Thursday Thoughts

• Kevin is gone from sun up to sundown today. Actually, we can't see the sun here in Wichita, but trust me, it's a long time. He's such a great husband and dad. He helps so much around the house and with the girls. I'm sure I don't tell him enough how much I appreciate him. Maybe he'll read this today during one of his breaks and know...
• So, McKenna asked me a few minutes ago if she could have some lotion for her hands. I said yes. I went downstairs to change out the laundry and came back up and smelled baby lotion. Hmmmm...now Presley's hair is all oily and gunky.
• Avery and I are both ready to be done with school. It's much harder to stay focused when it's nice out, or when Little House on the Prairie is on. Every morning, 9 and 10am, Hallmark channel. Only 3 weeks left, if we stay on target...
  
• I don't have to work tomorrow! Yea! Juries are next Tuesday and Wednesday. I'm looking forward to it. I like hearing everyone sing, I don't like having to write critique sheets....ugh
• Speaking of-one of my students told me that she HAS to get an A in voice b/c of her scholarship. And she has somewhat of an attitude problem. I don't handle attitudes very well. Especially if I say one thing or give a compliment only to be told, "well, I thought it sucked." Well, if it sucks, and you HAVE to get an A, then maybe you should quit complaining and start practicing...and that's all I'm going to say about that...
• I'm getting my hair done tomorrow, another yea!!! I haven' t had my hair cut since before Presley was born (she's 7 months old) It's time. It's just one of the things I hate spending money on. Along with toilet paper, trash service, air filters, and gas.
  
• Date night tomorrow-kind of. We're going to Symphony of Spring. Should be good.
• This guy is leading worship at church this week. I'm wondering what it will be like.
• I'm working on my menu plan for next week. We're eating some good stuff, so I'll post recipes later.

Overbooked and VHS memories

I doubled booked events for tonight. I told some students that I'd go to the coffehouse performance at Friends tonight. I also RSVP'd and paid money to go to a cooking party. I really want to do both. Why do they have to be on the same night? I only had 3 events on my calendar for all of April. Ugh...
...I chose the cooking party-I made a financial commitment, so I'm going, and I'm going to have a lot of fun. And, I'll get to spend some time with my favorite sister and a dear friend. And I'm going to make and bring home 8 freezer meals! I'll miss some great entertainment (and great coffee!) I'm sure. Sorry, Stacy, Seth and Justin. Break a Leg! and tell me how it goes!

We just recently got an old VHS player, so over the weekend, we watched some videos. Our wedding, SOS 1997, and The Lion King, so far. In '97, I sang "Think of Me" and got to wear a beautiful gown. Kevin was in the "Cats" ensemble. Man, we thought we were so good back then. Now, we just laugh at ourselves. I was trying to find SOS 1996, b/c I thought that was the year we did the Lion King stuff, and I think I sang Over the Rainbow that year. But I couldn't find the video. Anyone have it? I know, it's vintage, so it must be worth some money:)

Spoke too soon

Kevin and I were talking the other day about the fact that no one in our family has gotten sick this year-no colds, no flu, no stomach bug. Nothing. It's been nice. I haven't made any late night trips to Walgreens for medicine. No dr. visits or co-pays.
Friday morning, I went in to wake Presley up, and see the right side of her face swollen. Yesterday, we went to the dr. and he said she has allergies. Ugh...I feel so sorry for her. Her nose is gross and she is constantly sneezing and coughing. She doesn't want to eat and has little tolerance for her big sisters. Poor Presley.

Home Stretch

Avery is just a few weeks away from being done with Kindergarten. It's bittersweet. This has been one of the best years of my life. I LOVED teaching her. She is a great student. Now that the weather is so nice, we're doing more outside activities and less classroom activities. I'm ready to be done having a daily school routine. But I'll miss the unique learning opportunities we experienced as a family this year. Recent highlights include-

• Math-counting by 5's and 10's. Adding and Subtracting. She's really good at math, unlike her mother. It's easy for her.
• Phonics-sentence structure, plural. She reads quite well, now. She loves to write her own stories and she insists on reading our daily bible story out loud. She doesn't always like to read, but she does it well. One thing I remember as a kid, I remember getting annoyed when we had to read out loud in class, and kids would read on and on with no change in their voice between sentences or after a question. Avery lifts her voice at the end of a question and stops between sentences. yea! As I write this, she is reading a Berenstein Bears book to herself, out loud.
  
• Language Arts-This hasn't been our favorite-depending on the story of the week. Some stories and activities just haven't clicked with us. I don't think we'll miss this much
• History-we're studying American history now. She loved learning about the Native Americans and all things related to Night at the Museum.
  
• Science-We learned reduce, reuse, recycle this week, obviously. Next, we're on to learning how farms work-followed by a trip to the farmer's market.
• Art-we finished art for the year-needless to say, it was her favorite subject, so we did it alot.
• Music-because we finished art, we were able to get the music curriculum. I thought it would be great, but, honestly, I'm not impressed. We haven't done much here. I hope to do more over the summer with our own stuff.

