5 Months Have Flown By

Today SJ is 5 months old. In the past month she has gained a lot of strength and is able to control her movements more. She loves sitting in her bumbo chair. When she is not in the chair she likes to roll a lot. She can slowly make her way across a room like a wiggly little inch worm. This month she has also gotten that infamous bald spot on the back of her head. The rest of her hair is growing, just as much as she is. Yesterday I cleaned all the 0-3 month clothes out of her closet. At 4 months some of the stuff could still fit, but now she's completely outgrown all of it. She'll be in 6-9 month clothes any day now.

If there is one thing I know for sure about SJ it is that she LOVES her brother.


It fascinates me to see her eyes light up when she sees him. She laughs and laughs at everything he does. If I were her I would probably shield my face with the amount of "abuse" she's taken from him.

They get along great though, and it warms my heart.

We love having this little cutie around!

I Used To Be Scared

I used to be a scaredy cat. Have you seen the show Monk?

I can actually relate to his character. I've never been an obsessive compulsive neat freak, but my list of phobias as a child was not normal. Fortunately I grew out of these fears around the age of twelve.

Here are the Top Ten Things I used to be scared of...

1. Claymation
excerpt from December 2008 blog post "Christmas Movies"
"Ever since I was little the clay creations scared me. These days I can tolerate them somewhat, but I still find it all to be a little bit creepy."

2. Sloth from Goonies

3. Jesus coming back
This probably had to do with some vintage rapture movie, but I have talked to many other people that as children worried about the hour of Christ's return.

4. Heights
This included the upper level of the mall.

5. Elevators and escalators
Speaking of heights, these two methods of "going up" TERRIFIED ME. I was always afraid they would malfunction.


6. Crossing the street in Cincinnati.
I was born in Covington, which is just outside of Cincinnati, the city overwhelmed me. A trip to the city made my 7 year old blood pressure go up.

7. High School
Excerpt from August 2008 blog post "High School, not so bad after all"
"When I was younger we would drive past a high school and I would become very fearful. I dreaded the day I would have to go there, like it was some kind of penitentiary. I guess when you're small the building looks like it is the size of New York city and the teenagers seem so intimidating. With their crazy punk styles and rebellious attitudes. I knew I would never survive High School."

8. Driving
Most people look forward to the day they get to operate a vehicle I dreaded it!

9. Bees
I was/maybe still am allergic to bee stings. I saw My Girl in the theater when I was 9. At the end (spoiler alert) the girls best friend played by Macaulay Culkin dies from an allergic reaction to bee stings. I freaked out, and my dad had to carry me out of the theater blubbering uncontrollably!

10. Truck Drivers
I know this one might seem justified, but stereotypes aside my best friends dad and close family friend was a truck driver and he was a great man, but he scared me.

The reason I post this is because now my little Monk-like phobias are comical to me. I can remember the fear and at that time it was very real, very sensible, but I can look back on it in retrospect and see that I had nothing to worry about. I was safe all along. I wonder how many of my current fears are just as silly. It may be time to stop worrying so much and know that God is in control.




Check out Oh Amanda for more Top Ten lists.

Planned and Unplanned

I had planned on getting a lot more accomplished this week, but time got away from me and my schedule quickly filled up. Some of it I knew about in advance, while other things were a little more spontaneous. Here's what went down this week.

Sunday- Church and a baby shower- PLANNED

Monday- Had friends over for dinner and to play a few rounds of Pit- PLANNED

Ended up playing over 40 rounds of Pit and staying up half the night- UNPLANNED

Tuesday- J called me in the middle of the day and wanted me to meet him for the final night of a worship conference which was led by Brian and Jenn Johnson, some of my favorite worship artists. -UNPLANNED

One of Z's crocs went missing and so I tried to cram him into his size 7 converse with little success. We carried him into Stride Rite barefooted and got him a new pair of Saucony size 9 wide! He wore his size 7 shoes just 6 months ago, talk about a growth spurt! This of course was UNPLANNED.

After the worship service we made an unplanned stop at a McDonald's in Plano for Z to use the restroom. It was the craziest McDonald's I had ever seen. The play land looked like something you should have to pay to get into. Lights, video games, giant sky high play area, and techno music. I didn't have a camera, but here is a photo of the dining area that I snagged from Flickr.

