Colorado Crockers

Once upon a time, I thought the 4th of July was about fire works. I enjoyed the festivity and picnic, the time off work and with family. Sure, being an American, I knew what it was really about; our independence and yada yada yada. I married into a family of all boys. One of these boys grew up and felt called to be a marine. My grandfather had been in the service, as had a cousin, but this was the first time I had someone close to me commit some of their life to defending the country I called home. It wasn't long before my little brother was deployed. Oh how we prayed. We talked a few times while he was serving over seas, each time my heart worried I may not get to talk to him again. And I was just a sister, one who married into the family at that, I know his mothers heart was far more troubled. But God saw it fit to bring him home. This Marine fell in love, married and gave me a sister who I adore. But now I had two people making a sacrifice, because the wives of thos...

I love those articles that say good couples with healthy marriages have regular date nights. I would like to meet these couples, see if they live a thousand miles away from family, have 4 children 6 and under, and the extra income to toss around to baby sitters for watching said 4 children. Pardon the snark, but sometime reality gets in the way of date night. I don't exactly have a line of people begging to watch the kids for free and by the time we pay a baby sitter we have enough money to go sit in the parking lot of a nice eatery and drink a slushy from the gas station, and we would have to share the slushy. So we improvise.  Tuesday is the day we pick up our CSA share. We also get our cheese and fresh fruit. So, at the Crocker house, Tuesday is "date night".  Our girls are in bed by 8:00 or so. Baby boy usually crashes by a little after that. We get a cheap-ish bottle of wine, wash some yummy fresh veggies, pull out some cracker and olives to go w...

 Baby J, asleep in his favorite place, on my chest. Baby boy is happiest in someones, usually my, arms. He is sweet but smiles are hard to come by still.  Boo Belle. A whole lot of attitude in a pretty small package. She is SUCH a 2 year old, swinging from wanting to make all the choices and having total control to wanting to be the baby and be in my lap.  Eliana is every bit the big sis. Take charge (sounds so much nicer than "bossy") and over all pretty helpful...if she can remember what it is exactly you asked her to do. Loves to talk. And talk. And talk.  These two are peas in a pod, becoming such good friends as big sister is sometimes a bit too old to play there games. Addilyn Joy. Such a character. Most likely to make a mess, and if you look closely at this photo you will see yogurt still smeared on her face. Falls out of chairs at least once a day from being squirly.

I think I could say with some degree of accuracy that most every child in this great US of A owns a copy of a Dr. Suess book. Many, if not most, probably have in their possession a copy of  "Goodnight Moon". Neither of those are the books to which I am referring. This book is much more secretive. Think "large conspiracy" like the Masons or something. This is a book entitled "How to keep you parents humble". Each child is made to memorize a copy before being born, it is the playbook-of-sorts for all of childhood. The first chapter in this uber-secret book is called "Birth-Keep them on their toes". It covers things like swift kicks to mama's bladder to make her pee and think her water broke, choosing not to be born anywhere close to your due date and the super speedy entrance into the world that happens in things like trains and taxi cabs. Least this first act be usurped in any way, the next chapter is entitled "Infanthood-Th...

I am not a man. Big shocker, I know. Nor is there any part of me that wishes I was. I dig being a chick. I like that I have soft skin, soft curves, wear make-up and grow babies. I like that my hips sway when I walk, I enjoy wearing heals and pretty dresses. Being a girl is cool with me. I think being a man would be hard. I believe that, just like our culture reduces women down to pretty faces with empty heads, men are often reduced to being nothing more than a paycheck with a penis. Sadly enough, I think Christian culture has fed this lie without meaning to. We have boiled down the word "provider" to be synonomis with "money maker". Especially in the single income family, stay at home mommy realm. The work/life balance of the east coast sucks. People work crazy hours and for a while, Matt did too, and I could see how torn he was. There is no peace to be found, identity to be had, in a career driven life. So many people have such little respect for all the other ...

My children dress better than I do. I think I care more about weather or not they look cute and I can usually find cute stuff for girls, generally name brand, at the thrift store. My children also eat better than I do. Once again, I think I care more about what goes into there little, growing bodies more than I care about mine. My kids eat lots of fruit, some veggies, mostly whole grain and very little "junk" like nuggets, pizza, chips or fruit snacks. They do get a treat after nap, usually home baked, and if we happen to be out of baked goods I will hear about it. In an effort to be healthy and put my money where my mouth is, both figuratively and literally, we joined a CSA. For those of you who are not quite to the hippy extreme that I fancy myself to be, CSA stands for community supported agriculture. Basically, a farm share. We pay the farmer up front, when a small farm needs the money, to get a share of whatever they produce over the next 20 weeks. This w...