EbonyBoy has been quite busy perfecting his artistic abilities. If I walk away for even a second I never know what I’m going to return and find.

He calls this one “What Happens When Daddy Forgets to Put Away the Ladder After Capturing a Butterfly to Release it Outside”:

This one: “Baby Brother with Hat and Dragon”

The hat nor the dragon were originally there while EbonyBaby was standing- but things quickly change with artist EBoy around!

Thank goodness for blogs and those who so freely share wonderful recipes because my cooking repertoire had been in serious trouble for quite awhile. Being from a southern family I can definitely cook - but my best dishes were primarily based on high fat frying. We haven’t fried much of anything in a few years now but my experiments in cooking haven’t given us many staples. I became quite a crock pot wizard thanks to Fix it and Forget it cookbook. The soups and hot dishes aren’t always quite as appealing during the summer so I haven’t had very many meal successes. Thank you to some of my all time favorite blogs for providing meals that always work:

Blueberry Pudding by ljc

Rigatoni with Cherry Tomato Sauce by The Amateur Gourmet

Curry Chicken (I prefer it with no dumplings) courtesy of Chookoloonks

*** The picture is from our fieldtrip to the Mayfield Dairy where we had to wear hair nets to walk through the dairy. Very fun and lots of yummy ice cream!

I was walking through my living room when I noticed what appeared to be a brightly colored leaf hovering above one of my window shades of my sunroom.

Upon closer inspection my leaf turned out to be a bright green butterfly:

EbonyBoy soon noticed the butterfly and became quite worried. How would the butterfly get home? Wouldn’t the butterfly’s Mommy be missing it? I told him we’d need to carefully capture the butterfly with a net to release it outside so it could go home but the window its on is so tall there’s no way Mommy can reach it.

EBoy being the superkid he is insisted that we immediately call Daddy. He told Daddy about the tragic plight of the butterfly (ok it was more like “Daddy Butterfly in house! Help butterfly help!”) That butterfly stayed in the exact same corner of that window for several more hours- occasionally fluttering to try to go through the glass but then stopping once it realized it wasn’t going anywhere. Dh was able to trap the butterfly once he got home and release it outside. Now everyone is happy and our butterfly is free.

That has his swing…

And his chalk…

We’re still loving the super swing now that I’ve discovered EbonyBaby will take a guaranteed swing 3 hour nap during the afternoon. The two boys actually have coinciding nap schedules- God must really really love me to allow such a wonderful event to happen! The swing is the quietest I’ve ever seen too- just be sure to put it on carpeting and stretch the legs out as far as they can go. Add a little baby mozart and instant happy sleeping Ebaby.

EbonyBoy is quite amazing with his chalk skills. I can’t figure out how one child can produce so much dust from one teenie tiny little piece of chalk. My black yoga pants now look more festive with little clouds and circles of chalk on them. We do have some colored chalk but there will be a bit more chalk etiquette to be learned before I’m setting him loose with that.

First I’d like to welcome some new readers whom I consider to be near and dear(you all know who you are! Hi ). When I first started this blog I had quite a bit to conquer. Not technologically or logistically but instead dealing with fear.

I’ve known I wanted to blog for the last 5 years or so- but was never sure about just how much thanks to quite a few of the things I shared here. Insteading of fearing what or whom might be out there the reality is my life is mine to share as I please whether others like it or not. Overall my last 12 years of being online have shown me that there are some really wonderful people out there. Perhaps stripping away all of the outer trappings and only being able to deal with people’s words makes it a lot easier to get to know someone (well at least when those words are being spoken in truth).

Another major area of fear that I have got to come to grips with is my weight. Let me admit something that I’ve never admitted before- I’ve never once been able to successfully lose weight. Yes I can lose the same 10 or 15 pounds that I’ve lost time and time again but it doesn’t help when I regain that plus more leaving me even more stressed out.

Weight has always been something emphasized in my life. Not my parents- thankfully they did all they could to try to give me a healthy body image. Ssadly I could never mentally get past the fact that I matured so much earlier than most of the girls in my classes and therefore weighed more. Comparing yourself to others only leads to dissappointment and when it comes to weight I continually beat myself up for not being able to be succesful at weight loss when I can see others who have done fantastic.

Ultimately the weight loss fear is really based on my fear of failure. What if i never succeed? What if no matter how hard I work nothing ever comes off? I need to start trying again and prayerfully with EbonyBoy in school I’ll finally be able to commit to at least getting in the gym again.

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Tonite is my first Mom’s night out in quite some time. I belong to a Mom’s group and we get together for an activity and then head to dinner. I really do love the group and have met some awesome Mamas that I have quite a bit in common with. The funniest part of the evening is always the end- seeing how we finally manage to tear ourselves away from chatting and interacting to return to life with children, babies, homework and cleaning. This will actually be my first time attending without EbonyBaby- I’m sure I’ll miss him but can’t wait to have fun.