Before I was a mom...

For all you mama's out there--I got this via email and thought I would share + pictures. :) Enjoy!

Before I was a Mom,

author unknown

Before I was a Mom,

I never tripped over toys

or forgot words to a lullaby.

I didn't worry whether or not

my plants were poisonous.

I never thought about immunizations.

Before I was a Mom,
I had never been puked on.

Pooped on.

Chewed on.

Peed on.

I had complete control of my mind

and my thoughts.

I slept all night.

Before I was a Mom,

I never held down a screaming child

so doctors could do tests.

Or give shots.

I never looked into teary eyes and cried myself.

I never got gloriously happy over a simple grin.

I never sat up late hours at night watching a baby sleep.

Before I was a Mom,

I never held a sleeping baby

just because I didn 't want to put her down.

I never felt my heart break into a million pieces

when I couldn't stop the hurt.

I never knew that something so small could affect my life so much.

I never knew that I could love someone so much.

Before I was a Mom,

I didn't know the feeling

of having my heart outside my body.

I didn't know how special it could feel

to feed a hungry baby.

I didn't know that bond between a mother and her child.

I didn't know that something so small

could make me feel so important and happy.

Before I was a Mom,

I had never gotten up in the middle of the night to make sure all was okay.

I had never known the warmth,

the joy,

the love,

the heartache,

the wonderment,
or the satisfaction of being a Mom.
I didn't know I was capable of feeling so much, before I was a Mom ...

May you always be overwhelmed by the Grace of God rather than by the cares of life.

From here, to there, and back.

Oh where, oh where have our last three weeks gone...?

This would sum up my life throughout March pretty well. We're halfway (or more) through the muddy season which makes the primary laundry person in the house thankful! Before we know it 60 degree days will be a regular occurance rather than the occasional treat.

Since my last post we've been surrounded by a bunch of family and it has been really nice. It's so out of the ordinary for us to have family in our daily lives at all that being in the presence of at least one of them for all of the past two weeks was definitely a treat, but it's nice to be back to just the four of us too.

James' brother Justin and his wife Laura were able to join us for an extended weekend and we enjoyed their visit a lot. I don't know that we've ever jam-packed a weekend so full since having kids, but the weather cooperated and the kiddos had so much they wanted to show Uncle Justin and Aunt Laura that we managed to watch a parade, visit the park (multiple times), go to the library, the firestation, out for ice cream and fit in our first visit to the zoo for the year all in just over 48 hours!

They headed home Tuesday morning and later that same afternoon my brother Matt arrived to spend the remainder of the week. We repeated park visits and exploring Madison, although the weather turned colder and didn't allow for the same outdoorsy types of activities the previous weekend had. We had a fun time and Matt should receive many extra uncle points for spending his spring break in a house with two toddlers and no guest bedroom. I'm sure the mornings were early for his liking, but he didn't complain and the kids absolutely loved having him here! :-)

The next week brought Matt's return to campus to finish his semester and James had a business trip to Chicago, so the kids and I headed to my parents house to enjoy some quality time with Marmee, Gramps, and Uncle Stephen. Again, we really enjoyed the time, and the kids kept the family members on their toes, especially given Lydia's love affair with all things related to Flit, my parents "tiitee!" They also found some rollers and were instantly transformed into stylists--in addition to their insisting rollers be put in their own hair they convinced my brother Stephen to model for them--what a good sport! We also celebrated an early "Easter" so the kids got their baskets and subsequently ate almost everthing edible while they were there, so at least we're spreading the treats out this year...:-D

Anyway, it's back to life as usual (mostly) here over the next few weeks. Now we await the permanent arrival of spring, and Easter of course. Joshua's already counting down the days and reminding me every time we see a display in the store or elsewhere--"Look, eggs, Mommy. Easter is coming soon!" Now I just have to figure out how to appropriately share with a three year old that Easter is about much, much more than eggs and the Easter bunny...I see several viewings of an Easter Carol in our near future.

Of Writers Block and Narcissism

Sorry for the long blogging hiatus folks. Partly it's been due to either having family in town or being out of town with family for over two weeks, but mostly I just haven't been in the mood to write. I want to post, but I don't feel I have the words to put it down the way I'd like to. So, I'll share with you all the lastest 20-questions-like list going around which this time (maybe always) appears to be quite self-focused in nature. Maybe you'll learn something new, maybe it will just trigger a release to my writers block. Either way, here goes. :)

Also, I thought it would be fun to include pictures from our early years together, or even from back in high school when we were mere acquaintences--but I realized that all of our photos prior to moving to Wisconsin are film photos and I don't have digital copies. Maybe, I'll get on scanning them sometime soon, but don't hold your breath...

