Staying home from church - again

DH went to work this morning, and was supposed to call home when he got there.

He forgot. I think the cold weather froze his thoughts in mid-air. LOL

I talked to him, and he wasn't sure if I should go to church this morning or not. We live on a "hill" - it's a mountain - and from our house to Main Street is all down hill, and the roads were still slick. Like this angle \ . Ok - maybe not quite that steep, but close.

Seeing that the car isn't 4-wheel drive, I opted to stay home. I might be able to navigate down the hill, but coming home might be a different story.

I'm going to miss McDonald's for lunch. Too bad they don't deliver.

Taking a Break

I am pretty sure I'll be taking a break from FB. And from the local chat boards. I just have to.

I find my day too filled up with who, what, where and why, and not enough time is going to things I need to do. Like take down the Christmas tree. Or start on one of any bazillion projects I need to do.

I'm going to move my laptop from the living room to my bedroom. That should help some.

Next year, I am seriously planning to go with my husband and kids to Disneyworld. I have to be generating some money if that is the case. I've found a couple more projects to do to make some money.

Pillowcase Dresses - they are as beautiful as the fabric chosen, and should be an easy assembly line project. I think this one is very cute.

Aprons - I found a simple pattern that I really like, and again, the fabric will be key. And I can use an assembly line technique.

And my felt food. I have 2 or 3 sets already cut out; I need to start sewing.

I've already ordered some fabric for the dresses. I want to go to Joann's to look for apron fabric. I need to figure out a place to set up my machines. I need to inventory my thread. Once the fabric arrives for the dresses, I need to purchase ribbon for the ties.

I am hoping I can make enough money to pay for the majority of the cost of the trip.

We'll see!

Fired up

So I could post this on my burns me up blog, but it's part of my day, so here it is.

One of my former students is a friend on FB. He's a liberal Democrat. I love him - he's a responsible dad and husband. He has a sweet personality - usually.

Last night he posted that disgruntled right-wingers crack him up. I posted that I'm past disgruntled. Another student from that school posted that the right is only concerned about their taxes and not helping the poor like Christ did.

I find that very judgmental, and completely false. My husband and I give generously to charities, and we give regularly to our church. We gave more last year than Joe Biden gave in multiple years - about 17x's what he gave in fact. We gave more last year than Obama gave in multiple years - before he was a politician and realized his giving would be public record.

If the government would tax us less, we could give more to charities we choose - personally. I believe that giving my own money directly to a charity or to a person shows Christ's love much more than expecting the government to do it for me.

The Wind is Blowing!

Wow. 50 mph gusts. And when the wind isn't gusting it's a steady 25 mph. But it isn't super cold so it's kind of refreshing.

My kids.

Some days they drive me absolutely nuts. But then they say or do something that cracks me up, and I think I'll keep 'em a little longer.

Last night when we pulled the pizza cardboard with sauce out of the oven, I put some sugar cookies in. DH took them out, and set them on the porch to cool. Little Boy and Baby got very upset, and DH and I mentioned that we hoped the deer wouldn't smell them. The deer could come up on our porch and gobble them up.

Little Boy started hollering, and Baby started crying. I told them we were joking but she kept it up. "Now our cookies are going to freeze TO DEATH!"

She can be so dramatic.

Like when I tucked her into bed for her nap. She left her large, black horse in the living room. I told her it was Fluffy Ruffy's turn anyway. She started crying. I asked why. "Because it's Fluffy Ruffy's turn, but I LOVE my horsie! I told her she could play with the horse when she woke up. The tears stopped and she snuggled with her doggie.

Little Boy is looking especially tired; such big dark circles under his eyes. I hope he's not getting sick. Like I'm afraid I am. :0(

WHAT was THAT?!

Ok, I'm going to confess something. Sometimes I'm not the bravest person at night when DH is working last shift.

Saturday night I went to sleep LATE. I was up late, and I looked at the clock. It was almost time to check Little Boy's blood sugar. So I decided to just lie down. When the alarm went off, it scared me half to death. I checked his sugar, and went back to bed.

But about 5:30 am Sunday morning, I heard a noise that woke me up. I could hear a guy's voice. I laid there listening; maybe it was my imagination. But no, I could hear it still. I opened Little Boy's door to see if it was him. No. I opened Baby's door - maybe a toy was talking. No. But I could hear it standing in the hall. It had to be in the garage. Couldn't they hear me walking around? I called DH at work. I was quite freaked out. He told me I could always get the gun. And we hung up. And I didn't hear the voice anymore.

