A Life of Balance

Dec. 9, 2006

pregnancy and forgetfulness

I KNOW they say that pregnancy makes you forgetful... and I think I have experienced that in the past... NOTHING so memorable as this time and my refrigerator!!!  WARNING: to my mother and anyone else who will puke at the thought of all this wasted food!! - as I almost did Let me just LIST the frightening amount of food wasted at my house... that I can REMEMBER (only those ones that almost made me cry, as oppsed to an "oh bother") a WHOLE - ENTIRE (in case "whole" didn't get the point across) cooked chicken... we had two, we ate one... and then... yeah. the other one... in the garbage... I FORGOT about a cooked chicken... like one of the easiest meals EVER to prepare!!! chicken broth laboriously made, strained, bones picked, etc from about 8 chicken carcasses... two HUGE tupperwares filled with chicken broth that would need to be diluted to use, even... GONE - WASTED!!! - that one was even a waste of lots of labor on our part!!! our portion of left over turkey from Thanksgiving donated by my mother-in-law... donated by me to the Anchorage Dump... yeah.  I FORGOT it existed!! (we did use it for two days for sandwhiches... it wasn't completely wasted!!) I wanted SO badly to blame this on someone OTHER than me!! half a thingy of bacon reindeer sausage lamb gravy and drippings... more importance on that when you get to the freezer burned lamb in the next section i refuse to dig up in my memory the leftover meals forgotten and thrown out and the vegetables not used and gone rotten - though I do remember an ENTIRE head of cauliflower.  (do you know how expensive produce is in Alaska?) I mean come on... we have FREEZERS now-a-days!! There really isn't any excuse! SPEAKING of freezers... let me list the ways ours is overstocked... discovered... with much laughter, teasing and smirking by my husband as we made room for his deer meat. 3 packets of Costco size tortillas (and they were on my list to buy MORE!!) 8 pounds of butter 15 plus bananas... you know... I didn't let THOSE go to waste!! as Bryan says "all pigeon holed various places) FREEZER BURNED... stuff... lamb,  etc. I was saving it for another lamb barley soup - you know... being thrifty!! a PACKET of chicken breasts... saved BEFORE freezer burn!!! yippee!! FOUR bits and pieces packets of bread... that is a lot of French Toast, or over night French Toast!! :) See? thrifty I tell you!!! So all in all... I saved the bread and bananas from the dump... give me some credit!

• Comments (0) • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

Dec. 2, 2006

Piano Recital

Nov. 30, 2006

i don't know where to start!!

Nov. 13, 2006

I've been kind of scarce lately!!

Well... the news is out, so I'll share it here too... I am fourteen weeks pregnant!! I can't say how my husband shared it with my family, since it was rather crass... using  some slang words that mean different things in America than in Australia... he used that same phrase when we were engaged chatting to my family, and my brother in law guffawed, made a few sly remarks, and then educated Bryan on what words NOT to use while gardening!! so, now that the morning sickness and utter exhaustion is over, I have nothing to whine about.  I DID tell one friend close by, so that I had someone to moan to when I felt nasty and was trying to fake it in front of everyone else!! Bryan left Friday night... with me panicking mildly at the thought of me alone with the puppy!!  Saturday...I spotted. I freaked. I cried. I denied. I called my spiritual prayer warrior woman mentor Julie.  And she prayed for me, spoke God's truth over me... and reminded me of my responsibility to say NO to the thoughts that love to overwhelm, now that we had taken care of the spiritual warfare aspect of things. Pslam 34 is my new favorite Psalm... I sleep with the Bible in my bed, read it before I go to sleep and when I wake up... SO, after a dr appointment today, all is FINE!! - no panicking family... if it was something to worry about I WOULD have called!!  Apparently, Bryan and I were too... active. SO there you go. much more than any of you really cared to know, I am sure!! Meanwhile, for home church, we ordering pizza... kids are loving my lowkey cooking though... mac-n-cheese, pesto and noodles, pizza breads, quessadillas, PBJ's, dino chicken nuggets... tomorrow we'll have to get serious about some nutrition, besides some slices of red pepper and carrot thrown in on top of the preservatives!!

• Comments (9) • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

Nov. 7, 2006

SO I am back from the Above Rubies Retreat...

