I love this blog!

I have to admit it...I am addicted to reading my friend's blog...and when I say friend, I mean mother of one of my students!  She has the best way with words.  Whether she is recounting stories from her daily life (with three kids under 4) or sharing about a friend's home business, or just talking about football...she is so descriptive and makes me laugh.  I am sharing her blog with you (if anyone is out there) and you can see for yourself.  I find myself looking through and reading past entries just like its a good book that I can't put down!  And she is addicted to Starbucks like yours truly, so gotta love her!  Check her out!  http://naturallyestes.blogspot.com/

Growing up and getting over her fears

Mary Kate took another big step in growing up...She got over her fears and sang today in church.  A solo, acapella...in front of about 400 people!  I am so proud of her.  She sang Amazing Grace after the pastor performed two baptisms.  It was so beautiful.  Enjoy the video!

Circus Act...

Did you ever go to the circus and see those people that balance all sorts of teetery things on their forehead or nose?  They get them stacked up like 10 feet high.  Its all great, but if they so much as move a millimeter one way that they shouldn't have, it ALL comes CRASHING down...That is how my life feels right now...not in a bad way, but kinda in a stressful way.  I have a huge event that I have been coordinating this year and it is on Saturday.  I love event planning and I really do thrive off of the energy and busyness...But right now, less than 48 hours out, I feel like one wrong move and everything will come .....well, you get the picture!  It is good to know that there are people out there praying for me! 

School is Cool...I think...I don't remember...

So today is the end of day three of Kindergarten.  All in all, it is going quite well.  Mary Kate loves her teacher and the playground and the computer lab where she gets to play alphabet games.  Today she got to use a computer with headphones and so she got to hear the sounds of the game as well.  She also got to play on the swing today which she didn't get to play on yesterday because they were wet from rain and she didn't get to play on Monday because everyone else was taking all the recess time on the swings.  Her teacher calls her Mary Kate, but her art teacher still calls her Mary.  I told her she would have to politely ask her art teacher to call her Mary Kate.  I am doing well all things considering.  It is so much quieter in the house during the day.  Dropping her off is hard because she is still learning her way around the school.  Parents are only allowed to walk them to the lobby and after that only kids and staff get past all the locked doors.  I LOVE this about the school, but It is hard.  I am having to trust the staff of the school to make sure my baby doesn't wander around aimlessly, and I am having to let her go and grow up and learn how to ask for help and learn her way around.  It is hard...she looks so lost and little when I drop her off.  She told me this afternoon when I asked her if she found the auditorium that she didn't, but a teacher helped her.  So someone did see that she needed help and asked her what grade she was in and led her there.  I find I am praying for her so much more than I ever did.  Isn't it funny how much more we pray when we are forced to have Faith.  The situations where I have no control are the ones I know I have to pray through.  Overall, we are all good.  It was weird to have just Brianna on Monday and it is still weird with just Bria and Chey.  Like I said, quieter, especially during nap time.  Tomorrow I start back to work with a training day.  Should be fun...it will be nice to get back to the swing of things in our normal schedule. 

Kindergarten

Mary Kate starts Kindergarten on Monday.  I am so not ready.  Tonight we have meet the teacher night which should be exciting.  It also hit me the other night that tonight is signups for the PTA and such...I am about to become a PTA mom.  YIKES!  When did I grow up?  When did my girls grow up?  The PTA is for...my mom, not me!  Don't they give away free minivans and mom jeans with your PTA membership?  Wow...I feel like an old lady...really though, it is one thing to have kids, It is entirely something else to have school age kids.  Well...ready or not...here we come, jumping into the world of school!  Feet first!  With a box of kleenex!  Pray for us!

A little redemption!

If you know my husband, it is no secret how he feels about mothers day, fathers day and valentine's day. They are hallmark holidays that are commercialized and he doesn't need no hallmark holiday to tell me or his mom or anyone how he feels about them. He can do special things for us all year round. Good thought in theory, but when life happens, the all year round appreciation and spoiling doesn't actually work out in practice. Needless to say, Mother's Day hasn't always been a pleasant day in our household. I would hope that he would do something, he would do nothing, and then I would be disappointed and have to watch EVERYONE at church and everywhere gush over how thoughtful their kids and husbands are! Well....this year he bought himself some redemption! It helps that MK is almost 5 and very excited about it! They got me the best present ever. They got me plants, dirt, seeds, and planter boxes! Not only is it something that I really wanted, but I got to spend some great quality time with Mike and both girls planting my new plants yesterday afternoon! It was great. He did some research and knew I wanted tomatoes and some herbs. He found two tomato plants that supposedly will do well planted in high heat on the porch in planters. He also remembered my herb garden attempts from a couple years ago and how hard it is to grow rosemary from seeds. My seeds never actually sprouted then. So he bought me a rosemary plant to keep going. Also he bought me basil, zuccini and summer squash seeds, carrot seeds, and moonflower seeds. I am so excited! Mary Kate is old enough now to help with it as well and excited to watch it all grow! Now to figure out how to keep all the neighborhood kids and the bunnies out of them!

