Letter I

"In your anger, do not sin"

Ephesians 4:26

A pretty great verse for kids -especially boys- I think. We've talked about how it's ok to be angry sometimes, but that we can't be naughty when we are angry. It's best to use our words to talk about it (i.e. asking for the toy back instead of punching your brother to make him drop it). He grabbed onto this concept much easier than I would have expected. He just stands there now and says "I'm really angry." while gritting his teeth. Huge progress, people, huge progress.

I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream! In my mind nothing says letter I better than ice cream so we made a giant three scoop ice cream cone with sprinkles and a cherry.

Letter H

"Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might."

Ecclesiastes 9:10

We're finally back at our ABC scriptures! We took a break over Christmas, but we got started again a couple of weeks ago. We picked up on letter H. It was a little tricky to find a verse that started with H and didn't have words like "honor" and such that don't even sound like H. Instead I picked a verse that had an H keyword in it.

Hands. It was a natural choice given that David has been struggling being nice with his hands lately. He likes to poke, hit and push a lot. We've been focusing on doing good things with our hands and doing them well. If we are building a tower with blocks, we try to build a really great tower with our hands and work with all our might. If we are coloring with our hands we try very hard to stay in the lines and color nicely so we make pretty pictures.

This isn't so much a "craft" as it is a tracing of his hands. But what cute little hands they are! He got to glue and that's really all that mattered to him. :)

Fun in the Cupboards

Trying to figure out how to turn around...

...there we go!

Pans on the floor. Kid in the cupboard. Classic.

David's turn!

Biscuits for breakfast

David decided to get up bright and early this morning. 6:22am to be exact. Actually, it wasn't even bright out yet. It was just plain early.

He asked to sit on the counter top and chat with me while I brewed my coffee. Mid-conversation he spotted leftover biscuits from KFC from yesterday's lunch and asked to eat one.

So here's my boy. Sitting on the counter top. Chowing on a biscuit. At 6:22am.

Brother time

I just love watching my boys interact. They are so fun! This morning Max was really crabby and fussy from his tooth so he laid down on the floor with his monkey and sucked his thumb a bit. He looked up at me and gave me the saddest little eyes and whimpered. I melted. :) David saw him and felt bad. He grabbed his blanket and Dog and went to lay next to him. He said "Let's cuddle, Max".  They laid there for a while then David asked "Feel better, Max?" Max got up, smiled at him and crawled away. I think it helped. It's probably the sweetest and most tender thing he's ever done for his little bro. It really made my heart happy.

When they were all rested up and feeling happy again, they played together nicely. In my experience, with two boys this is rarely the case. Someone is always clobbering the other or someone wants to play tackle football and the other doesn't or someone wants all the tools when the other is still busy with a project. But no - not this morning. They both climbed on the trike and took a little ride around the living room. David drove along shouting random lines from Rattletrap Car as he went. He really loved that book. I should probably buy him a copy.

David updates

Not to be outdone by Max learning to walk or growing molars, David has news of his own to share - he's potty training!

An early morning tinkle with Dog and
a cup of juice.

We've been at it for 3 weeks now. It's going pretty well at home when we can go the naked bottom way, but when we have to put pull-ups on to leave all bets are off. He likes to show his aggressive and stubborn side and pee on the floor when he's in the naughty spot (timeout) or when I'm busy with Max, but it's all a control thing. He gets how this potty training thing works - he just likes to make things hard on me sometimes. Why would I be naive and expect it to go smoothly? This is David we're talking about. :P Ooooh, that was low. I shouldn't speak negative things like that over my kids. Nevermind. Things are going well. There have been a few bumps in the road, but he's learning.

Along with socially acceptable bathroom habits, David is learning a ton of new words and phrases lately too. One that cracks me up every time is "Oh crap, of course. I knew that." Of course "crap" is not something I want him saying, but it's cute. ...And yeah, he picked it up from me. I'm hanging my head in shame right now. Mama needs to watch her mouth!

A couple of nights ago David, Max and I went out to meet up with my sister while she was at work. Auntie Ashley is David's hero because she is a paramedic - with a truck that has flashing lights, a bag full of gadgets and gizmos, a radio on her belt that beeps and a pretty cool yellow bed that has wheels. She showed us her truck and all her gear, but we couldn't touch the bed - that's just for sick people that she helps. With a direct hook-up to a cool truck, I'm guessing David is now the envy of every 2 year old little boy out there. I don't blame them.

