Family Musings

I have been asked a lot when I am going to start Charlotte on solid food. I’ve made it clear that I am going to wait until she is at least 6 months old and begins to show interest. Many moms ask why they should delay solids until 6 months? Interest: It seems their baby is interested in food and that is one of the cues given on Baby Center. However, as one poster noted, our babies are also interested in the watching us type and fold laundry. Does that mean they are ready for these tasks? No. Babies have a natural curiosity about everything going on around them. This curiosity is what helps their brains to grow and develop. If we take away their best source of nutrition, we may impede their development. Sleeping: So, let’s give the baby solid food so we can get more sleep? That seems awfully selfish to me. Setting aside the single mom who has to work 2 jobs to make ends meet (since that is the exception, not the norm), the vast majority of us can deal with waking every 3-4 hours to nurs...

Yeah, I know... I'm a dork. I'm on my laptop on Christmas day. But that's okay... I'm not being sacrilegious or anything. We celebrated the REAL holiday, the birthday of Jesus, yesterday. Today was about giving gifts to family members so it is okay for me to be on the computer. They are watching the movie Cars . I thought I'd share some pictures from our celebrations. The collage we put together for Nana, Charlotte's grandmother on her father's side. We had lunch with her on Friday. Bruce got very excited over his big gift from me - a new camera! I threw him off so that he wouldn't expect it by dropping hints that I had just been too busy with Charlotte and work to find time to order it for him. He wanted the Canon A540 to replace his A80 which doesn't work anymore. We opened gifts with my family on Saturday morning. On Saturday, Charlotte got pooped out from all of the excitement. Isn't it cute how her legs got folded over while she slept? 2 ni...

I am sure most everyone has seen this by now, but it is too great to not share with the last few who haven't. Plus, I want to be able to find it again for myself, so why not archive it in my blog? My family and I are celebrating the birth of Jesus today by going to a candlelight service tonight and having a birthday party for Jesus. I am baking an angel food cake (devil's chocolate cake just didn't seem right!) right now. We'll get to enjoy it along with a reading of the Christmas story later tonight. I can't wait! Tomorrow, we will celebrate the secular holiday with gift-giving to one another and the reading of The Legend of St. Nicholas . It tells the story of the real St. Nick in a way that children can relate to. I know Charlotte isn't old enough to appreciate the story just yet, but we want to begin our family's Christmas traditions this year so they become second nature in years to come. Additionally, we really want to make the focus more on the birthd...

You are probably wondering why my post is titled 'Thanksgiving.' Well, you see, things got a little busy and either Charlotte or I have been sick for the last couple of weeks so I only realized last night that I never posted any Thanksgiving pictures. We spent the weekend at my brothers who, as I did mention here , hosted a wonderful dinner with his wife Michelle. [pause to go search for Thanksgiving pictures] Umm... I don't have any! How is it possible that I didn't take any pictures all weekend? I have no idea. If I had taken them, they would be on my laptop, but there aren't any. Oh my... I've got baby brain bad! Oh well... I guess I'll just share some pictures from last weekend. Charlotte and I went with my mom to St. Petersburg to visit her family. Charlotte had not had a chance to meet her Great-Grandfather or her Aunt Terry and the stars finally aligned to make it possible. Here is Great-Grandpa holding Charlotte like an old pro. She is the first gre...

Merry Christmas! (click above to view our Christ-mas card)

Isn't she adorable... even without pants?!

I finally had a chance today to put up some Christmas decorations. I hadn't really planned on putting any up since we won't actually be here on Christmas day, but I changed my mind... clearly. :-) This is my nativity set. It was a gift from my parents several years ago. They knew how much I admired a similar one my mom had so they got me my own. Hopefully I will have it for a long time and be able to pass it on to one of my children. There are 2 angels that go with the set but I don't have room on top of my entertainment center for them too. Yes, it is a pretty large set. It takes up 3 large boxes! I love nativities and have a few around the house. I'll try to take more pictures to share with you in the next week or so. I am also missing a box of nativities (I had several) and hopefully I will find them soon! Here is Charlotte's first Christmas ornament. It is, of course, a Hallmark ornament. They make the best ones, don't they? Since I am not putting up a tree ...

