The 5 Minute Rule

I have never been a believer in sending a kid to bed hungry. It just seems mean to me. Having a border-line underweight child doesn't help, I need him to get every calorie he can.

Occasionally Oliver will say he is hungry when he is getting tucked in, or even in bed already. We have the whole "but you've already brushed your teeth" conversation. I offer him a drink of water. But sometimes he's persistent.

So I created a 5 minute rule. I tell him I will check on him in 5 minutes (and let's be honest, sometimes it turns into more like 10), and if he is still hungry then I will get him something to eat.

The reasons I think this works:

- Sometimes kids just want an excuse to stay awake later
- But sometimes the body confuses tire and hunger
- If he's really just tired, he'll be asleep in 5 (or 10) minutes

- If he's hungry enough that it's kept him awake, then I figure he deserves some food

Tonight Oliver ate a good amount of dinner. He also had a cheese stick during scripture reading. So when he said he was still hungry after being tucked in I wasn't in a rush to get him a snack. But lo and behold, when I went back 5 (OK 7) minutes later he was still awake and still hungry. So I got him a yogurt tube. He felt better. I felt good about it.

I like my 5 minute rule.

A Post of Gratitude

So many of my friends have been doing gratitude posts on their blogs or on Facebook all month now. I have read these posts, and thought about doing my own daily posts... but, as in past years, I just haven't.

But I do presently feel a need to do at least one post of thankfulness.

I have been thinking about this one a lot lately.

I am so, so grateful for my friends and family and the countless and endless things they do and are for me.

I am supported, encouraged, understood, fed, clothed, diapered (well, my baby is), trusted, tolerated, listened too, given too, smiled at, laughed with, invited, helped, etc.

I am blessed to be surrounded by so many amazing people.

I am grateful for you, and for all that you do for me.

I am no good at writing thank you notes, and I know a blog post isn't really an adequate substitute, but I hope that as you read this post you know that you are included and I truly am grateful.

Identifying Self: Clothing Style

I have struggled for a while with my appearance. The deepest part of this struggle is that I have not felt confident in my appearance/myself. It took a while for me to finally put the pieces together, but I figured out that I needed to embrace "my style". I have also figured out that just because I think something is cute, it may not be my style, and it may not work for me, I may not be comfortable in it.

New clothes add up quickly. This may have been one of my biggest obstacles in taking the leap. But through a gracious alignment of the stars, I was afforded a small REI shopping spree.

Yes. REI. For years I have walked through REI loving almost all of the clothes I would see, but feeling intimidated by them. Instead I just stuck with the familiar, the same old. It seemed easier not to change. But no matter what other clothes I got, I just kept looking at those REI clothes with a sense of longing. Not just longing for clothes I didn't think I could afford. I think the real longing was for the sense of "fitting in" in my own clothes. Longing for the expression of self that happens when a persons style matches their personality. Longing for the ability to actually embrace my inner me.

Some of my favorite new clothes include...
This Skirt:

This Shirt:

and These Pants:

So there you have it, "my style". And the best part of having these new clothes... looking in the mirror and feeling like I'm looking at me, and walking in a room and feeling like I'm actually representing me.

Mama's Girl

Oliver is in gymnastics at the U.

He loves it.

I love it.

Elsie endures it.

This is how she endured it last week: