Modesty

*updated*
When I was in high school I felt like modesty was a daily battle. (Perhaps because shopping was a nearly daily experience.) Now I find it is a little easier. There are several reasons for that: One, I am confident in who I am and therefore feel way less pressure to be a certain type of person. Two, I think styles have changed a bit to be more flexible - long, knee length, or short skirts - layering longer tanks under shorter shirts, etc. And three, nobody wants to see that much of my body anymore anyway. But modesty is still something I have to deal with every time I shop - it just doesn't cause much mental anguish anymore.

I teach Naomi about modesty. She knows why she can't wear sleeveless shirts and why she needs to sit a certain way when she wears a skirt. The other day in a store we saw two women wearing those beautiful long dresses and headcoverings that I think are from India (if I'm wrong, please forgive my ignorance). She commented on how pretty their dresses were and then asked why they had those "hats" on. I explained to her that they were being modest and that was how they kept their bodies special like Heavenly Father wants them to. She suggested that maybe we should start wearing hats to be more modest. I thought her comment was sweet, and I do look up to those women from around the world who keep their bodies concealed in so beautiful, but not at all a popular way. They are truley being IN the world but not OF the world.

The internet, while having it's bad points, makes modest shopping easier. Below is a list of some of my favorite online shops that cater to the need for modesty. I haven't ordered from all of them, but I keep them bookmarked for the next time I struggle to find an appropriate dress or something.

Shade Clothing - great layering pieces, a few basic dresses

DownEast Basics - great layering pieces, cute dresses, great tops

Shabby Apple Clothes - fab dresses and cute baby-to-girl dresses too *updated*

MikaRose - beautiful dresses but a little more pricey

Molly's Clothes - just found this one, but it looks great

Vintage Hem - basically a skirt elongater (if that's a word)

Chadwick's - not all modest stuff, but it's where I most often find cute long plaid skirts, which I love

Did I miss any? I'm always up for a new shop to browse! What are your favorite modesty tricks?

Oh, if you are like me and always looking for a way to be more cute AND more covered up at the pool - now is a good time to buy a swimsuit. I just bought this swimsuit at Land's End in their "Overstocks" department. I've had my eye on it for two years now but just couldn't convince myself to spend $90 on a swimsuit. It's on sale for $40 right now. $40 I can do.

crazy stuff

The following YouTube video recently came to my attention - and consequently Richard and I wasted a good 45 minutes or so looking at similar videos. Go to YouTube and type in "flash mob" and you'll see all the amazing things that people waste their time doing. All in the name of entertainment I guess. You too can waste some time by watching them waste their time
Of all the ones we saw - this one was by far the coolest.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwMj3PJDxuo

(Sorry - I don't know how to save the video and then post it on the blog. Maybe when Richard comes home he can do it. In the meantime - just click on the link and enjoy.)

A conversation with Asher

Upon Asher's waking up from his afternoon nap:

Asher: nack peace
Me: OK, what would you like?
Asher: hmmm. Cake-e?
Me: You're in luck, we have one!
Asher: Yeah! No-me cake-e?
Me: Sit down at the table and I'll get it for you. Naomi, would you like a cookie?
Asher: Muck peace Mama muck
Me: OK
Asher: Dak ew

Translation:
nack peace = snack please
cake-e = cookie
No-me = Naomi
muck = milk
peace = please
dak ew = thank you

I love talking to my big boy. He's growing up so fast!

Happy trouble

I am happy to report that Asher is doing much better. He actually slept through the night last night for the first time in what seems like months but was actually just a week. His smile is back, his fever is down, his nose is a little better, he's actually eating food again, and he's back to making trouble on a regular basis.
Speaking of making trouble - Isaiah has been promoted to Junior Troublemaker of the household. He can pull himself up to standing on low things, he can pull baskets off shelves, he can steal other children's' toys, and other general mischief. Asher would be proud if he weren't so busy defending his territory! Below are some pictures to prove his trouble making abilities.

I guess we need to find a new place for the basket of diapers since that low shelf behind Isaiah is clearly no longer safe.

Standing up!

For some reason, under the table and in the chair legs is Isaiah's favorite place in the house. He goes there often.

