Monthly Archives: March 2011

Making Paint, Yes Again for Try Something New Thursday

Posted on March 31, 2011 | 1 comment

My girls love to paint and, if the fun craft books I bought are any indication, they are not alone. There are so many fun paint making ideas. This time we tried Milky Way Paint. Again from The Ultimate Book of Kid Concoctions 2 by John E. and Danita Thomas.

What you need:

1/2 cup non fat dry milk
1/2 cup water
food coloring

Mix water and milk completely. Divide into a few containers. Add food coloring for desired hues. Paint. They take about 2 hours to dry. And be careful about where you put them. The pictures will stick to the table if there is lots of paint on them.

This was a great, quick project! We will definitely do it again.

*As always, cute baby is optional, but highly recommended!

What have you been trying new? What are you thinking about trying new? Write up and link up about it. I would love to check it out!

1 Comment

Posted in blog hops, Try Something New

Weight Loss Wednesday Week 5

Posted on March 30, 2011 | 1 comment

When the writer of confessions of a snowflake started this blog hop, she talked about needing each other to do this. And she was right.

This week I don’t have any good news to report. My exercise was somewhat minimal, though I did do 3 miles pushing my youngest in the jogging stroller and that is a record; I didn’t lose any weight. I actually had a gain this week.

I am hoping I can blame most of the gain on water weight, but I also have to admit, I have been really struggling with logging my food. I just haven’t been able to get myself motivated to do it. I don’t want to. It’s a lot more fun to eat the cookie my hubby gives me. But then the guilt settles in. So I make sure to exercise, but since I am at best staying the same and at worst, gaining, that doesn’t seem to be working either. But even as I type this, I have no desire to re-start logging my food. I just don’t have it in me.

I’ve got nothing this week. Maybe I can blame it on this lovely cold I have. Maybe once that passes I will have more motivation, but honestly, I think that is just an excuse. As you can see from this post, I am a little down and scattered right now.

How are you doing in your areas of struggle? Have you had any victories this week? I would love to hear them! If you are looking for encouragement, head on over to Weight Loss Wednesday and see how others are doing.

1 Comment

Posted in blog hops, weight loss

Kindergarten, The Red Dress Club Style

Posted on March 29, 2011 | 2 comments

I have been seeing the twitter tag #trdc on another bloggers tweets for weeks and finally asked what it was. It is a blog of a group of ladies who generate ideas, write and link up together. What a great idea. Who couldn’t sometimes use a thought starter for blogging??? So here I am, at the jumping off point to delve into my memories about kindergarten.

I remember I had the same teacher as preschool, Miss Brush. I adored her. She had dark brown or black hair. And she was so sweet. I remember playing with wooden blocks. And having little wooden cubbies that stuff went into. I cannot, for the life of me, remember if that is where we stored our stuff or if that is where toys went…

I remember learning to read. My mom says I was reading at age 3. I don’t remember that. But when I was in kindergarten, the eye doctor decided my right eye was lazy. So, I had to wear a patch over my eye every day. It wasn’t like the cloth patches they have now for kids. It was like putting a big band aid over that eye every day. It even smelled like a band aid. And it stuck like a band aid. I dreaded having my mom take it off every night. It pulled at my skin and hurt. But it gave me one thing, the memory of learning to read.

You see, I do not have a lazy eye. I have an eye that cannot follow letters and numbers to read. With each glance or blink, the optic movements change and I see something different than I did with the last look. This jumping makes it just about impossible for that eye to “read”. It basically sees fuzzy shapes and colors.

And there were lots of those in my kindergarten classroom. Some of those shapes and colors were exactly that, shapes and colors. Miss Brush had big squares with the color names on them that hung from the ceiling. One of those had a red border and said the word Red. And one day I worked with that one crazy, not lazy, eye and it put together those three letters, R E D, and I got red. I remember going home and being so excited, I read the word red. I remember telling my mom and she was so proud. Though I think a little sad because I had to work so hard at something I had previously done before the doctor took away my glasses. But I didn’t have any of that sadness, I had only excitement, I Read!

What do you remember? What could you write for RemembeRED?

2 Comments

Posted in blog hops, memories, The Red Dress Club

The First Step

Posted on March 28, 2011 | 7 comments

The first step feels good. The second step feels a little crazy. I wonder what I was thinking. How far will I make it. I reduce my goal for today. I just don’t think I am going to make it. Then I start to think about making it to the end of this street. Next up to the traffic light. On to a light 1/2 a mile away.

