Project Time

I have a growing list of projects I want/need to complete in the near future.

Side note: I haven't made any fun or exciting announcements but I am 15.5wks pregnant! :) So most of these projects revolve around that fact.

House projects:
-Organize and downsize toys in the house

-Switch rooms when we know what gender this baby is- two kids will be sharing.

-Rearrange downstairs and possibly reduce what we have

Sewing Projects:
-Make maternity pants. I have an awesome friend who is letting me borrow some of hers and they will work great for now. But I usually gain some weight in my thighs and butt and then those pants won't fit anymore.

-Make a Ring Sling. I'm going to pretty much follow the look of the Sukura Bloom brand rather than the Maya sling. I'm planning on using the sling for the tiny newborn days (if I like it). I have a tendency to have a lot of shoulder and back pain with holding/carrying/wearing my kids so hopefully that won't happen. If it does I will just go back to using my Moby Wrap.

-I have material to make Rya a blanket and I need to make the one I made Titus bigger since he's out-growing it.

Christmas Projects:
-I'm going to make broom stick horses for the kids- they pretend everything is a horse anyway so this should be fun for them.

-Crochet washclothes and hot pads for some family

-Sugar scrubs for some family.

This should all be fun and keep me VERY busy. Especially on top of everything else I have going on...ya know raising two little kids and all :)

Motherhood musings

Parenting.

It's something I dreamed of starting at a young age. All I ever consistently wanted to be was a wife and mother. I had other career aspirations but they didn't stick around very long.

I have that dream now. I'm the wife of an amazing man and I'm the mother to two amazing kids.

Sometimes though, in the middle of a hard season I wonder why I wanted to be a mother so bad. Don't get me wrong. I LOVE my kids. They are awesome. I am truly blessed to be their mother and have the opportunity to raise them. But there have been seasons that are hard! Baby days and lack of sleep can be hard but to me that's not the really hard part. It's teaching them to obey the first time every time, all the way and with a happy heart. To love their sibling instead of acting selfishly. To not argue with each other but especially with me or their Daddy. (Oh goodness the arguing! Drives me up a wall!!)

I'm in a rougher season right now where I find myself begging for time alone or my man to come home at night. I'm drained at the end of each day and pretty much go to bed as soon as the kids are down. I'm grateful for each weekend and try to keep it as laid back as possible.

But during all if this? God is still good. He is still faithful. He loves me and He loves my kids. He gives grace for each day and for each battle. I'm learning to rely on Him even more. To find the joy he still provides throughout my day. I'm so grateful that He is on my side. I don't have to do this alone. I try to and fail....miserably.

I'm so grateful for the way God has been speaking truth into my life. Through friends and their transparency, blog posts, His Word, music.

I've realized a few things recently while going through this season:

My kids need Jesus. They can only change their behavior so much. They need Jesus to change their hearts. I'm really seeing this with Titus. He understands quite a bit we are trying to be more intentional with explaining his need for Jesus.

I need Jesus. I need alone time with Jesus daily! I need to hear music that praises Jesus more than any other music. I need His wisdom to teach and guide these little people.

I'm excited to see how God works in their lives and also in mine. It's a fun, exciting, HARD journey but I wouldn't have it any other way!

"Be gentle!"

"Be gentle." This is going to be my common phrase from now out throughout my days.

Titus is a rambunctious boy. He loves to run, jump, tackle. He loves wrestling. (It's the one reason he cleans up toys with a fiery passion!) Most days I repeatedly tell him to not touch Rya, or to keep his hands off of her. He gets so rough with her and even though he just playing a girl can only have her head smashed into the floor/furniture so many times!

Oh and side note- to tell Titus to keep his HANDS off of Rya guarantees he will touch her/knock her down with a different body part. Telling him to be gentle removes that loop hole.

So here we go on the journey to be gentle....

Rya Update

Rya is such a sweet treasure!!

Her smile lightens up my day.

She will be 16 months in about a week. I feel like this time is flying but at the same time that Rya has been with us forever!!

Rya is such a copy cat! She follows her brother everywhere and tries to do everything he does. She's very good at problem solving like her brother.

Rya definitely is on the normal side of verbal skills. She's adding new words every day and tries to say almost anything if she's in the mood.

This girl is a climber! (Thanks to her brother!) It's never a shock to find her standing on the back of the couch looking out the window. And praise God unless her brother is involved she has never fallen or gotten hurt. Praying this continues!!!!

We are transitioning from two naps to one. Some days are easier than others. Rya could use 2 naps most days but is soo stubborn! She sleeps pretty well for nap and at night. Although lately she is waking up more at night. I'm chalking it up to cutting molars but who knows. It could be just to cuddle and connect with mommy.

She's still nursing- little booger won't give it up! And she's not eating a lot of food right now. Once again I am chalking that up to the teething...and her being a toddler. As far as I know she hasn't lost any weight yet so I'm not going to worry about it.

This girl is such a crazy blessing and I love her to pieces!!!

Titus Update

This kid is crazy.

And I love him!!!

We are currently in the middle of toilet training. He was breaking out in rashes and sweating really bad in the hot weather so I decided to ditch the diapers (except for sleep). He's rocking it! I'm sure we will have lots of accidents before we are done (and even after). But it hasn't been too bad yet! I'm still the initiator but that will change the longer we do this.

