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I'm a geek, I know :)

My little girl is two!

Bad Mom Moments

I'm human as the next mom. I definitely make mistakes when it comes to parenting and taking care of my kids -

• I'm non-reactive when I need to be reactive and vice versa. 
• I yell
• I threaten
• I have occasionally spanked
• I have the "mom does not think that's funny look" down pat

My most recent not-so-great-mom moment was while James was out of town. I had planned a fun weekend with the kids and hanging out with friends and going here and there. I didn't slow down to realize that McKenna was developing a fever hence being really clingy, fussy & not eating. (BTW, my kids don't eat at least not while I'm around.) My thoughts were "Of course, she would be fussy while James is gone". Hello, 101 temperature, trip to the Dr and diagnosed with strep throat. I felt awful and have compensated that guilt with lots of snuggling, letting McKenna sleep in our bed and giving her popsicles.

Another moment happened last night at dinner time. This moment is probably somewhere between good & bad. We had finished dinner at our favorite Mexican restaurant. McKenna has eaten nothing for dinner and insisted she wanted candy. My answer was "no" and as we walked through the parking lot she threw an awful tantrum - screaming and flailing arms. As I juggled a purse, to go box, and 2 to-go cups - I scooped her up and took her to the car, screaming the whole way. I put her down next to the car as a fumbled with finding the keys - she's still screaming but now louder. James puts Jonah in the car and I try to pick up McKenna and you does not want to be touched and gets even louder. I scoop her body up and place her in the car and try to get her bucket. At this point, I'm laughing and I look at James and he's laughing. I can't stop laughing and I realize we have put on a show for the entire patio at the restaurant. Mom of the year!

To conclude, parenting is not glamorous or perfect. I'm reminded of this everyday. Parents are typically just trying to survive day to day. When I see another mom have a "bad mom moment", I try to give an encouraging smile. Luckily, the good moments out weigh the bad and my kids are typically super precious. And I'm sure I'll have plenty of more bad mom moments :)

My loves. . .

First Beach Trip of 2011

The beaches on 30A don't disappoint. The sand is powdery & white and the ocean is blue and clear. Too bad my kids have a serve phobia of it all. I thought this year on the beach would be different with them. Jonah swore days before the trip that he wouldn't be afraid of the sand. It's was a different story when we walked down the boardwalk. They sat on the chair or beach blanket the entire time. The other kids that were with us ran up and down the beach and my kids sat there. They whined a little but it was nothing that a juice box couldn't cure.

Outside of that, we had a great time. It was very nice to check out of reality for a few days. Here are some moments from the trip. . . .

New inspiration

As I was reading Michael Hyatt's blogs today, I found a very cool site called Wordle.net.

What you do is paste in a bunch a text and it generates a text illustrator of the prominent words. I took my blog post called "Just getting started" and tested it out. See below. It's pretty cool. I could see alot of uses for this - You could personalize a card for a friend, provide inspiration to a team, inspire your self. . .

I love incorporating words into my art so this is definitely right up my alley. I'm inspired - where's my paint brush?

Spring time pictures

James' good friend from his high school years, Heather Murphy,  is a photographer and had a special on sessions the first weekend of April. This is the second time we have had her take our pictures and she does a fabulous job. Here are a few of the pictures she captured. You can also check out her website for more information - www.heatherphotographer.com