New {to me} Blog Feature

Want to make it easier to print out your blog posts? Or simply make it easier on your blog readers in case they would like to print out any of your posts? Go here to find instructions on adding 'print friendly' to your blog! It's so easy even I could figure it out!

See, now there is a little green button at the bottom of each post - just click on it and the post becomes 'print friendly'! I am so excited about this, I was hoping to go back to the beginning and start printing out my whole blog so I can save it. Now this will make it MUCH easier! YAY!

Thank you to Robyn at Our Homeschool Home for providing this easy instructions!

Blueberry Protein Smoothie

I'm not much of a breakfast person. Well, actually I am - but what I love for breakfast is all the naughty stuff like pastries and muffins and pancakes and such. So clearly I avoid that stuff MOST mornings!

Recently I realized that smoothies are a great way to get a healthy breakfast when I just don't feel like having much or taking the time to prepare much.

This is my latest fave:

1 cup frozen blueberries or strawberries {1 pt on WW}
2 packets of truvia sweetener {0 pts}
1/2 cup cottage cheese {2 pts}
1/2 cup skim milk {1 pt}

Blend well and enjoy! Only 4 pts and packs a huge wallop of protein with a total of 20 grams!! Now that's a good boost to start your day with!

Mid Week Humor

It's Wednesday, mid-week, rainy and dreary ... I know I could use a laugh - how about you? Here are a couple things to get you laughing or smiling today.

Sweet Shot Tuesdays

Now that's what I call a whole lotta sweetness!!

No Mom is as blessed as I ...

I often find myself thinking that I'm a complete failure as a Mom. I mess up royally ALL the time. If I allow my thoughts to dwell too long I sometimes worry that I've messed up my kids. Honestly I'm just a mess some days.

But when I allow myself to reflect on Christ, and all that HE has made me to be - I see the truth and that is that no matter how many times I fail - No matter how much I mess up - God loves me still, forgives me still, gives me grace and mercy every day. And guess what? So do my girls!! The spirit of Christ indwells them too. They love me and forgive me over and over again, no matter how many times I may fail them. And for that, I am eternally grateful and blessed!

These two precious girls have seen me at my worst - and I'm not just talking about the way I look in the morning with no makeup and stinky breath. I'm talking about the real down and dirty ugly parts of my personality and the real ugly things I have done and said. But they love me. THEY LOVE ME! It honestly brings tears to my eyes to think about how much they love me when I don't deserve their love.

I am blessed beyond any words I could say to be their Mama. It's been the hardest 8 & 1/2 years of my life - but the most rewarding and joyful and amazing years too. I have a hard time even remembering what my life was like before I was a Mom. It just feels like I've been a Mom to these girls for all my life. And I'm thankful that all my life the Lord was preparing me to be a Mom by using the amazing example of my own Mom.

As blessed as I am to BE a Mom, I'm am equally blessed to be a daughter to my own Mom. She embodies Christ in every sense of the word. She has been a source of love and strength and peace in my world for {almost} 34 years.

Through the childhood years like when I had the chicken pox on my 8th birthday, through the rough teenage years when I was crying about having braces and glasses all at the same time, through my early years of marriage when I knew she was praying for me even though we lived 1000's of miles away, through these past 6 yrs since my Dad died when I have had the blessing of living near her again and seeing her strength through grief .... through each and every transition I have been through in my life - she has been there for me. For me! She has never given up on me, even when I made some dumb decisions. She has never stopped praying for me. Whether it was for little things or big things - she has always been a prayer warrior that I can count on.

Her walk with the Lord is something I admire and something that constantly encourages me to press on and want to be more like her - more like Christ.

She's the kind of Mom who brings ME a card on Mother's day to tell me she's proud of the Mom I am.

I am thankful and blessed for my Mother in law too. I know so many people who have rocky relationships with their in laws - I am so thankful I am not one of them. My mother in law is a dear friend. She is another prayer warrior. I know that at any time I can call her up and she will pray and encourage and bless me with her words. I am sorry to say that I failed to get a picture with her today! oops! I will definitely have to add one soon. She is a special person in my life too.

Today I was so spoiled. My amazing husband gave me flowers, cards and a gift card. He made us eggs, bacon and toast for breakfast, then we went to church to worship and hear the message. After church we came home and had my Mom and my in laws come over for lunch. We gave them each some small gifts and some cards. I love to have them over on Mother's day so that we can honor them and thank them for their role in raising my hubby and I.

My hubby made a great lunch of chicken on the BBQ, pasta salad and beans. Then we had a giant cookie cake that was absolutely delish!

My girls made & gave me all sorts of neat things for Mother's day - homemade cards, shells that hold a little tea light candle, picture frames with shells glued around them, large rocks with their handprints, pansies for my garden, little foamy frames they made in Sunday school .... they are so sweet to me. I love how excited they get when they give something to me. I love all these little handmade treasures. These are the most precious gifts. These are the gifts I will cherish and remember for years.

And so now you can see why I said, 'no Mom is as blessed as I' ... because I truly am one of the most blessed Moms ever. And I am thankful that despite my failures, the Lord chose to bless me with my Mom, my mother in law and my beautiful daughters.

Today I posted this video on Facebook - it's called 'The Best Day' by Taylor Swift. And even though in the video Taylor is talking about having the best day with her Mom - I dedicated it to my girls. Because every day I get to be their Mom is the best day. I had the girls watch the video this afternoon and as they watched it I just sat there in tears. Happy tears of course. Because I'm just so blessed and so thankful and these really are the best days of my life.

Here is the video:





This post linked to Home is ... at Reluctant Entertainer. Because Home is ... being surrounded by those I love most! Click on the button below to read more Home is ... posts.

