Book Review - Pattern of Wounds

Pattern of Wounds is a murder mystery novel featuring Roland March as the cantankerous, focused, tough guy homicide detective. Pattern of Wounds was written by J. Mark Bertrand. The novel follows March as he tries to solve a murder of a young woman, figure out if the crime is one of a serial killer, deal with his own past, and face an unraveling conviction.
I thought the novel moved slowly through the first half. Perhaps I am too used to crimes being solved in the 1 hour time frame on Law and Order: SVU! Halfway through though, my attention was grabbed and I couldn't put the book down. This was the first book in the Roland March series that I read, and although it is not necessary to read the first book in the series, it is probably helpful to. At some points I did feel a little lost because I didn't know the complete back story for the other story lines that were included in Pattern of Wounds. And speaking of other story lines, I felt there were too many in the book! And looking back, those were the parts in the novel that I seemed to drag through. Those parts were probably super important for those who have read the first Roland March book in the series and wanted closure. However, I would have been content just reading the parts relating to the main crime-the murder of the woman, with perhaps one side story thrown in.
If given the opportunity, I would pick up the first book in the Roland March series. If the series continues I would probably pick up those books as well.
**I was provided a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.**

Book Review-One Call Away

The first thing someone may be thinking is "Who is Brenda Warner and why would I want to read her autobiography?" Well, her biggest claim to fame is being Kurt Warner's wife.

Still, you may be saying, "Who's Kurt Warner?" or perhaps, "That name sounds familiar. I think he was on Dancing With the Stars once." He was, and Kurt Warner is a former football player who led his teams to the Super Bowl three times. OK, now that we got that squared away, you may still be asking, Why would I want to pick up Brenda Warner's autobiography, especially if I don't know who she is, or like football, the sport her husband is affiliated with?

The simple answer is because you will love her story. You will feel like you have gained a friend after reading her book. You will be inspired. You will laugh and you will cry. You do not need to be a football fan to enjoy this strong woman's story.

It is very unfortunate the many tragedies that Brenda Warner has faced in her life, however, those tragedies make for a good read, and I thus couldn't put One Call Away down. It's been awhile since I have finished an autobiography in three days; actually it's been awhile since I have finished ANY book in three days! I just couldn't put it down, and spent those three days reading it staying up until 1 a.m. every night!

Although Brenda's life has been marked by some horrific moments, her deep faith allows her to trust God and His plan for her life. She is a strong woman for all that she has been through, however, the only reason she is, is because she serves a stronger God! I will say that I disagree with some of the choices that Brenda has made in her life (premarital sex and breast enhancement surgery), however, I do appreciate how completely honest she was.

If you have read Mary Beth Chapman's book, Choosing to See, I found that the writing styles are similar, and so are the messages, however, two very different stories, so it is worth it to pick One Call Away up.

**I was provided a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.**

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Week 4 Gas Challenge July 3-9

We started this week with our mileage at 129,893.

We ended this week with our mileage at 129,969.

So, yes, we kept our miles under 100 at 76 miles!!!!

Definitely proud of this accomplishment, however, looking back I realized I DID drive every day except Friday. So, maybe I need to add an additional goal of only driving 3 or 4 days out of the week!

I biked to work 3 out of the 4 days I worked last week, and I biked with all three kids to the library on Thursday night. No easy feat, since I had the bike trailer, a bike seat on the back of my bike, plus the 3 kids, and their bags of library books (which probably equals the weight of Foster Child #3!)

I did drive the 1 mile to the hardware store on Thursday-boo! But, my grampa was helping me with pressure washing our wood ramp, and we needed something. I offered to go to the store, but since I was on his time, I knew I needed to do it quickly so he could get back home (especially since this was after doing his chemo treatment-he definitely gets ROCK STAR status!). So, I drove.

My goal this week is to NOT have to put gas in the car until we go on vacation. We have just under a quarter of a tank. I wish that I could attain my goal of only driving 3 or 4 days this week, but I've already driven every day this week, and I will be driving tomorrow,and probably Thursday as we get ready for Family Camp

Week 3 Gas Challenge June 27-July 2

We started this week with our gas mileage at 129,690.
We ended our week with our mileage at 129,893.

So this week we traveled 203 miles by car. Definitely not the 100 miles I wanted, but I also wanted a fun family trip strawberry picking. Guess which one we chose? We traveled to McHenry on Saturday for strawberry picking and then went to my grandparents for a fun afternoon of electric scootering and pool play. Wouldn't trade it for trying to meet my gas goal.

Our gas could have been lower had we not gotten lost on the way to my grandparents' house. (This just means that our new car that we are saving up for must have GPS!)

This week, I sadly biked only 2 days. One day it was raining, and another day I was so tired because Foster Child #3 was up for 3 hours in the middle of the night. Although biking and driving to work take the same amount of time, I figured driving would be safer to have the metal surrounded me, should I not be paying attention! And for the third day I consolidated my drive to work with dropping of recycling. Kind of ironic that to be green you have to sacrifice some element of greenness by driving to drop off recycling.

This week I also had a couple of other errand trips that I had to take by car. One day had to go to church and then to Rogers Park, and another day I had to go to Park Ridge, Dominick's, and a friend's house in Jefferson Park.

We did walk/bike to the library on Thursday,and let me tell you, I was so tempted to drive, thinking we would be late for the Thursday concert there. However, I totally booked it, and we made it in plenty of time! And then when Foster Dad joined us, he biked over and when we left he took one of the Foster kids with him.

Oh, and one thing about Foster Dad. I am so excited and blessed that he is so on board with this challenge of mine. It did start out as my idea and he gave his blessing, but I definitely thought he wouldn't be completely on board, mainly because he bikes all the time to work. Also he likes convenience, so if given the opportunity to drive somewhere to get something quick, he would. Take for example on Friday. I realized when I shopped that I forgot milk. So, when Foster Dad came home he went out to get milk, but he took his bike (and 2 kids with him), completely knowing that dinner would be delayed a few extra minutes because of the extra time it would take him to bike to the store rather than drive!

Week 2 Gas Challenge-June 20-26

Our mileage at the beginning of the week was 129,543.

And our mileage at the end of the week was 129,690.

We drove a total of 147 miles!!! Not the half I was looking for from the previous week's 238, but still quite a reduction!

Here's how we did it:
We did travel once again to my grandparents. (I am not willing to cut that out for sake of saving money!)
We did drive to 2 grocery stores (jewel and Dominicks), and crazily we drove to the Dominick's that is farther away. However, the jewel is on the way home from that Dominick's so that is why we went there. Wouldn't have made sense to go to the closer Dominick's because the Jewel is in the opposite direction! Plus this Dominick's we went to has the bread we buy now (Ezekial 4:9) so that saved us a trip from going to Trader Joe's or Whole Foods!
I biked to work 3 days last week.
Foster Child #1 went to VBS this week, but went with our next door neighbors. Instead of me doing all the driving, our neighbor dropped off the kids,and I picked them up! (And unfortunately VBS was canceled for 2 nights because the church had no power, so saved gas that way-boo!)

