The older my kids get, the more I realize that there is no such thing as “easy” when it comes to parenting. And while being a mama has proved my biggest and most cherished challenge thus far, I love every “hard” second of it. Thank you God for these two precious (and often challenging) children. Thank you for entrusting me to be their mama. Help me to guide them to your word so that they can better serve you.

It ain’t all pretty. In fact, it’s sometimes downright ugly. There are meltdowns, blowouts (quite frequent with the little man of the house), after school escorts by an unhappy teacher, standoffs, ugly words, and ugly actions by a mama who is a constant “work in progress”. Despite our shortcomings, we are tremendously blessed. All to often, it takes the words “cancer”, “death”, “childhood illness”, “infertility”, “foreclosure”, and “divorce” to make me realize this. Right now, I am praying for three young families that are dealing with hardships. Two of the families have young children and spouses with stage four cancer that has progressed to their major organs. The other family just welcomed twins. Unfortunately, one of the twins has a rare congenial heart defect that will require years of surgery and medical attention. As I lift up these families, I am reminded that meltdowns, unexpected bills, and never ending piles of laundry are nothing when compared to what many have to face. I’m also reminded to not let these things dictate my life. And especially not to let these things dictate my actions. And finally, I’m reminded that each day (good or bad) is a blessing!

Acknowledging God’s blessings has become a morning ritual for me; it sure beats  getting caught up in the drama on facebook or on the various media outlets. This morning, I was reminded of our “Norman Rockwell” weekend. One of those weekends where we spent all of our time together as a family. A weekend of hiking, visiting, eating ice cream, and congregating with others at a new members luncheon at church. Meltdowns and all, it was perfect.

I am also reminded of a recent conversation I had with MR during an afternoon walk. After commenting on the beautiful day, MR looked up the sky and said, “mama, did you know God works in the clouds”? We’ve had a similar conversation in the past, but it usually revolved around “God living in the clouds”. A little baffled, I thought about how she used the word “works” instead of “lives” to describe God. Then it hit me. MR was right, He does work in the clouds. And although He works in ways we may never understand, He works tirelessly everyday for you and me!

May we remember to stop each day to count our blessings…

Note: On Friday (4/29/2011), sweet MR and I watched hour upon hour of the royal wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton. Such a beautiful event and special occasion to share with my little princess. Another noteworthy event took place last night with the news of Bin Laden’s death. This event will hopefully bring closure and peace to all of the families who were affected by the tragic events of 9/11.

We spent much of Saturday with the Lewis family. Aunt Lynn is the equivalent to Santa Claus to MR. She has been so generous to our family and we love every second we get to spend with her! MR also adores her youngest son, Joshua.

Huttie slept in the swing while the big kids played.

On Sunday, G treated us to icecream after the new members luncheon at church.

Next time, we will order a medium for Huttie. He matched us bite for bite.

I come from a long line of female “self fixers”. My mama is the most notorious of all. Unfortunately, we’re the worst kind of self fixers. We love instant gratification and tend to shy away from fixing things the “right way”. Instead, we prefer to fix things the “fast way”, which usually consists of one of the following: a sharpie marker (to touch-up nicks in dark furniture), a roll of duct table (for just about any and everything), a staple gun (usually to reupholster), a hot glue gun (one of my favorite fast fixers), or a lighter (to seal ribbon/fabric edging).

On Saturday, my fast fixing ways got the best of me. G and I were sitting in the dining room (which we never do), admiring the curtains that we had worked so hard to complete a few weeks earlier. As we sat and talked, I noticed a few pesky threads peeking out of the satin ribbon edging on one of the panels. Immediately, my mind went into fast fixin’ mode. Most would go to the scissors to fix the problem, but I grabbed my trusty old lighter; the one I have used a trillion times to seal the edges of unruly ribbon.

After sealing the edges of the ribbon, G and I walked out of the room. Several seconds later, G heard something and saw “flickering lights” coming out of the dining room.  The next several minutes were a mix of a Saturday Night Live skit and a Dateline story on how to prevent house fires. When I entered the room, G had ripped the curtain from the wall and was hugging it in hopes of smothering the flames. His shirt was on fire, the carpet was on fire, the blinds were on fire, and the hardwoods and wall were covered in hot melted fabric. As G took on the curtain (shirtless and burned by this point), I did my best to stomp out the fire on the floor. If you’re not a believer in LL Bean’s Wicked Good slippers, you should be. These bad boys (along with my quick feet from participating in a few of those Latin Heat classes at LA Fitness) had the fire out in no time….

