Happy Monday

I can't believe that the weekend is gone and we are headed into another week...I had a completely and totally unproductive weekend. That was a real downer as I had hoped to have a productive weekend mainly in the area of scrapbooking. Remember my cool little area I put together last week. Yep. It's a cool little area all right. Too bad I haven't had a minute to even sit down and do anything there. I know, I will get a chance and maybe even today but this weekend flew by in a whirlwind. Part of the problem was that I spent the first half of Saturday at a children's ministry meeting and the second half feeling like dog doo-doo. I had some weird virus that lasted less than 24 hours. I had all the symptoms of the flu--achiness, headache, weakness--but no fever. It lasted all afternoon Saturday and lingered a little on Sunday. Today I feel fine, no problems except for an annoying lingering cough but even that is not too bad. So, I went into the new week bummed that I didn't have much of a weekend. On the up-side I did get to watch about 4 episodes of my new favorite show on Netflix--"Doc Martin." I am seriously addicted to this show and could watch it all evening long. If you have Netflix you really should check it out. I am happy to say that I have had a very productive day today--woke up early and had a quiet time (first time in over a week), completely schooled the kids and had a cooperative day from Joe, kids did their chores and I did mine, and even went to the gym. Dinner's prepped and we will eat when the kids get home from theatre. Of course, all this productivity has worn me out but that's okay I have an easy night ahead of me. I am hoping for a healthy, school-filled week. We are going along at a nice, steady clip right now and that makes me happier than a pig in slop. Peace out my friends, I have a half hour or so free and I think I may try to do some scrapbooking and try out my little nook.

Chocolate Cake Day

First a disclaimer...my microwave is dirty and I didn't get even one good picture out of all of these but oh well! I'm posting it anyway. According to a local family magazine, yesterday was "Chocolate Cake Day." I had been wanting to try this recipe for Chocolate Cake in a Mug--made in the microwave and this seemed a good day to try it. Each of us mixed our own ingredients in our own mug and then we microwaved the mugs for 2 and a half minutes.


The recipe says to not be alarmed if your cake starts to rise above the mug, that is normal. Hannah's significantly rose above the mug and when I quickly opened the microwave to snag a picture it fell. The rest of ours boiled over some, and made a bit of a mess in my already dirty microwave but the cake was delicious!!

Blast From the Past

And....Voila!

I got so excited about putting my idea in action (the one I came up with in the middle of blogging those 7 quick takes!) that I went ahead and did it tonight after dinner. I am beyond thrilled with the results. Above in that blurry picture you can see the before and below you can see the after. Thank you to my neighbor, Krista, for loaning me the tables.
Those things you see hanging are costumes that have to be returned to a friend...one of these days...
I made myself a scrapbooking station and I made the kids a lego station and the great thing is that there is plenty of room under each table for storage.

Seven Quick Takes

As if I haven't blogged enough today...

• Does anyone else have this problem....I have so much to do but sometimes when I find myself with some spare time (a mere hour or so) I just can't decide what to do! Should I just chill and relax on the couch with a book? Should I tackle the hall closet? Should I fold the laundry? Blog? Scrapbook? Play a game with the kids? And the list goes on and before I know it I haven't done anything worth doing and my hour is up.
  
• A similar thing happens when I realize I have half an hour that I could use to take a nap. I get so excited about the nap that I can't fall asleep.
• Joe is sick--low fever (100) and headache and general malaise. He's felt this way since midday yesterday and is quite pitiful. I'm really hoping the other two don't get sick although I guess if they are going to catch something this is a relatively minor virus to come down with. I just don't want them to miss a day of school like Joe has.
  
• Speaking of school, we are on a fast track as we go through this second semester. We are moving and grooving and getting a lot done each day and I don't want anything to slow us down until we take a break for spring break.
• I keep saying that I am off FB but then take little peeks here and there. As of right now, I'm for real off--I will allow a quick check on the weekend but no more!
• I have an itch to scrapbook but no time. I wish I had a scrapbooking room where I could keep everything set up for a little while. I have very little time to scrapbook and it's daunting to think of getting everything out and figuring out what I am going to work on only to then not even have time to start. I just had a thought though as I typed that--I do have a playroom in my house now...maybe I'll take over part of the playroom and set up a scrapbooking station temporarily.
• Here's what I have to do to be "caught up" with my paper scrapbooking--in each of the kids' books I need to do two years worth (just a two page spread per year and I already have the pictures), add this year's Christmas pictures to our Christmas book, start a new theatre scrapbook with pics from Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, scrapbook our cruise from last year (I already have all those pictures), and I think that is it. I also need to catch up on photo books on the computer. I am caught up through August of last year, not bad!

A Big Job

We have a backyard full of tropical trees and when we have a freeze Ollie covers them in plastic and uses irrigation to protect them from the cold. Since we have had a few freezes already this year we haven't bothered to put away the plastic, it's a real pain to put away. So, Ollie has it all on the trampoline and the idea is that as each piece dries out we will fold it up and put it away. The problem is they never seem to dry out between freezes because we keep getting rain too. Last night we had a big storm with lots of rain and it had pooled on the trampoline and was causing the mat to sag dangerously. So, this morning it was the girls' job to use a bucket and get all that water off the tramp. As you can see they had a blast and even Joe joined in. He is sick right now and didn't feel very good but couldn't resist playing in the water a little.

