busy busy!

Seems like I have been really busy lately but not getting that much done.  How, exactly, does that work?  I don't know, but I did want to share some of the fun stuff I have been doing and I have more to share later as well!

I had fun making my girlies a pink valentine's day breakfast.
Scalloped heart pancakes with strawberry milk and a pink straw of course!

Of course the breakfast was for the guys as well, sans the pink milk.  Have you ever had stawberry milk?  Kinda funky if you ask me.  But, the girls LOVE it!

I made these for my 3 little birds for valentine's day.

They were inspired by the amazing April at secondsister.  When I grow up I want to make button bracelets like her!

(The blue one is made from vintage buttons from my grandmother.  I will soon be getting a jar of buttons from my great-grandmother and I will definitely be showing those here when they are in my hot little hands!!)

I made these for a superbowl party we went to.

                                      

Pure chocolate goodness inside and out!  But, I don't think I will EVER make them again!  Molding chocolate into the shape of a football is just not that easy!

just discovered

I just took a look around the second sister blog for the first time today.   What a beautiful place!  First, as the second sister in my own family of 3 girls, I get the feeling we could share more than a few stories about life in the middle!

Her post on Jan 22 really spoke to me.  Letting go of old dreams so that we are ready to live out the new ones!  You know that dreams (and what we should do with them) has been on my mind.

Then, whoa!, check out this girls AMAZING jewelry designs!  I actually gasped a couple times.  Seriously.
I want these:

and this:

                                      

and these:

                                       

oh, and while i am at it, this too:

                                     

that is a bracelet people!!

Her etsy shop is here http://www.etsy.com/shop/secondsister

I just love window shopping :)

food management

Perhaps I am lazy or dumb or crazy, or a little of all of the above?!  Managing the food buying, cooking, and planning has been a major thorn in the heel of my life for quite some time.  I don't hate it but I have never really come up with a system that worked for the long term. I have had good days, weeks and months, but it pretty much stops there.  I haven't sustained it.

My current bff:  

House of Order Handbook.

  

I am working my way through this book and hope to totally organize myself for ever and ever, amen.  But for right this moment I am working on developing her system of menu planning, shopping, and cooking.  I am trying to NOT tweak it since it has been made painfully clear that I do not have it figured out!  Tweaking can come later after I have put her system in place and USED IT!  

I have daydreams of living an incredibly peaceful, sane, organized life in a tidy little house with children who are dressed every morning and we even have fixed hair and brushed teeth.  (Like I said, it IS a dream here!)  

Then I open my eyes and cry out, WHY ME!!!!!!!

Anyway, this great little book covers everything from setting up your desk in an efficient way, managing laundry, budgeting, buying in bulk, and (my favorite) getting your kids to help!  WOO HOO!  I can't wait for that chapter!

So, today, I am working on setting up my Master Menu of 28 dinner meals that will actually get eaten along with our favorites for breakfast, lunch and snacks.  I love that once this is done, I won't have to think.  That is really the way I prefer to keep things around here.  

One of the best parts of the book is that she gets right to the point in each chapter.  She starts with a checklist, then gives maybe a couple pages of information, then right to your worksheets and tells you to GET TO WORK, WOMAN!  Okay, not really but that is what I tell myself and it really helps sometimes.

I have my desk pretty much done and I will let you know how the food planning goes.  Then I will conquer the rest of my life and hopefully, somewhere under the chaos, I will find my sanity.  It has been gone for a while, and I'm starting to miss that pesky critter.

somebody stop me

My dear, wonderful husband, father to my 4 babes, sweet talker that he is, double-dog dared me to post my weight and weight loss nightmares on this here blog.  Actually he told me I better, or it was all over.  No, really he told me I was a big chicken if I didn't.  No, really he told me that the whole world would love me if I did it.

He is a sweet talker like that.

And I have this little dream that the whole world will love me.  really.

Then, he tripple-dog dared me to post pictures too.

