sad, sad, neglected blog!

Sorry for the lack of posts lately. I have many things I'd like to share, just have been totally overwhelmed with life {and puppy} these past two weeks! I promise I have some posts coming ... thanks for hanging in there with me friends!

PS. would LOVE some Easter inspiration and traditions .... we typically dye eggs, make resurrection rolls, have an egg hunt with family, new dresses and a big Easter dinner after church with family all here. Anyone have any other special Easter traditions they would like to share?

More cuteness!

I will admit ... there have been times in the past three days when I have thought to myself - what was I thinking??!! Having two dogs is a lot of work! WOW, I think I'm actually losing weight from just chasing them around, letting one out, letting the other out, feeding one but making sure the other doesn't eat the food, cleaning up multiple pee accidents, drying off wet dogs who come in from the rain, mopping my always dirty kitchen floor, chasing down the puppy who has found something to chew on that she shouldn't - oh and yeah, I still have a hubby, kids, housework and homeschooling to tend to! haha! {Do I sound stressed??!!}

But seriously, all things considered, things are going pretty well. Gracie is learning to sleep well in her crate and we've also installed a gate for our kitchen so we can also keep her {or both dogs} in there when needed. Or one in and one out when needed! She's also learning to go outside and having less accidents. And we're learning her cues and schedule and all that too.

I love how they are both sleeping near each other!
Freckle face!

Sleeping on my crocs ... don't let this pic fool you ... she tries to chew them all the time, even when I'm walking in them! After snapping this pic, I quickly took them away from her!

So cute with her head hanging out of the crate ....

Our older dog Casey {who we label 'THE QUEEN'} really has it good around here ... she sleeps on beds and everything! She loves Hope and loves to get up on Hope's bed to snuggle.

In the midst of all this ... I'm trying to super duper spring clean my house. I'm getting rid of SO MUCH STUFF. Why? Because we have TOO MUCH STUFF! So if you live local to me, and you know who you are if you do, I am going to host a FREE sale this Saturday here in my home. I have several tables FULL of stuff to give away for FREE. Anything that does not go will get donated to Goodwill next week. Just a few things I have:

dishes

glassware

craft table

LOTS of quality kids books

baskets

fabric scraps

stuffed animals

craft supplies

etc.

My home will be open from 9am-noon if you'd like to stop by.

AHHHHHHH, cleaning out and organizing make me feel SO good!!!

Our new family member!

Yesterday we finally got to pick up our new puppy! She is a golden retriever / brittany spaniel mix. We adopted her through a wonderful organization called 'Adopt a Lab'. They take in labs of all kinds and ages and rescue them until they can be adopted.

Her name is Gracie and she had lots of brothers and sisters - who I'm pretty sure she is missing now since she keeps whining off and on!

This was our first look at her in person! SOOO cute! I love how her snout looks like it has freckles on it and I hope they stay forever and don't go away as she grows!
The girls are totally smitten with her!

Here she is meeting our older dog, Casey for the first time. Yes, now we have a Casey and a Gracie - never planned on rhyming names but that's the name she came with and we decided to keep it.

Casey didn't know what to think at first. She growled a little, then began playing with her and then she wouldn't leave Gracie alone! I think she's going to be protective of her!

We took them out to play in our yard and it was so cute to see them chasing each other and tumbling all over!

This is my beautiful Mom, she came with us to pick up the puppy. I love this picture of her with Gracie!

The first night went pretty well. We're trying to crate train her and she cried a little at bedtime. She doesn't like to be alone so we found that if we kept the crate in a room where the older dog was then Gracie would settle down and go to sleep. She slept most of the night and didn't get up till 7am! I can live with that! I hope that the next nights go just as well!

She has a lot to learn, she's not house trained yet and has already had several accidents. She is also jumping up and nipping at everything. She also has trouble getting her little legs up and down steps - but all these things will come in time!

So far we are totally in love with her. It's definitely a big change in our lives. We're usually so low key around here and now our lives are so busy keeping up with her! I have a feeling I'll be doing a lot of cleaning, vacuuming and puppy bathing! But she's worth it and has already brought so much joy to us. As I'm typing she is sleeping next to me with her paw draped over my arm!

