I know that I need to loss a lot of weight and help my family to eat healthier as well. In the back of my mind for the past 4 months I kept telling myself that I am going to start to eat healthier and loss weight. “This is the year” I told myself, “I have a grandchild now and I need to eat much better so I do things with her”. And the list goes on! Well, enough is enough – This is the week and I am ready to start!

I have weighed myself (I have it recorded – not ready to share it yet). I am going to work on a menu and an exercise plan today.

Thanks for the encouragement through your blog! I am excited and can’t wait to post weekly!

Mother’s Day memories:

1. Breakfast in bed:

I remembered the year my 3 sisters and I decided to make mom breakfast in bed. I am smiling and snickering at the thought of it now.

We tiptoed into the kitchen as quietly as 4 young girls could. We decided we would be making scrambled eggs, toast, sausage, juice, and coffee. We had already made cards to go with it.

We gathered all our supplies and decided who was doing what and got busy! Now remember we didn’t even consider that we should try to time it so everything would be done at the same time so it would be warm when we took it to her.

The toast was made, buttered and put on a plate. The coffee was poured and ready to go. Next the eggs were made and over cooked I’m sure. Oh yeah, who is making the sausage get it done Now! someone yelled.

After about a half hour we were all done (you can imagine the mess that was in the kitchen). We put it on a tray and quietly carried it to mom (who pretended to be asleep not to ruin our surprise). She was so excited when we walked in with the food and ate it all.  How she stomached the cold, cold, over or under cooked food I am not sure. But she never let on that it was not very good. She acted like we had made her day!  Thanks mom for letting us think we were doing the greatest thing for you!

2.  The homemade card:

My middle son was very good at making cards for me over the years! And yes, I have kept them!

3.The flowers:

My youngest brought me a beautiful handful of flowers with the biggest smile in the world on his face. He said “Happy Mother’s Day –I got you flowers!”  I could tell he was very excited because he had done it all by himself. I smiled back and thanked him.

As I walked in the kitchen I smiled to myself as I knew he had gone outside and picked them from the flowers we had just planted the day before!

4. Child dedication Sunday:

We had decided to have the boys dedicated at church and it fell on Mother’s Day that year.  What a great memory to stand before family, friends, and God to dedicate our boys.

5.  Out to eat:

I don’t remember who figured it out but they wanted to take me out to breakfast for Mother’s Day and it was secret where we were going.  As dad drove the boys were all smiles. We ended up at McDonald’s where the breakfast was Free for moms.  We sat and chatted as we had our breakfast that morning.

6. This year’s memory:

We will be sitting in church with my 3 boys, as our middle son and his girlfriend have their baby girl (our first grandchild) dedicated.  When did my son grow up? I remember holding his little hand and walking through church together now he is holding his little girl during church.

Here’s just a sample of a day in the life of momneverstops….
1. up at 6:00 and shower
2. make lunch for my husband, possibly iron a couple of shirts, toss in some laundry, take the dog out and feed

3. open the door at 6:30 for my daycare kids arrival, make breakfast for those who need to eat, clean up kitchen, play referee when needed, fold laundry, maybe change and feed my granddaughter if mom and dad are gone already, get kids out door for bus at 8:20,
4. catch up on computer – emails, Facebook, maybe a blog or two, clip a few coupons

5. feed geckos in my husbands business (basement of our home), clean cages, wash dishes, put away crickets that have been delivered

6. work on my Bible study, make sure everyone is up and out the door on time, play with granddaughter, let dog out
7. grocery shop, go to post office for shipping for the gecko business, change a diaper and feed granddaughter
8. more laundry and housework, make dinner

9. daycare kids come home at 3:45, help with homework, read with kids, get a snack, they leave by 5:30
10. dinner on table, clean up kitchen, work on anything I didn’t finish during the day
11. help with baby bath, sit with hubby for a little to watch TV
12. bed time – 10:00 -11:00 and read a little before my eyes close

momneverstops is so me!

