Bookworm!

Brody is reading! I am completely overjoyed to watch him sit down with a couple of his favorite reader books and sound out the words!

He is slowly becoming more independent, and with the skills he is learning, especially reading, he will be able to survive in this world without me always hovering. It is sad, but also so joyful! I think through history of all the people who were never taught to read, and it is just amazing that Brody will have this incredible skill throughout his life! We are so blessed.

We ordered 4 books that have been incredible for him! I will hear him sitting off alone in another room, reading! :) Even laughing when he reads something funny!

And I can't believe how fast he is picking up on it! Once he started, he just keeps going and going! Now he wants to READ EVERYTHING!

This is the most amazed I have been of the human development since we began down this child-rearing journey!

Good job, Brody! :)

The Akers' Library!

One of my biggest organizational dilemmas is my kids books. We have a standard 3 shelf bookcase that holds all their books in their bedroom, which is great if you can READ the spines to find what you are looking for. If you can't read, and small children usually can't (except, I have a post coming soon about that!), you end up with all of the books regularly pulled out onto the floor so your child can find the book they want.

I spend a LOT of time putting those books back in the shelf. Until today.

Ta Dah!!!







At first, I went online to find a book shelf that I could purchase so my kids could SEE the covers of a selection of their books, instead of downloading them all to their floor. None of the products I saw were large enough for what I was looking for, and they were pretty expensive. Well, I ended up on someone's blog who had made "rain gutter shelves". Yes, you heard me right. You can install plastic rain gutters on the wall, and voila... bookshelves!

The shelves themselves cost me 4.97 for a 20 foot piece (which I had the guy at Home Depot cut for me). The end caps were about 6 bucks a piece, so we got a FULL WALL of shelves for around 40 dollars!

The kids LOVE it, and immediately stopped running around, picked a favorite book, and sat down to read!

YAY!!

Video Phone!

My kids live in a world where they can see a video phone call on their computer! We can see Grammy and BooPa anytime they want! How cool is that!?

Our Budding Chef

Brody's school had a book fair, and the book he wanted more than anything was a Disney Cookbook. That was all he talked about. He said he wanted to start making dinner some nights...

So, we got the cookbook, and let him pick out dinner the other night. He chose "Not Too Scary Berry Pancakes". Then, with Daddy's help, he made it!


Here we are enjoying our blueberry pancakes (from scratch!) made by Brody!

20 Pearly Whites!

Seth had his first visit to the dentist! They "counted" his teeth... and all looks great! No cavities!

Brody was such a big help showing him how easy it is. :)

Living Expressions

I am SO EXCITED! I have been working, for quite a many long and tiring night (hence the lack of blogging), with a friend of mine on a fantastic project...

Our very own, brand new company!

Living Expressions

Let me give you a little background...

In 2007, Kurt and I went on a Mission trip to Austria with our church choir. We started building relationships with a couple of churches there, and are planning to go back in 2009. Unfortunately, during this economy, funds are low for many who would like to go back this coming summer.

In order to help raise funds, Kurt, myself, and another friend have created our own company, Living Expressions.

We have created over 30 pieces of professional quality, original, digital, Scripture/Faith-based artwork. We would like to sell prints to raise the funds we need to get everyone who wants to go, back to Austria. 100% of the profits will go toward this worthy cause.

Please take a moment to visit the site. The entire Product Catalog is on the site, and you can even order prints through the website (Paypal).

I hope you see something you would like to order! And if not, feel free to pass the link along to EVERYONE you know! The more traffic we can get to the site, the better! And PLEASE, pray that God will work through this HUGE endeavor to raise enough money before June!

Need a good laugh?

Thought this was funny... at least I know my dancer friends will get a kick (or maybe even a kick-ball-change) out of it...

