Things I would have missed

Here are just a few of the things I would have missed today if I wasn’t home with my kids. I’m thankful for the opportunity to see and be a part of even the littlest things happening in their live every day.

• Troy doing a great (left-handed!) job using a spoon with his yogurt.
• Ella marrying two of her sock monkeys.
• Troy climbing on a stack of boxes (to turn on a light), smiling, and saying “I’m up high!”
• Ella singing to the UmiZoomi theme song and doing the “crazy shake” at the end of the show.
• The kids excitement to spend just a few minutes learning memory verses.
• The kids fighting over the opportunity to do a “special” task (letting Reeses in and out of the house).

When I Disappear Off the Blog . . .

. . .I just might be pregnant!

 

I’m not going into hiding because I’m pregnant (although it might seem that way). Rather, it is simply a result of not feeling well at all. I’m not here to complain; in fact, I’m thrilled to be expecting again. Life has just been particularly hard these past few weeks as I’ve been dealing with hyperemesis gravidarum (a severe form of morning sickness). It isn’t anything new to me: I had this condition with both Ella and Troy, but it doesn’t make it any easier to deal with nonetheless. Hyperemesis can make it difficult to get even the simplest things done around the house, and it can be extremely disheartening to not be able to keep up with life passing all around me. Hopefully, though, the worst will be behind me soon and I’ll be back to being able to doing all the things I want and need to do.

5 Reasons (of many!) I Love Being a Stay at Home Mama

1. I get to watch my children grow up throughout the day almost everyday.
2. It helps me fulfill my duty as the keeper of the home (Titus 2:5). {Please don’t mistake this for me meaning that I think you can’t fulfill Titus 2:5 if you work outside the home.}
3. I get to see my children fight together, but also laugh and smile together.
4. I’m blessed (and challenged) with the primary responsibility of training my children – from the mundane to the important.
5. I don’t have to worry about their care or how they’ve been acting or what they’ve done because I’m their caregiver and I know what has been going on with them throughout the day.

 

Pep Talk

I love the time of year between Thanksgiving and Christmas. I love the atmosphere of this time of year: everything from Christmas cookies to finding and wrapping the perfect gift to driving around looking at Christmas lights to receiving Christmas cards in the mail to traveling to see family and friends.

Time seems to fly more quickly these days, especially as I watch my children grow.  We haven’t even reached Christmas yet this year, and I already feel like this time between Thanksgiving and Christmas has passed too quickly. Throughout this time I’ve felt a bit too spread thin, and, not only have I felt like I haven’t had much time to relish the season, but I have also felt like I haven’t been able to do many of the things I’ve wanted to accomplish. I had great plans to do lots of fun Christmas activities with Ella (who is really getting engaged into the whole idea of Christmas), but we’ve only managed to do two of the many fun ideas I’ve found.  After three Christmases searching, I finally bought material to make Christmas stockings, but I didn’t even make it to the point of pulling the sewing machine out of the box.

This post isn’t about complaining, but simply a reality check for me. I can’t be everywhere at once. I probably won’t get everything done on my to-do list because it is too long and unrealistic in the first place. With two little ones in the house, projects will inevitably get put off and plans will change. Ella and Troy were both sick for a week (my husband and I didn’t feel great either). And, besides actually dealing with kids that didn’t feel good, we also had to deal with the severe lack of sleep (the kids don’t sleep well when they are sick and they share a room which only complicates that problem). On top of sick kiddos, I almost sliced the tip off of my index finger (so, please ignore any typos in this post), and was out of commission for an entire evening after that incident (what can I say, I have an extremely week stomach for almost slicing the tip of my finger off). Things types of things are not things to be worried or bothered by; they are simply things (and not really big things) that happen in life from time to time. But, I need to give myself that pep talk when I get bogged down by these things. And, when I say that I need to give myself a pep talk, I really mean that I need to listen to my husband’s encouraging words (because he is always the one who realizes I need the pep talk).

Hopefully this last week before Christmas will be a chance for me to slow down and breathe a little. As long as I actually figure out what to get for the last few folks on our Christmas list . . .

Trying Not to Be One of Those Moms

You know the ones I'm talking about. Those moms who once they have children suddenly quit taking care of themselves and who start wearing sweatpants and old t-shirts out everywhere and never really fix their hair. I like to watch makeover shows, and many times the woman they are making over is a woman who forgot how to take care of herself once she had kids. I never really understood how that could happen, even after having one child. But now, having two kids, I get it. I often find myself feeling like I have no time for me. Sometimes it feels like by the time I get one kid napping, the second kid is hungry, and by the time the second kid is fed, the first one is waking up from their nap, and on and on. How am I supposed to find time to take a shower in that schedule, much less the time to actually fix my hair?

I don't want to be slouchy when it comes to taking care of myself. It is hard, really hard, sometimes to have the motivation to take the time to take care of myself the way I should when I feel so crazy busy with the kids (among other things). It doesn't help that I work from home, meaning that no one will see me. What does it matter if I'm hanging out in my pjs or sweatpants all day long?

First off, I'm thinking about it wrong, because it does matter because my husband will see me even if no one else does. I'm taking for granted that he would probably prefer for me to take the time to get ready during rather than looking sloppy. (Now, don't get me wrong, being able to hang out in your pjs with your spouse is a great thing . . . what I'm talking about is separate from that).

Secondly, my problem is that I don't make myself get a good start to the day. I do have kid-free time if I get up early enough. It really doesn't take that long to get myself ready . . . it just seems that way when I wait until both kids are up and going. I want to make a conscious effort to take the time for myself that I need. I don't want to let myself become one of those moms who lose themselves because of their kids. I know I'll feel better about myself if I'm taking the time to get a good start to the day taking just a few minutes to get ready properly. I write all of this as I'm sitting here in my pjs thinking about how I wished I would have gotten ready first thing this morning so that I would have the time for it, and I'd feel great about myself.

On an unrelated note, I entered Ella's photo into the I Heart Faces contest this week. I Heart Faces is opening this challenge up for voting, and I would love if you would vote for Ella (if you like the picture, of course!). She's entry number 8! Thank you!