Catching Up

Madelyn thoroughly enjoys her dining experiences...

macaroni and cheese
(actually, that's just the plate it was on)

spaghetti

and "redecorating" the table while I'm out of the room

Elisha has spent hours playing store over the past few weeks.

He set up this store and wanted me to buy something,

which he then scanned using an upside down plastic green tub.

Pretty creative and entrepreneurial, if you ask me!

My March Meal-Making Miracle

My Freezer:
Filled with delicious home-cooked meals

My Notepad:
Specifically listing meals and number of servings

My New Secret Weapon:
A Once-a-Month Cooking Book
(which I got from the MOPS white elephant gift exchange!)

I think I have found a permanent solution to my dread of daily cooking: cooking more but less often. Jim and I tried a two-week plan from the Once-a-Month cookbook and are excited to know that these meals will probably last our family for the rest of the month. No more worrying about what to make for dinner at 5:15 PM. No more picking a meal to fix, only to discover that we are missing a key ingredient. And - best of all - no more PB&J or scrambled eggs for dinner (right, Jim?) If you want more details, let me know. I would recommend this to anyone as a way to save time, money and sanity.

Drawing Dilemma?

Elisha drew this on his Doodle Pad, a magnetic drawing board on which you can draw and erase. This is a handy toy to have around - no mess or worry - but when your kid draws something amazing (or even pretty good like Elisha's train), what do you do? Take a photo (and share it with the blogging world)!

Jim and I are pleased and proud, especially considering Elisha mostly scribbled and wouldn't draw a person when an IWU nursing major came to test his developmental progress last week. I was a bit concerned, but his latest artwork has set my mind at ease.

Valentine's Part 2

Inspired by the cover cookies of the February issue of MSL, I - finally - baked my "other" Valentine's cookies. Of course, I actually did this about 2 weeks ago but never finished posting about it. I've been in an uninspired blogging drought. Maybe new energy and ideas will come with the new month...

Happy Valentine's Week

With the snow that has taken over our city - and state - the "regularly scheduled" events and plans of our Valentine's Week were superseded by weather. Here's an overview of our week-o-love.

Jim got me some gorgeous roses from Vice's (some wonderful local florists) He always get three red roses to symbolize the three words "I love you." Pretty cool...



I had great expectations of making Valentine's cards with photos of Madelyn giving kisses. That didn't happen, but here are the shots I took...

And I seriously thought I would have time to make bags of candy and/or cookies to send to college students and friends. That's what happens when I spend too much time at marthastewart.com.

While I didn't accomplish all of my goals (including dusting the house, although there is still this afternoon during nap time), our family did enjoy the gift of togetherness since Jim had 2 entire days off of work - PAID - yahoo!

I did make a "perfect" chicken pot pie over the weekend...

We got to see the beauty of freshly fallen (drifted) snow...

Elisha enjoyed a delicious Valentine's breakfast of "chip-dee beef gravy" as he calls it, with his Grandma



And we had two good friends over for Valentine's dinner and cookie baking - wish I would have remembered to take some pics (sorry Bekah & Rachel). So,we've had a good time here at the Womacks. How did you celebrate this week?

Open Mouth, Insert...Spoon

After reading Keri's blog and seeing how well Mackinley is doing feeding himself, I was inspired to give Madelyn another chance at it. We had already experimented with the spoon and bowl scenario a week or so ago at my parent's house, but all I remembered was a messy child to clean and the close supervision it required. On the other hand, it was nice to transfer feeding responsibility to her and to be able to eat my dinner at the same time she did. So, here's take 2: I think she's getting the hang of this.

Providence

It use to be that when I heard the word "providence," my mind immediately thought of luck or coincidence. Over the past few months (thanks to a series by Pastor Steve), I have discovered that for a Christian (and maybe even for a non-Christian, but that would be another topic altogether) Providence can be God's hand moving in a situation.

Take today, for instance...I was catching up on reading blogs and checked in on a blog friend who is expecting a baby and has been put on bed rest. She needs help with meals, childcare, and--most of all--prayer. While reading, I was reminded that I had extra chili in the freezer that I made on Sunday.

Then there was the cake...I had made it to take to a Mom's Bible Study this morning which I ended up not attending, so that was to go too.

Finally, I emailed to see if they needed any "staples" from the store, and they did: a gallon of Vitamin D milk. It "just so happened" that I had a full gallon of Vitamin D milk (minus the 1/2 cup we tried to give Madelyn last week) that was going to spoil because she will not drink it...yet.

How cool is that? I was amazed (I know, I shouldn't have been amazed, since this is God we're talking about...but I was) to see first hand how God provided and met needs perfectly because He knew they existed for before I even had a clue. What a blessing, and what a reminder of God's faithfulness and promise of provision in my life as well. It reminds me of my favorite hymn:

Great is Thy faithfulness, O God my Father;
There is no shadow of turning with Thee;
Thou changest not, Thy compassions, they fail not;
As Thou hast been, Thou forever will be.

