Life is such an interesting complex mix of events isn’t it? We’re still dealing with far too many illnesses and injuries to count, but i’m trying to also find the fun little things mixed in. This has been a huge challenge for me as the natural course of things when you are in the midst of depression is to see the negative and feel overwhelmed.

That said though, I am definitely trying to make a purposeful attempt at finding at least one good or funny thing each day. To move out of a state of negativity for even a little while and remember all of the blessings and happiness we can have in life if we only put our minds to it. Attempting to get myself into a holding pattern of sorts that includes positivity each day.

Seeing these things in the past hasn’t usually been much of an effort, just a natural course of each day in life, but that was before depression overcame me. I still don’t love sharing about it much but it’s a huge part of what i’m dealing with in life right now so although I won’t focus on it, I’m also not going to pretend it doesn’t exist.

I would love to move past this, to suddenly feel normal again and go on with life like depression never entered the picture. But I’m still on this road of overcoming and it’s a process I cannot avoid or dismiss. Finding the little things in each day is a small step for me to see the brightness and beauty of life again.

Again, although that’s something that was everyday 6 months ago, it’s an effort now. Finding humor in the crazy things the kids do and say… yeah, trying to get that back too. If you are dealing with any form of depression or feeling overwhelmed, I’d like to encourage you to consider taking this approach as well.

Throughout the day remind yourself to look around and find something good, allow yourself to be amused by something that happens or spend a moment doing something fun to make a good thing happen in each day.

I hope and pray for continued blessings for all of my readers and would like to thank all of you who have offered me such wonderful support and encouragement as I move forward and leave depression behind.

If you have children, that statement may make you nervous. When they say they have a couple things to say or a couple questions to ask it can turn into about a hundred.

Well, never fear, I actually do only have a couple of quick and fun things to share with you today!

Community: Want to take the discussion further?  Well, I just opened up a Blog Frog community for A Frog In My Soup.  It’s a simple little thing really to just take the discussion further.  I will be starting topics there based on my “life” posts (marriage, parenting, etc).

If you scroll down a little and look in the sidebar under Frog Mom Recommends, you’ll see “My Community” and the Blog Frog logo.  Please feel free to chime in on any of the posts that you want.  I will begin presenting a link to the community in those posts that are taken to discussion.  You are still MORE than welcome to leave a comment and I will still respond to all of them here!!!

Facebook Fan Page: A Frog In My Soup has been a Networked blog for quite some time now and although we have a nice following there, we also now have a Facebook Fan Page just for you!  You can follow us there now too and earn extra entries on all giveaways just for being a fan!

That’s it…yes, really!  Hope you stop by and join in!

I’ve mentioned it before, but the time has truly come.  I need to figure out a camera to purchase.  I need something that will last a while and that will take great (NOT grainy) photos inside and out and allow me to zoom to my little heart’s content.

In the past I have focused on the Canon Rebel xsi since I’ve heard so many moms love this camera very much.  The only problem is that it is truly very expensive and I’ve been saving for it for a year.  Recently I noticed a line of what I call “in between” models of cameras that are intriguing.

These cameras are definitely nicer than the traditional point and shoot, but a step down from digital SLR cameras.   They are also about half the price of a digital SLR.  Getting a true idea of how a camera will work under my everday life conditions (which some may call extreme LOL) is not possible in a store.  I need to hear from real life moms who have used these cameras for themselves and know the pros and cons.

Here’s the most important features I need to know about any camera:

• Does it work inside and out without getting too grainy or blurry?
• When zoomed in, is the photo still clear?  Or does it get grainy/blurry?
• Ease of use?
• Portability?
• Quality of images?
• Amount of zoom?
• Ability to use in almost any situation…sports, indoor/low light and have similar quality results?

With 6 boys I tend to take a lot of action shots outside, but also love to take images inside as the moment strikes and the lighting in our house is terrible, even during the day.  Another thing is that I don’t take our boys in for professional photos.  I have found that taking pictures here once or twice per year is a lot better.  The kids are on their own turf and it costs me a lot less in time and money.  So that is why quality is so important.

So, throw the information at me!  Whether it’s your camera, your sister’s camera or your friends camera, what is the best camera you have had experience with and highly recommend????

