Babies, Brownies and Blessings

It's been a few days since writing so I just grabbed the computer and sat down. I have several ideas of things I'd love to blog about  but motherhood is calling me. My youngest son is down and out with body aches and an intermittent fever. And he just came up to cuddle. I wouldn't ever pass this up...so goodbye for now. I'm going to snuggle my son, pray for him, rub his back, kiss his forehead  and enjoy the few moments of quiet. Because I only get to do this when they're too sick to move.

I'm pretty sure I've said those 4 words more often than any others in the last 1 1/2 years. (Except, perhaps, "I said no" when speaking to my children). In February of 2009 we read The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey  and it changed our whole relationship with money. We now spend everything on paper (called a budget!) before we actually spend it. We use cash. Only. Which means we only buy what we can afford. I love it and I hate it. I need new shoes, our comforter has seen better days, Bri needs work boots, I'd love to do a little redecorating. But... it's not in the budget. Yet. The upside is that eventually we can work that all into the budget. Right now we're debt-reducing so the budget is tighter. I'm so excited for the day we can loosen the purse strings a bit. And it will feel good because we waited for it. We worked for it. Committed to a life-style change and stuck with it. We don't subscribe to everything Dave says but most of w...

I really thought this stage was over. Call it what you will: naivete, wishful thinking, ignorance. Whatever the name, I was hopeful that we were past this. I've read books about how to change this behavior, purchased tools to "program" the behavior to go away. The offending behavior? 5:30 a.m. wakings. 5:30 is not a bad time if it's spent in blissful slumber. A mood killer if it's the time you see on the clock when you hear "Mom!" followed by the pitter-patter of little feet coming up the stairs. For nearly 5 years now I've been awake before 6 a.m. the vast majority of days. I had surrendered to it as my fate. However, a few months ago the boys started sleeping "in". As in 6:15 a.m. I was elated! It's so much easier to get up during the 6 o'clock hour than 5. I thought my days of 5ish wakings were over since BabyGirl usually sleeps until 6:30 at least. Now over the last 2 weeks the boys have been getting up before 6 agai...

I rocked BabyGirl to sleep tonight. Because I could. The boys asleep, Bri at work... Soaking in every perfect feature. Pale hand resting on my chest, skin nearly translucent revealing tiny blue veins. Cheeks that feel like satin beneath my fingertips. Eyebrows, so fine, smooth as silk. Not a line on her face save the crease of her chin. Sweet baby breath. Beautiful rosebud lips like her daddy... Gentle rhythmic breathing. Sound of her sucking on her plug. Grinning so big in the land between awake and sleep, losing the plug. Suck*Suck*Suck  **smile**  PLOP Baby blue eyes not quite closed... As if she didn't want to miss a moment either. Our God, so amazing to create the beautiful intricacies of a baby. Giving us the opportunity to experience a love so big and so outside ourselves. Oh how I love Him for that...

...from my favorite website. I'm actually hesitant to share what site it is because I'm a little...possessive of it. You see, the way this site  works is they have a deal every day. It posts at 10am (and I have my phone alarm set so I won't miss it!). When they have sold the allotted amount for the day, the deal is over. Some things don't go quickly, others  are gone within minutes. So what's so great about what they sell that makes me want to hoard it? Here are just a few of the steals I've gotten: blankets  , leggings , hair bands and flowers , cloth diapers . At 40-70% off regular price! So you can get some good quality items at a fraction of the cost! Bri doesn't quite understand the appeal and has forbidden encouraged me to not look at the steals for a while. Because you have to spend money to save money so wouldn't it be better to just not spend any money? What he doesn't know is there are several other great sites. So while I'm off B...

I'm heading back to work. In 15 minutes. Maternity leave is over...no more sitting around eating bon bons. ;-) I'm fortunate to have such a part-time job, makes going back easier. I don't think I'm forgetting anything. Bottles are filled. Clothes for the kids set out. Caleb's stuff for "Red Day" at preschool is ready. School bags and diaper bag filled. Schedule for Claire written (with perhaps more detail than necessary). Daddy does a great job with the kids and it was easy to leave before we added Claire. Now it's diapers and bottles again and a baby who's only method of communication is smiling or crying. Get dressed, grab my tea, pray for a good day and out the door I go...

