True love is...

... tucking your husband into bed (since he gets up for work at 3:30am) and then giving him a nice, warm shot of air into the blankets with a small space heater. Ahh...

Monday Meanderings

Bible Study/Devotions
some topical word studies

Personal Goal
* Really work on doing quiet time daily this week.

Must Do
* Set up budget!
* Send birthday and wedding pics to Grandma.
* Clean out van post-vacation.

Zone
* Guest bedroom. Time to get the second box spring up the stairs and get the bed together for visitors coming this month!

Train Them Up
* Plan some activities both kids can do.

Menu Planning

Monday - pasta with alfredo sauce (I just tried a new recipe and it was scrumptious! stay tuned), pears, green beans
Tuesday - broccoli sausage breakfast bake, peaches
Wednesday - dad's spaghetti
Thursday - sausage rice casserole, oranges
Friday -fiesta taco casserole, pineapple
Saturday - out?
Sunday - pork chops, mashed potatoes, corn

Fun Things
* My mom might be coming this weekend! Which means Kevin and I could go out, like on a DATE!

Prayer Requests
* That I would be self-disciplined with doing quiet times and God would guide me in what to read.

Question of the week:
Any of y'all have experience with gas stoves? I'm having troubles with it burning in a ring on the pan, even on lower heat, if it's anything that just sits there, like a grilled sandwich, piece of meat, or pancake. I've just been getting out our electric skillet instead but I didn't know if there are any tricks out there to make it work better, like a certain type of pan or something??

Wordless Wednesday

I've never done this meme before but I just had to share..

Who is the Lord?

I've been trying to have song time at the piano with the kids after breakfast. I play/sing a bunch of hymns, and it's a great way to start the day. I was getting ready to play a song that was about the Lord, so I explained to Eli that "Lord" is another name for Jesus. Then I asked him...

My specialty.

Deliciously fluffy scrambled eggs. When I was enlisting your help with over-easy eggs, a reader asked what my tricks were for scrambled eggs, so I'm going to share!

1. I cook 2 eggs for every adult + 1 egg per child, just as a general rule.
2. If I'm cooking more than 3 eggs (or so) I pre-crack them into a bowl. Otherwise the first eggs start cooking too fast before I'm done cracking the eggs into the pan.
3. Melt 1-2 Tbl butter in frying pan.
4. Get plates or serving bowl on standby.
5. Add eggs.
6. Stir eggs continuously, pushing them to middle of pan.
7. While they're still runny, quickly add a little salt and pepper. It tastes better when can cook into the eggs.
8. Continue pushing eggs around.
9. IMPORTANT ONE: as soon as they're not runny anymore, take them out of the pan and dish onto plates or transfer to serving bowl. If they cook even 5 seconds too long, then they're not all that fluffy the way I like 'em best.

That's it. That's my secret! I know, they're just scrambled eggs, not anything fancy, but something that can be delicious.

Monday Meanderings

My brother's wedding is NEXT WEEKEND in Colorado!!! Kevin's working nights again this week, and pretty much as soon as he gets home in the morning Thursday we head out, returning Sunday! Since Kevin will be unfit to drive much, if at all, I'm caravanning (yes, I'm making it a word now) with my parents so between the two of them and myself we can have a triangle of drivers so that we can each have a break when needed.

I just keep adding more and more into the mix, so bear with me! =)

Bible Study/Devotions
Galatians

Personal Goal
* Get up before kids. I did okay the last time Kevin was on nights because my motivation was to get up so I could greet him when he got home in the morning, but as soon as he was done with that shift I had troubles getting up again. Now it's time to get back to it.

Must Do
* Take van in for oil change.
* Figure out how to "up-do" my hair for the wedding.
* Clean up Kevin's pants (they're new pants and there are sticky spots from the tags that were on them) and find his shirt and tie.
* Pick out rehearsal outfits.
* Return library books.

Zone
* The Van. Clean it up, give it a car wash, and gets seats ready for the drive.

Train Them Up
* We've enjoyed starting "school time" this past week with Eli, but now it's time for me to start finding activities to do together with Hannah too.

Menu Planning--only 3 days this week, yay!! I don't know if it's because Hannah's getting another tooth or if it's just a phase, but she's been refusing almost all food lately! Even things she liked just the day before! It's been sooo frustrating as I'm trying to provide nutrition while at the same time establishing "it's this or nothing" rule. I'm just exhausted from 3 meals every day having fussing from the kids, so I'm going to try to have some kid-friendly meals this week just to give ourselves a short break.

