what i did today | Permission to Peruse

Five Ways to Have the Very BEST Summer in Myrtle Beach, SC

May 14th, 2012 at 12:13 pm / Amy Bennett / No Comments »

I will always remember as a young college student realizing more than just Carolina residents knew about Myrtle Beach, SC. I’d been going to Myrtle Beach since I was just in primary school and when I heard it mentioned on a TV show, I was flabbergasted. “They just said Myrtle Beach! How do they know about Myrtle Beach?!” Sure enough, I found out later people even come from Canada to go to Myrtle Beach! Who knew?

My husband and I got engaged at Myrtle Beach and my kids, now 9 and 7, still enjoy our yearly trek to the coast. After nearly 30 years I’ve got Myrtle Beach down to a science and I’m just about to share with you the best attractions. Let’s say you want to spend 5 days in Myrtle Beach this summer with your kids. What are the must-see attractions?

I’m answering that question over at TheTuckersTakeTennessee.com today. My guest post is kicking off a summer series on making summer fantastic with your kids so be sure to subscribe when you’re over there. And for you local folks, be sure to add all your favorite stops!

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Weekend Recap

May 14th, 2012 at 10:08 am / Amy Bennett / 4 Comments »

First, I have to say that last week was one of the most emotionally and mentally taxing weeks I’ve had in quite some time. While much of it was related to Amendment One, there was a lot going on behind the scenes too. Like, my grandfather has been in the hospital for over 6 weeks now and still not doing well. My parents took off last minute to be with him last week. I’ve also been walking through divorce with a family member who had a significant court date last Thursday. I’ve never been so passionate about Christ-filled individuals and marriages as I was walking through both Amendment One and this divorce.

Somehow, though, my brain figured out how to take a rest over the weekend and I had some nice moments. Friday night I let both the kids have someone sleep over. It felt good to clear my brain by popping popcorn and baking brownies.

Saturday Emma had her first horseback riding lesson thanks to a LivingSocial deal. At first she was terrified. As soon as she got on the horse and the instructor was explaining how they were going to go for a walk around the arena, she looked at me and mouthed “I DO NOT WANT TO DO THIS.” I told her we didn’t have to come back and she’d do fine. That was one of those mother-lines. Because have I ever told you how much I hate riding horses? There was that one family vacation in the mountains and the whole family went and I stayed by myself. And that one time at youth camp where I begged the camp counselor to let me stay back while the group went on their ride. They made me get on the horse before I decided and that right there sealed the deal. I sat for the next hour kicking dirt around the barn. I do not ride horses. They scare me to death. I’ll pet one and cry more than anyone else when one gets hurt in a movie but I’m scared to death to ride one. I think it’s a control thing. I’ve never been taught how to control such a big animal and I’m just sure it will either buck me off or go running to who knows where.

After Emma’s lesson Saturday she got off the horse and I gave her the biggest hug ever and told her how proud I was of her and how much braver than her mommy she is. She said, “You know how I said I didn’t want to do this? I changed my mind and I really love it.” And after watching just one lesson and learning that those reigns really do mean something to the horse I honestly think I’d like to do a lesson with Emma. So there’s that. I’m still so proud of her for doing it even knowing how much her mother wouldn’t do the same in her shoes. Here she is doing a steering challenge at the end of the lesson, weaving in between cones.

Sunday was Mother’s Day and with Scott working, the girls still did a great job of sharing all their school-made presents. Emma gave me a book of poems and had wrapped a piggy bank she had gotten from the principal and had written "It pays to be a mom" on the side. She cracks me up. Lexi gave me a card and a necklace made out of playdoh. I wore it all day.

I cooked lunch for my mom and family. I even brought out the china and made name tags. If you’d like to do the same, I put together a free printable for you with the butterflies I used. Just print it on colored card stock and cut out. Thank you, Pinterest, for the idea.

I begged the girls for a picture after dinner. It was one of those, "SIT HERE AND BE STILL AND SMILE!!" I didn’t think we’d captured any worth sharing but this doesn’t say “OH MY GOSH, WE’RE DYING” too bad.

We ate dinner with Scott’s family and then topped off the evening and weekend with mini milkshakes from Sonic. I highly recommend the chocolate and hot fudge mix.

