Something New

Sometimes change is scary, right? Like changing jobs, or doctors, or dentists, or schools... that kind of change I don't really like! I'm not good with that kinda change.

But there are other kinds of changes that are good. Meeting new people, making new friends, loosing weight, getting married, having a baby - all those are fun and exciting changes! Changes most of us look forward to. And it looks like I'll be embarking on a change that could be really good, fun even!

Through what started off as an off handed comment - it looks like I'll be doing some cooking for some folks other than my family. Well, they are family - on David's side - so family, but not people who live in my house!

Since we haven't started yet I'm not sure exactly how it's going to work, but the basic premise is that since David and I are eating healthier meals - and loosing weight, they would like to eat healthier also. So I'll do my weekly menu plan, we'll work out with meals and what nights they would like to "eat off my menu", I'll cook it, she'll pick it up and we'll all have our dinner!

Now David's Aunt is a Southern born and raised lady, and she can cook up a really yummy and wonderful meal (of which I've eaten several!!!), but she said she isn't interested in learning or trying to cook differently than good ol' yummy Southern cooking. That's where I come in. I've already made the adjustment to cooking healthy meals. Since I'm already doing it, it works for them to eat what I make instead of going out all the time. And it's a neat opportunity for me to try something new doing something I already like to do! I love to cook, and since my family seems to need to eat each night, I can easily make enough for two more people.



I'm really super excited! Right now I'm not concerned with making any money (they have offered to pay me, after all they've said they pay when they go out to eat). Who cares about that?!?!? (I know, money is needed for living, but God has blessed us enough that I can stay home with the kids, and I don't NEED the money right now.) But I'm excited about the possibility of doing something new with something I already do daily!

It should prove to be an excellent new adventure! We've agreed to try it on a short term trial basis, and if it's not working for either of us - for any reason - we're done - no hard feelings!

I'm really excited (have I mentioned that?!?!)! And who knows, maybe others out there will find they need someone to cook for them and before you know it, I'll be the hottest personal chef in the Triad! Who knows?!?!

*laughing hysterically*

I mean I'm no Chef Mario Batali




Or Rachel Ray



but I can cook an eatable meal!
I'll be sure to keep you all updated on how things go with my new adventure! We won't be starting until sometime next week, so stay tuned for an update!

Strawberry Jelly

Last year was my first attempt at jelly making. My mom gave me all her canning stuff along with the recipe for several types of jelly. Last year I made some strawberry and blackberry jelly. They strawberry was by far the big hit! We didn't make it through to fall with the jelly I made, so we've waited all year long for it to be strawberry time again... well that time has come!

This week the kids and I stopped at a local strawberry farm to pick the berries. It was a fun time, especially since you just never know how things are gonna go when you take Avery on an outing like that! But she did great, and we had a good time.

We picked two gallons worth of berries and headed home to get the jelly making process started.

Here's what we started with:




Next the sugar. It's an amazing amount, I guess that's why the jelly is so yummy!


Then after cutting and mushing the berries, they get put in the pot (then add all that yummy sugar!):




After boiling it and quickly adding it to the jars with the lids and rings, they get turned upside down for a few minutes (this is the first batch):


After a couple of minutes, the jars get turned upright and you wait to hear the lids pop!! That's the fun part. Here's the first batch complete!



And here are my cutie pie helpers! They mostly helped by saying... "oh, is the jelly ready yet?" But still they are cutie pies!!




All in all - so far - I've done 30 jars! I have a whole gallon of berries left, so I could do 2 more batches. I've used nearly 20 pounds of sugar, but have enough jars to keep going! We'll see how if I get around to it or not!

Beach Trip

At this time next Wednesday the kiddo's and I will be in the car on our way to the beach! We'll be meeting up with my in-laws as well as my brother and sister in law who will already be at the beach. David will join us closer to the end of the week.

