a few pics from the weekend

Hanging out on the deck on Friday.


Playing with his new favorite toy... well, it's a tie between this and my cell phone.


With Aunt Sarah at Gabe's spot on Saturday.

Looking at the ducks with Mommy.

Daddy corralling the ducks for Jonah's viewing pleasure.

Playing with Gabe's flowers.

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Nothing much new here today. We did get to go to the mall, and for those of you who care, I got a GREAT pair of brown pants - exactly what I wanted - for $21.00 at Eddie Bauer. That's what I'm talkin' about.

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But really, who cares about brown pants? I'm so pumped about Stellan's successful ablation I'm literally all giddy and fluttery inside. I don't know about you, but I spent most of the day F5 refreshing Jennifer's twitter page every free moment I got. Still praying for the gunk in his lungs and his fever, but man, oh man, GOD IS AWESOME. I knew He was still in the miracle business. HOORAY!

our weekend

We've had a nice weekend, and I have a couple pictures to prove it, although I'm too tired to get them off my camera and put them up tonight.

Matt's parents came Friday night around 9, and we were just finishing up putting Jonah to bed. We got up Saturday morning, fed Jonah, let him take a long morning nap (holding him, of course), and then did dressing change. We ate lunch here and then later in the afternoon, my sister, Sarah, came over and we all went out to Gabe's spot (Debbie needed to put some flowers on her brother's grave who is also buried there) and then to Garden Ridge in Greensboro. I like that store. Lots of stuff for reasonable prices. They have LOTS of outdoor Christmas decorations, but I was being indecisive and thinking to myself that I don't have a staple gun or a tall ladder or creative decorating skills or energy, so, needless to say, I didn't buy much of anything. Actually, I got two pairs of pajama pants, 6 pairs of white athletic socks, the book Corduroy, a fall wreath for the front door, and a Christmas decorative stake thingy to stick out front. In my head, I'm totally going to go all out - in the decoration department - for Jonah's first Christmas. But when I really sit and think about how much money, time, and energy that will take, it just makes me feel tired. Pretty much anything outside of the day-to-day makes me feel tired. Sometimes I think I'm just lazy. If I can get dressing change done before noon, I feel like it's a productive day... and then I just kind of feel sluggish until bedtime. I know. I know. Get my thyroid checked. It's on my list.

Today Jonah didn't wake up until 7:45 (after waking up at 6:20 babbling... my response - ignoring him. It apparently worked.) Unfortunately he woke up VERY poopy, which required immediate dressing change. We went straight into it hoping we could still make it to church, but it was 9:30 by the time we got done. We knew we couldn't get him fed, both of us showered and ready, and him changed and out the door within an hour. So no church for us today. We did take him out around 2:00 to lunch at The Loop. Matt and I like taking him to places with outdoor seating (although there are very few here in Kville), because he's happier outdoors and the germs aren't closed in. He was great! Then Matt kept him for about two and a half hours so I could go SHOPPING! I'm not usually a big shopper, but I am desperate for some fall/winter clothes, and clothes shopping is not an easy thing to do with Jonah. The last two falls/winters I've been in maternity clothes, so my old stuff either doesn't fit right anymore or has been washed and dried so many times it's all faded, bumped up, or too short. AND I'm feeling the need to feel pretty. I know that's not really important, and I definitely wouldn't classify myself as "fashionable," but I wanted a few new (colorful) tops for the cool weather. (Staying in your pajama pants and t-shirts with your hair in a pony tail all day starts to make you feel really frumpy after a while.) I tend to buy everything in really dark shades, so I made myself buy things in pink, purple, orange, yellow, and green today. I had great success at Kohl's, and I feel like I got some good deals.

I'm at a frustrating place right now because the styles in Juniors don't really suit me anymore (or at least I feel like I should be dressing differently), but nothing in Misses really fits.

And for crying out loud, where are all the dark brown casual but not too casual pants??? (I tried Target, Kohl's, Maurices, and CATO.) I hate having something very specific in my head but not having a clue where to get it. I'm hoping, if Jonah cooperates, Matt's mom and I can head to the mall tomorrow.

I'm counting on you GAP. You're my only hope.

Jonah ate 22 ounces on Saturday, but only 19 1/2 today.

Oh yeah, and he had a big gusher on Saturday morning, you know, the morning after I blogged about it. Why oh WHY do I do that???

This officially concludes the most boring post ever.

PS - Tripp, Jonah said to say, "Good game." We almost had you, but we have a tendency to screw things up in the end. Hope you got to watch the game with your daddy.

go panthers!

Dear Tripp,

GO PANTHERS!

Love,

Jonah

quick update

Just a short update tonight. I'm about to go to bed. Jonah was only up for about thirty minutes overnight, but I went to bed way too late, so I kicked my own butt.

