My Heart Is Full

Last week I kept hearing the phrase, "joy in your posterity." This comes from the Bible where Adam and Eve are commanded to multiply and replenish the earth. I was thinking of that phrase, and I kept thinking, "I don't have JOY in my posterity. Where is the JOY?" Don't get me wrong, I absolutely LOVE my girls, but it has seemed lately that the HARD has outweighed the JOY.

But, then today I literally almost started crying as I watched this little angel do this:

And as I took 7-month pictures of this precious gem:

It hit me like a ton of bricks: JOY. PURE JOY. I am so incredibly blessed to have these two special spirits in my life. I love them so incredibly much! And I realized, that for me right now, maybe my joy is not in the overarching themes of sleepless nights, tantrums, and poopy diapers. But, for me, they are in the moments. The little moments every now and then where it's just me and the girls (and sometimes Daddy if he isn't at work!) and the world is perfect. Absolutely perfect.

A Little Inspiration

I hope you all enjoyed my last post- I had a lot of fun writing it! Just thinking about how I would change the world if I could make all the rules...

I did keep it light-hearted- on purpose. I don't know about any of you, but I can't even watch the news anymore because the images of Haiti keep me up at night. It's too depressing, so I needed something a little lighter.

Truly, if I really could have anything I wanted, even sleep would be the last thing on the list. I would want the people of Haiti to have all the food and supplies they need, children of abused parents to get placed in loving, wonderful families, and Cici to be made whole.

Surfing the blogosphere, you can find all sorts of stories- tragic, inspirational, beautiful, horrifying, etc. If you are looking for something a little more inspirational (and tragic) than what I posted the other day, here are some blogs I found that will make you truly grateful for everything you have:

This is a mother who recently lost her 6 week old baby to whooping cough (warning, you will cry): Picks and Kicks (thanks, Steph, for posting this story on your blog!)

This is a little boy who drowned in the bath tub and is now in the PICU (warning, this is long and will make you cry and will change you as a mother): Stakerz Xposed

This is a woman who was in a plane crash and 80% of her body was burned, but she continues fighting (I ended up linking to her whole blog because there is no one thing that strikes out as inspirational, it is her whole life and how she lives it, so it is ALL truly inspirational. Some of you have probably heard of this blog, she was on Oprah and is very popular in the blog world I guess): Nie Nie Dialogues

And, of course, my dear friend Jenny, who many of you already read- what an inspiration she is every day: Colofisch

What all of these stories have in common is that they are all women- just like us- going about their lives in a normal, everyday way. But then something happens- something horrible- and everything changes. I am certain that every one of them would choose to have their "normal" life back rather then be a blogger-hero.

Their stories are real and personal, because we all know that in the blink of an eye it could be us. In reading their stories, I find that I become better- more grateful, more loving, more understanding.

So pull out some Kleenex, take a few moments, and be inspired!

What I Really, Really Want

This morning as I was getting ready I had the customary thoughts: Please, Audra, just give me 2 minutes! Just 2 minutes to put my make-up on! Claire, please sleep for 10 more minutes. Just 10 more minutes!

And then I realized: Those are just fleeting whims. This is what I really, really, really want:

1. When I say, "deal with it"- I want the person I am talking to to actually deal with it.

Example 1:
Ben comes home from work and I say, "I am too tired to make dinner. Deal with it!"

Ben answers: "I completely understand- you work so hard all day long. You deserve a break. And besides, I have a chicken parmesan recipe I have just been dying to make!"

Example 2:
Audra says, "please come play."

I say, "Mommy is tired. Deal with it."

Audra says, "You do seem a little tired. I am sorry to have bothered you. I will go downstairs and play quietly and safely for 90 minutes while you go upstairs and take a nap. Oh, and I love you!"

2. I want a standing ovation every time I clean the toilet

3. I want Ben to come home and say, "I'm not hungry tonight. Let's just skip dinner." (I don't know about you, but my family likes to eat dinner every night- it is so annoying!)

4. I want a stunt double to change all poopy diapers, clean up all vomit, and give me a nice massage from time to time.

5. I want to be able to type an entire blog post with BOTH hands.

6. I want Fruit Roll-ups to actually have FRUIT in them, not just "corn syrup" and "dried corn syrup" (yes, those are both printed on the box).

7. I want Audra's poopy diapers to smell like roses

8. I want to take a nice, long hot bubble bath without the water heater going out or a screaming child interrupting my relaxation

9. I want to understand what is going on with Lost

10. I want to lose 20 pounds without doing anything annoying like exercising or dieting

Is this too much to ask???

I Finally Did It!

