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It's just like a mini mall!
My dear cousin, Laura, sent me an email with this message and a link to the following video:

"This is a real commercial that airs in Montgomery, Alabama.
It makes me happier than it probably should."

I confess that it made me happy, too. Enjoy!

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I've Fallen and I Can't Get Up
Okay, so maybe the title is a slight exaggeration, but I really like it, so there it is...

I was in Blockbuster the day before Thanksgiving, and by pure coincidence found myself in front of the fitness DVD's. I say "by coincidence" to point out that I didn't enter the store with any good intentions about getting in shape. When I was flipping through them I came across the DVD on the left, The Lotte Berk Method: muscle eats fat, which claims "healthy toned muscles will burn calories 24 hours a day - even when you are at rest!" I tell my husband that I wish I didn't require rest, that I have enough projects going at any given time to occupy me 24 hours a day, so this whole "muscles that work in your sleep" idea really appealed to me. I bought it.

[I should mention at this point that I don't tend to have weight problems, which unfortunately means I don't tend to exercise; however, I'm currently 7-8 pounds over my norm and I really don't like it. Doing something about it is a different story.]

The video is only 30 minutes long, and Lily and I just watched it the first time. It seemed fairly innocuous: no irritating music, and the instructors were pleasant and encouraging. The next morning I began.

"In 10 days you'll feel the results, in 20 days you'll see the results."

Day 1: Exhaustion. There were times when my legs were absolutely shaking from fatigue. When I was finished I slid straight into a hot bath to soak. My husband had gone jogging and I was afraid that I might collapse in the shower if I tried to stand (hence the name of this post) and there wouldn't be anyone there to rescue me.

Day 2: Fear. Arm work doesn't bother me - I've been toting babies for years - but the leg exercises were very difficult for me. The humdinger is something called knee dancing. I am convinced that at some point during this season of 24, Jack Bauer will hold a gun to someone's head and force them to knee dance in order to extract a confession.

Day 3: Stubbornness. I am nothing if not stubborn, and I was angry about that whole fear thing on the previous day. With stubbornness comes determination, which is exactly what I needed.

I'll confess that I did the workout for 5 days, but didn't integrate it into our schedule once we got back into school. I started doing it again after Christmas, and I've hit 21 days now (26 if you count those first 5). They have managed to take a small number of exercises, interspersed with serious stretching, and achieve maximum effectiveness in a short amount of time. I think it would be impossible to do this workout and not see and feel results, unless you were already in good shape. I'm sure I must look just like the picture on the video case now. I can't take a picture and find out since I don't have any of those little tiny pink shorts and I'd catch a cold in this weather just taking the picture. Maybe it's best this way. I know I'm stronger and more flexible, though.

If you're interested, you can get more information about the complete set of beginner videos through their website. Enjoy!

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for mothers of pre-teen to teen sons
I pull up this article, Pubermania (gotta love that title!), and re-read it every couple of years. I have 20- and 15-year-old sons, but this time around I'm reading it in honor (or should I say because of) my son who turns 12 today. I thought I would share it in case any of you have sons around this age. Follow the links at the bottom of each page to read the entire article. Trust me, you may find it quite enlightening. I always do.

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Tuesday, during which I learn that Monday most certainly was an anomaly
Do you ever have posts which for whatever reason go unpublished? Maybe they were never finished, maybe blogger wouldn't cooperate and upload your pictures and then you forgot to go back and publish later, whatever. I have a handful of those stray drafts floating through my Edit Posts folder, like this one, for instance, which was nothing more than a title. It started as a follow-up to this post, which I was afraid might leave you with the erroneous notion that I really had my act together, whether for real or in my own imagination. It was a halcyon day (now how many good opportunities do you get to use a word like that?), but almost as soon as I hit "Publish" God showed me that while that sort of day was possible, it wasn't probable. The next 24-hours were completely insane.

You know what I noticed? On the day when things were practically-perfect-in-every-way (Mary Poppinsesque, if you will), I didn't pray, "Lord, we're covering a whole lot of math today, but could you help us do a little more?" or "Lord, help me make this fun read-aloud just a little better." I thanked Him, but I didn't feel the need of Him the same way I did the next day, the day when everything that could go wrong did. The day that, as a friend so aptly noted, I was flying by the seat of my pants. And I realized that in a way I sort of like those days, the days when I know He's there lifting me over every hurdle (and believe me, there are plenty at times).

