Lemonade Living

Gossom Christmas 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Liz) — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 21:57:00 +0000

We have had a great month, despite events and circumstances that could take a lesser person down.

Ignore my last post. My poor boy was fatigued and oversugared, and I think he needed Momma's attention. I didn't react right. We're better now. I quit telling him to potty, and he is taking care of business all on his own. Just like I taught him.

We've worked out a system of celebrating the holidays that seems to work for everyone. Kelsey had her Christmas celebrations with her mom's family when they planned them. Not that I think they puposely planned them around our events, but this year it worked out fantastic. Which is good, because Christmas time for a kid with two separate family trees is difficult to say the least. She handled it all very well this year, so A+ for her. Our girl is growing up.

We spent Christmas Eve with Chris's dad and stepmom, and his sisters and brothers-in-law. Sweet new baby to cuddle, my chicken 'n' dumplins to devour, and lots of laughs.

I forgot to mention that I am hosting The Flat Princess - Thanks Mom! She was a big help with the chicken 'n' dumplins, but she was a little light handed with the pepper. Just sayin'.

Alyssa reading to Zachary

Precious little bundle

I have to say that I am so happy with how our Christmas Day turned out. The kids were delightful opening their presents, and I'll share the two pictures I got - I was too busy admiring my new Pyrex to mess with pictures.

The tree with decorations on the top third.

Gracie playing with her magnetic paper dolls.

Zachary building his stuff - definitely the Christmas morning winner!

In my stocking

Zachary is so proud of himself for putting this puzzle together!

My dinner was delicious - BBQ spice rub on a boneless turkey breast - totally the way to do turkey. It was incredibly tender and juicy. Of course there was mashed potatoes, gravy, macaroni and cheese, broccoli salad, deviled eggs, rolls, corn on the cob, a perfect butterscotch pie (no recipe to share there - sorry - you'll just have to come and visit if you want to taste it), and a burnt apple pie. Which I was totally fine with cutting off the burnt crust edges.

The fun isn't over - we're doing Christmas at Mom's tomorrow night. I'm super excited about it, and I hope I stop eating long enough to take pictures.

Also I hope I can manage to score a cheeseball somewhere on the way up because otherwise this will be the second cheeseball disappointed Christmas in a row.

Maybe that will be in my stocking next year.

Potty Talk

noreply@blogger.com (Liz) — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 18:15:00 +0000

Potty training - Ihateitwithmywholeheart

Not sure if it's all the Christmas excitement that came to a screeching halt yesterday when I decided November 18-December 26 was a long enough lifespan for the Christmas decorations. But Zach has all but refused to use the bathroom without an unbelievable amount of prompting for several weeks now.

Today I had to sit him on the potty where he had not been since last night - at 12 something today. He decided to not cooperate in the grossest way possible and peed all over my hand painted mushrooms on the wall.

Should an almost 4 year old have a potty training setback after months of no accidents?

Meanwhile Gracie is so ready to stop wearing diapers, but I'm not sure I'm ready to handle cleaning up potty messes on one hand and reteach Zach how to use the potty in a timely manner again with the other hand. And change diapers with that third hand that is going to magically grow out of my back just in time for the new baby to be born.

Don't look now but I think I captured that elusive waistline on film

noreply@blogger.com (Liz) — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 04:30:00 +0000

I found my camera!

More accurately, Zachary found my camera. Apparently the place I put it where I'd never forget it and the kids would never find it - was behind this little divider behind my modem and router at the back of the desk.

There's no telling what else is back there.

The desk is the one stationary piece of furniture in the house. We (meaning Chris) had to screw it back together when we moved in. We had some friends help us - one being a guy whoI affectionately refer to as The Hulk, or sometimes That Guy Who Made My Dining Room Table Into A True Scratch And Dent Item.

I've been perusing the Craigslist for a new-to-me dining room set for a few months. I'd like to find an 8 seater normal height table, preferably with a hutch or a buffet included. We have four chairs, and already have five in our family. For awhile we had our spare two-seater in the dining room, but I moved it back downstairs. Since we rarely eat together due to Chris's work schedule, it's pretty much first come first served when it comes to chairs at the table.

