In the past, we’ve owned bathroom scales that were a bit mercurial — you could experience significant weight loss (or gain) in the matter of minutes, as the scale readings varied wildly. In fact, several years ago Kathy and I were dieting, and the scale told us both we gained. Being mature, financially responsible adults, we tossed that scale in the garbage and rushed out to find a more ‘reliable’ device.

This morning, after at least four attempts, I could only squeeze a 0.2 pound loss out of that cursed scale! Maybe there’s something wrong with the batteries?

It could be worse, they could be throwing me in the trash like these tomato plants.

I was pretty disappointed, since I’ve been counting my calories like a miser, these past two weeks. I estimate I’m eating at least a thousand calories a day less than I was eating before, and so I hoped for a 2-pound loss. No such luck.

I came downstairs and loudly bemoaned my lot to anyone who would listen. Kathy was walking out the door, but tried to console me:

“I’ve got to go to my meeting, but when I come back, I’ll encourage you,” she promised, sweetly.

Petulantly, I whined, “I don’t need to be encouraged, I’m quitting!”

There was much giggling among my children, especially Joshua. I guess they know that I’m more bark than bite — sometimes a fella just likes to complain. They used to say this when I was in the Army: “If soldiers aren’t complaining, they’re not happy.” Joshua rushed off to add that quote to his Tome of Ridiculous Sayings, in which I figure prominently.

“Let me just write that down, Daddy.”

It seems that, before I started this plan, my metabolism was going all-out, like a roaring furnace. I picture sweaty, soot-begrimed workmen in a gloomy factory, shouting over the sound of the flames and conveyor belts:

“Hey, Joe! I just got word from Corporate that there’s another load of high-calorie junk food coming down! Doesn’t this guy ever stop eating?”

“I dunno, Frank — he must think he’s an Olympic Athlete or something. Maybe the boys down in Waste Products could pick up the slack?”

“Those weenies? They’ll start whining about bowel obstruction or something — they don’t care about us, here, and they don’t care about the Company. I guess we better run three shifts again — do you think Sam can take the night shift?”

“I dunno Joe, those guys on the third shift are pretty rough. Hey, Bob, fire up furnace 14, will ya, and tell the lads everyone works an extra two hours, unpaid overtime!”

Now that I’m moderating my caloric consumption, the metabolic workers have apparently unionized, laid off a third of the work force, or taken some of the furnaces off-line for long-needed maintenance. I’m eating so many less calories, but not losing weight — it is enough to make a guy discouraged.

In the face of this lack of weight loss, I decided to revisit the calorie calculations. Sure enough, it seems the calories that a man of my size and lifestyle would burn is quite a bit below the 3000 I had originally estimated. I tweaked a few formulas and ended up with a more conservative ‘maintenance’ calorie allotment of around 2550, not 3000. This suggests that I need to eat no more than 2050 calories a day to lose a pound a week.

No wonder I haven’t seen any weight loss!

Ooof. Goodbye ice cream, goodbye cheese sticks, goodbye to that extra tortilla. Hello, hunger.

Happily, Kathy has developed several foods that enjoy a high calorie-to-satisfaction return on investment:

• The fruity-oat bran pancake — 618 calories
  Yes, that’s a lot of calories, but this hearty 1.2 pound cake with complex grains keeps me going from 6 am ’til noon, with nary a hunger pang.
• Tomato-barley stew with sausage — 476 calories
  Two cups of stew, with tasty sausage morsels — sweet and filling (and made with home-grown tomatoes!)
• The hunger-panic vegetable pancake — 200 calories
  Never before has pureed cauliflower or broccoli tasted so good. Held together with an egg and some fresh Parmesan cheese, and broiled on Kathy’s cool grill, this pancake has enough substance to take the edge off any hunger.
• The metabolic — 165 calories of frozen blueberry goodness

David is fond of nearly all those recipes.

Maybe I’ll post the recipes for these if I get a chance. I find all four to be very satisfying, and if I stick to these, they take care of breakfast and lunch entirely and leave a lot of room for other foods for supper, totaling 1459 calories.

I am reminded that at least 10 people promised to pray for me, many on the assurance that I would pray for them. Well, I have been — I’ve prayed every day for each of you (except, as advertised, for one ‘off’ day a week). Please pray that I would have the courage to reduce my calorie consumption further, and that I would see some success in weight loss.

