=)

Woke up with anxiety (sometimes that happens, no reason) and went back to sleep with the lavender microwave mini-pillow that becca made me for Christmas.  Very relaxing!

I haven't been feeling well, and I'm not pregnant - I even took a pregnancy test.  No appetite and constant nausea.  Plus, um, the fact that my tummy is noticeably bloated, so much so that my ever-so-tactful grandmother, when Angela announced her pregnancy, said, "Oh, I thought Amber was the pregnant one since she has a tummy."  Sheesh.  But yesterday I had no headaches and no nausea and I vacuumed the house which was a big accomplishment for me.  I did it in four stages, haha.  I also did all of my daily chores yesterday except for finishing the laundry.  I'd been barely "keeping up" on things - like, I'd do the dishes one day but neglect the laundry and the cat litter, and the next day do the cat litter and a few loads of laundry but let the dishes pile up.

We have a peeing problem with Simon.  Joe discovered a place he has been marking for a long time.  I never smelled it because 1. it was over by the cat litter box, and 2. apparently cat pee doesn't always smell strong until it starts decomposing.  It has been two weeks, I think, and there is still a ton of carpet cleaners, Joe's parents' carpet steamer, a ton of rages, several fans and several heaters and our other vacuum, all in that area, as Joe continues to monitor the area and clean up after Simon.  Yesterday I tidied it all up for the purpose of vacuuming and it looks much better now. 

Joe was saying we might have to get rid of Simon, and on Angela's recommendation I'm reading The Cat Whisperer and it has some good ideas.  Simon and Jasmine are still not happy with each other, but I'm playing with them more, and whenever I catch Simon pee in the litter box I give him a treat.  What's great is, the other cats don't care for the treats, but Simon is desperate for them.  After he gets one, he spends a few minutes sniffing the floor, just hoping to find another one.

I'm also playing with the cats more, and giving Simon lots of petting, and when he's anxious I'll give him catnip.  Joe isn't yelling at him as much anymore when he hisses or attacks Jasmine, which I think helps Simon to be less afraid.  Even though he's the bully, Jasmine initiated the attacks when he first came, so I think Simon is afraid of her out of habit (even though she never attacks him now).  Wiggle is, meanwhile, the peacekeeper, who runs over anytime they are hissing at each other and gets between them.

Anyway, enough about cats.  And enough complaining.  Yesterday was our three-year anniversary.  Is it silly that I keep thinking, "Yay, we made it?"  I mean, when things get rough, divorce is NEVER an option in my mind, but I still feel like we have accomplished something.

a few brags

Today...HAILEY STARTED WALKING!!!!

She has been taking a couple of steps here and there, but now she will stand up and walk at least 10 steps before falling over and she is picking things up and walking too.  I tried to video tape it, but every time I got my phone out she stopped doing it, ha!  Anyway, I can't believe she is turning one in just over a week.  That is so insane.

1. I went up to the church at 9am to make pies.  I worked from 9am - 12:30pm.  I don't know how many pies I rolled and finished, but it was a lot.  I remembered today how much I enjoy baking a lot of stuff though.  Especially when I'm not making my own kitchen all messy.  Anyway, they are for the annual strawberry fest fundraiser the church holds.  The kids were great.  Hailey sat in her carseat for an hour (craaazy) and didn't complain.  Then I put her down for a nap and she slept for another hour.  Then she sat in a high chair playing with a spoon for another hour.  Then I had to train the treasurer on all of the new bookkeeping procedure.  This went MUCH better than I anticipated, and thankfully, she now has a very different attitude because she realized how much less work she has to do now with the new system! YAY!  I am happy about that.

2. I came home to feed the kids lunch finally a little after 1pm.  Hailey went down for a nap.  I let Shea watch a veggietales movie.  I worked on preschool prep stuff.  I now have a brochure and registration forms finished, so I sent them off to my one prospective student and once I get my open house date I can go advertise!  Right now, I have been planning my ideas for the bulletin boards so I can finish up with that, and then I need to dig deep into planning.