some thoughts...

ok, a couple of random thoughts I was thinking today since I haven't blogged in forever, and don't feel like playing catch-up with life right now and pictures:

1. Swiffer wet jets-good idea in theory, great if you don't mind getting down on the floor and scrubbing with a clorox wipe first, best used in between moppings for floors not so dirty, not your best bet as primary mop.
   
2. Aldi-LOVE LOVE LOVE!!!! Finally have gotten the chance to go here a couple times and look at products and prices and such. I love the feeling of joyful surprise and shock when I get through the check out and it is about 20-30 dollars cheaper than I expected to pay. It is totally worth it to do as much shopping as you can here! This week I went and got 4 gallons of milk, a 3 pound bag of frozen tilapia filets, ground turkey, summer squash, apples, a half gallon of chocolate milk, two cans of soup, 6 pounds of bananas, two boxes (name brand) pop tarts, 3 avocados, two 4pks of applesauce, two bags of salad mix, two bags of shell pasta, two boxes of fiber granola bars, roma tomatoes, cottage cheese, kiwi, and eggs. I expected to pay over 50 and probably over 60. The final price: $40.31. Love it!
3. Mom's get the short end of the stick when they get sick. I am currently recovering from strep throat and have not been able to get any extra rest. No matter what happens to me, unless I am hospitalized, I still have to take care of the kids and the house. Boo...as a result, the dishes are piled up and the laundry is starting to pile up a bit. I was staying caught up on it. So now I play catch up, finish my antibiotics and pray that my inability to get any extra rest to aid my body in recovery will not cause me further harm.

I think that is it for now.

Groceries by the numbers...

So now that we don't qualify for WIC anymore I have really been focusing on getting the best prices on groceries, clipping coupons and shopping at places where I get the best prices and where they double and triple them, and focusing on what we buy and what we use so as not to waste money on groceries we won't use. I have made a couple of observations which I find interesting to say the least:

1. We go through roughly 10 gallons of milk per month. 10 gallons mostly just with MK and Bria drinking it. Mike has some (maybe 16 or so ounces a day), but mostly the girls. I haven't been drinking much milk since I started counting calories as I have a hard time justifying using 90 calories on a drink. Anyways, 10 gallons...WOW!
2. We go through seven 4-packs of yogurt...Per WEEK!!! We all have a yogurt cup every day. 7 time 4...there you go. Currently in my refrigerator we have dannonino, dannon crush cups, oikos greek yogurt, activia (both a 4 pack of yogurt and a 4 pack of drinkable yogurt), stonyfield farm fat free individual serving yogurts, and a 32 ounce dannon all natural yogurt. It sounds like a lot, but next friday I guarantee you I will be buying more. All I have to say is THANK GOD FOR GREAT YOGURT COUPONS!
3. We go through 5 1/2...yes 5 1/2 pounds of Bananas EVERY WEEK! Every week I get 2 1/2 -3 bunches of bananas and swear there is no way I will eat them all before they go bad and that I will be making banana bread. And without fail every week we eat every single one of them. I bought 5 1/2 pounds of bananas last Saturday. And as I sit here on Thursday night there is currently 1 banana, not one pound of bananas, but 1 singular banana left.
4. Between Mine and Mike's lunches for work we go through 16 cans of tuna and 12-15 cans of soup per month.
   

On the plus side, we are eating a lot less bread. We go through a loaf in about a week and a half to two weeks. I don't eat much of it and Mike doesn't eat much of it, and I can't send peanut butter and jelly to the school with the kids and they won't eat lunch meat...so bread lasts. Ok, those are my grocery insights for the night...anything your family goes through? Or tips or tricks for saving money? I have heard that Aldi has GREAT prices on milk and produce among other things. I will have to check them out sometime soon.

Do you ever stop and wonder...

