Thursday, September 29, 2011

Similarities

I have noticed over the past 4 years, how much younger siblings pick up from their older siblings. Myself growing up the third child of four assume I learned a lot from my older brothers. I can sit and watch Kylie, and see many of Mackenzie's characteristics in how she does certain things, and I know its just from watching Mackenzie do it, or having Mackenzie show her.
similarities
The past few weeks Mackenzie has had to memorize a poem for class for a grade. Her teacher will have them do this all year, so the kids at an early age will get more confident standing in front of a group and speaking, and to also work on memorization. I think it's great that she is starting it so early. We have worked on the poem in the evenings and Mackenzie had it memorized fairly quickly. I did not realize how much Kylie was paying attention to what we were doing. Yesterday, Wednesday, Kylie started reciting the poem that Mackenzie has had to memorize, and said it word for word, including the title and author where they were to be spoken. She was so proud of herself and she should be. She even went and said it to her teacher today.

I have even started noticing Gabryle pick up little things from the girls. He will go to their room and then come out with a barbie, or one of the girls ponies and a hairbrush and climb up on the sofa and sit and brush their hair, or if one of the girls brings a book and sits in the living room he will do that same. He'll even bring books and look at them when they don't. Even though they do a lot of things alike, they still are three completely different personalities. It will be interesting to see how much more they grow as individuals as they get older.

Till Next Time!!

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Can we rewind please?

What a day yesterday! Our day here started out normal, but turned out to be a little scary. Jerrod took the kids off to school so they could eat breakfast as they have been and he headed to work. I fed Gabryle and started on some dishes and then the phone rang....
The school called and said that our daughter was in the office and was hyperventilating and collapsed at school and was in the nurses office and we needed to come get her. I immediately called Jerrod and he headed up to get her. when he got there she tried talking but she couldn't get any words out and he could tell she wasn't doing to well. She couldn't use her right arm or leg and actually collapsed at school coming out of the bathroom before heading to the nurses office. He rushed her up to the ER and they got her back right away. They ran their blood tests and when they came back normal did a ct scan which came back normal. Needless to say she started getting better and the ER pretty much came to the conclusion that she just had a stomach bug. Jerrod and I however thought of it to be a migraine. She had all of the symptoms Jerrod has when he has a migraine. She was released and we went home. She slept the rest of the afternoon and woke up around dinner time and ate dinner. She had a headache the rest of the evening and it eventually wore off.
We took her today to her regular physician and explained to him what went on. All in all he did not concur that it was a stomach bug and has decided if she has another episode like what she had yesterday we are to get her to the er and while in the process of doing that call HIM so he can get an MRI and another Brain Imaging Scan done while she is still having her symptoms so we can see if anything shows up on the scans.
All in all yesterday was very un-nerving. I did talk with her teacher and ultimately she was not feeling well through breakfast either. One of the lunch ladies noticed she wasn't using her hand as she normally did. When Kenzie got to class shew as crying and her eyes red and told her she just did not feel right, so Mrs. Rayburn said she can go to the bathroom and then head to the nurse's office. She got to the nurses office but had to be taken by the janitor who happened to be at the right place at the right time. She was right by the bathroom as Mackenzie came out and just collapsed. I'm in a way glad Kenzie doesn't remember all that what happened, but it kind of makes it more scary that she can't remember everything.
To top that off one of her good friends was in a car accident and ended up passing in the middle of the night last night. The school called and mentioned to me what happened so we could let Mackenzie know. She is sad about it and made a card for the girl's family. We've talked about it and she knows there are people at school she can talk to and of course, she can always talk to either of us or anyone in the family.
Ultimately, if I had a rewind button I would have pressed it already and gone back and maybe kept Kenzie home or something. Of course how were we to know she was going to end up collapsing and everything? Might have never known.....

Till Next Time!

Monday, September 26, 2011

Gribble and his games.

