Last week I pro/conned having another baby, and realized the biggest draw for me would be maternity pants. Why have another baby when I can just buy more yoga pants? 

I shared 10 things I’ve learned from my mother. She’s pretty great, you guys, and I’m blessed to have her as a mother and as a friend. I swear, my kids better brag about me like this someday.

While volunteering in my son’s classroom last week, I saw his New Year’s resolutions. This one was interesting:

2013 will be a year of “more spying.”

The Crock Pot Thursday recipe last week was Vegetable Beef Soup. It was a little bland as written, so we spiced it up, and the modified version was very satisfying. It’s a great one for a sick household (which is pretty much everyone right now.)

Almost every morning, I wake to my three year old bumping her little bottom down the stairs, and climbing in our bed. It’s a wonderful way to start the day, and it always makes me smile.

We had a snow day, and my kids and the neighbor kids put the boa from my bachelorette party to good use. I know I’ll hate the make-up days in June, but I really love a snow day.

Snow Princess and Snow Batman

I named my kids. Again. Up until this past week, you have known my kids as G and L, but now they are Graham and Lily. Since I like to talk about how they both pee their pants, how my five year old once put Icy Hot on his junk, and how my three year old isn’t always my favorite, the kindest thing to do is to give them pseudonyms. I had about one hour to come up with names, and I was kind of freaking out, so I asked my Facebook friends for help. I wanted to keep the first initials the same, and I got some great suggestions, my favorite being “Greater than and Less than.” After I announced the chosen names, one friend commented, “And just like that…you have 4 kids to keep track of. Now everyone can stop bugging you to procreate.” 

Calling them by these new names does feel strange, and it probably is extra weird for those that actually know us in real life, but my son doesn’t need his friends in middle school to learn that he still wet the bed when he was five from a simple Google search. I will embarrass him in person, the way God intended. The way mothers have been doing it for years.