The nurse came and weighed Jonah yesterday. He only gained an ounce over this last week, but it's not a loss, so we'll take it. Plus I think all his calories went to length instead of weight. I swear he seems like he's grown a foot over the last two weeks. He's getting taller and thinning out, and he doesn't look like my little chubby-faced fatty anymore. Kinda sad. :(

He ate 24.8 ounces today! Hooray!

He's still not really napping more than twenty to thirty minutes at a time, and most of the time, he'll only sleep as long as I'm holding him.

I know I shouldn't do this but...

He hasn't had a gusher since Tuesday of LAST week... so we're going on ten days! And it was seven days between his last two. I'm not saying he won't do it again (especially now that I blogged about it), but hopefully we're outgrowing it.

Matt's folks are here this weekend, so I'm excited about that. They're only here until tomorrow evening. I'm hoping we can get out tomorrow (I've been out once since Sunday... Jonah hasn't been out at all since then). It's supposed to be a pretty weekend here, so I hope we can spend a lot of it outside. I figure we won't have that many more warm ones left.

Okay, off to bed. Thanks for all the wonderful comments and emails. You guys are the best. I'm better now. :)

anonymous comments

This comment was just posted by Anonymous:

Hey mom! That's not very "christian" of you to tell me to get a life. Maybe you need to get one too besides going to Target every chance you can get and then blogging endlessly about it!!! If you don't like my comments about T.V. then maybe you will listen to the American Academy of Pediatrics and what they say about children under 2 watching T.V. (see below)The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends that kids under 2 years old not watch ANY (hear that Target mom!) TV and that those older than 2 watch no more than 1 to 2 hours a day of quality programming.The first 2 years of life are considered a critical time for brain development. TV and other electronic media can get in the way of exploring, playing, and interacting with parents and others, which encourages learning and healthy physical and social development.

I'm sorry if my comment seemed not "christian," although I still don't really know what that means. All a Christian is is an imperfect being saved by grace in Christ. And I need more grace and forgiveness than most. I don't think I've been shy about admitting that fact.

On the other hand, I am ALL DONE with people judging my parenting and acting like they "know" what kind of mother I am based on what I choose to share here on my blog. Most mothers can skip baths, leave their kids in their pajamas all day, don't have to do two hour dressing changes DAILY, and get a small break when their kids close their eyes (as opposed to having to use every nap as an opportunity to struggle to feed your child). If I need to put Jonah in front of the TV to brush my teeth or eat my lunch or fold the laundry, I am going to put him in front of the TV... you know, horribly brain-rotting television like Little Bear. Please do not act like you know how I engage, interact with, or educate my child. I spend more quality time with Jonah than about 99% of parents... and I don't take a moment of it for granted. I love it. I live for it. I do anything and everything for him. And God gives me the strength, patience, and perseverance to do it day after day after day. I wish you could be here to see what a day is like for us. Then you might be a little slower to "speak."

And obviously you are ashamed of what you have to say (or at least the way you are going about saying it) because you continue to post as Anonymous. I loved the way one reader said it, "If you have an opinion, then OWN IT."

I have TWO email addresses on my sidebar where you can contact me. I would appreciate you using mine instead of Jonah's since his should be reserved for encouragement. What a coward you are! YOU are the one who should be ashamed.

To everyone else:

So many of you post as Anonymous, and you are so uplifting, so encouraging, so completely wonderful. But I cannot take comments from the cowards ANY longer. They bring out the demon in me. They make me so angry I shake. They ruin my day. They drive me nuts. I'm home all day long trying to take care of Jonah as best I can. I have very few hobbies; very little time for non-Jonah things. But the blog is a hobby that I enjoy. It's meant to be positive - sometimes happy, sometimes sad, sometimes funny, sometimes sarcastic, sometimes completely superficial - but never mean or hateful. It was started for Gabe. I continue it for Jonah. It's mostly for my family and a scrapbook for my boys. It's my blog.

And I need it to be a good thing. For me. For my family.

So...

I am no longer allowing anonymous comments. This is not the first instance where people have abused that they can post comments faceless... with no accountability, no consequence. They can abuse innocent people for whatever reason. I don't get it. I don't get people who spend their time reading blogs they don't agree with just to hurt the people who write them. I don't get it. I don't get why they are so angry or jealous or hopeless or sad that they have to take their time to bring down other people.

And I would say I'll just delete them and move on, but I know, emotionally, I just can't take it. My skin is too thin. My heart is too fragile. My brain is too tired.

So please, please, if you are a regular positive poster who posts as Anonymous, I'm begging you to take the time to register with gmail or post with an ID. I still want to hear from you! You warm my heart. You make me feel like I'm surrounded by friends... even when I'm all by myself. You make me excited that there are positive people in the world who will love on and care for Jonah, despite his outward appearance. I hope you stay!