Wednesday- My mom came in from Kentucky for the day. We went to the Alice and Wonderland Summer fest at the Gaylord Texan.- PLANNED



Thursday- J had another burst of spontaneity and had me call the babysitter so that we could have some alone time. We went to a really cool deli and drove around afterwards. This was UNPLANNED, but we PLAN on making more times like these a priority.

Friday- Went to see Where the Wild Things Are at the free outdoor theater downtown.- PLANNED
We left early because Z would was on his worst behaviour. Unplanned!

Saturday- Today we aren't going anywhere! We are just going to chill out at home, or at least that is the PLAN.

Rainy Afternoon

It was a rainy afternoon and the kids were both napping. I knew I had to wake Z up because he has a really hard time getting to bed at night and the later he sleeps the more difficult it is. He wasn't very enthusiastic about the idea of getting out of bed. I picked up the groggy toddler and brought him over to his closet to find an activity to get him going. I knew I had an Ispy book in there somewhere and even though he is too young for the pictures riddles, I figured we could still enjoying looking at it. When I found the book I opened it up I noticed that there was a message in it for me and which I thought was strange. Then I read that it said "I can't wait for you to share this book with my grandchildren. Love- Mom". I had forgotten that it was a gift that I got before I ever had children.

There I was with my son while his sister was asleep in the next room. We went through each colorful page pointing out our own picture riddles. It was the perfect rainy afternoon moment and definitely one of the finer things in life.



Today I am linked up with Finer Things Friday.

Ex Photos Etiquette

Yesterday I got a somewhat frantic email from a mother of a client who wanted to know if I could remove someone from a family photo that I had done. She said "someone doesn't want to be married anymore, or have any responsibility" and she wanted that someone's "presence removed." Ouch.

Believe it or not this was not the first time I have been asked to do this. I have to gently inform these clients that I cannot just delete people from photos. I mean sure there's the clone stamp, layering, and strategic cropping. I am not a novice when it comes to photoshop, but I am also not an expert and even then when you tamper too much with photos it's obvious and it's tacky so I personally will not do that to my work.

But the sad thing is that this isn't really about photoshop craftsmanship it's about heartbreak. It's desperately wanting to change reality, to go back and reverse things. Unfortunately that attempt to erase hurt is even more destructive than just a mediocre photo edit. It happens though. I am certain that someone you know has gone through a divorce or a really bad break up, or maybe you have yourself. So what do you do with those old photos? It seems trivial in the scheme of things, but it's a big deal. If you have a framed photo of the formally married couple do you keep it? What if it is a photo of just the bride in her dress? Do you try to photoshop all the pictures to make it look like it never happened? Or maybe you go the old fashioned route of ripping, burning or scribbling on someones face with a permanent marker? Then you have to wonder if there is any chance of reconciliation and all your momentous are gone. I have seen people do all of the above honestly!

So tell me readers. What do you do with photos of exes? It's a modern day conundrum.

Shopping By Price Per Unit

My budget is so tight right now that if it was a pair of jeans I wouldn't be able to fit my cell phone in my back pocket. I have had to find every little way to scrimp and save here lately.

Thank goodness most grocery stores list the price per unit or per ounce on the price labels.

I am no good at math. Not to mention those packages can be really deceiving and sometimes it looks like you are getting more than you really are. That is why when I shop I look at the price per unit to compare what is going to be the biggest bang for my buck. Usually the more you buy the better the price, so typically you will want to buy the largest container IF you know it is something you need. However, this isn't always the case. The other day I was looking at the prices on store brand peanut butter and I don't remember the exact numbers, but it was something like this-

18 oz jar- .165 cents per ounce
28 oz jar- .133 cents per ounce
40 oz jar- .142 cents per ounce

Well, I'll be darned the middle size is the cheapest. We go through a lot of peanut butter, but I would still be better off in the long run if I buy two 28 ounce jars than if get the family size.
On a side note, did you know that according to Wikepedia in 2008 Skippy reduced their standard jar size from 18 oz to 16.3 oz by creating a large hemispherical "dimple" in the bottom of the jar while retaining the same height and diameter? Yeah, sneaky sneaky.

