No Shred Today

I didn't make it today for exercising and to top it off - I had a delish chocolate dessert at dinner : -)

Amazing Conversation

Tonight I had the extreme pleasure of dinner with a dear friend. I had taken my Bible to catch up for the day and it led us into some amazing, God led conversation. I learned more about this inspiring woman than I ever knew before. I am blessed to call her my friend!

Thank you God for giving me this dear, wonderful friend. You brought her into my life years ago and now our friendship feels like a completely different, more amazing relationship than I deserve. Thank you God - for loving me and blessing me with great friends!!

Dance

L started a new dance studio today. It is much closer to our house than the other one and to top if off - another little girl is also homeschooled!!! I loved this studio. She made the whole hour fun for the girls. L was all smiles when it was over. Guess she'll be getting ready for another recital this June!

This cute dance leotard was a Christmas gift from her Auntie LW. Isn't she adorable!!!!!

Favorite Memory for Today

This morning, I was resting on the couch before the kids woke up for the day. S came out and snuggled on the couch with me. Then J woke up, needing some mama milk so I pulled him close to nurse. When he was done, S was loving and kissing on J. He gave him Eskimo kisses and then explained to J what the kisses were. It was so sweet. My boys ROCK!

Now it's off to ChikFilA for some playtime with a great friend I haven't seen in months!

Funniest J story

Tonight/early AM, J woke up needing his mama milk. I am beginning to think he will never sleep through the night but that besides the point. I usually nurse him then Daddy Piper lays him back down. Tonight while nursing J, he finished nursing and flipped his head over like he was done so Daddy Piper walked over to grab him. He saw Daddy coming and flipped back over quickly like he was still nursing, just so he could stay with me! He did it again a second time and flipped back quickly with this smirky smile on his face. He knew what he was doing. If he acted like he was nursing, he could stay in my warm arms. What a sneaky sneakster! I held him for another hour or so after that then he went back to bed : -)

30 Day Shred - Day 3

Just completed day 3. It wasn't as hard as day 2. I am surprised at quickly my body seems to be adjusting to all this exercise. The less eating thing is a bit harder but I have managed to lose 2 pounds in 5 days.

Fun Times!!

I had to run and get the harddrive from the old computer today so I told the kids if they were good, we would go to Ikea for some playtime. Thankfully the computer store went quick, we got the old harddrive back and ran out of there as quick as we could!

Next stop on Piper Express was Ikea! I had taken the kids there shortly after J was born to play but S wasn't tall enough. Today he was more than tall enough!! They chucked their shoes and hit the ground running. J and I strolled around enjoying some time alone. That store is tons of fun. I could envision lots of fun things to do to our house. We stopped for some lunch in their cafe. It was super nice to have some time alone with just J. He laughed and chatted his way through the entire store. He was oh so loud but I just laughed and had fun with him. We grabbed the other two from playland, where we learned that they were a) not ready to go and b) are easily bribed with frozen yogurt : -) We walked through the housewares department and the kids help me pick out some serving dishes. L wanted this huge bowl for serving mashed potatoes, since she LOVES mashed potatoes :-) We did find a cool bowl that is thermal like and keeps the food warm. We left there spending my last $21 from my Christmas money.

Peaceful Sunday

Okay we didn't have such a peaceful time at church today. J didn't want to stay in the nursery. L & S stayed with him until it was time for Sunday School. I listened to some of the message, more announcement stuff really, then rushed them off to Sunday School. This whole time J was crying. I could hear him as could the rest of the church. I eventually rescued him and got the other two, which made him stop crying but caused L to cry because she wasn't done with Sunday School. I can't win sometimes.

Daddy Piper took the older to orange picking. Now we get to can them tomorrow. Yea! It will be awesome to have fresh citrus in the summer. The kids had fun loading up the wagon with a ton of oranges. Hopefully they will have as much fun peeling them tomorrow :-)

I am going to run and do some coupon shopping at the local grocery store.

30 Day Shred - Day 2

I was up by 4 this morning. I did the DVD right away and kicked my ass. I mean HOLY COW did it ever! I then walked for an hour to try to build up to the breast cancer 3 day this fall. I am one sore chicka today!!

Bible in 90 - Day 2

I am reading the Bible in 90 days. I am actually on day 3 but this is officially day 2 for the Bible in 90 online group I am doing it with. My thought of reading ahead was just in case things don't go good for the day then I am a bit ahead of the game. My goal though is read my required 12 pages everyday.

