Thinking Outloud

Is it just me, no don't answer that pleeeaassseee! I have been dying although hesitant to write on my blog about Jon & Kate plus 8 and now Michael Jackson.I hate to jump on the media band wagon cause that's so NOT me but my heart is seriously heavy here so bare with me.

When Jon & Kate plus 8 first started the girls and I would plop down and watch this crazy family of 10 do their daily thing. I watched cause it made my house seem calm, my kids watched because well, they want more brothers and sisters, (FYI, not gonna happen). The first season we were so excited to see them praying as a family at the table and going to church. I remember thinking to myself,"I would definitely HAVE to be a believer to have 8 kids!" Then one day Dan walked through as we were watching the show and he said,"honey, that wife is rude and unkind!" Or maybe it was more like,"Oh, I'd have to kill her!" Ya' that sounds more like my husbands personality. ;) I was like,"Oh honey its just her showing off for the camera." But the more I watched I realized she was tearing her husband down and not building him up to be the man God intended. We pretty much quit watching at that point. Then through news reports and articles in magazines at Dr.'s appointments I heard they were cheating, splitting up etc. I tuned in (along with a billion other viewers) last week to see if it was true and sure enough they have filed for divorce. A million dollar house, a hit T.V. show, new hair, nails, surgery's, vacations etc. and still heartbreak. I got to thinking about how in the show they quit going to church and praying together and how they were so disrespectful to each other. I don't even know these people and trust me I am not judging but instead I am heart broken that they are choosing to quit. Where are their REAL friends, their pastor from the church they went to, their family to say,"hey! you can get through this! God is bigger than all this hurt. Walk away from the fame and love your husband/wife." *big sigh* Dan said if I lived next door to them I could take them the Love Dare from Fireproof. ;)

OK, so last night I had Fox news on for a few minutes and they flashed a picture of Michael Jackson and Morgan said,"Mom, that is one weird looking woman." I explained who he was.
Me: "Morgan, he IS the king of pop!"
Morgan: "King of pop? Whats pop?"
Me:"Heeelllllooooo, pop music! Thriller, moon walk, one white glove, staying up and sneaking MTV in the 80's to watch his newest videos."
Morgan: "MTV? Moon walk? Ooookkkkkkk..............."
Me: "It's OK I understand let me show you some "Michael moves."
Morgan: *hysterical laughter*
The news then breaks in and shows his home that he rents for $100,000 a month and announces that it had 11 bathrooms and then in the same breath it talks about how he was going broke.
Morgan:"Mom, why did he need 11 bathrooms? Why is he dead? Why did he do that to his body? Do you think he loved the Lord?"
Me: *sigh* "I think he was very confused Morgan and that 11 bathrooms and all the money in the world can't buy you God's peace."
I was coming on here to check my email this morning and EVERYTHING is about people grieving and going hysterical over the loss of this singer. Very sad I think. I mean very sad that we don't get that upset whenever someone dies that is that lost and confused. Again, I obviously didn't know the man but my heart hurts for him and his family as they struggle to find meaning and truth in a world that idolizes the wrong things and wrong people.

Week one of no meat and other randomness

Well I gotta' say not eating meat isn't nearly as hard as avoiding wheat and dairy. I mean meat is meat right? No secrets, it doesn't try to hide in things or disguise itself. Wheat though? It's in things you never realized; soy sauce for example. You have to buy expensive organic soy sauce to avoid wheat. And dairy? People think you can buy veggie burgers at the store and be safe; not so, they usually always have cheese mixed in them. To avoid wheat, gluten and dairy you have to be an investigator 24-7. I didn't really miss meat at all. I used tofu and beans as subs. Now last night I will say we were in a pinch for dinner so I ate fish. I probably will still do that every so often throughout the month but everything I am reading still says people with autoimmune diseases do better with NO animal protein in their systems. Tomorrow night I am making bean burgers and chocolate cupcakes (all healthy) If they are "two thumbs up" I will post the recipe.