So we definitely need more seating at the table, and since my old set is pretty banged up now, I'm tossing around the wording to sell it on Craigslist too.

"Counter-height table for sale. Four chairs. Seats eight but I only bought four chairs. The four chairs we have are encrusted with God knows what. Needs a power wash and possibly an orbital sander. The bolts holding the legs on the chairs are tenuous at best; my two year old unscrews them at the most inopportune times."

Segway.

So I found my camera. That black hole behind my desk sucked the camera in sometime after Father's Day. Gracie is so little in that picture. That dress went to her ankles - now it barely grazes her knees. I can't bear to part with it though, so it's hanging on the wall in her bedroom. So I can look at it daily.

Oh, and check out me trying to show off the paint job upstairs. Sometime in May. Right before I wasted four months of hard work losing weight and got pregnant again.

So I took it with me to the annual Ladies Banquet tonight. This was my 13th banquet, and I was so desperate to go I paid a 12-year-old to watch the kids. She was wonderful and she's totally hired.

Forever friends. Oh, and yes that's a blue ribbon on my sweater. I was on a winning team.

Through the fog

noreply@blogger.com (Liz) — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 03:27:00 +0000

Please don't get used to this. I don't know how I got so lucky that my children are settling back down into a normal bedtime routine, but I don't want to count my chickens before they hatch.

Or as a mixed up card of common quotes that my Dad sent me one time said, "Don't count your chickens before they walk a mile in your shoes."

I hadn't mentioned it before because who has time to blog these days when you are so busy living the life - BUT - Zachary had another asthma attack. We're pretty sure it is due to allergies, but I asked the doctor if it was time to maybe put him on a daily medicine to help with that. Now that my child is not blue in the face again, I can step back and see that maybe he just needed a few days of Benedryl. But the doctor was only too eager to comply and gave me samples and a prescription for Singulair.

Maybe your child or you have had great success with this medicine, and maybe it was because Zach isn't dealing with a chronic asthma problem, but this stuff messed him up.

I mean, he could never be accused of being a compliant kid, and he has been sleeping on the floor instead of his toddler bed for almost a year now because he insisted he was "a big boy for to sleep on the floor not in a baby bed."

A few days after the asthma attack and the start of his nightly Singulair, I realized he was being exceptionally ugly. And not sleeping. Not just the not sleeping well, but in my bed every night. Screaming, crying, nightmares, the whole works. He can be less than cooperative on a good day, but on a day following a night of no sleep which followed a day after the night of no sleep - multiplied by ten or so days and nights - it was awful. He even pushed a kid down at the mall play area, which is highly unusual behavior for him. And no 3 1/2 year old wants to be told "no," but he would get completely out of control at the smallest confrontation. He even told me he didn't want to be happy, he wanted to stay sad.

!!!

I called the doctor right away when he told me that, and we took him off of the Singulair. Ten days later we think we are finally getting our kid back. I missed him. And I missed my sleep and peace of mind.

I liked it so I put a Pin on it

noreply@blogger.com (Liz) — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 02:55:00 +0000

I know, right? Two posts in one day. I attribute my chattiness to the full night of rest I got last night.

It is astounding the amount of energy one has when one is permitted to sleep through the night without the added benefit of a 3 1/2 year old wallowing all over them. Hypothetically speaking, that person might even clean the refrigerator, deep clean kitchen counters, sweep, mop, and *gasp* practice the piano.

Henceforth, one also might be persuaded to actually create something she pinned.

And the speaking of oneself in the third person is getting old.

I saw this mug sweater on Pinterest, and immediately wished I could knit and also wished I could bring myself to use a cup without a top on it in the presence of my children.

Source: ravelry.com via Liz on Pinterest

I remembered that I really can't knit worth blogging about, but I can crochet a little. So I went in search of a crochet pattern. Pinterest did not disappoint.

