Baseball Season

I'm working really hard this year not to embarrass the lad. I just get really in to the game. Hansel needs to win a game this year. Last year, they lost every single cotton' pickin' game except one that they tied.

They almost won last night and I am hoping that he will feel the adrenaline of winning a game soon. He is doing great. He did score last night and he is enjoying it more this year. It was getting old dragging a kid to games and practices who did not want to go. This year he has his game face on. I am proud of him and did I mention we are just a couple of days away of finishing school!!

I feel the breeze blowing my way! Have a great day all ye faithful readers. I am off to a field trip today with Gretel.

Three Inexpensive Weekend Home Decorating Projects

Wow. . .I have had a terrific time lately decorating my home. I have been inspired by magazines, other's homes and of course my own creative genius! ;)

For the first project:
My room has an Asian feel and I am in love with fabric (and my husband of course). I saw this in a magazine. One of my favorites is Better Homes and Garden 100 Decorating Ideas under $100. I used fabric from the dollar table at the fabric store as well as a piece of fabric that I already had in my room. My mom actually bought the window pane for me for $15 from my favorite antique store in town, Judith Lee's. Even if you have to buy the pane yourself it is still a very affordable project that transforms a room quickly. I used my fabulous staple gun to secure the fabric to the wood.

The Second Project:
This next project is one that my Gretel requested as we were lying in bed for prayers the other night. She had seen a net canopy at a friend's house that she really liked and my brain went into overdrive on how I could make it inexpensively for her. It did cost me $21, but it gave me great satisfaction in doing it myself which is worth a million bucks.
  • I used a hoop that you would use to hold material steady as you were embroidering something. It was a rather large hoop and was about $6 at the fabric store. I think you could definitely find it cheaper at Hobby Lobby but I live in the middle of nowhere so I had to just suck it up and pay for it.
  • The fabric I got off the dollar table once again (cost $6). In using the hoop I just positioned the material between the two hoops and tightened the bolt to make sure it did not slip. I once again used my very cool staple gun to attach the pink fringe.
  • We already had the light in her room and I used fishing string to hold the hoop to the ceiling.
  • I had ribbon to pull the material up to the sides of the bed for sleeping
Voila. . .she loved it. She had gone away for the weekend with grandmommi and she walked into a clean room with that hanging from the ceiling! Very fun.

Last but not least . .. I saw this idea at a ladies home in Missouri last summer and I was determined to do it this year. I am actually getting ready to change out the flowers in it, but I liked the tulips for a short while. anyway, you get the jist. Happy Decorating!
Make sure to check out more posts on everything from chocolate and strawberry recipes to easy summer meals at Rocks in My Dryer's Works for Me Wednesday.

Gardening Moments with Gretel


The other evening I was in my front garden bed working on getting the weeds out. Gretel and I were having a tough day because she did not want to do her homework so she spent about an hour and a half crying. I was pretty fed up. . .in the most nurturing way possible, right?

She came up to me while I was de-weeding the flower bed and asked what I was doing. I started to say, "I am doing something I don't want to do, but doing it anyway," but I said "pulling up weeds." Gretel asked if she could help and I obliged. She started pulling the tops off of the weeds and I explained that she had to pull them up by the root so that they would not grow anymore. As I was explaining my own little parable I had a light bulb moment. . .if you watch Maya and Miguel. . .I had a SOS! :)

I explained to her that pulling weeds is much like life. There are lots of weeds in our life and if we want to get them out then we cannot just pull the tops off. The weeds will continue grow. BUT, if we pull the weeds up by the root, we will indeed be able to get rid of them. I could tell that she was getting the point in her six year old mind.

I inquired of her if she had any "weeds or bad habits" in her life that she needed to get rid of. She said very sweetly, "I whine a lot." I smiled and let her know that was something I struggle with as well. I told her that getting rid of the weeds by the root takes lots of prayer and friends (aka accountability) to help you pull up the roots. Later that night we prayed that God would help us to get rid of the weeds by pulling them up by the roots in our lives. As I was walking out the door she elaborated on the "parable" and said that if we got rid of the weeds then God could grow pretty flowers there instead. Ah, yes my dear. You got it!

What a sweet satisfaction it is to be a momma to Gretel.