Oh, and some little unnamed hands dropped my phone in the driveway AGAIN last night and shattered my screen. We’re off to the Apple store tonight in hopes they’ll fix it without making me buy a new one and for those concerned, yes, I ordered a LifeProof case this time.

Hope you all had a lovely weekend and have a great week!

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Random New Things

April 27th, 2012 at 2:59 pm / Amy Bennett / 5 Comments »

It’s Friday and thought I’d share a few random new things (to me) I’ve seen pop up.

Slacklining

I saw some teenagers doing this at the festival last weekend. It looks kind of cool until things don’t go right and then it just looks like a means of torture. The guys I saw couldn’t even get on the line without a death grip on a nearby tree and when they fell off, were slapped by the line. Perhaps it should be called slaplining.

These guys make it look easy.

Piecaken

I saw this from @SarahBessey on twitter yesterday and had never heard of such. You bake a pie INTO a cake. I can see Scott LOVING this for his birthday.

Source: i.imgur.com via Rachel on Pinterest

Italian Sodas

I’m very sure these aren’t new but they’re new to me. Don’t these Italian sodas look yummy? I think I’ve found just what to do with all those yummy strawberries while they’re still around.

Source: sugarandcharmblog.com via Ally on Pinterest

Kris Allen’s Vision of Love

In case you’re like me and you don’t normally watch American Idol’s results shows, you probably missed Kris Allen’s performance of his new single. I looked up the video and the message is even better. Love the chorus. The falsetto parts remind me of Enrique Iglesias and if you know me from waayyy back in the day, that’s a very good thing.

In other new news, Scott PASSED his drug recognition school with flying colors. We’re all so excited for him and I’m most excited that he’s home. What new things or news do you have going on?

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The Story of that One Bad Day

April 26th, 2012 at 4:21 pm / Amy Bennett / 4 Comments »

Let me tell you the story of today (and only part of the day, mind you). When I said I wanted my life to be full of adventure the other day this certainly is not what I had in mind.

Source: piccsy.com via Eveli on Pinterest

Well, we ought to start off Tuesday night. I knew I felt a UTI coming on but really didn’t want to pay for an urgent care visit or take the time. I figured I could drown it with water. By lunch Wednesday, I realized it was going to be a no-go and if I didn’t care to be in pain ala Tom Hanks character in The Green Mile I was going to have to buck up and go. I did and was ever so grateful to have some meds.

Last night I panicked a bit because I realized today I had to go to the office. Normally it’s not a big deal because Scott is home and he helps get the kids ready for school while I’m getting ready. I had everything ready last night though and besides the fact I couldn’t sleep last night, this morning went well.

The day started to go wrong when my manager and I sat down mid-morning for a meeting and the fire alarm sounded. I looked at him and said, “Is that like a legit fire alarm?” And yes, I’m known for asking unnecessary questions. I quickly began to regret the fact I had worn my most uncomfortable set of heels I own. We have to take the stairs 5 floors down and then go stand in a parking lot.

Wouldn’t you know, though, as soon as we got down there I realized I’d left my badge at my desk. I couldn’t just hop back inside to get it because, you know, I needed my badge to get in the building. That meant more walking to a different entrance when all of this was over and probably a blister too.

Source: anneyhall.tumblr.com via Jerome on Pinterest

Then, as if we were in a dark and twisty poem, dark clouds started moving pretty fast overhead and a quick look at someone’s cell said that we had just a few minutes before we were all in the middle of a bad storm. We had to walk even further to the nearby parking deck for cover and climb a few flights of stairs to the deck entrance since they were now letting people back in the building.

At this point though my feet weren’t my problem. My stomach started to feel a little funny. Once I got to the stupendously long line for those who didn’t grab their badges I was feeling worse and the hall had almost zero air conditioning. I got hot. Really hot. I started fanning myself with my composition notebook. Fan, fan, fan. I was going to faint. If you know me, you know I never get hot indoors and something was very wrong. I even sat down on a nearby bench to get a small break both from my heels and you know, make the fainting hurt less.

Source: Uploaded by user via Mary on Pinterest

We eventually made it in without any fainting but I told my manager I’d need a few minutes to get some water and gather myself. Twenty minutes later I was no longer about to faint but just did not feel well. I’ll spare you the digestive details. My manager saw that I wasn’t well and we canceled our meeting and he suggested I head home. I was all about going home. When someone says go home, I’m the first out the door but I just wasn’t sure I could drive. I stuck around trying to breathe through my nose and drink water for another 30 minutes and then packed myself up and prayed my way home, trying to calculate what bathroom I’d use at each exit if necessary.

