Princess Leia Before Weight Watchers

Sunday, we went to the mall in Cincinnati [very nice] and they had a...Lego store. At this point in my life, it's the equivalent of taking your daughter to the American Girl store. The boys loved it. I took pictures...but my computer crashed last night so this will have to do. 

I saw this there...

[photo credit]

Seriously though...how perfectly balanced is she? Buns & Guns. 

She's the perfect princess.

[photo credit]

FILLING UP THE CALENDAR

I found out that the local library has a [free] story time/music class on Wednesday mornings...check. I also signed Nation up for soccer at the YMCA [practice one night a week and games on Saturdays]. 

While there I heard about a homeschool program they have on Fridays. It's $4 a child for two hours. They do structured games for one hour and the second hour is free play [includes swimming].

Add one day having lunch with Charles, one day at a bounce house and one day at the Children's Museum [or Mall] and that's probably going to be our Fall in-door schedule when it cools off.


Meanwhile, we'll keep hitting up the parks & pool as long as we can. Keeping the kids inside the apartment all day would give anyone cabin fever...or some fatal rash.

Ohhhh the life of a soccer mom.

BETH MOORE

At Riverstone, our home church in Atlanta, I really have enjoyed attending the Beth Moore studies on Revelation& Proverbs. The women's group is about to begin the study called Breaking Free. I ordered it off eBay today for a steal and plan to see if anyone else in the apartment complex would like to join me in the movie room once a week to watch & discuss. Pray God brings the right people if this is His will. Either way, I'm excited to follow along with my gals back home.

The church is also starting small group chapter studies in the Word. Our small group is doing Nehemiah, so we'll be following along here in Ohio with them as well.

RUNNING

I'm now entering week 4 of Couch to 5K. I've still be able to easily progress even though I've only run 2 days a week verses 3 [like suggested]. Hopeful to make 3 this week.

COOL LINKS

Online interactive site for Pre-K/Kindergarten that Nation has enjoyed this week:

http://www.starfall.com/

NATIONISMS:

Today Nation told that his stomach was so full his heart was having a hard time having room to make good choices.

Mother's Day Do-Over

I slept in [you all know this is a gift in itself] and woke up to this...

and this...

and this...

and these outside...

Is it just me or when you receive a [costly] "just because" gift you immediately feel bad or like you don't deserve it? I'm still in the process of graciously receiving compliments & gifts from my husband. Charles later joked about considering it a Mother's Day do-over. Suddenly, I felt less bad about all the gifts. 

This past Mother's Day, we weren't exactly getting along, we were tight, and Nation's Sunday school teacher told me she thought Nation needed to be on prescription drugs for his behavior. There was a lot of crying that day. It was one of the worst mornings of my adult life.

When I think back over my Mother's Days in the past...there were some good ones and some bad ones. I never saw The Middle's Mother's Day episode, but my mom told me about it. Why are some Mother's Days bad...but rarely Father's days aren't?

Who cares. It's days like yesterday's "just because" that make up for the formal days that don't always pan out positively.  

A 2 minute clip from The Middle's episode.

The Irony of Boredom

Nation was laying on the floor this morning [when we usually go outside, but Friday's have been cleaning days] and said..."Mom, I'm tired." But immediately I discerned, the word he was looking for was...Bored. Poor thing had run out of things to do and didn't even know the word to describe it. Oh, don't worry, now he does and proved it by using it several times today. Even telling me once, "Mom, you are making me boring" [translation: you aren't entertaining me enough].

I think that's the milestone between childhood and adulthood. True boredom. Or maybe it's the difference between childhood and mommyhood. I can't remember the last time I thought "Man, I have nothing to do, I sure wish there was something to keep me busy...I'm just lying around running out of ideas." Thankfully imagination keep us busy in both "hoods." To my little boys it's chasing make believe creatures and building tall towers [out of anything that can be stacked vertically]. But in mommyhood it's climbing Mt. Laundry and swimming across Lake Dishes. All require survival skills.

The irony of it all is...when you're a child all you complain about is running out of things TO DO, and when you're an adult all you do is complain about all you have TO DO. 

Things we do inside while mom cleans & we've decided our toys aren't interesting:

We wrestle

Yes, Solomon is usually in a diaper & Nation in his underwear

[it's Green, less laundry, don't hate]

We brush our teeth for fun

We kidsquat.

The natural position small children daily find comfortable

[Makes midwives happy too]

Oh Dear, what if Nation had been a twin?

We watch Shark Boy & Lava Girl

this "your brain on drugs" look is why some parents don't let their kids watch TV

[Side Note: please go look at who is Skark Boy in the movie]

We accidentally take photos of our blinds

Color edits in above pictures inspired by this unedited picture above.