I saw the Dr. yesterday because I have another infection in my bladder and they want to make sure it REALLY clears up this time. If it doesn't they are going to do an ultra sound of my kidneys and stomach to see whats going on. Back in August when I started the chemo that was one of the major side affects and it seems I still can't shake it. They are also going to do a test to make sure all my heart valves are open and functioning properly since I was on the Methotrexate for so many years. Thank you for all the emails, text messages etc. checking in on my. I am not 100% still (not sure I remember what that feels like) but I am glad the Dr.'s are running the tests to rule things out. Please continue to pray and I will keep you posted. Want to know the irony here? My arthritis is great! My blood work showed NO swelling at all in my body. In my joints I feel amazing. Now isn't that something? Go figure right? That's proof positive that the diet works when you do it all day everyday.

I've always said that throughout all the things Dan and I have gone through in our marriage whether it be infertility, miscarriage, all the crazy failed adoptions, family stuff, marriage struggles, my health, his work stress etc. that I would praise God and I got to wondering as I have been struggling these past 6 weeks if I am really doing that to my fullest potential.

I decided to read through the book of Job and really meditate on the words of someone who REALLY suffered. Do you know in chapter 1 after receiving all the bad news of loosing all 10 of his children the first words Job utters is, " Naked I came from my mother's womb and naked shall I return. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord."

I have to constantly remind myself that Job was human and he had a choice in that moment on what his response would be. Amazing. I can't even imagine one of my kids being super sick with something let alone loosing both of them. Have a great day and decided today regardless of what it looks like on your end to give it to the Lord.

Great!

Great to be this comfortable...................Great deal on http://www.woot.com/ last week.............
Great vegetarian recipe made last night you can find it here http://www.thaifood.about.com/ Just type in Thai lettuce wraps. What? I'm to lazy to type in the whole recipe. It was good though and our friends LOVED it! For desert I;
Sliced up bananas
rolled them in brown sugar
placed in baking dish
sprinkled with chopped up pecans
Baked at 350 degrees for 15 minutes
Dished out some soy vanilla ice cream and then topped with yummy baked banana dessert. Oh and then sprinkled with dairy free chocolate chips. (I NEEDED the chocolate) ;)

Have a great weekend, we are laying low today and then off to a swim meet in the morning.

Day 1

As if my diet doesn't present enough challenges I have decided to do a 30 day meat fast starting today. I know, I know your thinking, "Are you crazy?" Well, yes I suppose taking wheat, gluten and dairy out not to mention corn, tomato's, bell peppers and to many other things to mention is extreme enough in and of itself but whats one more thing? Let me clear a few things up before I start getting really weird comments on this post. NO it has nothing to do with saving the planet or the animals although those are nice sentiments that's not my reason. It has actually something that has been on my heart for a few years now. We only eat fish, chicken or turkey about three times a week and we buy hormone free meat but it's been nagging at me the more I read up on all the different ways it affects our bodies and our digestive system. I had already been reading articles on the subject when my friend (thank you Eileen) mailed me a book called The Cancer Battle. I don't have cancer but this book was all about a women's journey with breast caner and how after nothing else worked she turned to food and started eating basically the same way I am and now she's cancer free all these years later. It was just one more confirmation for me to take that one last thing out of my diet for a few weeks and see if I can't feel that much better while stopping my drugs. I almost didn't post about the challenge cause I don't know if I can do it but I will keep you posted. I made my protein fruit smoothie this morning and am going to experiment with veggie wraps tonight for dinner. I am sure our friends coming over will LOVE that! Ugh. Oh well, you eat here your bound to get tofu at some point. ;) Wish me luck.

Oh and don't start posting a bunch of really yummy meat recipes to lure me back to the other side cause well, that's just mean! ;)

Before

So this is our backyard. We have this HUGE area. 3/4 of an acre that we have no clue what to do with. On the bottom level we eventually plan on putting a shed and the middle level has a gazebo the kids like to venture down to and play in but the top area is a disaster. We have the above ground pool which is nice but the rest is just weeds. To grass the entire area would be way to expensive not to mention water so it just sits. That is until my friend next door suggested a two family garden project. I have NEVER had a garden but I love fresh, healthy foods as you know. So yesterday I woke to this lovely weed pile and so it began. See Below for results.

