Journey to Excellence

It's time for Tuesday Coffee Chat with Time Out for Mom . (The graphic is not working today for some reason.) Today's question actually made me stop and ponder ... Rebel without a cause ... Are you a rebel or a by-the-book kinda person? On the surface I do not look like a rebel. In fact, I appear to be a little lame. But after really thinking about this question over several cups of coffee for a couple of days, I realize that I am really a rebel in my heart. Or as I like to describe myself, a non-conformist. My typical reaction to things is that if everyone else is doing it, even if it's "good", I am not going to do it. I take this approach with television shows (Oprah ... no thanks), books (you will not catch me reading Harry Potter , Twilight or 50 Shades or even a popular new Christian book or author), blogs (once bloggers get popular and worshipped by the masses I delete them from my feed). I find that if I start to follow a fad then my heart is in ...

My last Weekly Wrap-up has been done for over a week waiting for me to take a few minutes to put some photo collages together. I've just been so busy during the day and so tired at night! So this wrap-up will contain happenings from the past two weeks. We had an amazing Spring Break two weeks ago! We spent Monday through Wednesday at home just sleeping in, playing, relaxing, and enjoying ourselves. We had mostly springlike temps and even some sunshine. Kyndal and I started doing the 21 Day Fix on Monday so we were so sore for the majority of the week that little else got done. But it was fantastic to have nowhere to go and nothing to do! On Thursday the little kids and I went to Oklahoma to spend the weekend with Rick. We arrived just in time for pizza on Thursday night and then came back to his house to watch a movie and get to bed at a decent hour. We had scheduled a field trip with our best friends on Friday and had an early start. Friday morning we drove to our friend...

1. It seems that over the past couple of weeks lots has been happening in the career department in our family ... a lot of potential! This week the high school received a phone call from a businessman in a nearby town who is looking for an apprentice/assistant of sorts to do multiple tasks for his businesses, including a good deal of computer graphics and online business sales. He was looking for potential graphic design candidates to interview. The computer teacher at the school chose only Dawson and he called the man for an interview. I took him to the interview yesterday and it went really well. It is one of those supernatural situations that you just know is God and Dawson is super excited at the prospect of the opportunity. It's a wait and see right now. But, if it works out, it may mean some extremely exciting things for Dawson's future. He would not have received this opportunity without being the smart and good kid that he is. He deserves this! UPDATE:  Dawson re...

This coming weekend is Palm Sunday, which marks the beginning of Holy Week. Do you celebrate Easter in your home? What was your favorite Easter tradition as a child? We have celebrated Easter in our home in a myriad of ways over the years. We celebrate both the resurrection of our Savior Jesus and the fun of the Easter Bunny. In the past we have done activities such as making resurrection cookies, resurrection hills, and hunted resurrection eggs. We always color eggs the night before Easter. We don't do many other activities now that the kids are older. On Easter Sunday we go to Sunday School to celebrate with the other 4-6th grade kids I teach. Before we leave for church the kids get to dig through their Easter baskets. After church they hunt Easter eggs. Then we have lunch with my family. Last year it was at my parents'. This year we haven't even discussed it yet. If we don't all get together then I will make a nice dinner for my family here at home.  My favori...

The official Tuesday Coffee Chat is back this week. Today's question is ... 17 again! If you could be any age again, for one week, what age would you be? I would be 23 1/2. That is how old I was when I became a mom for the first time. I was so young and had so much on my plate and so many distractions ... in my third year of law school, studying for the Bar exam, building a house, making big decisions I had no business making at that time in my life, trying to obtain it all.  But I already had it all, in the tiny little package that was Kyndal. It took many, many years later, and a few more kids, for me to realize that being a mom was all I ever wanted.  I wish in that one week I would have held my baby close and just quit everything else. I wish I would have had wisdom and courage to quit law school, even though I had almost completed it. I wish I would have stopped construction on our house because we couldn't afford it. I wish I would have forced my hu...

