Our Last Ballgame

Well our 6-week Y baseball program will come to a close tonight. Levi has enjoyed his games and will probably play in a league next spring. Now on to basketball!

Who's Being Disciplined Here?!

Three...the number of children I have, the number of beings in the Trinity, the number of branches of government...the number three has significant meaning in about every spiritual realm there is.

The number three "invokes expression, versatility, and pure joy of creativity" according to one site that I found while searching for the significance of the number. While I delight in the tie it has to the "Pure joy of creativity", I must say that there is another meaning for three in this house:

The age at which all current abilities to articulate ones self stops and a regression of moans, whines, and yes, uncontrollable sobbing takes over.

I believe that if I live to tell the tale of the year my daughter was three, I will be one of the bravest women alive!

Okay, dramatic? Yes (maybe I am starting to see where she gets it from...) but in all seriousness, the whining. must. stop!          

(and that includes me)

What this phase is showing me is so much more than my capacity to restrain from actually pulling my hair out. It is showing me that God uses my children to discipline me. You see when Rachel is going through one of her tantrums, I have a choice. I can choose to get in her face and MAKE myself heard; which usually ends in both of us acting hysterical and eventually both of us crying and feeling guilty and apologizing...and well you get the picture. OR I can see this from the eyes of someone who has only been on the planet for three little years. Three...its just not enough time to learn to eat, sleep, grow, walk, talk, use the toilet, count, color, play dress up, share, get dressed, pick up toys, sing, dance, AND rationally deal with each situation that is unfavorable to her...and maybe neither is 28.

See I forget that she is only 3. I throw 28 year-old expectations on her without even realizing it! And sometimes I throw 5 year old expectations on her, because her brother gets it why shouldn't she? If I took more time to help her get there instead of being mad that she isn't there, how differently would our days play out?

Now before we head down a path of Mommy guilt, never to return, I want to stop at that one question. "What if I spent more time helping her get there instead of being mad at the fact that she isn't there?" This is my current discipline. You see, I am not a perfect parent (gasp, what?! I know!) But I am the parent that was meant to have these three children. God knew me inside and out before I had these children. They weren't given to me by accident. They were a gift to me as much as I am a gift to them...did you hear me? I AM A GIFT TO THEM TOO!

As I am journeying to become everything God wants me to be I am in charge of being a (huge) part of their journey as well. They will see me grow and change and make mistakes and ask them for forgiveness and apologies all along the way. So today I see that through prayer and meditation  I need to be seeing these dramatic-melt downs as a chance to shave off rough parts of my patience and coach my gift (daughter) on how to deal with them too. We are both learning...and we are both making huge mistakes. But Love covers a multitude of sins (whether they come from the mother or the daughter)

I leave you with something that Lisa TerKeurst put on her status today (she is president of Proverbs 31 ministries)

"You have the exact qualities God knew your kids would need in a mother. So, each day, hold up your willingness and ask God to make you the best version of you that you can possibly be."

Go. Ask. Do.

Catching Up: September 2012

September was an eventful month for us. We started the month with Lauren's birthday and the first day of school all in the same week. As a matter of fact Lauren went to her first MDO on her actual birthday. I felt a bit bad about that, but it was only 4 hours and she doesn't know it was her birthday...

You can tell they are SUPER thrilled to have their picture taken. Levi didn't want to smile and Rachel was crying because I didn't put her backpack ON her back...Lauren is the only one who seems excited, but I chalk that up to innocence.

After his first day of Senior Preschool. Feels good to be the big man on campus.

On Labor Day weekend, we had a cookout with family and friends to celebrate our baby turning one. Life would not be quite as entertaining if we didn't have little Lauren in our lives. She turned one with 8 teeth and a few steps under her belt. She officially started walking more than crawling a couple of days past her first birthday. She is by far the best eater we have and out eats Levi and Rachel almost every day. She babbles a little but not much language yet. Her first word was "Hi". She is and has been in the 75% for height almost her entire first year. She is my only brown-eyed kiddo, but they shift to a blueish green from time to time. Her hemangioma is fading and barely noticeable now. They say it could fade completely by age 2. 

Lauren found that cake is a magical thing and she had no problem taking it down.

Posing with her Aunt Sammy and Cousin Amiyah.

Just a week and a half after Lauren turned one, Rachel celebrated turning 3! She is so bright and funny. I am enjoying (most of) the differences between her and Levi. She is a bit more dramatic, but that same characteristic makes her fantastic at pretend play. She love animals especially dogs. I love her sensitive side even if it makes her prone to whining and crying about seemingly insignificant things. I look forward to seeing her blossom in the next few years to a full-blown preschooler. She is such a joy to me!

