Post-Pregnancy Diet and Exercise: Day Something or Other

I know you all are just dying to know how this fitness thing is going.  So here's a little info.

Diet:  I have been having some fun trying some new recipes that aren't too healthy (not like rabbit food healthy, that is) but are a lot better than what we have been eating.  I think this health food craze of late is kind of discouraging because now, eating healthier is not enough.  Now it's as though you have to be completely sugar free or gluten free or white flour free or whatever.  So even as I write, "We're eating a lot healthier," I know I open myself up for heavy criticism because, compared to so many people I know, we're not eating that healthy.  But, comparisons aside, here are some changes we made.

Eating more chicken instead of beef (or lean ground beef)
Using olive oil instead of vegetable oil or butter
Eating whole wheat bread, pasta and a yummy homemade wheat pizza crust
Eating more fresh fruits and vegetables (cucumbers, carrots, tomatoes) and sneaking in some color and variety in our meals (red peppers, red onions, zucchini, spinach)

Wow, I know that's not really a big deal.  But our diet has been based on CHEAP for the last year and a half, so these changes are big for us, even though this is how we used to eat all the time.  We didn't even buy tater tots this week.  :-(

Here's a recipe we liked where I used homemade whole wheat pizza crust:  Barbecue Chicken Pizza
It was really good and different from our regular menu.  Use Gouda cheese only if you want your pizza to cost over $10 :)

Exercise:  Well this is the area that has been lacking.  I have taken a few days off here and there, which is good.  If I set out to do it every single day, I figure I'll do it at least four times a week, which is reasonable.  I am honestly just tired.  And sore.  But when I crouch on the floor to have a tea party with my two year old daughter, my baby in my arms, I know that I need to do this not just for me, but for them.  I feel more comfortable and sure of myself now when I am dancing with Maryn and tossing her around, and I can only imagine what Josiah will do for my fitness levels in years to come.  I'm pretty sure he's going to weigh 30 pounds before Maryn does and he is a mover and a shaker (well, mostly a KICKER, a flailer, and a wailer).

So yes, I am honestly just tired.  And sore.  And old.  Everything on me hurts sometimes and the next day other things hurt worse than others, and I get heartburn after eating pepperoni, and my joints are hurting, and my head hurts, and my eyes are blurry and my hair is going gray.  All the more reason to exercise.  I keep wanting to call my younger friends and plead with them to have children as soon as possible.  It makes so much more sense...but I resist.  I resist. 

I'm going to go take a nap. 

Movie time with Maryn

While watching Anastasia:

When Dimitri and Anastasia dance:  "Aw, that her daddy!"
When Rasputin is chasing after Anastasia:  "Aw, that NOT her daddy!"
When Pooka, the dog, is in a scene:  "Aw, she found her doggy!"
When Pooka is not in a scene:  "Aw, where her doggy?  Her doggy all gone!  He is LOST!"

While watching Rudolph:

When Rudolph and Clarice are walking together:  "Aw, that her daddy!"
When Clarice and Rudolph's mom go looking for him:  "Aw, she is LOST!  She lost her mommy!"
When Rudolph's dad or any other male reindeer is in a scene:  "Aw, that her daddy!"

While watching Sleeping Beauty:

When the princess and the prince dance:  "Aw, that her daddy!"

Bread Machine Discoveries

I liked the pitas so much and found that putting them in the oven and all that wasn't so hard as long as the bread machine did the kneading for me.  What mother with young children can knead dough for ten minutes straight?  Or be certain not to let the bread rise for too long?  So I found on the Happy Housewife blog that she makes most of her bread this way--just makes the dough in the machine and then cooks the bread in the oven.  Genius!  I was thinking that would help the bread cook a little more evenly, not get so crusty, and not have such an odd shape.  I also tried using some gluten in the dough.  And--oh my word--the results were fantastic!  This bread is seriously SO good.  And I did it!  I did it!  I did it!

