This bike was a gift to Jaylen on his fourth birthday. Several months ago Darin removed the training wheels, hoping it would encourage Jaylen to ride a two-wheeler.

It didn’t work.

My children being my children, I know that they operate like I do. We do things on our own time. I will clean and declutter when I’m good and ready to and not a second sooner. Even when my children were younger I knew they were the same.

I encouraged Jaiden to potty train before she was ready and my attempts proved unsuccessful. So I decided to follow her lead, which was probably one of my more brilliant parenting moments. Eventually she asked to wear big girl panties and two weeks later she was trained.

I didn’t rush Jaylen to crawl, but eventually he did and three weeks later, just before he was nine months old, he walked. And Jenna, well she walked late and she still sucks her thumb. (The older two used binkies and weaned themselves from that at 7-8 months.)

Jaylen didn’t want to ride his bike because he was afraid. Don’t ask me why, but I’m guessing he was afraid he’d get hurt. Tonight after dinner he and Jaiden just picked up his bike and off he went! I am so proud of him!

Poor thing: Jaiden made him put on his helmet and pads. Only we can’t find his pads, so he had to wear Disney Princess and Doara pads that belong to his baby sisters. Hee.

I shot photos and video, which required manual focus, and I didn’t switch back to autofocus until after I had shot a bunch of photos and blew it. Ugh, ugh, ugh. But I digress.

I think this is my favorite shot, Jaiden helping Jaylen strap on the girlie pads. So sweet!

But anyway.

My advice to new parents is always “follow their lead.” Because, for us, it works. Of course I mean with milestones and development, not in situations where they need to be obedient (like, ahem, cleaning their rooms).

Today it was riding a two-wheeler, maybe soon Jenna will stop sucking her thumb.

Still with me? Awesome. You deserve a cupcake or something.

And now, August. And school, teachers, school buses, etc.

Three of the four children are now in school. The second week of August, Jaiden began third grade, Jaylen began first grade and Emma began Pre-K. Jenna is still with her home-based preschool; she doesn’t have an educational nor a financial need, so we don’t qualify for the public school’s pre-kindergarten program. She knows everything they teach in Pre-K anyway, so next year she will begin school.

For the second year in a row I haven’t requested teachers. Many parents here do, and I did to begin with, but last year I decided to just go with the flow. I haven’t been disappointed, either. Why would I choose to do such a thing, not requesting the perfect teachers for my children? Because I believe they need to learn to deal with whatever comes at them, to react to their environment, not mold their environment to fit their needs. This is not the way the world works. My world obviously revolves around my children, but the rest of the world does not. I send them to school as much for the social and life skills as I do for their education, so it’s important to me that they learn how things really work.

Since Kindergarten, Jaiden has been with the same crew. This year, they were split up. While I’d like Jaiden to stay with some of her friends, she’s going to have to learn sooner or later that we don’t always stay with the same people. And this goes back to the world not revolving around them and learning to deal with whatever happens. As parents I don’t believe we should be that controlling over our children and their environments, but rather teach them to adapt, help them learn how to deal with new situations and new people. As Lou Holtz said, and this is one of my favorite quotes, “life is 10 percent what happens to you and 90 percent how you deal with it.”

So far, so good; Jaiden misses her friends, but still sees them when they meet for the gifted program or go to lunch.

Jaylen is enjoying first grade. He was thrilled to get “a big desk like the rest of the graders!” Ha! Not to be obnoxious, but I use this blog to record different things about our family and will not downplay my child’s successes in an effort to be seen as less boastful, but Jaylen is doing really well, especially with his vocabulary and reading. I was told he would likely be tested for the gifted program in the spring.

Also, I like their teachers! Jaiden’s teacher is also a harpist and seems very cool; Jaylen’s teacher seems very bubbly and affectionate.

