Welcome to Miltyville

The time has come to officially introduce my little family. In keeping with the fun bloggy tradition, We will all use our official nicknames. Now, when I say official, I mean it. When I married my husband, Milty, I didn't realize the legacy I was marrying into.

You see, Milty is not our family name.

Surprised?

Most people are.

The nickname began with hubby's dad, who was "Uncle Milty" to all his college buds. Having a last name that sounds sort of close and sort of looking like Milton Burl, he really had no choice in the matter. But he wore it well and with honor and proudly handed the name down to his sons and daughter.

The next generation dropped the Uncle and went as simply "Milty". A very cool handle that both boys pulled off well, even when in the same room. Their beautiful sister was, you guessed it, MsMilty, and she still is!(beautiful and MsMilty that is)

But what happens when Milty marries and has children? Well, Milty becomes BigMilty and his wife becomes MamaMilty.

Now, some of you already know me as MamaMilty and in the interest of simplicity, I will be using my ultra cool nickname by marriage from here on out. So when you get a comment from MamaMilty, don't be confused, you know me, Hi, Its Me Jen!

And what about the kids, you ask?



Well, our oldest, the blonde on the left, has been LilMilty all his life and he likes it, he will carry on the family moniker with aplomb.

But what to call his younger brother and sister?

That is the question!

It doesn't seem right to name our middle guy who is so full of personality and actually taller than his big bro Lil'rMilty, now does it? MiddleMilty just isn't good on so many levels....


What should we name this little guy???


And last, but certainly not least, our little princess.....could she be anyone else besides PrincessMilty?

Running a close second would be DiapeeHeadMilty, but for longevity, we thought we ought to go with the other one, what do y'all think?

So that is our story.

Welcome to Miltyville, our little corner of the world where we know that with God, All Things are Possible.

Happy St. Patricks Day!

What does this holiday really signify?



With so much talk of leprechauns and pots o' gold going on at school, I thought we better bring things back to what's truly meaningful about this holiday.


Inspired by fishmama's beautiful post, I hurriedly put my plan together in the few minutes before we picked up our oldest from kindergarten.

With their bellies full of yummy shamrock shakes, we sat down to make 3 leaf clovers, just like the ones Patrick used to tell people about the Holy Trinity. Since we had three shamrock to make, we also looked up names of Jesus and put 3 names along with the scripture on the other two.



As I wrote it out, the kids told me the three persons of God, how cool is that? Thank-you, Jesus for giving my beloved children ears to hear. Then we talked about all the different names of Jesus. As I wrote a name on the shamrock, my oldest looked up the scripture and read it to us. I love how he refers to the gospel of John as "Plain John" and first John as "One John".




Then we strung our beautiful creations on a string of shamrock beads and adorned our chandelier. What a lovely reminder of Patrick's wish, to point one and all to Jesus Christ.

May the Lord richly bless you and yours on this St. Patrick's Day.

Fruitville Grove

The kids and I went to Fruitville Grove yesterday. It's an Amish produce stand with yummy ice creams, jams & jellies, breads & cheeses too.  

Big fun.

Being a 'burbs kid, myself, I really want to show my children that foods do not magically appear at the supermarket.  One of my goals for 2009 is to have a (mostly) organic, scratch kitchen.  This is no small undertaking, but we are making the journey as a family.  

The kids have gotten much more exciting about healthy, wholesome foods since they have gotten to go to the produce stand and pick out what looks good to them.  Next stop, a real farm where the foods are living and growing, can't wait!