This blog post has a lot of information, almost all you need to know about making bread and some really great explanations for everything.  Homemade Wheat Bread

How do I do what I do?  Josiah usually takes a nap in the mornings, and Maryn loves to play in the sink.  So while she is playing in the sink, I just throw all the ingredients into the breadmaker.  It does its thing for an hour and a half, then I put the dough into a greased bread pan, pop it in the oven for 30 minutes (I covered it with a foil tent after 20 minutes to keep the crust from getting too brown and crusty), pop it out, let it cool on a rack, and then take it out of the pan after a while, and sliced it when it was all cooled.  Then I ate three pieces.  :)

Joy to My Heart

 

Have a baby?  Get this VTech Move and Crawl ball.  It's so much fun!

Spiderman!

 Josiah can hold a bottle all by himself.  Sort of.

Well, Christmas is over.  Maryn has been busy dancing to her silly music and playing Blokus (a game we've had for a few years).  She's also been watching Anastasia or Sleeping Beauty almost every day.  It's winter and we're pretty much stuck inside, so that's fine by me.  We loaned out all our Christmas movies.  Which was kind of a dumb thing to do, but oh well.  We can watch Frosty in March, right?

Maryn is also potty trained now.  What!?  I know.  It was sudden.  We don't trust her yet during naps, and certainly not during the night.  We haven't tried in public yet either.  I know, we are chicken.  I think we're still in shock.

We had such a precious moment tonight at bed time.  Maryn chose the three longest books possible for her bed time routine (Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You?; If You Give a Pig a Pancake; One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish) and since I couldn't lay next to her because I had Josiah with me, I laid him beside her instead.  I read the books teacher style, with the books facing them (thank goodness I know the books by heart, lucky me!) and Josiah and Maryn both just laughed and laughed.  They kept looking at each other and giggling and Maryn kept kissing his head.  Josiah was just cracking up with uncontrollable laughter.  I hope I remember that moment forever.  It was one of the sweetest things I've ever experienced, and I hope it is the first of many moments of watching them love each other. 

Josiah has even started giving me hugs and kisses.  He "flirts" with me across the room.  Maryn is entering this odd phase where she is 25% baby, 50% little girl, 25% teenager.  It is very bittersweet for me.  Sometimes far more sweet than bitter, and um, sometimes far more bitter than sweet.  It is truly a blessing to have a baby right now for reasons hard to explain.  Josiah makes me appreciate even the difficult moments with both of them.  I know now, from experience, that each moment is short, each week goes quickly, and with each month that passes I forget what it was like to hold my babies when they were born.  When they were two months old.  Maryn's hands will soon lose their dimples.  Her legs are growing longer and more slender.  Josiah clings to me for now, but not forever. 

I might not be a miracle mommy, but being a mommy sure is a miracle. 

Maryn's Favorites

I asked Maryn what some of her favorites are today, and this is what she said.

Name:  Maryn
Age:  2 years, 3 months
Favorites
Color: Pink
Beverage:  Lemonade
Snack:  Marshmallows
Dinner:  Tuna-Macaroni and Cheese Casserole
Breakfast:  Oatmeal or Grits
Candy:  Kisses
Thing to do:  tea parties
Person:  Sara and Jordan
Book:  If You Give a Pig a Pancake, Chicka Chicka Boom Boom
Toy:  princess castle (her tent)
Movie:  Sleeping Beauty
TV Show:  Dinosaur Train, Barney

Making cornbread-in a JIFFY!

I found this idea on The Happy Housewife blog, which is the same place I found the whole wheat bread machine pitas recipe.  Since the pitas were seriously amazing and so easy (a huge hit with Maryn, who does not usually like bread all that much), I am guessing this whole wheat cornbread recipe will be pretty good, too.  I'm a little skeptical since I love Jiffy cornbread so much, but The Happy Housewife insists this is yummy and sweet.

Now here's an idea.  If you mix all the dry ingredients in little plastic baggies, and write the directions on each bag (or type them out once and post them on the insides of your kitchen cabinets so they are easily accessible), making sure you write to add the milk, egg, and oil, and you'll have cornbread in a Jiffy, but healthier than Jiffy cornbread mix.  I'm not sure if this recipe will save you any money though.  Jiffy cornbread mix is so dirt cheap.  But I know a lot of you like to make things whole wheat, so here you go.  Try it!  And please try the pitas too.  Let me know if it works out for you.  The pitas don't have to be made in a bread machine, either.  They can be kneaded by hand or in a mixer the old fashioned way.

