"You can get so confused that you'll start in to race down long wiggled roads at a break-necking pace and grind on for miles across weirdish wild space, headed, I fear, toward a most useless place. The Waiting Place ..."  Who knew a children's book could be so insightful?  Thank you, Dr. Seuss for that snippet of wisdom today! If you couldn't tell from that little passage I love words - reading them, writing them, speaking them. Words are powerful.  In fact, the Bible warns us that the power of life and death lies in the tongue.  In case you're missing the parallel, the tongue produces words.  Anyway, this love of words often allows certain quotes, sayings, and conversations to become embedded  in my mind.  It's uncanny how they surface at the most unlikely times.  Today I have been replaying a conversation I had with one of my former roommates.  I can't remember where we were, the context of the topic, or even when this a

I suspect you've noticed a change in my blogging habits this past year.  Grant it, it's been a slow fade, somehow I've made it to a place where blogging is scarce.  Life just got busy.  I inherited more responsibilities at work, and I had a second child.  That translates to double the work and half the time to complete it. I'm not complaining. Really, I'm not. Busy is good for me. I need to be busy.  I want to be busy.  I just don't want to be so busy that I forget to document the precious moments of our lives. Last week Eric was in Nashville with some coworkers, so after putting the kids down for the night, I snuggled up with the tablet and starting reading my blog. I cried.  It's the story of my journey through motherhood.  The plot is thick and full of the ups and downs that come along with raising young children.  I saw myself mature and grow in areas. I watched as my relationship with the Lord began to take deeper root in the soil of faith.  My marr

Don't worry.  We aren't potty training Ellie just yet.  We're hoping to master the whole sleep thing first.  Sigh.  Oh well, at least she's better than Eli was.  I'm convinced that if we had a third (and we absolutely will not have a third) but if we did, it would be an awesome sleeper. Anyway, back to the point of this post.  Life lately has been crazy.  I know, I know, I say that all the time, but it's true.  Life is just exhausting and not because my kids are under-achievers in the sleep department.  It's exhausting because for the past year I have been stuck in a rat race.  When I look at my Facebook newsfeed, or scroll through Instagram, or check out Twitter, I am reminded that I am just not up to par.  My house is too messy, my closets are too unorganized, and my kids will probably develop a yet to be invented complex due to their overexposure to processed meats such as chicken nuggets and hot dogs.  Not to mention I can't sew, I hate to co

I'm in the middle of reading the most encouraging book I've yet to find on parenting.  May I recommend Vicki Courtney's "Ever After: Life Lessons Learned In My Castle Of Chaos ?" I don't know about you, but I find myself constantly striving.  Striving to be a better wife, a better mother, a better friend.  I find myself striving to be more fit, more disciplined, more organized.  I find myself striving, and while self improvement is admirable, taking it to an extreme is exhausting. This book touches on that, and the Lord is using it to challenge me to stop, to find contentment, and to bask in the joys of this season. In two short months my baby girl will be a year old, and while I have found such joy in being her mother, I have also been distracted by the pressure to maintain a clean home, make it to the gym, do laundry, juggle the bills and keep up with the every day grind. In seven months my sweet boy will starting school.  Yes, that will certainly

Ya'll, we had the greatest time tonight hanging out with the Adkins.  When Eli and Griffin were babies we got together every Thursday night for game night.  I remember thinking that it was so hard to enjoy the company because of the babies.  Ha!  They basically slept the whole time in a contained pack and play and only whimpered when they needed a bottle. As the boys grew it got harder to play games, but we still got together for little adventures and dinner.  Then Ellie and Parker came along, and between the pregnancies, jobs, and preschool actives, we just kinda stopped getting together.  Life happens.  We still love them!   The thing is, we were long overdue a visit, so we decided to have the whole clan over for dinner.  We knew there was no chance for a game, but we welcomed the conversation no matter how interrupted it was.  The boys were so excited. They played and played.  Eli actually cried when Owen left.   By the way, Gabe and Tina will be welcoming

Meet Derby.  This is my brother's horse from Christmas 1990-something.  I'm not sure of the exact year, but I am 100% positive that this fella has ridden a hundred thousand stationary miles and welcomed the rear-end of dozens of children.  I loved Derby when I was kid, but I was less than thrilled when my parents announced that they were bringing it to my house last spring...on Derby weekend no less. They say it was for the kids.  I think they just wanted it out of the house.  I'm just not brave enough to call their bluff.  Regardless, Derby now sits in our dining room...you know, where every large toy should go.  It's a good thing that we don't actually eat in our dining room.  Between Derby and the train table, it looks more like a playroom.  Oh well, in due time.... Back to Derby, Eli loved him for all of two days.  Sometimes if he's really bored, he'll take a stationary ride, but for the most part, Derby sits and waits for visitors.  

