Rescue My Cars

From the category of things I never thought I would do comes "Rescue My Cars."

This morning, I woke up to my son fussing. It was a bit surprising, but nothing unusual. But when the fussing lasted a couple minutes, I decided to find out what was wrong. I found him laying in his bed and fumbling with his hand between himself and the side of his bed.

"Car?"

"You need me to get your car?" I asked.

He nodded.

I reached for the area that he had been fumbling around in, and began to feel for a car, presumably in the crack between mattress and bed frame. As I fumbled around, I happened to bump into him and felt the car inside his one-piece pajamas.

As I was driving the car up to the neck of his pajamas and removing it, my son said, "Car?"

I couldn't believe my ears. "You have another car in your jammies?"

He nodded.

I reach for the spot where I had found the first car. Nothing. I felt his back. Success. After safely driving that car to his neckline, I crawled in bed with him, now clearly understanding why he had been fussing.

After a moment of snuggling, my son looked at me and asked, "Thomas?"

"Are you going to put your train down your jammies too?"

He smiled mischievously and nodded.

Silly little boy. Thankfully, he didn't put Thomas the Tank Engine down his pajamas.

A well-child exam

My daughter had a well-child exam today. You know the kind - weight, height, they look healthy, they're developing on or ahead of schedule, how are they eating, how are they sleeping. I told my doctor how my daughter wakes me up two to three times a night to breast feed and that I wanted to start her on solids early. She told me to wait a little longer and to make sure I was eating healthy foods, such as lentils, vegetables, milk, peanut butter and chocolate.
I had started to suspect that maybe I wasn't eating the right foods for making good milk. Today, my doctor basically confirmed that suspicion.
So, chocolate, here I come.

Consider the lilies

Is she teething?

It appears my daughter is teething. At least that is what the massive amount of drool and extra fussiness would seem to indicate.
This teething thing is all new to me. My son would randomly have teeth appear in his mouth without any warning. Even my daughter first tooth was a surprise. I had noticed that she suddenly changed her sleep patterns two weeks prior to the tooth appearing, but I attributed it to brain growth.
Now she is chewing on her fingers or a toy, anything, almost constantly. She is twice to three times as fussy before nap and bed times. She drools like crazy and has suddenly started taking a pacifier.
Had anyone else had this experience? If so, please share your advice.

The need for chocolate continues

This is shaping up to be a chocolate kind of week. I don't know if I dare admit this - I downed almost an entire bar of chocolate before leaving work tonight. It hasn't been a terrible day. The day has actually gone rather quickly. But I'm exhausted and chocolate is my pick-me-up of choice.
Exhaustion seems to be the theme of my life lately. It seems like that's where I live most of the time. It comes from getting woken up two and three times a night to feed a baby.
It seems as if I have forgotten everything I did with son. Yet at the same time, I have chosen to do things differently this time around. So in all fairness to myself, things aren't the same. I do remember being exhausted with my son. All I know is that I will be glad when my baby starts sleeping through the night.

I need chocolate to survive

This has been a chocolate kind of day.  Of course, I guess four bars is better than the eight from yesterday. Tired seems to be my middle name and brain dead is my game.
Days like today, it seems like chocolate is the only way to survive. But everyone is still alive and has eaten. Oh and I did finish cleaning my closet. But that will have to wait, yet again, for another day.l