20+ Questions, James and Liz Edition

What are your middle names? Wesley and Elaine
How long have you been together? Let's see, 6 years this summer, married for almost 5.
How long did you know each other before you started dating? A long time--we met during my freshman year in high school and started dating following my sophomore year of college--so 5 1/2 years???
Who asked who out? James asked me out, but we both knew there was interest there before that.
How old are each of you? We're both 26.
Whose siblings do/did you see the most? It's pretty even, we live a long ways from all of them, so none as often as we'd like. We probably see my youngest brother and his oldest brother the most, and my oldest and his youngest brother the least.
Do you have any children together? We have the two most beatiful children in the world (me biased?, no!) Joshua is 3 and Lydia is 14 months.
What about pets? Joshua has a red betta named Michael, does that count? He's also allergic to cats AND dogs, so probably won't have any in the near future either.
Did you go to the same school? High school no, college yes.
Are you from the same home town? Nope, I'm from Hastings and he's from Spring Arbor
Who is the smartest? That's a difficult question, the true answer is it's pretty even, it just depends on the subject for who has the edge.
Who is the most sensitive? In the traditional sense, me. He's very sensitive in other ways, especially when it comes to the kids and me, which is super sweet to watch.
Where do you eat out most as a couple? Eat Out? We don't do much of it, really. We like to try something new when we do, so nothing really becomes the go-to place.
Where is the furthest you two have traveled together as a couple? As a couple, or together? We backpacked in Europe with my brother when we just friends, so probably Bratislava, Slovakia or Oslo, Norway. As a couple that would have to be Florida or New Orleans or New Hampshire/Maine/Quebec (for our honeymoon). I'm not sure which is actually farthest and I'm trying to be less OCD, so I won't look it up either. :)
Who has more crazy exes? Him, but neither has that many and they're not that crazy...so really the question doesn't apply.
Who has the worst temper? I think that would be me, at least it's much more easy to set me off. James doesn't really get upset in a traditional way.
Who does the cooking? I'm executive chef, but he makes a great sous chef!
Who is more social? Me, though neither of us is super-outgoing.
Who is the neat-freak? I wouldn't classify either of us as particular neat freaks. We both have areas that we like a lot of order and organization, but they're pretty different from each other's which has been good, more of it stays neat that way.
Who is the more stubborn? I probably show it more often and more clearly, but we're both pretty stubborn
Who hogs the bed? I hog the bed and he hogs the blankets.
Who wakes up earlier? We usually wake up about the same time, but I've been so lucky since James usually gets up with the kids and checks his work mail while I catch a few more zzzz's or at least rest time!
Where was your first date? Ummm...I'm not quite sure. We went to a movie together (just the two of us) while in Prague, so maybe that--but we didn't date for a few months after that. Cedar point, maybe?
Who has the bigger family? I have 3 brothers and he has 2, but his extended family is larger.
Do you get flowers often? Not often, but on occasion and usually "just because" so I'm happy with that. :)
How do you spend the holidays? Living at a distance from extended families we usually make it back for one or two major holidays and split the time between our families and many of the smaller holidays we spend as just the four of us or with local friends. We'll see how it goes as the kids get older.
Who is more jealous? That would be me, he's really patient and content and not at all prone to jealousy of any kind! If we're specifically talking relationally, neither of us is highly jealous, we don't really have any reason to be.
What is your song? We don't really have a song. We had "I will be Here" at our wedding, but nothing really comes to mind other than that.
How long did it take to get serious? That's a hard one. We'd known each other for over 5 years and been good friends for more than 2, so I think when we decided to date at all it was from a pretty serious starting point. To admit it to each other, probably about 4 months and we were engaged within two months of that!
Who does/did the laundry? I mostly do. He's always happy to help and good about moving loads or helping to put it away if he sees it though. :)
Who’s better with the computer? James, hands down. I'm married to a nerd, remember!
Who drives when you are together? James, unless there's a particular reason for me to be driving, or I pick him up, or he's really tired. He just likes to drive alot and I'm rather ambivalent about it.

My Very Hungry Caterpillar

I'm assuming almost all of you reading have also read Eric Carle's The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Many of you have probably read it more times than you care to count. As a teenager it was one of my favorite books to read while babysitting, now that I'm a mom I don't really have to read it per se, just turn the pages at the appropriate spots, for it is all but committed to memory!

Anyway, over the past few weeks Joshua has acquired a voracious appetite that seemingly can't be satisfied. He is barely finished eating when he wants to eat again! I'm assuming this is just a growth spurt, but many days he is eating more than I am--I expected this when we approached the teenage years, but at three? I'm running out of idea for what to feed him that is both nutritious and varied!

So, without further ado, I present to you yesterday's food consumed list, very hungry caterpillar style.

On Wednesday My very hungry Caterpillar ate through:

-One glass of chocolate milk

-One gummy vitamin

-One banana

-One bowl of cereal

-One piece of string cheese

-One serving of whole grain crackers

-One serving cheese cubes

-Three fish sticks (I think, these might have been Tuesday...)

