6.71 weeks down....19.72 weeks to go....25% down

I know that because Heather sent me the coolest excel program. It shows weeks, day,hours, minutes, seconds....graphs and such....pretty colors. Very fun.Cy had to be at work early this a.m. I set the rest of the kids down and asked them what they wanted for a menu this week.

Shake & Bake Chicken
Pizza
Chicken Divan
Stir Fry/Quesadillas (sp)
Encore Presentation
Grill - steaks and burgers

We've had three of those meals in the past two weeks. I'm going to have to talk to them about variety. :::snort:::

Arielle, Nolan, Stacia and I headed out to run a couple of errands. Oops....no car seat in the Honda. I had the Honda because it needs gas and Josiah was at work. We had to leave Stacia and headed out again. The Honda wouldn't turn over. :::snort:::

Ready for the irony. I KNEW I should ride 10 miles today on my bike. I got tired and decided to stop at 7.2. Well...I was expected at the library and HEB so I HAD to go get the van. I rode my bike to the mall. Total distance of both rides? 10.2 miles. :::snort::: I've done really well with discipline this week. I decided that until I could get the internal thing going again it was time to pull out the Thin Within tools and use them. I thought about joining Weight Watchers but realized that since I KNOW what to do it really is a matter of doing it and counting points and logging them isn't much different than the Thin Within tools....I began logging food, noting hunger levels, checking when I exercise (TW goal is to move your body at least 30 minutes every day), checking off the principles and keeping track of water. I think it's been a good week. Of course, NOW, all my local friends think I'm pregnant because I'm forever running to the bathroom. Three times at dinner the other night. :::snort:::

Back home with the van I discovered that Stacia had fallen asleep. Arielle, Nolan and I headed out. I picked up TWO books "Dark Tort" and "Cherry Cheesecake Murder". I'm not sure which I'll read first.

Our next stop was HEB to buy the few groceries I needed for this week. Oh man...someone had opened a package of air freshener and when I went to look at it the glass perfume part fell out the bottom....it smelled. I picked up chunks of glass while Nolan ran for an employee. The point of sharing this is that I've smelled like rose air freshener all day. LOL The photo of Nolan with the van full of produce cases won't load. Ah Well. A friend and I have been buying cases of produce at HEB and splitting them. The manager gives us a 25% discount. I came home to divide produce and put it away. Ewww....we ended up with a case of nectarines that were 2/3 molded. I called him and he said to salvage what I could and come in for a new case....so I went BACK to HEB. :::snort:::

I put my "bulk cooking" background to work today. I'm very excited. I cut up a head of romaine, red leaf, green leaf, lots of SPINACH, and about 1/4 head of red cabbage. I mixed it all up, added some grated carrots and stuffed two bags of "bagged salad greens" - no more frogs for ME. :::snort::: I'm a list person so I MUST share the rest of our chopping, grating and such. Our - because Jamin joined me and we had a great couple of hours talking and slicing and dicing...and neither of us cut a thumb! I was GLAD we didn't have the food processor today. I coveted the time to work beside Jamin. We grated another quart bag of carrots for salads and stir fry, we chopped a gal bag of broccoli for Chicken Divan, we chopped a quart of broccoli for stir fry and another quart for salad, we chopped a quart bag of cauliflower for stir fry and salads, we chopped up another big bag of carrots for roasted veggies and snacking, we sliced up a red pepper for salads and pizza (I wrapped them in paper towels before putting in the bag), and finally we chopped up a bag of green onions for stir fry and salad. WHEW! I am EXCITED. I'll be able to easily and quickly assemble the veggies needed for meals this week. Salad is a breeze. I was able to make a huge, wonderful salad in 39 seconds. Jamin timed me. ::snort:: So yes, I spent most my day playing with veggies. Hard to believe spending time cooking could excite me...An added bonus is that the produce fits so nicely into the crisper now....because space is at a premium. I have potatoes and carrots in my closet...well you don't need to know any more. LOL

Stacia loves grocery day!

She'd already mooched a nectarine and carrot but was determined to find the apples...she did.

Arielle got a call to go over to Ashely's house. I asked Jared to ride his bike over with her. I thought they would enjoy the bit of independence. Unfortunately, Jared's bike chain messed up and he had to carry his bike all the way back home. This simply wasn't the day for us with "transportation".

This evening the ones who were home watched *Nicholas and Alexandra*. I missed the end when I had to go pick up Josiah. I know how it ended but I may try to watch it anyway. I did get several calls during the three hour movie. This was a netflix movie for school.

I got a letter in the mail from the rehab spot asking me to call as soon as possible to discuss Nolan's treatment...wonder why they couldn't call me. LOL

That's about it for the day.

Jamin FINALLY receives his package from the Christian Writer's Guild. He says it looks really good. He was already preparing his ideas for the first assignment. {G}

Clarification

I need to make something clear....just because *I* need to.

re: post on a mother's love...I am NOT a child who never knew unconditional love. My parents are Christians and I should have been clear that I was not thinking of my mother as I wrote, so as not to leave any doubt in anyone's mind. {g}

Also - obviously I've been thinking the mentoring thing over.....I've always said my MOM was my mentor...but that isn't stated in my entry. There are so many areas and aspects of my personality that I can trace directly back to the training and love my parents provided.

When I got married, however, and began having children my Mom was thousands of miles away in the Philippines....in an age when we still communicated via snail mail and very expensive phone calls....it was hard to get that "on the spot", generation to generation, thing going that many of you living in the same town as your mothers when you got married had. This is NOT a complaint.....God had their lives and our lives mapped out and it has all turned out "good".....but I wanted to be sure, as I reread that post, that no one came away with the impression that I was saying "I come from a pitsy background where no one ever looked out for me and my Mom was never my mentor". She was my mentor and continues to be MORE of a mentor these days, now that she is so easily accessible.

