I’ve been thinking…  I know, scary right?! 

Anyways, I’ve been thinking that I am blessed beyond measure to know a LOT of really neat people.  My husband says I’m a master networker…but really the truth is that I just LOVE people.  Everything about you.  I love that we all have different stories, struggles, joys, talents, pitfalls, personalities, senses of humor, ways of looking at things, pictures, homes…I mean, truly I LOVE people.  I mean, we all have people on occasion who grate our nerves, or people we’re closer to, and honestly I think that’s how it should be.  You should hold some people closer than others because everyone can’t know all your secrets or all your junk, and you should learn to love people who are hard for you to naturally love because in the process you generally learn a lot about yourself.  Anyways, all this to say that I am often overwhelmed when I think of the people who I have the privilege of sowing into and who sow into me.  And so my thinking has been that I want to take a chance here and honor some people I know.  Maybe it won’t do a thing for you but make you think that I seemed nice that day.  But what I’d really hope that it’d lead you to do is to think of someone that you could honor by telling them how much they mean to you and how neat you think they are.  I mean, don’t you love it when someone unexpectedly gives you kudos…just for being you.  So I’m going to do that today and I hope that maybe you will too.

So today, my first post of “Kudos to” goes to Shannon, my friend and next door neighbor.

First what you should know about Shannon is that she is going to shudder that I’m even giving her public kudos.  She probably doesn’t think she deserves it, but let me tell you how much she does.

She is beautiful inside and out.  Her heart is made of gold and she is so thoughtful and kind.  She’s so much nicer than me…ALL THE TIME!  She’s the friend who knows you’re feeling rotten and brings over a Honeybaked Ham for you, because she thought it’d help out…and it does.  The thing that makes it ever better is that she just does it without asking because she knows that’s what you need.

She’s always apologizing because her kids play all over her house and leave some evidence of it around…but you know what, who cares.  She plays with her kids rather than spending all her time and energy picking up after them.  She does crafts with them even though she doesn’t give herself for being crafty, she is silly with them, and the girl loves on those 3 boys like crazy.  Oh, and did I mention that she has 3 boys…2 of which are 3 year old twins.  And I’m just gonna say this here too…if you have twins, then nomatter what you think about yourself, I just need to sit at your feet and soak up some of your wisdom….because oh my goodness…you are amazing!

You know what else is so neat about Shannon…she is super creative.  She thinks she has a silly fettish with fabric and paint, but seriously…the girl has some awesome taste.  She isn’t afraid to try new things and figure out how to make it work.  She just painted and antiqued this neat old china cabinet that she found and it is awesome.  And she has about probably 30 other pieces of furniture crammed all over her house that are projects in waiting.  She’s a visionary…she has ideas that are awesome and they’re just waiting to ooze out and become something tangible.

Shannon I think also has a huge heart for people, but she’s shy too.  She doesn’t give herself nearly the credit that she should, so it seems fitting to me that I give some to her here…where all of you can see.  So I guess I’m being a little bit of my occasionally forceful self and forcing her into the open where all of you can see her for who she really is…and that’s a pretty amazing person.

Oh yeah…she’s ridiculously smart too.  She has her JD which means she’s a lawyer, but she uses that information to be a helper to other lawyers as a legal librarian.  See what I mean, she helps people…all the time.  I think it’s part of her nature…she sees a  need and she fills it.  She’s also particularly handy should you ever want to find out if anyone has a police record, or want to know who bought the house across the street, or if they have a police record….truly…she’s handy that way! LOL!  So you see…she’s a smart one too.  She works 1 day a week doing the legal thing so that she can spend time with her kids the rest of the time.

Anyways, there’s way more that I could say about her, but for now I think I just want you to know that I am honored to call her my friend.

Do me a favor…when you read all of that above about Shannon, what do you think in your mind? If I didn’t know her, I’d be thinking something like “dang…she’s a rockstar”… so, would you honor Shannon in the comments section by just sharing how my words about her stirred you to think about someone you may know, or about her?  Thanks friends!

Now go out and give someone some Kudos today!  PS. Kudos by definition is “acclaim or praise for exceptional achievement.”  I KNOW you all have exceptional people in your life too…so tell them!

Listening to a nap-resistant crying baby around here right now, so you’ll have to forgive me if the following post is slightly disjointed.  I hate hearing a baby be sad, but the child needs a nap badly!  Oh goodie, he’s lying down now…LOVE the totally unnecessary but really fun video monitor!