As you can see, he likes it there.

I guess that's OK though, because it sure is cute.

sad boy

This is what Asher has done for the last 4 days now. He sits and watches TV with his mouth hanging open because he can't breath out of his nose at all. And when I say "all day" I mean from 3am to 7pm. He can't sleep at all, the poor sad boy. He doesn't eat, he doesn't play much. Sometimes he stands in front of the TV instead of sitting - but that's about all the variety we get. It's really very sad. But at least the fever is down now. Hopefully that means he'll start feeling all the way better soon.

Thin Mints to the rescue

In case you've been wondering where we've been for the last week...well, we've been at home. Asher got sick, then I got sick, then Asher got sick again (or more... I don't know). Asher now has pneumonia. He's been seriously feverish for 3 days now and consequently, nobody except Naomi has slept for 3 days. It was really scary for a while there. I think he's getting a little better day by day - but he's still pretty bad. Anyway - the point is, we're all sleep deprived and feeling pretty yucky around here. So no blogging has happened. Not much of anything else has happened either - except for TV. I think we've watched "Cars" at least 800 times. A boy with a fever of 102 for the third day in a row can watch whatever he wants. And what he wants is Cars.

I was feeling pretty sorry for myself today. I hate being stuck in the house for this long - and there's not a clear end in sight yet. I had just heaved a huge sigh of relief as I sank into my comfy chair at naptime when there was a knock at the door. I hate knocks on the door during naptime. But this one turned out pretty well. Standing at my door was a Girl Scout. With cookies. For ME! Bless those Girl Scouts and their Thin Mints. Turns out, Richard had ordered two boxes for me from a friends daughter and there she was to deliver. *choir singing in background* I love Thin Mints. Bless those Girl Scouts and bless Richard.

Valentine's Day

I hope you had a great Valentine's Day. We did. We put the kids to bed and (like 8000 bazillion other people) got take-out from a restaurant. We chose Outback Steakhouse (like 7 million of those 8000 bazillion) and got crab legs and cheese fries. It was devine. Richard and I love to sit on the floor in front of the TV and watch a movie and chow down. It started back when we were newly married. That was our favorite date night activity. WHAT WERE WE THINKING?!?!?! We should have been going OUT! Because it would have been a lot easier to go out then, with no kids, then it is now, with three kids. Ahhh, youth. Stupid youth.

Public Service Announcement for all people who are married, but as of yet have no children: Go out! Often!! Even if it's just to walk around some cool place, or buy ice cream, or whatever. Leave the house! Do it while you can!

Thank you. We now return you to your regularly scheduled blog.

Where was I? Oh yes, the food. It was great. (Below I am holding one of the crab legs - look at the size of that thing! I never want to meet a crab that size. But I do want to EAT one again.)Richard had sent me flowers earlier in the day and I surprised him with "The Family: A Proclamation to the World" blown up to poster size, framed, and hanging in our kitchen across from the table. I hope that seeing it every day will remind us of so many things. For example: how important raising our family is because it is central to God's plan for all of us. Also, that Richard and I have a duty to take care of each other and our children. And, my favorite line from the Proclamation is "Happiness in family life is most likely to be achieved when founded upon the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ."

It was a great day filled with love.

Valentine's Love

Valentine's love - as in, I have love towards Valentine's Day. I think it is such a fun day. And really, I always have. It's not just now that I have a permanent Valentine who is such a good man that he always buys me flowers and usually chocolates and sometimes some other gift too. It's a fun holiday! Why shouldn't we celebrate our love? Not just romantic love, but love in general.

Love makes the world turn.

Love fuels service to our fellow man.

Love conquers all.

Love is a many splendored thing.

Love is blind.

Love is all you need.

Why not celebrate the love you have for your parents, children, friends, spouse, chocolate, comfy shoes, Oreo Cakesters, reading a book in a warm bed, kissing new babies, the smell of new babies. I love all those things and I plan on celebrating it. Actually, I already started celebrating. Below are some picture of my Valentine's decorations. And they've been up since January. Is that obsessive? I don't think so. I think it's just happy.

