Isn't she so pretty?
I am so happy to be posting! I am in such a great mood today! I am so happy and am just enjoying life so much!! I wish i was this happy all the time. I know that if i work at it hard enough then I will, and I do, but I want results after 1 day of trying. lol. I guess it doesn't work that way, does it?
I did a variety of things this past week; Wednesday we had coop pickup, Thursday we had lessons, Friday we didn't do anything because it was rainy and soccer was cancelled. Saturday; our neighborhood block party. We played football outside with dad and my brothers for awhile and then the party started at 2pm. We played football and hide-and-seek with the neighborhood kids from 2-10:30pm. Yeah, isn't that nuts?!!?!?!?! We had so much fun though and we got to meet some really nice kids. None of them were homeschoolers, but they were definitely good kids. We needless to say very tired as well.
Now I am going to brag about our neighborhood. Our neighborhood is the best. We have the best neighbors in the world. Everybody is so nice and helpful, everyone talks and has fun even if they met you that day. Most of the kids are good and nice, and if someone needs help they are always there to help. It's so awesome.
On Sunday we went out to the farm again and worked on the milking barn. I forgot to take pictures, sorry. But maybe this weekend i will, if I don't forget again.
Monday we cleaned house, Tuesday we had to go pick up our side of beef for the year, and today we have a lady coming over to learn how to make bread. I love company!!!
I though I would share with you what I do each morning of every day. I love schedules.
Wake up at 7am.
Workout *
Have a healthy snack
do school
practice instruments
Make breakfast (if mom doesn't already have plans)
Evenings:
Walk or run
make dinner (if mom doesn't already have plans for it)
Sleep by 10pm.
Thursdays are a little different since we have to leave at 8:15, and don't get back until 6pm. Mondays I have chores to do during the day, and Thursday and Friday I have to clean the kitchen.
* Okay about my workout. I love it!! I have always been the type that enjoyed working out with weights. I would rather do that than Pilates or some other workout. My aunt told us about this new one called P90X, and it rocks. It's a 90-day period of hard-core training. They not only do weights but they also jumping and spinning and other things that will definitely help with sport performance. I play soccer and want to get back into ice skating, (I have also thought about gymnastics too) so that is helping a whole lot. I also work out at the farm, and to do that you have to be really strong sometimes, so i thought, heck, why not become stronger and be able to toss those bales higher than I've ever been able to before. lol. I love doing it. ;-) I am so energetic too, and I can't stand how non-active I am in the winter because of the cold, so I decided to change that. I have also gotten a huge boost of metabolism too. I eat like you can't believe, and I also crave healthier stuff. Let me tell you a secret I heard on the radio, and it's real, it does really work. If the first thing you eat in the morning is junk, sweets or maybe chips and crackers, that is what you will crave all day; junk, sweets, chips, etc. But if you eat a piece of fruit, vegetable, milk, eggs, etc., you would be surprised at what you crave the rest of the day!!! So this is what I do; (You never want to eat before you workout) I do my workout and then drink my protein energy drink..
Drink
2 1/2 cups milk
1 raw egg
vanilla
1/4-1/2 cup honey (depending on how sweet you like it)
(It has about 20-some grams of protein!!!)
Blend together in a blender
I drink half of that a day. You want to drink it after you workout, run, walk, or even work really hard. Because when you do that it takes a lot out of your muscles and then they start pulling it from other parts of your body to replenish. So if you drink it right afterwards you give your muscles what they need and they rest of your body. It's so awesome!!
Try it sometime!!!
I really have a lot to say this time!! ha, ha, ha!
Now for the post I was working on... (Scroll down and enter my contest and giveaway while your here too.)
The post I was working on was how important I felt family was.
My assignment for next week's speech lesson was a Persuasive Speech, and I wanted to do something that was serious, but also something that all ages could relate to and understand. So I chose family.
The other day I was in the middle of doing schoolwork and my brother came up to me and asked if I would help him with a song for piano, he couldn't quiet figure out. I was in the middle of my practicing and I needed to get done because I had something important to do. So I told him that he was going to have to wait and that I didn't have the time to. It made him upset that I couldn't find a couple seconds to help him with a simple thing. But I (horrified to say) didn't care so much because I was busy and trying to get done. Later that night I was in my room thinking about how much I look forward to being married and having children of my own. And i started thinking about all the things I needed to work on before I could handle my own kids, and it all led back to what I did earlier that day. And I was so upset at the fact that I couldn't spare a few seconds for him. (See, that brother has a very different sort of personality. He really wants to make me happy and make me proud, but will totally drive me to the edge sometimes, and when I get upset or irritated, it hurts his feelings. On the other hand, I will sit him down and have a good strong talk with , letting him know that I am serious about the fact that he needs to stop doing something, and he will give me a hug and from then on try so hard to do the right thing and always looks at me afterwards to see if I approved.) Anyways, I though long and hard about it and realized, you know if he were to die tomorrow (God forbid it) I would have that regret hanging on me for the rest of my life. That's how I would always remember our last days together. It's horrifying to think about, but it's so true, and that's what I realized.
