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-::- At Home with Kris -::-

Luckily, this was only a computer virus. But a free anti-virus download found and deleted FIVE trojans that I had on my computer. We knew I was having issues because certain websites wouldn't load properly and my McAfee wouldn't work and I couldn't defrag the computer, etc. It took my husband ALL DAY yesterday to find something that would work WITHOUT my computer having to download directly from the site. I high recommend this site - http://www.avast.com/ - if you believe you have viruses or trojans on your computer. My computer is running so much better today. And, this is TOTALLY FREE!!

The rest of our day was relaxing. We had opened presents on Christmas Eve at my parent's house after going to church service at their church. I think that I am going to go to their church in January to see how I like it. The kids want to go with me, too. The only negative is that their early service is not in the sanctuary and I really like their sanctuary - it has beautiful stained glass work and I love stained glass in church! My kids sorta did their own thing yesterday. Ian built a couple of his new Lego kits and my daughter read one of her new books. We watched the Little People, Big World marathon all day yesterday. We cooked a ham as we do each year. I love having leftover ham! We'll eat on it until hams are on sale again around Easter! Ham and beans are on the menu for next week now - ha!

Now that Christmas is over, I'm on my new plan to get healthy. I fixed a balanced breakfast for myself this morning to get myself off to a good start. My first goal is to work on balanced meals and increased water intake. After the weekend, my daughter and I will start exercising each day while she is still off school. I am so motivated to finally get to a healthy weight and get myself out of the "overweight zone!"

I hope that you had a great Christmas!

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It's not been a good week so far ... and it's only Tuesday ... man, that isn't good, is it? Ha!

I have left my church. Today, I gave notice to the committees that I was on or leading that I was no longer going to be a part of them. As long as my pastor remains at the church, I will not be a part of it. Too many details to share here, but suffice it to say that I have lost all respect for my pastor and I cannot continue to attend services, etc. there. It wasn't an easy decision, but one that I am very at peace with. If the pastor leaves, I'll go back, but not until then. My husband will remain b/c he is currently president of the admin council. Not sure what the kids will do. I am at a crossroads with my faith again ... not really wanting to go to formal church, but rather take some time and do Bible study on my own for a while. Maybe the kids and I will have home church during the winter.

We are also having issues with the kids. I am hoping that I can work on some of those issues once they are home on break. None of it has to do with from homeschool to public school and for that I am grateful. It has to do with the larger issue of the kids putting themselves and their needs before everything else in their lives. I have to be honest and say that there are days when I wish I never had children. Sometimes, they just suck the life right out of you!

I know we are lucky that my husband has a job, but some recent changes are going to eat up the recent raise he received. So, I guess that I am glad he got the raise now! We'll have increased costs of our medical insurance and coverages, no more company match for the 401(k), all coupled with increased costs of living ... sigh ... I really won't know until January's pay check how it will all fall out. I am thankful that I have a job to help out!

I found a local mini-farm at Realtor.com today. It's a totally renovated 100+ year old farm house with almost 3000 sq. ft, 4 beds, 3 baths and 5 acres. Man, oh man, do I wish we could buy it - it's listed cheaper than our current home and it would be great to have the land for my son to explore and spend his spare time on. We would even be able to stay in the same school district so the kids would not have to change schools. But I know that we couldn't sell our current home with the market the way it is. Hmmm, I wonder if the agent would do a trade ... something to think about! LOL!

Well, I know this isn't the most cheery post, but like I was telling my son today - life isn't easy. Sometimes, I wonder what the point of it all is anyway.

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I just placed my last order for Christmas presents at Amazon - I'M OFFICIALLY DONE SHOPPING - Yea! Now, I just need to wrap stuff up and put it under the tree. And, speaking of the tree, we bought a new one last weekend. Our other tree had needed replacing for several years, but I couldn't bring myself to spend the money on a new tree. However, I was going to have to buy new lights anyway. My husband wanted to buy the new LED lights and they are not cheap. It was going to cost almost $100 just to replace our lights! So, we were in KMart on Sunday and they had their Martha Stewart trees marked around half-off. So we bought this beautiful 7.5 ft tree with the LED multi-color lights. They are really B-R-I-G-H-T... LOL! But they have the most beautiful purple lights on them! I'll try to take a picture of the tree and post it soon - we've had lots of rain and I need a sunny day to get a good picture to share. I kept the rest of the decorating to a minimum, a little less than last year, but still enough to be festive for the season

I have my Christmas cards ready to mail to family and friends. I still need to fill out the cards to give to people at church and to my neighbors. I was more selective this year and only sent cards to close family and friends. I see no reason to keep sending cards to "old" friends that I am really not in contact with anymore. My son wanted to buy presents for his teachers and two of the cafeteria workers. He spent his own money, too. I thought it was so sweet that he wanted to gift the cafeteria workers as I'm sure these are people that often are forgotten each year since they aren't directly involved with teaching the children.

