Wild Man

My, my, my! This boy is a wild man!

These pictures...

were all snapped...

in about...

45 seconds.

Odd, and a bit disappointing.

What are all of you looking at?

Oh of course, the TV's over there.

No matter how much we shelter, ahem protect our kids, they're still gonna end up pretty "normal", aren't they? Our TV is on for maybe an hour every day...cartoons during breakfast. Do they innately think life revolves around the television? This was seriously difficult for me to see:(

Freaky? Clowns do it for some people, perma-smiling dollies do it to me.

Miss Independent

Atta' girl. You put those jammies on yourself. You wear that jammie top backwards. You're cool. You can work it. You're a big girl now. Don't even feel silly about it babe. We can dig it!

Sylvia, you ROCK!

Snow Fun

Before the temp dropped, the girls got out and played a bit. I threw some kitchen spoons and plastic bowls out there with them and they were busy for ...well, not a long time, but longer than I expected:)
























After attending pre-school and experiencing recess in the public school system, Olivia has become a seasoned snow-bunny. She had a BLAST!



















Sylvia...not so much.



















What a couple of, dare I say, cutie-patooties!

Conviction, from the mouths of babes.

I'm here to tell you that God has a way of bringing me to my knees, even and especially through my children. I do recall wondering recently just what God was wanting from me these days. I've been smacked upside the head, so to speak, as He is now dealing with me in a God-sized way.

Today, during an "ugly Mommy moment", I lost my temper with Sylvia. My mean, loud voice was used, yes I have one of those, and empty, ridiculous threats were verbalized. I'd just had it with the pokeybarely3yearsoldthatwantstodoeverythingherselfbutwantshelp child. You know that child, right? Well, after loading up the other children into the van, stomping and huffing and throwing my own little tantrum, I found a misunderstood, confused, possibly even frightened, pokeybarely3yearsoldthatwantstodoeverythingherselfbutwantshelp Sylvia waiting for her mean Mommy, lip quivering and all, back in the house. As I composed myself, I knelt down and looked her in the eyes. I knew I was wrong. I motioned for her to come to me and as I embraced her, she whispered into my ear, "I foe-give you Mommy".

Ugh. Talk about conviction! There I was being forgiven by my littlest pre-schooler, and it hadn't even required an apology on my part! Don't get me wrong, I was immensely sorry for my actions, and I further prayed for the Lord's forgiveness tonight as I tucked the girls into bed.

Sylvia may infuriate me in her pokeybarely3yearsoldthatwantstodoeverythingherselfbutwantshelp ways, but she showed me Jesus' heart today as well. She forgave me as He forgives me.

Thank you Sylvia, and thank you Jesus.

Please pray for my patience in parenting and the courage to make Godly mothering choices.

Practice Makes Perfect...or something like that.

Since Olivia hasn't been attending pre-school very often lately, due to the weather delays and cancellations, we've been putting in some extra time with academics at home. Check out below, where she practiced writing her numbers.

The 2's gave her the toughest time, but she stuck "two" it and got them down:)

Where do I begin?

Above is a difficult situation to explain for the following embarrassing reasons:

• Matt wearing snow boots with his shorts
• dirty diaper on the floor in the kitchen
• dirty bathroom towel on the floor in the kitchen
• other various filth not captured in the particular picture:)

Funny, huh?

Blessings

Sylvia is taking after her sister in that she LOVES to help Mama. See her folding the laundry for me?

The pile on her princess table is the "done" pile:) All she's got left are the bibs from th basket.

Olivia awed me again today while we chatted. She was reviewing our family members, one by one, naming, counting, and describing each one's eye color and who is similar and different...much like the conversation of every other day. I mentioned to her that all those people, Daddy, Olivia, Sylvia, and Joey, are all my blessings...that God gave them to me and that they are very special to me...making them what we call blessings. She replied matter of factly, "And you're a blessing too Mommy, a blessing to us."

Lump in my throat.

Who needs a card or gift on Mother's Day or my birthday when I've got children who say things like this to me?

As En Vogue would say...

"What a man, what a man, what a mighty good man, yes he is!" Okay, so I can think of one person who may read this and know what song and artist(s) I'm referring too:) Mrs. Nicholas? Any other "recognizers" had better leave a comment!

So Matt, my mighty good man, acted as an opossum wrangler on Monday morning. It was quite thrilling to the kids and I, as we watched safely from the kitchen window...snapping pictures of course:) Well, Matt took the first one, then I took over photography. He discovered this innocent little opossum, we've named him Pat, snuggled up in some garbage in our garage.



He dumped our little friend onto the cold driveway...



wrangled him...



and took him to live under an evergreen by the tracks in our backyard.

Bananas Bananas Bananas Bananas

I'm trying to get through all the clutter in the deep-freeze, which houses about 17 gallons of breast-milk and 22 black bananas. Sooooo, we're hitting the bananas hard this week. Sorry family. We've had chocolate-banana pudding, banana berry smoothies, banana waffles, banana blackberry bread, and plain banana bread.