I made it home, and a quick Google search told me that most likely I was having awful side effects from the antibiotics. I’m thankful the kids were at school and I was able to writhe on my bedroom floor for the next two hours in between trying to play ball with Tucker who’d been crated all morning since I was at work. Don’t you just love when the medicine that’s supposed to make you feel better gives you other, worse conditions?

Just as it was time for me to get the girls, I let Tucker out one more time. Once I let him back in my bedroom I realized there was suddenly an awful dead fish smell in my room. It didn’t take long to realize it was coming from dog poo on his paw that he was traipsing around my bedroom carpet. Tucker!!! I was barely well enough to walk but had to go wash him off with the hose outside. Never mind the fact my carpet now needed clean and sanitized, we headed to get the girls.

I finally got the girls from school, got my new meds and got home. I decided I was finally well enough to log back into work. And then I see that Tucker has decided to use my secure ID card as a chew toy and rendered it unusable. Tucker!!!!

Source: bit.ly via Marshall on Pinterest

That’s when the laughing started. Could this day get any worse? Yes, much. But, wow. What a day.

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Weekend Recap

April 23rd, 2012 at 9:12 am / Amy Bennett / 4 Comments »

Let’s rewind all the way back to Friday morning because Friday was kind of a big deal around here. We finally got someone to come in and do some landscaping in our front yard. We had plans to do that after the addition last year but it just never happened. We had our front yard done a few years back and some if it had died, some of it was just too unruly for us and it just didn’t flow with the new addition. Here’s the house as of late last week:

So, this time, we went for a very simple, traditional, easy-to-maintain grown-up look. I’d show you an after picture but that will have to wait until all the sod is put down and I’ll do a separate post.

Friday afternoon I was never so happy to have Scott back home after a week at training. Happy, happy, happy. The week went well as far as maintaining the house. I stayed right on top of laundry, dishes, clutter and dinner but my goodness, I was about up to HERE with the dog and kids. The dog kept eating things and the kids kept disobeying and breaking things and I just needed someone else to back me up for a little while. I mean, honestly, the teenager at Chickfila Thursday night basically told me I ought to buy my kids dessert to bribe them to act better. Seriously! It reminds me of the time the teenager at Harris Teeter covered his nose while he checked my groceries out and told me how bad Lexi’s diaper stunk. Mom of the year right here!

Friday night the kids ended up at sleepovers so Scott and I got to go out to Beef and Bottle with a LivingSocial deal I’d gotten. I think I’d forgotten just how good the steak was. Seriously, it’s a close your eyes and moan sort of first bite. I chose the creamed spinach as a side this time and that was so good too. After that, we were ready to completely veg out and forget the week.

Saturday morning we slept in and then got some things done around the house. Scott cut the grass, I planted some plants and watered the garden and such (PS, it’s doing so well!). Saturday afternoon we spent some time at a local Earth day celebration. It was hot and we didn’t stay long but stopping to get some fresh strawberry ice cream was the perfect closer.

(Lexi on the right and surprise! Scott and Tucker are there under the tree)

The family was finally all back together Saturday evening so we just enjoyed some time outside.

Sunday was the norm…church, grocery store, lunch, naps, pizza for dinner. Scott had to leave out for his last week of training so the girls and I finished off the night by watching Dr. Quinn. The DVR happened to have caught the Pilot episode and I really don’t remember ever seeing that and wow, it was SO GOOD. Just like a little mini movie. The best part is the girls are in love with it too. Maybe they can learn some old-fashioned manners so I don’t look like a complete incompetent parent all around town.

So I’m taking another deep breath and trying to get through another single parenthood week. They’re having Girls Night Out at Chickfila tonight. I’m planning to threaten the girls with no TV for at least 10 years if they don’t behave. Wish me luck!

Hope you had a great weekend and your week goes well!

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Weekend Recap

April 16th, 2012 at 8:51 am / Amy Bennett / 4 Comments »

Not lying here, this weekend was tough. Emotionally and physically I was just drained. I was in bed by 8 all weekend. That said, we did have a full weekend.