Charlotte isn't feeling well this weekend. She has a nasty headcold and a low-grade fever. She won't hardly let us put her done and has been comfort nursing every hour or so, even overnight. That really means that mommy has to hold her all of the time. I don't really mind it though... until it's my turn to clean out her nose. She hates the aspirator! Since she is sick I decided to stay home from church with her this morning. I don't like missing church, but if I had taken her I would have missed it anyway because I would have needed to stay in the nursery with her. I did manage to be rather productive while I was home and got started on our Christmas gifts for our co-workers. I'll post pictures later... I don't want to spoil the gift in case any of them reads my blog. Bruce called about 35 minutes before our adult Bible study began to tell me he left his lesson at home and it was our week to provide snacks for the class. Fortunately, I kind of thought it was...

My sister-in-law, Michelle, just elfed me... and it was pretty elfin' funny! Plus, she made me look skinny!

Charlotte has developed a new syndrome. I am calling it Zombie Arm. She leaves her arm out for very long periods of time, reaching for unseen objects. Unseen by me and Dr. Dad at least. This afternoon we went for a 2-mile walk and I wore her in the Baby Bjorn. Most of that time she was holding her right arm out, as seen in the picture below, which I took with my camera phone as we walked. Who knows what she is reaching for!

I did it. I finally overcame one of my greatest fears about teaching – and it happened purely by accident. I was thirsty this morning, so I drank more than my usual amount before school. About halfway through our first block I had to go to the bathroom. I’m an adult so I thought, “surely I can hold it. I expect my students to do that, it’s only 30 more minutes” After another couple of minutes, I realized I was incredibly uncomfortable and wouldn’t be able to wait. So, I asked a neighbor teacher to keep an eye on my class while I made a quick visit to the bathroom. Once I was done, I resumed the lesson already in progress. While I was explaining the next task, a couple of my students were snickering. I hadn’t seen them talking to one another but the giggles were distracting. Little did I know I would discover something even more distracting than giggles. I asked one of the girls, “what’s so funny?” She refused to say and wouldn’t look me in the eyes. Hmmm… what could it be? It dawned on...

Last Friday, we made a last minute decision to visit Sea World. We have a Fun Pass that was given to us as an anniversary present and needed to get a little more use out of it before it expires at the end of the year. Our trip was a lot of fun and we even got a big splash from Shamu at the Miracles of Christmas show. Charlotte got quite a look of shock on her face but braved the wet socks very well (that was the only part I didn't get covered in time). I really enjoyed the Miracles show. They didn't try to make this about a winter holiday, but instead talked about Christmas and sang Christmas carols. Bruce has some video I might find time to upload soon, but I've been busy posting a lot today so you'll most likely have to wait, if I even get to it. At the end of the show, they had a "choir" singing along with some fancy soloist. I don't think it was a real choir though. My guess is that they had their employees all put on the blue choir robes and come out...

Charlotte has a new toy that I put together last week. It is an Evenflo Exersaucer . I think it took about 45 minutes to assemble, but so far it seems way worth it! There are lots of little doo-dads for her to play with. The video below is of the 2nd or 3rd time we put her in the saucer. She's pretty good at navigating around the circle. Her seat can spin if she moves her feet enough. We can lock it if we need to, but so far have let her experience the circular movement as much as she wants. Charlotte's tiny little feet just barely reach the saucer disk on the bottom, but it is just enough for her to work on strengthening her leg muscles and spin herself around. I'll try to get some pictures of her cute little toes reaching for bottom. For now though, enjoy this video! Here's a picture to hold you over in case you don't have time to watch the video right now. The 45-minute assembly was fairly frustrating, especially because I tried to do it without reading the dire...

It would appear that Charlotte is taking after her mommy. She does not like to wake-up in the morning. This video proves it.

There are lots of blogs in the blogosphere that give away stuff. Most of it requires you to leave a comment and as I am a blogging lurker (I rarely comment) I don't participate in those giveaways. There are however, some blogs that just require you to fill out an entry form with your name and e-mail address. Challies Dot Com is one of those. I am really excited about Tim Challies' blog giveaway this month. It looks like something the youth at my church would really enjoy. Click on the link below to learn more and enter. Use referral code 40587 when you enter.

