It's official, we are moving Labor Day weekend. We got the word this past Friday, and I am ready to hit the ground running.
We drove over to the new house tonight to look around for a bit, knowing it's officially ours, and I am overwhelmed by this gift that God is giving us. I mean, to look at it, the house doesn't look like much, but we walked around the backyard, and I am thrilled by all the possibility there. So much green, green grass. Old, tall, shade trees. A patio and a small pack porch that hold much potential.
I have craved an inviting outdoor space for our family. I love our yard now, except that it's surrounded by busy streets, so to move to a place with a very private, very shaded, very comfortable backyard, well, it's a gift, indeed.
We have a green glider that currently sits on our glassed in front porch. I can already imagine the hours I will spend on that glider on that patio, with a swaddled, newborn Evie, during those fussy evening hours. The back and forth equally calming to both her and me, while Ada and John have freedom to roam the backyard. There is just something about the outdoors that can calm a fussy baby and a hormonal mom. We brought Ada home to our Vinings apartment, and in some of her worst moments, we would walk around the community pool that was just down the steps from our apartment. Fresh air; it works wonders.
God gives good gifts. It has been such an unexpected road to get to this place where we are now, but I am so very thankful.
Friday, July 26, 2013
Tuesday, July 23, 2013
McDonalds to the Rescue
John is so very three these days.
I stand by the fact that three is so much harder than two. Two is cute and still sort of baby, and three is lots of tantrums and disobedience and absolutely no reasoning. For example, John stood in front of the fridge this past Friday morning and threw himself into a frenzy, demanding milk, while I calmly explained that we didn't have milk. He was going to die on that hill. There was no milk in the house. It wasn't in the fridge. It was not here. But, he threw all his strength into keeping that fridge door open, crying and screaming, face red, demanding that he wanted milk.
And usually in these tantrum situations, I awkwardly navigate my very pregnant self into picking up his flailing body and putting him in his bed, where he is required to stay until he can calm down. By the time I leave his room, I am usually out of breath. It is wearing me out.
On top of the fun of being three (and I say that tongue in cheek; because obviously I love three year old John, but it comes with challenges, indeed), John is also in the process of dropping his nap. Which means that he can't really fall asleep any more at nap time, but he also still needs the nap, so his "threeness" escalates every afternoon. And I confess, about 2:00 I turn on a cartoon for him, and Ada and I cross our fingers that he falls asleep on the couch. We have both said out loud that we miss John's nap time.
So, today was one of those days. It started at 6:30 am when John asked for candy, and I said no. I have never let him have candy at 6:30 in the morning, but today John decided this was a battle he wanted to fight, and the day continued in that fashion. So, by 1:00 pm when I was trying to clean the bathroom, and I could hear Ada and John fighting, and I was so exhausted, and they had watched too many cartoons, and I could go on and on. I scrubbed and prayed, and my prayer mostly consisted of, "Lord, help me." And that was about it. That phrase over and over. And McDonald's playground popped into my head. I immediately took that as an answer to my prayer. We all desperately needed to get out of the house, but it was really too hot for anything outside other than the pool, so the McDonald's playground seemed like such a good answer. Plus, I had things I needed to work on, and I could easily do that there. win-win-win.
A lot of my parenting consists of that prayer these days, just, "Lord, help me." And He will. Even if the help looks like french fries and ice cream and an indoor playground.
I stand by the fact that three is so much harder than two. Two is cute and still sort of baby, and three is lots of tantrums and disobedience and absolutely no reasoning. For example, John stood in front of the fridge this past Friday morning and threw himself into a frenzy, demanding milk, while I calmly explained that we didn't have milk. He was going to die on that hill. There was no milk in the house. It wasn't in the fridge. It was not here. But, he threw all his strength into keeping that fridge door open, crying and screaming, face red, demanding that he wanted milk.
And usually in these tantrum situations, I awkwardly navigate my very pregnant self into picking up his flailing body and putting him in his bed, where he is required to stay until he can calm down. By the time I leave his room, I am usually out of breath. It is wearing me out.
