Angel Food Ministries

This is my first month of purchasing a box of food from Angel Food Ministries

It was fun to pick up a box of food and have my freezer stocked. In addition to the published menu local grocery stores donated bread and desserts for each recipient. I was able to choose a dessert and 2 loaves of bread (of higher quality than I normally buy!) I think I will keep trying it for the next couple months. It sure beats grabbing groceries off the shelf while chasing 2 youngsters!

Follow the link for more information about Angel Food Ministries. They have host sites across the United States.

Dream

The other night Jeremy and I had the same dream. At least the premise of the dream was the same. We dreamed that our baby came early. Not frighteningly early, just before the scheduled c-section. Our responses to labor and delivery were vastly different and just made me realize how different our perspectives are.

Jeremy's response was to tell the doctors to "hold the baby in. She HAS TO have a c-section."

My response was "I'm 8 cm. You WILL NOT do a c-section now!"

Found

Tonight I found these pictures on my memory card. Apparently, Aliza had a self-portrait photo session at some point today.

Cute. Looks like she started out crying.

This is where Jeremy and I lost it. We are still laughing every time we see that little face.

And here we had tears running down our faces from laughing so hard.

Success and Failure

Fail: Potty training and I just do not get along. Here's the deal with Josiah. If his bottom half is bare he will pee in the potty every time. All by himself. Standing up with good aim. If he has underwear and pants on, he will invariably wet in his pants with no attempt at even getting to the potty. So about 70% of the time I have a bare boy running around the house and yard.


Success: This video is a little long, but it is Aliza helping Josiah navigate a phonics game on the computer. I love their interaction and how they are working together.

Conflict of Interest

I particularly like to be productive on Mondays. I do laundry, tidy up the house, do grocery shopping etc. It makes me feel prepared for the rest of the week. This morning I was ready to hit the ground running when Josiah and I had a conflict of interest.

Josiah desperately wanted to go outside. He wanted to swing and he wanted me to push him. I explained that Mommy needed to do x, y, and z before I could come outside and that led to crying. He knew his Daddy was upstairs so he said, "Need Daddy. Daddy push swing." I explained that Daddy was working so he would not be able to come outside. More crying....for Daddy. So we took a trip upstairs to see that Daddy was really working. At the sight of Daddy Josiah ran into his arms telling Daddy how much he was needed and how badly he wanted Daddy to push the swing. Poor Jeremy. You could see the struggle on his face.

As I watched this scene play out I had my own inner struggle. I really wanted a tidy house and clean laundry. But my children are only little for so long and the weather really was perfect.... I told Jeremy was I would go outside and everything else would wait.

We were outside all morning. Josiah was a very happy little guy. Aliza was happy too. I still had that desire to be productive so Aliza and I vacuumed the car. At least one of our earthly possessions was clean!

I paid the price for being on my feet all morning and climbing around in the van with the vacuum. I came in for lunch, tripping over the debris on the kitchen floor and realized that a spot in my lower back hurt. Really bad.

My backup plan was to scurry around during DVD time doing all the things I had planned to do in the morning. I was lucky to get the dishes washed and the first load of laundry started. Then I MADE myself sit on the couch until rest time. Luck for me, Aliza fell asleep this afternoon and I got to take an extended nap.

So I finished the laundry and made a grocery list, played outside with Josiah again before supper, made supper and then went grocery shopping. I went shopping alone. Delightful. As I was putting the groceries in the cart (tired of feeling that spot in my back and feeling like I have the most active baby in the world inside me) I was counting how many times groceries have to be handled before they make it in the cupboards. Many, many times. Jeremy was there to help carry in the groceries and already had the children headed in the direction of bed. Being so focused on groceries I didn't even notice (until Jeremy pointed it out) that ALL of the toys were cleaned up. You would think I would have noticed, but I didn't. I can get really focused! It was a most perfect surprise!

The point of this story is that even though I played outside all morning, everything that I thought needed to get done today, got done. My back is feeling better right now too.

Self Care

This is what I was looking forward to yesterday. A day of chatting and scrapbooking with my friends and sister. I took this picture after Janell left. What a difference a day away makes...

