Books

I love books! Although I haven't been able to read as much as I would like to in the past 3 years (little distractions named Wyatt and Levi :-) They have give me more of a reason to read, but less time to do it in! I used to read fiction, alot of Christian romance novels with Karen Kingsbury, Lori Wick, and Beverly Lewis being some of my favorite authors. But once I became a mother and was going thru the baby/toddler stages, I love(d) reading books on godly child-rearing. If I hadn't read Babywise I probably would have tried to feed my babies everytime they cried! ha! The Ezzo's books (Babywise, Toddlerwise, and Preschoolwise) have really helped me get my kids on a schedule, and for someone like me who thrives on time managment, it was wonderful! I think having children on a schedule helps develop character and provides structure for the home. Take it or leave it...I know some of my friends do not like the Babywise "method" at all. Seems like you either love it or hate it b/c they are quite extreme in their teachings. I did read a book completely opposite to Babywise, The Happiest Baby on the Block, and I think that helped me balance out some of the extremes in the Ezzo books. Those 2 books are completely opposite on newborns and sleep habits, but were helpful to me as a clueless mother w/ little to no expirence w/ children.
Anyway, this post was meant to be a list of books that I have on my "wish list". I hope to order these little by little over the next year as I earn Swagbucks I'm listing them here b/c I know how much I love reading other's book recommendations, and most on this list have come from just that. Keep in mind, I'm not truely "recommending" these as I haven't read them thru cover to cover yet. As you will see, some in the list are just for the boys. I made them hyperlink if you want to click on them and get more info.

-Big Thoughts for Little People
-God's Wisdom for Little Boys
-God, I need to talk to you about...
-Little Blessings series
-ABC Memory Verses

-Creative Correction
-Teach Them Diligently
-The Creative Family: How to Encourage Imagination and Nurture Family Connections
-Heaven At Home
-Creative Family Times

-Homeschooling with a Meek and Quiet Spirit
-Slow and Steady Get Me Ready
-For the Children's Sake: Foundation of Education for Homeschool

-The $5 Dinner Mom Cookbook
-Family Feasts for $75 a week
-The Complete Tightwad Gazette

-Calm My Anxious Heart
-Me, Myself, & Lies
-Feminine Appeal

Here's a picture of the boys with some of their cousins. Had to include a picture :-)

I got $30 of Amazon Gift cards for nothing!!

I was skeptical of this at first, but it's legit. I have now "earned" my 6th, five dollar gift card to Amazon.com. I have also redeemed them, and gotten the books shipped to my house (so it really is true!)
And even if it was a "scam", there's nothing to scam me out of, except maybe my time. But for me, I'm not wasting any time b/c I normally use Google or Yahoo at least 3 times a day. But now instead of those search engines, I use Swagbucks.com for my search engine. Very simple to use!
Check it out if you have 3 min. to spare!

So the first order of business–What is Swagbucks?

Swagbucks is a site that lets you earn Swagbucks (points) by literally just searching the web… something we do on a daily basis anyways! They also have an excellent referral program! If you refer someone over to Swagbucks and they earn a Swagbuck, you will earn a Swagbuck too–up to 100 Swagbucks! So you could potentially earn 100 Swagbucks from each friend you refer! Plus, once you accumulate enough Swagbucks, you can cash them in for various rewards, including Amazon.com gift cards! Yay!

How do you get started?

•Go here and register on Swagbucks by creating an account
•You will get 30 Swagbucks just for signing up!
•After registering, you can immediately start searching for anything you want on the web just by using the Swagbucks search engine!
•Periodically, while searching, you may see a pop up that says you’ve won anywhere from 10 to 100 or more in Swagbucks. From what I’ve heard, the best time to search is in the morning or the evening.
•Another way to earn Swagbucks, is by entering the Swagcode that is released almost everyday. This is a special code that you can enter in the swagcode box and you will instantly earn Swagbucks without having to search for them! How do you get this special code? Go to the Swagbucks homepage, click on “Ways to Earn” in the top left, then click on “Special Offers” and then click on the “No Obligation Offers” blue box on the right.
One you get to this page, it will state this:

Welcome to Swag Bucks Special Offers. Sign up for the free money-saving offers you like,
feel free to skip the rest, and find a special swag code reward at the end.

Skip ALL the offers by clicking the skip button or the See Next Offer button beneath the advertisement. Finally after about 7 pages you’ll be awarded with a Swagcode! Enter the code in the box provided on the homepage to see how much you’ve earned.

