Highlight of My Day

We had my brother-in-law and his son over today for a BBQ and games and such. Yes, the BBQ was very cold. Most of it was done inside and then my husband burned the ribs to boot, but it was still fun and tasty.

After we had hung out at home for a long time, we went to Coldstone for ice cream. My nephew had a chocolate ice cream cone and was prancing around outside while we enjoyed the last bit of sunshine. Us adults were jokingly wondering how long it would take for the ice cream to fall to the ground. Well, my nephew decided to jump off a little landing and he ate it. He completely fell on the cold concrete. We all asked if he was okay and he says (he's crying as he says this), "I'm hurt, but my ice cream's okay!" We all look at the ice cream cone and it is indeed in one piece!!!

I, being the could-be-better-aunt that I am, start busting out laughing while my brother-in-law is trying to console my poor nephew. Whoops...

But at least he's got the concept of not making a mess and save-the-dessert/snack/drink-above-all-else mentality down! Way to go little man!

Great New Schedule

I know there are those of you out there who are super strict on having your kids on a schedule. Others couldn't care less as long as they sleep through the night. I have always fell somewhere in between.

My philosophy has been for my girl to go to bed at a certain time and take naps at general times. If she is on a set schedule great, but if not I'm not going to pull my hair out over it. For example, I was fine (while I was working mind you) as long as she went to bed at 8 pm, woke up after 12 hours-ish, took 2 naps- one in the late morning and the other in the mid afternoon. Well that didn't work so hot when she started going to daycare 2 days a week because my husband had to drop her off at 3 pm so he could get to work. So she moved to this crazy schedule of sleeping in the morning, then sleeping again at 1, then taking a third nap at 5 pm... Needless to say it wasn't ideal. Yes, it worked out just fine and it did serve it's purpose but it was way too hard. She was tired and only sleeping for an hour at each of those times. So on our days off it was near impossible to get anything done. Plus some days she would go to daycare and other days she wouldn't so that would add more inconsistency to her naps.

But it did work. And we went with it. Sometimes you just got to go with it. I don't think there's anything wrong with that either. Society wants out kids to be formed into this nice little Jello mold and that just doesn't work. You do what you can, don't stress yourself out about not having the ideal schedule, and make it work for your unique family members. If that requires you to just "go with it" then great! If it requires you to have a strict and scheduled time for each and every activity- great!

But I have to say, after months on end with a crazy schedule for not only her but us as well, this new schedule is great! I'm not working so I was able to devote the effort to putting her on a more set schedule. My husband and I aren't running between work, home, and daycare and hardly seeing each other (side note- we didn't see each other from the time we went to bed Monday night until Thursday morning when we woke up and then only spent half days together the rest of the week- and we did that for months!). We are doing great as a family and I think the whole not running around like headless chickens helps. :)

She goes to sleep at 8 pm. She wakes up between 8 and 9 (I know, I'm spoiled for getting to sleep in that long!). Nap time is now at 1 pm and she sleeps for 2-3 hours! We've been doing this about 4 days and it's been wonderful. She doesn't just sleep whenever and for however long she feels like. I make sure to get her good and tired in the morning and also have her tummy full of a tasty lunch before nap time. Then she's out like a light!

Now granted she is 14 months old now and one nap is completely sufficient for her. Obviously a 2 month old isn't going to work this way. This wouldn't have worked at 9 months either. Plus, to make it even more difficult for us parents  I do completely believe that you have to work with what you got (i.e. your child, their personality, their activity level, etc.) and mold a schedule that fits your needs and still gives you kiddo the rest they need.

She still doesn't wake up at an exact time but that's fine by me. I feel if we get too scheduled, we'll turn into robots or something (okay there's the sci-fi nerd in me coming out...). Nap time at 1 also ranges from between 12:45 and 1:15 so that's not set in stone either. But she has a mommy who takes care of her full-time, is able to keep her on a somewhat set schedule so she gets her play time, her eating time, and her rest time all in at reasonable times. And my husband and I get to actually see each other!! 

I need to post something...

.... But I don't know what to post! I have about 6 half finished posts. None of those is really good reading right now though... I guess this will be another random post. Here's our morning currently:

I am currently listening to Travis Cottrell's version of "In Christ Alone" and I think this is one of my favorite songs ever! And the fact that he works with Beth Moore makes it all the more better!

