Monday, Monday

Last post, I announced that my son had the flu and I had company arriving in 2 days. To bring you up to date: parents arrived, daughter also contracted flu, brother's family arrived, took their son to clinic due to high fever (ear infection), my brother & my husband both worked long hours due to conference, off to yet another clinic and discovered SIL had sinus infection, hubby's car died 30 miles from home (and AAA basically laughed at him when he called for assistance) - approx 5 hours later car arrived in our driveway via a not-really-road-legal trailer that had only 75% of its tires, I plopped our camera down into a pile of peanut butter, drove to 4 different auto parts stores before finding one that could get the necessary parts for us in less than a week, daughter now has pink eye.

I know that things could be *SO* much worse, but I'm just worn out and frankly rather whiny. My parents pulled out this morning to go visit my dad's aunt in San Antonio, and will be back tomorrow night, then fly out on Thursday morning. My hubby will be flying out on Sunday, and then back on Friday. Our niece and several of her friends will be arriving on Friday night to spend their spring break here... I'm just praying that we can all get and stay healthy!

I'm feeling really discouraged. I had been making great strides in my journey toward betterment - both personally with getting toward a healthier weight and home-wise with the purge and organize campaign. These past two weeks I've stalled completely and even regressed a bit. I know I'm in a better place than I was a few months ago, but it's still frustrating. At this point, I'm just focusing on making it through the week: meals, laundry, and basic cleaning. I will move forward, but I must be content with creeping for now, rather than running or even walking. Other changes: more time in the Word (not a book or study, but just reading God's letter to us) and journaling 5 things I'm thankful for each day in my gratitude journal.

Hello again...

Whew! So much going on (as always!) Hubby was gone for two weeks, and came home sick, which seriously stinks. We've all been fighting off slights colds, etc. and this morning I had to take our son to the doctor, where we discovered that he had the flu. You should have seen his eyes light up when the dr. told him that he couldn't go back to school until Monday!

We have family arriving tomorrow, and have already started the pool-heating process so we can all have some fun this weekend. The freezing days are already a distant memory, and our highs are back in the 80s. Ahhhhh... I admit, I'm getting spoiled by the South TX winters!

In other happy news, we went to Alegria on Saturday afternoon. Wow. I've always been amazed by Cirque du Soleil - the costumes, choreography, and music are all absolutely amazing, and when I found out they were actually coming here, buying tickets was a no-brainer. We really enjoyed it, and now I'm more determined than ever to see more of their shows.

Here are just a few more snapshots from the past couple days. For Valentine's Day, rather than going for candy and stuffed animals, we got our kiddos Legos and a (cheapo verison of American Girl) doll. Result: two happy kids! And me? Well, I did manage to get half of my kitchen cabinets painted. I went with a slightly lighter turquoise color, so I now have "cloudless" cupboards :) Love the result, and am looking forward to finishing the job up in March (once all of our company leaves)

Off to finish readying the house for the invasion!

Frozen Friday

It's been a crazy couple days in South Texas! I think we all know that virtually the entire US has been affected with the massive storm system and bone-chilling cold... and considering that normally it's in the high 60s here, it's major news when we get this kind of weather. We got some snow flurries yesterday (you can see a few flakes that accumulated on the palm tree in the first shot) as well as icing. They shut down the highway and almost all the bridges into Mexico. We just aren't prepared to handle this stuff down here! Schools were closed yesterday and today. Many homes don't have heat, most people don't have heavy winter clothing (I just see people wearing lots of layers), and obviously there's not much experience driving on ice, either. It never got above freezing yesterday, but thankfully we are supposed to reach the mid 30s today. Another hard freeze is forecast tonight, but then we start climbing back to "normal" tomorrow. You can see our poor frozen palms in the 2nd photo, and the next one just shows the icing. When I opened the door up this morning, the first thing I noticed was how strange it sounded - the wind whipping through the frozen palm fronds makes a very odd noise indeed. The last picture is of all the ice bits that have been blown out of the trees... kind of pretty, actually.

I will say that I love having a snow day that doesn't require shoveling anything ;)

February Check-In

Time for a new page on the calendar! You may recall that in January I set 2 goals for myself regarding health & home. Well, I didn't completely reach either goal. Am I a bit disappointed? Well, yes. The amazing thing is that I'm not discouraged - in fact, I'm pretty excited about the strides I've made. This next month is going to be pretty crazy due to hubby's business trips and an influx of company, so I'm not setting any new goals, but will finish up what I started in January. My kitchen already feels tons better, and one side was organized according to plan, so I just need to finish up the other half of the room... and I may even tackle the pantry area. My weight loss continues to be slow but steady (but hey, that's healthy, right?! ;) but I still need to get more active. My Jan goal was 30 minutes with Wii Plus 3x week - I'm still aiming for the same timing, but with whatever activity I choose.

