Twirls 'n Curls

They say confession is good for the soul, so here goes... 1. I joined the gym a few weeks ago, and I love it. But admittedly, my main incentive at this point for getting up early and going is that for half an hour, I am off duty as a mommy. And I get to go to the bathroom all by myself. 2. Last week I was officially kicked out of church. During evening service, I let my wiggly one-year old play with my Smartphone on silent, not realizing that videos would still play. Loudly. So during a quiet moment of meditation, the entire church heard, "ELMO so happy to SEE you!" Maybe he was, but my husband/pastor wasn't. Worse, she later escaped from my claw-like grasp and started running down the aisle towards her dad with outstretched arms. Everyone said that was the most entertaining service they'd been to in a long time! Everyone, of course, except my husband :) My Diva/Devil in training :) 3. So sad: I want to play Words with Friends on my iPhone, but I don't ...

My conclusion: Cute, compact model, but noisy and inefficient. As a dishwasher, I hope I can get my money back.  As a daughter, she's a keeper :)

As the mommy of three little girls, I am constantly amazed at how differently they approach life, and thus, art. Linsey, 6, is very polychromatic.  She loves surprises and is always challenging the norm, often coming up with better ideas and new clothing trends. Her life is a vibrant splash of patterns and colors. Hannah, on the other hand, is monochromatic all the way.  Almost 4, she is introverted, extremely thoughtful, and has habits and rituals I don't dare mess with. Her idea of matching is wearing the same color from head to toe. ( "even my underwears!" )   I'm sure you've wondered in your own family, How can kids from the same home be so different ? And, more importantly, What do you do with that? Here are a few tips I've learned and gathered in my never-ending quest to raise kids who love God, me, and each other: 1. Loving them equally does not mean treating them the same. Our oldest is very forthright and stubborn, while our middle girl is ...

That's what we were going for.  For the past year or so, Hannah (3) hasn't been able to extend her left thumb, and she had trigger thumb release surgery last week.  We went to a children's hospital, which was a fantastic experience. Everyone was very friendly and trained especially in working with kids, Hannah didn't even cry once while we were there.   We played a few games... Got some new jammies... Had fun with the monitors... Then we snuggled up tight... Ate popsicles in bed (I NEVER let her do that!)... Watched a little Elmo... and before we knew it, we were ready to go home!  The surgery only took half an hour, and start to finish it was about 4 hours in the hospital. This was our first (and hopefully last!) hospital experience, and we're so thankful it's over!  And was it a success, you ask?  Thumbs up!

At Apple, keeping in touch is what we're all about.   *We <3 our Apple iPhones! *

I haven't written a miscellaneous post in ages, and my randomness has been adding up: 1.  My oldest is growing up too fast, and she loves it.  Her favorite expression is, "I haven't done that since I was five!" The only thing is, her birthday was just last week!  She lost her first tooth this morning, and I was surprised to feel a little sad and nostalgic.  I mean, I'm the one who saw that tooth finally popping through when she was 9 months old, and I was so proud! Now she's the proud one, and the tooth is in a baggie under her pillow...     Her self-confidence is amazing.  She saw this picture and gasped, "Don't I look prettier than I was before?!" 2.  Dinner Fail:  I had a crazy-busy day yesterday, even busier than usual for a Sunday, so in the morning I put a package of tortillas in the cool oven to thaw for a quick dinner.  Then, later at the store, I decided to grab some pizzas because we were having company.  I rushed hom...

I walked right into it.  After surviving (and enjoying!) the busy Christmas season, I just didn't have the energy to throw Linsey a super-mega birthday party two weeks later, like we've done the past couple of years.  So I casually mentioned to her that maybe we could get a couple of her friends together to go to the movies and possibly sleep over. Well, a couple became three, then four, then six little kids in all...and I just had to write about our fun, in honor of "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie:"     If You Take Six Kids to the Movies If you take six kids to the movies, they'll probably want to order some popcorn (a BIG one!). If you divide the large popcorn evenly among six kids, you're going to need to get the free refill. If you refill the large popcorn and continue to let the kids eat to their heart's content, they're going to be thirsty. Really thirsty. If they get thirsty, you're either going to have to cough up a lot more money ...