Just be forewarned that this blog is about to be taken over with TONS of puppy pictures!! =)

Little touches of spring

I finally put away all of my Valentine decor yesterday and decided with this nice warm weather the house needed some spring touches!

In my black/white/yellow kitchen these apothecary jars look great with nice dark coffee beans and bright yellow lemons! The lemons are fake and I love them, they look SO real! Makes me want to go out and get more fake fruit so I can change things up often!
Some gorgeous orchids in a yellow pitcher - one of the perks of working at the flower shop is getting free flowers from time to time when they have something they were going to throw out!

One side of our mantel - I took the pinecones out of the bottom of this glass hurricane and added fake orchids - and a bright yellow candle replaced the red one. The basket holds fake wooden easter eggs - bright and cheery!

The other side - the green globes are ceramic, a little nest with eggs, white church and cheerful flower frame ...

The bookshelf in front of the window - I've decided this is the best sunny place to grow things so I moved my plant there and some pots with seeds I'm trying to grow. Another cute, flower frame brightens things up too.

In my bathroom I put green and pink candles in all sorts of glass jars and placed them all on a cute cake stand. And more fresh orchids in a vase ...

After a long, cold, snowy winter ... it sure is nice to see many signs of spring!

Healthy Lunch

OK, so a little disheartening that NO ONE participated with my first MckLinky!!! Come on friends, I know you have healthy recipes you make! Well, at least I figured out how to do it and maybe I'll try it again another time...

I thought maybe I could get things started by telling you one of my fave healthy lunches. Since I'm trying to follow WW I am always looking for filling but low point meals.

And since we're always busy with homeschooling and activities I want lunches that are quick and easy.

Here's what I do:
Take a Morningstar Farms veggie burger {my fave is the spicy black bean one} and microwave it for 2 min. I do 1 min, then flip it over, then do the other min. {2 points on WW}

Toast a Thomas English muffin - I buy the low cal, whole grain ones that are only 1 point each.

Put the burger together with the english muffin and a slice of cheese {2 pts} and some relish.

Voila! Simple, easy and yummy lunch for 5 points total. Pair it with a salad or fresh veggies for 0 pts, or a serving of one of those progresso light soups that are 0 pts.

Sorry for this itty bitty pic of the veggie burgs - it's the best I can do!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!

Happy St. Patty's day from our crazy Irish family!!

Healthy Recipes

OK I'm going to try out my first MckLinky post - I really need some new, healthy recipes to try out. We're in a real slump around here and I need some inspiration. But I want healthy ideas because I've got the 'it's-3-months-till-summer-and-right-now-would-not-want-to-see-myself-in-a-swimsuit' blues and since spring is on it's way it's time to get my butt moving!

So, whether you do WW or Eat Clean or whatever plan you do to eat healthfully ... please link up and share your recipes! Thanks!

More Boston pics

As I said, we spent a couple days in Boston and had a great time. This first pic is driving in to the city - I always think it feels SO weird to be driving underground!

We walked around the first night - everything we wanted to see was within walking distance of our hotel.

We walked to this really cool sports themed restaurant - they had the coolest old memorabilia on the walls. I KNOW my hubby would love it if our basement looked like this!

The second night we went to Quincy market for dinner. Another great place to walk around and just look at all the sights ...

After dinner it was all lit up - so pretty!

I have to say ... Boston is a great city, very clean, so much to see and do ... but we were also very happy to be back at home in 'the country'. What can I say ... green acres is the place for me!

Boston Celtics Game!

My family and I took a spontaneous road trip to Boston for a couple days. Living in New England, my hubby has been a Boston Celtics fan pretty much since birth. So he really wanted to take the girls to a game since they've watched so many games on TV with Daddy!

They had a blast! This was outside the arena ... the girls LOVED this HUGE Garden sign and had fun making neat shadowy poses in front of it.

This was during the National Anthem ...

We got some cheap St. Patty's day shirts and sparkly hats and fit right in with the Celtics fans!!

