Just the day to day...

Yes, I have been very neglectful of this blog lately. I am sorry that I haven't made time for it in so long. I have been a bit busy but that isn't an excuse for not posting something.

At the moment Lauren is in Little Rock for a visit. She left last Monday to go back for Mid-America youth conference at FPC in North Little Rock. She is heading back starting today. She is leaving there going to her grandmother's in Tennessee, then will head back here tomorrow. She will then have to leave here on Sunday to go to Charlotte for two weeks for training for her new job. Her job will begin here on the 20th. I just hope that she won't get back here Friday so exhausted and tired from all the running she has been doing in Little Rock, that she ends up getting sick from it. That has been known to happen in the past.

Kids...What can you do? I suppose they have to learn from their own mistakes. I know that is how I learned most of the things I know today...because I was so hard-headed and didn't listen to the voices of wisdom. So I had to go through the school of hard knocks...I graduated with honors! I have tried to pass on the knowledge I gained from all of those mistakes to my children. Let's just hope that one of them didn't inherit the hard-head gene and actually will accept the advice I am offering.

Around the house:

I have one raised bed nearly full of plants. I am going to put in the last of them this week. The second raised bed is getting soil today and I will be planting in it this week also. There may be call for a third bed, but we will see after I get the others filled. I also have some gourd plants coming up from the seeds Noah and I planted. I have always loved growing gourds. I have been growing them off and on, depending upon if I have had the space, since the 1990's. I have grown them in Louisiana, Kentucky, Arkansas and now in North Carolina. I still have some dried ones that I grew back in Louisiana years ago and some from Arkansas. I tried a couple of new varieties this year, so we will see how they turn out.

Megan is working on school work and working on a website for her website building. She had taken a break from art class beginning the first part of the year until spring. We are now trying to decided when she will start back. She is really wanting to take piano lessons, so I am searching for someone that can teach her. I am so very surprised that there are no more people in the churches we have attended that teach lessons. There are so many talented people, but no one seems to be interested in teaching. I will have to keep asking around.

Noah is growing like a weed. He is so active. He has been spending most of his days outside playing in the backyard. He loves to swing and play in his sandbox. But a lot of the time he is walking around in the "forest" exploring his world. We have a grove of trees on one side of the backyard that he calls the forest, and he loves to play in there. He has also been helping me plant the garden. He is such a little worker. He loves to do anything like that to help. He is strong too, he doesn't get tired and give up very easily. He just keeps right on going. It sure does help him sleep good at night also. So I suppose that is a good thing.

The job is coming along according to plan. We probably won't know anything on the next job until July or August. So for now, we are here and I plan to continue to be here until they tell us otherwise. I am just praying that wherever we move that there will be a great church and we will really like the area. I am also praying it isn't Mississippi. I really don't want to live there. No offense to anyone that does. It just isn't a place I would care to live. For that matter, I don't care to go back to Louisiana to live either, and I am from there.

It is a cool morning this morning. We had a little rain and a front come through yesterday and it brought the sunshine and cool winds today. As I sit here in the kitchen I can see the shadows of the trees swaying on the wall beside me. I think the high temps today aren't even going to reach 70 degrees.

I have been making a real push to up my exercise routine and watching everything I eat. Trying to get the scale to move again. I am down a pound or two now. So I hope that it is going to continue to move downward. The only problem is last Tuesday evening while running, I twisted my ankle and fell. I heard a loud pop sound and it really scared me. I thought sure I had broken my ankle. But I got in and took my shoe off and there was no swelling. It did hurt pretty bad, but no outward signs of anything. I had the kids pray for me and we prayed that it wouldn't be broken and would heal quickly. So that put my exercise off at least the running part. I did manage to do some light cardio and strength training during the week. So my ankle was better, and I assumed was okay, and I did some heavy cardio and strength training Monday evening and yesterday I got out and dug up the dirt and cleared out the grass and debris in the new garden bed. Last night my ankle really started hurting again and I noticed some swelling. So I think I may have re-injured it. I will continue the exercise that I can do, but will really have to be careful what goes in my mouth. I will reach my one year membership at Curves in June and I haven't officially weighed in or measured since I joined. So I am making a big push to be at or near my original goal when I reach the one year mark. I have about six weeks or so before that time and I am hoping for good results. I just don't want this ankle injury to interfere with my progress.

