Thursday, July 26, 2012

Timing




It was a rough morning….again. When I look back at these mornings, I can’t even recall how we got from waking up in a good mood (me) to screaming, whining, and shoving kids out the door. I even turned the radio up extra loud in the car to drown out the whining. Just call me mother of the year.

I hate it when that happens, I really do. I don’t want to send my kids off for the day with that memory. I know every morning will not be perfect, and most will be far from it, but I want my kids to know I love them, and I want to have time to listen to them, get them breakfast if they are hungry…you know, the little things. But this morning everything just escalated –everything I did or told Abbie just turned into her whining and Henry just runs around either crying to be held, or if I don’t have time to hold him he just starts getting into everything. And then my blood pressure rises, and I NEED A TIME OUT. And it’s only 8 o clock.

Then I read a daily devotion in my inbox. You want to know the title? “Unglue Mama Mornings”. Really God??!! So I guess You were watching. I felt like it was written just for me. And you know what else? If I had woken up just a few minutes earlier, and read that this morning, before rushing to get my day started, I would have probably had a whole new perspective on my kid’s behavior.

The key verse was Ephesians 4:22-24 – “You were taught with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.”



Sounds like this verse is telling me to be selfless, to be more like Him, to change my attitude. Yea. I needed to hear that. It’s not all about me. Phew. Oh well, there is always tomorrow.



Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Five Moms, Nine Kids, One Weekend

Some things overheard this weekend –




“If you do that one more time, we are going home!!”



“Do we need to call Daddy and tell him what you did?”



“If you stick your tongue out at me again, I’m going to give you something to cry about!”



“Jack, are you ok? Is your head hurt?” (After Jack falls off bean bag chair and lands on his head.)



“Who wants to read a blog about how your baby pooped today, ate two jars of baby food, sat up for the first time, blah blah blah. I just don’t get it!!”



“I’m so glad it’s not just my husband who does that stuff!!”



“Is it bedtime yet??? “ (at 5:30pm)



Ahh, yes, it was fun, but maybe next time we will leave the kids behind with Daddy!! : )





Sunday, July 8, 2012

HOTlanta, and other stuff

Here I am again on Sunday, as promised!

It's been a pretty fast week, especially since we had Wednesday off. It's HOT here, like really hot, like stay inside during daylight hours or if you are out, get in a pool HOT. It's a little tough, especially with little ones. Going places during the day is sort of miserable, and their car seats get hot. Well, you get the picture. This has led Wes and I to start talking about moving again. It's not that I thought we'd stay here forever, but still a part of me is like geez, I wonder when we'll settle down. Will we ever be happy enough to stay somewhere, to put down roots? It's like we are searching for something we haven't found yet. So anyways, we are talking. We signed a lease for another year on our house, and we still have the house in NC that we are trying to sell. What a pain in the butt that has been. A part of me thinks if we did move, then I would change jobs (obviously) and maybe it would give me a chance to get even more freedom than I have now. I would  really love to have a full time job that allowed me to be at home when Abbie got out of school, around 3pm, and be able to work at home the rest of the day.

Putting Henry to bed at night and at nap has gotten to be a really long, drawn out process. It can take up to an hour to get him to close his eyes! He wants to play, talk, do anything but sleep when I get him upstairs. And I know he is so tired. Frustrating!

Abbie starts swim lessons tomorrow evening. I really think this is a great time for her to do this, because she is wanting to go without her life jacket or swimmies more and more, and she is going under water and trying to swim more these days.

I'm doing an online bible study on a book called "I Used to be So Organized" by Glynnis Whitwer. It's really good and has a lot of great tips on not just getting your house organized, but organizing your life, to do list, etc. So far this book has taught me to put things away and finish what I started. Well actually, it's taught me a lot of things, but that's those are the things I'm working to implement right now. I can't believe how much time I waste on Facebook! I am really making an effort to not get on there so much at work, and to start a task and finish it without interruption. It's hard for me sometimes to do this. Until next week!

Sunday, July 1, 2012

New Plan

So my plan for this blog is to have a new post up every Sunday. I miss it so much, and enjoy reading everyone else's, so I am hoping this is doable for me.

Where do I begin? Let's start with the obvious, the kids. Henry is such a sweet little booger at almost 14 months. He really loves to read books these days. He will bring me a book and then come sit in my lap. I just love those moments. He says uh-oh, shoes, bye-bye, hello, hi, no-no. He is doing really well with imitating also, and it helps to have Abbie around to talk to him and teach him. He is officially weaned as of about two weeks ago. We went to Charleston as a family then Wes's parents took the kids home so we could stay a few extra days, so I decided then it was time. It was a pretty easy process once we made it past the first night. He sleeps from about 8-6, and then takes one two hour nap during the middle of the day. He has a bit of a biting problem. Apparently we need to show him the Yo Gabba Gabba episode of "Don't bite your friends". This is new for me because Abbie never did it (except a few times when she was nursing) but everyone says he will grow out of it. I can't tell you how much I dislike being the Mom of a kid who bites. Thankfully they keep it anonymous at his school so the other parents don't know it is him! We are working on disciplining though. Abbie has taken the brunt of it more times than I care to talk about. He is also into everything - like way more than Abbie ever was. He has climbed up the stairs a few times now, when someone accidentally leaves the gate open. Thankfully no major accidents yet. If we can make it through the next few months without one I will consider it an accomplishment.

Abbie is a crazy little 4-year old. She is doing so good these days and I can really tell a big difference in her these last few months. She is learning so much in preschool and this summer her teacher is a Kindergarten teacher, which seems to be making a huge difference in her pace of learning. Not that she was slow before, but it just seems like her "reading" and writing skills have really stepped up a notch. They do sight words and she is getting good at putting sounds together. She will officially start pre-K in August, but right now they are doing a summer camp program where they take field trips twice a week. She loves it. She also is in a weekly program called playball, where these coaches come in and teach them motor skills, team building, etc. She will start swim lessons this month, hopefully, and we are considering letting her do soccer in the fall. That will be the first team sport she has ever played. I know she is ready, the question is whether or not we are! I know it's a great thing to get your kids into, but it seems like everyone starts so early (4!) these days. I don't remember doing anything like that until I was about 6 or 7. Plus I think for her, going to school every day is enough sometimes. She is worn out and really enjoys being home on the weekends. But we'll see. I can definitely see if I stayed home and just wanted her to get interaction and stuff that I would be more apt to enroll her into more programs. I digress...

This post is getting really long already, I promise it won't be like this every week, but we were in need of some updates. Wes and I just celebrated 12 years of marriage (craziness, how are we that old??) As I mentioned above, we got to go to Charleston for a few days to celebrate, and it was much needed. We have Brett's wedding coming up in August, which the kids are both in, and Wes is the best man. Then we will head to Key West right before Labor day. So lots to look forward to this summer. For now we are here in Atlanta and trying to stay cool in this crazy heat. This weekend we have all had the stomach bug, minus Henry. Somehow he has escaped it so far. Maybe he was the culprit though, we aren't sure! But it has been nuts. Thankfully I got it and just as I was starting to feel better, Wes got it. If we had both had it at the same time, I'm afraid we would have had to call in help or something. This was one of those that just knocks you flat and you have no energy. All we could do (and Wes is still doing now...) is sleep it off.

We are looking forward to a short work week (Wednesday off). Happy 4th everyone!!