Spicy Magnolia

Link Love

This weekend called for desperate measures, y’all. I’m just as tired about writing about our ongoing illnesses as you are reading about them. Matt went back to the doctor last night and after being on antibiotics for a week, he still has bronchitis that isn’t getting better. So they gave him some potent antibiotics that required a special photo ID verification at the pharmacy and hopefully we’ll send this nasty stuff to Timbuktu. Meanwhile, I’m worse off today than yesterday so my parents generously took Brennan for the weekend so we could rest and hopefully keep him from catching this stuff, too. They kindly provided us with dinner and while sympathetic, happily took our boy to their home, which will be much more fun and interactive for him. When he saw Pops, he gave him a big wave ‘hello’ and once in his arms, waved ‘goodbye’ to us. Yeah, I see how it is.

So here are a few things you should check out in the coming days as you sit in front of the television watching some football. FOOTBALL! When I think of football, I think of this picture.

It was taken a year ago.

We wore the same things today but didn’t snap a photo. I think you’ll thank me for that. The boy was just as cute, if not cuter, but I’d make your eyes sore.

Ok, for the things you should check out and consider:

• On the sidebar to the right, I’ve had the Compassion banner advertising the bloggers trip to Guatemala for quite awhile, and the time has finally come for the team to go! They leave next Wednesday the 8th. You can read about their trip and encourage them here. I am really excited for them and know they will be a tremendous blessing to their sponsor children. How cool is it that they can meet in person!? And without a doubt, the team will come back tremendously blessed, too. And changed. I highly encourage you to take the time to read their posts about this trip, to pray for the team, and to pray for the children in Guatemala who still need sponsors.

 

• Have you read or heard of the book Radical by David Platt? The subtitle is “Taking Back Your Faith From the American Dream”. My friend, Marla, is putting together an online book club that will read through this book starting Tuesday the 7th. If you want to join us, do! It’s not too late. All you need is a book, and you can read more about the online discussion here. I’ve read the first chapter and interestingly enough, the parallels between A Voice in the Wind that I wrote about in my last post and Platt’s book are striking. The same sorts of things I wrestled with in Francine Rivers’ book of fiction are the ones that I already know I’ll be faced with in Radical. I see a theme. I’m not sure I like it. But I know it’s not a coincidence, and I want and need my heart and ears to be open to what the Lord wants to do, even if it’s got me squirming and grimacing and crying in my granola.

 

• A year before Spicy Magnolia was birthed, Matt and I were co-authors of a blog called Inkpots. I use the word “co-authors” loosely <grin>. It was hosted by a free blog service that is now closing and they provided a way for me to import the year’s worth of posts to Spicy Magnolia. If you want to peruse the archives, the dates range from April 2007-May 2008. On the left sidebar, you can scroll down to “Archives” and browse through some of the dates. What a year it was! Two of our siblings got married; Matt turned 30; I traveled to South Asia; my college roommate was killed in a car accident; I became a full-time puppy mommy; I had an unwelcomed friend named “Darth Vader”. What a mixed bag! One of the more interesting posts that people still talk about was “The Spree of All Sprees”. It was one of my favorites and you might like it, too <grin>.

Hope you have a nice Labor Day weekend!

 

Link Love

Ya’ll, starting tomorrow afternoon, I am baby-free until Friday! I’m not sure what I’m going to do with all of my “free time”! It will not surprise me if by Wednesday morning at 8:06 a.m., I am shedding a tear or two wallowing in sadness that I do not have my bestest little buddy with me.  I have a to-do list a mile long and hope to be productive like I’m bringin’ it back into style, but my heart already aches that I’ll be apart from Brennan this week. Once I deliver him to Pops and Meems tomorrow, I will not even be a second thought in his mind, however. He’ll be too busy getting spoiled, playing ball with Dapples, swimming, and running around like a wild man.

One thing I do plan on doing this week before the time passes is to post a blog about our trip to the farm with Chris, Jillie, Harrison and Haddie. In the meantime, here are a few links that have been particularly encouraging to me over the past week.

Living in the Reality of God’s Love by Lysa TerKuerst: Don’t we all, at some point(s) in our lives, if not the majority of it, question the depths of God’s love for us? But what if we lived, truly lived, in the assurance of His love? How different would our lives look if we processed our circumstances through the lens that “God loves me so much therefore I have to trust why He is allowing this to happen”?

