Yesterday, Today, & Tomorrow

Not a whole lot going on besides the usual. The usual getting up very early, having quiet time with the Lord (such a wonderful time), getting the kids up, breakfast, get dressed, chores, start school, and all the blessed events throughout the day. Mike is working very hard on his doctorate (book). I'm so very proud of him but miss him being around. Isabella got her hair cut short. I'll post a pic on Friday Fotos. Sarah will take her first SAT test next week (practice) and Zech is plotting along and doing awesome in school. Enrichment (coop) is going well, piano practice beautiful, PE is shaping them up, and bible drill is filling their head with His knowledge. Sarah is practicing her spelling words at a break neck speed trying to spell all basic and challenge words before the bee March 7th! They are all painting, polishing, and testing out their cars for the Awana Grand Prix next month. Zech and Isabella are learning their lines and songs for a play this month as well. And last but not least is Bible drill happening the end of next month as well. We are busy, busy, so dreadfully busy!

Although we are busy as usual, God never lets me forget that even though today and tomorrow look different and even feel different, He is the same Yesterday, today, and tomorrow. In the midst of our chaotic lives, He holds my anchor and keeps me going. He is my surety and my strong shelter. I am reminded of a song: There are questions without answers, pains that never die, heartaches we go through are often blessings in disguise, so Thank you Lord, How could I ask for more? No matter how busy we are, the Lord is my blessing and my glue that holds it all together for me.

Surprise!

Ever since I brought a bundling 7 lbs 15 oz baby home from the hospital, Isabella has been a nightowl. The first six weeks she slept through the day and was up all night. Most people would tell me to wake her during the day, but I was so sleep deprived and taking care of my 3 and 2 yr old, I didn't want to. So I suffered immensly during that time, but she was and still is such a blessing to us, as all the kids have been. Well time went on and when she woke in the morning we used to rock with her. It was 30 min at the beginning and slowly (by the time she was 4) dwindled down to 10 min. every morning. She just never was a morning person. She would sleep in at times till 11:00 am if I let her and she isn't even a teenager yet! She is 10 years old and still that way.


So imagine my surprise coming in at 7:00 am in my usual routine to rub their backs and kiss them good morning (which usually results in a Grrrr from her) and get them going that she was up, bed made, and was getting dressed (they have to get dressed and bed made before they can come out for breakfast)!!!! I'm still kind of in shock over the whole thing. Not sure what did it, but it was very nice not to have a grumpy girl at the breakfast table. She was so proud of herself she kept smiling!



Have a great Morning!!!

Ramblings of a Healthier Eating Lady. . .

I know that it has been a long time between post but I must blame the fact that I'm consuming less and less "fat" (translation: great tasting foods), to consuming lots of fiber, fruits, vegetables, and lean meat. Maybe the fat that had gone to my brain is metabolizing into my body because it's pulling the fat from everywhere. I'm only 6 lbs lighter, but feeling better anyways.



I'm always amazed when I eat something these days that I refer to it as edible, palitable, yuck, or that is really good. I believe I'm amazed because "good for you food" isn't always "good tasting food". My favorites are my IBC diet root beer drinks and diet cherry limeaides (from sonic) to tide me over till dinner. Also I made a chocolate pie with a premade pie crust (not diet, but you don't eat very much of it each time), sugar free chocolate pudding, and fat free/sugar free cool whip blended together and poured into the pie! Yummy! I do the same with sugar free vanilla pudding (blending it with the ff/sf cool whip) and then topping it off with fruit. Those are yummy as well. My favorite dinner was Valentines night when I made kabobs and mashed cauliflower w/ boiled squash on the side. It was quite tasty and we all enjoyed it (except Isabella who wasn't feeling good that night) Out of all of us, Isabella seems to be the one who suffers the most because there isn't many "good" for you foods out there she enjoys except apples. She is learning little by little. Zech and Sarah seem to be adjusting well to all the new taste, but of course they all got chocolate for valentines and therefore have a great time gobbling those up after lunch or dinner (only once a day though).



The trick is adding exercise into my routine. I really would love to start walking but I just can't seem to fit it into my schedule. I get up at 5:00, take shower/bath, and start my quiet time by 5:30 every morning and usually end by 6:30. Then I check my emails and try to blog or check the blogs. After that it is 7:00 and time to wake the kids, get dressed, make bed, have breakfast, put my face and hair on, clean up a little and get ready for school. 8:30 school starts with group time and that is finished by 9:30 and then I do Algebra with Sarah until she is done which is usually around 1 hour late, but can take up to 2 hours. All the time in between I'm helping the other two, doing laundry, doing dishes, answering emails, whatever. Lunch comes at 12:00 and we have free time for an hour and my hubby comes home 2 to 3 times a week and I spend that time with him. After that more school and cleaning house and usually always extra curricular activities. That usually lands me home just in time for supper to be cooked. I have maybe 2 days out of the week that this doesn't happen. After supper is cleanup, getting ready for the next day, and family time. So where does exercise fit into all of this? I don't know. I know it needs to get done and I know you always make time for that which is important to you. Maybe it isn't important enough. Keep praying for me though and I'll get moving one of these days. I did ask for a Wii Fit for my birthday!

