Obsessions

I have really been enjoying my children lately. Not that I haven't before, but what I mean is I am really enjoying this age and this stage of our lives. Most of you know that almost two years ago Josiah was diagnosed with high functioning autism. It has been the neatest thing to me to watch him grown and develop and function through his autism. Most people, if you haven't spent much time with him, wouldn't know that Josiah had autism, but you might think he was a silly little boy, not really desirous of talking to many people that he doesn't know well, and also a little hyper, and if he does talk to you, you might notice he has some obsessions. These obsessions, to me, are the most intriguing thing to me in regards to Josiah's autism.

Before Josiah was diagnosed with autism, he had a love that was great. This love was of Veggie Tales movies. This love of Veggie Tales started when he was around 9 months old. Whenever the Veggie Tales theme song would come on and he would bounce to life dancing and singing and so excited. For many years, I could never get Josiah willing to watch any movies other than Veggie Tales. I didn't mind, I mean, if he was going to love something so much, it could have been something worse. I noticed that after Josiah would watch one of the different episodes, he would completely memorize the video. He would talk to us about the videos and the characters with way more knowledge than anyone should have, and most of the time we didn't know what he was talking about. This obsession with the Veggie Tales was not only with watching the movies, but one of his favorite things to do was go to Goodwill and look and see if they had Veggie Tale movies. He would go into a Goodwill, run over to the movies racks and start calling out excitedly the names of the movies and whether or not we had that movie at home. This was such a delight to him! Around 4 1/2 years old, he finally watched another movie besides Veggie Tales and immediately had a love for Toy Story. He watched it once or twice and basically had the movie memorized. At night, when it was time to go to bed, we had to start setting a timer for 15 minutes and instituting this time for Josiah to "say his movies" as he lay in bed. So, for 15 minutes he was allowed to recite his movies and when the timer went off, there was no more talking and it was time to sleep. This was a wonderful way for Josiah to understand that there is a time for everything. It worked well! Josiah has now branched out, but still doesn't watch too many varieties of movies. He has his favorites, and with these favorites, he has them memorized backwards and forwards and loves to break out ofttimes "saying his movies". Some of the movies that are his favorite are: Monsters Inc, he Incredibles, Cars, Finding Nemo, and by far, Lilo and Stitch has seemed to be his favorite movie EVER! He loves hearing about all of "Jamba's Experiments" and loves learning their names and numbers...which brings me to another of Josiah's obsessions...

He loves numbers and anything to do with numbers. We hardly ever watch TV and don't have cable, but we have been known to watch Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy two or three nights a week. We had to start turning the TV off or muting it during commercials because before we knew it, Josiah was memorizing phone numbers in the commercials. His favorite was a lawyers commercial and he would tell everyone to "Call Kalfus and Nachmann on the Hurtline now" and they would state the number. Oh goodness, he loves numbers. In the movie Lilo and Stitch, before you watch the movie, in the directory, you can watch a special about all of the experiments. There is an English speaking narrator telling about the experiment, their name and their number. Josiah now lays in bed at night reciting the experiments, their numbers and functions...which leads me to another obsession....

Josiah also loves movies or shows that have a narrator. We have recently been watching a National Geographic special about Animals in the Wild. His favorite is one where the English speaking narrator speaks of Arctic Polar Bears and Arctic White Foxes. He is so funny! He hates it when the movie is silent and just shows what the animal is doing, Josiah gets frustrated and wants to hear the narrator.

Also, speaking of numbers, Josiah's teacher contacted me and said that he was showing significant boredom when in math class. She said that even when she was almost positive Josiah wasn't paying attention to the lesson at hand, he would work quickly on his papers and then move on to working on his classmates papers or telling them how to do their work. So, they decided to move him into what she called "the gifted math class". He is doing wonderfully and keeping up well, He simply loves his numbers!

These are not the only obsessions Josiah has. He moves in and out of obsessions quickly, but one he has had for a long time, but has recently seemed to take a back seat to others is in regards to anything with "fire". The fire alarm at school sparked this. While he is now okay with the fire alarm, in the past, he really goes crazy when the fire alarm in school goes off once a month for training. This sparked an obsession with fire alarms in public, a fear of fire sprinklers in public places, emergency signs in public places, fire trucks, fire extinguishers, and emergency exits in public places. This was a hard obsession to work through with Josiah. He was afraid that if anyone touched any of these things that fire would come out of these things. Thank goodness, we seem to have overcome most of this obsession!

A few other obsessions:

• Bugs - he loves his play bugs and loves to read about them and loves to know what they eat
• Hair - can't stand to have his hair brushed, or for me to wet down his hair
• Toys - can't stand not to take some toys with him everywhere he goes...has to have a toy in the car and a toy to sleep with
• Asking the same questions over and over again even though he knows the answer
• Can't stand for us to go a different way somewhere other than the way he is used to..for example, he used to scream and cry if I told him we were going to Meemaw's house an I took the interstate as opposed to the backroads that we normally take...guess which way we ALWAYS go to Meemaw's house now?

Anyways, I have just been fascinated as of late in watching how my little boy's mind works. As far as his autism, it definitely manifests itself in his obsessions more than any other area of his life. We work hard trying to make him understand things and by helping him understand his own obsessions. This truly is a gifted boy I have been given from the Lord. I am amazed the more and more I watch him and help train and guide him daily. I love him so much!