For the Young Mother: Ministry, Guilt and Seasons of Life by Jani Ortlund: Wow! If you are a mother with kids still at home, read this! My heart as a mother is to be intentional with Brennan everyday, knowing that he is the most precious gift God has given to me and Matt to shape his little heart to hopefully one day be a strong man of God who will stand with courage and steadfastness, head-over-heels in love with Jesus. But let’s face it, I mess up big time, and I get tired, and a wretched little thing called ‘guilt’ sneaks in when there are times when being a mommy isn’t really at the top of the list of what I want to be doing. This was one of the most encouraging posts I’ve read about being a momma.

Sometimes I Feel So Overlooked by Lysa TerKuerst: Ever feel overlooked or insignificant? This post takes a look at some faithful followers of God in their everyday lives, even in the nitty-gritty and how they may have felt overlooked. But in reality, they were handpicked by God. And we can take heart, too; we are not overlooked!

Better You Than Me by Missy (a blog friend): If you’re young, old(er), rich, poor, downcast, joy-filled, feeling like an outcast, needing hope, a man, a woman, lonely, have 221 Facebook friends, a stay-at-home-momma, single, married, a CEO, educated, uneducated, you need to read this post. No matter what, you need to take five minutes to read this post. There is no denying that Jesus’ death on the cross was a true, historically proven event. But oh, that you would believe the depth of the love that drove Him to do it and the riches that we gain from His death and resurrection!

In closing, I mentioned that Brennan would be running around Pops and Meems’ home like a wild man. Here is a glimpse into what that might look like. However, I have a disclaimer: he’s not allowed to throw things other than small, soft balls in the house, but Daddy just let him roll with it for the cameras (I was not present) <grin>. Don’t worry, we’re not raising an uncontrollable wild man, just simply a wild man.

Wild Man from Meg @ Spicy Magnolia on Vimeo.

Link Love

Hola, amigos! Como están?

It’s February, and I am putting my feet up and taking a deep breath, feeling elated after the last month of partying and special visitors, and feeling much relief that we don’t have one thing on the calendar for any of the four weekends this month. I do have plans to start some spring cleaning, but will take my time working on that. My kind hubby said I could take the whole year to get the house back in order and cleaned well. He would genuinely be ok with that, bless his heart. I would roll over and die of dust. But hubby would just keep on kickin’ without one complaint. He should be loved on real good this month of Valentine’s Day, don’t ya think?

I have much to share from the past weekend, and I also need to write a catch-up post on what fun things my boy was up to and learning when he turned one. But first, here’s a little link love for you to peruse.

Tsh, whom most of you all may know from Simple Mom, wrote a guest article for {in}courage directed to moms, asking the question, “do we really love our jobs?”. It’s simple, yet bold in reminding mommas what a privilege it is to be just that: a momma. The visual pictures she uses to make her points are powerful.

Then this article on Simple Mom, written by guest author, Megan from Sorta Crunchy, was resourceful in addressing difficult days in parenting, and I can’t wait to get my hands on some of the books she recommended. On that note, my little boy is feeling much, much better, and is his sweet, cuddly self again…yet another reason I’m breathing a sigh of relief. But this article is one I’ll keep in my back pocket to re-read from time to time for a little boost of morale.

Are you looking for creative ways to give to others, trying to think outside the box from the normal monetary donation? Then read Marla’s post here. She’s got some creative gift-giving ideas that I’m thrilled about.

I am not well versed when it comes to understanding all the proposed changes to the health care system. In fact, it overwhelms and confuses me. But this post by J.R. Briggs made a lot of sense to me, and after spending the weekend with a doctor friend of ours, we found out he had the same ideas.

Finally, I have a huge announcement to make. No, I’m not pregnant, unlike a friend of mine who told me this weekend that she is carrying their second after making me wait five whole days with only, “I have fun news to tell you and you can’t know until Saturday.” Painful. PAINFUL! It’s just so wrong! <grin> Well, <half grin>. You know who you are, and I’m still gonna give you a hard time about making me squirm that much!! But I’m also still gonna jump for joy at the amazing news!! Anyway, onto my huge announcement: after taking his first steps the day before his first birthday, last Thursday, Brennan decided to take off! Ladies and gents, we have an official walker! He’s walking more and more everyday, and it’s so fun! If you wanna see him in action a bit, click here. It was filmed last Thursday and I was not at all expecting him to walk as much as he did, so it was double the treat.

Oh, and who’s totally stoked about Lost tomorrow night? I’m as giddy as a girl with her first crush!

