Bird House

My Aunt and Uncle gave Ellie a bird house for her birthday. Not just any bird house, one that she could paint and then Mommy put together. It was so fun! It was such an "Ellie" type of gift. She didn't get it on her birthday because I knew she would want to start right away. She got it last Monday after breakfast and asked if she could start. Little Man got a pretty awesome tool set by Melissa and Doug but was a little envious of Ellie's paints. Ellie told me she needed a little "alone time" to finish painting! She cracks me up. We have not hung it up yet because she likes it on her night stand. Sometimes she will ask me if I think she is an artist. Being four years old must be really fun. Hopefully more pictures to come of the little family parties we had for them!

Ambition

I was trying to be a good pregnant lady and rest. Sometimes this goes well for me but today I kept thinking about a post idea. So up I got, grabbed a piece of dark chocolate for blogging fuel and here I am...

My life doesn't seem very accomplished by the world's standards. I do not have a college degree, I am a little "stay at home mom", I do not make any money, I am not even twenty five, and am expecting our third baby. What am I doing with myself? Well, it looks like nothing but being bored and aging quickly...by the world's standards.

By our, my husband and I, standards my life if full and very accomplished. Actually I never pictured myself quitting school, getting married young and having many babies. But God did, so I guess I needed it all. Sometimes people will ask me what I do all day? I really just want to tell them, "I do all the things around my house you wish you could do but don't because you send your kid to daycare and work 40 hours a week." But...I haven't figured out how to make that sound sweet and loving so I skip that part. I usually say something like...I do and learn whatever I want. Meaning, if I want to make granola or bread for the first time, I do. If I want to recover a chair I have time to find fabric and try my hand at it. I read stories to my kids and feed them good food. If I want to learn about ph levels and how to make my family healthier I can because I have the time. Basically, I have the time to bless and nurture my family.

Having babies is just plain hard work. In so many ways. You have to keep yourself healthy so therefore you have to plan a menu and make shopping lists, you have to play and talk with your kids, you have to be joyful and patient even when you are huge and pregnant and everything inside you does not feel like being joyful. You have to make three decent meals a day. You have to have things for your kids to do during the day and teach them and discipline them. You have to pray for the them, a lot. Look at all this energy coming out of you in so many ways. If you are a "stay at home mom" --- which by the way I hate that phrase. It should just be Mom. :) But if you are trying to have babies to God's glory and feeling like you are not doing much with your life, do not be deceived. You are doing so many great and holy things. Things that may not seem like it now in the midst of the chaos. You are raising arrows for God's kingdom, so you are kind of raising a sub-army for the kingdom of God. What better job could there be than that? And, what professional woman out there gets a two hour break everyday? You do though, it is called nap time. :) So eat some dark chocolate while you write your massive grocery list or grab a sweet tea when you are out shopping. Enjoy your "job" and know that you are doing a great thing by having kids, staying at home, and smiling when they ask you 200 questions in one day.

What would you do to enjoy a good beer?

Clay and I recently watched a delightful foreign film, this was either before or after. It is too fun not to share.

Men's Meeting

Men's Meeting at our church is the first Friday of every month. The men meet at our Pastor's home, they sing hymns, listen to a lesson from our Pastor, discuss things, drink beer and smoke a cigar or pipe. It is quite the event and I know my husband really enjoys going. When we were first married I hated men's meetings, really. I didn't want to be alone. I was nervous at night by myself, and I was bored and just missed my sweet husband. I would complain and imply that I didn't want him to go, and sometimes he would stay home. And when he did go he wouldn't stay that late. Looking back I was really quite the brat.

I'm not sure when my attitude adjustment started taking shape, but I realized that although Clay did want to go he wasn't really enjoying it because he knew I was having such a hard time. So I started "planning" what my night would look like so I had something fun and out of the ordinary to do. Tonight is a men's meeting night and I watched a couple episodes of the Walton's, made some earrings, piled more clean laundry onto the pile, made gluten free chocolate chip pancakes, tried to snuggle with my sleeping 2 year old but he wanted to go back to his bed, and now...I am blogging. Sound fun? It was indeed. I will probably start reading my book in a little bit and probably when I doze off my sweet husband will come home and I will ask him a ton of questions...what did Pastor teach on? Who was there? What beers did you try? Did anyone smoke your pipe (I think this is gross, but guys don't...)? But you know, since I have started planning my night, I look forward to men's meetings. Not because my husband is away (I still miss him) but because I have something different to do and Clay is with other great men doing something out of the ordinary as well. This may sound strange to some of you, but I think there are things that men and women do to feel masculine or feminine. For a man, drinking beer and smoking a pipe is masculine. There is something about sitting around together, popping the top to a cold bottle and then talking about it. I have heard them, somewhere in there is a great thrill. :) I know these things are not the root of masculinity but it is nice to "feel" it. Just like a woman might like to wear earrings, paint her toe nails, have a pretty apron to wear, get a new hair cut, or slap on some lip gloss, the bottom line is to feel feminine and nice. I don't think these things are bad (in moderation of course) but just the opposite, I think these means to feeling masculine and feminine are good. Of course, masculinity and femininity are a condition of the heart but there are little things to help along the way. Maybe the sweetness of the pancakes is getting to me but I feel like I am rambling and not conveying my idea well. :) Bottom line, I have learned my husband needs to feel masculine just as there are things I need to feel feminine. And you know, of all the months I complained about men's meeting I never remember Clay complaining about my complaining. --- Thank you Babe for being long suffering and merciful to my lack of understanding.

Little Things that Help the Morale of the Troops

Homemade chocolate milk

Building a tent

Snuggling on the couch reading story after story

$3 markers and coloring WITH your kids

Dancing to music

Watering the flowers with little $1 water cans

Homemade popcorn and a movie together

$1 Side walk chalk

Bubbles, also a $1

Kashi cereal

Just lighting a candle for the dinner table

Painting little girl finger nails ( a personal favorite...)

Rolling a ball back and forth with your son

Visiting a thrift store and letting them play with the toys after you have looked around

An occasional french fry from Chik Fil A

Hugs and kisses

Ellie Speaks

Ellie: "Mom, I was just reading some verses."
Me: "What verses?"
Ellie: "The one where God made Earth, Mars, and Saturn. And the one where He made fairies."
(We have no idea where she heard about the different planets, and the fairies, we are working on that...as you will see.)



Ellie is really imaginative so sometimes we talk about things that are real and things that are pretend.
Me: "Let's talk about things that are pretend...like unicorns are pretend."
Ellie: "Right!"
Me: "And...fairies are pretend."
Ellie: "Yep!"
Me: "And...Hobbits are pretend."
Ellie: [With a very serious face.] "No Mom, Hobbits are real."

I'll be honest, I laughed out loud. She was so sure they were real...they do look real, just mini.

In the Zone

These are my couch potatoes. They were probably watching something amazing like Toy Story 3 for the first time. What is funny is Clay held that bite for her for awhile and didn't seem to notice, and neither did Ellie. :) I thought when I pulled the camera out they would snap out of their trance, but no. I was glad though. I love that Clay is so into the movie too. Sorry the picture looks so horrible it was dark so I had to bump the ISO way up.