Funeral

Today was such a celebration of Sgt. H's life. It was so neat to hear all the stories from family and friends. I have never been to a police officers' funeral and all I can say, really is, "WOW" There were at least 400 squad cars in the processional to the cemetery plus that of family and friends. I would venture to say that there were about 2,000 plus people in attendance. Our small church that holds about 300 hundred did a very good job making room for all those who came to honor Al. Here is a link to the news I found online I think there should be a link somewhere online of the almost 3 hour service. I just have to say it was really weird to see Mayor Daley sitting in our church as it was also quite different to see my husband in dress uniform playing his guitar during the services. I know he felt so honored to be apart of today. My heart just breaks for the wife and daughters. Though his youngest daughter is on her way to the High School retreat for the weekend where she will be surrounded by her friends to life her up in prayer and comfort. I just thank God every day J comes home from work.

In the Line of Duty...

I never want to see squads roll up to my house because if they do it means that something happened to Jeff in the line of duty. On Monday morning a sweet family from church had their world turned upside down. The husband, a sergeant on the police force, was at work and on the way to a call when his car hit ice and hit a tree. A few hours later he was gone. This mother of three is now a widow and her children fatherless. It just breaks my heart. I have been asked by several people from our church if I am doing ok since my husband has the same occupation but in reality every time we leave the house we could get in a deadly car accident. I know my husband's job puts him at higher risk because going to calls he drives faster than the speed limit, for obvious reasons. The only comfort we have is in knowing that he is in the presence of the Lord and we will one day get to see him but that doesn't really feel very comforting at the moment. I just ask that you pray for his wife and daughters. Just thinking about all the things he won't be able to be around for just makes me want to cry. I just pray that his life and the funeral will be honoring and glorying to God as there will be probably thousands of police at the services. The wake is tomorrow and the funeral Friday. Just hug and kiss your spouse and kids because we really don't know when God is going to call us home.

Menu Feb 22-28

Monday: Jason's Deli (the kids all ate free)
Tuesday: Vegetable Medley (didn't get a chance to make it last week)
Wednesday: Cold Cuts at Church
Thursday: Goulash with green peppers
Friday: Chicken and Stir Fry
Saturday: Mahi Mahi and brown rice
Sunday: Sauteed Onions and Squash and fruit

Lunches are pretty standard from here on out so I will probably stop putting them!

The Peace of God

As you know, we have our house on the market. We have gone through a price negotiation with first time home buyers that just ended because they refused to come up any higher. We have had so many showings about 40 in the last 4 months. Through this whole process I have felt at peace. Which is so strange because normally this is a high stress situation (paying two sets of bills) and having a longer commute and other things. I know this peace comes from God and God alone. I was reading my friend Melissa's blog the other day! Hi Mel :) She had such a great post about living a Christ like life well there were two posts. It really spoke to my heart especially the part where she talks about how do I want to be remembered? As a good wife and mom? As a nice person? Those are great things to be remembered for but what does that really say about me as a person? They are pretty long posts so grab a snack but they are really worth the time to read. The power of God's peace and love and any other of His attributes is so powerful and I want to share that with the world.

Recently my sister-in-law and her two sons came for a visit. It was such a great visit. Though in talking with her I quickly got saddened by the realization that they will probably never be moving here. They have a strong conviction not to take on any more debt. Which is completely honorable. I totally get why but that also means that they don't see moving to a place where the cost of living is doubled even if the pay is higher as well. As much as it hurt to hear that they will probably never move here I knew that God was in control of everything and if he wants them here they will be here. So I committed myself to praying that the Lord's will be done in their lives even if it means they stay there. Selfishly I want them here. My kids have 6 cousins and not one of them live close. All their grandparents are close but they don't have play mates. See totally selfish!

One for my record

Has time ever gotten away from you and then you think to you yourself what day is it? And where did these days go? Well that was our last weekend. It was extremely fun and jam packed. Saturday we met my sis-in-law and nephews at the picture place and we got all 6 kids pictures taken. It was a bit crazy but we got some good pictures so I would say it was worth it. Then my *tornado* and I went to a birthday party. That got over at 1pm we got home and grabbed all of our snow gear and headed out the door for some sledding fun with friends. Once the kids were frozen ice cubes we went to our friends house for dinner and to hang out. It was a busy day but such a fun one.

Sunday after church we met our friends from Michigan for lunch and then they came over to play. We sent out her oldest and my 3 to play in the snow in the front yard. The other 3 kids stayed inside and slept on the couch. My friend was holding her almost 3 year old while she slept and all of a sudden she started peeing on her. I'm such a bad friend because I just laughed. Good thing they had luggage in their car! It was so nice to catch up with them and for the kids to get to play together. We have know them since Monkey was 4 months old.

