Monthly Archives: March 2013

Mar22

This Week’s Highlight Reel

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Aside from the nights where sleep has been a struggle and never-ending snotty noses, we’ve had a great week! It constantly amazes me how fast Jonathan is growing up. I’m loving the little personality that keeps growing.

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The weather was nice on Sunday so we walked down to the playground and let Jonathan swing for the first time. I’m pretty sure he had a blast! We’ve gone back a few times since then, but the weather has gotten fairly cold so we’re limiting time outside.

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Jonathan’s love for books at such a young age really impresses me! He is constantly picking up books, walking across them room and handing them to us so that we can read to him. If we’re not paying attention or taking to long, he’ll start throwing the book to us! Then we will sit and read…and read…and read. I think I’ve read one book close to 15 times in a row. But I love every moment of it!

He also has a tendency to wake up in the middle of the night, grab his book and flip through it instead of sleeping. Nap time also gets delayed because he likes to sit in his bed and read now! Thanks to his grandma, he has a bunch of new books to keep him occupied!

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Our little monster is also walking like crazy. In fact, I think if he could steady himself enough, he’d run!  We were sitting by the front door on Wednesday when his daddy pulled into the driveway. I stood up and said “lets go get daddy!” He walked down the hall, through the living room and made it to the kitchen before falling down. But at that point he could see “da-da”, so he was happy!

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Everything has become a drum too! Cabinets, chairs, the floor,piano bench, and the upside-down bucket, the toilet lid…

The highlight of my week came yesterday when Jonathan pushed his (formerly my) rocking chair across the room next to where I was sitting. He wanted to sit in the chair beside me! I sat him in it and turned on a cartoon for him to watch for a few minutes. He loved it and sat there trying to rock (the bottom of the chair has been worn down from use since my sister was a baby, through me and my three nieces). SO adorable!

rocking chair

 

Our little baby is growing up! I can’t believe that I’m already gathering things for his first birthday in less than a month and a half. Where has time gone?

Mar21

The Christian Mama’s Guide to Parenting a Toddler by Erin MacPherson

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toddler

What happens when your little baby morphs into a whole different person over night, leaving you with a child who thinks he can defy gravity and that cookies are the new broccoli? Gone are the days of endless cuddles. There is a new kid in town, and he has many great adventures in store for you. But there is something much greater than rescuing your child from swinging on the kitchen chandelier.  Saving his heart, pointing him in the direction of Christ, outweighs every other aspect of raising a toddler. Teaching your child to read at one or solving quadratic equations by two is not an essential. Raising a child who sees the love of Christ all around him, who is taught about God and the redeeming power of the Christ’s redeeming love, is far greater.

When I opened the envelope to find The Christian Mama’s Guide to Parenting a Toddler, I quickly put down every other thing I was doing and reading and dove right in. Why? Erin MacPherson is hysterical and I loved reading her book The Christian Mama’s Guide to Having a Baby. We’re also on the brink of entering toddler-dom. I need all the mental prep and wisdom I can get before heading into the adventure that awaits. As expected, I found myself laughing out loud, snorting at times, and finding the need to share many Dino nuggets of insight with my husband.

With topics including how to handle the toddler tantrums while avoiding your own meltdowns, how not to potty train your child, special sections for both stay at home moms and working moms, and what to do when even the pediatrician hasn’t seen a case quite like yours, The Christian Mama’s Guide to Parenting a Toddler is a perfect and easy read for all mom’s (and even dads) who find their homes and lives being hijacked by chaos. MacPherson includes prayers, tips, and quality advice on how to focus our hearts toward finding joy in the Lord even during the most trying of situations.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze®.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”
Mar14

Spring e-Cleaning

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clean

I’ve been thinking about some of the things that bog me down during the day. My computer is one of them! Ok, my computer is pretty much the only big one. There is so much online that wastes my time.

Some of these time wasters are:

  • Email that I have to wade through. As of yesterday, there were thousands of messages in my email inbox, about 300 unread ones.
  • Facebook- be it groups I don’t participate in, pages I “liked” to claim coupons or enter contests, and people who really have too much drama in their lives and I really don’t need to know about the every detail of their day or their fight with so-and-so.
  • Twitter notifications, even though I’ve not done much on Twitter in the few years I’ve had an account.
  • Followings on Pinterest. I *love* Pinterest, and I’ve used it to better our home and life in certain ways

But Spring is nearing and before I tackle the madness in my house, I’ve started to clean up my little portion of the internet!

