Things to Come
28 May 2012 Leave a Comment
in Family Tags: Brookside Resort, Memorial Weekend
A glimpse of things to come.
Looking forward to summer, more family time.
Go ahead, dip your feet in…
Or just take the plunge.
Summer holds the promise of many memories to be made.
More time with people you love.
Keeping important things important…like Ring Pops,
Ice Cream Cones,
and Dragon Flies.
Because sometimes it takes summer coming to remember how to carve out time for the most important things in life.
Grab all the fun you can out of summer – before you blink, it is over!!
Why do we…???
02 May 2012 1 Comment
in Deep thoughts Tags: Foster Care, work
I have had a week when again I wonder why I work where I work, doing what I do. I have said it in my blog before – I am/was a science girl. I cleaned rat guillotines for the med school as my work study job. Good stuff, but now I am tired, I am running on empty, honestly I have sat in a bubble bath in tears twice this week already and it is only Wednesday.
I work with some pretty fantastic kiddos who battle bigger demons than any child should. I work with overcomers. I support children who win just by being in school on any given day. It is not easy. It drains me emotionally. But when I ask myself why I choose this way to spend my days, I only get one answer – because I am called to.
I have talked with Bill about going back to school and getting back into a science-related field. I wrestle with this issue a couple times a year, the times when I allow my “self” to get in the way rather than allow God to put me where He wants me to be and do what He wants me to do.
We also provide Family Support to families in need. We are often asked why we do this, “You are busy. You chase four of your own kids. How do you find time?” Here is what is boils down to: we do it because we can.
Psalms 68:4 – 6a
Sing to God, sing in praise of his name,
extol him who rides on the clouds;
rejoice before him—his name is the Lord.
5 A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows,
is God in his holy dwelling.
6 God sets the lonely in families…
So if we are to be the hands and feet of Jesus, and be an example of compassion, how do we not? If the lonely need families for God to set them in, how do we close our home and keep all we have to ourselves? How do we know of the needs of children in our community and walk away from that when we are equipped to serve them?
I don’t want to hear the words to a song like this and know that I am not doing what I can. I hope to NEVER feel that way.
I am thankful that this week, as I wrestled with this issue, I heard this song on the radio. It was perfect for me, it was God telling me to put on the armor, because I am not getting out of this fight any time soon.
If Fat Albert was my friend…I couldn’t call him “Fat” anymore, it is not PC.
26 Apr 2012 2 Comments
in Daily Life, Writer's Workshop Tags: junk food
Usually, on Tuesdays, I peruse Mama Kat’s writing prompts and pick the best one to write about. And then I get too busy to actually blog it. Not this week, no siree. We dropped the three off at church, grabbed JP from Pole Vault practice and came home to catch up on life…to me, that means, write a blog entry. I don’t get around to it as much as I should. Those darn track meets, music lessons and concerts, doctor appointments and all the other stuff that keeps up scheduled from the 5:15 alarm until the “whenever we crash” bedtime sure don’t leave too much time these days. How do I keep up on Facebook?? I FB while driving. I mean, the law says no texting, but clearly, FB’ing is still allowed and safe. Not so much true. I sit in parking lots waiting for kids – phone in hand, usually, some sort of junk food in other hand, and I catch up on life. You wanna get ahold of me? Don’t leave a voice mail at home – that’s for sure. Home?? What is that?? Oh, I ramble. Onto the prompt.
I read the first one on the list, and knew I was good to go. The only thing I would change is that I can eat all this and not gain a single ounce – I have proven that. I have worked out for 6 months and weigh the same as when I started. I just like the weight I am at. Doesn’t seem to matter what I change in my lifestyle. Guess what? I don’t care. What I would change the prompt to would be something more like: If you had one day to eat anything you want without running the risk of massive stomach ache and the craps that follow, sometimes at parades, what would it be?
1.) If you had one day to eat anything you want and not gain a single ounce what would it be? (inspired by The Coffee Pot Chronicles)
The alarm still has to go off at 5:15 because the prompt doesn’t mention a change in normal schedule. I hop out of bed and grab my first Coke for the day. I probably would shove down a couple snack size Kit Kats for energy before hitting the gym. While there, instead of water in my bottle, I would have Coke #2 and #3. My water bottle is pretty big. It would take quite a bit to fill it. Maybe Coke #4. Coke = energy.
After the gym, I would drive home while having my after-workout snack of banana chocolate chip muffins. Maybe 2 or 3 of them. Washed down with Mt. Dew. It is more like fruit juice, so better for breakfasty times.
Once home and showered, I would grab a good-sized Tupperware and fill it up with Cinnamon Toast Crunch. It may not rank #1 on my list of perfect foods, but it is certainly in the top 10. #1 on my cereal list. I would probably have some chocolate milk. Sometimes, I have to make a healthy choice like that. Got Milk? Yup, I like mine Hershey-laden. (Please note in the photo, I also save my box tops because I am a good mommy.)
