Mother's Day Craft

Ok, so I know what you're thinking..."What in the world are you doing, making a Mother's Day craft at the end of January?".  Well, this baby is due in May right around Mother's Day and I wanted to make sure I was prepared!



Jenny Gilley let me use her embossing heating tool to finish off my project.  I have done 1 of the 2 wreaths.  The one pictured below is for my mother-in-law.  I stamped and embossed family initials on some of the ribbons.  This is my kind of craft, tying bows.  Now THAT I can do!!

 

A lil' of this and a lil' of that...

I don't have anything specific to post about so perhaps I will try my hand and blog rambling.

Luke is doing REALLY well staying in bed at night lately.  I am so proud of my little man!!  He didn't get up ONCE tonight!!

My pregnancy is going well.  My OBGYN actually used the word "normal" to describe this pregnancy.  YAY!  This is my 4th pregnancy and the 1st time I have ever heard the use of the word normal to refer to any of them!  God is truly blessing us!

We still have not picked out a boys name.  We really have a difficult time with boys names for some reason.  I am hoping we can settle on one BEFORE the baby is born!!  LOL!

Ok, enough of the rambling...I do not think it is my strong suit.  One never knows until one tries!!  : )

The nighttime bed escapee - UPDATE

He didn't get up ONCE last night!!!  Woooo Hoooo!


For original post click here.

The nighttime bed escapee

Not too long before my son Luke turned 3, he discovered he could leave him bedroom at any given moment.  He has been in a 'big boy bed' since a little after he turned 1, so considering how long it took for him to figure this out...we SHOULD count our blessings.

NOW, the occurrences of getting out of bed have increased to an epic magnitude.  He was getting up as many as 15+ times in a night (all within an hour or two period before he finally would fall asleep).  We were frazzled.  We tried the "Super Nanny" advice of no talking and putting him back in bed.  We did this for 3 weeks.  Initially the instances dwindled, but soon came back in full force.

We tried threatening, explaining, lighting up the room (so he would no longer be frightened of the dark), cajoling...NOTHING seemed to be working.

My older sister, Cherie, recommended giving him a 'special book time' before bed.  He gets to look at special books, in his bed, for 15 minutes before lights out.  Once the alarm goes off and the 15 minutes is up, it's lights out. 

At the same time we eliminated nap time as we were discovering that he wasn't really tired at bedtime due to his long nap in the afternoon.  I started a 'quiet time' (which has had it's own folly if you read here).  This seemed to ensure he is at least not WIDE awake come bed time.

Night #1 - He only got up 1 time that night!  YAY!
Night #2 - He got up twice...still an improvement so...YAY!
Night #3 (last night) - He got up three times (is anyone else seeing a pattern here?).  I had to remind him that only BIG boys get special book time and if he keeps getting up, he will be acting like a baby and will no longer be able to have the privilege.  It seemed to work.

I DO have to admit I am nervous about tonight though...if we keep climbing one occurrence per night we will soon be right back to where we started. 

Any suggestions, empathy, stories???

HELP!!!

Look Mommy!!

This week we are implementing 'quiet time' for Luke instead of nap time.  Today was the trial run.  I bought him special toys he ONLY gets to play with during quiet time and I gave him some special books to look at.

All was going well for the first 15 minutes.  I didn't hear a peep.  This should have clued me in to my motherly intuition...but it didn't.  At around minute 16 I hear, "Look Mommy!".  I hesitate, as I don't want to start going in to his room during quiet time.  The point is for me to get some things done.  But his tone was insistent so I thought I had better go look.

When I got to his room, I didn't know what to say.  His 10 gallon fish tank was FULL of floating fish food.  Over 2.5 ounces of it.  If you don't think 2.5 ounces of fish flakes is alot of pickin' fish flakes...you might want to take a trip to your local Wal-Mart or Target and check it out for yourself.  The container he emptied into his fish tank is about 4 inches tall and about 2.5 inches in diameter.  Oh.  My.  Gosh.

I did my best to get as much out as I could with the small fish net we have for catching the fish.  The filter is going to be working overtime for the next 12-24 hours.  I just hope it can filter all that stuff out before the fish get sick!

Oh my, *sigh* well, I CAN say one thing...he WAS quiet!  LOL!

The Road Less Traveled

This poem did not really hit home until I became a mother.  The choices we make, day in and day out, no longer only affect ourselves.  These choices, affect our family and friends as well.  In the past, my tendency has been to do things the "hard way", just for the sake of being different.  Not always is this a bad thing, not always is it good.  It DOES however make for good stories!

Since becoming a mother, I choose to stay at home with my children as long as the Lord will allow me to do so.  I choose to home-school my children.  I choose to be a Christian who strives to better herself.  I choose to learn to be loving and kind and gentle.  I choose to help those who need help.  I choose to show the world by my actions that our God is a God who loves, not hates.

In entering motherhood, I had to reflect on the roads previously taken, not only by myself earlier in life, but by my parents, my siblings and other parents I look up to.  So alas...I continue to take the road less traveled, but now for a very different reason.

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth

Then took the other, as just as fair
And having perhaps the better calm
Because it was grassy and wanted wear
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way
I doubted if I should ever come back

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages since
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

--Robert Frost (1915)

Baby bumps

This is my 15 week baby bump

This is my 20 week baby bump