Posts Tagged ‘Mamahood’
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Jonathan is out of town for the next two weeks {I’ll explain more later this week}. And frankly, when my husband is gone long periods of time I get a little whiny. I don’t know about other wives/moms, but life doesn’t function quite the same for me without Jonathan around.
Despite Jonathan being gone, I resolved to make these two weeks as joyful as ever. Will we miss Jonathan? Yes. Will there be hard times? I have three small kids, does that need an answer?. But can we still be grateful? Of course!
Here are ten wonderful things I am grateful for ::
1. Our family vacation to Colorado {more on this later this week} ::
2. Having my brother along for the 16 hour road trip home. I think if he hadn’t been with me, we would have had our own version of Oregon Trail, where we all got dysentery and died.
3. Having all three kids sleep until 8 am our first morning home. Thank you Jesus!
4. Our gym membership. The place I am now frequent on a daily basis because I can get 2 hours of kid free time. Best summer investment ever.
5. Friends who text you as soon as they know you’re home, ask how to help, invite you over for swimming, home cooked meal and adult conversation.
6. Taking up the whole bed at night. Let’s face it, having a big bed all to yourself is kind of a luxury as a mom. Or at least having it to yourself until all the kids piling in around 3 am.
7. We get to see Jesse, Shelly and my nieces this weekend. The girls and I couldn’t be more thrilled.
8. Not only was I in a wedding this past weekend, I’m going to be in a wedding next week. Celebrating marriage with friends brings me such joy. It’s going to be super fun. I get to wear a sari and dance at a Mehndi {though this last part has me freaking out a bit}.
9. I’m letting go of a lot of household responsibilities these next two weeks and just focusing on having fun with the kids {and conserving my energy to last me the whole time}. Frankly, being a mom is pretty sweet and fun.
10. Skype, G-chat, text messages and any other form of communication is my BFF right now. Whatever I can do to talk to Jonathan, even for a minute or two, is something I am super grateful for.
What are you grateful for {big or small}?
Visit Angie at Many Little Blessings for more Top Ten Tuesday.
Happy Birthday, Hannah Michelle!
Posted on: June 15, 2012
Today Hannah turns three.
Three.
Wowza.
Three, in my mind, is a really big age. There is an independence that comes with three. But, truth be known, Hannah’s been pushing for independence since birth, so you know, maybe three is just a continuation for her. Three is also a fun age. Gloriously innocent, with a touch of mischievous.
Hannah Michelle,
My sweet, sweet girl. You bring a light into our house that no one else can match. Your laughter, your sense of humor, your wit. You are truly delightful. I love that you are sweet with just the right amount of spicy to keep us all guessing. In the last year, you’ve become a big sister, started school, had your tonsils removed {something I doubt you will ever forget} and become even more fearless {something I doubted could ever happen, but it has}. You are my little mama, quick to help clean up, attend your brother or act all mama-like when things get rowdy. I love that despite your petite size, you command a room {and everyone in it} and truly think that you are three going on twenty three. You are always saying something that cracks us all up. Some of my favorite sayings you have are
“Hey guys, listen up!”
“Yummy in my tummy” or the even more hilarious “Yummy in my bottom”
“Juuweea!” {Julia}
“I want you to love on/hold me”
“I want someten to eat” {I want something to eat} This I think you say round the clock
My prayer for you is that you continue having a desire to learn more about the Lord, that you keep your spirit of curiosity about the Bible and that one day you yourself have a deep and personal relationship with Christ. Today is a bittersweet time for your mama. I am thrilled for what your life holds, but sad that this time is going so much faster than I ever dreamed it would.
I love you baby girl.
Your Mama
The Big Picture
Posted on: May 30, 2012
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I get trapped in the moment a lot. Not a savor-this-sweetness moment. But it’s counter moment, the can’t-this-just-stop-already moment.
As Julia is screaming out “mama” for the fourteenth time because her covers aren’t just so, I hit that can’t-this-stop moment. Tired. Tripping over little shoes. Stumbling back into their room. Ready for it to stop.
While standing in the girls’ room, covering and recovering, and doing my best to keep my attitude in check, I realized – This is not the big picture.
I get so trapped in these moments with my kids, moments that seem to last forever, but they don’t. Really, they don’t. Sure, will Julia get upset over her covers again? Of course. Will Hannah cry in hysterics over not getting that banana and being forced to eat this banana? I’m certain. Will Joseph decide that sleep is only for babies, and now that he has three teeth he is not longer a baby? Sigh. Yes. But will these moments last forever? No.