I had issues with their school initially. I found out on the first day of school, the day where we met the teachers and arranged afterschool care, that there would no longer be afterschool care services. Long story short, the school never had a license to keep students. The state found out about it in May and fined the school. They now have to be bussed over to another school.

At first, they were spending an hour on a bus in triple-digit temps when the other school was less than 10 minutes away; the driver had to run her route, then drop these 6-8 children off. This, in my book, was not fair. It was not my fault nor their fault that their own school did not keep children any longer and, in my opinion, they should not have to stay on a bus for an hour because of it. Especially considering I am paying $72 each week to have them in the care of licensed providers yet they would be at the school for 5 minutes before I arrived on three different days each week (two days a week I get off closer to 6 p.m.).

And so I complained to the school board. Three times. And things were changed. I was asked if the change had anything to do with the fact that I work for the newspaper – I have no idea. This was the first time I’d ever spoken to the person who enacted the change, but we live in a small community and most people, especially at the school board, are familiar with my name.

Through his example, I learned ethics from my dad. When he was a health inspector, he rarely ate at any of the restaurants he inspected, not because they were not performing as they should but because he didn’t want any chance of someone accusing him of accepting bribes (hi Dad, that was me listening back in 2000!). I try to operate in this same fashion. Of course I can’t help but live and work and send my children to school in this community, but I do accept responsibility for my faults. When I am pulled over, for example, I do not expect my friends (the police) not to ticket me and I do not expect my friends to fix tickets. I accept tickets because they are doing their job, I was speeding and I deserve to pay a fine and/or appear in court. I don’t complain or give excuses, I do what they ask, I take my ticket and pay the price. Last week I was pulled over and pleaded with a cop to give me a ticket but he wouldn’t do it (he did the last time he pulled me over and some of my friends gave him hell for it, but I insisted he treat me the same as anyone else). I do not want special treatment. And I mean that.

But when it comes to my children, I will do what it takes to make sure they’re safe. If I take issue with something I believe will affect their safety and well-being, I will speak up. They attend school with children from age 4-15, however during this time they are split into groups and monitored; they have little to no contact with children several grades older or younger than they are. The bus is a different story. And my children riding a bus for an hour with 15-year-olds is ridiculous. Having them in the care of the persons to whom I entrust their lives for only five minutes was also not okay. So I spoke up and things were changed. I don’t know if they were changed because of where I work or for another reason, but they were changed. And I have been happy since.

All of that said, Jaiden and Jaylen have about 4-5 times the number of children afterschool here than their home school, so they enjoy it. They love seeing other children, having a locker there and having ice cream on Wednesdays.

And now for Miss Emma Grace …
I have met Emma’s teacher previous to her attending school and she’s married to my co-worker’s brother, but I have yet to officially do the whole meet the teacher thing. Being a stepmom is still a little foreign to me and I absolutely hate not having a say in much. That’s a bit controlling of me, I know, but I want to be as involved as I can. I want to come to orientations and meetings and career day. I don’t know how to have a child in school and not particpate somehow. (This is not about me, I know.)

Anyway, she wears uniforms. And saddle shoes sometimes. And she is supposed to memorize Bible verses like Jenna does. Both girls are on the A Beka curriculum, which is Bible-based learning, again so they should be learning the same things again this year (last year they brought home the same worksheets every week lol). I guess she likes it, though she doesn’t talk about it too much by the time I get to see her.

This year Jenna lost a couple of friends from school. One started kindergarten and the other moved to a larger preschool because his parents thought it would help acclimate him to kindergarten (next year, he’s the same age as Jenna). I hate it because Jenna was pretty sad over it, the three of them having attended the same school for several years now. This week, though, a new friend started. And she is a newborn. If you ask Jenna about Layla, Jenna will say, “She is seven pounds! And she’s thiiiiiis luttle!!!” Which, apparently she is. She’s two months old and the new apple of Jenna’s eye. She is certainly a lover of babies! I think Jenna will make a wonderful mommy or teacher someday.

