Song in her heart

On Sunday's I teach a group of about 50 kids songs of Christ as well as some fun and seasonal songs. I love it. I really like kids, and I like music...a perfect fit. The kids range from 3 to 12. Some are well behaved....some not so much. Some have good voices....some not so much. Some are from wealthy families...some not so much. Some can sit quietly and learn...some not so much. Regardless, I really love them all. Lately my favorite thing to do is to watch the littlest kids. Many times they can not sit still. Many times they don't remember the words. My favorite to watch is Charlotte though. Charlotte is a beautiful girl. She is always happy, and LOVES to sing. Can I tell you though... she doesn't know many of the words. That doesn't matter. Charlotte sings loud and strong. You can tell she feels it in her heart. I feel the spirit of Christ when Charlotte sings. I KNOW he loves her, I know he loves me through her. Does that make sense? I can see that we don't have to "know all the words". I believe Christ loves our intent, our passion. I think so many times we don't try since we can't do it just right. Why do we do that? I think for awhile I am going to try to care a little less about knowing the words and more about singing the songs in my heart....see how that goes :)

Short term memory

With the whole recession I have found a lot of comfort lately in learning how to make as much as I can myself. It gives me comfort that if I needed to we could survive fairly well on my food storage. This week I am trying yogurt from scratch. I consulted with my friend Tiffany since I have gathered it is a pretty tricky process. Tiffany gave me some great tips. The best tip was on how to keep the temperature at 100 degrees while it "cures". She said that she found it best to put it in her oven and turn it on to 350 or whatever and let it pre-heat for exactly a minute then turn it off, she then repeated every hour. She commented that when she did this she had to set her timer since with her 4 kids her attention span sometimes isn't that long :) I smiled and decided I would do the same....just in case. Oh, how excited I was as I watched the yogurt thicken each hour. I carefully followed Tiffany's direction and was excited about the yogurt we were going to have for breakfast with my homemade granola. I would slice some kiwi's and mango's with it...yum. I followed the process for 7 hours it was looking almost perfect. I thought one more hour and I would have perfected it on my first try....sigh.....you know how this turns out. I turned the oven back on, set the timer and finished dinner. The timer went off. I thought....hmm....what was that timer for? I figured I had set it to motivate Keaton somehow. I set off to find Keaton. Of course he was into something so I got totally distracted. An hour later I remembered my yogurt.... boiling.... dead. SO I figure I will try it again sometime. This time I guess I will have to set the timer 2x for 30 seconds each :)

Savannah was not excited to "try" the yogurt :)

Misc pictures

This is the Vanna we see most of the time. Little tongue sticking out. What a doll, eh?
Look at those cheeks. I LOVE kissing on them!

My wonderful Aunt Lynn got the kids these cute outfits when we went to see her last month. Keaton LOVES how cool they are in their matching Halloween gear.

Vanna's not quite up to posing all the time :) Thank you for your well wishes. She is sleeping much better. My Doctor also found a level way off that helped me too. We are doing MUCH better!

And the winner is....

AMARA! Yes, ladies after all your thoughts and well wishes Amara (my bigger much older wiser sister) wins with EAR INFECTION! Apparently Savannah was not completely over the whole reflux thing and it has been festering causing her to sleep less and less. After the Doctor gave her 2 prescriptions for the ears (one is for numbing drops, did you even know that existed?), and 2 prescriptions for severe acid reflux my sweet girl has slept for 3 of the last 4 hours. Here is HOPING for finally a good nights sleep!

HELP!!!!

I am seriously going crazy. I need some help. Please be nice. The issue is sleep....isn't it always with my kids? Keaton is almost 4 and still doesn't sleep through the night. Savannah has been our miracle sleeper though. At 2 weeks she slept through the night and up until 6 mos mostly slept through the night with maybe one wake up here or there. Can I tell you how wonderful that has been? Can I tell you the difference it makes in your life to have a baby that sleeps....especially when you are not a necessarily "young" mother? For Keatons whole first year he woke up 7 times a night (yes 7 not a typo). I was working 45 hours a week and was happy I could spend those nights with him. When I really got too tired he was a cuddly kid and we could sleep for quite a while in the recliner. Savannah has never been a cuddler. She cannot sleep well when someone is holding her. Luckily it has been fine since she sleeps. We are going on almost a month though where she has not been a good sleeper. For the first week she woke once or twice a night. Not too bad....a little annoying but not bad. The next week she woke every couple hours. I tried everything. No luck. The next week every hour, and this last week EVERY. HALF. HOUR. Last week we ended up in urgent care over the whole thing. They thought she was congested and couldn't sleep. They said to put her down in her car seat and give her benadryl and she would be fine. It worked for one night. Last night was the worse. Every TEN minutes. You think I am kidding. She wakes up SCREAMING. It takes me about 10 minutes to calm her down. She may be teething but Motrin, Tylenol, nor teething tablets make a difference. She may have gas but Gripe water, mylicon, nor Malox work. She certainly may have allergies but she doesn't seem congested and Benadryl isn't working. Please don't suggest she "cry it out". When she gets upset she swallows so much air it puts her in pain for hours. I do wait to get her until I am sure she cannot go back to sleep. As for me.... I may "cry it out". Any ideas?