Suggestions Requested

Behold, our home:


This is an outdated picture, taken before we even moved in. We've changed very little on the outside, really, except that the second-story door is now a window. Anyway, we are hoping to move within the next year and so don't really want to undertake another large project. BUT we want to get rid of the second-story railing on the front porch.

We had considered actually removing the whole thing and replacing the porch, but since we are hoping to move soon we aren't motivated to put that much work into it. We are concentrating on small fixes/improvements around the house. So it needs to be simple, and cheap...

We want to remove the railing, but leave the roof intact. Any suggestions?

Why We'll Never Be On Time

I've pretty much given up on being punctual. I'm usually content with a "little bit late" versus "a lot late". Before Grace was born I could do all right, but ever since the second child entered the picture...it is an uphill battle.

For your enlightenment, our morning:

I woke up a little late, but still well within the "can still make it" time frame. Grace woke up while I was fumbling with my drawers trying to get my clothes out (they never open quiet when you want them to) and so I got her and headed downstairs. I had laid out her clothes the night before, so she was all set to go (see I am attempting to be supermom!). I got her into her clothes, threw some breakfast on her tray, and headed up to get Hannah. She was groggy and disoriented (so moving very slowly) and kept shaking her head as if to clear her mind (never a good sign!) I dug out her clothes with her clinging to my side (see, I'm only half supermom) and managed to drag her down the stairs. Once I got her situated (she opted to eat in her jammies), I rushed off to get myself ready.

Finally I'm ready and the kids are done eating.I clean up Grace and send her off to play. I still have enough time to eat, so I hand Hannah her clothes and go to get myself breakfast (I don't always get this, so I'm happy when I have time!) A few moments later Hannah comes in with her shirt backward so I inform her and she attempts to flip it. Now it is off and inside out, and so I have to fix it for her before she finally gets it on straight. Eric calls and talking to him reminds me that the van is out of gas. There goes being on time! Now I know that I'll be a little late because I wasn't anticipating having to stop for gas, but I'm hoping with some fast-eating I can avoid being "a lot late".

I send Hannah to hunt for her shoes while I finish eating. After I'm done I go off to find Grace and get her shoes on. I know as soon as I locate her that I'm going to have to change her diaper before we leave. Unexpected delay, but we're still okay. I put her shoes on and head off to the changing table only to realize that her poop has leaked through her pants! So now I have to go locate a new pair of pants, take off her shoes, change her diaper, put her new pants on, and then her shoes all over again. I throw her coat on at this point just to save having to find and catch her again later and go to see if Hannah has located her shoes yet.

Nope...of course not. She has found one shoe and when I ask her if she can go "find the other one" she announces that "she already found the other one!" holding her one shoe up high. "No Hannah, the other shoe." She looks at me seriously. "I have the other shoe." I'm losing patience at this point. "Hannah, you need two shoes and you clearly only have one. You need to find the other one." There is no comprehension on that little face, so I head off to find the other shoe myself. I find it and get it put on and then have to battle Hannah to brush her hair. Sometimes I don't know why I bother because her hair is so fine that it looks just as messy five minutes later. But I feel that I ought to at least attempt for her hair to look neat.

Finally, she's all ready (or so I hope!) so I tell Hannah to hurry and go potty before we leave. As I watch her walk away I realize that the front of her pants is in the back...so I have to take her shoes off and switch her pants back around, then put the shoes back on once again.

I tote everyone out to the van and get them buckled in only to realize that all the chaos inside caused me to forget my keys...so I have to rush back in and get them. I'm beginning to realize that I will be more than a "little late". I will definitely be "a lot late", IF I make it at all.

I finally back out of the driveway and look at the fuel gauge to decide if I can make it to church without filling up...It is on empty, the warning light is on, and with my luck we would run out of gas on the highway and have to be towed...and that would be after the walk I would have to take with the kids to get the nearest phone since I don't have a cell. I decide considering the morning I was having, it was safest to stop now and just be "tons late".

