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SORRY to all my blogger friends...

I have been a bad blogger...I realize this. I have been fussed at by more than 3 people because I have not posted in such a long time but I do have a very good reason...LOL. I have been working on a new blog with our very own site and hosting so this post will be my last post on this blog. Our new blog is located at www.thebaileybrag.com so just go visit us there. I love the new blog and it is giving me tons more capabilities to really post what I want and how I want. I must give kudos to my geek squad, my little bro Robert, who has mentored me and raised me up to be a fine FTP'er...(that's geek squad language which I can now proudly use as an official member...LOL). I am also going back and posting stuff from the last few months so check our new blog out often to see what I have posted...I am dying to post pics from the beach trip we took..oh....4 months ago!!! Man I have been a bad blogger....sorry again.

We survived Winter!

Happy Spring!
Long time no blog, I know. We are alive and well, we have just been super busy and are getting busier. Soccer has kicked off several weeks ago and is in full swing and while all of the administrative responsibilities I have with AYSO have dwindled away (I am a board member, assist the Registrar, the U5 & U6 coordinator, a coach and a ref) now we have two practices a week and games all day on Saturdays. Fun! I guess it is something I have to come to terms with being mom to three boys.
We have been blessed once again with a fantastic Winter. We have been very lucky to bypass illnesses all season although we have spent a great deal of time at home which we love. That has helped a lot. I also believe, and I find much truth in the research backing this, that everything revolves around diet. I have been wanting to blog about this subject for quite some time. If you are someone who knows me well, you know how important it is to us to have an excellent diet. We were always active and ate healthy before our kids were born but when they came things changed even more. Why even bother puting anything in their mouth that will not directly benefit them? I have always asked this question to those who badger me for not letting my kids eat candy and junk food. What are they missing? Nothing at all. Those same people who just 7 years ago mocked me for desiring to strictly breastfeed Wheat the entire first year and never let him have a bottle of formula and then only feed him organic baby food or mashed fresh fruits and veggies are coming to me all these years later for advice on how they can better their eating habits and lifestyles because they see how healthy our family is, how well our children have been all winter and how calm and focused our children are instead of bouncing off the walls. I am not a saint, nor do I have all the answers to anything. However, I am gleaming and very proud of the good habits that we have instilled in our children thus far. If we eat out in a restaurant, which is seldom because no restaurant is "good enough" for mom's expectations, our kids choose steamed vegetables instead of fries and never eat poorly. Older generations of folks walk by our table every time and compliment us on how well our children are behaved and how amazed they are to see a 7 year old stuffing broccoli in his mouth like candy. We spend a great deal of money on good food, real vitamins and whole food suppliments but it is very important to us. At the same time, not one of us have been to the doctor since August 2007 so that is a savings of potentially hundreds in co-pays and prescriptions that we have avoided this winter. We also do not spend money on fancy clothes or theaters or myself on expensive make-up or anything we do not need to simply survive. Our money is spent only on what we need. Besides us passing around pink eye over the last few weeks, our kids have not even had a common cold. We also did not get flu shots last Fall. I have never liked them and finally read enough to stand up against such a nasty thing and avoid it and this is the first winter we have all been well. This has also been the first winter in 7 years that I have not had an infant so that decision was easier. How have we managed to stay well? Well, it's not because my house has been spotless and sanitized regularly because that is the polar opposite of the truth in my busy world. My home has been messier than ever this winter. Who could possibly work nearly full time from home aside from preparing/cooking 3 meals a day and homeschooling children AND manage to keep a clean house? If spending time with family wasn't a very important thing to someone it might be possible but when I have a moment without anything to do I find it better spent reading a book to River or talking to Wheat about his drawings or pushing Lake on the tire swing. This has been an incredible winter. We haven't gone out much, but we did not need to. We have missed our friends at church over the last several weeks, but with everything that has been traveling around from home to home we have decided we are better off here until Spring. So Spring has sprung and off we go....our ants are back waving tiny little flags that read "Happy Spring...we're back" (we do not use pesticides around our home) ...flowers are blooming...birds are all over our feeders...thoughts of a summer garden and eating fresh tomatoes right off the vine are coming to mind...it's a beautiful time of year. So get ready for some Baileys because we're coming out. And for those of you who do not believe that a healthy diet of fresh, organic, non-processed foods are important....well, I have to disagree and I believe that my family is a perfect testament to the fact that it DOES make a difference. It is NOT a gimick or a sales tactic. Simply pick up a book and educate yourself a bit on the effects of unnatural chemicals in foods and beauty products in the human body...it is real and isn't going away. We can fill our minds with the purest of thoughts and prayer and verses of scripture but at the end of the day if we do not have the energy to proclaim our faith because we are tired or ill then what good is all of that knowledge? At the end of the day if we didn't have the ability or energy to run outside with our children and kick a ball or go on a family bike ride then what example are we being to them?

Stay tuned for my next vent on mass produced super hero costumes vs. a simple piece of fabric for a cape and a wooden stick...it's only getting more interesting....

Where on earth...

have my children heard about groupies?!?! Wheat asked me today..

W: "Mom, was dad in a band when you guys were in high school?"
Mom: "No."
W: "Well...was he a groupie?"
M: "No." (laughing)
W: "Well...what is a groupie?"
M: "It is a person who doesn't have a job or any belongings or anything who runs around and follows their favorite band from city to city to hear them play over and over and hang out with them."
W: "Ugh. That is crazy. So they don't have a job so they are lazy. They just don't know what they are missing, do they mom?."
M: "What they are missing? What ARE they missing, Wheat?"
W: "Well, they could be somewhere having kids or eating food or buying a house or adopting a kid or renting a movie or buying a TV for their house so they can just be lazy at that."

