"...making the best use of the time..."

Sometimes when I get home from my day job, I feel like I'm so far behind in what needs to be done at home... sometimes it just takes getting one thing done to make me feel like I've accomplished something.

This morning I managed to get two bags of clothes dropped off at the Goodwill drop-box at Walmart, and took our empty formula containers to grandpa (he uses them for storage containers in the garage). Speaking of Goodwill - we stopped by there the other day and I found tan tap shoes for Victoria for $3 that are practically brand new - normally they are $28! She'll be taking a dance class in the fall and and one of the required items are tan tap shoes!

Last night my butterfly (pictured to the right) and I spent some "special time" together. I'm trying to be purposeful about giving her this kind of time, since I know that a lot of times it can feel to her like the baby gets all the attention. She helped me with laundry and dishes (she loves helping mommy with these chores) and then we played some educational web games together (spelling, math, etc...)


Another good deal we found was this cute summer hat for Allison. It fits her head perfectly - this picture doesn't do it or her justice, but it's the only one I've taken so far. We got it for $1.50 at the Clothesline Children's Consignment Store in Poquoson. It was my first time in and I LOVED it. She's worn this hat everyday this week, as grandma and I adore it on the cutie pie.

Finding time for my husband, my kids, my house, my friends and myself is such a challenge. And more importantly, and concerning, is that I consistently put off the time I should be spending with God. I am feeling more and more everyday that I must be purposeful with my time. I am reminded again of this verse...

"Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is." ~Ephesians 5:15-17

I find that in the midst of this juggle of my time, I have little time to worry about other people hurting my feelings, petty squabbles other people are having, etc.... of course, I also realize more and more that I worry about things a lot more than I probably let on... some things will keeps me up at night, or I think about them in the car when it's quiet (ie. when the kids aren't in the car). This annoys me to no end, because once again, I feel like I have better things to do with my thoughts than to worry about why so and so treats me the way they do, or why such and such had to happen.

So how is God trying to teach me not to be a worrier? He has given me a little worry wart...


My sweet V terribly worries about things that are totally out of her control, like thunderstorms, jellyfish, and car accidents. I came to the realization that God had orchestrated perfectly this match of my daughter and I when she called me to her room the other night to tell me about her "bad dream" (actual definition: what she lays in bed worrying/imagining about)... I crawled in bed with her and asked her to tell me all about it...

"Mommy... I dreamed that we had my birthday party and we were the only ones there... none of my friends came to my party..."

My heart melted... my daughter should not be worrying about such things! And as I tried to comfort her and explain that she need not worry... I was reminded...

"Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don't get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes." (Matthew 6:34, 'The Message' translation)

Blogging Again? Who knows!

Well, here we go again. Over and over I've said I'm going to blog, and I always do for a few months and then I manage to lose interest or just lose time. But, a friend of mine (go Lauren!) has inspired me to once again try and blog.

I have lots I feel like I can talk about right now...
As you can see, our family now includes our sweet little Allison Hope... as I look back at my blog, it's obviously been ages since I wrote anything, since the pregnancy never made it into writing. Last time I was writing, I was on my journey to healthy living. I did lose some weight, but when we decided we were ready to add another little one to our family, I decided to just try and maintain where I was at. I did manage that, and when I got pregnant, I also managed not to gain any "fluff" pounds.

Life has been pretty interesting with two children in the house (and as a reminder, 1 dog and 2 cats... oh yeah, and Keith and I!). I'm still at home on my 6 week maternity leave. It's going to be tough going back to work, but necessity calls for it so I must follow. I really feel like I've embraced being at home and while right now the house doesn't look too much like it, I have been getting some more housework done that I did before.

I started out nursing Allison, something that Victoria and I didn't get the hang of together. I wonder sometimes if we could have made it work, but I can't worry about it now - she's a healthy beautiful girl! With Allison, things were going really well, and they still are, but now she's primarily bottlefed - I'm using a breastpump about 8-10 times a day so that she is still getting the benefits of breastmilk. I'm happy with that, mainly because she was going to end up having to go to a bottle anyway when I went back to work, and secondarily because I can't let myself feel guilty about it.

We ended up going more and more to bottles pretty early on. This was definitely an interesting pregnancy for me, as most of you know, the last several weeks of the pregnancy I was very nauseous and didn't eat much, leading to a severe lack of energy. After Allison's birth, I went through a severe hormone shift (I think the nausea there at the end may have been the result of a major increase in my hormones as my body prepared, and so, once it was over, there was a big drop to take). I was having hot flashes, -severe- cold chills, more nausea, headaches. It took a lot out of me, and while Keith was out of work that week, he helped out - ie. more bottles.

Along this time, Victoria had a major stuffy nose - and I ended up with a sore throat, went into a cold, and back into the throat. Monday of Week 3 postpartum, I was diagnosed with Strep Throat. That took a couple days to recover and I had to use a medical face mask whenever I fed baby and was close to her - that was fun (*sarcasm*).

Last week was week 4, and I ended up getting a mild version of the stomach bug that has been going around.

Thankfully, I'm pretty healthy this week! I'm taking things a day at a time, and while I know many mothers who would have gone through the past 4 weeks and nursed diligently, every person has to do what is right for them and their body. I'm still incredibly determined to try and nurse her, and even more determined to continue pumping and give her the benefits as long as my body will allow me.

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Victoria has done really well adjusting to Allison. She has seemed more needy and occasionally whiny, wanting someone to play with her all the time, but that was expected and we're starting to work on that. She wants to be Mommy #2, and most of the time we spend asking her to not touch or back away. We allow her moments to touch and 'play' but sometimes it's not the time and she doesn't understand that. She's going to be an awesome big sister!

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See what happens when one doesn't blog for this long! Too much to say!

Changing Your Life

What does it mean to change your lifestyle?  It means you never look back.  I don't think it means that you never mess up - I think it means that when you do fall flat on your face (ex: way too much peanut butter fudge!) you get back up, dust yourself off, and keep moving forward!

We made it through a 12 week session of First Place.  I'm so proud of the girls that were in the group, and I look forward to seeing some of them again in a second session starting in January.

In the mean time, I've continued to work out at Bally's at least once a week.  I need to get more active again.  I've lost a total of about 20 pounds!  I'm around 190 now (I have been floating between 190-193 for a month now).  The only reason I haven't broken the 190 barrier is because of my own shortcomings... not exercising enough and not being strict on my diet.

But what's great is that I see the lifestyle change - I LOVE to work out now and when I go to Bally's I'm pushing myself to try new things and do them harder.  I ran on the treadmill tonight for a quarter mile.  That is something I could NEVER do before.

I could go over all the reasons why it's SO worth changing your life and becoming more healthy - do it for yourself, do it for your spouse, do it for your kids, do it for God... the real question is - why not do it?

We only have one life.  Live it.  Now.