Life as a Lewis

When a cute little boutique (that is generally much too expensive for me to bother with) offered $100 gift certificates for $50 this past December, I decided to snatch one up and then wait for a sale. Yesterday, they began their 40% off spring sale, plus spring clearance, and I decided it was time to shop. I came home with four very expensive outfits, including two traditional (and Southern) smocked bishop dresses and spent $1.82. Well, obviously I spent the $50 for the gift certificate in December, but I'm choosing to go with my own personal shopaholic math and say that I spent $1.82 yesterday for $200 worth of outfits. :) Camden had a baseball game last night for the first time in 10 days! It was kind of a slow moving game, but we won by alot. We're going to be making up for the little baseball break we've had since there are F.O.U.R. games next week. Here are a few pictures from the week that didn't make the blog cut first time around (this is for you, B...

Camden is a sweet boy. Always has been. Except when he's not. And when he's not, he's really not. We've had a rough couple of weeks that have left me in tears more than once. I took him to the doctor for his allergies and eczema Tuesday (his first "sick" visit since 2007, by the way!). After using Zyrtec for several years for allergies, we've recently switched to Claritin since Zyrtec seemed to have completely stopped working. His crazy eczema spots have also become out of control in those few weeks. Imagine my surprise when the doctor informed me Zyrtec had been helping control the eczema;Claritin does not. And my extreme surprise when he asked us if we'd had any behavior changes with Camden in the last several weeks. He does not recommend Claritin for children under the age of 12 because of the adverse side effects. He said they turn children into mean/angry people. That would describe Camden perfectly the last several weeks. Now, I'm not naive e...

Disclaimer: you might be totally bored with this post. :) I've mentioned here once or a dozen times that I am obsessed really like to take pictures and am currently taking a 7 week photography course (which is going to be over much too quickly). I've been using the manual settings on my camera since January, and I'm slowly but surely getting better. The goal of the class I'm taking is to help us understand the settings as well as helping us get better straight out of the camera pictures. I'm not sure I'll ever reach the point of not having to edit pictures in PSE, but I am having to spend less time editing. This is the photo I took last week for my assignment. We have to submit them straight out of the camera, but I did a little editing after it was submitted. straight out of the camera with just a slight curves adjustment for skin tone and a Warming action with a vibrant photo action; I know it's bright, but I kinda like it finally, a black/white conversio...

I'm running a little behind this morning because I slept in until 6:00 (how sad is it that 6:00 is considered sleeping in) so here's just a short list of what we're up to today. Laundry Purchasing tickets for me, my mom, and sisters to see Beth Moore in June Laundry Trying to put the house back together after a weekend at home Treadmill Making a dentist appointment for Brian (his new filling came out) Laundry Making a doctor's appointment for Camden (eczema and allergies) Grocery store for a few necessities Gymnastics tonight Laundry Dani Mogstad: Tea for Two Dani Mogstad: Just Stay Little

Anyone else have Mary Poppins in your head after seeing the blog title? It was quite windy this afternoon (and very overcast, but no rain!) so we let the kids fly their Easter kites. Rory loved it initially, but then was scared of the wind. Camden didn't have much luck with his for some reason (thus, no pictures of his Transformer's kite), but it was still fun to give it a try.

This week has had a much more relaxed schedule, which has been a nice change. Wednesday I took Rory to storytime at the library (this is the first time we've been since Christmas!). I need to work on my crafting skills because I could not figure out the flamingo we were working on. Not that it mattered because all Rory wanted was to "DO IT MYSELF." Thursday we had an early haircut for Rory and then a make-up gymnastics class last night. Today is clean-the-house-from-top-to-bottom day. I had a big photo trip planned for tomorrow, plus a park trip for the kids and also a trip to the post office to renew Camden's passport (which we somehow let expire!), but our weather people are calling for severe thunderstorms and possibly tornado warnings so I'm thinking we'll be stuck at home instead. Enjoy your weekend! Gina Miller: Wild Honey

Goodbye, pigtails Goodbye, curls Goodbye, long(ish) hair ( and fake smile) Hello, new "shoat hair like mommy's" This is how she describes her short hair every time you tell her you like it. I can't tell you how many times she's asked for short hair like mine in the last several months. And now that she's got it, I've heard dozens of times today already "I've got shoat hair like yoooouuuu."