—–

Tomorrow I’m planning on talking about other fun things we’ve done in August, like a second weekend at the cabin and a trip to the ZZ Top concert. In a LIMO. lol. Hope to see you for the next round!

Last weekend was a busy one: fireworks on Friday night; Karate Kid with Jaiden and Jaylen Saturday afternoon, dinner and Eclipse with friends Saturday evening, a UFC fight after the movie; church, a trip to the zoo (photos forthcoming) and a BBQ on Sunday; and cleaning and swimming on Monday.

I really hated it when Tuesday showed up and I had to return to work. I wasn’t ready.

This weekend we’re going to try to work in another trip the library and Darin has a couple of softball games. I think this will likely be a low-key weekend because my dad’s having back surgery in a few hours and my mom’s going on travel in a few days, so my brother and I will have to take turns checking on Dad.

Then, the following week I have taken a couple of vacation days and we’re planning on going to a cabin in Paris, Tenn. (I think?) too. The next weekend we’ll be gearing up for school to begin (Aug. 5). Such a bummer. Here we are, just trying to enjoy ourselves, and school’s almost back in session. Sigh.

I (big puffy) heart interviews with children and thus I completely loved the Father’s Day gifts the children brought home from school last week.

The answers are sweet and cute and hilarious! One of those “I should have thought of that” things! Loved it so much I had Emma do one, too. Here are their answers:

Jaiden

My daddy is 27 years old.

He weighs 10 lbs. and is 20 feet tall.

His hair is brown and his eyes are green.

My dad loves to relax by the chair and he likes to wear his softball shirt.

He loves to cook sausage, eggs and hamburgers.

His favorite household chore is to fold laundry.

His favorite TV show is baseball and his favorite song is “Superman.”

Daddy always tells me to clean up my room.

It makes him happy when I clean up my room.

When my dad shops, he loves to get drinks.

If he could go on a trip, he would go to Boston.

I really love it when my dad plays with me outside.

—

Jaylen

My daddy is 27 years old.

He weighs 13 lbs. and is 12 feet tall.

His hair is brown and his eyes are green.

My dad loves to relax by the chair and he likes to wear shorts.

He loves to cook sandwiches and ramen noodles.

His favorite household chore is to clean the floor.

His favorite TV show is baseball and his favorite song is “Howl at the Moon.”

Daddy always tells me I love you.

It makes him happy when I give him something.

When my dad shops, he loves to get candy.

If he could go on a trip, he would go to Texas.

I really love it when my dad lets me sit up front.

—

Emma

My daddy is 6 years old.

He weighs 6 lbs. and is 9 feet tall.

His hair is brown and his eyes are blue.

My dad loves to relax by sitting on the chair and he likes to wear his blue shirt and pink pants.

He loves to cook macaroni and cheese.

His favorite household chore is to do homework.

His favorite TV show is carnival and his favorite song is Michael Jackson.

Daddy always tells me a story.

It makes him happy when I clean my room.

When my dad shops, he loves to get apples.

If he could go on a trip, he would go see Miranda Cosgrove.

I really love it when my dad loves me.

—

Jenna

My daddy is 1 year old.

He weighs 12 lbs. and is 20 feet tall.

His hair is brown and his eyes are black.

My dad loves to relax by crying and he likes to wear shorts, socks and a shirt.

He loves to cook rolls and potato soup.

His favorite household chore is to clean up his room.

His favorite TV show is basketball, football and baseball and his favorite song is “Ba Ba Black Sheep.”

Daddy always tells me I am good.

It makes him happy when we are being good.

When my dad shops, he loves to get some food.

If he could go on a trip, he would go on a school bus.

I really love it when my dad hugs.

