Monday, August 27, 2012

Birthday Blues


My sweet Baby Beau turned "1" this weekend.  It was bittersweet for me.  I look at him and think of how much I prayed for him and now he is now a year old.  He is an energetic, always smiling, sweet baby boy.  He has my heart.  It just makes me so sad that my boys are growing up.  This week has been really hard for me because not only did Beau turn 1, Cody will be starting preschool.  I have decided to home-school along with sending him two days a week to a MDO program.  I actually had the pleasure of co-teaching his Sunday School class yesterday and I realized he is a "big boy" now.  Pretty soon he will be reading, writing, and wanting to do stuff on his own. This weekend was hard for him as well.  Cody has always been the center of attention.  He is the one always getting presents from us and others.  Well this weekend was Beau's weekend and he didn't take it too well.  My sweet Cody man turned into a temper tantrum  throwing, pouting, selfish, boy.  I can't even count how many times he broke down in tears over the smallest thing.  It took us two hours Saturday night just to get him to get in his own bed.  He kept insisting to "snuggle" in our bed with us.  It was a very trying time, we diciplined, we loved, we even took the T.V. away for two days.  Finally at 11:30 he gave in and went to sleep in his bed.  However, sometime in the middle of the night he, in a very stealthlike manner, ended up in our bed.  I know it is just a little jealously on his part and I have tried to show him some extra love as well, but there comes a time when dicipline is more important or his tantrums will lead to something worse.  So, this morning we had some "snuggle" time by ourselves, I read him 2 bible stories instead of one last night, and have been praising him for anything good that he does.  Like the title suggests, it was just a case of the "Birthday Blues" for both Cody and I.  

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

All in a Day's Work


     I just want to start off by saying that I admire the full time working mother.  I really do not see how it can all get done in one day with a full time job on top of it.  My husband and I have chosen for me to be primarily a stay at home mother, that works approx 15 hours a week.  I usually go into the office 1 day a week and "try" to do the rest from home.  Wednesday's are usually my favorite day because my two sons go to Mothers Day Out and I can get all kinds of stuff done.  I actually went into the office today, balanced our check book, washed 2 loads of clothes, sewed on a patch for Cody's Cubbies vest, and straightened the house.  Whew, I am tired now, but my day isn't over we still have to make it to church for 5:30 to eat supper and go to Awana's.  We probably won't get home until 8:00.  Back to my admiration of mothers who work, I just don't see how they do it.  All I can say is that you must have some sort of super power to be able to cook, clean, spend quality time with kids and husband, perform all other household duties, and hold down a full time job.  It's day's like these that help me to appreciate my mother more.  She was a single mother who worked tirelessly everyday to make sure we had all that we needed.  Thank you Mom for giving of yourself for us.  However, I do feel blessed that I am able to stay at home with my little ones.  Sometimes the house may be untidy, clothes unwashed, no supper, but I know that I have done the most important work of all and that is to spend quality time with my little ones.  I have to remind myself that this is what God wants me to do.  Even though I graduated from college my work at home is so much more important than work outside of the house.  And so I end with this, no matter if we as women work outside the home or inside the home, it is all in a day's work.

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Where Does the Time Go?


Where does the time go?  This has been an amazing year.  As I look back at all of the changes we have had, I think WOW, God is AMAZING!!  He is so wonderful and blesses us immensely even when we don't deserve it.  This past year we have moved into our new home that took three grueling years to build.  We actually moved into the home exactly three weeks before Beau was born.  Yes, we were cutting it close!  We have had some ups and some downs during this past year, but we have overcome all of it stronger than before.  The one thing that gets me is that my sweet, precious, baby Beau will be turning "1" on Saturday.  It seems like he was just born and now he is getting into everything.  I feel like I was just in the hospital admiring how much hair he was born with and how "wonderfully made" he is.  How can one year pass so fast?  I wish I could stop time and play back the year in slow motion.  I wish that I could memorize every wonderful moment that was made with my children.  I just don't want to forget a single thing that involves their childhood.  I want to remember every laugh, cry, "mama", "dada", smile, and yes even the little surprises that our children give us daily.  I want to remember the look in their eyes when it was just "Mommy and baby" time.   What a precious "Mommy and baby" time that was.  I could just sit in a rocking chair forever, staying lost in those precious eyes.  Knowing that no one on earth will ever love me as much as my children do.  I went through our boys clothes tonite trying to get rid of those cluttering the drawers and I almost wanted to cry.  All of Cody's things will be put in storage for Beau to wear one day.  Beau's stuff however, will most likely be given to Goodwill.  That makes me so sad!  It only means that my precious babies are getting bigger and growing up.  Pretty soon they will be old enough to not want to "snuggle" with their mommy and daddy, as Cody  and Beau do every morning.  It is the highlight of my day to "snuggle" with my two  boys.  I know I'm probably being a little too sappy and sentimental, but I adore my boys and can only hope that they won't grow up too fast.  When they do grow up I pray that they will remember all of the wonderful times we have spent together.  Until then I will try to capture in my mind all of those precious moments that will forever stay with me because time unfortunately goes......too quickly.    Happy 1st Birthday to my sweet Baby Beau!!

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Reflections of a MOPS Mom

Wow!!! What an Amazing weekend!  I just returned from my 4th MOPS convention.  For those of you who don't know what MOPS is, it stands for Mothers of Preschoolers.  Which is exactly what I am .  I have two wonderful boys with my husband of 8 years, Jason.  Cody was born on February 14, 2008.  He was the most wonderful Valentines Day present EVER!!  Then there was Beau.  He was born on August 25, 2011.  He is my little "Elvis".  He was born with so much hair he needed a haircut on the way home from the hospital.  Back to my MOPS weekend, my steering team and I went to Dallas, Tx this past weekend for the annual MOPS Convention.  Yes, all 10 of us were brave enough to leave our precious little ones with our husbands for an entire weekend.  I was hearing stories of endless lists, marathon cookings, and little ziploc baggies of clothing laid out with all matching accessories.  However, I am not that mother.  I have full confidence in my husband, considering I have 2 boys, it can't be that hard.  I am so proud of my husband for taking care of them all weekend.  He even made it to church on time on Sunday morning.  He dressed the boys in color coordinated outfits and even fed them breakfast!  All of this while I am having the best girls weekend ever!  There were over 2000 moms at this convention.  It was all centered on "Love",  loving God, loving family, loving other mothers and loving MOPS moms.  I learned so much about "Love" this weekend.  My most valuable lesson learned to be able to love you must love yourself.  Which means you must forgive yourself and others.  I know that on Friday night our whole group had an "ahh ha" moment.  If you looked around all of us were crying for different reasons.  It seems as if we all had someone to forgive in order to fully "LOVE".  I learned so much about each and everyone of these ladies and I can only pray that we will all grow closer with each other as we continue this season of life together.  I can't wait to see what this year brings for our group, motherhood, and life in general.  Let this be the start of something wonderful!!!  Until next time!