There are times I don't buy the thing that is the cheapest per unit like if I don't need that much. That's why Costco isn't that much of a pay off for our little family. Other times I spend more on items I feel are just worth the extra cost, like toilet paper. I am all about generic, but we all have our things that we "splurge" on. That's where the coupons come in. If you have coupons then forget what I said about price per unit/ounce. Buy the smallest or the lowest priced container that the coupon will allow you to purchase and then use up as many coupons as you can get your hands on. For example a 10.75 oz box of cereal at $2.25 may be 20.9 cents per ounce and an 18 oz box of cereal at $3.25 is only 18.05 cents per ounce. So the big box is 2 cents cheaper per ounce, but if you have a dollar off coupon that would make the smaller box 11.62 cents per ounce and the big box 12.50. Now which box is cheaper? The small (and originally more expensive one)! So you're getting more out of your coupons when you use them this way.

I know we are dealing with pennies and fractions of pennies which just sounds confusing and pointless, but it does add up. The bottom line is, read the "fine print" the smaller the number, the bigger the savings. That's how I am keeping it frugal, for more tips check out Frugal Friday over at Life as Mom.

The Truth About Parenting

The other day I heard about a controversial study that showed that people with children were less happy than those without and that the more children you have the more unhappy you will be.

I don't know about you, but I thought that this was the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard. It made me want to cry, scream, and shout "YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW HAPPY I AM!!!" But, before I got too riled up I thought why not go and read the article that this topic stemmed from and see for yourself what these statistics are all about. So I looked up the All Joy and No Fun New York magazine article on why parents hate parenting.

The first thing I found was that I was not alone in my response to this research. Daniel Gilber Harvard psychologist says "I’ve never met anyone who didn’t argue with me about this, even people who believe the data say they feel sorry for those for whom it’s true.” Yet these experts stand by their survey results. The next page begins with "So what, precisely, is going on here? Why is this finding duplicated over and over again despite the fact that most parents believe it to be wrong?" to which I am thinking "yeah really, tell me why."

There is an absolutely fascinating in depth theory on page 2 of this online article and I would encourage you to read it. In short, it appears that as our culture has changed and puts more and more emphasis on being successful in your studies and career it puts a lot of pressure on parents to view their children as a job in itself or as writer Jenifer Senior puts it "once college degrees became essential to getting ahead, children became not only a great expense but subjects to be sculpted, stimulated, instructed, groomed. Page 3 goes into the theory that the longer people wait to have children the more they are set in their ways and the bigger the adjustment is. I would agree with this theory, but might also add that this culture definitely struggles with a sense of entitlement and selfishness that could play a major role in why some of these parents are so discontent.

Page 4 touches on how one study that showed that "countries with stronger welfare systems produce more children—and happier parents". Then went on to suggest that if the government did more to provide for our children then we would have less to worry about and be better parents. This was a red flag for me, because I don't want the government raising my children or forcing me to do it a certain way. But that is another issue that I won't go into right now. On page 5 we look at the negative impact of children on a marriage. The exact opposite has been true in my life, although it definitely takes work to make sure you do have alone time with your spouse and that you keep the lines of communication open before and after you have kids.

The article concludes with the what happiness really means. Is it moment to moment or is it the big picture? Even though I disagree with the theory that children equate to misery. I don't want to sugar coat parenthood either. I remember a time when I had friends over and we were going to watch a movie, but I couldn't get Z to go to sleep. They were all out in the living room chatting, laughing, and waiting on me, the one with the kid. I was so upset about not getting him to lay down and how I felt like he ruined my evening. I think it's okay to admit those feelings, because sometimes it's tough, or maybe it's tough a lot. However, I think the reason I get riled up when I read something that says "why parents hate parenting" is because it puts me in a category that I don't belong in. I am a parent and I am extremely honored and grateful to be one. Unlike the people that were involved in this study I don't have a doctorate, I am not a journalist, or a philosopher so you'll have to excuse me when I say study shmudy. I only have 3 years of research, but these are some of my statistics and this is what happiness looks like to me...







and this is only the beginning.