Life Lately

Lately at our house, through pictures....

Paul received his own cup, bowl, and plate from my Grandma Randall for his birthday. He loves having something that is his very own! Paul & Josiah wanted to have a hot tea in their cups, so they had a mid-morning tea party. 

This is what happens when I tell Josiah to pose and smile for the camera.

No modeling in his future.... 

Our dress-up collection has grown so we used 3M hooks on the back of their door to hang everything up. Their favorite is to be pirates and run around the house looking for "treasure" with their map, all while saying, "Aaargh"!

They were so animated and funny when I was snapping these pictures!

 My favorite! I want to blow this up and put it in their room!

A few Sundays ago 9 more were baptized. It was a full house and it was such a cool celebration! Tears of joy and clapping, whooping, and a wonderful worship praising Jesus for all He's doing! 

Love love her kid's faces!  

We started having 2 services now at Hills of Grace, at 9:30 & 11am. This is Leah coloring with some of the girls during the early service. She is so different from her brothers. She will color, at age 15 months, longer than Paul or Josiah ever have!

An early service crew of kids playing ring around the rosie. Leah's not so sure... nor was she very steady on her feet yet! 

This is at Paradigm Church on Sunday night. We had a BBQ potluck following the service. Many new faces! Don't you love the carpet? 

This is what happens to a clean room when Paul goes in there during a rage of anger when he's not getting his way. From clean to trashed in 2 minutes.

About 3 weeks ago I decided to go on a sugar fast. I have always known I had a sweet tooth, much like my father. If sweets of any kind are in the house, I eat them all. 20 cookies eaten in one day... no problem! Irresponsible and terribly high levels of sugar consumption plagued me. I had to do something. So I cut it out, no refined sugar except in my morning cup of hot tea. I had also been experiencing sugar lows causing me to feel sluggish throughout the day with a constant craving for more sugar.

So the night before I was starting my fast from sugar, I ate the last of the homemade ice cream from Paul's birthday. I had to eat it all, or it would tempt me. You could say I binged all day on sweets. I'm not proud of it. I confessed my binge to my sugar fast accountability friend...she had a good laugh.

The first 3 days sans-sugar were brutal. Headaches, lethargy, CONSTANT thoughts about getting my hands on chocolate or dumping honey into my mouth. It was terrible. I was a mess. My body ached for sugar. I read that our body's addiction to sugar is very similar to one's addiction to cocaine. Now isn't that startling! I felt like an addict in withdrawal symptoms for 3 days. Then, things leveled out the headaches went away and I didn't yearn for sugar anymore. I worked really hard to replace my old snacking habits with good ones. Like making a variety of roasted nuts, drinking more water, eating fruits, more protein, and less simple carbs. I felt much better after a week. I was no longer having sluggish periods throughout the day and no more blood sugar crashes. And oddly enough, I stopped having heartburn issues that never went away after Leah was born. (I had severe silent reflux during the pregnancy, but I've still had residual reflux even after her birth).

I only caved a few times during those 3 weeks. Once, after a particularly long grocery shopping trip, I had to stop at Sonic and get a vanilla coke. I like to get them after my long grocery trips as a reward for surviving the store. (I hate shopping for anything). So I got a small vanilla coke, drank it, then shortly after my stomach was upset and I didn't feel good. My body was mad at me for consuming that cup of chemicals! And then, at a Super Bowl party, I ate the most delicious salted caramel chocolate brownie I've ever tasted. I couldn't pass it up.

But all in all I am proud of myself for completing my goal! Today marks the completion of the fast and I am going to strive to be a more responsible eater of all things sweet. I must learn to moderate myself!

And lastly, a picture of Josiah that he will dislike in a few years! The kids were playing with the baby dolls and Josiah wanted me to wrap up the doll in a carrier like he saw me do when Leah was a baby. He's always making me laugh! He carried around the doll and Paul had a dog wrapped onto his back for quite some time. They will make good husbands one day!