Archive for March, 2010

Contraband Carbs

by admin on March 31, 2010 in Do I Call It Parenting Advice?, Four Little Eggs In My Nest with 2 Comments
Food Fight!
Not the throw it around kind but the battle for the stomach and future health of my child kind!(We make our baby food around here but the above picture is one of the tricks for feeding Baby Boy that worked for me for a while, before he became a carb junkie. I would make baby food and then put it in clean jars so he thought he was getting something special.)

We have implemented a contraband on all carbs into our home… correction, all simple carbohydrates, starches really.

This is a serious intervention on behalf of our youngest. Baby Boy is a bread addict. He would eat nothing but starch foods all day. Don’t even get me started on crackers… he is a nut for crackers! If he even sees someone having one or spots a box of them he freaks out, yelling for one. With all this junk easy at hand he often gets what he wants and I have noticed his sleep, mood and diet have suffered greatly as a result. Time to step in!

For the last two days we have all had to go without for his sake. It has been tough. At first he thought he would win and just not eat but today he realised he was hungry and finally tried some of the protein and veggie items I was setting before him. THIS IS HUGE, he usually flatly refuses to even try none starch items! Anyone who has had a one year old knows you can’t make them eat stuff by force but you can take away all they want till they have to eat what remains (the good stuff). I am hopeful this will continue to go well. Watching him down the scrambled eggs lased with veggies tonight made me enthusiastic about a healthier well rounded diet future for my boy.

P.s. You should have seen the sad faces at the table last night when I informed them all they would be eating their stew without crackers in support of our cracker addict.

TTFN

Reboot

by admin on March 29, 2010 in Bits Of My Personality, Domestic Damsel, People In My Heart with 1 Comment
(Work apron found and at the same time encouragement and inspiration for this house wife!)

Not to side track to much but I must gush about my three new work aprons. Each is an adorable funky pattern, with big pockets and is small in size (sits just around the hips). After watching my kids kindergarten teacher using them for years I had to find some. Turns out they are called gardening aprons but are perfect work aprons for around the house and yard. This Mama is ready for anything with the cordless phone in one pocket, the camera and TV remote in the other and Kleenex in the middle one. I happily put on my housewife professional attire each morning now and just feel like getting going!

Two weeks ago I was immersed in spring cleaning, energized by it and going full speed happily ahead. Last week regular life was mostly put on hold while BIG STUFF collided with every day stuff and I had to try and soak it all up or take it all in.

The bread supply is nil, the family menu plan out of control and the laundry is nightmarish in size. I am at the point that I feel like I could manage all the big stuff better if I could just reboot the family schedule and get back to basics for a bit.

Weekend over, big kids and husband back on schedule so now it is up to me and the babies to get it all together. I need to digest more thoughts and feel like running my home better this week will aid greatly in that process too.

Everyone is asking me what I think of it all already and I don’t know what to say yet so I try to say what I should and get on with it. For those who don’t know, I am referring to the addition of two long lost beautiful sisters to my side of the family but also to a worrisome diagnosis of my Dads. The sisters weight is joyful on my heart but complicated in its excitement… but at the same time my Dad’s cancer diagnosis and surgery is a real concern on my heart and that concern is ONLY HUMAN!

Laundry humming away in the machines down stairs sounds good to me right now, the baskets full of more to fold look inviting and the bread will be such a lovely anticipation to add to my day if I can just get the batch started! My plan is to simplify this week and be a dutiful housewife so I fell better about life!

Goals for the week (in no real order):

  • Back to daily devotions each morning and praying with the kids before they head off to school.
  • Stay home lots thus saying no to too much extra activities this week even if they are good things!
  • Family meeting at least once this week.
  • Back on the keeping track of the kids allowance bandwagon.
  • Catch up on house keeping.
  • Play lots with the kids outside just in the yard.
  • Finish reading the final book in the ‘King Raven’ series.
  • Avoid grocery shopping.
  • Perfect and rescue my menu planning system.
  • Make the beds each day.
  • Nap in sun beams each afternoon.

P.s. I am a good Mama… I am a dutiful scheduler because it makes my family happy but every good Mama has to deal with the unpredictability of life and the storms… then every good Mama has to pick up the scattered pieces of a family schedule now and then. I know I am a good Mama BECAUSE I desire to carry on and clean up that mess…

TTFN

From Aunt Ruth

by admin on March 25, 2010 in Bits Of My Personality, Life Keeps Changing, People In My Heart with No comments

Years ago my pen pal, who is also my great great aunt (yes she is my grandmothers auntie so two greats for me), sent me these slippers in an envelope. She always found ways to send me little gifts in an envelope to save on package posting. They where a birthday gift from her and hand made.

