Hungry Girl

Ava must be going through a crazy growth spurt. She keeps waking up at 5:30am and she's starving! And if I don't feed her fast enough after her naps she screams. But right after she eats, she's back to being her sweet, smiling self.

Exhibit A:

Exhibit B:

All Better:

Her favorite food so far is blueberries! Yum! I'm sure she'll take after her brothers and be a fruit addict. Caleb actually teared up last night when I told him we were out of apples. Seriously!

Blogging every day is tougher than I thought

I said I'd do it. So I will! :) It's fun to have a project but I don't really have anything to say right now. I'm tired. How about if I post my To-Do list for this afternoon?

To-Do
1. Watch Chargers win
2. Make Jesse bring all my Christmas decorations into the house
3. Set up the tree
4. Decorate the tree
5. Figure out where other Christmas decorations should go
6. Put them there

I'm not feeling my normal festive Christmas decorating energy today (actually, I'm feeling grumpy for some reason) so I hope it turns out nice....

Are you done decorating? I feel like I'm the last person on earth without their tree up!

Thanksgiving Weekend

This weekend at my parent's has been so fun. Besides the fact that I've gotten about 10 hours of sleep. Since Wednesday. Thanksgiving day was a blessing. Great food, family, laughs.
Memories: Playing pool late at night with my hubby and siblings at Ole's in San Clemente and being asked random questions. (Is your hair real? Are you a mormon?) Wal-Mart at 5:45am. Cra-zy! NOT worth it. Bandmiton with my sons in a sunny backyard. Beach walk with my sister during sunset. Dinner at Ichibiri with everyone. Watching my sons eat shrimp and love it. Watching Ava eat sweet potatoes and bananas and love it. Frozen yogurt during a quick rain shower. Breakfast with my parents. Thanksgiving part 2 at my grandparents. Cousins, Aunts, Uncles, family that loves me. Movie with my mom. Trying to pack and get all the kids to bed so we can leave early tomorrow.
I'm blessed to have so many people around me that love me. And that I love. Hope you had a happy Thanksgiving!
Now it's time to decorate for Christmas. Hope I have the energy tomorrow.....

Give us your dough, it's Christmas YO!

"Give us your dough, it's Christmas YO!" That is the chorus to "Christmas Is" by Run. D.M.C.-a rap song on a Christmas CD I bought one year. Could you imagine if stores played that? Hahaha. We are on a tight budget this Christmas so I can't spend $2,300 on my family of 6 like I wanted too. Seriously. I added it up.  How ridiculous is that? Mind you, that was just on me, Jesse, and our kids-no one else!! I whittled it down to what our family can manage and realized I needed a serious reality check. I needed to start counting my MANY blessings instead of focusing on material things I don't need. It's so easy to forget that most of the world lives on $2 a day! We are SO blessed in this country. I'm SO blessed! Even if I could only spend $50 this Christmas it would be more extravagant than half the world! (Actually, $50 is probably a lot to someone reading this and they wish they even had that to spend comfortably!) Most of us struggle with being too fat because we have too much food, we have to donate bags of stuff every year to make room for all the new clothes and junk we've accumulated since the last time we dropped it all off, and if we can't pay a bill its usually because we were living beyond our means anyway. Most of our kids have too many toys that it overflows and clutters up our house! In fact, many of our problems in the West are due to having too much. (If you want to be really convicted and never worry about buying anything ever again, listen to some of Francis Chan's sermons!)
But I also really want Christmas to be fun and festive. It's Jesus' birthday! I make my kids' birthdays so festive, how much more my Lord's! There is reason to celebrate on this special day! Presents are a fun part of Christmas and I want to make memories for my children and see their little faces light up on Christmas morning. BUT there are many other things to do to make the season exciting, fun and Christ centered. Starting December 1st, I'm going to do a post or two of "traditions" we do in our house to make Christmas exciting and special and not about the gifts but about the amazing GIVER we celebrate.

And please, please, please share some of yours! I'm always looking for new ones!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Be thankful! And give thanks to the One from whom ALL blessings flow!

Revelation 11:17 We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty, who is and who was, for you have taken your great power and begun to reign.

Chronicles 16:8 Oh give thanks to the LORD; call upon his name; make known his deeds among the peoples!

1 Chronicles 16:34 Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever!

Psalm 28:7 The LORD is my strength and my shield; in him my heart trusts, and I am helped; my heart exults, and with my song I give thanks to him.