Climbing

Yeah, Max still climbs on everything. Just in case you were wondering. :)

Max updates

Are you ready for this?? Hold on. My baby grew up this week. He's practically a toddler now!...

Max took his first steps last Saturday! I was helping him show off his new found skill of standing without holding onto things (which he'd only known for like 2 days) when he reached out his arms to Daddy and took 5 wobbly steps. I was so proud! Since then he's improved by leaps and bounds and you can pretty much bet that if he sees something he wants he'll be walking to get it. Daddy still doesn't call him a walker, but I do. David gets hung up on technicalities. He says he doesn't know how to walk yet - that he's still in the process of learning to walk. If he knew how to walk then he'd be doing all walking and no crawling. I quite disagree. He can take 10+ steps and walk all the way across the living room if he wants too. That looks like walking to me! (personally, I think this is the Calvin Johnson rule at it's finest - and we didn't want that called on Calvin, Honey, so let's not call it on Max!  ...complete the process my foot!)

On Sunday, Max cut his second molar. It was a very big weekend for him! I actually found 2 molars this weekend, but one has been there for a while. I'm guessing it's the result of a major fussy phase he went through 2 weeks ago. It really explains a lot now that I think about it. He's still working that tooth through so he's still a bit cranky. This time it helps to know why!

He's back to sleeping the whole night now! Yay for me! Sleep is so wonderful. :) It took some doing (like all of January) but we finally broke his "get up 4 times a night" habit that he started when he was sick last fall. I'm so glad that's behind us.

And finally, we are planning his birthday party. His very first birthday party. My baby is going to be ONE in 2 weeks!! Can you believe it? I can't. Seems like just yesterday....

Family time!

We are finally falling into somewhat of a routine around here. Classes are smoothing out and David's realizing which classes will be easier and which ones he may have to really work on. To help him get homework done, I've been leaving for an entire day every week. The boys and I have been camping out at my mom's on Fridays to give David a quiet house to work in. He insists this is easier than studying through the normal screams and yells. He's so spoiled. :) Because he's been accomplishing so much on Fridays it has freed up our weekends for family time. It's become such a sweet time for us. We make a really kid-friendly, low mess meal for lunch on Saturday and we all eat on the couch and watch a movie. Last weekend it was Toy Story. The 2 weekends before that were Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and Alpha and Omega. I'm so glad David isn't a baby anymore. Big kid activities are so fun!

I'm having a much better week this week. Last week was overwhelming and just no fun at all. It makes this week seem like a piece of cake. :) There has been loads going on with the boys too. Stay tuned...

Trying again

So I didn't make it up at 5:30 this morning. :( But it was before 6am and I did reach for my Bible first. I get partial credit right?

So far the rest of the family is still sleeping. It's David's day off of work so he's here too. Little David is giving me a rare and precious gift this morning by sleeping in. It's already 6:45am and he's not up yet. Thank you, Jesus! I needed some time without them!! ...and I mean that with all the love in the world.

I have Bible study later this morning. Yay! I'm getting out of the house, getting in the Word and chatting with some pretty cool ladies. Win, win, win!

If ever there was a worship song created for me...

DESERT SONG

by Hillsong United

This is my prayer in the desert

When all that's within me feels dry

This is my prayer in my hunger and need

My God is the God who provides

This is my prayer in the fire

In weakness or trial or pain

There is a faith proved

Of more worth than gold

So refine me Lord through the flame

Chorus:

I will bring praise

I will bring praise
No weapon formed against me shall remain
I will rejoice

I will declare

God is my victory and He is here

This is my prayer in the battle

When triumph is still on its way

I am a conqueror and co-heir with Christ

So firm on His promise I'll stand

All of my life

In every season

You are still God

I have a reason to sing

I have a reason to worship

This is my prayer in the harvest

When favor and providence flow
I know I'm filled to be emptied again

The seed I've received I will sow

Struggles

We are really struggling around here lately. This school semester is much harder on the whole family than last semester was. David is hardly ever around for family time or playing, I am trying (and failing) to pick up the slack and the boys are just plain cranky. I don't know how much more I can take...hopefully another 12 weeks worth! We can't afford to fail these classes and retake them! Ok, I'm done whining now.

In other news little David has decided to start getting up at 6:30am. It is making it very difficult for me to get any alone time or Bible reading done in the morning. With every thing else I've been facing during the day I've been oversleeping a lot in the morning and haven't really been getting out of bed until 6 or 6:30. There is a definite lack of Jesus in my days recently and it's starting to show. I've been trying to cut back on the length of David's naps during the day to see if it helps him sleep better at night, but so far I've had no success. We aren't in a position where we want to cut out naps altogether so we're just trying to do the best that we can. We also don't want him to stay up much later than the current bedtime of 8:30pm. There's really not much wiggle room in the schedule if we don't want to change anything. I'm hoping this is just a phase...