Baby girl is doing baby yoga and taking our canned tuna out of the cupboard. Wait... now she's going for the pledge. Hold please... Okay we're back to the tuna.

Husband made waffles this morning. Let me expound on that. He mixed up the batter, most of the batter actually. He let out the egg. I also have a sneaky suspicion there was more missing but I can't prove it. I put the "batter" in the waffle iron and once they were done we had waffles. But really, they were more like waffle crumbs. Baby liked them, but then again she will eat anything unless it's chicken. She hates chicken.

One thing I don't recommend- do NOT read 15 chapters of Isaiah in one sitting and do NOT make that sitting at 10 pm. Big mistake on my part! I just kept reading and reading... Not really sure why because I kept telling myself to stop because my brain was frying, but did I listen to myself? No... Oh well, I got 3 days worth of reading done in 45 minutes. Yay! Did I get anything meaningful out of that reading? Yeah... the section I read was about various kingdoms being destroyed so after reading verse after verse about doom and gloom it did get kind of depressing, but then I noticed that Isaiah himself was distraught over the destruction of the nations. Which made me think. Maybe God Himself was sad over the destruction as well. Yes, He was the one who was judging the nations but I do believe that He didn't really enjoy it. He is a loving God after all. Something to think about today.

Well Mommy-duty calls. Enjoy your Wednesday everyone!

Praying

I admit that I am not the best at praying on a regular basis. There are days where I will pray for a long time, with my whole heart, and I will totally feel the power of it. Other days will feel like it will take all of my energy to even say "hi" to God. I have been creating a new habit of reading my Bible, journaling, and praying and it is doing great things! I have a much better attitude, it stretches my brain, and it's making our family function a whole lot better. Being in fellowship with God releases so much power that it's mind-blowing and I, personally anyway, don't know why I haven't spent more time with Him before. Well, I know why I didn't, but I guess the better way to word that is I wish I had spent more time with Him before and made the sacrifices to make it happen (like waking up earlier in the morning, turning off the TV, etc.).

There have been so many answers to prayer lately, and not only my prayers. I know I'm always promoting her blog, but Renee has a story that I think so many people would be inspired, encouraged, and flat blown out of the water by! It showed me just how BIG our God is (well, not exactly because we can never know just how big He is on this side of eternity, but you get the idea...). He is truly out of this world AMAZING! In addition to that phenomenal story, He has completely taken care of us since I have quit my job and have been a stay at home mom. Our family is thriving- and not in a financial way. Our marriage and our parenting have skyrocketed. We have been able to minister to other people and we have grown so much as a family. I really believe that God has shown us how we need to live our lives- GOD first, family second, career third. In this country that philosophy is not popular at all and is really hard to live by. But with Christ all things are possible!

Be encouraged- even though you don't see the results you want in your life right now, just believe that you are sowing seeds and working the ground so that they may come to be a full harvest one day. It may not happen overnight, but I truly believe that God truly will do remarkable things as long as you involve Him in your plans. Talk to Him, tell Him your concerns and fears, laugh with Him. He wants what is best for us and although it may be hard it will definitely be worth it. We may not even see the results of our hard work in this life, but we will definitely have something beyond-our-comprehension-awesome that we can look forward too.

In This World

I was over reading Renee's post and she and I apparently have a lot of the same thoughts. In this post she was talking about how she lives in a hole (read her post for all the thought-provoking details). I COMPLETELY relate to that. We don't have TV or listen to secular music or anything like that and so I'm lucky to know if it's supposed to snow tomorrow or not. I just kind of take it day by day and hey, if it's something huge I'll get it through the grapevine. The downside to our joint hole-living is that we aren't informed about the big things that can affect our lives. 

Politically I am very conservative and I don't like hearing about the things going on in America. I personally imagine our country's forefathers rolling in their graves. I don't believe they worked as hard as they did to gain our freedom so we could take it for granted the way we do. Even the non-political stuff I don't want to know about. I don't need to hear about the murders, burglaries, debt, illnesses, etc. that are plaguing the world. I know they exist, but I don't want to be brought down by them.

So here's the question: How do I gain the knowledge I need to so I can be compassionate and an advocate for the victims of the evils I see and not be sucked into the hype, the drama, and the "mud" that is the media?