Psalm 30:4 Sing praises to the LORD, O you his saints, and give thanks to his holy name.

Psalm 44:8 In God we have boasted continually, and we will give thanks to your name forever. Selah

Psalm 86:12 I give thanks to you, O Lord my God, with my whole heart, and I will glorify your name forever.

Psalm 97:12 Rejoice in the LORD, O you righteous, and give thanks to his holy name!

Psalm 100:4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name!

Psalm 138:2 I bow down toward your holy temple and give thanks to your name for your steadfast love and your faithfulness, for you have exalted above all things your name and your word.

Psalm 145:10 All your works shall give thanks to you, O LORD, and all your saints shall bless you!

1 Corinthians 1:4 I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus,

2 Thessalonians 2:13 But we ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers beloved by the Lord, because God chose you as the first fruits to be saved, through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth.

What is your favorite Thanksgiving dish?

I'm a stuffing girl.


And I think stuffing lovers are sharply divided over the type: sweet or savory. Sweet being the stuffing with fruit and nuts, savory being the kind with meat or rice.
I'm strictly a sweet stuffing girl.
Our 1st Thanksgiving we lived in Slovakia and although they don't celebrate it, we wanted to. The other missionary wife and I took a train to Hungary to buy as much food as possible since our little town didn't sell anything we needed except potatoes. We didn’t do much better in Hungary. We had to buy jarred squash baby food to make pumpkin pie with a few other substitutions. And a gypsy women tried to steal my passport. But that's another story...
Anyway, the other missionary family wanted to make meat stuffing. Yuck! So I said I'd make my own. I finally found a recipe and set out to make it. But without any pre-made bread crumbs or instant stuffing packets or pre chopped convenience veggies I had to crumble the bread, bake the tiny cubes, chop up everything, sauté, boil, bake all by hand. Well, that was also the first stuffing I'd ever made. I'd never even made Stove Top. Actually, it was probably the 10th thing I'd cooked in my entire life.
And it was delicious. I kept sneaking bites from the pan while I cooked other dishes all day. When I finally got ready to bring all the food to our friend’s house for our Thanksgiving dinner, the pan of stuffing had dwindled down to almost HALF! So embarrassing. I transferred it to another dish and hoped no one would want seconds!
Like I said, I'm a stuffing girl.

Here's my super simple, sweet stuffing recipe that I’ll be making this year:
(I didn’t put measurements because I don’t know. I just go by how many people I’m making it for I like a lot of stuff in mine)
Buy some stuffing mix
Organic chicken broth. Buy the stuff in the paper carton. It's better than a can or bullion cube.
celery, chopped
sweet onions, chopped,
apples, chopped
pecans, chopped candied pecans, chopped
dried cranberries orange flavored dried cranberries
Butter
(Post edit: Trader Joes' was out of the plain varieties this morning. Sure the substitutions will be delicious though!)
~ Make the stuffing according to the package directions but use broth instead of water and throw in the the fruit and veggies while you boil the broth. Let the broth boil long enough to soften the apples, onions, cranberries and celery. After the stuffing is mixed in and moist, stir in the nuts. Bake for a bit while everything else cooks. Yum!

Stuffing pictue courtesy of Macheesmo (check out that stuffing recipe!)

What is your favorite dish?

Black Friday Shopping

 This website lists the deals from everywhere so budget shoppers like me can plan ahead.

This year I am joining the people of Wal-Mart and heading out early for some amazing deals! I am planning on getting games, toys, DVD's and pj's for the kids and a cool Mongoose BMX bike all for under $150. I hope I don't get trampled! Haha!
Some of the treasures I plan on bringing home:

Are you done with your Christmas shopping?

7

Today my little princess is 7 months old. She brings such a sweet joy to our family!

Two Words

Just got back from New Moon and I have two words...

Team Jacob.

My afternoon will be spent watching....

Have you seen it yet?

Thanksgiving:Friends

"A friend loves at all times"

Proverbs 17:17

I have been so blessed by the friendships with women I've had in the past decade. Friends were so important to me after we moved to WA and had no family living there yet. I wish I could list everyone by name and thank them for their love and kindness shown to me but it would be too long and I'd forget someone. Haha!