I promise I'll try to keep up the post more often but up above is my flimsy excuse for not posting so very much here recently.

Spelling Bee Champ!

Starting early in August we received the Scripps Spelling Bee challenge. Because the children had all done spelling bees and usually didn't do so well or were eliminated quickly, they frequently became discouraged. However last year, Sarah won Second Place in her junior high division and they all became excited. All of my children are fairly good spellers, never really having a problem with words, but the scripps words come from all languages that english has developed as part of our everyday words and they are very challenging even for the judges to pronunciate! So going back to my original sentence, we took on this challenge and the spelling words differently than ever before. They took 5 words a day from different languages and had to define them, write a sentence with them and say-spell-say the word 3 times. By Thursday they had studied 20 spelling words for that week and vocabulary mind you because of the definitions and such. On Friday we held a spelling bee in our house which quickly brought out the competitiveness in all my kids! Each week a new speller would emerge the winner and would get a candy bar, coke, or game time with Mom. Isabella was against her two siblings who were middle schoolers. She rarely won, but she tried very hard.

This brought us all the way to February for the spelling bee. We had a practice bee on January 31st and Isabella was eliminated both practice rounds the first time around. Sarah and Zech though continued battling each other after the others in their division misspelled for several rounds. Zech won both of those practice rounds.

Yesterday though in the official Homeschool Spelling Bee, Sarah became the middle school division champion! This was her last year to compete and therefore we are so very proud of her. She goes onto the regional bee at our local College on March 7th! Start praying for her now, she has her sights set on Washington DC!!!!!

Congrats Sarah, we are so very proud of you!

Eating healthy!

I have to admit that this year I'm going to turn 40! I don't seem to mind it but I am definitely seeing changes in everything. Reading seems to take focus as things are blurry for a while as my eyes are adjusting. I have a new ache it seems every week and another "problem" health wise pop its ugly head up. I also know that gravity seems to keep taking hold of all my body parts and unfortunately it seems to increase in numbers (weight) that it has to hold onto so it is pulling awfully hard now! Things are not where they used to be anymore (sigh!).

Therefore, I've decided I'm going to fight back with some healthy eating and some exercising. My friend (who will read this blog) is also blogging about her healthy eating and exercising as she is getting ready to turn 40 too! I read her blog and I laugh, so I thought, hey I can do this. But laughing I'm not doing today. I'm entering the phase I of the South Beach diet and going to try and stick to it this time. I'm not a fan of this phase, because there is NO sugar at all (definitely no CHOCOLATE)! No fruits to get that natural sugar or anything. Also those of you who know me and my wee bladder know that when I say I'm going to the bathroom more than usual should probably guess by now that I'm camping there, because I was there way often before dieting, now, I'm always there. Back to my dieting, every time I'm at the phase, I usually have very little energy and a lot of withdrawal and I'm already ready for a nap. I'm going to try though and work in exercise somewhere along the way!

Turning 40 might come and go, but I'm hoping for a healthier body so people will always say, "You don't look that old!" I love it when they say that! My youngest daughter, my biggest fan also, always tells me I don't look a day over 25, and then I usually ask her, "What do you want?" LOL!

Laura, you and I will pass 40 with flying colors (you will do more flying than I since your jogging and I'll stick to walking!).

Things are getting back to Normal!

What is normal around my household? Moving in lightening speed, always catching up to do, million and one things always on the to do list, teaching 4 different classes (3 bible studies and one writing) on top of teaching all the homeschool subjects to my children; dare I say more? The month of January was a tad relaxing around here. We didn't have a ton of stuff to do, we have vacation in the middle, and a sleet storm slowed us down! Woohoo! I love the days of just 500,000 things to do instead of 1,000,000. Just joking, maybe just 250,000 things to do?!

Last week started the barage of lists, things to do, extra curricular activities starting back again, phone calls to be made, bible studies starting again, and such. This week we add to the list by starting enrichment today. Today in the 9:00 hour I will be teaching writing (really a DVD will be, I'm just leading the class), Zech will be in Survey of American History, and Isabella will be doing crafts (which she loves and doesn't get much around my house). The 10:00 hour is a break for me, Sarah will be in Demolishing Strongholds, Zech in Creepy Crawly Science, and Isabella Survey of American History. Now as I am writing this all three of my children are upset because there is no 11:00 hour for them. Not that there isn't any classes, they just didn't like any of them (and I asked 3 times), so I didn't sign them up for any. However upset they are, nothing can change this semester, maybe next semester they will "like" whatever is being offered and try something new. (I do "make" them take some classes I feel that are necessary, but I try to offer them a class they choose too.)

