Today I read a Blog on Foxnews.com, that I loved. Although not directly associated to my life as a mother, God and Christ do play a big part in our life and the way we chose to raise our family. I am not a bible beater, never have been. I have never been one of those who shoves my Christianity in others faces. I believe. I have always believed in a greater power, and that someone else was responsible for everything we have here on earth.
When I read this blog, I just fell in love with it. The writer possesses the ability to explain things that many Christians think and feel about all the time in an eloquent way. Because of this, I have posted his blog below.
Whatever your positions or feeling are I urge everyone to seek their beliefs for themselves. You may find that what you did, or didn’t believe in may or may not be what you thought it was. I know for me, I studied many religions for several years at the urging of my parents. I always came back to Christianity.
But for me and my family, we will serve the Lord.
Ten Reasons I Believe In God
By Bill ShulerPastor, Capital Life Church, Arlington, Virginia
1. An innate sense of right and wrong came from somewhere.
2. The universe is far too organized and intricate to have come about by chance.
3. Seeing chimps doesn’t compel me to organize a family reunion.
4. Anyone who has witnessed a baby’s birth will attest to miracles.
5. He has appeared in history.
6. There must be a reason the heart hungers for truth.
7. People since ancient times have sought Him.
8. People since ancient times have found Him.
9. I see Him in the lives of those who forgive.
10. I spoke with Him this morning.
The major questions of life demand a verdict. Where did I come from? Is there more to life than what I am experiencing? Does God exist? The Bible says, “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.”
Monday, March 30, 2009
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
The Joys of Motherhood
When you are pregnant, everyone tells you all the great stuff that will happen to you when the baby comes! How full of love you will be and the overwhelming since of happiness that will follow the birth of your child. How exciting life will become. And all kinds of other wonderful sediments.
For some reason, everyone leaves out the CRAP! Latterly the crap that comes with motherhood.
Take away the fact that no one tells you what REALLY happens when you get pregnant or have a baby. For some reason everyone who gave birth before the year 2000 LOVED being pregnant. I don’t think until we entered the new century people were allowed to dislike pregnancy. Don’t get me wrong, it was amazing to feel my son move, to know that part of my husband and my myself was being made by the miracle of God. But take that away and that was pretty much all I liked! I literally threw up from 7-7 for 9 months, my son dropped in the 4th month and sat head down on my pelvic bone causes major back spasms and emins pain just to walk. For some unknown reason, several of my best friends decided to get married in my last trimester, one I was in the wedding and looked like a Giant piece of brown dog poo, and the other I stepped out sort of last minute, but still went to the wedding. 14 hours in the car 4 weeks before you give birth is HELL on your ankles.
Take pregnancy aside and forgive everyone who lied to you about how wonderful it was or how easy labor was. Because in all fairness, it is totally worth all the pain and suffering. However, I will still cry and call my mom after days like the following.
On Saturday, after a wonderful week long visit from my mom and narnia (which is apparently Kaje’s new name for Aunt Natalee) we drove to the other side of the water to drop them at the airport. Earlier in the day when he woke up he told my mom and I he was sick. Well seeing as he is 2, we just shrugged it off. Kids his age learn new words and want to use them all the time, yet don’t always use them in the right context. Case-n-point this week his thing has been to tell you “I not done” yet he will hand you and empty yogurt, or not have been doing anything at all. So, I head off to work that morning and my sister and mom pack up, straighten the house, and get ready for me to get home. We are going to take Kaje to the new Jumping place by the house (one of those indoor inflatable play parks, super fun). They had taken him earlier in the week and wanted to take him one more time before they left, and since their flight wasn’t till late we figured we would go on over. He played, but not as hard as he usually does. After about 45 minutes he came up and climbed in my lap and put his head on my chest, something my child NEVER does. We figured he was just tired from a long week of playing hard all day with my sister and staying up till 10 pm. So off to the airport we went.