On top of the fun of being three (and I say that tongue in cheek; because obviously I love three year old John, but it comes with challenges, indeed), John is also in the process of dropping his nap. Which means that he can't really fall asleep any more at nap time, but he also still needs the nap, so his "threeness" escalates every afternoon. And I confess, about 2:00 I turn on a cartoon for him, and Ada and I cross our fingers that he falls asleep on the couch. We have both said out loud that we miss John's nap time.
So, today was one of those days. It started at 6:30 am when John asked for candy, and I said no. I have never let him have candy at 6:30 in the morning, but today John decided this was a battle he wanted to fight, and the day continued in that fashion. So, by 1:00 pm when I was trying to clean the bathroom, and I could hear Ada and John fighting, and I was so exhausted, and they had watched too many cartoons, and I could go on and on. I scrubbed and prayed, and my prayer mostly consisted of, "Lord, help me." And that was about it. That phrase over and over. And McDonald's playground popped into my head. I immediately took that as an answer to my prayer. We all desperately needed to get out of the house, but it was really too hot for anything outside other than the pool, so the McDonald's playground seemed like such a good answer. Plus, I had things I needed to work on, and I could easily do that there. win-win-win.
A lot of my parenting consists of that prayer these days, just, "Lord, help me." And He will. Even if the help looks like french fries and ice cream and an indoor playground.
Monday, July 22, 2013
A new house, maybe? Probably?
So, I really meant it when I said that I want to start recording our life again. This is it. This is where I get these days down on paper. What I really need to do is print some of this, just in case. But, anyway, that's another subject for another day.
but, I am bound and determined, even if it's feeble attempts, to just start writing again. Writing out the daily things--writing our history.
I told you that life is picking up speed all of a sudden. It is. We think we have found a house to rent. Praise the Lord, right?!! But, also, yikes, because of the fact that I am pregnant and packing up a house and all of that. But, at the end of the day, praise the Lord. If all of the details fall into place. We turned in our application last Thursday, and we are waiting to hear from the rental company. The house is a really good fit, we think. It's not a ton bigger than where we are right now, but just enough bigger. Do you understand? Which is what I wanted. As you know, I struggle with the housekeeping thing, big time, and it has been a breath of fresh air to have so few square feet to manage ;) So, I have since said that I only want to add just enough space to be comfortable without adding so much space that I am overwhelmed with "keeping" the space. This house fits the bill.
It's a bit of a quirky house, but we are okay with that. It was built in the 1940s, just like the one we are in now, and apparently used to be a 2 bedroom, 1 bath. I have googled this, and I found that most house in the 40s were 2 bedroom, 1 bath because of a shortage in building supplies after the war combined with a demand for housing? So people were cramming in to small houses. So the new rental house has two good sized bedrooms on one end of the house, with a bathroom in between--the bedrooms are quite a bit bigger than the ones we have now--and each have good sized closets. Hallelujah!! At the other end of the house is what appears to us to be a family room, but what the rental company is calling the third bedroom. Okay, that is the quirkiest part. In fact, when we first saw it, we were like, "no, this is a family room, never mind." But...it's a big room, which is nice. It's closed off, so technically, yes, it is a bedroom. And it has a closet. So, we started to reconsider. That will be the master. And the more we thought about it, the more we realized how nice it would be to have a room separated from the rest of the house (it is at the opposite end of the house from the other two bedrooms). It will be nice to have a big bedroom. And, we can easily make it work. (right now, in the current house, no rooms are separate from each other. I mean they are, but we are all on top of each other!!!)
On top of the three bedrooms, the house has a living room, dining room, decent sized kitchen (not a great kitchen, but I have learned to live with a not great kitchen), a decent sized laundry room/mud room, and an extra room which will be perfect for a school room--too small to be anything else really. And the house has a fenced in, very shaded, backyard. The backyard was a BIG deal to me because I want my kids to have the freedom to go outside without me!!! Right now we live on a very busy street, and I just can't let the kids play outside without me. So, a good backyard was a MUST. The other quirky thing that we really don't like is that there is a bathroom right off of the living room. Like, you would open the door thinking it was maybe a coat closet, but, no, it's the second full bath. It definitely seems added on, and we can't figure out why they chose there. It's very awkward. That was also almost a deal breaker for us. But, the price is great, we like the neighborhood, we like the backyard--in other words, it fits lots of things on our list. And we like older homes.
so it seems that God is yet again providing a place for us to call home. He has so changed my heart over the past few years about what we need, as you know. He has pried my fingers back and loosened my grip, and I have learned that He really does provide what we need. He does.
but, I am bound and determined, even if it's feeble attempts, to just start writing again. Writing out the daily things--writing our history.
