Today I went to the memorial service for the two-month old daughter of a friend of mine. Zoe was born just three days after Andrew, and died of SIDS this past Tuesday. Some pain that we experience in this life just cannot be understood. Asking why doesn't even begin to truly express the question in my heart. Even so, God is sovereign. God is faithful. The whole service today had a tone of expressing faith in God and his plan despite the painful circumstances. What a reminder that they're not really ours to begin with, but just given to us on loan!

Amy with Zoe and me with Andrew at the joint baby shower our Bible study threw for us.

It will be a long time before I will be able to love on Andrew without thinking about Amy and Zoe. My son Aaron said it best, though. "We'll see her again in heaven, mom." he said. So all you mommies out there, go love on your babies. And while you're at it, say a prayer for my friend!

Quick! Someone teach it some manners!

From three year old:

"Mom! The volcano is about to interrupt!!"

I am convinced that God gives us three year old children to keep us laughing when we really feel like crying!

Fitness Friday - Temptations

Well, I didn't really take too much time to think through the assignment this week. My brain really couldn't take too much thinking. I have been sick this week - I am pretty sure it is mostly allergies as the mountain cedar count has been very high and a lot of the people I know started up all at once when the count got high! That alone wouldn't get me down too much, but I am also grieving for a friend whose baby girl died of SIDS this Tuesday. When something like that happens, suddenly figuring out how to justify extra sweets or thinking too much about food at all seems completely unimportant! That kind of perspective has been good for me this week and has made me focus on what is truly important and let the rest go.

But that said, I do need to remain accountable to this commitment for my own sake, so I'll give a brief update. I actually did really well this week. I didn't make it to the gym on Tuesday and Wednesday like I normally do, but I did go Sunday when I normally don't so I still went twice and exercised at home three times. I kept track of my food this week, too. Writing it down helped me to see some gaps and also helped me to see that in many ways I am doing a good job with my food. I lost two pounds this week - the first bit of weight I have lost in about six weeks!

As far as temptations, I am completely tempted by sweets. Other foods don't tempt me too much. I can pass on fast food and fried food, but sweets are my downfall. What has worked for me in the past to keep from this temptation is: lots of prayer, cutting out snacking completely (three meals a day with nothing in between), not buying sweets, and not eating when I am alone. Right now, I am not willing to not have any snacks at all as I have been in the past, but I am doing better with the other things that have worked and will keep working on it that way!

Art Appreciation

I started doing art lessons this semester with Ella. I really wanted to buy this really cool art apreciation set recommended by Susan Wise Bauer. At the time we were saving money so that was one of the things nixed. Fortunately I found this website that has really cool, simple art lessons. You learn about an artist and answer some questions and do some puzzles. I like it. It'll do for now until I can get to the good stuff.

Oh and by the way, Gauguin was weird. I mean really, really weird.

Check it out: Garden of Praise's art appreciation for kids.

Picture Post

Marie is 20 weeks pregnant. Next Monday we'll find out whether she's having a girl or a boy. Some lady in Bed, Bath and Beyond breezed past us, pointed and said, "That's a boy." On the plate you will see a sandwich. That would be a peanut butter and pickle sandwich. Yeah, Marie is definitely pregnant.

Mom took Ella and Sarah to see Riverdance. I wish I could have gone, but do you know they'd charge for Anna to go. What a bunch of punks. The girls like Riverdance and have watched the video tons of times, but they call it "Irish Dance."

I have the most handsome husband in the world. I don't want to hear any arguments about this fact either. She's cute ain't she. NOT ME, the baby!

Here's the hawk that presides over our neighborhood. He eats all the squirrels. There's a moth in this picture. Can you find it?

A Day in the Life Of, Part Deux

I know I'm something like 5 days late posting this. I'm sure you understand about having a new baby and all. I can't even count the days anymore. How many days late with this am I. Five, four...six??? Never mind.

Anyway...

Other notes from the first day were: Ella likes a break. Recess was her favorite thing. I'm good with that. Usually we put down grammar and turn directly to some other task, like math. If she needs 10 minutes to go outside and run off some energy before embarking on the next learning adventure, fine with me. It's better than listening to her whining and it doesn't extend the day out a significant amount.
The second day was harder for her than the first day. Getting up at 6AM is NOT her thing. I repeat: ELLA DOES NOT LIKE TO GET UP AT 6AM. Talk about grumpy pants! She was very discouraged about how long the day was. Recess wasn't quite enough to make up for all the play time she was missing with her sisters. When asked she told us that one of the things she disliked the most about public school was how little she got to see her sisters. Granny put some fabulous ideas up in the comments and we capitalized on a couple of them. She hardly got to see her sisters at all except for when they were included in the lesson, like science includes Sarah. She didn't get to see Anna at all until she was out of school. We kept her downstairs. She didn't like that. Mom checked her hair for lice. That was funny. She was totally grossed out at the idea of bugs crawling around in her hair.