We made it through the tunnel in record time and decided to get some dinner before heading to the airport. We drove around for a few minuets to see what was in the area before deciding to eat at Ruby Tuesday. Maybe not the best food, but there is never a wait and we could get in and out pretty quickly. Just as we u-turned (yes that is legal here in VA) to head back to the restaurant I see projectile vomit spewing from my child. All over my sister, all over himself, all over the truck. I am in the far left lane of a 5 lane road. I am screaming at my sister to get him out of the car seat. My son has a record of chocking on everything and I can see his face is turning the purply red color it gets when he is chocking (yes this is a regular occurrence which is why when we have baby sitters he is not allowed to eat anything while we are gone). My sister is screaming that she can’t because the car seat buckles are too tight, well hello I don’t want him flying out of the seat if we get in an accident. Like any normal mother with a chocking child in the back seat I am rolling down widows flagging people to get out of may way, honking the horn, slamming across 5 lanes of traffic as quickly as I can. Pull in the 1st parking lot I can get the vehicle in, slam it in to park and have me kid out of the car seat, flipped upside down, in a matter of minuets. Forget the fact that I too am now covered in vomit. Once we are breathing again, we are vomiting again. Just our luck we are in a Target parking lot. Natalee runs in to get herself and my son some new clothes, my mom goes into the Taco Bell for some garbage bags ( to bag all the clothes up), I strip my kid and his car seat of pretty much everything they have on and get to whipping things down with whatever I can find, plus wipes. Oh the joys. After everyone is cleaned up and changed we of course decide against dinner and head to the airport. Since we still have over an hour and a half till their flight leaves we decide we will grab something to eat at the dinner inside. I drop mom and Natalee at the door to get checked in and Kaje and head to park. Once we get in and order he turns to me and says, Mommy I pee pee. Ok, I say back. We are potty training so he likes to tell you a lot he has gone to the potty when he hasn’t or when he doesn’t need to, plus we are in a diaper so I am not too concerned. Well, I should have been. Then he looks and me and says, Mommy I yucky. Well this means poo, yes all the crap I was telling you about =) Well, lucky for me my mom forgot to put the wipes should used to clean his tennis shoes back into the diaper bag, then my child gets up ( he was playing on the side of the table that had a little bench in it and looking at all the airplanes) and he is socked. The new clothes are covered in pee, and what I guess is poo, but is defiantly yucky. So off the the bathroom we go.
Thank God for the new Family restrooms. At least when you are un prepared you can hid yourself from rolling eyes of others. I basically stood my child in a sink in the bathroom and washed him down. Put on a clean diaper and sat him in the stroller with his blankest wrapped around his legs so you didn’t know he wasn’t wearing any pants. Lucky for me we made it home before any more vomiting or explosive diapers, but the weekend was full of them.
On a side note. I will say that this was the 1st time EVER I was not fully prepared! My friend Amy has always made fun of me and my diaper bag which is usually loaded down with extra everything! I will now be going back to that. Even though it is bulky and annoying, at least I will have supplies!
For some reason, everyone leaves out the CRAP! Latterly the crap that comes with motherhood.
Take away the fact that no one tells you what REALLY happens when you get pregnant or have a baby. For some reason everyone who gave birth before the year 2000 LOVED being pregnant. I don’t think until we entered the new century people were allowed to dislike pregnancy. Don’t get me wrong, it was amazing to feel my son move, to know that part of my husband and my myself was being made by the miracle of God. But take that away and that was pretty much all I liked! I literally threw up from 7-7 for 9 months, my son dropped in the 4th month and sat head down on my pelvic bone causes major back spasms and emins pain just to walk. For some unknown reason, several of my best friends decided to get married in my last trimester, one I was in the wedding and looked like a Giant piece of brown dog poo, and the other I stepped out sort of last minute, but still went to the wedding. 14 hours in the car 4 weeks before you give birth is HELL on your ankles.
Take pregnancy aside and forgive everyone who lied to you about how wonderful it was or how easy labor was. Because in all fairness, it is totally worth all the pain and suffering. However, I will still cry and call my mom after days like the following.
On Saturday, after a wonderful week long visit from my mom and narnia (which is apparently Kaje’s new name for Aunt Natalee) we drove to the other side of the water to drop them at the airport. Earlier in the day when he woke up he told my mom and I he was sick. Well seeing as he is 2, we just shrugged it off. Kids his age learn new words and want to use them all the time, yet don’t always use them in the right context. Case-n-point this week his thing has been to tell you “I not done” yet he will hand you and empty yogurt, or not have been doing anything at all. So, I head off to work that morning and my sister and mom pack up, straighten the house, and get ready for me to get home. We are going to take Kaje to the new Jumping place by the house (one of those indoor inflatable play parks, super fun). They had taken him earlier in the week and wanted to take him one more time before they left, and since their flight wasn’t till late we figured we would go on over. He played, but not as hard as he usually does. After about 45 minutes he came up and climbed in my lap and put his head on my chest, something my child NEVER does. We figured he was just tired from a long week of playing hard all day with my sister and staying up till 10 pm. So off to the airport we went.
