Little Girl Decorating

I haven't really decorated Amy's room. Up until now she has shared with her brother, so I didn't do much. But, we're shuffling kids around in our 3 bedroom house, and pretty soon Amy will be all by herself in her room. The 11 year old is going to make a bedroom in the sunroom (we need to add a door) and the three little boys will be sharing the big bedroom. My prayer is that God will add another little girl to our family and then Amy won't be lonely!

Here's the nursery now:

So, I'm looking for inspiration to redo her room (for very little cash).

this is cute from Design Dazzle

and maybe a homemade rag rug (go here for tutorial)

12:16 PM - Oct. 9, 2009 - comments {3} - post comment

"We Don't Eat Poop"

“We don’t eat poop.”

It’s a common phrase in our house. Often followed by “Only food.” As in “We don’t eat poop - only food.”

It is so common that the disgusting little phrase has even shown up in our prayers for loved ones. Don’t ask me why.

The origin of the phrase is a bit sketchy, as, you know, I have five kids and that does nothing for my ability to remember important facts, such as when the whole family started saying “We don’t eat poop – only food.” But I’m fairly sure it came out of my mouth first when our little dog wolfed down a hunk of my three year old’s fecal matter. We won’t get into the gag reflex that I still have when I think of it.

Today was by far the worst moment involving poop that I’ve had as a mother. Which is quite amazing, as I’ve had many poop moments to speak of with my four crazy boys.

But it wasn’t one of my rowdy boys that disgusted me so badly. It was my beautiful, delicate little Miss Darlin that catapulted herself into the poop-eating hall of fame. I know you are thinking, “What could she have possibly done that was so bad.” Well, it involves poop. And it involves eating. Of course, you knew that.

I was giving her a bath when the two year old decided that he wanted one too. As I was taking his clothes off, I realized he had a dirty diaper. He brought me some wipes and I began to clean him up in preparation for bath time, which doesn’t exactly make sense, but we wouldn’t want poop floating in the bathtub, would we? I wiped him up, shoved the dirty wipes in the diaper, but didn’t fold it over and close it up. Mistake #1. I laid the diaper on the side of the tub, because our trashcan was sitting in the kitchen with powerful cleansers working magic to get some gross smell out of it. Mistake #2.

I finish cleaning and drying the kids off and I take both of them into the bedroom to diaper and dress. As I was chasing the two year old around…ok…I wasn’t actually chasing him around. I was sitting on my fat, lazy butt in the middle of the floor, trying to grab the little booger without getting up. I digress.

The sguirmy little thing came close enough to grab, so I dressed him and diapered him (but not in that order.) Before I could finish with Miss Darlin, one of the other boys needed something, so I ran off to see what was going on. I mentally told myself that I shouldn’t let Miss Darlin wander into the bathroom because she might fall into the toilet. But, since I’ve had four boys who never managed to fall into the toilet, I ignored my ‘inner voice’. Mistake #3.

I got done with whatever had taken my attention away from dressing the kids and began to look for a naked child crawling around in the house. Perhaps I should have sent my husband to look for her. When I found her, she had pulled herself up to the side of the tub, stuck her tiny fist into her brother’s diaper, retrieved a great big, blob of black poop, and was licking it like it was lollipop.

Yeah, they don’t sell those at the candy store.

I tried not to throw up all over my daughter, further adding to her absolute disgustingness and I sat that child back in the bathtub and scrubbed the fire poop out of her.

All of my children have eaten poop, they get it from their father, but up until now it has only been their own poop that has made its way into their mouths.  What? You have perfect, little robot children who don’t pull their dirty diapers off in the middle night and paint poop murals on their wall (while taking a few tastes?) Well, I feel sorry for you. Life just isn’t exciting until you have witnessed poop-eating. Come to my house, I can probably arrange a showing.

8:56 PM - Jun. 18, 2009 - comments {8} - post comment

Treating Little Girls Like Ladies

Recently at the ball fields I watched my oldest son practice with his team. My little boys climbed up and down a big hill of dirt and built a seesaw with some abandoned lumber. What more could a little boy want? My baby daughter sat on my lap, proudly displaying her two new teeth and her innate knowledge of the feminine art of batting her eyelashes.