My besties: You know who you are! These ladies have been my best friends for years. Actually a decade or more! Wow! From different churches, through all my babies, driven in my 3 cars, gone to all my WA "houses" (I lived in 6 places in the 9 years I was in WA) ups and downs. I've learned so much from you!
C: I'm smiling thinking of the last MH retreat we went to, our love for COACH. our early debates, being on the phone during 9/11, learning all about conspiracy theories and how much our lives have grown and changed and how blessed we've been. Thanks for hosting 2 of my baby showers (and being at all 4! I think the only person who was!), always encouraging me, always loving me, always making me laugh and being exactly ONE year older for the rest of our lives!! ;)
K: It's so comforting to have a friend who has known me from before I was the perfect Mrs. Winkler! Hahaha! So many memories and laughs from when we were just babies without any babies of our own! You emailed me faithfully in Slovakia and called me every day for years in WA. (Well, usually more than once!) And I'll never forget the honor of being there when your last baby was born. (Best epidural story ever!)

My girlies: This is the affectionate name I have for my lady friends who pray for me, encourage me, give me birthday presents, go to the movies with me, have a glass of wine or a cocktail with me, laugh with me, love me. My closest friends! I'm a girl's girl and without these friendships, I'd be so lonely! I'm not sure I can convey how thankful I am for these ladies! So many years of encouragement and fun. I just unpacked all of Ava's 6-12 month clothes and smiled at all the lovely things given to me by you for her and thought of the immense joy her baby shower was. because of you all! And thank you again for the sweet book you made for me at Desert Fire on my last WA girl's night out. I just re-read it and love you all!! (P.S. remember that random guy who took our picture? Yikes! hahaha)

My church friends: Always praying for me, supporting my husband's ministry, loving me and my family, serving, encouraging, blessing. I am close to God because of all of you!

My new friends: I left WA with a heavy heart for the friendships I left behind but you have already become dear to me and I look forward to years of love and laughs!

I am SO blessed with the friendships God has given me and love you all.
Are you thankful for the friends God has given you?

Thanksgiving:Family

"Praise the LORD! Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever!" ~Psalm 106:1

I have so much to be thankful for. Too much to list in a blog. More than I even realize and certainly more than I appreciate, sadly. God is not just good, He is good to me! Always. I wish I lived in a constant state of gratefulness to the Lord for all He has done, all He has given, all He has mercifully withheld. Instead my mind is easily distracted by the things I'm not thankful for, things I want that I don't have or things I have that I don't want. So, especially as Thanksgiving draws near, I want to focus my mind on the many blessings God has given me!


First, I am thankful for me family:
1. I have a husband. Not everyone does. And not all those that do are blessed with a husband like mine. I love him. He loves me but he loves God more. He is a fabulous father, provider, protector, friend. There is no one I trust like him and I know he feels the same about me. He is all I ever wanted in a man and more. He is the greatest blessing in this world to me. Did I mention he was hot, too?
2. My FOUR kids. They are all healthy and always have been. They are strong and cute and love each other. My two boys that have professed faith show signs of repentance and evidences of grace every day. My youngest two are the most loving and happiest babies I've ever known. They fill my days with love, laughter, joy and laundry. These four people have allowed my heart to love with a sacrificial, unconditional love that I didn't know I was capable of. The Bible says children are a reward but I'm not sure what I could possibly do good enough to deserve them!
3. My parents, sisters, brother, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, in-laws. I have always been surrounded by people who love me and support me and encourage me and believe in me. Most of the best memories of my childhood are wrapped up in these people. Even if I don't see them for years, the reunion is always sweet and the love genuine. What a wonderful family I have been given!

What are you thankful for?

Christmas hint...

How cute is this COACH purse?

That's all.
P.S. It's about $800 so...
P.P.S. I'd actually rather have a year pass to Sea World!
P.P.P.S. Or a pink beach cruiser!

Do you have a daughter?

Do you have a daughter? Is she "boy crazy"? What is the deal? I don't remember being boy crazy as a little girl so I don't get it. My sons have had girls try to kiss them, tell them they're cute, ask to marry them and bring them gifts. In elementary school. Isn't this a little young! Yesterday my 1st grader came home with a princess picture a girl drew for him at home and brought to school and then told him she loved him. He's kind of a chick magnet and has had little girls asking to kiss him or marry him since pre-school. But it just seems weird to me! Is it all the princess movies that focus on love and romance? One teacher suggested it was due to Hanna Montana and all the teenager shows parents let preschool aged children watch since she didn't remember little girls acting like this 10 years ago. Do you talk about boys with your daughters? Is this supposed to be cute? Moms of daughters, help me understand!!

