Once again, my blog has been neglected.
Two days after my last post, I got a positive pregnancy test. The pregnancy passed uneventfully for its first half. We discovered a marginal placenta previa at my 20-week ultrasound, and planned on checking it again in six to eight weeks.
That next check never happened.
My membranes ruptured at 23 weeks, and I was placed immediately on hospital bedrest. They were going to keep me pregnant as long as possible, with the ideal goal being 35 weeks, at which point they would induce. But at 25 weeks and 5 days, I went into unstoppable labor and my sweet baby Jonathan Gabriel was born by emergency c-section.
He lived 27 days.
I pumped during his time in the NICU, and he was able to take some of my milk, but then got an infection and had to stop all oral feeds. The effects of the infection were just too much for his little body to handle, and he lost his fight for life on Christmas Eve of 2011. We were heartbroken.
We are back into a new normal now. We will never stop grieving in our hearts, but will continue walking with God and thereby make it through the days, weeks, months and years to come. We will welcome another child if God chooses to bless us that way, but not now. Not this soon. Even if Jonathan had lived, we would not feel that our family was complete at only three children.
Tim is still at Schwan's. His route has been adjusted a few times and he is now only working nine days out of every two weeks instead of ten. We are happy that he now has every Saturday off. His sales are increasing, but very, very slowly. I've been able to grab a few more transcription contracts to help out, and plan on going back to work this week.
I'm also continuing to declutter. I had hoped to get it done before Jonathan got here, but with the surprise hospital bedrest, that didn't happen. But now that I'm not making daily trips up to the NICU, I have a little more time, so I'm trying to do a little bit every day.
I'm also going to declutter my body, too. For the first time in nearly six years, I'm neither pregnant nor nursing. It's hard to remember how to eat for one. A few people have recommended My Fitness Pal online to me, and I like it so far. My six-week follow-up appointment is tomorrow, and I'm going to ask the doctor then about exercise, since I've never had a surgical birth before. I have been feeling fine, though, so I should be good to go.
I'm also going to ask him if there was a reason for my water breaking so early, and if I can do anything in the future to try to reduce my risk of that happening, and what signs I can watch for to see if it would be more likely to happen again. I will no longer have a blissfully innocent pregnancy. And unlike early miscarriages, I won't even have a "safe week" that I can get to where I can feel confident that the rest of the 40 weeks will happen.
They might not.
But I love children and love being pregnant and if we are blessed with another pregnancy, I will be thankful for every day, every hour, that we have with that baby. Every moment is a gift.
Showing posts with label gettingorganized. Show all posts
Showing posts with label gettingorganized. Show all posts
Sunday, January 8, 2012
Monday, June 20, 2011
losing it and gaining it
Losing weight and gaining work, I mean.
Tim and I are starting week 7 of the Couch to 5K plan that I mentioned in my last post. We would be on week 8 now, but we each had separate setbacks causing us to re-do a week. We haven't lost any weight yet, but that is dietary, so we're going to try to eat healthier now, like if we want some ice cream, just do the recommended 1/2 cup serving size (it's TINY!) instead of a big bowlful, and try to do more veggies instead of chips, etc. The workouts are hard, but doable. My main problem is that with nearly any type of exercise I do, I get bored. I even try to do my routine while watching TV and even that doesn't help the time go faster, even if it's one of my favorite series.
In regards to gaining work, Tim's pay still is not increasing at the rate we originally hoped it would. He did have his super weeks and had a "bonus" of sorts during those weeks b/c of a few days with some super sales, but now he's back to normal, and normal isn't much more than nothing. It would be nice if a better job for him would fall out of the sky, but I don't think that will happen, so I've accepted that the transcription that I do needs to be a permanent fixture in our lives. I can handle that.
I just need to finish getting my routine in line and the apartment organized so that instead of putting out fires all day, I can actually feel like I'm accomplishing things. It's a long, slow process, but I just need to make time daily to do SOMETHING towards that end goal. It will be so worth it.
Tim and I are starting week 7 of the Couch to 5K plan that I mentioned in my last post. We would be on week 8 now, but we each had separate setbacks causing us to re-do a week. We haven't lost any weight yet, but that is dietary, so we're going to try to eat healthier now, like if we want some ice cream, just do the recommended 1/2 cup serving size (it's TINY!) instead of a big bowlful, and try to do more veggies instead of chips, etc. The workouts are hard, but doable. My main problem is that with nearly any type of exercise I do, I get bored. I even try to do my routine while watching TV and even that doesn't help the time go faster, even if it's one of my favorite series.
In regards to gaining work, Tim's pay still is not increasing at the rate we originally hoped it would. He did have his super weeks and had a "bonus" of sorts during those weeks b/c of a few days with some super sales, but now he's back to normal, and normal isn't much more than nothing. It would be nice if a better job for him would fall out of the sky, but I don't think that will happen, so I've accepted that the transcription that I do needs to be a permanent fixture in our lives. I can handle that.
I just need to finish getting my routine in line and the apartment organized so that instead of putting out fires all day, I can actually feel like I'm accomplishing things. It's a long, slow process, but I just need to make time daily to do SOMETHING towards that end goal. It will be so worth it.
Saturday, May 7, 2011
spring moves on, some progress on some projects
Well, so much for my goal of wanting to blog at least every two weeks. Maybe I should write it on the calendar so I'll remember, or coordinate it with the Saturdays that Tim works (every other Saturday) or something.
Benjamin's continuing to add more words to his vocabulary, including "pray" and "amen." We are still doing elimination communication with him, and he's dry for almost every nap and while sleeping at night, now, and even stays dry while I take him to the kitchen for a drink of water first. He wakes up with a greater need to drink than a greater need to go potty, so I let him sip a bit first and then tend to his other needs. :) I don't have any high hopes of him being 100% potty trained early or anything, but it's been nice to have him go in the potty even on occasion, and hopefully when the time DOES come for him to be potty-independent, it will be a relatively smooth transition.
Lydia continues to read pretty much whatever she can get her hands on. Our trips to the library to refresh our supply of books are more and more frequent. Also, when Tim and I watch TV, we usually turn on the closed captioning so we can keep the volume low and don't bother the neighbors (or a sleeping Benjamin). And Lydia will occasionally read the closed captioning, too, or at least give a valiant effort. I got her a "preschool workbook" in her Easter basket this year and she's enjoyed going through that and learning how to follow instructions with a worksheet instead of just drawing whatever. She also had her first cut-and-paste experience and it went well. It didn't take her any time at all to learn how to use the scissors.
I did finally get some more done in decluttering. I still have to do the bathroom, my bedroom and my closet, but the kitchen, dining room and living room are about 95% done. It is a HUGE improvement over what it was before. Here are a couple of before/after pictures.
Dining room before:
Dining room after:
Play area/living room before:
Play area/living room after:
There is also a couch in the living room that was piled so high with yarn and coats and random stuff that you couldn't even really tell that there was a couch there. But now the couch only has pillows on it, and people can actually sit there. :) I don't want to relax too much because the bedroom and closet are going to be HUGE projects, but I feel a little more able to breathe now. I can sit in the living room or dining room and feel peace instead of getting stressed out because of the clutter.
Tim and I have started the Couch to 5K running plan this week. It builds up with gradually-increasing runs until you can run enough to run a 5K race straight through without walking. I was SUPER sore after the first workout, and the soreness lasted for three days, but I stretched properly after the other two workouts and feel better now. I'm looking forward to doing this program. I want to be able to play actively with my kids for longer than 10 minutes at a time before I get out of breath. And if I happen to lose a pound or two, then I won't complain. :)
Tim's sales at his job have not increased noticeably yet, and the backlog in my transcription is gone (so now I have to log in at just the right time to see if there is work available), but we are still making it. Just because I am a spreadsheet nerd, I started tracking Tim's sales, since he is on a 14-day rotation, so we could see if there were any trends on a particular day or not. So far, there haven't been, but he's only been on each new day for about 4-5 times, so it's still too early to really tell. He's been easily making the sales goals that the company has set for him each week, but those goals aren't quite high enough to be our personal sales goals. I believe the sales will still increase. He has a couple of "super weeks" coming up, and hopefully should have some great sales during that time.
Benjamin's continuing to add more words to his vocabulary, including "pray" and "amen." We are still doing elimination communication with him, and he's dry for almost every nap and while sleeping at night, now, and even stays dry while I take him to the kitchen for a drink of water first. He wakes up with a greater need to drink than a greater need to go potty, so I let him sip a bit first and then tend to his other needs. :) I don't have any high hopes of him being 100% potty trained early or anything, but it's been nice to have him go in the potty even on occasion, and hopefully when the time DOES come for him to be potty-independent, it will be a relatively smooth transition.
Lydia continues to read pretty much whatever she can get her hands on. Our trips to the library to refresh our supply of books are more and more frequent. Also, when Tim and I watch TV, we usually turn on the closed captioning so we can keep the volume low and don't bother the neighbors (or a sleeping Benjamin). And Lydia will occasionally read the closed captioning, too, or at least give a valiant effort. I got her a "preschool workbook" in her Easter basket this year and she's enjoyed going through that and learning how to follow instructions with a worksheet instead of just drawing whatever. She also had her first cut-and-paste experience and it went well. It didn't take her any time at all to learn how to use the scissors.
I did finally get some more done in decluttering. I still have to do the bathroom, my bedroom and my closet, but the kitchen, dining room and living room are about 95% done. It is a HUGE improvement over what it was before. Here are a couple of before/after pictures.
Dining room before:
Dining room after:
Play area/living room before:
Play area/living room after:
There is also a couch in the living room that was piled so high with yarn and coats and random stuff that you couldn't even really tell that there was a couch there. But now the couch only has pillows on it, and people can actually sit there. :) I don't want to relax too much because the bedroom and closet are going to be HUGE projects, but I feel a little more able to breathe now. I can sit in the living room or dining room and feel peace instead of getting stressed out because of the clutter.
Tim and I have started the Couch to 5K running plan this week. It builds up with gradually-increasing runs until you can run enough to run a 5K race straight through without walking. I was SUPER sore after the first workout, and the soreness lasted for three days, but I stretched properly after the other two workouts and feel better now. I'm looking forward to doing this program. I want to be able to play actively with my kids for longer than 10 minutes at a time before I get out of breath. And if I happen to lose a pound or two, then I won't complain. :)
Tim's sales at his job have not increased noticeably yet, and the backlog in my transcription is gone (so now I have to log in at just the right time to see if there is work available), but we are still making it. Just because I am a spreadsheet nerd, I started tracking Tim's sales, since he is on a 14-day rotation, so we could see if there were any trends on a particular day or not. So far, there haven't been, but he's only been on each new day for about 4-5 times, so it's still too early to really tell. He's been easily making the sales goals that the company has set for him each week, but those goals aren't quite high enough to be our personal sales goals. I believe the sales will still increase. He has a couple of "super weeks" coming up, and hopefully should have some great sales during that time.
Monday, January 24, 2011
a new year full of changes
Apparently one of the major changes that I'm making this year is to stop writing in this blog, haha. No, really, I didn't intend to do that. But about two years ago, the hubby introduced me to Facebook, so I've been keeping up there more than here, with little one-liners of what's happening. But there's really nothing like a good blog post, so I made some time today to come back with some updates and some new info.
Benjamin turned one in October '10 with no big fanfare. I made the same type of cake for him that I did for Lydia's birthday, but he was not interested in eating it, or even touching it. Poor little guy was a little sleepy by that time, though, so I blame his lack of enthusiasm on being tired. He is very much into solids now, though, eating whatever we eat. He has three molars partway in, and the last one will break the skin any day now.
He is still not walking independently, nor does he really want to. He likes to cruise, though. He has been cruising since late September (although when he started out, it was more like grabbing randomly at the furniture and stomping his feet, and accidentally moving a couple of inches) and his favorite spot to cruise now is on my office chair. He'll hold onto it and walk around and around and around. I've given him a few haircuts, and it's hard to do that because he's very interested in the scissors and wants to turn around and look at them instead of being still, so usually I either have to be very fast, or have to wait until hubby can help me hold his head still.
