When Boy Meets Girl

 On Mother’s Day 2010, I was sitting in church and was looking around the auditorium and noticed that one of the guys from our church was home from Bible college and he had brought a friend. That friend was very good looking. After church, everyone was making their way to their vehicles, and this visitor was outside meeting some of the church people; as I walked by, I was introduced to him and his name was Matt. He returned to our church that night and after the service a group of us went out to Culver’s for some fellowship and Matt was there too. He sat across from me and I didn’t mind at all. Everyone was asking him questions, he was talking about his family and their time in Uganda as missionaries, and I was fascinated.  At dinner the guys had mentioned that they would be leaving Tuesday to head to Florida for the summer which is where Matt lived. Monday and Tuesday I had been thinking about this guy. Wednesday came around and I got to church, and they were still in town: a nice surprise to see Matt again. We became friends on Facebook during the time he was there (because who doesn’t become friends on Facebook after meeting someone once). However, the next morning they left for Florida.

The next day, I decided to message Matt on Facebook. My message went a little something like this: Hey Matt. It was really nice meeting you and I would really like to get to know you better. He responded with his phone number and we began texting… A LOT. We texted everyday for about a week and then phone calls started happening. By the end of the month, he had invited me to Florida in June for Vacation Bible School. Did I mention he hadn’t even asked his parents if I could come before he said something to me? His mom thought he couldn’t have picked a worse time than during Vacation Bible School because it is one of the busiest times for his family. However, he wanted to see if I could handle the family during such a busy, yet ministry filled week. A lot of other questions were asked of Matt by his mom too: Why this girl? Who is paying for her ticket? Does she have a roundtrip ticket? Where is she going to stay?

I had bought my ticket and I was so excited, yet nervous at the same time. The week before I was supposed to fly all the way to Florida to see this guy, a few things were running through my mind: What am I doing? I’ve never flown before. I’m flying all by myself. I’m going to look into refunds for my tickets. Thankfully, I got out of my own head and prayed and the next week I flew to Florida. 

This was my first Vacation Bible School and still my favorite one to this day. I enjoyed working with the kids in the classes but adored watching Matt leading the kids. No one at the church even knew I was there for Matt until we sat together in church on Wednesday night. During the afternoons that week, Matt had a lot of fun things planned: Snorkeling, Boating, Universal City Walk, Mini Golf and The Beach. We had a great week together, and I enjoyed getting to know his family. We had made some plans and by the end of that week we were OFFICIALLY a couple. 

He came back to Peoria in August and we spent thanksgiving together too. He asked me if I would come to Christmas with his family. I had never been away from my family for Christmas before, so this was a first. A Florida Christmas, is much different than what I was used too. There was no snow, but there was Matt. 

On December 23, 2010, Matt had a special day planned. He took me to the beautiful St. Augustine, where we visited the Castillo De San Marcos. It was a gorgeous day, and we took our time touring the Castle and finally made our way to the top of the Castle. We had a beautiful view overlooking the water, the sun was out, and there was a nice crisp breeze, Matt got down on one knee and asked me to be his wife. It was the best day of my life. Of course, I said, “YES!” We were ecstatic and spent the afternoon walking around the town as an engaged couple. I’m not sure how much of the town I remember, I was too busy admiring my new accessory and handsome Fiancé.    Merry Christmas to ME! 

A little over six months later, on July 1, 2011, Matt and I got MARRIED!

Tomorrow we celebrate six years of marriage and I am incredibly blessed with a great husband.

How did you meet your spouse?

Things My Children Already Know

If you have children, you know that the mother's job never stops. You never have sick days or days off really. You're a janitor, chauffeur, cook, maid, and teacher 24/7.  So, to make your life easier, I have made a list of things you do not have to do for or teach to your child. These are things that come pre-programmed in them when your child is born. Just a few less things for you to worry about in your daily regimen.

