the kids are sleeping...

The best thing about day camp at church is that BOTH of my kids fall asleep when we get home.  Shea normally doesn't take a nap, but I trick him into it every once in a while.  I will lay out two large cushions in the office and turn on "his" pandora station on my phone and he lays and listens to it for 30 - 45 minutes.  Either he will fall asleep and it will turn into a nap for another hour or two, or he gets up after that amount of time and starts playing.  Either way, I win a little bit of time to myself.

Today though, I told him if he took a nap he could paint his new little wooden "Idaho Jones" car he won at day camp for saying his verse, seemed to do the trick!

SO very much has been going on in life.  I don't know how to possibly fit it all in, so I'm not going to try.  Lately, God has been showing and teaching me so much.  Things that I have longed to give up to him, to change, to become...and slowly, I am finally seeing changes.  I fail time and time again, but I am focusing more on the little victories lately.  I have been thinking a lot about gift giving.  Not as in wrapping pretty packages for others, but about God's generosity toward His children and the joy He must feel when we reflect that quality of Him through our actions.  I am starting to look at the things that I do and say as a gift to be given.  The way I discipline my child is a GIFT to them, and I should give it as such.  That is the main thing I have been thinking about...and it has really helped shift the outcome of conflict in the house.  We still have a long way to go, but I am thankful for the little things.

I recently put up some new prints in the house, and one of them is a print of the quote "In order to become who you want to be, you must consistently be the what you want to become every day."  Yes, obvious, but something about this line has really stuck with me and helped me make choices.  One example is getting in shape.  I WANT to be fit and healthy, so that means I need to work out today (have to take it one day at a time).

What else? So much.  I am about to go completely gluten and dairy free for a two week period of time, at least.  I have basically been dairy free now, because there aren't many products I can buy in good conscience anymore, and I have always been suspicious of having a dairy intolerance.  We haven't had milk or yogurt in the house for at least 3 weeks, and I rarely buy cheese now.  I have cut out about 50% of my gluten intake for the same reason.  But, after I have read so much about leaky gut and inflammation from both of these foods, and with all the acne trouble I have had, I am wanting to heal my body for a bit.  My skin and energy levels have improved so much since we changed our diet, and I think it would get even better if I allowed my gut to heal before introducing these foods slowly, if at all.  Its so crazy.  I used to be SO skeptical when people talked about all these sensitivities and stuff, but I have been reading so many books and blogs and there is so much more to nutrition and healthy eating than I ever imagined, and I can't believe how many lies I have grown up believing!  It is such a huge, life-long process though to make changes, but every change counts, I am finding.

Anyway, enough of that.  This is such a random post.  Here are a some pictures from the last few days around our house.  Hailey's new thing is saying "hat" and trying to put whatever she has on her head.  She also says "shoe" and "glasses" now and is so busy outside!  We have been out enjoying the sun a lot (mainly disc golfing) and I have been spending a lot of time just playing and reading with the kids (I am reading Shea the Mouse and the Motorcycle right now, he loves it!).  There are other things developing within my moms group and with the preschool I will share with you ladies soon.

Shea was making his own snack.

We made homemade playdough the other day.  No food dye - we used turmeric to get this beautiful yellow color!

my bright eyed girl after her nap!

this picture is just to show you how long my hair was (and this in a ponytail so it doesn't even look as long as it was) before I did something drastic yesterday...

just my cutie kids playing around!

YES I chopped my hair off.  Quite literally.  I was home and I was washing my hair and I was so tired of how much of my precious organic non-grease-stripping shampoo I was using on my hair that i thought I should cut it off.  Then I stood in front of the mirror pondering for a while if I really wanted to or not.  I was torn.  It was not in my hair plan.  I was going to grow my hair for one more year before I cut it.  But.  I get impulsive.  I texted Jeremy and told him.  He replied with "i'm coming home".  so I waited.  Then neither of us could decide, but he kind of wanted me to do it and I really did want to do it, so I started cutting. And I really like it.  These are not the best pictures of it really, because this is after sleeping on it and not really doing much to it ha ha but its short and kind of flippy out in the back, and I like it.  I know I am a short hair person as hard as I try to fight it, I just can't.  Oh so easy to take care of to!  Just spritz with some of my homemade "beach spray" and I'm out the door!  Most work is when it dries too "flippy" in the front, but I just straighten the one chunk of hair and its good.  It might actually get shorter too, I'm not exactly sure how short I want it.  and I'm apparently not allowed to go get hair cuts anymore, sine I'm fully capable of chopping my own hair off, thank you.

Hailey and her cousin driving the bus at church

I can't believe what a little girl Hailey is turning into!  She is so busy and so fun and communicates so well.  She knows what she wants and she figures out how to get me to understand.