My Dad has been in Nebraska for over a month now. As soon as my folk’s sell their home, my mom and my younger sister and niece will be joining him. My girls don’t understand why “Papa” is gone to “Ne-gah-ska” and keep trying to figure out when he’s coming home, or when they’ll get to see him again.

A couple days ago I was herding everyone around trying to get us all dressed for the day. My eldest asked me where we were going and my middle daughter explained, “See Papa in Negahska.”

I had to explain, that “No, we’re not going to Nebraska today. Instead we’re headed to the store.”

Then today we pulled up at Costco to do some shopping and DD2 asked me, “Papa in Costco?”

No, honey. Nebraska and Costco are not the same place.

*** *** ***

My youngest really like touch games. She can recite the rhyme to “around the world” complete with the actions for tracing your face and tickling your chin. She also likes for me wiggle her toes while I recite, “This little piggy went to market, this little piggy stayed home, this little piggy had roast beef, this little piggy had none, and this little piggy went wee, wee, wee, all the way home!”

So, this evening, we were sitting together while I sorted laundry, and she leaned back. She lifted up one foot and asked me with the most earnest eyes, “Market toes, please?”

What a smartie.

In about four minutes I’m headed to bed. I’m not in the least tired, but I know staying up is not the wisest decision. Especially considering that it’s nearly midnight.

I’m actually in the mood to gab on the phone, but realize most of my friends and family are sane enough to actually already be in bed. So, I’m resisting the urge to bother people who are already asleep, and instead am doing a quick update here before I make myself turn in for the evening.

Probably the biggest news is that in about 12 days Dh, myself, and DD3 are headed to Punta Cana for a mini-vacation in the Domincan Republic. I’m way too excited for my own good, and can’t hardly wait till we board the plane. Although, I am a little concerned about the fact that our layover in Charlotte is thirty minutes! Gulp. Wish us luck on that one!

My two eldest girls will be staying with Grandma and DFS3 will be in respite care with a good friend.

It’s not the way we normally vacation, but it’s how it works out this year.

I know DD1 and DFS3 will do fine. DFS3 is still fairly oblivious and is happy as long as he’s fed and held. DD1 is a raging extrovert who thrives on newness. She’ll see the time as an opportunity to try new things and have almost-undivided Grandma attention.

The child I’m the most worried about is DD2. She’s my shy-gal. She’s also my most likely to be homesick. I spoke with her today about how she is going to spend the week with Grandma. She seemed excited. But then, she was that way when it was time to have a sleep-over with the cousins. All excited and happy until the reality of the situation hit home.

Be praying for her if you think about her next week. She’s going to need lots of brave vibes and encouragements.

Our purpose said best here:

“They [The Tea Parties] are about opposition to our tax money being spent in a reckless, foolish fashion and at an unprecedented rate, tripling the deficit with thousands of earmarks and tons of pork. They are about a bunch of politicians who signed onto a spendulus bill they didn’t bother to read and that they rushed through before anyone else had time to read either. They are also about the government taking over private enterprise — determining the salaries of privately employed individuals, demanding resignations from US executives and even getting into the business of guaranteeing our automobile warranties.”

It really is time that we stood up and had our voices heard. Stop spending money you don’t have, on things we don’t need or want.

The girls and I made chocolate nests for Easter. So simple and quick.

1 bag of semi-sweet chocolate,
2T of peanut butter,
1/2c of shredded coconut
2 cans of Chow Mein noodles. (approx 4 cups.)

Melt the chocolate and peanut butter in a glass bowl over boiling water, add the dry ingredients and mix. Spoon out mixture into greased muffin tins. Adding “eggs” (In this case, egg shaped Whopper candies) to finish.

Cool and serve.

The nests have been a huge hit around here. We made enough for all the cousins on Easter, with a few to spare as “samples” in the mean time.

Then, today, the nurse at Children’s handed me a print out for Resurrection Rolls. The basic concept is to dip a large marshmallow in melted butter, cinnamon, and sugar and wrap it neatly within a crescent triangle. The Marshmallow symbolizes Christ and his pure sacrifice for our sins. The butter, cinnamon, and sugar represent the oils his body was anointed with in burial. The crescent triangle is wrapped (sealed) around the Marshmallow, representing the Tomb.

You bake the Resurrection rolls according to direction (see prepackaged crescent roll directions) and once baked, you break open the tomb to find that Christ is no longer there. He has risen!

I’m really excited to try this out with my girls.

Just a heads up, neither of these recipes really encompass the traditional foods diet that we’re trying to eat. We consider this a special treat for Easter. (Lest, you be shaking your head in wonder at our consumption of Marshmallows and Chow Mein noodles. lol.)

My husband just recently celebrated a milestone birthday. To commemorate it, my kiddos and I set out to make him an extra special birthday cake.

In this house, “extra special” generally means: “Something we’ve never tried before, but think we’ll have a blast doing.” So, inspired by Rachel’s rainbow cake, we set out to make one for my hubby.

As per instructions, we divided our cake batter into six bowls, and then I placed a little spoon of food dye into each bowl and asked my girls to mix the batter up. The girls had a blast mixing the colors in the batter and watching it transform from a dull white cake batter, into a vibrant shade of pink, green, purple, red, orange, or blue.

At one point, DD1 started giggling; she gave me a hug and exclaimed, “Our cake is like magic!”

After we baked the rainbow cake, we carted it off to my sister to have her guide us through the process of turning the magical rainbow into a more manly replica of Dh’s Police badge.

Everyone got a giant kick out of A) surprising Dh with the badge and B) watching his reaction when he opened the cake to find all the yummy magic the girls had packed into his surprise rainbow cake.

My youngest daughter is 18 months old and currently working on catching her pees in the potty chair. Consequently she spends most of her day running around nekky. We have lots of little talks about “pee-pee in the potty” and not a half an hour ago I put her on the toilet to give it another whirl.

She didn’t need to go so we decided to abandon that idea and just go sit down and eat breakfast. About five minutes into breakfast and she looked up and eyed me with bright eyes.

“Mama! Go potty! Mama! Go Potty NOW.”


So I swooped her up and off we ran to the bathroom. Her little legs dangling with my palms under her armpits. Carrying her away from my body, just in case she really did need to go right. now. As we hurried, she looked me in the face. Smiled the sweetest smile and declared, “I wuv you, Mama.”

She melts my heart.