It's official

It's official....Spring has arrived. Not only on the calendar and the weather channel but in my backyard. Nothing says Spring like Hostas popping up in your garden. I LOVE when their little heads appear out of the cold, sleepy ground. I always have to make up for my slack in yard work during the end of Fall come March and April. Especially this year, as I raked and cut old dead flowers I thought about all that went on last Fall. I got so big at the end of summer and couldn't bend over to do the work but I did enjoy the fruits of my "smaller" labor as the flowers bloomed beautifully well into the Fall.

These black eyed Susans were just delightful last summer. But I had written down in my new garden journal (thanks mom) that I HAD to split them in the Spring or they would overtake that garden. Here they are coming up now...I am thankful for my mother who helped me make a map of everything from pictures we took last Fall, otherwise I would have had no idea what these were!

One of my favorites is the iris. They have multiplied this year and I can't wait for them to bloom. I got brave and moved a bunch of smaller ones to a new bed I made at the end of the summer. I do hope they will bloom still.



For the most part the beds are ready and the flowers are coming whether Spring weather is officially arrived or not. It rained today and I know the fat worms I saw while working in the dirt were as excited as I was in anticipation of my colorful blessings coming back to life.

The challenge of a stay at home mom

There are many obstacles to this job called "homemaker" or "stay at home mom." One of the hardest (one of many) is isolation. This tends to surface the most often when a mom has only a baby at home or a very young toddler and a baby at the same time. Reasons for the first are that moms with a baby usually are new to the 'stay at home mom' job title and don't have many coworkers to 'hang out with'. The second tends to be that it is just too darn hard to get out with a 1 or 2 year old and a baby in tow. With the excuses out of the way now let me say that conquering this challenge of loneliness is probably the most important step in being a HAPPY stay at home worker/mom.

Why am I talking about this? Obviously I have had almost 8 years now to conquer this loneliness issue with many mom groups, past playgroups, school friends and playdates. But the thing is...I've started all over. This year I took it slow with Elizabeth's birth and my new found job title "stay at home mom with one baby." I stayed in one mom's group that meets just twice a month but that was it. I found myself at home way too much talking on the phone or I admit reading about my friends on facebook throughout the day for some sort of interaction. I did have the after school activities with the boys' friends and moms but those 7 hours during the day could stretch for a long time.

What did I do? I started a playgroup. Yes, a baby playgroup. There were quite a few moms I knew of that had just had babies this year and I approached them about getting together each Monday at different houses. Now it is true that not everyone is starting over like me so there is one brand new mom, a couple of moms with baby and toddler and even just a toddler mom with older ones in school. We've met three weeks now, growing each time and feeling out the new group relationship. There are silent rules we are learning (do you correct a child who isn't yours but is destroying your house while mom is not watching) and personalities to mesh with (most of us have not hung out together and some actually didn't know each other at all). But I think it is going to work.

So, I'm starting over - from ground up. Trying to maintain my old friends with our 'grown up' kids and activities (thank you all for being patient with my new tag a long) and creating new friendships with moms of toddlers and babies. It's a balance and sometimes a challenge in my comfort area but I'm learning, expanding and growing! Besides as you can see in the picture Elizabeth will have some great buddies to grow up with if this thing works!

planning for summer already?