Menu Plan Monday - Busy Week!!

Monday - WonTon Taco Salad; had it tonight and it was really good and fairly fast-the boys did not get to eat before the 5:30 game, but I took Prince Charming some and Hansel ate a PB and J and came home to finish the won ton's off.
  • Hansel's first baseball game - did not win, but Hansel did very well and I am proud of him; pics to come. . .
  • Gretel's practice; running club
Wednesday - pancakes, bacon, strawberries (on sale at El Kroger)
  • Elder's Meeting, Awana
Thursday - 15 bean soup-I use the recipe on the back of the package and it is really good, cheap and healthy

Friday - Carbonara-the only thing I add to this is green onions and pepper; Texas toast
Carbin up for the big race

Saturday - hmmm. . .what to eat on Saturday's . . . I never feel like cooking. Maybe we can do the $5 Subway thing again this week. I pick up 2 footlongs and chips. . .there ya go!

If it is pretty out maybe we can grill something, but I will use Subway as my back-up plan.
  • running another 5K! Hoping to improve! :)
Sunday - I have some Won Ton's leftover and if they stay fresh until Sunday I will do the Won Ton Taco thing again. I did not have lettuce tonight so maybe by then I can make it a healthier meal; add veggie refried beans and it is really yummy.

Third Grade Here We Come

Choo Choo! Chugga. . . .Chugga. . . . Choo Choo! Notice the slowing sound toward the end. I can see the light. Yes, I think it is getting closer and closer. I see the light at the end of the tunnel.

We finished second grade math today. . . and I mean we finished it!!!! The closer we got, the harder it got. Way crazy stuff the kid has to learn. Anyway, we're done, finished and we ain't going back. Can you tell I am done? We are 2 weeks away from being done with 2nd grade work.

I am so done. We all cried yesterday except Prince Charming. Two of the four of us got spankings and one grown up momma needed one. As I finished grading Hansel's math semester test we yelled our heads off and jumped for joy. We had a little sangin' and dancin' show!

We have been through this

and this

and here is that sample of work that I promised in the last post. :)

We are concluding with this. The time that I have been able to spend with this dude has been irreplaceable. . .through the good and the bad. . . we made it!!

Menu Plan Monday - April 14th

It's that time again. We just re-established our "Total Money Make-over" budget by Dave Ramsey and I am a little nervous.

Yikes! So, most of this stuff I have in the fridge or pantry already. We are talking no credit card using girls (even though we pay them off every month I tend to spend more when I use them)

. . .things are getting serious around here. We need some major prayers! :)

Monday - pizza from last week that we did not get to; very yummy looking but takes a little prep time to get the bread all of the way cooked
Tuesday - pork chops, mashed potatoes, gravy and YEAH BABY - biscuits. . . obviously this is the dinner of champions and an ole Southern gal.
Wednesday - Pork Egg Rolls, Fried Rice, Egg Drop Soup
Thursday - 5 for 5 at Arby's (we usually get 10) or Subway $5 Footlong Subs (probably get 2) and Chips that I bring along
Friday - Moochin off the In-laws and having fun
Saturday - If we get home in time for dinner; Pancakes and bacon and fruit to balance out the cholesterol levels :)
Sunday - Wonton Taco Salads- isn't that adorable if food can be adorable! Thanks for the tip, "What's for Dinner!!!!" :)

Trading My Clappy Shoes for Running Shoes

My friend Shanna and I who stayed together pretty much the whole time. . .she came in a tad bit ahead of me and she knows I let her beat me! ;)
Me feeling sassy after the race.
Today, I ran my second 5K. It was invigorating. I had a lot of friends running it too which was just really fun. You get to high-five each other afterward and you know that you experienced difficulty together which to me is like super-glue to friendships.

My favorite part about the race is the fact that my kids and husband were there to watch me. My kids were cheering me on (even though I did not come in first. . . .by any stretch of the imagination). They got to see mom working hard each week on a goal and got to see me complete my goal. That to me alone is worth it.

My kids are learning from me. They're not just learning how to spell or how to multiply, but they are learning from me a life skill. . .that sometimes even when things are challenging if we persevere we will finish the race. Not always finishing the race first, but we will win the prize of completing what is set before us! I don't know about you but just finishing something around here deserves a gold medal!

