Don’t forget to pick up your copy of Money Saving Mom’s 21 Days to a More Discipline Life for only $0.99! Today is the last day to get this awesome ebook! I loved it and it definitely encouraged me in my journey to get things more organized around here! It is perfect if you’re working on your goals for 2013! You don’t have to have a Kindle to read it, as you can download your own reading apps to read online or on other mobile devices!
Head on over to Amazon to pick up your copy of 21 Days to a More Disciplined Life by Crystal Paine. After tomorrow the price goes back up, but until then you can score it for only $0.99
Money Saving Mom’s Crystal Paine has her book 21 Days to a More Disciplined Life on sale and you can get it on the cheap!!! As in $0.99 cheap! This is an awesome book that I HIGHLY recommend, especially if you’re looking to accomplish your goals for 2013! Go get it before it increases in price on Saturday!
As the month of November begins, I genuinely want to make an effort to daily post things I’m thankful for.
Day 1-
Today I’m most thankful for my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Seriously. I know that may be cliche to some people, but I honestly don’t know what I’d do without my relationship with the Lord. Just the other night Joe and I were lying in bed talking and I said to him “I don’t know what people who don’t have that relationship with the Lord do.” And I don’t. I am thankful that I can call out to Him in times of need, and sing praises to Him in times of rejoicing. My relationship with the Lord is far from perfect. I’m a sinner, thankfully saved by his merciful grace.
Obviously I’m not going to be back to regular posting. We’re “under the weather” here. Having a sick baby isn’t fun! Being sick yourself and having a sick baby is a little tougher.
Maybe one day soon! I’ve got Halloween and a 6 month update coming later this week, permitting Jonathan and I feel a little better by the weekend
I’m at a loss as far as sleep for Jonathan goes. He fights and fights it until he’s choking and almost throwing up. There are multiple problems…
1) He can NOT stand to have his arms or legs tied down or covered. This makes swaddling here lately almost impossible. If they’re covered and he realizes it, he starts fighting to free himself. If he cannot free himself, the screaming begins & does not stop until he’s practically choking. Not going to let my 8 week old get to that point.
If he does free himself his wild man legs can’t stop moving, thus either waking him fully or keeping him from sleeping.
He hates being on his stomach, which we’re ok with because he’s not ready to sleep on it in our opinion. He’s also not fond of his side.
2) The amount of gas his little body produces is crazy! This also wakes him up a lot here lately. He’s not overly fussy about but it does keep him awake.
3) Reflux. He sleeps on an incline and does everything in his power to move during his sleep in order to sleep flat.
His favorite position is to be asleep on my chest. While I love that time and opportunity, it’s just not feasible to do that for every nap and each night.
4) He hates pacifiers, so soothing him that way doesn’t work. I won’t complain about this.
The miracle blanket has been suggested to us, but my guess is that he will fight it just as much ad everything else.
The rock & play sleeper has also been suggested. Does anyone local have one we could borrow for a few days? I really don’t want to throw out that much money for something that won’t help.
I should add that we do use a white noise machine already. And we’ve utilized the car ride to fall asleep method numerous times.
I guess my post isn’t asking for suggestions on sleep methods (baby whisper, happiest baby on the block, etc), but more about what to do to keep him from constantly fighting sleep and constantly waking himself up once he does get there.
Captain Adorable, our little sleep fighter, finally passed out.
I’ve seen a link to this article on Facebook today from about a dozen different moms. Even though my child is still in my body, I can completely relate to what the author is writing about. And Crystal, over at Money Saving Mom, wrote an article not that long ago on something similar (now I can’t find it!). Even though I agree with the article, that’s not the end of the story. And I don’t think the situation applies to just the moms of the world!
Less than a month ago I found myself questioning why I read certain blogs and websites and why I was friends with certain people on Facebook. There are people who, while they are just sharing their lives with the world, really bring my self-confidence down! Some of these people I know personally, and some I’ll never encounter in real life. I came to the point of realization that in order to be happy about myself and where I’m at in life, I had to stop reading their websites/blogs and/or had to block their feed from my Facebook page.
Sure these people may blog about the greatness of their lives…or the one or two aspects they want others to know. They may not tell me/us that their marriage is struggling, their child is out of control, they’re in debt up to their eyeballs, they don’t have a lick of creativity, or are completely unhappy in areas of their non-blogging niche. They may hide the dirt while they take post-worthy pictures that they’ll then Photoshop, all for the sake of visual loveliness on their site.