I must say that it is so exciting to see that in one week we only used a 1/4 tank of gas (if that much). It would be great if we don't have to fill up again until mid July!

Kids Say the Darndest Things

Foster Child #1: Mom, where's the blanket with arms?
Foster Dad: What's that?
Typical guy!!!
Me: Foster child #1, it's called a robe.

Fess Up Friday

Me: Foster Child #2, what color cup do you want, orange or yellow?
Foster Child #2: Orange

I walked into the dining room to hand Foster Children #2 and #3 their cups, and rushed back into the kitchen to grab something else.

Foster Child #2: HEY, BUT I WANTED ORANGE!
Yes, all in caps because he was screaming.

I rushed back into the dining room, only to find that I had mistakenly given Foster Child #1 the orange cup, and Foster Child #2 the yellow cup...

Not a big deal, right?!? I'm sure that's happened to most of us!

...and that Foster Child #1 had already taken a big gulp of Foster Child #2's juice, complete with his medicine, Miralax!!!

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Week 1 Gas Challenge-June 12-June 18

We officially started the gas challenge last week! And it is going well! We are definitely having some successes, but there are also ways we can continue to improve.
We started the week with our mileage at 129,305.
We ended the week with our mileage at 129,543.
So, in one given week we traveled 238 miles. Not bad, I thought considering we took a trip to see my grandparents out in the far 'burbs (if you could even call their town a suburb.) I'd love to see this number halved!!!!
We consolidated trips, I walked with the kids to the library, Greg rode his bike to meet with his mentor rather than drive, and I took a long walk with the kids on Friday to the science store! We also needed a part for our bike trailer, but rather than take the trip to the bike shop, I knew we would be seeing the bike shop's owner at a party that day, so I called for "delivery!" And they happily obliged! (It helps that they are friends and we go there for all of of bike needs!)

Fess Up Friday

Me: Where's Foster Child #3?

Foster Dad: Down for a nap.

And reason 1,001 I love my husband, is that he didn't say,"Remember,YOU were the one who put him down not even 5 MINUTES ago."

Oh Be Careful Big Mouths WhatYou Say

Foster Dad left his cell phone at my grandparents' house today. My gramma called me to let me know and Foster Dad said, "Be sure they pick up the phone if my other girlfriend calls." I relay this message to my gramma and of course we all have a good laugh.

However, after I hung up the phone Foster Child #1 pipes up from the backseat and says, "Daddy, who's your other girlfriend?"

Watch, one day Foster Child #1 is going to tell someone her daddy has two girlfriends!

Fess Up Friday

Foster Child #1's birthday was May 29. On May 28th she said to me, "Mommy, who's that Pinkalicious book for?"

Oh, crap!

Yup, I completely left out one of her 4 presents completely unwrapped, in plain view for her to see. I had to keep it out so Foster Dad and I could write our birthday letters in the front cover (which we still haven't done!) And oh geez, today is Foster Child #3's birthday and I have yet to even BUY his birthday book.

One night this week while in bed Foster Child #1 asked if she could get water. I told her sure she could get water from the bathroom sink. A few minutes later, Foster Dad and I hear again, "Momma, can I get some water?" I holler back, "Foster Child #1, you already got water!" And as I'm hollering, Foster Child #2 walks into the bathroom, completely disregarding my message. Good thing, because it was then I realized it was Foster Child #2 who had asked for water!

Last night I made bean burritos for dinner. I had the recipe picked out a couple of days prior and was happy I had everything on hand, or so I thought. The recipe called for frozen corn kernels, which I swore I had! Apparently, I didn't, but I did have bags of mixed vegetables, which have corn in it. You better believe I opened those 2 bags and picked out most of the corn kernels for my recipe!

Book Review-Promises to Keep

Promises to Keep, written by Ann Tatlock, is a story about a preteen girl, Roz, and her life after moving to a new town. Once in the town of fictional Mills River, IL, her family discovers they have a new house guest, Tillie, a rather eccentric, but wise 70 year old woman, who also, in my opinion, happens to be the best thing the family encounters.
I enjoyed the book, however, I felt like it was a slow read up until half way through. The book has 47 chapters, but is 345 pages long, so you can see that the chapters are short. This I viewed as a disadvantage because I would read only one chapter at a time, and be OK with that. I didn't feel like there was enough of a pull to make me read the next chapter in the same sitting. However, it could be an advantage for someone who doesn't have a lot of time on their hands and wants a book that they can read a chapter in five minutes. If you have the patience to make it through the first half, the second half is well worth it. I flew through the final chapters on the book. Although it was rather predictable, there was still the desire to see what would happen, and yes, some surprises!
The characters in the novel are complex, yet likable (well, at least most of them!) Ms. Tatlock did a wonderful job of developing the characters, and the different stories they all told in one novel.
Although the story is a drama, there is some humor and light-hearted moments as well, which is appreciated and frankly, needed, because the topics in the book are rather deep and complex.
All in all, my review of the book is average. There are elements I liked (the characters), but others I could do without (disliked the short chapters!) I may read more of Ms. Tatlock's work in the future if her books come across my path, but I won't go out of my way to.


**I was provided a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.**

Fess Up Friday

Considering it has been over a month since I last posted, some of these are rather old but too good not to share!

On a particularly blustery day, Foster Child #1 and I went to get haircuts. I went to pay for parking at one of Mayor Daley's most ridiculous ideas-the Parking Meter Boxes. I pushed my bank card in, pulled it out, and saw it, just-like-that, fly out of my hands! I ran down Howard Street chasing after my bank card for a block! And fortunately I was able to grab it before it blew into traffic on Clark Street!

The night before Mother's Day my mom and I prepped Baked Oatmeal for us to have for breakfast the next morning. I woke up on Sunday to a wonderful smell wafting from the kitchen, but soon enough forgot about it. As we were bustling around that morning (we had house guests, had to bathe the kids, and just general Sunday morning prep to get to church) I turned on the oven to preheat the Baked Oatmeal, and then went about my merry way getting ready. Well, it's a good thing my mom is our family's chef extraordinaire because she turned off the oven shortly thereafter as I was apparently cooking the Baked Oatmeal more. Yeah, the yummy smell that woke me up was the Baked Oatmeal already done being baked! (I failed to check the fridge first to see if my mom did bake it, but I also didn't see it out on the counter, which would be the ideal place for something already baked!) And I guess I sucked pretty bad at communicating-which is pretty sad, because my mom and I are usually pretty good at it!