Guys on stilts during the opening ... it always amazes me how they do that!

One of the players ... Ray Allen - our seats were VERY high up but my camera zoomed in for this shot!

Hope was a great little fan ... she cheered, payed attention to the score and had a great time. She kept standing up and waving her arms trying to get on the big screen and SHE DID! The camera guy came way up in the stands and focused right on her so she was seen on the big screen! She was SO excited!!! She kept saying, "I was on TV!!!" She is definitely her Daddy's girl. =)

Joy was pretty tired since we'd walked around the science museum all day ... but she was a trooper too and had fun munching on lots of yummy snacks!

On our way out of the arena there was a guy selling t-shirts for $5 ... so we got the girls souvenirs to remember our fun trip!

More pics from this trip coming soon ....

Taking care of your soul - part 2!

We left off talking about taking care of your mind and feeding your brain ... SO, here are just a few ideas of how to do that:

READ! Books are a wonderful resource. If you don’t want to buy books, check out the local library. And if you feel like you don’t have time to read … you could stick your book in your purse and read it anywhere. Read while you’re waiting in the car pool line to pick up your kids. Read while waiting for your appointment at the doctor’s office. Read while you walk on the treadmill – if you CAN! I could never master the whole walking and reading thing!
How about while your kids are at sports practice? If you have to sit and watch practice for an hour you could read several chapters of your book. Keep things in your car so they are handy when you need them.

DO CROSSWORDS, WORD SEARCHES AND SUDOKU - These are great things to keep feeding your brain. They sell them at the dollar store and they are the kind of thing you can just pick up and put down whenever you have a spare moment or two.

PLAYING BOARD GAMES – Do you have any idea how many times my girls have whooped my butt playing the Memory game?? Many board or card games have tremendous learning power! Scrabble, scattergories and memory are just a few that can be played with your family and have great brain boosting power for you too – plus you’ll be building family memories at the same time!


NEVER STOP LEARNING – you could take college classes, finish your degree or simply learn right along with your kids. You don’t have to be a homeschool Mom to learn what your kids are learning. If you have babies or toddlers, it’s never too early to begin teaching them new concepts. If you have school aged kids – I’d encourage you to be involved in what they’re learning. Find out what they’re learning in social studies, history, or science. Look over their homework with them. Be involved in their classrooms or go on their field trips as much as you can. If you’re anything like me, the things you learned in elementary school have long since left your brain! It can be fun and exciting to re-learn these things with your kids!

{{stay tuned for part 3 which is all about our hobbies!}}

Contentment

WOW ... funny how the Lord sometimes speaks to me through the words or thoughts of others! This post by Melissa at 320 Sycamore helps me realize that there will always be a to do list or a wish list for any home I live in ... but the important thing is to find contentment in the here and now and not stress about the wishes and wants. I PROMISE it's worth a read! (I also promise some updates of my own and the rest of my MOMS talk SOON!)

Homeschooling and the PW

You have to go read this post from the Pioneer Woman about homeschooling. I love it! I love it most because I can totally relate. We chose this path because of a variety of reasons, the biggest of which was my husband's work schedule and wanting to make sure the kids could see Daddy and spend time with him. But our reasons have changed and evolved over the past 3 years and now we can't imagine life any other way!

I also love that PW keeps it real with admitting it's not all glory days! I can add a big, hearty AMEN to that!!

Taking Care of your soul

Someone asked what I talked about at MOMS last week ... so I thought, what the heck, why not post my notes here on my blog? ;)

Let me start by saying that this year at our MOMS group we have been using the book 'Taking Care of the Me in Mommy' by Lisa Welchel {which I highly recommend!}. Each month we have focused on one area of taking care of yourself. So this month, when I was slated to speak, was called Taking Care of your Soul.

I'm going to post this in a few parts because it's quite lengthy AND because it's sort of divided by two main points - taking care of your mind, and making time for your hobbies. So, here we go!


