Tag Archives: family

Baking, backbends and stuff…7QTs!

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My weekly roundup of the week with J.Fulwiler, Catholic blogger and reality show star and her amazing followers of blogginess…Check ’em out HERE, they have some FUNNY stuff over there….and USEFUL….and HISTORICAL….and…well…just go check it out, there’s something for EVERYone!!

1.  I’ve returned to the gym (for weight work).  My muscles are meeting to secretly stage a coup, I’m sure.  Shhh, don’t tell them, but we’re going back tomorrow.  As soon as I can bend over to tie my shoes.  It’s just not fair how quickly you get sore when you add in new/old/different stuff.  Cue the Rocky theme song….

2.  To celebrate my return to the gym, I helped our oldest daughter attempt a Pinterest recipe for chocolate chip cookie bowls…click HERE for pic credit AND recipe if you should like to give it a whirl.  Bless her heart.  Her Mama didn’t read the directions first.  Fortunately, she only made 6 and the rest regular cookies.  Apparently it calls for the cookie dough in the tube…whatev…

Taste=FABULOUS  Presentation=Room for improvement.

Ours:

Sweet girl. Our future “Cake boss”, but much kinder!

This is MESSY!!

ALMOST!!!!

Theirs. Perfectionists. So not real life…..:-P

3.  This weekend we are getting our family picture taken.  By a real person.  Not just a self-timer.  Christmas cards…..it’s on!

4.  Our youngest diva daughter has been working diligently on this backbend kick over and by golly, she got it!!  Try THIS LINK…I’m just too cheap frugal to upgrade to the video uploader….or you can go to my Twitter and view it…or just imagine our girl finally getting her backbend kick over!

5.  This morning, somehow, we overslept an ENTIRE HOUR!!!  ALL of us.  We woke up when our oldest should have been getting ON the bus.  Talk about an adrenaline rush.  I don’t know about you but we are seriously efficient when running EXTREMELY late.  There is NO time for bickering, arguing or even talking.  The high schooler and elementary kids made it on time and I was late (fortunately no patients were waiting on me…I wasn’t THAT late!!) and Hubby took our middle schooler at his regular time.  Mad skillz, I tell you. Or a well oiled machine.  controlled chaos.  What have you.  Sure got my heart rate up.  I have re-checked the alarm settings many times already tonight….

6.  This week my Aunt received bad news regarding her cancer and has decided to be done with chemo and to let nature take its course.  It’s awful.  Her daughter and son are my age.  I can’t even fathom it.  She is at peace with her decision and I know God will take care of her family but it isn’t going to be easy.  Not one bit.  Today, my brother-in-law (Hubby’s bro), had a heart catheterization and two stents placed. After he drove himself to the hospital because he wasn’t feeling so good.  He’s 42.  3 kids (10, 6 &6)  He’s doing fine but……ugh.  I can’t even go there.  The point is…..We do not know when our hour will come.  And I am reminded of a beautiful twitter quote I’ve been mulling over all week:   @JamesMartinSJ: Gospel: “Live today as if it were your first day…your last day…and your only day.”

7.  And so with Father Martin’s quote fresh on my heart earlier this week, I received an email with RIDICulously low air fare to see my mom.  I promptly booked 3 tickets for myself and the girls to go in January.  It’s their Christmas present (shhhhhh).  I’ll take the boys this summer.  YOLO, right?  Fortunately, Hubby was VERY understanding and forgave me for my completely impulsive decision without his input and is on board.  Phew.

That’s all from me….Blessings to you ALL!  Have a great weekend!

Wings, waves and fabulous fall weather!

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My sis and the boys came to town for the air show at the beach.  (BIL had to work–BOO HISS!).  It was phenomenal fall weather and and AWE-inspiring air show!!

Crowds lined the beach for a perfect view!

The Snow birds were a HUGE hit (and our first act…a hard one to follow!)

This little trick of “crossing paths” took my sister’s breath away.  Every time.  Serious.

The Geico planes

The Thunderbirds.  Man those jets are loud.  And they give you goosebumps!!

This was a T-bird “putting on the brakes”…all the way past the pier…CRAZAY!!!

A great day to fly a kite, too!

 

Woop, woop, wrapping it up!

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TGIF!  It would seem this is the only day of the week I actually have a GOAL in posting…the days/weeks are flying by and fortunately I don’t get paid to blog or we’d be starving!!!    And so, I’ll just lob onto the many fabulous people blogging on @ 7 Quick Takes with Jennifer Fulwiler @ Conversion Diary.

And since our weeks are basically work, school, taxi to cheer/soccer/church, try to squeeze in some exercise, feed the family (without burning down the house and/or my fingers) and get everyone showered (mostly) and in bed (at a somewhat reasonable hour) , that would probably sound like YOUR week, so I’ll just entertain you with a few pics and words from our weekend, K?  K.

1)  Our cheerleader and I drove to Merritt Island for an early game (be there @ 7:30 a.m….it’s an hour and 15 minutes away….you do the math) on Saturday.  We did have most of the day left, so that was good….

2)  These are the cute little reminders that it is October, ladies.  (Guys, make sure the ladies in your life get theirs! ) Yes.  Go ahead.  Make the appointment.  Get the girls squashed.  Get over your dread.  It’s less than 10 minutes and it can SAVE YOUR LIFE!!!  Get your mammogram today!!!  Or at least make the appointment.  Have your bestie make one, too and then go to lunch.  WhatevAH works for you, just.  do.  it.  K?  K.

