How sweet it is to....

-go into the little coffee shop just as they are closing and have them serve you a latte and absolutely refuse to be paid until next time you come in.

-have the dentist not find anything wrong with the tooth that you swear is hurting.

-find cute little folk lore chicken plates to put somewhere.

-come home to a clean kitchen compliments of your sweet kiddos.

-find eggs in the chicken coop everyday!

-have your children beg you to make scrambled eggs.

-see how excited your children get about looking for a double yolk.

-own chickens!

-listen to my almost two year old say words like; out, dawl-daw (all done), dang-doo (thank-you) and a whole host of other things that I can't even begin to decipher.

-have a fire pit outside with cute little tree stumps to sit on.

-breath the cool air.

-wear a jacket and a sweater.

-watch "Watership Down" with my boys and have them imitate the bird all day.....'Stupid bunnies you got not mates!'

-find $8.00 curtains at Target on the clearance rack to hang in the boys' room so I can take down the mini-blind aka "The Noose" that my baby tried to hang himself from.

-have a kind neighbor find my baby walking down the road and safely return him to his dumbfounded parents who swore he was playing safely with his siblings in the basement.

-to be able to run out and purchase baby-proof door knob covers.

-have God watching over me.

Health Nut

Who knows something about Agave Nectar? Want to share your knowledge? I've been using it since the whole sugar issue, but I can't find any real concrete information about it.

I'm going to start drinking green tea. Just as soon as I go to the store and get some and finish my 20 ounce cup of coffee.

I have set a new weight goal by December. I'm not going to share what it is, because right now I'm just doing a lot of thinking about it to get prepared for the work it will take to obtain the goal. And maybe it's not so much a weight goal as it is a healthy body goal.

Here are some of my plans.

-Start the morning with some form of protein
-drink green tea and more water along with my coffee
-stop drinking diet sodas
-eat whole foods, stop falling back on all the packaged goodness that man provides so easily
-exercise, I'm thinking about joining a Pilates club
-stop eating by 8:00 pm
-go to bed by 10:30 pm

Wanna join me? We can suffer together or be healthy together. I just don't want to waste anymore of my life being sluggish and wishing I woulda, coulda or shoulda done something besides complain about what I've done to myself.

September Eleventh

I woke to NPR saying something about a small plane crashing into a building. I hit the snooze.

I walked my son into his kindergarten class and heard the women in the office talking about a passenger plane that flew into the World Trade Center and five people had been killed.

I drove to my daughter's school and listened on the radio to something bad that had happened in New York City. A plane. World Trade Center. Another plane. The Pentagon. What was going on?

I walked into my daugter's school and saw teachers huddled around a T.V in the office. They were very quiet. Stunned. Three planes. We watched the building collapse. Who did this? One teacher uttered quietly, "We're going to war."

I was scared. Were we next? My husband works downtown close to the government building. I needed my family to be together in one spot. I went back and took my son out of his class, I wasn't the only parent that decided this was the best thing to do and none of the teachers questioned me.

It was a very sad and scary day. I shielded my children from the news and didn't let them see the cover of Time magazine. I didn't want them to see the bodies falling out of the building, it was just too severe. Those were people dying. It wasn't a movie, it was real.

I gave birth to a baby three months later. Our country was at war and searching for justice. Other babies were being born to mother's grieving for their loved one.

Today those babies are nearing their fifth birthday. Our country is still searching for justice.

God bless all the children born to the families that lost a loved one that day. I hope they are safe, healthy and loved.

It's just as sad today as it was five years ago.

Heard around the House

A- Every time I come down here you have your head stuck in the ceiling.

E- I don't want to be nice to my brother....I just want to eat cookies.

I- (an opera sung by apparently several shampoo bottles that includes quite an impressive vibrato) I dive down. I sit up he-er-er-er-ere. You move over and then I go uh-uh-uh-uh up.

I- Mom, sharky needs a kiss. Don't worry he won't bite you he's too little to bite. He also needs some covers.

A- Who put the dirty knife in the cubboard under the bowls? And the open jar of jelly? And the butter? Oh, never mind I don't want to know.

C to A- Shut off the light.
A to C- How many times do I have to tell you not to tell me?
C to A- (quoting some western movie) How's this gonna work if you don't do what I tell you.
A to C- How bout this? How bout you nip it in the nipper and zip it in the zipper and then stick it in your sticker?
C to A- Ahhh, honey you say the sweetest things. Now, shut off the light.

It's all a big fat blistery lie!

Today as I was sharing how attentive and loving I am to my children for the Larger Families blog, my baby was scaling the kitchen counter to drink the jelly out of the jelly jar and two of my other children were frying their brains on Playstation.

Just thought you all should know.