The little dogs are barking wanting to go outside this morning, so I guess I need to let them out and get Megan up to start school. I have some household chores to get done today and I want to work on a couple of projects I have going in my craft area. So until next time I will leave you with a couple of quotes.

Thought for Today

Warning! Dates on calender are closer than they appear

~unknown~

Spend the afternoon, you can't take it with you

~annie dillard~

I still find each day too short for all the thoughts I want to think, all the walks I want to take, all the books I want to read, and all the

friends I want to see

~john burroughs~

To changes ones life. Start immediately. Do it flamboyantly.

No exceptions.

~william james~

All My Marbles...

*The photo has nothing to do with this post. I was just going through some pics I have taken in the past and liked the way this one looked. It was taken at Petite Jean State Park in Arkansas*


I haven't posted much lately...I have been busy with the daily business of being a stay-at-home-homeschooling-mom. The daily chores of housekeeping, school, cooking and mothering seem to be taking more time than usual as of late. I have also been using my "spare" time exercising and looking at recipes and reading about clean eating. That has taken up a lot of my time...but I am determined that THIS time I will see it through and get into the physical shape that I have always hoped I could.

The weather has been awesome lately. Right now as I type this, the sun is shining in through the blinds and the outside temp is 52*. It looks like it is going to be a beautiful day ahead.

It is already November! I can't believe how the year has passed. My birthday is just around the corner...43, Wow! When did that happen? How did I suddenly become a woman in her 40's?

I know it didn't happen overnight...But looking back it seems like the years have just slipped away. Then one day I woke up and I was 40...Forty didn't bother me like it does some people, but it was the fact that after 40 comes 41, 42, 43 and so on. Then you wake up and your in your 50's then 60's and well...time just slips right on by...

Which makes me begin to question; how I am spending these days that God has given me? What am I doing with this life I am blessed to have? Am I getting bogged down by the daily drudge of life and allowing the problems and pressures of life to drain me of the strength and energy that I should be using productively? Am I on mission? Or have I gotten off course somewhere and somehow?

Will I look back from some future self and see where I wasted years and have regrets? My greatest fear is to get to the end of life's road and look back with regret for something I didn't do. That I would allow fear to keep me from accomplishing something I wanted to do; something I was put here to do...

I suppose this month, the month of my birth, is one of reflection and contemplation. Reflection on the past and the issues that I bring from it...how it affects who and what I am today. Contemplation of the present and future that is out before me...

Every decision that I am making today will affect my future. Every day is a gift waiting to be unwrapped and enjoyed. So this got me to thinking about a story I once read. I looked it up on the Internet and have added a link to it below for you to read or reread if you have already read it. I think it is a story that we should read often and take to heart.

1000 Marbles

A Few Things...

Here are a few things that have been going on around the house.

This is the after photo:

I don't have a before, but trust me, it wasn't good. We've had this chest for many years. Andrew's dad gave it to us. He had purchased it at an auction. It was a typical ceder chest, inside and out. We used it for years, but in Little Rock it ended up in the sun room. It got damp and dusty and we considered throwing it out when we moved. Then one day, Andrew decided to redo it. We are going to put it at the foot of our bed and fill it with quilts.

A little distressing to make it look old. I really like that look.

We left the inside as it was. Before it looked like the inside on the outside also and the feet had been chewed on by one of the puppies in our lives. Andrew removed the feet and replaced them.








Now on to one of my favorite subjects:
Food!