I saw this on a blog I have in my reader and like Fee, thought it would be fun to share with all of you. 10 Things I liked as a teenager that I really don’t care for now Tight-rolling my jeans Frosted hair Big Bows in my hair Scrunchies Wearing 2 pairs of socks (different colors of course) D&G velcro bracelets Blue eye liner NKOTB (She's my candy-girl...) Country Music Staying up all night long 10 things I didn’t like as a teenager that I do like now Sour cream Guacamole Biographies The idea of having my own kids Being uncool (I embrace my uncoolness now!) Bruce Listening to sermons on cd while I drive NPR Really spicy food Only having a few friends 10 things that I didn't like as a teen and still don’t like Cats Clothes shopping Liberals who are "tolerant" of everything but me Bad movies Guinea Pigs (sorry Harry) Raw broccoli Divorce Being embarrased in public Televangelists Authority 10 things I liked as a teen and still do Christian Pop Music Dancing Sweet Tea ...

Whew! I finally got caught up with responding to my comments for November. Sorry to took so long. (That apology is mostly for Rebecca since she is the only one who regularly comments on my blog.) I really want to try and leave comments for other people on their blogs too, but it is just barely enough to find time to read their blogs, let alone think of something insightful to share. I am trying to keep a commitment to myself to post at least 4 times a week. And I mean real posts, posts that are worth reading . I think at least one of those posts should have pictures too. Because, let's be honest, most of you 4 people who read my blog really just want updates on Charlotte Moon and endure the rest of my musings for the excitement of the pictures. I do have some pictures too. And some commentary to go along with them. First up, is this photo of a stainless steel sponge basket we saw at Lowe's. The price tag for this ~4"x4" basket is actually $146.08! No, that is not a ty...

After our Bible study on Sunday morning... I had a flash of inspiration. I was thinking about interpreting scripture so that I may apply it to my life and it occured to me that it was kind of like putting on moisturizer. Let's say you are in a hurry one day to get ready. In your haste to apply your moisturizer you grab the bottle and start slathering it all over. A short while later, you look down and see that your have large orange splotches and streaks all over and your palms are also orange. What happened? I'll tell you - you rushed your application! You forgot to read the bottle and only now do you realize that you grabbed your sunless tanner instead of your regular moisturizer. This can happen when we study the Bible too. If we read a passage of scripture and immediately begin trying to apply it to our lives, we can miss the important part and end up with a problem on our hands. Take Romans 6:1 for example. If one reads that quickly and without caution, one could end up r...

Okay, I haven’t lost the lovin’ feeling, but I have misplaced my bloggin’ feeling recently. I have lots of ideas about things to write about, but the time to do so just never materializes. In the few days before Thanksgiving, Charlotte was up every two hours overnight and I had a horrible cough. Then, when we were out of town for the holiday, she slept like an angel and only wanted to nurse every 4 hours. You could almost set a clock by her! Now that we are home again, we are back to every 2 hours… Strange. I was home by 2:30 or so last night and put Charlotte down for bed around 7:45. In those ~5 hours, I must have had her latched on for 2 ½! I don’t mind spending the time with her, but it kills my productivity. FlyLady would not be happy with my piles of paper right now! I’ll try to post some pictures from the holiday soon. But before I do, I want to give a shout out to my little brother and his wife Michelle. They did a wonderful job hosting us while we stayed at their place and our...

Why we honor the name of Charlotte Moon Charlotte “Lottie” Moon was born in 1840 to a wealthy Virginia family. Her mother encouraged her education and although it was unusual for a woman of her time, Lottie learned eight languages and earned a Master of Arts. Lottie’s intelligence and sense of humor attracted the attention of a Harvard professor who asked her to marry him. But Lottie turned down marriage and spent her life as a missionary to the Chinese people. Single women were not usually sent as missionaries, but Lottie believed there was no barrier too great for God. She found financial support from Baptist women in Virginia and she moved to China. She served through three wars. During the Boxer Rebellion, she disguised herself as a Chinese man and snuck behind enemy lines so she could minister to suffering people. Later, during the Chinese Revolution, she took on duties as a hospital administrator when she found a local hospital had been abandoned by fleeing doctors. Lottie spent ...

Charlotte has finally figured out that she has toes. Yep folks, our little girl now knows what those things on the end of her legs are for. They are for pulling and tugging and playing with and pretty soon I am sure she will decide they are for putting in her mouth! By the way, this is the last day she will wear this adorable, organic cotton outfit... it is too small. I couldn't even button the top button this morning! She's growing up so fast!

