Tag Archives: children

Friday and I get to play “hooky”..

Once again, it’s Friday and I’m recapping the week with Jennifer Fulwiler @ Conversion Diary and all her peeps. It’s a good way to summarize the week and since I’m “blogging everyday in May” it fills another post! So head over to Conversion Diary and check out everyone’s week and our little group as well to see what’s happenin’:

Laura

Lynnell

Apurva

Brite

Amanda

Lea

— 1 —

There’s been a lot of cake and goodies around here this week. Mother’s Day, my birthday. YIKES! At least I’ve been staying on my workout schedule and this week I’ve integrated the app myfitnesspal on my iPhone to help keep me accountable as I head into my Clean Eating next week. Why next week? Well, my mom’s here this week and my sis and her pals come in today, so I’m just being realistic…

— 2 —

Today I’ll actually have some time to look over the Clean Eating and pre-plan the week. That really is the key, the planning. I already do it for dinners for the week, I just need to apply it to my other meals so I don’t get in a rut. That’s the problem when I don’t plan, I just get in a rut, get bored and boom–I’m done. Besides, we also have our Anniversary coming up (18 years…holy cow, how did THAT happen?!?!), Hubby’s bday, our youngest daughter’s bday, Father’s Day. Guess those will be my “cheat” days 😉

— 3 —

We were able to get our mini-tape adapter to work and watch old home videos in our VHS (remember those?) player this last week. Oh, it’s sooooo funny to see how little the kids were and how our family changed as each kiddo entered in and rearranged the dynamics. Again. And a reminder (again) of how quickly time flies. And that I just didn’t enjoy those years enough.

— 4 —

Our youngest daughter’s dance recital is this weekend. Tomorrow will be a busy day. All the more to enjoy today!! She’s excited. So are we. (happy to watch the final product and happy to be done with dance for a while!!) With our family in town, she’ll have quite the cheering section!

— 5 —

The boys finished up their Faith Formation (Religious Ed, CCD…whatever you refer to it as, I can’t keep up with all the name changes..goodness!) and it worked out pretty well to homeschool them this year. It’s been a fabulous transition year back to “normal” for all of us and as the boys are fully engaged in puberty and getting too “cool” for church, it was a help to be able to do this with them one-on-one. We haven’t broken the “coolness” factor yet, but I imagine that will be a few more years, so we’ll just continue on and pray that we’ve built the foundation for them to always return to.

— 6 —

We FINALLY got some much needed rain this week. Boy is our little garden happy!! So is our lawn. Amazing how quickly the plants green up with a little rain!

— 7 —

Time to get these kiddos up and rocking since they have school today (snicker, snicker) and I can get to the gym before I go visit with my Mama and my aunt and my cousin and his daughter and wait for my sister. Get all that? Have a great day and a blessed weekend!

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

I should make better use of insomnia

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It’s Friday, folks; that means it’s time to wrap up the week with a pretty little bow and join in with all the regular Conversion Diary folks—-this week @ Hallie Lord’s blog and see what the rest of the world has been up to!

