Yeah, I've feared this

We're on vacation this week, but had to share this anyway.
For all of you parents of two out there, you know you've worried about this when you turned your back for even just a minute...here's photographic proof your worst fear has become someone's reality. At least the parents had the sense of humor to take a photo. :)

Lydia's Latest Language Leaps

Ok, here's my updates on Lydia's new words for my own personal record. James and I have been telling each other that this has to be one of our favorite kid stages we've experienced so far. Each and every day she learns new things and daily we get to see her own little person emerge. We're trying to enjoy all of it, but she's a spirited one so it means new challenges as well.

But, onto the new words:

"Gup", cup

"Baba", bottle

"Paba", paci/pacifier

"Papa", Grandpa Slager (Papa is what Joshua has called him since he started talking. although he said Gigi first, now they're even I suppose. :)

"Ma", more

"Daa-da", Dolly

"Dog-og", Doggy

"Beek-boo-boo", Peek-a-boo

"Bnk", Blankie

"isshh" or "shishy", Fish/fishy

"shdoo", shoe

"Ki-ki", Michael (Joshua's fish)

"Du-dee", Ducky

She also 'roars' when she sees a picture of a lion and tried to make a funny blowing/trumpeting sound (like Daddy always does) when she sees pictures of elephant or stuffed elephants, etc.

Ahhhh! Much Better. :-D

Guess where we went today? If you said "the park" you'd be right. It was the muddiest its ever been when I've conceded to going, but with our very unseasonable, but well-loved 55 degrees and sunshine day came around I just couldn't resist. Both of the kids had a blast and didn't want to leave. (Lydia decided to throw a huge hissy fit to remind me of the fact I'm a very cruel mother for teasing her with a few minutes of swinging fun and then removing her...)
I'm a bit concerned that even when the temperatures inevitably plunge 20-30 degrees for the next six weeks Joshua will still hound me daily to go back. And, I'm wishing that I'd thought of going to the zoo. That would have been a fun trip, but easier to get out of doing regularly.
Anyway, in true February in Wisconsin fashion, I'm pretty sure there's a chance of snow tomorrow, but we're ignoring that fact and trying to soak up as much of the warm sun as possible to tide us through til April when it comes for good.

Kind Words

Those of you who have been following along with this blog for awhile, or who have had discussions with me about grocery shopping with kids will know that I don't always have high opinions of a trip for food while surrounded by large numbers of the elderly. I generally feel like they make a mis-behaving child 100x worse. Most of them appear as though your presence in the store is making their trip a hassle, so no mercy for you/your child, just scorn. Or they give you that look that says: "what is that?!?" while their eyes bore a laser beam of disdain into your child. This is only magnified if your child happens to be having, well, a toddler moment. Few seem to realize that they were themselves young parents (and young children) at one point, and that others showed them grace at that time. (As an aside, I do love to be shopping with a bunch of middle-aged parents, for they seen t0 most often possess a charitable combination of remembrance and compassion, driven by having endured such days in the past while having moved on to other parenting struggles.)

However, every so often a person seems to be divinely sent to a particular place in your life just to speak to you where you're at right then, and today for me that person was an elderly lady in a grocery store. At the end of an already-too-long shopping trip, both kids were acting out. To make matters worse, I'd forgotten a couple of necessary items and had decided that due to scanner malfunctions, it was late enough I needed to get something for "lunch" as well. So, I committed the first parental faux-pas of grocery shopping. The "I don't need a cart because it's only a few items" one--if you've done it you've probably lived to regret it. Anyway, Lydia (my usually calm and well-behaved grocery shopper) wanted to be down and running all over, and was kicking her feet in protest at being held, and during the mayhem Joshua slipped off and began choosing items of interest to him. (If you're thinking candy, pop, junk food, you're on the right track...) When I finally convinced him to come back by me (in none too sweet of a tone) he started to make his way over, but got distracted right in front of an older couple. He was completely blocking their path, and I was sure they were none too pleased by it.

So, I pulled him back to my side and told him "Joshua, you can't just run without looking in a store. Those people are shopping and they're probably in a hurry, but you're standing in front of them and they can't move." I tried to escape with a quick "sorry" and moved on down the aisle. At this point I was truly ready to drop my items, skip the checkout, and leave without the items I'd forgotten, because I was highly stressed and close to tears. It's in those moments that parenting feels truly overwhelming. And that's when it happened.

The poor woman who Joshua had been totally obstructing walked over to where we were now picking out items and in the process totally changed the course of my day. She laid her hand on my shoulder, gave me a smile and said: "We are not in a hurry, you are not in the way. On the contrary, we are just watching, admiring. You (moms) do the hardest, most thankless job every day, and you do it with grace and beauty. Thank you!" I managed a 'thank you' of my own with tears in my eyes and she went on her way. But I was left humbled and grateful. I've never met the woman before, I can't thank her in any other way, so I will share her story. I know many times I am too quick to judge others and I hope I can be more like this woman, giving grace and encouragement at times of need, not just when people seem "deserving." Remember, she'd just witnessed one of my not-so-finest moments of motherhood: raising my voice, feeling out of control, two tantruming/disobeying children, and yet she saw the spirit and not the circumstances. Wow!

I have no idea if this woman knows Jesus, but she became the example of Jesus in the world through her actions today. There is no doubt in my mind that it is this type of behavior we are supposed to illustrate each and every day, speaking and serving the least of these in our daily lives. I have been blessed. May I remember to share this simple, yet meaningful blessing with others as I go throughout my life!

Proverbs 12: 25 'An anxious heart weighs a man down, but a kind word cheers him up.'