The last few nights Charlotte has wanted to nurse every couple of hours. On Sunday morning, around 4 am, I looked over at her and actually asked her, though my sleepiness, if she was in league with the Devil to keep me from church that day! Does that make me a bad mommy?

I don't really expect that most of you who read my blog will be interested in a video on thrift store shopping. However, I thought it would be neat to point out myth #3. I have a few items in my wardrobe that were thrifted and no one knows which ones they are. It is my fun little secret!

I've added a few new pictures... check out the progress of our home !

Make a slide show, scrapbook or ecard

I thought long and hard about what to talk about in my 100th post and couldn't come up with anything that was funny, elegant, or insightful enough. So this is it. Now we return to you regularly scheduled blogging program.

Isn’t funny how you can know a song forever and then hear it one morning and be struck by it in a completely different way? I was listening to the song “Fingerprint of God” in the car this morning on my way to drop Charlotte off at day care. I have known this song for a long time and was blithely singing the lyrics when we arrived. I kept humming the chorus to myself as I walked around to get Charlotte . When I saw her, I started singing the chorus to her (no snide comments about my singing now!) and as I sang these lyrics and looked into her eyes she gave me a smile filled with so much delight it near broke my heart. She is the fingerprint of God and there is no other baby just like her. She is a “living breathing priceless work of art.” I have many works of art on my walls, some of it super cheap and some of it kind of pricey (which still might be cheap by some people’s standards), but none of it is as breathtaking as my daughter. I’ve said before how I am capable of staring at her...

It makes me sad to read an article like this . So many women miss out on the joys of breastfeeding because of perceived obstacles that can be overcome with just a little bit of effort. I get that the mother working at a fast food restaurant may not be able to pump on her 15-min break as easily as I can on my 2 ½ hour planning break, but even that obstacle can be overcome if the mother is willing. I have to applaud the Regency (where I delivered) for having great support with 2 lactation consultants on-site. However, they lose points in my book for the sheer volume of formula they sent me home with, even though they knew I was planning to breastfeed exclusively. I am sure I came home with about 30 single-serve bottles and another 4 cans of powdered formula. Oh and I think there were 2 packages of single-serve formula in glass bottles as well. It wasn’t the easiest thing in the world to establish our breastfeeding dyad. I did have sore nipples and some cracking because Charlotte took a ...

Yep! That's right. Sweet, little, darling Charlotte gave her Mommy and Daddy the gift that keeps on giving - her virus. I woke up Saturday morning with awful, horrible stomach cramps and by the end of the day her daddy had them too. I spent most of the day laying down and sleeping. Daddy was a super-trooper and took care of Charlotte all day. I didn't change a single diaper Saturday. I was so dizzy I was scared to pick her up to do anything with her. Fortunately, around 9 pm, relief came for both of us, but not in any way that you would want me to describe to you (think cookies). Now though, on Sunday evening, we are all feeling better though we don't have any appetite. I think I ate less than 1,000 calories today. Not good for keeping up my milk production, but I think one day like this won't be the end of the world. I'll be keeping a close eye on that this week. In more fun news... I was telling my mom tonight about Charlotte being all grabby lately. This is a new...

From Like Merchant Ships : As we swept up the crumbs in the post-party quiet, Christy wondered if more bloggers are introverts than extroverts. If so, are the most popular bloggers also the extroverts among us? Or do you think the Internet enables even the shyest to adopt a more outgoing personality? I'm a little behind on adding my comment to the 'coffee' but if you read my post below I have a good excuse. I really don't think introverts or extroverts are attracted to blogging in greater numbers than the other. Personally, I'm an extrovert ( ESTJ ) and blog in part because I like the feedback and attention I get from family and friends. Of course, I also blog to keep a record of Charlotte's life for her to enjoy reading some day. There are so many stories from my own childhood I don't know and am only just learning. For example, my mom and I just got off the phone and as we were discussing Charlotte's trip to the ER my mom told me I was in the hospita...

