successful day

Some days do you just feel like you get it right? Like the day as a whole went really well? Today was one of those days for me. Got up on time and fixed myself up nice for my man; got to church on time and re-fueled; came home to lunch already fixed from the night before; put the kids down for a nap and headed back to church for ladies’ event; stopped by the dollar tree on the way there to pick up things for Operation Christmas Child; also stopped by post office to check FOCUS stuff; arrived at church almost an hour early so worked on pictures while I waited (had my laptop with me); served at ladies’ event and loved every minute of it; came home to tickle my baby girl who was snuggling on the couch with her Daddy; then came the fast & furious part of the night … Ema remembered at 11:30 this morning that she had a project due at school tomorrow – had to make a habitat in a shoebox. She was set on making a forest for a deer with a hunter (she’s been hunting with Daddy a lot lately). So when I went to the dollar tree this afternoon, I happened to find a little deer figurine and a bag of moss. When I got home, I sent her into the yard (with a flashlight) to find leaves and twigs – Joel helped her find some acorns also. I got online and downloaded some pictures of a forest and another of a hunter – photoshoped the hunter into the forest and printed a panoramic forest to create the background of the box. We glued the deer, moss, twigs, leaves & acorns to the bottom of the box, and voila … in 30 minutes we had created her habitat!! So now Ema is in bed and I am uploading the last of the FOCUS Christmas pictures to our website. It’s been a great day; so much has been accomplished and I don’t even feel frazzeled or exhausted! God is good! Just one more person to take care of tonight (wink, wink).

PS ... the paci is back; after two weeks of a whining, no-sleeping child, we've decided that a pacifier isn't such a horrible thing for a two-year-old to sleep with. We'll try again in a few months :-)

paci fired

After months of systematically disposing of Ellie’s collection of pacifiers, the last one went into the trashcan after yesterday’s nap … and she made it through the night last night without a pacifier!! Of course, today as I announced that it was naptime, she ran over to the trash to search for her paci. She was not happy when I told her that the trash-man had taken it away. Naptime was rough; she wimpered and wined for the whole 3 hours of naptime and finally fell asleep about 10 minutes before it was time to go pick up Ema from school. Oh well. The good news is, she went right to sleep tonight! The bad news is, Mommy is completely frazzled from dealing with a grumpy/sleepy two-year-old.

The Best Policy

Yesterday at school, Ema’s entire class was chatting about something going on in the hallway. Her teacher asked them to be quiet, to which they did not respond. Then, the teacher asked everyone who was talking to raise their hand … Ema was the only one who raised her hand. As a reward for her honesty, Mrs. McCain allowed Ema to pick out a treat. Ema’s description went like this … “EVERYBODY was talking, but I was the only one who raised my hand, so Mrs. McCain opened a cabinet that was FULL of HUGE bags of candy and told me to pick out whatever I wanted. So I picked gum and she gave me TWO pieces … she even let me chew it in class!”

I am so thankful that Ema has a teacher who recognizes and appreciates the things that matter! And I’m so proud of my baby for being honest, even when she thought she might get in trouble.

Meanwhile, Ellie has been wearing big-girl panties all week and has had only a few accidents!!!!

Ayudame

Ellie was finishing her snack today in her high chair in the kitchen and I walked into the playroom to get some markers/paper for her to do “homework” while Ema and I worked on her homework. Ellie starts yelling, I’m finished Mommy, help me down. When I didn’t immediately respond, she started yelling “Ayudame, Ayudame”. For those of you who are not bi-lingual, that means “help me” in Spanish. I’m not sure if I should be thrilled or worried that she watches too much Dora?!

Baby Steps

Ellie is learning so much lately! She talks non-stop and keeps us all laughing. She has become very courteous with her 'please', 'thank you' and 'you're welcome'. It's so funny to see the reaction of people that aren't around her much when she says "you're welcome" and walks away ... their jaw just drops. She's learning her 'A B C D's' and can recognize about half of the alphabet on a good day. We've been trying for several weeks (although not very consistently) to potty train. Today, she poo-poo'd on the potty for the first time!!! I congratulated her and put a pull-up on her and explained gently not to tee-tee on the princesses that were on her pull-up. We celebrated with a sucker and a phone call to Daddy ... as we left a message telling him about her big accomplishment, she looked up at me and said "I tee-teed on my princesses!". Oh well, baby steps I guess.

back on track

After a very busy spring, I am back! My friends warned me when I quit work that I would be busier than I ever was with a full-time job ... they were right!! Although I LOVE volunteering at church, it seems to keep me quite busy. So, now that our 'spring semester' of Women's Ministry has come to an end, my summer break begins.
Ema's last day of school is Tuesday; she has awards day! She'll be receiving a trophy for straight A's on her report card (although she did actually receive on "B" in conduct - they don't count that subject - good thing for us). She is full-force into softball right now. She is the youngest in the league this year, so she sits the bench about half the game. But she prefers that because she's mostly there to socialize more than play anyway!! She is looking forward to a summer filled with swimming. She was writing a list this week of what we'll do this summer (yes, she is her mother). The list consisted of: 1. wake up; 2. make bed; 3. go swim; 4. lunch; 5. ellie's nap; 6. swim again. She has invited all of her friends at school to come spend the night (not all at the same time again, though ... Mommy only makes that venture once a year for birthday). They all keep asking me, "can we really come swim this summer?" ... "are ya'll really gonna swim two times every day?" I can just imagine their conversations at school.
Ellie has become quite the conversationalist. She was 'discharged' from speech therapy a few weeks ago after her therapist decided there was nothing else she could really teach her at this age. She still can't say the 'r' sound and she gets her 'v' and 'b' confused alot, but apparently that's normal for a 2-year-old. She is so funny. She has the best sense of humor. Today Joel decided to wash his truck at the house, so the girls got dressed in swim suites and went to "help" Daddy. Ema would spray one spot about ten times with the hose and insist that it still wasn't clean enough. Ellie just played in the bucket of suds ... at the end of it all, after splashing in puddles and throwing soap everywhere, Ellie finally crawled into the 5-gallon bucket of soapy water and had a seat. Of course, Ema had to try that too. I just took pictures of it all. It's so fun to just sit and watch them!