I'll close this with my favorite verse from the hymn "God Moves in a Mysterious Way":
Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take;
The clouds ye so much dread
Are big with mercy and shall break
In blessings on your head.

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The all-time greatest read-aloud-in-one-sitting children's book ever. Period.
When my older boys were little, our favorite read-aloud was Dr. Seuss's Fox in Socks. My goal was to read it error-free; their goal was to catch my error. These sessions were great fun for all, the boys on the edge of their seats waiting to buzz me when I got tangled on the words. It was always there among the three cheese trees, Bim and Ben's brooms, the tweetle beetles, or Sue's new socks - that one little slip that would blow my perfect reading. Somewhere along the way I got sentimental and put away the book. It was from a set my mother had bought me as a small child, with her handwritten inscription and date (late '60's) in the front cover, and it was getting fragile. Why I never got another copy, I don't know.

We bought new toothbrushes and toothpaste a couple of months ago which included a mail-in book offer. One of the choices was Fox in Socks and today it arrived in the mail. I don't think the other kids realized just why this was such a big deal to my fifteen-year-old son and I, although my five-year-old seemed awfully excited. After lunch we sat down for the big read-aloud. Mistake #1 occurred within the first few pages, so I started over (hey, I'm still working towards that perfect reading). Reading #2 was near the end when I inserted a "sir" that wasn't there. Good grief - not even a tongue-twister! We didn't get much further because at that time all the kids squealed and I turned to see Lily standing at the end of the couch, vomitting her lunch (spaghetti, an unfortunate choice) on the floor. With the carpet cleaning and bath that followed, the book was shelved. Literally.

I'm excited to introduce our all-time favorite read-aloud to my newest crop of kids. Maybe, just maybe, one day I'll post about that elusive perfect reading. Stay tuned.
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Works-for-Me Wednesday: Strikethrough Text

I've never done this before, but I'm going to post something from the archives. I originally published this in October and it still gets lots of hits from Google searches, so I figure this is something people want to learn how to do. So without further ado...

Strikethrough Text

Do you really like love it when you see that strikethrough text effect, you just don't know how to do it? Now you can! Just enclose the word or words you want to strike through between the following tags:

<strike>like</strike> gives you like
or
<s>like</s> will also give you like

Those brackets are on your keyboard under the letter "L." Just don't forget to include the / on the end tag; that lets your browser know to stop this effect, or else it will just keep striking through everything you write.

To my knowledge, this will not work when leaving comments (I haven't tried it in the new Beta, so who knows?). Have fun, go forth, and strike away!

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Win a free apron!

Publish a comment at Smockity Frocks to enter a drawing to win this lovely free apron. Post about it on your blog (like this), and you'll be entered a second time.

Just listen to this description from the website:
This is the newest apron I am selling. I am not making any guarantees, but when I wear this apron, my hair is curlier, my teeth are whiter, and there is a noticeable sing-song quality to my voice. In fact, when I speak, I can hear the faint sound of birds chirping and leaves rustling.*

*Results may vary.
All entries are due by midnight this Thursday.
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Common Sense: 1 - iPod: 0
Today my 15-year-old made an amazing revelation: he's realized that iPods and other mp3 players are interfering with his life and that of other kids. A group of his buddies got together for a birthday party this weekend. They are best friends from church, but spread out over a big metro area and don't get to spend as much time together as they would like. Apparently during the course of their time together they wore iPods part of the time, and he finally thought, "Why are we doing this?" He "locked" his iPod yesterday and hasn't used it since. He also realized last night that it interferes with his reading. Hallelujah!

I get so frustrated being in the same vehicle with a child, yelling at the top of my lungs and not being heard. Admittedly, I drive a 15-passenger van so I'm about half a mile from the kids in the back seat, but still... Pull out those headphones and join the real world with the rest of us (or at least our version of the real world)!
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A Cheerful Giver
I am amazed and excited by the response to the fundraiser for Kelli - $9160! WOW! I told the kids all about it on the way to church last Sunday: Kelli's background, condition, and the need for money for COBRA payments. When Tuesday morning rolled around, I asked the kids if any wanted to contribute. I thought it would be wonderful if they wanted to help, but this is not the sort of thing I would force.

