Thank Him in the Small Things

I was taking Tait (3 1/2) to school today when she saw this in the sky...



She got so excited because "God drew a T in the sky just for me!" So I pulled the car over (you know - gotta make the most of that moment) and took a picture and we clapped and cheered and said, "Thank you God for writing a T in the sky!! YAY GOD!"

Then she said, "Mommy, where is God?" I told her "He's in Heaven and He sees you and loves you all the time." (remember, she's 3 - can't get too deep). Tait said, "No he doesn't. He lives in the TV in the big room at church with Jesus."

Well, she kinda gets it. It's a start, right?

Good Friday

Spencer and I were in San Diego in January, and we had a chance to visit Mount Soledad. Mount Soledad is a Veteran's Memorial that sits on the highest point near San Diego. It has an AMAZING panoramic view of the city, the mountains, and the Pacific Ocean. It's absolutely breathtaking.

While we were there, we took a zillion pictures, including one of a helicopter flying below us (awesomeness). But one picture stood out as my favorite.



This Good Friday is different for me than any other one for several reasons.
1st, my oldest daughter really UNDERSTANDS Easter this year. It is a fun, humbling experience to see Easter through a child's eyes. And for it not to be centered around the Easter Bunny.
2nd, we are joining our new church Easter morning. My oldest will be joining with us. She made her profession of faith and will soon be baptized. PRAISE HIM!! We are so very excited to be where God wants us and are excited about the future at this church!
3rd, there seems to be a new level of tragedy going on in the world right now. Maybe I'm plugged in (Twitter, Facebook, Blogging, etc.) more than I have been in the past so I'm hearing about it more, but the news seems to be jammed with senseless tragedies. Daddy's killing their entire families and then themselves. Plane crashes and car accidents. A President who has absolutely no regard for human life and is creating laws and regulations that make it easier to kill an unborn child. I am also brought to my knees over stories like Sweet April and her Mommy, Stellan, and Audrey's family.

Sweet Jesus, come soon.

And I am reminded of a song that I used t listen to as a child. Here are some of the lyrics that ring SO true today.

When problems try to bury you, make it hard to pray,
It may seem like Friday night, but Sunday's on the way!

Happy Easter, my dear friends. Tragedy happens. The world finds a way to get rid of God. But He sent us His Son. His Son gave up everything for us so that we might be free! THE Sunday is on the way, friends. And I cannot wait!

My "Review Blog"

I was talking with Mary yesterday about the opportunities (or lack thereof, in my case) that people have to review products on their blogs. I've had a couple of requests to review things (one in this post) and would welcome the opportunity to do more. Hint hint. I think they're fun and Mary Emma LOVES the opportunity to tell anyone exactly what she thinks about something. Ahem.

Anyhoo, not too long ago, Corrine, from Turner Publishing Co. in Nashville contacted me about reviewing a new book that was coming out. It is a coffee table book entitled Historic Photos of Birmingham. It immediately caught my attention because 1. I love coffee table books of any kind, 2. I love old pictures, and 3. I live in Birmingham. Score. Score. Score. Of course I said yes and she immediately shipped the book to me.



Y'all. It's a beautiful book. The pictures are mostly from the Turn of the Century - Great Depression era, but some are also from the Civil Rights era through the late 70's. My dad, who was born in Birmingham and spent a lot of his childhood here, absolutely LOVES the book. Many of the pictures are of the coal and steel mills, which is the foundation on which Birmingham is built. There are some awesome aerial pictures, including a picture of The Spirit of St. Louis flying over Birmingham during a visit by Charles Lindbergh, himself. There are pictures of celebrities, including Bob Hope and Doris Day, during a visit to Birmingham. It's fascinating. If you live on Birmingham or are from Birmingham, you will really enjoy this book. It's sitting proudly on my coffee table even as we speak.

The second item I'd like to talk about really hits a sensitive part of my heart. It deals with our children and their knowledge of stranger safety. My biggest fear (and probably yours, too) is for someone to take one of my children. It's a scenario that I don't even want to think about, but one that I feel compelled to teach my children about. But there's the fine line where I want to make them smart and aware, but don't want to scare them. So I researched and found this DVD.



