toothy grin!

So glad daddy's home!

... and I think he's catching on to what it means when I pull out my camera.

"motherhood is application"

Here's another article that served, again, as a great encouragement to me. Daily, yes, but more specifically an encouragement as I've been full time mommy for two days while Michael is out of town.

In milestone news, Eli has recently:

1) Cut two teeth.

2) Military shuffled

3) Crawled

4) Sat himself up.

All of these things make for interesting days... :-)

What a day.

If Eli looks despondent in this picture, it's because he is. Stephen officially became a Mountaineer on Friday and this was after our "Farewell and Godspeed" party the night before. I'm so proud of Stephen and even though I (and Eli) will miss him terribly, I also look forward to hearing all of his stories--hopefully tame, modest stories--of this particular "season" of his life.

Little man and I decided at the last minute to drive to Boone on Friday to help Stephen move in... or something like that. Eli wasn't much help and consequently, neither was I. But we did get to see the campus and his dorm room, eat a delicious lunch at a hole-in-the-wall Boone restaurant, and say our final goodbyes. How in the world will I do this with my own children?

cousins.

This really isn't a normal occurrence, the whole baby-standing-on-the-table thing. But here they are.

Eli nine months old

Here's Eli on our way home from the pool... I have no idea what he found so amusing.

I Can't Believe I Enjoy Grocery Shopping.

Here's the result of this morning's shopping trip at Harris Teeter. As most of the female world knows, this week is super double coupons at the Teeter so I ventured out before Eli woke up (and while Michael was here before work) to get my grocery shopping done.

The total for all of this was.... drumroll, please...


$25.88!

This included a $10 off coupon that I received from Recyclebank (if you aren't familiar with how Recyclebank works, check Hip2save.com for info. I saved over 40 dollars by using coupons alone (including the $10 off), and another $30+ with the VIC savings, which I love but also realize the retail price of most of HT's items are higher than most grocery stores.


With a budget that limits our groceries to $70/week (unless I get out of hand, which isn't unusual...), this is a lot of food for that price, and it allows me to get the *essentials* at Aldi.

Motherhood in the Trenches

In the way of book recommendations, I have many. Not that I'm the final say on what is worth reading and what isn't, but a few months ago I read and thoroughly enjoyed this book on parenting little ones. Also, I feel like a small fish in a big pond reading about the author's great feats in raising five children--my responsibility seems insignificant in comparison. But admittedly there are days when one feels like five, and he isn't even crawling yet. Aah, how much I have to learn.


Rachel Jankovic has also written an excellent article that's been posted on the Desiring God website. Here's the link, and the article is entitled "Motherhood is a Calling, and Where Your Children Rank."

Totally worth the read, but only if your little ones bestow you with the time!