My kids do helpful things for my retired neighbors - like sweep the steps, clean house, yard work, etc. - and they give them money which they keep for them in individual coffee cans. Two kids gave me $5 each and one gave $4. One handed me $28 and told me that he wanted to order an $8 CD from Amazon for his friend's birthday, and to send the rest. I was completely blown away. I hugged him with tears in my eyes and told him how proud I was of him and how generous he was. Do you know what he said? "It's only money."

It made me ashamed for every time I am faced with a situation to give, and I think, "When is the house payment due?" or "How much is the gas bill this month?" or something else along those lines. It's not easy to give when we get bogged down by worldly considerations. I pray to have my faith restored and not forget God's promise:

Matthew 6: 31-33:
Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?
(For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.
But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.


These pictures have nothing to do with the post; I just wanted to share.




Here is Miss Lily in my supper cool sweet awesome bathtub!

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Hidden Treasure Blog Awards

This is a really neat idea hosted by Everyday Mommy (and I really love this button she's designed)! Here is her summary of what it's all about:
Announcing the First Annual Hidden Treasure Blog Awards. The idea is simple; to recognize blog authors of excellence, with deserving posts which may go unnoticed.

All of us have our favorite blogs, the ones we read faithfully. They are dear friends, like a comfortable pair of shoes, perfectly broken in. But, we can also find ourselves in a rut, reading the same blogs week after week, and overlooking those hidden gems which may require a little more digging. But, as my mom taught me, anything worth having is worth working for.

So, if you're up for an adventure I invite you to join me in a treasure hunt.
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Ultimate Blog Party

Hey! You're invited to The Ultimate Blog Party at 5 Minutes For Mom!
This looks like a lot of bloggy fun and socializing like BooMama's tours of homes.

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supper cool sweet awesome bathtubs
Just what does that mean, you might ask. So might I. Please note it is "supper cool" and not "super cool" sweet awesome bathtubs we're talking about here.

Confused?

My sitemeter tells me that someone linked to my blog today under those search terms, and amazingly enough, it appears that I do come in #7 on a Google search of those interesting terms.

Now this is why I have a sitemeter: the entertainment factor. And yeah, my bathtub is pretty supper cool.

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Aw, man, I missed it!




I can't believe I forgot to post these for de-lurking week, January 8-12! Please take the time to say "hello" if you've dropped by. Mostly, I just really wanted an excuse to post these cool buttons. Here's the one I made:


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Bear ye one another's burdens...
Galatians 6:2: Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.

This is a verse I really, really love. When I was president of our former homeschool support group I proposed it as our group verse, and it was met with overwhelming support. The group grew to embody the verse.

My pastor spoke on this verse Sunday.

Today is an opportunity to bear the burden of another, our sister in Christ, Kelli. The post beneath this one has more details if you're not sure of the situation. I urge you to visit BooMama's post today where you can make a donation for this worthy cause. I am trying to rush out the door to take my daughter quilting, but I wanted to send this reminder first. I will publish the sweet story of my kids' responses to this need later.

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Call to prayer
There are some people who are really on my mind and I would like to solicit prayers on their behalf. You want to know the funny thing? I've never met any of these people, but then again, I've never met many of the people who comment on this blog and whose blogs I read. It just doesn't matter.

The first is a woman in my homeschool group. This evening I found out that a six-year-old girl in our group fell out of a three-story building. She was trying to repel out the window with bedsheets tied to her as she had seen in a TV movie. She fell, was injured, and later died and her funeral was on December 16th. Her mother is a single parent who also has an eight-year-old son and three-year-old daughter. I cannot imagine what this woman is experiencing. The mom's name is Susan and the little girl's name was Ariel.

The second is a friend of a friend. Her name is Muggs and she is a mother of five who was diagnosed about a month ago with a serious form a lung cancer which affects non-smokers; it is advanced. She survived Hodgkin's when she was a teenager. Because of the cancer experience she had years ago, they told her they cannot do radiation and they can't operate. She has begun chemo and she will have six treatments every three weeks, but they don't recommend additional chemo. Her family started a blog here where they post updates about her condition.

