Friday, September 28, 2012

Baking to the Oldies

I really enjoy baking.
I think the reason I enjoy baking is because I LOVE eating the things I bake.
(and almost everything I bake has some form of chocolate in it).
This is not what I made yesterday, but it was the only picture of some of my baked goods that I have here on my computer.
I have noticed that I have some rituals while baking, one of them being music.
(Just as a side note, the kids are usually not in the house while I am baking)
My Pandora station, while baking, is always set to Will Smith Radio.
For some reason, old school rap really gets me in the baking mood.
Yesterday, I heard "Summertime", "Gangsta's Paradise", "Can I Get A . . . ", some Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, and LL Cool J.  
Does anyone else feel that baking and early 90's rap go hand in hand?
No?
It's just me?

Children Are Not Stamps

I have blogged about this before, but it has been brought to my attention again, so I felt the need to address it again.

Yes, I am a Mormon.
And, yes, I have only 2 children.
I can hear all the gasps of surprise:
 (What?  Only 2?  You  must not be a very good Mormon if you only have 2 kids.)
Or perhaps you feel bad for me, think that I may have had infertility issues.
No, the 2 kids were by choice.
(However, since we have not tried for a third, I have no idea if we could even have another.  Perhaps there are infertility issues and I just don't know about them.)
Do I not like children?
I actually love them, ESPECIALLY babies.  
Adore them. 
Can't get enough of them.
So why just 2?
This has been a decision that my husband and I made together.
(With a lot of prayer involved)
In the church that I belong to, it is very easy to feel inadequate with my small family.
Sitting in church on Sunday surrounded by families with 5 or 6 young kids (and more), reading blogs that are full of pictures of smiling, usually blonde, families with 6, 7, 8 kids.
It usually doesn't bother me, basically because I know that these families did not choose to have all those kids just to make me feel inadequate.  
I assume they (the husband and wife) talked and prayed about it like my husband and I did.
But when I hear people say that it is our job (as wives) to have as many kids as possible, I get kind of upset.
NO, that is NOT my job.
I am not a baby machine.
And my uterus is not a clown car.
My job is to raise the babies that come into my home in righteousness.
Any idiot can make a baby (and let's face it, a LOT of idiots do), but it takes a lot more to RAISE that baby.
The title of this post comes from this talk.  
"Motherhood is not a hobby, it is a calling. You do not collect children because you find them cuter than stamps."
I do find children cute (especially my own), and it has been hard to realize that cuteness is not a good enough reason (for me, at least) to have more.


Wednesday, September 5, 2012

And Another Month

I can't believe another month or two has just flown by!
School has finally started, and we are off to a great start.
Ciara is in love with her teacher, which is a big change from last year.
Caden is also in love with his teacher.
Work is still busy, busy, busy, which is a good thing.  I keep having to remind Rocky that being busy is a good thing when you own your own business.
We are all just plodding along as usual!
I did purchase a season pass to the Baltimore Aquarium recently.
(But wait, I can hear you all saying.  You don't live in Baltimore.  You don't even live in Maryland.)
True, we do live about 2.5 hours away.
But it is an easy day trip with the kids, they have a blast at the aquarium, and there are some pretty great restaurants on the harbor.  Fun for us all!
My parents were just here for a visit, and they gave they kids their (early) Christmas present:
DISNEY WORLD!
Yes, we are all going to Disney World in November.  
I think I am just as excited as the kids (maybe even more so).
We are staying in the Animal Kingdom, and have a whole week to see as much as we possibly can.
And next week I am finally going on my annual Mom's Gone Wild trip!
I am pretty sure I will LOTS to write about after that.