Project 365 and Triathlon Training

I have been introduced to two new hobbies this month - taking a picture a day for Project 365 and training to participate in my first triathlon. I know, as if I need one more thing to do on top of loving the Lord, loving my hubby, loving (and training, correcting, rebuking...) my children, and loving the people the Lord puts in my life. This is a little tangent, but on the topic of loving those around you, I was reminded in my quiet time this morning how the Bible displays love as an action, not a feeling, most of the time - "For God so loved the world, that he gave His only Son.." - extreme action. To love is really hard, exhausting work. For me, love for my family fleshes itself out in doing the dishes, washing clothes, mopping floors, changing diapers, playing Candyland for the 100th time, studying God's Word, cooking meals, scratching backs, listening to lots of stories, teaching God's Word to my kids, did I mention changing diapers :), etc. How silly of me to get frustrated by those mundane tasks. Those are the ways God has allowed me to show my love for my family. I hope I can remember this tomorrow when I wake up and face the dirty dishes from breakfast.

Anyways, back to my new hobbies. Project 365 is where you take one picture a day and journal about it. You compile all of your pics and journaling in an album and that's it for your scrapbook for the year. Amazingly simple, yet I'm already playing catch up! What's wrong with me? But, I'm having a lot of fun thinking of what my picture will be each day to capture our family for that particular day. You can check out the concept on the Creating Keepsakes website, under Kit of the Month, Project 365.

My other hobby is exercise. My link for this new hobby is www.mapmyrun.com. It will keep track of how far each of your runs is and count all of those calories burned while you're exercising. Keith and I have been pretty consistent for the past three weeks with our running, usually around 2.25 miles each time. Also, the other day I biked 6 miles and then swam a total of 600 meters (26 laps). That liked to have done me in - is that the phrase? I seriously wanted to quit after the "warm-up" laps - they were not warm up in my book. The only reason I didn't is because I'm pretty competitive against myself and didn't want to be the only one in our little group of four ladies to quit. But, I have to tell you that I'm more than a little nervous about the swimming phase of the triathlon. And, to top it off, I hear that we're swimming in a dirty lake. I have no idea what is motivating me to do this.

My friend, Rachel, came to the house this week to take 6 mo. pics of Brynlee. Here are a couple of the pics...she does an amazing job.



It's 2:00 a.m. I better go to bed! Goodnight.

Splashin' Around with Friends

Brynlee had the fun opportunity to take her first big girl (in a real bathtub) bath with two of her sweet friends this past weekend at my bi-annual scrapbooking retreat. Here are a couple of pics that are sure to make you smile...





Needless to say, she totally enjoyed the new experience and so did us moms :)

I hope everyone had the opportunity to watch all of the inauguration events yesterday. What a moment in history to remember - I hope I remember to pray for Obama more than I remembered to pray for Bush. I was reminded yesterday of the tremendous responsibility the President has and how much prayer they need. It is fun for our kids to see young kids in the White House. I am hoping it will make my boys and Brynlee more interested in what is going on in politics.

Big Moments

A couple of milestones last week:

Brynlee cut her first tooth. (I don't have a pic of this yet because she is not big into showing it off just yet.)

I dealt with five poopies all before 10 a.m. - and yes, I only have four children, so this is a new record for such a short time. (obviously no pic of this :)

I began training for my first triathlon. Keith and I ran a little over 2 miles two different times this week and I ran at the gym one day for a total of 6 miles this week. That's huge for me because usually I tap out at 1 mile per workout. Here is a pic of Keith and I after we finished our first two mile jog.


The boys entered the Bakugan craze officially. Keith and I hid a starter pack for each of the boys in the backyard Monday night and made the boys go on a flashlight hunt. I gave each of them a riddle and they had to figure out where their surprise was located. We could hardly get them to go to bed that night because they just wanted to play with their Bakugan's.



I am doing this photo project called Project 365. It's where you are supposed to take a photo a day for the whole year and turn it into a book. One of the pics that Becky Higgins posted on her blog was one of herself taken thru the rearview mirror. It looked really cool and I was curious what I looked like while driving. Only thing is that Becky made it sound so easy to get the picture...wasn't so easy for me. It took me about 15 shots to get this one o.k. shot. And no, I was not driving while I took this picture.

I have been at my bi-annual scrapbooking retreat this weekend. The whole scrapbooking thing is a love/hate relationship in my life. I love the concept, but I don't get much done at all. This was the first time in a long time that I even attempted to scrapbook, and I am already dissapointed with what I didn't get done. But I am trying to be positive and enjoy the process. The one thing I do enjoy is the extended time I get with some really precious friends. Laura, Tomi and I put all of our babies (Lincoln, Truly and Brynlee) in a tub tonight for bathtime. The babies had a blast and we just enjoyed them already getting to bond with each other. We have laughed a lot, ate a lot, pulled a couple of practical jokes and gone for a walk - and scrapbooked a little :) I'll hopefully get to post pictures from this weekend sometime before the end of the month.