June 28

June 27

More closet organizing & finished up the day with bingo at the assisted living home with great grandma. 

G 54

What?

What??

What?

G 54!

What, G 64??

No, G 54.

Oh, G 54.

June 26

June 23

Happy belated Farther's Day to the dude at the head of the table, aka my dad. :)

June 22

Relay For Life. It was a HOT, hot day. I had an awesome gyro that was not nearly as good the second time around. :-/ They are still there going strong until 10am tomorrow morning, so say a prayer for all the brave souls still out there walking through the night. We are currently in first place by a little bit--hopefully we can keep our monetary lead until the finish!! Go Glitter Effect!

June 21

Eva is 7 months old today already... It's was a fun & full day! The kids loved the splash pad, & I loved time with my sister, Starbucks, & Aladdins. :)

June 20

Games, the Children's Museum, & a baseball game. It was another victory for The Cardinals--they're undefeated!! :)

June 19

Clayton's first baseball game {finally!}, & it was a beautiful day for it! 

June 18

I couldn't shake the crankiness today. Blah. Thank goodness for new mercies each morning!

The Greatness Within You

For as long as I can remember, I wanted to "help people" when I grew up. That is, after I got over my obsession with being an FBI agent in middle school. But I suppose that even FBI agents help people, in a crime-stopping, drug-ring-busting, fugitive-tracking, fingerprint-dusting kind of way. They help the good guys by catching the bad guys. From there it transformed from an Virologist, {don't all girls want to catch felons and study viruses?? What can I say, I was a weird kid...}, to a Brain Surgeon, to a Doctor, to a Psychologist, to finally a Social Worker when I changed my major as a Freshman in college. I hadn't realized until then that the broad "helping of people" could fit into so many different categories.

I truly enjoyed my job as a Social Worker for a few years until I had kids, and then I was blessed to be able to enjoy the new job of "helping people" as a stay-at-home mom. Little people need a lot of help. The hours are long and the need is great, but instead of a paycheck you get smiles, hugs, "I love you's," snuggles, all the "firsts," and the gift of time. TIME that can never be replaced later when the paycheck can. And although I enjoyed it immensely, I feel like a part of me got lost along the way. For years I would tell my husband I felt like a "mom blob." With fewer brain cells and some postpartum depression, I had moved into a stage of life where taking a shower and getting out of my sweats became an afterthought. Why bother with either when the baby's going to spit up again in 5 minutes, right? You can get so busy caring for others and putting yourself aside that you can easily set your "self" on a figurative shelf for years only to come back, dust it off, and realize you don't recognize you anymore. That passionate woman who wanted to change the world, where did she go? We can get so caught up in going through the motions that we forget about the greatness that dwells inside.

You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you. {Romans 8:9-11}

Did you catch that??? If you know Jesus Christ as your Savior, then the same Spirit that raised Him from the dead lives inside YOU! Whoa. 

You who change poopy diapers, 

nurse crying infants, 

mop up spilled juice, 

scrub applesauce off the walls, 

say "keep your hands to yourself" for the 499th time today, 

never get a full night's sleep,

clean dirty toilets, 

wash 9 loads of laundry, 

pack lunches,

wipe runny noses, 

cook meals from scratch, 

and drive the minivan taxi all over town

have the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead living inside YOU.

Greatness dwells inside of you.

And that might not be your job description, but whatever it is, greatness dwells inside of you, too. Greatness isn't limited by job description, age, location, education, intelligence, talents, or gifts, because it's not about you. It's about Who lives inside you. I think we were all destined for greatness, and all we have to do is step out and say "yes" in obedience. Greatness may not be fame, fortune, or prosperity. Greatness may not even be big things. But God is calling all of us to do something, and even the smallest thing done in His name and for His glory is GREAT.

Let's go do some great things together.


Don't ask yourself what the world needs; ask yourself what makes you come alive. And then go and do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.  {Howard Thurman}

June 17

I love that during the summer, Mondays are the new Saturdays. :) building forts, pancakes for breakfast, a hot cup of coffee, & nowhere to be for hours...

