One of those days

Did you ever have one of those days where you just want to crawl in a hole and forget how tough life is?

I don't feel like hashing it all out, but my heart hurts lately. It aches for the hardships I see my children going through. I can only pray that they will make righteous choices, remember who they are and where they come from.

Elizabeth Stone said that having children, "is to decide forever to have your heart go walking outside your body.”

I never knew my heart could hold so much love for these people that I created, yet hurt just as much at the same time.

Try it Tuesday

Welcome to "Try it Tuesday"!


I love to try new products, foods etc. So I think I'll dedicate each Tuesday to things I've tried recently.

This past week I munched on...........

I found Razzberry M&M's at the BP gas station near home. They had a promotional stand with them on sale in a corner. And NO they are not Weight Watcher approved! But if I want to use my extra 35 points, I'm able to spend a few of them on chocolate. Oh who am I kidding. I have chocolate every day. But not usually candy like this. I tend eat 100 calorie packs when I want chocolate.

Anyway, on to the review of Razzberry M&M's.......all I can say is....YUM. I really didn't think I would like them, but I do!

The rasberry flavor isn't overpowering like I expected it to be. It actually only has a hint of rasberry flavor.Personally, I taste milk chocolate more than the rasberry. It's the perfect amount in my opinion. They are bigger than regular M&M's. More like PB M&M's size. Here is the nutritional information:

Calories 180
Fat Calories 70
Total Fat 8g
Sat. Fat 5g
Trans Fat 0g
Cholest. 5mg
Sodium 25mg
Total Carb. 26g
Dietary Fiber 1g
Sugar 23g
Protein 2g

Serving Size 1 pack
Available in these sizes:1.31 oz., 11 oz.

So now it's your turn to try these dark pink little cuties. See if you agree that they taste as yummo as I think.

Seen on shelves or ads: Candy Corn flavored Hershey Kisses! Hmmm....not sure if I want to waste points on that or not. We'll see.

Old Saturdays

Sometimes I forget what Saturdays used to be about. Here in the now it usually means finishing up my YW lesson or running kids here and there. Sometimes it means attending a baby shower, wedding or some other party. Sometimes it simply means time spent with family.

Today is Saturday. Today it it means reminiscing about days gone by. After thumbing through some old photos, (note to self: get scrapbooking or atleast get them out of the old crappy albums and on to acid free paper!) I came across the picture above of my friends and I in 1984. Yes, I am old.

My teen years were spent in the 80's. We LIVED for Saturdays back then! The whole week was spent gearing up for whatever "fun" we had planned on the next Saturday. The above picture is of "The Gang" as Pauline Streeter (aka Jaleigh's grandma old ears) used to call us. She called us that (it's even written in her handwriting on the back of the photo), but we called ourselves "The Fab 4". The Fab 4 contained (R-L) Tami, Jon, Leanne & Pat. Pat is son of Dotty C. in the N. Musk Ward. Tami and I met the Muskegon crew and spent all of our time with them. There are so many memories! Some were fun and some were down-right dangerous. What dumb teenagers we were. Most of the time we were perfectly innocent though (really!). We were the best of friends. Tami and Jon dated a bit, but mostly we all had a friendship. The Fab 4 will always hold fun memories for me, but time moves on. My dh was friends with Pat and Jon (still is) and there were many other friends in our "group". We still keep in contact for the most part. Well, I do anyway. I don't think Tami talks to Jon or Pat much, but if we are ever all in the same state, we should have a reunion! There was a Barry Manilow song that summed it all up for the friendship we had (yes, Barry Manilow...don't judge me)...I just wish I could remember the name of the song. It was about friendship and the old days. Maybe someone can look it up and post it. Ok, maybe not. No one I know would even care to look up anything sung by Barry, 'cept ME!

Tami and I had many similarities.....both had brothers named Randy, sisters named Valerie, parents who were older, both the youngest in our large family and the list goes on.I miss spending time with Tami. I guess life gets in the way for both of us. I'll always consider her my best friend.

Here we are in 1986. I think we were both 17. Gotta love the pink nail polish!

A long goodbye

http://www.actionalz.org/

Today has special meaning to me. Both my Mother & Grandma (we called her Nannie) had Alzheimer's Disease. Nannie died in 1984. My Mom died in 2002, but it feels like yesterday. Since today is World Alzheimer's Day, I want to raise awareness about this disease. It's too painful to talk about my own experiences with both my Mother and Nannie being taken away from us by this long suffering disease. I will say that it was the longest goodbye. My Mother died a little bit each day because of this illness. For those who say it's not hereditary, I say, "Ohhh yes it is". How often would a mother and a daughter both lose their lives to the same disease if it weren't hereditary? It's about time someone found a cure. Visit the site above and raise your own awareness.

I miss my Mom.

My Mom and Dad the day Jillian was born 14 years ago.