Gabryle loves finding out new things. A few weeks ago he figured out how fun it is to take a roll of scotch tape and just keep pulling it out and having this sticky stuff to put onto his toys. I think he is so amused by it due to the girls using it to put pictures up on their walls every now and then, plus I use it when the girls have a really good paper from school up on the fridge. (I know I should use more magnets but they block the paper!)
Today he figured out that it is fun to take some pieces of tape that i gave him to firstly, but together pieces of junk mail I gave him to make one big paper collage. He first positioned the papers to where he wanted them to be then I gave him a few small pieces of tape and he put them on the papers. Not all were on the seams, but he was having fun. Surprisingly also he was able to pull a few of them off without ripping the paper or getting the paper stuck to the tape. This made him so excited!
He then came up to me and tried putting the tape on my arms, and then pulled it off. Needless to say that it didn't feel to great when he pulled it off. It still had quite a bit of the stickiness to it.
After this he decided it was time for us to play our "hi" game.  He crawls up in my lap smiles and says "Hi" in his normal voice. I respond with a smile back and say "hi."Then we repeat this over and over however sometimes we whisper and sometimes we are loud. We'll do this back and forth for a good five minutes or so. Today we had to get waving involved with it also. So along with saying hi, we also got to wave back and forth to each other. He may not talk much, but he sure does know how to make you smile.
He has also gotten to love telling people to "shh." It's to the point now that he puts his finger up to his lips and says "Shh" then grins and sometimes giggles at you for it. If you do it back to him he gets a serious look on his face and tells you "shh" again. Sometimes its "hush" I think. What I love most about him saying it, is that when the girls are arguing he will go up to them and get in the middle of them or at least go up to them and go "SSSHHHH" and then walk off, never breaking a smile. He always usually keeps the straightest face telling him that until he sees me or Jerrod and then smiles and laughs.
Yesterday evening as we played outside, Mackenzie started catching grasshoppers, which to Kylie is just "gross!!" Kenz would catch one and Kylie would walk over to her and then brother ran up to them and slapped at Kenzie's hand which made the grasshopper jump, and it jumped towards Kylie. She ran and screamed as loud as I have ever heard her scream. Of course, this made Gabryle laugh and jump around. So when Kenzie found another grasshopper and Kylie walked towards her Gabryle was back slapping the bug and again Kylie ran screaming. Needless to say this happened a few more times, and Kylie finally figured out to stay away when a grasshopper was in hand.
I can't wait till he gets older to play more with the girls. Who knows what type of bugs and what not he will find to chase Kylie after with. Only time will tell!

Till Next Time!!

Sunday, September 25, 2011

Just an opinion

So, this morning I was playing on the computer and went to The learning channels website and the Discovery Channels website, and while on TLC's website glanced across the picture of Toddlers and Tiara's. I hate that show. The whole concept of the show to me is stupid and not to mention I have never been one to promote putting children in beauty pageants. (So if you are reading this and love putting your children in the pageants, I am sorry if I upset by this blog post!)
I have never put our girls in beauty pageants. I think it is stupid to spend so much money, on one event, that just parades little girls around trying to get them so conscious about their appearance. Little kids are cute to begin with and if they have to be told they are by getting trophies and tiaras then I think they have a problem. Honestly, how many of those kids honestly enjoy having to sit for a few hours to get makeup on and their hair done by hair and makeup teams? Why would a parent want to spend so much money on a dress they will be able to wear a few times due to the child growing up so fast?
I am pretty sure I am not the only parent who feels this way about children's beauty pageants. Course I know that there are many parents out there that live on putting their child in pageant after pageant. I could just not do that. I would go CRAZY seeing all the parents who are way to into putting their child in a pageant. Paying for a makeup team, and hair stylist and spending so much money on a couple of dresses is just outrageous! It's a waste of money. Why not put that money you are forking out towards something that will last, like a college fund or books for the child or donate it to an organization or school that needs help with funding?
Some of the prices they pay for those dresses are ridiculous. $300+ for a dress they can only wear to pageants is CRAZY!!! I think the most we have ever spent on a dress for either of the girls is $40. Heck, Mackenzie even barely wears dresses. She prefers a pair of jeans, a t-shirt and her boots. Kylie will wear dresses, but I never force her to wear a dress. She just likes them so she wears them. I usually always let the kids wear what they want to as long as it is appropriate and weather friendly. Every now and then I will tell them they need to change but that does not happen often.
Now I have done my little rant on beauty pageants and I'm done with it. Hopefully I did not offend anyone. Just remember if I did that this is just my opinion.

