Ella's Noah Complex and My Hairless Belly

Before you can fully appreciate the story I am about to tell you, I need to explain 2 things about Ella.

1.  You may already know that Ella is obsessed with animals.  She loves all animals.  What you may not know, is that Ella loves animals in pairs.  She never wants just one of an animal toy.  She has to have 2 of the same animal.  They have to have family.  Like Noah, she prefers her animals two by two, and really has a hard time if she only has one of a particular type of animal.

2.  Ella has always been somewhat of a daddy's girl.  You may remember this story from when she was younger.  She loves me for sure...it's me that she wants at bedtime or when she doesn't feel well...she loves to have "girl time."  But daddy...well, he's on a pedestal.  You're about to see why.  :)

Now for the story:

We were at the museum and Ella wanted to buy a dinosaur.  She had enough allowance to buy just one.  I carefully explained to her that if she spent all of her allowance on this one thing, she would not have any money for the rest of the month and wouldn't be able to buy anything else.  But, she really wanted it, so she bought it.  Almost immediately, she was upset that she couldn't buy two.  She pouted the rest of the time that we were at the museum, because her dinosaur was lonely and missed his friend.

The next morning, she woke up and immediately asked to go to the museum again to buy another dinosaur.  I reminded her that she was out of money and couldn't get the other dinosaur until next month.  She was very upset at this point, and this is the tirade she unleashed on me:

"You think you're so strong, but you're not.  You can't even drive the tractor and you don't have a furry belly.  You don't even have those hairs in your nose to keep you from getting germs!  Alls you can do is have babies and get snacks!"   (translation--you're not daddy!)

Seriously?  I had to walk away.  Quickly.  So she didn't see me laugh.  I have never had a harder time trying to discipline a child for being rude while desperately trying not to crack up.  Where does she get this stuff?  When Mark got home from work that day, he was very sure to point out how thankful we should all be that I do NOT have a furry belly.  On the bright side, I can get snacks like nobody's business.  :)

Ella's Rainbow-Unicorn, I mean Ocean, I mean Sea Horse Party

This year, Ella wanted a rainbows and unicorn party for her birthday.  She talked about it for months.  I tirelessly scanned Pinterest for ideas, and pinned many of them.  (You should check out my party ideas board--lots of unicorns and rainbows).  I had all of my ideas ready, and was preparing to make the invitations, when Ella informed me that she no longer wanted a unicorn/rainbow party.  She wanted a seahorse party--not an ocean party, a seahorse party.  (She's nothing if not specific).

So, I switched gears...revisited Pinterest and threw together a ocean seahorse party.  Here are some pictures:

The invite:  for the invitation, I bought plain white cards, glued a little white sand to the bottom and a cut out sea horse that I made using my mom's silhouette cutter.  I also glued on a couple of seashells.  I wrote the info by hand.  I would have loved to have had it printed nicely, but we decided on this sea horse theme only 2 weeks before her birthday---so I was working on a time crunch.

The cake.  This cake was actually pretty easy.

I made 2 9" chocolate cakes for the bottom, and 2 7" white cakes for the top.  (I didn't have a 7" cake pan, so I made 9" and used a small plate to cut around).  I made a buttercream frosting and dyed it light blue and spread this over the whole cake.  Then I used the slanted frosting tip to put the waves all around the cake.  I kept adding more food coloring to make a darker blue as I got lower on the cake.  I sprinkled brown sugar on top for sand and topped it with candy shells.  I made the shells using a candy mold that I bought at Michael's.

I wish I was better at taking food pictures.  :(

I have discovered that kids really love to eat food on a stick.  So this blow fish made out of a cantaloupe and fruit kabobs was a must.  One of Ella's friends called it a "fish"kabob.  :)

So, maybe he's a little scary.  :)

For decorations, I used a blue table cloth.  Scattered starfish that I found at Hobby Lobby on the table and made tissue paper pom-poms to hang above the table.  I loved making the pom-poms.  They were so easy and fun.  

I also served gold fish and peanut butter and "jellyfish" sandwiches.

I searched the whole town for jelly fish cookie cutters to cut the sandwiches...but with our short notice, triangle shaped sandwiches had to do.

Because I'm cheap, and did not feel like spending a fortune on little pieces of junk and candy to send home in goody bags, we made oceans in a bottle instead.  A craft, and a party favor to take home.  2 birds, 1 stone.  