Monday was a full day out of the house, chiropractor appointment, grocery shopping, lunch mom at school, giving Peanut a nap, etc. J went snowboarding with his sister's boyfriend. I am so glad they got to go so now I don't have to hear about how he didn't get to go this season! I think he wants to go again for sure with another friend which is fine as long as he does it on a day the kids are in school I am cool with that :) Tuesday Peanut and I went over to see J's family from out of town (grandparents and Aunt) and then we took Virginia and the boys back to our house for naps, dinner and play. They leave today so it was nice to be able to spend a little more time with them. Now when my kids look at my blog years from now they can see that we really did do fun things and mom wasn't all about food. ALL. THE. TIME.

Menu Feb 15th - 21st

I'm a few days late but here it is not that anyone out there really cares but at least I have it to look at so I can see we don't eat the same things over and over again or that we do!

Monday: my version of Chicken Enchiladas (I make the inside and we eat on top of spinach)
Tuesday: Turkey Meatloaf with stir-fried zucchini and pears. I also made cheese cake because my sis-in-law and nephews were here.
Wednesday: Roasted Turkey Breast with quinoa and strawberries.
Thursday: We are meeting my dad and step mom for dinner
Friday: Vegetable Stir Fry
Saturday: Turkey Spinach Patties and a fruit salad
Sunday: We have our small group so dinner will be light! Cereal or leftovers.
Monday: Fish with brown rice

Visitors

We have been busy these last few weeks with some out of state visitors. My sister in law and her two boys ages 4 years old and 6 weeks came to visit. They are staying with the in laws. It has been fun to see the baby and let the cousins spend some time together. Somethings that stick out in my mind since they have been here are as follows. Wednesday Peanut and I went to pick them up for a McDonalds play date. It had snowed about 10 inches. Well the driveway was shoveled all but the entry way. I tried getting in and got stuck. A truck pulled up behind me and was not going anywhere because I couldn't move. He offered to help get it out of the snow. Then he pulled out his snow blower from the back of his truck and proceeded to snow blow my in laws entry way. My father in law was outside when all of this was going down but his snow blower had just broken which is why the rest of the snow wasn't gone. It was just an interesting situation but God provided this man at the right time and I am so thankful. That same day I got to hold the baby in his sleepy wrap for about 2 hours. I loved it. Thursday we took the kids to Chuck E Cheese for some fun. My sis in law had never been, EVER. It was a fun time even though the baby had a blow out of poop!!! Today my older nephew went to Red's Valentine's party with him. When the party was over I took him home and Peanut, Red and I stayed for awhile. All four kids napped and Virginia and I talked. It was really nice and relaxing. When my older two got home I was shown a picture on my husband's phone of GG's art project with a blue ribbon. She had won first place in her grade. I know I am a little biases but it was really a good drawing. Also the kids came home with Valentine's balloons they had bought for J and I. It was so sweet of them. They secretly took money to school out of their piggy banks. Oh speaking of piggy banks. On Monday I had an errand to do at the bank and Peanut was with me. She kept calling the bank a piggy bank it was so cute.

LOST

I normally don't blog about shows but this is the last season of LOST and I just couldn't help myself. First off I am just plain confused right now with this show. It is so addicting though and I really don't get why! But I will say I am so happy that Claire is back. It also took me a few seconds to realize that Jack and Claire were siblings. There are so many twists and turns that my brain sometimes hurts after watching this show.

I really thought that Sayid was Jacob coming back to life like the guy in the black shirt did with Locke but it doesn't look to be that way. I am so stumped that I really don't even have a guess as to where they are going with this show. Any Lost-ies out there that could maybe shed some light on what they think is happening. Yeah that would be great! Until next Tuesday...

Menu Feb 8th - 14th

Monday: Asparagus Soup with sourdough bread
Tuesday: Herbed Lamb Chops with dill-spiced baby carrots
Wednesday: church
Thursday: Mahi Mahi and brown rice
Friday: Chili
Saturday: Chicken in Sour Cream
Sunday: leftovers or going out for Valentine's Day but probably the first option!

Lunches are same as always!

Breakfasts: pecan muffins, eggs, pancakes, cereal with rice milk, fruit salad or toast with apple butter and maybe some kind of baked eggs. I think having a list of our breakfast options is better than having them planned out because some nights I didn't have time to pre-make the stuff :)

Lonely

Tonight is the second night in a row I have been left home alone with the kids while the hubby goes out and has fun. You know what he says to me??? Get this. He says, "You can get on facebook or blog or read or do whatever you want." Um I would rather have you home than have those options but whatever! He is supporting a friends band so I really don't mind I just wasn't prepared to be left again tonight. But since I am on here I thought I would share a few funnies from today.

