Outside My Window: Today was an interesting weather day. It began cloudy and dreary with chances of severe thunderstorms, even possibly with some tornadoes! It did rain on and off throughout the day and was quite muggy but thankfully no twisters came out of it (somewhat to my husband’s dismay).  The sun came out toward the end of the day and the kids spotted a nice rainbow arching over the houses and fall-colored leaves. 

I am Wearing: Well I guess this will be my jammies now. I did have on some khaki capris (maternity) and a brown shirt (maternity also) but, I changed into shorts and a new shirt (yup, still maternity) after getting hot and sweaty from walking a mile on the Y’s track while watching my daughter’s gymnastics class and wearing baby in my wrap.  

I am so Grateful for: Good friends and walks in the park and zoo this week;my mom for coming to watch her granddaughter at gymnastics and listening to me vent about my boys (see below); my sister for watching them for me for a little bit (even if they were a handful);  my dad for going to Adoration for me so I didn’t have to wrestle all 4 kids while trying to enjoy ‘quiet’ and ‘peaceful’ time with Jesus (I enjoyed a nice nap instead); and enjoying a great doctor’s appointment this week with a doctor that knows how to ‘prescribe’ vitamins/minerals and talk nutrition with me vs. just sticking me on pill(s) -I’ll pay the extra money for that! I have so much to be thankful for and for that I am thankful.  

I’m Pondering: The Mission of Motherhood, especially this part:

This pursuit of ‘motherhood’ to the abandonment of all else quickly became a burden- a toxic mix of legalism and perfectionism. It was if I couldn’t see the forest for the tree. I was so obsessed with that perfection and picture-perfect womanhood that I couldn’t see how miserable I was making my family and myself. I can see now what a trap it was- and how little room was left for the Holy Spirit to move and instruct in my life.

I’m Praying: For peace, patience, and wisdom in dealing with my sons; for discernment of how I can best serve God with where I am right now; for a friend who will welcome her baby into the world soon. 

I am Reading: I finished The Passion of Mary-Margaret and would definitely recommend it for a nice fictional read with spiritual nourishment added in as a bonus, it gave me a lot to think about. Now I need something new. I’m also going back to reading a daily entry in The Intellectual Devotional: Revive Your Mind, Complete Your Education, and Roam Confidently with the Cultured Class and The Intellectual Devotional: American History whenever I sit down to nurse, it’s great mind stimulation! One day I’ll get my brain all back together…right? 

I am Thinking: about writing something for the new Year of the Faith and the New Evangelization. I’m also thinking about writing more in general and how/where/when/if I can serve God more in my writing. 

I’m working on: Tonight I finished sealing the last of the birth announcements and Thank You cards, yay! Now I just need to get to the post office…before baby turns a year hopefully. 

Around the House: I can’t believe just a week ago we started the process of rearranging rooms for my daughter’s room and she is already sleeping in her new room! We are way ahead of schedule for once! It’s really quite amazing. The “Learning Room” is now my husband’s office/telescope/hobby room, the basement is where most of our toys are now (I’m loving that!), and the old ‘office’ is now my daughter’s very own room, and she is loving that! I’m so proud of her (and my husband) for moving everything so quickly and mostly on her own. She really worked hard to earn that room. Now we just get to have fun decorating it! She, like me, wants it to be done now but I keep reminding her that I said we’d have things ‘done’ by Christmas/birthday so we don’t need to rush. I did help her hang up her bulletin board in there but the baby decided that was all I needed to do today. I’ll try and take pictures of the progress soon.  

From the Kitchen: Today I baked some healthy banana bread muffins. I say healthy because I used only 2 TB of sugar (xylitol) instead of the 3/4 cup the recipe called for and I also used only white whole wheat flour. It was more like a ‘bread’ than a sugary dessert treat but could easily be dolled up with honey/jelly. I also made this same recipe with rye flour instead of wheat and it tasted great also so you really can’t go too wrong with banana bread. My weekly meal plan  is going very nicely! It’s nice not trying to come up with something new every day of the week and I think it’s making grocery shopping simpler and maybe even cheaper, we’ll see. I’m also letting myself be more relaxed with how quickly I get dinner going and finished which is good because there’ve been some days it’s 7 p.m. and we still haven’t eaten dinner!

The Kiddos: We celebrated our son’s third birthday this week! I can still remember the day he was born, though it’s not quite as fresh now that we’ve had another birth since then. I told him now that he’s three he has to listen to me all the time and never get in trouble. That lasted a few days and then he realized it was just a trick. 

Our daughter is settling in nicely in her room, she spent most of the afternoon reading away in there. I swear think she goes through books as fast as a chain smoker some days. At first, she was closing her door during the day but I told her to only close the door when she’s sleeping or changing, I don’t want her new room to separate herself from us…not yet! Though I’m still a bit sad that she’s on her own now I’m also looking forward to having some one-on-one girl time in her room when the boys go to bed before her. It’s been a little tricky getting the boys to respect her new space and privacy.

Speaking of the boys…sigh. I love them so very much, I have to say that upfront. Our five-year-old (soon to be 6!) has been causing me great frustration this week. It seems like the only time he is good is at school, which is good, I hope he stays good there, but I wish he could carry that back home too. I think he is either bored or is subconsciously trying to get my attention since I’m so focused on baby right now…or maybe a bit of both. I think the latter is definitely true for the (now) three-year old for sure, it’s very obvious he doesn’t like when I have to nurse baby all the time. When the baby cries he says, “It’s ok, baby, you don’t need nurse again, it’s ok.” I know boys will be boys but do they have to be so loud and wild all the time and touch and break and ruin everything? Where is their “time-out” button? (so far the only thing I’ve found is the PBS videos but then they turn back into monsters when its over.) 

The Baby:

Yup, I’m still totally in love with him. I feel like he’s this…gift God gave me…a ‘prize’ so to say for making it through the pregnancy and birth and the other 3 kids thus far. He’s like, well done…now I’ll give you this ‘easy’ one for a little bit. He’s been great, it’s been the best 8 weeks with a newborn so far. I don’t know how much longer it will last and I’m slightly nervous for what this might mean for his toddler/teenage years but for now I’m just soaking this up. He’s not perfect by any means, he hardly sleeps on his own during the day anymore without being held/wrapped with me or daddy and it takes some time to get him to sleep in the evening before he lays down on his own for a little while before latching onto me in our bed for the night. He did have a random cranky evening a couple days ago, he must have been gassy or overly tired, not sure. But even with all that, he’s been way easier…and I’m also much more relaxed and used to the drill, if he were our first I’d probably be describing things differently. Oh, and he poops now –daily!  

Picture to Share:

Even if they do drive me wild, they know how to make me laugh. It was silly hair day here a few weeks ago…

I love this Hungry Caterpillar outfit we’ve had since our daughter, but it isn’t going to fit him much longer…

Reading together

The now three-year-old in his new jammies!

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