  • I’ve weeded out my email. I no longer have 3,000 or so emails in my inbox or 300 unread emails. There are now less than 150 emails in my box (most of which contain some level of importance) and less than 20 I’ve not read. I no longer have folders and folders of unread mail either. They’re all gone!
  • I’ve unsubscribed to roughly 50 different mailings I would get on a daily or weekly basis. If I don’t visit the website within a week or two, why bother continuing my email subscription?  And can I just say, LivingSocial and Groupon are the two worst offenders of email spam! They have so many sub-category email groups. I don’t need Groupon goods or LivingSocial escapes. One email a day from their company is more than enough, not ten!
  • Facebook has been trimmed too. Over the course of the past few weeks, I’ve deleted roughly 200 friends. Maybe that sounds mean, but I’ll explain my reasoning. I’ve been a part of the Facebook world since the beginning of 2005, and thus accumulated a number of friends from all areas of my life. If I’ve not talked with the person in the last five to ten years, are we really “friends” or do we just stalk each others news-feed?  If the person hasn’t been active on Facebook in years, why are we still “friends”? If you have more drama in your life than a tv soap opera, do I really need to be subjected to it on a daily (or hourly) basis? Nah! Cleaning out my “friends” list has been so freeing!
  • Twitter. Oh Twitter. I really don’t like you and have never really used you. In fact, my account has now been deleted. One less thing to worry with or to clog my email and iPhone
  • Pinterest followings. I don’t follow a ton of people on Pinterest. But there is a reason for that. Not that I don’t like my ~1500 followers, because believe me, I do! The problem is, when I start following a lot of people, I can EASILY find my ADHD kicking into high gear. Instead, I’ve pared down the list of people I follow to a small handful (less than 30). It makes life a little more simple for me. And, I can easily click-through my friends and followers when time allows (not often here lately) to see their pins.

Cleaning up my little slice of internet pie is making things so much more breezy! Instead of having to delete 50-100 emails a day and respond to maybe 1 or 2, now I can respond to 1 or 2, and delete 4 or 5! And, less drama on Facebook is always welcomed!

Mar4

Failing

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I looked back at my goals for the year this morning in an attempt to see if I’ve accomplished much over the past two months. Only a few small things I can check off my list…reading more, paying off one of our student loans, and making my bed on a regular basis (well, I’ve failed at that this past week). I’m failing to accomplish a lot of the things I really want to do this year.

This past month has taken a lot out of me…emotionally, spiritually, mentally.

In the end though, I feel as though some changes are due in order to get back on track and accomplish some of the things I need and want to get done.

Mar1

Next Door Savior: Near Enough to Touch, Strong Enough to Trust by Max Lucado

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Lucado

Sometimes it feels as though God is far away.  There is clearly no way God understands what we’re going through right now. How could He even have a clue what its like to live on earth in the twenty-first century, facing the problems that we do on a daily basis.

How often we forget that He created the world we live in. We think because we have a disease, God doesn’t understand what its like. But did Jesus not heal so many that were suffering? Did Jesus not mingle with the most despised people of his day? Did God not understand the mother who suffered a broken heart at the loss of her child? Of course He understands! Even the temptations Satan throws at us on a daily basis…the Lord comprehends our struggles!!!

Next Door Savior is an incredible book that shows just how clearly the Lord understands. He meets us right in our place. He meets us in our mess we call life. Lucado does a brilliant job of showing that the God who created the world knows our pain. He doesn’t just show up in church, he’ll show up right where we are, even if that’s in the worst part of town.

Reading this book came at the perfect time in my life. Losing the life of a baby you never were able to hold is such a gut-wrenching thing. It is often easy to blame God for not understanding our pain and question why He would allow such a thing to happen. Being reminded in these pages that the Lord does understand was so comforting. He knows what it is like to lose a beloved child. He lost His too! Sometimes it feels as though He is so far away, when in reality, He’s right next door. He lives where I live, He goes right where I go. He knows my name, He knows my story, and He is willing to meet me right where I am. Even in my mess.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze®.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”