They don't put a spot for this in the baby books. But if they did... we'd have our entry as of last night. Charlotte and I went for a lovely photo session yesterday afternoon and then decided to visit a friend's house for a little party. Just as we were getting ready to go, Charlotte decided to leave the contents of her stomach for our hostess. (Who, coincidentally, had been dealing with her own sick baby.) Once we got her all cleaned up and out of her now yucky dress, we tried again. About 5 feet from the door, she said, "Wait Mommy, I have more to leave behind." So I cleaned her up again then soothed her so we could make our journey home. I called Daddy who was driving home from a training session and told him about his sick little girl. Once I pulled into the driveway I heard a familiar sound. Yep, Charlotte was heaving and leaving more 'gifts' behind. I could hardly get her out of the car and into the house due to my extreme nervousness. She has thrown...

Did you use a silly pen name and live to regret it? What would you do differently, if you were starting your blog all over again? I can proudly say I had no silly names for my first blog. What I did have was a really boring name - Jenn's Journal. I just couldn't think of anything more unique that that. In my defense, most of the blood was rushing to my belly for little Baby Sabin so that didn't leave many resources for my brain! As a matter of fact, I'm still using that excuse... my friend Angela calls it ''Baby Brain" and says I can use it as an excuse as long as I am a mother. Honestly, I don't think I would do anything differently in my start to blogging. I'm happy with the way my blog has turned out and the ways it continues to grow and change with me. I have been considering privacy issues recently in regards to my photos and names though. That is one reason I added my Creative Commons license at the bottom of my blog. But, since my blog is rea...

Since I don't have many real life friends who blog (okay, none really), I decided to make some blog friends by participating in an on-line coffee party. Today, the conversation turned to who reads our blogs. Does your husband read your blog? Does your family know about it? If so, does it cause problems or keep you real? My husband does read my blog. As a matter of fact, he usually proofs my posts for me. By that I mean, when I am done with a post that I think is grammatically perfect with no typos I announce that I am done and he is the first to read it. Then, he lets me know what I missed so I can really perfect for the rest of the world. This is important because I am an English teacher and need to have as few mistakes as possible in order to maintain my reliability. :-) My family knows about it also. I figured since I call my blog Family Musings it would be a good idea to let them in on my bloggy ideas. Also, one of the reasons I originally started blogging was to help my fami...

I had a Maya Angelou moment today in class. A few weeks ago, before I came back to teaching, my students read an except from Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings . In it, the main young, female character (Maya) has the opportunity to carry the groceries home of a well-respected elder woman (Mrs. Flowers) in her community. While there, Mrs. Flowers reads to Maya from Tale of Two Cities ("It was the best of times, it was the worst of times..."). Maya can hardly speak when the older woman is done reading because the words sound completely different coming from Mrs. Flowers' mouth than from the page. This is when Maya begins a love relationship with books and words. Now, I don't think I inspired any love relationships, but I did show my students the power of good reading. While reading the diary entry Forest Fire, by Anais Nin, I stopped and asked them all to find a phase or sentence that vividly described the fire. There are several extremely vivid examples in...

I'm going to try something new this week and participate in a meme called Menu Planning Monday. It is part of my quest to bring more order to our life, which I can really use right now. You can learn more about it by clicking the button below. Here's our menu for the week: Monday - Church Supper (yeah, somone else cooks and cleans for us!) Tuesday - Turkey Burgers w/ frozen veggies Wednesday - Shrimp Scampi (from MGFK ) Thursday - Soup and Sandwiches (thanks Grocery Game ) Friday - Chicken Sausage over Pasta and veggies with Parm cheese Breakfast is almost always cereal and fruit Lunches will be leftovers or homemade lunchables

Grumpy & Grandma came to hang out with us today. Grandma won't usually let us take her picture but we got this cute shot of him and Charlotte. I promised to share it with him here. Grumpy, click on the picture for a larger version you can save to your hard drive. Oh, and the Sabin Dome site was updated again today! I'm on a roll... I added 2 pictures that Bruce took this morning while he was showing the dome off to Grumpy.

Being the first time mom that I am, I came back today to share another video of my stunningly amazing daughter, not just demonstrating that she can roll over, but that she is ambidextrous when it comes to flipping from her tummy to her back. Allow her to demontsrate: And she got to sit in her Bumbo tonight. Yes, this is the same product that was recently recalled, and no, I am not returning mine. Seriously, why would a parent put their child in one of these on a high surface? In addition to the warning on the box, there is this little thing called common sense...

