Flip it open…

He’s even concerned for my safety while using this largely untested prototype:

I’ve been doing all my blogging on it lately…

Look at the paragraph that starts with Whitsun. Then they wrote about ME and how we name our children!!! Whoever, you are, Jodi, thanks for submitting us!

I’m always honored to be mentioned in the same blog posts as Beyonce! Makes me want to dig out some gold glitter stilettos and (attempt) to shake my jelly!

(by the way…I do not think you’re ready.)

In case any of you are late to the baby-naming party, Beyonce & her man Jay-Z had a baby and named her Blue Ivy. Kinda cute, I think! She didn’t consult me on it, but that was probably because she didn’t know I was available.

Here are my posts about baby-naming, for any of you curious out there!

• Our Child-Naming Philosophy

• Why Morrow John?

• About Our Twins’ Names

And, Beyonce, whenever Baby #2 is on the way, get in touch and I’ll consult (if I’m still available).

I had walked out of the room for a minute and then found all three of them up on the bed when I came back. I have no idea how they did that! And then they were all rockin’ out and dancing together. It was awesome.

This is why I rarely have bloggable thoughts. Imagine this kind of energy, all day, every day–awesome and exhausting.

[image via]

Anyone want to win a copy of the new Sara Groves album Invisible Empires?

Yeah, I thought you might.

I have 10 copies to give away this week!

Here’s how you can win:

Simply “Like” the page for this site on Facebook.

You can visit the page or just click “Like” below!

See how easy that was?

On Friday I’ll pick 10 winners from the people who’ve “liked” and send you a message with your download code!

If you had already “liked” my blog page on Facebook, but don’t want the album download, just give the code to someone who does! Merry Christmas!

I’m very excited about this particular giveaway. I first heard Sara Groves at a concert I went to back in 2008, right in the early days of fighting through depression and PTSD after losing Felicity, our daughter.

As I moved through that very painful stuff, God ended up bringing particular songs into my life that hit me right where I was, right with what I was dealing with. I ended up compiling quite a playlist of these songs and they were a lifeline for me. Not surprisingly, for those of you who know her music, Sara Groves made it onto that list a number of times. I love that she doesn’t bypass really hard things in her lyrics. She even takes on bioethics on this album. Not many people singin’ about that, I imagine.

You can hear for yourself what was on her mind in crafting this new album:

PS-She gives props to Laura Ingalls Wilder in the interview. Remember how we love her???

My favorite songs on the album are “Miracle,” “Open My Hands,” and “Finite.” Any of you want to share your faves?

Thanks so much for reading and supporting this blog. Hope you win!

Anyway, he wrote a really funny post about how he’s been trying to manage the incessant potty humor going on between our two oldest boys.

BONUS: There’s a short video, too!

Happy Friday, everyone. Next week I’ll have a fun giveaway, so be sure to check back!

WORLD LEADERS! BE ADVISED!…you need some help out of a jam you’re in? Just ask a bunch of women.

(We would at least have lots to say about how they should deal with their dry hands anyway… And who doesn’t need help with that? Come ON!)

It just struck me funny that response came out of the woodwork! And the more I reflected on it, it reminded me of a couple things about people:

• They generally like to be helpful.
• They love to tell their experiences.

Isn’t that what communities do? They help each other and share their stories. Most times, they help each other by sharing their stories.

But seriously… I’m thankful for this little (maybe not so little?) community here. You all wanted to help me with my dry hands. It’s sweet. It really is. Thank you.

I hope you got as much help as I did from those answers. May we all have healthy hands this winter!

Who knows what we’ll help each other with next?

I still use Google Reader for subscribing to blogs, but just recently discovered something nifty about it!

I was scrolling through my “All Items” view, and Abraham pipes up, “Hey, did you know if you hit “J” it’ll take you down to the next post?”

I tried it, and wow are my scrolling fingers ever-so-glad I did!

Of course you’ll still scroll through a post you actually want to read but if you see the title and it doesn’t interest you???

Just “J” it on your keyboard and you’re onto the next!

[flickr photo via photosteve101]

And I’ll throw in one bonus tip for you, just because I like you:

If you accidentally pass one up and go, “Doh! I actually wanted to see that one!”, no worries! Just “K” it on the keyboard and you’ll go back to the previous entry in your feed!

Cool, huh?

Do you have any Google hacks I/we should know about? Do tell!