I've been trying to sign with him and he did "drink" finally, and just in the past couple of days did "more," but those are the only two he's really done. I'm going to keep working with him though because he still doesn't say much, either. His first word was "cup" which he said at about 15 months old, and he can say "hair" as well (but he leaves off the H and the R so it sounds more like "aaah," lol). I'm still nursing him about 3-5 times a day. I'm also still "teaching him to read." In my last entry, I mentioned the YBCR videos, and we do watch those every so often, but I didn't follow the plan as instructed. I found the Doman method, though, and started that around the time of his first birthday. He loves looking at his words. And I put "teaching him to read" in quotes because maybe he'll learn to read with this, or maybe he won't, but the goal isn't to get him to read early - it's just to help build extra brain connections so that later in life, he will have an easier time learning whatever he wants to.
Lydia turned four in December and is great to have around. She's helpful to me and it's nice that she's getting to be so tall, because I can send her to get things for me that she couldn't have reached a year prior (like socks for Benjamin). She talks a ton. I'll share some of the interesting things she'd said later in this post. But speaking of reading, I've put aside the 100 Easy Lessons for her. They stopped being easy. I think she was too young for something so structured and rigid. So I started up the Doman method with her as well (and still show her the YBCR videos occasionally as well, when I want to show some to Benjamin). And I've also gotten better about reading to her. Every couple of months or so, I go out to the library and get a big stack of early reading books, then at bedtime, I have her go pick one out and read it to her (this was a new habit for me to get into, reading to her, because usually I would have just put her to bed). After I read her a book a couple of times, she starts to memorize it and/or recognize the words, and can read it most of the way by herself. She also plays with her foam letters in the bathtub and makes words that way, some real, some not so real, haha.
Re: reading my Bible more. This goal is still in progress (and always will be), but I shared some struggles that I've been having in this area in my current season in life with a friend of mine, and she passed along a daily devotional book to me that I've been finding helpful. It really is just what I need - something daily and directed. So often, I may sit down to read but not have any plan, and not have any idea what to read on that particular day. So having something that already tells me what to read is helpful. I still need to work harder on doing Lydia's Bible lessons with her, though.
Re: saving for a house. The house is not happening this spring. :( We looked into renting a house (just to get out of this tiny apartment), but even that would be more than we can afford right now. I am still doing transcription, but one of my jobs lost their big contract, so that cut down my typing opportunities. I am still making play food (and other items) to sell, though, and finally stocked my Etsy store, and also continually update my Facebook Fan Page.
Re: housework. Since we are going to be in this apartment for a while, I finally lit a fire under myself to do some massive decluttering. I've done a little bit so far, but there is still a ton of work left to do. I try to do something every day, even if it's just something tiny like removing the unneeded items from a single drawer. My end goal to have everything done is May-ish. Hubby is also attempting to get in shape by May as well.
Re: exercising. I took a break from walking outside for the winter, but haven't done any additional exercises. I need to make time to do even the 1-mile walking video that we have, since that would probably be better than nothing. Lydia probably would enjoy doing it with me.
Hubby is still working at Schwan's. Some big changes are coming to it, though, which he'll find out more about on Thursday. It could end up meaning a pay cut for us, though, if he doesn't continue building his route appropriately. But he's gotten a fire lit under him as well and had a decent day on Saturday, doing some route-building. Two weeks ago, he also applied for Safety-Kleen (where my brother-in-law works, but he works up in Utah), but the only thing we've heard from there is that they've received our application. As each day passes with no further contact from them, I keep thinking that that is not the right path for us.
Now, here are just a few of the hilarious things that Lydia has done/said:
8/1/09 - I opened a can of biscuits this morning and arranged them on a baking stone. Then I turned my back briefly to wash off the "essence of biscuit." When I turned back around, I saw that Lydia had made off with one of the raw biscuits and taken a bite out of it. And she liked it.
9/24/09 - Benjamin wasn't due until 10/5, but this was at the "any time now" phase. I asked Lydia if she thought the baby would come in September or October. She said, "October. Just a little bitty October, okay?"
11/19/09 - I was checking Lydia's emerging molars, and she asked me what's in her mouth. I told her "teeth" and then she said, "My teeth are growing up." Meanwhile, Benjamin spit up a tiny bit while he was laying around, and Lydia said that he "spilled."
1/23/10 - Tim (while eating trail mix): "Here, Lydia. Try a Craisin."
Lydia: "Mmm. Can I have another crazy one?"
3/2/10 - You know the song "If You're Happy and You Know It." You also know the song "Oh Be Careful." Lydia combined the two, and was singing, "Oh, be careful little Amen what you do." She then followed that verse up with "Oh be careful little claps what you do" and "Oh be careful little stomps what you do."
4/29/10 - "That's the screamer, see? That's where the sound comes out, right there." We were at the mall and Lydia was talking about a speaker in the ceiling.
5/25/10 - I went to get Lydia out of her room (she had not slept at all) and found that she gained some weight during her naptime. She'd opened up her dresser and donned 4 shirts - 3 long-sleeve and one short-sleeve - all at once.
7/24/10 - Sometimes I bring Lydia on my early-morning walks. She likes to look at the roly polies (or pill bugs) with great interest. But if I suggest that she hold one so it can tickle her hand, she is all "no, thank you." She's afraid of them. On our walk yesterday, she found one and I picked it up and asked her again if she would like to hold it. She said no, and walked a few steps ahead of me. I knew she wouldn't change her mind, so I tossed it into the grass (which Lydia did not see me do). Lydia walked a few more steps and then stopped and looked at me and said, "Can you put it down?" I guess she wanted to make sure I wouldn't sneak up with it and trick her into holding it, lol.
7/28/10 - I've been teaching Lydia to say "excuse me" if someone is blocking her path. Just now, she said, "Excuse me. I have to get in your way." Um, not quite the lesson objective that I had in mind.
8/18/10 - 8/18 - Lydia noticed tonight that my phone shows a picture of my mom (who the grandkids call Rae Rae) when in a call with her. We were coming in after church tonight, and I had a bag of clothes for Benjamin with me. Lydia looked at Rae Rae on the phone, then at the bag of clothes. Then she held the phone over the bag and told Rae Rae to "Look!"
10/5/10 - We were at the store. I was looking at the dry-erase markers and Lydia was looking at the pencils. Then she takes a pack of them off the rack and turns around and says, "Here you go!" and offers them to a random customer who was walking by, lol.
11/8/10 - I was teasing Lydia while filling up her milk cup. First I said that the pitcher of water was milk. She said, "No, that's water." Then I grabbed out a little baggie of coffee grounds. She said, "No, that's ... that's ... that's dirt for coffee." LOL
12/2/10 - Lydia's first Bible reading of the new quarter is Exodus 1. I got about halfway through verse 2 when she suddenly interrupted me and then went on to name the rest of the 12 tribes of Israel by herself, lol.
Here are a few pictures and videos:
What do you MEAN the food is gone already?
Expressive Benjamin
Lydia reads Eddie the Racoon
Lydia crochets some "sausage" balls
Benjamin turned one in October '10 with no big fanfare. I made the same type of cake for him that I did for Lydia's birthday, but he was not interested in eating it, or even touching it. Poor little guy was a little sleepy by that time, though, so I blame his lack of enthusiasm on being tired. He is very much into solids now, though, eating whatever we eat. He has three molars partway in, and the last one will break the skin any day now.
He is still not walking independently, nor does he really want to. He likes to cruise, though. He has been cruising since late September (although when he started out, it was more like grabbing randomly at the furniture and stomping his feet, and accidentally moving a couple of inches) and his favorite spot to cruise now is on my office chair. He'll hold onto it and walk around and around and around. I've given him a few haircuts, and it's hard to do that because he's very interested in the scissors and wants to turn around and look at them instead of being still, so usually I either have to be very fast, or have to wait until hubby can help me hold his head still.
I've been trying to sign with him and he did "drink" finally, and just in the past couple of days did "more," but those are the only two he's really done. I'm going to keep working with him though because he still doesn't say much, either. His first word was "cup" which he said at about 15 months old, and he can say "hair" as well (but he leaves off the H and the R so it sounds more like "aaah," lol). I'm still nursing him about 3-5 times a day. I'm also still "teaching him to read." In my last entry, I mentioned the YBCR videos, and we do watch those every so often, but I didn't follow the plan as instructed. I found the Doman method, though, and started that around the time of his first birthday. He loves looking at his words. And I put "teaching him to read" in quotes because maybe he'll learn to read with this, or maybe he won't, but the goal isn't to get him to read early - it's just to help build extra brain connections so that later in life, he will have an easier time learning whatever he wants to.
Lydia turned four in December and is great to have around. She's helpful to me and it's nice that she's getting to be so tall, because I can send her to get things for me that she couldn't have reached a year prior (like socks for Benjamin). She talks a ton. I'll share some of the interesting things she'd said later in this post. But speaking of reading, I've put aside the 100 Easy Lessons for her. They stopped being easy. I think she was too young for something so structured and rigid. So I started up the Doman method with her as well (and still show her the YBCR videos occasionally as well, when I want to show some to Benjamin). And I've also gotten better about reading to her. Every couple of months or so, I go out to the library and get a big stack of early reading books, then at bedtime, I have her go pick one out and read it to her (this was a new habit for me to get into, reading to her, because usually I would have just put her to bed). After I read her a book a couple of times, she starts to memorize it and/or recognize the words, and can read it most of the way by herself. She also plays with her foam letters in the bathtub and makes words that way, some real, some not so real, haha.
Re: reading my Bible more. This goal is still in progress (and always will be), but I shared some struggles that I've been having in this area in my current season in life with a friend of mine, and she passed along a daily devotional book to me that I've been finding helpful. It really is just what I need - something daily and directed. So often, I may sit down to read but not have any plan, and not have any idea what to read on that particular day. So having something that already tells me what to read is helpful. I still need to work harder on doing Lydia's Bible lessons with her, though.
Re: saving for a house. The house is not happening this spring. :( We looked into renting a house (just to get out of this tiny apartment), but even that would be more than we can afford right now. I am still doing transcription, but one of my jobs lost their big contract, so that cut down my typing opportunities. I am still making play food (and other items) to sell, though, and finally stocked my Etsy store, and also continually update my Facebook Fan Page.
Re: housework. Since we are going to be in this apartment for a while, I finally lit a fire under myself to do some massive decluttering. I've done a little bit so far, but there is still a ton of work left to do. I try to do something every day, even if it's just something tiny like removing the unneeded items from a single drawer. My end goal to have everything done is May-ish. Hubby is also attempting to get in shape by May as well.
Re: exercising. I took a break from walking outside for the winter, but haven't done any additional exercises. I need to make time to do even the 1-mile walking video that we have, since that would probably be better than nothing. Lydia probably would enjoy doing it with me.
Hubby is still working at Schwan's. Some big changes are coming to it, though, which he'll find out more about on Thursday. It could end up meaning a pay cut for us, though, if he doesn't continue building his route appropriately. But he's gotten a fire lit under him as well and had a decent day on Saturday, doing some route-building. Two weeks ago, he also applied for Safety-Kleen (where my brother-in-law works, but he works up in Utah), but the only thing we've heard from there is that they've received our application. As each day passes with no further contact from them, I keep thinking that that is not the right path for us.
Now, here are just a few of the hilarious things that Lydia has done/said:
8/1/09 - I opened a can of biscuits this morning and arranged them on a baking stone. Then I turned my back briefly to wash off the "essence of biscuit." When I turned back around, I saw that Lydia had made off with one of the raw biscuits and taken a bite out of it. And she liked it.
9/24/09 - Benjamin wasn't due until 10/5, but this was at the "any time now" phase. I asked Lydia if she thought the baby would come in September or October. She said, "October. Just a little bitty October, okay?"
11/19/09 - I was checking Lydia's emerging molars, and she asked me what's in her mouth. I told her "teeth" and then she said, "My teeth are growing up." Meanwhile, Benjamin spit up a tiny bit while he was laying around, and Lydia said that he "spilled."
1/23/10 - Tim (while eating trail mix): "Here, Lydia. Try a Craisin."
Lydia: "Mmm. Can I have another crazy one?"
3/2/10 - You know the song "If You're Happy and You Know It." You also know the song "Oh Be Careful." Lydia combined the two, and was singing, "Oh, be careful little Amen what you do." She then followed that verse up with "Oh be careful little claps what you do" and "Oh be careful little stomps what you do."