It's called The Safe Side: Stranger Safety. It was developed by John Walsh, host of America's Most Wanted and the parent of an abducted child, and Julie Clark, creator of Baby Einstein. It takes a scary subject and makes it completely kid-friendly. They don't use the word "stranger" because that word generally makes kids think of a mean, scary-looking person. They categorize adults into 3 categories: 1. Safe-Side Adults, 2. Kinda Knows, and 2. Don't Knows. They teach your child what to do in a "Kinda Know" situation as well as a "Don't Know" situation. The mood is kept light-hearted and funny so the kids aren't scared. Safe Side Superchick, the main character, is ultra corny, but the kids LOVE her. My girls giggle and laugh and love watching the DVD. And when I pop-quiz them on "stranger safety," they understand what they've been taught. I cannot recommend this DVD enough. It is absolutely fantastic. If you have kids, this should be a part of your movie collection. If you don't have kids, buy it for someone who does. Consider it your acceptance of the challenge.

That's all for now. Hope to have more stuff to review in the future.

Until then, have a good one.

I'm Usually Better At My Job

See these kids?



They are my world. I'm their mommy. It's my full-time job.

And yesterday, I was pretty terrible at my job.

I didn't feel well (stupid garden, stupid apple, stupid snake, stupid Eve, therefore stupid cramps) and it rained all the live long day. Mary Emma slept with me the night before and I'm pretty sure she was training for a kick boxing event all night long. Camille was in a MOOD yesterday and Tait found a way to target that mood and drive Camille out of her mind. I didn't clean up the kitchen. The kids ate McDonalds for lunch and breakfast for dinner. The day was filled with fussing and time outs. I did manage to squeeze in a Bible Study, but I'm not sure it counted since I was yelling, "Girls, please leave Mommy alone and go play and BE QUIET so I can listen to Beth Moore!" at them. There's just something wrong about yelling during Bible Study.

The Bible Study was being a Wise Mom. Otherwise entitled I've Been a Terrible Mom Today And Need Some JESUS To Make Me a Better One Tomorrow. One thing that hit me square in the face was Beth talking about how fast they grow up.

Y'all, this will be over before I know it. I only get one shot at being a good mom. ONE. And. I. Will. Be. A. Better. One. Today. Than. I. Was. Yesterday.

Will I be perfect? No way. Far from it. But my girls will know that I love them more than anyone on this planet.

Because no one loves them like I do. And I will show them that today. They deserve it.

Well, This Was Definitely A Shock.

I haven't been feeling exactly "up to par" lately. I've been battling a stupid cold (not a bad one, just bad enough to be annoying) and have had very little energy.

But hello, everything, including the sidewalks and bricks, are blooming right now. Spencer sat outside on the back deck the other day and played on the computer for a while and was constantly wiping the pollen off the screen.

I sat on my front porch 2 days ago and watched bees flying around the big holly tree and could actually see the harvested pollen on their legs. Jeff Corwin's got nothing on my front yard.

Anyhoo, no amount of medicine was making me feel better. I tried allergy meds, cold meds, knock-you-out sleep/cold meds...nothing worked.

Then I started wondering....

And yes, it happened.

I'm pregnant with #4.








Oh, and April Fools.

Well, It Was Chinese, But I'm Not Sure It Was Food.

Last night, Spencer, the girls, & I went out to get Spencer's mom (Nam) a birthday present and grab some dinner.

None of this had been planned ahead of time, mainly because that's the way we roll. It was also about 6:45 when we left the house, because I was "detained" at the local salon having my toes beautified. While Spencer wasn't exactly thrilled that my pedicure experience took as long as it did, I'm pretty sure I heard a collective "Amen" from every woman who is reading this blog post. Because, as I've recently learned, a girl's gotta have cute feet even if it pushes dinner back by a few minutes. Or 2 hours in our case.

Both of us were pretty much craving Chinese food, but since we would rather poke needles in our eyes than sit through the Friday night line at PF Changs with 3 hungry, cranky kids and without reservations, we opted to drive around and find a lesser known Chinese establishment.

