It's Birthday Time Again!!

I cannot believe that another birthday has rolled around for JD! Has it seriously been 2 years since we welcomed him into our family?! How does the time go by so quickly?! 

These have been the 2 best, most challenging, and most rewarding years of my life!! Being a parent is tough, but I wouldn't trade one second of it for anything!! I am more than grateful that God chose us to be JD's parents. I don't know why in the world He blessed us with such a great kid. We most definitely didn't and don't deserve it! 

I spent a little extra time praying over him when I put him to bed last night. I can't wait to see how the Lord is going to use his life! I am thankful that I can rest in the promises that God has "plans to prosper [him] and not to harm [him], plans to give [him] hope and a future," and that "he who began a good work in [JD] will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus." (Jeremiah 29:11 and Philippians 1:6) 

JD at birth, 1, and 2. Looking forward to lots and lots more!!

To Nap or Not To Nap

Naps are funny things. 

Some times they make you feel better and some times they make you feel worse. 

When you can nap, you usually don't, but when you can't is when you want to the most. 

Small kids fight them. Grown adults wish they could take them. 

Naps - short periods of sleep, typically taken during daylight hours as an adjunct to the usual nocturnal sleep period

I don't normally nap. Some days I wish I could, but now that JD is down to only taking one nap, I have to use that time for things like showering and doing laundry. 

Sunday use to be my ultimate nap day. I mean, come on, Sunday was set apart as the day of rest. It was almost as if a magnetic was drawing me to my bed every Sunday afternoon. Now that I'm not on a rigid weekly routine, I don't feel as if I have to nap on Sunday to make it through the week. 

The last two Sundays, I have been able to take a nap when JD did. Yesterday's nap stemmed from a massive sinus headache that I was fighting. You'd think I would have learned from the previous week's nap, but I did not. I gave in and crashed on the couch for about an hour and a half. Big mistake! 

I could not get to sleep last night. It was after midnight before I even gave up and tried to get to sleep. When I finally did fall asleep, I woke up 3 times during the night and had a hard time getting back to sleep each time. 

Ugh! Why have naps turned on me?! Is it punishment for all the times that I could have or should have napped and didn't?! Although I don't miss the feeling of having to nap, I miss the ability to do so and still function normally! 

I'm telling you...naps are funny things. 

One Whole Year

Last year on April 26, I had the privilege of standing beside one of my dearest friends as she got married. 

Truthfully, I feel like I wasn't the Matron of Honor that she deserved to have, but I was honored when she chose me for that position. Compared to them, we are definitely an old married couple. 

David and I have said so many times in the last year that John Lewis and Savannah remind us so much of ourselves in our first year of marriage. It has been fun to watch them learn and grow in this last year. They have figured out what is really important to them as a couple and have learned to adjust to and work through shift work and "on call" schedules, which can be very challenging...trust me. I love that they try to get away and do as much fun stuff as they possibly can. Although we aren't at a place where we can go and do it all with them, I encourage them to go and have as much fun as they can. After all, you only have one first year of marriage!! 

Right before we got married, I heard over and over that your first year of marriage is terrible. I got so sick of hearing it! I was determined to make our year a good one. Looking back now, 10 years later, I can honestly say it was tough at times but it was in no way terrible. As a matter of fact, I remember David and I getting to our first anniversary and saying, "That was it?! What was so terrible about that?!" Life is always tough at times, married or not. It's learning how to roll through the tough times that makes life doable. The tough times are what mold us and make us grow. Sure I would wish for a life of ease without problems, but in a sin-cursed world, that's just not going to happen. We have had to learn to walk through the hard times together, leaning on each other and on God. That's the only way that David and I have made it through the past 10 years and the only way we will make it through all the rest.

So, remember, when you are talking to new couples on the verge of marriage. Be honest, but be encouraging. There is enough negativity toward marriage in our world. Let's cheer each other on and root for marital bliss and success. 