"I don't really like Super Why because all they do all the time is 'save the day.' That's ALL they do..." {Ruby, on Monday morning cartoons} Apparently, heroism isn't what it's cracked up to be.

A five-year-old's idea of a joke: what does a bear do when he has no tail? He jumps around on his butt! 

A six-year-old's idea of a joke: what does a pizza man deliver? He delivers pizzas but he also delivers babies!

Hmmm... Someone should tell them not to quit their day job. ;)

June 16

Happy Father's Day!!

June 15

Some cuteness from today.

June 14

"Mom! I saw a bee in the house! I was watching the TV, and then BOOM! There was a bee." {Toby}

Whole Wheat Pancakes

It's not like the world needs another pancake recipe, but these are very easy to make and would be worth a try if you're looking for a nice basic recipe. Whole grain pancakes are very tasty, so there's no reason to depend on that box of Bisquick any longer! This is a perfect recipe to double and freeze for easy breakfasts later, too. Simply pop the frozen pancakes into the toaster and voila!

Whole Wheat Pancakes

{makes about 18 pancakes}

2 eggs

4 tablespoons butter, melted*
{use coconut oil for DF}

2 cups whole milk
{use almond milk for DF}

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

2 cups whole wheat flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

2 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Combine the wet ingredients and whisk together. *Feel free to use less butter {2 tbsp} if you'd like. And I must say, whether you have a milk intolerance or not, using coconut oil instead of butter yields a far superior tasting pancake, in my opinion. Combine the dry ingredients and whisk to combine. Add the wet ingredients and whisk until most of the lumps are gone. Pour batter by the 1/4 cup full onto a greased pan over medium heat. Cook until lightly browned, when bubbles appear on the surface, and flip. 

This is a great basic recipe, but feel free to get creative by adding in 1/2 cup of blueberries, pumpkin puree, dark chocolate chips, or apples!

June 13: Poop & Pancakes

Soooo... I was feeling pretty optimistic that Toby was officially potty trained, and then this happened. He came over to me and said, "Mom, I pooped on the carpet. And now, I don't know what to do!"

Silver lining, at least he told me & didn't try to hide it somewhere...

Can you post a picture of poop online? I don't know, but I guess I just did. You should've seen the horrified and utterly confused look on Ruby's face as I was taking this picture. She said, "you want a picture of the POOP for your collage?!?!?!?!" I laughed and said, "well, no, not really, but it is what happened today." 

Some days are crappy, literally and/or figuratively. I'd like this to be a place where things are real, in all their messiness, because there's freedom there. So I will post our blessings alongside our crap. :) And on that note, the rest of our day didn't involve any {crap, that is}:

I have a whole wheat pancake recipe that I really like, so I'll post that sometime soon. 

Maybe I should change the title of my blog to Poop & Pancakes, since I just seemed to flow seamlessly from one to the other... Too much? lol

Anyways... We went to the FREE LUNCH program at church {check it out fellow CLE peeps!}, Clayton finally got home {we missed him!}, and I got Every. Last. Dish. Washed. Don't blink or you might miss it.

June 12

Starting to miss our little Clayton, who has been at Cloverbud Camp the past two days. We FaceTimed with him tonight.

June 11

Would you like to know what the two-year-old translation of "go to the bathroom and go potty" is? Apparently if you are Toby, it means go to the refrigerator {which is next to the bathroom, but really isn't the bathroom at all}, get out an egg, drop the egg on the floor, leave the refrigerator door open, and take what is left of the egg and put it in the bathroom sink, all while NOT going potty...

At least he's cute, right???

I Am "That Mom"

I used to really enjoy shopping, and I still do in the event that I'm able to go by myself. Checking items off my list, strolling up and down the isles at my leisure, digging through the clearance section in hopes of finding an amazing bargain I can't live without, and calmly checking out at the register with time to meticulously use each and every one of my coupons. Now, shopping these days usually means buying diapers, but I'll take what I can get.

Contrast that with the shopping trips I usually experience with my children, like the one today, for example. We set out to the craft store to buy a few things to decorate Ruby's "Clubhouse" {the little closet in her room}. Normally I wouldn't dare set foot in a craft store with my children, but I'm down a kid, who is at grandma's house, so I was feeling optimistic about the excursion. We enter the craft store, which is filled mostly with very, very quiet old ladies. There are also some women of various other ages milling about, but no other children visible to the naked eye.

