Cup of Cozy

Our family typically does Thanksgiving on the Wednesday evening before the actual holiday. It's been like that for as long as I've been around, and we kinda like it. It makes the actual holiday really chill. We heat up the leftovers and lay around on the couch in food induced comas, and if you're part of the Barron section of the family you run a half marathon "turkey trot", but that's another story. ;)

Now that the actual Thanksgiving holiday has been celebrated around these parts, I'm all about bringing on the Christmas. It's such a cozy time of year...and the perfect time for stuff like hot chocolate. The other night it was cold and rainy and the forecast was calling for "make hot chocolate or else". So I hunted down a paleo version of hot chocolate. (I love paleo recipes...I'm really getting into using natural ingredients and trying to cut processed stuff out of our diet. Beside the point...but hey.)

I really like this recipe...it was just the cozy, warm sumthin' sumthin' that I needed. The kids liked it, too. Billy rarely likes anything paleo except for straight up meat wrapped in bacon, but he did drink some of it. ;) It was also so simple that even I didn't burn/spill/ruin/explode anything. Yahoo.

So now that I can allow myself to listen to Christmas carols and decorate, (I'm a firm believer in NOT mixing my holidays...Thanksgiving needs the proper attention before Christmas gets it's turn so that it doesn't feel left out.) I think a cup or two of this will come in handy. Hope all y'all had a great Thanksgiving!

Life with Boys (and a girl).

Growing up I was always a bit of a tomboy. I still am I think. I would much rather be wearing running shorts and no makeup than get all dressed up and have to wear shoes that hurt my feet, or heaven forbid, make me any taller than I already am.

It's been totally ok with me that this house is not a prissy house. (Prissy is ok, but just not for me.) Tirzah, while she does love to have her hair fixed and wear pretty dresses, can definitely wrestle with the best of them. She is a drama queen, no doubt, but thankfully she can hold her own sandwiched between two wild brothers.

Merrick from the beginning has been something of a barbarian. He was the original "hooligan". He reminds me of Tarzan, honestly. His long hair, climbing skills, and aversion to wearing anything but his underwear kind of fit the part. He loves anything rough and loud and not appropriate for inside the house. If he can get away with such activities inside the house? Well that makes him even happier. Today? It was soccer. Thankfully I don't have a lot of breakable items that he hasn't already broken.

The other day I noticed he had lined up all his super heroes on the coffee table, and they were taking turns fighting each other and yelling insults. (Tirzah's favorite insult is "you're stinky". I am glad that's the extent of her vocab right now. I realize it could be much worse.)

There are obviously going to be different struggles raising boys or girls. Right now they all have the same struggle, which is that they can't seem to hear about 80% of what mom says. I'm sure it will get more complicated as we go...but for now I'm just working on getting Merrick to wear clothes, and Tirzah to make it to breakfast before she has her first emotional breakdown. Jericho is still in the phase where he's what we like to call "the terrorist", (wreaking havoc on all who step in his way) so that's a whole different blog post.

One of Those Cat Videos

People are always watching cat videos online. I don't really get it usually, even though I love cats. I did watch one the other day though that made me laugh till I cried. A cat and an iguana and a serious overreaction on the cat's part. Anyway, thankfully in this video we feature a cat who's being pretty chill. 
This cat is usually a bit of a psycho, honestly. Fighting dogs, climbing trees, and stalking babies, etc. But for some reason he decided it would be a good idea to trust Jericho's driving skills. Or maybe he was just hoping to be part of the potential hit-and-run of a few dogs? ;)

Small Houses and Open Hearts

We've been slowly but surely working our way through foster care training, so here's a little update. We've been through about 4 training sessions, and as you can see from the picture below I recently had my physical done to make sure I don't have any communicable diseases. I'm good. We do still have to have background checks and a personality test/psych eval done, and while we are kinda crazy, we're not THAT kind of crazy, so I think that'll be all good. ;) After we finish all of that we will do our home study and all that.

I have really enjoyed the training so far. So much of it just reminds me of why we wanted to do this in the first place. So many kids in heart-wrenching situations, so many of whose families just need help getting things set right. While we do want to eventually adopt, we are planning to just foster at this point and are not necessarily looking to adopt yet unless the need is presented to us. So much of foster care is aimed at reuniting families, which is ideal if it can be done. So I'm glad we can hopefully be a part of helping heal families who need help.