We had 3 of our pastor’s wives come and speak to us: ( I will post individually about each session later this week)

Kim – spoke  on Bearing with One Another in Love

Christy – spoke  on Speaking the Truth in Love

Kristen – spoke  on Loving Christ with an Undying Love

Music Worship with Amy and Tammy.  Love singing to God and praising him!

Newly Wed game with the Pastor’s wives.  They didn’t know we had video taped their husbands responses.  It was a lot of fun and we got to know them better!

Pat – spoke about a ministry called “House of Love”.  It is a ministry to help young girls who are in the foster system who are struggling or have no place to live.  They also help the girls when they have aged out of the system. They have several apartments they are let them stay in for a time until they are ready to take care of themselves.  We collected items that they needed to set up the newest apartments.

Craft time -   Trash to Treasure            They made signs with the theme for the weekend “Live to Love” and used old tiles to make coasters.

I facilitated a session on “All Things in Order.”  I broke it down into 4 sections -  paper organization, couponing, storage, and quiet/prayer time organization.   They had lots of questions – it was fun!

More worship time -

The lady on the left did sign language for our Sunday morning worship time!

The process is pretty easy

1. Last night we marked all the containers in the facility

2. Put boxes together and stiro pieces inside

3. Catch and pack animals (this can be interesting sometimes – today was pretty simple)

4. Put in a heat pak and the animal container

5. Close up the box and label it for shipping

6. Go to post office late in the day and watch the panic look of the staff when you walk in with 8 boxes that are going Express Mail

Our post office staff love to see the geckos and always care for them very gently.

I shipped 7 crested geckos and 5 pictus geckos.

Note:  the box that is upside was fixed before I shipped it.

When I posted “mom thoughts” I told you we were awaiting the birth of our granddaughter. Well, she is here! Christal was born on Dec. 31st at 4:33 p.m. She is healthy and a very happy baby.

I was given the privilege of being in the labor and delivery room through it all.

While I sat and watched the expecting parents sleep for a few hours I thought about how far we had come as a family over the past few months. I also thought about how life was going to change for them and what a wonderful blessing this little girl would be, I thought about how I have become closer to our mom to be as well, and I thanked God for what he was doing and going to do. I did my best to give the kids their privacy by sitting in a chair in the corner for awhile, when they checked progress of mom I turned my back, when the time came to deliver I sat quietly and prayed for them as they pushed and pushed. I was so proud of my son, Jordan as he coached Michelle through the delivery. They talked to each other and encouraged each other through it all. When Christal made her appearance I was then directed to taking the picture of my son cutting the umbilical cord. As I took the picture I could barely see through my tears of joy. The nurse showed us the baby and then took her to clean her up. I remember looking at my son(who was teared up) and then down at his girlfriend – we hugged each other and cried happy tears saying we loved each other. I knew God had given us such a wonderful gift and we would be OK.
Then the camera came out – of course Grandma had to get pictures of them weighing and measuring Christal. 21″ 8 lbs 7 ozs.

Beautiful little girl!

Then mom and dad held her.

Now it was my turn to cuddle my first grandchild. Yes, more tears of joy were flowing.

Jordan’s Mom – Grandma K

Over the past 2 weeks I have watched mom and dad grow up a lot. They are getting up for feedings, diaper changes, and enjoying the time with their little girl.

One of my favorite memories already is sitting in another room and hearing my son sing to his little girl. They are staying with us for awhile and it is fun to watch them daily as they are learning and experiencing new things with their baby girl.
Grandma and Grandpa are enjoying our time with Christal in the evenings while mom and dad have a little break.

Jordan’s dad -  Grandpa K

We have had lots of visitors over the past couple of weeks as well. All the grandparents, great grandparents, and even great great Grandma have been to visit. Michelle has 5 generations represented on her side and we have 4 on ours. Pictures will be taken when we are all here together

Michelle’s Mom – Grandma and her boyfriend Tom

Michelle’s Grandparents – Great Grandpa and Great Grandma

Jordan’s Grandma – Great Grandma

Michelle’s Great Grandma -  Great Great Grandma