• First things first. You don't have to teach them that the alarm in the morning means it's time to get up. And by alarm I mean the sound of the toilet flushing at 5 a.m. when you just couldn't hold it any longer, but you were hoping to sneak back into bed for another hour or so. It never fails for them to hear that "alarm" and jump out of bed to come find you.
• You also don't have to teach them where to find their own meals. Those little buggers always know where it's stashed. From the cereal and snacks that are on the top shelf of the cupboards (they are never afraid of heights when it comes to food), to the candy stashed in the back corner of your nightstand drawer. You may need to work on portion control and use of dishes, though. They tend to think they need to empty the entire box of fruity puffs onto the floor to share with those who couldn't climb to the top shelf. 
• You never have to teach them to dance. Start up any music, and almost as soon as they can sit up, they're wiggling and dancing. The amount of dancing they do is in direct correlation to how big a crowd you're in.
• You don't have to teach them to take care of their things. Or perhaps I should say, you don't have to teach them that they have things. "MY toys! MY chair! MY food! MY shoes!" Seems to come quite naturally for them.

• You also don't have to teach them to repurpose items in this recycling world in which we live. Somehow they always manage to find multiple uses for the same item. In fact, sometimes they never use an item for its original intended purpose.

Obviously one of the things that you DO want to teach them is to have a close walk with the Lord. Some of that will be taught by example. For instance, I have my devotions every day. Kaitlyn realizes this. A couple of weeks ago, she started carrying her Bible around and announcing to me, "I doing my dotions (devotions), Mom." Yesterday she decided she wanted to do her "dotions" with Momma.

It's times like these when I don't mind the cereal all over the floor as much.

Ain't That the Truth!

Because it's Monday, I thought I'd give you a few  facts you can share with others to make your day just a little more interesting. Keep in mind that I have not personally verified all any of these facts. But I found them on the internet, so I'm certain they must be true.

1. Banging your head against a wall burns 150 calories an hour. Or you could just ... you know ... exercise.
2. Pteronophobia is the fear of being tickled by feathers!  And nomophobia is the fear of being without mobile phone coverage. What's your point?
3. When hippos are upset, their sweat turns red. Does it happen when they realize they've run out of coffee in the morning or just when they get cut off in traffic?
4. A flock of crows is known as a murder. And a group of jellyfish is known as a smack.
5. “Facebook Addiction Disorder” is a mental disorder identified by Psychologists. The danger is real!
6. The average woman uses her height in lipstick every 5 years. I prefer to put it on once a day, but to each her own.
7. May 29th is officially “Put a Pillow on Your Fridge Day“. And today is National Chocolate Pudding Day. Now that makes more sense!
8. Cherophobia is the fear of fun. And thaasophobia is the fear of being boring.
9. Human saliva has a boiling point three times that of regular water. Who tested this?!?!? Eww!!!
10. Bananas are curved because they grow towards the sun. This just makes me smile!
11. During your lifetime, you will produce enough saliva to fill two swimming pools. How is it even possible to test this?
12. If Pinocchio said “My Nose Will Grow Now”, it would cause a paradox.
13. Polar bears can eat as many as 86 penguins in a single sitting. I'm sure there's a polar bear or two that could squeeze in 87 if he didn't mind feeling a little stuffed.
14. Heart attacks are more likely to happen on a Monday. Well of course! 
15. in 2015, more people were killed from injuries caused by taking a selfie than by shark attacks. How sad is it that this doesn't even surprise me?

So there you go--topics for lunchtime at work. Your welcome.

P.S. Which facts do you really believe to be true?

Surprise!

Shortly after my husband and I were married I found a job working at a psychiatric office. I worked five days a week, and had an hour long round trip commute. On Mondays I worked ten hours, which were always long days considering where I worked and the type of people that came through the door.  

One Sunday evening after church we were relaxing in our apartment, and we were looking on Craigslist at different things. Just for kicks we started looking at the animals. We all love looking at adorable animal pictures, don't we? We came across some disgusting snakes, some puppies and an adorable orange cat. When we got to the picture of the cat I looked at my husband and said, “aww, it’s so cute.”