-One glass of (secretly) watered down berry juice

-One handful of almonds

-One apple

-One graham cracker

-One bowl of chicken tortilla soup

-Two cookies

-One tube of yogurt

-One bowlful of grapes

-One cheese quesadilla

-One slice turkey breast

-One peach

-One handful crackers (again!)

Yeah, for real! I'm pretty sure at this pace my little caterpillar won't be a little caterpillar anymore either, but so far he shows no sign of not being hungry anymore. :)

It's D-day

Hey All. Welcome to wet, drippy Wisconsin--pretty typical for March, but getting old pretty fast!

This weekend it's been constant rain, which makes me feel personally wet and drippy too. Even the little things become irritating more quickly. The kids are going crazy caged inside, but you can't even brave the cold and take a walk, it's just too wet. :(

In other notes, I've noticed on my ClustrMap that there are seemingly new readers to our little blog. Welcome! I'd love to hear who you are in addition to seeing your little red dot on my map. :)

So, since it's a slow day and not much is going on and since I always love to hear "Aha" ideas for what to do with my kiddos when they're driving us and themselves wild, let's make it D-day. De-lurking day for all you browsers out there. Leave a comment and let me know your best tip for a rainy day (especially with two little ones, including a bouncing-off-the-walls-3-year-old) or just let me know that you're reading. Either way it'll brighten my day, because comments on here always make my day more interesting! And if you're one of my "faithful" readers, give me your best tips too, I don't think I can ever get an aresenal of we're-stuck-inside ideas that's too large.

And for those of you who read this blog exclusively for the photos, here are my sweet babies, who make me smile, even when it's rainy!

An interview with my little J-Man

I saw this floating around someplace and figured it could be cute. It was a little above Joshua's head (would have been funnier and more interesting if he'd been 5-ish) but he's quite the little chatterbox and he was excited about playing the "question game" although he lost interest about #10. :) I asked him the questions then wrote down his answers verbatim, some are interesting, some are cute, and some are just weird!

1. What is something mommy always says to you? "I wove you"
2. What makes mommy happy? "saying "I wove you" and give hugs makes you happy"
3. What makes mommy sad? "if I say 'no' it makes mommy sad and if I don't sleep that makes ya sad"
4. How does your mommy make you laugh? "if you laugh at me it makes me laugh, if you say 'wee, wee, wee all the way home' it makes me laugh"
5. What was your mommy like as a child? "I don't know"
6. How old is your mommy? "big enough to drive a car" (this is probably my favorite answer)
7. How tall is your mommy? "BIG"
8. What is her favorite thing to do? "Hugs"
9. What does your mommy do when you're not around? "Goes to a meeting"
10. If your mommy becomes famous, what will it be for? "I don't know"
11. What is your mommy really good at? "working"
12. What is your mommy not very good at? "writing" (I have no idea why he said this...)
13. What does your mommy do for her job? "work for Joshua and Daddy and Wydia"
14. What is your mommy's favorite food? "broccoli, but when you were a boy you didn't like broccoli, you tried and tried and tried and didn't like it when you were a boy!!!"
15. What makes you proud of your mommy? "vacuuming" (I think he thought the question was what makes me proud of him)
16. If your mommy were a cartoon character, who would she be? "Plablo" (Pablo from Backyardigans)
17. What do you and your mommy do together? "vacuum, cook, read"
18. How are you and your mommy the same? "we're both a Slager, and blue eyes"
19. How are you and your mommy different? "cuz you're a medicine doctory" (he's not really getting the question, he's talking about one of our friends who's a pharmacist..I think, or maybe I'm a medicine doctor because I give him his medicine, not sure)
20. How do you know your mommy loves you? "good"
21. Where is your mommy's favorite place to go? "to the market, to the farmer's market" (interesting, but it is one of my favorite places, though I would never have thought to answer this way myself...)



I love my little guy and it's so fun being able to have real conversations with him and seeing the connections form for him each and every day. :)

Nothing Notable

I always dream of having a witty post, or a nostalgic or emotionally meaningful one, but my life doesn't seem to be much like that these days. We're still here, trying to hang in there through the rest of winter, which seems to be hanging on and refusing to leave.

The kids are doing well, growing and changing and learning new things as usual. I'm continually amazed by how much they learn even over short periods of time.

My Little Monkeys

I think I'm in a rut, both with writing and just in general. I'm feeling a yearning for something fun, new, and a bit routine shaking--but not really sure what. I think mostly I'm just starting to have a case of cabin fever and the winter blues all rolled into one... I just need to keep reminding myself that March is less than a week away, and to cherish each day for the unique, special time with my kids that it is. Even when I feel like my life is stalled in slow, I know they'll be different even tomorrow and I don't want to miss that!

Thirteen Months

Here are a few pictures of the kids from the past couple of weeks. Enjoy!