A Labor of Love - Part 2

In case I haven't mentioned it before, being a mom is hard!  And a LOT harder than I ever imagined it would be.  I always wanted to be a mom.  Whenever my employers asked "where do you want to be/ see yourself in 5 years?"  I always told them that I wanted to be a stay-at-home mom . . . but seeing that I wasn't even married, that was a long way off.  I managed people, I ran multiple departments, I could multi-task and thought I was pretty good at what I did.  But none of that prepared me for being a mom.

I quickly learned that I could NOT function on a lack of sleep, am NOT nice when I'm tired, am NOT a patient person, and I yell TOO much.

Yesterday was UGLY - no patience, lots of yelling, frustration at every turn.  And by bedtime, all 3 girls (yes, me included) were in tears.  Poor Ken, when he came in and found us all crying, I'm sure he wondered how he could get back outside without being noticed.

But today, today was a new day.  I knew I didn't want to repeat yesterday or any of the other days that have recently been like that.  Determined to not repeat yesterday, I prayed A LOT for forgiveness, for patience, for love, for kindness.  And my prayers were answered.

And then I got the best compliment from one of our neighbors.  Every time I see her, she tells me "your daughters are beautiful".  But today she says to me "your daughters are beautiful; they're a reflection of a good mom".  Wow - that made my day.  She thinks my daughters are beautiful, not because of an outward appearance, but because she sees something in them that she attributes to me.  I'm not sure I can take all the credit for that one, but today it made my labor of love worth just a little bit more.

A Labor of Love

Today was the day.  I prepared physically and mentally . . . and this was the end result.

The bread isn't perfect looking (I haven't made bread for about 6 years), but it tastes good.  Amelia enthusiastically told me that she likes my bread better than the bread with "sprinkles", ie. Sara Lee 12-grain w/ oats on top.  I'm glad she liked it; I was afraid that after all of my effort, only Ken would like it.

Out of curiosity, I did some math and figured that each loaf costs approximately $.96.  Not too bad, since the Sara Lee bread we buy costs about $2.50/loaf.  But then I realized I hadn't figured labor into my cost . . . and that's when I decided that making bread is a labor of love . . . and there's no price for that.

St Patrick's Day and Other Ramblings

• Yesterday while eating our lunch, Sophia got a little bit too wiggly . . . and did a head-dive right off the counter-height chair onto the floor.  She got a huge goose-egg, but after some ice and Ibuprofen, she seemed to be okay.  Maybe she was trying to get a bit of green on to celebrate the day.
• We traditionally have corned beef for St. Patrick's Day, but after last year's dinner, Ken and I decided that corned beef just wasn't as good as we remembered.  Then I read an article that said the Irish never ate corned beef . . . so I pulled out the Irish cookbook a friend had given us and chose a new St. Patrick's Day dinner - Dublin Coddle . . . sausage, bacon, potato, and onion stew.  It was yummy and even better with the Soda Bread I made to go with it.  We both thought the Dublin Coddle was better than corned beef, but maybe we'll try a different authentic meal next year.

(The picture doesn't look as good as it tasted - you'll just have to trust me.)

• A few weeks ago, Ken told me that he'd pay me $5 if I'd start making bread.  A few days ago, Ken told me he'd been saving up his "fun" money and was waiting to give it to me in exchange for homemade bread.  I guess I better start making bread ;)  I wonder if the girls will even like it . . . they weren't as excited about the soda bread as Ken and I were.
• I can't wait for warmer weather.  We've had a few days of sunshine and warmth to tease us.  I've also been noticing that the girls are growing out of their winter clothing - sleeves a bit too short, pants too short, etc.  I think we'll all be ready for the warm weather.
• Today we made Mother Goose popcorn . . . or as the girls call it, sticky popcorn.  And of course, Sophia doesn't eat sticky "anything" without a spoon or fork.  Today Amelia wanted to eat the popcorn with chopsticks, so of course, so did Sophia.
  

They didn't do too bad with the chopsticks either . . . and because it took them longer to eat the popcorn, they actually ate less ;)

Sidewalk Chalk

Amelia got sidewalk chalk for her birthday, and she finally reminded me to play with it when it wasn't 1) raining 2) bedtime or 3) on the way out the door.

Besides the normal doodling, I drew a hopscotch board for the girls.  They thought it was pretty fun.  Some day I'm going to figure out the "real" rules to hopscotch.

Here is Amelia (and Sophia) in action.

Now it's Sophia's turn.

I drew a big circle for Amelia, and she drew this cute face . . . but I think her face is cuter.

