Snow on the ground this morning. Should continue light snow this morning and then change over to rain, I think. Our pastor's wife, who also grew up in the South, told me yesterday that they more often than not get snow on Easter. Blech! Snow on Easter. Aren't you supposed to have beautiful backyard picnics with your church family on Easter. Oh well, I'm still going to try and organize a pot luck or something with our new church.

I'm doing better. Need to update on the kiddos, they are doing awesome. So big. We are going to a playdate this morning, unless I chicken out because of the snow. I think the roads should be super clear....right?

Ok, so now that you've gotten to watch the clips below, I'll share this. That guy has been requested to come to the White House to discuss the disturbing nature of his clips. Really.

So, if you didn't believe me that these were worth watching before, check them out now.

In case you haven't seen these....you should.

however, don't mail a tea bag, it won't get thru security. Put one on your rearview mirror and attend a Tea Party on April 15th. More details on those later....

I AM GOING TO HAVE A GOOD DAY TODAY!!!! DO YOU HEAR ME?????? HAVING A GOOD DAY!!!



and she did!

Funk funk go away....come again...um, no don't come again another day.

Way too much computer surfing today, but don't even feel like updating my own blog. blah blah blah

I'm here. Better than before, but realing a bit. This last round really did a doosy on my body and my spirit. I keep reminding myself that God has placed me exactly where I am, with these children and my awesome husband. He isn't surprised that my body isn't holding up so hot right now. I don't expect Him to miraculously cure what ails me, although I would be so grateful if He does. He may just have something special to teach me in my path of sanctification here....and for that, I want to long for it. I know looking back I will be grateful for it. I pray to be grateful now.

I know that last weeks episode was triggered by some bad food choices. I had that blizzard, not a normal occurance for me. Then, at small group on Wednesday night, I had a brownie and some mint choco chip ice cream. I'm pretty sure that the artificial colors and preservatives in the two things sent my body reeling. On Thursday, I knew something wasn't right and by Saturday I was in full eruption mode. Aren't our bodies amazing.

I do keep our diets pretty clean, and I'm glad I do. I just need to be much more observant of what I put into my body, especially at times I know that I am weakest, like when I have a baby.

I saw a new chiropractor this morning and got worked over!!! So, I should be on the mend. Pounding the water today because I know I will start really dumping toxins after the massage and adjustments she did on me. Of course, I'm thirsty all the time right now anyway.

In exciting news, we have a babysitter tonight. Two of the Lohnes children (our pastors fam) are coming over to watch J adn L. I am speaking at the ICAN meeting tonight about achieving VBAC!!! I'm really excited. Robert and Hannah are going to come along to watch.

Thanks for all of you support ladies. Your posts and emails mean alot to me. More importantly, your prayers do!

Headache is still here...day three. I hate this.

Everyone is sleeping or they are supposed to be. I'm pretty sure that Hannah is playing in her crib instaed. Hey, if she'll play herself to sleep, I'm good with that. Robert and the big kids got up and went to church this morning. I had a bad hormonal migraine hit yesterday afternoon and I"m still recovering from that. I knew that I wouldn't be able to tolerate music today and maybe not even sun light, so Hannah and I hung at the house. Robert offered to take her too, which is kind of comical since she's never had a bottle. We haven't even tried with her.

Our other two wouldn't take bottles, no way no how. Ok, Leah did one time. I had a salad with a bunch of bleu cheese on it...it was delicious...to me, not Leah. She went on a nursing strike about about 30 hours and I was panicing that she was weaning early. Our sweet Mrs Woody came over and some how got Leah to take a bottle until she started nursing again. But, she never would take it again. Joshua took a bottle in the NICU but wouldn't for us ever again. So, since we haven't had anyone around that we would trust our baby with anyway, we haven't even tried with Hannah. Who knows, maybe she'd suck it down..... I could use the break.

I really have to figure out some way to get me cleaned up and going again. I'm pretty sure I'm having yeast issues, if not a full blown systemic infection. I have craved sugar soooo bad since having Hannah. This is more worrisome because I've NEVER been a sweet eater. Put a plate of brownies and nachos in front of me and I'll take the salt any day....or used to. Now, it is like I have to have sugar. I know that is making things worse. I need to do a yeast cleanse but Hannah is still too little for me to do any kind of cleansing. So, somehow, I have to come up with the will power to stop the sugar..... I really have to.

