Summertime

Well, here we are at the end of the summer. Well, the end for us, since school starts for Jeremiah again in three weeks. It's a tough time in our household. J ends his summer job this week and we won't get his first RCS paycheck till the end of September. So basically no money comes in for about a month and a half-- close to two months. It's tight, people-- spandex tight. 

And it gives me pause to consider the rest of the year and our usual financial security. I am here to say that J is an amazing Provider for his family. Not just in the sense that he provides oodles of boodle ('cause, really, you know us-- it's not really what I would call "oodles", per say), but he really has a knack for making every dime stretch to it's limit. The man can practically legislate money out of thin air. I say "legislate" because I think that his genius originates in his ability to manage money, rather than necessarily make lots of it (although I think, given a chance, he could also rake it in). He is an excellent Steward of what God has given us. 

I've been reading a lot of blogs lately where the authors are talking about ways to save money and skinny-up a budget by "going without". I won't go into too much personal detail (this is the internets, after all), but we are able to afford many of the little luxuries that many in the current economy are having to learn to do without, because of the way that J obsesses over the little details and minute categories of our weekly budget.

Now, lest I give the impression that I am married to an Ebeneezer Scrooge, let me also recount this recent conversation (while Sue and Ben were here):

Me: Sweetie, can I please, please have some money to go shopping?

J (controlled shock): What for??

Me: I just really, really need a new pair of jeans and then there's this really cool purse that I saw on sale and I totally don't need it but it's pretty and I want it...

J: Could you make do with $XX?

Y.E.S.

Seriously, ladies, who wouldn't die for a man like that? I ask you...

Ben and Jeremiah's Man-Date

The guys went out to see "The Dark Knight" together and we women stayed home with the chilluns. Here's the documentary:

Jeremiah tried to "shot-block" the "wife-arazzi", but I was just toooo good.

Aha! Ben, what happened to your face? Something's growing on it!!?? Jeremiah fleeing the camera...

Aw, man, he didn't open the door for you! Chivalry is dead. *sigh*

Final shot. Luckily he's not wearing a mini-skirt...

I know, I know, keep it G-rated....

Go read...

...Jeremiah's post today.

Seriously. Go.

Family Reunion

I tell you what, summer is crazy around these parts. We had two family reunions in one week. No joke. Here's pics from the first one. The C. family reunion somehow got left out of the picture thing. I haven't got a single one! Despite the record-breaking (in my life, anyway) hailstorm that ended it. So, no pics, but cool story. These are pics from the M. reunion at the KOA campground near us. Beautiful place, I highly recommend it.

Enjoying Gramma/Aunt/Mom/Sandy's coconut brownies:

Judah gets his first taste of watermelon...

And decides that he likes it!

Girl's going walkabout:

Gramma loves her little boy:

More cousins!

Beach-ing cousins

Jeremiah and Ben were jointly paranoic about taking the cameras out to the beach itself, so all our "beach" pictures are actually of the house where we stayed. But the kids are still cute!

Back porch breakfasts:

Inside the house breakfasts:

Swingin':

Oh yeah, did we mention Sam has a girlfriend now? Meet Mina. (P.S. we love her!)

Who knew a box could be so much fun:

Come on guuuyyys... we have to...

...do a group shot before we leave!

Wow...

... everyone was so nice about my poem the other day. Thanks! But you do realize that now I'm gonna inflict more of them on you? Can't get enough of those comments! What can I say, I'm an oldest child-- "approval driven".

We're having a great time with Sue and Ben and Violet here, but been cu-raaaazy busy all weekend. I have tons of pics and some video, too, of the cousins that I'll have to get busy editing and posting. As a "fun-fact" for the day, let me tell y'all to notice in the pics how much they all look alike. They're double cousins. What's a double cousin, you ask? Well, when two sisters marry two brothers, that's whatcha get-- double cousins. Kinda redneck-y, I guess, but Sofi has developed a superb British accent recently, so it kind of evens out.

For my fat babies...

It's poetry time again at Pensieve, and this month I'm joining in on the "literary history-making challenge". Here's my first attempt at writing a 'pensieve'.

Baby Buddha

Swirls of barely-there silky hair, doughy thighs, pillow-fat feet kicking my arm.
Contented gurgles, milk-dripping mouth sucking noisily at my breast.
Slobbery, wide open mouth kisses, smack on my lips like strawberry Bubble-Yum.
Moist, sticky, tickle-begging fat rolls, jiggle-giggling under my fingers.
Warm soft breath, pausing heart-breakingly for a moment in slumber, then flowing on, setting my mind at rest.

Be sure to check out all the other awesome entries!

Want this button?

You might be a mother if...

...your bedroom floor is covered with cheerioes, because when the kids woke up at 6:15 am, you thought giving them a bowl of cheerioes and sitting them down on a comforter at the end of the bed and telling them to "be little birdies sitting in your nest and eating birdie food" was a good idea and might buy you fifteen more minutes of sleep.

NOT.

Mama's Bad Day

So after seeing that I had linked back to her ol' poop story, Smocklady decided to hold a drawing for a $25 Amazon.com gift certificate for anyone who will post (or link to) their favorite "Mama's Bad Day" story. You can enter twice by leaving a comment on her site and also linking back to her from your own blog. You should give it a try! I know some of you-- you've got goooooood stories. Laura, the infamous Martin's Grocery Store Debacle???? If you don't post it, I will!!