  

Life's Routines

Although I like spontenaity, I find myself a creature of habit and routine. Maybe it is the thoughtlessness that a routine demands. For example, I follow a routine when getting ready. I do the same things in the same order every time I shower. When I get out of the shower, I finish getting ready in the same order. I don't necessarily mean to. It's just my routine. The downfall of that thoughtlessness can definitely be a danger though. I find that if I try to switch it up, for one reason or another, something usually gets overlooked. Sometimes it is something minor and sometimes it's not. I've forgotten all kinds of things over the years - my contacts (that one happens all the time), my vitamins, deodorant etc. Today, it was shaving my armpits. Thankfully, I caught my mistake while I was drying off and was able to remedy that problem before it was too late. 

My "morning routine" has changed since I had JD. Mainly because it doesn't always get done in the morning. Unless we have plans for the day, I usually wait until he goes down for a nap to get ready. It's just easier that way. 

What does all that have to do with anything?! Well, as I was fixing my hairy mistake, I thought about another day when my routine was changed which resulted in forgetting something. Well, actually, it was twice. 

One of the best things about staying at home is that it is ok to go to work without a bra on. It just wasn't the same feeling of freedom the 2 times that I did it at my "real job". Yep, you read that right. I have gone to work on TWO different occasions, actually at two different jobs, without wearing a bra!! I know there are people out there that wouldn't really care if they did that, but I was totally uncomfortable all day!! 

I am definitely a believer in laughing at yourself and your mistakes. I'm also a fan of making others laugh, so I don't mind to share my stupidity with others. Some things are just too good to keep to yourself! The first time I did this, I snuck off to the break room in our office and called my sister to tell her what I had done. We were dying laughing!! I mean, who does things like that?! 

By the end of the day, I was a hot mess, literally. I hadn't taken my jacket off all day! I was afraid of what "the girls" might do while they were out free in public! 

I wasn't too embarrassed to tell my coworkers. I just knew that if they found out, they would harass me all day. I waited until the next day, when I was fully clothed to tell them. And then the harassing came, like I knew it would. Funny, funny harassing!! Years worth of laughs. 

See, some things are just too good to keep to yourself!! You've got to laugh it off and move on. Or in my case, do it again, and then hopefully move on for real. 

What I'm Watching

I told you before that I use Netflix, the NBC app, and the CBS app to keep up with the shows that I'm watching. I thought I'd let you know what I'm following right now.

NBC - Most of my shows are on NBC right now. Currently, I'm into The Night Shift, Undateable, Chicago Fire, Allegiance, and I just started American Odyssey. 

CBS - I'm loving that Survivor and The Amazing Race are back on! Those are my two reality show guilty pleasures. I can't help it. I love them both! Madame Secretary is the only other CBS show that I've been following. 

Netflix - My sister talked me into watching One Tree Hill. I can't say that I love it, but I'm too far in to quit now. It's not a bad show. It's just not the best I've ever seen. 

I must warn you. I'm pretty good at picking shows that don't last. It seems like when I don't get into a show at the beginning, it takes off and is a huge hit  (ie - Lost), but when I do pick a show at the beginning, it only lasts one or two seasons (ie - The Event). Most of the shows I'm currently watching have made it past that point, so hopefully these can hang on. 

What about yall? Anybody watching anything good?! 

ABCs and 123s

Having a kid is overwhelming. I find myself constantly checking up on myself. I try really hard not to compare myself to other moms, but we all know that is much easier said than done. The thought of raising a child that will have an impact – good or bad – on the next generation is a lot. I realize that children make their own decisions, but I also know that a major part of what he will become is up to me and David and how we raise him.

A friend of mine that teaches Kindergarten was just telling me some of the things that kids now have to know before they even get to Kindergarten. I’m not going to lie, it kind of freaked me out. It seems like, back in the day, Kindergarten was where you learned your letters, numbers, colors, etc. Now you pretty much have to be fluent in a second language to qualify to get in. I realize that requirements vary from school to school, but I want JD to have the best possible opportunities available to him. I think he’s a pretty smart kid, but I want to help him along any way that I can.