Recently Foster Child #2 came downstairs with Foster Child #1's toothbrush. I questioned him, asking him why he had Foster Child #1's toothbrush for brushing his teeth, and he replied, "She's sharing with me!" I laughed and said, "Not toothbrushes!" But, yes, I still let him use it!

This week we ate at McDonald's twice! And if you know my family at all, you know that is out of the ordinary. We're more like once a month McDonald patrons. Oh, and if I'll be really honest, the two times we ate at McDonald's were 2 days in a row!

Sometimes the best quotes are from husbands

Me: How many gifts from us do you want Foster Child #1 to open?
Foster Dad: All of them (mind you he said this without skipping a beat)
Me (sarcastically): Har, har, har, har.
OK, and then I did laugh more genuinely.
Me: OK, let me rephrase that. I know we want her to open all of our gifts, but we have choices in how many I wrap.
Foster Dad: The more the merrier.

And, I concur! She'll be opening 4 from us. :)

For Memory's Sake

I've been meaning to post these for awhile, but quite low on the priority list!
Foster Child #3 LOVES the vacuum cleaner. He'll actually crawl to it when it is turned on. He has no fear of it, and once even laughed when it was on.

Foster Child #2 has been going with us to the singing portion of our chuirch's worship service. However, when he tells us he wants to he says, "I want to go to surgery."
Oh, and while I'm at it....
When he went with us today to church, he refused to go into the nursery when it was time, and Iowa Gramma (who took him) had a hard time saying no, so he came back into the service, ended up falling asleep on Foster Dad's lap, and awoke startled when the whooping and hollering took place after the baptisms!

And since I was too busy on Friday cuddling with my new nephew and catching up with my sister and mom, I didn't have a Fess Up Friday, so here you go.

I was so exhausted on Tuesday, but my kids had napped in the car on the way home from picking up something from my cousin's house, that in order for myself to get a nap, I excitedly told the kids we were going to have a pajama party in my bed, and snuggle up together to watch a movie. Yup, they watched the movie and I took a nap!

Quote of the Day

We're in the middle of making monster cookies, and I had to stop to document what Foster Child #1 said. She was using our handy dandy Pampered Chef Measure All Cup to remove the peanut butter. She had to flip over the cup and push down the bottom of the cup to let the peanut butter drop into the bowl. As she's doing this she says, "Oh, it's like a giant" and stopped herself! First and foremost, Foster Dad and I were proud of her for not using bathroom talk in the kitchen and knowing she should stop herself. However, Foster Dad and I were chuckling on the inside, not only because we knew what she was about to say, but probably more so because she was pretty right on!

Fess Up Friday

I volunteered in the church nursery on Sunday, after I switched with someone who I thought was scheduled for last Sunday. However, I misread the email and realized we were both scheduled for 2 weeks from now and she wanted to switch with someone to take that week (the 17th) for her and she take the 3rd. A lot of help I was since I obviously can't switch for a day I am already scheduled to volunteer!

Now, I am very ashamed to admit this next confession, because it really is a bad mommy moment, but that's what fess Up Friday is all about after all.

Foster Child #1 wanted to give her Bible Study teacher a picture she had colored scribbled. When she asked me if she could bring it with her, I responded by saying, "But Miss C., it's not even pretty." I know, not a very proud mommy moment. I definitely hurt her by saying that, as evidenced by her wide eyes getting teary eyed. And yes, I did ask for her forgiveness later.

Oh, and Foster Child #1 definitely got back at me later. She gave me a taste of my own medicine by saying, "Mommy, you look fat today." Yeah-ouch!

My friend Kim once said that my FUF posts share "to the world the stupid things I've done and that they are never really THAT stupid." Well, this week I can admit and fess up to something really stupid and downright dangerous that I did. Once again, didn't want to post this, lest anyone think I'm a horrible mother, judge me, and then talk about me behind my back about my stupidity, but you know what? We all have faults and have made some pretty bad errors. At least I'm secure enough to admit that I am far from perfect.

On Tuesday (wow, Tuesday was just an all around bad day for me!) Foster Child #3 fell asleep in the car after Bible Study, so when we got in the house, I laid him down on the family room floor to sleep since we'd have to turn back around in about an hour to take Foster Child #1 to school. I fed the 2 older kids lunch, and decided to unload the dishwasher and reload it since we had some time before we had to leave again. I looked up at the clock and realized I really needed to move to get out the door. I left the dishwasher open since I wasn't completely done loading it, and would do it when I first got back home. I went to do Foster Child #1's hair, but also realized I needed to change Foster Child #2's diaper. I stationed myself in our office to do these things facing the hallway to the kitchen. By this time Foster Child #3 was awake and crawling around. I did the diaper change while Foster Child #3 crawled toward the pantry. "Perfect," I thought, "the pantry will keep him occupied." When I was done with Foster Child #2's diaper change, I didn't ask him to keep an eye on Foster Child #3, which he totally would of done if I asked him, and I couldn't ask Foster Child #1 since I was doing her hair. All this time, I was sitting in our office facing the hallway to our kitchen, however, I couldn't see the kitchen because the pantry door was open. I finished doing Foster Child #1's hair, and went to retrieve Foster Child #3 from the pantry, only to see he wasn't in there, and it was then that I saw the HUGE bread knife lying on the kitchen floor in front of the stove! Foster Child #3 had crawled out of the pantry (I couldn't see him because the door was blocking the view to the kitchen), and not only went into the kitchen, but around the corner to the open dishwasher, where the only thing I had loaded on the bottom shelf was a big bread knife he grabbed and then dragged to the stove. Foster Child #3 was still in the kitchen away from the knife and sitting in front of the washing machine WITHOUT A MARK OR CUT ON HIM! Yes, I was stupid. I should have totally closed the dishwasher, especially since I knew a knife was in there, and especially after I realized Foster Child #3 woke up.
However, one of the reasons I share this confession is because I KNOW without a doubt God had protected him. That although I was stupid and made an awful mistake, God was there to cover my mistake, so that no harm was done. And how amazing that our God is the perfect Shepherd protecting all of His little ones!

(Ooops, and now one more thing to confess. Never told Foster Dad about the dishwasher/knife incident until just now as I was reading for him my last paragraph, and he said, "What are you talking about?")

And this is a long enough Fess Up Friday, and I didn't even get into the night I fed my family doughnuts for dinner. Surprise, surprise, that was on Tuesday also!

Our summer challenge!

The wait is now over for all of you who have been anxiously waiting on the edge of your seats to find out what our summer challenge is going to be!

With gas prices continuing to rise, our summer challenge will be to go carless as much as possible this summer! I spent almost $100 to fill up the tank today (yikes!) and I don't feel like doing that on a biweekly basis as we have been. $200 is just too much to spend on gas a month, especially since we live in such an accessible city.