So, this morning was sort of a crazy one!  Little Bit had a doctor’s appointment with an ENT for all these ear infections he keeps having, and my friend L was keeping Tid Bit for me during that appointment at 8:30.  Then, SHE had a doctor’s appointment at 10 and was dropping her little man off back over here so she could go to her appointment.  It was a crazy morning of kid switching so that we could actually listen to what the doctors were saying during the appointments!  Imagine that!  Child-free and listening to your physician since you can actually hear them!  Anyways…I’m thankful as all get-out for good friends I can kid swap with!

Little Bit’s appointment went about as expected I guess…ear tubes needed, so I guess that’s going to now be on our docket of springtime fun! Whatever…as long as it helps him, that makes everyone happy!

But, that’s enough healthcare talk for now though.

Now, I just have to tell you about one of my MOST favorite memories as a child!  One we did so much that my siblings, other neighborhood kids, and myself were OFTEN pictured in the local newspaper.

Lemonade stands. 

Our stand wasn’t just any old lemonade stand though (which is probably how we made it so frequently to the paper)…we sold cotton candy too!  I wish I could somehow dig up an old newspaper picture to post here, but that would likely involve sorting through my dad’s files (remember I told you the other day how he’s a pack rat?!) or going to my hometown’s newspaper or library and probably having to look through microfiche!  If you don’t know what microfiche is, then that just means you’re younger than me and now you need to go look it up…I’m sure Wikipedia (which we also didn’t have when i was a kid) would be delighted to assist you in your search for a definition.

Anyways…all that lemonade stand talk makes me ready for warmer temperatures.  But that’s not what I want to tell you about.

One of the best parts about being the first kid in my family to have kids of my own is that I kinda get first dibs on some of the old stuff we had when I was little.  Most of the great stuff stays at my parents’ house because Ninie and Pops want their house to be super fun as any grandparent should.  But the cotton candy maker…well I asked for that one!  And BINGO…guess where it is now!?

If you guessed my kitchen counter since we used it today then you win!

My friend L’s little man C told me today “Miss Logan, I just LOVE it when I come to your house!”

I know baby…I know!  But, we’ll just keep it between all of us on here that I want my friends kids to love coming here!  I don’t break out the big guns for nothing you know! 

So check out this rainy day fun!

This is the part where it gets “spider webby” and the fun begins!  Little C-man was amazed clearly!  Miss Logan makes cotton candy?!?!  Like at the circus?! 

And for you mamas out there who want to spank me for giving 2 already hyper little boys cotton candy at 10:30 in the morning…just know that one whole fluffy cone contains just 1 Tbsp of regular granulated sugar.  Not as bad as you’d think huh?  Plus…if you want your friends’ kids to love you, you can do things like this from time to time!

And then, once L came back to get C-man and we did the kid swap back again, I felt a little guilty for the early morning sugar rush so i thought I should do something really great for my 2 little fellas for lunch.  So I whipped up some ravioli from a recipe that I got from a really well known chef.  It’s not too hard, I promise.  And as evidenced by my baby’s face…it’s a real hit around here!

I know you’re dying for the recipe now.  The chef though is honestly one that I’ve loved since I was a kid.  This guy has been around…I’m not kidding you!  The man can make some ravioli!  So without further ado….drum roll please….I bring you…. Chef Extraordinaire….

Eat up kiddos!  Mommy will redeem this morning’s real health kick at supper time!

Just having life (and a little cotton candy) for dessert here today….how about you?!

– Logan

Today I feel like crap.  Sorry if that word bothers you…but that’s how I feel.

I went on Friday afternoon to get coffee with friends and it was great.  What was not great was laughing so hard that i snorted hot cider into my sinus cavity, somehow snorted it back down my throat, and then back up and down again once more, all the while trying not to spew now regurgitated hot cider all over my friend D.

I don’t know if it’s medically possible to have disrupted said sinus cavity into creating an infection, but that’s what I think I did.  And if it’s not medically possible, then a real sickness has impeccable timing to start just a couple of hours after the cider-snorting incident.

And, the visitor that my husband likes to call “Aunt Flo” has come again…for the 4th time in 2 months.  Wretch.  And if you’re a man reading this, then I’m sorry…you only understand how this inconvenience affects you, so no comment from you is necessary on this subject.

