God is always working to make His children aware of a dream
that remains alive beneath the rubble of every shattered dream,

a new dream that
when realized will release a new song, sung with tears,

till God wipes them away
and we sing with nothing but joy in our hearts

--Larry Crabb


Thursday, January 30, 2014

What? February?

It looks as if I have a little catching up to do. I have good intentions to do a pits here and there, but good intentions do not keep respiratory infections away, chocolate milk off of the carpet, or babies from playing in toilets. Funny how priorities change when you become a mama twice over. We've been good. Still loving the urban ness of our locale, although this unusual cold spell has forced us to spend waaaay more time indoors than we'd like. I miss going to the park and out for walks. The kids miss their mommy being sane. We all miss Craig. He is at work an awful lot these days...something about earning a paycheck blah blah. The kiddos are getting so big. It makes me want to cry sometimes because they are not so babyish anymore. Lauren will be three in the end of March. She is getting tall and very princessy. She wants earrings (stick ons), tiaras, fancy clothes, and flip flops at all times. She is usually a very sweet and good girl. I feel fortunate that I can take her out and about places and she'll stay right with me and listen. She's got quite the vocabulary and imagination to go with it. I am amazed at some of the things that come out of her mouth. She is still not completely sure that she likes her brother, but is doing MUCH better at being nice. Probably because he has figured out that if he laughs, she can't help but laugh too. Lauren has recently discovered the exciting world of crafts. She is especially fond of glue, stickers, paint, and scissors. Sigh. Carson will be 10 months old soon. HOW?!?! He is 110% full speed ahead all day long. He is working on his 6th tooth and crawling everywhere. He loves anything that makes noise and lights up as well as toilets, shoes, and food. I wish I could post a clip of him laughing--it is the cutest sound ever. (I can't post hardly anything...matter of fact I am painstakingly writing this on my iPad...our laptop has ADD). Carson adores his sister and can't stand it if he is awake and she is not. He does his best to avoid baby foods. He wants to pick his food up and put it in his mouth himself and does a pretty decent job. Best of all, though, he loves to cuddle with his mama. I treasure those moments because I know that all too soon they'll be fewer and farther between. :'( I'd like to tell you about an exciting array of things I do in my downtime, but a) I don't have downtime,and b) I don't do anything exciting anymore. I will say that I have found that I rely love cooking more than ever before. Since restaurants here are not very kid oriented and expensive, we eat at home almost all of the time. I love the challenge of preparing my family a balanced meal that is mostly from scratch and low sodium. Tonight I concocted a chicken tortilla black bean dish that everyone ate well. Woot woot. I must have gone a little too heavy in the onion, though, because Lauren (in unrestrained 2 year old honesty) told me that I needed to take a shower and brush my teeth because I was kind of stinky. I'm assuming it was the onion. Ok folks, I should prob call it a night and try to catch some sleep before someone wakes up needing to potty or have a pacifier found and replaced. 'Nite all.