So yesterday was Earth Day. A day to really think about how blessed we are to live on such a beautiful planet. A day to think about how we can help keep this planet beautiful.

I just realized that it has been over a week since my last post. That kind of breaks my commitment to posting 2 to 3 times per week. Sorry...

This past week has been extremely draining. Huck has had a really bad cold, Shiloh-Grace has had strep throat and I have been trying to fight off catching both. My attempt has failed...I now have a bit of Huck's cold (thank God it's not strep though). I have been up about 3 to 4 times each night either tending to a sick child or blowing my nose. During the day, I have turned on cartoons, put up the toddler gates and attempted to take a nap on the couch while the kids go crazy in the living room. Whew...when sickness rains, it pours! Oh, and did I mention that our neighbor's little boy (same age as Huck) bit Huck's finger through the chain link fence? It was a nasty bite. I had to yank his finger out because the little boy had a bulldog grip. Three of his teeth cut through the skin. There was blood, and I don't do so well seeing my babies bleed! Huck walks around saying "Baby...bite...finger...ouch." It breaks my heart!

While the sick kids were napping during the day, I would try to clean the house. I ended up getting sidetracked each time though with blog reading. I finally gave up on trying to clean by convincing myself that the agony of this week owes me some downtime!

Anyway, I came across a really cool blog! I get giddy thinking about it! Most of you will think I am absolutely INSANE (and maybe I am), but I don't care. I just have to share this totally rockin family with all of you!

Meet the Happy Janssens. This family lives a nomadic lifestyle by driving around the country in an RV powered by used veggie oil! How cool is that?!?!?! Well, it may not sound so cool to you, but I could totally do it! Maybe one day we will give in to our hippie, free-spirited longings and do something like this. We could be the Happy Johnsons or something.

Okay, so onto the title of this post. Before the Janssens could pack up their RV and trek across the country, they had to downsize. They went from this house to this apartment! Notice the picture of her daughter's toys in the apartment. She has a small bin of her favorite toys and a small shelf for her books and that's it!

This picture has totally inspired me to downsize my kids' belongings. I mean does an almost 6 year old and an almost 2 year old really need 2 bedrooms and a living room closet full of toys? I think not! We used to keep a tight reign on things before Shiloh-Grace turned two, but then I went back to work. I guess we just got busy and let the toys get out of control at that point. But not anymore! This week I am cleaning house! All the cheap plastic toys are saying good bye. And the electronic-singing-annoying-song toys are bidding farewell too! I am even downsizing their DVD collection whether the kids like it or not!

We have decided to go back to homeschooling next year, and we are going to implement ideas from the  Montessori and Waldorf educational styles. So this toy cleaning will come in handy for next school year.  I am really excited about this new venture. Expect a lot more creativity coming from the Johnson household! Woohoo!

And in conclusion (why did I feel like a preacher saying that?) here are a few pics of the kiddos! Have a great evening!

Yesterday was a beautiful day here in Aurora! Our neighbors' kids came over, and we had lots of fun playing in the backyard. We made forts and playhouses, dug in the fairy garden and even did some fencing with styrofoam swords. It was a very fun day!

I have been wanting to make homemade butter following this tutorial for a while. So yesterday for an afternoon snack we decided to do it. We made two different batches. The first one we didn't shake enough to separate the butter from the buttermilk, so we ended up with a whipped butter. The second batch we kept on shaking and got a nice firm butter and a glass full of buttermilk. It was a lot fun. We spread our butter on some of my Aunt Debbie's delicious Amish Bread. Every few months we get a package from her with about 5 loaves of this sweet bread. We LOVE it. It was so good warmed up with our homemade butter on top!

Here are some pics of our lovely day...

So I was lying in bed remembering a conversation I had with my dad when I was in 4th grade. I couldn't remember how it ended, so I tried to think of who all was in on the chat so I could ask what the outcome was. That's when it hit me that the only three people talking that day were my dad, my brother and myself.

That was a really hard smack in the face. Since both my brother and my dad have passed away, I don't know if I will ever know how that particular conversation ended. There are so many memories that are like little secrets to me because I am the only person alive who remembers them. It's special to know that I have so many memories but sad that I have no one to remember them with. Telling an inside joke, a tender moment, or just an every day occurrence to someone who wasn't there just isn't the same.

I was telling Shiloh-Grace about her Uncle Shiloh tonight and how on his 10th or 11th birthday he was stung 11 or 12 times by bees. It's a great memory. I have the pics somewhere. Yes it was very scary at the time, but when you see the pics of how swollen he was, you can't help but smile a little. :)

I think that is one of the hardest parts of losing two people so close to me. I want to keep their memories alive for myself but especially for my children. I want my kids to know what a cool brother and friend Shiloh was. And they have to know how special their Granddaddy was. How he could be so loud and obnoxious but also so sensitive and loving. How the first two men in my life were so amazing and how I was blessed to be so close to them.