3.  I made a pot pie for dinner.  I made a quick pie whole wheat flour pie crust, thickened up some vegetable broth with flour/cornstarch and then I poured it over a bowl full of fresh chopped veggies - sweet potatoes, corn, peas, spinach, and carrots.  It was stuffed with vegetables.  The only problem was that there wasn't quite enough broth, so it didn't get quite as pot-pieish as I would like.  It was my first attempt.  Next time I'm going to do only a bottom crust, cook the veggies a little bit more in the thickened broth (with more broth) and then top it with mashed potatoes which get brown (more like a shepherds pie).  And probably add some lentils to up the protein content.

4. I got the kiddos in bed (Jeremy had to go up to the church to work). I worked out for about 30 minutes, then after a shower, played fetch with Kaia for a while.  The past hour I have spent catching up on a few boring errands on the internet while kind of planning preschool stuff and running loads of laundry through.  But now I need to go get some beans soaking and do the dishes (been putting that off all day).

Tomorrow my friend Sondra is coming over with her two kids in the morning, so I should probably clean up the rest of the house a little too.  Things are taking a long time to find a home here, for some reason!  I think because the weather has been nice lately and I just don't feel much like housework these days.

And that is my brag!

Life has gotten a little more exciting around these parts.

Paul and I are expecting our first little one January 2nd, 2014!!  We are so amazingly excited we can hardly contain ourselves!  This year may bring a lot of changes as we go through this pregnancy, Paul will finish manager class, and then will begin applying to stores and we may move come January/February, but it is all in Gods hands, I pray he lets us stay in our house and Paul gets a job around here, but if not, I am excited for the adventure.  Maybe just not excited about the possibility of moving with a newborn. :) 

We told our parents and siblings on mothers day.  I made them cards and they had these pictures inside. We facetimed with my parents as they opened the card because we weren't able to get together with them that weekend, and then Pauls family came over for Mothers Day Brunch and we told them then.  

I feel like my belly really popped out this week.  I am still trying to swim 4x a week and would like to keep that up through the whole pregnancy.  Some weeks I make it 2-3 times but I am getting there! 

Paul laughs at me because I said we couldn't buy anything till baby was 12 weeks and then when baby hit 12 weeks I immeaditly started decorating the nursery.  To my credit all I have bought is that chair (I got an awesome deal) and the curtains and the rod, which I bought at Ross so they were also pretty cheap.  I am going to look at a crib today so I hope that goes well!  The left wall will be painted grey (the color of the swatches on the wall) and the dartboard on the right wall will go.  And that will pretty much be the nursery.  Low key, gender neutral, all reusable stuff, most of it we already had. Oh I did make the banner though with $1 worth of felt, and its now my favorite part of the room. :)

Other news.  Paul and I went on a 1.5 hour hike to look for grouse a few weeks ago.  We hiked through brush and all sorts of stuff, we did end up seeing one grouse (bird that Paul is going to hunt in Sept. that apparently tastes like chicken) but that's about it.  It was a nice relaxing, low key day off together. 

Cravings are no joke, I don't know if you had them Becca, but man do I get an inkling for something and really want it right that minute.  We were shopping at the supermall and you have to drive by wendys to leave.  We ended up making an impromptu stop for fries and frostys.  It is a good thing there isn't a wendys closer because we would be going way more often.  

The little kids to the right are all my friend Gabes neices and nephew.  They were moving out of their house (which Gabe was living in too) so I was over helping move Gabe and say bye to the kiddos. They are moving up north after they spend 2 months in Korea.  

My new favorite clothes include anything stretchy.  My low belly has definitely begun to grow and I hate things to be tight.  But along with a growing belly baby's heartbeat has gotten super easy to hear.  I bought a doppler for $30 on amazon and I can hear baby's heartbeat whenever I want to.  I recommend it to anyone who is pregnant, it's so fun, and so comforting to hear baby trucking right along! 

Along with arranging the nursery I had to rearrange my craft room and the linen closet (as I swapped furniture and emptied the closet in baby's room).  I love my craft room even more now!  (even though it houses a litter  box, cat food and water, and their scratching tower.)

I have been eating a TON of fruit lately.  Raw veggies sound super nasty to me ( I am praying my appetite for them comes back soon) so fruit it is.  I am also struggling to eat enough protein in a day since all I want is pasta, pizza, soda, and fruit.  I have been making myself eat healthy though, just I am still low on protein.  I am working on it though. 