4/29/10 - "That's the screamer, see? That's where the sound comes out, right there." We were at the mall and Lydia was talking about a speaker in the ceiling.
5/25/10 - I went to get Lydia out of her room (she had not slept at all) and found that she gained some weight during her naptime. She'd opened up her dresser and donned 4 shirts - 3 long-sleeve and one short-sleeve - all at once.
7/24/10 - Sometimes I bring Lydia on my early-morning walks. She likes to look at the roly polies (or pill bugs) with great interest. But if I suggest that she hold one so it can tickle her hand, she is all "no, thank you." She's afraid of them. On our walk yesterday, she found one and I picked it up and asked her again if she would like to hold it. She said no, and walked a few steps ahead of me. I knew she wouldn't change her mind, so I tossed it into the grass (which Lydia did not see me do). Lydia walked a few more steps and then stopped and looked at me and said, "Can you put it down?" I guess she wanted to make sure I wouldn't sneak up with it and trick her into holding it, lol.
7/28/10 - I've been teaching Lydia to say "excuse me" if someone is blocking her path. Just now, she said, "Excuse me. I have to get in your way." Um, not quite the lesson objective that I had in mind.
8/18/10 - 8/18 - Lydia noticed tonight that my phone shows a picture of my mom (who the grandkids call Rae Rae) when in a call with her. We were coming in after church tonight, and I had a bag of clothes for Benjamin with me. Lydia looked at Rae Rae on the phone, then at the bag of clothes. Then she held the phone over the bag and told Rae Rae to "Look!"
10/5/10 - We were at the store. I was looking at the dry-erase markers and Lydia was looking at the pencils. Then she takes a pack of them off the rack and turns around and says, "Here you go!" and offers them to a random customer who was walking by, lol.
11/8/10 - I was teasing Lydia while filling up her milk cup. First I said that the pitcher of water was milk. She said, "No, that's water." Then I grabbed out a little baggie of coffee grounds. She said, "No, that's ... that's ... that's dirt for coffee." LOL
12/2/10 - Lydia's first Bible reading of the new quarter is Exodus 1. I got about halfway through verse 2 when she suddenly interrupted me and then went on to name the rest of the 12 tribes of Israel by herself, lol.
Here are a few pictures and videos:
What do you MEAN the food is gone already?
Expressive Benjamin
Lydia reads Eddie the Racoon
Lydia crochets some "sausage" balls
Thursday, September 9, 2010
sticking to things
I'm either nine months late or four months early for New Year's resolutions, but now is as good a day as any and there's no time like the present and yadda yadda. I have a lot of things that I need/want to stick to, that I'm having trouble with. So here they are, in no particular order.
1. Reading my Bible. There is always room for improvement here, but right now, there is a LOT of room for improvement for me. I don't know how I slipped out of the habit. I used to read some every day, before breakfast even. I need to get back into it. I am full of turmoil about certain things and need His peace and instruction and wisdom to fill me up to overflowing.
2. Transcribing. Hubby and I talked to a realtor briefly a few days ago, and found out that the "good" news is that it is possible to buy a house with only 3.5% down (plus closing costs). That amount is a doable goal to save between now and next spring/summer. The bad news is that it will take diligence on my part, since most of that savings will be coming from my transcription while we live on just hubby's income. The problem is that I will sit down to do a 10-minute file (which should only take me 30-40 minutes) and I'll do two minutes then check my email. Then I'll do another two minutes and pop on Facebook. Then I'll do another 90 seconds and go grab a snack. And the work easily turns into an hour or more, but if I just sat and did it start to finish, it would take no time at all and I'd be done and could move on to another file or to housework or whatever.
3. Housework. I need to continue getting organized. I have spaces and stuff and stuff that needs to go and stuff that needs a space. I can sometimes think in my head what needs to be done, but then it can't be done when I think about it because it's too big a task or the kids are in bed and it involves leaving the house or this or that or the other. What I really need to do is just take 20 minutes and walk through the house, looking in all the cabinets and closets, and make a list of everything that needs to be done and set up a timeframe in which to do it. Because really, the things need to be done in a certain order, so I need to get to it and figure out in what order the things need to be done, then I can actually DO them.
4. Teaching the children. This is both for their Bible work and the secular work. Lydia has a daily Bible reading for her class, and a memory verse. I usually remember to do her items about an hour after she's in bed for the night. I need to do it earlier, maybe after I do her reading lesson. I am still going through the 100 Easy Lessons book, but only doing a lesson for 15 minutes at a time, then starting the same lesson the next day. She was starting to take up to 45 minutes just to do part of one lesson (leaving off the second story reading, and the writing) and it was stressing me out. So now I just do 15 minutes. And I am teaching Benjamin, too. I'm trying to be observant of him and what he's looking at and thinking, and help expand on his thoughts. I also finally put into use the Your Baby Can Read set that hubby's mom got us shortly after Benjamin was born.
I had tried using that with Lydia when she was about six months old, but it didn't "work" for her. I was excited about it at the time and it might have had results if I had continued the program, but we ended up moving about a month later and then had the start of our long spell of spotty employment four months after that, and doing a baby-reading program just wasn't very high of a priority.
But anyway, earlier this week, I finally took the items out of the package that hubby's mom had got for us. It ended up being the "Deluxe" kit. So not only did we have the five DVDs, but we also had a book for each DVD, a set of sliding cards for each DVD, a big set of flash cards, and a few other things. This kit also included an extensive "Parent's Guide" booklet and DVD. I read the booklet and watched the DVD. There are a LOT of less-than-stellar reviews of this product and a lot of naysayers ("Why would you want your baby to read early?" etc.), but the booklet and the DVD addressed so many of those common concerns.
I don't force Benjamin to sit and watch the DVD. Sometimes he wants to stand, instead. Ha, ha. That was my lame attempt at a joke, there. But seriously, he seems to like it. I sit and watch it with him and do the actions (lift arms, touch nose, things like that). And he loves the extras in the kit, too. This evening when I was showing him the sliding cards (these cards have a word on them, then they "slide open" to reveal a picture illustrating the word), he would start to squeal in anticipation of the picture being revealed.
The recommended schedule would take seven months from start to finish, but the booklet said that an older baby may be able to start recognizing the words before the "scheduled end" of the DVD viewing time. It told me of things to watch for to see if that is happening, and if it does, then I can move on to the next DVD early. I don't anticipate being able to do this with Benjamin, but I can see how it could happen with an older toddler. Lydia can already read most of the words on the first DVD. I'm sure that the 100 Easy Lessons that we've completed have helped her with that, but we haven't even been watching the DVDs for a full week yet, and she can already read the words on there. I can't advance to the next DVD for her, though, until Benjamin is ready, so I think that these DVDs and the 100 Easy Lessons will be a good complement to each other.
The program creator's own daughter was on the parent's DVD for part of a Q&A session with some people who were using the program. And I think it's sort of like a weight-loss ad, where such and such a person lost 50 pounds in two weeks and then the fine print says "Results not typical." I don't think that Aleka's results are typical, but if my kids can read a portion of how well she could, then I will be happy. And she didn't just read well over her grade level. She read FAST. It came out in the DVD that she read the entire Harry Potter series -- the whole SERIES -- in ONE day. I consider myself a pretty fast reader, but there's no way I could do THAT. And because she read so fast, she had a ton of time to do other things besides read and study.
5. Exercise. For a few months, I have been meeting up with another babywearing mama three times a week to go walking with her. I need to keep it up. I feel a little better on the days that I do it (but tired, since I get up earlier than normal so I can walk and be home by the time hubby goes to work). But if one or both of us need to cancel for whatever reason, I need to make sure to still get some activity in on my own. We have a set of Walk Away The Pounds DVDs that hubby likes to do sometimes, so I may do that on my "off" days.
1. Reading my Bible. There is always room for improvement here, but right now, there is a LOT of room for improvement for me. I don't know how I slipped out of the habit. I used to read some every day, before breakfast even. I need to get back into it. I am full of turmoil about certain things and need His peace and instruction and wisdom to fill me up to overflowing.
2. Transcribing. Hubby and I talked to a realtor briefly a few days ago, and found out that the "good" news is that it is possible to buy a house with only 3.5% down (plus closing costs). That amount is a doable goal to save between now and next spring/summer. The bad news is that it will take diligence on my part, since most of that savings will be coming from my transcription while we live on just hubby's income. The problem is that I will sit down to do a 10-minute file (which should only take me 30-40 minutes) and I'll do two minutes then check my email. Then I'll do another two minutes and pop on Facebook. Then I'll do another 90 seconds and go grab a snack. And the work easily turns into an hour or more, but if I just sat and did it start to finish, it would take no time at all and I'd be done and could move on to another file or to housework or whatever.
3. Housework. I need to continue getting organized. I have spaces and stuff and stuff that needs to go and stuff that needs a space. I can sometimes think in my head what needs to be done, but then it can't be done when I think about it because it's too big a task or the kids are in bed and it involves leaving the house or this or that or the other. What I really need to do is just take 20 minutes and walk through the house, looking in all the cabinets and closets, and make a list of everything that needs to be done and set up a timeframe in which to do it. Because really, the things need to be done in a certain order, so I need to get to it and figure out in what order the things need to be done, then I can actually DO them.
4. Teaching the children. This is both for their Bible work and the secular work. Lydia has a daily Bible reading for her class, and a memory verse. I usually remember to do her items about an hour after she's in bed for the night. I need to do it earlier, maybe after I do her reading lesson. I am still going through the 100 Easy Lessons book, but only doing a lesson for 15 minutes at a time, then starting the same lesson the next day. She was starting to take up to 45 minutes just to do part of one lesson (leaving off the second story reading, and the writing) and it was stressing me out. So now I just do 15 minutes. And I am teaching Benjamin, too. I'm trying to be observant of him and what he's looking at and thinking, and help expand on his thoughts. I also finally put into use the Your Baby Can Read set that hubby's mom got us shortly after Benjamin was born.
I had tried using that with Lydia when she was about six months old, but it didn't "work" for her. I was excited about it at the time and it might have had results if I had continued the program, but we ended up moving about a month later and then had the start of our long spell of spotty employment four months after that, and doing a baby-reading program just wasn't very high of a priority.
But anyway, earlier this week, I finally took the items out of the package that hubby's mom had got for us. It ended up being the "Deluxe" kit. So not only did we have the five DVDs, but we also had a book for each DVD, a set of sliding cards for each DVD, a big set of flash cards, and a few other things. This kit also included an extensive "Parent's Guide" booklet and DVD. I read the booklet and watched the DVD. There are a LOT of less-than-stellar reviews of this product and a lot of naysayers ("Why would you want your baby to read early?" etc.), but the booklet and the DVD addressed so many of those common concerns.
I don't force Benjamin to sit and watch the DVD. Sometimes he wants to stand, instead. Ha, ha. That was my lame attempt at a joke, there. But seriously, he seems to like it. I sit and watch it with him and do the actions (lift arms, touch nose, things like that). And he loves the extras in the kit, too. This evening when I was showing him the sliding cards (these cards have a word on them, then they "slide open" to reveal a picture illustrating the word), he would start to squeal in anticipation of the picture being revealed.
The recommended schedule would take seven months from start to finish, but the booklet said that an older baby may be able to start recognizing the words before the "scheduled end" of the DVD viewing time. It told me of things to watch for to see if that is happening, and if it does, then I can move on to the next DVD early. I don't anticipate being able to do this with Benjamin, but I can see how it could happen with an older toddler. Lydia can already read most of the words on the first DVD. I'm sure that the 100 Easy Lessons that we've completed have helped her with that, but we haven't even been watching the DVDs for a full week yet, and she can already read the words on there. I can't advance to the next DVD for her, though, until Benjamin is ready, so I think that these DVDs and the 100 Easy Lessons will be a good complement to each other.
