On the way from the grocery store, I was checking to see what Josiah wanted for lunch.

“Would you like a roly-poly with cucumbers?”

“No, I want a roly poly with cucumbers AND a hot dog AND chicken fingers.”

I chuckled and asked, “Who do you think I am?”, thinking, possibly a short-order cook.

“You’re my MOMMY!” he said.

Yes. Yes, indeed I am. And I’m darn lucky.

(Once again, I cannot figure out how to center photos in the post.  Arg.)

A couple Fridays ago, I noticed on Katy’s Facebook page that she was thinking of taking her boys, Eli and Walker on a field trip to Krispy Kreme.  Of course, Josiah and I needed to meet them for the fun, only because KK is ust 5 minutes from our house.  Nothing to do with the fact that there would be donuts involved, and I had a coupon for free coffee, but purely for the educational benefit of seeing how donuts are made 🙂

Mesmerized by the process... or more likely, the rows and rows of donuts going under the waterfall of glaze.

Donuts with sprinkles, free coffee for moms, and complimentary hats complete the fun.

Eli obliging me for a photo before he digs in.

Walker was pleased with the chocolate and sprinkles.

My happy little guy. Believe me, the hat didn't stay on more than a few seconds after the photo.

Donut making is a complicated process, you know.  I’m sure we’ll do this highly educational field trip often!

I regularly read a site called Holy Experience, and it continually shines a beautiful God-centered light on life, faith and parenting.  Today’s post is a wonderful model for parenting… Click on over and enjoy it for yourself!

Epic parenting is storytelling around our togetherness – about what God wrote during this morning’s errands, during our vacation last year, from our own childhoods. No curriculum, classes or other paraphernalia necessary. Just a willingness to listen to our lives and tell the whole of God’s epic — parchment and personal.

A little help from sister...

I can’t even tell you how happy this sweet photo makes me.   More tomorrow, hopefully… I’ve finally made space on my laptop so I can work on photos from our snow-day (more like snow-hours!) 2 weeks ago, beautiful spring blooms, and the serious bike racers from today.  But I’m as tired as my little ones from the sun, fresh air and chasing them around, not to mention cheering Brian to a 2nd place finish.  Whew!

(Try as I might, I cannot seem to get photos centered.  They’re centered on my “edit” page, but no matter what I do, they move left when I post… sorry!)

I’ve just started a great new bible study, Living Beyond Yourself by Beth Moore about the Fruit of the Spirit.  The first week is an overview of the book of Galatians, and I was just struck by some thoughts this morning in Galatians 1.

Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ. –Galatians 1:10

I am a people-pleaser.  I always have been, and it’s been a struggle to turn that part of me towards Christ and seek His approval.  Mothering is an amazing job, but I’ve found that it lacks the opportunity to hear the “people approval” that a people-pleaser needs.  My kiddos don’t effuse thankfulness and graciousness for my laundry skills, playing with trains, and crafty projects.  So I might pour some effort into making dinner, hoping that my healthy delicious meal will garner some “approval” from Brian.  And as the “again-ness” of my days continue with dishes, laundry, preschool, cleaning up, and more mundane tasks, I feel more and more invisible.

But one thing Beth points out is that in the verse above, Paul starts out talking about approval but ends by talking about servanthood.

Approval and servanthood are connected because we become immediate slaves to the person(s) from whom we seek approval. Only One holds the future in His hands and knows your part in that future.  Only One cares for you with a perfect and unconditional love.  Only One can make “all things work together for good” (Romans 8:28). Only One can safely, yes, glorioiusly enslave you!

If I keep my heart focused on God and his glorious invisible approval, my heart will be filled.  But if I continue seeking my kids, Brian, and those around me to warm my heart with their accolades, I’m sure to be let down.  And in the end, Revelation 22:12 reminds us that He will reward us according to what we have done.  He sees, He knows, and He is blessed.

Just some cute remembrances of my sweeties.

Josiah says “Hop-copter” for helicopter… “Hawold the hop-copter” is Thomas’ friend, Harold the Helicopter.

He likes to say, “I want somethin’ hungry,” at which time he’ll make his way to the fridge, open it and browse, saying, “Hmm…”

Yesterday I was resting my head on the couch with a headache, and he said, “I wanna come snuggle wif you.”  He crawled up on the couch, clambored over me, and sprawled himself on me, with his head on my chest.  I reminded him how he liked to do this when he was little and how much I enjoyed it, he said, “This makes me so-o-o happy.”  Ahh… me too, sweet boy.  Me too.

As he was riding his car down the hall way, he stopped suddenly and said, “There’s a princess in my way!”

