A Wife Loved Like The Church

Archive for May 2009

I am not a girlie-girl

Posted by: on: May 29, 2009

Let me state that again, I am NOT a girlie-girl. By nature I have never been a dress-wearing, make-up doing, hair-fixing, bug-screaming girl. I feel most myself in a pair of jeans and a t-shirt, sportin’ some dirt and ready to jump in a creek to look for crawdaddies. I was most likely, every cheerleaders worst nightmare. From as early as I can remember, I hated taking showers, wearing anything I found to be confining (aka, dresses, skirts, anything white or pink) or being girlie in any way. Then, growing up with four brothers, a mom who isn’t very girlie-girl just intensified my lack of girlieness. 

Somewhere in high school I started paying more attention to my appearance. I found myself *shock!* looking at dresses and “cute” shoes willingly. I remember buying my first dress (one that I had personally picked out). I felt grown up. And the funniest thing is, I could count on one hand how many times I actually wore it. By the time I got to college I had “arrived”. I started wearing more feminine outfits, mostly because I worked at Ann Taylor. I started actively doing my hair daily, wearing make up and shopping for jewelry. I found myself surrounded by girls who loved being feminine and girlie. Slowly I began transforming into a pink wearing, necklace owning, perfume loving girl. 

Then I had a baby. And for months I’m pretty certain I never did my hair, wore make up or even changed out of sweatpants. I most definitely didn’t shower daily (TMI). Then as the post-baby haze lifted I went back to doing my hair, putting on make up and showering (almost) daily. During all this time I realized that I had a daughter. Which meant (and means) that she will imitate me, desire to be like me (in some form or fashion). So, in an effort to give her a fighting chance of being a girlie-girl I shower her with pink, dolls and dresses. In recent months I’ve even started “doing” her hair. 

Want to know what I’ve discovered? It’s tough being a non-natural girlie-girl trying to help your daughter be a girlie-girl. I hate “doing” her hair – it’s time consuming and results in very little reward (as it takes me half and hour to pull back and 2 seconds for her to rip out). I really hate putting her in a dress – it seems so confining; she can’t actively climb or slide or crawl around being crazy. I really, really hate remembering to put her shoes on her before we leave the house. That last one is in part to the fact that I really, really hate wearing shoes. But, alas, I do all these (in my mind) girlie-girl things, because somewhere deep down inside me, I kinda wish I had had the chance to embrace that side of myself as a kid. Not in some I-like-wearing-lacey-dresses-and-bows sorta way, but in a I-like-wearing-a-cute-dress-so-long-as-I-have-shorts-on-underneath sorta way. And I do plan to open up dance, ballet and even *gasp!* cheerleading to Julia if she wants. 

However, I draw a fine line at screaming at bugs. If she learns to do that, she most definitely won’t be getting it from me.

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Truthful Thursday – John 1

Posted by: on: May 28, 2009

“The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it.” John 1:5

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Regression, it ain’t so pretty

Posted by: on: May 26, 2009

I’ve been mentally preparing myself for Julia to regress in a lot of areas once Dubya Dos arrives. Because of that, we’ve not been pushing her to potty train or nap in her toddler bed. But at the beginning of this month, she started asking to nap in her bed rather than the crib, so we let her. And things went beautifully. Then, more and more she began telling us when she needed to go potty (especially poopy) and things went beautifully. 

Then we decided to remodel the house. 

And Julia decided to regress. 

Potty training is sorta hit or miss these days. I have two theories for this:

1. She’s starting to understand the sensation for peeing, so instead of concentrating on the pooping, she’s too focused on the peeing (before it was opposite).

