Monthly Archives: November 2011

The CAKE–Pinned it and Did it!

Sue decided she wanted a unicorn cake for her birthday.  Last year, daddy did an impressive 3-D dinosaur.  He wanted to just buy a cake this year, but mama got it in her mind that we needed to do this unicorn cake…

Pinterest to the rescue.  I found several options.  We chose this one.

For My Sue–242

I am so thankful for my Sue.  Four years ago today we welcomed her to our family.

Some quotes from today:

“I think a birthday bouquet would be nice.”
“A special thank you to you mommy, because I know you got me this present.”
Favorite part of her fourth birthday “getting to eat in the living room.”

What a precious wonderful four years it has been. 

We love you!  Jesus loves you!

Happy Birthday!

For what are you thankful?  Come join the count.

A Departure From What I Normally Share–May This Video Encourage You

Hubby found this video on You Tube and it deserves lots of sharing!

It is worth the effort to read the subtitles.

Grateful-5 Minute Friday

On Fridays around these parts we stop, drop, and write.

For fun, for love of the sound of words, for play, for delight, for joy and celebration at the art of communication.

For only five short, bold, beautiful minutes. Unscripted and unedited. We just write without worrying if it’s just right or not.

Won’t you join us at The Gypsy Mama?

1. Write for 5 minutes flat – no editing, no over thinking, no backtracking.

2. Link back here and invite others to join in.

3. Most importantly: leave a comment for the person who linked up before you – encouraging them in their writing!

Today’s Topic:
 
Grateful
 
I am grateful for so many things.  I am grateful to the Lord for giving me a husband who loves me completely, and three beautiful girls.  The doctors had told me for so many years I would never have kids.  And here I am with three, the desire for more. 
 
I am grateful for every step I run.  15 hospital stays in 3 years, two a month long each to learn how to walk again, and here I am, running.  I’m getting ready to do a 10k (6.2 miles) run next month!  I remember teh day I was working so hard in therapy to learn how to walk again.  It was slow and not pretty.  They had my dog with me.  He got bored waiting for me and laid down.  He can’t do a whole run with me now.
 
I am grateful for how far I have come in the last year.  Postpartum depression and anxiety was hard.  Really hard.  Every step hurt my heart and my soul.  I don’t even know how many times I asked if I would actually survive it.  And I am.  Dare, I say I am thriving?  Yes, I am.  I have so many people to thank for that–my midwife, hubby, friends, family, #ppdchat mamas.  So many.
 

 
 
I am so grateful.
 
What are you grateful for?  Come share!

Haven’t Forgotten Weight Loss Wednesday and #workingforlessjunkinthetrunk

I truly haven’t forgotten about Weight Loss Wednesday or #workingforlessjunkinthetrunk.  Not by a long shot, but today has been crazy.  I actually have three things going on right now.  Pie and beer bread to make.  A house to clean.  It’s crazy. 

But, a huge plus, my 5 year old just put away all the dishes in dishwasher and rinsed and loaded the dirty dishes.  She needed very little help.  Wow, wow.  Two hours ago that kid was making me crazy.  Now, wow, all I can say is wow…

But back to my weight loss journey.  I lost another 1.6 pounds this week to bring me to a total of 3.6 lbs for the two weeks I’ve been doing weight watchers.  If I can get another good week, I can hit my first 5 lbs lost next week.  Talk about motivating.  Even with Thanksgiving and a Birthday in that week.  I can do it.

Right now I’m trying to decide whether to do my regular apple pie (11 points) or try a weight watchers recipe (6 pts).  Or to make the “regular” pie for the family and make a chocolate mousse pie I found that is 6 points for me (and my sister-in-law who is a chocolate lover!). What to do?!

I ran about 2 1/2 miles tonight and plan to get out there tomorrow morning.  Friday I am starting a 5 week fitness challenge with a co-worker.  I’ve done the challenge once before, but am hoping to hit more of the goals this time.

How are you doing?  What are your fitness or diet goals?

Check out other’s plans and thoughts here.

Thanksgiving Project from Pinterest

I don’t really “get” pinterest.  It has never once let me pin something.  Not once.  But it does let me like things.  And I did find some things to like. 

And a friend does a pinterest project link up on Tuesdays, so here I am.

Here is my project that fit the bill!

First the girls and I talked about what pilgrims were and why the came here, to be able to worship God freely in the way they chose.

Then the chocolately fun began.

Each hat goes together like this:

One fudge striped cookie, stripe side down, cover with think layer of chocolate frosting, put one miniature reeses peanut butter cup upside down in the center, put small dot of frosting on front center of peanut butter cup, attach a reeses pieces.

And Voila!