I started a Bible study through my church last week. It's a study of the life of David with Priscilla Shirer, Beth Moore and Kay Arthur. With the lack of quiet Bible study/reading time lately it's been challenging to fit in this week. I can tell already that I could really get a lot out of it if I could just find the time. ...That's my problem right there! I'm looking to FIND the time. *forehead slap* Perhaps if I tried to MAKE the time this would be going easier. Lord, I apologize for my dense noggin'. :) Tomorrow - no excuses allowed - I'm getting my booty out of bed at 5:30 to get in the Word. I have to have a better day tomorrow than I did today. I just have to. :)

Goodnight. See you later. I'm done.

Ever have a day that you couldn't wait to see the end of? That was today. David is facing a really hard semester and is really struggling to stay on top of the reading and homework. Today was a pretty productive and good day for him, but it meant a very long and tiring one for me. Those 4 hours that he was locked away in our bedroom were possibly the longest 4 hours that have ever happened. Seriously.

The boys did all the wrong things today. It really seemed like they set out to make me miserable right from the get go. David woke up at 6:30am cutting my Jesus time down to nearly nothing. I got discouraged and closed my Bible. The day went downhill from there. From tackling and pushing to whiny voices and throwing food on the floor, they pushed my buttons every second of this miserably long day.

By dinnertime, David could definitely see my frustration coming through. He got home at 11am, ate lunch with us then sat in the other room for 4 hours. He wasn't nearly as annoyed with them as me. He took one for the team and volunteered to watch them so I could get away for a few minutes. I didn't think twice. I retreated to the bedroom and tried my hardest to block out the noise. I had 1 hour until bedtime baths needed to start and I was going to make the best of it. Into my book I went...

It's really kind of amazing what kind of refreshing the Lord can do for a person in less than an hour. I was feeling so much better when that precious time was up. David, not so much. The boys were starting to get tired now so they gave him a really tough time. Hehe. I mean, I'm not laughing. :o) He was ready to pull his hair out in one hour over stuff that I was dealing with all day.

I try to be extra supportive on days that he needs to get homework done (which is nearly every day this semester). I try to handle the boys and keep things quiet quieter around here. I try not to complain. He isn't just sitting in the other room twiddling his thumbs. He's working his booty off to get through Intermediate Accounting II and such to get himself a degree. Some days being grateful for that is more of a challenge than others.

As soon as the boys were tucked into bed tonight David went to bed himself. Our only chance to be "together" was during mealtimes today. With 2 kids at the table as well, we didn't get much one-on-one chat time. I was disappointed, but I understood. I'm headed to my mom's house with the boys tomorrow so he can have the house to himself to study all day. He needs a good amount of rest and sleep so he can do every thing he has planned for tomorrow. I'm so glad this is only for a season.

I'm now planted in front of the TV with a giant cup of hot chocolate in my hand waiting for Grey's Anatomy to begin. What a treat this is. I usually end up watching the new episodes On Demand at some point later in the week. Ahhhh....I needed this.

Peace out, World. I'm done with today.

Moms say silly things

Top 3 silliest things that came out of my mouth today:

• "Stop standing on your brother"
• "Stop licking your boot and put it back on your foot."
• "You're in a time out because you tried to eat that book"

Sometimes I just can't believe the things I say. It's so hard to keep a straight face at times. You'd think that something would't have to be said. It seems like they would be understood.

Rattletrap Car

We recently checked this book out of the library and we LOVE it. Love, love, love. If you have a little boy who also loves crazy ridiculous noises and cars you have to check it out too!

Scary stunts

This is Max's latest death defying stunt. Scary, right? He wanted to climb up to watch Handy Manny up close.  See that bruise on his noggin above his eyebrow? This is not the first attempt at a trick like this. He's a hardcore climber now and he's quite a daredevil. Where did my cute baby that just slept all day go?

Day 2

I got up on time today. That's 2 days in a row now. I'm a goal reaching machine!!

There is hope...

I did it! I did it! I got up on time this morning! There is still hope of getting myself back on track. Whew. Good to know. I had a fabulous time with Jesus this morning. It feels so good to start my day in the Word.

Have a great day, everyone!