Happy New Year!!! 2013

"How few there are who have courage enough to face their own their faults, or resolutions enough to mend them!"
 ~ Benjamin Franklin

Over the past few weeks, I have been reflecting over the year 2012. This time of reflection is, on one hand, a little bit depressing, or maybe embarrassing is a better word, while on the other hand, it is extremely motivating to me. I look back on where we have been compared to where we want to be. It seems like every year we miss the mark. Without fail. I seem to start out the new year with such great ideas and plans, but I usually fail to see them through. This year may or may not be the same way. I am praying to the Lord and trusting that we can make some changes this year, though.

Here are some areas we are eager to see changes in our life:

Eating out: We have a habit...a really bad habit. I won't even begin to tell you how much money we have spent eating out this year because, well, it is embarrassing. This has been such a weak area for us and we try every year to make changes. We sat down last night and I presented to my DH the amount of money I calculated, from our bank statements, that we spent eating out. It was not pretty. This year, we decided things were not going to change unless we had a strategy. So here it is:

GOAL: Eat out no more than two times per month while ultimately aiming at only one time per month.
 
WAYS TO ACHIEVE GOAL:

• Put it on the calendar and schedule it
• Have food ready for dinner [which is our worst time]
• Don't tempt each other, and when we are tempted, stop and pray with each other.

We have come to the realization that we are teaching the kids many bad habits with our eating out. It is time for some reversal of these bad habits! So far, in January, we have scheduled wo times we are going to eat out. My friend and I got back excellent results from our diabetes check-ups and we promised each other a couples night out to dinner when we did, so we are going out tis Saturday. I also have family coming to visit and we have scheduled one time to eat out while they are here. We have already scheduled a February date and a March date for eating out. I will keep you updated on how we are doing. Please pray for us!
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Menu Planning and Grocery Shopping: I love to menu plan. Have I ever mentioned that? In 2011 I tried a specific challenge and planned all of our dinners for the whole year. I realized many things in this venture. While it was neat to do this, it was not practical and it became boring. So, I won't be doing that again. But, it is a proven fact that people who menu plan and make grocery lists, and shop from their lists, save money for their family.

GOAL: Menu plan, Make Grocery Lists and go shopping only 1 time per week

WAYS TO ACHIEVE GOAL:

• Spend Thursdays menu planning, spend Fridays grocery shopping
• Be thorough, ask the family what items they really want and "need" that they can't seem to do without this week. Try to be accommodating but reasonable.
• Don't be a Nazi about it. You can make more than one trip to the store, it's no going to kill you. The point is, stop making every day trips to the store as this is a money waster! [Yeah, I counted 274 trips to KROGER with our debit card in 2012]

We have yet again come to the realization that our habits are playing a bad role in our kids lives. I really feel like we are teaching our kids not to be content and not to appreciate what they already have, so we are really striving to make these changes.
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So, the last goal I want to share is in the spiritual realm of things. We feel it very important to teach our children from the Word of God, but we sometimes become a little lackadaisical in our day to day walk. At dinner time, we go over memory verses and we sometimes read from the Bible story book, but we want more and we want to give the kids more, even though they may not understand of appreciate it now.

GOALS:

• Spend time in the Word of God daily with the children
• Continue to work on Scripture Memorization
• Spend alone time in the Word of God, preparing my own heart
• Pray with the children and take time to Count our MANY Blessings

WAYS TO ACHIEVE GOALS:

• I have started reading in the Proverbs with the kids every morning at breakfast. [I have already missed a day this week!]
• Continue after dinner devotions where we write notes for our "Count Your Blessings" Jar and work on our memory verses.
• I will read my Bible in the mornings as well.

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So, here you have it. Just a few things going on in our families and how we are trying to change our lives for the better and for a closer walk with the Lord and a more glorifying walk.

What are you doing differently in 2013? I would love to hear from you!

Family Notebook, Part 1

Happy Day-After Christmas! I am hoping you all had a wonderful holiday with the family, a joyous time of giving and a great memory making venture! We had a great time with my husbands side of the family. Since I spent my Thanksgiving time with my family in Georgia we were not able to see them over Christmas. I am a little sad, but thankful and content!

I have been spending a lot of time lately thinking about this year and what I want to change and do differently in this next year. There are a lot of things and a lot of areas of my life and my family's life that I see changes necessary. Basically, I need help. What do I need help with, you ask? I need help with organization and time prioritizing. I have been thinking about the kind of help I need and what decisions I am going to make, for the betterment of our family and the functioning of our everyday lives.

So, this brings me to the MAIN part of this post. A Hodges Family Notebook. Yes, you read that right. For years now, I had played with the idea of a family notebook, I have attempted to kind of put one together, and then I kind of get lazy. Well, I have been doing a lot of research about a family notebook and have seen some awesome ideas [go to my boards on pinterest if you don't believe me!] and I have decided to really, really try to implement this notebook for me and my family for this next year. What is a family notebook? Well, I am glad you asked! I want our family notebook to be our "hub" of information, our "go to" for just about everything we need, when we need it. Here are some of the things I plan to include in our family notebook:

Addresses/Phone Numbers - I can't tell you how many times I have had to call my mother in law, or sister in law, who are both wealthy with information, and it would be nice to not have to take time out to call them and ask them for information that they have already previously given me...and I bet they would appreciate it as well!

Birthdays/Anniversaries - I have a goal this year, and to meet my goal [which I am not going to reveal, because I don't want my family and friends to know if I fail!] and this is an essential tab to have in the notebook.

Emergency/Doctors/Medicinal Information - Danny and I have some health issues and we need to keep all of our information in one place so we can have fast access to give to doctors or maybe in case we have an emergency. Also, there is a lot that goes along with having a special needs child. We have lot of appointments, lots of records, and lots of info to keep up with. This section should help me with all of that info.