Weekly Menus

Ok, so I've been doing this the past few weeks and it's amazing how much time/stress it's saved to just pick dinner entrees ahead of time. There have been several days I just haven't felt like making what was on the menu, and that's fine with me, I like to think I'm spontaneous at times. However, not having to try to think something up starting at 3pm has been well worth it.

Today while browsing recipes, I found a link to this blog carnival. So I figured, why not, I'll participate. Besides, I could win a cool prize off of Etsy. Man, I love Etsy! (On an Etsy note, stay tuned, both of our moms have shoppes on Etsy, so I'm contemplating some type of post/giveaway, etc. that would feature them)

Anyway, without further ado, here's my meal plan:
(Sorry the recipes don't link yet, this week most of my recipes are from Eating Well magazine, so I can't link them. Maybe if I get a lot of time I'll check their site and see if they're online as well. If something looks really good, leave me a comment, or email me and I'll pass the recipe along.)

Monday: Marinated Steak with Balsamic-Red Wine Reduction, cheesy mashed potatoes, asian green beans and Creamy almond cheesecake. (We had a kid-free dinner! yay!)

Tuesday: Chicken Tortilla Soup

Wednesday: Red Pepper and Sweet Potato Pasta

Thursday: Leftover Night

Friday: MuShu Tofu

Saturday: Roasted Chicken Quesadillas

Cold and Warm

It is cold, cold, cold here in Wisconsin, AGAIN! This will probably be the story from now until the end of February. :( No one told us when we moved here that the reason we get less snow that Michigan is because it's honestly too cold to snow for much of the last half of the winter. Anyway, enough about that, we may be crazy, but we wouldn't want to live anywhere besides the upper mid-west, so we're OK with it.

Since it's so cold here, I thought I'd go ahead and post a couple of the videos I mentioned, because they certainly bring a smile to my face and warm me up inside!

The first video is of Lydia blowing kisses to her daddy. She does this often now whenever one of us is going somewhere and I find it absolutely precious. She's finally mastered the kissing sound, so they're getting pretty real. Although kisses that are actually applied to your face are still pretty sloppy!

The second video highlights one of Joshua's b-day presents and if you're between the ages of 25 and 35, I guarantee you'll recognize the song without any intro. Check out Joshua's dance moves...and then believe me when I say, the child has NEVER seen MC Hammer's original video. (Ok, this is no longer true, James showed it to him after seeing him bust out his own moves...but when the video was taken, he'd never even heard the song before the car started playing it.) Both kids LOVE to dance with the car and fights literally break out at our house over who gets to play with it!

Anyway, stay warm and enjoy!

Why I (Usually) Buy Name Brand

As many of you know, I've rarely met a bargain I didn't like. I really enjoy hunting for one and the satisfied feeling I get when I've found one. I also like grocery shopping, for real! This is probably mostly due to the fact that I typically find at least a couple of bargains while I'm there. In fact, since starting to purchase my own groceries, better than five years ago now, I've pretty much stopped making my grocery purchases based on what we're having to eat that week (with the exception of dairy and produce, of course) and instead making a list based on what's truly on sale. I have a fairly well-stocked pantry, so if we're having pasta, I've already purchased that when it was a good deal and I don't have to pay full price.

Significantly improving my ability to shop ahead is my chest freezer. My parents gave us one when we bought this house and if it were to die now, we'd immediately go out and purchase another, it saves us that much!

Anyway, all this to say that I'm going to post about my grocery shopping trip from yesterday, so if that type of thing bores you, it might be time to look away. But, this was probably one of my best trips ever, so I'd like to record it for my own personal memory, and I figured it might interest a couple of you in the process. If not, I'll be back with something more kid-focused later this week. We just got a Flip, so look for videos coming soon!

Without further ado here's a picture of my table after I unloaded my groceries from yesterdays shopping:

What would you guess I paid for all that stuff? (As a note, I realize it looks like I went crazy on the oatmeal and cereal purchases--however, both James and I eat oatmeal for breakfast nearly everyday, I make my own granola, and I have two kids 3 and under, so Cheerios go FAST! Same it true of the string cheese...)

Are you ready...wait for it...here it comes....

$41.53

Yep, that's right, just barely over forty dollars for:

2 gallons of milk

1/2 gallon of orange juice

54 pieces of string cheese

6 boxes multi-grain Cheerios

1 box Honey Kix

1 (1lb.) package tofu

1 (4lb) whole chicken

3 boxes Kraft Mac'n Cheese

4 cans Campbell's tomato soup

5 (8 pack) boxes Quaker instant oatmeal

5 (2 1/2lb) cans Quaker old fashioned oats

3lbs. fresh broccoli

1 (2lb) can of organic whole-milk yogurt

3 (6 pack) boxes of Nature Valley granola bars

And that's why as a general rule I buy name brand. If you're just running into the grocery store to pick up something quickly, it's true that the store brand will almost always be at least a few cents cheaper (sometimes a lot). However, they rarely go on a truly good sale, while if you watch carefully, name brands will usually be on sale at nearly 1/2 price (or more!) at least a few times per year. And, it's nearly impossible to find coupons for store brands, while there are some very valuable coupons out there for the name brands. Combine that with double coupon days (Wednesdays where we live) and you can really find a deal. In fact, I actually made $3 on those 5 boxes of instant oatmeal packets!

Aslo, completly off topic, but because I can't stop laughing about it, according to Joshua a few minutes ago, the past tense of 'make' is not 'made', it is "moke." As in "Look mommy, I just moke a tent out of a blanket and that chair!"