We made it through the tunnel in record time and decided to get some dinner before heading to the airport. We drove around for a few minuets to see what was in the area before deciding to eat at Ruby Tuesday. Maybe not the best food, but there is never a wait and we could get in and out pretty quickly. Just as we u-turned (yes that is legal here in VA) to head back to the restaurant I see projectile vomit spewing from my child. All over my sister, all over himself, all over the truck. I am in the far left lane of a 5 lane road. I am screaming at my sister to get him out of the car seat. My son has a record of chocking on everything and I can see his face is turning the purply red color it gets when he is chocking (yes this is a regular occurrence which is why when we have baby sitters he is not allowed to eat anything while we are gone). My sister is screaming that she can’t because the car seat buckles are too tight, well hello I don’t want him flying out of the seat if we get in an accident. Like any normal mother with a chocking child in the back seat I am rolling down widows flagging people to get out of may way, honking the horn, slamming across 5 lanes of traffic as quickly as I can. Pull in the 1st parking lot I can get the vehicle in, slam it in to park and have me kid out of the car seat, flipped upside down, in a matter of minuets. Forget the fact that I too am now covered in vomit. Once we are breathing again, we are vomiting again. Just our luck we are in a Target parking lot. Natalee runs in to get herself and my son some new clothes, my mom goes into the Taco Bell for some garbage bags ( to bag all the clothes up), I strip my kid and his car seat of pretty much everything they have on and get to whipping things down with whatever I can find, plus wipes. Oh the joys. After everyone is cleaned up and changed we of course decide against dinner and head to the airport. Since we still have over an hour and a half till their flight leaves we decide we will grab something to eat at the dinner inside. I drop mom and Natalee at the door to get checked in and Kaje and head to park. Once we get in and order he turns to me and says, Mommy I pee pee. Ok, I say back. We are potty training so he likes to tell you a lot he has gone to the potty when he hasn’t or when he doesn’t need to, plus we are in a diaper so I am not too concerned. Well, I should have been. Then he looks and me and says, Mommy I yucky. Well this means poo, yes all the crap I was telling you about =) Well, lucky for me my mom forgot to put the wipes should used to clean his tennis shoes back into the diaper bag, then my child gets up ( he was playing on the side of the table that had a little bench in it and looking at all the airplanes) and he is socked. The new clothes are covered in pee, and what I guess is poo, but is defiantly yucky. So off the the bathroom we go.
Thank God for the new Family restrooms. At least when you are un prepared you can hid yourself from rolling eyes of others. I basically stood my child in a sink in the bathroom and washed him down. Put on a clean diaper and sat him in the stroller with his blankest wrapped around his legs so you didn’t know he wasn’t wearing any pants. Lucky for me we made it home before any more vomiting or explosive diapers, but the weekend was full of them.
On a side note. I will say that this was the 1st time EVER I was not fully prepared! My friend Amy has always made fun of me and my diaper bag which is usually loaded down with extra everything! I will now be going back to that. Even though it is bulky and annoying, at least I will have supplies!
Thursday, March 19, 2009
MIA
So I apologize to all of you who I am sure are just DYING to know what Kaje and I have been up too. Life has been busy to say the least. And I seem to have had a tremendous amount of bad news in the past few months and think that my mind has been mostly per occupied with that.