We are in a phase of Titus needing to learn how to express anger/frustration the right way vs screaming or yelling. It's hard and frustrating but he's learning.

This boy is so sporty!! He can throw pretty much anything and with dead-on aim if he tries. He LOVES baseball and soccer right now. He loves to play outside and absolutely LOVES to wrestle with Daddy.

Titus loves learning his numbers and letters and I'm trying to encourage that. It's not always easy but he's getting it slowly! I have a bunch of homeschool printables that I can use for him but I'm holding off on that for now. Rya is adjusting her naps so we don't always get one-on-one time where the printables would be easier.

He drives me crazy! He ignores me a lot and I am not as patient as I should be, but God is using that to work in my life. It reminds me of my God's unconditional, patient love and how I should have that for Titus. I'm a work in progress and I'm so thankful my God hasn't given up on me!!!

I'm so blessed to be Titus's mommy. We have a blast and it's more than worth it even when it's frustrating.

Another Announcement

Cutting to the chase- I ended up having a miscarriage Friday. It definitely sucks but I'm praising God it wasn't more physically taxing. I don't think I was very far along, which I think aided in my body's ability to do it all on its own.

I'm definitely sad that I have to wait to meet this little one, but I am at peace about it...usually. Bryan made a good point: we are sad for us but not for the baby. They didn't suffer, and didn't have to experience this fallen world. I'm sure I will have my moments. Part of me feels a little numb. So working through this with my loving Father.

Praising God for His goodness and grace!

Announcement and Ramblings

The Announcement: we are adding to our family again! The third (and last) mini free will be joining us between Christmas time and the middle of January!! We are so happy and excited and extremely blessed! I'm also scared out of my friggin mind! Some days it seems like I can barely handle the two I have already been blessed with and to add another one to that...really??? BUT overall the excitement and thankfulness win over the fear.

I have always viewed this blog as some sort of platform for I don't know what. I barely post because I'm self-conscious about what to say. I want it to sound just right and to be helpful, or entertaining. But my friend (Hi Heather!) pointed out that this could just be a journal of sorts, a way to record what's going on in life and what I'm thinking or feeling. So true!! If people like it and want to read it, great! If not? Oh well! I cant still look back and see how God was working in my life. So here's to a new chapter of blogging- to writing what I want, when I want and not worrying about the attention I could get from doing so. Hopefully this means more posts, but I'm not sure that's a guarantee. :o)

With the baby coming my brain is going INSANE!!! I started making a "Baby need" list the day I found out I am expecting. I am constantly making plans in my head of what needs to happen in our family and in our house before this baby comes. Because we all know this baby will be here NEXT WEEK! (Or that's at least what my brain thinks and therefore is puts a crazy urgent label on EVERYTHING!) 

Here's some of the stuff that needs to happen before this baby comes:

-Rya NEEDS to wean- sooner the better! I know there's the option of tandem nursing and no offense to those that want to or have done that but I'm not interested. I would like my boobs to myself for a short time before they are hijacked again for at least a year. (I willingly nurse so maybe hijack is too strong of a word??)

-Both Titus and Rya need to sleep through the night. Yes, what were we thinking wanting to add another sleep interrupter to this craziness?? :) Titus wakes up 1-3x a night and just climbs in bed with us. If we sleep through it, no harm no foul. However, he usually wakes me up. We are going to make him a bed on our floor and teach him to sleep there if he wants to be close to us. Our bed is not big enough so Mr. Titus and his elbows and horizontal sleeping. I've found that if Rya has a later bedtime (9ish) she will usually sleep straight through to about 6-630. I'm going to keep rolling with that because not getting up with her is AWESOME!

-The bedrooms in my house are a mess and NEED to be cleaned, straightened, and organized! I'm sick of random piles of crap EVERYWHERE! Totally our fault that it's like that. And that as a family we live out of laundry baskets. It just needs to change. It's ridiculous and I'm over it. (But still too tired to do anything about it, so here I sit and rant...)

-My housework needs to get on a schedule/routine and I NEED to actually do it. It's not that hard, right? Oh wait, yes it is...apparently...because I suck at it. The clutter hot spots in my house are the stairs (can we say safety hazard??), our bedrooms, and what I call the diaper station. My kitchen is also rather annoying at dirty dishes keep popping up and I don't know how to get rid of them. ;o) My pantry is also rather annoying. My kids like to rearrange the items on the shelves and then there's item that are a no-no for them to mess with. So it's just a hot mess. Although I can find everything. Not sure anyone can, though!! 

I have decided that I start nesting super early, but I just have no energy to do anything about it until 2nd tri or later, which makes me pretty crabby. :o)

On to other things! Bryan has a new job! He now works at LocalEdge which is a huge company! He is working in the web design division as a web project coordinator. He says it's mostly clerical and kind of boring but it's a step in the door, higher pay, great people, and gives him opportunities to learn about web design, which he would LOVE to get into. He schedule is even a little better...830-430. He hasn't really left on time yet, but when he does it will be great! His position is a new one to help alleviate some of the work from the web designers. So right now he's playing catch up. Once that's over I'm sure he will be able to leave on time more often. 

Okay I'm done. I could keep going because that means I could continue to sit on my butt and essentially do nothing but my kitchen is ridiculous and my Mom-in-Love is coming over later and I don't want to have to hang my head in shame.