For my husband seeing me work hard at something for me is so important too. Taking care of me is not always something I am good at (even though I do make sure that I am thoroughly shopped for most of the time :)) I often do not take care of my body like I should. This is something that I am working on with the help of my family and my Creator. My body is a temple of the Holy Spirit and I really want to honor my Lord with my body. So, I have taken up signing up for races as a hobby to spur me on. My husband gets to see the results too which I think is encouraging to him.

So this is more than just fun, which bottom line, it is fun to have people cheering you on and getting to litter with water cups in the streets without getting a ticket. Running is about teaching my kids life's lessons, letting my hubs know that I care about my body and it is about honoring my Lord.

Getting Stressed Trying to De-stress

I have had this gimpy neck for like three days and I am in major pain. I guess not surgery pain, but the drama queen in me is coming out. I have not wanted to exercise or do anything that might make it worse. I worked out on Tuesday morning and right after that I got a crick in my neck. I tried to continue with life, but it was just not happening.

My sweet hubby got talked into a gift certificate for a massage by two awesome ladies who dropped the hint on Valentine's Day that he should get me something. Thank you ladies! Anyway, I decided to use my gift certificate for a 30 minute massage.

I thought I knew which salon the masseuse worked at then realized after about 5 minutes of standing in the salon where I thought she worked that I was at the wrong place. So I showed up 10 minutes late to my massage all stressed out thinking that I might miss my one opportunity of getting this gimpy neck to stop hurting. She was very gracious, after I called my husband in a very peeved way (because it was all his fault you know. . . poor guy) and asked him to call the salon and tell them that I was running late.

She started to work on my neck, back and everything else and I immediately relaxed. After the massage was over I thanked her, talked to her for about an hour and a half afterwards and left thinking I needed another massage to de-stress. I woke up this morning with my neck hurting worse than ever! Agh.

I promise to post about more encouraging times another day! "Momma told me there would be days like this."

Works for Me Wednesday - Cheap Soil



I posted on this last year, but it was kind of after the season was over. At my local Wal Mart, you can get bags of soil, rocks, mulch and many other things that have holes in them for 50% off. There is a place that they put all of the busted bags outside of my Wal Mart so all I do is drive by every few days to see what they have. Oftentimes, too much has leaked out and it does not make it worth it to buy them, but most of the time they just have a hole and cannot sell them. Last year we got a bunch of Miracle Grow bags of soil that really made our vegetable garden awesome.

I checked with Home Depot and they do not do this. They send theirs back to the supplier and are compensated for the broken bags. Happy Soil Hunting!

Make sure to check out other Works for Me Wednesday posts on my favorite-check-it-every- day-blog, Rocks in My Dryer.

Monday Menu

Monday - tonight we had teriyaki chicken legs from an awesome Year of Crockpotting meals blog; I'm telling you girls that if you do not have your crockpot out once a week you are doing a disservice to yourself!!! We had Minute Rice and green beans sweetened with splenda with a touch of butter
Tuesday - Gretel had an Asian open-house last week. I have really been into Asian food lately (this is really strange to someone who is a meat and potato kind of girl), but I have a friend who is from Malaysia who fixed spring rolls and I am going to call him for the recipe. What he made before is very similar I believe to this spring roll recipe. Not sure what I am going to make with them, probably some form of chicken stir fry.
Wednesday - Pancakes, bacon and oranges
Thursday- baked beans and Bratwurst on the grill - great idea 3 Blondes and the Law
Friday - Pepperoni Bread from Kids Meal Crowd Blog
Saturday - running a 5K; Yay! Should be fun. . .I better fix myself something yummy to reward myself, right! :) Perhaps, Chicken Parmesan with a salad. . .that sounds good right now!!
Sunday- Last week we had tostadas with refried beans and taco meat with salad fixins. It was perfect. I just need to make sure to defrost my hamburger meat ahead of time so I can fix it quickly.

Update from last week's Menu.
  • The steak night was superb and it was because of the great company we had! Yay for friends! Thanks for not looking too closely at the inside of my house. You guys are best!
This last week a friend sent me a comparable coupon site to The Grocery Game called CouponMom.com. It is free and awesome.

