Today, Lydia and I did LOTS of math. We did it all in the kitchen. We also worked on life skills and hospitality towards our brethren. We made cakes! Ina Garten, otherwise known as the Barefoot Contessa, has a yummy recipe for orange pound cakes. It starts with two sticks of butter, so it can't be bad! We made one batch of orange and another batch of lime. Both are delicious. We will be giving almost all of them away at church tonight. We have a visiting religious historian coming for a meeting this weekend. We'l lbe giving him the biggest of the lime cakes, since he is the guest. Others will receive the fruits of our labors. They will have cake, and we will be edified in giving, not to mention you can't eat the junk food if it isn't in your house!

I weighed myself yesterday. I've been trying NOT to step on the scale every day. I've lost another pound and a half over the last week. Nathan and I took my brother in law, Henry, out to dinner last night at Highland's Bar and Grill. As always, it was divine! I ate light yesterday, knowing I was going to indulge last night, but I wasn't bad! I had 1/2 dozen little tiny oysters on the half shell, yummy. I had a mushroom soup that was basically pureed mushrooms and stock. There was a drizzle of olive oil and a few crisps of prosciutto on top, yum. For dinner, I had snapper with haricot verts, a fancy wor dfor baby green beans, tiny carrots, and beets. There was a little crabmeat with Hollandaise sauce on top, but not too much. All in all, for a fancy dinner out, I ate very reasonably, and didn't feel like I compromised anything! I even had a dessert, which as DIVINE! I ate most of it myself, but did share a little bit with the men folk!

So, it was time for our Bible reading. From the other room I hear,"Why do we have to do this together? I could do this by myself. It always interrupts my evening." This was issuing forth from the mouth of Celeste, my nine year old. I calmly asked what I had heard from her.

"I don't want to sit here with everyone else. I want to do it by myself."

"Oh, ok. Here's your Bible. We are reading Matthew 21-22 tonight. I love you."

I started reading. She sat with us. It was nice to have her there. Lots of parables and Pharisees and Saducees. The denominations were there, even when Jesus was around.

Oh, making a double batch of soup is good. Freezing the extra batch for later is really good. Having that bag of frozen soup jump out of the freezer and attack your foot is bad, very bad.

I'm still here! I promise! I read through chapter 19 of Matthew this week. So far I'm keeping up! Nathan has been out of town with my sister Leah's husband, Henry. (Hi Leah!) I took advantage of not having anyone around in the evenings. I cleaned my closet out in a serious serious way. I have FIVE big black garbage bags full and one tall kitchen bag of fabric for friends to sort through then to donate, one big black bag of clothes for Kathy, one white bag of fabric and projects for Anne, and am making a bag of shoes for a friend of Amy's.

Then, I got busy on Nathan's closet. From his closet I filled one big black bag for donation, two big bags for the cleaners, and a big bag of trash. I also collected a grocery bag, Whole Foods reusable thankyouverymuch, for Dawn for her contributions to the Kid's Market sale.

Oh. Yeah. I also got tired of only having 8 dinner plates. So I ordered 24 white dinner plates, 12 white salad plates and 12 white bowls. I packed up the remainder of our old dinner plates to be put into the attic for storage. I moved the drawer of kids' plates and cups so it is easier to reach when unloading dishes. I also hit the Dollar Spot at Target and restocked their drawer with plates and bowls. I also went to Hobby Lobby and got Valentine's day cups to refill the drawer.

I haven't been doing any formal exercise, but I have been working hard and moving around more. I've been eating less and making better choices. Well, not today so much. I had macaroni and cheese and fish sticks for lunch, but I limited my portions and ate slowly. For breakfast I had a superfruit smoothie. I got 3 servings of fruit in before 8am.

Off to teach the children something! Celeste has a holiday today, but she has a book report due tomorrow. I am going to attempt to teach all three of them at the same time. I suppose you could call it a trial run!

I'm still here! We got behind a tiny bit on our family Bible reading, but I caught myself up. Last night we read Matthew 10. William read part of it. Have you ever watched a 6 year old try to sound out "whosoever"? It was fun! Once I pointed out the words inside the word, he was fine though. Alpheaus was also fun to try!

I'm continuing to eat better. I am trying to slow down and eat food when I am hugry and stop when I am NOT hungry. I put 2 slices of pizza on my plate last night and left half a slice. I wanted it, but I wasn't hungry anymore, so it stayed on the plate.

I need to go grocery shopping but it is COLD out there and is only going to get colder. I think I'll just send Nathan to get milk and eggs and bread tonight. That should keep us happy through the weekend.

