Fabulous (outfit) Friday

A new take on the location of the Garden of Eden

Thought I'd try to get in a lesson on the consequences of sin today.

I failed.

The lesson flew completely over the head....alas, I shall continue trying....



Today, we were working (me, Shane, Cameron, and Ethan) to prepare our garden. Shane had just finished tilling and we were using hard rakes to evenly spread the soil and rid the garden of the old weeds and grass.

I hear:

Cameron: "What's this, Mommy?"

I walk over to see him standing above--and I know I have a *tendency* to exaggerate, but seriously--the largest grub I have ever seen in my life. It was as thick around as my pinky finger.

*shudder*

Me: "That, my dear, is called a grub. They are gross."

Cameron: "What do they do?"

Me, spouting quickly, before I really had a chance to think about the impact of my words on my four-year-old: "Nothing, son. They don't do anything."

Shane, of course, comes in with a more Godly-minded approach: "Well, they have to be good for something. God made everything....it has to be for some purpose."

Me, under my breath: "Yeah, to gross me out."

But, then, I got to thinking.

Me: "Well, couldn't the grub be a direct result of sin? Like, it came into the world after the fall?"

Cameron is looking a bit confused by this point, so I tried to clarify:

Me: "Cameron, do you remember when Adam ate that piece of fruit that God told him not to eat? When he sinned for the first time in the Garden of Eden? "

Cameron: "Yep!"

Me: "Well, when Adam did that and sin came into the world, lots of bad things happened. Like we have to work hard in our garden now, and there are bugs now....you know, things like that."

Cameron thinks for a minute, I believe trying to connect the dots between the consequence of Adam's sin with grubs being in our garden.

His conclusion?

"Oh, so....Adam and Eve lived here in Catlin, huh?"

Pray for Kaci

If you've been praying for the Ronne's, first of all--THANK you!! If you would like to do a bit more, and are looking for a tangible way to help this sweet family (who are going to soon be deep in medical bills) check out my friend Kara's site for information on obtaining these great prayer bracelets!

Thanks everyone, and please keep lifting Kaci and her family in prayer!

Second week of couponing--I'd say I'm getting better....

Walgreens:
Got $65.73
worth of merchandise
Paid $13.30
(I am not as good at Walgreens yet as I'd like to be)
But,
in addition to that,
I received $11 in Register Rewards (free money at Walgreens!)
to use on my next trip!
Net spent: $2.30!! for $65.73 worth of items!

CVS:
{How I love you, CVS! *mmmmmwah*}
I spent $2.47
Most of was TAX
*boooooo*
I received $55.17 worth of merchandise
and
--here's the kicker--
$20 in Extra Bucks (free money at CVS!)
for next weeks' adventure!!
That means, they basically paid me $17 to take merchandise out of their store!

I can handle this.

Shelly, have I mentioned that I love you?

This girl is the guru....check out South Jersey Shopper for tips on how to shop for cheap or even FREE at the drugstore!

I am LOVING this couponing thing!

More on this topic (and HOW I am doing it) soon!

2, 184 hours / 91 days / 13 weeks / 3 MONTHS

To say "I love Lola" would be the understatement of the year.

I am absolutely, completely, totally and utterly in love with this girl.

My daughter.

*squeal*

I still love saying that.

Lola has been such a special addition to our family. Today, she is three months old. She is getting so big so quickly, and she is doing so many things already!

She is trying to roll over.

She can rock a hair bow/flower on her bald head like nobody's business.

She loves to smile at me while she is nursing, subsequently letting all of the milk in her mouth leak out and dribble down her cheeks.

She loves to be talked to, and usually will light up with a big smile.

She sleeps about 8 hours--from 10ish to 6ish--at night.
*love. her.*

She loves her Grandmothers.

She would have loved this Grandmother as well, for whom she was named.
Of that, I am more than certain.

She can fall asleep anywhere, but loves Daddy's cozy arms and chest.

She is just shy of 11 pounds.
She seems huge to me, but almost every one comments on how tiny she is.

She has three of the cutest, most amazing and loving brothers in the history of the world.

She digs her slings.

She looks so amazingly cute in Baby Legs....

....even when she's not so happy.

She is the most smiley first thing in the morning, and is smiling and 'talking' like crazy.

She's like, the smartest three-month old in the history of the world. She can already count....

One

Two

Three
*prodigy*

Oh, and she loves to chew on her fingers. *grin*

She has super long, curly and very girlie eyelashes.

{And I think she is just so pretty. Side note.}

Her Mommy She loves hats....