I recently was talking to my sister about this summer. She told me how she had already registered her five year old son for two different camps. I acted shocked at the idea of first, already doing that and second, signing a five year old up for camps. I clearly wasn't thinking! It didn't take long after that phone conversation for my interest to spike. I got on the Internet and looked up some of the organizations we are a part of: cub scouts and the Discovery Center. Sure enough you need to go ahead and register for summer camps. The kicker was how much money you saved if you did it now. So, after calling local friends who had boys my kids' ages and finding out what they were "signing their kids up for" I finally made a decision and registered them today. What did I do you wonder? Well, for the first time my children (yes, even the 5 year old) will be going to a crocodile hunting camp at the Discovery Center for one week - only 3 hours a day mind you- where they will 'hunt' reptiles in the marshes outside. Sounds fun right? And Eli is now officially registered for a very long and probably extremely hot week at cub scout day camp! And last but my favorite - VBS is always a must for the kids, except this year momma will be one of those moms who are dropping their children off and getting a break at home for a few hours (with baby of course). Just this summer - I'll be back next summer church staff!
So there...three weeks out of the summer are planned for - the rest of the days? Swimming at the pool, visiting grandparents in Curve (to do more swimming and maybe fishing if I'm brave), hopefully a short trip to Gatlinburg, a ride or two on the Rover to the local library and then just hanging out at home! I really can't wait - it will be fun to hang out together for awhile, even though I am honestly nervous about tugging Elizabeth to the local pool but I have high hopes for sister girl!
Happy Vacationing!!!

crazy dog

I'm standing in my kitchen cooking with Elizabeth in her swing when I hear what sounds like every dog in our neighborhood barking. The boys are running around the yard playing with a neighbor, a 5 year old girl. I thought it odd that so many dogs were barking; so I get Elizabeth and step out into our garage, when Eli comes running to me, "Cameron was attacked by a dog." I take off running to the side yard where I know 'that' dog lives. The girl's parents were already there holding her with this dog running wild around the side yard barking at everyone and the parents are screaming at the neighbor. It seems the neighbor (a college girl) can't get her dog to back down. I hear "I'll shoot your dog if you don't get it..." and then the next thing I know this wild dog comes running at me, while I'm holding Elizabeth. It was one of those experiences where you think _ _ _ _ I'm about to be attacked! I screamed at the top of my lungs and as the dog ran up to me barking and jumping I kicked at it's face. Then I turned and held Elizabeth tight and yelled at my boys to run in the house. I guess the dog backed down b/c I made it into the house without being attacked. I tried so hard not to break down and start sobbing in front of the boys. Of course they were watching me and asking if I was okay. I pulled it together and everyone calmed down. Eli told me what happened. "We were playing hide and go seek, running around the fence when the dog took after us but we got by it then Cameron ran by the fence and the dog ran up and jumped on her and bit her bottom. It dragged her holding onto her bottom. Cameron's dad made it over and got her away from the dog. Then the neighbor came out and tried to pull the dog back when it's collar broke and the dog went wild running around" OH MY GOODNESS@@@@@. When I worked my nerve back up and went outside to check it all out, the dog was gone and our police neighbor was there. Cameron had gotten bit on the leg, bottom and hand. They took her to the doctor and she is okay but pretty freaked out. She's getting a tetna shot today. The crazy thing is this....the neighbor girl never came over to apologize to either me or our neighbors across the street (Cameron's parents). The mom even went to her house last night to talk with the girl and she wouldn't answer the door. This morning she stopped her outside and the girl said it wasn't her dogs fault b/c the kids were on her property. Well, that wasn't true and can be easily proven since the dog's leash stretches all the way to my house's windows (I have seen the dog ON my house barking through Ian's window still on his leash). Now we wait for the animal control to come today. They are suppose to take the dog away for 10 days to watch it; so we have been told. I sure hope they take the dog away forever. I guess we will have to get mean if they don't and let our dear dog loving (no offense to all you dog lovers) neighbors know they must keep the dog on a very short leash or not outside at all.
To conclude this post..."if only it was still the wild west, I would just take Nate's gun and go shoot the dog myself."

Expecting too much? Conclusion...