–

And just, you know, for the record, Darin just turned 29 on Friday (not six!). He’s about 195 lbs. and is 6’2″ tall; his hair is light brown and his eyes are blue. When he actually sits down and stays out of the poison ivy, he likes to relax by lying in bed and watching some kind of sport, any kind of sport. Wait, did I mention sports? He loves to cook anything easy – ramen noodles, sandwiches, soups and, yes, Sister Schubert rolls – and especially sausage and eggs for breakfast. I think his favorite household chore is mowing the grass, but he often blurs the stereotypical gender roles by folding laundry and cooking and cleaning the floors and picking up where I slack off (but I’m getting better at this).

The “relaxing by crying” comment made me laugh out loud! How funny! Also, he didn’t know who Miranda Cosgrove was; Emma’s obsessed with iCarly.

The kids had the store answers nailed. Quite often he drops by a gas station for food, candy and drinks. I nag him about this (he’s a diabetic and doesn’t make the best choices; I nag him because I want to keep him around for as long as possible). lol.

His favorite show is Ghost Hunters, anything that has to do with any kind of sport (except ice skating) and any kind of show like Cops or stupid criminals, etc. Jaiden was pretty close with guessing “Superman” as one of his favorite songs; he also loves Ozzy and various other alternative and classic rock things. He often goes on trips for business and has been to Boston once and Texas twice since October; he loves those places and those guesses were pretty close. He also loves national parks, California and one day hopes to go camping in the Alaskan nothingness, a la Into the Wild.

They were all correct with the “Daddy always tells me” and “It makes him happy when …” answers. Because Darin’s a great dad. And we love him for it! This interview was SUCH a great idea. I’m totally keeping these. We can display them when they get married or something. lol.

Jaylen was so cute – he colored Darin a Father’s Day picture at school and he FRAMED IT when he got home. lol! I love that precious boy.

We spent Father’s Day at my parents’ house with my brother and his family, Dara and Isaac and my in-laws. We ate a ton of food, swam for most of the afternoon and brought home leftovers and sunburns.

Life is good.

Here’s another cross-post from our food blog, an entry from my Cooking with Kids series, which I like to call “I got 99 problems, but a meal ain’t one.”

Like I said, I’m here all week, folks …

When I was a kid, I hated the nights my parents said we were having sandwiches for dinner. It just sounds boring, doesn’t it?

Of course, now that I’m an adult, I actually look forward to sandwiches sometimes; they’re quick and easy and very versatile.

To keep things entertaining, on sandwich nights I try to engage the kids by bringing in an interesting element or having them help with dinner.

Giving them choices

When I was a younger mother, I belonged to a now-defunct message board for mothers. I learned so much about motherhood from that site, but one lesson I use constantly is to pick your battles with your children. They want to have power and control over themselves, just like adults; an easy way to do that is to give them choices and let them make their own decisions (or let them think they are – parenting is just trickery with a more sophisticated name).

To be clear, just in case this is your first visit, I inherited the part of my father that dislikes being a short-order cook. Just like him, I don’t do it. I decide what we’re having for dinner and if you don’t like it, you either shut your mouth and eat or you go hungry.

My pickiest eater, Emma, was taught by her former teacher, “You get what you get and you don’t fuss a bit.” (Ironic considering she usually does the fussing. lol.)

My dad? Well, he’s famous for saying, “This ain’t Mickey D’s!” That will probably go on his headstone.

I usually always stick to this mentality, but sometimes I’ll give them choices. Sandwich nights are always DIY Dinners, meaning you choose what you eat, so they’re already hooked.

Can I take your order?

Last week we had a Lunchbox Dinner – sandwiches, Cheez-Its, string cheese and juice boxes served in their lunchboxes. It went over very, very well!

This week I decided to bring back an idea we tried a few months ago: child labor. I mean, role-playing.

Jaiden, who turns eight in 10 days, enjoys playing waitress and has pretended to run a little restaurant serving snacks several times. Tonight she donned one of my aprons, read the rest of the family our menu (with sandwich options, sides and drinks) and took their orders. Once the cook, which would be moi, finished making the plates, Jaiden also served them.