She has big dimples when she smiles!

She is normally very good-natured, but can throw a mean fit every once and a while.

She quickly returns to her normally happy self, however.

"Awww, Mommy....I'm sorry I threw that fit. I luuuuuuuuuuv you. Please forgive me?"

She is a b@@b baby. No bottles and no pacifiers accepted here!

However, she is--already--an accomplished thumb-sucker.

Seriously--it doesn't get much cuter....

...well, maybe it does.

*grin*

She loves to take walks...

...and usually finds her thumb midway....

....and is fast asleep by the time we get back home.

She loves Daddy....

...and Mommy....

....and the saying on the wall in her room could not be any more true:

Lola, we love you so much, baby girl. You are everything we hoped and prayed for, and so much more. Happy three months!


"I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him."
I Samuel 1:27

Rrrrr!!

I don't know why, but I love this picture!
{And no....I have no idea what she was doing....}

Hello? Helllllllllllo? Are you there?

I'm still here.

I feel like it's been forever since I blogged.

In reality, it's only been a week!

We've been sooooooo busy around here....with the arrival of Spring comes many, many projects--and with a newborn (and three very busy boys) said projects get done about half quarter speed.

Or less.

In the last seven days,
I have:

cleared the Winter clothes out (times SIX)--put some in the rummage pile and some in storage,
then
got the Spring clothes back out of the storage tubs and into our closets/drawers.
Whew.....
What. A. Job.
Every mother knows what I'm talking about.
A twice-yearly most dreaded project, no? Just me? *sigh*

We have:

done a ton of landscaping, including adding a huge new flower bed and lots and lots of new shrubs/trees/flowers. It was done with a "no-maintenance" idea behind it, since--well, you know--I have so much time on my hands these days for things like watering/weeding a flower bed. Shane's really into the whole "do things right the first time" thing, which takes for dang ever. I, of course, know that it is better in the long run....but this project alone took up three entire days!

We have:
started on our garden. Yay!

Shane has:
worked--a lot--and managed to accomplish 90% of my "Honey-Do" list.
I love this man.

I have:
gotten lots and lots of junk things we no longer need cleared out of the house for our upcoming rummage sale, silently praying over it as I go that it will return to me a decent portion of what I originally paid for it.
*grin*

We have:
Thoroughly cleaned our garage, and worked on some organization in there. That's a never ending project, actually....

I have:
Gone a little cuckoo over a crazy new hobby of mine called couponing. I've been watching my friend Shelly go bonkers over 'getting great deals' for a few weeks now, and I decided to attempt my hand at it.
I sat back.
I read 'deal blogs'.
I tried to figure it all out.
And then, this week, I dug in and went for my very first deal. I came out of CVS with almost $48 of merchandise for a measly nine bucks. I spent nine bucks....and felt like a million! I've since gotten unbelievable deals at nearly robbed Walgreens blind--twice--and CVS once more as well!
You can probably expect to hear me talk about this a bit more in the coming weeks--it's pretty exciting.

I could go on about all the stuff we've been doing.

I won't.

Suffice it to say, the Merritt's are busy.

But that's to be expected--we're all busy at this time of year, right?

Hold the line--we'll be back to our regularly scheduled posts soon....

Say what I want to hear

Cameron: "Mommy, can Brant (next door neighbor boy) come over?"

Me: "Nope, buddy, not right now...Mommy's working, and I can't really watch him very well."

Cameron: "Mom....I don't really want to say this, but....if I were you, I'd say yes."

Blurry. . . . .

. . . .but beautiful. . . .

This is only funny if you have seen Toy Story a million and a half times and know the lines by heart...

Ethan brought me an Army Man today.

He was missing one leg.

{That, incidentally, is because one of my children left him on my kitchen floor--again--and I stepped on him and snapped it off. Right at the knee, poor bugger. Thankfully, I did not injure myself due to the fact that I had my hard-soled house shoes on. Otherwise, heads may or may not have rolled around here.}

"Uh oh, Mommy.....uh oh." Ethan said.

I looked down to see Ethan with the injured soldier in his hands.

"Yeah, buddy....I know. That happened the other day. Mommy accidentally stepped on him, and now he doesn't have a leg. We're going to have to throw him away."

"NO! No, Mommy!!" Cameron hollered from the other side of the family room.

"Cameron, he's broken. You can't play with him like this, it's dangerous. He needs to go in the garbage."

"But Mom," he replied, "a good soldier never leaves a man behind!!"