Just in case you ever wondered...Ask!

Kid Questionnaire

L: 7 years

E: 4.5 years
A: 3.5 years

1. What is something mom always says to you?
L – If you do something wrong, I am just learning how to do it.

E – good night
A – no banging and no pulling

2. What makes mom happy?
L – When I obey

E – buying toys for me
A – not screaming (him not me!)

3. What makes mom sad?
L – When I disobey.

E – not buying anything
A – for screaming

4. How does your mom make you laugh?
L – by making silly faces

E – by um…telling me funny jokes
A - tickling

5. What was your mom like as a child?
L – I dunno, cause I wasn’t there.

E – I don’t know…where you like that?
A – don’t know

6. How old is your mom?
L – 64

E - 16
A - 3

7. How tall is your mom?
L – 20 feet tall

E – 90 feet
A – big, like that big

8. What is her favorite thing to do?
L - read

E – buy toys
A - cook

9. What does your mom do when you're not around?
L – work on the computer

E - pray
A - cook

10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for?
L – by doing the most loop-de-loops

E - you
A – I going to be four…I want to be four…

11. What is your mom really good at?
L - painting

E - art
A - play

12. What is your mom not very good at?
L - math

E – replacing windows
A – can’t eat pancake

13. What does your mom do for a job?
L – keep us safe

E – work on the computer
A – clean up everything

14. What is your mom's favorite food?
L – pad thai

E – hummus and bread and goat cheese and rice
A – pizza!

15. What makes you proud of your mom?
L – when she cooks the best food

E – that she gets to stay home
A - pancakes

16. If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be?
L – Larry Boy

E – my mommy
A – a boy

17. What do you and your mom do together?
L - school

E - school
A – make cookies

18. How are you and your mom the same?
L – same colored hair

E – we have brown eyes
A – I don’t know

19. How are you and your mom different?
L – we don’t have the same color eyes

E – because we don’t have the same shirts on
A – I don’t know

20. How do you know your mom loves you?
L – by how she keeps us safe

E – that’s from all your kisses
A – mommy loves me

21. What does your mom like about your dad?
L – that he works hard for us

E – you like to talk to him
A - playing

22. Where is your mom's favorite place to go?
L – to see Aunt Marianna

E – GA!
A - park

23. Who is your mommy’s favorite person?
L - Grammie

E - Grammie
A – I’m your person!

At the Breakfast Table

Sweet Potato: "Mommy, can we please get some napkins, the next time we are at the store?"

Note: we have been out for more than a few days...and she sets the table, so she notices more than I do...

Me: "Of course. We should have gotten some when we were at the store yesterday, but I forgot".

Jalapeno: "I knew it, but I forgot".

Me: "If you forgot, then you didn't know it".

Jalapeno: "I knew it, but it was in my foot".

Really?....If I had only known that that was a place to store things, I might have gotten more done in my life!!

Argumentative!

Argumentative!

OK, so you know that whole thing about the duckbill platypus showing that God really has a sense of humor? Well I am sure that He does.

Exhibit A: My son, Pineapple. The child was born to argue. Everything. Whether it is really something he wants, or not.

Example 1: Said child argues every morning about eating oatmeal. Every morning. This morning, being the kind momma that I am, I decided to make eggs for breakfast, to give them a change.

When Pineapple asked what we were having for breakfast, I said "Eggs!", thinking he would be so excited!! Was he? NO. "Mommy, I want to eat oatmeal!!! I don't want eggs!!" So, I gave him oatmeal, and what did he do, you ask (do you really have to ask?!)? He argued about eating the oatmeal!! AAGGGHHH!!!!!

So, I do believe that God has a sense of humor. I also believe that my Mom (and probably my Dad) are laughing hysterically too, because God has given me a child just like I was when I was a kid. No matter the genetics involved, that old adage about your kids being like you, well, it's true.

And for that matter, my husband is probably reading this and thinking, "Yep, just like his Momma!", because I still argue about lots of things too.

Oh, well. Keeps life interesting, I guess!

Quote(s) of the day from Potty Boy!

Pineapple (aka Potty Boy) came down stairs with his pants falling down, asking me to help him. I picked him up and said "If you had a butt, your pants would actually stay up!" His reply? "Mommy, where can we get one?"

And, I came upstairs from walking on the treadmill and heard Potty Boy crying and calling for me. He was in the bathroom on the potty, and as I came up the stairs, I heard him wail..."Mommy, why are you taking 2o years?" Side note: you must imagine that last one said in a long, sad wail.

Not behind this time!!

I am going to go to CA to visit my little brother Mikey! I usually try and go see him once a year, but this is the first time I am going to have to fly to see him. He used to live Telluride, and we would just load up the Jeep and drive out for our yearly visit.

Because my brother is a lot younger than me, I always feel like the "old fat lady" when I am with him and his fit friends. Now, he never makes me feel that way - he drags me over mountain tops like I am just as fit as he is, and even waits patiently for me as I gasp for air. His favorite phrase when we are going up 2000 vertical feet in the length of a quaking aspen is ..."It's not bad, we're almost there!"

I always come back from my trips determined to make a change and finally get fit. Two years ago when I went, I decided to get serious about being gluten free and I have never looked back! So, now, the upcoming trip to balmy San Fran has me thinking ahead (for a change). With sixty some days to prepare, I am determined to be more fit when I get on that plane than I am right now.

So here is my plan: Walk 30 minutes a day, six days a week, regardless of the weather (we do after all have a tread mill gathering dust in the basement); stretch out and do my "one" ab exercise that my fitness trainer friend showed me (thanks Shay!); eat a salad a day; drink 8 G's (glasses) of water every day; keep on eating my bowl of steel cut oats every morning. My sister started about a year ago, and she lost 15 pounds!

