Thank Heaven For Little Girls

We had quite a day today. My best friend came over and brought her two nieces. Anna will be three in March and Julia will be two in May. Needless to say, when they left, my house was chaos, my body was screaming for a nap, and the girls were over tired....but it was worth it to see those three precious girls playing together!

All four girls. From left to right: Julia, the Guppy, Anna, and the Mermaid

The Mermaid and Anna showing off their hairstyles. Notice that they are holding hands....soooo cute.

Of course, the Guppy had a fun time too, observing the girls at play.

Life couldn't get better than this. ;o)

Thank Heaven For Little Girls

Photo Tag: Bump

Stephanie over at Adventures in Babywearing is asking mamas to post their pregnant belly pics. When I was pregnant with the Mermaid I felt really awkward and huge in my preggo body, and avoided having my picture taken. With the Guppy's pregnancy, I took a leap of courage and submitted some pictures to be posted on The Shape of a Mother. Since these were the only belly pics I took, I'll use the same pictures for this tag.

These pictures were taken during, I believe, the 25th week of pregnancy with the Guppy.

Photo Tag: Bump

Favorite Childhood Story

When I was a little girl my favorite story to read was The Velveteen Rabbit. I loved the concept that you could be loved, no matter who you were or what you looked like. As I got older that concept remained close to my heart, along with the concept that less is more. The Rabbit in the story did not have all the gadgets and buzzing parts that other toys do, but he was loved anyway, despite his simple appearance. My favorite part of the story is when the Rabbit and the Skin Horse are talking in the library:

"What is REAL?" asked the Rabbit one day, when they were lying side by side near the nursery fender, before Nana came to tidy the room. "Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?"
"Real isn't how you are made," said the Skin Horse. "It's a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real."
"Does it hurt?" asked the Rabbit.
"Sometimes," said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. "When you are Real you don't mind being hurt."
"Does it happen all at once, like being wound up," he asked, "or bit by bit?"
"It doesn't happen all at once," said the Skin Horse. "You become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand."

I hope that when I am older, my knees and back will be sore from lifting children and grandchildren and holding them on my lap. I hope my face with be wrinkled with laugh lines, permanent memories of happy times etched on my face. If I lose my hearing, I hope it is because it was worn out from listening to the laughter of children. If I lose my eyesight, I hope I will still be able to see into their hearts and souls. Most of all, I hope that my children will still find me as beautiful as the love that I hold for them.

So, I want to hear other mama's favorite childhood stories and how they relate to their present lives. I tag Mama K NJ, My Fabulous Self, and Stephanie. Anyone else who wants to participate, please leave your links/and or comments so I can read up on your favorite childhood story :o)

Favorite Childhood Story

Who Am I?

Like my new widget? It pretty much describes me in a nutshell...

Read my VisualDNA™ Get your own VisualDNA™

Thanks to Stephanie over at Adventures in Babywearing for the heads up!

Who Am I?

Looking Around the Neighborhood

I haven't been posting every day like I said I would try to do. But I think the migraines I've been experiencing have hindered my ability to post. I'm going to try to still post every day.

I read a lot of blogs. Daily. Sometimes I get too busy and I get backed up, and it can take me a long time to catch up. And sometimes, a fellow blogger writes a post that I really agree with, or really like, and I save that post in case there comes a time I can refer to it or forward it to someone that could use the information the blogger presents.

Here are some of my favorite, more recent posts by fellow bloggers:

Stephanie over at Adventures in Babywearing wrote about the benefits of baby wearing. Because really, with all those benefits, and with all the beautiful slings available, who wouldn't wear their baby?

The author of I Don't Know wrote a fabulous post about the benefits of cloth diapers. Her top three reasons for using cloth are: ease of use, comfort, and the fact that they work better than disposables.

Finally, Angela over at Breastfeeding 1 2 3 gave her readers a heads up on a free video on baby massage. We all know that babies thrive with skin to skin contact, so give it a try!

Those are all my recent favorite posts. I'll try to post more as I come across them. :o)

Looking Around the Neighborhood

Not Sleepless, and Not in Seattle

Just some new pictures that I took last weekend. I guess everyone was tired that weekend :o)

Not Sleepless, and Not in Seattle

Fantastic Friday: Time To Be Optimistic

Well another Friday, another update.

Weight: MILF update; again, no loss, no gain. But, when I put on my belt...I'm down to the last hole. When I first started the weight loss I was about in the middle. So perhaps I am not losing weight but I am toning up? We'll have to see. I am still exercising every day. Not doing too good on the eating part, but I am trying to be optimistic about this upcoming week.

House: I did horrible this week. I had migraines every night of the week so housework did not get done...except for the Knight. He cooked dinner every night, washed the dishes, picked up the floors, and even managed some laundry. I don't know what I'd do without him. I did manage to sweep and wash the floors yesterday and today I got a ton of work done so far, so I'm optimistic about this upcoming week. I've just got to get back into my FLYLady routines.

Finances: Doing really well here. Although we still don't have extra jobs, we're still looking. And it looks like we'll have an extra $1,000 to put towards Step 1 of the Total Money Makeover at the end of the month, due to us sticking to our budget. By next month we should be on Step 2.

Environment: Having a little trouble living the Compact Life. I still have not gotten around to making cloth paper towels and more cloth nursing pads. I hope to be able to go on a sewing frenzy this weekend and get those done. We've got more birthdays coming up, the Knight's grandmother and the Knight himself. I let the Knight choose what to buy since it is his family and his birthday. It looks like he wants some DVD's that just came out, so I'll have a hard time finding them used. Hopefully I will be able to. Still, we don't really buy anything that isn't a necessity. That's how we've been since the Mermaid was 6 months old. Hopefully we'll be able to continue to improve on that.

Well that's it for this week. I hope all you other MILFs had better luck than me! :o)

Fantastic Friday: Time To Be Optimistic