A Berry Good Day

What a fantastic day for picking strawberries! It was a beautiful morning and there were LOTS of berries to be picked! S prefers to eat them rather than put them in the bucket. I don't blame her...they are sooooo delicious and sweet right off the plant.

After we filled 3 buckets we went to lunch, then home for naps. It was important to rest up before making yummy, fresh strawberry pies! J's aunt has the easiest (not to mention, tastiest recipe) : Heat 1 cup water, 1 cup sugar, and 3 tbsp corn starch until thick. Add 3 oz strawberry jello and dissolve. Pour into prepared deep dish pie crust. Fill with as many strawberries as you desire. Refrigerate 3-4 hours. Enjoy!

I have always loved strawberries! My dad grew them at our house in Illinois and we could pop a fresh berry into our mouths anytime we wanted. I can remember going out to pick them early in the morning to have on my cereal. Cheerios topped with sweet strawberries is still my all time favorite breakfast, followed closely by waffles with butter and sliced berries. Mmmmm...good!!!!

Testimonial

Two weeks ago I was asked to give my testimony at church tonight. I'm not sure which is worse: natural childbirth or speaking in front of people. At least with the childbirth, when my face turns red and I am hyperventilating and sweating, most people understand. Not so with public speaking!

Thank you to Loretta, my "coach", and Julie for being so supportive and for such positive feedback. You were both a blessing to me tonight!

If anyone else is interested in reading about how I came to know Christ as my personal Lord and Savior, you can find it here: http://www.msnusers.com/MyFruit/Documents/Personal%20Testimony%20pdf.pdf

Musical Beds?

So I was awakened last night by the sound of little feet running on the hardwood toward our bedroom and then a breathless child saying "Mommy, my bed's all wet". With one eye opened I looked at her and asked the obvious, "Did you have an accident?" "Yes, Ma'am, I'm sorry".

As I was getting my thoughts together I felt her pajama bottoms and said, "Are you sure? Because your pants aren't wet." Well she was positive that is what happened and that now she needed to sleep with us. I was not convinced and still, half asleep. I took her back upstairs and noticed the clock said 12:24. I had only been asleep 2 hours (sigh).

When I felt her sheets, they were indeed wet. Why wasn't she? I was confused and tired and just then E started crying in his room. I sent S back downstairs to sleep with Daddy while I waited to see if E was going back to sleep on his own. As I listened, I heard the gurgly, raspy breathing of a baby with a seriously stuffy head!

So I gathered him up and after a dose of cold medicine and a couple of sucks from the nasal aspirator (a.k.a. "the snot sucker"), I rocked him back to sleep and put him back in bed. As soon as he laid flat, he couldn't breathe. Well, I didn't think I could get any sleep in a chair, so I went back in S's room, put another blanket over the curious wet spot, propped myself up on pillows and put E on my chest so he could breathe again. He went right back to sleep. It was 1:20.

By 4:00 he was breathing pretty good so I laid him back in his bed and anticipated 2-3 hours of blissful sleep alone in S's bed! But at 5:45 I woke up when J was leaving for work. I thought I would go back downstairs to make sure when S got up she wasn't looking for me and wake up E in the process. She was still asleep in our bed so I laid down with her, but not for long. She got up at 6:15 wanting to eat breakfast. I showed her the clock and told her to leave me alone until "this little 6 turns into a little 7".

Believe it or not, she did. I think she went to her playroom and I woke up at 7:15. By then the house was bright and sunny. The first thing I noticed about S was that her pj bottoms didn't match her top. She explained "...I changed my pants after my asskident last night." Oh! Now it all made sense!!!

Now Weight a Minute

A tid bit of information I realized the other day: after S was born, it took me 18 months to loose the baby weight, but only 9 months to loose it after little E. Interesting. Could it be that with 2 kids I'm burning twice the calories? Or maybe it's because this house is 4 times bigger than our other one and even doing a simple chore like putting away the laundry eats up a meal in itself.

While I'm glad to be in all my clothes again for summer, I set a goal for myself in January and I will not be happy unless I meet it. I want to run a 5k this fall. I have never ran in anything before. Heck, I didn't even make the track team when I was in school! I really, really want to do this but for some reason I haven't started training for it yet. Now I have less than 5 months. Somehow I need to find a time to work it into my day and I have GOT to get MOTIVATED!

Happy Birthday Velvet!

To celebrate my good friend Velvet's birthday we asked our husbands to watch over the households for a few hours while we went to dinner and a movie. We saw "Failure to Launch". It was the perfect "girl's day out" kinda show. Not too serious, not too violent, not too animated! Just the right amount of funny...who knew Terry Bradshaw would do a nude scene?

