So many of my friends put up new year's resolutions. I didn't really get into the whole idea for fear of letting myself down. On the other hand, I can see how putting them into a blog would help you feel more accountable. Therefore, I'd like to put some goals I have for the next year. A little late perhaps, but better late than never. If I don't get them all done, I won't loose any sleep, but sure would feel great to cross them off my list.
1. Organize my new house that everything fits, for once. Our upstairs really won't have any more storage than houses we've had in the past, but we do have an entire unfinished basement for things we need to store long term this time. My goal is for everything that I use on a regular basis to have a "place." If I can't find a place for it and it doesn't get used often, it has to go. I'm so sick of the whole line of thinking, "someday I'll have a house with room for this."
2. Finish the cross stitch piece I started when I was pregnant with Kadyn, for Kadyn.
3. Memorize scriptures so I can easily recall them when needed.
4. Get back into the habit of exercising on a regular basis. Did so well and then went on vacation and never got back into the habit.
5. Set aside more quiet time for myself with God.
6. Become more patient with my 3 year old. I have gotten better with this as the pregnancy hormones have worn off, but there is always room for improvement.
7. Find someone who would be interested in trading babysitting so I can go on dates again with Jeff (this would require us to become good friends with a local couple). This one has been so tough for us. We don't want to pay someone we barely know to come watch the kids and we don't have any family close to help us out.
8. Find a new sewing project to get excited about. I miss sewing. I still do now and then, but it's been harder since Brennan has been more demanding with age.
That's about it for now. I'm sure there will be more, but this just about covers what's been on my mind lately. Wish me luck!
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Spreading the word....
Jeff's cousin Luke and his wife Kathryn had their first baby via a planned c-section 7 days ago. Everything should've went well, but once the baby was out there have been a whirlwind of complications with baby Madelyn. Their family has been on my mind a lot lately and they are asking for as many prayers as they can get. If you want to check out the blog to get updates the link is:
http://thebilberrys.blogspot.com/2009/09/wednesday-morning.html
Too make a long story short, baby Madelyn's lungs were a little underdeveloped and she caught a touch of pneumonia on top of this. The past five days she has also dealt with jaundice, body temperature issues, and currently sleep apnea. Yesterday she even stopped breathing for a bit and is now on a ventilator. Baby Madelyn is very worn out and needs rest right now to recover. My heart is breaking for her and her family. They need prayers for strength, courage, trust, faith, and patience. Please put them in your prayers if you can.
http://thebilberrys.blogspot.com/2009/09/wednesday-morning.html
Too make a long story short, baby Madelyn's lungs were a little underdeveloped and she caught a touch of pneumonia on top of this. The past five days she has also dealt with jaundice, body temperature issues, and currently sleep apnea. Yesterday she even stopped breathing for a bit and is now on a ventilator. Baby Madelyn is very worn out and needs rest right now to recover. My heart is breaking for her and her family. They need prayers for strength, courage, trust, faith, and patience. Please put them in your prayers if you can.
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Good idea
For most of my life I have had a horrible memory. One thing I've always wanted to do is be able to recall scripture. Since I don't remember things easily, it has been so hard to get motivated to do so. About the only scripture I can remember are the tiny little one liners or the famous verse John 3:16 that you have to learn when you are a little kid.
Tonight I was just surfing around and reading stranger's blogs and I ran into this link that had the coolest idea for memorizing scripture. I have been convicted lately to really start deepening Kadyn's understanding of a faith in God. She is very comfortable with the whole idea of Jesus and God and we talk about him often. We pray before every meal, every snack, every bedtime. I try to find teachable moments to bring him up, but is that enough? One of the websites I read said that teaching scripture when children are young is very important as they are sponges so it's a perfect,when they are young, to have them store God's word in their heart. You never know when God will quicken it to their minds in a time of need.
Wednesday night our church is offering a class on parenting your preschooler in faith. I am very excited to attend and get ideas. Until then, I think I have a new project with this scripture memorization idea. I believe that one of the best ways to firmly learn something is to teach it. So I really hope that through working on scripture with Kadyn, I will finally achieve my goal of storing up the sword within my own heart.
Here's the link in case you're interested:
http://simplycharlottemason.com/timesavers/memorysys/
Tonight I was just surfing around and reading stranger's blogs and I ran into this link that had the coolest idea for memorizing scripture. I have been convicted lately to really start deepening Kadyn's understanding of a faith in God. She is very comfortable with the whole idea of Jesus and God and we talk about him often. We pray before every meal, every snack, every bedtime. I try to find teachable moments to bring him up, but is that enough? One of the websites I read said that teaching scripture when children are young is very important as they are sponges so it's a perfect,when they are young, to have them store God's word in their heart. You never know when God will quicken it to their minds in a time of need.