Source: micahmakes.com via Liz on Pinterest

Aha. Free pattern! Just the way I like it! I dug out the solitary skein of yarn that survived the Decluttering O' Winter 2010 and whipped this baby up ~~after having to research crochet pattern abbreviations because I couldn't remember what "sk" stood for~~.

Isn't she sweet?

she loves her some Cordy

noreply@blogger.com (Liz) — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 20:10:00 +0000

We added two new family members to our household about a month ago. Nana Crystal joined us for the time being, along with her almost ten year old white English bulldog, Lady Cordelia.

We are all very happy with the whole arrangement. It has been a long time since I've lived with any family at all, and it is just so great to have another adult around to talk to when Chris is working. And say what you may about mothers-in-law and their sons - there is no jealousy here. It makes me very happy when I hear Chris and his mom talking about whatever random stuff they talk about, because he treats her with respect as a mother, and she treats him with respect as a grown son. We work together dealing with the kids and their various disciplinary needs. We picked up a chair off the side of the road together and readily admitted defeat after twenty minutes of scrubbing. She admires my cooking, and I admire her swift laundry tackling skills. It is mutual adoration.

And I especially enjoy a dog that I am not personally responsible for, but who comes running to meet me every morning. Well, as much as a short, fat, and utterly adorable mess of Cordy can run. It's more of a rapid hop.

Gracie took a few weeks to get used to her. We are talking full on shrieking and running the other direction any time Cordy dared to move from her cage.

Now we are all the time calling for Gracie to "stop riding the puppy," and "please stay out of Cordy's cage," and "no, Nana will wipe Cordy's nose, you don't have to do that," and any other assortment of two year old adoring the puppy a bit too much comments.

the lion sleeps in the middle of the day, and so I blog

noreply@blogger.com (Liz) — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 21:38:00 +0000

So a couple of weeks ago I got homesick for my people. Mom & I had a thing to swap, Jessica & I had a thing to swap, so we all met at some outlet stores between hither and yon.

Between the three adults we managed to corral the three young ones with only one injury for the afternoon. That's probably a record. Zach was overzealous in hugging Eva, and the poor girl wound up on the sidewalk. Thankfully Zachary's arms were ~~trapping her into the hug~~ around her , and I think his arms broke the fall.

A few pictures of the kids, those camera hogs ...

Jessica got a greatly over exposed shot, but edited it into my favorite happy picture ever that I show everyone.

Nana sewed the most perfect birthday gift ever, this remnant of orange fleece I picked up over a year ago for less than a dollar - turned into a cape. Gracie loves it, and it coordinates nicely with a handmedown cordouroy skirt and a yellow turtleneck. She looked like a candy corn, and a little girl in the store said "I love her costume!"

I didn't get many pictures of the other two playing. Mainly because they would have been a blur, and also I had my eyes fastened on Gracie. This is the largest playset she has attempted, and I was nervous.

Speaking of birthdays, Sissy turned 2 last week! So hard to believe. Here is her birthday outfit/present from Mommy. Target's clearance produced an adorable dress that is elbow length, so I'm totally fine with it for winter. The leggings, not so much. I thought they would fit tighter, and they are more like a 4T than a 3T, so I'll be saving those for next winter. And the shoes. THE SHOES! Fuschia Keds, never worn, at Once Upon A Child for $6.50. Score. She can put them on herself, and loves them. Double score.

And here is the birthday girl at her little cake and ice cream party that I refuse to call a birthday ParTay, because a birthday ParTay every year goes against every principle that I have. Also a birthday ParTay requires planned games and a theme and I just don't have the time and energy to do that. I did bake her a cake though. I tried to make it a hairbow. It looked more like a butterfly. Actually I won't write it out loud on the internet what I thought it looked like once I put two round layer cakes side by side and iced it with yellow icing and no trim decorations, but if you are following that sentence closely at all you can read between the lines and figure out what I thought it looked like.

Okay, back to the cute little girl in the pink dress - she is taking a picture of me with her Step 2 kitchen phone. Too cute.

Segway.

