A little giddy :)

I'm guest posting today for Ordinary Sarah!

When Ordinary Sarah first asked me to write a guest post for her (while they move into their new house, hooray!) and suggested that I write about my favorite place in my house, my first reaction was skepticism. Let's face it, folks, we live in a tiny, two-bdr apartment in the middle of the city-- no yard, no space, too many neighbors right up in our business, and the kids aren't allowed to draw on the sidewalks with chalk. I thought to myself "My favorite place in this "house" is NOT-IN-THIS-HOUSE!" I want out of here so badly, I dream about it sometimes.

Go on over there to read the rest!

Mother Meditations

In the evenings, when I walk into my bedroom to get my pjs, I walk over to stand by Jamie's bedside and gaze at his sleeping face. My heart catches in my throat at the sight of his precious face; so still, so peaceful, so breathtakingly beautiful. After the events of this year, I have a newly awakened sense of the fragility of life and as I watch his sleeping face, looking half-afraid for the steady rise and fall of his chest, barely moving in the light breath of sleep, I can feel just how close to the edge we walk as parents.

To be a parent is to forever have your heart walking around outside of your body.

So true. My heart is sleeping there in that little cot by my bed. And in the bunk beds in the next room over, two more... In sleep, each one of them is a picture of perfect innocence. All the strife and struggle of the day wiped clean, my heart (the one still in my own chest) remembers how deeply I love them. Behind all the hustlebustle of the day, behind the struggle to teach and train and guide, the two of them are so deeply, deeply planted into my heart.

With Jamie, the planting is still new and fresh, the roots diving deeper in every day. This time around, I'm so much more aware of the process. I can feel every smile, every half-laugh, every sweet breath tying a thousand strings around my life. I'm all tangled up in him... in just three short months. It happens so fast and so thoroughly, this falling in love with my children. No matter how long a time I am granted with them, they have changed me forever, each in their own way.

We'll be right back after theeeeese messages!

So in a complete change of pace from the last few posts, I want to take a minute to give a little pep talk about Swagbucks. I know some of you guys are tired of my spamming my facebook page with this stuff, but bear with me for a minute. I really don't get into a lot of the internet advertising junk (you notice that after three years of blogging, I still don't have ads on here), and I'm the LAST person in the world to knowingly sign up to receive spam. BUT. This here Swagbucks thing is a good gig. I'm telling you!

At it's most basic level, Swagbucks is a search engine that earns you points that you can then trade in for Stuff. Doesn't sound real good on the face of it, which is why I resisted my friend Cristen's spamming on facebook for so long :) (no offense, Cristen!). But what you might not realize at first glance is that one of the Stuff you can get is actual cold, hard cash. Well, VIRTUAL cold, hard cash, actually. In the form of Amazon.com gift cards and Paypal money.

Once I figured that out, I signed right up! During my first month of using SB, the points just craaaawled in so slowly, I kinda gave up on it. But then Laurie B. gave me a swift kick to get me going again by giving me some tips on how to work that search engine! And also by telling me how often she was raking in those $5 gift cards! (which I can't remember at the moment, but it was more than I was getting, anyway) And in the month or two since she got me going again I've earned SEVEN GIFT CARDS. That's almost (but not quite) FIVE DOLLARS A WEEK. Just for my internet usage.

Ok, so maybe that doesn't sound like an awful lot to some of you. But let me tell you, for a stay-at-home mom to get paid $5 a week to fool around on the internet during naptime.... Well, people, that's like paying a teenager to smoke dope!

And of course, as with paying a teenager to smoke dope, it does come with it's own set of problems. The week that they came out with Swagbucks TV, I earned three gift cards in one week by endlessly looping those stupid videos. With the sound off and the screen covered, of course, but still... it become an obsession.

So I had to get a little more disciplined about my Sb habits. I will take tomorrow's post to explain my daily SB routine! In the meantime, why not click on the link below, sign up and start on your way to $5 off your next package of diapers? Yes, Amazon sells diapers AND I can get free shipping, since I signed up for Amazon Mommy Prime-- also for FREE!!

I love that word.

FREE!

Actually, it IS all about the presents.

I've been doing a little rushing around the last two weeks, buying gifts for the kids and other family members. Not too much, though, I've been doing pretty well this year about pacing myself and planning ahead and all that.

As I was rushing and enjoying thinking about each person and trying out different ideas in my head and thinking about what they like, etc, I had this guilty feeling hovering around my heart. We hear so much every year about how Christmas is not about the presents-- don't focus on the commercialism, your kids don't really need all that crap anyway. You know, right? And I began to suspect that we may have gone a bit overboard. :guilty face: We usually buy each kid one major gift and a couple of little things that are more on the "need" than "want" side of things. But this year, after we'd already bought Judah a train set, we came across a castle/knights/horses/medieval weapons set that was IRRESISTIBLE. He's obssesed with knights and castles this year and any time you ask him what he wants for Christmas, he (without fail) says "A recipe to make a castle!"

