Wonderful

I have to say something about my mothers. Mothers are amazing, and I hope that I can be as amazing a mother as they have been. My mom is always there for me, ready to talk, encourage, give solutions, provide meals, babysit, be my transportation and much much more. I treasure the times we have together, and am amazed at all the talents she has and how they have blessed me! Sometimes I am at lost for words to express my thanks for her.

My mother-in-law, is practically perfect in every way. She is so laid pack that I think she could be friends with anyone. She babysits for me every Wednesday so I can go teach and almost every time I come back, my trash is emptied, Israel's room is picked up, sometimes my pots and pans are spotless, my clothes have been washed and folded, and my bottles washed! Oh and Joel says the coffee pot is always cleaned out! Sometimes I try to clean up before she gets here just so she won't feel obligated to do anything, but I always arrive home with some little surprise.

Of course that is not ALL they do for us, but it is what I see a lot and I am thankful! I hope they know I am thankful, and indebted to them for all that they do. My only hope is that I will be able to be this wonderful to my children, and to everyone around me!

Go hug your mother (or call them and say you love them)

Perfect timing!

When we were expecting Israel, I was getting his room ready trying to find the most perfect stuff for his room including a rug. We have hardwood floors, so this was really important to me. I found one...an expensive one, but thanks to many generous people we had enough gift cards to cover it. I wondered if it would be okay for a little baby since the way it was made would make it easy for them to pull apart and put in mouth! But I got it anyway. Well yesterday Izzy found out that he could pull the pieces out and put them in his mouth. I decided that it was time to get a different rug. Yes I could say "no" and spank his little hand, and take it out of his mouth, but what if I were not in there, and he decided to disobey (not uncommon considering his age) I would not want him to choke. So...I was in Target today looking for a booster seat because I am tired of my big highchair. I was walking by the rugs and noticed a blue one that would be perfect and it was only 20 dollars! I got it, it is great, and I was just reflecting on how perfect the timing was for each rug and how God allowed us to find this one on sale, same size and everything, now, when we don't have gift cards. God is good...All the time.

Decisions

Some decisions are easy to make, but some are really hard. I have come to find out that most of the decisions I make as a mom are hard ones because everything is so important. What time should I put him down for a nap might seem like a silly decision, but depending on which nap it is could determine how the rest of you day goes. What kind of food should I let enter my child's body is an EXTREMELY hard question because some foods that you would like your child to eat, he won't, so you end up settling for the not so ideal sometimes, at least right now until he is older and I can demand more of him.

Now we have entered the phase of more decisions since he is crawling and standing up and overall doing a lot more. We, Joel and I, have decided to do what is called Blanket time. Some of you might have done a version of this with a play pen where they spend a concentrated time alone in a confined area occupying themselves. Blanket time is like this except you have to train them to use self control and not leave the blanket. There are not sides keeping them in. I favor this method for a couple reason. 1. It makes them or should I say gives them the opportunity to obey at all times while they are on the blanket. 2. It is mobil! You can lay down any blanket, and boom you have your boundaries! I have seen this play out before my eyes very successfully and knew that this is what I wanted to impliment in my home. So we started this yesterday. The first time lasted probably less than a minute, before I had to bring him back to the blanket with a firm "no" and a swat on the hand 3 times! So that ended the first session. The second session lasted longer. This is going to be hard, because of course I do NOT like causing my child to cry, but if it is for his benefit, which it is, then it is all worth it.