The program creator's own daughter was on the parent's DVD for part of a Q&A session with some people who were using the program. And I think it's sort of like a weight-loss ad, where such and such a person lost 50 pounds in two weeks and then the fine print says "Results not typical." I don't think that Aleka's results are typical, but if my kids can read a portion of how well she could, then I will be happy. And she didn't just read well over her grade level. She read FAST. It came out in the DVD that she read the entire Harry Potter series -- the whole SERIES -- in ONE day. I consider myself a pretty fast reader, but there's no way I could do THAT. And because she read so fast, she had a ton of time to do other things besides read and study.
5. Exercise. For a few months, I have been meeting up with another babywearing mama three times a week to go walking with her. I need to keep it up. I feel a little better on the days that I do it (but tired, since I get up earlier than normal so I can walk and be home by the time hubby goes to work). But if one or both of us need to cancel for whatever reason, I need to make sure to still get some activity in on my own. We have a set of Walk Away The Pounds DVDs that hubby likes to do sometimes, so I may do that on my "off" days.
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
august is gone
I'm not sure what happened to August, but I managed to let it slip by without any blog post at all. I blame Facebook. It's hard to sit down and write a big ol' blog entry, but so easy to do a quick status update.
Anyway. Benjamin's eczema is doing MUCH better. I picked up his fourth homeopathic remedy to try on 7/28, and by 8/11, he was better. It was only a slight improvement, but it was noticeable. He continued to improve over the next several days.
Before:
After (and this is his "bad" side):
His skin didn't clear up totally, though, and started getting worse again, so I gave him a second dose this past Sunday. The remedy he's on is a slow-acting one, so I'm watching it for improvement. I also had been off dairy, but went back on it about 8/1 because of being out of town. I had my doubts that it was dairy causing his eczema anyway, and I'm even more sure that dairy's not a culprit because while on this remedy, his eczema improved, despite me being back ON dairy (after being off for nearly six weeks).
I am still practicing part-time elimination communication with him. He is doing really well with it and on days where I offer the potty enough, he will hold it and wait for me to offer again. I don't expect him to be potty trained early or anything (far from it, given my struggles with Lydia, lol), but I just want to let him keep the idea in his head that a potty is an option. And this one day, I was letting him go potty, and Lydia came in and watched him and then tried to make the sign for "toilet" at him. She stuck her thumb between her fingers, made a fist, then shook it at Benjamin and said, "Potty! Potty! Potty!" It was so cute.
Lydia, on the other hand, had a ton of accidents around the trip, which is understandable. It was kind of ironic, though. I hadn't packed any Pull-ups for her, on purpose, b/c she did so well on the trip to Oklahoma. Well, the first two nights were disasters. So on the third night (and for the rest of her trip) I put her in Pull-ups. And of course, those were dry in the morning, lol. Then when we got back home, I put her back in undies, and was rewarded by a wet bed again for two nights. But now she is back to normal and is doing great.
Speaking of our trip, I do have several pictures from it, but first I'd like to talk about Lydia's reading again. I had dropped off the 100 Easy Lessons because of scheduling conflicts and the trip and everything, and tried to pick it back up again on Saturday. The "easy" lessons (we're in the 60s somewhere) are turning into long and hard ones. So what I'm doing now is setting the timer for 15 minutes and then if she's not done with the lesson, I put the lesson away and we'll do more of it the next day. Then I pick out a book and read her a story. I am a bad mom b/c I haven't been reading to her like I should. She needs that from me.
Anyway, on to the trip pictures. Here's Lydia with my Granny and Grandpa.
Lydia with her new outfit from Rae Rae (my mom) (and the funny thing about this outfit is that the hat and jumper came from two different places... but doesn't it match perfectly?):
Lydia in an Oklahoma wheat field sunset:
Water babies:
I'm still slowly working on getting organized. I moved some small furniture around and threw out some large boxes so far, and can now move on to some small things. A few immediate items are to clean out the bins in the "window" between the kitchen and dining room, organize the pantry, and go through the paperwork box. I hope to get those accomplished this week, amid transcription and a play food order.
Benjamin is crawling. He is now doing a proper hands-and-knees alternating crawl, but this video shows his early attempts. He seemed to just move whatever limb he was thinking about, lol. And even now, when he gets excited, he will forget about his legs and try to crawl just with his arms, which just gets him to a belly flop. :p He is also learning what "don't touch" and "come to mama" mean. I especially figure that the latter is easier to teach him now, when he actually WANTS to be with me. And "don't touch" is taught by a lot of repetition. He gets mad at me, but after about 10-15 tries and being told "no" and being removed from the item, he gives up and finds something else to do. Then 10-20 minutes later, he tries again. haha. But I will persevere and prevail. On the teeth front, he still just has those 6 teeth that he got months ago, with no more looming on the horizon yet. He is finally mostly sleeping through the night again, only waking up once most times (which is MUCH better than the 5-6 times per night he was doing in late July). He can "talk" a little bit. I think he's said "all done" before, when he was on the potty, and after he was, you know, all done. lol. He only did it a couple of times, though, and hasn't really said anything else (not even "mama" or anything). Anyway here is his video. :)
And here is Lydia, enjoying a... "drum" lol:
Anyway. Benjamin's eczema is doing MUCH better. I picked up his fourth homeopathic remedy to try on 7/28, and by 8/11, he was better. It was only a slight improvement, but it was noticeable. He continued to improve over the next several days.
Before:
After (and this is his "bad" side):
His skin didn't clear up totally, though, and started getting worse again, so I gave him a second dose this past Sunday. The remedy he's on is a slow-acting one, so I'm watching it for improvement. I also had been off dairy, but went back on it about 8/1 because of being out of town. I had my doubts that it was dairy causing his eczema anyway, and I'm even more sure that dairy's not a culprit because while on this remedy, his eczema improved, despite me being back ON dairy (after being off for nearly six weeks).
I am still practicing part-time elimination communication with him. He is doing really well with it and on days where I offer the potty enough, he will hold it and wait for me to offer again. I don't expect him to be potty trained early or anything (far from it, given my struggles with Lydia, lol), but I just want to let him keep the idea in his head that a potty is an option. And this one day, I was letting him go potty, and Lydia came in and watched him and then tried to make the sign for "toilet" at him. She stuck her thumb between her fingers, made a fist, then shook it at Benjamin and said, "Potty! Potty! Potty!" It was so cute.
Lydia, on the other hand, had a ton of accidents around the trip, which is understandable. It was kind of ironic, though. I hadn't packed any Pull-ups for her, on purpose, b/c she did so well on the trip to Oklahoma. Well, the first two nights were disasters. So on the third night (and for the rest of her trip) I put her in Pull-ups. And of course, those were dry in the morning, lol. Then when we got back home, I put her back in undies, and was rewarded by a wet bed again for two nights. But now she is back to normal and is doing great.
Speaking of our trip, I do have several pictures from it, but first I'd like to talk about Lydia's reading again. I had dropped off the 100 Easy Lessons because of scheduling conflicts and the trip and everything, and tried to pick it back up again on Saturday. The "easy" lessons (we're in the 60s somewhere) are turning into long and hard ones. So what I'm doing now is setting the timer for 15 minutes and then if she's not done with the lesson, I put the lesson away and we'll do more of it the next day. Then I pick out a book and read her a story. I am a bad mom b/c I haven't been reading to her like I should. She needs that from me.
Anyway, on to the trip pictures. Here's Lydia with my Granny and Grandpa.
Lydia with her new outfit from Rae Rae (my mom) (and the funny thing about this outfit is that the hat and jumper came from two different places... but doesn't it match perfectly?):
Lydia in an Oklahoma wheat field sunset:
Water babies:
I'm still slowly working on getting organized. I moved some small furniture around and threw out some large boxes so far, and can now move on to some small things. A few immediate items are to clean out the bins in the "window" between the kitchen and dining room, organize the pantry, and go through the paperwork box. I hope to get those accomplished this week, amid transcription and a play food order.
Benjamin is crawling. He is now doing a proper hands-and-knees alternating crawl, but this video shows his early attempts. He seemed to just move whatever limb he was thinking about, lol. And even now, when he gets excited, he will forget about his legs and try to crawl just with his arms, which just gets him to a belly flop. :p He is also learning what "don't touch" and "come to mama" mean. I especially figure that the latter is easier to teach him now, when he actually WANTS to be with me. And "don't touch" is taught by a lot of repetition. He gets mad at me, but after about 10-15 tries and being told "no" and being removed from the item, he gives up and finds something else to do. Then 10-20 minutes later, he tries again. haha. But I will persevere and prevail. On the teeth front, he still just has those 6 teeth that he got months ago, with no more looming on the horizon yet. He is finally mostly sleeping through the night again, only waking up once most times (which is MUCH better than the 5-6 times per night he was doing in late July). He can "talk" a little bit. I think he's said "all done" before, when he was on the potty, and after he was, you know, all done. lol. He only did it a couple of times, though, and hasn't really said anything else (not even "mama" or anything). Anyway here is his video. :)
And here is Lydia, enjoying a... "drum" lol:
Saturday, July 24, 2010
nine month stats and high school memories
Phew, I just managed to eke out another entry for July. Go me, haha. I might be able to squeeze another one in next week, depending on how busy things get. I barely find time for all the stuff I "need" to do, and then blogging is just extra.
Anyway. Well, after all that whining about potty training in my last post, I now can't remember the last major accident that she's had. She is really doing great, even for #2s and everything. And last night, she asked if she could wear undies to bed instead of a Pull-up and I asked her if she was going to keep the bed dry, and she said yes, so I gave it a try (she'd already been in undies for naps for quite a while with no incidents). She woke up dry. So we're trying it again tonight, too. I hope I don't jinx myself by saying that it's done, haha.
I'm still doing elimination communication with Benjamin, too, still very part-time. He's still not a whole lot closer to crawling than earlier this month, but he will very rarely get up on his hands and knees, briefly. And he is a GREAT sitter, now. I can set him down, and sometimes he'll stay just like that for an hour or more. But if I lay him down, he will roll all over the place. We had his nine-month appointment this month and he is 27" long (but I think he might be a smidgen longer) and he weighs 15 pounds and 14 ounces. The weight gain is quite a bit from the last time he was in the office. He's still quite the peanut, but it's apparent that I make tiny babies.
Some of the busy-ness that I mentioned earlier is because I am trying to get the apartment cleaned out of random stuff that we just plain don't need anymore. Papers will be the most challenging thing to go through, I think. I am a saver and a hoarder, lol. But there are a few small pieces of furniture that I want to move around to hopefully make the whole place a bit more organized, so we can start having people over again without them feeling like they've walked into clutter city. It's hard, though, because I have all these big ideas but then no time between all the other normal stuff like the kids and the cooking and the cleaning and the laundry and the transcription (and the blogging, haha). I have started getting up early 3 days/week and going walking w/ a friend (and B, but leaving Lydia at home) and those days feel more productive to me overall.
We went to hubby's high school reunion last weekend. It wasn't a huge turnout, but the two people he wanted to come, came, so we got to see them and then a few other people. There was a short meet-and-greet at the school on Friday night, then a BBQ lunch on Saturday and a fancy dinner Saturday night. At the lunch, they had rented a bounce house. Lydia went in there for all of about 30 seconds before getting terrified and wanting out. She's also scared of the roly polies (or pill bugs) on my morning walk that I sometimes take her on. She'll sit and watch one all day long, but if I suggest she hold it, she gets terrified. I don't know how I ended up with such a fearful child. I wonder if she'll grow out of it at some point.
Hubby wants to teach a Bible class up at church at some point, too - but not the adult class. He wants to teach the middle schoolers. The class slots are assigned several quarters in advance, so he's already thinking about who he wants to ask to teach with him.
And here are another couple of videos. This first one is just Lydia being three, lol. It's pretty typical of how she acts all day. ALL day, lol. As a matter of fact, she's actually quite calm in this video.
And here's B laughing at me when I go up and down. It took me a bit to get his attention away from the camera, but the wait is worth it. :p
Anyway. Well, after all that whining about potty training in my last post, I now can't remember the last major accident that she's had. She is really doing great, even for #2s and everything. And last night, she asked if she could wear undies to bed instead of a Pull-up and I asked her if she was going to keep the bed dry, and she said yes, so I gave it a try (she'd already been in undies for naps for quite a while with no incidents). She woke up dry. So we're trying it again tonight, too. I hope I don't jinx myself by saying that it's done, haha.