I'm not exactly sure what this will look like. We either will try to keep our mileage under a certain amount each week, or we'll just challenge ourselves to cut our gas spending by half. We have a little bit of work to do before embarking on this challenge, like actually tracking what our mileage is each week, but here's what I do know:

I will walk with the kids to stores like CVS and Walgreens, plus the library and the 3 parks near our house.

We will totally utilize my new bike plus our Burley bike trailer and baby bike seat.

We'll try to take advantage of being home as much as possible, but not being hermits! We'll experience simple joy in playing in our backyard on the swing set, splashing in our pool, and having picnics on our backyard grass.

I'll grocery shop by biking to the store and using the bike trailer to carry our groceries home.

We will probably start attending a church close to our home that we will walk to on Sunday mornings (or Saturday evenings).

This doesn't mean we won't go anywhere far, after all we do have family and friends that live quite a distance away, but whenever we can be intentional about walking or biking someplace we will!

I'm excited about how this will necessitate a slower pace of life for us. We'll have to really take our time going places, since I don't want us to rely on our car. Additionally I think my waistline and thighs will thank me for this challenge!

Each week, I'll post how much gas we used and I'll also post at the end of the month what our total gas spending was. Whatever we don't spend on gas will go into our new car savings! Blogging our results will be the accountability I'll need to help us reach our goals.

(And if I'm feeling really brave, I'll post my waist measurements each month to see how this challenge has slimmed me down!)

Success!

Although I've been a coupon, and thus stock-up shopper, for a couple of years I had yet to have an eat from the freezer/pantry challenge for a WHOLE month. We've done it before for a week at a time, but never a whole month, which just seemed so daunting and overwhelming. I would not consider myself a creative cook so I was envisioning a lot of spaghetti in our future! However, it was a success! We survived the whole month eating from our pantry and freezer, with a few exceptions, of course. And I think that's pretty darn good, considering that what we had in our freezer were a LOT of bagged vegetables, and about 8 servings of mashed potatoes!
Here's some of the low down:
We did shop during the month for necessary consumables, like milk, baby food, and fresh fruit.
I did also buy fresh ground turkey on 2 occasions when it was under $1.99 a pound-an absolute steal!
I made a couple of surprising substitutions. We had Shepherd's Pie one night, but didn't have any gravy. My mom was here and suggested we use cream of chicken soup as the gravy. And this time her advice was spot on, unlike this time.
Another time, I truly believe God was directing me in what to cook. I wanted to make meatloaf and was looking for a particular recipe. Well, before I found that particular recipe I found another one which used many more ingredients, but I had them on hand, including fresh carrots, that I really had no other wise plans for.
With the meatloaf we had leftovers, but rather than eating it again 2 days later, as was my plan, I happened to notice on the recipe that it was one of those meals where you cook once and enjoy 3 times. I flipped over the magazine page and found a recipe for Speedy Stroganoff, so we were able to have a completely different meal, but using the same meatloaf! With that meal, I decided to be brave and substituted cream of chicken soup for the sour cream (since anyone who knows Foster Dad knows he hates the white stuff) and used some FREE Garden Delight Pasta rather than the egg noodles, and it turned out quite delish. And yes, I was very proud of myself that I took a risk and it turned out so well! And seriously, God's hand was all over that!
We did have quite a few brinners, but you don't hear any of us complaining! :)
And finally, I truly think we had more in our freezer than we originally thought at the start of the month. We did have some frozen pizza in there, but also some Woodland Park Italian Beef that I had made back in January, Shredded Salsa Beef, some chicken thighs, and a couple of other meats that we were able to space out over the month so we had good variety! (Our side dishes, however, were rather monotonous-mashed potatoes!

And because we accomplished such a big challenge, we are about to undertake an even bigger challenge come this summer! Stay tuned for the announcement in my next blog post!

Fess Up Friday

Hmmm, why isn't Foster Child #3 napping?
Oh, it would help if I had turned off his bedroom light!

This next confession is coming from Foster Dad who left the burner of the stove on while we were eating dinner on Wednesday night. He didn't realize it until he took the pot of fettuccine alfredo back to the kitchen and back onto the stove while he was cleaning up dinner and realized it was cooking again! Oooops! (And yes, my hubby takes over cooking duties on Wednesday nights since he is home all day.)

Book Review-How to Be God's Little Princess by Sheila Walsh

This adorably cute pink hardcover book is the perfect gift for the princess in your life. I do believe it is best suited for girls from 6-11 years of age.

The subtitle of How To Be God's Little Princess is Royal Tips for Manners, Etiquette, and True Beauty, and the book lives up to its name. Included in this book are quizzes, "What's wrong with this picture?" scenarios, and creative art projects like designing your own tie dye and jewelry making, in addition to the plethora of other useful information. And what is especially special about this book is that beauty outside AND in is featured. Author Sheila Walsh does a great job including Bible verses, Biblical wisdom, tips for reaching out to others, and advice for making a heartfelt apology.

However, there is some ridiculous information included in the book, like wearing the right tiara to match your face. However, I think a young girl would have fun taking the quiz, although she herself may never wear an actual tiara until her wedding day! This book would be such a treasure to a little girl though, that I bet she would keep it until her wedding day and even pass it down to her own little princesses!

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze®.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

I Win!

I baked cookies this morning with Foster Children #1 and #2 and they were very eager to eat them after lunch. I told them, however, not until they ate all of their lunch. They both had eaten about half of their sandwiches when they started asking for their cookies. For the umpteenth time Foster Child #1 asked about having a cookie, and I told her she just needed to finish her ham.

Foster Child #2 was eating a PB&J sandwich, and asked, "Can I just eat the bread, Momma?"

"Um, OK," I replied.

Wow, that was easy!, I thought.

And then of course, Foster Child #1 (first born that she is) pipes in and says, "But Mr. E...."

Yeah, I shooshed her pretty quick! And both kids later enjoyed their cookies!

Can you tell she's a reading teacher's daughter?

I asked Foster Child #1 the other day if she was cold playing outside at school since she was wearing a skirt, thick tights, and her adorable new FREE leg warmers from Snuggle Luv.
"Mom, it was a little cold outside, but I was warm enough. I wasn't shivering!"
Yay to Miss C's growing vocabulary!!

Fess Up Friday

1. On Sunday I turned on the bath water for the boys' bath and left the bathroom. I was in our office, which is adjacent to the bathroom. A few minutes later, Greg walked past, and said, "Why is this on?"
What a silly question!
"To give the boys their bath," I replied. "Like we do every Sunday," I muttered under my breath as I looked up. And to my horror, I discovered what the this was that Greg was referring to. It was the shower-that was spraying water down the outside of the tub, soaking the floor and bathroom rugs! That's one way to clean the bathroom!