Anyway. There I was again last night, shopping and feeling slightly guilty and commercial, but still somehow enjoying it all! Bad, bad! But then, this morning in the shower (because i do a lot of my daily deep-thinking in the shower because it's the only place i can have five consecutive minutes of privacy. sometimes. on a good day) I realized, hey wait a minute. Christmas IS about the gifts! What was I thinking? The whole holiday is celebrating the most precious gift ever given-- the Son of God made Flesh! Why shouldn't we go overboard? Why shouldn't we give extravagantly, sacrificing of our resources to give joy to our family and friends? Isn't that what God did in the gift of Christ? He came that we might have Joy-- ABUNDANT joy! The kind of joy I'm anticipating from Judah when he sees this castle! Absolute mind-blowing excitement and thrill.

Granted, the joy of Christ is in a whole different league from Judah's excitement over a train set, but there's a parallel, I think. Especially for children, who haven't yet learned about the Deeper Joys. They start with gifts given out of love and for the simple purpose of their unbridled enjoyment and the grow up into the Gift of Christ. They learn about the love through God from the love of the parents. And Gift Giving is one of the five Love Languages, remember?

So I've tossed out my guilt over commercialism and decided to claim for myself the joy of extravagant gift-giving! Don't you wish I picked YOU in the Round Robin this year??? ;)

Within reason. I mean, I'm not selling the car to make money for gifts, or anything. And I'm still only buying stocking stuffers for you guys, so don't get TOO excited... you know who you are ;)

Oh yes... THIS feels familiar.

Since we've been in Florida people repeatedly ask us if we miss the weather in Va. My answer: not at all. I miss manymany things about my old home, but certainly not the weather.

In the summer in Va, depending on how far north you are, it can get every bit as hot and humid as it was here in Orlando this year. And in addition, we never had air conditioning anywhere we lived. In Florida, we have air conditioning AND a pool. Nope. I don't miss our Virginia summers.

In Hburg we had our first snow every year within a week of Thanksgiving. Maybe not much, probably just a few flurries, but snow, nonetheless. And EVERY YEAR all the longtime locals would walk around shaking their heads and going, "Can't believe it's snowing already! It never snows this early 'round here." EVERY YEAR. For nine years. And I bet at least two people are going to respond to this post by saying, "What are you TALKING about? It never snows that early here!"

In Florida, we went swimming the day before Thanksgiving. Not for very long, granted, and it was certainly cold, but still... Actually, to be perfectly honest, I didn't get in above my knees, but the kids swam for twenty minutes! So no, I don't miss Virginia winters.

But then this morning we woke up from a night of lows in the twenties, J turned on the heat before leaving for work (first time we've used it) and I made the kids cocoa for breakfast. Something about the combination of smells-- the hot cocoa, the just-turned-on-heat, the cooooold air swooshing in the door as he left for work... Suddenly I realized I was feeling just a little nostalgic, if not quite exactly for the weather we're missing, at least for that familiar feeling of being cozied up inside, out of the elements, safe and warm against the Winter.

Judah: Imagine That

"I'mam the dread pirate Rickbeard! AAAAARRRGH!! Dis my HOOK!"



"Bye, Mama, I'n goin' to da MOON!"

Jamie Lovin': A Photo Essay

Continuing the Forshey Tradition: Somewhat Preppy and a Little Bit Hippy

Jamie spent the church service this morning cuddled up in his handmade mai tai carrier, dressed in his sweater vest and argyle Baby Legs.





And of course, an adorable smile is the perfect accessory for ANY style!

It's good to be back

I tell ya, I've missed blogging. Missed writing on my own blog and missed commenting on all of yours. I've been reading still, now and then (although when I logged in to my reader the other day, I had over 150 unread posts), but I miss commenting and being commented upon.

Sooo, I've spent a few days getting back to the writing, today I will forgo a blog post in order to spend my precious 20 min before the kids wake up to go around and comment on some of y'all's blogs :)

Seriously? SERIOUSLY???

A note from Management placed in our mailbox this week, informs us that our Christmas decorations are in violation of neighborhood regulations because (seriously???), while our outdoor lights around the door are fine, window lights are only allowed on the inside of the house.

ThankyouverymuchhaveaMerryChristmas.

