Meatless Mondays

In order to help out a family in our area, Ben (husband/pastor) challenged our church to give up one dinner a few weeks ago, and eat only rice for that meal. It was a two-fold challenge: to eat a meal that much of the rest of the world considers normal, as well as to save money to donate to this family.
Now for those of you who know me, I enjoy cooking. A lot. (yes, I'm weird) And I love to eat even more. So just making and eating rice? Hmmm..
But this night was amazing. Really, truly humbling. As my husband said on his blog, we ate pretty early and were both starving (well, not really) less than an hour later. And, we both had two bowls of rice. Many people in this world only get one, if that.
So we decided as a family to designate Mondays as "Meatless Mondays." I will cook a simple meal, without meat of course, for our family when possible on Mondays. We would really like to be able to give more to the poor, both in our city and around the world, and this is one small way we can do this. God has a tremendous heart for the poor, and we are praying to have the same.
Here are some of the benefits that we have thought can come about by giving up meat only once a week:
* The main reason, which is to save money to give away
* To be able to identify with others who eat very simply
* To teach our children that Americans live in excess, and we can do with less
* To be a little healthier: giving up meat once a week can only be good for us
* To have more time with my family that evening, with much less cooking preparation and clean up time.

I would love to hear of more ideas of how you are giving back this holiday season.

Allie...

went tee-tee on the potty today!
Yay yay! For those of you who don't appreciate a good potty story, you may as well just browse somewhere else! :)

She was running around saying, "Potty! Potty!" She has done this before and I sit her up there and.... nothing.

But today, she did it! Landon and I made such a hoopla about it that she probably freaked out and thought she did something wrong. I mean Landon was seriously screaming, in the high pitched way that Landon screams, "Allie went tee tee on the potty! Allie went tee tee on the potty!"

Then, what was really funny, was I asked Landon if he wanted to call Daddy and tell him. He said, "Yeah!" I asked what he was going to tell him. He said, "That I want to go to Lindsey and Alan's house!" (my sis and her hubby) Oh, well. I called and broke the news myself.

Sorry, Sam's Club. You may soon be losing $35 a month from the Hays family on diapers.

Ben and Landon's Deer

Ben and Landon went hunting this past weekend- a Hays family tradition- with his dad and brother.
His brother Steven shot a deer in the morning hunt:



Then, Ben and Landon got one in the evening hunt:



(That's Pepaw, Ben's dad, in the photo above. Landon just adores him! As a matter of fact, so do I!)

It was a great weekend of "male bonding" for the men and Allie and I had a girls' weekend with Steven's wife Phyllis and their daughters Lauren and Cayla.
For $30 (the cost of a hunting license), we have our meat for the year! Yay Ben and Landon!

Treasure Your Children

For a couple of weeks now, I have had something on my heart and just haven't shared it yet. It stems from my volunteering at Texas Children's Hospital Cancer Center, as well as my involvement on an online forum for parents of children with liver disease, and also personal friends dealing with sick children, infertility and infant loss.

My plea is for the parents of small children who read my blog: Treasure your children. Take time to enjoy them, and love them, and get to know them. Their childhood passes too quickly and I know that this cliche, but this season is so short.

I was volunteering a few weeks ago and doing a craft with one of my favorite little girls. She was just having so much fun and then the nurse called her back. She started crying and screaming because she knew what was coming (she is only 2 1/2, but already wise to the hospital ritual). A lab draw, maybe, or chemotherapy. Something that would hurt. I had to turn away so her mom and dad wouldn't see the tears in my eyes.

I also mentioned my online support group. In the last month, one baby died at only 11months, waiting for a liver transplant. There are a few others that are barely clinging to life. If you have a child, give them a kiss as you thank God for another day.

We have a personal friend whose daughter is waiting for a transplant. The baby is so precious, I could just hold her all day! But she is sick, and she needs a transplant, fast. It breaks my heart to look at her, and her sweet mother, who has endured so much these first 11 months of motherhood.

If you have a healthy child(ren), please be thankful that part of your life doesn't entail sitting in a hospital all day, waiting for news that may not be good. I am speaking to myself here. Although Landon is technically sick, he is in a very healthy period of his life and I tell myself all the time to enjoy this time, even when he is driving me crazy. Is this always easy? By no means, no. But I am trying to become more mindful of how I react to both he and Allie, and truly learn what it means to treasure them.

If you have an ill child, or are struggling with infertility, or have lost a child, may you find the grace and strength you need to get through this trial. All of these issues are definitely dear to my heart and I would love to pray for you. Just leave me a comment or e-mail me.

I'll close with words from God:
Psalms 127:3
Sons are a heritage from the Lord, children a reward from him.

Not Me Monday

Once again, here is my list of things that I am much too good to do, in response to MckMama's Not Me Monday!

1) I did not realize that after skipping a week of Not Me Monday, that I need this therapy! A lot!

2) This one goes for me and hubby- we did NOT bring up an ice chest with milk and granola bars to our room one night so we could appease the kids the next morning without getting up. Even if it was our one day to sleep late together in like, 6 months, that would just be silly! (seems that creative ways for me to get to sleep late are becoming a theme here!)

3) My friend Yessica and I did not walk around the gala we volunteered at, looking to see if the guests had left any of the yummy chocolate bars that were served as favors on the tables. And even if we had, we wouldn't have walked out of there with around 6 bars each. And that VERY DARK chocolate does not taste really, really good!

4.) I did not give my children about 4 pkgs of fruit snacks, each, so they would be good while hubby and I were talking to the agent about building our house. Nope, my children just sat there extremely well behaved on their own, loving every minute of discussing mortgages and floor plans.

If you haven't tried making a list like this and reading others, it really isn't all that fun. So don't try it! ;)

This needs no explanation....

.... or does it?
They did it on their own, I promise!
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I want to update on Church in the Center , but eleven o'clock-ness is preventing brain clarity. I'll write more soon, I promise. (2 promises in a very short post!)
Have a great week.

Not Me Monday, take 2

Okay, time for another round of things I did NOT do this week! Isn't this therapeutic? You really should try it!

First of all, I did NOT stay up a little later than I planned, just to see if MckMama started her contest early (again!) so I could go ahead and post tonight. Nope, not me.

I truly did NOT put back a $1 Christmas ornament my son broke accidentally at Hobby Lobby because I was tired and perhaps a bit crabby. And because the cashiers seemed even more tired and definitely crabbier. Nope, that would be something an irresponsible parent would do.

I did not make homemade popcorn almost every night this week for hubby and me to eat (after the kids were in bed!), since I did not just discover a great new method thanks to my friend Fabia and Alton Brown! Nope, too much junk!

Something Landon did NOT do: Say, "you have to be careful, babe," when I slammed on my brakes in traffic today- (always fun driving through a Houston Texans game on your way to church!) Landon has NOT heard me say that to Ben when I think he gets too close to other drivers. Nope, that is so not kind of me!

Allie did NOT pick up dog poop out of the yard and throw it at me. Nope, she's a girly girl!

I did not bust my rear falling out of a lawn chair (possibly it broke?) last night. Don't ask my sister, I wasn't talking on the phone to her when it happened!

And lastly, last night I did NOT NOT NOT make brownies using black beans instead of oil and eggs. YUCK! And I certainly would not feed them, unwittingly, to my husband and his best friend. Nope, that's cruel. But just in case you want to know about these, ask, and I'll tell you about someone else that did do it!

One thing I did do, though, is have a great Sunday worshipping in our brand new church! And maybe have to ask forgiveness for the ornament I didn't put back.
Have a great Monday, y'all!