Wow, I'm cool!

Ok, so now people might actually click on this thing once in a while . . . . The pressure is on to sound cool!

As I've written before, one of my favorite blog sites is Momformation.com. I love the down to earth honesty, the fun ideas, and the chance to chat with some other moms about real life topics. I made a comment a couple of days ago about one of my favorite websites - Starfall.com, on an entry, and yesterday it was reviewed. She even linked to my blog! Wow, I might let some of this go to my head. . . .Not that anyone reads me anyway!

I LOVE starfall. It's very educational without any preachiness or stupid ads all over it. My 4 year old loves it just as much as my 2 year old (and Buddy is even starting to be able to find his way around it by himself!) Anyone with pre-readers to early readers should check it out. It really is fun.

Now excuse me while I go do my little happy dance at being recognized!

Contests!

I'm a bit obsessed with contests. See, I actually have decent luck - as in I win things sometimes. But I think that makes it more addicting - like I have to enter EVERYTHING to try. I think it's a good thing it's against my religion to gamble, or else I'd be in big trouble! I love the ones where I just have to talk about it and I get more entries! Hooray!

So here's some contests I'm entering right now.

There's a give away for a cool diaper bag at Delicious baby.
http://www.deliciousbaby.com/journal/2009/feb/16/giveaway-baby-sherpa-diaper-backpack/#comments
That would be SOOO nice to have for plane rides!


Also, this fun Yoplait bag from Monkey Giggles:
http://monkeygiggles.blogspot.com/2009/02/yoplait-giveaway.html

Yummmmm. Yogurt!

Love it!

MIA

Yes, I'm back. I know I've been MIA for too long . . . and there's a good reason for that. You see, I'm going to let you in on a dirty little secret - I'm one of "THOSE PEOPLE". You know, the ones who prepare so far in advance everyone looks at them as if they have three eyeballs. I've been busy . . . crocheting. Random, I know, but it's like an obsession. I'm working on Christmas presents - not late ones, but early ones.

This year I decided to crochet 6 afghans for Hubby's side of the family. Yes, 6 in one year. And yes, before this year I've crocheted a total of 1 afghan in my life. Nothing like a challenge to step up to! My goal is to finish one a month - so either I'll be done by July, or I'll be far behind, but still able to kick it into high gear and finish before New Years! And it's working. I've already finished the first one, and I"m 32 rows into the second.

See, I also have an obsession with reading - and I figured out a way to read while I crochet. If I sit on my bed with a hard back, I can lay it on the bed and stick my toes on the corner of the page (so they don't flop everywhere), and crochet and read at the same time. So I get to be totally useless, indulging in my favorite pastime, but still feel productive, since I'm working on presents for others . . . .Of course this charade isn't working so well around my house.

The dishes only get done because we run out of spoons to eat the cereal with - I'm tempted to just go buy more so I could wait longer. Dinner each day doesn't even get started until after the time we usually sit down to it (my kids are loving all the cold cereal!) I don't have a clue how long it's been since I cleaned my bathrooms, and with Buddy currently toilet training, that's really not a pleasant idea. Even though the highs today are in the 70's, I still have flannel sheets on my bed. And don't even get me started about the rest of my kitchen.

And yet . . . .I hear the yarn calling my name. My book sits just out of eyesight, my eyes naturally straying in that direction. Just a few more rows won't hurt anyone. Really, I only have a few more months of work left and then I can be a normal person again. The kids are healthy -ish. Just slice up some apples to go with the lucky charms. That works, right?

It's a catch-22. On the one hand, I know I should be being better about the house work stuff. On the other, I love the idea of being so on top of the Christmas rush. And I do take lots of breaks to play with the kids, so I'm not actually ignoring them, just the house. Sigh. Someday balance will be a better part of my existence.

Now if you excuse me, there's a new skein of yarn just waiting to be unraveled. . . .

Going from normal to giddy to bugged in 30 minutes

Do you ever hate hormones? Like really loathe all the changed pinging around in your body? Like how you can change at the drop of a hat (or drop of a jug of milk) from a normal regular person to a hormone crazed lunatic?

What? No, I'm not talking about any one in particular. And certainly I didn't vacillate between being on top of the world to depths of despair to raging lunatic back to giddiness in 30 minutes yesterday. No, of course not. My hormones are completely regular . . . . and the doctor didn't call yesterday with some lab results saying I need to go on some very important medication that HAD to start Tuesday morning and promise she would call it in right then and then 3 hours later when I make it to the pharmacy they of course didn't have my prescription anywhere in the system but the doctor's office was already closed so I couldn't do anything about it. . . . nope. Of course none of that happened around my house.

No, my house is full of sweetly singing children, who hold each other's hands as the skip peacefully off to their beds at night, while butterflies flitter by and the moonlight spills through gracefully flowing muslin curtains in our own little corner of perfection.

And apparently the sarcasm fairy also likes to visit at certain times of the month around here too, sprinkling her joyful attitude around the whole crew.

My boy loves . . .Green Beans?

Dinner last night must go down in HISTORY! for our household. Let me start this with a preface - my Hubby HATES most vegetables. Sure, he'll eat corn, and potatoes, celery or carrots (but only raw), but give him a plate of peas and he'd rather starve. It's not like I'm trying to give him Brussels sprouts, we're talking plain old peas, green beans, maybe steamed broccoli here. He won't have it. I've finally convinced him that he needs to be better, so if I serve it, he'll eat two green beans, three peas, or a floret. But he'll hate, no loathe it the whole way down. More than once I've pureed a can of green beans and hid it in taco soup, just to know he gets some vitamins in him!

