RA Blog Is Back

I don't want to use my blog to talk about such unpleasantness so I resurrected my RA blog to track my progress of the latest experiment.  The link is on my side bar if you're interested in following along.

Something New To Try

I don't like to talk about my RA much but I thought I'd give you an update.  In a nutshell....

~meds were affecting my liver and kidneys
~switched meds
~some things are better, some are not
~everything remains unpredictable
~more popping, more cysts
~my options are becoming more limited
~having a harder time maintaining a good attitude

I've been doing some more research and I'm trying something new.  It's a 3 day water fast followed by a 4 day rotation diet.  The premise behind it states that it takes 3 days for a food to clear your system.  Clear the foods.  Start over by introducing one at a time.  Chart the progress....blah blah blah.  

So I've been food free since 3pm yesterday.  My reading tells me to expect detox flares.  Sure enough I woke up in the middle of the night with a throbbing knee.  My experience is that knees and shoulders don't last long but are pretty intense.  This one is not so intense, but I won't be walking my neighborhood today. 
Is it a detox flare?  Or would it have happened anyway?  I don't know. 

So my plan is to lay low for a few days.  Drink gallons of water.  Pray.  And smile. 

And yes, it would've made more sense to wait until after VBS, after Texas, and after our Colorado visit.  But I figured, why wait?  By next week, I'll be eating again and maybe even feeling better. 

In the meantime I want to be sweet to family and not go off on the person standing the closest or melt into a puddle of tears.  Both of which are entirely possible. 

Will you pray for me?  And if you have any experience with rotation diets can you pass it along?

Do Like A Duck Does

These are our latest library finds.  Ms. Martha, our newest story time lady, read this one a couple of weeks ago and it has stayed at our house since.  Now LittleMan can read the whole thing by himself and it is a new fave.  It has a catchy rhyming verse that is easy and fun to read.  The kids especially like the way that Momma outwits the brown fox in the end!

Great news!  Paperback Swap has this and it should be on its way to our house in a couple of days.  This one is a keeper and I'm going to save it for our back-to-school party in the fall. 

Our other new favorite is Pete The Cat: I Love My White Shoes. 
Mrs. Turner read this to us and what book that Mrs. Turner reads would not be an instant favorite?  She said that whenever she reads this story the librarians spend the rest of the day saying "Goodness NO!" 

Pete is the coolest blue cat ever.  I had no idea he had such a following!  You can check him out here.  You can also download his latest hits.  They make my kids belly laugh every time! 

My favorite thing about Pete is his awesome attitude.  I overheard LittleMan tell his grandmother, "Whatever you step in, just keep walking along and singing your song.  Because its all good."  Ha! 

We got this book for LittleMan's b-day this year.  There is a new one out that we are picking up from the library today.   Big surprise for my little people!  I'm sure it will be added to my list of books for the back-to-school party too. 

BTW, today is the day to sign up for the library's summer reading program!   Its one of our favorite things of the summer.   Will I see you there?

Family Worship

We can't fit our instruments into our rent house but we are slowly getting them all set up at church.
Last night we had a fun little family worship time....like old times.

How I have missed it!

This Week

We had a fun morning picking green beans out of this gorgeous garden.  Someday I hope we can be good farmers like this.

Then there was the snapping.  I know if I had to do this all the time it would become a chore, but since we never get to do it, we enjoyed it.

Now what?  All my canning stuff is packed away.  The obvious alternative was freezing so I spent a morning blanching and bagging beans for the freezer.  The whole time my kids were asking how we were ever going to eat that many green beans.  Picking and snapping was fun...actually having to eat them is something different.

~VBS signups this week.  Can't wait to meet my new class!  Though most of my kids will be familiar, I'm hoping for some new friends too.  My room is mostly decorated and next week we'll work on it a little more.  I'm planning on doing my VBS lessons with my own kids at home next week. 

~The minute I finish VBS I am taking 4 kids and heading to Texas for the weekend.  It's a girl family reunion with my mom, grandmother, aunt, cousin, and I don't know who else.  I never get to see my cousin Carri and I am super excited about getting to spend 3 whole days with her!  My kids are so disappointed to miss it.  I wish it was easier for everyone to go. 

~And then!  When we come home we will have the fun of having some more of our Colorado peeps visit us!  Love them.  And whatever disappointment my kids feel about missing out on TX will be forgotten when they come.  It'll be short but we're thankful for whatever we can get! 

~After that we're hoping for a visit from Aunt Mich and Tate and Chloe from AZ.  Oh yes, June will be awesome.

~I feel so unworthy of the blessings of family and friends I have. 

