The end of April already??

Life has been busy.  :)
I am so thankful to the Lord for all of the new opportunities He provides.
The DH changed jobs back in October. The small pharmacy where he worked was decreasing in business and actually closed in January. This is where I worked one Saturday per month just to keep updated in case I should ever have to go back to work. So, now I am working PRN (2 times per month) at a local hospital. This is actually better for me because hospital pharmacy is what I prefer.

G is trying really hard to not suck her thumb. We started something new today as an incentive. I started out setting the timer for 5 minutes and when it goes off, if she has not sucked her thumb, she gets a penny. If she does suck her thumb, we reset the timer and she has to give the penny back to me. We worked this way until she got to 12 pennies. Then, we upped it 10 minutes and nickels. We are still on nickels. But at least she seems motivated by this.
I plan on completing the kindergarten curriculum with her by end of June. We signed up for a Classical Conversations group for the fall. We went to one of their open houses and I think/hope it will be a nice fit for us.

L has started soccer just like her big sis. She is in the micro league meaning they have games once a week. These "games" are basically practice. The parents are out on the field helping. She is loving it. She and G both did the youth run associated with our local marathon over the weekend. G did it last year, but this was L's first time. I ran with L, and Sean ran with G. It was a little over 1/2 mile and L ran the whole way. Sean wants to try the mile with G during our local 4th of July 5K and 1 mile run. He is going to push L in the jogger so I can run the 5K.

Sean and I are both training for a 1/2 marathon in June. We don't usually run it "together." I am not a very social runner. :) You probably only understand this if you are not a social runner too. :)

What do you prefer, running with a friend or by yourself?

My Birthday

Yesterday was my 31st birthday. L woke up with a fever at 11 pm the night before, so I knew it was going to be a long day. We had planned to do some errands late afternoon including going to Hancock Fabrics to use a gift card I was given to buy a few patterns and some denim to make myself and the girls denim skirts. Then, we were supposed to meet Sean at a super yummy Italian place for dinner. Well, thankfully, Sean's new job is flexible, so he left for work early yesterday morning and was able to come home early since I had an appointment I needed to keep yesterday at 3. I was able to still go to Hancock's and purchase a few patterns (I love those $1 pattern sales!!) and some denim. We shall see how it goes. This sewing thing is relatively new to me. I have made L some pants out of necessity (she is soooo tiny), but a sweet lady from our congregation helped get me started. We made our own pattern, so this is my first attempt at using a pattern.

Obviously, dinner was cancelled, but when I returned home, Sean and the girls were making a birthday cake for me. I have the best husband in the world. He forgot to add the eggs, but who cares! :)

My Narrow Way CD also arrived yesterday. I loved the first one and this one is also GREAT! 
 

Back to reality!

So, can you guess where we have been?
I ran the Disney World half-marathon last Saturday. It was great! I know people don't usually run Disney for time, but I did. That was not my initial plan, but the weather was perfect, no wind (very different from where I live), and not hilly. So, I finished in 2:01 which is a PR for me, but I STILL want to break 2 hours!! My 1/2 marathon in October was 2:02. So close. 
Disney World was SO FUN! The kids loved it. We were afraid they would be frightened by the characters, but they were not! We even changed one of our dinner reservations so that we could have dinner with the characters.

My oldest loved the bigger rides. She was just big enough to ride things like Thunder Mountain Railroad at Magic Kingdom and Fast Track and Soarin' at Epcot. Our youngest got super excited during the parades, "Mommy, mommy, look, look!"
On our last night, we ate at a fun restaurant called the Whispering Canyon Cafe at the Wilderness Lodge. If you need something, you just yell it across the room. For instance, "We need ketchup." Then, people from other tables bring you ketchup and you end up with like 10 bottles of ketchup on your table. They brought G a giant fork and brought me a tiny little mason jar of water with a giant straw when I asked for a little more water. It was super fun.
We just really had the greatest time. :)

I got some kind of nasty stomach virus the day we returned home that kept me down for a few days, but I am now all recovered and we started back with school today after about a 3 week long holiday/vacation break. I think we are all ready to get back into a routine.
Hope you are  having a terrific January!

Teachable Moments

One of the reasons I love being home are all of the little opportunities throughout the day to try and teach the girls something. Here is a conversation from yesterday morning...

G: Who is your favorite Disney princess?
Me: Belle, because she forgave the Beast for being unkind and realized that even though he wasn't very good looking on the outside that he had a good heart. Also, she took her dad's place as the Beast's prisoner sort of like how Jesus took our place.
Who is your favorite?
G: Ariel, because she sings pretty.

Well, at least she didn't say, "Ariel, because she completely defies her father."

:)

Hope you are all having a fun Holiday time!

Christmas week menu plan

 

I cannot believe it is Christmas week already! We are actually having our Christmas at home on Friday. Then, we will go to both sides of our family's houses on Saturday, and be back late. We decided to do Christmas on Friday so we would have all day to play and not interfere with worship services on Sunday.

Monday - Omelettes, fruit, homemade wheat bread

Tuesday - Chicken fajitas, corn

Wednesday - Homemade pizza on whole wheat crust/half sausage/half veggie, fruit

Thursday - Breakfast for dinner - egg/sausage casserole, zucchini/mushroom frittata, homemade cinnamon rolls, fruit

Friday - leftover breakast from night before (we are not big breakfast people, not even on Christmas), Southwestern bean chowder, No-knead foccacia bread, fruit, veggies and dip, cocktail weiners, mexican dip

Saturday - My parents - I am bringing dessert - Probably this
Sean's parents - I will take fresh fruit and veggies and dip

Sunday - Leftovers

Zucchini Mushroom Frittata

1 cup sliced mushrooms

2/3 cup chopped onion

2/3 cup chopped green pepper

2 cups chopped zucchini

1 minced garlic clove

5 eggs

2/3 cup milk (or light cream – I use milk)

½ t. salt

Dash pepper

1.5 cups cubed bread

4 oz cubed reduced-fat cream cheese

½ cup shredded cheddar cheese

Sauté veggies in a pan coated with NS cooking spray until crisp tender. Beat eggs, milk, salt and pepper. Add mushroom mixture, egg mixture, bread cubes, cream cheese, and shredded cheese. Stir thoroughly but lightly so that cream cheese remains intact. Pour into 9” pie plate coated with NS cooking spray and bake at 350 for 45 minutes or until set. Cool 10 minutes.