This is it...

My very last post of 2008. Wow, what a year this has been. We changed jobs which means we also changed churches. That was huge. I am still adjusting to the move. Dave is now a band director ..again. Our kids seemed to get BIG this year. They are in grades K,2,and 3. Time passes so fast! So many lessons learned in 2008. All were good to learn, even though some were very hard to learn. Every year I set some personal goals for the new year. Doesn't everyone. This year I hope to accomplish them! Some are more important than others. Getting healthy is always at the top of my list. This year it is really important that I do it. Spending more time in the Word and prayer. Those are just two at the top of the list. Oh, one more that I can share is I want to be more laid back. I tend to be a bit high strung sometimes:) May we all meet our goals this year! I hope you all have a great 2009.

Twas the night before Christmas Eve

For the past few years our kids have spent the night with Lori and Giny the night before Christmas Eve. This gives us a good night to help Santa get things ready for Christmas. Dave is reliving his childhood tonight with some of the gifts for the kids. It has been hilarious....if only my video camera was working. This would have been great youtube material. He was singing karaoke while playing a mini drumset. I guess you had to be here! Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

Making Memories

A few years ago I started getting my nieces and letting them build gingerbread houses with Abby and Erin. This year it grew to be all the girls plus Samuel and Andrew. I must say the boys did an excellent job for their first year. Samuel built a garage on his house. He is a lot like his grandaddy. Andrew surprised us tonight. I did not think he would be interested in building a house but he was. He sat there for an hour and 15 minutes working diligently on his masterpiece. The girls love this tradition. I think I enjoy it as much or more than they do. Their houses get better every year. As they were working on them tonight, I was looking at Chloe and Abby and thinking that Chloe will be 10 soon. I wonder how long this will be something they look forward to. I hope it will be a tradition that lasts for years to come. I'm 34 and I still enjoy building a gingerbread house.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Busy Weekend in Pictures

Starting Thursday we had a very busy few days. Thursday was our last day of co-op and Friday was our end of the year party with our homeschool group. Dave and the band played a special concert at Life Way bookstore on Friday also. Saturday was Abby's Christmas piano recital at the (JSU)president's house. It was beautiful and she did great. Saturday night Dave was in Jordan's wedding. It was a perfect ceremony and the reception was really fun. The kids danced, danced, danced! Sunday we worshipped with our church family and that afternoon our homeschool choir performed their Christmas songs and hymns. They are a talented group of kiddos. So that wraps up our weekend, hope you enjoyed the pictures!

My Weekly Meal Plan

After my meeting with the nutritionist on Tuesday I decided to make out a detailed meal plan for each week. I already kinda did this but not using the food guide pyramid! So for those of you who are interested, this is my plan for this week. I figure after several weeks I will have so many planned I can rotate them and change new recipes in and out without having to do a two hour planning session every week. But I love doing this....planning meals that is. So here are my 3 meals for 6 days.





Day 1
bagel
apple
coffee
milk

pb&j sandwich
yogurt

Baked Chicken
Broccoli
baked potato
whole wheat roll


Day2
yogurt
cheese toast
coffee
juice

turkey sand
w/lettuce
baked chips
apple

Lima Beans
pasta salad
cornbread
corn
peaches

Day 3
cereal/milk
coffee

healthy choice soup
crackers
apple
yogurt

Pork Tenderloin
green beans
corn
whole wheat rolls



Day 4
bagel/cr. cheese
banana
coffee

turkey sand
w/lettuce
baked chips
apple

Spaghetti
Salad
fruit?


Day5
yogurt
toast w/jelly
banana

Salad
apple
crackers

Hamburger Steak
pinto beans
pasta salad


Day 6
cereal/milk
coffee

Healthy choice soup
Crackers

Roast
Baked potato
Broccoli
Carrots
rolls

Its not perfect but I am trying to stick within the guidelines of the pyramid. I need to add a fruit or dairy here or there.....here are the number of servings I should have each day.

Milk group-3 servings

vegetable group- 3-5 servings

fruit group- 2 servings

meat group- 2 servings

bread group- 6 servings

The good news is that with a balanced diet and exercise (and little medicine for 6 months) I can turn this around! I'll keep you posted on my progress.

News of the Week

This week I got some news that wasn't so pleasant. Let me give some back information. I have not been feeling great for some time now. I have had somewhat high blood pressure, slightly high cholesterol.....things I thought only happen to really old people, not me. So my doctor did some tests, one of which was a fasting glucose screening. Well they called with the results on Friday and told me I have pre-diabetes. From what I can understand, this can be treated with diet and exercise. I have to take a class with a dietitian this week. I love to cook(and eat) so this is gonna be hard for me. I especially love to make desserts. It seems all the things I really love to eat are not good for me to eat. I have a family history of diabetes so I really have to take this seriously. I know things could be much worse....this at least is something that I can work on to reverse. So please pray for me to make good choices. I'll update you on what I learn in my class.....

