Family Musings

Amazingly enough, Charlotte seems to be adjusting to having a new baby sister very well. Or so I have been telling everyone. But then, we found her the other day trying to fit back into the Baby Bjorn. :) Bruce and I used to wear her in the Baby Bjorn everywhere! It must have felt like a second home to her. I guess she was trying to relive her youth. :) 3 months old at a construction site...  At Sea World later that same month...   Showing our friend Carolyn around Disney at 7 months old...   And fast asleep at 13 months old, also at Disney.   I can remember lots of other times she hung out in my Baby Bjorn, but I just didn't make it a habit to take my camera to the grocery store, the drug store, or for one of my walks around the neighborhood. What did you first child try to get back into when baby number 2 came along?

This week I was feeling in the mood to bake and stumbled upon a recipe for Positively Pumpkin Cookies . Boy am I glad I did. These are super-duper yummy and you can really taste the pumpkin in them. I can't say for sure but that might have something to do with me adding more pumpkin than the recipe called for - almost 1 whole can instead of 1 whole cup. Oops! But what a happy accident! When they came out, I even decided to get fancy and put the icing in a baggie to make pretty designs on top. I should have let Charlotte help with that part, but she was busy throwing a fit about something. In FL, we need all the help we can get to experience Fall. Baking cookies like this and drinking Pumpkin Spice Lattes from Starbucks is my trick. What are you doing to make it feel more like Fall?

Missions has always been important to me. I went on a couple of trips with my youth group as a teenager and continued that when I went to college. After my freshman year of college, I applied to do a 10 week summer missions trip through the FL Baptist Convention. They sent me to South Dakota with 3 other students from USF. I was the lone UM student  that summer. Before we left, there was a commissioning ceremony at Lake Yale, a Baptist campground in FL. This is where I met Christian and Matt of my team. Vickie couldn't make it, so one of her friends stood in for this picture. I'm the short one in the group. I was very blessed to have so many people who loved me come to the commissioning service. In the top picture on this page are my friends Michelle and Mandy from high school as well as a former Sunday School teacher, and youth group leader. Oh, and my mom is in the picture too. :) My summer in South Dakota was a mixed one. Fortunately, my team got along really well ...

I promise, Charlotte did this all on her own! For more Wordless Wednesdays, visit 5 Minutes for Mom Extraordinary Mothers Momspective Look What Mom Found Wordless Wednesday 7 Clown Circus - Wordful Wednesday Ordinary and Awesome - Mostly Wordless Wednesday

Earlier this year, I shared with you a campaign from Electrolux to raise support and awareness for the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund (OCRF). At that time, Electrolux offered an easy way to support ovarian cancer research. And they are back again with another super-easy way to do the same thing. For the month of September, Electrolux and Kelly Ripa kicked off a unique “Text-a-Thon for a Cause” to support the OCRF. Moms can donate $5 to the cause by texting “KELLY” to 85944 from their mobile phones (standard text messaging rates apply) – or by logging on to www.kelly-confidential.com . Also, each day you log on to www.kelly-confidential.com , you are entered for a chance to win a luxury frontload washer and dryer from Electrolux in Turquoise Sky, the color of ovarian cancer awareness. I just stopped to send my text and it took me 20 seconds. So go grab your cell phone (or visit the Kelly Confidential site if you are too lazy to walk across the room to your phone) and donate $5  t...

It is clear to me that Mary's sucking action is getting stronger. I have been faithfully stretching her cheek muscles and doing my best to stimulate all the nerves in her jaw, cheeks, and tongue each time she eats. What I haven't been quite so faithful at is putting her to the breast to nurse a few times a day. It is hard to do that knowing it probably won't work anyway. She has been able to latch on a few times since we first started, but never for more than 1-2 minutes. It seems to me that she just gets worn out from the extra work that nursing requires and gives up. The last 2 days were really hard for me. I've been pumping every 2-3 hours for 2 weeks now and don't really see any light at the end of the tunnel. I don't know when this will end. It isn't the bottles that bother me so much because I know they are giving Mary's tummy liquid gold. It is the lack of sleep and the amount of effort it takes to accomplish all of this pumping. Yesterday m...

We were surprised at the local children's museum this morning when our normal, Monday morning story time was replaced by a career event involving a demonstration by the Lakeland Fire Department. Charlotte was able to see a fireman in full protective gear up close and personal. It hadn't occured to me before, but it is a really great idea for children to have some exposure to what a fireman looks like with all 48 pounds of gear and an air tank strapped on. Imagine being a small child, scared by a fire, only to see a monster-type creature coming at you through the smoke! After the gear demonstration, the fire fighters let the children hang out on the fire engine for a few minutes. Charlotte wasn't shy about checking it out at all and I could see the awe factor in her eyes as she sat in the Lieutenant's seat in the front of the fire engine. Then, when she climbed into the back seat, she just sat there and soaked it all in. I don't know if being a fire fighter w...