One of my favorite stories of Bad Day for Mama involved Sofi at about age... three, maybe? We were in the shoe store looking for dress shoes for a wedding I had to be in (I believe). At the time Sofi's interest in shoes was minimal, at best. As I tried on pair after pair, she was wandering around pulling stuff off shelves and generally getting into trouble. In the aisle next to us was a man and his wife/girlfriend, also trying on pair after pair. The man was a bit on the chubby side, but gamely crawling around on his knees pulling out pairs for the woman to try on and helping her shove her feet into them. As he reached over at one point, his pants began to creeeeep down his backside. I saw Sofi notice, stare and then reach to pull on my arm, "Momma, Momma!" I knew what was coming. In what seemed like a perfect slo-mo moment, I shoved the shoes I was trying on into the box grabbed her into my lap and started frantically trying to change the subject as I gathered my gear and tried to make a quick get-away.

 "Momma, that man's butt is peekin' out!!" 

It's amazing how far a two-year-old's voice can carry in a shoe store.

Oh. My. Gosh.

This is hysterical. It will totally make your day. Especially if you are a mom of young kids and feeling a bit overwhelmed by it all....

The Best Poop Story Ever

The internet is a wonderful place :)

On the phone

Judah says "hi" and "bye-bye"

Just for fun....

74 As a 1930s wife, I am Superior Take the test!

Going retro.........

Remember this, people?

 

Sofi, the Adorable, age 2

Judah doing various cute things...

Judah making his dinosaur growl.... and his fire engine siren noise.

Days of P, B and J

Ol' Blue Eyes

Back to Biking

When Sofi was a baby, we biked. A lot. It was tons of fun. But when she grew out of the baby carrier (way earlier than most kids-- thank you, Mullen family genes :) ) our biking weekends went the way of all flesh. Jeremiah still biked to work and I took the bike on the occasional Walmart trip.

When we moved downtown in 2005 I assumed that we'd get back into it, but it is just too hard to find a way to tow along a growing three-y/o on a bike. They don't make carriers with a high enough weight capacity. I rode into town for my short gig at the tea shop, but it was mostly J who kept the tradition alive.

Then, of course, along came Judah! And things got even more complicated. But this summer, as gas prices have soared over $4 a gallon, I got desperate. I actually clocked my mileage for one week. It was a shocker. I drove over 45 miles in one week and no one trip was further than six or seven miles from my house-- most were under five. That's suuuuper sad. It made me realize what a waste of time driving is! 45 miles of potential exercise, fresh air and exhilaration for the kids. And as you have all heard me complain before, I have the hardest time finding space in the day when the kids are occupied and I can exercise. There had to be a way to return to The Way of The Bike.

And there is! Check it out! These are our new wheels. We all rode together downtown for the Valley Fourth last night and had a blast. Granted, Judah is not real thrilled with the helmet.

But I have high hopes that he will come to associate it with the fun of a bike trip and learn to love it as Sofi did.

I got so excited about all this (saving money, cutting down on our carbon footprint, getting exercise and fresh air, teaching the kids a different kind of lifestyle, etc) that I started Googling. I always do that when I get excited about something. Some people jump up and down. Some people call all their friends to tell them about it. Some people buy accessories. I go Googling (dibs on the copyright for that t-shirt).

Anyhoo.

I found out that there's a whole culture building up around using bikes as transportation, rather than recreation. As usual, the Europeans (the Danes, in particular) are waaay ahead of us on this. There are some really awesome website out there, chronicling some really cool trends and movements. I give you my favs:

The Slow Bicycle Movement

Amsterdamize

Coopenhagen Cycle Chic

Check them out, and let the guilt return you to a wiser way of life.

(Okay, okay, I realize I just got a little Mr Miyagi on you there. Sorry.)

Please Visit This Link

.. and read it. I find myself becoming more and more passionate about this subject and this article has given me hope that one day there will be places in this country that follow the Danish example.

Enjoy!

Stupid Blogger

I've been trying to upload this video to blogger for several days now and keep getting weird error messages and incomplete uploads. So I finally resorted to YouTube. Hope it worked.

Enjoy my WaterBabies!!

My grandfather died this weekend. Jerome Cunningham has been a part of my life for 20 years and I will miss him. He was my biggest "fan" and encouraged me in my writing attempts even long after I'd given up hope of publication. Every time I saw him, he'd ask what I was writing these days. He was quite the prolific writer himself and I hear his kids found notebooks full of his poetry that they never even knew were there. 

He also loved music and joined my grandmother in supporting all of us in our musical endeavors. But he has been deaf as a post for as long as I can remember. I don't mean normal-old-person-hard-of-hearing. I mean, Deaf. I am sure the first thing he did in heaven was sit and marvel for a moment-- glorying in the cacophony of praise surrounding the throne of God.

But one of the most influential thing about my grandfather was his faith. The minister pointed out to us grandchildren in the memorial service what an amazing heritage we have. We are the third generation of men and women of God. My children make generation four of the faith. That's pretty amazing-- almost unheard of in this day and age. I had to agree with him. Jeremiah and I have been amazingly blessed in our families. Granted, they weren't perfect, but they followed the Lord to the best of their ability and I, as their progeny, wish to take a moment to rise up and call them Blessed.

We will miss you, Papa Jerry. Hope you're enjoying all that good music!!