~We discovered we live walking distance from the dog park.  Have you ever been to a dog park?  Do you even know what it is?  I didn't.  Well it's a big piece of land where you take your dog and let him run all over the place.  I guess in my mind I pictured a gross dry field covered with dog poop.  But WOW, it's this beautiful lush green park, very well cared for, with a lake and pretty trees.  I'm surprised this prime piece of real estate is wasted on dogs!  But anyhow, it's been a good place for Lane to escape to every day with Buzz and Joey.

~The property in Charleston is set to close on Thursday.  We're starting to get more serious about house plans. 

~2 months in the rent house.  4 more to go (at least).  I find myself missing a few things that are in storage now.  Mainly our games and some kitchen things.  It'll be all the sweeter to finally get to unpack those things in a few months.

~I went to the used book sale and spent $5.  Living here has taught me that I don't need as many of anything (even books) as I once thought I did. 

~Sams on Memorial Day weekend is a bad idea.  At least I had a handsome young man to tag along with me.  And whatever I saved at the book sale I spent at Sams.  On books.  Jackpot!  Lots of things for our back to school party in the fall.  Shhhhh.....it's a surprise!  One of my faves is a Billy Graham book about Heaven.  That's not for the kids.  It's for me.  But I'll share. 

~Jes and I spent so much time at Sams that we missed lunch so I took him to Taco Bell and spilled beans all over my shirt. 

~My in-laws came for dinner tonight.   I love that they are living in town now and just pop in and out whenever they want.  We had spaghetti and green beans.  Surprise. 

I'll leave you with a verse I'm praying for VBS.  It's beautiful, don't ya think?
"Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands for us; yes, establish the work of our hands"  Psalm 90:17

Churchy Things

~Awana is over for the year.  NONE of my 3rd graders finished their books or even came close, except Jes and that doesn't count b/c he really had no choice.  I felt bad that I didn't give them any awards but honestly I couldn't think of anything award worthy of the year.  And I especially felt bad that Caleb didn't even get an attendance award b/c he only missed once.  But you can't really say "Perfect Attendance Except For That One Time That You Stayed Home To Play With Your Remote Control." 

I don't feel like I accomplished as much with them this year.  And when my own kids came on board something changed.  It was like my family and my ministry collided and my interests were divided.   I didn't feel as though I could freely give the same way when I had my own kids to think about/protect/cheer for/squeeze ketchup for/answer questions/etc. 

I'm praying about how I can do it better next year.  And for VBS.
VBS!!  Right around the corner!

This year I'm teaching 3rd and 4th graders.  I love love love VBS and the different atmosphere and the new
kids and the fresh opportunities.  I'm hoping to see some familiar faces from previous years....and especially Big Boy who hasn't been around in awhile.

~Saturday Misty and I hosted a girl day with our youth teens.  We went over this book, made pizzas, and had some good old fashioned girl talk. 

~Then last night our youth group hosted dinner and a movie night for the adults in our church.  They served BBQ along with the Courageous movie.  The fellowship hall looked pretty and they did a fantastic job.  They took it very seriously, stepped up, and behaved wonderfully.  So proud of them!!

~Youth will continue through the summer on Wednesday nights.  Since I'm always in Awana, I never get to join in on Wed night youth so I'm looking forward to that. 

Set or Sit

I am reading The Swiss Family Robinson outloud to my kiddos.

Last night I read the sentence...
"Let's set on the pot for supper." 

My boys heard..
"Let's sit on the pot for supper."

I know what they're thinking....why would they eat supper on the pot?

Sure enough....

Josh- "Where could they go to sit on the pot?  What could they even wipe with?"

Me - "In the woods, with leaves."

Mally - "But what about the girls??"

Hahahhaha!

Seed Mix

I've been trying to incorporate more seeds in my diet.   Some I like better than others and I tend to gravitate toward those.  I read this great idea about making a seed blend.  Since the size and texture of pumpkin seeds is mostly what I don't like about them, this makes it easier for me to actually eat them instead of just look at them in the pantry.

This took about 20 seconds total.  I dumped some pumpkin, sunflower, and flax seeds in my blender and gave them a whirl.  Then I added hemp and chia and just stirred them into it with a spoon.  

Ta Da!  Pretty too huh? 

Now I add this to everything.   It's best sprinkled on salads or cereal or dumped into smoothies.  But it's pretty good on most everything else too.....kinda like a salt and pepper habit it just tastes different!  I keep them in the fridge and just grab them at every meal.

Menu Plan For The Week

I've been a lazy cook.  I admit it.  This week I'm trying to do better thanks to pinterest and copying other people's menu plans.  

And have I told you how much I love my kindle?  Ok, well I still love it.  And one of the many reasons is all the free cookbooks I have loaded on it.  That means I can menu anywhere and browse new recipes no matter where I am.  Really, what's not to love? 

So here's the dinner plans for the week

Spaghetti (lunch for Mother's Day)
Grilled portabellas, oven fries, salad, and some dessert maybe (Date night!)

