Just some of my ramblings on this Tuesday... things I want to look back and remember.

1— 48 hrs without a phone is something I never want to have happen again. My phone that was less than a year old completely died Saturday evening. I'm talking it wasn't even the battery, just a hardware issue and there was no fixing it. Of course this would happen when we are out of town, and in the most inconvenient time. It also happened on the very last day of it's warranty. Coincidence? I think not. Being without my phone was hard. Not because of social media, but it's really the only way I can communicate with anyone since we do not have a home phone. It's crazy how I've (we've) become dependent on a cell phone in the past ten years. So after almost two hours at the Apple store, I now have a new phone. And thank goodness for iCloud, because everything was restored and I didn't lose not a video, picture or text. Also, thankful for friends who let you drop your girls off at their house so you don't have to say "DON'T TOUCH THAT" 500 times in the store. I couldn't be happier to have access to the world again.

2 — Ganny and Papa summer camp happened last week. This is the second time we've let them go without us to their house. Both times they've had a ball. Of course, they stayed busy going to the pool, splash pad, MAEX, and playing outside. Plus, I think all the clothes I sent stayed cleaned because they lived in their Cinderella and Snow White princess dresses all week... when they weren't in their swimsuits, of course.

3 — No more diapers for Lenny! Which means no more diapers in the house! Can I get a Hallelujah? Can I get an Amen? We've known she was getting ready for the past few months, and the week before they went to Ganny and Papas house I started letting her wear panties. Well, two weeks later and she's done with the diapers. And doing really good. We've only seen a few accidents, and those are few and far between. Another season is over and it just shows us how quickly these girls are growing up. Which is exciting and sad all at the same time.  

4 — Date your spouse has always been a phrase I've seen or heard, but we really took it heart and applied it last week while the girls were at Ganny and Papas. Four straight nights of dates for us, which might be more than we've had since Avery was born. It was so nice to be able to enjoy time with just the two of us. Did we miss the girls, of course we did. But we've also missed time with just the two of us alone. We cooked together and watched a movie at home, went out to eat and saw a movie in the theater, ordered take out and watched another movie at home, and then finished up our week of dates with a dinner date. While we know it seems like a long time before we will be empty nesters, we also know that it will happened sooner than later and we want to make sure we know how to be alone together and enjoy our time together now and when that time comes.

5 — Summer days are here. I'm talking the sticky hot humid days of Alabama summer. If I had to sum up a word for summer, I'd replace it with S W E A T. In other words, sweat season is here. And I don't like it. I wasn't one of those who complained when it was in the 20s and 30s this past winter. Nope, I was the one loving every minute of it. The only thing that makes summer bearable is pool days. Maybe it's because we can't tell if it's sweat or water from the pool. HA! So if you are looking for us this summer, just head to our neighborhood pool. That's where you'll find us!

The Desires of My Heart

As a little girl a long, long time ago I would play with my baby dolls and pretend I was their mother. As a teenager (only a few years ago, wink) I would babysit babies and children from our church. I learned changing poopy diapers was, well gross and that kids have a mine of their own and can’t always be easily persuaded to watch something other than cartoons on tv. As a young adult I watched friends get married and have children of their own. I treated their children like they were my own, spoiling them and loving them. As a thirty something year old wife, I lost our first child at eleven weeks. After months of trying after our loss, I wondered if I would ever have a child of my own. I prayed and begged God to give me a second chance at being a mom. 

Then one day I had a feeling I needed to take a test so I took two. Both were positive. The only thing I could do was cry and shout praises and thanks because I knew it was God who had blessed us with the hope another child. A child we both knew we longed for and already loved. 

She was born nine months later and changed my world. Suddenly my wants and desires were centered around her. I never wanted to put her down. I never wanted to leave her. I wanted to give her the world. And at the time that meant any and everything from Target and Toys R Us. She was her daddy’s girl and her mamas world! She still is. She’s now a little girl who wears her heart on her sleeve, who loves her mommy and daddy, and also her little sister. 