So, after my mad dash to my desk to jot down all his ramblings as fast as I could I realized he just might be getting the big picture of what we are trying to teach them about what is important in life. Is he getting it? He thinks having kids and a family is important - good. He appreciates having good food to eat - good. He just might be getting on board the adoption train that he has never been too keen on - good. He appreciates renting movies instead of buying them or going to a theatre - really good for us! And, he knows watching TV is being lazy....what more could we ask??? Yau'll check back in another 10 years and we'll review and see if he still feels the same about all this. LOL

Word Of The Day...

We were driving home from our friends' home on New Year's Day. From the very far, far away back seat Wheat tells us..."I am going to flabbergast all over the place as soon as we get home"...while we were laughing Lake asked him what that meant so our ears perked up as well to see what definition Wheat gave...he said "It means to throw up in a different way". Wheat has clearly picked up the art of including big words into his sentences that he may or may not know the meanings to. I wonder which parent he gets this from??

Funnies....

Wheat, playing outside with a plastic baseball bat..."I have a GINORMOUS bat and I am not afraid to use it!!"

Lake, being chased by mommy playing tag in the yard..."Mommy, over here, I'm opened!"

River, pulling on his pockets after I put a pair of cargo-type pants on him with pockets all down the legs..."Mommy, I got chicken pox!"

Success in the eyes of a 6 year old...

Wheat came to me a moment ago while getting dressed for church....he said "Mom, I can not succeed with this hole in my underwear"

God and Google...

Wheat just asked Jason, "Dad, does God look down on earth or does he use Google earth?"

**BREAKING NEWS**

"A scantily clad Miss Sharp got busted for speeding on Buttermilk Road. She tried flashing her D's at me (vitamin D's that is) but it didn't go over well. She has been sentenced to a melting pot with a rosemary focaccio baguette and a couple of broccoli florets, all thugs in these parts. She'll do her time and end up in another pot we won't discuss in this bulletin. "

Honey, your dental pick is in the dishwasher. I had to use it to dig cheese out of a hotwheel car. :)

"Fun & Games"

Wheat and River were arguing in the hallway this morning...apparently River was agrivating Wheat (not surprising) and they ended up getting a little physical and the next thing I know River is walking over to me at my desk crying with a fat lip...Wheat came around the corner with a tough guy face on and said to me "it's all fun and games until he learns himself a lesson"!

Pirate Booty!!

...Except these cute little "good guys" got their pirate booties whipped having soft foam swords while every other boy at this costume party had sharp, plastic or hard, wooden swords. So much for trying to keep them safe...instead they got their butts kicked and were mad at me because they couldn't fight back....LOL.

FOR SALE!!

Free to a good home. One male two-year-old, slightly underweight, long hippie hair, who has in the last 24 hours eaten a tube of toothpaste (flouride free) and 9 pieces of gum (zylotol free), filled a toilet with an entire canister of lysol wipes, colored my-25-year old Cabbage Patch baby's head green (with a marker), thinks his new age idea of "potty trained" actually has nothing to do with a potty but rather peeing off the back deck in the grass, can't keep his clothes on EVER, and just stood up in a dining room chair, grabbed his brothers cup of milk and peed in it. For more info or to see pics please call 555-1234.

Also needed: Details on an existing instituion for mommies who can no longer laugh and cry independently and who in this most recent incident was more upset at seeing organic milk wasted...LOL

Five alive!

What's a mom to do when the middle babe turns five and it truly seems like yesterday he was crawling into my bed early in the morning to nurse himself back to sleep. He's our little sprout, the one who has grown up without us knowing. His dark eyes hide little and his heart is so soft. He will attempt to fly off the roof like a superhero but cry with his mommy when he talks about growing up and moving out of our house. What a sweet angel. His 5th birthday party was at a gymnasium in Chattanooga. He didn't stand still for more than a split second and if so it was only to scan to room for the next mountain to climb. What fun he had! Most if not all of the pictures were blurry because the action setting on my camera wasn't advanced enough to keep up with him. Try for yourself...

And never to be left out...River poses and says "CHEESE!!"

He puts his pencil behind his ear like "the guys at Cinco De Mayo do"...he says. Ha!

Wheat is hard at work making some very critical decisions...

...and magic! Harvard here I come!!

...to form shapes...

So, I click together these blocks...

Thinking Critically!!

"Is she really going to let us do fun stuff like this for school??"

The Real Deal!

Riv says "let me just show you guys this stuff called math". And funny enough I had separate little activites planned to keep his little hands busy while the boys did their schoolwork. Silly me. I should have known he would have to be right up there with them breakin' it down one equation at a time. With their manipulatives he tells me this is a "Tain, Mommy, Tain"...(a.k.a. Train). His big stuff his getting bragged about on the blog but only mommy knows he is sitting in his high chair butt-naked from the waist down....hehe. I am sure daddy was assuming the same thing.

The Big K!!

Lake is all smiles with his math. He is soooo big, you know, with his numbers and his mini pencil!! He is a first class Kindergartener and there isn't a soul on our street who doesn't know this!

Math Class!!

So after several colds and stomach bugs we finally decided we all felt up to starting school today! We began with math and were having so much fun it's the only subject we did all morning. Wheat is now in first grade. He is showing me the six hundred and sixty six people who live in the houses on decimal street. Such an evil genius!! Ha! Must be nice to do math in your underwear!!