Still on order are chocolate chip banana muffins, banana custard, and banana rice pudding.



*Disclaimer: I take no responsibility for my children's development of banana aversion.

Little Angels

As we speak, or as this posts, I'm hard at work in the ICCU. (Yes, this post was prepared in advance.)

I have full confidence in Matt and his daddy-ing abilities, but getting these kids to sleep sometimes takes a mama's touch.

Hopefully, they're all deep in dreamland:)

I miss you family.

Before You Were Born

Remember how tragic the events of 9/11 were? How horrified we all were that thousands of innocent Americans could be killed like that? What if thousands of innocent Americans were killed every day? They are. They just aren't born yet. Today marked the 37th anniversary of Roe v Wade. Abortion is murder. Call it for what it is. Our God has a plan for each and every one of us, born or unborn.

"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart...." Jeremiah 1:5

99 Balloons from Igniter Media on Vimeo.

Luke 1:39-45

-Matt

Just Cute

Just look at those faces. Unbelievable. Simply unbelievable!



In case you were wondering why all the pictures of Joey are taken while he's in his high-chair, it's because the child is CONSTANTLY eating! Just ask Matt. He informed me last weekend that he thought Joey ate more than him on Saturday. He's not a monster-sized kid or anything, so I'm not sure where he puts it all. Can't wait for his 12 month well-baby check in February:)

Beauty

Do you see the beauty in this? At a glance, it may look like a trashcan covered in ice, but is there beauty there? I feel much like this trashcan at times, but dripping with sin, not ice. Jesus sees the beauty in me, somehow, and washes me of my sins, just as He will melt the ice that is slowing us all down and messing up our lives right now. Sin does the same thing, slows us down and messes up our lives. Our only hope is in Jesus.

Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes o the Father except through me." John 14:6

"Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved." Acts 4:12

Not sure if this analogy will make sense to anyone else. Sometimes, I'm feeling so brilliant in my head, but the words come out sounding like garbage. Ha, there I go again with the trashcan theme. Any thoughts?

Overnight Guest

Uncle Seth tried to drive through Ames without stopping for a visit, but thankfully the ice and his "bad back" brought him to our house for an over-nighter.

Joey enjoyed some pony-ridin' and Olivia beat us adults in a mean game of "Sorry".

After getting cuddled up in their footie jammies, the girls entertained Uncle Seth until it was time to feast on an enchilada dinner. We even treated ourselves to some chocolate chip mint ice cream after dinner. We would LOVE to have Seth & Jenney around more often. We're trying to get them moved to our area:)

Help

During lunch today, I had one of those "gasp-swallow hard-hold back tears" moments. The kids and I were eating with Life 107.1 (96.1 in Ames) streaming from the kitchen radio. Out of the blue, Olivia asks, "Does our help come from the Lord?". I did the above, gasp-swallow hard-hold back tears, and answered her. "Yes". Then we had a nice little discussion about the help that the Lord gives us and how we let Him know what we need, what we're thankful for, and what we're sorry for. I didn't elaborate on the fact that God doesn't always answer our prayers the way we want or expect, but according to His sovereign plan. Olivia had heard the lyrics "...our help comes from the Lord", in the song "Praise Him in this storm" by Casting Crowns, a song we've heard a million times, and she really HEARD the words. What a great affirmation that we're listening to the right stuff:)

ps. sorry about all the words and no pictures...I'll work on it.

stream of consciousness

Whew, what a weekend! I'm sure Matt would say the same thing:) He lovingly filled me in on some of the highlights of the weekend on the way home from George White -car dealership where Matt's having his Cobalt serviced today. We met there at 8pm last night -after I got off work- so they'd have all day today to work on his car...leaving me vehicle-less today. Olivia doesn't have pre-school today, and we're stranded here in the house, just the kids and I. Groceries are getting low. I usually grocery shop on Monday, but that'll have to wait. Will be sort of fun to see what I come up with to feed us today! What can I make with a can of cream of chicken soup and corn-muffin mix? Joey's a snotty mess and teething again, so he was up at 3am and 6am, but easily went to sleep after snuggles and milk, then up for the day, sort-of, at 8am. The girls started in with their pony princess party right away this morning and have only stopped for breakfast and a bath. Olivia requested waffles and sausage!! Everyone ate a good breakfast and even drank their milk:) That makes a mama happy. After a warm meal this morning, time for baths. After I got the pj's peeled off Joey and into the bath, got him all cleaned up and desnottified. He smelled like snotty halitosis:( He enjoyed playing in the warm water all by himself, sans sisters, and went down easily for nap while the girls took over the bath. Now we're, ahem, they're all clean and happy...Joey still napping and the girls and I watching Enchanted. We never get a chance to watch movies together with all the "going going going" most weekdays, so I'm loving the quiet, stranded, day at home with them.

