These beautiful and tasty things are what's for breakfast here at our house. I have joined Weight Watcher's simply because I am nursing and I am not as blessed as everyone else who can lose weight right after having a baby. I have lost all of my weight from baby girl's birth, but not from B's. I exercise and try to eat right, but when I don't get a lot of sleep or when I'm stressed, I tend to eat not as great and eat more snacks, which leads to more of my other health problems. So to keep it all in check, I joined. This was a wonderful recipe that I found on their website. It's simply 2 frozen waffles, eggs, and cheese. (Pretend that you are going to scramble the egg, just put it on the waffle instead of the pan.) You could always use some kind of lean meat, but we ate it without it. You bake it on 350 degrees for 5-10 minutes, or until the egg is done. Even B liked it and ate a whole one.
This is my 4-month-old baby girl. She is such a sweet and good baby. She rarely cries. The exception would be if she's hungry, if Daddy T holds her at night, or if B gets in her face and yells at her to wake up. Yeah, he's been known to do that more than a few times. She is a very easy baby with a laid-back personality. Her beautiful smile takes up her whole face.
In her free time, she likes to sit up, which she always does.....
and laugh....
and chew on her fingers.
This baby girl has moments where she kind of looks like her big brother and others where she looks like her daddy and Nanny Ruth. Those cheeks make her look like my cousin B and my Nanny. Here's the comparison of the kids at 4 months old. A lot of their facial expressions are the same, but their head shape is completely different. Her's is much bigger. I say it's so it can hold more information!
I have my first 5k on the horizon...just 3 weeks, to be exact. I am running my first 5k with my sister-in-law. I am both excited and nervous about it. I have this fear of failure which complicates things. I keep thinking that to be successful in this race, I MUST run it all. I know that, in theory, my goal is just to finish. I am trying to remind myself of this goal every time I run, but there's still that perfectionist side of me that gets frustrated when I can only go 2 miles or when I can't make it up the last huge hill in our subdivision. So, you runners, how did you or do you overcome this mindset? I am really enjoying running now. I never thought I would like it, but it is quite relaxing and it is fun to challenge my body in a new way. I'll be sure to post pictures of me and my sister-in-law (Aunt Mo as B calls her) crossing the finish line. Daddy T said that he, the kids, and Uncle J would have to find something to entertain themselves for a little while. Thankfully, Aunt Mo found a race that starts at 9:00, so there will be no getting up extremely early for us. Oh...and the race is in the big city where there is a lot more flat land than there is here, thank goodness! I get to run my next 5k with the church on New Years Eve, which is downtown in the hilly city. Have I mentioned I'm nervous?!
One day a few months ago, I was proud of myself for not yelling at my son when I found him in a spot that I would never have predicted. The story goes like this....
I had told Daddy T earlier that morning that B needed a bath that night since we
didn't give him one that morning. I'm not for sure if B heard that part or if he decided
that he needed a bath right at that moment all on his own. Who knows!
Daddy T left for work and I was in the bathroom getting ready to leave for
our weekly Kindermusik class. I was gone for approximately 5 minutes or less.
I kept hearing a noise, which sounded like water. I told B, "I hope that's not water
getting on my floor or you're going to be in trouble!" Silence. Splash, splash.
Not an encouraging sound. When I finished up what I had done, I went into the
bathroom to see what he had gotten in to and here's what I found....
That little stinker had climbed into the sink, filled it up, put some soap in it, and got in it
complete with his clothes. If that wasn't enough, he grabbed the bath crayons
(which are the coolest thing) and proceeded to leave his artwork on the counter.
I wasn't even mad, despite the fact that we were going to be late for the class AND
I had no clean shorts for him. I had to go in another room because I just had to
laugh, but I didn't want him to see me laughing because I definitely did NOT
want him to do that again.
It's moments like these that I hope to always treasure and remember. Those little
moments that I too often get frustrated with and wonder when the day will come
when I can sit down for longer than 2 minutes when he is awake! I don't want that just
yet. I'll take these memories for now and just hope that my house can handle all
that he and his darling sister will do to it.
Yes, friends....this is my life and I love it! As I'm reminded all of the time with my people that I work with in the nursing home...."Life goes by too fast. Enjoy EVERY moment you can with your child. It's worth it." And that's what I'm doing. I'm so thankful they get to enjoy my kids, too!
I love how life happens. As I was working on my blog posts for the week, my son was in his room trying to go to sleep, or so I thought. I kept hearing him calling my name, then Daddy T's name, then my name. I kept telling him to lay down and go to sleep. I occasionally would hear a thump, but I assumed it was Daddy T who was cleaning downstairs. I was wrong.
Daddy T came up to get some water and he went in B's room to see what B wanted. I hear "What did you do!" Uh oh. Not good. When Daddy T says this, that means I usually don't want to know what just happened. Because this implies a mess. I hate messes. Messes frustrate me because I feel like I spend my entire day cleaning up one mess after another. And these messes happen right after I've just spent a long time cleaning.