If the metabolic foremen lay off another round of workers, I’m going to have to take drastic action.

Tim

This group of women (and occasional men) have been a tremendous source of information, comfort, inspiration, and guidance during my homeschooling journey. If I have a question on nearly any topic under the sun, from frugal meals to books on Advent, I know the list will generate conversation and help.

Cynthia, Lee and I at Starbucks in 2006.

Over the years I’ve been privileged to meet a few of the women from the loop. Two years ago, I went out for coffee with Lee and Cynthia. Lee is an incredibly talented woman who, as her boys went off to college, created a consulting business for people homeschooling their high schoolers. I highly recommend Lee’s materials, blog, and advice. You can find her at thehomeschoolscholar.com. There is an amazing amount of information right on her website, with more available through her videos and personal consulting.

Cynthia is one of the original founders of the SHS loop. She shares her life and heart with the many women who come to the loop, giving of her time and energy to continue building something that has grown tremendously over the years. There are nearly 2000 members in the SHS group. That is a LOT of potential email. Cynthia blogs at Life Is Good. Her pictures are gorgeous! I’m inspired by her unfailing commitment to her children and their busy, active lives.

Last year I wasn’t able to meet with Lee and Cynthia when Cynthia came into town for the weekend, so I was determined to make it a priority this year. Of course, it’s one thing to put a note on the calendar and PLAN to gather with friends, it’s another to actually do it, in the busyness of life.

First the time changed. Lee wasn’t able to join us in the afternoon, we had originally scheduled to get together after the homeschool PE classes, so we decided to move it to the morning.

Next I completely forgot Daniel was babysitting a friend’s little boy at our house in the morning. How was I going to be available in the morning if we were watching a toddler?

Daniel’s glasses broke last week. He’s a handsome fellow without them, but would probably like to be able to see clearly.

Then my cell phone was turned off or misbehaving, and I missed the call saying Cynthia had arrived in town and was making lunch arrangements. I was watching the time and knew the plane had landed, but was overcome with shyness and suddenly didn’t want to call and be a bother.

Argh!!

By the time I got the voice mail and connected with Cynthia and Lee, they were already together and beginning lunch. The location? A good 40 minutes away. Anticipating a delay, I had already arranged for a friend to drop the kids off at the Y for their classes and started on lunch so I could run out the door. I told the ladies I would leave immediately and set off. Still, as I was driving I couldn’t help but wonder if I was making a mistake. Was I wasting my time driving all that way for such a short visit. I made some calls, arranging details regarding the children, and poured out my fretting concerns to my friend, Julee.

Julee asked me why I was going. Was I hoping to glean some homeschool tips? No, it was purely just a fun gathering with some cyber friends. I truly expected her to tell me to stay home, not to bother with such a long drive just for a quick visit. Instead, she said, “Sometimes when there are so many obstacles pushing against us the resistance is coming from Satan. I think you should go and see what you can learn from those two experienced homeschooling moms.” Throughout the years Julee has always been incredibly supportive of my homeschooling journey. Once again she was encouraging me.

I quickly texted Cynthia, telling her I was on my way, but it would take me 40 minutes to get there. I asked if they had enough time for the visit to linger on into the afternoon. She immediately wrote back saying yes, and encouraging me to come and meet them.

Of course, we had to take a picture to capture the moment.

The day was gorgeous, the sun shining after several days of rain. The traffic was busy but the drive easy, and, of course, the gas prices were low.

I found the restaurant with no trouble, met up with Cynthia and Lee and proceeded to have a lovely visit. Not only was it enjoyable to catch up on each others lives and children, it was fun to see how much we knew about things because of our blogs. The internet truly is an amazing thing.

I am so glad I squeezed the time out of the day to meet with Cindy and Lee.

Mostly I was struck how God orchestrated our conversation. I had the chance to ask Cynthia some of my questions about Rachel (who turns 13 next month), knowing Cynthia has two teenage daughters who love the Lord and are close to their family. I learned Lee has an hour of free phone consulting available each week on Wednesday afternoons. As a homeschooling mom of a high school freshman, this is priceless information. Amidst one of our many discussions, God gave me a brilliant idea for the introduction session for next semester’s co-op class on finances.

