Monday Monday...

I recently saw a brief commercial or some sort of segway from one of the many infomercials that I happen to watch each morning, about Wilson Philips...the girl band from awhile ago...which pricked my mind into remembering the songs of my parents' youth of the Mama's and the Papa's...are you impressed at my connective thinking? 

Anyhoo...their song seemed like a good title for this post because good golly, the weekend was full and here we are at Monday... again:)

Italian Stallion's travel schedule has kicked into gear once again...I try to focus on the positives like, "ooo looky at all the frequent flyer miles we'll rack up"...or "hey, I can use the evenings to get some work done"...but, really, it just reminds me to be oh so kind to those sweet single moms that are just hangin' in there day after day...

The girls and I get into a routine of sorts...and bless the souls of my neighbors who are just a phone call away:)  We managed just fine last week with Daddy gone to Florida, but we were ubber excited when he decided to take Friday off and let the girls play hookie!

Unfortunately for us, the principal happened to be in the office at the time of our arrival to pick the girls up from school about 4 hours early...I was quick on my feet though..."Um, we're here to take the girls on an educational field trip for the day."  To which my darling husband quickly added, "yeah, and we're going out for ice cream and they are totally playing hookie!" and then he proceeded to high five Little Munchkin...right there...in the office...

I stood there a little stunned, but oh well...we're the parents I suppose, so we basically get to do what we want:) 

I didn't bring my camera along...which was a good thing, because we just enjoyed each other...but a downer for the blog because...duh, no pictures:(

We headed off to lunch...then to the zoo...and finished it off with Graeter's ice cream (cuz we're all finished with Lent and there is NOTHING between me and chocolate any longer) 

At home, IS started a fire in the fire pit and we got out all the smores stuff and invited our awesome neighbors down...sippin' wine and eating more chocolate...it just doesn't get better than that:)

Saturday however, was a different story...Sweetpea did not have a soccer game, however Peanut did...

Now, I did not grow up with soccer and therefore I do not necessarily understand all the rules and guidelines...I also wouldn't say that I'm a die-hard fan...this is especially true when it is about 40 degrees outside and there is a terrential downpour that is slanting sideways and my baby has to be on the field...

This is the reason why people do not ask people like me to "run" things...like soccer...

If I were running the show, the moment the first drops started, I would have called it quits...

Let's face it...I'm not overly competitve...unless I'm mad...I would have been first to say, "Hey, who's up for a forfeit?...and maybe some hot cocoa or a latte'?"

But no...we sat there in the rain for over an hour...my hubby was soaked to the bone over on the coach's side without a hat on and my sweet little Peanut looked like we had thrown her into a pool fully clothed. 

Peanut's experience with soccer is very different than Sweetpea's...There are a core group of girls on Sweetpea's team that have been together since about U7...with Italian Stallion as coach...

This is not the case for Peanut and therefore the "team work" is a tad lacking...and therefore, so is the winning:)  But hey, they get snacks and people cheering for BLUE DOLPHINS on the side lines like noone's business...did I mention snacks?

Once that game was finished we found ourselves in the parking lot of Papa John's ready to pick ourselves up some hot cheesey pizza and head on home for hot showers...

Sunday came with church and lifegroup huddle in the afternoon...finished off with cutting the grass and our Sunday family "devo" time watching "What's in the Bible?"...

I've got to stop a moment and give a little "advertisement" for these DVDs...My brother turned me on to them when we went to his house a couple weeks back...being a "puppeteer" myself ahem, I was intrigued to discover the use of puppetry here in the 21st century...let's face it, it's pretty old school and not so "entertaining" for kids that frequently use ipod, ipads, computers and Wii games...

HOWEVER...I gotta tell you...the information that was covered in these series is like the stuff I learned at Cedarville College..."apocrypha...the canon...the whys and whos of the Bible"...but it was presented in a way that the kids could understand.  Once I got past the "corny" humor and really started to see it for what it had to offer...I was laughing so hard and enjoying every minute...