This is one of my favorite snacks.
Vanilla yogurt, blueberries, raspberries and bananas with some granola sprinkled throughout, and topped with a light dusting of confectionery sugar.

Notice the tray that the yummy delight sits upon...


I bought the tray several years ago at a yard sale or Goodwill, I can't remember.
Anyway, it has been on my hutch in my dining room, almost forgotten. Until last Saturday;
I had a couple of tables of things that I put in the yard sale at our church and while there, of course I had to walked around to see what other goodies were there. And I found these bowls. There were five of them for $2.00. I just liked the look of them. So I brought them home, cleaned them up and while trying to decide where to display them, I rediscovered this tray...
So now they are all on display in my hutch.

This cooler weather is really making me look forward to soup weather...
I love soup, and don't necessarily have to have cool weather to make a pot.
But especially in cool weather, I make a lot of soup.

Last week I made a large pot of Potato and Leek soup. It has become one of my new favorites.
I added crumbled bacon, some homemade croutons, cracked pepper and sea salt...
Yummy! I had enough to freeze two containers for a quick meal on another day.





Another yummy fruit dessert:
Here is a photo of the Apple, blueberry, raspberry crumble I posted a few days ago after it was baked. I usually buy blueberries and raspberries and even strawberries when they are on sale and freeze them to use later. So I usually have plenty on hand for just such craving...




And on a final food note:
Noah saw me cooking and mixing up the above dish, and he wanted to try his hand at cooking something yummy. So with a wee bit of help, he mixed up a 1/2 batch of peanut butter cookies. I used the recipe that I used as a child. Once the dough is mixed you place it in the fridge to chill then roll into balls and crisscross with a fork. When I was young, I would eat the raw dough. It was so full of peanut buttery goodness. In fact, a funny story; I would take a zippy bag of dough with me to school to snack on and of course other kids would want some, so I would go home, make more and bring several zippy bag to friends...you couldn't do that today...I never knew a kid with a peanut allergy when I was growing up. Today, a child would get in serious trouble for bringing food from home and passing out to other kids...especially something containing peanut butter. (reason 3,467 why I think the world has gone crazy...but that's for another post.)





With those memories in my head while helping Noah make his first batch of cookies, I offered him a bite of the dough. At first he wasn't interested. He's kind of a skeptical kid when it comes to trying new foods. If it doesn't look like something he would want, he won't even try it. But he finally decided to try a bite...he fell in love...of course he's a peanut butter loving kid like I was..
So after eating his fill of dough we put it in the fridge. After supper, he helped me roll them out and make the crisscrosses, we put them in the oven and baked them.
He ate a belly full and loved them. He was especially proud that he had made them himself.






Well there are some other things that have been happening around here, but like the old saying goes: don't tell everyone everything you know...leave something to the imagination... and in this case, to other posts...

On The Homefront...or tales from the homestead

Happy Tuesday! Had a great weekend. Didn't do much, just enjoyed.

Got a busy week ahead and Noah's birthday is Sunday. Can't believe he will be four years old! Sometimes it seems impossible that he has been here that long.

Nothing much going on around here, just the usual daily life. Got to get Megan's school year going. High school is going to be different. I am enrolling her in a program from Bob Jones University. She will be doing online school. I think that will work out well for her. This way we can keep exact records of her progress and her high school credits. She will also have teachers other than myself to help her with the difficult subjects: i.e. Algebra, Algebra II, and Geometry. Did I mention I don't do those subjects very well? Anyway, I felt that she needed someone who actually understood those subjects to teach her. Lauren had a tutor at times to help with math, but since this online option is available, I decided to go with it instead.

She seems excited about it and seems to have a whole new attitude about school in general. Lets hope it lasts through the year!

I have Noah a preschool book to help him start to read. My goal with him this school year will be teaching him to read. Then next year we will start working on the other things. I want him to get a good reading foundation and learn phonics.