All that said…JD and I finished our first week of “school”.  Now, don’t get all crazy on me. By school I mean that we have spent a few minutes of our day working on a letter, number, shape, etc. I created a “School Skills” board on Pinterest a while back. I looked back over what I had pinned and did some extra searching to see what I could come up with. I saw a “curriculum” on Pinterest that I thought I was going to follow. This lady had some serious plans. She had lesson plans, printables, posters…the whole shebang. After I got to looking it over and doing some planning of my own, I realized that wasn’t going to work for us. I did like the idea of breaking down the “lessons” to one a day and thought that would be a good basis for a weekly plan. She had a weekly theme with vocabulary words that went with that. Being that JD is still learning to talk, I thought that was asking a bit much. Maybe her kids are geniuses or maybe she’s an overachiever. I don’t know. I did know that I didn’t want to set JD or myself up for failure by asking too much of either of us. I wanted to do something with structure, but also keep it fun. 

This week we looked at the letter A, the number 1, circles, and cars. And by a few minutes, I literally mean that. We lasted longer on some days than others, but it wasn’t any great length of time. It took some planning and a little bit of money to get us going, but I really think it’s going to be easy to maintain. I did a lot of my shopping at the Dollar Tree. They have a really great section of school props and supplies. Every time I am in there, I take a look at what they have. There are some things that I hope to continue all the way through, but I also know that I will change my approach as we progress. It’s always good to keep an eye out for things I could use later.

Ok, so this is kind of how it breaks down…

Letters. We will work our way through the alphabet a letter a week. This is kind of the basis for our schedule. There are 26 letters in our alphabet, so it will take us roughly that long to get through our “school”. I say roughly, because I know we will get off track along the way. I know we will be out of town or just flat out busy. I like structure, but I am also a realist. Getting things together for letter recognition was fairly easy. There are a ton of resources out there for that. I printed a couple of coloring sheets. It seems to help JD get motivated when he can color at the beginning of our lesson. While he colors, I talk about the letter and point it out. I also helped him trace the letter. I got a poster board from Dollar Tree (2 for $1) and some punch out letters. Each week I plan to add our letter to the board so he can see them and they will be easy to review. We did some water color painting too. I took a sheet of white paper and drew a big letter A on it using a white crayon. I mixed some water color paint with water and let JD paint the paper. Because of the wax from the crayon, the paint didn’t stick to it. It pushed through, showing the letter while the rest of the paper was colored. It was a pretty neat project and JD loved painting. The last thing we did with the letter A was to paint a canvas. We did this on a separate day since I had so much other stuff planned on Letter Day.  I bought a pack of small square canvases and some painters tape at WalMart. My hope is to do this with all 26 letters and then hang them somewhere. I taped a Letter A on the canvas and let JD us finger paint to paint it. When the paint dried, I removed the tape so there is a white A in the middle of his artwork. I will say that this was by far my favorite craft that we have ever done. He had a blast painting, and I love the way that it turned out! I know that seems like a lot, but it really wasn’t. Plus, we worked on the letter longer than we did any of the other things.

Numbers. Numbers will go along with the Alphabet. We will do 1-20 then hit some of the bigger numbers on the last 6 weeks. I did the same thing with the poster board for numbers since they were included in the punch out letter pack. I also printed a few coloring sheets. We talked about the number, traced it on the coloring sheet, used our finger to count, and I pointed out all the number 1s that I could find around the house. I bought a set of window clings with letters and numbers and we have been hanging those on our sliding glass door as another reminder to talk about what we learn throughout the week. Number day was probably our shortest work day.

 

Shapes and Colors. In order to get us through the 26 weeks, I decided to combine shapes and colors and alternate them. This week we learned about circles. I chose that because I knew that JD was already familiar with them. Thankfully, thanks to a puzzle and some other toys that we have, he already knows a few of his shapes. I figured it would be easy to get some of the ones that he knows out the way early so that he will be a little older when we get to the harder ones. I had another coloring sheet for JD to start with. I helped him trace the circle on the paper and then we used the roll of painters tape to draw several more circles on his paper. I gave him a paper plate and several circle stickers to put on the plate. I spent some time pointing out some things that we could see that were circles and that was that. It took us a little longer to do all that than number day, but that’s because JD loves working with stickers. I don’t mind letting him put them on paper. I had some stickers that I’ve accumulated over the years, plus a few packs that I have picked up for cheap along the way. This really does occupy him for a while and helps his fine motor skills.