Till Next Time!!

Saturday, September 24, 2011

Play

Watching the girls play outside is quite entertaining. As I write at the moment I am watching Mackenzie and Kylie play out in the yard since it is nice outside. I have Gabryle laying on the sofa for a nap, and Jerrod is at work. The nice thing about our neighborhood is we don't have a lot of heavy traffic to worry about, and in our yard, there is no road by it. The area we play in is surrounded by the other homes in our neighborhood. They get to play in the middle, and so do a few of the other kids from the area.

Both of the girls try and be the boss while they play. It doesn't always work out that they both try to, and most of the time end up causing fights, but so far today, it is good with the two of them. Mackenzie loves to be outdoors. If she could spend all the time outside she would. She doesn't mind getting dirt on her and plays in the mud when she can. She loves all sorts of sports and plans on playing as many as she can. Kylie however does not like to get dirty. She will play outside but doesn't like to get all muddy and dirty. She said she wants to try tball next summer so we will let her try. Never hurts to let her try something new, and a sport I think would be great for her to try. I can see her doing it for one season but that is it. I don't think she will be as into the sports like baseball and soccer. Now I can see her enjoying something like gymnastics or ballet.

I do love watching the two of them play together. Even though they don't always get along they can come up with some of the most interesting games to play. I have listened to them play aliens, vampires, chipmunks, and of course school and beauty place. Some of the games Mackenzie and her friends from school came up with during their recess last year in kindergarten.  Whats even more entertaining is when they are playing and Gabryle joins in the fun by running in at them then telling them to "shh" and run back out giggling. He can get those two laughing so hard its funny. Course they can get him to laughing really hard also. A few nights ago Kylie and Gabryle were in the Girls room playing and Mackenzie would run to the door look in at them and growl and Gabryle would just start laughing as hard as he could. Nothing better then hearing the kids laugh!

Till Next Time!

Monday, September 19, 2011

Cake Decorations


As October 1 approaches fast, its hard to believe Gabryle will be 2! Since lately he has been into the Toy Story trilogy really big, his birthday will be decorated with Toy Story decorations. I this year have decided as I usually do, to make his Birthday cake. I also have decided to try something new. Make some of the cake decorations out of Royal Icing. I love decorating cakes. When I can I try to make sure to do all the kids birthday cakes, and Jerrod's so I can decorate them. I think it's fun. It's a fun way to be artistic.
 Royal Icing is used to make the tiny decorations you see out of sugar, that are hard, like the happy birthday letters you can find at your local grocery store. Yes it takes a little bit to pipe out all the stars and letters and numbers I need, but in the end I think its worth it. Since we're doing Toy Story I haven't found any letters that I think will go with the cake I will make. (Yes the little yellow blobs in the picture are stars. From this picture they don't look like it to well, but they are stars.) If I can find them, I'll also put a few small figurines from the movie on the cake also as toppers.
The letters are not done yet. I'll add some yellow to them also to tie them in with the number 2 that is finished. I now will just wait to let them dry. It'll take anywhere from overnight to 48 hours for them to completely dry. It all depends on the humidity and temperature and all that wonderful weather. I will also try and make the Toy Story logo as best as I can. (Course not the keyword TRY). I am not keeping my hopes up on that one. The letters, stars, #2 and clouds turned out pretty well I think. When I get the cake finished before his birthday I will make sure and post pictures for you all!!

Till Next Time!!!!

Saturday, September 17, 2011

The Girls

This week for the girls, they had another 4 day school week. Last week they had Labor Day on Monday, and this week was Parent-Teacher Conferences Thursday afternoon and Friday morning. I always find it interesting to see what the teachers have to say on how they are doing in class.

Kylie's conference was pretty quick. She's doing great in her class and loves to help her teachers do things and gets along great with the other kids. She does try and tattle a bit on other students but besides that she is doing well. She loves to play at centers and doesn't talk as nearly as much as Mackenzie did in pre-k. (she has the same pre-k teacher Mackenzie had when she was in pre-k). Her test her teacher gives all the students to see what letters, numbers, shapes and colors she knows was real good. She already knows the majority of the alphabet and a lot of the numbers from 1-10 and of course she knows all her colors. Nothing shocking from her report.

Mackenzie's teacher said she is doing really well also. Many papers and test results came back from her conference. At the girls school once they get into kindergarten they do "MAP" tests.(Measuring Academic Performance) It's taken 3 times a year so their progress can be tracked throughout the year. They started it at the end of last year so not a lot of tracking is available yet. When they test in January again to see their progress from the beginning of the year. Mackenzie tested in the reading/English and math right where she is supposed to test for her grade level. Some areas she did a little better on than others, but we're not concerned. She's doing great in learning to read and her teacher has no concerns over her learning how to read and how she is doing in class. She helps as much as she can and gets involved with projects all the time. She also goes to the library almost every day. She would prefer her last recess spent picking out new books. Her 5 week progress report was all "A's" and is off to a great start this year!

The next conferences will be after Christmas. I'm sure they will be good reports also. 

Till Next Time!

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Kisses, Erasers, & Shh's Oh My!!

Little Gabryle is a handful! Of course, what 23 month old little child is not a handful? From my personal experience all little 23 month old children are handfuls! I would probably be more concerned if he was not a handful.

One of Gabryle's favorite things to do is give hugs and kisses. When Jerrod leaves for work and the girls head to school, Gabryle makes sure to give them kisses. He makes sure and gets his lips all wet and make sure he is all sloppy for sloppy Gribble kisses (Gabryle's nickname is Gribble. Kylie when Gabryle was born could not say Gabryle, but could say Gribble and it stuck).  When he wants some more drink in his sippy cup he always gives me two kisses, one on one cheek and one on the other. At bedtime, I give him his piggy back ride to his bed, put him in bed, and then he runs to the girls room and gives them each at least 1 kiss, sometimes more, then goes back to bed. He even gives his little stuffed blue puppy dog and his Mario kisses.

Since school started we have kept more pencils around the house so the girls have pencils to do their homework after school. They have been in school for five weeks now, and we have gone through almost 2 packs of pencils, all due to the fact that the majority of them have no eraser. For the longest time I was curious as to why they were disappearing, then I found the cause of the problem. Gabryle has learned you can chew off the top of the erasers. NO!!!! Every time I find a pencil with no eraser, whether its a new pencil or old one, I still show Gabryle and tell him no. He just smiles then goes off and does his own thing.
One of the other things that Gabryle loves to do is tell you "Shh!" You can be sitting down somewhere not saying a word and Gabryle runs up to you, puts his finger up to his mouth and go "SHH!!" He then gets a smile and most of the time runs off and does something else then. Other times he will tell you Shh, and you do it back and you have a shh war going on between the two of you. I have even heard Gabryle go up to the girls when they are arguing and tell them to hush. It's funny too when he does come up to you and tell you to "shh", he has the most serious face sometimes. How he can do it without smiling I will never know.
He definitely does not seem to be scared by many things. Just this morning while we were playing outside a bee started buzzing around him, and Gabryle just bent over to the bee while it was buzzing around his shoe and pinched it. It flew off faster than I have seen a bee fly off from someone. It will be interesting to see how much more his personality will come out as he gets older. If he already tries to get people to laugh now, I bet it will be even better as he grows up. Hopefully this little phase of biting off pencil erasers will end very very soon! I know the girls will be glad when they can pick a pencil and not have to search for an eraser before doing what they planned.

Till Next Time!

Monday, September 12, 2011

Imagination!

Mackenzie and Jerrod watching the US Open
Kylie playing with buckets
Weekends in our house are usually pretty quiet. We don't plan a lot of big activities to do with the kids, and don't keep them so busy they can't do what they want to do around the house. This weekend was no different. We stayed at home, let the kids play around the house and not have to worry about doing a lot of extra stuff.


Gabryle "cleaning"
 The fun thing about just letting them do what they want during the weekend, is watching them come up with new games to play or new ways to entertain themselves while playing in their bedrooms. The girls usually play school, or work, and 95% of the time Mackenzie is the teacher. Kylie is most always the student, and every now and then Gabryle gets to play school with them too, until he decides he wants to start tearing up the papers or trying to eat the crayons. The girls also love to play their radio and dance around their room. It's usually always to Justin Beiber, but occasionally they grab one of my old Cd's and listen to it.

Mackenzie Reading while Kylie
fixes her horses hair.
 One nice thing that we have gotten the kids to know, is that they don't have to have us find them something to do. They can go find a simple toy in their room and have fun with it. they also love to sit and look at books and sit and color. Most of the time also they would rather play than watch television. I love that about them. Yes they have their favorite shows they like watching, but usually after that they find something do do else ware and keep themselves busy. Sometimes Gabryle can even get the girls to go with him into his room and play trucks with him. It usually starts out as trucks but ends up being some weird game that Mackenzie or Kylie has come up with, but brother doesn't care as long as he still has them playing with him.
Kylie trying to do a handstand
in her princess and Tinkerbell
boxes
I love listening to them play. I love that they play so well together also. I think a lot of kids today don't play as much as they should. They rely on cartoons and movies to keep them busy and video games. Yes our kids watch TV and play video games, but for the most part, I limit their games and usually with the TV I don't have to limit it. They get bored with it. The shows that they do watch on TV are nine times out of ten on our local PBS station, so I don't mind them watching the shows on there. Mackenzie's favorite is Word Girl, Kylie's favorite and Word World and Gabryle loves watching Super Why. That's probably why they have such great imaginations and able to play so well without being told to.

Hope you enjoyed the pictures I have posted randomly throughout this blog post.  These were taken this past weekend while the kids played.

Till Next Time!

Sunday, September 11, 2011

Mexican Recipe

Well, we tried another new recipe the other night and it was pretty good. It's Mexican Chicken and Beans. It did have a little heat to it in my opinion, but it was still good! The kids ate it which is a big plus, and it made enough for leftovers for lunch today! I love recipes that make enough to use for lunch the next day or two! Here is the recipe for you:

Mexican Chicken and Beans

1 lb uncooked chicken breast strips for stir-fry
1 package (1 oz) Old El Paso® taco seasoning mix
1 can (15 oz) Progresso® black beans, drained, rinsed
1 can (11 oz) Green Giant® Mexicorn® whole kernel corn with red and green peppers, undrained
1/4 cup water
Flour tortillas, if desired



  1. Spray 10-inch skillet with cooking spray. Add chicken to skillet; cook over medium-high heat 8 to 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until no longer pink in center.
  2. Stir in seasoning mix, beans, corn and water. Cook over medium-high heat 8 to 10 minutes, stirring frequently, until sauce is slightly thickened. Serve with tortillas

I found this recipe on the Betty Crocker website under the diabetic recipes. I also cut the chicken into small bite size pieces instead of making them into strips. It's easier for Gabryle to eat chicken when they are in pieces not strips in meals like this. The next time we do this recipe we plan on maybe adding sour cream when we wrap the food in the tortillas. We might even try them with some of the whole wheat tortillas you can find in grocery stores. This meal was even quick and easy to make that next time I might let Kenzie help me make it.

Hope you enjoy!

Friday, September 9, 2011

Advances in Schools

Since the school year is now in full swing and in Mackenzie's class, tests are being taken, spelling words are being learned, and this year, I can track it all online. This year the girl's school finally has the school website fully up and going to where I can log into the school grade book and look at both Mackenzie and Kylie's grades. It also keeps track of their attendance, announcements, homework, grades, and their lunch account. I think its very convenient, especially the lunch account function. It's nice being able to check daily to make sure that the kids got their lunch and it was charged and have a daily updated balance for each girl.