Since I became a mom, my stop and wonder-dreams for the future quickly stopped revolving around me and started to invest in my daughters. I often look at them and wonder how God is going to use them. I think about their personality traits and think of all the ways that God can use that for his glory and all of the ministries and careers that could result. This morning I had a moment like that in a big way with Mary Kate. A lot of it was spurred on by our conversation. Shortly after I we woke up this morning I was flipping through the channels on tv and came across a special on PBS about Iran. It was interesting to watch a tourism guide to the major cities and landmarks and people. I had never really seen or heard much about life there or what the cities look like or the people dress like apart from what our newspapers show (which is not that informative). I decided to stay there and watch because I was intrigued. About 15 minutes in, the host started talking about the mosque in this one city which is one of the biggest in the country. It was beautiful. And then they showed them praying and worshiping Allah. I wouldn't have normally thought anything of it really except that Mary Kate was sitting next to me watching as well. I wasn't quite sure what to say, but I knew I had to say something. I didn't want her to come to any conclusions in her head that weren't accurate. So I said, "In Iran, they worship a different god that isn't the real God. They don't know Jesus. " I wasn't sure how much she would understand, but I felt good about what I said. She got it. It clicked. She turned to me and said, "They don't know Jesus so they worship Idols. I think that is so sad, mom." WOW! She really understood. I didn't even mention anything about idols. But she is right. I told her it was sad...what she said next blew my mind. She turned to me and said, "I think I want to go tell them about Jesus mom...Is that ok? They need to learn about him so they can worship God and stop worshiping Idols. We should pray for them mom, all day and all night and pray that God helps us to get there because it is really far and will take a long time!" I almost cried. I knew she was a very compassionate child, but I never realized that her compassion flows from a heart of missions. A heart to reach people for Him. I don't know what she will end up doing with her life, but after today, I would not at all be surprised if she became a missionary! Dear Lord, Help me to raise Mary Kate and teach her how to follow you and become a Godly woman willing to follow wherever you lead her. Help me to nurture her compassion and guard her heart against the things of this world that seek to steal her joy and destroy her faith and innocence. Thank you for the joy of mothering this beautiful little girl and the blessings that she brings to my life every second of every day! Amen.

Amazing banana bread recipe!

I found myself with a large bunch of banana bread ready bananas this week. I imparted on a quest for a good recipe for lowfat banana bread, as I wanted to make it, but didn't really want all the fat and calories to go with it. I found a recipe that looked good and I made some modifications. I don't use splenda and the recipe called for splenda brown sugar blend. So I used regular light brown sugar. In a recipe like this it doesn't make that much of a difference on calories per serving. I also split the flour 40% white flour, 60% whole wheat flour, used olive oil instead of canola oil, and added 1/2 cup of unsweetened applesauce. I wasn't sure what to expect, but the results were amazing. I LOVE this recipe and it was great. One batch makes 24 mini-muffins, or 12 muffins, or one Large loaf of bread (I have the 10 inch calphalon pans). The nutrition specs are:

For mini muffins-
calories- 71
Fat- 0.9 g
fiber- 1.1 g
protein- 2.1 g

For Muffins or 1/12 of a loaf of bread (the large loaves easily make 12-14 slices that are at least 1/2 inch thick.)-
calories-142
fat- 1.8 g
fiber- 2.2 g
protein 4.2 g

Here is the recipe! Enjoy! Let me know what you think if you make it!

LOW FAT OATMEAL BANANA BREAD/MUFFINS:

Ingredients:
1/2 cup white flour
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 c. brown sugar (or if you prefer 1/4 c. splenda brown sugar blend)
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. baking powder
1 Tbs. olive oil
1 egg (beaten)
2 egg whites (beaten)
1 c. mashed ripe banana
1 c. dry oats
1/4 c. unsweetened apple sauce
cinnamon
nutmeg

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350. Beat the egg and egg whites in a small bowl. In a large mixing bowl, mix the dry ingredients except for the cinnamon and nutmeg and oats. Add the eggs, oil, and applesauce to the dry ingredients. Beat with an electric mixer. Add banana and beat until mixed. Add oats and beat until mixed. Add cinnamon and nutmeg to taste (approx. 1/2 tsp. cinnamon and 1/4 tsp. nutmeg). Spray bread pan or muffin pans with cooking spray (or use paper/foil muffin cups). Pour all batter in bread pan, or divide into 12 muffins or 24 mini muffins. Cook in oven for following times:
Bread approx 45 min.
Muffins approx 25 min.
Mini muffins approx 15 min.