After

Literally we spent the first day pulling, yanking, digging, "begging" all the weeds out. 5 hours of pulling out weeds and knocking down fruit trees that didn't survive the ice and snow and I am lucky to be walking this morning. Today was much more fun because today we got to mix the soil, place our stepping stones down and put up a mock fence to keep out all the animals that cut through our two back yards.
The kids all got into the action helping drop peas in their hole and plant strawberries.

This was right up Ryanne's alley cause she LOVES dirt AND food! ;)

After 2 days of back breaking work, researching online on how to even grow a nice healthy garden, and juggling 6 kids (Morgan's friend was here also) we finished our vision of our "two family" garden project.

We planted squash, strawberries, herbs, peas, lettuce, carrots, peppers, other things I can't remember and we are adding garlic and a few other herbs later this week. Oh and I have a huge tomato plant with like 25+ tomato's growing on my back patio, they just need some sun to reach their full potential. I gotta' tell you I have never been one to have a green thumb although I love hard work and I don't mind at all getting dirty. A few months ago I started a tomato plant on our back patio and I must say even though I don't like them I am thrilled with watching them grow. You might even say I stalk the poor plant. I talk to it, baby it and just enjoy watching something come from nothing. I think I caught the gardening bug. I will keep you posted on how our little garden grows.

I Gradutaed From Pre-K!

I did it. I survived my first year away from mommy and daddy. I survived my first year of school. I SURVIVED pre-k 3 day at Redlands Christian. I'm not the same kid, oh yes still joyful and happy go lucky. But I am more confident, more outgoing, more sure I can do anything I really set my mind to. I grew an inch and gained 2 pounds. I'm faster, smarter and I can write "mom." I'm almost 5 and so excited about next year. My teacher is my mom next year and daddy keeps saying I have met my match. I'm not sure what he means but I can't wait to find out. Something tells me my mom will be blogging LOTS about me next school year. ;)I made lots of friends, and probably scared a few off too.
I gave Mrs. Kidd a few gray hairs and drove her so crazy she started making monkey faces. I also fell in love with Mrs. Kidd and with a few flashes of my blue eyes and long lashes wrapped her around my finger.

I learned to stand in line quietly which by the way is WAY over rated. Oh and got sand in places that took mama days to get out.

At the beginning of the year I couldn't even reach these bars, look at me now!!!!!

Here I am saying good bye to Mrs. Kidd and Mrs. Causey and yes they are crying but I swear they are not tears of joy because they survived me it's cause they are sad I am leaving........I promise. ;) Let's recap the year shall we?

Fourteen scraped knees

2-bloody noses

1-black eye

27-band-aids

2-red card changes

12-stained shirts

2-ripped pair of pants

15-yellow card changes

2-notes home

72-glares from teachers

25-snacks shared with me by Mrs. Causey (cause she brings yummy food)

1,000 hugs to teachers

42-apologies for not obeying

endless finger painting, glue sticks, chapel services, play dates, pizza lunches, sticky hugs, writing letters and numbers, getting the "wiggle" out during carpet time. monkey bar crossing, sharing snacks, mommy helpers, holiday fun and swinging on the swings. Pre-K? Priceless!!!

Catching you up!

Here are a few photos that I had been meaning to post. We drove over the hill to Oak Glen in our Jeep last week and had a picnic with the girls. Very nice, relaxing? Not so much but very nice! :) I believe this is the "OH NO I HAVE SPEED WOBBLES AND AM GOING TO EAT IT!" look just before she "ate" it! Ha, Ha! It's the simple things in life that tickle you as a parent. :)
This is how you nap in the grass when you are a daddy. No joke for those of you waiting to become parents, this here is a glimpse of your future "relaxing" moments. ;) Priceless though no?

We made a quick run to San Diego and stayed at Dan's sisters so they could do the Rock N' Roll marathon. The girls and I stayed and hung out with the twins because in case you haven't figured this out from reading my blog yet; I DON"T RUN, well unless something is chasing me or there is chocolate in front of me. Dan and his sister did great for their first marathon as did our friend Andrea who had a great time. I think they are all hooked; that is after all the swollen knees go down. :)

Morgan is getting pretty handy with the camera. I L-O-V-E this man!

Sisters are the funniest creatures. I think two seconds after this shot they were rolling around on the ground physically fighting over a doll. Ahhhhh..........heaven!