The next decision I have had to make is what to do about nap and bed time. Nap time is worse. Since he has figured out how to stand up, this is is favorite thing to do especially at nap time. I don't know what it is, but somehow he can be falling asleep while playing, and then the minute I put him in bed...play time!!! I have spent 30 long min. going in and laying him back down just to have him pop right back up again. I have had people tell me to just leave them alone and eventually they will get tired and fall asleep. I didn't feel comfortable with this because I felt like it was giving to much freedom to such a little guy. He doesn't know what is best for him yet. That is why God gave him me! So me leaving him to decide when he will go to sleep wasn't appealing to me. So after much thought, and prayer that the Lord would soften Israel heart to instruction even at this small age, I have decided that deciplinary actions must occur. A wonderful mom whom I highly respect affirmed my decision. So today after laying him down, I went back in there to find him standing up and laughing at me, but in a way that sounded like he knew he wasn't supposed to be standing. After a firm no, I laid him down and he went to sleep. This time was easy and I know they won't all be that way, but I can still be encouraged.

This or That?

I am now apart of the group with crawling toddlers! And I love it! It is so nice that Israel can get to where he wants to go...although sometimes I have to say "no" or put him somewhere else. Today before I got in the shower I hid the heater that we have in his bedroom, put the trash can on his dresser and closed the closet doors. This is new for me, but so far we are enjoying it marvel at how he moves. But my question is, and maybe some of you moms can help me out, is what do I let him play with and what is off limits? I know it is going to be somewhat different for me than for you since we have different stuff in our homes, and of course there are the no brainers: The toilet is off limits along with the outlet plugs, heaters, trash cans, drawers that smash his fingers etc. Today he was opening and closing my drawer and the tips of his fingers got caught. He wasn't pushing very hard but it still hurt him....maybe he won't do that again! So if you have been doing this longer than me and have found that some things around the house are okay, let me know!

We will be starting blanket time soon, so I will let you know how that goes.

Me time

Amazing enough I got some me time tonight. Joel went to spend some time with a friend, so what did I do? I got Chinese take-out, put the baby to bed, took a shower and then gave myself a pedicure and manicure! It is 10:00 and I just finished! It was lovely. Now I am watching HGTV and wating for my honey to come home.

Happy places

I have a couple places that when I am there make me very happy. Utica Square is one of them because it has so many special family memories and fun times. We have spent summers there listening to music and winters drinking coffee and looking at the lights. Starbucks is another one of my happy places. The smell is one of my favorites. I have thought it would be fun to work there, but then I think it might ruin it for me and I don't want to take that chance. I love going there with Joel or as a family or with friends, to relax and drink my coffee. My new favorite there is a tall decaf mocha coffee with a morning bun. Delicious! All my worries disappear for an hour or so when I am at these places. At Utica I feel like I am driving into a separate world where everything is classy, beautiful, comforting, and sophisticated. It is enchanted in that even when you are having a bad day, or something you don't want to remember happens there, you don't associate it with that bad thing. It can only be remembered as something good, and as bringing joy. For that I am thankful.

Of course the other happy place is my home (especially when it is clean), but right now it is not my happy place because I have no groceries and it is dirty. The floor has enough dirt on it to...be disgusting! But I am not motivated to clean right now because it is March 20th and it is snowing outside - big, giant snowflakes. It is beautiful but it still makes me want to cry because I am SO ready for spring. I really want it to be sunny and nice so I can open my windows, and finish my spring cleaning. But despite the weather I better leave you to think of your happy places, (and hopefully one of them is your home, because that is where you are on this snowing spring day) and get started on my to-do list.

Spring cleaning

I decided to start some spring cleaning. But I didn't know where to start, so I printed off a check list from the internet to help me know what extra stuff to do. Yesterday I started in the kitchen. Started is the key word. But before I finish in the kitchen I have to share with you my favorite cleaning product EVER! It is called Bar Keepers Friend. And boy is it my friend. This powder will get anything up from rust on your tile, to the little black spotts that somehow get on your fridge from your magnets to the gunky stuff on your stove to the pan scratches in your sink with little to no scrubbing. It is amazying. I call it my miracle powder. Try it, it will make your life so much easier!

Oh and Izzy is doing new things everyday. Yesterday he pulled up to his feet holding onto the couch, and in his crib. Today is side steped down the couch trying to get stuff he wanted. He is amazing. His crawl is so funny kinda a mix betweek walking and crawling if that makes sense. maybe it is the hardwood floors that he feels like he has to do something to get traction. Oh boy, he keeps me laughing!