Of all the things starting new and fresh, we do have an ending come up, Upwards Basketball for Isabella. She has loved this season and has made several baskets. She is great defensive player. I am amazed at her ability. This coming Saturday will be her last game and then awards the following Thursday. She has come away a proven player and nursing a jammed finger.

So back to normal means for us that we are busy as always, and maybe my post will be more frequent with things to say! Have a great week!

Thou goest forth!

Recently the boys in the boys book club finished reading and crafting and studying the book, Castle in the Attic. They loved every minute of it because they made swords, shields, sheaths to hold the swords, learned sword fighting, and even made a helmet. Lots of other things were learned and discussed as well as being knights to the young ladies in waiting! (yeah they thought that part was gushy too!) Graciously two of the homeschool moms put together a "type of" renassaince festival for the boys. They had turkey legs, grilled corn on the cob, face painting sword fighting, and a big castle to jump in. They even had a "type of" jousting tournament, but the boys grew tired of that quickly.

The park we meet at has a very large dirt hill that the boys absolutely love! Boys, large, dirt, and hill all go in the same sentence together! They all charged up the hill and fought coming down. It was great exercise, fun, and eating! Enjoy the pics!

Mother Daughter Tour

Sarah and I received a special invitation last August to attend a Mother/daughter Revolve Tour for the end of January 09. After paying our fees, we anxiously awaited the day when we would go. Our church youth girls and some of their moms went too!

We loaded up 22 girls and moms and headed toward our destination this last Friday. With that many girls, even though it was 1 night stayover, the vans were packed to the hilt with bags! Two hours after pulling out, we were pulling in to our hotel, unpacking and getting into our rooms. Each adult mom had 3 girls (including their own) in their rooms and we were all on different floors. After unpacking, freshening up, we all headed out to eat at a Steak house across the street from the hotel. Thankfully we were early birds, because they had 22 of us to seat! I was amazed at the service, as it was very timely and the food was delicious. I stayed away from the rolls (all warm and buttery) and just had a steak (Sarah and I split a ribeye) and steamed vegetables. We also received a 10% discount because we were staying at the hotel across the street. Woohoo, I love saving money. So off to the collesium we go. Once there, we distributed out the tickets and made our way into the mad house. I want you to picture 7000 moms and teenagers (the premium age daughter tour was 12-19 yrs of age). Yes, it was a crazy maze to push your way through. Lost half the group, but our hopes were this was a Christian Tour and therefore our girls hopefully would be safe.

The name of the tour was Revolve! They are a spinoff for young girls of Women of Faith. At 7:00 on the dot, the button was pushed and I don't think, no I know, you couldn't hear a thing except what was being blasted by the speakers! (side note: I know the concerts I went to as a teenager the music was just as loud and I used to say if it is too loud, your too old. I learned, I'm too old, because it was way, way louder than I appreciated.) There was the praise team for the tour who led us in praise and worship songs for our God. Then Group 1 Crew came on stage and sang a couple of songs. After that followed the barage of speakers introducing themselves and the drama team (they were good!). The one person I was most excited about (because she and only one other person on the tour were all I knew) was Natalie Grant. She did not disappoint me and she can sing! Wow, her words through the Holy Spirit inspired me and it was a great concert. And unfortunately that what this whole weekend (in my opinion) was, a concert. One great big one! We had out of 9 hours, only 2 hours of speakers, and the rest was music! I was disappointed to say the least because I am of the personality that likes bible study. Although the speakers were good (Jenna Lucado being one of them), I was very put out that their wasn't more.

So mother/daughter tour? Sarah and I had fun!, that I'm sure of. We worshipped the Lord together which is always inspiring. Did Sarah learn anything new or did we deepen our walk in the Lord? I don't believe so. I'm still glad we went, but not sure I would go again. It was an awesome concert and wonderful drama, but I for one was hoping for more. I'm excited that I got to spend some one on one time with her and the Lord and for that, it was all worth it!

I should also mention for those of you who are Hawk Nelson fans, he was there too! (Didn't know who he was, but most of the girls there did and they were screaming! Almost like Beatles fans of the 60's (they were in the 60's right?))

One more thing to mention about the warm, buttery rolls! Why did I stay away from them? When the hotel had belgium waffles to eat? (does it count that I put sugar free syrup on them?) and then needed to eat at the collesium and there wasn't one thing healthy there and had a funnel cake, barbque sandwich, fries, and more! I was eating healthy and I shall return today! Oh those funnel cakes were good though!