The last two weeks of September brought wedding planning furry as my best and oldest friend, Rachel got married. I was honored to be the Matron of Honor and arrive in Nashville on Wednesday before the wedding to help prepare. Then Matthew joined me on Friday night through Sunday. It was nice to be there without the kids even though I am sure they would have LOVED to see Auntie Rachel and Uncle David tie the knot.

No Smoking

Levi comes walking up to me with a little stick in his mouth. When I ask him to take it out of his mouth he informs me that it is his candle.
"Your candle?" I say

LEVI: "Ya you know how some people walk around with candles in their mouths and And they blow the smoke out."

ME:"Oh, yeah I know what you mean (realizing in my mind he is talking about a cigarette)."

LEVI:"Yeah, so I want to walk around with this. And they make people sick."

ME: "Why would you want to make yourself sick?"

LEVI:"They don't make you sick if you have it in your mouth. Only if you breath in the smoke. So it gets other people sick. Not me"

ME: "Well they get you sick too. That is a gross habit and I wouldn't want to do that if I were you."

LEVI: "If it is gross, why do people do it?"

ME: .... I honestly didn't know what to tell him.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

The Catching Up Series

This is the longest gap I have ever had in my blogging history! The most unfortunate thing about this gap is that it's the most active time of year. Birthdays, Holidays, Family Time. I have missed it all! So, for the next few posts, I will be catching everyone up to speed. If nothing else, I will be logging in the memories that are still fresh (ish) in my mind before they are (semi) lost forever. When I look back on my blog, I don't want a gaping hole where Lauren's first birthday should be (or Rachel's 3rd or Levi's 5th for that matter).

So please enjoy... The Fall of 2012 Revisited.

Catching Up: August 2012

This month is typically full of birthdays for my husband, brother and sister-in-laws and Father-in-law. Now, on top of that we start getting ready for school. All of my children started school of some sort this year. Lauren entered her first year of MDO (Moms Day Out) at the local Methodist Church. Rachel entered her last year of MDO and Levi his last year of Preschool! So for one year they are all in the same building for school. This will only happen one other time. When Lauren is in Kindergarten and Levi will be in fourth. I know that seems a little detail, but I like tidbits like that. And it is one of the few interesting things I had to say about August. But watch out, September was a doozie!

The Trinity : Levi Style

(This morning during a conversation with Levi about 

Jesus aka the Coolest/Biggest/Fastest Super Hero of all time)

Levi: Is Jesus bigger than God?

Me: Well, he is God's Son so he is probably smaller, but he is still as powerful because/(insert abrupt interruption)

Levi: Oh yeah! I know cuz it's Jesus, God and the Whole Spirit. They are like three Gods but they are really one.

Me: How did you know that? (We have never talked about the trinity. I felt the topic was too hard to understand, and frankly, it never came up).

Levi: Drew told me.

How cool is it to know that my 4 year old and his 5 year old cousin are having theological discussions in their spare time?

And this is a glimpse of "child-like" faith. He didn't get all caught up in the magnitude of the trinity being three-in-one. He just heard the information and accepted it. Not worrying about the probability of it all! Each day I am blown away by how having children in my life has allowed God to speak to me in new and awesome ways. I say that not to say that I hope he blindly takes in all information (even of the biblical variety). I hope that he questions and seeks Godly council and dives into the Word to have truth revealed, but child-like faith accepts the truth of what is in God's word and then as we grow and understand more, we get the details.

Choosing to FLY

Again, I am taking a step back from blogging about the kids to journal my own feelings in this stage of life. (Sorry to those who really just want the cute videos and pictures, maybe next time).

As the weather has turned warmer and the kiddos are growing by leaps and bounds physically and emotionally, I find that I too am growing, changing, embracing my role in life. I know that seems odd to still be embracing it all after becoming a mother 4 and half years ago, but it is a slow process for some. This summer for the first time I am taking on adventures with three kids. All under the age of 5. We have gone to the Children's Museum, the library, the stores, and the park. I feel victorious every time we come home in one piece, all accounted for and without major melt downs (me included).

 So onto the next BIG goal: 

Enjoying the summer with all the activities 

AND keep the house in order (somewhat).

Now this is where I start to loose a lot of you. I know, this is overrated and in the end it won't really matter. I get it, and I do have the perspective that says my kids won't remember how clean the house was, but they will remember (and cherish) the time we spent together. However, I am learning that there is something to be said for a (moderately) clean house.