Add to the mix some delicious Starbucks, and I can safely say it was a wonderful visit. We had plenty of time to talk, share and enjoy our coffee without feeling rushed. I made it back in plenty of time to pick up the children. God is good and He has blessed my life with a delightful array of interesting friendships.

Kathy

Thanks to God’s continuing provision for us, we’ve been able to reduce our debt to 35% of its April 1, 2008 level.

Debt reduction, as of 1 November 2008, after 7 months budgeting.

Mostly, we’ve continued earlier efforts to record and limit expenditures. I must, however, admit that some use of credit has crept back in. We allowed ourselves to continue to use our Amazon Visa card for purchases on Amazon, and we have been using our Costco credit line to fund purchases at that store. Originally, I was in the habit of firing off a payment from our checking account each time we used either of those cards, but lately I have become lazy about that.

About a week ago I received a bill in the mail from the Costco credit card people for more than $600 — I had no idea I had let that account grow so large, so quickly! If it weren’t for a quarterly bonus from my employer, I’d be in the sorry situation of reporting an increase in debt.

Obviously, we need to either (a) be exceedingly diligent in paying those bills immediately, on the same day of purchase, or (b) to really cut out the credit card usage entirely, as proper Ramsey groupies should.

Savings = the excess of income over consumption expenditures —often used in plural

One happy thing happened recently: we’ve started to use the money we actually saved for Christmas to snap up bargains and gifts of opportunity. We’ve been putting money aside ever since we started our budget, so we wouldn’t be surprised when Christmas came. (What? It’s in December, again?) It has been such fun to buy presents that we can afford!

Tim

When I joined the Army as a flabby 198-pound twenty-year-old, the kindly folks at Fort Leonard Wood helped me to embark on a crash diet (they called it ‘Basic Training’). Burning upwards of 6000 calories a day while eating whatever morsels I could snatch in 60-second meals, helped me to a loss of 35 pounds in a matter of twelve weeks.

Can I afford the calories today, for a cup of Caramel Caribou?

During my three-year enlistment, I managed to stay on the right side of the weight and fitness limits, so (in spite of a knee injury) I was still reasonably fit and under 190 lbs. when I returned to college. By the time I graduated from college, I had bulked up to about 215 pounds, some of it muscle from a regimen of weight lifting and occasional jogging. Life as a programmer doesn’t sustain much muscle; even so, I’ve somehow managed to stay in the 225-245 range for the past 16 years.

As long as I can remember, I’ve believed I was ‘pudgy’. Oh, I knew in my head that this was a delusion, but I still believed it. I carefully suck in my stomach and flex whenever I stand in front of a mirror, raising my eyebrows to make my face look thinner. I avoid looking at my profile as reflected in store windows or bathroom mirrors. I wear tall, baggy shirts so they don’t become un-tucked and reveal my belly.

Even so, I know that pretty much any nutritionist or physician would consult the charts for a man of my age and height and weight and conclude, “Dude, your body-mass index is 33 — you’re past ‘overweight‘ — you’re obese!”

I don’t talk to those kind of nutritionists or physicians, especially not those who would call me ‘Dude’. They’re usually young and skinny, anyway.

Not my actual body mass index chart. I’m 5′ 11″, and, um, weigh quite a bit more than 157 pounds.

Last Monday evening, I ate a big supper, and followed it up with a slice of cherry pie, a huge chocolate-chip cookie, about a half-pound of pistachios, and several large handfuls of M&M’s. As I lay reading, on my side in bed, I felt sick and bloated. Suddenly, I noticed something large, pushing down on the bed. It was as though one of my children had sat on the bed beside me.

In a sickening rush of comprehension, I realized: it was my belly.

Even now, six days later, it is unpleasant to talk about this subject. All these years, I had convinced myself that I was merely ‘plump’ or ‘pudgy’, but now I could no longer avoid the ugly truth: I am fat.

Not my actual belly. Sorry for those of you now requiring therapy.