We ended up calling off the PS for Thursday because with guests here, we felt it was adding more stress than was warranted. I think a third day would have been just enough for Ella to really realize how lucky blessed she is to be homeschooled, but I'm happy with what she and we learned on Tuesday and Wednesday.

I don't know that school was that much different on Thursday and Friday, but we did give her more breaks between subjects and that has been our greatest help with the whining.

I have relaxed our rigorous spelling schedule as she is already doing the third grade spelling book, and was scheduled to finish the fourth grade spelling book this year. She's only in second grade. She doesn't like the spelling because it involves a lot of writing. So we're going to do that only once a week now instead of two lessons a week. We are going to get up at 7AM, eat a light breakfast and begin school no later than 9, but preferably at 8:30. That gives an hour and a half to eat, get dressed, do morning chores and not be hurried about it. We accomplish our best work in school earlier in the day. When the afternoon rolls around everyone gets sleepy and lazy and we accomplish less in a greater amount of time.

I don't think this post made very much sense. I'm sleepy.

Oh and the HOMEWORK!!! We had her up until almost 10 Tuesday night and past 10 Wednesday night doing homework. ROTFLOL! That was the best. She could barely keep her eyes open. She's nodding off to sleep and we're poking at her and prodding her, "Ella, get your homework done." Yeah, she didn't care for that either. However, we liked the homework. I liked that later in the day she was reminded again of what she was learning. I believe we will give her homework to do from now on only not nearly so much of it and we'll call it "laterwork" instead of homework.

Fitness Friday – Goals

This week, Brenda has encouraged us to blog about our goals. Setting goals is important. When I don't have any goals, I usually find that I don't accomplish much of anything! For some reason, even though I know that about myself, I still don't really tend to set goals for myself. I think this largely stems from the fact that I have a huge fear of failure. If I set a goal, and then I don't meet it, I have failed. That fear is keeping me from accomplishing much more than I currently am, though. It is time to move past the fear and make some goals. So here goes…

Food Goals

• Eat fruit at breakfast and as one snack each day. I used to eat fruit each morning with my breakfast. Somewhere along the way I stopped doing this and didn't add the fruit back anywhere else.
• Eat more raw veggies. Actually, that goal is not really easily measurable, so I will say to eat at least one serving of raw veggies each day.
• Do not eat during my children's nap. Their nap time has always been my "me" time. I relax, watch TV, read, and basically totally indulge myself. For this reason, I have been eating sweets or overindulging when it comes to food. I eat things I would never eat if my kids were watching because they would want some, and I don't like to share my treats! Plus, why should I eat something if I wouldn't let them eat it because it isn't good for them???
  

Exercise Goals

• Go to the gym at least three times a week. I get a better workout at the gym. I am motivated by the people I see – the very unfit motivate me because I know how hard it is to go to the gym when you are extremely unfit and don't look the part; and the very fit motivate me because I see what is possible.
• Exercise at home, even if it is just a little bit, three times a week.
• Continue to add jogging to my walking routine. I have started doing 90 second intervals of jogging when I walk. Tonight I jogged a total of 9 minutes during my 40 minute stay on the treadmill. I'd like to get to where I can actually jog for 15-20 minutes without stopping to walk.
  

Beauty Goals

• Continue nightly deep moisturizing on my very dry and calloused feet so that they are sandal ready by summer. I feel so pretty when I have manicured feet in sandals!
• Lose an average of 1 pound a week.
• Choose a goal outfit. We are going to one of my nephew's high school graduations at the end of May. I will choose an outfit from one of my smaller sizes in my closet that I would like to wear to that graduation ceremony.
  

Spiritual Goals

• Choose and memorize a passage of scripture each month. I have gotten out of the habit of scripture memorization.
• Spend time in the Word daily – even on Sundays outside of church.
• Pray diligently for my husband every day. I am currently studying The Power of a Praying Wife with a small group of ladies. I have read this before, and loved it; but this time I want to really apply it.

There you have it: three goals in each of these four areas of my life. Whew – I am tired just looking at it…but I know I can accomplish each of these goals if I take it one day at a time.