What's New...

I had no idea, but it has apparently been over 4 months since I last wrote a blog article. I have missed having time to sit down and put my thoughts on "paper". And, honestly, I have a million things I should be doing right now other than writing, yet here I am.

Things have changed so much since my last blog. My sweet husband and I decided at the end of December that it was time for us to move on to a new ministry. We loved those we were working with before and loved the congregation we worked and worshiped with, but we felt a need to get back into full-time ministry as opposed to part-time. For anyone who is a part of a preacher's family will know, job searches can take months and months and sometimes up to a year. So our tentative plan was to move in the summer. God's plan was a much faster move.

It was a bit of a whirlwind move.

We tried out at a congregation on January 12th, were offered the position that night, and started working with them the first week in February. We would be moving 2 1/2 hours away and had less than 3 weeks to find a rent house, pack up our house, and get moved. Somehow we did it. Well, it was with a lot of help from family and friends that we did it.

Many times in my life I have wondered if the choices I had made, or the choices my husband and I had made together, really were in accordance with God's will. Sometimes it truly is difficult to know and so we do the best that we can. And then there are those times where it is very obvious that we most likely made the wrong decision and suffer accordingly. Yeah, don't want to repeat those mistakes. But this, this feels so right. We are loving it here and loving getting to know those around us. While we do miss our family and friends that we left behind, we are very happy with the move and the house and the new work.

So that is the big change we made in the past 4 months. Lots and lots of other things have happened, and I wish I would have made time to write. I'll have to catch you up on our little sweeties and give details of what a failure I am at homeschooling the eldest, but that will wait for another day.

Hope the past 4 months have been full of great things for you as well.

~Lisa

Hey! Your 3 Year Old Just Schooled You.

I am spoiled. A lot of us are. I kind of already knew this, but a recent shopping trip with my three year old daughter really hit it home for me.

We were out shopping with my mom, you see I needed some long sleeve shirts that actually fit thanks to 2 babies and no will-power. I am pretty sure I can make a valid argument for the shirts and for some reason I feel like I need to convince you of that as well, probably because of what my sweet girl said to me while we were shopping.

It started with my browsing of the boot section when we first walked in the store. On the way out I was headed back that way so I could look one more time. Then this happened:

Big Little Girl A: Where are we going?

Me: To look at boots again.

Girl A: Why?

Me: Because I want a new pair of boots.

Girl A: Why do you want a new pair of boots? Mom, you have boots.

Me: I just do.

Girl A: But you have boots, 2 of them. You have 2 boots.

Me: Yeah, I know.

Girl A: And they are good boots. You like your boots.

Me: I know, but I just want a new pair.

Girl A: Why do you want new boots when you have a good boots at home?

Me: Nevermind… I give up.

Schooled by a 3 year old.

I mean, really? She might as well have said "Why are you being so materialistic, mom? You have perfectly good boots at home, that you are lucky enough to actually like, and now you want to spend some more of our family's hard-earned money on more boots. You know, the money that dad works to earn 6 to 7 days a week while you haul us littles around and go shopping for something you don't even need." 

I tell ya, I was feeling pretty sheepish as I turned the corner and walked away from the pretty boots. 

Ever heard that saying "Kids are meant to be seen and not heard"? This is one of those times where I wish it was true, I mean, I am really thankful to be able to hear my little girl's wise words that put me in my place. 

It has also occurred to me that I need a filming crew to follow us around and catch these exchanges on video because I can never really do them justice when I try to retell them.

This is my life and I love it.

~Lisa

Things I Have Learned from the Great Giraffe Game

If you are on Facebook you may have run across the currently trending Great Giraffe Game. To break it down, it is a riddle, if you get the riddle wrong you change your profile picture to a giraffe. Simple.

Well, smart little me saw the riddle and thought "I so got this!" and sent the riddler my answer. I had no intentions of changing my picture because I am too smart to be tricked by some silly riddle. I hit send on my answer and immediately realized I was WRONG. That is hard for me to say, but I got got. So I joined in and changed my picture.

As I was scrolling through my newsfeed last night I was amused by how many people are getting sucked in to this game. At least it is something fun and positive instead of the usual sports and politics that everyone wants to argue about. Well, except, see number 9 below.

