Close Your Eyes & Close Your Ears, Mommy!!

This is what my three year old asked of me the other night when she had a surprise for me.

I knew how to close my eyes.

Wasn't too sure about closing the ears.

So who better to teach me how to close my ears than her, my three year old!!!

In case you are wondering & for your viewing pleasure, this my friends is how you close your eyes & ears all at the same time...


Apparently, shrugging your shoulders as high as possible, results in the closing of the ears.

Let's make sure you got this now....

Eyes and ears open


Eyes and ears closed


Very good!

Now next time you need to close your eyes and ears at the same time, you know exactly what to do.


The things we learn from our children!

JOY Projects

I remember the first time that heard the acronym for JOY, Jesus,Others,You. I was in grade school and my teacher told us to experience true joy, this should be the order of our priorities.

She was right.

It is not an easy order to keep, sometimes I experience just "OY" - leaving Jesus out..sometimes, I remember Jesus, but skip the "O" and much to often it is just the "Y", no "J" or "Y" to be found.

I have shared this simple acronym with my children and hope that they too remember it just like I have all these years and that they too will strive to experience true joy!



However, just knowing it, remembering it will not help them (or me) achieve it. It is by practicing it.

We have a local Christian radio station called JOY FM. Every month they have a Project JOY - the projects are in one way or another about reaching out to others.

The past several weeks...months..I have been thinking..and thinking

I think that having our own family JOY projects could be a great way to get the ball rolling.

I really wasn't sure where to start, so I began to pray about it.

Then Thursday happened.

My mom had decided to adopt a cat through our local Humane Society. Over the weekend the kids and I went with her to pick one out..

She found one...here is Khulua



The people at the Humane Society named her, I am sure they meant the village in India and not the drink :) Adorable, I know right!

In order for my mom to bring her home, she had to be spayed. However, when the vet went in to spay her, he discovered that she had a stomach disease that was now incurable. The only choice was to euthanize her.

My mom was very sad.

My girls were very, very sad.

My son cried. He cried "I wish God would start the whole world over"

Me too, bud, me too.

They all broke my heart.

We talked about the cat, my daughter reminded him that God has a reason for everything that happens...good or bad.

Now my middle daughter and son want to change the world...

for animals.

It's a start, right?

They want to collect all that they can to give to the Humane Society, we are going through all of our blankets, my stockpile of things looking for things on their (Humane Society) list of items needed, i.e. hand soap, laundry detergent, etc. They have already begun going through my coupons looking for cat/dog coupons so we can buy treats, toys and food.

While I do not think that the "O" in JOY was necessarily referring to animals but I do believe that all of God's creation should be taken care of. I also believe that I can use their zealousness to take care of the "orphaned animals" to bring honor and glory to His name..even it is simply leaving Bible tracts for the volunteers. It is about putting compassion into action.

My kids are sensitive, they are compassionate and they are caring. I want to foster
these characteristics any way that I can, so that one day they can be used by the Lord in active ministry.

I want them to find JOY UNSPEAKABLE!


Linking up to

Got Pizza??

First let me start off by saying that I promise I am not going to turn this into a food blog nor will I talk about "the diet" endlessly.

Having said that..can I pleeeeeease share with you the personal pan pizzas that my husband and I made for ourselves today for lunch? Look at this baby..doesn't it look delish, especially on my Target after Christmas clearance paper plate?



It tasted even better and the calorie count is less than 250, add a garden salad to it and you have yourself a nice healthy lunch.

Real quick I will tell you what we did. Our crust is 1/2 of a honey wheat pita pocket. (If you are near a Schnucks, this week they have Kangaroo Pita Pockets on sale $1 a package, not a shabby price at all.) For our sauce we each used 1/4 cup of a Ragu heart healthy pasta sauce. We then topped it with turkey bacon, followed by veggies of our choosing. For the finale we added a little oregano. Toasted them in our toaster oven and...............

BOOYAH!!! They were soooooo yummy!!!

We do/did the Little Ceasars $5 pizzas on Friday nights often, I am just excited that we can still do that for the kids and we (my husband and I) will enjoy our own pizza and not feel like we are missing anything!

Hope you are having a great day!!!

Menu Plan Monday - 01/03/2011

Ok so as previously posted one of my two resolutions revolutions for 2011 was to lose weight - my husband and I are doing it together, well, kind of. We are part of a Biggest Loser contest that has other contestants, so really we are competing against each other. In the end though it is about making healthy choices and while none of our children have an extra ounce on them, we know that unless we teach them now about eating healthy they could some day struggle with weight too.

Whew..did that make any sense? If so, read on....lol

Anyway, I have decided that in order to expand our taste buds, I am going to fix at least one meal every week that is new to us.

This week the new recipe is Gourmet Roast Beef Roll Ups. This is a Biggest Loser recipe. It sounds really good and I am anxious to give it a try. I don't know why, but the chili garlic sauce just sounds really appealing to me!

Here is our menu line for the week:

Monday: Tacos..for my husband and I it will be taco salad, using ground turkey and low calorie tortilla strips.

Tuesday: Baked Ziti - featuring whole wheat pasta and heart healthy Ragu sauce..

Wednesday: Gourmet roast beef roll ups ( I can't wait!)

Thursday: Grilled Chicken w/ salad and steamed vegetables

Friday: Turkey Burgers with baked potatoes and probably some mac and cheese for the kiddos.

Saturday: Leftovers

Sunday: Dinner at my mom's - just another reason why I love Sundays!!!


That's our line up for the week. I will let you know if the if beef roll ups get a thumbs up or thumbs down.

2011 Revolution!!!

Every.Single.Year. I make resolutions and I usually do well.

For a few months.

Some things??

Just a few weeks.

Maybe that makes me a failure, maybe not. I get credit for trying though regardless, right?

Anyway, I will be trying again in 2011, but this year I am going to call it revolutions..(I got the idea from JOY FM!!)

Revolution •a drastic and far-reaching change in ways of thinking and behaving

I, personally, have only two goals for 2011..to grow more inwardly, while shedding pounds outwardly- to be fit inside and out.

I am excited that for once in my ADD life..getting organized is not on my list. I do not have the whole organization thing down completely, but I am more organized than I have ever been in my life. I know where the band aids are, I can find a pen very easily, you can open up cabinets and tupperware is not falling down on you (usually :))..you get the picture.

My husband and I have some financial goals that we are hoping to meet in 2011 as well, we at least have a plan to meet them.

I am excited about 2011..I feel the Lord has great things in store for me and my family.

Happy New Year everybody!!!!