True story: I was working on writing this last night (Valentine’s Day) and Ms. Molly just would not go to sleep! My husband happened to be passing through the room just as I said, rather exasperatedly, “Please, Molly, stop climbing on Mama. I’m trying to type.” He looked at us and said “Yeah, Mama is too busy writing about how much she loves you to love you right now.” Um… ouch. So of course I turned off the computer and snuggled my sweet little girl. And now here I am tonight with a little boy on my left and a bigger boy on my right, completing yesterday’s Valentine post. I hope your day was full of love!
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Looking for a way to bring peace and joy to your day?
Seasons of Joy is my 10-week seasonal guidebook to add rhythm and fun to your daily routine. Each guidebook has ten weeks' worth of circle times, stories, arts, crafts, and handwork, painting, playtime activities and more!
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I am so excited and blessed to be participating in Erin Goodman’s 10-Day Family Recharge! Saturday was the first day, and I woke up to this lovely video in my in-box. Isn’t it a beautiful song? It actually reminded me of a very similar song from Sweet Honey on the Rock’s “All for Freedom” album, which I used to play a lot a billion years ago when I taught preschool. So I dug around a little, and it seems to be based on an old gospel tune. The earliest version I could find was by Bessie Jones. “…blah… blah… blah… BLOOD.” Even though I’m surrounded by books and papers with ten tabs open on my browser as I prepare for a Sunday night frenzy of lesson planning, the last word is enough to make me look up and pay attention to what my four-year-old is saying. “What about blood?” He lifts his foot and shows me a smear of red covering several toes. “Daddy said it will be OK. I either stepped in paint or it’s just a little blood.” He wrinkles his brow and looks to me to tell him that he is indeed fine. I see the question in his eyes. Last Friday, I planned two weeks worth of menus. After shopping my stockpile and freezer, I took the remainder of my list and went to the store. Well, stores. My grocery budget for the 8 of us has just been raised to a high rolling $225 every two weeks. I can make it work, too, with careful planning, shopping multiple stores, and loading my pantry with bargains as I find them. My budget doesn’t include household goods or toiletries, which also helps. We use WIC as well, although rather selectively, and we don’t get everything on the checks because there are some things that we simply can’t get as whole foods. For example, my only choices for peanut butter involve high fructose corn syrup. I do get Cabot cheese, whole milk (BHG free), fruits and veggies, eggs, dry beans, oats, and brown rice. My lack of blogging speaks to two ongoing issues in my life right now. First, no camera. It hasn’t been the same since Michael accidentally spilled his drink on it at the Little League World Series. It hung in there for a bit, but finally gave up the ghost right after Christmas. I had my eye on a really nice replacement until my hubby decided to renew his on-again off-again relationship with Dave Ramsey and pay off our two remaining credit card bills and the remainder of my student loan instead. So instead I have a cute little purple point-and-click Nikon on its way instead. Ah well- easy come, easy go.
I’ve been putting off writing my resolutions. Actually, that’s not entirely true. I’ve been putting off making the time to write out my resolutions. Although to be fair, part of what’s been taking up my time is that I’ve actually already started to live out some of my resolutions, so I guess it’s probably not a bad thing. Anyway, here we go… Spiritually, I would like to… Have you heard of the whole “one little word” trend? Actually, let me backtrack a little. Have you heard of the concept of a life verse? It’s a Scripture verse that has great personal meaning to you. Maybe it defines your life. Maybe it reflects it. Maybe it’s something that you cling to in times to adversity or maybe it’s something you strive to live up to. In my case, it’s a verse that has dogged me ever since I was a small child. 2011 was a year of laughter and tears. In January, we delighted in the twins as they continued to grow in their own sweet ways.
As my heart slowly recovered, I began to take back more of my home responsibilities, learning to juggle them with babies in tow.
In February, Mimi and PeePaw met the babies for the first time!
Mama was still recovering, so we made valentines in bed.
As Mama began to feel better, we would exercise by walking the mall. There we discovered that The Children’s Place was an excellent source for matchy matchy outfits! When we were in high school, we had periodic career seminars. We took tests to find out what color our parachutes were, gift and talent inventories, computer surveys. We shadowed people who had jobs we might like to do someday and were pressured at the tender age of 16, 17, 18 to choose a path on which we would travel down for the rest of our lives. Things have been kind of quiet here this past week. Not just on the blog, but in real life as well. You see, as I get closer and closer to the babies’ first birthday, I have to remember that November 23 is the anniversary of something else as well– the day I went into heart failure. The day I was diagnosed with peripartum cardiomyopathy. |
Jack be nimble,
Jack be quick. Jack jump over The candlestick!  Love
1 Corinthians 13 4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 8 Love never fails. 
Love begins by taking care of the closest ones - the ones at home.
~Mother Teresa |
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