Valentine Cookies

Thursday night, Beth and I made a batch of homemade sugar cookie dough, and Friday morning we spent a good hour cutting and decorating our cookies.  Beth and Luke had sooo much fun, Jack didn't particularly care for sitting in his high chair so Mommy could help and take pictures!  They both worked very carefully and very intently, learning how to press the cutters into the dough to make perfect shapes, peel the dough off the wax paper and place it on the cookie sheet.  I think they enjoyed decorating the most, and I'm pretty sure Luke kept sneaking the frosting when I wasn't looking!  After we were done, they had a few to eat.  Beth ate hers in a fairly neat fashion, but Luke crumbled his cookies into one of the containers with leftover frosting.  A boy after my own heart? 

Too many picutures?

So I just came online to upload pictures and I've been told by Blogger that I've exceeded the amount of space allotted to me.  So either I purchase more space or can't upload pictures the simple way anymore.  What a pain.

The only way I can see around this is to upload my pictures to an image hosting site (like Flickr) and then use that instead of the Blogger default host (Picasa).  I think it's going to be more work for me, and I'm in the mood to simplify, remember?

Another option is to go through ALL of my pictures and reduce their sizes.  This will also be work, and take a lot of time.

So I don't know what to do.  I have a lot of cute pics to upload from the other day but it'll have to wait. :-/

Anyone experience this before?  Ideas?

There it is!

You see it?  No?  Hardly at all, maybe just a teeny weeny bit?  It's Jack's third tooth, and this one has been a booger.  I think the fourth is about to cut it's way out too, but only time will tell.  I am very disappointed that no one has told me the wondrous joys of Orajel before, why did I think it was a ripoff?  Because it works.  Better than infant's Tylenol.

 

For something soooo tiny to cause so much disruption in everyone's life... Well, it's beyond me.  I am grateful that God allows the rough times in our lives to be muddled out in our memories.  Otherwise I'm sure no woman would have more than one child!

I am also grateful for this baby.  He's in pain but he smiles at me, he laughs at his siblings, and he keeps on growing.  He doesn't know that teething probably isn't the worst he'll feel in his life, or that Mommy and Daddy just need more sleep.  He's just a baby.  He drives me crazy sometimes but I'm pretty sure that's part of the process that I need to go through, as his mom, to become a better woman.  For him, teething is part of growing up. For me, it's a chance to be stripped down and broken to be made stronger and new again.

Lord give me strength to serve when I just don't want to.

Found: Old Reading Glasses

Simple February

It's odd that I should sit here and write about simplicity on a day like today.  So many things have gone wrong today...Very wrong.  But that's not what this post it about, it's about my struggle for simplicity.

I am following Small Steps for Catholic Moms, and this month's virtue is simplicity.  I am reminded through short daily meditations to take small steps toward holiness, toward filling my heart with more love for Him.  For me, it starts off with gratitude, thankfulness for the things I have in my life.  Not just the obvious things- family, a house, food- but the things that I might otherwise see as a burden.  A messy kitchen.  A toy-filled playroom.  Icky bathrooms and diapers that need to be washed.

I take a step back and look at my life in terms of my vocation as a wife and mother.  Are these things holding me back?  Do they take up space in my mind, pushing out God?  Too often for me, the answer is yes.

So I want to simplify.  Simplify my thoughts, my life, my words, my actions.  I want to point everything I do toward Christ.  That means clicking off the  "multi-tasking" button in my brain, and doing everything I do intentionally.  My dishes, to be done in prayer with a smile in my heart.  My family, to be served meals prepared with love and not in bitter haste.  Even abstaining from vices, offered up and moved along.

As I move through February practicing simplicity, I will remember that everything I do in my day should move me closer to God, not move me away from Him.  Join me?

Last week

I'm not even sure how to begin to tell you of all the things we did this weekend.  Ryan had Friday, our ice day, off from work but I'd hardly say he didn't "work!"  I suppose I'll start from the very beginning (a very good place to start!).

Last Monday, January 31, was Luke's doctor appointment with our pediatric GI.  We'd been waiting about two months for this appointment, no joke.  We went in and I described my poor Luke's symptoms of chronic constipation, experiencing no relief from Miralax, and more icky details I won't pollute your mind with.  He decided to take an x-ray of his midsection, which Luke did not enjoy.  I was getting Luke dressed in our little room when I heard a gasp from the next room, and the doctor came to get me.  He showed me the xray, pointed out Luke's bones and then he said, "See all that gauzy looking stuff all over the place?"  "Yeah?" "That's all poop!"  Luke's colon was so swollen and full of, ahem, the gross stuff, the doctor said he hadn't seen anything quite like that before.  To make a long story short, Luke needed a drastic colon cleanse.  Two enemas and a 7-dose Miralax-Gatorade cocktail later, he's now pooping on a daily basis again, now to the opposite extreme.   We have to keep things running smoothly for a few months to allow his colon time to shrink back down to normal size, then maybe we can start talking about potty training!  I am so thankful I took him... Hearing him cry every time he made a dirty diaper and at every diaper change was so difficult for both him and me.  I only wish I'd taken him to the minor ER instead of waiting so long for this doctor appointment.  (Note to self: Always trust Mommy instinct.)

So my week started of filled with many, many, MANY dirty diapers.  He's probably lost five pounds!  The rest of the week went by relatively uneventful as we got excited for the pending "snow day" that didn't happen.  The good thing about an ice day was Ryan still stayed home from work, and he and I got an itch and got busy in the house.  We rearranged our bedroom, put together and organized new-to-us bookshelves upstairs in the game room (purchased from a friend!), cleaned out our closet, and still managed to maintain the household.