Here's to moving forward!

Bowl = Comfort

When I'm not feeling well, I crave soup... just thinking about a bowl of steamy goodness makes me feel better. I've had an itchy throat for a few days, and this morning it was accompanied by achiness and a runny nose. Blech.

As I was puttering around the kitchen this morning, I started thinking about the single lonely salmon fillet I unearthed in the freezer this weekend, and then the idea of salmon soup came to mind. Mmmmmm. I cooked up some brown rice (and this way I have some ready-made for later this week - win win!) and threw the salmon under the broiler. I sliced up a couple carrots and a green onion, then simmered them in some broth (I keep Wyler's sodium free chicken bouillon in my cupboard for occasions such as this). A few shakes of fish sauce, some garlic & black pepper, and yesterday's peas finished things off.

I'm feeling better already! And yes, Mom, I'm taking Vitamin C, too :)

Wahoo!!

Sorry if I disturbed anyone with my hootin' and hollerin' this morning, but I'm definitely a happy girl.

Behold the reason :)

We've been using a hand-me-down and table and chairs our entire married life. To be fair, we did upgrade to a better "new-to-us" table approximately 9 years ago, along with white folding chairs from Sam's Club (which we'd planned to use for approximately 6 months). I have really wanted to purchase something, but we'd been unable to find something we both liked that was in our budget. Why is simple, decently-made furniture so difficult to find?

Anyway, Monday afternoon my Bible study finished up a bit early and I had an extra 15 minutes before I needed to pick up the kids, so I decided to swing by the furniture store that had been advertising super-duper closeout deals. I immediately dismissed most of their offerings due to heavy carvings, inlaid stones and upholstered seats. But then I saw this little number back in the corner. I liked the style, so I flipped over a chair to investigate the construction. Hmmm... passed that test, too. I took the salesman's card and texted hubby the basic info.

The store closed at 6 pm that night (and of course the extra % off promo happened to be ending that day, too) but hubby made it across the border in a timely fashion and we arrived at the store by 5:30. He actually liked the style of the set, so started analyzing the the structure. The look on the salesman's face was priceless! Anyway, after much sliding, flipping, and poking he pronounced it good and we plunked down the dough. It was delivered this morning, and I can't walk by it without giving it a loving pat :) It's made of pine, and stained dark. It has 3 leaves (which all store inside) and it can be expanded to 11 feet. Wow. We also got 8 chairs, so we are ready for visitors!

Behind the table is a dresser that's part of our bedroom set. We'd been using it in the front family/sitting area, but I rearranged everything last weekend and it's now being used as a sideboard. Obviously it doesn't exactly match the table, but I couldn't care less. I'm just so happy to have this space updated a bit! Oh, and just in case you were wondering, the old table is now residing in the craft space, so the kids and I have a spot to spread out and play, without worrying about shoving everything to the side to eat dinner.

Happy Birthday!

Sometimes things don't go exactly according to plan -- and sometimes that's a good thing. Our daughter turned 6 earlier this month, and we had her birthday party yesterday. We invited all the girls from her class, but no one RSVP'd (not unusual down here). Anyway, I planned a fun afternoon of girliness, games, and snacks knowing that her 2 good friends were coming, and figuring that at least a couple more from her class would show up. Well, I was wrong - it was just the three little princesses... and a fabulous time was had by all!

First stop was the makeup station, mostly consisting of sparkles for the eyes and cheeks, but also including bright lipstick so they could all kiss the frog :) We painted princess sun-catchers, had a Royal Ball Freeze Dance, decorated tiaras, colored custom castles, pitched pennies, snacked, and laughed. I don't know who had more fun - the girls or the moms! And what was originally going to be a 2 hour party turned into an impromptu BBQ (with additional family members invited over) going well into the evening. Truly, it was a delightful day.

Funny side story: the junior ROTC was conducting a canned food drive in our neighborhood, and I answered the knock on the door without stopping to consider how I appeared. The poor young man in uniform probably be telling his friends about the crazy lady who was wearing 2 crowns, a pile of necklaces, and plastic gems stuck on her cheeks :)