A week of randomness

This past weekend, both Jack and Callie had swim meets. Brian took Jack to his meet which was out of town and Callie, the littles and I stayed home. So Carter and Anna had yet another weekend of sitting on a gym floor during Callie's meet Saturday and Sunday. And while it's a lot to ask of 4 year olds to sit and hang out for hours, these guys are troopers. When I came back from watching one of Callie's races, this is what I came back to. Anna had her little arm around Carter and they were all nuzzled up with each other, melts my heart.
Despite the fact that it has been in the 80's for a while, we had a huge weekend of rain and storms and everyone was "freezing." So we turned on the fireplace and bundled up. And yes it's April.

I know I've mentioned before but I love our preschool. The littles had been reading fairy tales and just read Jack and the Beanstalk. They planted seeds at school and brought them home when they had sprouted. They were so eager to plant them, insisting the stalk would grow to the sky and we would find the pot of gold. So we did and for now I'm all about their little minds believing in something so wonderful.

What to do when it's raining outside with no end in sight. Paint. Not on paper but each other.

Simply precious. Funny that I walked into his room about an hour after bedtime, turned on the light and snapped this picture. Even funnier that since the storms over the weekend he hasn't done much sleeping in this bed. He seems to think mine is much cozier.

Hope your having a great week!

Happy (Late) Easter

6 a.m. Satuday morning

A dream doesn't become reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination and hard work.

Colin Powell

Here's the lowdown of spring break

Make a video - it's fun, easy and free!
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We're back

We just got home from a wonderful spring break in Florida. I'm lucky to have kids with my dark skin and we are all golden brown and full of sunshine. I'll post pics soon.

My new obsession....The Poineer Woman. I've seen her on Food Network and seen some of her recipies, yummy. Today on part of our LONG car ride home I started reading her blog. All I can say is that any spare time I have in the future will be reading her blog. Seriously, I'm going back to the beginning. Not only is she an incredible cook, she is a hilarious writer. I was laughing outloud a lot and my kids thought I was nuts. So if you want some awesome reading material, go to pioneerwoman.com and click on confessions. That is the link to her blog. I love it.

Hope your spring break was great too.

Blessings

This wonderful dad is leaving these 3 beautiful children and his wife and deploying to Afghanistan this week for a year. Our sincere blessings and prayers are with you. Thank you for your dedication to our country.

The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him,

but because he loves what is behind him.

G.K. Chesterton

Emotional Parenting

I've known all along that I parent often based on emotion. But as my kids get older it becomes more and more evident. They have opinions, strong ones, and the things they have to deal with seem to be bigger issues that a misplaced toy or broken sippy cup.
It was a rough go for me with parenting this week and now that I can look back, I see oh to clearly that I parent with my heart. Seriously I cried, a lot. My sons teacher must think I'm nuts and poor Jack just kept telling me to stop crying. Yes yes I could say this is wonderful, a sign of compassion and the deep love that I have for my kids. And truly it stems from just that. But there is plenty of room for giving love and it doesn't have to rule my parenting. So what to do....how do I change? Take a parenting class? For now I need to remember this week and make the effort to step back and let life happen. My kids will fail, make mistakes and be just fine. And I will do the same.