Well, Monday rolled around and off to work I went. When my day ended, I called my husband and let him know I was on my way home. This particular Monday he sounded a little short, and was quick to get off the phone. I wasn’t sure what was wrong, so the whole way home I was wondering what was going on. As I walked in the door of our apartment, Matt was standing there smiling and all of his brothers were sitting very quietly on my couches. They were all waiting for a reaction. A reaction to what, you ask? It was all very weird. The blinds were all shut, the lights were all off except the kitchen, and there was a smell, a nasty smell. That could have been the boys; the jury is still out on that one. It took me a few minutes to figure out what they were all up to. A few seconds later I saw a little orange fur ball come out from around the couch. My husband said, “SURPRISE!”. That it was. I was not happy. I went to my room, closed the door and cried!

Did I mention I am allergic to cats?

I didn’t like my job, it was a long, bad day, and I was definitely surprised to come home to a room full of boys and this new cat. Matt came to our room to check on me. I told him I appreciated the gesture, but the cat had to go. Then I proceeded to tell him just because I said it was cute didn’t mean I wanted it. He said, “it was FREE”. 

That also doesn’t make it better. There was probably a reason it was free. Perhaps his SMELL? I said, “Please, get rid of him.” Well at that point it was too late in the evening to give him back. I gave the cat some water and put him in our guest bathroom … all night. It might have been a little cruel, but come on! What would you have done? 

The next day Matt took the cat to his parents' house to stay the night. My mother-in-law wasn’t too happy, but my husband assured her it was ok because they already had two cats and it would be fine. It was just for one night. Wrong--it was there for two nights. By Wednesday the little orange fur ball was back to it's owner and I was still working on getting the smell out of our apartment.

So the moral of the story is, just because a woman says something is cute doesn’t mean she always wants it. Unless it’s a purse or a pair of shoes. Then, yes, you do indeed have permission to surprise us!

Have you ever been surprised with something you didn’t want?

VBS!!

Well, it's VBS week at our home church. Which can be exhausting in and of itself, but our church does it very uniquely. We also have our missions conference in the same week. We do VBS from 9 - noon, and then come back for the evening service at 7 every evening. So, I thought in honor of all of us here at my church, I would do a "this is VBS" post.

    It starts weeks before VBS even starts. First comes the announcement. The get excited and go sign up for a class announcement.

Then comes the recruiter because not enough people signed up to help. It's an unpleasant job, but someone has to be the bad guy.

Then comes the first day excitement. You wake up like this guy.

and then you go a little overboard because it's day 1 and you're excited! 

By around day three, the kids have pulled you in every direction, spit on you, hit you, and cried over not getting prizes. But all of that is ok, you're sill smiling and

you've still got a few days to go 

By the end of day three and day four, you're pretty much past the point of no return. The kids have had so much candy that they couldn't calm down even if they wanted to . 

Day five, you're back to this over enthusiastic guy, because hey, why not. It's the last day so finish strong!

On Friday evening this is you. Almost in unbelief that the kids are all going home. 

Followed by this guy on Saturday. 

  Well, that's our week. I'm loving every second of it so far, but I'm also really looking forward to passing out on Saturday. How does your church do vbs?

He Said, She Said

I have spent the past thirty-one years sharing my life with the original Indiana Jones, and I've been raising our five sons for the past twenty-eight years. That amount of time has allowed me an up close and personal look at the way males view things. Once I got past the shock and horror of this knowledge, I realized that I am in the unique position of being able to interpret male thoughts and actions that are incomprehensible to most females. I thought I'd share a few of these insights with you.

Say you and your husband pass another woman in a store or a restaurant and you make some kind of a comment to your husband about her. (I don't like her dress, shoot me if I ever try that color on my hair, etc...) Your husband responds by saying, "You're prettier than she is." Here's what's going through each of your minds:

She:  I never asked if I was prettier. Why would he say that? Does he think I'm insecure? Does he think I'm comparing myself with her? Is he comparing me with her? If I'm prettier, does that mean he thinks she's pretty? Is that his idea of beauty? Does he hate the color of my hair?

