Colorado Crockers

It is getting to be spring. This means flowers and warmer days, sunshine and things turning green, and if you foster cats it means LOTS of kittens. We have been a foster home for kittens for almost a year now and what a blessing it has been. Besides my daughters loving it, they have learned so much about compassion and responsibility. Having kittens has stimulated all kinds of great conversations about life and death, the effects of our choices on others and doing your work even when you don't want to because someone is counting on you. The girls and I have learned so much. At our house we currently have 2 mama cats. Sasha gave birth to a litter of 4 girls last week. Honeybear is huge and pregnant and going to pop any day now. I swear she must have 6 kittens at least in there, with her tennis ball head and beach ball belly she can hardly walk. If left at the shelter, these mama and their litters would have been killed. You see, shelters have limited space and kittens can't ...

I love being the mother of girls. The dresses and shoes, the bows and babies and especially the tea parties. Eliana and I have been doing tea since she was about 2 years old. We don't do it every day but it does seem to happen several times a month. Sometimes we use my tea stuff (full size) and sometimes we use hers (miniature). We set the table/floor, get out our napkins and table cloth, brew some tea, fetch some cookies and sometimes invite our friends. It is all very formal. I have discovered that some tea edict , that you would think is a given, is less so when doing tea with a one, three and five year old. Here is my list: - It is impolite to stick your toes in your cup of tea or anyone elses . - Sisters will get angry if you take their cookie off their plate, even if you were not going to eat it but just lick the frosting off of it. -It is good manors to wear undies to the tea party while wearing a dress and sitting on the floor - Don't lick the spoon that everyone is...

We all have areas of our character that are in need of...refinement. I have some things I have made progress on and some that I have a loooooong way to go on. One of these is living in the in between stages of life. When you know a big choice is looming on the horizon but you don't have any information or power to make a choice and keep moving. I am a do-er. I am a fix-er. I am not a wait-er. We are at that place in our life right now. Matt has some big job changes coming up but nothing that we can move on just yet. I hate this place. I makes me grumpy and hard to live with, just ask Matt. You see, Sony has decided that Matt's job is no longer remote based. That means he has to go into his office. Every day. And California is a reaaaaallly long commute. While they have told us this, they have not yet given us the "move to California" offer. So we wait. A former coworker of Matt's has contacted him about another position . Matt is really excited about what the ...

-Eliana, while watching mama cat giving birth to kittens "I sure am glad I am a people so I don't have to lick all that icky stuff off my babies" -Addilyn, while introducing me to her newest polly pocket "Meet Repunzel-Repunzel-let-dow-your-hair" - Annabelle, while pinning a kitten down to wash its face with a wet wipe "Wash. Ick"

Some things just make my day. The children sleeping in and waking up happy, a clean house, empty laundry baskets...and food. I am a big fan of food. Some people are "eat to live" types, I am not one of them. Finding a great deal at the store also makes me happy. I choose to believe I am "thrifty" not "cheap". And kitchen gadgets. Ok, so that is a little random, but I really like kitchen things. Maybe it is my love of food. The other day was a GREAT day when I came across a cupcake maker on clearance at Target. My heart skipped a beat. My husband rolled his eyes but my girls were thrilled. Meet my new friend. Isn't she adorable?! And the best part is that she makes 6 cupcakes in 10 minutes! The girls and I put the little gadget to work right away with some chocolate chocolate chip cup cakes that I frosted with chocolate frosting I had in my fridge (what, you don't always have several types of frosting on hand?!) They were great, fast, easy and yumm...

We are big on celebrating random holidays in the Crocker house. St Patricks day is especially fun. We get the chance to celebrate a man who chose to spend his life telling the very people who wronged him that Jesus loves them. We get to learn about and celebrate all things Irish. And don't even get me started on the green beer and corned beef and cabbage. Need to brush up on your St. Patrick facts? Read on: Who Was Saint Patrick? Even though Saint Patrick the patron saint of Ireland and one of the most celebrated religious figures around the world, the factual information about his life and times is quite vague. Most information about St. Patrick has been twisted, embellished, or simply made up over centuries by storytellers, causing much ambiguity about the real life of St. Patrick. However, there are a some elements of his story about which most scholars accept to be true. According to Coilin Owens, Irish literature expert and Professor Emeritus of English at George Mason Univers...