Wonder if that laundry's clean yet. Probably should run down and switch the loads over. I think I'll only do a few loads today, instead of hustling around trying to get EVERYTHING done in one day. I NEED to slow down and enjoy the kids and their company more often. Other plans for the day? Get caught up on the weekend's Bible reading and study. Oh, and I should probably shower sometime too:) I'll probably need a nap this afternoon, since last night's rest was fragmented...and I LOVE naps. Wonder if I could get one of the girls to snuggle with me during nap.

Pretty foggy out there, huh?

I bet the humidifier in Joey's room needs refilling. I wonder how clean that humidifier is. Wonder if I'm making him even sicker -that's right, sicker- by filling his room with dirty mist. How DO I clean the humidifier? And keep it clean? Hmmm. Better investigate.

Rice is gross...rice is yummy.

Depending on which male in our house you ask, you'd get the above reply. Can you guess who thinks rice is yummy?

Giving in to the flesh.

Yes, I'm giving in to the flesh and blogging about my nasty day. No, it really doesn't seem that bad, now that I'm blogging about it, but I'm letting all you readers see into my dysfunctional thought processees (sp).

Things have been unravelling basically since I stepped out of bed today. I'm going to share about two of the most disturbing parts.

I should know better than to have a plan or agenda, because of course I'm only setting myself up for disappointment.

Went to fuel up the mini-van at an alternate location today, since it was on the route to the other places we needed to stop at this morning after dropping Olivia off at pre-school. "No biggie", I thought. "Still an Ames location, and hey, look, there's no wait...this'll be quick." Sticking to the "Dave Ramsey cash plan", I plan on gassing up and then running in to pay after I'm done. This has only been a problem one other time, while trying to pay cash for fuel in Chicago...'cause apparently people aren't too trustworthy and drive off without paying:( Bummer...so we don't live anywhere like that, ...somewhere so big you don't really know the people in your community, ....so naturally you couldn't trust such people to be honest. Oh wait, WE DO! Yep, Ames, Iowa is such a metropolis that patrons are no longer trusted to fuel up, then walk in and pay...at one particular station on the corner of Grand Ave and 24th St. It was a surprise to me and made my stop very cumbersome, awkward, chilly, and irritating. So...I had to guess about how much gas I'd need, as not to waste money on gas I couldn't fit in my empty tank, run inside after standing at the pump staring at the scrolling "authorizing payment" screen for 3 minutes, thinking it would switch to "lift nozzle and begin fueling" screen any moment, pay for the fuel, go back out to the pump, fuel up and finally get back in my vehicle and drive off totally frustrated! "And 'maam, be sure to turn off your engine before beginning to fuel up"...UGH!!

Why did this experience bother me so? Was it just the sheer inconvenience of it? Was it that I'd planned on filling up and since I didn't want to waste gas or overpay, I undershot it and didn't actually get the tank full? Am I just a total wreck and can't handle any fluctuation in my routine? Or maybe I'm just disappointed in the mistrust of people? Why in the world am I even wrestling with this?

Then, I'm off to the post-office. (after stopping at the bank and having a completely pleasant experience...other than that man that insisted on talking to my children even though neither one of them would say a word back to him, and reminding me how "full my hands are"...wow, I sound quite bitter...see what I mean, I'm disappointed that people can't be trusted, yet uncomfortable when a stranger wants to chat in the bank lobby...I must be losing my mind) Yay, at the post-office, I was excited to see that we had beaten the morning rush...no line:) So I get up to the window and set my 25lb(plus the weight of the head to toe snow suit) son on the counter, keeping my arm securely around his waist, and begin rummaging through my bag to find the packages and envelopes that I need help mailing. My "mail helper" was less than impressed with what I presented to her and proceeded to tell me that I needed to remove my child from the counter, against their policy, go re-address and re-package all the items in the "correct" way, then she'd help me. Blah, blah, blah, ...I got all the packages back to her after re-doing and standing the 10 minute line that had formed while I "re-did" everything. Give a lady a break! Seriously, I can't rest my kid's weight on your counter? Whew!

Why can some days just go so smoothly, you feel a glow all around you? (like yesterday, which I feel no compulsion to blog about...'cause it was so great) And some days, everything's just...well...AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

I do feel like I may be crazy. Or just human? Or maybe hormonal and thinking WAY too much?

Anywho...

I did add thanks for peace in my heart to our prayers yesterday. I know...nothing.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding Proverbs 3:5

Birthday Tree

Sylvia is standing in front of her "birthday tree". Got the idea from another blog that did this with their Christmas cards...but I can't recall the site:( Soooooo, she loves her birthday tree, but I'm a little disappointed with it. All it's decorated with is her greeting cards and lights. Any suggestions on how to spruce it up...ha, no pun intended...would be appreciated! Notice Sylvia sporting some of her new duds? Thanks Aunt Jenney and Uncle Seth!

Happy 3rd, revisited

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. Mark 12:30

Tutu-heads

'nuff said