Joy

When I think of the word JOY, this is the first face that comes into my mind...

My sweet second child, Benny Boo. This kid has been giggling and smiling, pretty much since Day 1. When I was pregnant with Ben, I wondered, "will I ever love anyone as much as I love Hunter?" I knew that I would, but it was so hard for me to visualize. The truth is, YES, I DO love Ben as much as Hunter, but I love him differently. He holds a completely separate place in my heart, and brings me joy in a whole new way. It is hard to explain unless you have experienced it, but it is true that a parent's love is exponential, and unending.

Since my last post was about Hunter, I thought I should probably give Benny Boo his own post too. Suffice it to say that Benny is the sweetest, cuddliest, happiest and most contented baby I know (unless he is teething or sick...different story) and brought more JOY into my life than I ever could have imagined.

He also loves to CLIMB, and Justin and I joke often that he will be the one we end up in the ER with the most often as he grows up (you know...with broken bones and the like). Of course, I HOPE this doesn't happen, but I think it probably will. He is most contented when moving fast, spinning around in circles, falling down, going down slides, jumping in the pool, etc. He doesn't seem to notice that he is still too young for most of these activities!! Gives me a heart attack!

Benny also LOVES music! He loves to play the piano, tries to play Grampie's trumpet, and will dance and clap his hands to any kind of music - the louder the better. Justin likes to listen to classic rock when driving around town, and this is definitely Benny's favorite as well. Pretty much, if there is a party-and it takes place before 7pm-he is THERE! After 7pm, and he will catcha in the AM.

Boy-Genius

Hunter started preschool last week, and so far he really loves it! The reason I made the decision to send him to preschool at Grow To Know, at our church this year? I am crazy! Not really, the real reason is I felt he was ready for more structure, and more formalized learning. The kid is scary-smart and soaks up all new information like a sponge. Grow to Know is a great environment for him to be in because it is at our church, so he is familiar with the room but also because they are very focused on positive reinforcement, and play-learning.

I am very happy that we chose to do this. Only problem is, it adds an extra stop to my already-pretty-hectic mornings, and evenings.

Here is a picture of him on his very first day. Very excited!

Lately he has been blowing me away! We had 3 particularly crazy conversations lately that show just how smart this kid is.

1. The Mouse

There was a dead mouse in our mousetrap, and naturally I started squealing and running around trying to decide what to do about it (duh...pick it up) I am not what you might call a "true country girl" but living in the country sometimes requires me to, shall we say "MAN UP!" and just take care of business. Well in this particular instance, I opted for freaking out instead. Sounded good at the time.

So here is what happened:

Me: *squeal squeal* "Hunter dont go over there!!" {runs into the kitchen to find something - who knows what}

Hunter: "Mom, its just a mouse in a mouse trap - stop freaking out, you just need to pick it up and throw it in the woods"

Me: *still squealing* {dials the phone}

Hunter: "Mommy, let me talk to Daddy"

Me: {hands phone to Hunter}

Hunter: "Daddy - Mommy is freaking out, she just needs to throw it in the woods"

After we got Justin up to speed, he was lauging so hard he was crying, and told me to pick it up by the trap with some tongs and just throw it in the outside trash. I agreed to do that, but pretty much squealed the whole time, while Justin and Hunter talked on the phone and laughed at me.


2. The Solar System:

The other morning, Hunter said "Mommy, let's talk about the Solar System"

Me: "Ok, buddy, what do you want to tell me about the solar system?"

Him: "Well, the solar system is good because it has lots of planets"

Me: "Oh, well, what planet do we live on?"

Him: "We live on planet Earf"

Me: "That is right. What about the sun? Is the sun a really big star?"

Him: "Hmm...the sun is the star that is really close to us, all the other stars are far away"

...later that evening

Me: Hey buddy, do you know the names of the planets

Him: No

Me: Well, I am not sure either, lets see - Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Venus, Saturn...

Him: You forgot Jupiter

Me: oh.

3. Metamorphosis:

We were playing with this app on my ipad that has a bunch of different things going on, including a catapillar that climbs up this tree branch, makes a cocoon and comes out a butterfly.

Hunter: Mommy - what is that worm doing?

Me: That is called Metamorphosis

Hunter: Meta-morfla -sis?

Me: Yeah, that is when a caterpillar goes to sleep in a cocoon and when it wakes up it is a butterfly.

Hunter: oh, ok.

*hours later after his nap*

Me: Hey, Hunter, Do you remember what Metamorphosis is?

Hunter: yeah. Metamorphosis is when a caterpillar sleeps in a cocoon, then it is a butterfly, and that is called Metamorphosis.

And now he officially knows everything I know about science

In other news: we are NOWHERE NEAR potty training, and he will be 3 in about 2 weeks.

you win some, you lose some.

Commitment

I have been thinking a lot the last several days about commitment. This is because I have been very sick, and as I have been recovering I have been thinking about how to prevent this from happening to me again.

Here is the deal...I think I got some sort of little sicky-bug, and because I was so run-down from my insanely busy life, my poor body could just not fight it off. It didn't help that once I got sick, I gave myself 3 days to get better, then just went back to work and life pretending I was not sick. This just made me get sicker and sicker.

The good news: This is day 3 where I have felt better than the day before

The bad news: I am still operating at about 50%, which is rather inconvenient for me. I went to work until about 1 pm, came home for a nap, then went to get the boys. And I am EXHAUSTED.

Which brings me to my point: It is time to re-evaluate my life.

I spend a lot of time running around trying to do all the things I think I am supposed to be doing, what I think is expected of me, trying to be the best mother, daughter, wife, friend, housekeeper (ha!) and worker that I can be. While this are good things, I am thinking that there are only so many hours in the day and so many ounces of energy that I can pull out of this body. I need to prioritize.

The only life-long commitments I have ever made are as follows:

1. To be a follower of Christ

2. To be a loving and faithful wife to Justin

3. To be a caring and committed mother to my two amazing boys

That is it! Everything else is just extra. Sometimes I get ahead of myself and start worrying: should I have more kids? am I the right-amount of committed to my job outside the home (sometimes I feel like I should work more, sometimes less)? Should I spend more time with friends? Should I work out every day? Should I be reading my Bible every single day?

While the answers to some of these questions might be yes - I am certainly not excelling in all areas of my life-the questions themselves kind of miss the point. I don't think I need to be as worried about the tasks I complete every day, or if I am meeting some standard I set for myself or someone else set for me. I need to just focus on my THREE lifetime commitments, and do the best I can to fulfill those every day and stop worrying. It really doesn't help anyway.

Those are my thoughts.

Here we go...

How do you know you should probably have a blog?

1. Sometimes you write longer facebook statuses than people want to read

2. You have some interesting thoughts sometimes, and would like an outlet to share those with others

3. You have the 2 cutest children who ever existed, and think the rest of the world deserves a glimpse into their amazing lives. (This may be a matter of opinion or fact, either will work)

4. You find great joy in reading the blogs that other people write and think maybe it is time to contribute to the blogosphere

Well, I gave myself this small quiz, and decided since I meet all these criteria, it is time to start a blog.

I am thinking the theme is Faith Hope Love, because that happens to also be the theme of my life.

Faith in a real and living God

Hope in a bright future for my children, and for tomorrow to always be better than today

Love for my friends and family, that trumps most everything else

So...here we go.