Word Web Vocabulary

As always, my sister Joanna stopped by yesterday in her sweats and decided on a whim that she wanted to do a photoshoot of my girls. I just happened to be babysitting a friends girls too, so it turned into a super cute BFF photoshoot. We are completely in love with the way these turned out. Of course, there are zillions more...but I think you get the idea. I had to share them with you all though.

Leila was done long before it was over. This is what she looked like at the end as I kept promising 

her ice cream and money to do "one more picture." Haha.

All photos were taken by and are property of Joanna Photography.

No you may not steal them.

Linked up with Hope Engaged here!

Spring has finally made it's way here. Although I'm not sure how long it's going to last. My fingers are crossed that it will continue and I can finally get comfortable. The weird thing about me is I love when it starts cooling down after summer. I love sweaters and boots and crisp leaves and cool air. But after winter. Our long drawn out winter, I am beyond done. I am ready for sandals and tanks and skirts.  That's right, skirts and dresses are generally my choice throughout the spring and summer. I feel much more at home in a skirt and sandals any day than shorts. Especially as I get older. Shorts are not my friend as age creeps up on me.

I thought since I get to wear new-ish clothes that I'd share a few spring looks on the blog this week. I have sort of an announcement to make, that I wrote up weeks ago and have been waiting for the right time. I think probably on Friday or Monday. But for now, here are a few things that are current to me.

Loving: Ok. I'm loving the back of this tank top I'm wearing. I totally dig it. What I'm not loving is the obvious need for some back and arm exercises and possibly the lack of tattoo?

Hating: Eczema. I mentioned this last week, but if you could see underneath that skirt and tank (haha) you would see legs and back and tummy covered in a rash. I went to the doctor this week and it's starting to clear up, thanks (no thanks) to steroids. I'm not a fan of using steroids or meds in general lately to cure myself. Especially after we have been studying up on food and how it affects your body, good and bad. 

But it's a quick fix to a painful process. Oh so painful.

Annoyed With: People who take other people for granted.  People who say mean things, just to make someone sad. People who want to hurt people they love, because who knows why? Especially because I know deep inside, at least I can only hope that they wouldn't want the people they love to be in pain. And in the end, they are only hurting themselves, because they will lose the people that mean the most to them and that loved them so much.

 Wishing for: Dare I say? A baby boy... Yes. I dare.

Praying for: I'm always praying for peace and grace to carry me through my day. I wake up and commit my day to the Lord. I'm always praying for opportunity to be used by God, whether it's with a stranger or my children or my sisters. I always want to be open to it no matter who or what. I'm always praying for my family and circumstances I know they may be facing. And I'm always praying for wisdom and guidance in the decisions I make. These are daily prayers for me. Of course as times and seasons come upon us, our nation, our world, our church, our family... I pray for that as well.

Editing: Photos from an impromptu "before church" photoshoot this week. Should be posted tomorrow or the day after.

Thankful for: Honestly, I'm thankful that my life is calm. In the sense of no drama. When drama knocks on my door, I politely say "no thanks" and move on. I've had enough drama for one lifetime I think.

Working on: Flyers up the wazoo. Banners, flyers, graphics. Always. I volunteer doing web and facebook updates for the church my dad pastors. So they are always asking me to make something. And I do. Usually with a willing heart ;) Sometimes I need an attitude check. Only sometimes.

Missing: New music. Any music. I need more music. Any suggestions would be great. I love folksy stuff. I love eclectic. I love worship. I love jazzzy. I even love a little bit country. I just don't make my way to purchase anything. And I haven't in years. I love Swell Season and The Civil Wars and Amy Winehouse. I love Cranberries and Norah Jones and Gungor. And yes, I love love love Toby Keith. Someone get me some new music.

Devotions: Jesus Calling by Sarah Young. And She Reads Truth as we make our way through Hosea. It's nice to finally read some of these books of the Bible I never read (ashamedly).

Looking at: A cute little blond girl, who is scolding me that I'm taking too long. I guess that's my cue.

linked this up with Pleated Poppy for What I Wore

I could have easily just put a few adorable photos of my kids up and left it at that today. I'm not the gabbiest girl on the block lately. But let me tell you what's been going on here. For the last 5 days, we have not had the internet. Our server is having issues and after checking to make sure we paid our bill (which we did), they sent us a new router and it still didn't work. Then they promised to come fix it Saturday and they never showed, so I'm sitting here on Sunday afternoon hooked up to Jeff's phone which we are using as a hot spot. We use a different phone company than our internet server (thank God) and he is grandfathered in to an unlimited data package (thank God).  But unless Jeff doesn't need or want his phone and happens to be around, we have no internet. Hopefully today they come.

Let's face it! In the culture we live in, as parents, the internet and television has become a crutch for us. It's our "keep the kids busy" safety net and way of escape.  When you get used to it; the kids wanting to play online or go on Netflix or theWii, it can get a little very uncomfortable if it's gone because suddenly they are all bored out of their mind and suddenly have to find something mischievous to do to entertain themselves.  The funny thing is,  I've been thinking over this a lot lately, changing the way we live to the way things used to be, like in the "olden" days. You know before a grocery store full of processed foods, before fast food,  before television, before the internet... What did people do? What did people eat? And very honestly, we have been working on this at home. Changing bad habits. I've been working on it. Being more natural with the way I live.  Which is mainly the reason I haven't been around as much.  The less and less I go online, the less and less I am interested in going online, The less and less I eat junk, the less and less I am interested in eating  junk.
It's a good feeling.