Cooking and Dancing!

There's nothing like a little Thanksgiving cooking followed by some dancing......We had a great Thanksgiving. Wednesday we went to Mama's and cooked for Thursday. We made cakes, peanut butter balls, casseroles, and dressing. After dinner Thursday night what could have been better than some dancing. Lori and the kids danced and we laughed and watched them. Tracy joined in at the end.....my kids definitly get thier dancing ability from Dave and my sisters, cause I can't dance....not well anyway! It was fun and who knows, it could be our new Thanksgiving tradition....Dancing after Dinner!

Give Thanks

"O give thanks unto the Lord;call upon his name, make known His deeds among the people."
Psalm 105:1

Today I am thankful for so much. This is a small list I have compiled during the month. God has blessed me way beyond anything I could have ever asked. So today I give Him Thanks for who He is and all that he provides.(these are in no particular order:)

God providing my every need and most of my wants.

Our troops in Afghanistan and Iraq

Getting to spend the day with family

Gas for $1.87 a gallon

getting to cook Thanksgiving dinner with my mama

my daddy helping me buy a tire

walks at the park

Ruthie singing happy birthday to me(so sweet)

Lori and Giny babysitting

Having coffee with Dave and walking around Target

having a November birthday(its such a fun time of year to be born:)

hot coffee on a cold day

the sound of the kids singing

firewood

my bible

a few hours by myself

Dave working two jobs so I can be home with the kids

smilebox

piano lessons

good friends

candles that make my house smell sweet

nights when we are all home

Christmas crafts

rainy days at home

Charlie the dog

our little schoolroom

Handwriting Without Tears(Abby is writing in cursive beautifully)

Erin and her silkie

Abby's smile

Samuel's cute face

the time change( I love when it gets dark early)

Starbucks Coffee

a warm, cozy bed

cool weather

Christmas Music(96.5 is already playing it)

Grace Fellowship

the beautiful fall colors.

the Internet

a good nights sleep

my sisters

a sovereign God

Cable News

Saxon Math

freedom

Dave, Abby, Erin, & Samuel

Decking the Swinney Halls

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

sharing the computer

"Are you almost done?"

"I was fixing to get on that"

"Aw its my turn"

"Mama, she knew I was about to get on the computer"

"Mama can you get me on Playhouse Disney?" Samuel

This is a lot of the conversation I hear throughout the day. It seems every time I get on the computer the kids heckle me until I get off. I guess I will have to come up with a schedule for the kids. Dave never has to deal with this because he has a laptop. I really need a laptop. Maybe I should write a note to Santa this year and ask for one. :) I don't mind the kids getting on the computer, but they seem to rearrange things when they are on here. I can't figure out how they got my screen like this. I am a little annoyed. I will have to get Dave down here to fix this problem.

OK enough mindless rambling. We are putting our Christmas tree up today!!! Yay!! The kids are excited. Me too! We will not start until tonight but the kids wanted to do their schoolwork last night so they did not have to go to school today. So we started at 5:00pm and completed today's work by 7:00pm. Then we cleaned their rooms. So today is a free day. Actually the kids are going to school with Dave at 12:30. They love his students. He is working on Christmas music and the kids wanted to go hear the band. So that gives me the afternoon to myself. Not sure what I'll do yet. I am always thankful for a few hour all to myself. Anyway, I'll post pictures of our Christmas decorations later.

The twins

Today Lori and Giny turn 29. I was almost five when they were born and I thought they were my new dolls to play with. I turned five the week after they were born and Tracy was 20 months old when they were born. They were very little weighing only 3 and 4 pounds...I think. Mama did not know she was having twins until she delivered Lori and they told her there was another one....that would be Giny. I can remember Daddy saying "4 girls what am I gonna do." But what would we have done without them? They both are married and have little babies of their own now. Most of their life they have been referred to as "the twins". So Happy Birthday Twins. I love you.