I mulled it over in my mind all day on Tuesday, while Kathy and I drove back from Oregon. I skipped breakfast that day to alleviate the immediate feeling of being over-stuffed, but I wasn’t able to shake the memory of my belly, almost pregnant in its shape. By Tuesday night, a determination to make a change crystallized in my head, forged in the fires of self-revulsion and (as I later discovered), Kathy’s prayers. It turns out that Kathy has been praying for the last couple of weeks (years?), for me to take seriously my responsibility to look after my physical health.

As it happens, I have an in-house expert consultant, well-experienced in self-discipline and nutrition. Kathy helped me to resurrect my profile on Fit Day and lent me her considerable expertise in low-calorie and low-fat food selection and measurement. I spent the first day eating ‘normally’, but recording each calorie, to see if FitDay.com’s estimate of my caloric consumption was accurate. It was a bit chilling to realize that I routinely consume between 3500 and 4000 calories a day, when eating without restraint or accountability.

Kathy has kept her 60+ pound weight loss off for almost four years, now.

On Thursday I set my goal: I’m seeking to lose a pound a week, and to get down to my late-college weight of 210 pounds, from my current weight of 238 pounds. To accomplish this by late May, I’ll need to ensure that my caloric consumption is at least 500 calories less, each day, than what I burn. So far, so good; the nice folks at Fit Day can help with all that.

My average consumption vs. what they think I burn

The main problem is this: how will I keep recording and limiting my caloric consumption each day, over the long haul? This is certainly not the first time I have dieted, and yet for more than 16 years I’ve made no significant change to my weight, except for a briefly successful flirtation with Kathy’s Maniacal Eating Plan (the KMEP), or the time I dropped 20 pounds on the Bronchitis Diet.

I really don’t want to add another chapter to my self-deprecating autobiography, The Many Failures of Tim the Quitter, 1965 - 20??; already my publisher is hinting that a work of this size should best be broken up into a trilogy. What will make this effort different? Where can I, as a lifelong follower of Jesus Christ, get the kind of power I would need to resist temptation of the flesh and to succeed at a pursuit involving one of the fruit (fruits?) of the Spirit, self-control?

Think, think, think (I do my Winnie-the-Pooh impression). A light bulb goes on: the Holy Spirit indwells me for just this kind of purpose!

Um … wait just a minute. The Holy Spirit has been indwelling me for all these years, and yet I have repeatedly failed. There must be something else, some way to activate the work of the Holy Spirit in my life, some way to ensure that I attempt things not in my own strength, but in the strength of the Holy Spirit.

Think, think, think.

Another light bulb goes on: Prayer!

And so we come to the reason for this blog, apart from sickening self-revelation: I need some of you to pray for me on a regular, ongoing, long-term basis. Please pray that I will be faithful and disciplined in decreasing my caloric intake and increasing my activity. Pray that I will not grow weary of exercising self-control, and that I can establish some habits in this area that will translate to a long-term maintenance of a lower weight. Pray that I will not become discouraged, and find some reason to quit.

I have a group of people for whom I pray every* day, using 4×6 cards to remind me of specific concerns. If you will commit to praying for me at least 4 times a week, I’ll add you to my deck o’ prayer cards, and I’ll pray for you at least six times a week. And if you’re already on one of my cards, then perhaps you owe me.

As Kathy and I do with our budgeting, I’ll be reporting on my progress from time to time on this blog. You can also track my caloric intake and weight loss (assuming there is some) on my public FitDay profile.

I was able to lose 4 pounds right away, by the happy expedient of weighing with my clothes off and before breakfast.

Comments are welcome, but prayer, interceding on my behalf, is very welcome. I already know much more about weight loss and healthy living than I am putting to use; that said, please feel free to share your wisdom on this topic.

Tim

*every = at least six days a week

Sarah loves playing outside, especially when she can chase her 3 brothers.

I spent a good portion of the Saturday evening looking for clips of old commercials. I’m teaching a Financial Peace class for high schoolers at our homeschool co-op. We studied consumer awareness this week, and I thought it would be interesting to watch a series of commercials in our next class period.

The boys are preparing for their own commercial.

Unfortunately, as Joshua observed, commercial viewing is kind of like eating junk food -

A little bit goes a long way.
While flavorful, there’s nothing of real substance.
It’s tasty/fun at first, but eventually makes you sick.

It’s been much more difficult than I thought to come up with a list of classic commercials. Come on, what are the ad campaigns that have stuck with you over the years? I need help generating a list.