Guess that's all for now - hope you are having a good week!

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I got notice in my mail today that the electric company is going to raise my equal payment plan $50 beginning with the November payment. OUCH! I am so thankful that my husband got a raise beginning with today's paycheck. We got the notice last  month that our costs would be rising, but I didn't think they'd increase our monthly payment so quickly. We have already made some changes to the temperature that we are leaving the thermostat on. Today, I took my daughter to buy some sweaters and we found these incredibly warm fleece-lined zip hoodies at WalMart. I had been looking at these at LLBean.com, but the $50 price tag was a bit too much. The women's sizes were $15 and the men's sizes were $20. My husband, daughter and I each picked one up so that we can warm ourselves up each night. So, for just $5 more, I was able to buy THREE of these!

I'll be curious to see how things turn out in the spring when the cold weather is gone!

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Boy, the weekend sure flew by! I spent a good portion of it helping my son study for a big test in Geography tomorrow as well as helping him with a presentation he has to put together for Thursday. I never know whether he knows the information or not until he gets the grade back. He doesn't do too well on tests, so I just hope for the best! He did make straight A's for the first 6-weeks and I'm very proud of him for that.

I've decided to do a quicker cross-stitch project before starting the Noah's Sub. I saw this magazine at the store this weekend and just loved the front cover project.

My family agreed that it is very "me!" There were some other beautiful projects inside as well. Then this led me to searching the net for some interesting projects and I soon found myself wanting a bunch of beautiful patterns ... sigh ... will need to decide what I want to do with that wall in my reading nook. I've got several ideas running through my head!

After coming to the conclusion that I have issues with nightshade fruits and veggies, I decided to test if gluten is really a problem. I didn't have any reaction after eating some Bisquick waffles this morning. I ate gluten-free for the rest of the day and will do so for a bit longer as I try to keep track of my food reactions. I definitely feel like I'm beginning to narrow things down and it is such a relief to be doing so.

I did really well at Walgreens and CVS this afternoon. At Walgreens, I bought almost $51 worth of product for $26 after sale prices and coupons. I paid for it with $23 that was on my gift card from my rebate last month (had to pay the extra $3 and tax, of course) and earned $9 back in register rewards plus I'll be getting back $14.50 in rebates. I'm going to go back again this week and pick up a few more items that will be nearly free after coupons and rebates. I am hoping they have a coupon good on Friday & Saturday as they seem to have most weeks - I get that in my email. At CVS, I bought $113 worth of product for almost $4 after sale prices, coupons and ECB's. I'll head back there again, too, and pick up a few more items with my husband's CVS card. My box of items to donate at Christmas is getting a nice start!

The leaves on the trees are beginning to change and the day temps will be dipping into the low 70s in just a few days. I can't wait! My week looks pretty good. I'll be busy, but each day looks manageable. Mondays are usually my 'get it together' day - I pay bills, straighten up the house from the weekend, plan meals for the week and catch up on work that came in over the weekend. I picked up our Angel Food food packs on Saturday and then shopped the sales at the grocery stores. I a pretty well-stocked up with meat and many items that will help make meals for us. I just need to sit down and create some weekly menus to figure out which items I need to round the meals off.

I guess that is all that has been going on with me here. I hope you have a great week!

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My schedule (see previous post) worked very well for me today! I felt like I got so much done by focusing on one thing at a time. I didn't get everything done that I wanted to, but I'll just keep working through my to-do list each day knowing that eventually I'll get to everything that needs to get done. I especially enjoyed my morning walk with Shadow knowing it was the first official day of fall and cooler days are ahead! I opened up the house in the morning until it got too warm. I love airing the house out in the spring and fall.

I tested my suspected sensitivity to tomatoes today and it's a positive ... I cannot eat tomatoes or anything with them in it ... no more spaghetti, chili, lasagna, etc. I was using gluten-free pasta, but that isn't going to do me any good now. So, I'll be eating different meals on the nights I fix those favorites for my family. Oh well ... at least I know for sure now! I am seriously thinking of buying a 2nd NutriMill grain mill so that I can grind my own non-wheat flours to use in my gluten-free cooking. I need to look into it a bit more as it is a $250 purchase.

Part of me is wanting to deck out my house for fall ... I don't have much here, so would have to buy some decor. I've been reading various blogs around the net and it's been fun viewing everyone's decorations. But then the practical part of me can't justify spending the money. I mean, decorating the house isn't going to change anything, if you know what I mean. It's not really going to add anything to my life - not sure if that makes sense to you. I mean, I enjoy pretty things and I like for my house to look nice and clean, but decorating for the seasons or holidays doesn't really serve a purpose overall (I do decorate for Christmas!).