At times, those can’t-this-just-stop-already moments take over and I forget the big picture of our lives. I forget that I can make a choice in those moments to make sure that my actions {and reactions} point to our family’s big picture. The picture of loving each other as Christ does. The picture of sacrifice with joy. The picture of a family in unity. And in those moments, I can show my kids the big picture by doling out an extra dose of hugs and grace, and loving them where they are.
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Sweet baby Joseph Judea is six months old today.
6 MONTHS!!
Seriously, if the last six months haven’t flown by for you, they have for me. I mean, really, it seems like just the other day he was born. And now? Now he’s getting all big and teethy.
Joseph is such a sweet, lovable boy. He is eager with a smile and laugh for just about everyone he comes across. And as each day passes, I swear his cheeks get more kissable. Which makes him laugh hysterically, and makes me kiss him even more.
After what seemed like teething forever, Joseph’s bottom two teeth popped through about 3 weeks ago. I took this shot right after the first one came out. I haven’t attempted another picture, because every time I get this close to Joseph’s mouth, he tries eating the camera… or my hand.
Just after getting his two teeth, he started sitting up like a champ. It started off slowly, 20-30 seconds at a time, and has progressed to 10-15 minutes.
But sitting up just isn’t enough for my little man. He’s bound and determined to crawl. Joseph’s started getting up on all fours and rocking back and forth. And lately, he’s been waking himself up at night to “rock”. I’ve heard before that kids will “practice” a skill they are trying to learn during the night, but I don’t remember it so much with the girls. But sure enough, Joseph has consistently woken up this week throughout the night, rocking back and forth, grunting trying to move forward.
The rocking almost always leads to this pose I like to call baby planking {and it cracks me up!} ::
I swear, sometimes I think he does it just to make fun of my planking form. But this boy has some strength to him! Typically, he’ll go from sitting, to all fours, to rocking, to plank. Makes me think that actually crawling isn’t too far off…
We just introduced food in the last week. At meal time, we’ve been giving Joseph “bites” of our food. I gave him a small piece of cottage cheese once at lunch, and then some black beans. He doesn’t actually eat any of it – just gums it pretty good and spits it out. Much like we did with Hannah, we plan to skip jarred foods with Joseph and just introduce table foods. It’s a slower process, but it’s proved well for our family before, so hopefully it will again.
I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned this on my blog, but having Joseph has been really healing for me. With his entrance into our family, his laid back attitude and the chance to enjoy having a little baby, I’ve been enjoying motherhood a lot more. But, with that, I’ve been seeing areas that need improvement {or more aptly put – less of me and more of Jesus}. Because Joseph could be our last child, I’ve started understanding how much more I need to cherish this time with him. And that has made me realize how much more I need to cherish my time with Julia and Hannah. Sadly, that doesn’t always come easily. I’m learning to enjoy being a mom – not just grin and bare it. Enjoy those moments of complete silliness, instead of seeing it as one more reason to make us late for an appointment. Enjoy those moments of rapid fire questioning, instead of dismissing them immediately. Enjoy those midnight {and 2 am, and 3 am, and again at 4 am} nursing sessions, as times to snuggle just a little bit more.
While life can feel really overwhelming right now, God knew that bringing Joseph into our family would be the final push for me to more fully surrender to Him. And it has been so good for my soul.
Exhaustion
Posted on: April 30, 2012
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I don’t do a very good job of slowing down. Typically, I hit a breaking point and self implode. There’s no warning, no leveling off. Just a face plant into a wall.
I hit my breaking point at the beginning of April. With race training leading into SXSW, leading into Hannah’s surgery, throwing in countless birthday parties, and wrapping everything up with Julia’s ER trip, I self imploded. I went into safety mode of calling off all outside responsibilities and spending more time with our family.
Last weekend we spent a day exploring. Found ourselves at Lyndon B Johnson’s home. Ate crazy good food from a rundown hotel.
This weekend we putted around the house. Did yard work. Ate pizza and frozen yogurt. Went swimming.
Yet, even as wonderful as our family time has been, I still felt exhausted and overworked.
Yesterday, I ran a 10K race. It was a really fun race, running along the river downtown. Around mile five, I noticed that my ankle was starting to hurt. I assumed it was from running on uneven pavement, so tried finding more level ground. I finished the race off strong, only to have a limp. As the day wore on, it became harder to walk, forcing me to ice down my foot, wrap it up and move as little as possible. Two things I learned yesterday afternoon; 1) it’s nearly impossible for me to “move as little as possible”, 2) injured Sarah is a grouchy Sarah.