The rest of my trip was uneventful. I got to church a mere 15 minutes late. Considering, I thought that was pretty great. Since I had long since given up on being on time I took my time getting the kids out of the van and felt pretty over the whole situation. And then I hear a little voice that says "Mommy, I stepped in a puddle" as we walked across the grass. I knew that there weren't any big puddles and so I wasn't too worried. "Just watch where you are walking, okay, Hannah?" I tell her. And what does she say in reply? "Oh Mommy, just calm down."

And that about sums it up.

Stomach Woes

I had almost dared hope that we had made it. The winter months had gone by and no one in our family had gotten more than a sniffle. It was almost the end of March...surely I could take a breath and relax. My kids weren't going to get sick.

And then unexpectedly on Good Friday Grace woke up vomiting. I did not expect my first parental experience with the stomach flu to be with my one year old! It was actually fairly mild...involving two hours of us sitting in the rocking chair holding her over a bucket rather than allowing her to go back to bed where we'd be returning every ten minutes to change sheets...finally after a couple hours she just started to scream and made it quite obvious that she was ready to go back to bed. And she made it through the rest of the night without much activity.

Saturday came and went and no one was sick, so we dared to believe we had dodged the bullet. And then came Easter Sunday...and not one of us came out unscathed. Unfortunately, since we thought we'd gotten by without catching it, we decided to visit my parents for Easter. So we spread the love...and the germs.

So here we are a week later and I think we're finally over it...it seemed to mysteriously linger in Hannah and show up randomly throughout the rest of the week. But even that has settled now, so fingers crossed...we're over it.

I have to say I'm disappointed. I was anticipating Easter this year. I really wanted to really take time to reflect on Jesus' sacrifice. And it was a little difficult to do with the circumstances going on. I guess I don't need Easter to reflect on that, but it is somehow easier to do on that day.

To make matters worse, during the week that followed it was incredibly hard to get back into doing my Bible study, and just returning to the habits that I had formed. I hope I can get back into the groove this week...

The only bummer about being better is that now I have no excuse for the mess my house is in. I've finally (mostly) caught up with laundry, but not the folding...but my floors need mopped and I have no good excuse...oh wait...I think I feel a fever coming on... ;-)

Contraband Broccoli

Okay...I've come to the conclusion that there is no rationale where kids are concerned. No, this really isn't a recent discovery, but it was reaffirmed for me today...

While I was making lunch, Hannah got a bag of frozen broccoli off the counter and proceeded to eat out of it like a bag of chips. Grace comes over, thinks that looks like fun, and so they are tug-a-warring over a bag of broccoli.

Humoring them, I give Grace a bowl and Hannah fills it. Grace takes one bite and her eyes get wide and she's like "Bleck! I thought this was going to be good!" BUT, she sees that Hannah is eating it and keeps on munching away anyway. Once she empties her bowl I figure she'll just go on her way, but no...she again goes after the bag. Hannah happily refills Grace's bowl, and so on they go...munching away on frozen broccoli.

I'm certainly not going to stop this activity...normally I do not condone eating before dinner...but yeah, seriously? "No, girls, you cannot eat broccoli! Put it away! You'll spoil your appetite!" THAT would be dumb.

And yet I know that if they were sitting at the table and I plunked frozen broccoli on each of their plates they would turn their noses up and refuse to eat it. There is no logic here.

Girls' Night

Tonight I had the treat of getting out of the house minus husband and children! Now normally I am quite a homebody, and even though I enjoy these outings when I get there, I have to talk myself into getting there. I hate sacrificing family time, or even just husband-time to go out and "hang with the girls". It is something I like to do, and even something I recognize as being important to my mental health, but a part of me is always home.

But this week was a long one...I haven't been feeling well all week. I thought for sure I was getting sick, but no...it is just a headache that is hanging on. Everyday at around one I get a headache, it is like clockwork! I've tried different things like drinking more caffeine, completely eliminating caffeine, eating food...nothing really seems to help. Anyway...all of this means that the girls are even more exhausting than usual, my patience runs out quicker, and that goes for patience toward the husband as well. I think it was Monday night when I remembered that this week was my Oasis (Bible Study) dinner and rejoiced!