He:  I gave her a compliment. Brownie points! Is that a squirrel?

You've been concerned about your child all day long. He doesn't seem as energetic as usual, and he has a runny nose. You share this observation with your husband when he gets home.

She:  Do you think he's teething or is he getting sick? What color is his snot? Does he feel warm at all? Does he feel too cold? Is it too cold in here? Should I turn the air conditioning down? Am I causing us to spend too much on our electricity so that we can't afford to take our son to the doctor to get checked out because I think he might be getting sick? I think I must be a terrible mother!

He:  I don't want to touch him if he's getting snot all over everything. Is that a squirrel?

You know your husband never remembers important dates, and you don't want to spend all of Mother's Day being angry that he forgot, so you gently remind him that Mother's Day is coming up this Sunday. He responds by saying, "Did you get my mom a card?"

She:  Your mother?!?!? What about me? Don't I deserve a card? Am I that terrible a mother that he thinks of his mother before he thinks of the woman that gave him all these kids? Do my children think I'm a bad mother? Does his mother think I'm a bad mother?

He:  Did she get my mom a card?

Your anniversary falls on a Wednesday. Your husband is traveling home from a trip that day, plus you have church that night. You're going to go away overnight the following week to celebrate your anniversary, but you suggest to your husband that you also go out to dinner the day after your anniversary to just at least acknowledge the day. Your husband says, "Yeah, sure. Whatever."

She:  Whatever? That's all our anniversary is worth to him now? Is our marriage in trouble? Are we falling out of love? Do I need to get some self-help books about keeping the romance in our marriage? Am I letting myself go? Should I get a gym membership? Do I need to lose a few pounds?

He:  What did she say we were having for dinner?

Remember that men in general are not very subtle so what they're saying is what they're usually thinking. And the one rule above all others is this:  don't ask what they're thinking unless you really want to know. And in most cases, you probably really don't want to know.

A Dad and His Daughters

Happy Father’s Day Weekend!

In honor of Father’s Day I thought it would be fun to do a Q & A with my husband and our daughters.

Matt, if I was not at home and wouldn’t be home for another two hours, you have one child that threw up and the other went number two in her diaper, what would you do?

Matt: Call my mom and ask if she was busy at the moment.

Me: How old do your daughters need to be in order to date?

Matt: Mid-twenties to early forties.

Me: What type of guy will your daughters marry?

Matt: for Stella probably someone who can be henpecked, someone she can boss around. For Talia, a man’s man, an adventurer, someone who will climb a mountain because she’s climbing onto everything. For Olivia, i’m not sure yet.

Me: What are the girls’ favorite foods?

Matt: for Stella it’s chicken nuggets.(Close, it’s cereal and milk) 

For Talia, it’s Nutri-grain bars… she’s always climbing on the counter to get some out of the cabinet and for Olivia it’s Ramen. 

Me: What is something that Dad always tells you?

Stella: “obey now”

Talia: “get down” (because she’s trying to get the Nutri-grain bars)

Me: What are their favorite colors?

Matt: Stella’s is pink and so is Talia’s, although Stella says it’s purple because she doesn’t want to share a color with her sister.

Girls, what is Daddy’s favorite color? 

Both girls: Um, Blue!

Me: What is Dad’s favorite food?

Talia: Cheez-it

Me: What is dad’s favorite toy?
Stella: XBOX, is dad’s favorite but that’s my favorite toy too! (who said that?)

Me: What is daddy good at?

Stella: Juggling ( I didn’t even know he could do that)

Talia: He saves the day (We were visiting my parents once and her balloon blew into the neighbors tree and he rescued it.)

Me: Where does dad like to go?

Stella: The gym. He has big muscles. 