Today’s laundry list of chores is growing by the minute. Both girls are in school, which usually is my golden opportunity to get all my errands done with only one babe in tow. But given that it hurts to walk from the bed to the bathroom, I’m certain grocery shopping will prove nearly impossible.
Jonathan’s given me mandatory “bed rest” for the day. Which essentially means, slowing down and resting my foot. There is a part of me that is grumbling – complaining about everything that’s not going to get accomplished if I can’t move around. But another part of me wonders if this isn’t the best thing for me. A forced slow down. A chance, while Joseph is sleeping and the girls are at school, to just rest.
Who knew a strained ankle would finally be what makes me stop. Here’s to a day of rest.
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We had our second trip ever to the ER last night. This time it was for Julia.
After complaining for an entire day about a headache, Julia began vomiting and running a low grade fever. It was concerning, the headache part especially, but we decided to put her to bed early. When she woke up around 9 vomiting, we made the decision to take her to the ER.
{resting yesterday afternoon}
The ER doctor said that she has a bacterial infection and prescribed antibiotics. We weren’t given an real explanation as to why she’s had a headache, but thankfully as of this morning she said it doesn’t hurt.
Last night, after Jonathan and Julia left for the hospital I sent out a text to some friends to pray for her. My friend, Leah, sent me this text back ::
“No one ever told me how very hard it is to be a momma and love your kids.” Amen. As a mama, having your kids face any hardship – especially sickness – is way heartbreaking and scary. And it really is hard to walk through that with confidence that God is in control. But He is. Even when we don’t see it or understand it, He is.
I’m grateful that our two {and hopefully no more} ER trips have ended without true concern. I’m grateful for a daughter who doesn’t have any major health issues {nor do the other kids}. And I’m grateful for a God whose love is even deeper for Julia than my own.
My family is my Friday {and every other day} Joy.
I was in the final touches of writing a really helpful post about post-tonsillectomy recovery for children. I planned to put the finishing touches on it this morning.
Then Hannah refused to sleep last night. That girl was up every 1.5-2 hours all night long. She complained that her “mouth was on fire” and no matter how much pain medicine or ice cold water we gave her, she was miserable all night. Which translates into Jonathan and I being up all night {and truthfully, pretty miserable too}.
Exhaustion has set in and my brain is no longer functioning at a blog post worthy level. And while I’m craving a nap like nobody’s business, Hannah’s acting like last night never even happened….
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Last Saturday morning started off with a nice peaceful feel. It was oddly productively lazy. The house was clean, the kids were playing nicely and there was a calm that hovered over. A calm before the storm.
Around 11 am, as we are all getting ready to leave for a friend’s birthday party, Hannah asked to have a vitamin. As I got the bottle, she asked to take out the vitamin herself. I obliged. Then she asked if she could give one to Julia. I obliged. And then, in the busyness of getting ready, I lost track of the bottle.
After some time, Hannah came up to me, vitamin bottle in hand, and said “Mama, there’s only two left!”
We immediately start questioning Hannah as to where the vitamins were. Turns out she ate them. We aren’t completely certain, but our closest estimate is that Hannah consumed about 30 iron fortified chewable vitamins.
I immediately called my mom {who’s a nurse}, while Jonathan started searching on Google for overdose risk. My mom calmly advised that we take her to urgent care, just to make sure that nothing serious happens. And then Jonathan read this ::
Iron overdose is considered a leading cause of poisoning-related death in young children.
Let me just say – that one sentence can evoke a fear I didn’t know existed. Before I knew what happened, Jonathan grabbed Hannah and rushed her to the ER. Over the next 3 hours, they ran tests and X-rays on Hannah to determine her toxicity level.
Being the parent that stays behind is painful. For the first hour and a half, I only got information as Jonathan was able to text it. Once the X-ray was complete and the radiologist was consulted, the doctor said that Hannah was on the lower end of being in danger {quote “a 3 out of 10”}. She and Jonathan were sent home where we were to monitor her for vomiting, diarrhea and lethargic behavior.
With in 30 minutes of being home, Hannah began exhibiting all the signs the doctor described. We went on a “watch and wait” system to determine if we needed to have her re-admitted. We prayed and decided to keep her home and let her nap {by this time it was a good two hours past her normal naptime}. She curled up in our bed with Jonathan, were they both slept off the eventful morning.
By that evening, Hannah said she felt much better. She was still having a few GI issues, but was holding down her food and drink. We had her sleep in our room overnight so we could be nearby in case any issues arose. Thankfully they didn’t, and by Sunday morning, the vitamin fiasco was like a bad dream.
Funny enough, when I was Hannah’s age, I overdosed on some children’s medicine. Looks like the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.