The kids and I were playing monopoly jr and Monkey says, "I'm SOOOO thirsty can I have a beer?" I just looked at him. J and I don't drink EVER around the kids or really anywhere else, so it was just weird to hear him say that. I was too shocked to even ask him why he said it. I just realized that might sound really judgmental about drinking. I used to have a drink every now and again but because alcohol usually has brewers yeast in it I can't have it because it will just feed the mold already in my body. Then I'm not sure if I have mentioned this on here and I really don't feel up to looking through old posts to check so if you have heard this already please forgive me! At bedtime tonight Peanut says, "I want to sleep in your arms." Then she points to my shoulder and says, "I lay my head on your shoulder." It was just the cutest thing. Speaking of her I think she is out of this fighting the nap stage at least for the last few days she has not fought them. She really truly does need a nap. Red still does but he never gets them.

What to title?!

At nap time today I laid with Peanut and stayed in the room until I thought she was asleep. As I left the room I thought I will be able to blog about how much better today went with nap time. Even if it still took her 45 minutes to fall asleep. I came back in the room 25 minutes later to her having taken off both her socks, her sitting up reading a book and books all over the room. UGH. I was mad. We had to be leaving in 15 minutes for a doctor appointment and she wasn't going to be getting a nap in that amount of time. I let her come out of the room but she had to sit in the time out chair. I thought she would fall asleep on the way to school to get the kids but she didn't she ended up falling asleep again at 4pm. This time instead of letting her sleep I woke her up as soon as we got home and told her she is going to bed at 7pm. She said, "ok" it is now 7:45 and she is still not sleeping. And so the battle continues and I will win!!!

Other than that issue the older kids don't have school tomorrow so they are going with me to my Bible study. The two oldest are joining a homeschool group during the time of the study. GG is really excited about it but Monkey is not. He doesn't like change and I think it is funny since he is the one who wanted to be homeschooled first! We shall see how it goes tomorrow. Silly kid that is all I have to say :)

Also my sister in law and two nephews are in town. They got in last night and Isaac went to Cubbies with Red and they had a blast together. Well apparently, Red had to poop at Cubbies but he didn't want his leader to go get us and said he wanted to wipe himself. Yeah, he doesn't really know how to do that yet. I guess he did a pretty good job so I told him today that I will start working with him to master wiping his own bottom. Which means I will only have one child that needs bathroom help. That seems a bit weird to think about but exciting at the same time!

Frustration

I have really been slacking on this blog. I really don't only think about food...haha. Though you would think I do. Anyway, I am really struggling right now with my youngest offspring. I know I mentioned in a previous post how she is with eating but it doesn't stop there with her. The last two days she fights me on naps. She is 2 1/2 years old and she IS going to take a nap. I need the break from her for my sanity and her well being. Yesterday she laid in the bed for over an hour and a half sucking on her arm so that she wouldn't fall asleep. She had the biggest hickey. I practically had to lay on her to go to sleep 2 hours after I had put her to bed. Today she didn't take a nap for me. I finally had to let her up so we could go get the kids from school. Then she fell asleep in the car on the way home at 4pm. People this is NOT a good time for a toddler to be napping. But we had church tonight and I knew she would be beyond bearable if I didn't let her sleep so she got about an hour nap. Now it is 9:20pm and she is laying next to me in the bed talking. At least she is laying down though. I just really don't know what to do with her. It is driving me CRAZY. I just don't know how much more of this I can take before I loss all sanity. How do you get a 2 year old to take naps without basically strapping them to the bed and gluing their eye lids shut?! I would never do either one of those things but I feel like that is my only hope of getting her to sleep. I just have to keep telling myself that I have to be consistent and stay on top of her with this testing her boundaries and it will get better but man is she really sticking it out for the long haul. I really truly do not remember my other children being this strong willed. Well tomorrow is a new day and hopefully one of a nap for a 2 year old. Please pray for me. Oh Lord give me the patience and strength to deal with this stubborn 2 year old in all areas. Ok I feel somewhat better...

Menu Feb 1st - 7th

Dinners
Monday: Broccoli Soup with sourdough bread and homemade pumpkin pudding
Tuesday: Pepper Blackened Chicken and stir fried zucchini
Wednesday: Church meal
Thursday: Shrimp Scampi and Best Broccoli
Friday: Homemade pizza
Saturday: Beef Stroganoff (GG picked this one and is going to help make it)
Sunday: Super Bowl Party at a friends house with wings and pizza!

Lunches: leftovers, deli meat, nuts, fruits, carrots, hard boiled eggs, sunflower seeds, avocados, and spinach salads.

Breakfasts
Monday: cereal with almond milk
Tuesday: eggs
Wednesday: homemade lemon poppy seed muffins
Thursday: fruit salad
Friday: Irish oatmeal with honey and cinnamon
Saturday: pancakes with apple butter
Sunday: French toast with my homemade bread and apple butter!

I really do plan out all our meals :)