Picky Eaters

B has never been a very good eater.  From very early on she just didn't eat much.  But even though she never ate much, she was never picky about what she did eat.  In fact, early on, she preferred vegetables to almost anything else.  Fast forward to my almost 6 year old who is about to start kindergarten (more on that later...).  Now my girl thinks she could survive only on corn dogs! Seriously.  We went on vacation a couple months ago and she ate a corn dog for lunch. Every. Single. Day.

I remember a time when I was jealous of other moms who complained that their child would only eat one type of food.  I would think, 'well, at least they'll eat!'  So, I am not complaining about that.  My complaint is that she has started to say 'I don't like that!' as soon as I place her plate in front of her.  I realize I am not alone in this problem.  Nearly every parent of small children have dealt with this.  Our biggest issue with this has B's attitude about this.  I have tried to teach her to be respectful of others.  I have told her I do not mind if she doesnt like something I serve, but she at least has to try it to know if she likes it.  And, she must politely say she does not and like it.

Not A Morning Person

My chuckle of the day from my beautiful daughter, B:

She woke this morning and went straight to the couch to lay down.  I went to talk to her, after the I love you's and such I said, 'C is having a pancake for breakfast, do you know what you want yet?'  Her response?  'no, I'm not very smart when I first wake up!'  Ha! I can relate!

You Have Mail!

Back in January I had visions of replacing our mailbox this spring.  It was never intended to be permanent, we installed it while we were building our home to have a way of receiving our mail.  Now, it's nearly 8 years later!  What can I say?  We've been busy!  Actually, it just kinda got pushed to the back burner, then eventually forgotten.   So, anyway, it was finally moving it's way to the front burner again.  I was on Pinterest trying to get some ideas and looking at Lowe's website getting some prices.  I was looking forward to getting to work on it...in the spring.  You know, when it's nice and pretty outside. But then, in early February, someone ran over our mailbox! 
I don't mean they bumped into it.  It was completely ran over.  Flattened.  Has to be replaced!  Fortunately, Hubs was able to beat it into shape until we could get a new one.

Based on that pic, do you think its time to replace?  The door will actually close.  If you slam it shut, which only serves to loosen it more in the ground.  Thankfully we recently resubscribed to the newspaper, otherwise I fear the box would already be on the ground! 
So, weekend before last, we managed to install a new mailbox.  I love our new box!  It looks so much nicer, and it stands up straight!  And it closes! What more could one ask for?  Although, it was not quite as easy as we had planned.  Lowe's did not have the post in stock that we (read I) wanted and it was going to take 2 weeks for it to be delivered, so we had to work with what we could get.  The post we bought had a planter on the back, which I did not want.  It did not have a newspaper holder, which I did want.  So, guess what!  The planter in the back became a newspaper holder in the front!  What seemed like a minor modification turned into quite a job, but it's done and I love it!  Quite an improvement over the pititful, leaning box!

I still want to add a nice flower bed around it, but that will wait for warmer days!

Pinterest Projects

I have already spoke of my love of Pinterest in my profile.  I can literally spend (I hate to say) hours scanning through all of the pins.  There are so many great ideas on there.  I have to admit though, that I frequently pin things to my boards, then never look at them again.  At least, not for a very long time.  I have a tendency to always look at new things instead of what I have already pinned.  But, I have made some of the things I found on Pinterest and would like to share them with you here.  Some of these turned out better than others, but at least I tried! So, check these out:

These are the Valentine's we made for the kids.  OK, we were supposed to make them, but sometimes its just easier for Mom to make them!  Especially during a busy schedule, and it was around Valentine's day.

B took these to pre-K and her church class. 
They were so much easier than I thought they'd be!

These are mini packs of M&Ms wrapped in tissue paper. Easier thing I've made!
C took these to his church class

 

Now we move on to Easter projects! I made this plastic egg wreath that looks pretty good in the picture! Please don't come over and inspect it! I just couldn't make myself stop gluing more eggs on!

                     I loved the ribbon when I picked it out but was a little too sheer for this project

Then this is pretty simple and straight-forward, but it was a great idea I found on Pinterest.  I never thought decorating with plastic eggs could look so nice!

                               Love these jars I picked up at Old Time Pottery in Nashville!

Now, for my favorite!  I have saved the best for last.  This is partially a Pinterest idea that I built on and it turned out so nice!  This project was so simple and fun, but looks like a lot of work. 

Hubs is currently working on a Pinterest project that I am really excited about!  Check back in the future to check it out when it is finished! 

