Flying High

Tiny Talk Tuesday celebrates our children and their view of the world. They continually make us laugh and by recording their Tiny Talk we can focus on one of the many JOYS of parenting! If your kiddos made you laugh this week (don't they always), then feel free to share the humor! Check out more Tiny Talks with Mary.

This past Friday we went on our first "official" homeschooling field trip! Of course, I don't know that someone who does Pre-K work about once a week, but can count to 500 on his own "just cuz" really needs an excuse to go to the Cavanaugh Flight Museum.

We went with a great group of kids and was given a tour by a former Navy Coast Guard Captain. His jacket said he was from the class of 1955! He was very informative, but gave a little too much history for the crowd of early elementary students that were there, but we moms and the one dad that came along got a lot of information from him.

Our tour guide asked the kids if they had any questions, and of course That Other Kid spoke up with "Can I fly this plane?". He answered 'No, they are only for show in the museum and air shows now.' Then TOK asked another question (my personal favorite,) "Why??" At this point the tour guide moved on to other questions....



Here he is standing in front of a group of missiles....after he asked if they were "real". Of course they are real, but not "active"!

A New Week

Here we are again....it's MONDAY and I just read Sarah's blog where she was celebrating the fact that it is Monday. I gotta say, I'm not sure I am there yet, but I can tell you I'm glad the weekend is over. I spent it driving around the DFW metroplex playing chauffeur to the boys. They both had events all weekend that kept me driving everywhere. This week isn't going to be any easier and next weekend will probably be even worse, but right now it is what it is. I am learning to deal with the disruption to my life.

I am also learning to find ways and times to exercise to deal with the stress that I am currently experiencing. It has been a great way to deal with stress and it also helps me lose the unreasonable amount of weight that I have gained over the past 10 years.

(I'm down 1 pound since last Monday morning!!!)

If you are experiencing stress I recommend you start exercising...do whatever you can do. Walk, ride a bike, go to the gym....whatever "floats your boat"! I have been listening to my I-pod while I am at the gym and oh my goodness praise and worship can definitely help improve my mood, too! It has been so easy to get on that treadmill, or elliptical machine while I'm jamming about with my music!!

I Did It Again!!

I exercised again today...the 3rd day in a row!!! I'm so proud of myself...even if no one else is!! Today I shook up the routine and walked with a friend and her little grandson at the park. It had hills of all sorts, and with the wind blowing I definitely got a GOOD workout in. In fact, tonight I am more sore than I have been the other 2 nights this week. Maybe it's because I didn't stretch, maybe it's because of the hills, maybe it's because half the time I had to help That Other Kid with his bike...I don't know why, but I am SORE tonight. I need some Advil, so I'm about to go get some and get some sleep and pray that I'm not too sore to exercise tomorrow!

While walking with my friend we discussed some of lifes twists and turns that have been thrown our way over the past few years. In this discussion I realized that no matter how hard we pray, how much we shelter our kids from the "gunk" in the world while they are young eventually they grow up and "do their own thing". At this point all we can do is continue to love them and continue to pray for them. I'm trying to do this while I deal with the current circumstances that are present in my life. When all is said and done the best we can do for our kids is LOVE THEM UNCONDITIONALLY and PRAY.

Stress Can Be A Good Thing...

Over the past couple of weeks I have been under a great deal of stress. I don't really feel very good. Not really depression, just "the blahs"....

Well over the weekend I decided that I couldn't handle the stress any longer...I had to find a solution. Everyone knows that doctors tell us stress will kill you if you let it accumulate. What's the easiest way to knock stress?? EXERCISE....so I started again yesterday and I feel GREAT!! I did 1 mile on the treadmill and a little over a mile on the elliptical machine! Today I did a mile on the elliptical and just under a mile on the treadmill! I also did about 100 crunches on the crunch machine! Wow, who knew stress could cause me to workout so hard!?? I now feel like I can tackle some of this stress and deal with it.

So if you are going through some stress, I would like to suggest you go to the gym, take a hearty walk, go play some sport....whatever "floats your boat" and get moving, EXERCISE!!! It does the body and mind good!!!

Veggin'

I told you yesterday that I'm having a hard time right now with one of the boys. I don't deal with stress very well, and I usually shut down and do as little as possible. That's what I'm doing right now, but in all my shutting down I have been doing a good bit of wasting time.

My brother introduced me to "Spider Solitare" on my computer last week while dad was in surgery. Have you ever played this game? It is ADDICTIVE. I really wish he would not have showed me this game, but I'm having fun with it and it is definitely a time waster! Just what my little bout of 'blahs' want right now. So I'm off to waste some more time to play Spider Solitare.

If you've never played and want to waste some time, go to your games section of your computer and find it....before you know it hours will have passed and you'll need to pee so bad you can hardly get to the bathroom in time, not that I know from experience or anything!

Happy veggin'!

Kids....

no matter their age sometimes throw you a curve ball that you would never have thought could come at you. Right now I'm going through one of those times when a "curve ball" almost knocks you out, so I could really use some prayers. My heart is very heavy and my mind just wants to shut down. I want to just cry and sleep. Maybe it'll all be better when the tears dry and I wake up.

Although, I doubt it.....so PLEASE PRAY FOR ME and my family!! I think over the next few days we are gonna need it.

Thanks....

I'm Back!!

Just in case you were wondering, I am still alive!...just trying to regroup from my trip to Kansas. Last Monday, That Other Kid and I traveled through Oklahoma's snow and ice storm to make it up to Kansas for my dad's colon reattachment surgery that was scheduled for Tuesday. (It went better than even the surgeon expected, btw.) I didn't really have too many problems, just had to slow way down....and drive with wiper blades that, unbeknownst to me, needed to be replaced! I found out soon enough when my windows started icing over and the wiper blades kept missing half the window!

Anywho, I made it safe and sound, with only about 1 hour delay. The weather was only bad in through OKC and surrounding area, so it was manageable. I took my parents to Long John's Silver for dinner, since that is where they wanted to go! As a kid that was a big night out, to go to Long John's, so away we went. By 8:30, which is when we were done eating, the streets in Wichita were getting slick and the windshield was starting to ice up, so my mom scraped the windshield and then we went back to their home.

My family has lived in North Texas now for 13 years and when it ices and snows, we just stay home. NO ONE goes anywhere! Not so in Kansas...it's just part of winter for them. It has to be a blizzard for them to stay home or close something, so it really surprised them that I didn't own an ice scraper! They loaned me one of theirs, so I could scrape my windows to go over to my brother's house and for the morning when dad was having surgery.

When we were leaving...That Other Kid informed me that "old people are awesome!" I had to agree, but wanted to know why he thought so. His reply was, "cuz they have ice scrapers and let us use them when it is icy outside!" I just thought that was a hilarious observation and soooo true!

So....the 2 lessons for the week...don't go to Kansas in the winter without an ice scraper and "old people are awesome"!



Tiny Talk Tuesday celebrates our children and their view of the world. They continually make us laugh and by recording their Tiny Talk we can focus on one of the many JOYS of parenting! If your kiddos made you laugh this week (don't they always), then feel free to share the humor! Check out more Tiny Talks with Mary.