Love this Smilebox!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

ramblings about the holidays

I'm getting ready for the holidays. The cold air this weekend is really making me ready. Living in Alabama its not always cold for Thanksgiving or Christmas. I can remember actually wearing shorts on Christmas day. But it just doesn't feel like Christmas unless its cold. I love this time of year. I have so many good memories of the holidays. One of my favorite memories is of Thanksgiving day, the drive to Cullman, and how beautiful the interstate was with the fall colors. I still think about that drive every year when I see the first fall colors. I rode with my Grandaddy sometimes(we went to Cullman for Thanksgiving every year). I miss him. He would really be looking forward to the holidays. But he would especially be loving this Alabama football season. I want our kids to have good memories of family time. One tradition we started several years ago was putting our Christmas tree up the week before Thanksgiving. We mark that day on the calendar and nothing else can be scheduled for that day. We put all of our decorations up, inside and out, listen to Christmas music, watch Christmas movies, and drink hot chocolate. Anything to get in the Christmas spirit. Getting this done the week before Thanksgiving frees us to shop shop shop the day after Thanksgiving! We are having dinner with our home group tonight so I better go bake.....more on my love of the season later!

Easy Fudge

I am always looking for easy recipes. I like recipes with 5 or less ingredients. I got an email the other day for this recipe. it looked so easy that I tried it......I really tried it because I thought there is no way this could be good. But I was wrong, it was great. It forms hard and is easy to cut into perfect squares. I think it would be good to cut with cookie cutters for the holidays. It looks like the fudge you get in Gatlinburg (that's what my sister said). Anyway, this is it:

Icing

a bag of morsels

Put the two ingredients in a microwavable dish, cook for 20 seconds. Stir and repeat until melted. Pour into a greased dish to harden.

The icing can be any brand, Store Bought Icing not homemade. Really!

I tried vanilla icing with Reese's peanut butter morsels. You can use any variation of icing and morsels. I am going to add nuts next time.

I love an easy recipe. So if you decide to try it let me know how it goes.

My baby turns 6

OK. I have been thinking about this for a while. Today Samuel turned 6. I do not have a baby anymore. Why does that make me sad? I'm really not sure. I have noticed him growing in little ways over the last few months. Today at 10:17 we sang happy birthday and he had a Sonic chocolate shake. We went to eat a Cracker Barrel for Dinner and we will top off the night with a jump on the trampoline and the latest Indiana Jones movie. ( the girls of course will be watching the new American Girl movie)

I have many wishes for him. I pray that he will be a godly young man. I want him to love Jesus above all else. I hope he is kind to his friends(and sisters). I hope he is respectful to me and his Daddy. I hope he always knows how much I love him. Happy Birthday Buddy.

Samuel's Birthday Party

Make a Smilebox photobook

Electoral College

Tonight I took the opportunity to teach the kids about the electoral college. A few months ago I ordered the School House Rock DVD election collection. I love all those songs like "I'm just a bill up on capital hill..." its such a good way to learn about our government. The DVD came with a map and red and blue stickers. So Abby and I have been watching the news and putting the stickers on the states as they are called for McCain or Obama. It has been a good teaching opportunity. It also gave me an chance to talk to her about why people vote they way they do. We talked about some of the issues that were so important during this election. I'm glad she is so interested in learning.

A Month of Thanks

This month I am going to make thankful list. I'm keeping a running list on my sidebar. My bloggie buddy Xandra had this on her blog today and I think it is a great idea. If you are interestred go to this blog and copy the link.

http://southbreezefarm.blogspot.com/2008/10/thankful-month.html


This was great timing for me. I really need to focus on what I am thankful for. I get so wrapped up in the details that I lose sight of the big picture. So everyday this month I'm going to add something I'm thankful for.

Piano Recital

Make a Smilebox slideshow

I've Been Tagged

I was tagged by Joy, so here it goes!

7 Random Facts About Me

1. I love watching Law and Order, all of them.
2. I like to fold clothes...really.
3. I really like getting in the bed at night and having cold sheets.
4. My favorite place to eat out is.....drum roll please.....my mama's house!
5. I am a news junkie.
6. Three of my closest friends are my sisters.
7. Two of my favorite things: long drives and long talks with Dave.

I'm tagging Alicia, Britni, Aimee, Donna, Jessica, Kim and Stacey.

Tuesday Night Ramblings

My eyes are a little better today. Thanks to you who commented, even Alicia and Lori who were mean about it:) I know its gross....but I couldn't help but post that picture. Anyway, I started a class tonight teaching a couple of ladies how to sew. I love teaching sewing almost as much as I enjoy sewing. Teaching children everyday, I forget how it is to teach people who don't groan every time you tell them something. Samuel actually told me the other day he didn't care about learning to read.....why would he need to be smart. I guess he thought if he didn't care about reading, I would just say "oh OK well if you don't want to be smart we just won't have school anymore." So it was really fun tonight to teach ladies who really wanted to learn. Abby is very interested in learning to sew. I let her use my machine today to make a baby blanket. I think I will teach her to make a dress next. That is the beauty of homeschooling, we can focus on what we are interested in. Maybe Samuel will show an interest in something soon.....like reading! Erin reads anything she can get her hands on....and she is becoming a good reader. Any home school Mama knows you breath a sigh of relief when your children start reading well. Well its way past my bed time......