 

Fun Day. I kind of liked the idea of having a topic for the week. Like I said, I didn’t want to take it as far as the lady I mentioned did, but I did want to do incorporate some sort of topical fun day that we could do different things with. I made a list of some things that JD is interested in (or I thought might interest him) and that I knew we could do fun things with or go fun places to see. I decided to start this week with cars. JD loves cars. He loves to see them, hear them, play with them, “drive” them, etc. I found a craft using a paper plate and decided we would do that. We painted the car and added on our circle wheels. See how I’m combining what we’ve learned. 

I’m also hoping to add in a Spiritual Day where we learn about Bible stories and verses. I am ordering a program and will see about using it. If it doesn’t work with what we are doing, I will probably do some crafts and stuff on my own.

I have been trying to point out everything that we have talked about whenever I come across it. So far, JD has done pretty well at remembering what all we talked about. We will see how the next few weeks go when we add to all that. I’ll keep you updated. 

If You Could lIve One Dream...

Like I said, I feel a lot of pressure in re-starting this blog. I don’t see as many people on a daily basis that I did when I was working outside of home. I don’t have co-workers to tell you about. A lot of days are spent at home hanging out with JD. Part of me is afraid that I won’t be able to write anything interesting, but the other part of me just wants to get back to writing, something.

I did a Pinterest search of blog topics to help get me started. I came across one that said, “If you could live one dream, what would you choose.” I figured I would tackle that one.

One of my most favorite places to take JD these days is Runway Park. It is the best playground! Not only is the playground area great, but there is an added bonus - this park sits right beside the airport which means, we get to watch airplanes take off and land while we play. JD loves it! He is mesmerized by the planes. He pretty much stops whatever he is doing when he hears one. I, too, love watching them. I love wonder who is flying, where they are going, and how it feels.

What do the park and my dream have in common? Well…I have always wanted to fly a plane. Watching those planes take off and land makes me want to do it even more. I don’t know why I want to do it. I just know that I do. I love to fly commercially, but the thought of being in control of a plane seems pretty awesome. I keep dropping hints to get me flying lessons. Maybe one of these days he will surprise me. 

Pressure

Now that I’m back, I feel this immense pressure to write something great.  I was looking back over the blog (good times there, folks!) and decided to re-start the way that I first got started.

Thankfulness.

In my first post, I listed 25 things that I was thankful for. It ranged from my family all the way to Words with Friends, which I no longer play by the way. With the exception of my family, because we should all be thankful for our families all the time, I am going to make a new list (only 20 this time) with things that pertain to my life now. My how times have changed!

1.      My Family. I’ll keep it small here and only talk about my hubby and son. Although they both can push my buttons some days, I am so thankful that God has blessed me with them both! I am thankful that David enjoys spending his days off with us and realize that not all dads like to do that. I’m thankful that JD is still at the age where he likes to hug and kiss and snuggle. I’m thankful that he still needs me, and wants me. I better stop here. Maybe another post on them another day!

2.      Sunshine. Oh blessed Sunshine!! I am thankful for the warmer and longer days that come with spring and summer! Winter is my least favorite season with all the cold and dreariness. As soon as the sun starts warming things up, my whole attitude changes! I love seeing things grow (though I’m seriously not a fan of the cursed pollen!). I love being outside. I love the sun!

3.      Warm Weather Activities. Following the sunshine, would be the activities that warm weather brings. I’m not just talking swimming, though I am thankful for that. I’m talking markets and festivals and parks and walks and all outside fun. I seriously love spring and summer, and even fall. It’s that crazy cold winter that I’m not too fond of.

4.      Alavert. I am loving all this warm weather, but my sinuses aren’t loving all the pollen. Thankfully, there are tiny orange dissolvable tablets that help with that. Best find ever.

5.      Netflix. You know you all feel the same way! David and I decided years ago to do away with our cable. It was an adjustment at first since we were use to having all those channels at our finger tips. When we moved to the river (the boondocks that I told you about in the last post), we literally only got like 3 channels. We get all the basic channels on our tv now, but it is so nice to have Netflix available as well. The movies aren’t always the greatest, but I have been able to watch a lot of shows that I either missed when they originally aired (Lost), watched part of but not all the way (Gilmore Girls), or had never even heard of (Heartland). Plus, the old faithful that are just fun to watch over and over (Friends).  