super-mommy (Christmas edition)

I just have to stop and share with you ... it is 12:30 AM and I am hanging up clothes. Baby girls are snuggly sleeping in their beds; batch #2 of chex mix is in the oven baking (batch #1 is on the counter cooling); batch #3 & 4 of deer jerky are in the fridge merinating (batches 1 & 2 are already individually packaged in little holiday ziploc baggies); and a lovely bunch of bananas are ever so ripe awaiting tomorrow's banana nut bread - I am ON FIRE!! OK, so I can't really take credit for allowing the banana's to 'almost' go bad, but I did plan all of the other things!! Since our Christmas budget is rather limited this year, I have decided to make baskets of food instead of buying gifts. I'm not so sure about the deer jerky - this is my first attempt at that; but I think everything else is turning out well. And, it's the thought (and hours upon hours of work) that counts ... right?! Right! And in between all of that work, I managed to spend some time shopping for a needy family today. And that was the best part of my day ... despite Ellie's persistent dismay of the shopping cart.

One last thought ... so much of our Christmas stuff in the store is made in China. Do you ever wonder if the worker in the Chinese factory knows what they're making with a cross on it, or the name Jesus?! Do they even know who He is or why we celebrate this particular little baby's birth? Who will tell them?!

She Speaks!

Ellie has been a bit delayed in talking, so last month we began in an early intervention program to help her develop her speech. I’m not sure if it is the weekly speech therapy sessions or if it’s just her getting older and learning, but she has really started talking so much more lately! She babbles constantly. Ema has named Ellie’s language as “Sherman”. When we don’t understand what Ellie is saying, we just say she’s speaking Sherman again. Her repertoire of words includes: Daddy, Mommy, Mema (for Ema), Boon (balloon), No No, NaNa (Nanny), Mi (as Ema always has, Ellie calls my dad Mike. But she never just says it normally, she only yells it: “Miiiiiiiiiii”).

Most recently, she has begun saying “da” for dog. About a week ago a little black dog appeared at our house without a collar. So after a few days, Ema and Joel decided to adopt her. Her name is Ritzy because the fur on her feet look like little white ‘boots’ – our neighbor came up with that one. Ema and Joel are loving having her to play with and Ellie is getting used to her. I just buy her food – I’m not really the pet type.

I was so excited when Ellie began to say Mommy last month. There is just something so precious about hearing your baby child begin to call you for the first time. And she has quickly learned how to use that to her advantage! When I tell her “No”, she looks up at me and says “Mommy”. And it’s not just a quick ‘mommy’, she draws it out and says it in the sweetest little whiney voice you’ve ever heard. Of course I can’t help but smile at her when she does that and forget about what I initially had told her “no” about. I’m such a sucker for those big brown eyes – I love that I see her Daddy every time I look in her eyes!!

car pickup

We are adjusting to our new routine, but still Ema asks each night … “am I going to be car pickup tomorrow?”.

Most days I feel like I’m taking a vacation day from work. But each night I am so thankful that the next day will again be filled with Mommy tasks! Ellie and I have had so much fun during the day – we play in the mornings and go for a walk (my neighbor politely informed me that the jogging stroller is designed for jogging instead of walking – I’ll just have to work my way up to that. Besides, we don’t want to over stimulate Ellie :-) So, after our walk, she follows me around the house and we make beds, do laundry, wash dishes – our “chores”. She usually runs out in front of me. You’d think she’d get tired as she takes about four steps for each of my one, but she keeps moving – constantly!! While she naps, I have my quiet time and work on projects that are best done without her “help”. And about the time she wakes up, it’s time to go pick up Ema – car pickup.

There are three different methods of getting home from school – bus load, daycare pickup, or car pickup. Ema has always been daycare pickup. She would ask me at least once a week, when would I take off work early so she could be car pickup. That first day I was off work Friday before last, it was so awesome to see her huge smile – standing in line for car pickup. It’s so amazing to me how such a small thing can bring joy to her little heart. And it brings joy to my heart just to see her so happy!! Thank you, Lord for allowing us to be car pickup :-)

'glor-E

praise, honor, or distinction extended by common consent : worshipful praise, honor, and thanksgiving

I begin my new journey as full-time Mommy & Wife by thanking God for this most generous gift of time! Time to be with my family and opportunity to be who He intends me to be and do what He wants me to do. I am so humbled to be trusted with such awesome responsiblities.

Give Him Glory, great things He has done!