In the words of my son when he got the picture handed to him, "What the heck?"
(LOL. Yep, that's what he said to her!)

PLEASE PRAY

This is an excerpt from my friend Hope regarding her son Silas. They have been dealing with his health for months and he has been tested for so many things. There have been ups and downs and so much crazy uncertainty. But through it all she has put all of her hope and trust in God and is an amazing example to me!
Please pray for her son Silas. And be thankful for your own kids' health!!

            "Neuroblastoma is almost exclusively a childhood cancer. It is usually present at birth but not detected for several years until the tumor(s) grow significantly enough to exhibit symptoms. Wikipedia and http://www.nationwidechildrens.org/GD/Templates/Pages/Childrens/HemOnc/HemOncShortContent.aspx?page=2372 both have pretty good descriptions of the disease. There is still a lot we don't know and won't know until after the CT scan. I am expecting to find out tomorrow when the scan will be done, and after that we will have more information.
It is not likely, but we could go in for the scan and find nothing, or we could go in and find some pretty grimm news (and some in between). Either way, we know that God is GOOD. This is not happening outside of His hand. We are so thankful for a God who loves us, he knows what we're going through because He watched His own son suffer to the point of death for our good. He loves Silas more that we do (pretty unfathomable) and is faithfully comforting, loving, and teaching us through this incredibly hard time. My heart is breaking & and the same time trusting the only refuge I've ever found to be secure, is still faithful and good."

my weekend

Friday night:
Portraits at Sears for Lucas (2 year) and Ava (6 month). Best Sears experience ever. I'll go back.
Coffee Bean. Allison was working so she gave me my favorite drink for free-sugar free chai tea. Blended. It tastes like a pumpkin pie shake. I think I got 2 sips because my 3 sons stole it and never gave it back!
Dinner at Claim Jumper. Happy Hour. In the bar. All 6 of us. It was seriously fun. Great deals too! Martini for $6, Zuchini for $3!
Costco. Found the cutest coat for Ava.

Saturday:
All day soccer tournament. First game started at 8:30am. Caleb's team won 1 game. All season. Yep.
Lunch at the field. Carne asada tacos catered by a Mexican meat market. Fabulous.
Jesse was the coach and the team got him: a plaque w/ a team picture. $25 to Applebee's, $25 to Souplantation, $15 to Starbucks. Score.
Got Melissa's baby shower invitation in the mail. So excited for baby girl Grote!
Made dinner. I forgot what it was. Must not have been very good...
Left at 7:30pm for some time out alone.
Tutti Fruitt frozen yogurt. Tutti fruittt, pomegranate, birthday cake. Delicious!
Ross. Found a girl crying in the corner because she lost her mom. She looked about 6 but didn't know her mom's name. She was scared to go to the front so I started yelling "Kristi's mom! Kristi's mom!" No one came so I finally just went to the front and left her alone but thankfully she followed me a few seconds later. They called for "Kristi's mom" and she came to the front. It was a weird experience. I need to teach Lucas my name!
Met up with some girl friends for tea and talking.
Came home at 10pm and the UFC fight night was still going strong. Made some homemade chips for the crew and finally went to bed at 12:45am since Ava woke up and needed a bottle right when I was going to bed at midnight.

Sunday:
Church. Revelation. Pastor Tim is preaching hard! It's a blessing.
Chargers game. They won. Denver lost. That's a big deal and we'll be AFC champs for shizzle!
Watched Jesse and another neighbor dad and about 10 neighborhood kids play football. It was intense.
Wanted to go to MB to walk the boardwalk and watch sunset but the kids were having so much fun playing football so I just stayed and watched. Next week, hopefully!
Made dinner. Invited a neighbor kid over. She's a sweetie.
More football. Some Facebook/emails.
Cleaning my house. Excited for my cousins visit tomorrow. And parent-teacher conferences.
Amazing Race and red wine.
Nightie Night.

Oh, I forgot to say it was sunny and 70 degrees everyday. Because it always is.

Community

On Thursday nights I meet with my missional community. What is that? Simply put, it's a group of people from my church Kaleo that are covenanting to do life together and be the church in a tangible way while serving together in the community so that our unbelieving neighbors will see it and want Jesus too.
Awesome, right? It is. It's a blessing. I'm learning and growing in community. While it's easy to see how this is a fantastic thing, sometimes it's...hard. I'm prideful and selfish and that makes true community difficult. But I want to live my life with others who know me well. And care for me. And love me. And encourage me. And I want to do the same for those people. And together, I want to reach my neighborhood (all of San Diego, really!) for Jesus.
The New Testament speaks of the church as a family. Besides Jesus, nothing is as important to me as my precious husband and four precious kids but I hope that my life will become so intertwined with the fellow believers in my missional community that I consider them as precious to me as my own family.