2. She’s a tad freaked out about all the new changes and life (aka routine) has been a little off.

Once we moved her into her new room, she was sleeping full time in her toddler bed. But, slowly, she’s started getting up too soon during naps. Well, rather, she’s just never falling asleep. I’ve been letting it slide because:

1. She was getting up to alert me that she needed to pee (and just never would lay back down).

2. She’s reaching that just-needs-one-nap age and I wasn’t sure when she actually wanted to sleep.

But after spending an entire week with an exhausted toddler, I’ve buckled down. Since she’s still waking up oh-too-early, I’ve figured she needs to lay down between 10-11. I’m fine with one nap a day (then slowly pushing the time back to early afternoon), but not no naps a day. Today has been our first day of force napping. I spent a good 45 minutes going into her room, disciplining and putting her back in her bed. The last round, she actually came out of her room (the door doesn’t actually shut) asking to go pee. I let her, then put her straight back to bed. That was almost 15-20 minutes ago and so far it’s been silent. My prayer is that whatever new, good habits we establish between now and when Dubya Dos arrives will actually stick!

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Frugal means not being picky

Posted by: on: May 19, 2009

I’m picky when it comes to food. Not picky in the sense of food preference, but picky in the if-this-cereal-is even-within-a-two-month-expiration-date-from-today-I might-just-not-eat-it. I have some irrational fears and consuming “post marked” goods is one of them. The thought of eating cookies that say “Best by” two months out gives me the willies. But, if I want to be frugal maybe I can’t always be so picky.

This morning, Julia and I drove out to Kalona to visit the Central Discount Store. I have heard some people recommend the place and knew that they were open today (they are owned/ran by some Amish and are only open 3 days a week), so since Julia fell asleep in the time it took us to leave our house and pull into Fareway, I decided to let her sleep a little longer and make the drive out.

Here’s my loot from the trip:

DSC_0004
In all my total was $7.42. With that I got:

– two boxes of Optimum Raisin Bran cereal

– 4 bottles of organic, diary free, gluten free ranch dressing

– one box of Back to Nature mint cookies (yummy!)

– two boxes of organic chocolate cake mix

– two boxes of organic chocolate icing mix

– one box of organic kid’s granola bars

The best thing is, these are all brands that are sold at New Pi that I always want to try but never have the heart to spend the extra money (with the exception of the cookies – I have bought those before – kinda a weakness of mine 😉 ). I can’t say for sure how much I saved, but to give you a small idea, the salad dressing alone is usually $3ish per bottle and I got it for 50 cents per bottle.

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Let it rain

Posted by: on: May 16, 2009

It’s been raining here a lot this last week. I don’t really mind as I love the rain and it helps me keep the garden well watered. Plus, as some of you might remember I got some rainboots for my birthday, which actually makes running 9 months pregnant while carrying Julia kinda fun. 

However, not only has it been raining outside, it’s been raining inside too. No leaky roofs or holes, but me – crying. Lots.

Let me preface the rest of this post by saying – I adore being pregnant. I really, really do. With all the sickness, aches and pains, I see past it all and simply love being pregnant. I’m very grateful that God has blessed me with Julia and now this child. 

But, I’m not a big fan of the emotions that come with pregnancy. My personality is such that I really like being in control, especially of my emotions. No need to cry over something or show too much pain, especially in front of other people. I don’t mind expressing my feelings, oh no, just ask Jonathan. He told me just this week that I’m more in touch with my feelings than most people. I usually know what I’m feeling, why I’m feeling it and what should be done about it. But in all that, I want to really harness how my emotions/feelings are expressed. I suppose ultimately it comes down to pride, control and vanity.

Alas, I’ve hit that stage in my pregnancy where emotional control seems to have flown the coop. Yesterday I sat in the van and cried sobbed for a good minute two minutes five minutes because I spilled coffee all over the Father’s Day cards I had just purchased. Take note – none of the cards were ruined, just the envelopes (which are easily replaceable). To make matters worse, I was waiting at Jonathan’s work in the parking lot when this “saga” happened, making me crying even harder because I felt like a complete fool as his co-workers are leaving, perhaps even catching sight of my weepy eyes. 

I think the worse part is that I’ve no real reason to be crying. Things are going well, Dubya Dos is doing great (per our midwife yesterday), Julia isn’t overly toddler-like (and even slept in yesterday till 6:45!) and our remodeling of the downstairs is nearly complete. Yet, if I hear/read/watch/think of something sad the water works start falling. And the entire time I keep thinking how silly I am for crying, which makes me cry even more. Oy vei! 

