Through The Eyes of A Child

For myself, the ten minute firework display at the Rice Festival is not really even worth fighting the traffic. However, watching my children watch the fireworks... Now that is worth fighting all the traffic in the world.

Who?

Since our anniversary was this week, I decided to pull out some of our wedding photos and look though them with the boys. They always want to know why they are not in any of the pictures! Jonah was doing a pretty good job of recognizing people until we got to this picture...

Me: Who is that? (Pointing to Joe)

Jonah: My Daddy

Me: And who is that? (Pointing to myself)

Jonah: Ummmmm....JESUS!

My children certainly do think of me with high regards!

Seven Years Ago Today

On an old plantation...

Beside tables covered in crisp white linens and fresh flowers...

I got all dressed up...

Walked down a chair lined aisle under ancient oak trees...

And married the man God picked just for me...

Lovely Letter L

Noah has mastered saying the letter L!
He was born a little tongue tied and has had a little bit of trouble pronouncing certain letters. (I am slightly tongue tied as well. I never even knew it until a dentist pointed it out when I was a teen.) Noah's pediatrician suggested at birth that we wait and see if he would be able to adjust before we did any surgery. Up until this week he said wisten, wuv, and wost instead of listen, love, and lost. He has been working so hard to get it right and this week it finally clicked.
Six years ago, I never thought that I would possibly get excited over a simple letter of the alphabet. Now I can't seem to get enough of the letter L. Every time I hear it I get a smile on my face. Isn't it amazing the things that motherhood can do to you?

Camping Out

We had a great spring break. I think this was my favorite spring break ever. Aside for the one day that I took Jonah and Micah to the beach, it was definitely NOT your typical spring break! We spent the entire week doing family stuff and just enjoying each other. Noah went to work with Joe two days. We all went to the junkyard together one day.

We rode with Joe as he hauled a load of junk cars to sell for scrap. The kids loved the junk yard. They enjoyed watching the cars get crushed and Noah learned a lot about recycling while we were there. We ended our spring break with a camp out in the backyard. Joe set up the tent and we cooked supper (hot dogs and marshmallows) over a fire. We actually all made it until about 6:30 the next morning before we abandoned the tent for the comfort of indoors.

The only bad thing I can say about our spring break was that it made coming back to real life almost unbearable. I dreaded sending Noah off to school today and Joe off to work. It made me realize how much I love having them here and how much I miss them when they are gone. I have to keep reminding myself that there are only six weeks until summer...counting down the days!

Apple Pear Combo

*****DISCLAIMER*****

Those of you who thought that my "growing old" post was too much information, please stop reading now.

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I have never been one of those women who can look at a body type chart and fit themselves into any certain category. You know the ones I am talking about. You see them in nearly every fashion magazine. You are supposed to choose which body type best describes you and follow the tips to accentuate your positive assets and hide your negative ones. I just happen to have never seen a body type chart that fit my body. I have never been an apple, pear, or banana, and certainly never an hourglass.
For example, some people keep all of their "junk" in the trunk. Personally, I have always kept my "junk" up front in the glove box. I have never had much "junk" in my trunk...until now. I happened to notice (in one of the FOUR full sized mirrors in our bathroom ... whoever came up with that idea needs to be shot!) upon getting out of the shower this morning that not only do I have "junk" in the trunk and the glove box, I also have "junk" in the fender walls, the front seat, and the undercarriage. I seriously need to clean out my car!
Now I could blame this current "junk pile" to the fact that I have birthed three children, but I think it is more my fault than theirs. In fact, I know that it is my fault. I got here because I put myself in this shape and I will get out of this shape only if I choose to change things in my life.
So the choice is made today. No more eating leftovers from the kids plates...heaven help us if we waste food. No more eating the Easter candy so that it does not make the kids hyper. No more driving the car to get the mail. No more circling the parking lot for ten minutes waiting on a close space. No more late night snacks and certainly no more McDonald's.
I will exercise with my children. I will take the time to eat healthy. I will walk instead of ride and more than anything I will hold myself accountable.
So why do you need to know all of this? Well, I hope that you hold me accountable too. I will never be an hourglass. I don't want to be a banana, apple, pear, or any combo of the three. I just want to be a healthy me...with a lot less "junk"!

I've Joined The Bandwagon

The cloth diapering bandwagon, that is. I said I would never do it, but I am learning more and more that you should never say never. With all of Jonah's issues we were spending over $25 per week just to keep the younger ones in diapers. I an NOT a fan of poop, but I decided to try the cloth just to see if it would work for us and ended up loving it! I wish I had done this way back when I had Noah in diapers. We have been going strong with cloth for nearly a month now and I have to say that it is so much easier than I anticipated.

Cloth diapers today are NOTHING like the ones that my parents used on me. I could go into detail, but my friend Melissa has done such a good job of explaining it on her blog, that I will direct you to her posts here if you are interested. They are actually so easy that even Joe is using them. (On the children of course, not on himself!)

The number one reason that I switched to cloth diapers was cost. In just three months, I will have "broken even" with my up front costs of cloth diapering by just not having to buy disposables. Add to that the fact that we will be cancelling our trash service this month since the only reason we were using it was for diapers as everything else is either recycled, composted, or goes to the rabbit, chickens, or dog. I will also be saving on disposable wipes since I have switched to cloth wipes. In total I figure we will save over $1,000 in one year.

I still don't like poop, but I love saving money! And how can you complain about the poop when they look so cute in those little cloth diapers?