We're seven days into the new year, and I'm just now making my first post.  That doesn't look too good, ya'll.  I have been busy, busy, busy.   Of course I'll back date posts in the days (ok months) to come, but basically life went like this. 1. Eric's parents took the kids the day after Christmas.  We slept and took down decorations. 2. Ellie got an eye infection, Eli got an ear infection, and Eric got the flu. BOO!!! 3. Morgan nursed her sickies back to health. 4. We celebrated New Year's Eve at home.  Ellie and I slept while the boys played. 5. I attempted to sleep train Ellie.  As luck would have it, she has now hit a growth spurt. Go figure!! 6. We had an indoor snowball fight with Marshmallows followed by family movie night (post to come.) 7. The boys went to Monster Jam in Nashville while the girls chilled at home (post to come) 8. We spent Sunday relaxing as a family (post to come.) 9. The coldest air in 20 years l

I guess Ellie was feeling left out from the whole Monster Jam thing because this morning she took herself a turn playing with them this morning before church.  How sweet is this rough and tough little girl with a smocked dress and Texas size bow?  I think she's got the whole Southern thing going on.  Being that it's January, and I've put away the Christmas clothes, I was excited to coordinate my kiddos in their winter blue attire.  My little picture taking ritual didn't exactly pan out.  Eli was tired from being out at Monster Jam, so this was his pose.   I didn't push my luck.  He was in better spirits after church, so we made a cake while Ellie slept.  Sundays are pretty lazy around these parts.  I usually get in a tizzy around 4:00 when look up to find a messy house, a few laundry piles and two dirty kids.   Today was no expecption, so after dinner, a quick clean up and baths, I was happy to snuggle  up to these two cuties.  Yes, Eli'

Eli had a very special day because he finally got to go to Monster Jam.  He's been in to Monster Trucks for about a year now despite my attempts to advert his interests to something a little less redneck.  I kid. Ha!  This is just new territory for a H.B.B.Q. (Has Been Beauty Queen.) Anyway, all this little guy wanted for Christmas was Monster Jam tickets.  There were a few touch and go moments, but he ended up on the nice list, so Santa gladly obliged. Not only that, but he surprised Eli with pit passes which meant that he got to go see the trucks up close and meet the drives.   When I say it was better than Disney World, I mean it was literally better than Disney World.  Back in the summer I gave Eli the option of going to the most magical place on earth (Disney) or the most redneck place on earth (Monster Jam.)  He chose the latter. So after running a few errands today, Eli and Eric left for Nashville.  They stopped to eat at the Old Spaghetti Factory,

Prior to having children, I was NOT a winter person.  In fact, I loathed it.  I'm still not a fan of hauling my kids in and out of the cold,  loading them into the van while stripping them layer by layer to fit into the car seat only to redress them upon arrival at our destination.  However, I have come to LOVE the slower speed of the winter months.  There is no rush to finish chores so that we can make it outside before dark, no string of non-stop activity, no work outdoors needing attention.  Instead it's nights spent inside with the family.  Of course all of this quality time needs to be broken up a bit by some family activities.  That's where the "snow ball fight" comes in.  The trouble is, Bowling Green is basically the Great Divide when it comes to winter precipitation.  While I normally enjoy this, I do crave at least one good snowfall. Of course when that doesn't happen, a Mommy Intervention must be staged, and marshmallow are the next best th

If you've read this blog for long, you know that I make a bucket list for each season.  It's not really something I stress too much over.  If we have time to mark things off, YAY!  If not, no biggie.  The important thing is that it challenges me to be intentional with my kids. We define winter from January 1st - March 17th.  Here's shortened list! The Routine Stuff:  1. Tuesday's At The Library 2. Wednesdays At Church 3. Thursdays At McDonald's 4. Fridays At Home With Family Movie Night Special Activities 5.. Monster Jam 6. Bowling  7. WKU Game 8. Trip To Lexington 9. Trip To Marion  10. National Corvette Museum Things To Celebrate 11. Gigi's Birthday  12. Fat Tuesday 13. Valentine's Day 14. Ellie's Birthday  15. Saint Patrick's Day