Daddy, David and the new orange sled

It was snowing a lot when David got off of work today. Knowing how much little David would want to play in the snow, he stopped and bought  little David his very first sled on his way home. He didn't bother taking off his snow gear when he got home from work- they headed straight outside to play.

While they were outside making snow angels, throwing snowballs and sledding down the hill out back I was busy making lunch and putting on hot water for cocoa. They stripped off their snow gear when they were done playing and came in to warm up. They sipped hot chocolate and ate mini marshmallows while I finished lunch. David pretty much thinks he's the coolest kid on earth today.

Off they go...

Pulling David up the hill

Ready for some sledding!

Snowball fight!!

Their matching cocoa mugs

Daddy watched David make a snow angel

And David watched Daddy make a snow angel

Snow angels. Kinda hard to see, but cute.

One happy kid.

Drinking cocoa to warm up.

Happy New Year - here's a present

      I found this kitchen center at Aldi on Sunday for only $10! How cool is it?? And it goes perfectly with the shopping cart and play food that we got David last year for Christmas! The boys are having a great time cooking up all sorts of tasty treats for me. David truly knows my heart. 90% of the time he brings me coffee and plates of "something delicious". :)

    Truth time: I didn't actually find it myself. A friend, who is way more awesome than I, called me while shopping and told me about it. I feel better now.

  

Oh, Max...

    In the last 2 days, Max has learned how to open the doors on the TV stand/DVD cabinet, open the DVD cases and take the discs out and open our front door and crawl out. The front door was unlocked when he did that so now we have to make sure we double lock it at all times. We've got baby locks back on our tv cabinet too.

   There is never a dull moment around here.

Getting back in the swing of things

*phew*

     January is finally here. I was beginning to think that Christmas break was going to last forever. It was fun while it lasted, but I was happy to see it go. I'm really craving our "normal" schedule back again. Hang in there with me today. My whole family is sleeping and I feel chatty. There's so much I want to update you on!

    Christmas Day was fantastically fun in every way. We saw both sides of the family. It made for a somewhat long day, but it was worth it. I got a slight cold the week of Christmas that didn't disappear for a good 2 weeks and David had a sinus infection that was resistant to the first round of meds he was on so it drug out lots longer than necessary. We spent the week after Christmas going through old toys and breaking up fights over the new ones. We rang in the new year at a friend's house and have been trying desperately to catch up on sleep since then.

     David's school semester started on Monday. This semester he has 2 in-seat classes as well as online classes. His in-person classes are on 2 different evenings - one is 4 hours long, one is 3 hours long. With only one week so far to judge, I'd say it's not going great. Little David just wants Daddy to put him to bed and got really upset this week when that couldn't happen. With all the commotion over the holidays, I'm not surprised he's easily broken these days. He's been throwing fits about just about everything and is super whiny even when he's "happy". Like I said, I want normal back. :)

    My morning quiet time was thrown out the window over the holidays and I'm having a really hard time getting it back. Being a little sick for a while there made me just want to sleep more and it paved the way for all sorts of snooze hitting bad habits to form.  The "but it's Christmas" excuse only lasts for so long too. Ugh. This is sort of like starting all over again. I just can't seem to get out of bed! It doesn't help that the boys want to stay up later at night, get up earlier in the morning and wake several times in between. This would be much easier if they were just a teensy bit older I think.

    Speaking of the boys not sleeping...Max just won't sleep through the night. He was sick so often from October through December and waking up so many times at night because of it that he just can't seem to stay asleep now. It's just habit to get up and nurse for a while then go back to sleep. We've cut out nursing in the middle of the night (thanks to being away from home on New Year's Eve), now we just need to make him stay asleep! I wish parenting came with a manual. Wouldn't it be great if they said "Here's your baby...and his instruction booklet". My husband is no direction-reader kind of guy, but I'm sure even he would appreciate that.

    It's snowing here. Finally. December didn't come with much snow at all. Every time little David saw even a single flake fall from the sky he'd ask to go out and play. It was so hard to explain that flurries do not make snowmen. Today though....wow. Today is beautiful. It's been snow ever since he woke up, sometimes harder than others, but snowing nonetheless. As soon as Daddy got home from work this morning they were outside sledding. More on that later.

  I'm done talking. Now I want chocolate cake. I think I need some Dangerous Chocolate Cake. Yep, I do. Bye.

Kool-aid

I just poured my boys 2 sippy cups full of Kool-aid.

(There you go, Cer. Now the whole world knows I'm a bad mom. You can feel better about yourself.)