John 13:35 "By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."

1 Thessalonians 5:11 "Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing"

Hebrews 10:24-25 "And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching."

1 John 1:7 "But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin."

Are you living in community with believers?

I'm a soccer mom

This morning I was watching an re-run of The Practice. When it was on regularly it was my favorite show. It's about lawyers and ethics and morality and black and white and how they make shades of grey sometimes. I loved it. I wanted to be a lawyer for as long as I can remember-probably starting in kindergarten. I had a Great Lawyers of America coloring book (true story) and told everyone I was going to be a lawyer first, than a judge, then a Supreme Court Justice. Watching The Practice reinforced everything I was looking forward to: the courtroom drama, the thrill of victory, the agony of defeat, the intellectual debates, the power suits.

But, I'm not a lawyer. I'm a soccer mom. As I was watching The Practice this morning, I was feeding my 6-month old daughter and getting my toddler ready for my 6-year old son's all day soccer tournament and my husband is the coach of said team. I would be driving to this game with chairs, a cooler of drinks, diapers, sunscreen all loaded up in my Suburban with personalized plates (true story). Yep-I'm a soccer mom.

Have you ever thought something would be really great and then something even greater happens that you didn't expect? (It's like the time we went to see Matt Kearney open up for this band we'd never heard of called The Fray and they rocked the mic!)

Well, that's what happened to me. When I turned 19, God grabbed a hold of my heart and never let go. My desires changed and suddenly a couple years later I was married and a missionary in Slovakia and then a mom. It's been a crazy journey ever since. It's not always fun or exciting and I haven't been in a courtroom since but there are still intellectual debates and lots of drama! I'm a soccer mom so of course there is the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat (a little more agony this season though-keeping it real. Jesse kinda got stuck with some duds). No, my life is not what I ever expected it to be but better than I ever imagined.

Now, if only I could find a reason to wear some of those power suits...

blog etiquette from Jesse

Yesterday I wrote my 1st blog in my can-I-do-one-blog-a-day-for-a-year? set of blogs. It was a long one. As I was writing, Jesse asked me if I was writing a book or a blog. I laughed but he insisted it was too long. He pressed the issue and said, "If you're going to do it, do it right!" Me:"It's fine Jesse." Him:"Break it up into 2 or 3 blogs." Me:"Babe, I can't. I'm writing about my morning. Are you a blog expert?" I asked. "Ummm, yeah! Look it up! No more than 3 paragraphs, Angie!", He says and shuts the door. (He was saying this as he was leaving) Then he opened the door back up, stuck in his head and said, "Wait! Are you writing a blog to complain about your life?!?" By now, I was laughing so hard and finding this whole thing so ironic that told him I was putting this conversation in my blog, too. He didn't laugh so I start to sense that he was getting irritated with me and my blog now and then he just left. I didn't want to make my long blog longer so it had to be it's own post today.
Oh, and just to be clear, he was also totally supportive of me writing. In fact, he was so supportive he took Lucas with him-to the DMV!!! Honestly- I can't think of a worst place to take a 2 year old! But that's how amazing Jesse is. So here's day two on my one year journey. And it's short and sweet just like my hubby wanted because I love him!!

Can I do a year of blogs?

I haven't written in awhile. I want to. But I just...can't. I have the raising boys series hanging over my head and I've been so overwhelmed that it seems ludicrous to be writing to others about how to raise their own kids!
But I want to write more. It would be a good outlet for me and I need an outlet. Well, one that doesn’t cost money anyway.
I just read Julie and Julia and I wanted a project, too. I don’t want to cook everyday for a year though. But what about writing. Everyday. For a year. I like it. I can do it.
So I sit down during my first bit of free time this morning and I'm already exhausted from the past hour! I want to write something big, important, meaningful. I want to change your life and mine. But my mind is blank, I am still in my pj’s. And I have a cup of hot tea I want to drink. I need to clean the house. Take a shower. Do laundry. Check Facebook. I can't write right now! Plus, SpongeBob is blaring in one ear and Lucas is alternating between sucking his thumb on the couch next to me and swan diving onto my head. As I type. My life is funny, I think. You’d laugh at my life, and we all need to laugh right? So…instead of something amazing, I’m going to give you a glimpse into my life. Well, a glimpse into the last 2 hours of my morning...