We had a no good, terrible, awful, very bad day around here Tuesday, and so I made Chris drag down the Christmas tree and decorations. Someone had to do something to get a smile out of somebody, and snowmen did the trick. If you look closely, you will note there is not one breakable decoration on that tree. All plastic and paper chains and stockings. It is delightful. The kids had a fantastic time decorating it to their heart's desire, and smiles were shared by all. Mission accomplished.

the new thought pattern

noreply@blogger.com (Liz) — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 14:33:00 +0000

Motherhood.

She will cause thoughts to be perfectly acceptable that are otherwise irrational.

It is mid-November, and we set up the Christmas tree and decked the halls last night. The kids dragged the waterguns in from the garage last night, and there they laid on the floor all night long. Mocking me, because I bought them for the Labor Day picnic that ended up being 60 degrees the day after it was 93 degrees.

It's mid-November, and my first thought when I saw them juxtaposed with the holly jolly living room is "Here's my chance to hide those waterguns!"

noreply@blogger.com (Liz) — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 23:44:00 +0000

If you wonder why I am not blogging, it's because this is what I hear constantly:

"Mom. You need to put my bunk beds in your room for when my friends come over. We can sleep in your room."

fat chance

"Mom. Let's have church. Ladies and gemmlemen. Let's have a song. *plink plink plink* Okay. Now I will preach. Jesus was a preacher. And then He died. And unrosed! And then there was a storm, and it got a hole in the boat, and Jesus died again." Son, He said 'Peace be still.' "Yes. He said 'Please be still,' and then we have another song."

"Mom. We need to put the baby's bed in my room. He can't sleep in your room because he needs to sleep in my room."

"Mom. We need to decorate my room and Gracie's room. Come and help me decorate our rooms."

"Nana. Cordy needs a bath. She cannot take a bath in my bathtub. We need a screwdriver to take apart my bathtub and put in a dog bathtub."

ALL DAY LONG.

I don't have room in my brain for adult thoughts.

At least there is Scrabble on my phone. Too bad I can't think of any words longer than 5 letters, because all of the thoughts are sucked out of my brain.

An explanation you will only understand if you are sleep deprived and/or on a sugar high

noreply@blogger.com (Liz) — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 16:17:00 +0000

Neglecting my blog - it's my spiritual gift.

No really, this last month has been ten kinds of crazy. I have bunk beds on one brain track and fixing our missionary wall display on the other brain track.

Speaking of brain tracks, I had a hilarious dream last night that me, my Dad, my father in law, his wife, my sister in law (who is having a baby! in 6-7 weeks!), and two other random visitors were all taking a road trip on Interstate 70. The road was horrible, and somehow the car got on an old railroad trestle, and SUDDENLY the road stopped and the ancient rusted trestle mechanically moved our car from one side of the road to the other. Thank God I woke up in my own bed all by my own self.

So when things return to normal and I have some before and after pictures to share, I will see you on the other side of the tracks.

Get it? brain tracks? railroad tracks? see, I'm so distracted I can't even think straight.

Living on a wink

noreply@blogger.com (Liz) — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 12:28:00 +0000

My darling little sleep monsters are totally different.

Gracie spent most of the night spooning with Momma. I'm not sure how she did it, but she had both of her legs wrapped around one leg and the rest of her wrapped around ny arm. But once she got comfortable, she didn't move. Until she did a freeze style backflip across my belly. At that point Daddy took her back to her bed.

Zachary however. He started out in his bed but because he was already knocked out on the drive home from church, he had his dress shirt still on. Came running up in a panic to be unbuttoned at about 2am, and was fine to go back to bed.

Then Gracie came back upstairs after Chris went to work. Resumed her choked hold on my body and went back to sleep.

Zachary trotted back to Momma to announce he had to pee. And then back downstairs to change unnerwares and bouncing back into my bed to wallow for 30 minutes. He fell into a deep slumber just in time for ...

... Gracie to realize she was done wearing her diaper for the night.

At 7:50am on a perfectly good sleep in morning, I have a grand total of probably 4 solid hours of sleep.

