Sick Week

I've caught a bad cold/flu bug this week, but I'll be back to blogging soon!

Easter Weekend

Dying eggs.

Easter egg hunt.

Sweet babies in their Sunday best.

Easter baskets.

Ham dinner.

Bunny cake.

Hope you had a fabulous weekend!

Hooray!

(Photo Credit)
Today is Good Friday. We're having a church service tonight, and I'll be singing on the worship team for that. For me, there is practically nothing I love to do more than sing. But more than anything, today I am praising the Lord for His willingness to die for me. I am so thankful for Him in my life.

Tomorrow morning we'll dress the girls up and take them to an Easter egg hunt at the church. This will be their first egg hunt, so I'm excited to see their little faces. We'll also try do dye some eggs tomorrow afternoon at home.

Something else to "hooray" about is that we got our federal tax return. As a result, in the last week we have:

1) Paid off the credit card
2) Paid off the car loan
3) Put $700 into savings toward an emergency fund

Now if we can keep the debt snowball going, we should have both of our school loans paid off in about 2 years. If I begin working as a doula, it could get done much faster than that. What a great feeling!

How Does My Garden Grow?

(Photo Credit)
Well, it's hit and miss so far. Some of the plants I started indoors aren't doing so well outside in their pots. As those break or wither, I am planting new seeds in hopes that they'll do better being outside from the start. A few of them are still alive, but many of them aren't/ My onions still look good, though. Also, my tomatoes, green peppers, and jalepenos are transferred to bigger containers, but are still indoors. They'll probably go outside in about a month or so depending on the weather. They're still doing good.

Over the weekend I got down to business outside. I filled and planted several pots with spinach, lettuce, green onions, and one other thing I am blanking on at the moment. I'll blame that on mommy brain. I also tended to the plants that aren't doing as well, which are my kohlrabi, cabbage, and brussel sprouts. In the back yard, I tilled some ground up and planted fava beans, beets, and kale. Now I'll just be watering and waiting for them to grow!

Something About Breakfast

For me, there's just something about a nice breakfast. It's comforting and puts me in a good frame of mind for the day. The girls love breakfast foods, too, and there's nothing better than breakfast for dinner.

Friday morning we had waffles with oranges.

Saturday we went all out and had a ham, spinach, egg, cheese, and tomato scramble with mashed potato pancakes.

After our wonderful breakfast, I went to worship practice at church and then headed out with a friend to get manicures and pedicures at a local beauty school. They're much more affordable that way and I was pleased with the results. My nails have held up quite well, even after working in the garden yesterday afternoon (I'll be posting more about my efforts later this week).

It was really nice having a quiet break after a long week with my crazy, energetic kiddos.

My movie star...

my dancer...

and my solo artist!

Why I Love Cloth Diapers

1.) I never have to run out and buy diapers or wipes because they're always on hand.
2.) Rashes are few and far between.
3.) Blowouts are also rare. When we've taken a break from cloth in the past, I've always been glad to get back to it because of all the poo-plosions we've had in disposables.
4.) They reduce waste in landfills.
5.) They can save a lot of money.
6.) I like knowing that my baby's skin is soft, comfy, and free of chemicals.
7.) It makes me happy to pull a load out of the dryer, fold them with the girls, and see the pretty, folded stacks of colorful diapers.
8.) Last but not least, they are just so stinkin' cute, as evidenced by William sporting one of his dipes for you.

The Lord Provides

It's amazing to see how our needs are met in spite of having a limited budget. In our effort to pay off debt and live within our means, we cut out our clothing and diaper budget. Well, God provides more than we need! When I was pregnant with Charlotte, I got to know a wonderful group of ladies on an online cloth diapering forum. We were all due in January 2009, and we chatted throughout our pregnancies.We connected with each other so well that we've kept in touch almost daily ever since. We do gift exchanges each Christmas and often send diapers and clothing to each other when we're done using them. Well, today we got a giant box of clothing in the mail from one of these sweet, generous friends.

Dorothy was ecstatic...

She found and tried on her new tutu right away.

Charlotte helped to unload everything, too, dancing around in excitement.

First, we pulled out an entire stash of medium and large all-in-ones that will work well for both Charlotte and William.

Next, we found everything William could wear for 18-24 months, including jammies, pants, shirts, hoodies, swim trunks, socks, shorts, and hats.

Last but not least, Dorothy got a 5T wardrobe as well, including jammies, shirt & legging sets, a couple of dresses with leggings, and some hoodies. As she pulled out the ballerina jammies, she said, "oh, mommy, wow! I wished for these!"

So, although we're not rich, we are richly blessed. I'm so thankful for God's provision, but even more thankful for the friendships I have been given... a group of women that are in the same walk of life who I can be real with on my worst days without fear of rejection. What more could I ask for? And we are more than happy to pass along our things to those who would be blessed by them, too. In fact, our newborn diapers are going out to a couple of these lovely ladies this week. We joke about the "traveling pants" that one of our group members knitted for William that are now being passed along to each new baby boy. But it's really traveling pants... diapers... shirts... dresses...

Thanks for everything!