It's a cupcake

It's from Whole Foods, and not only is it the best most amazing cupcake that you will ever put into your mouth, IT'S A HOT DOG!! Hee!

Growing like weeds

Have there ever been weeks where you just *watch* your kids grow? Mine have been having growth spurts. Laney has been eating me out of house and home. She'll eat a huge plate of food and then ask for more. They have all been grumpy and not sleeping well. Zane's been nursing all night. Sure signs of growth spurts ahead.

But this week, Allen and I agree that you can SEE how much they've grown. Jude is getting little boy legs. Laney looks like a young girl. Zane is growing out of his 2T's and looks like a boy now too.

I'm not sad. I'm ready for the next stages of life. I honestly love each stage of kiddiedom better than the next. I was never good at that newborn stage. I love the 18 months olds on up! We are having a blast, and we have more fun the older everybody gets. It's just weird to watch them grow so much in a short time.

Laney had her first sleepover. It was perfect, since we feel like Abi is one of ours anyway. There were some sleep issues on both of the girls' parts, and we gently decided that maybe we should wait awhile until we do it again. The girls were so well behaved and sweet-so grown up and mature-that it made me so proud. They are did a perfect job at everything!

Zane is tee teeing in the potty. It's definitely hit or miss, but he loves to sit on it, and actually got some stuff in there. Everyone is cheering him on, and he loves it. He goes and gets Jude's underware out of his drawer and puts it on. That's the cutest thing ever. He so wants to be like Jude...

Laney is not only growing physically, she is wanting to do some grownup things. She loves to do the dishes and has even vacuumed-a chore that scared the living daylights out of her not that long ago. She can clean her room top to bottom and she does a great job of taking care of her brothers. When I need her to. No child labor laws being broken here!

They are all amazing me with school. We are all very ready for a break, but even Zane does things that amaze me.

Growing before my very eyes.

Clean carpets

I went waaaay too long before I cleaned our carpets. I was pregnant with Zane the last time I cleaned carpets.

Whew.

So I borrowed a steam cleaner from poor, sweet Ronda who has loaned her Hoover Steam Vac (With Power Surge Cleaning) to every living, breathing soul in Shelby County that has had dirty carpet.

And wow.

I love to clean. (Yes, I'm weird.)

So I cleaned half of my beautiful rug that Hayes gave me (and no, you can't have it back.) See the difference? Maybe you can't really, but it's so much cleaner on the right side. I was embarrassed.



I should have taken pictures of it all, but here is the last section I did. In front of the place where I have spent they last 21 months and 1 week. ( :) )

See how dirty it is?

I mean, see?

Do you really see?

Was I trying to get a REALLY good shot of the dirt??

Oh well.

Here is the "after" picture.

It's all so much cleaner. It's hard to tell from this picture, because of the lighting and the shadows, but it's so much better. I even did my stairs. Boy, was that a huge difference.

So I'm lulled into thinking my carpets are "clean." They aren't really. I cleaned the small hallway FIVE times. Five different times on five different days. The water was as black and nasty the last time I cleaned it as it was the first time I cleaned it.

Yep. Nasty. I kept making Allen come look at the water. He didn't really want to.

So my only hope is to rip out all this carpet and put down laminate. Or bamboo flooring. Or something.

Ick. But at least now, it's clean. Kinda. On the surface. I think.

And I'd highly recommend the Hoover Steam Vac with Power Surge Cleaning. Just don't borrow Ronda's! :)

God and parenting

This is a little (lot) scary for me. What God is telling me this week, is that my children are a reflection of my Spiritual walk. I have thought about this all week, mediated and reflected on it and tried to make it not true.

What about the kids whose parents appear to be really great people, but the kids don't turn out so great? What about the families where one kid turns out not great and the other do? What about non-Christian families that have great kids? Why would my spiritual life most great affect my kids and not my parenting skills or my love and devotion to them?

What about the people who say that every kid has to "sow their wild oats"? What about the kids who do wander for awhile (like I did) but then get back to where they are supposed to be?

What about people who come from non-Christian families who change the world? What about preachers' kids? (You know-that stereotype that is unfortunately too true sometimes...)

I don't know. I just know that what God is telling *me* is that my Spiritual walk directly affects my kids. My only shot at giving them the best start they need is to be where I'm supposed to be with my walk with God.

Maybe this is just for me. Isn't that scary....?

ct studd

"Too long have we been waiting for one another to begin! The time of waiting is past! The hour of God has struck! War is declared! In God's Holy Name let us arise and build! 'The God of Heaven, He will fight for us', as we for Him. We will not build on the sand, but on the bedrock of the sayings of Christ, and the gates and minions of hell shall not prevail against us. Should such men as we fear? Before the world, aye, before the sleepy, lukewarm, faithless, namby-pamby Christian world, we will dare to trust our God, we will venture our all for Him, we will live and we will die for Him, and we will do it with His joy unspeakable singing aloud in our hearts. We will a thousand times sooner die trusting only our God, than live trusting in man. And when we come to this position the battle is already won, and the end of the glorious campaign in sight. We will have the real Holiness of God, not the sickly stuff of talk and dainty words and pretty thoughts; we will have a Masculine Holiness, one of daring faith and works for Jesus Christ."

Happy Earth Day!

Earth Day is a day for spreading global awareness about environmental issues. I am more encouraged than ever about the mainstreaming of "green" issues everywhere I go and in the media. Woo hoo!!!

My new challenge for myself is to read the Bible straight through. I have to extract something profound from each chapter, reading it until I have something I can apply to my own life.

Genesis 1 held a small surprise. God entrusted man with the Earth. It's a gift from God, given to us to take care of. Nothing makes me angrier to me than to give my children a gift and watch them mistreat it, or worse yet, abuse it. It shows me that they care absolutely nothing for what was given to them. I think God feels the same way about the Earth.

He entrusted us to care for this planet. It's our first God given commandment, to care about the place where we live. That means doing things to care for it. It means CARING. We have to care.
A lot of times it's easier not to care, especially with how busy our lives are today. But I feel good when I do things to honor God by doing something green! He blesses it!

So, in honor of Earth Day, I'm going to fire back up the Golden Harvest Blog (http://healthyoverthinker.blogspot.com/). Each day, I'll have a small something that will help us, our Earth and the ones we love be more healthy, Earth conscious and aware of what role we play on this planet.

I'm looking forward to learning new things. I want to learn how to please God by caring for His second greatest gift!

Happy Earth Day!!!
(and no snickering at the picture. i had been awake for all of 15 minutes!!!)

Jude Wipes Out

*Edited to add* Yes, he had on underwear, but he wanted a blanket on that "didn't touch his hurt knee." So it's wrapped around him. He didn't want to put on shorts, because of them touching his knee!! I didn't want to flash his undies on the web either! lol...


We were on a family walk today, and Jude and Laney wanted to go down the "big hill." I am always the fraidy cat and never let them do it. Today I wanted to not be a worry wart, and just let them be kids.

He wiped out BIG TIME. It was in slow motion, and I saw it all.

He's on the sofa, all doctored up and not moving much, which is RARE for him. Even with a fever, he runs around like normal.

And yes, Hayes, I did check to make sure his pupils were equal and reactive. You have taught me well, Obi Wan.

So, you know, I'm feeling pretty good about being an over protective helicopter mom. Had I been the ocd control freak that my inner self wants to be all the time, my little boy wouldn't be camped out on the sofa, enjoying a perfectly ruined Sunday.

:)

(Zane, on the other hand, was hard pressed to offer up much sympathy. I'll blame it on his age... :) )