And a big milestone… today he pooped on the potty!  Woohoo!  This is so exciting to me because it’s the first step to no more diapers in this house!  (2-25-09, 2 years, 7 1/2 months old)

And after Analise asked if she could have a piece of her Valentine’s chocolate after naptime and I said yes…”Mommy, you’re the best.”  Aw.  I was happy to hear that, and sure that it didn’t have anything to do with the chocolate.  She went on…”And Daddy’s our hero.”  Aw, so very sweet!  I love that she sees him that way!  She went on…”Because he kills bugs.”  I’m still laughing.  He is indeed our hero, and not just for the good bug-killing 🙂

It’s cold here.   Well, cold in a Southern sense… like 30 degrees.  Brian’s off for a long bike ride this Saturday morning, and I’m in the mood to bake and be crafty.  Sounds like we’ll all benefit from this day!   Here’s some fun links that we might be trying today…

• A Better Banana Muffin – a lighter, healthier banana blueberry muffin that is on the agenda for this morning.  Gotta get rid of the frozen black bananas in my freezer!  If they’re good, I might even make a second batch to freeze for breakfasts.
• Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins – If I decide to balance out the healthy with a little not-so-healthy, these are what I might make as the second batch.
• Oh No!  The Snowman Melted – a fun little melted snowman craft project we might attempt today.
• Playdough Cookies – These would be fun to make in white, red and pink for Valentine’s day.
• A Valentine’s Collage – If I get brave and decide to break out the paints today, this is what we’ll do.
• Valentine’s Candy Pots – If I were really on the ball (which I’m not), these would be fun to make for Analise’s school friends.
• Marshmallow Lollipops – Hm, marshmallows, dipping and sprinkles… my kids favorite things to do!
• I Love You Garland – A fun way to showcase photos of those we love.
• Sugar Shack – Oh my goodness… lots of sugar involved in this one, but man, would this be fun to let the kids build and decorate!
• Valentine Garland – One super easy heart garland, if only I had pink and red pipe cleaners (and why does everyone call them “chenille stems”?  They’ve always been “pipe cleaners” for me!)

Can you tell I’ve created a folder called “TO DO with kids IF BORED”?  I’ll post pictures if we get anything done!

(*I found this in my drafts folder from mid-October… it was funny to read, and I’ll add a little commentary to the end…)

It was a lovely, rainy, cool fall day here.  Though it’s mid-October, our past couple weeks have been HOT, like mid 80’s.  Analise has had “fashion” problems every morning, and I’m not sure how we’re going to make it through the winter.  She doesn’t want to wear anything but dresses.  She had plenty of summer dresses, and most of the twirled.  But I’ve put away most of the summer clothes, because it’s supposed to be fall, along with the fact that she’s had a growth spurt and most of them are too short.  So we quickly wear out our short supply of appropriate warm-weather dresses before they’re clean again, and then we have problems.

She picks out the winter dresses, like corduroy, denim and long sleeves.  And though it’s fine in the coolish-mornings, by the time she goes out to the playground at noon and it’s 85, she’ll be overheated.  When I pick her up at 1:30, she’s always red-faced and sweaty anyway.  Not going to work.  So I point her towards her drawer of skirts and tops, or I pick out a cute shirt and pants.  No way.  She’s been so upset these past few mornings at her lack of options, it’s hard to believe clothing is causing such a fuss.  Ug.  Maybe fall will come soon so she can start wearing the other dresses hanging in her closet.  And maybe I shouldn’t bother getting her anything that ISN’T a dress for the spring and size 5T.  Unless, of course, she determines she doesn’t want to wear dresses any more.  Then we’d be in trouble!

**update from mid-January:  We’re still having the same dilemma.  It’s the dead of winter, which, in Alabama, means it can be in the 20’s in the morning when Analise goes to school and still in the 40-50’s by afternoon.  And they still go outside to play some days.  So we’ve been wearing the same dresses and tights all winter, and they’re wearing thing.  And short.  She’s sprouted a bit in the last couple months so that nearly all her 4T dresses (which is nearly everything!) are too short.  So Brian’s mom scoured the secondhand store clearance racks and found a few dresses to get us through to spring.  But, like I said in October, looks like I should ONLY be buying her dresses, and specifically ones that TWIRL, in 5T when the consignment sales start next month!  The fashion dilemmas of a 4 year-old girl… I can only imagine the issues we’ll have down the road!

So I just read this amazing post by one of my favorite bloggers ever (her personal blog is Rocks in my Dryer).   She just gets it… this joyful, exhausting, overwhelming, huge responsibility of being a Mom.  She gets it, and she knows how to communicate it.

I’m not sure I was fully aware, back then, how incredibly taxing those days were. I operated much of the time in survival mode, buzzing between a pediatrician visit to a botched bedtime to a temper tantrum to an explosive diaper (or three). And I loved it – make no mistake. For all the exhaustion, there were many times that were so precious they did (and still do) take my breath away. But the intensity of the demands had me bouncing back and forth constantly between joy and discouragement, wonder and fear. I remember feeling guilty, sometimes, knowing there would never be a sweeter season in my life, so why was it that I sometimes just wanted everyone to go to sleep already?  (Quoted from Parenting.com)

I read this just this evening, and it moved me to tears.  Seriously… this is where I’m at most days.  And she continues at the end of her post (which you really must read!), to say that after all is said and done we will think, “this is very good”.    And today of all days, I had a glimpse of that.

We were busy all day, out and about doing things, enjoying each other, having fun.  Analise was in rare good form today… very sweet, obedient, not whiney or teary, full of grace… the girl I know she can be.  Josiah was bouncy and playful, sweet and charming.  And I enjoyed my kids today.  It was balm to my sometimes beat-up Mommy ego that is constantly fighting  with tantrums, colds, diapers, cracker crumbs, rundown trains and tears.   I know this calling as a Mom is awesome and holy and full of great rewards (another fantastic post),  but today was a much needed glimpse of those rewards.   And at the end of the day, this post (quoted above) wrapped it up for me.