The third is Kelli, a wife and mother of two who is suffering from severe kidney failure in her one remaining kidney. Her need for a kidney transplant is seriously a life-or-death situation. Here is a summary which BooMama posted:
Kelli quit work several months ago because, honestly, work was no longer viable with her condition. Her family has their health insurance through her former employer, and that will run out at the end of this month. What I’d love for us to be able to do for her is to cover a portion of her COBRA payments so that she can be free from the worry of being cut off by her private insurance. We all know that sometimes when it rains, it pours - and on top of the COBRA pressure, Kelli’s facing some incredibly expensive post-transplant medicines, the adjustment to being a single-income family, and, more than anything, the realization that if COBRA doesn’t come through - and if she and her husband can’t show the ability to pay for part of the transplant on their own - she’ll no longer be a transplant candidate. Without a transplant, quite frankly, she will die.
Please visit BooMama on Tuesday to take part in the fund raiser she's organizing. I explained her situation to the kids on the way to church and they want to contribute, which touches me more than you can imagine. I'm always telling them not to throw away their money on gum and candy, so this is an opportunity for them to see that there are ways they can do good with it, no matter how little it may seem.

Please take a moment to pray for these three ladies and their families, and may the Lord bless you this week.

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Life Imitates Art, or vice versa, part 2
I posted this earlier, then looked later and blogger had eaten the pictures. If they are missing when you read this, I'll go back and fix it later!

I think maybe this is a sequel to this post, but in reverse.

Lily and I reenacted one of her favorite rituals yesterday: she empties her clothes out of the bottom drawer of my wardrobe, and I catch her then fold and put them away. While folding one particular outfit, the one she is pictured in below, I saw an amazing thing:



Do you see it?

Here, look a little closer (click to enlarge):



It's my template, right down to the snowflake! Was I subliminally inspired by this outfit? Beats the heck out of me!



In this shot you can see why her eyes and nose are red in the first two pictures: I had taken her little flashlight to get a shot of the shirt, but I couldn't bear her tears.

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Basic Truths About 24's Jack Bauer
As an avid 24 fan, I'm awaiting Sunday night's season premiere with much anticipation. FiddleDeeDee posted this hysterical list of Jack Bauer trivia (and yes, every word of it is true). Neal Boortz is the author (and like FiddleDeeDee, I had to edit the list a bit for publication). Enjoy!

Basic Truths About 24's Jack Bauer

Killing Jack Bauer doesn't make him dead. It just makes him angry.

If Jack Bauer was in a room with Hitler, Stalin, and Nina Meyers, and he had a gun with 2 bullets, he'd shoot Nina twice.

If you wake up in the morning, it's because Jack Bauer spared your life.

Superman wears Jack Bauer pajamas.

If it tastes like chicken, looks like chicken, and feels like chicken, but Jack Bauer says its beef. Then you better believe it's beef.

Jack Bauer once forgot where he put his keys. He then spent the next half-hour torturing himself until he gave up the location of the keys.

1.6 billion Chinese are angry with Jack Bauer. Sounds like a fair fight.

Let's get one thing straight: the only reason you are conscious right now is because Jack Bauer does not feel like carrying you.

Jack Bauer was never addicted to heroin. Heroin was addicted to Jack Bauer.

Jack Bauer played Russian Roulette with a fully loaded gun and won.

When life gave Jack Bauer lemons, he used them to kill terrorists. Jack Bauer hates lemonade.

Jack Bauer once won a game of Connect 4 in 3 moves.

Osama bin Laden's recent proposal for truce is a direct result of him finding out that Jack Bauer is, in fact, still alive.

Jack Bauer is the leading cause of death in Middle Eastern men.

Jack Bauer doesn't miss. If he didn't hit you it's because he was shooting at another terrorist twelve miles away.

When Jack Bauer was a child, he made his mother finish his vegetables.

Jack Bauer killed 93 people in just 4 days time. Wait, that is a real fact.

Simon Says should be renamed to Jack Bauer Says because if Jack Bauer says something then you better do it.

Jack Bauer won the Tour de France on a unicycle to prove to Lance Armstrong it wasn't a big deal. He thinks yellow wristbands are gay.

When Jack Bauer pees into the wind, the wind changes direction.