[Side Note: everyone who wants their kids to nap should purchase room darkening shades. Especially if your room faces East, or your kids room faces West].

Don't feel too sorry for my kids, I later took them to the park & to the pool. Should I mention I had to give Nation a massage to make him be still & fall asleep? Then I proceeded to temporally loose him at the park. That's why we call him The Flash. Never stops moving...Never slows down.

Thankful Thursday Top Ten [#4]

It's been one of those Thursdays where I've re-heated my tea several times. 

Life is a constant interruption from watching children [although tempting to thing the opposite is true]. You know those days where your toddler poops in the indoor Chick-fil-a playground [upon arrival]...when the nuggets are hot, the baby is asleep in the carrier and you didn't bring your diaper bag inside? Nevertheless, it's always a good day to be thankful.

Thankful this week for:

1-Long email convos back in forth with close girlfriends that are too intimate for blogs

2-Tomorrow is Friday. Which means the next two days following Charles will be around ALL day.

3-Takeout brought home by Charles when the day was too long for me to desire to cook

4-Beth Moore bible studies [Was in Proverbs when I left GA and am looking forward to Breaking Free this Fall]

5-Free parks [keeps the kids exhausted & gives me something to conquer & photograph...new day, new park]

6-A great mom whom I enjoy the company of [and conversation with while away]

7-Texting [a wonderful way to say "hey, thinking about you" or "I love you" or "guess what just happen" when your house is too loud to actually use your phone to make phone calls...EVER AGAIN]

8-Amazon Prime [might make my list often...it's so exciting to us when UPS knocks on our door with a little or big brown box of goodness for us to open...saves me the trip to the store & impulse buying]

9-Sippy Cups [even if they are often as mismatched & lost as socks in the dryer...whoever created them, thank you, because my kids are careless spillers by nature]

10-Fun felt calendars to teach my kids with [because I'm only that crafty in my mind, I need a girl to motivate me to learn to sew]

Today I joined my first blog carnival. It's called You Capture. This weeks theme was Outside. We fed the ducks our several-days-old organic bread [that I may or may not have fed my kids the last few days before I realized it]. 

There are two ponds in our complex so it's just a tiny walk. Which was convenient when we had to return home shortly after arriving to be disciplined for running off and pretending we couldn't hear mommy. I am really trying to make the most of these training moments. Knowing, they aren't fun, but the kids know I mean business. Even if we're doing something fun---we'll stop---if they can't obey. Tough Love.

Snake Pits > Playgrounds

Boy [n]:  a noise with dirt on it.  We tried out a new park yesterday. The playground soon lost value when the "snake pit" was discovered. I decided to let the boys have a very dirty 90 minutes in the rocky ditch. Included, but not limited to, free rock climbing.  Rotary Park, 2260 Dayton-Xenia Rd. This 72 acre park features eight softball diamonds, four T-ball diamonds, and two baseball diamonds, as well as a large picnic shelter, play structure and various soccer fields and volleyball courts. I did not allow them to play near the drain or the big rocks [aka home to snakes I'm sure...although rumor has it Ohio has no poisonous snakes]. I sat right next to them and took pictures. [not posed]

Links & Logs

I struggle between long mindless posts and short insightful ones. 

I started this blog to catalog our "vacation" in Dayton, OH. A lot of everyday is the same [meals, discipling, playing, shopping, teaching, exhaustion, 8pm], but a lot of it is new too [new parks, new stores, new places, new people]. 

I'm asking God for wisdom to make this blog something that doesn't waste someones valuable time, but [perhaps] relieves their temporary exhaustion as well. Since experience & maturity aren't full developed...my medium is humor. I hope my stories and pictures make you laugh & refresh your heart. 

You are loved.

Things you could live without knowing about my day:

[1] Moses turned 5 months

[2] I'm on week three of Couch to 5K

[3] Nation told me "You're beautiful" after I told him he was in trouble

[4] I made Raspberry Salmon for dinner [baked it instead of grilled it]

[5] Heard about Toggl [took me 56 minutes to write this blog post]

[6] Heard about Dinner Tool

[7] I've encouraged several others to blog...two have started

http://professionalparenting.blogspot.com/

http://homeschoolhappy.wordpress.com/

[8] I bought the boys Lincoln Logs

[9] I bought two cds: 

Across The Earth: Tear Down The Walls: [Hillsong United]

Here Is Love[Bethel Live]

[10] I missed seeing/talking to my [hard-working] husband all day after this nice weekend together [leaves at 6:45am gets home at 8pm]

[11] I was tough and didn't give Nation a cookie at the grocery store because he was naughty

[12] Boxed Tazo Chai Latte Concentrate cost $1 more here than in GA [when you add in the milk I think going to Starbucks everyday might actually SAVE me money, jk]

[13] Didn't go to bed before midnight because I was writing this post

[14] Just realized this was my 24th post on the 24th

Looks Can Be Deceiving

Don't let's these pictures fool you. We eventually laughed and called it quits.