Wednesday night our church is offering a class on parenting your preschooler in faith. I am very excited to attend and get ideas. Until then, I think I have a new project with this scripture memorization idea. I believe that one of the best ways to firmly learn something is to teach it. So I really hope that through working on scripture with Kadyn, I will finally achieve my goal of storing up the sword within my own heart.
Here's the link in case you're interested:
http://simplycharlottemason.com/timesavers/memorysys/
Friday, September 25, 2009
Brennan
I'm not sure I put this in a blog yet, but it is on facebook, so just in case....Brennan is officially crawling. It started last Saturday and was slow going but now she is full on crawling. So very cute to watch her creep across the floor on her little missions.
She has just finished another cold. This is the second one she's had in the course of a month. That first one lasted 3 weeks followed by an ear infection. Then she had 1 week off and this last one hit. Thankfully, it's been a week and it seems to be clearing. I was concerned that she may have another ear infection but the last two nights she has been sleeping well, cheery during the day, and only tugged at her ears after her bath. Ear infections baffle me. My Springfield doctor says most go away on their own without any intervention and likes to error on the side of less medication. I like that approach. However, my Branson doctor would rather medicate to prevent the worse case scenario (makes you feel as though you're being neglectful not to have it medcated). I replayed my options in my head a thousand times yesterday contempating whether I should take my princess in...I decided waiting to see if it got worse was what I wanted to do. I really don't like being the overprotective mother who brings her child in at the first sniffle. So far my decision seems to be fine because Brennan is doing great this morning.
When we moved Brennan had a little trouble adjusting and woke a lot during the night. After a little sleep training I got her back on track. Then the cold hit, the ear infection hit, teething issues, followed by another cold etc. etc....Two days ago I felt like a walking zombie. Waking up every 3-4 hours was killing me. So one night I just decided I had to do something about it. I decided I had to get over my fear of waking the neighbors and once again do some sleep training. I theorized that she had gotten so used to me coming in a comforting her that it had started to become habit for her to wake in those intervals. She was feeling better and I couldn't find any new teeth popping, so I don't think she was waking for pain anymore. God must have felt my anxiety about this because that night she slept from 8:00 to 4:00 when she was ready to eat. It was a miracle! She immediately went back to sleep and then woke an hour later. I knew she couldn't be hungry after only an hour so I just walked in a patted her and told her to go back to sleep and walked out the door. Of course she protested, but it was only like 30 seconds and then she was out again until 7:00.
I have racked my brain to try to figure out what changed that she would sleep so long with little changes. Perhaps she's just feeling better, perhaps it was because I turned on the ceiling fan (maybe she was hot?), perhaps it was because I made it a point not to drink any caffeine, perhaps it was because I actually got her to take two naps instead of one both days, or maybe it was all of the above. Anyhoo....I'm not going to rock the boat. I shall repeat all of the above as much as possible because I'm relishing in the fact that I can actually get stretches of sleep longer than 3-4 hours at a time. It's amazing how much more refreshed I feel when I wake up.
She has just finished another cold. This is the second one she's had in the course of a month. That first one lasted 3 weeks followed by an ear infection. Then she had 1 week off and this last one hit. Thankfully, it's been a week and it seems to be clearing. I was concerned that she may have another ear infection but the last two nights she has been sleeping well, cheery during the day, and only tugged at her ears after her bath. Ear infections baffle me. My Springfield doctor says most go away on their own without any intervention and likes to error on the side of less medication. I like that approach. However, my Branson doctor would rather medicate to prevent the worse case scenario (makes you feel as though you're being neglectful not to have it medcated). I replayed my options in my head a thousand times yesterday contempating whether I should take my princess in...I decided waiting to see if it got worse was what I wanted to do. I really don't like being the overprotective mother who brings her child in at the first sniffle. So far my decision seems to be fine because Brennan is doing great this morning.
When we moved Brennan had a little trouble adjusting and woke a lot during the night. After a little sleep training I got her back on track. Then the cold hit, the ear infection hit, teething issues, followed by another cold etc. etc....Two days ago I felt like a walking zombie. Waking up every 3-4 hours was killing me. So one night I just decided I had to do something about it. I decided I had to get over my fear of waking the neighbors and once again do some sleep training. I theorized that she had gotten so used to me coming in a comforting her that it had started to become habit for her to wake in those intervals. She was feeling better and I couldn't find any new teeth popping, so I don't think she was waking for pain anymore. God must have felt my anxiety about this because that night she slept from 8:00 to 4:00 when she was ready to eat. It was a miracle! She immediately went back to sleep and then woke an hour later. I knew she couldn't be hungry after only an hour so I just walked in a patted her and told her to go back to sleep and walked out the door. Of course she protested, but it was only like 30 seconds and then she was out again until 7:00.