THANK YOU!

A couple of our boys are very creative and imaginative which tends to lead them down the path to some incredible dreams.  Some are wonderful, magical and amazing to them, others are scary and overwhelming.

End of last week our resident Salesman began this conversation:

Salesman: You know, it really stinks that you can’t smell in a dream.

Me: Really?

Salesman: Yeah, I mean what if you’re dreaming about cookies or doughnuts?  It isn’t the same if you can’t SMELL them!

Me: Hmmm…

At this point Tater picked up the conversation and … well … they ran away with the different scenarios LOL.  As I went howling to find hubby and express the importance of figuring out a way to include smell into the boys’ dream environment (HA).

This week is going to be a little crazy!  I will be posting about some great green products/companies this week, but I also have some interesting surprises for all of you as the week continues.  Be sure to stay tuned!!

As we neared the halfway point in our drive to church yesterday, an ambulance casually merged onto the freeway ahead of us.

Suddenly, from the back seat Monkey squealed “look Mommy, it’s a clown truck!”

He was obviously very excited!

The “clown truck” even proceeded to exit when we did causing further excitement.

Monkey: “Look, it’s white and blue.” (it actually was red and yellow as his biggest brother soon informed him)

Monkey (not at all deterred from his previous color bungling): “We need to follow the clown truck to the circus!”

Then when we reached the last turn toward church, it became apparent that the ambulance/clown truck was going straight where we were turning right and Monkey experienced a moment of panic that turned into a conversation just for the twins:

Monkey (gasping in shock): “Where’s the clown truck going?”

Bug: “To hims house.”

Because to Bug, it really is that simple, and to Monkey it really is that dramatic…sums up their personalities pretty well actually .

No amount of explanation that this was not in fact a ‘clown truck’ was going to change his mind.  I know there’s a lesson to be learned in all that, seeing through the eyes of a child and all, but for now, it’s simply a fun story…..

Well, the understatement of the century would be for me to say “this has been an interesting week” LOL!  Reality would probably place it in the chaotic and crazy realm.  

Saturday:  In the morning, I left pretty early to go grocery shopping and start getting ready for the Twinkies’ birthday party.  Not more than a quarter of the way through my shopping list, I got a call on my cell phone from my Hubby asking me when I thought I’d be home. 

Immediately I was a little concerned, because there was NOTHING on our schedule that day except getting things done at home, so I asked him what was going on and he told me that our oldest son (CJ) had sliced a few of his fingers and would need to go in. 

Can I just say ACK!  Seriously people, I get out for only a few minutes each week, usually to do the mundane chore of grocery shopping and then to be called with that … sigh!   So needless to say, even though my Hubby told me that he’d be fine for a few more minutes, I raced through that store like a crazy woman trying to complete my list … I forgot some of the most important things on my list, but I needed to get home. 

The walk-in clinic actually only ended up giving him “glue” stitches marking one of the first times we actually wished we had taken a child to the ER for an injury.  No, I absolutely do NOT like the pain involved in getting stitches, but if you have experienced glue on children, especially on children’s hands or anywhere on their head or face, then you understand my frustration with this chosen method. 

Well, that pretty much used up Saturday and left us with Sunday to get the house ready for our guests (did I not mention that the party was being held here)?  

Saturday Evening: As Tater and Lion are in brushing their teeth before bed, Monkey runs in there lickety split, throws something in the toilet, flushes it and runs back out … all in a flash of speed that no one could follow.  This resulted in disasterous toilet backup that is still as yet unresolved (sadly enough).  When you have only one toilet for 8 people … well, we just aren’t going to go there right now.

Sunday:  Thankfully we were able to get everything ready for the party in time!  Cake made, house clean, etc.  Which is quite a feat around here, especially in light of the extra guests and clogged toilet situation.  CJ was dealing with his fingers most of the day, since the glue had already split the night before it requires that he change the bandaids almost constantly.  

So Far this week:  Well, I woke up in the middle of the night heading toward Monday morning sick, sick, sick!  Yup, the creeping crud.  It wasn’t pretty.  Thankfully my hubby stuck around a little longer than usual to help me get the kiddos off to school.  I survived though and I’m feeling much better today!  