Monday - personal pizzas (need to finish pizza sauce from last week's hot pizza subs)

Tuesday - chicken and rice soup

Wednesday- pasta with alfredo sauce, green beans, applesauce

Fun Things
* Umm, my brother's wedding, if you haven't caught on yet!! Thursday night is the bachelorette party (dinner, laser tag, then games), Friday morning is manicure/pedicure for bridesmaids and bride, Friday night is rehearsal and dinner, Saturday is WEDDING, and Sunday is return trip! Kevin and I are both in the wedding so my cousin and aunt will be watching the kids for us. We haven't seen them since Eli was 10 months old, so they're excited to get to know the kids better, and we sure appreciate they're help!

Prayer Requests
* Preparing and calming Paul and Holly for upcoming marriage! We are all sooo excited for them and can't wait to officially welcome Holly to our family!
* Safety for everyone traveling for wedding.
* Calm kids and patient mommy during our 8-hr drive, rest for Kevin, and energy for me driving.
* Pray that the kids do well with my cousin and aunt, even though they don't know them well, and that they are flexible as their schedule will be off for a few days.
* That everything with the wedding will be a joyful testimony of CHRIST!
* Praise--I get to go to the grocery store BY MYSELF this week since Kevin's home! Granted I don't have much food to get anyway because of the short week, but still it's a blessing to have this MUCH NEEDED break from the stress I've been lately regarding that!
* Praise--Kevin was actually home this weekend to go to church with us! I was able to visit with other moms for a long time following church, since I wasn't loaded with both kids, and that was refreshing!
* Praise--YOUR fellowship and friendship through blog land is a great blessing to me! I never feel alone as I go through my daily journeys! Thank you!

Question of the week:
Do you have a favorite devotional book you've been using? I've never been good at daily Bible reading. I guess I just don't know what to read or where to start! I'm okay with Bible-in-a-year reading plans, but then I want some reading that has to do with my daily life (like New Testament reading) in addition. It's one of my goals to find a devotional book, but I really have no idea what's out there and what's good. So please, share your ideas!

Sunday Psalm

Psalm 19

7The law of the Lord is perfect,
reviving the soul.
The statues of the Lord are trustworthy,
making wise the simple.
The precepts of the Lord are right,
giving joy to the heart.
The commands of the Lord are radiant,
giving light to the eyes.
The fear of the Lord is pure,
enduring forever.
The ordinances of the Lord are sure
and altogether righteous.
They are more precious than gold,
than much pure gold;
they are sweeter than honey,
than honey from from the comb.
By them is your servant warned;
in keeping them there is great reward.

Who can discern his errors?
Forgive my hidden faults.
Keep your servant also from willful sins;
may they not rule over me.
Then will I be blameless,
innocent of great transgression.

May the words of my mouth and the
meditation of my heart
be pleasing in your sight.
O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.

*********

I love that last bit! It was one of my memory verses back in the day. Reminds me to think about my words, actions, and heart attitude as I work to bring glory to God's name in all that I do!

Why do kids have to grow up so darn fast?

Eli has just started calling us Mom and Dad now instead of Mommy and Daddy. ::sniff,sniff:: Why does this all have to happen so fast??

Activity: Practice lines

Eli's been very good at drawing lines for awhile now but today was the first time we turned it into an actual activity, and he did awesome!

I printed off this worksheet HERE where I got the idea for today's activity in the first place.

The darkest mark on the second line was mine, as a demonstration to Eli.
(click photos to view larger)

Wow, look at lines, right on the dotted line! It wasn't even hard for him at all! So we decided to do more...I printed a clip art of a car and then I had Eli draw lines to give the car a road to drive on.

Then we gave a go at some letters.
The letter L.

The letter T.

The letter H.The letter I.Eli was doing so great with all the letters I decided to have him try his name! One line at a time otherwise he tries to curve the line instead of starting a new line. And look at that!! Awesome! I am so proud of him! And you'd better believe this was the very first thing Eli wanted to show Daddy as soon he got home from work today!

Healthy alternatives

As part of our P90X workout, we're trying to make a few healthy exchanges in our diet. The first part of the program follows a high-protein diet. Instead of flat-out cutting things out of our menu we're trying to make some exchanges:

* Turkey bacon instead of regular bacon (this actually isn't too bad at all!)
* Scrambled egg whites instead of whole egg (the recipe says to add cheese and a little bit of milk, but I still need a lot more flavor to make this edible to me. Anyone used to eating egg whites? Have any ideas? I was thinking of making it omlette-like with green peppers n stuff, but haven't gotten to it yet)
* Ground turkey instead of ground beef (not always but some things can disguise the flavor change)
* Fresh fruit instead of canned

And protein snack options:
* Cheese stick
* Cottage cheese
* Cashews
* Pistachios
* Turkey Jerky instead of Beef Jerky

Julie has posted some weight-loss tips over at her blog, so go check 'em out, and then join us in a journey to healthy living!