Sweet Whole Wheat Cornbread

• 1 cup sifted whole wheat flour
• 1 cup yellow cornmeal
• 2/3 cup white sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 Tablespoon baking powder
• 1 egg
• 1 cup milk
• 1/3 cup canola oil

Mix together whole wheat flour, cornmeal, sugar, salt and baking powder. Add egg, milk, and oil. Mix together until the dry ingredients are “wet.” Scoop into muffin greased cups or pour into greased loaf pan. Bake at 350 degrees. Muffins bake for 20 minutes, bread bakes for about 45 minutes. Cornbread is done when the top is golden yellow.

Thanks, Mom!

We were talking about prom and our high school days....

Amanda:  I think prom queens usually get elected because they're well liked.

John:  Well, people probably won't like Maryn that much, soo...

Amanda:  I went to Dalton's prom, 2 Orrville proms, Smithville's prom, Wooster's homecoming....

John:  I only went to two proms, both at my own school.  I wasn't quite the play--I mean, um...I wasn't like you were.  We went to this guy's house who lived in like a huge mansion--

Amanda:  --And everyone had sex in separate rooms?

John:  No!

Amanda:  Why weren't they having sex?

John:  We went swimming and played pool and watched movies.

Amanda:  We had an after prom at a rec center, like an indoor water park, and it was a lot of fun.  That's what kept everyone from having sex, I think.  But I didn't swim because I didn't want to mess up my hair.

John:  (Laughing)  I would have guessed that you'd at least get in the pool....so you could wear your bikini.

Amanda:  Oh my gosh, what kind of person do you think I was?

John:  Based on stories your mom tells me...

Anticipation (Christmas Eve)

Here's Maryn just before bed on Christmas Eve.

Maryn and Josiah opened gifts from the family yesterday (Christmas Eve).

Josiah is at such a sweet, fun, smiley age.

We aren't sure if he is giving everything kisses or just trying to suck on everyone's faces.  We'll say it's kisses!

Here we are on our way to "Chicken King."  John told me they had the best fried chicken he's ever had, and since he knows fried chicken is one of my favorites, he took us there for Christmas Eve dinner.  It was amazing!  Then we drove around Louisville and looked at Christmas lights.  Just as we got home, it started snowing.

 When we got home, we read Luke 2, the story of Jesus' birth, and did a little re-enacting with the Nativity.  Then we got a treat for Santa (frosted cookies and really, really, chocolatey hot chocolate) and Comet, wrote Santa a short letter, and got ready for bed.  And took this adorable little picture:

Here's the tree after Santa came.  This is what Maryn saw this morning, first thing.

quarterback cutie

Josiah is 20 weeks old today.  He seems to be thinning out a bit and is getting longer.  As Maryn says, he is our "big little guy," and he "keeps getting bigger and bigger!"

Potty Talk

"Mommy and Daddy help me...I go potty and I get candy.  It's EXCITING!"

-Maryn

Post-Pregnancy Diet and Exercise: Day Four

I made a recipe similar to this Pasta Pizza for lunch today.  It was pretty good, very kid friendly and I loved it, too.  Just make it healthier by taking out the beef, adding your favorite veggies, using whole wheat pasta and turkey pepperoni.  And less, low fat cheese.  It was yummy.  Maryn ate all the cheese, then all the pepperoni, then all the mushrooms, then most of the pasta and veggies (our plan was to use a green pepper, zucchini and onion). 

Exercise:  I ran for ten minutes and stretched for ten minutes.  I had to hang up some signs around our neighborhood, so I just ran while I did it.  I couldn't wait to get out there and run, but after five minutes it was just so cold and hard to breathe.  But I got the job done!  We have started to do the P90X program, starting with their day one.  We had just been doing whatever we felt like on the P90X DVDs.  Since today was chest and back, and I already did that the other day, I decided to run instead.  We also started filling in the charts. 