6.      My Screened-In Porch. Seriously the best feature in this house. Not only does it keep the bugs out, but it also keeps JD in. Some days you just need that. It also allows us to play outside, even when it is raining. If you don’t have one of these, I suggest you add one on!

7.      Text messaging. There is definitely something to be said for having a real conversation with another person, but at this stage in my life, I love the art of text messaging. It is so nice to send a simple message to someone when you have a question or comment but don’t have time for the niceties that come with a phone call. It is also nice to be able to read and respond to a text when you get a free minute to do so. Plus, the pictures and videos that my sisters send me of my niece and nephew…priceless!

8.      Baby Monitors. When JD was born, we decided to get one of the video monitors. Best decision ever! It was really nice when he was little to be able to check on him without taking the chance of waking him up by going into his room. It was nice when we were sleep training so that I could see there wasn’t anything seriously wrong while I let him cry it out. (Yes, I am that mom. I’m sure there will be a post or two on that later on too. Another of the best decisions that I’ve made!) And now, it is nice to be able to watch JD when he isn’t wanting to nap and have the ability to talk to him through the monitor without having to go into his room to do so. If you are thinking about baby monitors, seriously, go for the video monitor! You will not regret it!

9.      Days Off. I mean, not for me. I’m a mom. Moms don’t get days off. I’m talking about David’s days off. He works a crazy shift that keeps him away from us for most of the day several days in a row. That being said, his days off are like a breath of fresh air. We love spending time together as a family and try to do fun things together as much as we can. I like that we can share meals together. I like having someone to help with the chaos of having a toddler. I like that we can carry on real conversations instead of short phone calls or text messages. I especially like when those days off are during the week so that everything isn’t as crowded when we do go out.

10.   Stickers. JD is really into stickers right now. He likes wearing them. He likes putting them on you to wear. He likes to playing with them. He likes decorating with them. So far, we haven’t had any major incidents with stickers being stuck where they shouldn’t be. I’m sure those days will come. For now, I like that he wants to decorate pictures for people. And I especially like that I can give him a few stickers when we are in the car, and he can entertain himself with them for quite a while.

11.   The Dollar Store. Speaking of stickers, I am very thankful for dollar stores. It really is crazy the stuff that you can find in there for only a dollar. I’m not crazy enough to think that everything is a good deal, but a lot of it is. I buy all kinds of stuff in there – toys, baskets, craft supplies, teaching materials, paper products, party supplies, food, candy, etc. I like to swing in there every few weeks since their shipment of stuff changes so much. If you haven’t been in a while, go!!

12.   The CBS and NBC app. Similar to Netflix but different. Why does it seem like all the good shows come on late? I don’t like that. Some nights I don’t/can’t stay up long enough to watch those shows, and it is nice to be able to watch them on another day when I get time to. This is pretty much the only way that I can keep up with current tv shows. Without it, I’d have no hope!

13.   Nap Time. Can I get an “AMEN” from all the moms out there?! I’m so grateful that we put in the effort to sleep train JD when he was a baby. It was tough for a few weeks, but it was so worth it! Even though we are down to only one nap now, it is still my time of sanity. It’s my time to get things done around the house, take a shower, catch up on some of those tv shows that I’ve missed, etc. I love those 2 hours in the middle of the day!!

14.   My “New To Us” car. It isn’t brand new. It isn’t top of the line. It isn’t the best car on the road. It is, however, paid for, bigger than our last car, meets all of our needs, and even has a lot of the extra “bells and whistles” that we weren’t planning on.

15.   New Experiences. I get bored with the same-ole-same-ole. I need change and I need new experiences. I know that not everyone is like that, but I sure am. I like not knowing what life is going to bring. I like meeting new people. I like experiencing all that life has to offer.

16.   December. It’s hard to believe that my parents have been gone since 2008. On one hand, it feels like yesterday, and on the other, it feels like it’s been forever. I’m so proud of the ministry that they have had in Guatemala over the past several years, but it will be so nice to have them back on American soil. I’ve missed hopping the car and going to visit them, and I’ll be glad when we can do that again.

17.   The Microwave. I’ve always thought that it was a great invention, but as a mom I appreciate it even more. Some days I heat up my coffee multiple times before I can finish the cup. We all know how important that morning cup of coffee can be!