As an added bonus, Valentine's Day gets me through the cold winter until Spring comes. Soon my Daffodils will be popping up and my kids will be frolicking outside again. I can't wait.

Just for fun, tell me, did I leave any "love cliche's" out of my list above? Let's compile a complete list of love cliche's.

Isaiah's first meal

I fed Isaiah real food today for the first time (if you don't count the Cheerios, stickers, fuzz, etc he's helped himself to off the kitchen floor previously). It's always fun to see babies' reactions to food. I'll never forget sitting in a hamburger joint with a friend and her new baby when I was in college (you know who you are!). She kept feeding her baby little nibbles of mustard, ketchup, onion, etc just to see his reaction. I thought it was a little sadistic at the time - now I embrace this form of entertainment totally.
I tried to capture Isaiah's reaction in still photos, but it just wasn't catching the real essence - so I just HAD to do a video. First a picture of his nice clean face before hand, then the video of his first meal of sweet potatoes. I don't want to give away the ending of the video - but we'll try again tomorrow I guess because he finally started shivering and gagging on the food he was so disgusted/weirded out by it.

(I'm not having much luck with the video right now - so if it isn't working try again tomorrow. I'll try to upload it again tomorrow morning.)

SmorgasborD

I always thought it was a smorgasborG. I was wrong.

Here's some randomness for your viewing pleasure.

Naomi had her 4 year pictures taken the other day in this smashing outfit. She loves those shoes so much that I don't think she has taken them off since we got them. What a little diva. The lady taking her pictures even commented that Naomi should go into modeling because she seemed to take such good photos.

I have been working really hard on being healthy. And since what I eat, the whole family eats, the whole family has been eating healthier too. Yesterday I made Potato soup and I actually put multiple veggies in it! I would not have made something like this before - but it was surpringly easy ("easy" is defined, for my purposes, as "does not require more than 1 large dish or 30 minutes")

Here is a cute little video of the kids sitting by the front door waiting for me to round up the rest of the stuff and make it out the door. Naomi was singing "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" for Asher as they sit on the cooler.

Systems

My sister Angela is very into "systems". She has blogged about her systems several times and is great at implementing new systems to keep her family running smoothly. Since she is my main example-in-action for running a larger family smoothly, I try to exemplify her. So I try to implement systems. But they don't seem to be my strong suit. Or, maybe it's just that my kids are younger and therefore not quite as able to join in the systems (I do have to brag that I have a very good napping system for my kids).
Anyway - all this rambling is just me getting to the point where I say - I implemented a great system the other day for Naomi. I've been meaning to get her going on a better big-girl, do-it-yourself morning routine for a while now. So I looked at chore charts online. I didn't really find anything that I felt like would work for us, so I took it into my own hands. I found pictures to represent each of the things she needs to do in the morning and I taped them to the mirror in her bathroom. She LOVES it. She loves that she is in charge of it all by herself. She loves to run back into the bathroom and check what is next "on her list". It is working great! Someday maybe I'll make it a little fancier - but this way I figure I can fine tune it without investing that much time. Each morning that she does her "list" by herself, she gets to put a rock in a cup and when the cup is full Daddy gets to take her to Chuck-E-Cheese. (Mommy doesn't go to Chuck-E-Cheese. Ever.)
Here are some pictures of Naomi and her list in action.

Brush teeth, wash hands, get dressed, do hair, make bed. That is her list.

I feel that I need to add a disclaimer about the bathroom's decor. Here it is...ICK! It's gross 80's wallpaper. It was not my choice. Someday (when I have money and spare time) it will be ripped down. Enough said.

I won, I won, I won!!!!

I WON! I won my favorite thing of all the giveaways (maybe I shouldn't say that in case I win something else -but I swear it's the truth). You can see the necklace I chose here. I won it from Bee at Will Blog for Shoes (gotta give a shout out to her, right?).

I really only entered the contests that I actually wanted the thing they were giving away - so I'm sure I would have loved whatever I got. But my heart was really truly dreaming about this one. I feel like I totally just won the lotto, even though I don't play the lotto, and what I won is technically only worth $11. But I won! That's something! Yeah me! And yeah Bee for her generosity!