A Ho Hum Attitude

I have to admit that I kindof have a "ho hum" attitude these days. Things of life have just gotten on my shoulders and while I face them head on, with my head down and my chin up, I find myself doing a lot of soul searching and wondering. I wonder, for instance, what defines my value. Is it work? Is it my children? Is it my house or my clothes or my other tangible items that I can point to and show where things are going "right". The consistent theme that God keeps bringing me back to is that my only true value is in him. In HIS sacrifice and in who HE says I am as one of his children. The reality of not being able to "earn" anything gives freedom and hope but also a "ho hum" attitude. I don't know why.

I sit in my office while the girls play around me and look out the window on a wet and gross day. Ellabee is trying her hardest to put on a puppet show intermingled with conversation of her upcoming birthday party and a sleep over she's decided she and Audrey are ready to have. Anne Bailey is doing her best to disrupt the show / conversation - wanting to be part of everything. I'm inundated with email and a work "to do" list. Dinner to cook and a house that needs to be cleaned. And yet, a ho hum attitude penetrates my mind.

We spent the entire day yesterday at home. John ran a few errands but we stayed here, in our pajamas all day. It was fantastic and yet at the end of the day, I was exhausted. John said it is the longest day he can remember in a while. And perhaps there's the answer. Perhaps it's the slow down that God has been pulling us towards. I long for "more time" but it only comes when we push away the things of this world and just be... just be together and play and stay isolated away from the world. So, here I am again with no plans to leave the house except to go fetch John from work. Knowing full well that my list of errands is growing by the minute but with no umph to go and do them. I need stamps (about 500 of them), I need masks for a work thing, I need to do a lot of things but I intend to stay home - with the girls and our music and puppet shows and some work mixed in.

some pics from our week.

A self portrait - Mommy and Anne Bailey.

Playing in the kitchen... didn't mean to dress them alike (funny part is that John dressed EBS and I dressed ABS)

The newest obsession - playing in the dog crate.

A playground feast in the front yard. James and Andrew came over to play.

We'll always have dress-up! Princess Ellabee.

We Can Officially Call It Walking Now

Anne Bailey has been playing with the whole walking concept for the past week or so. She will take a couple of steps and then down she goes. If she didn't think about it, she'd walk a few more steps or stand there and dance or look at you. Well, today I got her out of bed and we came downstairs. She was wriggling and struggling to get down on the floor. She did not want to be held, so I put her down - on her feet - and off she walked. And she's been walking everywhere all day! Unbelievable!

Our newest trick

Yep, Anne Bailey is walking. Well, not really sure if you can officially call it walking, but she takes several steps in a row and then will go back to crawling. When she doesn't think about it she will even stand unassisted. We haven't caught the walking part yet, but here's a pic of the standing portion of her repertoire:

Oh the Weather Outside....

is delicious!

Ask any Southerner and we'll tell you - snow doesn't happen often but when it does - wow! We anticipated the snow for three days which even spurred a Thursday evening run to the grocery store for milk and bread. I can't relly expain why exactly I had to go buy milk and bread - but I did. Just that - milk and bread. how funny!

Then, we waited and it came! Ellabee flipped out! Seriously flipped out. We bundled up in what ever snow clothing we had (which wasn't much) and went out into it. I had forgotten just how wet and cold you get in the snow but what fun. Ellabee made a snow angel and a snow man - her life long dreams realized.

And then, in the spirit of a perfect southern snowstorm - it was over and the snow melted in two hours. WITH NO LOSS OF POWER!

Not too sure what to think about the snow, Ellabee and Fennigan would romp around in it for about three minutes and then run inside to warm up.

OK, I will admit that this was a publicity shot. The news was asking for snow pictures and we took our own to send it - strategically placed in fr0nt of the NBC peacock on red mountain. Not sure if we got on the news or not, but that was the public relations side of us coming out.

The only one equipped to be in the snow was Anne Bailey - thanks to a snow suit Maw Maw brought us from Colorado last year. We'll be putting it to use again during the Mercedes Marathon in three weeks - it's always SOOOO cold.

Fennigan couldn't seem to figure out the snow either. He just took to barking in the air at the snowflakes.

Ellabee and her snowman - before he had hair.

Welcome to the Kingdom!

We celebrated Capp's dedication today with Kev and Laurie at their church. What a sweet day. Welcome to the kingdom little man!

After looking more closely at this picture, I think the dad's may need to be cropped out - sorry John and Kev, but it's a good picture of me and Laurie - y'all, not so much!

See what I mean?

Crazy Hair and Crazy Weather

The Stone family have now had a cough and cold for 6 weeks. I find myself entering rooms declaring "we've had this cough for weeks!" so that other moms don't shun me or my children! I just can't seem to get them well and we don't even need to go into the ear infection debacle! It's been a nightmare. Speaking of nightmares - can we just take a moment to discuss winter hair? As a curly headed woman, it's always been the summer in Alabama which is the bane of my existence. I know that's a little strong - but you deal with natural curly hair in 98% humidity and you'll see what I mean. Anyway, it's become the winter that's killing me these days. No amoung of product will help the state of my hair and unfortunately, I've realized that this is something I've inadvertently passed down to daughter #2. Poor thing.


Just wanted you to see how the sins of the mother get passed down to the daughter - check out the crazy sis's hair!