My body is flat tired!  I told my husband last night that i have been putting my poor body through the ringer since 2007!  After 2 miscarriages (I’ll tell you all more about those another day when I’m not already emotionally charged), and a year of trying to get pregnant, and then finally being pregnant, and then finally having Little Bit, and now still nursing Little Bit….I’m tired! 

And it didn’t help yesterday when our family went on an afternoon walk in the neighborhood and to be silly I thought I’d run down the hill pushing Little Bit in the stroller, and things jiggled.  I’m not talking about “the girls” who weren’t in a sports bra….I’m talking about other areas…jiggling…and I noticed it.  I think it’s time ladies that i got serious and joined the gym…seriously…jiggling.  If the sinus issue wasn’t bad enough, the jello run just about put me over the edge.

I think maybe it’s time that my life is the only thing that I’m having for dessert for a little while!

And PS. NO that picture is NOT me…but that’s how i feel some days!

I’m in love.  With THIS…

Oh sigh….one day maybe.

But not today.  Today, I will go on an outing somewhere beautiful with my family since Little Bit is feeling rotten from antibiotics (and probably more-so from the awful diaper rash that’s ravaging his bottom) and he doesn’t need to spend the morning sick and miserable in the nursery at church.  Today I will enjoy my family because they are who i would spend time in a kitchen like this most of the time for anyways.

But one day…one day, maybe this dream will be real.  For now though, I have bigger fish to fry in the kitchen that I have.

– Logan

I am always flattered when someone asks how I “do it all.”  If only they knew that…GASP…

I don’t. 

Not even close!

Heaven knows I don’t, and you should know too!  And when it seems like maybe I have, it’s only that I haven’t done it all at once.  I must be a good illusionist on occasion…just call me David Copperfield!

So, tonight we’re having a really neat couple over for dinner…and I have some getting ready to do. Let me tell you what i haven’t done yet and what i will do…between a fussy baby with an ear infection and a crafty 4 year-old who has already done play-doh and is now cutting tiny pieces of paper all over the kitchen table and subsequently the floor. 

I won’t vacuum until the last possible minute…and then I’ll send said 4-yr old to play in his room and I’ll hold the baby while i vacuum it so he won’t pull out more junk!

I’ll clean off the island in my kitchen which is a repository for all things junky.  Like right now it has, my coffee cup, a bunch of rotten bananas (which in 5 minutes will go in the freezer to make banana bread another day), a candle, my cell phone, a stack of bills, my Bible study guide, my wallet, a card, another stack of papers and magazines, a Netflix movie, a stack of paper plates, a coaster (that my coffee cup is NOT sitting on), and this very computer. Wow!  That’s a lot of stuff…and it’s actually cleaner looking right now that most days!

I won’t stress over the pile of junk in the upstairs hallways, because it’s been sitting there for a month and out of the sight of others, means out of my mind…at least for a little while longer! And I really can’t stand sorting through clothes…so that’s what’s there…bins of kids clothing!

I will make most all of dinner ahead.  And later today I’ll tell you how to do this very impressive recipe ahead too…Shrimp and Grits.

I will start my laundry and put away the stuff from yesterday (that i didn’t get around to doing yesterday.)  Because THIS is what happens if i don’t!

I will play with my kids.  And if it’s nice outside, I will take a walk with them outside this afternoon…partly to keep me sane, and partly to keep the house clean (which I’ll have to do most of during naptime.)  And think of it this way if the playing part is painful for you (which let’s be honest, it is for everyone sometimes)…when you play say UNO for example with your kids,  only UNO is what gets pulled out.  Left to their own devices, kids pull out the FREE WORLD and only play with a small portion of it.  Voila…playing with your kids means…less to clean up later!

And anything else that i can’t figure out where to put…in the last minutes…well, it’ll probably all go in here!

And there you have it…the secrets of a great illusionist!  Or at least one…

The junk drawer!

A friend called me today to encourage me about this blog.  I cannot tell you how glad I was to hear that.  How glad I’ve been each time any of you have told me the same thing!  I said from the start that I need encouragement and I really did mean it! So thank you…to all of you!  And please, please comment from time to time!  Otherwise I have no idea if anyone is really even reading or if the number that’s showing viewings on the stats is really just skewed from all the times I refresh my own screen in hopes that maybe this time there will be a comment! HA!  (I should note here that I feel so silly for just admitting that!)