It is amazing how something old can become new again…

I am an organizer, I hate excess and regularly clear out things that haven’t been used often or lately but for some reason every time I found these slippers in my sock drawer I would smile and put them back. I got them when I was a teen and never used them. I used to have such warm feet that slippers weren’t something I ever could stand wearing. The slippers waiting in the corner of my sock drawer and things changed.

My feet get so chilled now… Today I put on my leopard print slippers… after a few minutes I got too hot in them and my mind jumped to the corner of the sock drawer and I went and found these long lost slippers from my aunt Ruth. They used to be yellow but the yarn has turned more cream in color, but other then that they have gone unused and so are in great shape. Unlike my other slippers they are well aerated and so I don’t sweat in them. They are definitely slippery slippers so I have to pay attention or I will end up on my tush. I put them on and was struck by how pretty they are once stretched over my feet. They just look like little squares before you put them on and once on I felt like I had ballet slippers on…well, they are as close as I will ever get to wearing ballet slippers! I just felt so thankful for them today.

Aunt Ruth might have taken the time to get them to me years ago but today I was struck by her thoughtfulness and today I missed my pen pal. We don’t write so much to one another anymore. She is getting older and I am just so busy with kids and a husband but I really hope she knows I love her… well she is gonna know because it is about time I wrote her again. Love you Aunt Ruth!

TTFN

Lost A Tooth!

by admin on March 25, 2010 in Four Little Eggs In My Nest, Life Keeps Changing, Mama Heart Mushings with No comments
Big Boy FINALLY lost his first tooth!

His older sister had lost many by the time she was his age. This tooth was allowed to hang on for a long time. It got to the point that yesterday I barely touched it and it fell out. Big Boy was very happy that it didn’t hurt. It is so little… He is so excited and impressed. “This means I am growing up cuz I am getting big teeth!” he exclaimed. So true, the adorable baby teeth will fall out one by one… I remember how proud I was of him, and how excited I was as those sweet little teeth began to fill his baby grin… Now I am proud of him because he is growing! I am only a little less excited for the simple fact that this means he is getting older and I want him to forever be my little guy!

TTFN

And The Heart Grows

by admin on March 24, 2010 in Bits Of My Personality, Life Keeps Changing, People In My Heart with No comments
There is always room in a persons heart.
The heart is strong and will easily grow.

This growth is fertilized by love and is there for unlimited.

For ever one involved, this weekend was important. For Dad this was a weekend of healing and hope. For sure his cancer diagnosis made meeting his daughters all the more vital! I can’t speak for my brothers but for me it felt like a piece of the puzzle put into place. There was no weird feelings, they just kinda clicked with the family. My sisters are clearly and obviously blood! I am so happy for all of us, that we can have these amazing women in our lives!

Love sprang forth so quickly. My Dad is not one to gush but he had to express over and over how he was proud of them and impressed with them and ultimately how his heart had grown so much in one weekend thanks to finally reconnecting with them. I know they easily fit right into my heart as well and when we took them to the airport this morning all I could think was how I already missed them.

How much can you say about a sibling before it crosses over to vanity and self flattery? Oh I would like to go to that line for them! As impossible as it is to really compare my brothers so it is with Amber and Kathleen. They are uncomparible. Each beautiful, strong and more then we could have hoped. Saying good bye at the airport brought the love gushing forth from my heart. When Kathleen hugged me good bye I didn’t want to let her go! She is so strong and inviting! When Amber cried I couldn’t help but cry too! She is so sweet and wise! Okay, officially gushing and smacking face first into that line!

I am so happy for my Dad.

TTFN

Waiting For A Plane

by admin on March 24, 2010 in Four Little Eggs In My Nest, Life Keeps Changing, People In My Heart with No comments
What do you do with all that energy while you wait for the airplane to land? You get your kids to color a sign. Not just any sign, THE sign that will welcome their long lost aunties into our world! ‘To show them we love them.’ said Big Girl. (she has already since taken the sign to school for show and tell!)Just Big Boy and Big Girl came to the airport with me. We where so nervous we got a drink and a donut at the airport Tim’s and sat down to watch the planes landing and departing.Big Boy was thrilled with the planes and we couldn’t believe it when he actually spotted THE plane land that carried his aunties. We all rushed to the arrival gate, sign in hand and hearts in our throats.Our reunion began. This picture is of my oldest brother meeting the actual oldest child of the clan!

(Here the kids are standing behind Papa and one of the long lost aunties. My kids where thrilled by the luggage pick up area and had to be pulled away.)