So much has happened...

I have been MIA from this blog for a while. Life has been crazy this year and I think it is calming down enough for me to catch up a little bit. Let me catch you all up a bit:

JANUARY-

• We got back from Massachusetts and jumped right back into the semester and my job at Travis Avenue. I also started watching two more kids on a temporary basis.
  
• Brianna took off with walking and started tearing the house apart.
• My parents moved here from Kentucky for my dad to start working on his D.Min. at SWBTS.
  

FEBRUARY-

• I started working on my updo portfolio which is almost done now. All the hair is done, just waiting on the rest of the pics so I can drop them into the book and get going.
• We had two consecutive snow days as we recieved the most snow ever to fall at once in fort worth, 12 inches. It was the BEST kind of snow too. Nice and heavy and easy to make huge snowmen. We made a 7 1/2 foot tall snow bunny!!! It was great...people from the neighborhood were coming by and taking their picture with it!
  
• My sister Shonda came up three weekends out of four.
• My grandparents from Minnesota came to visit for a week.
• Kim and Cameron came up Valentine's weekend for a big family lunch and birthday celebration for all of the jan/feb birthdays
  
• Valentine's Date night double date with Shonda and Mark...Believe it or not, this was the first time we had been out just the four of us on a double date without kids. After 3 years, its about time!
• I started leading the women from our small group in an in depth study of the book of Ephesians while the men do a study with our pastor.
• We entered Mary Kate's name into two lotteries for charter schools here in Fort Worth for next year
• I stopped watching the two kids from January due to stress and behavior issues with the children.

MARCH (so far)-

• We found out Mary Kate has a spot at Chapel Hill Academy Charter School in Fort Worth and will be starting Kindergarten in the fall there. She is very excited as some of our neighbors go there and one of them is also in kindergarten. I don't know if I am ready for this...
• Mike will be going with my dad next week to get the rest of their stuff that wouldn't fit on the truck when they moved. He will be gone monday and tuesday. We will be hanging here by ourselves.
  
• My Aunt had brain surgery to remove a tumor and massive lesions in the left frontal lobe of her brain. She is doing fine and has been released to go home. My mom is out in Cali right now helping her out as she has two small children at home.
  
• I have reached a major goal with my weight loss. I have lost to date 32 pounds in four months and am now under 200 pounds for the first time in a long time. Probably 6 years. It is very exciting for me. And a huge milestone to even admit as I am embarrassed that I ever let myself get that bad. But, those days are gone. This is a new lifestyle for me. NEVER AGAIN!!!

I have been doing a lot of hair lately and I am going to be taking my portfolio by a bridal shop soon. I have a connection to them and I think she will recommend me and let me put a portfolio down there to advertise my work. My end goal is to build up successful updo business that can supplement our income, but can also bring me some fun and enjoyment as I LOVE to do updos! This summer we are heading back to Massachusetts for a great friend's wedding. His wedding is actually in Vermont, on Lake Champlain in Burlington. It will be fun. Mike is the best man and MK is the flower girl. I can't wait. I am hoping to have lost another 20 pounds by then. We will see! Ok...that is probably information overload, so I will leave it at that for now.

Happy New Year!

I can't believe this year has gone by so fast! Just wanted to get the New Year Rolling on the blog with a new post. I will post a longer post with pictures and all about our trip to Massachusetts later, but here's a little update on the last month. After Brianna's birthday, Mike finished up his finals and his last week at work before vacation. He finished the semester with two B-'s and a B. I am so proud of him! 9 credits a semester is a lot to take as a graduate student, especially if you are also working 40 hours a week. On top of that he always makes time for us as a family and he is involved in our church as a small group leader and running the AV for the Contemporary service every week at our church. He is a busy guy, and I love him for all he does! Anyways, it was nice to get away for 2 1/2 weeks and have time as a family! It was also nice to see all our family and friends in Massachusetts who we haven't seen in a while! In the midst of a snow storm, we flew out of Boston last Saturday the 2nd; and after almost missing our connecting flight due to late planes and large airports and only 15 minutes to get from one end of the airport to another, we landed in Dallas on Saturday afternoon. While I miss being on vacation, It feels good to be home. I am anxious to get back to work and back into life! Brianna is now starting to walk. She started by taking several steps to her Memie over Christmas Break! We have found that cell phones are the best motivation to get her to walk! Anyways, we are back and are ready to see what God is going to bless us with this new year!