Yesterday was Camden's big graduation picture day, and it was funny to pull up to school and see all the kids dressed up in their "adult" clothes. When he got dressed, it was impossible to ignore how big he's getting. And then when I uploaded the pictures I took, it was even more obvious. Seriously. When did he get to be so big? It feels like I blinked my eyes and he grew up. And I do fully realize this is only the beginning.

Every morning before lunch we walk out to get the mail and stop at this little tree stump. Rory always climbs up and wants to jump off. Every time. "This gonna be fun, mama." Ready to jump And this is where we stall out every day. But not this day Taking flight

After a losing streak, Camden's team won their game last night 23-14. The best news is that Camden had 2 home runs. It was kind of a crazy game, although the games are always a bit crazy with a field full of 4-6 year olds. Last night, as Brian put it, they all acted as if they were off their ADHD meds. At one point, I heard our coach say, "just stay dressed, dude." In fact, they were all so hyper that the coach made them run laps after the game. And you know it's bad if he punishes them because this is the coach who generally has the patience of a SAINT. On today's agenda: house, Rory, laundry, Rory, etc. A few pages from last week: Shabby Miss Jenn: Earth Day Dani Mogstad: Tea for Two Lauren Reid: Happy Place

I bought strawberries yesterday for the first time this season and got the idea in my head that maybe I should make a shortcake to go with them instead of just slicing them and eating them as normal. I found a simple recipe for shortbread and got it in the oven. Then I had the bright idea that maybe I could make my own whipped cream. Can I just say that it was so delicious! My picture isn't that great, but you get the idea anyway. Here are the two recipes I used. Shortbread 1 and 1/2 cups flour 1/3 cup white sugar 3/4 butter Combine ingredients, press into 9x9 pan and bake at 350 until sides are golden brown. Whipped Cream 1 cup heavy cream 4 Tbs confectioner's sugar 1 tsp vanilla Whip heavy cream (I used my Kitchen Aid whip attachment) for 4-5 minutes until thick. Add sugar and whip for an additional 2 minutes or until soft peaks form. Fold in vanilla.

I feel like the last few weeks have flown by, and I'm not sure what I've accomplished. Between revival and extra church things, baseball practice, multiple dentist appointments, baseball games, lunch date with friends, play date with friends, watching other people's kids play baseball, etc. etc., I'm a little out of sorts. I haven't spent as much time focusing on my kids or house the way I need to because everything else is getting in the way (including photography and scrapping, which are my own selfish choices). Today I spent the last 5 hours going to 3 different grocery stores and running around desperately trying to find dark dress pants, white dress shirt and a tie for Camden. Have you ever tried to find these particular clothing items in late spring? For a 6 year old? Let me just say that no one has pants or long sleeved dress shirts around. And don't get me started on the fact that I had less than a week's notice about getting these items for Camden...

As a stay at home mom, Friday's don't generally mean a whole lot to me. Today, however, I'm ready for Friday. We've had a busy week with revival every night the first half of the week; last night we spent nearly 3.5 hours at the ballfield watching two of the kids from Brian's youth group play. I'm very ready to have a quiet evening at home with no plans other than an early bedtime for the kids (who are seriously feeling these late nights) and maybe a movie for the grown-ups. The other reason I'm glad it's Friday is that I'm meeting my friends for lunch. When I was working, we had a group of 7 called Lunch Bunch and we'd have lunch once a month. It was just about my favorite time each month. It became kind of a joke to find the craziest places to eat lunch. Places like White Trash Cafe and Nashville institutions like Ellison Place Soda Shop . In the 2 years since I've been off work, we have one member in Laos, one in Canada, and another who ...

On Tuesday I met Joy and Sumner at the park for a play date. Joy recently bought a D90 and we were comparing tips and tricks. Not sure what we were thinking since getting technically good photos in full sunlight is pretty much impossible, but it was fun talking about it, and the girls had alot of fun playing together. Very interested in a tiny little stick. She was NOT ready to go home. Look at her sweaty red face with the dirt on her nose. Cracks me up.