Jesus calls us to be in this world but not of this world. That's a fine line for us Christians to take care not to cross. There's so much that's being flung at us and pressures are so great to become like the rest of the world. We can't look at the rest of the world in a haughty I'm-better-than-you way and ignore the evils surrounding us. But we can't have a if-you-can't-beat-'em-then-join-'em attitude either.

My personal opinion on how to possibly overcome this? Be like Jesus. Follow Jesus. Look to His Word for how. Jesus Himself came to this fallen world and dwelt among us. He knew what was going on in the world, but rose above it and provides the only way to get out of the world. He is bigger than anything in this world, no matter how ugly it gets. I believe that if we just look to Him and adopt a WWJD type of attitude then we can find the balance that many of us struggle with.

Random

Okay, first off I'm super frustrated! I am so mad at Hotmail right now! They locked/closed/shut down/blocked my email account! They didn't tell me why, and I can't talk to anyone. I have to rely on their stupid message board type of correspondence to even see if they will let me back in it... GRR! Okay done on that rant- here's the positive in the situation:

Positive #1: I have a secondary email that I can use.

Positive #2: I still have my facebook and blog.

Positive #3: I was wanting a different email anyway since the one I had was from middle school...

Positive #4: I get a new beginning!

Positive #5: No more crazy junk mail (for now anyway).

Ahhhh that feels much better. I'm so glad I just got that out of the way and now I can move on from Hotmail. Of course, I won't be able to access a lot of my contacts... wait I'm being negative again... Time for a subject change.

Let's see- Talia is either teething, sick, or both. I can't tell for the life of me! It's either REALLY bad teething or a slight head cold. Maybe I'll never know... 

Talia also started walking 2 days ago! I'm so excited! She's the cutest when she does it. She will stand, grin really big, take a few steps and giggle so hard she falls down. I LOVE IT! She does too obviously and I think she'll be up and running in a very short time. I thought I would be all sad when she would reach these new stages (like my baby is growing up... sniffle sniffle) but I'm actually (and surprisingly) very excited and happy! I can't wait (well really I can... but you know what I mean) for the next things she'll learn and do. Like talking- she still jabbers on about who knows what. Some of her words are "eesh" and "ah-ooh" but I think she just likes hearing herself "talk." I really don't think she associates things with words quite yet. Maybe Mama and Dada but that's about it. Of course she knows A TON! She knows exactly what her Snuggle Bear is, her Snuggle Lamb, her shoes, her sippy cup, cheerios, her Violet dog, her puppy (it's actually ginormous- about 3-4 feet long... best $20 my  mom ever spent), her Bible, MY Bible, "no"- not that she listens, but she does know what it means... ah-hem.

So I'm probably boring those of you without kids, so I'll try and wrap this up.

Three closing remarks tonight. These are super profound by the way... ah-hem... well I guess 1 out of 3 ain't bad...

#1: God is SO good and loves us more than we could ever understand.

#2: Organizing your office (after you've done taxes and there are papers everywhere) while a baby is crawling around is IMPOSSIBLE!

#3: White Cranberry Strawberry juice is positively delicious!

#4 (yeah I know- I told you there would only be 3... my bad) This is from Talia- packing peanuts are great to tear apart and super tasty too!

Good Night!

My Couponing Adventure

I think I should really call this post "My Almost Couponing Adventure." 

 My reason? Because I think I used a grand total of 4 coupons today. I know some of you out there probably use 50 coupons- and kudos to you! I think that many would make me crazy and I would just pay the extra money so I wouldn't have to deal with the many slips of paper running around my purse.

I am super excited tonight though!!! We went to Albertson's and King Soopers and spent right around $180 for about $280 in groceries! A lot of that was because of various sales at both stores- sales that we took advantage of a lot! We would have saved about another $10 had my husband not left his military ID at home... Oh well. Just let it go, Sarah, let it go... 

