Clean Plate Club

If you have been reading my blog for awhile, you will already know this, but my youngest, Peyton is my picky eater.  Always has been.. Probably always will be.  The battle over getting food in his belly has been making a change for the better, however, and the end result is shown by a nursery worker calling him "a solid little guy" in nursery this past Sunday..  This in my world is an actual relief seeing as when he was an infant, I lost sleep over his lack of weight gain. 

As usual I digress...  Peyt's eating has improved to the point where he now wants to be a big boy and feed himself.  He actually gets mad if I try to help him.  Tonight was no different..  I sat right beside him at the table and had to let go and let him do his thing... His thing is pretty much to spread rice from here to the other side of the house.. but whatever!  He spent a good 45 minutes working on getting rice from his little orange fork to his waiting mouth.  A feat that he accomplished... even though he was still hard at work as his bubby and sissy cleared their seconds. 

His method was varied as he began by scooping from the plate, but moved finally to dropping the rice from his plate to the table and then picking up individual pieces of rice.  Either way, he cleared his plate and squealed loudly ( his favorite form of getting what he wants ) to get down from the table.  We had more to clean up after he was done than what he probably actually ate, but he felt successful and he is a proud member of the clean plate club...  Another sign that my lil man is growing up....

My Story

** Please excuse the random thoughts that you are about to read.  I have this funny thing that happens to me when my brain tries to wrap itself around certain thoughts, notions and life truths.  They roll around in my brain, crashing like waves over and over until I finally give in and take pen to paper, or in most cases, finger to keyboard...  At that point it is a form of self preservation.  I write these things down to get them out and stop the pounding of these mental waves that keep crashing.  It is a supreme relief when it is out, and afterwards when it is in written form, sometimes it is even worth reading or even sharing.  If this makes me crazy... well... yeah..**

Life is made up of a collection of everyone's personal stories.  If you really think about it, life is the ultimate story.  You have a beginning, a middle and of course, the end.  This pattern for us humans doesn't every really change much. 

The AMAZING part of this thing called life, is that for the most part, we get to write our own story!  We of course cannot choose our parents, our backgrounds or where we grow up... but after the beginning of every story comes this beautiful part called the Middle.  It really IS beautiful by the way... God gave us these bodies... with brains in them that give us a chance to make choices for ourselves.  If we don't like where our lives started, we can make up our minds to completely change the course of our story.  We make our Middle whatever we want it to be... Amazing.. right??

The middle.. the place in every story where the action, the drama, the horror, the heart break.. well everything really... HAPPENS.  Like in writing any story, you, the author of this particular story get to pick the backdrop, your cast of characters and the general flow of events.  Unlike a work of fiction, you cannot control every event that happens as the story unfolds.  That lack of control is what makes things a bit scary or at the very least, unnerving.  But that's just life..

Now in your story, with the characters picked and your backdrop ready, the Middle really starts moving faster.  You are shuttling down a path, an unknown path that you will only discover as you go along.  You have your choices.. right or left.. or even straight.  You make your choices and follow where the road takes you. Unlike the author of a book, you have NO clue where you will end up.. Maybe it will be a happy place full of sunshine, love and flowers.  Maybe the path you choose sets your life on a story path that is much darker.. filled with regret, heartache and gloom.  But most likely it will be a mix of these two extremes.  Times of unspeakable joy, days or months of complete normalcy and then those times of unhappiness that just cannot be avoided.

IF I still have you reading, I want to apologize for my ramblings.  I told you at the beginning I had to get it out..  I am almost done.. I PROMISE!!

What this all boils down to is just a couple of things.  You choose how to write the story of your own life.  You choose the characters you place in your story.  You choose how to act, and those actions can either bring sweet moments of love and joy, or in some cases, those actions bring regret, loneliness and discord.  The beauty of this is that God gave us the ability to choose for ourselves! 

Our WORDS, our ACTIONS build our character.  That character is what people will forever remember about us.  What they remember about our character can change other people's lives for better or in some cases for worse.  This story we call life is irrevocably powerful one way or another.

Words are strong things.  They can change an opinion, the can build a person up and just as easily tear a person to peices.  The words you use ALWAYS outlive you and the situation you use them in.  The wish and hope for my life is that my story is filled with love.  My actions should show love, and my words should be spoken in love.  Not just any love, however.  The love of my Savior.  My Savior who loved and forgave all.. Those who cursed Him.  Those who abandoned Him.  He forgave me for my wrong choices, he loves me.. sinner that I am.  THAT love is the love I want coming from me.  That love will never falter, never break and always stay true.

If my story ends there, then my life, MY STORY will be one that is worth remembering.

Traditions and Memories

Last night I saw a perfect opportunity to make a sweet memory with my TOO quickly growing daughter.  Yesterday was her last day of school before break and she has been begging me to stay up late just to see how it feels... So after the boys were tucked into bed, I snuck into her room and ushered her to the kitchen.  Every year for the past three years, Maddy and I have made the pumpkin pies for Thanksgiving.  It's a sweet tradition that I hope my daughter will always want to keep. 