We have been doing well though! 30 days and counting for Wes to get home! Lots and lots of work going on at the house in just the past 5 days! One upside to a down economy is that home improvement guys offer better rates for cash =) The past weekend I FINALLY got the hallway painted and all of the trim work done (we have only lived in the house for 3 years), the guest bath and guest bedroom have been repainted and all of the trim work has been finished in their as well and it looks AMAZING! My mom and I emptied out closets, cabinets, extra furniture, and took pictures off the wall, got it all packed up and moved into a storage unit to have the house look more staged and less personal. In this market it is all about the buyer. Last night we got the entry way and dinning room completely primed and the painter will be back on Saturday to pain it the same neutral color as the hall, guest room and bath which will help neutralize the house and make it feel larger. As much as I hated to paint over the green (which I am in LOVE with) I knew it would make the house feel lighter and larger, and it isn’t about what I want anymore. Not sure why people can’t see past paint colors but that seems to be an issue, so the more basic I am the better off we will be. Kaje’s room will stay green, the master bed and bath are a deeper tan then the hallway color, the den is a darker brown as well, so those will stay, and then you will just have the yellow in the kitchen. Hopefully all this work will be worth it! On Sunday I am getting a light in the Den! Not sure whose idea it was in the 70’s and 80’s to build houses without central lighting, but I feel strongly that they should be shot! Last summer we added central lighting to all the bedrooms and this will be the last room that needs it! So a HUGE advantage over other homes in the neighborhood and surprisingly enough, not that expensive to add =) The most exciting thing to come is that the last weekend in March I am paying someone to lay the rest of the hardwood floor in the master bedroom! Wes and I can do it for sure, but it takes a while, and what would take us all day, will take a professional 3-4 hours…and for $220 you just can’t beat it! $1 a sq ft! They will also be taking the carpet in the master bedroom and laying it on the stairs and hallway. For those of you who don’t know, I so graciously dumped a gallon of paint down my stairs about a year and half ago, so it will be nice to have that fixed! Then the 1st weekend in April the painter will be back doing some carpentry work. Wes’s carpentry skills have proven to be GREAT if you want your cabinets to withstand a hurricane, but not so great if you do not want to lift a 50 lbs drawer every time you need a fork. So I am going to have Harry put new bottoms in bottom cabinets and re-build that drawer for us as well as finish laying all the rest of the quarter round Wes didn’t get done before he deployed! It will be amazing! The only thing Wes and I should have left to do when he gets home is sod the backyard, and replace the sub floor and tile the guest bath. Sounds like a big job, but Harry told me if we had everything ripped out before he got there (which I am excitant at demolition) he could get the new sub floor down in about 2 hours costing me a whopping $40! And though I will NEVER tile a Kitchen again in my life! Bathrooms are not so bad, so I will be laying the last room of tile needed and we will be officially ready to be on the market!
It is amazing how much you can get accomplished with someone watching your 2 year old and a little money!
All about Kaje
I am not sure where he has learned it, or why it is just now coming about. But he has officially learned how to sass his mother. Not quite with words, but more with gestures and grunting noises that have proven to escalate over the past few weeks and reached a point of no return this week with BB and Aunt Nene in town. It should be fun to get that back in order when they leave here on Saturday. They say whatever you did to your parents you will get back twice as much with your children, I wish I had been a better kid, because we are in for some major attitude issues ( I am sure no one saw that coming LOL). Using the potty has again officially ceased to exist. We only want to use the potty for standing on and filling with water from the bathtub, both options I am not a fan of. Full force potty training will be taking place as soon as daddy is home to assist as well as must come about during daddy’s leave time as we must be fairly close to potty trained to start our new school in August. I love the new babysitter he has been at since December, however think he needs more structure now, so he will be attending full time preschool this fall with an extend hour program. So just half day of school and the rest will be free time, but I think 3-4 hours of solid structure will be good for him as he seems to flourish more in that environment.
Kaje has also grown his vocabulary by leaps and bounds over the past month. Almost always speaking in full phrases and sentences. Although grammar is not always used properly I am still often amazed and that words he puts together as well as how many he will use together to talk to you. I am hesitant to say he is advanced, because all parents think their kids are advanced, however according to most of what I have read it is not until you are 3 that you are speaking in phrase 80-90% of the time and at 4 your sentences should sound like an adult. I have been told by 2 speech pathologist that his articulation is definitely advanced, but I think most of his vocabulary and speaking in phrase has a lot to do with the fact that he is the only one at home with me, so I talk to him a lot more then I think the average toddle talks to their parent =)
Other then that we are great! Just looking forward to Daddy getting home, selling the house, finding a new job, and relocating to Charleston SC.
