Sibling Rivalry

I really am astounded by how well my kids play together. They don't seem to mind the four years in between them! However, very often when they play someone ends up getting hurt and crying. I'm sure you can guess who that someone is. Well, I finally told Gavin that whatever he did to Charlotte to make her cry, I will do to him. That is SO something my dad said to my brother when we were kids. It sounded like a good idea when I said it.

So, fast forward a few hours. Gavin pushes Charlotte and she falls down and starts crying. So what am I supposed to do? Push my kid down? I don't think so. Gavin looks at me like, are you really going to push me down like that? I said, "Gavin, I am not going to push you, but you ARE getting a spanking."

I really need to think before I speak . . .

Have you ever threatened your kids with something ridiculous?

A lesson learned

I love helping people. I really and truly do. Whatever they need, I like to come through. Accepting help, on the other hand, is not something that comes easy to me. I am sure it's my pride. I think I can and should do everything on my own. After my surgery I was overwhelmed with phone calls and e mails from friends asking how they can help. I have meals overflowing in my fridge, my kids were well cared for and had a blast at their friends houses, and my husband was even on board and changed countless diapers ALL ON HIS OWN! I learned that accepting help is not so bad after all. I could not have had as smooth a recovery with out each of these blessings. AND, I have an easy week ahead of me this week due to so many meals!!! My pride has been checked! Lesson learned.

Surgery Update

My surgery went well, so they tell me. It sure didn't FEEL well. I had a really tough 24 hours post op.p I was incredibly nauseous and couldn't keep down any pain meds. I am feeling much better now. I'm moving around pretty slowly and I'm still in quite a bit of pain. The baby did fine during everything. They did several ultrasounds to make sure he/she was doing okay and he/she was flipping around like a crazy person every time. It was cute and fun to see.

Anyway, I am home now. Ryan has taken the next few days off of work to care for me and the kids. Our church family is blessing us with meals every night. I hope to be back to normal in a week or so. Every day gets better and better. I really can't wait to get back to my bike riding! I miss it!

Hope you all are doing well!

Upcoming Vacation!!!

Well, not really a vacation at all. I am having surgery on Monday to have my gall bladder removed. It has gotten really bad lately and they want to remove it so that I don't get an infection in my liver or gall bladder. I have been on this low fat, no fun diet for the last month and it hasn't even helped. I am still experiencing gall stones. This is normally an out patient surgery, but since I am pregnant they are keeping me overnight to monitor me. I was joking with a friend that it's like a vacation for me. She thought that was pretty pathetic that I would consider surgery a vacation. I just thought, "no kids, peace a quiet, sounds like a vacation to me!"

In all seriousness, please pray for me if you think of me. I know this is routine and they actually do it quite a bit on pregnant women. But there are still risks involved. Please pray that our little one stays safe and that my recovery will be quick! I will need to get back on that bike!

Progress Report

Well, I had some successes and some failures when fleshing out my 10 step plan. I'll start with my failures and get them out of the way!

I did NOT get up before my kids everyday. It turns out, I think it would kill me. I don't even feel bad about this failure. I'm over it.

I also did not "power clean" everyday. I planned on cleaning one room really well each day. I did do it one day. I cleaned the bathroom. It was so sparkly and I loved it. But the other days, it just didn't work out.

Now, on to my successes! Yay!

I was better at getting into the word. Although, I am still not where I want to be. I'm a work in progress on this point.

I did exercise five out of the last six days. I've been putting the kids in the bike trailer and taking them on three (or so) mile bike rides. It has been great. It's the best thing I can do for myself right now. I have SO much more energy, I don't need a nap during the day and I wake up in the morning feeling refreshed, not groggy! The best part was that I took a tip from Katie and downloaded some sermons from here and here on my ipod and listened to them while I rode. What encouragement for my heart!

I also did great with the kids. With all of my new energy: I was more patient, more willing to play with them, read to them, more consistent and the list goes on and on. We have lots of sticker charts going on now in our house. Chore charts, reading charts and a pink chart just for Charlotte so she doesn't feel left out! She loves to put those stickers on just like her brother - even if she has no idea what they are for.

My kitchen has never looked better every morning. It's so nice to make breakfast in a clean kitchen!

And, Ryan has not had to iron his own clothes (don't ask my about his lunches, though!) this week!

So, that is my progress this week. I'm sure you don't care. But I thought since I posted my steps, I should at least post my progress.

What are you working on these days?

10 steps

Today I came to the end of my pregnancy induced funk. Something snapped and I just started going nuts. It was like the fog cleared out of my brain and I was back to myself again. I was cleaning, doing laundry, washing dishes and who knows what else. It was so refreshing to be back to normal. I realized how short I've fallen from being the wife and mother I should be. Starting today, I am putting these 10 steps into place to help me get back to where I need to be. My wonderful family has been so patient with me but I am sorry to say I've been making them suffer (weather they are aware of it or not!). Here are my 10 "steps".

1. Read my Bible everyday (said with head hung low as I have NOT been consistent with this lately)
2. Read to each of my kids everyday
3. Get going again on Gavin's 100 reading lessons - sadly we are only half way through
4. Exercise, take my prenatal vitamins and eat a better diet - all in hopes of gaining more energy
5. Play with each of the kids individually every day
6. Get up and shower before the kids are up - this one might kill me
7. Spend 20 minutes power cleaning every day
8. Iron Ryan's clothes for work
9. Make sure the kitchen is clean before I go to bed every night
10. Be more consistent with the kids chores - they are so much happier when they know what to expect.