Lauren is working on her Medical Coding program and should be finished in the spring. Then I am hoping she will continue on and finish the Rad Tech program she had originally planned on doing. She says she would like to go to Bible College for a little while just for the experience at least. I hope if she is serious about it, that she can do that soon. She wants to go to Indiana Bible College. She has some friends there and has visited the area before. I just want what God's will is for her life. If she follows His plan then she will be successful and happy.

She is leaving Thursday to go to California with the Summit Youth group from church. They are going to sing and be a part of an outreach type thing over the weekend. She is excited about that. They fly out Thursday morning early, so if you would please be in prayer for them that they have a safe trip.

Tonight Andrew's company is doing an appreciation dinner for the employees, so we will be going to eat out for that. I will get to see Dick and Nancy again. We were in Kentucky with them and Nancy and I use to get up in the mornings and walk through the neighborhood together. Dick came back out of retirement to do this job, but I haven't seen either of them since we have been here. They have a home in Charlotte and he stays during he week here. She doesn't come with him often and there hasn't been an opportunity to visit with them since coming here.

Tomorrow Megan gets her bottom braces on. She has had her top ones for a couple of months. She is excited about that. Her top teeth are really looking good even after such a short time. So hopefully all will go well. She has been trying to put on weight. She finally reached 90 pounds! She doesn't realize that one day she will look back and be wishing she wouldn't have rushed the pounds on! Funny, I remember myself at close to her age. When I turned 15 I got my drivers licenses and told them I weighed 100 pounds, although I only weighed about 95. But all of my friends had passed 100 and I felt like such a baby weighing so little! Funny how I have spent many years battling pounds...

While cleaning out some things in the garage that had been stored, I ran across journal after journal that I had through the years and the one thread that ran through all of them was; I have never been happy with my weight and the condition of my body. I had written my weight and my goals and kept food journals for years...I was really jolted by this...

Apparently that is one thing I have grappled with for so many years...even at times when I didn't even need to lose weight, I wasn't happy with where my body was...I started thinking that apparently one goal for so much of my adult life has been to be a good weight and be in good physical shape. I'm not talking about like a model or the idea that we see in the magazines and through the media of how a woman is suppose to look. That isn't reality. But I am talking about feeling good about where my weight is but also being physically healthy. One goal I have always had was to run a marathon. To be physically able to have the stamina to run a marathon.

I remember as far back as the summer between my junior and senior year of high school, I started running. I wanted to be on the track team in my senior year of high school. I really enjoyed my runs. Of course, I had no idea of how to run correctly and ended up hurting my ankles. So I gave up on the idea. But through the years I have wished I could become a runner.

After reading through all of the journals I found that I had written, I realized that I had to work to obtain the one goal that has consumed so much of my adult life... even if I wasn't actively working toward that goal, I was dreaming of reaching that goal. If something has taken up so much of my life through the years, it much be something I really wanted. Now is the time to work hard to make that happen.

I started going to Curves in June, but slacked off through the summer. Now I have committed to it again and have been going regularly. I have changed my diet, and eat healthy and keep track of my calories. I quit Dr Pepper's and cut out the junk. I only fuel my body with good things...an have an occasional treat, such as the fried oyster Po' Boy I made the other day. But mostly it is lean meats, broiled, boiled, grilled or baked. I eat a lot of seafood! That's not a hard thing, since I could live on seafood. I have changed other habits and replaced them with good things. So far I have lost right at nine pounds! And I am feeling great! I am feeling very positive and know that I can do this...I am going to finally reach that goal of being a healthy weight. I am going to work on becoming the physically active person that I have always desired to become.

My dad always had a saying when I was growing up: Mind over Matter! It is actually quite accurate. 99% of accomplishing something is in your mind. If you set your mind to do it, you can accomplish it.

Success starts in your head, taking small steps forward. I tell myself; Just for today I will eat right and I will exercise. Don't worry about tomorrow, don't worry about the road ahead, just work one day at a time. Eventually you will reach that goal!