We spent some time on Sunday at the park for Tenley’s first time on the swings! She loved everything we tried, but the little ride-on dinosaur was a particular favorite. She did NOT want me to hold her hand. I was so nervous to let go, but let her hold on by herself.  I can’t believe how fast time is flying!

1. Polishing my door knobs and wiping down my home’s baseboards,
2. Redecorating my master bedroom using amazing, like-new finds from a thrift store or  yardsale,
3. Homeschooling several perfect children,
4. Making their clothes,
5. Volunteering at numerous church events,
6. Creating beautiful and unusual crafts,
7. Marketing those crafts and creating my own small business,
8. Cooking nutritious and organic meals three times a day,
9. Working out 30-45 minutes a day,
10. Maintaining an ideal weight,
11. Making homemade bread/jam/cookies/etc.,
12. Growing our food,
13. Coming up with romantic gestures for my husband,
14. Running a wildly successful blog with posts at least once a day,
15. Expositing on deep and profound theological concepts.

It’s exhausting and overwhelming. Shoot, some days it’s all I can do to change out of my pjs and put on a little eye liner.  I find myself wondering if these women really ARE this perfect? Someone tell me that there’s at least one day when they fantasize about lying in bed all day and eating their weight in cheese doodles!

The other night I pointed some of this out to Paul.  I asked him how in the world does he think these women are able to do all these things? His response was priceless:

“They probably don’t spend an hour comparing themselves to other women on the Internet.”

Gulp.

I’m seeing that I’m going to have to impose a limit on myself for how much blog perusal I’m allowed.  I’m so easily sucked in and completely absorbed by the perfect lives these other women seem to be leading. Funny how easy it is to see God’s grace applied to our salvation. But do we see it as a daily NEED?  I am finding that I obviously don’t.

Maybe I should add that to my to-do list?

“This book is completely misleading. The entire plot revolves around finding Baby’s belly button; the title makes this much clear from the beginning. However, there is no mystery. There is no twist. Baby’s belly button is right where it’s suppose to be, on Baby’s stomach. Right where it clearly SHOWS you it is on the COVER OF THE BOOK.”

Wooohooo! Made a haul today!

This is $58 of groceries…..out of pocket was $24. BUT one of the items had a $5 rebate on them. So once that comes in, it will be $19!

So grateful for the little ways God provides!

Now, what’s for dinner….? 

6 months old already!?

How did this happen?!

Tenley, you are just a dream come true! I love every minute with you. It’s so much fun to watch you take in everything around you. And now that you’re laughing and making sounds—your Daddy & I can’t get enough of you!

It’s the V-tech Walk and Crawl Ball.  This thing is so cool! It lights up, wiggles, sings and basically entices baby to come after it.  Tenley is ALL over it!  She’s trying her hardest to scoot or wiggle towards it…. I feel like crawling is right around the corner!

It’s a big hit!

I ordered two samples.  The first is the Hydrating Cleanser:

This stuff is so wonderful! It feels like a soft lotion when you rub it in but when you rinse it off your skin feels SO clean & soft. You wouldn’t think something so creamy could actually feel clean too, but it does.

The second sample is this:

The Intense Moisturizing Cream. HOOOOOO–LLLLLYYY COW!  This is the grandaddy of cream.  It feels like whipped butter. Unbelievably thick and lush. I love it.

Since my pregnancy, I’ve had insanely dry skin. After using these two products for the last 5 days, the dryness is significantly reduced.  I am a very happy camper.

If you’re looking for something new to try, I’d encourage you to check out the Moody Sisters’ product line.  I can’t wait to try more of their things!

The Arbonne I was trying was great during the pregnancy, but now that I’m not, it failed. The nice, cheap Walmart stuff is drying.

I heard about this line of skin care  through another blog I read. Moody Sisters—cute name, huh? I checked out their etsy shop: it’s two sisters who make these products in their home so the items are organic and natural.  When I contacted them about trying it, they were kind enough to set up samples for me which I am eager to try.

But in the meantime, go here to enter a giveaway and try it for yourself! (Please put in my name/blog address for having sent you).

I’ll post my review as soon as I try them.

In June we knew my job was changing: the plan had been to stay on at GCA as a teacher assistant (rather than have my own classroom), then leave at the end of September to have Tenley. I’d then return in January and the plan was to return to the classroom as a regular teacher next school year.

Instead, I left in September and haven’t returned.  I don’t have plans to return next year either.

But in the mean time, the school did some construction and knocked down walls to reconfigure some classrooms. In the process, I lost my classroom completely—it no longer exists!  So there was no where to store my things, and with a newborn on the way, I was too overwhelmed to weed through it all last fall.

So Paul stored it all in his office.  That was a HUGE help. . . but now he needs the space and it’s time for me to deal with this beast!

Fortunately, the seminary is planning a yard sale at the end of April so I have a goal! Most of this will go in the yard sale pile. I’m having a hard time though really thinking this through: keep only what I think I’d use one day with Tenley.  It’s hard to really imagine that I may not need this again for a while (or ever????) in my own classroom.

Is it really possible that I’ll never set up my own classroom again?!

In the meantime though, my living room is a disaster! It’s driving me nuts—gotta get on this ASAP!

This face just melts me

We spent a little time outside today. It’s been tough to find a day that’s not been too warm or too cold, plus finding the right time of day (that doesn’t interfere with naps!).  Today was just right!  We pulled out a little quilt and had a great time feeling the warm sunshine and cool breeze.

Then we hit the road for a walk through the neighborhood

and tried hard to get a picture of the two of us together. . . .