So soon for the conclusion? Yes, a lesson learned by two momma's! Well, after I had convinced Eli to do the pool party/donation drive of some sort then it was my friend's turn to talk to her son. I had warned her about Eli's reaction. She didn't think her son would react the same way but said of course you never know what they will say. Sure enough...a very sad and upset boy was in there house that night! But just like Eli by the next morning he had thought it through and agreed to do it. The thing is that both boys told us they REALLY wanted to have just a few friends spend the night on their birthday. So us momma's talk the next day and finally ask each other, "why are we making them have a huge pool party when they really only want a few friends over?" And sure enough when I asked Eli that night if he would rather just have the small sleepover and not even have a pool party he said "YES!" That just saved us around $200 and lots of work besides the fact that two little soon to be 8 year olds are much happier about their birthday. Lesson learned? Moms shouldn't plan everything for their children (at this age at least) and bigger isn't always better! What about the life lesson from giving to a charity? I figure there will be many future opportunities to do that; so I won't worry about cramming it into an eight year old birthday party! Forgive me Eli!

view from our van tonight

We are driving to a Mexican restuarant to meet some friends tonight when Ian pipes up with "I am the vine you are the branch" from John 15:5. He then goes on to explain to us that verse saying we (the branches)are part of God (the vine). But then he asks, "if we do something bad our branch falls off the tree right? When we do a bad thing does God take our branch away?" He looked so serious. Nate and I went on to explain that once we accept Jesus as our savior we are ALWAYS a part of the vine no matter what. The cool thing is that we all mess up and do bad things but that we will always be forgiven by Jesus and so we don't have to have our branch taken away from the vine. After that he just smiled at me and looked out the window. Such deep thoughts tonight from a usually very silly five year old. But he made us proud and I'm sure he made God smile too!

Expecting too much? Part two

I spoke with a few friends today about my recent blog concerning Eli and his lack of enthusiasm over sharing numerous birthday presents with the needy (to sum it up quickly). I've realized that yes, maybe a seven/eight year old is too young to comprehend what "the needy" really looks like. And maybe I should have approached it differently. After we both had 24 hours to be apart from the subject and reflect I approached Eli again tonight. I told him I thought it was fine if he wanted to have his close buddies spend the night and they could bring something for him on his birthday. He smiled at that. Then I went on to discuss the big party with the other friend saying we could talk about what he would like to collect for a donation to give somewhere. He smiled again and said "ok." That's it! Ok! Well......... I'll be!
I know I sounded harsh in the last post and I am often very hard on my first born (don't we have a right to be as we try everything out on them and then figure it out the second go around?) I know Eli is a great kid. He is very kind to others and doesn't like to see people get hurt (except his little brother - we are working on that).
I realized though that Eli needs a more concrete picture of what the needy look like. He has our picture of Iddo on the fridge and gets letters from him every other month. Iddo is our Compassion sponsored child from Africa. But does Eli really get that Iddo is needy and that is why we send him money each month? My mom & sister had a great idea to visit a shelter and let Eli and the other friend see where kids have to stay with their family when they don't have a home. Visit a food pantry where families go to get a bag of groceries when they have no food at home. Maybe even go to a pound or animal shelter to see where animals that have no home are kept. Then he can decide what "cause" he would like to become a part of. So, I will keep you updated on how this progresses. It could get interesting!

expecting too much?