2. Also, on Sunday, I had to make Caleb's bottle while we were in the church nursery. I added the formula powder to the water in the bottle, put the nipple and cap back on, shook the bottle, and took the cap off, while holding the bottle toward Caleb's face. You know where this is going, right? I swear this has never happened before, hence I wouldn't have held the bottle toward Caleb's face, but the bottle completely sprayed milk right in Caleb's eye and all over his face. Wouldn't be so bad had there not been other moms there to witness the abuse I was unknowingly bestowing upon my child! However, here I am sharing it with the whole world on my blog!

3. As we continue our Eat From the Pantry/Freezer Challenge, I had meatloaf and seasoned potato wedges on the menu for Monday. I went out to our chest freezer in the garage to grab the seasoned potato wedges, only to find them outside of the freezer sitting on a box. And for how long, I don't know. Friday, maybe. Saturday, possibly. Full disclosure here, I immediately thought, Surely we can eat them. I hating wasting food. But to be safe, I did call our family's food extraordinaire, my mom, who said, "Sure, I don't think it would be a problem. Are they still cold?" They were, so I turned on the oven, and laid out the wedges, to see that under the coating I could tell they were mushy and brown.
Now any sane person at this point would throw them away and go to side dish plan #2, but not me! Remember I hate wasting food. So I did put them in the oven, cooked them, and then decided it wasn't worth the risk to have my family eat them. However, I was craving them. After all, I had it set in my mind, and on my menu to have seasoned potato wedges! So, I found the least brown one and ate it. Craving satisfied! (And it didn't taste all that bad!)

4. My mom was with us on Tuesday into Wednesday after her trip to Texas. I drove her to O'Hare on Wednesday afternoon, and although I knew she was departing, I went to arrivals. "Um, sweetie, you wanted to drop me off upstairs," my mom said. Aww, man! And the crazy thing is that I've done that before on other trips to the airport. So we drive pass all of the arrival terminals, knowing that I could go back around the airport to go above to departures. I see the sign, "Back to arrivals," and follow it. "Um, sweetie, you want departures!" Oh boy! Good thing we left plenty of time. "That's OK," I reply, laughing, "I'm pretty sure I can get to departures from here," I say, as we pass a sign that says, "ACCESS TO DEPARTURES PROHIBITED!" So once again we go past all of the arrival terminals, and I head right, which will lead us to back to the city and departures. However, as I was back above ground, I saw another sign that said "Back to arrivals," and started veering to the left. "No, you want departures," my mom yells, laughing at me! Truly, I know the difference between arriving and departing!
I joked with her, "Well, maybe I just don't want you to leave."
"Apparently, so," my mom said, chuckling!
And that time I did get her to the correct departing terminal with plenty of time for her to spare, and plenty of time for me to go pick up C. from school!

So, once again, I'm fallible, and apparently, very fallible this week! What are you fessing up to this week?

Book Review-God Gave Us So Much by Lisa Tawn Bergren

Before I officially "begin" my book review - yes, He did! This collection-God Gave Us So Much - includes three stories - God Gave Us the World, God Gave Us Love, and God Gave Us Heaven. In this story, an inquisitive little polar bear asks her family members to answer questions about the world, creation, love, and Heaven.

This book is perfect for any curious child in your life. The author easily answers some of life's difficult questions, questions that my own inquiring child has asked. And the author easily gives the "right" answer. Because the main character is a polar bear, the questions she asks relates to other animals she encounters. When fishing, she expresses frustration that the otters are scaring the fish away. The grandfather responds by telling Little Bear that "God wants us to show the otters love...He wants us to show everyone his love." (Example from God Gave Us Love) Or Little Bear expresses surprise that there are many different types of bears that live in different parts of the world, evident that there are many different cultural groups of people around the world (example from God Gave Us the World.) To answer why the bears would live in different places, the Mama Bear responds, "Because they like their homes best. It's where God put them. God gave us this great big, wide world and a whole bunch of different bears with different fur and different families."

The illustrations are delightful. I also really appreciate that extended family relationships are featured in the book (Grandpa and Grandma in addition to Mama and Papa and twin siblings.) Finally, not only is the book for children, there are lessons that I know I need to be reminded of like, "Our best stuff doesn't weigh anything at all-stuff like love, family, friends, and faith." (Example from God Gave Us Heaven).

A perfect treasury for our own little treasures!

I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review.

Fess Up Tuesday?!?

It sure doesn't have the same ring to it as fess Up Friday, does it?!?

I figured I better do my Fess Up Friday post from last week before this upcoming Friday, because this week's is already shaping up to be a doozy, and I don't want you all to think that I could screw up so bad and so much in one week! Ha!

My mom is coming into town today (yay!) Kind of a big deal, right? Something that a person wouldn't forget because of the anticipation of being spoiled and getting reinforcement in the care of the house and family, right? Well, apparently I don't appreciate my mom's visit enough, as I had made plans to spend the evening with some lovely friends. However, as plans were finalized and more emails were sent out, I realized I couldn't hang out with my friends because my mom is going to be in town, and I definitely need to take advantage of that since she doesn't visit all that often!

Last Thursday was a gorgeous day, so I decided to jog to pick up Charlotte from school. When I dropped her off, I put her bike into the back of the car, locked it up at school, and when I got to school to pick her up, we unlocked her bike and she was to ride, while I was to push the boys in the jogging stroller. Things went well for the first couple of blocks. What I failed to realize as I retrieved her bike from the garage was that one of her training wheel's bolts was loose. As Charlotte rode, the bolt got more loose, and she lost confidence in riding. I'm not sure whose idea it was, but it was suggested that the jogging stroller strap get attached to Charlotte's handlebar and that I would not only push the stroller but also pull her on the bike. (And I do truly think it was Charlotte's idea, however, I eagerly agreed and praised her for being such a good problem solver!) This was a great plan until I started running, which was about 20 seconds after executed our plan. I don't even run that fast, but it was enough to cause Charlotte to topple off of her bike. What made it worse was that at the time a father was riding his bike with his two young kids, saw the incident, and stopped to make sure Charlotte was OK. I was so embarrassed that someone had to witness my bad judgment moment! (However, it seems that I'm not too embarrassed to blog about it!!)

Wow, I feel better already getting these off my chest!!!!!

Fess Up Friday, or shall I say Saturday?

So, I suppose my first confession is that I left my very loyal blog readers, who anxiously wait for my Fess Up Friday posts to wait an extra day. How dare I! And, I'm sorry!
This was a doozy of a week. I forgot my purse twice at home while driving. On Sunday, I was able to turn ight around and get it, but on Monday, not so much. The funny thing is, my purse is huge! How can I forget it anywhere? And I can't even use the excuse that I had the kids to wrangle up or a diaper bag to carry. Both times I was going out by myself!