I am finding so much joy in reading the Bible. I am surprised about some of things I am learning - extremely surprised. It also brings up a ton more questions than I had when I got started.

Bedtime

All the kiddos are settled for the night. The evening went well or not at times I guess. There was alot of raised voices during the cleaning of the playroom. Ack - I hate being mean but goodness, we should be able to walk through the room without tripping over a million toys! We had sent a 15 minute timer but after 2 kids repeatedly sitting down, trying to run out the clock, we turned off the clock and just got the whole room clean. L was not a very good listener during this chore. She had to go into timeout. She doesn't get timeout very often but her listening has become a problem more and more lately. I think it might be an attention thing so I need to work on that. We are also having a very physical problem with hitting and fighting. They are playing, wrestling like but still, super physical and someone always get hurt... ugh! J likes to get involved and chases them down. L & S are into hiding from him to play in peace right now. I suppose that will change as time goes. It will probably be more S & J playing and L doing her own thing.

We made this yummy snack thing for lunch today. It was a whole wheat tortilla with peanut butter, chopped apples, shredded carrots, wheat germ and granola. It was sooo good. The kids loved it. L didn't like the granola part but liked the rest of it. It is nice to feed them something so healthy and have them enjoy it!

Chores were completed for the day though so that was nice.

Fun Stuff

As I sit at the kitchen counter, loving my wifi, I am witness the cleansing of the fish bowl. L has named her Cookies Pineapple Piper. Daddy is getting mildly irritated with the cleaning process. Aww - fun stuff, I tell ya! L & S are fighting over who gets to clean what part of the bowl - either the bowl or the rocks. J just keeps trying to climb the step stool to get closer to the action.

J was a complete mess eating dinner. He is napping oddly these days so it is messing up his eating schedule. He naps over lunch time, like from 10 until 2 today then he eats a snack or nurses then he is ready for his dinner by 5. We eat at 6 usually but I am modifying our schedule to better suit him right now. L & S are pretty easy when it comes to eating so as long as it's between 5 and 6, they don't mind at all. Now I am seeing him chew on his brother's Mac truck from Cars. Oh wouldn't S love to see that right now : -) Now he's carrying around an empty milk jug. Empty because he had 2 huge sippy's full of milk at dinner!

Here's a pic of the messy monster at dinner. He thoroughly enjoyed his mashed
potatoes (even with my messed up gravy - gravy master I am not!)One of the fun things we did earlier today was to create a chore chart. We made this gorgeous poster to hang in the kitchen to help remind the kids of their daily stuff. We'll see how it goes!

Now the fish cleaning is done, for L anyway. S and Daddy Piper are finishing up the chore. Wonder if L should earn her tickets for this chore? Next up - 15 minutes cleaning the playroom together!!

30 Day Shred - Day 1

Just completed Day 1 of the 30 Day Shred. It kicked my ARSE!!! I am hoping to lose a few pounds but more importantly, I want to get in better shape!

Hello 2010 - Please be good to me!

Hello to 2010. I am begging you oh so wonderful new year, please be kind to our family this year!!!

We spent the day as we normally do. It wasn't anything special but it was nice. The kids and I ran to Target for some organizing stuff. Daddy Piper worked on my brakes. I am hard on brakes. I mean HARD on them. Thankfully my hubby is a wizard when it comes to mechanical things and he takes care of pesky little issues like that : -)

The evening we spent eating a yummy dinner (ribeye with PW whiskey sauce!!). Then it was the best time ever - we played Sorry!!! I played that often as a child so it was doubley fun to play with my kids. Neither of them are very good losers but they are learning. I ROCKED and won the game. It was funny too since I was the last one out and everyone else had 3 home and I only had one home. L came in 2nd so the girls rock and the boys stink :-)

Funny s story: S got up New Year's Eve night and peed in the hallway. He was sleepwalking and thought he was outside. Daddy Piper saw him in the hall and S seemed to wake up and ran to the bathroom. Super funny!!! Guess we have 2 sleepwalkers (besides Mama, of course!)

I have some lofty 2010 goals this year. Similar to last year with some extras:

1. Spend more time with the kids playing and just having fun.
2. Be a more attentive/better wife
   
3. Keep up the housework
4. Find a hobby I enjoy and work on it once a week - take time for me once a week
   
5. Reduce/Eliminate debt
6. Lose this 10 pounds I gained with Baby J
7. Get rid of the clutter around here - hold a yardsale/sell off stuff on Ebay
8. Read the Bible in 90 days
9. Walk the 3-Day in November
10. Be a good Daisy co-leader with L