Easter and stuff

I was on such a blogging roll.  On Sunday I planned to share a song that we sang on Sunday morning that made me happy (and gave me chills).  Yesterday I planned to share a story about me and Stan in honor of our 6th Anniversary that came on March 20th, during our internet issues.  But Sunday afternoon my sinuses began to feel as if they were slowly expanding and taking over my head so I took the afternoon to rest and since it was a holiday here yesterday I took advantage of Stan not having class and also rested.  But today is back to normal.  I must run to the market and I have tutoring this afternoon so I have to take some medicine, suck it up and get on with the day.  Thanks to my good friend Jennifer , who seems to be the only friend I have that eats dinner, for giving me five new recipes to try out.  I'm making the Honey Roasted Potatoes for dinner tonight--if you want to check out her recipes look here.  Anyway, I thought I would at least still share this great song, even if a few days late.

How Deep the Father's Love For Us

How deep the Father's love for us,

How vast beyond all measure.

That He should give His only Son,

To make a wretch His treasure.

How great the pain of searing loss,

The Father turns His face away.

As wounds which mar the chosen One,

Bring many sons to glory.

Behold the Man upon a cross,

My sin upon His shoulders.

Ashamed I hear my mocking voice,

Call out among the scoffers.

It was my sin that held Him there, 

Until it was accomplished.

His dying breath has brought me life,

I know that it is finished.

I will not boast in anything.

No gifts, no power, no wisdom.

But I will boast in Jesus Christ,

His death and resurrection.

Why should I gain from His reward?

I cannot give an answer.

But this I know with all my heart,

His wounds have paid my ransom.

But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they came to the tomb bringing the spices which they had prepared.  And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.  While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men suddenly stood near them in dazzling clothing; and as the women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, "Why do you seek the living One among the dead? He is not here, but He has risen."

Luke 24:1-6a NASB

'D' date

Tonight we got to have our 'D' date night.  Since D and E are also dating through the alphabet, and we are going about the same pace, we decided that a Double Date would be most fitting.  We lined up three very capable babysitters to watch the boys (our three and D and E's almost one year old son) and headed out.  Let's just say that E is definitely more creative than I am so these ideas were hers.  Too bad she can't plan all of our dates...maybe we will just start to copy them each time. :)

We started off with Dinner in Dali (Old Town) and ate at one of our favorite restaurants.  We Dined on some Delicious food.  During our dinner we played Dare to Dream, where we each listed different scenarios (dream vacation, dream house, etc.) and had to go around and answer.  It was fun to talk about our Dreams with our friends.

Since Easter is tomorrow morning we knew we couldn't stay out late so we headed back early to make sure all the boys got to bed on time.  Also, no one wanted to Dance in public so we decided that we could end our dates at home with a little Dancing.  It was a fun to go out (with no children) and enjoy good food and good conversation with good friends.  Thanks D and E for a great Double Date!

living in organized chaos

Before I start I must say that I'm so sad no one has any dinner ideas for me.  I'm pretty sure this is the second time I've tried this without any takers.  Seriously, are you all in dinner ruts as well?  If I get a spare day I may google some stuff and post it.  Either that or my lack of posting has dispersed anyone who reads this at all to the four corners of the earth.  Please come back, I need your dinner ideas!

Now with that said I had some other things on my mind lately as well.  It seems like I've read a ton of blogs on organization lately.  Organizing makes me happy.  But since I now share a home with a man and three mini men, organization doesn't last very long.  I don't think I will ever get to the point of just letting it go because my personality won't allow it.  So I persevere in this endeavor.  I will never give up.

I didn't know if anyone else out there was struggling with keeping things organized, at least to a level to prevent frustration and complete mental break down, in a world with those who may not share your OCD tendencies love of order.  So here is my little strategy to keep myself sane and my house in a little order without driving my men--or myself--crazy.

1.  I keep areas in the bathroom and bedroom that are just mine.  That way I can keep them just as I want them.  This gives me a little space for me and boundaries.  Stan and the boys can keep their dressers as messy as they would like and I don't have to look at it.

2.  I do little clean sweeps, maybe just one room per day but each area of the house gets done at least once each week.  This means I go through the boys toys at least once a week and get them in their proper place (mostly I do this, with Kirby's help, to seek out missing parts and such).  I'll look through their dresser drawers to make sure no dirty clothes have gotten put back in and that all underwear, undershirts and socks are in the appropriate brother's drawer.  

3.  When things are no longer needed they leave my house.  Since clothes get passed down (the biggest advantage to having all boys) they don't leave our possession but they do get stored outside in our storage area if they are not currently being worn.  Shoes are the one thing I don't typically pass down, they usually look pretty bad after one owner.  My Big Sister also serves as our local Goodwill donation center.  If we are getting rid of something she will take it and find it a new home.  Yes, this constantly reminds me of the consumer mentality we Americans have but we like many are doing our best to reduce, reuse, recycle.

