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A lesson learned through spaghetti
We were driving to the beach for a week of vacation with my husband’s family. Our oldest two girls had left home earlier that morning with their grandparents, so the car was quiet with just my husband, our 17 month old son and our 9 week old daughter. The quiet was a nice break–no questions, no complaining, no bickering–a nice respite. For, I don’t know, maybe the millionth time, I handed a graham cracker to my son. Maybe this time he’ll actually put it in his mouth. I turned back around in my seat to continue the conversation with my husband. And a few seconds later I heard it. “Crunch.…
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Day 11 :: Thriving with a Newborn: Sleeping through the Night
“Oh, what a precious baby! How is she sleeping?” Sound familiar? For anyone who’s ever had a newborn in their life, this is often the first question people ask. Why? I’m not really sure, except that it’s fairly common knowledge for newborns to have erratic sleep patterns and for parents to be tired. all. the. time. When people would ask about how my first child was sleeping at night and I would tell them she slept through the night, they would say, “Oh, just wait till the next one comes. You won’t get that lucky twice!” Now that all four of my children have slept through the night at an…
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Day 10 :: A Predictable Routine
Today and tomorrow I’m going to share some practical things that I’ve done to try and help with the thriving in our home. These things have helped me to function better as a wife and mom. Most of us have some sort of rhythm to our days: we wake up, eat, do stuff, eat again, do more stuff, eat again, start on more stuff, go to bed. It’s pretty simple when you put it that way. And yet it gets complicated when you’re waking little people up, feeding those little people, entertaining the little people, and getting the little people into bed. Some days I just want to pull…
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When Life Overwhelms
I’d like to think I’m one of those Moms who can wake up every morning with a joyful spirit, sit and read to my children for hours, play make believe whenever they want, do the laundry, make a great meal, manage our home, and still have time to chat with friends, workout and decorate my house in a seasonally appropriate way. I’m not one of those Moms. My heart struggles to rejoice and my tongue often reflects that with angry tones and harsh words to my children. As I write this, dirty clothes are literally spilling out of the laundry room into the hall. Last week all of my toilets…
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Cutting Out & Working Out: Getting Rid of Pregnancy Weight
Today marks 8 weeks postpartum with Jennavieve. I gave myself a full seven weeks to recover from having a baby and get into a good groove with breastfeeding before starting to tackle the removal of excess pregnancy weight. After four babies and one miscarriage in the last five years, my body has undergone weight gain and weight loss a lot, but never with a focus on toning my muscles and truly working hard at getting back in shape. After my miscarriage in 2011, I did run for a few months which was wonderful. I ended that stint of exercise by running/walking a 10-miler while 9 weeks pregnant with Mason. September,…
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Our Weekend: Bringing Home Baby
This weekend ended up quite gloriously! After spending two weeks in the NICU, we were able to bring Jennavieve home! I spent much of Sunday afternoon holding my precious baby girl, staring into her face, and reveling in the fact that she is really ours, she’s home, and our family is together at last. The girls are doting big sisters, giving her toys, wanting to hold her, and being very interested in everything about her. Mason is still trying to figure out this new person who has interrupted his life. At one point, Mason would cry every time Jennavieve cried. He’s always had a tender heart, but I’m hoping this…
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Tips to Surviving the First Trimester of Pregnancy
Now that I’m in my third trimester with this pregnancy, I thought I’d look back and share some tips for surviving the first trimester. Everyone’s experience is different, but these things have definitely helped me. The first trimester of pregnancy can be a challenging time. Having young children adds to the challenges, and instead of rejoicing in the expectation of new life, the temptation is to become discouraged, full of self-pity, and just plain grumpy. Last year someone asked if I would write a post on some tips for surviving the first trimester. I never got around to it, but now that I’ve gone through 5 first trimesters, I figured…
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Rose Art Sidewalk Chalk Contest
Sidewalk chalk is such a fun way to enjoy being outdoors with my kids. They love to draw on the sidewalk {and occasionally on our mailbox} and they especially love it when I draw for them! When Rose Art contacted me about participating in a sidewalk chalk contest, I readily signed up! I was sent three different packs of Surprise Inside Sidewalk Chalk and chose one to use for my entry. We were challenged to create some sort of outside project so I’ve submitted mine in the contest. We’ll see just how good my artistic skills are with sidewalk chalk. I started out with this pack of chalk: Since today…
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Make Your Own Baby Food
One of the things that I’ve really enjoyed during with all three of my children is making baby food. For some this might sound like a horrible waste of time. ‘Why make baby food when you can purchase it so easily from the store?’ There are many reasons that people choose to make their own baby food. Mine is not for health purposes necessarily, although I do like knowing exactly what is in the food I’m feeding my baby. My reasons are primarily two-fold: 1. It’s a bit more economical.2. I enjoy it. My general rule of thumb in grocery shopping is to only buy produce {and meat} that is…
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10 Weeks to Go & Put in Your Vote!
Friday marked the 30 week point of this pregnancy! Time keeps going by more quickly and I can’t believe we’re getting so close to meeting this new little one! I thought I’d share some photos of me at 30 weeks with all three pregnancies, give you some stats, and then you can cast your vote on whether you think this baby is a boy or girl. {For any newcomers, no, we are not going to find out this baby’s gender until delivery}. This picture was actually taken at 31 weeks with Isabella, but here I am: This one is 30 weeks with Mallory: And, this one was taken on Saturday,…