New love and It Can't Be Monday. :)

Here's what I said to Nathan:

"I love you Dear, BUT, I've found someone new. His name is Art. He's younger than you, he never looks at other women, in fact, I'm the only woman that he lets touch him. He does whatever I ask him to, whether it's choping, mixing, shredding, slicing or pureeing. He's black, deliciously black and beautiful. He might get dirty working hard serving me, but I can just throw him in the dishwasher and he comes out shiny and clean. Last night I said to him "Cuisin, my love, how did I ever get along without you? You've made my life so much easier and more fun. Because of you, I can make soup, hummus, stirfry, lemon slices, focaccia dough, and a multitude of other wonderful things, all with mere seconds spent." No offense, Nate, but you could never be to me what Cuisin Art is. Don't worry, we're very happy to stay here with you. The three of us can be something beautiful."

So, yes, I am in love with my wonderful new food processor, a 14 cup Cuisinart. I got it on Friday. So far I've used it to make garlic and spinach stuffed twice baked potatoes, Jamaican tomato soup, stir fry, and tonight I'm making roasted red pepper hummus (which is fabulous with blue corn chips from Target., by the way). It's black chrome and super heavy. It shreds fresh herbs super fast, purees garlic and shreds beets, carrots, and anything else I want it to. It can also slice potatoes for chips, knead dough and is a snap to put together and clean. And, the best part, I got it on a HUGE sale, combined with a 30% off coupon which made it less than half the original price, and when I called Nate to ask him about it he said "Go for it!" without any equivocation. That was such a blessing! It's my early Mother's Day, Birthday, Anniversary gift. :)

In other news, this morning while Ian was doing his reading lesson, he turned to me and said "You know who I love more than anyone else in the whole entire world?" I was thinking it would be Bandit, or maybe Daddy, or Lily, his cousin. But no, he went on to say "It's you, Mama!" It was so sweet, and totally unprovoked, just a beautiful random Ian-ism. Like last week when I was reviewing his vowels with him and said "a-e-i-o-u" and he said "OOOOH, I-O-U, like 'I owe you a cow!'" Like this a commonly used phrase. Yeah. Most of the time his random wanderings are pretty out there and you don't know what he's talking about, but this time was wonderful. It totally made my day. Other things that made my day, in no particular order:

• Feeling the sun on my face outside with Claire this morning
• Having our first picnic of the year on our picnic table by the sandbox
• Watching the fat brave robins hopping and pecking out on my lawn
• Seeing the fencing in the back yard that Nate is going to put up so we can do a garden.
  
• Happy memories of last night, food and fellowship and fun with friends and family. fffffff
• Only having to spank Grace once so far today. (Seriously, this is good)
• Noticing George sign his Science paper "George the Magnificent."
  
• Looking forward to reading before bed tonight "On the Way Home", Laura Ingalls Wilder's journal on her trip to Missouri
• Hearing Ian zip through his reading lesson this morning, then later him telling me that what he learned in Science today was that "There are 12 foot long worms that live in South Dakota, um, I mean Africa."
  
• Eating leftover Jamaican Tomato Soup and GSTB potatoes
• Going over plural and proper nouns with George. English makes me happy.
  
• Doing a Hello Kitty puzzle with Grace
• Sauteed kale and mushrooms with my eggs this morning. It's amazing how much better I feel all throughout the day when I have kale for breakfast.
  
• Talking to my brother this morning, sharing jokes only he and I would understand and laughing til we cried
• Planning a trip to visit said brother and wife and wonderful sweet children, including my precious neph Egan, who called me a few weeks ago and said "Auntie, can you come to my birfday??" Who could say no to that??
• Seeing my boys make connections from Old Testament prophets to their lives now.
  
• Clean, fresh, flannel sheets on my bed
• Saying "Aahh" when walking into my clean bathroom, instead of my normal "Man, I really need to clean up in here!"
  

It's just been way too fun of a day to be a Monday, or rather, I suppose opening my eyes to the blessings around me makes me aware of the many gifts the Lord gives me on a continual basis.

Balance??

I'm not sure why my urge to blog has been so scarce lately. Perhaps it's just a symptom of where we are at right now. I don't feel like I have much time for anything extra, beyond school and all it entails and keeping up with the house. If it weren't for church and Awana, I don't think I would hardly ever leave my house. I'm certainly not complaining, I like it that way in some ways. I think God is just really refocusing my attentions on getting my schedule and schooling and interactions with the kids where they need to be, and it is a process! I am loving where we are at right now, loving teaching and helping them learn and watching them get excited about it all. I am loving all the snuggles I can get out of my not-so-little "baby" Claire-Bear. I am loving playing games with them, reading to them and starting new things with them. I am also really loving finding my new niche in cooking and giving healthy yummy meals to my family. We have changed so much in our diets, but I have never before enjoyed all the fun new ways to have things and the trying of new things.

So, I am so thankful for my life right now, but it seems that it is all enclosed within my four walls. Nate has even been going grocery shopping for me on Wednesday nights with Claire while the three bigs and I are at Awana. I keep getting little pricks of well, conviction is not the right word...maybe guilt? when I realize how inward focused I am getting. Not that taking care of my home and family is in any way wrong. I believe it is a Biblical mandate, but sometimes I am shocked to discover that I haven't called friends in weeks, that I haven't kept up with what other friends are doing, that it's been months since I have gotten together with friends. I think I am still trying to find a balance between being faithful to what the Lord has called me to at home, and also being faithful to be the friend I should be to the wonderful friends the Lord has blessed me with. I have a long way to go.

And now, on top of all that, I have been really itching to get back into a regular routine of exercise. I have so many times started out gung ho and energized and expecting so much of myself that burnout is just inevitable. I don't want to do that this time. I don't want to feel I have failed if I am not shaking with exhaustion when I get off the treadmill. I want to be satisfied with whatever few minutes I can devote to it and NOT make it more of a priority than it should be, while still giving the time and attention to it I need to. Again, finding a balance here is so hard for me. I have moments when I laugh at myself and think "How old are you? Have you not figured this out yet?!?!?" But in some ways, I think I had an easier time of it when I was younger. I never felt the weight of responsibility that I do now, nor the consequences of failure. Yet another thing I need to lay at the feet of the cross. I know the Lord holds the balance, the peace I am striving for. And yet, too often, turning to Him for help is a last resort, after I have fallen on my face, instead of an automatic impulse, being fully aware of my incompetence at the beginning.

Well, I must go corral the youngins' and get them fed. The boys still have their reading for the day to do and Bible. And maybe the girls will nap and I can walk on my treadmill for a little while?? We shall see. :)