Saturday night was date night. A real one, with a babysitter for all three kids. It was the first time that we would leave BabyGirl, too. Funny how much more quickly I am willing to leave our third child than our first. I was feeling a little guilt about that until I realized why. With our first, it hadn't been that long since we'd been alone. When he was 3 months old it had only been 3 months since our last date night. Now our first child is almost 5 years old. Which means we've been going for quite a while on very few date nights! That did a bit to ease my guilty mind. Anyway, I had everything ready to go and felt pretty good about going. Claire is not a fussy baby and pretty much eat, sleeps and smiles for me. She has had a few fussy times here and there but not bad at all! As we were leaving it was Sam who put up the most fuss about us leaving (which is usual for him). We decided to go sit on the patio at Pier 500 which overlooks the river. It was a beautiful fall nig...

...and saved $18 at Target today! I bought 2 bottles of Tide, diapers, wipes, shampoo and spaghetti sauce and I had at least one coupon for each item. I love coupons and have a hard time paying full price for anything. It's amazing how much you can save with a little work! I did have to develop a system- I have a massive coupon organizer and I have the Sunday paper delivered each week. 2 of them, in fact. I used to subscribe to http://www.thegrocerygame.com/ and that was tremendously helpful. I have the advantage of living in a bigger city where this tool was effective. It would be less useful in rural areas.  For now this is one of my jobs, saving money on things we'd buy anyway. And it's not just on groceries and living supplies, I watch for coupons for restaurants, entertainment, services, you name it! (I even splurged on a dress for our anniversary and saved $30- more on that later.)  What money-saving methods do you have?  P...

I used to be a good mom. The world's greatest mom, in fact. I knew how to deal with: fighting biting whining tantrums disrespect screaming back-talk disobedience Then I became a mom. And I discovered there wasn't an easy answer for any of those things. I had a biter and had to deal with the look on other parents' faces when my child bit their's in the nursery. I have a screamer and I can't always make him stop (just ask the other shoppers at Target). My boys fight . With each other and with other kids. They disobey constantly frequently. Don't even get me started on whining . I love my children and I discipline them as consistently as I'm able (with the help of my amazing husband). I hug them frequently and tell them that I love them and I'm proud of them.  I pray daily (sometimes hourly!)  for wisdom in raising them. But they are still naughty. And I no longer claim to be the world's greatest mom. I now know when I see another mother fre...

I had a playdate with a friend today. Only there was no playing. Because there were no kids (except BabyGirl who slept the whole time). I had two whole cups of tea. And I didn't have to share. I had two servings of coffee cake. And ate every crumb myself. I enjoyed complete conversations- without sounding like I had Turrets Syndrome. ("Oh, I heard that movie was great, we were HEY DON'T TOUCH THAT OR IT'LL BREAK going to go the other night but I MEAN IT our babysitter cancelled.") I came home looking like this (Well, maybe not quite like that) Instead of like this. I think I'm going to really enjoy having 2 kids in preschool.  I'm just sayin'... *Disclaimer- No offense intended to those who suffer from Turrets Syndrome.

I like to try out new products. One I was particularily excited about was the new Sensodyne Whitening Foam. I have sensitive teeth and cannot use whitening anything unless I'm planning on eating lukewarm food for as long as I use it. So I splurged and bought a can ($6 a can!). I must say, I was pretty happy with it. Seemed the tea stains were lightning up a bit. Then 2 weeks into the can, it stops working. I tried everything I could think of to get it to work again but it must have "de-aerosoled". Bummer! If it would've cost just a couple dollars I would've just let it go but I wasn't willing to cut my losses just yet. So I emailed the company yesterday and told them my story. To make a long story short- they are sending me a new can...FREE! How great is that? No major hassle, and the customer service rep even spoke English. So next time you don't get what you paid for, try asking for a reimbursement or replacement. What have you got to lose?