How do I feel?  Well, we worked out our legs yesterday, so naturally my butt is killing me.  My butt is always killing me, no matter what kind of workout I do.  Ab workouts = sore buttocks.  Arms and chest workouts = sore buttocks.  Obviously, this should tell me something.  ;-)

My hips are wicked sore as well.  But I feel really good.  My body feels sore and heavy, somehow, and though I'm a little more tired, I also feel more energetic.  Isn't that weird?  I already feel happier.  And "happy people don't kill their husbands.  They just don't."  -Cher, from Legally Blonde

Lazy

The sluggard says, “There is a lion outside!
I shall be killed in the streets!”
Proverbs 22:13

This proverb shows how far a sluggard will go to avoid work. But what will actually devour him is not the imaginary lion of his excuses but the reality of poverty.

(From the ESV Bible Study Notes)

Post-Pregnancy Diet and Exercise: Day Three

Exercise:  With both children asleep at 7:30, John and I immediately got busy.  Moving furniture to do our P90X back and legs workout, that is.  Ha!  So after everything was moved and we almost had enough room to workout side by side, staggered slightly, in our teeny living room, I resisted the urge to vacuum the floor (there was a lot of stuff under that ottoman), put on my sexiest workout outfit, grabbed a giant glass of water, a Reese's cup and a cookie and got to work, hubby beside me.  I completed about 20 minutes of the workout, with a few breaks, and John did 30 minutes.  Both of us will most likely be walking like cowboys tomorrow.  If you see me sporting my pj pants (read this it's funny), just know it's not because I'm lazy.  It's because I could not lift my knee high enough to get into them. 

P90X, although it is too hard for me to do everything they do in the video, is perfect for me and my workout personality.  Plus I can do it with my husband and he sees it as a challenge, too.  I'm finding it very easy to adapt and just do what I can do.  Plus, with John beside me, he can always offer easier alternatives that work the same muscles.


Diet:  Once Christmas is over, I think self-control will be a little easier.  I just made a meal plan for next week and realized, the area I struggle the most is with LUNCH.  For one thing, my sweet daughter has her father's metabolism and eats all day.  Snack after snack after snack.  If I fix anything for myself, I have to share.  I also shove things down my throat fast--so fast--so I can get back to nursing, soothing, playing, or...run to the potty as my two year old shouts, MOMMY I POOPED! before she does something gross...

So fixing myself a cute little pita sandwich (Sans cheese!  Say it ain't so!) is just sort of out of the question.  I eat green beans from a can, I eat cold hot dogs, and cottage cheese right from the container.  I shove tater tots into my mouth so quickly, before Maryn can take them and before someone cries, that I'm nauseous before I realize I'm even eating.  Yes.  Don't come to our house for dinner.  Just don't.

I know these habits are bad, and they are getting better.  Josiah is getting easier.  Maryn....is.....um.  Well, she keeps me moving, which burns calories, right?

The positive thing is, I am not a snacker.  I do nibble...I have to go to the kitchen at least every hour as Maryn begs for more raisins, more cereal, more candy.  I never realized how much I nibble an  d snatch.  A cookie here, a candy there.  Why these things are even in our house is unclear to me.  Oh yeah, I live with Mr. and Miss Metabolosaurus.  Healthy snacks, healthy snacks, they just aren't cheap.  We do raisins, fruit, granola, low sugar cereals, cheese, chips and salsa....what else can we do?

You're going to say hummus, aren't you?  Hmmph.

Speaking of hummus and pitas, I do intend to try these bread machine wheat pitas. 

I think they'd be yummy baked with butter, cinnamon and sugar.  ;-)

My Wake Up Call

You all know that I was sick (and I still am a little sick).  Well the other day, I was blowing my nose for the 60th time, and I thought, "Sheesh, this is like taking care of a whole other person!"

And then I realized, I AM a whole other person.  I need to take better care of myself. 

I have also been watching this show, Ruby.  It's a reality show about a woman who weighed something like 475 pounds.  So far she has lost 90 lbs.  The other day, she walked a mile.  Imagine...that's like me walking a mile while carrying around nearly 300 lbs.  If Ruby can do that, I can workout 15 minutes per day. 

She has been put on a seriously strict diet with pre-made meals.  But she has her teenage nephew living with her, and he wanted to go through the drive-thru at Bojangles, her favorite fast food restaurant.  She struggled with wanting to get her favorite sandwich, but she resisted.  I know from seeing what she is allowed to eat that she has to be starving, but she resisted.  If Ruby can do that, I can certainly resist eating 16 cookies in one day. 