I’m off to sleepy sleep…the first night I’ll be in bed before 11:30 in weeks. Sleep tight, and don’t let the bed bugs bite!

A Paper Lover in a Digital World

A few years ago when I was putting together ice-breaker questions for a small group of college gals, I came across the question, “If you found $100 in a store, what would you do with it?” I happened to be the lucky one who drew that question out of the hat and enthusiastically shared that I would spend it in a stationery store, proceeding to tell these girls who had just met me about my love for all things paper. Silence. And bewildered looks were on their faces. How come the conversation quickly halted? Then one of the girls boldly asked, “You wouldn’t take it to the cashier and said you found lost money?” Huh? Thoughts of how their discipleship leader just admitted she wouldn’t care one hoot or try in the least to find the rightful owner of a large sum of money probably quickly turned into, “Why did I have to get stuck with this girl for a leader?” My face flushed bright red having realized my cockeyed, yet innocent, answer. I laughed at myself, trying to regain composure and redeem the first impression that I just blew through an ice-breaker question. I thought it would be eye-opening to see what a person would spend $100 on. Who knows what those girls got out of that evening, but they undoubtedly knew I was a lover of paper, with a level of integrity yet to be determined.

But we live in a digital world. Everything is stored on the computer, which is wonderfully convenient. But this girl has to have something tangible, something to hold onto that is a physical document to touch, to pass down to the next generation. Because all of the pictures and blogs just don’t seem real otherwise. Anybody gettin’ what I’m sayin’? For awhile, scrapbooking was a main hobby of mine. Forget $100; I’ve probably spent at least $800 over the past seven years of scrapping. Once I completed Brennan’s baby book documenting my pregnancy through the main events of his first year, however, the srappin’, at least in a traditional sense, was a thing of the past. Don’t feel badly for the child. He is going to probably know more about his childhood than he ever hoped. Since his birth, I’ve completed a book called Love Letters to My Baby, which was a guided journal for thoughts from the beginning of pregnancy to a few months after birth. If we have a second child, I’ll want to get another copy; I loved that book. Then I kept a “Baby’s First Year Calendar” which marked all of his firsts, growth developments, special events, and daily happenings I wanted to record. I cropped my favorite pictures and had a collage for each month. Thirdly, I write briefly in a daily journal about my favorite moments of the day, what we did, or what I saw him do that was exciting. I even have the gumption of writing about the awful days, like this past Monday and Tuesday which led me to write, “If we have a second child…” just a few sentences above. Where has my sweet, sweet baby gone? He has morphed into a toddler. Granted, he’s been feeling awful, which doesn’t help matters. But since turning one, he is a new child. Oh, he’s still the sweetest thing on earth to me, but the jury is still out as to whether I like this new stage. I digress. Finally, there is the blog, where I record more than some readers would like to know.

Like I said, the boy is not short of journals, pictures and documentation about his childhood. I realize I went overboard. Way overboard! Please know it’s more about my abnormal compulsion for all things paper, and a deep-down desire to want future generations to know about our life, and well, a love for writing. And the four-fold documenting will not likely be repeated for the second child (if there is one) <grin>.

The thought of even the blog remaining in the nebulous place of cyberspace is unsettling to me though. If anything ever happened to it, I’d be heartbroken since it has, more or less, become my journal and scrapbook. At least the main one. <grin> So I turn it into a book! I know, I am crazy. That’s the “scrapbook project of sorts” I worked on in Houston during my down time. You may have heard of the program: Blurb. It has its idiosyncrasies and major bug issues that are nothing short of frustrating, at least for a Typepad user. It took me eight hours to fine-tune my blog imports from July-December, staying up till 1 a.m. I know, I know. I sure hope they improve it. But it’s the only software I know that I can use to turn the blog into a tangible book to take up more room on the book shelf. If anyone knows of something else I could use, by all means, let me know.

And as for my pictures, I still have the itch to have something for pictures all on their own, but traditional scrapbooking takes too much time. I’m so excited about something I came across recently through The Mom Creative: Project Life. Designed by Becky Higgins, her words describe it the best: “it’s a way to capture your memories in a format that is simple, pre-designed, and ready for you to add your personal photos and stories.” I’m trying it for the first time this year, and after receiving the kit in the mail this week, I am in love! I can still be creative, but it’s pre-designed in such a way that I am not drained by trying to think of something creative to do for each page, like traditional scrapping. For those that like to put pictures in an album, it’s basically that but with the option to add journaling cards and the provision to make it colorful and pretty. There are all sorts of ways you can use it. It’s a great deal, too! It only costs $40; that leaves me with $60 to spare after finding someone else’s money in a store!