On Tuesday I woke up the boys from their naps and loaded them in the car to pick up Charlotte from school at 2:40 pm. The problem? Charlotte doesn't get out of school until 3:10 pm!

I will note that this really is not my fault because Charlotte's school dismisses M-Th at 3:10 pm, and on Fridays at 2:40 pm. WHO DOES THAT?!?! Don't they realize that life would be easier for so many more people if students get out of school at the same time everyday?

And as another note, better to be there early M-TH, as I was, than late on a Friday, which knock-on-wood hasn't happened (yet!)

Caleb had a pediatrician well visit on Wednesday. Before I left, I asked Greg for the camera so I could take pictures of Caleb at his appointment. I got to the appointment and realized I didn't have the camera with me. Instead, it was in the rental car that I had just returned back to the dealer. I then needed to have Greg call to track it down, and also wake up Elijah from his nap to pick up Charlotte from school, which I was supposed to do, but couldn't so I could go back to the dealer to pick up the camera.

So, what are you 'fessing up to this week?

Book Review-Pujols: More Than the Game by Scott Lamb and Tim Ellsworth

Some might be wondering why a girl who doesn't care much for baseball would review a book about Albert Pujols, a baseball player. Well, although I'm not a big baseball fan, I am a great fan of good biographies and autobiographies. Additionally, I do love reading about celebrities and their relationships with Christ, because it doesn't seem like Christians in the public eye publicize their faith enough, unless they are specifically in the Christian circle.
So, as I started reading Pujols: More Than the Game, I was looking forward to reading about Pujols' faith-how he came to it, how he is sharing it, his struggles and his victories in his relationship with God. After all, the book's subtitle is More Than the Game! And even if the book didn't primarily focus on Pujols' faith, I would have hoped for more information on Pujols' life off of the field, like his upbringing and his relationship with his wife and children. That information is just peppered throughout his story, while I feel like it should have played a bigger role-considering the title! What I found though is a book that is very heavy on Pujols' career, and for a girl who doesn't care much about baseball, I found it difficult to get through. In fact, I didn't complete the book at the time of this review, because it was so statistic-heavy.

Although this book wasn't for me, I think there is a population who would enjoy reading Pujols: More Than the Game. For one, it doesn't hurt if you are a baseball fan. You'd be able to read through the statistics easily without it being dry. Secondly, because I didn't find this book to give a detailed testimony of Pujols' faith (at least by page 69, when I stopped reading), I think a non Christian could enjoy it without feeling like an outsider for not being Christian.

Overall, I'm glad I had the opportunity to read about Albert Pujols. It sounds like he is one of the greatest baseball players to ever play the game. It's encouraging to know that he has a relationship with the Greatest, giving him the right perspective of his own greatness on the baseball field!
(Plus, I definitely got bonus points from one of my 4th grade male students who thought it was SO cool that I was reading a book about a baseball player!)

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze®.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Fess Up Friday

Tuesdays are my rush days. We get home from Bible Study, eat lunch, and then pretty much head right back out the door to take Charlotte to school. It's about an hour turn-around. Apparently on Tuesdays, I shouldn't also talk to my mom on the phone while coming home from Bible Study, because it was due to my phone being in my one hand and a sleeping Caleb also in my arms, that I failed to close the back door of the car! Good thing, it's only an hour turn around!

*Disclaimer: Although I was talking to my mom on my way home from Bible study, I was talking hands-free, as I had her on speaker phone. Once I pulled into the driveway and parked the car, I turned my speaker phone off and then held the phone to my ear.

Apparently, we are now in the month of March. I had to make an appointment this week for our car to go to the dealer because of a recall. March 9th, no problem! I put it on the calendar. However, the month I put it down on the calendar was February. Wouldn't really be a big deal, except I already have another appointment scheduled for March 9! Fortunately I was able to see my error also this week and was able to change my appointment time for the car!

Fess Up Friday

Chicago has an unofficial tagline which is "Vote Early, Vote Often." I should have taken that advice-well at least the vote early part. I confess that I did not vote in the mayoral election on Tuesday. I had great intentions to vote at one of the early polling places, however, when I went to the library on Friday to do so, found out that early voting ended on Thursday! I don't feel so bad missing out on my civic duty because 1. I tried and 2. We were on a fun vacation!

While on that very fun vacation, besides going to the 4 different indoor waterparks our resort had we played games. One of the games we played is a trivia game called Bezzerwizzer. The game is similar to Trivial Pursuit in that you have to answer questions from certain categories (There are 20 different ones in the game and each person knows which 4 of the 20 categories they need to answer from.)
It was my turn to answer my question from the category food and wine.
Mom: What does an oenologist study?
Me (with great enthusiasm): The kidneys!
Mom: In food and wine?
Me: Um, laughter (and to be completely honest, there were snorts, tears, and lots of laughter on my part!) Wine!

I did get the question right However, I had thought my category was science, which is why I gave my first response!

While we were in the Dells, I wanted to stop at the Stride Rite outlet there to get Caleb new shoes for his pudgy little feet. As I suspected, his feet are measuring wide. The salesperson showed me some cute Robeez shoes that were Caleb's size-5W. I attempted to put them on and couldn't.
"Ugh, they don't fit! I can't even get them on," to which the salesperson replied, "You might want to try undoing the velcro."

Last Saturday, Greg and I threw our annual Valentine's party, with a Minute to Win It theme. MTWI is a show we love and because we watched it many times, figured we would do well at the challenges that I prepared for all to take part in. However, we failed MISERABLY!!!!! We had the worst showing of all teams present with a very pathetic 4 out of 18 challenges won. However, we had a blast and laughed a good portion of the evening!

Fess Up Friday

First and foremost 'fessing up that we (and I mean Greg) had to lower the crib, because we have a stander now! Wow! Where did these last 8 months go?
Speaking of our third born, we had to take the car to the dealer for a repair on Saturday. The car dealer is near many stores, so our plan was to walk to the stores and do some shopping. Although it was warmer, we still wanted the kids to wear gloves and their hats. And by gloves, I mean any pair of gloves would do, as Caleb ended up wearing a pair of my way too big, pink and white striped gloves! This is because we forgot to bring gloves for him to wear, and I fortunately had a second pair in my pockets.

On Tuesday, Greg had to take our car into the shop for the transmission to get fixed (now that is an amazing God story for another time!!!). The plan was for him to drive the car to the shop and then bike for the shop to work. Greg asked me which way he should take to the shop. My response was something like this, "Well, Harlem is a little out of the way, besides it will have more traffic, but Oak Park gets tight in some spots because cars park along the street. I'd take Oak Park though." The problem with my response to him was that I was talking to him as if he was biking to the repair shop rather than driving! When I told him later about my crazy talk, he didn't even notice!