Show and Share

You might remember the diaper cake I made for my friend Steph's baby shower last month, right? For those that are new here, this is what it looked like:

Her shower was a sports theme for a baby boy, with her favorite colors being brown and blue. So we came up with this really simple idea for the favors. Get a popcorn bag, fill it with yummy ball park type snacks {we had cracker jacks, peanuts, bubblegum, pretzels and of course, one yummy Lindt Chocolate truffle!}

Then to tie in the brown and blue theme I made these tags by stamping 'About to POP!' on some cardstock, then layering it on another piece of cardstock, punching a hole, and tying it on the bag with some cute ribbon.

I love how the 'about to POP' refers to both the popcorn and the Mom to be! They came out sooo cute!

And since I stamped them myself, I was able to co-ordinate it with the sign on the top of the diaper cake ...

This was a very simple and quick shower favor idea and I love how they turned out.

Today I'm linking up to Show and Share day with Chris from Just a Girl.

Sweet Shot Tuesdays

Today for the first time I'm participating in Sweet Shot Tuesdays with Darcy from Life with my 3 Boybarians. Each Tuesday you choose a photo from your week and designate it as your 'sweet shot'.

This is mine from this weekend. Love seeing this gorgeous bird sitting on the rocks, drying his wings! Oh the beauty of God's magnificent creation!

Wanna participate too? Click on the button below to go to Darcy's blog where you can play along!

Update on our Pup

Our little Gracie girl has been growing by leaps and bounds! I thought I'd give an update on how things are going with her.

She is finally settling in to life in our family. The past few weeks she has gotten so much better about several things. She still has the occasional accident in the house, but it's a lot less often. She's finally getting the hang of going outside to pee/poop. Yay!

She sleeps wonderfully at night now. We have her crate in our room and she does so well in it. She IS an early riser though - which means I am now an early riser, whether I like it or not!

In the morning she is raring to go ... she's so hyper and wild and crazy when she first wakes up. I have learned that if I want to have my coffee in peace, I need to provide her with a nice large rawhide bone to keep her busy.

She does some of the funniest things ... for one thing, she LOVES to climb into the bathtub. If you are ever looking around the house and can't find her - look in the tub! She's always going in there. She likes to lick the drops of water from the bottom of the tub! Crazy puppy!

She's still a puppy, so she loves to sleep. She loves sleeping in the sunny spots on the kitchen floor.

She does not like being cooped up in the fence when we are outside the fence - she wants to be with us at all times and will sit at the fence and whine for us!

She loves her big 'sis' Casey ... she loves to rough house with her, chase her, tease her and will always find a spot to lay down right next to her.

And sometimes they BOTH stare at us through the fence!

And then she gets tired and lets out a huge yawn ....
In the evening she turns in to a totally different puppy ... her babyish ways come out and she is sooooo sleepy and snuggly. She just lays around and sleeps all evening. It's like she's lost all of her steam for the day! hahaha... {and again, she lays down as close as she can get to Casey!}
She sure is a cutie ... she gets into a lot of trouble, chewing stuff, getting into the trash, etc ... but her cute little puppy face redeems her every time!
She thinks I'm her Mama .... she follows me everywhere and when I go in a room and shut her out she sits outside the door and whines for me. Most of the time I don't mind though ... she's a great snuggler and a real sweetheart.

We are very thankful to have Gracie in our family!

Oh those Mondays ...

they'll getcha every time!

We had a glorious weekend here. Family time, a BBQ at a friend's, two campfires, glorious weather, some yard work, a great day trip with some friends ... it was absolutely wonderful!

But then comes Monday. Oh those Mondays! My house is a mess, the kids need to be schooled, I need to exercise, my diet seems to be failing me .... aaahhhhhh, I just want to let out a huge scream!

I raced around the house all morning ... cleaning, laundry, cleaning, floors, cleaning, dishes ... on and on I went. I think my hubby wondered what all the frenzy was about!

Then I finally sat down for a couple minutes to take a breath and have a cool drink and checked my email/facebook. Two things were such a blessing and an encouragement to me so I knew I needed to share them.

This quote:
"Heavenly Father, I confess to you that I carry too many burdens on my own shoulders. I forget to give them to you and go on. I get discouraged because I try to handle it myself. Remind me that this life is a process of growth-not an overnight success. Lift me up when it seems that my efforts are making little difference and I am feeling low." ~~ Prayer from One Hundred and One Devotions for Homeschool Moms by Jackie Wellwood. {note to self - buy this book ASAP!}

And this video:




I hope that in some small way these can be an encouragement to you today too!

Lowe's Build & Grow

My husband usually works on Saturdays and most of the time the girls and I have a lazy day around the house. Well, they have a lazy cartoon watching day and I clean the house. ;)

Anyway, I've been feeling guilty that I don't do much with them on Saturdays so I decided we need to get out more and explore and do some fun things together.

So I found out about this FREE program they do at Lowe's call Build and Grow. It's for kids aged 6-12 I believe {sorry, can't remember the exact age range but I don't think they are too picky about it.} You sign up online, choose your local Lowe's store, and go there on a Saturday morning at 10am and build a project. They provided the kids with a FREE apron, goggles and all the materials needed to build the project. When the kids are done, they bring the project up and show the Lowe's employee and they are given a certificate of completion and a fabric badge that can be sewn on to their apron!

We have now gone two weeks in a row and the girls are hooked! They love hammering in the nails and seeing themselves complete a project. We now plan to sign up for as many as we can {as long as they fall on weekends when we're home}.

I heard that Home Depot does something similar, but we have not checked them out yet. Maybe the girls can do both! ha!

These pictures are from last week when they built a bird feeder, we plan to paint them, fill them and hang them outside. This week they built a cute little wooden schoolhouse with a roof that opens so you could store some little treasures in it.

What sort of fun things does your family like to do on the weekends??