Friday Five

Good Evening!!!

Whew! What a week that was, and weekend that will be! Don't have much time - I just wanted to slap a post up for posterity since sometimes I trade living my life for blogging about it, OR take lots of pics of life, but never post them! This week has been a good balance (been a while since I blogged daily) and it has been great!!!! Lots of memories!

I was asked this week how many blogs I follow - hehe! I said the Dashboard feature makes my many easy to navigate, but I not been really reading other blogs this week. I love doing that though, but that is one thing that fell to the wayside in order to focus on family this week.

Now...for the FIVE:

1. This was the weekend I created my own home camp experience and blended it with a Summer Adventure! Today was the last day for the faith adventure (I'll continue our focused crafting and bonding time up until school starting) and it has been such a fun week for us. If I can make myself remember to follow through with pictures, I can show what we did together, and with friends, as we blended a fun home camp/VBS experience! It really makes me think more on homeschooling...it was so enjoyable for both of us! a BLESSING.

2. I'm on my 1st week of boot camp! So far, I'm managed to do all the assigned days, and honor the rest days (gotta love rest days lol)! It's pretty much cross training - strength, cardio, weights/bands, with some sports. It's all on my Wii Active, and I'm enjoying it. I'm doing a 30 day Challenge, so I'm interested in seeing if I can keep up the schedule!

3. Tonight is another family night. Hubby is cooking a spaghetti dinner and then we will be watching Inkheart. I hope we like it better than last weekend's Bolt (what a sleeper that was ZZzzzz...)

4. My plans tomorrow are going to practice some bluegrass tunes with a band I may join (depending on scheduling) in the morning, and then shopping outlets with a friend in the afternoon. I may actually divert from buying clothes for the girls and actually focus on myself! GASP!

5. I'm gearing up for next week when I start keeping my goddaughter on Wednesday. I'm really excited (and a little nervous too) about this new direction of my time. I'm really excited to spend such quality time with Baby E, and Baby Valiant LOVES her godsister and it will be so cute to see them grow together! Lovely will enjoy having her the 3 days we have E before she goes back to school and leaves my little nest!!

Ok - I'd better run, another fun evening awaits!! I love my family!!!

Small Successes and Thankful Thursday

Hey All!

I can't take too long with this today! We're on Day 4 of our Summer Faith Adventure and camp at home. It's been so fun doing all the VBS activities together and with Daddy and friends, along with other fun craft activities and summer fun with friends too. I really wanted to have a focused week with Lovely before school started to enjoy our faith together, family time, and friend time. It's been SO fun, and not over.



Successes for this week....

1. I've managed to keep the house straight, even with all the cooking activities in the house this week, crafting, and other activities going on. Now, you can't really eat off my floor (HAHA) but at least surprise visitors can stop by without risking their lives.

2. Did I mention the fun we're having with our special home time this week? It's SO wonderful!

3. I've managed to get back to working out again! I started one of the 30 day Challenges on the Wii Active game, and I'm loving it. I'm so glad yesterday was a "rest" day...it's kicking my bottom!!! I wonder what my "trainer" will have in store for me today. Does anyone have the Active? I find the in line skating SO HARD lol.


Thankful Thursday

Today I'm super thankful for...

1. my body - how it works, getting me where I need to go, being healthy. It's so easy for me to take my body for granted.
2. for my family - and I mean my WHOLE family - in good times and rough times, I have a family who loves me.
3. my little goddaughter who spent the morning with us - her smiles made my day!
4. little Valiant who made us all laugh this morning as she called her godsister "doggie" over and over!
5. Lovely being SO good yesterday attending what could have been a difficult church service for a child (a funeral) but it was such a joyful one that she fit in fine (in the back row with my parents) when the nursery fell through on being held. She was SO good and happy and brought a lot of life to the service.
6. Little Valiant, who also was super good at the same service yesterday.
7. that the church yesterday (not our church home) was so welcoming to my little girls being there.
8. laughter!! When my parents walked in with my girls (my dad is a youthful age 86, my mom age 73) an usher pulled my dad aside and said "Wow! Those are some beautiful girls you have there. What sort of vitamins are you both taking?" HAHAHAHA!
9. Hubby bearing with my mood swings this week. Wow - a good man....

Have a fantastic day!!! SMILE!!

I'm SO not good....