As I go, my thoughts and feelings change. I start noticing the scenery around me. Praying for friends and situations. Slowly I realize my legs are no longer burning and my lungs are not gasping for the energy to go on. And I begin moving my goal further out. No longer, will I make it another step, rather, can I go to the next goal. My feet no longer fight moving, instead they echo a refrain, “Thank you Lord for each step I take. Thank you for the doctors who believed in a better day for me. Thank you.”

Ten years ago I was in a wheelchair and on high doses of steroids just to keep functioning. The Multiple Sclerosis was interrupting more days than not. I began to resign myself to always being sick, always being dependent on medications that made me sicker even as they helped my body function. I didn’t dream of running. I dreamt of a day where I didn’t struggle to get from beginning to end.

The Lord used a brilliant doctor, some decent medications and the hormones of childbearing to bring me a healing I had decided was unlikely to be mine until I saw Him in Glory. Today and every day I endeavor to thank the Lord for the renewed strength my body has with my words, thoughts and deeds. Those thoughts and deeds are never as present as when I am running.

May I never stop thinking and thanking the Lord for His gift to myself and my family. I pray I am always like the one leper who came back and thanked Christ for healing him. I pray I use every opportunity to tell the reason for the hope I have been given.

Check out what others are thinking about…and thankful for

And I found another place to share my story

7 Comments

Posted in Friday Feedback, running, thankful on a Thursday, Thought provoking Thursday

Our Week in Photos

Posted on March 26, 2011 | 4 comments

I think I would have had a week with virtually no pictures of my girls if it weren’t for

Thanks for the reminder An Ordinary Mom. They grow too fast to miss taking photos.

Here’s some of the fun we had this week

Our friend Logan’s Birthday party

Was so much fun!

Now head on over to An Ordinary Mom to see what others have captured this week.

4 Comments

Posted in blog hops, photos, Saturday Snapshots

Does God Care

Posted on March 24, 2011 | 1 comment

Does God care about me finding matching socks? Does He care if I can find my keys? Does God care if I get a certain job?

Do you find yourself praying about both the big and little things of the day? Do you pray at set times or do you do more of the shotgun prayers?

My prayer life is a running ~~monologue~~ dialogue. At least I hope the communication is two way. And sometimes my prayers are very much about the trivial, yes, I have prayed for matching socks. Other times I am praying for direction (Lord, do you desire to make a way for one of us to stay home with the girls full-time and homeschool them?) or for those I know and love who are hurting.

Many times my prayers are a persons name and then just “Heavenly Father.” I am learning more and more I rarely have the words to adequately express what is on my heart. I am so glad He hears the prayers in the sighs of our hearts.

I don’t honestly know if God cares about my socks (I doubt He does) or my keys, though I do know He hears the prayers when I ask for a calm attitude and clear thinking as I look for them. I know He hears those because those prayers are not really about what is going on externally, but are rather prayers about heart responses; prayers to have more of His response in every situation.

Why do I pray as a running conversation rather than all in one lump? Because I don’t want to miss an opportunity to commune with Him. I would rather be mentioning something not high on the priority list than risk not speaking up about the heart matters. It is my response to “pray without ceasing”, I Thessalonians 5:17 And I think it is highly likely He does want to hear about everything. He cares about the lilies that are here today and gone tomorrow, Matthew 6:28. This truth leads me to believe He is interested in the every day details of our lives.
What do you think? What do you find yourself praying about the most? Do you believe the Lord is always listening or does He just tune in from time to time? What does your heart say?

What are others thinking about? Head over to Thought Provoking Thursday and see.

1 Comment

Posted in blog hops, praying, Thought provoking Thursday

Attempt #2 for a Try Something New Project

Posted on March 24, 2011 | 1 comment

Well we had to try something new twice this week, because the first project was a bust. Well, okay, it tastes okay, but looks ridiculous. We tried to make a jello aquarium. Your supposed to make blue jello and put gummy fish in it and if you want to get real fancy, put licorice laces in for sea weed and grapes for gravel. The book said to make the jello then add the fish after it set. That seemed like it would mess up the jello, so I thought I would add the fish after the jello started to set but not when fully done. Well, I added one early and it just sunk. Looked like a fish bowl with a dead fish. Appealing. So then I waited until it was set to add the others and just as I feared, it only served to mess up the jello. So this project was a bust.