“Where’s the Beef?”
“Melts in Your Mouth, Not in Your Hand”
“I’m a Pepper, You’re a Pepper”
Mac vs PC
Doublemint Twins
Nike - Just Do It
“This is your brain on drugs!”
“Trix Are for Kids”

Joshua, David and Daniel boys are advertising, um, sticks. Right.

What else? Do you have favorite commercials that you remember? Our class is going to study marketing strategies and effective advertising techniques. Since we don’t have a tv in our house, and haven’t since Tim and I were married, I am a bit handicapped in this area.

Based on my research thus far, I can say there are an awful lot of beer commercials, and many ads I would be embarrassed for my children to see. Oh, I also found some of the most emotional commercials come from a Thai insurance agency. Weird.

You can save me hours of youtube research by sharing with me some of your favorite (family friendly) commercials. I’ll take jingles and slogans as well. Think of it as one way you can help out a busy homeschooling mom.

Thanks!
Kathy

See, I am overcome with poetic rambling. Not very good poetic rambling, but somebody has to ramble, and it’s obviously going to me. Or should that be “I”?

Some of my favorite Halloween/Harvest Carnival kids!

Totally random segue into the topic of shoes. Have you ever stopped to think about the amount of shoes a family with five children has in their closets, hallways and garage corners?

Let’s be conservative (in a very non-political way) and name 4 types of possible shoes a person could own:

Dress shoes
Tennis shoes
Boots
Sandals

Without taking into consideration slippers, snow and rain boots, and the fact that girls are INCAPABLE of having simply one or two pairs of “these are so cute, Mom, I have to have them” shoes, that puts our family at 20 pairs of shoes.

And that’s just the children.

What kind of shoes would THIS fellow wear?

Here’s a better look at the Candy Running Army Man.

Shoes are on my mind because it’s been raining the last few days, and promises to continue doing so for another week. As I searched the garage shoe bin this afternoon I realized only one of the five children has rain boots.

Did I mention they are about to pay a little visit to their grandparents’ house?

Grandparents who live out in the country.

Where there are no sidewalks but plenty of puddles.

So, yes, along with the joy of the approaching holidays, I also sense a shoe shopping expedition in our future. Of course, mentioning a shoe store in the children’s presence almost always elicits an immediate response from at least one child:

“Mom, I forgot to tell you:

Bethany and Rachel could definitely pick out some cute shoes.

It’s enough to make a girl scream!

Or go shopping. I’ve got my eye on this really cute pair of pink and brown rain boots. What do you think? More importantly, where do you store all the shoes??

Kathy

All this was done even before I had lunch, which just goes to show that there are more important things than Sunday lunch.

Rachel’s good friends joined us for church on Sunday.

When I was a surly young teenager, there weren’t very many voices in the Contemporary Christian Music scene. There were the Praise Maranatha Singers, Amy Grant, Keith Green, DeGarmo and Key, Petra, and somewhat later, that Johnny-come-lately, Michael W. Smith.

My parents had some deep misgivings about the godliness of this so-called ‘Christian’ rock music, and so I had to listen on headphones, or deep in the bowels of my basement bedroom. I remember feeling vaguely resentful about that, and using their seemingly-unreasonable stance against contemporary Christian music to justify (in my own mind, at least) my rebelliousness in listening to secular rock on the sly. (As is the case with many teenagers, I exercised no monopoly on logic.)

Now I have a teenager of my own, and two younger ones who seem to think they are teenagers. As a Christian parent, I am determined to encourage my children in godliness, and not to allow Satan a foothold in the area of music. For this reason, I permit, and even encourage my kids to develop their own tastes in the area of music styles, but I insist that they listen to music that has godly lyrics and is performed by people who love and follow Jesus. I don’t see any benefit that secular music would provide to my children, and so far nobody has argued that point with me.

Sarah doesn’t want to argue with her daddy, no sir!

In the old days, we would sign up for some CD-of-the-month club (like Sound and Spirit) and buy whole albums featuring our favorite artists. Or maybe we would go to a Christian book store and listen to some of their demo albums. Either way, we’d end up buying a whole CD. Then we would cull through those songs and find the one or two songs on the CD that we could stand, and add them to our playlist on the computer.

