When You Do the Crime...

...you gotta do the time.

Workman Boys Love the Water

Eric and I LOVE the water.

God was gracious enough to bless us with two little water dogs!

We are grateful!

Blubs

Caleb is sitting at the computer looking at all of the icons on the screen.

Caleb: Mommy, which one do I push to get to your blubs?

Mommy: My blubs?

Caleb: Yeah, you know, your blubs.

Mommy does some quick thinking, trying to use context clues and the surroundings to figure out what the heck Caleb is talking about. Then, the light bulb goes off.

Mommy: Oh, you mean my blogs.

Caleb: Yeah, mom, that is what I said.

Creative Outlet

Most of you know that arts and crafts are not my gifting. I think it is a combination of my lack of skill and desire to come up with or even peruse the internet for creative and stimulating art projects for boys and my extreme lack of patience when it comes to using glue, play-doh, or anything that involves glitter. It could also be the fact that for me to get Caleb to actually sit down and partake in any arts and crafts fun would involve me literally having to use the glue on his bottom in order to get him to stay put for longer than two minutes to actually finish the project. And I can not let any project go unfinished. I think that is either the student in me, or the perfectionist. Or both. I am working on that. Unlike my wonderful friend, Kristin, who is actually making dinosaur fossils out of old coffee grounds with her boys tomorrow (I am so impressed!), I do not have that same artistic flair or creative mind. Or patience! Did I mention the patience?!

I am a pretty concrete person and I like things to move in a predictable, sequential, and organized fashion. Although I am not nearly as rigid as I once was (having kids has helped a lot with that), I am work in progress as I move toward becoming a more flexible person. I think I am moving away from being a total Type A person. I guess I am more of a B+ now. Eric thinks I have some traits of an abstract thinker, but I don't really think those are my dominate traits. I love working on the ABC's and 123's with the boys. Now, I do have some skill there since most of my life experience has involved being a student in some capacity, so teaching the boys their colors, identifying states on a map, or reviewing reading concepts just comes natural to me. I love academia! I know, I know, I need to branch out and dabble in my artistic juices that must be hidden somewhere in the recesses of my brain.

For now though, I choose to fill in those gaps in my KITCHEN!! My comfort zone! The boys and I may not do many pencil and paper projects together, but we do have a lot of cooking adventures together. In the beginning, I was pretty reluctant to have little helpers in my kitchen, but I finally had to get over it and myself and learn that some of the most fun times are not had on a clean kitchen floor. (Now if I could just have that same mindset with the art supplies.) God has given me much grace and therefore, I am able to extend that grace to the boys especially when we are making pizzas together, soup, pancakes, or tonight's special treat...Oreo balls. Completely Daddy's idea, the boys ran out and got all of the ingredients and then came back home and the mayhem commenced. It was a lot of fun and we had some tasty hands after rolling all of those Oreos into balls.

Ahh...Art!!!

Here are some pictures from our little "art" project.

Each boy got their own bag of Oreos to crush. Eric told them to crush them in any way that they wanted. As you can see, the boys did just that, using their feet, bottoms, and occasionally their hands.

And the Workmans are probably the only ones who should eat this batch of Oreo balls, since much taste testing took place from package to cookie sheet. I am sure many health codes for public consumption were violated.

Fun night! And I have already eaten too many. I am cutting myself off NOW or else they will all be gone before morning.

Just Two Guys Fixing Things Together...

And one super cute baby!

Oh, and this guy, too.

Sweet Lips

If you can resist kissing this little peanut butter face,

then you must have the strength of 10,000 men.

Not Too Shabby...

For a guy who is almost 30!!

Bright and early on Saturday morning, Eric ran the Walk and Roll 5K, a benefit run to raise funds and awareness for the League for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing and three other Nashville area non-profit agencies who also encourage those with differing abilities to participate in their communities and live active lives. We couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day for the event. Eric finished second in the race and I was oh so proud of my handsome runner man!

And that first place finisher was just freakishly fast! He was a whole five minutes ahead of the pack. He may have crossed the finish line and just kept right on running, because I don't remember seeing him after the race was over.

So, from the mouth of my hubby, "Among the mortals, I was number one."

And equally as impressive, Beth, Lily, and I strolled along in the 1 mile walk. If I had worn appropriate footwear, we would have been all over that 5K walk. No worries, though, no sweat was broken on our parts.