I will keep you posted on my progress!

Oh, Happy Day!!

OK, I know it has been a while since I wrote...I kinda got sucked into Facebook, and well, you know.

Anyway, I have been struggling with getting my little Pineapple potty trained. I mean, he is 3 1/2 and for Heaven's sake, shouldn't he be out of diapers by now!! He's been doing pretty well with "#1", not always dry, but if I put him on, he goes. It's "#2" that has been a problem. I never could figure out what the problem was, but he refuses, I mean flat out refuses to poop on the potty.

I have been praying about it (yes, praying! Doesn't the Bible say for us to bring all our cares to the Lord? Well, I am going to take it literally - Jesus was a little boy once too!) and today I decided that we were going in and not coming out till we had something to show for it - literally!!

So, at 9 am we entered The Zone. #1 - check

9:15 Jalapeno is finished with breakfast and comes to see what is going on. I promise that we will bake cookies if Pineapple goes poop. I know, bribery, but I got payed bonuses for selling certain things (bribery)...it is the way of the world.

9:30-10:30 - We (yes, all four of us) crowd into the three by five bathroom for morning story time. My legs are falling asleep, perched as I am on a little, tiny stool. More #1 - check, check

10:30-11:30 - Tired of books (and needing to get school done for Sweet Potato) I move a bar stool and my lap top into the tiny space. Having promised "not to leave", I crouch in the door, while the boys watch Letter Factory (thanks Ang!!). Sweet Potato and I move quickly through memorizing the books of the Bible, our daily spelling, reading about Moses getting ready to take the frogs to Pharaoh, gn/kn making the n sound...you get the idea. More #1, check, check, check

11:30 - I am really hungry by now. I have been feeding the little tyke anything that I can think of that will "get him moving" - rice milk, raisins, apple slices. But if I stay away longer than a nano-second, I start hearing him crying and calling for me. So I have not eaten yet today, but that is okay! I am committed to this endeavor!!

11:45 - I feed big kids and take a plate in to "the one who will not be swayed". More apple slices, and half a sandwich. He's "not hungry" - big surprise, he's been eating all morning, there can't possibly be any room in there!!

12:15 - 12:45 - The big kids head up to quiet time and Pineapple and I enter into a long discourse of "you need to go poop, so you can take a nap"..."I don't want to poop - I all done". He has been taking turns of standing in the bathroom, and sitting on the potty, so his little legs did not fall off, but he is really determined that he is not going to go. I am more determined that we are not leaving that room til we have poop!

12:45 - I suggest he stand up, and he says "no Mommy, I pooping!" And low and behold, he is right!! And it just keeps coming and coming and coming!! "I pooped four poops!" my little pooper exclaims...and proceeds to call due all the promises of the morning: two M&M's, cookies...

We did a big Happy Dance, called Daddy and left a Poopy Message and danced up stairs to tell the other kids what an excellent job he had done. He was so excited!!!

So now we will be baking cookies this afternoon, and hopefully, we (our littlest we, anyway) will be doing some more pooping without the long drawn out affairs of this morning. Pray for us!!

A New Look

I was taking a look at my blog, and realized that it was dark! So I decided to brighten it up a little bit - what do you think?

Even though it is so busy this time of year, I am feeling really excited about this Christmas. I know that spending it with family is a big bonus, but I am also finally coming to a place where I am letting go of some things from the past.

When I was little, we moved from NY to GA, and I really think that I have spent a lot of years trying to "get back" to what I remembered about those times. There was spaghetti with all the aunts, uncles and cousins at Grandma's house every Sunday, and sledding across the street in the huge fields, playing in the 'crik' behind the house, and ice skating on our neighbors frozen swimming pool.

We moved suddenly, and I am sure that I did not have a clue about what was going on, I just knew that my ordinary, regular old life was gone, and everything I owned (that had not been left behind) was in a big U-Haul truck driven by my Dad, up in front of the car where my Mom, brother and sister rode. At one point, we had to pull over and get gas, and my Dad did not see us, and kept driving. That was a big deal for a six year old! I thought I would never see my Dad ever again.

Of course, we did find each other and finally made it to our destination. Things were not easy, being a little girl from the north who looked funny and dressed funny and talked funny. But looking back, I can really see how God was beside me every step of my walk through those sometimes very difficult years. I can see how he was molding me and shaping me, making me into the woman that he created me to be.

I am also constantly amazed at how my Mom made the most boring things fun! Other than the difficulties at school (I am still trying to figure out what x and y are...), my childhood was so much fun!! We went camping and swimming and did things with friends from church. I had so many "moms", because we all just called each others parents Mom and Dad - it was easier that way! I am really blessed!

So, back to what I wanted to say at the beginning, I am so happy this year, because I am completely content with who I am and where I am in my life. Yes, being the mom to three kids under six years old is crazy at times, but God is always faithful and He has never left me alone. There is so much comfort in that. Besides that, I have a truly amazing husband, who loves God and his family and works so hard to make sure that we have what we need and so much more. He is so self-less and I can see how the training he received as a boy has really payed off for us as his family.

I am also blessed to be surrounded by a group of women who also love God and their families and I can't tell you how much that means to me! I truly can't think of anything that could be added to my life.

So, as you journey through your life, my prayer for you is that no matter how hard things have been, or how hard they are now, or how hard they will be in the future, know that God loves you. He has His hand on you - so lean into it and receive everything that He has to offer!

Merry Christmas!!

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