Ok - so I've had one of those days. I woke up with a dark cloud of too many "do's" on my 'to do' this today, did not sleep well, and....yadda yadda yadda. I've had a day speckled with an uncooperative 5 year old when friends were over and when daddy got home BUT, it was still wonderful...home VBS and camp mixed in with fun activities at home AND with friends. I can't wait to share some pictures!! It was so much fun. With our buddies next door (Thank you S!!) we made marbled paper, and summer fruit pizza. We also did our VBS activities with bible stories, songs, stained glass cookies and tissue/wax paper windows to let the sun shine in on. Time with our friends uplifted me. Those moments with Lovely uplifted me. At those times there was no 5 year old grouch (and yes, as a mom...I'm sure I could have handled it better and I sure felt grouchy too!!). It's funny - that balance as a mom of the hard and easy - I feel enriched even as I feel entrenched.

And then, I read this. Talk about enriched. I'm not sure I have the words to describe how touched I am. I also feel inadequate. To me, Kate has already become a friend who I met through a ministry at church and the children's liturgy. She's a part of my vocabulary (such as - yesterday's post when I mention a great day with friends! It was just natural to say without fanfare or introduction. It was just time with friends. An official blog post was milling around in my mind - but our visit was a natural highlight of my week). We had been chatting at church or an e-mail here and there, and I wanted to finally collect on that promise of "let's get together!"(you know we all say it, but actually doing it with kids, activities, jobs, housework can be another story). It was such a nice morning - sharing stories, laughing at our kids, discovering or revisiting things that are important to us we share or to enlighten the other with. It was fun, easy and well...so normal! I felt blessed to call her friend. I figured when I could put "normal" into words I'd thank her here and share how nice "normal" was....and I get on and see her post. WOW. Somehow, normal became extraordinary.

Her words, vision....how she captured Lovely's face...WOW. How do I thank someone for such imagery? How do I try to equal that...compare to that, or live up to that? I'm SO not good. I will say Kate says it BEST, and her other thoughts about living life....not just hiding in front of the computer...so TRUE!! I'm glad I'm so blessed to be able to have the REAL world, and that Kate, S, and others are IN my real world...not just here where I record my inner thoughts, and journal life experiences - but I can join on play dates with, do crafts with, "live" with. So thank you Kate, thanks for your super kind words (you are too generous, your girls gorgeous - but no surprise there) and really...God Bless you...

So, when's the next play date? :) hehe! I'm holding you to it!

Much love!

Day Book - Monday Edition

Outside my window…a dark summer night.

I am thinking...or rather debating doing the Wii Active Book Camp day one after I'm done (sometimes I work out at night), or get in bed with a good book I want to finish....hmmmm.

I am thankful for...the internet, and all information and planning help it gives me to do a week long home VBS for Rachael (go Summer Adventures, Crafts, and Cooking!) and friends who want to join along, with other crafts and cooking and such!

From the kitchen…Tonight was leftovers, and cookies from our snack venture today. Hmmmm, I should work out...lol!

I am wearing... comfy cargo pants and T-shirt

I am creating…and researching lots of fun things to do this week to bond with Lovely before Kindergarten!

I am going…to either work out or read...hmmmm. LOL!!! What will win?

I am reading… a new vampire series. I love Twilight and since I read all those books, I need to fill the void :)

I am hoping…that becoming my goddaughter's babysitter for 4 days a week (eventually 3 days) is a good idea. We're all on the same page now, and looking forward to it, but watching someone else's child, especially for pay, can complicate things and is such a responsibility. But, I'm excited to try!!

I am hearing...the sounds of my hubby crushing hard candy for me for a baking project later this week. Love my man!!!

Around the house…I'm enjoying a house mostly caught up with cleaning wise. I certainly have more areas to deep clean, but I'm content right now keeping up with things as I focus on my girls this week!

One of my favorite things…naps!!! I've been trying to catch up on naps lately....

A few plans for the rest of the week: Home VBS every day, play dates with friends, babysitting my goddaughter Thurs morning for a short while, and lots of reading!

Here is 'picture thought' I am sharing…

The Godsisters....Lovely, Valiant, and 3 month old E. in our yard. They are wearing matching dresses from my sister...hehe! I'm a blessed woman!!!

Have a rosey rest of the week!

Please Pray!!!

Hey Friends,

On the left sidebar I have a button for "Pray for Stellan" that links you up to McMama's blog (click on her name there for her Twitter). I've followed her before her 4th baby was born (Stellan) and her blog and photography and faith are amazing - now more than ever. Before his birth Stellan has been sick with a heart condition. He's had an episode again that was being managed, but it's been announced his heart is giving out (hopefully it will rebound!). They have decided to airlift him to another hospital.

