All in the Family

There is an interesting custom in my husband's family dealing with naming children. Many times family names have been uses as middle names when a new baby comes along. My husband has the unusual middle name French, one brother's middle name was Rowan,another Randler, another Talmage. My mother in law's middle name was Ross. And so it goes... Steve was one of eight children. Gwenn and Nick will catch up with them but not just yet. Today is a big day in our family. Gwenn and Nick announce the first child who will become part of their existing family in Haiti. On Monday, thirteen year old Fritzie will come home to live with Gwenn, Nick, Nia, Nico and Josiah. She will be part of the family. So it just seems right that she would carry on in the family tradition. God is cool like that. Steve's great grandmother was always called Nana Fritz. The new child in the family is named Fritzie. This to me is very cool and even now I have a few tears thinking about God's provision for us. He choose to put us in a family and give us a name. He choose to put Fritzie in this family and to give her a name.
(In first photo: Fritzie on right, in second photo Nana Fritz on right!)
Be sure to read Nia's blog introducing Fritzie to all of us!
http://sayfromaj.blogspot.com/

Abbie..the funny one

I love it when the grandchildren are here. We get to see Gretchen and Jon's kids a lot! Especially in the summer when Gretchen works at the restaurant. Today I went to check on Micah and Abbie who were playing in my new garden (which is under construction and not yet planted) There they were in the middle of the dirt pile. They were rubbing dirt on their arms and down their legs. Micah had dirt rubbed on to his cheeks, forehead and chin. I said "What are you doing?" to which for year old Abbie replied "I am pretending to be German." Home school kids have such wonderful, unusual imaginations.

Going to New Heights with the Ten Minute Challange

I know. I have written a lot lately about my ten minute challenge but it's my blog so I am comfortable with that. Today while do my time in my bed room I finished cleaning and had some time left. The rug did not need to be vacuumed, the sheets are still clean, the drawers are cleaned out....and then I looked up YES! the ceiling fan! I got out my rag, stood on the bed and cleaned the pattles on the fan.Just as I finished the timer rang! I LOVE THIS SYSTEM!!!

Evie went to the Zoo

Evie my 2 yr. old granddaughter went to the zoo today with her dad Chris. She saw a bear, a giraffe, and an elephant. She did not see a Lion. Her mommy Melody did not go with them. When asked if Cana went Evie replied "Probably not." Cana was drinking milk and Evie was going to take a bath because it was dark out and the soap was very slippery. No one fed the chickens today. Such was my wonderful conversation with Evie. The rest of the conversation was lost in the translation. What I want to know is : Did I get ANY of this right????

Not to whip a dead horse but...(not a comment on Nick's dinner choices)

I gotta tell you this "ten minute challenge" is transforming my life. Ok that and the fact that the Post Office is going broke so I am working less hours.http://current.com/items/90670712_obama-uses-money-losing-u-s-post-office-as-example-oops.htm I feel like my house is finally under control and it encourages me to press on further. So I went back to coupons. (thanks to the inspiration of another POM,*that's code for Parent of a Missionary:) http://robin-robinznest.blogspot.com/2009/08/it-is-crazy.htmlI haven't really got deep into it yet but I'm starting.Like right now. I have all my coupons and my scissors right here (do you think I am avoiding this task by rambling on on this blog? that is possible) And I am hoping to get back to E-baying AND I have great hopes to update my new business website. (simplycelebrate.biz) AND my biggest and scariest undertaking is a garden. Honestly, this scares me quite a bit.A lot actually. It's not that I don't think I can grow plants, I'm just afraid I will fail to keep up with it.I like to think of myself as a garden kind of girl. I have a container of fruit peels, coffee grinds and veggie scrapes on my kitchen counter cause we all know that garden kind of girls compost. I also don't know what I am doing and wish Gwenn lived a little closer. Like in America. But I am glad she is in Haiti because I love the water. And other stuff. So when the garden club discovers me I'll post pictures of my winning garden. When I get a camera that is. With money I saved by using coupons and ebaying and all that.

Going Deeper

I sit here on my 10 minute break from my ten minute challenge. (See previous post)I have to tell you, this works for me. At first I had to go thought the cycle a few times to actually get the rooms clean. Now I am finding time left at the end of my challenge to go deeper. Today, because I had just cleaned the bathroom yesterday it only took about 2 min. to wipe things down. This left me with about 8 minutes to straighten out the towels AND start to clean out the closet. Then, I had enough time left in my laundry time to dump out that HUGE bag of mismatched socks and match them up and THROW OUT ALL TO THE SOCKS THAT DID NOT HAVE A MATE! I added the porches today and was able to deadhead flowers, fix the little fountain and put away a few toys left out there.
Now it is time to add the upstairs into the cycle. That is pretty easy EXCEPT my office which is bad. Last night I spent a long time sifting through mountains of papers to give myself a jump start.
And Katie will be happy to know I cleaned out the TV cabinet matching videos with their cases and putting them back upstairs where they belong. There were 47 of them!

The ten minute challange.

I'm having a hard time motovating myself to get started on my house work. Where do I start??? There is so much to do. Often times I get bogged down in sorting papers and little things that need to be done but don't have that ahhhhhhhh.... effect when you look back at the work you have done. So this afternoon I am going to drag myself away from this blood sucking computer (for a little while anyway :) and I am going to issue myself the 10 min. challange.This is a revision of one of the many "games" my mom used to play with us. For 10 mins. and ten minutes only I will clean in one room. When the times rings I will move to the next room. I can do anything for 10 minutes, right??? I move from task to task then start over until the house is clean.This should help me stay focused and on track. Unless the phone rings~ So that's my plan...here I go..Ready, Set, GO!!!!!