Jack Bauer's favorite color is severe terror alert red. His second favorite color is violet, but just because it sounds like violent.

When you open a can of whoop-a**, Jack Bauer jumps out.

When Google can't find something, it asks Jack Bauer for help.

You can lead a horse to water. Jack Bauer can make him drink.

Jack Bauer can get McDonald's breakfast after 10:30.

When the boogie man goes to sleep, he checks his closet for Jack Bauer.

Every mathematical inequality officially ends with "< Jack Bauer."

In 96 hours, Jack Bauer has killed 93 people and saved the world 4 times. What the heck have you done with your life?

Jack Bauer killed so many terrorists that at one point, the #5 CIA Most Wanted fugitive was an 18-year-old teenager in Malaysia who downloaded the movie Dodgeball.

In kindergarten, Jack Bauer killed a terrorist for Show and Tell.

What color is Jack Bauer's blood? Trick question. Jack Bauer does not bleed.

Guns don't kill people, Jack Bauer kills people.

If Jack and MacGyver were locked in a room together, Jack would make a bomb out of MacGyver and get out.

People with amnesia still remember Jack Bauer.

Sun Tzu once wrote, "If your enemy is weaker, conquer him. If he is stronger, join him. If he is Jack Bauer, you're dead."

Jack Bauer literally died for his country, and lived to tell about it.

Jack Bauer has been to Mars. That's why there's no life on Mars.

Superman's only weakness is Kryptonite. Jack Bauer laughs at Superman for having a weakness.

When Batman is in trouble, he turns on the Jack Bauer signal.

It took Jack Bauer two minutes to beat a confession out of OJ.

Jack Bauer was conceived by torturing the other sperm until they gave up the location of the egg.

Jack Bauer's family threw him a surprise birthday party when he was a child. Once.

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A Worthy Cause
Visit BooMama's post about Kelli's need for a kidney transplant and what fellow bloggers are doing to support her next Tuesday, January 16.
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Works-for-Me Wednesday: Hot Air Styler and Dryer
Can you say, doesn't follow directions well? Since I obviously missed the theme of today's WFMW, I was going to shelve it until next week, but I don't see the option to delete it from Shannon's linky, so here it is...



First of all, I am really excited that Wednesday has rolled around and I actually remember my WFMW idea (from two weekends ago - I couldn't remember what it was last Wednesday). The Revlon hot air styler and dryer pictured is one of the greatest inventions I have ever tried for fixing your hair. The girl who cuts my hair uses one, and told me I could pick one up at Target, which I did immediately, although mine is silver instead of this funky purple.

For years I used a hair dryer and a round brush to fix my hair. This is like a round brush with a built-in dryer and two barrel sizes. There is one thing I need to tell you though, or you will not like it: Do not think of this as a hair dryer, but instead as the ultimate round brush. Get your hair almost completely dry (or even completely dry) before you use it. If you use it on wet hair it will take forever.

It takes a little getting used to, but then it makes fixing your hair a snap!

Visit Shannon at Rocks in My Dryer for more WFMW tips!

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OH.MY.WORD!
Update: All of the bloglines errors are gone today! I think Milehimama was probably right (in comments) about it being caused by blogger maintenance. I was gone all day and didn't realize there was maintenance yesterday. I'm leaving this up in case it helps anyone in the future with a site feed error. They seem to happen all the time.

Dear friends,

I went to check my bloglines tonight and found that not one, not two, not three, but EIGHTEEN of the fifty-one blogs I subscribe to are showing feed errors through Bloglines. I posted about this in November when it happened to me. Usually, if I see one of my friendly bloggers with a feed error I email them and tell them about it. Since emailing eighteen of you seems a little labor intensive at the moment, I'm hoping this will help. Just email them and ask them to reset your feed.

Blessed blogging!

p.s. - To find out if you have a site feed error, subscribe to your own blog, and look for a red [!] by your name, both on the list to the left and in the upper right corner next to "edit subscription" when you click on your individual listing. A site feed error means that bloglines will not show subscribers that you have posted anything new (even if you have). Hopefully this is a freaky bloglines thing and will resolve itself.