Menu Planning/Recipes/Groceries/Coupons -  I have proven time and time again that I can save a significant amount of money if I plan my meals for the week or month and then grocery shop based upon these plans. On average, when I meal plan, I save about $50 a week. That is a lot of money and a necessity when we are a one income family.  I want to keep my favorite recipes, tried and true ones, in this section, and also my inventories and coupon planning [I am by no means an extreme couponer, but I do use coupons when I can!

Bible Reading and Scripture Memorization - I have joined with a PB group of like minded brothers and sisters and we plan to read the Bible through in a year, and I am real excited about that. We also want to plan our devotional time with the kids a little better and this is a perfect place to keep this information for both my hubby and I to get to.

Daily/Weekly/Monthly/Yearly To do lists -  This will include a daily agenda, appointments, and things I need to get done around the house.

2013 Calendar - This will be the main place I will keep appointments and obligations

Fitness/Food Log: Self  explanatory...I hope...

Finances/Budgeting/Bills - We are starting this new year hopefully really in tune with Dave Ramsey and his methods of budgeting and paying off debt. We really need help in this area and I am really in need of a specific and organized location to keep my records.

So, this is what I am working on at the end of this year. What I want is to hear back from my friends, especially those with families, and I want to hear if you have a home management notebook or method, and if so, what is it. I would love to hear your ideas and stories, etc. so please get back with me. You can email me or message me on facebook, or leave a comment here [I know, that is not always the easiest thing to do!]. Please share your thoughts with me. If you want to know more about my research, you can follow me on pinterest and look at my pins and boards. I have pinned a ton of sites that have tons of free printables and tons of information on how to create a family notebook and the purposes of a notebook of this sort. Let me know what you think!

Reflections of 2012

Here we are at the end of the year. I usually spend a lot of time at the end of the year reflecting on what has happened this year and where I am physically, mentally and spiritually. I am usually down in the dumps about my reflections, but I am trying not to be that way this year. I want to look back on this year and truly look back and think about the good things that have happened, the bad, and the downright ugly. There are so many things to look back on and want to change or do better at. Then there are some things I feel like I did well with, but need to amp it up, so to speak. Then there are so many things that I fell so drastically short on, so many ways I failed or bombed. That's okay, though. I always try to go into a new year with a new plan, new year's resolutions, so to speak. I always seem to start out really well, but then I dwindle down to my comfort zone again. Anyway, these are just some thoughts I am having while I am reflecting. I hope in the next couple of weeks to have some realy good thoughts down in multiple areas of my life and I will share some of my plans for the upcoming year with you all. In the meantime, what are your plans for the new year? How do you come up with plans for the next year, or do you even plan at all? I really would love to hear from you all!

Pain That Will Make You Cry Like A Baby!!!

I want this post to be very informative and very helpful to all of my friends and family. I want to talk to you about home remedies for toothache pain. There are some important things that you need to know, and this past week/weekend has given me a lot of experience and I have a lot of advice for you!

Okay, when you first start to experience dental pain, you have a short window of opportunity to decide whether or not the pain warrants a trip to the family dentist or not. Some things to consider are what day of the week is it? Some dental offices can not see you right away, especially if you are not an established patient. If you are an established patient, you will already have a leg up because dental offices are generally good to their established patients. Also, just how bad is the pain? Is it a sensitivity or is it actual pain. Don't dilly-dally! Make that appt!

Okay, if you are near a weekend and the dental office can't see you until the next week, you are going to be in some inevitable pain, so there are some things to think about. If you have tooth pain and it is GREAT, there is a great chance that you have an infection. A lot of dental offices are not able to fix yout tooth until you have been on antibiotics for a day or two, so you might want to consider going to an urgent care center so you can get started on your antibiotics and get some pain medicine if necessary.

Here are some awesome home remedies to try until you can be seen for your appointment:

  Salt Water: Mix a heaping spoonful of salt in a small glass of lukewarm to warm water, swoosh around inside your mouth for as long as you can, spit out. Repeat a couple times.

Cloves: Rest a clove against the sore area until pain goes away. You can also use a drop or two of clove oil (too much can be toxic) on a cotton swab and hold against the tooth

Alcohol: Swoosh a bit of whiskey, scotch, brandy or vodka. A strong mouthwash that contains alcohol will do the trick too.

Hydrogen Peroxide: Swoosh a bit of hydrogen peroxide. Try diluting with a bit of water.

Vanilla Extract: Saturate a cotton ball with vanilla and hold in place. Can also use a cotton swab dipped in extract.

Almond Extract: Same method of treatment as with Vanilla (above). Peppermint Extract: Same as with Vanilla (above).

Tea Tree Oil: Just a drop or two will do the trick. You can also add some to a cotton swab and hold in place or add a few drops of tea tree oil to a small glass of lukewarm to warm water and swoosh this around.

Oil Of Oregano: Mix a few drops with a bit of olive oil, then saturate a cotton ball with mixture. Can replace the olive oil with lukewarm water if preferred.

Apple Cider Vinegar: Soak a cotton ball with apple cider vinegar (ACV) and hold it in place. Can also try regular household vinegar.

Ginger Root: Take a fresh piece of ginger and chew it a bit.

Garlic: Take a clove of garlic, smash it and apply (settle it inside cheek). You can also mash some garlic with salt.

Onion: Slice a piece of fresh onion and hold it inside your mouth. The onion needs to be freshly cut (so it provides a bit of onion juice).

Cayenne Pepper: Make a paste with cayenne pepper and water.

Black Pepper: You can use this full strength or make a mix of pepper and salt.

Baking Soda: Take a cotton swab and moisten it with a bit of water, dip it in baking soda (coat the swab really well with baking soda) then apply. You can also make a mouth rinse by mixing a heaping spoonful of baking soda in a small glass of lukewarm to warm water, dissolve the soda then swish the mixture in your mouth.