We where all full to bursting when Amber and Kathleen arrived. There where hugs and lots of talking as we all dealt with the initial confusion of actually being in one anothers midst. You see these reunions on tv all the time but to have ones own was surreal. We didn’t know how to do it or plan it but it all just went on around us… all of us just moved through it and let the reunion just come and happen.

WELCOME Amber and Kathleen to our clan!

TTFN

St. Patrick’s Day

by admin on March 17, 2010 in Uncategorized with 1 Comment

HAPPY SAINT PATRICK’S DAY!

TTFN

A Touch Of Spring (Always A Good Thing For A Body)

by admin on March 15, 2010 in Four Little Eggs In My Nest, Life Keeps Changing with 2 Comments

Call it hoping… I shall officially call it reality… a body knows what spring sounds like (like chickadees and sparrows bursting in song); tastes and smells like young air; looks and feels like sunny days melting the snow into muck and rivers of water down the street!

I can’t help but take this warm weather as a sign that spring might indeed be on its way. I wouldn’t be surprised by a few more snow storms before we can dip our feet in hot sand and cool waters at the beach once again, but I will also enjoy what I get when I get it.

The doors and windows where thrown open today and the stuffy winter air was banished from our house. Even if we are snowed on again, at least we have some spring air in these walls.

Spring air is so wonderful. It makes you realize how stuffy you have been feeling all winter. It gets you dreaming and planning. My husband made me chuckle as he went on and on about summer today. I had to remind him to relax, this is just early spring, there are many months before summer yet. He was like a kid! You can’t help but feel like a kid in spring.

Speaking of kids! My children had so much fun in the yard today. They set up a table and took out some of their stuffies for the first picnic of the year… a spring picnic of snow balls and pine cones… the stuffies didn’t seem to mind the menu at all.I couldn’t help but change my blog header to a snap shot of my three oldest at play… it says it all… all about spring…

TTFN

What To Do?

by admin on March 15, 2010 in Uncategorized with 1 Comment

I don’t know what I want to do with my blog layout. I don’t like how any of them look… Please forgive me while it keeps changing…

TTFN

What Follows Gaining God? (A Next Thought)

by admin on March 13, 2010 in My Year of Right Sacrifice-TIME with No comments

There is always more as you learn… God always has more to teach us.This post is related to the post Looking At Gain as God and Not Stuff, please read it first if you haven’t already. This is a following thought, or next step, more then a continuation.

So what happens then? When the child accepts that invite to go be with his Abba Father instead of holding back and thinking of himself… what happens? When the selfish nature that pollutes all mens souls is dropped like a tun of bricks and child is instead filled with selfless devotion and adoration for the ONE who first loved us… what is next?

Well, it is pretty amazing how dramatically things change when the son gets his priorities straight, aligning his mind and heart to the point of presenting himself willingly before our Father in Heaven. The bond between Father and son can only increase when the son finally accepts and returns the love his Father has always had unconditionally waiting for him. And greatly increase it does! Ironically so much is to be gained by removing ourselves from a ‘gain mentality’; so much to be gained in our relationship with our Heavenly Father (stay with me, think gain as GOD, not as stuff).

I will not seek to write out a collision of thoughts that I had last night. All day this idea of loving my Abba Father for Himself alone had been bashing up against my long held ideas about life plans, dreams and how they interact with my God relationship.

An example was presented when I was asked why I didn’t desire to travel the world. In my heart I honestly felt ‘I just don’t desire to go for my own pleasure.’ Understand, my God, Christ Jesus, is MOST CERTAINLY NOT against enjoying this life. In light of that, I personally have just gotten to a place where I am tired of planning, for ages, desires that come from my will alone and trying to bring them into an amazing being on my own strength. As much of a romantic as I am I honestly find most things in this life, including trips, just aren’t as beautiful as you imagine when planing them. In a way, the process of planning is often more beautiful then the actual event.

It hit me; I would be a world traveler if I felt it was a God calling on my life… fear and disinterest would be unable to stop me in that case. WHY? Because with God the actual event is ALWAYS better then you could have ever imagined! The things he works out in your life and through you, when you are willing to be part of it, are ALWAYS better then the dream, the vision, better then the planning stages could have ever predicted!

What am I trying to say? I fear I am not being clear, this is all so big and new to my shallow soul…

I want to sacrifice my will to HIS WILL and not just pray for his will in my life but become part of his ultimate will. I want to lay my dream and plans and destiny at his feet and let him write my destiny. His plans for me, the person he sees in me will be more then I could have ever imagined or attained on my own.

THAT is why it is worth it to GAIN GOD!

I love my Abba Father enough to pray for more growth in my ability to love him.

TTFN

← Older Entries