I have loved the agency we are working with. They are amazing at not only caring for kids, but reminding us that they also want to look out for our family as well. I like how they value our kids, and making sure that they are protected and not lost in the shuffle as well. I think the only thing we are concerned with at this point is how tiny our current space is. I'm not sure we will be able to fit an extra person in our current house. And while our hearts are open, we don't have a lot of actual open space round here. We are currently looking for a larger home to rent, since Billy can't be approved for a home loan for 2 years with the nature of his job. So as we have from the beginning, we are moving forward with the mindset that we will just see what happens. We want to do this wholeheartedly, but also realize that there is a time for everything. (Prayers for a larger space appreciated. Even if we aren't going to be foster parents, we could definitely use some more room.) I think just going through the process of working towards opening our home to help people has been a learning experience for us. Even if the answer right now ends up being "wait", we've been humbled and thankful and can't wait until we see how God uses our family in this to help other families.

A Real Pile

We've loved 'Where the Wild Things Are' ever since Merrick was a baby. He had a Wild Things themed 1st birthday party, and we tried unsuccessfully to find him a Max costume one Halloween. We also bought the kiddos the movie when it came out and are guilty of quoting it repeatedly.

So, all that just to say, we like to call our nightly snuggle time "a real pile". The wild things always slept in a real pile, and we happen to think that's a good way to sleep/snuggle. What could be better than to be in a pile of my favorite people? Especially after they've been away for a few days like they were this weekend. Glad to have them back!

Falling Fast

It seems like this Fall has gone straight to cold really fast. These pictures I took not so long ago would show bare trees if I took the same shots now. Sad, since I'll miss all the colors and that last little bit of warmth you find in the sunshine. (I hope that will hang around a bit longer, but I'm not keeping my hopes up. I already feel the S.A.D. nipping at my heels.)

I'm kidding...a little. But the sight of trees with no leaves, and everything kind of taking on the color gray definitely does get to me after about, oh, 2 days. I just get kind of gloomy. I'm trying to keep my chin up this year, but the struggle is real people.

I think winter's one redeeming quality is that it makes Spring coming back around again that much more amazing. Every year the warmth and color coming back into the world just makes me feel so much better. I remember running outside this Spring and just smiling like an idiot because of all the flowers and bright green leaves. Maybe one of these days I'll move to a part of the country where this is the case year round, but for now I'm just gonna go add a few layers to my outfit. ;)

Firemen are kinda like moms...

Monday of this week we got the chance to go on a fun field trip with some friends of ours. It was the first time I remember being in a firestation myself, although my mom says otherwise. ;) I don't think any of us knew exactly what to expect, but the kids were seriously excited.

When we got there we were greeted by the lieutenant at that particular station. He was really friendly and welcoming, and didn't act like it was a chore to be chased around by a large group of children and homeschool mamas at all. He acted like he was enjoying himself, and kept telling us to keep in mind that these guys work for us, and we are welcome to visit anytime. 

(As you can see...someone was being uncooperative in this shot. Merrick was completely unhappy with his "spot" in this pic. Drama.)

It was really comforting, as a mom of 3 wild kiddos, to deal with someone (actually several someones, because the other guys working in the station kind of joined in and went on the tour with us) with such a laid back attitude, but who also definitely knows what he's doing when it comes to keeping people safe. No freaking out when the kids climbed on things, or accidentally opened the doors to the engine bay, etc. I guess they are firemen, they aren't supposed to panic. Maybe I can learn something from them. Nobody panic, and we all might get out alive, right? ;)

The kids really enjoyed themselves. Tirzah hopped right up in the firetruck as soon as they said it was ok. Merrick (my ever deep-thinking child) needed a bit of reassurance that there wasn't going to be an actual fire IN the station before he would get into the truck. Jericho, I had to nearly pry out of the truck. He climbed his stubby self up the steps on the side and parked himself right behind the wheel and would have stayed there all day if I let him. 

(Yet another uncooperative individual pictured above. Jericho prefers action shots.)

I think the kids learned a lot, and so did I. I absolutely love doing field trips with the hooligans. (One of the many reasons why homeschooling is awesome.) I learned that fireman are pretty good with kids, and they don't get much sleep, they are always prepared, and used to loud noises and accidents, and they love when someone brings them cookies to say 'thanks for your hard work'. Moms and firemen have a lot in common if you ask me. 

Relaxing Sometimes Leads to Cereal for Dinner.

This past weekend was pretty great. We had an ideal "lazy" Saturday. For years, literally our entire marriage, someone has always worked on the weekends. I used to work every other weekend, and then Billy was a youth pastor and worked both days of the weekend, and then Chick-Fil-A happened and he worked most Saturdays and some Sundays. (Yep...that was meeting day.) So we are kinda not able to get enough of actually being able to sit at home, do what we want, and just spend time together as a family. It's awesome. I mean...we could have sat around in our pajamas all day if we wanted! (We didn't...part of what happens in this family when we are being lazy? Oh, 10 mile runs for me and Billy. -Honestly, it's so relaxing. You should try it!- At different times of course. We try not to leave the hooligans unattended ya know.)

