Working out during the holidays

Yesterday was my first run/workout since the 4 mile Turkey Trot race I did on Thanksgiving day. I could tell, too. Why haven't I worked out in a week? I don't know...but I was regretting it today when I was on the treadmill, huffing and puffing and sweating like nobody's business. And I'm still nursing a sinus infection, which makes me want to do nothing at all.

It's always so hard to work out during the holidays. And we always eat too much. And by we, I mean me. Holiday food is just so darn good. Turkey and dressing and casseroles and bread and pie and wait, what? I was talking about something....

Oh, right. Working out. Since we eat so much during November and December and tend to want to stay inside more during the winter because its so cold, its soooo important to keep active during the winter months. Get out and walk, run, go to the gym, or even do some type of dvd at home (there are tons out there, and most are inexpensive; Netflix/renting is also an option), if you don't want to leave your warm house. There's always something you can do to stay active during the holiday season. (I'm speaking to myself here too. I have not been feeling well enough to do anything, let alone work out!)

And if you fall off the wagon, you can always get back on. Tomorrow is a new day, as the saying goes. And don't forget about New Years coming up. Resolution time! Jan 1st is just around the corner and what better time to start a new workout regimen.

Now, if I could only take my own advice and tear myself out of bed before the sun in the morning to go work out....

Menu plan!

Menu plan time! This week I planned my menu around what meat was on sale at Kroger. I don't normally do that, but when chuck roast is on sale, I don't want to pass that up!

We don't eat a lot of beef, but I do love it so. Most of the time the better cuts are just too far out of our budget, so we eat a lot of the lesser expensive meats, or no meat at all. But with the chuck roast on sale, I wanted to have roast this week, yay! I was able to get 2, so I will be able to make 2 dinner meals with it...while saving over $9! (And chicken was originally on sale also, but they were sold out when I got there...bummer!)

Breakfasts will consist of oatmeal, eggs & toast, cereal; and lunches will be pb&j sandwiches, tuna, egg salad, or leftovers. And here is my dinner meal plan for the week:

Wednesday
Small group tonight, the kids and Ross will eat something easy

Thursday
Cod fish sandwiches and spinach salad (this got bumped from last week)

Friday
Crock pot roast, potatoes and carrots

Saturday
Spaghetti (with ground turkey) and homemade breadsticks

Sunday
Leftovers

Monday
Crockpot beef stew with veggies (fresh zucchini, squash, broccoli) and bread

Tuesday
Chicken and rice

Wednesday
Small group night - will take something

How we spent our snow day

This may the the first time its snowed in November in a long time, if ever. I'm not a huge fan of the snow, but the first snow of the year is always exciting. The first thing Jude wanted to do when he woke up was go play in the snow...and that's just what we did.

They lasted about 30 minutes before wanting to come in. Their toes were cold and they were soaking wet. But they had fun, and I had fun too!

The most wonderful season of all

We were so excited to get our Christmas decorations up last night and today. Even though we're all nursing sinus infections, we got most of it done. This is our favorite time of year, especially Ross's. There's just something magical about it. Jude has been asking us for weeks, "Is it Christmas time yet???" Now we can say, yes, it is! We watched 2 Christmas movies last night and all morning long, Christmas music was playing in the house, the tree was lit up, and the boys were completely infatuated with the decorations. 

Speaking of decorations, it's easy to get crazy with the spending when it comes to getting your house all pretty for Christmas. Wreaths alone can cost an arm and a leg. It doesn't have to be that way though. You can make your house beautiful, Christmasy and not spend a ton of money. Let me share some suggestions that I've done and some that I have found:

•  Buy dollar store glass vases and ornaments and fill the vases with ornaments to set around your house. It is such a pretty and inexpensive way to Christmasize your house (yep, I made that word up);
• 
• Decorate with ribbon. I have some beautiful ribbon a friend gave me that I decorate my entry table and bookshelves with. Its inexpensive and adds Christmas color to the room!
• Nativity scenes are lovely to look at this time of year
• Find branches outside and spray paint them gold or silver; put them in vases around the house
• Hang ornaments from an entry way or curtain rod with ribbon
• Paint and hang up wooden letters from the craft section - JOY, PEACE, etc
• Find pine cones outside to decorate your house with
• Don't underestimate the dollar store decor. Sometimes they have really cute stuff, or you can make it cute by combining or adding something different.
• You can buy canvases and make your own holiday wall decor 
• Take unused picture frames and put pretty or fun wrapping paper in the windows for display
• There are a number of ways you can make your own wreaths. I have not done this, but may try in the future. 
• There are so many DIY Christmas decor websites you can find. Google is your friend! So is pinterest. :) 

Get your creative, crafty pants on and try some new (inexpensive) things this year!

Refereeing boys

In my opinion, being a referee is probably one of the most exhausting parts of being a parent. I love having boys, and I love that they are so close in age. Building and playing in forts, dog piling, playing in the dirt are all things this mama loves doing with her boys. What I don't love? The constant competition between them, the fighting over toys, hurting each other on purpose. No kidding, Ezra busts out in tears at least 40 times every day. They really do love each other and play together greatly, but they do the thing where they play and then they fight. And then more playing and more fighting. Play, fight, play, fight. It can get tiring trying to deal with that a billion times a day. I'm find myself thinking that I should just let them duke it out. They are boys after all. 