I was wayyyyyy past due for a haircut!  I went yesterday and it feels so good to have a cute, short, light, airy haircut again.  I keep thinking I may grow my hair out because it is so convienent to throw it back in a pony tail, but I keep going for haircuts, so I guess right now is not the time. :)

And that's all for now!  I am just glad to finally have some energy back.  From 4-11 weeks I was taking 2-3 hr naps every day and getting 9-12 hrs of sleep a night! And I was tired for all hours inbetween! Thank goodness that has passed, for a while at least! 

my past week

was spent 

taking walks

enjoying the sun

in our garden

playing with our puppy

spending time with friends

playing music around a bonfire

being at the beach (we go pretty much every day now)

reading new and good books

getting rest

being inspired

it has been a good week.

Shea has still been difficult, but God has been giving me extra bits of patience lately.

I've been able to find time to read and be quiet at least a few times this week.

I also finally caught up dishes...for a couple of days.  Dishes used to never be a chore to me.  I never really minded doing them after every meal, or finishing them at the end of the day.  Lately though, I just stare at the pile of dishes in the sink and it takes me hours (or days) to muster up the determination to tackle them.  So, I was very pleased the other day when the entire kitchen was clean.  Gotta get on that again today.

I've been working a lot on the preschool.  I have my new room mostly set up now, I just need to work on organizing a few more things, creating flyers/brochures/registration forms, and setting up bulletin boards then I should be ready for my open house at the end of July!  I also need to get going on planning out my curriculum for the next year.  I am hoping for 5 students (plus Shea) for fall.  I don't know why, I just feel like 6 children would be the perfect amount, and having 4 paying (one of them is getting free tuition in return for the mom being a teacher's aid) would bring in just enough money for our family to make it through Jeremy's winter hours.

I applied for a job, also.  It's for a bookkeeper for the Port of Indianola.  They also have a secretarial position open, and it is only a "few hours" each month, so we will see if I hear anything back from that!  It sounds within my skillset and they are looking for someone in the community, and even if it was only 5 hours a month, it would make a difference for our family.  Not to mention help us to create more connections in the community.  But I don't really care if I never hear back from it, it was just a random thing that popped up int the local newsletter.

I sewed a little, too.  Jeremy just got rid of a bunch of his t-shirts, so I saved them and am turning them into bed shorts/pants for Shea.  This little boy loves his "comfy pants" as he calls them.  He was ecstatic about his two pairs of shorts I made so far.  And it's fun, because we get to save some of the designs on Jeremy's favorite t-shirts.

I was so happy for a rainy day the other day!  I love this house in the rain.  There are windows all around and I love hearing the rain drops on our three skylights in the main area of the house.  Also, our loft bedroom is so much cooler on days like this (although, I haven't ever felt TOO hot to sleep yet).  And a break from watering is nice!  Our garden seems to be doing really well - all of my plants are thriving and looking very healthy.  I go out every morning and look to see what has popped up.  All of my pumpkin seeds came up looking super healthy and my carrots and zucchinis from seed are starting to pop up too.  So exciting to see happen!  I recently got a book from the library called "Urban Homesteading" and I have been poring over it - it is an excellent book so far.  Everything in it I resonate with and feel passionate about doing.  It is all about living a simple and sustainable life and gives so many practical and frugal ways of achieving this.

It can get a little overwhelming - reading all the information and researching about how I can better embrace this lifestyle I find stirred up to embrace, because there is SO much change needed.  But, the important thing to me is that I am making little changes here and there, and over time that amounts to much.   Stressing over whether I am really doing as much as I could is a joy stealer.  On a side note, I realized this morning at breakfast that I hadn't bought a prepared frozen food (other than frozen fruit and vegetables) in over two months, and I hadn't even noticed.  Now that is a change.

Also - don't think I expect everyone else to drop what they are doing and become some radical hippy person. This is just where we are and I do find that my friends and family think I am becoming a little radical, but its okay with me. Most people in the area I live don't think I'm too odd, but I don't know what would happen if we moved back to the city.  I'd be that crazy lady with a food forest instead of a driveway.

Ok enough with the tangents.

Now I'll end with some moments captured from this week.

feeling much more like myself this week!

our silly dog loves the stroller!  She curls up and sleeps in it throughout the day. haha.

