Bike Adventure

Before I tell you about my most recent bike adventure, I need to confess a few things:

1. I have a helmet and a bike...that does not make me a biker.
2. I am working hard to build endurance and get in shape, but people, it's a slow process. My body, especially, my legs are rebelling each step of the way.
3. I grew up in the country--really the sticks--no cars, no traffic, no pedestrians--you get the idea. So, I'm a little nervous driving on the side of the road when cars are whizzing past me.
   
4. I've stopped eating sugar and white flour. Tomorrow will be 3 weeks! As the brain fog is lifting, I think I can do more than I really can. Enter bike adventure........

My Hunny said that he wanted to go to the library to drop off some items and we needed to go to Walmart and pick up some items. I said, "Hey let's ride our bikes!" I do NOT know how many miles it is, but I'm going to figure it up and then you'll know why this was a CRAZY idea! [remember #1, #2, and #3 above!] Off we went with our helmets securely fastened and my tail light brightly flashing. They don't call me "Safety Hannah" for nothing. :) Up and down hills, across highways, into town we went. My legs were calling me bad names the whole time. I tried to quiet them, to no avail. It began to get darker and my night vision isn't all that good (see why it was a crazy idea??) At some point, between panting breaths I said to my Hunny, "Who's hair-brained idea was this anyway??" Wisely, he did not offer an answer. I tried to tell my legs that we were being green, they weren't listening.

We made it to the library and deposited the items into the book drop and continued on and on and on. Up one particularly monstrous hill (take my word for it!) I heard my hunny encouraging me..."You can do it, almost there; pretend our kids are at the top of the hill." I'm sorry kids, as my bike started to roll in reverse, I thought it was time to get off and walk. To my credit, I kept walking even though my legs were still calling me bad names and kept trying to make me sit down.

Finally I saw the luminescence of the Walmart sign, oh happy moment. I staggered off my bike and stalked off into Walmart only to be called back by Hunny to take off my helmet. I'm sure I was a lovely site--who cares at 10 p.m.?? He waited outside with our bikes because we don't have locks for our bikes. Me and jelly legs went in and got the few items we needed. My mind raced to try to think of who I could call at that hour who would come pick me up and end this crazy shananigan. No one. I exited with a box of Cascade (do you know how much that weighs...me neither, Hunny carried it in his back pack!) and the other things and off we went, headed for home. I had to walk up another hill but at least I was moving toward home. The whole time I was riding I kept praying that I wouldn't fall, crash or otherwise harm myself. I'm glad to say, I didn't! And somewhere near home, I realized that my legs weren't talking bad to me anymore; they could have been numb, but at least they were quietly doing what I needed them to do.

This afternoon, my sweet, sweet man called to tell me he loved me and that he loved our bike adventure. It was the most fun he'd had in a while. That made it all worth it. I've tried to convey the love to my legs; they still are miffed and aren't buying it. They will get used to it. I wonder where I'll want to ride to tomorrow.

Summer Routine

I've been working on a summer routine. It's coming along, but still have some to do. I really need it to be easy to implement and enforce.

I decided not to make hard and fast times for things because:

1. it's summer and I want the flexibility to pick up and go to the water park or library, etc. and
   
2. in the past when I have assigned specific times for things, we would get discouraged if we were off schedule.
   

This is more of a routine...an outline of what I'd like to accomplish each day. I don't want the summer to fly by and leave me wondering what we did for 3 months. I have some summer reading I want to do aloud as well as goals for each of the kids for keeping their minds engaged.

Now I'm working on a chore chart with pictures for my two younger ones. I'm still trying to figure out how I want to do it. Chore charts will help my kids to remember what they need to do and will take out the 'nag' factor. :) I'll post a picture of that when I get it done. Hopefully later today.

For more Works for Me Wednesday Ideas, visit We are That Family.

Catch up Links

I'm working on all sorts of projects and haven't had much brain power left over for blogging. On top of that, we've all been fighting off sinus yuckiddy yuck.

Anyway, here's some links you'll want to check out:
The Crafty Classroom is having a giveaway... A gift certificate from Oh So Girly!

I've been checking out all the cool stuff Kate over at Centsational Girl is doing. She is a DIY-er to beat all DIY-ers, in my opinion. I've got to keep my blog/home envy in check when I read her. :)

Another good find, is Book of Virtues unit study...it's big, but it looks good--notebooking sheets, lapbooking pieces and lesson plans. I'm going to do this with my kids. You will receive the link through Homeschoolfreebieoftheday.com (be patient they are on vacation). I occassionally read Pamela's blog (the mom who created this study), but was alerted to the finished study by homeschoolfreebieoftheday and feel obligated to link to it this way.

Lastly, I love writing...the actual process of lettering and I love finding new fonts (free ones, that is). Urban Fonts has a ton of free downloadable fonts for your lettering pleasure.

Alrighty, gotta get moving!