This is Sophia's smiling face.  It's a little hard to see, since she used yellow, but she actually got 2 eyes, 1 nose, and a mouth (although I'm pretty sure the mouth is running vertically).  She didn't want to sit and smile for me though, so you miss out on another smiley face.

Amelia's Rainbow Party

Months ago, Amelia told me that she wanted a "rainbow" cake for her birthday . . . and I decided to use that as a theme for her birthday party . . . not because a birthday has to have a theme, but because a theme helps the non-creative side of me figure out how to decorate, plan activities, etc.  Here is our fruit rainbow for our snack at the party . . .

and the girls "helping" me make it the day before, ie. sticking grapes on their fingers and eating whatever I was willing to put in their bowls.

We also had rainbow fishy crackers . . . because my girls LOVE fishy crackers and I only buy them for road-trips or other special occasions.

And rainbow colored sticky* popcorn which was the treasure at the end of a treasure hunt.
* The popcorn isn't actually sticky, but that's what my girls call it.  My mom always used to call it Mother Goose popcorn.  But no matter what you call it, it's sweet and we all love it.

We just had a few of Amelia's friends over for the party, plus one of the girl's sisters.  We hadn't planned on Laurel, but she ended up being a big help.  Here's the kids making rainbows, out of colored gelatin.  I got the idea here but the recipe here.  The girls loved helping me make the colored gelatin earlier in the week, but they definitely had more fun using it to make their rainbows at the party.

 The finished rainbows with each girls underneath theirs.

 No group picture is complete without silly faces.

And last, but not least, the "rainbow" cake.  One of my friends, Lindsay, made the cake for me, as part of a Relief Society service swap - definitely got the better end of that deal.  Amelia loved the cake, despite the fact that it had green on it (I'm not sure why, but she has been very anti-green lately).  But like most cakes, she only ate the frosting, which was delicious, by the way.  I'm just thinking that with my allergies, and the girl's interest in eating only frosting, I think we'll do away with regular cakes from now on and just stick to ice cream cakes or pie or some other non-cake birthday treat.

All in all, a successful birthday party.  Good friends, lots of laughs and silliness, few tears, and no spills or messes! 

Happy Birthday Amelia

Amelia has been looking forward to her birthday since before Christmas and today was finally the day . . . Amelia turned 4!

• Amelia loves to cook; she is especially great at scrambling eggs and making cookies. 
• She is a sensitive girl with an active imagination.  She hates scary/tense movies (and all she's ever seen is G-rated and/or PBS videos).
• Containers of any size/shape, cool pens, and pretty ribbons are a few of her favorite things.
• Amelia is always dance, dance, dancing.  We bought her a pair of ballet shoes for her birthday and maybe she'll be brave enough to try them out at a dance class.
• Things out of place in a store drive her crazy and she puts it where it belongs, if possible.
• She gives great hugs - to Grandparents, to her friends, to Sophia, to teachers and neighbors, and to me and Daddy.
• When I asked Amelia what she wanted for her birthday dinner, she told me she wanted to go to a restaurant like we did for my birthday.  So, here we are at the Tofu Hut (my choice, not hers - although she did want to go somewhere that had noodles), happily eating pot stickers with our chopsticks.  And after the pot stickers, she ate every bit of her noodles and tofu - yum!

• Amelia loves taking pictures . . . of anything and everything.  Ken and I laugh about the perspective/angle that a 4-yr old has, but some of her pictures actually look pretty good.

After dinner, the waitress brought the girls these little "jello shooters" . . . I don't know what you call them . . . jello in a tiny cup . . . but the girls thought they were the best treat.

We spent the day celebrating - pancakes for breakfast, ice cream after lunch, presents after dinner, and rice krispie treats for a treat before bed.  And stay tuned for a small birthday party on Saturday with a few of her friends.

Happy Birthday Amelia!  We love you!

Random Sunday

The other day the girls were sitting so cute together in the window frame, so I took their picture.

Then Amelia wanted to take a picture of Sophia and I.

And of course, Sophia wanted a turn too.  Not too bad for a 2-year old, huh?

Amelia has this weird habit of holding onto her hair, but the other day, she made me laugh when she tucked her braids from behind up over her ears.  The picture doesn't show it well, but the braids are both sticky straight out from her ears.  Silly girl.

Amelia LOVES taking pictures with our camera and took this one of a sunset through our sliding glass door.  I think it's kind of cool the way the chandelier light is reflecting in the window . . . kind of looks like more clouds.

And saving the best news for last.  This is Sophia, sitting in her favorite spot, over the heater vent, eating her treat.  And why did she get a treat?  Because she is potty training and having much success!  YEAH!!!  Go Sophia!