If you are one of the few who has not seen the riddle making its rounds, here it is for you:

I got it wrong . . . I agreed to change my profile pic to a giraffe because I got a riddle wrong. Silly riddle! I'm playing along.

          The Great Giraffe Game!...The deal is I give you a riddle.

You get it right you get to keep your profile pic.

You get it wrong and you change your profile pic to a Giraffe for the next 3 days.

MESSAGE ME ONLY SO YOU DON'T GIVE OUT THE ANSWER. Here is the riddle: 3:00 am, the doorbell rings and you wake up. Unexpected visitors, It's your parents and they are there for breakfast. You have strawberry jam, honey, bread, and cheese. What is the first thing you open?

Remember... message me only. If you get it right I'll post your name here. If you get it wrong change your profile pic. GO!

Now I know you are the curious type and just need to know what I have learned from this silly game. So here goes. :)

Ten Things I Have Learned From the Great Giraffe Game

1. A lot, and I mean a whole bunch, of us are not as smart as we like to think we are.
2. Some people will never play along and feel the need to let you know that they will not play along. Spoil sports.

3. There are some creative pictures of giraffes and cute, adorable ones.

4. Hundreds, maybe thousands, of people can seemingly keep a secret.

5. Then there are those who purposely give away the answer. Again, spoil sports.

6. There is always that person who did not read through all the instructions and will immediately put the answer in a comment. That habit probably started in grade school, just saying.

7. Three days does not necessarily mean three entire days. Says the woman who did not wait an entire 72 hours to change my profile picture to something other than the giraffe of shame.

8. When most of your newsfeed is covered in giraffe profile pictures it is easy to get confused. You may actually have to read profile names. I was surprised that someone I didn't know would mention my name in a comment on a friend's status then I realized it was me, I was that particular giraffe.

9. People will even argue over the answer to a riddle. These may be the same people who seem to live to argue with strangers on the internet.

10. Finally, the answer to the riddle is . . .

Have a wonderfully giraffey day!
~Lisa

Weighing Us Down

You know how when you are not doing so well with a task or goal that you do not really want to talk about it? Yeah, so, I'm sure you can imagine why we've been pretty quiet about our weight loss lately. But I do believe we are back on track. (fingers crossed)

Our latest weigh in has mixed reviews. Sweet man is up by about 12 pounds from his start weight back in August and I am down by about 5 pounds. So good and bad. We still struggle with doing well during the week and then going off plan on the weekends. Just have to get a handle on that and I am sure it will help tremendously is getting us to our goals.

Good news! We started Weight Watchers last week. We both like it so far. There is definitely a learning process that goes along with Weight Watchers and we are slowly getting it. I love how it forces us to keep track of what we are eating each day and how there is a place to keep track of our daily physical activity. Even if we go off plan and have a bad day, we still record it and hope to make up for it with extra activity points throughout the week. I'm praying this is the program that will work for us so we can get ourselves healthy!

Oh, the no soda thing, well I haven't been doing so well on that. I have managed to not start drinking it on a regular basis like I was before, but I still drink some ever now and again.

So to recap our weight goals, the man now wants to lose 174 and I have lost 5 of the 25 I want to lose. I read The Little Engine That Could to sweet girl the other day, and, well, all I have to say is "We can do it!". We can and we will.

~Lisa

Naming Our School

I have been thinking for the past couple of hours about what we could name our homeschool. You know, for when we want to incorporate a mascot and for our letterhead. Well, maybe it is really because I didn't feel like teaching today and this was a good way to waste some time. Yep.

Anyway, while searching the web for some inspiration I came across this website that has a school name generator. Try it out, it was fun and entertaining.

Some of my favorite names from that generator:
The Useful Prep School of Weird Children - This one probably describes most schools, public and private, because aren't all children just a bit weird. It gave me a chuckle. Then I saw The Freaky Boarding School of Beautiful Education. I don't have anything to add to that, it is a pretty great name, haha. Another name I enjoyed because it is basically exactly what a homeschool is, that is The Complete Boarding School. But my absolute favorite was The Over-Whelmed School, this encompasses everything about our school right now. I doubt that will ever change.

So other than something simple like School, I cannot think of anything real catchy to name our school. What are your ideas? If you homeschool and named your school, what is your name? 

The more I think about it, I might just name it The Experiment.

