Been away for awhile...

Visiting family and focusing on other things. That is how I am with just about everything in life. I get obsessed with certain tasks and can't do anything else until I finish. So, I have been visiting with family, trying to catch up on scrapbooking, and cleaning the house. June is probably the craziest month of the year for us. People are continually asking "How is your summer? Aren't you so glad it is summer?" Honestly, summer is good - but June is not. With a basketball coach, Athletic Director, painting and mulching husband, June is super crazy. BUT July is good - really good. 2 more days until then!!! and my baby's third birthday!

So as I walked up the stairs I was wondering "Isn't it so annoying when you get the carpet's cleaned and they look so new for 2 days and then all of a sudden the phantom stains appear again. What is the deal with that?"

I have lots to write about from the last week or more. First I want to share 2 pictures from this week. I grew up with one brother and Kevin's two brothers - no sisters. I now have one sister-in-law and here is another current friend who may be a sister someday:) (hope so Terra:)) Can you believe we all have long brown hair, are athletes, and actually wore the same tank tops unplanned?








Here is the whole gang...








We hardly ever - like maybe once a year - can get together. It always makes me so sad because we really enjoy being together and my girls love their aunt and uncles!!! We had a great time together - gained an interesting story to tell when some power-hungry law enforcement officials tried to create trouble late at night (better not talk about that - we did absolutely nothing wrong, just made a wrong turn)...but had fun anyway!

I have lots more to write and share later. Thanks for reading!

Is there

something you always wanted to be (career-wise) but didn't? I would have loved to be a doctor....but Kevin and I were destined to be married fairly young and I didn't want to have to wait to start a family until I was in my thirties after all of that schooling. I actually majored in pre Physical Therapy first, but didn't get accepted after 200 hours of volunteer work. I changed my major to education and changed schools two times. God is good. God has a plan. Teaching was definitely where he wanted me. I got a teaching job where I student-taught...wasn't where I wanted to be originally - but God knew. I made life-long friends. I learned from amazing mentor teachers and mentor people. People who didn't have it easy - but "made lemonade from lemons." I prayed with parents, cried with parents, celebrated with parents. I enjoyed amazing times like the first time a ten year old had ever spoken outloud in school - in my class. I learned from my principal who did what was right - even when it wasn't easy...because it was right. If I could hand pick people (other than Kevin and I) to teach and mentor my children, I couldn't have picked better people. See, in reality - the technology, the buildings, the playgrounds, the extra stuff - it doesn't matter the most...It is the people and what is inside of them that matters. Working there was one of the many blessings I had.

As far as things I would like to do that I haven't - career-wise - I am still very interested in the medical field. I am so intrigued by the human body. I love information and processing information and sharing it with others. (Hence the time I spend researching and learning on the Internet) Maybe I could combine my love for medicine with educating...hmmmm - some type of medical counselor relaying info to patients. Who knows? Life on earth isn't that long, and I need to remember that the most important "jobs" I have now are raising our two beautiful children and ministering to my husband and others. And "in whatever I do, I need to work wholeheartedly working for the Lord not men."

Okay - and let me give a shout out (did I just say that? I sound like a teenager!) to my good friend Sara in Canada!!! Sara - That is a very interesting thought. I really like this spontaneous discussion we are having! :)

What is your identity?

As a SAHM or sometimes a WAHM (Work at home mom) - I sometimes feel like I can't figure out what my identity is. When I was working, I was a teacher. Now - I do so many different things and I don't think I am really good at any of them all at the same time...just a little scattered here and there. I feel like I don't really know who I am...just that I have so many little pieces of me all over that there is no one coherent whole. It is hard for to to focus and hard for me to define really who I am.

So I am writing out some prayer requests in a prayer journal today and it hits me! I may be a teacher, a wife, a mom, a cook, a cleaner, a designer, a photographer, blah blah blah - the list could go on and on...but what I am - the core of WHO I AM is a child of God. Wow! sounds so simple. but it is freeing. I am a Daughter of the King. How easy it is to get caught up in the to-do lists of life and feel bound to them and frustrated by them...BUT everything I do is secondary to loving Him and serving Him and should flow out of me by His strength and His matchless grace and abounding love.

Mommy, Do you have a baby in your tummy?

Wouldn't it be great if I was announcing a pregnancy...But no, this is what my Megan said to me in the pool today:). Cute- eh?! Better do some more crunches!

We had a wonderful weekend...a rare weekend when daddy wasn't working AT ALL! Yippee! Kevin's birthday was Friday and the girls wanted to surprise him by taking him fishing and bringing along a picnic. I am not much of a fisherwoman and they have never been - so we really surprised him by having him take us fishing! Both girls caught a little blue gill (well we helped and they reeled them in).

Definitely one of the greatest quotes was from "the Marvelous Megan" as daddy calls her. Every time she pulled up her fishing pole, she would say "Oh man, I caught another worm!" The first few times she was excited. Then matter-of-factly she said "I sure am catching an awfully lot of worms!"

I will post more weekend pics tomorrow or Tuesday...

Oh - and HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my wonderful mother-in-law! and HAPPY ANNIVERSARY to my in-laws - 35 years...WOW!!! Way to go!

The things they say and do...

I wanted to post some silly things the girls have said or done in the past few weeks...

We went to the Zoo on Tuesday. I think every school still in business was there! It was like Disney World. While there, we saw a family of 4 young girls with Hooter T-shirts (yikes). Even more interesting was this little diaper situation we had. Megan was wearing a pull up and was pretty soaked. She was wearing a long dress and we were sitting at a picnic table finishing up lunch. I slipped off her old diaper and slipped on her new one. Nonchalantly. Nobody would notice right? So I bend over to pick up her old diaper and notice a brown smudge. My heart starts to beat a little faster. "Megan did you go poo-poo?" I ask. She doesn't really answer. She doesn't really have to. I look down and see human poo-poo in the mulch under the picnic table. In the crowded Zoo. In the eating area. Oh my! I frantically look to see if anyone noticed. I think I am safe - so I clean up all of the mulch and poo and leave the area. Cool. Things are okay I think as I look over my shoulder...