Ice Pack: Cover an ice pack with a face cloth or towel then hold over your cheek where the problem is. This will help numb things. If that doesn’t work, try the opposite–a hot compress (not too hot that it burns your skin).

There are many, many websites out there and information out there that can help. I personally tried all of the remedies above. Unfortunately, my infection was so bad that the remedies only lasted for a couple of minutes and the pain was then greater than ever. The one thing that helped when ALL ELSE FAILED was Ice Water. For 18 hours I had to swig a little bit of icewater and swish it over the infected tooth. As long as I did this constantly, the pain was somewhat alleviated. One word of advice, don't drink all of that water that you are swishing...if you do, you will find yourself vomiting at 5 in the morning because you are drinking too much water.

  Keep in mind that home remedies are not cures. They are just ways to help alleviate the pain until you can see the dentist.

I hope some of this information helps, and may the Lord bless you to feel better soon if you are in pain with a toothache!

Enjoying The Day

I am so excited. We have company coming in this evening. The kids are really excited because it is their little cousins. This is going to be so much fun!We are going to have a big homemade pizza party this evening and just enjoy each other's company. These times don't come around often enough! I have enjoyed picking up around the house with my little 14 month old tag-along buddy. He is the youngest of the kids I watch right now...until Monday! He goes wherever I go and I forgot how much I enjoy having kids this young around. He is a delight. I am also thankful my husband would go to the grocery store with two little three year old girls and do the grocery shopping for the week for me. He is so sweet! Off for now! Get out and enjoy your day!!!

My Little Sponge

I never knew Josiah could or would be THIS excited about school and learning. He is literally my little sponge. He has learned all of his letters in upper case and lower case, and he knows all of the sounds of his consonants and vowels. We can't go anywhere without Josiah telling us what letter EVERYTHING starts with. I can almost say it is like a new fixation for him...but this is a good one. He also is counting like crazy and can count by himself to 100 and is so proud of himself. He doesn't really understand what reading really entails, and is not really into wanting to read, but he loves sounding out the letters in words and doesn't realize he is reading some simple words. Josiah also loves teaching Bethany what he has learned, and Bethany loves hearing what he has to teach. At the beginning of every week on Monday, the teacher sends home 5 front and back pages of "optional" homework. It is suggested by the teacher to do the homework one page a night and turn it in on Friday for stickers on his chart and "husky bucks". He begs me every Monday evening to do all of his homework. We do it all that night, and then he begs me for more. He also asks the teacher to send him home extra work because he already finished his. He loves to sit and do what he calls "seat work". Bethany and the other kids love to do it with him too, so I have to keep them all supplied with pages to work on. If there is no homework to do, there is usually some fussing, but I can usually turn the fussing around if I give him some pages to color. Coloring has always been something that Josiah has NEVER liked to do, but now, he loves to color and practice staying in the lines. I let him do it as much as he wants because it improves his fine motor skills and hand strength, an area where he is lacking. So, I am just so proud of my little boy and so glad that he is soooo in love with learning right now. I hope this love for learning and doing things lasts for a long, long time! Happy Saturday and Happy First Day of Fall!!!

Days Two, Three and Four, Week One Challenge

Okay, so Day Two was a big bust...and I mean big! But, what do you do when the kids are lethargic and just want to lay on the sofa after vomiting all night? Well, we put in a few movies until momma regained some energy after being up all night with the sick kiddos. Do I feel bad or guilty about that? Um, no, not really. I was able to stay off of the computer and get some things done...like nasty, dirty laundry, and when the kids napped, I did a little computing. Day Three we went back to no TV and no computer while the kids were awake/around and I got no fussing from the peanut gallery. That is an improvement! We have gotten a lot of stuff done this week. I have gotten some cleaning things done that I have procrastinated on for quite a while, and the kids have found a new interest in old toys and have learned how to occupy themselves with other things. I think we are going to take this on as a Two Week Challenge...maybe even more! Happy Friday to everyone!!!

Week One, Day One of No computer/no TV challenge

Well, I made it through the day with no computer/no tv while the kids were asleep [okay, so they are not here right now, so that still counts, right?]. I can't tell you how many times I turned to go to the computer [okay, so I did turn on pandora and listen to music from the computer, but I did not sit down and vegetate at the computer and waste time!] and then turned back around and decided to do something else. Here are a few of the things I did instead: I began to prepare for dinner, I folded two loads of laundry, I changed three diapers for a stinky Mr. T, I played playdough with my daughter and the other kids, I washed dishes, I swept and mopped the kitchen floor, I filled out my fridge calendar for the rest of this month and this following month, and I did a few rows of crochet on a baby blanket. My husband woke up this afternoon and went on and on about how having the blinds up and the windows open makes the house look so much brighter and cleaner...no, dear, that is the cleaning I was doing [I love him, he is so sweet!]! So, Bethany asked me three times if she could watch a movie. I told her: "No, remember, this is no TV or computer week." She responded well when I suggested other things to do. One time I pulled out a slip of paper and told her we were going to do what the paper said, and it said to play playdough, so she was happy. When Josiah got off of the school bus, he said: "Momma, I'm not going to ask you if we can watch a movie, because it's no TV week, right? Well, I am going to ask you if we can do a piece of paper!" So, we went in, had snacks and Josiah got to pull three different pieces of paper for a TV alternative. He got to play on the front porch with Daddy, got to color and he got to play playdough also. I really, really enjoyed my computer free day, and I think I am even going to bed early tonight because I am exhausted!!! Happy TV/Computer free week, y'all!!! :-)

I didn't drop off the face of the earth...

