Her children rise up and bless her...

"You're Fiona, Mom." Words that I cherish. Words that one day I will no longer hear. Being called Fiona is the greatest compliment I can receive from my son Caleb. He loves Fiona. In his eyes Princess Fiona (yes, the ogre princess) is more beautiful then Cinderella, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, and all of the other Disney Princesses combined. I absolutely love that the princess Caleb thinks is the most beautiful is the one that isn't your typical fairy tale princess. She doesn't have the perfect figure, grand house, or even the best manners. She doesn't have the sickly-sweet personality--she has a temper! And Caleb sees her as beautiful.

Sometimes he tells me I am Fiona because he thinks I look beautiful, other times it is because of something I am doing that makes him feel safe and loved. There have been times that I have been in the kitchen, wearing my pajamas and suffering from major bed-head. I'll be making his breakfast, and he will tell me then, in all my disarray, that I am Fiona.

Her children rise up and bless her... Proverbs 31:28 (NASB)

April's Mom of the Month

My dear friend Mandi is amazing. She is the proud mommy of Zeke (11 months) and Jeremiah (due late August / early September). Zeke has recently began to crawl, which I am sure is keeping Mandi on her toes!

Mandi is the pastor of Kids For Life, CFL's children's ministry. She is a gracious hostess who continually opens her home to others. Mandi also finds ways to continuously serve others. Just this past Monday, I had the privilege of babysitting Zeke so that Mandi could shampoo the carpets at CFL (did I mention she is pregnant??? I probably wouldn't think to shampoo the carpets myself period. I would pick up the phone and hire someone in an instant!).

This is why Mandi is my personal pick for April's Mom of the Month!

Cupcakes and Couches

Yummy! Tonight was our last small group meeting for our Sunday night small group, so I had another excuse to make Magnolia Bakery cupcakes. With Magnolia Bakery frosting. Yummy! My cupcakes were not frosted with pretty pink frosting though, they were frosted with blue frosting--because I have all boys and no girls. Actually, Caleb would have totally gone with pink frosting. The important thing is they were delicious and they made the house smell so good. Thank you Ann, for introducing me to the Magnolia Bakery cookbook! If I ever get a change to visit New York City I will have to make sure that Magnolia Bakery a required stop.

The other excitement of my day--getting new (used, but new to us) beautiful couches from our friends Scott and Amy. They are beautiful and nice and I am so happy we have them. I feel so blessed! The boys have been absolutely forbidden to come anywhere near them with food, drink, or thoughts of jumping on them. Which is why they immediately grabbed blue frosted cupcakes and headed for the couch. Actually, Michael is really excited about the new couches (he gets that sort of thing from me). This is pretty much how the conversations for the day were:

Michael: Where did our couches go?
Jeff: There in the garage. We're getting new ones.

Michael: That's so cool!

Michael runs next door to have my mother come over and look at our couch less living room.
About 30 minutes later, Scott and Sean arrive with the couch and love seat. Michael is very excited. He runs next door to my mom's house yet again, this time to announce the couches have arrived. Jeff leaves to get a haircut and I continue making blue Magnolia Bakery butter cream frosting. Caleb wakes up from his nap and immediately wants me to hold him.

Caleb: Mom, can you hold me?

Me: In a few minutes, I need to finish this frosting.

Michael: Hey Caleb, want to see something cool? We have new couches!

Caleb looks at the couches and is mildly impressed. Evan wakes up from his nap thoroughly grumpy.

Michael: Hey Evan, want to see something that will make you happy? Mom's making cupcakes and we have new couches!

Feel the burn!

I was weighed the other day. It was for a study I have been in since kindergarten, and it was with one of those high-tech, scientific, guaranteed to be 100% accurate type of scales. WOO HOO! I just have 40 more pounds to go for my target weight! It has been hard, hard work. But knowing how much I weigh now (I really should get myself a scale) inspired me to FEEL THE BURN. So I increased my workout--and I felt the burn! There is something so sickly satisfying about feeling the burn. I relate it to child birth (okay stay with me here), because in both situations there is such a burning sensation and yet you know that a great result is going to come from it. So, tomorrow my calves will feel like they are trying to fall off of my legs, and my abdomen is going to be sore if I laugh, sneeze, breath, etc; and it is going to be great!