Down on the field below us three male coaches put their team of tiny softball girls through the paces of throwing, batting, and catching. I didn't pay them much attention at first, why would I? I had the cutest little girl in the whole world in my lap entertaining me. But when the abrasive shouts of the male coaches became more than I could bear, I had to start watching.

What I saw was sad and typical. These three men treated these extraordinarily precious little girls like rough and tumble little boys. They shouted "Get in front of the ball!" "Come on, what are you thinking?" "Stop throwing like a girl!" They didn't treat these little girls with the kindness, gentleness and softness that suits the female gender. No, they acted as if they were just little boys with ponytails.

Parents, grandparents, Christians, please listen...if you want little girls to act like the ladies that God created them to be then you must begin by treating them like ladies. It is time for Christians to look feminism in the face and say "No thank you! I don't want what you're teaching, I'll take the Bible instead!"

Feminism seriously robbed and handicapped our mothers' generation. Our generation must not let it rob us and our daughters. We must begin treating little girls DIFFERENTLY because they are different. Little girls are not little boys. Forget the mantra "You can do anything a boy can do!" Why would a little girl want to do anything a boy can do? We weren't created to do what the boys do. We were created for our own precious purpose.

That purpose is to be a lady.

We are here to soften the world, not to dominate it. When we treat our little girls like boys we are calling out of them an aggression and competitiveness that will stifle their natural femininity. We are squelching their created passion for care-giving and nurturing. We are essentially telling them that they are nothing special. When we treat them like little boys we are teaching them that their very gender is worthless.

A little girl who feels worthless is a heart-breaking thing.

6:23 AM - May. 1, 2009 - comments {4} - post comment

Big Boy and Baby Girl

     The timeline created by my 10yo is coming along nicely. Each week he adds more cards, incorporating bible history and ancient history. This year we are using Heart of Dakota's "Preparing Hearts for His Glory" program, and we enjoy it so much.

     Try to ignore the baby in the background. She is dripping milk all over herself because her mama stopped feeding her to take a picture. Bad mama.

My bookends are so adorable together. This big brother adores his little sister. He helped her model her cute little tutu for the camera.

1:18 PM - Mar. 17, 2009 - comments {0} - post comment

Pretty Little Darlin

3:01 PM - Jan. 29, 2009 - comments {6} - post comment

Real Tree Girl

My father-in-law gave Miss Darlin, my pretty little feminine girl, a Real Tree onesie for Christmas. What can I say, the man is a hunter. In honor of him, I thought I'd dress her in it today, but I thought that onesie needed a little something girly!

9:54 AM - Dec. 26, 2008 - comments {5} - post comment

Oh the Fun

Here's Miss Darlin. She is 7 weeks old.

9:56 PM - Nov. 10, 2008 - comments {11} - post comment

Pretty in Pink

Before Miss Darlin was born, I was talking to another mom who had two boys and then a girl (you know who you are). Her little girl is always so cute and feminine. Well, she was telling me how she loved bows for her little girl's hair, and that she had just ordered 30 of them. At the time, I thought "That is crazy!"

But now...I understand. Miss Darlin looks naked without a bow on her head. She is just adorable and girly in her little bows. I've been trolling around on etsy and I found so many bows and headbands that I would love to stick on my Little Darlin's cute noggin.

A bow just makes her look like a tempting little present. Don't you agree?

10:45 AM - Oct. 23, 2008 - comments {7} - post comment

Miss Darlin's First Bath

Here's pics from Miss Darlin's first second bath. Daddy gave her the first bath in the hospital. We told the nurses that we'd do it in the room. It was nice. This is her second bath, the one that you have to wait to do when the cord piece falls out.

Daddy always does the first baths around here. And they are always done in the kitchen sink.

I don't care who you are...this is the CUTEST baby that you've ever seen. Am I right?

Snuggling with mom in her hot pink robe. Because ever girl needs a hot pink robe.

3:10 PM - Oct. 7, 2008 - comments {5} - post comment

No More Shoes

My mom asked "Why are you blogging about shoes, when you could be putting adorable pictures of my grandkids up?"

These are for the grandparents...

Oh, I do declare! I'm much too tired to pose for a picture.

I want that finger! Give me that finger, brother #4.

10:07 PM - Oct. 1, 2008 - comments {3} - post comment