Days like These

Feeling a little anxious today and worrying about "what-ifs". Feeling the need to BREATHE and slow down, to calm my mind and my heart. To still myself enough that I can hear His voice speaking to me and feel His peace wash over me. One of those days....

UNTIL .....I got sweet slobbery two-year old kisses, sweet gentle three-year old kisses and tender loving faithful husband kisses. THAT makes life seem so much better!
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Last night Samuel was in the bathroom with me brushing his teeth while I was taking out my contacts. He was watching VERY carefully..
S: "Mommy? Why are you taking out part of your eye?"
H, chuckling: "It's not my eye! It's called a contact and it helps me see."
S, thinking: "Oh. Well can I see the part of your eye?"
H, showing him the contact and my in-tact eye: "See, it's not my eye, just my contact."
S: "Can I have contacts, too?"
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While at various parks this weekend, the boys went down the slides about 892 times each! Samuel flies down the slides so fast, he swoops right off the end and lands on his feet which is hilarious every time. Zakkai gets going really fast but slows himself down towards the end by turning sideways or using his feet. He always gets off with a HUGE smile on his face. At the end of one such sliding-venture, he exclaimed, "I so funny, mommy!" Yes, Zakkai, you are:)
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I am so thankful for the silly, sweet, endearing antics of my precious boys especially on days like these!

Sunny Days!

The first sound I made this morning? "GASP!!!" (think, sharp inhaling of air, heart beating rapidly, eyes WIDE open) The reason, you ask? There was a 3 1/2 year old standing about 3 inches from my face, staring at me. Just staring......

And with that, our day was off! We have SO enjoyed the gorgeous weather around here the past two days. (sunny and 70!)It is incredibly refreshing to spend so much time outside soaking in the warmth (not to mention it helps to wear out two energetic children:). But is it going to last? Nope. Tomorrow's forecast? Rain and upper 50s. Does anyone else think spring is taking for-ev-er to come? Somehow I forget each year.....must be mommy-brain:)

Not much else going on here at the moment. Just enjoying two boys outfitted in baseball hats (could they be any cuter?), one with a cold, being productive, playing in the sun, enjoying a happy-dissertation-writing husband, eating chocolate (makes any day good!) and anticipating a busy week ahead. Hope you're having a happy weekend!

Inspired

Occasionally, I have those days that I am totally inspired to do something. Usually it's extra cleaning, rearranging the furniture (one of my favs!), or changing something about my life. Today's inspiration? Cooking for/with my boys!

My Zman is becoming a picky 2 year old (grrr!!) and it takes creativity to get him to eat certain things. One group of foods that he has despised since he started eating? Bread!! Will NOT touch grilled cheese, toast, certain crackers (that's a new one), etc. BUT he will eat certain muffins, pancakes and cake. Stinker! Anyways, he's recently started boycotting veggies. Sigh. We went through this with Big Brother who was a FANTASTIC eater until approx 2 yrs and 4 mos old. Then one day he decided to turn up his adorable, kissable little nose in disgust at something he had voraciously gobbled down only the day before! Kids....

So it's hit or miss with dinner time and whether or not the boys are going to eat it. Last night's meal? http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Meatball-Sandwich/Detail.aspx
(I did Gr Turkey instead of beef and added some worchestershire sauce. Served with a side of fresh green beans. Yummy!!)
Miraculously, a HUGE hit! They even ate leftovers for lunch today. Go figure..
Today at the store (where, you ask? Where else! TARGET!!!), I ran across a kid's cookbook that looked so fun for cooking with kids with lots of kid-tasty treats. It was this one:
http://www.amazon.com/Disney-Magic-Kitchen-Cookbook/dp/0696237326
I'm going to check and see if they have it at the library! Soon I have a couple more kid-friendly cooking/tricking-your-toddler-into-eating-websites to share. First I have to test them out on my own two. Sneaky mommy!

Wordy Wednesday

A few pictures from our trip home! Okay...a lot of pics!

Two onsies/dress I made for my friend's new baby!
Popeye?
Throwing rocks in the river with Grandma and cousins, Brandon and Kaleb

Zakkai, Brandon, Samuel

Meeting my friend's baby girl: Olivia Kate~ 2 weeks old

A beaming Sarah and her precious baby girl

Decorating eggs with Mugga!

Zakkai's first egg decorating experience!

Ready, Get Set.....Go! (My cousin's friends, my nephews Jackson and Dylan, Samuel)

Samuel and his precious eggs!

Zakkai's egg-loot!

Mugga, Papa and Samuel

Mugga, Papa and Zakkai

The result of visiting on Easter:)

It is amazing what a one hour time difference can do to children! The boys are still going to bed super-early and unfortunately waking up early, too. And Zakkai is G.R.U.M.P.Y!!! We are totally thrown off by coming home on Monday and both Ben and I are completely confused on what day it is. Wednesday already?!

I apologize ahead of time for a very random post. I compose bits and pieces of posts for my blog throughout the day: clever things, funny sayings, silly stories.... And then I log on, the blank page comes up....and all my thoughts fly right out the window. I am learning how to be me and to write with my own style.

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I never get to watch romance movies (courtesy of my husband) but tonight on tv I found "You've Got Mail." Sigh. Have I ever mentioned that Tom Hanks is my favorite actor? I'm not into movie stars at all but I do love a good Tom Hanks movie. And throw Meg Ryan in? You've got a good movie!

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Zakkai is starting to boss Samuel around! He even tattled on him for the first time on the way home from Ohio on Monday:) It made us laugh and Samuel protest. Like big brother, like little brother. He is starting to tell us what Samuel wants along with his own wants, too. Samuel is usually the one who speaks for Zakkai so it's really funny to hear it turned around. This morning Zakkai said, "I wan' Shredded Wheat. Samel wants Life." He is growing up SO fast! Our families could not believe how big he's gotten or how much he looks like Samuel.

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Yesterday Ben got out some tools to tighten something on Samuel's scooter and the boys had to get our their tools to "help." It was SO cute to watch them! They went around finding some more things to fix. Then this morning our janitor, Ivan, stopped by to fix an outlet in the kitchen and the boys were absolutely enthralled with what he was doing. Samuel dragged his workshop over near the kitchen, asked me to help him put on his Bob the Builder toolbelt and filled all the loops with tools. He wore it most of the day:)

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While I was in the worst of my injury, I made a list of my goals for 2009. Partially because I really do have a lot of personal goals I'd like to accomplish and partially because I was pretty much stuck on the couch and anything sounded like a fun goal at the time, including cleaning the apartment from top to bottom!

One of my little goals (okay, big) is to get caught up on my scrapbooking for the boys. I was really really close to being completely caught up....and then Zakkai was born. And now? I am ONLY about 1 1/2 years behind on Zakkai and just less than 2 years behind on Samuel. Why does that sound incredibly daunting seeing it in print? It would be so nice to be caught up and add pictures as they come. Tonight I did May-June 2007 for Samuel. He was SO little! Hopefully I can get caught up before they're teenagers:)

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Anyways, lame post. I can't seem to collect my thoughts tonight but at least you know we're doing well, just getting settled back into our busy life and trying to de-grumpify the children:)

Our Weekend

It was a time of: Celebration
family
driving
cranky sleepless children
good food
memories
busyness
rest
bonding
exhaustion
meeting new friends
greeting old friends
egg decorating
easter egg hunting
chocolate on the boy's clothes
crying
hugs
love
games
thinking
talking
rain
sun
A time to share in celebrating our Risen Lord with other believers and spending time with our families whom we miss so much. It was super busy and tiring. It was good.