I'm still doing elimination communication with Benjamin, too, still very part-time. He's still not a whole lot closer to crawling than earlier this month, but he will very rarely get up on his hands and knees, briefly. And he is a GREAT sitter, now. I can set him down, and sometimes he'll stay just like that for an hour or more. But if I lay him down, he will roll all over the place. We had his nine-month appointment this month and he is 27" long (but I think he might be a smidgen longer) and he weighs 15 pounds and 14 ounces. The weight gain is quite a bit from the last time he was in the office. He's still quite the peanut, but it's apparent that I make tiny babies.
Some of the busy-ness that I mentioned earlier is because I am trying to get the apartment cleaned out of random stuff that we just plain don't need anymore. Papers will be the most challenging thing to go through, I think. I am a saver and a hoarder, lol. But there are a few small pieces of furniture that I want to move around to hopefully make the whole place a bit more organized, so we can start having people over again without them feeling like they've walked into clutter city. It's hard, though, because I have all these big ideas but then no time between all the other normal stuff like the kids and the cooking and the cleaning and the laundry and the transcription (and the blogging, haha). I have started getting up early 3 days/week and going walking w/ a friend (and B, but leaving Lydia at home) and those days feel more productive to me overall.
We went to hubby's high school reunion last weekend. It wasn't a huge turnout, but the two people he wanted to come, came, so we got to see them and then a few other people. There was a short meet-and-greet at the school on Friday night, then a BBQ lunch on Saturday and a fancy dinner Saturday night. At the lunch, they had rented a bounce house. Lydia went in there for all of about 30 seconds before getting terrified and wanting out. She's also scared of the roly polies (or pill bugs) on my morning walk that I sometimes take her on. She'll sit and watch one all day long, but if I suggest she hold it, she gets terrified. I don't know how I ended up with such a fearful child. I wonder if she'll grow out of it at some point.
Hubby wants to teach a Bible class up at church at some point, too - but not the adult class. He wants to teach the middle schoolers. The class slots are assigned several quarters in advance, so he's already thinking about who he wants to ask to teach with him.
And here are another couple of videos. This first one is just Lydia being three, lol. It's pretty typical of how she acts all day. ALL day, lol. As a matter of fact, she's actually quite calm in this video.
And here's B laughing at me when I go up and down. It took me a bit to get his attention away from the camera, but the wait is worth it. :p
Saturday, August 15, 2009
an update of nothing
I haven't done anything on my to-do list yet, but will definitely be starting up on it next week as the transcription winds down. I've also set a date for my attempt to potty train Lydia -- August 31. I'll give it that Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, then if it doesn't work, she goes back into diapers until sometime this winter, after we've all adjusted to the new baby.
New baby is doing well. On Monday, I'll have just 7 weeks left until my due date. While it's still August, I still "feel" like I have two months left, but those months are getting shorter and shorter.
Hubby has quit his current job. He does not yet have a new one lined up. He quit yesterday, after he spoke with someone at Pizza Hut and they scheduled him for an interview this afternoon. He was THAT confident that he'd get a position. He feels that working at PH, he'll at least be bringing in SOME income, and he'll have more time during the day to job hunt and go to any interviews (of course, to do that, he first has to HAVE interviews) that come up. When he turned in his items at Reliant, they told him he was welcome back at any time.
So the interview came today, and he came home and told me that they would start him off as a driver, and would be a team leader after that, and a minimum of six months before he'd be an assistant manager. He also said that they told him there were several positions in the area, and they would need to look at the different stores to see where his best fit would be and would call him Wednesday. So I asked him if that means that he's definitely hired but they just need to find a spot for them, and he said that he hopes so. That answer did nothing helpful for my stress level. Wednesday seems so far away, especially with nothing going on Monday or Tuesday.
New baby is doing well. On Monday, I'll have just 7 weeks left until my due date. While it's still August, I still "feel" like I have two months left, but those months are getting shorter and shorter.
Hubby has quit his current job. He does not yet have a new one lined up. He quit yesterday, after he spoke with someone at Pizza Hut and they scheduled him for an interview this afternoon. He was THAT confident that he'd get a position. He feels that working at PH, he'll at least be bringing in SOME income, and he'll have more time during the day to job hunt and go to any interviews (of course, to do that, he first has to HAVE interviews) that come up. When he turned in his items at Reliant, they told him he was welcome back at any time.
So the interview came today, and he came home and told me that they would start him off as a driver, and would be a team leader after that, and a minimum of six months before he'd be an assistant manager. He also said that they told him there were several positions in the area, and they would need to look at the different stores to see where his best fit would be and would call him Wednesday. So I asked him if that means that he's definitely hired but they just need to find a spot for them, and he said that he hopes so. That answer did nothing helpful for my stress level. Wednesday seems so far away, especially with nothing going on Monday or Tuesday.
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
daily to-dos turn into weekly to-dos, and job stuff, and toddler cuteness
I had been doing a daily to-do list, and found it helpful initially, but now that transcription is picking up quite a bit, I've found that I don't have time to go through each day's whole list. So from here on out, I plan on making a weekly to-do list, including items that don't get crossed off, but instead are "as-needed" such as laundry and dishes. I will include in these weekly to-do lists items from my "big" list. Here's the original list, as a refresher:
- continue hoping and praying for Tim's job situation to get more stable before baby arrives
- pack up Lydia's outgrown clothes
- install infant carseat
- clean out corner of our bedroom where crib will go (includes going through craft stuff)
- move small bathroom cabinet into hallway
- move changing table into bathroom
- sew a bunch of newborn gowns
- dye some infant diapers
- move craft supplies into spot in Lydia's room that used to have the changing table
- move rocking chair into our bedroom
- move crib into our bedroom
- get bunk bed pieces from our friends' house
- assemble bunk bed for Lydia
- wash out chlorine buckets and cover with contact paper
Here's what I've completed:
- pack up Lydia's outgrown clothes
- clean out corner of our bedroom where crib will go (includes going through craft stuff)
- move small bathroom cabinet into hallway
- move changing table into bathroom
- dye some infant diapers
- move craft supplies into spot in Lydia's room that used to have the changing table
- move crib into our bedroom
- get bunk bed pieces from our friends' house
- assemble bunk bed for Lydia
And here's the new list, with a few things added, and sorted in order of priority:
- continue hoping and praying for Tim's job situation to get more stable before baby arrives
- finish working transcription peak season
- install infant carseat
- move rocking chair into our bedroom
- attempt to potty train Lydia
- sew a bunch of newborn gowns
- wash out chlorine buckets
- transfer play food crochet patterns from chicken-scratch notebooks into a nice printout from the computer
- make one of each play food item and take pictures and put on Facebook fan page
- cover chlorine buckets with contact paper
I'm sure there are a few things that I'm forgetting. And I don't know if all of this will be done before the baby arrives, but that is my goal. Everything after "wash out chlorine buckets" is a low-ish priority, and it would be wonderful if it were done before baby comes, but I wouldn't be heartbroken if it wasn't.
Regarding potty training Lydia, I am continuing my research and mentioning things to her. One of the things I'm trying to get her to understand is whether her diaper is dry or wet (we use cloth diapers w/o a cover at home, so it's easy for me to have her check). Unfortunately, she doesn't seem to "get it" yet. I'm hopeful that she will realize the difference between wet and dry sometime before we do the potty training in a couple of weeks. I don't understand what's different about her diaper, b/c she totally knows the difference between many other things that are wet/dry. I am thinking that I will pass on the 3-day method that I mentioned in an earlier entry, and instead use the method outlined in this book instead. The latter method is a little more involved on the parent's part than the 3-day method is. I am still keeping the "three days" though in that that is how much time I will devote to it right now, and if it doesn't work by then, it's back into diapers she goes until sometime this winter, when we'll give it another try.
Hubby has had a few tiny leads for a new job. I'm cautiously hopeful, but interviews haven't even been scheduled yet and it's not even a guarantee that those will happen. But he has made more contact w/ a few places besides just the initial application, so that is encouraging.
Lydia received a bag of hand me down clothes the other day. I hadn't told her what was in the bag, but she explored it anyway and unloaded the contents onto the floor. Then she tried on random pieces. At one point, she stood right in the middle of the pile and looked around and said, "hmmmmm...... I need a..... hmmm... I need a jackiet!" And she grabbed a "jacket" and put it on. (Really it was an airy crocheted shirt that goes over another shirt).
She also ate a raw biscuit the other day. I was baking a can of them, and had lined them up on the baking tray, then turned around to wash my hands before sticking them in the oven. When I turned back around, a biscuit was missing. Lydia had run off with it and taken a bite. And she must have liked it, because when it was swallowed, she asked for another one.
The transition to the big girl bed is going well. I've shortened her nap from 3 hours to 2 hours, and I think that is helping. For the first several days, she would get up early and open her dresser and unload all the clothes, and I scolded her for that. I think it's finally sinking in that I don't want her to do that, though, because of what she said the other night when I put her to bed. I was giving her the bedtime instructions ("Ok climb into bed, pull up your covers, give me a hug and kiss") and she added her own and said, "and do NOT get up and get the clothes out." She was so serious when she said it, too. It's hard to not laugh. :)
- continue hoping and praying for Tim's job situation to get more stable before baby arrives
- pack up Lydia's outgrown clothes
- install infant carseat
- clean out corner of our bedroom where crib will go (includes going through craft stuff)
- move small bathroom cabinet into hallway
- move changing table into bathroom
- sew a bunch of newborn gowns
- dye some infant diapers
- move craft supplies into spot in Lydia's room that used to have the changing table
- move rocking chair into our bedroom
- move crib into our bedroom
- get bunk bed pieces from our friends' house
- assemble bunk bed for Lydia
- wash out chlorine buckets and cover with contact paper
Here's what I've completed:
- pack up Lydia's outgrown clothes
- clean out corner of our bedroom where crib will go (includes going through craft stuff)
- move small bathroom cabinet into hallway
- move changing table into bathroom
- dye some infant diapers
- move craft supplies into spot in Lydia's room that used to have the changing table
- move crib into our bedroom
- get bunk bed pieces from our friends' house
- assemble bunk bed for Lydia
And here's the new list, with a few things added, and sorted in order of priority:
- continue hoping and praying for Tim's job situation to get more stable before baby arrives
- finish working transcription peak season
- install infant carseat
- move rocking chair into our bedroom
- attempt to potty train Lydia
- sew a bunch of newborn gowns
- wash out chlorine buckets
- transfer play food crochet patterns from chicken-scratch notebooks into a nice printout from the computer
- make one of each play food item and take pictures and put on Facebook fan page
- cover chlorine buckets with contact paper
I'm sure there are a few things that I'm forgetting. And I don't know if all of this will be done before the baby arrives, but that is my goal. Everything after "wash out chlorine buckets" is a low-ish priority, and it would be wonderful if it were done before baby comes, but I wouldn't be heartbroken if it wasn't.
Regarding potty training Lydia, I am continuing my research and mentioning things to her. One of the things I'm trying to get her to understand is whether her diaper is dry or wet (we use cloth diapers w/o a cover at home, so it's easy for me to have her check). Unfortunately, she doesn't seem to "get it" yet. I'm hopeful that she will realize the difference between wet and dry sometime before we do the potty training in a couple of weeks. I don't understand what's different about her diaper, b/c she totally knows the difference between many other things that are wet/dry. I am thinking that I will pass on the 3-day method that I mentioned in an earlier entry, and instead use the method outlined in this book instead. The latter method is a little more involved on the parent's part than the 3-day method is. I am still keeping the "three days" though in that that is how much time I will devote to it right now, and if it doesn't work by then, it's back into diapers she goes until sometime this winter, when we'll give it another try.
Hubby has had a few tiny leads for a new job. I'm cautiously hopeful, but interviews haven't even been scheduled yet and it's not even a guarantee that those will happen. But he has made more contact w/ a few places besides just the initial application, so that is encouraging.
Lydia received a bag of hand me down clothes the other day. I hadn't told her what was in the bag, but she explored it anyway and unloaded the contents onto the floor. Then she tried on random pieces. At one point, she stood right in the middle of the pile and looked around and said, "hmmmmm...... I need a..... hmmm... I need a jackiet!" And she grabbed a "jacket" and put it on. (Really it was an airy crocheted shirt that goes over another shirt).