...I promise! Don't you hate it when you follow someone's blog and all of a sudden, after they post on a regular basis, the blogger just falls off the face of the earth and doesn't write anything for months!?!? Well, I stopped blogging for several months, but it has been because I really, really, just haven't had a lot of time. Shortly after my last post, my family went on a 10 day vacation, and shortly after I came home, I started babysitting again. I keep a sweet little girl who is a little bit older than Bethany. Miss E is very sweet, very obedient and easy to get along with. Shortly after Miss E came along, I added two more kiddos to the bunch that I babysit. Mr. J and Mr. J's brother, also Mr. J, added much delight to our spring and summer. One of the boys is 3 and the other is 7. Josiah has loved having the 7 year old around. Seven year old Mr. J has taught Josiah a lot...including how to wrestle and physically fight with others...like the Incredible Hulk...yes, a great part of my summer was spent fussing at these two boys for being too hard and rough on each other. They, I have a little baby I keep every now and then, Mr. T. I have watched him on and off since he was born and now he is starting to toddle around and I am starting to keep him on a more consistent basis. The older Mr. J and Josiah have gone back to school, so I have Bethany plus three other little charges on a regular basis. Soon I will add another 5 year old and his baby sister, a 2 month old to the pack for three afternoons a week. Am I nuts? No, not really, just doing what it takes to be able to stay home with my kids and take care of them, my husband and my home. So, as you can see, I haven't had much time to spend on blogging. I have a purpose in blogging tonight. For the past couple of weeks, I have been convicted of what I consider to be a sin in my life, and that is mis-management of my time. Even though I say I don't have a lot of time, I always seem to find enough time to sit at the computer and spend time answering and writing emails, or sitting on facebook keeping up with friends and family, and basically just dilly-dallying in general. Along with this sitting at the computer and spending too much time on it and not enough time with my family, it seems like all the kids ever want to do is watch movies. We don't have cable TV, but the kids LOVE their movies. I used to only let them watch 30 minutes of movies a day while I worked on dinner, or did other things around the house, but that 30 minutes has morphed into another incredibly terrible waste of time for my kids and the kids I babysit. So, I have been thinking about what I am going to do about this. I think things have been slipping all about me because of this habit I have of spending too much time on the computer. Dinner keeps getting later and later, laundry mountains get higher and higher, and other things just take a second seat, and that is not the way it should be and not the way I want things. So, here is what I am going to do, starting tomorrow. This is NO TV WEEK and NO COMPUTER WEEK in our house [except for Daddy...he can make his own decisions in this area]. Instead of spending time on the computer or in front of the TV, I have made a huge list [a separate one for me and one for the kids] of things we can do. My idea is that when the kids ask me if they can watch a movie, I will remind them this is NO TV week and that we need to find something else to do with our time. I have folded up about 50 different little pieces of paper and on each slip is something we can do instead of wasting time. Some of the kids activities include: ~Sing Silly Songs ~Play with Play-do ~Write a letter to Granny ~Make birthday or holiday cards ~Look for bugs ~Play Simon Says ~Play Mother May I And, these are just a few of the things we will be doing instead of TV this week. Here are a few of the things mommy has been procrastinating over and things I will be doing instead of time on the computer: ~Spend 15 minutes ironing ~Scrub outside of kitchen cabinets ~Read a book for 15 minutes ~Call a family member ~Take church list and pray over church members ~Clean out arts/crafts/preschool cabinet ~Clean out silverware drawer ~Sit down and work on crochet project for 15mins And these are just a few! I came up with 102 different activities for me to choose from. Anytime I find myself gravitating towards the computer and telling myself it would be for just a minute, instead I am going to draw out a folded piece of paper and do what the paper says instead. Now, the only exception I will make to this is that when the kids go to bed at night, if I need some time on the computer, I will take it. Other than that, I will not have any personal time on the computer while the kids are awake. I am pretty excited about this adventure. I am actually hoping that we last longer than a week. I will let you know how it goes. How do YOU manage your time wisely? I would love your helpful hints and advice!

Down In The Valley

So, I am very excited to say that I have decided to turn my hobbies and crafts into a real business. This is going to be a slow going process and I am just fine with that. I have started by coming up with a new business name. I had an initial name that I just couldn't get away from because I didn't feel it was right for the type of items I was wanting to sell. I wanted the name to be fun, meaningful and I wanted people to stop and ask me how I came up with the name. One Wednesday night recently, while Danny and I were playing a game of Scrabble, I got out a notebook and just started doodling and thinking about business names. It was then that I decided on "Down In The Valley". We live in the beautiful Roanoke Valley surrounded by the Blue Ridge Mountains. I LOVE where I live!!! I am excited because I think the name of my new company is a great spin off of the things that I love. Down In The Valley will be a shop where I specialize mainly in kid's clothing and accessories. More specific than that, I really want to specialize in little girl's clothing and hair accessories. I will throw in the occasional little boy's clothes, and other kids items. For right now, I have set my shop up on etsy.com. If you click on the title of this blog entry, you can find my shop! Come visit me when you can, and please, please share my info with others. Word of mouth is the best advertisement there is! Thanks!

A Passion and a Hobby

I remember as a little girl spending hours and hours at a time at this fabric warehouse with my mom. They had bins and bins of fabric to search through. They also had this floor scale I remember. It was HUGE...okay, huge in a 5 yr old's eyes. I remember my baby brother falling asleep in the bins of fabric as mom continued to search through the bins for all of the perfect pieces. Then I remember my mom sewing for hours and hours. I was amazed at how fast her machine would move. She has an industrial sewing machine that is huge and runs like a champion. This machine, by far, is still my favorite, even though mom has only given me the privilege of using it a few times.