Did you ever overdose as a child? If you have kids, have you ever had an overdose scare?
Joseph Judea – 4 Months Old
Posted on: March 4, 2012
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Joseph turned 4 months old today! It is his “golden” month – turning four months on the fourth!
This little man loves him some bath time. Without fail, he almost always pees while getting a bath. And without fail, I crack up every time. I’m not sure if that makes me as juvenile as a junior high kid, but I can’t help it. Perhaps it doesn’t help having two giggling girls either.
This weekend was absolutely gorgeous. Sorry to all my non-Texan friends who are still in the throws of winter. Spring time has fully arrived here in our fair state. And while you might be hating me now, trust me, you will not envy the summer that we are sure to have.
Joseph celebrated his “golden” month by taking a trip to the Austin Kite Festival, followed by an evening spent swinging. We discovered that Joseph is quite the escape artist already, as he managed to get his arms out from under the swing’s safety straps every time we put them on. Tricky little boy…
Over the last couple of weeks, Joseph has “discovered” Jack. One afternoon, Jack got right up in his face; Joseph’s eyes got super big, he shook his head, and I am most certain the thought “holy smokes, what IS that thing?!?” crossed his mind. Since then, both of been pretty smitten. Joseph likes to have stare downs with Jack during tummy time. Jack is always obliging, especially if he can get a face lick in {which is what he was just about to do when I snapped that picture}. All you non-dog folk can go ahead and “ewww” all you like. Face licks in this house are a dime a dozen. Builds the immune system, or so I tell myself.
Joseph is by far our most laid back child. He’s content most of the time, giving us far more giggles and smiles then cries. He sleeps just like I’d expect any of my children to sleep, and I’m cherishing the nights we have together. He still gets into bed with us after his first nighttime feeding, and I love snuggling with him through the rest of the night. He’s had a little cold – runny nose, slight cough – and I think sleeping next to me has really helped keep him feeling safe and relaxed while his body is fighting the yuckies.
Other Joseph-isms ::
– he started rolling over right before he turned 3 months
– oddly enough, after showing us his new trick for several days {even letting us film it}, he’s completely boycotted rolling over
– after several mama-friends confirmed my belief, it does look like Joseph has a little tooth bud on his bottom right side
Am I Pretty?
Posted on: March 2, 2012
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“Am I pretty?”
Julia asks me this question on a near daily basis. She is figuring out the world around her, figuring out what she considers pretty {or beautiful} and wants to know how she compares. “Am I pretty like this flower, mama? Am I pretty like this dress, mama? Am I truly pretty?”
Each time she asks, I answer with a resounding “YES! You are beautiful!”. But I don’t stop there. I tell her why she’s beautiful.
She’s kind. She’s thoughtful. She’s smart. She’s great at encouragement. She’s obedient. She’s funny.
These are the things that make her pretty.
Charm is deceptive, and beauty does not last; but a woman who fears the LORD will be greatly praised. Proverbs 31:30
“Am I pretty?”
I realize how often I ask this question, it just comes in different forms. “Am I thin enough? Am I attractive enough? Am I good enough? Am I truly pretty?”
While running the half marathon, I spent the whole time listening to a series our church did on idols. Every person has an idol in the life; something they value more than God; something that they desire above all else. I realized one of my idols is my body {or imagine}. I’ve listened to what the world says about women and bought their lies. I’ve ignored the truth.
Charm is deceptive, and beauty does not last; but a woman who fears the LORD will be greatly praised.
The problem with idols is that they leave you hollow. Empty and longing for more. Even if you achieve what you desire, it will not give you what you want. A runner’s body will not make me happy, it will not take away self doubt, it will not make me feel confident, it will not make me feel loved.
I’ve been taking time this week to really lay my imagine idol before the Lord. It’s hard. There is nearly 30 years of wrong thinking I am trying to undo. Lies I am having to let go. But finally, I don’t want my body to come first. I don’t want that idea of who I should be, to take precedence over who I am meant to be.
Charm is deceptive, and beauty does not last; but a woman who fears the LORD will be greatly praised.
When I am old and grey, I want my kids to say “Our mom was a woman who feared the Lord.” I don’t want there to be something in my life, something so fleeting, so empty, that it takes away my joy, my contentment, my identity in Christ.
Charm is deceptive, and beauty does not last; but a woman who fears the LORD will be greatly praised.
I won’t always remember that fearing God is greater than worldly beauty. But daily I will challenge myself to cling to God’s truth and promises. This world is deceptive and does not last, but fear of the Lord will bring me praise.
A Wife Loved Like The Church 
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