The kit allows enough space in its page protectors to take a picture a day, and that’s what I’m trying to do. I haven’t succeeded in that yet, but I’ve already enjoyed the fruit of having it in my mind to grab a picture a day; it causes me to have my eyes opened more to the special, even subtle events of the day I’d like to remember. One problem I may run into, however, is deciding which picture of the day to choose, like yesterday’s options:

Brennan learning to brush his teeth

 

or Brennan’s first bubble bath

Which do you think?

Seeing as how Monday and Tuesday made me want to cry at the end of the day and bury my head in the sand, I might just end up using both of these pictures because I was in survival mode and forgot about the camera. Yesterday was better though. The little fella even crawled over a ways to me to give me a kiss because Momma asked for one. And that will be the favorite moment of the day to write about in my tangible journal.

Sweetness

Well, I went away for a weekend, leaving my boys and girl for the first time, and everyone survived! I guess that means I can take getaways more often. <grin> Just kidding. I wouldn’t be able to survive as I would die of homesickness. The picture of Matt & Brennan standing out front waving me goodbye with Molly’s eyes glued to my disappearing car was enough to slay me. They were in the same position when I got home, and boy, was I beaming. They were, too. Kudos to Matt for holding down the fort excellently, even with a sick baby (who’s only gotten worse with a fever and off-the-charts crankiness). The one upside of a sick baby is that he loves to snuggle. After his morning bottle, he stayed in my arms for an hour and a half, fading in and out, a wretched cough being the culprit of his restlessness.

Where was I? Houston. For what? A celebration. What was I celebrating? Faithfully memorizing 24 verses throughout 2009 with the Living Proof Live blog community. And what a sweet celebration it was!

After feeling like we’d been going non-stop since Christmas, we made the decision that it would be nice for me to go to Houston by myself. Since I’m an introvert, that works well, being that it’s a key way I rejuvenate. And from the moment I got in the car to head south, to the time I drove back in our driveway at home, the Lord was clearly with me and blessing the weekend every step of the way! I was able to meet up with a friend, Lydia, who was in a discipleship group of mine from a few years ago. We ate lunch at Té on Friday and enjoyed some hot tea, even though it was 78 degrees outside. All the ladies who flew to Texas from the north, LOVED the warm weather. I, on the other hand, am praying for a reversal of the warming trend we’re experiencing. My daffodils should not be sprouting yet! The hotel I stayed at even let me have the special group rate, even though when I’d made the reservation they’d given all the special rate rooms away! On Saturday afternoon, I was also able to catch up with my cousin, Nicole, and her hubby, which was a sweet treat as well. Aside from my first and (prayerfully) last time driving on the wrong side of the street towards oncoming cars, which was one of the worst feelings ever, I navigated through Houston pretty well.

I was ecstatic to have time to do fun things I don’t normally have the free-time to do: reading, tweeting, getting caught up on a scrapbook project of sorts. You’d think sleep would have been something I’d taken advantage of catching up on, but nope, I tried to get as much accomplished in my time alone as I could. The Siesta Scripture Memory Team celebration started Friday night and lasted until Saturday at noon. It was incredibly special from the get-go! The LPM staff loved on us so well with all that they planned. I was able to meet some special bloggers, like Amanda, whom I’ve wanted to meet for a long time, and it was such a gift to me to meet her! Then nearly en-route to Houston, I found out that Big Mama and Marla Taviano were going to be there as well. Bonus!  Granted, I probably came across as a psycho wanting to hang out with the three of them as much as I could and of course, I’m the type of person who gets all nervous when I meet people I respect and admire. It’s rather a nuisance, because I feel all unnatural and like a stalker. So who knows what they think of me. But I think all of them are super, incredibly gracious and warm, and I still have a dream to get to know them better. That might just be possible if I don’t come across as psycho. <grin> Or should it be <muahahaha>?  I loved getting to meet several sweet ladies whom I talked to in the taco line or who welcomed me to sit next to them since I was by myself. My Scripture memory buddies, Brennan and Miss Molly, weren’t with me this weekend, but they were sure a part of the journey of feasting on those 24 verses as we’d work on them on our afternoon walks. Instead, a nice lady, Deborah, let me share my verses with her. It was such a great group of “siestas”, and it was an honor to be there!