Tonight I was nursing Little Bit at bedtime (don’t worry, I won’t be doing it til he’s like 48 months or anything, but I’m just not done yet!) and when i finished praying for him, my mind started to wander onto all the fun things i want this blog to be.  And all the things i don’t want it to be too.  (I’m thankful for good friends who will probably take me out if I inadvertently venture into being a blogging bummer…or worse, if you all become privy to what should really be a super personal journal with a lock on it! )

And if you’ll let me be honest with you (which actually I’ll always do anyways) I’ll tell you why I’ve never done this whole blogging thing before.

I was scared.

When it comes to this sort of thing, when anyone can read what you write, I honestly think to myself “What on earth could I write that people would want to read…or much less follow?!”  And part of me is still a little uncomfortable with that whole notion, because honestly it feels to me somehow…

arrogant. (And isn’t that a dirty little word that noone wants said about them?!)

But here’s what I’ve been learning about myself and I think maybe about other people too.  People love when you pour yourself and your gifts into them.  And don’t we always inadvertently get filled up some too when we can do that for others?!

That’s what I want to do here.  And I hope…truly hope, that by trying to recognize areas that I may be good at something, or willing to try but fail at, or just by being authentically me…that you’ll all feel poured into…somehow.  Because doesn’t it feel good to walk around with your cup a little fuller?!  And if I can do something like encourage you to feel more confident in who you are… by making you feel more confident in the kitchen… just by sharing something like “How to cut an onion”….then count me in!  And I know, by sharing and loving on you all in ways that I actually do know how…I’ll be somehow better for it too.

And I LOVE time with my friends…I mean, I LOVE IT!  So ,here we are…friends!

I have a favor to ask of you too.  Please comment and tell me things that you think would be fun to read about…your own ideas too!  If I know about it, I’ll do my best to do your topic justice, and if not, then I’ll do my best to find someone who can and have guest posts. ( Well, for that reason and because even I don’t want to hear my own voice all the time!)

And just a taste of the list I’ve been keeping on my fridge (still too nervous after the dog bowl incident with my last phone to keep something important on it!)

Drum roll please…. Get out your dessert plates friends…the cart is wheeling by!!!!

*My favorite cookbooks…that I (and now you) shouldn’t live without
*Some kids books that I really think deserve some public love
*Recipes galore…easy, fancy, easy and fancy, ones for company, ones for leftovers, ones for you to sneak down and eat a snibble of in the middle of the night (those are my personal favorites!)
*How To…do things like…arrange flowers, time a meal, cook for food allergies, makeover a room for $200 or less
* Gifting…ideas (I LOVE to give gifts…and if i had enough money to do it all the time…i would.  You’d all open your mailbox tomorrow and find presents!  Even though I hate going to the post office with 2 small children…really, it’s the worst place to go with kids i think…well, there or the OB.
*Parties – some I throw, and some I go to (because I have some pretty fun party throwing friends too!)
*Probably I’ll drop some Food for Thought on you from time to time as well…because if I’ve paused to think about it, well sometimes it’s just nice to have some company in your pause.

Hopefully we’ll just keep on trucking with loads of fun new stuff too.  Sometime, when I think of something good, and I’m sure enough people are reading to make it fun, I think it’d be a blast to do a give-away.  I don’t know what I’d give-away or what for yet (doesn’t that sound wildly enticing?! LOL), but I read about it on someone else’s blog one time and like I said before…who doesn’t love getting presents in the mail?!

And I’m gonna tell you now, and I’ll do my best to fix it, but I am horrible about these stupid capital “i’s.”  I must not hold down the shift key long enough or something, but they make me crazy…and apparently make my friend L crazy as well, because she told me there are too many lower cased i’s in my posts! ( Love my friend L…you know who you are…because really i have lots of friends who’s names start with L!)  See there…just happened again! Dang it! So, I’m sorry…spell check misses them too! (the only reason there aren’t too many in this post is because I manually have changed them…it’s taken forever…I probably won’t do that much more!)

Ok friends! Thanks for letting me into your reading list!  Or your drab cubicle, or your cheery cubicle, or your kitchen table, or your favorite chair.  I hope this adventure is as much fun for you as it has been so far for me!

Hugs,
Logan

PS. Tomorrow I’m going to teach you how to make the MOST AMAZING shrimp and grits. (If you are from up north and can’t get grits…you have to let us know…I’m sure with enough southern people on here, we can get you some grits!) Hello…do i hear my first give-away?!

Why yes I do!  Hmmm….but what for? Ok, whoever has the post idea that makes me so excited that I have to do it immediately… wins!  Grits!  And i’ll mail them to you! From the dreaded post office!