love

Love is patient,
love is kind and is not jealous;
love does not brag and is not arrogant,
does not act unbecomingly;
it does not seek its own,
is not provoked,
does not take into account a wrong suffered,
does not rejoice in unrighteousness,
but rejoices with the truth;
bears all things,
believes all things,
hopes all things,
endures all things.
Love never fails...

1 Corinthians 13:4-8

our song

when abraham was a baby, this was our song. he was born with blue eyes (they changed later) and i would always sing him the line where bono adds "don't you know blue eyes". it just worked for us...frank, bono, baby, and me.


happy birthday buddy!

power breakfast.

i find myself treasuring the "little kid" things matthew still does.
like running around in the yard with skin tight high-water pajamas.
or (loudly) humming the star wars theme while taking a cart ride around target last night.
he's a handful, but we love him so.

insult to injury.

is the baby of the family predisposed to having a victim mentality
or have i really just created a monster? wait. don't answer that.
so this afternoon i made popcorn at matthew's request and we
had a nice little talk about how the popcorn was NOT all for him
that he would share with his brother and sister and if there was
any fighting. at all. over sharing this popcorn. at all.
he would immediately go to his room and not have anymore.
he agreed and i marveled at my persuasive powers...
that was until i heard the screaming.
"she's taking a huge handful...she's eating it all....stop you rude jerk!"
i think he was shocked that i was delivering on my promise. being the excellent mother that i am, i followed through and off to his room he went.
later, i heard the bigger kids whispering from the hallway in front of his room as they were
sneaking something in...
was it popcorn? no, it was even better than that.
it was an illustration of what is looks like when two kids can enjoy a bowl of popcorn instead of three...
pretty precious huh?

pushin' 40

happy 36th birthday carlos!

funny girl.

alexandria is writing a paper for school about living
in the middle colonies. she had to write a letter to a friend
as is she was a child living during that time.
she also listed 6 facts, 8 laws, drew a picture, and at the end she had to
explain some of "poor richard's almanac sayings" and make up 2 of her own.

i could just be really sleepy but i laughed and laughed at this part....witty girl she is.

(My own sayings; in Franklin's style)

A broken hand is better than a broken brain.

By the time you're grown your brain should not be blown,

It should last all your days.

do something good.

Every time you use your (STARBUCKS)^RED Card to pay for purchases at participating Starbucks stores between 1/3/09 and 12/31/09, we’ll donate 5 cents to the Global Fund to help save lives in Africa.

now this is something i'm really impressed with. the card is absolutely free just like any other sbux gift card, get it started with only $5 (sidenote:register it online and your soy&syrups are free) use it for every purchase you make (just keep re-loading it) and it's a nickel to the global fund everytime, all year.
just think if half of the sbux customers did this, it would be out of control AMAZING!
in december, sbux donated well over one million doses of daily medicine to help save lives in africa with the sales of our (red) exclusive beverages (5 cents per drink), and we can do so much more with these (red)cards.

go get one.

do it.

BIRTH-days

so james, my little brother, is turning 30 today.
it's crazy to think that on this day 30 years ago,
i was at a birth center waiting for him to be born.
i can remember being there, and hearing my mother making the
normal sounds of a woman giving birth,
sounds that i would go one to hear dozens of times in my career as a doula.
two things happened that day...
i was given a brother to love
and i was given an example of birth in it's most natural form.
my mother's birth stories shaped something on the inside of me.
i was handed down trust in the process that God created...
what a gift.
happy birthday james.
happy BIRTH-day mom.

"we have a secret in our culture, and it's not that birth is painful. it's that women are strong." -laura stavoe harm

...of the queens that have gone before us.

i found this article to be interesting. i thought of my memaw, always with the red lipstick. it was one of her divine secrets i think. (yes, that is a reference to this book, that she insisted i read)
the article...

"Forget oil prices and unemployment rates - you know the economy is in trouble when the so-called lipstick index soars. Leonard Lauder (chairman of cosmetics company Estee Lauder) coined the term when he argued that, in hard times, women seek out lipstick as a small indulgence. Signs that he's right: His company posted a 31% increase in profits last quarter, and cosmetics makers Ulta and Avon recently saw double-digit sales growth. While most department stores' overall sales are down the tubes, Saks and Nordstroms have reported that their beauty revenues are sitting pretty."

i think all us frugal, penny pinchin' moms should go out and treat ourselves to a lipstick in honor of the women who made us strong...YaYa!

happy holly berries.

remember this post? my DREAMS came true twice over!

this is when we told them they had to wait a little longer to open gifts.

i am a horrible at remembering to take pictures... i got very few of christmas 08' (i'm convinced this would be different if i had a more expensive camera)
we had a wonderful time though and of course it's great to be home.
i heart my family.

santa, if you're reading this...

he drank a decaf double short 1 pump vanilla breve no foam nutmeg sprinkles latte.

he tried to tell me i was only getting his eyes and adorable little nose.

Dear Santa,
i want a really good camera for Christmas.
so i don't have to document my family time with a cell phone camera.
you can pick the brand, i've heard good things about nikon and canon, so...whichever is fine. thanks!
-me

word pictures

alexandria wanted candy for breakfast
and i told her she wasn't allowed to ask me again
so she came up with a plan...
and thanks to one of her "i care" books (life coaching for kids compliments of public schools)
she used her "i care que cards" to get her point across.
yes, she really does stuff like this.
i couldn't make it up on my own.