Do you want me to fix your jewelry or your toilet?

At one point in my life I had three jobs, two part time jobs and one full time job. This does not include my kids or husband which are both at the very least part time jobs. Juggling all of this eventually made me CRAZY. I would get a phone call and she would say, "Hey this is Christy" to which I would reply, "yes and. . ." I did not know if she was from my part-time business of selling jewelry or from my part-time job at our apartments. Things were beginning to get out of hand. . . but I had to persevere for as long as possible because my hubs was finishing up seminary and we needed to keep the balls in the air. So I persevered until the end of seminary and now I am growing my hair back. Fortunately, this was only a season of life and I have since moved back to some version of sanity.

I am not sure why, but my hubs said things naturally follow an order of calm to chaos. If you clean up everything in the house, it will come undone pretty quickly (as you might know). Well, after almost two years of being in a state of calm things are slowly, but steadily moving back to chaos. I started out having my kids in public school and me working part time from home. The next year, I brought one of them home with me and have been juggling him and my part time job. Next year, guess what. . . I believe we have gravitated to the "chaos season" once again. Hansel and Gretel are both interested in being home and mom is still working that nice quiet part-time job she once had.

Are you with me? Multi-taskin' momma is about to be hairless again. :)

Can't wait to find my camera!

It's either in my car (which still has Easter stuff in it) or my mom accidentally took it home with her. Either way, I really hope I find it because I have something really cool to show you. I know, you are thinking it is my abs of steal or better yet, my buns of steal. I assure you that it is not a picture of either, it is something crafty that I have been thinking about for a long time. Something I found in a magazine that I wanted to make. So if I find my camera I will show it to you. Are you going to check my blog every 30 minutes to see if I found my camera? Probably not, but I will post about it by Wednesday at the latest. Until then, ta ta!

Menu Plan Monday-March 31st

Monday's are doozies. They are about to get more interesting with the evenings being filled with baseball practices and games. My priorities are definitely mixed up when I am running out of time to blog ;)

Monday - All American Meat Loaf from The Ultimate Southern Living cookbook, mashed potatoes, green beans and crescent rolls
Tuesday - sausage and biscuits, eggs and orange juice
Wednesday -Pulled chicken sandwiches from Organizing Junkie's menu - yummo
Thursday - bratwurst, green bell peppers and onions, french fries and banana pudding
Friday - Gretel's open house (eating there)
Saturday- steak, baked potatoes, garlic bread, salad
Sunday - leftovers

Update on two things I have cooked from the last couple of weeks that were phenomonal:
Chicken Fettuccini Alfredo-pulled this randomly from Allrecipes and boy was I glad!
Black bean chicken chili (recipe to come)-Woah, this got better and better as the spices and everything meshed; it was awesome!

Enjoy and have a great week!!!

Go Fly a Kite!


I am really not "telling you off," I really mean it. Go fly a kite with your kids. This is the most simple fun we have had in a long time. Easter morning the kids awoke to an Easter Basket overflowing with some candy, but mostly cheap toys. One of the cheap toys ($1.00 at Wal Mart) was a kite. Easter afternoon we had our naps then awoke to a semi-windy day where I promised the kids some family fun. We went to a local park where we set sail our kites and baseballs. It was a fabulous time with lots of photo ops.

So, the next time you are looking for some cheap thrills, grab a kite and go fly it!!! I promise you will have a blast, until at least Sponge Bob and Hello Kitty take a nose dive to the ground! Share some of your cheap thrills with me! Also, visit Rocks in My Dryer for more helpful tips including cleaning your shower as well as using up Easter Eggs.

Menu Plan Monday or Wednesday-March 26th -Better Late than Never! :)



Gretel is out of school this week and I am going to try to keep Hansel still going on his school. We need your prayers. I think Gretel may be a little distracting this week. She and her paper crafts for her bears look a lot more fun than spelling words and subtraction with regrouping.