6am=I wake up. No one is crying! Yes! I can read my Bible. I'd go make tea but I'm scared to wake up any little people so I stay put. Jesse is snoring so loud! I push him a little and he kind of rolls over. Not really peaceful but it works. Proverbs 12 and Mark 10. I'm encouraged. And convicted. “A fool shows his annoyance at once, but a prudent man overlooks an insult.” I read. Hmmm. Uh-oh. "Lord, help me not be a fool!" I pray. I pray some more and then I hear them. All FOUR! At once. Ok, let's go!

6:39am=I weigh myself. Guess those wontons last night were a BAD idea…And that’s all I have to say about that.

6:40am=I’m bottle feeding Ava while Lucas is screaming for "milk too!" as he pushes a plastic bowl on my foot. I think he's trying to put my foot in the bowl but it actually hurts! "STOP IT!!!" I scream and throw the bowl, totally annoyed. He looks at me, wounded and then smiles. Oops, guess I already blew it. I'm thinking about this as I hear something I'm blocking out. Oh, it's Lucas SCREAMING. He's screaming MOM! and it makes Ava cry. This makes the boys laugh, who all this time are playing video games about an inch away from me. At least they're dressed for school. "Knox, get your brother some milk. “Caleb, put lunch pails in backpacks." They grumble about some level they were almost to but obey as I change Lucas’ and Ava's diapers. Lucas doesn't want to wear his pj's anymore so now he's only in his diaper. Whatever.

7:10am= Ava is playing happily in her saucer while I make the boys breakfast. Scrambled eggs and cereal bars from Trader Joe’s since it’s almost time to leave to take the boys to school. “Mom, did you make D.J. a lunch too?” D.J. is a boy in one of my son’s classes who my son noticed rarely has a lunch. It disturbed his little heart so much he couldn’t stop crying over it one night. So, I’ve made him a lunch since then. I’m grateful for my son's sweet heart and start thinking about how I should write the boy blog after all when he begins screeching in his sister’s face, “hi baby, hiiiiii baaaaabeeeee!”. I smack him on the head as he laughs. Maybe not.

7:25am= Ava is crying, Lucas is crying for more food and I’m making sure the big boys are ready for school because they will be late if we don’t leave in 5 minutes. Thankfully, Jesse is still here so I can leave Lucas and Ava with him! “Brush your teeth, brush your hair, get your backpacks and shoes on, get your scooters and helmets, let’s gooooo!” I sound like that annoying mom song. That sucks. And I am vaguely aware of the fact that I’m hungry (I despise eggs so I haven’t eaten) and I would love a hot cup of tea.

7:30am= I go start the car with one son already in the front seat and one comes trailing out of the house. Hair unbrushed with a milk moustache. “Go brush your hair! And brush your teeth! (“I did brush my teeth!”) “Then wash your face!” My other son starts to laugh and I see food all in his teeth. Yuck! “You go brush your teeth too!” “I did!” I flip down the mirror and tell him to look. I think even he’s grossed out as he scurries back in the house. As I’m sitting there my mind flashes to them in junior high and I smile to myself thinking I won’t have to worry about girl nonsense if they keep up this hygiene plan…

7:34am= We’re off! I’m driving them to school in pj’s with flip flops and a sweater over it. No time for make-up or hair brushing for me. Ewww. I’m scary. I’m halfway there (its 2 blocks away) when I notice my son in the back seat is actually just sitting in Lucas’ car seat. No seat belt. I’m not proud of this but I let him stay in it since I decide its safer than moving while I'm driving. He has a helmet on though. Yeah, I’m not sure why either. Talk turns to Christmas presents and I ask if we should get Lucas a scooter or a trike. “Get him lipstick!” one son says, and giggles. I giggle too. It was funny. We pull up to the car line and of course there is someone to open the doors since I look crazy and my car is dirty and my son is sitting in a car seat. Oh well. “Schools not that hard that you have to wear a helmet, is it?” he jokes. I give a courtesy laugh; tell my sons “Bye. I love you!” and drive home to write this blog.

8am=I'm writing and right now Lucas has successfully wedged himself onto my chair, between my butt and the chair back and is screaming "Bob-Bob" excitedly. Oh, and burping. But I finally drank that tea!

See you tomorrow! :)