What's also nice is being able to check on Mackenzie's account in each individual subject to look at the grades. I can even print off a detailed report of each subject, including her extra classes, which consist of physical education (twice a week), Art, music, and guidance. Her extra classes have had no grades posted but her core subjects, math, phonics, reading, spelling, and English all have started having their grades posted. I know we get the papers sent home that has the grade written down, but its nice to see the cumulative grade, and actually have a grade point average.

I also found today that I can track the AR (advanced readers) reading tests that Mackenzie takes, which are done on the computer. The AR reading test consists of Mackenzie picking out a book out of a certain collection of books that she reads independently during class. After she is though reading the book she then goes to the computer in her class, logs on and then takes a test over the book she just read. She has taken one so far and got 3 out of 5 questions right about it. I don't think that is so bad.

I don't expect the girls to always receive "A's" but have told them that as long as they tried their hardest and as long as it is not a "d" or "f" I will be happy with their effort. I know I never made straight "A's" in class, but maybe they will be better than I was.

Till Next Time!

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Explanation to a 6 year old..........

With all the news reports and coverage over the upcoming anniversary on 9/11 I have wondered if the girls school has talked about what happened. I asked Mackenzie this evening if her teacher had mentioned anything about it and she said that she hasn't talked about it. Then came the question, "What happened? Why is it important?"

I should have known asking her if she had discussed it in school would prompt her to ask about it. She said it was important and she has seen and heard the news reports on TV about it and seen the twin towers, or the big tall buildings on fire, as she put it. so I told her the best way I could of what happened.

As I explained it to her, I just mentioned that a group of bad people took and stole 4 airplanes and wanted to do bad things. They ran the airplanes into some buildings, which did a lot of damage. That is when she replied, "and one was in an empty field somewhere right?" I guess she knew that from listening to the news report about the plane that crashed in the field. She asked if anyone died from the planes, and of course I told her that a lot of people died that day. Then she asked when it happened. I told her almost 10 years ago, and that when it happened I was in high school. That was pretty much it except for making sure that President Obama wasn't hurt day. Trying to explain to her that he was not the president then was not easy, but I finally have her convinced he was not at Washington or New York that day, which sufficed as an answer.

I have a feeling she will ask her teacher about it also tomorrow or Friday. Leave it to Mackenzie though to ask about things like that and worry about other people who were hurt. I love that she has such a big heart and usually always thinks of other people first.I hope that part of her personality always stays with her!  Hopefully, for now at least, our conversation today will be good to last for a while of what happened back then.

Till Next Time!

Monday, September 5, 2011

Caesar Pockets

Tonight we tried one of the new recipes I found online and it was really good. We made Caesar Pockets tonight, which all in all, is a very simple recipe, and can be made with different variations if you want. Here is the recipe:

Caesar Pockets

4 cups torn romaine lettuce
6 oz. (2/3 of 9-oz. pkg.) OSCAR MAYER Deli Fresh Smoked Turkey Breast, cut into strips
1/4 cup drained roasted red pepper strips
3 Tbsp. KRAFT Grated Parmesan Cheese
1/4 cup KRAFT Classic Caesar Dressing
4 pita breads, warmed, cut in half

1. Toss lettuce with the next four ingredients
2. Spoon into pitas

    It's a very simple recipe. We used tomatoes instead of roasted red peppers and instead of the grated Parmesan cheese I put in finely shredded sharp cheddar cheese. I also warmed the pita's up before we put the lettuce mixture into them. The kids seemed to really like it. Mackenzie ate 2 half's, lettuce mixture and all. Kylie ate a little bit of her lettuce and all of her pita, and then Gabryle ate all his pita and about half of his lettuce mixture. One of the variations on the Kraft Foods website suggested using Ranch dressing instead of Caesar. We used a Creamy Caesar Dressing instead of the Classic Caesar.

    Hope you enjoy if you try this one! We recommend trying it!

    Muffins

    Kylie has been pestering me for the past few weeks to make some blueberry muffins for breakfast so she can have one for breakfast before she and Mackenzie go to school. I have been hesitant about it, due to the fact that she used to not eat muffins. She asked again all weekend if we can make some muffins, so I looked online last night to find a basic muffin recipe with different variations of muffins, which includes a blueberry variation.