Charlotte has shoes for months to come due to a GREAT sale I found online at Darling Shoes . You can enter coupon code city85 and get 85% off your total order... not just clearance prices! Here's what Charlotte got: · 1 of : Girl Gear - Sz 2 · 1 of : Lil' Princess Pack - Sz 4 (inc the black & pink pairs) · 1 of : Skaters - Navy - Sz 1 · 1 of : Teeny Tiny Tennis Shoes - Lime Green - Sz 3 When I measured her feet to see what size she is now, they only went about 3/4 of the way to the size 1 mark!

I thought it would be fun to lead with that! Exciting isn't... and on her 12 week birthday. Yep, that's right, our baby girl is 12 weeks old today. My how time flies. When I put her down for tummy time this afternoon she was trying to flip herself over almost before I let go of her. She was definitely showing off for Mommy and her company this afternoon. She also knew when I had the camera because this was the last time she flipped over today. Once I put the camera in front of her she just did a lot of kicking. Since I had the camera turned to video mode this afternoon, I decided to fulfill my curious desire to see what Charlotte sees when she is lying in her crib watching her new mobile. Because I don't believe it would be prudent to actually crawl up in there, I shot this footage. How long do you think you could watch this without getting board? And now for some photos... Saturday Dr. Sabin and I put on some of the finest clothes in our closet and headed out to celebrate ...

I was recently made aware of the movie The Golden Compass and it strikes me as one that I would not want any child to see. What one sees as a young child embeds in the brain more strongly than that which we see as adults. I can still recall a certain Dean Koontz book I read as a teenager that affected my thinking about love into early adulthood. It took quite some time meditating on 1 Corinthians 13 to get the twisted idea of love the book portrayed out of my head. I encourage all parents to be informed about what is out there waiting to influence their children. I also think it is important to expose them to the reality that not everyone agrees with their family values. However, when those values are presented in such a contemporary and entertaining way it will be hard for children to not accept them as the truth . Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent o...

Bruce snapped these the other day and wanted me to share them with you. This first one is Charlotte wearing a favorite outfit of mine. The shirt says, "I love my Moomy" (no, that isn't misspelled, the shirt has cows on it) and is the only "mommy" outfit she has. There are lots of "daddy" outfits in her wardrobe, but only one for me. However, the shorts are still too big on her so I clipped them up with a clothespin so she could wear them without having them fall off. The next picture reflects how little Charlotte can be aware of her own body and how flexible a baby can be. She didn't even notice her ear was stuck! Oh, and I also updated the Sabin Dome website today. Check it out!

Make your own slide shows and scrapbooks

Today was my first full day back at work and I managed to make it through until 3:15 when I got to see my dear, precious Charlotte again. Honestly though, it was tougher than I expected. I had done fairly well the first half of the week when Charlotte was at the day care for half-days so I thought today would be just as easy... but it wasn't. The morning at home went great. I even ended up with an extra 10 minutes to play with her (over and above the 10 minutes I had already budgeted for morning play). However, once we got to the day care it started going down hill. I arrived about 5 minutes before their official open time (6:30 am) and no one was there. No big deal. Maybe Janet is running behind. Well, she wasn't. The person who was opening for her was though. It was probably 6:35 before she showed up and by then I had had enough time to start to really think about leaving my baby girl. When I realized that Janet wasn't coming in today it kind of pushed me over and the tea...

Ahhh... 10 days and no blogging. Forgive me for being selfish, but I was trying to use all of my time for my daughter since this is the week I go back to work. Yep, you read that correctly. I am going back to work this week. Charlotte was taken to her daycare for a half-day today and will begin full days on Thursday, when I am back at school. This morning I got out of bed around 5:15 (I'd been up and in and out of sleep since about 1 am already) and started my morning routine. I've written it all down so I don't forget anything important since I now have 2 people to get ready each morning. By 6 am I had to wake Charlotte up for a final nursing session before we left. Out the door by 6:20 and at the daycare by 6:30, when they open. I spent about 20 minutes there with Mrs. Wooten and Charlotte before I finally conceded it was time to go. I really could have stayed longer but it wouldn't have been productive for setting a routine. The good news is that neither of us cried,...