Immediately, Toby, my two-year-old, takes off running. He probably saw something shiny. No sooner would I get him back and stop to look at some fabric and he would be off to the races again. Everything needed touched, sat on, climbed in, or otherwise physically contacted. At one point I actually couldn't find him, despite yelling repeatedly and loudly {very quiet store loudly} for him. My stress level is rising, along with my blood pressure. He finally emerged, with a big smile on his face, from a bottom shelf filled with quilt batting. I'm just thankful he didn't fall asleep in there or he would've been lost for good. So we get our tulle cut to the appropriate length and head to the restroom before we leave, as we are still potty-training. He insists on washing his hands both before and after using the potty, and he opens the door on the poor woman in the first stall. "Toby, that's enough soap. Stop playing in the sink. Throw your paper towel away." I swear everyone in the store knew the poor kid's name by the time we left.

Apparently I'm a glutton for punishment, because we walked down to the grocery store following this marvelous experience. Heck, I only lost my kid once so far, right? We're doing pretty good. I probably would've called it quits right there if we had more food in our refrigerator then half a bag of lettuce, a lemon, some condiments, a leftover chicken breast, and 1/20th of a gallon of milk. Oh, and a block of cream cheese. And let me just preface the following section with the obvious fact that entering a grocery store with three small children when you are already stressed is probably not a good idea. So in we go.

By the time we got to the checkout, I was spent. The baby is hungry and crying, not wanting to be put down, and the kids are restless. I'm becoming convinced that checkout lanes somehow conspire against stressed mothers because I never fail to pick the absolute l-o-n-g-e-s-t,  s-l-o-w-e-s-t  checkout line on days like this. There were five people in front of me with about half as many things, and the cashier flipped the light to flashing with every. single. customer. As we inched forward with the ebb and flow of the manager, the kids moved from running circles around the cart and me to trying to open various pieces of candy to sliding down my legs like a firehouse pole to trying to get candy out of the machines by the door to finally sitting on a bench. I load the groceries and checked out {not before the cashier flipped the light, though}, and we made it to the car. Phew. We survived.

Before you have kids, they don't tell you that grocery shopping is a workout. Forget workout, an Olympic event. They don't tell you about the sprinting required to stop a small child from running the cart headlong into the woman who is simply trying to buy some pepperonis, or to grab that piece of candy from the floor out of your child's hands before they can shove it into their mouth. Or the skill and precision it takes to maneuver an overstuffed cart {because Lord knows you don't want to do this again next week} with children hanging off either side up and down the isles without running anyone over. Or the emotional and mental stamina you will need to withstand the onslaught of "can we get this?!?!" and "I want this!!" that starts mere seconds after entering the store.

Before you have kids, you think, I will never be that mom. You know the one. The one whose kids run wild, climb all over the shelves, hide in the paper towels, and ask for every God-forsaken toy, doll, game and piece of candy in the store, especially in the checkout lane. The one whose kids think that the balls in the big wire bins are actually made to be bounced across the floor. The one dragging her kicking, screaming toddler out of the store with one arm while desperately trying to keep her maternity pants from falling down with the other. The one with that crazy look in her eye because she's using every last ounce of energy not to erupt into a flaming ball of rage or melt into a puddle of sobbing exhaustion on the white tile floor. That one. If you're a parent out there, then you have been there before, at least once. If you haven't yet, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but you will be, my friend. The only way to completely avoid one of those moments is to never go out in public with your child. Ever.

When you happen upon that mom in the store, at the park, or even at church {assuming it's not you at the time}, offer her some kindness and encouragement. A smile, a kind word, or even an offer to help goes a long way. She may not have the wherewithal to respond appropriately--I offered a deep, guttural sigh {really, a growl} to a kind woman today--if at all, but she hears you. She notices. And when she gets home and has all the groceries unloaded and put away, she will finally sit down with a cup of coffee and a moment to think. She will remember your kindness and she will be grateful that you took a moment of your time to bless her amidst the chaos that is her life sometimes.

