Spinning

When I was little, my cousin and I used to play forever on those sit n' spins. You sit down and turn the steering wheel thingy and spin around and around. I feel like I have been spinning like that for about 5 days now. Saturday we had my youngest son's first birthday party....which he thoroughly enjoyed. Sunday we went to look at a house that was about to be on the market. We've been passively looking for a while now, as we need more room. We bought our house when I was pregnant with my oldest
So we've essentially run out of room. Back to the reason I'm spinning. Since Sunday, we've put a contract on it and are about to list ours. It's very exciting, but the thought of leaving our house, EVERYDAY, presentable to "show" is stressing me out. Then add to that the thought of packing EVERYTHING and moving with 2 kids 3 and under is why I've had a headache during the waking hours for the past 5 days.

Enough about me. I just started the Beth Moore Bible study on "Daniel", so I'm trying to not focus so much on me. As if this is my world and the rest of you just live in it. Anyway, I highly recommend this study. We're only on the 2nd week, but it's very powerful....a great ride.....much smoother than the sit n' spin.

Count your blessings

Our church has a ministry to help special children. The goal of the ministry is to assign a buddy to children who (b/c of developmental delays and or behavioral problems) need someone to attend Sunday School with them. It is a huge help to the parents who otherwise wouldn't be able to attend church or Sunday School. My first day was yesterday. I wasn't really sure what to expect. I am assigned to a 4 year old little boy. He doesn't speak, but babbles. He acts out very aggressivley when he feels threatened/scared, etc. So the goal is to keep him busy for an hour and 15 minutes. Yesterday he was having an especially rough day, so most of my time was spent holding him pretty tight in my lap and singing songs softly to him. The other girls and boys in the room are busy playing, coloring, and just being kids. Situations such as these baffle me. What is going on in this little boy's head? Is he aware of the other children around him playing? What frustrates him? What calms him? What makes him tick? Then I begin to think about his mother and the daily challenges she faces. I think about how her days must feel like years sometimes. I wonder if she asks God, "Why me? I'm not cut out for this!" Then I think about my children and how a rough day for them is usually the result of staying up past nap time/too late or a toddler on the verge of "Big Boyhood".

I hate to admit it, but I started my hour and 15 minutes yesterday watching the clock. However, by the end I found myself praying for this little boy's mother....to give her strength, patience, and encouragement. God works in mysterious ways and he clearly hand picked this woman to be this little boy's mom. I am asking God to use this little boy that I'll spend 1 hour and 15 minutes with once a month to remind me to count my blessings. So that on days when I think I want to wave the white flag, I'll get back on track and get back in the game.

The Perfect Storm

Yesterday started out to be a normal day. At 3, I got a call from my daycare that my almost 1 year old (Frank) was fussy and running a temp of 100. It's a bittersweet moment....I'm thrilled that I get to leave work early, but hate that my baby is sick. Then there's the guessing game "do I take him to the doctor? or wait to see if this will run it's course?". I decided to wait and see how the night went. Given the time (3:30) I went ahead and picked up my 3 year old too. It was looking to be a nice evening. Little Frank got some tylenol and went straight to sleep when we got home. So, Jack ate an early dinner and we headed outside to hit golf balls in the front yard. Fast forward to about 1:00 this morning and I'm awakened by a fevery, fretful cry. As I'm shushing my pitiful, sick, baby, I get reinitiated into this sorrority called motherhood. My baby proceeds to vomit all over me, the floor (TGF hardwoods), and himself. There's nothing like the smell of stale, warm milk running down your chest. So, at 1:00 this morning, I'm bathing my baby, cleaning up throwup, administering more tylenol, suctioning a nose, and rubbing on vapor rub. As I crawl back in bed close to 2a.m., my husband starts snoring like a foghorn.

We were all feeling bright eyed and bushytailed this morning around 8. I got a shower and was getting us ready to go down to Children's Hospital for a carseat check and to turn the baby's carseat forward facing in preparation for our trip to the beach next week. Everyone is strapped in and ready to go....but the car wouldn't start. Upon further review, it appears to be something electrical wrong. This translates to expensive to fix, several days without a car, carpooling to school and work with the hubby, etc. All this, plus Aunt Flo is due for her monthly visit any minute and I haven't had any caffiene (was planning to stop at BP for a Diet Mt. Dew).

I'm not sure what else this day will bring, but I'm trying to bend and not break when these storms of life start blowing in. It could be worse, if I'm going to be stuck somewhere without a car, I'm glad it's at my house.
Toodles for now....

Pull out there and see what happens

Those were the words my dad would tell me when I was learning how to drive. I thought it was appropriate for my first blog title. I discovered a couple of blogs a few months ago and thought it would be fun to give it a whirl myself. So, I'm pulling out there to see what happens.

Last Thursday, my almost 3 year old (Jack) came home from school with a "silly word". Lord, if it wasn't the F-word. My husband and I about died when he said, not once, but about 8 times, partly so that we could make sure we were hearing him right. We tried to disguise our laughter and tears and explain that this was not a nice word and that if he said it, he would get into big trouble. We made sure he understood, then abandoned all talk of the matter when he was around. We erred on the side that any attention (good or bad) would just further feed his desire to say it. Now here's the part that really scares me. I know I have a potty mouth from time to time. I work for children..er..attorneys, I can't help it. But I knew it wasn't me....When I asked him where he heard that word, he very innocently said "Miss Beverli" (his teacher). After further investigation with his "best friend's" mom, I believe it came from his buddy. Should I be worried that my not yet 3 year old ratted out his teacher to save his friend? I think I've got a lot of sleepless nights ahead of me with this one.....