What happens when you volunteer...

That is me inside that big red dog. This is what I did today. The Pre-K, Kindergarten, and first grade classes at E and K's school took pictures with Clifford. But someone had to be Clifford. The PTSO was asked to help and I am PTSO Secretary. Three of us showed up. The VP was Clifford first but then she had to leave. The President was much better at herding kids, so I actually volunteered to be the dog.

I have never done anything like this in my life and never would have expected to! But other than being really hot inside that head, it was actually kind of fun! At the end I was even playing Simon Says along with them as they were lining up to take a class picture. The kids thought it was really funny.

Little kids are so funny and cute. It was nice to make them happy. And get hugged by them. The one class who wanted to tackle Clifford was interesting too--but they didn't manage to take me down!!

We took a break for lunch and I had lunch with K. There was one kid I wanted to hug on my way out of the cafeteria. She asked me who I was and if I was a college kid there to help! What a wonderful wonderful child....

Well now I am going to sneak in about a 20 minute nap before the kids get home. I got up at 5:30 so I could have my bible reading time today and I am exhausted!

Hope you enjoyed laughing at the redhead who was a big red dog today. Luke thought it was hilarious!

Good Monday to you

Since I have not blogged for almost a week and I am not feeling especially creative right now I thought I would copy the list idea again. Some do this every Monday, maybe I will since I have been so bad lately.

The weather in my neck of the woods:
Sunny, warm, a little windy. Supposed to be 92 today.

I am thinking: that I really need to go take a shower.

I am thankful for: the fact that I actually worked out today and it is over with!

From the kitchen: nothing yet but I need to bake some cookies for the lunchboxes this week.

I am wearing: my workout clothes and it is not cute…

I am reading: my bible study.

I am hearing: nothing except the air conditioner.

One of my favorite things: chocolate caramel coffee creamer. I wish it wasn’t poison in a bottle…

A few plans for the rest of the week: bible study tomorrow, blood tests Wednesday, dermatology appt Thursday, kids off school Friday and B a dr. appt.

On my To Do List for today:
Laundry. Change all sheets. Mop kitchen floor. Vacuum everything. Dust. Clean bathrooms. Bake some cookies. Make my snack for PWOC tomorrow.

Lesson learned the past few days:
That I have been blessed not to have had much real PMS in the past. Whatever these hormone issues I am having lately are trying to KILL me or drive me insane! A good cry for no reason can do wonders.

On my Prayer List:
Family and Friends as always

Devotionals, Scripture Reading, Key Verses:
1 Peter 5:8-9 Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings.

Today she is 7

Today is my baby girl's birthday. She is seven years old. Less and less baby every day.

I will put up birthday pictures in a day or so. But for now, here is a look back...

Always cute...

Always Mommy's girl...

I loved that crazy hair. Still sleeps with the blanky most of the time...

Happy Birthday K. I love you so much!!!!

Another old picture of me and my babies

For my birthday last month, Luke scanned in a bunch of our old pictures and made me a slide show set to music. It was really cool and very sweet. Kind of interesting to me to see what pictures he chose. I am thrilled to have the old things on the computer though. We only have about half a million others that need scanned now.

One of my friends from church mentioned that she enjoyed seeing those old pictures on the blog and on facebook. I thought she said pictures of when I was pregnant when she meant of the kids as babies. I do not have many pictures of me pregnant but that got me thinking about this one of me pregnant with K. I know I look like a cow in the picture but I still like it. The kids are so cute and we were having so much fun, and I was not paying attention that Luke was taking the picture. I remembered this picture when my friend mentioned it, so now I am sharing it.

This is not the pregnancy when my mom called me "the biggest pregnant woman you ever saw". That was when I was pregnant with E and I don't think I have any pictures of that. So I can't prove I was NOT the biggest woman ever but I am pretty sure it wasn't much worse than I am here. If it was, there is no evidence so I refuse to believe it even now.

I do make that umbrella back there look kind of small though....

Sunday

Praise the LORD, O my soul,
and forget not all his benefits-
who forgives all your sins
and heals all your diseases,
who redeems your life from the pit
and crowns you with love and compassion

Psalm 103:2-4

In God's presence

I hate walking on the treadmill. I don’t care how good exercise is for me, I still hate it and I can’t help it. What I do to try to distract myself is play my praise and worship music. I have said before how dangerous that can be though!

If I am good at distracting myself I can get totally caught up praising God. So caught up that I close my eyes and forget where I am. Luckily I have not fallen off the treadmill yet. I guess God is protecting me!

I was just listening to one song that gets me every time. I don’t even like all of it and I hate the video. It is In Better Hands by Natalie Grant. I only watched the video online once so I don’t remember it, but it was showing people dying. So, maybe it would be a song played for people who are gone, because they are in better hands now. That is true if they know Jesus, but it is sad when thought of that way and that is not how I hear the song.