I love caramel. Caramel rolls, caramel candies, chocolate covered caramel, caramel anything. Chewy is my favorite texture and caramel fits the bill perfectly! I also love to bake so I make caramel rolls quite frequently. Is your mouth watering yet? So, just in case you're getting a hankering now, here's the easiest recipe for caramel you will find. You can even buy some premade rolls and put this caramel on it. In fact, you know what's tasty? Buy a tube of buttermilk biscuits (like Pillsbury). Shake them in a baggy with cinnamon in sugar. Make the caramel (directions below), put half of it on the bottom of a pan, add the (unbaked) biscuits and follow with the rest of the caramel. Bake at 350 degrees for however long the biscuit tube says and WALLA! You have caramel rolls! Here are the magic 4 ingredients: Butter Vanilla Ice Cream Sugar Brown Sugar You can make as big a batch as you like because you just use the same amount of each ingredient. For example, 1/2 Cup butter,...

I was at Trader Joes's today (love that store!) and had BabyGirl with me. They have the smallest shopping carts ever so when we go, I put her in the sling since her carseat won't fit. I was standing at one end of an aisle, perusing the dried fruit when I heard a couple oohs and ahhs and looked up to see the ENTIRE aisle looking at us! I'm not talking one or two people, more like 6 or 7. Needless to say, they weren't captivated by me. BG was just hanging out in her sling with darndest little smile on her face. A smile like this one...irresistible! One couple walked up to us, started talking and claimed her for their new grandson (who's 2 weeks old). They were delightful; we said our goodbyes and continued on. The next gal just did the melty eyes at Claire, followed by another lady who asked her name and said she was beautiful. As we were leaving the aisle a girl about 3 or 4 years old told me she was having a new baby, too, and quickly pulled her mom's shirt b...

Most of us are guilty of it. We don't even always do it on purpose. Or to be deceitful. Sometimes it's just easier to lie. "I DO love that dress..." or "What a...cute... baby you have." Most of the time when I'm compelled to lie it is to protect myself or someone I love. Does that make it ok? Early in our marriage my husband posed this question when I was deciding between telling the truth and a lie: Is that worth your integrity? Meaning, I can choose to act with integrity and not lie, or choose to lie at the expense of my integrity. You can't have both. And I will never ever forget that.

I was watching an old rerun of King of Queens the other night. I don't remember exactly how it came up but the whole episode was about who married "up". You know, someone marrying someone out of their league for one reason or another. It's an hilarious show because at first glance, Doug certainly married up. However, after watching what it's like to live with Carrie I'd have to say she married up. Of course an argument ensued and I'm not sure if they ever came to an agreement. So I brought up this concept of marrying up in a conversation with Bri and we had fun figuring out who of our friends and family married up. Naturally the discussion turned to which of us married up. He said he did, I said I did. In the end we decided that we were really just a good match with neither being the "up" or "down". But, folks, I must say, I really did marry up. Here are just a few reasons why... *My mom got a star sapphire ring from my dad as a promis...

I've been extraordinarily crabby this week. And I mean C-R-A-B-B-Y! I'm not one prone to mood swings and can typically snap out of a funk but this one wasn't leaving. It stuck around long enough for my hubs to wonder what the heck was going on. And I didn't have a good answer. So after getting upset over things that didn't matter and having heated discussions over inconsequential things, Bri decided to take the kids for a couple hours. We both realized that I just needed some time to myself. A mental health day, if you will. The only bummer is that I can't just call in "sick" to work. My "work" tugs on my arms, hits me to say "I love you", fights with his brother, spills food all over my floor... Ok, that's a tangent, back to the point. The plan was for him to take the boys to run some errands and when he got back, I'd go get lost for a little while. I thought I needed some time with a good book in a coffee shop or something...