Fact Fest

noreply@blogger.com (Liz) — Sat, 08 Oct 2011 20:15:00 +0000

Fact: I procrastinate intimidating tasks by starting other projects that are totally unnecessary.

Fact: We are going out of town next week.

Fact: I will need to pack for four people.

Fact: I edited a new profile picture for myself. That took awhile.

Fact: The furniture suddenly looks like it needs to be rearranged.

Unrelated Fact: I made more guacamole today. 3 avacados, the juice of 1 lime ~~and then I sucked a bit more juice out of the lime peel because I love me some sour~~, lots of salt, and 1 cup of salsa. So good it should be illegal.

All noodley and stuff

noreply@blogger.com (Liz) — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 23:29:00 +0000

Zachary has gotten into the habit of taking his clothes off and running around in undies (if we're lucky). I never really know what stage of dressing I will find him in at any given moment of the day. He says he's "a big boy for to take off my clothes 'cause I can snap and zip all by myself."

I guess I should be happy that his fine motor skills are so developed. I just jokingly remind him he's half naked, and get some clothes on.

Tuesday morning he climbed in my bed at early o'clock, and stumbled out to the kitchen just after Kelsey left for school. I was getting a head start on my day by washing two days' worth of dishes before they started creating more dirty dishes, and my hands were wet when I hugged him. So of course his clothes were too wet to wear, and he was not happy about that.

"I gotta take my clothes off now Mommy, and be naked and a half."

Naked and a half. Awesome.

*******************************************

Speaking of Kelsey, she is doing awesome as an eighth grader. For the first time in many years, she is on track to be on the A & B Honor Roll. We're very happy. She told us today they are doing a t-shirt project about tobacco usage. Her slogan?

"Smoking sucks. Save your bucks."

There you have it. Smoking sucks. Save your bucks. The next generation of marketing executives just made her debut.

*******************************************

I made the best spaghetti sauce of my life tonight. No, really. It was delicious.

Just call me Chef Liz.

We eat spaghetti about 4 times a month on average, so I'm pretty pleased with my "strategic dumping" as I phrased it earlier.

Spaghetti Sauce a la Chef Liz

1/4 cup EVOO
1/4 cup chopped onion
3 cloves of garlic, freshly minced (I have a garlic press thanks to Mom's awesome Christmas stocking stuffers)
(And Amy, 3 cloves of garlic is interpreted to mean 3 parts of one BULB of garlic. You are welcome.)
1 1/2 lb ground burger or turkey
1/2 tablespoon steak seasoning (very coarse looking, I get it from Sam's Club)
1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
1 26.5oz can of meat flavored tomato sauce
1 small can of tomato paste
1 cup of water
1/3 cup sugar

In a 4 qt pot, preheat the EVOO on medium, saute the onions while you press in the garlic. Let it carmelize a few minutes while you finish defrosting the completely frozen solid pack of burger. Brown the burger with the onions and garlic, adding the steak seasoning and first round of Italian seasoning. Drain the burger mess, and return to the same pot. On low-medium heat, add the can of tomato sauce, the tomato paste, and the cup of water. Mix it all together, and add the sugar. And - oh, why not - throw in another tablespoon of Italian seasoning. It is spaghetti sauce, after all. I let this all finish simmering while I boiled the spaghetti noodles. If you need a recipe for boiling spaghetti noodles, then you have my complete sympathy because I too used to be cooking-impaired. Not all that long ago.

And now, I must conclude this edition of pointless blogging because my husband was begging me to make a cake.

Want something free?

noreply@blogger.com (Liz) — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 20:59:00 +0000

Click on over to my giveaway blog to enter the giveaway for some free scrapbooking software!

Go on. Do it. It's easy. CLICK.

no comments here. comment over HERE to enter the giveaway.

"Go play" - quote of my day

noreply@blogger.com (Liz) — Sun, 18 Sep 2011 20:15:00 +0000

Currently I'm ignoring Gracie so I can blog.