Gettng Ready for the Holidays 234-241

I finished reading 1000 Gifts this last week.  It took me about a year.  It has never taken me that long to read a book in my life.  This was a very hard season in my life to be reading this book.
To be thankful in the pain of postpartum depression.  It was hard.  Some weeks I could not bring myself to do it.  Other weeks my heart was full of thankfulness, but I could not put it into words.  Often, my heart was working so hard to hang on, it couldn’t be thankful for little things, it had only room to focus on those things that had guided my heart through another week.
I often stood in front of my computer struggling to remember enough of the week to list those things that caused my heart to give thanks. 
There were weeks it was honestly impossible for me to read.  I assumed it was a failing of me.  That I wasn’t praying hard enough or trying hard enough.  It wasn’t until I was at an appointment and the person I was talking to said, “you can focus to read?”  No, no I could not.  It wasn’t me, it was the illness, the depression and anxiety.
Thankfully the days of not being able to think clearly are getting much further apart, and most of the time, it is just minutes that I struggle through.  I was able to begin reading again.  And pressed through Ann’s book.
And now I shall work more dilligently to see the Lord’s hand in the big and the little.
234.  Girly giggles as they do a Thanksgiving project.
235.  Baby girl shreaks as she learns more about the sounds she can make.
236.  Colorful vegetables ready to go in the crock pot.
237.  A dog willing to the eat the pot roast my girls think tastes like chicken.
238.  Babies toddling around with Daddy’s Bible. 
239.  Illness moving quickly through the household, not tarrying.
240.  Upcoming family festivities.
241.  Bright colorful foam stickers made into hair adornments.
What makes your heart glad, leads you through the skinny times?  Come join us in counting 1000 Gifts.

Two Awesome Books –And I Know the Author

James and Jax

I’m linking up with my friend Jaime again this week.
The Hiccupotamus and The Chuckling Duckling are beautifully written and illustrated children’s books by Aaron Zenz.  I would say that even if I didn’t know the author/illustrator…but I do, which makes them even cooler.

I have known Amity, Aaron’s wife, since before they were dating.  We went to college together.  I remember when they started dating.  Then I lived around the corner from their first apartment after they got married.  They are an amazing couple!  But enough about them, truly the books themselves stand on their own merits.

The Chuckling Duckling is a great book that teaches kids animal names.  Names I had never heard, like Cria, which is a baby Llama, and the familiar, puppy, which is a baby dog.  The illustrations are spectacular.  This book is not only educational, it is cute!

And we can’t forget the Hiccupotamus about a hippo who gets, you guessed it, the hiccups.  His hiccups make a mess for a lot of his friends, so they set out to get rid of them…

The art and color in this one is breathtaking.  Some of the words are tongue twisters.  Trust me, you will love it!

Both are available on Amazon.  My friend Ali has an affiliate link if you are looking to do some shopping!

Playdough Fun

A few weeks ago the girls and I tried to make a play dough recipe I found on-line.  Disaster is the only appropriate word.  So, I put a call out on twitter and facebook for a recipe that would work.  A college friend responded.  The girls and I finally tried it today.  And it turned out FANTABULOUS.  My friend gave me the go ahead to share, so here goes!

This is a no cook recipe so great for doing with the kids.  They can help with all of it!

Vinegar Dough

3 cups flour
1 cup water, a bit more if necessary
1 cup salt
1/4 cup oil
2 Tablespoons vinegar
food coloring

Mix all ingredients together, if it is a bit dry, which mine was, add water very gradually after that original cup.  It only took a bit to get it just right.

Not a bad picture Caitlyn!

The girls played happily and quietly for quite a while.  It was a huge success!  And somehow, we managed to make ours the same color as one of the play-doh colors they used to have (found residue in some of the toys).

I have it in a freezer storage bag. I’m curious to see how long it lasts!  If it keeps, I think over the holidays, the girls and I will make a few batches for Caitlyn to take to school!

And here’s a link for how to get the food coloring off everyone’s hands (from mixing it, not playing with it)

Torn, Which Blog Hop to Do?

You all know how much I love

This lovely lady and her great blog hop were a lifeline when I was searching for reasons to hang on during the depths of postpartum depression and anxiety.  It is now my privilege and honor to pray for her family as they walk an extrememly hard journey of brain cancer with their eldest son.  Every week I think of pictures I can post, even when Ali is, understandably, unable to post. 

And this week I actually wanted to post one from LAST Thanksgiving that popped up on our computer earlier this week.  Tpo bad I can’t find it…sigh.  I will find it and I will post it, I promise…

Here are some sweet ones…

And then I stumbled upon this blog and her fun hop.  I love the idea of linking up some of my posts that got overlooked….

Top 5 Posts:

1.  Our Cozy Kitchen

2.  More Thankfulness

3.  Cider Mill Snapshots

4.  Fall Thankfulness

5.  Super Birthday Fun

Head on over and see what others have in their blog!