Yesterday was quite successful as far as food is concerned. I put a roast, potatoes and carrots on overnight, turned it off and stuck it in the fridge when I woke up and put it back on when I got home from church. I made my sides while it was warming back up. I really have never done that before, but I knew that I wanted something yummy for my family to come home to. On the menu was an odd assortment but it filled our bellies and satisfied our need for an Easter lunch. We also had greek salad (we make ours with kalamata olives and pepperoncini's, crusty bread, pineapple mango salsa as well as a fruit pizza.

While Easter is a beautiful celebration of Christ and His resurrection, my pastor husband and I celebrate that we are still alive too after all of the busyness. :)

So here she blows for this week:

Monday - tonight, no small group so we can have a leisurely dinner; We will have bratwurst, french fries and pineapple/mango salsa
Tuesday - pancakes, sausage
Wednesday - White bean chicken chili/fritos/cheese/banana pudding
Thursday - helping with Bible Study at friend's home (ordering pizza?)
Friday - steak, potatoes
Saturday - 1st baseball practice and probably eating out at Sonic or something
Sunday - always taco smaco's, if not leftovers

Celebrating Easter with Like-Hearted Friends

Below is what I posted last year the night before the Easter Egg Hunt. Tomorrow is the day of our Easter Egg Hunt for 2008 (I guess it is turning out to be annual :)). We combined forces with another church this year and it is going to be awesome.

Last year we stuffed 3,000 eggs. This year we upped it to 6,000 stuffed eggs and 1,600 resurrection eggs to be made by the kiddos. We have 640 hotdogs and buns, 40 2 liters donated by Pepsi and 504 individual bags of chips!!

What a joy to be able to celebrate the resurrection of our Lord and Savior with another denomination of believers. I wish life was like this all of the time. . .all working together for the same Lord. We spend so much time trying to "one up" the other and make our church out to be the best when in reality THE Church is the bride of Christ. Not First THIS or Fellowship THAT but THE CHURCH is the bride of Christ!! What a glorious day it will be when He comes back for us all.

This year, I planned with my same friend from last year as well as another Type A friend and boy we had a great time. We all laugh about being Type A and I am glad that we can laugh about it rather than cry. They are some of the most amazing people I know. We all have little kids and battle illness, schedules, jobs and just being a mom but when we all work together we can accomplish amazing results. These are the spiritual and non-spiritual things I am celebrating today in a nutshell an eggshell:
  • First, my relationship with my Lord and Savior, who rescued me from the mud and mire who gave His life for mine (not an equal trade, by the way)
  • my awesome family who values relationship with each other (obviously they are not teenagers yet)
For the EEH:
  • all of the donations and at cost things we got
  • the smooth communication with so many people working together
  • my friends who have helped out and the fact that we are all still friends
  • the two church's spirits and all that they have accomplished with their hard working hands
  • the use of the fairgrounds (free) and the fact that we have an indoors as well as outdoors
There are so many things to be thankful for this Good Friday,
but mostly His death and work on the cross!
Thank you Jesus, may we honor you in all we do and say!

Friday, April 6, 2007

"Twas the Night Before the Easter Egg Hunt"

Twas the Night Before the Easter Egg Hunt
And all through the house
not a creature was stirring
Not even a spouse.

The Easter Eggs Were Stuffed
At the fairgrounds with care
In hopes that good weather and children will be there.

The weatherman has said that the degree will be high forty
And I am thinking oh Lordy Lordy!

As you can see, we are preparing for an Easter Egg Hunt. Myself and a friend from church were both burdened for the kids in the community that they would have a place to hear the real reason why we celebrate Easter. The downtown area in our community celebrates the holiday by putting hay on the concrete and hiding the eggs under the hay. That sounded a little scratchy and not so fun, so we decided not to join them this year.

This planning process has been such a faith stretcher for me and my friend. We are both Type A so it made it interesting-both very detail oriented-down to making special eggs for the 1 and 2 year olds so that they would have candy that they can really eat.

We received donations for a lot of the supplies. We have a friend that works for "Ideal or Flowers" bread company who donated hotdog buns, Walmart gave a $25 gift card, a local butcher gave us hot dogs at cost. Also, our church gave us a small budget to work with for missions. Not to mention, our precious people at the church stuffed almost 3,000 eggs with candy. They also donated 1,000 eggs to make "Resurrection Eggs" for the kids to make their own version. Isn't that amazing. Next year my goal is to not have to pay for the chips or the chocolate candy that we are having for "dessert."