I have racked my brain to try to figure out what changed that she would sleep so long with little changes. Perhaps she's just feeling better, perhaps it was because I turned on the ceiling fan (maybe she was hot?), perhaps it was because I made it a point not to drink any caffeine, perhaps it was because I actually got her to take two naps instead of one both days, or maybe it was all of the above. Anyhoo....I'm not going to rock the boat. I shall repeat all of the above as much as possible because I'm relishing in the fact that I can actually get stretches of sleep longer than 3-4 hours at a time. It's amazing how much more refreshed I feel when I wake up.
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Thursday, September 17, 2009
A bunch of almosts
It's been a little while since I posted how we are doing so I thought I'd give the latest on our clan. It seems to be the month of almosts.
Brennan is almost crawling. She is now up on all fours rocking back and forth quite a bit but hasn't quite figured out how to make her limbs move from that position. She still rolls everwhere and can often be caught in push up position which is so adorable. She is full of babbles these days. He favorite seems to be "dadadad" but she has also thrown in some bababa, papapa, only two mama's, and her newest nanana. Her nightime wakings has become more frequent since we have moved and she seems to be nonstop teething. Her bottom two and top two have officially made the surface which now classifies her as a chipmunk. I love the gapped toothy grin! I now feel little bumps in the back. Seems way to early for molars, but I suppose they could take forver to pop through thus giving us a long couple of months. I plan on retraining her to sleep through the night a little better once we have moved. It is too hard to let her cry when I know I have neighbors all around me that are trying to sleep.
Kadyn is almost ready to start her soccer team which her Daddy will be coaching. Jeff doesn't know anything about soccer, but considering the age of his team, I'm sure simply being able to get the ball in the net without touching it will surpass all technique training. Kadyn's team will be made up of 3-5 year olds. Quiet times are starting to become a thing of the past as I almost don't even need them anymore. Believe it or not, Kadyn's skills of entertaining herself have improved DRASTICALLY since I stopped babysitting. For the past couple of weeks she has really really gotten into the barbies and can entertain herself for hours with them, yes I said HOURS. It is amusing to watch and I can get sooo much done. I sure hope this phase sticks for a LONG time. It couldn't have come at a better time too because Brennan seems to be more demanding usually squealing in protest if I even walk out of the room for a second.
Our house is almost (or at least within 30-40 days) of completion. The outside is almost complete. The roof and siding is complete which means a little bit of brick work and gutters still needs to be done. Plumbing and electrical is complete and drywall started yesterday. We are very very antsy to get in it as apartment living is getting old very quickly. Between one kid waking for feedings and teething tantrums, another wetting the bed in the middle of the night (which only happens once in a blue moon thankfully), and the neighbor's car alarms going off in the middle of the night, sleep is starting to become something that doesn't exist anymore.
Jeff's job is almost (or getting a lot closer anyways) to the point where we will start seeing some rewards for all his hard efforts. He is finding himself very very busy. Little by little he is making the contacts he needs to make to get his name out there and drum up new business. He has hosted many events and joined a couple of clubs, one of which includes the rotary club and the board of directors for the local YMCA. I am so proud of him and happy to see things going smoothly.
I never did babysit for that gal. So for the time being, I am still just a stay at home mommy who doesn't stay at home all that much. I was so busy this summer that I decided to nix a few things from my schedule so I could stay at home more often. My apartment was starting to see the effects of having no one home to tend to it. I also was feeling a little burnt out always on the go and needed more down time to just be with the girls instead of dragging them from one thing to another. So this fall we will have a regular scheduled playdate on Tuesday mornings at home with a friend, a playdate with other moms from church every Thursday morning, and a once a month playdate with an old friend in Springfield. In between we may get out and about to exercise, hit the park, go to Silver Dollar City, or the Butterfly Palace only if I'm feeling up to it and not behind at home. Who would've thought being a stay at home mom would be so consuming.
Well I'm sure I could ramble on and one, but that's the jist of us for the last couple of weeks. Toodles!
Brennan is almost crawling. She is now up on all fours rocking back and forth quite a bit but hasn't quite figured out how to make her limbs move from that position. She still rolls everwhere and can often be caught in push up position which is so adorable. She is full of babbles these days. He favorite seems to be "dadadad" but she has also thrown in some bababa, papapa, only two mama's, and her newest nanana. Her nightime wakings has become more frequent since we have moved and she seems to be nonstop teething. Her bottom two and top two have officially made the surface which now classifies her as a chipmunk. I love the gapped toothy grin! I now feel little bumps in the back. Seems way to early for molars, but I suppose they could take forver to pop through thus giving us a long couple of months. I plan on retraining her to sleep through the night a little better once we have moved. It is too hard to let her cry when I know I have neighbors all around me that are trying to sleep.