Please pass along this story, and please pray and spare and thought for this amazing family. We don't always have to know each other personally to know how amazing people are. McMama is just that, as is her family. Please go check them out, and share the story for more support. I can't imagine....

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Also - to update you on a friend's 2 yo great niece with brain cancer. Picture updates show she is getting chemo and starting to slowly talk again and walk some (getting rehab). Please please continue prayers for her too, and her family. A family can break apart under such stress without faith!

Thanks!!!

Beware....

some things are too cute for normal viewing. View at your own risk....

Friday Five - but in 7 Quick Takes

WOW! It has been so long since I've done my Friday Five!! I totally was getting on to do my FIVE (We've been out of town or swamped the last month, and today has been more relaxed) but I saw another blogger (Jennifer) challenge us to do her 7 Quick Takes this particular Friday, and...so I'll bite!!! I like doing my Friday Five because of how the F's go together...what is that called? Grammatically it has a name....lol. But I love the mystery behind this request.

So, I'll give it ago. Here is Friday Five plus Two :)


1. It has been an unbelievable summer. We've been so busy - and making memories. I've captured most on camera, not my blog. But it has been wonderful. My computer has not been uploading pics to my liking, or I would have loaded more Disney pics and beach pics than I have. I just can't upload more than one at a time, and I just don't have time for that. I need to LIVE my life (to blog about...lol) so one day!! But, Disney was incredible, and the beach was a needed escape for me and the girls.

2. Along the lines of #1, this past week we hosted family at my sister's. It was the first time since last November we've all been together with my brother and his family who live far away. It was great! Ok, there were some typical "family moments from sharing space together 24/7 with different ages, generations, and values" but we still laughed, loved, and lived - and that's way more than many have and I'm grateful to be a part of it.

3. This week we've recovered from all the travel and family and friends constantly with us. We had many PJ days, naps, and rested. We also went to the park with friends, met other friends at a local indoor play gym, and did more lazy days. I'm reading a new book series (I'm a total Twilight fan), and am getting hooked on a adult series in the same genre. I love getting lost in a book, a whole new world, and I don't read enough! My interests are so varied when it comes to reading...I so love books! Bring on the titles and suggestions!

4. Today we did venture out of the house and reconnected next door after being out of town for so much, conflicting schedules, and other things. It was so nice for the kids to play again in the sprinkler, for S and I to visit, and all of us eat lunch together. It was like old times in the neighborhood, and lightened my soul.

5. I'm blogging now listening to the sounds of Hubby playing around with Lovely. They are having time together playing a game just for the two of them. Once the baby is up from her LATE nap (which works out for tonight) I'll join them for dinner, and the start of FAMILY DATE NIGHT with a board game. Then, once it is dark, we will all cuddle once again in our king sized bed and watch the movie "Bolt" with homemade popcorn and dessert. I'm glad though to have this time to myself cause Lovely needed Daddy time, and I needed some time to process through blogging. I'm SO excited about tomorrow. FAMILY DAY! We're going to our favorite local nature park and just enjoy being together. We'll top a mountain, run on green grass, ride a train, breathe fresh air, maybe wade in a creek! I can't. wait.

6. I wanted to write cause once again....I feel like I tripped myself up. SARCASM ALERT: I just LOVE when I do that! Why is it I trip myself up with friends sometimes, and why I annoyingly can't let it go? Well...I am with this post. I've talked to the friend, all is well - just not in my soul yet. So annoying. I am my own stumbling block..BUT writing it here is such a release from the internal pressure. So, whew...I'm good now!!! It is let go!! Funny how I can forgive others, not judge others, etc....but letting myself off that hook? Well...that's a laugh! But I am...ongoingly...(ooh! I just made up a word!! But - hmmm - spell check isn't saying anything about it....so maybe I'm not so original). We're called to forgive and to let go, let God...and amen to that!

7. I'm really excited about next week. I'm creating some needed mother/daughter time. We will connect some of the time with other kids and activities, but I'm really looking forward to time with just my girl (and baby too). We're going to do Summer Adventures home VBS, and modify with some camp activities I found online as well since it will just be here and I some, and then some with our friends. I'm ready to do something constructive and planned and focused, so she has MY focus. I hope it gives me more experience with homeschool since I want to do that one day. But next week I hope is a blast before I lose Lovely to Kindergarten! WAH! hehe.

Ok, so a real post about life! Not just my bathroom! I wish a blessed weekend to you and as always,

Much love (and thanks)!