I know Ruby would love to be my size, and she probably has no idea that she could inspire someone like me to be a little more self-controlled.  But she does! 

raising my children to be adults (and regretting it sometimes:)

 Here's Maryn, above, working so hard on her patterning bears that Aunt Cathy sent. 

Here's Josiah, below, during her school time:

 We frosted cookies last night!  Maryn ate SO MUCH SUGAR!  And look, a cookie with RED icing.  Oyyyye.  But she did great.

The children were amazing today.  Josiah took a four hour morning nap.  He has been falling asleep like a champ, all by himself.  He shows me he's tired by rubbing his eyes with his fists.  It's so cute I could pass out from the adorableness of it.  And he was just so giggly and funny today.  I squeeze him and squeeze him and tickle him and tickle him in all his oooooeey cutie pie goodness!  I am just relishing it while I can! 

As for Maryn...WOW.  The schedule idea, although it was altered here and there a lot, and I sometimes lied to her about what we had done and had not done, worked wonders!  It helped me stay on task and it helped Maryn too, but boy were we BUSY. 

I did so much today.  I still did all my chores I needed to do (Monday is clean the kitchen day), took a shower, did my hair AND makeup, read my Bible, wrote blogs, worked out, and I even read a few pages of a MAGAZINE.  A magazine!  Can you imagine!?  What are magazines, anyway? 

The house was clean, we had some friends over, I played tons and tons with Maryn, we played hide and seek as a family (hilarious, by the way), and here I am writing a blog again.  Because I'm a loser.  And I have to have somewhere to tell someone everything I accomplished so that I feel, um, accomplished.

Because that is the thing about SAHMotherhood...

My reward is in Heaven.

Now I am going to go cry at the bedside of my sleeping ittle girl, who peed AND pooped in the potty almost ALL day today. 

Post-Pregnancy Diet and Exercise: Day 2

Diet:  I did a little better today.  Aside from the obscene amount of Christmas goodies (and very, very buttery garlic bread...white garlic bread) that I ate, I did manage to fit in at least one serving of green veggies (frozen green beans that may or may not have been covered with butter and oil, and paired with potatoes...and salt...), a couple servings of fruit and some semi-healthy grains and yogurt.  I even saved tater tots from lunch for John instead of eating all the rest, like I usually do.  This is a major feat, as tater tots are one of my most very favorite, favorite things. 

My MAIN goal right now is to make it from getting up in the morning until lunch without eating junk.  So I had my coffee, lots and lots of water, an orange, yogurt (Organic!  Low sugar!) and granola.  I resisted the brownies and cookies on the counter clear up until the afternoon. 

Exercise:  I did about 20 minutes of an arm and back workout, and I am feeling great.  I love exercising, believe it or not.  I love the tightness I feel and that I am a wee bit sore.  I love that it hurts to bring my leg up enough to put on pants.  John was here for my lovely attempt at push ups.  Arthritis in my joints keeps me from doing all that my muscles can do--I could only do about 6 push ups before my wrists couldn't take it anymore. 

Good news:  I feel great.  I feel better looking.  I had more energy today (probably mostly mental at this point), and I lost a whole pound since two days ago.  I know!  It's a Christmas miracle. 

INTENSE girly

It's ten after 9 in the morning and we have already had such an intense day!  I am trying to put Maryn on a bit of a schedule that she helps me make each day.  I just gotta keep this girl busy, and it helps to let her know what is next and when.  So far so good.  She has been playing Blokus for 20 minutes.  I played with her for the first 15 minutes.  What a great game!

She is a little more mathematical/spatial than me.  Okay, a lot more.  I am going to try to post pictures of some of the school stuff we did today for my aunt Cathy to read about.  In the meantime, Cathy, we love the uppercase/lowercase matching game and the Care Bear size game.  Maryn is also crazy for those little patterning bears.  She has never been into the pattern strips much, but there's something about those bears she really loves.  And of course the Gummi Bears are a huge hit.  I like the uppercase/lowercase and the size games because they are a bit more of a challenge now than the shapes and colors ones.  So I think we'd like more of those!  Especially if we could have some size games where there's a small, medium, and large.  Tricky, tricky.  And she loves all matching types of things, but I haven't gotten her to do the Memory bear game you sent us yet.  Right now she's more into the matching file folder games. 

