I want you all to know that I write great post all the time in my head. I will be doing laundry and think off something funny to share, or chasing after the boys for the umpteenth time and think of reasons I love being a mom. But for some reason I don't always have the time to sit down and actually write all my great thoughts down. Something about thoughts being mobile and computers being stationary. Technicalities I guess.

Life is getting even busier as I type, but hopefully I can keep up with keeping you all up.

I mentioned a while back that I would start nannying for a family with three boys mid September, well mid September has arrived but I felt it was necessary to tell this particular family that I could no longer take them on. This was such a hard decision for me as I cannot stand not helping someone out when they need it, but I felt the Lord was telling me I needed to back away, so I did. Shortly after, I was approached by another family with one 15 month old boy. We have been doing some test runs for the past three days and I am pretty sure the mother is going to go with us. I am so super excited about this and am so thankful to the Lord for opening my heart to this family.

One of the reasons (although not the big one) for turning down the other family is that as of Wednesday I will be two months pregnant! Super super super duper excited about this! I am not super super super duper excited about the full blown morning sickness that has decided to take residence in me though...Oh well

All right time to check out and head to bed. I am sensing a long night a head of me. Conner and Brooks are acting as if sleep is not necessary and unfortunately they seem to do this only on nights we have have the little boy overnight, so I cannot separate them. Sigh.

Thoughtful Thursday Camouflaging as Wordless Wednesday

Artistic freedom of a (slighty) unattended three year old

Today I was taking pictures for a craigslist ad out in our bbq area while the boys were painting in the garage, when the sound of too many giggles alerted me to the fact that Brooks now has a wonderful new blue hair do. Compliments of his big brother of course. Oh he had a blue leg too, as in the whole leg was blue, top to bottom.

So, when you give a three year old these paints

for this house

and leave him alone to take pictures of this microwave for all of three minutes

you get this!


I just couldn't resist throwing it into a mohawk

Definitely not a no mess product...

Missing a friend named Kai Kai

Before we moved, the boys and I used to be attached by the hip(s) to my closest friend Rebekah and her two son's Malachi and Jonah. If we were not out and about together then we were wrangling the children around one of our homes until it was time to go home and be with husbands. While Joseph was away Rebekah helped keep me sane, and her children, specifically Malachi, helped Conner forget that his Dad was not around. These two boys have a bond that I hope last a life time, just as I pray the same for their mother and I. And while they have been apart for way to many months, the other is never far from their thoughts. I am told Conner spends his entire days playing with his friend, generally getting Kai Kai in trouble, and when told that we are going to go play with friends Conner always asks if we are going to Kentucky to get Kai Kai. So in honor of best friends here are some pictures from last January that I thought both Conner and Malachi would love.

Some beach time too

We enjoyed our second day of Labor day weekend at the beach. I read today that at over 14,000 people visited just one of the major beaches in the area we were in on Sunday. Isn't that crazy?! Luckily by the time we made our way out most of the morning tourist crowd had already gone in leaving us with mostly just locals who actually know how to put their umbrellas in the sand probably. Its an art I tell ya. One I am just mastering.

Any who, we had a blast! Conner thinks the beach is the next best thing to chocolate cake (he's my son alright!) and Brooks is becoming more and more enthusiastic about it every time we go. We might have stayed all afternoon if not for the blue extremities that showed up in hour two.

There once was a house

What a wonderful weekend we just spent with family! We meandered up to my grandparents house this past Saturday to meet up with loved ones, eat fantastic food and enjoy the ocean breeze. Besides eating, I think we did all of the above out on the deck where the ocean and hills both provide an excellent view, only going inside to retire at night.


While the adults enjoyed some wine and good conversation, Conner colored himself silly decorating this cardboard house Grammie and Grandpa picked up.



Arts and crafts have become his new forte, so getting a whole house to create on was a wonderful and inspiring treat!


He took a few breaks to enjoy the actual playing with of the house, with Brooks following right along.


While Brooks was not really interested in coloring on the house, he did love opening and closing all the door and windows and "WOW'ing" over Conner's coloring.

Wordless Wednesday

A lesson in self control

At least once a day I find myself with a whining, temper tantrum throwing three year old. Amid the high pitched voice, balled up hands and some wonderfully loud noises I usually find myself wanting to do the same. It is amazing how when someone gets emotional, regardless of the cause, it can stir up the exact same emotion in you. But instead of giving in to the temptation of screaming back at my child (and sometimes this is extremely hard to do...alright, I have screamed once or twice) I take a deep breath gather my self control, get down to eye level with said temper tantrum thrower and calmly and gently ask him to gain self control. It generally goes like this;

First "Conner you need to gain self control"
Second because now he is calming down and listening "Conner you need to gain self control of your voice"
and third "Conner you need to gain self control of your body"

I find it important to give him specifics of how he needs to gain self control so that he can use these as tools to help him know how to calm down. Its like something clicks in him when I tell him to do these things, slowly you can watch his body and then his face regain control. The soft tone of my voice and the repetition of the words are comforting, something familiar and a way to control some pretty heavy emotions. I will continue to repeat these over until he has gained self control and we can discuss what is going on like rational human beings. This scenario can be played out in many different situations, whining, being destructive with ones body and so on. Generally he is calm by the third self control.

Over a year ago I attended a parenting class at the church I used to call home. It was a very encouraging, informative and convicting class, it reminded me of how important a role I carry and it brought to light those areas I had been letting the world shape my children and not Christ. The world we live in today can be a scary one for me when it comes to parenting. The standards seems so low, leaning more towards laziness then participation on behalf of the parent. It is almost as if the word "no" is becoming taboo. This scares me because it is all to easy to fall into laziness because it is of course the easier route to take and sometimes easy is just way to appealing.

One of the subjects discussed was the importance of self control, for both the parents and the children. I will admit that this was a new concept for me. I mean I knew I wasn't supposed to loose me temper or to encourage those of my children, but at the time I had never heard the term "self control" associated with child rearing and discipline. Listening to our leader, Karen, describe to us a situation in which it was applied to an 18 month old throwing a temper tantrum because he didn't want to sit in a high chair, I began to see more clearly my own child's need for this in his life. We were just hitting that stage where everything was responded to with tantrums and we had yet to find the heart issue of what it was our son really needed. Sometimes nothing we could do would bring Conner down back from hysteria land. I mean most times we could get him to calm down, but there would be almost this manic look to his eyes waiting for something else to set him off. Walking around on eggshells around your then two year old is not fun nor is it teaching him anything or even helping him. So listening to Karen talking about the biblical and practical importance of self control in our lives was like looking into a window of what it was my son's heart needed. Mine too.

Titus 2 is a great passage about how we are called to be self controlled in our actions, thoughts and words and how through our own lack of self control we will be a model of ungodliness and worldly passions to those around us. Temper tantrums, whining, and being destructive are all great models of these things. Each day we are given the opportunity through these very worldly passionate moments to teach our children the importance of self control and in turn the tools on how to be in control of our emotions. Not to hide them or remove them, but to share them with people in a manner in which there will be a positive influence.

I chose to write about this today because it is a tool in parenting that has been priceless to me, not only because my child needed it but because I needed it myself. Asking our children to gain self control is a great reminder to us as parents to use self control everyday. It wasn't until it was thrown right in my face that I realized this vitally important part of parenting and wifely-ness was missing from my every day life. At least in a visible way. So maybe it will help you a little, or maybe its something you already know and it will be a little reminder of the need for it in our lives.