What a joy to see all of this come to fruition. One of the biggest faith stretchers was to find the location. Obviously, we have no church building since we currently meet at the middle school. We needed a place with an indoor area as a rain contingency and craft area. We also needed a place with plumbing! My friend suggested the fairgrounds. We were told that we may could get a discount, but we would have to go to the board meeting. So she and I show up scared to death because we don't know anyone and who knows what goes on at a fairground board meeting. We let them know that we were doing this for the community, not just for the people in our church and they said we could use it for free since it was a community event. That was a green light for us that we were headed in the right direction. So we have 300 hotdogs, almost 3,000 stuffed eggs, 1,000 "Resurrection Eggs" to be taken home, and some great Story Tellers lined up to tell the story of Christ and his last week on Earth and the hope that we can have in Him.

What an awesome day today preparing for all of the kids. I need to get some rest because tomorrow we get to see how the First "Maybe Annual" Easter Egg Hunt turns out. I will update you soon.

What are your best Easter memories as a family?

Among the First Responders

It is 6:54 am and my day has already been pretty eventful. While I was working out at the gym this morning, in my Boot Camp class, we heard a sound like thunder. My friend looked at me and we dismissed the sound as someone being careless with the weights or a little wild in their exercising. A few seconds later, "the funny desk guy" comes in and tells our "not-so-nice boot camp instructor" that someone just ramped the curve and hit the building next to us. My "not-so-nice boot camp instructor" flew out the door (I was glad to see him finally get some exercise) and flew to the accident.

My friends and I got to be the "first responders" by huddling up for prayer. I am assuming the guy went into a diabetic sugar shock and ran off the road. He was responding when we left, but was pretty beat up. I guess that would be the case since he ran into the side of the building. I am grateful that he was alive as I am sure he is too. God was quite merciful to him as well as to us, by him not running into the gym with all of us working out. So that would be my praise today that I got to be "among the first responders" at an accident as well as keep my life.

As I go throughout the day today I want to keep that response of prayer and be apart of what God is already doing around me. Thank you Lord, for Your mercies are new each day.

Help Me Rhonda!

Whoever this Rhonda girl is, maybe she can help! I absolutely love my life, but do you ever feel like maybe you bit off a little more than you can chew? I do every day and as the Lord continues to mold me and guide me I know that He will have to be the one to get me out of bed each morning to live this life of mine!

I do all of the things that I love. . .spend time with my kids including all day with one, help with my church, hang out with my hubby (this list in no particular order), cook, exercise (this list is definitely not in order) and chat with every person I meet along the way and I mean everyone. But when you add all of this up, it can be quite overwhelming.

Especially Spring time. I have two kids that are going to be playing ball. One has had evidence of that on her face (it was purple and green and looked like an easter egg. . .I will let you guess). It just gets really busy. So what am I doing to make sure the insanity does not get to me. . .oops I may be too late?

So this is my sure-fire way to keep my game face on and be ready for the chaos.

  • I am resting in the Lord. . .casting all of my cares upon Him because I know He is big enough to handle it.
  • Taking a nap.
  • Taking frequent baths.
  • Reading a book that is fun.
  • Delegating (another word for bossing)
  • Praying the Sinner's Prayer all day :)
  • Exercising through the stress. . .taking out my aggression on the gym, not my husband :)
  • Staying in the Word to encourage me and bring me back to the big plan
These are a few things to remember as life gets wild. Gotta run . . .the hoodlums are coming in.

What do you do to keep life spinning, but without looking like a screaming banshee?

