Kids Can Be So Sweet

I was writing up a tutorial for CraftBlog.com and generally trying to tune out everything. After all, the baby was napping and the other two were playing well together so it was time to get some serious writing in. A little bit later I realized that there was the sweetest music coming from the dining room. As I started to tune into it, I realized that my kids were singing Michael W. Smith's Awesome God. As I listened a little longer, I found out that they were playing church. Complete with worship, reading of the Word (my daughter can read the bible now... she's getting so big), kids craft and first and second service activities... they were playing church. It really fills my heart to hear that my kids enjoy their church experience enough to act it out during play time.

and if you're wondering... yes I finished the tutorial :)

A Huge Thank You!

This weekend I took a trip back down to Santa Maria to visit with friends and bless one very deserving mama with a beautiful baby shower. It was a girl trip and the boys stayed up north to play and have guy time. The trip down was a breeze and that was wonderful, but the trip back was a little harder. I was more tired, after the two cups of coffee (thank Ellen!) I had a full bladder and I wanted to go home. I was also not sure if I was going to make it home on the under half tank of gas I had so I stopped at the 76 gas station in King City with the girls asleep in the back.

Now I really don't like having to stop anywhere at night with my kids and without my hubby but I also didn't want to run out of gas in the middle of nowhere. The two gentlemen closing up the station were amazing and helpful and made the stop a comfortable and safe feeling one and I just wanted to throw out a huge

THANK YOU!!!!
to them. Chances are they'll never see this post but just in case they do :) Little kindnesses from strangers can make all the difference and though they may not have thought that the little things they did helped much, they took what was a stressful and worrisome stop for me and made it enjoyable and comfortable and I appreciated that more than they may ever know.

Yeah, I'm a Geek

I found this quite amusing and wanted to share.

"no flash on iPhone" twitpic.



I think what I love even more is that my four year old can name each of the super heroes and their powers :D

Mom Scouts

So you're a mom and proud of it! You slave over the stove, the vacuum is a permanent extension of your arm and you can't stop yourself from swaying whenever you see a baby. Well, maybe not. The order of Mom can feel like, at times, a lowly one of service without recognition. But I say, let's wear our title with pride and celebrate our little victories (like cooking a dinner that didn't set off the fire alarm -- and yes, PB&J counts).

What are the membership requirements? Members are required to be know by someone, anyone, as "Mom". That's it, you're in. Grab yourself your Mom Badge:




You're free to pick up which ever other badges you have so rightly deserved and "wear" them with pride. Maybe post up a blog about why you earned said badge.

Here's some very simple coding for displaying your badges in a scroll box on the side bar of your blog. Cut and copy and insert as html coding:

<div style="height:250px;width:200px;overflow-y:scroll;backgound:white;"><div align=center>
<p><img src="INSERT MOM SCOUT BADGE HERE">
<p><img src="INSERT KID PIN HERE">
<p><img src="INSERT MERIT BADGE HERE">
<br/><font size="1">by <a href="http://livingwaterboutique.blogspot.com/2010/04/mom-scouts.html">LivingWaterBoutique</a></font> </div></div>

To adjust the size of the box to fit your side bar, play with the "height" and "width" sections (don't delete the "px" part). For each additional kid pin or merit badge, copy and paste this next to the ">" at the end of the coding for that section:

<img src="INSERT IMAGE URL HERE">

To get the image URL, right click on the image, select "Properties", find the "Address (URL)" and copy the entire URL. Paste it into the sections indicated in the coding above. If you have any questions, please comment or shoot me over an e-mail.

Lastly, I will be posting new badges as I finish them and they will all be tagged with "badges" and "mom scouts". If you have an idea for a badge that you would like to see, please leave your suggestion in the comments below, and I'll see what I can do about it.

Kid Pins

Boy Pin
Girl Pin
Angel Child Pin
Kid Pin (cause sometimes the world just doesn't need to know)
The Silver Grandchild Pin
The Platinum Great Grandchild Pin

Merit Badges
Big Love Badge -- no... not that kind. The kind of love that a mother has for her family. Where your heart feels like it might burst from the love you have for the little blessings placed in your life. You know what I'm talking about? Grab a Big Love Badge

Mama Medic Badge -- The role of mom encompasses many facets, not the least of which is medical professional. From diagnosing and treating runny noses and kissing and bandaging boo boos to pinning down babes for shots or late night ER visits for broken limbs -- we all have our "field" stories.

Mama Bear Badge -- "Don't you ever speak to my child that way again!" Have you had those moments of fiercely defending your little cubs from bullies, family, or that mouse that got into your house and is after the cheese he's holding? You know that adrenaline rush. Grab a bear badge.

June Cleaver I, II, & III Badge -- These are for rewarding yourself for keeping up on the laundry, dishes, vacuuming, dusting, mopping, and any other horrid house hold chore that requires your attention. Did you conquer that pile of dishes that been building for the last 3 days... grab a June I. Have you kept that dishes pile down and attacked the laundry with vigor... grab a June II. Have you kept the sink empty of dishes, laundry is neatly folded and in its respective drawers, your floors are clean enough to eat off of and you pearl necklace is always in place... grab a June III

The Talk -- Have you had it? Grab yourself a badge... and maybe a good long bubble bath... good on you!