As I got dinner going tonight, I suddenly heard a crash and ran over to the door to the living room to see that our 5 year old had landed on the floor.  It took a minute to evaluate that he wasn’t completely broken, but he’d been climbing on the back of the couch and had fallen off resulting in a pretty nasty gash in his inner cheeck from some teeth going through.  He is doing a lot better now after some compresses and time, but he’s swollen and sore poor baby!  

Needless to say, I’m looking forward to an injury and illness free rest of the week … AMEN?!

On the computer front, my neighbor has taken over the care and restoration of the poor thing and hopes to have it up and running within a week.  In the meantime I hope you’ll bear with me as I hop along on my hubby’s computer when it is available to me.

Oh, and I’m also over at Faith Lifts today .

Once again, I have a failing computer.  Yes, it is a little crazy!  This computer lasted one whole year – yay.  LOL.  Since it was a tad on the “glitchy” side within a few months of purchase, I can only assume that it is a lemon and can only hope that I will have better luck next time.

Problem is that I’m not sure when next time will be.  So, for the time being I am typing away in the few spare moments I can on my husband’s computer in the evenings to get some work done and posts up.  

I’m hoping I will be able to keep it all “normal” around here, but wanted to let you all know what is going on just in case .

Wow, with Baby Fest amidst all the usual craziness around here, it almost felt like my blog belonged to someone else. Not in a bad way, but as I’m sure you all noticed, it definitely WASN’T business as usual!

I thought I’d kick off being back to our regularly scheduled programming by updating all of you on an overview of what we did in January 2009 .  As usual, it will be pretty random and rambly.

Bugs (age 2 in January-age 3 now) had an infected ingrown tonail.  This may not sound like much, but we have never dealt with anything like it before with any of the boys so it was actually a first!  The biggest problem was that although he and Monkey run around barefoot all day/every day, I didn’t notice this thing until it looked awful.

Let’s just put it this way … I took one look at it and made a call to their pediatrician since at the time I had no idea what it was!  I simply explained that I had no idea what to do with it so I had made an executive decision that it was now HER problem .  It’s ok, she’s fine with that and thankfully, I don’t make many visits her way (which amazes her every time).

While we were there I mentioned a little problem he was having with his finger that had been burned a couple years ago and it was decided that back to the hand specialist we will go *sigh*.  Thankfully though I have been continuing to watch for the one concern that they had mentioned might come up (though they thought if it was going to happen it would happen sooner) so I knew what I was seeing.  It has to do with the skin that is scarred not being able to stretch with his growth spurts – so we’re hoping and praying for a simple solution!

Sir Lion (age 5) has been struggling with his behavior a bit.  Nothing entirely new, but he had been doing so well, we had almost forgotten the absolute strength of his type A personality and heardheadedness.  Right now his coping (or rather “getting out of” ) technique is fall-into-a-puddle-on-the-floor-and-make-eyes-produce-crocodile-tears-while-wailing.  It is a very pathetic and forlorn way to deal with anything that comes your way though, so we’re trying to help him understand that there are much better ways to handle your problems (or assumed problems as the case may be).

CJ (age 13) had his learning evaluation done by a specialist early in January.  We paid for it out of pocket and the results were informative and eye opening.  The gentleman who did the evaluation was very professional and did an amazing job with our teenage son!  While he was being evaluated I sat in the adjoining waiting room and since the door was open the whole time I heard everything.

The evaluation took 3 hours plus the time he spent with us afterward explaining everything.  So, now we are waiting to meet with the school to decide what we are going to do to get him on the right track … or even if they are able to do so (in which case we will continue with our own plan).  They still don’t seem to quite understand that what they decide has no bearing on what we end up deciding to do with our son.

If their plan doesn’t sound right or educate our son, then we have manyother options.  The funny thing is that they just don’t seem to get it … ultimately, it is my husband and I who are responsible for this child, and we will do whatever is necessary to ensure that his education is not failing.