Starting about Thursday of this week, I have been so hormonal. Super crabby and down and blah....remember my blah post. Friday was not as blah but more martyrdom of how I never get anything for me, blah blah blah. Saturday when I woke up, I could tell that something was brewing in me. I didn't feel right and I figured something was going on. After Hannah's morning nap, we headed into downtown to hit our food coop store for this quarter and while we were there, I had a full blown migraine hit. When we got home, I popped some homeopathics and took a boiling hot shower and went to bed....being woken up every two hours or so to nurse Hannah, of course. And of course, last night is the only night this week that she didn't sleep thru the night either. Blah.

I'm doing better today. Have that lingering migrainey hang over feeling. You know, the one where you aren't sure if it could come back at any moment. Anyway, I need to start being serious about my health again.

Oh, and to add insult to injury. On Friday, I was trying to find a belt to hold up my pants. I grabbed some out of my belt drawer. I never wear belts, and so I haven't tried these on since I got married, really. Well, of the three I pulled out, not a one of them would go all the way around me. Like, their ends didn't even meet. I was annoyed and disgusted. I didn't expect them to fit great, but I thought they'd at least go around me.

Tortilla Soup

Here is the tortilla soup recipe I start with...of course I play every time.
3 T EVOO
4 corn tortillas, I use more
6 cloves garlic
1 T fresh cilantro, I use the whole head
1 c onion
2 cans tomatoes
1 T cumin powder
2 t chili powder
2 bay leaves
2 cans corn, I use one can and one bag frozen
2 quarts chicken stock, I use one box

Cook some chicken. Sometimes I grill and sometimes I boil, doesn't matter. Saute tortillas, garlic and cilantro, all chopped in oil. In a blender, blend one can of tomatoes with the onion and can of corn until smooth. Add to the tortilla mix and bring to a boil. Add seasonings and other tomatoes and corn and stock. I also add black and sometimes red beans from a can. Bring to a boil and simmer for about 30 minutes.

Here is the part that makes it super yummy. Serve it with crushed up tortilla or corn chips, diced avocados, cheese and sour cream. Then sprinkle on some reserved chopped cilantro. Seriously awesome stuff!

Last time I made it, I also blended in some extra mixed veggies, just for extra nutrients! My kids love this, as do we.

My super awesome friend Kelly has a wonderful and uplifting post on her blog today, and if that is what you are wanting to read today, then check hers out here because that ain't gonna be what you get here today.

Ok, now that half of my reading audience, meaning everyone but my Mom, has moved on....I'm blah today. Just plain old, blucky blah. I can't even blame it on sleep deprivation because Hannah has finally found that she can suck her thumb when she wakes up at night and has therefore slept all night the last two nights...ok, until 5:30 when she is starving, but I"m calling it all night....it is Robert's all night after all.
Our pastor and family were supposed to come over for dinner tonight and that has been our ra-ra motivation around here the last two weeks and has actually gotten alot accomplished, but Pastor Will had to be gone for a few days, so that is rescheduled for next week. And so I have no reason to unblah today.
In order not to feel like too much of loser, I have still fed my children and myself(that being the big stretch here since I'm sick of eating) two meals today. I have given baby all needed naps and have even done reading with Joshua and read to the older two. Check....good Mommy duties.
Since I got those off my list, I went blog surfing...and since I'm a foodie or at least want to pretend to be, I surfed food blogs....

and in case you are wondering this is not the smartest place to surf when you are already blah....and THIS is even worse because I already know that I love her recipes and I want her ranch (the real one, not the dressing, although her recipe for that is good too). So in my best judgement of all time, I think I am going to load the kids up for a drive........to Dairy Queen for a blizzard. TAKE THAT BLAHS! ICE CREAM AND CHOCOLATE!!! OH YEAH!

It is sunny and 64 right now. Life is lovely. Tonight we have a chance of snow after a front comes thru this afternoon....and life is still lovely. My baby is napping, kids are getting to play outside....I have a moment of peace on my computer. I live a wonderful life!

Tonight we have small group. I'm making Tammy's tortilla soup. Yum! I hope it comes out nice, it always has, but it would be my luck that it woudln't when I'm making it for other people.

I'm rereading Reforming Marriage. GCC is doing it as a study in their men and women's meetings and so I am reading along. I forgot how much I really like that book and highly recommend it to all of my married christian friends.

I need to get back to working out, but I'm scared. I don't want more headaches. I really need to find a good chiropractor again and get thru this phase of post partum so I can get fit and looking good before the next Seago wedding in July.

High of 65 and sunny today.....we are off to the zoo.

