Inside Out - Lisa Rugglesa thousand times I’ve failed, still your mercy remains

Our family went out to an Italian restaurant and had some delicious food. Chloe is allergic to wheat, dairy, soy, gluten products and about 18 other foods. Rather than focusing on foods she can’t have, we try to keep her mind on what she is allowed to eat. She can eat fruit, vegetables and meats.

For a skinny little 7 year old, this girl sure can eat! This was a huge bowl of soup and she finished every bite of it! Some dinners Chloe eats more than Brad or I!

Some days are harder for Chloe than others. Some days, she just wants to eat regular ice cream with other kids but then has to weigh if it is worth getting sick afterwards. There are days she just makes the choice and there are days we have floods of tears and frustration.

She has learned to find the good in her allergies and be thankful. Is it still hard? You bet, but I’m really proud of her.

She is an amazing little girl, learning discipline at a young age. Having to daily weigh the consequences of her actions. She has to choose how she is going to deal with her allergies.

Chloe’s allergies are often a reminder to me. It always seems simple when it is someone else’s problem. But, how will I deal with the difficult situations thrown at me?

Will I allow them to take over my life?
Will I seek God in the middle of them and choose to have the best attitude possible?
Will I look for God’s miracle’s in the middle of chaos?
Will I choose peace or turmoil?

What do you do when God tells you no?

Chloe is off to school. The girls and I are really excited that we live close enough to walk to school everyday.

This afternoon I get to spend time with Emily in her Kindergarten class. She starts the school year with a tea party. I will have pics later today.

I have been really excited for the new year. As we left Chloe in a new school, with a new teacher, I felt a little emotional. I could feel the tears in my eyes.

She is in second grade and we have done this three times already but I still felt a little bit of sadness. I will be praying for her all day. I can’t wait to hear about her day!

One of my dear children. I’m not going to mention who, in order to save possible embarrassment, decided to roast a marshmallow in the microwave for two minutes. It was stuffed with chocolate. She was expecting to pull out a yummy, chocolate filled marshmallow and the is what she got.

I couldn’t even begin to be upset with her. The tears in her eyes said it all. This was definitely an accident! Besides she was just acting like her Dad, trying to make a good thing better!

The culprit would like you to guess….

Was it Chloe, the oldest?

Or Emily, the youngest?

Last night I was sitting out on our deck enjoying the beautiful evening while Brad was reading stories to the girls. When I came in, this is what I found.

It made my heart melt!

We have lost our camera cord. It is driving me crazy! I can’t take good pics until the new one arrives!

EXCERPT:

AUSTIN, Texas - How many cheerleaders can cram into an elevator? Apparently not 26. A group of teenage girls attending a cheerleading camp on the University of Texas got stuck and had to be rescued after trying to squeeze into an elevator at a residence hall Tuesday night.

Reading this story made me cringe! I have real issues with elevators. I hate riding them. If possible, I will always take the stairs.

Brad usedto say crazy things like:

“Did you feel that?”

“The door won’t open!”

“I think it stopped.”

“What if we can’t get out?”

“Did you hear that?”

He doesn’t do that anymore because I refuse to ride the elevator with him unless he promises to be nice.

I usually pray and breathe deep while in the elevator. Very funny sight, I’m sure. I do whatever is needed  for me  not to panic.

If I allowed my mind to run, I could have a serious panic attack. I’ve never had one, but elevators used to bring me real close!

Do you have any phobias?

As long as we have been married, Brad and I have been involved in ministry. That being said, our Sundays were always extremely busy. This has been the first time in our marriage that we just attend Sunday morning service without being involved in leadership. It’s crazy! You have the whole day after church.

I can’t wait until we are up and running with our church but I’m enjoying our Sundays in the meantime.

So, this past Sunday morning, my dearest husband decided we were going to the early service. 9:00AM! We could have chosen the 10:30 service but no, we were going to the 9 o’clock service.

He started waking me up at 7:00 AM and tried to convince me to get out of bed. I wanted to be really cranky, but how could I when he was standing there with a cup of steaming coffee and gently rubbing my head and speaking nicely to me!

He had his work cut out for him. There wasn’t a girl in the house that wanted to move. We also have our teenage niece Lindsay visiting. Let’s just say teenagers love to sleep in and don’t like to be disturbed.

Brad managed to get us all out of bed and to church in time for service. We were out of church by 10:15 and wondered what we would do now. The girls voted to go back to bed for a little bit. We were all tired out. We had been out late the night before. That’s when the car started heading to downtown Indy. By the time we arrived everyone was wide awake and ready to go!