Kadyn is almost ready to start her soccer team which her Daddy will be coaching. Jeff doesn't know anything about soccer, but considering the age of his team, I'm sure simply being able to get the ball in the net without touching it will surpass all technique training. Kadyn's team will be made up of 3-5 year olds. Quiet times are starting to become a thing of the past as I almost don't even need them anymore. Believe it or not, Kadyn's skills of entertaining herself have improved DRASTICALLY since I stopped babysitting. For the past couple of weeks she has really really gotten into the barbies and can entertain herself for hours with them, yes I said HOURS. It is amusing to watch and I can get sooo much done. I sure hope this phase sticks for a LONG time. It couldn't have come at a better time too because Brennan seems to be more demanding usually squealing in protest if I even walk out of the room for a second.
Our house is almost (or at least within 30-40 days) of completion. The outside is almost complete. The roof and siding is complete which means a little bit of brick work and gutters still needs to be done. Plumbing and electrical is complete and drywall started yesterday. We are very very antsy to get in it as apartment living is getting old very quickly. Between one kid waking for feedings and teething tantrums, another wetting the bed in the middle of the night (which only happens once in a blue moon thankfully), and the neighbor's car alarms going off in the middle of the night, sleep is starting to become something that doesn't exist anymore.
Jeff's job is almost (or getting a lot closer anyways) to the point where we will start seeing some rewards for all his hard efforts. He is finding himself very very busy. Little by little he is making the contacts he needs to make to get his name out there and drum up new business. He has hosted many events and joined a couple of clubs, one of which includes the rotary club and the board of directors for the local YMCA. I am so proud of him and happy to see things going smoothly.
I never did babysit for that gal. So for the time being, I am still just a stay at home mommy who doesn't stay at home all that much. I was so busy this summer that I decided to nix a few things from my schedule so I could stay at home more often. My apartment was starting to see the effects of having no one home to tend to it. I also was feeling a little burnt out always on the go and needed more down time to just be with the girls instead of dragging them from one thing to another. So this fall we will have a regular scheduled playdate on Tuesday mornings at home with a friend, a playdate with other moms from church every Thursday morning, and a once a month playdate with an old friend in Springfield. In between we may get out and about to exercise, hit the park, go to Silver Dollar City, or the Butterfly Palace only if I'm feeling up to it and not behind at home. Who would've thought being a stay at home mom would be so consuming.
Well I'm sure I could ramble on and one, but that's the jist of us for the last couple of weeks. Toodles!
Thursday, September 10, 2009
alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5380042338947365666" />
Labor Day trip to CO
The girls and I survived a trip on our own without Daddy to Colorado over Labor Day to see my folks. The trip was good overall. The girls did really really well on the plane and got several complements on the way there about how well behaved they were. Shew! I wasn't sure how Brennan would do as she had an ear infection.
Brennan really impressed me with how big of a flirt she was. She would play shy when men would talk to her as she would bury her head into my chest but then grin from ear to ear as she sneaked a peek of the person trying to interact with her. It didnt' take her long to warm up to my parents and she let a lot of people hold her. I was so proud of her. As long as I was nearby, she was a happy girl.
Kadyn had a ball and was Papa's little shadow. The first day all I heard was Kadyn walking around calling out his name. She got to have a water gun fight with him, go horseback riding with him, and ride on a four wheeler with him. Needless to say, he became very popular very quickly.
We did a lot of hiking. It was free and great entertainment for all. I carried Brennan on my back and Kadyn rode on Papa's shoulders for most of it. The girls did really great on all the hikes except the last one which was cut short because of the heat. The first day we went on a hike on the mesa. The temps were in the 50's which seems like it would be cold, but it was perfect. The second day we went to rifle falls where we saw 3 beautful waterfalls, got to hike around a lot of caves, and had a picnic. The third day we went hiking in the desert. It was too hot for us so we didn't go far. We found a nice cedar tree to eat lunch under and then headed back to Junction for a sonic drink and a little kiddie time at the local playground.
The only rough parts of the trip were when Kadyn got car sick and upchucked all over herself and her seat as we just finished one of the worst winding roads I've ever been on. It was just lovely. And....on the way home, I lost my brand new Garmin GPS unit. I was very bummed about that. Oh well.
Overall, it was a nice relaxing trip. I wish Jeff could've gone but work has been crazy for him so it all worked out well. Besides, he needed a little manly alone time. I think he got to charge his batteries a little during our absence. He was ready to see his girls though by the time Wednesday rolled around. It was very hard to say goodbye to my parents, as we really only see each other 2-3 times a year. Maybe someday flights will be super dooper cheap and we can go see each other more often. In my dreams right?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