And for all the haters, feel free to email me if you'd like to have an open discussion about something you disagree with. You don't need to hide. If you feel so strongly enough about something you feel the need to comment, then email me. If you have an opinion, OWN IT!

Thank you to the 99.5% of you who lift us up and encourage us every day. We thank God for you!

sweet tea for baby j

So in an effort to convince Jonah that not everything that goes toward his mouth is negative...

I let him try sweet tea.

And Jonah, the boy who won't open his mouth for anything, opened right up (over and over again) for some good ol' sweet tea.



Here in the south, we like to start 'em early.

And for those of you who've asked, here is how I like to make mine -

I always use the Lipton Decaf tea bags. I definitely think Lipton is better than Luzianne. I typically get the Family size bags. (But I'd say five or six of the small bags equals two of the big ones.)

I turn a burner on high and fill a medium saucepan about 3/4 full of water. (OK, really I don't know what a "medium saucepan" is exactly. I use not the smallest pots I have, but the next size up... the size you'd warm up a big can of soup in.)

I put four family size tea bags in the water.

I let the water get to a boil, and then almost immediately turn it off. (It's okay if it boils for about a minute, but no longer.)

I then let it sit for about five minutes (but no longer) while I put my sugar in my gallon pitcher. For a gallon of tea, I use about 1 1/2 cups of sugar. Suuuh-weeeet.

I then pour the tea over the sugar in the pitcher, using a slotted spoon and mashing the extra tea liquid out of the bags.

(I don't like my tea to taste over-brewed... think Bojangles...blah... so that's why I don't boil it very long, don't let it sit for very long, and get rid of the bags early.)

I add a little more hot water and mix the sugar until it dissolves and then fill the pitcher the rest of the way up with cold water.

I put it in the fridge and usually don't touch it for 24 hours... or at least until it's really, really cold. (THIS may be the most important part!)

I like NOT using ice if I can get by with it.

So that's how I do it, and it's dang tasty if I do say so myself.

Here are my DON'TS for sweet tea:

- DON'T use Splenda when making sweet tea. You might as well give up tea altogether.

- DON'T make tea in a coffee pot. No matter how much you clean the pot, you can taste the coffee (or I can, anyway).

- DON'T over-brew your tea. If you leave it too long and get distracted or let it boil longer than just a couple minutes, start over.

- DON'T buy "sweet" tea in a bottle at a convenience store. It's GROSS. And in most they add that fake lemon flavoring, and that's even worse.

My DO's:
- DO try the sweet tea at El Maguey. It's the best I've ever had. Seriously.

- DO give sweet tea to your eight-month-old. DO NOT care what other people may think of you because of this.

It's your blog and your kid and you'll let him drink sweet tea (AND WATCH TV EVEN THOUGH HE'S UNDER TWO YEARS OLD) if you want to. (Some people - ahem, Anonymous - need to get a life.)

fajita mac and cheese

This recipe is from the January 2004 issue of Southern Living. But I think Kim, my sister-in-law, is the one who passed it along to me.

I made it a couple weeks ago, and it was SUPER tasty and REALLY easy.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 pounds ground beef
16 ounces elbow macaroni, cooked and drained
1/2 cup sliced green onions, divided
1 (1.4 oz) envelope fajita seasoning mix
2 (15.5 oz) jars salsa con queso
1/2 (4.5 oz) package taco shells, crushed



1. Chop green onions. (Look up how to chop green onions because you never have before.)


2. Feel better that you must not be the only person who doesn't know the proper way to chop green onions because there's an actual video on it.

3. Whatever you do, do NOT admit to the whole world, publicly on your blog, that you had to watch a video on how to chop green onions before you could complete such a simple task.

4. Complete simple task successfully. Feel really proud. Take a break and reward yourself with some Hershey's chocolate.



5. Brown ground beef in a large skillet; drain.

6. Stir in cooked macaroni, 1/4 cup green onions, seasoning mix, and salsa con queso.

7. Pour into a lightly greased 13 x 9 inch baking dish.

8. Add additional (uncalled for) cheese on top. Because, really, can you ever have too much cheese?

9. Sprinkle with crushed taco shells.

10. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until thoroughly heated. Sprinkle with remaining 1/4 cup green onions.

ENJOY!

Note: I am presenting this recipe in all of its unaltered, full fat, deliciously wonderful glory. I do not claim that it is a healthy recipe. You are free to make any changes you so desire, but I will always present the recipes I've tried in their original state. I'm sure I could have used ground turkey or whole wheat macaroni or low-fat, organic salsa con queso (or something), but I didn't. And I'm okay with it. Feel free to be healthy if you feel so led.

As for me and my house, we'll eat fatty cheese, and we'll like it.