And the result is that my kiddos understands why there are so many different "bibles/religions" in the world...and why we hold our Bible as the true writings...and they understand words like "redemption" and "salvation" at a whole new level...

Anyhoo...that's my two cents on the matter...

So, where was I?  Sunday night right?

Yep...and once we got the girls in bed in was time for Italian Stallion to start packin' up again...and for me to be completely lazy and do nothing but sit and drink hot tea and nibble on M-n-Ms b/c we all know what a "hard" week I have ahead of me:) 

p.s. as a little side note...all my little "exercise routine"-ing has left me a bit sore...apparantly, Brazilian Butt Lift is the "happenin' " infomercial for the past 4 days...and therefore, my backside is feelin' mighty bad:(...and therefore, I thought this an opportune time to seek out my neighbor and ask to borrow his Insanity DVDs...and thus, my Insane workouts have begun...

I'm going to go find a Cadbury Egg now...have a great night;)

Soccer War Wounds

It's that time of year again...soccer season...

The time when we get to pray we don't yell things like "push her down next time she shoves you" cheer loudly for our sweet girls!

A time when we leave our younger children in the car and steal all the blankets to make sure we don't lose feeling in our fingers due to the cold bundle up and sip hot cocoa on the side lines and smile sweet smiles for the joy of sunshine.

A time when use our zoom lens to spy on the opposing team or try to out-ref the ref with calls take spectacular action shots of all the girls playing!

Having never grown up with soccer, I'm a novice at the sport...I wouldn't even call my knowledge "novice"...I would say it's more like "clue-less"...I really don't understand it all, except that you can't box out, you can't use your hands, and people are wearing very sharp shoes...

Peanut obtained some battle scars this past weekend...it was her turn as keeper...NOT a position that many mothers enjoy...and last Saturday was the very reason I abhore it still...As I mentioned in another post, Peanut can be spunky...and when she puts her mind to it, there is no stopping her.  The ball was coming to her, she literally JUMPED on it with her whole body to stop it...apparantly the other little player didn't seem to think that that was good enough to stop HER goal, so she proceeded to continue kicking the ball while it was securely in the arms of my daughter...what she failed to realize (and what I was ABOUT to come out to the field and show her if she didn't stop!!!) was that she wasn't actually kicking the ball any longer...remember, it was SECURELY in Peanut's arms...therefore she was "cleating" my daughter's arm...

Once Peanut found her feet, she managed to get up and throw the ball back into play...no score was made on her by golly...but, this is what she got for it...

Under the bandaid is the bleeding part...it's also the long cut from where one cleat ripped her skin and it is now a nice shade of blue/purple...the other red spots are the other spike marks...

nice huh?

It's a good thing her Daddy is one of the coaches...maybe that's partly WHY he chooses to coach...he's definitely the level-headed one in this family...cuz, really, I was on the edge of mylittle lawn chair with my 7 lb camera in my hand which I was more than willing to haul at someone if they didn't leave my baby alone...he handles things much more calmly...

She made it off the field until she got it taken care of and then she ran through the tunnel with everyone else and participated in the MAIN part of soccer anyway...the snacks:)

Little Munchkin told me the other day that she can't wait until she gets to play soccer...I asked her why...she said, "Because Mommy, then I get to hear you cheering for me!"...

I must be doing something right:)

Easter Festivities

We participated in something that we haven't ever done before this year. 

LENT has always been a Catholic practice...at least in my upbringing and understanding...I think that in the effort to try to avoid the idea of "working towards salvation" or "good works will get you to heaven", any practice that seemed to advocate that, we were "sheltered" from...

And to a point, I agree with that...if my "salvation" is based upon what a good person I am...well, to whom am I comparing myself?  If I compare myself to the mom of the one student in my daughter's class, well, hoo-wee, I'm good to go...but, what if I'm compared to my friend Terra?  I'm sunk...she's amazing!  Worst yet, what if I'm compared to Jesus...dang...I'll never get in...

