The Perfect Suit

After watching this video on the evolution of swimwear and hearing the Jessica Reys call to a return to modest and classy swimsuits, I have spent All. Day. obsessing over suits. Since we moved into a house-with-a-pool two years ago (what?? has it really been that long?), I find that my bathing suits have become a major part of my wardrobe. At least four months out of the year, I wear one almost every single day. And-- since we have kids and all our friends have kids and kids love pools-- I also find that I'm wearing my bathing suit often when we have people over for dinner and play times and etc. So here I am. Stuck in public (often in mixed company) in a bathing suit. Blah. Not my fav.

Add to this the fact that my recent weight loss has left my former Lands End lovelies... let's say less than "supportive" in certain areas.

Well, you get the picture. I'm wear t-shirts over my suit these days. Yuck.

Anyway, after 12 hours of obsessing, I'm pleased to announce that I have found The Perfect Suit. It is classy. It is modest. It is feminine. It is stylish.

It also costs NINETY-NINE DOLLARS.

Yikes.

I am going to be saving my pennies for many moons before I actually have a chance to give a formal REVIEW of the product, but in the meantime, I wanted to share this website with all of you! Because it is just that good. They also sell suits for little girls and modest dresses, tees and camis. I love just about everything I saw on the site!

Now I'm going to have to spend another entire day webcrawling to try to find a pattern just like this so I can go make my own, because obviously now that I've found The Perfect Suit, nothing else will do!

It's too early for this.

It's 8:30 am. 

I have had zero coffee. 

And yet, for some unfathomable reason, my children have decided that this is the optimal time to organize a Family Band. Complete with triangle, tambourine, vocals and a parade aroundandaroundandaround the kitchen/livingroom area. Where I am trying to make breakfast. 

Did I mention I haven't had coffee yet?

The amount of sheer energy bouncing around in my house this morning makes me wonder where these kids came from... What sort of changelings these may be...? Is there somewhere in this universe a Morning Mom, who bounces out of bed every morning, ready and willing to conduct a three-ring-circus, while her three children inexplicably drape themselves over the nearest piece of furniture and beg for coffee and pillow and an eye mask...?

Are they really mine???

A Post of Un-Answerable Questions

"Are Asgardians made of magic? Is that how they live? They're made of magic? Is that why Thor can touch the end of his hammer and not get dead? Because he's made out of magic?"

"In the Norths Miss (Norse Myths-- an admittedly tricky tongue twister...) on the Kindle they say Loki is a doer of good AND a doer of evil, but in all the Thor movies he's only a bad guy.... Why is that?"

Happy Mother's Day!

an excerpt from this meme/post is about the mothers in my life (two grandmothers and mama). this year for the first time, only my mama will be reading...


I am from a bent wire tree covered with amethysts,
From the finger-worn neck of a long-loved fiddle, 
From the whispering scent of Jean Naté and a marbled notebook stacked on a well-worn Bible. 

You gift-givers wove all my life around with music and beautiful words. 

I am from all of you.

Kitchen: Before Pictures

When I posted on FB asking for people's ideas for cheap (free would be better) ways to update our kitchen, everyone asked for pics. So! Here there are. And here's a link to the Pinterest board where I'm keeping track of my ideas so far. We're not replacing the cabinetry at all, but I do plan to paint it-- I bought a priming "system" that's supposed to cover laminate so you can paint with regular latex on top. New hardware and a tile backsplash might possibly be in the budget, too, especially if we can find the materials at the Habitat ReStore.


And by the way, I'm not responsible for that moldy green color on the walls... It was here when we bought the house.





It's really this "dropped ceiling" lighting that has me down in the dumps.



It looks so dated and makes the kitchen feel cave-like. It seems like there ought to be some sort of easy fix to update this...






I'm thinking that perhaps something like this might be our best option... CHeap and easy-- no major construction changes.



I'm only worried about the deep soffats making the cabinets look so squatty. If you glance back up at the pics of mine above, you can see that there's not really room for nice nice trim along the top edge...

Any way. This is where we're at so far. Any ideas?

A Saturday Adventure

Sofi's at a birthday party, Daddy's busy with work, Mommy's cleaning and cooking, SO


The boys are going on an adventure!

Summer lunches...

I was 22 when Sofi was born. I was in a hurry. I wanted lots of children, I wanted them all Now and I wanted everything unpleasant in Motherhood to speed by as quickly as possible.

I spent a lot of the first five years of her life wanting things I couldn't have. I missed a lot of what I did have in the meantime. I sped through her babyhood in a daze. I forget a lot of it.

The big gap between Sofi and Judah represents a lot. Two miscarriages. Lots of tears. Lots of growing. A lot (but not enough yet) of letting go of Me and learning to hold on to Him.

Now I have two boys. I have learned am learning to slow down. God's gift to me is the occasional day like today which starts with my agenda thwarted (by a spill, or a melt-down, or a fight, or....) and then I, slowed down, have time to see what I have here, now, in this moment. The beauty that surrounds me.

Today, by God's grace, I see...

Lunch on the deck



Silly faces



Short people



My Boys





Sky-high eyelashes



Chubby baby curves and binkies



Milk mustaches

My boy...