Continuing to walk after a mountain top experience

This past week has been a mountain top sort of week. It was a week filled with family, friends and good sermons. Another name for it would be church camp.
While reuniting with old friends, we also made some new ones. The sermons each evening were challenging. Well, I should say that what I heard of the sermons was challenging. (I had several diaper changes and feeding times during the evening sermons. I also put the baby to sleep a few times while rolling the stroller back and forth off to one side of the tabernacle.) I even gained some new insight into a few Bible stories I have been taking a fresh look at.
The week ended by my husband filling in for our pastor and preaching on giving your all to Christ. Yesterday, I felt like my relationship with God was soaring to new heights.
Then today, normal life hit. It feels like all the progress I made this past week is slipping away. (I'm very thankful we had ladies Bible study today.)
As I write this, I am reminded of something my husband said yesterday. I think it may have been a quote from C.S. Lewis and Mere Christianity. As we start on our journey of total surrender to God, we take a step, maybe two, then fall down. We pick ourselves back up and we repeat the same process. After a while, we start getting along better, less falling and more walking. Finally we get to the point where we have little to no falling and lots of walking.
I think this concept applies to mountain top experiences. When we come down into the valley, we want to give up and quit. When that happens, we need to come to God, give Him ourselves again and keep going.
Most of our lives are spent in the valleys. We need to learn to walk smoothly there. Thankful we aren't alone. God is there beside us filling us with Himself.
Please forgive me if this is incoherent. I'm trying to process and apply what I've been learning this past week to the valley life.

A reminder to quit stressing

We have been at church camp the past few days. Oh how refreshing it has been.
I have enjoyed getting away from the mundane and the routine to spend some time with fellow believers. It is a time to see friends we haven't seen for a while. It is a time to get fed spiritually and get renewed. It is also a time for God to point to areas of our lives that need adjusting. I think one area I need to work on is not stressing out. It wasn't one of those things that God hit me over the head with while I was away. He gently reminded me of it this morning when I wondered why yesterday was better than today.
I have been stressed, wondering what the future holds when I can no longer work. I need to quit stressing over it and let God handle it.

May I Please Get A Few More Hours? Or should I say, "Good night"?

Once again, it's time for bed. And once again, I haven't touched most of the things I need to do.

Why does it seem like there aren't enough hours in the days? By the time the kids are fed (multiple times over), a small fraction of the house work is done and I have a spare moment to myself, I'm exhausted and it's time for bed. I really would like a few extra hours each day to work on the projects that make me feel alive or that I hope to use to cultivate future job opportunities.

But as I am exhausted, have to wake up at 5:20 am and will get woken up a couple of times between now and morning, I'm going to bed. Good night.

True Love

It's been one of those days. As I've run out of brain power for today, let me leave you with this thought from the sermon on Sunday.

True love exists in our differences, not our similarities. - Pastor Shelby Cade

Happy Independence Day!

What is a productive day?

What determines a productive day?  An immaculately clean house?  Every item on the list checked? The yard in tip-tip shape?

Or is a productive day include wiping up spoiled milk? What about snuggling a small child who woke up from a nap screaming for reasons they can't articulate? Is it nursing your sleep-fighting baby to sleep?

Honestly, I tend to land in the first list. I want my house clean, which it rarely ever is. I want every item on the to-do list checked off. The yard - I'd like to keep all my plants alive.

And some days, like today, I get a fair amount done. I found the floor. I sometimes forget what it looks like. I feel like I had a productive day.

But sprinkled in there were the non-productive things. Snuggles. Hugs. Diaper changes. A lunch run for my husband. Nursing a baby to help her sleep. These things tend to irritate me and, depending on the day, make me feel like I haven't done anything.

If I stop and look at the long-term, those things really are more important. While a clean house is important and does make everyone feel better, it's the people in the house and the relationships that are more important.

It's not anything new. We all know it. But sometimes I need to be reminded.

Spilled cereal and poop on the floor

What a day it has been! And it's only half over.

It started this morning with cereal landing squarely in my lap. I was holding my three-month-old enjoying my breakfast. I had moved her to a standing type position and had reached for another bite. Suddenly, my once harmless cereal jumped off the table and dumped its contents all over my lap and the floor.

I sat there stunned, with a now screaming baby.
"Paper towel?" I asked my toddler. It took a few tries to get him to hand it to me. His reply was, "Make a mess." Yep, we made a mess.

Later in the morning, I went to check on my much to quiet son. When I looked in his room, he looked asleep. Then I spotted the poop on the floor. And on his foot. And on his life jacket. And on the comforter. While I don't know what actually happened, it looked like he over filled his diaper with poop. The poop came out the top and landed on the floor. He stepped in it and spread it around. Needless to say, he went straight to the shower.

I sure hope the rest of this day isn't as exciting. I have a lot of house cleaning, and laundry, to do.