Some thoughts

I did a really hard thing a few days ago. I sat in on a murder trial. After I left I just felt dirty. Like, needed a shower dirty. I also felt the need to soak in lots of God's precious, clean word. My body felt dirty being that close to someone who had committed such a horrific act, and my mind felt dirty hearing all of those terrible things. On the way home I had a small realization of what God must feel like listening to all our of conversations and seeing the way that we act. We are so unworthy of Him...and He must feel the need to shower and get clean again...all. the. time.

On to more low key things...

I've decided I need to keep a "snow day stash" in my house. I always feel very unprepared for snow days! Like I have no fun activities planned for my kids, and we haven't been baking much, because I can't eat of those kinds of sweets right now. So, when I get desperate I just dump a bunch of art supplies on the table and let them "go at it"! Today's activity included wiggle eyes, glue, foam, stickers, scissors, sticks, and stencils.


I've also realized lately that my kids need direction to play. They need me to present them with a "challenge" of sorts in order for them to do anything but wrestle or play football (yes, in the house...I'm one of those moms). So, I've tried harder to give them specific things to do..."put together this puzzle", or "build me a city using every lego in this bucket"...


Hunter has been coming home with homework on Mondays lately! Yes, homework in Kindergarten! I'm not totally opposed to it, because in general it's been constructive things like writing his numbers 1-20, or writing his full name...yesterday he came home with a packet of papers and told me they were "in case we have a snow day"...which, sure enough, we had the very next day!

We've gotten a tutor for Blake. Okay, so the tutor is my aunt, but she's a retired teacher (this is her first year of retirement) and she is awesome! I wouldn't want to trust just anyone to work with him one on one, so this is the perfect set up! She has only worked with him once, because of the snow days this week, but we are going to set something up more regularly, and I hope that he gets big benefits from it (both academically, and emotionally). We saw the gap between him and "perfect" on the report card grow tremendously between first and second quarter and I just wanted to be proactive and get him help so that we can gradually close the gap rather than allowing it to continue to grow. Let's face it, this kid has huge mountains to cross - new family, new culture, new language, school for the first time in his life. He's doing beautifully, and I think he deserves the best help he can get!

I guess that's about all that's going on around this neck of the woods lately. The new season of Biggest Loser is on, but for some reason I'm not nearly as addicted this season as I was last...maybe it's because I'm on my own journey?! Speaking of, you're about to see a terrible picture (that I can't believe I'm posting on here) to hopefully help inspire some of you! Here I am, doing my daily work out (pre-shower for the day and everything!). I told you that I started walking 2 miles a day...but did I mention I'm lifting soup cans while I do it?! Yes, frugal me, isn't going to buy hand weights...I just sent my supportive husband into the kitchen to bring me soup cans! They are working great, and I just keep them by my treadmill. I do bicep curls, and tricep exercises...anything to keep moving my arms (and hopefully tone them in the process), burn more calories, and feel the burn! If I can sneak away from my 4 children for 40 minutes a day to walk 2 miles...I know you can do it too!!!


I have decided that my children's threshold is 13 minutes. That's how long they can go without needing me to do something for them. It doesn't matter if I set them in front of a movie, or instruct them to play in the playroom...I can't get more than 13 minutes to myself. They usually yell for me or come ask me something before the 13 minute mark, but I can usually hold them off with a "yes, no, hold on a minute". But...13 minutes and I have to quit what I'm doing and help them with something. Whew. Sometimes it takes me all day to get those 2 miles in!

I'm waiting for Lincoln to get home so we can watch this week's episode of The Bachelor. Yup, after 3 years of not watching it, I'm back at it. The last time I watched it Brad was The Bachelor, and I was on bedrest with Graysen...when I saw it was him again, I just had to tune in.

Check out this blog. She's a cute momma who is choosing adoption for their first child! They are doing a great giveaway just through Monday...so check her out, maybe donate to help them bring their child home, and enter the give away!

So, how was that for a random post?! Just a little insight into the everyday life of the rowdy Redburn bunch!