She also ate a raw biscuit the other day. I was baking a can of them, and had lined them up on the baking tray, then turned around to wash my hands before sticking them in the oven. When I turned back around, a biscuit was missing. Lydia had run off with it and taken a bite. And she must have liked it, because when it was swallowed, she asked for another one.
The transition to the big girl bed is going well. I've shortened her nap from 3 hours to 2 hours, and I think that is helping. For the first several days, she would get up early and open her dresser and unload all the clothes, and I scolded her for that. I think it's finally sinking in that I don't want her to do that, though, because of what she said the other night when I put her to bed. I was giving her the bedtime instructions ("Ok climb into bed, pull up your covers, give me a hug and kiss") and she added her own and said, "and do NOT get up and get the clothes out." She was so serious when she said it, too. It's hard to not laugh. :)
Monday, July 20, 2009
eleven weeks left
Or 9, or 13. I'm thinking that it'll be closer to 9 1/2 or 10 or so. I am moving right along and making good progress on my to-do list. I had a bunch of stuff lined up for today and most of it is done. I started early today and visited my second and third Lowe's of the weekend. Hubby and I went late after church yesterday to get some wood pieces to be the cross-beam mattress supports for Lydia's big-girl bunk bed. I looked up the dimensions of a twin mattress online, and it said 39 inches, so that is what we got the wood cut to. But then when we got home and I measured about where it would actually sit, I needed it to only be 38 inches, so this morning, I took the wood back out to a different Lowe's to get an inch trimmed off. But that Lowe's told me their saw was broken, so I went to a third Lowe's. (both the second and third Lowe's were close to the apartment, and the first Lowe's from last night was close to the church building). But finally, I got them trimmed up and sanded and they are ready now. She is going to move into her big girl bed this week sometime! :D We live in a tiny place, so moving furniture is interesting... there are about 6 items that need to be done in a specific order to get the crib into our room and the bed into her room. All in the short time that she is awake. :)
I had my 29 week appointment and everything looks great. I'm measuring right on and am up 24 pounds total. Heartbeat sounds good and was anywhere from the 130s to the 150s during the appointment. Baby was head up w/ his/her back towards my back, so all of that needs to change sometime before the birth. There's still plenty of time for him/her to flip around, though, and he/she has definitely been doing that in the past several days. Here is my 29-week picture. Quite a bit of difference from my picture at 20 weeks.
I had my 29 week appointment and everything looks great. I'm measuring right on and am up 24 pounds total. Heartbeat sounds good and was anywhere from the 130s to the 150s during the appointment. Baby was head up w/ his/her back towards my back, so all of that needs to change sometime before the birth. There's still plenty of time for him/her to flip around, though, and he/she has definitely been doing that in the past several days. Here is my 29-week picture. Quite a bit of difference from my picture at 20 weeks.
Saturday, July 18, 2009
yay for nesting
I don't have the "urge" to nest, but with only 65 to 93 days to go, I finally got on it. The most daunting task on the list was, by far, cleaning out the corner of our bedroom where the crib will go. I had a few totes right next to the wall that held mostly fabric and also a few other miscellaneous craft things, then in front of that was just a huge PILE of lost pajamas and hand me down clothes and pillows and a slip that I had been missing forever that I finally found on the Very Bottom of the pile. I did a ton yesterday to clean out that pile and put everything in its appropriate place, and was really happy with my progress. Today, I plan on inventorying my fabric. I want to sew a few more nursing dresses, and it'll be easier to plan my projects if I have a list of what fabrics I have, and if they're knit or woven, and how much of them I have.
I've also been still thinking about potty training. I've heard that a lot of people had success with the 3-day method, and someone shared their copy with me, so I am going to try it out. I originally was going to try it out next week, on Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday, but forgot that my seasonal transcription job starts up at that time, so I wouldn't be able to give potty training the attention it needs. But sometime after August 20th, I may give it a try. I don't really have very high expectations going into this, since I've also heard that this method did NOT work for a bunch of people, but as I sit here and wait for Lydia to "train herself," I can't help but wonder if she doesn't need a little push-start. If I don't do this, then I will be forever wondering "what if," so I just need to do it and get it out of my system.
Hubby is still on the job hunt, with no real prospects yet. This week has not been a good one for him at his current job. He had 4 days in a row of zero sales (and therefore zero income), and on the 5th day the streak was broken... but with only one sale. And even the sales that he does might not "count" since the people have three business days to cancel, and if they cancel, then he doesn't get credit for it. This wouldn't be so bad, but it adds to the uncertainty, because we don't know if any cancellations happen until his pay statement is run, 3 weeks later. I am really hoping and praying that something stable comes along before this baby does. Stress and the postpartum period just do not get along very well.
Monday, July 13, 2009
the to-do list continues
Maybe if I write it all down instead of just keeping it in my head, I'll have a better chance of getting at least some of it done before the baby comes. I HAVE been using a daily to-do list, using the night before to write down things to do the next day, and that has been helping some, but there's still usually one item from each day that gets carried over to the next day. Anyway, here's the big items that need to be done before the baby comes, in no particular order.
- continue hoping and praying for Tim's job situation to get more stable before baby arrives
- pack up Lydia's outgrown clothes
- install infant carseat
- clean out corner of our bedroom where crib will go (includes going through craft stuff)
- move small bathroom cabinet into hallway
- move changing table into bathroom
- sew a bunch of newborn gowns
- dye some infant diapers
- move craft supplies into spot in Lydia's room that used to have the changing table
- move rocking chair into our bedroom
- move crib into our bedroom
- get bunk bed pieces from our friends' house
- assemble bunk bed for Lydia
- wash out chlorine buckets and cover with contact paper
It's a daunting list, but nothing insurmountable. I don't have any more out of town trips planned, and my play food business is at a pretty slow time right now. The chlorine buckets will be my diaper pails. Maybe just one of them, I haven't decided yet. We use cloth diapers, and the diaper pail we use now is itty bitty and only fits just over half a days' worth of diapers in it, and that's just not going to work when we have two in diapers, so I'm getting a bigger pail.
And about the two in diapers... it's inevitable. I am continuing to think about potty training, not in a stressful way, but more in a "research" way. I checked out several books from the library the other day and have started reading them. I first opened up most of them to the "readiness" section and realized that Lydia is NOT ready for potty training yet, as much as I was hoping that maybe she'd be ready for at least one of the methods. She never wakes up dry, even if I withhold her fluids. She always says that her diaper is dry, no matter what its actual condition is. She doesn't notice or care that her peers are potty training. She's not dry for hours at a time. She's just plain not ready. So much for the "rules" that girls train sooner/faster/easier than boys, and that cloth diapers make for earlier/faster training. But, when she is ready, I'm hopeful that it will be a quick and easy process.
The pregnancy is still going fine. I'm down to 12 weeks left, and feeling very uncomfortable already. I'm already so big that I have trouble breathing, and Braxton Hicks just will not leave me alone. There are some times where as soon as I do any activity at all, even walking the 10 steps to the bathroom, I will get hit w/ a BH contraction. They're not painful, but they've gotten to the annoying point, mostly b/c of their randomness. I won't be sorry to leave those behind. I WILL be sorry to leave the kicks behind, though. I keep feeling elbows and knees and feet and playing with them already. So much fun. :)
- continue hoping and praying for Tim's job situation to get more stable before baby arrives
- pack up Lydia's outgrown clothes
- install infant carseat
- clean out corner of our bedroom where crib will go (includes going through craft stuff)
- move small bathroom cabinet into hallway
- move changing table into bathroom
- sew a bunch of newborn gowns
- dye some infant diapers
- move craft supplies into spot in Lydia's room that used to have the changing table
- move rocking chair into our bedroom
- move crib into our bedroom
- get bunk bed pieces from our friends' house
- assemble bunk bed for Lydia
- wash out chlorine buckets and cover with contact paper
It's a daunting list, but nothing insurmountable. I don't have any more out of town trips planned, and my play food business is at a pretty slow time right now. The chlorine buckets will be my diaper pails. Maybe just one of them, I haven't decided yet. We use cloth diapers, and the diaper pail we use now is itty bitty and only fits just over half a days' worth of diapers in it, and that's just not going to work when we have two in diapers, so I'm getting a bigger pail.
And about the two in diapers... it's inevitable. I am continuing to think about potty training, not in a stressful way, but more in a "research" way. I checked out several books from the library the other day and have started reading them. I first opened up most of them to the "readiness" section and realized that Lydia is NOT ready for potty training yet, as much as I was hoping that maybe she'd be ready for at least one of the methods. She never wakes up dry, even if I withhold her fluids. She always says that her diaper is dry, no matter what its actual condition is. She doesn't notice or care that her peers are potty training. She's not dry for hours at a time. She's just plain not ready. So much for the "rules" that girls train sooner/faster/easier than boys, and that cloth diapers make for earlier/faster training. But, when she is ready, I'm hopeful that it will be a quick and easy process.
The pregnancy is still going fine. I'm down to 12 weeks left, and feeling very uncomfortable already. I'm already so big that I have trouble breathing, and Braxton Hicks just will not leave me alone. There are some times where as soon as I do any activity at all, even walking the 10 steps to the bathroom, I will get hit w/ a BH contraction. They're not painful, but they've gotten to the annoying point, mostly b/c of their randomness. I won't be sorry to leave those behind. I WILL be sorry to leave the kicks behind, though. I keep feeling elbows and knees and feet and playing with them already. So much fun. :)
Thursday, January 3, 2008
i can see my carpet again
Wow, I feel so good now. I worked this past week on decluttering, and the apartment looks drastically different in areas. I feel like I can have some people over again now. :) And, I can now work on my crafts again with a clear conscience, since all of those supplies are organized as well.
Here's some before and after pictures. I'll start with the less dramatic and move on from there. In each "pair" of pictures, the "before" picture is first. (It's not as obvious on some of them.) First, the kitchen. I don't have a lot of space, but the space I DO have has definitely improved:
Then the living room. I didn't get rid of her toys. Just off the camera to the left are two crates that had been there already, but now they are a little more organized and I can actually put her toys IN them instead of on top of them. lol. Also note the changes to the mantle.
The first bedroom picture isn't all that dramatic, but now I can see the top of my dresser again. Please excuse the empty photo frame. lol. I scooted the chest of drawers over a little bit to make room for the bookshelf, thus freeing up a lot of floor space.
And the most dramatic transformation of all was the dining room. Now I feel like I can actually have some people over now and then, and don't have to worry about them tripping over something and hurting themselves.
Here's some before and after pictures. I'll start with the less dramatic and move on from there. In each "pair" of pictures, the "before" picture is first. (It's not as obvious on some of them.) First, the kitchen. I don't have a lot of space, but the space I DO have has definitely improved:
Then the living room. I didn't get rid of her toys. Just off the camera to the left are two crates that had been there already, but now they are a little more organized and I can actually put her toys IN them instead of on top of them. lol. Also note the changes to the mantle.
The first bedroom picture isn't all that dramatic, but now I can see the top of my dresser again. Please excuse the empty photo frame. lol. I scooted the chest of drawers over a little bit to make room for the bookshelf, thus freeing up a lot of floor space.
And the most dramatic transformation of all was the dining room. Now I feel like I can actually have some people over now and then, and don't have to worry about them tripping over something and hurting themselves.
Tuesday, December 25, 2007
that parenting preparation email was right
A while back, I got an email with a list of things to do to check and see if one were ready to be a parent. It had a list of things like stick a fish stick in the back seat of your car and leave it there for a week, and put a peanut butter and jelly sandwich in the VCR. One of the items was to prepare you for feeding a baby. It said to cut a small hole in a gourd, hang the gourd from the ceiling, and swing it. Then prepare some baby food, and try to spoon it into the swinging gourd. I originally read this, and laughed, but thought to myself, how much can an infant really move when you're feeding it?
Then, this past week, I was feeding my 12-month-old. I was just sitting on the couch with her food and she was standing up on the floor and I was feeding her that way. When she was getting full, she started swaying dramatically from side to side, but still had her mouth wide open to accept another bite. I was unsuccessful in getting the spoon into her swaying mouth, and suddenly remembered the email from long ago.