If you want a run down of the weekend in detail, I highly recommend you read Amanda’s post here on the LPM blog. It gives a fun overview of the events. There are a number of things about the weekend that I am savoring and treasuring in my heart. Most of all, it was a weekend to celebrate the culmination of how the Lord has shown me His faithfulness and goodness to me over the past year, particularly as He’s helped me be a momma. Beth Moore was right when she said that if anyone got a hold of our spirals with all the verses we’ve worked on, someone would have clear insight into what we’d walked through, wrestled over, and rejoiced in all year long. I leave you with the very first verse of 2009 that I memorized, and one I deeply held onto all year long:

And He will be the stability of your times, a wealth of salvation, wisdom and knowledge. The fear of the Lord is his treasure.

Isaiah 33:6 (NASB)

 

Oh, and how could I resist not leaving you with a couple of my favorite pictures of my boys from the weekend (they had a blast together!)?

Here are my boys helping me practice my verses on Friday morning before I left (Matt still has sleepy eyes). <grin>

And then there’s this character:

 

 

I tell you what, while the weekend away in all regards was sweet, there is nothing sweeter than being back with my boys!

Link Love

Hey, all! I got home not too long ago from lunch with my friend, Emily. We planned on eating at Thundercloud Subs with our boys, but we made a last minute change and went to the Cheesecake Factory. What a treat for us two moms to enjoy a tasty lunch and cheesecake (of course!) with some good little boys, who enjoyed playing outside in the dirt just prior to our meal. If I was quick enough, I would have taken a picture of the boys crawling together; Parker (1.5 years old) reverted back to crawling to play with Brennan and encourage him along. It was awesome!

I brought home a piece of cheesecake for Matt, but I have yet to determine if I’ll actually share that bit of information with him. If he reads this before tonight, then I’ll let him have it. But if somehow that cheesecake gets left in the fridge through the night, well, too bad, babe. <grin>

I just have a few, fun random links and quotes to mention to you that you might find interesting.

I’ve immensely enjoyed some of Pioneer Woman’s recipes lately. They’re simple and yummy. If you’re in the mood for a filling soup to warm your innards, look no further than her Simple, Hearty Chicken and Rice Soup (the only thing I omitted was the food coloring). I’ve also tried her pot roast, which was simple and so good. The meat was very tender and flavorful. It was delightfully aromatic as well. Brennan was most keen on the carrots in the pot roast and absolutely loves the chicken and rice soup.

My dear neighbor has made these pretzel treats for us for some Christmas goodies, and I am IN LOVE! Last year, I ate the entire bag she gave us before Matt got home from work. Do you see a trend here? He either tattled on me or I confessed my addiction to those suckers (I don’t remember which it was) because she sweetly made us more! This year, I made sure Matt got a couple. Literally. They were gone the same night she gave them to us though. I have since made some for gifts and yes, for me to munch on occasionally, too. They are amazing. And terrifyingly addicting! Are you all making any Christmas treats that you love?

I know it may seem like I just emerged from a cave, but I recently discovered Pandora, the live music stream radio through the Internet. I have a whole new slew of Christmas music to listen to! Do you all have any favorite stations you listen to?

I mentioned in my last post about the Advent readings we’re going through as a family. Last Tuesday, the theme of the Scripture verses (Isaiah 13:9-14; Matthew 24:27-32; Revelation 6:1-3, 12-17) was “The Coming of the Lord”. Along with the verses was a quote from Dietrich Bonheoffer's The Coming of Jesus in our Midst. It was stirring and thought-provoking, definitely worth pondering:

We have been so accustomed to the idea of divine love and of God’s coming at Christmas that we no longer feel the shiver of fear that God’s coming should arouse in us. We are indifferent to the message, taking only the pleasant and agreeable out of it and forgetting the serious aspect, that the God of the world draws near to the people of our little earth and lays claim to us. The coming of God is truly not only glad tidings, but first of all frightening news for everyone who has a conscience…Only when we have felt the terror of the matter can we recognize the incomparable kindness. God comes into the very midst of evil and of death and judges the evil in us and in the world. And by judging us God cleanses and sanctifies us, comes to us with grace and love. God makes us happy as only children can be happy. God wants always to be with us, wherever we may be—in our sin, in our suffering and death. We are no longer alone; God is with us.

Ok, I need to start keeping a running list of random musings so I’m not relying on my increasingly unreliable memory. But this will have to suffice for now. We’re headed out for a walk with Miss Molly, and for fun, I think I’ll put her Christmas jingle bell collar on. She might hate me forever for it, though.