Talia: “The Hostibal” (That means hospital, and she thinks we like going there because we’ve had to take her so many times. )

Me: What is your favorite thing that you’ve done with daddy?

Stella: “when we goed to the movie and get candy at the store”

Talia: when we got marshmallows

On Father’s Day, take a minute and have your husbands do this with you children. I would love to see what they would say! Copy and Paste the Q & A in the comments with their answers!

Too Soon??

   You know those moments in life, where it’s always too soon to bring them back up? 

   Well, on my hubby’s side of the family we have quite a few of those. Where do I start? There was the time when My hubby and I got engaged. Both my hubby and his younger brother were preparing for marriage at the same time, and his brother’s fiancé and I had gotten very close. Every time I would come to town to visit my future in-laws, I would stay with her. When the time came for my hubby to propose, he told his brother not to tell her because she wouldn’t be able to keep the secret from me. That resulted in her not being able to get off work and be there with everyone else when he actually did propose. She really wasn’t thrilled, and to this day when the topic of our engagement comes up and we do the “remember when’s”, she gives us a look. Our response, “Too soon?”.

   Then there was the time, when I returned her the favor.  I was on my way to her wedding. I took the time off of work, got up at 5 a.m. so that I could get there in time to do some of the family festivities, and got on the road. Around 2 ½ hours into the trip the weather took a turn for the worse. Did I mention it was January and their wedding was in West Virginia? A brilliant time and location for me to take my first long road trip alone, right?!? So, 3 hours into the trip, I hit black ice. Enough said. My car spun out of control, I hit the median a couple of times, and then my car went into the ditch on the other side of the road. In that thirty seconds I just knew I was going to die. I know, I know, slightly dramatic, but I’m owning it, okay. Needless to say, I never made it to the wedding. Now when they do their wedding “remember when’s”, my brother in law looks at me and says “remember that, Steph? Oh wait, too soon?”. My other brother in law is getting married this weekend. I’m really hoping to make it to this one.

   There’s also the “too soon” that goes back to before hubby and I were even dating. He worked at Kohl’s and I went in there one day to say “hi”. He was working on cleaning up a display table and we just chatted for a while. After a while I looked over and there was one of those Hawaiian shirts hanging next to me.  You know the ones that make you think of a guy like this?

So, I picked it up and told him "these shirts are just so ugly!". He looked at me dead serious and said "my dad wears those every day". I thought it was a joke, so I laughed. He wasn't joking, but he was laughing. He continued laughing and called his dad right then and there in front of me and told him what I thought of his wardrobe. His dad had never even met me, the girl interested in his son, and here I was insulting his wardrobe. Five years later this is still a "too soon" for us. We don't really talk about it, I just tell him often how awesome I think his shirts are. I don't think he believes me, but we pretend. 

  This is just a few of our many "too soon's".  I'm sure that we all have some. What are yours?

The Real Truth About Marriage

Indiana Jones and I will be celebrating thirty-one years of mostly marital bliss this Wednesday. What have I learned in thirty-one years of marriage?

1.  Fairy tales are best left up to Disney. In real life scenarios I don't always get to be Beauty. Sometimes I'm the Beast.

2.  I-love-you's are sometimes said with a warm hug and a kiss, and sometimes they're said by taking out the dog when it isn't your turn.

3.  No one really understands the "in sickness and in health" vow until they've had to take care of someone with a bad case of the stomach flu.

4.  Men are sometimes right. (Don't tell them I said so.)

5.  There really aren't sides in a marriage. It's more of a big, messy circle.

6.  When Solomon said there was a time to keep silence and a time to speak in Ecclesiastes 3, he was probably thinking about marriage.

7.  Every day you have to choose to love each other. Sometimes that choice is easy, and sometimes you choose to love each other because you promised God you would.

8.  Generally speaking, marriages are happier if you never run out of toilet paper.

9. There can't be a "his" and "hers" in a marriage. It all has to be "ours".

10. The exception to #9 is toothbrushes. You really need to have your own.

Oh come on. Were you really expecting something profound?

