One of THOSE days

     Have you ever had one of those days where you felt like this:

 

Source Google Images

     When in all reality you wanted to act like this:



Source Fandango

    And by the grace of God you hit somewhere in the middle, well, at least you hope you did.  :)

     Parenting  can be a challenge and sometimes I need to take a deep breath- a long, deep breath.  Then I need to pause and pray, and ask the Lord for wisdom, and beg Him to control my tongue.  Sharp words can pop out of my mouth faster than my brain can process them, this is an area I struggle.  I desperately want to be a Mary Poppins mom, when my children fuss and fight I want to break into song and gently rebuke them.

    The simple fact is I'm not a Mary Poppins mom.  I screw up.  I get frustrated.  I over parent. I under parent.  I'm not perfect, and it's okay.   The point is not for me to be perfect.  God wants me to be a woman who seeks Him first and my own desires second.  He wants me to equip my children to be Christ followers who love God and others.  He knows I will screw up, and He can use my messes for His good.  When I mess up my job is to humble myself, seek His forgiveness first, and then seek the forgiveness of others.  When I humble myself I honor God, and my children learn how to be humble and ask forgiveness when they mess up.  They are able to recognize no one is perfect- we are all sinners saved by grace.  I'm thankful for the lessons God teaches me and my children.

  

Blessings to you and yours!

  

Can't Find Fat Tuesday

   Happy Tuesday evening to you!  I'm having quite the quandary tonight,  I have been mentally preparing to participate in a link party for Fat Tuesday for at least seven days now.   Now that I am preparing my first post I canNOT find the link! (insert annoyed face)  Poor me, alas, I will post all alone- no parties for me.

   Fat Tuesday news:
   
      1.  I restarted the Flat Belly Diet on Monday.  I have been mentally starving since.  Note to self:  Keep on your eating plan, it's yummy, and so much easier to follow when you don't cheat.

      2.  Next Monday I am joining a "friendly" Biggest Loser competition.  I plan to annihilate my competition.  My best friend informed me that we are supposed to support and encourage each other in our weight loss goals.  That's nice.  I still plan to annihilate the competition. 

     3.  I will NEVER blog my weight.  EVER.

    4.   My gorgeous, thin sister-in-law asked if I was going to start exercising this round.

 PLEASE.  I would rather starve.  Yes, it's true I loath exercise.

     5.  I will be posting my weight loss, in pounds, every Tuesday for the next 12 weeks.  I will not post my actual weight (just incase you missed #3).

It was a LOT.

Now it's less.



The plan is to be 25 pounds less.

Blessings to you and yours!

Gratitude

  Christmas vacation is over, and I am already overwhelmed with responsibilities on the horizon- homeschooling, work, wifely duties, mom, friend, accountability partner, etc.   I am a planner by nature so I tend to run months ahead of myself and rarely enjoy the moment I am in, but that is not how I want to live this year.  I want to be full of gratitude, living in the moment, and not in the future.  I want to experience the joy of the  moment,  and not get ahead of myself worrying about  the future.

   Today I was reading Matthew 6:25-34, and it occurred to me that often my planning comes in the form of worry.  I plan a little for the future and worry a lot.  Verse 34 really stuck out to me: 

 "Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.  Each day has enough trouble of its own."  Matt. 6:34, NIV

   What really struck home is that I can plan for tomorrow, that is all well and fine, what I need to refrain from is worrying about tomorrow.   Tomorrow has enough worries for itself,  I will be present and engaged in today. 

   Today and every Monday from now on I will be linking up with  Multitudes on Monday- One Thousand Gifts,  a link party hosted by Ann Voskamp .    My goal is to have a gratitude list reaching a 1,000 by January 1, 2010.  Here's this weeks list:

      

         1.  Hot coffee made by my sweet husband in the morning.

         2.  Snow forts & snow covered little girls.

         3.  A son who is making progress (by leaps and bounds) in reading.

         4.  A chocolate haired girl who asks for my advice.

         5.  Family movie night.

         6.  A husband that reads his bible.

I think this picture is so cute- I couldn't resist.

         7.  Grandmas and their stories.

         8.  Good book's and flickering candles.

Blessings to you and yours!

Decorating Fever

  Does anyone else have the after Christmas decorating/ shopping bug?  I definitely do, though I probably shouldn't do any shopping.  I want to redo my whole house. 

         There's that dresser in Grace's room, from our dear friends Nancy and Gene,  that needs sanded and painted white.

     And if I'm going to paint the dresser I probably should repaint her room pale pink.  And if I'm going to paint her room I should try my hand at installing some crisp white bead board to really make the room POP.

Then there's the dresser that's in Christian's room that I want to paint dark blue and then distress it. 

I should mention that this particular dresser is the first piece of furniture Sandy and I bought together.  We found it at a little second hand store in a neighboring town for $50.00.  I've been meaning to paint it for the last 14 years.

   To add to my shopping/decorating debacle I had to go and read Traditional Home's Holiday issue.  Seriously, why am I torturing myself? 

Source: Traditional Homes



     I rolled across this article and now I can barely contain myself from heading out to Hancock's and loading up on glorious amounts of ribbon. 

Traditional Home 2010 Holiday issue.

    Just image how I could jazz these babies up with some turquoise and jewel toned green ribbon.  Hummm...it is only 4:15, I could head over to Hancock's.

Note the hideous white and gray tile in our bathroom.  Hummm...we could retile the bathroom.

   Alas, I should not, so I will decorate my mantel with what I have on hand.



   We put away all of our Christmas decorations, except my favorite Costco trees.  I realize they don't really go with my grass vases, yet I don't care, because I really like them.  I plan to keep them out until January 30th, and then they will be tucked away in the Christmas vault (garage rafters).

