It's Thursday, but Friday's comin'!

Last night we came home from church and watched Kid Nation – a show our whole family has fallen in love with. (By the way, we all like Michael, but I really think Greg should have gotten the gold star last night. After all, none of the kids would have had chicken this past week without him. That’s just the reality of it.)

I don't see what any of the controversy is about this show. I think it's awesome! I mean, for crying out loud, your kid has a chance to win a $20,000 gold star and get this wonderful experience of learning to work together as a team. I would LOVE for any of my three kids to be on it. Maybe somebody could explain to me the damage this show is doing to these children. Some parents are really upset about it. So far I don't see any abuses, in the first two episodes, just a lot of life lessons they are learning together.

Then we watched The Bionic Woman, a new show Larry TIVO’d for me, convinced I’d love it. He’s right. I used to love the old Bionic Woman. The only thing missing from the new one is, when she jumps, you don’t year the “ddddddddjjjjjjjjjj” as she is leaping. I miss that. But it’s all good. I think this is going to be a good mental diversion for me to watch this when I can. Larry has taught me the value of watching TV once in a while. I used to see it as the biggest waste of time and never did it. Up til' Tivo came on the scene, I couldn't tell you what the names were of very many shows nor the characters. I knew Nightline, Court TV - when I was keeping up with certain cases like OJ's case by taping it daily, etc. but other than the occasional thing like that - TV wasn't on my radar at all. I had too much to do and considered TV an absolute waste. Now I am finding through the advice of my husband that a show or two a week is good for you. It's a nice mental diversion from the rigors of everyday stuff we deal with. For that hour or two my mind is not on anything else but the characters in the show and I'm usually snuggled with a family member on the couch. Last night I was eating Edy's low fat ice cream while sitting on one end and Jordan was on the other end and he says, "Mom, why are you down there?" I said, "I'm next to the end table here to put my cup..." and he says, "scootch down..." so finally moments later he and Dustin and I were jammed together on there watching Kid Nation and enjoying it. Yes, I'm enjoying at least one or two hours a week of Tivo'd TV.

I made THE most delicious healthy chicken parmesan recipe last night(created it myself – 7 pts, thank you very much!) and usually I don’t have a lot of time to cook on Wed night but this week I made time. Larry loved it! He thanked me for it over and over - I can tell this one's a keeper. (The chicken, and the man...)

This morning is usually our late morning into the office because of church Wed. night. I thought I had the extra 30 minutes I normally have, although I didn’t because I forgot Larry had all his pre-surgery tests today. I had slept 30 minutes extra and then as I was shampooing my head in the shower I remembered that and thought, “uh…oh no…we only have one car. What am I going to do?” (too late to wear the wig…I’m standing there with a shampooey wet head.) So I got out of the shower, got dressed, and went to work with a towel on my head and finished getting ready there. (The beauty of a full bathroom in my office at the church. When people take a tour of our offices, they often ask me, “do you ever shower in your office or really use this?” OH YES. In fact, my whole family does. Since we practically live at the church I use it often, actually. Larry has his own too in his office. It’s a nice perk.

This is Thursday. Do you know what that means? Tomorrow is FUN FRIDAY! Yee ha! Yippee Aye Aye!

We stopped at the meat market on the way home and got some chicken breast stuffed with crab meat for Larry and I and some chicken breast with cheese for the kids. When we got home I started cutting some zucchini in half and brushing it with olive oil and garlic to bake it and Dustin says, "Mom, Bobby's on the way over..." so I proceeded to go out and set the table with six places instead of five and told Larry to throw an extra chicken breast with cheese in the oven. After supper we made homemade chocolate chip cookies. (Not the break & take kind we often bake, but I mean...get out all the ingredients out of the cabinet, the flour, eggs, sugar, etc. and do it. Yum! Everyone helped a little bit...)

Jordan was on the news tonight...not saying anything, you just saw him hugging a friend who was crying. You can watch it by clicking this link. They had an assembly at the high school today about drunk driving and reckless driving and what it causes. They had the parents there of the boy who was recently killed, and they shared the pain their are in over the loss of his life. They were asking the students to please THINK before they drive and be careful. They had a few other speakers there. Jordan had a friend who was really sobbing and he was comforting her and the news people were filming it. He said, "Mom, they were right there the whole time I was helping Stephanie. I know they are probably going to have me on the news tonight" and sure enough, he was. I really hope this assembly helped the kids to indeed THINK before they drive.

Thursday night has to be one of my very favorite nights. If there is nothing else on the calendar church wise, it means it's a good night at home because I know I get to kick back, relax and enjoy my family the next day. I do have to get up and get Vannie off to school but I go right back to bed on Fridays and snuggle up with Larry unless he wakes right up when I get up. If he's quick to get in the shower it means he wants to get Savanna to the bus stop, have me get ready to go out and he wants to leave and do something like go on a breakfast date, or head out to do something else we have been wanting to do. I always love Fridays when they are "ours."

Time with those we love is such a blessing.