Yesterday, the boys had their friends Mikey and Stephen over for another seige of Axis and Allies.....

Here are a few of the pictures promised of Stacia dancing. Josiah put on KJ52. Josiah loves this artist and the tunes often play during clean up. He trained Stacia since birth to break dance to this music.....but Monday when he put it on....Stacia surprised us!

Stacia RISES

Stacia dances...to bad this isn't video and you can't see the legs moving and the tush shaking...

Dance session ends with a bit of sisterly fun...

I'm a softie for sales folks of all kinds. Mike has taught me to say "no thank you; we're not interested" as soon as the telephone spiel begins. I hate to think how many great deals I've missed this way.....{sigh}. I still am not very good at dealing with the folks at my door! This man showed up on Monday with his older wife - both with arthritis - and wanted to paint my address on the curb. This reminds me I should check and see what they did out there. OK I'm not going to feel to bad about not turning away people at my door - because come to think of it Mike bought a nice candle from the TLC cheerleaders not to long ago. :::snort:::

DINNER ROLL CALL

OK - help me out here. I've gotten into a rut. I would love it if lots of you would simply post a week of dinners and/or lunches from your house. OK - if you are also in a rut and don't want to admit what you've had for dinner in the past week...how about you make up a DREAM week and I won't even make you title it "dinners for a week - in my dreams"! :::snort:::

Don't worry about your dinners fitting our eating style...I have learned to adapt most recipes to our new lifestyle....unless of course it has pork or deep feeding fish or shrimp.....

OK I'll get you started....Dinners we've had in the past week or month or maybe even year {g}

Manicotti
Baked Chicken
Lasagna
Pasta with Asiago cheese/chicken breast
Grilled burgers/steaks

I'd love to hear from Jodi - my vegan friend...and Adrienne and Heather my healthy friends...and Becky my healthy friend with young kids who EAT Quizno sandwhiches without picking out the tomatoes and lettuce......

Oops - time to run Jamin to work....

Discipline Thoughts:

OK - I'll share snippets as I go along on my personal study. Has anyone commented on the teachable moment question down below? Someone better do that. {g}

I'd like your input on this. I've spent considerable amount of time praying and thinking about this. It's been fun.

"How does God discipline His children?" - I want to discipline as God disciplines. Therefore my discipline must glorify God. To glorify is to give a "correct representation". This means that my parenting must be an accurate reflection of God's nature and character. I'm not talking about my children's behavior here but about MY actions and MY heart. MY actions in parenting must reflect God's character. I began to list all I know about God's character...and it's been one of those "ah" and "freeing" moments in parenting. Brainstorm with me? I'll share my list later...but I'd love to have some of you think with me....describe the character and nature of God.....

A conclusion I've reached is: my parenting and discipline must BEGIN in the heart and character of God.

fill in the blank.....God is:

BLUE SCREEN OF DEATH

I woke up this a.m. with a blue screen on my computer. It says it is "beginning dump of physical memory" - that's o.k. This day FEELS like a day devoid of physical memory. {G} I'm on the boys' computer....that will work...though it's not as convenient for doing my "things"....

The past two days have been full. We've done a bit of speech and school, cleaned, bowled, ordered diapers from a very hard to reach lady in AK, had friends over for another rip-roaring round of *Axis and Allies*, worked hard, baked bread, baked cookies, run to Sam's TWO times....attended a fire safety workshop followed by a free meal at a local Chinese Buffet....Mike is going in at 5 a.m. all week for PT. He's doing training for his deployment. We updated our will.

That's life the past few days. OH yes...and Stacia has not learned to stand and walk but she stands and DANCES all by herself. Josiah took a bunch of pictures....I'll get them uploaded when my computer finds it's memory. UGH...I really do NEED to back up my journal and our photos.

DAD UPDATE

My dad is having a rough time recuperating from this second surgery.

He was given 2 pints of blood yesterday afternoon and that is helping. He is in lots of pain and having trouble with the pain medication. They took out all the hardware and metal they had installed in his bone so now his bone is very frail and the risk of reinjury is greater.

Please continue to pray for him.

Also, my Aunt Gin, his sister, is going in this week (possibly tomorrow?) for more treatment of her cancer. Please keep both in your prayers.