Sunday was a busier day, with several photo shoots for me and church. But it was a gorgeous day for sessions, so I'm not complaining. We also went on a shopping spree (we don't do those around here) and finally replaced everyones holey socks. Believe me...that was a lot of holes. There are a lot of feet around here. While I was putting away said socks, two individuals who will remain nameless (but who obviously incriminated themselves) hacked my Mac and left me these little gifts in the form of selfies.

I'm part proud, and part horrified, that they figured out how to do this. I'm completely horrified that they are already taking selfies. But selfies are just one of those things...we all do it even though we like to laugh at people for doing it.

I could definitely get used to weekends like this past one. What is harder to get used to is the Monday following when everyone wakes up screaming and wanting everything all at the same time and we have a field trip at 9 am and gymnastics this afternoon and how did I forget to go to the store or plan for meals this week and we have no dinner. I always feel like I have a hangover that I still need to sleep off. (If we're being honest I've never had a hangover, so I wouldn't really know what that's like. But I can imagine it feels like a Monday morning.) But, I am grateful for the chance to recharge this weekend, and hoping it'll help carry me through the glaring to-do list. Since I don't think that cereal for dinner is really gonna help much with that. ;)

Don't Laugh.

Jericho constantly keeps up laughing. I think that's part of the reason why he's so rotten. At least I like to blame it on that...and not my superior parenting skills. He is always doing things he isn't supposed to, and then cheesing it up and making people laugh so any following discipline really kind of loses it's steam. I'm working on it. You'd think I'd be a little "meaner" after 3 wild babies. I do try not to laugh at him when he's being a little tyrant...but honestly, could YOU keep a straight face? I didn't think so.

His mischievous nature did finally backfire on him the other day, though...so mommy had a little "revenge". He kept refusing to stay in his chair when we went to the nursing home to have lunch with my grandma. I scooted it up so he couldn't get out, but he decided to climb out under the arm. He got almost out, but then his big ol' head got stuck. I had to help him wedge his head back out. He stayed put after that. I tried not to laugh. Again...unsuccessfully. ;)

"Gymnapstics"

No, that's not a typo. Merrick recently was gifted gymnastics classes for his birthday. When I told him about it, Tirzah overheard and couldn't stop asking questions about "gymnapstics". I don't know about you...but that sounds way more appealing to me than gymnastics.

Merrick went to his first class on Monday, and I wasn't really sure what to expect. He loved it, obviously. There were trampolines everywhere, and people telling him to run and do flips. What's not to love?

I didn't take any pictures of him during the class. I didn't want to weird out the parents of all the other kiddos in leotards. And I didn't do as much watching as I would have liked anyway, because escape-artist baby literally did everything he could to get away from me and wreak havoc on the gym.

He is signed up for an 8 week session right now, but since he told me he wants to do gymnastics "every day forever" I see this being a part of our future for at least a little while longer.

A Runner's Fall

I know that everyone sees Fall in a different way. Some like it for the lattes, some like it for the sweaters, some like it for the 'I'm not sweating' factor, some like it for the football (me me me!!!), and then there's those crazy ones of us who like it for the running. Summer is my favorite season by far...but you cannot beat a good Fall run. (Or Spring...Spring is good too...so colorful.) Summer is really not great for running obviously because humidity is like running through wet cement while in a sauna. Gah. One day this summer while running I had my first near-death experience. Ok, maybe not that bad, but I did have to stop and sit down. I don't sit down pretty much ever...much less while running.

Admittedly I've been doing a lot of random mid-run stopping to take pictures. I know people who pass me wonder what the heck as I stand on the side of the road in my running gear taking pictures with my iPhone, but 'we can't stop...and we won't stop.' (Oh Miley...get your catchy songs out of my head.)

One of our friends from church told me they actually saw me taking the above picture, and wondered why anyone would want a picture of their feet. It's a legitimate question. It's one of my favorite types of running shots. (Cuz I know you all want to see my feet and the scenery, right?) I think subconsciously I do this to prove that I was actually running, not just out wandering the neighborhood in running attire taking pictures. I was sweating...see?

As gorgeous as the Fall running is, and how much I typically hate to see any run end, this last shot is one of my favorite Fall running views. The "finish line", where there is always cheering babies waiting for me. The hooligans are usually a pretty colorful sight to come home to, even without the leaves. ;)