Mid-morning, after eating a couple pieces of candy off the teachers’ lounge table, I would have my snack of a chocolate-covered, cream-filled donut. If it is winter, hot chocolate on the side. This time of year, oh, maybe another Coke. If that isn’t enough, it is generally some kid’s birthday so I would park myself in the hallway so I can snag one of the cupcakes he/she is handing out to staff members. You know, the ones with a 2” pile of bright green frosting on top that stain your teeth and anything else that comes into contact with it? And I would wear the Angry Bird ring with pride. I am working on a full collection of them.
Lunch? I wish I had time for an Olive garden Soup (3 bowls of the chicken gnocchi) and Salad run, complete with Black Tie Mousse Cake, but I don’t; I would just run across the street to the gas station for some pizza, Doritos, and M&M’s. Probably a grape pop to change it up again and get some more fruit in my diet. (I keep this bag of Doritos in my van for emergencies.)
Afternoon would consist of snacking out of our Resource Room treat bucket – Kit Kats, PB Cups, Snickers, you know, that stuff. Sippin’ down a pop again – probably back to Coke. Hopefully, Larisa would bring in her taco dip and chips to complete the sugar/salt duo. If not, I maybe made my salsa that morning with all my Coke energy and brought that in to fill in the cracks. (Uh, yeah, these Kit Kats are kept in my sweater drawer so Crazy Man won’t find them, and I am proud to say that they have been in there for almost a year.)
After school, I always need a snack and since I do have time to run into town, I would start with a Chicken Strip Basket from DQ. Ranch? Yes, please. Probably with a large chocolate malt. It’s been hours since lunch!! If I have to be on the other side of town, a #2 with a Coke from McDonalds. Don’t worry, to save calories, I usually have them hold the pickles.
Supper would be easy – Texas Roadhouse. I would eat 6 or more of their rolls, smothered in their cinnamon butter. But here is where I go all health nut on ya. I would order a grilled chicken salad. With double ranch. I know, what is that? It is a salad, and we all know salad = super healthy. Beverage? Depends on my day. Not really, but here is where a drinker would list a blended fruifee drink. How do you spell fruifee? Froofy? Froofie? I don’t know. I would have a Coke, I know how to spell Coke.
After Texas Roadhouse, I would go to Cold Stone Creamery and have some awesome chocolate concoction.
Hopefully, but this time, it is bedtime, because if not, I am going to need another snack. Probably thirsty from all that Ranch. Need a Squirt and maybe a brownie to hold me over until morning…
What does this have to do with Fat Albert? Nothin’ except he always was eating good stuff, so I like him.
Things I have learned at the Gym
18 Apr 2012 2 Comments
in Exercise!! Tags: Family Wellness, work-out
First and foremost, no woman seems to be happy with her body. Every so often, I get to listen to a locker room conversation about how some chick is just needing so badly to get back into shape now that her use-to-be size zero body is now a size two. Now that she is a size two, everything jiggles. I so want to say, “It is called being a woman!!!! Girls are size zero. Well, girls and women who don’t eat enough!!!” and then I want to comment, “SHUT UP ALREADY!!” But I know that her little twenty-year-old body has so much more to go through in life so I kindly don’t offer up any words of wisdom because when I look at her and hear her poor self image, I am sad because she is beautiful. And I also want to tell her size two friend to say something like, “Are you nuts? You look great!!” rather than shake her head in agreement and say something all genius like, “Oh, I know, me too!! You should see my fat arms. I used to have good arms but now I am all saggy.” BLAH BLAH BLAH. “Step aside children, this regular-sized woman, whose body has waged war against so many things and won, has Zumba to get to!!”
So now I must talk about the need to rid the world of Burpees. I don’t hate them because they seem like a waste of time or because I feel they don’t work. I don’t despise seeing them on my circuit line-up because I would rather do more planks. I hate them because no one with boobs should have to do them ever. (Unless the next station is “getting yourself all properly arranged again” and I have yet to see that as a station.) I anonymously made the suggestion that there be a cup-size cut off for Burpees, but much to my dismay, they were in this morning’s line up. Twice today, for 55-seconds each time, my life was in danger.
Third, all kinds of people can take water aerobics. No one needs to make fun or laugh at the brave women (and one or two men) who put on swimsuits and parade past all the windows. We have more fun in that pool pretending getting a good work out. It is amazing what kinds of mean things you can do to muscle groups using an innocent swim noodle. It is also the perfect opportunity to do sweet moves like ride-your-pony, start-a-love-train, and chariot races. Sometimes, we add some of our own moves cuz we are rebels like that! We live by the saying, “If it ain’t jiggling, you ain’t doin’ it right.” One, I am in a swimsuit, it is jigglin’. Two, I am not a size 0, nor a size A-Wanna-Be. IT ALL JIGGLES unless it is strapped in with steel and duct tape.