Did they hear what DH said? Was it a toy that just quit? If it was a toy, why did it start talking in the first place? So I laid there in bed with the phone in one hand, and a gun in the other. Wide awake. Eventually I dozed off, just as DH got home. We've determined it was a talking bank the kids got for Christmas from G & G that is still in a box in the garage. I should have gone down and shot it.

Last night when I went to bed, the wind was blowing pretty hard. The wind was making the house creak. After I checked Little Boy's blood sugar, I had a hard time relaxing. Did I just hear the side door on the garage close? Great. I had the phone in my hand again. And just as I was dozing, I heard a loud crash. I couldn't place what the noise could be. It wasn't glass. It wasn't wood. It sounded like a plastic toy or ornament being stepped on and crushed? I laid there, scared, watching the bedroom doorway. DH HAS to put a security door between the garage and basement if I'm ever going to sleep peacefully. (It's just a wooden interior door.) I finally fell asleep. And this morning, I was in bed, waiting for DH to come home, listening to Baby jabber away at me. She had to go to the bathroom. And it dawned on me. The little toilet seat she sits on must have fallen.

Good grief, people.

Wind and Rain

That's what I'm listening to right now. The rain is hitting the window and the wind is making a roaring sound in our chimney. And I can hear the clanging of the flag clips on the flagpole - our patriotic wind chime. In the kitchen, Greta van Susteren is talking about something.

And I don't hear my children.

And it's about time.

It's been a long day.

Lasagna hurts my back

Ok, so lasagna doesn't hurt my back, but standing in the kitchen for a very long time cooking lasagna does.

But everyone loved it, again. And I love that I have a baking dish in the freezer with more lasagna rolls for a future date.

We got snow the last couple days, but then it rained. There was a coat of ice on top of the snow. Made a fast track for the kids on the sled. But that proved to be a little dangerous. Thankfully neither child lost an eyeball when they ran into Grandma and Granddad's shrubs.

We ran up the mountain this morning to get cat food. Expensive, gourmet cat food. Venison & Green pea in a can. Stinkin' cat. I'd sure like some venison, but I'm not about to touch THAT.

And tonight we're playing Wii - with the "Wii man". LOL

Funny Son

Little Boy got up from his nap, and told me that he wants to do schoolwork.

I looked at him with a startled expression.

"Are you sick?"

"No. I'm just nuts."


NO KIDDING. IT'S HEREDITARY, KID!

Monday...

I was awakened this morning by my son crawling into bed between my husband and me. He was wiggly from the start, and was trying to get more elbow room. Well, we have a full-size bed. There's not much elbow room, as small as my husband is. It wasn't long before he became somewhat claustrophobic and left. Baby woke up, and soon they were in our room, next to the bed. They came to say good-bye.

"Huh?"

"We're leaving today; we're moving to Grandma and Granddad's house."

I don't know why, but this hurt. I remember wanting to move to my grandparents' house, but I think I had more to run from. So I played along.

Here are my dear children, leaving home. You can’t see what they are carrying, but they did make sure to take a couple pair of undies, a stuffed animal to sleep with, and a couple little toys. And Baby took her pink feather boa.



















"BYE!"

They were home for lunch.

DH has been pretty faithful about working out/playing on the Wii Fit+. Here he is hulla-hooping with the kids. Precious.

Today the Dish Network guy came – 5 minutes after DH left for work. Perfect timing, huh? DH decided to get a DVR through the dish. The one we have is full of recordings. We now have another 359.9 hours of hard drive space. And a new remote to learn.


I think we need another remote. Or two.

Seriously gotta get serious

if I'm going to lose weight before the middle of August!

I've lost just under 5 lbs. in the last 3 weeks. That's not fast enough. I need to get moving, and I need to figure out what to do in the middle of the afternoon and late evening when I get the munchies. Tonight I ate some carrots. Fine. It worked, but I don't think they will satisfy me every day. And what if I turn orange like Baby did when she was tiny? I tried to find a picture of her to link, but I can't get to it from my laptop. Ugh. But I'll find one.

My list of things to do and get whipped into shape just keeps getting longer.

Did I say ugh?

Running the Race

I teach a Sunday school class that is a bit unique. I have students who are 2nd-6th grades. I usually have 1-2 boys who come regularly, and occasionally have a couple sisters who come.

I also don't enjoy the Sunday school curriculum that the church uses. So I write my own lessons.

Our lessons are revolving around the verse in Hebrews that tells us to lay aside every weight, and the sins that drag on us so that we can finish the race.

I feel an object lesson coming on...

Jamming and Twirling

A good laugh

Little Boy just told Baby, "Pretend that you're actually a normal person..."

