International Noah Day

Noah, today we celebrated that we have known you for five years, now. Those years have been pretty amazing.



Right from the get-go, you have had a special place in my heart. You are my cuddler, my crazy guy, and oh-so-cute.


You so often seem to be in your own little world, but its because the things that are important enough to take up your attention take up ALL of it. And you want to do them perfectly. You refused to try to draw letters--or even stick people--for the longest time because they weren't just right. Even now, the attention to detail you put into colouring can be astounding to me--like the twenty-nine or so colours you put into a single quail picture today!



You love music, and colouring, and playing piano. But you also love wrestling, and trucks, and climbing on hay bales.


A harsh word is often discipline enough, a smacked bottom is only needed on rare and dire occasions, and a "time out" is no discipline whatsoever--but it is often hard to tell if you understand the point of the discipline at all. You are like a puppy--unless you were caught in the act, it seems like the discipline is lost, and not associated with an action. Your little one-track mind forgets the consequences much sooner than the desire.


You still get easily scared of tense situations in movies--even movies that most would consider tame (certain VeggieTales movies come to mind). It astounds me, but at the same time I love the sensitivity and active imagination that this reveals. (Don't worry--I got scared of the Luck Dragon in The Never-Ending Story when I was nine--which is something my dad will never let me forget! But it was only because my imagination made everything in it so REAL to me. And that imagination has served me well in my life, so I hope you never lose it. Oh, and when you're older and finally watch that movie? You'll laugh. Trust me. It is so unscary, it makes VeggieTales look like a PG-13. Oh, wait--you're already scared of VeggieTales. Never mind. You don't get to watch TN-ES until you are about 20. Okay?)


You are so laid-back in some ways, but so wired-up in others. And you are also definitely your own person. I pray that as you grow older, you will continue to grow into those things that make you uniquely "you", and not worry about what everyone around you may be doing. But I also pray that you develop an awareness of what is going on around you, so you don't wander through life like a feather floating in the breeze--just going along with wherever the current takes you. Or at least, make sure you are on the right current.

Happy Birthday, my little man! I can hardly wait to see what is in store for you this year!


Oh, and one more thing--could we keep the number of gray hairs you add to my head this year down to 3?

Sweet Potato Seal Baby

Do you see it too?

Or is it just me?

More Jabinisms

This is "Part Two" of the previous post, so go read that first.

On our way home from town this afternoon, things had been quiet in the van for a while when Jabin made a sudden exclamation:

"Mom, I really smart!"

I was a little surprised, and more than a little amused by this oh-so-modest observation.

"You're right, Jabin. You are really smart. How did you know that?" I asked into my rearview mirror.

"'Cause I smart!"

Silly me.

Tonight, when we got to the section of bedtime prayers where we usually insert prayer requests, Jabin said, "I pway that Jesus helps turn on this light," he said, indicating the ceiling above his sleeping space.

I giggled. "We don't need Jesus to help us turn it on. And besides, he knows that you need it off right now so you can go to sleep. He's really smart like that. He's even smarter than Mommy."

"And Daddy," added Jude.

"Nope, Jesus would know we need to turn on the light!"

In other words, nice try, Mom. You just got outsmarted by your three-year-old.

Jabinisms

Jabin has really started to develop a sense of humour. He's quite a little character. Of course, the funniest things he says are still the ones he doesn't intend to be. Here are a few that spring immediately to mind:

Jude was being his usual picky self at lunch today, and dug something out of his eggs.

"What are you doing, Jude?" I asked.

"There's something green in here," he said, holding up the offending piece. I feigned shock and surprise with a loud gasp.

"Good thing you found it--it might have killed you!" He looked like maybe he thought it really might. "Jude, it's just for flavour. Go ahead and eat it."

A few minutes later, Jabin dug out a piece of egg and held it up. "I got some flabour in my egg," he said.

Fortunately, both boys ate the green stuff anyway.

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When Jabin was little(r), one way we would help him stop crying when he bumped or hurt himself was by offering to cut off the damaged limb. Often, he said yes, whereby we promptly "sawed" at it with the edge of our hand, and he laughed and was all better. For a while, when he came crying he would say, "Tut it off, Mommy, tut it off!"

Now, when we ask him whether he wants us to cut it off, more often the response is, "No! Kiss it off!"

However, my kisses must be losing their touch, too, because after bestowing my Mommy Magic, he will still say, "It's not better, Mom, it's not better!" He's not convinced when I tell him that it sometimes takes a few moments for the healing to kick in.