Family is so important and I am going to focus on older siblings now. We have a lot of responsibility. Just think about it, we have 1-? younger siblings looking up to us for what is right and wrong. They, even if you don't notice, are always watching how you react to things, what you say and do, and most importantly, what you tell others to do with their brothers and sisters and how well you actually follow that. That is the most important thing with being an older sibling 1, always making sure you aren't being a hypocrite and, 2 always sticking up for them when no one else is. You wouldn't know how much that molds your younger siblings relationship and trust in you. I know from experience that hypocrisy is the thing that causes the most hate and bitterness out of everything. (When I say experience, I mean what I've seen from my siblings when i would do it.) If I tell you that you shouldn't yell at your siblings or tell them to go away, and my siblings know I said that, and then turn around and yell at them to go away, they will hate you for that! Or if you tell them, 'You shouldn't always have chips when you need a snack, and then you have some, but tell them that it doesn't apply to you, they will also hate you for that! And I feel that if you want them to act, talk, eat, etc., a certain way; you need to be doing it too. An example is the best way to show them right from wrong. (As an older sibling that is.)
I want you all to think about that; if my siblings died today, would it be a peaceful sadness....or a painful sadness full of regrets and sorrow? It matters, trust me. Even to think about it makes me regret all the times I chose to do what I wanted to do instead of making time for them.
I don't expect anyone to be perfect, but i do expect you to try your very best and strive to be perfect.
Now I know that brothers and sisters can sometimes be a little demanding at times, and sometimes they need to be told no, because you are doing something that's important. But be so careful that it's important to someone else and not yourself. Because if we keep our minds off of ourselves, and on others, we will tend to think a whole lot clearer. It's a hard thing to do, but it's the right thing to do.
And I don't know how your households are run, but I am the main disciplinarian of my little sister and a guide to my brothers. I sit them down and have a talk, I show them what they did wrong, and sometimes I even discipline (I never spank the older ones, with them I feel and have noticed that losing something of doing without something they were excited about is plenty.) Mom and dad do a lot of the disciplining, but dad is at work all day, and mom has enough of her own stuff to do, so I end up doing a lot of it. And for the older ones also, they see better (with me anyways) through a guide rather than a boss because especially my oldest brother, Christopher, we are only a year apart and that causes for some competition. And when he is right about something or any of them point out something I did wrong, I take it and apologize because if you are willing to dish it out, you also have to be willing to take it in, and trust me there will be plenty. I think it is also a stress reliever too, for the younger siblings because it seems to them you are always telling them what to do, and to get to tell you you did something wrong is so great! lol. ;-)
Disclaimer: I am not perfect and Do not always do the right thing. (Phew! Had to make that one clear) lol.
I constantly have to work at it and be on guard for any trial and temptation the devil tries to throw my way. And sometimes you will stumble and mess up, but what shines brighter than the mistake you made, is how you handle it afterwards. If you put your pride aside and say sorry, then it all works out a whole lot better.
A tip that I always try to follow is, when I think of something I want to do (only if it is going to please me, if mom said to then do it right away.) I think of something to do with or for somebody else: If I want to go read a book for fun, i might see if there is something that needs to be done, brothers that need help with school, read a book to Laura, play a game with the boys, or something like, because if you start off with that, eventually you will hardly think of yourself at all. Because if we thought to do something for or with somebody else as much as we thought to do something for our own pleasure we would be doing a heck of a lot more for others and 1/2 as much for ourselves.
Now i don't mean; you remember you need to sweep the kitchen and you say, 'Well maybe I'll go play a game with my sister. That doesn't count, sorry. lol. ;-)
Tell me what you all think about it and I am and I encourage you all to participate in the Cowgirls and Cowboys for Christ, challenge!!! That's my new blog/club name. Click
here to see it.
For a whole week I want you to, whenever you think of something to do to please you, do something with or for somebody else. Good Luck and God Bless!!!
Ashley
As long as it still looks good with a cowboy hat. ;-)