Our topic this month is taking care of your SOUL. I admit, this topic had me a little confused. I didn’t really understand the difference between your spirit and your soul. I guess I’d always thought they were one in the same. I asked some opinions from people I knew and tried to research it online and still struggled with what makes them different. However, for the sake of this book, Lisa determines that your spirit is the taking care of your spiritual growth – as in – your relationship with the Lord. Reading God’s Word, praying and Bible study are all good ways to take care of your spirit.

For taking care of your soul, Lisa talks more about taking care of your mind, and making time for hobbies and fun. I guess I like to think of your soul as who you really are deep down. The things that excite you and that you are passionate about. The God given talents and creativity you were born with. And the morals and values you hold firm to.

I want to start by reading a paragraph from a great book called ‘Mom, and loving it!’. “Mom and loving it! It sounds so noble, but if you are anything like us, you struggle at times to find real enjoyment in this thing called ‘motherhood’. Adding children to your life may have sounded so glamorous and fulfilling, but you and I quickly realized it was the most challenging job we’d ever taken on. Many times all the demands and expectations of motherhood leave us with feelings of guilt and inadequacy, asking ourselves, ‘why am I not enjoying this time in my life?’ Or, ‘can I do this?’ We live with secret struggles that we don’t share with anyone because we feel so bad about them. Our guilt often grows into bitterness and resentment because we can’t live up to the ideal Mom that lives in our minds. Contentment seems like a lofty, unattainable goal – way out there.” OK, show of hands, anyone felt like that before? Yeah, me too … all the time!

But God hasn’t called us to be perfect. In fact, He knows better than anyone that we never can be perfect, but as Karol Ladd shares in the book ‘The Power of a Positive Mom’, “God has given us a high calling as mothers. Our calling is to honor Christ in raising our families and building our homes.” Not having perfect homes or perfect kids – simply honoring Christ in the way we raise our family and the way we build our home.

Proverbs 14:1 says, ‘a wise woman builds her house, but with her own hands the foolish one tears hers down.’

Now as we seek to build our families in a way that glorifies God, I believe we need to establish some guidelines for ourselves. In chapter 11 of our book Lisa talks about ‘keeping a girdle on your mind’. Our world today is filled with technology. It seems there is rarely a quiet moment with all of our TV’s, radios, ipods, video games, etc. And all of these things can be good things in our lives – but they can also be bad if we allow them to be. Television and the internet have become so current, so accessible that we can literally see or hear something happen as it is taking place LIVE. The negative effects of this are far reaching – take for example the young athlete who died at the beginning of the recent Olympics. The fact that his death was shown on TV and the internet is sad and sickening. Or maybe some of you watched the men snowboarders as they flew through the air with flips and twists … but maybe you also heard some of the inappropriate language they used with their coaches. LIVE, un-edited TV can be dangerous and we need to be careful about it – especially when viewing with our children.

Before I go on, you need to know I am NOT going to tell you not to watch TV or which shows I think you should or should not watch. I will be the first to admit I love TV and watch some really stupid things sometimes. I also love my country music and love to play wii games with my kids. I am NOT here to judge. I do however have a few things to share about areas that I’ve been convicted about.

When my kids were little we always had this music battle in the car. They would always ask for kids songs – like the Wiggles and all that stuff that gets stuck in your head for hours! But sometimes I would simply say ‘no, it’s Mommy’s turn to listen to MY music.’ {see I’m just a selfish sinner!} Anyway, I’d listen to my country music and sing along. All the while I thought the girls weren’t paying attention, they were usually talking or giggling or playing with each other in the back. Until one day … one day we were bringing one of the girls home in the car with us. As I’m driving along, listening to my music, I suddenly heard this little voice coming from the back that was singing along ‘so just sit right here and have another beer in Mexico!’ Oh my goodness! I about died! It was my daughter’s friend – just singing along with the music on the radio! I felt so bad I apologized over and over to my friend … who later told me that her daughter began singing it again at the dinner table that night!

That experience was a big wake up call for me. Our children are watching, listening and yes, even copying everything they see us do.

