A Year of Madre-hood. Ay-ay-ay!

           So many exciting things are happening in our lives right now! Maddy is turning one, Doug is thriving in his job, and I am finding amazing blessings each day being a wife, mommy, and homemaker. God is blessing us so much, but if you can please say a prayer for my father. He's not doing too hot right now and he needs prayers all arouund the world! He is going to be okay, but his platelet count is down again and he had to go to the hospital again. Any way please pray for him to recover and to have his platelets multiply!
           This year of mommy-hood has had its shares of ups and downs. The ups have been higher than a stoney boloney on spring break and the lows have been lower than a grandfathers ba... I won't finish that. But I will tell you something, I've been weaning Maddy from the boobie juice for two weeks now and we are now down to just two feedings a day. One in the morning and one before bed. I'm not going to lie when I say that yesterday was the day we were supposed to cut out the morning boob. Annnnd guess what? I couldn't do it. I know that Maddy once she's not nursing anymore is still going to love me and know I'm her momma, but to tell you the truth I feel so nostalgic about this bond being on its final stretch. So I didn't cut the morning feeding because I just want to enjoy the last weeks of nursing her, because really soon she's going to be walking and on to a new phase of her life. It's hard for me to believe that we've made it a year (almost). With 17 more days until my baby girls 1st birthday, there is definitely something going on in my soul that I can't explain. I am sad and I am over my head happy for this marks the first of many birthday celebrations, God willing. I can't even begin to describe what motherhood has done for me over this past year. But I can tell you that something so mundane as just sitting at home and watching my baby girl play with her stuffed animals is something that gets me teary-eyed and I feel this wonderful rumble in my stomach that I have never in my life felt before (and no it's not just gas, I checked for that too). I feel so proud of her when she does something as silly as drink her water from a cup. I could just play with her all day. She's a really sweet baby girl and I hope that I'm doing a good job at being her mother so she can grow up being a confident little girl. I guess I'm so head over heels that the other day I was holding her and just wondering, what was I doing before you? I can't remember life with-out you. Thank you Madelyn for providing me with the circumstances for me to become a better person, growing in patience, kindness, patience, love, patience, joy, ohh and have I mentioned patience? Thank you for your warm smile when I need it the most. Thank you for making me laugh so hard I cry and then I feel like a weirdo that's laughing all by herself at home with no one around aside from you. :) Thank you Madelyn for helping mommy and daddy get closer to God and therefore getting closer to each-other to form a better unit and a even more fantastic team. Thank you honey for your tantrums and your sick days that bring out the best of mommy. Thank you for letting me experience all your firsts. It's been an honor and a blessing being able to stay at home with you and witness every part of your development. I love you Madelyn and I thank God you are in my life every single day! Here's to the second year of this shindig. I hear it's quite eventful, well I say.... Bring it ON!!

Stay blessed and stay saucy!

The Homeless Man and The Cupcake!

                I've been diligently working on the fruits of the spirit, and one of them is to be kind, always.  Oh that’s easy, you say!? Well, it’s really NOT!  Once I started really checking myself, I realized that sometimes, just sometimes, I’m not a very kind person. Not in the way God is to me. Because you see, kindness does not hold any standards. It doesn’t ask, “What have you done for me lately?” Kindness is the appropriate response to any wrongdoing from the world onto us. True kindness is letting go completely of any prejudice and loving the un-loveable. And that, my friends, is not easy. Especially if you’re not consistently monitoring how you behave towards others. It is so easy for me to be kind to those who are kind to me. I love being kind to people who give me presents… and compliments… and fan me… and feed me grapes… and put treasures at my feet. It’s a little difficult to be nice to someone who just pooped on my lawn, if you know what I mean.

 So case in point; Today, I was running a tad bit late for my madre’s birthday celebration. At my dismay, I got stuck at a red light because the amazing Ford Focus in front of me wasn’t focusing on the task at hand, that being driving! He was dilly-dawdling and what do ya know, biggidy bam, we got stuck at the looooongest red light ever. See not kind there…..  As I’m waiting, I turn my head to the left and see a homeless man standing with his sign reading, “Homeless, need help, God bless.” For a split second, I turn away so that I don’t have to “see” the man, because if I don’t “see” him than I don’t need to help, right?  Life is full of these split second decisions, decisions that threaded together compile our daily story, and in the end tell us who we are. Who do you want to be?  The person who took the time to search in their hearts to see what act of kindness they could perform, even if it was at the expense of their time or money? Or the person who looked away to not be inconvenienced?  There I was in my car, blessed as all can be and I got convicted very quickly. I knew I didn’t have any cash on me to give to the man wearing drabs, the man who in 3 seconds I judged and turned away from. But I felt in my heart the need to do something. His sign read, “need help.” How could I help in the next minute I was stuck at this light? I worked quickly to get the foil and tightly wrapped saran wrap. (By the way, why is saran wrap so awesome and why is it so hard to get unwrapped, I will never know. Sorry, back to the story. I allow myself at least one tangent per story, moving on!) I removed the saran wrap to get my freshly baked Tres Leches (that’s three milks) cupcakes and I rolled my window down and gave the man my cupcake. He smiled at me and I knew I had done the right thing. I couldn’t help but keep looking at him, hoping to see what his reaction was after eating my cupcake. He took a bite, and made the most awesome face ever! Then, he turned to me and with a smile and a side of thumbs up he said, “This is good!”  

               Wow, who got blessed there? ME, that’s who! I got such joy in my heart that, number one, I did something kind, and number two, the homeless man loved my baked goodies.

              Okay, I am not saying that I will be kind every second of every day. Let’s face it, I’m human and I’m going to fail time and time again. BUT, being more conscious of my actions will help me bear the fruit of kindness, as well as realizing that kindness will blossom even more when I allow God stirring in me. Be kind and rewind ya’ll!

Stay blessed, stay saucy!!