So it was great to get out and sit down and eat with other adults without worrying about feeding someone else first, cutting up someone else's food, or fussing about whether other people ate. We all sat and enjoyed dinner while secretly chuckling behind our napkins at the thought of what our husband and children were probably eating.

I think what I love most about getting together with other women is discovering how many things are universal. How our kids are doing the same strange/annoying things, how our post-baby bodies are also doing the same strange/annoying things. Lamenting how things have changed since we had children, but rejoicing in the gift our children are. It is great that we can swap stories and advice and uplift each other.

But the absolute BEST part about getting out is coming back home. I loved that Hannah woke up and called for me and then filled me in on all the things that Daddy did (both right and wrong) and caught up on a few snuggles. I love that I have something to say to Eric that is not about the kids and that he, for once, has a few stories to tell me about the cute things the kids did.

It is good to go to bed and for once feel a tad bit energized and not 100% drained. And I miss my kids, so tomorrow should be a good day! :-)

Good-bye Huckabee

I was so disappointed in my country last night. It seems that we can never see something that is good and right and embrace it wholeheartedly--either we allow media to manipulate our thinking, or we are just to blind to see truth.

Huckabee gave me hope for my country, my children, and for myself. He ran a good race, and unfortunately was not able to finish with the win. But he finished well, and that is important, too. He did not participate in dirty politics and was a good, honorable man. I've never been so excited to vote, or so proud of my vote.

I sincerely hope to see him back in 2012. I can't imagine being more excited about another candidate.

As for supporting McCain as Huckabee suggested we do...I do not think I'll be able to do that. My husband I will review and discuss before we make a final decision, but I am fairly certain that we had decided to vote for Huckabee or for no one. Most likely we will still be voting for Huckabee. I don't see that McCain is a whole lot better than whichever Democrat makes it to the end.

Thank you, Governor Huckabee, for giving me hope (for however briefly) and for risking it all to run for our president. I wish you had made it!

Huckabee Rally

We had the fortunate opportunity to attend a rally for Mike Huckabee on Thursday night. Yes, it was Valentine's Day, but neither one of us would have rather done anything else.

We got a few wires crossed as far as the time, so we ended up waiting for close to two hours in line with both of the kids. So they were pretty much out of patience by the time he actually started speaking. Eric ended up walking around behind the crowds with Grace, while Hannah and I actually got to stand in the front row. That was very nice :-)

Seeing him in person was amazing. Part of me was a little afraid that I wouldn't like him as much as I thought I would. But he was honest and sincere, and as usual, witty and engaging. But most of all he echoed all of the things that are important to me. Prior to learning about Huckabee, I had lost a lot of faith in this country. Unfortunately, I still don't have much faith because of the choices many voters have made, but one thing is for sure, I have hope in the America that Mike Huckabee describes.

Yes, it looks nearly impossible. The odds don't appear to be in his favor. And maybe he won't get the nomination. But maybe he will. God has proven, through the Bible, time and time again that things are done in His time and in His unpredictable way. And if Mike Huckabee is meant to lead, then it does not at all surprise me that God would choose to make it an amazing journey.

Many people have said that voting for Huckabee is throwing your vote away. I disagree with that. If McCain is already the presumptive nominee, and there is nothing you can do to stop it, then why vote? Why go out and vote at all? It is already decided without your input. But if you vote for Huckabee you give him a chance at winning, and every state he wins is a state that McCain doesn't win, and then McCain is prevented from getting those delegates, and from getting the majority that he needs to become the nominee. And if he falls short, even by one, then it goes to the convention and is decided there. And there Huckabee stands a chance.

We have already decided, nominee or no, we're not voting for anyone other than Mike Huckabee come November.

That's my political rant of the day :-)

A blurb from the speech, Huckabee on abortion: