Resurrection eggs

Easter Sunday is coming up soon, so this week the kids and I did resurrection eggs again to help them learn the reason why we celebrate this day. I used the MOPS example again this year since it was so simple and fun for the kids.

Number the eggs from 1 to 6, then fill them:

#1: a piece of bread

#2: 3 silver coins

#3: thorns

#4: a cross

#5: a rock

#6: empty

I hid the eggs in the living room, and after the egg hunt, we sat down to open the eggs and talk about what was inside. Buttercup didn't remember doing this last year, so she was very excited! Oliver did remember it from last year, and he also remembered a lot of the story from reading it at bedtime, so he was able to tell us the story with only a little help from me. :-) I have two really cute videos of Oliver and Buttercup each telling the story in their own words, but I'm having technical difficulties uploading the videos . . . here are a couple of pictures and I'll try to get the videos up later!

Yard work, bubbles, and climbing trees

This weekend we mostly hung around the house (yay! my favorite!) and played outside. Dennis did some yard work and the kids "helped" a little bit, and we all enjoyed the gorgeous weather. It's too bad that we don't have a real spring for very long -- it's going to be a hot summer!

While the big kids were busy climbing trees, I blew bubbles for the baby boy to keep him from eating grass.

Here's Buttercup, wearing one of her favorite shirts. (Thanks, Celeste, she wears it at least twice a week!)

I got a little lightheaded from blowing bubbles continuously for 10 minutes . . . good thing I have some sweet helpers! :-)

Update

Here's what we've been up to!

Oliver:

He's not really into Star Wars anymore. When he gets to watch TV, lately he's been choosing a show called Man vs. Wild, which is basically a documentary about a man who gets to live out every little boy's dream in each episode -- exploring exotic and dangerous places, diving off of cliffs, swimming through rapids, wearing your underwear like a hat, eating bugs . . . fun stuff. So a lot of his pretend play is centered around that sort of thing. He's also been drawing a lot, making up and occasionally writing his own stories, and sometimes he still builds with Legos. :-) He is reading pretty well these days! He likes the Elephant and Piggie books and easy to read books by Syd Hoff, but he doesn't quite have enough reading stamina to get through one in a sitting. He's working hard though, and we are very proud of him! He's still in swim lessons and he likes them, but the only problem is that his lessons are only taught on Saturday mornings -- and that time just doesn't quite work out for any of us. We'll figure it out though. Another big thing going on with Oliver is that he was selected in the lottery for our first-choice charter school! God is so good. And wow, I can't believe that my first baby is going to be in kindergarten in a few (very) short months. I'm going to need tranquilizers.

Buttercup:

Surprisingly (or not?) she is into Star Wars. When she gets to pick a TV show, she almost always chooses The Empire Strikes Back. (And who can blame her? Hello?!) Her favorite clothes are still boy clothes but lately she's been alternating Oliver's old shirts with girl shirts. And she's also been occasionally playing dress-up in princess dresses! It's strange to see her in a frilly princess dress, but it was bound to happen sometime. :-) We've been to the doctor many, many times in the past month, so Buttercup likes to play doctor and give Big Baby a checkup almost every day. Somehow, I always end up getting a checkup, too, ha ha. She still really likes doing crafts, and one of her absolute favorite things to do is cut paper. Give her a sheet of construction paper, a pair of scissors, and she will go to town cutting that paper into pieces so small that I can't even see them! (Theodore always finds them though.) And my sweet girl is such a big helper. I can't say enough about what a wonderful helper she is. Oliver is motivated to help if he gets something in return, but Buttercup's heart's desire is to help for the sole purpose of helping others. I can see that about her already, and I love that God has given that gift to her! I have a very special job of fostering that gift in her. :-)

Theodore:

He is such a cute, little round boy. He cracks us up all day because he is so adorable! Almost everything he does is cute. If any of us are having an off day, not feeling like ourselves, being a little grumpy, etc. all we need is to have Theodore around and we're smiling again! One of my favorite things is when he makes a motorboat sound, it's so cute! Of course it's not quite as cute when he does it at the table, because he ends up spitting his food out . . . but we're working on that. He is so sweet though. He's been having some trouble settling down at bedtime for the past 2 or 3 weeks. We're not sure if it's because it's still so light in his room at bedtime, or if it's from teething, but either Dennis or I (usually Dennis, thank you Hubby!!) end up going back in his room a few times every night to pat his bottom or rock him until he settles down. Poor little guy, I wish he could tell us what is wrong! He's such a happy guy though, and I can't wait to learn more about his personality and see what gifts and talents God has given him!

Spinach feta burgers

This is a yummy burger recipe that I found on a friend's blog. It's so easy to make and delicious. Not to mention, I like making hamburgers because it's easy to get most of the food prep done while the baby naps, and I can easily hold him on one hip while cooking the patties. It's the little things. ;-)

Here's the recipe:

1 lb lean ground meat (I used extra lean beef because my grocery store was out of ground turkey)

1 egg, slightly beaten

4-5 oz fresh spinach, finely chopped

3/4 cup low-fat feta, crumbled

1 1/2 tbsp minced garlic

1 tsp salt

1/4 tsp coarse ground pepper

Mix all ingredients together. Form into patties and either chill for later, or start cooking them in the skillet. I cooked mine about 8 minutes on each side (my patties were a little plump).

I served mine on whole wheat slider buns (the perfect size for kids!) with lettuce, tomato, and mustard, and with roasted baby gold potatoes and a salad on the side. Yum!

Not a personal worst! Statesman Capitol 10,000 race report

This morning I ran a local 10k race. It's one of the biggest races in Texas (supposedly!) and is the biggest race in Austin! It looks like a fun race, but I've never run it before because it's a hilly course, and I don't do well on hills. (Probably because I don't train on hills . . . but I digress.) This year I decided to do it because 1) I felt like I needed a confidence boost after that half marathon in January, 2) I've been using a new training plan and I wanted to see if it's really working, and 3) I was just ready to run another race! :-)

I didn't really taper last week. I did my regular speed work and long run last week, but I cut one of my easy runs in half and skipped my usual easy run on Saturday. On second thought, it looks like I kind of did taper . . . just a mini-taper and not a full one. ;-)

Because of the hills, I wasn't sure what time to aim for. I felt confident that I could pull off 7:15-7:20 pace on a flattish course, but was pretty sure that was out of the question on a hilly course. So I decided to aim for 46:30ish, but mainly I wanted to 1) not go out too fast, and 2) keep my pace consistent. Oh, and not finish slower than my personal worst of 48:44.

This morning we all went to the race and I jogged down to my corral and was ready to go with about 15 minutes to spare before the gun went off. Whoo hoo!

As the race started and I waited to cross the start line, I prayed that I would run the race with the right attitude (both during and after), run a consistent pace and finish strong.

Then we were off! The course was flat for about 1/2 a mile, and then I hit the first hill. It wasn't too bad, and I made sure that I was going slow enough that I wouldn't feel like I was dying after the next one. Even though it was a warm morning and the hills kept coming, I felt really good and strong.

Immediately after mile 2, there was a steep downhill. I mean, steep. I wasn't expecting it, either! I had just gone up a hill, and then when I got to the top there was nothing but a steep drop. It was fun running down it though, and I was thisclose to running under 6:00 pace for a brief second.

Around mile 3, I was still feeling strong, but was starting to get really hot. Fortunately, a water stop was right ahead, so I ran to it and grabbed a cup of water, drank some, then dumped the rest down my shirt and on my head. Felt much better after that! Unfortunately, the mile 3 marker came up shortly after and my time was 23:3x . . . which meant I needed to run a negative split to make my 46:30 goal. And I didn't see that happening!

Thankfully, the first half of the race was the hilly part, so as I got closer to mile 4 the course was mostly flat with a few gently rolling hills. Whew! I was still hot and getting hotter, so I jogged through every water stop and drank a little bit of water and dumped the rest on my head.