Well...that's the point isn't it?  That's why Easter is the most important holiday in the faith...without the fact that someone else (Jesus) paid the price for all the stuff I do and am...all the stuff that God can't look at because, well...He's God...and not only was that price paid (sacrificed)...but that sin & death got a  good punch in the face when He didn't stay dead...We were given Hope...we were given ONE way, a secure, guaranteed entrance, IF we believe...not based on what we do, or who we confess to, or how patient I am or how many times I say I'm sorry...

Anyhoo...the point is...we introduced LENT to our family this year because we wanted to somehow take part in the sacrifice...to try to just get a teeny tiny glimpse at what it meant to give it all up...We do ADVENT leading up to Christmas...activities and fun things to remind us daily of what is coming...We used LENT to do the same thing...everytime we craved our "denied item" we would stop and say, "thank you Jesus for giving up so much more.."

I gave up Chocolate...which was hard because I pop chocolate chips every morning and Easter time also means Cadbury eggs...of which I ADORE!!!  Sweetpea gave up candy, Peanut gave up chocolate with me...and Little Munchkin...well, she wasn't understanding the whole thing and as a 4 year old, I suppose just doesn't have much self-control...so she gave up "little suckers"...not big suckers mind you, just LITTLE suckers...Italian Stallion gave up everything that we did, along with soda...

It was a good experience for us all and we took away some great lessons...

However, on the flip side of everything...we were all nutso on Easter after saying Thank You and recognizing that He Is Risen Indeed...because we got to our Easter baskets...

Low and behold there laid my Cadbury Eggs...waiting to be inhaled and sucked down in a split second at O dark thirty in the morning!

I surprised Italian Stallion with a delicious and ever so scrumptious and "nutritous meal"...

I can't say that our Egg coloring even came close to that of our cousins in Michigan with their little pirate hats and themed set up...but, we skimped by with our glitter glue and color capsules that didn't dissolve properly...

But, by golly, we made cute deviled eggs out of them:)

The girls were excited to wear their new dresses...in years past, their Nana has made all the matching dresses for the granddaughters...but with 6 of them with ages spanning from 12 to 4...well, it just made it hard to find a pattern that worked for them all...so this year, we did our own shopping for dresses that fit our "styles"...I thought the girls did a good job in picking their colors and dress designs:)

So much for all that warm weather here lately, it was rather chilly on Sunday morning, so the girls opted for some leggings just to church and back:)

All in all, it was a wonderful day...thankful for the sacrifice...thankful for my family:)

School Projects

So, we've had a bit of "project-ing" going on here in our household...oh my goodness!  I guess I should have seen it coming...they ARE in school...and so, the older they get, the more "projects" they bring home...

I want to send out a big apology to all those former students' parents on whom I inflicted the "at home" project...my ubber creative ideas which forced you and your family to spend HOURS upon HOURS to create...not just for the "learning" that it would engage, but mostly (and I'm sad to say....)for the pure enjoyment of the teacher being able to watch and see the "ideas" come to life...

Oh, there are so many things I would change if I were back in the classroom now...one being no assigned homework unless you didn't finish it at school...because really, I understand the need to get outside and have bonfires and grill out...I understand the desire to play Rummikub tournaments and have pillow fights...I get it now...so sorry:)

This is NOT to say that we didn't learn anything from the projects...and they "can" be fun...and perhaps it is the only way some parents actually get to spend quality time with their kiddos...so we'll just deal with it and then write blog posts about how awesome our children are:)  hee hee


Let us begin with Peanut...

She had to do a report on a country.  At first she wanted Italy...well, DUH...
but, that didn't pan out and so we went with 2nd choice...Mommy's heritage...Scotland...