I got back home today after visiting my family for a week. It was a very tiring trip. My nephews are now 4 (next month), 2.5 and 1.5, and they are exhausting to be around. My family kept telling me to "just wait" and one day Lydia would be just the same. But I'm hoping that the parenting techniques I'm learning from Raising Godly Tomatoes will pay off. It's a very Bible-based way of parenting, and one of the keys is to start early, which I believe I have done with Lydia. I believe I'm seeing results, but people who aren't around us all day just think that it's her personality, or it's because she's a girl, or it's because she's still young, etc. Hopefully it'll become more evident to strangers as she gets older that she knows how to listen and obey -- the first time I ask her to.
I'm once again about to go through a decluttering phase. Every so often, our apartment just gets to feeling too cramped and crowded and there's "stuff" everywhere and it starts driving me crazy. I'm going to start in our bedroom, since in all my other decluttering phases, I still haven't managed to thoroughly go through our dresser drawers. There's no doubt clothes in there that I have forgotten I even have, and that no longer fit me, and that I probably won't wear again even if they DO fit me, etc. Hopefully I will be able to clear out a bunch of drawers and put different things in them that currently don't have a home, which will at least get things out of sight. Right now the task seems elephant-sized, but I just have to remember to "eat" the elephant one bite at a time.
Then, this past week, I was feeding my 12-month-old. I was just sitting on the couch with her food and she was standing up on the floor and I was feeding her that way. When she was getting full, she started swaying dramatically from side to side, but still had her mouth wide open to accept another bite. I was unsuccessful in getting the spoon into her swaying mouth, and suddenly remembered the email from long ago.
I got back home today after visiting my family for a week. It was a very tiring trip. My nephews are now 4 (next month), 2.5 and 1.5, and they are exhausting to be around. My family kept telling me to "just wait" and one day Lydia would be just the same. But I'm hoping that the parenting techniques I'm learning from Raising Godly Tomatoes will pay off. It's a very Bible-based way of parenting, and one of the keys is to start early, which I believe I have done with Lydia. I believe I'm seeing results, but people who aren't around us all day just think that it's her personality, or it's because she's a girl, or it's because she's still young, etc. Hopefully it'll become more evident to strangers as she gets older that she knows how to listen and obey -- the first time I ask her to.
I'm once again about to go through a decluttering phase. Every so often, our apartment just gets to feeling too cramped and crowded and there's "stuff" everywhere and it starts driving me crazy. I'm going to start in our bedroom, since in all my other decluttering phases, I still haven't managed to thoroughly go through our dresser drawers. There's no doubt clothes in there that I have forgotten I even have, and that no longer fit me, and that I probably won't wear again even if they DO fit me, etc. Hopefully I will be able to clear out a bunch of drawers and put different things in them that currently don't have a home, which will at least get things out of sight. Right now the task seems elephant-sized, but I just have to remember to "eat" the elephant one bite at a time.
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
organizing is finished
Ok first off, I just want to say that I think that the new dark chocolate, cherry cordial filled Hersheys kisses are totally fantabulous.
Now that that's out of my system, I am very pleased to announce that I am DONE DONE DONE with my organizing!!!! Well, not really "done" as in there's not a single thing at all left to do, but it's plenty done for my needs right now. The remaining tasks aren't vital and I'll do them here and there when I have time. We even moved a little furniture around. I wasn't crazy about the new layout of the living room at first but I made a few very minor adjustments and it's growing on me now. Everything just seems so much more open now without a big pile of "stuff" next to or on or behind things. It's almost like we're in a new apartment.
On Friday, I'm taking a trip up to Indiana to visit some friends who moved away a while back. I am so looking forward to visiting with them, but I'm NOT looking forward to the drive. If I drive it straight, mapquest says it should be just under 8 hours. I'm allocating 10 though to allow for 2-3 stops for gas/food/feeding the baby/etc. It should be a good visit though. Hopefully Lydia takes the trip well.
Transcription is going fine. I took several days off to do that organizing thing but am working again tomorrow. Every little bit helps when I'm needing that money to fund my other work at home thing. I've gotten a positive response when I've asked people about it, so I am making concrete plans to start my business offering tie-dyed cloth diapers. So far, all I have is a half-finished website, an idea for a logo, and a long to-do list. But, if I work on it a little each day then things should move right along. I'm aiming for a mid-July grand opening date. Mid-July is also when the new peak season for transcription starts up again, so I may be VERY busy all of a sudden, depending on how much demand there is for my "art." And although I'm starting out with diapers, I do have plans to offer other items later on, both dyed items and other crafts. I can't stop being excited about the prospects. :)
Lydia is doing great. She is rolling from front to back now, but not very consistently. And it usually ends up being more like a "I think I want to lay down on my side... oh, if I stretch a little then all of a sudden I'm on my back" kind of thing, instead of consciously rolling straight from her tummy to her back. But she likes being on her tummy and plays there with her toys for quite a while. She is starting to put her arms in front more and more (instead of the airplane pose), and push with them. She also pushes her little bootie up into the air too. I can tell she is totally working all her muscles and one day she will be mobile and I'll be sitting there trying to figure out how it happened. She still has no teeth, and I feel like I post every other week about her new "teething symptoms" but then several weeks later she's still just gummy. She has gotten noticeably more drooly lately though, and has gotten a little fussier overall. But whenever I check in her mouth, there's still no pokeys yet.
This past weekend, we had a nice visit with some friends of ours from Texas and their 2 boys. I'm glad I got all the organizing done in time, it sure made it a lot easier to be a hostess. They got married about a month before Tim and I did and we all went to singing school in 2003.
Tim's job is in the thick of the busy season. I can't call him at work right now and even if I stop in, he's usually 3 or 4 customers deep. We may be here in Springfield a little longer than expected, though. His DM had been keeping an eye out for openings in Texas overall instead of just the Fort Worth area, but all of the other Texas locations would be too far away from one family or the other. But anyway his DM called him today w/ one of the non-Fort Worth locations. Hubby said that it would have been a lateral move, too, and into another store instead of into the commercial account rep position that he would totally love. So we may be here for another little while. I don't mind, really. Especially since I found out this week that one of the couples at church is expecting their first baby. :D :D I think she's due in early February, her dr didn't give her a due date yet. I was SO excited for them when I found out, but then sad that we wouldn't be here for it. But now I'm excited again because we may get to stay and see her tiny baby. :)
Now that that's out of my system, I am very pleased to announce that I am DONE DONE DONE with my organizing!!!! Well, not really "done" as in there's not a single thing at all left to do, but it's plenty done for my needs right now. The remaining tasks aren't vital and I'll do them here and there when I have time. We even moved a little furniture around. I wasn't crazy about the new layout of the living room at first but I made a few very minor adjustments and it's growing on me now. Everything just seems so much more open now without a big pile of "stuff" next to or on or behind things. It's almost like we're in a new apartment.
On Friday, I'm taking a trip up to Indiana to visit some friends who moved away a while back. I am so looking forward to visiting with them, but I'm NOT looking forward to the drive. If I drive it straight, mapquest says it should be just under 8 hours. I'm allocating 10 though to allow for 2-3 stops for gas/food/feeding the baby/etc. It should be a good visit though. Hopefully Lydia takes the trip well.
Transcription is going fine. I took several days off to do that organizing thing but am working again tomorrow. Every little bit helps when I'm needing that money to fund my other work at home thing. I've gotten a positive response when I've asked people about it, so I am making concrete plans to start my business offering tie-dyed cloth diapers. So far, all I have is a half-finished website, an idea for a logo, and a long to-do list. But, if I work on it a little each day then things should move right along. I'm aiming for a mid-July grand opening date. Mid-July is also when the new peak season for transcription starts up again, so I may be VERY busy all of a sudden, depending on how much demand there is for my "art." And although I'm starting out with diapers, I do have plans to offer other items later on, both dyed items and other crafts. I can't stop being excited about the prospects. :)
Lydia is doing great. She is rolling from front to back now, but not very consistently. And it usually ends up being more like a "I think I want to lay down on my side... oh, if I stretch a little then all of a sudden I'm on my back" kind of thing, instead of consciously rolling straight from her tummy to her back. But she likes being on her tummy and plays there with her toys for quite a while. She is starting to put her arms in front more and more (instead of the airplane pose), and push with them. She also pushes her little bootie up into the air too. I can tell she is totally working all her muscles and one day she will be mobile and I'll be sitting there trying to figure out how it happened. She still has no teeth, and I feel like I post every other week about her new "teething symptoms" but then several weeks later she's still just gummy. She has gotten noticeably more drooly lately though, and has gotten a little fussier overall. But whenever I check in her mouth, there's still no pokeys yet.
This past weekend, we had a nice visit with some friends of ours from Texas and their 2 boys. I'm glad I got all the organizing done in time, it sure made it a lot easier to be a hostess. They got married about a month before Tim and I did and we all went to singing school in 2003.
Tim's job is in the thick of the busy season. I can't call him at work right now and even if I stop in, he's usually 3 or 4 customers deep. We may be here in Springfield a little longer than expected, though. His DM had been keeping an eye out for openings in Texas overall instead of just the Fort Worth area, but all of the other Texas locations would be too far away from one family or the other. But anyway his DM called him today w/ one of the non-Fort Worth locations. Hubby said that it would have been a lateral move, too, and into another store instead of into the commercial account rep position that he would totally love. So we may be here for another little while. I don't mind, really. Especially since I found out this week that one of the couples at church is expecting their first baby. :D :D I think she's due in early February, her dr didn't give her a due date yet. I was SO excited for them when I found out, but then sad that we wouldn't be here for it. But now I'm excited again because we may get to stay and see her tiny baby. :)
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
discouraged at the time organizing is taking
Well, I did get the nursery finished, but not until Sunday afternoon. This of course pushed back the rest of the organizing, and even today I'm still working on some of Sunday's tasks because of the million errands that I had to run on Monday. But the nursery looks GREAT!!! Especially the closet. That closet was FULL. I took everything out, sorted it out, combined some things, stacked other things better, and put it all back in. It's really amazing how much more room there is now. Her giant travel-system stroller (that we haven't once used yet, lol) even fits in there now and even with THAT in there, there's still a ton more room than I started with. And I didn't even really get rid of a whole lot, either.
When I was finished w/ the nursery and saw how beautiful it ended up, I was so motivated. I couldn't wait to do all the rest of my projects. Especially since I had divided the rooms up into sub-projects that are more managable than looking at the room as a whole. But today I'm behind once again. I was really hoping to be done by the weekend, mostly just to have it DONE, but now I'm not sure if I'll make that goal. Lydia was needing me more than usual today, there's always still the "regular" chores to do, I have to eat (I seriously even had to write "eat" on one of my to-do lists the other day... I didn't get hungry b/c I was on a roll with cleaning, and had to remind myself to eat. lol), etc.
Right now I am working on the bathrooms. I am using the same method that I did w/ the nursery closet, taking everything out and sorting through it then putting it all back in. This method really yielded the best results possible in my opinion. So at this moment, every single item from both bathrooms is in a large pile on the floor. I'll go through what seems like a lot, then look back at the pile and see how much there still is to go. :( And the bathrooms weren't the only things on the agenda for today, either. But, it's not quite 5:00 pm so I may yet get these things done. It did help that I didn't have to go anywhere today. And tomorrow's "schedule" is a bit lighter with some things on them that can actually be pushed to next week, so I can possibly catch up.
But speaking of catching up... this is all the catching up I am going to do before then. I hope to come on here Monday and share my success. :) Oh and also on Monday I'll talk about one more work at home opportunity that I'll be working on.
When I was finished w/ the nursery and saw how beautiful it ended up, I was so motivated. I couldn't wait to do all the rest of my projects. Especially since I had divided the rooms up into sub-projects that are more managable than looking at the room as a whole. But today I'm behind once again. I was really hoping to be done by the weekend, mostly just to have it DONE, but now I'm not sure if I'll make that goal. Lydia was needing me more than usual today, there's always still the "regular" chores to do, I have to eat (I seriously even had to write "eat" on one of my to-do lists the other day... I didn't get hungry b/c I was on a roll with cleaning, and had to remind myself to eat. lol), etc.