To the kind woman at Joann's that left the extra flyer with the coupons, thank you. To the sweet cashier who said, "I'm not supposed to do this..." but clipped them for me anyways and applied them to my bill, thank you. To the elderly couple who smiled at my wild children as they ran right in front of them instead of scowling, thank you. To the fellow shopper who quietly watched me at both stores and offered an encouraging "hang in there" on the way out, thank you. Thank you for looking past that mom and seeing me.

Life with Little Ones

There were a few months in time after Toby was born in 2010 that we had 3 kids ages 3 and under, and then 4 kids 5 and under for a few weeks after Eva was born this past November. I always have the baby on my hip these days, and people never fail to comment on how cute she is, which is normally followed up by, "oh, is she your first?" The look of surprise across their face when I reply, "no, she's my fourth," never gets old. There's apparently a shock value to that statement, and I enjoy it.

"Wow! You really have your hands full!"

"Wow! You must be really busy."

"Is it hard keeping track of that many kids?"

"Is four a lot to handle?"

The answer is, YES! Life with little ones, especially when ALL of them are so little, is tough. Some days are long, frustrating, exhausting, and brutal. The whining, complaining, mess, and poop never end. Sometimes I want to lock myself in the bathroom and ignore all the chaos erupting just outside the door. But for every terrible, no good, crappy, crappy, crappy day, there is a proportionally wonderful, heart-touching, lovely, great day to balance it out. Otherwise, why would we continue to have these little blessings in the form of children? Or perhaps someone needs to explain to me again where babies come from...

In my particular situation, a lot of the exhaustion comes from the fact that they are all so little and still need help with a lot of things. Brushing four sets of teeth, tying four pairs of shoes, picking out four sets of clothes and helping them get dressed, and so on...every...day... I know there will come a day when I just have to get myself ready each morning, but I honestly can't picture that at the moment. With Clayton in kindergarten this past year, it forced some of them to grow up a little and start taking care of themselves on their own. I relish the times when I'm able to launch them into a newfound area of independence! Change is often hard but sooooo worth it.

Gone are the days of bathing four children, as the two big ones take a shower themselves. Out of convenience and pure laziness on our part as of late, we've been putting Toby in the shower with Clayton to eliminate yet another bath time from our plate. Clayton is gone for a few days this week, however, and Ruby was very excited to have Toby as a shower buddy. They ran upstairs, by themselves, to hop in the shower. We assumed things were going okay until we heard Ruby yell,

"Mom!! I can't wash Toby's poopy butt!"

Hmm.

Perhaps we should've explained the rules of showering before we sent them streaking up the stairs... Everybody washes their own parts. Details. Alas, we had to help with bath time after all, but at least not without a good laugh. :)

June 10

June 9

Happy birthday, Jer!

June 8

June 7

This baby hates food. She spits it out, vomits, & otherwise refuses to eat it. 😁 No comment regarding potty training, take 3, day 2 lest I jinx it. 

June 6

"To live will be an awfully big adventure."

First day off school & Relay fundraiser at Chuck E Cheese. Oh, & spontaneous potty training, take 3.

June 5

Wednesday. Last day of school!! That's his sweet teacher, Mrs. Salinas. I CANNOT believe that the two bigs will both be in school in a few months... {*tear*} Although, ask me again at the end of the summer & I might be thinking differently. 😉

June 4

"That's a weird giraffe with a loooong curly tail & long nails." {Clayton}

And a major accomplishment: after all the crazy weather changes, I FINALLY got all the kids winter clothes packed up in bins & put up in the attic! I neglected doing this with the summer clothes last fall {i.e., they literally sat on their dressers the entire winter & spring}. But on a positive note, it sure made getting ready for summer pretty easy! Lol

June 3

Clayton graduated from kindergarten today!!! Oh my... I'm officially a mother of a first grader and a kindergartener. He rapped his ABC's & 123's, & he rapped about the seasons & respect. We go to school in Cleveland, yo. Fo shizzle.

Thanks to everyone who came to support him!! He was very blessed. :)

June 1

Bikin' & swingin' 

May 31

May 30