We are constantly trying to teach Jude how to be kind to his little brother, and to his friends. Anyone who thinks people are inherently good has not had little kids. Jude can be flat out mean. No one had to teach him this, but his mean side most definitely comes out, and more times than I'd like to admit. 

I've been praying for Jude and with him that God would help him to be more kind. It sometimes seems like we're getting nowhere. There are many days I get discouraged, so discouraged that I want to just give up all together. But then I came across this book today:

I have no idea who gave us this book or where it came from, but I've seen it around our house and have never taken the time to read it to Jude. I don't know why, honestly. We read tons of books from the library, but we don't read much of our own, for some reason. 

But I'm so glad I read this to him. This book is so cute! It's about the little boy (Seedling) and how he's mean to his kitty cat and the cat runs away to hide from him. But at the end, he learns how to be sweet to the kitty and they become snuggly friends. And at the very end of the book, it has a verse that I wrote on our white board that I will remind Jude of every time he is mean to his brother, or to anyone else. 

"Let your gentleness be evident to all." Philippians 4:5 

I am so encouraged by this answer to prayer, that the Lord gave me this to help in training and teaching both of them. Maybe this will help keep a little more sane too. What do you think? How about you mamas out there? How do you teach your children to be kind and gentle to others? 

Rantings on life and change

Life is tricky. It seems that as soon as you get to a comfortable place, things change again an in an instant and you're having to get used to a new routine, or a new way of life, or a new something-or-other. Unless you are a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants person, which I'm not, you like comfort. I guess its never good to be too comfortable. How can you grow if you're always in the same place, never moving forward?

This is on my mind because we are currently job hunting. I have no idea what God is going to do with this, but change is coming, I can feel it. Nervousness, excitement, dread, anxiety, sadness, joy, readiness, how can one person be feeling so many things at once? Change is good, but it can be hard. Especially when you have little ones. The Lord is preparing my heart for change though, He is helping me to view it as a delight and not a duty. Most people dread change. I don't want to dread the future! 

On a totally unrelated note, there is going to be no menu plan post this week. Obviously with Thanksgiving coming up, we're going to be with our family for most of the week. A few things got bumped from last week, so I won't even grocery shop until we get home. I am so looking forward to being with family and eating lots of yummy food, like this:

Turkey, gobble gobble!

Who doesn't like green bean casserole?

Hashbrown casserole might just be one of my favorite Thanksgiving dishes

And especially this...

yummmmm

What I am responsible for cooking this year:

Zucchini and squash casserole (I made this either last year or the year before, and my sister suggested I make it again; I'll post the recipe this week)

Corn with salt and lots of butta (Ross doesn't like casseroles, so I like to have some simple veggie options for him to eat)

I wish I could encourage you to eat healthier or less on Thanksgiving, but I would be a big ole hypocrite. This is my favorite time of year to eat and I will not hold back much...I will probably just run/exercise more. :) 

DtD Challenge #6 - PLAY!

Kids are fun. I forget how exciting new experiences are and how easily amused they are. It is a really sweet thing when their eyes light up and you can hear lots of giggling. You can see the wheels in their heads turning and there's pure curiosity and enjoyment there. It makes me wish sometimes I was back there, to an easier time. And then I realize how crappy the teenage years were and there's no amount of sentiment, or money for that matter, that would make me go back in time. I am surprised grateful I survived it. 

I have been attempting to think outside the box as far as activities to do with the kids during our learning time. I came across this website, called Play at Home Mom, which is really neat. If you need some good ideas of fun things to do, check it out. BUT, be aware, their website and some of their activities can be somewhat overwhelming. They have had time to develop a great art center at home for their kids, which I think is so great. On the other hand, we don't currently have the funds to grow our art supply cabinet quite yet, but we do have some things. But I love their ideas, especially this one! 

So, here bodes the question, did I get back on my homeschooling groove this week? The answer is yes and no. I decided that I was trying to do too much structured learning and not enough learning through playing and sensory activities. So, I have decided to do less of the subject type learning stuff and more of the hands-on experience type learning. Learning should be fun...not just something to be checked off the list and drudged through. We've been doing a lot of reading, crafting and even did some puzzles this week. And this idea below of playing with water beads from the Play At Home Mom website, and decided to try it out. 

I got these water beads at the Dollar Tree in the flower arranging/vase section. I dumped them in a big bowl with measuring cups to scoop and dump.

They were like, what are these weird feeling things?!!?!

They loved scooping, dumping and letting the beads fall through their fingers. 

Of course throwing them was really fun. (this is Jude's throw face)

Ezra enjoyed throwing them too. We also stomped on them and threw them again the house. I thought it would be a fun experiment to do different things to them and see what happened. Throwing them against the house and watching them explode into a billion pieces was Jude's favorite thing. 

I will add that if you do this with your children, watch them closely. You won't want them putting these in their mouths. 

We also did puzzles this week! (I never realized how hard it was to take photos in my kitchen. The lighting is horrible!)

Even though I always feel like I'm being lazy on this part of being a stay-at-home-mom, I'm going to try to do more crafty things, hopefully doing that contact paper tree activity this week, and we're starting our nature study group the Monday after Thanksgiving. I'm really excited about that! Hopefully this next week will be more productive in the learning/playing department.

I probably won't do a Challenge next week because it's Thanksgiving, so I may just share some ways I've incorporated healthier/more eco-friendly practices in our daily lives. Hope you all have a lovely weekend!