Not only does this make dinner fun and more enjoyable, but it gives children a sense of pride, self-confidence and makes them feel important when they help.

“It’s fun asking everybody’s order … what they want to drink, what they want on their sandwich, it’s just really fun to be a waitress,” Jaiden said. “Bringing the food out is fun and carrying it up high is fun.”

The other children were jealous and are eagerly awaiting their turn, but having their big sister wait on them was still fun.

“It’s fun because I can choose whatever I want that’s on the list,” Jaylen, 6.5, said. He’s often particular about what he eats and is the one who, of all four children, most enjoys having choices. He also enjoys having his sister do things for him once in awhile. “I didn’t have to do everything, I don’t have to get my napkins or my own drink.”

Jenna, who’s four, apparently sees a more compassionate side of her older sister at times like these.

“She’s giving us a lot of good food and good drinks and let us do good things, like coming in her room.” (Because, honestly, that’s what this is all about: going in Jaiden’s room without a fight.)

Waiting on her brother, sister and father also gives Jaiden lessons in paying attention to details and proverbial foot-washing (serving others).

“When you’re doing it, you have to know the right food and give them the right food,” she said. “And you have to do what they ask, like if they want a refill, give them a refill.”

Sounds pretty simple, right?

“Meesaiko, when you wake us up tomorrow, you have to say, ‘Rise and shine, get up!’ …”

The command sounds simple enough, rise and shine. As I dig out clothes for tomorrow morning, I consider saying it in the morning to humor my tiny stepdaughter.

Emma is climbing into bed, plopping down, pulling her covers up to her chest and delicately smoothing the blanket. Jenna is still sitting in the middle of bedroom floor, putting her underwear on and fumbling with a fleece nightgown.

“Emma, you can be Rise and I can be Shine, okay?” Jenna says, matter-of-factly. Then she mimicks the way she thinks I’ll say it, ‘Wake up, Rise and Shine!’, and giggles.

And I giggle too because, dude, how damn cute can you be?

+++

It’s Sunday morning and Darin and I are picking the children up from an overnight at my parents’ house. They have been swimming, using swimsuits that stay at their grandparents’ house so we don’t have to bring them over every time we come. Jenna is wearing a t-shirt.

“Mommy! You fah-gotta bwing my bay-ding suit!” she yells at me, as if I had any idea they were spending the night when we dropped them off 15 hours before (I didn’t). “I swimmed in my shirt!”

Since her birth she has embodied all that is meant by an exclamation point. She is fully of energy! She is bossy and commands your attention! And her eyes grow big with excitement at almost every sentence! Sometimes, when she is upset or embarrassed, she is more like a semicolon and that ray of energy is broken or diverted, but the exclamation point always returns. This day, she is two exclamation points.

Jenna and the others have gone inside to change their clothes; Jenna, however, has been swimming in her ‘pennies’ and they are wet.

“You didn’t bwing me no dwy pennies!”

Wow, excuse me. I didn’t know you would end up swimming in your underoos. My apologies.

My mom takes Jenna’s wet undies and heads towards the laundry room, they need a quick run through the dryer. Ever the boss, Jenna follows her and tells her what to do.

“Gwammy! Put dem in the dwyer, NOT IN THE WETTER!”

The wetter. You know, the opposite of the dryer.

+++

Though he has been in her life since birth, Emma has never fully warmed up to her Uncle Isaac. And it’s become a running joke in the family.

“Emma, give Isaac a hug,” we’ll say. And she run away and hide. Almost every single time.

Jenna, on the other hand, LOVES Isaac. They’re like night and day, those two. (Bada-bing! Thank you, I’ll be here all week!)

Since Dara and Isaac have moved, Emma has decided to thaw the ice princess routine. Dara even has photographic proof that Emma sat next to Isaac one day.