•After you’ve earned enough points, you can click on the upper tab labeled “Prizes”.� Scroll down and under the categories section on the left hand side you should see “Gifts and Rewards”–click there. Now you can start scrolling through all the gift cards they have available. The Amazon.com gift card is by far my favorite reward! You can score a $5 Amazon.com gift card with just 450 Swagbucks, so literally in a month you could earn a $5 Amazon.com gift card!

Trip to the Beach and other craziness

The boys and I just got back from a trip to Wilmington, NC. I made the 3 1/2 hr drive by myself w/ the boys while Adam was driving 11 hours to PA for a training weekend for his summer job at Trails End Camp. The boys and I stayed a college friend of mine. She lives about 30 min from Wrightsville beach. We had perfect weather for beach days on Friday and Saturday! It was great to catch up with her and share all the joys and trials of our new "grown up jobs" as wife, mother, and keeper of the home while we still feel like are college students back at CCC. I had really wanted to make a trip back to Clearwater, but a 600 mile road trip w/ a 3 yr old and 2 yr old by myself just wasn't going to work.
For the first time, the boys are enjoying the beach w/o any prompting! So far there are some things that we feel like we still have to encourage them to get excited about (i.e. Christmas AM, Birthdays, pizza, etc). I never realized that chilren't aren't born loving pizza or w/ the excitment and anticipation of Christmas AM. Makes sense though! But now that they are getting "older" and figuring out what these things are, they are getting excited about them which includes the beach.
It was so great to see them playing in the sand and water and not being afraid or getting upset. Here's a picture of me and Rebecca and the kids (Wyatt is making a goofy face)! Her hubby watched her 9 mo. old, so we could take my boys to the beach alone.

It was hard for me to come back to my house! I love the beach and especially sunshine! Our "new" house (just a year rental lease), is in the woods. I feel really closed-in and that is very discouraging for me. Rebecca's house was in a nice, new, very wide-open-spaces neighborhood similiar to the one that we had to leave a few months ago when our landlord got her house (that we were renting from her) foreclosed on. The house we had to leave was the kind of house that I had always imagined living in. Not only is the "new" house quite shaded b/c of all the trees, but trees bring bugs!!! all kinds of bugs--outside and inside!! We have to coat the boys in bug spray every time they go outside (even at 10am!!) I guess the canopy of the trees, and the Southern humidity breeds mosiquitoes? And of course the bugs get inside of our house too. I kill at least 3 spider a day. Yuck! I am trying to be thankful for this house, but have a hard time not complianing. I miss my sunshine and wide open space to see the sky! Looking forward to going to PA in 3 weeks to spend the summer up there!
well, the craziness part of the title of this post...today, I had the kind of day that I haven't had awhile! (thank the Lord!) Within the matter of one hour, the following things happened: 1) urine all over the shower curtain, toliet, floor, and diaper genie (Wyatt decided to aim while standing on the stool by the sink used to wash their hands. the toliet is about a foot away and catecorner from that stool) 2) Wyatt had a poop accident in his underwear as he was running to the bathroom and didn't make it in time 3) while cleaning up accident #2, Levi was doing his chore of getting the dog food (which he has been successfully doing for about 3 weeks). But today, he put the dog food in the dog's water bowl (which was full of water of course) 4) while cleaning up accident #3, Levi was putting the bag of dog food back in the closet, and tipped the new, very full bag of dog food all over the floor.
Then we had a break for about 2 hours and nothing happened. Then 4) Levi squirted cleaner w/ bleach into his face when I turned my back to turn off the hose. I starting freaking out, and throw a whole cup of water in his face and mouth to wash the bleach out/off.
How do people w/ more than 2 kids do it?? Needless to say, I did not log in to work for my job while they were napping! I needed a break today!
Here's a picture of the boys being STILL looking out the door onto the deck.