I was able to get good workouts in this week. Although my friend and I didn’t get our acts together until Thursday to work out TOGETHER, I DID manage to get my 3 strength days in and cardio. We also added two sets of THIS Men’s Health ab routine on the exercise ball. All I can say is, it’s been a LONG time since my abs were THIS sore. I had to modify it a little because I couldn’t come all the way up on my hands for the second exercise, so I stayed on my elbows–my girlfriend further modified by going off the ball, onto the floor in plank position–and STILL, OUCH! Good stuff!!
End of the year activities are coming to a head. Our youngest daughter’s school choir performance was Tuesday. It was sweet. And packed. A joint venture with the high school and middle school it was a full 90 minutes! Even though it was a packed auditorium and our seats were not so awesome, it was quite enjoyable.
My mom is in town! Yay!! And my sister comes next weekend!! Hoping to have my mom and my aunt and grandmother over for dinner Sunday night…but I’m Queen of Procrastination so I’ll call them later and set it up….
I DID purchase Mother’s Day cards AND some May birthday presents AHEAD of time, completely contradictory of my procrastination. Now I just need to send them out today and I’ll be good to go with a strong chance of them making their destination (mostly local) by tomorrow!!
I did not get good sleep last night. Highly unusual for me. I woke at sometime after midnight and thought I had a text from our son (who was sleeping)–I wasn’t quite awake yet..and after that I tossed and turned for the remainder of the evening. At one point reasoning with myself that I should just get up and do those Mother’s Day cards, pay bills, sign permission slips and make lunches since I was up anyway….. I opted out and stayed in bed. Probably the better choice!
I came across THIS ARTICLE in the National Catholic Register by Matthew Archbold regarding Nancy Pelosi and her statement that her Catholic faith compels her to support same-sex marriage. Now while I know this is controversial (and I HATE conflict), everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but I have yet to come across ANY thing Catholic or Christian that supports SSM. She must have a different copy of the Catechism than I do…
Our garden is growing, our garden is growing. OK. Hubby’s garden, he did/does all the work. But….our garden is growing!! Starting small this year to experiment, tomatoes and cucumbers and YAY!!!

Dont’ forget to head over to Hallie’s blog and catch up with the other Quick Take Peeps, AND our little May challenge bloggers as well!

May bloggers, check ’em out:

Laura

Lynnell

Apurva

Brite

Amanda

Lea

Wrapping it up! (or, I thought Friday would never get here!)

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Friday and time to take a look at the week in review or “7 Quick takes with Conversion Diary’s Jennifer Fulwiler and friends“….

Since my internet connection is down and I may or may not be mooching off a neighbor’s wireless with an extremely slow connection, I’ll make this brief (I hope), since I am procrastinating (as usual) and do need to start waking the kiddies for school shortly….

1. The internet is down. (see above) Fortunately, Hubby worked from home all day yesterday with no problem, so apparently we lost connection sometime late in the afternoon. Our phone is internet phone (Magic Jack), our TV is internet (Roku) and know what? It didn’t make too much of a difference last night. Now tonight…..I want to watch Downton Abbey with Hubby (our weekly date) so that AT&T dude better fix it up tonight!!! or not….whatever…the longer it’s broke the bigger discount they will give us for next month; at least that’s the way it’s worked in the past.

2. My favorite Pyrex pan (13X9) EXPLODED the other night with the kid’s FAVE new dinner in it. URGH!!! Note to self, no multitasking while butter is melting in the pan. Apparently the butter was too hot when I took out the pan and the biscuits, though sitting at room temp for quite some time were too cold. Well…..SHAZAM. It was loud. It was messy. Fortunately, just a couple little cuts on my 2 fingers from cleaning up and my sweet daughter took a hit to the shin from the shrapnel (small cut, we didn’t even notice for an hour or so)…so it could have been much worse. A trip to Publix for some comfort fried chicken, coleslaw and key lime pie….lesson learned!!

3. Hubby and I have joined together in prayer and a united front to once and for all (I hope and pray, DEAR GOD HEAR OUR PRAYERS!!!) to break our youngest from her hideous bedtime drama routine. she’s 8. It’s so overdue. After a long talk, a visual chart to mark progress, clear expectations and goal stated, I am pleased to report we are 4 nights in to success! Fingers and toes crossed and prayers storming heaven!

4. The weather has been PHENOMENAL all week long….though starting to warm up again. So I have walked almost every day and today will get day 2 of strength training. Shooting for 3, but I’m not going to whine about it, something is better than nothing!!!

5. I have been spending far too much time with Stephanie Plum. (Hubby is surely kicking himself for introducing us as she keeps me up far later than I should be at night!!) She’s a train wreck and a clutz (I can really relate there!) and I am addicted. However, once I finish book 10, I’m putting her away for a bit. I’m starting to dream about the books in which I am solving the mystery and it’s really ruining it for me. So….it’s time!

6. Hubby has taken up our landscaping lumber around our little plant island in the front of the house (it was rotting) and replaced it with huge pavers his dad had lying around their house and it looks great! I’ll post pics at some point. probably. maybe. once the internet is up and running.