Ready or Not Here I Come

Everyone loves a good game of Hide & Seek, right? WRONG! If you are playing hide and seek with your child then, yes, that can be loads of fun. However, when it’s your belongings that are hiding and you are trying to seek them… that’s a different story. Our daughter, Talia, is a mischievous little girl. At times she will be playing near something (like keys, phones, remotes, etc…) and she’ll decide to hide it. Thankfully, we have found everything she has hidden so far (I think), but this has to stop. I can remember a few instances very clearly, with the most recent being yesterday.

At first, it was our car keys. Luckily we have two sets. My husband usually has the bigger set because he has the car key, house key, and then of course all the keys he needs for working at the church. I have the smaller set with the car key and the house key. One time, Matt had driven to the church that morning but had walked home for lunch. He was getting ready to head back to work and asked for his keys. I told him they were on the table, but they weren’t. I looked on the dresser, maybe he had put them there instead. Nope. We began to look everywhere for those keys! He remembered earlier that morning he had given them to one of his brothers who then gave them to his mom. (We all serve at the church together). We called her just to be sure and she was positive she had given them back. I knew for a fact that I had seen them on the table… where Talia had been playing, so we asked her where they were. She said, “um… maybe at the church?” Ya, right. “Talia did you hide daddy’s keys?” Her response, “mmhmm”. We told her to find them and of course she was looking in the toy room and any where she could think of. I told my husband we needed to think like her or we won’t find them. I went back to all of the places she had been that morning which was pretty much everywhere. Sure enough, the last place I checked is where I found them.

Next, we came home from being gone after a long day and just wanted to relax and watch some TV. The remote was nowhere to be found. Again, we looked to Talia to help us find it. She was SUPER helpful (I’m being very sarcastic)… She looked under the couches and proceeded to tell us she didn’t know where it was and that she didn’t hide it. I took a few minutes to grab their pajamas and get their beds ready for bedtime. I pulled back her comforter and guess what I found: the remote. She hid it under her covers. Apparently she thought the remote needed a nap? When I asked her if she put it there she just smiled.

Yesterday was my husband’s day off. We were trying to get some things done at home, some inside, some outside. Well, in our house we have 2 back doors. When you come in the main back door, you can go down into the basement, or you can go up to the second door which leads to the house. [Back-Story: The knob on that door has became loose and we’ve had to tighten it a few times. It got to the point where we just started using one side of the door knob, the hand and the part that actually opens the door because it was just easier. Some of you are probably wondering why we don’t just replace the whole thing, right? If we had extra time and money we would do that… and my husband thinks that if we get robbed, the thief is going to have a really hard time getting in if there’s no door knob… (New blog post idea: How to theft-proof your house when you can’t afford to.)] Since this door knob is removable, the girls think its pretty cool and like to try and open and close the door on their own. Sometime yesterday, the door knob went missing… Talia did something with it. Usually, I can remember what she was doing when it went missing. Not this time. We had to use a screwdriver for half the day to open and close the door. Yesterday evening, our sweet little Talia found a neat new hiding spot: our hall closet!

Until next time…

Perhaps I should start hiding her things…Would that keep her from hiding ours?

Desperate Times Call for Desperate Measures

      Diets. We’ve all been on one at least once. Well, after having each of my babies, I went on a low carb diet. It’s done really well for me and I’ve been able to get back down below my pre-pregnancy weight both times. Yay me!  My second baby is now almost a year old, and although I’m under my pre-pregnancy weight, I still have more that I want to lose. But that’s easier said than done. I have been doing a low carb diet off and on since the holidays.

 But it's times to get back on the wagon, so my mom and I decided to do a kick start diet together to help us both get strict again. It’s called the Military diet. Military as in how strict the diet is, not as in this is what they actually eat in the military.