Costume Party

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

It feels like fall y'all

Today was a chilly day. Yay!! I'm so ready for cold weather. We went to the museum today with Mama, Lori, Ruthie, and Brady. It was fun watching the kids run through looking at the animals. I think they learn something new every time we go. Tonight Ruthie gets to spend the night with us for the first time. She is so much fun. Abby and Erin could not wait for her to sleep with them in their bed. I rocked her to sleep, put her in their bed with them and left them watching TV. A few minutes later I heard them in the living room. I went upstairs and Abby was rocking Ruthie. She is like a little mama to her. She got her back to sleep and she is sleeping soundly in their bed. Eventually I will have to go sleep there to. Just in case Ruthie decides to get up in the night I need to be close by. I had forgotten how much work it is to have a toddler. Notice how much she looks like Abby. But Abby and Erin both favor the twins. I took some cute pictures of them today, enjoy!

a rare moment

When Dave went upstairs this morning, he found Erin in Samuels bed reading a book to him.

Just a Thought.....

a word from my daddy on a monday morning.......

watch your thoughts; they become words.
watch your words; they become actions.
watch your actions; they become habits.
watch your habits; they become character.
watch your character; it becomes your destiny.

Good Food.. Good Friends.. Alabama Football

Alicia, Christy, Julie, Jennifer and Me
Annalee, Erin and Maddy
Bailey and Abby

Jason wrestling with Gage and Samuel

Samo, Grant and Gage

Saturday we had a great time watching the Alabama game with friends. Good food, good friends and football........what could be better. Dave left early and went to the JSU Homecoming game. He played in the Southerners Alumni Band.

Friday Fluff and Stuff

It's finally Friday. It has been a long week! I'm thankful for the weekend. We even took the first two days of the week off but it still seemed like a long week. When we get to the end of the week it's nice if I can see that we accomplished something. I like to see that they have learned new concepts every week.

Tonight we are off to the game with Dave. It is in Verbena. That's a long way. I am going as a chaperon. This will be the first game I have been to. Abby has been to several and loves the students. Erin is begging to stay with Lori or Giny, and Samuel doesn't care, he just knows he's going to the "flitball" game. We are loving Fall. We have opened the windows to let the cool fresh air in. And hopefully it will help to lower our huge power bill. This is definitely my favorite time of year. Oct. through December is such a fun time.

So this is my latest ebay delima. I sold two holiday barbies for Tracy(my sister). I mailed them off on Tuesday.....got and email yesterday that I had mailed the wrong barbies to the people. So it is gonna cost me around $18 to fix this problem. You know sometimes it seems like I don't make money on ebay. I end up spending money......so frustrating!!!! Oh well.

Somewhere In the Middle

Somewhere between the hot and the cold

Somewhere between the new and the old

Somewhere between who I am and who I used to be

Somewhere in the middle, You'll find me

Somewhere between the wrong and the right

Somewhere between the darkness and the light

Somewhere between who I was and who You're making me

Somewhere in the middle, You'll find me

Just how close can I get, Lord, to my surrender without losing all control

Fearless warriors in a picket fence, reckless abandon wrapped in common sense

Deep water faith in the shallow end and we are caught in the middle

With eyes wide open to the differences, the God we want and the God who is

But will we trade our dreams for His or are we caught in the middle

Are we caught in the middle

Somewhere between my heart and my hands

Somewhere between my faith and my plans

Somewhere between the safety of the boat and the crashing waves

Somewhere between a whisper and a roar

Somewhere between the altar and the door

Somewhere between contented peace and always wanting more

Somewhere in the middle You'll find me

Just how close can I get, Lord, to my surrender without losing all control

Lord, I feel You in this place and I know You're by my side

Loving me even on these nights when I'm caught in the middle

by Casting Crowns

No More Training Wheels

There is something sad about that statement.....no more training wheels. It means I don't have a baby anymore. Samuel is now a big boy. He has gotten so tall and is beginning to take a real interest in his appearance. He now tells me how he would like his hair to look. He will be six next month so I know he is not a baby..........but I will miss him being the baby. He still has trouble pronouncing his R's......and I like it. I like to hear him say Bird and Purse in the cute little way he says them. He is a unique little boy. He has a fascination with swords and fighting the battle. He loves rope. He ties up his toys and the furniture and the van to the truck:) He loves for me to read him stories and he still cuddles up with me and sucks his thumb. He never lets Dave leave without running down the steps and hugging him. He is a sweet boy most of the time. So no more training wheels for Samo. He learned how to ride his bike without them last week with Granddaddy's help. He did it in his sock feet too! I am not sure where his shoes were.