So I pick myself up from in front of the computer and peek in his room. So far so good. I step in to his room. I see this...
He likes to climb. He doesn't like going through the little holes that we left as walkways. He likes to clip up and over, which we think resulted in this. This explains why B couldn't "lay down and go to sleep" as I had been requesting.
We've since put the bed back together and he's resting peacefully.
I had a conversation today with an older friend about all of the roles that moms play. I mean there are so many days my head swirls just thinking about all I have to do. She brought up the fact that sometimes we, as women, forget all that the men do as well. She told me about this song and I looked it up and absolutely love it and the story behind it. Please, please, please check it out and even if you are a girl, there's a lot you can learn from this message and song. It is very challenging. This conversation with a friend followed a conversation that Daddy T and I had last night. We talked about how we were so thankful for our kiddos, but we do kinda miss the days where we could come home and not invest so much of ourselves in every single person in the family. Don't get me wrong....we wouldn't change a thing. However, it can be challenging to make sure that each member of the family has spent some time with Daddy T that day, which means that Daddy T doesn't get too much time by himself to do things that he either needs to do or that will relax him and make him feel not as stressed. I know I have those same problems, but I guess I always thought that since Daddy T got out of the house every day and got to have actual conversations (without his head multi-tasking to try to make sure everyone was where they should be and that things aren't missing and no one is getting hurt) that automatically made my days harder. Not to say my days are a walk in the park, but this song really showed me the desires of my husband's heart and how perhaps he has some of that "daddy guilt" thrust upon him, as well, even if he's more reluctant to talk about it than I am with my "mommy guilt."
I began this book thinking that it wouldn't be that good to read. I had never heard of this author and to be honest, I'm a bit partial to my favorites. However, I decided to give it a try. I loved it! This writer is very easy to read and is quite fun. She is humorous and has a wonderful storyline.
This book is about a lady named Joy, who is a cooking host but can't cook. No one knows this small little fact about her except a select few. She took over her dad's cooking show when he died and the producer was in a bind. Since she has been on the show, it has become a hit. They have covered up the not being able to cook problem by having a show prep do the cooking for her and making it look as if she doesn't have enough time to do it all on the show.
When the show changes producers, Allison hires Luke as a cohost. Luke is cute and is totally falling head-over-heels in love with Joy and vice versa. He has no clue that she can't cook, until one day Joy's secret is revealed on national television by her cooking rival, Wenda Devine.
The book weaves its way through showing how God can clean up a mess and that no matter what, you will always be worthy to God despite the mess you make.
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their 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.”
As many of you have read in my previous posts, I am working on training for my first 5K in December. So when I saw that this book had to do with running, I knew that I should read it. I'm so glad that I did! It was such an encouraging book and very motivational, not just in the sense of running but in life in general.
Meb achieved what we think of as the "American Dream." He came from Eritrea in East Africa, where running was not necessarily considered a sport. He was born in the middle of the 30-year war between Eritrea and Ethiopia. Due to the war, they moved around alot trying to get out of harm's way. They had many encounters where their lives were at stake, but God brought them through.
To this day, they still celebrate their arrival in America every October 21. Meb is incredibly thankful for the opportunities God has placed in his life. He talks about how he didn't even know that running was a sport until he came to the U.S. When they moved to San Diego, he joined the running team for his high school, and then went on to run for UCLA. He has raced in the 2004 Olympics (and gained the silver medal) and loves to race in the New York City Marathon (2009 winner). He trained with Ryan Shay, the young man who died while competing in the Olympic trials marathon from cardiac arrest. He is also friends with Ryan Hall and Khalid Khannouchi, two well-known names in the running world.
Meb is incredibly fascinating and this book is a great read for runners and non-runners. He does an excellent job pressing in the fact that we aren't guaranteed things in life. We must work for what we want. No one is just going to hand us things that we feel we deserve.
Meb will be running in the New York City marathon on November 7, so check him out and read his story for yourself. You'll find that you won't want to put his book down.
**For more information, go to http://www.runtoovercome.com/. There is also a contest on the site where they are giving away one signed book per day from November 1, 2010 until March 31, 2011. There will be monthly grand prize winners that will receive a signed copy of the book, other free Tyndale titles, as well as Sony and PowerBar products. More details will be on the website.
This complimentary book was provided free of charge from Tyndale House Publishers. I was in no way required to submit a positive book review.
Since B loves the farm, we figured it would be fun to take him to the Mayfield Pumpkin Patch at the beginning of this month. He loved it. It was perfect weather to be out and it was such a fun family memory for me...and great scrapbooking material!
The guy driving this went so fast! B got off and his eyes were wide. I don't know that he really knew what to think!
hayride
feeding the pigs and goats
And just because I have to share this picture for the grandparents and great-grandparents......
I am simply a mom of 2 little kiddos that manage to keep my days extremely busy! I love my crazy life and think that raising my children is God's greatest calling in my life.
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