The Littles...

My kids have been saying some really funny things and I've been posting them on Facebook, but forgetting to post them here!

Here's two recently:
Trenton and Daddy were talking about thunder and where it comes from.
Daddy: "The sky."
Trenton: "The sky?"
Daddy: "Yes, the sky."
Trenton: "I think God is stomping up there."


Last night Bethany was waxing eloquent about estimation--what it means and even gave examples of it.
Me: "Who is your teacher...she must be great!?"
Bethany: "Cyber-Chase." (which is a PBS kids show)

thanks Bethany...glad I asked.

The Biggest Clean-up

okay, the biggest clean up until the next time! :D I'm not sure pictures will even be able to accurately portray the amount of stuff in this room. We had piles of un-filed school papers, unorganized crayons, colored pencils, etc. and a bunch of other stuff. I took "I'm an Organizing Junkie's" advice and took everything out of the room--not everything...the electronics, the fixtures and the books on the big bookcases (not pictured), but most everything else. Major pile-up on the kitchen table!!


After that, I was done...didn't want to do anymore...wanted to flee the scene! But my go-getter daughter Marissa wouldn't let me do that (thanks, Marissa!). We worked for probably 8 hours sorting, throwing, filing and giving away books, papers, etc. We organized until we nearly dropped. We kept in mind our goal:: a clean room in which we could work on the computer, play with toys and find materials we need. It was worth the effort (she says after a nice shower and a good night's sleep!).

These last two pictures show the almost completed room (I'm not showing you the filing cabinet which frightens me and makes me shake). We took 2 large bags of recycling, 3 grocery sized bags of magazines for recycling, and 2 medium sized boxes of stuff for Goodwill.

Ahh, the feeling of success--Marissa is on the computer waiting to chat with a friend and Bethany is stalling at bedtime. :)

Projects, projects, projects

**NOTE: updates in blue**
I've started several projects and I'm having a great time. Here are links to where I got some of my ideas...

• Baby Burp Cloth--we are making these today for two baby showers. The cloths are washed, dried and waiting to be ironed...then the sewing will begin. Here is one finished gift. The burp cloths were not too hard, even for a struggling sew-er as myself. I'm still working on the other ones. Some of those will be pink. These were made for a baby shower where the parents are waiting to find out the gender. I love the brown, blue, green dots.
  

• Ribbon Wrapped Container--containers for the gifts to go in. I have to make a quick run to the Dollar Tree to see if I can find containers like this. Okay, so I didn't find a container with holes all the way around it. However I found the above container and it worked.
  

• Strawberry Fruit Leather--from our abundance of strawberries. The fruit leather is outside drying (from the comments I figured out that I could buy a new window screen and keep it for this purpose.) It's very humid out today; I sure hope it will dry. Fruit leather---uh, um---didn't work out so well. I think it didn't have enough ventilation because the stuff fermented!! In less than 24 hours...no joke. And the smell was STRONG. Anyway, it's now in the trash. If I was going to make a hobby out of making fruit leather (which I'm not) I'd have to find or make some sort of drying rack so the leather could breath through the top and bottom. Mine was on a cookie sheet with a screen over top to protect from bugs and dirt. I suppose I could also try drying in the oven...but I was trying to be green and all. Oh, well, you win some, you lose some and some are rained out (like my shutter painting...read on).
  

• Painting the vinyl shutters--I've wanted to do this since we first moved into our home SIX years ago. Nothing like jumping right on a project. I washed them, scrubbed them, primed them and painted them once. Today, they will receive their second coat and hopefully my Hunny will hang them up this evening. I will post pictures later on today--hopefully. No pictures of the finished shutters today because I didn't get the second coat on. It was SO humid and threatening rain, so I stayed inside today sewing burp cloths and eating strawberry fruit leather---JUST KIDDING-- that stuff smelled nasty. All of that was my eventful day! Wonder what tomorrow holds??
  

If you've clicked on any of the links above, you will realize that I have a new blog love...Make and Takes. The step by step instructions and photos are fabulous. The low-cost projects are fun and functional. I have found a few other blogs that I'm enjoying; I'll save those for another day. What?? I've got to keep you coming back somehow! :)

Once upon a time...

I was a senior in high school! Incredulously, I'm sitting here thinking about how today, 20 years ago, I graduated from high school.


Just to say...could my glasses be any bigger? I know, I know, it was the style, so let's move on. 8)

God has been amazingly faithful, loving and compassionate to me over the years. I've grown to know Him and love Him as my Father. He has protected me from myself and forgiven my sins (continually). He's shown me justice, mercy and grace abundantly. And although the long lasting consequences of past sins remain, He has made all work together for good; a blessing words cannot describe.

20 years have past since my high school graduation...20 years of learning, growing, loving and living. My prayer for the next 20 years, should He tarry, "Guide me with Your counsel, leading me to a glorious destiny (Psalm 73:24)."