This year, we decided to make little mini pies using the mini muffin pan as well as the regular muffin pans.  Maddy was super excited about even the smallest process going into the baking project.  Spreading the flour on the countertop, cutting small disks of pie dough, and shaking the evaporated milk for the pie mixture all took on a fantastic glow for my sweet girl. 

It brought back so many memories from growing up.  My momma always made sure we were in the kitchen if we wanted to be there.  She took on the extra time and work to make sure we were involved in the process.  I can remember the warm feeling of pride as I surveyed a batch of cookies or a cooling cake.  Those feelings are exactly what I hope Maddy will remember one day. 


Maddy got to relive some of my greatest baking disappointments.  She tasted both the flour and pumpkin mixture eagerly as she was curious about the taste of what looked like very yummy things.  Her face wrinkled quickly as she realized that flour is NOTHING like sugar.. and even though pumpkin might smell good, it definitely needs some sugar before tasting...**

After the pies were in the oven we filled the time by reading some of her favorite books, The time sped by so quickly and it was soon time to pull out her little masterpieces.  She of course had to test taste them to make sure they were tasty enough for everyone else to enjoy on Thursday.  She had to try two different pies to get a thorough opinion on the matter.  She decided that the pies from the mini muffin pans were better due to the pie to pie filling ratio achieved.... her exact words were something like, "the bigger ones have too much pumpkin mommy... I like the teeny ones"   What a sweet moment to savor.  Long after the pies are gone, the memories will remain.  God willing, I have many more years of pumpkin pies and sweet Maddy time..

It's that time of year again already!!??

With just a few days until Thanksgiving, and my mind full of kids, family, friends and holiday plans, I cannot believe that it is already been a year!  Maddy attended her first PCS Pow wow last year, and has been eagerly looking forward to this one since November began...  My Mom and Grandma helped me pick out the perfect Indian Princess "outfit" for Maddy at the thrift store, and Maddy impatiently waited for me to finish fringing and beading her shirt.

Waiting in line to sit down for the program, and then enjoying her "Thanksgiving Lunch"

She confided in me yesterday evening that she was one of the Indians that says "shh" in her class song.  I was able to witness the skit this morning and she did a FANTASTIC job "shh ing" 

Maddy and her friend :)

Dear Maddy,

Today was your sixth birthday!!  You have been looking forward to this day for... well since the day you turned 5!  The day finally came and sweetie, you had it planned to the max! 

Today was a school day so the night before you poured over all the dresses in your closet to find the PERFECT dress to wear today, then you picked out your hair accesories and insisted that I straightened your hair.  After I finished you made sure I had gotten every strand and sighed with happiness as you went off to bed. 

This morning you popped out of bed early ( something that almost NEVER happens on a school morning..)  You got dressed and bounced around excitedly waiting for Grandpa to take you to school.  You also doubled checked the Scooby doo cupcakes to make sure they were ready to go for lunchtime.

I headed to school this afternoon to bring your cupcakes and then take you to the nail salon for your manicure.  You picked a bright BRIGHT purple and honestly I wasn't surprised... you have a new favorite color everyday and I love that about you.

You decided we should have Olive Garden for dinner... a decision I definitely agreed with!  When we got home, you enjoyed another cupcake while you finished your reading homework (it is a school night you know) 

Sweet girl, I just want you to know how much I love you and am grateful for the oppurtunity to be your mommy.  You are a gift that I treasure so much.. even though you sometimes stretch my patience.. :)  I have had a blessed six years with you and I am sooo excited to see what the next year brings.  You are a beautiful, vibrant, outgoing little girl and I know that God has amazing plans for you and your life!!  I am so thankful for the chance to be a part of your journey!  Happy Birthday Maddy Lynn!!!

Time Change Sunday

The joy of time change Sunday during fall, is the fact that time falls back and you get an extra hour of sleep... if you don't have kids that is...  I remember "fall backs" before kids were in the picture.  An extra hour to sleep in was a delicious indulgence that I just never quite appreciated until I had it no more. 

My sweet boys share a room.  My Travis has started rising every morning before the sun.. and then proceeds to wake Peyt up so he has company.  I knew it was coming last night.  I even mentioned it to Brian last night before I went to bed... My lil guys were going to be up at an unimagineably early hour this morning... and yep.... 4:30 am came wayyyyyy to early.

There was no going back to sleep... so I took some good advice and decided to embrace the early morning and get some housecleaning done.  After feeding the boys breakfast and getting them settled in with cartoons, I proceeded to do laundry, dishes and even some sweeping... I had my morning coffee... and some Mariah Carey Christmas, and I actually surprised myself by NOT being miserable at 5:30 in the morning! 

One day all of my babies will be teenagers and I won't have the sleeping problem.  Well... I probably will have a sleeping problem... getting them to actually get up and going.. So I am going to finish my cup of coffee, fold some more laundry and listen to Mariah croon about Christmas... this to shall pass!!

The coffee maker clock had not been changed yet.... and YES I know my laundry is out of control!