I didn't get many pictures of this, because I was trying to supervise kids with sand AND water, funnels and tiny bottles around my kitchen table.  Basically, I found little plastic bottles in the sand art section of Hobby Lobby.  I also found sand there (imagine that).  I bought the bottles, white sand and tiny sea shells.  The kids used funnels to pour in the sand.  Picked out the sea shells they wanted, and topped it off with a little salt water that I tinted blue.  It was fun and cute.  

Ella and friends with their finished oceans.  They shook them up, which is why they look cloudy.

Pouring in the ocean water

And, that's all I did. Simple, right?  I could have gone crazy, planning more stuff...spending more money.  But, at the end of the day, Ella just wanted to play with her friends and open presents.  She loved it and had a great time, and I got to visit with our friends and family instead of running around leading birthday games.

It looks like Anna will be having a rainbows/unicorns party this year.  :)

Ella is Five

Ella turned 5 last week.  Wow.

This is her 5 years ago...

My beautiful first daughter.  She won our hearts and wrapped us around her dainty little fingers right from the beginning.

She is feisty.  She ALWAYS has something to say.  She makes us laugh. all. the. time.  She is opinionated and always knows exactly what she wants.  She is a force to be reckoned with.

But, she is also sensitive.  She hates to disappoint.  She cares deeply about her family and always wants to be surrounded by them.  

She loves animals.  Really loves animals.  It's all she talks about.  Most of the time, she is pretending to BE an animal.  It is always a hybrid of some sort.  Her favorites are the chipmunk-squirrel, the chicken-duck, the flamingo-penguin, and the horse-unicorn.  

She is a scrappy wrestler.  She fights like a little spider monkey.  If Mark and Aidan are wrestling, she will fling herself at them from across the room and tackle them with arms and legs flailing wildly.  

She is a great little sister.  She adores Aidan and wants to be with him all the time.  She takes an interest in what interests him.

She is also a great 2nd mommy big sister to Anna.  She watches out for her, teaches her things, helps take care of her and plays with her constantly.  

She is beautiful.  With wild blonde hair and big blue eyes, she has taken our breath away right from the beginning.  And with a big personality, and an even bigger heart, we could not be prouder of our first born daughter.  I can't believe she is already five years old. 

My Ella:

My precious 5 year old.

She is such a ham

Ella on her 5th birthday

Because I Just Realized...

...I haven't updated my blog in over a month.

Oops.

So, since life is crazy, I thought I'd share a quick list of what is going on with us.

1.  Anna is 15 months old.  She is not walking yet.  She is standing, cruising, climbing onto the couch, pushing furniture all around the room, but not walking on her own.  Aidan is convinced she is going to crawl down the aisle at her own wedding.  Has anyone else had a late walker?  I'm curious to know if this is all that unusual.

2.  She is, however, bossing everyone around already.  If you pick her up, she will point where she wants to go and say, "One, two, three, GO!"  She also loves to tell her brother and sister and the cat "No!"

3.  Ella is going to turn 5 on Saturday.  I still don't know how this is possible.  This was not cleared with me. She is alternating between excited and sad about her birthday.  She cried last night at bedtime because she does not want to turn 5.  In fact, at one point, she was sobbing, "Dear God,  Why are you making me have a birthday?!?  How can I stop it?"  She doesn't want to grow up, and she doesn't want to leave me.  She will, however, take the presents she would normally receive for having a birthday.

4. Have you seen the news about the kid that got suspended over a gun shaped pop tart?  Is that just beyond ridiculous or what?  Come on people.  Gun shaped pop tarts don't kill people.  People kill people.  (On a side note...have you ever noticed how many calories are in a pop tart??  It's crazy...so in a way, maybe pop tarts DO kill people.)

5.  Aidan and I discovered a really cool website today.  We have been studying continents in geography.  We are using Ann Voskamp's book, Explore his Earth, A Child's Geography.  At the end of every chapter, she has some outreach ideas to allow you to "reach out to his world."  Today's was a website that tells you about a different country every day and tells you how to pray for that country.  Check it out:  http://www.operationworld.org/today2

6. We are really getting into a groove with the home school thing.  At first, it was really stressful, but this semester, we have really started to figure out how to make it work best for our family.  I am so thankful that I am able to do this.  I am so excited about the education Aidan is getting, the experiences he is having and the memories we are making.