In this modern age of wonder, we can listen to each song in advance and we buy only the ones we like, at a competitive price, albeit in digital form.

For Kathy’s birthday, I made a list of all the songs I had heard recently, that I actually liked. (Kathy and I have similar, but not entirely congruent, tastes in music – but, hey, if I liked ‘em, she probably would, too. Either way, there would be music around that I like.)

I listened to our local Christian radio station for days, making notes every time I heard them play a good song. I searched the web for new songs by artists we have enjoyed in the past, and spent hours listening to their albums. Eventually, I had a list of 25 songs or so, and I spent an hour one evening buying them all. I loaded them on a flash drive, and wrapped it up for her so she could have something tangible to unwrap.

Amazon makes it really easy for you – once you’ve installed the download manager plug-in for your browser, you simply click to buy, and the song appears magically in the “Recently Added” section of Windows’ Media Player.

Now, when I want to reward one of my children, I buy them a song on Amazon. “Have a song on me,” I tell the fortunate child. They usually spend half an hour or so browsing around until they find a song they like. Then we download it onto my computer, and copy it to the laptop or the kitchen computer so we can play it from anywhere. If any of the kids really like it, they’ll put it on their mp3 player.

Which one of these kids is gonna grow up to be a rock star?

It hasn’t always been peaches and cream. The kids don’t all have the same tastes in music, and deciding whose playlist we listen to in the kitchen or family room has been the cause of some considerable strife in our family.

Ask me about the Strategic Music Compromise we have, dated and signed, on our bulletin board.

Still, I think when all is said and done, we’ll continue to glorify God in the music we play in our home, and (I hope) my children will not be tempted into rebellion in the area of music.

Tim

Christmas is a very busy time for us, Mr. Cratchit. People preparing feasts, giving parties, spending the mortgage money on frivolities. One might say that December is the foreclosure season. ‘Harvest time’ for the money-lenders.

(I’m not sure if that quote appears in the original — it appears in one version of the movie, among at least five that I own. I’m too lazy to check the book.)

Michael Caine makes a very believable Scrooge.

The way Scrooge rubs his hands together as he rolls the R’s in the word ‘Harvest’, sends a chill down my spine, as I contemplate the harvest he is about to reap at the hands of the three spirits.

Today I had to admit that the tomato growing season is pretty much over. We’ve had a couple of gentle frosts, and the tomatoes are rotting on the vine. When it rains, the tomatoes split and get moldy, and even the ones that don’t spoil have lost that sweet, sun-warmed flavor of August.

“Now what do we do with all these tomatoes?” I asked Kathy, rather petulantly. Even though many of the vines are yellowed and have dropped most of their fruit, there still remain hundreds of tomatoes on the 50-odd plants I tended so happily through the summer months.

The kids were having a war in the backyard with various friends, so I drafted some of ‘em as migrant workers.

I paused a moment to reflect on the change in my attitude about these little red globes. I remember when each of them was like a precious child, long awaited and enjoyed with great glee. Now, when half the crop falls neglected to the ground, I’m tired of tomatoes, and haven’t been out to pick any for a week. It has been several days since I even ate a tomato.

Maybe next Spring I’ll exercise some moderation in my planting?

Either that, or get one of these bad boys to help me process my crop …

Kathy Googled™ for the answer, and found that we could save tomatoes for use in winter stews. “You”ll freeze ‘em,” she assured me, rather breezily.

“Sounds good,” I agreed. “What do we do, chop ‘em in half and toss ‘em in a freezer bag?”

Kathy read further down the page and laughed. “No, they all say you have to skin the tomatoes, first.”

I blanched. Literally.

(OK, that was a dumb cooking pun. Blanching is apparently what happens when you expose a fruit or vegetable to boiling water for a short time. Not, in this context, what happens when all the blood runs out of your face in terror.)

Fifteen minutes’ harvest.

I checked it out — sure enough, every source we could find agreed that you had to remove the skins. So I got out a big pot and boiled some water. Beside it, I prepared a bowl of ice water. Then I put a dozen tomatoes in the boiling water for 45 seconds or so, and then plopped ‘em into the ice water. As advertised, the skins came right off, along with a fair bit of the tomato.