So, for all you Iowan friends, if you catch me crying, don’t worry, nothing is wrong. Perhaps I saw a sappy commercial or a leaf somewhere in China fell off a tree. Or maybe even I just thought crying sounded nice (which last week it did, which produced a few minutes of peaceful crying while Julia napped). Hopefully, after the fourth trimester is over I should return to “normal”.

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Death is not Dying

Posted by: on: May 15, 2009

Grab a tissue, you’re gonna need it:

 

Death is not Dying

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Truthful Thursday – John 16

Posted by: on: May 14, 2009

“I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.” John 16:33

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Crockpots – God’s greatest creation

Posted by: on: May 8, 2009

Some might say that man is God’s greatest creation. Not true. It’s the crockpot.

I tried something new this week – cooking one main meal on Monday/Tuesday and then using the leftovers throughout the week for other meals. Tuesday we had a Mexican spread: fajitas, beans, rice, Mexican salad. Wednesday we had salad using the leftover fajita meat. Thursday was bean and cheese tacos with leftover beans and rice (I made up another batch of tortillas because the last batch didn’t make it that long 😉 ).

Tonight is crockpot night. And can I just say, thank God! It’s been one of those days where I’m struggling to keep my own attitude in check while helping Julia do the same. It’s all nice and dandy to discipline your child when you, yourself, feel calm and collected. But throw in some raging pregnancy hormones (seriously, like how many times have I cried today for no reason?!), extreme fatigue mixed with insomnia, pressure to start cleaning in prep for our big house remodeling and you’ve got yourself one frazzled mama, who’d give anything to not deal with tantrums.

Anywho, I put a roast in the crockpot this morning late morning early afternoon and I am thrilled that my dinner duty is over. Nothing like knowing that while your to-do list is still a mile long, dinner is at least not on it.

So, even if the crockpot isn’t God’s greatest creation, it’s at least one of His greatest blessings to mamas!

Truthful Thursday – Luke 17

Posted by: on: May 7, 2009

“The apostles said to the Lord, “Show us how to increase our faith.” The Lord answered, “If you had faith even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘May you be uprooted and thrown into the sea,’ and it would obey you!” Luke 17:5-6

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TMI, or For Girls Only – Seriously

Posted by: on: May 4, 2009

Seriously, if you’re a guy stop reading now. Really. Just close your laptop and walk away. No joke. If you keep reading you will forever be scarred.

Guys, I warned you.

Alright, is it just the ladies now?

Have you ever considered cloth pads? I’ve done quite a bit of research on them over the last 9 months and have decided to give them a try. They can get rather expensive, so I’m having some made. It seems kinda gross (Jonathan won’t touch this subject with a 10 foot pole), but I figured if I’ve got two kids in cloth, why not just add a third? Plus, from the research I’ve done they say that these things hold up for years. One blogger said that between her cloth and Diva Cup, she hadn’t used store bought products in ten years! How cool is that?! Last summer before getting pregnant, I used the Diva Cup for about 3 months. I loved it. Completely and totally amazing. I think what is so appealing to me is that 1) you don’t have to change it all the time, 2) I can leave my house without worrying about one more thing to have on hand, 3) it never leaks and 4) it’s so much more comfortable than a tampon. However, I can’t use it post-Dubya Dos which is where the pads come in.

So far I’ve found GladRags, Party in my Pants (they are sold individually at New Pi), and Lunapads to be the most recommended. However, just for a small postpartum kit the pads would run me close to $100. Which, if they last 10 years, is only $10 a year on pads. Not too bad at all, but outside of right after delivery, I never wear pads (maybe a liner for added protection), which means that these wouldn’t be used all that often. I’ve checked out some on eBay, but with shipping you don’t really save all that much, especially since you buy individually rather than in a kit.

Ladies, have you ever looked into cloth pads? If so, what are your thoughts? Do you use them? Would you ever use them?

***EDIT***

I did start using cloth pads after Hannah was born (June 2009). If you want to read about how that’s gone, check out TMI – the update.

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