Saturday morning we did some yardsaling. The girls made some great decisions spending some of their money from Easter. It always makes me ~~laugh~~ ~~crazy~~ proud how very careful they are with their own money. Saturday evening the girls and I went out with my mom and sister since both my dad and Scott were working. We had a great dinner out (yummy filet at Hickory Tavern!) and did a little shopping.

Sunday’s highlight was a tea party. The girls really had a blast. Both the girls were Bingo winners, got to do a craft and hear some great speakers. Emma couldn’t quite figure out why everyone was crying during the poem readings.

Scott is in training all week and after a tough weekend, I’m trying to pull it together to be a single mom for the rest of the week. Pretty sure I have PMS and it’s making it all the more dramatic. This morning I had a beautiful sunrise to greet me though and I know Friday will be here before we know it.

Make sure to check out the Simplify Your Family Life eBook Sale! Hope you have a great week!

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Weekend Recap

April 8th, 2012 at 7:58 pm / Amy Bennett / 8 Comments »

2012-04-08

With my two extra days off work and family in town, I felt like we crammed in a full week of Spring Break into the last four. We had a great time shopping, bowling, Mellow Mushrooming, Easter egg hunting, racing, eating and generally having a good time together.

We finished out the weekend at home getting back into the swing of regular life. I baked bread, went grocery shopping and the girls and I had fun playing their new Wii game Just Dance. Ouch. That’s all I’m sayin’.

Hope you had a wonderful Easter celebrating with friends and family!

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Spring Break Staycation

April 5th, 2012 at 8:34 pm / Amy Bennett / No Comments »

Rarely do I take days off when we’re not going out of town. Actually, up until last March I have always been a contractor so any day I took off was unpaid. Last year, because I got hired in the middle of the year, I didn’t have much time built up and used any days I had on out-of-town vacations. The kids have been on Spring Break this week and my uncle and his family came into town for Easter so I decided to spring for it and use two of my vacation days to be able to just hang out. No big plans, just being available. A little Spring Break Staycation and day one was great.

This morning I made pancakes for the kids and we got ready at leisure. We then did some consignment shopping and picked up a few things for summer.

For the early afternoon, my uncle took us all out on his boat for a few hours. Man, was that relaxing. The wind made it a little chilly so no tubing or skiing but with little to distract us except a nice hum of the engine, I could have nearly gone to sleep. Just the perfect thing for a day off near home.

Late this afternoon we had my cousins (close to the girls’ age) over and then we spent the evening at my parents’. Just some BBQ and a lot of talking.

I have to say, I need to do these random days off at home a lot more often. Exactly what I needed.

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Weekend Recap

April 2nd, 2012 at 9:22 am / Amy Bennett / No Comments »

Before I write any sort of recap, I’d like this post to live up to its blog’s name Permission to Peruse. We have a few family members going through some serious stuff. In fact, my busy thoughts and troubled heart are why I didn’t post at all on Friday. Please know as I post in the next days, perhaps weeks, that my heart is heavy. I don’t have the permission to let you peruse the details (sorry, had to) but if you could say some prayers, I know God knows what’s going on.

Scott worked the weekend so those are always the times the girls and I get out and have some sweet girl times together. Friday night we got out to the park. Emma was hilarious as two younger boys tried to join in their fun in the sand box and Emma kept looking at me and mouthing, “Save. me.” It made me giggle even though we all know she’s been the busy little girl no one could keep up with before.

Saturday morning we got out to the library. I love, love that both of the girls are becoming bookworms and nothing makes me happier than all of us carrying an armful of books out the door. Their current favorite is Diary of a Wimpy Kid. I was shocked when Emma ended up reading one of them in less than 24 hours. We hit up the grocery store and then did a little spring clothes shopping. We didn’t make any plans for Spring Break and the only request Lexi had was to go to Justice. I don’t know if that’s good or bad but I do know one outfit is a lot cheaper than a Spring Break week at Disney. We had someone come out and talk to us about landscaping the front yard since we never planted anything after the addition last year. We had another friend stop by and then the girls and I just spent the night at home, capping off the day with an episode of Little House of the Prairie. I’m not sure the girls quite appreciate the show yet. In the middle, Emma exclaimed, “This is so pointless!” The episode was about a couple in the town on the brink of divorce so I’m just not sure she connected. Ah well, at least I’m trying.

