Thinking on a Thursday

2 thoughts today. . .
1. I was having my quiet time this morning with Miss Firecracker at my side since she woke up early, and she made my heart smile. Asking questions the entire time (can't say I got a ton out of my quiet time today, but the following story makes it worth it nonetheless), she inquires about what I am doing? What am I writing? Why do I look up things? Why are your eyes closed? and so on and so forth. Answering all of them to try and teach her about what I am doing: reading my Bible, writing down my verses, looking up meanings of words, I pray with my eyes closed, and on and on for answers. Once I finished answering her questions her reply to the whole thing. . . "When I get big, mommy, I can read my Bible and write too!" Oh sing praises my soul! I pray that you will each and every day!

2. During my prayers this morning the thought about the amount of time I spend on my computer kept coming back to my mind. I kept praying for God to help me focus on my time and words with Him, but all I could think about was my stinkin' computer! Then it hit me like a sack of flour! Duh! He was trying to tell me that was what He wanted me to know. I am spending too much time on my computer! So, as my resolution to this revolution (not that it is all that much of a surprise to me, but I thought that was a pretty catchy saying :) I am signing off my computer until September 1st. No facebook, no blogging, no Pioneer Woman or other blogs, and no scrapbooking. I will have to check my Pampered Chef email as it is a business and I need to make sure I am keeping up with my customers, but I will only check it once each day and only address issues that are necessary. So, if you need me, you'll have to call or text me! Don't worry, I'll keep track of my kiddos in my prayer journal and post 2 blogs about the missed weeks once I return, just in case you are sitting at the edge of your seat wondering about our oh-so-exciting-lives! So, here is to you keeping me accountable. . . I hope you don't catch me on here for12 more days! It is going to be tough! I'll be signing off at noon today so I can let necessary people know how to reach me and tie up some PC ends so I can spend the least amount of time possible on the computer for that in the next 12 days as well.

Toy Tantrum

Two posts in one day? I really need to get to work on my house. But I need to rant a little first and get some frustrations out. Frustrations with myself and with my children and an added lesson on grace.

Why is it so hard to clean up toys? I really wish I could understand this. Yes, I don't like cleaning either but I do it. Yes, I am an adult and know that I must. But they know that they must clean as well because I am standing over the top of them telling them to do so. Yet, the minute I walk away to go clean up a mess of my own, the cleaning on their part stops. No reminders, bribes, yelling, threatening, rewarding or anything else has ever worked for me. Especially with Ms. Firecracker. Noisy Man, all I have to do is get out the garbage bag and hang it in a place where he can see it and he is cleaning up so fast you can barely see his feet. Not so with Ms. Firecracker, no amounts of rewarding her when she does clean, spanking her when she doesn't or anything inbetween can get that girl to clean unless I am standing right next to her instructing her every move. Now I realize she is only 2 1/2, but still. . . she knows how to put her toys away. We have a very simple system of 2 huge toy boxes and 5 cubbies. They know where everything goes. And I have to try and get 2 daycare kids to clean up as well. . . a little harder when the toys being threatened are not theirs. It is a nightmare and I lose my cool about it way too often. Am I the only mother who gets so upset by this? It took them 50 minutes to get cleaned up today what usually takes 15. I was so mad I had to go upstairs and cool off for a while, sadly only after I already blew up at them. Then of course it took even longer cuz the minute I left they stopped cleaning. AHHHHHH! Is it that important that the toys get cleaned up anyway? They are just going to get them back out? It is the concept I keep telling myself. They have to learn how to clean up after themselves. But why do I get SO mad about it? Why can't I see the bigger picture when I am boiling over my children not listening? Why can't I be one of those mothers that just pulls them aside and calmly tells them the importance of picking up their toys and then gives them a little pat and puts them back to work? Nope, not me. I yell and threaten and then have to walk away because they aren't listening. OK, so I can do the calm thing most of the time, I don't always scream at my children. I usually am pretty level headed about things. But then there are days like today when I lose it and throw a tantrum of my own at my children for not obeying. Maybe I need to go sit in the corner. I even pray for help in this area every morning during my quiet time because I know that each and every day there will come a point when my children will try my patience and I will need God's grace to deal gracefully with them. God humbled me today and showed me just how much I need His grace as well when I don't listen to Him and His teachings. It is amazing how much your children can teach you.

Thanks for listening and not thinking I am a terrible mother. . . I hope anyway.

Proverbs 31 must have read my blog yesterday. Their post today was Mean Mom, Kind Mom check it out and see what I learned! It was eye opening!