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This morning, as I was getting out of the shower, I heard Jabin wailing on the stairs.

"What's the matter?" I asked him. He was looking despondently out of the window, but turned to try and explain the situation to me. The first try was a write-off, due to the tears, but on the second go I understood it.

"Jude won't let me be dead!"

Um... okay.

I don't know what game they were playing, but apparently Jude thought Jabin wasn't doing it right. I think sometimes Jude forgets that Jabin is only three, after all.

But I guess I sometimes do, too.

Speaking of Music...

I performed at my mom's church in early December, and Richie recorded it with his camera. I haven't posted anything from it until now, because like many performers, I don't like watching myself. However, some of you out there have requested to hear me sing before, so here I am doing my rendition of Watermark's medley of In The Garden/There Is None Like You. Enjoy!

Our Song?

Jason and I don't really have a song. But whenever I hear/sing this song, it makes me think about us. Someday, I'm going to do a whole mini-album using the lyrics from this.

Love you, Babe!

I Could Write A Book
Rogers/Hammerstein

A, B, C, D, E, F, G,
I never learned to spell--at least not well
1,2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
I never learned to count a great amount
But if my busy mind is burning to use what learning I've got
I won't waste any time--I'll strike while the iron is hot.

If they asked me I could write a book
About the way you walk and whisper and look
I could write a preface on how we met
So the world would never forget

And the simple secret of the plot
Is just to tell you that I love you a lot
And the world discovers as my book ends
How to make two lovers of friends.

(P.S. I know the recording quality on this video is not great, but I loved this guy's rendition of it so much I used it anyway.)

Happy Love Day

I Feel Like I Should Be On A Tabloid

You know those really annoying headlines--the ones plastered all over the tabloids as you go through the grocery store lines?

"MIRACLE Diet! Lose 30 pounds in 3 days!"

"BEST DIET EVER!! Recommended by Oprah!"

Well, my story isn't quite so exciting, but I am finding it a little hard to believe.

When I started this cleanse, my goals were to get in shape by making exercise a regular part of my routine, to experiment with abstaining from a few food varieties to see if it would clear up the last of my psoriasis (still a stubborn patch on my hand), and to get back to my body's ideal weight--10-12 lbs. less than where I started.

I am on day 9 of a 40-day Health Experience. And as of this morning, I have already lost 5 lbs. My stomach is flatter--my mother commented on it two days ago. I feel better. My arms are beginning to have muscle definition. Who knew that my goal would be so easily attainable? I've been letting those extra pounds gather and sit there for about a year, now. That's as ridiculous as leaving a few hours-worth of work on my taxes sit until September! Am I a champion procrastinator, or what?!!

The best part of it is the delicious food I have been eating. For breakfast almost every day I have had 2 fried eggs with some sauteed garlic vegetables on the side. The other days I have had a coconut-milk-based fruit shake. I have had two vegetable-juice drinks every day. The rest of the day I have been able to eat well and fully at every meal, and I am often satisfied until the next meal (something that is unusual for my high metabolism). And! I have not had any caffeine since beginning the cleanse.

I tell ya, if this is what happens after only a week, I am excited to see where I'll be in another month!

Spring Has Sprung?

I've often wondered where that guy lives. You know, the guy whose job it is to pick which little box to enter the type "First Day Of Spring" on the calendars. Where, exactly, does spring really begin on March 21?

For almost my entire life, I have wistfully looked out the window on this date and laughed ruefully at the large, fluffy flakes falling down, or at the very least, the slushy, mucky flakes littering my yard. Spring Equinox, my big toe! Obviously, this has nothing to do with weather!

This year, 1300 miles closer to the equator, the laugh will of an entirely different sort--because at this rate, by March 21st, it's going to be summer in Arkansas!

Signs that spring is here:

• The winter apparel is going on clearance.
• The gardening equipment is being put out--in the outdoor gardening centre!
• The jonkles (a type of bulb) are about 6 inches high.
• The toads are croaking in the pond.
• It has been over 15 degrees C for the last several days!

Maybe that guy lives in Iowa. What do you think?

With A Capital Everything

This is Noah:



Notice that he is not wearing any socks? In the middle of winter? On a damp, blowy day? No matter how many times Mommy has reminded him to put some on?



This is only one small sign of his everlasting stubbornness. Or, should I say, "STUBBORNNESS"?

He hardly has the corner on being stubborn in our family. But the way he is stubborn is quiet, subtle, so it just kind of sneaks up on you out of nowhere and broadsides you and you're left standing there saying, "Where on earth did that come from?"

