Thursday, September 3, 2009

just what you were wondering

report on absolutely everything going on in the Panter household:

garden: what garden? yeah. remember that garden we planted in May? hee hee. I think we ended up harvesting one or two onions and 4 little bitty tomatoes. Something was very amiss with our soil, the squirrels ate what little did grow (until we fixed that problem anyway) and when we moved the housing company made us rip it out - whatever.
we will be focusing our efforts on ONE tomato plant next year. maybe.
it's ok. I thought it was funny that it didn't work out. kinda.

once a month cooking: what's that? again, hee hee. for the summer all we ate were Chicken Caesar Salads (chicken from rotisseries), Taco Salads (ok, I did cook this meat mixture and keep it frozen - but I think I did it twice because I was able to divide it up enough times to only need to do it twice), Grilled Salmon and Asparagus with instant rice mixes and occasionally Chicken Enchiladas (I'll post my recipe on the Once a Month Cooking blog in a bit) but I rarely froze this - we just ate one big batch 2-3 nights in a row.
I plan on getting back into the swing once fall really hits - that's when it seems to work for us.

homeschooling: I hadn't planned on actually starting until after Labor Day but we just love our new school room so much that we went ahead and started last week. I'm really just focusing and going hard core with Lydia and teaching her to read - we'll move on to other things after that is accomplished. We're using the Spalding Method (the Write Road to Reading) and I am trudging through it but we are really really liking it. Samantha and the little girls join us for a while but then get distracted and just go play. I have toys and games for them that are only allowed out during school time and that has seemed to work perfect for us.
really, we are loving this part of our life!

church: Got Questions group still going strong. We have been doing an Andy Stanely study called Truth Twisters and it has been tough but oh so good. Love my group!

Oasis (the youth group) started back up a few weeks ago and I am so excited!!! We LOVE working with highschoolers...it's a serious passion of both mine and Jake's. The past few years have been so confusing with learning to adjust our time given to that ministry, balancing our hearts in that ministry now that we have a family, Jake being gone gone gone, me 'having my hands full' ;-), etc. But I think this is our year! The balance is figured out, mostly, Jake is here, kinda, and it just feels different. YEAH!
I have an awesome group of girls, mostly freshman but not all, and a great co-leader - God is really going to work - the harvest is ripe!

working out: still getting up at 5am. had to change gyms since we moved. it's very different so I'm adjusting BUT STILL GOING. lost my partner - she had to move and I moved across town - anyone wanna join my gym and work out at 5am??

sugar: I did ok. I went about 3 weeks straight with NO sugar - lost 6 lbs and then the move stuff threw me off. I have been better about the sugar intake ever since and the 6 lbs was enough to kick me off the plateau I was on! still loosing weight, SLOWLY, but still. am going to do the no sugar thing again.....maybe now??

Jake's job: He is fulfilled. He is gone, a. lot. but he does love it. for now. we are both looking forward to something else though!

Samantha's 'pee': better!!!!!!! soo sooooo so so soooo much better!!!!! (perfect timing because we have carpet in almost our whole house now!) she put forth a huge effort, I could tell, and I did better at keeping her squeaky clean and it really is so much better!!!!!

we are blessed. we are thankful. we love our blessed life.

I'm in the application process of becoming a Court Appointed Special Advocate for fosters kids in a county near us.....nervous and excited about that all at the same time.

I'll get my application sent in as soon as I figure out what the addresses are I've lived at in the past 20 years!!!???
That ain't gonna look good ;-)

4 comments:

Daphne said...

That is so cool that you are going to be a CASA. It is something that I have thought about doing for years.

Liza said...

Good for you for applying to CASA! It's a great, much depended on program in our juveniles courts here in Louisiana. The kids, attorneys, even judges LOVE the personal, individual time CASAs give the kids. You'll be a great one :)

Stacy said...

I was just wondering about Sam Sam the other day and how that was going. Tyler all of a sudden has random days of nothing but accidents and I was going to ask you about it - but I think his is just more distraction and not wanting to stop playing...

XOXO girl!!

Courtney said...

i'll work out with you at 5 am!

and sorry to ask a question after all those answers! but what does a special advocate DO exactly??