After hosing off the curtain (which continued to burn for at least 15 minutes after the fire), G and I were left to assess the damage. By the grace of God, it was not as bad as it could have been. We were burned; the ten hour/labor intensive curtain was obviously ruined; the dining room rug was destroyed; my wicked good slippers were “good” no more, and there was smoke damage and patches of sheet rock that needed to be repaired due to the melted fabric.

When it was all said and done, my sweet and badly burned hubby put his arm around me and said “let’s go ahead and tackle the panel; we’ll make another one today and have the painters out next week”. His statement reminded me of another thing that mama had taught me, “marry up”. Thank God I listened to my mama and married a man with a sense of humor and a whole lot of patience for my fast fixin’ ways.

One of the saddest casualties of the fire was G’s Franklin’s t shirt; a staple in G’s wardrobe.

Don’t tell G, but I’ve thought about taking a lighter to the bottom of my slippers to burn off the melted fabric from the curtain.

In addition to fighting fires, we’ve also had several days/nights of bad weather

and an unwelcome stomach bug that got MR sent home early from school yesterday (after throwing up on her dress, this was the outfit she came back home in). We’ve had a lot of stomach viruses pass through this house, but this is by far the worst. As of 3 am, she had a 103.2 fever and had projectile vomited on her bed, in the bathroom, and all over her mama. Praying that this nasty bug will have mercy on the Huttie Cat and G, who canceled his business trip to NY to get an earlier appointment with the gastroenterologist.

Also praying that this little guy will slow down. He’s not crawling, but he’s scooting all over the house. He’s loud; real loud, and can now sit up from a crawling/floor position. This is usually how I find him in his crib; sitting up and waiving as I walk into his room. He is also in dire need of haircut, but this ole mama is having a hard time coming to terms with a haircut before his first birthday.

As the dust bunnies collect in every corner of the house and my trips to La Parrilla and Chick-fil-A become more frequent, I have to admit, it’s time for a change. My goal is to lose this last bit of baby weight, 15 stubborn pounds to be exact. I don’t have a time line for when the weight must be off, but I do have a plan and a new gym membership to kick my butt in gear.

Last Monday, I canceled my old gym membership in favor of a brand new gym that offers cardio and strength training classes and a Kid Zone for the little ones. Shortly after joining, I mustered up the courage to participate in a few of the classes. After three days of sweat and sore muscles, I have come to a whole new appreciation for today’s modern gym; more specifically, gym attire and etiquette…

Attire: Most female members have replaced t shirts and frumpy mom shorts for sleek, black workout pants and fancy, brightly colored tank tops or sports bras.

Etiquette: Whooping (in a very high pitch voice) throughout the workout is a compliment to the instructor. The “whoopers” are usually the ones wearing the spandex workout pants and fancy tanks/sports bras. There are two types of  whoopers: the young whooper and the middle aged whooper. The young whooper carries her smart phone to class and checks it during water breaks, while sipping water from her monogrammed aluminum water bottle.  She rarely breaks a sweat, but if she does, she carries a towel in a trendy, brightly colored workout bag. The middle aged whooper is my favorite. She is insanely intense and says things like, “feel the burn” and “work it”. The middle aged whooper owns a pair of Spandex bicycle shorts and wears leather, fingerless workout gloves and Sketchers Shape Ups to get the most of her workout.

Whoppers (both young and old) are especially prevalent in the Latin Heat class (Zumba). These whoopers “whoop” no less than a dozen times, while shaking what their mama gave them to Latin techno beats. They gather on the first two rows, so that they can see themselves in the wall of mirrors.

I’ve committed the next few months to finding my inner whooper. Surely it lies within these last 15 pounds…

While I’m holding on to the last 15 pounds of baby weight, G is losing weight without trying. Over the last two months or so, he has lost 15 to 18 pounds. He’s done blood work (which thankfully turned out normal) and has scheduled an upcoming appointment with a Gastroenterologist. To add insult to injury, he has also had a pretty bad bout of food poisoning this week and is scheduled to leave on Monday for a 5 day business trip in New York. Please pray that he will feel better soon. I miss my hubby’s appetite and our weekly dates to Chic-fil-A and Mexican.

A make you feel good, easy project for just $5…buy a straw wreath at your local craft store, wrap sections of grosgrain ribbon around it, and add seasonal embellishments.

Another easy project… purchase an apple basket from the crafts store; cover it with felt and decorate with fabric, ric rac, and scrapes of ribbon.

carved a pumpkin under the watchful eye of sweet MR,

baked goodies for the cousins,

attended a Halloween party,

dressed up as a fairy princess,

trick or treated for the very first time,

and had lots and lots of fun at the neighborhood fall festival.

Unfortunately, we did most of this without G. He’s on day 7 of the Swine Flu. Send those prayers our way and pray that MR escapes this nasty bug!