 

 

Wrangler and Ree Sightings

This little homebody ventured out by herself last night. Whoa, Nelly! Since Pioneer Woman (PW) announced the cities on her book tour weeks ago, I’ve had my calendar marked for the big day. She recently published a cookbook entitled The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Recipes from an Accidental Country Girl.  And as you probably know, I’m a sucker for a good cookbook. I’ve made a few of her recipes, all of which have been scrumptious. Her magnificent, detailed action shots of the cooking process are quite helpful. PW has written about each of the cities she’s visited for book signings, and as the day approached for her to be in Austin, I found myself getting more excited…and more nervous. I always get freaked out about meeting people I respect, admire, who are authority figures, or people I may not personally know but dream of being friends with one day. I’m a little weird like that.

The signing started at 7 p.m., and I knew people were already arriving as early as 3:45 p.m. to get in line. Simply knowing that made me want to forego the whole thing. But I fought the desire in me to stay home all nestled in with my family. I braved the cold, faced the Austin traffic and the crazy parking situation at the bookstore, and got there at 7:05. As I was squeezing my not-small-enough car into the tight “small car only” space with part of my wheels tucked tightly against the curb, I literally thought to myself, “Oh, Lord, I don’t want to do this. What am I doing here?” But in I went, against all of my own wishes. I felt so out of place.

I entered on the first floor level, was directed to the cashier line to buy the cookbook I’d need in order to get a ticket, and saw in the corner of my eye a familiar face. Is that him? Is that Pioneer Woman’s husband, Marlboro Man? He was behind me browsing some of the book tables so I didn’t have the best angle on his face, so I checked his feet first: yep, cowboy boots. Then I did something I can’t believe I’m going to admit, but it was the first thing that popped into my mind, and I blame it all on Pioneer Woman herself. She writes every now and then about how Marlboro Man’s back end, clothed with a pair of Wranglers, makes her swoon. And then she posts a big ol’ picture of him from the rear for all the world to see. I wish I had the time to search her archives to prove this, but I don’t. Shamelessly, the second most natural thought entered my mind: Look at his bum. Maybe I’ll recognize it from his picture. I. Kid. You. Not.

So my eyes traveled to those pair of Wranglers to see if that would be his tell-tale mark, thanks to his wife. Nope, I didn’t recognize it. Finally, he turned in a direction I could catch his face and confirmed that yes, it was indeed Marlboro Man. Thank goodness that the only man I’ll be able to recognize from his bum is my own husband’s!

I ventured upstairs to receive my purple wristband and came upon hundreds of people, standing and sitting, waiting for Ree to make her appearance. I knew immediately I wasn’t going to stay to get the cookbooks signed as my purple colored wristband would be the last color group to be called upon. If I were 20 again, without a baby to wake up to in the morning, I’d stay. But I’m not that young and vibrant anymore. Simply being swept up by the crowd and anticipating getting to see PW in person was enough for me. And well, there appeared Marlboro Man right before me again. If I’d had the nerves, I would have asked him to sign the book, like several other women did:

My eyes never, never again ventured to his Wranglers!

Ten minutes later, the lovely lady herself appeared to answer a few questions. She would be a delightful person to have for dinner sometime. Would it be rude to make her do the cooking? The Q&A session lasted about 15 minutes, time which allowed us to glimpse her beauty in character and feature, yet unpretentious in demeanor; her humor; and her authenticity. Her four “whippersnappers” were there as well, but this is such an awful picture:

Two questions were asked that I’ve been the most curious about myself: 1) does she read all of her comments (some posts generate up to the tens of thousands of comments) and 2) how does she do it all (a mom of four, wife, homeschooling, blogging about 4-5 posts a day, running a cooking website, etc..,). I’d still like to know. It’s mind-boggling to me all that she does. She works hard, and it’s obvious she has a lot of fun with it, too!

After the Q&A session, I left without anything signed, but content and glad this homebody ventured out for an evening. It was worth it, Wrangler sightings and all.

Face to Face

If you would’ve told me a few years ago that I’d have a blog, I would’ve laughed and dismissed it as a time-waster.  If you would’ve told me that from blogging, I would meet some wonderful people who would be the most encouraging blessing, I probably would’ve been a little skeptical.  Well, I did start a blog.  I love it as you well know, and wish I could add at least two extra hours to my day to blog more regularly.  And I’ve also befriended some amazing people through the blog world, whom I admire, respect, and glean from, with a dream to meet them in person one day (without them saying, “You’re who?  Meg from whatcha-ma-call-it?”  Sudsy Magenta?”).