A couple of months ago or so a friend of mine posted on facebook about going to bed with her sink shining and how the FlyLady would be proud. I had no idea who the FlyLady was or why she would care that my friends sink was shining. Withing a few weeks another friend mentioned this FlyLady. So I asked her more about it and learned the basics of the FlyLady.net website. I still didn't go on there because I felt that I was staying afloat in the chaos that is my life with three preschoolers around. Then one day I just decided to read up on it for myself. Well, this website is something else. She has the whole house mapped out and everything broken down by day and month and habits and so on and so forth. Well, let me tell you the website as a whole is overwhelming! If you think you are going to look at all of it and adopt it as a way of life, good luck! You are a better person than me. (The FlyLady herself would not condone such a bold move).

BUT, here is what I am doing and this is all I may do for the rest of the summer.

1.) I get up everyday and make my bed. This may be old habit for some of you, but for me it is new. I don't hold this habit in high regard. If you are going to just get right back in to it, why does it matter? Well, it kinda doesn't matter, but it sets a good tone for my day.

2.) I keep my sink empty (er). I fix breakfast and then I do the dishes. I fix lunch, I do the dishes. I fix dinner, yep, you guessed it, I do the dishes. I make sure there are little to no dishes in the sink when I go to sleep. I will be the first to tell you I HATE doing dishes. My hands HATE doing dishes, but I find the task split into 5 minute increments (several times a day) beats the 60+ minutes I stood at the sink every couple of days. I am interrupted less since the task takes just a few minutes. And for some reason (just like FlyLady says) I feel amazing when I wake up and come down stairs to start my day with a clean (or mostly clean) kitchen and sink. I liken this to a professional who starts her morning with a clean/organized desk. We are just naturally more productive right out of the gate!

3.) I get dressed (before 10:00). I am prone to stay in my pajamas for most of the day when I am not going anywhere. This, I have found, does in fact hinder my productivity (as much as I tried to convince myself to the contrary). I don't get dressed the second I wake up (like she suggests) because there are days when I work out first, or the kids need attention before I get a shower so dressing doesn't make since. But nonetheless, I make an effort to dress as soon as I have the opportunity. This is one that I almost didn't adopt right away. But I have found that we are ready to go and do with much less stress if everyone is already dressed. When we decide to spontaneously go to the park at 10:00am, everyone is already ready to go.

(If you have hung with me so far and are still reading, give yourself a mental high five)

That's it, these three things are my only changes and my only goals for every day for now. They may seem small. Some of you may already do these things. Kudos. I think they have drastically changed how I run my routine around here. And here is an example of why that is true.

We were heading to Chicago last Friday for a weekend with family. I had spent the week hammering these three things into a daily habit and low and behold, I started seeing that I could think more clearly. I went to bed feeling good about what I had accomplished and I began tackling some other areas that never made it on my "Today To-Do List". So when we backed out of the drive way on Friday morning, the dishes were done and my bed was made. Which meant when we got home Sunday afternoon, my dishes were done and my bed was made! I had a little clean up that night after dinner, but Monday morning I was starting three or four steps ahead of where I usually am the day after a vacation. So when a family member came to stay with us on Tuesday night, the house was clean. Not having to worry about the kitchen gave me freedom to clean areas not usually on the list AND I even made homemade bread. I am learning to clean as I go.

There is more to the story, but I have to stop for now. More on this new change in my life from the spiritual side next time. (I promise a cute kid update will be stuck in shortly after this post)

Caught in the Act

She is OK

So I was doing some computer work and listening to music when I noticed Rachel jamming across the table from me. I happened to be able to play the song again and catch her in the act. She was definitely feeling the groove!

Lauren turns 9 Months!

Little Miss is growing all too fast!

I may not have been great about blogging Lauren's progress in the last 9 months, but I have been great about taking pictures of her on her "month birthdays". I did this with the other two and was determined to do the same with her. She actually got the best pictures of all of them because I started writing on this board and we have a better camera.

Here she is on June 5th. She is cruising along objects so well and has stood up on her own without assistance. I believe she will be walking earlier than the other two kiddos. She is also my largest child at this age. She weighed in at 16lbs 13oz. on the 5th with a height of 28 inches. Ironically, she was the smallest at birth. She is the first of the three to stay on the charts in both height and weight throughout her first year (barring any major changes in the last 3 months). However, I couldn't care less at this point, my how things have changed.

She also has two teeth that came in before the 9 month mark. Her top two are just below the surface and I expect they will make an appearance later this week. She is such an easy baby! I can't believe how fast this year is going and how much we have enjoyed ourselves. I know this all sounds so peaches and cream, but I truly feel this way most of the time. I may get stressed, but having her around is rarely the reason. She is a cake walk compared to the other two these days. I mean I am typing this at 11:36am. Lauren went to bed at around 8pm last night, and she is STILL ASLEEP! I have yet to see her beautiful face today.