Kathy nearly suffered an infarction. “I can’t believe you’re actually doing some of the work,” she chortled.

It was a gooey job, and I quit after bagging only two quart bags of tomatoes. At this rate, I’ll have all the tomatoes ready for freezing by the time next year’s crop is on the vine.

“I’m leaving the rest of the tomato processing as an exercise for the student,” I told Kathy, waving my hand grandly at the remaining trays of tomatoes, as I scampered out of the kitchen.

Now we just need to find a tomato student. Any takers?

Tim
Project 366, Day 299

Good Night, Little Blog
Curious Blog
Where the Wild Blogs Are
The Terrible, Horrible, No Good Blog
Goldilocks and the Three Blogs

I could go on.

Maybe not.

This daring duo is coming for a visit this weekend. They look like trouble to me, but I think Sarah will be safe with them.

Tim’s parents took the children, all five, home with them on Sunday afternoon. They didn’t bring them back until this afternoon.

Reflect on that for just a moment. All five children off with the grandparents. In the middle of the month. No holiday or vacation planned, just a little break for the teacher.

“I like to think of it as preventive care for your mom,” Tim told the children. “You know, so we don’t have to check her into the Whispering Pines Home for Homeschooling Mothers.”

Calvin surely drove his mother crazy over the years.

I must admit, it was glorious! Sunday was busy with small group, but Monday was quiet and relaxing. Tim worked from home while I sat nearby finishing up my Bible study, reading online, and not taking care of any children. By the time 2 pm rolled around I had successfully wasted a good portion of the day. Tim took me to Starbucks and treated me to a coffee. That’s surely a date in my book! In the afternoon I went to yoga at the Y. Afterward I decided to be a complete rebel and SKIP Bible study to spend the evening with my husband.

Alone.

My plan was to use some of the time over these days praying about priorities and general life focus; the blog in particular has been on my mind.

Tuesday, however, I was completely overwhelmed with the urge to clean the house. Before I knew it, I had spent nearly the entire day cleaning. I couldn’t help it. The sun was shining and Tim was off working. No children, responsibilities or husband to distract me. I worked and worked. It was as wonderful to accomplish things around the house on Tuesday as it was to NOT do anything on Monday.

There’s only so much relaxing a girl can handle. Just being alone was a gift.

It all ended this afternoon.

We’re Home! We’re Home!

Swoosh, in one big rush the kids returned, complete with suitcases, dirty laundry, school books, and lots of energy. After some lunch, snacks, school work, and dinner, the house was restored to its previous messy glory.

Frankly, life was a little boring without all these sweet little ones (and not so little) that I love.

Welcome home, guys!

Kathy
P.S. I never did spend any time in deep thought or prayer over the blog so the identity crisis rages on.

This gift came all the way from Norway.

Nothing speaks love to a fifteen year old young man like food, so we had a tremendous breakfast to celebrate Joshua’s birthday. French toast casserole (made with day old bagels and a hint of caramel sauce), two sausage/bacon/egg casseroles (one with cubed bread, the other shredded hash browns) and fresh apple cider.

Look, it’s Pulpit Rock or Preikestolen. Joshua climbed to the top during his trip to Norway this past May. Awesome!

I can’t believe we didn’t take a single picture. I used the china dishes given to me by my grandmother, crystal goblets from our wedding, and beautiful Williamsburg table decorations from my mother-in-law.

You’ll just have to take my word for it, the table looked lovely.

Daniel and Tim put together a special present for Joshua.

We opened presents throughout the day, relaxed, played a game of Alhambra, listened to Joshua’s new LOTR sound track, watched Joshua play his new Battle for Middle Earth computer game, and some of us (okay just I, or is it me?) went for a walk.

Joshua might have a hard time knocking down castle walls with this, but he can always try.

Rachel left in the afternoon to babysit for the evening and Joshua went off to a youth group outing at the corn field/hay maze. We had an unexpected visitor stop by for good conversation and a very casual dinner. After Carl left, Tim took the younger two children out shopping for Joshua’s birthday (nothing like some last minute presents to round out the day).

How nice to have your birthday fall on a Saturday. No school to worry about, chores to complete, or co-op classes to attend.

Happy Birthday, Joshua! We love you.

Kathy