Well, one of my dreams did come true this past weekend:  I got to meet a dear bloggy friend of mine in person for the first time!  I’ve been reading Sara’s blog for over a year now.  We journeyed through our pregnancies together, sharing a lot of thoughts and emotions in common.  She was one of my only friends who waited to find out if her baby was a boy or girl, too, so we stood strong against the more popular decision to find out the treasured information <grin>.  She also had a little boy, Aaron, who was born a couple of months after Brennan.  She has been a huge source of encouragement for me turn to when I had questions and concerns about pregnancy, and now we can continue to build on our friendship by being mommas to these two precious boys.

When Sara said she and her hubby, Jory, were going to be in New Braunfels for the weekend (they live in Tyler), and that they wanted to get together, I was beyond thrilled to finally meet face to face!  Our husbands graciously tagged along for our lunch at Chili’s in Buda and then we stepped into Cabela’s for a bit to look at the aquarium and stuffed animal collection that was quite spectacular.  As Jory pointed out though, why would they choose to stuff a chipmunk?  It was so tiny standing next to that deer! 

Look at this precious, adorable little boy!  And don’t you just love his bib?  There was no mistaking that this fella is crazy about his momma; the way he smiled at her made my heart melt.   

Here’s a picture of Aaron and his sweet momma.   She and Jory were so fun to hang out with and easy to talk to.  And it was great fun watching the two little boys gaze and smile at each other from across the table.  They were a hoot.  And look how BIG Aaron is!  He’s the same size as Brennan and two months younger! 

I am so thankful for this dream come true!  It was quite amazing for me to think about all we’ve shared over the past year and a half through blogs, comments, and emails, and now we had the opportunity to meet in person.  It was quite touching.  I’ve never been to Tyler, so we’ll have to head that direction some time soon.  <grin>

On our way home, I sat in the backseat to keep the tuckered boy awake until we got home to keep a catnap from ruining his real nap time.  On Sunday, he got to ride his first choo-choo train at the park with Daddy and play in the dirt.  He was a happy camper! 

 

Hope ya’ll have a great Tuesday!  We’re off in a little bit to make a park run for the second time today.  Yippee skippee for the oh so lovely Fall weather!

Well, I’ll Be Danged

Sunday afternoon, I received a text message from my brother saying, “What if I started a blog called Spicier Magnolia?”  I chuckled.  Or maybe cackled.  First off, his comment seemed rather random to me.  Mac, start a blog?  Really?  It has taken a little, no, make that a lot, of coercion to even get him to read my blog!  I have to directly email him posts I want him to read (which I will do with this one, by the way).  And he’s commented once in a blue moon.  Literally, just once, and in that instance, I really wanted to know what he thought about the post so I gave him a deadline to comment.  He always told me growing up that he didn’t need a second mother.  I guess that tendency of mine still rears its ugly head now and then.  But now I have my own child to appropriately redirect that bent.

Mac’s wife, Julie, on the other hand, is not just one of my avid and faithful readers, but commenters as well.  I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, bloggers love comments.  So when I got Mac’s text, it was rather out of the ordinary.

Fast forward to yesterday afternoon when I received an email from Julie announcing “Big news everyone!”.  My eyes honed in on those words like a honey bee to nectar.  And I’m pretty sure my heart even skipped a beat.  Plus, I thought, “No way they would announce that kinda news over email!”  The phrase “big news”, particularly written by a married couple, always suggests pregnancy.  It’s unspoken truth.  They’d surely both crawl up into little balls and never come out of hiding if the “big news” my mind immediately leapt to had really been the “big news” they were announcing.

So after I caught up with the avalanche of my mind’s thoughts, three seconds later I read, “(the kind of big news you share over email.....medium big news).”  <Deep breath>  <Pulse resumes normal rhythm>  The news?  Mac started a blog!  Well, I’ll be danged, is right!  I have yet to know what was the impetus to this decision.  But no matter what, I love it!  And I’m already addicted.

Julie is a “ghostwriter”, but has since nearly tripled the amount of posts that Mac has written in a matter of days.  This is my theory, to which I hope neither of them take offense:  I think she wanted a blog but let fear get to her so she didn’t do it; Mac was tired of hearing how she wanted to write one but couldn’t bring herself to do it; so Mac schemed up an idea that he’d start “his own” blog knowing deep down that Julie would eventually post more than him and it would slyly end up becoming hers; and I foretell that she will one day get tired of hounding him about writing and officially declare it solely hers (which is, by the way, what I did to Matt with Ink Pots).  That’s just a theory, mind you.  I gladly want Mac to prove me wrong.