It is about being saved. Being better off in God’s hands, giving Him your life, giving Him your heart. I am strong all because of You, it says. I stand in awe of every mountain that You move. I am changed, yesterday is gone. I am safe from this moment on.

One verse in particular gets me every time. What it does to me is remind me of how I feel about the presence of God. "It’s like the sun is shining when the rain is pouring down. It’s like my soul is flying though my feet are on the ground. It’s like the world is silent though I know it isn’t true. It’s like the breath of Jesus is right here in this room."—Wow that makes me want to just break out in tongues right there!! That is so true and I love it!

Be careful if you ever listen to it on the treadmill though. Especially if you hate exercise and you aren’t very coordinated. I was distracted though, so much that if the song had not ended I would have had to keep going past my 1.5 mile mark! But still, that is one song I just might have to save for when I am standing still!

Do you have any songs that do that to you?

Yesterday's treats

Here are the recipes for the cookies and the muffins that I made yesterday. Most of the cookies are gone already! They are awesome. The muffins are good too. K said she only liked them a little because of the peanut butter--and then she ate 2 of them. She loves peanut butter, she is just partial to plain chocolate chip muffins.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Chip Cookies
-2 cups all purpose flour
-2/3 cup cocoa powder
-1 tsp baking soda
-½ tsp salt
-1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
-1 cup white sugar
-2/3 cup brown sugar
-2 large eggs
-1 tsp vanilla
-1 ½ cups peanut butter chips
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In medium bowl whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt.
In large mixing bowl, cream together butter and sugars until fluffy.
Beat in eggs and vanilla. With mixer on low (so you don’t make a huge mess) beat in the flour mixture.
Stir in pb chips by hand.
Drop by rounded tablespoons onto baking sheet. Leave room for cookies to spread. Bake 9-11 minutes, until cookies are set at the edges and tops are slightly cracked. Cool on baking sheet for a few minutes, until firm enough to transfer to cooling rack.

I got this recipe from baking bites.com. It says it makes 4 dozen, but that’s not what I got. I use the cookie scoop from Pampered Chef and it made less. Be sure not to over bake these cookies, they should not be crispy! Crispy cocoa tastes burnt!


Peanut Butter Chip Muffins
-2 ¼ cups all purpose flour
-2 tsp baking powder
-½ tsp salt
-2/3 cup brown sugar
-6 tbsp butter, melted and cooled
-½ cup peanut butter (I use natural, smooth pb)
-2 large eggs
-1 cup milk
- ¾ cup milk chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line muffin tin with paper cups (they said 12 I got 15). In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, and brown sugar. In medium bowl, whisk together melted butter, peanut butter, eggs, and milk until smooth. Pour wet mixture into flour mixture until just combined. Stir in chocolate chips. Fill each muffin cup to the top. Bake 17-20 minutes or until done. Cool on wire rack.

I found this muffin recipe in a couple of different places so I am not sure of the source.

I did find several yummy sounding things at the baking bites website. I am sure I will be making many things from there in the near future! I will share recipes for everything that turns out good!

A better day

Well today has been much better! I don’t know if the bible study helped, the hormones are straightening out, or maybe Amy prayed the bad spirit off me! LOL

I have baked cookies (chocolate peanut butter chip) and muffins (peanut butter chocolate chip), made homemade vegetable soup, and washed dishes several times. I made beds, did laundry, walked 1.5 miles, and played with my new laptop webcam. It has been a good day. I love staying home, I feel so very blessed!

It is time for the kids to walk through the door and mommy is in a much better mood to greet them! Well, B just called me from her friend’s cell phone at the bus stop to come pick them up so they don’t have to walk! It is maybe .25 of a mile! She is so funny and dramatic!!

Now I am going to get the kids to make a video to tell my sweet niece happy birthday!

Finally back to studying...

I started my PWOC bible study today. I am very glad it has started because I need some bible study BAD.

Amy asked about PWOC, I have written about it before, but I may not have explained exactly what it is. It is just a women’s bible study that they have at the main chapel on base. PWOC stands for Protestant Women of the Chapel. It is for women of any Protestant denomination. It is once a week and set up in semesters like the school year--there is one class you pick for the fall semester and then you choose another for the spring semester. It is a really great thing. They have free childcare and there is praise and worship time and food. They have different clubs like scrap booking or bunco or just activities for wives whose husbands are deployed that meet maybe once a month at night. I never go to the club things because I don’t live on base, but they are a great way to fellowship more with other women and to keep busy while the husbands are gone (with good things!). The PWOC here and the one at our last base are big ones because the post is big. I really don’t know how many women are there but I am sure it is around 100. (Oh, there are like 9 classes to choose from-not 100 women all in one class!)