I bought my first sewing machine, a Singer, from an antique shop for $15. It was the kind of machine that is attached to a cabinet and it drops down into the cabinet and then becomes a table. I have a bit of a confession...I have 5 sewing machines, three of them work and three of them are the kind that come in the table. One of them is an old Singer with a peddle foot. I am in love with sewing machines, especially antiques. With my first Singer, I made all of the decorative pieces for our wedding and had a marvelous time with it too. I don't use this machine anymore. I have moved on to bigger and better! Ha! I have a Brother sewing machine and a Husqvarna that are now my two main machines. I love the Husqvarna and how easy it is. So, my hobby of sewing occasionally when I was unmarried, has become a passion since I have my own kids. I must admit, I don't sew as much for Josiah as I do for Bethany. I have made many pairs of pants for Josiah, and he has worn them out, but for Bethany I have made pants, hats, dresses, aprons, and blankets for her animals. I love to sew! I especially love to sew little girls clothes, especially dresses. There is just something about a little girls dress looking so sweet and pretty on her. I must admit, it almost makes me want to put dresses on Bethany all of the time!

I have a desire to sell what I make, but have either not hit the right venue as of yet, or have no marketing abilities [this much is true!]. I have tried to sell things on etsy.com to no avail and I have sold a couple of things over facebook, but I am not sure I want to have a facebook account for business. So, right now I am praying for the right thing to come along and trying to think about how to market the items I make. I have received much encouragement, as of late, to try to start selling things again, so this is something I am praying hard about. Anyway, I leave you with my two latest creations.

It's a hit!

As I stated, I use pinterest for a lot of ideas and I saw these chicken and spinach flautas/taquitos and it looked so good. Of course, I didn't follow the instructions to a "T", but then again, I usually never do. Here are the changes I made:

I took the chicken thighs and I cooked them in the crockpot on high for a couple of hours, then shredded the chicken. I did not cook them in beer and water [never had beer, can't imagine this tasting good...].

Instead of the baby spinach, I used one package of frozen creamed spinach. I mixed it in with the shredded chicken.

Then I added:
garlic
chopped onion
garlic powder
onion powder
salt
pepper
paprika
cumin
crumbled queso cheese

I mixed these altogether and used whole wheat flour tortillas and cooked for about 12 minutes on 450 degrees. I put olive oil on both sides of the taquitos and they came out extra crisp and just wonderful.

My DH kept saying that this was a hit, you'll have to make it again, but a lot more of it, and you ought to take it to church. I think he likied it! I will be making this again and thankful to pinterest for the idea!

Pinterest Interest

What's all the buzz about Pinterest do you say? Well, I am the kind of person that LOVES to be crafty. I love to sew, especially bags and little girl's clothes...especially girl's dresses...I also love to be crafty and do kids crafts. I love to try new recipes...the easier the better. BUT, I am terrible about coming up with ideas on my own. If I see something I like, it gives me the idea to go for it. So, when I want to make Bethany a dress, where is the first place I look for an idea [if I am not going to use a pattern]? I look at pinterest. If I want multiple recipe ideas, pinterest is my first stop. What I love about Pinterest is that "it's all there"...I can t ype in "little girl's dresses" and up pops a myriad of choices to look at an get ideas from. I can "pin" things to my wall and go back and look at it later and go back to it whenever I want.

So, a friend posted a challenge of sorts today..."52 Weeks of Pinterest". Basically, the goal is to make or do something you see on Pinterest at least once a week. She had a good point...if you look at pinterest all of the time and never do anything you see, then you are wasting your time, and I agree! So, I will try to write once a week about my pinterest inspired creations. Until then, happy pinning!

Spring has sprung!

I put on shorts for the first time today and headed out into the glorious sunshine and springtime weather. This time of year makes me want to do all sorts of things. I want to spring clean, organize, sew, prep the garden, go for walks, and sit on the front porch watching the kids enjoy themselves, just to name a few. Right now, I have two sewing projects on my plate for others, then I plan to make both of Josiah and Bethany's shorts and Bethany's dresses for this next season. I am not happy with the little girls shorts that are out on the market today. They are either too short or too low cut and that is not what I want for my daughter. Also, Josiah is in a big growing season, so it will be easier for me to make his shorts for this spring/summer/fall rather than investing money in them. Then, I desperately need to clean out cabinets, drawers and closets around the house. I think I will start with the kitchen next. My desire is to get rid of anything we don't use or haven't used in a very long time. Time to purge! Then, onto the garden! I have big plans for the front yard. I would like to do a lot of flower planting around our birdbath in the front yard, put up some trellis' [sp?] for my beautiful roses. We also plan to put rocks or mulch - can't decide which yet - down around the flower beds. Then, Danny and I have always wanted to grow all of our own herbs...as Danny says, on an industrial scale...I really want some oregano, basil, lavendar, rosemary, and thyme to start with, maybe a few others. It's also time to start exploring our greenways and parks here in Roanoke. We have so many! This was something we started doing last year with the kids almost every day. Josiah has created his own names for the parks we go to and sometimes we don't know which parks he is talking about because he doesn't call them by their proper names. Amongst his favorites are "the creek park", "the park where the man built the bridge", "the line park", "tarpley's", and "tennis park". He is so cute, and loves our exploring as much as we do. Happy Spring everyone!

Do I do that?