After every meal, the kids need to say thank you for the meal and ask to be excused. A week ago, Noah was leaving the breakfast table, but refused to say, "Thank you for breakfast." No matter how many times he was told that it was, in fact, breakfast, he insisted on thanking my mom for supper! "It's too hard for me!" he shrieked, when told that he needed to say breakfast.

The next morning, he thanked me for breakfast just fine.

When he gets his mind set on something, it is STUCK there. Nothing you can do can get him off of it--especially if it has something to do with playing Wii or computer games. The rule is, the kids can only play Wii for a couple of hours on the two days of the weekend. However, all week long, nearly every day, Noah will ask to play Wii games. One day he asked over and over again, until I was just tired of hearing it. After what had to be the dozenth time, I told him that if he asked to play Wii again, he would get a spank.

While that seemed like a sufficient threat to deter him for a while, it was not long before the thought of playing Wii crowded any threat about asking to play it from his little one-track mind, and he got a whack on his bum.

The flip side of stubbornness is determination, and it is his determination that I love. He will always be his own person. Peer pressure is something that will not be an issue--or at least, not much of one. When he sets a goal, he will achieve it.

As long as we can figure out how to channel that determination without squelching it. To let him be, help him become, but not allow him to be wild.

"Stubbornness is also determination.
It's simply a matter of shifting from 'won't power' to 'will power'."
- Peter McWilliams

Refresh

I bought a juicer off of Amazon.com last week. Isn't it beautiful? Isn't it shiny? Doesn't it remind you of something from The Jetsons?


It came on Tuesday--two full days early. I immediately juiced two pounds of carrots, which I loved, and my kids all decided they disliked. Hmmph. More juice for me, I guess.

On Wednesday, I started a cleanse. I am not juice-fasting, although I have been making vegetable juice every day. I am once again going through the 40-day Maker's Diet plan. It is the third time I have done so, but the first time I have followed the plan so strictly. The first time was when we started the diet almost four years ago. I never really did much for the first four weeks of the plan, while you are supposed to cut out all sorts of things that get phased back in later. For one thing, it was too darn hard. It was too expensive and time-consuming to make so many changes at once, so I kind of slowly changed my eating habits and buying habits as we could afford them and I had time to make my own condiments, or learn how to make yogurt, or locate organic produce and kefir-starter or raw milk. Not to mention, I was pregnant, so I could not do the partial-fast day once a week.

The second time was a couple of years ago. I did better, but again, I did not have everything I needed to do it properly--and I think I kept cheating on the first two weeks by eating toast and having pasteurized cream in my coffee. (You're allowed to drink coffee but not tea in the first part. Go figure.) Not to mention, total lack of the exercise part.

But this time, I'm really doing it. I started on Wednesday, and I already feel so much better. (Okay, the emotional side of this is a different story, but that is also unrelated to the cleanse.) I have more energy, my tummy is flatter (Yay! Crunches!), and it feels good to be working towards a definite goal--or several. I WILL do a proper on-my-toes-nose-to-the-ground push-up. I WILL do one hundred skips in a row! I WILL do 100 crunches a day! I WILL get back into my old jeans without grease and a shoe-horn!

My reward when I'm done is to go shopping for a new outfit--one that is in my old size, not the new one that I have refused to allow myself to buy any clothes for. Good-bye slothfulness, spare tires and bad habits. It feels good to be renewing the healthful habits that I know I should be doing all the time.

Who knew a diet could be so refreshing?

Not Today

Up until now, I've been pretty okay with this whole move back. It is just one more step in the process that is otherwise known as our lives. Just keep walking. Keep moving forward. Keep your chin up. Keep on keepin' on.

But not today.

Today, I want my Jason back.

All By Myself

Okay, okay... I know that living with my mom and step-dad does not exactly make the title of this post one hundred percent accurate. But I am definitely spouse-less at the moment. This is the beginning of our three month separation while I wait for warmer weather in Northern climes to be more conducive to moving all our worldly possessions. (Hey, honey--maybe we should freak everyone out by saying we are going through a "trial separation!" Whatdya think? :-D)

Jason left for Peace River on Thursday. I dropped him off at the airport in Fort Smith after leaving home around 3:30 a.m. After a few hours of choppy sleep in my mom's car, I then went and did some shopping in the city before coming home. It was wonderful. I got cute new shoes on sale. What? Retail therapy? No way! Um... okay, maybe a little.

So, this weekend I did a little more sewing, and enjoyed the beautiful weather we were blessed with. Yippee! Oh, and also, caught up a bit on Project 365. Enjoy: