Christine

Christine
by me

I see myself like her in many ways. My Momma said I started talking after a visit with her when I was a toddler and I never stopped! When I was with her we never ran out of things to talk about.

She read through the whole Bible each year. I will always remember her in a bathrobe with wet hair doing her Bible reading. No matter what was going on, she made time to spend with her Lord. Her deep love for Him was evident in her life, as was her deep love for people. If you asked her to pray for someone or something you could be certain she would.

I get my sweet tooth from her and Grandpa. When I stayed with them we'd have jam with breakfast, cookies and Mountain Dew with lunch, and cake with dinner. Of course there were always long walks in between to burn off all the calories!

She was a hard worker. She was always busy, always doing something. She didn't have a lazy bone in her body! Of course she could also be pursuaded to take a break to play a hand of 42 or to go swimming in the pond, or to take a walk down to the picnic area. She loved to do the work of the Lord, serving Him in church teaching Sunday School and Singing Praises.

I'll never forget her kisses at midnight when we arrived at the property for visits. Homemade icecream and blackberry cobbler, and especially persimmon pudding will remind me of her.

I'll never forget how much she loved Grandpa. The way they smiled at each other, you knew that no matter what, they loved each other. She always took care of him and he took care of her too.

I thank God for my Grandma. She is such a special person. I thank God for the godly example she has been to me. She wasn't perfect, no one is, but you could see Jesus in her life and I want to be like that too.

I am sad that her life on earth has ended, but I am happy for her too, she is with Jesus! I will miss her. I learned when Grandpa died that one of the reasons we are sad when a believer dies is not only that we will miss them until we too are in glory, but that death reminds us of sin. It is because of sin that death is in the world, but Jesus, through His death and resurrection, has overcome death! In that, we can rejoice.

Just before she passed away I told my son, "Grandma is tired and her body doesn't work well anymore, she has lived a good long life and has loved Jesus since she was a little girl, and now she is ready to go home and live with Him forever."

Although her body is dead, Christine is now more alive than she ever was while she was in it. Today, she began a new life in the presence of her Savior.

"For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then, face to face..."

Grandma, I'll see you when I get home! I hope it will be soon. Come quickly Lord Jesus! Amen.

Butterfly lapbooks 2

So M had a few butterfly stickers on his, and some extra facts about butterflies and moths. His cards have the picture of the butterfly on the front and the name of the butterfly on the back! He has memorized 8 butterflies by sight!

Butterfly lapbooks

The first picture is of Both the boys front covers. The next one is of the back of G's. Butterfly wings are symmetrical so we painted half of the butterfly and then folded the wings to get a print on the other side. He also did a color by number, flaps on what butterflies eat and what caterpillars eat, and drew some butterflies himself! The cards are a matching game.

I did it!

I got to bed at a semi reasonable hour! I was in bed at about 10:30 and asleep shortly after 11. Unfortunately I was woken up at 5:45 in the morning. I got a little sleep after that but I was up for good at 7:30. Sigh. Yawn, actually. I've been yawning all morning.

There is a possibility that I'll get to bed at a reasonable hour tonight too. Hopefully by 10:30 again. I know Dh will be tired, he got up before I woke up at 5:45, though I'm not sure exactly when. But he'll be working all day today cleaning out abandoned houses.

Its very cloudy today, that probably makes me feel sleepier than I really am. I am pleased that I got to bed so "early". I need to make a habit of it.

Waaaaaaa

I think my period is back already.

Mid last week I was 179 lbs. Today I was 181.2. If its just from water retention I should go back down next week.

No wonder I had such strong sugar cravings this last week!

Checking in

So this last week I had very little self control and ate something sugary every single day! Though not a lot, if I were shooting for moderation I would have been pretty much on target. But I was shooting for NO sugary foods so I missed the mark. I think for the month of Sept. I'm going to keep trying not to eat sweets but next month I think I will allow for some in moderation. My hope is that that way I will say to myself "no, don't eat that now, you can have it on Thursday (or whenever)".

I did meet my other goals however. Except one day I only did 10 minutes of strength exercises instead of 20 minutes. Oh and I obviously didn't do so well on listening to the Lord's leading.

I've been reading a lot about how hard it is to lose weight while breastfeeding (for some women). I think I might be one of those. In the past I lost all of my pregnancy weight rather quickly and then the excess weight I still had to lose didn't start coming off until my babies were about a year old.

I am going to keep trying to stick to my goals and re-teach myself how to be healthy and hopefully the weight will eventually start coming off. In the mean time I am hoping that I can at least lose a little and avoid gaining over the holiday season.

Goodnight

I'm going to try to make it to bed before 1 AM!

Cradle Cap

OK, just so you know, baking soda does wonders for cradle cap!

I had tried putting olive oil on S and that helped some but didn't get it all off. A friend told me to try baking soda, so I made a paste of it and put it on his head, rubbed it around a little (gently of course) and then washed it off. The scales were gone! He has a clean head now and his hair is all fluffy again! Another friend suggested Aveeno baby bath to wash his head to prevent recurrence, so I got some of that, we'll see if it works.

Baking soda is awesome! If you are reading this and thinking of other cool things you can do with baking soda, go ahead and post a comment and tell me what they are ;)

Different

I heard someone say on a video the other day that having ADD is like being left handed. Its different, but its natural to the person who has it. Since we live in a world with mostly "right handed" people we have to learn to adapt to get along.

I don't really think God originally intended for people to have ADD/ADHD but I don't necessarily think that those of us who have it are broken either. I'm not totally sure what I think LOL.

