Tonight at dinner I had an eye opening moment of feeling blessed…blessed with the family God has given me to enjoy.  

The evening didn’t start out great.   It was  rushed evening.  I was feeling spent after being on the go all day long.   I know so many sweet kiddos that are sick with the flu and it is going around like mad in our little town so my heart was a little heavy.  

I made a “comfort” meal for us which was french toast and bacon.  We usually eat a lot less carbs and more fresh food but every once in awhile you just need a happy, comfortable meal.

So we sit down and pray.  And my 5 year old says, “Mom, I know what 3 + 3 is.”  

I say, “Oh good.  What is it?”

“6″

I smile.  ”Good.  Ummm…what is 4 +4?”

He thinks for a few seconds and says,  ”8?”

I say, “Good. Okay what is 2 + 2?”

My 7 year old blurts out, “4!”

“That wasn’t for you silly!”  I say to my oldest son.  ”Dad has one for you.”

My husband, never handing a break to his boys, says, “Okay, what is 28 +28?”

“56″ he spits out quickly.

My husband’s eyebrows rise a bit and he quickly asks, “Okay, what’s 36 + 28?”

“64″ 

My husband and I look at each other with big eyes.  Wow.  

“Isn’t that right?” the little calculator brain asks but before I can answer my 5 year old is back in the conversation with his normal exuberance. 

“Okay!  So what’s 36 + bacon?”  

I laugh out loud.  That’s right dude…stump him.  

But I have to keep the kid honest so I say, “Well if you ask the question you have to know the answer.  What is 36 + bacon?”  

“18,000″

Can’t argue with that.

I am blessed no doubt and now I know…

36 + bacon = 18,000

And to think I went to school for years and never learned that very important fact.

My husband and I did a 14 day cleanse.   Basically we did one similar to the one here and we used the book Clean as a guideline.  We did snacks of more substance than herbal tea (raw pecans, carob chips, apples) but we stayed with the no dairy, no sugar, no preservatives, no wheat, no spelt, no caffeine (other than green tea).    Mostly just raw foods for breakfast and dinner by making smoothies and soups.   Lunch was cold water fish, chicken, turkey or wild game along with salad and/or brown rice.  The idea is to give your body good food that is easy to digest and basically what your body is made to digest.

We felt pretty good on the cleanse…a bit grumpy the first week.  :~P

A few things I took away:

1.  I had no idea how much I snack while I make food for my family.  A taste of this and that adds up.  I noticed this when I was making food for my boys in the evenings that I couldn’t eat.  That was a good habit to give up!

2.  I need no caffeine.  I did without for 14 days…I never even did green tea and learned to love this detox tea.  I think caffeine makes me feel worse…not better.  Although I think a latte a week might be a nice luxury….I might make it decaf though.

3.  I love this salad dressing.  It is just a raspberry balsamic vinegar in a spritzer bottle.   I will continue using it as my salad dressing of choice…thanks to my mother in law for finding this product!

4.  I like carob for my chocolate fix better than chocolate!  Now that is something I never thought I would say and carob is soooooo much better for me that it really isn’t a contest.

5.  I can’t eat much for my third meal.  During the cleanse we had a smoothie and I was always content and not hungry. Tonight  I had a small chicken breast with a small serving of pasta and fresh fruit.  Way, way too much food.   I felt stuffed.

5.  I am looking at food a little differently.  I don’t really want to feed myself or my family a lot of processed foods.  I am making spelt pizza dough with homemade pizza sauce for dinner tomorrow night.  Tonight we had garlic chicken with a small amount of pasta and fresh fruit.  And the boys and I  made homemade spelt/oatmeal chocolate chip cookies for a end of cleanse treat.  

6.  I feel better and stronger than I did 14 days ago.  I dropped some stubborn pounds.

7.  I made some new recipes…some that I will continue to make.

As an aside…a girlfriend of mine sent me a recipe for a natural deodorant as a response to my last post.   Thanks Michelle!   I plan on making it and trying it out, just haven’t had a chance yet.  If I like, I will share.

Lately, I have been really noticing the little things in life that make this girl happy.

While I am cleaning…

This multi-surface cleaner cleans my stainless appliances…I have been looking for a good, reasonably priced cleaner for my appliances for a year now. Yah!  It also cleans mirrors beautifully.  :0)

The Swiffer wet clothes are bit spendy but oh how I love them for a quick mop of the kitchen or bathroom.  To make it stay wet longer, I use a spray bottle of water to add moisture.  

These yummy frozen treats for my boys.  

We don’t buy popsicles due to the lack of nutrients in them…but the ingredients on these babies start with pear puree.   They do have sugar and dextrose in them but they don’t have any of those other nasty sweeteners.  A treat for the boys that I don’t feel bad about.