We don't have cable TV, nor do we want it, but sometimes I do watch a few things on the internet. I saw something about Jon and Kate, Plus 8, which I have never really seen a full episode of, but I got to wondering what the first few episodes were like. So, I had a few minutes and pulled up the very first episode and watched about 20 minutes. I was kind of in shock and horrified. It was not how the kids act, how the parents parent, how the house looked, but my goodness, Kate treats her husband like a huge punching bag. She is rude, hateful, condescending, two-faced and just awful to her husband. Kate seems to be a very organized and in control person, but the way she goes about it is just astonishing to me. She never asks her husband to do things for her. She orders: "Do this..." or, "Do that...". Do it now, do it the way I want it, do it faster, or do it neater. If the poor man fails to do all of her bidding to meet all of her rigid expectations, she yells at him, berates him, belittles him and embarrasses him in public. They do very many on camera interviews together throughout the day and she even tells him what to say and how to say it. She is very concerned about what is said in front of others and how it is said and how she appears and how what her husband says appears to others. It is really just astounding to me, really.

It made me start thinking about how I treat my husband and how I act with him. MOMENT OF TRUTH: Watching this show for just 20 minutes convicted me to my core. I am much like the woman in this show. I like things to be very organized [not often is it like that way, however], I like to be in control, I like things to be done my way, because, well, it is the only way, right? Well, this is not the way we are to be as wives to our husbands. Since watching that episode, I have been eager to go back to God's Word and remind myself of the wife I am to be to my husband.

God's Word gives us much insight on this subject:

Ephesians 5:22-23: We, as wives, are called to submit to our husbands because to submit to our husbands is submission rendered to the Lord Himself.

I Corinthians 11: It is clear in this passage that God has called the husband to be the overseer of the wife and the family. This is to bring glory to God.

Proverbs 31: 10-31: We are all familiar with this passage explaining the beauty of the virtuous woman. She is a blessing to her husband. Verse 11, 12 and 23 speak mightily to me:
The heart of her husband safely trusts her. She does him good and not evil all the days of her life. Her husband is known at the gates,when he sits among the elders of the land.

So, the verses above speak about how we should be as a Godly wife, but what about how we SHOULD not be...the Bible is clear on that too. Here are some of the most frequently used verses that should warn women of their conduct with their husbands and within the family:

Proverbs 19:13b
…the contentions of a wife are a continual dripping

Proverbs 21:9
Better to dwell in the corner of a housetop,
Than in a house shared with a contentious woman.

Proverbs 21:19
Better to dwell in the wilderness,
Than in with a contentious and angry woman.

So, when I think about the "Jon and Kate Family", I don't know much about them except I do know that they are now divorced, or separated with that intention. I wonder how much of the wife's attitude towards her husband turned the husband away from her and the family [I don't know any of what is going on with them, or why they are not together anymore, so this is just a musing on my part). I know that when I act towards my husband in ways that are not glorifying to God, I don't draw my husband near to me, but instead, I push him away.

So, what should you do instead? Well, I think that bathing yourself in the Word of God is always a good start. I also like a website that goes through 31 Days of praying for your husband. You can find that list here:

http://www.reviveourhearts.com/articles/31-days-of-praying-for-your-husband/


I just want to encourage wives everywhere to love your husband, treat him well, build him up, support him and love him as you should.

Where have I been?

I have been here all the time. I just haven't felt the inspiration or motivation to keep up with our family blog. I feel like *maybe* a little desire is creeping back in for me to work on my blog some more. It has been well over a year since I have posted anything, and I feel like maybe it is time to catch up and start posting again.

So, let me give you a few highlights from 2011:

January 2011 - Bethany had eye surgery for strabismus repair [crossed eyes]. The surgery was wonderful, and even though the DR said that it would not improve Bethany's eyesight, it really has. Her depth perception has increased and she sees better with her new glasses rx and without her glasses even.

February 2011 - Took Josiah to the Circus for his 4th birthday. It was just time for me and him and he had a fabulous time! He talked about it so much that we took him again this year, for his 5th birthday.

March 2011 - We flew kites for the first time with the kids, and we began to explore all of our wonderful parks in and around Roanoke.

April 2011 - Dyed eggs with the kids for the first time. They had a lot of fun!

May 2011 - Visited Amazement Square in Lynchburg. We had a great time of learning and being with friends!

June 2011 - Baby Caroline, our cousin from Memphis came for a visit. She is such a sweetheart.

July 2011 - This was a trying month for us. Josiah was diagnosed with High-functioning Autism Spectrum Disorder. This threw us for a loop, but it has been so much fun trying to learn how my son's wheels turn and learning how to work with him in ways that will help him. We are blessed to be going through this experience.

August 2011 - Josiah started Pre-K! Wow, I was so nervous to put Josiah on the bus that first day, but since then, Josiah has been dubbed the bus mascot and he LOVES school!

September 2011 - We went to GA for a special wedding. My mom married a wonderful man named Tyson. It was a bittersweet time for all of us, but he is a wonderful man and I am happy for my mom.

October 2011 - We spent several days playing in the rain, watching rainbows, and playing in fallen leaves.

November 2011 - Thanksgiving in VA and in GA - best of both worlds, except Daddy didn't get to go with us to GA :-(

December 2011 - Christmas in VA and in GA - Also, my Granny's husband John passed away, so we went to GA for the funeral.

So, this is just a highlight of 2011 for us. It was a great year, and now I am happy to be in 2012.

So, as I take up blogging again, don't be worried if the posts are few and far between, but I will say this: I want my blog to be glorifying to God, helpful to others and fun. See you at my next post!

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY...well, almost

This is my spunky little Bethany. Please pray for her as she will have eye surgery tomorrow. I will update you all then!

This, That, and Everything Else

I haven't posted in a while and I do not apologize. The blog takes a back seat whenever we are busy having fun and enjoying life! Let me catch up a bit...