7. Hubby’s tomatoes are growing! YAY! This weekend he’s adding cucumbers and I’m going to get some pots for a herb garden. Summer is upon us!!! I foresee lots of salad and salsa in our future…BRING IT!!

Happy weekend and be sure to check out lots of other recaps at Conversion Diary!! Blessings!!

Purging and room to breathe!!

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No worries, I’m not referring to bulimia here. I’ve been dragging out Spring Cleaning here over the last month or so and yesterday we finally got to the girls’ room. Including garage since their room is the smallest there is overflow in the garage.

We started in the garage. Donate pile. Evaluate pile. Keep pile. Trash. I prefer to tackle these things solo, I have my own method. However, Hubby was home and SO EXCITED I was finally ready to clean it out and the girls were home, too. Once we got through the garage stuff, we were hitting our stride and the girls were THRILLED to have their room back.

I am a nostalgic person by nature and I have to say, although I like things tidy and in their place I struggle with purging.However, I am ALWAYS thrilled in the end and that motivates me.

Nice, huh? It’s the only way I can do it. Just get it all in one spot and go through it piece by painful piece. It’s amazing what you come across this way.

Until we get the time, money and EXACT idea of what we want to build in the girls’ closet, this is FAR more manageable. If they only keep it this clean…..

And they love their reading area, complete with their personal boards. (We made those a few months ago and as you can see ONE of my sweeties has lots to save…the other is more discerning!)

Friday! 7 ways to recap the week

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It’s been a busy week for the kids at school. This week was the FCAT, standardized testing (quite controversial, though if we didn’t have FCAT we’d have another brand…), and it’s always stressful because the entire year is geared toward this test. The school’s rating, federal money, etc are just a couple of things riding on the outcome of the test. So, needless to say, we are ALL quite thrilled to see Friday this week!

— 1 —

Monday was the Boston Marathon. Hot, hot, hot. My girlfriend ran in it. Being from sunny FLA, she is heat-trained and ran that puppy in 4:22, but some 4,000+people opted out for the automatic spot in next year’s race. It wasn’t my race, but it was really cool to text the race and have it send me her updates along the way. Very inspiring considering the girl has only been running since her late 30’s, early 40’s!

— 2 —

Monday was also free McDonald’s breakfast for the FCAT kids. We got up early, grabbed the breakfast and came home to eat and get ready. It was a good motivator to get the kids out of bed quickly on a Monday morning! (The breakfast was: apple slices, OJ or milk and an egg mcmuffin, in case you were wondering…)

— 3 —

So, so workout week. I’ll get day 2 of strength today and I did get cardio, but for some reason I was distracted with appointments this week at lunch. Urgh. Yesterday’s post @ Socially Fit was a good reminder that we don’t get results from haphazard efforts and good intentions. It takes actual participation and commitment. I’m down 9 pounds in 8 weeks, but that doesn’t mean I’m done! Far from it, moving on…one day at a time!

— 4 —

Got my hair cut this week. OK, trimmed. But you KNOW how great it feels to get your hair cut. And shampooed. And blow dried. By someone else. Heaven.

— 5 —

In prayer the other night and after listening to my Among Women podcast, I realized I needed to make an Adoration visit. Time to charge my spirit. I did that yesterday at lunch, instead of going to the gym. It was a good move. I definitely needed it. I took some time while I was there to go through my prayer journal and its sporadic entries over the last 5 years and PRAISE GOD for the answered prayers. Some not in the way, I might prefer, but to look back and see how He works. AWE inspiring. Truly. Our God is a good and gracious God and sometimes we need to step back and see the big picture.

— 6 —

One of those long prayed prayers was answered this week. A dear friend who has been unable to conceive for the past 8 years gave birth to a sweet baby boy. After a 36+ hour labor!! Mom, dad, big brother and baby are doing fine. There was quite a text bomb going early on and it was exciting to see prayers in action and the community of friends and love surrounding them.

— 7 —

Ya’ll have a great weekend! Be blessed. Enjoy every minute. Life is short. Embrace it!