18.   The Area Where We Live. Not only are the views great around here, but there really is so much to do, especially in the warmer months. We have great parks, outdoor markets, lots of festivals, amazing restaurants, mountains, lakes, rivers, water parks and even a zoo! I have loved this area from day one and that hasn’t changed! Now if my family would just get the hint and all move here, it would be even better!

19.   A Happy and Healthy Boy. I am constantly reminded how blessed we are with JD. In the past two years, we have only battled a few colds. There are so many children in our world that are battling serious diseases and illnesses. I am not naive enough to think that he won’t ever experience anything worse than the common cold, but for now,

20.   Pinterest. When I first started this blog, I had just discovered Pinterest and was making it my own personal mission to get everyone else hooked. I think it is safe to say that everyone loves Pinterest! It’s amazing that we ever had our own ideas before this fabulous website was created!

Now that I’m back, do any of you have post ideas for me?

Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Wow! That was a long time ago! And to think that I made an issue over not having written anything in a month. I guess I out did myself this time!

As you can imagine from my last post, my world is drastically different than it was then. The Chinese were indeed correct. We welcomed our baby boy into the world on May 3, 2013, which, yes, means that we are about to celebrate his 2^nd birthday. Two weeks after he was born, my husband had his second knee surgery. He spent over a year either out of work or on “light duty” due to his knee injury. It was a unique time for our family. Although being out of work for that long was hard on him, I’m so thankful that he was able to spend so much time at home during JD’s first year. He was able to share in many milestones that most dads miss, and we wouldn’t trade that for anything. It was a year of many mixed emotions. Happy. Sad. Busy. Bored. Annoyed. Aggravated. Elated. Love. Anger. Helplessness. Patience. Impatience. I could go on and on!  

Since then we have been on trips. We have shared time with family. We have laughed. We have cried. We have endured sleepless nights. We have sleep trained a baby. We have watched that baby grow. We have de-pacified a toddler. We have celebrated good times. We have mourned bad times. We have moved. We have said hello and good-bye to friends. We have played in the sun, rain, and snow. We have celebrated our 10^th anniversary. We have changed. We have grown.

Before JD was born, we decided that I would quit my job and stay home with him. It just didn’t seem worth it to work so that I could put him in daycare. I’m not in any way knocking any of the working moms. It just didn’t fit us. If I had a career vs a job or had a desire to move up the corporate ladder, we may have thought differently. I didn’t and I don’t. My pay check at the time and the cost of daycare weren’t far enough apart for me to make that sacrifice. Maybe I’ll elaborate more on that in another post.

That may make you think…No job and no blog posts?! What have you been doing?!

Well, for one, when JD was born, we lived in the boondocks and had horrible service for anything technological. As in, for the first time in our married life, we had a land line phone because that was pretty much the only way to get in touch with us. Oh there were the spots where if you leaned one way, held out your leg, and didn’t breathe that you could get some service, but overall, there wasn’t much available. That, teamed up with us deciding to make every financial cut that we could, ended in us relying solely on our phones for Internet service for the last couple of years. I know that may not work for everyone, but it has worked for us. We are, much to the heartache of Verizon, some of the few that still have unlimited data plans so that makes it doable. It’s funny to see what life becomes when your priorities change. Me staying home and raising our son is the number one priority for us right now, and we will make the necessary sacrifices for that to happen.

All that said, plus the reality of having a baby and then a toddler, has made it tough to keep the blog going. Yes, I can type on my phone, but you all know what it is like to type on those things. I can send plenty of texts and even emails, but typing a whole post in that tiny window while making sure that AutoCorrect doesn’t do anything crazy is challenging. I’m not going to lie. I really have tried to do it a couple of times, but I got so frustrated that I gave up. Plus, you think about adding pictures and links and you can forget the whole thing…which is what I did.

I will say that it made me feel a little better to look at the blogs that I use to follow and see that many of them haven’t added posts in a long time either. I guess we all got busy and gave up at pretty much the same time.

So, why now? Well, in truth, I’ve really missed blogging. I’ve missed getting my thoughts in print. And, the opportunity has arisen for me to be able to do it again, so here I am…