Getting older

Today I went roller blading by myself today and crash landed during the course. I bent my thumb back in a wierd position, took the brunt of it with my knees (I'm sure I have hematomas galore!), and managed to flip the stroller over. Poor Liam was sleeping and then all of the sudden was hanging vertically in the stroller. He had a look on his face like, "Why did you do that mom?" Two other men were about 25 feet away and were asking, "Man, are you okay?" They didn't bother to get up so I didn't think they wanted to help me.

I righted the stroller and poor Liam didn't have a good nap and my body feels like I've been in a car wreck. In the past I've fallen and it hasn't hurt too much but I'm definitely sore and feel like I will be for a long time.

Well, that's all for today. I think I'll take a warm bath.

A tribute to a friend.

Pastor Shawn said something this sunday about the importance of words of affirmation. If we gave what we thought someone needed (like criticism) it was like a glass of salt. If we said nothing it was an empty glass. If we gave words of encouragement then it was a glass of water. This was from the book of Ephesians 4:29, "Let no corrupt speech proceed out of your mouth, but such as is good for edifying as the need may be, that it may give grace to them that hear."


I'd like to give some edifying words to one of my friends. This is a tribute to a fellow stay at home mom in the trenches. Here's three different pictures of us at three different times in our lives. As you can see our weight has increased with each child we have. The picture in the middle is of us when we were going to the Christmas Ball. I made the dresses from the Jane Eyre era. Even though we didn't know what we were doing we danced anyway as our husbands looked on in horror! The top picture is of our belly's at my surprise baby shower. I knew something was wrong when I was at the stampin up party on time and Dana had beat me. She almost never does that. The last picture is our last two kids after a roller blading escapade.

We do just a lot of things together. We rollerblade, chat, minister to refugees. We have the same stroller, our mom's sell juice plus, the same style nursing blanket, both drive mini-vans (a sad but inevitable path for moms, something we both swore we'd never do).

I see her changing in amazing ways. I love watching her with her kids. They are like second children to me too as I've seen them since they day they were each born. We have so much fun together too. She laughs at what I say...a lot. We share funny stories and we've both had major meltdowns in front of each other. There are things we've told each other that only we would think was great news!

I'm glad the Lord brought us together. I definitely see His hand in what we've both been through. I'm so glad to see her grow as a friend, sister in Christ, and mother to her young ones. Way to go momma!

Fall fun compliments of the Creator

I heard a scientist describe what happens to the earth during autumn. He said that the leaves break down and provide nutrients for the decomposers that then return nutrients for the soil. He said that the deciduous forest is the most diverse habitat anywhere for this reason. He said that this harmony and cycle couldn't have occurred by chance, it had to have been put into place by a Creator. He then said he felt that there was one other reason that God made fall....for the delight of children to play in the leaves.

In my home this is definitely the case. My children look forward to raking and frolicking every year. Now they get to add someone new to the mix! I was picking leaf bits out of his nether region for quite a while after that!

Sewing fun

Here are some recent projects that I completed sewing. On the top are my two sons with matching outfits. I was teaching a sewing class last year and one of my students decided to give me a gift certificate to Hancock Fabrics (the best store to go to!). It was for a baby gift when Liam was born. I decided to make an outfit for each of the boys and took Austin and Dylan to the store with me to pick out fabric. If you know my sons at all they are complete opposites and neither could agree on fabric choice. The new plan was that I got fabric for Austin and Liam that matched and Dylan and Liam that matched but Austin and Dylan would look quite different. Hence Austin and Liam have some lime green plaid fabric that Dylan wouldn't be caught dead in and Dylan picked out Spongebob fabric. At least Liam was compliant!

The other picture is Lily, the cutest neice in the world! I made her this dress with leftover fabric from a top/shorts outfit I made Taylor. I'm so glad it fits her too. Isn't her face so sweet? I wish we lived closer so I can make lots of dresses for her.

Look at who's sitting.

Look who's sitting tall? He just started this week. He really likes it too. We still need to be by him though. I can't believe how fast he changes. The kids all cheer for him whenever he does something. He'll grow up not knowing how to do anything significant without a cheering section.

These are videos of Liam's favorite activity...bouncing and laughing! It's so entertaining. The kids were in such stitches today that we couldn't get school done. He was laughing at them laughing at him bouncing! I know these days are short so I'm trying to catch all the memories I can before they're gone and he's growing facial hair!

The real Halloween with all the make up. We had a blast this year dressing the kids up. The only snaffu was when Dylan wanted to wrap up as a mummy and asked Bill to help. Bill did it but complained to me that "this costume is not functional!" No dear, not all things are functional but some are just frivolous and fun. We collected parts of Dylan's costume along the way as they got candy. Taylor was dracula, Austin was frankenstein, Dylan was a mummy and Liam was a duck. I got the costume last year when I was pregnant for just a buck! What a steal!

They enjoyed getting joke books from the library this year and writing out lists of potential fodder for the neighbors. The kids complained that although the neighbors asked for jokes they laughed halfway through the presentation and sent them on their way. They said, "Mom they didn't even take the time to listen to me!" Ahh, the first of many such experiences for them. How many of us really listen to each other??