My knight in shining armor arrived in his tan minivan and strode in, strong and proud. He quickly grabbed his Allen wrenches and went to work. Not a cuss word was spoken and before you could say "Joshua and Leah, bed time" all was right with the world again. My beloved Kirby is charging ahead! YIPPEE!!!! He said that a piece on the transmission toggle had slipped off some how and that the Porsche transmission in the Kirby is a good design. That is the highest compliment you can receive from my husband!!! He's my hero!!!! He saved the day and probably a couple hundred bucks to fix it!

I remember a few years ago, a friend wrote about her beloved Bernina dieing on her and her anguish involved. I now know that feeling.

I'm about to cry. Kirby just broke. Those of you that have known me for a while, know that this is very traumatic to me. I love my Kirby. Really. Things like this don't normally bother me, but I seriously am going to cry. I don't think it is a completely dead kind of injury but still. She and I have done some beautiful cleaning together. I just want her to be better....so I can finish cleaning my house. I love my vacuum cleaner. It's been a good 7+ years.

We had a lovely weekend. Saturday was nice, for here. Temps were in the 40's and it wasn't too windy. We got lots of honey do's done around the house and then went to pick up our milk and eggs and hit Chik Fil A for dinner. Unfortunately, Saturday at CFA right now is buy one get one free milk shakes, TROUBLE! Thankfully we don't live very close to a CFA, so we rarely rarely eat there. We even got a quick grocery trip in before we headed home, which was nice because it meant I didn't have to do the shopping while everyone else napped on Sunday. Yea!!!

Sunday we got up and headed to church. We really really like our new church. We don't know alot of the families yet, but we are getting to know the pastor's family better and we really love them. They have 5 children. Twin boys that are 18 or 19 and then three teen daughters. Joshua has a little crush on one of their girls and all I hear about all week is Martha this and Martha that. It is very cute! And Martha's favorite color is red, in case you were wondering. Pastor Will is preaching thru Romans and it is so great to be back under solid teaching. He is using a white board during his sermons and it is nice to have visual support for the message. And, this morning, Joshua even asked me about some of the diagrams from the service yesterday. This is why our children worship with us. I knew what he was talking about when he asked and we had a lovely discussion about the trees of knowledge and death.

At the end of the service, Pastor Will said his family had won free Chipotle and so that was where they were heading for lunch, and so we went as well. It was fun getting to eat with new friends. We are really liking what we've seen of the Medina area and will be buying around there once our house sales in Texas. If you remember, please say a prayer for our house to sell. We'd really like to be able to buy a house to move into when our lease is up here in June.

The rest of the day was a lazy one for me. I got a nap with everyone else, a very rare occurence for me. Then got to chat with one of the Guthrie girls on Facebook for a bit. I made a yummy spinach quiche for dinner and then to bed.

Today we have to get this house whipped into shape. Tomorrow it is supposed to be 65 degrees and sunny. We will NOT be in this house tomorrow! YIPPEE!!! Our first real glimpse of spring....I'm pretending that we don't have snow forecasted for Thursday....la la la la lal ala lalal .... I love the Nile, la la la la la. Wed night is small group, I'm making chicken tortilla soup for the group. THursday our pastor's family is coming over for dinner. It is almost feeling like a GCC week. YEA!!!!

Tomorrow, a real post, but until then, a funny youtube video stolen from my friend, Kelly's blog. I thought I'd lay off of the liberals for the weekend since I do happen to have some close friends and a Grandpa that are quite the crazy liberals!

I don't believe in divorce, but...

DIVORCE AGREEMENT
Dear American liberals, leftists, social progressives, socialists, Marxists and Obama supporters, et al:

We have stuck together since the late 1950's, but the whole of this latest election process has made me realize that I want a divorce. I know we tolerated each other for many years for the sake of future generations, but sadly, thi s relationship has run its course. Our two ideological sides of America cannot and will not ever agree on what is right so let's just end it on friendly terms. We can smile and chalk it up to irreconcilable differences and go our own way.

Here is a model separation agreement:

Our two groups can equitably divide up the country by landmass each taking a portion. That will be the difficult part, but I am sure our two sides can come to a friendly agreement. After that, it should be relatively easy! Our respective representatives can effortlessly divide other assets since both sides have such distinct and disparate tastes.

We don't like redistributive taxes so you can keep them. You are welcome to the liberal judges and the ACLU. Since you hate guns and war, we'll take our firearms, the cops, the NRA and the military. You can keep Oprah, Michael Moore and Rosie O'Donnell (You are, however, responsible for finding a bio-diesel vehicle big enough to move all three of them).

