Now I know... and glad I found out!

Ever hear the phrase "God is with you in the present tense"? Do you understand what that means? I think I finally have that one figured out. God is with you in the present tense! Hallelujah, is all I can say! Let me explain why that excites me so much...

If you are a worrier, are married to a worrier or are a friend to a worrier (like me), share this with them may save them from a whole lot of worrying and you personally a whole lot of less stress.

God is with you in the present tense and here's why!

You can live your entire life stuck dwelling in the past or hoping/fearing for the future if you allow you mind too. Some people have a certain circumstance that happened to them in the past. You know those people well... you may even be one of them. I have a friend who cannot let go of a hurt that she experienced with an old boyfriend cheated on her. She now carries that hurt with her everywhere she goes. Her new relationships are clouded with the notion that at some point, her new friend or her new mate will ultimately fail her. She's is truly stuck living her life in fast forward just waiting for the moment when she can catch herself from reliving that old hurt and spare her heart from what she see's as eventually doomed to occur. For her, everything becomes tainted with this fear. I can even see her looking for it.

Now, I ask you this... is God in the past there with her? (I am not asking, was he there... at that moment? Of course he was there waiting to comfort her pain and embrace her at that present time.) My question is referring... to the truth that God live's with in us in the present tense. He is with her now, waiting to embrace and heal her from her pain of rejection and her fear, so that she can go on and live her life free to love and be loved.

So many of us live our lives for the future. Oh, we have all said it... One day, I will... as if we believe we are not whole enough to live our dreams completely now, here in the present tense. Or, we worry about what the future will hold.

But, if you learn to understand what the true meaning behind "God is with us in the present tense" if may free your soul to live life in the present tense and know that he is with you always, loving you and caring for you.

It feels really goods to understand and accept that God's gift is love. Knowing it doesn't have to be earned should free you to live and love now.

I believe I am a better person for knowing, that I am being loved right now and that I am never alone to worry!

Good Eaters 101

I have to admit... I have always been rather proud of the fact that I had a kid that would eat anything...

At his 4 month check up, I was given the green light to start introducing Liam to solid foods in the form of puree. That following morning, I set out on a quest to begin introducing him to a palate of a variety of different taste and textures of every baby food possible. I even made him fresh avocado dip because I was sure if I introduced it to him young, he would grow to love it later in life. When Liam threw me a ugly face because he didn't like a particular food, I would introduce it more often into his diet and try to find different ways to blend it with things he did like. For example... at first, he hated the way fresh apple sauce tasted (mainly because I refused to sweeten it). So, I decided to mix it with other fruits and slowly introduce it to him plain as he learned to like the sour punch it had as it hit the tongue. Overtime, I could get that kid to eat anything. It was grand, I will admit! At restaurants, servers would smile with glee as they watched my 14 month old eat Ty noodles with ginger sauce and bamboo shoots. Grandparents and family friends would oh and ah at the amazement that we had such a wonderful eater. Michael and I loved it too! Don't get me wrong...Having a more distinguished eater does come with a price though... By the time Liam was 3 years old, he was no longer content to order grill cheese from a local restaurant, he wanted steak or shrimp (with the spicy cocktail sauce, I might add!) So I usually would allow him to choose his meal of preference and decide to split it with him. Lying to him about the selections didn't work for us either, because Liam at age 3 could read the menu completely. Remember?

Believe me, food with Liam hasn't been a perfect happily ever after story, where we ride off into the sunset with our lobster and new york strip. I will explain...
Remember when I was hospitalize for 13 weeks during my pregnancy with Charley? Well that was the end of my love affair with a perfect eater. By the time I returned home, ready to cook up a storm...for my fancy little chef, he was requesting hot dogs & chicken fingers for dinner. Gasp... I know! But I tell you... I was used to eating salmon or sweet and sour pork over grill veggies and rice.

I soon began to experience the "I don't like that's", the "yuck's", and the dry heaves as he stubbornly gagged on the "Don't make me eat those or I am going to throw up's."

Then, as stubborn as I can be... I still continued to blend, and trick, and puree those veggies back in to his dishes. But eventually, I did find myself letting go a few months later and allowing my little boy to just be the stubborn little eater he had become.

Besides... I was busy with a 4 month old!

Lucky #7!

Does everyone out there really have a lucky number? I know I do. Ever since I was a little girl, I have been quite obsessed with the number 7. It started out with little things, like my 7th b-day being my coolest birthday party ever! Then, it seemed I was looking for the connection to the number as I got older, kind of a luck thing I guess! So far, the number has yet to let me down, so I guess you can call me superstitious! I thought for kicks, I would share with you 7 reasons why I still think 7 is lucky for me...

1) I was born on 4/7/77
2) I had 6 serious boyfriends in my life, I am married to #7
3) 7 years after starting my own swim business part-time, I Incorporated and went year round in 2007
4) I have had 7 sets of 7 stitches. Say that's not lucky... I think it is because all 7 situations I fully recovered from and went on to be problem free. (Trust me that's lucky!)
5) My most precious little boy was born on the 17th of February.
6) My adorably sweet baby girl was born on the 27th of September.
7) I have been so blessed to have had a wonderful experience with finding amazing Childcare! So it comes to no surprise to me that our beloved nanny Ms. Shannon is our lucky #7. She blesses my children's lives each and everyday. I rely on her for so much and she never falters.

I love the number 7! If I were rich... I would probably want that many kids (JK).
For me... I also love the biblical significances to the number as well, there seems to be something lucky about that for me.

Have a favorite number? Share what number and why?

