2011 First Day of School favorites

"You see...that's what makes us human. We always want more.

I have a fortune sitting on the windowsill above my kitchen sink that reads, "The pleasure of what you enjoy is lost by wanting more."  After reading this fortune I was struck by how personal it was for me.  I usually crack open the cookie, read the fortune and leave it on the table in my left-over rice.  But not this one.  I knew I wanted to keep it and display it where I would see it every day.  You see, I am always one step ahead of what I am doing.  Looking for what needs to be done next or preparing for an upcoming task.  Seeing this fortune reminds me to stop.  listen.  BE.  

The title quote is from Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese.  When I read it, it made me stop. listen.  So true, I thought.  We DO always want more.  God made us to want more of Him.  more love.  more relationship.  more peace.  I often become trapped, though, in thinking that what I need more of is a clean house, more time to organize, plan, keep up.  I need to get from A to B as fast as I can....

...but then I miss out on the journey.  So every day, when I'm washing our breakfast dishes, I look up at my fortune and am reminded to enjoy the moments I'm in.

The moment my Austen tackles me and gives me this face

To stop to watch Adam take a picture

or come at me with his own tackle

To enjoy the boys' first day of Preschool/MDO of the year

                         **despite being late and rushing out the door like a madwoman :)

I want more of these moments. of these days.  blue letter days.  Where my soul is touched by the family God has given me.  The grace He extends to me each day.  And the love that I will never stop wanting more of.  

April Showers

I realize that I have not posted since February, my Valentine's header being a clue.  I've neglected to blog, not because I didn't want to or didn't think of it often, but because LIFE just took precedence.  Sometimes, in the life of this mom, I'd rather be holding my boys (well, wrestling may be more realistic with this lot), having great conversations with my husband, or just keeping up rather than spending lots of time at the computer.

Our April was filled with LOTS OF SHOWERS.  

Refreshing and fun.  The kind where you put on your rain boots and and splash around awhile.  

Trying to write on your heart the smell and feeling of the raindrops.  

Jason and I took a much needed vacation, just the two of us...away....without kids.  My Grams was celebrating her 80th birthday in Vegas and we tagged along.  We did some gambling with Grams, ate some delicious Indian food, went to a Cirque du Soleil, and most importantly slept in!

My mom flew in to spend the week with the boys.  Adam told me, "I wish Grandma could stay here." "Me too", I told him.  We LOVE having Grandma around.  

Between the birthday parties and the Easter Egg hunts we have been inundated with candy and sweets.

I made these sweet

Easter Baskets for the boys

to keep their "treasures" in

This year Adam shared his birthday with Easter.  I told him that the celebration of the Risen Lord may just trump him a little this year :)  Poor kid, last year he shared his birthday with Aunt Sassy and Uncle Kyle's wedding.  Don't get me wrong, he had the ENTIRE family singing to him and had awesome cake.  Better Luck next year sweet boy.  

The last FOUR years has been the best of my life.  Adam brings so much JOY to our family.  

 Talk about being Showered with a Blessing!  

Adam is

  Funny 

Sweet

Energetic

Smart

Witty

Talented

Polite

Imaginative

Joyful

Loving

He is

A story teller

Protector of his little brother

A perfect hugger

A runner

A great friend

Adam, I love that every day we get to be Showered by your jokes and laughter, your stories and your ornery schemes, your kisses and hugs.  

We love you!

Fabulous Times

I had a real treat today.
My sweet friend, Missy, watched Austen for me while Adam was at school.  That's right, folks, I had 3 hours to myself!!   What did I do?  I scheduled a massage and pedicure.  
Now my feet look like this

There's nothing like pink toes to scare away the winter blues.  And my neck and shoulders are no longer tight and kinked.  A mini spa day is exactly what I needed!

Thank you to all those who made this day fabulous:

Jason Latham for the Christmas presents I redeemed for the massage and pedicure

Missy Wood for watching my sweet Austen

To the Cheesecake Factory.  I may just have had my leftover cheesecake for dinner tonight.--I had a late lunch :)

And definitely not least of all, to All my boys for a great trip to the Zoo

We live right around the corner, but haven't been for a long time.  Despite to slight rain that we got caught in, we had a fabulous time!  (Adam actually loved slipping around in the wet padded area!)

  
Austen just liked running around and falling!

And if your going to be blue, why not be blue-fabulous like these guys

Happy Fabulous Friday everyone!

Valentine's Day!

Valentine's Day!

I get so excited for this "Day of Love"!  It's almost like Christmas for me.  My boys will wake to heart-shaped pancakes and valentines bags full of goodies.

I made the bags last year following this tutorial.  They were my first sewing project!  My very talented and very-patient-with-me friend, Melissa at Lissalaneous Thoughts , invited me to join her in this project.  We had so much fun sewing together!

And the bags turned out pretty good, being that they were my sewing machine's maiden voyage.

So tomorrow they will be filled with all sorts of goodies for the boys

 I told you....It's like Christmas!!

May your Valentine's Day be filled with love and goodies.
And may you be surrounded by those you love

Sing the Blues Away

The last few weeks have been kind of a blur.  I've been hit hard with the Blues.  My blog has fallen to the way-side.  And I've been trying to keep my chin up.

J's been working crazy hours.  Between the hours of 1-3pm and 5am he can be found here

So in order for us to get some time with Daddy, we need to crash his work time.  Which, for us, means we open the basement door, walk down the stairs and barge into the control room
Watch out Studio JaeL, You've got Visitors!!  

The boys love going down to the studio.  Who wouldn't?  Look at all those knobs and lights!  According to Adam (via a school Father's Day questionnaire) when Daddy goes to work "he turns some lights on."  We try to keep the boys away from the knobs and lights, though.

Instead, they Play the piano

And Sing

The boys love to sing!

J set up this stand that's the perfect height for the boys to jam on.  

Although my blues stuck around A LOT longer than I wanted them to, moments like these make me smile and laugh.

Sing those Blues Away!!!

ER

I spent yesterday afternoon in the ER with the boys.  

Little Austen sliced his left, middle finger on a can in my recycling bin.  It was one of those I-knew-I-shouldn't-have-left-that-out moments.  Just as I was about to turn around and redirect him he started crying.  The lid was still connected to the can, so it was like a a trap door.  He got his finger in but couldn't pull it out.  Then he yanked it out and......off to the ER we went.

**I especially need to say what a good boy Adam was.  "Adam, put your shoes on!"  Done.  "Hand me the phone, please."  Done.  "Grab your jacket."  Done.  "Hop in your carseat." Done!

I wrapped  Austen's hand in a cloth, put him in his carseat and headed off.  This was my first ER trip taking one of the boys---and by myself!  Luckily I had scouted out the route and new exactly where to go.  We are so blessed to have Vanderbilt Children's Hospital so close.  They have an ER just for kids.

By the time we got to the hospital, poor Austen crying the whole time, he looked pretty bad.  He had blood all over his shirt and had rubbed it all over his face.  

I think the waiting is the hardest part.  But again  **Adam was great!** and soon the bleeding stopped and Austen wanted to get down and play.  When we got to our room the nurse put a bandaid on his finger so I wouldn't have to keep the cloth wrapped around his hand.  While we waited, the boys colored and explored all the wonders of a hospital room.

Austen was given some anti-anxiety medicine, which they had to put up his nose.  It made him super loopy!  He could hardly hold his head up.  Because we were at the children's ER, a Child Life specialist came with books and toys to distract Austen while the Dr. sewed him up.  2 Stiches!

They wrapped up his finger, gave both boys a popsicle, and sent us home.  

Austen slept from 5 pm until 4 am.

He's doing fine today.  Here is he is showing off his "owww"

Kisses!

Yes, he may look like he's giving "the finger" for a few days.  But soon the bandage will come off and we can just use Bandaids.  He'll get the stiches out in about a week.

Kisses make everything better!

A Real Winter calls for a Wild Rompus

The snow fell beautifully thick last night and did not stop until the ground and roads were covered.  I love that we are having a Real Winter this year.  In previous years, I had missed the snowball fights, the crunch of the snow under my boots, leaving tracks in freshly fallen snow, and feeling cozy in my house while the snow fell outside.  Perhaps this Real Winter is making up for lost time.  And the snow seems to want to stick around for awhile, instead of melting away soon after falling.


We've been playing in the snow a lot this year, but some snow days you just want to stay inside.  But in order to keep every snow day from looking like this

Mom's job is to come up with lots of activities to keep two energetic boys entertained.  


We play lots of games (many thanks to my sister, Nicole, who handed down some great games).  Adam's favorites are Hi-Ho Cherry-O and Memory.  
Austen loves to play this obnoxious game called Buck-a-Roo.  You load up a "moody mule" with gear and hope that he doesn't buck. 

 But when he does and his stuff goes flying, Austen cracks up!


And we love to have ourselves a Wild Rompus on mommy's bed!

With such a Wild Rompus this, perhaps, is inevitable

Though soon after we have this

Snow Day!

We have had more snow in Tennessee this winter than all the winter's combined since we've lived here.  Last week the schools were closed (some days unnecessarily) all week!  Then we of course had off Monday for MLK.  So, needless to say, we had some fun in the snow!


Well, Adam did!

His favorite Snow Day activities are

 Pelting me with snowballs

Like this one the size of his head!

Eating snow

And snow parties!

Snow Days were made for 

And my dear, sweet Austen.....

Well, this is how much he likes the snow

After some comforting from his brother

He brightened up!

His little boots were so hard for him to walk in that he insisted on holding my hand the whole time we were outside.  

We, of course finished off the day with some hot chocolate

Funny Faces and All!