After 28 months, I have finally been able to accomplish the inpossible:Put Audra's hair in pigtails! Fascinated by the spray bottle and with the help of new Goody elastic hair bands, Audra let me put her hair up and kept it up until after church when she decided she had enough of being cute.

Because She's So Cute

Here are some pictures of our little cutie. I love that smile!

We started her on solids on her 6 month Birthday back on the 9th. So far, here is a list of what she does NOT like:

Rice Cereal

Squash

Yams

Bananas

Avocados

Mango

Here is a list of what she DOES like:

Hmmm... I am a little worried she may want to nurse until college! It's actually pretty funny- we have some great video of her hating real food! It's just taking her a little longer to get used to eating real food, but that's ok. She'll get it- I'm not worried.

Claire officially started crawling yesterday. I was giving Audra a bath and all of a sudden Claire just decided to start crawling and off she went. I'll get some video to post later.

And, not to leave Audra completely out, here she is doing what she loves best- playing with Claire:

I had to prompt her a little bit in the video, and she's talking really quiet, but she loves to come up to Claire and say, "I'm gonna get you!" and then tickle Claire. Sometimes Claire is amused, other times not so much. (I know my videos are lame, but I think Grandma High likes them)

January Totals

Here's the grocery totals for January:

Total Spent: 339.15

Total Saved: 492.93

Percent Saved: 68%

Goal: To only spend 200.00/month on groceries

I did not so do so well this month. I SAVED a ton by my coupon shopping, but I spent way over my goal of $2oo/month.

BUT, you have to consider my other main goal: to get my one-year supply of food. I feel blessed that I am not completely constrained by a super strict budget, so when there is a big sale I can stock up- which is what I have been doing this month!! In two months I went from my food storage shelf looking like this:

To looking like this:

And, I was still $70.00 UNDER my average of what I used to spend before I started shopping with coupons.

I purposely put all those boxes of cereal in the picture- I now have over 60 boxes of cereal in storage that we are rotating- we go through 3 boxes a week, so I figured I might as well put them in food storage. And, they all cost me right around 1.00/box! Not bad for name brand cereal.

So even though I didn't reach my initial goal of cutting my food bill in half, I am getting closer to my main goal of getting my year's supply of food (and after seeing the horrile situation in Haiti, I am definitely realizing how important that goal is!).

All I Want For Valentine's Is My Two Front Teeth

What a big month this has been for our little Claire! She and I had a mommy/daughter weekend where we flew to Seattle for my brother's wedding. She got to meet her cousin Phinn (where they kept trying to steal each other's binkies:

Her great-grandparents High:And celebrate her Uncle Matt's wedding day:

I will briefly brag that she was UNBELIEVABLE on the airplane both ways! On the flight back, she did not make a single peep the entire flight! It was awesome! On the way there, she just wanted me to hold her high so she could see everybody behind her. My arms got tired, but it was totally worth it because she was such a perfect angel. As people were leaving, they kept saying, "what a great baby! She was wonderful on the flight!" All true- what a trooper!!

The wedding went well- even though the bride was an hour late. Hee, hee- that's something we won't ever let her live down. Come on, you have to laugh at that! Besides that, everything was perfect, and this is truly so exciting for our family! A lot of you know that my brother has had trials with women in the past, so we are ECSTATIC that he found such a perfect match. They are wonderful together, and I could not be happier for my little brother. Welcome to the family, Ilea!

Back to Claire. Look at what she is doing:

Is that not the cutest picture? She has been sitting up like that since about Jan. 14.

Gearing up for her next move:

Woah, look out world! Here she comes:She sticks her bum HIGH into the air, and then pushes herself forward. She doesn't crawl so much as scoot, but man can she get around! Time for baby gates, I guess.

Then, she has gotten her first two teeth! Her bottom 2 middle teeth are in. This has not been a pleasant experience for the poor girl. With Audra you didn't even know she was teething, but poor Claire is having a tough time. At first, I was really bummed because that meant less sleep for me. But, now I am surprisingly grateful for the excuse to hold her in my arms and rock her in the wee hours of the night. I know that seems strange, but there is something so precious about holding your baby- who is in pain- in your arms and soothing them. I tried to take a mental picture of me rocking her to sleep so that in years to come, when I have forgotten how tired I was, I will remember those precious moments. And they really are precious moments- a blessing in disguise.

Of course, nobody wants their baby in pain, however! So I did run to the store and came across these miracle pills:

Hyland's Teething Tablets: They are awesome! They are homeopathic and all natural, and they actually work! Tylenol and Ora-jel did nothing for Claire, but these work amazingly well- I highly recommend them for teething babies! In fact, this is what the back of the box says:

Please note: If your baby has been crying or is very upset, your baby may fall asleep after using this product because the pain has been relieved and your child can rest.

HELLO!!! I was totally sold!