Oct. 31, 2006

Family News

HA - the weekend is over... and it was REALLY productive in a relaxing busy sort of way. Friday night I took the kids all dressed up to Trick or Treat Town... I don't know if I already told the story of Thaddeus' fickle mind when it comes to costumes!!  He was excited to be a fireman... I even had two choices of hats for him, and a washing machine hose we taped in a circle for him to hold, and his yellow rainboots matched beautifully... BUT when He saw Keenan in the pirate costume (from last year - updated with a new eyepatch and hook!!) he wanted to be a pirate TOO!! SO we switched him out really quick and took pictures.  THEN he says, I am tired of being a pirate, I want to be a fireman now.. Aargh!! - but going out all dressed up is for the kids not for me, and a crying 3 yr old would make the evening even worse for me (LOL) so we changed him... AGAIN... and all were happy. by the time we were half way through, We had lost all the props, including the hats! BUT they had fun. Saturday was an at home day, and we got some rearranging done that helps the constant mess of the sun room.  It felt very productive, and great to be a family!!  I also took the kids to watch one of my old piano students compete in the bowling for the Special Olympics.  They liked that really well.  THEN we had some friends over for a ..... LAMB DINNER... complete with home made bread rolls, Australian baked veggies, and Mama's Apricot Pie. Mom, you would NEVER have used as many dishes as I did!!!  I felt like I was doing dishes for an eternity!! Sunday we SHOVELLED snow... for hours it seemed... our drive way is 4 cars wide at least, and just over 3 cars deep... yeah... a friend GAVE us a snow blower yesterday ( THANK YOU JESUS!!!) AND then in all that fresh snow, and threatening rain, we went on the Great Pumpkin Hunt.  We ended up with only 3 cars of people, "racing" around town for 2 hours, collecting clues, and cell phone calls flying to check if we were right, and get extra clues from MJ (pastor). We weren't really racing, one of the rules is NO breaking the law, including speedlimit u-turns, COMPLETE stops at stop signs - unlesss you slide through, I think that would be excused! Anyway, nobody crashed and ONCE AGAIN!!! we got 2 nd place by 2 1/2 minutes!!! That is CRAZY!!! sigh  OH well, we don't need all that candy in the great big pumpking anyway!!! I'm off this weekend to lead worship and be blessed at an Above Rubies retreat down in Soldotna at the Solid Rock Camp... SO should be fun, and I best be getting a little more prepared than I am.

• Comments (5) • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

Sep. 28, 2006

wallpaper...

OK, Can I just tell you what a laugh I had this morning, when I read my friend javamama's comment regarding my wall paper.  She doesn't know me too well, so wasn't sure if I was serious or not. SO, for anyone who is wondering.  I do NOT like the wall paper.  I am all out of unicorn and mermaid prints to decorate with.

• Comments (1) • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

Sep. 24, 2006

So here's my BIG dilemma

First of all, please don't anyone tell me if I spelled dillemma wrong... I DON'T know how to spell dillema, I have discovered! ok so here is my... quandary! :) a few months ago I started making my own laundry soap... (it lasted a few months!! ) SO I am OUT of laundry soap.  Do I make more, and use the inexpensive fairly easy way to make soap and save a few bucks, and continue on as my status as "Makes her own laundry soap" - noting again, I have only made it once! Or do I give in to my tired, feeling lazy and short-cutty self, and just BUY the soap like every other regular person out there, including me, up until 3 months ago!! That's it for my deep thoughts for today, I need to make up my order of service for tonight.

• Comments (1) • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

Sep. 14, 2006

LOTS of PICTURES

OK, I know this is TONS of pictures, and they are rather old some of them... but, hey, we were moving, and surely from now on I will not be behind and outdated!!!  Plus my family like pictures, so they are just happy to get some!  This first picture is just a funny part of Keenan... His storage units for his weapons... oh, wait, no, that is the cereal cupboard and file cabinet!! This one is the first day Thaddeus was doing his new chore of putting the silverware away.  He of course, makes a joke out of everything, so you can be sure with great  glee he had them mixed up with a great guffaw accompanying it!! Next we have the boys and the Father's Day cake they made.  OH they were SO PROUD - and their expressions are so beautiful, I couldn't choose which one to post, so I posted both!! Here is Keenan after we moved... this boy LOVES books!!! Mr Cool Thad in the pilot's seat at the air show!! with his lollipop!! At the Sea Life Center... we didn't plan to match with orange shirts... but it does look kind of cute, don't you think??  Don't you love the sea lion? Their favorite part was... wait for it... climbing on the rocks outside the Sea Life Center... I'm glad they were free!! And last, but not least... outside our DIRTY dining room window (before we cleaned them... we HAD only just moved in!!) is Mama Robin, feeding her fledgling!

• Comments (7) • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

Sep. 4, 2006

crazy me

SO I think I am going to begin school last week, right? OK, now let me tell you the EXTRA things on top of my schedule, not counting my regular meetings for leading worship, cell church, worship rehearsal and Souljourn wroship gathering, and piano lessons I teach... and all the planning for a first ever science thing at a Science Center here in town. Monday morning = piano teacher conference Tuesday we went to the fair all day, and that night had an extra rehearsal for the church I filled in at on Sunday morning Thursday we went to an all day insect thing for Keenan Sunday morning (my usual REST) filling in playing piano for a different church In between all that is 100 phone calls regarding the Science Center thing, and frantically TRYING to finish up Reka Dr condo (it is SO close!!), Bryan worked 2 double shifts, and everyother moment was at Reka working on projects. Yeah.  We got LOTS done!!!

• Comments (0) • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link