4.  CONTAINERS!  Plastic bins, baskets and space bags are my friend.  My kitchen drawers are full of baskets to keep items in their place.  Often used items are quickly accessible and not as often used items are well stored but easy to get to.  Storage space in every room of the house is used to the max with bins and shelves.

So those are my biggies.  What do you do?  I am constantly looking for suggestions.  I love little projects to make life easier.  I'm currently still working on our office/school/ laundry room to maximize the space and storage that we have.  This week we are getting a new desk (bought from some friends that are moving back to the States) so we can use the storage drawers of our current one but get rid of the extremely warped desk top.  I'm excited about getting it all straightened out.  Yes, I said excited.  It's the little things.

dinner

In my house it's the constant burning question of 'what's for dinner?'  It's forever on my mind.  I try to plan ahead and have a menu set so that I'm prepared to do my shopping and can plan ahead in other ways, making tortillas, having on hand sauce ingredients, etc.  But I am stuck in a rut.  I need ideas.  I know about 3 ways to cook beef, chicken and pork each and I've got to get some new things into the rotation.  

My boys eat just about anything.  So this is where I need your help.  As I've said before I have some limited resources to work with so I will end up adapting almost every recipe you send me, so don't be offended.  But I would love some of your easy family recipes.  Especially if you have a new and exciting way to cook rice and/or potatoes.  Rice especially.  We eat plain old white rice on a regular basis so if I'm making rice at home (cause in my opinion it goes better with some main dishes than something else) I would love a way to spice it up.  And for that matter are there any starchy sides out there that I'm missing?  Rice, potatoes and pasta are just about all there is in my house.

So this is a challenge.  I need EVERYONE that reads, lurkers included, to post a comment with a dish idea.  If your recipe is long email it to me.  Also, if it's good I don't mind it being slightly complicated.  Just think, if you all post something then we could all benefit.  I may even get inspired and post one of my own tried and true (yet boring) recipes.

did i ever tell you about...

...my 30th birthday?

Of course not, it was just yesterday. :)  But since I decided my birthday afternoon was best spent being lazy I didn't get on to blog or get ready for the week in anyway.  I'm paying for that not getting ready for the week thing today but I leave a lot of flexibility in my Monday for that very reason.  I can still be productive and not feel like I'm 'behind' all day.  Anyway, here is the weekend fun run down and an update on my 30 by 30 goal.

So really it was like a four day celebration.  And there will most likely be more pockets of celebration since my dad will be coming to visit in just about 5 weeks (YAY!) and I like to milk my birthday as much as possible.  On Thursday night our friends came over to watch the boys so Stan and I could go out on a Anniversary/Birthday date (our anniversary was on the 20th, I'll post about that later).  We had a nice big dinner and just relaxed.  Then we came home, put the boys to bed and watched a movie.

Friday we had a sort of lazy start to the day, since we finally had worthy internet, and just hung out that morning.  After lunch I met 3 ladies and we got facials (that include a back massage).  We finished with just enough time to come home, shower and get ready for our night out.  At 5:30 they came to pick me up and we went to Old Town to have dinner.  We went to our favorite western restaurant, The Tower (I had chicken tenders and caesar salad), and then to our favorite dessert shop, The Sweet Tooth (E arranged for us to have fondu with all sorts of yummies to dip in chocolate), and then on to a guest house, The Sleepyfish, for our slumber party.  One of the other ladies' birthdays was on Thursday so we made it a joint party.  When we got there and checked in the other three ladies made the two of us stay in the lobby while they went upstairs to get 'things' ready.  We were a little scared.  Finally we went up and they had decorated the room with lights, streamers and balloons.  The music was going and we had a good old fashioned dance party.  It was so much fun!  We laughed so much.  It was a complete blast.  E even gave me a french braid side ponytail. :)  Finally by midnight (even though we were tired way before then) we settled down and when to sleep.  

Saturday morning we got up and headed to breakfast.  We chose a new place to try out and besides the food getting out kinda slow (that is something that I'm sure will get better as they get used to business) it was really good.  The waffles were so good that I decided to get some wraps to bring home and have for lunch.  Also good.  We had a pretty lazy afternoon and then I made pizza for dinner.  Sunday morning we hosted our Sunday morning group and afterward had a hotdog cookout (I love hotdogs on the grill) and cake. Followed by of course another lazy afternoon and evening.  It was a weekend full of fun and relaxation.  Just perfect.

I weighed myself for the final time on Thursday morning cause I knew when we went on our date through the rest of the weekend I wouldn't be counting calories.  I didn't make it quite to 30 pounds but I did lose 26.  Even though I didn't reach my goal I am still super happy with that and since I don't have plans to stop I know I will be down that 30 in a couple of weeks.  Through all the set backs I still accomplished a lot.  Since I have another 20 or so I would like to lose I'm going to work on another goal, so stay tuned for that!

Well, back to normal, non celebratory life.  Not as much fun but it is the way it goes.  It was great while it lasted and now I get to push through and head to 40! ;)