Hailey is my beach bug!  She does so well just sitting right by me in the stroller or on a blanket. One (mostly) content baby!

And my Shea is still as handsome as ever.  He is growing to be so sensitive about things when he actually stops to think for a minute!  He has the funniest way of looking at life, I love it.

My morning the other day.  Hailey was sleeping and Shea was playing in the playroom.  Love these quiet moments I can steal away during the day.  Especially a rainy day with a cup of coffee.

Shea's new chore chart!  I need to make it a little bit more reusable, but he LOVED it.  He did all his chores as quickly as he could, and it helped me focus on praising his good behavior instead of his bad actions.  Every time he did something I could praise him for, he received a smiley face which counted as one book before bed time.  He could earn up to 8 books, and if he earned all 8 smiley faces he would've gotten another little prize (like playing wii with daddy).  Unfortunatley, he lost two smiley faces, but at least it works better than time outs all day!

late night post on a serious note

wow its late.  I don't know really why I am up.  I was so tired today.  I had a very rough day with Shea.  I lost it a couple of times.  Please don't paint a pretty picture of me as this laid back mom who is always kind and gentle and perfectly loving.  I so am not.  I have a picture in my head of who I would like to be and how I would like to respond in every situation, but evidently positive thinking alone does not change how I act.

Growing up, my parents yelled a lot.  I mean, a lot.  I haven't ever really considered myself an "abused" child.  Sure, I got spanked a few times when I was little, but normally all my dad had to do was look at me and I would burst out in tears of remorse.  I usually felt pretty guilty and tried not to disobey, or I tried to lie my way out of things (yuck).  Yelling made me cry no matter who was in trouble or who was yelling.  I just hate it.  It feels so unnecessary and hurtful.  I had a childhood best friend and I used to go to her house almost every other day.  Her mom never yelled at them when they were in trouble.  I looked up to her so much and felt so happy in their home.  I think she knew, because I tried to invite myself over all the time and she usually let me come over.

So I have always, always pictured myself as a mom never yelling.

Jeremy and I never yell at each other.  We really don't argue.  People never believe me when I say this, but it s true.  If there is one thing that God knew I needed in a husband, it was one who doesn't have a quick temper and never raises his voice at me.  We talk things through and usually come to a similar conclusion anyway.  We may disagree on things occasionally, but its usually stupid things like his chewing is unusually loud and I point it out and he gets upset with me.  And I'm not necessarily all that nice about it, even though in my head I think I am being very polite.  But who likes to be told that their chewing is annoying? I know.  Its just something that I let get under my skin.  Usually when I am stressed out.  Anyway.  We never have big crazy fights though.  I remember hearing my parents fight and yell all the time.  I would lie in bed crying into my pillow and wait and wish and pray that it would stop.  I don't know how many times I played out in my head my parents getting divorced and how I would react when they did.

Before I moved out of my parents home when I was 17-19, I used to yell occasionally.  Mainly because my parents would just push me to my limit and they were yelling, so I would yell back.  Then I would run to my room and cry out of anger and frustration.  A lot of times I wouldn't even be able to respond to them during these arguments - I would just shell up and go cry.  I was actually always thankful for this response, because it meant that I hadn't fallen into their pattern of crazy reaction.  After I moved out, I felt a release from the stress of being at home and up until lately, I really, truly never yelled.  I had no reason to.  I still don't have a reason to, but I find myself doing it.

Even before Hailey was born and Shea was still Mr. I'm doing everything you tell me not to, I didn't find myself yelling.  I had so much more patience.  Lately, I have no patience for Shea.  I love him dearly...what a unique and strong boy he is!  But it has been hard for me to view his disobedience as an opportunity to parent (like I used to optimistically see it) and I see myself thinking raising my voice will some how push him into submission.  Really, I think it does the opposite.  He is starting to live for the reaction.  Which I have read far too many times in parenting books.

Part of it is that we stopped spanking.  Which has been good.  Because I would much rather yell out of anger  than hit out of anger.  But you know what?  It's not any better.  It's still threatening and damaging and I KNOW this from first-hand experience.  But when you are running on an empty tank and don't replace the former way of discipline with something else (oh I had plans, how did they dissolve?), I think many times we fall into the patterns of what we know - in this case, the way my parents parented me.

