Blogging Break

As is obvious by my lack of posts this past week (!), it's gotten a little crazy around here! I've decided to take an official "blogging break" until June 13th.

This has become my favorite bible verse lately. Thought I would share it:

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, not any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 8:38-39

See you in a couple of weeks!

Happy Birthday Dad!

My dad is 60 today, so I thought I would share some about him. (The picture is of him with Punkin when she was about 8 months old.)

Dad is artistic. He has a master's degree in music education, taught middle school music appreciation and band and chorus for years! When I was in the 6th and 7th grade, I had him as a teacher 2 hours a day - for band and chorus. He was the choir director at my church. He loves to sing. He sang me "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" almost every night until I was in the 7th grade, I think. I'm not sure when or why we stopped doing that.

Now that he is retired, he is a watercolor artist. He creates custom paintings, frequently of people's homes or other buildings that are special to them for different reasons. He's very good. I have several originals around my home, and fully expect for my children to one day be rich because of them.

I remember once when I was teenager, he was putting new wallpaper in my room. I talked him into us moving a bookcase out of the room with all the books on it. You can imagine that this did not go smoothly, (really?), and books went everywhere. It was funny! I remember laughing with my Dad. I'm sure that I laughed with my Dad a lot - but for some reason I especially remember that day.

My dad never judges me. My emotionalism never freaks him out. And he always, always loves me.

Even when I talk him into doing stupid things like moving a bookcase with the books still on it.

What a man. Happy Birthday, Dad!

A mother's dream

Only it happened to me. Just now. In real life.

SnugBug: "Is it time for nap?"
Me: "It could be. Why? Are you tired?"
SB: "Yes. I would like it to be naptime now."
Me: "OK. Let's go get in the bed."

See - there is hope that pigs will fly.

Awana Awards

Warning - mama bragging alert! :)

I'm so proud of my Punkin!

The Awana Awards ceremony was last night. Punkin got a blue ribbon for completing her first book of memory verses. She loves ribbons... and applause, so she was very happy. I'm so proud of how hard she worked to memorize the verses.

I wish you could have seen her! She was selected to pray the opening prayer, and she did a great job. We could all hear her, and she prayed "Dear God, Please keep us all safe and help us to have a good Awana meeting. Amen."

(I hope to post pictures later. I'm still not completely recovered from my hard drive crash. )

That crazy boy of mine

.... thinks Punkin's baby's bottle is a great way to pretend to "fill up" his toy cars with gasoline. That makes the car "go really, really fast", in case you didn't know.

Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to everyone!

I had such a great day! So busy living it, I forgot to take a single picture. I guess that's really a good thing, right?

I'm not much of a "gift girl" (I know, it's just anti-American, isn't it?), so no big presents for me. But the kids made little bags of "kisses" (the chocolate kind) for me at church and that was fun. Punkin is a HUGE "gift girl" so she made me several little cards, and was very excited to give me the bag she had put together.

After church, my hubby fixed lunch (THAT'S the kind of "gift" I love), we all took a nap, and then went to the indoor pool and swam the afternoon away. It was a wonderful, relaxed, stress-free day. Exactly the way Sundays - especially Mother's Day - should be.

I sure do love those kids. I could not be happier that God gave them to me!

Sunshine!

Oh - I love the sunshine!

It has been gorgeous here today - the birds are chirping, the grass is green, the kids are begging to be outside. I LOVE springtime!

I had a few errands to run this afternoon (after we spent the entire morning and early afternoon outside!). At one of the stores we went to, there was a construction crew pouring a new sidewalk. The store has huge plate-glass windows with a perfect, safe view of their work. My kids sat for almost 45 minutes in rapt awe as the concrete came down the chute and the men moved it around, leveled it with a board, and smoothed it. It was quite fascinating. :)

And, as seems to be typical of my children, they had decidedly male/ female reactions. SnugBug wanted to go "play in the dirt" and Punkin thought it was pretty smart that the men had big rubber boots on so their shoes wouldn't get messy.

Bring on more sunshine!

Could It Be.... um, saattan?

The title should be said as if you're the church lady from Saturday Night Live. (If you don't remember her, I can't help you! :) )

In the last 2 weeks:

• WeaverDad's car has developed a shaking issue
• Our oven's heating element caught on fire, causing quite a scene with Punkin and SnugBug running around saying "We need Daddy." Ah, where's the faith??
• My hard drive crashed. Which is terrible for 2 reasons - 1. I have a business where I rely heavily on my computer. 2. I'm a complete and total computer addict. There I said it. (Notice I did not say that I actually planned on doing anything about it.)
• The smoke alarms in our house are beeping - and we can't figure out why. One night we actually had to disconnect all of the them to make it stop! Remember the oven issue - (deep sigh)
• The kids and I are sick with a head cold. Not bad sick where you can actually justify laying on the couch all day. Just sick enough that you want to.
  

Now I'm not saying that it couldn't be worse. Because obviously it could be TONS worse. And I'm grateful it's not.

But, I am saying that all these little things are sort of getting on my nerves and I wish they would stop. Maybe we will run out of appliances soon?? :)

Genius?

I'm a believer in kids having chores, and one of my kids' daily chores is to set the table. Punkin puts the napkins where they should be, and SnugBug puts the forks on the top of the napkins.

Well, SnugBug is 3 - and his favorite word is "no", followed closely by "I don't want to." So, tonight we were having a little "war" about him putting the forks on the table. Actually, he and his 2nd mother, Punkin, were having a little "war." Punkin was telling him that she was not going to do his job for him and he needed to do it. She was doing a pretty good job not letting him talk her into doing his chore, so I left them alone for a bit.

Well, I guess she started feeling a little bad for him, because soon I overheard this:

P: Ok, I'll get the forks from the drawer for you if you will tell me I'm a hero and give me a hug.
SB: I'll tell you you're a genius and give you a hug.
P: OK.

And that, my friends, is precisely what happened.

And after she got her hug, Punkin said, "Aren't you just a cute boy?"