Choices

I've been thinking about choices lately, namely the choices that I make on a daily basis. I have a close friend who was an excellent encouragement to me yesterday on this topic. She has two kids under two and they are both really sick with influenza A. She's not getting much sleep and most likely feels like a zombie a lot. However, yesterday she chose to make some amazing choices. She chose to cling to God and still enjoy her kids. That can be hard to do when everything is going great. It's especially difficult when you are so exhausted you don't feel remotely normal.

So today I'm taking that encouragement to heart. I've had some crappy nights of sleep. And I'm far from a delightful person when I'm exhausted. I tend to be the mean mommy who just wants to be left alone. I struggle with choosing to look past my exhaustion to God who can provide anything I need. He can provide me with patience and strength to do my day well.

Today I choose to enjoy my kids. If that that means ignoring my to-do list so I can just focus on them then so be it. I'm fine with spending the day playing with them, watching them, reading to them. They deserve a mommy who enjoys them. Not one who seems constantly annoyed because she can't look past how tired she is.

It's going to be a struggle. But I know my God is on my side and He will give me what I need to Mommy well!

Feeling the Pressure

I've mentioned it before but nesting for me is in the form of projects rather than cleaning or organizing. But maybe that's because there's always projects that NEED to be done and are more important than washing my walls. (Which come to think of it, they could use a good wipe down).

I finally was able to nap yesterday, but wasn't able to fall asleep because my brain wouldn't stop running with the things that need to get done. So the hubby told me to write out a list so he could start working on it. (He's so good to me!)

Writing it all out did help clear my head a little bit, but not that much. I still had trouble falling asleep last night. But now it's in a visible spot instead of stuck in my brain. :o)

First up is packing away all of the Christmas decorations and the tree. I can't wait for the tree to be gone, not going to lie. I'm sick of helping the kids remember to leave it alone. This won't happen until next week though. We have some other things going on this weekend that need to prep time. 

I have 14 weeks left if Cyan waits until 39 weeks. But that's actually only 13 more weekends (which offer the most time to get projects done). The next two weekends are pretty busy with some family stuff so that cuts me down to 11. Man, that stresses me out!! (breathing slowly). 

What about the week days you ask? Those would be great for getting stuff done, and things would get done faster and possibly in a more manageable way than in a weekend rush. Well, evenings are usually shot, because the kids miss Daddy all day and don't usually cooperate very well or long for us to get anything done. A lot of the projects are bedroom adjustments and can't be done after the kids go to bed. And during the day while Bryan is gone it is a miracle that we all survive through the day. My kids are in a "delightful" phase of fighting. All. the. time. If they see the other playing with a toy that they touched at some point or might even be their's they react with anger and go flying at the other person. I never thought I would have to stop my kids from trying to bite and strangle each other. But I do. On a daily basis. Now, I love my kids and they can play well together. But right now is not a time where I can leave them to play nicely while I work on a project. Just going into the kitchen to make a meal or get a snack is dangerous. I hope this phase ends quickly and they go back to being buddies that play well. 

Today is especially bad with this since they've had so much Daddy time with the holidays. They aren't handling him going back to work very well. And either am I!!

Okay, time for some snuggles and book reading to keep the peace. :o)

Need Some Sunshine?

I don't know about you but the lack of sunshine here in WNY greatly affects my mood, energy, and ability to feel normal. I can deal with cold and snow- I don't have a problem with that. BUT living under cloud cover the majority of the winter season drives me crazy!! I get so excited at every glimpse of sunshine and open the curtains at any prolonged appearance.

The following pictures aren't actually of sunshine, but they warm my heart just like the sun. They remind me of sunny, warm days.

Enjoy!!!

2014

Yeah I'm the punk planning out my goals and aspirations for 2014.

I'm good at brainstorming. Not so much with execution. ;o)

I've been teaching (alongside my Momma) a preschool class at a homeschool co-op through my church. It's been a great experience and Titus LOVES going to school. We just finished up our fall semester and I'm looking forward to the break. I'm going to use this time to plan out the spring and maybe even get ahead on some of the craft/activity prep. It's been pretty standard for me to being doing prep at 9 Wednesday night when co-op is Thursday morning. I'm hoping to break this cycle so I can enjoy teaching so much more.

I'm going to be more intentional with Titus about "learning time". This kid is crazy smart and it usually doesn't take him very long to catch on to something. (If he's interested.) I hope to make table time a little more exciting for him so he will enjoy it and learn things like tracing, cutting, and coloring inside the lines. He's an active little boy and really prefers to have sword fights and wrestle. So I'm sure we will do plenty of that stuff too. :) Well was much as my pregnant belly allows. :)

Along that line I think I could definitely be more intentional with Rya. Her vocabulary is increasing all the time. So I know we could work on colors, counting 1-5, and more item recognition. And of course reading lots of books. I want to read more with both kids. They generally love it and sometimes will sit for as many books as my voice can handle. And nothing is better these days than snuggling under a warm blanket reading books!

I want to read more books for myself this next year. I have a list of parenting books I'd like to read, like Grace-based Parenting by Dr. Tim Kimmel. I also want to read more books for just me. I love getting lost in a book, but it's been probably almost a year since I've really read anything. Makes me sad to think about. But the times I have for reading I usually spend sleeping! :o)

I've had a cleaning schedule up on my fridge for two years. I've never completed a week for various reasons. And I think that I'm going to revamp it to make it more doable. Not going to lie what usually hangs me up is working on the bedrooms. Anything that takes more than 10 minutes upstairs is hard to complete. Usually when I want to be upstairs working the kids are not in a cooperating mood and it's super frustrating. However, I do want to be better at staying on top of house work. So I'm going to rework the schedule I have and try to find one that works for our family. With adding another little one the daily tasks can't add up to too much time. Titus and Rya can help out a lot more, which generally they love to do.