Tonight we all went to watch Darin’s softball game and I tried to prepare Emma beforehand.

“Is Isaac your BFF, Emma? Say yes!” Look at me, forging everlasting friendships. Ha.

“Okay! I’ll say it.”

So fast-forward about an hour. Isaac and Dara show up and I remember our little joke.

“Emma, who’s your best friend?” I asked with a laugh.

She turns around to look for Isaac, then hides when they make eye contact. This is not going as planned.

“Emma, who’s your BFF?”

She peeks out, points at Isaac and says, “THAT GUY!”

+++

We have a free summer membership to the Pink Palace Museum in Memphis, so Sunday we took our first trip. There were a lot of neat exhibits and the kids really enjoyed it. They asked a lot of questions and at one exhibit, Jaylen asked about this funny metal contraption.

“That’s a cowbell,” I say.

Yeah, you know where I’m going with this, right?

A few seconds go by, then I say it, even though I know they won’t get it. It pretty much just stumbled out of my mouth. I couldn’t help it.

“Do you have a fever, Jaylen?”

Puzzled, he looks at me and shakes his head. I continue looking at different items and notice Darin has now joined us. He’s feeling Jaylen’s forehead, but I thought he was just aggravating him.

“Echo, he feels fine,” Darin says. “He doesn’t have a fever. Why’d you ask that?”

Seriously?

“I’ve got a fever … MORE COWBELL! Get it?”

“You are so not funny.”

He always says that, but he always laughs when he does. So I don’t believe him.

+++

We’re sitting at the dinner table, talking and chewing as we usually do. I’m staring at Jenna, trying to determine what’s different about her hair before I realize it was the other four-year-old with self-imposed layers.

“DID YOU CUT YOUR HAIR, JENNA GRACE?!”

I know she saw the fire in my eyes. The cut wasn’t so bad, I’ve seen much worse, but she needed to know it was not okay.

She nodded her head in honesty, letting me know she did, in fact, cut her own hair. And with her brother’s scissors. I’ve already been through this twice with Jaiden (well, three if you count the fact that she cut Jaylen’s hair too) and once with Emma, this is pretty much old news and, besides, it looks like long layers. Not bad at all.

“WHY did you cut your hair, Jenna?” I expected an ‘I don’t know’ but Jenna … well, Jenna’s gonna give it to you straight.

“I wanted to look like Jaiden!”

Well okay then.

+++

“Mom, can you like, set your alarm for 5 o’clock and we get up, get dressed and leave by 6 o’clock?”

This girl cannot be serious, I think. Jaiden is like her father (and her stepfather, for that matter) and loves to sleep. If no one bothered her, she’d sleep half the day away.

“What? No way! Why would you want to get up that early?”

We usually get up between 6:40-6:50 a.m. each morning, then hurriedly begin our day. It’s just how we roll.

“I want to beat Landon to Ms. G–’s house tomorrow. He gets there at 6:30 and he’s always the first one!”

She must be trippin’ if she thinks I’m getting up that early so that they can beat another kid to school. It’s summer break, for Heaven’s sake!

+++

“Stick with me and I’ll teach ya baseball,” my husband tells me before bed tonight, just after he’d spent 10 minutes explaining a play to me. A hidden ball trick, perhaps?

Good luck with that.

I’m the girl who asks about the lines on the football field (What are they, lasers? Can the players see them?) every single season. I really think he’s wasting his time.

My mom says it’s time for an update, so here we go …

1. Sports are killing me – and I’m just a spectator. Well, kinda. Cheerleading has finally wrapped (whew!) and last week all four children started soccer. We have practices on Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday (until games start in a couple of weeks).

At the last minute, Darin was asked to coach in the beginners league, the 3-4 age group, and so he and our friend coach Jenna and Emma’s team. At Saturday’s practice there were a few meltdowns and once one or two start crying, it’s pretty much a wave of tears! Ha ha.