Look, my baby girl is trying to reach for the lion on her swing.

After my post earlier today I assumed it would be a few more days before I had anything to write about. Well, my cranky little baby decided she wanted more attention in the blogworld, so here it is! She rolled herself over from her tummy to her back today! I hadn't expected her to do anything like this so soon. Most of what I read said babies develop this skill between 4-6 months. Now, this really isn't a skill yet since she only did it once. But she did it! I was so excited I cried big, ol' alligator tears all while laughing excitedly. She was one confused looking baby. :) One reason for the tears that I haven't blogged about yet is my return to work on Thursday, October 25. As it turns out, my short term disability only covered the usual 6 weeks. I feel blessed that I don't have any medical reasons to need to stay out of work longer, but still wish I could afford to stay home with Charlotte until January. When she rolled over it just reminded me that I will miss l...

My verbal wit is waning these days... I don't seem to have as much to share about my dear, sweet Charlotte or anything else for that matter. I have started and stopped more posts this month than we've had days. Nothing just seems to come out as eloquent in words as it sounds in my mind. So, to substitute for my own writing, I've been reading the blogs of other Christian moms to inspire me. I have been inspired to do some things around the house and today made beautiful mini-loaves and muffins of Chocolate Chip-Banana Friendship Bread. I have 6 starters also. Anyone want one? I also had my blog rated and came out with this: I earned this rating because I've used the word 'breast' 3 x and the word 'hurt' 1x. Hmmm... just goes to show that breastfeeding doesn't get the respect it deserves and that this software doesn't take context into account. Okay, I can also add this picture of the 3 living generations of women in my family (because to do 4 gene...

While I am not married to my house, there is a book coming out soon that I am very interested on reading. It it called Passionate Housewives . I've really been working on being a better wife recently and this book is definitely in my que to read at the moment. Of course, it won't be published for another couple of weeks, but I can wait. :-) Crystal at Biblical Womanhood has a great post about the book on her blog and is also giving away 10 copies of this book this week. Go on over and check it out.

Per my first post on my new blog, I made a honest-to-goodness attempt at elegance today. First, I wore a new dress that was bought for my back-to-work future. I like this because it flatters my figure (i.e. hides my remaining baby belly) and still modern looking. I fancied it up with some vintage-feel jewelry as well. Second, I made a home-cooked meal without a recipe. It looked very elegant compared to my usual meals, as you can see below. The menu consisted of Cinamon Braised Butterfly Porkchops with Pear Sauce, Herb and Butter Rice, and Italian Beans. I have to admit though, it looked a little more elegant than it tasted. I underestimated the amount of seasoning needed for the braising liquid so the taste was a little flat, and the chops didn't braise long enough to get as tender as I would have liked. It also needed some orange or red on the plate. So, what have you done recently to obtain elegance?

We had lunch this weekend with Grandpa Sabin. Camera fun was had by all. Charlotte told me about several pictures taken this weekend that she wanted to share with our faithful readers. So, I let her pick out the pictures and took the trouble to translate her cute baby noises for you so you could know what she thinks about each of them. Enjoy! Oh my gosh! I don't know what mommy was thinking when she took this photo, but I have a good sense of humor and thought the look on my face was funny enough to share. So this is my other grandpa? I was wondering when my mom and dad would get around to letting me see him again. They took us all to this place called "Chili's" that they seemed to really enjoy. I wasn't too crazy about the french fry that Grandpa tried to give me though. Daddy had to explain that babies like me aren't too crazy about salt yet. Mommy really thought this outfit was cute. Personally, I think the green and purple compliment my skin tones rather w...

October is National Breast Cancer Awareness month and I am sure many of you have already noticed the plethora of pink products purveyors of all things are now selling. I have jumped on the bandwagon myself and received a gift of a pink ribbon Tervis Tumbler today. I love it and the ribbon makes it even more special! I also wouldn't mind having a new pink camera. Of course, the one I received from Bruce for Christmas last year is great... but this one is pink. :-) I've been thinking about breasts a lot lately... their new purpose in my life, how to support them better, whether to hide them while nursing, and how best to use them to feed Charlotte... they have become a much bigger part of my day than ever before (pun intended). I'm adding this button to the right side of my blog to permanently remind us all to "click daily."