I've told my folks, if I had my way we'd make them Mike's dependents and haul them around the world with us. Shoot....they ARE used to moving every three years! They are going to get bored stiff in ONE home, in ONE town...oh yeah there are children and grandchildren in that town. LOL I suppose they've been there for 3 or 4 years now and aren't complaining. Hey, I need to ask them if they are getting that "itch" - I've always wondered if I'll have the itch to move every 3 years after we retire....because I've spent lots of my life doing just that.

Anyway, yes, there are hurts in my life that God has healed...because I'm human and live in a fallen world...but those hurts are not stemming from the fact that I was neglected as a child. Nope - I was and continue to be loved. I think my Mom knows all this, but I wanted to be sure ya'all know all this.

BTW - what I've learned now that two of my children are adults...God has this marvelous way of covering many of our parenting shortcomings with GRACE....because ain't none of us perfect. I watch my daughters and think "I want to be like THEM". :::snort:::

I love you, Mom. Talk to ya in a few hours.....though I'm fairly sure you are awake at 5:30 a.m. :::snort:::

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

It was COLD this a.m. Stacia woke up at 4 a.m. and didn't go back down until 6 a.m. I thought about going for my bike ride. It was time. It was also 50* outside. Thanks to nature - or thyroid disease to be exact - I'm always COLDER than the rest of the family. I was FREEZING!!! I decided to climb back into bed. Zander had climbed into my bed and I took full advantage of his warm, little body to warm up my ice cube feet. :::snort:::

We zipped through school.

We went to the park! I'm trying to load pictures but for some reason none of the park ones will work. I will try to download firefox on this computer "soon". Yes, Adrienne, my kids are burned and so am I. I can't believe it. It was a gorgeous 75*....but we got burned. This was a newer park in town and we had a blast. It was our first time to play with Adrienne's kids since they've been locked in their house with hand, foot and mouth for a couple of weeks.

BIG NEWS, our town has recently opened a new "super Walmart" - which I've stayed out of just fine. {G} Turns out it is the "3rd largest" supermarket in the world and the largest super walmart in TX. Or so the line goes.

I wonder why my font changed colors and more importantly why I can't change it back. LOL

I realized (there it went - back to normal) yesterday that it stresses me out big time to have to be somewhere at a certain time. I need the freedom to take 40 minutes on reading if we are enjoying it and not feel like we have to rush so that we can be out the door by a certain time. I KNOW this is why God impressed on me last year not to plan things during the school hours. Thursdays are House of Faith and I find myself rushing to make it in time (1:15). For this reason, I decided that I can't take on the science co-op that I was invited to join. It sounded SO FUN!!! I WANTED to do it...but I didn't want to be rushing through school on both Thursday and Friday every other week....and soon Nolan should have speech again.

Yes, I called the school. They have a new therapist there and they'd simply lost him in the transition. They thought rehab was calling and who knows what rehab thought. They told me on Tuesday or Wednesday that rehab would be calling the next day. I guess I better call them on Monday. LOL Anyway - that is always a rush, rush day too. I've become a homebody....I love to have the time for us to linger over an interesting topic, project or even play.

I got home and began the deep dish pizza while Jamin and Josiah ran out to pick up our new Pampered Chef Pizza Stone. We had pizza....said goodbye to Rascal...went to the car wash and watched a netflix movie. We got SIX discs today...turns out that two of the movies we chose for school are over 3 hours long....I'm not sure which one to watch....we can't watch 2 2 hour films and 2 3 hour films in the same week.

Here ya' go....my new, old look. It's short, short, short...but all the fried, dyed blonde is gone. Arielle says it isn't quite the old look because in the old look it was down to my waist...but the color is ME....I, however, have some psychotic disease where I am SURE that I am a blonde. BreAnn will be happy to know that she is no longer the "only brunette" in the family. :::snort:::

QUESTION OF THE DAY

OK - lots of stupid questions because I no longer have access to SHS to ask questions. LOL

Mike bought me a cool 19" widescreen flat lcd monitor before he left. In fact, we got two. He left instructions NOT TO TOUCH THE SCREEN!!!

We live in the middle of the dust bowl down here....how do I dust these screens???? What do you all do....and what will happen if I touch the screen...because I've ALWAYS been the "toe over the line" type and now I'm wondering often...what would happen if I TOUCHED the screen?????

School Daze - Friday!!!

*The Little House* is a book I remember reading as a child. It was fun to share it with Arielle and Nolan today.

We finished up our study of the San Francisco Earthquake with *Earthquake! A Story of Old San Francisco* by Kathleen Kudlinski. We really enjoyed this one as well.

I was excited to give the Ruth Heller books a try. We chose *Merry-Go-Round* to be our first because we were trying to feature nouns and verbs this week. We LOVED the photos! The book was really good and I think I'd like to find the series to own. However, I think for the level of Arielle and Nolan - just being introduced to grammar the other series by Brian Cleary was better. They have much less information in the books. BUT the Ruth Heller books would "last" longer because there is lots of info in the book....not just what a noun IS but then collective nouns, possesive nouns, plurals etc. The children loved the pictures in Ruth Heller but agreed that they understood the words of the other series better. We have some of both for next week. I really like both series.

*Round Up A Texas Number Book* by Carol Crane is a fun book to learn basic numbers. The extra bennie we are liking from this book are the little TX tidbits in the side bars.

We got school done in good time and then headed to the park with friends....