Thanks mom

This weekend we went out of town to Little Rock Arkansas for a wedding shower for a cousin. All of us girls minus Molly went and of course our babies. So Izzy and I packed up our whole house (or at least it felt like it) and loaded up in the car and drove 4 hours to Bama's house.  Bama's house means warmth, yummy smells, delicious coffee and lots of food! She always has mixed nuts out to tempt you and to cause you to give into temptation. Creaky doors always announce another beloved family member as they come in and we squeal, hug and begin to catch up. Upstairs is full of beds to accomodate all of us, and we usually fight over who gets the single bed all by themselves. Now, portacribs (2 this time) share the room and we stress out over whether or not the babies will sleep well together or if they will cry and wake everyone up. This time we had not just our family but some of our extended family staying at Bama's. That made things interresting and a little awkward since one of them was my Aunts boyfriend staying in the room across from ours. Things got a little worse when he spent the whole night throwing up. Needless to say, I didn't sleep at all that night between that and my baby waking up because of the noise, the heat, and no fan to subdue the inbetween silence. I was supposed to stay till Tuesday with my mom while all my other sisters were going home the very next day. I almost threw in the towel and decided to call it quits and go home as well. but I didn't. I had to prove to myself that I could do this, I didn't have Joel there to help me and that always makes it hard. But once my mom got there Sunday all was good again. She was so helpful. She noticed when things were getting hard, asked if I needed help, took him so I could have a break. Played, talked and laughed with him along with the rest of us. WONDERFUL! The next night was a lot better since I moved down to the office where it was cooler, quieter and gave us more privacy. We slept great! Eating was always an adventure since everything around him was new and he didn't really want to concentrate on his food, that he really didn't like all that much anyway. But he acted like a champ when we ate at the country club that I grew up going to. Everyone was impressed as he played on the floor. Although they did ask me over and over again if he was okay and wasn't going to get trampled. He ate mac and cheese, some veggies and some blueberry puffs! My favorite part though was when he fell asleep in my arms, exhausted from the days activities. He took wonderful naps and I really didn't have to compromise naps with our schedule, it all worked out beautifully. A rough start ended well. We are home now, and we all slept in. We didn't know it because the clock in our bedroom hadn't been set forward yet, but it is all good, and now I have the rest of the week to do some spring cleaning and enjoy some time off. Thanks mom for helping so much and for making it a good time.

New Adventure

Izzy started to crawl today. He is not too good at it yet, but he keeps trying. I was really excited because he and I are leaving for Little Rock Saturday till Tuesday, and I would have been really sad if he had started crawling then when Joel wasn't with us. Joel would have missed that. But we got to see the first crawling episode together and we got it on video. I don't know how to put videos on here so you will have to use your imagination, but he was adorable. He used a crawling/scooting/standing on toes and hands combination, and we loved it. He still slips when he is on the hardwood floor so sometimes I take his pants off. It has been nice that the weather has been warmer so I can do that. Anyway...adventures to come and I am excited!

Sore

About a month ago my family got on this Jilian Michael's kick and got one of her videos. It is KICK BUTT HARD! I had made it back down to my prebaby weight, but wanted to get to pre wedding weight so I decided to try it. I still can't do more than 2 rounds without collapsing. But I never really felt sore, which is an indication to me that I have worked. I felt worked, but...I don't know. I did feel my motabolism speed up (I thought I was pregnant because I was hungry more) and that was great because then I could still have my oreos!!! But just the other day I decided to do a different video because I like to switch things up, and found this one called...I can't remember, but it has 3 levels all at the same time (three different people doing a different a level of the same exercise) and it incorporated a LOT of the same things Jilian Michaels does, but at a faster pace. I felt like it worked my whole body better and....I am stinkin sore! But I feel a six pack coming on, so watch out world! Oh and I made it down to pre-wedding weight WooHoo!!!