    Today I tried the recipe and we did the chocolate chocolate chip muffins, but with no chocolate chips. (I like chocolate but that I think would be too much). They turned out pretty good and the kids loved them! They was just enough chocolate taste to give it a good flavor, but it wasn't an over-powering chocolate taste. Next time we will do the blueberry variation. I want to try the banana nut and the pumpkin spice also.

    Here is the link to the recipe I found and have used and will keep using: http://www.grouprecipes.com/72374/basic-muffins-with-variations.html

    When I do other variations I'll let you know how they are.

    Till Next Time!

    Saturday, September 3, 2011

    The Prayer

    One of my absolute favorite songs is a song called "the Prayer". I have it on my Ipod and listen to it all the time. The version I have is sung by Celine Dion and Andrea Bocelli. For as long as I have listened to it, I have never known what the Italian parts of the song mean. I don't speak Italian, and I have never learned Italian. With today's technology you would have figured I would have googled it by now, but haven't till tonight. The nights Jerrod closes the kids go to bed before he gets home and I usually have an hour and a half to two hours with me time, and I usually sit and listen to music while reading or playing a game on the computer.

    Sitting here tonight The Prayer came on and as I started listening to it and the Italian parts were being sung, it hit me to finally look up the lyrics to the song. I did and the song to me has more meaning when it is all in English, especially with everything going on in the world today. Here are the lyrics, in English of course.


    THE PRAYER
    I pray you'll be our eyes
    And watch us where we go
    And help us to be wise
    In times when we don't know
    Let this be our prayer
    As we go our way
    Lead us to a place
    Guide us with your grace
    To a place where we'll be safe
    The light that you give us
    I pray we'll find your light
    Will stay in our hearts
    And hold it in our hearts
    Reminding us
    When stars go out each night
    That in my prayer
    You are an everlasting star
    Let this be our prayer
    There's so much faith
    When shadows fill our day
    Lead us to a place
    Guide us with your grace
    Give us faith so we'll be safe.
    We dream of world with no more violence
    A world of justice and hope
    Grasp your neighbors hand
    As a symbol of peace and brotherhood.
    The strength that you give us
    We ask that life be kind
    Is the wish
    And watch us from above
    That everyone may find love
    We hope each soul will find
    and around himself
    Another soul to love
    Let this be our prayer
    Just like every child
    Needs to find a place,
    Guide us with your grace
    Give us faith so we'll be safe
    And the faith that
    You've lit inside us
    I feel will save us


    I just wanted to share and hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

    Till Next Time!

    Friday, September 2, 2011

    Changing our meals...

    Starting this week in our house, we are starting to eat a less starch, less carbs, and just in general more healthy. Besides just needing to start eating healthier, I had my doctor suggest the change after I had some general blood work done. (I couldn't remember the last time I had blood work done to check everything so it was suggested to have it done)

    I have found it's not easy to switch over to healthier cooking. As I was making our meal list for the next few weeks, I kept wanting to go back to fixing all the heavy starchy foods and some more processed food. After two days of looking online at different recipe sites, I finally got a meal list together after two days of looking online and in some of my cookbooks and all of the cooking magazines I now have. (Thanks Mom for the Racheal Ray magazine! I love them!)

    All in all, I ended up doing half of the meals new, healthier meals, and half of what we normally eat. At least this way we don't have it changed all at one time. It might not go over as well with the kids if we change everything all at once. The good thing about the kids, is they usually love trying new things. Plus I was able to find recipies with some of their favorite meats, favorite veggies, or favorite sides. I think this will help them alot liking to the new changes.

    One thing we added a while ago was Tilapia. I wasn't sure if the kids would enjoy the fish, but it has become one of their favorite foods to eat! Jerrod cooks it and just adds a little salt, pepper and italian seasonings, then cooks it in a little olive oil. We usually serve some wild rice and a veggie with it, and it turns out great! As we try the new recipies I'll put a review of it up on my blog with the recipe and I'll make sure to include if the kids really enjoyed it also!

    Till Next Time!!