I laughed and they both just looked at me like, "What?!"

Oh boy!

What's for supper?

So what do you make for supper when you are sick? Daddy already fixed frozen pizza for lunch.

I think we might go with chicken nuggets, or something else that is easy and not too stinky pungent fragrant.

But what I'd really like to eat is this:

Simple Chicken Noodle Soup in a crock pot

1 chicken in pieces (3-4 leg/thigh quarters) I take off the skin & as much fat as I can
2 Chicken bullion cubes or 2 cups chicken broth
2 quarts water (less 2 cups if you use broth)
1 T. salt
¼ tsp. Pepper
1 onion, chopped
1 carrot, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
¼ c. fresh parsley
½ tsp. Marjoram or basil
1 bay leaf
6 oz. Wide Egg Noodles

Directions: Place all ingredients except noodles in the crock pot. Cover and cook on low for 5-6 hours. Remove chicken and bay leaf. Take meat off the bones & dice – return meat to the pot. Add noodles. Cook ½ hour on high.

We buy the large bag of leg/thigh quarters from Wal-mart. Great with garlic cheese biscuits (recipe on Bisquick box).

Would anyone volunteer to come make this? I don't think I could stand that long. Blah.

Not feeling so great

I got up this morning and didn't feel wonderful, but a mom's job is never done... So I got up. While I was checking email, I felt a cold sweat come over me. And I tagged DH - his turn. He's on 2nd shift this week, so I went back to bed, and let him deal with the kids. The very loud kids. Who decided to sword fight with lincoln logs. @@

I should have closed the bedroom door and put earplugs in my ears.

I got up close to noon and got a shower. I'm feeling a bit better, but I'm very thankful it's almost naptime.

It's not that far into the month, and I have missed a couple days of my 365 project. But I did get some cute pictures. I'm going to keep trying.

Here are the kids after eating pizza at lunch - making "big eyes".

You might be asking yourself, "Why is Little Boy curled up on the floor like that?"

Here's why:

Haiti

Tragic what is happening in Haiti.

But after offering up a quick prayer, I got online and applied some action and made a donation through Samaritan's Purse.

Samaritan's Purse delivered its first shipment of relief supplies yesterday.

Here's their article:

Catastrophic Earthquake Hits Haiti

The first Samaritan’s Purse cargo plane arrived in Haiti Wednesday with emergency relief supplies for victims of the massive earthquake that rocked the country on Tuesday. The initial shipment included shelter material, hygiene kits, and water purification kits, as well as members of our disaster response team.

Our team is comprised of veterans of many disaster responses, but even they were shocked by what they encountered when they arrived.

“The streets are full of people that have no home to go back to,” said Dr. David Gettle, medical advisor. “They’re running out of food, fuel, and water. The situation is desperate and tense, and there is tremendous suffering.”

Samaritan’s Purse deployed a disaster response team just hours after one of the strongest earthquakes to hit the Caribbean in decades to help with water, shelter, medical care, and other emergency needs.

“The damage is staggering in a nation where three out of four people live on less than $2 a day,” Samaritan's Purse President Franklin Graham said. “The people of Haiti need our help like never before.”

We are partnering with HCJB Global, a medical ministry out of Ecuador that will be sending six doctors to join Dr. Gettle. The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association is deploying chaplains from its Rapid Response Team to help our team meet spiritual needs.

Staff with Baptist Haiti Mission, our local partner, report severe damage throughout the area. Power is out, and there is no water.

"It's overwhelming," said Kyrk Baker, director of operations for Baptist Haiti Mission. "We have a 100-bed hospital, and right now patients are lining the floor. There are big box vans coming in with people to see a doctor. It's just unbelievable the amount of people that are lined up trying to get basic medical care."

Baptist Haiti Mission is located in the mountains outside the capital of Haiti, Port-au-Prince, about 20 miles from the epicenter. The hospital and other buildings are operating on generators.

The massive 7.0 magnitude earthquake was the strongest to hit the country in 200 years and was felt as far away as Cuba. The tremor sparked widespread panic as it brought down buildings including the presidential palace, hotels, a hospital, and the UN headquarters in Port-au-Prince.

The city “is flattened,” said Haiti's consul general to the U.N., Felix Augustin. The death toll could be between 45,000 and 50,000, with a further three million people hurt or homeless, a senior Haitian Red Cross official said on Thursday.

The earthquake was centered about 10 miles west of Port-au-Prince, the U.S. Geological Survey said. The quake was felt in the Dominican Republic, which shares a border with Haiti on the island of Hispaniola. Some panicked residents in the capital of Santo Domingo fled from their shaking homes.