:headdesk:

Norah Jones

I recently had the privilege of joining One2One Network's promotion campaign for Norah Jones' new album:



I received an early release copy of the album several weeks ago and the kids and I tried it out. We loved it! I've always said that I enjoy a wide range of musical styles and this album is a perfect representation of that. What a variety show! I've always loved her music and this album pairs her up with some other really great artists.

I had intended to post about this much sooner (especially since today is the deadline for posting our reviews. doh.) and in much greater detail, but for now, suffice to say that Norah Jones has done it again-- stellar album. The kids and I give it two thumbs up!

My children force me to tell the truth

Last night we had our first dinner guests over. I carefully planned out the whole day so that I could greet our guests at the door; showered, dressed, coiffed and make-up-ed, with yummy smells wafting from my spotless kitchen, through my spotless house and onto my spotless front porch.

What! What?? Why are you looking at me like that??!! It's a new town, new friends! I wanted to make a good impression. What can I say? I dream big.

Disaster 1) The avocados I purchased for my famous home-made guacamole were over-ripe and quickly turned that sickish brown-green of an over-ripe avocado exposed to the air.

Disaster 2-- 17)

Jeremiah was home late from work and rushed off immediately upon returning home to buy the beer, chips and cilantro that I had forgotten to get earlier in the day.

Jamie pooped the Incredible Poop ten minutes before they arrived, greeting the guests naked on the couch, while I rushed around frantically trying to catch up from the fifteen minutes clothes-change-and-mop-up-delay.

Judah, while "showing" his weapons to the guests, had a fit when the Mrs offered to take his sword to check it out and angrily jerked it out of her hand, leading to awkward remonstrations about "sharing".

Judah invited the innocent, child-less Mr to play "sor-fight wid meee?" Judah is not yet mature enough to moderate his blows for Play. Bruised shins and shocked noises for the guest.

Jamie gets the hiccups while sitting in his bouncy chair and fusses till he's picked up and patted/bounced/walked to get rid of them.

Judah lies down on Jamie, now back in his bouncy chair, until he cries. Judah is scolded, Jamie is consoled.

Judah dumps his taco on the floor.

Judah drinks Sofi's water.

Judah declines to eat anything but taco chips. Daddy informs him of his lack of options in this regard.

Judah and Sofi fight over the bag of taco chips resulting in taco chip crumbs all over the living room carpet.

Children are sent to their room to "play".

Judah pees in his bed.

Judah realizes that he has peed on his B (his lovey blanket that he has never slept a night without in his LIFE before)

PANIC

Daddy and Mommy realize that it is 7:15, there is no credit left on the laundry card, the office (where we re-credit the card) is closed, and the machines that take quarters are all the way on the other side of the complex.

BUT

The B MUST be washed and dried before Judah will sleep.

Jamie, now ten minutes past his usual bedtime, melts down.

The curtain mercifully falls on Daddy heading out the door to the laundromat, Mommy rushing the crying Jamie off to bed and Sofi sweetly and helpfully reading Judah a book to keep him from "sor-fightin'" the guests, who are clearing the table....

*sigh*

Well, at least they know we're NOT perfect.

Question for my baby-wearing pals!

Jamie now weighs 17 pounds.

My whole body aches since, in addition to being my heaviest baby, he is also the most cuddliest and prefers to be carried at all times. I can't wear him in any of the slings I have, because I have a cracked/sprained/strained/something rib. I don't really know what's wrong with the rib-- it's been like this since his birth. The chiropractor has me getting x-rays next week... Do any of you other baby-wearers have a suggestion for a carry that doesn't involve pressure (even the slightest pressure is painful) on the ribs? I have a ring sling, a pouch sling, a mai tai (Frankencozy style) and a native wrap. He's not really cooperating with the traditional newborn "folded legs" stance anymore-- prefers to sit (knees out) or stand (Frankencozy works great for that). I'm a little nervous about a back carry at his age, but I'll try one if you have any suggestions.

Climbing back in the saddle again. Kinda.

I love writing. I really do. You wouldn't know it from my blog recently, though. The thing is, writing is like exercise for me. When I'm doing it regularly it's AWESOME. I enjoy, the words flow, I'm in a rhythm, it makes me happy. I love getting comments and commenting on other blogs. But then something happens, like moving, or having a baby, and I get out of the rhythm. And it's sooooo haaaaard to get back to it.

But a bloggy friend asked me to write a guest post for her and everyone knows that writing guest posts bring extra traffic back to your own blog. So somehow, by hook or by crook, I've got to get some decent (and recent) content on here so greet my potential new readers.

So this morning I am determined to write a new post-- no matter how "sore" it makes me and hopefully, I'll soon be back into the rhythm of that daily "exercise.

But right now, I have to go. There's a supercute chunkalunk layin' beside me and trying to get my attention!