Taking two toddlers & a baby fishing is a lot less fun than the commercials make it look. I had the great idea to go fishing at Five Rivers Metro Parks this Sunday afternoon. Don't get me wrong, THE KIDS had tons of fun...but our afternoon felt more like this...

and this...

and the kids felt more like this...

 [not a posed picture...he even crossed his ankles]

But, I did catch this tiny fish by accident,

with a frog attached trying to eat it

[bonus we saw a turtle & crawfish]

Solomon [among other things] dumped out all the worms then threw them into the water

To make up for it, there was a little of this...

and a little of that...

At least someone had their ducks in a row

[because we surely didn't]

We decided we'll come alone next time...
and actually fish.

Taking Up All The Swings

Dominick Lofino Park

640 Grange Hall Rd.

This park is located in Beavercreek, OH [right next to the YMCA]. It has lots of playgrounds, swings, a skate park [although your kids might learn some new vocabulary words you'd prefer they didn't], tennis courts, covered pavilion, and and beautiful trees...that unfortunately don't cover the playground area. There is also a pond to fish, but we didn't get to that part yet.

How God Redeemed Our Marriage

This is my fifth and final post in the series on my five years of marriage. In theory, I would have finished this yesterday, August 20th, our 5 year anniversary, but we were out celebrating. The first four parts: How We Met, Dating & Engagement, Wedding Day, and Why I'm Thankful for Him. 

Before I share about that, I wanted to say something about our marriage this year in hopes that this might encourage someone. Please excuse the transparency. We really did have a honeymoon of a first year and never really had a dish-throwing-sleep-on-the-couch-year...until this year. Well that's an exaggeration, there were no dish causalities. However, this last year of our marriage came to a fork in the road. Divorce was never an option, but the future of the way we would conduct our marriage was on the line.

We both loved Jesus. We both loved each other. I never thought we'd be in the position we were in. But Charles [he's okay with me saying this] lost sight of an important biblical truth.  

"Husbands, likewise, dwell with them with understanding, giving honor to the wife, as to the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life, that your prayers may not be hindered." 

-1 Peter 3:7

We'd always agreed to not move forward with things if we weren't in agreement about them. Long story short, we came to a point where we had to seek heavy counsel & submit ourselves to Jesus in a way we had never before...or risk losing our marriage. 

The first picture I post below is of a restaurant in downtown called "Rock Bottom." We hit it. God was so good. He used amazing people in our lives to pray, serve, rebuke, counsel and love us back together. I am happy to report that our marriage will never be the same. 

I say all this to say...

[1] No marriage is perfect, but thankfully the Savior we serve is.

[2] Husbands dwell in understanding with your wives.

[3] Wives if they aren't...follow the biblical outline the Word lays out for us. I can testify that it works.

"Wives, likewise, be submissive to your own husbands, that even if some do not obey the word, they, without a word, may be won by the conduct of their wives, when they observe your chaste conduct accompanied by fear [of the Lord]." 

-1 Peter 3: 1,2 

[4] We need The Body. I am so thankful for the body of Christ and the work of Love that happened in us through them. Thank you all who held our marriage together in your prayers and words.

[5] Love. [1 Cor 13:4-8]

Love suffers long and is kind; 

love does not envy; 

love does not parade itself, 

is not puffed up; 

does not behave rudely, 

does not seek its own, 

is not provoked, 

thinks no evil; 

does not rejoice in iniquity, 

but rejoices in the truth; 

bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never fails.

Cincinnati 

Last night, Charles surprised me and took me out to dinner in downtown Cincinnati. Neither of us had been before. We had a very romantic & relaxing adult night [...kidless] at Palomino's, walked around & then went on our first horse carriage ride. 

I didn't bring my camera out of fear of looking like a tourist...even worse...didn't even have a purse to hide it in. So all my pictures were taken at night on my iPhone. Think sentiment not quality.

Thankful this night happened, even though so many obstacles this year almost prevented it. Our friends & family came together and helped us make it happen. 

Blessed.

Favorite picture #1 of us

...not because it's the best quality 

or we look the best

but because it was taken last night 

and still being together and happy 

after the first five years

makes it my favorite...

so far.