I'm looking forward to going. I love the beach, and for the times the kids have been, they love it too! Now I'm just hoping for some warm weather and some sunshine.

As I've been thinking about this beach trip and how every trip, every year is different due to the ages of the kids, I had these thoughts...

What vacation used to be...

You see it, right? Just two chairs... and umbrella, and no stuff? Do you feel relaxed just looking at it?

Now, this is how vacation felt for a little while...

Need I even say more?!?!?

But, I think I'm finally feeling like I'm at this point now in my vacationing...

Yup, everyone there, having a good time with just a few things to make it fun!

I'm looking forward to a fun few days at the beach where I might get to see some of this again...

And maybe see a few of these amazing sights...

Food

I'm noticing something about my life. It's deep now, so you all read carefully so you don't get lost, OK?!?!

I'm noticing that most of my daily life revolves around - food! In some form or another lots of my time is spend dealing with food.

Take a look at my daily "food" interactions: from the minute one of my kids is awake in the morning someone is asking me for something to eat. First we have brakfast, then cleaning up from breakfast.

Next there's packing lunches (on Wednesdays) or snacks for eating at the gym or in the car while we run errands. After the food is made and packed up, the unused stuff has to be put away.

Then you have the planning of weekly meals. A list of nightly meals must be made so I know what I'm going to cook. And of course there's the grocery list to be made and then the actual shopping for the groceries! Once they are purchased, they then need to be taken into the house and put away!

As soon as we get back into the house, someone's asking for something to eat.
Didn't we just eat?

So I Make lunch, clean up from lunch. And an hour later someone's asking for more more food... make snack, clean up from snack.

And just so you don't get the wrong idea here - I usually stack the dishes next to the sink (because of course the dishwasher is either full of clean dishes waiting to be put away, or it's full and waiting to be run!) So the newly dirtied dishes must wait! Oh how glad I am to have a dishwasher!!!! I would be miserable if I had to hand wash all the dishes we made in a day!


Then before you know it, it's time to start thinking about making dinner. And, well, you know how it goes from here... make it, eat it, clean it up!

Before bed time snack is the last thing the little people eat. OK, honestly I usually have a small snack sometime in the evening as well.

You see? That has to be what, like 80% of my day is spent thinking about, making, or cleaning up something related to food? Is that what my life is about? Is this what it's come too??



Apparently so!

BUT...

Here's what I find so funny... I've spent the last 6 months trying to lose weight and get in better shape - (yeah, it's funny, it's ok to laugh) from EATING TOO MUCH FOOD!!!!!!!

Golly! Where did things get so outta wack?!?!?!

I mean how could I possibly need to spend MORE time on food related things? Such as going to the gym and trying to be healthier?

The answer to that is pretty simple really, before I was just going through the day... eating whatever, whenever I wanted. It didn't matter if it was good for me, or just tasted good. It didn't matter if I was even hungry or not. I just ate, and I ate too much. That's how I got to be 30 pounds overweight.

As it turns out... it might not be such a bad thing to think a bit more about food. I do spend time figuring calories and thinking about which foods I should eat and which ones I shouldn't. I'm coming to find that the time spent doing those things are paying off in weight lose and better physical fitness!

I guess if I am gonna spend so much time thinking about and doing things with food I might as well make that time count for something good!

So what are you making for dinner tonight?

Lots of love

Along with the 2 dozen roses, the cards and the buckets of love I got today for Mother's Day (thank you David!), I also got this cute paper that Luke did at school. His teacher filled in the blanks.

About My Mom

By Luke

My Mom is very special

She does so many things for me.
She dries my eyes and mends my cuts,
She plays with me each day.
And this is how I see her
In her very special way.

She has blonde hair and big blue (like mine)eyes.
She's 65 years old.
I think she's 20 feet high.
And has a heart of gold.
Her favorite color is green.
...I think that's what she said.
She weights about 55 pounds
and tucks me into bed.
Her favorite food is broccoli and that kind of stuff.
I love her, you can see.
My Mom is very special because She loves me.

