Kendrick Family Life and Adventures

A few years ago, I had a blog (which no longer exists...lol) and I had Thankful Thursday each week. I want to bring that back for several reasons. 1. To remind myself that there are so many things, no matter how small, to be grateful for. 2. To hopefully encourage others who may be having a difficult time. So, why don't you all join me? Let's each list 3 things that we are thankful for today! Today I am thankful that I am done with this semester in school. I accomplished what I wanted academically and even more than my initial goal for this semester. I am thankful for a family that loves me faults and all. They support me when I need it and know when to lay low when I am overwhelmed. My children offer to help when they see me stressed and though we can drive each other crazy at times I would never change it. I am thankful for the miracle that is life. Everyday there is something to look forward to. Whether it is a show, a book, a walk outside, checkin...

This post may not be for everyone, but I hope you continue to visit this page. I post about any and everything that interests me or may be on my mind. Right now, I have been struggling with stress and want to talk about that. Stress is by definition, the physical pressure, pull, or other force exerted on one thing by another; strain. The medical definition of stress is an organism's total response to environmental demands or pressures. These two definitions seem spot on to me. I currently feel like a pressure is on me and it is due to the demands of our current spot in life. Everyone has experienced stress in some form or another. How we deal with it is what matters. Some deal with it by shutting down and essentially going into denial. Some use aggression as a release. Some bottle it up until it manifests in become ill. Mentally and Physically. Some handle stress with a grace that is hard to understand. The latter is what I strive for. The only way that I remind ...

Hello All, I hope you all are having a good start to your week. Things have been busy here. This week is a busy one. The kids here are having there STAAR tests this week. So good luck to you all. I hope you do your best and have great results. Keonte was feeling confident about the tests this morning so hopefully he will do well. Cheyanne has been doing great in school. She has improved her grades from last semester and I am so proud of her. I have 2 more weeks of classes left this semester, so there is a lot of studying for finals. I will be glad when this semester ends. These 6 classes were doable but I am ready for a break. My plans for school for the summer are to CLEP a few classes and speed up my graduation time. Speaking about graduations, I want to congratulate my husband, Kevin, he will be graduating this Friday with 2 degrees. I am so proud of you babe! Quick updates on some of the projects here in the house: The homemade deodorant was a success. I have bee...

Hello All, I hope your week is starting off well. We had a great weekend and enjoyed a seminar at the jiu jitsu studio our son attends. The seminar was amazing and featured Bruno Bastos, who is a 4x World Champion in Jiu Jitsu and the studio is officially part of the Nova Uniao family now. This is a great accomplishment for the studio and I want to congratulate them on this big step. The Fu Fighters of RRBJJ The studio we attend Red River Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and the owner/teacher Ben Lozano are amazing. It is a family there. Everyone supports each other and encourages each other to do their best. Eventually our goal is to have all of us, the whole family, attending the studio as students and learn as much as we can. That brings me to the topic of today. Self-defense. We initially signed our son up because as most of you already know, he faced issues this year with racism and bullying and it really affected his self esteem. We wanted to put him in an activity that would bo...

Enjoying studying outside. Good Morning All, I have really enjoyed being in my backyard this week. I have been enjoying the flowers in hanging baskets, the roses blooming (were already here when we moved in), and the birds in the feeder. It has been a nice week. The garden is sprouting and everything but my peppers have seedlings. Even the pumpkin and potatoes are sprouting. The bush beans are thriving amazingly well. This container is Cukes, Squash, Bush Beans, and Sunflowers Potatoes Pumpkin I noticed two day ago though that something was eating my sunflower leaves. Some of them were eaten all the way down and I could not find the culprit. Poor sunflowers So, I researched a few organic homemade pesticides to try in the garden. Here are a few I found: Mineral Oil Mix 10-30 ml of high-grade oil with one liter of water. Stir and add to a spray bottle. This pesticide works by dehydrating insects and their eggs. ...

Hello All, I hope you are having a great week. We start a four day weekend today and are looking forward to the family time this weekend. We have been busy here in the Kendrick house the last few days. I finally got my big desk up and put together so once I get the computer set up at it, I will be able to work comfortably :) Oh, look what I found yesterday morning when the kids were waiting for the bus. It is a whole bird's nest; there were two eggs. Robin's nest? One was cracked and the other was on the ground. I do not believe this one is viable and I do not have an incubator, but it is interesting to look at. The nest is very intricately made. It is surprisingly heavy and the grass is patched and woven together with mud to make it very solid. I believe it is a Robin's nest since we have plenty of them in this area. They like the feeder in our backyard. Most of the work this week has been in the garden, though. We finally laid out the grid for the square-foot...

Good Morning All, I hope you all had a great weekend. This weekend we had a relaxing day at home Saturday and did absoultely nothing and then Sunday we went to church in the morning, did some shopping, and worked in the yard the rest of the afternoon and ended the day with dinner at The Feedlot (those in the Wichita Falls area should definitely check them out!) I am so excited to get the gardening under way and I wanted to talk about the method that I have chosen for my gardening. I like using the square-foot gardening method. You should google it. Essentially you make a 4x4 raised bed about 6" high and use a good soil mix. You can piece together your own or use the mix sold by the creator of the square-foot gardening method. I, of course, use my own. I made 3- 4x4 boxes this past week with landscape timbers that I found for less than $2 a piece at Home Depot and then lashed them together to make my boxes. I am doing 2- 3 timber high and 2- 2 timber high. The first thing I...