Getting pregnant the third time was much easier than the second time. It happened so fast and we were now going to have two girls fifteen months apart! Some say because we got pregnant so close together that we made Avery grow up faster than she needed to. Maybe yes, but also no. God knew she needed a little sister, and he knew we needed another little girl, but this time a feisty and spunky little squirt. She completed our family. She also changed our world because now we have two little girls that are Daddy’s girls and their mamas world. 

Being a mom hasn’t been the easiest job I’ve ever had. It’s tough, y’all! It’s a blessing for sure. It’s questioning everyday if you are raising them the way you should. It’s learning that Gods grace is enough for you, and that we should show grace to them. It’s trying. It’s rewarding! It’s laughing at their funny dances and silly sayings. It’s worrying everyday if you are enough. It’s loving them more than you love yourself - ten times more! 

I am their mother, mama, mom. I’m the only mom they have (whether they like it or not). I’m doing the best I can at making decisions that are best for them, and for us as a family. I know we only get one shot at raising them right. I pray that even though my parenting ways may differ from other moms that my way is best for us and them. I pray I’m not screwing up their childhood. I pray they know how much I love them, always. 

It was the desire of my heart to be a mom. And my dreams are now my reality. Everyday is a blessing with them. And everyday I thank the good Lord above for making me their mama. 

This Mother’s Day we know a few who are waiting for their turn to be a mom. Terry and I know how it feels to long for a baby, and it can be just as hard on the husband as it is for the wife. We pray their wait isn’t long. We hope this next year brings tears of joy for Mother’s Day! 

For all the moms of preschoolers, we just have to keep telling ourselves that we are enough. We are enough as a mom and a wife! And that the terrible twos, threenager, and fournado years won’t last forever. 

Strawberry Lemonade Pie

It's H O T in the South y'all. I'm talking Spring completely skipped right over us. And if we weren't already a glutton for punishment, we went to the strawberry patch to pick us a batch of strawberries earlier this week. I'm not sure I even made it to the passenger side of the vehicle to get the girls out before I was doing some major glistening sweatin'. But our sweet friends asked us to go and we were excited because this would be our first time pickin' strawberries.

The patch we went to was about a forty-five minute drive from our house. It didn't take us long to pick our buckets full. We were worried they wouldn't have many left — wrong! They had so many ripe strawberries that we didn't even go all the way down our two rows before filling up four buckets.

 
Avery kept telling me on the way to the field that she couldn't wait to make a strawberry cake. And seeing as how I've never made anything with strawberries in it, I had no clue how many strawberries it would take. Needless to say, four buckets = strawberries running out our ears. So we have been sharing a couple of buckets with our neighbors and friends since I found out most recipes only call for a cup or less. Whoops!

Did I mention that it's H O T? And I'm not about to turn that oven on to make it even hotter in here. (Y'all I'm sure our sweet neighbor is reading this and laughing. She knows to wear a sweater to our house because I like it freezing in here!) Since I didn't want to turn the oven on I got to thinking about a good way we could use the strawberries. Smoothies. Yes. But Avery really wanted to "bake" something. So I thought about the very first recipe my mom taught me — Lemon Ice Box Pie. It's the first thing she let me make on my own to carry to church and other functions when I was in high school. I thought incorporating the strawberries in that recipe might be a fun idea. And, well, it was perfect!

Ingredients:
1/4 cup of lemon juice
1 1/2 cups of pureed strawberries
1 14 oz. of sweetened condensed milk
1 8 oz. tub of cool whip (thawed)
1 graham cracker ready crust


Directions:
Combine lemon juice, strawberry puree and sweetened condensed milk and whisk together until blended. Add the entire tub of cool whip folding it in with the previous ingredients. Pour into the graham cracker crust and let it set in the fridge for three to four hours. When serving, garish with more strawberry puree and/or lemon zest.

This is the perfect cool treat for these crazy summer days!