We found it.

Our 1st clue that dinner was to be...um...questionable was the fact that we quadrupled the number of people in the restaurant just by walking in the door. And for all you peeps who aren't from Birmingham, eating out on Friday/Saturday nights requires skill, plan ahead reservations, waiting an hour in line, and the patience of Job. So you can imagine our surprise (and at this point, pure delight) that we walked straight in and sat down.

I'm pretty sure the word SCORE! was uttered once or eleven times. They sat us directly next to the only other people in the entire place, which was a lady and another lady that I'm pretty sure used to be a dude.

So our darling waitress took our drink orders, brought our drinks (3 sprites for the girls, Diet Coke for Spencer, and Coke for me, because I think Fountain Diet Coke is gross, thus my willingness to suffer through the calories of real Coke) and then left. Apparently, this was a Chinese buffet. We were supposed to know what to do and just do it.

Now, while we were sitting there waiting on the menus-that-didn't-exist, Mary Emma and Spencer got the most puzzled looks on their faces. We were sitting next to a huge fish tank that resembled the fish tank in Finding Nemo AFTER Nemo bravely climbed into the filter and stopped the flow of water. I felt a strong need to go apologize to the fish that inhabited it. But Spencer and Mary Emma were more puzzled at the 8 pieces of broccoli that were floating in the fish tank than the condition of the water in the fish tank. Broccoli. Yummy.

I sucked it up and headed to the buffet anyway. The only thing that Mary Emma wanted was Egg Drop soup, filled with about 3000 of those crunchy noodles, but I made her get some Sweet-n-Sour chicken minus the Sweet-n-Sour sauce (aka, chicken nuggets) to go along with her soup. I fixed myself a plate of various Chinese dishes, mostly chicken, but I also decided to BRANCH OUT and get some Mongolian Beef. I was also fixing Tait's plate. I gave her some chicken nuggets & french fries, and then attempted to give her some white rice. (Please don't lecture me on the lack of nutrition of her dinner, I was totally working with what I had.) The rice was one huge, hard as a brick, lump. So Tait got chicken nuggets and french fries. Spencer now headed to the buffet to fix his and Camille's plate. He also came back with various types of food on his plate, and had chicken nuggets, french fries, and Honey Chicken for her. Her Asian palate is so much more advanced than Tait's.

Spencer and I both concluded that all of the buffet food was leftover from lunch, a mere 8 hours earlier, and was a little, um, overcooked by now. But we remained strong.

While we were eating, a few more people dwindled in and helped themselves to the buffet. We were most amused by the dude who walked up to the buffet, grabbed a plate, stuck an eggroll in his mouth, and proceeded to walk around the buffet fixing his plate while the eggroll stuck out of his mouth like a ginormous cigar. That guy had skillz. I ate a little of my dinner, but decided to call it a night when my Mongolian Beef tasted like fish. Mary Emma really wanted a Chinese Donut, but we told her she had to eat all of her chicken before she could have one. She responded with, "But Mommy, it's chewy." So we promptly sent her to the buffet to get a Chinese donut, without having to finish her chicken. I'm pretty sure they disguised a hockey puck with some batter and sugar, though, because the poor kid COULD NOT BITE THROUGH IT.

Oh, and while we were at the buffet, we noticed that part of it had sushi. Raw fish that was sitting under heat lamps. We both decided to pass on that one. But I was curious, because I hadn't seen a sushi bar. I found it on the way out. Instead of being full of properly refrigerated fish, it was full of boxes of cups, straws, to-go boxes, and fortune cookies. Wonder where they made the sushi?

So, if you live in Birmingham or are just passing through, I can definitely recommend some fantastic Chinese restaurants.

This one, however, isn't one of them.

Grab The Button - Let Others Take The Challenge!

First, I totally created a button.

I KNOW.

I'm so impressed with myself that I might go buy myself a present.

Now, grab the code to the right and put the button on your blog. Let's keep up the challenge! Imagine what this world will be like if more people do something nice for others and give HIM the credit, rather than taking the credit themselves.

Awesome to think about, huh?