What should I look like?

I know it is long, but read it anyways..... Colossians 3 (taken from The Message) 1 -2 So if you're serious about living this new resurrection life with Christ, act like it. Pursue the things over which Christ presides. Don't shuffle along, eyes to the ground, absorbed with the things right in front of you. Look up, and be alert to what is going on around Christ—that's where the action is. See things from his perspective. 3 -4Your old life is dead. Your new life, which is your real life—even though invisible to spectators—is with Christ in God. He is your life. When Christ (your real life, remember) shows up again on this earth, you'll show up, too—the real you, the glorious you. Meanwhile, be content with obscurity, like Christ. 5 -8And that means killing off everything connected with that way of death: sexual promiscuity, impurity, lust, doing whatever you feel like whenever you feel like it, and grabbing whatever attracts your fancy. That's a life shaped by things and feelings instead of by God. It's because of this kind of thing that God is about to explode in anger. It wasn't long ago that you were doing all that stuff and not knowing any better. But you know better now, so make sure it's all gone for good: bad temper, irritability, meanness, profanity, dirty talk. 9 -11Don't lie to one another. You're done with that old life. It's like a filthy set of ill-fitting clothes you've stripped off and put in the fire. Now you're dressed in a new wardrobe. Every item of your new way of life is custom-made by the Creator, with his label on it. All the old fashions are now obsolete. Words like Jewish and non-Jewish, religious and irreligious, insider and outsider, uncivilized and uncouth, slave and free, mean nothing. From now on everyone is defined by Christ, everyone is included in Christ. 12 -14So, chosen by God for this new life of love, dress in the wardrobe God picked out for you: compassion, kindness, humility, quiet strength, discipline. Be even-tempered, content with second place, quick to forgive an offense. Forgive as quickly and completely as the Master forgave you. And regardless of what else you put on, wear love. It's your basic, all-purpose garment. Never be without it. I have been struggling with the question, "What does a true follower of Christ look like?" My mil was telling me about her Sunday service at her church, and how the above text was the focus. The pastor was talking about True Holiness. He was basically saying that too many times, Christians replace true holiness with made up religious rules. I admit, I've done this. It is easier to live by rules, than search out the real heart of Christ. Jesus was one of the most Anti-religious characters in the Bible. He was not put off by sinners, nor was he offended by them. He was constantly offended at the hypocritical religious leaders, though. I want to see the world through His eyes. I want to be salt and light to everyone around me. I want people to see Christ living in me, and be drawn to Him. I have never done this type of post. My devotional time is usually private. However, I wanted to write this one out.

my latest project

Here is a picture of the finished lamp. After spray painting it with this aged iron texture spray, I rubbed some brown wood stain over it to give it a brownish hue, since that is what color the shade was. I think it turned out great for $1.50 lamp, and $9.00 Walmart shade. What do you think?

This was my day --ramblings....

Sorry for the bullet point ramblings, but I don't have any catchy thing to write about today. Just a lot of little "life" things. *The scale is not moving. Ugghhh. I am on Core and have been since the Sucky diet ended. I have been reading the msg. board on the WW Core site, and everyone assures me that this is a way of eating healthier and not a diet. The weight willl follow. Several have told me that it took a couuple of weeks to start to see the scale move. And then, it just kept coming off. That is what I am hoping for. I love eating and cooking this way, so I'm not about to quit now. I HAVE to exercise on a more regular basis. I have a gym membership, but it is such a chore to get my 2 younger kids there. They like it ok, although I have been called on the speaker to come get Bam Bam who was exercising his demons out that day. I wish I could ride my bike more often. I could ride more if I got a baby seat for the back of the bike. I am terrified that I would fall with him on there. Any suggestions? Anyone use one of those trailers? * I was in Wal-Mart today looking through the clearance isle for a lamp shade. I will post a picture of my project soon. My sister found me a brass swing arm floor lamp at a garage sale for $1.50. It works, but has no shade. I also dont' like brass. So I am spray painting it with this textured paint. The shade is super cool and I got it for $9.00. Anyway, as I was looking, the baby wanted out of the cart because he saw a toy on the shelf that he had to have. I wouldn't let him out, so the fit started. Mind you, he is only 14 mo., but he is having fits that sound more like a 2 or3 year old. I ignored it, because I was almost done looking. I was probably only in that isle for 5 minutes total. This lady (SHREW) walked by and rolled her eyes at me while she said in a loud/RUDE voice, "Geez, give your child something to hold or something. That is ridiculous!" Then to make matters worse, an older guy walked by right at that moment, heard the whole thing, and gave me that "Bless your heart" look. I got all red in the face. It took all I had to talk myself out of chasing after that woman and asking her, point blank, what she thought I could do for a baby having a fit?? I realized that I could not do this since my 3 year old was looking sweetly up at me. I just swallowed my pride and finished my trip. I ended up carrying baby most of the way while I pused the cart with one hand. Pathetic, I know. I did NOT let the other two act like this. I guess it is training time. I so did not want to be the mom who lets the last one get away with more than the others. Gotta jet. DH just got home from band practice, and I am ready to watch some TV.

Gross dead fish and bike ride...