We read the story of the Martyrdom of Stephan this morning... I explained that they killed Stephan because he talked about Jesus. Judah's thoughts on why the Jews were angry with Jesus...

"They were really mad at him... they were mad 'cause they thought he was gonna fight for them...They thought he was gonna kill all their enemies... fight for them. And he did. He fought for them by dying. He died to fight their sins..."


And another classic Judah moment this morning... 

"Judah, you're doing really well with this-- you're very good at math! (and he really is!)"

As the words left my mouth, he reached for something and knocked a plate full of snacks flying off the table to shatter in a pile of glass shards and pumpkin seeds on the floor.

Agile mind, not so much the body...

Every morning after chores, the boys get a few minutes to wrestle/tussle/play on my bed before school. After listening to this morning's "Play on Mama's Bed" session this morning, I think Jude is quickly regretting his decision to teach Jamie to "Hulk Smash me, Jamie! Hulk Smash me!"

Twenty-Seven Minutes, Thirty-Five Seconds!!!

Today was a big day for us!!

We woke up at 6:00, threw the kids in the car and took off! We dropped them at a friends house, went by car  to here:






And spent a loooong tiiiime waiting around:




To get on a bus to go here:




In order to spend more time waiting around....



With all these people:


J: "Hehe... this is huge... if they gave each of us a spear, we could take over a small country."

And then

We

RAN



And when we were done (Twenty-seven minutes and thirty-five seconds later)...




We went to pick up the kids (who had been warned what we would look like when we got back and so were not actually totally scarred by the sight of their parents)



And then, for the first time that day (at about 11:00),

WE ATE!!






And next year, we're taking these adorable kiddoes with us!!!






Things I learned while writing this post:

1)When J has the camera, suddenly there I am in all the pics!
2) J's camera is way better than mine
3) If you forget to take a pic of something, you can probably fine it on the internet.

A post about Nicknames

We love nicknames in our family...

For as long as I can remember, nicknames have been a way to show affection and familial familiarity. I think maybe my grandfather started it... He called us all "Lemuel". Or "Lemmie".  Don't ask. I have no idea. My father called us "Munchkins". I do know where that came from! I called my baby sister "Chickie" or "Chicken".  And then I had my own children...

Sofi: Her first name was Cricket. That child had hiccups for nearly nine straights months in utero. My belly hopped around like a Mexican Jumping Bean while she trampolined off every internal organ.

And then we called her Chickie. Or Chicken. Because I was still figuring out how to transition from Big Sister to Mama and it seemed appropriate to call her the same pet name I used for my First Baby-- my little sister, Tess. Who was really my third baby anyway, because Sam and Polly were my babies, too, really. And besides, she squawked and chirped with her hungry mouth opened wide, just like a baby chickie....



Judah: Oh my that boy had the bluest baby blues... and so we called him Judah Blue. Judah Blue Eyed Boy.



And the fat rolls!! We called him Judah Buddha. His Aunt Polly, Queen of Fat Rolls herself, once upon a longlong time ago, gave him that name. And Sofi started calling him just "Buddha" The chiropracter tentatively asked me one day... "Is his name...Buddha? Is that it?" And I laughed and laughed....

His mama still calls him My White-Headed Boy, because he is. And sometimes Scooter, because he did-- for the longest time. And his daddy calls him Buddy, and Little Man.

And now there's Jamie. And he has four people who all make up their own nicknames for him.

Munchkin

Precious

Capital-T-Trouble

Scoofle-noodle

Cuddle Monster

That Boy 

Bo-bo

Jo-jo (because of his inititals)

Scooter

Scooby-doo

Jamie-Jo

..and most recently my favorite, which somehow morphed out of some tongue-tripping combination of those last three names:


Subito




Jamie-Jo, My Subito...

5 Things I'm Not Going To Post About

I wish I had some pics to get my blogging mojo going tonight, but the only things I got the camera out for today were:

1) To show Judah how ridiculous he looked when he throws a temper tantrum like he's a two-year-old.

"Noooooooooooooo! Don't show that to ANYONE!!!!!!!! NO ONE!! Except Daddy. Because he's my family. "

So. Obviously. Not going to post that.

2) To prove to Sofi that she was not, in fact, doing a push-up 

"exactly like they're doing on the dvd!!"

-- she insisted, with her hiney waving in the air...

Again. Not going to post that.

I also really should not talk about:

3) The fact that J is working laaaaate tonight and rather than plan something fun and memorable with my progeny, I turned on Shaun the Sheep and poured myself a glass of wine. The last glass. Which means J is drinking water tonight. Yep. Wife of the year, for sure.

4) My run on Moday was a PR, but sooooo sloooooow compared to all my running friends on FB that I'm totally NOT going to talk about it.

Ok. Fine.

5 miles. 12 min/mile average.

See? Happy now?

5) I just turned 34.

#isold

Boys in the Kitchen

Remember our Pinterest Mud Kitchen? We're putting it to good use on a daily basis, now that we've raked up the TWENTY-FOUR BAGS of live-oak leaves that was giving it a vampire-movie-set vibe that made it hard to play out there...