Mom & Jillian at our family reunion in 1994.

Love & Logic course

Ok...so I started the Love & Logic class last night at Reeths-Puffer middle school. I had decided

before I even started the course, that I wanted to take atleast 1 thing from each class time and ponder it fully. And then if I agree with it, I will apply it to my own situation with my children.

For those who don't really know what the Love & Logic course is about, check out http://www.loveandlogic.com/. It was started in 1977 by Jim Fay. He lectures around the U.S.

Funny, in the course, they say NOT to lecture our kids constantly, yet he lecures parents continually!! Ah..the irony of it all.)

The gist of Love & Logic is this:

Love and Logic is a philosophy of raising and teaching children which allows adults to be happier, empowered, and more skilled in the interactions with children. Love allows children to grow through their mistakes. Logic allows children to live with the consequences of their choices. Love and Logic is a way of working with children that puts parents and teachers back in control, teaches children to be responsible, and prepares young people to live in the real world, with its many choices and consequences.

So what did I learn last night that I could use?

Well, I learned that as an adult, I should be able to set firm limits in loving ways. Ways without anger, lecture or threats. How will I do this? Well, when one of my kids causes any kind of problem, I can hand it back to them in a loving way. If I use an empathetic response to their behavior, such as saying, "Uh oh...this is so sad" or "Ohhhh this is hard" instead of "Why did you do that?!" or "Are you trying to drive me crazy today?!", the child is learning to own what he/she did. If I lecture, then I made the problem about me. The child must learn that he/she controls what happens based on the choices they make. Make sense?

So, my next step is to try and apply this concept and see how it works for our family. I will try and love/teach without lecturing constantly and without anger. I also will make sure that we don't skip our family prayers each night. I didn't grow up in a household that did this consistently and the same goes for my hubby. We tend to forget to do this with our kids for long stretches at a time. Kids learn by example, so I better ship shape up! After all, "A family that prays together, stays together" right?

Anyway, back to the class.....I have such a wide age range of children that pretty much anything the class touches on each week, is going to apply to me. I have a teen, 2 pre-teens, 1 elementary age and one infant. So, I'm excited to learn more and try to be a better parent. I think it's a big step just by attending the class. My children already see that by taking the class, I have their well-being in my heart and on my mind.

All I have to say is..................

.......Things have a way of working themselves out in the end..yuk yuk

Fake fries?

Wow. BK is really outdoing themselves this time. Starting next spring they will have low fat kids meals. Think my posted picture is of some appetizing french fries? Not. They are APPLE fries! Yum!I love the new frypod they come in. Sneaky BK and their trickery. But hey, if it will make my kiddos want to eat the apples, then I say you ROCK BK! And no, they aren't actually deep fried apples...geesh...I said "low fat" didn't I? Wonder if they come with low fat caramel like Mcdonalds? Guess we'll have to wait until next spring to find out.

Autumn's Creek plug

I had to post this baby announcement as a proud mama. Perhaps the biggest change to my life this year was the birth of our new little blessing...Ava Victoria. My friend Holly took the 2 pictures of her and I took the one of her feet. (Thanks Holly for your expertise!) I then bought the announcements on Ebay. They were done by Autumn's Creek. There is a link on this blog under "Lanie's links". Even if you don't order, take a look at her work. I wonder what program she uses to make these cards. They look so professional. Of course it helps to have a baby as adorable as Ava to make them stand out right?!

Heads up: I'll be posting many pictures of Ava as well as my other kiddos, so expect to see shining little faces in the posts to come. Proud mama=tons of pics!

Look what I found!

I have no idea why I can't fit my whole name on one line, but nevertheless, it's cool! It's from flickr.com. I don't have a direct link, but here is a way to get there thru another page....
http://metaatem.net/words/

You can keep clicking on a letter and it will change with each click. Just keep clicking until you get what you like. COOL!

Odd couple

Monkey Love

Not just a cutsie photo that people pass along in their e-mails. This is a true story taken from the Daily Mail in the UK:

They're an odd couple in every sense but a monkey and a pigeon have become inseparable at an animal sanctuary in China.
The 12-week-old macaque - who was abandoned by his mother - was close to death when it was rescued on Neilingding Island, in Goangdong Province.
After being taken to an animal hospital his health began to improve but he seemed spiritless - until he developed a friendship with a white pigeon.

The blossoming relationship helped to revive the macaque who has developed a new lease of life, say staff at the sanctuary.
Now the unlikely duo are never far from each other's side, but they aren't the only ones to strike up an unusual friendship.
Earlier this year a pig adopted a tiger cub and raised him along with her piglets because his mother couldn't feed him.
And in 2005 a baby dear named Mi-Lu befriended lurcher Geoffrey at the Knowsley Animal Park in Merseyside after she was rejected by her mother.