The upstairs looks great, I am so happy to finally have a place for all of our school and office stuff!  I wanted to paint very badly but Ryan, still traumatized from the yellow bathroom, vetoed that project.  Another day!  We've also fired out Ryan's old college computer for the kids, we hope to use it for some of Beth's learning programs, movies, and music.  First I think we need to clear it all off and upgrade from Windows XP!  My ideas for the future of this room include a sofa or two, floor cushions, a couple of projects to decorate the walls, and a long wooden table for our work.  I want it to be a dual-purpose, very cozy space that invites the children to learn on one side and read and play on the other side.

While the change in our bedroom hasn't been that drastic, I do like the furniture layout a lot better now.  I have room for a (future) pretty chair and lamp in front of the window, and we moved the desk out and upstairs so there's no media in the room.  We also still need to paint this room but again... Another day!  Sometime in the next couple of months I hope to go out and buy some nice pretty touches like candles, curtains, and art.  We will probably wait to put our pictures back up on the wall until I get around to that.

The closet clean out was nice too because we were able to find things we'd been looking for since before the move... Like my Sansa mp3 player!  We have old CDs coming out of our ears (anyone need any bad 90's country CDs?), sooo many pictures (is there any reason to keep a million negatives?) and textbooks.  Yes, college textbooks.  Why we have these, I don't know, but someone please tell my husband that he will never need these books again?

Ice Day

Thursday night and Friday morning we were promised snow.  The kids were excited, Ryan didn't have to go to work on Friday, and I was looking forward to waking up to look out the window and see our yard blanketed in fresh snow.  They said 2-3 inches!  Instead, we got ice.  Even though the kids were sad they didn't see snow, I think they were almost as excited to go break off icicles.

They were surprised to walk in the grass and hear it crunch.  This turned into lots of giggles and jumping, until I warned them they might slip.  Time to break icicles instead.

 That's right, Luke wasn't wearing gloves.  Frankly, I had no idea where they were because they play with their gloves quite often and they never get put back where I want to keep them.  The one day of the year he actually needed them, and they were nowhere to be found.  Figures.  But you know what?  He survived.

They had fun kicking everything and hearing the ice crack, the first few times they looked at me worried that they'd broken something!  Then it became a game, and it was lots of fun until Beth's shin met the side of the plastic fort.  Conveniently, Luke's hands were a nice shade of pink so it was time to go inside anyway.  They were sad to see the ice was gone this morning, but it was okay because we were still able to go outside and play this afternoon in the nice, almost-warm afternoon sun.  (For the record, I was wearing shorts today.)  Only in Texas!

Friday, January 29 {evening}

We were still playing outside when daddy got home.  Daddy is always good for a few pushes.

"Higher!"

Luke is such a boy.  He loves his dirt.  This day he was making a mud cake.  He patted it down into the bowl, brought it to the play house and "cooked it" in the oven.  I was offered a bite, but I could tell he'd already sneaked some by the dirt around his mouth. ;-)

We went inside to make dinner.  You'd think I'd have taken a picture of what I cooked, but no.  Just of my drink.

Dinner- pork chops and sweet potatoes.  Jack was ready for bed so Ryan snuck away for a few minutes to put him down.  I didn't take a picture because poor Jack was beyond ready for bed!

Dessert time!  I stuffed some ice cream into the peanut butter cups.  Delicious.

This girl loves dessert.  Loves with a capital "L."

Dancing in the kitchen as mommy and daddy cleaned up.

(insert train noise here)

After a little more play time, it was bath time!  Luke hopped in the tub a few minutes before Beth, she took her sweet time brushing her teeth.  She tends to chew on her toothbrush... Like her father...

Mommy read books and put Luke down.  He has a library book on dump trucks.  He usually picks out library books based on two criteria: big machines or potties.  He likes potty books too, hopefully he'll be on his way to potty training soon.  He still uses his Nuk for betime and for church, he has what's probably an unhealthy obsession with it.  He loves it so much, it's probably why it's so easy for us to get him to nap and go to bed at night- he's looking forward to his Nuk!

Daddy read to Beth.  Read a few books, talk about their days, say some prayers, sing some songs.  He's a wonderful daddy, and she's a lucky little girl.

The toy room was surprisingly not a huge mess at the end of this day.  This is actually rather clean!

Friday, January 29 {afternoon}

we took advantage of jack's long nap and made gluten free peanut butter cookies.  the resolution that day from a book i'm reading called small steps for catholic moms was to bake a cookie shell with the kids, and teach them that god fills us up with sweetness like we filled our cookie shells up with sweet ice cream (pic later!).

of course we couldn't wait until dinner to try the cookies!

beth declared them delicious.  i thought they were undercooked.

our shells, made by stuffing cookie dough into a muffin tin and hollowing some of it out.  it served its purpose.

daddy came home for lunch and played with the kids.  this is a tickle game, where he was asked to copy her and then once she'd get both of his arms up in the air, she'd tickle him!

luke finished lunch on the floor next to jackson while beth and daddy played.

after lunch... wonderful rest time.  for everyone, even for finley.  luke napped, beth had quiet time upstairs, jack napped, and mommy napped too.

nap's over, time to play some more!

beth set up a party during her quiet time.

jack was all smiles, showing off his tongue during a post-nap diaper change!

we played outside for the rest of the day on this glorious afternoon.

jack ate some pine needles and leaves.

 

 

 

luke pushed his mowmow, carrying a pumpkin leftover from halloween

 

beth sulked a little, finding the pumpkin (which luke tossed out of the wagon) to be a very nice seat.

after getting bored in the back, we moved out front to ride bikes and run around on the driveway.  luke can officially push himself on the tricycle now!

my three babies.