And of course we did use a few coupons at King Soopers. They tend to give us coupons that say, "Save $3 off your next shopping trip" and I love them for it! We shop there so much it almost feels like an obligation for them to give us some sort of discount... :)

I've noticed from websites and coupons in the mail and coupons in the stores that they are mainly for name brand items (or for items that I don't even buy). Tonight I even tried to use a coupon for Special K cereal- get $1 off if you get 2 boxes (side note- it had a note on the coupon saying "do not double"). Well I looked at the Special K prices and they were about $3.50 a box. So times that by two and minus a dollar and I would pay $6 for the cereal. Well I also noticed that over to the side the store brand of the exact same cereal was going for $2.50 a box or so. So say I get 2 boxes of that (which I did by the way) I would be paying $5 and that's without the coupon! Yeah the box isn't as pretty or colorful and is probably harder to open, and the taste may be slightly different- but hey, it kept me from having to carry yet another coupon around in my purse that I'd have to fish out when checking out. Not to mention it saved me an extra dollar! And that's just one example- don't even get me started on the frozen veggies... 

I hear the stories of people going to the store and leaving with $500 worth of groceries for only $50 (or something like that anyway). I really want to know how they do it. Do they buy generic products like me? Or do they use a gazillion coupons for name brand items? If so, how do they keep their sanity with all those coupons? I want details people- if you are one of those extreme couponers, then please comment or let me know in some way, shape, or form how you manage to do that. I'm highly curious!

Journaling

Ever have those moments when you think, "Oh I'll remember that!" But then you never do? Yeah... I have lots of moments like that. I even told my mom once that someone should invent a camera that attaches to your eyelashes. That way every time you blink, you'll have the moment captured forever! Of course there is a downside to that- I'd end up with a lot of really boring pictures that I wouldn't know what to do with... So I guess journaling and taking as many pictures (with my husband's not-so-high-tech-been-to-Iraq-and-back Kodak) as I can will suffice.

I have been journaling for about the last year since Talia was born. I journal in a way where I write to her and she can go back and read when she's older (if she wants to anyway). It does help with the whole remembering thing, but I find myself running into some walls with that. I will procrastinate and procrastinate. Just now I realized the last time I journaled was a month ago... Do you know how much stuff goes on in a month in my life?? I'm blessed to remember the last day or two clearly... So now I'm stuck with trying to think of all the random many things that have happened. It's so hard to keep up with! Renee even reminded me in her blog how hard it is to stay on top of recording everything.

Intermission: my computer just crashed with a blue screen of death... But now we seem to be back to normal. Not that any of you notice, but figured I'd fill you in. :)


So needless to say, I am committing myself to journaling more. Maybe it'll be a little bit on my blog and a little bit on paper, but I will document my life and my baby's life as best I can. Who knows what kind of fruit it will produce? Maybe a laugh on a day where I feel depressed, or encouragement when I need that extra push, or a reminder that God is on His throne no matter what- especially on those days when fear and doubt creep into my mind and decide to not leave. I'm sure that someone someday will benefit from reading what I am currently writing, be that me, my baby, my husband, a friend, or a stranger.

This, That, and The Other

This: I have entirely too much to do today. I have taxes to finish- I promised myself they would be in the mail tomorrow. I do have a ways to go on that. I also have to work my business a little bit more today and that's overwhelming me too. Not to mention my house could always use more cleaning... 

That: I have completely fallen in love with my life lately! Being able to focus on the things that I've been longing too has been such an amazing blessing! I think the last time I had the chance to focus on my home, my business, and my baby was when I was on maternity leave a year ago. And let's face it- when you're on maternity leave you just don't have the energy to do anything except the bare minimum. So other than maternity leave- I really can't remember the last time I was able to focus on all the important things in my life. 

The Other: I have talked a lot about being able to be home with my baby and be a housewife. I LOVE those jobs probably more than I should. I say that because my husband has really shown me that I have neglected my most important relationship- God and me. And the sad part is that I know it, but I  haven't done anything to change it. Jesus has done so much for me, so much more than I realize. I am ashamed to say I take it all for granted. Just admitting that is painful. I mean, we're all human and we are sinners and we make mistakes and that's where Jesus comes in- to redeem us from those sins because He loves us SO much! I can't exactly expect to be completely perfect 24/7. But I do have to make an effort to be more like Him and follow His ways. My ways just don't work and end in nothingness, disappointment, and sometimes even disaster. Solution? I need to read His Word more, talk to Him more, and act on what He says. Why that's so hard for me to do, is beyond me.

 Thanks for listening... Apologies for dumping my heart on you all... :)