I hate being in a hurry. I feel like I don't have things under control when I am in a hurry. But lately everytime we leave the house, I feel like we are in a hurry that spills over into driving, where I am always trying to find the fastest way to wherever I am going. But today was not like that. I took Joel to TU for a class that his job is sending him to and he had to be there by 8:30. The next place I had to be was Walmart, and then Bible study at 9:30. Thankfully I only needed 2 things at Walmart, and Walmart is 5 min. or less from church. Israel had fallen asleep so I purposely took the long way to Walmart from TU. It was lovely!!! I sat at red lights, and didn't rush, and was so relaxed. I love drives like that! Israel woke up right when we got to Walmart and so it was perfect!

moment worth recording

My dear husband, bless his heart, was getting breakfast this morning while I was feeding Izzy. He was making us both toast with carmel apple jam. All of a sudden I heard: "This doesn't look like the jam....it is BBQ sauce!" He had put BBQ sauce on his toast! Anyway...I thought it funny enough to share with you. Hope you got a laugh out of it!

Wedding bliss

My sister-in-law is getting married in August! So last Saturday we went dress shopping! I decided to make her a wedding planner book to help her get organized (we need all the help we can get)! I even passed onto her the special pick diamond pen that I used when I went dress shopping! I almost cried (sniff, sniff). We had a blast. It reminded me of the fun times I had during my planning time. What an exciting time! Congrats Juls!

My little Flamingo

Today my little goober fell asleep in the car on the way to drop daddy off at work. We left early just so I could get back in time BEFORE he did that. His nap wasn't supposed to be for another hour, and the little stinker still fell asleep. But he woke up shortly after and was fussy all the way home, so when we got home I laid him down again knowing that he needed some more sleep. But he has gotten into this thing where he will sit up in bed (now that he can get from a sitting position from his tummy) and play, or fuss. So I let him do that for awhile, and then went back in there and laid him down with his paci. I left and it was quiet. I thought that he had fallen asleep. Then I heard a little sound, peeked in the door and there he is falling asleep sitting up! I successfully laid him down and he continued his sweet sleep!

Tid Bits

It is 10:30 at night, Joel is snoring beside me, and I should be asleep also, but just HAD to write before I forgot what I wanted to write about. I just had some little things that I wanted to record that I am going through at this time in my life. Really important stuff (just kidding). So here goes.

1. I am LOVIN' me some oreos!!! I am on an oreo kick. I love a double stuffed oreo and a little glass of milk at night to end my day. It is the perfect blend of sweetness and creamy smoothness. I love it! I didn't always love oreos, and infact I used to just eat the white stuff, but since I got pregnant with Izzy, I haven't liked icecream that much, and we had some oreos laying around the house, it sounded good, and I have been hooked every since! But I just been introduced to the third love of my life (first being Joel and then Izzy). It is the oreo pizza from Mazzio's. Oh. My. Goodness. Heaven in my mouth!!! Thank you Chris for bringing that to dinner tonight!

2. For some reason I love falling asleep all cuddled up with Joel on the couch while we are watching a movie, or tv. There is something so comforting about it. Of course if it is a movie that we have never seen and it is exciting enough to keep this mama awake, then I stay awake, but otherwise I love the drowsy feeling I get and the warmth of the blanket and Joel's big arms around me, and the feeling that nothing in the world could go wrong and difting off into dream land. The Olympics were on the past two weeks and we would stay up till midnight, watching...let me rephrase that...Joel would watch, I would drift in and out. But I LOVED it! I looked forward to it each night.

