While the week started off with sloppy wet kisses from the boys, it quickly turned downhill for the next couple of days …and I was definitely pulling my hair out and looking around for my last nerve that ran away about 5 years ago. (Don’t pray for patience and then go and have kids – God will give you way too many experiences to work on that aforementioned patience!)
However, we hit our stride about Wednesday and have been doing decently well since then…and looking back now I am amazed at how much was accomplished this week in all areas of my life. So, this week in review will be more fun I would think for my friends and family to read – but hopefully the rest of you will get something out of it too!
* Slept on average 5 – 6 hours a night, except last night I fell asleep with the boys at 6:30-7, read my Psalms until 7:45ish, and then was in bed until 7:30 the next morning! Not that I slept the entire time, but just about…once again my body is liking sleep and decided I needed a little nap today :-).
* Changed at least 10 stinky squish diapers plus all the wet ones.
* Issued more time outs than I can remember…do these really help? Please tell me there is some pay-off for all our hard work at some point.
* Every time I turned around I was cleaning up the kitchen or making a smoothy
* Asking my children to treat me and others how they would want to be treated – again do they ever get this???
* Listened to countless hours of Pandora music (good thing I upgraded to their paid program)
* Receiving the pleasure of some very hearty laughs at the things my kiddos say and do…none of which I can remember at the moment, hum?
* Had the pleasure of spending almost every day in the company of good friends with great conversations!
* Folded 5 loads of laundry – well, actually have 2 of those are sitting on the couch and 1 in the dryer…but by the end of the night this will be true. Unless I stay on here too long writing, which could most likely happen.
* Posted a new pic for my Facebook page that makes me laugh- how about you? Yes, that is permed hair, which some high schoolers were amazed that we used to perm our hair at such a young age…hopefully I have aged like wine! Oh, and I have more I will scan and post just for comic relief…
* Started yet another blog post that I have yet to finish – making my count 3 for the week….hopefully I will figure them all out next week, even though I know one of them I have to wait on permission for some copywriter laws and the other might be a few months before I can publish it.
* Had some amazing time in prayer this week with God, learning to truly pray without ceasing and in all occasions…realizing that I have ALWAYS known God’s voice even before I accepted His son as my savior and Lord some 15 years ago. Pretty cool stuff!
* Caught up with my reading of the Psalms my church is doing: I still have one more tonight to read – but am happy to report I have made it to 104!
* As I was listening to “Heroes of the Bible: Jonah and the Whale” while kids watched it in the car, I realized thru the lovely voice of Charlton Heston that my story is much more like Jonah than I realized…and probably the subject of another up and coming post 🙂* Actually spent time cooking this week – really the first time in about 3 or 4 months. Wow, I can’t believe I lasted that long…but it is good to now have some sauerkraut and beet kvaas going again; to get creative with the limited food I had in my fridge – the true way I love to cook (no recipes here, they limit the creativitiness!); and to get a set of meringues in the oven…and trying them with a lemon flavor this time (this is one of my Snackablez snacks – a business I hope to resurrect at a very near point in the future! I’ll keep y’all posted).
* Oh, almost forgot – got to teach TWO spin classes within about 18 hours or so…and I’m happy to report that at least one of them got the whole “interact with the teacher for a better class” theme I run…maybe there is hope for this blog as well? Besides that, though, it was thoroughly awesome to be doing something that I LOVE and helping to bring out the best in others even if just for an hour. It also hit me in talking with a member/friend afterwards that – duh – of course I love to coach because it fits in with even what I hope to do on this site – to inspire others to live a better, healthier and hopefully more connected life to the most important person in the universe – God!
* Got my globe lights from Cost Plus hung up finally…picture didn’t turn out so I’ll just have to throw a party soon and invite y’all.
* As I picked up my phone to take the aforementioned pic, I realized I TOTALLY spaced my friend’s baby’s first bday party…feel so sheepish…and so much like Anne. I’m so sorry friend, please forgive me! And they had a bouncy house, my favorite!
* Finished my boys’ room thanks to my handy dandy drill, did I mention clean up the kitchen a million times and issue 20 dozen time outs? Oh yeah, I think I did.
Okay – but on to the best part of the week…making homemade ice cream with the boys (well DLS2 just laughed as he made a mess, so really just with DLS1). It was scrumptious as always and going to be tempting me all week…or is it a test? I still get a little iffy on when God test me and Satan tempts me…in either way – does anyone want some ice cream so I don’t have to find out?
And I was talked into sharing my recipe so that I can save an ol’ high school friend her life because her son wouldn’t have it any other way. I did inform her, though, that some of the ingredients are hard to find – especially back in “Funster”, IN!
Chocolate Ice Cream
~ 6 egg yolks (one of the best kept secrets…and you can keep the whites to make meringues)
~ 1.5 cups whole raw milk (that means the milk is not homogenized or pasteurized but pure unadulterated milk the way God intended it to be; see link to follow)
~ 3 cups raw cream
~ 1/2 cup (or less) honey – the best you can find, and real stuff that is not heated. I get the marshmallow flavor from WF out here in CALI – and I think that is the #1 secret of my ice cream
~ 1 tablespoon of vanilla
MIX ALL WET INGREDIENTS TOGETHER
~ 2/3 cup brown sugar
~ 1 cup cocoa …best you can find
~ 2 tablespoons arrowroot (an ol’ fashioned thickening agent that actually helps in digestion)
MIX DRY INGREDIENTS AND THEN ADD TO WET
From here, if you have an ice cream maker, throw it in there. Or just mix really well, throw in a container you can put in the freezer and wait until frozen. I’ve never tried this way, but my ice cream maker doesn’t really make very solid ice cream, more like syrup and then once I freeze it, looks more like ice cream.
READ ABOUT REAL MILK and why it is the way God intended for us to drink, for SOO MANY reasons! Here is a link to learn why you need raw milk if you have lactose issues…but if you don’t want to read it is because pasteurizing kills off the lactASE in milk, what our bodies need to break down the lactOSE.
That’s all folks – “y’all come back now, you here”? (Does any one remember Po’folks? It’s a restaurant my grandparents used to take me to in KC, Missouri area…but I remember going to one in SoCal of all places a few years back…any how that was their slogan for all you California’s that never had the pleasure!)
GREAT blog! And Love the picture!!!! Thanks for saving my life, now to find the ingredients!