I apologize to my son every day for yelling at him.  At night when I tuck him in and randomly throughout the day (usually right after I hit my breaking point and lash out), I fall to my knees, hold him close, and beg for forgiveness and we pray.  He is so sweet and always says, "I forgive you, mommy." And then he will also usually apologize for whatever it is that he did that I was upset about.  I hate it because I know I can't take back those damaging words.  I can't repair his self-worth.  Trying harder is not working and expecting him to try harder to obey is not going to work either.  I know that I need to allow Christ to change and work in me and that my behavior is one of the biggest examples for my children, but it is SO HARD right now.I go to bed making plans for the next day, that it will be different, I'll do better...but I fail endlessly.  How is it that I know so much and yet can do so little about it?  I am beyond frustrated, girls.

I like to blame it on things like lack of sleep, a million things on my to-do list (always so much to get done!  I don't know how that is, since it seems like life has gotten so much more simple, but I do NOT know where my days go!), not having a moment to myself, etc...but its not like you get to go into work and not do your job because you are tired.  I constantly tell Shea that being tired is not an excuse to be rude or disobedient. Sure, a nap would help make it easier, but it is not a valid excuse for being unpleasant.

The verse that has been stuck in my head since right after Christmas time is, "Let your gentleness be evident to all", which is in Philipians somewhere.  All I can think is that my children are included in that and I need my gentleness and grace to be evident to them, even when no one else is looking.  It is very easy to be calm and collected at play dates and when other moms are watching, but at home?  I can be so ugly.

Sorry this is so serious and probably very ramble-y.  I am just feeling very much like a failure and need some encouragement and prayers.  I can't do this on my own.  I especially hate to see my husband see me like this.  I know this is not who I am or who I am called to be.  Sometimes it starts almost 5 minutes into my day when my son is too wild in the morning.  So, I am going to try.  I am going to try to set aside some time to focus my day.  Even if it is only 5 or 10 minutes.  We go for our walk every morning, and I do enjoy it, but lately I have been so oriented on just checking it off my "to do" list.  I need to slow and stop and enjoy things.  Enjoy my children.  Enjoy our conversations.  Enjoy our life.  I do.  I do, I do, I do.  But there is a wall I have allowed to creep up that is getting in the way, and I need it to be broken down.  I need to choose  joy.

Hum.

on a happier note, here are the pictures of my garden that I never posted.  Actually, this is only half of my garden.  I have two beds you can't see which don't have much TO see in them right now.  Maybe once my sunflowers and wildflowers pop up...IF they pop up...I'll take a picture.  Behind the fence is our rose garden (which in the fall, we are hoping to move and either use that fenced in areas for CHICKENS!  Or we might move the fence and make a larger garden and have chickens somewhere else.  Oh yes, and goats.  But that post is for another day.)

my hanging herb garden - still have some more to add. 

this box has zuchinni and carrots planted from seed, and those weird looking hills are my squash and pumpkins.  I want to do them a bit differently next year, this is just how Jeremy and his mom did it for me, so I didn't argue.

this first box has most of my plants that are already started.  we will see how they do!

Also, the other day I picked up some workbooks for Shea at the dollar store.  Our new morning routine is that after breakfast, we go for our walk with Kaia (sometimes we stop at the beach and let her play fetch and run around for a bit), then we come home and Hailey takes her nap.  While she naps, Shea and I go through his workbooks together.  We do two math pages (working on addition right now), a spelling page, and work on some phonics.  Supposedly these books are 1st grade, and he is catching on pretty well.  He earns either a show or playing a board game or something like that if he finishes his work, but we have fun doing it.  Having a rhythm in our day has been helping.  I think I just need to figure one out for the rest of the day so that he has more structure.  It will reduce a lot of the problems we've been having, I think.

Hailey has started taking steps on her own!  I know it will be any day that she starts walking across the room.  She is such a funny girl now, too!  It has been a joy to see her personality come out more and more.  I can't believe her birthday is less than a month away!  We aren't doing a really big party, which is how I like it.  There is just too much going on around July 4th and her other cousin is having his 2nd birthday party right before hers, so family will be out for it.  But we're having my family out and some of Jeremy's will probably stop by for cake.  Its nice to not have to worry about a party!  But I am planning on making her a watermelon themed cake and a few fun decorations (for pictures sake).

