Colorado Crockers

I'm not great about keeping up on world events. Two children have MASSIVELY shrunk my sphere, but none the less, I do attempt . This is something I read this morning: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32222438/ns/health-kids_and_parenting/ This got my goat enough for me to blog about it. For those of you without the time, let me sum up the article : the UN spent a couple BILLION dollars on an initiative to improve the health of children in poor countries only to find out it really didn't make a bit of difference. Noble, yes, but completely misguided. Now I know I am not comparing apples and oranges here, but this is what worries me about Obama's big health plan. The massive amount of tax payer money, my money ( ok , well, Matt's) being used to finance a program that is chock full of holes. The UN can at least claim ignorance about not knowing it wasn't going to work. Obama can ask Hawaii how the whole government run health care thing turns out ( they had to close

The common theme I have found through all stages of motherhood thus far is balance. When you bring home a tiny bundle that is totally dependent on you, it doesn't seem like it should be too hard to figure out what to do, but it is. How do you balance the need to nurture a child to sleep and teaching them to figure it out on there own? As they get mobile you have to figure out the balance between rescuing them when they crash and letting them pick themselves up. Here are my balance issues right now: Entertainment: I don't believe my primary job as a mother is to prevent boredom in my children. I want to find a healthy balance between exposing the girls to a bunch of "stimulating" activities and memory making events and letting them explore by themselves. I don't sign up kids for a bunch of classes but I do let her do art, dance and music at home. I don't want my children to expect to be entertained, to not have to think of creative ideas to occupy their time.

How did my baby girl get to be a year and half old? If time goes this quickly with baby #2 I had really better pay attention to #3 or I think I will miss it all together. Addilyn seems more "baby" to me than Eliana did at this age. I don't know if it is because she doesn't talk quite as much or if it is that I have a big kid to compare her to. She is a ham and will do what she can to make anyone laugh, she cracks herself up all the time. She loves to put on clothes, the other day she was wearing her outfit, a pair of Elies short and t-shirt, and 3 pair of my underwear. She can also undress herself, which is trouble. Shoes are always a hit and so are baby dolls. The child eats no meat of any type but would live on diary, fruit and carbs. She sleeps at least 12 hrs at night and takes a nap for almost 2. She has a fair amount of words and signs. If told "no" or has an object taken away she will lay on the floor, cover her face and throw a fit. She is spontaneou

I have always fancied myself a gardener. I'm not really, but I like to think of myself as one. Gardening holds a couple of major hurdles for me; for one you have to remember to water it. This poses a problem due to my somewhat spacey nature that is very spacey when preggers which I have been for a couple of years now. Another hurdle, or two in this case, is the dogs, who love to dig in and run through my garden. Alas, after many years of half-assed attempts at something productive, I have success. I am proud to say my garden ROCKS this year. We have already enjoyed a nice harvest of spinach and radishes. We eat a salad fresh from the garden several times a week. The herbs are used in almost every meal. My tomato plant is going to need its own zip code soon. The snap peas never even make it inside, I just pick them and eat them. In the next week I expect to have a few peppers to enjoy and the cucumbers are not too far off. Look at me and my green thumb! See, all you need is a fence

-For some reason the baby on the left of the screen is growing faster than mine. I am not 23 weeks yet, subtract about 10 days and it is a little more accurate . Strange. -I have had a 1, 2, and 3 year old at my house for the last several weeks. My house looks like I have had 3 small children in it and I am still deciding if I care. - I feel good, sleep a lot and want to eat everything that doesn't move. I feel baby all the time. She gets hiccups just like the first 2 did. Matt can feel her too. -I have all 3 kids asleep. I should get some kind of award for that. -My garden rocks this year. We are enjoying fresh herbs and salad fixins ' right now. My tomato is going to need its own zip code soon. -I want to hire a cleaning lady. I would have to clean before she came which seems to defeat the point a little. -We really should start working on a name for this little girl. - I got fried yesterday. I went for a walk with my friend around the lake. I never wear sunsreen on this wal

"15 Do not love this world nor the things it offers you, for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you. 16 For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions. These are not from the Father, but are from this world. 17 And this world is fading away, along with everything that people crave. But anyone who does what pleases God will live forever." How do you introduce yourself? Sure, there is the obvious name part, but then what next? Do you say where your from? What you do? Where you went to school? What about your spouse and kids, do they come up? At church on Sunday (yes, I went) the guy speaking talked about the above passage from 1 John. It is a very easy part of the bible to create a bunch of "rules" about, but if you do, you manage to miss the point entirely. Basically , it comes down to this: Who you are comes from your heart, "the wellspri