Sunday we had church and lunch and then the girls stayed over with their cousin. I did some heavier grocery shopping, laundry and the like. My niece stayed over last night and we ended up at my parents’ house for the evening where they played, visited a neighbor’s horse and watched a movie in their theater room.

Today is the first day of Spring Break. We have family coming in to town on Wednesday so I decided to take Thursday and Friday off. It’s a short work-week and I couldn’t be more excited.

Before I end, I wanted to highlight the blog’s newest (and first!) official Sponsor. Casey Coley is a Thirty-one consultant. You’ll see her ad on the right sidebar. I’m proud to say I managed to put that button together in Photoshop. Musings of a Housewife has a great tutorial on creating a button. Go visit Casey’s Thirty-one site and check out the latest Spring patterns and bags.

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And We’re Still Gluten-free

March 29th, 2012 at 5:56 pm / Amy Bennett / 5 Comments »

I’m in the car somewhere in Northern Georgia. We had our follow-up doctor’s visit today. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, let me refer you to this post. So here’s the results:

Emma’s liver is now testing clear and she does not need to take her liver pills anymore.
Emma’s emotional test was clear so she does not need to take her drops.
As for her milk, he still wants her to stay away from milk on its own. Cheese, baked goods with milk, etc are fine but if she’s going to have a glass of milk or a bowl of cereal, she should either have a dairy-free alternative OR he said he felt comfortable with her having drinking raw milk which I thought was interesting.
As for her gluten, it is better but she should continue gluten-free. I asked about a NAET treatment and he said it was not an allergy, but a sensitivity which is totally different. I had suspected as much after doing more reading these past weeks. He thought she may outgrow it though and could be tested in a few years.

Scott’s sinus is clear of the fungus but we haven’t seen much improvement. It turns out his other sinus cavity has a different fungus so he gave him a different anti-fungal medicine for that. He had indicated last time that might be the case so no surprise there.
As for his stomach, he doesn’t need the Amalyse anymore to help digest carbs but kept him on the Digestin. He ran out of that last week and his acid reflux returned immediately. He said his body is just not producing enough acid to break down his food.
As for his seratonin, he is also continuing that as we believe it could replace his OCD meds.

Overall, he said he could see improvement in both of them. I’m a little bummed we are sticking with gluten-free but it’s great to have the milk back. It opens up so many more Italian dishes and snacks she can have. We have found so many good gluten-free products. Oh, he also gave us a pill to take in case we did have gluten and it would help break it down. He didn’t see any need to see us again. He’d just check on Scott by phone.

Even though gluten-free is hard I’m so glad Emma is not suffering. While its no fun to miss out on some foods I think it’s better than hurting every time she eats and have no idea why. And even though Scott could be on that Digestin for years I feel better knowing it’s a homeopathic solution.

So that’s that. What questions do you have about gluten-free living? I’m just a baby gluten-freer but would be happy to help if I could.

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Photography Lessons with Shoot Fly Shoot

March 27th, 2012 at 7:28 am / Amy Bennett / 2 Comments »

I have had our Canon Rebel XT DSLR for years and all I’ve ever used is either Automatic or No Flash mode. Every once in a while I’d catch a blog post of someone trying to teach ISO and aperture and all those manual mode words and I’d get courageous and turn the dial over to Manual to see what would happen. Nothing but fail. I just couldn’t get it together.

I’ve been a fan of Layla and Kevin at the Lettered Cottage for a while and when Kevin announced he had started a new online photography business with his friend Josh called Shoot FLY Shoot, well, I knew it was for me.

And boy, was I right. I SO enjoyed taking the classes. Photography 101 is simply a set of 12 videos on a web page to watch at your leisure. Kevin and Josh are super awesome. They don’t assume you know anything and don’t make you feel stupid if you don’t. They explain it in a straightforward manner but it’s not boring either. In fact, the two of them are pretty charming if you don’t mind me saying. The videos are sharp and professional and really just pretty, for a lack of a better word. As a visual learner, I just couldn’t have asked for anything more.

The best thing is, I GOT IT. I really, really finally GET ISO, aperture and shutter speed. I get what that meter is for on the back that keeps moving back and forth. Before, I knew that a high ISO would make the room brighter and low would make it darker but I didn’t realize I was sacrificing detail and really that’s not the thing I need to be messing with much. I knew about bokeh but I was trying to change my aperture all on its own. I’d heard about shutter speed but didn’t have a clue about how to change it and when. It’s like I had some of the pieces but they finally put it together for me. I’m not an excellent photographer yet but I know the basics of what I need to do on Manual mode. From here, it’s practice, practice, practice.