That didn't come out right, but in my defense, the only time today since 5am that she has not been RIGHT UP MY SKIRT is when I was in my 5 minute shower, while she was in Sunday School, and the rare 1 1/2 hour nap she took before lunch when we got home.

So yes, I am ignoring her while I blog. And browse Pinterest. Do you pin? You can visit my boards if you are bored. Bwhahahahaha.

After I see cutesies like this, I usually end up having to go t-shirt shopping bc I cut up all the ones I have :) In my excuse, I seem to have A LOT of t-shirts with tiny tiny holes right at my stomach - why is that? Is that the mark of motherhood - not one shirt without either stains, snot, or snags?

There are a lot of great "word art" sayings on Pinterest. This might be my all time favorite.

It's me, right?

I need a Cricut and a piece of plywood, and some red paint, and a lot of good cake to convince Chris that this should hang in my kitchen.

Comments

noreply@blogger.com (Liz) — Sat, 17 Sep 2011 12:57:00 +0000

Apparently the comments are broken, I've had several emails about it. I've also tried to comment from my phone, and it's not working either. Weird. You are not blocked, I promise. :)

I will try and fix it, once I know what's going on.

Shiny hiney

noreply@blogger.com (Liz) — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 17:56:00 +0000

I never thought I would post a picture of my child's bottom on the interweb.

We went out to eat last night to celebrate a typo. We had been grocery shopping all day, flu shots, and generally exhausting He Who Refuses To Nap.

I took Zachary to the potty before we sat down. As is his habit lately, he had a wardrobe malfunction along with a logistics problem and got his underwear and jeans wet. I tucked a paper towel in there to give him a little dry barrier, and we went back to the table.

Not even 15 minutes later he fell asleep on his arm while coloring.

Of course, this is so adorable, and several passersby adored him in his adorableness. Chris was sitting closest to him, and oh, I don't know, happened to catch a glare? He had me come and check out this sight:

We were howling. Oh my word. And then we told the server. They told their friends. We got really great service that night.

I'm still laughing.

Doctors are human too

noreply@blogger.com (Liz) — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 00:53:00 +0000

"He's not measuring like we want to see at his gestational age."

Those are words even an experienced parent does not want to hear.

This 20 week ultrasound was not comparing right to the 15 week check up we had a few weeks ago. The doctor threw around terms like absent end diastolic flow. Stillbirth. Perinatalogist. Level 2 ultrasound.

In plain English, they were saying he wasn't growing right because of reduced blood flow.

I have been fortunate to never have been through a miscarriage, or the loss of a child of any age. I just found out it's a boy, and I'm already supposed to say goodbye?

So confused.

The rest of the day was kind of numb. Chris and I talked a little, I hugged Zachary and Gracie extra hard. It was a beautiful day for Zachary to run around outside, and it made my heart ache to think he wasn't getting a brother to share it with after all. I looked back in the van on the way to church and it stunned me to realize, "that empty spot for the carseat might remain empty."

Pastor had special prayer for me last night during service. I immediately felt the Lord remind me of 1 Timothy 2:7, and I was strengthened by the prayers and support of my church family.

Today I woke up, still encouraged, and I decided to live my life today as if that piece of crappy news had never been handed to us. I thanked the Lord that Zachary will get his wish to share his room with the new baby (even if it's not his "dister" - he's been insisting that "it's a girl one"). I thanked the Lord that my sweet friend Tasha is having a baby boy 6 months before me, and she has tons of clothes to hand down. I thanked the Lord that Gracie is going to boss the life out of him. I laughed out loud thinking that I will have three children in elementary school at once.

I refused to think, "I don't need to buy that stroller now." I refused to give any credence to Google and all Google's definitions. Some may call that denial. I call it faith in the power of a living God.

Around 2pm my phone rang, and the doctor was surprised that no one had called me yet - didn't they tell me yesterday? No. TELL ME WHAT?!?!? The first ultrasound gave me an estimated due date of February 5th based on the crown to rump measurement. But the error happened because the doctor at that time entered the crown to rump measurement as the head measurement. Essentially, the measurement was entered in the wrong field.