Cathy, you should put this stuff on a blog somewhere so my home schooling mom friends can see!  Or sell packets like the one you sent me!

Post-Pregnancy Diet and Exercise: Day One

Diet:  Well, the diet part of this regime is on standby.  Today I had coffee for breakfast, Velveeta Mac and Cheese, a mandarin orange, and cottage cheese for lunch, and frozen pizza for dinner.  The only vegetables I ate were those that were on the pizza.  I also had a brownie and a Christmas cookie.  And a whole lot of brownie batter. 

Exercise:  It has begun.  I suck.  I am so out of shape.  I did about fifteen minutes of an ab workout.  I did about half of each exercise, and some exercises I couldn't do a single one.  My back is whack.  And after the workout, my legs were so wobbly I could hardly walk.  My LEGS.  It was an ab workout, for Pete's sake.  Come to think of it, my arms are pretty freakin' sore, too.

So, my goal is to workout fifteen minutes per day.  Just fifteen minutes, minimum.  If I could just do that, maybe I'll squeeze in more somehow.  If it's at 5 am, 4 pm, or 10 pm, whatever.  I gotta fit it in.

My diet goal is to convince my dear, sweet and loving husband to eat healthier and possibly give us some more freedom in the grocery budget.  And start eating stir-fry again.  For some reason he is on stir-fry strike.

I used to run!  I used to be able to complete a mile in under six minutes, easily.  I could run 3 miles in 22 minutes.  And I could complete a half mile in two minutes and thirty seconds.  But let's face it, that was ten years and two kids ago.  My husband is a personal trainer, with a degree in exercise science.  He runs marathons!  How did I let myself get to this point?  I can't do one full sit up.

I once did the most sit ups in one minute than anyone in my class.  It was like, 60 sit ups in a minute.  I am not joking.  And now I can't do one?  One?  What the helicopter!  That is pathetic.

One reason is because, after Maryn was born, I thought being skinny was enough.  I was skinny.  And right now, I'm certainly not FAT.  But you know what, being skinny is, by itself, not healthy.  Being fit is what is my goal here.  I know I can be thin.  I know very well how to drop ten pounds and weigh exactly what I did in high school.  I am fully confident in that.  I need to get my butt in gear (I would totally use the A-- word here if I didn't think I'd get in trouble :) and get myself in shape.

Bring it!  

Choices

I have been slowly making my way through the book, "Choices" by Mary Farrar.  I do recommend it for women.  It will make you think.  Even if you don't agree with everything in it, it will make you think.  The following paragraphs made me think and feel so convicted about my job as a mother.  It made me think a little more about the benefits of home schooling, my own education, my job as a teacher, and the children and teenagers I've known who have been home schooled, public schooled, and private schooled.  After reading these passages and looking up the Scriptures, I feel so certain that homeschooling is right for our family. 

Tip:  When faced with so many little Scriptures to look up, I use esvonline.org.  It makes it so easy to look up a bunch of passages in a row. 


"The big deal in American education today is "Outcome-Based Education," a philosophy which seeks to reach to the whole child, teaching values, perspectives, ways of thinking, and a world-view.

But this is what you and I are to be doing for our children!  God has commanded us to parent the whole child.  We are not to hand our children over to society to do this for us.  "Values clarification" is the job of the parent.  The development of thinking skills, the process of learning to make good decisions, and the establishing of a worldview are supposed to be learned at home.  We are to teach, train, and inculcate values.  And such a job simply cannot happen in a few moments of "quality time."  Such a job requires tremendous focus, thought, energy, sacrifice, and time--lots and lots of time.

God has issued countless commandments--not suggestions, commandments--to parents.  Commandments which take us far beyond the mentality of feeding, clothing, and educating a child.  They involve the whole person--emotionally, physically, mentally, and spiritually.  When we see God's idea of parenting, we see that biblical parenting is a VIP of the first order.  It is, put simply, the shaping of a human being. 

Not only has God given us clear commandments, but He has asked us to implement them consistently, habitually, day and night.  God's desire is that biblical parenting become a way of life in our homes.  And when such biblical parenting is habitually practiced, God has promised great blessing and success. 