I told you that life is picking up speed all of a sudden. It is. We think we have found a house to rent. Praise the Lord, right?!! But, also, yikes, because of the fact that I am pregnant and packing up a house and all of that. But, at the end of the day, praise the Lord. If all of the details fall into place. We turned in our application last Thursday, and we are waiting to hear from the rental company. The house is a really good fit, we think. It's not a ton bigger than where we are right now, but just enough bigger. Do you understand? Which is what I wanted. As you know, I struggle with the housekeeping thing, big time, and it has been a breath of fresh air to have so few square feet to manage ;) So, I have since said that I only want to add just enough space to be comfortable without adding so much space that I am overwhelmed with "keeping" the space. This house fits the bill.
It's a bit of a quirky house, but we are okay with that. It was built in the 1940s, just like the one we are in now, and apparently used to be a 2 bedroom, 1 bath. I have googled this, and I found that most house in the 40s were 2 bedroom, 1 bath because of a shortage in building supplies after the war combined with a demand for housing? So people were cramming in to small houses. So the new rental house has two good sized bedrooms on one end of the house, with a bathroom in between--the bedrooms are quite a bit bigger than the ones we have now--and each have good sized closets. Hallelujah!! At the other end of the house is what appears to us to be a family room, but what the rental company is calling the third bedroom. Okay, that is the quirkiest part. In fact, when we first saw it, we were like, "no, this is a family room, never mind." But...it's a big room, which is nice. It's closed off, so technically, yes, it is a bedroom. And it has a closet. So, we started to reconsider. That will be the master. And the more we thought about it, the more we realized how nice it would be to have a room separated from the rest of the house (it is at the opposite end of the house from the other two bedrooms). It will be nice to have a big bedroom. And, we can easily make it work. (right now, in the current house, no rooms are separate from each other. I mean they are, but we are all on top of each other!!!)
On top of the three bedrooms, the house has a living room, dining room, decent sized kitchen (not a great kitchen, but I have learned to live with a not great kitchen), a decent sized laundry room/mud room, and an extra room which will be perfect for a school room--too small to be anything else really. And the house has a fenced in, very shaded, backyard. The backyard was a BIG deal to me because I want my kids to have the freedom to go outside without me!!! Right now we live on a very busy street, and I just can't let the kids play outside without me. So, a good backyard was a MUST. The other quirky thing that we really don't like is that there is a bathroom right off of the living room. Like, you would open the door thinking it was maybe a coat closet, but, no, it's the second full bath. It definitely seems added on, and we can't figure out why they chose there. It's very awkward. That was also almost a deal breaker for us. But, the price is great, we like the neighborhood, we like the backyard--in other words, it fits lots of things on our list. And we like older homes.
so it seems that God is yet again providing a place for us to call home. He has so changed my heart over the past few years about what we need, as you know. He has pried my fingers back and loosened my grip, and I have learned that He really does provide what we need. He does.
Friday, July 19, 2013
Evelyn Edith
We're having a GIRL!!! Another little girl.
We are so excited for more dresses and bows and all things girly. And poor John will be sandwiched in between two sisters.
I cried a little bit when the ultrasound tech finally declared that she was, in fact, a girl.
For one thing, we had postponed the ultrasound twice due to a crazy summer schedule, and then, being the modest girl that she is, she had her little hand wrapped around her knee, not letting us get a good look at anything that would tell us the gender. But, alas, we saw that she is a girl.
Evelyn Edith. Because we like Evelyn, and Edith is after my dear, dear maternal grandmother. She died right before my wedding, and I wanted to somehow name this child after her (if it had been a boy, the middle name would have been her last name). We will call her Evie, with a long E.