See, but this is the problem.  I never finish anything.  Seriously.  I have this little diary from when I was like 8.  It has a grand total of 3 entries.  Then I have this grown-up beautiful woman-journal from a few years ago and it has like 3 entries in it.  My kids baby books have like their footprints and 3 weight entries in it.  Then my baby, well, she is so neglected that she does not even have a mostly empty baby book.  I decided to stop the torture of guilt on my brain.  This is seriously just a drop in the barrel of my "unfinished" stories.

So, why would I want to go out into the world and broadcast my failure?  I think that HE thinks I will actually achieve my goals (and quit my whine-fest) if I put it ALL out there.  I am not certain that any of this is a good idea.  But, I don't like being called a chicken.  Fight'n words I tell ya!

Here is the background to this twisted story.  I never really had weight problems until after I had 3 babies in 3 years.  I was either nursing, pregnant or BOTH for a total of 4+ years.  I consumed lots of calories and it really didn't matter.  Then it stopped.  No nursing , not pregnant, bad habits remained.  The weight started on a steady incline.

I hit a low point last spring and joined weight watchers.  I lost 15 pounds.  I was half way to my goal and hit a stand-still.  I have gained some of that back and am ready to put this struggle to bed.  I am sick of thinking about it.  I am sick of not wanting to buy nice clothes because I am "going to lose this weight".  I am sick of trying to hide parts of my body and feeling uncomfortable in my own skin.  I just want it done.

Let's just go ahead and call this the BEFORE picture, okay? okay.

Here I am in all my frizzy-headed, mascara under the eye, rolled-outa-bed beauty.  My name is Rachel and today I weighed 134.  (ha ha honey, you didn't think I would do it!!)

Stay tuned to see if Rachel will reach her goal of being the hottest mama of 4 this side of Toledo Bend.  Trust me, this could get interesting...

dreams

An elderly man, in the final days of his life, is lying in bed alone.  He awakens to see a large group of people clustered around his bed.  Their faces are loving, but sad.  Confused, the old man smiles weakly and whispers, "You must be my childhood friends come to say good-bye.  I am so grafeful."  Moving closer, the tallest figure gently grasps the old man's hand and replies, "Yes, we are your best and oldest friends, but long ago you abandoned us.  For we are the unfulfilled promises of your youth.  We are the unrealized hopes, dreams and plans that you once felt deeply in your heart, but never pursued.  We are the unique talents that you never refined, the special gifts that you never discovered.  Old friend, we have not come to comfort you, but to die with you."

from "I Believe in You"

Sometimes our dreams fade, sometimes they change.  Sometimes we outgrow them.  Sometimes we need to find them, reclaim them and live them.

Inspiration

I have felt inspired by a few women during the past weeks.  This quote has really stuck with me. 

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our Light, not our Darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you NOT to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightening about shrinking so that other people won't feel unsure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It is not just in some of us; it is in everyone. As we let our own Light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

Marianne Williamson




I have been too damn scared of my failure, past and future, to just put it ALL out there. I don't want regrets.  I hate regrets.  

untitled by vera

girls gone shopping

I debated and hesitated this morning to venture on an out-of-town shopping trip with just the 3 little girls and mommy.  They are good girls but they loooove to shop and I prefer to have daddy with us to help me make sure we are all leaving with who we came with if you know what I mean!

I decided to go for it since we really needed to use our gymbucks before they expired.

I was feeling really confident and made our first stop at toys r us.  Insane as it sounds, I had to get some Totally Toddler that I cannot live without and can't get around here anymore.  They surprised me and we were out of there in a reasonable amount of time!

We then headed to gymboree where I really pushed them to the limit of their patience (especially the 2 little sisters).  I have decided that maybe it would be best to take them on individual shopping trips that are more suited to their own patience level or just make it SHORT.  Poor girlies are exhausted but couldn't stop talking about doing a fashion show for daddy when we were on the trip home.  Here are a few of our treasures we brought home:

            

                

I feel so blessed to be mama to those three little girls.  They are so smart and sweet and I know we will have MANY more shopping days in our future!