Mom's Taco Salad

This is a recipe that I grew up with.  I'm not sure where my mom got the recipe, but its been around for years.  It is one meal that Hubs is always up for!  He loves this stuff.  The best part: it's easy!  So, here it is:

Ingredients:
1 bag Doritos (I use regular or taco flavor)
4 tomatoes
1 large head lettuce
1 packet taco seasoning (this time, I used homemade, recipe here)
1 can light red kidney beans
1 8oz bottle taco sauce
1 8oz bottle italian dressing
1 8oz pkg cheddar or mexican cheese (just realized I left it out of pic!)
1lb beef

Brown and drain ground beef then prepare according to taco seasoning instructions.

(that is my fancy, shmancy Orgreenic pan, a gift from my dad!)

While beef is cooking, tear a very small opening in top of Doritos bag (to allow air to escape) and crush the chips.  If you have little ones around who are eager to help, this is a great job for them! Pour into a large bowl.  Chop lettuce to bite size pieces and dice tomatoes, add both to bowl.  Drain and rinse beans, add to salad.   Add cheese, taco seasoning, dressing and beef.  Stir gently to combine. 

This is great right away, but we like to wait an hour or so to let the flavors combine! By the way, this makes a lot of salad!  Hope you enjoy it as much as we do!

And, on a side note, here is a pic of B and C:

Yep! That's my kiddos watching an ant crawl across the floor! Cheap entertainment, but I still want the blasted things out of my house!

The last two days

I hate being cold.  Many people say they would rather be cold than hot, but not me.  Bring on the heat!  I live for the summer.  I enjoy watching flowers bloom in the spring and the gorgeous colors of changing leaves as fall settles in, but for me, summer is where it's at.  Needless to say at this point I am not a big fan of winter.  I don't like wearing bulky coats and sweaters.  I struggle with what to do with my kids in their carseats with coats.  You're not supposed to put them in carseats with coats on due to the bulkiness, but when it's cold outside, you don't really want to stand outside putting coats on to run inside a store.  And check out the looks you get from others if you make a mad dash to the store without their coats on!  But honestly, I can usually get into a store quicker than I can manage to get them bundled up. 

As much as I do not like being cold, I love to watch it snow!  That is one of my favorite pastimes.  It takes me back to when I was a kid on snow days when we got to stay home from school.  My mom, sister and I would all drink hot chocolate and play puzzles.  Falling snow is memerizing and relaxing.  The only problem is, around our neck of the woods, we rarely get to watch it fall.  We have a tendency to wake up in the morning to find it covering the grass and trees, but no more flakes floating in the sky.  I do think it is a beautiful blanket, but is not nearly as fun for me as the falling flakes. 

That brings me to the last couple of days.  We have had 2 full days of snow fall.  Although we had little to no accumulation.  The kids were disappointed there were no snowmen to be built or snow cream to eat!  Each morning we woke to less than an inch of snow, but by midday it had melted away, although it snowed all day long. 

So, as much as I hate being cold, I have to say, I have loved the last couple of days.  And I have drank more hot chocolate in the last couple of days than I care to recall.  I did, however, skip the puzzles!  I thank God for the gift He gave me (sorry, it was meant for me!). 

Our backyard during snowfall

It's Part Of My Job

I have struggled for years with the guilt that comes at the end of my day.  If you are a parent, you know the guilt I refer to.  There are days that feel like all I have done is fuss and get on to my kids.  Satan loves to tell me that if I were a better mom I wouldn't be fussing so much.  This used to really get me down.  Okay, truth is, it still does.  But when I tell Satan to leave me alone, and I listen to God's word, I hear the truth.  The truth is, that is my job!  I am the mom and that is how my kids learn.  My job is to train them up in the way they should go.  It is in their nature to test the limits and even blatantly defy me.  (Does this sound like our relationship with God?)  It can be exhausting to be constantly reinforcing the limits to my children, but it is important.  And, hopefully, the older they get the easier it will become.  That is the point of my job, right?  To put myself out of a job.  To make them less dependent on me and more dependent on God. 

So, to Satan, get behind me.  I have a job to do!

R U listening?

Have you noticed that you are repeating yourself more often? Or maybe feel like what you just said wasn't heard at all?  I know I'm feeling both of these.  Is it that everyone I know is suddenly hard of hearing? Or maybe I'm mumbling.  I don't think so!  I think in this high tech world where we are supposed to be able to keep in touch easier than ever, we are paying less attention to each other.  Next time you go out to eat, look at the people at the tables around you.  Are they deep in conversation? Doubtful.  Are they even looking at each other? Probably not.  I'm not sure they are even aware there is another person at the table!  In my experience, they are on their smartphones, tablets and similar devices checking the weather, their email, updating their profile (no one really cares that you are out to eat with whomever is sitting across from you) or playing games!