I support cloning 100%

Last night I was relieved to hear my husband Michael was coming home from work early! He works 2nd shift Mon-Fri, so seeing him at night before the kids go to bed is a rare treat. I was was even more thrilled to hear that he was willing to put the kids to bed so that I could get some work caught up on the computer. I mean, don't get me wrong... I love our bedtime routine. With Liam out of public school now, it's the one time each day I can count on having true quality one-on-one time with each of my kids.

But when my husband decides to help, it flows a lot like Mastercard commercial. Meaning... I still get stuck with a bill in the end no matter how cute it starts out.

Organic Shampoo & body wash for baby... $22.00
Good Night Moon for her, Green Eggs and Ham for Him... $17.00
Giggles, Prayers, Hugs and I love you's for daddy... Priceless.
For everything else... there's mommy!

Which includes...
Upstairs to bring dad towels cause he can't leave the kids in the bath.
Upstairs to come get the baby, cause he doesn't know which PJ's to put on her.
Upstairs to comb her hair because dad says she won't sit still for him.
Upstairs to bring Liam his stuff animal he left in the play room.
Upstairs to put Charley to bed because she only wants me.
Upstairs to lay down with Liam because he now only wants me too.

So, as I scour at the notion that it is now 9:30 pm and both my children are still awake... I wonder... Why did my husband rush home to my aid? Husbands are good for something, I just know it... cloning mommy they are not!

Kung Foo Mommy...

Have you ever been to a Tae kwan do class demonstration? If you haven't, go!!! It may save your children from turning into little demons. Seriously... I did start to wonder if my sweet son was beginning to warp into a creature from the black lagoon. When we decided to pull him from public school, it was at an all time high. (I was checking daily for horns). After giving him a weeks break at home, I knew it was time to get him involved in to something out in the real world. I mean come on people... I needed to socialize the damn kid or I was going to hear it from all the homeschool haters out there. (As if public school was ever a good idea for socialization...?)

Any way... back to Kung foo. Let me give you a little background on how I ended up observing the art of the Korean. My neighbor has 3 boys all between the ages of 1-6 and is a very busy working full-time. Every time we are out playing with them I noticed how well our kids play together and how well behaved her boys seem to always be. After talking with her about some of Liam's behaviors lately, she mentioned Tae kwan do. She said it has done wonders for her 5 years self-control and has provided a great physical outlet for both her older two. I decided to go two days later and find out what the program was all about.

The first day of class started out kind of rough. After the first 5 minutes Liam came running over to me with a desperate look on his face. You know the broken look? It's unbelievable painful for a mom to experience that. (I have only seen that look on his face a few times before, like the first time I insisted he go back to sleep by himself in a new bed.) That face he gave me with his big crocodile tears streaming down his face was killing me inside. He said,"mommy mommy please let me go home, I don't like this." "I cannot do that exercise and he said I would have to do it again until I got it right!" "I don't want to do this anymore."

I could barely look him in the face as I said "go work it out with your instructor." "He's in charge right now!" (I had to get up and pretend to get a magazine and wait for him to chase after me.) To my surprise, Liam turned around and followed Master Morgan right back on to the mat. Wow!!! Is this really going to work? Is military style really affective? Break them down to build them up... Tough love and hard work! To my relief... I started seeing a difference after class with the way Liam carried himself and spoke. Slight short of amazing to me! We have been hooked ever since.

Liam is learning self-control, respect for others, personal space, balance, flexibility and to count in Korean (amongst other things)! All the while... mommy learns to keep it real with with a 5 year old, Korean master style!

Yesterday, his master demanded Liam's group do 150 jumping jacks the right way or he would be punished for being lazy! Sounds harsh...right? Guess what... my five year old can do perfect jumping jacks the right way...anytime I ask!

Finally... Home sweet Dome!

Swim Fanatics, Inc. is my swim business I created in 2007 with originally 22 swimmers. When I started my own business year round, I truly never in a million years thought... hum, one day I am going to put a giant air-filled bubble over an outdoor pool. Run swim programs full-time from sun up to sun down and grow to have over 500 swim participants come swim in my bubble! Crazy idea huh? Well, here we go Swimmers, here we go!

Home Sweet Dome... Swim Fanatics just signed a 6 year contract to have our $30,000.00+ dome put up over Sherwood Swim & Racquet Club's main pool! And while I could have had a 3rd child in the time it took to get the dome contract approved and signed, I can finally breath a little because it is officially coming fall of 2010.

I seriously cannot believe by next fall, I can tell everyone I practically live in a bubble! Kinda ironic... considering half my childhood, I wanted too!

Butterbees & Bumbleflies...

I decided to start a blog about my journey through all the wonderful things I juggle each and everyday as a working, homeschooling busy mom of two! For all you that truly know me, taking on a bunch of projects all at one time seems to be a pattern. I for one love a busy life... the juggling act always seems to keep me moving and happy! I have a huge passion for parenting! I also really love my career path! Can one have it all and feel rewarded? For me... the answer is yes!

Butterbees & Bumbleflies... have you ever been so preoccupied with something you were doing, you find your self mixing two thought processes into one? Most would say, yes... right? Well, that's my life! I have literally spent 3/4's my life blending things into one or at least mixing them up. Including words for that matter. Ask any of my 3 siblings... besides telling you how I learned everything I knew in life from a magazine (seriously, I did) they would also contest to the truth of how I mixed words up all the time to make them my own. But come on... everyone knows what I meant when I ask you to pass me the Pole huncher!

Any way... pretty sure you get the idea! My life... my family... my work! I love them all! I am as happy as the Butterbees & Bumbleflies!

I hope you enjoy my stories, my passions and my juggling act...