My Sweet Valentines

Our Valentine's Day was pretty calm.  Spending time as a family, at home, was nice! 

Looking forward to UNINTERRUPTED...

SLEEP!  That is what I need!  I can't wait for the night that I get to sleep ALL NIGHT without any interruptions.  But for now, I will soak in every minute of getting to hold, snuggle, and feed my precious Chloe.  I have to check my perspective very often because it is easy to get frustrated and become bitter when it comes to sleep, or lack of sleeping!  I have to remind myself that this is a season that I will never get back, so I need to embrace every moment with joy and a thankful heart.  I GET to wake up and change diapers and feed a baby!  There will come a day that I will be wishing she was still a little baby.

Besides all of that, Bradey is wonderful to help me in the middle of the night!  Sometimes he has no clue what he is doing because he is asleep, but at least he is helping!

School and Friends

The time has come for my precious little "Red" to start preschool.  We registered Adi for the fall PELE program at Amarillo High School.  We will know for sure by April if she is definitely accepted into the class. Apparently they take applications and then choose a certain number of children to attend out of all the applicants.  However, they told Bradey that she was most likely in because of early registration.

I can't believe she will be 3 in March and starting preschool!  Time goes by way too fast and I just want to freeze her where she is, so that she can stay my little baby forever.  She is so excited though.  She went to Mother's Day Out for a while and had a blast.  She is a social butterfly and loves to play with other kids.  Even though I will probably cry, I am excited about having 3 afternoons every week to spend some one on one time with Chloe and get some things done.

Adi is also pumped that two of her best friends, Noah and Kayt, will be joining her at preschool.  The three of them play so well together and have so much fun.  

The three amigos

play music together - LOUDLY,

hangout at Starbucks together,

carpool together,

watch football games together,

and play at the park and feed ducks together!

Now they will get the opportunity to create more memories at preschool together!  One day, when they get older, we will look back at these pictures, laugh, cry, and cherish the memories as friends and parents.  How neat it will be!

Dieting is NO FUN!

Along with trying to save money by doing E-mealz, we've also been trying to eat better.  I'm still trying to lose my pregnancy weight.  As one of my friends would call it, "Operation Skinny," is in progress.  So, let me define progress in my terms...eating raw cookie dough, sitting by the fire instead of working out while girls sleep, fried chicken from Chicken Express, Taco Bueno, and so on.  Maybe this operation should be called, "Operation lazy with no motivation and no determination."

I will get in the swing of saying no to all of those temptations at some point. I will! I WILL!!  I keep telling myself that and I will start believing and expecting that of myself!  Each day is a new start and one day will be the new start to a SERIOUS "Operation Skinny."

I've never been a liker of a lot a sweets.  However, while pregnant with Chloe I adopted an enormous sweet tooth that has yet to leave me since pregnancy is over.  I'm not a fan of this new friend of mine.  My sweet tooth has my permission to move along it's merry little way whenever possible.  Until then, this sweet tooth will probably defeat me a few more times.

Besides my weakness in dieting, I've also slacked on the workout goals I had set for myself. 6 weeks after my
c-section, I said I was going to start the "Couch Potato to 5K plan" and workout with the famous "Bob" from The Biggest Loser (we bought the Wii game).  So far I have ran twice in 3 weeks and worked out with Bob 2 or 3 times.  Hmmmm.  I'm not doing very good.  "Operation Skinny" has come to a halt.

If I don't have someone pushing me and expecting certain goals to be met within a certain time period, results are basically non-existent.  I've never been one who has much will power to make myself do something such as dieting or working out regularly.  But, this is all going to change.  I'm telling you and you have to hold me accountable.  I am going to join the gym again, start going back to the classes that I was taking before I got pregnant, begin my training for a 5K, and start over on The Biggest Loser program.  I'm also going to cut out the amount of sugar that I eat and cut down to smaller portions.  No more cookie dough for me! :(

Here's to a new weight loss journey with will power, determination, and motivation to lose this baby weight!  It's in writing now.  I guess that makes it official, right?!?!