Pancakes and eggs with potatoes

Taco salads

Wednesday is our last Awana.  That means our last Awana meal too!  Next week I'll have to think of something else. 

Pizza

Chicken thighs, mashed potatoes, corn on the cob

Black bean chili

Sunday nights are crazy with church and there's not a lot of time for cleaning up after a big dinner.   Lately we've been having the same thing...
popcorn, fruit, cheese, pickles, pb & j on rice cakes.  For some of my kids, this is their favorite meal!

Oatmeal Cookies For The Freezer

Why don't I make cookies more often? Mostly because getting out and putting back all those ingredients take just as much time as making the cookies themselves. So today I made these mixes for the freezer.

I figure getting out 3 ingredients is much better than digging out 12.

Besides I'm trying to increase my freezer cooking.

3 Cups flour

2  1/2 Cups sugar (I used 2 cups of sucanat)

2 tsp salt

1 tsp each baking powder/soda

1 C. shortening (I used palm shortening)

3 C. oats

Mix all the dry ingredients then cut in the shortening until it is crumbly.  Then add...

1 bag of chocolate chips

2 Cups of chopped nuts

Stir it all together and measure out 2 1/2 cups into each zip lock bag.  If you use white flour you can store these in the pantry.  If you use whole wheat flour they'll need to go in the freezer.   It made 5 batches with about 1 1/2 cups left over.  I didn't know what to do with the left over.  I haven't mastered the art of measuring 1/2 an egg!  So I poured it into our granola cereal. 

When you're ready to make cookies you just need to pull out 4 things...

1 bag of mix

1 egg

1 T milk

1 t. vanilla

Mix up.  Spoon out onto cookie sheet and bake at 350. 

I baked up one batch right away to make sure we liked them.  Delish!  And they were plenty sweet even though cut the sugar by 1/2 cup. 

Missing My Girl

She's on her first mission trip.  Read: first time away from home alone.

It's all she's wanted to do since she was eight.  So it's having a dream realized in a way.  But we sure do miss her around here. 

Just as I was getting a little weepy over it all, my phone rang and I saw her picture!  YES!  She called at the perfect time. 

I got to hear about the car trip, the work of the night, dinner, the ice cream place, and the girls she's sharing a room with.  I'm thanking God for these particular girls.... they are just the ones I would've picked. 
Tomorrow they are working with Jesus House passing out groceries to the homeless.   

Pray for my girl this week....(and those of us missing her!)

Turtle-y Awesome!

Here's what it sounds like when a turtle is found...

SQUEAL!!!!

I'll carry him home.

No I will.

Z, he doesn't enjoy it when you carry him upside down. 

Why won't he come out?

He's scared of us.  He thinks we're going to eat him.

He doesn't understand how much we love him.

He's peeking!

Let's stand behind him.  He can't peek out his butt.

Isn't he sweet to let us carry him home?

Momma, isn't he just the nicest turtle ever?

"Fear not, stand firm"

Patience is more than endurance. A saint's life is in the hands of God like a bow and arrow in the hands of an archer. God is aiming at something the saint cannot see, and He stretches and strains, and every now and then the saint says – “I cannot stand any more!” God does not heed. He goes on stretching until His purpose is in sight, then He lets fly. Trust yourself in God's hands. For what have you in need of patience just now? Maintain your relationship to Jesus Christ by patience of faith. “Though He slay me, yet will I wait for him.” --Oswald Chambers
Again, God's perfect timing.

Honey and I were feeling somewhat defeated in our new ministry.  We're the kind that like to see immediate results.  The results weren't there.  We weren't even spinning our wheels....it seemed to me we were rolling backwards.   Patience is not my strong suit. 

Preparing for this week's youth lesson, I was reading the parting of the Red Sea.  I get so put out with the Israelites always complaining, always doubting, never trusting even after all they experienced.  I mean really.  They saw all those incredible plagues and watched God totally transform their situation.  Yet they stand at the edge of sea and whine about going back to Egypt.(?)  I don't get it. 

And yet I do.  I live that very thing!  I judge my own situation by outward appearances completely forgetting the power of God.  I whine that it's not working, that I'm not the right person for this, that this isn't what I meant.  I want to turn around and march in the opposite direction certain that there's been some mistake.

What a pitiful wimp I am! 
And there I was getting ready for youth, when God had a message for me instead.  Don't you love how clever He is? 

"Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the Lord, which He will work for you today."  Ex 14:13

I wonder what is next? :-)

The Grand Finale

The final tour.

Oh NOOOO!!  I just accidentally deleted my bedroom picture just as I was about to type.  Good grief. 

Well this is the master bath and you can see my bedroom in the mirror.  We'll call that good enough so I don't have to upload all over again.

