blessed beyond measure

I'm outnumbered in my house. This is fantastic. What a blessing it is to be Mama to two rambunctious boys, and wife to an uber-manly man. I was never a terribly girly girl. So it just kind of fits. However... On occasion, my girly-ness just must come out. It must . Every once in a while I get this irresistable urge to do something that is so creative it's almost cheesy. Of course, the ideas that satisfy this urge are rarely mine exclusively. More like me figuring out how to pull off something cute I've seen, with whatever resources I have. Flash back with me for a minute. Sunday, February 14, 2010. A normal morning at church. Until we get home that afternoon and I unpack Trey's backpack. There are valentines in there. From Trey's friends. To him. And the horror sets in. You idiot! It's Valentine's Day! You have a kid! Kids give each other valentines on Valentine's Day! From that moment, RESOLVED: I will never again forget a holiday. I will ...

One of my resolutions for 2011 was to try at least one new recipe each month. With the myriad of gestational restrictions in our household - food allergies, chemical reactions, general pickiness - coming up with new things is tough. Combining nutrition and variety is a tall order. Satisfying everyone is an even taller order. So, eh, we'll do what we can. January's recipe involves a bit of cheating. I didn't actually make this. I was going to, but Brandon's mom beat me to it. Sausage and Black-Eyed Pea Soup 1 lb. sausage 1 med onion, chopped 3 cans black-eyed peas 1 large can diced tomatoes 2 c. water salt and pepper to taste Brown sausage and onion in stockpot; crumble and drain. Stir in remaining ingredients. Simmer 2-3 hours. Verdict: So, so good. Hearty. Filling. Mmmmm. Notes: Well complemented by cornbread. If you can use free veggies from the garden, the only cost is the sausage. Repeatable: Too good not to repeat. But I'm the only one to enjoy it ri...

Remember the preheat phenomenon ? In case you don't, a while back Trey would stand and watch the entire six-minute countdown whenever I preheated the oven. That was a year ago. And quite amusing. Just the tip of the iceberg, people. While the oven preheat no longer excites Trey, he is still obsessed with time and numbers. He is the official timekeeper in the house. Several times a day, he will check all the clocks and then announce the time to anyone within earshot. Trey: Mama!! It's 2:47. Mama: Thanks for telling me. He resets all the clocks in the house at random. He likes playing with the stopwatch on Brandon's watch. When sports are on TV, he watches the clock. At Brandon's basketball game, he keeps a close eye on the scoreboard. Because of all this clock-watching, Trey can count backwards from 60 with proficiency. He also understands that there are 60 seconds in a minute and 60 minutes in an hour. When it gets past :50, he knows how many minutes until t...

My boys have beautiful eyes. Just saying. I don't know how it is with other kids. But when the boys don't feel good, their eyes are the first thing to show it. Glassed over. Sagging. Sunken in. Surrounded by thick red rings. Thus has been the state of the boys' eyes lately. Sad, it's just a sad thing. The upside is that when the boys start to feel better, their eyes are the first thing to show it. These are signs of wellness we have been praying for, and that the Lord in His mercy is returning to us. Big. Clear. Bright. Shiny. Beautiful.

The last week has just been a black hole of sickness. First Trey, with a very bad cold and a wee-morning-hours ER visit for very high fever. Then Aden, absoluetly miserable and diagnosed with RSV and an ear infection. Then me, with I guess a combination of all the above. And Brandon standing strong and staying mentally tough so as to escape unscathed. Oh, the germs. How I have been missing my energetic boy, who has been voluntarily laying in his bed at random times throughout the days. Put himself to bed at 5:00 one evening and woke up at 8:30 the next morning. How I have been missing my little chunky monkey, who shunned food altogether for several days. Guess he knew he'd be seeing it again in less than an hour and didn't want to remember the meal that way. How I have been missing sleep, which has evaded me due to dispensing breathing treatments to a preschooler in a coughing fit, endlessly bouncing to console an inconsolable baby, struggling to breathe and nearly coming to ...

Trey is so much fun. The Christmas microphone: The preschool singalong: FYI, the song is "The More We Get Together". Trey sings jock version. Hilarious that the whole group of kids says "togezzer". The children's museum Mama-son date: So. Much. Fun.

Aden is seven months old today. And sweeter than ever. As for what's new, Aden has gotten pretty good at picking up (and throwing) toys. He is talkative, shouts baby expletives (DADA!!) when he's angry, and will sometimes sing along with Trey in a rather high key. We are trying to transition to table food, and while Aden seems to like the taste of most things, different textures confuse him. Jello is especially entertaining. He likes mashed up banana and baked apples. Not a huge fan of mashed potatoes or steamed carrots. We're going slowly with this, because I can't remember what we gave Trey at this age, and I'm scared to death of Aden choking. Any suggestions?? And when are we supposed to start juice? Hmm. You'd think I would have written this stuff down. Still working on sitting independently. He can do it, without question. But he gets so excited that he arches his back and shoots backwards. And does this every minute or two, unless he is distrac...