State of the Family #16

What a difference a week makes! And I don't just mean the weather

I told you by my next blog that Miss Thumb Sucker would be crawling. . . and I was right. She is all over the place and driving her sister and brother crazy! She is also pulling herself up to everything, sleeping at least until 5 am where I just go in and lay her back down to sleep for at least another hour, and eating some real food! Why do they have to grow up so fast? She has always been such a good baby, but if this last week proves anything, she might have an ornery streak in her. Every time I tell her no she just smiles and laughs at me. I am hoping it is only because she has never really heard the word no (directed at her anyway) before this crawling business and just doesn't quite know what it means. We'll see. I also have to vacuum almost every day to keep things off the floor and out of her mouth! At the moment she is sitting in the middle of her brother's elaborate train track built by Gpa and chewing on a link she has stolen out of it. When he comes around the corner and sees her I am sure there will be many "NO's" flying her way. I'll just wait to watch the show!

Thankfully, Miss Firecracker seems to have gotten past her latest potty incidents and has had a pretty good week. We just made a huge deal out of it when she went potty all by herself and she seems to have figured it out once again. For some reason though, I am just not certain the "accidents" will stay completely away, but we'll see how it goes. She has gotten into her clothes this week and decided that she wants to have some say in what she wears. Sadly for her, her mother is a bit of a 'matching freak' and won't let her just wear whatever she picks. But we have figured out that if she picks out the top or shorts, mommy can pick the coordinating piece and we will have peace!! (sorry that was cheesy). She insisted on wearing the same dress to church 2 weeks in a row as well and I have a feeling it might go for 3 weeks this next week as well. Her other latest big kid discovery is that her brother doesn't have to take naps every day, so she has started asking if she can stay up as well. Ha! I just tell her she has to be 4 before she can start staying up from naps. It seems to work so far, but we'll see (I seem to be saying that a lot in this post!).

Noisy Man has had quite the week. Gpa Gary came to baby sit while I went scrapbooking and the two of them built a train track on our playroom floor that covers the entire open play space in the middle, so now we have to tip toe around it to be able to play. Heaven forbid anyone touch it! Seriously, the thing is probably 4 ft wide by 8 feet long! We also went fishing again this week and came home with a GREAT story to tell. No, not a huge crappie or monster bass, we actually only caught 2 tiny little fish. Noisy Man took a nose dive off the edge of a drop off on the bank and landed face first in the mud. Luckily, the drop off was probably only 12 inches tall and the water had dropped back from the edge so he didn't get soaked, he just got a face-full of mud. Literally. He didn't even get his boots, jeans or shirt muddy except for what dripped off of his face. Thankfully, he had on sunglasses so it didn't get in his eyes. He was walking over to check on Uncle Chad, who was taking the 2nd bait worthy fish off his line and didn't see the edge. Uncle Chad had his hands full trying to get such a big hook out of such a small fish's mouth and couldn't grab him fast enough. I only wish I had my camera! He also got to go on his first trip to Chucky Cheese's! Gma V and Aunt Jen took the kids there while mommy and daddy went to a baseball game for their anniversary. He had a blast and when they were leaving, said, "This is where I want to go every time we eat at a restaurant!" Good luck with that one kiddo!

Daddy had lots of quality family time this week. We went to the Children's Museum on Monday since he switched his day off for the week. He got to hang out with them on Wednesday night while mommy went out with some friends and all day on Saturday while mommy scrapped. He is such a good guy. I think I also forgot to post a couple of weeks ago that the deck is finally finished as well! It is all covered in the Restore finish and will hopefully never have to be touched again! He has also been Mr. Gardener lately as well. Always going out to check on things and pick stuff that I somehow missed. He keeps up with spraying for bugs pretty well too! Now I just hope the whole thing doesn't die since there was a sprayer here on Friday "round-upping" the field behind our house, right next to our garden. The tomatoes are not looking too happy.

Mommy had a fabulous week with a visit to the Children's Museum with the whole fam, a night out with some great friends and 2 whole days of scrapbooking! I didn't get very much done at the scrap, but had a great time nonetheless. I have so much to catch up on I'm not sure if I'll ever feel like I got a lot done! I need to do better at getting digital stuff done as well. If anyone knows the secret to catching up on 3 years of scrapbooking for 3 children let me know! Daddy and I also got to go out and celebrate our 7th wedding anniversary last night. My awesome sis-in-law hooked us up with free Saltdogs tickets so we went and enjoyed the game. Well, 6 innings of it anyway. It started to rain at the top of the 5th inning so we stuck it out til the end of the 6th and then headed out for some ice cream since, for some crazy reason, all the vendors at the stadium closed up shop at the top of the 6th inning. It was a great date that was much needed! They even put up our anniversary announcement on the big screen at the stadium!

