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.