Oh! Jason Cicero, our young guy preacher, has continued blogging this year. Every day correlates to the daily Bible reading! vestavia09.blogspot.com

Food for today
Cup o coffee w/ .5 n .5 and splenda
water
bowl of soup, 2 servings progresson light soup

As for Bible reading, we doubled up last night! We have church tonight, so we won't have quite as much time as usual. We doubled up so we wouldn't get behind. See! We are keeping up!!

We read chapters 3 and 4 tonight as a family. Lydia read all of Matthew 3. William read the firs part of Matthew 4, and Celeste read the rest. They enjoy reading. William erally shocked his Daddy with how well he can read. He only needed help with a handful of words.

When we got done, Samuel asked me to read some more to him, so he could read it. We read Psalm 100 in tandem, he repeated each verse after me. Then we read some more verses in Psalms. He pointed and I read.

Lydia took notes, then sat and copied Bible verses for 20 minutes when we were finished.

I think my children have been hungering and thirsting for the WORD and I have been starving them. I am so glad we are doing this.



Food for the day.

Cup of coffee 1T half and half and some Splenda
Smoothie! banana, sweet potato, carrots, OJ, ice Amazingly good, really
leftover shrimp fried rice
cabbage
broccolli
3 chicken meatballs
butterbeans (I MADE THEM!!)
2 squares Hershey's dark chocolate
small bag of honey wheat pretzels and 2 triangles of laghing cow light cheese

Plenty of water thrown in for hydration.

What do you like to do for exercise? Do you love a good cardio workout? Is yoga more your style? Maybe you like to be finished in 30 minutes.
Guess what? Chances are pretty good if you get cable that you can get all of those workouts and more! On FitTV, there are 6 or 8 workouts each morning. I set my DVR to record the 30 minute yoga show. It rotates each day to be a little different.
I';ve spent no extra money, and I can have a new workout whenever I want it! GO check your line-up and find something you like!

I'm off now to have a cup of coffee!


Also, we read the first two chapters of Matthew last night as a family. We talked about the prophecies in the Old Testament that said that the Savior would come from Bethlehem, Egypt and Nazareth. God fulfilled each of those prophecies! Our God is TRUTH!

In addition to reading, we are making three lists. God is, Jesus is, and the Holy Spirit is. You can only put something on the sheet if you have a scripture for it. LAst night we added Jesus is Christ, to bring slavation to all men, and Emmanuel, God with us. I reminded the kids that the Holy Spirit was also mentioned! Celeste added, Holy Spirit put Jesus in Mary's belly!! God works in the most amazing ways!

Food for the day

I forgot to eat breakfast, oops. I had a cup of coffee with 2 TBS half and half and Splenda. I know it's bleach and sugar, but one vice at a time!!

Snack
8oz juice
blueberry/pom mixed iwth
GReen Superfoods
Both Naked Juice blends

Lunch
1/2 sweet potato
2cups spinach
1/2 cucumber
1/4 avacado
4 chicken meatballs, which were YUMMY!
1Tbs balsamic vinagrette

BIG glass of water


Dinner
Mediterranean pork with pasta

I was hungry/munchy after dinner. I drank a big glass of water, then a small glass of good juice. I finally caved and had
1.5 cups pasta with butter and parm and lots of pepper. It was delicious and worth every calorie!

Ok, I got my calender for reading yesterday, Sunday. I started last night because I had a few minutes of quiet, few and far between in the Johnson's house.

Intersting things I notice as I go along!

Rahab is in the geneology. Do you know her story? Joshua 2

Bathsheba is in the geneology as well! 2 Samuel 11

17So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; from David to the (J)deportation to Babylon, fourteen generations; and from the (K)deportation to Babylon to the Messiah, fourteen generations.Isn;t that AWESOME! Throug time God's plan happened just as he purposed!God watched over his Son so perfectly! He brought the magi, He told Joseph to flee to Egypt, He returned the family safely. God cares just as much for each of us!

My friend Kristen said she learned the geneology in song and posted this link if you want to buy the book with a song! Here's a book with a CD of the song: Amazon.com: The Ballad of Matthew's Begats: An Unlikely Royal Family Tree: Andrew Peterson: Books

Happy New Year!

Good Monday morning everyone! I've made two goals this year that I hope will change my life for the better. This is my journey there.

Goal #1 I will be reading through the New Testament this year. Everyone at church is doing it and I don't resist GOOD temptation by my peers often. I also don't resist cheesecake often, which leads to

Goal #2 Be healthier. I have a specific weight in mind, 150 pounds, that I would like to get to by the end of the year. I don't know if I can get there, so my plan is to be healthier. I will be eating less and exercising, hopefully resulting in less of me!

This is my personal page, to share if I want to, to vent on, to keep track of what I am reading and thinking about. I will also keep up with my food and exercise here.

Pictures to come. Love ya!
Hayes