We have been doing well though! 30 days and counting for Wes to get home! Lots and lots of work going on at the house in just the past 5 days! One upside to a down economy is that home improvement guys offer better rates for cash =) The past weekend I FINALLY got the hallway painted and all of the trim work done (we have only lived in the house for 3 years), the guest bath and guest bedroom have been repainted and all of the trim work has been finished in their as well and it looks AMAZING! My mom and I emptied out closets, cabinets, extra furniture, and took pictures off the wall, got it all packed up and moved into a storage unit to have the house look more staged and less personal. In this market it is all about the buyer. Last night we got the entry way and dinning room completely primed and the painter will be back on Saturday to pain it the same neutral color as the hall, guest room and bath which will help neutralize the house and make it feel larger. As much as I hated to paint over the green (which I am in LOVE with) I knew it would make the house feel lighter and larger, and it isn’t about what I want anymore. Not sure why people can’t see past paint colors but that seems to be an issue, so the more basic I am the better off we will be. Kaje’s room will stay green, the master bed and bath are a deeper tan then the hallway color, the den is a darker brown as well, so those will stay, and then you will just have the yellow in the kitchen. Hopefully all this work will be worth it! On Sunday I am getting a light in the Den! Not sure whose idea it was in the 70’s and 80’s to build houses without central lighting, but I feel strongly that they should be shot! Last summer we added central lighting to all the bedrooms and this will be the last room that needs it! So a HUGE advantage over other homes in the neighborhood and surprisingly enough, not that expensive to add =) The most exciting thing to come is that the last weekend in March I am paying someone to lay the rest of the hardwood floor in the master bedroom! Wes and I can do it for sure, but it takes a while, and what would take us all day, will take a professional 3-4 hours…and for $220 you just can’t beat it! $1 a sq ft! They will also be taking the carpet in the master bedroom and laying it on the stairs and hallway. For those of you who don’t know, I so graciously dumped a gallon of paint down my stairs about a year and half ago, so it will be nice to have that fixed! Then the 1st weekend in April the painter will be back doing some carpentry work. Wes’s carpentry skills have proven to be GREAT if you want your cabinets to withstand a hurricane, but not so great if you do not want to lift a 50 lbs drawer every time you need a fork. So I am going to have Harry put new bottoms in bottom cabinets and re-build that drawer for us as well as finish laying all the rest of the quarter round Wes didn’t get done before he deployed! It will be amazing! The only thing Wes and I should have left to do when he gets home is sod the backyard, and replace the sub floor and tile the guest bath. Sounds like a big job, but Harry told me if we had everything ripped out before he got there (which I am excitant at demolition) he could get the new sub floor down in about 2 hours costing me a whopping $40! And though I will NEVER tile a Kitchen again in my life! Bathrooms are not so bad, so I will be laying the last room of tile needed and we will be officially ready to be on the market!
It is amazing how much you can get accomplished with someone watching your 2 year old and a little money!
All about Kaje
I am not sure where he has learned it, or why it is just now coming about. But he has officially learned how to sass his mother. Not quite with words, but more with gestures and grunting noises that have proven to escalate over the past few weeks and reached a point of no return this week with BB and Aunt Nene in town. It should be fun to get that back in order when they leave here on Saturday. They say whatever you did to your parents you will get back twice as much with your children, I wish I had been a better kid, because we are in for some major attitude issues ( I am sure no one saw that coming LOL). Using the potty has again officially ceased to exist. We only want to use the potty for standing on and filling with water from the bathtub, both options I am not a fan of. Full force potty training will be taking place as soon as daddy is home to assist as well as must come about during daddy’s leave time as we must be fairly close to potty trained to start our new school in August. I love the new babysitter he has been at since December, however think he needs more structure now, so he will be attending full time preschool this fall with an extend hour program. So just half day of school and the rest will be free time, but I think 3-4 hours of solid structure will be good for him as he seems to flourish more in that environment.
Kaje has also grown his vocabulary by leaps and bounds over the past month. Almost always speaking in full phrases and sentences. Although grammar is not always used properly I am still often amazed and that words he puts together as well as how many he will use together to talk to you. I am hesitant to say he is advanced, because all parents think their kids are advanced, however according to most of what I have read it is not until you are 3 that you are speaking in phrase 80-90% of the time and at 4 your sentences should sound like an adult. I have been told by 2 speech pathologist that his articulation is definitely advanced, but I think most of his vocabulary and speaking in phrase has a lot to do with the fact that he is the only one at home with me, so I talk to him a lot more then I think the average toddle talks to their parent =)
Other then that we are great! Just looking forward to Daddy getting home, selling the house, finding a new job, and relocating to Charleston SC.
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