Pierogies, Bacon, Peas, and Onions--Yum!

I tried a new recipe last night that I got from my mom. It was so good I just had to share this recipe with you guys! I modified it some so I will give you my modified recipe--

2 boxes of Pierogies--I used one box of potato/onion and one of potato/cheddar
1 small bag of frozen sweet peas
2 onions
1 package of turkey bacon or real bacon (you could definitely use less bacon but we love bacon)
2 tsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. thyme

Cook the pierogies according to the directions on the package. Fry the bacon in a large skillet (if you are using turkey bacon you need to add some oil because you need to have some drippings). Remove the bacon and as it cools crumble it. Chop the onions and saute them in the drippings for about 5 minutes. Add the sugar, thyme and peas and continue sauteeing until everything is cooked, then add the bacon and pierogies and toss all together. Serve topped with sour cream.
This was so easy and everyone liked it.
Enjoy!

Funny Talking Animals - Best Of!

Rest, Remain, and Abide

Matthew 11:28-29 says, "Come to me, all of you who are tired and have heavy loads and I will give you rest. Accept my teachings and learn from me, because I am gentle and humble in spirit, and you will find rest for your lives." (New Century Version)

This verse was the theme of the whole weekend retreat I went on a couple of weekends ago. We talked a lot about abiding by faith and holding on to God in the good times as well as the bad. It's easy to cry out to and cling to God when life gets tough but we so easily forget God as things smooth out and are going well. I'm not very good at organizing my thoughts but here are some of my notes from the different sessions--

Hebrews 11:6--"Without faith no one can please God. Anyone who comes to God must believe that he is real and the he rewards those who truly want to find him." God is a rewarder to those who seek Him. God says, "Come to me."
Jesus is on His throne interceding for me. He's not worried, He's on his throne and has power and control.
God is the vine and we are the branches, we are sanctified as we walk in Him. Apart from Him we can do nothing. Doing it on your own can make you tired and weary. God never intended us to live the christian live--He simply told us to rest, remain, and abide in God. Life comes from resting in the vine. We've got all of the fruits of the spirit--love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control--these are ours through Jesus. So often we build walls with the lies we believe and then hide behind these walls and never experience true freedom in our christian walk. We are striving and striving--reading books, watching others and trying to imitate them. God deals with each of us individually--He doesn't do group therapy. He has a plan for each of us and has an individual/intimate relationship with each of us. Life comes from the vine--we abide and leave the results up to God. I can't do anything to make my kids or anyone else follow God. That is God's job.
In the session Saturday night Dot really talked about just bowing before God and letting go of everything. There is no victory without surrender, no glory without suffering, and no fruit without death. Don't look behind at your past or your struggles but look straight ahead and start today resting, remaining, and abiding.
I wish I could articulate all that I got from this retreat better but putting my thoughts down into words is a real struggle for me. Anyway, I am trying to put into practice all that I learned and to remember to "practice the presence of God." Stop the striving and start living in freedom!

Pictures from GA!

There was still lots of snow when we got there on Thursday and the kids bundled up and went out to play! Above is my nephew, Brayden, he's about to turn 3. Below is Joe with my nephew, Sam, who is the same age as Joe and Brayden.







Above is Chopper, my brother's dog and he loves hanging out in front of the fireplace. Below, the boys playing their DSis. It's cool how the games can link up and so they can play each other.

One of the fun things about going to Grammy and Pop's is that the girls get to watch Disney Channel--we don't have cable at our house so no Disney Channel or any other fun channels.

The ladies of the family left the men and children midday Friday to go north to our retreat. Cheryl was our navigator and between the iPhone and the TomTom we made it. We went to the Winshape Retreat Center up at Berry College. This place is owned by Truett Cathy--the founder and owner of Chick-fil-a. The place was beautiful, the rooms were wonderful, and everything was so well done. The food was amazing and we even got waffle fries and chicken fingers for lunch on Saturday. I was in heaven!

The retreat was called, Cup of Joy, and was just wonderful--that's a whole blog post in itself and I will get to it, I promise. Hopefully today even! They had a little store and in the above picture Cheryl is trying on a shirt.


We had a session on Friday night, one Saturday morning, one Saturday night, and one on Sunday morning. Inbetween we had time to hang out and talk and even rest. Mandy (my sis-in-law) and I both took a 2 1/2 hour nap on Saturday.

And back to the kids...

I made sure to get pics of everyone this time--above is my momma and daddy and below is my bro, Ryan.

On Monday we went out to the Mall of GA and hung out in Barnes and Noble for a little while. I love that place!


Later that day back at home the boys did a puzzle and the kids did some painting. Aunt Cici looked at Brayden's new book with him. I bought it for him at the bookstore for his birthday. It's Richard Scarry's Cars and Trucks and Things That Go. That's been a favorite around here and I hope Bray and Sam enjoy it as much as we have. We all had a great visit!