Regrets?

You know how sometimes the same thing comes up in your life over and over?

Like you hear something about a certin car or you've never heard of and then all of a sudden it's everywhere?

Well, I think God does that for us sometimes too. And He's been doing it for me this week.

It started on Sunday at church. Our Pastor gave a short (due to this really cool World Market thing our church was doing) but powerful message, which you can hear here, called No Regrets. It was pretty much what you would expect from a message with that title. He encouraged us to do all we could for the Kingdom of Christ so we had no regrets when we got to heaven.

Then on Tuesday morning at the gym, I took a Step class... and at the end of that the instructor played a song - I think by Third Day - about, up you guessed it... having no regrets! It was almost the very same message as Pastor Don delivered on Sunday morning.

So I've been thinking about that a lot the last few days. Honestly, I had the "usual" thoughts at first. What more can I do for those hurting? What ways does Jesus want me to serve Him? What can I do that I'm not doing? There are lots of answers to those questions for sure, but I ended up kinda moving on in my brain to these thoughts...

How am I living my daily life that would lead to regrets? What am I doing daily that I shouldn't be doing? What am I doing each day that is good - and I should keep doing? Then to add to that (see - here's God being in my face again) I meet with a dear girlfriend and she shared with me something very relevant she had learned on a marriage retreat just this past weekend, it was this question...

"Will this matter in 20 years?"

Again Lord?

OK, so now I've got all that rolling around in my mind and heart. When it comes to daily stuff I have a problem with my mouth. I know those of you who are long time visitors to my blog know I've mentioned that before. My parents told me from an early age to watch my mouth. I was told, it's not what you say, but how you say it. Golly, that's been a problem for me my whole life! The older I've gotten the more I've given into the Holy Spirit and allowed Him to control my words and actions. But I fail at it again and again.

I get upset with my kids and sometimes say things in such a way that is too harsh and later I feel bad. Then I have to apologize and explain how Mommy was wrong and I'm sorry.

And then there are the times that I talk too much. I'm really trying to learn how to tame my tongue. Just shut up sometimes. Cause I've learned that sometimes saying too much - even when it seems innocent - can come back around to bit you in the rear-end!

And then at some point in my life, I'm not sure when, but I developed this thing about arguments and fights. I hate them. I simply hate confrontation. I don't know why, or where that started. I lived in a very peaceful home growing up. My parents never yelled at me or each other... so I'm not sure where that came from, but it's a problem for me. So when confrontations come up, I'm not very good at dealing. I kinda clam up and it's like my brain completely shuts off. So in order to deal with my inability to follow through with things, I totally avoided them. That's not the best way to deal with that problem.

But recently something has been happening, not necessarily to me, but more around me, that's changing me again - at least I think it is. I'm learning that sometimes it's worse to say nothing at all. All around me there are marriages falling apart, friendships hurting, families not supporting each other in hard times, even whole groups of people (people who are all Christians) that are in discord due to a lack of actually talking to each other.

All of that upsets me. It makes me mad. And so through these things I'm trying to learn to speak my mind when the Holy Spirit leads me to, and to really keep my mouth shut when He's saying "Nope Hol, not now!" I think this - this new found something, I don't know what to call it, awareness for the need to communicate, is one of the areas the Lord and I are examining so that I can be leading a life with no regrets.

It's kinda a new light shinning in my heart and mind, and I'm by far "good" in this area, but it's something that I'm aware of and that I'm working on. I don't think I'm gonna go out and pick any fights or anything like that, but I am trying to be more aware of and in tune with what the Holy Spirit wants me to say and when and how I should say it! And when I should say NOTHING AT ALL!

I think this is an area in my life where I have many regrets, but I'm so very thankful for the grace and mercy that my Savior offers me so I can start again each day and with His help, do better.

Today Lord, help me to live my life for you with no regrets!