I have no other incentive to say this other than I mean it and you should know: help is out there and it’s 100% worth the cost. If you’re scared of the “M”, go. Go, go, go!

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Weekend Recap

March 26th, 2012 at 1:58 pm / Amy Bennett / 7 Comments »

No blow-by-blow today from the weekend. We spent a lot of time at home, some at the hospital to visit Scott’s dad and went out for little excursions like a milkshake treat at Cook Out while Emma was on a play date and we went bike-riding at the Riverwalk Sunday. I had to work some on Saturday. And of course, I managed to get out late last night to catch The Hunger Games.

I also spent a lot of time Saturday taking online photography lessons from ShootFlyShoot. I want to dedicate a whole post to it when I’m done but thought I’d share some pictures I took over the weekend while trying to practice on Manual mode. Yep, the big scary M!

I love baby leaves on our tree.

Lexi giving the “I’m watching you” signal.

Scott treated the girls to a soccer and volleyball this weekend

Emma is obsessed with inch worms right now.

We had nasty storms in Charlotte this weekend and I just had to capture this sky with the sun behind me. It’s not the most aesthetically pleasing picture every but isn’t that blue-gray sky crazy against the sunlit green trees?

My flowers are coming back around my mailbox. Love that I don’t have to buy new flowers this year!

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Raised Garden Gets Some Dirt

March 20th, 2012 at 7:08 pm / Amy Bennett / 10 Comments »

In a weekend recap a few weekends ago you might have seen the raised beds Scott made me. We finally took the time to put in the dirt.

First, we put down plastic.

I’ve read that you can put wet cardboard or newspaper down but we had plastic and the guy at the farmer’s market said since we had plastic, that’s just what he would do. He said to just make sure to put holes for the water to drain. Once we had it spread out, we poked holes in with the pitch fork.

The beds are 3’x6’x2’. We ended up using 4 bags of this compost:

Katrina at The Poorganic Life had a great post today on how to make your own compost for free. I’m not quite that adventurous yet.

We then mixed in 2 bags of peat moss :

Katrina had also recommended getting vermiculite but the guy at the farmer’s market said we could do it, but it wasn’t really necessary so we opted out.

We all really got into mixing it.

This picture reminds me of these:

Do you remember these garden decorations? That’s gonna be me this summer, baby.

So the girls really got into it. Like, literally, INTO IT and had to get sprayed down.

We had a lot of fun. It was nice doing something messy together and being productive all at the same time. I looked at Scott while we were mixing and said, “There’s just something right about this.”

I’m still not sure how it will turn out but for now, I’m excited!! They said we should plant on April 15th so just a few more weeks!

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Weekend Recap

March 19th, 2012 at 6:15 am / Amy Bennett / 2 Comments »

Friday night did not go as planned. My mom decided last minute to have the kids overnight so Scott and I thought to hole up in our bedroom to watch the latest Big Bang Theory until AT LEAST 9 before we went to sleep (please feel the sarcasm). After spending a little time with the kids over at her house, going to see a neighbor’s horse and whatnot, we headed for home and Scott started to complain about his eyes really hurting. I noticed as we drove, our house not more than 8 minutes away, that his eyes were quickly swelling. By the time we got to the urgent care about 2 minutes from our house, we agreed he needed seen. I had seen this type of swelling one other time with my sister when we were in Wilmington one weekend and I did not want to see anymore eyes bulging. After a long wait, it was determined he was having a localized allergic reaction to something that had likely gotten on his hands when we were outside. All around his eyes were severely swollen, the doctor confirmed the whites of eyes were swollen and he was feeling it in the back of his nose and throat. He had to get a cortisone shot in his hip, get eye drops, Zyrtec and a cortisone pack to wean him off the cortisone over the week. Holy cow. We didn’t get home until 9 and with our Big Bang Theory plans shot and Scott’s inability to probably SEE the TV, we went right to sleep.

Saturday Scott woke up without the swelling so he was off to work. The weather was gorgeous when I woke up. Something about the way the sun was shining, the sky was a magnificent blue and everything seemed to be positively glowing. The kids were gone so I went outside to enjoy the weather and trim the monkey grass. I’ve never been so proud of a mound of ornamental grass. My legs are still screaming at me this morning from all the squats though.