Share a favorite song, book, or movie title containing the word 'green'. My friend and I used to sing the theme song to Green Acres all the time. I love that song! (Singing it in my head right now.) Ralph Waldo Emerson is quoted as saying, "Shallow men believe in luck. Strong men believe in cause and effect." Would you agree? Are you a believer in luck? Deep down I do not believe in luck. I believe God has a plan for each of us and when we are walking on that path it is revealed to us as we go. When our desires are in line with God's plan then we have hopes and dreams that line up with it. So when something good happens, just at the "right" moment, we know that it's God, not luck. Cause and effect definitely come into play here. God isn't going to make things happen for us if we make our own choices away from his plan. But at the same time, if we are wise enough to obey God each step of the way, our obedient actions will give us t...

There is no Tuesday Coffee Chat this week. The host Leslie's father had a couple of strokes this past week and with his health issues and her family's spring break, she is taking the week off. Since my kids will say later today, "Where is your Tuesday Coffee Chat?", I will go ahead and do some chatting anyway. Let's talk weight loss ... or getting in shape ... or whatever. I am attempting them both and have been since the beginning of the year. I have pretty consistently exercised 4-5 days a week doing TaeBo and/or walking and running. I have been charting my foods on MyFitnessPal. I am working hard to get fit and to lose a few pounds. The trouble is .. it's a lot harder when you are 40-something than when you are 30-something, or even younger! In these 3 full months I have lost 5 pounds. I am happy with that number. But, dang, it's hard to take pounds off the scale! I know that part of it is that my body wants to be the weight it is, possibly to ...

All I can say is that the weather this past week was amazing! It was also our last week of school before Spring Break. And we were at the very end of our latest Prairie Primer (Little House) book The Long Winter . All of that added together means that we did a literal wrap-up. Each day consisted of doing our 3R's - Reading, wRiting, and aRithmetic. We had 15 chapters of The Long Winter to finish so that we didn't leave anything hanging over Spring Break this next week. So we did lots of read aloud! There weren't many activities to do with the content of these chapters because the majority of the story was simply about the day in and day out job of just staying alive during the 7 months of blizzards they experienced in the story. We had loads of discussion, though! The kids also continued to read out of their personal books. Brynne is still reading the second book in the Warriors series and Eli has moved onto another book in the Middle School Series. The kids cont...

Welcome to another week's edition of my Random 5. You can link up with Miranda at The Pebble Pond if you want to join in. What random things are going on in our world? 1. Dawson interviewed for and received an offer to be a lifeguard at our city pool this summer. After he completes his certification he will be good to go. Kyndal and I were also going to try to work there, but the city has an old (stupid) rule that no two or more family members can be employed by the city at the same time. Isn't that ridiculous? For part-time minimum wage swimming pool lifeguards? This is particularly annoying when our City Manager has been "dating" a member of the city council for in excess of 15 years. Because they don't physically live together they get around the rule. Politics. Dumb. 2. Spring, spring, spring ... oh how I love you! It has been a glorious week here in West Central Missouri. The temps have been in the high 60's most of the week with amazing sunshine...

What's the first image that comes to mind when you hear the word 'spring'? Which phrase best describes the season of spring where you live right now (today) ... 'sprung!', 'almost there', or ' still waiting?' Photo Credit Birds, birds, birds, especially robins! Seeing them and hearing them tells me Spring is here. They know more than we do. Today spring has sprung! We have had mid-60's temps, sunshine, and even a rain shower yesterday morning. The birds are back, the allergies are in full throttle mode, and all I want to do is sit on my front porch. (Now, this is Missouri and we could have a snow storm tomorrow. But I really believe all the signs are here that spring is here to stay.) Bed, couch, stapler, garage door, computer mouse, recliner, flashlight, door knob ... which household item containing springs most needs replacing in your home? Speaking of springs, did you ever own a Slinky? We have a 100 year old house with many...

Today's Tuesday Coffee Chat is a fun one! It is simply this ... Would you rather _____ ? And the comparison is up to me. This past week while looking through photographs it was mentioned how young, pretty and skinny I was five years ago. And I had to admit that, dang , I did look good back then! I don't look awful now, it's just that in five years I haven't been as diligent about taking care of my body as I should and I have allowed stress to take its toll on me. Stress really does affect your physical appearance over time. While talking about this I admitted how old I felt. And one of the kids said, "Well, you do all old lady kinds of things. You like to stay in the house and read, etc. Do some young things and maybe you'll feel younger!" (That was paraphrased some, but that is definitely what I heard.) And it got me thinking how right that child was ... I have started to get comfortable with my aging and have just been giving into it, maybe ev...