I love that my brother started a blog!  He will now understand my love of the “bloggy world”, ‘cause I sure love all you Internet peep friends of mine, I surely do!  So the name of the blog is About Wheat (a take on their last name, Wheatley).  Go to http://www.aboutwheat.blogspot.com and take a peak.  I love it.  Oh, wait, have I said that already?

Next thing I know, Mac will be signing up for a Twitter and a Facebook account! 

Watch out, world, here comes Mac!

Link Love

Hi, Internet peeps!  Matt needed to work a little bit tonight so I'm sittin' here watching Dancing with the Stars and American Idol drinking a glass of chocolate milk.  The amount of chocolate far surpasses the milk.  Oh, how happy it makes me!  By the way, so far Melissa and Shawn are my favorites in DWTS; I have yet to pick a favorite for AI.  What about you?

Me and Chunky Monkey have had a wonderful past two days!  We made our first trip to the grocery store yesterday.  I couldn't fit his car seat in the grocery basket and had no idea what to do with it.  So walking into the store, I asked the lady walking in next to me if she was a momma.  She said with a smile, "Yes, I am."  I proceeded to ask her, "What do I do with the car seat?"  She was so friendly and helpful, showing me different options.  With the car seat set, we made our way through the grocery store.  He was lulled to sleep by the motion of the cart and my voice since I was talking to him the whole time.  The last two days have been great days enjoying my sweet baby.  Thank you, Lord!

Here are some things I think you'd be interested in:

• The animation of this video of the Hudson River plane landing is amazing.  The story is still incredible to me.
• My friend, Jill, made us Thai Coconut Shrimp Curry from Cooking Light a few weeks ago to help us out with Brennan.  It is delicious!  If you're not a shrimp fan, I'm sure there's a way to substitute it with chicken.  Serve it with fried rice and snow peas.  I'm making it for dinner this week.  I'm telling you, it is good! 
• Julie requested the recipe to Kim's pumpkin ice cream pie with chocolate-almond bark and toffee sauce that I mentioned in the last post.  The recipe is from Epicurious.  Here it is.
• Who is psyched about March Madness!?  I AM!  Granted, I have no idea what's been goin' on in the world of basketball, but there is something really cool about March Madness and the lively variety that it brings to the weeks ahead.  Matt and I just filled out a bracket for a pool that my sister-in-law put together.  We flipped a coin to determine the game winners.  For the first round, about 80% of the underdogs were selected to win because of how the coin toss turned out.  Ha!  I think we're gonna be losers with a capital L!  We shall see.  I'm also filling out a bracket in BooMama's group.  If you're interested in filling one out for kicks, go here for more info.  Brennan's gonna be lovin' him some b-ball by the end of the month!  Go Tar Heels! 
• If you like making photo collages, check this out.  Matt made one with some of our pics:

Christina asked how Molly's vet appointment went (thanks, Christina!).  She was a happy camper; they spoil her with treats oh, yes they do!  She had some blood drawn but has to go back tomorrow for x-rays and an ultrasound.  This is not the first time she's suffered from rumbly, upset tummies, but it's gotten progressively worse over the years.  She really doesn't feel well, and I'm worried about her.  So hopefully we'll know more this week and it won't be serious.  We're giving her lots of lovies.  The funny thing about the vet though was that you could definitely tell she and her assistants are animal people; they barely acknowledged Brennan at all.  It was hilariously odd.

So Molly goes to the vet tomorrow and then Brennan goes to the doctor for his 2 month check up on Thursday. He'll get four shots!  I'm dragging Matt with me because I can't bare to see him go through it. 

It's been gorgeous here this week.  I hope to get out with Brennan and work in the yard over the next few days.  The weeds are starting to overtake our backyard and I can't take it any longer.  Spring is here, my friends.  Hope ya'll have a wonderful evening and Happy St. Pat's Day!

Oh, wait...I just had an exciting, fleeting thought!  Easter is coming!  That means that the Easter bunny is on his way!  There's much more to Easter than that, don't get me wrong.  But a renewed sense of excitement for the Easter bunny that I haven't had in years has suddenly resurged because of the new little one in our home!  I mean, he'll only be 3 months, but hey, it's Brennan's first Easter!  Any fun ideas about what to put in a little Easter basket for him or where to find a cute basket?

Ok, now I'm signing off.  G'night.  <grin>