ADD is a part of my life though, and I am learning to deal with it. Hopefully I will be able to teach my son not only to deal with it as well but also to use it to his advantage. After all, people with ADD tend to think outside the box, be more creative, more energetic, and have a unique perspective on things. We just have to learn how to control our focus long enough to accomplish things!

Anyway, I like the left hand/right hand comparison. I think that is a very good way to explain how it is.

P.E.

We signed the two oldest up for Homeschool P.E. today! There is a program called EMH which stands for Energy + Motion + Health. The program runs Sept. - May and they do a different sport each month, with the exception of soccer which is both in Sept. and May.

Both boys are in the same group. M was noticibly taller than all of the other kids in the group. I think they both did OK. It was their first time EVER doing anything like this. The coach said that they needed to learn sportsmanship, boundries, and to follow instructions, but that is what the class is all about and the other kids are learning that too. She said her goal is to teach them these lessons so that when they are older they will be able to work on technique rather than basics.

G didn't seem to have as much fun as I thought he would. He misunderstood what was going on a couple of times and got discouraged and started to walk off the field at one point (the coach drew him back in). Hopefully once he gets used to it he will enjoy it more.

M's long time friend from church is in the group also. It will be interesting to see how they get along with the rest of the kids. They tend to set each other off and get wild. M is ADD and his friend is ADHD. His mom referes to M and her son as "Dynamite and a Match". They are easier to handle separately. At one point today it looked like they were playing "Tackle" Soccer!

J was a little bored and wanted to go out on the field with his brothers. There are a few other younger kids there, hopefully he will be able to get to know them and play with them during the weeks to come. I also want to bring a few things for him to do next time (coloring books, maybe a puzzle, etc.). Today Dh took him to the playground for a little while but in the future I will probably be taking the boys by myself so that Dh can study while we are away.

I am glad the boys are involved in this. I have been hesitant in the past to get them into sports but I think this program is just right for them. The committment is only once a week and we can even skip a month if we like. We also only have to pay for the sessions we attend, so that is helpful.

Praise the Lord!

Weight loss update

I'm not going to weigh in till Monday but I'm going to go ahead and post how I've done this week.

On water, excellent! Except for today. (We ran out of drinking water and I can't stand the tap, so I didn't drink nearly as much as I should have).

On exercise, great! I met my goals!

On eating veggies, great! It takes planning to get them fixed. I try to prepare them during S's afternoon nap.

On not eating sweets, I am a miserable failure. I got some spring form pans from freecycle and I couldn't resist making a cheese cake. I've never made one in a spring form pan before! I did freeze half of it though. But I ate 3 slices. (not all in one day). I also had some soy ice cream stuff because I had a tooth pulled and it was really hard to eat for a couple of days. (excuses excuses).

On listening to the Lord? Good some days, not so good other days. There is just no excuse for it, I disobeyed. Father, forgive me and give me strength to obey. I want to obey, I am weak, give me your strength.

And finally, I did post an update here for the week, so I met that goal.

So hopefully this next week will be better. I'll post my weight on Monday.

I know the Lord cares about every area of my life and He wants me to obey His voice in every area of my life. I pray I will learn to obey, right away, without delay.

Up late

I have always been a night person, I've always preferred to stay up late and sleep in late. I have memories from when I worked on the ship of being woken up by the phone in my cabin at 6 AM because I had the morning shift. My little watch alarm wasn't good enough. Even after my first baby was born he and I would sleep in till 10 every morning after staying up till midnight.

When we first moved out to California I was determined to start getting up earlier. I felt like it would be better for the whole family if the day started before noon. When we got our own apartment we started right off getting up at 8 AM. It was a challenge at first but we soon got used to it. Now it is pretty normal to get up at 8.

Though I am used to getting up at a reasonable hour, I still can't seem to get to bed on time! Lately its been Midnight or later before I finally get to sleep. Part of it is that Dh works late most nights, till 10 or 11, and then he gets home, we talk for an hour or two, and then go to sleep. So I wake up at 8 AM (usually at least 2 or 3 of the boys are awake before me), and feel really tired and regret staying up so late the night before.

I think 10 PM would be a much better time to go to bed than Midnight. That way the middle-of-the-night nursings and diaper changes wouldn't be such a big deal, because I have 10 hours in bed. When I only have 7 or 8 hours in bed those interruptions are harder to handle.

You may laugh, 7 or 8 hours, even interrupted sleep, sounds great to you! Well, I know its not great for me. I really need more sleep. 9 hours would seem ideal to me. Having 4 boys really wears a person out!

Dh gets off work at 6 PM this evening, so I think maybe I'll try to make my goal of getting to bed at 10. I don't know what his plans are for tonight but I plan to have supper ready when he gets home and then maybe go on a walk as a family right after we eat and before it gets dark.

Goodnight! er....Goodmorning!

Butterflies!

We went to the Pavilion of Wings at the L.A. Natural History museum last week. It was really neat seeing the butterflies, and the boys got to hold a caterpillar! One butterfly landed on M. He was thrilled of course. This week we are working on butterfly lapbooks but I think its going to take us a while. I plan to spend most of the day on Friday working on them though so maybe we'll have them finished by the weekend.

Weight loss goals

I think I'm ready to jump back on the track and get some of this weight off. I'm 181 right now and my ultimate goal is 135ish. My sister is getting married November 1st and I'm going to set a goal to get down to 169 by then.

Here are my goals for September...

1. To eat veggies everyday (don't be grossed out that I haven't always done this).
2. No sweets (with the exception of fruit in reasonable quantity).
3. Drink at least 90 oz. of water daily.
4. Walk at least 3 times a week for at least 30 minutes.
5. Do strength exercises for at least 20 minutes a day twice a week.
6. Post here once a week on how I am doing.
7. Listen to the Lord when He prompts me to eat or not to eat something!