Losing weight has felt like such a struggle. I love food. I love carbs. I love ice cream. I hate diabetes. I hate poking myself 5 times a day. I hate giving myself 5 injections a day. I hate that the doctors and nutritionist can not figure out if I am a type 1 or type 2 diabetic. I hate that this disease controls my emotions, my memory, my life. I hate that no less then 6 women have asked me if I am a diabetic bulimic or bulimic diabetic, whatever the Dr. Phil show was on (which shows I know too many women who watch Dr. Phil--someone who has stopped following the cross in favor of $$$). In case you are wondering, a bulimic diabetic is a person who does not take their insulin, because it will force their body to lose weight. That has been a painful accusation. I can't not take my insulin. I will end up back in the hospital with diabetic ketosacidosis. I almost died in April '07 because my body was not producing insulin (or not processing it correctly-my doctor isn't sure which yet). I might as well play Russian Roulette.

Why is it so hard to believe that I am actually working on losing weight? I have lost almost 100 pounds since the birth of Evan in September 2006. It hasn't melted off. I have been feeling the burn!

A Few (or not) of My Favorite Things...

Hmmm, I have had a stressful/emotional night that maybe one day I will blog on, however, tonight is not that night. Tonight I want to think of my favorite things. The things that make me smile, the things that bring bits of sunshine to my life, the things that cheer me up (and I am talking about things, not people). If you are a stranger who has wandered into my world, you might find we have things in common. If you know me, there might be things that surprise you!

So here are a few (or not so few) of my favorite things:

• Target (how can you not love Target? One of my favorite date nights with Jeff includes window shopping at Target, or shopping the clearance racks, depending on the status of our budget)
• Shoes
• Flip-flops--yes, I know this is a shoe, but for me its a whole catagory of its own.
• White dinnerware
• White servingware
• cooking
• seeing my sons covered from head to toe in dirt--I know they are having fun!
• my hutch that used to belong to my Grandma Joyce
• tea cups
• English Breakfast Tea
• POM Pomegranite Peach Passion White Tea ( a new addiction of mine)
• Diet Pepsi ( I will settle for nasty diet coke in times of desperation)
• a good cup of coffee
• no-bake cookies
• helping people plan weddings
• helping people
• scrapbooking
• pedicures
• massages
• crafting
• my one little ivy plant that is somehow thriving (not just surviving)
• the beach
• the park
• a clean kitchen
• flowers
• make-up, perfume and other girly things
• Kitchenaid mixers ( I don't own one yet, but I will)
• kitchen islands (don't have one of those yet either)
• my NASB bible
• Focus on the Family
• country music (Michael also likes country music--to which I have a theory)
• clean bathrooms
• organization
• my organization small group
• punctual people
• hoop earrings
• being warm
• Monterey Bay, CA
• Australia
• candles
• bubble baths (if they take place before 11:30 pm, all the better!)
• books
• sleep
• being married
• being a mom

Okay, this list could really go on and on and on, and as it is about 1:30 in the morning, I should probably stop and try to sleep...

The balancing act of time

I have found that time is a sensitive subject for me. Perhaps this is because so many people feel a need to tell me how to use my time. Maybe it is because I live in a country that runs by the clock and money. Either way time is beginning to drive me crazy! I have people deciding for me hat I am too busy to help with projects (by the way, how do you decide for a person that they are too busy? You don't know that they are too busy unless you ask them. If I am too busy to help, I will let you know), other people deciding that I don't spend enough time cleaning my house (probably true, but I'm busy making memories with my sons), and yet I have other people deciding I spend too much time trying to maintain my house (and I do have to admit that I am a little obsessed right now with getting organized).

I have found the hardest part of time is the balancing act. How do you decide how much time to put into work, play, cleaning house, the kids, your spouse, yourself...

I took time out the other day, and took Michael, Caleb and Evan to the park. I had packed us some pbj's, grapes, and juice and off we went. It was such a fun way to spend our time! We played, we ate, then we played some more! We left only when it got too windy for it to be fun anymore, and it was great! Okay, so I had a monstorous pile of laundry to do (which will not get any smaller anytime soon), a pile of dishes in the sink, not to mention all the weeds that have taken over my little garden. But oh, the precious time that was spent with my sons. There were other women at the park with their children, but they weren't really there for the children. They were busy working out. And their children played alone.