Pondering Life

Do you ever get completely overwhelmed with what the Holy Spirit is calling you to do, challenging you with, or teaching you? That pretty much sums up this season of my life. I can feel my heartstrings being tugged in many different areas of my life. I feel like the Holy Spirit is really challenging me in such areas as relationships with family and friends, my marriage, parenting and the overwhelming concept of living life abundantly. "Holy Cow," as Adi would say. Where do I begin?? I have had a burning desire to read more, to walk closer with the Lord, to gain more knowledge, and guard my life with His word. I absolutely love it but at times I don't know where to begin and simply just feel frustrated and overwhelmed. I've already used that word many times and I haven't gotten very far in this blog post yet. Yes, that one - OVERWHELMED!! Maybe I should have changed the title of this post.

Anyway, the Lord is speaking to me through numerous studies and books that I am a part of right now. I am in a Mom's Bible Study on Tuesday mornings and we just started a new study by Priscilla Shirer - One in a Million. The small group that Bradey and I are a part of just started a new study by Matt Chandler - Philippians. My pastor is currently doing a sermon series called Tilted Halos and Broken Steeples. www.hillsidewired.com That is just a few of the sources of wisdom that I have been blessed with recently. I am loving every minute of it and trying my best to soak it all in. I don't want to just be a hearer anymore, but I desire to be a doer. That is so hard in today's fallen, imperfect and evil world.

I once read Waking the Dead, by John Eldredge, and I just recently found it and cracked it open. I don't believe I found it by accident, I wholeheartedly believe I was lead to it for a reason so far beyond my thinking. The book talks about, "the glory of a heart fully alive." My overwhelming feelings slowly started to dissipate as I read the first chapter. This season of my life is somewhat starting to make sense to me. Here's an excerpt from the book that is so extraordinary and it speaks volumes.

"Before he promised us life, Jesus warned that a thief would try to steal, kill, and destroy it. How come we don't think that the thief then actually steals, kills, and destroys? You won't understand your life, you won't see clearly what has happened to you or how to live forward from here, unless you see it as BATTLE. A war against your heart. And you are going to need your whole heart for what's coming next. I don't mean what's coming next in the story I'm telling. I mean what's coming next in the life you're living. There are a few things I know, and one thing I do know is this: we don't see things as clearly as we ought to. As we NEED to. We don't understand what's happening around us or to us or to those we love, and we are practically clueless when it comes to the weight of our own lives and the glory that's being...held back.

Some of you don't see it yet. That's all right. We have a whole book ahead of us. If it's true that there is a fierce battle unfolding all around us - and against us - why isn't the enemy more visible? And if there is a glory to my life, well, then, why don't I see THAT? Why do I struggle so much, and where is that life God offers?

We don't see clearly because we don't see with the eyes of our heart."

WOW!!!! I had to read that a few times until it finally set in. I asked myself so many questions at that point. Am I truly clueless when it comes to the weight of my own life and the glory that's being HELD BACK? I don't think I even know how to answer that, much less the actual answer!

Until we come to terms with WAR as the context of our days we will not understand life.

Betty Crocker is in the House

We recently decided to join E-mealz. If you like to cook but don't like to plan your meals for the week, you should definitely look into this. www.e-mealz.com You pay $15.00 for a 3 month supply of recipes and grocery lists. There are a variety of different meal plans to choose from such as Family of 4 - Walmart or Family of 2 - Weight Watchers (point system). We chose Family of 4 - Walmart to start out and ended up switching to Family of 2 because we had so much food leftover. We ate leftovers for days after each meal. We have not yet made anything that we haven't liked. The recipes are simple, fast and delicious. It doesn't get much better than someone else choosing the recipes and creating your grocery list for you each week.

Bradey and I have really enjoyed cooking together every night and Adi just eats whatever we do. We have owned a crock-pot for almost 6 years now and have cooked in it more the past week or two than all 6 years combined. I think I actually don't mind going to the store anymore because my grocery list is already made and divided into different sections such as deli, frozen, packaged, etc.

So, I guess you can call me Betty Crocker now. I mean I'll answer to that I guess. :)