Lucky me, I’m team mom of all three teams. Gulp.

Games start in a few weeks and it looks like we’ll be spending quite a bit of time on the field, thankfully it’s pretty close.

Darin is also playing sports – basketball, softball and soccer. All at the same time. Basketball will end in April, then the men’s softball league starts. I swear he’s keeping me busier than the kids do.

One of these days I hope my family cheers me on like I do for them. That would be awesome.

2. The weather is getting more awesome by the day. The temperatures have dipped here and there, but today it was 71 degrees and beautiful. This makes practices and games more bearable, especially for the children who aren’t practicing/playing because they get to play at the playground (yay!). And that never gets old, apparently.

My allergies haven’t bothered me yet. I’m surprised by this because usually by the end of February I am entirely too miserable. I’ve been advised that taking a teaspoon of local honey (that is, honey produced within 20-30 miles of your home) can help with seasonal and nasal allergies (do you say it in the bee’s voice from the commercial like I do? lol). I’ve tried it. I don’t know if it helps, but I have yet to take my usual Claritin, Mucinex or anything else. I don’t even have any allergy medicine, come to think of it.

3. Not being miserable makes being outside tolerable. And I like tolerable. Because I can do things like playing with my new 50mm lens (used in the flower photos). The above photo was taken after I shot my first wedding of the season – and my first wedding as a pro! That was awesome. I’ve shared some of those photos over on the photog blog.

4. Jaiden is now in the gifted program at school. She’s terribly excited about it and I’m really proud of and for her. Her IQ is 119 according to the testing conducted by the school. She will now attend a special class for two hours every week (one hour per day on Tuesday and Thursday). Last week I had a meeting with her teacher and the special education staff; it was great to hear the teacher say so many great things about Jaiden and give me a little glimpse of the person she is when she is not with me. I kept thinking, “Wow, that is such an awesome person and I gave birth to her!”

5. No DNA test required, these are my children. Maybe. On Sunday it rained and the kids couldn’t play outside, so I sent them upstairs to clean their rooms instead of watching yet another episode of “Big Time Rush” (a horrible show if you ask me). While they were busy, I wasn’t feeling so hot, so I took a nap on the couch. You already know where I’m going with this, don’t you?

They woke me up, telling me that they wanted me to watch their show. This is not unusual – they’re always making up shows. But I sent them upstairs to clean, not choreograph! (My parents and Darin get so frustrated with me because I procrastinate tasks like cleaning my room – I once read the dictionary instead!) These are definitely my children, I thought.

I patiently watched the show and I’m glad I did. Jaylen’s dancing is quite hilarious (especially when you fast forward it!) and Darin and I couldn’t believe how much Jaiden stayed on beat. lol. Lo and behold, when I tucked them in at bedtime, their rooms were clean. So maybe they aren’t my children afterall. And they didn’t get their singing and dancing skills from me, either. lol.

6. All the women who are independent/Throw your hands up at me. All of my girls are struggling with wanting more independence and I’ve been struggling with giving it to them. Jaiden wants to do her own hair and choose her own clothes (she’s not the best at either) and it’s huge for me to just let go and let her do it. HUGE!

I don’t like my kids to look like ragamuffins, so I usually help them chose their clothing and do their hair. I send them back to change if they don’t match or have holes in their clothes, etc. This is natural, right? I care what my children look like when they walk out of this house because they’re a reflection of me – and I want it to be a good, accurate reflection.

Letting go has had some positive results in just a few weeks – Jaiden’s hairstyling is improving and having her friend Emily spend the night and give her a ton of hand-me-downs has helped her make better choices (read that as Emily has encouraged her to match).

Now four, both Emma and Jenna have exerted an increasing need for their own independence. Jenna is more forceful about it than anyone else right now, though. Well, she’s more aggressive than the other three, period. She now wants to do everything on her own, from buckling her own seatbelt (she’s now in a booster seat) to making her own sandwiches or pouring her own juice. I don’t ‘let go’ as much with her as I do with Jaiden simply because a four-year-old has no business pouring juice. lol.