Spring Hopes

My sweet hubby brought me tulips (my favorite flowers) and it has put me in the spring mood... which is great, considering I have all the windows open letting the fresh air in. It is supposed to be 70 degrees again on Saturday, and 76 on Sunday! And we still have snow melting on the back deck because it was 20 degrees yesterday. Crazy.

School Pic Day!

Here they are, in all their glory, all spiffed up with new shoes, shirts, and hair gel! :)

You don't need to tell me, I already know. I'm the Worst Mom Ever

Okay, so you force me to just admit it, and get it out of the way. I am the worst mom in the world. At least it appeared that way if you happened to be in Chesapeake Square Mall, or anywhere even remotely close to Chesapeake today. I saw you, and you were glaring at me and my children.

Don't think I didn't notice you snicker and whisper to your friend when they both ran, screaming and yelling and making "Star Wars Blaster Sounds", out of the Rack Room Shoes while I was trying to pay for their "spiffy school picture day" shoes. I saw you roll your eyes as I had to tell the girl at the register to please watch my things while I went out into the mall to retrieve my children.

And don't think I wasn't acutely aware, as I was trying to pick out new shirts in Ross, and they were boxing and hitting and wresting each other INSIDE the cart, that you had turned your nose up at me and made a *tsk-tsk* sound with your tongue.

Oh, and I could feel your eyes bearing down on me as I bopped them on the behind while we were leaving Target because they wouldn't stay at the checkout register with me, but instead wanted to run circles in the food area and terrorize the people trying to enjoy their popcorn.

I KNOW what you were thinking, because when I was childless, I thought the same thing. I wondered why that frazzled, distraught, unkempt, exhausted, irate, impatient, angry mother couldn't keep her kids under control. Just why couldn't she tame them while in public so they wouldn't be such a menace.

Well, to all of you mall-dwelling mother judges out there, I just have one thing to say..

*tsk tsk* I'd just like to see you walk in my shoes...

and I have a word of advice...

give a tired mom a break. Some day, you may find yourself standing mortified in the mall, and would just like someone to smile and say, "Don't worry, the grow up, eventually!"

Snowy Akers!

I know all you that live farther North than we do will get a chuckle out of our "snow" pictures, but to us, this is a LOT of snow! Seth is 3 now, and this is the first snow he has seen!

Kurt's new job let him stay home in the morning and come in late if he wanted to (which he since has) but before it started to melt, we all ventured out into the big snow to play around.

Kurt and I, as parents, had a duty to teach our kids how to:

a. have a snowball fight
b. make snow angels
c. make snowmen
d. not eat (or make) yellow snow
e. make an igloo
f. make a snow fort

(d and e were just impossible with our amount of snow, but we figure 4 out of 6 ain't bad!)

So, here we are on our snow day!

Well... that was a downer...

I apologize for being gone so long from the blogging world, only to return with such a heavy post!

I have become overwhelmed with so much time and events that I didn't blog, that I found I didn't want to blog because I didn't know where to start...

so, I am just moving forward... because I have missed blogging! So, here goes... March 1st forward!

Happy Birthday Kurt! I LOOOOOOOOOVE you!

Slumdog Millionaire

We may just be the last people I know to go see this movie, but we went for Kurt's birthday tonight.

I was completely blown away. The story was fantastic, the acting superb, the content was just astounding.

I left the theater embarrassed and ashamed. We had just watched a movie about a child from a slum in Bombay... who had NOTHING... and by nothing, I mean NOTHING... and here Kurt and I are whining that we don't get a good picture on our digital converter box for our tv.

I thought of my 2 little boys at home, surrounded by GOBS of toys, full tummies, with no knowledge of loss, death, fear, pain, or destruction... and somewhere in the world, there is a mommy with 2 little boys, perhaps the same age as my kids, and she doesn't know if they will live another week because of lack of food and violence in their culture.

I have no right to complain about anything that I *think* I need. I am completely humbled and ashamed at what my culture has taught me to be.

*sigh*

So, if you haven't seen the movie, go see it. It truly might just change your outlook on the world.