I have wanted to blog all week but just haven't had a good opportunity to sit down and make it count.

This morning I got up at 4:15 a.m. to get ready and get the boys ready to go to prayer meeting. In March our church holds 6:00 a.m. prayer meetings every Friday. It's one hour and there's plenty of time after to get Owen to school and for Kris to get himself to work or a meeting or whatever might be going on. The unfortunate thing is I didn't sleep very well. Ivan woke me up once, Kris woke me up once and my bladder woke me up once as well. I remember waking up a couple other times but can't remember why. Thankfully it wasn't much effort to go back to my slumber, but those little interruptions add up and the alarm was not doing the math with me.

Today is Owen's last day of school before Spring Break and I am so excited that we get to keep him home for a week. I know by the end of it I'll be glad to drop him off at school again, but I told him this morning when he was getting out of the van that I'm going to miss him today. He got back up close to me and gave me an extra goodbye kiss. He's such a sweet kid.

Speaking of Owen, I will put this on his blog in more detail, but he has a love interest. It's the cutest thing and I try not to say too much and embarrass him, but the little girl is a doll and she told him that she likes him too so it's all good. When I was a kid, I completely discouraged any such attention, making it known that my parents had told me I was not to have a boyfriend until I was old enough to date. I haven't felt the need to be quite so strict with him right now, but I am keeping a close eye on the situation.

I have a lot of catching up to do on the boy's blogs. Ivan is finally at a place where he is excited about learning. The idea of being able to read has fascinated him since Owen has become adept enough to actually read to his brothers. We sat down and "played pre-school" the other day and he did very well identifying letters and placing them in order. I was encouraged. Aron wanted to play too, but was too distracted to be much of a participant. In the next few weeks I hope to allow Ivan a couple afternoons without naps so that we can "play pre-school" while Aron is sleeping. Aron is...well, again I hope to put more details on his blog, but he's just a character. His vocabulary impresses me more and more and his humor is becoming a problem. Even when I'm scolding him he tries desperately to make me laugh...and sometimes it works.

I had a birthday on Sunday. It was number 38 and brings me even closer to the 4th decade. Hard to believe I'm that close, but here it comes. It was a BEAUTIFUL day outside and being a Sunday we only had half of the day to put much time into celebrating. I made myself a cake on Saturday. I am a little picky about my favorite cake and decided the best way to have what I want is to make it myself. It's not the cake as much as the icing that appeals to me. Cooked chocolate frosting is just so good, it tastes like fudge on top of cake. What could be better? I picked up some Blue Bell Homemade Vanilla ice cream and made some homemade chocolate syrup. With all that, I'm set. Completely happy. Kris ensured a free day from the kitchen for the most part and he and I watched a movie while the boys napped in the afternoon. Once they were up we took them down to the playground and came back for a light dinner and cake and ice cream. It was a very good day.

On Saturday before my birthday it struck me that if my 20th high school reunion, which is scheduled for this summer, continues as originally planned on August 7th that it is 5 months away from my birthday. 5 months is an adequate time to lose a little weight and a 20th reunion is a good motivation. So I am dieting. I don't diet. I have only done one diet in the past and I hated it. I did Atkins and it worked, but I hated it (did I say that before?) and didn't stick to the follow up plan, got pregnant a few months later and it all went to pot. So I've tried losing weight since then but I always gave myself certain compromises. I would eat right but allow myself to eat whatever I wanted on Saturdays. Stuff like that.

This time, I'm creating a plan that fits me, no compromising except for occasionally allowing myself to eat a little dessert when we are having company or the guest in someone's home. I'm keeping it very simple because I'm actually pretty good at simple. I don't mind eating the same things over and over if I have a good reason for it and this week I've had a strawberry smoothie every day at breakfast, plus a little coffee with a touch of cream and sugar. No sugar in the smoothie other than what's already in the 1/4 cup of French Vanilla Yogurt. I've had one avocado garnished with either celery salt or season salt, salsa, cilantro and lime for lunch every day.

And I've scheduled my dinners to include low fat meals that don't include a lot of carbohydrates. I'll probably switch my breakfast and lunches to different meals each week but I'll have a weeks worth of each selection as I go to keep it easy. I've been hungry almost constantly, but when I heard my stomach growling the other night I told Kris, who heard it as well, "that's the sound of me getting skinny." Hunger needs to be my friend for a little while. I've been maintaining this weight for too long. I'm also being public about it this time. I'm not asking people to keep me accountable, but I'll be really embarrassed if I don't stick with it. I will start exercising a bit too, though that is not going to be a big goal for me. I need to start with one discipline and move on as I become more comfortable with each thing. If I try to change my entire life, I will get discouraged and quit when one of them isn't working or becomes too hard to maintain. My goal is 25 pounds by August. Pray for me. I'm actually learning a lot but I won't go into that right now. This is already too long for a Limerick Friday post.

On to the limerick:

A troubled young woman named Freida
had a deep fear of Chester the Cheetah
In the panic that seized
She swore off all cheese
From fresh Feta to rubber Velveeta

Tonight begins the Women's Spring Conference at church. I'm doing my skit tomorrow morning so your prayers are appreciated. Tomorrow afternoon is a birthday party for a little boy across the street and the week beyond is full, full, full. Hopefully there will be a little time for blogging, but no promises.