What are some of these habits He has asked us to implement?

• Availability (Deut. 6:6-7)
• Involvement-interacting, thinking together, processing life together (Deut. 6:6-7, Eph. 6:4)
• Teaching--teaching to the Scriptures, teaching a biblical worldview (Ps. 78:5-6, Deut. 4:10, Eph. 6:4)
• Training-helping a child develop skills and discover his own strengths (Prov. 22:6)
• Discipline--teaching the fear of the Lord, drawing the line consistently, firmly and lovingly (Eph. 6:4, Heb. 12:5-11, Pr. 13:24, 19:18, 22:15, 23:13-14, 29:15-17)
• Nurture-providing an environment of constant verbal support, freedom to fail, acceptance, affection, unconditional love (Eph. 6:4, Titus 2:4, 2 Tim. 1:7, Eph. 4:29-32; 5:1-2, Gal. 5:22, 1 Pet. 3:8-9
• Modeling with integrity; living what you say, being a model from which a child can learn by "catching" the essence of godly living (Deut. 4:9, 15, 23; Pr. 10:9; Ps. 37:18, 37)

Do you feel overwhelmed?  Join the club.  It is an awesome task, a high but worthy calling.  A nation that abandons these habits, says God, will go down.  This is where it all happens.  Children desperately need to be taught, trained, disciplined, and nurtured consistently by their parents.  And we simply cannot do this if we are not present, involved, and available.


(Here she describes the struggles of single parents, etc. and that God understands your struggle)

...But no matter what our situation, God honors those who pursue the path of biblical parenting.  He blesses those who sacrifice in order to make it happen.  He takes care of those who are willing to make tough choices on behalf of their children." 

Whining :)

It's Saturday and I am NOT sick any more!  Just kidding.  I am still sick.  I was actually just sitting here with a bag of frozen blueberries (we ran out of peas) across my nose and cheekbones because my sinuses are so swollen.  But go figure, the blueberries melted and I dripped blueberry juice all over myself and the couch.  Fortunately, thanks to tips from Donna, I am feeling so much better.  But I've been up since 5 am nursing, then got a steamy shower, then netty pot, then more nursing, lots of nose-blowing, some laundry sorting, and I just wrote Maryn and Josiah's Christmas letters.  I wrote them each a little note and put it inside their ornament boxes so that next year, we can remember what each was up to the year before.  Josiah's goes kind of like this:  "I love, love, love to kiss your sweet, chubby, delicious cheeks!"  I wonder what he'll think reading that when he's 17.  Maryn's goes kind of like this:  "You are driving me crazy!"  LOL not really, but I might have mentioned it. 

Thanks for all your nice comments on my pictures of our house and Maryn's painting.  I am not that critical of the painting, actually.  I personally love it.  I just happen to know a few professional artists that may or may not read this blog, and I feel like I have to say, for their sake, that yes I do realize those mistakes are there.  I am not oblivious.  And I am not a professional, either.

John's dad is here this weekend, and we are having a great time playing.  Actually, Maryn is having a great time playing ("Come to my room Grandpa!  We build Gayicho (Jericho)!") and I am having a great time NOT playing.  We went to Mark's Feed Store last night, which was fantastic.  Any meal not made by me or that has been previously frozen is fantastic these days!

Speaking of which, I love that we had the Soup Swap in December, when things are busy but family time is important.  What a great idea.  Christmas for us is pretty low-key, but for some reason I always tend to be sick somewhere between Thanksgiving and Christmas.  And it seems like it's always this same illness--it starts with a sore throat, becomes a terrible cold, and turns into a sinus infection.  Why hasn't anyone come up with a good way to clear the sinuses?  I think the Netty Pot doesn't help me very much because my sinuses tend to be the worst behind my cheekbones and eyes.  And really I don't think there's much in there; they are just so swollen.  I feel like my face is puffed up like a balloon and it is so tender to the touch.  I feel like someone beat up my face.  Like someone pounded it with a tire iron.  Does anyone ever feel like this?  Is this normal?

Okay, enough.  At least all this whining may be helpful to me next year when I have the same symptoms.