Which is why it’s SO important to guard your heart and mind. Remember what our job was? To “honor Christ in raising our families and building our homes” Proverbs 4:23 says, “above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.” Have you ever heard the expression ‘garbage in equals garbage out’? Of course, we all have. And it makes sense.
What you allow into your mind is what you will dwell on and what you dwell on is what will come out of your mouth and invade your thoughts.

I have never been a fan of horror movies. But I stupidly allowed myself to watch two very disturbing movies many years ago. And I can honestly tell you that the images and scenes from those two movies are still burned into my memory today. The things we allow into our minds WILL stay with us, for many years to come.

James 1:13-15 says “when tempted, no one should say ‘God is tempting me’, for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He tempt anyone; but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full grown, gives birth to death.”

Our minds are constantly being tempted by the onslaught of sin. Karol Ladd shares, “from the internet to Hollywood to magazines at the checkout stands, immoral images and corrupting information swirl around our families. Gone are the days when purity was valued, human life was respected, and God was almost unanimously reverenced. The tide has shifted to a sexually open and perverse society that devalues human life through violence and abortion makes God and His followers the object or derision. Although years ago the name of God was honored and revered even by unbelievers, now Christians are the subjects of jokes, and God Himself is portrayed as a goofy cartoon character on prime time television!”

As I said before – I would never tell you what you should or should not watch on TV. You girls know me – you know that JUST this week I watched a garbage show called ‘The Bachelor’. I’m not hiding anything here – I’m guilty of allowing garbage in my own mind. But what I would encourage is to pray and listen to your convictions. A few years back I had some strong convictions over much of the garbage TV I was watching. I was more concerned with the smutty story lines than with keeping the heat in my own marriage. Feeling convicted I stopped watching those shows and never looked back. But I still make bad choices. I still need the Lord to keep working on me. But again, if you are concerned about whether what you’re watching is good I would listen to your convictions. If it seems bad … it probably is bad.

So what can we do to FEED our minds? The most obvious is taking care of your spirit and your relationship with the Lord. Beyond that, there are many good things to fill your mind with and boost your brainpower!

Since becoming a Mom – have you ever just feel like your mind is turning to mush? Do you know the words to ‘Goodnight Moon’ better than the words to the National Anthem?? Do you catch yourself telling hubby that you need to ‘go potty’?? That’s when you know you need to start exercising that brain again! As the saying goes ‘a mind is a terrible thing to waste’!

In a recent study, researchers have shown that exercising your brain by participating in certain activities later in life may help prevent memory loss. {DISCLAIMER – I KNOW NONE OF US ARE ‘LATER IN LIFE’ …YET!} Participants in the study ranged from people with mild memory loss to people with no memory issues. Those who were involved in activities such as reading, crafting and playing games were 30-50 percent less likely to develop memory loss than those who did not do these activities. The study suggests that one of the simplest things you can do to prevent memory loss is to keep your mind active!

{{I have a lot more to say but think this is getting too long, so I'll split this up and add more in another post ... or two! So stay tuned for what you can do to 'feed your brain'!!}}

Monday, Monday ...

Another Monday is here! Another fresh start! We had an absolutely fabulous weekend around here .... wonderful, warmer weather {and for those that live in the South, we consider 50 degrees warmer! ha!}, some great times with friends, a heartwarming fundraiser, etc ...

But now it's on to Monday again. Time to establish some more goals.

Last week my goals were:
1. exercise 5 days - I did 4 {not too bad!}
2. eat healthy - it's an ongoing battle!
3. finish notes for speaking at MOMS - CHECK! and it went well, thank you Lord!
4. sew curtain for Joy's room - didn't happen
5. make quiet time a priority - I did a few days but not all.

SO, after reviewing last week's goals ... this week I need to add many of them back on to my list:

1. exercise 5 days
2. eat healthy AND need to go to WW meeting which I keep skipping b/c I know I haven't been losing weight and I've been scared to go weigh in!
3. sew curtain
4. quiet time!
5. finish organizing / cleaning basement
6. pack for trip next weekend

Sorry if these 'goal' posts aren't super exciting ... it's just a good motivator for me to write them down and feel accountable to someone about them!