God gave me 3 boys but I am SOOOO not into bugs, frogs, and dirt. My inlaws took my 2 older boys fishing today at the park. Today is the first time they have ever caught anything. When they got home, they came running into the house yelling, "Mommy, look what we caught!!!" Then they shoved the Ziploc bag of dead fish in my face. They were so proud. I marveled at their fishing talents then discreetly made sure the dead, stinky fish were going with grandma and grandpa.

Then, dh wanted me to go on a bike ride with him. We enjoy doing this together, but can't very often without kids. Well inlaws said they would sit with kids, so we were off. Dh is really into this now. I am proud of him. It is a great way for him to stay in shape and often takes the boys with him. We plan to get a basket seat for bam bam for my bike, and make it a regular family thing. I haven't ridden in so long, and dh was determined to make me "push through the pain." I tried my best to keep up with him. At one point I thought I was going to be sick. He said this was my body lying to me to get me to stop. Once I pushed through that, I felt great. At the end of our ride, a 50 something year old guy rode up with the total biking outfit. I was breathing pretty heavy and feeling strong until he said he had been out since 7am and was just finishing a 98 mile ride. We did 13 in 58 minutes. We did stop a few times for drinks and air. Here is the picture of me right after the ride. I look like I am in pain.

Mama needs some help up in heera!!!!

Dh just got 2 older boys to bed, baby went down about 45 minutes earlier, and I just got done cleaning the kitchen after dinner. I am pooped. When I say pooped, I mean mentally, emotionally, and physically exhausted. I don't know what is going on with bam bam (14 mo. old) but he just seems to go from happy to screaming in a millisecond, and then he screams until you figure out what exactly he is wanting. It doesn't matter how productive my day has been, at 5:00 pm, all HELL breaks lose at my house. Dh doesn't get home till 6:30, usually, so we don't eat until around 6:45. The baby acts like he is ready for bed at 5, but I can't put him down then. He has had to adjust to just one nap a day in order to be up in enough time to pick up Lancelot from school at 3. I love to express my creativity in the kitchen, and have this vision in my head of how it could or should be. I always try to hold off tv until that time period, so the kids are out of my hair (except baby who is usually screaming at my feet). But even then, I play referee for the two oldest who are playing ninjas WHILE they watch tv, and inevitably, one of them gets kicked in the head, but what do you expect when you are playing ninjas???? How do you like that run on sentence? I am so tired, I'm not even going back to correct it. I have burned more things in the last 6 mo., than in my whole life. I never get the table set like I want it; it always looks so thrown together. Dh and I always said we wanted meal time to be a time of communicating and connecting, but I my nerves are literally so shot by the time I sit down, that I don't even taste my food. I just sit there thinking about how long it is going to take me to clean the kitchen. Dh has bed duty after dinner, so I don't mind doing clean up, usually. We have everyone clear the table for me, which helps. Dh thinks I should just feed baby early and put him down at 7. I guess he is right. I want us all to eat together, but it just isn't working right now during his phase. DEAR GOD, I HOPE THIS IS JUST A PHASE. You would think that because I have gone through this 2 times already, I would know that it IS just a phase, but I don't remember going through this. On top of that, it is such a beating to get my kids to eat their food. I am no short order cook, and I am committed to eating healthy meals. I don't make them eat salad yet, but they do get the same things we eat. My oldest prayed that I would make more pizza and french fries. hahaha. Any advice to get through this would be appreciated. I am starting to dread mealtimes, which breaks my heart.

Need new clothes

musings of a housewife had this great blog on fashion must haves. I really need to get serious about updating my very shabby (but not chic), dated wardrobe. For the past 6 years I have not really wanted to spend much money or attention on clothes because I knew I was still going to be getting pregnant and losing baby weight for a few more years. Now that I am out of that phase, I feel like getting my wardrobe in order. I need to have appropriate outfits for the different occasions in my life. I still have small children with sticky hands, so I will probably not spend a lot of money on expensive, impractical clothes. I did find a great little black dress at Kohls and it is machine washable. I thought it was going to be hard to find a dress that looked good, but this one hides what needs to be hidden and accentuates my curves.



This dress makes me feel a little like Audrey Hepburn. Now I just need the right jewelry and shoes. Any ideas????

I am going to be seriously cleaning out my closet in the near future. If it is stained (like most of my clothes) or doesn't make me feel good when I am wearing it, it goes to goodwill. I may be left with 5 items, but this will FORCE me to buys something new to replace it. When I am out I may see a beautiful sweater or something but think to myself, "I don't need that because I have that one black sweater in my closet all ready." However, I never wear the one in my closet because it is itchy and the sleeves are too short. Can anyone relate???

Hallelujah the diet is over!!!

Well, the 7 day diet was over yesterday. I had dessert 2 nights in a row because we were at someone's house. And then last night we were at MIL's house and she made sandwiches. So even with the deviations, I still lost 5 solid pounds. Not bad. The last 3 days of the diet were totally easy. I will probably do it one more time before my cousin's wedding in San Francisco. I think the best part is that this diet helped me to mentally jump the eating bad hurdle. Now I am back to eating off the Core food list on Weight Watchers which is just no processed food, and lots of whole foods. The Core diet seems like heaven compared to the strictness of the other one, so I feel really confident. I am also trying to drink all of my water each day. I tasted a diet DP the other day and it tasted so gross. How did I drink those as much as I did?