Right now I am working on the bathrooms. I am using the same method that I did w/ the nursery closet, taking everything out and sorting through it then putting it all back in. This method really yielded the best results possible in my opinion. So at this moment, every single item from both bathrooms is in a large pile on the floor. I'll go through what seems like a lot, then look back at the pile and see how much there still is to go. :( And the bathrooms weren't the only things on the agenda for today, either. But, it's not quite 5:00 pm so I may yet get these things done. It did help that I didn't have to go anywhere today. And tomorrow's "schedule" is a bit lighter with some things on them that can actually be pushed to next week, so I can possibly catch up.
But speaking of catching up... this is all the catching up I am going to do before then. I hope to come on here Monday and share my success. :) Oh and also on Monday I'll talk about one more work at home opportunity that I'll be working on.
Saturday, May 19, 2007
reasons why camping is better with a wrap
So DD and I went to a homeschool camp this week. I did take my Maya sling that I re-did the shoulder on, but mostly used a wrap. It made things SO easy. Here's my short list of reasons why I will never go camping without a wrap again:
1. The 30-ft increase in elevation from the dining hall to the cabin was much easier w/ baby on my back (strap carry) than in my arms.
2. Baby had a nice cozy spot to sleep (short FCC facing in) when we went to tour the trout hatchery during her naptime.
3. The "intensive" babywearing (when we're home it's usually just for a trip to the grocery store) REALLY made her love it SO much. (See below for more details on that).
4. Everyone there thought it was the neatest thing so I got to spread the babywearing luv. (Although most of the people there are either unmarried and babywearing is far in the future for them, or their children are too old to be worn anymore). But hey, spreading the luv is spreading the luv.
5. Babygirl got passed around a LOT, so babywearing kept her close to me when I needed some time with her. (I did get a lot of people asking me "Can I hold her when you take her down?" lol)
Five's a nice number for a list so I'll stop there. We really did have a good time at camp. And as for her enjoying babywearing... the last day or so there, I would lay her down on the bunched up wrap to do a strap carry, and as SOON as I had the "lasso" around her and she felt that and knew she'd soon be on my back, she would start grinning and giggling. She totally loves being swung gently up onto my back. And she also likes coming down the same way. Everyone else thinks it's so cool and loves to watch me take her down and swing her OFF my back as well. Every time I went to take her off, I'd hear "watch that" or "watch her" in the background. lol
Now as far as the organization I mentioned last time... I am going to be here in town through the rest of the month and as soon as Lydia wakes up today, I'll start in on her nursery. Hopefully I can get that entirely done today, including moving the furniture. I also have some ideas for moving our bedroom furniture too. I think it'll be nifty.
1. The 30-ft increase in elevation from the dining hall to the cabin was much easier w/ baby on my back (strap carry) than in my arms.
2. Baby had a nice cozy spot to sleep (short FCC facing in) when we went to tour the trout hatchery during her naptime.
3. The "intensive" babywearing (when we're home it's usually just for a trip to the grocery store) REALLY made her love it SO much. (See below for more details on that).
4. Everyone there thought it was the neatest thing so I got to spread the babywearing luv. (Although most of the people there are either unmarried and babywearing is far in the future for them, or their children are too old to be worn anymore). But hey, spreading the luv is spreading the luv.
5. Babygirl got passed around a LOT, so babywearing kept her close to me when I needed some time with her. (I did get a lot of people asking me "Can I hold her when you take her down?" lol)
Five's a nice number for a list so I'll stop there. We really did have a good time at camp. And as for her enjoying babywearing... the last day or so there, I would lay her down on the bunched up wrap to do a strap carry, and as SOON as I had the "lasso" around her and she felt that and knew she'd soon be on my back, she would start grinning and giggling. She totally loves being swung gently up onto my back. And she also likes coming down the same way. Everyone else thinks it's so cool and loves to watch me take her down and swing her OFF my back as well. Every time I went to take her off, I'd hear "watch that" or "watch her" in the background. lol
Now as far as the organization I mentioned last time... I am going to be here in town through the rest of the month and as soon as Lydia wakes up today, I'll start in on her nursery. Hopefully I can get that entirely done today, including moving the furniture. I also have some ideas for moving our bedroom furniture too. I think it'll be nifty.
Sunday, May 13, 2007
highly motivated to get organized
Ok, I'm going to do it... I'm REALLY going to do it this time. I'm going to go inch by inch through the apartment and touch every single item and purge things we don't need and have a better organization to the things we do need. I started yesterday with a big box of paper, and it was discouraging because it took ALL day to go through that box (well in between taking care of Lydia, eating and doing a load of laundry anyway). But next, I think I will go through the nursery. The closet has some Very Scary Boxes in there but overall it seems to be the most managable room to organize so far. And hubby was sad the other day b/c we have a little desk in there that is piled with stuff on it, and right behind its chair is Lydia's laundry basket so he can't really sit in that chair and keep me company. So I am thinking about trading places with that desk and her dresser and surprising hubby with that rearrangement.
But the reason I'm so highly motivated this time is because of what I want to do AFTER I get everything cleaned up. I'm going to do another work at home thing, using the money that I've earned from transcription so far for start-up costs. But between the 3 more times that I'll be out of town between now and the end of June, it'll take a good month or more before I'm open for business and I'm keeping it a secret until then. If you want to try to guess what it is, that's fine... but I'm not telling you whether you're right or wrong. I will, however, write all about it here when it's all set up.
But the reason I'm so highly motivated this time is because of what I want to do AFTER I get everything cleaned up. I'm going to do another work at home thing, using the money that I've earned from transcription so far for start-up costs. But between the 3 more times that I'll be out of town between now and the end of June, it'll take a good month or more before I'm open for business and I'm keeping it a secret until then. If you want to try to guess what it is, that's fine... but I'm not telling you whether you're right or wrong. I will, however, write all about it here when it's all set up.
Friday, May 4, 2007
various updates
Well, on Wednesday I got back from a Very Long Road Trip. I have other updates to write besides that, but will put those in other entries so it doesn't become too long.
We left home on Thursday afternoon and spent the night with hubby's parents. (Hubby stayed home to work.) Then Friday we got up at a reasonable time and made the drive from OKC down to College Station. The drive overall wasn't too bad; I had downloaded a bunch of songs and sermons and was listening to them while I was in between radio stations. And Lydia was OK for most of the trip, though she did get mad towards the end of the drive during each of the 4 segments.
I had a wonderful visit and definitely want to go back and visit again soon. The drive is way too long to make it a regular trip right now, but hubby's work will likely let us transfer to Ft Worth later this year. Then if his sister gets moved from Japan to San Antonio, we would be central to everything... Springfield, Oklahoma City, Amarillo, College Station, San Antonio. It would really be the ideal spot. But before then I'll need to get going again on the organization/purging plan. I do NOT want to pack up all our things while our apartment is in this current condition.
The work at home thing is going great. I really love it. So far I'm not making quite as much money as I thought I would with it, but it's still more than enough to suit our needs. But it's also a company I can grow with, as they don't have "just" transcribing. Later on when I get a little better I can move up to reviewing and if I ever get a foot pedal I can "scope", whatever that is.
I am LOVING the wrap that I tie-dyed. I also am re-doing the shoulder on my sling b/c the way it was originally sewn disagrees with me. Once that's done, I'll have 4 carriers, with 3.5 of them being homemade. :P I think I will wait until June sometime to do any more other sewing, and instead make the decluttering a priority.
Lydia has finally learned to roll over! She did it yesterday twice and today twice so far. :) I tried to catch her on video so I could put it on here, but I haven't even witnessed a full roll over live myself yet (I'll put her down on her back and be away for a bit and she'll be on her tummy when I come back), but hopefully soon I can get the video up. Mom said that usually babies roll from tummy to back first instead of back to tummy, so the tummy to back roll may not be far behind.
We left home on Thursday afternoon and spent the night with hubby's parents. (Hubby stayed home to work.) Then Friday we got up at a reasonable time and made the drive from OKC down to College Station. The drive overall wasn't too bad; I had downloaded a bunch of songs and sermons and was listening to them while I was in between radio stations. And Lydia was OK for most of the trip, though she did get mad towards the end of the drive during each of the 4 segments.
I had a wonderful visit and definitely want to go back and visit again soon. The drive is way too long to make it a regular trip right now, but hubby's work will likely let us transfer to Ft Worth later this year. Then if his sister gets moved from Japan to San Antonio, we would be central to everything... Springfield, Oklahoma City, Amarillo, College Station, San Antonio. It would really be the ideal spot. But before then I'll need to get going again on the organization/purging plan. I do NOT want to pack up all our things while our apartment is in this current condition.
The work at home thing is going great. I really love it. So far I'm not making quite as much money as I thought I would with it, but it's still more than enough to suit our needs. But it's also a company I can grow with, as they don't have "just" transcribing. Later on when I get a little better I can move up to reviewing and if I ever get a foot pedal I can "scope", whatever that is.
I am LOVING the wrap that I tie-dyed. I also am re-doing the shoulder on my sling b/c the way it was originally sewn disagrees with me. Once that's done, I'll have 4 carriers, with 3.5 of them being homemade. :P I think I will wait until June sometime to do any more other sewing, and instead make the decluttering a priority.
Lydia has finally learned to roll over! She did it yesterday twice and today twice so far. :) I tried to catch her on video so I could put it on here, but I haven't even witnessed a full roll over live myself yet (I'll put her down on her back and be away for a bit and she'll be on her tummy when I come back), but hopefully soon I can get the video up. Mom said that usually babies roll from tummy to back first instead of back to tummy, so the tummy to back roll may not be far behind.
Wednesday, January 10, 2007
time for another big purge
Shortly before our baby arrived, we did a giant purge of the apartment and sent all the things over to a friend's house for their garage sale/auction. Hubby's district manager said that for sure we would be moving sometime this year, so on our road trip we discussed purging. I used the words "getting organized" also... but did use the word "purging" multiple times as well, clearly (or so I thought) implying that we would be getting rid of some things.
Well, hubby is on this kick of getting up at 6:30 and wanting ME to get up with him at that time, no matter how late I'd been up trying to get baby to sleep the night before or how often I was awake with her. He doesn't have to leave for work until 9:30 or so. This morning he did get up at 6:30 and I got up at just after 9, and he hadn't gotten anything ready for work yet. During the morning, he had been "organizing" some of the cabinets and the refrigerator... but nothing was purged. The cabinets all have their stuff right at the beginning now and nothing towards the back (like the spices and baking things, mostly). The items that were in the cabinet are now in stacks out on the countertop.
What I meant by organizing is more of a purge, of random papers and things that we haven't used since we've been here, and going through our box of miscellaneous electronic items and sorting those out, and matching up the CD's with their cases and getting rid of duplicates, etc. I really didn't mean for our organization to be just a big moving-around of the same stuff we already have. I'm still sortof unpacking from our trip today but will start the purge today and have a stack for hubby to go through tonight.
He does mean well, though, and definitely has good intentions, and he is totally convinced that he did a good thing. And he did say that I could put it back if I wanted to, so that's something I'll be doing today too. So much to do before church tonight.
Well, hubby is on this kick of getting up at 6:30 and wanting ME to get up with him at that time, no matter how late I'd been up trying to get baby to sleep the night before or how often I was awake with her. He doesn't have to leave for work until 9:30 or so. This morning he did get up at 6:30 and I got up at just after 9, and he hadn't gotten anything ready for work yet. During the morning, he had been "organizing" some of the cabinets and the refrigerator... but nothing was purged. The cabinets all have their stuff right at the beginning now and nothing towards the back (like the spices and baking things, mostly). The items that were in the cabinet are now in stacks out on the countertop.
What I meant by organizing is more of a purge, of random papers and things that we haven't used since we've been here, and going through our box of miscellaneous electronic items and sorting those out, and matching up the CD's with their cases and getting rid of duplicates, etc. I really didn't mean for our organization to be just a big moving-around of the same stuff we already have. I'm still sortof unpacking from our trip today but will start the purge today and have a stack for hubby to go through tonight.
He does mean well, though, and definitely has good intentions, and he is totally convinced that he did a good thing. And he did say that I could put it back if I wanted to, so that's something I'll be doing today too. So much to do before church tonight.
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