Sunday Celebrations

Sunday we celebrated Josiah's 19th birthday (2-9) and Jamin's 17th birthday (tomorrow).
After church we came home and had Cy's choice of Chicken Divan. We had gifts, played games, ate one of Mike's spectacular creations, and went and saw "The Pirates Who Don't do Anything" at the base theater.


Josiah got a Nikon digital camera from us.

Jamin got an MP3 player (which none of us have figured out how to use yet ::snort::).
MEN! - Exchanging gifts - $20. ::Snort::

Mike's imitation of Death By Chocolate - it was good!

Weekly Fitness Goals - Week of 11 Feb

Ok - a bit of accountability is needed. 40 minutes most days of the week - comes out to 240 minutes of exercise a week. This will get me to my annual goal of 11,700 that I'm tracking in the sidebar. I'm woefully behind already. ::snort:: Weekly total - 200 minutes.



Monday - Bike Ride - 40 minutes



Tuesday - oops



Wednesday - Miracle 1 Mile Walk - 20 minutes (stretches, warm up, cool down)
60 minutes - elliptical
Thursday - 45 minutes elliptical
35 minutes - recumbant bike
Friday - Migraine
Saturday - Migraine
Sunday - oops

PRINCESSES

I've been looking for some time for a study that Arielle and I could do on true Princesses. Does anyone know of such a study? Books, tapes, resources? Please share. I'm NOT looking for a study on courting....that is as natural as air at our house. I have Beth Moore's parable on the Princess...we have "The Princess and the Kiss "("Squire and the Scroll" too).

I would really like to explore characteristics fitting for a daughter of royalty. I would like the study to be for 10 - 12 YO girls....I can adapt. I may end up adding a study or blurbs on historical princesses to the study. We could watch some movies and add in fun hands-on projects.  I may have to write my own study, and that is fine as I still have two little girls at home, but if there is something out there, I'd like to go that route.

Share away.... BTW thanks for all who responded to the Lent post last Saturday. I've had a few books show up from PBS and Amazon this week. I'm also up to my eyebrows in the Biblical Holiday book.
Updated 18 Feb - Princesses Part Two
I CANNOT get away from this and finally came to the place of surrender last night – if I can’t find what is on my heart – I am willing to write it and will trust that God will provide the time and arrange my priorities to allow the time for writing……and the study that goes BEFORE writing a Bible Study. It would HAVE to be AFTER I’m done with the current study in Ephesians.
I want a study that treasures our daughters, teaches them the Biblical values of being female; I want it to be intergenerational; I want to focus on the character and responsibilities of godly princesses, and then just last night “identity, rights, responsibilities” popped into my mind as I drifted to sleep – maybe the chocolate or maybe the outline for 3 studies or one long study. ::snort:: I’ve begun brainstorming for Biblical princesses – and there aren’t many mentioned that I’d want my daughters to imitate…though…um…just last night and this a.m. I realized that the Proverbs 31 woman would have been a queen/princess (though I know “she wasn’t real; she was an ideal”)….so that may well be the basis of my study….and I know there are studies out there on Proverb 31 – are they intergenerational? Do they present the princess idea?
Why the princess idea? I vividly remember telling my older girls "quit acting like a princess."  A few months ago, those words began to rattle in my brain and heart. I was CONVICTED. My daughters ARE Princesses and while the world's view of a princess is pampered, spoiled, and selfish, that is not the picture of a noble, godly princess. My daughters are daughters of the King of Kings. They ARE royalty. I WANT them to act like true princesses. I want them to have the confidence to stand out in their generation. I want them to be noble and caring. I want them to put duty and mission above self. I want them, in short, to know all they are in God and to walk in that identity. Females can readily relate to the “princess” idea – many dream of what it would be like to be a “real” princess.

Why is this so strong in my spirit? I haven’t a clue, but I’ve told God I’ll search for the resources and if I don’t find them and IF He makes it clear that I’m to write it – I will. LOL I think it could be a totally life-changing, fun, interesting, affirming inductive study for young girls and moms.
Have any of you seen such a study or been part of such a group? I think I'll cross post this on some yahoo lists.

Where am I?

The last time I didn't blog for a couple of days it caused a scare. So....I'm fine.
I got a migraine yesterday. I've not had any in Dec or Jan.....They always hit at this point in my cycle so I'm sure now they are being triggered by hormones and not CHOCOLATE....though we are also having a coldsnap so it MAY be the cold? Hmmm....
Anyway - I'm just sleeping a lot as Mike says that is what my brain needs most. I'm hoping to be up and busy by tomorrow.
This has thrown off my schedule, my workout schedule, my weekend plans, but hey it's better to be out of commission on Fri/Sat than the middle of a school week! A lot better! AND I'm reading the Master Index of my Sue Gregg cookbooks - wow - full of great info.

Food of the Gods

Today was a fitting day to do THIS hands on project. ::snort::


We studied the Mayans last week; but never quite fit this project in. Chris told me about the kit from Home Science/Training Tools. This kit included everything we needed to make ORGANIC chocolate.

First we examined cacao beans. Arielle was skeptical.
Next we melted cocoa butter....strange stuff. It SMELLED like chocolate (duh!) and looked like butter. It tasted like fatty chocolate.
We added the grounded cacao beans and stirred....a lot. (This was first thing in the a.m. so the kids are NOT greasers - they have shower hair. ::snort::

We called Jamin in to whip the little bumps I couldn't get.

The kids INSISTED on adding peanut butter (off course it's organic). ::Snort::

Now the chocolate had to temper.....cool to 94*. I didn't trust the little indicator they sent (though it went off at the same time as the digital thermometer.
They formed the candy.
What's THIS???

Our finished product (which we'll enjoy tonight when all are home).
Zander liked clean up best.

Verdict: This reinforced the children's opinion that hands-on projects are better than assembling lap books. Several times I heard, "I like this project better than making fish prints." So it did. It smelled better - tasted better too. ::snort::

We talked about growing practices, the Mayan's diet, worship, bitter chocolate drinks (you can buy Mexican Hot Chocolate drink down here, and I think it is very close to the drink that they drink in Central and South America), and how we agree that Chocolate is the food of the gods.

Our Anniversary!

It's our 24th anniversary. Last year, Mike was overseas; this year he is home....but not until 9:45 or 10:00 p.m. ::snort:: I DID drive the kids up to Burger King so we could have dinner with Mike. We had the place to ourselves! ::snort:: We plan to do something together tomorrow.
I could wax eloquent about all that Mike has meant in my life and how much I value our love, marriage, family, and life together, but if you've read my blog long or know me - you know that I passionately love and respect my husband. God picked 'em good....so good, that I regularly pray he will send such men for our daughters. Life is too busy right now for me to write much else.
This year there aren't a lot of fancy gifts - we bought a freezer. ::snort:: Yippee! The biggest gift this year has come through my health challenges. I've seen anew how deeply Mike loves me and how much he desires for us to grow old together....it's actually amazing to me how love and respect continue to grow in a marriage. This is a great plan God had. Sometimes a lot of work - but a great plan nonetheless. ::snort::

GOD and KETCHUP - Now You Know!

Continuing on in our quest for accurate science experiences.....Zander informed me this a.m. that Ketchup is blood. 
"God put ketchup in our bodies for our brains."
Now you know.