My Loving, Chaotic Life

Exhausted. Weak. Blessed.

Kinda of an odd combination of words, eh?

Today was our VBS Decorating Day, and it was beyond amazing. We had so many people come to help out. There is really no other word for it besides amazing.

Exhausted: I walked over 7 miles throughout our church today. Holy moly. My knees were crying by mile 4 when I walked up the stairs one more time to see if there were more fish (thanks Shelley!). They were extremely angry at me at mile 6 when I had to have the cross on the stage and that included bringing the extremely heavy crate to prop the cross up on. Right now, my knees aren't speaking to me.

Weak: I had doubts. How were we going to finish this all? What if only a few people show up? How are we going to get a giant cross from the attic to the stage? All of these things were accomplished plus some.

There was a huge chunk of undecorated wall that needed to be painted. It is done. We had more youth and adults than I could imagine. Everything fell in place just as God had planned it.

Blessed: For me, VBS is more than just a fun theme and a nightly break for some parents. It isn't childcare. It is life changing. Kids come to have fun with their friends and end up part of a forever family. Some people see VBS as another activity. I see it as planting seeds that will forever change a child's life. Because someone cared enough to plan a VBS for me to attend when I was a child, I was saved. I am blessed to be a part of this chaos. So blessed.

To the man I married...
How little did I know
That when I saw you hold our first child
Oh how my heart would grow.



To love you so much fuller
Beyond my wildest dreams.
Then, I witnessed something greater
My love grew even more it seems



I thank God for the blessing
You are in my life.
We are so lucky to call you Daddy,
And how grateful I am to be your wife.



I love you more than the stars and moon in the sky...

When I became a mom, I was unaware at how often each and every choice made would profoundly affect my child...or does it? It seems that there is a debate for almost every parenting aspect out there: breastfed/bottlefed, stay at home mom/work out of the home mom, vax/non-vax, circ/non-circ, etc.

However, these debates tend to do only one thing: bring a mother down. I know there are some very distinct opinions on the topics I listed earlier, but I want to focus on only one in this blog. It pertains to this news article that I read today:

Breast-feeding Linked To High Grades, College

Really? I was intrigued at this article because I've never seen a statistic that has proof that breastfed babies are more likely to have higher grades and go to college than the bottlefed babies.

Then, I took a closer look at the article. I found these quotes very interesting.

Professors Joseph Sabia from the American University and Daniel Rees from the University of Colorado Denver based their research on 126 children from 59 families, comparing siblings who were breast-fed as infants to others who were not.

and...

The study, published in the Journal of Human Capital, found that an additional month of breast-feeding was associated with an increase in high school grade point averages of 0.019 points and an increase in the probability of college attendance of 0.014.

Out of 126 children, the study found that each month of breastfeeding caused an increase of .019 GPA and .014 probability of college attendance.

Um...ok.

I'm sorry, but I feel like this is another one of those "bad mommy" articles. It is an article that headline causes any mother who either chose to not breastfed or couldn't breastfed to question their bottlefed child's ability to receive higher grades and attend college.

However, the actual article doesn't even have enough meat in it to argue an effective point. Out of 126 children, the breastfed child has a hundredth point higher GPA and probable college attendance per additional month of breastfeeding. Seriously.

Mothers have so much going against them in society. There are these ridiculous standards that no mom can truly ever meet. The sad thing is we (as moms) can blame articles as pitting one mommy group against another, but it really comes down to realizing that every mom is doing the best job that she can. She is making the best decision for her child, and we should support those decisions instead of tearing apart the mom.

The wifey will play..and boy did she ever!

So...I had this great idea to buy some paint for the den. The den was still the startling flat white paint that originally came with the house. We have lived here for over 2 years, and it was time to do something to the room. I picked out Behr's Classic Taupe that would just give the room a bit of character.

The room began as the ultimate playroom with my couch from college (yes college) that belonged to my cousins when they went to college 10 years earlier. Yep, it has been around awhile.

The train set that took up half the den - note the curtains: Aaron couldn't STAND those curtains!


You can see the boys' chairs in the background. You can also see my classy 20+ year old couch...very retro.


As the boys got older, they began to play more and more in their bedrooms. I really wanted the den to be a relaxing room. Somewhere to sit and play on the computer, watch movies and just hang out. I wanted there to be enough sitting for our whole family. I had the whole week to get the house back together which was a good thing because once I get started it is hard for me to stop.

The final cost of the den was under $150. Granted, the couch I originally bought for the den is now in the living room. :)








I brought in the end table, couch, chair and ottoman from the living room. I bought a new computer desk (thank you Office Max for your clearance sale) because the old one broke when I was moving it to paint. The faux wood blinds were something we purchased a few months ago. Love those! The lamp behind the chair is new (thanks again Office Max).

The painting on the wall is very special to Aaron. His grandfather painted it a couple of years ago for Aaron. It is a picture of Aaron's family ranch in west Texas. It goes perfectly with the decor of the room. I added the stars and crosses because the chocolate brown paint in the living room made it difficult to see those wall hangings.

Whew! My back and knees are paying for all this, but I am thrilled with how it turned out. Now, I just need to talk Aaron into getting rid of the armoire so we can get a flat screen tv. I think he may be going on another business trip in a few months...

Luke at the end of the day...



Perhaps running errands all morning and swimming all afternoon just tuckered out the poor kiddo? He slept for 2 hours in his daddy's broken recliner. I didn't have the heart to move him because I was afraid he would get upset going back down.

Lots o' fun = ability to sleep anywhere

A glimpse into the vocabulary of Jack:

"Can I have cold, fresh water?"

- Has there been anytime that I have given him hot, slightly dirty water?

"My bad."

- He has said this no less than 10 times in the last two days. This has been the most recent "Jess-ism" that he has picked up.

"Sniff. Sniff"

- This one isn't a word but a sniffling noise he makes constantly. He claims he HAS to do it. I didn't believe him until I went to his Kindergarten class to sub one day and noticed that most of the boys make this same noise. Either there is some strange initiation for the boys going into to 1st grade or boys are just weird. I'm thinking it is the latter.

A glimpse into Luke's vocabulary:

"Jackson"

- The only person aside from an angry parent to call his brother by his full name. We aren't quite sure why he calls him Jackson. My guess is there was a little boy in Luke's preschool class named Jackson, and Luke decided to call Jack by his full name instead.

"Hold you."

- Ah, still one of my favorites. He can say this and pretty much know he will get exactly what he wants.

"I don't like it."

- It isn't original, but he says it about 5 times a day. He will claim this phrase on anything from ketchup to Bolt. He technically doesn't mean he doesn't like it. He doesn't like the fact that it isn't his original idea and will dispute it with his catch phrase.

"You leave alone me."

- Typically, this phrase is spoken when anyone walks by an open bathroom door while Luke is in there. Maybe there will be a day when he realizes that he can just close the door and not have to say this. I'm thinking not.

I am absolutely thrilled with how it turned out! A few weeks ago, Aaron designed the oasis and did all the wood and metal work. Also, he designed and built the water feature and for the area.

This weekend, we finish adding the rock and planting everything. I cleaned off the patio which involved removing all the leftover firewood from winter and scrubbing it down. The overall finish: Wonderful!!!

Before picture from a year ago:



Today:





The boys enjoying their view:



My spot for the next 2 months:



Life it soooooo good!