The day before, we went to the park. Megan pointed to a man getting out of the car next to us. This particular gentleman was older and had long gray hair. She yells, "Mommy look! That boy has long hair! Boys don't wear long hair! Isn't that funny. He is so silly!" When I didn't reply, she repeated it even louder and moved closer to the man - who still didn't even glance at us!

When Kat was 2, I remember her pointing to a lady in Chipotle and saying "Mommy - does that lady have a baby in her tummy?" when the lady obviously didn't.

A recent conversation between the girls in the car:
Kat: Mommy I am going to marry Ethan (her friend) when I grow up. And we are going to live in a house and have baby girls. And you and daddy are going to be the grandma and grandpa and babysit for us when we go out on a date."
Megan: When I grow up, I am going to marry daddy.
Kat: You can't marry daddy, mommy already married daddy.
Megan: (obviously heartbroken) When I grow up, I am going to marry my friend Ella.
Kat: You can't marry Ella. She is a girl. You have to marry a boy.
Megan starts to cry at which point I tell her that God has a plan and someday someone very special will fall in love with her and marry her. (I pray:)

Lists?

Do you like to make lists? to-do lists? grocery lists? don't forget to...lists? My husband has so many lists that it takes him like 15 minutes to combine them and review them each day.

So I am making a list. I am frustrated with myself. It is a mommy thing...and a general be-a-better-person thing. I have been forgoing good things...doing less good things...for not so good reasons. For example, my house has been cleaner BUT my kids have watched more TV and have gotten more disrespectful BECAUSE I have been lazy on unfocused.

SO I have been thinking. Thinking about things that are GOOD, HEALTHY, EDIFYING, and I have been thinking about things that are not so good, healthy, or edifying. I made lists. The things on the good list are things I need to do more and pick from when we go through our day. The not-so-good and sometimes-bad are things I need to avoid. Yes this is for me personally but also things I want to work on with the kids.

Here are some things from my GOOD and HEALTHY list (this is my personal opinion - you don't have to agree with me):

• God's Word, prayer, worship
• exercise, rhythm, throwing, catching, kicking, running, skipping, stretching
  
• art projects
• reading and books
• imagination, pretending
• role playing - and role playing to practice how to act in certain situations (like grocery shopping or the doctor's office)
• encouraging, uplifting, and serving others
• cleanliness and cleaning up after yourself
• being helpful
• sleeping
• being consistent
• veggies, fruit, protein, water
• PLAYING
• love, patience, kindness
• optimism
• understanding
• learning good habits and reinforcing good habits
• hugging
• listening
• educational stuff that no one knows is educational
• taking walks outside, riding bikes, watering flowers, watching birds
  
• cooking together
• writing letters
• not getting everything I want, being content
  
• being still, sitting in awe of God

Praying that you too can find something to do today that is good and wholesome and healthy!:)

just talking

My poor baby (really she is almost three) got stung by a bee in her eye socket and on her temple - not her eyeball but right above it and next to it! She started to scream and grab her face. I thought she just got dirt in her eye and tried to get my husband to look at it - the bee was actually stuck to her and he had to rip it off. She was a trooper and only cried a few minutes. It is still swollen and it was 5 hours ago!

Katherine got stung on her hand when she was three and cried for at least 2 hours. I would post a picture, but I am cameraless today! Other than that, it was a good weekend. Graduation parties, Church, softball game, a little cleaning...and then a little messing up:) Can't complain.

Survey

For those of you who like to share your opinions...My author friend Marla needs people to fill out some surveys. She has written two books so far - I think I wrote about them before (one on marriage and one on sex). Anyway, she is working on a parenting book now and the first 100 people to fill one out will get a free book as well. They take a little bit of time - but I just wanted to give a heads up if you would like to make your opinion known:). Have a great day!

This is very cool

Okay - do you remember my t-shirt post a little while back? My husband has TONS of them and I can't handle it and don't know what to do about it...Well check this picture out! I can't take any credit - A friend of mine sent me this and basically her mother made quilts for the men in their family out of their t-shirts! She said they are warm and the guys love them. What a great idea Beth - Thanks! (And that is her adorable son Will:) I plan on trying this over the summer! (It looks like she used around 25 t-shirts! - yippee!)

Yummy!

I have never been a coffee person. My parents didn't drink coffee and my husband doesn't either - so I never started. I don't like the flavor of plain coffee - so why try to make myself like something I could get addicted to. Here is the problem - I LIKE these...a lot. I didn't buy one for myself, but a friend brought one to me. I really enjoyed it - it was refreshing. However, I noticed that evening that my eyes were glued open and I couldn't sleep until after 2am...unusual for me. At this point, I didn't make a connection. All I know is that every time I pass Tim Horton's, I want one. The small has 250 calories which isn't too horrible in my opinion - but I still don't want to get addicted to anything so I resolve that I can have one every two weeks. Lo and behold, my friend brings me another one next week - and it is still so tasty. I drink it in the afternoon and can't sleep again. So I realize it must have some caffeine. I try to order one decaf - and the Tim Horton's lady says "Oh no - those have at least twice as much caffeine as a regular coffee, and we don't have them in decaf!" So, I think I will stay away from those on most occasions - but they are really good. I wonder if everyone is that affected by caffeine? I researched and read some articles on caffeine - quite interesting!