4.23.12 - Best Laundry Advice Ever

First, to update on Liam - remember Thursday he had that low grade fever?  Well we ended our night in Urgent Care after he massively threw up after dinner, was cyanotic for a good hour after his bath and spiked a fever of 103.9....strange.  Urgent care checked him out and ruled out strep, and his color came back on the ride there and his sats ended up being a wonderful 100%...not sure what happened.  They sent us home as all other vitals checked out normal.  Friday he ran a low grade fever all day, but acted totally normal.  And the weekend was fever free and normal.  I guess he caught a little 24 hour bug or something.  Just weird that he was blue for so long....usually after his bath he turns a little blue, but once he's out and dried off, his color returns within minutes.  This time, it had been a whole hour and he still was dusky looking.  Anyways, just thanking God it was something minor and not seemingly heart related.  Whew!

And on to the BEST laundry advice ever....I know, seems strange to write a whole post about it, but it's true and I've been meaning to share it for awhile.  In fact, ever since early December, when my boss's wife shared with me a secret that has literally changed so much for my laundry life.  We were talking about how our boys (she has 2, a 4 year old and 2 year old) get into everything and ruin so many clothes (meanwhile the boys were all three parading on their hands and knees at the restaurant of our annual Christmas party!).  She said, "I just use "bluedon".  I was thinking...I've never heard of that, I'm sure it costs a fortune and I bet you can only find it in a small, specialty store or online somewhere.  Then she kept describing how she literally poured it all over their clothes at the kitchen sink, let it dry and then threw them in with the next load and voila, stains were gone...So, I ask her again, what is this stuff called?  And she said, "Blue Dawn, you know, the dish soap?"  That one conversation changed my laundry forever.  Especially with a heart kiddo who was frequenting a dinner of pure butter and greasiness to gain some weight and a momma who was tired of throwing out shirts and pants because of the impossible to remove oily stains.  And it works....I first tested it on fresh stains and everything came out like a charm.  Then, I moved on to shirts and pants I had retired to be "donated".  I pulled them back out with their "washed-in, set" stains and all, slathered on the Dawn soap (and ANY color works, I use the green apple, but I have stayed true to the "Dawn" brand), let the clothes sit for a few days, then added into a normal load of laundry and sure enough, every spot washed clean out....It was a miracle that has saved me much time and money! 

And I'm starting to think I may be the last person to find this trick out...but hopefully, this will help someone out there!!  It was an answered prayer for me!

4.19.12 - Some sunny pics

Not too much news on our front....Liam is running a slight fever today, and I'm not quite sure why...Little runny nose is only symptom so far (as you can see by the pics below, he is feeling fine!), so we are on watch for now.  We managed to get outside a little today, since it is too beautiful outside not to be.  I have been lagging behind in taking pictures, but here are a few of our sunny day outside

Love his silly face!

ALL boy!!

Enjoying the outside shade!

We are off to Home Depot tonight (for about the 53rd time this month....Ugh, thank goodness it's less than a mile down the road!) for some grout to finish up our new shower floor - Yay!  I just keep thinking why we didn't do all these things to the house while we could enjoy it for a little while! Ha! 

Oh, and I think I'm coming out of my "funk" from Sunday's post...whew!  Thanks for being such supportive readers and friends! 

4.15.12 - Potty Time

Oh how I have waited for this time to come, and still probably wish it weren't here yet, but we are officially potty training...I just can't believe my little man is ready for it, which means he is growing up too fast!  We started off last Monday, doing a sort of Potty Boot-Camp, and having Liam go potty every 15 minutes and he did great.  Only a couple accidents, once right after the new undies were put on, and then again later in the day when I forgot to set the timer...oops!  The next couple days were a bit more relaxed as he was with his Mimi and Baba at their house.  The later part of the week he was able to go longer in between breaks, but we had to compensate for some errand running by putting him in a diaper.  While he has his diaper on, he will stay ask to use the potty sometimes.  And while he was in a diaper a good part of the weekend, I am hoping to stretch him a bit tomorrow and see where he is at.  I'm going to try to run a quick errand with just undies and see how he does, so we shall see!  Our whole goal is to try to keep it relaxed and non-stressful for Liam so that he won't develop any fears of going...I am trying my best (although have myself failed a few times!) to be patient and encouraging. 

As for the home front, we are hoping to get some work finalized on our house before we put it on the market.  We are shooting for the end of April - Now that our house is looking all snazzy, it makes me want to stay! LOL....But I know God has a plan for our move and I'm kinda getting excited to see what it will be!  

That's basically been our life the past week or so!  On the blogging front, I've been at somewhat of a writer's block lately and I just haven't been able to get myself motivated to write much other than what we've been up to.  And to my fellow blog friends, I am still reading your stories, just not commenting as much.  I think something about the "social media" ideal is really bothering me and I can't figure out why...Facebook, Pinterest, Blogland (beyond my close group of heart families and friends I follow), the internet in general, I have just lately felt kind of "bothered" by it and have begun to pull away from it...I've been slightly convicted lately that it consumes more time than it needs to, but I also feel overwhelmed by it.  And I know one of my personality traits is that I tend to go into shut down mode when I get overwhelmed, so maybe that's it.   Anyways, I'm just spilling this all here to let you guys know I'm still here and if I seem a bit "off" in my posts, this could be why =)

4.5.12 - Lots going on and milestone!

Wow...to say this year is flying by would be an understatement!  We have been busily trying to knock out our to-do list for small fixes to the house so we can get it on the market.   Plus, we rented storage so we can start packing up and clearing out the non-essentials for staging.  The process is going well, just hard to find time to actually dig in and get it done!

Just to also mention since we live in the Dallas area, the tornadoes that ripped through this area on Tuesday were monumental...I think they said there were a dozen that touched down in just our few counties.  Thankfully, our community and friends and family we have that live in and around these parts are ok and no damage was seen.  However, please be praying for those that lost their homes and property to this devastation.  It was a scary day for everyone.

In the meantime, Liam has started potty training himself!  LOL...I went on a retreat this past weekend and Dustin mentioned when I got home that Liam had gone pee-pee on the potty a few times while I was away.  He really hasn't shown much interest in it up to this point, so I was excited he got him self there on his own time - and glad we didn't have to start pushing it on him.  So, this week we have continued to just be relaxed with it and take him to the potty if he asks to go....I'm really not quite sure what the next step will be.  He has a new a froggy potty and some training underwear....so I guess I'll start with that!  I just don't want to push him too hard with it.  Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

For Easter coming up, we are going to my parents house Friday to celebrate and then everyone is coming here on Sunday for a big dinner and some egg hunting.  I love Easter...it's my favorite time of year.  In fact, the retreat I went on was so special.  It was an all women's retreat, but it had an experience like no other.  I truly felt God's love and presence like never before, and it was a much needed reminder of his grace and mercy before this Easter weekend.  God loves us SO much...so much that he sent His only Son to die for us while we were (and still are) unworthy and sinners.  His blood covers all our sins if we believe in Him, because he OVERCAME death for US - He is RISEN!....Just to be reminded of this gift and how powerful it is was a blessing.  I know I have experienced His love and mercy in mighty ways even just in our walk with Liam's heart, and I am so grateful and thankful for my salvation and that Jesus is ALIVE in my heart.  Such peace it gives that our God is on the throne. 

Here is one of my favorite songs for the season, "Overcome" by Jeremy Camp - hope you enjoy this powerful worship song!

 Happy Easter everyone!