On my way to Maria's house this morning I heard "Lead Me" by Sanctus Real. (I rarely listen to adult music so I have no idea how old this song is) Has anyone heard it? If not, find it on the internet (sanctusreal.com) and listen to it. It is really for husbands and fathers, but it really touched me today.

Today...

Today my husband was my hero. He invited us to have lunch with him just because I needed a break in the routine.

Today I'm adjusting to Aliza taking irregular naps. She fell asleep only one afternoon this week and, those who know me, know I love my afternoon nap. However, she has been really great about having quiet time and I do get to rest.

Today Josiah became our newest toddler geek. He did super well navigating with the mouse. Frighteningly well. The look of concentration on his face was priceless.

Today Aliza let me braid her hair and declared herself a true princess.

Today my sister, Linda, mastered pushing two swings at the same time.

Today I heard about someone I know being injured in a car accident and someone who I know less (he was 21) being killed in a car related accident. I can't describe how that makes me feel. I want to hang on to my children. I also have to consciously choose not to live in fear of the future.

Today Josiah told me to push him "up to the birds" on the swing.

Today Josiah wanted to lay in bed with me after his bath. He closely, very closely, inspected my nose and then declared, "there is grass in there."

Today my pregnant belly is destroying my body image.

Today Aliza shampooed her own hair. It was really great until we realized that she had used almost the whole bottle of shampoo.

Today I almost stepped on a snake. I went inside as fast as my body would let me to tell Jeremy. He came right away, but couldn't find the snake. Bummer.

Today I'm really looking forward to tomorrow!

LIbrary Love

What is there not to love about the library? Free books and free entertainment. Our library has a children's area that is more open that I would like it to be, but it is separated from the adult sections. The staff are great with the children and allow them to enjoy the library as children. Meaning that some noise and running is acceptable. It's a good thing because once Aliza sees the books she is off and running and noisily negotiating with me how many books she can bring home.

This is Aliza's favorite collection of books. Juvenile entertainment. Dora, Diego, Care Bears, Strawberry Shortcake... She looks through every book to decide which ones she wants and then brings me a huge pile to read. On this particular trip to the library she brought me about 10 Dora books to take home. I said she could choose 2, we settled on 3. What I didn't realize is how she interpreted this negotiation. She brought me 3 Dora, 3 Diego, 3 Yo Gabba Gabba, 3 Blues Clues...on and on. This time I let it go. She was so excited and, really, what did it matter? We read every one of those books and they bring her hours of happiness and they are FREE.

Here is the pile to bring home! Aliza could hardly carry them all at once.

Josiah's favorite reading spot. My job is to find him some tractor books. Chrissy scored big points when she found him a John Deere board book.

We usually stop at the coloring table to color a picture or two. Josiah is still looking at his John Deere book.

Today Aliza and I settled on 3 Franklin books, 3 Clifford's, 1 Curious George and 1 of anything/everything else. I also picked a couple non-entertainment books. She looked at them at least twice, once in the car and once after lunch. Then after Josiah was tucked in for a nap Aliza laid all the books out on my bed so I could tell her the titles. She chose 2 to read then. After nap she carried all those books downstairs and outside. While making supper I read another.

And at bedtime, of course, we read some more.

Today was an extra special book day. When we checked the mail Highlights had arrived too!
I love reading to the children. I really can't wait, though, for Aliza to learn to read!

Hiding

After way too much whining and crying in the car someone came up with the idea of playing hide and seek. I'm pretty sure it was Daddy. Immediately, Aliza and Josiah "hid." Daddy counted to 10 and then went looking for them...on the roof, under Mommy's seat, in the trunk. Eventually he would find them and they would giggle and laugh and want to do it again. I was cracking up!

All the Pieces in Place

My shirt is finished and I'm happy with it. I think Jeremy approves enough that I can wear it in public with him. =)

And....at the end of 28 weeks I have a belly. Do you want to know how much weight I've gained? I didn't think so. You wouldn't believe me anyway. Suffice to say, this could be the biggest weight gain of the 3 yet.

