Snatches of Valentine's Day

Since I was home with just the Littles on Sunday morning, I was able to sneak-make these cookies for all my Valentine's and hide them away up in the cupboard!  I brought them out at the end of lunch-
Super fun-Lizzy said, "OH MOM!!!  THEY'RE SO BEAUTIFUL!!!"  She melted MY heart! 

Sunday after church we went to the Masella Family's home for yummy lunch.
This is what I brought!  I still use the Butter Cookie recipe my mom and I have always made
and the frosting is my favorite vanilla I usually put on cakes.

Whipped up my first ever Biscotti, too.  Double chocolate chip to be exact!!  They were delish!
I got them on a skinny taste blog and they are only 3 points each!
 

Gaberz lovin' on his "D-D" after scarfing down his "G" cookie-
now how did he get ahold of that way up there?

The remnants of pink milk.  The kids much prefer this over the green milk of St. Patrick's Day!

Lizzy has been eyeing this Elly at Publix for 2 weeks now.
"Sunshine" made it home from the store with the flower-delivery man and Lizzy forked over her allowance for it :-) 

This lovely garland arrived in a Valentine Care package from the cousins on the other side of the state :-)   My favorite part is that it said "EW LOVE YOU"  Perfect!  Reminds me of the bookmark I keep from my nephew that says "Ant Jill" 

The flowers that Marc gave me.  I love the hearts!!

Weight Watchers Week #20

     I am into the WW groove and wondering if any of you even care to read this stuff.  I'm willing to bet the fun things we do around here and the funny things my kids say are much more fun to run into here on my blog.  SO now that it is week #20 I am going to stop writing about my weekly weight loss and just let you know each time I hit another 10.  Sound good?  Today I did lose 1 which brings my total to 33lbs lost!

Weight Watchers Week #19

     Wow!  19 weeks already??  This week went much better than last week!  At my meeting I weighed in at 2.8 lbs down!  Yeah for the loss of that water weight + almost another pound for the week!
     The joy of that, and what I love about Weight Watchers as opposed to a DIET, is that we travelled to Jupiter for 4 of the days of last week and I ate out at Chili's, Duffy's and The Yard House.  When I used to eat out, I would order what sounded good to me and what I don't usually make for us at home.  However, since joining WW, I have learned how off the charts restaurant food is!  Now when we go to a restaurant, I will only choose to eat something that is one of the lowest point foods at that restaurant.
     All that I ate was delicious, though!  Duffy's has an amazing Waldorf Salad, then I just snag a few fries off of one of the kids plate!  At Chili's, two of my WW buddies was there with me and we all ordered the guiltless grill chicken sandwich on whole wheat bun.  I added a point with the avacado ranch to moisten it, but it was great AND I ate all my broccoli. :-)
      Changes are in effect and are becoming second nature.  Praise be to God!
    

A Day in the Life: Hour by Hour

      I was inspired by my friend Joy's blog on taking a picture of my day hour by hour.

     Here is a VERY TINY snapshot of what goes on around here!

6:30 a.m. : This is where I am in Genesis with our Women's Bible Study
After reading is Wii Fit Plus morning weigh-in, then coffee making!

7:30 part A: Lizzy is the first one up today and I found her holding Domino!

7:30 part B: Leah sleeping like a princess in her bed.

8:30 part A: Breakfast!  The other kids have finished

8:30 part B: Bible Time in the Living Room.  Right now we are reading through 1 Samuel,
memorizing questions 41-43 of the Catechism and I read aloud "I Heard Good News Today"

9:30: Still working on Chorepacks.  Sarah and Lizzy cleaning their room!

10:30: Daniel working on spelling during school

11:30: Cooking two pots of macaroni.  Why not one, you may ask?
Well, since I have to make 2 boxes anyways, I do the 2 kinds my kids like:
Velveeta shells and cheese and regular Kraft or Kraft homestyle.
We ALWAYS have Macaroni on Tuesdays.

