Happy Friday everyone and Happy Birthday to Cameron!  I always appreciate your comments, Cameron, and I hope you have a wonderful day today.

All of the feedback I receive is truly appreciated.  This week, I received some lovely emails.  Many viewers wanted to respond to the comments I made during Good Morning Indiana about Ash Wednesday.  Other viewers sent me emails to thank me for talking about my faith on the GMI blog.  Well… you are so welcome.

I still remember when my former boss told me he wanted me to write a blog.  My first thought was… “Are you sure?”  I had no idea what I would talk about everyday.  I couldn’t imagine that viewers would really be interested in knowing my personal thoughts about… well… about anything.  My former boss reminded me how people invite me into their homes every morning and some viewers feel like all of us on Good Morning Indiana are part of the family.  It’s only natural, he said, that viewers would want to know more about all of us.

Well, as time has gone on, I’ve become more comfortable sharing my thoughts with all of you.  I didn’t make a conscience decision to talk about faith or religion.  My faith and my family, however, are my life.  I think it’s only natural that those topics would come up from time to time.

Thank you for taking the time to respond to my blogs and send emails.  I read all of my emails and I try to respond to all of them.  I figure if you take time out of your busy day to write to me, I can take a little time out of my day to respond.

I hope you can take a little time this weekend to relax and enjoy your family and friends.  Have a great birthday celebration, Cameron!  Thanks for starting your day with Good Morning Indiana.

Happy Thursday!  I hope everyone is doing well.

I’m running a little behind schedule today.  It’s just been one of those days.  Everything seems to be falling into place, though, so I’m thankful for that fact.

I had to track down my church’s music director.  I’m singing at church Sunday, but the music she sent me via email  didn’t match the printed copy of the music I had.  Now, I must admit that church members are forgiving and supportive.  It’s not imperative that I be perfect.  I feel much better, however, that I now have everything I need to prepare for Sunday morning!

Speaking of church and prayer, we had a lively discussion on Good Morning Indiana about the mother of the octuplets.  Now there’s a situation that needs a lot of prayer, at least in my humble opinion.  Tom pointed out that his mother came from a huge family.  Paul was one of six children.  My dad is the youngest of 11 kids.  Here’s the thing, though.  In those situations, the kids weren’t all the same age.  My dad feels like he had six mothers.  His five older sisters really helped raise him.  As a matter of fact, my dad has nieces and nephews who are his age.  The mother of the octuplets has a total of 14 children and they’re all very young.  Dan brought up the cost of raising all the kids, including the cost of college.  It’s estimated that by the time the octuplets are ready for college, it’ll cost $87,000 a year for one of them!

Well, that’s a long time down the road.  I’m just scared about the journey that’s ahead for that entire family.  I feel like I have my hands full and I only have three kids.  I guess when I’m feeling overwhelmed, I can just try to imagine what my life would be like if had four times as many kids racing around the house.  Whew.  I feel more  relaxed already.

Happy Wednesday and welcome back Dan!

Dan spent the past few days in sunny Florida!  He spent most of Monday at Disney in Orlando and had lots of fun.  I thought there wouldn’t be much of a crowd, but Dan says they had to wait quite awhile to get on some of the more popular rides.  As a matter of fact, he says there were quite a few people there from Louisiana.  Apparently, some people for the Bayou State escape all the craziness of Mardi Gras and head to Florida! 

Speaking of which, I hope all of you had a fun Fat Tuesday.  Now, it’s time to start the time of repentance in Christianity, as we get ready for Easter.  I’m not one to crave too many foods, but I probably will give up these wonderful chocolate chip cookies I discovered at the health food store.  (I know, I know.  Healthy cookies?  Give me a break.)  At any rate, the cookies are sweetened with juice and are moist and chewy.  At any rate, I’ll say goodbye to satisfying that sweet craving.  I also want to do more volunteer work.  I’d like to get the kids to help me.  I’m thinking maybe we could all bake something for people at a local nursing home and pay them a visit.  My two younger kids already visit the wonderful people at a nursing home near their school, which is just one of the reasons I love their pre-school.

Tom is vowing to give up fast food.  I’m sure his arteries will quickly thank him.  Dan says when he was a child, he and his sister once gave up television.  I was really impressed!    I think the chances of him giving up t-v right now are pretty remote.  Paul joked about giving up coffee, but I think he’s still pouring over his options.

To all of our Christian friends, we hope all of you have a meaningful season of Lent.

You know, someone once told me that you never know what it’s like to walk in someone else’s shoes until you try them on.  Well, I never realized how difficult it is to be a parent until I became one.  I’m constantly second-guessing myself, hoping I’m raising my children to be caring, self-sufficient and confident people.  I must admit that when I watch episodes of The Supernanny, I feel like I’m doing a fairly good job.  I certainly don’t want to sound superior.  Everyone’s situation is different and as parents, we all try to do the best we can.

This morning, one of the producers of The Supernanny stopped by to visit with us.  The producers are in town, looking for families that Supernanny, aka Jo Frost, can help.  Jo was here last year and she really helped a Noblesville family.  If you are having a tough time and you think Jo can help, you can fill out an application at www.supernanny.com.  About a year ago, I interviewed Jo via satellite.  I told her I was having a tough time getting my toddler daughter to help me clean up her toys.  Well, Jo suggested I get down on the floor, at my daughter’s level, and kind of make a game out of it.  In time, I should pick up fewer and fewer toys and let my daughter pick up more.  In time, she’ll catch on that she’s responsible for picking up her toys and putting them away.  Jo’s advice worked like a charm!  I really don’t have any problems in getting the kids to put things in their place.  As a matter of fact, when they arrive home from school, they go straight to our hallway shelf and put away their shoes, bags and coats.  I don’t even have to tell them to do it anymore.  (Now, if getting them to eat their veggies was that easy!)

Things are really hopping in the Big Easy.  To all of my Christian friends, Happy Fat Tuesday.  As we discussed on the show today, there are quite a few websites where you can check out all the fun in New Orleans.  You can try www.earthcam.com/usa/louisiana/neworleans/bourbonstreet.  Also www.wwl.com.  You can even check out a real time twitter feed at http://blog.nola.com/times-picayune-twitter.

Have a fabulous Fat Tuesday and if you’re lucky, maybe the kids will help you clean up after dinner.

Happy Monday everyone!  I hope all of you had a fantastic weekend.

To respond to Jim’s comment… yes, I would love to see packages on newscasts run about 1:45.  I think if a story is well written and well shot, you don’t even notice how long it is.  It’s kind of like a good movie.  If the film is horrible, you’ve probably had enough after 15 minutes.  If it’s a great film, you’re probably sorry when it it ends after 2 1/2 hours.

Speaking of movies, how many of you watched the Oscars last night?  I didn’t see any of it.  I figured I’d see all of the recaps this morning.  I don’t think there were any huge surprises.  I didn’t see any of the movies that were nominated for best movie.  I did see The Dark Knight.  I don’t usually enjoy those kinds of films, but what can I say?  I was drawn in by Heath Ledger’s incredible performance.  Thanks to my younger sister, my husband and I have another date night coming up soon.  (My sister is going to babysit the kids for us.)  I’m hoping we can see one of the Oscar-nominated films, perhaps Slumdog Millionaire.  What a success story. A movie that was once slated to go straight to DVD takes Oscar gold!

We may not have an award-winning forecast today, but at least we can enjoy lots of golden sunshine.  I hope all of you have a great Monday.