As usual I have set up expectations for a child of mine thinking honestly that he would rise to meet them. But I was greatly disappointed tonight and have to wonder if I expected too much? Let me explain...
Eli's turning 8 in April and a friend of mine whose son is also turning 8 in April and one of Eli's best friends talked with me about a joint birthday party where we could invite the whole class and mutual friends. It will be easy enough; swimming at the local indoor pool, a weekend in the middle of both boy's b-dates, split the cost to save money....fun time had by all. But we both thought it was too much to ask all the kids to bring a present for both boys and having planned to invite a whole classroom of kids plus some it seemed very selfish to load our boys down with so many THINGS. Why not teach them to give during this time?
Well us moms had it all planned out. We would ask the children (rather their moms) to bring an item of some sort, to be decided later with the boys thoughts in mind, to donate. (food or books) We both thought it was a wonderful idea and such a sweet teaching moment. Never did I really think I would receive opposition to the idea. But I was wrong.
Now, we've been to parties where we were told not to bring a present; although I admit they are few and far between. Even a little something something is needed to be given to make the guest feel like they are honoring the birthday child, probably in the parents' eyes. But that has had an effect on our children I believe. I found out very quickly Eli's thoughts on birthday parties and presents and GIVING and RECEIVING.
I want you all to know this is hard to write for me. I would love to be one of those moms who say "my child is so giving...and here is what they did recently." So, I'm sharing my heart here.
When I told Eli our idea of collecting something to donate through the party he was devastated. He shared his thoughts very openly that birthday parties were where friends gave you lots of presents. And that is what he wanted. He didn't want to donate items on his birthday. To save you the drama that followed between Nate and I trying to change his heart in that 15 mt. car ride, I will just say we were disappointed and asked him to please think about what we had said. You know....it's more important to give, think of all those people who don't have anything, you have so much, we are all going to give you presents so you don't need lots more from friends.
I feel sad tonight. I wonder if I expected too much of him. I wonder if I didn't teach him well enough the importance of giving and not getting. I wonder if his heart will change or if this will be something we "make" him do - and do you really "make" your child do something like this? This is definitely a life lesson that I am learning right now!!! I hope and pray that he can learn through this, even if we have to make him for part of it, but that he can look back and see the people he helped beyond himself.
This parenting thing is sure tough. It's not enough to just teach them respect for their elders (and little brothers), be a good student, brush your teeth even when we aren't watching, eat all your veggies. But also trust in God with everything because He loves you, tell the truth when it is hard to, be kind to those who are mean to you, and put others before yourself - even if it means not getting a ton of birthday presents but giving to others in need.

My sweet chicken friend helped me make the following...

As upon request of the famous headless chicken...here are the two receipes I used last week. I found an even better chicken and rice soup receipe that I'm trying this week with yes, another headless chicken I plan on cooking up tomorrow. I can't even imagine how much money per meal this all came to....CHEAP CHEAP CHEAP!

Chicken and rice soup-4 cans of chicken broth (I also added about 2 cups of water)
1 tsp garlic, 2 tbl parsley, 1/8 cup of milk, 1/2 stick of butter, 1 tsp lemon juice, 1/2 cup of extra long grain rice (really just put the whole bag in there), about 4 chicken breasts or if you are cooking a whole chicken put about 3 cups of chicken chopped up.
Cook it all together and serve.


chicken and black bean enchiladas-
3 cups chopped cooked chicken
1 (15oz) can black beans rinsed and drained
1 10oz can diced tomatoes
1 can no salt added corn drained
1 8oz. package shredded mexican four cheese blend (divided)
8 8inch whole wheat flour tortillas
2 10oz cans enchilada sauce

1. combine first four ingredients and 1 1/2 cups cheese in large bowl. spoon chicken mixture evenlly down center of each tortilla and roll up. arrange seam side down in a 13x9 in baking dish coated with cooking spray.
2. pour enchilada sauce evenly over tortillas and sprinkle with remaining 1/2 cup cheese
3. bake covered at 350degrees for 20 mts. remove foil and cook additional 15 mts.

From a bridal shower to a snow shower...

The bridal tea was a success for my sister-in-law. Lots of food...delicious fruit tea (thanks for the past ideas on what to serve for drinks)...so many gifts...Elizabeth's first girly party...BUT LOTS OF RAIN AND THEN...SNOW! After the tea mom and I made it back to Curve before the sky dumped a foot of snow on us. We had so much fun playing in the snow the next day. It was so deep we did good to just walk in it without falling down. The boys spent more time face down in the white powder but they didn't seem to mind it. I LOVE being in Curve with the snow - brings back memories of my childhood.
The ride home Sunday was an adventure from the start. Check out the documentary of our little shortcut!!! (It ended up not being a short cut) A three hour ride home turned into a 5 hour trip. I'm sure we won't see that much snow for many years!