Budding musician!

They say that music truly helps calm the soul and sparks the imagination. They also say that it helps young children's nerve endings connect together in their brain causing them to be mighty bright one day! Well, you watch the video. Does it calm your nerves? Do you believe he will be a mighty bright one soon?

I do! I was priviledged to vacation with my friend way down south and her three children. The youngest boy is a talented artist (stemming from his Mom & Dad). His mother told me more than one time that she was frustrated because he plays drums with everything. She was not lying or exxagerating one bit. He truly plays drums with your hands, other toys, utensils (while sitting in a resteraunt or at home), and anything else. He is truly a child prodigy. The reason I think that is cause he is just so very cute! Bryce, this is for you!

Snow and Ice!!!!

The other two were inside still finishing up school when Isabella wanted to go outside in the raining sleet!

I am part of the country that received the snow and ice, but mainly ice. It sleeted and sleeted and sleeted some more! It iced in the whole town and a whole lot of us had yesterday "off". Well sort of! My children still had school (I know my kids were bummed too!). Since our school is officially at home, we had nowhere to go and hunkered down with our books. We mainly stayed in the living room with the fireplace going. It kept us warm for the most part. The school room and the girls room face north and the windows (are cheap) keep the air from rushing in but allows it to be about 5 to 7 degrees below the temp of the house. That makes it about 65 degrees in those rooms (yes that is cold for some of you who keep your house at that temp). Mike stayed home and did some projects around the house. The kids ran, slid, jumped, fell, skied, and played out in the sleet several times. Hot chocolate was the drink of the day! We all had fun and it was a nice middle of the week unwinding time compared to our normally very busy days!

Last week in review . . .

Get up, get up, get up out of bed,
rub the sleepiness out of them,
fix breakfast, pack clothes, pack the car,
and it's off to Gail's we gooooo...

We drive, we drive, and we drive some more
stop here, stop there, nobody has to pee anymore
but snacks and drinks and movies galore
we drive, we drive, and we are finally there...

Eat this, eat that, can you say some FAT
hug kids, play with Bryce, and hug my friend
walk to park, walk back, can you say exercise
brush teeth, change clothes, and it's off to bed

Get up again and revive yourself
for another drive to another town
feed ducks, feed geese, and toomie loomie
Pick up mom, feed the pelicans and drive some more
to a place where we finally feed ourselves

Mexican food, sweedish pancakes,
chicken & grapes, and barbeque
Dare we say brownies and oreo cake!
I'm stuffed and stuffed and stuffed some more

Lots of laughs, lots of fat, lots of hot air,
some tears, some shares, some chasing Bryce
Some drums, some kids in arguements,
some more driving and a very long and boring field trip

But alas the week the was over
and packing and cleaning was done again
When in my white chariot I did spring to drive and drive
and drive some more, to repeat more stops, more snacks, more drinks.
I think I'm home to stay awhile!

What a blast!

Friday Foto

Dieting or not?

I received for Christmas a cookbook called "Eat Well, Lose Weight" by Better Homes and Gardens. No somebody wasn't trying to tell me something, I had actually asked for it. Sometime in the first week of December my husband's doctor said his cholesterol was out of whack! (way out of whack) and that he needed to take medicine and diet and exercise to lower. Something about the fact that he had over a 100% chance of having a heart attack got to him and he has been doing so very wonderful on his Glycemic Index diet (some kind of diet that helps control the fatty acids that lead to cholesterol and it helps lower your cholesterol as well). So I've been half-heartedly doing this myself, knowing self control around the holidays doesn't go over well with me and also because I'm going to see a friend who cooks way good food (all my friends do, hasn't rubbed off on me just yet, but they are working on it) and I'm sure to gain weight back. Although I'm not necessarily losing any weight, I am eating healthier. Salads here and there, fish about once a week, and such. Now back to my cookbook. Early last week I made Apple Griddle Cakes (apple pancakes) and I thought (Mike did too) that they were yummy! My kids all turned up their noses. However yummy they were I decided to twist the recipe just a bit, trying to get my kids to like it and added strawberries instead of apples, applesauce instead of oil, and a teaspoon of vanilla. I had them this morning. My oldest Daughter liked them, my son said with LOTS of syrup he would like them (defeats he purpose of them being healthy) and my youngest well she turned her nose up once again. I thought they were extra yummy and I had two! (200 cal/ 4 g of fiber ea! and without oil and only egg whites no cholesterol). So I thought I would post my picks here of my beautiful strawberry griddle cakes and the recipe is below, happy eating!

1 cooking apple (jonathan or granny smith) (or any kind of fruit) (about 1 cup finely chopped)

3/4 cup whole wheat flour (I use also about 1/4 regular flour added to it)

1 tablespoon sugar (I used splenda)

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/8 tsp salt

3/4 cup fat free milk

1 egg white

2 tablespoons canola oil (I substituted unsweetened apple sauce)

nonstick cooking spray

In a small bowl combine your dry ingredients, stir. In another bowl combine your wet ingredients, whisk, combine both and stir until smooth. Add fruit. Cook just like a pancake. Add whatever topping you want (I added applesauce on top when I had the apples and no sugar added Strawberry jelly on the strawberry ones).