We recently were out to eat and observed a family.  Both of the parents were on their respective devices and hardly spoke a word to each other or their beautiful young daughter (I'm guessing around 4-5 years old).  In this busy world we live in, where in most cases, both parents are having to work outside of the home, what a waste of an opportunity to spend time together.

I'm not against the use of our great technology, I'm typing this blog on my tablet now.  But we cannot forget to connect to each other when we are together and our children need us to teach them the art of conversation!

How do they know?

Have you ever been on the phone talking, then you hear it?  Or, you're cleaning the house with the news on in the background when something catches your ear.  You're really trying to listen to what they are saying when you hear it.  "Mom!......Mom!.....Mooooommmmm!"   How do they know?  You can be totally available for hours and they need nothing from you.  You can spend your day cleaning, or browsing the internet, whatever.  But as soon as you are distracted, there they are.  They need something and they need. it. now! 

But then you have the cutest little conversation with them, like I had tonight with C as I was putting him to bed.  I asked him where God lives.  After thinking for a second he said, "in a castle!" 
Me: Where is the castle?
He has no answer, so I help him with "heaven"
Me: Where is heaven?
C: In the road!
Me: What road?
C (as he's holding up 1 finger): This one!

OK, so I'm not really sure what that meant, but it was stinkin' cute!

Happy Birthday, Grandma

My best childhood memories come from times spent with my grandparents.  Every summer they would take me and my cousins camping for a week.  The day after Thanksgiving we would all load up and go to Nashville to go shopping for the day.  (I was young then, but I don't think it was as crazy then as it is now!) Did I mention there were six of us cousins ranging in ages by about a 7 year spread?  We had some great times that created really great memories.  I wish every child could have grandparents as good as mine.  They not only had a great time with us, but they also set good examples for us.  I can't remember a time when they were not involved in church.  They were always considerate to everyone they met and were respected by all who have known them.

Today would have been my grandmother's 87th birthday.  Unfortunately, we lost her a little more than three years ago.  She was a great lady, an awesome cook, and one of the best grandmas anyone could have.  She had five children, one of which was waiting for her in heaven when she arrived.  She had ten grandchildren (some were added after those camping days!) one of which also was waiting for her in heaven.  When she passed, she had four great children, but within a year of her passing three more would be added, with two more expected this year!

She was truly a blessing to our family and is dearly missed.

Grandma with B

 Happy birthday, Grandma!

Sprinkles, please!

B loves to do projects. It can be arts and crafts, helping with cooking or a game. I came up with an idea for a project she could do that would also be a fun snack for her and C. It was very simple but ended with a cute and yummy product.

We used:
Vanilla wafers
Chocolate almond bark
Peanut butter
Marshmallow cream
And of course, sprinkles!

Melt chocolate in microwave safe bowl in 30 second intervals until melted.  Dip wafers in chocolate.  For some we spread either peanut butter or marshmallow cream on the wafers before we dipped them. Next we decorated with sprinkles.  Allow to cool at room temperature on wax or parchment paper until chocolate is set.

B had a lot of fun making these.  They were pretty yummy too!  My favorite was the ones with peanut butter!



Chocolate Wafer



Wafers Before They're Dipped

B Showing Off Her Project
 

 

I'm not too disappointed I missed the Super Bowl

I did not watch the Super Bowl.  I'm just not into football!  I usually do like to watch the commercials, like most of us do.  I had to work this past Sunday and missed it, but the news networks are making sure I see at least one of the commercials.  The one I would most like to miss.  Once again, Carl Jr's/Hardees is at their offensive best.  I'm not sure how families in this country have not made their voice heard loud and clear.  This company has managed to offend every member of the family, but most people just see it as humerous!  They repeatedly use women as sex objects, (don't know about you, but I've never eaten a burger while topless on the beach, and I'm quite certain, the women in their commercials never have either!), depict men as unintelligent and too dense to manage to take care of preparing food for themselves, and, a few years ago they made it clear that children were not their target demographic.  And if you are wondering, yes, I have made it clear that I am no longer a patron to their restaurant.  But I do miss those biscuits!

Proverbs 31

Wow! What a title for a blog, right? Sounds a little supercilious.  Believe me, I do not think of myself as 'an excellent wife.'  Rather, it is the goal I have for myself provided by God in Proverbs 31.  I alone cannot achieve this goal, but only by God living in me.

An excellent wife who can find? She is far more precious than jewels. The heart of her husband trusts in her, and he will have no lack of gain. Proverbs 31:10-11 (ESV) Her children rise up and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her (ESV)

In future posts, I will share stories  from my life as a working mom and wife and probably some random thoughts as well!  As you read along, it will become painfully clear that I am far from excellent, but I'm trying everyday!