I'm back???

I know I said I was back but oh my I have been crazy busy. Between taking care of kids, housework and putting together furniture it's been a little crazy.

We took a trip to IKEA and were able to get some things we needed and a few things we didn't "need". We have spent all our spare time putting things together since we got back.

Lilly went for her 6 month well baby check today and all is well. He weighed 13. lbs. Yesterday she started sitting up on her own. She starts on her belly and pushes her self up to a sitting position.
Here's a pic:

You can see her marks from the shots in this pic.

She is also getting up on her hands a knees and rocking back and forth. I bet she is crawling in the next month.

All our furniture from IKEA is put together as of this afternoon. So hopefully some time will free up for me to blog a bit more.

FUNK

So I have been in a bit of a funk. I have wanted to hide and just be silent for a bit.

It's amazing the power we can allow people to have over us. It's amazing how we can allow the words of an email to affect us so deeply.

I am done though. I am done being affected! I am done letting those have power over me that really could care less about me.

I am moving on now! There will be some that will not be a part of this moving on and that's ok. It's okay if I only let a few in to share with.

That being said I think I'm back. I have missed blogging about all the fun things going on with the Ruggles family. Here are some brief updates.

1. Silas is potty trained. He did it himself.

2. We took out cabinets in the kitchen.

3. We got a new to us kitchen table and sold our old one.

4. We finished adding shelving to the toy room.

5. We rearranged the living room.

6. We rearranged the bedroom in preparation to move the door to the bedroom.

7. We have begun preparation to move where the pantry is.

8. Lilly turned 6 months old.

9. Ellie seems to be doing well in school. She is done with dance when this year is over and she wants to play soccer.

10. I just bought a flash for my camera.

11. Lilly is getting all fours and rocking. Crawling is just around the corner.

Maybe in some future blogs I can go into detail and post pics of the work we have done around the house.

top 5

Top 5 food staples.

A. if i could ONLY buy five food items and my family had to survive on those 5 alone...
1. eggs
2. peanut butter
3. chicken
4. bread
5. cereal

B. if i was only thinking about the top 5 items that i currently always need to have in the house...
1. peanut butter
2. bread
3. milk
4. turkey pepperoni
5. cheese

C. if i had a top five that were ONLY for ME, but not for survival (see list A.)...
1. cinnamon stick tea bags
2. pepsi
3. Crispix
4. noodles
5. pizza

D. if i only think about what the kids always want in the house...
1. peanut butter
2. milk
3. yogurt
4. crackers
5. chicken nuggets


I read this on another blog and thought it was interesting to think about and then look at after it's answered.

Lent

So I have been struggling with what to give up for Lent. Last year I gave up frivolous spending and started recycling. We are to this day still recycling.
But I think I have finally decided. I am giving up TV from 11-5 during the week. There is nothing worth watching and the tv it just on for background noise anyways. So I have decided to turn off the tv and instead I will feed everyone lunch, get everyone down for rest time and then I will spend my time reading, blogging, writing a journal (which will probably be in blog format) and praying.

Now the only set back to no TV from 11-5 is The Olympics. What in the world is a girl to do?? I guess I will miss them. There are only a few events that I have left that I want to see.

Hopefully this will put me in the practice of spending some time without the tv on. Spending some time in the quiet stillness of the house.

Someone said why don't you give up TV all together is 11-5 really a sacrifice. I guess no it's not a huge sacrifice but I find the more important aspect is what I am going to do with that time outside of my mommy duties. Spending time reading, writing a journal and praying is a lot better than curled up on the couch watching a Soap Opera, Extra or something like that.

So this year for me Lent is more about getting in the practice of doing something rewarding instead of wasting those hours to something worthless.

Youth Ministry Advance Team: Haiti

I have a friend in Haiti right now with a group of Youth Workers.
They have a facebook page that is being updated daily while they are there.
Check it out: Youth Ministry Advance Team: Haiti
Each member is blogging about their daily experience and it is just amazing to read. It makes my heart hurt and yet have hope and joy for these people. It seems that to spite their current devastation they are in the streets and at prayer meetings singing and dancing before the Lord.
It is very humbling to read their experience. I encourage you to become a fan and read some of the blogs.
If you read my blog and do not have facebook let me know and I can send you links to their blogs if you are interested.

Valentine's Day sleepover

So last night I had a sleepover with some of the gals from church.
Ellie roped them into playing dress up first.

Ellie gave them both alternative names, Jane and Sparkle. Luckily Taylor, Sparkle, brought her own dress up dress. Bailey, Jane, did not fair as well. She is wearing a dress that I wore in Kindergarten. I love these girls because they don't just go along with Ellie and Silas. They love them!
As dress up was going on I made pizza.


Yep, I made heart shaped Pizzas and I think they turned out pretty good. They were quite tasty as well.
We played several games and ended the night watching Mamma Mia. Well we watched most of it.
I can't think of a better way to spend Valentine's Day when Eli's away.

Happy Valentine's Day