I have been looking forward to PWOC starting back up this fall. I really need to be around those women. There are some awesome women there. The kind of women who make me feel like I need to be a better Christian, step up and DO some of the things God tells me to do or say what he tells me to say! There is a really good reason that we are told to fellowship with other believers.

Like I said, it was about time bible study started up. I need to be around other Godly women. I need to study the word again, not just read whatever I feel like, I need to hear some good bible teaching and hear amazing insights from other women. I need to be challenged to be what I am supposed to be.

The study I am doing now is Anointed, Transformed, Redeemed. It is about the life of David and it is from Priscilla Shirer, Beth Moore, and Kay Arthur. It is going to be GOOD! I am already benefiting from hearing Priscilla on the video today. She spoke about being anointed. Man oh man, do I NOT feel anointed lately. But I am and that video has helped me all day.

I was not kidding about needing this. I have been in a bad mood for at least two days. No reason. No good reason anyway. I sure hope this is something hormonal! If it is then there is hope of it leaving soon! And I am so tired and I have been at least since school started. If it is not just hormones, then the devil is attacking me hard (maybe the hormones is just one of his methods!). I must be about to do something really good….LOL at least I hope so. I will have to force myself out of this mood so I will be paying attention and not miss whatever it is I am supposed to do!

I am even thinking about going to the PWOC conference in Missouri in November. I will let you know what I decide!

Baby Songs

One of the blogs I read had a thing today called Friday Faves with favorite songs you sing or sang to your babies. Like she told the songs she made up and sung to each of her children using their names. That is cool. I thought I was the only one who did that until I heard my sister doing it.

When they were babies, I sang all the time. It is funny what you will do to quiet a crying kid or to keep yourself awake so you don't fall asleep and dump them out of your lap at 3 am.

I learned the words to lullabies for B. I sang Hush Little Baby a lot--and Rock a Bye Baby. But I probably sang Itsy Bitsy Spider the most, especially when trying to feed her baby food. I also sang the "Name Game" song to her all the time.

I sung to E also. I sang while he nursed. Rock a bye baby again. More Itsy Bitsy Spider. And the name game with his name. Not much imagination on my part, but with that lack of sleep how on earth can you be creative??

Now with K, her name refuses to work with the name game. No way at all. But that was not fair, she HAD to have her name sung too. One day she was crying and I started humming--no it isn't humming but "doing" the BATMAN theme song. I can't even tell you why I know the Batman song. Where you are supposed to sing the word "Batman", I sang K's name. It just fit perfectly. Did I mention I was really sleep deprived??

I sang while nursing K too. My very favorite thing to sing to her was Amazing Grace. I learned all the verses And when my brain was too tired to remember all the words, I just sang the "Praise God" version. I enjoyed that very much. I enjoyed it more than she did, I guess. One day I was singing but after a few seconds, she reached up and covered my mouth with her little hand. I assume she was telling me to hush, that she knew as well as I did that Mommy cannot sing at all. I laughed out loud and stopped singing.

They all tell me now how good I sing, and even ask why I don't sing at church. I love that my babies still like to listen to their mommy sing. Because, really, I cannot sing AT ALL. Can't carry a tune in a bucket, that's me. But I will always treasure the memories of singing to all three of my babies. I would like to re-live that somehow when I get to Heaven...

Rambling about myself again...

Well today I skipped my walk but I did get some work done. In addition to the regular stuff that I actually finished today, I cleaned the living room (meaning moving furniture and cleaning everything), swept the front porch and sidewalk, did lots of laundry, cleaned the bathrooms, made homemade chocolate chip cookies, and even got two windows cleaned.

The best part is I checked my email at least twice today, and facebook, and I sat down to read the bible. I am still tired, but I feel like I actually accomplished some stuff today.

Yesterday the PWOC bible study started back up. I picked my class, but it doesn't actually start until next week. I hope I picked the right one. They did not announce them and describe them the way they usually do and that is one thing that helps me decide which one I think God wants me to take. I did see who the teacher was of this one and she was really worshipping and praying during the praise and worship time--I took that was a good sign because she actually stood out to me. I hope the class is good, I am so excited to get started. I just love PWOC.

Yesterday I did not even get my normal stuff finished after PWOC because I spent hours cleaning B's bedroom. That was a disaster. I threw away more than one large black trashbag full of trash and junk--mostly trash. That child is a horrible packrat and a slob--and I still did not throw away everything I could have. When I found ants in the closet attacking the easy bake oven, I just about lost it. I put the whole container outside and still haven't gone through it to see what exactly the ants were eating. I think I got them all killed in the closet though. I guess that mess is what I get for letting the kids clean their rooms and having each other inspect them instead of me! They are usually very good about telling what each other forgot to do or stuffed under the bed, but not this time!!

Well, maybe tomorrow I will get that walk in. Now I have to go make cornbread. I am making a pot of pinto beans for the first time ever. Hope someone will eat them!!