I will have to scan some pics of Shiloh. He was too handsome and fun not to write an entire post about him and pack it full of pics! But here are a couple I stole from my aunt's facebook page...

I am so glad Spring is back today. I don't think my attitude could have handled another cold and dreary day. Seriously... I have been so on edge lately. I feel really bad about it too.

Confession:
I was a HUGE brat when my in-laws were here! Things were going well until Thursday afternoon. My m-i-l wanted to go to this great shop in Big Rock, IL (www.esthersplace.com) to look at their wool and knitting supplies. I agreed to go even though it was during Huck's naptime, and I was worried he would be a brat without his nap. I think I sulked (and was the brat) the whole drive there. Shame on me. Huck did fabulous even without his nap. And I actually LOVED the shop.

Then, on Saturday, my bratty side showed itself again. My m-i-l was cutting up a chicken for my blog, and I got frustrated when she put the raw chicken on the counter instead of a plate. (I have major phobias of raw meat!) To calm me down, Robert actually cleaned up after the video. He told me he even pulled out the clorox! Now I know that having raw meat on the counter is not going to kill anyone, and all I would have had to do is ask m-i-l to put the chicken on a plate, but I chose to be a brat...again.

My attitude just continued to plummet that day while m-i-l was cooking dinner. I hid in my room "folding laundry." I really was folding laundry, but I was mainly watching a movie and having some quiet time. And shamefully, my quiet time continued at the dinner table. I don't even think I spoke more than 10 words to my in-laws while we ate. I am HORRIBLE!!!

I LOVE my in-laws. They are wonderful people. And they love us so much! They DO NOT deserve to be treated the way that I treated them. So, Louis and Martha, if you are reading this... I AM SO SORRY!

I think I have lived away from the rest of my family for so long, that it is hard for me to adjust to having them here in my home. Even when my own mom visits I have these bratty moments. I do LOVE it when the grandparents visit...I seldom have to cook, we get free date nights, and the kids are out of my hair, but I still have issues of letting go of my space that I am used to. This is yet another thing I need to work on.

But lately, it's not just my extended family that I have been a brat to. I have been losing it on my kids. I told Robert the other day that I would never talk to friends the way I talk to my kids. I can just be mean...the yelling, the frustration...ugh! Now yes, they do deserve discipline, but they don't deserve a bratty mom. I mean, if I trying to teach them to control their emotions and not be brats, then I should be leading by example!

The first step to recovery is realizing that there is a problem right? Ok...step 1 down. Now I just have to get over myself and enjoy the wonderfully amazing people God has put in my life. I am going to have to borrow Amy's motto: "Keep Calm and Carry On!"

Here are some pics from Spring Break with the in-laws...

I was catching up on my blog reading this morning and came across this post by my friend Rachel Coltharp. I had to share it because this really touched me. I will be posting my own blog soon...I just haven't had the motivation to sit down and write. :(

My mother-in-law taught me how to cut up a whole chicken the other day. I posted that on facebook, and someone suggested I video the process. We did. So, if you are interested in learning how to cut up a chicken, here you go...



I thought we were going to make homemade fried chicken, but we didn't have time. She made her classic potato soup instead...yummy!

(I just noticed Robert's hidden message in the video...rojo thinks he's funny!)

For those of you who do not know Louis and Martha, they are missionaries to Africa and have been there for around 18 years I think. They have been there so long that my mother-in-law actually carries her cash in her bra so it won't get stolen. (shh...don't tell!) LOL!!! They have ministered in Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Reunion, Mauritius, Seychelles and most recently Ethiopia. They really are amazing people!

They are on deputation right now, which means that they are traveling around the US for about 2 years speaking at different churches to raise their budget for their next term of 4 years. Any chance they get, they stop by here to stay for a bit. The kids LOVE having them here (we all love having them, but the kids REALLY LOVE it). The first words out of Huck's mouth in the mornings have been "PawPaw." That little boy has a HUGE bond with his PawPaw.

This trip has been great for us because "PawPaw" is building us a deck (in 4 days...wow)!!! It is turning out so nicely! I can't wait to see it finished tomorrow. Here are some pics of it's progress so far...


My mother-in-law (MawMaw) has been helping Shiloh-Grace and I perfect our knitting skills...nice! She also taught me how to cut up a whole chicken. This was a HUGE feat for me because raw chicken meat seriously grosses me out! I can't get passed the whole salmonella thing. But I overcame that and dug into that bird. We are going to cut up another chicken tomorrow or Saturday to make some southern fried chicken. Rojo is going to video the cutting process and the frying process. So be looking out for a blog on Soul Food coming up!

Robert took today off of work, which gives him a 4 day weekend. And since we had a record breaking high of 83 degrees today, he and I decided to get our raised beds ready for this years garden. This will be  our very first garden, and we are really excited about it. I can't wait to walk out onto my new deck, down my new steps and out into my beautiful garden to gather some yummy veggies! Here are some pics of what the raised bed looks like. Tomorrow we are going to add the soil, and then we will began planting in early May. Yay!