7.  I have been in a serious cleaning/remodeling/reorganizing phase lately.  I have redone our laundry room, reorganized our closet and taken a ton of stuff to goodwill.  Is it weird that I get an extreme amount of satisfaction from taking car loads of junk out of this house?  It makes me happy.  I am officially a nerd.

8. Since I started writing this post, Ella has asked me 367 questions and told me 114 facts about various animals.

9. Aidan has been working on a new art curriculum.  He LOVES it, and he's good at it.  It is such a fun thing to see.  He gets so much joy out of being creative.  I hope he chooses a job some day that will allow him to be creative.

10.  That is all I have for now.  :)  Which doesn't really deserve a place as #10 on the list...but you can't have a list of 9 things.  You just can't.

Metamorphosis

I've been thinking a lot about caterpillars lately.  Aidan and I have been studying them in school.  Of course, I already knew that caterpillars make a chrysalis and inside that chrysalis they change into a butterfly.  I've always found it fascinating.  More than once, we've purchased caterpillars for the kids so we could watch this amazing transformation take place. What I didn't know, is what happens inside that chrysalis.  I didn't know that in order to become a butterfly, the caterpillar spins a chrysalis and then dissolves into nothing but goo.  And by a process that no one fully understands, this goo becomes a butterfly.  It is the same being that went into the chrysalis, but it is made completely new and has a new purpose.  Everything it did as a caterpillar, was all in preparation for what it would one day become.

Therefore if anyone is in Christ, a new creation has come:  the old has gone, the new is here! 2 Corinthians 5:17

I've been wondering about that caterpillar...dissolving into goo.  What must that be like?  Is it painful to dissolve into goo?  Does the caterpillar have any kind of understanding of what it is going to become?  I am in awe of this process.  What an amazing thing this is.  This dissolving and becoming new.  You have to wonder why God didn't just make a baby butterfly look like a little butterfly...why all this dissolving, and goo, and being made new.

I can't stop thinking about these caterpillars...how they feed on leaves and gorge themselves to the point of bursting, and then one day they just stop.  And they wrap themselves in a chrysalis, and they dissolve into goo.

I can't stop thinking about caterpillars because I feel like that sometimes...I feel like I'm dissolving.  My wants, my needs, my ravenous desires for what this world has to offer...I can sometimes feel it...right in the center of my being...dissolving.  And, it's not always fun.  Sometimes it's painful.  And, I wonder, is it painful for the caterpillar too?  Does the caterpillar resist?  Does he just want to stay as he is?  Or does he get sick of crawling around munching on leaves?  Does he innately know he was made to be so much more?

I feel like since I started walking with God I've been in a chrysalis, dissolving...He just loves me too much to leave well enough alone.  My grip on all the things I think I need...dissolving.  Selfishness...dissolving.  A critical spirit...dissolving.  My plans, my ideas about how things should go, my control...dissolving.  I don't always like all this dissolving.  If I'm honest, sometimes, I just want to be left alone for a while.  Caterpillars are cute, right?

Did you know, that unless a caterpillar turns into a butterfly it can't reproduce?  So, if it doesn't go into that chrysalis...if it doesn't dissolve...it will die a caterpillar.  It won't make more caterpillars, it won't pollinate flowers so they can reproduce...it will leave nothing behind.  If it doesn't get into that chrysalis and dissolve, it will accomplish nothing that it was created to do.

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."  Jeremiah 29:11

So, maybe that's why God made caterpillars, instead of baby butterflies.  To remind us about metamorphosis...about becoming new.  Caterpillars are cute, but butterflies are glorious, and they have a purpose.  Maybe he wanted us to know that dissolving is not pretty, but it is necessary.  We must die to our old self to become something new and glorious and useful.  This constant dissolving, the constant submitting of our will, this focusing on things unseen instead of what is right in front of us...is all accomplishing something in us, and in God's kingdom.  He loves us too much to let us be caterpillars when he created us to be butterflies.

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.   The life I live in the body I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.  Galatians 2:20

Menu

We are serious about saving money around here.  One of the ways that we have saved a lot of money since I started staying home is by very carefully managing our grocery budget.  In fact, it's become somewhat of an obsession of mine to spend as little as possible on groceries and still feed my family decent food.  Over the last few months, I have gone from doing a weekly or bi-weekly shopping trip to a monthly one.  This has really made our grocery budgeting a lot easier, and we save money too.  Everything is planned for the month...sticking to a plan saves money.  Plus, fewer trips to the store, means fewer impulse buys, which means money saved.  So, I've started making a monthly menu and shopping for the whole month.  We still have to make small trips for bread, milk and produce, but Mark usually picks that stuff up for me, which means I'm only going to the grocery store once a month.  (Insert angels singing "Hallelujah" here).

The hardest part is planning a whole month of meals at one time.  Here's our menu for the month...we can get 2, sometimes even 3 meals out of many of the things I make because the girls aren't really eating huge portions yet.  Some nights we will just have sandwiches, and on rare occasions, we eat out.  So, I don't plan something for every night.

1. Cranberry Apple Pork chops
2. Mini Cheddar meat loaves--a friend gave me a recipe for this a couple of years ago...so good.  It's quick and easy, and I usually have all the ingredients on hand.  I'll have to post this recipe in a later post.
3. Beef enchiladas--I'm trying this recipe I found on Pinterest for the first time...hope it's good.
4. Crock Pot cashew chicken
5. Chicken Spaghetti--from Pioneer Woman
6. tacos
7. taco soup--this is one of our favorite soups, and it makes a ton, so you can freeze some for later
8. Crock Pot Red beans and rice--found this on Pinterest, I love how easy and yummy it is
9. Pulled pork sandwiches--Aldi sells pulled pork, already made, and it is really good.  It's nice to have on hand for those nights that you need something quick.
10. White Chicken Chili--this recipe makes a lot.  You can either half it, or make the whole batch and freeze some for later in the month.  It is quick and easy.
11. BBQ ribs
12. Baked Spaghetti--another recipe that I will post in a later post.  It's a good twist on traditional spaghetti, and it is one of Mark's favorite meals.
13. Salmon Patties
14. Pizza
15. Chili

So, what is your family eating this month?  I'm always looking for new ideas. :)

Ten

Aidan is ten.  He's been 10 since December, but I've just now taken the time to process it.

Aidan in Arkansas this fall

Aidan, the day I brought him home from the hospital  

I can hardly believe it.  I've been really emotional about ten.  This ten years has sped by at an unbelievable pace.  And if the next ten go by just as fast, well, he'll be a man before I know it.  And, that makes me get a little choked up. 





I remember when I was pregnant with Aidan, wondering what it would be like to be a mom...I had no idea how wonderful it would be.  And now, I've had ten years of wonderful.  I am so lucky.  Words escape me when I try to describe the ways he has blessed my life.  Like most things in life that are amazing, kids don't make sense on paper.  They cost a lot of money, they destroy all of your nice things, they never let you sleep, they take up all your time, but you love every minute of it. 


How do I describe Aidan?  He is my only son.  I've discovered, through him, that there is so much more to boys than I thought.  He is this sweet mix of rough and rowdy and loud and gentle and nurturing.  One minute he is running through the house with a cap gun, yelling and shooting everything in sight, and the very next minute, he is holding his baby sister and telling her how sweet she is, and that she is the cutest baby he's ever seen.  He finds potty and booty humor endlessly funny.  One minute he is driving Ella crazy and the next he is being unbelievably sweet to her.  Like, when he offers her his jacket when it's cold outside, or helps her clean up her toys, or tries to teach her to read.  He is developing this wonderful sense of humor that I just love.

He loves to play with Legos, and he is crazy about video games.  He loves to be outside.  He likes to shoot his bb gun, and he is a good shot.  He loves to throw a football or baseball, and to run...he's always running. He could play hide and go seek or tag all day, every day if we would let him.  He loves riding his bike, or scooter or his green machine...he's been fascinated by anything with wheels since he was little bitty.  He has this faith that catches me by surprise sometimes.  He doesn't talk about it much, but whenever he's worried he will grab Ella by the hand, kneel with her by the couch and pray.  I love that she sees him doing this...she looks up to him so much.  He's good at math and reading.  He loves science.  Even at 10, he still adores his mommy.  :)  He looks up to his daddy and his pawpaw; he says he wants to be a good man like they are.  I would say, he's well on his way.

Aidan at 15 mos. old

Even though 10 is hard on me, this year has been really rewarding.  Over this last year, I've seen a lot of the teaching and training that Mark and I have done really start to sink in.  I hate that he's not my baby anymore, but I am so excited to know the young man he is becoming.  He is compassionate, funny, a good friend, and so very smart.  God has blessed him in big ways.  I cannot wait to see what God has in store for his life.  Even if that means he has to grow up....

Aidan in Telluride