Marla was in town for a speaking engagement and found a few minutes to stop over at my house and chat! It was a blast. I’m sooo glad it worked out for her to come!

We sat in the gorgeous fall afternoon and talked blogging, speaking, life, schooling… like old/new friends.

Then all too soon, it was time to go. Which of course means “Get a picture! We have to take a picture!”

Then we started talking about how funny it is to meet people in real life from the internet and how they always surprise you in some way or another–height, voice, accent, hair (aHEM… Shaun Groves). It was at this exact moment that I turned to her and said,

“Yeah, I knew you’d be tall. How big are you?”

Then *SNAP!* goes the camera.

Thankfully we had a good laugh about it. Marla has a sense of humor (thank GOD!) and didn’t get offended by my blunder. I guess I’m so used to talking to toddlers that I forgot I was talking to an adult!

The internet has made the world so small in some ways. Personally, I’ve had good experiences meeting people from the internet, which was such a scary no-no thing 10 years ago.

I’ll never forget hearing about what BooMama said right before the Compassion Bloggers reunion last December.

(And you have to conjure up your best deep-South accent)

Well, y’all…time to go meet up with a bunch of people we met on the internet…”

Have you met up with online friends in real life (IRL, if you will)? Does it still weird you out?

I’ve been telling my friend Jill that I want to link to her blog for ages now! I’m just waaaay behind on all my blogging goals, so here it is at long last.

If you like children’s literature (or your kids do), you should check out Orange Marmalade.

(Jill is the third from the left. Aren’t they a great-looking crew, by the way?)

Why you should check out Orange Marmalade:

• Jill’s really smart about lots of things, including children’s literature.
• Jill has had a faithful career as a home school mom to those four kids, and they did lots of reading together.
• She showcases a wide variety of books for kids, most of which I would’ve never heard of without her!
• She offers suggestions for poetry, nonfiction, holidays, etc.
• She writes thoughtful posts about plot and why she likes the book.
• She usually includes what age she’d recommend the book for.

So hop on over and check out her literature selections for kids. I think you’ll be really happy you did.

My lifesaver babysitter has been up to her old tricks again! Yesterday she got these pictures of our 10-month-old twins!

A little about Whit:

• He’s our needy baby. Which wouldn’t be a big deal if he were a singleton, but attention’s kind of at a premium with twins (and two other small kids). His neediest time is from supper time until bedtime, so I think if I just keep him on my hip in the Ergo then he’ll be fine. That’s my theory for now.
• Although he’s needy, he’s also very amiable when he’s happy. I think it’s just that he’s social and loves to be with people. When he’s happy and has people to entertain him, he’s probably my giggliest baby. Go figure.
• Whit is standing and cruising along furniture.
• He’s a super-fast crawler.
• He prefers pureed foods. Anything solid he’s not as big a fan, even if it’s something delicious. Silly kid.
• If you say “ET phone home” and stick out your finger, he’ll stick out his (see the bottom right picture).
• Seems to understand some simple words (play, no, jump, yay, his name, Cadence’s name, brothers’ names).
• Says “ma-ma-ma” a lot. I’m not sure if it’s 100% meaningful, but I’ll take it!

A little bit about Cadence:

• Such a happy girl! Very content to play with toys in the crib, in the play gate area (more about that later).
• She started crawling a couple weeks ago and is getting faster & faster by the day. She pulls up onto her knees but doesn’t really attempt standing (yet).
• Loves every food she’s ever been given. If I don’t spread the Cheerios out on her tray she’ll have a huge handful before I know it!
• Responds to “Pat-a-Cake” with big smiles and claps.
• When you sing a song, she starts singing “Aaaaahhhh” really softly. It’s soooo cute!
• Sometimes she’ll wave and say a word that sounds pretty darn close to “Hi!”
• Also seems to understand simple words (same as Whitsun).
• Mostly says “da-da-da.” Again, not sure about the meaning of it, but Dad’s happy to claim it as his own!

I’m really hoping to get back to sharing some more Twin Survival Tips soon, just to let you in on what life is like now that they’re a little older. I’m so busy actually surviving that I find little time to blog about the survival.

Also I’ve been having trouble with my blog feed. I’m working on getting it fixed. Some people are having trouble viewing my more recent posts and receiving my blog updates through Google Reader. I’ve found that Safari is not working right (not sure why yet). But at least for me, Firefox is working and you can see my more recent posts. I’m trying to get it all resolved so we can be a blog family again!