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Resolved
I know the word resolution gets overused at this time of year and even holds a somewhat negative connotation for many: decisions made with good intentions, abandoned too soon, subsequently leading to disappointment. I, however, love this time of year and the fact that even acting on those worthy impulses for a limited time shows me what we are capable of doing, with a little resolve.

I have done my workout video for 12 days. [I'm supposed to "feel a difference after 10 days and see a difference after 20."] I did it for 5 days after Thanksgiving, but didn't really keep up with it after we got back into school. I am NOT a morning person - no sirree! - but I got myself up early this morning, did my workout, read my Bible and my Intellectual Devotional (in that order), and ate breakfast, all before the kids got out of bed, AND I was in full make-up 35 minutes before our official school start time of 9:00 a.m. [I told you I wasn't a morning person; with an earlier start time we would have been doomed to failure years ago.] And did I mention that I even squeezed in a quick post, too?

Our schooling went well today. I watched math videos with four different kids; had a good Russian lesson with one; finished a book about Nathan Hale with another; discussed Eratosthenes with another; and even had a fabulous and funny read-aloud session from the Book of Virtues on the couch.

To top it all off, I made the Party Potato Skins that Barb posted this weekend for supper, and they were everything that I'd imagined and then some.

Any mix of these things on an ordinary day would be amazing, but altogether on one day they are nothing short of extraordinary.

Yes, this first day of school in 2007 may be an anomaly, but it shows me what can be done and gives me a little hope for what we can accomplish in any given day, with a little resolve and a whole lot of grace.

Blessings to you and yours!

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Feeling Good
Psyching myself up for back to school (this has been going through my mind all morning)...



Feeling Good

Birds flying high
You know how I feel
Sun in the sky
You know how I feel
Reeds driftin' on by
You know how I feel

It's a new dawn
It's a new day
It's a new life
For me
And I'm feeling good

Fish in the sea
You know how I feel
River running free
You know how I feel
Blossom in the tree
You know how I feel

It's a new dawn
It's a new day
It's a new life
For me
And I'm feeling good

Dragonfly out in the sun you know what I mean, don't you know
Butterflies all havin' fun you know what I mean
Sleep in peace when the day is done
And this old world is a new world
And a bold world
For me

Stars when you shine
You know how I feel
Scent of the pine
You know how I feel
Yeah freedom is mine
And I know how I feel

It's a new dawn
It's a new day
It's a new life
For me

And I'm feeling good

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You like?
I've been anticipating making over the blog since before the holidays. My husband saw what I was doing and said, "But there are still snowflakes!"

That's a good excuse to do it again in the spring.

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Ouch!
When we gave our 15-year-old a new chess set for Christmas, he told me that I'd have to learn to play. Tonight we had our first lesson. I felt much less apprehensive once I decided that I didn't have to actually master the game in one night, just get a feel for it.

By the end, I decided my goal for the evening was merely learning how each piece moves; I spent the whole time looking at the instruction booklet which diagrammed it. My son was very patient; it took me forever. I told him the story of Barb cooking up tons of Christmas goodies because her mom took 15-20 minutes per turn at Scrabble, so he pulled out our awesome new hardback complete works of Lewis Carroll (leatherbound at BJ's now for $14.99!) and started reading Alice in Wonderland during my turns.

My boys have played chess for years, so he's quite the pro while I'm quite the amateur. [Remember, I told you mothers of young ones that one day your children will arise up and whip your rear at Monopoly? Well that goes for chess, too.] At one point he he just shook his head and said, "It's really hard to develop a strategy against someone who has no strategy."

Ouch.
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Bow Madness!

I am so excited that my Picasa has decided to work with blogger beta now!

I wanted to share this crazy picture of my Sabra and her friend, Rachel. Rachel and her brother spent the night last night with my kids. The girls were having fun today looking through the two big boxes of bows that I have here to photograph for my friend's bow website. Rachel styled this fabulous bow hairstyle creation for Sabra! Aren't those bows gorgeous (and the girls, too!)?
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New Year's Meditations

I have been thinking a lot about this since reading that Laurel Wreath was organizing New Year's Meditations. Some of mine probably sound familiar to many of you: I want to lose about 8 pounds; I need to read my Bible more (and towards that end, I just ordered this after reading about it on my cousin's blog); I need to exercise (I've actually done a workout video for 6 of the last 7 days, which is amazing for me).