Mommy Seamstress I, II, & III Badge -- Did you sew that button back on the shirt instead of throwing the whole thing out... grab a Seamstress I. Did you make your kids costume for the school play (I didn't say it had to look good)... grab a Seamstress II. Is your child's wardrobe made up of mostly handmade items fresh off your sewing machine... grab a Seamstress III!

Simple Pleasure #3

My little green santoku knife from Pampered Chef.



May I just say that it is simply amazing! I'm not one to invest in items that I don't think I need but I received this knife as a hostess gift (it was an end of the year prize from my amazing consultant Ellen Hill (http://www.pamperedchef.biz/ellenhill).
This knife is the perfect size for my smaller hands. It's great for tomatoes, carrots, and cucumbers along with the smaller apples our family loves so much! This knife is the first one I reach for in my kitchen when I need to chop up something quickly and efficiently.

Finally Made The Pants

So I have been promising my oldest to make her 12 inch doll Sally a pair of longies since my daughter figured out that I could make longies. So many things have stopped me from doing it, the #1 thing being that I didn't have a pattern to follow and I was sick and tired of guaging and swatching, and thinking really. Well, after 3 years of procraftinating I finally made them. They're not perfect and there are a couple things I would have changed if I wanted to -- which I didn't -- but they are finished and right now, perfect or not, that's all that matters.

I wrote up a pattern with my adjustments and changes and it's posted over on craftblog.com (which I have recently started contributing to -- yay!). You can find the pattern here: http://www.craftblog.com/sallys-longies/

Swallowing Camels: our home's hiccup remedy

My son was wandering around the house one day looking a little distraught so I asked him what was wrong. He looked at me and told me, "I [hiccup] have the [hiccup] hiccups." As he was trying to figure out what to do with himself and his predicament I overheard him tell himself that he must have [hiccup] swallowed a 600 or [hiccup] 300 bump camel. Oh my sweet boy! What an imagination kids have.

Well after that I filled up an 8oz cup with water from the tap (because that's what we drink around these parts) and had him hold his breath for 10 pretty drawn out seconds. Then he exhaled quickly and drank the water (or as much as his little tummy could handle in one sitting like that). This one seem to always work for us.

What are some hiccup remedies that are tried and true for you?

Part I: From a Squiggle to a Square -- The Struggle

Let me be the first to admit to you... I don't have it all together. Ever since I was little I've been more of a clutter collector than an organizer. When it comes to personality types I am much more a squiggle than a square, and it has spilled over into every aspect of my life. My husband on the other hand is much more a square and much less a squiggle. This "minor" difference between the two of us is a pressure point in our relationship. My piles of "organized clutter" stress him out and his need for "a place for everything and everything in it's place" makes me feel confined and boxed in.

My walk with God as brought me to a point in my life that I need to live for my God, not for myself, and be a "helper suitable", as some circles would say, to my husband. I hope that by writing about my journey, and undoubtedly my struggle, I can connect with others who are going through the same thing and be an encouragement to those who feel as alone as me in this walk.


My Place in My Home: A wife's responsibility

I am a wife and with that comes the responsibilities of being a wife. In my home, my responsibility as the wife is to be my husband's help mate. That manefests itself in so many different ways in my relationship but ultimately it means that when my husband, Rob, needs help, I'm supposed to be there to provide it. This doesn't mean I'm walked on or that he has it easy because I do everything for him, it means that we are supposed to function as extentions of each other instead of independantly of one another. We are supposed to be a team and we are supposed to be more efficient that way.



Now, look at those words "supposed to." Yes they are in there for a reason. The reason is, a lot of times I am not fulfilling my end of keeping my home a retreat for my husband. Instead it is like a war zone to him. How could I expect him to function his best as a father and husband when the first thing he comes home to is, in his mind, chaos?


This has caused many an argument between the two of us. I feel like I'm trying as hard as I can and it is never good enough for him. I clean what looks like it needs cleaning (and that is everything) and at the end of the day, things still look cluttered. I get discouraged, burned out, and give up. After things get worse, I try again, get discouraged and burned out again and give up -- again. That's my cycle. It has been for years. And for the longest time I couldn't break loose of it.

Trying to Make This Home

So I've been in San Jose for about two months now and I'm still working on making this place home. At this point in life I have become quite used to moving every 1 to 2 years but what I'm not used to is the change that happens when leaving. My moves, save one prior to this one, have always been local, so changing friends, churches, schools, has never really been an issue. I'm also more of a small town girl and San Jose, with it's population 900 some-odd thousand, is not such a small town. It's busier, it's faster, it's so much more self absorbed. Yes, I said that. I know that there is selfishness everywhere you go, but, for reasons I can't quite describe, everything feels so much more "me" oriented around here (and not the "me" as in people are considerate of "me").

Trying to adapt to the busyness has been a bit overwhelming, and when I get overwhelmed... I shut down. That's my coping mechanism. Kinda sad really. But I have been wanting to get back on here and put my thoughts down on, umm... machine.

Part of adapting and adjusting is getting things back in my life that need to be, and getting things out of my life that need not be. Blogging -- back in. I have something I'll be rolling out in the next month so keep your eyes open. One thing that's leaving is the excessive amounts of toys in the kids' playroom. Yes, I purged the toy closet before we moved but somehow, between there and here, the toys multiplied. So now it's time to divide.

So as I work on making this house a home, I'll be back here too from here on out -- battling my world one blog post at a time I guess.