     Day 1

          Breakfast – ½ Grapefruit, 1 slice of toast, 2 tablespoons of peanut butter, one cup
                              of coffee (black)

          Lunch – ½ cup of dry tuna, 1 slice of toast, 1 cup of coffee (black)

          Dinner – 3 ounces of any type of meat, 1 cup of green beans, ½ banana, 1 small
                              apple, 1 cup of vanilla ice cream

·        So, I started out really optimistic. Those meal plans didn’t seem too bad, despite the fact that I had to drink my coffee black. And I have two little kids, so skipping coffee was not an option! I’m not gonna lie, I actually thought about mixing the peanut butter in my coffee to sweeten it, but I wasn’t sure how that would turn out. So instead I put the peanut butter on the toast and took a sip of coffee after every bite. By lunch time things were still going well. That was a decent breakfast do I was fine. Lunch was at 11:30 and it was dry tuna on a piece of bread, which was fine at the time. Then I put the kids in the stroller and went for a walk. Still fine. Around 3:30, I started to get hungry, but I decided that it was psychological and I could just convince myself that I wasn’t really hungry. Even though my walk had walked off all of my lunch and I was in fact getting very hungry. That wasn’t working and the diet didn’t say anything about whether or not you can have a meal item at a different time, so I made a judgment call. I ate my apple early. The apple helped me get to dinner time, where I had some left over grilled chicken and my cup of green beans. I knew that I would really crave it later, but you know the whole “after 6 it sticks” rule so I decided to go ahead and have my ice cream and ½ banana about a half hour after dinner. I did get the munchies later that night, but I pushed through them! Successful day one!

 

   Day 2

        Breakfast – 1 egg (cooked any way you want w/o fat), 1 slice of toast, ½ banana,
                             coffee (black)

        Lunch – 1 Cup of cottage cheese, 1 egg, 5 saltine crackers

        Dinner – 2 hot dogs (w/o buns), 1 Cup of broccoli, ½ cup carrots, ½ banana, ½ cup
                            of vanilla ice cream

·        Again, the day started out fine, although that black coffee was just really hard to get down. The trouble came when I decided at 10:30 in the morning that I was going to run some errands. The errands were about forty minutes from my house, and I had several stops to make. So, needless to say, I didn’t make it back for a while and by the time I did, I was starving. So the small lunch that I did get seemed even smaller. The diet also has substitutions for certain items, and you can use one per day. I used mine for the cottage cheese. Whoever thought cottage cheese would be something suitable to eat had to be out of their mind. I am not a picky eater and I can choke down some foods that I really don’t find appetizing, but cottage cheese is not one of them.  It’s like curdled milk. Who eats curdled milk?? Okay, sorry back to my story. So I ate my 5 saltines, 1 egg, and a slice of cheese. That lasted me the afternoon and dinner was pretty decent too. So day 2 was not a bad day! Only one day left and I was feeling great about it.

Day 3

     Breakfast – 5 saltines, 1 slice of cheddar cheese, 1 small apple

     Lunch – 1 egg, 1 slice of toast

     Dinner – 1 cup of tuna, ½ banana, 1 cup of vanilla ice cream

·        Okay, day 3 started out small. Which was fine because I don’t always eat breakfast, but by lunch time I was wanting more than 1 egg and 1 slice of toast. But I ate my 1 egg on my toast and I waited. My egg didn’t hold me over very long and all I and to look forward to was dry tuna. I enjoy tuna with mayo on bread or crackers, but just plain and dry is kind of nasty. Finally, after what seemed like a very long afternoon, I choked down my dry tuna and then waited another hour before I had my banana and ice cream. I’m just gonna be honest. The thought of that ice cream is the only thing that helped me stick to the diet that day. I did make it though. All three days, and I lost 7 pounds too! I was pretty excited and it was definitely a good way to kick off the diet again.

     Low carb doesn’t seem so bad after that diet.

Or does it?? Well, here I go! How do you think you would do on the military diet? Any takers?

A Winning Proposition

In most independent Baptist circles, fundraising is frowned upon. God ordained the church to be paid for by the freewill tithes and offerings of His people. I agree with this teaching.