3)  Saturday night we did S’mores.  We’ve been promising since last weekend.  And then it rained on Saturday.  We resorted to the gas grill with sticks that were losing their “stiffness” and everyone still enjoyed them.  No one lost an eye, thanks to my drill sergeant persona as well as droopy sticks.  We tried out pumpkin spice marshmallows which weren’t such a hit with the kids, but for Mama (who doesn’t really love marshmallows) I LIKED ’em.  yum.  So, more for me…

4)  We went to our town’s bi-annual carnival and business expo.  The kids love it.  We tolerate it.  In small doses.  Like the sidewalk art….fabulous.  Oh to have a smidgen of that talent. What would it be like?  sigh.  I’ll never know, but I am certainly grateful that people DO have this talent!

5)  The kids love the rides.  The girls opted for a wristband and ran and rode like the wind to get their max spending power out of that band in the alloted time.  I’m happy to say, yes.  yes they did rock that band.  (The boys went Friday night with friends and promptly passed out after coming home—6 hours at the carnival is apparently too much for some….)

6)  Coke.  Ice cold.  In a bottle.   What can I say, it was exhausting watching the girls ride those rides.

7)  One more sky shot.  God paints a mean sky, doesn’t He?

Take it one day at a time

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It’s been an interesting week this week.  I must say, I’ve been looking at life differently for a few days and tonight I adjusted even more.

Earlier this week, I had a patient, a “frequent flier” (of which you do NOT want to be when you come see me at work); it was a 6 month check up for him and his lung cancer.  We’ve scanned him since he was diagnosed about 2 years ago.  28.  Firefighter.  In firefighting shape.  I’ve seen a lot of ugly, ugly cases in my time and every once in a while you get a patient that floors you.  He did.  It was an awful cancer and it took a tremendous effort to take him off the table and smile and give him the standard directions to hydrate, etc knowing full well we’d see him again.  and again.  and again.  hopefully.  Then yesterday, there he was.  Hair growing back. Skeleton replaced by flesh.  Almost back to his starting weight.  Same good spirits.  He’s running again, almost a mile.  Oh, and he’s missing a lung.  The whole lung.  He’s not even one bit short of breath.  Hoping to be back to full duty in a month and complaining that he’s not running further yet. We both laughed about that, knowing full well what a difference those 6 months made.   Medicine is amazing.  Truly amazing.  Yet, when I have a patient like this, I know medicine alone can’t take the credit for this healing.  This young man’s work isn’t done yet.  I can’t wait to see what the next 6 months bring for him!!

Then tonight, my step-dad told me of a neighbor a few doors down that passed away a few weeks ago.  A family with all boys.  The youngest 2 are our son’s ages roughly.  The older 2 are in college.  The husband and wife have never been overly friendly to me,but I’ve seen them at school, and the dad playing in the yard with his boys.  41 years old.  Massive heart attack.  The dad died.  What!?!?  They are healthy.  I see them at the gym.  He’s younger than me!  Talk about smacking your day into perspective.  You never know.  Really.

Plan for tomorrow but live for today.  Make each moment count.  The little stuff is just “stuff”.  Engage with your family.  We see it all the time.  We hear it all the time.  Life is precious.  Take it one day at a time and make every one count.

Blessings.

Monday mourning..

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Blah.  At some point perhaps I will try a boring weekend and see if that makes Monday more palatable.  Naaaaahh….

This Monday starts week 3 of the Peak313 “5-week challenge” and I’ve got to say, so far, I’m sucking.  OK, well, not a total lie…the first week was pretty good…with room for improvement on the food choices, but the second week.  Blech!

  • Sick child
  • Hubby dealing with some personal issues…which I then take on (because that’s what I do..I empathize to the point of making it MY problem) and then revert to comfort food and busy-ness wherever I can find it
  • Open house for the Elem school
  • Change in soccer practice, unexpectedly
  • Super busy at work

Nothing truly earth-shattering, however, life got in the way and I let it.  Bummer.  It derailed my exercise AND my eating and so I fully experience the saying “when you fail to plan, plan to fail”.  And fail I did.  When you fall (or fail) you have to get up, brush yourself off and get back on the path.  One day at a time.  One foot in front of the other.  And so on.

Somewhere around Friday I began to rally mentally.  Better food choices.  A little exercise.  Saturday was a busy sports day for the girls with LOTS of driving, however, better food choices and a decent mental outlook on the day as a whole.  Sunday was the RESTART:  Mass.  Walk. Grocery shop.  Pre-cook for lunches for the week:  Baked chicken breasts, brown rice, quinoa, hard-boiled eggs, cut up some veggies for the kids to snack on (and me).  I also made some treats for the fam–not exactly “clean eating” but a treat…moderation, right?  Pumpkin chocolate chip cookies–I’d give you my recipe, but it’s a little of this, little of that kind of deal but you could use this one from A Sweeter Thing.  I made the cookies for a treat for the week (we’ll see if they last that long!) and I made a peanut butter pie for dessert last night.

Moving on….we have fruit and veggies in the house…I’ve got food prepared for the week…I can’t wait to try this pumpkin oatmeal recipe for breakfast this morning… I’ll be hitting the gym @ lunch today…we have a healing mission @ church tonight. Day 2.  Week 3.  It’s ON!

This challenge is motivating and encouraging and I am also EXTREMELY motivated by Socially Fit’s blog and Twitter feed throughout the day.  Focus.  Focus.  Focus.

I’m off to start the morning rush…..How’s your week looking?

Peak 313..Week 3 Scripture verse!