The idea of this online class makes me happy.   I am thinking about taking it…although the time of year is a bit tough.  I really need to get some creative juices flowing however so it may very well be worth the commitment.  The only other online class I took from Big Picture Scrapbooking was    w o n d e r f u l.

This bra from VS that comes with no under-wire.   

I must say I have rediscovered carob chips and love, love them….since I can’t have any chocolate (and a bunch of other things like sugar) for 3 weeks.  My hubby and I are doing a 3 week cleanse…so far so good but praise the good Lord for carob. :0) 

 Oh…and no one is paying me to talk about these things…I was just thinking about things that make my life a little easier and happier on this Monday.  :0)

Now if I could just find an aluminium free deodorant that I like…I have tried many and still am not happy with the results.  Have a favorite?

I was looking through an old prayer/quiet time journal the other day.  I getting close to needing a new journal…my current one is almost full so I was enjoying looking through some of my old ones.   I love getting to decide on a new journal or seeing what comes my way in a timely manner.  I usually have spiral journals so that they are easy to write in…and am actually thinking of making my own this time around with my Bind it all.  

Anyway…my point is somewhere here…I must focus!  

I was looking through my old prayer journal…it was from 2007.  My boys were 5 and 3.  

I found that I used to write family praise reports…when I had stopped writing them I am not sure.  

I was delighted when I read the one for May 10, 2007.  

Our 3 year old is giving God credit for everything!  

“Mom!  God dried my hands for me!”

“Mom!  God is already healing it!”  (He was referring to a scratch on his hand).

1 Thessalonians 5:  16-18

Be joyful always; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

Praise him for everything:

• sweet boys
• grumpy boys
• precious husband
• my temper
• my sweet life!
• my bumpy life
• people who make me stretch
• people who  bless my life

I loved it when I came across this…such a blessing…such a lesson.

When did I stop writing our family praise reports in my journal?  

“Give thanks to the LORD, call on his name; make known among that nations what he has done.”  

1 Chronicles 16:8

And a journaling freebie too!  Love the journaling part of scrapbook…love the story.

This week I found this cute freebie…

Click here.   

Journaling tags are so much fun.  This freebie is good for this week from what I can tell.

Also feeling much better about school starting tomorrow.  The kids are ready and my heart has had an adjustment of sorts.  

Sometimes I find it hard to figure out what has taken so much of my time and energy lately…I suppose it comes down to one word….life.

Yes…life has been keeping me busy.  I am so grateful for that gift…the gift of life.  I am blessed by many things in my life. 

 Rambunctious boys, hard-working husband, precious family, green lush garden, sweet friends, this glorious world to explore and many more God given good things.

And so I will not complain about how all of a sudden my summer is gone. 

I won’t. 

I am thankful for…

I am just going to embrace the changes in season…embrace life.

To start blogging again!!!

Heavens!  Not even sure what happened to me for nearly 2 whole months but this is a part of my life (this blog)….that I want to continue so…..

Here goes!

Hmmmm….rethinking that header…will have to play more later today!

Some of you may have found this before….but I didn’t know they had so much cool free stuff from these magazines.

Paper Crafts Magazine has a download section and they even keep some downloads from previous issues too.

They have quotes and sentiments cutely done up that you can download.  Like this:

Very cool!  (and true but that is another blog post I am sure!)

When I first started scrapbooking, one of the things that drew me in was paper piecing.  Paper piecing is something I used to do a lot of.  I love to add dimension with inking and make cute paper creations.  I stopped doing that for a time but have been more drawn to it lately.  A current one that I am making work for a layout is here:

You know…me and birds.

 Scrapbooks, etc has a Piece talk section in every issue….this I knew.  I did not know that they have such a great online paper piecing area.

They have these birds and tree.  

Above layout is off of Scrapbook, etc. site….showing off the paper piecing options.

My oldest….firstborn…is such a sweetie.  I take my prayer/quiet time journal to church and some mornings my boys draw and write in it.  I have always enjoyed their scribbles and this is one of those times.   It reminds me that this time with my boys is fleeting…my oldest would not spell love that way anymore.  He is growing up fast. 

It reminds me that one of my main responsibilies is to teach my boys about God’s word.  To teach the truths that are there.  I added that scripture to the page the other day when I was having my quiet time.  The boys usually flip through the journal and write on pages toward the back of the journal so it had been quite some time since I had looked at the my firstborn’s scribbles and it just so happened that I had come across that scripture recently.   

I love that scripture..there isn’t a lot of security or peace in our world anymore…only God can give true peace. 

So remember…

Jesus luves you!

(very much!)