Tomorrow is a new week...there's hope...

Well, it's been one of those days. No, scratch that. It's been one of those weekends. You know...when everything goes wrong?? Yesterday, I was so excited to be going to a friend's house for an all girls night....so with Micah in one hand (okay, so it wasn't ALL girls) and my beautiful fruit skewers nicely arranged in half a melon in the other, I began the trek outdoors to my car. Here's a word of advice...never hold a melon full of fruit skewers in one hand. My fruit had a nice visit with the concrete.

After a moment of sadness, I packed up the van, and accidentally hit the alarm so that the van was beeping wildly. Once I shut it off my husband told me that I should "just go before I hurt myself." He couldn't of been more right.

I made a quick stop at the library to pick up a book I had on reserve. As I got out of the van I noticed my feet felt....funny. I looked down and to my horror I was wearing two different flip flops!!! And not two that were closely similar, but two that were very noticeably different...a hot pink one and a black one.

I figured I'd wake up this morning and things would be back to normal. However, not so. My kids have had one of those days. You know, when they are in tears for what seems like the whole day. Micah has not slept very much today, and spent most of the day crying and screaming. I felt like I was back in the throes of colic!! Alyssa had a nice temper tantrum and got into some mischief during nap time by unloading almost every piece of clothing from her dresser onto her floor. On top of that, I'm sure I stubbed my toe on every bouncer seat, high chair, and baby contraption in this house today. It is not my weekend.

So, I'll be honest, it's the end of the day, I got one out of the two kids sleeping, and I just had a little cry. and boy, did it feel good...lol. People that really know me know that I used to cry at the drop of a hat. Seriously, if you looked at me the wrong way I would cry. But I guess after having a couple kids you learn to hold it in better. But now I actually have the opposite problem. I rarely cry. And sometimes I want to, just to let it out instead of have it festering in me, but I can't. So needless to say, I just cried and I am happy about it!

well...tomorrow is Monday. Most people dread Monday. but i am looking forward to it. It's a new week!!

Under Construction...

I just wanted to say please bear with me as I am trying new things on my blog. I have been working on making it nicer to look at, but it is a learning experience!!

The "Fun" Manager

As I mentioned in my previous post, I've been reading, "A Wife After God's Own Heart." and boy, is not easy to swallow. Last night the chapter was about making time for fun with your family. You'd think a chapter like that would be light-hearted, but somehow, I still felt convicted at the end of it.

I was reading about how us as women want the husband to plan some fun. Why should it always be up to us, we think? This reminded me of a scenario that happened in my house not too long ago.

My mother-in-law graciously offered to babysit our two kids so Mr. Piano man and I could go out on a much-needed date. However, my response was for her to talk to him and get him to plan something. Like he didn't have enough on his plate working tons of hours, and than coming home to a tornado of a home with kids screaming. Yet I wanted him to be the "planner" because somehow I felt it would make me feel like he cared.

In the chapter I was reading last night, it basically said that we as women should aim to be the "family planner of fun". We know our family's schedules better than most in our household usually. And bottom line, as it said in the book, plan something fun and most likely your husband WILL show up!! And gosh darn it, he'll have fun doing it!!! :)

Why as a woman do I feel I need constant validation like that from my husband, or anyone for that matter? We are busy people, and life gets in the way. Just because he is not planning things the way he may have when we dated doesn't mean he cares any less. As a matter of fact, I know he loves me MORE!! He's so busy working so hard at work to provide for his family and make sure we are taken care of.

I love this book I am reading. Even though it's hard to swallow, so far I've discovered anything I've applied from the book to my life has in turn had a positive response. Each day I want to strive to be a better manager of my home, a better mother, and a better wife. And I can only do that if I look to what God has called me to be.

Proverbs 31 Wife

The title of this post is enough to scare you if you are a woman. For anyone who has read Proverbs 31, you know that it is a tall order of what is expected of us as wives. We are expected to rise early, make the meals, keep the house, work, work, work,..look attractive to our husbands, take care of the kids, learn to manage money, shop for the best deal...and all the while being joyful and content throughout all of this.

I'd be lying if I said that I was a Proverbs 31 wife. I struggle every day. There just doesn't seem to be enough hours in a day to do all that is expected. And frankly, some days I just plain don't want to! Some days as a woman I feel under-appreciated, overworked, and overlooked.

I love my kids like crazy, but with a toddler and a colicky baby (although he is finally growing out of it, what a blessing!) I was feeling the pressure. So, after almost three months of feeling guilty for taking a ten minute shower I decided it was time to get back into the WORD. You see, along with my personal hygiene suffering (lol) so was my daily devotions. and it was affecting every part of me.

I decided that along with my devotions, I would start reading books that reminded me of the wife that God called me to be, and essentially, the wife I really want to be! Right now I am in the middle of reading "A Wife After God's Own Heart" and boy, does it have some life lessons for me.

The big eye opener for me was an area of my attitude. I had what the book calls the "when...then" syndrome. Which means, "WHEN my husband does this, THEN I'll do that." And no one wins in that situation.

Adam was created, and then Eve. Eve was created to be Adam's helper. Although I know a lot of women would disagree, we are to be our husband's helper. It's not always easy. I don't always want to do it. But to me, it comes down to this. Am I striving to be the woman and wife the world calls me to be, or am I striving to be the woman and wife that GOD calls me to be? If my purpose here on earth is to serve God, the "when....then" syndrome shouldn't apply, because although this earth will one day fade away, God is everlasting.

You may read this and think I'm off my rocker. But I encourage you to just try it out for a week. Use gentle words rather than a harsh tone. Bite your tongue when you want to react. Do little acts of kindness for your family. And if you are like me you will be amazed to see that the whole atmosphere in your home will go from stress, to peace. We all go through stressful seasons of life, but it's what we do with it and how we react that really matters. I'm working on changing how I have been reacting to the season of life I am in.

And boy, do I feel blessed.

Things are settling down....

Well, I have not been on this blog for quite sometime, as you can tell by the date of the last post, but I am not sure if anyone reads this anyways, so...i guess it's okay!

I am hoping to blog more, and spend less time on facebook. I have a love-hate relationship with facebook...but that's for another blog! :)

So, Micah is about 14 weeks old, and is really growing out of the colic. Thank goodness too, because I was starting to wear thin. My heart has ached so much for this little guy, seeing all the pain he is in with the gas and the reflux, and so in return I have poured in extra time and energy that I may not have if he wasn't struggling with that. But now he is smiling, laughing, and doesn't cry all that much anymore!!

and Alyssa has moved to her toddler bed, very easily, I might add. However, potty training, not so well. We had to take a break because it wasn't going anywhere. I decided to return to it this morning. Alyssa had a ball like usual sitting on her potty, reading, hanging out...until it was time to pee. That's when she was done with sitting on the potty and wanted her diaper back on. Fine. I didn't want to push her and turn her against the potty. So then I tried some "big girl underwear" on her and thought maybe she'd pee in the potty if she was wearing some. Well, yeah, you guessed it. There I was this morning on my hands and knees washing the kitchen floor due to some...bodily fluids.

I'm at a loss for potty training, but I guess Alyssa is just over two. However, she is such a smart cookie I feel that she could easily get this.

Ah well, back to the drawing board...