Monday, June 22, 2009...

Outside my window... sunny blue sky with a few fair weather clouds... PERFECT!!!

I am thinking... about how crazy this week is getting to be. WIth a funeral, visitation, play

date - things are "filling" up quickly!

I am thankful for... the willingness of friends to help out when help is needed. :)

From the kitchen... burgers on the grill tonight... then beyond that I'm not sure. Depends on funeral plans and visitation. Probably easy and kid friendly stuff this week!

I am wearing... my swimsuit and cover up dress. We JUST got back from 2 1/2 hours of bliss at the pool. No fighting... no bickering... no whining... just pure fun. YEAH!!

I am reading... "Dakota Born" by Debbie MacComber (I think I spelled her name wrong...). It's a great trilogy of books... I really like her as an author... easy to read and pleasant stories.

I am hoping... to get SOMETHING accomplished in my house today. It's a MESS!

I am creating... nothing much right now. With the three kids home now for summer... they are taking ALL of my energy and attention.

I am praying.... for grandpa. Now with grandma gone (in heaven PRAISE THE LORD!) his health isn't doing so great. I'm praying that the Lord will call him home... sounds strange, but he's over 90 years old. They were married for over 70 years (WOW!!!). He would be so much happier if they could be together again...

Around the house... I am stressed over the state of my home right now. It NEVER gets this messy! WOWZERS.... the kids have toys from top to bottom... and clothes too. Time to get it back in ship shape order! Beyond that... I need to put up our monogram that I ordered from Etsy (LOVE THAT WEBSITE!!) in our master bedroom...

One of my favorite things... watching the kids catch lightening bugs at night... it's almost time!! :)

A few plans for the rest of the week... as said before, funeral stuff... we'd like to get to the pool again, workout at least 3 more days, get to the market...

That's about it for around here. Nothing too exciting... thankfully. :) We leave for vacay in a little over a week - VERY excited for that! We get to see some good friends who are missionaries in Papua New Guinea - it's been over 4 years! YEAH! :)

If you'd like to join "us" in sharing about your simple day... please do! Check it out here for more info!

Interesting read....

Right now I'm reading this book....

For quite some time now I've been feeling really tired and blah. I've been working out and

not seeing ANY results. So I decided to read up on Jillian Michaels latest book. TOTALLY INTERESTING! She list several health things that you could be feeling related to your metabolism. I checked off all but 2! CRAZY!

So now I'm wondering how legit this is. She suggests eating food without toxins (aka ORGANIC), using cleaning supplies (and other household items) without toxins, and being as natural as possible.

With a pure diet and regular exercise you can get your metabolism back on track.... producing the correct amount of certain vitamins and minerals in your body.

So... just thinking of switching over completely to organic has me stressed. We aren't junk food junkies like we used to be... but my kids like certain things a certain way. I would say we are addicted to sugar (time to be honest...) and that needs to change. I feel kind of clueless as to how to make this adjustment to out diet.

If any of you out there in "blogland" have any suggestions... or any words of wisdom - PLEASE SHARE! I'm so close to jumping on the bandwagon of natural and organic... but not quite there yet.

Changing old habits really sucks. That's all I can say... :)

Playing tag.....

My friend Kelli tagged me in this fun "game"!  The rules are pretty easy to follow…The person who has been tagged lists 6 things about herself then tags 6 other people who do the same.

1.  I LOVE to garden.  It's kind of a new thing for me... I've always enjoyed getting dirt under my nails, but knowing that things we grow can feed us too.... GENIUS! :)  Someday I would LOVE to have an acre or more to have a HUGE garden....

2.  I could live at the beach.  Seriously... I love it.  Growing up, we lived about 25 minutes from Lake Michigan so we were there a lot.  I miss having a large body of water close... this is the first time in my life that I have lived away from something that is so soothing to me.  

3.  My family spent 6 months in Central Africa doing short term missions with some friends.  It was a LONG time ago... but my memories are still very vivid.  If you ever have an opportunity to take a trip to a foreign (think third world) country... TAKE IT!  It will change your life!

4.  I love celebrations... birthday, holidays, just because.  I love to plan the food, games, whatever else is involved.  Sometimes I think I go overboard... but it makes me so happy to see people enjoying themselves.  

5.  There is just something about a cheeseburger that gets my tastebuds ready to go.  I LOVE THEM!  Especially with bacon... mmmmmmm!  This time of year is perfect for making cheeseburgers... I might just have one tonight :)!

6.  This is kind of random... but I love the "old fashioned" hymns.  I grew up in a conservative Baptist church so all we had were hymns.  Praise songs of today are annoying to me... Jesus is NOT by boyfriend - He is my God and Saviour.  My favorite hymns.... "It is well with my soul" and "Power in the blood".  AMAZING songs....!  

Now for people to tag.... being that I'm kind of new to this blog thing, not sure if I have 6 to pass it too... but I'll try :)

my political blogging friend

jen

Okay, so I'll start with 2... :) (the kids are getting antsy...)

Monday, June 1...2009

Outside my window...  sunny with a few clouds.  A bit chilly this morning... but it's supposed to warm up!