A typo.

A TYPO caused us 24 hours of agony.

So, I am (as I thought originally) only 15 weeks along. The doctor stated they will still do a 20 week ultrasound to check development at that time, and generously stated that ultrasound will be on the house. Like they messed up my meal and gave me a free one or something :)

We are proud and so blessed to present Gabriel Anthony. Due to arrive March 11, 2012 - our dateiversary. Isn't God so good?

Pagers

noreply@blogger.com (Liz) — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 18:11:00 +0000

In a wayback moment, what in the world did pagers do?

I never had a pager. In fact the first cell phone I ever used belonged to He Who Shall Not Be Named. He moved away from school early 1999 to get a job, and left his phone for me in case of an emergency. Ha. I didn't even know how to use it should there be such an emergency.

So how did they work? Whenever I've seen them in movies or on Greg's Anatomy, the recipient always knows immediately what the page is about. Was it a sort of prehistoric text message displayed?

Someone please enlighten me. I'm very curious how an average person would need a pager.

"Is it ..."

noreply@blogger.com (Liz) — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 13:32:00 +0000

I love talking to my son.

Maybe I'm just basking in the delight of a whole night of sleep all by myself with no children interrupting until 7:30 when Kelsey's hacking cough broke into my coma, but Zachary has a great speaking career ahead of him.

I think he is going to be an engineer. Maybe a public speaking engineer.

He wants to know about e.v.e.r.y.t.h.i.n.g.

He saw the mug I left on the desk last night. "Is it coffee?"

"No, not coffee."

"Is it medicine?"

"No, not medicine."

"What is it, Mommy?"

We are having a conversation about a dirty cup, I thought to myself. "It's from my hot chocolate."

He perked up. "HOT CHWOCKWIT!"

I love it. The way he tries to say everything and join our conversations.

I taught him to look for convertibles. Christina has a great little Mustang, and now he points and yells, "There's a 'VERTIBLE! But not Nini's car. That's not her 'vertible."

I love the way he says his Sunday School bible words. "God made evvythang!"

He is determined that we're having a girl. I hope he is right, but I have cautioned him that it might be a boy. So when he talks about the baby be starts out talking about his new "dister" and corrects himself, referring to it as "your new baby."

I don't know where he gets his chatty, because his mother is so quiet and unassuming. /sarcasm

I just love his personality. His conversations with his baby-of-choice are a treasure to overhear.

He's his own little person

noreply@blogger.com (Liz) — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 21:09:00 +0000

Zachary is loving his newfound artistic ability. Blue's Clues has helped this, since Steve draws his clues on his handy dandy notebook, in a simple way that I'm sure Zachary thinks he can do it too.

He really likes Blue's Clues. The episode he is currently loving deals with feelings. Problem resolution, which ... awesome. It is really helping to teach him how to share and deal kindly with Gracie.

Maybe sometime he will find it in his heart to share the magnadoodle with her, since it was her present to start with.

Often, I find him drawing "a Zackawee." They usually look like this:

Today's "Zackawee" has eyelashes:

He stepped back, considered it, and with a comical look of curiosity trotted into the bathroom. Turned on the light, and leaned over the sink and examined his face in the mirror. Came back to me and said, "How do you make a sad face like my picture with your face?"

Seriously. How in the world are you supposed to answer that with a sad face?

Did you know there's this device called a cellular phone?

noreply@blogger.com (Liz) — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 23:59:00 +0000

I'm so woefully behind on our family news, it's a wonder y'all haven't seen the Pony Express go by.

So the first part of the month I got rear-ended ...

The very next week I was hit by another driver, who was simply not paying attention. And he was waved on by another driver who conveniently managed to leave the scene of the accident before the police got there. This time, all three kids were with me though. It was pretty scary - Kelsey saw the driver coming and alerted me IN NO UNCERTAIN TERMS THAT THERE WAS A CAR COMING HER WAY, so I was able to swerve and stop. The Lord was certainly with us because the other driver came within inches of slamming into the side of Kelsey's door. As it is, the front section of the passenger side was quite damaged. It's all repaired and happy now, and the big blue car is now relegated to be Daddy's work car.