We visited the Indy War Memorial that has 330 steps to the top of it. We were feeling ambitious and decided to take the stairs instead of the elevator for $1. About half way up, dripping sweat, thighs burning, wearing heels, I wished we would have taken the elevator. Did I mention that it was really, really hot!

When we finally reached the top, it was so so hot we were up there for about 30 seconds. Brad and I were sweaty and exhausted but of course the teenager still looks great!

My feet hurt!

Afterwards we ran over to a chocolate store. We bought water to guzzle down and sat to catch our breath.

The girls at the bottom…

We had a blast! It was a great Sunday! When we were done we spent the rest of the day in the pool!

Honey, thank you for such an awesome day. We all had a great time, even if you did have to persuade us!

So, the other day we were hanging at the pool and I brought sidewalk chalk out for the kids to play with. Before long, my man sits down and starts drawing with the kids.

Here is his sidewalk chalk pic!

Seriously, could we have just drawn a couple stick figures or a cute little flower. Nope! He draws a mountain with waterfalls! With very few color choices! I

If I had felt like it, I’m sure I could have done much better. Just joking, the only thing I can draw is a cute little fuzzy guy that I have been drawing since 2nd grade. For some reason my artistic skills seem to have stayed on a 2nd grade level. Oh well!

I sure hope our girls get his artistic abilities!

1. They need their sleep!
   They turn into little monsters if they don’t get enough!
2. EVERY girl (big and small) has a deep need to feel beautiful.
   This so intrigues me, at a very early age both my girls started “primping.” More on this later…..
3. You can’t parent each child the same.
   Their personalities are SO unique, that it takes very different techniques to get to each of their hearts. One of my children, keep me in constant communication with God. I won’t say which one but if you’re new to my blog here are some examples.
4. Little ones are directly affected by your attitude.
   If you’re having a “difficult day” aka: being cranky. Your children are much more moody! Then it’s hard to talk to them about making good choices, when obviously Mommy needs to! I noticed this even when my girls were really young.
5. They reproduce what they see and hear in us.
   They are little sponges! I know we hear this all the time, but sometimes we forget. It amazes me, what my girls pick up and learn from us. Both good and bad! There are times that it is inconvenient because it makes me modify my behavior. Definitely a good thing! For the most part, I love that my kids are learning from me!

What have you learned from the kids in your life?

The other day, I was trying to think of an easy side for dinner. Something that didn’t take much time but was delicious. I remembered my mom’s yummy cucumber salad. Here is a recipe that won’t take you longer then 5 min. to throw together!

Unless you chop like molasses.

Cucumber Salad

2 Cucumbers

Large handful of cherry tomatoes

1/4 Cup Balsamic Vinegar (you can also use Apple Cider vinegar)

1 Tablespoon honey

Salt and Pepper to taste

Put your vinegar in a bowl, add the honey, stir it up. Add sliced cucumbers and tomatoes to the vinegar, salt and pepper to taste. I like to let it sit in the fridge for a couple hours, it lets the flavors mingle.

You can change this recipe so much. If you don’t have cherry tomatoes, just cut up whatever type you have. If you like it less tangy just add a little more honey.

Here’s another variation: Sometimes after it has set in the fridge for a couple hours I will drain the salad, and then add approx. 1 Tablespoon of Sour Cream. This is also delicious!

ENJOY!

Brad and I both really enjoy sitting down and watching TV. Because of that, we have had to learn to be intentional about the amount of time spent if front of the tv. At different times we have taken 30 day fasts from movies and tv. In the beginning it is difficult, but it doesn’t take long to adjust. This has been a great way for us refocus our lives.

At the beginning of the Fall Season we pick 3-4 shows a week that we will watch and that is it. That way we don’t let whole evenings slip by unintentionally watching tv. Most of the time we watch them online.

Lost is always on the list. I tried to throw it off last year, but Brad won! I’m mad at J.J. Abrams. That’s a whole other post.

During our time in the hotel, Brad was working alot, there wasn’t much to do, I felt alone and to be honest I spent a lot of time watching tv in the evenings. If you aren’t familiar with our back story you can read it here.

Since moving into our house 2 weeks ago, we haven’t had a TV. It was broken during our move. I have to say I really haven’t missed it. We have watched a couple movies on the computer and it has worked great.

Hmmm…. maybe we don’t even need a new tv. I wonder if I can talk my hubby into that…..

How many hours a week do you watch tv?