I also cried because it helps me so much to bond with the baby once I know the gender. This has been a hard pregnancy. I still feel sicker than I want to, so I am coming to terms with the fact that this will be the whole pregnancy; I have been extremely hormonal/melancholy; and I am exhausted all of the time. It seems that this pregnancy I am going to skip the second trimester bliss, so...to find out it's a girl and begin to call her by name and imagine her little life outside of the womb is so helpful to me. It really, really lifted my spirits. And to hear that she is healthy. I probably should have led with that ;)
Now, there is much going on outside of the pregnancy, and I will hopefully come back soon with a quick recap of all that is going on (all good things, but overwhelming things), but I want to begin to record life again. I really, really do.
And I want Evie to know that though it looks different to come into the family as the third child versus the first child, she is already so loved.
Dear Evie,
we love you so much. You are our precious girl already. You have quite the crew waiting for you to make your big entrance. A brother and a sister who love to kiss and hug my growing belly as a way to kiss and hug you. Even John likes to call you by name and gets excited when he sees other babies. We talk about you all the time--what will you look like and be like. Will you nurse or refuse like your older sister? Will you cry a lot or be a content newborn? Will you let any of us sleep? And your personality? I can only imagine all that you will add to this family. Ada even said tonight at dinner, "let's talk about Evie," because she is so eager to meet you. Precious girl, I pray that God will watch over you and grow you healthy and strong in the womb. I pray that he will be with the doctor and the nurses and in all of the details of your birth. I pray that you will nurse as well as John did, even if it means I am a bit tired that first year, and I pray for the relationship that you will have with Ada and with John. Mostly, though, I pray for your heart. I pray that the Lord would turn your heart towards him. That you would love his word and love prayer. And that he would put his holy spirit in your heart, that you might spend eternity with Him.
we love you, sweet girl!
Mom
We are so excited for more dresses and bows and all things girly. And poor John will be sandwiched in between two sisters.
I cried a little bit when the ultrasound tech finally declared that she was, in fact, a girl.
For one thing, we had postponed the ultrasound twice due to a crazy summer schedule, and then, being the modest girl that she is, she had her little hand wrapped around her knee, not letting us get a good look at anything that would tell us the gender. But, alas, we saw that she is a girl.
Evelyn Edith. Because we like Evelyn, and Edith is after my dear, dear maternal grandmother. She died right before my wedding, and I wanted to somehow name this child after her (if it had been a boy, the middle name would have been her last name). We will call her Evie, with a long E.
I also cried because it helps me so much to bond with the baby once I know the gender. This has been a hard pregnancy. I still feel sicker than I want to, so I am coming to terms with the fact that this will be the whole pregnancy; I have been extremely hormonal/melancholy; and I am exhausted all of the time. It seems that this pregnancy I am going to skip the second trimester bliss, so...to find out it's a girl and begin to call her by name and imagine her little life outside of the womb is so helpful to me. It really, really lifted my spirits. And to hear that she is healthy. I probably should have led with that ;)
Now, there is much going on outside of the pregnancy, and I will hopefully come back soon with a quick recap of all that is going on (all good things, but overwhelming things), but I want to begin to record life again. I really, really do.
And I want Evie to know that though it looks different to come into the family as the third child versus the first child, she is already so loved.
Dear Evie,
we love you so much. You are our precious girl already. You have quite the crew waiting for you to make your big entrance. A brother and a sister who love to kiss and hug my growing belly as a way to kiss and hug you. Even John likes to call you by name and gets excited when he sees other babies. We talk about you all the time--what will you look like and be like. Will you nurse or refuse like your older sister? Will you cry a lot or be a content newborn? Will you let any of us sleep? And your personality? I can only imagine all that you will add to this family. Ada even said tonight at dinner, "let's talk about Evie," because she is so eager to meet you. Precious girl, I pray that God will watch over you and grow you healthy and strong in the womb. I pray that he will be with the doctor and the nurses and in all of the details of your birth. I pray that you will nurse as well as John did, even if it means I am a bit tired that first year, and I pray for the relationship that you will have with Ada and with John. Mostly, though, I pray for your heart. I pray that the Lord would turn your heart towards him. That you would love his word and love prayer. And that he would put his holy spirit in your heart, that you might spend eternity with Him.
we love you, sweet girl!
Mom
Evie and Me...we are rapidly growing ;)
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