Tater and Salesman are busy in basketball!  Get this … their daddy got roped into coaching.  Shocking, I know!  Thankfully, the season will be over the end of this month and we will be mainly sports free until July when football begins.  I have a sneaking suspicion that none of our boys will be playing basketball next year.  In the meantime though, hubby is doing his level best to coach these children (you should know that he didn’t play much basketball growing up, making this all the more ironic) and help them have fun playing the game.  It’s been a rocky season between weather related cancellations and confusion as well as serious schedule delays and changes.  Definitely making it a challenge on our end.

Well, that’s all the kiddos.  We are still praying for a resolution on the house stuff and what we are going to do.  Frankly I think we prefer to move at this point so it’s all about having someone come along and simply decide they want to buy this.  With the market being what it is, agent fees don’t work, so it would have to be God!

I hope you all had a wonderful January!  Do you post family updates on your blog?  Feel free to leave a comment with a link to your family’s latest update .

That’s right!  I have been longing and hoping and wishing for a digital SLR camera.  You won’t hear of me making “large” purchases often (that’s what I consider this) because they just don’t happen.  Every once in a while though, if I feel like something has value and reason, I’ll consider it.

This is one of those times.  I talk often of many things here and memories is one of them.  I have become quite frustrated with all the fuzzy pictures I’ve been getting lately and have finally come to the conclusion that getting a better camera is the only way to go.

Facing the fact that my 2 year olds will not even begin to consider having professional photos done requires me to look at my camera in a little different light.  I have an “eye” for photography (if there is such a thing) a great book filled with tips and suggestions (from National Geographic photographers even) and a knack for creating fun photo opportunities with my boys (trust me it isn’t an easy task).

I think I’m almost completely 100% sold on a Canon Rebel (XS or XSi) and they are some of the most affordable DSLR (digital SLR) cameras available.  But I wanted to give you an opportunity to give me a shout out about your favorite DSLR if you have one.

Sell me on it!  I’ll tell you this up front, even though I understand that DSLR cameras are more expensive, my wallet is not overflowing (try the opposite in fact) and it will take me several months yet to save up enough to purchase the camera I decide on.

I want to decide now though so that I can be on the lookout for the best deal on the camera I want (for instance the Canon XSi is a step up from the XS but costs about $100 more right now – a twitter friend told me to be on the lookout this spring/summer for the price to drop almost equal!).

Ok, I’ll be quiet now …. you tell me the camera YOU love and why!!!  Have any great photos on your blog that you took using that camera?  Well, leave the link I’d LOVE to see them!!!

Blessings!

Our boys have been very healthy all fall and so far this winter.  In fact, I’m pretty sure there’s been less than a handful of illnesses around here in the past year.  Something that I have definitely been feeling VERY thankful for!

The fact that I actually haven’t pulled out our family’s nebulizer in almost a year is a MAJOR deal in this household.  Ever since our second son was born the nebulizer would live in an “active” state for several months of the year.  Several times a day it would come out for whichever child needed it at that moment, often more than one at a time.

Our Monkey is feeling pretty Punky right now though.  He has a really nasty, deep cough and a bit of a runny nose.  Sure, we’ve seen these often enough, and thankfully they have become fewer and less worrisome as the children get older.  This is the first illness in quite some time, so I have to re-enter nurse mom mode.  It’s amazing how quickly you can “forget” something that used to be routine!

It’s one of those colds that when he starts coughing it happens in “fits”, so it can really wear him out and make sleeping difficult.   It will either get better or worse over the weekend and I’m glad it happened right at the end of the holidays.  If it gets worse, we’ll make a trip to their wonderful pediatrician on Monday as all the bigger boys go back to school.

The Sinupret is coming in VERY handy!  I definitely recommend that you take advantage of these last few days to sign up to win that wonderful package!  It was more than a pleasant surprise to remember that I already had a brand new bottle of it sitting in the cupboard waiting for me to use.

On a side note, CJ’s evaluation had to be rescheduled and will happen next Wednesday, so we’re definitely praying for major information overload (the one time you really want it) on that day that will put him on the road to a better education.

Be on the lookout for some great new posts and information next week and have a Blessed weekend!!!

Oh, I also want to take a moment and thank all of you for faithfully praying for Baby Stellan!  It is amazing to see what can happen when a community of believers comes together to fight for a family they don’t even know!

I’m happy to update all of you to let you know that Stellan has just been released from the hospital and is heading home with his Mommy as I type this!