Thank you girls for letting me be so transparent with you!  There aren't many people I think I could share these dark, dirty secrets with and know I am safe to do so.  I am pretty good at displaying the pretty parts of my life and not mentioning the hidden areas that only my family sees, but I know in my heart that change comes when light is shone on these places and they are revealed for what they are.  Even if I hate to admit it.

I feel a lot better just writing it all out.

Good night!

gardening and life and stuff

This past weekend, my in-laws came over and helped us plant our garden.  We covered the beds wtih some compost, filled one of the vegetable boxes, and put some compost around the roses, also.  Then yesterday, I we made some hills and planted a bunch more vegetables!  I have never been able to start a vegetable garden, so I am a little amazed that we are finally doing one this year!  Some beans started coming up out of one of the boxes, I have no idea what kind, so we will just see.  Today I filled the second box with manure/compost mix and soil from the ground.  I planted rainbow carrots and zuchinni from seeds, but my mother in law also brought over some plants she had started.  So I have some cucumbers, kale, more zuchinni, garlic, and a ton of squash.  We made a bunch of hills and planted an assortment of squash and pumpkin plants.  Some of them we don't even know what kind of squash they are, so we will see if anything survives/works out.  I also planted some pumpkin seeds in one mound.  I'm excited to see how it will grow and have been reading up on what to feed them.  I had some pictures of my garden, but somehow they didn't make it onto the computer, so I'll have to post it another time.

I also planted a row of wildflowers, sunflowers, and some chamomile in another bed.

I love being outside gardening!  Today was beautiful, although I will admit that my attitude STUNK this morning.  I was totally letting myself be grumpy about everything Shea and Kaia did.  So we finally just got out for a walk.  Kaia sometimes drives me crazy (she is a puppy, afterall), but she is such a good puppy!  I can't believe how well she stays by us on our walks and she seems to be getting better at things every time.  She is ignoring annoying dogs more, not freaking out at people, and is learning to leave things alone when I tell her to.  One of the biggest improvements has been feeding time.  She used to just jump like a mad dog every time I give her food (she still jumps a little), but now I can pour her food into her bowl and she has learned to just sit and wait (if I remind her the entire time) until I'm done.  I don't know what we are doing right, but wow, if I can train a dog, I think anyone probably can.

Anyway, we walked down to the dock and the tide went out forever!  It was so beautiful.  I love it, because Shea can run around and explore as much as he likes, and Kaia can run around (she stays pretty close by, though) and I don't have to worry too much about them, so everyone is pretty happy.  I still can't believe that we have our beach.  Since we got Kaia (and the weather has been nicer) we have been there almost every day.  I love it even on rainy days.

I don't know what else to write about.  I have been spending a lot of time at the church lately, because we're moving the preschool classroom upstairs.  It should be much nicer, but it's a lot of cleaning , moving, and organizing.  Especially since it will be in a shared space.  I am also not completely done cleaning up the bookkeeping mess the church had, so that is taking up more time also.

I guess here are a bunch of random pictures before continuing on with my post...

I pull out my camera and she always comes up with some silly pose.  This is titled "the spoon on the head".

enjoying the sun!

big girl on her bike!

in a soap box derby car at the kid's museum on bainbridge

from our morning run - just the girls!

playing outside while mommy gardens

OH and yes, I also have been able to get a little furniture re-finishing done.  There was a lot of furniture left here at the house.  Most of it is pretty ugly and old and we need to get rid of it...but I salvaged a few pieces I thought had potential.  This lamp, for instance.  I didn't get a before picture, but it used to be gold and black striped kind of, and now it is blue.  The lampshade is HUGE but it works well with our high ceilings.  For the shade, I took some fabric I got for a $1 per yard and painted stripes on it with some acrylic paint, then I glued it on.  I actually need to re-do it a little, because I doubled it and it doesn't give off enough light...plus its a little puckered for some reason.  Anyway.  Then there is the table.  The table was just a natural oak and had a lot of stains on it.  I spray painted it gray and then put some foam (which was also here) on the top.  Then I stapled the fabric onto the it.  I am thinking about drilling some holes through the table and putting buttons on it to give it a "tufted" look, but we'll see.  We really need to get a new rug for in this area and I want to make a bunch of new throw pillows that kind of help bring the fun colors into the rest of the room.  I also have some large frames to fill with pictures for the wall.  So, its a work in progress.