I worry that Buddy is headed in the same direction. Veggies are not his forte. I know most kids go through this, and it just takes time, but if my son knows his daddy doesn't have to eat up, he won't either.

To help combat this, I've been very grateful for Hubby's schedule. He is usually gone 3 or 4 nights a week for dinner - which means his example is gone too. On the nights he's home, we do salads, corn, or potatoes, and he eats them up. When Hubby is gone, I serve peas, green beans, broccoli, and I eat them up. Girly-Lou-Who loves them all. Buddy, not so much.

Miricles can occur.

Last night, Hubby was flying, I served tacos and green beans. Buddy doesn't like tacos, doesn't like green beans. I knew I was in for a trial, but that was the menu. But Buddy looked excited for dinner. He watched Girly-Lou-Who dish up, his own enthusiasm a mirror of hers. We said a blessing, and they started to eat. In shock, I watched him pick up his fork and stab a green bean - without prompting! First! He popped it in his mouth and said "ook, Mom, I eat it!"

As I picked my jaw up off the floor, he went on "now youa say not eat!"

Ahhh, the game. He wanted to play a game.

Months ago, Besty over at Momformation, wrote a post about how she gets her kids to eat anything by telling them they can't do it. She hams it up, and the reverse psychology works every time. At the time, I remember trying it with absolutely no success. My kids were too young. Sunday night, as they picked over their meal, some psychology popped out of my mouth, and they devoured their meal. Now I understood what my son wanted - to play the game.

I played along, pouncing on every bite, groaning in despair when it went into their tummies, as they giggled so hard they could hardly chew. I got my daughter to actually use a fork. My son ate a taco. And between the three of us, we actually ate an entire can of green beans.

Miracles can happen. Even over beans.

Emergency stuff

I've been thinking a lot recently about food storage/72 hour kits/ etc. I've talked with several other people about this, and all of us are feeling the same thing: the time is far PAST when we should have done this! Honestly, I get a pit in my stomach whenever I think about how really REALLY messed up we'd be in a true emergency. So this year is my storage year. Along with the 8 bajillon other things I'm working on, I'm really truly going to start this stuff! Seriously - when Hubby gets home with the car this weekend, I'm off to the store, armed with my calorie appropriate 72 kit list (find it at http://www.mormonshare.com/node/7030 ), and a list of a few other essentials, I'm getting this going.

Of course, I've also found a couple of prepackaged drool worthy kits that I'd rather do . . . (insert "If I had a Million Dollars" clip here . . .) Maybe I can just win one! Check out http://blog.totallyready.com/
That's one I'd love to get! I'm excited to find this blog - I'm totally checking out her tips as the year rolls around!


(ok, so this one wasn't funny, or cute, or anything, but I needed to post the link to be entered, so there you go!)

The tender hands of a child

This post is going to be a bit harder to write. I usually try to be funny - but something is telling me I have to write this. I came home for Christmas - me, Girlie-Lou-Who, and Buddy. We've been here since the middle of December. Hubby was able to come for a bit, but had to go back and work (dang money. It would have been so much nicer if we could have just not worked for a full month, but unfortunately life requires money, and bosses get kind of angry if you don't show up for that long.) We would have headed home by now, but instead we stuck around to help my parents get ready to head of on their second mission. Anywho. The kids are getting a bit restless. They're missing their own beds and their own routines. A couple of nights ago, Buddy woke up around 10:00 with a bad dream. Worried that he'd wake up Girlie-Lou-Who, I ran downstairs to help him. It often takes a long time to calm him when he wakes with nightmares. This time was much shorter. I picked him up and almost instantly melted into my shoulder. I rocked my baby back and forth, back and forth, and rubbed his back. He tenderly reached over and began patting my back as well.

As my baby tried to comfort his mommy back, I was overcome a sense of love coming from him. I knew that I had to blog about this -I'm not sure why, but I knew this story needed to be told. I composed a beautiful entry in my mind - absolutely perfect in every way, but it of course didn't stick with me when I woke up the next morning. Why is it as children, we can show love and tenderness with out thinking of receiving anything in return. Why do I have such a hard time showing tenderness to those I truly love. What am I afraid of? I know my days are numbered as this way to big boy gets bigger and bigger. Way too soon, he won't want to melt into my arms when he's hurt, or sad, or just cuddly. For all I know, he might be the last baby I get to take home. I know I want more, I know I should have more, but maybe that's not in my cards. So why do I have such a hard time just enjoying my kids?

I don't have answers to these questions. But I believe that finding answers is an important goal in my life. In Matt. 18:3, Christ says we are to become as little children. I'm coming to realize that this is a big part of my character that I need to relearn from my children. I've heard things like this before, but this time it really has sunk in. Recently I read the idea of having a word for the year - one word that captures your goals for the year. I don't have a word for this idea that I'm trying to evolve into, except, maybe peace. That doesn't go quite far enough - there's more hear than just peace. I don't know, I'm rambling again. anyone else have a word to convey my thoughts? But that's one of my big goals for the year.