All Done In

This week has kicked my butt. It all started on Monday when Jeremy had to work and there was no holiday at our house. He worked 14 hours at a client 2.5 hours away. That means he did not get home until 5am. At 12:30am that night Aliza threw up. Aliza throwing up and Jeremy being gone are both situations in which I lose significant sleep. Putting them together I got very little sleep that night.

The hardest part of Jeremy being gone for a day and a night is the next day. I put a lot of energy in being patient and having a good day on the first day, but for whatever reason (lack of sleep most likely) that wears off the second day. And this week it seems each day has gotten harder.

I need more patience and creativity with my children then I have had in my reserve recently. Will they ever choose to obey? They are both doing things that make me want to beat my head against a wall. If I tell you not to jump on the bed, why do you wait until I am looking at you to start jumping on the bed? When I say come to the table for supper, don't declare supper is yucky. Just come to the table. And when we are in the grocery store, do not run away from me or talk/sing loudly, touch everything, or ask for more than one food treat. The list goes on, but you get the idea.

This morning was the first time I told Jeremy that I am over this pregnancy. I should be thankful that I made it to 28 weeks before I said that. I kept thinking this is life for the next 6 months. Tired, sore, overwhelmed. Nice depressing thoughts to keep me going!

I've kept it together thus far, but I got pushed too far and lost it this afternoon. Surprisingly, the children were not the primary reason for the meltdown. I got a call my Dr. office regarding scheduling my c-section. The Dr. I wanted to do the section is on vacation and no one is available to do the section on the date I really wanted. Double whammy. I really just wnated this one to work out MY WAY! It's #3 c-section and it seems like there should be some sonority priority at this point. Something always happens that brings up my feelings of "I never wanted a c-section in the first place and if I was allowed to I would choose a VBAC." I was disappointed and the tears flowed.

Now I've got to pull myself together. We travel this weekend.

Piece by Piece

I've been working on embellishing a t-shirt with fabric flowers with the help of Elizabeth Kartchner's online class called Piece by Piece. I'm not sure what possessed me to take this class. I thought about it for quite a while. I think I wanted to try something new and have something to think about during the day and look forward to doing in the evening. After I found a year old VISA gift card with enough money for the class that sealed the deal.

I didn't buy her kit of flowers which means that I hand cut my own flowers using the pattern that Lizzy sent. That was pretty tedious, but I'm glad I did it that way. Now I will be more likely to make another one on my one.

This is my (maternity) shirt with the cut flowers and butterflies. Ready to be pinned.
The first pinned version. I did not like it at all. Jeremy's comment was "The shirt fits well." As it turned out my pattern for the flowers was much larger than the flowers in the kit and, for me, using the whole design made the embellishment too heavy.
So...Chrissy was over one evening and we started looking at it together. I took off those triangle "leaves" that I disliked the most and we played with adding some additional layers to some flowers to intersperse more white in the gray. And now I like it.

Tonight I'm going to start sewing on the flowers. I have really enjoyed trying something new. It has also been fun to share ideas and take the class with Chrissy. (I'm at her house this evening to sew! Matt is getting us sundaes from Sonic soon!)

Making Room

My original plan was to put the crib in Josiah's room for our baby. During the last few weeks Aliza and Josiah have wanted to sleep in the same room at night. Aliza and Josiah are on the same sleeping schedule so I had the great idea to move Aliza into Josiah's room. I mentioned the idea to Aliza one morning. She immediately said No. Later in the morning she must have talked to Josiah about it because she came to me saying that she asked Josiah if she could move all her things into his room and he said Yes. After that she couldn't wait to move.

Until moving day came. She fluctuated from heartbroken cries to being wildly enthusiastic to help with cleaning and moving furniture. When it was time to hang things on the wall she was pretty happy.



The first three nights Aliza slept on the crib mattress in her old room. This decision always came after playing happily with Josiah for about 2 hours after being tucked in. Jeremy and I didn't need to go to a circus earlier this week. We have a circus in that room every night. I think 10:30 has been our earliest fall asleep time yet. Having a 2 year old and 4 year old share a room is not my ideal situation, for sure. I'm hoping the novelty wears off and we have a smoother bed time routine before the baby comes.