Menu Plan Monday-March 17th

I had to stop putting the days of the week because my husband refused to check my Menu Plan anymore because he said it was inaccurate. Every now and then I change up the order on my menu according to what amount of time I have and what I feel like eating. This is my "non-days" of the week menu, but in the order in which we will "probably" eat them! :)

Dinner
  • Bacon, Lettuce and Tomato Sandwiches, Black Bean Dip
Black Bean Dip How To:
1 can black beans drained
1 8oz. can tomato sauce
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1 tsp. chili powder

Combine beans and tomato sauce in a saucepan. Bring to boil over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat. Put beans in blender with cheese and chili powder. Pour in bowl. It will firm up. Top with cheese. Yummy with fritos, warm tortilla chips or pita chips.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

****taking green jello to Small Group
  • Gravy, Biscuits and Sausage
  • Shrimp, Fish, Sweet Potato Fries
  • Take-out Pizza at Fairgrounds getting ready for the Easter Egg Hunt
  • Easter Egg Hunt-who knows what we are going to eat for dinner. . .probably pizza or leftover hotdogs! :) I have frozen bratwurst if worse comes to worse. :)
I hope you have a beautiful and meaningful Easter week. . .remembering His work on the cross, His death, burial, and amazing resurrection! He is risen indeed!

Discouragement Setting In?

December 10th marks the day that I started working out 4 times a week very early in the morning. Let's count them together one. . .two. . .three months of working out consistently. Two days of cardio and two grueling days of strength training at "Boot Camp." Guess what? I have gained weight. I have probably gained 2-5 pounds. Currently, I am "training" for a 5 K which is about 3.1 miles. In the fall, I ran a 5K out of shape and this time I want to not only run the 5 K, but to be ready for it physically.

Now, nothing is more discouraging for a woman who is dedicated to exercise than to gain weight. At this point I am having to look at the other positive perks of exercising and not give up.

The list below provides my benefits of exercising (outside of weight loss).

Physical
  • I have a lot better endurance than I used to. . .this morning I ran for 2.5 miles with a group of women and felt like going more. (This may not be big for some people but it is really good for me since I am used to working out on a treadmill or elliptical)
  • able to pick up heavy things like my kids and have fun swinging them around!!!
  • everyone says that muscle weighs more than fat so maybe there is hope for my weight gain.
  • my grandmother has osteoporosis and we have the body type that is prone to osteoporosis. Strength training fights osteoporosis.
  • more energy, especially in the morning to early afternoon.
  • makes you choose a little more wisely during the day with your eating because you know it takes a lot to work those calories off.
Mental
  • helps fight depression
  • gives you a better self image which is a great benefit to your marriage
  • gives you determination to reach your goals (making a choice each day to get out of bed and exercise
Spiritual
  • take the time to see the beauty of God's creation when running outdoors
  • helps you rely on the strength of the Lord when working out is tough
  • listen to music while I run which has been good for my soul
Social
  • get to see my friends a lot during the week
  • able to meet new people through a running/walking club
  • continue to develop friendships with people I already know, but also have an interest in exercise
With all that being said, I need not be discouraged, right? There are many other benefits to exercise than weight loss. One of the websites that I get info from and my mother-in-law introduced me to is called sparkpeople.com. I sign up for information from Spark People and it keeps me informed on exercise, healthy dieting and motivating stories.

I would love to know how exercise has helped you or what you do when discouragement sets in. Share your hints with all of us. Happy Exercising!

How to give life to old chips!

I thought of my Works for Me Wednesday post in the middle of the night last night! Exciting life I have! :)

This works especially great for tortilla chips and really I have not tried other kinds of chips. If someone, not naming any names Hansel and Gretel forgets to clip the tortilla chip bag (which by the way is a staple at our house) then we revitalize them in the oven. All you do is put the tortilla chips on a baking sheet and turn the oven to be about 350 degrees for about 5-8 minutes and voila you have yummy Mexican Restaurant quality tortilla chips. Hot and fresh! Hope this works for you to save you money and give life to those old chips in the pantry.

If you have more revitalizing tips for me, I would love to hear about them. As always, check out Works for Me Wednesday to learn more tips to save time and money! Have a great day.

Menu Plan Monday-March 10th

My kitchen is a mess and so is my house. Not a great way to start off the week. BUT, I will have recessed lighting in my kitchen thanks to my honey-do!!! He is one crazy guy!

Monday – Spaghetti, Salad if they’re lucky, rolls

Tuesday – The Pork Loin that I keep forgetting about! Zucchini, and rolls

Wednesday –Pancakes as always ( Help, I am addicted to Peanut Butter Chip Pancakes! I need INTERVENTION!), Sausage

Thursday – Hmmm…I need something in the crockpot because it helps my brain so much. I think I will throw a whole chicken in the crock pot in the morning and then break it up for chicken and cheese quesadillas for dinner. How's that sound?