Book Review-Love and War Devotional for Couples by John and Staci Eldridge

After having child #3, Greg and I knew we needed to make each other and God a priority in our married lives. So, when I saw the devotional Love & War Devotional for Couples by John and Staci Eldredge I was excited. I know the authors by name and have heard of their other books (Wild at Heart and Love & War). Perhaps if I had read Love & War first I might have known what to expect. However, I don't believe it is necessary to read Love & War before embarking on this devotional.

We are in week 2 of this 8 week devotional, and feel like it is mediocre. When I envisioned us completing a devotional, I thought it would lead to compelling and heart-felt discussions after each day's reading. This book, however, doesn't have that element. The devotions are short (2 and a half pages at most), which is great because in the busyness of life it can be done without it being a chore, or complaints of being too tired to complete it. And although I wouldn't want a devotional to be a chore, I do want there to be a discussion question or two about that day's devotional allowing for us as a couple to interact. The guidance that questions would allow would be appreciated! The devotional does have an exercise to complete at the end of each week, which does allow for discussion and is definitely thought-provoking:
Week 1's exercise is:
What scenes from favorite movies or books have captured your heart over the years? It is good to remember. Linger with that question and ask God what it is about those stories that drew you to them. What songs, what stories, what moments have awakened the deep desires of your heart? Does your spouse know your favorites? Do you know your spouse's? Why don't you ask? What does this tell you about your hearts?

Additionally, each day there is a Bible verse to read and a prayer to recite. The prayers are poignant, however, they are written in singular form. I thought this was a devotional for couples?!? This further supports my thoughts that although this devotional is for couples, it's not necessarily for couples to complete together! We adapted though!

Although this devotional is average, we will continue to work our way through it. It is better than what we were doing before-which was nothing. As we continue the devotional, we may be further challenged, and maybe discussions will naturally take place about what we've read. I suppose one way to do that is to ask God to give us the questions to ask each other so stimulating conversations can take place.

DISCLAIMER: I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review.

Fess Up Friday

Elijah is currently wearing 2 different pairs of socks. Because he wants to. Because I just don't care. And if you think that's bad, earlier this week he wore the same pair of socks for 2 days in a row (and overnight one of the nights). Not because I slacked on doing laundry-just because he didn't want to change his socks, and that is just one of those things that's not worth battling over with a 2 year old!

Elijah also decided to cry over his snack one day this week. He wanted something to eat so I offered him his leftover PB and J sandwich. he apparently didn't like that very much and started crying. At first, I was OK with his crying, and said, "I know that makes you sad that you can't eat what you want for snack, but I really don't want us to waste this sandwich." The crying ensued, and I was trying to keep it together and said, "I'm sorry you're sad." And still the crying continued. Then it was starting to really get on my nerves.

C'mon it is just a snack!!!!

I was very close at yelling at Elijah, because I'll fess up that when my kids cry at something ridiculous it makes me quite angry. So, itstead of getting angry, I decided I should try another tactic, and that was to amuse myself. I did that by wailing back at him. Judge me, if you will, but it worked. When I first started wailing he stopped crying probably due to shock. He started up again, and then I started up again. And then finally he stopped. Of course, not before Charlotte yelled from the other room, "Stop doing that, Mom!"

Too Good Not to Post Right Away

Part of Charlotte's prayer tonight was this, "Dear Lord, Help everyone in the family have a good night's sleep, except my daddy."

It's a good thing the Lord knows our hearts because Greg is hoping that in her heart she meant to say, "especially my daddy."

Fess Up Friday

Laundry doesn't take a snow day, so on Wednesday I loaded the washing machine with some clothes. It wasn't full so I asked Greg to bring down some clothes from upstairs. A few minutes later, I completely panicked, stopped the washing machine and added soap, because I forgot to. What I really forgot was that Greg was the one who added the soap because he was the one who finished filling up the machine! So, one load of laundry was extra clean!

Greg and I firmly believe in disciplining our children right away, rather than delayed discipline. Last night, however, we completely bent the rules. We were eating dinner, when Elijah SPAT into the soup pot (fortunately empty because Greg grabbed the last bit of soup.) I saw this out of the corner of my eye and just looked at Greg to see if he saw I thought I did. Sure enough he did, as we just sat there and stared at each other in COMPLETE AND UTTER SHOCK! We didn't even say anything to Elijah right away because we first had to pick up our jaws from the table. Finally, Greg said, "We have to give him a time out for that," You think?!? "but I know we both just can't believe what we witnessed." Seriously, folks, a whole 2-3 minutes went by before we could pull ourselves together to give Elijah consequences for his actions!

Batteries solve everything

"It's not working, Mommy," as Elijah holds up his white crayon that he was using to color on a white card.
"It's because it is a white crayon on a white piece of paper. It won't show up," I reply.
"Needs new batteries," was Elijah's solution.

I sure hope not!!!!!!!

I was in the kitchen preparing breakfast while the kids were sitting in the dining room. Greg had just left for work, and rode his bike down the driveway to the street. Charlotte, from the dining room yelled, "Mommy, I just saw daddy!" I came into the dining room and said, "Oh, yeah?" and she replied, "Yeah, he passed away."

Fess Up Friday

Last Saturday I was so excited to take my kids on a special adventure since I was caring for them solo all day on Saturday. We were going to go all the way out to Mt. Prospect (which really isn't that far from my house, but it just sounds more dramatic) to play at the indoor playground for only a dollar a child (a steal!). I was practically at the Mt. Prospect Rec Plex, when I started digging for my wallet in my purse in order to grab my bank card (I needed to find a bank since I needed to withdraw cash for our $2 adventure.) I love my new purse, but I do usually have to dig to find things in it, and dig I did, however, this time without results. My wallet, with my bank card and driver's license was at home!
I then called Greg who was in Georgia for his aunt's funeral (and I did figure that it would have been over by the time I called, and I was right) to say, "The next time you take my wallet out of my purse, common courtesy is to put it back where you found it," as I remembered the night before he took my wallet out.
Disappointed, we went back home and I found my wallet on the sideboard in our dining room, where I left it that morning, and yeah, probably only 10 minutes prior to our departure!
And yes, then I called my husband again, profusely apologizing for blaming him for my misplaced wallet.
Today the kids and I were going to go on another adventure, this time to the Museum of Science and Industry, after Caleb had a study at Northwestern. Because this was a big adventure day, I decided just to take the diaper bag with my wallet in it (and yes, it was in there!) When I went to put the money from the study in my wallet, I realized that my driver's license was not in there. And no, I didn't blame Greg this time. I knew it was in the bottom of my purse! So, my grand plans for a museum trip were canceled today! And as I'm mentioning the NW study, I'm grateful the researcher was outside waiting for me, because if she wasn't, I would have gone into the wrong building, even though they sent me a confirmation letter with directions that yep, I didn't read!
Yesterday, I grabbed the wrong bottle while washing my hair, and put conditioner on my hair without shampooing first. Me, being frugal and not wanting to waste, decided to continue the conditioning, and opted not to wash my hair, rather than rinsing out the conditioner, adding shampoo, rinsing, and then adding conditioner again.