Laurel Wreath asked, "When you look back December 2007 where would you like to be?" so that's what I'll try to answer now:

A lot of what's on my heart concerns my family and my personal goals. I have written about the reading and hours that I've been putting into learning programs for web design. Some days are rewarding. Some days I am so frustrated or overwhelmed that I just want to walk away and never look at this computer again. I want this learning part of the journey to pass quickly. I don't want my family to think I'm neglecting them or don't have enough time for my domestic duties. Mostly, I want to help my family financially and take some stress off of my husband. He's diabetic, and I worry about his health. A lot.

Also, I hope to make progress towards certification as a childbirth educator and labor doula. I just ordered this book, which is on my required reading list. I am quite blessed to have three friends whose births I can attend in April and May; however, I am really nervous about one of them. Two of them are experienced mothers. I think Crew Mom's biggest fear is that I might try to talk her out of her epidural (just kidding, honey!). One, however, is a friend who is expecting her first child at age 41. I am absolutely thrilled for her: she and her husband have adopted 5 children in their 18 years of marriage and now she's pregnant for the first time. She is reading and studying the process just like I did with my first pregnancy, and she wants that amazing unmedicated birth. I am praying the Lord will grant her a safe delivery and that her birth will be all that she desires, and that I'll know how to help and support her to achieve that end. Also, I pray that she'll have medical staff (please, give us a midwife!) who are receptive to her wishes and treat her like an individual, instead of plugging her into the standardized childbirth model common in hospitals today.

I have the concern common to most homeschooling mothers: are we accomplishing what we need to accomplish? This year I want my children to become better and more prolific readers, and my 15-year-old and I to make serious progress in his learning of Russian.

It's hard to believe that Lily turned 18-months the week before Christmas. I have had little ones and babies for so long, but I know that won't always be the case. Every step for her has been difficult for me: moving out of our room, weaning, etc. I really want to savor the moments with my little ones. At the same time, my oldest son at home only has 2 1/2 years of high school left, and I've seen once before how quickly that time can pass. I pray for guidance in equipping him for life beyond the nest.

I am hungry for time to just sit and read again, which is evidenced to me by the fact that I've gotten five new books in the past two weeks. I want my 2007 reading list to branch beyond web design.

I've been quite blessed in my decision to start this blog in May. I never imagined the friendships I would forge with ladies I've never met, or the strengthened bonds with friends and family who blog, too. Thanks to all of you ladies who've encouraged and inspired me in 2006. I look forward to deepening those friendships in the upcoming year, and I hope to use the opportunity to bless others when it's presented to me.

If you would like to participate or read other posts, go here to the post on Laurel Wreath's site.

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Oh, My Darling Clementine!
Oh, my darling clementine!
You make my children's faces shine.

You dispel the winter gloom
And fill the air with sweet perfume.

The trick is how to pay
For the crate that we would eat each day.
(more about our favorite winter treat)

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Christmas!
I am very focused right now on my friend's hairbow website, so I'm a full week behind on blogging and checking my bloglines, but I wanted to post some photos from Christmas:

All of the kids opened new pajamas on Christmas Eve, so they're all wearing their new jammies in the pictures. In a tradition dating from my days as a child, everybody has Life Savers Sweet Storybooks in their stockings, although Santa brings our kids the Gummy Savers kind (since they're not as messy); he's kind of considerate that way. I think these girls were swallowing them by the handfuls!

This is a hugely popular item: a dollhouse/bookcase. Can you tell that it had already been decorated for Christmas?

My family has always loved Cabbage Patch Dolls. My 94-year-old great-aunt used to stand in line to get them when they first came out in the early 80s. I took the kids to tour Babyland General last year in December. I had a request last week to please go again soon.

This is my 15-year-old son. Doesn't he look half asleep (he is)? This is a really neat chess, checkers, backgammon set. I was just happy that he wanted a chess set for Christmas. All of my boys play, but I'm embarrassed to say that I never learned how. I just assume it will take a lot of time, so I never get around to it. I've been told that I have to learn, though.


We played a big game of Monopoly with this new set on Christmas night. For those of you with only younger kids, be prepared that one day your children will arise up and whip your rear at Monopoly (just a little something to look forward to).

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