“Nooooo, Jaylen!!!!! I WANT TO DO IT MYSELF!!!!”

This is totally priming us for the teenage years. I think it’s going to be one decade of alcoholism for me.

7. I made a cake wreck that was actually quite tasty. It was our turn to host coffee hour at church this past weekend, so I made a strawberry cake. And used icing instead of frosting. Because it’s made with powdered sugar and butter, icing doesn’t typically hold its shape; it was a mess by the time we got to church. But! It tasted pretty good. The Jewish priest (yes!) that was visiting our church said he wanted to take me home and that I deserved extra blessings! Ha.

It was pretty easy to make, too. I say that even though I had three little ones helping me make it. Check out the recipe over at our food blog, daylicious.

8. Speaking of being daylicious, we’re taking over. Kinda. Last week, Dara accepted the position of head librarian of Munford’s library! I’m so excited for her! Around here, everyone’s related and now I am finally related to someone that a lot of people will know (the rest of my family is pretty low-key). Very cool, right?

Our poor library is still stuck in the dark ages – physical card catalog still in use and the library is not computerized at all. Dara hopes to come in and change that! And the library committee has confidence in her.

Dara Gonzales: Change we can believe in!

(We’ll wait while you finish barfing over that last statement, Dara.)

She finishes her masters in May and will start here in June. She and Isaac are, of course, relocating. It will be great to have them close, but I know they are really going to miss Texas. Beach, barbeque and, most importantly, their friends and family down there. Hell, I miss their friends; they rock.

9. I am rocking this Lent thing. I gave up chocolate. Wednesday (tomorrow) will make 35 days since I’ve had any chocolate whatsoever. No Thin Mints. No brownies. No sweet, heavenly bite-sized Milky Way Midnights. No Twix. And did I mention no Thin Mints? No chocolate ice cream. No chocolate milkshakes. Not one chocolate chip cookie.

It’s been a struggle, no doubt. But it’s getting easier. I just sigh, poke my lip out and continue on my merry way. I can’t cheat on Jesus, dude. He died for me, I can go without chocolate for a few weeks.

I think my dad is torturing me, though. He knows I gave up chocolate. He likes to bring me cakes at work (YES!); sometimes I come back and find he’s left one on my desk. (What can I say? I think he gets bored when my mom’s out of town.) Yesterday I came back after lunch and a horrible accident/breaking story to find the cake carrier sitting on my desk. Inside? A yellow cake! Covered in milk chocolate frosting. Sniff. Darin is enjoying it, though. (Dad makes great cakes.)

Next weekend, though, I will get some chocolate! The end is nigh, my friends. (PS – I’m pretty proud of myself for sticking to it and learning to resist temptation, which is what this is really about.)

I’ve also been fasting on Wednesdays and Fridays, eating fish or vegetarian instead of red meat. I go for at least two meals without red meat, but I do sometimes give in and have beef. I’m sorry, Jesus. Please forgive me (and see the previous four paragraphs about my much bigger sacrifice and how GREAT! I’ve been doing at resisting temptation!).

10. Better than crack and totally legal. I recently tried the spinach and artichoke cream cheese and I am IN LOVE. It is delicious! I find excuses to eat toast or bagels. Mmm.

11. It’s just a number. I know I always freak out over turning 30 this year, but my sweet Grannie has quite a few decades on me and I have never heard her complain. Tomorrow (Wednesday) is her birthday!

The number would make you think she’s an old, old lady, but she’s not; she gets around better than some people 20-30 years younger than she. She’s probably older than some of her “old ladies” she took care of when we were kids, but you wouldn’t know it.

Anyway, we all love her like crazy and feel so blessed to have her in our lives!

Grannie, you’re the best grandmother ever! We hope you have a great birthday!