Another new thing is that (I'm finally coming out of the closet) we have stopped eating meat.  It's been about 2 or 3 months since we sort of decided not to eat meat anymore (mainly brought on by our lent experience), but I think only a month since we haven't had any meat at all (we accidently ate some a few times, or chose to eat it at family gatherings to not be weird since we weren't quite ready to have that conversation with our family yet).  We're still kind of "closet vegetarians".  And in an effort to attempt to stop buying so many processed foods (and because EVERYTHING has soy in it, which we are trying to avoid among other additives), its means I have been spending a lot more time in the kitchen so I know exactly what is in our food.  I mean, it has actually been very easy and I love cooking and being creative with food, so it has been fun.  Every week I find more ways to streamline things, too.  I now soak a load of beans at the beginning of the week (so easy, I don't know why I ever bought canned beans) and cook them the next morning during breakfast.  I also make a big batch of brown rice and lentils.  Both us and our dog eats them (yes, after much research, she is slowly switching to a vegetarian diet also), and I have had a lot of success (meaning my family eats them and seems to like them a lot!) with making "burgers", "Meatballs", "ground beef", and other things from these ingredients.  We also eat a lot of different thick soups and chillis, and cauliflower is my savior when it comes to thickening things naturally (and amazingly good for you).  Shea seems to be willing to eat more and more vegetables every week.  So even though I still have a long way to go in trying to help us eat healthier, this has been a great step for our family.  I am excited to hopefully be able to supply more of our food from our garden this year too, but I'm sure it will be a few years before we really get a fairly sustainable garden going - I have a lot to learn.


My project for today is to get the office a little bit more cleaned out.  I have been needing to find a good space for all of my craft supplies, so I think I finally figured something out...I guess I'll let you know how that goes at some point.  Jeremy will be off work soon though, and then we are headed up to the church to work some more on the preschool.  Gotta get it done so I can have my open house!  It is already pretty late for that, but thats ok.  Its more for the students I already have planning on attending anyway, and if we get a few more, that would be great.

Now I am finally posting this.  I figured out how to tether the wi-fi on my phone to our computer (press a button, so technical, I know!) so I can get on and post things like this.  Anyway, we got a good dent of work done at the preschool, brought Shea his "big boy" mattress home, and now I am up way too late because I told Jeremy I had to finish the deposit for the church "real quick" and decided to post this.  GOODNIGHT!

Another brag

I started doing some freezer cooking!  I've even started another (yes, another) blog to track progress and stuff.  I've only done two days of it so far, and in those two days I accomplished about 1/10 of what others accomplish in a day (and I know this from the blogs I've been reading.  And the women who accomplish these also have like six kids so I have no excuse.)

Still, it's a matter of learning to be more efficient.  Also, I'm really taking time to find stuff we really like, not just "so-so" meals.  So a lot of this blog will be perfecting these freezer recipes, finding exactly what works and what doesn't.  My cousin (R) and I are doing it together, kind of (she works full time, plus is a single mom, so can't always get over here.)  But we did about three hours of shopping last Saturday, and then I cooked all Saturday and Sunday.

Today the house looks so much better, I spent the last two hours cleaning:

-Kitchen is totally clean, including all the non-perishable ingredients I'd set on the counter in anticipation of using them, but never got to those recipes.
-Laundry is DONE
-Dishes are DONE
-House is mostly tidy, still have to work on that one
-My second-least-favorite chore (cat litter) is DONE
-All trash bins in the house are empty

I've had a headache the last few days so I'm not going as gung ho as I'd like to...it's so nice to have the luxury of sitting for a bit, then doing something productive.  It's hot and I'm uncomfortable.  I need to vacuum.  But actually the bathrooms need to be done more than vacuuming.  I hate doing bathrooms because the cleaning spray upsets my allergies so much!

Really, I hate all chores for different reasons.  I'm starting not to mind the kitchen so much though!

Today's plan:

1. Finish tidying upstairs & down (10 minutes)
2. Go out to dinner with Pamela (from my old work)
3. Clean at least the downstairs bathroom
4. Wash the blankets
5. Watch Heroes