   These candle stands were blah by themselves, so I added some candle rings that I picked up at Micheal's for 75% off.  (No, I didn't go out today, or I would have grabbed some ribbon, too.)  I used my favorite scarf as an accessory to add another pop of color.  Fun, easy and  free- just the way Sandy likes me to decorate.

   Checkout more fun, frugal ideas at the Frugal Friday link party at the The Shabby Nest  or the Winter Mantel Party from The Stories of A to Z.

Blessings to you and yours!

10 Random and Fairly Useless Facts

1.  The year of 2010 was my favorite New Years Eve ever!  Sandy wanted us to hangout as a family, so we canceled plans with friends and stayed home.  We had a "feast" made up of snacks and other delicious easy prep stuff from Costco.  Then we watched movies and missed bringing in the New Year by about 30 seconds. 

2.  Costco is my favorite store, period.  

3.  I LOVE my husband!  Our life hasn't been perfect,  it's been full of challenge and character building moments, but there is no one I would rather live this crazy life with than him!

4.  I like exclamation points.  Don't over analyze this statement.

5.  Parenting is much harder than I expected, but worth it. 

6.  Gracie has a hilarious knack for telling people exactly what her dad thinks of them.  The only problem is she doesn't always relay information correctly. 

7.  Sandy and I took the kids and some of their friends skating today, we're crazy I know.  The day was fun, but my favorite part occurred when the D.J.  had kids 12 and under skate to a song by themselves, and then  anyone 13 and older got to skate to the next song.   All Sandy heard was, "anyone 13 and older can skate to this song".  He turns, grabs my hand and says, "come on hon, they just called our grade."  He cracks me up.

8.  My dog has an annoying habit of trying to bite random people he deems irritating.  Sometimes I think it's funny.

9.  One day I would like to write and publish a book, one that people will actually read.  My fear is that I over use commas.

10.  Grandma's are funny, endearing and particular ladies.   My Grandma H's birthday is in November, and I find gifts for her increasingly difficult to pick out.  So, being the gal I am, I gave my grandma a call and this is the conversation the ensued:

    Me:  "What would you  like for your birthday?"

Grandma:  "Well, my photo album is full, so I could use another one."

Me:  "Okay, anything else?"

Grandma:  "No, just make sure you get a small photograph album,  after all, we just don't know how much longer I'll be around."

Seriously, how do I respond to that?!   

Well there you have it- ten fairly useless and random facts.  Hope you enjoyed them.

Blessings to you and yours!

New Years Resolutions and other Nonsense

      In the year 2010 my New Years resolution was to lose 30 pounds, now mind you, that I have had the same New Years resolution for the last 10 years, and never ever came close to meeting this goal.  In fact, I may have, in past years, gained 30 pounds.  I would, in fact, blame this tragedy/ weight gain on my pursuit in the field of ministry.   I firmly believe somewhere in a random ministry handbook there is a section with a clause on weight gain, and to be in ministry you must put on at least 30 pounds your first year of ministry, or you have not properly shepherded your people and met the required daily Starbucks quota's.  Now some would disagree with me, but I have knowledge of this secret weight gain society. 

    Photo evidence.

 This picture was taken approximately two years after going into full time Children's Ministry.

 

      Okay, I may be stretching the truth a smidge, but only a smidge.  This year I actually completed my New Years resolution, it's a Christmas miracle, and lost 31 pounds.  Yippee!  I also learned an interesting fact-  if you increase your calorie intake by 300 calories a day you will put on approximately 30 pounds in a year.  Wowzers!   

This Christmas season.

   Alright, enough, out with 2010 and in with 2011.  This year I decided to up the stakes on resolutions and add a few more.  Here's the 2011 lineup:

Walk with God-   To be in the Word daily, to be praying for my family daily,  and to complete at least one women's bible study this year.

 Hubby-  To go on a date with my honey at least once a month.  To take a trip for   our 15th anniversary.  (Sandy, if your reading- hint, hint.)  :)

Weight loss-  To lose 20 more pounds and leave the other ladies who are joining the Biggest Loser challenge in the dust.  :)

   That's it for me folks! 

Blessings to you and yours!





It's a Snowman Party!

The weatherman was finally right, and we got loads and loads of snow!

      On account of our recent accumulation of snow I decided to have a snowman party with the cousins.  We started with lunch complete with snowman ham and cheese sandwiches!   Quick and easy was my theme for the day, well, in addition to the snowman theme. 

      Then the kids designed their own hot cocoa mugs.  I found these mugs at Micheal's for $.60 each-  they were 70% off!  Gotta love after Christmas deals.

         Then we headed outside to burn a little energy and have some fun in the snow.

      After an hour of romping in the snow hot cocoa is a must!  The kids enjoyed their hot chocolate and created donut hole snowmen for a yummy treat.  I got the donut hole snowman idea from  http://www.thestoriesofa2z.com/.

   To make donut hole snowmen you'll need:  one box of donut holes, one box of mini donuts, toothpicks,  one tube of black and one tube of orange decorating gel or frosting.  To make snowmen:  place mini donut on a plate, skewer one donut hole and attach to mini donut, add another donut hole for head and decorate! 

   The day was a blast, and even the big boys like decorating their snowman snack, though Christian informed me that the older kids wanted regular sandwiches not snowmen.  :)  This simple party was easy and super cheap to throw together.   I already had the sandwich supplies and spent about $10.00 on the supplies for the donut hole snowmen and crafts.  A wonderful fun day had by all!

Blessings to you and yours!