State of the Family #15

Miss Thumb Sucker might need her own post today. . . she has been busy! Be prepared! To start she is just inches away from being very mobile. Don't get me wrong. She can currently get to whatever she wants as long as it is within about 3 feet of her. I am not quite sure how she does it, but she gets there. She isn't fully crawling yet, but I am guessing by my next post she will be. She can also sit herself up and pull herself up as well. I found her sitting up in her bed just the other night and she can pull up to standing by things if there is something very sturdy to grab onto. She still has some pretty wobbly sea legs though so she doesn't usually stay in the full upright position for too long, but she is darn proud of herself nonetheless. And heaven forbid you let her hold onto your fingers. . . there will be no more sitting after that! And, last but not least for the little munchkin is our discovery of her allergy. Yes, the poor little thing is very allergic to mosquito bites. Now I know you are thinking, "We are all allergic to them, that is why they itch." But do not get me wrong. This is no normal reaction. I'll let the picture explain it. She got her first one last Saturday evening while up at my Sister-in-Law's. By Sunday night it looked like she had a tumor on the side of her head just above her ear. (I didn't take a picture of that one). Had we not been in Podunk (sorry Thurston residents) Nebraska, I probably would have taken her to the ER. Thankfully it was diminished by 3 am the next morning. However, she got her 2nd bite, just below her eye on Tuesday morning, and by Wednesday morning, the poor thing looked like she had gone rounds with Mike Tyson. I did take her to the doctor for this one since it was so close to her eye. They gave her a steroid shot to help with the swelling, but it didn't get better until almost 24 hours after the shot. She still has remnants of the bite by her eye, but looks like a normal child once again. We have purchased an off fan to keep near her at all times while she is outside from now until eternity. Whew, I think that about covers her. Thanks for sticking with me.

Miss Firecracker. . . hmmmm. It has been a tough week. Maybe I should just leave it at that in fear that she will read these posts when she is 20 and think that I never had anything nice to say about her. I try. I really do. She is a ball of energy and fun, but this little girl knows just how to push my buttons. This past week we had 7 potty accidents in 4 days just because she wanted to throw a fit and not go to the bathroom by herself. We have had toothpaste all over her face, legs, hands, toilet paper and sink not just once, but twice. (The toothpaste is now kept in an undisclosed location only reachable by fully grown adults.) We have had baby soap pumped all over the bathtub no where near bath time. And last but not least we wore enough sunscreen to coat the entire state of Florida from the sun for an whole year just on our neck and one arm. Why I addressed all of these occurrences in the "we" fashion since it was in fact just one naughty little redhead causing all the chaos I am not quite sure, but it got my point across and stories told. I do love her with all my heart and she can make me laugh like no one else, but oooo whee she can get under my skin!

Noisy Man is a fisherman and his daddy could not be more pleased. We have gone fishing about 4 times in the last 3 weeks and he is all over it. He even takes the fish off the hook by himself! Well, as long as they aren't hooked very deep. I am not sure how I feel about that though! Daddy had the gall to go fishing without him (he left at 5 am and didn't return until 8 pm, a little bit too long of a day for a 4-yr-old) and he was heartbroken. He is also becoming quite the bossy pants as well. I am constantly having to remind him that he is not the mommy or daddy in this household. And we have had to implement "The tattle tale gets the same punishment as the crime committer" rule to help with some of these tendencies. Of course, there are some exceptions to this rule when it comes to his sister. Like if she is hurting someone (most likely her baby sister) or hurting something (like ruining a piece of furniture with a pencil). This is a hard concept for a 4 year old to fully grasp, but we are working on it.

I can't really think of anything exciting the 2 adults in this household have done in the last weeks. Sad, isn't it? About all I can come up with is Daddy's all day fishing trip down to Milford Lake in KS this last Saturday, and Mommy gets her biannual 2 day scrap this weekend. We will celebrate our 7 year anniversary next Monday though, that will be news!

Not so Savvy

Ok, so I consider myself pretty computer savvy. Not the I-can-fix-anything-wrong-write-a-web-page-get-rid-of-a-virus type of savvy, but I can usually figure most things out and find what I need. I spent a great deal of the last hour trying to figure out how to change my fonts for my blog and got no where. Step-by-step instructions and I can't figure it out. Grrr. It doesn't help that the comparative file that was provided to make sure your web-writing looks like it should won't open up. I think if I could get that working I would be good to go and then I would have some very fun fonts on here to spruce things up. Maybe I'll go searching for some new instructions. . . when I have another free hour. Yeah right!