On to project 2–Crazy pretzels. This one was easy, fun and yummy! Though it might have been a little above Sue’s age.

I again found a project in The Ultimate Book of Kid Concotions 2 by John E. and Danita Thomas.

What you need:
1 package yeast
1 tablespoon sugar
1 1/2 cups warm water
4 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 beaten egg

Mix water and yeast together until yeast dissolves. Add salt, sugar and flour. Mix and knead dough until smooth. Roll and twist pretzels in to letters, numbers, any silly shapes.

Lay on greased cookie sheet. brush with egg, sprinkle with salt. Bake at 425 for 12-15 minutes. (They took closer to 17 minutes in my oven).

They turned out really yummy and have almost all been eaten.

*As always, pictures of cute baby are optional, but highly recommended.

1 Comment

Posted in blog hops, Try Something New

Weight Loss Wednesday–or Not Week 4

Posted on March 23, 2011 | 3 comments

Spring mocked us this last week. It came. It went. It was 70 degrees for about 2 minutes one day last week. Honest, I took a picture of it on my car thermometer. By the time I was done, it went back down to 68 degrees. But I have proof.

Now it is struggling to be 30 degrees and schools were closed due to snow and ice today. How does this tie in with weight loss Wednesday, you ask. Well, loosely. I say all of the above to lament the return of snow to our frozen mitten and tell you we did get outside as a family for some fun during our two days of spring last week.

Friday night we headed out to my favorite park, Indepence Oaks. We took a walk as a family and checked out trees the beavers had cut down, then daddy and the older girls played on the playground while mama and Patrice went for a little jog. I did about a mile with the jogging stroller. Not terrible since I was not at all prepared, had the wrong shoes, clothes and undergarments.

Saturday was also beautiful. I mean, absolutely wonderfully fantastic. And I got to run outside again. This time all by myself and properly prepared. I decided to get adventurous with my run and check out new neighborhoods. The run felt great. I never felt like I was going to die, like my legs or lungs were going to burst. It was fantastic. It took me 83 minutes to do…wait for it…5.8 miles!!!! Yup. That is just a hair shorter than my longest run ever, which checked in at 6 miles. And this was by far my most comfortable run. I came back so excited!!!! I tweeted and texted about it and put it on facebook, in addition to telling my hubby repeatedly (thanks to all who put up hearing about it and encouraged me). And I even felt good the next day, not overly sore.

Since that run, the weather has gone back to winter and I have returned to the treadmill. And while I am thrilled to be able to run regardless of what it is like outside, there is just not the same runners high from the treadmill. Ah well. April is almost here and with it comes spring and more consistently nice weather. And I am totally excited about that!

That’s a lovely story about running, you say. But the name of the post is Weight Loss Wednesday, you say. Ah yes. There’s the kicker. I exercised this week and really enjoyed that, but my body forgot to lose any weight this week…so this week I got a 0 pound change on the scale but a wonderful run, so overall I would say this week was a win!

How are you doing on your weight loss? Check out how others are doing here. And possibly win a prize!

3 Comments

Posted in blog hops, weight loss

Multitude Mondays–Snuggly Babes #66-70

Posted on March 22, 2011 | Leave a comment

I love me a snuggly babe. No matter what the age. Who doesn’t?

Last night I got some extra cuddle time with Patrice. It was so sweet. And worth the missing sleep. I’ve been thinking about it all day. Then I read this blog, and it was one of the mama’s thankful things. I am praying 13 years from now it will still be one of my thankful things too.

66. Snuggling with my little ones
67. Nursing my babies
68. Enjoying the moments
69. pre-schooler jokes
70. miniature theologians

Purely Random, Deja Vu all over again!

Posted on March 19, 2011 | 2 comments

Here we go with my random photos of the week.

The weather here is starting to feel and act like spring. Thursday we had 70 degrees, promise. Yesterday wasn’t quite as warm at 58, but still nice enough to get us out to the park. This weekend is supposed to be almost 50. And as true Mitten people, we have been outside a lot since the nicer temperatures arrived! After a long, snowy winter, 50s feels downright balmy!

Enjoy a peek at our snapshots of the week and then head over to see what others are doing.