We had great fun reading about the Loch Ness Monster and gross food like Haggis:)  We loved the castles and the kilts.  She spent hours watching traditional dances on  youtube and listening to bagpipe music.  For such a teeny thing, she has spunk...she put together her whole project and decided that it would be fun to "learn" a dance and perform it...and that she did...

We also made scones and shortbread cookies to share with her classmates...I was so proud of her...

Next came Sweetpea...I won't go into everything because I think my black & white thinking goes beyond what they actually wanted to expose the students to...Basically, they had to come up with a product...that they created themselves...that their classmates would actually WANT to buy...and then they had to form a business plan by figuring out their expenses and labor costs...determine a price point and then try to "sell" it on Business Day...(which is tomorrow) 

I let Sweetpea loose on my pinterest account and she went searching for crafty idea...she came up with: Pencil Toppers!

We spent some time in the basement searching through all the treasures and raiding all the stuff that Uncle Vance left behind  and found ourselves some felt, thread, google eyes and even packs of pencils..the only thing we needed was glue (which we quickly sent Daddy out to purchase for us) 

The only thing left to do after creating these masterpieces was to figure a way to advertise.  We had already run out to the store once, so this Momma wasn't spending any more time or money buying more things for the sake of teacher entertainment...and thus began our acting debuts...

Sweetpea used her Daddy's ipad to create a commercial that will be sitting at her booth tomorrow to entice everyone into purchasing her sweet felty friends...I'll let you see for yourself whether you think it will work or not:) 



And the Garden has Officially Begun!

Oooooo I've been waiting for this all winter...

Nevermind that we had a meager yield last year...never mind that I still don't like to eat raw tomatoes...nevermind that it took my AWESOME Italian Stallion 3 hours to rototill the 6 beds and another 3 hours filling in another 3 yards of nutrient rich soil (yep, nevermind that cuz I was safely inside getting my hair done and my head messaged...but, let's not remind him of this or he may not be too smiley:)

After much google searching and entering this adventure with a bit of fear and trepidation, I discovered that even though we rotate crops each year, it was time to get some more nutrients back into the soil...I haven't figured out the composting thing very well just yet...but, it's on my list of "things to do"...until then, we're starting fresh this year with new soil...and now:

OUR GARDEN IS READY FOR PLANTING!!!  woohoo!

And so it began...

If you remember, I got myself out there early in the winter in December to plant the garlic...they are sproutin' up just fine let me tell you:)  I think they like me, no matter that I planted them just a tad late...I choose to believe that they are thankful for the extra warm time in the brown paper bag...and just to show me how truly grateful they are...WALA...

Since the garlic seems to be so friendly, I thought it was about time to introduce some real friends out there in those lonely beds...

Right next door, we welcomed the potato family...I can't remember how many we planted, but the girls loved starting the mounds and discussed their sand castle making skills that will be perfected once we reach Florida this summer...

catty-corner we put in the spinach, lettuce, romaine and sugar daddy peas...hooo boy, we're going to have us some GREENS this summer!  I suppose I can be thankful for this as I down those green smoothies in the morning:)

Peanut and Little Munchkin were great helps in getting in the onions too...

We called it a night and headed back inside for some hot tea and scones (thanks to Peanut's Scotland presentation...more on that a little later:)



My Exercise Regime

People ask me never  all the time "How do you keep that beautiful muffin top around the top of your jeans looking extra smooshy?" 

Little Munchkin put her hands on my belly yesterday in the middle of Kroger and loudly declares, "Mommy, I think you must have a baby in there...LOOK, it's sooo big and round!"

NICE!!!

Folks, I'm approaching 40 and realizing that time is not slowing down and yet, my metabolism is...and along with that, everything seems to be sinking...down...

Now, I am going to admit that YES, this is partly a vanity thing...I DESIRE to look a certain way because I feel "pretty"...DUH...but please believe me when I tell you that it's not like I spend a boatload of time worrying about it or looking in the mirror...

in fact, it's been quite the opposite...