We ate dinner at American Tavern out on the patio. As I sat there sipping my glass of Riesling and enjoying girl talk, I realized how important Velvet had become to me in the short 2 years we have known each other. She is a wonderful person who loves her family passionately and is an encouragement to me in my marriage as well as motherhood.

Thank you, Velvet! You are truly one of a kind and I'm so glad you are a part of my life!

Mary vs Martha

You know the story right? Mary and Martha have Jesus into their home. Martha fusses around making food and cleaning while Mary sits with the guests. Pretty soon Martha is upset with Mary and tells Jesus (of all people) to tell Mary she better get her butt up and help. After all, that is what the women did at that time and place. Boy, wasn't Martha surprised when Jesus told her that Mary had chosen what was right.

Well, the gist is that all the fussing Martha was doing could have been done another day. It wasn't what was important in the moment. And the reason this story is on my mind today, is that all morning I have been trying to clean the house. Almost an impossible task with two little ones going right behind me and messing it up again. Then I get aggrivated with them. Then I get mad at myself for getting aggrivated with them! It's a vicious cycle! :)

I am a Martha by nature. My last name should be Stewart! People who know me best would swear the character Monica, on Friends, was created after me. In a way it's funny. But on days like today, I feel bad subjecting my children to my obsession! My husband is always trying to remind me of what is "really" important. But seriously...when is the house going to get clean???

Storm Stories

We had a thunderstorm blow over last night. To put it mildly, I am not a fan of storms. My parents can tell many stories of me climbing into bed with them at the first sound of a far off rumble. As I got older, it was not "cool" to be doing that sort of thing, so I would pull the covers over my head and wait. If it was really bad I would crawl on my hands and knees into their room to huddle at the foot of the bed! Yeah, like that's cool.

I began hearing the thunder last night around 8:30. J was working late and I was waiting for his call to tell S good night before tucking her in. When we got the call it was almost 9:00 and by then, the lightning was pretty close. I was trying to ignore the bright flashes followed by a loud "Ka-Boom" so S wouldn't pay any attention to it. After "one more hug" and "one more kiss, Mommy", I hopped in the shower.

When I got out, she was sitting at the top of the steps. "I'm scared. Can I sleep with you?" Oh, crap! Now I have to be the grown up.

As I cuddled with her in our bed I thought it was nice to have someone to be scared with. We talked for a little while about how to have "good thoughts" and I took the opportunity to tell her that it's times like this when we can call on Jesus to be with us and help us feel safe. She said, "yeah, and if its thunder, we'll have to say it real loud". :)

1 John 4:4

Weekley memory verse: "You dear children are from God and have overcome them, for the one that is in you is greater than the one that is in the world".

Easter Memories

My mom sent me this picture today that was taken at her house on Easter Sunday. Those flowers are almost as beautiful as my kids!

A Date with Dora

Last night we took S to see Dora the Explorer at the Fox Theater. It was a good little performance and we all had a great time. I had forgotten how totally cool the Fox Theater is. And taking S for a potty break was the first time I had ever been down to the "Ladies Lounge". Very nice! I am kicking myself for forgetting the camera.

After the show we ate at the Cheesecake Factory. S talked the whole way there about the big piece of strawberry cheesecake she wanted to eat. When we got inside, she sat on my lap and fell asleep! She slept all through dinner and desert!

The first thing she said to me this morning was, "Mommy, can we go see Dora today?"

Rainy Day Blues?

We have had a little disappointment in our house this morning. We had planned to go strawberry picking with Nanny & Grampa this morning, but woke up to cloudy skies and drizzle. S couldn't understand why we couldn't just wear our raincoats and pick berries anyways. We rescheduled the trip for next Friday.

I have to admit a rainy day is just what I needed. First of all, the azaleas I planted last week need it. And as the first sprinkles fell on the back deck my thoughts turned to getting caught up on laundry and cleaning the bathrooms. But when S stopped crying and asked "will you play with me, Mommy?", my priorities changed. We played 'Zoo', which is her absolute favorite. We set up everything from elephants to sheep and we even made Prince Charming run the snack bar while Lavendar Kitty ordered a canned salad (whatever that is).

Yes, a rainy day is just what we needed!

Enjoying it already!

Okay, I added some more to my profile and now I'm calling it a night. Tonight was the first night in about 5 days that S has gone to bed without crying for at least an hour. I have no idea what initially caused the bedtime drama, except that we spent a couple nights out at Papa's fishing and then she got hyped up on Easter sugar over the weekend. Anyhow, she went to bed at 8:30 with a little coaxing from her Daddy, and really I should have taken advantage and gone to bed early too. But this was too fun!!!! I'll write again tomorrow...

A blogging virgin!

Many, many thanks to my friend Liz for helping me create this blog. Still trying to add my profile. Hopefully that will be coming soon! :)