Added to the cleaning theme I want to figure out a better system for laundry. Washing it isn't really an issue. Even though we have to go somewhere to wash our clothes I generally can stay on top of it. Putting away clean laundry is another story. Because we go somewhere else we usually end up doing laundry at night and therefore the clean clothes don't get put away the same day. So we end up with piles or baskets of clean clothes that we dig through for awhile until we are completely fed up and then finally put it all away. Why is it so hard to put away? I have no idea!!! I have my theories- like not being able to work upstairs when the kids are crazy which is more often than not. But maybe that's just a lame excuse. Although in the moment it feels very real! I also could work during nap time, but I'm usually sleeping too or enjoying a little peace and quiet. I often feel guilty for not getting work done during that time, but at the same time I really need that nap or down time.


I'm not going to wait until 2014 to start working on these. I know these things need to change so I'm going to start working on them now. I'm sure I will come up with more goals to focus on as time goes on but for now I think I have enough to work on!

What are your goals for 2014?

Rya's a Big Girl!!

Rya is a big girl. I'm denial that she will be two in about two months. It's insane how fast time is flying!!

Cyan will be here in about four months so we needed to get Rya out of the crib and into a regular bed. We got her a twin mattress from my MIL's house and some butterfly sheets (courtesy of my mom). The room isn't in it's final set up for when Cyan comes, but it's works for now while Rya gets used to sleeping in a different bed. 

Rya is gated into her room just so there's very little chance she will fall down the stairs if she wakes up in the middle of the night. She actually is pretty awesome at stairs, but I'm not willing to chance it. Because she's not stuck in a bed, she wakes up happy. I love waking up to "Momma!" rather than hysterical crying like something is wrong. 

Rya started the first night with a pillow, but when I went to bed she wasn't using it and almost falling off her bed avoiding it. She used the pillow the second night.

The bump on the side is a rolled up blanket to help keep her in bed. A pool noodle also works but I don't have one at the moment.

I can't believe my baby is so big. I love and hate it at the same time. It's awesome to watch her figuring stuff out or listening to her talk with these words she suddenly knows and can put into small sentences. Each season with my kiddos is awesome. It has it's challenges but overwhelmingly it's amazing and I wouldn't trade it for anything.

Christmas Decorations

The tree is up.

The tree is fluffed.

The tree was decorated by my cuties.

Saying something very important, but that darn flash!!!

Three of the husband's favorite ornaments.

I hate the ugly yellow light, but oh well. It's done!!

Some other random decorations.

Still to come:

-A star for the top of the tree. To be made by Titus and Daddy.

-We are going to turn our fridge into a snow man. Probably mostly to be done by me with some "coaching" from the Ti-man.

-Christmas lights on windows and maybe other various places.

We've never decorated this much for Christmas before and so far I'm enjoying it!! I'm usually very minimalist with holidays. Probably more out of laziness than anything, but the kids love it so it's totally worth it!!

New Play Area

THERE ARE NO MORE TOYS LIVING IN MY LIVING ROOM!!!!!

(Yes, I may be a TAD excited...  :o)   ).

We have lived in our house for two years and we have always had a toy corner. I have had a love-hate relationship with this corner. I loved that my kids had access to their toys and could get them without help from me. However the toys would take over my living room on a daily basis no matter how much sorting/cleaning/reducing we did. I hated it! My kids are classic dumpers. They dump out a bucket to fulfill some deep need to dump things and then it has always been a battle at clean up time. I've been told, "It's too hard to clean ____ up." My response was usually, "Well then remember that next time you want to dump toys out." Gracious, I know.

We finally came up with a solution. The other night we got home super late from Bryan's mom's house and after the kids were tucked away Bryan and I stayed up even later talking. (It had been awhile since we had even hung out so we didn't care it was so late.) We decided a long time ago that we didn't like out dining room table. It's beautiful and handmade at some point. But instead of four legs it has a massive column and four feet come off of that (that I usually stub my toe on). There are "wings" on both sides that you can pull up and snap into place to make the table bigger. These wings are not level and I question their strength. We don't even sit at the table because the kids aren't comfortable sitting at the table because their feet just hang. And Bryan and I aren't really that comfortable at that table. So it becomes a dumping ground for clutter...super annoying. So the dining room table is getting the boot. We like eating together but much prefer sitting on our couch. We are going to purchase a sturdy coffee table and sit around that as a family. I don't think family dinner HAS to be at a table but just needs to be together and for the most part electronic free. (Disclaimer: we greatly struggle with the electronic free part. But we are working on it.)

Since the dining room table is leaving there's no reason to keep calling it a dining room. The new name? Kid's play area!!! We are going to get an area rug hopefully this week sometime. In the mean time we moved the kid's book shelf and toys into the play area. I also brought down Rya's kitchen. We moved their art wall as well. And we have plans for other fun wall art/decorations.

I'm so excited about this change! My living room is finally free of toys. Of course toys may come into the living room but when it's time to clean up they go back into the play area. Last night I was able to sit with the hubs and just relax while not being smothered by toys.

We still need to actually get rid of the dining room table but the kids still have plenty of room to play.

I am one happy Momma!!!!