If you give a mom a muffin... and Advocare days 5 and 6

I'm pretty sure my life goes a lot like those books "If you give a pig a pancake, or if you give a mouse a muffin or whatever.  If you give a mom a muffin.... I feel like all of my days go like that.  I like to start out my day with a cup of coffee and prayer.. sometimes I succeed, sometimes I don't.  My days always go better if I can start off in silence.  Silence, in my life, is rare indeed.  I'm trying to incorporate my daily Bible reading again, since I haven't been as good at that in the last few weeks.  Currently, I'm reading through Proverbs (it's our book for Lads to Leaders next Spring).  Did you know there are 31 chapters in Proverbs?  So, I'm reading one chapter a day and I plan to read it every day for 12 months.  So, by the time we go to L2L next year, I will have read Proverbs 12 times!  I'm also reading through the New Testament.  I hope to go through it as many times as I can between now and next year.  It's a great start to my day and helps me remember where my focus is.... Matthew 6:33 "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness."  Will you read Proverbs with me in May?  Start in chapter 1 on May 1.  I think it will be fun! Whoa... back to my muffin... see what I mean?  After my quiet time with coffee, my kids are normally crawling all over me.  I'm urging them not to spill my coffee or tear the pages in my Bible by sitting on it.  And then we're off.  It's time to make beds and start laundry.  It's time to start breakfast and get dressed.  It's time for "mama" "mama" "mama."  After I fill the first round of requests for what they want to eat, they're asking for a drink and when then get a drink, they ask for yogurt, and when they get yogurt, they will need a spoon.  When I get them a spoon, I'll realize I need to unload the dishwasher.  After I unload the dishwasher, I'll need to fill it up again.  Once I put the dirty dishes in the dishwasher, I'll need to clean the sink and after I clean the sink, I'll take the rag to the laundry room.  In the laundry room, there will be a load of clothes dumped in the floor that need to be sorted.  Once I sort them, I'll need to start a load.  After I've started a load of clothes, I'll need to fold what's in the dryer and when I go to put the towels away, I'll see that Julianne's got toothpaste all over the floor in her bathroom.  When I clean up the toothpaste I'll see that there's bathtub paint dried on the side of the tub. I'll stop there, but you see what I mean... one quick task leads to another and another and another and before long, it's the end of the day and it doesn't look like anything's been done.  I know I'll look back on these days and laugh (at least I hope I will) and I'll laugh when my daughters tell me about their adventures as a major character in "If you give a pig a pancake."
On to Advocare day 5 and 6
 I just realized when I posted yesterday I only posted about day 4 (which was actually day before yesterday) and I intended to post last night about day 5 and... you know the drill.  Anyway!  We pretty much had a lazy day at home and I was so thankful to be feeling better!  Whatever I had only lasted a day and I was back to normal... whatever that means.  Day 5 was great.  I have no idea what I ate for breakfast (I think it was fruit, but don't quote that).  I drank a ton of water and I had a salad for lunch with a handful of almonds.  For dinner we went to O'Charley's with a coupon and I had the Brushcetta Chicken (grilled chicken with tomatoes and bruschetta on top) served with broccoli.  It was listed at 550 calories, but I could only finish half.  I seriously wasn't even hungry for the other half.  That's weird.  I usually finish my meal and everyone else's.  I love to eat.  I weighed last night and guess what!?  I've lost 3.5 pounds! Woot woot!!!!
Today is day 6 and it's going well so far.  I had oatmeal for breakfast (I know I'm not supposed to have sugar, but I cheated... a little... and if oatmeal's a cheat, then boo diets).  I've had a ton of water again, just for the record, I'm drinking about 92 ounces of water a day (with one of them being mixed with Spark).  After church, I wasn't really even hungry, so I ate some cantaloup and a bit of Juli's pb&j... another thing not on the plan, but it was only a bite.  :)
Tonight I plan to eat the rest of my grilled chicken from O'Charley's.
I do have a confession.  I am eating Honey Nut Cheerios.  Just a handful without milk. It's my guilty pleasure and the box says whole grain *is one of the ingredients* ha!!  Please don't tell on me. ;)

Home again, home again...

We are home!!! I am so very thankful to be back with my girls. Sleeping in my own bed... cleaning up sticky messes... that last part wasn't true.

We got home yesterday morning, and by the time we got our bags and drove home, it was 9:00. We let all of our children choose if they wanted to go to school or stay home to greet mom and dad. Guess what they picked! They all went to school. Every. Single. One. Nobody missed us enough to stay home and see us when we arrived. Adelaide did ask for us to check her out early, but that was as much as we got.

We ate lunch with Mimi and Pops (they deserved a quiet meal out!) and went a few minutes (or 30) early to pick up the little girls... can you tell we missed them!? Lucy's class was on the playground, so we went to Julianne's room first. We watched her for a minute through the one way window. She was happily playing with play-doh. I poked my head around the corner and she looked up. Her eyes caught mine... I thought for sure she would come running at me with open arms. I couldn't wait to see the excitement in her eyes and the thrill in her voice as she cried, "Mommy!!" And.... then she went back to playing with her play-doh. She couldn't have cared less that I was there. She did, eventually, come to me. And she acted excited. Probably more out of pity for me than true excitement. But I'll take it. By this time, Lucy was coming in. We went to her and her eyes did light up. She came running, REALLY fast... and went right past me. Into her daddy's arms. I guess that's okay. She is a daddy's girl. Big time. But it would have been nice to get a hug on the way... or a fist bump or something. :) Oh well... Adelaide didn't disappoint. We left Hunter Street to pick her up early and when they paged her to come to the office for checkout, she came running!! She gave us both a hug and I carried her long legged self all the way to the car. I really missed them.

Now it's time to get back to reality... for a few days. We leave Thursday for Nashville... all of us. It's time for Lads to Leaders convention again. Every year, on Easter weekend, our church, along with thousands of other Church of Christ-ians, travel to Nashville, Atlanta, Memphis and other locations to compete in lots of different categories. These are all ways to teach the children (and teens) about the Bible and leading and serving in the Lord's church. They are taught song leading, Scripture reading, Scripture memorization, speech (essentially how to prepare a sermon/lesson) and other events. They learn so much in preparation for competition (and so do the adults that are helping them) and I think it's a great opportunity for them.

This year Adelaide is leading a song (Blue skies and rainbows) and participating in Oral Bible Reading (John 3:16, I think). Lucy and Julianne are going for the first time, too. Well, Lucy has been when she was a nursling, but she doesn't remember it. Lucy is participating in Good Samaritan, where she performs good deeds throughout the year and is rewarded at convention. These good deeds can include, visiting a nursing home, making and sending a card to someone, taking food to the sick, etc. I hope they always enjoy doing things for others and that Lads to Leaders is as special to them as it is to us. I think it's an amazing program. :)

Otherwise, the next couple of weeks are jam-packed with birthday parties and events. Girl scout meetings... dentist appointments. I'm working Kidsmarket this year with Scentsy and I couldn't be more excited about it!!!! I'll be doing that Monday afternoon, all day Tuesday and Sunday April 14. I'm a working girl. :)

Thanks, everyone for reading. I'm shocked at how many people are commenting to me that they've read... I feel special!!! I hope everyone has a great weekend.