We'll keep the capitalism, pharmaceutical companies, Wal-Mart and Wall Street . You can have your beloved homeboys, hippies and illegal aliens. We'll keep the hot Alaskan hockey moms, greedy CEO's and rednecks. We'll keep the Bibles and give you NBC and Hollywood .

You can make nice with Iran and we'll retain our right to invade and hammer places that threaten us. You can have the peaceniks and war protesters. When our allies or our way of life are under assault, we'll help provide them security.

We'll keep our Judeo-Christian values... You are welcome to Islam, Scientology , Humanism and Shirley McClain. You can also have the U.N... but we will no longer be paying the bill.

We'll keep the SUVs, pickup trucks and oversized luxury cars. You can take every Subaru station wagon you can find.

You can give everyone healthcare if you can find any practicing doctors. We'll keep The Battle Hymn of the Republic and the National Anthem. I'm sure you'll be happy to substitute Imagine, I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing , Kum Ba Ya or We Are the World .

We'll practice trickle down economics and you can give trickle up poverty your best shot. Since it often so offends you, we'll keep our history, our name and our flag.

Would you agree to this? If so, please pass it along to other like minded liberal and conservative patriots and if you do not agree, just hit delete. In the spirit of friendly parting, I'll bet you ANWAR which one of us will need whose help in 15 years.

 

I have a headache. I am so tired of having headaches. I just want a friend that I can call and cry to and they will come over and play with my children so I can sleep. I miss the Guthrie girls and Ruth and Sarah and Peggy. They alwasy took care of me when this used to happen. I miss my friends.

We had a lovely weekend, although we didn't do anything spectacular. The weather wasn't amazing that it apparently was every where else in the country, but it wasn't freezing either and that in itself was nice.

Saturday, Robert and Hannah and I started the 419 step process to get our truck registered here. We spent 4 hours and stood in 12 lines and got the first three steps done. Really. It is rediculous how messed up the governmental systems are in this state. Robert and I are college educated and it is difficult for us to navigate the system. It has to be really impossible for some people. They throw money and more money at systems that make no sense, and that is stupid! Anyway, hopefully we can get some more of it done this week. Until then, we just don't drive the truck because it is illegal.

We did get all take a walk together Saturday afternoon. People are always oohing and ahhing over JOshua on his bike and Leah just being cute, then they realize Hannah is on my back and you should hear the comments then. You'd think I had a family of 16 or something. Hello people, I only have three children so far...deal with it. I'm not asking you to take care of them in any way. Heck, we don't even use our health insurance that we pay for ourselves. Oh well, I take comfort that the liberals are breeding themselves out of existence.

Sunday we got to go to our church again, YEA!!!!! This was only our second week and we already love it. The message was great and it is so nice to be under real teaching again. The music is pretty good too. Not Dan Woody good, of course, but much better than we've seen alot of.

Ok, Hannah is sleeping and that means I need to get a workout in.

Am I potty training?

I was just thinking this morning that if I were God, I would look at me as a potty training toddler. You know I posted the other day about Leah doing so great....ummmm, jumped the gun on that one. We've had accident after accident since then. She just gets to busy to make it in time and her accidents are usually right next to the potty. But this morning was different. I got her ready to go play outside and asked her. Do you need to go potty? No. Don't poopy or teetee in your panties. Ok. 30 seconds after I got her outside she came in and said she needed to poopy, I asked her if she did in her pants and she says yes. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I JUST TOLD YOU NOT TO POOPY IN YOUR PANTS!

Anyway, if I were God, I would feel that way about me. I pray for peace, joy, love and patience with my children every morning, as soon as I wake up. But then 5 seconds later they come in the room and start fighting and ignoring any instructions I give and I"m anything but patient, loving and kind. If I were God, I'd be saying "I JUST GAVE YOU PEACE, JOY, KINDNESS and LOVE FOR YOU CHILDREN AND NOW YOU...."

Thankfully, I am not God. For you see, I am a sinful, fallen, imperfect creation. God is not. He is perfect. And HE loves me and He IS all of the fruits of spirit. Thank you Lord.

