busy busy busy

I have been busy this week. We (myself along with three other ladies) have been working on starting up three ladies' Bible studies for our church. This week was crunch time. I've had three meetings this week, plus lots of time on the computer emailing and organizing, not to mention that I am almost out of minutes on my cell phone and I've got a week left!! Sometimes I have to stop my head from spinning. BUT we are very excited. This is the first real opportunity for discipleship outside of our small groups that our church has had since the storm over two years ago. We are hungry!

However, yesterday, it was pretty cool outside and the boys didn't have school. So this is what we did:
Ahhh. I love days like this. We colored, did puzzles, worked on reading with Gator, etc. I watched Martha Stewart and Rachael Ray, and started my house cleaning. It was so nice. Then when Hubs got home, he took the kiddos outside (it warmed up considerably) while I fixed dinner and got myself ready for my meeting! The boys got along so well yesterday too. Yay for lazy days!

A very cool idea...

Have you ever been at a red light, seen a homeless person, and had the inevitable internal conversation: "Should I give him money? What will he do with it? Should I go get him something and bring it to him?" and on an on and on? I am always torn about what to do in that situation. Typically, we go to the nearest McDonald's (or similar establishment) and grab a hamburger and a drink. But that doesn't always work. And how many people actually have cash on them anyway? I know we don't.

So, here's the solution (got it from my Mom). Make a bag of unperishable food items to keep in your car. That way, when you are faced with the dilemma of cash or food, you have the solution right there in your back seat. And, for those with kiddos, it is a awesome teaching opportunity about the "least of these."

Our small group from church decided to take this on as a project. We spent around $65 dollars in supplies and made 24 bags. That comes out to about $2.70 a bag which is less than a combo meal at a fast food place and we got a lot more and much healthier food in those bags than what you would get in a combo meal.


Here is our list of supplies:
good quality gallon size ziploc bags (we used slider bags) - to be reused after the food is gone
bottled water
tuna meals (comes with tuna, crackers and condiments)
small fruit bowls or cans of fruit or vegetables (get pop top cans!)
napkin/utensil combos (we made our own)
chips, pretzels, crackers, etc (100 calorie packs or the kind you put in kids’ lunches)
something sweet (individually wrapped cookies or hard candy)
granola bars or power bars (without chocolate that can melt)
beef jerky
small packages of wet wipes
simple gospel tracts and info about our church


We put them together in assembly line fashion and were done in 15 minutes. Here is a picture of the finished product (all of this fits into a gallon size ziploc):


So the next time you go to the grocery store, buy a few extra items and fill a bag to keep in your car. It will do you and someone else a lot of good! And you'll be showing the love of Jesus in a very practical way!

A Proud Mommy Moment

Forgive the gratuitous nature of this post. I think that I have the best kids in the world and today it was confirmed (at least for one of them)!
We had our "half-way through the year" parent-teacher conference today for Gator. His teacher says that he has a "sweet and happy spirit" and is "very giving, helpful, kind and polite to everyone." The one thing he needs to work on is that he doesn't like to color during seatwork time. That's it! Wow. What a great kid I have. Around this household, we reward such displays of excellence. So we took Gator to Toys R Us and let him pick whatever he wanted (within reason of course). So, he chose this (the Blue Operation Overdrive Power Ranger):









And he chose two more Nerf dart guns to go with the one he got for Christmas from his buddy E so that now everyone (all the boys, that is) has a gun to shoot one another. Ahhh, boys. Ya' gotta' love 'em. And just to be fair, here's a cute pic of the other best kid in the world taken in Texas:

trip to Texas

We just got home last night from meeting my new niece! We had a wonderful time. Here are some pics from the trip.
#1 pic: Gator wanted to hold her every chance he got. He was a very sweet big cousin.
#2 pic: Bull was jealous (big crocodile tears and all) that I was holding C. This was about as close as he got to her all weekend, though he did warm up quite a bit from the first night.
#3 pic: Uncle A and Hubs solving world peace, I mean doing homework.
#4 pic: Gigi and Aunt Christie holding baby C.

ear tubes...

So, I took Bull to the ENT yesterday for his check-up. His left tube has finally come out (his right tube fell out a couple of months ago). However, it did not come gracefully. It came with a nasty (and hopefully final) ear infection this past weekend. We're still on Augmentin for a few more days. And we go back in a few weeks for her to remove the tube from the canal (it would have hurt if she tried to do it yesterday). We are praying that he has no more infections over the rest of cold and flu season. If not, he probably won't have to have surgery for a new set of tubes and removal of adenoids. He's been a pretty miserable little guy with this bout of the yucks. Usually he's down for a day and then back at it the next day. This time, he was down for 4 days. Yikes!
On a different note, his speech therapy is going very well. He's had two meetings with his therapist. It seems like his speech has increased by at least 50%. He is starting to put two words together with more frequency and doesn't have as many mis-pronunciations or deletions. In fact, Miss S told me that if he were tested right now he wouldn't qualify for the program! I plan to continue the speech therapy until he's at least caught up or ahead of where he should be. It's amazing to watch her work with him. He has no idea that she's teaching him because she's just playing! Yet he is "blooming" very nicely! I am going to have two chatterboxes on my hands very soon!

I have a niece!

C was born this morning at 2:15 am (after FOUR days of labor), weighing in at 8 lbs 5 oz, measuring 21 in long. She has big blue eyes and some chipmunk cheeks! Gigi and Uncle A are completely smitten and doing well. Thank you Lord for a safe delivery and healthy baby!

Happy New Year!

Welcome 2008!
We arrived home safely today after a week of traveling. It was good to see family, but it's good to be home too. We had a great time and got some great presents! And, I got enough moo-la to fund my new digital camera (along with some coupons and discounts)! Yay! Obviously, the most important thing is that we got to spend some good time with family and friends, though we missed being able to see some people.
The Gators lost today...yuck.
Tomorrow begins the goal-setting for the new year. Hubs and I already started planning most of our year. We had to figure out when he will go for Army training.
I just love a fresh start! Don't you?