I am thinking...  about what to do today.  Not sure what yet - besides laundry.  Maybe start my NEXT project!

I am thankful for...  our church and my girlfriends.  I hosted a girls night on Friday night and really enjoyed getting to know some of them better.  LOTS of laughs!!

From the kitchen...  lemon zucchini muffins, steak, freshly picked lettuce, crab cakes... all on the menu this week!

I am wearing...  khaki capris, purple tank (found it yesterday for CHEAP at old navy!)... probably flip flops (what else is there, right??)!

I am going...  to the loony farm - it's been a LONG morning and it's only 9:30!!

 
I am reading...  "Throw out 50 Things" by Gail Blanke.  Just started it last night, but so far, so good!

I am hoping...  for some rain this week - our grass is SO dry!  BUT... for sunshine tomorrow for R's zoo field trip!

I am hearing...  my favorite country station (92.3 WCOL).  I won tickets to their summer concert "party" last week - 5th ROW!  WOOHOO!!

Around the house...  not to trashed from the weekend (MIRACLE) so basically laundry and tossing out my 50 things (see what I'm reading...)!

One of my favorite things...  Andy's new chair from Ikea... we went down on Saturday and got it for him.  Might have to get a second for myself!  LOVE IT!

A few plans for the rest of the week:  get to the Y at least 4 days this week, paint our small bathroom "vanity" cabinet, maybe try to get to the pool...

What's going on in YOUR neck of the woods?  Join us here....

Memorial Day fun!!

Thanks to my friend Katie (she told me this morning about this festival), we decided to take a road trip to this Ice Cream Festival.  HELLO - a festival alone is way fun... but an ice cream festival??  YEEHAW! :)  It's a beautiful (and hot) day... so perfect for some good family fun!

The kids were SO excited to have balloon animals/hats made.  Of course, they only lasted about 10 minutes before popping... but at least I thought to take pics right away!  I usually forget then get upset when I have no picture record of our day :)...

The food wasn't quite as good as the grub at the Ohio State Fair - but this was some darn good pizza.  Either that or we were just REALLY hungry!  

R and I got to take their first "pony" ride... which turned out to be full size horses.  They LOVED it!  Well worth the $5/each it cost.  R has developed quite the love of horses, so this was extra cool for her.  

Last but not least... the ICE CREAM!!  The portions were HUGE... which we were pretty happy about.  It tasted SO yummy!  I think J ended up wearing more of his than eating... but oh well.  Saving it for later maybe??  

We also saw a magic show... but it was pretty lame.  The magician accidently clobbered one of his kid helpers in the nose and made her cry.  It was the highlight of the show (evil, aren't I??)...

So - if you're near Utica, OH next year over Memorial Day Weekend - it's a festival worth checking out.  Fun times!!

Enjoy your holiday everyone - and remember to keep our service men and women in your prayers!!

WE HAVE RADISHES!!

As you know, we decided to try our hand at "square foot gardening" this year.  Well... our first official "crop" is ready to be eaten!

Yes, I realize you have to crank your head side-ways to get a "good" look... but for some reason my computer won't flip the picture.  Anyway - don't they look yummy!?!?!  

Do you see the little green tomato nestled in the plant??  YEAH!!!  Our first official tomato of the season.  Of course it has a ways to go yet... but still... I'm so excited!  I also have flowers on 2 of my 3 pepper plants.  My peas are growing like weeds (at least I hope they're the peas and not REALLY weeds...) and my eggplant are kind of hanging on.  Our bibb lettuce should be ready by the end of this week.  I LOVE fresh produce!!!!

Total Randomness (is that even a word??)....

So lately I've noticed some things that really confuse me.  Seriously - to the point that they keep me awake at night... sad, isn't it?  The first being....  

Fake Flowers.  Usually these dust collectors don't bother me much.  BUT - when someone uses them in place of REAL flowers OUTSIDE their home... GAG.  On top of that huge landscaping OOPS... the home is worth well over $600k.  Tacky.  I would love to use a picture of the actual home, but I'm afraid of what the gnomes and other plastic garden creatures may do to me under the cover of darkness.  Strange... really strange.

The next thing....
Perfume.  Not that wearing perfume is wrong... but why would a person LOAD it on BEFORE they work out?  There is a lady at our Y who must shower in perfume before coming.  Today I about passed out from fumes.  I'd rather smell yucky sweat than yucky sweat mixed with a gallon of perfume.  It's whacky!  Makes NO sense to me whatsoever.  

The next thing... no picture for this one.  People who wear SEE-THRU swimsuits!!  It's ridiculous!  Again... at our Y... there is a lady who swims daily.  She gets out of the pool and you can see EVERYTHING!  EWWWWW!  I've tried to come with a way to tactfully say that she's sharing her goods with the world... but really... is there any good way to share that info?  Does she REALLY not realize it?  Flesh colored speedo's are another no-no.  A friend was telling me yesterday that one of the trainers has one... he's creepy enough as it is.  Strange.

Sometimes I just want the madness to end!! :)