Today is another beautiful, bright, sunshiny day here ... I am thankful the Lord has given us so much sunshine lately. I know my body was seriously lacking in the fresh air and vitamin D lately!

I hope you all have a fabulous week!

Speaking at MOMS

Today was my first time speaking before a group of women at our MOMS group. I'll admit, in the days and weeks leading up to it I felt a little nervous. In elementary school I was AWFUL at public speaking. I would get so nervous my voice would shake, my knees would shake, my thoughts would be all jumbled and my face would go beet red. I hated it and always did horrible at it!

So you can see why I was a little nervous! I have had opportunities where I have gotten up to speak in front of a group - but it was either a group of kids at VBS, or maybe just giving an announcement of some sort to our MOMS group. But never like this - a whole segment of just me speaking.

This morning I woke up at 4:30am and couldn't fall back asleep. Then while getting ready this morning I felt sort of sick to my stomach. I knew my material well, I had spent hours planning it and typing it. I also felt totally comfortable with this group of ladies - they are all wonderful friends and I didn't feel intimidated by them. So why was I feeling so sick and nervous? I do believe it was just the devil trying to tell me I couldn't do it. Trying to squash my message and break my confidence.

So I sat in the darkness this morning and prayed. I asked the Lord to speak through me and that anything I shared would be glorifying to Him and Him alone. And by the time I finished getting ready and drove there to church I wasn't feeling nervous anymore - but instead was excited! I was ready to share with the ladies and excited for the opportunity.

I won't say it was an award winning speech and if any of you were there I DO NOT expect your applause or praise .... but I think it went well and the funny thing is that it built up my confidence so that the next time I'm asked to do something like this I know I can do it again. With confidence. Not in my abilities or words. But only in HIS. His strength, His words, His power. Thank you Lord!!

Yay for March!

We are one step closer to spring and have had some great things coming our way these past two days ...

First - The sun has been out both days, the temps in the high 40's, low 50's which means we have been OUTSIDE two days in a row! Two days of long walks/ hikes in the woods. Yesterday the girls rode bikes while we hiked. Today we took the dog with us. It's been wonderful! Yesterday the girls and Daddy also stayed out for hours playing basketball in the driveway. Yay for sunshine and warmer temps!!

Second good thing - 2 walks equals 2 days of exercise for me already!

Third good thing - I cleaned out my fridge which was nasty. Not fun, but needed to be done.

Fourth thing - completed my notes for speaking at MOMS on Friday and practiced it a couple times. I am NOT a public speaker and will probably rely on my notes so it's good that I got them all typed up.

Fifth thing - we are getting a new puppy!!!! We finally heard today. We won't have her until March 20th, but that's good so we can prepare our house and get what we need. This is the only pic I have of her so far ... she's adorable and we can't wait to meet her in person!!!

Monday Goals

Last week I wrote down some goals for myself and I feel like they really helped me have a focus during the week. So this week I decided to do it again - it's amazing what you can accomplish when you set your mind to it!!

Last week my goals were to:

exercise 5 days - I did 2 + 2 days of moving furniture and boxes and re-organizing which meant dozens of trips up and down my stairs - so I'm going to count those!

clean, organize and purge the bedrooms - I did that and more, in the midst of it I decided to seperate the girls into different rooms again, which meant I had to find places for all the stuff that had been in the 'school room'. the girls rooms are pretty much done now and they look great. our room still needs a little work, but more on that later.

get a lot of school work done - CHECK! we had a great week and even made a trip to the library!

eat more salad - ooops, I'm sorry to say that goal didn't happen. and now that we are past all the birthday parties and such I am officially ready to re-focus on my good eating habits.

Now, on to THIS WEEK:

1. exercise 5 days
2. eat healthy - NO chips, cake, cookies - more fruits, veggies, yogurt {I have a lot of yogurt in the fridge right now!}
3. finish preparing my notes for speaking at MOMS this Friday and practice it a few times
4. sew curtain for Joy's room
5. make my quiet time with the Lord a priority - this has gone by the wayside lately and I need to change that

I have more ideas in my mind - but think I will focus on 5 things each week so I don't get overwhelmed.