However, we do allow our teens to do fundraising for specific events like camp. They've done spaghetti dinners, hire-a-teen campaigns and carwashes to raise their camp fees. I know Christian schools that do yearly Christmas card fundraisers or pizza fundraisers to help with additional school expenses or senior trips.

I believe that the regular bills of the church need to be taken care of by God's people, but perhaps extra needs could be done as creative fundraisers. Such as:

Need to update church kitchen tools and supplies? Have a "Walk-off" Fundraiser. Everyone knows that kitchen dishes, pots, spices, etc., tend to "walk off" over time. (RE: someone took them home.) So the walk-off fundraiser works like this:  if you've ever (admit it. You have) accidentally walked off with something that belonged to the church kitchen, you can make it right by bringing a brand new updated version of whatever you took. That way you can keep the towels you've grown to think of as yours, and the church gets brand new ones.

Does the nursery need some refurbishing? Have the nursery workers do a diaper fundraiser. They can get people to commit $1 for every diaper they can change in an hour. Extra pledges can cover dirty diapers, and creative clean ups when you're down to that last wipe in the canister.

Need new Junior Church materials? How about a candy fundraiser? People can pledge money based on how many pieces of candy you can hand out during the junior church hour. (These have to be individually handed pieces of candy. No hurling fistfuls into the crowds.)

But I think the best fundraising idea I heard of involves moms. This fundraiser is great for updating and remodeling in the auditorium. Have a sleep-off. Moms can collect pledges for dollar amounts based on how many consecutive hours they can stay asleep. Now, since this is a church fundraiser, of course it must be done at the church. Service requires sacrifice, Ladies, so you'll have to leave your children at home with your husbands for the duration of this fundraiser. Make sure to bring whatever pillows you need and your comfiest jammies. Eye masks, earplugs, fans and white noise machines are encouraged. In the interest of fairness, Benadryl and Melatonin may be used as necessary, but Ambien and other pharmaceutical helps are banned.

While sometimes it might be hard to get people to participate in a fundraiser, I'll bet the sign up sheet for this particular one would be miles long.

Put my name at the top of the list. I'm willing to make the sacrifice. How about you?

The Kid Who Never Sleeps

I asked my two year old the other day what my blog post should be about this week. She said, “um, ME!” Well, that’s exactly what I’m going to do.

Have any of you ever had a child that didn’t require much sleep?

Back when Talia was about four months old she was diagnosed with Eczema. This poor girl would itch and itch, and she just couldn’t get any relief. Of course, we had a ton of people giving us advice and unwanted diagnoses. So, we did what a normal parent would do and took her to her pediatrician who then referred us to a dermatologist. It wasn’t a fun experience, she was miserable, we were miserable. However, they had a solution, they sent us home with “special lotion”. It literally worked like magic, we would put it on her and it was instant relief. Have you ever watched a dog have and itch and someone rubs his belly and he has that look like, “Oh, that feels so good”? Well, that’s what this “special lotion” did for Talia. It was amazing and sometimes humorous!

The eczema has gotten so much better since then and now we just have an occasional flair up which can affect her sleep. If she gets too warm or wears something that isn’t a breathable material she will just start itching in her sleep, which lead to her waking up and crying.

I don’t think this child has ever slept through the night. I would love to blame it all on the Eczema, but I don’t know if I can. I think she just doesn’t require a lot of sleep. I have tried several possible solutions, and nothing seems to work. If she goes to bed before nine o’ clock, she is up by midnight and wants to be with me. If she stays up until ten or eleven, she’ll sleep for four hours and then I find her at my bedside asking to cuddle. It should be noted, if she is in my bed she sleeps all night. Don’t get me wrong I love cuddling my babies. However, there should be no cuddling from at least ten pm to seven am. Momma needs her time too. 

So the question is, how much Benadryl is too much?… Just kidding! You guys take things way too seriously.

So the REAL question is: What have you done to keep your kids from crawling into bed with you?