12:30 p.m.: Cutting Gabriel's hair while he is eating lunch.
This was an ATTEMPT and it actually turned out decently!  Yeah!

1:30: Leah & Jake are down for naps as I read history and science to the oldest 3.
Lizzy manages to pull out a loose tooth!

2:30: PICTURE OF THE DAY!!!  Don't you love it????
Gaberz fell asleep during his morning pack n play time, so he is awake during afternoon naps.
He likes to play on the little cement patio outside the school area.

3:30: More school mom???  Yep!  Latin and Spelling to finish!

4:30 part A: Sarah is doing a sticker/glitter craft she got for Christmas.
It looks amazing!!!

4:30 part B: Leah's make-up gratis of Lizzy.
They've been doing makeovers for 2 days!

4:30 part C: Mommy working on my Day in the Life Blog-why did I not have a chair????

Sometime in the afternoon: Randomness going on in the house.
I was sitting by Sarah at the bar counter and thought the fish would like to say "HI"

                 

                              5:30: Dan and Lizzy playing Wii Wipeout!!!
                             We saved up all our change from the last few months and bought a Wii game!

6:30: Kids are at home with friend Yelena and baby Tanya
I am at Weight Watchers meeting!  Afterwards I run to Publix for a handful of groceries!

7:30 pm: I am reading aloud The Boxcar Children, putting 4 young ones to bed after brushing their teeth, then reading aloud Moccasin Trail to Sarah and Dan.  Then I put them to bed.  Camera??  What??

8:30 pm:  Mess left for me after all the kids are tucked in!  The nightly tidy up must begin.  Some nights they have time to help me, but not on a night that I am out for an hour and a half!

   

9:30 pm: And so concludes my Tuesday.  Time to finish up Mr. Blog and sign off for the night!
The laundry needs changing over, the dishwasher needs to be run and some toys need to be put away!



THIS IS THE DAY THAT THE LORD HAS MADE,
I WILL REJOICE AND BE GLAD IN IT!!!!

Soli Deo Gloria!

Through the Years at Grace Immanuel Bible Church

Here are some fun pictures that Nancy took of the kids and I serving through the years.  

The last one of the whole family was taken the day of our going away party.

Lizzy is about 1 1/2 here, So Sarah would be 5 1/2 and Daniel 4.
We used to set up the coffee and paper goods for Gracelife Fellowship Group

Here we were setting up for a homeschool tea party for Keepers of the Faith.
Leah is 8 months, Jake is 2, Lizzy 4 1/2, Dan is 7 and Sarah is 9.

As we leave Jupiter.  Sarah: 11, Dan: 9 1/2, Lizzy: 7, Jake: 4 1/2, Leah: 3, Gabe: 16 mo.

Our New (Rental) House

Sarah in the "Library"

The Girls Room with added Icicle lights 

Same couch, same beautiful people living here!

For you non-Floridians, this is Florida "forest".  The spiky plants towards the bottom are Saw Palmettos.
Yes, they have saw-like teeth on the stems! You can also see oak and pine.

The property from down the street.
 The "ditches" keep flooding away when we get
 2 inches of rain in a couple of hours as is possible in Florida summers.

The house up close.  It is a nice place built in 2005.  We are enjoying it for the time being.

The view from the front of the house.
We are in a moderately undeveloped area.
The asphalt is made with tar and shells-it tears the kids knees to shreds when they fall off their scooters!

My turtle habitat for Carron the box turtle.  I moved my homemade turtle fence here with us :-)
She is currently in hibernation through this cold, since she IS a reptile!

Weight Watchers Week #18

     I am sad to report my first weight gain in all these weeks.  Sad to say I gained 2 pounds this week.  I really did pretty well food wise and was under on my weekly points, but I still haven't started exercising and I drank a ton of water the last two days.  If I lose a ton next week I will KNOW it was the water!  However, I also need to get into the habit of exercising . . . so off I go!