(Well, I typed this on Friday but am just now getting it posted. We've got a busy life with Spring in the air!) It's Freedom Friday around here! (Why, oh why, didn't I think of this earlier?!). The kids are currently in their rooms reading, where they have been for the past 45 minutes. Their math assignments are done. And other than watching CNN Student News, they have the rest of the day to learn on their own. The weather has turned sunny and warmer so I imagine that will include some outside time. I hope so. Me? I've been working on getting together photos of Dawson for his high school graduation senior slide show. In just over two months my boy will be a high school graduate. This week we have mixed things up a bit. Brynne has added a program to her week on Tuesdays and Thursdays called Girls on the Run. She trains with other 4th-6th graders at the elementary school for a 5K coming up in May. Not only that, but they learn about healthy living and body ima...

1. Life is nuts for us right now with preparing for Dawson's high school graduation and Kyndal's upcoming wedding. Both events are within one week of each other in May. It's crazy! Where did my babies go?? 2. Dawson and I were looking at photos from about 5 years ago, preparing for his senior events. He mentioned (oh so sweetly and with pure love and devotion) that I looked so "young, skinny, and pretty". He is right. I did. It occurred to me that the stress of the last few years has really taken its toll on me physically! I realize that I look as old as I feel. And I feel old. Well, enough of that! I've got two months before we go on a tropical vacation. When I look at those photos I am going to see a "young, skinny, and pretty" me again!! It's time to feel young again. Okay, honey, I admit ... longer blonder hair makes me look younger. 3. The weather the next week is going to be beautiful!!! I cannot wait to get outside and fe...

In like a lion, out like a lamb .... does the first part of this saying describing March weather ring true where you live? It certainly could and I certainly hope it does. We had a beautiful first day of March, but it was very snowy and cold. I hope that we have the opposite of that on March 31st ... sunny and warm. March 4th is National Grammar Day. What common grammatical error bothers you the most?  Your versus you're, and 99% of what teenagers think is proper grammar these days. I had an amazing English/grammar teacher in high school and she is rolling over in her grave with the improper use of grammar by current high school students. William Arthur Ward says, "The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails." Which one are you? I have always thought of myself as a realist. I might complain for a moment but then pull myself together and start making the adjustments. But when it comes to literal wi...

Random Confession. It's good for the soul. I am kind of an open book on this blog, and always have been. I am not sure I have anything to confess that you don't already know. So I guess the only thing I can say is that I am a t.v.aholic . I was raised in a home where nightly television shows were our entertainment. We watched a lot of t.v. as a family, everything from Little House on the Prairie to Beverly Hills 90210 to Knots Landing . We would eat dinner, clean the kitchen, and then settle into the family room for t.v. time. Not much has changed, except I DVR everything so I don't have to watch commercials anymore. I like to get dinner done and cleaned up and be on the couch to watch t.v. by about 6:30 p.m. at night. I have loads of shows that I watch! There are a few things we watch all as a family, but for the most part we all watch different things. I happen to watch most of everything with everybody. It's just what I like to do. Here is a list of sh...

The First Day of March was a fun one! We got a good dumping of snow, the fun kind. Church was cancelled so we slept in, ate good food, and did lots of playing. Well, some of us did. I am linking up with Nicole at Journey to Josie . This is how late I slept yesterday morning!! (Snow day!) It was a snowy wonderland! Started my morning off right. Daddy snuggles with Quincy. I parked in front of the furnace for a while. And Rick and I had some breakfast and chat time. Eli started his morning off "right" with a waffle and Wii U. The furnace was a popular place today. Right at 4 inches of good snow! That had to be cleared off the vehicles. I stayed snug inside doing laundry with more coffee. Buck prefers the warmth of indoors. Although he, Quincy, and Crusoe did go out for a bit. Yadi stayed out with Kyndal the whole time she was out there. He was a maniac. He didn't want to come in. Neither did C...