No Capes Here

In case anyone was confused, there are no capes in my closet. I know, shocking, but I am NOT super MOm!!!! Someone else must have that title, not I. And because I am not super Mom, we have ants. Sure, if I had vacuumed after every single meal and snack like Super MOm would, then my little blessings mountains of food crumbs wouldn't have been there for the taking, but I'm not super Mom. Who knew that ants would still invade our little world when we had snow on the ground and temps in the single digits. It is bewildering to my little southern mind, but our Creator made those little critters HARDY!

So, for the last week, I and Joshua have been tag teaming to vacuum the kitchen and dining room about 20 times a day, literally. Every time I see an ant, we break out the good ole Kirby (that I still love, don't konw if I've written about my love for my vaccuum here or not but, 7 years later, I still love her) and get em. I've been using our favorite non toxic bug spray, Orange Guard. Works well to kill them in Texas and California, but just like the government here in Ohio, the ants are more annoying and persistent. I also started feeling just yucky and run down and very overly tired (yes, more so than my usual I have't slept in 5 years tired). I just thought I was still run down because I didn't get any recouperation when I got sick a few weeks back....yup, no cape here but babies expect to be cared for, sick Mommy or not, cheeky little things...

But I finally realized on Tuesday that I've never used the Orange Guard when I couldn't open up the windows and ventilate and air everything out before. Texas and California are kind enough to let you do that. And hey it is safe around pets, kids and good...package says so, but not for non Super Moms, apparently. So, I stopped the orange guard and am now feeling better. But those pesky ants..... so, since I didn't feel like googling the natural ant killers that I should know off the top of my head, I just dumped a bunch of my Young Living Peppermint oil where they were coming in....haven't seen one since. I love my oils!

I also got back on the wagon and worked out this morning, which leads me to my latest dvd review. I got the Biggest Loser Workout DVD #2. I LOVED #1 but am just ok happy with #2. The instructor guy has some funky, nasty gay looking hair do with an 80's tail and all, YUCK! And there is a new little peppy instructor girl that is pretty annoying and her movements aren't that great. So, I will only do this one a few times and quickly send it back to Netflix for my next installment. I think I have the 30 Day Shred up next in my queue. Lord help me!

I was right about Leah. We bought her some big girl panties this weekend and she's had no accidents until this morning, but that was my fault really. We ran an errand and I forgot to make her go before we left. As soon as we got home she was half way to the potty, with her pants pulled down and didn't make it. Poor girl. But, today is laundry day anyway, so no big deal. She's a potty training super star!!!!!!

A few other things I forgot to mention about church #14. They did family worship time and then the kids left for Jr church (not our kids of course, the others) and THEN they pull out donuts for the adults. Cracked me up!!! After service, they did announcements and I just wanted to jump up and down to volunteer. They have one family that is moving this week, she lost her father last week with the funeral yesterday and she is early prenant and having problems. They were talking about who was going to clean their house for them and then who was going to grocery shop to make sure their pantry and fridge were full when they moved in. I LOVED IT! We are going to the pastor's small group tomorrow night!!! I'm a little nervous because I hate meeting new people and the fake get to know you junk, especially in a group, but excited too!

What an amazing weekend!!!!!
First, Joshua started officially reading. And then Robert took us to Olive Garden for dinner where we met the nicest couple. Very conservative. It was like visiting with a family from GCC. A nice break from our normal surroundings. I thought that was a nice little gift from God and was thankful for some fellowship...even short in the waiting area of a restaurant. THEN....

Today, we visited church #14! And, WE'VE FOUND A CHURCH!!!!!!!!!!! Just like with Grace in Texas, we knew the first time we visited that it was our new church home. We are so excited. When we got in the car, I asked Robert my usual blah "so, what'd you think" We both busted out laughing and he said "that was encouraging". They are a nondenominational church that has been there for about three years. The pastor reminds us of a mix of PT and Mark Brenan. It is a small small church. Meets in an old fashioned theater kind of place on the square in downtown Medina. We are pretty excited because we've been eyeing some homes with land in Medina....hmmm, conincidence...I THINK NOT (said in my best Dana Carvey SNL voice)! There are homeschoolers in the church, but not all of them. The pastor and his wife talked to us quite a bit. When we started talking about doctrine, the pastor just lit up when he heard we are reformed....as are they!!!! Isn't that awesome! They aren't family integrated but what a blessing to find a reformed church here!!! And finally, and the funniest thing of the day for Robert and I was when the pastor started the sermon and said.....Turn in your bibles and stand as we read in ROMANS 2!!! ROFL!!!! We talked with him afterwards about the fact that GCC just finished going thru Romans. We love this place already!!! God is so good!!!!!!!!!!