter, thanks to my new favorite obsession, Pinterest.

A few weeks ago, a recipe popped up that said it was the secret Chick-fil-A concoction.  What!?! No way. I pinned that thing in about 1.3 seconds. And tonight, the recipe made it on to my menu plan.  I made Chick-fil-A chicken bites. And let me tell you...they were delicious.

Mine did not turn out as pretty as this picture, but they sure tasted like Chick-fil-A.



I think that my life is now complete.

Leaps and Bounds

I tell you, when you make a commitment to homeschool, it is just about getting the little things done every single day.  And so, we just keep moving forward.  Sometimes we crawl, but we move forward.

It has been a great blessing to have some help at the house. I realize I have not taken a picture of Mary. I will definitely do that when I get a chance again. But with her here on a consistent basis, we have been able to get a fairly steady routine going.  Yesterday, we hit the library for a change of scenery. We usually do this about once a week.  I am focusing on providing quiet areas for study and reflection.  The library is ideal for this objective and I can see good results from it.  The boys are learning lots of things on a daily basis.

They are doing really well and they are so smart.  I am a proud mama.

We also keep plugging away at violin and viola. Zach is currently still working on a Vivaldi in Book 5.  But he has also been challenged with a non-Suzuki piece called "Czardas" by Monti.  It is good stuff. Raef is wrapping up book 4, with a long concerto by Telemann.  

Zach's glasses broke about a month ago and the poor kid has been pretty blind since then.  I didn't think it was that bad. I finally got him into the doctor and sure enough, the vision has deteriorated quite a bit over the past year. Thanks to my wonderful, lovely, beautiful sister Heather, Zach is now back in the game.  She picked out a couple of pairs for him and put them in the mail.  I think they look great on my little brainiac.

And this was last Monday morning...yea, like I said. Thank goodness for Mary.

And then there are these wonderful moments.  Let me pause and reflect on these moments. It helps to boost my confidence.

And Zach has developed a new passion: cooking. He is taking a cooking class at Eagle Co-op and he loves it.  As soon as he got home from his first day, he whipped up these banana chocolate chip muffins all by himself. I really mean it. I didn't help him at all, besides testing them for delicious goodness when they were out of the oven. And believe me, the muffins were absolutely delicious.  

With every new ventured tried, you can see the confidence growing by leaps and bounds.  Right before my eyes, he is becoming a young man.

Our Monday Fun

I finally caved and pushed them on the swings yesterday. They really had fun. Me...not so much.

Last night Raef made our Family Home Evening dessert...whoopie pies. Julia was right there helping. She even put one of my aprons on.

Eli licked the bowl clean. I mean, he stuck his head in the bowl and licked it clean. I always dream of immersing my head in a bowl of chocolate batter.  That is living.

Zach Cooks

Zach is taking a cooking class at our homeschool co-op.  He absolutely loves it.  A few weeks ago they made dips and salads.  They give him the recipes for his own little recipe folder.  He carries the folder around everywhere and studies it.  

Therefore, a few weeks ago he wanted to go shopping with me so that he could buy ingredients to make us all "walk-amole".  I think he meant guacamole.  Sure enough, he did this all by himself.  

He followed it up with a pear salad the next night for Sunday dinner.  I love his exuberance and dogged determination.  Such a wonderful little boy.