refreshed love.

He called me at home and asked me if I would want to come to Philadelphia with him next week.

"Next week?!"

"Yep. I talked to my parents and they can keep the babies."
It somehow all worked out (Daph and Jack were with their mom for the weekend, Mason's dad had Monday off to stay with Mas)

And so we were off.

We have walked and explored the streets of Philadelphia, eaten tons of yummy vegetarian goodness, and just spent time together-talking and laughing. In fact, I don't think we have spent this much time together, alone, in YEARS.

It is too easy to get lost in the raising of kids together, the bustle of everyday life, to forget one another, to lose sight of the two of you that started it all.

But you know what?

I am still madly in love with this man who gave me my sweet babies, my wonderful family. 

Madly, deeply in love and I plan to keep it that way, for you know-


FOREVER.

:)

glimpses of my life

Matt wraps his arms around me, and sings, "All I ever wanted, all I ever needed, is heeeeeere in MY arms. Words are very unnecessary."

Theo sees me begin to cook and comes running in the kitchen. He scoots a chair over to me, climbs up next to me, points to the stove and says, "Beary, beary hot."

We drop Matt off at work and start the drive towards Mason's school. He reads 'I'll love you forever' to his brothers and sings the song

I'll love you forever,
I'll like you for always,
As long as I'm living,
My baby you'll be...   just like I sing it to him. 

Theo is crying for more milk. I ask him to go get his cup, but he is being 2 and refuses. No cup, no milk buddy. Will hops down from his chair and walks over to his baby brother. "It's ok, Feo. What's wrong? You want your miwk?" He walks into the living room and gets the milk cup for his Fe-o.

They teach me so much more than I could ever hope to teach them.

thankfulness, part one.

You may have heard about the thankful challenge on Facebook. The challenge is to post something that I am thankful for every day in the month of November. The following is the first part of the month's thankfulness.  


November 1st-Tonight I am thankful for my husband and all that he does and brings to our family. We are so blessed!


November 2nd-Tonight I am thankful for my precious family and the joy they daily bring to my heart. I cannot imagine my life without these 6 wonderful people!


November 3rd-Today I am thankful for modern medicine! I have bipolar disorder and am just so grateful that there is medication that helps me, and I am able to purchase said medication without a second thought.


November 4th-I am thankful for the wonderful, and diverse, friends that I have. Each and every one of them was placed in my life purposefully, and I am so grateful.


November 5th-I am thankful for the two, blissful hours of clothes shopping I was able to do today, thanks to my Matty. Its amazing how efficient one is at shopping WITHOUT a screaming 2 & 3 year old. I scored a pair of $50 jeans for myself for $10! It's the little things!


November 6th-I am thankful for new beginnings! I started Weight Watchers today and am excited to get healthy!


November 7th-I am thankful that God gave me the gift of motherhood. There are so many people who struggle with conceiving and carrying a child, and I was blessed to come by both of these quite easily. I am so thankful for that gift and what it brought me- my gorgeous boys!


November 8th-I am thankful for the precious gift of my Mason God gave to me! I was a baby having a baby, but it was all in Gods plan. Love my oldest boy sooooo much! { And I already said I was thankful for my sons, but I don't care, I am saying it again.}


November 9th-Today I am thankful for my home. It is not perfect and it's nearly always messy but it's warm, cozy and safe. There are many people in this world that cannot say that.


November 10th-I am thankful that both Will & Theo are napping at the SAME TIME! This hasn't happened in months!


November 11th-I am thankful for every man or woman that has fought or served to give me my freedom.


November 12th-I am thankful for this body I have. It's not perfect and has some major fixes (working on it) BUT ( Big but!) it nourished three lives. I grew three humans and my body is miraculous for that!!


November 13th-I am thankful tonight for being lucky enough to have five wonderful senses to experience this beautiful world with. I am blessed to be able to see, hear, smell, taste and touch life!!


November 14th-I am thankful that I am a stay at home mom. I am living the life I used to dream about, and I need to remember that on the hard days.


 November 15th-I am thankful for a messy house...it means my children are making memories. :)

giving thanks for hope.

It's Saturday night, late, 11:41pm late, and I am waiting, waiting, waiting on my love to finish up his blog post for the evening.

It's been a long day, it always is in this house. The hours are long and bedtime for my babies means I breathe a sigh that we made it through another day. And that this mama can have some me time for a couple hours.

I am so thankful for these beautiful gifts God gave me. God knew before I did not only how much my children would need me, but how much I would need them.

He knew that I would struggle through the deepest darkest depressions I could ever imagine, and that oftentimes the only light would be my sweet boys. There have been days I have wondered if I could take another step, wondered if it would still be worth it to keep fighting, and with them the answer is always  Yes.

They are my breath and my soul and they, along with their sweet daddy, help me keep hope.

And thank God for hope.

Also? Thank God for medication. Wonderful, amazing medication that is helping me slowly regain who I really am.

It's been a hard day's night...

round and round and it's wonderful.

This morning I dropped my 3 year old dude off at preschool.
Then I took my 2 year old dude to story time.

Our story time rocks! There is not constant shhh-ing and asking toddlers to sit. Instead, kids are encouraged to move, jump, sing, laugh and just.be.kids. The leader of this story time loves children with all her heart and it shows. Her patience is endless. Her joy is genuine. It's a good time. Because of this, it's a BIG group. I am talking at least 20 parents with 1-2 kiddos a pop. Big!

Mr. Theo prefers to sit in my lap, rather than dance around. {Go figure. The kid won't stop moving at home, I take him out in public and Wham! I have a lap buddy!}

Today, as I was singing 'The Wheels on the Bus go Round and Round, round and round, round and round' I looked around at 20 other parents singing it with me. 20 other parents spending time with their kids being silly. 20 other parents who get it.

And I realized I am right where I am supposed to be. 


I am a stay at home mama and I am so blessed. So, very, very blessed.

what can I say? i love his lips!