I want to be content exactly where the Lord has me. And I have to realize that…
-I will NEVER be a size two, and heck, probably will never be less than a size 8 (which is what I was at my smallest). I love food and food loves to stay on my hips, gut, thighs and butt.
And I need to be ok with that! The Lord loves me regardless of my body shape and size.
- I will never own a wardrobe worthy of a fashion show. While I like cute clothes, it is highly unlikely that I’m going to utilize my family budget to be able to wear them on a daily basis.
-Nor will my hair and makeup look like that of a runway model. I want to look good for my husband, I don’t want to look like a rat lives in my hair, and I want to make sure my skin isn’t the last priority in life. It’s not that I don’t care, because I do. I just don’t make the effort to look like I just stepped out of a magazine shoot.
-I will never have a perfectly decorated house. I love Pottery Barn to the end of the earth and back, but my house will never be featured on the pages of its catalogue.
-My house will contain clutter at any given point in time. Martha Stewart I am not. Heloise, I am not either. If you think I have it all together, I invite you to drop by unannounced. There are currently piles of “stuff” on my kitchen island and table, on my couch, in my bedroom, in my bonus room and about everywhere else in between. The nursery looks like a bomb exploded in there too!
-My lawn will never win the green thumb award for our neighborhood…if we had one. Joe is highly allergic to all things outdoors. I used to love the smell of fresh-cut grass…and now I can’t stop sneezing, coughing, or drying my watery eyes. We’re fortunate enough to be able to afford to have someone cut our grass & trim the hedges for us (or else we’d die trying to do it ourselves). However, I’m not going to break the bank to make sure my lawn could win an award.
And guess what, I am 100% ok with that!
-My blog may never reach world-wide popularity. To which I say, excellent! Less stress, fewer people to criticize the fact that I’m currently not willing to shell out big bucks to have someone create a custom design because I’m too computer clueless to design my own.
-My photo taking skills are on the level of a preschooler. We’ll just leave it at that.
-We can’t take off any time we want to travel the world. I can’t begin to tell you how many people I’ve seen/read about doing this lately. We’ve not had a vacation since last August/September, and will not have another one until that time this year. Granted, it’s because we’re saving up the time for our little guy, but still!
While I may never have any of those things, I do have SO much! I serve a Lord that loves me and forgives me for all of my short-comings. I have a husband whom I adore, and I think he’s pretty fond of me too! We have been blessed so abundantly, after struggling with years of infertility, to be expecting our little boy in the next 5 or so weeks. I have a home that is comfortable. So comfortable you can come in, kick your shoes off (if your feet don’t smell), and curl up on our couch to read a book or watch a movie. I have an incredible family who is very supportive of Joe and I, and they already spoil our little boy rotten! I have friends that I can call upon most any time of the day…friends that will go for walks with me or meet me at Chick-fil-a for a caffeine free diet Coke and a wonderful chat. We have financial stability, which is not what more than half the population can say right now. We have a great church and church family, where the Word of the Lord is taught by men who want nothing more than to share the Love of Christ with everyone they encounter. And my list can go on and on and on…
So that, my friends, is why I’ve had to quit visiting websites of friends and strangers, why I no longer subject myself to the torture I was creating for myself because I didn’t feel I measured up to the standards around me.
I’ve posted prayer requests on behalf of my friend, Mandy, lately. Today especially, I beg you to lift her and her husband Rob up in prayer. Today is they day they bury their little girl Abigail. Their little girl whose life here on earth was far too short. At barely a week old, she went to her heavenly home to spend eternity there.
While Mandy and Rob grieve the loss of their daughter, they also grieve the loss of their son. What I’ve not shared with a lot of people is the fact that Abigail was a twin. Her brother passed away in the womb, about halfway through pregnancy.
I may have never met Mandy in real life, only through an infertility ministry, but her life has impacted me and my heart. No mother should ever have to bury their little baby, let alone lose two precious children in a short amount of time. My heart is so very heavy for them today.
I beg you to pray for this family. After ten years of struggling with infertility, they were finally blessed with pregnancy…with twins. This evening they will return home with empty arms and empty hearts, yet to a home that is fully prepared to welcome a little baby girl into it.
The heartache they feel is something I cannot comprehend. The pain they are suffering through is something I cannot explain. I’ve not been there. I know the pain of losing someone you love dearly, but I can’t imagine the complete emptiness of losing your babies. They are empty and numb. They are angry. They feel the Lord is so far away.
Only time and the Lord can heal their broken hearts, but our prayers for them can go a long way. Please join with me, and with the many people around the world, lifting up this family in prayer today and over the next few weeks as they grieve the loss of their children.
