All posts filed under: Children

Christmas Cheer and Light Weight, Home/ Hotel Exercises With Muscular Impact

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Above picture: One of those “by the tree pictures” with lots of love, bad lighting, and flash- induced smiles, that look like we’ve been sipping on too much nog. Enjoy! 🙂 “Oh, come, Desire of nations, bind  In one the hearts of all mankind;  Oh, bid our sad divisions cease,  And be yourself our King of Peace.  Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel  Shall come to you, O Israel!” – 12th century Latin text In the snowy, downy days of November, I decided I needed a new sweater to stay warm. When it arrived in the post, it was wayyyy too big but apparently I’m wrong because my daughters squealed with delight, just as they do over an array of nail polish colors, anything that sparkles and puppies dressed in baby sized clothes. Believe me when I say, you could draw young girls towards a hog if you glitter bombed its brown rump, smeared his lips in hot pink gloss and put an oversized tutu on him. Don’t believe me? Think about it. That is precisely how Hobby …

Summer Vignette #3: Vacation!

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At 4:30 a.m. we headed out on vacation! ⚡️🎉🎊💥 We are militant travelers, limiting our hydration, so we don’t have to stop much. 😳 Can you see where we were headed (below)? That’s right, the palm tree laiden land of the Arizonians, where pool cleaning is more lucrative than hobby lobby is in a female dominated populace of middle aged “cropping” suburbanites. 😜 Before you scream, “generalization,” please note… I am one of those. Lol. On the way, we wondered if my husband was being called to the backwoods. After 12 long hours- paradise found! Ok, ok. Scottsdale is hardly paradise but it is hot, has palm trees, a pool and is out of our norm. Besides, nobody in their right mind goes there in the peak of summer, so it was cheap! LOL. Here’s what it looks like. Many hours were spent by the pool. Do you remember me telling you about my youngest three doing water aerobics with the older crowd? Well, they wouldn’t miss it for the world! The first day, we hit …

Summer Vignette #2: Yearly Cleanup and Happy 4th!

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Love getting my daily scriptures after I run; a little vitamin for my heart. 👍 Daniel had SO much to do this week, staining our deck and a friend’s deck. So, we formed “Team Bless You” to surprise him. We cleaned the garage, the upstairs of the barn and the car. This is us right before we set to work- grrr, determined! 💪                           Lots of evening dinners around the fire after a week of house repair and organization for the year. Found these gluten free flour tortillas for Joab at Trader Joes. They were chewy but not bad.                           Add a little meat, fresh veg, black beans,  cheese, homemade salsa and Kapow! This is Isaak scoring in his end of season rugby game. 🎉                           I’m loving that “stone washed” is back in, apparently. 80s graduates unite! 🙌 …

Summer Vignette Post #1, Camping, College and Blooming!

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“Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD… He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green” – Jeremiah 17 For those of you who didn’t see last week’s blog post, I am taking a one month break from my usual format and just posting lots of pics of my family and what we are getting up to 🙂 It is finally hot in Colorado; can I get a rousing, “Amen!” The picture above is my big hearted Dad and I, in honor of Father’s Day. We took the family to Grand Junction this week to check out Mesa State College because my son is senior this year. I can’t tell you the exhilaration of driving 7.5 hours to find that our peaceful Palisade campsite was maybe 50 feet, on a hot, mirage-filled day, from Interstate 70! But, we decided to laugh it off with a little repetitive and quality family humor, “I am so happy to be up here …

Silence and Spaghetti

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“Let us be silent, that we may hear the whisper of God.” – Emerson Two weeks ago, our family piled up in our Suburban for a little pre-season camping, looking an awful lot like the Beverly Hillbillies, with blankets, tin cups, enough S’mores’ supplies for the nation of Chad and with sausages strung along the roof rack. Ok, I am teasing on the last one 🙂 If you’ve been into the mountains, isn’t the silence up there hard to describe? Even our quiet moments down here don’t compare. And, it doesn’t just silence the exterior noise but my thoughts start to slow way down, as I take in the popping of the fire, as it breaks down twigs and the white sides of aspen logs, and the evergreen needles snapping under the hooves of visiting deer. Learning to be quiet is a skill and in my 9 person family, which is as peaceful as bead craft day at a junior high girls’ summer camp, a prized commodity! Often when the whole house sleeps, I lay …

Making Healthy Choices and 20 Healthy Snack Ideas

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Although I was a Criminology major and, long ago, managed a team who went into buildings in the middle of the night and crawled through ceilings, installing secret, pin size cameras, I don’t usually spy on people, I promise! I should confess that I am utterly techno-ignorant and had a brilliant team; I was a lot like an overzealous 15 year old whose parents give him a brand new Porsche Boxter the day after he gets his learners permit (I was a young leader with gifted help). The above pictures were taken right at the end of my time as a Detective Manager. Can you see the beautiful little girl that changed my mind about being a career woman? 🙂 Anyway, I am quite literally in a coffee shop at this moment, listening to two women beside me loudly talking about a fitness drink that will help them rebound multiple times a week from hangovers. I heard the word “isotope” and other trendy health terms thrown around, like jelly beans at Easter. This is not …

Aspens, Growth and an Intense Ab Workout!

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“Whose woods these are I think I know… The only other sound’s the sweep, of easy wind…The woods are lovely, dark and deep.”  – Frost When we moved into our home 10 years ago, there was one young Aspen tree behind the kitchen window that had recently been planted by the previous owners. I loved the way the leaves flipped back and forth, like broad green coins in the wind. Every year, I eagerly look out to assess its growth. Ten years on, that tree hasn’t grown an inch. Not one single inch! And, it hasn’t sent out a single shoot. It is completely solitary and small. It has aged however. There’s something sad about a tree that ages and yet remains small. It looks worn out, just as a child hunched over unmoving on a park bench would look. Here’s why it hasn’t grown or reproduced… Well, first of all, Aspens need full sun and this one sits shaded in a woodland of pines, like towering, overbearing giants. But, more than that, Aspens need other …

The Freedom of Being Childlike and Thai Lettuce Wraps

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When my faith gets tired You spin me round and round And remind me of that song The one You wrote for me And we dance -Bethel Music Apparently, Zac Efron is the cutest guy around nowadays. Who knew?!? Lol. Oh, how The Tinies crack me up. Who are The Tinies, you ask? Yes, they deserve their own article, capitalization and title! They are my three little ones – Caetlin, Hannah and Joseph. People have frequently reminded me that they aren’t tiny anymore – stop that! 🙂 So, I was happily driving along this week when, out of the blue, The Tinies started in about Zac Efron. One daughter said and I quote, “Zac Efron is soooooo cute that I can’t stand it. I am jealous of the girl who was in High School Musical with him because she got to kiss him!” My face at that moment was just like that stunned, blank and open eyed emoji. I stammered, “But, you’re 9!” The prompt reply from another daughter, who is the great family informant …

Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice

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Healthy Apple Turnover You know, it’s the weirdest thing; I came home the other day and noticed one of our Golden Retrievers was sitting in the outdoor kennel with the door shut. The kids informed me that Coco (short for Coconut) always does that, locks herself in a cage when she has acreage to run free. It really made me think- do I ever do that? Three years ago, let’s say, I would have honestly said that I didn’t feel bound up. But, in the same way that Coco doesn’t see that she’s unnecessarily locking herself in a cage, I now look back and see areas like that in my life. Sobering but SO GOOD to realize there’s a door and wide open glorious field! Some changes in me this year have been… I stopped just saying all the things I wanted to do and started doing them. In a new way, I started expecting to be treated with respect and mutuality. I started believing, that one step at a time and with God’s help, I could …