Summer and winter and springtime and harvest,
Sun, moon and stars in their courses above
Join with all nature in manifold witness
To Thy great faithfulness, mercy and love.

Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth
Thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide;
Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow,
Blessings all mine, with ten thousand beside!

Great is Thy faithfulness!
Great is Thy faithfulness!
Morning by morning new mercies I see.
All I have needed Thy hand hath provided;
Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me!

Catching Up

Elisha and I made homemade candy turtles last week.

His favorite part by far was licking the spoon.

The final product

Elisha's new obsession is Lighting McQueen from the movie "Cars."

He often pretends to be "Lightning" zooming around our house.

Jim with the kids

Madelyn sporting her hip Old Navy outfit that Uncle Joel got her for Christmas

We're trying some new foods...just couldn't pass up this photo op

She still loves baths

C'mon Anon!

This post is for Anon...so that she will have a post with her name in the title and, more importantly, to encourage her to post more often and to leave more than one word comments. I mean, what exactly is *interesting*? The idea for a business called "OCD" or the fact that I organize my closets and leave my junk pile out in the open or that we have bright red carpet in a room. C'mon!

OCD

My friend Ronda and I considered starting an organizing business a couple of years ago. Her husband Dave suggested we call it "OCD: Organization, Color & Design. I like that idea...very creative. And, who knows, some day we may actually do it! Until then, here is the organization, color and design of Elisha's room.

Have I mentioned my passion for Rubbermaid? At least part of my Christmas money always seems to help supply our family with a plethora of containers for storing toys, camping equipment, shoes, etc... This year, I focused on the kids' toys. I think we are almost set! Now if I could just find time to label everything with my label maker...



This is a view of Elisha's room from his doorway.



This view is from his bed.



This is a view from "the pile." (See below.)



The pile: This is the *only* disorganized part of our house (except the attic and garage, which are not actually disorganized but mostly filled with old boxes that need to be trashed.) Some people prefer to hide their clutter in a closet or drawer. I, on the other hand, want my drawers and closets to be "perfect" so I use a corner or my son's room. Weird, huh? These boxes contain papers and files from when we worked at CWC. There are things I/we want to save, so we need a block of time to sort and pitch stuff. (Yes, we've been out of paid church ministry for almost 2 years now. Sad that these are still here.)



So, that's it: Elisha's new room. Sorry we don't have any birthday pictures to post. The batteries on our camera went out (of course), so we have mostly video that needs to be downloaded into you-tube or something.

Trains and Change

Semi-useless trivia: Although the words of my title do not rhyme exactly, they are called "slant rhyme," a fact which my English Literature major brother would be so proud that I shared (I think). :)

We are still having fun with the Mac; but I didn't like opening our blog and seeing photos of a computer, no matter how small and cute it is.

Jim and I traded rooms with Elisha last week. We had a huge room with space we didn't need (all we need is room for a bed). His room - or at least floor space - was getting smaller and smaller, thanks to his growing collection of trains, train track, and other train paraphanelia. I intend to eventually post pictures of the freshly organized closets and Rubbermaid storage containers; but until then, here is a glimpse of one of Jim and Elisha's recent train creations.




Change is in the air for our "baby" girl...we looked in the living room a couple of nights ago to see Madelyn STANDING UP in her walker! I stayed nearby while Jim grabbed a camera to capture the moment. I guess this means no more corralling her that way. We still have her Pack and Play; but if she learns how to crawl out of that, we're in trouble because I'm sure her crib will be next.

Our Mac Mini

About 8 months ago our computer died, and we needed a new one. We ended up finding a great deal on a nice HP and were very happy with our purchase....until recently. Jim has a good friend who has a MAC who has brainwashed (just kidding, Nate) him with the amazing abilities the MAC has. We ordered cool family calendars on their MAC. We have seen how easy it is to chat online on their MAC. And we have heard stories of how worry-free owning a MAC is. (We also watched all of the MAC commercials on the web - hilarious!)

So, we got a MAC. This week. We sold our HP (which is why I have not been blogging as much as usual), and Jim used his Christmas money to buy a MAC. Here is what I find amazing so far: its size. Just look at how tiny it is...especially compared to our old computer. Pretty amazing, if you ask me.

I'm sure I will find more things that I love about our MAC on which to report, but let me pledge that no matter how fantastic I think our MAC is, I will not brag and put down PC owners (like some may do). I mean, it's not like I CREATED the MAC or have any rights to their capablities. I'm just a happy owner of one...for now.

Our *old* HP




Our brand new MAC

Help the Hummels

Find out how you can be part of our effort to help the Hummels! Go to Keetha's blog for details of how you can be involved!