Yummy!

New Years Resolutions

I received a very belated Christmas note the other day that bordered on a Happy New Year's letter. The letter caused me to really think about the New Year. Not the unknown about it, but the resolution of it. Every year even though I say I'm not declaring a resolution this year, I do anyway. It is usually something along the lines of dieting, exercising, and growing in the Lord that year. I'm always quick to write in my journal and dedicate it to the Lord as my contribution for the year. Do I keep them? I never stayed on a diet more than 3 years. I never exercised consistently more than a year and a half. I guess I could say I kept them some years, but mostly no, I do not consistently keep my declarations for very long.
So I thought about why I did this and does it mean anything to me. I mean what can I make of 2008 and what changes for 2009? Certainly 2008 was a year of numbness for me. A year that was spent missing my mom, missing my friends, praying fervently for my husband as he battles his hardest year in the ministry thus far and trying desperately to make it to the end of what seemed to be a very long and hard year. 2009 burst open with many surprises and has many things laying out there for me to grab ahold of, but have I? I celebrated my mom's promotion (going to heaven is that you know) with tears of joy, not sadness. I've reorganized and have truly started taking my time with each child bringing them along in their school subjects and spurring them on to harder ones. My house is mostly clean and we are running along smoothly, but that is where I must stop! Do I want to run smoothly or do I want to be challenged? Have I committed my way to the Lord or have I asked Him to commit His way in me? My answer, the first.
My heart still needs healing over the great loss in my life, our church still needs so much prayer and we need to change out of our apathy to a great revival asking Him to change us. So today, after being inspired by another persons resolutions, I asked myself some very hard questions. What is resolution anyway? It is being firm in my purpose! Am I firm in my purpose, not hardly. So my resolution this year, is to ask Him to commit His way in me and be firm in that purpose He has stated! What is that, I don't know as of yet, but I do believe I'm finally on the right track! What is your resolution? Seek Him and His righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you! Matt 6:33

My age!

You thought maybe I would actually tattle on myself and tell my real age? Think again (just joking). As you have guessed by now the kids got a Wii for Christmas. They have had a blast. We were having a Wii Sports day when I clicked on the Wii fitness and lo and behold it test you and then scores you and predicts your age according to how you did. Ha! This was funny. Sarah scored the best at age 39! I did the next best at age 47, Isabella at 70, and Zech 73. Since this little fitness test the kids keep trying their fitness age and they have considerably lowered their scores. I've only been able to make it to 40! We have continued to laugh and laugh at this and trying our best to get Daddy to do this, but he hasn't as of yet. We'll see. . . but I probably won't tattle on his age. All the kids are in the lower 30's now although they haven't even seen their 20's and one of them just turned double digits. Too funny, but they'll keep trying. We will see if they are ever their right age or not.

Friday Fotos!

The girl cousins spending their Build-a-Bear gift cards!

Isabella got an eyemask for Christmas, she loved it!

"Look what I got!"

Oh, my little Aggie fan!? He's turning into his dad!

Ramblings . . .

As I sit here this morning and recall the past 7 days of 2009 . . .

We drove home from vacation on the 2nd only to receive a phone call from a church member whose mother had just gone to be with Jesus, I was reminded once again the chaotic life we live in. We were no longer home than an hour and Mike and I had just commented that we liked the past 2 weeks of being with family and the relaxed schedule we were on when the call came in and Mike was a Pastor again. Saturday was taking all the Christmas decorations down (which my kids and hubby surprised me and did most of the work themselves while I went grocery shopping) and cleaning quite a bit. Sunday was the Lord's day and back teaching Sunday School and taking the kids to Childrens Choir and Bible Drill and lunch out with the family whose mother passed away. I did squeeze in my nap though. Monday, with the kids pitching in, we cleaned all the bedrooms, bathrooms, vacuumed all the floors, swept and mopped the tile floors, and assimilated Christmas presents to their new found storage places. Tuesday was the eye doctor for me and getting school ready for the next several weeks and the last nine weeks report cards. They all did well with all of them making all A's and one B! They did great and they earned some more time on their Wii. A friend came over to fix some computer problems and then Gammi and Poppi came in too! Gammi and Poppi stayed through this morning and they are finally headed home from their long vacation up north. -16 degrees was the normal temperature where they were. Brrr. . . . they are glad to be headed south again. We also started back to school yesterday and it was a lot like beating my kids heads against the wall with the fact they haven't touched anything schoolwise in 2 weeks. However they did and did great. We Wii fitness tested ourselves yesterday with Sarah being 39, mom being 47, Isabella being 70, and Zech 73! That was way too much fun. Now all of us have sore right arms from playing the Wii everyday! So the last 7 days in a nutshell and the next few, well let's just say we are back to our chaotic lifestyle again. More school, basketball game, another funeral, the doctorate paper is still being written, house to still clean, more laundry that never gets finished, and much, much more!

Can you figure out what my kids got for Christmas?

I had to video an excited bunch of children during Christmas Eve morning (that's when we have our family Christmas. This is classic and loved the fact that I got it on video, hope you enjoy!