Easter Goodies

We weren't sure if Seth was more excited about stuffing those cheeks full of Peeps...


Or getting another basketball for Easter.

Yes, that is Christmas wrapping paper you see on the boys' Easter gifts. Since we celebrate Christ on both holidays, we thought we might as well use the same paper to wrap the gifts. (Actually, it was the only wrapping paper we had left in the house.) And since we forgot the cute Easter baskets that Aunt B and Uncle Bill gave the boys' at Granny's house, we decided to set up a creative little display of the boys' gifts on the couch that is in the loft right outside of the boys' room. Our hope was that it would be the first thing they would see when they woke up. In reality, neither boy even noticed the array of Easter goodies and had to be directed toward it in order for mommy and daddy to get the surprise reaction that they so desired.

Also, most of you probably already knew this, but I guess I was just naive. If you go to Wal-mart on the day before Easter, do not expect to come out with a cart filled with Easter candy. Or at least the good stuff, anyway. I left virtually empty-handed after my day before Easter Wal-mart candy hunt. I emerged with a single box of Cadbury cream eggs. And was lucky to get those babies! Eric had to go to both Kroger and Rite-Aid before landing some Peeps. He did manage to also surprise me with my favorite Easter goody...the Reese's peanut butter egg...and this one was double stuffed. Not sure how he was able to finagle that last minute, but I was ever so grateful.

He is Alive!!

I am not sure why this camera happy family only took one family picture on Easter. After all it was one of the rare occasions that the entire family was dressed up with no visible stains on clothes OR faces and everyone's hair was actually combed. I guess we were just too tired after the effort to take more photos.

And here is that treasured one shot:

What a blessed Easter we had celebrating our Risen Savior!!

And we even got a family nap in the afternoon to boot!!! That rarely ever happens in this house these days!

Thank you for your sacrifice, Jesus, so that we can experience the joy of glorifying you!!

And so it was fulfilled, just as Jesus said, "The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified and on the third day be raised again." Luke 24:7 (NIV)

Sin has been conquered! We now have life at the cost of Jesus taking the sin of the world upon Him and losing His life...a sinless man dying for our sins. And He did it, not because any man was strong enough to overpower Him, but He went to the cross because He loves US! An incomprehensible love. An amazing love. A love that has withstood time and evil schemes of Satan and the unbelief of man.

Love.

Jesus' love for His people overcame sin and death on the cross and we now have life because of His sacrifice! All He asks is that we believe in Him. Trust Him. Follow Him. Repent of own sins. Only then can we have life. True life. Eternal life.

Praise you, Jesus! Glory to God, Most High!

He is Alive! Christ is the Risen King!

Hallelujah!!

Chip Off the Old Block

While running errands this morning, Caleb was even more inquisitive than usual. I don't think his little mouth stopped moving from the moment we pulled out of the driveway until we arrived back home. But even then, I don't think it really ever closed. At one point while we were out and about, I realized that I had finally run out of answers to my four and half-year-old's constant questioning.

Mommy: Biz, you sure do ask a lot of questions. My ears are tired.

Biz: I know, Mom. I am just one big question mark.

When Granny is around and he is in this mode, she just laughs. Smiling at me she says, "He is just like you were. I loved you dearly when you were little, but sometimes I couldn't wait for you to go to bed at night just so your mouth would stop moving."

Oh, how I can relate, Mom!!

I am over the moon for that little motor mouth, but sometimes his sleep brings about the rest my ears (sometimes desperately) need.

Tater Tot Helper

Both of our boys have become quite the big helpers around here. And where is their favorite place to pitch in?

The kitchen...of course.

After all, they are my children.

Octopus???

As the boys and I were making our way downstairs to start our day this morning, I realized (after almost stumbling down the stairs with Seth in my arms) that I had left my glasses next to my bed.

Caleb: I will go get your glasses for you.

Mom: Thanks, Bud. Will you also turn off the fan while you are in my room?

Caleb: Mom, I can only do one thing at a time. I am NOT an octopus!

Duely noted.

Googly Eyes

This was the first thing I saw when I got up this morning.

Can you guess what Caleb's favorite commercial is right now???

The Joys of CAKE!!!