Her first day of school included a trip to the ice cream store. I'm sure her last day will, too!

Dirty laundry

Doing the laundry is not a huge issue with me. I do it, because it needs to be done. End of story. I don't labor over it. I just do it, most of the time. There's a part of me that covets every time I hear the commercial where Kelly Ripa says that she can do an entire load of laundry in 36 minutes. It takes me 2 hours. Actually, I do the laundry on Mondays and Thursdays, only. I wash all of our clothes and towels on those days. I wash all of our sheets on Tuesdays. Now that Avery is sleeping on the top bunk, I'm washing 3 sets of sheets, instead of the usual 2. Changing the sheets on a bunk bed is NOT fun. In fact, it's downright hard. I have to get Avery to climb up to the top bunk and pull the fitted sheet to the far corner. I don't like changing the sheets. Can you tell today was when I did them?
Now that Presley is eating solid food, I'm doing more of her laundry. We wash a lot of bibs. And, we use ALOT of Shout.
I'm still making my own laundry detergent. It works, along with color bleach for the kids' clothes. I use Gain Lavender scented detergent for our towels and sheets b/c I love the way it smells.
So, I'm wondering...how often do you do laundry? Everyday? When you run out of clean clothes? Now's the time to air it...

Random Recap

I've had so many thoughts in my head over the last week. To try to put them in coherent sentences seems impossible. But, here we go-

• My mom made a trip to the ER last Monday, only to be sent home a few hours later, still in pain. Don't go to the Newton ER at night if you think you might need a sonogram. They don't do those in the evening hours. A sono would have told the dr. that she needed her gall bladder out-immediately!!!! However, she had to wait to see her dr. on Thursday, who ordered the sono-STAT-which revealed what we (thought we) knew on Monday. I won't even mention the bloodwork and lab saga that happened. Long story-she had surgery to have her gall bladder out Thursday afternoon. I was very thankful that Kevin's folks could watch the girls so I could go be with her. Thursday night, my dad, my sister and I were all in the hospital room with my mom. It was weird. Just the 4 of us. The original family. No husbands and kids, kinda weird...we haven't been together, the 4 of us, in a long, long time.
  
• I had to teach on Friday, followed by a meeting to discuss next semester. In the meeting, we realized we need to hire another adjunct. Should be interesting...I'm still teaching on Fridays-private voice (6 students), voice class, and vocal literature. Too much for one day, but doable. Kevin stayed home with the girls on Friday and had a good time, I think-
• Our last date night was on my birthday-February 13. Just sayin'...
• I didn't do a regular shopping trip to Dillons last week-we tried to eat from the pantry. With the exception of a trip to get milk and baby food, we did ok. I blew our budget yesterday, though.
  
• this morning in history, Avery learned the song Follow the Drinking Gourd. We read the book and learned about the Big Dipper and Harriet Tubman. How do you explain slavery and the underground railroad to a 6 and 4 year old? This was a tough lesson-
• Well, parts of our house are clean. Other parts, not so much. I LOVE having a clean house. Why can't we keep it clean???? Oh, yeah-we have 3 kids and a dog :)
  

These are delicious!

I doubled this recipe, thinking I could put some in the freezer for later. I don't know if they'll make it that long, though. I used carrot baby food for the puree. I think these are more of a snack muffin instead of a morning muffin, just my opinion. Enjoy!!!!

super power muffins:

1 cup brown sugar (I don’t pack it!)
¼ to ½ cup peanut butter
1 banana
*optional ½ cup of apple sauce or carrot puree
1 egg
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
*optional ¼ cup chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix all dry ingredients well and set aside. Blend everything else and then sift in dry ingredients. Spray muffin tray. Bake for 15-18 min. Makes 12 - double for 24.

A day at the museum

Last week, Avery and I went to the Museum of World Treasures. It was awesome. We had so much fun together. We did a scavenger hunt and had a good time looking at everything. We also got to see Avery's much beloved education specialist (fancy word for the real teacher who holds me accountable as Avery's primary teacher.) I wish I would have gotten a picture of the two of them. Instead, here is Ave with the "exhibits" Be sure you watch Night at the Museum before going :)

I keep thinking to myself (and out loud to Kevin) that I can't wait 'til the girls are older, so we can go to the Eisenhower museum and the Cosmophere, stuff like that. The absolutely LOVE watching Avery learn new things.

He's Alive. Forever. Amen.