Shortly after mile 5, I started to feel discouraged. I glanced at my Garmin to check my time and it was just over 39 minutes! Ugh, definitely not what I wanted to see. I had about 1 1/4 miles left, and I would have to run something like 6:00 pace to meet my time goal. I felt like stopping, but God was there with me! It was only another mile, with a little bit extra. No big deal. Besides, I was getting closer to the finish line, and I didn't want my kids to see me walking!! I was able to pick up the pace a little bit, but only through God's help. :-)

Finally, I was close enough to the finish line that I could hear the announcer. Yay! My Garmin said that I'd run 6 miles in 45:2x. I was ecstatic. I could maybe (I'm horrible at math, especially while running), finish close to my goal! (Or not, like I said, I'm horrible at math.) Or, at the very least, run under 47 minutes??

And then, then, then, then. Then. Up ahead I saw the actual mile 6 marker. Which meant I'd run a little bit extra on the course, and there was no way I was going to run under 47 minutes. Because I passed the mile 6 marker at 46:xx. Wah. Oh well!

I had enough gas left in the tank to sprint up the bridge, down the road, and cross the finish line in 48:15. For a 6.2 mile pace of 7:46, and a 6.39 mile (the distance I actually ran!) pace of 7:38. I'm going with my Garmin on this one! Ha ha.

Here are my splits:

miles 1-3 (I forgot to push the lap button): 23:35 (7:43 pace)

mile 4: 31:16 (7:38 pace)

mile 5: 38:57 (7:35 pace)

mile 6: 46:47 (7:40 pace)

0.2: 1:28 (6:45 pace)

So obviously, God completely answered my prayers for this race! I ran it for Him and not myself, I couldn't have had a more consistent pace, and I absolutely finished strong. I felt so strong during the entire race, and I'm so thankful to Him that I am able to enjoy running and racing again! I'm looking forward to testing out my 5k pace sometime in the early summer, and in the fall I'm aiming for (Lord willing!) a 10k PR -- on a flat course. :-)

Oh, and in case you're wondering, I finished 900-something out of over 23,000 runners, and was 30-something in my age group out of over 800 ladies. That is a whole lot of people! Oh, and Buttercup and Oliver both really liked getting to watch some fast people run this morning. First man ran under 30, and the first woman was 35:xx. :-)

Ten months

Sir Fatness is ten months old today!! This is such a fun age. He is so adorable and funny. And chubby!

(I love his curly hair!)

Theodore is a busy little guy these days! He's doing so many new things. He waves and says, "bye-bye" (usually at the appropriate time), says "no," signs "more" and "all done," and he's working on standing alone and walking! He is able to stand alone for several seconds, and the other day he took two steps from a toy to the couch. Big boy!

He's also getting two new teeth right now (ouch!) for a total of five. And he's currently getting over his third ear infection, and thankfully he's feeling much better now. Not feeling like himself hasn't slowed down his appetite too much! He weighed 25 pounds 11 ounces last week at his ear check. :-)

One of his favorite toys are balls. He likes to tap them on the tile, then crawl over to the couch and let them roll underneath it. :-)

He also likes to play with the toilet. If the big kids or I forget to close their bathroom door (which happens pretty often), and I let Theodore out of my sight for two seconds, you can bet he's made it into the bathroom and is starting to splash around in the toilet. Yuck.

But he's so cute that I really don't care. Especially when he starts talking to the ceiling fan. :-)

Happy ten months, little fat boy!

Craft stick puzzles

This is another really fun idea I got from Having Fun at Home. You and your kids can make your own puzzles, by drawing on craft sticks! How fun and easy is that? :-) You'll need plain craft sticks, markers, and masking or painter's tape.

I measured out 10 craft sticks for each kid, and taped them to the table like this:

Then the kids each drew their own pictures on the sticks.

The whole purpose of this project was to draw a picture that you would be able to put together like a puzzle later. I explained this to Buttercup quite a few times, but she was still determined to color all of her craft sticks green. :-)

Oliver really got into it and made this savanna scene:

Then came the fun part -- removing the tape and re-assembling the puzzle!

It was a little tricky at first, but Oliver figured his out.

He liked it so much that he made another puzzle! This time, he made an ocean scene. Since he used more colors this time, it was easier for him to put it back together. :-)

Around this point, Buttercup decided that she wanted to make another one, too. She wanted a tree picture, so I drew a tree and some some grass for her, and she did the rest! :-)