Because we have a minivan now.

YAY! I know I am lame being excited about a minivan, but it's quite nice. Leather interior, power sliding doors, be still my beating heart. As long as this vehicle lasts us, I will drive it cheerfully.

...............................................................................................

Chris and I had a bit of a disagreement over the middle name of our gender-yet-to-be-determined unborn child. I wanted Reagan Elizabeth, and he wanted Reagan Therese. So we compromised, as marriage is 100% about giving 100% - and since I am nurturing the baby - and I'm the one peeing every 2.5 minutes - I get one more letter from the name of my choice - and if it turns out to be a girl - we will name her Reagan Elise. Isn't that lovely? And isn't that sentence structure ridiculous? That's what happens when one tries to negotiate pick up clean up time with two toddlers and blog at the same time.

I should know better by now and just blog.

I'm 10 days late posting this but it's still applicable

noreply@blogger.com (Liz) — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 02:00:00 +0000

Not much gets me motivated like a craving for chocolate and peanut butter.

I was casually browsing Pinterest while my little heathens played with their old new chalkboard. Chris did shorten the legs for me, and I am so so happy about it all. Except for the part where they still managed to fight over eleventy billion pieces of sidewalk chalk.

(Really? I honestly thought having a boy and girl close together would eliminate much of the sibling rivalry.)

(Clearly I was on crack.)

Back to Pinterest. I got bored with the millions of wedding cakes that keep popping up on my main screen, and searched for peanut butter bars. I found these, and quickly ran up to the kitchen to assess my ingredients.

No chocolate chips, but I had a barely used can of frosting hanging out in the fridge. That will work.

Somehow I managed to still throw it all together despite Gracie's best efforts at "helping" and all of her walking on my feet and trying to open the oven door, climb on the cabinets to get to the countertop, and generally letting me know she didn't get her nap out the first time.

I'd love to share a picture but I forgot that I LOST MY CAMERA ~~and I ate it all.~~

Spiritually speaking

noreply@blogger.com (Liz) — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 13:16:00 +0000

It occurred to me the other day that every problem we have in this temporal world is dealing with the consequence of sin. Your sin. My sin. Somebody's sin.

Debt. Infidelity. Anger. Lying. Promise breakers. Sexual immorality. Disobedience.

Oh, I could go on and on, but I don't have to because Galatians 5:19-20 pretty much covers it all.

The fact is if I react to the works of the flesh in the flesh instead of responding in the Spirit, then there is no solution to the problem.

I woke up this morning angry. I had a series of bad dreams. I'm not a spiritual dreamer in that I believe that everything I dream means something, but when I woke up I really felt like the Lord was reminding me to walk in the Spirit.

The only way I can conquer the inherited sin of humanity is to live as a child of God and claim my heritage of an adopted Father! I cannot feed my soul with the junk food of the world and expect the grace of God to just cover it all up with a meager "Now I lay me down to sleep" prayer at night. His mercies are new every morning - seek Him early before you have opportunities to let sin separate you from Him.

I cannot do it all. I cannot do it all. I cannot do it all.

noreply@blogger.com (Liz) — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 23:41:00 +0000

I asked my husband last night, "What prize do I think I'm going to get for making homemade tomato sauce - ~~which didn't turn out like Prego, rather more exactly like I didn't follow the recipe and put too much onion, green pepper, and orange pepper in it~~ - wasting $30 on fabric and blanket binding to sew a blanket for a new mom who may or may not appreciate homemade ~~which I will now have to have my Mom help me fix and keep for my new baby~~ - and pottytraining a 21 month old?"

Really. What blue ribbon am I trying to win? Is it possible for me to be a stay at home mom and not try to be so Stepford-perfect?

I have got to give myself permission to relax so I don't get so wound up about all the stuff I try to do ALL AT ONCE and fail.

There. Someone (ahem - ME) needs to print this post and hang it on the fridge. And the bathroom mirror.