There in the ground His body lay

Light of the world by darkness slain
Then bursting forth in glorious Day
Up from the grave He rose again
And as He stands in victory
Sin's curse has lost it's grip on me
For I am His and He is mine
Brought with the precious blood of Christ

No guilt in life, no fear in death
This is the power of Christ in me
From life's first cry to final breath
Jesus commands my destiny
No power of hell, no scheme of man
Can ever pluck me from His hand
'Till He returns or calls me home

Here in the power of Christ I'll stand

Easter Activities

Last week, we saw the Easter Bunny at the candy store here in town. Here are the pix-

Here is McKenna asleep in the van right before we get there.

Notice Avery is missing. She wouldn't get near him...or her. Presley is looking at me.

Yesterday, we made sugar cookies with Marla and Reese. We hope to bring some to Abilene tomorrow, but I'm not making any promises. We gave some to neighbors and ate quite a few ourselves.

Today, we have the Easter Egg hunt at Friends U. followed by lunch with college friends and dinner at Kevin's folks.

Happy Easter!

Picture Saturday

Me + Twilight Saga = No blogging

I've been gone from the world of blogging. Hope to return sometime next week. Kevin begged me to get these pix off of the camera so, I thought I'd post them real quick.

Warning-these are random...If you look close, you'll see 6deer that were outside our backyard this morning.

Another shot.

Here is McKenna looking at the rain one morning.

Here are some of Presley.
And Avery and Presley.

Menu Plan Monday

I'm taking advice from Simple Mom as I plan the menu for April. The older girls start swim lessons this month, so I'm planning easy meals on Tuesday and Thursday. Here's how our menu will go this month...I think-

Mondays-something w/ a big salad (I try to start the week healthy :)
Tuesdays-crockpot meal
Wednesday-ethnic (Italian, Mexican, Pei Wei :)
Thursday-leftovers from previous 2 days
Friday-something easy (I teach on Fridays)
Saturday-something fun (I'm always secretly hoping we get to eat out. Eating something fun should ease my disappointment :)
Sunday-Breakfast for supper!

Here goes...

Monday-BBQ chicken pizza, salad
Tuesday-Terryaki pork tenderloin(crockpot), rice and sugar snap peas
Wednesday-green chicken enchiladas, black bean and corn salad (if we like this, I'll post the recipe)
Thursday-leftovers from Tuesday and Wednesday
Friday-tilapia, mashed potatoes, and green beans and/or corn
Saturday-Easter dinner at the in-laws!
Sunday-Easter dinner in Abilene!

What's on your menu this week?

Time to pray

Most of you know that my dad is a pastor. Last Tuesday, my mom told me that Dad was having such exteme back pain, he couldn't get out of bed. I thought to myself, "oh great, here we go." This ALWAYS happens when something big is about to take place at church. Not the back pain, but something that brings tension or stress into our family's life. Here we are, a week before Easter, and my dad's church had some survey group to assess his church.

Holly, over at the Preacher's Wife, had a great post last week. You can read it here. She wrote about the way Satan has a history of attacking during key seasons in the church. Easter, Christmas, start of school, campaign, you name it. Satan would love nothing more than to ruin this week among Christians.

I'm stepping up my prayers this week. It's going to be a long, demanding week for those who work in the church. I'm praying for my parents, for other church leaders and for those who don't know Christ and are thinking about going to church this Sunday.

Who or what are you praying for this holy week?

Confessions

Well, I haven't blogged for awhile. I've had lots of thoughts, I've just had a hard time putting them into words. I'm glad March is over. Kevin and I had to make some very tough decisions (spiritual, educational, financial) last month and I'm ready for April. I'm ready for spring. For Easter. Kevin is working on some great family devos for holy week and I'm excited for our family to experience the resurrection together.
I'm almost embarrassed to post these, but if this is an authentic blog and, if my thoughts are real, then I should get on with it.

• I found out more people read this blog than just my mom and my sister. I received a phone call last week questioning one of my posts about church visits. It's always fun for a non-confrontational person (that's me) to be stuck on the phone with a pastor asking lots of questions. Seriously, it wasn't that bad, but I must confess-my heart was racing the entire time.
• I'm hooked on Twilight. We watched the movie last week. I read the book over the weekend and, here's the confession, we didn't do school on Tuesday, so I could read New Moon. The girls thought I was letting them play as long as they didn't fight with each other. They didn't fight the entire day. I finished the book at 10pm that night.
  
• Then, yesterday, I found the Twilight website. Another hour wasted...
• confession-I HATE church shopping. I think we found one, though.
• We visited Riverpoint church last Sunday, you can read Kevin's thoughts here. I wished RPC was in west Wichita. Confession-I never really thought of my college friend, Brad, as a pastor. Now, I can't imagine him any other way. He is anointed.
  
• Brad revealed a truth in my life during his sermon that I didn't want to know. I always thought that I had the spiritual gift of hospitality. I don't. I may have the gift of entertainment (if that's possible) but not hospitality. More on that later...
• last confession-I spend way too much time on the computer. I consider it my source to the outside world. my house is not clean, and I desperately want it to be. So I need to get offline and get to work