Milestones

Woohooo!! after probably 3 or 4 tries (over the last few months), the boys FINALLY go in bouncy houses--or moon walks...whatever you call them! Between me not being very daring or adventurous myself, and the boys being so close in age w/ Levi being more of the "leader", but yet the younger one not into as many "big boy" things, they have sadly turned into a bit of a scardy cat! Most things that are new to them are viewed as scary, and they are very hesitant to try! We have neighbors who are riding bikes w/ training wheels and climbing trees, and my boys aren't even close to want to do those type of things yet! Those neighbors do have an older sibling that has probably encouraged them though. I know Wyatt and Levi will do wild things in their own time, so I shouldn't rush it, right?? But the bouncy house thing...I mean it's all I can do to get them to NOT jump on the couch or the beds, so I thought they would love this outlet of being able to jump unprohibited! There was a SpringFest in downtown Waxhaw over the weekend, and the bounce house was free, so a great place to "try again"!! After waiting for the group in front of us to be done, we (I joined them in the moon walk thing) had the whole thing to ourselves for about 5 minutes. Levi was the most the hesitant which is surprising, but after a few minutes and holding onto my hands, he did it! and you should have seen the look on his face!! He LOVED it! Now we can attempt Monkey Joes in the fall/winter on half-price Wednesdays!
We also have hit the "milestone" of the "WHY?" phase w/ Levi!! ugh!! Already?? Most kids his age are barely talkin 2 word simple sentences. I soooo glad that he talks as well, and as much (well not all the time) as he does, but this "why?" thing is crazy! He's been talking in 2 or 3 word sentences since about 20 months old, and it's quite funny b/c he's still learning about how things work and what things are, but puts sentences together. I could list tons of phrases that he's come up with! One of the funniest recent ones is, "I'm talking to Daddy". He says this when he has asked Adam a question, but Adam hasn't answered, so I answer/reply instead. Levi dosen't is telling me that he doesn't want me to answer b/c he's talking to Daddy! One time he even said, "No, I talking to Dixie"
Sorry no pictures w/ this post! Our big laptop crashed and it out at HP for repair (AGAIN!! not too happy w/ HP)

Starfall.com, Avocados, and Mother's Day

Starfall.com is the greatest thing ever!! Wyatt would be on there for an hour if I let him! It's an educational website that has cute graphics and interactive animation for each letter of the alaphabet. The child has to know how to operate the computer mouse though. The first time I had Wyatt try it, it was frustrating for both of us. I had envisioned him sitting there independently and playing while I got other things done! He had never used a mouse before, so it took about 3 different times of doing it w/ him for 10 min each time. Now he asks to do his "letter game on the computer" all the time! I usually let him do it every other day for about 20 min when Levi goes down for his nap. Then when he is done, he goes down for his nap, and I pray that Levi doesn't wake up "early", so that I have at least 15 min. to relax, and an hour to work for my job.
next topic...about a year ago I "discovered" avocados! ha ha! not sure how I didn't know about this wonderful food before! I love to make guacamole and have it for a special snack while the kids are napping (so then no one asks for a bite of mine!) The other day I was making a recipe that called for 1/2 the avocado. Instead of just saving the other half in a bowl w/ lemon juice, I just got a spoon and ate it out of the skin! (with chips of course)
Mother's Day...Adam helped the boys get me a nice card and a gift cert. to get a pedicure!!! The only time I've ever had a pedicure was for our wedding! I'm really excited to go! Wyatt asked me "when are we going to go?". I was so happy to tell him that I would be going out by myself w/o any children! Here's the best picture we got on Mother's Day, and a picture of a few of our azalea bushes in full bloom. I think we have 9 of them!! And Adam just dug one up and re-planted it for me, to fill in some space in one of the flower beds.
If the pictures are too little, you should be able to double click on the image and it will open a little bigger in another window.

Snowball of a Day

You know it's going to be a rough day in our house when Levi wakes up at 6:30am "growling". Now the growling part is kind of par for the course with Levi as he is often grumpy and literally growling (or screeching like a dinosaur) especially when he is hungry. It's actually quite comical that by the 3rd bite of his food, he's a different boy! At the same time, it's very frustrating for me when he gets like that b/c now that he is older I really need to work with him on self-control, but he is just so stubborn. He is our "emotions" boy. He can go from extremely happy and loving to mean and hateful in 60 seconds.
Anyway, between recovering from less sleep than usual on our beach trip, still adjusting to sharing a room with Wyatt, and teething with his 2 year molars, Levi has been waking up early and extra grumpy this week.
Our day consisted not only of many tears, tempers, screams and growls, but also of him having to wait in his crib until he was ready to eat lunch w/o being grumpy and having tempers, his gum getting stuck in my hair (which I had to cut out after walking thru the grocery store w/ it stuck in my hair), only an hour and 20 min nap (he could have used a 3 hr nap or longer!), and ended with him tripping and falling and breaking open his big toe.
He is extremely ticklish on his toes, and just cutting his toe nails is pure torture (for him and me!). So there was lots of drama including screaming, hitting and crying for Daddy while I was trying to clean it and put a bandaid on it! He always calls for Daddy when he is really upset which is kind of sweet, but very frustrating when Adam isn't here b/c Levi literally pushes me away and says "Go Away Mommy". The little stinker!! I just shake my head and feel totally helpless and clueless as how to deal with him. Here's a preview of our trip to the beach last weekend. I'll post more later!