In My {not so} Swagger Waggon

That's right! We've made the jump and we're......

Not pregnant.

No, we're getting a mini-van. But not a Swagger Wagon. As much as I would have loved to say "Yeah, I'm pulling up in my Swagger Wagon," those things just got horrible reviews and the consensus is that the marketing is just so good to cover up how bad they are.

We're getting a Town and Country. And it's being shipped in because, evidently, being one the highest rated vans causes it to be completely sold out in our area.

This is a huge blessing from the Lord, I tell you. Chunkaman is so big that he is outgrowing the car seat that his sister (I bought everything gender neutral) fit in until she was nearly a year. He's three months. He has four pounds and an inch to go. Seriously.

The convertible that we've decided on to use for our kids (Auds has one and we love it) is a Radian XTSL. However, the top of the shell is so high that we could only fit it in the middle and risk Auds kicking her brother in the face. Seeing as she's 2 going on 20 with as many mood shifts as a 16 year old, that's not something I could chance. And my husband is so tall that he can barely fit in my car with two kids. Like his knees are at his chin.

So we prayed. And my husband called our bank and called the dealership. Everything else literally just fell into place in one day. No lie. We haven't even had to set foot in the dealership or the bank or waited long amounts of time for someone to help us or haggle with salesmen-- a ginormous plus with two littles. And we're only paying $100 more a month on a brand new mini-van than on an SUV we got when we first got married. So, we're just waiting for it to come in to drive it away. When it does, I'll post a picture. It's shiny and red.

Holla.

Sunshine in a Jar

I forgot to take a picture, but seeing as I'll be making these for the duration of the summer, I'll post some later.

Take a Mason jar.

Take 2.5 small lemons. Quarter them. Squeeze the juice into said Mason jar and go ahead and throw the quarters in there, too.

Take a whole mess of fresh mint of your choosing. Squeeze and rub the leaves between your fingers to bruise them up really well (this releases the flavor) and throw them in.

Take a couple of heaping spoonfuls of organic sugar and sprinkle it on down.

Fill the jar up with some ice cold water.

Put the lid on top and shake what your mama gave you.

Open up and enjoy. :)

I also plan on making some with lime and cherries and whatever else I can come up with. I'd try strawberry lemonade, but Auds is allergic to strawberries. Sad, I know.

Try it. You'll thank me.

This is the Day

It took 10 tries to get this out of her without a finger up the nose! We sing this song 1000000000 times a day and she's just so stinking precious that I had to share. I love that I can do videos now. :)

A Little Joy

To give you a taste of what my daily life is like, to show off how adorable my kids are, to show off my iPhone video capabilities and to make you smile:

Don't hate on the absolute mess my daughter has made in the living room. I promise I pick it up before people actually come over and/or at the end of the day. This is real life people! ;)

What's Going On

Go to here to see what's going on around these parts. Worry not, our house won't get swept away. But this is hitting RIGHT next door... like the next town... like a five minute drive from our house everything is going to be gone. Thousands of people, farmers, small towns, farms, a whole culture and lifestyle are on the brink of destruction as I type. But it's all done so that the larger cities won't be affected as badly.

Please pray for those affected. These hard-headed Cajuns need it.

Happy Mothers' Day!

Happy Mothers' Day, all you moms out there!!

Words cannot describe how truly, truly blessed I am in all aspects of my life and I am so grateful for the opportunity to be a mother. Only since I've had kids have I even had a glimpse of an understanding of how great His love for us is. I would lay down my life for my kids, and that's what He did for me -- robed Himself in flesh and died for my sins. And He loves my kids and me more than I love my kids. It's truly unfathomable. It's amazing. And I'm indebted.

My wonderful hubby (and kids) got me "Black Heels to Tractor Wheels" -- I've read 8 chapters already -- and yummy cupcakes from a local specialty cupcake bakery. I got a chocolate cinnamon, a white chocolate, a red velvet and a chocolate peanut butter cup. :)

Today we had great church and went to the zoo for some family time and renewed our membership.

Lately, I've been reorganizing the house (yet again and I'll post pictures soon), fighting off sicknesses that keep attacking my sweet family, supporting and making plans to work with local businesses who make American-made products (I'll be doing photo shoots and catalog pictures), growing spiritually and chasing around a toddler getting her to the potty without an accident.

One of the ladies I'll be working with is creating clothing from the ground up. She's growing her cotton right now and has a spinning wheel and loom where she'll make her fabric and she's then going to make that into articles of clothing. AMAZING! I'm privileged (and embarrassed since I can't even sew at all) to know her.

We're having Selah week at our church, which means no choir practice, no musician's practice, no ministry meetings or anything like that so I should have a chance to take and post pictures and catch up.

A Little Potty Humor

Things in the little country home have been revolving around the potty lately. Yup, Auds is potty learning. I really didn't want to start her or push her this early. It was simple changing and washing diapers for two. But Auds had different plans.

When she needed to go to the bathroom, she would just take her diaper off and go on the floor - not the intended use of the diaper. The opposite, actually. This even happened at the pediatrician's office when we went for a check up of her ears. I hear "Mommy! I pee-pee'd!" in the waiting room. Thinking she's just telling me, I responded "Okay, baby." Then I turn to see a puddle underneath her and her hand moving her diaper back in place. Oy.

This happened every day from Thursday until Tuesday. Tuesday morning the first thing Auds did when she got up was take off her diaper and pee on the floor. I had enough. If I'm going to be cleaning up messes anyway, I might as well try to show her where it really goes.

So we started on Tuesday with big girl panties and a little potty in the living room. Not a single success the whole day. I was stressed, discouraged, wanting to quit but I didn't take it out on her coz I didn't want to make it a negative experience or scare her away. Well, in prayer at church that night God told my husband that, basically, with the anointing on him and the ministry he will have potty training his daughter will be the least of his troubles. This scared me. And I decided that I might as well make as positive as I could.

Wednesday we had three successes and three accidents on the way to or as we were getting ready to potty. Thursday we had four successes and she found out that the sure fire way to get attention when she's not getting any is to pee while I'm nursing Tony. Today we've had 8 successes so far and two accidents. Woo hoo! She really is doing so well! I'm shocked. Especially after our bad first day.

And thank God for our youth helping out this week. I'm sure she didn't plan on helping me potty learn my toddler but she has been an immense help. She's helped clean up messes and help Auds with her potty routine without me asking her to! That's just amazing!

I really think she'll be done with diapers by the end of the summer. My best friend who was over today predicts within two months. I'm being cautiously optimistic!