Thanksgiving:

I felt a tremendous need to be with my side of the family for this Thanksgiving holiday. This would be the first Thanksgiving without Dad in our lives and even that thought was tremendously hard for me to bear. Thinking about mom being without Dad was even worse to think about, but we all came together as a family and had a great time at my brother and sister in laws house. The cousins exchanged Christmas presents since we wouldn't be together around Christmas time. A lot of us shared something else...the stomach virus! My poor nieces and sister in law got it first. About 2 days later I woke up to a vomiting son. My poor mom was sick for days. Thinking the illness was over, I made the trek back home to VA, and got sick in the middle of the night. Uugghh! It had been years since I had a stomach virus and I was glad when we were over it and so thankful that Bethany and Danny didn't get sick!

Since Thanksgiving:

We have been busy. Before Thanksgiving I had a terrible toothache that I continued to put off. When the stomach virus was over, I decided enough was enough and visited the dentist. Yep, cracked tooth down to the root...had to be pulled, which was no fun! It was pulled a week ago today and as I sit here and type, I am going through dry socket pain. I have an appt this afternoon to see the oral surgeon again to have the extraction site "medicated and packed". I just want the pain to GO AWAY!!!

The other thing I have been busy with is, frankly, just keeping up with the kids and my home duties. I have really kind of begun again with potty training Josiah. I have pulled out a timer and for the past few days, Josiah has been going potty every time the timer goes off, which I set it for about 20-30 minutes every time. Poor guy wakes up every morning and every afternoon from nap, soaking wet. We have to change the bed sheets everyday, most of the time twice a day. I have limited the amount of fluids he gets a night...no more bedtime milk, but milk and the last of the fluids is served with dinner. Man o'man has this been a long and drawn out process!!! I am beginning to think that Bethany will be potty trained before Josiah at this rate! Ha! Anyway, I will persevere and we will conquer this mountain!

I have taken on a few more babysitting adventures, not every day, but when I am needed. This will assist financially and I have enjoyed having these dear kids with bright, blooming imaginations! They are had to keep up with mentally and physically! They are dear too. It is fun to have them around. Josiah is seeming to feel out of place and unsure of himself. I am just not sure how to help him handle more kids, but I love on him a lot and try to reassure him.

One thing that has taken up an incredible amount of my time is menu planning. Yes, MENU PLANNING! I am trying to have my 2011 menu plans set in stone before the first of the year. I have gotten a lot done, too. Breakfast and lunches were easy to figure out. We will have the same breakfast and lunch menu each week for the entire year. For Dinner, I am trying a wide variety of things. I will be having soup for dinner at least two days of the week during the cold weeks and when it gets warmer, we will be having sandwiches at least twice a week so we might be able to get out and do more in the warmer weeks. I am trying at least one meatless dish each week and one new dish each week. We are trying for a non-monotonous fare. The more engaging the meal, the less likely we will want to go out to eat, which is a major problem for our family. I am keeping a kitchen journal this year so I can keep up with the menu plans and keep up with what my DH likes and doesn't like about the new meals and what I can do to improve for the next year. So, this brings me to another topic....

My blogging New Year's Resolutions:

I want to make things less sporadic, more fun and informational, so here are the changes you will see:

Meal Planning Mondays - will list the weeks meal plans; sometimes I will add recipes, sometimes I will only add recipes upon request

Thanksgiving Tuesdays and Thanksgiving Thursdays: I will share posts of the things me and my family are thankful for

Wordless Wednesdays - I plan to post the cutest picture of the week and let you think what you will

Funny Fridays - we have a lot of funny stuff going on around here - On Friday's I will share the funniest moments of the week.

Saturdays and Sundays will be blog free! Let me know what you think about everything. Do you have any new ideas for blogging in 2011? Let me hear about it!

Doing what it takes to stay at home

My greatest joy in this life is my children. I desire with all that I have in me to train them to be a Godly young man and woman. I desire to be able to raise them myself and to be here at home with them as much as possible. This is not an easy task in this day and age though, you know? It is difficult, at best, to be home with your kids and have one income and be able to pay all the bills and meet all the needs of everyone in the family. Even though it is difficult, I believe I have the talent and resources to make this staying at home thing work!

This all being said, I would like to share with you what I have been doing from home and I would LOVE for you to share with me any ideas and thoughts that you have that have enabled you to stay at home with your children. As I have mentioned before, I love to sew. My heart is really into sewing little girls items and baby items. I love to make cute little girl dresses, pillow case dresses, pants and shirts for little girls. I also make hot and cold therapy packs for migraines and other aches and pains. These packs are sooo wonderful and I use them for much more than aches and pains! Have you heard of Boppy nursing pillows for the nursing mother? It is one of those big hit items that came out several years ago as a way to make a baby and mother more comfortable as they bond through feedings. For these pillows, I have begun making nursing pillow covers. Guess what else I have been asked to sew? I have been asked the make some doggy diapers! I never thought I would ever make a diaper for dogs! HA! I try to sell my sewing stuff on Ebay.com and a handmade items website called etsy.com. I would love for you to look me up sometime and take a look at my things. Offer insight and wisdom and I would LOVE for you to please share with others the website I share with you. Word of mouth works GREAT!!!

I will say this, as a disclaimer: I know staying at home with your kids is sometimes not able to be done. I know that bills have to be paid, needs have to be met, so I am not saying that women can not work outside of the home or that they should not at all. I even took a year after my daugther was born and I HAD to go back to work to help meet the needs and pay the bills. I am just trying to think outside of the box and encourage others to think outside the box, because for me, I believe I can stay at home if I use all of my valuable resources!

http://www.etsy.com/shop/melliehodges