I've decided to tackle a cross-stitch project that I've had for YEARS ... It is called Noah's Submarine. I found some pictures online showing some close-up shots of what it looks like - you can see them here. Man, I cannot wait to get started on this!! I hope to have my fabric ready to go within the next couple of days. I learned to cross-stitch when I was about 10 and I cross-stitched until I went to college. Then I picked it up early in my marriage BC (Before Children - ha!), but haven't worked on a project in at least 10 years. It'll be good to have something that I can work on for a few hours each night.

So, my start to the week was good ... tomorrow looks to be a productive day as well. Hope you had a great Monday!

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Since Monday is the official first day of autumn, I made a quick change to the top graphic on this blog. I noted to my husband today that fall is my favorite season, but I never decorate for it. If I could, my home would look like the one in the picture above - ha! Decorating for each season is something that I'd love to do, but it costs money to do so and the financial goals that we have for ourselves just do not allow for much frivolous spending right now. I always change the wreath on the door and will do that by the end of the weekend. Other than that, nothing is changing until Christmas!

As much as I hate to FINALLY admit it, I am definitely going to have to go gluten-free. Sometimes, I eat gluten-free for days without even trying and I did that earlier this week. Then I packed a sandwich to take with me to my canning class on Thursday and ... whoa!! I felt miserable by the end of the day and my itchy skin was back. So, I will be eating gluten-free for the rest of  my life. Luckily, I have many books here at home to help me out. (I added links to the books that own in my sidebar today.) This morning I made some GF Banana Peanut Butter Bread and it came out pretty good. My entire family liked it. I am hoping to have the entire family "go gluten-free" because it'll be easier for me to cook if all of us are eating the same things. I have read that there are connections between gluten and autism, so it may help my son, too.

Since I hadn't been out of the house in weeks except for church, the grocery store and my job, I asked my husband if he'd like to go with me shopping. I needed to get a gift for my secret prayer sister for this month. I ended up finding presents for her for the rest of the YEAR including her Christmas present. I'm glad to have them all here so that I'm ready to give them to her each month now. I am happy to say that I only missed giving her a little something one month. I do not believe that I'll participate in the secret sisters next year. I'm backing off from as much as I can in 2009. The only thing that I'll be involved in is my job and probably one commitment at church. Everything else is going "on hold" until my kids graduate high school.

I've been thinking about what I would like to plant in our garden next year, but first I need to figure out where we are going to put it and how big I want it to be. (I linked to a bunch of books that I own and will use to help me out next spring - check the sidebar!). I would love to be able to grow our own lettuce since we buy so much of it, so will have to ask my sister about that. They were very successful growing lettuce this year. I'd also like to grow peppers, beans, squash, tomatoes, some pumpkins and maybe try carrots. So, I'll be reading some gardening books over the coming weeks so that we can figure out what we need to do to start readying our above ground garden beds.

Guess that's all for today. The rest of the weekend will be spent helping my son study for a Science test on Monday and begin working on his Geography state presentation which is due on October 2nd. He's got the basic info and needs to put it into a 2-page report, create a visual aid and put together a 2 minute presentation. He has his work cut out for him!

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It's been a week of ups and downs. I'm still working on getting a good schedule together and making time for my hobbies. I spent some time organizing my craft area last night. I need to get the homeschool items that I want to sell typed up and posted so that I can clear off my craft table and actually begin scrapbooking for the summer. I also need to get my daughter's quilt top done and begin practicing my hand quilting so that I can finish her quilt for her December birthday. Those are my two 'to-dos' for the rest of May ... make time for the fun stuff!

I had a great experience yesterday. There was an article in our local paper about our local soup kitchen needing donations and we had some money set aside for tithing. We decided to give it to The Daily Bread, but I have to say that it was a bit hard to think about writing that check. We tithed on our stimulus check and I had a goal of paying off the car next month. These checks would have made it possible to get the car paid off, but Jim and I talked and agreed that we need to remember that God asks for our "first fruits." So, I went down to The Daily Bread and gave them the check. Later that afternoon, the money that I had donated came back to us DOUBLED! It was such an affirmation that God does understand our worries and hears our prayers.

Ok, now for the bad news ... I stepped on the scale this morning and have finally gone OVER my "upper limit" ... I am so frustrated! Since switching over to eating gluten-free, I have not tried to balance my carbs and protein, so I believe that is the issue there. I'm going back to that today. The other issue is my lack of exercise, so time to get back to that. I've got a perfectly good treadmill, a membership to a fitness center, running trails at a local park only minutes away and good uphill streets in my neighborhood ... I HAVE NO EXCUSE FOR CONTINUING TO SIT ON MY TUSH! So, I am going to get in two 30-minute sessions each day, one in the morning and one in the evening. Our puppy loves to run around the block and I mean he actually runs the entire thing! So, my evening exercise will be as part of the puppy run  that my husband and kids are doing.

I guess that is all for now ... I'm going to go hop on my treadmill before beginning my day! I hope you make the most of yours!

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