Go Figure

We have a good size house for our kids to play in. They can play in almost any room in the house they desire (only exception is our bedroom), and guess where they have opted to play the last couple of days?

To Remember

I really love how Elijah calls blueberries "blue strawberries." Just melts my heart completely!

Fess Up Friday

*This was supposed to be a Fess Up Friday post with photos, but I can't figure out how to import photos from my camera to the computer, while erasing the files! IPhoto doesn't respond. I don't feel like importing photos while they stay on the camera, because I have yet to figure out how to delete all photos at once from our camera, rather than one by one. We've had our camera over a month now and I have yet to read the manual (which is on a disc.) I'll try again tomorrow, but I wanted to post. After all this is called Fess Up Friday, not Saturday!*

We are the cool parents who took our 4 1/2, 2 1/2, and 7 month old children to their first rock concert! I won tickets through ChiIL Mama's blog to see The Boogers at Schuba's tavern last Saturday. Man, we were hip, we were cool, we were STUPID! We arrived and were totally stoked. And then we looked around-and got a really good look-at kids with ear plugs in their ears, and parents putting noise canceling headphones on their kids' ears. Oh geez! Boy did we ever feel unprepared! Greg said, "How bad can it be? It's a kids' concert!" But deep down, I knew it was gonna be loud because the filler music piped in over a CD player was loud. And then the band started playing their first song. Yep, it was loud! Fortunately, Greg has been to a number of concerts back in the day and said, "When I would come to shows, I'd get toilet paper from the bathroom and put it in my ears. Not the coolest, but it worked." Heck, I didn't care! I just didn't want to be the parent whose kids would have hearing loss. So he got TP for Caleb and Elijah's ears, and I also put Caleb's winter hat on which covered his ears for added protection. As for Charlotte, she was completely in her element, was right up front, rocking and dancing, and the perfect little groupie for the band, and probably does have some hearing loss from attending the concert.
I will mention that although we were the better-late-than-never parents who had some mad MacGyver skills to protect our Foster childrens' ears, there were some toddlers and kids who had nothing in their ears at all! (So, yes, that did make me feel better in the parenting department.
Today I decided to to try this very cool (literally) science experiment that my friend Kim posted on Facebook.
I had my boiling water and I had my family watching from the front window. What I didn't have was a good throw, cold enough temperatures, a slight wind, and an exposed wrist. So add that all together, and I had boiling water splash on me, rather than evaporating into the air, and giving me a blistering burn on my wrist. (Now, how the water found the exact spot I wasn't covered is beyond me!)
So, what are your confessions this week? I think you'll find it quite therapeutic admitting your faults, and having a good laugh about it!

Fess Up Friday

Wow, what a week in the confession department.

I went to workout on Monday, after a long time of not going to the Y (won't divulge how long), and the first thing I did when I got home, was eat a cookie 2 cookies, while making dinner.

I gave my 2 1/2 year old son privacy in the bathroom as he sat on his potty seat with poop stuck in his bottom. I went away for less than a minute to get wipes. When I came back there was Elijah standing up with a wad of toilet paper AND poop on his hand! I screamed-not at him, but a general ARGH at the grossness of the situation. So, I do realize that my screaming will probably dissuade and hinder our potty training efforts. Poor Eli will be scared to go potty for fear of me yelling.. Now, the irony of the situation is that this is the same kid we literally had to pull poop from his bottom, often getting it on OUR hands!

I wanted to go out and shovel while the kids napped on Tuesday. As I was about to head out, Elijah woke up. I tried to get him ready quickly as I knew Caleb would be waking up soon. We were not quick enough, however, as Caleb woke up as we were all bundled. I was determined to get out and shovel quickly, so I put him in the most secure thing we have-his exersaucer. Unfortunately Caleb was crying in it, so I put him in his bouncy seat. He was tolerable of it and secure (or so I thought).

I came back in to check on him after 5 minutes outside and he was fine. I went back out and checked on him 5 minutes later to find him like this:



And yes, I obviously didn't rescue him right away as I needed to grab the camera to document it, plus he wasn't complaining or crying about his position.

Finally, I often don't find 4 year old humor funny (that's a confession by itself), but I find myself laughing because Charlotte does and I do want her to think she is funny. On Thursday, while waiting to be let into school, Charlotte said, "My daddy ate a snow pancake last year," and then completely laughed hysterically at Greg's silliness. I laughed too, as my motherly duty. Then a couple of minutes later, she joined 2 of her friends and said the same thing. And for a very brief moment, parental worry set in, as I thought, I hope they laugh with her and find Charlotte funny. I admit that although, I don't always find Charlotte funny, I NEEDED her friends to, so that Charlotte fit in. (Yes, I felt all this in a millisecond.) Fortunately, Charlotte's 4 year old friends thought my little 4 year old was funny! Whew!

Fess Up Friday

Apparently on Monday night Elijah came into bed to sleep with us. I vaguely recall him coming to my side of the bed and me lifting him up into it. I forgot he was in bed with us (after all, I WAS sleeping), until I rolled over. Let's just say that the children's rhyme:
There were 3 in the bed and the little one said "roll over, roll over," so they all rolled over and one fell out.
is quite appropriate. My rolling over cause Elijah, who I didn't even really know was sleeping in bed next to me, to fall out of our bed. Now, that woke me up!
Because this happened on Monday night, I was quite sleepy on Tuesday. So much so, that I started to doze off during lecture of Bible Study, and my good friend Angela, had to poke me to keep me awake!

Last night I ran errands to Babies R Us to get $3 Earth's Best Chlorine Free Diapers, and 40 cents Earth's Best baby food, and also wanted to go to Target to exchange a sweater. I left one of my coupons for babies R Us at home, along with the sweater I wanted to exchange. And of course, didn't realize it until I was practically at the store-UGH.

Over Christmas break I was getting up at 6 am to go power walking with my next door neighbor. Yeah, I confess that sleep is way more important than a 6 am wake up call!

Come join in the confessing!

Doing Dishes

I let the kids "do" the dishes today. This also meant that my kitchen floor got washed today!

As I was putting the "clean" dishes away (back in the sink!) I lifted up the dish drainer next to the sink to wipe up all the water that was pooled under it. At this point Charlotte came into the kitchen, and asked "Where did all that water come from?"
Seriously?!?! Um, where do you think?
"Well, it came from all of the fun you had doing the dishes!"