Samaritan's Purse responded in Haiti with emergency food and shelter material in September 2008, when four major storms including Hurricane Ike slammed the Caribbean nation.

“Being able to help people in a time of need demonstrates Christ's love,” Baker said.

Armoire

This may be our next big purchase.

Or something similar.

Sometimes Christmas gifts are expensive.

What I can do

I can only do what I can do.

That may be a cop-out. Or I may just be giving myself permission to not be the perfect person my head (Satan?) keeps telling me I should be. And I'm trying to not live a life of guilt for falling short.

So my Christmas cards will go out in the middle of January.

My Christmas tree will be put away after the Christmas cards are done.

I won't feel guilty for taking my daughter out to eat after ballet instead of going to the Ladies' Fellowship meeting.

I won't beat myself up, or allow anyone else to beat me up, for not taking my kids to Wednesday night church.

There are many other things that I look at every day that need to be done or taken care of or cleaned, and I'm giving myself permission to get to them when I get to them.

Right now I'm focusing on losing weight, keep my son on track in homeschooling, and spending enough time with my daughter.

I feel like my husband is getting the leftovers. Poor guy.

Epiphany?

I've been really determined to lose weight this year. I was thinking about how difficult things are for my 6 year old son to deal with. He has to... wait for it... wash his hands before each meal. Some days he acts like I'm asking him to do something very difficult.

Not so terrible, but then he has to poke his finger, squeeze out a drop of blood and test it with his meter. OUCH. And after DH and/or I calculate his carbs, he gets a shot of insulin before he eats. He acts like that doesn't even faze him, but I know it must sting at the very least.

And realistically or not, we expect him to do this without fussing.

So if I can ask all this of my son, I can control the food that goes into my mouth!

I need to type this out and post it with a picture of the dress from my last post, this pic, and Philippians 4:13 on every flat surface in my kitchen to remind me.

My goal and reward

I want to lose weight this year. But it's so hard! I fix food for the kids and sample as I plate it. I snack without realizing it. But I found this dress last night. Our 10 year anniversary is this year. If I can get down to a size 18, I am going to reward myself with this dress. It is totally ME.

Frustration

School.

Son.

Reading.

Crying.

Yelling.

Threats.

Completion.

Lunch.

Naptime!

Ahhhh.

Cranky

So I have what the kids have been kindly sharing with me. And my head hurts. And I have NO patience. But I'm aware of it, and I'm trying to be kind.

But I haven't been overly successful.

"Little Boy - I'd like you to..."

"NO."





Patience flew out the window.

Thankfully, it's naptime. For all of us.

Maybe Daddy will fare better when he gets home.

Truth or Lie?

I told my son I didn't want him to play with his Playdoh until he felt better. I told him I'm afraid he'd get germs in it, and then the next time he played with it, he'd get sick again.

I did a quick Google search, and didn't find anything definitive.

Was that the truth, or am I just avoiding that nasty stuff?

I guess a better question is: "Do I care?"

LOL

Brrrrr

I've been happy that we have snow on the ground. But today was COLD. I don't remember the last time it was this cold, but that could just be because I can't remember well. :0P I had to go grocery shopping, and I about froze putting stuff into the Explorer. It's 10 degrees here, but we have 25+ mph winds. Making it well below zero. One of the neighbors was commenting to me before Christmas about the weather/snow. Then he stopped himself and said, "But you're used to this." Yeah. Right. 10 years ago. I don't know that I'm used to it, but I'm much less impressed than locals, I guess.

Did I say, "Brrrrr"?

New Backgrounds

I put new backgrounds on my blogs. It just felt like a good way to start the new year.

So many things I need to work on improving this year.

But I'd say one of the major ones is losing weight. I just cannot stand it.

I had DH order some Reliv weight loss stuff for me. So it looks like I'll be "eating" shakes a couple times a day for awhile.

I just hope I can stick to it.

Inspired

My friend Bessie has started her Project 365. Every day she takes a picture of herself.

She's inspired me. I'm going to try to do my own Project 365 - a pic of each of my kids every day. Or a pic of them together. But at least one every day. We'll see how well it goes.

Christmas pics

So I spent about 3 hours yesterday (might be a bit of an exaggeration) waiting for pictures to upload into Photobucket. I even downloaded Firefox to see if Explorer was the problem. And I put the pics into a slideshow and waited for the slideshow to load. And put it here.

And this morning realized I put the Tinkerbell pic in twice.

OH WELL.

We had a very nice Christmas, and the kids were both very well-behaved for most of the day.