However, it's one thing to decide to make changes. It's quite another to have it all ripped away from you without warning. Womp Womp.  We have had some of the most ridiculous fights between the kids this past weekend. I'm not exaggerating  when I say that Saturday morning I woke up (because of) and immediately dealt with an hour long screaming fight over a mighty bean. Not mighty beans plural, which we have. It was one specific mighty bean, a robot one. And not just any robot one. A red robot mighty bean. If you don't know what it is, google it and you will realize how ridiculous this is. Out of breath and out of a voice from yelling, I finally forced the girls into the bathtub and made Wes give Jada the robot (it was only fair, he had like 8 others). It's sort of a blur, but what I remember is I kept yelling "We are family! That's what we do! We share!" And Wes was hunched around the corner outside of the bathroom like crouching tiger, hidden dragon ready to pounce on her and steal it back when I wasn't looking. This was a serious brawl, my friends.
I was close to losing my mind.  
Saturday night, I forced Jeff to take Wesley to a movie, just to get him out of the house and away from Jada.  And Friday Night, Jeff took Jada out while I had a date with Wesley. This is what we have to do. Split them- the older kids. Usually the internet or Netflix will preoccupy one of them so the fights are kept to a minimum, but now we have to keep them separated in order to maintain our sanity.   Sure I love the idea of doing things together as a family. It's just is no fun usually.  Jada loves to tick Wesley off.  It's a sport to her. She really loves it when he gets mad and chases her around the house. I'm serious.  She loves it. It's a power play for her.
Yes, she is 'one of those.' You know the type. She provokes it and she laughs as he starts screaming and running after her threatening to punch her. And then it happens. He punches her or chokes her or throws a remote control at her eye.  And then I have to discipline him, even though I know it was her fault. She has no problem playing the role of the instigator and in the end, the victim.  And she laughs as he gets disciplined.
I look over at her with tears in her eyes and a huge smile on her face. Do you know anyone like this?
It's exhausting. I'm wiped out. This momma is tired.

I always pull out the big guns with my kids. You know the "When I was a kid, we played outside. We didn't even have the internet. The first time I saw a computer was in high school and I played Oregon Trail."
You know the tough stuff that parents say that their kids don't care about... Yeah, that's right. I say it.



Tell me. How do you keep your kids entertained without the "crutch?"

I've been trying to figure out the words to say. I'm not good at talking unless I have something

very specific to say. And lots of times I do and I just talk too much. I go on and on and on.

But lately I've just sorta been like 'who cares?' I mean seriously. Who gives a crap?

Good attitude, huh? 

But I keep thinking, does it really matter if I do or don't write about this?

Is this really going to make a difference to anyone? If I don't write it, someone else will...right?

So, I'm not sure where I am...right here...in this moment...as far as blogging goes.

Who cares what outfit I wore? Who cares how silly my kids are? I mean, I do. And' I'd like to 

think that is why I blog. To keep memories. My own sort of personal online journal. When my heart

needs to be spilled, I spill it here. But does it really need to be public? I'm not sure anymore.

Does anyone else ever feel like that? Like why do I need people to read my blog? Is it for me?

And if it's not for me, then do people really hear me? I'm sure these thoughts are just a part of human nature,

 but seriously...who cares? Do the things I say make any impact on anyone other than me?

I guess I will just keep playing it by ear and see what happens. Maybe tomorrow I will have a novel written 

for you, who knows....

And for now, here are some other reasons why I have been busy.

People always ask me...or us how we take such cute photos...

Go through about an hour of this and that's how you get the perfect family photo.

Hope you all had a wonderful Easter...

You know how it is. You take 500 photos and out of those, you try to find ten that you want to show off. But I can't manage to squeeze it down to only ten. So I chose seventeen. For now. Vacation is far from done, but I'd thought I'd stop in with a photo update at the very least. We've been having lots of fun all week. There has been more complaining from the kids than I would have liked considering the amount of money we dropped on this trip. (Having three kids pays off during tax return season... it does anyways, but you know what I mean....
cha-ching).
Anyways, it's been so much fun taking the big kids on the big rides. I have felt bad for little Leila getting left out of so much, but making sure we cater to her a lot as well (these are the moments in which complaining from the other kids kicks in). Anyways, more updates later. I'm off to rub Wesley's legs. This isn't due to lots of walking. He just makes me do this every night whether he spends four days walking Disney or sits at the computer all night long.  Ahhhhh, the life of a mom.

P.S. I'm not completely up to date on whats going on, but from what I see, GFC/Google Reader will actually be obsolete in July.  Like for real this time??? Maybe?  If so, and if you are a reader of From Awkward To Art that uses GFC, stop by my BLOGLOVIN and follow me that way instead.  I mean, unless you already follow me on twitter or facebook. If you like reading my blog, just follow along, someway, somehow. I'm not picky!! Love you all!