I am not a food blogger, forgive the " meh " picture and understand the AWESOMENESS that is what I am going to share with you. I am not a flaky person, generally. I am a list maker to keep me from being a flake. Sometimes, while at the store, I have a moment when I questions my list, thinking I forgot something I am sure we needed. I toss the item in the cart only to find 3 more like it when I come home. Sigh. I should trust the list. This is what happened with cottage cheese. What does one do with 4 containers of cottage cheese, especially when one daughter is dairy free and one loudly announces that she no longer likes cottage cheese? Mac and cheese, baby. Home made mac and cheese doesn't make the list of "diet foods" or "healthy foods" but seems to be right at the top of the "comfort food" category . But it is generally a lot of work. If I can come up with a recipe that is healthy, low cost and yummy it is the dinner trifecta . MMMM...

I was a perfect parent...before I had kids. I knew EXACTLY how I would raise my children, who would be obedient and well behaved. And then I had kids. Each fearfully and wonderful designed... differently . What works on one doesn't phase the other. Just when I think I have a plan of action everything comes apart at the seams. Today I read this and it challenged my heart.The author speaks of parenting from the position of grace, understanding who your child is and what they actually can do, and choosing to understand your childs HEART above their actions. Parenting with the intent of shaping character instead of punishing behavior. Eliana is my sweet oldest. She loves to be in charge, she wants to be older than she is and, to my occasional dismay, she completely orbits her own universe. She is generally honest, wants to obey, loves to have my full attention to talk and can't stay on task to save her life. She SOOOO reminds my of my oldest sister. Wonderfully creative but...

The older I get (all of my 30 years) the more I learn about myself. Some things are good, unfortunately, the ones I most need to learn and most often learn are...something less than good. Today I was reading a friends blog (Hi Shi !) about a young teen whos life is very hard. Pregnant, crappy home life, now dropping out of school with a young toddler. My first thought? We should invite her to live with us! She can go to school, I can help her, and the baby can stay with us while she is in class! Ok , I have never met this girl. We have 5 people in a small 3 bed room house. I doubt she is interested in living with a complete stranger. But I can't help it. Hi, my name is Gretchen and I am a fixer. Need someone to listen to your problems? Ha! Not only can I listen, but I will give you a laundry list of ideas of how to FIX those problems. Matt says I am totally unsympathetic when he is sick. Not so! I bring him tea, give him ideas of how to feel better, go to the store for drugs that ...

I am feeling grumpy today. I have no good reason. I got a full nights sleep but still feel like I could use more. The weather is awesome , the kids are being reasonably well behaved, we are fostering 3 adorable kittens, my fridge is stocked my laundry is started, my house is... kind of a wreck, but that is nothing new. I have no reason for my bad attitude. I just took a meal to a friend of mine with seven children, most of whom are sick right now, three who are sick enough to be spending time at the hospital and on oxygen. One of those three is under a year old. My kids are all healthy, as are Matt and I. I leave for a few day in Miami a week from today. I will be spending time with Matt and laying in the sun, hanging out with friends. I have no reason for this funk. We got our tax return. We have enough to pay for the un -fun stuff that comes up in life and a couple of plane tickets to CA later this summer. We are blessed beyond reason. Matt just told me not to bother with dinner, tha...

Today is National Pig day! Need some ideas of how to celebrate? -Do "this Little Piggy" on your toes or someone elses -Act out the story of the 3 little pigs - Wear a pink curtly tail (cut a circle in a spiral) a nose (tp roll) and ears - Eat pigs in a blanket (biscuit covered hot dogs/sausage) - Practice spelling out the word PIG - Look up information and pictures of pigs and how they live, what they eat, etc - Build a piggy habitat out of blocks - Lay blankets on the floor and pretend to roll in the mud - Get out the pink play dough and make some piggies! - Read a pig book (If you Give a Pig and Pancake or Pigs Can't Fly)