~Lisa

September Menu and Diet

I realize that I have not posted our September menu plan, nor have I said much about our diet in about a month. To be honest, the diet has not been going well. But I have managed to only have 1, maybe 2, sodas since the end of July. Not too shabby.

I weighed in this morning and am just holding steady, which obviously means I need to be working out. Boo. I am not sure when the man last weighed in, so his update will have to wait until next time.

Speaking of working out, our family met up with friends from church (visit Smithfield church of Christ) at the park last night and walked a mile. The girls loved being outside and we had a great time visiting while walking. Mr. Man enjoyed it so much that he is already looking forward to doing it again next week and we are going to walk again tonight with just our family. Did I tell you that he signed up for a 5K that is coming up soon? More motivation to get out and walk so he can condition himself prior to the 5K.

I did make a menu plan for September and have kinda, sorta stuck to it. I even planned out breakfast and lunch for the first week. Hoping that next month I will be able to add more planned meals to the calendar.

It looks pretty similar to last month, but that is okay since I am still new to this. My goal each month is to find economical meals to make that are also healthy, or at least healthier than delivery pizza. Mmmm pizza.

Well now that I am hungry for pizza, I should probably get the big girl and I some lunch.

How are your getting healthy goals coming along? Hopefully better than ours!

~Lisa

Our Very First Day of Co-Op

This past Friday was our first day to participate in our homeschool co-op. My big little girl A was so excited to be going to co-op, just like she has been excited about all things related to school. I think we got us an academic on her hands; time will tell.

We got her all set up with a princess backpack and a Hello Kitty lunchbox and then the obligatory 'first day of school' pictures. Here's one:

It feels like there should be some catchy title to it about being smart, or filling her brain full of new facts, or something more witty than I am this morning. What it really is was her sassing us with "The sun is in my eyes!" Wonder if we can get her to reenact this picture for the rest of her school years?

We tried a few more times and got some normal looking ones, with the sun still in her eyes. You will be relieved to know that she survived the first day of school pictures and I think she will only be slightly scarred, not enough to warrant any concern. Here's another:

Of course we could have turned her the other direction, but then the sun would have been in our eyes, and that just cannot be. 

There is a daycare behind our house and a chain link fence where the kids will occasionally line up and watch us and our shenanigans. This day was no exception. By the time we were done taking pictures there were a few little kids staring and wondering what in the world those crazy parents are doing. Big girl waved at them and off we went to jump in the car and head to co-op.

The first day of co-op went quite well, to me. She really enjoyed getting to be in a room of 20 pre-schoolers. I think the teachers made it through too. That is a lot of 3 to 5 year old kids in one room. Each class lasted 55 minutes and she had Pre-School Language Arts, Discovery Science, Little Artists, and Sing & Play. Oh and little baby girl had her own nursery class she spent the day in with 4 other littles. 

I was assigned to help in each of the girls' classes throughout the day, starting with the nursery and going back and forth. I enjoyed getting to help with all those sweet kids and their wonderful teachers, and getting to watch big little girl in action. Those pre-school kids are fun and chaotic and more fun. Some of them had been in this same co-op last year and knew what to expect, but it looked like quite a few of them were new to this like we are. They all did so well considering it was new to them. My favorite moment of the day was when one little boy proclaimed to me "I drink my bath water!" How I did not bust up laughing, I do not know! Terribly cute. In the classes that I helped with there was a good mixture of learning and playing time. Of course by the 4th period, most of the kids were done for the day so it was a little more difficult to keep their attention. And there were a lot of awesome toys in the room to get their attention. 

On the way home I was asking her all about her day. "Did you like having mommy help in your class?" "No. You need to teach your own class and not come in mine." "Why?" "Because when all the girls were quiet, YOU talked." Gasp! I'm so terrible! Oh, my little girl is growing up. 

We are already looking forward to next Friday. The ladies that organize this co-op are doing a fantastic job of setting up all the classes and keeping things rolling along quite well. I think there were over 100 kids plus most of their mommies, and one daddy. My husband graciously offered to teach a class our first semester, so it is nice to get to see him there too. He is a natural when it comes to teaching. He is teaching the older kids and I know he'll do a fantastic job.

Hope you are having a wonderful day so far!

~Lisa