3. Lately I have been food processing everything I can think of that Izzy might like to eat. Last night I blended up tuna with an egg...he wasn't too fond of that. But he ate it a little better when I put some quacamoli in it :), and I even blended up some salad! He didn't like it, so I ate it. It was still crunchy because it had croutons. But tonight was a hit. I had cooked a corn beef brisquet in the crockpot all day and made some mashed pot. and some green beans. So I threw a little bit of all of that in the food processor and it came out perfectly blended and the perfect texture. HE DEVOURED IT! Just like his dad. I am playing a guessing game here trying to figure out what he will eat and trying to have them be as healthy as possible. If anyone has some good suggestions on what to feed a 9 month old who refuses to eat baby food, but is still not too crazy about some textures, tell me!

He was Faithful!

The Lord worked on our behalf and the hotel was gracious and readily agreed to refund us our money. They said that there isn't a hotel in Chicago that hasn't had bedbugs, but we are willing to pay a little more for a hotel that is NOT of the list. I mean for goodness sakes, our apartment had bedbugs! So we are still going to bath our vacation in prayer and take the precautions we know to take and trust the Lord to protect us and our luggage!! Thanks for your prayers!!

Power of Prayer

We like to think that the power of prayer is ONLY positive, and that we will see great and might things come to pass the way we think they should. But it is not always like that. I have been doing this study about breaking free (I mentioned it in a previous post) and a big theme is belief. Belief in who God says he is. So I have been prayin for the Lord to help my unbelief and to not be anxious for anything because as pastor Jim put it, "anxiety is a symptom of what we believe about God in our hearts." I guess I didn't really know what to expect when I prayed for the Lord to strengthen my unbelief, but I wasn't expecting this. Joel and I have been able to plan a trip to Chicago this summer because of an awesome health plan his job did. We called it "walking to Chicago" because the more he walked the more he won, so that in the end he won us 2 round trip plane tickets and money for hotel. So we have been looking for a good hotel on priceline because other people of had success. We spent hours looking and getting nothing from priceline as far as naming our own price. So we just started looking at the normal prices that hotels were and if we found one we kind of liked we would make sure that it wasn't on the bedbug registry. Yes there is a bedbug registry and I would highly recommend anyone traveling to make sure your hotel is NOT on this list. We have had bedbugs before in our appartment that we lived in when we were first married and it was a nightmare!  The only way I knew to check hotels in Chicago is because I heard that cities over and near there were having troubles with bedbugs, and that if you were traveling to double check. So we did. There were about 15 hotels in the Chicago area that were on the bedbug registry. Last night we were watching the closing ceremonies of the olympics, I was dosing, and Joel was hotel shopping. He woke me up at about 10:30 to show me this hotel that he found and the price we could get it at. It looked nice and I told him that and noticed that the price was lower than other ones we had looked at. Then he suprised me by saying, "but I got if for ____!" I squealed with delight and hugged him and high-fived him and we were so happy. Then I said, "is it on the bedbug list?" So we looked sure that it wasn't, and down at the very bottom, the last hotel to be named, was ours. Our hearts sank, and our minds started wirling, and I started sweating I think remembering back to the horrible summer we had fighing those aweful creatures. There was no way we were going to risk a stay at this hotel. But it doesn't stop there. It wasn't a case were we could call up and cancel our registration. We had done the "name your price" thing on priceline which means if it goes through and a hotel accepts your offer, it is final. Joel jumped on the phone with customer service and in his authoritative voice ask/demanded that something be done about this. We are still in the process of getting this turned around but it has been a trusting issue for us. Last night I was in constant prayer that the Lord would work on our behalf and that He would help Joel to be strong and confident in His name, and in His power to be able to let this all work out. I was reminded of the verses in Luke where the man said "If you are willing you can heal..." and the Lord replied "If you believe..." What pastor Jim said about anxiety is in the forefront of my mind, and I am trying to replace worry with the excitement to see how the Lord is going to work in our behalf, or if He so chooses to not let this work out, trust that He is bigger than this and that He will show us what to do. I know that this is a minor thing compaired to alot of people's problems, but if you have ever dealt with bedbugs, it wouldn't seem so minor afterall. So could you pray with me that the hotel will have mercy and refund us our money, and that we would be able to choose another one? Thank you!