Friday – Bratwurst (on sale and have a coupon), Apples and Sauerkraut

Saturday – chicken pot pie (use leftover chicken meat)

Sunday – Taco Smaco Salad!!!!

It's A Nomal Occurrence, I'm Late for the Ultimate Blog Party

Hi, I am Desiree', the writer of this blog. I have two kids, one whom I homeschool and the other goes to a small Christian Montessori school. My husband is a preacher-man (My homey and I above). I work for a non-profit Christian organization from home. We live in Arkansas so you might be get some funny soundin' words on here like "push the buggy-instead of push the cart." Also, you will just about always get a Works for Me Wednesday by Rocks in my Dryer post as well as a post on Menu Plan Monday by Organizing Junkie from me. I love to find practical information that helps me in the things I do every day.

Interesting things about me:
  • I have a cardboard phobia (cannot hear the sound without my skin crawling)
  • I get up at 4:45 am 4 days a week to work out at the gym
  • I take a nap very regularly (I will not admit to how often), probably has something to do with the gym thing! :)
  • I am a thrifty girl, I will not buy anything unless it is on sale or clearance.
  • The things that make me sad and want to shout are mean people and people who are fakes.
So that's a little bit about me. I am so sorry I was late. Please excuse my delay. I will be posting about the Easter Egg Hunt that is beginning to consume me and to explain my tardiness.

Glad you popped in on this Ultimate Blog Party by 5 Minutes for Mom!

Saving Money

Sorry if you clicked on my link about Saving Money or Gardening. That was a topic that I talked about last week. You can definitely help me out in that category too because that applies since we garden!

Yesterday, I was thinking about what I wanted to write about and I was thinking it was going to be about controlling the masses of laundry that accumulate in this house. I was out browsing a bit and I found this awesome post and comments on what others do to make it through their laundry in a week in a way that keeps their lives sane and house picked up. So one dilemma solved and onto another.

My husband and I do a lot of things to save money. One of the small things we have done is to buy those little weird shaped light bulbs that take half an hour to warm up to get to full brightness. (I do not complain about those in the morning at 4:40 when I wake up and walk into the bathroom!)

Another thing that we do, which is really difficult for me is to use the envelope system in the areas where we spend too much. That has helped control spending quite a bit. I would love to know what you do to control spending and even save in your home. It can be in the house, on cars or any "light bulb moment" (no pun intended :)) that you have had in saving money.

By the way that is a picture of me and my family in Branson, Missouri on vacation. . .one of the things that we would like to do again this year if we can save the money! So come on with all of your awesome ideas.

Menu Plan Monday - March 3rd

Yay, it is Monday and I get to plan my menu. This week I am trying to be a bit better on the health side of things. I just did my BMI on a website and it thinks that I need to be back at my teenager weight. The nerve! So, minus Monday's fish sticks and french fries I think it is fairly healthy. Oh and forget that little thing about the Spanish Flan too, ok? :)

Monday - Fish Sticks, French Fries, Coleslaw. . .we have small group tonight and need something simple. Fish Sticks were on my Grocery Game List this week. Cheap and Simple = Monday!
Tuesday - Saffron Rice, green beans mixed with Worcestershire, butter and brown sugar, rolls Simple Whole Roasted Chicken,
Wednesday - pancakes, sausage, fruit kabobs
Thursday - Sarah's Musings had this recipe up this morning for her Saturday meal and my daughter is a feta lover and will LOVE this meal. Mediterranean Greek Salad, I may try the Souvlaki as well, that looks pretty tasty. Thanks Sarah!!!
Friday - Homemade Pepperoni Pizza
Saturday - can we eat pizza again? Probably not, guess I will go with Chicken Quesadillas and Spanish Flan, and Mexican Layer Dip,
Sunday - Trusty, Rusty Taco Salad!

Have an excellent week (hopefully eating at the dinner table with your family.) We really try to go this route, but sometimes on Fridays we plop by that ole tv. I thought maybe this week I would put our fun place mats out. What are some things that you guys do to encourage eating at the dinner table? Make sure to check Organizing Junkie for more fantastic menu plans!