There it is! My ten steps to being a better wife and mother. I am sure most of you are already doing those things. I used to, but ever since I've been pregnant I have not "felt" like doing it. Well, that's no excuse! Even if I don't feel like it this week, I am going to accomplish these things!

What are the chores you don't feel like doing and how do you power through? Cheer me on!

Gavin Talk

He was watching a commercial one day and he came up to me and said, "MOM! That lady on t.v. told me I should buy these girly things and I really don't want to! Why did she tell me that?"

We were riding in the car one day and he told me, "I can't wait till I grow up so that I can honk at people when I drive!" Can you tell his dad is a true city driver?

We often call Charlotte our ragamuffin and sometimes we call her "rags" for short. I heard him comforting her one day like this, "It's okay, rags. Don't worry. It's okay."

I was getting ready in the bathroom one day and I was puffing my bangs. Gavin stopped to check it out and he said, "If you had a bump it, it would be much better. You go from flat, to up!" Have you seen those commercials?

Gavin loves to sit on the window sill and look outside. When the first snowflakes started to fall at the beginning of the winter Gavin looked at me and whispered, "OH! It's winter now!" It could have been a hot chocolate commercial or something. It was too cute.

He was playing in the bath one day and he called me in there to see something. When I got in there he was using Buzz Lightyear as Jesus and he was walking on water.

I asked Gavin what I am going to do next year when he is at school. He said, "Oh don't worry mom, you'll just get used to it!"

I've been really bad about writing down his funny quips lately. I feel like I haven't done one of these posts in so long! I hope to be better about it. I can't wait until Charlotte starts talking and I can start a "Charlotte talk"!

Blogging Funk

I know we've all been there. The blogging funk. We go in spurts. We love it, we hate it. It's probably a never ending cycle. I think that I am in an overall "life funk" right now. The blog is one of the many things that are suffering. I've been thinking a lot about it, though. The blog. I think of a post, but then realize it's not too interesting to the masses. Okay, it's not too interesting to anyone! I've just been taking a step back and trying to figure out why I blog. Well, I know why I blog. It's purely for me. It's an outlet. It makes me feel like I am talking with other adults during my day.

I can't help but roll my eyes at those "braggy" blogs. You know the ones. "My life is great, I never struggle, I never sin. My kids are awesome. They are so cute. Yadda, yadda, yadda." It's like reading their Christmas letter all year long! You only see the good, never the bad. I'm sure we all come across that way sometimes, I'm positive I do (even though it's not my intent).

Another thing I do not want my blog to be is a platform for me to impose my views on you. I'm not talking about asking others what their opinion is on such and such. It's the blogs that are pretty much saying "This is what I think, and you should, too!" It seems like just by reading it they want to punch you if you dare think another way! That is not what I want my blog to be.

The other kind of blog I can't stand is a boring blog! I feel like there are so many blogs that I read out of obligation, but really want to poke my eyes out. It's so hard to get through a post sometimes about peoples random every day occurrences.

However, I am pretty sure my blog falls under this last category. It's mostly boring. You don't care. I'm okay with that. Really, I am. Please don't leave comments saying, "No, your blog is so interesting. I love it." I know it's not. I'm sure I have the occasional post that makes you laugh. Overall though, I know it's big fat bore. So, I guess all of that to say this: I'm working on it. I want my blog to be creative, insightful, something you enjoy reading. Maybe you'll even learn something from it every once in awhile. So, I will end this post before you start poking at those eyes. But I do want to list some of the blogs that I LOVE to read. I mean, I love reading all your blogs, but there are a few I just really can't wait to read when I see them pop up in my goggle reader! In no particular order:

Loud Songs of Joy - because how could life with six kids EVER be boring?

Chloe and Clive Chronicles - a super fun frugal mamma, with fun ideas and the sweetest spirit

The Finer Neiners - inspiration always awaits here

A Museum of Memories - always learning something and being sharpened by reading this one. It also helps that their kids are SUPER DUPER cute

No better place on Earth - I love the honesty and humor that comes from this blog. I don't even technically know Beth, but if I lived near her, I'm sure we'd be FAST friends.

So that's it. Five of my favorite personal blogs. I hope you made it to the end of this post with out having to take drastic measures. Hopefully the next time I enter the bloggosphere, I'll have something interesting to say to you.

I can't believe

Well, it's the beginning of the month again and here is my "I can't believe" post, as promised! It's not as fun as usual, though. When you are sick, nothing is fun.


I can't believe my husband eats a peanut butter and jelly sandwich almost every day for lunch.

I can't believe that only throwing up one or two times constitutes as a "good day."

I can't believe how much pain, unbearable pain, a gall stone can inflict.

I can't believe I have enrolled my son in KINDERGARTEN for next year! Yikes!

I can't believe it was 82 degrees today!

I can't believe how much my belly is already sticking out!

I can't believe how much food I am able to consume in the midst of all this vomiting.

I can't believe how long it's been since I've enjoyed a cup of coffee!


Wow, I almost hesitate to post this. It all sounds very depressing. I assure you, in the midst of everything we are happy and getting along just fine. Don't feel bad for me. I am so thrilled to be having this baby, I'll take whatever comes my way!!