Saturday afternoon we had plans to go to a local spring festival but the kids just weren’t into it so we stayed around the house. I had work most of the afternoon anyway and into the evening. Lexi had a sleepover Saturday night so Emma and I finished out our evening watching Zookeeper. Not our favorite. I didn’t realize until the very end all the big names that were the voices of the animals. Cher, Adam Sandler and Sylvester Stallone to name a few. I can see why it was supposed to be big but it fell flat for us.

Sunday was an awesome morning at church. I’m telling you, that sermon was a little gift from above. If you’ve been paying attention lately, money and possessions have been on my mind during this season. He talked about how we swing from prosperity theology of thinking God needs to bless us so we can give to poverty theology where we feel guilt and want to give everything away. He suggested a “generosity theology” where we give richly but we live sufficiently and have joy in both. I highly suggest that if money is a struggle for you in the least that you give it a listen. Good, good stuff.

After Sunday dinner, the rest of Sunday was spent grocery shopping and around the house. We watched Mr. Popper’s Penguins (GREAT kids movie), baking bread (OH MY WORD, I made bread! As in, the kids have a PB&J in their lunchbox made with that bread), and just generally resting.

Overall a decent weekend for us. Hope yours was great!

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Weekend Recap

March 12th, 2012 at 7:55 am / Amy Bennett / 2 Comments »

Friday night was a tad unusual for us. First off, I need to tell you about dinner. I fixed spaghetti but this time I used quinoa noodles. Both girls had seconds and Scott declared it the best spaghetti I’d ever made. For local folks, I got them right off the shelves at Harris Teeter. I love that their tag line is “You’ll never go back to ‘plain’ noodles again.” It’s all true. We won’t.

So after our delicious spaghetti, I got the kids off to Scott’s parents’ for the night but Scott had been at the chiropractor’s office since lunch time. He had agreed to trade out some work but realized quickly that he bit off a bit more than he could chew. So after I took the girls, I headed to the office with him and helped him clean. He had taken down a wall so there was dry wall dust everywhere. I had my Dyson and I have to say it was a tad weird to vacuum the elevator in the same building where I used to take my kids to the pediatrician. You know those moments where you go in one place when it’s being used for what you’re used to and then you go when it’s closed, everything seems eerie? Like maybe the church sanctuary when all the lights are shut off? It was that kind of weird. Like, I used to carry my baby in this elevator when she was 3 months old to get shots in the office on the 2nd floor and now she’s 9 staying with her grandparents and I’m vacuuming it at 9:30 on a Friday night. Just weird. ANYWAY.

Saturday morning Scott and I decided to get some errands done. I somehow managed to get him to go to Hobby Lobby with me. I bought some candles that have timers on them for my new sconces in my bedroom. They come on at whatever time you turn them on and then stay on for five hours. I love walking into the bedroom after the day and seeing them on.

After that, we went to a local farmer’s market to get some dirt for my new raised beds Scott built for me. Yes, we are actually doing this. I will have a victory dance the first time I eat a vegetable from my garden. In fact, I may not eat it. I might just set it on a shelf like a prize. Just kidding. I’m going to eat it. Actually, I may have to sell it to pay for all the wood and dirt.

Saturday evening we headed out for some Mexican. It was the first time we’d eaten out in nearly 2 weeks and I admit it felt a little like I was cheating on my kitchen. I was disappointed to find out they put flour in their refried beans. What’s a Mexican trip without refried beans and rice? Well, a taco and a lot of chips and salsa it turns out. It was still yummy and it was nice to get a break from cooking.

Sunday was church, dinner at Scott’s parents’, an afternoon at my parents’ and a whole lot of grocery shopping. I’m telling you, the grocery bill hurt this week. It was kind of ok the first week, uncomfortable the second and third but this fourth week of spending hundreds of dollars on groceries is downright painful. I keep telling myself it’s almost like medication. It’s healing our bodies and preventing who knows what. But still. It hurts.

Know what else hurts? The Monday morning after Daylight Savings Time switches. Scott, the early riser, is at work today and I just could not make myself get up without any sunlight outside. We got up 30 minutes late and rushed so we were only about 10 minutes behind regular schedule. But ouch. Not a great way to start a week. Hope your weekend went well and your week is great!