I did finally manage to get a haircut after 6 months and I did redo the nail polish of my toes about 2 weeks ago...this was the "self-done pedicure" from last summer mind you...

Anyway...long story short...it's not all about the looking good...but it's about the osteoperosis, heart attacks, cholesterol and all the other stuff that I'm seeing in the future if I don't take care of myself now...

I've done my duty with p90x and Jillian Michaels...and I've cut back on a lot of junk that I've been eating...(well, except for the gummy bears...ooooo, I LOVE gummy bears)

Anyhoo...I'm getting down to business now...I can't find anyone with the Insanity DVDs and truth be told, I doubt I have the gumption to even do it...but, I am serious about trying to cut back on all the processed food junk and actually working out where I SWEAT...and so...thus has begun my "regime"

It looks like this:

Get up in the morning (and get the girls out the door..this takes about an hour or so...let's just skip this part) we are thankful that I have at least gotten myself out of bed.

Go down to the basement and search the TV for any infomercial about working out...this has become my "mantra"...my inspiration...I get on the treadmill and run at 7mph, uphill...HARD for 2 miles...I then get off and go nuts trying to do whatever exercises I have watched on the infomercials targeting whatever area they happen to target that morning...sometimes I get the wonderful "Brazilian butt lift" and other days, I see Tracy Anderson jumping around in her little green/black leotard...either way, I do pushups, situps, weightlifting and anything else I can until I'm in a puddle of my own sweat and Little Munchkin is yelling for her morning Apple:) 

Shower...MAYBE get my hair dried...

and then I gulp down this:

My sister in law introduced me to them...they are called Glowing Green Smoothies (minus the celery for me...it just ruins the taste) but, I gulp this down for breakfast and I'm on my way:)

I've got Italian Stallion on the kick too...which also means that my "hour" in the morning is extended while I blend one up for him as well...

I have no idea if I will ever fit back into the jeans I wore 2 years ago...and I have a feeling that at some point, I will need to let go of that dream...but at least I'll have some healthy benefits from my craziness:)

Driving Miss Munchkin...with pop:)

So, Little Munchkin has become quite my buddy...it was this way with Sweetpea, when it was just her and me, before the other girls were born...I'll be honest...I really enjoy it...she is quite entertaining, to say the least...and it's fun to have someone to hang around with all day:)

Not to mention, she's my "excuse" to get "snacks" during that day...

Often a 'snack' consists of buying a fountain drink or donut...whichever we're in the mood for first:)  this sooo helps me move toward my goal of losing weight:)

Today it was a fountain drink...our conversation went like this:

LM: "Mommy, would you like to SHARE a Pepsi with me?  I can give you some sips."

ME: "Thank you sweetheart, that's a great idea"
(go through drive thru and get pop)
LM: "Mmmmm, this is good pop...I've had lots of sips now Mommy, would you like one?"

ME: "Sure, let me hang on to it for a minute"
(still driving and heading home, pop is now in the front seat holder)
LM: "Oh, I'm not going to drink it all, Mommy...I'm going to save it!"

ME:  "Yes, let's save it so we can drink it with lunch when we get home"
(about 30 seconds pass)

LM: "Mommy, I'm really very thirsty, how about if we each have ONE more sip and THEN we'll save it"

ME: "Okay, one more sip and then hand it back up here"
(after one sip and about 30 seconds later)

LM: (in a panicked voice) "Mommy, I think the pop might be melting, I need to take another sip to be sure"

ME: "why don't you hold onto it, take a sip and make sure and then we'll save it"

*cricket, cricket*

LM: (very troubled voice) "Oh, Mommy...I can't believe it...I drank the WHOLE thing...now we have nothing left to drink...I am so very sorry"

I knew this would happen, but it's just so darn funny to listen to her get to the end of it and realize that she's finished the whole "snack" all by herself...AGAIN...

Noone else may understand how tickled I am about this, but that's okay...she makes me smile regardless:)