The backyard.  It's great.  Don't you love that tree right in the middle?  And can you see the tire swing?  I've always wanted my kids to have a tire swing but the funny thing is that they really don't play on it much.  They like the swing set better. 

He also left his trampoline with a little ladder/slide so we don't have to put our's up.

And over to the left and behind the trampoline is FarmerBoy's garden.  A friend from church came over with his tools and scrap lumber and spent the day building this fine enclosure with my little guy.  He loves it.  Inside are 2 raised beds with some vegetables.  And do you see that plant on the back side of the fence?  It's a zucchini or a squash plant that was already there.  Bonus!

So there ya have it. 

One of the best things about this place is that it takes no time to clean up.  We only brought 1/2 of our stuff with us so there isn't a lot of clutter.  At this point I'm wondering why I even thought I needed all that other stuff anyway.  They only thing I've missed is our instruments and table space. 

I have learned a good lesson.  Less is more.  And I have a feeling that once we unpack our storage units we'll be getting rid of a lot more!

Our house is very close to just about everything except church.  Honey still comes home for lunch, we are almost walking distance from the grocery store, and are even a little closer to the soccer fields. 

I don't think anyone will be sad to leave this place, but for the time being it is a perfect blessing!

Tour Some More

Here we go with part 2. 

This is the boy's room.  Again, notice the colors?  They were NOT happy about the pink room, let me tell you.  But it happened to work out best with the closet space so they got stuck with it.  As it turns out they love their closet b/c it's big enough for them to all sit in and play legos.  So I guess it's worth it.  2 sets of bunks means we're short one bed.  Nate and LittleMan share a bottom bed.

The kitchen

It's a little smaller than our last kitchen but so much easier to work in.  When I run out of work space, I pull out a little 4 foot folding table and use it as a temporary island. 

The kids' bath.

11 people sharing 2 bathrooms often means the boys have to make a trip outside.

There is no good place to store towels in this house so we stack them in a laundry basket and store them in the bathub.  You just have to remember not to turn on the shower before taking out the towels!  Momma doesn't like having to re-dry a whole load.

The girls' room...complete with a girl. 

This room has 2 small closets with shelves instead of one big one. 

A Tour

Wanna see our new place?

Some of my family might not be able to visit before we move out of this rent house. 

I thought they might like to see where we're living.

This is the front.

I think it's really cute on the outside.

You walk right into the living room.  How 'bout those colors?  It reminds me of McDonalds.

To the left of the living room is the dining room.  Obviously this little table doesn't cut it for 11 of us.  This is the one area we feel cramped.  So we eat at this table, on the floor, coffee table, and on the porch.  The book case in the corner, as well as that white cabinet serve as the pantries.  Not pretty, but they work well.  Did you notice the lazy beast under the window?  That's his spot. 

Hey where'd my picture of the kitchen go?  It was right here! 

I guess it'll have to go into the next picture tour.  My phone will only allow me to upload a few pix at a time.

I have consolidated all of our school stuff into this plastic drawer thing that the landlord left in the garage.  It's in the hall closet so it's all closed up and out of the way.  We scrubbed this with soap and water on the drive way and let it dry.  It's looks clean (enough) but it smells like sweat.  Disgusting!  This closet door stays closed at all times!  I'm trying to think of a better solution without having to install something permanently.    I started out with everyone's totes but they didn't stack well in the space.  Any thouhts?

All The Way From COLORADO

Just to see us! 

Aren't they wonderful?

Pam and Jen flew in Friday night and we hung out at the church.

Then when she was least expecting it... he sneaks up behind...

SURPRISE!!!  Rommel all the way from Virginia!

It was a fun weekend full of ....

ping pong

air hockey

music

snow cones

church

and graduating

We talked Jen and Rommel into singing at church Sunday.

Beautiful.

I sat listening and wishing I could hear them every week.

But then I remembered that I will spend eternity listening to them so it's ok.

Thank you Pam and Jen and Rommel!  We were so blessed.

Happy Graduation!

Isn't she pretty?

Diploma presentation.

Every graduate makes a slide show with music and pictures of their life.

Then the parents present their diploma, say a few words, and turn the tassel.

And this year I didn't even mess it up.

Last time I took the tassel right off and had to hand it to Meg.

I'm convinced the do-hicky on our cap is defective.

Her daddy told our favorite Lane story of when she licked the ice cream off the floor at Braums.

I can't believe she's still alive.

Her table!

Every graduate decorates a card table with special things.

Lane's had pix, her puppet, a favorite movie, candy, ect.

The Believers class of 2012

Our friends and family have been super generous in supporting Lane and loving her.

Here are our super sweet Colorado peeps. 

(More pix to come)

The grandparents all dudded up.

And some grandmas all the way from Texas.

Congratulations Lane!

We love you so much!!