Fourth, Zumba is completely awesome. Go ahead, all you crazy he-man varieties. Go ahead and laugh. It is only because you are intimidated by our awesome hip shakin’, hoola-hooping, body-rolling awesomeness. Nothing makes me more happy than a good hour-long dance session. Well, Coke does, but I can’t drink that now that I am a healthy-nut babe-type. And also, when I go eat at Paradiso, I can sing along to the music now. True story. And best news of all, I hear someone at my gym is getting accredited in water Zumba. Best class + best place = time of my life. I just picture something like this:
Barre Fitness class promises to make me like a ballerina. Well, unless they can go against my genetic make-up, I don’t think it is going to pan out.
Ballerina I want to look like:
Ballerina I have better odds of looking like:
I will update this list…I learn new things all the time at Family Wellness, my home away from home.
Happy Easter Piep Style
08 Apr 2012 Leave a Comment
in Family, Food, Holiday Season Tags: Easter, Silk Tie Easter Eggs
Holidays can sometimes bring great amounts of stress, which distracts us from the real reason for the holiday. Christmas – so much decorating, shopping, wrapping, baking, blah blah blah…no celebrating Jesus. Easter can be the same…so we decided this year, with a 5 day vacation from school and nothing planned, that we would go low key and do it Pieper style and this is what happened.
First, we did away with wearing of ties with our tie cutting ceremony.
Lucy loves wearing a tie, but we have worked so hard to teach her that ties are for boys.
Ok, the honest truth is that we made tie Easter eggs, following this tutorial. Some turned out ok, some didn’t. Oh well, points for trying something new.
Easter baskets are for babies. Or people who have over achieving parents. My kids are neither. We bought them off. They are happy. And Lucy wont puke after she eats tons of wrappers.
We threw the ham in the oven around 7:45 AM because we were on the worship team at church this Sunday and learned an important lesson. I knew the minute we walked back in the house 5 hours later that we were experiencing a nasty pig mishap. Oh well. Bill picked the edible parts out. We still ate it. After all, it wasn’t toast.
Child labor is cheap around here and since the kids eat mashed potatoes by the gallon, we made the trio peel potatoes. I taught them the old “one per person, one for the pot” rule and then explained how it doesn’t apply to us. Peel until your wrists are numb. I had to tell Curly to smile about 10 times for this picture. She wasn’t happy about it all.
Since the eldest child doesn’t cook (soooo sorry, future wife) we put him on dishes duty. For that, he is well trained. (You’re welcome, future wife.) Yes, the kitchen was already full of dirty dishes. That is the way a laid-back Easter looks.
We put on our best clothes for dinner. For real. He wore his suit to church – first time in his life ever. It was off the minute we got home. Suits are not needed for eating and napping.
The next step is to be sure you serve out of Tupperware because it saves on dishes afterward. This is really important.
Said son #1 of the above two bowls, “what is the difference between the two potatoes?” Uh…..the red bowl is cauliflower.
That comment even made the potatoes smile.
And then we took a nap. Sometimes we need to rest. This is that time. The end of Easter 2012.
Thank-you, Jesus, for what you did for us.
Deep Thoughts About Geese
26 Mar 2012 2 Comments
in Random thoughts Tags: Geese
This weekend, I was able to spend a lazy Saturday morning laying in bed with the window open. (Side note: In MARCH!!! MARCH in North Dakota is usually reserved for the SO SICK OF WINTER attitude, but this year, THANK-YOU, God, I needed this!!) I wasn’t sleeping because the geese flying back home for the summer were really quite impressive with all their honking.
My mind wandered to the importance of migration. This winter, a few geese stayed put. We saw them walking on the river and picking a farm field for seeds. So maybe they knew it was going to be the best winter ever. Maybe they knew they didn’t need to waste all their energy flying down there. They were like Noah, all the other geese scoffed at them while they told them God has spoken to them and told them to stay in North Dakota for the winter. Who knows.
How do geese determine who flies in which flock? Are the first geese to leave in the fall the same ones that are first back – like the over achieving, Type-A’s of the human race? The kind who plan and pack for a month before scheduled take off day. Do these geese pace back and forth the days leading up to the trip, with so much nervous energy that they can’t sleep? I am married to that man.
Do the last geese to leave procrastinate? Or do they just love being here so much that they hang on to every minute of “North Dakota/Minnesota Nice” that they can? Do they love our air quality and genuine people? (Minus the geese hunting crowd.) Or are those last groups out also the last ones back because they are more lazy and just wait till the last minute to get stuff done? We all know that crowd. I am in that “whatever will be will be” crowd most of the time. We will all get there – chill.
Do the same groups fly together each year or some years, do some flip a coin, or draw straws or maybe they line up and captains pick teams.
So also, some of those flocks flying in, honking in delight when they saw we didn’t have sandbags all over our towns this year, seemed to be flying way lower. Who determines altitude? The front goose? What if he/she is dumb or drunk or something? A couple times, I was thinking, “Watch out for the tall houses next to me – Don’t crash!!” And then sometimes, the flock will be so high, they look like dots, but somehow we can still hear them. Weird.
Yup, these are the things I think about at 8:00 AM on a Saturday…
